If residents there were prior to King Edward the Confessor's reign, they
would probably be of Gurth's tribe, and their huts even Hutton,
antiquarian and historian as he was, failed to find traces of. How the
name of this our dwelling-place came about, nobody knows. Not less than
twelve dozen ways have been found to spell it; a score of different
derivations "discovered" for it; and guesses innumerable given as to its
origin, but we still wait for the information required.

~Birmingham in the Conqueror's Days.~--The Manor was held, in 1066, by
Alwyne, son of Wigod the Dane, who married the sister of the Saxon
Leofric, Earl of Mercia. According to "Domesday Book," in 1086, it was
tenanted by Richard, who, held, under William Fitz-Ansculf, and included
four hides of land and half-a-mile of wood, worth 20s.; there were 150
acres in cultivation, with but nine residents, five villeins, and four
bordarers. In 1181 there were 18 freeholders (_libere tenentes_) in
Birmingham cultivating 667 acres, and 35 tenants _in demesne_, holding
158 acres, the whole value being £13 8s. 2d.

~Birmingham in the Feudal Period.~--The number of armed men furnished by
this town for Edward III.'s wars were four, as compared with six from
Warwick, and forty from Coventry.

~Birmingham in the Time of the Edwards and Harrys.~--The Manor passed
from the Bermingham family in 1537, through the knavish trickery of Lord
L'Isle, to whom it was granted in 1545. The fraud, however, was not of
much service to the noble rascal, as he was beheaded for treason in
1553. In 1555 the Manor was given by Queen Mary to Thomas Marrow, of
Berkswell.

~Birmingham in 1538.~--Leland, who visited here about this date, says in