History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire [1851]
Date: 2020-05-27T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Shropshire (England) -- Directories; Shropshire (England) -- History; Shropshire (England) -- Gazetteers

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Title: History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire [1851]

Author: Samuel Bagshaw

Release date: May 27, 2020 [eBook #62250]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Transcribed from the 1851 Samuel Harrison edition by David Price

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY, GAZETTEER, AND DIRECTORY OF SHROPSHIRE [1851] ***

Transcribed from the 1851 Samuel Harrison edition by David Price, email ccx074@pgaf.org

HISTORY,
GAZETTEER, AND DIRECTORY
OF
SHROPSHIRE;

COMPRISING
A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE COUNTY,
WITH A VARIETY OF
HISTORICAL, STATISTICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL, COMMERCIAL,
AND AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION:

SHEWING
THE SITUATION, EXTENT, AND POPULATION OF ALL
THE TOWNS, PARISHES, CHAPELRIES, TOWNSHIPS, VILLAGES,
HAMLETS, AND EXTRA-PAROCHIAL LIBERTIES;

THEIR AGRICULTURAL AND MINERAL PRODUCTIONS;

THE LORDS OF THE MANORS AND OWNERS OF THE SOIL;
THEIR PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS, CHARITIES, ANTIQUITIES, & HISTORICAL EVENTS;

WITH A LIST OF

MAGISTRATES, PUBLIC OFFICERS, & CORPORATE BODIES;
AND
THE SEATS OF THE NOBILITY AND GENTRY:

IN ONE VOLUME,

WITH A LARGE COLOURED SHEET MAP OF THE COUNTY:

BY SAMUEL BAGSHAW,

Author of similar Works for Derbyshire, Kent, Cheshire, &c.

SHEFFIELD:

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY SAMUEL HARRISON, 5, HIGH-STREET,
AND SOLD BY SAMUEL BAGSHAW, WENTWORTH TERRACE, SHEFFIELD
Price to Subscribers, 14s. 6d.

1851

PREFACE.

In presenting the Public with a popular History and Topography of the County of Salop, with a Directory of its Inhabitants, the author has to acknowledge his great obligations to the literary and official gentlemen of the county, who have so freely furnished his agents with valuable information, as well as to those who have honoured the publisher with immediate communications; and also to the numerous subscribers who have so liberally patronised the work.  As authenticity is the grand desideratum of Topography, all possible care has been taken to avoid errors.  Every Parish, Township, Village, and Hamlet, with all the principal Residences and Farm Houses in the county have been visited for the addresses, and to authenticate the necessary information.  It is, therefore, hoped that the great variety of subjects compressed within its pages will be found complete and satisfactory to its numerous patrons, and that the volume will be found an acquisition either to the library or the office.

The Plan of the Work embraces a General History and Description of Shropshire, containing the spirit of all that has been previously written on the subject, extracted from ancient and modern authors, and from the voluminous Parliamentary Reports of Public Charities, Population, &c., &c., together with a variety of Agricultural, Commercial, Statistical, Biographical, and Topographical Information; and comprehending a Survey of Antiquities, Roads, Rivers, Railroads, Minerals, Public Buildings, Charities; together with a Chronology of Remarkable Events, from the earliest period to the present time.

The Topography of the County commences at page 132, with an Alphabetical Arrangement of the Parishes in their respective Hundreds, and of the Towns, Townships, and Villages, under their respective Parishes; shewing the Situation, Extent, and Population of each Parish, Township, Chapelry, and Extra-Parochial Liberty; the Owners of the Soil and the Lords of the Manors; the Nature and Value of the Church Livings, with their Patrons and Incumbents; the Places of Worship, Public Buildings, Public Charities, and Institutions; Trade and Commerce; Local Occurrences, and Objects of Interest and Curiosity, &c.  Each Township is followed by the Addresses of the Gentry, and other principal Residents, with a Classification of Trades and Professions.  The Directories of Shrewsbury, Oswestry, and other principal places, in addition to a Classification of Trades and Professions, are accompanied by an Alphabetical List of Persons, so that the address and occupation of any individual may be instantly referred to.  The Seats of the Nobility and Gentry are appended to the General History of the County; and the whole is preceded by a copious Index of Places, Persons, and Subjects, affording an easy reference to the page at which every Parish, Township, and Hamlet is to be found; thus giving to the Volume all the advantages of an Alphabetical Gazetteer.

The extracts from the voluminous Parliamentary Reports of Public Charities, we trust will be found a useful and valuable portion of the publication.  The standard works of Owen and Blakeway, and Phillips, Histories of Shrewsbury, Duke’s Antiquities, Hulbert’s History and Gregory’s Gazetteer of the County, as well as various Local Histories and Guides to the more interesting parts of Shropshire, have been frequently referred to in the compilation of the historical notices.  The Work is accompanied with a large Coloured Sheet Map of the County, engraved expressly for this Publication. [ii]

SAMUEL BAGSHAW.

Sheffield, October 25th, 1851.

GENERAL INDEX.

Abbeys, Monasteries, and Priories, 24

— Alberbury, 671

— Buildwas, 371

— Bromfield, 520

— Chirbury, 688

— Haughmond, 137

— Lilleshall, 395

— Malinslee, 376

— Shrewsbury, 72

— Wenlock, 583

— Wombridge, 440

Abcott, 700

Abdon, 517

Abertannat, 153

Ackleton, 494

Acton, 702

— Burnell, 498

— Castle, 498

— Pigott, 499

— Reynald, 310

— Round, 610

— Scott, 547

Adcott Hall, 217

Acton-on-the-Hill, 517

Adderley, 256

Adeney, 381

Adston, 706

Alderton, 143

Admaston, 445

— Spa, 445

Agricultural Improvements, 23

— Produce, 22

Alberbury, 670

— Abbey, 671

Albrighton, 452

— (St. Mary’s), 138

— Division, 132

Albright Hussey, 133

Albrightlee, 131

Albynes, 614

Alcaston, 519

Aldenham, 649

Alderton, 144

— (Great Ness), 241

Aldon, 553

Alkington, 355

Alkmere, 499

Allscott, 495

All Stretton, 530

Alveley, 611

Amaston, 671

Ancient Britons, 9, 12, 34, 213, 535, 449, 702

— Land Measures, 16

Antiquities, 157, 450, 568, 678

Apley, 436

— Castle, 436

— Park, 484

Argoed, 148

Arleston, 436

Arscott, 680

Asbaston, 389

Ashfield, 590

Ashford Bowdler, 519

— Carbonell, 519

— Hall, 519

Ash Magna, 355

— Parva, 356

Asterley, 680

Asterton, 704

Astley, 329

— (St. Mary’s), 139

— Abbots, 613

Aston (Chetwynd), 382

— Church, 382

— Hall, 476

— (Hopesay), 701

— (Munslow), 541

— (Wellington), 436

— (Wem), 329

— (Claverley), 467

— Botterel, 614

— (Oswestry), 190

— (Shiffnal), 476

— Eyre, 649

— Pigott, 693

— Rogers, 693

Asylum, 674

Atcham, 364

Atterley, 588

Attingham, 364

Bach and Norton, 532

Bach Mill, 541

Badger, 456

Bagginswood, 657

Bagley, 244

Balasley, 671

Balderton, 251

Balswardyne Hall, 505

Bannister Ralph, 332

Bardley, 659

Barkers Green, 329

Barlow, 701

Barnsley, 494

Barnwell George, 519

Barrow, 554

— Hall, 554

Baschurch, 212

Batchcott, 544

Battlefield, 133

Battle of Shrewsbury, 36

Bausley, 671

Baxter Richard, 390

Bayston Hill, 501

Beachfield, 693

Beach Mill, 541

Bearston, 297

Beckbury, 457

Beckjay, 700

Bedstone, 696

Bellaport House, 300

Belmont, 210

Bentley, 494

Bennett’s End, 635

Benthall, 555

— (Alberbury), 671

Bentley, 494

Beobridge, 467

Berghill, 209

Berrington, 499

Berwick, 140

— House, 140

— Mavaston, 366

Besford, 311

Betchcott, 514

Betchley, 296

Betton & Alkmere, 499

— (Berrington), 500

— (Drayton) 277

— Little, 499

Bettws-y-crwyn, 712

Bicton, 674

— (Clun) 709

Billingsley, 615

Birch, 215

Birch and Lythe, 231

Birches, 559

Bishop Heber, 282

Bishop’s Castle, 696

Bitterley, 664

Black Mere, 357

Black Park, 357

Blodwell, 154

Blore Heath, (Battle) 298

Bobbington, 458

Bolas Great, 368

— Parva, 285

Bomere Heath, 145

Boninghall, 458

— Albrighton Kennels, 458

Booley, 316

Boreatton, 215

Boraston, 667

Boreton, 503

Boscobel, 459

— White Ladies, 463

Boscobel, King Chas.’s Retreat, 460

— Royal Oak, 463

Botvylle, 524

Bouldon, 538

Bowdler, 519

Bowley, 316

Boycott, 680

Brace Meole, 511

Bradley, 494, 588

Bradney, 494

Bratton, 215, 446

British Encampments, 393, 212

Bridgnorth, 615

Brimstree Hundred, 452

Broadstone, 542

Broadward, 700

Brockton, (Worthen), 693

— (Longford), 400

— (Long Stanton) 550

— (Lydbury), 703

Bromfield, 520

— Priory, 520

Bromley, 594

Bromlow, 693

Brompton, (Berrington) 500

— Little, 701

Brompton-with-Rhiston, 691

Broncroft, 534

Bronygarth, 162

Brookhampton, 538

Broom, (Cardington), 523

Broom & Rowton, 701

Broomfield, 446

Broseley, 556

— Tobacco Pipes, 556

Broughall, 357

Broughton, (Bishop’s Castle), 698

— (Albrighton), 134

— (Claverley), 467

— (Shrewsbury), 134

Brown Clee Hill, 589

Brunslow, 701

Bryna Castle, 210

Bryngwyla, 159

Brynn, 155

Bryntanat Hall, 155

Buckingham, Duke of, 332

Bucknell, 699

Buildwas, 370

Buildwas Abbey, 371

Bulthey, 671

Buntingsdale Hall, 278

Burcot, (Worfield), 494

— (Wrockwardine) 446

Burford, 666

Burley, 532

Burlington, 476

Burlton, 247

Burncote, 494

Burton, 588

Burwarton, 634

Bury Ditches, 702

Butterey, 381

Button Oak, 660

Bynweston, 693

Caer Caradoc, 525

— Battle at, 10

Cainham, 635

Calcott, 674

Calloughton, 588

Calverhall, 305

— Hall, 305

Calvington, 381

Canals, 20

Cantlop, 500

Caractacus, 10

Cardiston, 676

Cardington, 521

Careswell Exhibitions, 478

Carwood, 701

Castle Pulverbach, 507

Castles, Acton Burnell, 498

— Bishop’s, 697

— Bridgnorth, 617

— Cause, 684

— Charlton, 447

— Church Stretton, 525

— Chirbury, 687

— Clun, 708

— Ellesmere, 219

— Knockin, 153

— Ludlow, 594

— Middle, 249

— Moreton Corbet, 294

— Oswestry, 167

— Quatford, 652

— Rowton, 672

— Sibdon, 705

— Shrawardine, 254

— Shrewsbury, 75

— Sundorne, 138

— Tong, 487

— Stoke St. Milborough, 552

—Wattlesborough, 672

— Whittington, 207

Catstree, 495

Cause, 684

Causton, 700

Caynton, 381

Caynton House, 381

Chantries, 24

Chapel Lawn, 710

Charlton, 447

Chatford, 503

Chatwall, 523

Chelmarsh, 635

Chelmick, 539

Cheney Longville, 707

Cherrington, 381

Chesterton, 494

— Roman Encampment, 494

Cheswardine, 259

Chetton, 636

Chetwynd, 372

— Aston, 382

Childs Ercall, 278

Chilton, 366

China Works, 569

Chinnel, 358

Chipnall, 261

Chirbury, 687

— Hundred, 687

Chorley, 659

Choulton, 703

Church Aston, 312

Church Preen, 506

Chrch. Pulverbatch, 506

Church Stretton, 524

Civil Wars, 38

Claverley, 464

Clee Downton, 551

Clee Hill, 551

Clee St. Margaret, 531

Clee Stanton, 551

Cleeton, 665

Cleobury Mortimer, 638

Cleobury Foreign, 641

Cleobury North, 643

— Hall, 644

Clewilsey, 713

Clive, 140

— Hall, 141

— Sansaw Hall, 141

Climate, 22

Clotley, 446

Cloverley, 305

Cluddley, 446

Clun, 707

Clunbury, 699

Clungunford, 700

Clunton, 700

Clurton, 506

Coad-y-Gaer Tower, 193

Coed-y-Rallt, 234

Coalbrookdale, 569

— Company, 374

— Ironworks, 569

Coalmoor, 566

Coalport, 569

— China Works, 569

Cold Hatton, 387

Cold Weston, 531

Colebatch, 698

Colemere, 232

Collieries, 374, 375, 398, 418, 439, 441

Comley, 524

Condover, 501

— Hall, 501

— Hundred, 498

Coppice Green, 476

Copthorne House, 675

Coptiviney, 239

Coreley, 644

Corfton, 533

Corve Dale, 532

Cothercutt, 507

Coton, (Alveley), 611

Cotton, (Ruyton), 198

— (Wem), 329

Cotwall, 388

Cound, 504

Court of Hill, 667

Coxheadford, 531

Crackley Bank, 476

Cranmere Heath, 494

Creamore House, 331

Cressage, 505

Crickett, 232

Crickheath, 190

Criggion, 672

Cronkhill, 366

Crosemere, 231

Cross Green, 446

Crow Meol, 675

Cruckmeole, 680

Cruckton, 680

Crudgington, 388

Culmington, 531

Cynynion, 190

Dalicott, 467

Darliston, 306

Davenport House, 492

Dawley Magna, 374

— Green, 375

— Parva, 375

Daywell, 210

Deckerhill, 476

Delbury Hall, 533

Derwen, The, 200

Deuxhill, 644

Diddlebury, 532

Dinmore, 704

Dinthill, 684

Ditches, 333

Ditton Priors, 589

Dodington, 358

— Liberty, 640

Donington, 398

— Wood, 398

— (Wroxeter), 451

— Shiffnal, 470

— House, 471

Doomsday Book, 16

Dorrington, (Muckleston), 298

— (Condover), 503

Dothill, 436

Dovaston, 149

Dowles, 644

Downton, (Stanton Lacy), 549

— (Upton Magna), 420

Drayton-in-Hales, 262

Druids, The, 9

Dryton, 451

Dudleston, 233

Dudston 688

Duddlewick, 659

Dudmaston Hall, 655

Dunvall House, 614

Dyffryd House, 151

Eardington, 654

Eardiston, 198

Earnastry Park, 534

Earthenware Manufactories, 555, 556, 557

East Foreign Liberty, 641

East Hamlet, 549

Easthope, 535

Eastwall, 537

— (Rushbury), 546

Eastwick, 235

Eaton-under-Haywood, 536

Eaton and Choulton, 703

Eaton Constantine, 378

Eaton by Stoke, 313

Eaton Mascott, 500

Ecclesiastical Revenues, 25

Ebnall, 210

Eddicliff, 709

Edge, 681

Edenhope, 714

Edgbold, 512

Edgebolton, 311

Edgeley, 361

— Moss, 361

Edgerley, 150

Edgmond, 379

— Hall, 380

Edgton, Brunslow and Horderley, 701

Edstaston, 330

Ellerdine, 388

— Oak House, 388

Ellerton, 261

— Hall, 261

Ellesmere, 219

— Castle, 219

— Chapels, 222

— Charities, 223

— Church, 220

— Court Leet, 222

— Fairs, 219

— Mechanics’ Institute, 222

— Savings’ Bank, 222

— Union House, 223

Elson & Greenhill, 235

Eminent Men, 136, 141, 205, 237, 282, 301, 315, 323, 330, 343, 344, 390, 464, 468, 475, 601, 669, 687

Emstrey, 366

Enchmarsh, 524

Ensdon, 252

— House, 253

Ercall Magna, 384

— Hall, 385

— Park, 385

— Lodge, 385

— Sherlow, 385

Ercall Childs, 278

Erway The, 233

Espley, 289

Eudon Burnell, 637

— Gorge, 637

Ewdness, 495

Evelith, 476

Eyton, (Alberbury), 672

Eyton & Plowden, 703

Eyton-on-the Wild-Moors, 392

— Hall, 393

— (Baschurch), 215

Eyton-on-Severn, 451

Exeter, Marquis of, 369

Faintree, 637

Farley, 681, 588

Farlow, 664

Farmcott, 468

Fauls, 306

Felhampton, 707

Felton Butler, 241

Fenn Gate, 495

Fennemere, 216

Fernhill, 211

Field Aston, 382

Finger Lane, 375

Fires, 405

First Fruits & Tenths, 25

Fitz, 135

— Hall, 136

Fletcher, Rev. Jno., 570

Ford, 676

— Hundred, 670

Forester, Lord, 591

Forton, 253

Frankton (English) 235

Frankfort (Welsh), 211

Friars, 24

Frodesley, 508

— Hall, 508

Funnanvair, 713

Gabowen, 210

Garmstone, 394

Gatacre, 468

General History of County, 7

Gentlemen’s Seats, 27

Glaseley, 645

Giant’s Grave, 157

Glanyrafon House, 155

Golding, 504

Goldston, 261

Grafton, 136

— Lodge, 136

Gravehanger, 298

Great Ness, 240

Greenhill, 235

Greet, 668, 667

Gretton, 546

Grimmer, 693

Grimpo, 205

Grindley Brook, 361

Grinshill, 136

Grove, 707

Guilden Down, 709

Guilds, 24

Habberley, 677

Habberley Office, 693

Hadley, 436

Hadnall, 142

Halford, 537

Hallon, 495

Halston, 147, 681

Hamlets, The, 514

Hampton Wood, 236

— Welsh, 255

Hanwood Great, 677

— Little, 681

Harcourt, 316

Harcourt, 659

Hardwick, 144, 236, 704

Harley by Wenlock, 589

— (Condover), 509

Harlscott, 132

Harmer Hill, 248, 251

Harnage, 504

Hartleberry, 495

Haston, 144

Hatton Cold, 387

Hatton by Eaton, 537

— Shiffnal, 476

Haughmond, 137

Haughton, 204

— (High Ercall), 389

— (Shiffnal), 477

— Hall, 477

— (Upton Magna), 420

Hawkstone, 285

Hayes, 693

Hayton Lower, 549

Hayton Upper, 549

Heath, 551

— Upper, 694

— Nether, 694

Heathton, 468

Heber Bishop, 281

Hem, 476

Hempton Load, 636

Hencott, 132

Hengoed Upper, 210

Henley, 665

Hentley or Henlle, 211

Henwicks Wood, 237

Herbert Lewd, 392

High Ercall, 384

— Hatton, 316

Highley, 645

Hill Cop Bank, 320

— Lord, 287, 301

— General Lord, 301

Hill-upon-Cott, 664

Hilton, 495

Hindford, 211

Hinnington, 476

Hinstock, 279

Hinton (Pontesbury), 681

— (Stottesden), 660

— (Whitchurch), 361

Hisland, 191

Hoccom, 495

Hockham, 495

Hockleton, 688

Hodnet, 280

Holdgate, 537

Holloway Ville, 542

Hollyhurst, 362

Holt Preen, 524

Holy Cross, 93

Holywell Lane, 375

Home 706

Homer, 589

Hooker Gate, 676

Hope, 694

— Baggot, 646

— Bendrid, 710

— Bowdler, 538

Hopesay, 701

Hopstone, 468

Hopton Castle, 702

— Cangeford, 539

— Court, 646

— and Espley, 289

— (Great Ness), 242

Hopton-in-the-Hole, 539

— Wafers, 646

Horderley, 701

Hordley, 244

Horton (St. Chad’s), 676

— (Wellington), 437

— (Wem), 332

Hospitals, 24

Howle, 374

Hughley, 564

Hundred of Albrighton, 132

— Bradford North, 256

— South, 364

— Brimstree, 452

— Chirbury, 687

— Clun, 707

— Condover, 498

— Ford, 670

— Munslow, 517

— Oswestry, 147

— Overs, 664

— Pimhill, 212

— Purslow, 696

— Stottesden, 610

— Wenlock Franchise, 554

Hungary Hatton, 270

Hungerford, 537

Hunkington, 420

Huntington, 566

Idsall, 476

Ifton Heath, 159

Ightfield, 292

Ingwardine, 660

Inwood, 680

Irelands Cross, 298

Iron Bridge, 568

Ironworks, 375, 438, 411, 654

Isle (The), 674

Isombridge, 389

Jackfield, 557

Jack of Corra, 305

Kemberton, 471

Kempton, 700

Kenley, 509

Kenstone, 289

Kenwick, 236

Kenwicks Wood, 337

Ketley, 438

Kevancalanog, 712

Kilhendre, 233

Kingslow, 495

Kingswood, 660

Kinlet, 647

Kinnerley, 148

Kinnersley 393

Kinnerley Argoed, 148

Kinnerton, 706

Kinton, 242

Knockin, 152

Knuck, 714

Knowbury St. Pauls, 635

Kynaston, 150

Lacon, 333

Lakes, 21

Langley, 499

Lawley, 439

Lawnt, 191

Lawton, 534

Lea and Oakley, 698

Lea, 681

Leasowes (The), 662

Leaton Knolls, 140

Leaton, 446

— (St. Mary’s) 141

Lee, 237

— Lee Bridge, 293

Leebotwood, 510

Lee Brockhurst, 293

— Gomery, 439

Leigh, 694

Leighton, 393, 694

Lilleshall, 394

— Abbey, 395

— House, 397

— Monument, 395

Lineal, 237

Linley (More), 703

— (Wenlock), 565

Little Betton, 499

— Brompton, 701

— Gane, 495

— Hanwood, 681

— Sutton, 534

— Shrawardine, 671

— Stretton, 530

— Wenlock, 565

Lizard Grange, 476

Llanvair Waterdine, 713

Llanforda, 191

Llanyblodwell, 153

Llanymyneck, 156

Llanytidman, 157

Llynck-lis-pool, 155

Llynclys, 155

Lodge The, 161

Longden, 681

Longden-upon-Tern, 399

Longford, 297, 399

Long Lane, 447

Longner, 134, 510

Longslow, 277

Longville, 537

Longwaist, 417

Loppington, 245

Lossford, 289

Lowe and Ditches, 333

Lowe, 660

Lower Down, 703

— Park, 534

Ludford, 540

Ludlow, 592

Ludstone, 468

Lurkinghope, 705

Lushcott, 537

Lutwyche Hall, 536

Ludbury North, 702

Lydham, 703

Lydley Heys, 524

Lyth, 503

Lythe (The), 231

Madeley, 567

Maesbrook Ucha, 151

— Issa, 150

Maesbury, 192

Magistrates, List of, 27

Mainstone, 714

Malins Lee, 375

Maneythesney, 713

Manufactures, 21

Manutton, 710

Marchamley, 290

Market Drayton, 262

Marrington, 688

Marsh, 685

Marsh Green, 389

Marton (Chirbury), 688

— (Middle), 251

— (Ellesmere), 237

Marton Old, 211

Mawley Manor House, 641

Meadow Town, 694

Medlicott, 706

Meeson, 370

— Hall, 370

Melverley, 162

Meole Brace, 511

Merehouse, 216

Merrington, 145

Messon, 370

Mickley, 306

Middle, 248

Middlehope, 534

Middleton (Alberbury), 672

— (Bitterley), 665

— (Chirbury), 689

— (Oswestry), 192

— Priors, 590

— Scriven, 648

Milford Hall, 217

Millen Heath, 307

Millichope, 537

— (Munslow), 542

Milson, 669

Mines, 21

Minsterley, 678

Minton, 530

Monasteries, see Abbeys

Monastic Institutions, 23

Monk Hopton, 579

Montford, 252

Mooretown, 388

Moore & Batchcot, 544

Moore, 544

Moot Hall, 68

Morton, 192

More, 703

Moreton Corbet, 293

Moreton Say, 295

Moretown, 89

Morewood, 704

Morrey, The, 258

Morville, 649

Moston, 316

Much Wenlock, 579

Muckleton, 312

Mucklewick, 691

Munslow, 541

— Hundred, 517

Muxton, 398

Myndtown, 704

Mytton, 136

Nash, 667

Neen Savage, 650

Neen Solars, 669

Neenton, 651

Nesscliff, 242

Ness Great, 240

— Little, 216

Netley, 515

Newcastle, 710

Newnes, 238

Newnham, 681

New Marton, 237

Newport, 400

Newton & Edgbold, 512

— and Spoonhill, 239

Newton, 142

— (Ellesmere) 239

— (Stottesden), 660

Newton on-the-Hill, 251

— (Worfield), 495

— (Westbury), 685

Newtown (Baschurch), 212

— (Wem), 333

Nobold, 512

Noneley, 248

Norbury, 704

Nordley Regis, 611

North Bradford Hundred, 256

Northwood (Ellesmere) 238

Northwood (Stottesden), 660

— (Wem), 334

Norton (Wroxeter), 451

— (Culmington), 532

Norton in Hales, 299

Nox, 682

Nursery, The, 205

Oaken Gates, 205

Oakes, 682

Oakley Park, 520

Obarris, 710

Obley, 700

Offa’s Dyke, 14, 210

Oldington, 495

Old Marlon, 211

Old Parr, 672

Old Oswestry, 169

Ollerton, 313

Onibury, 542

Onslow, 675

Oreton, 660

Orleton, 444

Osbaston, 151, 389

Oswestry, 163

— Hundred, 147

Oteley, 239

Overton, 545

— (Stottesden), 660

Overs, Hundred of, 664

Overton & Woofferton, 545

Oxen, 687

Palms Hill, 336

Pant, 190

Parish Registers, 26

Parr Old, 672

Patton, 550

Pave Lane, 382

Peaton, 534

Peerlogue, 710

Pentre Coed, 234

— (Edgerley), 150

Pentregaer, 193

Pentrehodrey, 710

Pentre Pant Hall, 200

— Ucha Hall, 151

— Shannel House, 194

Peplow, 290

Perthy Bank, 236

Petton, 253

Picklescott, 514

Pickstock, 383

Pickthorn, 660

Pimhill, 248

— Hundred, 212

Pimley House, 146

Pipegate, 298

Pitchford, 513

Pixley, 280

Plaish, 524

Plas-Yollen, 233

Plas-Warren, 233

Plealey, 682

Plowden, 703

Pontesbury, 679

Pontesford, 682

Population, 23

Porkington, 200

Porthywaen, 156

Posenhall, 556

Poston, 534

Poston Lower, 542

Poynton, 389

Preceptories, 24

Prees, 301

Prees-gwene House, 161

Prescott, 217

— (Stottesden), 660

Presthorpe, 589

Preston Brockhurst, 295

— Gobalds, 145

Preston-upon-the-Wild Moors, 415

— Montford, 684

— Boats, 420

— Wood, 295

Priestweston, 689

Priors Ditton, 589

Priors Lee, 476

Priories, 24

Providence Grove, 143

Pully, 512

Purslow Hundred, 696

Queen Anne’s Bounty, 25

Quatford, 652

Quatt, 654

— Jarvis, 654

— Malvern, 654

Quinta, The, 161

Ragdon, 539

Railways, 21

Ratlinghope, 704

Redcastle Hill, 288

Rednal, 204

Reilth, 714

Rhiston, 691

Rhos Goch, 694

Rhuddleford, 495

Richards Castle, 543

Ridge Higher, 239

— Lower, 239

Rindleford, 495

Ritton, 706

Rivers, 19

Roads, 21

Rock, 549

Rodington, 417

Roden, 390

Rodney’s Pillar, 672

Roman Invasion, 9

Romsley, 611

Roowood, 336

Rorrington, 689

Rossal, 674

Roughton, 495

Round Acton, 610

Rowley, 495

Rowton, 390

Rowton, 672

— (Stokesay), 553

Royal Oak, 463

Ruckley, 499

Rudge, 656

Rugantine, 712

Rushbury, 545

Roman Stations, 449, 545, 518, 654, 671, 694

Rushton, 451

Rushmore, 446

Ruthall, 590

Ruyton-of-the-Eleven-Towns, 196

Ryton, 472, 503

Sambrook, 261

Sandford, 204

— (Prees), 307

Sascott, 682

Saxon Gods, 14

Scrimage, 531

Selattyn, 199

Selley, 713

Severn, The, 19

Shadwell, 710

Shavington, 258

Shawbury, 309

Sheet, 540

Sheinton, 657

Shelbrook, 234

Shelderton, 700

Shelton & Oxon, 686

Shelve, 691

Shelvock, 198

Sheriff Hales, 397

Sherlowe, 385

Shiffnal, 473

Shineton, 657

Shipley, 469

Shipton, 547

Shotton, 144

Shooters Hill, 141

Shotatton, 199

Shrawardine, 254

— Little, 671

Shrewsbury, from 33 to 132

— Abbey, 49 and 72

— Abbots of, 74

— Almshouses, 85

— Annals, 79

— Anct. Mansions, 78

— Antiquarian and Nat. His. Society, 64

— Aquatic Excur., 72

— Assembly Rooms, 72

— Asylum, 66

— Barons of, 36

— Battle of, 36 & 133

— Baths Royal, 66

— Billiard Rooms, 72

— Bridges, 68

— Canal, 65

— Cattle Market, 68

— Chapels Ancient, 55

— Chapels Dissent, 55

— Charities, 82 to 93

— Charters, 44

— Coleham, 93

— Corporation, 42

— Council House, 78

— County Constab., 43

— County and Town Gaol, 63

— County Hall, 62

— Drapers Hall, 70

— Directory, 95

— Dispensary, 62

— Early Gov. of, 41

— Earls of, 35, 73

— Eye & Ear Dispensary, 62

— Frankwell, 93

— Fairs, 68

— Floods, 81

— Gaol, 63

— Gas Works, 67

— Gates & Posterns, 77

— Glass Staining, 71

— Great Parlia., 36

— Holy Cross and St. Giles, 93

— Hospital, St. Giles, 51

— Hill’s Mansion, 79

— House of Indus., 65

— House of Correc., 65

— Infirmary, 61

— Ireland’s Mansion, 79

— Jones’s Mansion, 79

— Kingsland, 72

— Library Subscription, 65

— Lord Hill’s Column, 67

— Markets, 68

— Market Hall, 63

— Market House, 63

— Mechanics’ Institute, 65

— Meole Brace, 93

— Mercer’s Hall, 71

— Monastic Foundation, 72

— Monks of, 73

— Municipal Act, 42

— Music Hall, 64

— Newspapers, 64

— News Room, 65

— Parishes of, 92

— Parliament at, 36

— Population, 34

— Public Buildings, 61

— Quarry The, 71

— Races, 72

— Railway Station, 67

— Savings’ Bank, 66

— Schools, 57 to 61

— Severn River, 33

— Show, 71

— — Cakes, 71

— — Brawn, 71

— Simnell Cake, 71

— Streets, 94

— Subscrip. Library, 65

— Tailors’ Hall, 71

— Theatre, 64

— Town Hall, 62

— Town Walls, 77

— Trade, 69

— Trade Directy., 115

— Water Works, 66

— St. Alkmund’s Parish, 92

— St. Chad’s Parish, 93

— St. Julian’s Parish, 93

— St. Mary’s Parish, 93

Shropshire Giant, 240

Siberscott, 682

Sibdon Carwood, 705

— Castle, 705

Sidbury, 657

Siefton, 532

Silvington, 670

Skeletons, 157

Skyborry, 714

Sleap, (Ercall), 388

Sleap, (Wem), 335

Smethcott, 144

Smethcott, 513

Snailbeach Mine, 678

Snedshill, 477

— Ironworks and Collieries, 477

Snitton, 665

Sodylt Hall, 234

Soil and Produce, 22

Sowdley Great, 262

Soulton, 335

South Bradford Hundred, 364

Spoad, 710

Spoonhill, 239

Spoonley, 258

Spray Hill, 384

Stableford, 495

St. Almund’s, 92

St. Chad’s, 93

St. Paul’s, Knowbury, 635

Stanford, 672

Stanmore, 495

Stanton-upon-Hine Heath, 314

— Lacy, 548

— Long, 550

— Shiffnal, 476

Stanwardine-in-the-Fields, 217

— in-the Woods, 217

Stanway, 547

Stapleton, 515

Steele, 307

Stiperstone Hill, 507

Stirchley, 418

— Hall, 418

— Ironworks, 418

St. Julian’s, 93

St. Martin’s, 158

St. Bryngwyla School, 159

St. Mary’s, 93

St. Winefred’s Well, 206

Stitt and Gatten, 705

Stocks and Coptiviney, 239

Stockett, 236

Stockton, 484

— Park, 485

Stockton-by-Newport, 400

Stockton-by-Chirbury, 689

Stoke-by-Burford, 667

Stoke-upon-Terne, 312

Stoke, St. Milborough, 550

Stoke, Say, 552

Stone Acton, 547

Stottesden, 657

— Hundred, 610

Stowe, 705

Strefford, 707

Stretton, 685

— All, 530

— Church, 524

— Little, 530

Styche & Woodlands, 297

Sundorne Castle, 138

Sugdon, 407

Sutherland, 1st Duke of, 394

Sutton, (Claverley) 469

— (Drayton), 278

Sutton-by-Chelmarsh, 636

Sutton-by-Shrewsbury, 515

— Spa, 516

Sutton-by-West Felton, 204

— Maddock, 486

— Little, 534

— Great, 535

— Court, 534

Swancote, 495

Swerney, 193

— Hall, 194

Sychtyn, 201

Sylattin, 199

Tan-coed-y-gaer, 193

Talbot John, 338 & 357

Tasley, 662

Tedsmere, 205

Tern, 392

— House, 392

Tetchill, 239

Thanes, 521

Thoughlands, 542

Ticklerton, 537

Tibberton, 384

Tilley, 336

— Green, 336

Tilsop, 667

Tilstock, 362

Timberth, 689

Tir-y-coed, 152

Tobacco Pipes Manufactory, 556

Tonge, 486

— Castle, 487

Totterton, 703

Trebert, 714

Trebrodier, 712

Trefarclawdd, 194

Treflach, 194

Trefnant, 672

Trefonnen, 195

Trelystan, 694

Trench, 240

Trench-by-Wem, 336

— Lane, 448

Treprenal, 157

Treverward, 710

Triptych, 666

Tugford, 553

Twyford, 205

Tylsoer Dr., 343

Tyn-y-rhos, 162

Uckington, 367

Uffington, 145

Uppington, 418

Uppington, 672

Upton Cresset, 662

— Magna, 419

— Parva, or Waters Upton, 421

Vennington, 685

Wackley Lodge, 232

Walcot-by-Chirbury, 689

Walcot-by-Wellington, 439

Walcot Hall, 702

Walford, 218

Walker’s Lowe, 661

Wallop, 685

Wall-under-Haywood, 547

Walton-by-Ercall, 392

Walton-by-Onibury, 543

Walton-by-Wenlock, 588

Walton-by-Worthen, 695

Walton-by-Stottesden, 661

Wappenshall, 439

Wars, 9

Waters Upton, 421

Watling Street, 426

Watts Dyke, 210

Wattlesborough, 672

Wellington, 421

— Fairs, 422

— Gas Works, 424

— History, 422 to 425

— Horticultural Society, 425

— Market Hall, 423

— News Room, 424

— Old Hall, 425

— Schools, 423

— Streets, 427

Welsh Frankton, 211

— Hampton, 255

Wem, 317

Wenlock Much, 579

— Edge, 589

— Franchise, 554

— Little, 565

Wentnor, 705

Westbury, 684

West Felton, 202

— Foreign Libty., 641

— Hamlet, 549

Westhope, 535

Westley, 503

Westley, 685

Weston-by-Clun, 709

Weston-by-Burford, 667

Weston Cotton, 195

Weston-by-Hopton, 579

Weston Lullingfield, 218

—Rhyn, 161

— Coalworks, 161

— Under Red Castle, 290

— Stowe, 705

Wettleton, 553

Whattall, 236

Wheathill, 663

Wheathall, 503

Wheel Green, 496

Whetmore, 667

Whitchurch, 337

Whitcott & Hardwick, 704

Whitcott Evan, 710

Whitcott Keysett, 711

White Ladies, 463

Whitley, 676

Whittington, 207

Whitton-by-Westbury, 685

Whitton-by-Burford, 667

Wicherley Hall, 218

Whixall, 307

Whigmore, 685

Whigwig, 589

Wikey, 199

Wilcott, 244

Wilderhope, 547

Wilderley, 508

Willaston, 308

Willey, 591

Wilmington, 689

Willstone, 524

Winnington, 672

Winsbury, 689

Winscote, 496

Winsley, 685

Wirswall, 364

Wistanstow, 706

Wistanswick, 373

Withington, 440

Wittingslow, 707

Wixhall, 291

Wollascott, 142

Wollaston, 672

Wollerton, 291

Wolf’s Head, 242

Wolverley, 336

Wombridge, 440

— Priory, 441

Woodbatch, 698

Woodcote, 442

Woodcote-by-St. Chad’s, 676

Woodhall, 681

Woodhouse, 477

Woodhouse, 204

Woodhouses New, 363

Woodhouses Old, 363

Woodlands, 297

Woodseaves, 278

Woodside, 477

Woofferton, 545

Woolstaston, 516

Woolston, 206

Woolston, 707

Woore, 298

Wooton, 196

Wootton, 549

Worfield, 491

Worthen, 692

Wotherton, 689

Woundale, 469

Wrentnall, 508

Wrickton, 661

Wrockwardine, 443

— Wood, 447

Wroxeter, 448

Wycherley The Poet, 141

Wyke, 476

Wyke-by-Wenlock, 558

Wyken, 496

Wykey, 199

Wytheford Magna, 312

Wytheford Parva, 312

Yeaton, 219

Yockleton, 685

Yorton, 134

GENERAL HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF SHROPSHIRE.

SHROPSHIRE is an inland county on the borders of Wales, bounded on the north by Denbighshire, Cheshire, and a detached part of Flintshire: on the east by Staffordshire: on the south by Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and Radnorshire: and on the west by Montgomery and Denbighshire.  In length, from north to south, it is about forty-five miles, and its extreme breadth thirty-five.  Its circumference is computed at 200 miles; and it comprises an area of 1,343 square statute miles, and, consequently, 859,520 acres.  The county, in Saxon annals, is called Scrobbesbyrig and Scrobbescire, and by Latin authors, Comitates Salopiensis.  It is one of the shires, which, in the time of the Romans, was inhabited by the Cornavii, whose province comprehended the counties of Cheshire, Salop, Stafford, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.  At the census of 1801, the county embraced a population of 167,639 souls: 1831, 222,800: 1841, 239,048, of whom 119,355 were males, and 119,693 females.  At the same period, there were 47,208 inhabited houses, 2,086 uninhabited, and 293 houses building.  The number of persons born in the county in these returns was 203,689: in other counties, 3,240: in Scotland, 391: in Ireland, 1,199: in the British colonies, 14: foreigners in the county, 161: not specified where born, 1,144.  Of the total population, 55,645 males, and 54,624 females, were under 20 years of age: 12,189 were between sixty and seventy years of age: 6,006 between seventy and eighty: 1,905 between eighty and ninety: 139 between ninety and one hundred: and the age of 5 persons exceeded one hundred years.  The total population of the fifteen unions, into which the county of Shropshire is divided, at the census of 1851, are returned as containing 245,019 inhabitants, of whom 122,122 were males, and 122,997 females.

Shropshire is divided into the hundreds of Albrighton, Bradford, Brimstree, Chirbury, Clun, Condover, Ford, Munslow, Oswestry, Overs, Pimhill, Purslow, Stottesden, and Wenlock franchise, and contains 224 parishes, and 5 extra-parochial places.  By the recent Reform and Division of Counties’ Acts, this county is divided into the northern and southern divisions, each of which returns two members to Parliament.  The boroughs of Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, and Wenlock also return two members each.  The expenditure of the county for the year ending December, 1850, was £12,156. 17s. 4¼d., of which £3,587. 10s. 2d. was expended on the Gaol and House of Correction; £2,257. 10s. 7d. in prosecutions; £605. 17s. 5d. on bridges and roads; £562. 13s. 4d. on the Lunatic Asylum; coroners, £501. 1s. 2d., and Clerk of the Peace, £436. 4s. 9d.  Judge Blackstone says:—England was first divided into counties, hundreds, and tithings by Alfred the Great, for the protection of property and the execution of justice.  Tithings were so called because ten freeholders formed one.  Ten of these tithings were supposed to form a hundred or wapentake, from an ancient ceremony, in which the governor of a hundred met all the aldermen of his district, and holding up his spear, they all touched it with theirs, in token of subjection and union to one common interest.  An indifferent number of these wapentakes, or hundreds, form a county or shire, for the civil government of which a shire-reeve or sheriff is elected annually.  The magistrate above the hundredry was called the trithingman or lathgrieve, presided over three, four, or more, hundreds, formed into what was called a trithing, in some places a lathe, and in others a rape; hence the lathes of Kent, the rapes of Sussex, the parts of Lincoln, and trithings or ridings of Yorkshire.  The kingdom was divided into parishes soon after the introduction of Christianity, by Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 636, and the boundaries of them, as marked in Doomsday book, agree very nearly with the present division.  The custom, which still continues, of making the hundreds responsible for the excesses of a lawless mob, is an appendage of the Saxon system of tithing.  As the extreme ignorance of the age made deeds and writings very rare, the County or Hundred Court was the place where the most remarkable civil transactions, were finished, and, in order to preserve a memorial of them, and prevent all future disputes, here testaments were promulgated, slaves manumitted, bargains of sale concluded, and, sometimes, for greater security, the most considerable of these deeds were inserted in the blank leaves of the parish Bible, which thus became a kind of register, too sacred to be falsified.  It was not unusual to add to the deed an imprecation on all such as should be guilty of that crime.  In the County Court or shiremotes, all the freeholders were assembled twice a year, and received appeals from the other inferior courts.  They there decided all causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil, and the Bishop, together with the Alderman or Earl, presided over them.  All affairs were determined without much pleading, formality, or delay, by a majority of voices, and the Bishop or Alderman had no further authority than to order among the freeholders.  Where justice was denied during three sessions by the Hundred, and then by the County Court, there lay an appeal to the King’s Court; but this was not practised on slight occasions.  Two-thirds of the fines levied in these Courts went to the King, and made no contemptible share of the public revenue.

Historians all agree that the Aborigines of Britain were a tribe of Gauls, who emigrated from the continent, probably a thousand years before the Christian era.  Previous to the Roman conquest, the ancient Britons inhabiting the southern parts of the island had made some little progress towards civilization, but those in the north were wild and uncultivated, and subsisted chiefly by hunting and the spontaneous productions of the earth, wearing for their clothing the skins of animals killed in the chase, and dwelling in habitations formed of the interwoven branches of the forest.  They were divided into small nations or tribes.  Each state was divided into factions within itself, and was agitated with emulation towards the neighbouring states; and while the arts of peace were yet unknown, wars were their chief occupation, and formed the principal object of ambition among the people.  Their religion was Druidical, but its origin is not known.  Some assert that the Druids accompanied the Gauls in early ages, and others that Druidism was first introduced into England by the Phœnicians, who were the first merchants that traded to this island, and for a considerable time monopolized a profitable trade in tin and other useful metals.  Their government, (according to Diodorus Siculus, the ancient historian,) though monarchical, was free, and their religion, which formed one part of their government, was Druidical.  Justice was dispensed, not under any written code of laws, but on equitable principles; and on difference of opinion in the assembled congress, appeal was made to the Arch-Druid, whose decision was final.  Their religious ceremonies were performed in high places and in deep groves, and consisted in worshipping the God of nature, and rendering him praise on the yearly accession of the seasons.  The priests possessed great authority among them, besides ministering at the altar, and directing all religious duties; they enjoyed an immunity from wars and taxes; they possessed both the civil and criminal jurisdiction; they decided all controversies among estates, as well as among private persons, and whoever refused to submit to their decree, was exposed to the most severe penalties; the sentence of excommunication was denounced against him; he was forbidden access to the sacrifices of public worship; he was debarred all intercourse with his tribe, even in the common affairs of life; he was refused the protection of law, and death itself became an acceptable relief from the misery and infamy to which he was exposed.

The means by which religion was supported was by voluntary offerings and tithes, and in this respect we find a similarity with all nations of antiquity.  Despite the corruptions and philosophical atheism in which the Druidical religion became involved, candour demands of us that the Druids were in possession of learning as extensive and more useful than some of their Christian posterity, who, from the eighth century to the Reformation, were almost wholly employed in scholastic divinity, metaphysical or chronological disputes, legends, miracles, and martyrologies, and Dr. Kennedy informs us that in St. Patrick’s time no fewer than 300 volumes of their books were burnt, and no doubt the same was practised so long as a volume could be found.  By this destruction a wide chasm has been made in the historical details of this country.  Julius Cæsar, in his “Commentarii de Bello Gallico,” informs us that the Druids inculcated the doctrine of the immortality and transmigration of the soul, and discoursed with the “Youth about the heavenly bodies, their motion, the size of the heavens and the earth, the nature of things, and the influence and power of the immortal Gods.”  The misletoe was their chief specific in medicine, and nothing was held so sacred as the misletoe of the oak, which, being scarce, was gathered with great ceremony on a certain day appointed for their general festival.  In the civil government of this ancient people capital offenders were sentenced to death, and sacrificed in the most solemn manner.  The spoils of war were often devoted to their divinities on the altars of their temples.  At the time of the Roman invasion the British Druids exerted their utmost zeal in opposing the usurpation of that foreign power.  The invaders on the other hand fired with equal resentment, endeavoured to establish their security by the extermination of the Druidic order, and its priests were sacrificed to this barbarous policy; many fled to the island of Anglesey, and afterwards perished in the flames by the orders of Seutonius, and great numbers were cut off in an unsuccessful revolt of the Britons, under Queen Boadicea, after which the power and splendour of the Druids rapidly declined.  No species of superstition was ever more terrible than that of the Druids; no idolatrous worship ever attained such an ascendant over mankind; and the Romans after their conquest finding it impossible to reconcile those notions to the laws and institutions of their masters, while it maintained its authority, were at last obliged to abolish it by penal statutes—a violence which had never in any other instance been practised by these tolerating conquerors.

The Britons had long remained in a rude and independent state, when Cæsar, having overrun all Gaul by his victories, first cast his eye on this island, and being ambitious of carrying his arms into a new world then mostly unknown, he took advantage of a short interval in his continental wars, and made an invasion in Britain fifty-five years before the birth of Christ.  In his first expedition the Kentish Britons immediately opposed him, and compelled him to fight in the vicinity of Dover, combating even amongst the waves with singular courage; and, although Cæsar, observing his troops to be dispirited by the attacks of the enemy, ordered up his vessels with his artillery, and poured from their sides stones, arrows, and missiles; yet the natives sustained these unusual discharges with unshaken intrepidity, and the invaders made no impression until the standard bearer of the 10th legion rushed forward, exclaiming, “Follow me, unless you mean to betray your standard to your enemies.”  Upon which the Roman legions were incited to that desperate and close battle, which at length forced back the Britons and secured a landing.  The inhabitants of the neighbourhood then sent a message of peace, but four days afterwards a tempest dispersing the enemy’s fleet they attacked the Romans afresh.  Cæsar’s invasion in the ensuing summer was more formidable: it was made with five well appointed legions, and two thousand cavalry, amounting in the whole to thirty thousand of the best disciplined troops then known, and under the ablest commanders.  Terrified at the menacing approach of such a force, the inhabitants retired among the hills, and Cæsar having effected a landing without opposition, and chosen a proper place for the security of his fleet, (supposed to be where the town of Deal, in Kent, now stands), hastened on to the scene of conflict, and found the Britons had assembled in great numbers from all parts, who continued an unequal contest with the Roman legions for several days, but were at length utterly routed, and great numbers of them slain, nor did the Britons ever after this engage the Romans with their united forces.  Cæsar then led his army to the river Thames, towards the territories of Cassivellaunus, the principal leader of the defeated Britons, on the submission of whom, and having imposed an annual tribute on the vanquished, and received the hostages which he demanded, marched back to the sea shore, and shortly after took his final leave of Britain.  The civil wars which ensued, and which ended in the establishment of an absolute monarchy at Rome, saved the Britons from that yoke which was about to be imposed on them, the conquerors having little force to spare for the preservation of distant conquests; the Britons were therefore left to themselves, and for nearly a century after the invasion of Cæsar, enjoyed unmolested their own civil and religious institutions.  In the interval between the first and second invasion of Britain by the Romans, the founder of the Christian religion had accomplished his divine mission, in a province of the Roman empire, but almost without observation at Rome.  In the reign of Claudius the Romans began to think seriously of reducing the Britons under their dominion, and Plautius, an able general, sent over A.D. 43, gained some victories, and made considerable progress in subduing the inhabitants.  Claudius himself finding matters sufficiently prepared for his reception, made a journey into Britain, and received the submission of several British states, among which were the Cantic, Antrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, who inhabited the south-east part of the island.  The other Britons under the command of Caractacus still maintained an obstinate resistance, and the Romans made little progress against them till Ostorious Scapula was sent over, in the year 50, to command the armies.  This general rapidly advanced the Roman conquests over the Britons, pierced into the country of the Silures—a warlike tribe who inhabited the banks of the Severn, and fought a great battle with Caractaeus upon the hill called Caer Caradoc, not far from Clun, on which are the remains of an ancient fortification still to be seen.  In this battle the British leader artfully availed himself of his knowledge of the country, and posted himself on a spot, the approaches and retreats of which were as advantageous to his own party as they were perplexing to the enemy.  Caractacus running from one part of the camp to another, animated them by the valorous deeds of their ancestors, and told them that the work of that day would be the beginning of new liberty or of eternal slavery.  The people received these animated harangues with loud acclamations, and engaged according to the solemn rites of their religion, never to yield to weapons or wounds.  Their resolution astonished the Roman general, and the river which flows at the foot of the hill, together with the ramparts and steeps, presented to the assailants a formidable and resolute appearance.  The Britons, who had no armour or helmets to shelter them, were at length thrown into confusion, and great numbers of them perished by the broad swords and javelins of the legionaries, who obtained an illustrious victory.  The wife and daughter of Caractacus were taken prisoners, and his brother submitted to the conqueror.  Caractacus threw himself upon the protection of the Queen of Brigantes, and was treacherously delivered up to the Romans shortly after.  The fame of Caractacus had reached Rome, and the people were assembled as to some great sight when the British prisoners arrived there.  First in the procession we are informed came the king’s dependants and retinue, and the trappings and collars and trophies which he had won in war; next his brothers, his wife and daughter, and last himself was presented to public view; his body was mostly naked and painted with figures of beasts; he wore a chain of iron about his neck, and another about his middle; the hair on his head hanging down in curled locks covered his back and shoulders.  Caractacus neither by his looks nor language pleaded for mercy, and when he came before the Emperor’s seat expressed himself in these terms:—“Had I made that prudent use of my prosperity, which my rank and fortune would have enabled me to make, I had come hither rather as a friend, than as a prisoner; nor would you have disdained the alliance of one descended from illustrious ancestors, and sovereign over many nations.  My present condition, disgraceful as it is to myself, reflects glory on you.  Possessed as I once was of horses, men, arms, and wealth, what wonder is it if I parted from them with reluctance.  Had I sooner been betrayed, I had neither been distinguished by misfortune nor you by glory.  But if you now save my life I shall be an eternal monument of your clemency.”  The Emperor generously granted the pardon of Caractacus, his wife, and brothers, who remained at Rome in the highest esteem.  At this time Christianity was preached in the imperial city, and Brennus with others of his family became Christians.  At the expiration of seven years they were permitted to return, and were thus furnished with a favourable opportunity of introducing the Gospel into their own country, and were instrumental in reclaiming many of the Britons from their ancient superstitions.  It does not appear that Caractacus was converted to Christianity at Rome, but his son Cyllin, and his daughter Eigen, are both ranked among the British saints.  Eigen bestowed her hand on a British chieftain, and Claudia, one of her sisters, is supposed to have become the wife of Pudens, a Roman senator.

Notwithstanding the misfortunes that befel Caractacus, the Britons were not subdued; and this island was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field in which military honor might still be acquired.  During the reign of Nero, Suetonius Paulinus was invested with the command, and prepared to signalise his name by victories over these barbarians.  Finding that the island of Mona, (now Anglesey), was the chief seat of the Druids, he resolved to attack it, and to subject a place which was the centre of superstition, and which afforded protection to all their baffled forces.  The Britons endeavoured to obstruct his landing on this sacred island, both by the force of arms and the terrors of their religion.  The women and priests were intermingled with the soldiers upon the shore, and running about with flaming torches in their hands, and tossing their dishevelled hair; they struck greater terror into the astonished Romans by their howlings, cries, and execrations, than the real danger from the armed forces.  But Suetonius exhorting his troops to contemn a superstition which they despised, impelled them to the attack, drove the Britons off the field, burned the Druids in the same fires which they had prepared for their captive enemies, destroyed all the consecrated groves and altars, and, having thus triumphed over the religion of the Britons, he thought his future progress would be easy in reducing the people to subjection.

The Britons, taking advantage of the absence of Suetonius, were shortly after in arms, headed by Boadicea, the Queen of the Iceni, who had been treated in the most ignominious manner by the Roman tribunes, and had already attacked with success several settlements of their insulting conquerors; the Romans, and all strangers, to the number of 70,000, resident in London, are said to have been massacred: thus determined were the British to cut off all hopes of peace or compromise with the enemy.  But this cruelty was revenged by Suetonius, in a great and decisive battle, where 80,000 Britons perished, and Boadicea herself, rather than fall into the hands of the enraged victor, put an end to her own life by poison.  But the dominion of the Romans was not finally established till A.D. 80, when the Roman legions were placed under the command of Julius Agricola.  This celebrated commander formed a regular plan of subduing Britain, and rendering the acquisition useful to the conquerors.  He carried his victorious arms northward, defeated the Britons in every encounter, pierced into the forests and mountains of Caledonia, reduced everything to subjection in the southern parts of the island and chased before him all the men of fiercer and more intractable spirits, who deemed war and death itself less tolerable than servitude under the victors.  Agricola endeavoured to secure his conquest by erecting a chain of forts across the isthmus between the Frith of Forth and the Clyde, and in the year 84 he extended a chain of stations from Solway Frith to Tynemouth.  He introduced laws and civilization among the Britons, taught them to desire and raise all the conveniences of life, reconciled them to the Roman language and manners, instructed them in letters and science, and employed every expedient to render those chains which he had forged both easy and agreeable to them.  The inhabitants having experienced how unequal their own force was to resist that of the Romans, acquiesced in the dominion of their masters, and were gradually incorporated as a part of that mighty empire.  The chain of stations erected by Agricola was afterwards connected by an earthen rampart, raised by the Emperor Adrian as an obstruction to the Caledonians, who frequently descended and committed the most dreadful ravages in the Roman territories.

The early commerce of the ancient Britons was carried on by barter, without the aid of money, but about the commencement of the Christian era a mint master was invited over to Britain from the continent.  A mint was erected at Colchester, and money of gold, silver and copper was coined in that city; about forty different specimens have reached our times.  Mines both of silver and gold were worked in the island during the reigns of Augustus and Trajan.  The Romans drew their revenues from various sources; commerce, mines, legacies, houses, and lands all contributed to supply their exactions; and as they had suggested to the natives the mode of making money, they did not fail to supply the exhausted treasury of Rome from the industry of Britain.  A succession of ages had almost identified the Britains with the Roman conquerors; and when the Emperors, pressed by difficulties at home, and weakened by their possessions abroad, began to withdraw their legions from this island, the inhabitants importuned them to remain, to protect them from the incursions of the Picts and Scots.  The wall of Severus was no longer a barrier to these semi-barbarians.  During the residence of the Romans in this island, comprehending a period of 400 years, many great public works were accomplished, and they left behind them numerous monuments of their skill and industry.  The conquered country was divided into six provinces, each of them governed by a prætor and præstor, the former charged with the general administration of government, and the latter with the management of finances.

In the year 450, two years after the last Roman legion had quitted England, Hengist and Horsa, two brothers, reputed descendants in the fourth generation from Wodin, one of the principal gods of the Saxons, embarked their army, to the number of 1,600, on board three vessels, and landing in the Isle of Thanet, immediately marched to the defence of the Britons, who had invited them over to protect them against their northern invaders.  Having expelled the enemy, the fertility and richness of the country presented a temptation too strong to be resisted by the ambition of these newly acquired friends, who soon began to aspire to the possession of the island.  The Saxons of Germany soon after reinforced Hengist and Horsa with 5,000 men, who came over in seventeen vessels.  Roused by this display of treachery, the native inhabitants flew to arms, and fought many battles under Vortimer with their enemies; the victories, however, in these actions are disputed by the British and Saxon annalist, but the progress made by the Saxons proves that the advantage was commonly on their side.  It was about the year 455 the Hengists aiming at an independent sovereignty in Britain, began the conquest of the territory, and a series of battles ensued between Hengist and Horsa on the one side, and Vortimer and Catigern, two sons of Vortigern, on the other.  The battle of Aylesford is memorable for the death of Horsa on the side of the Saxons, and of Catigern on that of the Britons.  But Hengist, continually reinforced by fresh numbers from Germany, carried devastation into the most remote corners of Britain; and being chiefly anxious to spread the terrors of his arms, he spared neither age, sex, nor condition, wherever he marched with his victorious forces.  The private and public edifices of the Britons were reduced to ashes, the priests were slaughtered on the altars; others deserted their native country and took shelter in Armorica, where, being charitably received by a people of the same language and manners, they settled in great numbers, and gave the country the name of Brittany.

