A new valuation of the College of Wolverhampton had but just been instituted in 1526, from which it will be necessary here to extract only that portion of the return relating to our subject. It was to this effect:— THE PREBEND OF WYLNALL. £ s. d. William Leveson, Clerk (dwelling in Exeter 3 0 0 with the Bishop), Prebendary there, and hath in glebe-lands And in tithes of corn, one year with 3 0 0 another And in wool and lambs by the year, one 3 6 8 year with another And in the Easter Book by the year, one 0 13 4 year with another And in tithes of Herbage, Pigs, Geese, and 0 40 0 other small tithes Sum total 12 0 0 And thereof he pays allowance for Synodals 0 6 8 every third year, paid to the aforesaid Dean And so there remains clear 11 13 4 The tenth part thereof 0 23 4 The value of the Deanery, the Prebends, and the two Chantries of Willenhall and Bilston are all set forth in this Return. (See Oliver’s “History of Wolverhampton Church,” pp. 57–60.) The visitation of the religious houses, undertaken as it was in a hostile spirit by Henry VIII., naturally alarmed the authorities of a church where it would appear that irregularities on the part of the prebendaries had long existed, and not an inconsiderable portion of the church property had been alienated, to say nothing of the sequestration of the church communion plate. Now some hasty attempts were made at restitution, and more so to escape detection and censure. Restoration in some sort seems to have been hastily attempted at Wolverhampton. In 1529 Nicholas Leveson presented a new chalice of silver; and the high altar was restored at much expense to its former magnificence. The Dean, however, fell into disgrace in the matter of denying the King’s supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London in consequence. In 1540 bells purchased by the inhabitants from Wenlock Abbey were hung in the church tower. Four years later sixteen stalls, taken from the recently dissolved monastery at Lilleshall, were presented by Sir Walter Leveson to Wolverhampton Church. All these precautions scarcely availed to avert the impending doom. By an Act passed in the first year of the reign of Edward VI., the dissolution of Colleges and Chantries was effected. But the Royal College of Windsor, of which Wolverhampton was a member, was especially exempted, and the Wolverhampton Chapter consequently felt secure from disturbance.