The Collegiate Church of St. Peter in 1837: Public Appeal to Save St. Peters

Description:Documents in the Sutherland Papers
suggest that the Leveson-Gower family continued to be involved in the welfare of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter into the nineteenth century. In June 1837 William Warner Junior wrote to the second Duke of Sutherland, George Granville Leveson-Gower (1786-1861), about proposed ‘alterations and improvements’ to ‘our venerable Collegiate Church’ of St. Peter in Wolverhampton.

William Warner Junior was one of the Churchwardens of the Collegiate Church in Wolverhampton. Distressed by the ‘very dilapidated’ state of the Church, Warner wrote to the Duke of Sutherland appealing for assistance to pay for necessary repairs to the Church.

Extensive landowners in Staffordshire, the second Duke’s family was closely linked with Wolverhampton. In addition to owning lands in Wolverhampton, the prosperity of the Duke’s family had begun in Wolverhampton two hundred years earlier. In the sixteenth century James Leveson had prospered in Wolverhampton’s wool trade and purchased many lands and properties in Wolverhampton and throughout Staffordshire. More particularly, the Leveson-Gower family’s history related directly to the Collegiate Church of St. Peter’s itself. A statue of one of James Leveson’s descendants, Vice Admiral Sir Richard Leveson (1570-1605), stands today in the Lady Chapel of the Collegiate Church. The Vice Admiral played an extremely important role in English Naval battles against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

The work intended on the Church was to be funded by donations from the public. In his letter to the Duke, Warner notes that the ‘extent’ of the alterations depended ‘entirely’ on the ‘amount of the Subscriptions’ raised to finance the work as there was no fund ‘arising from the Church Property or from any other source’.

Warner informs the Duke that his ‘Fellow Townsmen’ from Wolverhampton had ‘come forward very liberally’, raising ‘upwards of Fourteen Hundred Pounds’ towards the project. The money would enable work to be completed on ‘all the internal alterations & repairs’ which were ‘absolutely necessary’.

In his letter to the Duke, William Warner asks the Duke directly if he would fund work on ‘the Vestry Room’ of the Church’ which occupied ‘what was formerly 'Levesons Chancel'. Warner writes ‘one of the finest Monuments in the Church is actually covered over’ and asks the Duke if he would consider funding the construction of ‘a New Vestry Room’ so that ‘Levesons Chancel might be thrown open’. It is interesting to note that the Lady Chapel where the statue of Vice Admiral Sir Richard Leveson stands was once named the Leveson Chapel.

Warner’s intentions in making alterations to the Collegiate Church were to ‘add greatly to the beauty of the Church’ and ‘to repair & render comfortable the interior of the Church’. Warner’s aim was also ‘to provide’ in the Parish Church ‘as many Free Sittings as we can for the Poor’. These ‘additional Free Sittings’. were seats where poor people could sit, enabling them to attend religious services at the Church. Warner aimed to create ‘between Four and Five Hundred’ of these.

Click on the image on the left to learn more about this public appeal.