King Arthur, in the year 518, almost expelled the Saxons from the island; but after the death of this monarch, the Saxons again prevailed under various leaders, and the island was divided into seven kingdoms.  Thus was established the Heptarchy, Shropshire being included in the kingdom of Mercia, which reached from London to the Mersey.  In the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, an exact rule of succession was either unknown or not strictly observed, and thence the reigning prince was continually agitated with jealousy against all the princes of the blood, whom he still considered as rivals, and whose death alone could give him entire security in his possession of the throne.  From this fatal cause, together with the admiration of the monastic life, and the opinion of merit attending the preservation of chastity, even in a married state, the royal families had been entirely extinguished in all the kingdoms except that of Wessex; and Egbert was the sole descendant of those first conquerors who subdued Britain, and who enhanced their authority by claiming a pedigree from Woden, the supreme divinity of their ancestors.  The Mercians, before the accession of Egbert, had very nearly attained the absolute sovereignty over the Heptarchy.  He had reduced the East Angles under subjection, and established tributary princes in the kingdoms of Kent and Essex.  Northumberland was involved in anarchy, and no state of any consequence remained but that of Wessex, which, being much inferior in extent to Mercia, was supported by the great qualities alone of its sovereign.  Egbert led his army against the invaders, obtained a complete victory, and, by the slaughter executed on them in their flight, gave a mortal blow to the power of the Mercians.  Egbert, however, allowed Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumberland the power of electing a King, who paid him tribute, and was dependent on him.  Thus were united all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, in the year 823, in one great state, near 400 years after the first arrival of the Saxons in Britain.  The fortunate arms and prudent policy of Egbert at last effected what had been so often attempted in vain, by other princes.  Union in the government gave the people hopes of settled tranquillity, but these fair expectations were speedily blasted by the re-appearance of the Danes, who for some ages had kept the Anglo-Saxons in a state of perpetual alarm.  For upwards of forty years, and through five successive reigns, the Danes continued the struggle, and, at the death of Etheldred, his brother Alfred, the successor to the throne, was obliged to abandon the field, and seek an asylum as a swine-herd.  Emerging afterwards from his retreat, he expelled the invaders, and contributed essentially to lay the foundations of those institutions on which the glorious superstructure of English liberty, was finally erected.  Alfred soon perceived that an army without a maritime force, must ever be at the mercy of every piratical plunderer, determined to store his ports with shipping; and vessels larger than those in use in the surrounding nations were built, many of which carried sixty oars.  The unremitting attention of this illustrious prince to the navy, contributed to increase the blessings of his reign, and has obtained for him the title of “Father of the British Navy.”

Of the Saxon system of government it may be observed, that it had in it the germ of freedom, if it did not always exhibit the fruit.  In religion they were idolators, and their idols, altars, and temples, soon overspread the country.  They had a god for every day of the week.  Thor, the God of thunder, represented Thursday; Woden, the God of battle, represented Wednesday; Friga, the God of love, presided over Friday; Seater, the God of Saturday, had influence over the fruits of the earth; Tuyse, the God of the Dutch, conferred his name on Tuesday; they also worshipped the sun and the moon, each conferring a name on one of the days of the week; Sunnan, on Sunday; and Monan, on Monday.  The merit of eradicating this baneful superstition, by the introduction of Christianity, was reserved for a Roman Pontiff.  Gregory, surnamed the Great, who, in the year 597, sent Augustine, a monk, into the south, and Paulinus into the north of England, by whose preaching the Christian religion made such rapid progress, that it soon became the prevailing faith, and Augustine was elevated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and Paulinus was made Archbishop of York.  He was the first to preach Christianity in Mercia, where he followed the victorious arms of Edwin, King of Northumbria.

The greater part of this country was inhabited by the Cornavii and Ordovices, the first of which occupied the eastern side of the Severn, whose capital was Uriconium, now Wroxeter, and the latter were confined to the western side of the Severn.  Though the troops of the Cornavii were registered in the declension of the empire, it is supposed that they submitted to the Roman yoke upon easier terms than their neighbours, who held out some time ere their liberty was wrested from them.  The Romans allotted one side of the Severn, eastward, to Britannia Prima, and the western side to Britannia Secunda.  The Saxons made Watling street, that runs through the middle of the county, the boundary between them and the Danes, but when the compact with the Danes was broken, it returned to the former division of England and Wales.  After the Romans had abandoned the Island, part of Shropshire was included in the kingdom of Powis, which comprised portions of the counties of Chester, Flint, Denbigh, Radnor, and Brecon, and the whole of Montgomeryshire, of which Pengwern (Shrewsbury) was the capital.  For near two centuries this section of Powisland was the theatre of frequent and sanguinary contests between the Britons and the Saxons; it was finally subdued and incorporated with Mercia, the most powerful of the seven kingdoms forming the Saxon Heptarchy.  When the Danes invaded this island, and, by their formidable incursions, seemed to threaten its total subjection, this part of the kingdom of Mercia, though it suffered less than others, came in for a share of the general calamity, and its chief city, Uriconium, was destroyed.  About the year 777, the seat of the Prince of Powis was removed from Pengwern to Mantraval, in Montgomeryshire.  The Britons, who had made incursions into Mercia, were forced not only to abandon all their conquests there, but also that part of their country which lay between the Severn and Offa’s Dyke, which that King threw up as a new boundary between them and Mercia, instead of Severn, their former boundary.  The Britons had made their incursions into Offa’s territories, while he was employed in subduing the Saxon kings, and having no opposition, they were very successful, till at length Offa, being obliged to conclude a peace with the English, that he might dispossess them of their new acquisitions, in which he proved so successful as to force their retreat, and to prevent their ever returning, threw up the before-mentioned ditch.  This ditch extended from the river Wye along the counties of Hereford and Radnor, to Montgomeryshire, and thence near the road between Bishop’s Castle and Newtown.  It then passed by Mellington Hall, where there is an encampment, and on to Leighton Hall, not far from which it is lost for upwards of five miles, the channel of the Severn probably serving for that space, as a continuation of the boundary.  It is again seen at Llandysilio and Llanymynech, from whence it runs to Tref-y-clawdd, and below the race course, at Oswestry.  It then passes above Selattyn, whence it descends to the Ceriog, and goes by Chirk Castle, and crosses the Dee and Rhuabon road, near Plas Madoc, and being continued through Flintshire, ends a little below Holywell.  Offa, after having carried his arms over most parts of Flintshire, and vainly imagined that his labours would restrain the Cambrian inroads, and prevent incursions beyond the limits which he had decreed to be the boundaries of his conquests.  It is observable, says Pennant, that in all parts the ditch is on the Welsh side, and that there are numbers of small artificial mounds, the sites of small forts along its course.  These were garrisoned, and seem intended for the same purpose as the towers in the famous Chinese wall, to watch the motions of their neighbours, and to repel hostile incursions.  The folly of this great work appeared on the death of Offa, for the Welsh, with irresistible fury, carried their ravages far and wide in the English marshes.  Harold made an ordinance that all Welshmen found beyond Offa’s Dyke, within the English pale, with a weapon about him, was to have his right hand cut off by the King’s officers.

In the year 1013, Seneyn, King of Denmark, landed with an army in this country to revenge a cruel massacre of the Danes, which had taken place a short time before; having brought his fleet up the Trent to Gainsborough, and landed his forces, it created such a terror that the whole kingdom was soon brought under his yoke; he, however, did not long enjoy his success, for he died the following year, and was succeeded by his son Canute, between whom and Edmund, the Saxon, several sanguinary engagements took place, and the kingdom was for a short time divided.  In 1041, Edward the Confessor was by the unanimous voice of the people raised to the throne; having reigned twenty-five years he died, and with him ended both the Saxon and Danish rule in this kingdom.  Harold, the son of Godwin, was the next to take possession of the throne, but he was opposed by his brother Tosti, who formed a confederacy with Harfrager, King of Norway; he entered the Humber with a considerable force, and landed his troops in Yorkshire, where, in a deadly conflict, they were completely overthrown by Harold, who left his brother and Harfrager among the slain.  Harold having retired to York to rejoice over his victory, received information that William Duke of Normandy had landed with a numerous and warlike army at Ravensey, in Sussex, to meet this unexpected foe.  Harold immediately marched his forces to Hastings, where in an unsuccessful battle he lost his life.  William the Conqueror had no sooner taken possession of the throne, than he set up various claims to his new possessions, but his principal right was that of conquest, and if his sword had not been stronger than his titles, so many English estates would not have been placed at his disposal.  William brought in his train a large body of Norman adventurers, and the roll of Battle Abbey, given by Ralph Holinshead, contains the names of 629 Normans, who all became claimants upon the fair territory of Britain, and the Saxon lords were forced to resign their possessions.  The landed property in this county was chiefly given to Roger de Montgomery, his kinsman, whom he created Earl of Shrewsbury, and of him, it was mostly held by knights’ service; to William Pantulf he granted 29 lordships, of which Wem was the principal, and he therefore made it the head of his barony.  Ralph de Mortimer had fifty manors, of which nineteen were held under Roger de Montgomery; Roger Lacy had 23 manors: Roger Fitz Corbet 24 manors; Osborne Fitz Richard nine; and Guarine de Meez one manor.

After so great an agitation as that produced by the conquest, some years were necessary to restore a calm.  A violent struggle was made to expel the Normans, and York was the rallying point of the patriot army.  To suppress this formidable insurrection, William the Conqueror repaired in person into the north at the head of a powerful army, swearing by the “splendour of God,” his usual oath, that not a soul of his enemies should be left alive.  According to William of Malmesbury, confirmed by others, the whole of the country was laid waste from the Humber to the Tees, and for nine years neither spade nor plough was put in the ground, which was the reason why vasta so often occurs in Doomsday book.  Knowing the detestation in which he was held, the Norman Bastard, as historians designate him, entertained a constant jealousy of the English, and he obliged them every night at eight o’clock to extinguish their fires and candles at the toll of a bell which obtained the name of “Curfew.”  Having by these sanguinary atrocities reduced the country to repose, the Conqueror, in 1080, caused a survey to be taken of all the lands in the kingdom, on the model of the book at Winchester, compiled by order of Alfred the Great.  This survey was registered in the national record called the Doomsday Book, in which is the extent of the land in each district, the state it was in, whether meadow, pasture, wood, or arable, the name of the proprietor, the tenure by which it was held, and the value at which it was estimated, were all duly entered.  In order to make this document complete, and its authority perpetual, commissioners were appointed to superintend the survey, and the returns were made under the sanction of juries of all orders of freemen in each district.  After a labour of six years the business was accomplished, and this important document, the best memorial of the Conqueror, written in Roman, with a mixture of Saxon, is still preserved in the Chapter House, Westminster.  For many years Doomsday Book remained unprinted, but in the 40th of the reign of George III. his Majesty, by the recommendation of Parliament, and with a proper regard to public interest, directed that it should be printed for the use of the Members of Parliament, and also be deposited in all the public libraries in the kingdom.  The counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham, are not described in Doomsday Book, probably owing to the desolation in which they were at that time involved.  Through all ages this “book of judicial verdict” will be held in estimation, not only for its antiquity, but also for its intrinsic value.  At the time it was completed, it afforded the king an exact knowledge of his own land and revenue; while the rights of his subjects in all disputed cases were settled by it; and to the present day, it serves to show what manor is, and what is not ancient demesne.

As the various parish histories of this county contains frequent extracts from this document, it may be necessary to explain the land measures and other obsolete feudal terms used at the time to which it refers.  A perch, five yards and a half; an acre, 160 square perches; an ox gauge, or bovate, as much as an ox can till, or 28 acres; a virgate or yard of land, 40 acres; a carucate, carve, or plough land, generally eight ox gangs; a hide, as much as one plough would cultivate in one year; a knight’s fee, five hides, or 200 acres of land; berewicks are manors within manors; merchet, or maiden’s rent, a fine anciently paid by inferior tenants for the liberty to dispose of their daughters in marriage; a heriot, a fine paid to the lord on the death of a landholder; tol, a tribute for liberty to buy and sell; theane, a liberty to a lord of a manor for judging bondmen and villeins in his own court; infangtheof, a privilege of certain lords of manors to pass judgment of theft, committed by the servants within their district; thelonia, a writ lying for one who has the king’s demesne in fee-farm to recover reasonable toll; sockmen, tenants who hold by servile tenure; borderers, cottagers; villein, a member belonging to a manor.  In the time of the Conqueror Earls began to be feudal, hereditary and patrimonial; and these, as appear by Doomsday, were styled simple Earls, as Earl Hugh, Earl Roger, &c.  Afterwards Earls were created with an addition of the name of the place over which they had jurisdiction, or of the principal seat where they resided; and they had, as had been customary, the third penny from the county where they resided for their support.  Soon after the conquest they began to be created by charter, without any ceremony further than the delivery of it.  King John is the first mentioned who used the girding of the sword, by which they were said to be invested with this honour.  Thereupon the Sheriff had command to make livery unto them the third penny of the plea of the county, after which the Earl had a certain sum only allowed him out of the profits of his county, as expressed in the patent for his better support and dignity, and sometimes great possessions were given in lands for the same purpose.

In the reign of William III., Hugh de Montgomery, second son of Earl Roger, and who succeeded him in the Earldom of Shrewsbury, with the Earl of Chester and Owen, a Welsh Lord, made an unexpected attack upon Wales, and committed great atrocities upon the inhabitants.  Many of the Welsh fled into Ireland, and left their country to the mercy of the English.  Their flight gave their enemies an opportunity of continuing their march, and they penetrated into Anglesey, where they destroyed all before them with fire and sword.  While they were thus exercising their cruelties, Magnus, King of Norway, who had lately made himself master of the Isle of Man, advanced as far as Anglesey.  On the English endeavouring to hinder him, the Earl of Shrewsbury was slain in the skirmish.  His death was looked upon as a just judgment for the cruelties committed by him in that isle.  The Earl’s death caused some disorder among the English troops, and constrained them to abandon the shore; when Magnus landed, and finding the English had left nothing to plunder, he shortly after re-embarked.  Earl Roger, who succeeded his brother Hugh in the Earldom of Shrewsbury, being of a rash and discontented spirit, was among those who favoured the claims of Duke Robert, in place of Henry I.  On the accession of Henry I. he rebelled, and fortified his castles in Shropshire, and at Shrewsbury built and fortified a flank wall from each side of the castle, across the isthmus, down to the Severn side; hereupon the king declared him a traitor, and marched with a considerable force against him.  The earl perceiving that he had no forces to withstand the attack of the king, confessed his treason, and was shortly after banished to Normandy; but again appearing in arms, he was taken prisoner, and ended a miserable life in close confinement at Wareham.  About this period the king sent several of his council to Shrewsbury, among whom were Richard de Belmarsh, bishop of London, warden of the Marches, and governor of the county of Salop, and others, to meet there Jorweth ap Blithyn, on pretence of consulting with him about the king’s affairs; but when he came there, contrary to all equity, he was condemned for treason and committed to prison.  The Marches of Wales are supposed to have been settled by the Saxons, to prevent the incursions of the Welsh.  The Lords of the Marches claimed to provide silver spears, and support the canopy of purple silk at the coronation of Queen Eleanor, consort of King Henry III.  The court of the Lord’s Marches was held at Ludlow, and the jurisdiction extended from Chester to Bristol.  All the country between Offa’s Dyke and England was called the Marches, the Lords of which had the power of life and death in their respective courts.  In every frontier manor a gallows was erected, and if any Welshmen came over the boundary they were taken up and hanged; and if any Englishman was caught on the Welsh side, he suffered the same fate.  The houses were frequently moated round, and palisades set round the edge of the moat, into which place the inhabitants every night drove their cattle for better security.  If a Welshman got a cow or a horse over the bar he cried out “my own,” and any person pursuing them further would be at the risk of his life.  After the death of the Earl of Macclesfield, the last lord president, the court was dissolved.  Shropshire being the frontier between England and Wales, had more castles in it than any other county in England; on the west side they stood so thick, says Dr. Fuller, “that it might seem divided from Wales with a wall of continued castles.”  Speed tells us, “that besides several towns strongly walled, there were two and thirty castles in this shire.”

In the year 1233, Richard, Earl of Pembroke, and several other noblemen, being disgusted with the conduct of the King, broke out into open rebellion, and taking advantage of the animosities subsisting between the English and the Welsh, fled into Wales and joined Llewellyn, Prince of Wales.  Having collected an army, they laid waste all the Marches between Wales and Shrewsbury, which town they plundered and put the inhabitants to the sword.  The King being then at Gloucester, called a council there, when it was determined that the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of Chester and Rochester, should be sent into Wales with offers of pardon for all past injuries, and proposals of peace if they would return to their obedience, which being accepted, peace was restored; notwithstanding, soon after this the Earl was treacherously drawn away into Ireland, and there killed, being stabbed in the back with a dagger.  The peace with the Welsh had but a short continuance, for in the year 1241 the King marched with his army from Gloucester to Shrewsbury, designing from thence to have proceeded into Wales against David ap Llewellyn, but during his residence here, a submission being made by David, he stopped his march.  In 1267, Henry again appeared in Shrewsbury at the head of his army, designing to march against Llewellyn, whose restless temper created new disturbances; but by the mediation of the Pope’s Legate, and upon Llewellyn’s submission, a peace was concluded.  In the reign of Edward I. we find the disturbances of the Welsh still continued; upon which account the courts of exchequer and king’s bench were removed to Shrewsbury, that the Welsh might be awed into submission.  The situation of the inhabitants of Shropshire at this period was peculiarly distressing: they were continually subject to the depredations and incursions of the Welsh, their hostile and unmerciful neighbours; and the wolves inhabiting the desolate mountains of that country, frequently came down in herds, and ravaged whole districts.  A commission was given to Peter Corbet to destroy all he could find; and by offering a sum of money to those who killed a certain number, and brought their heads to Shrewsbury, they were in a short time considerably reduced.

Bishop Burnell was Chancellor in the year 1283, and the Lords and Commons assembled at his seat at Acton Burnell, the Lords sitting in the castle, and the Commons in a barn belonging to the monastery of Shrewsbury.  On this occasion, the famous statute of Acton Burnell was made, called the statute merchant, by which act debtors in London, York, and Bristol were obliged to appear before the different mayors, and agree upon a certain day for payment, otherwise an execution was issued against their goods, for imprisonment for debt did not take place till some hundred years after this time.  The Parliament was again summoned to meet at Shrewsbury, on the morrow after Michaelmas day, to consult what course should be taken with David, Prince of Wales, whom the King declares he had received in his banishment, had nursed while an orphan, and enriched out of his possessions.  David, having fled from his brother Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, who had imprisoned his two brothers, Owen and Roderick, the King received him into his service, created him Earl of Denbigh, and gave him land to the yearly value of a thousand marks, in lieu of those possessions he ought to have had in Anglesey, and, to attach him to the interests of England, gave him to wife a rich English heiress; David, however, never ceased to excite his brother Llewellyn, to free himself from the English yoke, because, as his brother had no children, he was his presumptive successor.  Llewellyn took up arms, and penetrated into the territories of the English, where he defeated two of their armies.  Edward, in hopes of being more fortunate, marched, at the head of a numerous army, when Llewellyn retired to Snowdon Hill, where he could not be attacked, but at length, regardless of the inequalities of his forces, he descended into the plain, to fight the English.  The English proved victorious, Llewellyn was slain on the spot, and his army entirely routed, and David, his brother, after some time roving about the country, was taken by the English, and, with his wife, two sons, and seven daughters, sent to Rhyddlan Castle, where the King then was.  As he was the last of the race of the Welsh Princes, Edward was inclined to secure his late conquest by his death; accordingly, after having been for some time kept prisoner, he was brought to Shrewsbury, where he was tried by the Parliament, and, by their advice, on the 30th September, 1283, he was condemned to die.  Thus the last of the ancient British princes was ignominously drawn at a horse’s tail about the town, then hanged, afterwards beheaded, his body quartered, and his bowels burnt; his head was fixed near that of his brother, on the tower of London, and his four quarters were sent to York, Bristol, Northampton, and Winchester.  This barbarous execution is said to have been the first of the kind, and it was afterwards usually inflicted upon traitors.  An account of the Great Parliament, held in Shrewsbury, in the time of Richard II., and of the famous battle of Shrewsbury, will be found noticed at a subsequent page.

Rivers.—The Severn is the principal river in the county.  This magnificent stream ranks next to the Thames in point of celebrity, for the extent of its course, the distance for which it is navigable, and the commerce it sustains.  It has its rise on the mountain of Plynlimmon, on the verge of Montgomeryshire, and enters Shropshire, near Melverley, and at Cymmeran Ferry receives the waters of the river Vernieu.  Between Montford Bridge and Fitz, the river Perry falls into the Severn, which here makes a great bend, and encloses a fine estate, of five miles in circuit, called the Isle, the property of the Rev. H. Sandford.  It then passes Berwick House, and speedily arrives at Shrewsbury, from whence it takes a circuitous route to the rural village of Uffington, and passes by Longnor Hall, to Atcham, where it is crossed by a noble stone bridge, not far from which it receives the waters of the Tern.  Winding its devious way, the Severn skirts the village of Cound, and near the ruins of Buildwas Abbey, is crossed by a neat iron bridge.  It shortly after passes by Coalbrook dale, near to which it is crossed by a second iron bridge, which gives name to the populous district surrounding it.  Two miles below is Coalport, celebrated for the extensive porcelain manufactures.  The river, having passed here, proceeds to Apley Castle, and shortly after reaches the town of Bridgnorth, and is here crossed by a magnificent stone bridge.  Thence proceeding to the south-east, it passes by Quatt, and leaves this county by the parish of Alveley, passing through a narrow slip of the county of Stafford, it arrives at Bewdley, in Worcestershire.  From its source in Plynlimmon Hill to the sea, the Severn runs about 220 miles.  It is navigable to Shrewsbury, but few vessels, however, proceed further than Ironbridge, the navigation being interrupted by shallows, and the great irregularities of the water.  By means of numerous canals the navigation is extended into every part of the kingdom, being united with the Thames on the east, and with the Trent, the Humber, and the Mersey, towards the north; thus forming the grand outlet and channel for the commerce of the kingdom on the south east.  The river takes its name from Sabi and Sabrin, sandy; in Latin Sabrina; in Welsh, Haurian, signifying the queen or chief of rivers.  By the statute of 23rd of Henry VIII., it is enacted, that no person shall ask or demand any toll for going on the path, by the side of the said river, upon pain to forfeit forty shillings.  These statutes were to supersede all patents and commissions granted to particular persons by the prerogative of the Crown.  Excellent fish are caught in this river, particularly salmon, trout, pike, shad, flounders, and carp.

Among the waters which contribute to swell the current of the Severn, in addition to the Vernieu and Perry, already noticed, is the Meole-brook, a considerable stream, which enters the river at Coleham.  The Meole is increased by the Rea, before it joins the Meole, the former receiving upwards of a dozen smaller streams, before it has its confluence with the Meole.  The Tern has its rise from a large pool in Staffordshire.  At Willow Bridge, it first takes the name of Tern, and, from this place to within a short distance of Drayton, divides the counties of Salop and Stafford.  A little below Ternhill, it crosses the turnpike road, where there is a stone bridge, called Tern Bridge; it then proceeds by Stoke, Bolas, Upton Waters, and has its junction with the Severn a little below Atcham Bridge.  This river has a course of about thirty miles, and receives the Cherrington brook, the Strine, the Roden, and several other nameless streams, on its route.  Between Cound and Bridgnorth the Severn receives five or six small brooks, which flow from the western part of the county, and two small streams join it from the east.  Below Bridgnorth the river Worfe and several small brooks, add their influence to swell the current of the majestic Severn.

The streams that irrigate Shropshire, north of the Severn, and do not fall into it, are the Morles, which rises in Sellatyn, and runs into the Ceiriog, which joins the Dee near Chirk.  Shel-brook runs into the Dee from near Welsh Hampton.  Elf-brook, near Whitchurch, and the Weever, with three contributary streams, become a considerable river through Cheshire.  South of the Severn, and not far from the course of the Camlet, we meet with the Clun, which joins the Teme, near Leintwardine, in Herefordshire.  Kemp brook, and four others, fall into the Clun.  The Ony joins the Teme near Oakley Park.  This river, for some distance, runs parallel with the Camlet, which, in its course, has a fall of about 300 feet.  Stadbrook, and another small stream, having joined the Ony, have their confluence with the Teme, and at Ludlow the Teme is augmented by the Corve, which flows for many miles through a valley, to which it gives name.  The Corve is augmented by two brooks, one of which is a junction of three small streams.  Ledwick brook, with three contributary streams, and the Rea, with five, joins the Teme, which, having formed the boundary of the county, finally leaves it near Tenbury, in Worcestershire, and falls into the Severn below the capital of that county.  The Rodon is formed by the confluence of three streams, which, in very dry summers, lose their currents.  The first of these rises on Whixall Moss; the second, on Bettesfield Heath, in Flintshire; and the third proceeds from the White Meer, in the township of Lee.  The three rivulets meet on Wolverly meadows, and passing by Loppington, runs on to Wem, and thence by Shawbury, to Roddington, and has its confluence with the Tern not far from Withington.

Canals.—The first canal in Shropshire was formed by William Reynolds, Esq., in 1788, for the purpose of conveying ironstone and coal from the Oaken Gates to Ketley.  Shortly after an act of parliament was obtained for the Shropshire Canal, which was finished in 1792.  It commences at Donington Wood, and proceeds about one hundred yards on a level; it then descends one hundred and twenty feet, by an inclined plane of three hundred and twenty yards from the top of this inclined plane, which is the highest level of the canal; it proceeds by Wrockwardine and Snedshill, and near to Oaken Gates, where it is joined by the Ketley canal.  From this junction it is continued to Southall Bank, where a branch strikes off to the right, and terminates at Brierly Hill.  The main line, turning to the Southall Bank, goes on to the Windmill farm, and passes to the east of Madeley, until it reaches the banks of the Severn; here it descends 207 feet by an inclined plane, which is 350 yards in length, from whence it proceeds parallel with the river to Coalport, where it terminates.  Immediately after the completion of this, the Shropshire Canal was projected.  The Company, having purchased about a mile of the north end of the canal cut by Mr. Reynolds, erected an inclined plane of 233 yards in length, and 75 feet of fall.  From the termination of this plane the canal passes on by Eyton Mill, to Long lane, where it traverses a valley of considerable length, and crosses the river Tern, 16 feet above the surface of the Meadow, by means of an aqueduct and an embankment.  Near this place it crosses the turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Wellington, then passing on to Rodington, and over the river Roden, through Wellington, to Atcham, it enters a tunnel of 970 yards in length.  Thence it passes at the base of Haughmond Hill, and along the banks of the Severn, it terminates in a large basin, near the Castle Foregate, at Shrewsbury.

The Ellesmere navigation, or the Shropshire Union railway and canal company may be called a system of canals extending through the large and fertile tract of country which lies between the banks of the Severn and those of the Mersey, and between the confines of North Wales on the west and the borders of Staffordshire on the east—a space of fifty miles in length, and more than twenty in breadth, exclusive of the valleys which open into North Wales.  Its grand object is to unite the Severn, the Dee, and the Mersey, and by that means to open a communication from the above mentioned districts to the ports of Liverpool and Bristol.  There is a short canal formed by the Marquis of Stafford, which commences at Donington Wood and proceeds to Pave-lane, near Newport, a distance of nearly seven miles, with a branch to his lordship’s lime works at Lilleshall, This canal was made for conveying coal to the latter place from the works at Donington, now held on lease by the Lilleshall company.  The Montgomeryshire canal, a branch of Ellesmere, also passes through a portion of this county.

Lakes of Shropshire.—The lakes of this county are neither numerous nor extensive.  At Marton, near Baschurch, is the Marton and Fennymere pool, covering 96a. 2r. 15p.  At Marton, near Chirbury, is a pool covering 40a. 2r. 37p., from which issue three streams running in different directions.  At Ellesmere is a magnificent sheet of water covering 116 acres; Colemere 87 acres; Crosemere 44 acres; Whitemere 62 acres; Blackmere and Newtonmere are in the same neighbourhood.  A fine sheet of water at Shrawardine covers 40 acres.  South of the Severn are a few small lakes, but not of any considerable extent.  Thus the part of the country which abounds most in running water has the fewest pools.  At Walcot and Hawkstone are lakes of considerable extent, the latter stretches two miles in length.  Sundorne, Halston, and Tong, have embellishments of the same kind.

Roads and Railways.—The principal line of road crossing this county is the London and Holyhead parliamentary mail road, which between Wolverhampton and Shiffnal, runs through Shrewsbury and enters Denbighshire, near Chirk.  The traffic on this road has been much diminished since the opening of the railways between London and Liverpool.  The Chester, Shrewsbury, and Bristol road enters near Whitchurch, and runs southward by Shrewsbury, Church Stretton, and Ludlow, into Herefordshire.  A branch leads from Ludlow to Bishop’s Castle and Montgomery.  Mail and other roads run between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth, Ludlow, and Birmingham, across the Clee Hills, Ludlow, Wenlock, and Coalbrook-dale, and Ludlow and Bridgnorth.  There are also various other communications between Newport, Drayton, and Wellington, &c.  The principal railroads are the Shrewsbury and Chester, the Shrewsbury and Birmingham, and the Shropshire Union.  The former on leaving the station at Shrewsbury crosses the Castle Foregate by a cast iron bridge, and proceeding by Leaton Heath, Baschurch, and Whittington, passes on to Gabowen, where there is a short branch to Oswestry, having ten trains running daily.  The trunk line then proceeds to Preesgwene, where there is a station, and shortly after passes into the county of Denbigh, and on to Chester.  The Shrewsbury and Birmingham and the Stafford branch of the Shropshire union railways have a line formed by the joint companies, extending from Shrewsbury to a little beyond Wellington, where one branches off to Shiffnal and Wolverhampton, and the other to Newport, and from thence to Stafford.  An act of parliament has been obtained for a railway from Shrewsbury to Hereford, which will open a communication with the southern parts of the county of Shropshire.  The works between Shrewsbury and Ludlow are in a rapid state of progress, and the line to the latter place is expected to be open for traffic in December, 1851.  The length of this railway will be fifty miles, and the estimated cost £354,822.  The line from Ludlow to Hereford is expected to be completed in 1852.  It is to Shropshire, and some of its intelligent and enterprising natives that the all absorbing system of railways, which now intersect Great Britain, and cover its surface like net-work, owes its discovery and establishment.  It was adopted in the year 1767, by that celebrated firm of iron masters, the Coalbrook-dale Company, who hit upon the expedient of laying the pig iron upon the wood rails throughout their extensive works, bearing in mind that in the event of a rise in the price of iron, the rails could easily be taken up and vended as pig iron.  Thus, to this somewhat accidental appropriation of iron, and the facilities it rendered to the easy and safe carriage of heavy materials, coupled with the important discovery of steam power, and the general improvement in engineering incident to railroad travelling, this important discovery and attainment of modern times may justly be ascribed.

Mines and Manufactures.—The minerals of this county are of great importance.  Its rich coal formations, and the limestone and ironstone associated with them, afford employment to thousands.  There are coal pits in many parts of the county, but more particularly in the east, at the several places of Lilleshall, Stirchley, Dawley, and the neighbourhood.  An immense quantity of the coal is consumed in the iron furnaces, the principal of which are at Coalbrook-dale, Horse-hay, Old-park, Ketley, Snedshill, and Oakengates.  About seven per cent. of the iron manufactured in the whole kingdom is raised from the mines in this district.  Lead is got in considerable quantities on the western verge of the county, but is chiefly confined to the hundred of Ford.  The Snailbeach, Gravels, and Bathole mines, are the most productive; the lead ore got is usually of very superior quality.  Calamine is also met with, and the rock at Pimhill is strongly tinctured with copper.  Symptoms of both copper and lead appear in the Cardington hills, and at Pitchford a mineral pitch exudes from the red sandstone.  Freestone, slate, and pipe-clay are found.  At Ashford, on the banks of the Tern below Ludlow, is the Salt-moor Spring, where salt was made at the period of the Norman Conquest.

China, of great excellence and exquisite workmanship, is made at Coalport; earthenware is also manufactured, particularly Wedgewood-ware, at Coalport and Broseley.  Carpets are extensively made at Bridgnorth, and there are three establishments for the manufacture of hair seating at Market Drayton.  There is an extensive factory at Shrewsbury where linen thread is made, and woollens of a coarse texture are made at Church Stretton.  Nails are made in several places.  At the Coalbrook-dale Company all kinds of castings and almost every article in which iron is used is there manufactured.  Paper is made at two or three places in the county.  The chief manufacture of the county is that of iron.  The beautiful art of glass staining has been brought to great perfection by Mr. David Evans, of Shrewsbury.

Agricultural Produce.—The whole country is in general well cultivated, yielding good crops of all kinds of grain, turnips, peas, and potatoes.  There are many fine orchards scattered throughout the county, particularly in the southern division, and hops are cultivated on a small scale on the southern border.  The meadows near the Severn are extremely fertile, being frequently enriched by the overflowing of that river; but the grass land receives less attention from the farmer than the arable.  The northern part of the county is remarkable for its dairy produce, the cheese being equal to the most celebrated dairies of the adjoining county of Chester.  The sizes of the farms are various, but large farms of from 400 to 800 acres are much more numerous than in the adjoining counties.  In many parts of the county five or six small holdings have been taken from the humbler class of farmers and let to one tenant.  In one township visited by our agent the land held by fourteen different tenants, within memory of man, is now held by three farmers.  Barley and wheat in many parts are grown to a considerable extent.  The arable and pasture lands are found in about equal proportions.  The cattle are mostly of a fine breed, many of the farmers being noted for the superiority of their stock, but there does not appear any peculiar breed which can be affirmed as exclusively belonging to this county.  In the northern division of the county and on the western borders large flocks of sheep are kept, in some parts the old Shropshire breed may frequently be observed; they are distinguished by their black mottled faces and legs, and are in size nearly as large as the south-down.  About half a century ago a breed of neat cattle prevailed very much, resembling the Lancashire long-horns.  The old Shropshire ox was remarkable for a large dewlap.  This county was formerly famous for a breed of pigs which is now almost extinct.

Climate, Soil, and Aspect.  The climate of this county is in general very salubrious; but, from the irregularity of its soil and surface, it varies in dryness and geniality.  On the east, where the land is warm and flat, the harvest is frequently ripe sooner than in the middle of the county, where the vales are extensive, but the surface light, and the bottom often clayey.  But hay and grain are both gathered earlier in the middle of the county than on the western side, where the vales are narrow, and the high lands frequent and extensive, although the ground in general is not so stiff, and lies for the most part on the rock.  The easterly winds prevail in spring, and westerly in autumn.  Few counties are possessed of a greater variety of soil than this, as will be seen on reference to the respective parishes.  Divided into nearly two equal parts by the Severn, its southern portion assumes the mountainous character peculiar to the counties of Montgomery and Denbigh, whilst the north half approaches more nearly to a level, agreeably relieved by bold swells, and romantic valleys finely wooded.  The landscape possesses every variety of natural charms, the bold and lofty mountain, the woody and secluded valley, the fertile and widely cultured plain, the majestic river, and the sequestered lake; and is no less rich in those remains of ancient times which awaken a thousand enthusiastic reflections by engaging us in the contemplation of the memorable events of our history.

Agricultural Improvements.  Great improvements by draining, enclosure, and superior management have been progressing for the last half century in most parts of the county.  This has been accomplished on many estates by the united efforts of the landlords and tenants; the former finding tiles and materials, and the latter performing all the draught work at their own expense.  The farms in Shropshire were formerly much smaller than they now are, which was found a great obstacle to improvement.  They did not invite men of capital, and to manage a farm successfully, like any other occupation or business, it is necessary that the occupant should possess sufficient capital; for without it, it is useless to expect improvement or profitable cultivation.  The want of it is unfortunately too common among farmers.  Wanting it in the onset, they have not been able to acquire any, and thus have gone on from year to year with difficulty, perhaps deteriorating the soil, and reducing the little capital they possessed.  The farmers’ clubs, established for the discussion of practical husbandry, have had a tendency to develop many hidden facts, and to dispel deep-rooted prejudices by friendly argument and interchange of thought.  Farmers seldom meet to exchange ideas but at these associations, which may be considered in the character of Normal schools, where the old and young may impart and receive information on many things connected with their occupation.  On the whole Shropshire is before many other counties in agricultural improvements.  The judicious application of capital, superintended by men of true practical science, will make it one of the finest agricultural counties in England.  The farm houses are mostly composed of brick, and have been greatly improved within the last thirty years, particular attention having been paid to the conveniency of the outbuildings and farm yards, which in many instances are of great extent and admirably contrived.

The following returns of the population of the fifteen Unions into which the county of Shropshire is divided, are copied from the Parliamentary reports of the census taken March 31st, 1851; viz:—Atcham Union, 19,318 inhabitants, 3,767 inhabited houses, and 125 uninhabited; Bridgnorth, 15,590 inhabitants, 3,164 inhabited houses, and 248 uninhabited; Church Stretton, 6,160 inhabitants, 1,192 inhabited houses, and 43 uninhabited; Cleobury Mortimer, 8,632 inhabitants, 1,771 inhabited houses, and 131 uninhabited; Clun, 10,118 inhabitants, 2,054 inhabited houses, and 125 uninhabited; Ellesmere 15,667 inhabitants, 3,148 inhabited houses, and 125 uninhabited; Ludlow, 17,045 inhabitants, 3,420 inhabited houses, and 172 uninhabited; Madeley, 27,626 inhabitants, 5,545 inhabited houses, and 154 uninhabited; Market Drayton, 14,160 inhabitants, 2,774 inhabited houses, and 131 uninhabited; Newport, 15,623 inhabitants, 3,018 inhabited houses, and 69 uninhabited; Oswestry, 22,795 inhabitants, 4,618 inhabited houses, and 228 uninhabited; Shiffnal, 11,482 inhabitants, 2,239 inhabited houses, and 99 uninhabited; Shrewsbury, 23,095 inhabitants, 4,574 inhabited houses, and 252 uninhabited; Wellington, 20,760 inhabitants, 4,089 inhabited houses, and 156 uninhabited; Wem, 16,948 inhabitants, 3,469 inhabited houses, and 146 uninhabited.  At the same period there were 112 houses building in the various Unions throughout the county.

Monastic Institutions.  The following is a list of the religious houses and monastic institutions which formerly existed in Shropshire, with their annual value as returned at their suppression.  The Benedictine monks had a great Abbey at Shrewsbury, returned as of the annual value of £132. 4s. 10d.  Haughmond Abbey, £259. 13s. 7¼d.  Buildwas Abbey, £110. 19s. 3d.  Wombridge Priory, £65. 7s. 4d.  Battlefield College, £54. 1s. 10d.  Tong College, £22. 8s. 1d.  Lilleshall Abbey, £229. 3s. l½d.  Bridgnorth Hospital, £4.  Ludlow Hospital, £17. 13s. 3d.  Wenlock Priory, £401. 0s. 7¼d.  St. Chad’s College, Shrewsbury, £14. 14s. 4d.  St. Mary’s College, £13. 1s. 8d.  According to Speed there was also a Monastery of Black Monks at Bromfield, a Priory at Chirbury, with various cells and chantries, which will be found noticed in the several parishes in which they were respectively situated.  It was one of the singular characteristics of the Roman Catholic Church, that it gave scope to partial reformation.  What among Protestants would be called a new sect, became in that church merely a new order.  From time to time, men arose to recall attention to some doctrine or practice, which had fallen into disuse, and for a revival of which a necessity was felt.  The church gave scope to their zeal, and benefited by their efforts till they, in turn, became rich and corrupt, and other reformers were needed.  About the year 1120, the rule of St. Augustine was reformed by St. Norbet.  He professed that the Virgin Mary had pointed out the site on which he was to found a new church, and that she had prescribed the white habits the monks were to wear.

Abbeys.—In a society of religious persons, whether male or female, where an abbot or abbess presided, it was styled an abbey.  The governor had the sole power over the convent, could appoint or discharge any officer at pleasure, and prescribe what rules the monks or nuns should be obliged to observe.  The abbots have enjoyed the privilege of conferring the lower orders of priesthood, but in the essential points of jurisdiction they were everywhere subject to the diocesan bishop.  The consequence of the abbots grew with the wealth of their monasteries, several received episcopal titles and privileges, all held rank next to that of a bishop, and had a vote in the ecclesiastical councils.  Equal privileges and rights appertained to the abbesses, as the superior of the nunneries, except that they were not allowed to vote at synods.  When the society of religious persons consisted of men, it was called a monastery.  There is reason to believe that there were monasteries in Britain before the end of the 4th century.  In the course of the 7th century many monasteries were founded in all parts of England.  These monasteries were designed in some places for the seats of the bishops and their clergy; in others, for their secular priests, who preached and administered the sacraments over the neighbouring country, and in most instances, they were seminaries of learning for the education of youth.  If a monastery or nunnery was subject to another, it was called a CELL.  The great English abbeys had many such cells in distant places.

Priories.—When the chief person in a Monastery bore the name of Prior, it was styled a Priory.  These religious houses were of two sorts—either they were such whose prior was independent, or they were such as depended upon some great abbey, from which they received their Prior, and to which they were often obliged to pay a small pension or annual acknowledgment.  Whenever the Convent to which they belonged was beyond the seas, then it was styled an alien Priory.  These last transmitted their revenues to their foreign superior, for which reason their estates were generally seized to carry on the wars between England and France.

Preceptories.—Whenever the Knights Templars, or Hospitallers, had any considerable manors or farms, they erected a church for the service of God, and built a convenient house of habitation, to which they sent out their fraternity, under the command of a Preceptor.  Chantries were chapels erected and endowed for the singing of masses for the souls of the deceased.  Chantry rents are still paid to the Crown by the purchaser of their lands.  Hospitals were small convents, occupied by a few monks, for the entertainment of all who went any pilgrimage on religious pretence.  Guilds were societies of lay brethren, who lived together like monks, but were of no professed order.  The Grey Friars were at first called Franciscans, from the name of their founder, St. Francis: they were likewise called Minorites, from their being the lowest and most humble of all orders; and Observants, from their great strictness to the rules of their order.  They were styled mendicants, from their professing wilful poverty, subsisting chiefly upon alms, which they used to ask from door to door, by which they were distinguished from monks, who kept at home within their convents, and lived in common upon their substance.  Their habit was a long grey coat down to their heels, with a cowl or hood, and a cord about their loins, instead of a girdle.  Many privileges were granted them, and many of high degree were ambitious of living, dying, and being interred in the habit of these Franciscans.  The Black Friars, so called from their habit, a black cope and cowl over a white coat, were likewise called Dominicans, from their having been founded by St. Dominick; and black preaching friars, because they were the only preachers of all the friars.  These monks obtained extensive grants of land, and had many persons of note within their convents.  The White Friars took their name from the dress they wore.  They came into England in 1325, and first settled at Canterbury.

Ecclesiastical Revenues.—The Ecclesiastical Commissioners were appointed under an act passed in the 6th and 7th of William IV., for the general improvement and equalization of the dioceses, for the dividing of extensive parishes, and augmenting small livings, and the adopting such other measures as may conduce to the efficiency of the Established Church.  The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of Lincoln, the Bishop of Gloucester, the Lord High Chancellor, the President of the Council, the Lord High Treasurer, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with others, form a body politic and corporate, by the name of the “Ecclesiastical Commissioners of England,” for the purpose of the said act.  The Commissioners reported, in 1835, that the total amount of the gross annual revenues of the several Archiepiscopal and Episcopal Sees of England and Wales was £181,631.  The total amount of the net annual revenues of the several cathedral and collegiate churches in England and Wales was £284,241; and the total amount of the net revenues of the same, £208,209.  The total amount of the gross annual separate revenues of the several dignitaries and other spiritual persons, members of the cathedrals and other collegiate churches, in England and Wales, was £75,854.  The total number of benefices, with and without cure of souls, the incumbents whereof have made enquiries to the returns of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, omitting those which are permanently or occasionally annexed to superior preferments, are 10,540; the gross annual revenue of these benefices is £3,197,225; giving an average income of £303.  The total number of benefices, with and without cure of souls, in England and Wales, including those not returned, but exclusive of those annexed to other preferments, (about 24 in number) is 10,718; the total gross income of which, calculated upon the average of those returned, amounts to £3,251,159; and the net income thereof, £3,055,451.  The number of curates returned, as employed by resident incumbents, was 1000, whose annual stipends or payments in money amounted to £87,075; affording an average of £86, Those employed by non-residents were 4,124; the amount of their stipends, £337,620; average, £79: and the average of the whole of the curates’ stipends, £81.  In concluding their report, the commissioners state that the archbishops and bishops in possession of their preferments, are subject to heavy expenses, and that the charges for first fruits and fees generally exceed the amount of their receipts for the first two or three years, after entering office.

Queen Anne’s Bounty; First Fruits and Tenths.—From the earliest periods every bishop and clergyman has been required to pay the amount of his first year’s incumbency into a fund, and every succeeding year one tenth.  These first fruits and tenths were formerly collected at their full value, and applied to the use of the pope, as early as the time of Pope Nicholas (A.D. 1200).  For this purpose a valuation was made of all the livings in England, which is still preserved in the Remembrancer’s office, and designated, “Valor of Pope Nicholas IV.”  At the time of the Reformation, King Henry VIII. passed a law, with the sanction of Parliament, declaring that the first fruits and tenths should be appropriated to the use of the state; and he caused an accurate and full valuation to be made of all the ecclesiastical livings in England and Wales, which were accordingly paid into the public exchequer, till the reign of Queen Anne, with the exception of a short period in the reign of Philip and Mary.  Queen Anne, deploring the wretched condition in which many of the clergy were placed, owing to the insufficiency of their livings, came to the determination that the first fruits and tenths should be paid into a fund, called Queen Anne’s Bounty, and that the amount should be appropriated to the livings of the poor clergy.  No fresh valuation has been made since 1535, and registered in what is now called the King’s Book, till that made by order of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in 1835, on which the payments are now regulated.  That the payments might not operate oppressively, the first year’s income was to be paid in four annual instalments; and livings of small value were entirely exempt, and hence, called “Discharged livings.”  During the time of Popery, a large portion of the tithes had been alienated from the parishes, for the endowment of religious houses, or for chantries, to say masses for the dead.  These endowments, at the Reformation, being seized by Henry VIII., left the greater part of the parochial livings very poor.  The governors of Queen Anne’s Bounty, sometimes aided by benefactions, and at others by Parliamentary grants, for the endowment of churches, have been able to augment many of the poorest livings, and now the resources at the command of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, by various reductions in cathedral and collegiate churches, will cause the church livings, in a few years, to be considerably equalized: The receipts for the year 1846, amounted to £206,502.

Charities.—The parochial accounts of the posthumous charities are given from the voluminous reports of the commissioners deputed by parliament to enquire into the state and appropriation of public charities in England.  This commission commenced in 1817, and was not finished till the year 1839.  The charities bequeathed by numerous individuals for the education and relief of the poor of this county, produce collectively the large sum of £21,578. 6s. 4d.  In addition to this a very large amount is subscribed by the benevolent inhabitants, for the support of the various charitable institutions, among which are free schools, hospitals, dispensaries, lunatic asylums, and various societies for relieving the poor, &c.  The summary of the reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into charities show that in England there are 442,915 acres, or about 690 square miles, belonging to charities, which is little less than the area of Worcestershire.  The rent of these lands is £874,313 per annum.  The amount of rent charge is near £80,000 per annum, a great part of which is made up of very small sums.  The interest of the money (above £6,000,000) which belongs to charities is £255,151 per annum; the whole income of the charity property inquired into by the commissioners is £1,209,395 per annum.  Now all this is not derived from one plain single source, but from all the counties of England; from numerous rent charges, money in the funds, mortgages, personal and turnpike securities, &c.  Further, this only includes the charities inquired into by the commissioners.  We believe that the commissioners have here and there missed a few charities.  New charities are daily increasing, and those not included in the inquiry are very numerous.

Parish Registers.—The earliest of the parish registers date from the establishment of the Church of England, injunctions to this effect having been issued by Cromwell, Henry’s vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters in 1538.  The canons now in force date their authority from the beginning of the reign of James I., A.D. 1603.  One of these prescribes minutely the manner entries are to be made in the parish registers, and contains a respective clause, appointing that the ancient registers, as far as they could be procured, should be copied in a parchment book.  This new regulation appears to have been carried into effect, so that the only parish registers now extant are transcripts commencing with Queen Elizabeth’s reign.  The parish register act of 1812 obviated some of the previous sources of error, and insured the further usefulness of the registers of that period.  But a satisfactory system of registration was not established until the year 1837, when the act for registering births, deaths, and marriages came into operation in England and Wales.  The registration of births is considerably more complete than the old parochial registers of baptism, and the register of deaths is believed to be very complete.

A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL
SEATS & RESIDENCES OF THE NOBILITY, GENTRY, & CLERGY,
IN THE COUNTY OF SHROPSHIRE.

*** To avoid increasing this List, the Villa Residences in the suburbs of the Towns are not inserted, but will be found in the Directories of the respective Parishes in which they are situated.

THOSE WITH * AFFIXED ARE ACTING MAGISTRATES.

Abertannat Hall, 1½ mile S.E. of Blodwell, John Edwards, Esq.

Acton Burnell Hall, 8 miles N.E. of Shrewsbury, * Sir Edward Joseph Smythe, Bart.

Acton Reynald, 7 miles N.E. by N. of Shrewsbury, * Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart.

Adderley Hall, 4 miles N.W. of Drayton, * Richard Corbet, Esq.

Admaston Hall, 1½ mile N.W. of Wellington, The Hon. Charles Noel Hill; Philip Buchannan, Esq.

Albrighton, 4½ miles S.E. of Shiffnal, Rev. George Woodhouse, The Vicarage; Thomas Plowden Presland, Esq.

Aldenham Hall, 4 miles N.W. of Bridgnorth, Sir John E. D. Acton, Bart.

Apley Castle, 1¼ mile N. of Wellington, * St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq.

Apley Park, 4 miles N. of Bridgnorth, * Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., M.P.

Argoed Hall, 7 miles S.E. of Oswestry, Edward Downes, Esq.

Ash Magna, 2 miles S.E. of Whitchurch, The Rev. William Bryans.

Ashford Hall, 3 miles S.W. by S. of Ludlow, * Major General Russell, C.B.

Astley House, 5 miles N.N. by E. of Shrewsbury, John Bishton Minor, Esq.

Aston Hall, 1 mile N.E. of Shiffnal, * Uvedale Corbet, Esq.

Aston, 2 Miles S.E. of Oswestry, * Edward Harvey Lloyd, Esq., The Hall; Mrs. Lloyd.

Aston, 9 miles N. of Ludlow, * Francis Marston, Esq.

Atcham, 3 miles S.E. by E. of Shrewsbury, * Rev. Henry Burton.

Attingham Hall, 4 miles S.E. of Shrewsbury, The Right Honourable Lord Berwick.

Badger, 5 miles S.E. by S. of Shiffnal, * Robert Henry Cheney, Esq., The Hall; The Rev. Thomas T. Boddington, The Rectory.

Balswardyne Hall, 8½ miles S.E. of Shrewsbury, Sir George Harnage, Bart.

Baschurch, 8 miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, Edward Birch, Esq.; Rev. William Jones.

Beckbury, 4 miles S.E. by S. of Shiffnal, Walter Stubbs, Esq.; Rev. Walter Ralph Smythe.

Bellaport House, 4 miles N.E. of Drayton, Rev. Hugh Ker Cockburne.

Belleview, 1½ mile S.W. by S. of Oswestry, William Banning, Esq.

Belmont, near Oswestry, * Joseph Venables Lovett, Esq.

Berrington, 4½ miles S.E. by S. of Shrewsbury, The Hon. and Rev. T. H. Noel Hill; Charles Arthur Williams, Esq., Eaton Mascott.

Berwick Upper House, 2½ miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, The Hon. Henry Wentworth Powys.

Berwick House, 2 miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, * Thomas Henry Hope, Esq.

Besford, 3 miles S.E. of Wem, Joseph Taylor Reynolds, Esq.

Betton Hall, 2 miles N.E. of Drayton, William Church Norcop, Esq.

Bewdley, 8 miles E. of Cleobury Mortimer, * William Lacon Childe, Esq., Jun.; * Slade Baker, Esq.; * Arthur Lyttleton Annesley, Esq., Arley Castle.

Birch Hall, 1 mile S.E. of Ellesmere, * Richard George Jebb, Esq.

Bishop’s Castle, 20 miles S.W. of Shrewsbury, * Rev. John Bright, Totterton; * Rev. John Rogers, The Home.

Bitterley, 4 miles N.E. of Ludlow, * Rev. Charles Walcot; Sir Charles Cuyler.

Blodwell, 6 miles S.S. by W. of Oswestry, Rev. John Parker; William Lyons, Esq.

Bobbington, 8½ miles S.W. of Wolverhampton, Rev. Henry Pennant Cooke.

Boningale Hall, 5 miles S.E. by S. of Shiffnal, George Taylor, Esq.

Boreatton Park, 9½ miles N.W. by N. of Shrewsbury, Rowland Hunt, Esq.

Bridgnorth, 8 miles S.E. of Much Wenlock, Rev. George Bellett, St. Leonards; Rev. Wm. K. Marshall, St. Mary’s Rectory; J. Baker, Esq., Walsbatch.  (See also p. 626.)

Broadway, near Shrewsbury, * John Owen, Esq.

Bromfield, 2 miles N.W. of Ludlow, The Hon. Robert Henry Clive, Oakeley Park.

Broseley, 4 miles E. of Wenlock, The Hon. and Rev. O. W. W. Forester, The Rectory; * George Pritchard, Esq.; John Pritchard, Esq.; John Onions, Esq., White Hall; * Richard Thursfield, Esq.

Bryn Harford near Oswestry, Charles Scarlett Andrews, Esq.

Brynn, 1½ mile N.W. of Blodwell, John Hamor, Esq.

Bryntanat Hall, 2¼ miles W. of Blodwell, William Henry Perry, Esq.

Buildwas Park, 4½ miles N.E. of Much Wenlock, Walter Moseley, Esq.

Buntingsdale Hall, near Drayton, John Tayleur, Esq.

Burcott, near Wellington, Charles Emery, Esq., The Hall; John Stanier, Esq., Leaton Hall.

Burford, near Tenbury, * George Rushout, Esq., M.P., The Hall; * Rev. James Wayland Joyce, The Rectory; Rev. Herbert MacLaughlin, Boraston Rectory; Rev. Caleb Whiteford, Whitton Rectory.

Burleigh Villa, 7 miles W. by N. of Wellington, Thomas Taylor, Esq.

Burlton, 5 miles S.W. of Wem, Robert Chambre Vaughan, Esq., The Hall; Edward Goldsborough Chambre Vaughan, Esq., Wood Gate.

Burwarton, 9 miles S.W. of Bridgnorth, The Hon. G. F. H. Russell, The Hall.

Calverhall, 3 miles N.E. of Prees, John Whitehall Dod, Esq., Jun., Rev. Edw. Mainwaring.

Cheswardine, near Market Drayton, Thomas Hudson, Esq., The Hall; Rev. Charles Miller.

Cheshire Coppice, 3 miles N. of Wellington, William Henry Dickinson, Esq.

Chetwynd, near Newport, * John Charles Burton Boroughs, Esq.; Thomas Collier, Esq., Beech Hill; Robert Fisher, Esq., The Lodge; William Washbourne, Esq.; Rev. Thomas Whately, The Rectory.

Childs Ercall, 6½ miles N.W. of Newport, Rev. B. E. Johnson.

Chirbury, 2½ miles E. of Montgomery, Rev. James Wilding, The Vicarage; Edward Humphries, Esq., Walcot.

Chorley, near Stottesden, Thomas Crump, Esq., The Hall.

Church Aston, near Newport, Ralph Ormsby Gore, Esq., The Hall.

Church Preen, 5½ miles W. by S. of Wenlock, Frederick Thomas Webster, Esq.

Church Stretton, 13 miles S.W. by S. of Shrewsbury, Duppa Duppa, Esq., Kington; Rev. Hugh Owen Wilson, The Rectory.

Citadel (The), near Hodnet, Reverend John Hill.

Claverley, 6 miles E. of Bridgnorth, Rev. George Hilder Betterton Gabert, The Vicarage: William Wilson, Esq., Beobridge; * Farmer Taylor, Esq., Chykenell.

Cleobury North, 8 miles S.W. of Bridgnorth, Henry George Mytton, Esq., The Hall; The Misses Mytton.

Clive Hall, 3½ miles S. of Wem, George Harding, Esq.

Cloverley Hall, 6 miles S.E. of Whitchurch, * John Whitehall Dod, Esq., M.P.

Clungunford, 8 miles S.E. of Bishop’s Castle, John Rocke, Esq., The House.

Copthorne House, 2 miles W. from Shrewsbury, Thomas Brocas, Esq.

Condover, 4¾ miles S. of Shrewsbury, * Edward William Smythe Owen, Esq., The Hall; Rev. J. W. Harden, John Loxdale, Esq., The Lyth; Robert Steward, Esq., Ryton Grove.

Coreley, 4½ miles N.N.E. of Tenbury, Rev. Walter Haliburton, The Rectory.

Coton, 3 miles N. of Wem, * George Bowen, Esq.

Cotsbrook House, near Bridgnorth, Orlando Jack Bridgman, Esq.

Cound, 6 miles S.E. of Shrewsbury, Rev. Henry Thursby, The Hall.

Court of Hill, near Tenbury, * Major Arthur Charles Lowe.

Creamore House, near Wem, John Unsworth, Esq.

Cruck Meole, 4½ miles S.W. of Shrewsbury, * Henry Diggory Warter, Esq.

Cruckton Hall, 4 miles S.W. by W. of Shrewsbury, * Francis Harries, Esq.

Dalicott House, near Claverley, George Mackenzie Kettle, Esq.

Davenport House, near Bridgnorth, * William Sharington Davenport, Esq.

Daywell, near Oswestry, * Joseph Venables Lovett, Esq.

Diddlebury, 8 miles N. of Ludlow, Henry Wood, Esq., The Hall.

Dodington, near Whitchurch, George Brookes, Esq.; William Lee Brookes, Esq.; George Harper, Esq., Mossfield House; John Faulkner Wood, Esq.

Donington, 5 miles S.E. of Shiffnal, The Rev. Henry John Howard, The Rectory; George Jones, Esq., Shakerley.

Dorrington, 6½ miles N. of Church Stretton, John Thomas Hope, Esq., Netley House.

Drayton in Hales, 18 miles N.E. of Shrewsbury, Rev. John Lee; John Edward Wilson, Esq., The Grove; Thomas Whitfield, Esq.

Dudleston, 4½ miles N.W. of Ellesmere, George Bennett, Esq., Sodylt Hall; Edward Morrall, Esq., Plas Warren; Robert Morrall, Esq., Plas Yollen; Richard Ellerton, Esq., The Erway.

Dudmaston Hall, near Bridgnorth, * William Wolryche Whitmore, Esq.

Eardington, near Bridgnorth, John Henry Cooper, Esq., The Knowle Sands; Mr. Thomas Austin Jackson, The Forge; Rev. George Leigh Wasey, The Knowle Sands.

Easthope, 5 miles S.W. of Much Wenlock, Moses George Benson, Esq., Lutwyche Hall; Rev. Robert Armitage, The Rectory

Edgeley House, near Whitchurch, John Lowe, Esq.

Edgmond, near Newport, Captain Clement Hill; Rev. John Dryden Pigott.

Edstaston, near Wem, Daniel Boote, Esq., The Hall; Rev. John Stewart, The Rectory.

Ellerton Hall, 4½ miles N.W. by N. of Newport, Robert Masefield, Esq.

Ellesmere, 16 miles N.N.W. of Shrewsbury, William Aldrick Cotton, Esq.; Rev. John David Day, The Vicarage.

Elm Lodge, near Ludlow, James Davies, Esq.

