Patrick Comerford
When I was in Birmingham last week, after finding the tomb of William Holte in Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church in Aston, with its early depiction of a Comberford coat-of-arms, I decided to walk from Aston to Handsworth, where Saint Mary’s Church is associated with some members of the Comberford family through intermarriage with the Stanford family.
The Stanford and Comberford families were among the leading ‘conforming Catholic’ families in Staffordshire, and in the post-Reformation decades in the second half of the 16th century, the River Tame was like a Tudor motorway, providing easy access between the Comberford and Stanford manors in Wednesbury, Handsworth, Perry Barr, Kingsbury, the Moat House in Tamworth and Comberford Hall.
Saint Mary’s Church, Handsworth, also known as Handsworth Old Church, is a Grade II* listed building beside Handsworth Park, formerly Victoria Park, and is close to the Birmingham Outer Circle.
The church is sometimes described as the ‘Cathedral of the Industrial Revolution’, and Saint Mary’s is the burial place of key figures in the Industrial Revolution in Birmingham and the Midlands, including James Watt, Matthew Boulton and William Murdoch, members of the Lunar Society.
Handsworth was originally in the Diocese of Lichfield until it was transferred to the Diocese of Birmingham, and it was in Staffordshire until it was transferred to Warwickshire and became part of Birmingham in 1911.
Despite its strong connections with the Industrial Revolution, the earliest parish register for Saint Mary’s begins in 1558, and the church dates back to at least 1160. The Manor of Handsworth is even older and existed since Saxon times, so there may have been an earlier timber church in Handsworth.
The first stone church on the site of Saint Mary’s was built ca 1160, when a priest was recorded in Handsworth. It was a small and austere Norman structure, filling about half the site of the present south aisle. The few surviving Norman features of the church can be seen at the lower stages of the sandstone tower at the east end of the original church.
Saint Mary’s Church was enlarged in the 14th century. The tower, which has six bells, is in the decorated style of the reign of Edward III, like the other remaining parts of the ancient fabric. In the chancel are two effigies of members of the Wyrley family, and an ancient piscina.
William de Wirleia was Rector of Handsworth in 1228, and remained there until he died in 1247. He is the earliest recorded member of the Wyrley family in Handsworth.
All the manors in Handsworth were held by a single succession of overlords in the early Middle Ages. William FitzAnsculf held Birmingham, Edgbaston, Aston, Erdington, Witton, Handsworth, Perry Barr and Little Barr in 1086. His successors were lords of other manors in Aston parish – Bordesley, Little Bromwich, Duddeston, Saltley and Nechells – that were first named in the 12th or 13th century. The estates and Dudley Castle passed to the Paynel family, and from them to successive members of the Somery family until John de Somery died in 1322.
The Somery family shared their interests in Handsworth Manor with the Parles family, whose estates and wealth were eventually inherited by an heiress Anne Parles, who married John Comberford (ca 1440-1508), of Comberford Hall, who was a Justice of the Peace and MP for Staffordshire 1502-1508. John Comberford’s sister Margaret married William Holte (ca 1430-post 1498).
As for the Somery family, when John de Somery died in 1322, his co-heirs were his sisters: Dudley and the manors of Birmingham, Perry Barr and Little Barr went to Margaret, wife of John de Sutton, while Handsworth Manor, Edgbaston Manor and the manors in Aston parish went to Joan, widow of Thomas Botetourt.
Handsworth Manor then passed through the Botetourt and Beauchamp families to Joan Beauchamp’s son, James Butler (1420-1461), 5th Earl of Ormond, who was beheaded as a Lancastrian in 1461. Butler’s estates and interests were recovered eventually and in time passed to his youngest brother, Thomas Butler (1426-1515), 7th Earl of Ormond – grandfather of Anne Boylen – and from him to his daughter Lady Anne Butler (1455-1533) and her husband Sir James St Leger, and to their grandson John St Leger in 1519.
John St Leger sold Handsworth Manor in 1555 to Sir William Stanford (1509-1558), Justice of Common Pleas and MP for Stafford and Newcastle-under-Lyme. He consolidated his links with Staffordshire by buying the neighbouring Manor of Perry Barr and Manor of Handsworth, which he bought from Sir John St Leger, who had inherited the estate through his descent from James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond.
Stebbing Shaw in his History of Staffordshire (vol 2, p 108) says Sir William Stanford married Elizabeth Comberford, a daughter of Thomas Comberford (1530-1597) of Comberford Hall and Wednesbury and his wife Dorothy, daughter of William Wyrley of Hampstead in Handsworth. However, most authorities agree William’s wife was Alice Palmer, daughter of John Palmer of Kentish Town, Middlesex.
Shaw appears to have confused her with a much later Elizabeth Comberford who married William Stanford of Packington, a first cousin twice removed of the judge. This Elizabeth Comberford was a daughter of Thomas Comberford (1472-1532) and Dorothy Fitzherbert; she was a sister of Humphrey Comberford of Comberford Hall, Canon Henry Comberford, Precentor of Lichfield, and Richard Comberford, sometimes (confusingly) identified as the ancestor of the Comerford family of Co Kilkenny and Co Wexford.
Sir William Stanford of Handsworth and Handsworth and Anne Palmer were the parents of six sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Sir Robert Stanford (1540-1607), succeeded to Handsworth Manor and Perry Barr, and built Perry Hall in 1576.
Robert Stanford’s eldest son, Edward Stanford, who succeeded to Handsworth Manor and Perry Hall in 1607, was a witness to a Comberford family deed in 1599 signed by William Comberford of Tamworth and his brothers John Comberford and Thomas Comberford. Edward Stanford died in 1632 and was succeeded in turn by his son William Stanford.
