Little is known of the ancient possessors of the Oak House, notwithstanding that the direct descendants of the earliest occupants continued to inhabit it until towards the close of the last century. The only author who appears to have taken any note of them is the Rev. Stebbing Shaw, who in his “History of Staffordshire,” under the head of West Bromwich[33] states, that the Oak House belonged for several generations to a branch of the respectable old family of Turton, of Abrewas, near Lichfield; and the first mentioned in this parish was John Turton, in the freeholders’ book, A.D. 1653. Amongst the inscriptions formerly in the ancient Church of St. Clement, here, was one to the memory of William Turton, of the Oak, gent., who died A.D. 1682 (son of that John), and Eleanor his wife, daughter of Robert Page, of Leighton, in the county of Huntingdon, who died A.D. 1696, ætat. 61; and one also to John Turton, of the Oak, gent., the eldest son of the above William, who died December 6th, 1705, ætat. 45. This is the same John, no doubt, who, with William his brother and Sarah their sister, are mentioned in the will of Sir John Turton, of Abrewas, as his cousins. Either from the first mentioned John, or from another of that name settled at Rowley Regis, a few miles off, was, according to Shaw, descended the eminent physician Dr. Turton, of London, whose ancestors had for some years resided in an old house called “The Hall,” at Wolverhampton. The house and estate afterwards came into the possession, by will, of a Mrs. Whylie, who left it to the present owner, J. E. Piercy, Esq., of Warley Hall; and it is now inhabited by his agent, Mr. Samuel Reeves. [Illustration] The general character of the building is that of the later years of the reign of Elizabeth; this will be sufficiently apparent from the drawing of the north front, which supplies our principal plate. The groups of tall chimneys, and the minor details of the doors, windows, &c., are all of that age; while evidence of its date is confirmed by the south or garden front (as will be seen by the accompanying vignette), built chiefly of red brick, and containing the pediments and square stone mullions of the period. Upon entering the house, through the porch, we reach a narrow passage, formed by a small room, abstracted from “the Hall”--the spacious hall of former times. At the termination of this passage a door leads into the present hall, of far more limited extent, from which a broad flight of stairs conducts to the upper apartments. These apartments, however, having been long disused, exhibit the melancholy aspect of desertion and decay. The stairs consist of four flights, and the balusters of the whole are curiously carved; the small pendant hanging from the upper flight, [Illustration] as seen from the first-floor landing, supplies our initial letter. On the ground-floor there are four of the rooms pannelled with oak, the chimney-pieces being carved in arabesques.