Ensden House, 5½ miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, Evan Bowen, Esq.

Ercall High, 8 miles N.E. of Shrewsbury, Rev. Robert Townsend Forester, The Vicarage; George Townsend Forester, Esq., Sherlowe; William Holt Midgley, Esq., The Park; Edward Blakeway Steedman, Esq., The Hall.

Eyton on the Wildmoors, near Wellington, Thomas Eyton, Esq., The Hall.

Faintree, 5 miles S.W. of Bridgnorth, Thomas Pardoe Purton, Esq., The Hall.

Fern Hill, near Whittington, * Thomas Lovett, Esq., The Hall.

Fitz, 5¾ miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, R. Middleton, Esq., The Hall; * Rev. Daniel Nihill.

Frodsley, 9 miles S. of Shrewsbury, Rev. Peter Downward, Longnor Green; Rev. T. L. Gleadow, The Rectory.

Gatacre Hall, 5 miles S.E. of Bridgnorth, * Edward Lloyd Gatacre, Esq.

Gatacre Park, 5½ miles S.E. from Bridgnorth, * Edward Farrer Acton, Esq.

Grafton Lodge, 5½ miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, John Henry Denston, Esq.

Great Ness, near Baschurch, George Edwards, Esq., The Hall; Rev. Mr. Kenyon, The Vicarage; Thomas Justice Bather, Esq.

Gredington Park, near Whitchurch, * The Right Hon. Lord Kenyon.

Greet, 5 miles S.E. of Ludlow, Rev. Joseph C. Bradney, The Rectory.

Grinshill, 7 miles N. of Shrewsbury, Rev. John Wood, The Rectory; William Embrey Wood, Esq., The Vineyard.

Hadley, near Wellington, Mrs. Thorneycroft, The Hall; Matthew Webb, Esq.

Halston, near Whittington, Edmund Wright, Esq., The Hall.

Hardwick Grange, 6 miles N. of Shrewsbury, The Misses Hill.

Hardwick Hall, 2 miles W. of Ellesmere, * Sir John Roger Kynaston, Bart.

Hawkstone, 4 miles N.E. of Wem, * The Right Honourable Viscount Lord Hill.

Highley, 7 miles S.S.E. of Bridgnorth, William Jordin, Esq.; Rev. Samuel Dupre.

Hinstock, 5 miles S.E. by S. of Market Drayton, * Henry Justice, Esq.

Hodnet, 6 miles E. of Wem, * Algernon Charles Heber Percy, The Hall; Rev. Samuel Herrick Macauley, The Rectory.

Hopesay, 6 miles S. by E. of Bishop’s Castle, Rev. Philip B. Adams, The Rectory.

Hopton Wafers, nr Cleobury Mortimer, Mrs. Lucy Botfield, The Court; Rev. S. Woodward

Hopton Castle, 9 miles S. of Bishop’s Castle, Rev. George D. Pardoe.

Hurst, near Ludlow, * Philip Morris, Esq.

Ightfield, 4 miles S.E. of Whitchurch, Rev. John Justice.

Isle The, near Shrewsbury, Rev. Humphrey Sandford.

Kemberton, 2 miles S.W. by S. of Shiffnal, Rev. George Whitmore, The Rectory.

Ketley, 2 miles E. of Wellington, Rev. Thompson Stoneham; John Williams, Esq.; George Bradbury, Esq., The Grove.

Kilhendre, near Dudleston, Captain Johnson.

Kingsland, near Shrewsbury, * Richard Frederick Hill, Esq.

Kinlet Hall, 5 miles N.E. of Cleobury Mortimer, * William Lacon Childe, Esq.

Kinnerley, 7 miles S.E. of Oswestry, Rev. Edmund W. O. Bridgman.

Kinnerley, 4 miles N.E. by N. of Wellington, Rev. Andrew Burn.

Knockin Hall, 6½ miles S.S.E. of Oswestry, The Hon. Captain Charles Orlando Bridgman.

Leaton Knolls, 4½ miles W.W. by N. of Shrewsbury, * Jonathan Arthur Lloyd, Esq.

Leegomery House, near Wellington, William Shakeshaft Lawley, Esq.

Leighton Park, 3½ miles N. of Much Wenlock, Sir George Harnage, Bart

Leighton, 1½ mile S.E. by S. of Welshpool, John Naylor, Esq.

Leighton, 9 miles S.E. of Shrewsbury, * Robert Gardner, Esq., The Hall.

Lilleshall House, 4 miles S.W. of Newport, * The Marquis of Stafford.

Lilleshall, 3 miles S.W. of Newport, Rev. Henry George Bunsen, vicar, The Old Hall.

Linley Hall, 5 miles N. of Bishop’s Castle, R. B. More, Esq.

Llwyny-groes Hall, 6¼ miles S. of Oswestry, R. N. Broughton, Esq.

Longford, near Newport, * Ralph Merrick Leeke, Esq., The Hall; Rev. John K. Charlton.

Longford Hall, near Shrewsbury, Rev. Waties Corbet.

Longnor Hall, 3½ miles E. of Shrewsbury, * Robert Burton, Esq.

Longnor Hall, 5 miles N. of Church Stretton, * Panton Corbet, Esq.

Longnor Hall, near Shrewsbury, * Edward Corbett, Esq.

Loppington House, 3 miles W. of Wem, * Thomas Dickin, Esq.

Loton Park, 8 miles W. of Shrewsbury, * Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart.

Ludford House, near Ludlow, Francis Lechmere Charlton, Esq.

Ludlow, * Rev. George Dansey Pardoe; * Richard Betton, Esq., Overton House; James Baxter, Esq., (see also Directory, page 605.)

Lydham, 2 miles N.E. of Bishop’s Castle, Rev. Arthur Oakeley, The Rectory.

Marnwood, near Ironbridge, Rev. John Bartlett.

Marsh Hall, near Shrewsbury, John Wood, Esq.

Marton, near Middle, David Francis Atcherley, Esq., The Hall.

Mawley Hall, near Cleobury Mortimer, Sir Edward Blount, Bart.

Melverley, 9 miles S.E. by S. of Oswestry, Rev. Henry Rogers, The Rectory.

Middle, 7 miles N.W. by N. of Shrewsbury, Rev. George Henry Egerton, The Rectory; Sir John Majorbanks, Bart.

Middleton Scriven, 5 miles S.W. of Bridgnorth, Rev. Thomas Rowley, D.D., The Rectory.

Millichope Park, near Munslow, Charles Orlando Childe Pemberton, Esq.

Milson, 3 miles S.W. of Cleobury Mortimer, Rev. Thomas Hardwicke, D.D., The Rectory.

Moreton Corbet, 4½ miles S.E. of Wem, Rev. Robert F. Wood, The Rectory.

Moreton Say, 3 miles N.W. by W. of Drayton, Rev. Robert Upton.

Munslow, 6 miles S. of Church Stretton, Rev. Thomas C. Powell; John Downes, Esq.

Nash Court, 6 miles S.E. of Ludlow, * George Pardoe, Esq.

Neachley, near Donington, * George Holyoake, Esq.

Neen Savage, near Cleobury Mortimer, * Rev. Charles R. Somers Cocks.

Netley Hall, 6½ miles S.W. by W. of Shrewsbury, * John Thomas Hope Esq.

Newport, 18 miles N.E. of Shrewsbury, (see Directory, page 409.)

Norbury, 4 miles N.E. of Ludlow, * Rev. William Henry Cynric Lloyd.

Norton-in-Hales, 3½ miles N.E. by N. of Drayton, Rev. Frederick Silver, The Rectory.

Nursery The, 4½ miles S. of Oswestry, John F. M. Dovaston, Esq.

Oakley House, two miles E. of Bishop’s Castle, William Oakeley, Esq.

Oakley Park, 2 miles N.W. of Ludlow, * The Right Hon. Robert Henry Clive, M.P.

Oldbury, 1 mile S.S.W. of Bridgnorth, Mrs. Margaret Wynne Jones, The Lodge.

Onslow Hall, 4 miles W. from Shrewsbury, Colonel Wingfield.

Osbaston House, 5½ miles S. of Oswestry, Captain Thomas Evans, R.N.

Oswestry, 17½ miles N.W. from Shrewsbury, Richard Jones Croxon, Esq.; Rev. Thomas Salway, The Vicarage; Thomas Longueville Longueville, Esq.

Oteley Park, near Ellesmere, * Charles Kynaston Mainwaring, Esq.

Oxon, near Shrewsbury, * Edward Morris, Esq.

Park Hall, near Oswestry, * Richard Henry Kinchant, Esq.

Peatswood, near Market Drayton, * Thomas Twemlow, Esq.

Pell Wall, near Market Drayton, * Purney Sillitoe, Esq.

Pentra Ucha Hall, 2½ miles W. of Kinnerley, Frederick Alexander Payne, Esq.

Peplow, 7½ miles N.W. of Newport, * George Staveley Hill, Esq.; Captain George Hill, The Hall.

Petton Hall, 6 miles S.E. of Ellesmere, * William Sparling, Esq.

Pitchford, 7 miles S. of Shrewsbury, * The Right Hon. Earl of Liverpool; Rev. Charles Powell Peters, The Rectory.

Pontesbury, 7½ miles S.W. of Shrewsbury, * Rev. Charles Drury; Rev. William Harrison; Rev. William Vaughan; Frederick Jones, Esq., The Hall.

Porkington, near Oswestry, William Ormsby Gore, Esq., M.P.

Powis Castle, near Welshpool, * The Right Hon. Earl Powis.

Pradoe, 5 miles S.E. of Oswestry, * The Hon. Thomas Kenyon.

Prees, 5 miles S. of Whitchurch, * Sir Robert Chambre Hill, K.C.B., The Hall; The Ven. Archdeacon Allen, The Vicarage.

Prees Gwene House, 2½ miles from St. Martins, Richard Powell, Esq.

Preston Gubbals, 4½ miles N. of Shrewsbury, Rev. William Stevens.

Preston Montford, 4 miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, Miss Wingfield, The Cottage; Mrs. Wingfield, The Hall.

Priors Lee Hall, near Shiffnal, John Horton, Esq.

Quatt, 4½ miles S.E. of Bridgnorth, * Rev. Edmund Carr, The Rectory.

Quatford, 1½ mile S. of Bridgnorth, John Smalman, Esq., The Castle; John Clayton, Esq., The House; John Sing, Esq., The Hall; Stephen Wolryche, Esq., The Villa.

Quarry Place, near Shrewsbury, * John Thomas Smitheman Edwards, Esq.

Quinta, 3 miles W. of Saint Martins, Rowland Jones Venables, Esq.

Rednal, near West Felton, William Mostyn Owen, Esq.

Reilth, near Mainstone, Richard Sankey, Esq.

Rossal, 3 miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, Dowager Countess Fielding.

Rowton Castle, 7 miles W. of Shrewsbury, Henry Lyster, Esq.

Rudge Hall, 8 miles S.W. by S. of Bridgnorth, Thomas Boycott, Esq., The Hall; Rev. W. G. Greenstreet, The Vicarage.

Ruyton, 10 miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, Rev. George Evans; Rev. Leonard Slater.

Ryton, 3½ miles S.E. by S. of Shiffnal, Rev. Robert William Eyton, The Rectory.

Saint Martins, 5 miles N.E. of Oswestry, Rev. William Hurst, The Vicarage.

Sandford, 5½ miles N.E. of Wem, * Thomas Hugh Sandford, Esq.

Sansaw Hall, 4 miles S.E. of Wem, Captain Martin.

Selattyn, 3 miles N.N.W. of Oswestry, Rev. Gerald Carew, Pentre Pant Hall; Rev. Albany Rosendale Lloyd, The Rectory; William Williams Edward Wynne, Esq., Sion House.

Shavington Hall, 4 miles N.W. of Drayton, The Right Hon. Earl of Kilmorey.

Shawbury, 6 miles S.S.E. of Wem, Rev. W. S. Marvin, The Vicarage.

Shineton, 2¾ miles N.N.W. of Much Wenlock, Rev. Henry Bagnall, The Rectory.

Shipton Hall, 7 miles S.W. of Much Wenlock, * Thomas Mytton, Esq.

Sibdon Castle, 8 miles S.S.E. of Bishop’s Castle, James Baxter, Esq.

Sion, near Oswestry, William Williams Edward Wynne, Esq.

Shiffnal, 7½ miles S. of Newport, Mrs. Botfield, Decker Hill Hall; Rev. John Brooke, Haughton Hall; Rev. Townshend Brooke, Idsal Vicarage; William Cope, Esq., Park House; John Eyke Esq., Stanton House; Michael Goodall, Esq., Evileth; Rev. T. O. Durant, Evileth Hall; William Henry Slaney, Esq., Hatton Grange.

Smethcott, 5½ miles N. of Shrewsbury, Rev. Robert Joseph Buddicom, The Rectory.

Stanage Park, near Ludlow, * Edward Rogers, Esq.

Stanton-upon-Hine-Heath, 5 miles S.E. of Wem, Rev. James Thomas Holloway, D.D., The Vicarage; Thomas Faulkner Wood, Esq., The Woodlands.

Stapleton, 5½ miles S.W. by S. of Shrewsbury, The Hon. and Rev. E. R. B. Fielding.

Stirchley, 5 miles S.E. of Wellington, Rev. Hugo Moreton Phillips, The Rectory.

Stockton, 4½ miles N. of Bridgnorth, Rev. Charles Blaney Cavendish Whitmore; Wm. Hazledine Austin, Esq., South Lodge; Richard S. Darby, Esq., Crow Greaves.

Stoke Hall, 4 miles N.W. of Burford, Philip Henry Williams, Esq.

Stoke-upon-Tern, 4½ miles S.W. of Drayton, Rev. John Gladstone, The Rectory.

Stottesden, 8 miles S.W. by S. of Bridgnorth, Rev. Charles John Maddison, The Vicarage.

Styche, 2½ miles N.W. of Market Drayton, Henry B. Clive, Esq., M.P., The Hall.

Sundorne Castle, 3 miles N.E. of Shrewsbury, * Andrew William Corbet, Esq.

Sutton Hall, 4½ miles S.E. of Oswestry, Geo. Dawes Brittain, Esq.; Jas. Hargreaves, Esq.

Sutton, 5 miles N.E. by N. of Ludlow, Charles Powell, Esq.

Sweeney Hall, 2 miles S. of Oswestry, * Rev. John Parker; Mrs. Parker.

Tedsmere Hall, near West Felton, Thomas B. B. Owen, Esq.

Tern House, 2 miles S.E. of High Ercall, Thomas Jukes, Esq.

Terrick Hall, near Whitchurch, William Halstead Poole, Esq.

Tilstock, 2½ miles S. of Whitchurch, Rev. Wm. Renton, Rectory; Danl. Kempster, Ivy House.

Tong Castle, 3 miles E. of Shiffnal, G. C. S. Durant, Esq., Rev. G. S. Harding, The Rectory.

Trefarclawdd House, 2½ miles S.W. by S. of Oswestry, John Croxon, Esq.

Trefonen, 4 miles S.W. of Oswestry, Rev. Daniel Lloyd.

Tunstall Hall, near Market Drayton, * Peter Broughton, Esq.

Tyn-y-Rhos, 4 miles W.W. by N. of St. Martin’s, Rev. John Crozon Phillips.

Uffington, 3 miles N.E. by E. of Shrewsbury, * Rev. John Oliver Hopkins.

Uppington, 7 miles S.E. by E. of Shrewsbury, S. H. Ashdown, Esq.; Chas. Stanier, Esq.

Upton Magna, 4 miles E. of Shrewsbury, Miss Arabella Pigott, The Cottage.

Vineyard The, near Wellington, Thomas Campbell Eyton, Esq.

Walcott Hall, 4 miles S. of Bishop’s Castle, The Right Honourable Earl of Powis.

Walford Manor, 6½ miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, * Robert Aglionby Slaney, Esq.

Wallop Hall, near Westbury, * John Michael Severne, Esq.

Westbury, 9 miles S.W. by S. of Shrewsbury, Joseph Dickinson, Esq.; Rev. Wm. Cureton.

Welsh Hampton, 2¾ miles N.E. by E. of Ellesmere, Rev. George S. Master, The Rectory.

Wellington, 8 miles S.W. of Newport, Rev. Benjamin Banning, The Vicarage; Rev. Charles Campe; William Wyley, Esq., Dothill Park.  (See also directory).

Wem, 11 miles N. of Shrewsbury.  John Henry Barker, Esq.; Thomas Dickin Brown, Esq.; Roger Spencer Dickin, Esq.; Rev. J. W. D. Merest, The Rectory; Sir John Beckerton Williams, Knt., The Hall; Charles Oldham, Esq.; J. H. Walford, Esq.

West Felton, 13 miles N.W. of Shrewsbury, Rev. Thomas Hunt; Rev. Peter Geo. Bentley.

Whitchurch, 20 miles N. of Shrewsbury, Thomas Burgess, Esq.; Rev. William Henry Egerton, The Rectory; Sir John Hanmer, Bart., Bettisfield Hall; Richard Parry Jones, Esq.; Robert Darwin Vaughan, Esq.

Whittington, 2½ miles N.E. by E. of Oswestry, Rev. Charles Arthur Albany Lloyd, The Rectory; Richard Henry Kinchant, Esq., Park Hall.

Whitton, 9½ miles S.W. by W. of Shrewsbury, * Rev. Charles Leicester.

Whixall, 4 miles N. of Wem, Rev. John Evans, The Rectory.

Willey Park, 3 miles E. of Much Wenlock, the Right Honourable Lord Forester.

Winsley Hall, near Westbury, John Phillips, Esq.

Withington, 5½ miles E. of Shrewsbury, Rev. Corbet Browne, The Rectory; Rann Dolphin Edwards, Esq.

Woodcote, 3 miles S.E. by S. of Newport, * John Cotes, Esq.

Wood Hill, 4 miles S.W. by W. of Shrewsbury, Lazarus Jones Venables, Esq.

Woodhouses, 2½ miles S.E. of Whitchurch, James Goulbourn Etches, Esq.

Woodlands, 3 miles S.S.W. of Bridgnorth, Thomas Whitmore Wylde Browne, Esq.

Worfield, 3½ miles N.E. by E. of Bridgnorth, Rev. Cornelius Broadbent, The Rectory; Captain Brazier, Bradney; John Bach, Esq., Chesterton; George Smith Dorset, Esq., Hilton House; Thomas Wilson, Esq., Stanlow; Joseph Parkes, Esq., Wyken.

Worthen, 9 miles N.E. of Montgomery, * Rev. Charles Awdry.

Wrockwardine, 2½ miles W. of Wellington, Miss Anne Maria Cludde, The Hall; Mrs. Cludde, Orleton Hall; Rev. George L. Yate, The Vicarage.

Wroxeter, 5¾ miles S.E. by S. of Shrewsbury, Rev. Edward Egremont, The Vicarage; Wm. Henry Oatley, Esq.; Edward Stanier, Esq., The Hall.

Yockleton, 2 miles N.E. of Westbury, Thomas Nicholls, Esq., The Hall.

Yorton Villa, near Broughton, Rev. William Jeudwine.

ERRATA. [32]

Page 145, fourth line from top, for R. R. Slaney, Esq., M.P., read R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P.

Page 172, sixteen lines from bottom, for two trains read ten trains.

Page 251, eleventh line from top, for Maxton read Marton.

Page 329, seventeenth line from top, for excelent read excellent.

Page 337, sixth line from top, for in the year 1804 read 1404.

Page 346, tenth line from top, for Breveton read Brereton.

Page 365, twenty-ninth line from top, for Buxton read Burton.

Page 372, fourth line from top, for exort read extort.

Page 445, fifth line from bottom, for Nowell read Noel.

Page 491, twenty-fourth line from top, for Kingleford read Ringleford.

Page 500, sixteenth line from top, for Burner read Burnel.

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

SHREWSBURY is a market town, and borough corporate and parliamentary, situate 153 miles N.W. of London, 40 miles S. from Chester, 40 miles W. from Lichfield, 44 miles W.N.W. from Birmingham, 53 miles N. from Hereford, 58 miles S. from Liverpool, 109 miles N. from Bristol, and 108 miles S.E. from Holyhead.  The town stands nearly in the centre of the county of which it is the capital, and occupies two hills of gentle ascent, which gradually rise from the bed of the river Severn, whose stream gracefully bends its course around three sides of the town; thus forming a peninsula, having a narrow isthmus, not more than three hundred yards across, to the north east.  Shrewsbury covers nearly the whole peninsula, excepting a narrow margin of meadow and garden grounds, which runs between the walls and the river.  It has gradually extended beyond the boundaries of the river, forming the populous suburbs of Abbey Foregate and Coleham on the east, Frankwell on the west, and Castle Foregate, beyond the neck of the isthmus, stretching towards the north.  The bold situation of the town, rising amidst a vast plain, backed with mountains—the frowning castle—the elegant towers and tapering spires of the churches—the noble bridges, and picturesque buildings, produce, altogether, a scene of singular beauty and grandeur.  The delightful prospects from every side of the town, over a rich and finely wooded country, adorned by the meanderings of the Severn, are surpassed by none, and equalled but by few other towns of our island.

The streets, in common with those of almost all our old towns, are irregularly disposed, some of them steep and narrow, and indifferently paved.  In this respect, however, considerable improvements have been made in some of the principal thoroughfares.  Many of the houses have the characteristics of high antiquity impressed upon them; and the domestic architecture of former days, with projecting gables, is often intermixed with that of modern erection, and of elegant appearance.  The close wooden-built alley, called a “shutt” in the provincial dialect of the place, is everywhere seen connecting the principal streets with each other.  Although the gravelly banks on which the town stands afford a fall in every direction, by which it might easily be kept from filth and damp, yet the peculiarly pleasant situation was for a long period but little regarded.  Many important alterations have, however, been made under the provisions of an Act of Parliament obtained in 1821, for removing obstructions, watching, lighting, and the general improvement of the town; the powers of which are vested in trustees, who must be persons occupying property rated at £50 per annum, or worth £2,000.  The streets are now lighted with gas, and the town is supplied with an abundance of excellent water.  Its elevated situation, the natural dryness of the soil, and its pure water, contribute, doubtless, to the salubrity for which it is so remarkable.  Speed quaintly observes:—“Wholsom is the aire, delectable and goode, yeelding the springe, and the autumne, seed time and harveste, in a temperate condition, and affoordeth health to the inhabitants in all seasons of the yeere.”  The ancient Britons gave the place the name of Pengwern, the Saxons, Scrobbes-byrig; both of which imply a fenced eminence planted with shrubs.  The poet and antiquary, Leland, thus beautifully accounts for its name:—

Built on a hill, fair Salop greets the eye,
While Severn forms a crescent gliding by;
Two bridges cross the navigable stream,
And British alders gave the town a name.

At the census in 1801, the borough of Shrewsbury contained a population of 14,739 souls.  In 1841 there were 18,285 souls; of whom 8,444 were males, and 9,841 females.  Of the former, 3,589, and of the latter, 3,803 were under the age of twenty years.  Of the entire population, 14,341 persons were born in this county, and 3,944 elsewhere.  At the same period, there were 3,727 inhabited houses, 342 uninhabited, and 23 building.

Shrewsbury is supposed to have been built by the Britons, between the years 520 and 594, as a refuge from the Saxons, who levelled their ancient fortress of Wroxeter with the ground, and forced them to retreat beyond the Severn; which river then became the boundary of the kingdom of Mercia, the most considerable of all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy.  On this subject, the celebrated historians of Shrewsbury, Messrs. Owen and Blakeway, observe: We conceive that our town was built after the Saxon invasion; but that it owed its foundation to the Britons.  We cannot claim any pretensions to the dignity of a Roman station.  No vestige of that imperial people has ever been discovered within its circuit.  But a few miles lower down the river, at the present village of Wroxeter, was the flourishing town of Uriconium; and here, doubtless, after the Romans had finally withdrawn their forces from the island, the Britons continued to occupy the seats deserted by their ancient masters, until they were driven from them by superior force, to the time of which we may approximate within no very wide range of years.  We are in possession of the valuable poems of Llywarc Hên,—valuable, notwithstanding their great obscurity, for the few rays of light which they scatter over the darkest period of our history.  He was a prince of the Cambrian Britons; who, pressed by the Northumbrian Saxon, retired towards the end of the sixth century to his countrymen in Powis, among whom he is said to have protracted his life to the unusual extent of 145 years, deriving thence the epithet of hen or the old.  His writings contain several proofs of his acquaintance with the district now called Shropshire.  Its streams, Severn, and Morlas, and Tern; its mountains, Digoll, Nescliff, and Digon; its towns, Baschurch, Ercall, Hodnet, all appear in his poems.  And when he speaks also of Pengwern, and when it is known that this was the Welsh name for Shrewsbury, we need not doubt that he designed by that to mark our town, and consequently that it had then arisen.

At the time the Britons abandoned Wroxeter, the situation of Pengwern was one of eminent natural strength.  We must not estimate the degree of protection imparted to the place by the Severn from our ideas by the condition of the river in the present advanced state of cultivation.  Whenever any country is thinly inhabited, trees and shrubs spring up in the uncultivated fields, and, spreading by degrees, form large forests, which, confining the exhalations of the soil and obstructing the course of streams, cause the rivers to overflow and stagnate into lakes and marshes.  The Severn, on the eastern side of Shrewsbury, formerly ran in five channels, and spread into a marshy lake from the foot of Wyle Cop as far as the site of the Abbey.  Thus the fugitives were protected by the deep bed of the river, its sinuous windings, and the morasses of its banks, where they might shroud themselves in the underwood which hid the foot, and the thickets which crowned the summit of the lofty and peninsular knoll now covered by the capital of Shropshire.  How long the fugitives remained in possession of their new seat it is vain to enquire.  But they were followed hither by the Saxons, who reduced the place to ashes, and the elegy of Llywarc calls upon the maidens of Pengwern “To quit their dwellings, and behold the habitation of Cynddylan, the royal palace of Pengwern, wrapped in flames.”

The importance of the peninsular situation of Pengwern could not long remain without an occupant; and a few years after its destruction under Cynddylan, we find it inhabited by a king of Powis, the capital of his kingdom, and even ranking among the twenty-eight cities of Britain.  The kingdom of Powis at this time comprised the south-western parts of the counties of Cheshire, Flint, and Denbigh, the whole of Montgomeryshire, with portions of the counties of Radnor, Brecon, and the adjoining parts of Shropshire, as far as the river Severn.  Of the state of the town, under its native princes, we possess no information.  The arts of civil life, which the Britons had cultivated under their Roman masters, had totally disappeared in the course of three centuries of uninterrupted warfare.  A ditch, or a rude rampart of unhewn logs, inclosing a few hovels for the residence of the prince and the offices of religion, some wattled huts, with a fold or two for sheep and cattle, probably composed the whole of Pengwern Powis.  On the invasion of the Saxons, the new possessors gave it the appellation of Scrobbes-byrig—a fenced eminence, but overgrown with shrubs.

King Ethelred, in the year 1006, kept his court at Shrewsbury; and in 1016 the inhabitants revolted to the Danish chief, Canute.  They were afterwards compelled to return to their allegiance, and were severely punished for their defection by Prince Edmund, son of Ethelred.  Alphelm, a prince of the blood, having been invited by Edric, duke of Mercia, and son-in-law to Ethelred, to a banquet at Shrewsbury, and afterwards to a hunting party, was treacherously murdered during the chase by one Godwin, a butcher of the town, whom Edric had hired for the purpose.  This circumstance probably gave rise to a custom prevalent during the reign of Edward the Confessor, of twelve of the principal persons keeping guard over the king’s person when he came down to Shrewsbury, and the same number attending him whenever he went out a hunting.  In this reign Shrewsbury had two hundred and fifty-two houses, besides the mint, which was under the direction of three officers, who were compelled to pay into the royal treasury twenty shillings at the end of every fifteen days, while the money was current.  After the Norman conquest, Owen Gwynedd, Prince of Wales, laid siege to Shrewsbury; but William the Conqueror, who had just returned from a visit to his native country, in order to quell the rising tumults which everywhere began to threaten his British dominions, soon raised the siege, and punished the English chiefs, while he took ample vengeance on the Welsh.  In this reign, Roger de Montgomery, the relation and favourite of the Conqueror, was created Earl of Shrewsbury, Arundle, and Chichester, and had a grant of nearly the whole of the county of Shropshire, besides a hundred and fifty manors or lordships in other parts of the kingdom.  In one of the deeds transferring these manorial grants, Roger styles himself Rogerius, Dei gratia, Scrobesburiensis Comes—Roger, by the grace of God, Earl of Shrewsbury.

At the Doomsday survey, 1086, Shrewsbury is styled a city, and the Abbey is said to have been founded where the parish church of the city stood.  This book also contains a summary of several municipal laws, customs, and usages, for the internal regulation of the place, and for increasing the king’s revenues.  The amount of taxes at this period was £20, of which the king had two-thirds and the sheriff one, Hugh de Montgomery, who had succeeded his father Roger in the earldom of Shrewsbury, having been shot by an arrow from the skilful hand of Magnus, King of Norway, was succeeded by his brother, Robert de Belesme.  Earl Robert united with the party who opposed the pretensions of Prince Henry, son of William Rufus, and espoused the claims of Robert, Duke of Normandy.  He afterwards broke out into open rebellion, strengthened his castles in Shropshire, and at Shrewsbury built and fortified a flank wall, from each side of the castle across the isthmus, down to the side of the Severn.  Upon this, the earl was publicly declared a traitor, and King Henry marched against him with a considerable force.  The surrender of Bridgnorth to Henry induced the earl to quit Shrewsbury, and to commit its defence to three generals and eighty soldiers hired expressly for the purpose.  With the assistance of a few Welsh, with whom he had made peace, he frequently disturbed the royal forces, till, being much harassed, he was compelled to return to Shrewsbury.  Soon afterwards, the town was surrounded with an army of 60,000 men; and Robert de Belesme had scarcely seated himself in the castle, when the king demanded the immediate surrender of the place, threatening, in case of refusal, in three days to besiege the town, and hang every one found in the castle.  The earl, perceiving that he had no forces to withstand the attack of the king, confessed his treason, implored the royal clemency, and sent the keys of the castle by the hands of Ralph, Abbot of Seez, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, which the king accepted, and banished the restless earl to Normandy.  The spirit of revenge and ambition, however, rekindled in his breast, and he contrived once more to appear in arms against Henry; but was at length taken prisoner, and ignominously conveyed in chains to England, where he ended a miserable life a close prisoner at Wareham.

In 1139, William Fitz Allan, a powerful baron, was governor of the town and sheriff of the county.  During the wars between Stephen and the Empress Maude, this baron espoused the cause of the empress, and with several noblemen opposed the forces of the king.  He left the castle, which he had strongly fortified, under the command of a deputy governor, whom he compelled to swear never to deliver his trust to the king.  This, however, did not prevent the monarch from taking the castle: after which the king hanged several of the garrison for their contumacy.  In 1260 the English army rendezvoused at Shrewsbury, and shortly after the town and castle fell once more into the hands of the rebels.  They soon after reverted to their former owners, and the government of the town and castle was conferred by the king on his eldest son Edward.  In 1277 the Courts of Exchequer and King’s Bench, during the reign of Edward I., were removed to Shrewsbury, in which place they appear to have been held at least for some months.

David, Prince of Wales, the last of the princes of the ancient Britons, having at length become a prisoner in the hands of Edward, in 1283, was sent in chains to Shrewsbury.  A writ having been issued for assembling the parliament on September 30th at this place, for the express purpose of taking into consideration the measures necessary to be adopted with respect to this rebellious prince.  This is remarkable, as “the first national convention in which the commons had any share by legal authority.”  Twenty cities and towns, Shrewsbury being one, were directed to send two deputies, and every high sheriff to send two knights.  The parliament met in the chapter house, or refectory of the abbey, where David was condemned to be drawn about the town at the tail of a horse, then hanged, afterwards quartered, his bowels burnt, his four quarters sent to York, Bristol, Northampton, and Winchester, and his head fixed near that of his brother Llewelyn, on the Tower of London.  Thus, with the death of the last of the ancient British princes, commenced a mode of execution, usually exercised on traitors, disgraceful to humanity, and barbarous in its example.

In the 20th of Richard II. the parliament was adjourned from Westminster to Shrewsbury.  On the king’s arrival, he gave a sumptuous feast to the peers and commons in the abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul.  The parliament was held in the Chapter House, and so numerous were the members and their retinues that Speed calls this “THE GREAT PARLIAMENT.”  It was certainly an important one.  Chester was on this occasion made a principality, and among the articles of accusation afterwards brought against the king by Henry Bolingbroke were the oppressive laws which it enacted.  The next account on record relative to this place is the memorable Battle of Shrewsbury; the skirmishing of which began under the walls of the castle gates, but the principal scene of action was at Battlefield.  This engagement between Henry IV. and the Earl of Northumberland, fought on the plains and heaths of Battlefield and Albright Hussey, was one of the most important recorded in English history.  The origin of the quarrel was a mandate from the monarch to the earl not to ransom his Scottish prisoners taken at Homedon, which that nobleman deemed an infringement of his rights.  The jealous policy of Henry in this proceeding, and his ingratitude for the services which raised him to the throne, roused the indignation of Northumberland, and inflamed the high soul of his son, Lord Henry Percy, whose warlike disposition had gained him the characteristic appellation of Hotspur.  Thomas, Earl of Worcester, younger brother to Northumberland, participated in their discontents, entered into their views of revenge, and offered his assistance to overthrow the usurper whom they had united to establish.  Hotspur, who was the life of the conspiracy, released and made a friend of his valiant rival, Douglas, entered into a correspondence with Glyndwr, and reared the standard of rebellion, around which all his vassals and adherents rallied.  He was joined by a powerful army from Scotland, under Earl Douglas and other chiefs, who, impelled by a rooted animosity to the King of England, warmly espoused the cause of the conspirators.  Henry, who was apprised of their movements, placed himself at the head of a body of troops, and hurried into Shropshire, having previously ordered his sons, the Prince of Wales and Lord John of Lancaster, and his steady adherent, the Earl of Westmorland, to meet him with reinforcements at Bridgnorth.  Aware that every thing depended on celerity of movement, he took possession of Shrewsbury, just as the forces of Lord Percy were preparing to assail it.  Owen Glyndwr having mustered a numerous levy of Welshmen at Oswestry, sent off a detachment of 4,000, but, on being apprised of the king’s success, thought proper to suspend the march of his main body.  Had the valour of Hotspur been tempered by discretion, he would have paused until the junction of his ally had given him better assurance of success.  His army consisted of 14,000 chosen men; but the king’s army is said to have been nearly double that number.  Had Glyndwr made good his engagements, the armies would have been about equal.  Percy, however, had confidence in his own prowess, and his experience of that of his compeer, Douglas, banished every doubt of victory from his mind.  His ardour received a momentary check from the following incident, which strikingly exemplifies the universal superstition of the times:—In preparing for the field, he called for his favourite sword, when he was informed that he had left it at the village of Berwick the preceding night.  The name of the place startled him, and heaving a sigh, he exclaimed, “Alas! then, my death is near at hand; for a wizard once told me that I should not live long after I had been at Berwick, which I thought was a town in the north so called.  Yet, I will not be cheaply won.”

The abbot of Shrewsbury and one of the clerks of the privy seal, were sent by the King to offer pardon to Hotspur if he would lay down his arms, but to no purpose.  Percy completed all his military arrangements, and stationed his troops in a field still called the Hateleys—the royal forces occupying ground immediately opposite.  A flourish of trumpets, mingling with the contending shouts of “St. George and victory,” and “Esperance Percy,” was the signal of onset, which was answered by a tremendous discharge of arrows from both sides.  The Scots, who were too impatient to fight at a distance, rushed with great fury upon the centre of the royal army, and threw it into disorder; but the King hastening with fresh succour rallied his broken troops and recovered their ground.  He frequently exposed himself in the thickest of the battle, which indeed he might the more safely do, since he had diminished the chances of personal danger, by investing several of his knights in regal habiliments.  Events soon proved the prudence of the stratagem.  Percy sought him in every part of the field, and Douglas with equal impetuosity slew three of these mock-monarchs with his own hand.  The fight extended from Berwick westward, to the vicinity of Haughmond Abbey in the east, and continued for three hours with various success.  The bravery of the King was nobly seconded by the valour of his son, Prince Henry, who that day performed his noviciate in arms, and gave earnest of the future glory of Agincourt.  The Scottish champion, seconded by Hotspur, made another furious attack on the royal station—slew the standard bearer, and came within a sword’s point of the king, who fled for his life.  In one of these charges Hotspur was shot through the brain by an arrow, and fell gloriously in the midst of his foes.  Shortly after his army gave way on all sides, and a total rout ensued.  Douglas fled, and being hotly pursued, he was thrown down from his horse while taking a desperate leap on Haughmond-hill, and seized by the enemy.  Phillips, the historian, says, “1,600 royalists were slain, and 3,000 wounded; on the side of Percy 6,000 were killed, among whom were Lord Percy and most of the knights and gentlemen of Cheshire; there fell on that day 2,291 men of note.”  Henry having put a period to the slaughter, halted to return thanks on the field of battle, and decreed the erection of a collegiate church at Battlefield.  The pious gratitude of the victorious monarch but ill accorded with the punishment he subsequently inflicted on the vanquished.  The Earl of Worcester, Sir Theobald Trussel, and Sir Richard Vernon, were executed at the high cross of Shrewsbury, and their heads exposed to public view on London bridge.  Hotspur’s body, which was found among the slain, was placed between two mill stones, in the market place, after which it was quartered, and hung on the gates of Shrewsbury, and other places in the kingdom.  The King released Douglas without ransom, because he feared the Scots would avenge the death of a man so dear to them, and from similar motives he afterwards accepted the submission of Northumberland.

During the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster, which deluged England with blood, almost to the total extinction of her ancient nobility, the town of Shrewsbury espoused the party of the White Rose.  In the records of the corporation is preserved a letter from Richard, Duke of York, requesting the burgesses to assist him with men in the enterprise he meditated of removing his rival, Somerset, from power.  After his defeat and death at Wakefield, his son Edward, Earl of March, went to Shrewsbury, and obtained in its neighbourhood a powerful levy, which enabled him to revenge his father’s cause, in the great victory of Mortimer’s Cross.  He was shortly after proclaimed king.  The attachment of the inhabitants, and the great strength of the town, induced him to choose it as the asylum for his queen during the subsequent vicissitudes of the war.  Whilst she resided here she had two sons, Richard and George Plantagenet; the latter died young, and the former, with his elder brother, Prince Edward, was, according to history, murdered in the Tower, at the instigation of their uncle, the Protector.  On the usurpation of the crown by Richard III. his agent, the Duke of Buckingham, deserted him and fled into Wales, where he took up arms, and endeavoured to excite a general insurrection against the tyrant whom he had formerly served.  Being abandoned by his followers, he fled in disguise into Shropshire, and concealed himself in the house of his steward, who, tempted by the price offered for his apprehension, betrayed him to John Mytton, sheriff of the county.  He was immediately taken to Shrewsbury, where, by the king’s peremptory order, and without trial, he was executed on a scaffold erected before the High Cross.

The despotisms of Richard soon alienated the hearts of his subjects, and disposed them to receive his rival, the Earl of Richmond, with open arms.  That prince, afterwards King Henry VII., landed at Milford Haven in August, 1485, with a force of about 2,000 men.  The Welsh, who regarded him as their countryman, flocked to his standard and gave him every assurance of support.  Having mustered his army he determined to march for Shrewsbury.  On arriving at the Welsh bridge, he found the place in a posture of defence; and on summoning the town he was unexpectedly refused admittance by the head bailiff; a curious conference ensued, of which an account is given in a manuscript belonging to the school library.  “The head-bailey Maister Myttoon, being a stout wyse gentilman, on demand being made of entrance, answered, sayinge that he knew no kynge but only kynge Richard, whose lyffetenants he and his fellows were; and before he should entir there, he should go over his belly, meaning thereby, that he should be slayne to the ground, and that he protested vehemently on the othe he had tacken; but on better advice Maister Myttoon permitted the kynge to pass; but to save hys othe, the sayd Myttoon lay along the ground, and his belly upwards, and soe the said erle stepped over hym and saved his othe.”  The earl was first proclaimed king on his entrance into Shrewsbury; the inhabitants testifying their joy at his coming, and their vows for his success.  He is said to have lodged in a house in the Wyle Cop, three doors below the Lion Inn.  In 1488, when quietly established on the throne, he paid a visit to Shrewsbury, in testimony of his gratitude for its services to his cause; and in 1490, he, with his Queen and Prince Arthur, were present at a solemn festival, and attended mass in the collegiate church of St. Chad.  Five years after, Henry again visited the town, and was nobly entertained in the castle by the corporation.  The spring of the year 1551 was fatally distinguished by the commencement of a dreadful epidemic in this town called the “sweating sickness.”

In the year 1642, the ill-fated Charles I. came hither from Nottingham, at the head of his army, which was here amply reinforced and provisioned.  The King was joined by Prince Rupert, Prince Charles, and the Duke of York, and many other noblemen and gentlemen of the neighbouring counties.  Charles set up a mint here, at which was coined money for his own use, from the voluntary contributions of plate which were sent by the inhabitants and others.  The corporation about this time filed a bill in Chancery against Richard Gibbons, late mayor, and Thomas Challoner, schoolmaster, who kept the keys of the free school chest, to recover the sum of £600, which they had surreptitiously taken from the funds of the charity, and lent to his Majesty.  It appears the bill was dismissed without any relief, but it took the right honourable the Commissioners of the Great Seal eleven years before they could decide on its rejection.  What, however, of justice was wanting to the plaintiffs in this cause was made up in assurances of thankfulness, and gracious promises by the royal receiver, who had given his note of hand, to refund the money whenever it should be called for.  Some time after the king’s arrival he summoned the gentlemen and freeholders of the county, and addressed them in the following terms, on a plot of land called the Soldiers’ Piece, now converted into a race course:—“It is some benefit to me, from the insolence and misfortunes which have driven me about, that they have brought me to so good a part of my kingdom, and so faithful a part of my people.  I hope neither you nor I shall repent my coming hither; I will do my part that you may not; and of you I was confident before I came.  The residence of an army is not usually pleasant to any place, and mine may carry more fear with it, since it may be thought (being robbed and spoiled of all my own, and such terror used to fright and keep all men from supplying me), I must only live upon the aid and relief of my people.  But be not afraid, I would to God my poor subjects suffered no more by the insolence and violence of that army raised against me (though they have made themselves wanton even with plenty), than you shall do by mine.  And yet I fear I cannot prevent all disorders; I will do my best; and this I promise you, no man shall be a loser by me, if I can help it.  I have sent hither for a mint; I will melt down my own plate, and expose all my land to sale or mortgage, that if it be possible, I may not bring the least pressure upon you.  In the meantime, I have summoned you hither to do that for me and yourselves, for the maintenance of your religion, and the law of the land (by which you enjoy all that you have) which other men do against me.  Do not suffer so good a cause to be lost, for want of supplying me with that, which will be taken from you by those who pursue me with violence.  And whilst these ill men sacrifice their money, plate, and utmost industry to destroy, be you no less liberal to preserve.  Assure yourselves, if it please God to bless me with success, I shall remember the assistance that every particular man here gives me to his advantage.  However, it will hereafter (how furiously soever the minds of men are now possessed) be honour and comfort to you, that with some charge and trouble to yourselves, you did your part to support your king and preserve the kingdom.”  During the king’s residence here he kept his court at the Council House.  The Princes Rupert and Morris were stationed with the army, which exercised in the fields near the Hall.  The king caused the castle gates to be repaired, pulled down many houses near the castle, and brought the water from the Severn up to the gate, by means of a draw bridge.  He also built a strong fort at the upper end of Frankwell, in which he planted cannon.

Sir Michael Earnley was governor of the castle in 1644, and during the storming of the town by the parliamentary forces had command of the garrison.  At this time, Colonel Mytton, a soldier of great valour, was governor of a small garrison at Wem, and general of Cromwell’s army in this county.  Having made two unsuccessful attempts, on the night of the 3rd of February, he came with his forces consisting of two hundred and fifty foot, and the same number of horse, and marched towards Shrewsbury, where they arrived about three o’clock on Saturday morning.  Eight carpenters went up the river in a little boat, and landed within the enemy’s breast work, under the castle hill on the east side.  The sentinels, after some pause fired upon them, but they very soon sawed down so many of the palasades as gave the men a free passage.

The first that stormed were forty-two troopers dismounted, with their pistols, and about as many firelocks.  They were led on by Mr. Huson, a puritan preacher, Captain Willers, and Lieutenant Benbow; then followed some other musqueteers along the side of the Severn, under the Castle Hill, and entered the town at the Water-lane Gate; after these marched three hundred and fifty infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Rinking.  Having entered the streets of the town they marched to the market place, surprised the guard, and put the captain to death; the rest marched to the castle Foregate, which was also soon gained; the guard having basely deserted it.  The town being in possession of the parliamentary forces, they let down the draw bridge, near the castle, and the horse immediately entered under the command of Colonel Mytton and Bowyer.  It was now about break of day, and the inhabitants were filled with consternation and surprise at beholding the enemy in the very heart of the town, which, on retiring to rest the preceding night, they thought the most secure in the island.  About twelve o’clock the castle after a feeble resistance surrendered, on condition that the English part of it should march to Ludlow, but the Irish were delivered up to the conquerors.  At the time of the assault the governor, Sir Michael Earnley, was confined by sickness to his bed; but waked by the noise of the tumult, he sprang up at the moment the enemy were rushing into his chamber, and with great courage refused to submit to the conquerors, rejecting all quarter, he wantonly perished, covered more with wounds than with glory.  The loss in killed and wounded was inconsiderable; but the prisoners and property seized by the victors was of great importance, for here were taken eight knights and baronets, forty colonels, majors, captains, and others of quality, besides the common soldiers, also fifteen pieces of ordnance, several hundred stand of arms and powder, &c.  For these important services the general received the thanks of parliament, and was made governor of the castle.  The late lieutenant governor was tried by a court martial at Gloucester, and afterwards hanged, for negligence and cowardice, in suffering the place to be surprised without his having made a suitable resistance.  Prince Maurice made his escape before the castle surrendered, but the whole of his magazine fell into the hands of the victors.

In the contest between the king and the parliament, Colonel John Benbow, uncle to the celebrated Admiral Benbow, united with the parliament forces; but afterwards deserted his principles, and espoused the cause of the monarch.  He distinguished himself by opposing his former associates at the taking of Shrewsbury, for which vacillating conduct he was condemned by the parliament, and shot on the green before the castle, October 15th, 1651.  At the same time the parliament in order to strike terror into those who favoured royalty, adjudged the Earl of Derby to suffer at Bolton.  Several other gentlemen of the first families in England were also sentenced to death at the same period.  An attempt was made to reduce the town to loyal obedience, after the death of the protector Cromwell, but the governor of the castle secured the place in the interest of parliament.

At the restoration, notwithstanding the joy which was diffused through the kingdom, it is probable there were some in every county who still sighed for the Commonwealth.  The municipal bodies of the realm, terrified by the example of London, made haste to surrender the charters they had received from former monarchs into the hands of the sovereign.  The corporation, however, of Shrewsbury stood out for a twelvemonth.  At length, on the 13th of June, 1684, it was agreed unanimously, that the charter of the town should be surrendered and yielded up to his majesty, when his pleasure should require it.  On the 20th of August, it was “Ordered that the mayor and committee attend the Lord Chief Justice Jones, to discourse him, touching the renewing of the charter, and unanimously agreed, that in the new charter there shall be only twelve aldermen and twenty-four assistants.”  The king’s death prevented this instrument from passing the great seal in his name.  Within a week after that event, the corporation sent up an address to their new sovereign, expressive of “their joyfulness in his succession, and humbly thanking him for his gracious declaration in preferring the Protestant religion;” no obscure intimation of their wishes on that momentous subject, which engaged all ranks with an intensity of interest difficult to be conceived by the present generation.  On the 17th of March, 1684, the corporation received their new charter, in which the king expresses his gracious affection for the melioration of the town of Salop, and hopes that, if the burgesses and inhabitants have more ample liberties and privileges, they will be the better enabled and the more bound to render him the more special service.  He grants that the town shall be “a free town of itself, and the burgesses and inhabitants shall be a body corporate, and sue and be sued; that there shall be one good and discreet man of the aldermen of the town who shall be mayor; twelve good and discreet men (the mayor being one) who shall be aldermen; and twenty-four good and discreet men, assistants.”  Then follow various other officers, and a clause empowering the corporation to supply vacancies occasioned by death, &c.  When James II. made a progress through this part of his dominions, the corporation resolved to expend £200 in entertaining and making a present to the king.  They despatched two gentlemen to Gloucester and Worcester for the purpose of ascertaining the manner in which the royal traveller was entertained in those cities.  They resolved that the conduits should run with wine on the day of his majesty’s entrance, and that the corporated companies should appear with their drums, colours, flags, and streamers.  The king arrived on the 24th of August, and took up his abode at the Council House, where the corporation presented him with a purse of gold containing one hundred guineas.  On the following morning, he exercised the gift of healing, by touching several persons for the king’s evil.  The king issued a proclamation on the 17th of October for restoring corporations to their ancient charters and franchises, and orders were the same day made in council for removing all corporate officers, who had been put in by the crown since 1679.  Richard Mickleston was at this time mayor of Shrewsbury; under the new charter of 1685 he was discharged from his office, and John Hill, Esq., elected in his room, under the charter of 1638.

The various “compositions” which the burgesses of Shrewsbury appear to have entered into amongst themselves for the government of this borough, clearly indicate that a large share of power was exercised by “the commons” in its municipal institutions.  The liberties and customs of the burgesses or commons were confirmed by the charter of Henry II., and by various others granted before and after the date of the compositions alluded to.  But the constitution of the borough was materially altered by a charter of the 14th of Charles I., transferring to a select body the functions previously exercised by the commons.  This charter continued to be the governing one till the passing of the new municipal act, in 1835.  The corporation by it was appointed to consist of a mayor, twenty-four aldermen, and forty-eight assistants, with an indefinite number of burgesses or freemen, under the style of the “mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the town of Shrewsbury, in the county of Salop,” instead of the “bailiffs and burgesses,” as in the old charter.  The ministerial officers named in the charter were, the recorder and his deputy, the steward, town clerk, two coroners, four auditors, two chamberlains, a sword bearer, three serjeants-at-mace, and three serjeants-yeomen.  Exclusive jurisdiction in the borough was granted, the magistrates being the mayor and ex-mayor, the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, the chancellor of the diocese, the recorder, steward, and three senior aldermen.  Few of them, however, continued to act.  Petty sessions were authorised to be held weekly, quarter sessions for all criminal actions not capital, a weekly court of record for all personal suits to any amount, and for ejectments, and a court leet, with view of frank-pledge.  A court of requests was established in the 23rd of George III. for the recovery of debts under 40s., which was held every alternate week.  The number of suits in the court in 1839 was 1011.  This court has been superseded by the new county court act.

Under the new municipal act, the borough is included in schedule A, amongst boroughs to have a commission of the peace, which has accordingly been granted, and the court of quarter sessions and recorder re-appointed; and in section I. of that schedule among those the parliamentary boundaries of which were to be taken till altered by parliament.  The limits of the borough extend considerably beyond the ancient boundaries, and now include the whole town and its suburbs.  It has been divided into five wards, and appointed to be governed by ten aldermen and thirty councillors under the usual corporate style.  The income of the corporation in 1840, was £1903. 10s. 8d.  The income for the year ending September 1st, 1850, was £3184. 6s. 9d. of which £515. 11s. 3d. arose from the rental of premises; £1750. 1s. 11d. from the borough rate; and the remainder from miscellaneous sources.  The principal items of expenditure for the same period are—police, £832. 1s. 4d.; salaries, £346. 14s.; rent and taxes, £42. 8s.; reparations, £187. 6s. 5d.; turns in the quarry and other annual payments, £267. 19s. 2d.; prosecutions, £217. 19s. 5d.; maintenance and removal of prisoners, £245. 17s. 11d.; expenses at sessions, including fees, &c., £395. 1s. 4d.; inquests and coroners expenses, £72. 4s. 6d.  There was also a balance of £265. 0s. 9d. in the treasurer’s hands.  Shrewsbury has regularly returned two members to parliament since the reign of Edward I.  Previous to the passing of the reform act the franchise was in the burgesses inhabiting within the ancient limits of the borough, paying scot and lot, and not receiving alms or charity.  The county assizes, and quarter sessions, are held here; petty sessions are held every Tuesday, and the borough magistrates sit daily.

The following is a list of the members of parliament, the corporate body, and the municipal officers of the borough of Shrewsbury for the year 1851:—

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

Robert Anglionby Slaney, Esq., and Edward Holmes Baldock, Esq.

BOROUGH MAGISTRATES.

Edward Hughes, Esq., mayor; Joseph Birch, Esq., ex-mayor; Robert Burton, Esq.; Edward Haycock, Esq.; William Henry Perry, Esq.; James Watkins, Esq.; T. G. Gwyn, Esq.; Edward Morris, Esq., John Hazledine, Esq.

Mayor—Edward Hughes, Esq.

Aldermen—John Thomas Smitheman, Esq.; Edward Haycock, Esq.; William Wyburgh How, Esq.; John Loxdale, Esq.; James Watkins, Esq.; John Bowen, Esq.; Robert Burton, Esq.; Thomas Groves, Esq.; John Legh, Esq.; Charles Lloyd, Esq.

COUNCILLORS.

Castle Ward Within—William James Clement, Joseph Birch, William Henry Perry, Edwin Foulkes, Thomas Hall, Richard Jeffreys Mulckleston.

Castle Ward Without—James Smith, Thomas Birch, John Bishton Minor, Joseph Chune, Benjamin Birch, James Moore.

Stone Ward Within—Thomas Campbell Eyton, William Richard Stokes, David Evans, James Burrey, Edward Hughes, Lewis Meredith.

Stone Ward Without—William Burr, Charles Bowen Teece, John Hazledine, George Harper, Richard Taylor, William Butler Lloyd.

Welsh Ward—Thomas William Trouncer, Robert Mortimer Healing, Robert Baugh Blakemore, William Onions, Robert Haycock, Henry Keate.

Recorder, Charles Harwood, Esq.  Coroner (borough), Henry Keate, Esq.  Town Clerk, J. J.  Peel, Esq.  Clerk of the Peace, G. Gordon, Esq.  Magistrates’ Clerk, W. H. Cooper, Esq.  Chief Constable, Captain Mayne.  Borough Treasurer, Mr. Henry Pidgeon.  Surveyor, Mr. Thomas Tisdale.  Governor of the Gaol, Mr. John Sheppard, Town Marshall and senior Serjeant, S. Farlow.  Chief Constable, William Harper.  Serjeant of Mace, John Thomas.  Town Crier, George Rowe.

The Borough Police Force consists of a chief constable, two superintendents, two inspectors, and thirteen constables.

The County Constabulary consists of a chief constable, two first class superintendents, four second class superintendents, ten first class constables, and forty second class constables.

In the year 1756, thirty-seven colliers were brought to gaol for rioting and committing outrages in the county, it being a time of scarcity for all kinds of provisions.  The trial took place at the spring assizes of the following year.  Ten of the rioters were left for execution; but the judge sent his report express to the attorney-general, with an intimation fixed for the day of execution, and the individuals two in number, who, as he deemed it should suffer the sentence of the law.  The report having been transmitted to Mr. Pitt, then secretary of state, it lay there untouched, and was never laid before the king.  The day of execution arrived, without any reprieve, and Mr. Leek, the deputy sheriff, was advised by several of the principal gentlemen in the town to leave the prisoners to their fate.  But he was so much shocked at the thought of executing so large a number, which he was convinced could not be the intention of the judge, that he ventured to postpone the execution, and sent off an express to London, on the return of which he had the satisfaction of finding that his conduct was highly approved of, and still more, the consciousness that he had saved eight lives.  The following is part of a letter written to him on the occasion by Lord Chief Justice Willes:—“Till I saw your letter I was under the greatest uneasiness,—for I took it for granted that all the ten rioters had been executed on Saturday last; and, upon my return from the Home Circuit, on Thursday last, I found that by a shameful neglect in one of the secretary of state’s officers, no reprieve had been sent down; and, as it was then too late to send one down, I saw no reason to hope that their execution would be deferred to a longer time.  But though, to be sure, you have acted contrary to your duty, you have acted a wise, prudent, and most humane part; and you have not only my thanks, but the thanks of some of the greatest men in the kingdom, for the part you have acted on this occasion.”  In a letter from Mr. Leek’s agent in town it is stated, “My Lord Commissioner Willes was so afflicted . . . that it really made him ill; and he did not for two days go into the king’s closet, so much he feared the effect it might have upon the king’s mind, if the affair was communicated to his majesty while it was under that state of uncertainty.  Thank God, your prudent and well judged respite has prevented all the uneasiness and mischiefs that might have happened; and I have the pleasure to assure you that no step was ever taken that has given more satisfaction, than this of yours has done.  My Lord Commissioner Willes waited this day upon the king with your letter, and has directed me to acquaint you, by his majesty’s orders, that his majesty entirely approves of what you have done.”

CHURCHES.

St. Mary’s Church stands in a commanding position in St. Mary’s street, and is one of the most interesting ecclesiastical edifices in the country.  This fine structure is cruciform, and consists of nave, side aisles, transept, chancel, two side chapels, and a tower, crowned with a lofty and beautiful spire.  In common with most of our early churches there is no opportunity of ascertaining the precise date of its erection; it is said to owe its foundation to Edgar, who, at the suggestion of Archbishop Dunstan, placed in it a dean, seven prebends, and a parish priest, with a stipend of £6. 6s. 8d. per annum.  There is, however, every probability that the foundation was antecedent to his reign.  In the time of Edward the Confessor, this college possessed a landed estate of about 1300 acres, which it continued to hold at the Domesday survey, but of which it was soon after deprived.  From a very early period this church enjoyed the privilege of a royal free chapel, and was therefore exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishops.  These privileges formed a frequent ground of contest between the sovereign pontiffs and the kings of England.  A particular instance relates to the church now under consideration.  About the year 1270, the dean had a dispute with the Abbot of Salop, touching the right of presentation to the Church of Fittes, or as it was then written, Fitesho, to which one Robert de Acton had been instituted by the Bishop of Lichfield, and forcibly ejected by the dean.  Acton, being a crusader, was under the especial protection of the pope, whose officer called “the Executor of the Cross,” sent an order to the Abbot of Shrewsbury to restore the incumbent to his benefice.  This being done the king’s attorney-general filed an information against the abbot, requiring him to answer ‘whereof he exercised jurisdiction in the Chapel of Fitesho,’ appertaining to the King’s Free Chapel of St. Mary, of Salop, which is exempt, so that neither our lord “the pope, nor any other ecclesiastical judge hath jurisdiction therein.”  Judgment passed against the abbot, and he was sentenced to pay damages to the king and to suffer imprisonment.

