The church is an ancient stone building, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the present rector is the Rev. John Riland, who is also patron of the living.  Within the church there is an organ, and some monuments deserving of attention; there are also three vaults, two of which having been opened, the coffins and their contents were mouldered into dust, although they had been deposited there within the memory of man.

This town was incorporated by the eighth Henry, at the solicitation of Vesey, bishop of Exeter, who was his chancellor, and a native of this place.  It is denominated a corporate body, by the name of the warden and society of the king’s town of Sutton Coldfield, and consists of twenty-four members besides the warden, with a grant to them of the whole manor and lordship of the parish, together with a tract of waste ground, called the park, containing about 3500 acres, wherein is great abundance of valuable timber, on condition of paying into the exchequer a fee farm rent of fifty-eight pounds per annum.

The said Bishop Vesey erected fifty-one stone houses in the parish and also a free grammar school, which he liberally endowed with land, and ordained by the statutes, that the master should be a layman, which is strictly adhered to.  He also procured for the inhabitants a market, and the extraordinary privilege that every person who erected a house in Sutton, should be entitled to sixty acres of land in the park.

Here are two fairs annually, for horses, neat cattle, and sheep; the one on Trinity Monday and the other on the 8th of November; when, for every horse that is sold, a toll must be paid of four-pence, and a reputable voucher produced by the person who sells it; the marks and age of the animal being registered.  By the same charter, the inhabitants of Sutton are exempt from toll in all fairs and markets.  The deputy steward or town clerk holds a court of record every three weeks, for the trial of civil actions, and holds to bail for forty shillings and upwards.

Sessions, court leet, and other customary courts are held, and the charter expressly says, that they shall have and exercise as much privilege and power as the city of Coventry; but this they do not practise, for they commit felons to the county gaol.  Every inhabitant is a landed man, which is drawn by ballot every four years; and no county officer can enter this franchise, to arrest, &c. without especial license.

The town of Sutton is seated on such an eminence, that although there are fourteen large pools of water within the parish, and some of them very extensive, there is not the smallest stream runs into it; the town being supplied with water by springs within it.  The air is very salubrious, the water in general soft, the situation delightfully pleasant, the neighbourhood genteel, and accommodations in general very excellent.  In the vicinity is Four-oaks hall, the seat of Sir E.C.  Hartopp; Moor hall, the residence of ——­ Hacket, Esq. and Ashfurlonghouse, which is at present unoccupied.