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Rh Pantulf was holding the whole as one manor of Roger, earl of Shrewsbury, from whom it passed to the Botelers, barons of Wem. The famous Judge Jeffreys was among the subsequent lords of the manor and was created Baron Jeffreys of Wem in 1685, but upon the death of his only son and heir in 1720 the title became extinct. The town was a borough by prescription, but there appears to be no mention of burgesses before the 15th century. In 1459 Ralph, Lord Greystock, is said to have granted a charter, no longer extant, to his tenants in the manor, and in 1674 the freeholders, “borough-holders” and copy holders, of Wem brought an action against Daniel Wicherley, then lord of the manor, for the establishment of customs and privileges chiefly connected with the tenure of their lands and tenements, which was decided in their favour. The borough was governed by two bailiffs, both elected at the court leet of the lord of the manor, one by his steward, the other by a borough jury, but in the beginning of the 19th century there were only seventy-two burgesses and their rights seem to have gradually disappeared. An urban district council was formed in 1900. Wem has never been represented in parliament. The market was originally held on Sunday under grant from John to Warin Fitz Gerald in 1205, but in 1351, in consequence of a protest from the archbishop of Canterbury, it was changed to Thursday, on which day it is still held. The grant of 1205 also included a fair at the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, which was maintained until within recent years, when fairs were also held at the feast of St Mark, chiefly for linen cloth, under grant from Charles I. to Thomas Howard in 1636, and at the feast of St Martin, bishop of Tours, for the sale of hops. A great fire which broke out at Wem on the 3rd of March 1677 caused damage to the extent of £23,677.

See Victoria County History, Shropshire; Samuel Garbet, The History of Wem (1818).

WEMBLEY, an urban district in the Harrow parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, 10 m W.N.W. of St Paul's Cathedral, on the Metropolitan and London & North Western railways. Pop. (1901) 4519. Wembley adjoins Sudbury on the east; the district is residential, but lacks natural attractions except in the case of Wembley Park, a pleasant wooded recreation ground, owned by a company. Here a tower was begun on the lines of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and projected to exceed it in height, reaching 1200 ft., but only a short stage was completed. The manor of Wembley belonged to the priory of Kilburn until that foundation was dissolved by Henry VIII.

 WEMYSS, EARLS OF, the title held by a Scottish family who had possessed the lands of Wemyss in Fifeshire since the 12th century, and of which various members had attained distinction. In 1628 Sir John Wemyss, who had been created a baronet in 1625, was raised to the peerage as Baron Wemyss of Elcho; and in 1633 he became earl of Wemyss, and Baron Elcho and Methel, in the peerage of Scotland. He took part with the Scottish parliament against Charles I., and died in 1649. On the death of David, 2nd earl of Wemyss (1610–1679), the estates and titles passed to his daughter Margaret, countess of Wemyss, whose son David, 3rd earl of Wemyss, succeeded on her death in 1705. His son James, 4th earl (1699–1756), married a great heiress, Janet, daughter of Colonel Francis Charteris, who had made a large fortune by gambling. His son David, Lord Elcho (1721–1787), was implicated in the Jacobite rising of 1745, and was consequently at tainted, the estates passing to his younger brother James, while the title remained dormant after his father's death, though it was assumed by Elcho's brother Francis, who took the name of Charteris on inheriting his maternal grandfather's estate. A reversal of the attainder was granted in 1826 to his descendant Francis Charteris Wemyss Douglas (1772–1853), who had been created Baron Wemyss of Wemyss in the peerage of the United Kingdom in 1821, and had assumed the name of Charteris Wemyss Douglas on inheriting some of the Douglas estates through a female ancestor. Thenceforward the title descended in the direct line.

WEMYSS, a parish of Fifeshire, Scotland, embracing the villages of East and West Wemyss and the police burgh of Buckhaven, a fishing port lying on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, 2½ m. S W of Leven, on the North British Railway Company's branch line from Thornton Junction to Methil. Coal mining is the principal industry of the district, the coal being exported from the port of Methil, of which the harbour was constructed by David, 2nd earl of Wemyss (d. 1670), the town being made a burgh of barony in 1662. Population of Buckhaven, including Methil and Innerleven (1901), 8828; of East Wemyss, 2522; of West Wemyss, 1253; of Wemyss parish, 15,031. The district is of much archaeological and historic interest. On the shore to the north-east are two square towers which are supposed to have formed part of Macduff’s castle; and near them are the remarkable caves (weems, from the Gaelic, uamha) from which the district derives its name. Several of them contain archaic sculptures, held by some to be the work of the Christian missionaries who found shelter here; by others ascribed to the same prehistoric agency as the inscribed stones of northern Scotland. Near East Wemyss is Wemyss Castle, the ancient seat of the family of the same name which has played a conspicuous part in Scottish history. It was at Wemyss castle that Mary, queen of Scots, first met the earl of Damley, in 1565, and her room is still known as "the Presence Chamber."

WENCESLAUS (1361–1419), German king, and, as Wenceslaus IV., king of Bohemia, was the son of the emperor Charles IV. and Anna, daughter of Henry II., duke of Schweidnitz. Born at Nuremberg on the 26th of February 1361, he was crowned king of Bohemia in June 1363, and invested with the margraviate of Brandenburg in 1373. In September 1370 he married Joanna (d. 1386) daughter of Albert I., duke of Bavaria, and was elected king of the Romans or German king at Frankfort on the 10th of June 1376, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 6th of July following. He took some part in the government of the empire during his father's lifetime, and when Charles died in November 1378 became sole ruler of Germany and Bohemia, but handed over Brandenburg to his half-brother Sigismund. His reign was a period of confusion both in church and state, and although he appears to have begun to rule with excellent intentions, he was totally unfit to cope with the forces of disorder. Germany was torn with feuds, the various orders for the establishment of peace were disregarded, and after 1389 the king paid very little attention to German affairs. In 1383 he inherited the duchy of Luxemburg from his uncle Wenceslaus and in 1387 assisted his half-brother Sigismund to obtain the Hungarian throne.

For some time Wenceslaus ruled Bohemia successfully, but he fell under the influence of favourites and aroused the irritation of the nobles. A quarrel with John II., archbishop of Prague, which led to the murder of John's vicar-general, John of Pomuk, at the instigation of the king, provoked a rising led by Jobst, margrave of Moravia, a cousin of Wenceslaus; and in 1394 the king was taken prisoner and only released under pressure of threats from the German princes. Having consented to limitations on his power in Bohemia, he made a further but spasmodic effort to restore peace in Germany. He then met Charles VI., king of France at Reims, where the monarchs decided to persuade the rival popes Benedict XIII. and Boniface IX. to resign, and to end the papal schisms by the election of a new pontiff. Many of the princes were angry at this abandonment of Boniface by Wenceslaus, who had also aroused much indignation by his long absence from Germany and by selling the title of duke of Milan to Gian Galleazzo Visconti. The consequence was that in August 1400 the four Rhenish electors met at Oberlahnstein and declared Wenceslaus deposed. He was charged with attempting to dismember the empire to his own advantage, with neglecting to end the schism in the church, with allowing favourites to enrich themselves, and was further accused of murder. Though he remained in Bohemia he took no steps against Rupert III. count palatine of the Rhine, who had been elected as his successor. He soon quarrelled with Sigismund, who took him prisoner in 1402 and sent him to Vienna, where he remained in captivity for nineteen months after abdicating in Bohemia. In 1404, when Sigismund was recaUed to Hungary, Wenceslaus regained his