~Guild of the Holy Cross.~--Founded in the year 1392 by the "Bailiffs
and Commonalty" of the town of Birmingham (answering to our aldermen and
councillors), and licensed by the Crown, for which the town paid L50,
the purpose being to "make and found a gild and perpetual fraternity of
brethren and sustern (sisters), in honour of the Holy Cross," and "to
undertake all works of charity, &c., according to the appointment and
pleasure of the said bailiffs and commonalty." In course of time the
Guild became possessed of all the powers then exercised by the local
corporate authorities, taking upon themselves the building of
almshouses, the relief and maintenance of the poor, the making and
keeping in repair of the highways used by "the King's Majestie's
subjects passing to and from the marches of Wales," looking to the
preservation of sundry bridges and lords, as well as repair of "two
greate stone brydges," &c., &c. The Guild owned considerable portion of
the land on which the present town is built, when Henry VIII., after
confiscating the revenues and possessions of the monastic institutions,
laid hands on the property of such semi-religious establishments as the
Guild of the Holy Cross.
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