One of Sir Robert Stanford’s daughters, Mary, married Humphrey Comberford, on 30 January 1591. Humphrey Comberford died at Comberford during his father’s lifetime, and he was buried in Saint Editha’s, Tamworth, on 6 August 1609.
Mary (Stanford) and Humphrey Comberford were the parents of five sons and four daughters. Their eldest son, William Comberford (ca 1593/1594-1653), was born ca 1593/1594, and was baptised on 8 February 1594/5 in Saint Mary’s Church, Handsworth, where later his mother’s brother, the Revd Henry Stanford, son of Sir William Stanford, was the Rector in 1604-1608.
William Comberford inherited Comberford Hall 1611, and his grandfather William Comberford died in 1625. At the Visitation of Warwickshire he was described as ‘de Cumberford et Kingsberrow’ or Kingsbury, Warwickshire, a reference to his interest in one-ninth of the manor of Mancetter within the Parish of Kingsbury.
When his grandfather died in 1625, William Comberford as his heir succeeded to the Comberford family estates. But he did not take possession of them as the bulk of the estates, including the Moat House in Lichfield Street, Tamworth, and the Manor of Wednesbury, had been leased in trust by his grandfather to his uncle William Comberford.
William Comberford died in 1653, perhaps at the Marshalsea in Southwark. Although he asked in his will to be buried in the Comberford family vault in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, it appears he was buried at Saint George the Martyr, Southwark.
William Comberford’s next brother, the second son of Mary (Stanford) and Humphrey Comberford, was Robert Comberford (ca 1594-1671) of Comberford Hall, the last of the senior line of the family to live at Comberford Hall, although his widow Catherine (Bates) continued to live there until she died in 1718.
The fourth son of Mary (Stanford) and Humphrey Comberford, John Comberford (ca 1597-(ca 1666), lived in Handsworth, until he inherited Wednesbury after the death of his eldest brother, William Comberford, in 1653. After settling ‘all my lands in Wednesbury’ on trustees, he appears to have paid off the outstanding debts on the estate and sold it ca 1656 to a distant cousin, John Shelton of West Bromwich. John Comberford’s will is dated 1657, but he was still living in 1664, and died ca 1666.
A daughter of Mary (Stanford) and Humphrey Comberford, Elizabeth Comberford, also lived in Handsworth. She is named in the wills of her brothers William and Robert Comberford, and she died ca 1677.
Meanwhile, Sir Henry Gough bought Perry Hall in 1669, and it stayed with the Gough and Gough-Calthorpe family many generations.
Until the Industrial Revolution, Handsworth was a large rural parish with a population widely dispersed in farms and cottages. As a Staffordshire country church placed at the convergence of several cross country tracks, Saint Mary’s became a significant place in the life of Birmingham as it developed into the largest industrial city in Britain.
James Watt (1736-1819), who lived in Handsworth, is remembered as the inventor of the steam engine. Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) applied his engineering talent in 1774 to Watt’s ideas, and Boulton and Watt became leading figures in the Industrial Revolution. William Murdoch (1754-1839), another engineer, became a partner of Boulton and Watt. He perfected gas lighting and the high-pressure steam engine. All three have monuments in the church.
James Watt was buried in the grounds of Saint Mary’s, but when the church was rebuilt and enlarged in 1820, his tomb was inside the church. A groined chapel was designed by Thomas Rickman and built over Watt’s tomb On the south side, and includes a white marble statue of Watt by Francis Legatt Chantrey.
More factories followed, and Handsworth continued to expand throughout the 19th century. This growth was further encouraged by the arrival of the railway, with stations opening at Handsworth in 1837 and Perry Barr in 1854.
From 1860 to 1873, the Revd Herbert Richard Peel, a nephew of Sir Robert Peel MP, was the Rector of Handsworth. To accommodate the growing population, Saint Mary’s was expanded in 1870, and several new churches were built in the parish, including: Saint John’s, Perry Barr (1833), Saint James’, Handsworth (1838-1840), Saint Michael’s, Handsworth (1855), Holy Trinity, Birchfield (1864), Saint Paul’s Hamstead (1892-1894), and Saint Andrew’s, Handsworth (1909).
Handsworth Rectory was sold in 1891, was demolished in the 1890s and the site later became the large pond in Victoria Park, now Handsworth Park.
As for Perry Hall, built in 1576 by Sir Robert Stanford, the father of Mary (Stanford) Comberford, it had been abandoned as a family residence by 1919. Birmingham Corporation was having financial troubles in the 1920s, and had to choose between saving Aston Hall and nearby Perry Hall. Aston Hall was saved, Perry Hall was demolished in 1931, and the stables and the last remaining lodge were demolished in 1935. The site of the house and estate is now Perry Playing Fields is and the boating pool is part of the former moat of Perry Hall.
Saint Mary’s churchyard includes the graves of two key figures in the story of football: William McGregor, a director of Aston Villa who called the founding meeting of the Football League in 1888, and George Ramsay, whose headstone reads ‘Founder of Aston Villa’. Harry Freeman, the popular music hall performer, was buried there in 1922. But the graveyard is overgrown and it is difficult to find the graves.
Webster Booth (1902-1984), largely remembered for his singing duets with Anne Ziegler, was a member of the choir of Saint Mary’s as a child. He was seen as one of the finest tenors of his day.
Today, Saint Mary’s is part of the Handsworth Group and describes itself as a warm and welcoming Church with a diverse and growing congregation. The worship aims to be dignified but inclusive and is of a moderate catholic flavour, using incense on the Principal Feasts.
• Sunday services are: 8 am, Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer, 1662); 11 am, the Parish Eucharist (Common Worship, 2000), the principle service in the parish and a sung service. Morning Prayer is said every Friday at 8:30, and there is Daily Prayer following Common Worship in the Church Hall.
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