The Dean of St. Mary’s, had, from time immemorial, the power of collecting and paying into the king’s exchequer, the tenths or other subsidies arising from the deanery and prebends.  Edward the first confirmed this privilege; and his grandson, in the eighteenth year of his reign, recognized by directing the sheriffs of Salop and Hereford not to enter the jurisdiction of the royal chapel, or to levy a distress on the possessions thereof, for any subsidies or tenths, unless the dean should neglect to make a due return.  At the dissolution of collegiate churches 1. of Edward VI., the revenues which consisted chiefly of tithe, amounted to £42, the greatest portion of which was granted by that monarch towards the endowment of the Free Schools.  According to Leland it had a dean and nine poor prebendaries, also vicars choral, two chauntry priests, a parish priest, and a clerk or assistant.  The peculiar jurisdiction of the Royal Free Chapel remained till the recent act of parliament restored it to the bishop of the diocese, and was held in lease at an annual rent of £1. 6s. 8d., of the corporation to whom Queen Elizabeth granted it by charter, dated 23rd May, 1571.  The usual style of the minister was “ordinary and official, principal of the peculiar and exempt jurisdiction of the Free Royal Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”  In his courts wills were proved, letters of administration were granted, and all ecclesiastical matters, arising within the parish and its subordinate chapelries, adjudicated.  In 1632, King Charles I., during his residence at the council house, attended divine service here, received the sacraments, and made solemn protestations of his fidelity to the principles of the reformed religion.

This venerable edifice exhibits various styles of architecture: the Anglo-Norman of the 12th century in the basement of the nave and most of the doors; the lancet style of the 13th century, in the chancel and transept, and the obtuse arch of the 15th century in the side aisles and chapels.  The basement of the tower is of red sand stone, and the upper portion of grey, and in the Anglo-Norman and early pointed styles of architecture.  The dimensions of the church are—length from east to west 160 feet—breadth of nave and side aisles 53 feet—transept 90 feet, and height of tower and steeple 223 feet; the height of the steeple from the bed of the river 300 feet.  The beautifully proportioned octagonal spire which rises from a tower of noble proportions, is a conspicuous ornament to the town, and is seen from the adjacent country to a considerable distance.  The nave and side aisles externally, in the pointed style of the 15th century, are of the Grinshill free stone, and entered on the north and south-west by beautiful semi-circular arches, adorned with chevron, lozenged and foliated mouldings; the south-west porch is in the Anglo-Norman style, having zigzag mouldings, issuing from clustered columns, with foliated capitals.  On each side is a small pointed window, exhibiting specimens of the earliest rudiments of the millioned Gothic architecture, in which has lately been placed some highly interesting painted glass, of German execution, on which are depicted various incidents, chiefly from the Apocrypha.  A stone porch, entered by a pointed arch, had recently been erected before the corresponding door on the north side.

The interior of this venerable edifice is spacious, lofty, and strikingly noble; the nave is separated from the side aisles by four semicircular arches, resting on elegant clustered columns, with foliated capitals of varied and beautiful designs.  Above is a clerestory, which is continued along the walls of the chancel, lighted by a short double window, bluntly pointed and bisected by single mullions.  The ceiling of the nave is of panelled oak, richly studded with elegant and exquisitely carved pendants and foliated bosses, and merits attention not only on account of its elaborate workmanship, but as being one of the richest and most highly preserved specimens of its kind now in existence.  A lofty pointed arch, including in its span the entire breadth of the nave, rises from richly clustered piers, with foliated capitals, and divides the nave from the ancient choir.  Eastward is a similar arch of like dimensions, springing from the same pier.  From these, the wings of the transept, corresponding in size, branch off to the north and south.  At each extremity of the transept is a fine triple lancet window, highly enriched with slender shafts, foliated capitals, and delicate mouldings, filled with beautiful stained glass, illustrative of Scripture history; the most prominent figures are those of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Apostles and Evangelists, and an escutcheon of the arms of George III., executed by Mr. David Evans, of Shrewsbury.  The chancel is elevated above the rest of the church.  The ceiling, like that of the transept, is excellently painted, and adorned with some of the rich fret work removed from the wreck of the churches of St. Chad and St. Alkmund.  On the north side of the altar is a beautiful triple lancet window, with arches remarkably acute, resting on two insulated columns, with capitals adorned with foliage.  This window contains some fine stained glass, representing the history of the life of St. Bernard.  The great east window occupies the whole extremity of the chancel, and exhibits the debased style of English architecture of the Elizabethan era.  In this window is the curious and beautiful ancient stained glass which filled the window of the old St. Chad’s church, prior to its demolition, and which was presented to this church in 1791.  The subject is the genealogy of Christ from the root of Jesse.  Jesse is represented reclining in sleep, from his loins spring a vine, which overspreads the whole window, enclosed in his branches the several kings, his descendants—the series of which is finished by the husband of the Virgin Mary in a devotional posture at the feet of his progenitor.  Many of the figures are depicted with their peculiar emblems, the ground of the whole is exquisitely beautiful, and the clusters of grapes, and the bright verdure of the vine leaves, are displayed with great effect.  Underneath is an inscription requesting our prayers for “Mons. John de Charlton, and Dame Hawis, his companion,” from which, and from the armorial bearings, we learn that this beautiful piece of ancient art was set up by the great Sir John de Charlton, lord of Powis, and must have been executed about the middle of the fourteenth century.  It has been conjectured the glass was presented to the grey friars of this town, to which religious house Sir John and his wife were great benefactors, and that it was removed to St. Chad’s at the dissolution.  This is a singular circumstance of so fragile a material surviving the destruction of two vast and substantial edifices.  Within the last few years the window has been judiciously restored.  The organ is a powerful and fine toned instrument, erected by Harris and Byfield, in 1729.  By the munificence of the present incumbent, the west end has been enriched by an elegant organ screen of the most elaborate workmanship, executed by Mr. John Carline.  On the south side of the chancel is the Trinity or “Leybourne chapel,” which communicates with the south transept by a fine Norman arch, and with the chancel with an arch in the pointed style.  It is said to have been founded about the year 1300, by one of the Leybournes, of Berwick, as a place of sepulture for the family, and was subsequently enlarged into its present form by the Draper’s company.  In the south east wall are three stone sedilia, with canopied arches, and near the north east wall is an altar tomb (probably of Simon de Leybourne, lord of Berwick, who died between 1300 and 1315), the sides of which are adorned with canopied niches formerly containing figures; and on the tomb reclines a figure of a knight cross-legged, and in chain armour.  In this tomb the headless corpse of Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, who was taken prisoner at the battle of Shrewsbury, 1403, and beheaded, is believed to have been interred.  Underneath the south window is a neatly executed gothic monument in memory of Heathcoate Wigram, of Woodhouse, in the county of Essex; he was a pupil to the Royal Free Grammar School, of this town, and was drowned whilst bathing in the Severn, on September 1st, 1838, aged 14 years.  The monument was erected by the masters and pupils in memory of him whom they loved and lamented.  Against the east wall are monuments to John Jendine, Esq., and Thomas Sutton, Esq., and between them is the statue of Bishop Butler, erected by his pupils at the cost of eight hundred guineas.  The figure is full length, sitting in an easy and graceful position, clothed in the episcopal robes; the right hand hanging over the chair, and the left hand supporting the head, which is leaning in thought.  The figure is of the purest statuary marble, and the pedestal which supports the statue of dove coloured marble from the Clee Hill; it was sculptured by F. H. Baily, Esq., R.A.  On the north side of the chancel is the vestry, recently erected in the Norman style, the windows of which are ornamented with antique German and Flemish glass; immediately adjoining is the chauntry chapel of St. Catherine; these windows are also beautified with stained glass, illustrating various portions of Scripture history.  This chapel is now used as a baptistry, and the ancient stone font, which is beautifully carved, stands in the centre, on a rich pavement of encaustic tile.  An alabaster slab, against the north wall, engraved with figures of a warrior and a lady, commemorates Nicholas Stafford, Esq., and Catherine, his wife, who died in 1643.  A white marble monument, recently erected by subscription, over the door leading into the vestry, remembers the brave admiral Benbow, a native of the parish.  It represents an obtuse pyramid of black marble, against which leans an oval medallion bust of the admiral, surrounded with anchors, flags, and cannon, and below a delicately sculptured representation in bas relief of a naval fight.  In the north transept is placed a most beautiful free stone monument to the late Rev. J. B. Blakeway, which for elegance of design, and beauty of execution, has rarely been surpassed in modern times; it is upwards of 12 feet in length and 16 feet in height, and is divided into three compartments by clustered buttresses, which sustain richly crocheted pinnacles.  The centre compartment comprises a large pointed arch canopied and crocheted, the back of which is deeply recessed, and contains the following inscription in ornamental Roman capitals:—

To the Memory of the Reverend
John Brickdale Blakeway, M.A., F.A.S.,
Thirty-one years ordinary and official,
And thirty-two years Minister of this Parish.
This Monument is erected
By the voluntary subscription of his parishioners,
As a tribute of respect for his talents,
Esteem for his virtues,
And gratitude for his long and faithful services,
As their friend and pastor.
He died the tenth day of March, MDCCCXXVI,
Aged sixty years.

As a preacher, Mr. Blakeway was admired for his forcible illustration of Holy writ, and the valuable admonitions which his discourses generally contained.  As an author he was known to the world by the publication of several sermons, and controversial tracts; and as an historian his name will be immortalized in the elaborate History of Shrewsbury, which he commenced in 1820, in conjunction with the venerable Archdeacon Owen, and just lived to see the general history and ecclesiastical portions published in two quarto volumes.  There are other memorials, exquisite specimens of monumental skill, unrivalled in elegance of design and richness of execution, in various parts of the same edifice, which our limits will not allow us to notice.  On the exterior wall of the tower are the following quaint verses to the memory of Robert Cadman, who, on February 2nd, 1793, lost his life in an attempt to descend from the top of the spire of St. Mary’s along a rope which he had fixed to its highest part, and extended to a field on the opposite side of the river.  In the midst of his passage the rope broke, as he was passing over St. Mary’s Friars, and he fell lifeless on the ice-bound earth:—

Let this small monument record the name
Of Cadman, and to future times proclaim,
How from a bold attempt to fly from this high spire,
Across the Sabrine stream he did acquire
His fatal end!  ’Twas not for want of skill,
Or courage, to perform the task, he fell;
No, no, a faulty cord, being drawn too tight
Hurried his soul on high to take his flight,
Which hid the body here beneath; good night.

The patronage of St. Mary’s church is vested in five trustees, the living is returned at £312, and is enjoyed by the Rev. W. G. Rowland; the Rev. V. B. Johnstone and T. G. Galway are the curates.

St. Chad’s Church.—The old collegiate church of St. Chad, of which only a small part, called the Lady Chapel, is standing, occupies the eminence between College Hill and Belmont.  The collegiate establishment consisted of a dean, ten secular canons, and two vicars choral; and was founded soon after the subjugation of Pengwern, in the 8th century, by Offa, King of Mercia, who, as tradition states, converted the palace of the kings of Powis into his first church.  In the time of Edward the Confessor, this church held twelve hides of land, which it retained at the Domesday survey.  Subsequently other considerable possessions were acquired by the college, so that at the dissolution the yearly revenues amounted to £49. 13s.  The college was dissolved in the 2nd Edward IV., and the crown leased the collegiate property for a term of twenty-one years, and a few years afterwards it was appropriated to the Free School of Shrewsbury, in which it is now vested.  Respecting the various changes which this ancient edifice must have undergone during a period of nearly 1,000 years, few notices have been preserved.  In the year 1393, a considerable part of it was consumed by fire, occasioned by the carelessness of a plumber, who, alarmed at the conflagration, endeavoured to escape over the ford of the Severn, and was drowned.  The damage was so extensive, that the inhabitants of the town obtained from Richard II. a remission of certain taxes to enable them to rebuild it.

In this church, at a very early period, the doctrines of the Reformation were promulgated.  William Thorpe, a priest, obtained leave in the year 1407 to deliver a sermon before the principal inhabitants.  On this occasion he boldly exposed the corruptions of the Romish church, in consequence of which the bailiffs of the town preferred charges of heresy and sedition against him to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who brought him to trial.  In his examination, he candidly admitted the charges laid against him, but adhered to his opinions with manly and unshrinking steadiness, when he was remanded to prison; but of his subsequent fate we possess no account.  The progress of the Reformation effected a wonderful change in the minds of men.  In the 1st of Edward VI. the bailiffs of Shrewsbury, whose predecessors had denounced one of its boldest champions as a heretic, ordered the pictures and superstitious ornaments of St. Chad’s to be publicly burnt; and in the 26th of Elizabeth, the service of the Church of England was solemnly established there.

The old church was a majestic edifice, and from its situation, on a commanding eminence, presented from a distance a cathedral-like appearance.  It was cruciform, with a central tower, and chiefly in the Anglo-Norman and lancet styles of architecture, with subsequent additions, having the characteristics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  The misfortune which befel this venerable edifice in 1788 is a striking proof of the mischiefs occasioned by the interment of the dead in the interior of places of worship.  Early in the year, one of the four pillars, which supported the tower in the centre of the church, shrunk in so alarming a manner as to endanger the safety of the fabric.  An architect of the town advised that the whole tower should be taken down, but the parish vestry, rejecting this advice, employed a mason in the rash attempt of underbuilding the pillar.  The second morning after the work had commenced, July 9th, when the clock had struck four, the decayed pillar gave way, the tower was instantly rent asunder, and falling with its heavy peal of bells on the roof of the nave and transepts, sunk, with a great part of the building, in one tremendous crash to the ground.  The ruins, on the following day, presented an awful spectacle; and pews, pulpit, organ, monuments, and bells, were seen broken and dispersed in a thousand forms.  Among the rubbish were found pieces of Saxon sculpture, which had probably belonged to the ancient church, and had been used in the repairs after the calamitous fire which happened in 1393.  Any attempt at rebuilding the edifice being now deemed inadvisable, the remaining fragments were taken down, except the Lady Chancel, to prevent further mischief.  The fine stained glass of the west window having fortunately escaped destruction, was carefully preserved, and afterwards placed in the chancel of St. Mary’s church.  The figure of St. Chad, in his episcopal vestments, which stood on the summit of the organ, was also preserved, and is now placed in the vestry of the new church.  Such funeral monuments as could be rescued from the ruins, were placed at the disposal of the families to whom they belonged, and others were removed to the chapel before mentioned.  This chapel, originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was rebuilt in 1571, by Humphrey Onslow, Esq., being the burial place of his family, and is now solely used for reading the funeral service over those who are buried in the ancient cemetery.  One of the monuments now removed to the Abbey Church remembered Richard Onslow, an eminent lawyer, and speaker of the House of Commons in the 8th of Queen Elizabeth.  He was the ancestor of Sir Richard, afterwards Lord Onslow, who filled the chair of the House of Commons in the 8th of Queen Anne; and also of Arthur Onslow, Esq., who so ably exercised the office of speaker during many successive parliaments.  There is a small tablet to the Rev. Job Orton, who was interred in the same grave as Mr. Bryan, a former minister of this church, who quitted his benefice on the act of uniformity.

The New Church of St. Chad.—From the site of the old edifice being deemed ineligible, the new church was built on a commanding eminence bordering on the Quarry.  It is constructed of the beautiful white free stone brought from Grinshill.  The body of the church forms a circle one hundred feet in diameter, and externally consists of a rustic basement, with square windows, on which reposes a superstructure, containing a series of large arched windows, between each of which are coupled Ionic pilasters, resting on the basement and supporting a bold cornice, crowned with an open balustrade.  Attached to the main edifice is a small circular building with similar enrichments; and beyond which is the steeple, consisting of three stories.  Upon a square rustic basement rises an octagonal belfry, enriched with Ionic pilasters, and above, a small cupola supported on a heavy cylinder, surrounded by eight slender Corinthian pillars.  A heavy cross and vane crowns the summit.  On each side of the tower is a plain square wing, which are used as vestries.  Before the front is a handsome portico, elevated on a flight of steps, and supported by four Doric columns.  The exterior beauty of this church consists more in the fineness of its materials, and the splendour of its ornaments, than in the harmonious proportion and disposition of its several parts.  The interior is handsomely and conveniently arranged; and though possessing much of the theatrical air, yet, by the ingenuity of the circular arrangement, all the congregation can distinctly hear and see the officiating clergyman.  A capacious gallery, ornamented in front with a handsome balustrade, surrounds the whole church except the chancel, and reposes on a double row of short pillars with Ionic capitals.  From these a corresponding tier of slender fluted shafts rises to the ceiling, which is adorned with a glory in the centre, and a rich cornice of angels and wings interlaced.  The chancel, contrary to general custom, is towards the north, and is separated from the body of the church by a handsome arch, springing from an entablature supported by composite columns, with capitals richly gilt.  Over the chief entrance is a powerful and fine-toned organ, built by Gray, of London, in 1794, and enlarged and improved in 1848.  The font formerly belonged to the parish of Malpas, and is that in which the late Bishop Heber was baptized.

The principal monuments are, a handsome panelled marble tablet, with a fine bust by Chantrey, commemorative of Mr. John Simpson, an eminent architect, and builder of this church.  A similar tablet and bust, by Chantrey, to William Hazledine, Esq., the builder of the Menai bridge; an oblong Grecian tablet, with an elegant latin inscription, to the Rev. Francis Leighton, his lady, and two grandchildren; and in the vestibule an elegant marble mural monument to the officers and privates of the 53rd, or Shropshire Regiment, who were killed on the 10th of February, 1846, in the battles of Subraon, Aliwal, and Loodhiana, on the Sutluj.  The window above the altar is ornamented with painted glass, representing the descent from the cross, after Rubens, the Salutation and Representation in the Temple, executed by Mr. Evans, of this town, whose skill has also been exercised in four other windows of this church, of which the subjects are, the raising of Lazarus, Christ receiving little children, healing of the sick, and the tribute money, the whole of which were presented by the Rev. R. Scott.  The church was commenced building March 2nd, 1790, and consecrated August 20th, 1792; there is accommodation for a congregation of 2200 persons.  The total cost, including site, organ, and bells, £19,352.  The living is a vicarage, returned at £350, in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor; incumbent, Rev. John Yardley, M.A.

The Church of the Holy Cross, commonly called the Abbey Church, is situated in the Abbey Foregate.  It is built of red sand stone, and consists of nave, side aisles, and a massive tower at the west end.  Though the beauty of the church has suffered both from dilapidation and mutilation, yet it displays many interesting features of ancient Norman architecture, combined with the earlier pointed style.  It originally formed part of the richly endowed monastery founded by Roger de Montgomery, the first Earl of Shrewsbury, and was built on the site of a small wooden church dedicated to St. Peter, which it is said was erected in the time of Edward the Confessor, by Siward, a Saxon gentleman, then resident in Shropshire.  The nave or great western aisle, was in very early times appropriated to the use of the neighbouring inhabitants, who were in general servants of the Abbey.  It was called the Parish Church of the Holy Cross, within the monastery of St. Peter’s, of Salop.  For this reason it was spared in the general destruction of the Abbey, and being now one of the parochial churches of the town, retains the name of Holy Cross.  When entire it was a stately cruciform building, equal in size to some of our cathedrals, but two-thirds of the structure was destroyed at the dissolution of monasteries in the time of Henry VIII.  The principal entrance is at the west end under the tower, through a pointed doorway, with mouldings skilfully inserted within a deeply recessed semi-circular arch, the exterior rib of which springs on each side from a Norman pillar, with indented capital.  Above this rises a magnificent and elegantly proportioned window, divided horizontally by embattled transoms, and perpendicularly by six upright mullions into seven compartments; the arched head is gracefully pointed and filled with a profusion of the most delicate tracery.  On each side of the window is a canopied niche, containing statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, the tutelar saints of the Abbey.  The nave is separated from the side aisles by the semi-circular arches, resting on short mosaic pillars in the Anglo-Norman style.  The western portion has two pointed arches in the Gothic style, rising from clustered pillars, with capitals composed of small horizontal mouldings; a lofty and graceful arch opens from the nave of the tower, and affords a view of the fine west window, the upper part of which is filled with armorial bearings.  The fine eastern window filled with stained glass was executed by Evans, of Shrewsbury, with his usual taste.  Underneath this window is a beautifully executed stone altar screen, composed of an arcade of five Norman arches, with varied mouldings, surrounded by a pierced balustrade.  The communion table is fenced by stone railing uniform in style, the whole of which was designed and executed by Messrs. Carline and Dodson, of this town, through the liberality of the late Rev. R. Scott.  The north east window of the north aisle contains a figure of St. Peter, the arms of the see of Lichfield, of Lord Berwick, the donor, and of thirteen incumbents since the reformation.  In the south aisle is a beautiful mosaic window of stained glass, containing the armorial bearings, of the families connected with the Rev. John Roche.  At the west end of the church is a spacious gallery, and an excellent organ, erected in 1806, at the cost of 365 guineas.

There are several ancient monuments which have been removed hither on the demolition of other sacred edifices in the town and county, which are preserved in the ample side aisles.  The oldest in the church is in the south aisle, a mutilated figure of a warrior in the costume of the reign of King John, and supposed to represent the founder of the Abbey, Earl Roger de Montgomery, who died in the year 1094.  In the north aisle is the recumbent figure of a person in the robes and coif of a judge brought from St. Chad’s.  In the south aisle is a monument brought from St. Giles’s church, with a figure in priestly vestments.  Opposite the last is the effigy of a knight in linked armour, removed from the priory church of Wombridge, conjectured to commemorate Sir Walter de Dunstanville, who died in the 25th of Henry III., 1240.  In the south aisle an alabaster altar tomb, bearing the recumbent figures of a man (in the habiliments of war) and his wife, remembers William Charlton, who died in 1524.  This monument was originally erected in Wellington church.  An altar tomb in the north porch, in the style of the fifteenth century, has a figure of a knight in plate armour, partly covered with a monastic dress, and another figure in the dress of a hermit of the Romish church.  Near the east end of the north aisle, is a large altar tomb with full length figures, to the memory of Richard Onslow, Esq., speaker of the House of Commons, in the 8th of Elizabeth, who died 1571, and his lady.  This memorial was formerly placed in the chancel of old St. Chad’s church.  Above this is a mural monument brought from St. Chad’s, representing a gentleman in a ruff, and a lady with long veil thrown back, kneeling under two arches; above, a lady in a habit and coif, and a little girl kneeling, to the memory of Thomas Edwardes, Esq., who died 1634, and of Mary, the wife of his son, Thomas Edwardes, Esq., who died 1641.  In the south aisle is an alabaster altar tomb, in the Grecian style, bearing the figure of an alderman in his civic robe, and a lady in the scarlet gown formerly worn by the lady mayoresses of Shrewsbury, commemorative of William Jones, Esq., who died 1612, and his wife, who died in 1623.  The monument was originally placed in St. Alkmund’s church.  There are numerous other mural monuments, of more modern dates, which are elegantly designed, in memory of deceased members of some of the principal families of the parish.  In the vestry is an old painting of the Crucifixion, which in 1728 occasioned much strife between the minister and his flock.  In that year Mr. Latham, who had been lately inducted to the vicarage, presented a petition to the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, praying that a picture representing our Saviour upon the cross might be removed out of the church.  A counter petition was also presented by the parishioners, but the wardens shortly after received an order from the bishop for the removal of the picture.  It was afterwards long possessed by the family of Hilton, by whom it was again restored to the parishioners of the Holy Cross.  The living is a vicarage with St. Giles annexed, valued in the king’s book at £8.  The small tithes are commuted for £363, and the impropriator, Lord Berwick, receives £110.  The patronage is vested in the Right Hon. Lord Berwick, who received it in exchange for three small livings in Suffolk; incumbent, Rev. Robert L. Burton, M.A.  The vicarage of the Holy Cross is a small fabric of wood and plaster situated in the Abbey Foregate, now converted into two cottages.  From time immemorial certain lands have been vested in the churchwardens and their successors; they now produce an income of £250 per annum.  “The vicar and churchwardens are a corporation with power of making leases of the landed possessions, &c., and have a common seal which is appended to such documents.  The seal is kept in a chest secured by three locks, and the keys are severally in the possession of the vicar and two churchwardens.  It is of brass of the visica piscis form, and has in the centre a baton or mace, and on each side a clothed arm projecting towards the centre, that on the dexter side holding a pastoral crook, that on the sinister side a naked sword; the ground work studded with stars, and around the margin this inscription:—S.COMMVNE DE FFORYATE MONACHOR.”  The space of ground on the east side of the church, containing 7300 yards, whereon formerly stood the choir and Lady Chapel of the monastery, was in 1840 converted into a public cemetery.

The Church of St. Giles stands at the eastern extremity of the suburb of the Abbey Foregate, the living of which is annexed to that of Holy Cross.  It is a small plain building consisting of nave, chancel, and north, aisle, with a small bell turret at the west end.  Of its foundation we possess no record, but the structure is doubtless as old as the early part of the twelfth century, and some confirmation is afforded to this conjecture by the arches of the northern and southern doors, having the characteristics of that era.  The nave is divided from the side aisle by three pointed arches, sustained on plain round pillars.  It is highly probable that the north aisle was made for the accommodation of persons afflicted with leprosy—the hospital of which formerly stood near the church, and from which they had access by a pointed doorway, when they might hear the offices of religion without endangering other worshippers with their contagious malady.  A lofty pointed arch separates the nave from the chancel, which is terminated by a flat arched eastern window, which is exquisitely beautified with stained glass, executed by Mr. Evans.  The four lower compartments have full length figures of the Evangelists, standing upon hexagonal pedestals.  Over each figure is a beautiful canopy of tabernacle work, and the intersections of the tracery contain the symbols of the Evangelists.  In the three principal compartments of the upper division, are fine representations of the salutation, the wise men’s offering, and the presentation in the temple.  The small lancet window on the north side, contains a figure of the patron saint, St. Giles, exquisitely executed.  On the floor are several ancient stones bearing crosses, probably denoting the interment of some of the masters of the old hospital.  From an entry in the parish registrar of the date 1655, it appears this church formerly possessed a steeple at the west end.  In the steeple was a great bell and two smaller ones, which were taken down in 1672, and used in the following year, with four lesser bells, and the great “Wenefrede bell,” in the recasting of the present ring of bells in the Abbey church.  For a long period this venerable edifice exhibited a rude appearance of damp and neglect, and divine service was celebrated only on two Sunday evenings during the year.  In 1827, however, the Rev. W. G. Rowland, the liberal donor of the beautiful east window, thoroughly repaired and happily rescued it from the ruin and decay to which in its previous condition it was fast hastening.  Subsequently the massive oak benches were removed, and replaced with new ones; a new pulpit and altar screen of oak, beautifully carved in unison with the architecture were added, and the whole building fitted up for divine service by the munificence of the Rev. Richard Scott, who also gave £500 towards augmenting the salary of the officiating minister.  Since June, 1836, divine service has regularly been performed on the Sabbath.  The Rev. Joseph Simpson, M.A., is the officiating minister.  In the parish book is the following memorandum:—“1585, paid Barnett and his sonne for pulling down the crosse of St. Gyles, xviij d.”  This cross formerly stood in the church yard, and was curiously sculptured.  A large stone which now lies in the church yard, with a cavity on the upper side, was most probably the base and socket of the cross.  It is now termed the pest basin, which tradition states to have been used during the time of the plague for holding water, in which to avoid the spread of the disease the people deposited their money in their bargains for provisions with the country folk.

St. Alkmund’s Church, situated in St. Alkmund’s Square, is a neat structure of freestone, erected in 1795, with the exception of the tower and spire, which fortunately escaped the fate of a former edifice, inconsiderately destroyed under a mistaken apprehension of its stability.  The original church was founded by Ethelfleda, daughter of Offa, King of Mercia, who governed that kingdom at the beginning of the ninth century.  King Edgar, by the advice of St. Dunstan, gave other lands and possessions, and placed here a dean and ten prebends.  Its patron saint was a prince of the Northumbrian family, who is said to have been buried at Lilleshall.  At the Doomsday survey, this church had possession of nine manors, in all about 4,020 acres, out of which 620 were in demesne, and a rent of £8. 8s. 8d., which, with other rents, produced a revenue of £500 per annum.  The manner in which it lost this appendage, as recorded in Dugdale, is an example of the fluctuations to which, in those days of turbulence, even the most sacred property was liable.  King Edward the Confessor wrested these lands from one Spirtes, a canon of St. Alkmund’s, and gave them to Godfrey Wiffesune.  On his death, about two years after the conquest, Nigel, an ecclesiastic, obtained them.  After his decease, one Gilbert de Cundore, a layman, had possession of them, and retained them till he was excommunicated by the bishop.  In order to obtain absolution, he and his knights submitted to do penance, and were flogged by the canons at the altar of St. Alkmund’s church.  The property finally centred in Roger, Earl of Hereford, who held it by force of arms.

“The superior and dean of this collegiate church had, in common with those of other Saxon foundations, the right of hereditary succession, and even claimed a privilege of alienating the property to other than religious uses.  In the year 1150, when monastic institutions were universally popular, and the colleges of the secular clergy had fallen into disrepute, Richard de Belesme, then dean of St. Alkmund’s, voluntarily surrendered the estates of the deanery, which lay at Lilleshall, towards the endowment of an abbey of canons regular of St. Augustine, about to be erected on that spot made sacred by the sepulchre of the patron saint of his church; and so great was his zeal for this new institution, that he solicited and obtained the consent of the Pope and King Stephen for dissolving the college entirely, and for transferring all its estates to the new abbey.  Thus stripped of all its landed property, the benefice sank from a collegiate establishment to a poor vicarage, which continued in the patronage of the monks of Lilleshall till the dissolution, when it became vested in the crown.”

The old church was a spacious structure, exhibiting various styles of architecture, from the Anglo-Norman period to the middle of the sixteenth century.  Of its antiquity, however, few features remain; for the panic caused by the sudden fall of St. Chad’s church, induced the parishioners of St. Alkmund to petition parliament to pull down the body of the old church, and erect a new one on its site.  The modern building is in the ancient pointed style of architecture; an oblong square, eighty-two feet by forty-four feet, with a recess for the altar.  The ancient tower, terminated with crochetted pinnacles, remains, and is seventy feet high, surmounted with a chaste and elegantly proportioned spire, one hundred and fourteen feet—making a total of 184 feet from the ground.  Over the altar is a window of painted glass, executed about fifty years ago by Eginton, representing Evangelical Faith, in a female figure as large as life kneeling on a cross, with the eyes elevated and the arms extended towards a celestial crown, which appears amidst the opening clouds, This window was erected at a cost of two hundred guineas.  The church is handsomely fitted up, and will accommodate a congregation of 800 persons.  Upon the gallery, at the west end, is a good organ, erected by subscription in 1823.  The tower contains a peal of eight bells, recast in 1813.  The sound of church bells was supposed to be very efficacious in chasing away the spirit of darkness by our superstitious ancestors.  The following curious notice will shew that they were not at all times proof against infernal agency:—

“This yere, (1533) upon twelfe daye, in Shrowsbury, the dyvyll appearyd in St. Alkmund’s churche, there when the preest was at high masse, with great tempeste and darknesse, so that as he passyd through the churche he mountyd up the steeple in the saide churche, tering the wyers of the saide clocke, and put the print of his clawes upon the 4th bell, and took one of the pinnacles away with him, and for the time stayed all the bells in the churches within the saide towne, that they could neyther toll nor ringe.”

Of the ancient tombs and mural monuments which abounded in the old edifice, none were preserved in the present structure worthy of notice, with the exception of a tablet to Chief Justice Jones, who died in 1692.  Several tablets of a modern date adorn the walls.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £6, now returned at £219.  Patron, the Lord Chancellor; incumbent, the Rev. Charles Edward Leopold Wightman, M.A.

St. Julian’s Church is situated upon elevated ground, at the top of the Wyle-cop, near to St. Alkmund’s church.  Of its early foundation in Saxon times we possess no particulars.  It was distinguished through several reigns as a rectory and a royal free chapel, with a peculiar jurisdiction.  According to Tanner, at a very early period it was annexed to the free chapel of St. Michael, within the castle, and so continued until the reign of Henry IV., when they were both resigned into the king’s hands.  Subsequently, the rectory was granted, among other things, to augment the new foundation of Battlefield College, and thenceforth the living became a mere stipendiary curacy.  On the dissolution of that college, the living was granted by the crown to John Capper and Richard Trevor; and after many subsequent transfers, passed into the family of Prince, from whom it has descended to the present patron, the Earl of Tankerville.

The present church, built in 1749 on the site of a former edifice, which had become ruinous, is an oblong structure in the Grecian style, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a tower at the west end.  This tower is the only existing portion of the old church which remains, and is crowned with eight crochetted pinnacles.  It has an excellent illuminated clock; and a peal of six bells, which were recast in 1706.  The interior has a handsome appearance: four Doric pillars on each side the nave support the ceiling, which is carved and decorated with the fret-work of the old church.  Over the side aisles and west end are commodious galleries, in the latter of which is a superior organ, erected by subscription in 1834.  The east window contains a figure of St. James, in ancient stained glass, which was purchased from a splendid collection brought from Rouen in 1804.  Several of the other windows are ornamented with armorial bearings.  There is only one monument of any antiquity: a coarse marble slab, inscribed in Longobaric capitals to a member of the Trumwin family.  Among the memorials of a modern date is one to the memory of Mr. John Allatt, the benevolent founder of Allatt’s Free School.  The south aisle contains a neat memorial, of the Grinshill freestone, to commemorate the liberality of the late Rev. Richard Scott, B.D., who expended upwards of £1,500 in the reparations of this church, and other improvements connected with the fabric.  It contains the following inscription, dated 1847, in reference to the improvements made by Mr. Scott: “Who, in Christian love, and a desire to honour God with his substance, has caused an effective architectural character to be given to the exterior of the south side of this sacred edifice, which, from the limited funds raised for its re-edification in 1750, necessarily induced brick as a material, and a design possessing little claim to taste; stone piers are now set at each end of the building and between the lower windows, which have been lengthened.  Above, on a block cornice, are Roman Doric pilasters which sustain an entablature, crowned by an open balustrade and vase-shaped acroteria.  Fretted console tables have been added to the upper windows, the architecture entirely renewed, and, like those below, re-glazed with metallic frame-work.  A new portal and door at the eastern end of the south aisle, and the surface of this portion of the church and chancel, covered with stucco; the apex of the gable being finished with an appropriate ornament.”

In the north aisle is a similar memorial, inscribed to the same individual for his munificent beneficence “In erecting an ornamental stone wall and parapet round the church-yard, flagging the foot-path underneath and that on the eastern side, and likewise along the basement of the church, renewing the steps at the south-east thoroughfare, and lowering, repairing, and enclosing those which form the main approach from the street to the cemetery; also for a new pavement in the area leading to and from before the south door, rebuilding the steps of the portico with the addition thereto of a continuous pedestal, painting the north side of the church, and cleaning the stone work, roofing the chancel, and placing thereon a stone cornice and blocking course, with a foliated cone at each angle, as well as for other useful improvements connected with the fabric.”  The living of St. Julian’s is a perpetual curacy, returned at £159, in the patronage of Earl Tankerville, and incumbency of the Rev. James Jardine Rogerson, M.A.  The chapel of Ford was formerly an appendent of this church.

St. George’s Church, situated at Frankwell, is a neat cruciform structure, in the Gothic style, with a short tower at the west end, ornamented with four pinnacles.  It is built of the beautiful Grinshill freestone, from a design by Mr. Haycock.  The cost was nearly £4,000, raised by voluntary subscription.  It was consecrated for divine service on January 30th, 1832.  The interior has a chaste and elegant appearance, and will contain a congregation of 750 persons.  Of the sittings, 460 are free and unappropriated.  By the liberality of the late Rev. Richard Scott, B.D., the chancel has been beautified with an altar screen, the gallery with a small organ, and the triple lancet windows filled with splendid stained glass.  The centre window contains a full-length figure of Isaiah, clothed in a brilliant vest of purple, over which is thrown a green robe lined with ermine, denoting his royal descent.  The windows on each side have spirited figures of St. Matthew and St. Mark.  The former exhibits deep and serious meditation, and holds a manuscript in his left hand; and the latter, a venerable figure, is pointing to an open gospel, which he holds in his left hand.  The windows in the north and south transepts are also embellished with glass of a rich and elaborate mosaic pattern, which contributes to the imposing effect of the splendid east window.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £118, in the patronage of the vicar of St. Chad; incumbent, the Rev. John Harding, M.A.

St. Michael’s Church, situated in the populous suburb of Castle Foregate, is a neat brick structure, in the Grecian style of architecture, consisting of nave, side aisles, and elliptical recess for the communion, with an octagonal tower in three divisions, rising to the height of seventy feet, over the side aisles are galleries which are free; there is also a spacious gallery in the west end for the use of the school children, in which stands a small organ the gift of the Rev. W. G. Rowland, M.A.  The pulpit and reading desk are octagonal, and placed on opposite sides of the church; the roof is panelled in large square compartments, and painted in imitation of oak.  Three windows of stained glass which decorate the chancel are the exquisite productions of Mr. David Evans.  The centre one is illustrative of the Nativity, from the celebrated “La Notte” of Correggio.  The windows on each side represent the Annunciation, and the Presentation in the Temple; the former from a picture by Guido, and the latter from a celebrated painting by Rubens.  These windows were the gift of the Rev. W. G. Rowland, M.A., to whose liberality the parishioners are also indebted for the service of communion plate, the peal of six bells, which hang in the tower, and the erection of the adjacent school rooms, for the education of the poor children of this populous portion of the parish of St. Mary’s.  The church was erected at an expense of £2000, raised by subscription, and consecrated on the 24th August, 1830, as a chapel of ease to St. Mary’s church.  The edifice contains 800 sittings, of which 600 are free and unappropriated.

The Church of the Holy Trinity, situated on the Meole-road, was erected in 1837, for the accommodation of the inhabitants of the populous suburb of Coleham.  It was built at a cost of nearly £1900, raised by subscription, aided by the grant of £600, from the Lichfield Diocesan Society, and a further grant of £150, from the Incorporated Church Building Society.  The structure is a neat fabric of brick with a short tower; the body of the church has five windows on each side, and an elliptical recess for the communion, separated, internally, from the nave by a circular arch.  The church contains 812 sittings, of which 504 are free.  The window over the altar contains beautifully executed figures in stained glass, of the Evangelists, and St. Peter and St. Paul; several of the other windows are beautified with scriptural medallions, in stained glass, which together with a handsome service of communion plate, were presented by the late Rev. Richard Scott, B.D.  This place of worship was formed into a district parish church in 1841.  The living is a perpetual curacy enjoyed by the Rev. James Colley, M.A.

Ancient Chapels.—Several ancient chapels formerly stood in various parts of the town, the most considerable of which seems to have been the collegiate chapel of St. Michael, within the castle.  No vestige of its site now remains, though it probably existed, at least in a ruinous state, in the reign of James II., for, it appears at that time, an order was made by the corporation, “that enquiry should he made after the stones taken away from the ruins of St. Michael’s chapel within the castle.”  Part of the Chapel of St. Nicholas, on the left hand entrance to the council house, is still standing; it is of the early Norman era, and most probably was built by the first Norman, Earl of Shrewsbury, for the use of such of his retainers as resided in the outer works of the castle.  The only portions of this edifice at present remaining are the nave, a massive arch formerly opening into the chancel, and two similar side arches.  The building is now converted into a stable.  St. Catherine’s Chapel is stated to have occupied an elevated site upon Coton-hill.  The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, a site near Trinity Church.  St. Blase’s Chapel was situated in the Murivance.  A tea garden near the site of the Belle-vue, was formerly called the Hermitage.  These and other ecclesiastical edifices which once adorned this eminent town, have now disappeared; yet their faint traces still afford matter of interesting speculation for the antiquary.

DISSENTING CHAPELS.

The Presbyterian Chapel, situated in High-street, as the first dissenting place of worship established in the town, claims our first attention.  To the act of uniformity, which, on St. Bartholomew’s day, 1662, drove from their livings upwards of two thousand clergymen of the church of England, Shrewsbury is indebted for its first dissenting church.  It was formed by the Rev. John Bryan, M.A., and the Rev. Francis Tallants, M.A., ejected from the livings of St. Chad’s and St. Mary’s.  Their meetings were first held in the house of Mrs. Hunt, and after experiencing various alternations of suffering and indulgence during the unsettled times that followed the act of uniformity, in 1683 their meetings were suppressed, and these eminent preachers of the gospel were forced into obscurity.  On King James II. allowing liberty to Dissenters to meet for worship, they assembled as before in Mrs. Hunt’s house.  In 1691, they built a chapel in High-street, and Mr. Tallants caused the following (with the latter sentence the Hugonists, of France, usually began their worship,) to be painted on the walls:—“This place was not built for a faction or a party, but to promote repentance and faith in communion with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.  ‘Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.’”  The year 1715 was particularly unfortunate for Protestant Dissenters; mobs and riots arose in various places, particularly in Lancashire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire—among the chapels pulled down in Shropshire were those of Wem, Whitchurch, and Shrewsbury.  The chapel, in High-street, was soon after rebuilt by the government, and the liberties of Dissenters confirmed and fixed upon a solid foundation.  In 1839 the venerable chapel was almost entirely taken down, owing to the building being considered unsafe, and because the commissioners under the street act required a part of the premises.  It was rebuilt nearly on the old site, and re-opened for public worship in July, 1840.  The interior has a simple and primitive appearance, the fittings are of old oak; there is accommodation for about 300 worshippers.  The Rev. Richard Astley has been the respected pastor of the congregation since the year 1831.  For a more extended and very pleasing account of this place of worship, we beg to refer our readers to the “History of the Presbyterian Meeting House of Shrewsbury,” published by the present minister in 1847.

The Independent Chapel, situated on Swan-hill, had, its origin in some unhappy disputes which arose in the congregation worshipping in High-street chapel, relative to the invitation of a minister being invited to settle among them.  The chapel is a substantial brick edifice, with a neatly furnished interior, and contains six hundred sittings.  On a stone tablet in the front is the following inscription:—“This building was erected in the year 1767, for the public worship of God, and in defence of the rights of majorities in Protestant Dissenting congregations, to choose their own ministers.”  There is a cemetery adjoining the chapel.  The Rev. Thomas Weaver has been the pastor of the congregation worshipping here for 52 years.

The Independent Chapel, Castle-gates, a handsome building of free stone, is the most imposing structure in connection with the nonconformists in the town of Shrewsbury.  It was erected in 1845, at a cost (including the site) of £3000.  The interior has a very chaste, and beautiful appearance; it will hold six hundred persons.  The Rev. Edward Hill is the minister.

The Catholic Chapel is situated in Beeche’s-lane, near the southern portion of the town walls.  It is a neat building erected in 1776, and enlarged in 1825; the front is stuccoed, and surmounted by a plain cross.  The interior has a tasteful and elegant appearance; the altar rests on a sarcophagus, on the front of which is a painting of the last supper, above is a figure of Christ on the cross.  On the gallery is a small organ, and on each side the entrance an elegant marble shell for the holy water.  The chapel will hold about three hundred worshippers.  The Rev. Eugene Egan is the priest.  A plot of land, extending from Belmont to the southern walls, has been purchased, with the intention of erecting a new Catholic church, on a scale commensurate with the wants of an increasing congregation.  The Catholics formerly met for worship in an upper room of an old house in St. Alkmund’s-square.

The Baptist Chapel, situated in Claremont-street, a plain brick building, was opened for divine worship in 1780, and enlarged in 1810.  A society of this persuasion is stated to have existed in this town, in the time of the Commonwealth.  In the chapel is a small memorial, of Mr. Palmer, who was pastor of the congregation for twenty-seven years.

The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel is a commodious building, on St. John’s-hill, erected in 1804, and subsequently enlarged and decorated.  It is neatly fitted up, and surrounded with galleries, in which is a small organ.  It is calculated to hold 700.  The Methodists have also small places of worship in the Castle Foregate and New-street, Frankwell.

The Wesleyan New Connexion Chapel, (Ebenezer,) situated at Tower-place, is a handsome building, having two entrances, with a Doric portico to each.  The cost of the structure was £1500, and it was opened for divine worship, June 13th, 1834.  The interior has a light and pleasing appearance; it is without galleries; in the centre of the chapel are two rows of pews, with a row on each of the sides, which ascend gradually from the floor; the blank walls display arches and pilasters, supporting a frieze and cornice.

The Friends’ Meeting House, a plain brick structure, in a retired situation, on St. John’s-hill, is fitted up with much simplicity and neatness.  It was erected in 1746, and enlarged in 1807.

The Welsh Calvinistic Chapel, a brick structure, erected on the site of a former edifice, is situated in Hill’s-lane.  It is calculated to accommodate about 400, and was opened for divine worship in December, 1826.  The Dissenters of this persuasion have also a small chapel, situated in the Wagon and Horses passage, Pride-hill.  The service in both these chapels is in the Welsh language.

The Primitive Methodists have a place of worship to accommodate about four hundred, situated in Castle-court.  They have also a small chapel, at the Old Heath.

SCHOOLS.

The Royal Free Grammar School, situated near the Castle gates, is a noble institution for the education of youth, founded by King Edward VI., in 1552, and endowed with the greater portion of the revenues of the two dissolved colleges of St. Mary and St. Chad.  Queen Elizabeth greatly augmented the endowment, in 1571, by adding the rectory of Chirbury, with additional tithes and estates in St. Mary’s parish.  The structure is large and lofty, and occupies two sides of a quadrangle, with a square pinnacled tower at the angle, partly rebuilt in 1831.  The original school was of timber, and the present tower, chapel, and library, were added in 1595.  The wooden building was taken down in 1630, and its place supplied by the present stately edifice of Grinshill free stone.  In the centre is a gateway, adorned on each side by a rude Corinthian column, supporting statues of a scholar and a graduate bareheaded, in the costume of the times.  Over the arch is an inscription in Greek, importing that a love of literature is essential to the formation of a scholar.  The whole structure exhibits an incongruous mode of building, and that mixture of styles, “where the Grecian and the pointed, however discordant and irreconcilable, are jumbled together, and compose a fantastic species, hardly assignable to any class or name.”  The principal school room, which occupies the upper story, was originally divided by three partitions with folding doors, but these being removed, it forms a very spacious and noble apartment.  The chapel, in which prayers are read by the head master every morning, occupies the ground floor, and is divided from the ante-chapel by a very handsome oak screen carved in the grotesque manner prevalent in the days of Elizabeth.  The ceiling is adorned with fret work, preserved from the ruins of St. Alkmund’s church.  Above the chapel is the library, which was rebuilt at considerable expense in 1815.  It contains a valuable collection of manuscripts and books—one side being occupied by the library of the late Dr. Taylor.  Two large pointed windows, with mullioned tracery, afford light to this apartment;—in the northern window are the arms of Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, St. John’s College, Cambridge; the See of Lichfield and Coventry impaling Cornwallis, and those of the town;—in the south windows are the arms of the four principal benefactors, with appropriate inscriptions in Latin.  Around the walls are portraits of Henry VIII., Edward VI., an Admiral in the costume of the time of Charles II., and several of the former head masters.

Among the curiosities in the library are three sepulchral stones, discovered in ploughing a field near Wroxeter.  The largest has on its summit, a pine-cone between two lions, and beneath the pediment a rose.  The first is taken from the Picea, called by Pliny, Feralis Arbor, expressive of its melancholy subject, and not unfrequent on memorials of this kind; the inscription denotes the death of C. Mannivus Secundus, of the town of Polentia, a beneficiarius, or veteran of the twentieth legion, who had served his time, and was called again into the service by the entreaties of the chief legate.  The second stone has, on the upper part, a human face, two dolphins, and two serpents.  The third is inscribed to M. Petronius, sigifer, or standard bearer, to the Legio quatuor-decima gemina, the fourteenth double legion, or a legion formed from two.  As this legion never was in Britain, the learned Dr. Ward supposes that Petronius only came for his health and died here.  There are also various other interesting antiquities, chiefly found at Wroxeter, and a small collection of fossils and natural curiosities.  In front and at the back of the schools are play grounds, contiguous to which are houses for the master and the assistant-masters, with ample accommodation for boarders who come from all parts of the kingdom.  The grammar school has long maintained a pre-eminent rank among the public seminaries of sound learning and religious education in this country, and has sent forth numerous individuals who have been distinguished for their eminent classical attainments.  Under the care of its first master, Thomas Ashton, we learn there were two hundred and ninety scholars, among whom were the sons of many of the first families in England.  Camden, when he wrote, says—“it was the best filled in all England, being indebted for their flourishinge state to provision made by the excellent and worthie Thomas Ashton”—who was a munificent contributor to the school himself, and was instrumental in procuring the grant of augmentation from Queen Elizabeth.  Mr. Ashton resigned his office some years before his death, but he continued to cherish the seminary over which he had presided with paternal care.  He drew up the code of laws by which it was governed for more than two centuries; and one of his last acts was to visit the school, when he preached a farewell sermon to the inhabitants of the town, after which that “Godlie father,” accompanied with the tears and blessings of the people, returned to Cambridge, near which he died at the end of a fortnight, 1578.

The school is open for the gratuitous instruction of burgesses of Shrewsbury, who are not under six nor more than sixteen years of age, provided they are qualified to begin the Latin accidence.  By act of parliament, 38th George III., the whole management of the school and revenue was vested in the Bishop of Lichfield, as visitor, and thirteen governors and trustees.  The appointment of head master rests with the Fellows of St. John’s College, Cambridge.  The under master is appointed by the head master.  Among the many persons of eminence who have received their education in this school, we may enumerate Sir Philip Sidney; Sir Fulke Greville; Lord Brook; Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York; Judge Jeffries; Lord Chief Justice Jones; Dr. Bowers; Bishop of Chichester; Dr. Thomas Bishop, Salisbury; Dr. Taylor, editor of Lysias and Demosthenes; James Harrington, the author of Oceana; Wycherley, the dramatist; Ambrose Phillips, the poet; and the Rev. J. B. Blakeway and the Venerable Archdeacon Owen, the learned historians of Shrewsbury.  Through the exertions and learning of the late venerable head master, Dr. Butler (late Bishop of Lichfield), the school attained to unrivalled celebrity, and the learned prelate observed, on resigning his arduous duties to his talented successor, “That he considered Dr. Kennedy as the most brilliant scholar he had ever sent forth, as the brightest star in that galaxy of distinguished pupils whose names adorn the ‘boards’ of Shrewsbury school.  That from Dr. Kennedy’s experience of his system, both as a pupil and assistant master at Shrewsbury school, from his constant practice as a lecturer and private tutor at College, and as an assistant master for six years or more at Harrow, as well as from his own unrivalled talents and high literary distinction, from his fine taste and sound learning, there was not a shadow of doubt but that he would fully maintain the reputation which Shrewsbury school had already acquired, and would add at least as many distinguished names to its ‘boards,’ during his superintendence of this important foundation, as had been inscribed there by himself in an equal period.”  We are happy to observe that the bright anticipations of the venerable bishop have been already realised.  By an act of parliament, passed 33rd George III., for the better government and regulation of the Free Grammar School in Shrewsbury, it was ordered, that, after the payment of all taxes, salaries, scholarships, exhibitions, and repairs of the school, and all expenses about the necessary business of the school, the surplus should be employed in founding and maintaining exhibitions in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, as the governors and the bishop of the diocese for the time being should think fit; and that such surplus should, when and as often as it should amount to £100 or upwards, be laid out in the purchase of lands and tenements, or in the purchase of stock, or in such other way as the governors and bishop should deem advisable.  At this period the annual income of the school amounted to £900.

From the Charity Commissioners’ Report, published in 1830, we learn that the total income of the school property for the year ending December 31st, 1828, amounted to £2,740. 2s. 9d.  The following will show the particulars of the property held by the governors:—The tithes of Albrighton, in the parish of St. Mary, £101. 15s. 6d.; the tithes of Chirbury, £1,045. 13s. 4d.; tithes of Clive, in the parish of St. Mary, £347. 13s.; tithes of Astley, £221. 15s.; tithes of Oxon and Shelton, £71. 4s.; tithes of Frankwell, £56. 14s.; tithes of Betton, £129. 1s.; tithes of Whitley and Welbatch, £99.; tithes of Leaton, £150; tithes of Wollascot, £13.; tithes of Woodcote, Horton, Bicton, and Calcot, £397.; tithes of Almond Park, Berwick, and Newton, £52. 10s.; tithes from Castle Foregate, £18. 18s.; schoolhouse at Grinshill, built in pursuance of one of the orders of Thomas Ashton, for the scholars to retire to in case of infectious disorders, let for £4. 4s.; spiritual jurisdiction of St. Mary’s, demised by the corporation to the Rev. W. G. Rowland, the office of the said ecclesiastical, spiritual, peculiar, and exempt jurisdiction, with all the profits thereto belonging, and the seal of office for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of £1. 6s. 8d., payable to the governors and trustees of the Free Grammar School, dated 29th January, 1828; Chief rents at Astley and Sansaw, 18s. 3d.; for encroachments on school garden, 3s.; and £30 per annum arising from the sum of £1,000 invested in the three per cent. consols, purchased in 1828.  In January, 1829, the amount of stock was £14,570. 10s. 4d. three per cent consols.  This was subsequently reduced by sales, made under the directions of the Court of Chancery, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of repairs on the estates, to £13,311. 19s. 6d.

The income arising from the school property now (1851) amounts to upwards of £3,000 per annum, which is appropriated in the payment of the salaries of the masters, the maintenance of scholarships and exhibitions in the universities, the stipend of the Vicar of Chirbury, and the curates of St. Mary’s, Clive, and Astley, and the necessary repairs of the school buildings.  The surplus is employed in founding additional exhibitions in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.  The following list will show the great advantage presented to meritorious scholars of Shrewsbury School:—Four exhibitions, of £63 each, founded by James Millington, D.D., in 1724, at Magdalen College, Cambridge, tenable during residence till M.A.; two exhibitions of £40 each, founded by the same donor, for sons of burgesses born in Frankwell, and who have been educated at the school, in Millington’s Hospital, founded by the testator; also one fellowship of £126 per annum at Magdalen College, tenable during residence till M.A.; one exhibition, of £23 per annum, founded by the Rev. John Taylor, D.D., in 1766, open to any college.  The scholars chosen are allowed to enjoy the exhibition for the term of six years, provided they reside in the college the greater part of each term.  One exhibition of £10 per annum, the gift of Mr. Noneley; one of £30 per annum, founded by Mr. Podmore.  There are also four foundation exhibitions of £70 per annum each; one Butler foundation of £100 per annum; and one of £66 per annum;—all limited to the sons of burgesses of Shrewsbury.  Two exhibitions, founded by Oswald Smith, of £25 per annum; four exhibitions to Christ Church, Oxford, founded by Mr. Careswell, in 1689, for natives of Shropshire, of £60 per annum.

Head Master: Rev. Benjamin Hall Kennedy, D.D.—Second Master: Rev. William Burbury, M.A.—Assistant Master: Rev. John Mort Wakefield, M.A.—Mathematical Teacher: Rev. Alfred Tolver Paget, M.A.—Assistant Master: Rev. Vanden Bempde Johnstone, M.A.—Modern Languages: Mr. Thomas Amand Bentley.—Writing Master: Mr. Thomas Northage Henshaw.  The head master has a salary of £300 per annum, and the second master £150.

Bowdler’s, or the Blue School, situated in Beeches-lane, a plain brick building with a cupola, was founded in 1724, pursuant to the will of Mr. Thomas Bowdler, alderman and draper, for the instruction, clothing, and apprenticeing poor children of St. Julian’s parish.  Twenty-five boys and an equal number of girls are now educated and clothed; the dress of the children is blue, whence the school is called “The Blue School.”  The master has a salary of £40 per annum, and the privilege of taking twenty day scholars, and the mistress £20 per annum.  Robert Rogerson and Mary Ann Sharrat are the teachers.  The foundation of the several charity schools will be more particularly noticed with the general charities of the borough.

Allatt’s Charity School, situate in St. John’s-row, is a neat structure of free stone, comprising commodious houses for the master and mistress, connected by arcades, with spacious school rooms.  The school was built in 1800, pursuant to the will of Mr. John Allatt, who bequeathed his property for the educating and clothing of the children of the more respectable class of poor persons resident in the town.  There are forty boys and forty girls educated, clothed once a year, and a certain number at a proper age apprenticed.  The funds of the school consist of a capital stock of £14,200, of which £10,800 are invested in three per cents, as the educational fund, and £3,400 as a clothing fund.  Thomas Bagley and Frances Buttery are the teachers.

Millington’s School stands in the rear of the hospital, and was founded by the munificence of Mr. Millington, for the instruction of twenty-five boys, and as many girls, natives of Frankwell.  The children are completely clothed twice in every year, and at the age of fourteen apprenticed with a small premium; on producing a certificate of good conduct during their apprenticeship they are rewarded with a gratuity.  Two exhibitions of £40 a year each, in Magdalen College, Cambridge, are founded, to which scholars originally on the hospital foundation have the preference, or in default of such, two born in Frankwell, educated at the free schools.  Sarah Bishop and Francis Cullis are the teachers.

Shrewsbury National School, situated in the Abbey Fore gate, is also called the “Brown School,” from the brown dress of the children.  The schools are commodious, and there is a convenient residence for the teachers.  It is supported by subscriptions, and sermons annually preached in aid of its funds.  There are now 190 boys and 96 girls educated in this school.  Joseph Barker Molynaux and Mary Ann Williamson are the teachers.  The annual income amounts to £250 per annum.

St. Chad’s Parochial School is a plain substantial edifice, situated in Barker-street.  It is supported by subscriptions and donations, and a small weekly sum contributed by the children.  The average number of children that attend the school may be calculated at a hundred boys and an equal number of girls.  Edward Evans and Jane E. Turner are teachers.

Holy Trinity School is a spacious building of brick, situated in the rear of the Holy Trinity Church, at Coleham; a residence for the teachers adjoins the school.  There are about 100 boys and girls, and 120 infants, receiving instructions in these schools.  James Owen and Martha Clarke are the teachers.

St. Mary’s and St. Michael’s Schools, situated in St. Michael-street, owe their origin in a great measure to the Rev. W. G. Rowland, the incumbent of St. Mary’s, who was a munificent contributor towards their erection.  The schools were built in 1832, in the old English style of architecture.  They are supported by voluntary subscriptions, and the scholars are provided with books, and gratuitously educated, with the exception of a number of the children from the extensive factory of Messrs. Marshall and Co., whose instruction is paid for by the proprietors of the mill.  Richard Jones and Sophia Evans are the teachers.  About 120 boys and 100 girls attend.  Adjoining the school premises are ten neat cottages, built by the Rev. W. G. Rowland, the income arising from which is expended in bread, and distributed amongst the necessitous poor, in St. Mary’s and St. Michael’s churches.

The Diocesan Schools, Swan hill, in connection with the Lichfield Board of Education, was established in 1842.  This is an institution for the general education of youth, ably conducted by Mr. Henry Newsham.  Particular attention is paid to the mathematical education of the youth of this establishment.  A limited number of boarders are taken.

The British or Lancasterian Schools were first established in Shrewsbury in 1812, when a commodious school was built opposite the county gaol, for conducting education on the plan suggested by Mr. Joseph Lancaster.  Subsequently the premises were taken down, and the site is now occupied as a railway station.  A building was afterwards taken in Watery-lane, where the school was conducted till the present year (1851), when a neat school-house, measuring forty-eight feet by twenty-eight, was erected at the rear of the county gaol, at an estimated cost of £700.  About 150 boys and 100 girls attend the school.  Mr. Thomas Harris is the teacher.

St. Alkmund’s Parochial School, situated between St. Mary’s-street and St. Alkmund’s-place, is numerously attended both by boys and girls.  The teachers are William Donellan and Martha Badger.

Infant Schools.—St. Chad’s Infant School is situated in Barker-street, not far from the National School.  One hundred and twenty attend the school, which is conducted by Segismunda Roberts.  The Infant School, Castle Foregate, has an attendance of eighty.  Ann Townsend is the teacher.  There is also an infant school in Frankwell, which was built by the late Dr. Darwin, and is now chiefly supported by Miss Darwin.  These are interesting institutions for giving an early moral bias to the mind, and calculated to effect much good.

Sunday Schools.—The Sunday schools of Shrewsbury have existed nearly from the earliest formation of such institutions.  Schools are connected with the established churches, and the different congregations of dissenters, which are very numerously attended.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

The Salop Infirmary.—This excellent institution, situated near St. Mary’s churchyard, was established in 1747, and has the honour of being one of the earliest of these Samaritan institutions in the kingdom.  The building, which preceded the present stately fabric, was a plain brick structure, designed for a private residence; although repeatedly enlarged, it was found too small for the additional number of patients consequent upon an increasing population, and at a meeting held on November 16th, 1826, it was resolved that a new infirmary should be built on the site of the old one.  The present building was erected in 1830, from a design by Mr. Haycock, at the cost of £18,735. 18s. 10., of which £12,994. 1s. 3d. was raised by subscriptions, and the remainder disbursed from the funded property of the charity.  The structure has a noble appearance, and stands in a commanding position on the verge of an eminence overlooking the Severn; it is 170 feet in length, by 80 feet in height, having a handsome Doric portico in the centre.  There is ample accommodation for 150 patients, and the internal arrangements are admirably adapted for the purpose they are designed to fulfil.  The principal floor is appropriated to the board room, dispensary, waiting room for patients, with private apartments for the house surgeon and matron; the first floor has seven wards for male patients, with day room, scullery, and baths; the upper room contains a spacious operation room, with wards for females; in the attics above are four other wards with nurses’ room, &c.  A staircase at each end communicates with spacious galleries extending the length of each story.  The whole is thoroughly ventilated, and an uniform temperature preserved by a patent hot water apparatus.  A spacious terrace has been constructed on the eastern side, that such of the patients as are able may possess every benefit resulting from pure air and exercise.  From this the eye commands an uninterrupted view of an extensive and finely wooded country, bounded by the long ridge of Haughmond Hill, the Wrekin, and the Stretton Hills.  The pecuniary concerns of the institution are superintended by a board of directors; a treasurer is also appointed annually, who, on the anniversary day in the hunt week, is accompanied to church by the subscribers and patrons of this charity, where, after a sermon, a collection is made in aid of the funds.  From its establishment to midsummer, 1849, the sum of £219,934. 16s. 7¼d. has been received for its support; 60,077 in-patients admitted, and 117,747 out-patients recommended as fit objects for its benefits.  The weekly average number of patients in the house during the year ending midsummer, 1849, was 103; out-patients on the books, 603.  The total receipts for the year ending at the same period was £3,237. 7s. 5d., of which £1,669. 11s. was received from yearly subscriptions; £355. 2s. 6d. from benefactions and legacies; £627. 6s. 11d., the interest and dividends of funded stock, and £585. 7s. 6d. from miscellaneous sources, which includes £183 8s. 6d. collected at the anniversary sermon in St. Chad’s church.  Of this stock £16,400 is secured in the three per cent consols, £3,449. 10s. new 3¼ per cents; £100 on the Watling-street road, and £150 on the Bridgnorth-road.  Subscriptions have been made amounting to £1,227. 6s. 8d., as a “Chaplain’s Endowment Fund.”  “The house surgeon is allowed to take three pupils at a premium of twenty guineas to himself, and 200 guineas to the infirmary, which entitles the pupil to board and residence for five years.”  Attendance at this hospital is recognized by the Royal College of Surgeons, and the apothecaries’ company, London.—Physicians: Henry Johnson, M.D., Thomas James Drury, M.D., Henry Parker, M.D.—Surgeons: H. E. Burd, J. Dickin, and J. Y. Arrowsmith.—House Surgeon: John Robert Humphreys.  Secretary: Henry Bevan.

The Dispensary, like most other institutions of this kind, is supported by annual subscriptions and benefactions.  It was established in 1843, and although the funds do not allow the full extent of usefulness which the charity is capable of, yet it is pleasing to observe from the annual reports that it is making steady progress in the estimation of the public.  It appears from the report ending September, 1849, that the total number of patients have been 3,391.  The receipts for the year ending at the same period were £160.  During the year 560 cases received attention, of which 403 were cured, 123 relieved, 30 died, and 4 were dismissed.—Patron: His Grace the Duke of Sutherland.—Surgeon: Mr. G. P. Gill,—Hon. Secretary: Folliott Sandford, Esq.—Dispenser: Mr. G. S. Whitney.

The Eye and Ear Establishment, Castle-street, was established in 1818, under the management of a committee of gentlemen, for the special object of affording relief to the humbler members of society, who may be suffering from any calamity incident to those delicate organs of the human frame, the eye and ear.  The number of patients admitted from the opening of this institution has been 6,224.—President: Viscount Hill.—Surgeon: Edwin Foulkes.  The institution is open every Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

The County Hall, situated in the Market-square, is a handsome and commodious building, completed in 1837, at the cost of about £13,000.  It is built from a design of Sir Robert Smirke, of beautiful white free stone, the principal front measuring 112 feet in length, and exhibits the Italian style of architecture.  In the interior of the structure the different apartments are convenient, lofty, and well adapted to the various purposes for which they are intended.  On the ground floor is a commodious vestibule, which communicates with rooms on each side, for the mayor, and counsel at assizes and witnesses.  Opposite the entrance door is a noble staircase; on the first landing, the centre one leading to the judge’s room, and those on each side to the respective courts, which are of equal dimensions, forty-two feet by thirty-six feet.  The bench is elevated three feet above the floor, on each side is accommodation for the magistrates; immediately before the judge is a large table, with seats provided for the councillors.  In each court is a gallery for the public, and the ceiling is panelled and ornamented.  From this division the staircase leads to another large room, adapted for a third court, or other public purpose; above it are offices for the clerk of the peace, and for the town clerk.

The ancient Guild or Shire Hall was a low timbered fabric, with a high clock turret, erected in the reign of Henry VIII., and stood across the market square.  The lower part was appropriated to retail shops, and the upper story contained the rooms in which the business of the town was transacted, and the assizes held.  The municipal records were preserved in a strong square tower near the south east side, erected in 1490.  At the summer assizes, in 1783, in consequence of the pressing remonstrance of the judge, enforced by the threat of a fine upon the county, an act of parliament was obtained the following year for this purpose.  To render the new building more handsome and commodious, and to remove the inconvenience occasioned by the old one standing across the street of the greatest resort, several houses, together with the ancient tower of the Exchequer, were taken down, and various other improvements made, in the adjacent parts.  The new hall was completed in 1785, at an expense of £11,000, raised by a county rate.  In consequence of sinkings having in 1832 been observed in different parts of the structure, the building was surveyed by different architects and pronounced unsafe and dangerous.  The proper authorities immediately determined to take down the whole edifice, and erect a more commodious one on its site.  For this purpose some adjoining premises were purchased, and the present substantial structure, admirably adapted for the purposes intended, was completed, as already noticed, by Messrs. Birch, builders, in 1837.

The Town and County Gaol stands on a salubrious cliff of gravel, a short distance from the castle, and contiguous to the railway station.  The building was erected in 1793, on the principles of the benevolent Howard, at an expense of £30,000.  The front of the prison displays a bold and massive appearance, having two rusticated stone lodges and a gateway in the centre, over which is a fine bust of Howard, by Bacon.  The building is of brick, and is spacious, airy, and well supplied with water, by means of a pump worked by the prisoners.  Immediately in front of the gateway is the governor’s house, which, with certain offices, forms the southern front of the building.  The chapel is an octagonal structure in the centre of the prison, and is contrived so as to separate every class of prisoners, yet, so that the minister may be seen by all the congregation.  The remainder of the structure is divided into four principal courts, with several smaller ones, around which are cloisters, with sleeping rooms above for the prisoners, and cells for the refractory.  A regard to the gradation of vice is strictly observed in the classification of the prisoners, many of whom are employed in some useful trade, such as shoemakers, tailors, blacksmiths, &c., others are employed in picking oakum and wool.  The galling and disgraceful restraints of irons are altogether dispensed with, except in cases of capital and very refractory offenders.  Great attention is paid to the moral culture of the inmates by the assiduous chaplain, in order to reclaim the wanderer.  Divine service is performed twice every day, except Saturday; and the prisoners are all separately catechised several times during the week.  The water to supply the gaol is pumped from the Severn into a large reservoir, which will hold 2,000 gallons.  The gaol is calculated to accommodate 300 prisoners, and there are 135 separate cells.  During the year ending September, 1849, there was a total of 1,291 prisoners; greatest number of prisoners at any one time in the year, 203; daily average of criminals, 147; daily average of debtors, 9.  Gross expenditure for the same period, £3,337. 17s. 8d.  Mr. John Shepherd is the governor; and the Rev. David Winstone, chaplain.  The corporate magistrates are entitled, under the act for erecting this gaol, to send to it prisoners, both criminal and civil, for whose maintenance, of course, the borough pays.

The Market House, situated in the Market Square, an antique and interesting fabric, is one of the handsomest structures of its kind in the kingdom.  In Dr. Taylor’s MSS. is the following account of the first Market House in this town of which any record remains:—“This yere, 1567, Maister John Dawes, of Shrosbery, an alderman of the sayde towne, began and buylded two fayre houses in the Corne Market there, for the saffe placinge of corne from wether, so that the owners thereof may stand saffe and drye, the which buildings was at his own coste and charge, which place servyth for the inhabitantes as also strangers to walke in, and the loft above for soondry profitable purposes.”  To these timber buildings others were added in 1571, for the like purpose.  In 1595 the whole was removed, and the present structure built on the site.  The principal front is towards the west, and has in the centre a spacious portal, over which are sculptured the arms of Elizabeth.  On each side of the portal is an open arcade of three round arches, supported by massive pillars, over which a range of square mullioned windows lights the upper story.  Large open arches occupy the north and south ends, which are terminated with pointed gables.  Above the northern arch is a tabernacled niche, containing a statue of Richard, Duke of York, in complete armour, with his armorial bearings, removed from the tower of the old Welsh Bridge, on its demolition in 1791.  At the south end is the figure of an angel, in a canopied niche, bearing a shield of the arms of France and England.  This fragment of antiquity formerly stood in the southern tower of the Castle, or North Gate, and was removed here in 1825, when that building was taken down to widen the street.  The basement of the Market House is 105 feet long, and 24 feet wide.  The upper story is devoted to the purposes of a Mechanics’ Institution.  The market is held on Saturday, is numerously attended by farmers from the surrounding district, and considerable quantities of corn are sold, chiefly by sample.

The Music Hall and Public Rooms occupy the southern side of the Market Square, and form a handsome pile of building, erected in 1840 from a design by Mr. Haycock.  On the ground floor is the Post Office; and immediately above, the Public News Room, which is supported by annual subscription.  The Music Hall, a noble apartment, occupies the remaining portion of the second floor.  It measures 90 feet in length, 42 feet wide, and 38 feet high.  The orchestra, which is situated at the south end, contains a fine-toned and powerful organ, the munificent gift of the late Rev. Richard Scott, B.D., to the Choral Society of the town.  On the third story are Billiard Rooms, &c.

The Theatre, situated in the Shoplatch, has a lofty stuccoed front, with three niches, containing statues of the immortal Shakspere, and of the comic and tragic muses, which give it a bold and imposing effect.  The lower part consists of a rusticated base, one hundred feet in length, comprising a range of good shops, and a dwelling for the manager.  The interior is conveniently arranged, and handsomely decorated with appropriate devices.  It will accommodate a numerous audience; and was opened September 8th, 1834.  It stands on the site of a former Theatre, which, if we may credit the affirmation of Phillips, was part of the ancient palace of the Princes of Powisland, who, in their frequent transactions with the sovereigns of England, often resided in Shrewsbury.  The ancient boundary wall of this mansion inclosed all the space contained between Cross Hill, St. John’s Hill, Murivance, Swan Hill, and Shoplatch.  It is probable that the old edifice was part of the great chamber, appropriated, according to the usage of the times, for receiving company, and occasionally for exhibiting shows and dramatic interludes.

The Shropshire and North Wales Natural History and Antiquarian Society was established on the 26th of June, 1835.  The Museum, situated in Dogpole, is principally designed to illustrate the natural history of the district in its various branches of geology, mineralogy, zoology, and botany, by the gradual formation of complete and systematic arrangements of its productions in each of these departments.  It is also open to other objects of scientific interest, and in particular is a suitable repository for such remains of antiquity as are found within the district, or illustrate its general history.  The library contains many valuable books, illustrative of natural history and antiquities.  It is deeply to be regretted, that hitherto the council have been able to do little more than maintain the museum in existence.  Had they been entrusted with a larger amount of funds, they might have very considerably enlarged its collection, and extended its interests.  Many donations are still in store for exhibition, whenever a more commodious building can be procured.  It is, therefore, hoped that a district of so much scientific and antiquarian resource may, before long, be furnished with a building, in which specimens of its own productions may be placed for inspection, and which may also be a repository for objects of general interest and national importance.  President: The Right Hon. the Earl of Powis.—Treasurer: Thomas Eyton, Esq.—Honorary Secretary: Henry Johnson, M.D.

The Mechanics’ Institution was originally established in 1825, and in the year 1833 a building was erected for their meetings, in Howard Street.  The committee of management subsequently took the Corn Market chambers, which are found admirably adapted for the objects of the institution, which affords to mechanics, artisans, and others, opportunities of acquiring, at their leisure hours, the principles of science and the arts; and for the cultivation of literature.  The library comprises upwards of 2,000 volumes, and the reading-room is supplied with the leading London and provincial newspapers and magazines.  There are classes for the English and French languages, arithmetic, mathematics, writing, drawing, music, and modelling.  The present number of members is two hundred.  The income for the year ending September, 1849, was £110. 15s. 10d.  President: Mr. Edward Elsmere.—Honorary Secretaries: Mr. W. P. Scoltock and Mr. Robert France, jun.

The Church of England Literary and Scientific Institution was established in 1850, under the patronage of the Lord Bishop of Lichfield.  Its general object is to afford the young men of the town of Shrewsbury the means of spending their leisure hours in a rational and profitable manner, and of acquiring useful knowledge on literary and scientific subjects, in subservience to the doctrines and precepts of revealed religion.  A library and reading room have been established, and competent persons employed to deliver lectures on various interesting and scientific subjects.  All persons subscribing twelve shillings and sixpence annually, or five guineas in one donation, to the funds of the institution, are members; and all persons elected by the committee, on the payment of six shillings per annum, have the advantages of the institution.  Treasurer, W. B. Lloyd, Esq.  Honorary Secretary, Mr. Henry Newham.

The Subscription Library, on St. John’s hill, contains a valuable collection of books in the various department of literature and science, numbering upwards of nine thousand volumes.  It was established in 1785.  Proprietary members pay one guinea admission, and an annual subscription of a guinea and a half.  Elinor Urwick is the librarian.

The News Room.—The public News Room in the Corn-market, immediately above the Post Office, is supported by annual subscriptions; the members have the advantage of perusing the principal London and provincial newspapers, magazines, and journals, &c.  The walls are adorned with some fine pictures, presented at various periods to the corporation of the town, among which are Charles I., Charles II., William III., George I., George II., George III., Admiral Benbow, Lord Hill, and others.

The Circus, a spacious building situated near the Welsh bridge, was formerly used for equestrian performances.  It is now used as a depot for the immense quantities of butter and cheese which are brought to the town for sale at the monthly fairs; considerable quantities of these commodities are brought from Wales.

The Butter and Poultry Market, situated at the top of Pride-hill, was erected in 1819 by voluntary contributions amounting to £2000.  It is not at all commensurate with the wants of the town, and of the ample produce brought to its weekly markets large quantities are exposed for sale in the streets.

The New Butter and Cheese Market, situated in Howard-street, is a spacious building containing an area of 5400 feet.  The exterior consists of a centre and two wings, and has a handsome appearance; the roof is supported by four rows of cast iron pillars—and there is ample room to dispose of the large quantities of butter and cheese which are brought for sale on the Wednesdays following the first fair in each month.

The House of Industry was originally built as an asylum for the reception of orphans from the Foundling Hospital in London.  This spacious structure is situated at Kingsland, and crowns the steep eminence above the river, whence a most delightful and picturesque view of the town and country is obtained.  The governor of the Foundling Hospital began the building in 1760, and finished it in five years, at an expense of £12,000.  Children were sent down from London in great numbers, and put out to nurse with the neighbouring cottagers, under the inspection of the gentlemen in the vicinity.  At a proper age they were taken into the house, where they were employed in the manufacture of wool, and afterwards placed out as apprentices.  At one time there were more than four hundred orphans in the hospital; but the funds of the institution not proving adequate to the plan of sending children to provincial hospitals, it was discontinued in 1774.  After being shut up several years, it was converted into a place of confinement for the Dutch prisoners taken in the American war.  It was afterwards used as an infirmary, whilst the present noble structure was building.  The rapid increase of the parochial rates, of Shrewsbury, induced the inhabitants to petition parliament for an act to incorporate the five parishes of the Town and Meole Brace, so far as concerned the poor, and to establish a general House of Industry.  In 1784, they purchased the orphan hospital from the governors of the foundling charity, for the admission of the poor, who, in their declining years, here find an appropriate shelter, and are supplied with decent and comfortable necessaries of life.  The situation is highly salubrious, and the terrace in front of the house commands a fine view of the quarry, the town, its suburbs, and the whole range of mountains in Salop, Montgomery, and Denbigh.  The internal arrangements have a clean and orderly appearance, and the kind attention of the governor and guardians to the wants of the inmates, who are chiefly the aged, infirm, and helpless poor children, is highly creditable.  [When we visited the house there were six old women of the age of 75 and upwards, one had reached the age of 95 years.]  There is accommodation for 350 inmates, exclusive of that portion of the building which has been let off as a private asylum; the inmates are now 75.  The infirmary and vagrant ward are in the rear, as are the schools, which are held in a building formerly used for hand-loom weaving; adjoining which are four acres of land, cultivated by the scholars; it is chiefly used in raising green crops, and is highly productive.  The union embraces the parishes of St. Chad, St. Mary, St. Alkmund, St. Julian, Holy Cross, and Meole Brace, for which ten guardians are appointed.  Chairman, Mr. Charles Lloyd.  Surgeon, Henry Keate.  Chaplain, Rev. W. J. James.  Governor, Mr. William N. Kindellon.

The Savings’ Bank, situated on College-hill, was erected in 1838, at a cost of £2000, which includes a sum of £600 given for the site.  The capital stock of the bank, on November 20th, 1849, amounted to £179,990. 6s., at which time 4461 depositors, 56 Charitable societies, and 42 Friendly societies had accounts with the bank.  Of the depositors there were 2329 whose respective balances did not exceed £20; 1138 were above £20 and not exceeding £50; 587 were above £50 and not exceeding £100; 253, not exceeding £150; 134 not exceeding £200; and 20 exceeding the latter amount.  The bank is open on Monday and Saturday, from 11.30, a.m. to 1.30, p.m.  Mr. Charles Blount, Actuary.  The gross amount of the capital invested by the Charitable Societies, amounts to £307. 14s. 5d.; and of the Friendly Societies, to £18,362. 5s. 4d.

The Royal Baths, situated at Benbow-place, were established in 1831, by Mr. William Onions.  The front of the building exhibits a chaste design, being ornamented by a portico, supported by two Ionic pillars, and two pilasters.  The conveniences, are varied and ample, and such as are only to be met with in the first rate establishments in the kingdom.  The moderate charges and strict attention to cleanliness and comfort will, no doubt, insure to them an extensive patronage.  The swimming bath is of sufficient dimensions to enable persons to learn or practice the art of swimming; there are also hot, air, vapour, shower, warm, medicated, salt, and fresh water baths in constant readiness.  A charge of 21s. per annum is made for the use of the swimming bath, and sixpence for a single bath.

The Shrewsbury Waterworks were established, by a company of shareholders, under an act of parliament, obtained in 1830, for the purpose of affording the inhabitants a constant supply of water from the Severn.  The works are situated in Chester-street, and the water is raised by means of a steam engine, capable of throwing up 20,000 gallons per hour, into a large reservoir near the top of Pride-hill, and thence distributed in pipes to all parts of the town.  The town is also gratuitously supplied with excellent water from a fine spring called Broadwell, near Crow Meole, distant about two miles, being conducted thence to conduits placed in different parts of the town for the convenience of the inhabitants.  Few towns have such an excellent and abundant supply of this fine beverage of nature.

The Gas Works are situated in the Castle Foregate, near the goods depôt of the Shrewsbury and Ellesmere canal.  They were established in 1820 by a company of shareholders with a capital stock of £10,000 raised in £10 shares.  The luminous vapour is supplied from three gasometers which will hold together 80,000 cubic feet of gas.

The Railway Station.—The united station of the Shrewsbury and Chester, the Shrewsbury and Birmingham, and the Shrewsbury and Stafford branch of the Shropshire Union Railway, is a magnificent structure in the perpendicular style of architecture, situated near the Castle-gates.  It exhibits a frontage of 150 feet in length, and two stories in height, with a square tower in the centre, ornamented with a richly carved battlement, with octagonal turrets of considerable elevation, at the corners.  On each side of the tower extends a large wing, divided into four equal spaces by projecting turrets.  The ridge of the roof is finished with an ornamental cast iron crest, and the windows are divided by stone transoms and mullions.  The total cost of the station-house, offices, and engineering works, was £51,000; the goods, engine-station, and other necessary works £20,000.  The gross cost of the above works, including the viaduct of the Severn, contiguous to the station, and the bridge over Castle Foregate, exceeded £100,000.

The ground floor is appropriated to booking offices, waiting rooms, and a large refreshment room; above are the offices for the clerks, and other offices.  The platforms respectively measure 600 feet, and 450 in length, and 16 feet wide.  A wrought iron roof, beautifully designed, of 70 feet span, covers the platforms and lines of rails for a space of 450 feet.  The goods and coal depots are situated between the station and Coton-hill, with convenient access from Castle Foregate-street: here an abundance of coal, lime, and slates is always on hand.  Near the station is the Viaduct over the Severn, consisting of seven elliptical arches, 45 feet span.  The rails are 36 feet above the ordinary level of the river.  A cast iron bridge of sixty-four feet span, from the Brymbo iron works, carries the Shrewsbury and Chester railway over the Castle Foregate.  The whole of the works were executed by Mr. Brassey, the contractor, under the direction of Mr. James Baylis, the resident engineer, at the joint expense of the several companies whose lines unite in Shrewsbury.

Lord Hill’s Column, erected to commemorate the brilliant victories and achievements of that distinguished warrior, stands on rising ground near the entrance of Abbey Foregate, from the London road, and forms a conspicuous and interesting object to the surrounding country.  This fine Doric pillar, considered to be the largest in the world, was completed on the 18th of June, 1816, at a cost of £5,973. 13s. 2d.  The pedestal, which is square, has a buttress at each angle, on which is a lion couchant, worked out of Grinshill free stone, of which material is the column.  The chastely fluted shaft is surmounted by a cylindrical pedestal, supporting a statue of his lordship, of colossal proportions, executed in artificial stone, by Messrs. Coade and Sealey, London.  The statue is 17 feet high, and the height of the pillar 116 feet, making a total height of 133 feet from the ground to the top of the statue.  A beautiful spiral staircase, the munificent donation of the builder, Mr. Straphen, winds round the interior of the shaft, and opens on the summit, at the base of the pedestal of the statue, whence the visitor will enjoy a beautiful panoramic view of Shrewsbury and the fertile plains of Shropshire, unrivalled in extent and splendour.  On the sides of the pedestal are inscriptions, recording the victories of the gallant general, to whose honour this voluntary tribute of Salopian esteem was erected.

The Armoury, situated near to St. Giles’ church, is a spacious brick edifice, built by government in 1806, at an expense of £10,000, and intended as a depôt for containing the arms of the volunteer corps of this and the adjoining counties.  The principal building is 135 feet long by 39 feet wide, divided into an upper and lower story, capable of containing 25,000 stand of arms; at each angle is a small residence, and within the enclosure are two magazines for ammunition.  The arms having been removed to Chester, the premises have remained unoccupied ever since.  The structure now presents a dilapidated appearance; it has become by purchase the property of Lord Berwick.

The County Court Offices for the recovery of debts not exceeding £20 are situate in Wyle Cop.  The court contains within its jurisdiction the following parishes and places, viz.:—Acton Burnell, Alberbury, Albrighton, Astley, Atcham, Baschurch, Battlefield, Berrington, Cardington, Cardiston, Church Preen, Church Pulverbatch, Church Stretton, Condover, Cound, Cressage, Easthope, Eaton-under-Haywood, Eaton Constantine, Fitz, Ford, Frodesley, Great Harwood, Great Ness, Habberley, Hadnal, Harley, Haughmond Demesne, Hope Bowdler, Hughley, Kenley, Leebotwood, Leighton, Little Ness, Longnor, Melverley, Meole Brace, Middle, Minsterley, Montford, Petton, Pitchford, Pontesbury, Preston Gubballs, Ruckley and Langley, Rushbury, Shineton, Shipton, Shrawardine, Shrewsbury—viz.: St. Chad, St. Julian, St. Mary except Clive, and Holy Cross and St. Giles, and Smethcott, Stapleton, Sutton, Uffington, Uppington, Upton Magna, Westbury, Withington, Wolstaston, Wollaston and Wroxeter.—Judge: Uvedale Corbett, Esq., Aston Hall.—Clerk: Joshua John Peele, Esq., Murivance.—High Bailiff: Mr. Henry Bloxham, St. Mary’s square.—Bailiffs:  Edward Bury and Richard Prinn.

The Cattle Market or New Smithfield, situated near the banks of the Severn, on a plot of land called Raven Meadow, is approached from the lower part of Mardol, and the Castle gates nearly opposite the railway station.  This market covers four acres of land, and is not surpassed by any provincial market in England for the conveniences it affords, and its adaptation to the purposes intended.  It was opened on November 19th, 1850.  The total cost has been £15,000, of which £2500 was expended in raising the ground.  A lofty brick wall surrounds the market, which is capable of affording accommodation for 700 horses, 1400 cattle, 5000 sheep, and 1000 pigs, with suitable trial ground for the horses, appropriate pens for the sheep and pigs, and a long range of sheds under the north wall for the cattle.  If the tolls are not sufficient to pay the interest of the money borrowed for the formation of the market, the act of parliament authorizes a rate upon the town to meet the deficiency.  The market or fair is held every alternate Tuesday, when stock of all kinds is brought in very considerable quantities for sale.

Fairs for cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and fat stock are held every alternate Tuesday.  The following will be the dates for the year 1851, viz.:—January 14, 28; February 11, 25; March 11, 25; April 8, 22; May 6, 20; June 3, 17; July 1, 15, 29; August 12, 26; September 9, 23; October 7, 21; November 4, 18; December 2, 16, 30.

Butter and Cheese Fair is held on the Wednesday following the first fair in each month.

The Wool Fair takes place on July 1 and August 26.

The English Bridge is a substantial and elegant structure, 400 feet in length, and composed of seven arches, crowned by a bold balustrade.  It was erected in 1774, at an expense of £15,710, of which £11,494 was raised by voluntary subscriptions.  The central arch is sixty feet in width, and forty in height, which is double the height of the end arches, and consequently disagreeably steep; the breadth of the thoroughfare is also inconveniently narrow (only twenty-five feet) for the innumerable carriages and passengers which are continually passing over it.  The object in its construction was to contrive as much space as possible for the water during floods.  With the exception of this defect, its architectural beauty is surpassed by few bridges in the kingdom; it is highly ornamental to the town, and an equally noble monument of the public spirit of the gentry of the county.  The keystone of the central arch is adorned with a fine head of Sabrina, “goddess of the river,” and that on the opposite side with a head of Neptune, the “father of fountains.”  The keystones of the other arches are worked into a shell; on the central piers of the arches are finely carved dolphins.

The old English bridge, built probably by the abbots and burgesses conjointly, was taken down on the completion of the present structure.  It was constructed on seventeen arches, and extended over the main stream, also an arm of the river now filled up which flowed into the Meole Brook; its length was 864 feet, and the breadth only 12 feet, being greatly encumbered with houses.  Near the eastern extremity was a gate and a strong embattled tower, with chamber and portcullis, and beyond a draw-bridge.

The Welsh Bridge, so called on account of the road from Shrewsbury to a considerable part of North Wales lying over it, is situated at the foot of Mardol, and crosses the river into the populous suburb of Frankwell.  It is a bold and substantial structure, consisting of five arches, the length being 266 feet and the breadth 30 feet, completed in 1795, at an expense of £8000, raised by subscriptions.  The old Welsh bridge taken down on the erection of the above structure, was situated a few yards higher up the stream than the present fabric.  It was a most interesting monument of antiquity, and consisted of seven arches, with massive gate towers at each extremity, in the finest style of castellated building.  Leland, who visited Shrewsbury in 1539, in describing this bridge says:—“It is the greatest, faynest, and highest upon the stream, having six great arches of stone; it standeth on the west syde of the towne, and hath at the one end of it a great gate to enter by into the towne; and at the other end towardes Wales a mighty stronge towre to prohibit enemies to enter on the bridge.”  Above one of the gates stood an armed statue of a knight, which was removed in 1791, and placed in a niche in front of the Market-house.  This effigy was an important object of attraction to the Welshmen, from a tradition, that it represented Llewelyn, Prince of Wales.  Antiquaries, from its attendant embellishments, state it represented Richard Duke of York.  The tolls arising from marketable goods over this bridge were abolished by the payment of £6000 to the corporation, which sum was raised by public subscriptions.

The Railway Viaduct over the Severn, situated a little east from the station, consists of seven elliptical arches, forty-five span, and thirty-six feet above the ordinary level of the river.  The whole has a bold, massive, and elegant appearance.—A BRIDGE of cast iron of sixty-four feet span, crosses the Castle Foregate, and carries the four lines of rails of the Chester and Shrewsbury railway.—A WOODEN BRIDGE, consisting of two timber arches, eighty-five feet span each, on the bow and spring principle, leads from the public walk called the Dana, over the railway station, to the front of the county gaol.

Trade and Manufactures.—The trade of this town was once esteemed of great importance to the kingdom, and though its consequence has been eclipsed by the subsequent increase of other places, yet it has never been destitute of a considerable share of internal commerce.  In early times it was distinguished for its glove cloth, and shoe manufactories, but its ancient traffic in Welsh woollens was in a great measure the cause of the former opulence of Shrewsbury.  Camden, in his account of the town in 1586, observes:—“It is a fine city, and of good commerce; and by the industry of the citizens and their cloth manufacture, and their trade with the Welsh, is very rich, for hither the Welsh commodities are brought as to the common mart.”  Pennant, who wrote more than half a century ago, says:—“From very early days this place possessed almost exclusively the trade with Wales, in a coarse kind of woollen cloth called Welsh webs, which were brought from Merinoth and Montgomeryshire to a market held here weekly on Thursday.  They were afterwards dressed, that is, the wool raised on one side, by a set of people called shearmen.  At the time of Queen Elizabeth the trade was so great, that not fewer than 600 persons maintained themselves by this occupation.  The cloth was sent chiefly to America to clothe the negroes, or to Flanders, where it is used by the peasants.  At present the greatest part of this traffic is diverted into other channels, and not more than four or five hundred thousand yards are brought to the ancient mart.”  The stout Welshmen were accustomed to come to the market, with troops of hardy ponies, each with a halter of twisted straw, and laden with bales of cloth.

It was a practice of the drapers and shearmen to assemble at the Market-house at two o’clock, and according to ancient usage proceed up stairs in seniority.  The traffic was a ready money business, and as the Welshmen left much of their cash behind them, in exchange for groceries, malt, and other commodities, the loss of such a trade may easily be conceived, when it is said that more than six hundred pieces of web have been sold in one day.  The Welsh flannels were formerly made by the rural population, and the small farmers employed their female domestics at leisure hours in this business.  These seldom made more than four or five pieces during the year, and those from the wool of their own flocks.  The principal manufacturers were farmers, who maintained servants solely for that purpose, and hired weavers by the year.  They produced forty or fifty pieces annually at market, each measuring from 100 to 150 yards; and, as it was a ready money trade, many of them made considerable sums.  At present, chiefly from the introduction of spinning mills and the power loom, this ancient domestic manufacture is almost swept away.  The market, formerly held here every Thursday, is now removed to Welshpool, Newton, and Llanidloes, which has nearly caused the total extinction of this branch of local commerce.  There are now only two flannel merchants in the town, and they visit the different localities in which the flannels are manufactured to purchase their goods.

The general trade and prosperity of Shrewsbury are said to have been very much injured by the exactions of its guilds or incorporated companies, the most considerable of which are the drapers and the mercers.  The former were incorporated by Edward IV., and united with an ancient guild or fraternity of the Holy Trinity, founded in the church of St. Mary.  Their company is recognised by several subsequent acts of parliament.  They have now a considerable estate, originally purchased by the voluntary contributions of the members, which is expended in the support of the inmates of St. Mary’s almshouses, in liberal subscriptions to the charitable institutions of the town, and in relief to widows and families of deceased members.  On the south-west side of St. Mary’s church is the Drapers’ Hall, a curious half-timbered building, erected, probably, about the time of Elizabeth.  The large room, finely wainscotted with old oak, contains two massive oak tables, and a fine old chest, with richly carved ornaments.  Portraits of the royal founder of the company, and of Degory Watur and his spouse, decorate the wainscot.  Among the records of the Drapers’ Company are the following:—“25 Elizabeth, 1583, ordered that no draper set out for Oswestry on Monday before six o’clock, on forfeiture of 6s. 8d., and that they should wear their weapons all the way, and go in company.  Not to go over the Welsh Bridge before the bell tolls six.”—“27 of Elizabeth, 1585, a market was held at Knocking, and a halfpenny paid by the drapers for every piece of cloth bought.”—“1621, agreed to buy no more cloth in Oswestry.”

The Mercers were incorporated by Edward IV., on condition that they should maintain a priest to sing at the altar of St. Michael in the collegiate church of St. Chad; that they should give a penny a week to thirteen poor men, to pray for the good estate of the king, his family, and themselves; and also find a wax taper to be carried before the holy sacrament on the procession of Corpus Christi, on the celebration of which day it was customary for all the companies to unite as their grand anniversary, and preceded by their masters and wardens, ornamented with colours and curious devices they attended the bailiffs and members of the corporation, who, with the friars of the convents and the parochial clergy, followed the holy sacrament, which was borne by priests under a rich canopy of velvet, to a stone cross without the town (probably that now called the Weeping Cross).  Here all joined in bewailing their sins, and in chanting forth petitions for a plentiful harvest; they then returned in the same order to the church of St. Chad, when a grand mass was celebrated.  Three days of unbounded jollity and recreation followed this magnificent festival.  These were held on a piece of ground called “Kingsland,” where each company had its “arbour,” and the several incorporated communities, accompanied by bands of music, flags, and devices emblematical of their craft, preceded by a “King” or some other principal personage, assembled at their respective arbours and spent the time with much festivity.  After the reformation the religions ceremony was abolished, but one day of entertainment is still observed under the denomination of the Shrewsbury Show, now held on the second Monday after Trinity Sunday.  Each company has still its arbour or pavilion, adorned with the arms of the company, in which refreshments are provided.  These are visited by the mayor and corporation, who used formerly to wear their robes of office upon this occasion.  The following is an entry from the books kept by the bailiffs, dated 1521:—“Wine to the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, president of our lord the king’s council in the marches of Wales at the general procession of Corpus Christi, 3s. 8d.”  The show was revived and kept up with much pageantry in 1850.  The ancient Tailors’ Hall formerly stood on College Hill; the Weavers’ Hall on Wyle Cop; the Cloth Workers’ Hall in High-street, and the Mercers’ Hall in the King’s Head Shutt.  The chief manufactories at the present time in Shrewsbury are the extensive establishment of Messrs. Marshall and Co., for flax spinning and the manufacture of linen thread, where upwards of 800 operatives are employed.  The factory is a spacious and lofty building, situated in St. Michael-street; the aggregate amount of steam power employed is equal to 116 horses.  Linen was formerly extensively manufactured here; a linen and flax mill was taken down about fifteen years ago; there are now only about half a dozen hands employed in weaving linen.  The cotton manufacture was introduced into Shrewsbury in 1790, when several factories were built at Coleham, and the trade was carried on in a spirited manner.  In 1817 the proprietor, in consequence of a great depression in trade, declined business, since which the mills have been closed, and some portion of them converted into cottage tenements.  Malting is very extensively carried on, as will be seen in reference to the trades’ list, which will show thirty different firms.  Glass Staining has been brought to the highest state of perfection by Mr. David Evans, whose ingenious talents and consummate skill have raised the art to a degree of perfection unequalled in modern times.  The beautiful specimens visible in the restorations of Winchester and Lichfield cathedrals, in most of the churches of Shrewsbury, and in churches almost in all parts of the kingdom, will compare with some of the finest works of the ancient masters, and speak his merits more forcibly to the refined taste than whole volumes of feeble encomiums.  There are several Iron-founderies, and the manufacture of Agricultural Implements is carried onto a considerable extent, with Tanning and other branches of trade as will be seen on reference to the trades’ directory.  Among the delicacies for which the town is noted is the Shrewsbury Cake, a delicious sweet cake, which the poet Shenstone speaks of as “Rend’ring through Britain’s isle Salopian’s praises known.”  The Simnel Cake is also much admired, and great quantities are made about the season of Christmas.  It consists of an exterior crust or shell deeply tinged with saffron, enclosing a compound of rich fruit.  The Shrewsbury Brawn is highly celebrated among the connoisseurs of this ancient Christmas dish.

The Quarry.—This fine public promenade occupies a rich sloping meadow of about twenty acres, on the west side of the town, and derives its name from a disused stone quarry nearly in the centre, which supplied a considerable part of the red sand stone visible in the older portions of the walls and churches of Shrewsbury.  An avenue of lofty lime trees, more than five hundred yards in length, follows the windings of the Severn; to the middle and at each end of which, three other shaded walks lead from various parts of the town.  “The still retirement and pleasing gloom of this delightful grove, from which the noise of the busy town, and even a prospect of its buildings, are almost entirely excluded—the refreshing coolness of its shade—the rich verdure which ever clothes its meadow—the fine sweep of its umbrageous arch—and the majestic flow of the river, which here combine to render it the favourite and constant resort of the inhabitants, and a principal attraction to the stranger.”  The opposite bank of the Severn rises abruptly, and is crowned with the House of Industry, an extensive and handsome building, and some modern plantations, contribute greatly to embellish the scene, and render it one of the finest public walks in the kingdom.  The ground was planted and laid out during the mayoralty of Henry Jenks, Esq., in the year, 1719, previous to which it was a waste plot of land, where the inhabitants were used to indulge in feats of wrestling, tilting and other sports.  In a place called the Dingle, planted with a clump of magnificent trees, are the remains of a rude amphitheatre, with ascending seats cut in the bank, where the friars of the adjacent convent entertained the Salopians with those ancient, sacred dramas, called mysteries or Whitsun plays, so famous in the days of our ancestors.  Here, also, during the reign of Elizabeth, many plays were exhibited, in which the scholars of the free school sustained the principal characters; among which, in 1565, was a play called Julian the Apostate, and two years afterwards was exhibited the passion of Christ.  It is said that the Queen herself intended to have honoured the last with her presence, and had even arrived as far as Coventry on her way, but hearing that it was over she returned to London.  The corporation in the year 1569 leased the quarry to three persons for ten years, for the consideration of a red rose yearly, on condition that they should bring the water from Broadwell, near Crow Meole, in leaden pipes as high as it would run into the town of Shrewsbury.  By this means the water was first brought into the town; the work was completed in the year 1574, and then the conduits were first opened.

The Horse Races are held annually in the second week in May, and continue for two days; they attract a considerable influx of visitors to the town, but are not so celebrated as they were in former times.  The race course is situated a quarter of a mile N.N.E. from the Abbey Church, on the road leading to Monk Moor.  It also bears the name of “the soldiers’ piece,” and is pointed out by tradition as the spot on which the unfortunate Charles I., when at Shrewsbury in 1642, drew up his army and addressed the assembled gentry of the county on the subject of his distresses.

The Assembly Room was erected in 1777, at the back of the Lion Hotel; the room is commodious and suitably decorated, and the balls are usually attended by the rank and fashion of the county.

The Billiard Rooms are situated in the Market-square; the third story of the Music Hall has been divided into convenient apartments, which are now occupied as billiard rooms, of which Mr. Edward Vaughan is the proprietor.

Aquatic Excursions.—Much pleasure and healthy exercise is afforded on the Severn during the summer months, and an emulation of skill is frequently excited among the rowers.  Boats may be hired at a moderate charge, and pleasure parties frequently take an excursion up the river to the picturesque and shady banks of Berwick and the Isle, or to the rural village of Uffington.  The Severn also affords much pleasure to the votaries of the “gentle craft,” the river being celebrated for the excellency of its salmon, besides which trout, pike, grayling, perch, and many other sorts of fish are caught.

Kingsland is a plot of ground covering twenty-seven acres on the south west side of the town, the common property of the burgesses, thirty of whom in rotation receive annually 4s. 6d. from its produce, in lieu for a “turn for their kine.”  It is studded with small enclosures and “arbours,” to which the several incorporated trading companies of the town annually resort in procession on the Monday after Trinity Sunday, accompanied by bands of music and devices emblematical of their craft; a more particular account of which has been noticed with the various guilds.

Monastic Foundations.—The Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, which stood on the eastern banks of the Severn, in the suburb which still bears its name, owes its foundation to Roger de Montgomery, the first Norman Earl of Shrewsbury.  In the time of the Saxons it is said a church stood on or near this spot, and a community of monks was in all probability united to it.  The Danes, during their ravages in the ninth century, plundered and depopulated monastic institutions, and this it is conjectured fell with the rest.  The kingdom becoming more settled under the reign of Edgar, many of the abbey churches which had till then laid desolate were taken possession of by secular priests, who, swerving from the strictness of monastic life, engaged in the active concerns of society.  Such, apparently, was the state of the monastery of Shrewsbury at the time of the Norman invasion.  The church, then a rude edifice of wood, was governed by Odelirius, a priest, who as archpresbyter, presided over a college of married secular clergy.  Its district was called the parish of the city.  From the fact that the portion of each prebend, at the death of the incumbent, should revert to the monks of a new abbey, there can be no doubt that at this period it was collegiate.  This was the cause of much litigation, it being customary for ecclesiastical livings to descend as by inheritance to the next of blood.  These claims were, however, abolished during the reign of Henry I.  In the seminary belonging to this ancient church, a priest named Seward is mentioned as an eminent teacher, and to him the historian Ordericus Vitalis owed his education.

When Roger de Montgomery took possession of his territories in Shropshire, he determined to refound the monastery, and to introduce into it the monks of his favourite order, St. Benedict, whom he invited over from a religious house founded on the estates of Mabel, his first Countess, at Sees, in Normandy.  He obtained the land on which the monastery of Shrewsbury stood from Siward, a Saxon nobleman, and in 1083 laid the foundation of a magnificent abbey, which, when finished, was re-dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, the patrons of the ancient monastery.  With the consent of his Countess, Adelaisa, he retired to the holy solitude of his monastery and received the tonsure and habit of a monk, on which occasion he presented the fraternity with the tunic of Hugh, the sainted abbot of Clugin, in Burgundy, which vestment he occasionally wore, doubtless in anxious hope of its communicating some portion of the sanctity of its former possessor.  In the immediate prospect of his dissolution he invested himself with this precious relic, thus exemplifying the pitiable superstition of those who “put on the weeds of Dominic or Franciscan and think to pass disguised.”  He was buried in the Lady Chapel, between the two altars.

His second son, Hugh, succeeded to the Earldom of Shrewsbury, soon after which he paid a solemn visit to the abbey, to do homage to the tomb of his father, on which occasion, though of a profligate and cruel character, he added greatly to the endowments of the institution; and, among other things, conferred on the monks the tithe of all the venison of his forests in Shropshire, that of Wenlock excepted.  The barons who attended Earl Hugh, imitated his munificence and conferred large estates on the abbey.  By these and other acquisitions the revenues of the house were greatly enriched, and the abbot obtained the honour of ranking among those spiritual barons who sat and voted in parliament, had the authority of bishops within their houses, wore the mitre, sandals, and gloves, carried silver crosiers in their hands, gave their episcopal benediction, conferred the lesser orders, and in some instances were exempt from all authority of the diocesan.  It is uncertain when these high functions were first exercised, but the abbot of Shrewsbury is mentioned among the spiritual lords who voted in parliament in the 49th of Henry III.

In the days of King Stephen, when the popular passion for relics had attained an unbounded extravagance, the monks of Shrewsbury determined not to be behindhand with their brethren in availing themselves of so fruitful a source of opulence; therefore, during the abbacy of Herbert, the third abbot, they commenced business on their own account.  After ransacking the legends of Wales for a subject, they at length had the good fortune to pitch upon one sufficiently absurd for their purpose, in the bones of the martyred Virgin St. Wenefrede, which lay interred in the churchyard at Gwytherin, in Denbighshire.  After much fruitless negotiation with the priest and the people of Gwytherin, the abbot of Shrewsbury procured an order from Henry I. for the translation of the sacred dust to his monastery.  The Welshmen honoured their saint more than their king, and turned a deaf ear alike to entreaties and menace.  The Salopian monks persevering in their purpose, held a chapter, in which Robert Pennant, their prior, a Denbighshire man, who is supposed to have fabricated the legend, was commissioned to make a pilgrimage to Gwytherin, and to leave no expedients untried for obtaining possession of the relics.  Assisted by a priest in Wales, two clever monks of his abbey, and the prior of Chester, he practised on the credulity of the Welsh by pretended visions and divine warnings.  The prize was given up, and the delegates returned with it in triumph to Shrewsbury, where it was enshrined with great pomp and solemnity, near the high altar of St. Peter and St. Paul.  The speculation of the monks was completely successful; multitudes of pilgrims flocked with gifts to the shrine, and even nobles contended who should offer the richest donations.  In addition to these treasured bones the monks in after times appear to have possessed a most extensive and varied assortment of other relics, doubtless of equal value and efficacy.  In 1486 the abbot Thomas Mynde incorporated the devotees of St. Wenefrede into a religions guild or fraternity, founded by him in her honour.  A great bell was also dedicated to her memory.  One of the most remarkable persons this house produced was Robert of Shrewsbury, a monk, who was promoted to the see of Bangor, in the reign of Henry II.  His influence in Wales excited the jealously of King John, who imprisoned him in his own cathedral, and for his ransom obliged him to pay three hundred hawks.  This eminent prelate, it is said by his will, ordered his body to be buried, not in his cathedral church, but in the middle of the market place of Shrewsbury.  At the various visits with which the English sovereigns honoured Shrewsbury, it is highly probable that they took up their residence in the abbey, and there can be little doubt that the parliament of Edward I., 1283, and that of Richard II., 1398, called the Great Parliament, were held within the monastery.  At the dissolution of 1513, when the property and possessions of this monastery fell to the crown, the burgesses of Shrewsbury presented a petition that the abbey might be converted into a college or free school, to which request Henry refused to accede, alleging as a reason his intention of erecting Shrewsbury into a bishopric, the diocese of which was to include the counties of Salop and Staffordshire, and the endowments to consist of the monastic revenues.  Dr. Bouchier, the last abbot of Leicester, was actually nominated Bishop of Shrewsbury, and hence it is said arose the appellation “Proud Salopians,” founded on the tradition that the inhabitants rejected the offer of having their borough converted into a city.  The bailiffs and principal inhabitants of the city in vain petitioned their monarch to spare the buildings of the monastery.  On the 22nd of July, 1546, Henry VIII. granted the site of the dissolved abbey to Edward Watson and Henry Henderson, who the next day conveyed the same to William Langley, a tailor, in whose family it continued for five generations, until 1701, when Jonathan Langley, Esq., devised it to Edward Baldwyn, Esq., and he in like manner in 1726 passed it to his sister Bridget, wife of Thomas Powys, Esq.  In 1810 the premises were sold by the trustees of the wife of Thomas Jelf Powys, Esq., to Mr. Simon Hiles, in whose devisees they are now vested.  The property with which the abbey had been endowed at various periods, comprised seventy manors, twenty-four churches, and the tithes of thirty-seven parishes, besides very extensive and valuable privileges and immunities of various kinds.  In 26 Henry VIII., their possessions were found of the yearly value of £572. 15s. 5¾d., equal to £4700 in the present day.  Pensions were assigned to the late abbot, Thomas Boteler, and the seventeen monks.

The abbey presents few features of its ancient grandeur, the chapter house, cloister, and refectory are entirely destroyed.  In the stately chapter house occurred the early authorised assembly of that popular representation in the constitution of this kingdom, to which, under Providence, Englishmen have been indebted for much of their subsequent prosperity.  From the important state affairs which were transacted here in 1307–8 it was denominated the Great Parliament.  The cross of Canterbury was brought here, upon which the lords spiritual and temporal were sworn to observe and keep all the statutes which were then made.  Here too, Richard II., attended by a numerous guard of Cheshire men, entertained the members of his parliament with a sumptuous feast.  The site of the abbey embraced upwards of ten acres, but it is no longer possible to trace the wide circuit of the ancient embattled walls.  In 1836, on excavating near the site of the chapter house, a leaden seal was found, which had once been appended to a bull from the pope, whose name is thus inscribed on it:—INNOCENTUS.  P.P.  IIII.  The most interesting portions of the ruins is a little octagonal structure, six feet in diameter, which is generally called the Stone Pulpit, the admiration of every antiquary and person of taste.  Some broken steps lead to the interior through a narrow flat arched door on each side.  The south part stands upon a portion of a ruined wall, and originally looked into one of the outer courts.  The corresponding moiety projected considerably within the hall, and rests upon a single corbel, terminating in a head.  From this point it gradually spreads, with a variety of delicately ribbed mouldings, until it forms the basement under the floor.  The whole is crowned with a dome of stone work, at about eight feet from the base, supported on six narrow pointed arches, rising from pillars similar to the mullions of the windows.  One of the remaining sides of the octagon is a solid blank wall, and the other contains the door.  The roof within is vaulted on eight delicate ribs springing out of the wall, and adorned at their intersection in the centre, by a boss representing an open flower, on which is displayed a delicate sculpture of the crucifixion.  The spaces between the divisions of the three northern arches, are filled up four feet above the base, with stone panels, over which they are entirely open, and the light thus introduced is productive of a beautiful effect.  On the centre panel is a rich piece of sculpture designed to represent the annunciation.  The right hand panel bears the images of St. Peter and St. Paul; that on the left St. Wenefrede and the abbot Beuno.  The architecture of this interesting structure is referred to the time of Henry VIII.  Much conjecture has arisen among antiquaries respecting its probable use, but there can be little doubt that it originally projected from the wall of the refectory, and was used as a pulpit, from which one of the junior brethren of the monastery, in compliance with the rule of the Benedictine order, daily read or recited aloud, during meal times, a subject of divinity to the monks during dinner.  Southward from the pulpit is a range of red sand stone building, now incorporated with the abbey house.  To the south east is the abbot lodge, of which the only remnant is a portion of the cloister, consisting of three pointed arches.  The dormitory was cut through on the formation of a new line of road in 1836.

Shrewsbury Castle.—The events which belong to the Castle are intimately connected with the history of the town, where they are more fully noticed.  Its founder, Roger de Montgomery, made it his residence soon after the Conquest, and it became the chief seat of his baronial power.  As his new possessions had been acquired by the sword, Earl Roger considered the inhabitants as his property; therefore, to afford an eligible site for his new buildings, he is stated to have destroyed fifty houses; a fifth part of the town at that period.  After the fall of the great house of Montgomery, in the reign of Henry I., on the forfeiture of Earl Robert de Belesme, the Castle became a royal fortress.  Its defence was entrusted to a constable, usually the sheriff, who maintained the prison of the county within its walls; and the vast possessions annexed to it were parcelled out among various knights, on the condition of their keeping castle-ward for a certain number of days during war.  During the turbulent reign of Henry III. the castle fell into great dilapidation; but his son, Edward I., immediately on his accession, almost entirely rebuilt the structure.  The stronger portion of the castle now remaining was probably erected by direction of that monarch, being in the style generally adopted during his reign.

It was at this time considered rather as a place of great consequence in protecting the country from the invasions of the Welsh, than as a royal or baronial residence.  By the union with Wales all apprehensions on this ground vanished, and the importance of the castle as a fortress ceased.  In the time of Henry VIII. it seems to have been rapidly hastening to decay.  Leland, who then saw it, observes that it had been a “stronge thynge, but now much in mine.”  In the reign of Elizabeth, a grant was made of its site and buildings to Richard Onslow, Esq., who subsequently transferred his interest in it to the corporation.

During the civil war, in the reign of Charles I., the Castle resumed some share of its former importance, and was garrisoned for the royal party.  The dilapidated walls were repaired, and its gates strongly fortified.  After its surrender to the parliamentary forces, in 1645, it escaped the destruction that fell upon many other castles, owing to the circumstance of its being entrusted by the House of Commons to the government of Colonel Mitton, a native of the county, who, displeased with the virulent persecution of the king, soon after resigned his commission.  Colonel Mackworth was then appointed governor, and he was succeeded by Colonel Hunt.  On the restoration of Charles II., the property of the Castle returned to the burgesses, who in 1663 surrendered it to the king.  That monarch shortly afterwards presented it to Viscount Newport, afterwards Earl of Bradford.  The garrison at this time consisted of two companies with their officers; the daily expenses of which, as given in an old record, are stated at £8. 17s., or £3,230. 5s. per annum.  The Castle continued in a fortified state, and had a large magazine of arms, which was not removed till the reign of James II.  It is probable that the out-works were in a great measure destroyed, and its ancient chapel demolished, about this period.  The part still remaining was leased by the Earl of Bradford to Mr. Gosnell.  About the year 1730, this gentleman converted it into a gloomy habitation, in which state it remained until Sir William Pulteney repaired and greatly improved it.  The outer walls of the Castle are now undergoing a complete reparation by the present proprietor, the Duke of Cleveland.

The Castle stands boldly elevated on a considerable eminence on the narrow isthmus formed by the windings of the Severn, which in every other part, by surrounding Shrewsbury, formed a portion of its defence.  It has undergone so many changes, and has suffered so much from the dilapidations of time, that it is not easy to form any correct notion of its original state.  Its appearance does not convey an adequate idea of the size, stateliness, or the strength of a great baronial fortress, placed in so important a position as Shrewsbury was once esteemed.  The present buildings are of red free stone, and consist of the keep, the walls of the inner court, and the great arch of the interior gate.  How far the original fortifications extended cannot now be absolutely determined.  It is probable that the usual appendages of feudal castles, the outer court or ballium, with its strong gate, portcullis, and towers, once made part of the fortress, and extended, perhaps, beyond the Council House.  The keep is a square building of great strength, connected with two round towers, embattled and pierced, and originally consisted of one great apartment on each of the upper floors.  The interior as well as the exterior has been greatly altered.  In the vestibule is a statue of the founder, Roger de Montgomery.  A handsome stone staircase, of modern construction, leads from the vestibule to the principal apartments.  The drawing room, a spacious and handsome apartment, was used as a guard chamber in the time of Charles I.  A narrow stone staircase within the wall, lighted by chinks, leads to an apartment in the western tower, in which was a recess, with a strong groined ceiling, and small sharp pointed windows.  This building does not appear older than the time of Henry III.; the beams are of an immense size, and the walls are ten feet in thickness.  The battlements of the walls are pierced with narrow cruciform openings, called loops or oilets, which were intended for the convenience of the cross-bowmen.  The noble arch of the gateway is the only existing part of the original Norman fortress of Roger de Montgomery.  It is eighteen feet high, semi-circular, and with plain round facings; and its walls appear to have sustained a tower, from which hung the portcullis.  On the east side of the court is a postern, built probably in the time of Charles I., when the fortress was restored; and near it are the massive foundations of an ancient tower.  The Castle still retains one mark of its ancient dignity, for in the area of the inner court the knights of the shire are nominated, and from time immemorial have been girt with their swords by the sheriff.

On the south side of the court is a lofty mount, which rises abruptly from the Severn, the summit of which is crowned with ruinous walls, and an ancient watch tower for the purpose of descrying an enemy at a distance.  This was rebuilt about thirty years ago, and converted into a beautiful summer room, commanding a fine panoramic view, and now called Laura’s Tower.  From the above mount there is also a view of uncommon grandeur and beauty—the sides of the mount are richly clothed with foliage, the Severn winds majestically below—the eye of the spectator beholds in succession, the town, with its spires and turrets, its beautiful suburbs, and a wide sweep of finely wooded and diversified country, with the most extensive amphitheatre of mountains of which perhaps the island can boast.  The majestic Wrekin is connected by the hills of Acton Burnell and Frodesley with the towering heights of the Lawley and Caradoc, from whence the Long Mynd, Stiperstones, and Long Mountain, form an uninterrupted chain, with the bold and precipitous cliffs of Kefn-y-Castyr and Breddyn;—thence the horizon is bounded by the stupendous Berwin range, losing its blue summit in the clouds,—while the northern prospect is terminated by the humbler eminences of Grinshill, Pymhill, Hawkstone, and Haughmond.

When the frontier situation of Shrewsbury is considered, and that for four centuries it was, perhaps, the most important station on the marches of Wales, it is extraordinary that, though it has several times fallen into the enemies’ power by treachery and surprise, yet it never sustained more than two sieges, and those in rather early periods of its history.  This circumstance may partly be attributed to the slender hopes an adverse army must have entertained of reducing by regular approaches a place so strongly fortified both by nature and art; for it was not only defended by its castle, but by the river, and a wall which completely surrounded it.

The Town Walls.—The following account of the ancient walls of Shrewsbury is chiefly taken from Phillip’s history of the town:—The walls were built across the isthmus, from the castle down to the river on each side, by Robert de Belesme, son of Roger de Montgomery.  The other part of the walls surrounding the town was built in the reign of Henry III., who earnestly pressed the inhabitants to fortify and strengthen their borough, lest the enemy should surprise them unawares.  This part of the wall was thirty-two years in building; it was finished in 1252, to defray the charge of which the king, at sundry times, granted the burgesses leases of the tolls of the town, and other favours; among which, every barge laded with merchandise upon the river had to pay the charge of fourpence.  That part from the north end of the above-mentioned wall to the Welsh bridge, called Roushill, was built by Oliver Cromwell in the year 1645, the stone of which was brought from Shrawardine Castle.  The more accessible parts of the town walls, particularly on the south and south-western sides, were formerly strengthened by towers, which are now demolished, excepting one, situated near the Murivance; it is square, embattled, and of two stories high, lighted by narrow loop holes, the entrance of the upper story being from the top wall.  The only portions of the ancient walls now left standing are those on the north side of the town, extending from the Castle gates towards the Welsh bridge, and on the south-west side, where they stretch to a considerable distance.  Although reduced in height, and stripped of the battlements, they form an agreeable walk to the inhabitants of the town.

Gates and Posterns.—In an exchequer manuscript, without date, several gates or posterns are mentioned, to the keepers of which the coroners of the town delivered bolts and locks for their security.  Those at Shepelache and at Kaymeplace no traces of the names remain.  That called Bulgerlode was under the place formerly called the Gulph, at the bottom of the Wyle Cop, and Cleremont, on the top of Claremont Hill.  There were also gates in Milk Street, Barker Street, and Water Lane.  The latter only remains, and is memorable as the avenue through which the parliamentary forces were treacherously admitted into the town, at the siege of Shrewsbury, on February 22nd, 1644.

Streets, &c.  The following are some of the ancient names of the principal streets given in Phillips’ History of Shrewsbury, many of which have become obsolete.

Mardol, anciently written Marlesford, Mardefoie, and Mardvoll.  It had the name of Marlesford from the ford through the Severn at the bottom of the street, near the welsh bridge.

Chepynges-street.—An ancient name probably of the street leading from the Corn Market to Murivance.

Stalles.—The street leading from Mardol head to High-street.

High-street, formerly called Baxter’s-row, also Barker’s-row.

Ickeslode.—A lane that went from Dogpole to the Walls.

The Sextry was the Shutt from the passage from Kiln-lane to High-street.

Frankwell, anciently Frankvill; the Frank’s Vill, probably inhabited by the Franks, for in Doomsday book it is recorded that a part of the town containing 45 Burgase were inhabited by those people, who are there called Francigence.—This place seems to have been regarded as unconnected with the other part of the town; they had a strong work erected there for their defence, which at the time Shrewsbury was taken by the parliamentary forces surrendered upon bare quarter; and in the year 1640, when the plague began there, the inhabitants made an attempt to come into the town, but were beaten back by the bailiffs and townsmen.

Cheddelode.—A lane that went to the Severn, by Stury’s Close.

Bulgerlode.—A place at the bottom of the Wyle Cop, taken down in 1766.

Murivance.—A name of French extraction signifying before the walls, or within the walls.

Murivance-lane, led from the town wall down to the river.

Sheteplace, in old records written Sotteplace, and Soetteplace, is now called Shoplatch.  Behind the Walls, from its situation behind the walls, now the Quarry.

Priest’s-lane, led from the walls near the tower, to Murivance, now inclosed.

Romboldesham, now called Barber-street.

The Bailey.—That part of the town which lies before the castle.

Hound-street.—A street leading from the playhouse to Barber-street.

Grope-lane.—A narrow “shutt” leading from High-street to Fish street.

Corvisor’s-row.—The same as that which is now called Pride-hill.

Shoemakers’-row.—In Speed’s map the lower part of Pride-hill.

Hawmon-strete.—Probably that now called Castle-street, or Raven-street.

Merival.—At the east end of the New bridge.  Early in the 16th century, Merival was separated from the jurisdiction of the corporation, and considered a hamlet within the liberty of the town.

Altus Vicus.—The high pavement, near the Cross made in 1570.

Ancient Mansions.—The Council House, was so called from having been the residence of the Council of the Marches of Wales, during their occasional visits to Shrewsbury.  It is situated in the precincts of the Castle, on a bold acclivity which rises abruptly from the Severn, and commands a most delightful prospect of the surrounding country.  The house has been modernized, and divided into several tenements; that portion which comprises the hall and the great chamber over it, includes nearly the whole of the building which retains any resemblance of its original features.  It was built about the year 1501.  The unhappy Charles I. resided here for six weeks, upon the commencement of his troubles in 1642.  James II. on his visit to the town 24th August, 1687, held his court here.  These once magnificent apartments have been subdivided and despoiled of their rich furniture and beautiful stained glass.  A fine old porch, and the entrance hall with other relics have been carefully preserved.  The present proprietor, William James Clement, Esq., has furnished several of the apartments with antique oak furniture, elaborately carved.  The gateway of the council house is an interesting specimen of the style of architecture which prevailed in the early part of the 15th century.

The White Hall, situated near the Abbey Foregate, is a stately mansion, and exhibits a fine specimen of the Elizabethan style of architecture.  It is a lofty structure with numerous pointed gables; the roof is adorned with ornamental chimnies, and crowned with a central octagonal turret.  At the back of the mansion is a magnificent walnut tree, probably coeval with the house.  It was formerly the manorial seat of Richard Prince, Esq., by whom it was built in 1758.

Rowley’s, on Hill’s Mansion, said to have been the first brick building erected in Shrewsbury, was built in 1618, by William Rowley, Esq.  He amassed great wealth by fortunate speculations in Barbadoes.  His son, Roger Rowley, Esq., was the first person in this town who kept his carriage.  The daughter and heiress of the latter married John Hill, Esq., who lived in this mansion, from whom the street received the appellation of Hill’s-lane, instead of Knuckin-street.  The house has been unoccupied some time, it now presents a dilapidated appearance.

Ireland’s Mansion, situated in High-street, a noble timbered residence four stories high, terminating in pointed gables, was formerly the town residence of the ancient family of Ireland, long seated at Albrighton.  When entire it must have presented an imposing appearance; it is now divided into three excellent tenements.

Jones’s Mansion, situate near St. Mary’s Church, was built by Thomas Jones, Esq., who was appointed by Charles I. in 1638 the first mayor of Shrewsbury.  Subsequently the mansion became the residence of Chief Justice Jones.  The Duke of York was lodged here in 1624, during the stay of Charles I. in Shrewsbury, and Prince Rupert made it his residence after the battle of Worcester.

The Judges’ Lodgings, situated at Belmont, is a spacious residence purchased by the county in 1821, for providing suitable accommodation for the Judges during their attendance at the assizes.

In various parts of the town are seen many curious old timbered houses, interesting as specimens of the domestic architecture of the honest burghers of former days.  Nearly opposite the Butter Cross stood the mansion of the Prides, who gave their name to the street.  This house has been greatly modernized, and partly rebuilt.  In the Butchers’-row, is one of the largest, and supposed to be one of the oldest timber houses in the town.  History is silent as to the time or by whom it was erected.  It may have been the town mansion of the Abbot of Lilleshall, who had a residence in this part of the parish, and to which monastery the patronage of this church belonged.

Annals of the Town of Shrewsbury.

The following is a brief chronological sketch of the most remarkable events which have at different periods taken place in the town of Shrewsbury:—

A.D. 961—Land about Shrewsbury sold for one shilling per acre.  The price of an ox was 2s. 6d., a cow 2s., a sheep 1s., a pig 8d.

1110.—A great earthquake, and great mortality among men and cattle.

1225.—Three gallons of ale sold for one penny in the town, and four out of town.

1315.—The price of provisions settled by the bailiffs.—A corn fed ox 24s., a grass fed ox 16s., a cow 12s., a fat sheep 1s. 8d., a fat hog 3s. 4d., a goose 2d., a hen 1d., a capon 2d., four pigeons 1d., twenty-four eggs 1d.

1347.—A fine horse 6s. 8d., an ox 4s., a sheep 4d., a lamb 2d.

1349.—The sweating sickness desolated the town.

1421.—Rees-ap-Doe, a Welsh Esquire, was hanged, drawn, and quartered here for treason.

1454.—Wheat sold for 14d. a quarter (eight strikes).

1490.—Wheat sold for one shilling and eightpence a bushel.

1509.—Provision made for building upon waste land and repairing decayed houses, by an Act of Parliament.

1519.—A general Chapter of the Grey Friars held here.

1520.—Griffith Wickham drawn through the town and afterwards hanged.

1532.—George Goldsmith drawn through the town and afterwards hanged, for coining money.

1537.—The plague raged frightfully during this year.

1542.—Rowland Lee, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, burned before the high altar of St. Chad’s church.

1563.—The bailiffs agree that no foreigner should be a freeman of the town without paying £10 and the usual fees.

1570.—Two men killed by the falling of the clapper out of St. Wenefrede’s bell, in the Abbey Church.

1571.—Humphrey Onslow built the chapel of our Lady in St. Chad’s church, and paved the causeway from the Lord’s place, (the Council House) to the cross, at his own cost.

1575.—That fearful malady, the plague, again visited Shrewsbury.

1581.—John Capper, clerk of the Abbey Church, was hanged at Kingsland for treason.

1582.—John Prestige was hanged upon a gibbet near the abbey mill, for the murder of his wife.

1588.—Richard Reynolds was put into the pillory and had both his ears cut off, for setting fire to a sheep-cote.

1591.—After the assizes in September, eight men were hanged at the Old Heath, one of whom was hung in chains there.

1596.—Wheat sold for 20s. a bushel, rye for 16s. a bushel.

1630.—Great numbers died of the plague.  In 1632 and 1634—many fell victims to the same malady.

1647.—December 23rd.  A woman was burnt in the dingle of the quarry for poisoning her husband.

1683.—An earthquake felt here, February 7; a dreadful fire in the Abbey Foregate.

1708.—Wheat sold for 9s. a bushel, muncorn 8s., rye 7.

1715.—It being the time of the rebellion new gates were made to the walls and the trained band called together.

1726.—Lamps were put up in several parts of the town, at the expense of the several parishes.

1727.—An earthquake felt here.  A great meeting of quakers from all parts of England.

The judges of the assize were refused the usual compliments by the mayor, on which account the next assize was held at Bridgnorth.

1756.—Thirty-seven colliers brought to gaol for rioting and committing outrages in the county; four died in gaol, and two were executed.

1758.—The country butchers were again admitted to sell meat in the town, and shambles were erected for them near St. Alkmund’s church.

1762.—A great fire happened in New-street, Frankwell, on the 23rd February.

1766.—February 12th, 13th, and 14th, there fell a great snow in Shrewsbury, which lay on the ground several days, eighteen inches deep.

1772.—A smart shock of an earthquake was felt, which occasioned much terror and consternation.

1774.—On Good Friday, April 1st, a fire broke out in the Abbey Foregate, by which forty-seven houses were burnt down, and several others much damaged.

1775.—September 8th, the inhabitants were much alarmed with the shock of an earthquake; in the midst of a calm a rumbling noise much like that of a strong wind was heard; this was soon followed by two tremulous motions of the earth, succeeding each other instantaneously.

1778.—The Shropshire militia marched from Shrewsbury on May 7 to Bridgnorth, where they were reviewed; from thence they marched into Kent.

1780.—A stage coach began to run between Shrewsbury and Holyhead.

1782.—Baron Hotham laid a fine of £2000 upon the county, till they should build a new Shire Hall; the new hall was built 1786.

1789.—July 23rd, T. Phipps, a lawer, and his son, just twenty years of age, were executed at the old heath for forgery; Mr. Phipps had an income of about £300 a year from landed property.

1793.—May 13th, the first stone of the new Welsh bridge was laid.

1794.—April 28th, John Pritchard died in Frankwell in the 101st year of his age; he had ten children by the first wife, and twenty-two by the second.

1795.—February 7th to 11th, one of the greatest floods ever remembered in the Severn; Mr. Johnson and his man were both drowned in endeavouring to recover a large barrel.

1802.—A sturgeon eight feet six inches long, three feet four inches in girth, and weighing 192lbs. was caught near the wear below the castle.

1809.—February 7.  The suburbs of the town deeply inundated by the Severn.

1811.—May 27th.  An extraordinary flood in the Meole Brook, which inundated all the houses in Coleham, situated near the confluence of the brook with the river Severn, and caused the latter river to rise four feet in less than ten minutes; although the Meole Brook is an inconsiderable stream, the rush of water actually turned the current of the Severn at its confluence with that river.

1811.—August 24th.  Four persons executed on the new drop for a burglary at Betton, near Market Drayton.

1814.—June 30th.  Lord Hill paid a visit to Shrewsbury after the peace of Paris.  The day was one of general festivity among the inhabitants; thousands went out to meet him, and in the evening partook of tea in the quarry.  On the 17th of December the first stone was laid of the column in honour of Lord Hill.

1827.—July 19th.  First stone of the new infirmary laid by General Lord Hill; opened for the reception of patients September, 1830.

1828.—August 4th.  Three persons executed on the new drop of the county gaol for murder.  On the 24th of the same month Ann Harris was executed for the same offence.

1831.—February 10th.  In consequence of the sudden melting of the snow, the suburbs of the town were deeply inundated.

Though the flood in 1831 was considered a very high one, according to evidence of brass plates affixed to the inside of the window jambs of a house in Frankwell, the Severn at that end of the town was 3½ inches lower than the great flood in 1795.  The lowest plate bears the following inscription:—

“This is to let you know
The Severn up to me did flow.
December 21, anno 1672.”

A second plate two inches above the preceding, records—

“To this line flowed Severn.
November 8, 1770.”

On the third plate six inches higher than the second is inscribed—

“This plate is fixed to let you know
That Severn to this line did flow.
February 11, 1795.”

1832.—The cholera morbus in its destructive career through the kingdom visited Shrewsbury, when about a hundred persons fell victims to that direful malady.

1849.—The cholera again made its appearance in Shrewsbury; the fatal cases were fewer than in 1832.

CHARITIES.

Sir Thomas White, in 1566, bequeathed certain monies for charitable uses, in respect of which £100 is annually paid to twenty-four corporate towns in rotation (Salop being one), to be lent out, without interest, for a period of ten years, to poor young men of the said towns.

Robert Allen, by will 24th August, 1568, bequeathed £200 to be lent out to the poor inhabitants of the town of Salop, in sums of £10, to be held for three years; each recipient to find a bondsman for the repayment of the same at the expiration of the term, and to pay 4d. per annum, to be divided among the inmates of the almshouses of St. Mary and St. Chad.

Paul Clarke, April 15th, 1606, bequeathed £20 to be lent out, in sums of £10, to persons of his name and kindred only for the space of two years, and then to be returned to the bailiffs of the town, to be again put forth by the said bailiffs, from time to time, on sufficient security being given for the repayment of the same.

Sir Samuel Jones, by will, dated 10th March, 1670, gave to the town of Shrewsbury £500, to be employed for the setting poor people on work there, which sum he directed should he paid to the mayor and corporation of the said town, and should be by them, from time to time, lent on good security, without interest, to young tradesmen who should set up there.

Rev. John Hilton, in 1697, bequeathed £50 in trust to the mayor and corporation, to be lent out to five young tradesmen of the town, £10 to each, for the term of five years, interest free.

The foregoing abstracts are taken from the recitals in a decree of the Court of Chancery, made in the year 1772, in a cause between the attorney-general and the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, of the town of Shrewsbury.  By this decree it was ordered that the sum of £2,404. 14s. 6d., found to be in the hands of the corporation, should be apportioned to the preceding charities, in a ratio proportionate to their several bequests.  It appears that shortly after these proceedings in Chancery, the whole of the funds of these charities were lost; that a sum exceeding £3,000 was raised by subscription to replace the money so lost, which was subsequently repaid to the subscribers by the corporation.  In addition to the above sum found to be in the hands of the corporation, two sums of £100 each have been since received from Sir Thomas White’s charity, leaving £2,596. 5s. 3d. in the hands of the corporation to be accounted for.  In lending out the different sums of money, particular attention is paid to the directions of the several donors.  No applications for loans are refused, provided the parties are properly qualified, and sufficient securities are proposed.

David Lloyd ap Rogers, by will, bearing date May 1st, 1623, devised certain premises at Frankwell, in trust to the bailiffs and burgesses of the town of Shrewsbury, and directed out of the yearly income thereof, 10s. to be paid to the minister of St. Chad, 10s. to be employed in repairing the bridges in Shrewsbury, 10s. to be expended in repairing Buttington bridge, in the county of Montgomery, and the residue thereof to be distributed to the poor of the parish of St. Chad.  The premises now consist of two tenements, the estimated value of which is upwards of £30 per annum.

Henry Smith’s Charity.—The corporation are in possession of an estate in Chelmick, purchased with part of the personal property given by Henry Smith for charitable uses.  It consists of a farm house, outbuildings, and 129a. 2r. 15p. of land.  In 1805, upon the enclosure of the waste lands, an allotment was set out to the corporation; but the situation was remote from the remainder of the farm, and it was accordingly sold for £201. 10s.; £100 of which was subsequently laid out in improving the farm, and the residue put out at interest.  The income arising from the above sources amounts to £85. 1s. 6d., which is carried to the Burlton estate account.

In an old book of accounts, belonging to the corporation of Shrewsbury, there is an entry stating that gifts and legacies had been given to the poor of the town of Shrewsbury previously to the year 1663, amounting in the whole to £1,301. 11s. 11d.  The principal legacy is one of £300, left by William Spurstow.  Six other donors left legacies of £100 each, and the remainder is made up of smaller items.  In the whole there are names given of twenty-four several donors.  The sum of £1,200 was laid out in the purchase of an estate at Burlton.  In 1796 a sum of £925, which arose from the sale of timber on the estate, was laid out in the purchase of the tithes of corn, grain, and hay, in the said parish.  In 1829, the sum of £264. 12s. was received for timber cut on the estate; and in the same year £266. 9s. was expended in rebuilding and improving the farm premises, £50 of which had been advanced by the tenant.  The income derived from the Burlton estate and the farm at Chelmick, belonging to the charity of Henry Smith, amounts to £297. 7s. 6d. per annum.  The principal part of this income is applied in putting out apprentices, with a premium of £10 each, and in distributing coals among the necessitous poor.

James Phillips, Esq., of London, in 1661, devised certain tenements in the borough of Southwark, in trust to the corporation of Shrewsbury, out of the rents and profits thereof, to maintain a lecture on the Thursday in every week in the year, in the parish churches of Ellesmere, Oswestry, Whitchurch, and Shrewsbury; such lectures to be delivered by able and orthodox divines.  The residue of the said rents to be expended in gowns or clothes for the poor people of the said parishes.  In 1825, the corporation sold two tenements, situated in the parish of St. Saviour, left by the same donor, for the sum of £1,685, which was laid out in the purchase of £2,146. 10s. three per cent. consols.  Out of the income, amounting to £232. 7s. 10d. per annum, there has been appropriated for many years £10 per annum to the officiating ministers of Ellesmere, Oswestry, Whitchurch, and Shrewsbury; and the residue is expended in flannel, and distributed among the poor of the above-mentioned parishes.

Edward Donne, in 1668, bequeathed £200, and directed his executors to dispose of the same in the purchase of lands, and lay out the yearly proceeds in apprentice fees, upon poor children born in the parishes of St. Chad, St. Mary, St. Alkmund, and St. Julian.  It appears the amount was invested in a rent charge of £10 per annum, arising from certain lands situated at Bulchey, Bryn-y-Koppall, and Wollaston.  Dr. Gardiner took possession of this property under the will of his father, in 1801, and considerable arrears were allowed to accumulate in his hands.  He, however, in March, 1801, offered to discharge the arrears by paying £60 a-year till the whole were liquidated, and to pay the amount of the rent charge in future to the corporation.

William Jones.—From an entry in one of the books of the Company of Drapers, in the town of Shrewsbury, under the date of March, 1653, we learn that William Jones conveyed the manor of Wigmore, in the parish of Westbury, upon trust, that there should yearly be paid out of the said premises £11. 6s. 8d. to the master warden and assistants; £10 thereof to be yearly distributed among the most necessitous poor of the town of Salop, more especially those dwelling in the parishes of St. Mary and St. Alkmund.  The residue, £1. 6s. 8d., to be paid to the Vicar of St. Alkmund, for reading morning prayers.

Widow Baugh bequeathed twenty marks per annum; one-third thereof for the better maintenance of the minister of St. Chad, and the other two parts to the relief of the poor of Shrewsbury.  Certain lands in Preston Montford are charged with the payment of the twenty marks, or £13. 6s. 8d., one-third of which has been paid to the minister of St. Chad, and two-thirds thereof to the directors of the House of Industry for the united parishes of the town of Shrewsbury.  [We conceive that the two-thirds of the annuity which has usually been paid to the directors of the House of Industry, in aid of the parish rates, ought to be discontinued; and the amount distributed among proper objects of charity in the town of Shrewsbury, according to the intentions of the donor.]

John Allatt, by will, bearing date 7th April, 1792, after bequeathing certain legacies directed all his personal estate, not specifically disposed of, to be held in trust, to apply such sums as the trustees should think proper in the erection of a school house and residences for the teachers; and the residue to be invested in government stock, to be applied in support of the school.  By a codicil to his will, dated October 31st, 1796, he directed £1,600 to be invested in the three per cent. consols, the dividends thereof to be expended in the purchase of gowns for poor widows, poor single women not less than the age of 40 years, and coats for poor men of the age of 50 years and upwards.  The testator died in 1796, and the school buildings were erected in 1800, at an expense of upwards of £1,500.  In addition to the sum laid out in erecting the school premises, £4,497. 4s. was laid out in the purchase of three per cent. consols, and also the sum of £1,600 left for the purpose of providing clothing for the poor.  With the former, £8,743 stock was purchased; and with the latter, £3,257.  Subsequent purchases have been made with the surplus of the income; and a legacy of £45 left for the same use, by the will of Sarah Mason, in 1809.  There is, therefore, now a capital of £14,000, of which the dividends of £10,800 are appropriated as the educational fund, and £3,400 as the clothing fund.

Sarah Darley, by will, 29th January, 1821, bequeathed £100 upon trust, and directed the yearly produce should be applied in the purchase of four tons of coals, for the use and benefit of all the prisoners who might be confined in the county gaol of Shrewsbury; and that the residue should be applied in aid of the prison charity.  And she further bequeathed £500, to be placed out at interest by her executors, and the interest applied in releasing one or more debtor or debtors who should be confined in the gaol of Shrewsbury, but who, through misfortune, is forced into confinement; and that particular regard should he paid to those whose families should be suffering from their confinement.

Esther Jones, by will, dated 2nd July, 1823, bequeathed to the treasurer for the time being of the county of Salop, £300 three per cent. consols, upon trust, to apply the dividends towards the relief of the industrious poor prisoners, who should, from time to time, be confined in Salop gaol.

Upon a table, containing the benefactions to poor prisoners, it is stated that Isaac Hawkins, Esq., bequeathed £100, in 1803; Rowland Hunt, Esq., in 1810, gave £25; and that Mrs. Knight gave £25.  In respect of Hawkins’ gift, there is a sum of £189. 11s. 6d. three per cent. consols, the dividends of which amount to £5. 13s. 8d.; and in respect of the two latter benefactions, the sum of £75. 3s. 9d., three per cent. consols, producing £2. 5s. yearly.  The amount of these subscriptions is paid over to the treasurer of the prison charities, and is added to subscriptions raised for the purpose of enabling debtors to gain a livelihood while in confinement, to reward them for good behaviour, and to furnish them with implements on quitting prison to support themselves and their families; and also to encourage industry and good behaviour in criminal prisoners, and to furnish them with the means of returning home.  The subscriptions usually amount to upwards of £70 per annum, and the whole is applied under the direction of the visiting magistrates.

Samuel Shuker, by will, 18th June, 1821, gave to John Edwards, Esq., £1,200, upon trust, to purchase therewith a government annuity, determinable on the death of Mary Watkins; and if she should marry, or dispose of the said annuity, the proceeds should thenceforth be applied for the benefit of the Infirmary of Shrewsbury.  The testator also devised to another person a copyhold messuage and premises in Twickenham for her life.  And upon her marrying, or disposing of her life interest, he directed his trustees to sell the same, and stand possessed of the monies arising from the sale thereof, for the benefit of the said Infirmary.

PARISH OF ST. ALKMUND.

Charities.—Robert Owen, by will, bearing date 14th March, 1603, gave £40, and directed the interest to be distributed to the poor; William Williams, and Sarah Street, each gave £5 for the same purpose; George Lyndon, in 1706, bequeathed £50 for the benefit of the poor; Esther Hill gave £5; Honour Dryden, in 1715, gave £20; Edward Donne directed the interest of £20 to be given among poor housekeepers receiving no alms; Elizabeth Hanmer gave £20, the yearly proceeds to be expended in bread for the poor; Lucy Minors, in 1692, gave £10, the interest to be distributed in bread among the poor of the parish, on St. Luke’s day, yearly; Thomas Jones, Esq., gave to the parish of St. Alkmund £50, out of the yearly proceeds the clerk of the parish to have 10s. yearly for his care in looking after the testator’s tomb in the church, and the residue to be distributed among the poor parishioners; Thomas Lloyd, in 1721, bequeathed £20 to the minister and churchwardens of St. Alkmund, on trust, to place the same out at interest, and to pay 10s. yearly to the minister for preaching a sermon in the parish church on the 1st of November, yearly; 9d. to the sexton and clerk for officiating on that day, and the remainder to be distributed in twopenny loaves immediately after the sermon on the 1st of November.  Of the several legacies above-mentioned amounting to £245, it appears that certain lands were purchased in Meole Brace and Coton, with part of the money, and the residue invested in the purchase of £175 three per cent. consols.  The stock was subsequently sold, and there is now a sum of £200 secured on bond, the interest of which £10 per annum, and the yearly sum of £5. 5s., to which is added £2 10s., arising from the charity of Jane Brooks; with these sums bread is purchased, and sixty-three penny loaves are given away on the Sunday after St. Thomas’s day, and on every succeeding Sunday till the whole is exhausted.  The rents of the land above-mentioned, amounting to £35 per annum, are given away every St. Thomas’s day, among the most necessitous poor of the parish, in sums varying from 3s. to 12s., a preference being given to those not receiving parish relief.

Sarah Brook, in 1760, left a rent charge of £5 per annum, issuing out of certain lands in Uffington, the amount to be paid to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of St. Alkmund, and St. Julian, in Shrewsbury, to each parish 50s., to be by them respectively laid out in twopenny loaves, and given among poor, old, and decayed people of honest life.

Ann Parry gave to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of St. Alkmund £20 to be placed out at interest, and the proceeds to be paid to four widows of the said parish yearly at Christmas.  Francis Wingfield, in 1813 bequeathed £20, the interest to be distributed to poor persons of the parish on St. Thomas’s day yearly.  These two legacies are held by the churchwardens, for which £2 yearly is paid as interest; the churchwardens and overseers distribute the interest according to the donors’ intentions.

Josina Pemberton, by a codicil to her will, bearing date 17th September, 1817, desired that her sister would pay yearly, during her life, the sum of two guineas, to the churchwardens for the time being of each of the parishes of St. Mary, St. Julian, and St. Alkmund, to be by them respectively laid out in coals, and distributed among the poor of the respective parishes, and she requested that her nephew, Robert N. Pemberton, would continue the annual payment during his life.  The amount is laid out in coal, and distributed among thirty poor housekeepers on new year’s day.

PARISH OF ST. CHAD.

Charities.—Millington’s Hospital.—James Millington, by his will, bearing date 8th February, 1734, devised the greater part of his ample fortune for the erection and endowment of an hospital and free school.  The hospital is pleasantly situated upon elevated ground in Frankwell, and consists of a handsome pedimented front with a stone portico; the central portion comprises the chapel and school room, and the houses of the master and mistress, and in the wings on each side are the apartments of the hospitallers.  The property purchased by the trustees in 1753 and 1794 is wholly situated in the parish of Llanvair Waterdine, in the county of Salop, and in the parish of Beguildy, in the county of Radnor, except an estate of 15a. 0r. 9p., situate in the parish of Kinnerley.  The entire property comprises 2,429a. 2r. 9p. of land, and produces a yearly income of £1227.  The hospital consists of twelve in-hospitallers and ten out-hospitallers.  These persons are appointed by the trustees as vacancies occur.  They are required to be parishioners of St. Chad, and inhabitants of that part of the parish called Frankwell.  No persons are selected except poor decayed housekeepers, and the preference has usually been given to females.  Each of the in-hospitallers has a dwelling house in the hospital, consisting of a room above and another below, with a small garden, and other conveniences.  The four senior of the out-hospitallers are allowed to occupy four sets of apartments over the schools, and they generally succeed as vacancies occur to the situation of in-hospitallers.  Each of the inmates receives £10 10s. a year by quarterly payments, and three tons of coals, and a sixpenny loaf every Wednesday and Saturday.  They are also supplied with a certain quantity of clothing.  The out-hospitallers receive £4 per annum, and each has a like allowance of bread and clothing.  A clergyman of the church of England is paid a salary of £50 a year as chaplain.  He attends at the hospital every school day and reads prayers to the scholars and in-hospitallers, and the first Thursday in every month catechises the children.  The minister in addition to his yearly stipend receives one guinea for preaching a sermon on the 12th of August.  In the schools twenty-five boys and twenty-five girls are instructed.  The schoolmaster receives £50 a year, and the mistress of the girls’ school £42 per annum, and each of them has an allowance of coal.  The scholars are the children of parishioners of St. Chad’s, living in Frankwell, and are appointed by the trustees.  They are admitted between six and nine years of age, and are allowed to remain till they are fourteen.  During their stay in the school they are completely clothed and supplied with books and stationery; and when they are of sufficient age, the boys are bound out to trades, and the girls placed out in service.  A premium of £10 is allowed with each apprentice, and £5 is paid to them when they have completed their time.  The girls are allowed £3 when going out to service, and a like sum as a reward for good behaviour afterwards.  There is a good garden for the schoolmaster and mistress, and a plot of garden ground for each of the twelve hospitallers, which they generally let for their own benefit, being worth about £2 per annum.

St. Chad’s Almshouses, situated on the east side of old St. Chad’s church yard, consist of eleven miserable tenements, containing one room each.  They are extremely dilapidated, there being no fund for keeping them in repair.  It is stated that they were founded in 1409, by one Bennet Tupton, a common brewer, and that there were formerly thirteen tenements, but that two fell down.  They were endowed in 1640, by David Ireland, with a rent charge of £4 per annum, issuing out of land in Lythwood, and a further rent charge of £3. 18s., the gift of the widow of Mr. Ireland, which is also payable out of land in the same place.  There is also a yearly sum of £1 6s., payable out of a piece of land in Sutton Lane, left by Robert Owen, and a small payment of 2s. 2d. yearly, made by the Mercers’ company.  These several sums amounting in the whole to £9. 6s. 2d. are distributed in equal proportions among the inmates.  The Rev. Richard Scott, B.D., bequeathed £150 in 1848, and directed the interest to be expended in coals for the poor of St. Chad’s almshouses.

Richard Lleweylln, who was bailiff of Shrewsbury in 1637, devised certain lands in the township of Shelton, and directed the yearly income to be employed in binding out poor children apprentices born in the parish of St. Chad; the children of his kindred to be preferred.  The property left by the testator produces an income of about £12. 12s. per annum.

Thomas Owen, one of the justices of the court of common pleas in 1598, devised to the bailiffs and commonalty of the town of Salop the yearly rent of his farm at Calcott, and directed that they should employ the profits thereof in giving assistance to poor decayed householders of the parish of St. Chad.  This gift in after times merged into a rent charge of £20 per annum.  The amount is now received by the chamberlain of the corporation, and distributed with the produce of the following charity.

Edward Owen, by will, dated 25th November, 1612, gave to the bailiff and burgesses of the town of Salop a rent charge of £10 per annum, issuing out of his lands in Kilgurgan, in the county of Montgomery, the same to be distributed among 200 of the poorest holders in the parish of St. Chad, wherein he was born.  This sum of £10 is carried to one account with that of £20 derived from Thomas Owen’s charity, and £1 10s. from the gift of David Lloyd ap Rogers, and distributed on the first Thursday in the year to poor persons in the parish of St. Chad.

Thomas Edwards, in 1641, charged certain lands in the parish of Middle, with the payment of £12 per annum, 20s. thereof annually to be given to poor maidens at their marriage, £10 to be distributed among the poor of the town, and £2 to be paid to the curate of St. Chad.

Richard Winne, in 1679, gave £100 to the Haberdashery Company, London, on their giving a covenant to pay £5 yearly to the minister and churchwarden of the parish of St. Chad, for the benefit of the poor.  This gift is distributed by the churchwardens among twenty poor widows.

Hester Farmer, by will, 1691, devised a parcel of land in Castle Foregate, and directed the rents to be paid successively to the several parishes of St. Chad, Guilsfield, Kinnerley, and Great Ness.  The land produces £23 per annum, and once in four years the amount is distributed in small sums among the poor of St. Chad’s parish.

Elizabeth Williams, in 1712, charged certain lands at Llansianfraid, in the county of Montgomery, with the payment of 40s, yearly, to the minister of St. Chad, upon trust, to dispose of 20s. thereof yearly, for clothing two of the poorest boys in the parish of St. Chad, and the remaining 20s. in buying coats or gowns for three poor women.

Francis Swift, in 1717, bequeathed £100 to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish.  This gift was laid out in the purchase of three tenements, in Shrewsbury, for a workhouse; together with £100 arising from the charity of Gabriel Rogers; £10 the charity of John Lloyd; £10 given for a distribution of bread, and £100 given to the parish officers for the general benefit of the inhabitants.  This workhouse was sold about the year 1799, and out of the sale £220, the amount of the several sums given for charitable uses, with the further sum of £40, the gift of John Lloyd, was lent on the security of the Shrewsbury House of Industry, bearing interest at five per cent.  In respect of Swift’s gift, £5 is given among poor persons in sums varying from 2s. 6d. to 5s. each.

Martha and Mary Harwood’s Charities.—There is an annual sum of upwards of £80 arising from an estate, at Faxley, and a dwelling house situated in Belmont, Shrewsbury, which is distributed among poor decayed housekeepers and aged widows, chiefly parishioners of St. Chad, excepting £5 per annum which is used as a clothing fund for poor widows.  There were two houses in Belmont, devised by Mary Harwood in 1734; but they were subsequently converted into one.

Josena Pemberton, by a codicil to her will, dated 10th December, 1817, desired that her sister would pay yearly during her life the sum of five guineas, to be laid out in coals for the poor; and she further desired that her nephew, Rev. Robert N. Pemberton, would, within one month of her sister’s decease, lay out the sum of £100 in the names of the trustees, or some other safe security, and apply the annual income in purchasing coals for poor needy persons of the parish of St. Chad.  When the Charity Commissioners published their report, Miss Pemberton and her nephew were both living, and the annual sum of £5. 5s. was paid to the churchwardens.

Easter Jones, in 1823, bequeathed to the minister and churchwardens of the parish of St. Chad £400 three per cent consols, in trust, to distribute the yearly dividends every Easter Monday, in proportions of 10s. each, to twenty-four poor women of the said parish.

Mary Jukes, by will, in 1700, devised certain premises on Claremont Hill, and directed the yearly income to be appropriated to charitable uses.  The property consists of four houses, producing a yearly rental of £46; out of which 10s. is paid to the vicar for an annual sermon, one moiety paid in apprentice fees, and the residue distributed among the poor.

Edward Tomkis, by will bearing date 24th January, 1771, bequeathed £400 upon trust, that the interest should be annually spent in buying twelve blue coats for men, and twelve gowns and petticoats of the same colour for an equal number of women.  In respect of this Charity, there is a sum of £717. 10s. three per cent. consols, the dividends of which amount to £21. 10s. 6d.  The amount is expended in coats and gowns, except a yearly sum of £5 which has been given to the Vicar of Meole Brace for clothing poor boys, belonging to St. Chad’s, but resident in Meole Brace.

Hopton Estate Charity.—The following legacies were noticed on a table of benefactions put up in the Church in 1640, viz.:—Sarah Giles, £50; John Hill, £50; Henry Swinnerton, £50; Stephen Rogers, £50; Thomas Phillips, £10; John Cotton, £50; Hester Lloyd, £100; Thomas Cotton, £10; John Hall, £20; Richard Lloyd, £10.  These several sums may have formed the purchase money of the Hopton estate, as it is stated it was purchased with the proper money of the poor of the parish of St. Chad; but it does not state the source from whence the money was obtained.  The estate consists of 83a. 1r. 37p. of land, with farm house and out-buildings, the whole of which was let on lease in 1748, for 99 years, at a yearly rental of £15.  The farm is valued at upwards of £100 a-year.  Of the rent one moiety has been paid in aid of the National Schools, and the other to the general fund of the poor.

Astley Estate Charities.—The estate at Astley consists of a farm house with outbuildings and lands, containing together 120a. 3r. 27p., let at a yearly rental of £100.  The following legacies are mentioned in a book containing an account of the Charities of the parish, as having been laid out on the estate.  Benjamin Muckleston gave £40, the interest to be expended in coats for poor boys; Susanah Loxon £200, for a weekly distribution of bread; Elias Evans, £20; William Peers, £20; and Elizabeth Hamer, £20, also for a distribution of bread.  Thomas Bright, in 1730, gave £20 per annum, payable to the minister of Astley, for preaching every Lord’s day throughout the year.  There is a sum of £260, the produce of the sale of timber cut on the Astley estate in 1804, which is secured on the Shrewsbury House of Industry, and for which interest is paid at the rate of five per cent.  Out of the rents and interest above mentioned, being £113 per annum, there is paid £20 to the chapelwardens of Astley; £3 for the repairs of the chapel; £3. 9s. 5d. for land tax and chief rent; £2 for purchasing four coats for poor boys, and the remainder is carried to the general charity account for a distribution of bread.

William Spurtson bequeathed £100 which was expended in the purchase of a rent charge of £6 per annum, issuing out of certain messuages in Burleton.  The amount is carried to the general charity account hereafter mentioned.  Rowland Newett bequeathed £10; John Lloyd, £10; Richard Mather, £20; John Dodd, £20, for a distribution of bread—and a further sum of £10, given by an unknown donor, with the above is carried to the general charity account.  There is also a sum of £200 secured on the Church of St. Chad, which was lent from an accumulation of charity money.  The surplus of the produce of the several charities before mentioned, not specifically applied, is carried to one general account, and disposed of chiefly in bread.  There is also, occasionally, a sum of money distributed by the churchwardens.

Nathaniel Tench, in 1674, conveyed the lands and tithes of the farm and grange of Crow Meole, in trust, to pay the yearly proceeds to the minister of St. Chad’s, on condition that he preached an anniversary sermon on the 6th of June, yearly, being the birth-day of the said N. Tench; and in case the minister should refuse or neglect to preach the said sermon, or should not reside, or not personally officiate in the said parish, then the rents and profits thereof should be distributed among the poor of St. Chad’s parish.  The value is about £160 per annum.

Lost Charities.—Eleanor Griffith gave £40; John Atkins, £20; Thomas Clemson, £10; Elizabeth Forster, £30; Mary Bowdewin, £20; and Mrs. Pigott, £20.  Up to the year 1747, the interest of the several benefactions above mentioned was paid out of the churchwardens’ account.  Subsequent to the year 1747, a considerable sum was for many years disposed of annually in bread, but it does not appear from what benefactions such bread was provided; and from this period there is no distinct trace of the several gifts above mentioned.  Mary Pelton left £2. 10s., yearly, and Hester Lloyd bequeathed £100; it appears that formerly apprentice fees were paid from the interest of this money, the last was in the year 1755.  There is now no evidence to shew how the capital has been appropriated.

John Evans, in 1844, bequeathed £150, in trust, to the minister and churchwardens of St. Chad’s, and directed the interest to be distributed among poor persons, not receiving parochial relief.

The Rev. Richard Scott, B.D., in 1848, bequeathed £300, in trust, to the minister of St. Chad’s, to apply the interest yearly, in purchasing coals for the necessitous poor of the parish.

PARISH OF HOLY CROSS.

Charities.—St. Giles’ Hospital, situated near St. Giles’ Church, was originally established for the reception of persons afflicted with leprosy.  Henry II., for the support of the hospitallers, granted 30s. yearly out of the rent of the county of Salop, and a handful of two hands of every sack of corn, and a handful of one hand of every sack of flour exposed for sale in Shrewsbury market.  Henry III., in 1232, gave a horse load of wood, daily, from his wood of Lythwood.  The right of nominating the inmates of the hospital is exercised by the Earl of Tankerville, and the following payments are made to them by one of his lordship’s agents:—To each of the four inmates, 1s. 6d. per week; 3s. at midsummer for coals; and 12s. 6d. at Christmas for a garment

Peter Langley, in 1650, gave £200 for charitable uses, and John and Jonathan Langley bequeathed £100 for the same purpose.  These gifts were laid out in the purchase of lands and premises in Castle Foregate, which produced an income of £82 per annum at the time the Charity Commissioners published their report.  The amount is distributed in sums, varying from 2s. to 10s., among the most aged and needy parishioners.

Mathusalem Jones charged an estate at Underdale with the payment of so much money, as should furnish five coats for men and five garments for women, to be given to ten paupers every 5th of November.

Elizabeth Prynce, in 1711, bequeathed £100, and directed the same to be laid out in lands or hereditaments, the yearly produce thereof to be distributed among the poorest inhabitants of the parish.  There are no deeds in the parish relating to the laying out of this bequest; but the property supposed to have been purchased therewith consists of four cottages in the Abbey Foregate, producing a yearly rental of £4. 10s. each.

Thomas Doughty bequeathed £50, the interest thereof to be laid out in bread.  This bequest, and five others, amounting in the whole to £85, were probably carried to the church account, as the interest, £3. 18s., has been considered as a charge upon the estate held by the parish.  The amount is expended in bread, which is given away every Sunday.

Thomas Jenkins, Esq., in 1730, directed that six poor people, parishioners of Holy Cross, should be clothed once in every year.  Three poor men and three poor women are supplied with coats and gowns at the expense of R. Jenkins, Esq., of Bicton.

Thomas Talbot Gorsuch, by a codicil to his will, bearing date 4th June, 1819, gave to the vicar and churchwardens of the parish of Holy Cross and St. Giles, £300 three per cent. reduced annuities, upon trust, to distribute the interest to such poor persons of the said parish as should be most regular in attendance at divine service in the parish there, and be the most deserving objects of charity.  Not less than ten shillings to be given to each poor person.

There is an entry in the old churchwardens’ book, under the date of 1634, reciting that divers lands and messuages had been formerly given to the repair of the churches of Holy Cross and St. Giles, and so decreed by commission of charitable uses, James II.  The amount of these rents, £127. 4s. 10d., with such payments as are received for opening graves and for pew rents, the two latter amounting to about £20 per annum, supply the place of a church rate, and are sufficient for the repairs and ornaments of the two churches in this parish.

ST. MARY’S PARISH.

Charities.—St. Mary’s Almshouses were founded by the Company of Drapers, at a very early period, and are usually called the Drapers’ Almshouses.  They appear to have been remodelled in 1461, during the wardenship of Degory Watur, a draper of Shrewsbury, who devoted a portion of his substance towards their endowment.  This beneficent man is said to have “dwellyd in the almeshouse hall amongst the poor,” and when deprived of sight, and bowed with the weight of ninety-six years, he daily accompanied the participators of his bounty to the “church of our lady,” where he “wold kneele amongst them in a fayre longe pewe made for them and hym selfe.”  In his will, dated 28th July, 1477, he devised certain lands to the wardens of the Drapers’ Company, to “sufficientlie susteyne poore people in St. Mary Allmeshouse.”  Other charitable individuals have made subsequent additions to the endowment, which are under the management of the Drapers’ Company.  The old almshouses stood on the west side of St. Mary’s church-yard, and having become much dilapidated, were taken down in 1825, when the stun of £476. 16s. was awarded to the Company of Drapers, as a compensation for the site and materials for the purpose of improving the town.  The company then purchased a piece of ground on the opposite side of the street, for £750, and they have since built sixteen tenements, at an expense of about £2,000.  The inmates receive about £6 per annum, and are appointed by the Drapers’ Company from amongst the poor parishioners of St. Mary’s.

Elizabeth Lord, in 1696, bequeathed £100, and directed the profits to be employed in clothing ten poor persons.  This sum is in the hands of the corporation, and £5 annually is paid as the interest thereof, which is laid out in warm clothing for poor women.

Sarah Bolles, in 1747, bequeathed £100, the yearly income to be given to eight poor housekeepers.  On account of this charity there is £132. 0s. 2d. new four per cents. standing in the names of certain trustees, who receive the dividends, amounting to £5. 5s. 6d.

Ann Parry, in 1755, gave £60, being a benefaction intended by her sister, Mary Tench, deceased, the interest to be given to eight poor housekeepers, not burthensome to the parish; and in 1776 bequeathed £20, the interest to be given annually to four poor widows.  These two sums were laid out in the year 1790 in pewing the church, and since that period £4 has been annually paid out of the church rate.

Elizabeth Price, in 1780, bequeathed £50, the interest to be given in bread to the poor of the parish.  This money is lent to the guardians of the house of industry.

Edward Lloyd, in 1789, left £190, the interest to be given to ten poor housekeepers.  This sum is secured by a bond given in pursuance of an act of parliament passed for the rebuilding of the church of St. Chads, and £4 10s. is paid annually as the interest thereof.

Richard Lister, in 1793, bequeathed £100, and directed the interest to be laid out in bread and given to the poor after divine service every Sunday morning.  In respect of this gift there is the sum of £154 14s. 10d. three per cent consols, producing annually dividends to the amount of £4. 12s. 8d.

Pemberton’s Charity.  The particulars of this charity will be found amongst those for the parish of St. Alkmund.  The sum of £2. 2s. is expended annually in coal, and distributed amongst poor housekeepers.

Lost Charities.  In the parliamentary returns of 1786 there is mentioned a legacy left by Madam Honor Dryden, and several others, amounting in the whole to £180.  This sum was in the hands of a person who became insolvent, and only £19 9s. was received from his estate.  Nothing is now known even of this sum.

PARISH OF ST. JULIAN.

Charities.—Thomas Bowdler, in 1733, bequeathed £100, to be placed out at interest, the profit to be given away in twopenny loaves every Lord’s day.  He also gave his executors the sum of £1000 upon trust, to lay out such part thereof as they should think fit, in purchasing or building a school-house and residence for the teachers, and the residue to be invested in land, the yearly profits thereof to be applied in maintaining a master and mistress to teach poor children born in the parish of St. Julian, and in clothing them and putting some of them out apprentices, or such useful occupation as the trustees should think proper.  The property now vested in the trustees consists of an estate at Treffnant and Llanercrockwell, in the parish of Guilsfield, consisting of 168a. 3r. 22p. of land, with suitable house and outbuildings, producing a rental of £150 per annum.  On the enclosure of commons in 1788 an allotment was made to the trustees, which was conveyed to Thomas Loxdale, Esq., for a term of 500 years, in consideration of which Mr. Loxdale paid the sum of £200 to the trustees; this amount was subsequently employed in the reparations of farm buildings, and other improvements on the school estate.  The school is situated in Beeche’s lane, and twenty-five boys and an equal number of girls are clothed and educated from the funds of the charity.

Catherine Smith, in 1621, left a rent charge of £4 per annum, to be distributed among four poor widows of this parish.  The amount is paid from the property of the corporation, and they appoint the poor widows.

Thomas Davies, in 1668, directed his trustees to raise the sum of £300, and dispose of the same in the purchase of a rent charge, to be disposed of as follows:—40s. to the minister of the parish for preaching four sermons, one on the 3rd September and the other three sermons quarterly; 20s. yearly among poor housekeepers; £4 to eight poor widows; £4 for maintaining two scholars at the university, and £4 to be paid in apprentice fees.  In 1689 a rent charge of £12. 5s. was purchased with £250, but it does not appear how the remaining £50 was disposed of.  The estate is situate at Sutton, from which the rent charge issues, and was the property of the late John Hiles.

Richard Williams, in 1576, left £50, and directed the interest to be distributed among poor householders of this parish on Christmas day.  He also bequeathed the residue of his personal estate, after payment of his debts and legacies to the executors, to be held in trust, and to dispose of the yearly income in clothing poor men or women or in putting out apprentices.  It appears that the produce of the testator’s residuary estate amounted to £266. 18s., and that £6. 18s. was distributed to the poor, and £260 was placed out at interest secured on bond given by the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses.

General Charities.—The sum of £308 17s. was expended in the purchase of an estate at Ellesmere, in 1726, which consists of 19a. 3r. 22p., producing a yearly rental of £45.  Of the said purchase money £200 was the gift of Thomas Baker, in 1685; £30 the gift of Thomas Cotton, in 1683; £50 the bequest of Stephen Rogers; and £20 the gift of Richard Presland.  The rent is received by the churchwardens, and carried to one account with the produce of several other charities, and disposed of in bread, and small sums of money, to deserving objects of charity.

The sum of £1. 6s. is received every alternate year from a farm in Willstone, which was bought subject to this payment, about forty years ago.  This is known by the name of Diana Robert’s Charity, the like payment being made every alternate year to the parish of Cardington.

Brook’s Charity.  The particulars of this charity will he found noticed with those of St. Alkmund.  The yearly sum of £2. 10s. is received on account of this parish, and carried to the general charity account noticed above.

The Rev. Samuel Presland, by will, in 1750, as appears from an entry in the book of charities, gave £10 to be placed out by the overseers, and the interest to be distributed to the poor.  In the same book it is stated that Thomas Presland gave £20, and directed the interest to be given among poor housekeepers.  These two sums, with £50, the legacy of Richard Williams, are placed out on the security of the house of industry, and the interest carried to the general charity account.

Mary Griffith, in 1781, left £50 to the churchwardens and overseers, the interest to be distributed every Sunday in twopenny loaves.  This sum is placed out on the security of the tolls of the Leighton turnpike road, and £2. 10s. annually received as the interest thereof.

The Rev. Philemon Hayes left to the minister of the parish 10s. for a lecture on Candlemas day, and the same sum to be distributed to poor people by the churchwardens.  John Bryan by his will made an addition to Mr. Hayes’s gift of 10s. for the said sermon and 10s. to the poor.  In respect of these charities the sum of £2 is charged upon land called the Tenter Field, near the Quarry, Shrewsbury.

Elizabeth Hanmer, in 1755, left £20, the interest to be distributed in bread; she also left a house on the stone bridge, the rent to be paid to the clerk of the parish.  The stone bridge above-mentioned with the house thereon has since been taken down, and a sum of money was awarded to the clerk as compensation for it, with which sum, and the £20 left to be distributed in bread, another house was bought for him.  The house is now let by the clerk, and he receives the rent and pays thereout 20s. yearly, as the interest of the legacy of £20.

Richard Breathen gave to the churchwardens and overseers the sum of £20, the interest to be given to the poor.  This money was placed in the hands of a person who died insolvent, and after a lapse of some years his son repaid the principal, and in 1820 it was carried to the general charity account.

Josina Pemberton.  The particulars of this charity will be found noticed with the charities of St. Alkmund parish.  The yearly sum of £2. 2s. is divided among thirty poor housekeepers.

The average annual income of the Charities of Shrewsbury amounts to about £2,000, exclusive of the Loan Charities, which produce no income, being gifts of sums of money to be lent out for limited periods to young tradesmen and others, free of interest.  The Loan Charities amount to £840. 8s. 4d.  In 1837 the High Court of Chancery appointed certain trustees to administer the charities of which the Corporations of Shrewsbury were previously the trustees.  The following is a list of the trustees:—The Right Hon. Lord Berwick, Sir F. Brian Hill, John Bather, Esq., Mr. R. Beacall, Peter Beck, Esq., Robert Burton, Esq., W. J. Clement, Esq., T. G. Gwyn, Esq., J. Hazledine, Esq., Rev. C. Leicester, Rev. W. G. Rowland, A. Spearman, Esq., W. R. Ward, Esq., R.N., John Wingfield, Esq., Mr. John Woodward, William Butler Lloyd, Esq., John Whitehurst, Esq., Mr. Thomas Woodward, Mr. Richard Jeffreys Muckleston, and Mr. J. G. Brayne.  Treasurer and Solicitor, William Cooper, Esq.  Clerk and Secretary, Mr. William Poole, Scoltock-offices, Guild-hall and Corn-market Chambers.

The liberties of Shrewsbury were abolished by the municipal boundary act, and now form part of the county of Salop.  The several parishes which they comprised are now returned in the Albrighton Division, in the Wem Division of North Bradford Hundred in the Condover Division, Condover Hundred, and in the Ford and Pontesbury Divisions, of Ford Hundred.  The following are places included within the liberties of the borough, the residents of which are included in the Shrewsbury Directory:—

Alkmund St.—A parish partly returned in the Albrighton Division, and partly in Ford Division of the Ford Hundred.  The parish, in 1841, contained 303 houses and 1641 inhabitants, of whom 1396 were included within the parliamentary borough.  The rateable value of the parish is £9,041. 11s.

Chad St.—The parish of St. Chads is partly returned in the Albrighton Division, partly in Condover Hundred, and partly in the Ford Division, of the Ford Hundred.  The entire parish, in 1841, contained 7625 inhabitants, of whom 4524 persons resided within the boundaries of the borough, exclusive of those residing in Frankwell.  There were also 912 inhabited houses, 80 uninhabited, and 4 houses building.

Frankwell is a populous township in St. Chad’s parish, forming a suburb on the north-west side of Shrewsbury, from which it is approached by the Welsh bridge.  In 1841 it was returned as containing 413 inhabited houses, 37 uninhabited and 2 building, with a population of 1895 souls, of whom 902 were males and 993 females.

Holy Cross and St. Giles forms the eastern suburb to the town of Shrewsbury, and contains the township of Abbey Foregate and part of Coleham.  Abbey Foregate stretches from the English bridge to Lord Hill’s column, upwards of a mile in length; the street is wide and for some distance planted on each side with trees; it contains many genteel residences, and is by far the handsomest approach to the town.  In 1841 the township was returned as containing 358 inhabited houses, 22 uninhabited, and 14 building, and 1638 inhabitants—of whom 701 were males and 937 females.  That part of Coleham, returned as in the parish of Holy Cross and St. Giles, contained 30 houses and 104 souls.

St. Julian’s parish is partly in the Condover Hundred and partly in the Ford Division of the Ford Hundred.  The entire parish, in 1841, contained 3252 inhabitants, of whom 2902 were in the limits of the borough of Shrewsbury, of the latter number 986 persons were resident in Coleham.  In 1841 there were 387 inhabited houses and 22 uninhabited.  Rateable value of the parish £12,890.

Coleham is a township, partly in St. Julian’s parish and partly in that of Holy Cross and St. Giles; in 1840 there were 332 houses and 1090 souls—of whom 986 were in the parish of St. Julian and 104 in the parish of Holy Cross and St. Giles.  Coleham lies on the south bank of the river Severn and forms the southern suburb to the town of Shrewsbury.  Here the manufacture of cotton goods was formerly carried on to some extent; the factories are now unoccupied.  The houses are for the most part small, and occupied as cottage residences.  A neat church has been built here which is noticed at a preceding page.

St. Mary’s parish is partly in the Albrighton Division, and, in 1841, contained a population of 6684 souls—of whom 6684 were returned as in the borough of Shrewsbury.  The return includes the Castle, extra-parochial, containing 7 persons; 168 in the County Gaol, 186 in the County Infirmary, 94 in the Shrewsbury Free Grammar School, and 35 persons in boats.  At the same period there were 1048 inhabited houses, 112 uninhabited, and 2 building.

Meol Brace parish is chiefly in the Condover Hundred, the entire parish contained, in 1841, 1195 inhabitants—of whom 361 persons were returned as in the liberty of the borough of Shrewsbury.

A LIST OF
STREETS, COURTS, GATES, ROWS, PLACES, SQUARES, &c., IN THE TOWN OF SHREWSBURY.

Abbey foregate, English bdge

Abbey terrace, Abbey foregate

Ann’s hill, St. Michael’s st

Backlane, Belmont

Barker street, Shoplatch

Barrack passage, Wyle cop

Baschurch road, Coton hill

Beckbury terrace, London rd

Beeches lane, Wyle cop

Belmont, Milk-street

Belmont bank, Belmont

Bellevue, Meol road

Benbow terrace, Chester st

Benbow place, Benbow ter

Bridge court, Wyle cop

Bridge street, Barker street

Butter market, Pride hill

Butcher’s row, Pride hill

Cadogan row, The mount

Canal buildings, Spring fields

Canal wharf, Castle foregate

Cardan place, Castle fields

Castle fields, Castle foregate

Castle gates, Castle street

Castle gates lane, Castle gates

Castle street, Pride hill

Chester street, Castle gates

Church st., St. Alkmund sq

Circus yard, Bridge street

Claremont bank, The priory

Claremont blds, Claremont bk

Claremont ct., St. Austin’s

Claremont-hill, Barker-st

Claremont street, Mardol

Coffee house pas., Corn mar

Coleham, English bridge

Column ter., Abbey foregate

College hill ct., College hill

College hill, Swan hill

Copthorne crescent, Copthorne road

Corn market, Market square

Council house ct., Castle st

Coton hill, Chester street

Coton terrace, Coton hill

Crescent, Belmont

Crescent fields, Water lane

Cross hill, St. John’s hill

Cross street, Castle foregate

Dana, Castle gates

Derfold court, St. Michael st

Ditherington, Old heath

Dog pole st., St. Mary street

Double btchrs’ rw., Pride hill

English bridge, Foot of Wyle Cop

Fish street, High street

Frankwell, Welsh bridge

Gashouse ln., Castle foregate

Golden cross pas., High st

Gullett passage, Corn market

Hazledine’s blds., Coleham

High-street, Market square

Hill’s lane, Mardol

Holywell terrace, Abbey fore

Howard St., Castle foregate

Islington, Abbey foregate

John’s row, St. Michael’s st

Judith’s Butts, nr race course

London rd., Abbey foregate

Mardol head, High street

Mardol, Shoplatch

Marine terrace, Wyle cop

Market street, Corn market

Market square, High street

Meadow pl., Castle gates ln

Meol road, Coleham

Milk street, High street

Monk’s well ter., Abbey fore

Mount fields, Frankwell

Mount pleasant, Old heath

Nackin street, Bridge street

Old heath, St. Michael’s st

Pound close, Coleham

Pride hill, High street

Priory street, Austin’s friars

Princess street, Corn market

Quarry place, St. John’s hill

Quarry terrace, St. John’s hill

Quarry view buildings, New St. Frankwell

Railway station, Castle foregte

Raven road, Mardol

Reabrook place, Coleham

Reabrook view, Abbey foregte

Roushill bank, Pride hill

School court, Castle street

School lane, Coleham

Severn place, Mardol

Shoplatch, Mardol head

Smithfield market, Mardol

Spring gardens, Castle foregte

Spring terrace, Meol road

Stamp office, Market square

St. Alkmund’s sq., Dog pole

St. Alkmund’s place, St Alkmund’s square

St. Austin’s ct., St. Austin’s priory

St. Austin’s priory, St. Austin’s street

St. Austin’s st., Barker st

St. George’s place, Frankwell

St. John’s blds., Shoplatch

St. John’s court, Tower pl

St. John’s hill, Shoplatch

St. John’s row, St. John’s hill

St. Julian’s friars, Wyle cop

St. Mary’s court, Dogpole

St. Mary’s pl., St. Mary’s st

St. Michael’s gardens, St. Michael’s street

St. Michael’s st., Castle foregt

Sutton road, Coleham

Swan hill, Market street

Swan hill court, Swan hill

Theatre blds., Shoplatch

The mount, Frankwell

Tower place, Belmont

Trinity terrace, Meol road

Water lane, Windsor place

Welsh bridge, Mardol

Whitehall place, Abbey foregt

Whitehall st., Abbey foregate

Whitehall ter., Abbey foregte

Windsor place, Castle street

Wyle cop, High street

POST OFFICE, CORN MARKET.
MR. JOHN WILLIAM TOWERS, POST MASTER.

Letters from London, Birmingham, and the midland counties, Wolverhampton, Shiffnal, Wellington, West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Bilston, Bristol, the south and west of England, Liverpool, Manchester, and the north of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, arrive at 3 a.m. and 4 p.m., and are despatched 6 a.m. and 9.51 p.m.

Letters from Aberystwith, Newtown, Welshpool, Llanidloes, Westbury Ford, Alberbury, Chirbury, and Montgomery, arrive at 9.1 p.m., and are despatched at 4.1 a.m.

Letters from Bishop’s Castle, Pontesbury, Minsterley, Whitchurch, Ellesmere, Wem, &c., arrive at 8 30 p.m. and are despatched at 4 45 a.m.

Letters from Church Stretton, Dorrington, Ludlow, Munslow, and Wistanston, arrive at 8 30 a.m. and are despatched at 4 30 p.m.

Letters from Oswestry, Nesscliff, West Felton, and Montford bridge, arrive at 8 40 p.m. and are despatched at 4 35 a.m.

Letters from Acton Burnell, Ruyton, Baschurch, Shawbury, Middle, Wroxeter, and the adjacent district, arrive by foot posts at 7 30 a.m., and are despatched at 5 30 p.m.

Receiving Houses at Frankwell, Castle Foregate, Abbey Foregate, and Coleham, for the reception of stamped letters only.

Money Orders granted and paid from 10 a.m. until 4 30 p.m.

Town Delivery, by letter carriers, at 7 a.m. and 4 30 p.m.

SHREWSBURY ALPHABETICAL DIRECTORY
OF
NAMES, TRADES, PROFESSIONS, AND RESIDENCES.

Adams William Henry, professor of music, College hill

Alcock John, beerhouse keeper, Frankwell

Allcock Thos. & Sons, tailors, Claremont st.

Allart George, tailor, Frankwell

Allen and Benson, druggists, Wyle Cop

Allen Mary, vict. Bird in Hand, Coton hill

Allen Sarah, shopkeeper, Coton hill

Allnatt Charles Blake, Esq., barrister-at-law, the Crescent

Alltree Ann & Amelia, milliners, Windsor place

Alltree Jemima and Henry, ironmongers, bell hangers, gas fitters, stovegrate manufacturers, and zinc and tin plate workers, Corn market

Ambler Misses Emma and Mary Castle st

Amphlett James, newspaper editor, Mardol

Andrew Jas, travelling tea dealer, Wyle cop

Andrew John, travelling tea dealer, Wyle cop

Andrew Robt., travelling tea dealer, Coleham

Andrew Wm., travelling tea dealer, Wyle cop

Antlett Jas., beerhouse keeper, Spring gardens

Arblaster Charles Jas., chemist and druggist, Castle street

Armstrong John, tailor, Coleham

Armstrong Wm., tailor & woln. draper, High st

Arrowsmith John Y., surgeon, Swan hill court

Arrowsmith Louisa Ann, boarding school, Belmont

Arrowsmith Mary Elizabeth, boarding school, College hill Court

Arrowsmith & Stephens, surgs., College hill

Arthur Richard, shopkeeper, Princess st.

Arthur Wm., travelling tea dealer, Wyle cop

Ash Mr. Richard, Whitehall place

Ashley Geo. beerhouse keeper, Barrck. passage

Asterly Samuel, grocer, tallow chandler, and seed and hop merchant, Frankwell

Astley Rev. Richard (Presbyn.) Claremont hill

Atcherly John, gentleman, Summer house, the Mount.

Atcherly the Misses, College hill

Atkin Henry, agent to Allsop & Co., (Burton ales,) Golden cross passage

Atkin Joseph, accountant, Column villa

Atkinson William, supervisor of inland revenue, Sutton lane

Attfield George, clerk inland revenue office, Barker street

Badger John, shoemaker, Marine terrace

Badger Joseph, beerhouse keeper, Kingsland

Badger Samuel, beerhouse and shopkeeper, Coleham

Badger Thos. vestry clerk & assistant overseer of St. Alkmund’s, St. Alkmund’s place

Bagley John, herbalist, Theatre buildings

Bagley Thomas, school master, St. John’s rd.

Bagnell John, grocer and tea dealer, Pride hill

Barker Mr. John, Monk’s well terrace

Baker Wm., silversmith, jeweller and cutler, Corn market

Ball Mrs. Mary Ann, Chester street

Ballham James, baker, Coleham

Ball William, brush manufacturer, Wyle Cop

Barcley Wm. Jas., grocer, tea dealer, hop merchant, and agent for Guiness’s Dublin porter, 1, High street

Barnaby Isabel, milliner and bonnet maker, Market square

Barnaby Wm. W., law stationer, Market sq.

Barnett Emma, dress maker, Frankwell

Barnett George Shuttleworth, silversmith and jeweller, Market street

Barron Mrs. Ann, Swan hill court

Barron Anthony, linen draper and silk mercer, Pride hill

Barton Thos., tailor and beerhouse keeper, Bellevue

Bates Ann, shopkeeper, Castle Foregate

Bates Richard, butcher, Chester street

Bates Richard, jun., butcher, Shoplatch

Bather, Mrs. Elizabeth, The Abbey

Bather Wm., boot and shoemaker, Coton hill

Batho John, vict., Robin Hood, St. Michael st

Batho Thos., vict., Old Anchor, Frankwell

Baxter Mary, green grocer, Gullett passage

Bayley, Misses Ann and Mary, Quarry terrace

Bayley Edward, baker, Castle Foregate

Bayley Wm., gentleman, Claremont buildings

Baylis James, civil engineer, Claremont bank

Baylis James, nail maker, New street

Bazeley John, linen draper, silk mercer, and milliner, High street and Pride hill

Beacall Ann and Eliza, booksellers and stationers, Mardol head

Beacall Henry, currier and leather cutter, Castle street

Beacall Misses Mary and Eliz., Castle street

Beacall Rd., ironmonger & nail manr., Mardol

Beacall Sarah, currier and leather cutter, Castle street

Beck, Mrs. Margaret Susannah, Benbow ter.

Beck, Peter and William, wine and spirit mer., Claremont st., residence St. John’s h.

Beddoes Jn., skinner & wool stap., Frankwell

Beddow Richard, hair dresser, Barker street

Beetlestone Geo., boarding school, Hills lane

Bell Misses, mill, & dress makers, Wyle Cop

Bentley Thos. Amand, professor of languages, Castle street

Betton Nathaniel, Esq., Abbey Foregate

Betton William, shoe maker, Frankwell

Bevan Henry, accountant and law stationer, Abbey Foregate

Bickerton Richard, corn merch., Severn place

Bickley Thomas, hair dresser, Castle Forgate

Birch Benj., architect, surveyor, and builder, Castle gate, residence Upper Green Fields

Birch James, blacksmith and victualler, Buck’s Head, Frankwell

Birch John, stone mason, Coleham

Birch Jh., arch., surveyor & builder, Castleg.

Birch Thomas, painter and glazier, Belmont

Bishop John, cabinet maker, Wyle Cop

Blake Lieut. Edward and John, Bellevue

Blair Wm. H., wheelwright, Welsh Bridge

Blair Chas., boot & shoe m., Abbey Foregate

Blakemore Robert Baugh, confectioner and baker, Mardol

Blakeway Richard and William, corn millers and dealers, Castle Foregate

Blanchard Joseph, cabinet maker, Frankwell

Blent Charles, chair maker, St. John’s build.

Blockley William, timber merchant, Longden Coleham

Blount Chas., actuary, Savings Bk., College h.

Blount Chas., shoe maker, Claremont hill

Blount Mary, dress maker, Princess street

Blount Walter, tailor, Princess street

Blower John, cabinet maker, upholsterer, and general furnishing warehouse, Pride hill

Blower Tim., corn and cheese fac., Wyle Cop

Blower, Thos. Jh., prov. & corn deal., Coleham

Bloxham Henry, Esq., solicitor and high bailiff to County Court, St. Mary’s place

Blunt Henry, chemist and druggist, Wyle Cop, residence Meol road

Blunt Thomas, chemist and druggist, Wyle Cop, residence Abbey Foregate

Blythe Mr., draper & silk mercer, Market sq.

Bodenham Thos., Esq., Column terrace

Bond John, bricklayer and beerhouse keeper, Claremont hill

Boodle John, brickmaker, Coleham

Boodle Mary, dress maker, Coleham

Botevyle Mr. Thomas, Hills lane

Bottwood, George, hair dresser, Castle street

Boucher Geo., musical repository, Castle st.

Boulton Samuel, shoe maker, Chester street

Bourlay Wm. V., dancing master, Castle st.

Bowen John, painter & glazier, St. Mary’s pl.

Bowen Mr. William, Judith’s Butts

Bowman Mrs. Catherine, Belmont Bank

Bowdler, Mrs. Ann, Dogpole

Bowdler and Barnett, silversmiths, jewellers and cutlers, market street

Bowdler Mrs. Jane, silversmith, Market st

Bowdler Thomas, hair dresser and perfumer, High street

Bowdler William, carpenter and victualler, Shrewsbury Arms, Church street

Boyce Thos., register for St. Chad’s district, Claremont street

Boycott Richard, baker, Spring gardens

Branscomb Fred. A., news agent, Church st.

Bratton James, surgeon, Claremont hill

Bratton Richard, cabinet maker, Wyle Cop

Bratton Richard, victualler, Dog and Partridge, St. Mary’s place

Brayne John Gregory, tanner and maltster, Abbey Foregate

Brayne William (executors of), braziers and tin plate workers, Mardol head

Brazier John, agent to Cowley and Co., general carriers, Castle Fields

Breeze Charles, veter. surgeon, Coton Hill

Breeze Edward, tailor, Frankwell

Breeze Henry, painter and glazier, Castle st.

Breeze James, blacksmith, Abbey Foregate

Breeze Richard, victualler, Anchor, Hills lane

Breeze Richard, tailor and clothes dealer, High street

Breeze Sarah, baker, Coton Hill

Brereton James, cabinet maker, Castle street

Brightwell William, boarding school, Belmont bank

Brighty Margt., vict., Nag’s Head, Wyle Cop

Broadbent Miss Jane, The Abbey

Bromfield Jacob, Spring Cottage, Meol road

Bromley Elizabeth, shopkeeper, Frankwell

Bromley John, grocer and tallow chandler, Wyle Cop

Bromley Joseph, butcher, Castle Foregate

Bromley Marg., butcher, Double Butchers’ row

Bromley Sml., butcher, Double Butchers’ row

Bromley, Wm., butcher, Double Butchers’ row

Broughall Jno., Esq., solicitor, St. John’s hill

Brown Ann, beerhouse keeper, Coleham

Brown Mrs. Catherine, Benbow place

Brown Mr. David, Claremont bank

Brown Edwin, carver and gilder, Wyle Cop

Brown Edward, cabinet maker, Mardol

Brown Jacob, butcher, Pride hill

Brown John, shopkeeper, Castle Foregate

Brown Philip, artist, Castle street

Brown Sarah, butcher, Pride hill

Brown Captain Valentine, White Hall terrace

Brown William, confectioner, Castle street

Brown Wm., painter & glaz., Abbey Foregate

Broxton Rd., chemist and druggist, Mardol

Bryan Henry, haberdasher, Princess street

Bryan William, dyer, Coton hill

Bryant Wm., boot and shoe maker, Mardol

Budgett Wm., grocer & tea dealer, Pride hill

Burbury, Rev. Wm., M.A., second master of Grammar School

Bull John, butcher, Pride hill

Bullock Saml., carpentr. & builder, Frankwell

Burd Edward, physician, Corn market

Burd, Timotheus and Son, land and estate agents, Abbey Foregate

Burnett Ann and Harriet, Swan hill court

Burr Brothers, lead merchants and manufacturers of white, red, and sheet lead, Wyle Cop

Burr Geo., lead mer, Wyle Cop r. Kingsland

Burr Thos. Wm., lead mer., &c., Wyle Cop, residence Kingsland

Burrey James, cabinet maker, upholsterer, auctioneer and appraiser, College hill

Burrey and White, cabinet maters and upholsterers, College hill and Pride hill

Burrows John, nail maker, Roushill bank

Burton Adam, victualler, Bear, Fish street

Burton Miss Anna, Abbey Foregate

Burton Miss Helen, Claremont buildings

Burton Rev. Rob. L., vicar of Holy Cross, Abbey Foregate

Butler Jane, hosier, Castle Foregate

Butler James, hairdresser & hosier, Coleham

Butler Thos., hosier & gen. dealer, Castle st.

Butler William, shoe maker, Castle Foregate

Buttriss Robt., maltster and victualler, Elephant and Castle, Mardol

Buttriss Richard, maltster, Frankwell

Bythell Thos., chemist & druggist, Pride hill

Cadwallader Ann, vict., Wagon and Horses, Pride Hill

Cadwallader John, bookseller, printer, and stationer, 3, High street

Cadwallader Wm., spirit vaults, Castle gates

Calcott John, boot and shoemak., 4, High st.

Canadine J., shopkeeper, Longden Coleham

Carden Robt., linen & woollen drap., Mardol

Carline John, architect and stone and marble mason, Abbey Foregate

Cartwright Ann, wine and spirit vaults, Theatre buildings

Cartwright Francis, market gardener, New street, Frankwell

Cartwright John, engineer and agricultural implt. maker, Castle Foreg., res. Castle st.

Caswell James, cheese factor, Mardol

Cavell Henry, shoe maker, School lane

Cawthron Wm., painter, plumber, glazier, and glass dealer, Frankwell

Charlton Charles W., solicitors’ clerk, Islington cottage

Chester George, tailor, Shoplatch

Chester Geo., boot & shoe mak., Shoplatch

Chidlow Wm., boot & shoemak., Castle Fds.

Chipp Mr. Samuel, Trinity terrace

Cholton Samuel, butcher, Coleham

Chune Geo. & Jph., timber mer., Chester st.

Clarke Chas. Thos. Hughes, surg., Chester st.

Clarke Gavin, sheriff’s officer, Crescent Fields

Clarke John, gentleman, Town Walls House

Clark Rd., registrar of marriages and agent to the Sun fire office, Swan hill

Clarke William, maltster, Frankwell

Clay Joseph, veterinary surgeon, Wyle Cop

Clayton Geo., wool. drap. & tailor, Clement hill

Clayton John, farmer, Old Heath

Clayton Mr. Jas., St. Alkmund place

Claxton William Dickson, chemist & druggist, High street

Cleaver John, coffee house keeper, Castle gates

Clement Wm., gentleman, St. John’s row

Clement Wm. Jas., surgeon, Council house

Climie Daniel, civil engineer, Spring terrace

Clinton Henry, baker, Abbey Foregate

Clorley S., blacksmith, St. Austin’s street

Cock John, baker, Longden Coleham

Cock John, shoe maker, Abbey Foregate

Coggin Jabez, shoe maker, Chester street

Cohen Louis, clothes dealer, Mardol

Cole Thomas, painter and glazier, Wyle Cop

Colley Rev. James, M.A., incumbent Holy Trinity, Belmont

Collier, brazier & tin plate worker, Wyle Cop

Cooke Henry, painter, Cross hill

Cooke Jn., dyer & scourer, St. Alkmund’s pl.

Cooke Joseph, corn merchant, maltster, and corn miller, Abbey Foregate

Cooke Mary, schoolmistress, Swan hill

Cooke Wm. Hy., hatter & hosier, Pride hill

Cooper George, shopkeeper, Abbey Foregate

Cooper Richard, coach proprietor, Meol road

Cooper Wm., Esq., Claremont buildings

Cooper Wm. Henry, Esq., solicitor, St. John’s hill, residence Claremont buildings

Cooper William, rope maker, Castle street

Cooper & Broughall, solicitors, St. John’s hill

Corbet Miss Josepha, St. Mary’s place

Corbet Philip, artist, Belmont

Corbet Walton, shopkeeper, Frankwell

Corfield, Mrs. Jane, White Hall place

Corfield Rd., engineer (water wks.), Chester st.

Corser George Sandforth, Esq., solicitor, Market street, residence Abbey Foregate

Cottrell Mrs. Elizabeth, Belmont

Cotton Ann & Sarah, milliners, Princess st

County Constabulary office, Corn market

Cox John, shoemaker, Longden, Coleham

Craig Alex. Samuel, Esq., sol., The crescent

Craig Charles Dixon, Esq., solicitor, The crescent, residence Claremont bank

Crane Mrs. Mary, White hall place

Craston Edward and Co., hat manufacturers, Pride hill

Crawford David, surgeon, St. John’s hill

Cripps Gordon H., wine & spirit merchant, Claremont street

Cripps Lewis G., wine & spirit mer., High st

Cross James, stone mason, Raven road

Cross Sarah and Ann, milliners, Mardol head

Cross W. Gowen, chemist & druggist, Mardol

Crowe Henry, veterinary surgeon, Castle st

Crowley Hicklin and Co., general carriers, Welsh bridge

Crump Vincent, confectioner, by special appointment to her Majesty, Wyle cop

Crumpton James, baker, Frankwell

Crumpton Jonathan, brazier and tin plate worker, Wyle cop

Crumpton Joseph, bookseller, printer, stationer, and bookbinder, and agent for the sale of poor law books, Mardol

Crwys William, dyer and scourer, Swan hill

Curtis, the Misses, Skelton road

Dakin John, cooper, Chester street

Dale Samuel, vict., Bell Inn, Princess street

Dales Rd., saddler & harness maker, Wyle cop

Dance Sarah, Raven hotel (posting house), Castle street

Daniel John, vict., Spread Eagle, Wyle cop

Darwin the Misses, The mount

Davenhall John, hair dresser, Shoplatch

Davis Mrs. Ann, St. Julian’s friars

Davis Edward, mathematical and optical instrument manufacturer, 43, High street

Davies Brothers, cabinet makers, Wyle cop

Davies Charles, shoemaker, and grindery dealer, Barker street

Davies Mr. Daniel, White hall place

Davies Daniel, confectioner, baker, and British wine dealer, Castle gates

Davies Daniel, clock maker, Mardol

Davis David, news agent, Mardol

Davies Edward, shopkeeper and wheelwright, Coleham

Davies Edward, shopkeeper, Meol road

Davies Ellen, straw bonnet maker, Frankwell

Davies Emma, milliner, Pride hill

Davies Evan, carver and gilder, Pride hill

Davies Mrs. Harriett, Tower place

Davies Harriett, dress maker, Marine terrace

Davies Helen, dress maker, Dogpole

Davies Henry, boot and shoemaker, St. John’s hill

Davies James, millwright, Chester street

Davies James and Son, ironmongers, nail manufacturers, and saddlers’ ironmongers, Wyle cop

Davies John, bookseller, printer, stationer, and bookbinder, 15, High street

Davies John, ale and porter brewer, Chester street; residence, Castle gates

Davies John, supervisor of inland revenue, Frankwell

Davies, John, shopkeeper, Wyle cop

Davies John, agent to Black Park coal works, Castle foregate

Davies John, butcher, Fish street

Davies John, cooper, Mardol

Davies John, vict., White Hart, Mardol

Davies John and Charles, drapers and silk mercers, 26, High street

Davies Joseph, street inspector and collector of rates, Claremont hill

Davies Joseph, coal agent, Wyle cop

Davies Joseph, boot & shoemaker, Mardol

Davies Joseph, vict., Three Tuns, Longden Coleham

Davies and Hortins, eating house, Pride hill

Davies Margaret, vict., Swan, Frankwell

Davies Mrs. Mary, Abbey foregate

Davies Miss Mary Eleanor, Bellevue

Davies Mary, dressmaker, Barker street

Davies and Oldroyd, milliners, Pride hill

Davies Misses Sarah and Eliza, London rd

Davies Richard, bookseller, printer, and stationer, &c., 7, High-street

Davies Richard, tailor, St. John’s hill

Davies Richard, cow keeper, Frankwell

Davies Robert, bankers’ clerk, Princess street

Davies Robert, rope maker, Frankwell

Davies and Son, confectioners, Corn market

Davies Walton, baker, St. Mary’s place

Davies William, currier, Pride hill

Davies William, currier, Bridge street

Davies Wm., boot and shoe maker, Wyle cop

Davies William, book binder, Meol road

Davies Winefrede, dressmaker, Barker street

Day Wm., grocer and tea dealer, Pride hill

Deakin Edward, baker and beerhouse keeper, Frankwell

Deakin Thomas, confectioner and baker, Market street

Deaves James, clothes dealer, Princess street

Deaves George, bookseller (old), Shoplatch

Deaves Hannah, milliner, Shoplatch

Denston, Mrs. Elizabeth, Belmont

Deshormes Francis U. G., professor of languages, Crescent fields

Dibbin James, butcher, Double butcher’s row

Dickin John, surgeon, St. John’s hill

Dixon Miss Betsy, Abbey foregate

Dixon John, malster and vict., Dun Cow, Abbey foregate

Dodson Richard, builder and statuary, Abbey foregate

Done Robert and Co., wholesale tea and coffee merchants, Mardol head and Castle foregate

Donnellan James, hatter, Barker street

Donnellan William, schoolmaster, Barker st

Downing Enoch and Elijah, glass, china, and earthenware dealer, Pride hill

Downward Rev. George Richard, The castle

Drakewood William, shoemaker, Abbey fore

Drayton Edward, wheelwright, Welsh bdge

Drayton Geo., bookseller, printer, and stationer, Shoplatch

Drayton John, timber merchant, New street, Frankwell

Drinkwater Rd., woolstapler, St. Austin friars

Drury, Miss Eliza Ann, Claremont street

Drury John (executor of), grocer and tea dealer, Pride hill

Drury Thomas James, M.D., Quarry place

Dugard Mrs. Mary Ann, Column terrace

Dukes Mrs. Elizabeth, Windsor place

Durnford, Mrs. Ann, College hill court

Dyas Edward, shopkeeper, Castle street

Dyas Edward, butcher, Wyle cop

Dyas Jane, shopkeeper, Frankwell

Dyas William, shoemaker, Abbey foregate

Easthope William, cooking apparatus manufacturer, High street

Eaton, Misses Emily and Susannah, Claremont buildings

Ebrall Samuel, gun maker, Wyle cop

Eccleston John, grocer & tea dealer, Frankwell

Eccleston Thomas, stone mason, Frankwell

Eddowes George, linen and woollen draper, Mardol

Eddowes, Mrs. Martha, newspaper proprietor, Bellevue

Edgerley Henry, cheese factor and paper warehouse, Pride hill

Edisbury Thos., beerhouse keeper, Castle frgt

Edson John, saddler and harness maker, & brush & portmanteau manufac., Wyle cop

Edwards Ann, plumber, Claremont street

Edwards Ann, cow keeper, Coleham

Edwards Ann, vict., Hen & Chickens, Dogpole

Edwards Edward, bookseller, printer, and bookbinder, Dogpole, and vict., Bull Inn, Abbey foregate

Edwards Edward, hosier, Mardol

Edwards Edward, beerhouse keeper, Castle foregate

Edwards Emma, vict., Britannia Inn, Mardol

Edwards John, bookbinder, Coton hill

Edwards John, plumber, Mardol; residence, Hill’s lane

Edwards John, boot & shoemaker, Market sq

Edwards John Hawley, Esq., solicitor, Pride hill; residence, Belvedere

Edwards, Miss Mary, Abbey foregate

Edwards John Thomas S., Esq., Quarry place

Edwards, Mr. Robert, Holywell terrace

Edwards Rd., vict., Falcon & Castle, Mardol

Edward Richard, baker, St. Michael’s street

Edward Samuel, vict., Grapes, Castle foregate

Edward Thomas, auctioneer, appraiser, and accountant, Mardol head; residence, Coton hill

Edward Thos. & Son, bricklyrs, St. John’s ct

Edward William, beerhouse, Chester street

Egan, Rev. Eugene, catholic priest, Beeches ln

Ehn Henry and Co., furriers and straw bonnet manufacturers, 38, High street

Ehn Jane, milliner, 38, High street

Elias Hannah, bonnet maker, Barker street

Elkes Edward, confec. and baker, Pride hill

Elledge James, agent to Pickford and Co., general carriers, Castle foregate

Elliott, Mrs. Charlotte, The Priory

Ellis Mary, stay maker, Coleham

Elsmere Edward, managing director to Shropshire & North Wales Fire Office, High st

Elsmere Peter, grocer & tea dealer, Wyle cop

Elton James, register office, Dogpole

Embrey John, beerseller, Frankwell

Evans, Mrs. Ann, Whitehall terrace

Evans Ann, shopkeeper, Abbey foregate

Evans Arthur, clothes dealer, Princess street

Evans Benjamin, confec. and baker, High st

Evans David, stained glass manufacturer, Wyle cop

Evans Edward, cooper, Abbey foregate

Evans Edward, inspector of weights and measures for South Salop

Evans Edward, cow keeper, Coleham

Evans Edward, accountant, Claremont hill

Evans Edward, schoolmaster, Barker street

Evans Fred., butcher, Double butchers’ row

Evans George, shoemaker and beerhouse keeper, Barker street

Evans George, shoemaker, Abbey foregate

Evans James, tailor and tobacconist, Market street

Evans Jane, vict., Bell Inn, Mardol

Evans John, carpenter and joiner, Kingsland

Evans John, jun., carpenter, builder, brick & tile merchant, & boat builder, Frankwell

Evans John, grocer & tea dealer, Abbey fore

Evans John, tailor, Gullett passage

Evans John, baker and shopkeeper, Double butchers’ row

Evans John, hair dresser and perfumer, and toy dealer, Market street

Evans Joseph, shopkeeper, Frankwell

Evans Margaret, vict., King’s Head, Mardol

Evans Margt., paint. & glaz., St. Julian’s friars

Evans Mary, watch & clock maker, Wyle cop

Evans and Marston, paint. & glaz., High st

Evans Oliver, vict., Bull and Pump, Meol rd

Evans Richard, bricklayer and builder, St. Austin’s priory

Evans Sophia, schoolmistress, St. Michael’s st

Evans, Mr. Thomas, Beckbury terrace

Evans Thomas, shopkeeper, Coleham

Evans Thomas, superintendent registrar, clerk to Atcham union and to lunatic asylum, St. John’s hill

Evans William, vict., Butchers’ Arms, Double butchers’ row

Evans William, cow keeper, Abbey foregate

Fagg Ann, dress maker, Claremont hill

Fallows Richard, shopkeeper, Frankwell

Farlow Samuel, fruiterer & market gardener, Theatre buildings

Farlow Samuel, town marshal and superintendent police officer, Shoplatch

Farmer Edward, plumber, painter, and glazier, Old heath

Farmer, Mrs. Mary, The mount

Farnell Joseph Kirby, draper & silk mercer, Pride hill

Farr Henry, coach builder, High street

Fenna John, shopkeeper, Castle gates

Fenton Elizabeth, stay maker, Benbow pl

Fenton Henry, surgeon, High street

Ferrett Elizabeth, shopkeeper, Frankwell

Fesser Andrew, clock maker, Mardol

Field Francis and Mary, school teachers, St Alkmund’s place

Field Mr., Swan hill

Fletcher Francis, prov. dealer, Claremont st

Fletcher, Rev. Henry, curate of St. Chad’s Claremont bank

Fletcher John, vict., Moulders’ Arms, Castle gates lane

Fletcher, Mrs. Martha, Dogpole

Fletcher William, beerhouse keeper, Double butchers’ row

Flexton Priscilla, victualler, Bridge House, Frankwell

Forcham Thomas, shoemaker, Frankwell

Forcham Richard, Abbey foregate

Ford John, painter and glazier, Barker street

Ford Geo., malster & shopkeeper, Barker st

Forester Eliz., bonnet maker, Claremont st

Forester, Miss Matilda, St. John’s hill

Foulkes Edwin, surgeon, Castle street

Foulkes, Mr. Thomas, Abbey foregate

Forman, Captain George, Bellevue

Fox George, vict., George Hotel, Market st

Frail Mr. John, Claremont hill

France Henry, beerhouse keeper, Castle foregate

France James, whitesmith, Castle gates lane

France John, letter-press printer and general dealer, Mardol

Francis, Mr. James, Bellevue gardens

Franklin George Benjamin, agent to Mottram and Co., hop mer. and brewers, Mardol

Franklin William, hair dresser, bird preserver, and dealer in fishing tackle, Mardol

Fulcher George, schoolmaster (Shrewsbury union), Kingsland

Gabriel James, cabinet maker, Mardol

Gatacre, Mrs. Harriet, Severn bank house

Gates William, butcher, Butchers’ row

Geary, Mrs. Elizabeth, Holywell terrace

Geary Henry, tailor, Swan hill

George William, china warehouse, Wyle cop, agent to Rose and Co., manufacturers

Giles Jane, shopkeeper, St. Alkmund’s place

Giles Rd., watch & clock maker, Shoplatch

Gill George Phillip, surgeon, Milk street

Gill John, market gardener, Beckbury cottage

Girling George, inland rev. officer, Abbey pl

Gittins Ann, grocer & tea dealer, Theatre blds

Gittins Francis, dressmaker, Wyle cop

Gittins Henry, butcher, Mardol

Gittins John, chemist and drug., Wyle cop

Gittins Margt., vict., Swan Inn, Frankwell

Gittins Sarah, schoolmistress, Abbey fore

Gittins Thomas, butcher, Abbey foregate

Gittins William, ironmonger, whitesmith, and brazier, and tin plate worker, Mardol

Gittings William, butcher, Frankwell

Glover Robt., sad. & harness maker, Castle st

Glover Samuel, surgeon, Coton hill

Goodby Hy., vict., Eagle, St. Michael’s st

Gordon George, Esq., solicitor; office, Dogpole; residence, College hill

Goucher George, boot and shoe maker and hosier, Shoplatch

Goucher William, carpenter, Mardol

Gough John, butcher, Pride hill

Gough, Miss Mary Ann, Islington

Gough William, currier and leather cutter, Theatre buildings

Grafton Samuel, cooper, Wyle cop

Grafton Thomas, butcher, Pride hill

Gray Harriet & Caroline, milliners, Cross hill

Gray Richard, hatter, Pride hill

Green Robert, tailor, St. John’s hill

Green Thomas, paviour and clerk to water works company, Old heath

Green Thomas, jun., printer, Old heath

Griffin William, corn merchant, Mardol quay

Griffith Elizabeth, eating house, Castle gates

Griffith Joseph, cabinet maker, Abbey foregt

Griffith William, surgeon, Claremont hill

Griffiths Benjamin, wheelwright, Frankwell

Griffiths Hugh, provision dealer, St. Austin st

Griffiths Jane, schoolmistress, Abbey foregt

Griffiths Mary, beerhouse keeper, Canal blds

Griffiths Samuel, blacksmith, Coton hill

Griffiths Thomas, shopkeeper, Castle gates

Griffiths Thomas, shoemaker, Frankwell

Grindley John, vict., Crown Inn, St. Mary’s st

Grindley Martha, cow keeper, Abbey foregt

Groves John, builder, The Priory; residence, Crescent cottage

Groves Joseph, shopkeeper, Castle gates

Groves Thomas, builder, The priory

Gwynn John, clerk, Chester street

Gwynn Richard, basket maker, Pride hill

Gwyn Thomas Girdler, Esq., The Elms

Hackney Jas., glass & china dealer, Pride hl

Halbrook Thomas, shoemaker, Hill’s lane

Hales Richard, skinner, Chester street

Halford Sarah, dyer, Barker street

Hall John, timber merchant, Abbey foregate

Hall Thomas, silk mercer & draper, High st

Hall William, auctioneer, appraiser, and house agent, Milk street

Hammond Fred., fishmonger, Castle foregate

Hammond Richard, beerhouse, Castle gates

Hammonds Henry, butcher, Frankwell

Hammonds Thomas, butcher, Abbey foregt

Hammonds William, butcher, Frankwell

Hams, Mr. William, Abbey foregate

Hand Anne, vict., Peacock, Islington

Hand Paul, cattle dealer, Quarry place

Hand Sarah, butcher, Butchers’ row

Hanley James, butcher, Castle foregate

Hanmer Chs. Js., boot & shoe mkr., Wyle cop

Hanny James, watch maker, Wyle cop

Hanny Thomas, tea dealer (travelling) St. Alkmund’s place

Harding, Rev. John, incumbent of St. George’s, Mount cottage

Harley, Miss Sarah, The Priory

Harley Mr., Tower place

Harper Wm., chief constable, Claremont st

Harries George, tobacco and snuff manufacturer, and paper dealer, Mardol

Harries George, horse breaker, Coleham

Harris James, boot and shoe maker, New st

Harris John, butcher, Coleham

Harris John Kent, shopkeeper, Hill’s lane

Harris Joseph, pork butcher, Wyle cop

Harris Samuel, agricultural implement maker, Barker street

Harris Thomas, hosier, and agent to Scotland Life Association, Pride hill

Harris Thomas, confec. and baker, Castle st

Harris Wm., draper & silk mercer, Pride hill

Harris Mr. William, Kingsland

Harrison John, saddler and harness maker, Shoplatch

Harrison Samuel, baker, Castle Foregate

Harrison and Kempster, saddler and harness makers, Shoplatch

Harrison, Mrs. Elizabeth, Monk’s well ter

Harker George, pump maker, Belvedere cottage

Hartshorn James, accountant, Dogpole

Harvey Thomas, patten and last maker, Barker street

Harvey Susanh., vict., Talbot Top, Swan hill

Harvey William, boot, shoe, and last manu., Pride hill

Harwood, Miss Ann, Frankwell

Harwood Thomas, vestry clerk, accountant, and house agent, Abbey foregate

Harwood, Mr. Thomas, St. George’s place

Hassall John, shopkeeper, St. Michael’s st

Hasswell James, furniture broker and copper plate printer, Hill’s lane

Hatton Charles, market gardener, Abbey fore

Hay George E., professor of music, Hill’s ln

Hay Thomas William, watch & clock maker, High street

Haycock Edward, Esq., architect and county surveyor, The Priory

Haycock Jas., vict., Golden Lion, Frankwell

Haycock Robert, coal, slate, & lime merchant Castle foregate; residence, Dogpole

Haynes Francis Mason, baker and confec., Wyle cop

Haynes John Edward, tailor, Wyle cop

Hayward Samuel, vict., Raven and Bell, and posting house, Wyle cop

Harwood Thomas, shoemaker, Gullet passage

Hazledine John, Esq., coal merchant, Wyle cop; residence, Moreton villa, Coleham

Hazleton Mr. John, St. Julian’s friars

Healing Robert M., grocer and tea dealer, Frankwell

Healing William, provision dealer, Frankwell

Heath John, tailor and Woollen draper, Pride hill

Heath Mrs. Margaret, Castle street

Heathcoate John Nigel, surgeon, Council house court

Heighway Mrs. Ann, Spring terrace

Heighway Martha and Son, grocers, tea dealers, and hop and seed merchants, Castle street

Hemmings Henry, grazier, Dorsett’s barn

Henshall and Co., salt merchants, John Brown, agent, Castle Foregate

Henshaw Thomas Northage, writing master, Grammar school, Pride hill

Herbert Daniel, coachman, Abbey Foregate

Herbert Mr. Mark, Abbey foregate

Hewett James, accountant, St. Julian’s friars

Hewlett George, tailor & shopkeeper, St. Michael’s street

Hewlett Martha and Elizabeth, coffee and dining rooms, High street

Hewlett William and Son, cabinet makers, Milk street

Hicks Christopher, Esq., solicitor Wyle cop

Hicks Henry, Esq., solicitor, Trinity terrace

Hickman Mary, milliner, Wyle cop

Higgins Corbett, shoemaker, Chester street

Higgins Wm., Esq., solicitor, Claremont hill

Higley Samuel, boot & shoemaker, Coleham

Hilditch Miss, Bellevue

Hilditch Thomas, grocer and cheese factor, Pride hill

Hiles John, professor of music, Swan hill

Hill Rev. Edward, (Independent), Benbow terrace

Hill Mrs. Hannah, Monks’ well terrace

Hill John baker, Longden Coleham

Hill Hon. William Noel, Reabrook lodge

Hilton Rev. John, Wesley an new connexion, Claremont street

Hinmers Elizabeth, schoolmistress, Cross hill

Hinton Richard, patten maker, Mardol

Hitchcock Richard, shopkeeper, Mardol

Hitchins Joseph, corkcutter, High street

Hodges Thomas, tailor, Cross hill

Holbrook James, basket maker, Coleham

Holland Richard, locksmith and bellhanger, Shoplatch

Holmes Joshua, shopkeeper, Chester street

Holmes Wm., beerhouse keeper, Frankwell

Home Mr. Samuel, Cross hill

Homer Mr. William, Kingsland

Horton Ed., boot & shoemaker, Claremont st

Horton Rebecca, milliner, High street

Hotchkiss William, farmer, Meol road

How Misses Mary and Christiana, Monk’s well terrace

How William Wybergh, Esq., solicitor, Near well house, Abbey Foregate

How Rev. William, Near well house

Howell Henry, boot & shoemaker, Mardol

Howell Henry, tailor and draper, High street, residence Abbey Foregate

Howell Thomas, gentleman, High fields

Howell Thos., vict., Dolphin, Dolphin road

Howell Thos., beerhouse keeper, St. Mchl. st

Howells Thos., blacksmith, Castle Foregate

Howells Thos., whitesmith, Castle Foregate

Hudson Wm., brush manufacturer, Mardol

Hughes Edward, Esq., solicitor, Dogpole

Hughes Edward, wine and spirit merchant, Corn market, residence Belmont

Hughes Edward C., butcher, Fish street, residence Princess street

Hughes Henry, shoemaker and shopkeeper, Coleham

Hughes John, Esq., Dogpole house

Hughes John, maltster, corn miller, and seed & corn mercht., The Glen, Frankwell

Hughes John, hair dresser, Frankwell

Hughes John, shoemaker, Bridge street

Hughes John, shoemaker, St. John’s row

Hughes Maria, bonnet maker, Peacock pas.

Hughes Richard, shoemaker, St. John’s hill

Hughes Robert, clothes dealer, Princess st

Hughes Robert, blacksmith, Abbey Foregate

Hughes & Son, boot & shoemakers, Shoplatch

Hughes Thomas, painter & glazier, Dogpole

Hughes Thomas, bricklayer, Frankwell

Hughes Thomas, boot and shoemaker, and beerhouse keeper, Frankwell

Hughes Thomas, shoemaker, Frankwell

Hughes Wm., grocer & tea dealer, Pride hill

Hughes Wm., maltster, St. Julian’s Friars

Hulett, victualler, Unicorn Inn and posting house, Wyle cop

Hulme Edward, hairdresser, Castle gates

Hulme Henry, painter, Castle foregate

Hulme Samuel, hair dresser and perfumer, High street

Hulme Mr. William Lang, Abbey Foregate

Humphreys Elizabeth, circulating library, St. Alkmund’s place

Humphreys John, wine and spirit merchant, St. Mary’s street

Humphreys John, tailor & draper, Shoplatch

Humphreys John R., house surgeon, Infirmy.

Humphreys Joseph, bookseller & stationer, &c., Pride hill

Humphreys Mary, grocer, tea dealer, chemist and druggist, hop and seed merchant, and cheese factor, Mardol

Humphreys Wm., shopkeeper, Claremont st

Humphreys T., shopkeeper, St. Michael’s st

Hunt Miss, Council house court

Hunt Mary, coach builder, Wyle cop

Hunt William Morgan Clerk, St. Michael st

Icke James, grocer and tea dealer, Market st

Instone and Son, nurserymen, Sutton lane

Jackson John, carpenter, Abbey Foregate

Jackson Rebecca, dressmaker, Abbey Foregt

Jackson Wm. Simes, Esq., sol., College hill

James Benjamin, tailor, Hill’s lane

James David, cow keeper, Coleham

James Humphrey, farmer, Meol road

James John, baker & shopkeeper, Abbey Frgt.

James Joseph, shoemaker, Frankwell

James Richard, plasterer, Windsor place

Jeffreys Edward Alex., engineer, Coton hill

Jeffreys Dr. Thomas, Castle house

Jeffreys William Egerton, Esq., solicitor, clerk to magistrates and to commissioners for the hundred of Ford, office Castle st., residence Coton hill

Jeffreys Mr. William, Dog pole

Jenks George, ironmonger, Wyle cop

Jenks Sarah, dressmaker, Abbey Foregate

Jennings Mrs. Sarah, Castle street

Jennings Thomas, Esq., Column terrace

Jervis Charles, carpenter, Frankwell

Jervis Elizabeth, dressmaker, Bridge street

Jervis John, vict., White Horse, Frankwell

Jobson Joseph, corn mercht., St. John’s hill

Johnson Rev. Frederick P., Abbey Foregate

Johnson Henry, M.D., Dog pole

Johnson Henry, corn dealer, Wyle cop

Johnson Mrs. Mary, Tower place

Johnstone Rev. Vanden Bempde, M.A., assistant master Free Grammar school

Jones Andrew, farmer, Meol road

Jones Benjamin, shoemaker, Castle Foregt.

Jones Catherine, hosier, Shoplatch

Jones Charles, linen and woollen draper, Mardol

Jones Chas. Griffiths, conf. & baker, Mardol

Jones David, vict., Bull’s head, Castle gates

Jones David, tailor & drap., St. Mary’s st

Jones David, cheese factor and victualler Woodman inn, Coton hill

Jones David and Son, cheesefactrs, New market hall

Jones Edward, hatter, Pride hill

Jones Edward, veterinary surg., Claremont st

Jones Edward, cooper, Mardol

Jones Edward, blacksmith, Beeches lane

Jones Edw., shoemaker, Hazledine’s buildgs.

Jones Eliza, ironmonger and nail manufacturer, Mardol head

Jones Evan, provision dealer, Coleham

Jones Evan, shoemaker, Princess street

Jones Evan, shopkeeper, St. Michael’s st

Jones Frances, dressmaker, Frankwell

Jones Fredk. A., letter press printer, Wyle cop

Jones Griffith, boot & shoemaker, Hills lane

Jones Henry, boot & shoemaker, Coleham

Jones Henry Micholls, surgeon dentist, Mardol head

Jones Mrs. Hannah, Swan hill

Jones Horatio, surgeon dentist, St. John’s hill

Jones James, butcher, Pride hill

Jones James, grocer & tea dlr., Castle gates

Jones James, cooper, Wyle cop

Jones James, brick & tile maker, Kingsland

Jones John, schoolmaster, St. Julian’s Friars

Jones John, cheese factor, New market hall, residence Chester street

Jones John, shopkeeper, Castle Foregate

Jones John, blacksmith, Raven road

Jones John, carpenter, Swan hill

Jones John, coach builder, Circus yard, residence, Peacock passage

Jones John, victualler, Gullett inn, Hill’s lane

Jones Jos., vict., Barley Mow, Abbey Forgt.

Jones Joseph, vic., Red Lion, Castle Foregate

Jones Joseph, tailor, Frankwell

Jones Joseph, brickmaker, Coleham

Jones Lewis, farmer, Castle Foregate

Jones Louisa, victualler, Leopard, Pride hill

Jones Maurice, grocer, tea dealer, cheese factor, and seedsman, Mardol

Jones Margaret, clothes cleaner, Claremt. st

Jones Margaret, shopkeeper, Castle gates

Jones Margaret, dressmaker, Dog pole

Jones Mrs. Mary, Reabrook view

Jones Misses, bonnet makers, Pride hill

Jones Mrs. B., Abbey Foregate

Jones Mrs. Price, Bellevue

Jones Robert, grocer & cheese monger, Mardol

Jones Richard, schoolmaster (St. Michael’s), St. Michael’s street

Jones Richard, baker, Frankwell

Jones Richard, butcher, Pride hill

Jones Richard, boot & shoemaker, Pride hill

Jones Richard, blacksmith, Frankwell

Jones Richard, confectioner & baker, Milk st

Jones Richard, beerhouse keeper, Meadow pl

Jones Richard, shopkeeper, Chester street

Jones Richard, blacksmith, Bridge street

Jones Samuel, wire worker, Shoplatch

Jones Sarah, cow keeper, Abbey Foregate

Jones Thos., commercial, dining, and coffee rooms, Shoplatch

Jones Thomas, linen & woollen draper, tailor and clothier, Mardol head

Jones Thos., victualler, Nelson’s Arms, St. Austin’s street

Jones Thomas, carpenter & joiner, Pride hill

Jones Thomas, cooper, Mardol

Jones Thos., brazier & tin plate worker, Mardol

Jones Thomas, tailor, Frankwell

Jones Thomas, butcher, Fish street road, Frankwell

Jones Thomas, shoemaker, Claremont st

Jones Thos. Wm., shoemaker, Castle fields

Jones Wm., saddler and harness maker, and trunk and portmanteau manufacturer, 5, High street

Jones William, victller., Sun tavern, Milk st

Jones William, provision dealer, Mardol

Jones William, carpenter, Castle Foregate

Joseph Ths., provn. dealr., Longden, Coleham

Juckes Samuel, ironmonger & nail manufacturer, Mardol

Juson Richard, gentleman, Spring terrace

Keate Henry, surgeon, Claremont hill

Keeling Henry, tailor and victualler, Odd Fellows’ Arms, Barker street

Keeling Joshua, beerhouse k., Castle gates

Kelvey Rebecca, watchmaker, Mardol

Kempster E., saddler & harness maker, Shoplatch

Kennedy Rev. Benjamin Hall, D.D., head master, Grammar school

Kent John, pawnbroker, Shoplatch

Kent Rev. Manoah (Baptist), Abbey Foregt.

Kerry Christina, hosier High st

Ketler John, rag & bone dealer, St. Austin’s st

Kindellon William N., governor of house of industry, Kingsland

Kirkham John, baker & shopk., Castle fore

Knight Mr. James, Holywell cottage

Kough Thomas Harley, Esq., solicitor, Swan hill

Lacy John, gas fitter and brass founder, Fire office court, High street

Lacy John William, printing and writing ink manufacturer, Castle fields

Lambert Henry, corn miller, Kingsland

Langford William Henry, vict., Golden Harp, Claremont st

Lawrence, Mrs. Mary, St. John’s row

Lawson Elizabeth, infant school teacher, New street

Lawson, Mrs. Mary, Wyle cop

Lawson Stewart, travelling draper, Abbey Foregate

Lawson William, wire worker, Frankwell

Leach Thomas, shopkeeper, Castle Foregate

Leake Charles W. and George E., painters and glaziers, Wyle cop

Leake John Hasleham, bookseller, printer, and stationer, &c., Corn market

Leake Thomas, beerhouse keeper, Castle st

Lee Edward, corn dealer, Mardol

Lee George, cabinet maker, Castle street

Lee George, shoemaker, Abbey Foregate

Legh Edward, agent to Shrewsbury and Shropshire coal company, Canal wharf; residence, Abbey Foregate

Legh John, butcher, Pride hill

Leighton, Rev. William Alport, Luciefelde, Coleham

Le Mercier Nicholas Robert, teacher of dancing, St. Julian’s Friars

Lewin Samuel Lucas, registrar of marriages, Swan hill

Lewis David, printer and beerhouse keeper, Gullet passage

Lewis Edward, vict., Lion Hotel, and posting house, Wyle cop

Lewis Elizabeth, dressmaker, Frankwell

Lewis Francis B., beerhouse, Abbey Foregate

Lewis John, blacksmith, Frankwell

Lewis Rd., grocer & tea dealer, Shoplatch

Lewis Rd., grocer and tea dealer, High st

Lewis Richard, carpenter, Castle Foregate

Lewis William, professor of music, High st

Lewis and Ward, grocers & hop merchants, High street

Linell John, ironmonger, Wyle cop., residence Abbey Foregate

Linell and Jenks, ironmongers and cooking apparatus manufacturers, Wyle cop

Linley Jas., green grocer, Castle Foregate

Lloyd Charles, malster and vict., Plough Inn, Market square

Lloyd Chas., beerhouse keeper, St. Michael’s street

Lloyd George, painter and glazier, Roushill

Lloyd Henry, plumber, Chester street

Lloyd John, silk mercer and draper, Market square; residence, Swan hill court

Lloyd John, vict., Hill’s Arms, Hill’s lane

Lloyd John, vict., Old Trumpet, Mardol

Lloyd John, tailor, Abbey Foregate

Lloyd John, newspaper reporter, Monk’s well terrace

Lloyd John, shoemaker, Hill’s lane

Lloyd Lydia, hair dresser, Castle Foregate

Lloyd Richard, butcher, Fish street; residence, St. Alkmund’s place

Lloyd Thos., carpenter, New st., Frankwell

Lloyd Thomas, tailor, Frankwell

Lloyd Thomas, tailor, Frankwell

Lloyd Thomas, cow keeper, Meol road

Lloyd Wm. Butler, Esq., banker, White hall

Lloyd Wm., painter and glazier, Coleham

Locke Mr. Edward, Milk street

Lockley Mrs. Mary, St. Julian’s Friars

Lomax Mrs., Bellevue

Longmore Rebecca, fancy repository, High st

Lott John, vict., Crow Inn, Abbey Foregate

Louch Chas., soda water manu., Claremont st

Lowe Edward Henry, wharfinger, Severn pl

Loxdale John, Esq., clerk of the peace for the county of Salop, and clerk to lieutenancy of county.  Office Shire hall, residence College hill

Loxdale Richard, Esq., solicitor, clerk to magistrates, and clerk to commissioners of assessed property and income taxes.  Office Corn market, residence Claremont

Lister Thomas, boot & shoemaker, Castle st

Littlehales, George, engraver & copperplate printer, Dogpole

Lucas Mrs. Martha, Roushill bank

Maddox Edward, vict., Swan Inn, Coleham

Maddox R., linen dra. & silk mercer, Castle st

Maddox Mrs. Theodosia, Quarry view cottage

Maddox Mrs., Green fields

Mallard Edward, paper hanger, Mardol

Manning John, boot & shoemaker, Wyle cop

Manning Josiah, tailor, Castle street

Mansell Mrs. Elizabeth, College hill

Mansell George, beerhouse, Castle Foregate

Mansell John, beerhouse keeper, and boot and shoemaker, Castle Foregate

Mansell Sophia, painter, Mardol

Mansell Wm., vict., Angel inn, Abbey Foregt.

Marsh Chas., agricultural implement maker, Castle fields

Marshall Ann, victualler, Woolpack, Longden, Coleham

Marshall Thomas, accountant, Judith’s Butts

Marston Richard, painter, glazier, and agent to Temperance Provident Institution, Market street

Marston Samuel, gunsmith, Claremont hill

Marston Thos., chemist & druggist, Wyle cop

Martin James, butcher, Fish street

Martin Martha, butcher, Fish street

Martin Mary, farmer, Robertsford

Martin Samuel, butcher, Fish street, residence Belmont

Matthews Chas., beerhouse, Butchers’ row

Matthews John, beerhouse, Chester street

Matthews Joseph, beerhouse, Spring gardens

Mayfield John, inland revenue officer, Bellevue cottage

Mayne Captain D., Woodfield

Meara John Augustine, woollen draper, High street

Mc.Cann Charles, inland revenue officer, Abbey Foregate

Mc.Credie John, cabinet maker, St. Julian’s Friars

Medlicott Wm., vict., Royal Oak, Coton hill

Menlove, Mrs. Harriet, Coton hill

Meredith, Lewis, & Co., grocers, tallow chandlers, & hop & seed merchants, Wyle Cop

Merick John, shoe maker, Grope lane

Merifield John, fly proprietor, Beeche’s lane

Middleton, Miss Anna Maria, Crescent

Miller John, butcher, Butchers’ row

Millward Edward, blacksmith, Meol road

Millward John, blacksmith, and parish clerk of Holy Cross, Coleham

Milnes Edward, assistant surveyor of taxes, White Hall place

Minn Rob., linen manufacturer, Castle Fields

Minshall Geo., vict., Old Wherry, Wyle Cop

Minshall Wm., fishmonger, Pride hill

Minton Thomas, maltster, Beeches lane

Mitton Geo., boot & shoe maker, Castle gates

Mitton John, cooper, Castle gates

Molinaux Jph. B., schoolmaster, Abbey Fore.

Molineux Jane, shopkeeper, Wyle Cop

Molineux Thos., painter & glazier, Wyle Cop

Moody Thomas B., inspector & collector tolls, New Smithfield

Moore James, Esq., solicitor, Dogpole

Moore Marius Salvator, professor of languages, Cross hill

Moore Wm., working jeweller, Mardol

Moreton Wm. inspector of Shrewsbury and Chester railway, Benbow terrace

Morgan Mrs. Elizabeth, St. John’s hill

Morgan Evan, shopkeeper, St. Michael st

Morgan Mr. Joseph, Barker street

Morgan Mrs., Claremont hill

Morgan Martha Ann, milliner, Barker street

Morgan Morgan, shopkeeper, Frankwell

Morgan Thomas, saddler and harness maker, and licensed to let post horses, Mardol

Morgan Thomas, butcher and vict., Comet, Old Heath

Morgan Wm. Esq., solicitor, Pride hill

Morgan Wm. & Sons, tailors and clothes dealers, Princess street

Morley Hy., wine & spirit mer., Castle street

Morris Ann, vict., Dun Cow, Abbey Foregate

Morris Ann, shopkeeper, Bridge street

Morris Charles, beerhouse, Butchers’ row

Morris Mrs. Emily, St. John’s hill

Morris George, cashier, Old Bank, St. John’s hill

Morris Henry, bankers’ clerk, Corn market

Morris John, carpenter, St. Austin street

Morris Joseph, accountant, St. John’s hill

Morris Richard, hair dresser, Princess street

Morris Richard, shoe maker, School lane

Morris Richard, tailor, The Mount

Morris Stephen, plumber, Castle street

Mottram Geo. & Co., ale and porter brewers, Hills lane, residence St. George’s place

Mottram Jn., hop & seed merchant, Mardol, residence Mount

Mottram Sarah, rope & brush manuf., Mardol

Mountford Thos., coach builder, Dogpole

Muckleston Captain Edward, Quarry place

Muckleston Jn., groc. & tea dealer, Wyle Cop

Muckleston Mrs. Margt., St. Alkmund’s sq.

Muckleston Rd. J., boot & shoe mk., Pride h.

Muckleston Wm., linen and woollen draper, Pride hill

Muir Robert, bank manager, Barker street

Mullinex William, leather cutter & grindery dealer, Milk street

Millinix William, gunsmith, Princess street

Mullins John, dyer, Frankwell

Munday Joseph, painter, Shoplatch

Munford Ed., vict., White Lion, St. John’s h.

Mytton Mrs. Mary, Bellevue gardens

National Provincial Bank of England, Barker street, Robert Muir, manager

Needham Mrs. Francis, Bellevue

Nevett Francis, boot & shoe wareh., High st.

Nevett John, butcher, Butchers’ row

Newcome Miss Elizabeth, Benbow place

Newham Henry, boarding school (diocesan), Swan hill

Newling Mrs. Elizabeth, Abbey Foregate

News Chas., vict., Three Fishes, Fish street

Newton Catherine, schoolmistress, Barker st.

Newton Hy., ale & porter brewer, Circus yard

Niccolls Wm. Owen, wine & spirit merchant, Mardol

Nicholls Charles, Esq., Heath Lodge

Nicholls Charles Barron, flannel merchant, Chester street, residence Quarry Terrace

Nicholls Thomas, wood turner, Castle street

Nickson Miss Elizabeth, boarding school, Cadogan House, The Mount

Nightingale John Thomas, hair dresser & perfumer, High street

Nightingale Richard, linen draper and parish clerk of St. Julian’s, Wyle Cop

North Thos., vict., Mermaid, Shoplatch

Norton Francis Collings, Esq., St. Mary’s ct

Norton Thomas, Esq., solicitor, Dogpole

Oakley Robert, maltster & hop dealer, Castle Foregate

Oare John, butcher, Mount pleasant

O’Hanlan Mrs. Ann, Claremont bank

O’Hara Henry Lewis, surgeon, Dogpole

Oldroyd Henry John, nuseryman & seedsman High street

Oldroyd Margaret, milliner, Pride hill

Oliver George, shoemaker, Abbey Foregate

Oliver John, shopkeeper, Longden Coleham

Onions Thomas, accountant and collector of taxes, Cross hill

Onions William, surgeon, Broom villa

Ousley Thos. John, editor and prop. of the Shropshire Conservative, Head of Pride hill.

Owen Ebenezer, dyer, Swan hill

Owen Edward, carpenter, Abbey Foregate

Owen James, school master (Holy Trinity), Coleham

Owen James, shoe maker, Castle Foregate

Owen John Ingram, woollen draper, tailor, and hatter, Mardol Head

Owen John, shoemaker, Claremont hill

Owen Mr. Joseph, Bellevue

Owen Mary, din. & coffee rooms, High street

Owen Owen, baker, Castle Foregate

Owen Samuel, accountant, Claremont place, residence Mount Pleasant

Owen Sarah, vict., London Coffee House, Dog pole

Owen Thos., shoemaker, Longden Coleham

Owen Thos., baker and confec., Castle street

Owen Wm., vict., Bugle Horn, Nackin street

Owen Wm., vict., Compass Inn, Frankwell

Owen William, tin plate worker and brazier, Castle street

Paget Rev. Alfred T., Grammar school

Palin Richard, Esq., solicitor, Dogpole

Palmer Edward, baker, Frankwell

Palmer Edward and Son, butchers, Mardol

Palmer Joseph, gentleman, Abbey Foregate

Palmer Thomas Fras., gentleman, Abbey Foregate

Pardey Capt. John, Reabrook cottage

Pardon James, artist, College hill

Parker Edward, vict., Seven Stars, Coleham

Parker James, farmer, Weir hill

Parker John, shoemaker, Claremont street

Parker Thomas, butcher, Fish street, residence St. Alkmund’s place

Parker Wm., vict., Park Inn, Abbey Foregate

Parkes Z., mill maker, Frankwell

Parry David, shopkeeper, Abbey Foregate

Parry David, shopkeeper, Frankland

Parry Ed. (manager of Marshall’s factory), St. Michael’s street

Parry Hugh, vict., Bell Inn, Frankwell

Parry Robt., plasterer & modeller, Cross hill

Parry Scarlet LLoyd, Esq., solicitor, Swan hl

Parsons John, manager of goods department of Chester and Shrewsbury rail., Coton hill

Parsons Mary, grocer and tea dealer, Market street

Patchett Wm., station master, Enon cottage

Peach John, grocer and tea dealer, High st

Pearce Ann, butcher, Butchers’ row

Pearson Benjamin, upholsterer and paper hanger, Princess street

Peele Joshua John, Esq., solicitor, treasurer, and deputy clerk of the peace of the county; under sheriff of Shropshire; town clerk of Shrewsbury; sub-division clerk and bailiff of the Royal Free Grammar School, office Guildhall, residence Murivance

Perkins John, shoemaker, St. Austin street

Perrott John, shopkeeper, Claremont street

Perry Wm. Henry, Esq., Pride hill

Peplow Mary Ann & Co., hop, seed, corn and cheese mer., Claremont st, r. Claremont h

Peplow Wm., tailor, Wyle Cop

Phayre John, provision dealer, Mardol

Phillips Chas., Esq., New hall, Abbey Foreg.

Phillips Edward, tailor, St. Alkmund square

Phillips Ed. Benj., wire worker, Shoplatch

Phillips Edwin, confec. and baker, Shoplatch

Phillips James, tailor & wool. drap., High st

Phillips & Jones, wire workers and fancy bird cage manufacturers, Shoplatch

Phillips Mr. John, St. Julian’s Friars

Phillips Thomas, chemist, druggist, and ink manufacturer, Mardol

Phillips Thomas, bricklayer and beerhouse keeper, Frankwell

Phillips Wm., beerhouse keeper, Frankwell

Pickering Jas. Richard, vict., Old Thrashers, Castle Foregate

Pidduck Thomas, surgeon, Pride hill

Pidgeon Henry, chemist and druggist, 45, High street

Pierce John, painter & glaz., Castle Foregate

Pierce Richard, cowkeeper, Holywell Farm

Pigott Mrs. Frances, Castle street

Poole Benjamin, shoemaker, Castle gates

Poole James, boarding school, Rose Mount

Poole John & Son, grocers, tea dealers, and seedsmen, Castle street

Poole Thomas and Samuel, drapers and silk mercers, 9, High street

Poole Thos. Francis, grocer and tea dealer, Castle street

Pool Robert, currier, Mardol

Polehampton Rev. Henry Steadman, curate of St. Chads, Belmont

Powell Benjamin, malt and coffee mill maker, Frankwell

Powell, Mrs. Elizabeth, Benbow place

Powell, Mr. John, Coton hill

Powell Timothy, baker and confec., Mardol

Powell William, linen draper, Mardol

Price David, carpenter, Castle gates

Price Edward, butcher, Abbey Foregate

Price Emily, milliner, Castle street

Price George, pump maker, Frankwell

Price John, solicitor, Wyle cop, residence Coton terrace

Price, Mrs. Margaret, Coton terrace

Price Richard, registrar of births and deaths, & vestry clerk of St. Mary’s, Castle street

Price Sarah, shopkeeper, Coton hill

Price Sylvanus, tobacco pipe manufacturer, Longden, Coleham

Price Thos., vict., The Glove, St. John’s blds

Price Thomas, provision dealer, Abbey Fore

Price Theodore, basket maker, Coleham

Price Watkin, baker, Abbey Foregate

Price William, blacksmith and beerhouse keeper, Abbey Foregate

Price William, wheelwright, Abbey Foregate

Price Mr. William, Mount Field

Prim John, hair dresser, Abbey Foregate

Prinn Richard, shoemaker, Cross hill

Pritchard Ann, baker, Meol road

Pritchard Ann, milliner, Princess street

Pritchard Ann, butcher, Butchers’ row

Pritchard Dan., grocer & tea dealer, Dogpole

Prosser Rev. William, curate of St. Alkmund’s, Belmont

Probert Henry, cabinet maker and upholsterer, Shoplatch

Prune John, tailor, Frankwell

Pugh Edward, carver and gilder, Frankwell

Pughe, Mrs. Elizabeth, Dogpole

Pugh Elizabeth, schoolmistress, Castle Fore

Pugh James, malster and vict., Plough and Harrow, Coleham

Pugh John, baker, Abbey Foregate

Pugh John, tailor, Frankwell

Pugh Robt., painter & glazier, Castle Foregt

Pugh Robert, beerhouse, Castle Foregate

Pugh Sarah, vict., Market Tavern, Pride hill

Pugh Thomas, vict., Fighting Cocks, Castle Foregate

Pugh Wm., painter & glazier, Abbey Foregate

Pursell, Mrs. Ann, Old heath

Purslow Edward, hair dresser and umbrella maker, St. Julian’s friars

Purslow Henry, clothier and furniture broker, Corn market

Purslow William, painter, Barker street

Pyefinch John, chemist & drug., Shoplatch

Randles John, maltster and vict., Cock Inn, Butchers’ row

Randles Robert, beerhouse keeper, Swan hill

Rawlins Gabriel, adjutant South Salopian yeomanry, School court

Rees David, fly proprietor, Coffee house pas

Rees Evan, shoemaker and green grocer, Gullett passage

Rees John, provision dealer, Coleham

Rees, Mrs. Mary, College hill

Rees William, grocer and maltster, Wyle cop

Renolds Thomas, cow keeper, Old heath

Revel Champ, clothes dealer, Princess st

Richard Evans, vet. surgeon, Abbey Fore

Richards Hy., hosier & stay dealer, Wyle cop

Richards, Rev. John, Crescent place

Richards Richard, butcher, Castle gates

Richards Thomas, shopkeeper, Abbey Foregt

Rigby Richard, butcher, Butchers’ row

Roberts Charles, boot & shoe maker, Pride hill

Roberts David & Co., clothes dealers, Pride hl

Roberts Edward, tailor and woollen draper, Butchers’ row

Roberts Edward, shoemaker, Castle Foregate

Roberts Edward, tailor, Abbey Foregate

Roberts Edwards, shopkeeper, Chester st

Roberts Frederick, superintendent of asylum, Kingsland

Roberts Henry, shopkeeper, Abbey Foregate

Roberts John shoemaker, Abbey Foregate

Roberts Joseph, furniture broker, Bridge st

Roberts Mary, baker, Castle Foregate

Roberts Sigismunda, school teacher, Barker st

Roberts Thos., victualler, Plough Inn, Castle Foregate

Roberts William, fishmonger, Shoplatch

Robinson Ann, pawnbroker, Roushill bank

Roden Samuel, brick and tile maker, John Wilson, agent, Raven road

Rogers Missses Ann & Eliz., Abbey Foregate

Rogers Mrs. Eleanor, Abbey Foregate

Rogers Eliz., provision dealer, St. Mary’s st

Rogers George, vict., Sun Inn, Milk street

Rogers George, gentleman, St. Julian’s friars

Rogers Joseph, grocer and temperance coffee house, Mardol

Rogers William, painter and glazier, St. Alkmund’s place

Rogers William, wharfinger, salt dealer and vict., Seven Stars Inn, Frankwell

Rogerson, Rev. James Jardine, M.A., incumbent of St. Julian’s, Glansevern lodge

Rogerson Robert, schoolmaster (Bowdler’s free school), Beeches lane

Rooke, Mr. Charles, Swan hill court

Rose and Co., china warehouse, William George, agent, Wyle cop

Rowe George, town crier, Roushill bank

Rowland James, whitesmith and beerhouse keeper, The mount

Rowland John L., solicitor, Monk’s well ter

Rowland Misses, milliners, St. Mary’s st

Rowland, Rev. William Gorsuch, incumbent of St. Mary’s, Abbey Foregate

Rowland William, tailor, Roushill

Rushton and Bowdler, joiners & carpenters, Pride hill

Rushton Julia, bonnet maker, Dogpole

Rushton Wm., carpenter, Pride hill, r Dogpole

Ryder Ed., malster and butcher, Old heath

Ryder Elizabeth, hair dresser, Wyle cop

Ryder George H., beerhouse keep., Old heath

Ryder Henry, victualler, Yorkshire House, St. Mary’s Place

Ryder Captain Wm., R. N., Benbow house

Salop Bank (Messrs. Burton, Lloyd, Salt, and How), Princess street

Salt George Moultrice, Esq., solicitor, Belmont; residence, Coton hill

Salt Thomas, Esq., solicitor, Belmont; residence, Quarry place

Salter and Rogers, provision dealers, St. Mary’s street

Salter Hannah, provision dealer, St. Mary’s street

Sandford Folliott, Esq., solicitor, Dogpole

Sandford Humphrey, Esq., councillor at law, Wyle cop

Sandford James Oakes, bookseller, printer, bookbinder, and stationer, 25, High street

Sandys Captain Thomas, Claremont blds

Saunders Joseph Green, hatter, Market st

Savage Mrs., Reabrook view

Saxelby George, woollen draper and tailor, & agent for the Syrian paletot, Castle st

Scammell Uphemia, bordng. school, Wyle cop

Scarth Jonathan, Esq., solicitor, College hill

Scarth Jonathan, gentleman, The Flash

Scoltock Mary, grocer and italian warehouse, Princess street

Scoltock William Poole, secretary and clerk to charity trustees, Offices Guild hall, and Corn market chambers

Selley Matthew, malster, Frankwell

Shakeshaft Mr. John, White Hall place

Sharp Alexander, working jeweller, Milk st

Shaw Elijah, umbrella maker, Castle Foregate

Shaw Mrs. Elizabeth, Dogpole

Shaw Henry, fishing tackle manufacturer and ornithologist, Shoplatch

Shaw John, fishing tackle manufacturer and ornithologist, Wyle cop

Shaw Joseph, glass, china, and earthenware dealer, Wyle cop

Shepherd John, governor of county gaol, The gaol

Sheppard Joseph, tanner, St. Austin street

Sherry Thomas, shoemaker, Abbey Foregate

Shorland John, shopk., Longden Coleham

Shrewsbury & Ludlow Bank, Messrs. Roche, Eytons, Campbell, and Bayleys, Market sq

Shrewsbury and Welsh Pool Bank, Messrs. Beck, Downward, Scarth, and Bowen, High street

Shropshire and North Wales Fire Office, High street, Edward Elsmere, managing director

Shuker Mr. Joseph, Monks’ well terrace

Simmonds John, vict., Old Wheat Sheaf, High street

Simons John, builder and china dealer, Pride hill

Simpson Deborah, wine and spirit merchant, Mardol

Simpson Hortensius Coates, wool merchant, Hill’s lane and St. John’s hill; residence, College hill

Simpson Rev. Joseph, Abbey Foregate

Simpson Thomas, coach proprietor, Abbey Foregate

Skitt James, veterinary surgeon, Old heath

Small John, bricklayer and builder, Butchers’ row

Smart Mary, fruiterer and fish and game dealer, High street

Smith Andrew, rag and bone merchant, Howard street

Smith Edward, farmer, Fox bank

Smith Edward, registrar office, Barker street

Smith George, carpenter & joiner, Swan hill

Smith James, gentleman, Benbow terrace

Smith John P., manager of goods department for Shropshire union railway, Portland house, Abbey Foregate

Smith Mr. Joseph, Coleham

Smith Rd., painter & glazier, St. John’s hill

Smith Richard, vict., Lion and Pheasant Inn, Wyle cop

Smith Samuel, Esq., Column terrace

Smith Samuel Pountney, architect and surveyor, Severn cottage

Smith Sarah, vict., Golden Cross, Golden cross passage

Smith Miss Sarah, Sutton lane

Smith and Preece, auctioneers, Corn market

Smith Thos., glass & china dealer, Wyle cop

Smith Thomas, stay manufacturer, Castle st

Smith Thos., blacksmith, New st., Frankwell

Smith William, auctioneer, Church street; residence, Trinity terrace, Coleham

Smith Wm., draper (travelling), Cross hill

Smitheman Miss Caroline, Beauchamp

Smout Edward, seedsman and market gardener, Gullett passage

Snook Richard Seymour, road surveyor, Copthorne road

Southam Mr. Thomas, Spring terrace

Southam Thomas, jun., ale, porter, and spirit merchant, and agent to Bass and Co., (Burton ales), Wyle cop

Speake John, shopkeeper, Coleham

Spence James George, ironmonger, &c., Canal wharf house

Stamp Office, Corn market, Edward B. Tipton, distributor

Stanley Mr. Samuel, White hall street

Stant Joseph, builder, timber merchant, stone and marble mason, and brick and tile maker, St. Julian’s friars

Stanton James, hair dresser, Shoplatch

Stanway Mary, malster and vict., Old Bell, Abbey Foregate

St. Albans, Mr. Edwd. Francis, St. John’s hill

Stedman George, painter, Castle gates

Stedman, Mrs. Jane, White hall place

Stedman, Mrs. Jane, Belmont

Stedman Mary, bonnet maker, Castle gates

Stephens John, surgeon, College hill

Stephens Richard, boot and shoe manufacturer, Mardol head

Stevens George, wood turner, Barker st

Stevens William, wood turner, Mardol

Stewart Penelope, tobacconist, Wyle cop

Stinton Henry, baker, Frankwell

Stockdale William, blacksmith, Roushill

Stokes William, Esq., St. John’s row

Stone Richard, shoemaker, St. Austin’s st

Story Wm., solicitor’s clerk, Holy well terrace

Strange Alice, vict., Fox Inn, Princess street

Stuttle William, iron and brass founder, Longden Coleham

Sutton Mrs., Ellen, St. Mary’s court

Swain John, malster, Mardol, and farmer, Coton grange

Swain Richard, malster & shopkeeper, Mardol

Swain Wm., maltster & ironmonger, Mardol

Swallow Chas., beerhouse keeper, Castle Fields

Swinburne, Miss Charlotte Marie, Belmont

Swinnerton Elizabeth, baker, Castle Foregate

Symcock John, vict., Crown and Anchor, Castle Foregate

Taggart Walter, tea dealer (travelling), Wyle cop

Tanner John, saddler and harness maker, and trunk and portmanteau manufacturer, High street

Tanswell James, painter and glazier, St. John’s hill

Tanswell John, carpenter, joiner, and flour dealer, Shoplatch

Tanswell Thos., painter & glazier, Castle st

Taylor George, shoemaker, Frankwell

Taylor George, sieve maker and rag and bone dealer, Chester street

Taylor Isaac, farmer, Monk moor

Taylor John, vict., Nag’s Head, Castle gates

Taylor Robert, shopkeeper, Spring gardens

Taylor Richard, malster and corn merchant, Abbey Foregate

Taylor Richard, jun., hop and seed merchant, Princess street, residence Abbey Foregate

Taylor Richard, painter & glazier, Hills lane

Taylor Rich., maltster & butcher, Old Heath

Taylor Samuel, woolstapler, Hills lane

Taylor Wm., boot and shoe maker, Castle st.

Taylor Wm., tobacco pipe maker, Longden Coleham

Teckoe Ed., vict., Queen’s Head, Mardol

Teece Charles Bowen, Esq., solicitor, and superintendent registrar, Swan Hill, residence St. Austin’s Priory

Teece Miss Jane, St. John’s hill

Tennant Henry, butcher, Fish street

Thacker Mary, vict., London Apprentice, Coton hill

Thacker Abraham, tailor, Frankwell

Thomas Ann, shopkeeper, Longden Coleham

Thomas Charles, linen and woollen draper, Mardol

Thomas David, beerhouse, New st., Frankwell

Thomas Rev. David (Independent Welsh chapel), Mardol

Thomas Edward, shopkeeper, The Mount

Thomas Edward, baker, Abbey Foregate

Thomas Elizabeth, vict., Ship Inn, Bridge st.

Thomas Henry, builder, St. Austin Friars

Thomas James, millwright, Cross street

Thomas John, shoemaker, Coton hill

Thomas John, shoemaker, Abbey Foregate

Thomas John, grocer and tea dealer, Mardol and Pride hill

Thomas John, carpenter, Barker street

Thomas John, superin. of police, Barker st.

Thomas Robert, shoemaker, Frankwell

Thomas Richard, beerhouse, Spring gardens

Thomas Samuel, beerhouse, Raven street

Thomas Wm., shoemaker, St. Michael’s st.

Thomas Mr. William, Islington

Thomas Wm., boot & shoe maker, Castle st.

Thomas William, shoemaker, New street

Thompson James, vict., Cross Guns, New street, Frankwell

Thornes Mrs. Charlotte, Holywell terrace

Thornton Mr. George, Abbey Foregate

Tibnam Wm., bookseller, printer, stationer, bookbinder, and religious tract depository, Wyle cop

Tilston and Co., salt and slate merchants, Canal wharf

Tindall Rev. John (Wesleyan), Swan hill

Timbs Richard, victualler, Eagle and Tun, Castle Foregate

Tipton Miss Anna Catherine, Claremont hill

Tipton Edward Blakeway, stamp distributor and secretary to Salop Fire Office, Corn market

Tisdale Eliz., shopkeeper, New street, Frankwell

Tisdale John, baker, Bridge street

Tisdale Thomas, auctioneer and land and estate agent, Quarry terrace

Tisdale Thomas, civil engineer and architect, and surveyor, office Mardol head, residence Mount Field

Tisdale Wm., hardware dealer and market gardener, Castle Foregate

Tisdale William, cooper, Frankwell

Tittensor John and Richard, cabinet makers and upholsterers, St. Mary’s street

Tombs, Susannah, hosier, Corn market

Tomkins Henry, farrier, Coleham

Tomlins John, basket maker, Castle Foregate

Towers Mr. John, gentleman, Swan hill

Towers Mr. John, postmaster, Sutton cottage

Townsend Mary Ann, schoolmistress, Castle Foregate

Tract Depository, at Mr. William Tibnam’s, Wyle Cop

Trail Dewar, farmer, Coton hill farm

Tregortha Thos., circulating library, Meol road

Troughton Mr. Thomas, Abbey Foregate

Trouncer and Son, ale and porter brewers, Old Brewery, Coleham

Trouncer Thomas William, brewer, Coleham, residence St. John’s hill

Trouncer Wm. Henry, maltster, Frankwell

Tudor Dinah, cooper, Shoplatch

Tudor Miss Elizabeth, Islington

Turner Anna Maria, maltster, Frankwell

Taylor James, shoemaker, Castle Fields

Urwick Miss Ann, The Mount

Urwick Elenor, librarian, St. John’s hill

Upton Mr. Edward, Abbey Foregate

Vane Mrs. Sarah, Benbow terrace

Vaughan Edward, vict., King’s Arms Inn, Claremont street, and proprietor of billiard rooms, Corn market

Vaughan Hannah, shopkeeper, Shoplatch

Vaughan John, carpenter and builder, Claremont street

Vaughan John, vict., Cross Keys, High street

Vaughan Richard, beerhouse keeper, Castle Foregate

Vickers George, coach builder, College hill, residence Coton hill

Wace George George, Esq., solicitor, College hill, residence Bellevue

Wace Hy. Thos., Esq., solicitor, College hill

Wace Richard, Esq., College hill

Wade George, cabinet maker, Wyle Cop

Wade Mrs. Anna Maria, Kingsland villa

Wade Geo., beerhouse keeper, Chester street

Wade James, accountant, Market square, residence Castle gates

Wakefield Rev. John Mort, M.A., assistant master, Grammar School

Walker Geo., hair dresser, St. Mary’s street

Walker George, butcher, Butcher’s row

Walker Wm., hair dresser & toy dealer, Mardol

Walker William, watch and clock maker, Market square

Wall Benjamin, news agent, Mardol

Walmsley John, surgeon, Abbey terrace

Walmsley John, vict., Red Lion, Hadnal road

Walton John, gentleman, Claremont hill

Ward Rev. Anth., (Wesleyan), Benbow place

Ward Rob., confectioner and baker, Wyle Cop

Ward Thos. Cooke, gentleman, Quarry terrace

Ward Thos., grocer & tea dealer, High street

Ward Wm., vict., Wheat Sheaf, Wyle Cop

Ward William Robert, R.N., manager of gas works, Castle place

Wardle William, bookseller, printer, and stationer, Mardol

Warren John, vict., Boar’s Head, Meol road

Wastall Thomas, wood turner, Fire Office court, High street

Watkins, James, Esq., Mardol

Watkins John, baker, Barker street

Watkins John H., baker and shopkeeper, Coton hill

Watkins Matthew, tailor and hosier, Claremont street

Watkis Mrs. Elizabeth, St. John’s hill

Watkis James Buckley, Esq., solicitor, Belmont, residence Abbey Foregate

Watkis Richard, cabinet maker, Hills lane

Watson Joseph, vict., Buckley’s Arms, Abbey Foregate

Watton John, printer, bookseller, bookbinder, stationer, patent medicine vender, and newspaper publisher, St. John’s hill

Weaver Mary Ann, boarding school, Belmont

Weaver Rev. Thos. (Independent), Swan hill

Weaver Wm., vict., Sun Inn, Roushill

Webster James, vestry clerk of St. Chads, Belmont

Westwood Henry, vict., Barge Inn, Wyle Cop

Werter Mr. Thomas, Abbey Foregate

White John, auctioneer, Corn market

White Joshua Pugh, cabinet maker and upholsterer, College hill and Pride hill

White Sarah, tea dealer, Wyle Cop

White Timothy, inspector of weights and measures for borough, and assistant overseer of St. Julian’s, Wyle Cop

Whitehurst John, gentleman, Mount house

Whitfield Christopher, market gardener, Castle Foregate

Whitmore John, refreshment rooms, railway station, residence Castle street

Whitney George & Son, chemist and druggist, High street

Whitney James, bookseller, printer, and stationer, Pride hill

Whitaker Francis, inspector of weights and measures for North Bradford Hundred

Whitwell Francis, surgeon, St. Mary’s street

Whitwell Francis, furrier, St. John’s hill

Whitwell Jas., commer. traveller, New park

Wicks Mary Ann, livery stables, Cross hill, residence St. John’s hill

Wigginton James, paviour, Coton hill

Wightman Rev. Charles Edward Leopold, vicar of St. Alkmund’s, St. Alkmund’s sq.

Wigley Charles, accountant, St. John’s row

Wigley Joseph, banker’s clerk, Princess street

Wigley The Misses, Quarry place

Wilde Peter, bookseller, printer, stationer, and bookbinder, and agent to Anchor Assurance Office, Pride hill

Wilde Thomas, glass & china dealer, Market street

Wildig Henry and Mary, glass, china, and earthenware dealer, Pride hill

Wilding Elizabeth, grocer and tea dealer, Corn market

Wilding James, butcher, Mardol

Wilding Richard, butcher, Pride hill

Wilding William, wool merchant, College hill

Wilkes Clement, grocer and tea dealer, and hosiery manufacturer, Princess street

Wilkes James, shopkeeper, Castle Fields

Wilkes Rd., tailor & woollen draper, Wyle Cop

Wilkes Richard, butcher, Fish street

Wilkins Mary, fly proprietor, Milk street

Wilkinson Robert, flannel merchant, Claremont hill, residence The Mount

Wilkinson Thomas, ironmonger, High street

Williams Edward, surgeon, Mardol

Williams Fred. Ed., shopkeeper, Barker street

Williams John, grocer and tea dealer, and cheese factor, Mardol

Williams Johns, tailor, Castle Foregate

Williams John, tailor, Marine Terrace

Williams John, vict., Coopers’ Arms, New street, Frankwell

Williams John, tailor and woollen draper, Dogpole

Williams John, beerhouse, Barker street

Williams John, shoemaker, Frankwell

Williams Joseph, tripe dealer, Wyle cop

Williams, Mrs. Mary, Abbey Foregate

Williams Mary, clothes dealer, Princess st

Williams Richard, vict., Waterloo house, Abbey Foregate

Williams Richard, beerhouse, Hill’s lane

Williams Richard, beerhouse, Frankwell

Williams Thomas, corn dealer, The mount

Williams Thomas, pump maker, Coleham

Williams William, grocer, tea dealer, cheese and bacon factor, Mardol

Williams William, vict., Crow Inn, Frankwell

Williams William, carrier to Ironbridge and Broseley, Monday and Friday, Wyle cop

Wills George, accountant, White hall place

Wilson Mrs. Harriet, Quarry place

Wilson John, timber merchant, Raven road

Wilson John, tailor, Abbey Foregate

Wilson The Misses, St. Julian’s friars

Wilson Samuel, beerhouse, Roushill

Winstone, Rev. David, chaplain to county gaol, Castle street

Withers Thomas, surveyor of taxes, office, Wyle cop; residence, Oakley cottage

Witts, Miss Aphia, Claremont bank

Wollaston, Mrs. Beatrice, St. John’s hill

Wollaston Chas., gentleman, Claremont hill

Wood Miss Elizabeth, Tower place

Wood Mrs. Elizabeth, Abbey Foregate

Wood Francis, butcher, Frankwell

Wood Samuel, surgeon, The abbey

Wood William, physician, Castle street

Wood Wm. Henry, assistant clerk, County court office, Holywell terrace

Wood William Seward, Esq., Severn cottage

Woodall John, woollen draper and clothier, Mardol head

Woodruff Richard, shoemaker, St. Alkmund’s place

Woodward Chas., brazier & tin plate worker, Pride hill

Woodward Charles, butcher, Butchers’ row

Woodward Mr. Henry, St. Austin’s priory

Woodward John, hop and porter merchant, Bridge street

Woodward Robert, malster and beerhouse keeper, Frankwell

Woodward, Mr. Thomas, Green hill cottage, Frankwell

Worth Fred, Hy., coach builder, Bridge st

Worrall Mary, shopkeeper, Frankwell

Woosnam Elizabeth, milliner, Pride hill

Wycherley George, carpenter, St. Alkmund’s place

Wylie David, engineer, Coton hill

Wynne John, Esq., College hill court

Yardley Rev. Edward, Claremont bank

Yardley Rev. John M.A., incumbent of St. Chad’s Claremont house

Yates Mrs. Sophia, Column villa

Yeomans Thos. Roger, artist, Abbey Foregate

Yerbury Charles, coach builder, College hill

Yerbury and Vickers, coach builders, College hill

Young George, ironmonger and coal merchant, Canal wharf; residence, Abbey Foregate

Young and Spence, ironmongers, brass founders, iron merchants, and agricultural implement makers, Canal wharf

CLASSIFICATION
OF THE
PROFESSIONS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES
IN THE
TOWN OF SHREWSBURY.

Academies.

Marked * Boarding Schools.

Allatt’s Free School, St. John’s row, Thos. Bagley, master; Frances Buttery, mistress

* Arrowsmith Louisa Ann, Belmont

* Arrowsmith Mary Elisabeth, College hill court

* Beetlestone George, Hill’s lane

Blue Coat (Bowdler’s) Beeche’s lane, Robert Rogerson, master; & Mary Ann Sharratt, mistress

* Brightwell William, Belmont bank

British, Castle Fields, Thos. Harris

Cooke Mary, Swan hill

* Diocesan School, Swan hill, Henry Newham

Field Francis and Mary, St. Alkmund’s place

Green Ann, Old Heath

Gittins Sarah, Abbey Foregt

Griffiths Jane, Abbey Foregt

Hinmers Elizabeth, Cross hill

Holy Trinity Schools, Coleham, Jas. Owen, master; Martha Clarke, mistress

Hunt Mary Ann, Church st

Infants (St. Chads), Barker street, Sigismunda Roberts

Infants (Castle Foregate), Mary A. Townsend

Infants (Frankwell), Elizth. Lawson

* Jones Jn., St. Julian’s Friars

Knight Clement, Cross hill

National Shrewsbury, Abbey Foregate, Joseph B. Molynaux, master; Mary Ann Williamson, mistress

Newton Catherine, Barker st

Millington School (Frankwell) Francis Cullis, master; Sarah Bishop, mistress

Morris Mary, Swan hill

* Nickson Elizabeth, Cadogan House, The Mount

* Poole James, Rose Mount

Pugh Elizabeth, Castle Foregate

Roberts Ann, Castle Fields

Royal Free Grammar School, Castle gates, Rev. Ben. Hall Kennedy, D.D., head master; Rev. William Burbury, M.A., second master; Rev. John Mort Wakefield, M.A., assistant master; Rev. Alfred Tolver Paget, M.A., teacher of mathematics; Rev. Vanden Bempde Johnstone, M.A. assistant master; Mr. Thos. Amand Bentley, teacher of modern languages; Mr. Thos. Northage Henshaw, writing master

* Scammell, Euphemia, Wyle Cop

St. Alkmund’s, William Donnellan and Martha Badger, St. Alkmund’s pl

St. Chad’s School, Barker street, Edward Evans, master; Jane E. Tanner, mistress

St. Michael’s School, St. Michael’s street, Richard Jones, master; Sophia Evans, mistress

* Weaver Mary Ann Belmont

Accountants.

Bevan Henry, Abbey Foregt

Edwards Thomas, Mardol head

Evans Edward, Claremont hl

Harwood Thomas, Abbey Foregate

Hartshorn James, Dogpole

Hewett James, St. Julian’s Friars

Marshall Thomas, Judith’s Butts

Morris Joseph, St. John’s hill

Onions Thomas, Cross hill

Owen Samuel, Claremont hill

Wade James, Market square

Wigley Charles, St. John’s road

Wills George, White Hall pl

Agents.

See also Fire and Life Office Agents.

Atkin Henry (to Allsop and Co’s. Burton ale), Golden cross passage

Barcley Wm. Jas. (Guiness’ Dublin porter), High st

Burd and Son (land & estate), Abbey Foregate

Davies John (coal), Castle Foregate

Franklin George Benjamin (Mottram & Co., brewers), Frankwell

Haycock Robert (Brymbo Company), Castle Foregate

Legh Edward (Shrewsbury and Shropshire coal company), Canal wharf

Southam Thomas, jun. (Bass and Co.’s Burton ale), Wyle Cop

Agricultural Implement Makers.

Cartwright John, Castle Foregate

Harris Samuel, Barker street

Marsh Charles, Castle Fields

Young and Spence, Canal wharf

Architects and Surveyors.

Birch Benjamin, Castle gates

Carline John, Abbey Foregate

Haycock Edward (county), The Priory

Smith Samuel Pountney, Severn cottage

Stant Joseph, St. Julian’s Friars

Tisdale Thos., Mardol head

Artists.

Brown Philip, Castle street

Corbel Philip, Belmont

Pardon James, College hill

Yeoman’s Thomas Roger, Abbey Foregate

Attorneys.

Badger Thomas Jeffreys, Swan hill

Bloxham Henry, St. Mary’s place

Cooper and Broughall, St John’s hill

Corser George Sandford, Market street

Craig C. & S., The Crescent

Edwards John Hawley, Pride hill

Gordon George, Dog pole

Hicks and Son, Wyle Cop

Higgins William, Claremont hill

How and Son, Swan hill

Hughes Edward, Dog pole

Jeffreys William Egerton, Castle street

Kough Thomas Harley, Swan hill

Loxdale John, Guild hall

Loxdale Richard, Corn markt

Moore James, Dog pole

Morgan William, Pride hill

Norton Thomas, Dog pole

Palin Richard, Dog pole

Parry Scarlet Lloyd, Swan hill

Peele Joshua John, Guild hall

Price John, Wyle cop

Rowland John Leeche, Monks’ well terrace

Salt and Son, Belmont

Sandford Folliott, Dogpole

Scarth and Jackson, College hill

Teece Charles Bowen, Swan hill

Wace Henry Thomas & George, College hill

Watkis James Buckley, Belmont

Auctioneers, Appraisers, and House and Estate Agents.

Burrey James, College hill

Edwards Thomas, Mardol head

Hall William, Milk street

Smith and Preece, corn market

Tisdale Thos., Quarry terrace, & Shoplatch

White John, Corn market

Bakers.

Ballham James, Coleham

Bayley Edward, Castle Foregate

Blakemore Robert B., Mardol

Boycott Rd., St. Michael’s st

Breeze Sarah, Coton hill

Clinton Henry, Abbey Foregt

Cock John, Coleham

Coggin Jabez, Chester street

Crumpton James, Frankwell

Deakin Edward, Frankwell

Deakin Thomas, Market st

Dean Thomas, Frankwell

Davies Daniel, Castle gates

Davies Walton, St. Mary’s place

Edwards Thomas, Abbey Foregate

Elkes Edward, Pride hill

Evans Benjamin, High st

Evans John, Butchers’ row

Harris Thomas, Castle street

Harrison Samuel, Castle Foregate

Haynes Francis M., Wyle cop

Hill John, Longden, Coleham

James John, Abbey Foregate

Jones Charles Griffiths, Mardol

Jones Richard, Frankwell

Jones Richard, Milk street

Kirkham John, Castle Foregate

Owen Owen, Castle Foregate

Owen Thomas, Castle street

Palmer Edward, Frankwell

Phillips Edwin, Shoplatch

Powell Timothy, Mardol

Price Watkins, Abbey Foregt

Pritchard Ann, Meol road

Pugh John, Abbey Foregate

Roberts Mary, Castle Foregt

Stinton Henry, Frankwell

Swinnerton Elizabeth, Castle Foregate

Tisdale John, Bridge street

Ward Robert, Wyle cop

Watkins John, Barker street

Watkins John H. Coton hill

Bankers.

National Provincial Bank of England, Barker street, Robert Muir, manager

Salop Bank, Princess St., (Messrs. Burton, Lloyd, Salt, and How), draw on Glyn, Halifax, and Co., London

Savings’ Bank, College hill, open on Monday and Saturday, from 11 30 a.m., to 1 30 p.m., Chas. Blount, actuary

Shrewsbury and Ludlow Bank, Market sq., (Messrs. Roche, Eytons, Campbell, and Bayleys), draw on Roberts, Curtis, and Co., London

Shrewsbury and Welshpool Bank, High st., (Messrs. Beck, Downward, Scarth, & Bowen), draw on Masterman, and Co., London

Barristers.

Allnatt Charles Blake, The crescent

Sandford Humphrey, Dogpole

Basket Makers.

Gwynn Richard, Pride hill

Halbrook James, Coleham

Price Theodore, Coleham

Tomlins John, Castle Foregt

Williams Richard, Abbey Foregate

Blacksmiths.

Birch James, Frankwell

Breeze James, Abbey Foregt

Clorley S., St. Austin’s street

Crome Henry, Castle st

Griffiths Samuel, Coton hill

Harris Samuel, Barker street

Howells Thomas, Castle Foregate

Hughes Robert, Abbey Foregate

Jones Edward, Beeche’s lane

Jones John, Raven road

Jones Richard, Circus place

Lewis John, Frankwell

Millward John and Edward, Coleham

Price William, Abbey Foregt

Smith and Jones, Frankwell

Stockdale William, Roushill

Booksellers, Printers, Bookbinders, and Stationers.

Beacall Ann & Eliza, Mardol head

Cadwallader John, 3, High st

Crumpton Joseph, (agent for the sale of poor law books), Mardol

Davies John, 15, High st

Davies Richard, 7, High st

Deaves George (old bookseller only), Shoplatch

Drayton George, Shoplatch

Eddowes and Leake, Corn market

Edwards Edward, Dogpole

Humphreys Joseph, Pride hill

Sandford James Oakes, 25, High street

Tibnam William, Wyle cop

Wardle William, Mardol

Walton John, St. John’s hill

Whitney James D., Pride hill

Wilde Peter, (wholesale), Pride hill

Boot and Shoemakers.

Badger John, Marine terrace

Bather William, Coton hill

Betton William, Frankwell

Blair Charles, Abbey Foregt

Blount Charles, Claremont hill

Boulton Samuel, Chester st

Bryant William, Mardol

Butler William, Castle Foregate

Calcott, John, 4, High street

Cavell Henry, School lane

Chester George, Shoplatch

Chidlow William, Castle fields

Cock John, Abbey Foregate

Cox John, School lane

Davies Charles, Barker st

Davies Henry, St. John’s hill

Davies Joseph, Mardol

Davies William, Wyle cop

Drakewood William, Abbey Foregate

Dyas William, Abbey Foregt

Evans George, Abbey Foregt

Evans George, Barker street

Evans John, Market square

Forcham Richard, Abbey Foregate

Forcham Thomas, Frankwell

Goucher George, Market st

Griffiths Thomas, Frankwell

Halbrook Thomas, Hill’s ln

Hanmer Charles James, Wyle cop

Harris James, New street

Harvey William, and last maker, Pride hill

Hayward Thomas, Gullet passage

Higgins Corbet, Chester st

Higley Samuel, Coleham

Higley Thomas, Ann’s hill

Horton Edward, Claremont street

Howell Henry, Mardol

Hughes Henry, Coleham

Hughes John, St. John’s hill

Hughes John, Bridge street

Hughes Richard, Claremont road

Hughes Richard, St. John’s hill

Hughes and Son, Shoplatch

Hughes Thomas, Mardol

Hughes Thomas, New street

James Joseph, Frankwell

Jones Benjamin, Castle Foregate

Jones Edward, Hazledine’s buildings

Jones Evan, Princess street

Jones Griffith, Hill’s lane

Jones Henry, Coleham

Jones Richard, Princess st

Jones Thomas, Castle fields

Jones Thomas, Claremont st

Lee George, Abbey Foregate

Lister Thomas, Castle street

Lloyd John, Hill’s lane

Manning John, Wyle cop

Mansell John, Castle Foregt

Medlicott William, Coton hill

Meric John, Grope lane

Mitton George, Castle gates

Morris Richard, School lane

Muckleston Rd. J., Pride hill

Nevett Francis, High street

Oliver Geo., Abbey Foregt

Owen James, Castle Foregt

Owen John, Claremont hill

Owen Thomas, Longden, Coleham

Parker John, Claremont st

Perkins John, St. Austin’s st

Poole Benjamin, Castle gates

Prinn Richard, Cross hill

Rees Evan, Gullet passage

Roberts Charles, Pride hill

Roberts Edward, Castle Foregate

Roberts John, Abbey Foregt

Sherry Henry, Abbey Foregt

Speake John, Coleham

Stephens Richard, (manufacturer), Mardol head

Stone Richard, St. Austin’s street

Taylor George, Frankwell

Taylor William, Castle street

Thomas John, Abbey Foregt

Thomas Robert, Frankwell

Thomas William, Castle st

Thomas Wm., St. Michael street

Thomas William, New street

Tyler James, Castle fields

Williams John, Frankwell

Woodruff Richard, St. Alkmund’s place

Braziers & Tin-plate Workers.

Brayne William, (Executors of), Mardol head

Collier William, Wyle cop

Crumpton Jonathan, Wyle cop

Gittins William, Mardol

Jones Thomas, Mardol

Owen William, Castle st

Linell and Jenks, Wyle cop

Woodward Charles, Pride hl

Brewers.

Davies John, Chester street

Mottram George and Co., Hill’s lane

Newton Henry, Circus yard

Trouncer and Son, Coleham

Bricklayers.

See also Builders.

Bond John, Claremont hill

Edwards Thomas and Son, St. John’s court

Evans Richard, St. Austin’s priory

Hughes Thomas, Frankwell

Phillips Thomas, Frankwell

Small John, Butchers’ row

Stant Joseph, St. Julian’s friars

Williams John, St. Austin’s street

Brick and Tile Makers.

Boodle and Jones, Belvedere lane

Birch Joseph, Castle gates

Evans John, jun., (dealer), Frankwell

Groves Thomas, White hall place

Jones James, Kingsland

Roden Samuel (John Wilson, agent), Raven road

Stanley Thomas, White hall place

Stant Joseph, St. Julian’s friars

Williams John, St. Austin’s street

Brush Manufacturers.

Ball William, Wyle cop

Hudson William, Mardol

Mottram Sarah, Mardol

Builders.

See also Joiners & Carpenters, & Stone & Marble Masons.

Birch Benjamin and Joseph, Castle gates

Carline John, Abbey Terrace

Dodson Richard, Abbey Foregate

Evans John, jun., Frankwell

Groves Thomas and John, The priory

Stant Joseph, St. Julian’s friars

Butchers.

Those with † affixed are country butchers who attend on market days.

Bates Richard, Shoplatch

Bates Richard, Chester street

Bromley Joseph, Castle Foregate

Bromley Margaret, Butchers’ row

Bromley Samuel, Butchers’ row

Bromley Samuel, Fish street

Bromley William, Butchers’ row

† Bromley William, Fish st

Brown Jacob, Pride hill

Brown Sarah, Pride hill

Bull John, Pride hill

† Burgess Thomas, Fish st

Cholton Samuel, Coleham

† Davies Charles, Fish street

† Davies George, Fish street

Davies John, Fish street

† Davies Richard, Fish street

† Davies Thomas, Fish street

† Davies William, Fish street

† Deakin James, Fish street

Dibbin James, Butchers’ row

† Dolphin Edward, Fish st

Dyas Edward, Wyle Cop

Evans Frederick, Butchers’ row

Gates William, Butchers’ row

Gittins Henry, Mardol

Gittins Thomas, Abbey Foregate

Gittins William, Frankwell

Gough John, Pride hill

Grafton Thomas, Pride hill

† Gregory Richard, Fish st

† Griffiths Thomas, Fish st

Hammonds Hy., Frankwell

Hammonds Thomas, Abbey Foregate

Hammonds Wm., Frankwell

Hand Sarah, Butchers’ row

Hanley James, Castle Foregt

Harris John, Coleham

Harris Joseph, (pork), Wyle cop

† Horton Robert, Fish street

Hughes Edward C., Fish st

† Jessop Francis, Fish street

Jones James, Fish street

† Jones John, Fish street

† Jones Joseph, Fish street

Jones Richard, Pride hill

Jones Richard, jun., Wyle cop

Jones Thomas, Fish street

† Lee Joseph, Fish street

Legh John, Pride hill

Lloyd Richard, Fish street

† Marsh John, Fish street

Martin James, Fish street

Martin Martha, Fish street

Martin Samuel, Fish street

Matthews Sarah, Fish street

Miller John, Butchers’ row

† Morgan Thomas, Fish st

† Moreton Ann, Fish street

† Moreton Thomas, Fish st

† Moreton Richard, Fish st

† Morris Thomas, Fish street

Nevitt John, Butchers’ row

† Nicholas Henry, Fish street

† Oare John, Fish street

† Owen Martha, Fish street

Palmer Edward and Son, Mardol

† Parks Edward, Fish street

Parker Thomas, Fish street

Pearce Ann, Butchers’ row

† Pigg John, Fish street

Powell John, Fish street

Price Edward, Abbey Foregt

† Price Thomas, Fish street

† Price William, Fish street

Pritchard Ann, Butchers’ row

Rigby Richard, Butchers’ row

Richards Richard, Castle gates

† Roberts Hannah, Fish st

† Ryder Edward, Fish street

† Ryder George, Fish street

† Taylor Richard, Fish street

Tennant Henry, Fish street

† Tudor John, Fish street

† Vaughan Edward, Fish st

† Vaughan John, Fish street

Walker George, Butcher’s row

Wilding James, Mardol

Wilding Richard, Pride hill

Wilkes Richard, Fish street

Wood Francis, Fish street

Woodward Charles, Butchers’ row

Cabinet Makers, Upholsterers, & Paper Hangers.

Bishop John, Wyle cop

Blanchard Joseph, Frankwell

Blower John, Pride hill

Bratton Richard, Wyle cop

Brereton James, Castle street

Brown Edward, Mardol

Burrey and White, College hill, and Pride hill

Davies Brothers, Wyle cop

Evans John, Frankwell

Gabriel James, Mardol

Griffiths Joseph, Abbey Foregate

Hewlett James, Abbey Foregate

Hewlett William and Son, Milk street

Lee George, Castle street

Mallard Edward, (paper hanger,) Mardol

M‘Crede John, St. Julian’s friars

Pearson Benjamin, Princess street

Probert Henry, Shoplatch

Tittensor John and Richard, St. Mary’s place

Wade George, Wyle cop

Watkis Richard, Hill’s lane

Carpenters.

See Joiners and Builders.

Carvers & Guilders.

Brown Edwin, Wyle cop

Davies Evan, Wyle cop

Pugh Edward, Milk street

Cheese Factors.

Blower Timothy, Wyle cop

Caswell James, Mardol

Edgerley Henry, Pride hill

Eccleston John, Frankwell

Hilditch John, Frankwell

Humphreys Mary, Mardol

Jones David and Son, New market house, Howard st

Jones Maurice, Mardol

Jones Robert D., Mardol

Peplow & Co., Claremont st

Rogers William, Castle st

Williams John, Mardol

Williams William, Mardol

Chemists & Druggists.

Allen and Benson, Wyle Cop

Arblaster Charles James, Castle street

Blunt Thomas and Henry, Wyle Cop

Broxton Richard, Mardol

Bythell Thomas, Pride hill

Claxton William Dixon, 13, High street

Cross Wm. Gowen, Mardol

Gittins John, Wyle Cop

Humphreys Mary, Mardol

Marston Thomas, Wyle Cop

Phillips Thomas, Mardol

Pidgeon Henry, High street

Pyefinch John, Shoplatch

Whitney George and Son, High street

Clog & Patten Makers.

Butler Wm., Castle Foregate

Griffiths Thomas, Frankwell

Harvey William, Pride hill

Hinton Jane, Mardol

Hudson William, Mardol

Clothes Dealers.

Breeze Richard, High street

Cohen Louis, Mardol

Deaves James, Princess street

Evans Arthur, Princess street

Evans John, Gullett passage

Hayward Thomas, Gullett passage

Hughes Robert, Princess st.

Jones Thomas, Mardol head

Morgan & Son, Princess st.

Purslow Henry, Corn market

Revell Champ, Princess st.

Roberts David & Co., Pride hill

Williams Mary, Princess st.

Woodall John, Mardol head

Coach Builders.

Farr Henry, High street

Hunt Mary, Beeches lane

Jones John, Circus yard

Mountford Thos., Dog pole

Worth Frederick Henry, Bridge street

Yerbury and Vickers, College hill

Coach & Car Proprietors.

Merifield John, Beeches lane

Morgan Thomas, Mardol

Mountford Thos., Dog pole

Rees David, Coffee house passage

Salmon Edward, Princess street

Taylor & Son (Stage Coach), Lion yard

Williams Mary, Milk street

Coal Agents.

Davies John (Black park coal), Castle Foregate

Haycock Robert (Brymbo company,) Castle Foregate

Legh Edward (Shrewsbury and Shropshire coal company), Canal wharf

Coal Merchants.

Hazledine & Co., Wyle Cop

Young George, Canal wharf

Coffee & Dining Rooms.

Evans Margaret, Mardol

Griffiths Elizabeth, Castle gates

Hewlett Martha and Eliza, High street

Jones Thomas (Commercial), Shoplatch

Owen Mary, High street

Rogers Joseph (Temperance), Mardol

White John, Corn market

Confectioners.

Blakemore Robert B., Mardol

Brown William, Castle street

Clinton Henry, Abbey Foregate

Crump Vincent, Wyle Cop

Davies Daniel, Castle gates

Davies & Son, Corn market

Deakin Thomas, Market st.

Elkes Edward, Pride hill

Evans Benjamin, High street

Fallowes Richard, Frankwell

Harris Thomas, Castle street

Haynes Francis M., Wyle Cop

Jones Charles Griffiths, Mardol

Jones Richard, Milk street

Owen Thomas, Castle street

Palmer Edward, Frankwell

Phillips Edwin, Shoplatch

Powell Timothy, Mardol

Ward Robert, Wyle Cop

Watkins John, Barker street

Cooking Apparatus Manufacturers.

Easthope William, High st.

Linell and Jenks, Wyle Cop

Coopers.

Davies John, Mardol

Deakin John, Chester street

Evans Edward, Abbey Foreg

Grafton Samuel, Wyle Cop

Jones Edward, Mardol

Jones James, Wyle Cop

Jones Thomas, Mardol

Mansell George, Mardol

Mitton John, Castle gates

Tisdale William, Frankwell

Tudor Dinah, Shoplatch

Copper Plate Printers.

Haswell James, Hill’s lane

Littlehales George, Dogpole

Cork Cutter.

Hitchins Joseph, High street

Corn Factors.

Bickerston Richard, Severn place

Blakeway Richard & William, Castle Foregate

Blower Timothy, Wyle Cop

Cooke Joseph, Abbey Foregt

Griffin William, Mardol quay

Hughes John, The Glen, Frankwell

Jobson Joseph, St. John’s hill

Johnson Henry, Wyle Cop

Lee Edward, Mardol

Peplow Mary Ann and Co., Claremont street

Taylor Richd., Abbey Foregt

Williams Thomas, Frankwell

Corn Millers.

Blakeway Richard & William, Castle Foregate

Cooke Joseph, Abbey Foregat

Hughes John, Abbey Foregt

Lambert Henry, Kingsland

Cow Keepers.

Davies Richard, Frankwell

Edwards Ann, Coleham

Evans Edward, Coleham

Evans William, Abbey Foregt

Grindley Martha, Abbey Foregate

James David, Coleham

Jones Sarah, Abbey Foregate

Lloyd Thomas, Meol road

Pierce Richd., Holywell farm

Reynolds Thos., Old Heath

Curriers & Leather Cutters.

Beacall Henry and Sarah, Castle street

Davies William, Bridge st.

Davies William, Pride hill

Gough William, Theatre buildings

Mullinex William, Milk street

Pool Robert, Mardol

Dyers & Scourers.

Bryan William, Coton hill

Cooke John, St. Alkmund’s place

Crwys William, Swan hill

Halford Sarah, Barker street

Jones Margaret, Claremont st.

Mullins John, Frankwell

Owen Ebenezer, Swan hill

Engineers.

Climie Daniel, Coleham

Jeffreys Edward Alexander, Coton hill

Tisdale Thos., Mardol head

Wylie David, Coton hill

Engraver & Copper Plate Printer.

Littlehales George, Dogpole

Farmers.

Clayton John, Old Heath

Hemming’s Henry (grazier), Dorsett’s barn

Hotchkiss William, Meol road

James Humphrey, Meol road

Jones Lewis, Castle Foregt

Martin Mary, Robertsford

Parker James, Wair hill

Smith Edward, Fox bank

Swain John, Coton grange

Taylor Isaac, Monk’s moor

Trail Dewar, Coton hill farm

Fellmongers.

See Skinners.

Fancy Repositories.

Longmore Rebecca, High st.

Nightingale John Thomas, High street

Fire & Life Office Agents.

Alliance, Joseph Stant, St. Julian’s Friars

Anchor, Peter Wilde, Pride hill

Argus, George Whitney and Son, High street

Atlas, John Walton, St. John’s hill

Clerical, Medical, and General, John Poole and Son, Castle street

Corporation of London, Thos. Tisdale, Quarry ter.

Crown, Richard Palin, Dogpole

Eagle, Thos. Tisdale, Quarry terrace

Globe, Richard Price, Castle street

Guardian, Henry Pidgeon, High street

Indisputable, James Oakes Sandford, High street

Law, John L. Rowland, Monk’s Well terrace

Legal and General, How and Son, Swan hill

Medical Invalid, Thos. Henry Wace, College hill

North of England, H. C. Simpson, College hill

Norwich Union, Thos. Birch, Belmont

Pelican, Charles B. Teece, Swan hill

Phœnix, John William Bythell, Guildhall

Railway, James Oakes Sandford, 25, High street

Rock, George S. Corser, Market street

Royal Exchange, William Henry Cooper, St. John’s hill

Salop Fire, head office, Corn market, Thos. B. Tipton, secretary

Scotland Life Association, Thomas Harris, Pride hill

Shropshire and North Wales, head office, High street, Edward Elsemere, managing director

Sun, Richard Clarke, Swan hill

Temperance Providence Institution, Richd. Marston, Market street

Yorkshire, Henry Bevan, Abbey Foregate

Fishmongers, Game Dealers, & Fruiterers.

Hammond Frederick, Castle Foregate

Minshall William, Pride hill

Roberts William, Shoplatch

Smart Mary, High street

Fishing Tackle Manufacturers.

Franklin William, Mardol

Shaw Henry, Shoplatch

Shaw John, Wyle Cop

Flannel Merchants.

Nicholls Charles Barron, Chester street

Wilkinson Robt., Claremont hill

Flax Spinners and Linen Thread Manufacturers.

Marshall & Company—The Factory

Fruiterers & Green Grocers.

Baxter Mary, Gullett passage

Brown William, Castle street

Cartwright James, Frankwell

Farlow Samuel, Theatre buildings

Gill John, Beckbury cottage

Hatton Chas., Abbey Foregt

Instone Henry and Son, Sutton lane

Linley James, Castle Foregt

Munshall William, Pride hill

Rees Evan, Gullett passage

Roberts William, Shoplatch

Smart Mary, High street

Smout Edward, (and seedsman) Gullett passage

Tisdale Wm., Castle Foregat

Whitfield Christopher, Castle Foregate

Furniture Brokers.

See also Cabinet Makers.

Blower John, Pride hill

Bratton Richard, Wyle Cop

Hasswell James, Hill’s lane

Hotchkiss Robert, Wyle Cop

Purslow Henry, Corn market

Roberts Joseph, Bridge st.

Glass, China, & Earthenware Dealers.

Downing Enoch and Elijah, Pride hill

Hackney James, Pride hill

Harley Margaret, St. Mary’s street

Littlehales Wm., St. Mary’s street

Rose and Co., Wyle Cop, William George, agent

Shaw Joseph, Mardol

Simons John, Pride hill

Smith Thomas, Wyle Cop

Wild Thomas, Market street

Wildig Henry and Mary, Pride hill

Williams William, Wyle Cop

Grocers, & Tea Dealers.

Asterley Samuel, Frankwell

Barcley William James (and British wine dealer, &c.) High street

Bagnell John, Pride hill

Bromley John, Wyle Cop

Budgett William, Pride hill

Day William, Pride hill

Done Robert & Co. (wholesale tea and coffee merchants), Mardol head and Castle Foregate

Drury John (executors of), Pride hill

Eccleston John, Frankwell

Elesmere and Co., Wyle Cop

Evans John, Abbey Foregate

Gittins Ann, Theatre buildings

Healing Robert M., Frankwell

Heighway & Son, Castle st.

Hilditch Thomas, Pride hill

Hughes William, Pride hill

Humphreys Mary, Mardol

Icke James, Market street

Jones James, Castle gates

Jones Maurice, Mardol

Jones Robert D., Mardol

Lewis Richard, Shoplatch

Lewis & Ward, 17, High st.

Meredith, Lewis and Co., Wyle Cop and Howard st.

Muckleston John, Wyle Cop

Parsons Mary, Market street

Peach John, 14, High street

Poole John and Son, Castle street

Rees William, Wyle Cop

Rogers Joseph, Mardol

Rushton Daniel, Dogpole

Scoltock Mary (and Italian warehouse), Princess st.

Thomas John, Mardol and Pride hill

White Sarah Ann (tea), Wyle Cop

Wilding Elizabeth, Corn market

Wilkes Clement, Princess st.

Williams John, Mardol

Williams William, Mardol

Gunsmiths.

Ebrall Samuel (maker), Wyle Cop

Marston Samuel, Claremont hill

Mullinix William, Princess street

Hair Dressers.

Those with † affixed are perfumers.

Beddow Richard, Barker st.

Bickley Thos., Castle Foregt

Bottwood George, Castle st.

† Bowdler Thomas, High st.

Butler James, Coleham

Davenhall John, Shoplatch

† Evans John, Market street

Franklin William, Mardol

Hughes John, Frankwell

Hulme Edward, Castle gates

† Hulme Samuel, High street

Lloyd Lydia, Castle Foregate

Morris Richard, Princess st.

† Nightingale John Thomas, 41, High street

Prinn John, Abbey Foregate

Purslow Edward, St. Julian’s Friars

Ryder Elizabeth, Wyle Cop

Stanton James, Shoplatch

Walker Geo., St. Mary’s st.

Walker William, Mardol

Hardware & General Dealers.

France John, Mardol

Tisdale Wm., Castle Foregt

Hatters.

Cooke Wm. Henry, Pride hill

Craston Ed. & Co., Pride hill

Donellan James, Barker st.

Gray Richard, Pride hill

Jones Edward, Pride hill

Saunders Joseph Green, Market street

Hop and Seed Merchants.

Asterley Samuel, Frankwell

Barcley and Co., High street

Heighway and Son, Castle st.

Hughes John, Frankwell

Humphreys Mary, Mardol

Jones Maurice, Mardol

Lewis and Ward, High street

Meredith and Co., Wyle Cop

Mottram John, Mardol

Oakley Robert, Castle Foregt

Peplow and Co., Claremont street

Poole & Son, Castle street

Richards David, Roushill

Scoltock Mary, Princess st.

Taylor Richard, jun., Princess street

Woodward John, Bridge st.

Hosiers & Smallware Dealers.

Butler James, Coleham

Butler Jane, Castle Foregate

Butler Thomas, Castle street

Cooke Wm. Henry, Pride hill

Edwards Edward, Mardol

Goucher George, Market st.

Harris Thomas, Pride hill

Jones Catherine, Shoplatch

Kerry Christiana, High street

Richards Henry, Wyle Cop

Tombs Susannah, Corn mar.

Watkins Matthew, Claremont street

Wilkes Clement, Princess st.

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Anchor, Richard Breeze, Hills lane

Angel, William Mansell, Abbey Foregate

Barge, Henry Westwood, Wyle Cop

Barley Mow, Joseph Jones, Abbey Foregate

Bear, Adam Burton, Fish st.

Bell, Hugh Parry, Frankwell

Bell, Jane Evans, Mardol

Bell, Samuel Dale, Princess street

Bird-in-Hand, Mary Allen, Coton hill

Boar’s Head, John Warren, Meol road

Bricklayer’s Arms, Joseph Watson, Abbey Foregate

Bridge House, Priscilla Flexton, Frankwell

Britannia, Emma Edwards, Mardol

Buck’s Head, James Birch, Frankwell

Bugle Horn, William Owen, Nackin street

Bull, Edward Edwards, Abbey Foregate

Bull’s Head, David Jones, Castle gates

Bull & Pump, Oliver Evans, Meol road

Butcher’s Arms, William Evan’s, Butcher’s row

Castle and Falcon, Richard Edwards, Mardol

Cock, John Randles, Butcher’s row

Comet, Thomas, Morgan, Old Heath

Compasses, Owen Williams, