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when that monarch confirmed to Giles de Erding- ton, then dean of Wolverhampton, the privileges granted to free chapels by Pope Innocent IV. which exempted them from all ordinary jurisdiction, and from every sentence in the metropolitan or diocesan courts of interdiction or excommunication, unless confirmed by licence of the Pope. Subsequent k ngs confirmed these immunities} but Edward IV. desi- rous of advancing the revenues of the church of Windsor, annexed the free chapel of Wolver- hampton to that of Windsor; so that the dean of the latter should be in future dean of the former, and prebendary of that prebend also. The statute of the first of Edward VI. completed the business of the Reformation, by dissolving all collegiate churches, free chapels, chantries, &c. with the exception of such as were specified ex- pressly for that purpose. Wolverhampton, not occurring in the list of excepted places, came of course to the king; who, six years afterwards, granted it to John Duke of Northumberland and his heirs. This nobleman, you may recollect, was Kccuted in the first year of the bigotted Mary, who seizing (amongst his other confiscated pro- perly) upon the deanery of Wolverhampton, granted it once more to Windsor, under the same regulations as before; with the additional privi-
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