the largest town in Staffordshire, is in the northern division of Seisdon hundred, 122 miles N.W. by W. of London, and 14 miles N.W. by W. of Birmingham. The population of the township in 1851 was 49,989, having increased to that number from 12,666 in 1801, and 18,380 in 1821. The ancient parish is very extensive. Wolverhampton occupies the north-western extremity of a range of hills, which form the south-western boundary of the South Staffordshire coal-basin, and which separate the streams flowing into the Severn and the Trent, into which two rivers different parts of Wolverhampton drain. The town rests upon what is now known as the Permian formation, which was formerly regarded as part of the New Red Sandstone, but is now considered to belong to an earlier stratum lying immediately above the coal measures, which are worked close to the town. From experiments recently made, it is found that coal lies within a practicable distance of the surface under this formation, and a considerable extension of the coal-producing area is likely to be the result.

Wolverhampton was incorporated by royal charter in 1847, under the Act of 1835, has a separate commission of the peace, and a police force distinct from that of the county, consisting of a chief constable and sixty-one men, which cost for the year 1859–60 £4366. There is also a fire-brigade. The streets are admirably lighted, at an annual cost of upwards of £3000; and it may afford some idea of the populous character of the district to state that the road from Birmingham to Tettenhall, a village two miles from Wolverhampton, is lighted with gas along its whole length of 16 miles. There is a large covered general market, an extensive cattle and fat pig market, a townhall, and police station. Very great improvements have been made within the last dozen years by widening and flagging important thoroughfares, whilst all new streets are wide. As yet sewerage works have not been commenced, but they are in contemplation. The town is supplied with water by a company, and also from wells sunk into the rock on which it is built. On the southern and western sides, Wolverhampton is bounded by a verdant district; on the other sides the smoke and desolation of the "black country" extend. Considering its elevation—the highest and central part being 484 feet above the level of the sea—Wolverhampton ought to be a healthy town; but the crowded dwellings of a portion of the population, chiefly Irish, and the want of proper sewage, keeps the death-rate high. Under the Reform Act of 1832 two members were given to Wolverhampton; but the parliamentary borough includes Bilston, Sedgley, Willenhall, and Wednesfield; and the population in 1851 was 119,748.

Wolverhampton depends mainly upon the manufacture of iron and hardwares. As noticed under Staffordshire, the former branch of industry has probably reached its climax in this part of the kingdom, but the hardware trades are rapidly increasing. The lock manufacture is one of the oldest in the town. Plot, who wrote in the seventeenth century, describes the locksmiths of Wolverhampton as having then attained remarkable skill. This branch is still very largely carried on here and at Willenhall, but it yields in importance and extent to the manufacture of tin and japanned ware, the latter including papier maché goods. The manufacture of cast iron culinary vessels, known as hollow ware, is another important branch; and iron braziers, iron and brass founding, gun-locks, safes, cut nails, tools and implements, &c., employ large numbers of hands. Many articles are still made by the workmen at their houses, and purchased by the factors and merchants; but there is a growing tendency for the work to be done in manufactories where the advantages of a greater division of labour and the assistance of machinery can be better secured. Formerly wool-stapling was a most important branch of trade in Wolverhampton. The Levesons, a branch of the ancestors of the family of the Duke of Sutherland, and the Goughs, of whom Lord Calthorpe is now the representative, were engaged in this trade in Wolverhampton. The town is admirably supplied with the means of transit by railways and canals.

Until the year 1828 Wolverhampton only contained two churches; it has now ten, including one nearly finished, and another in a rising suburb. St Peter's stands on the summit of the hill on which the town is built, and has a very handsome, lofty tower 120 feet high. The original church was built on this site about 996, by Wulfrune or Wulfruna, sister of King Edgar, from whom the place was called Wulfrune's Hampton, which, by abbreviation, has changed to its present name. It was a collegiate church, with a dean and prebendaries. Edward IV. annexed "the College or Free Chapel of Wolverhampton" to the deanery of Windsor. In 1846 an act was obtained for abolishing the deanery, prebends, and peculiar jurisdiction of Wolverhampton. The greater part of the church has been recently restored in stone by English. In the churchyard there is a round stone column of Saxon or Danish origin, twenty feet high, and grotesquely carved. St John's church was built in 1755, St George's in 1830, and the rest since that date. All have day and Sunday schools attached to them. Various denominations of dissenters have chapels, and the Congregational and New Roman Catholic churches are handsome stone edifices. The Free Grammar School was founded by Sir Stephen Jenyns, knight, in 1513. It has an income derived from endowment of upwards of L1,000 a-year. In the Blue Coat School, originated about 1710, about 150 poor children of both sexes are educated and partially clothed gratuitously, a portion being also boarded and lodged without charge. The Orphan Asylum on Goldthorn Hill is a very handsome building, which was erected about 1854, and has cost L9,000. It is capable of accommodating 100 children, and is more than half occupied, and may readily be enlarged to hold twice that number. Its annual expenditure is about L800, and it is now endowed to the extent of nearly L7,000. This institution owes its origin to the benevolence and persevering efforts of a single individual, Mr John Lee, a local merchant, who in 1850 took charge of a number of orphans deprived of their parents by cholera, and has since expended a large portion of his income in promoting this noble charity. The South Staffordshire Hospital was built in 1848 at a cost of L18,000, including the site. There is an excellent cemetery, occupying twenty acres of land, opened in 1851, which belongs to a company. The Wolverhampton Exchange, a lofty stone and brick building surmounted by a dome, is most unfortunately built close to the fine church of St Peter, which it does much to hide. The Wolverhampton Library is a handsome classical stone building. There are several literary institutes, a large and well supported ragged school, a law library, chamber of commerce, &c. A troop of yeomanry and three companies of rifle volunteers are supported by the town.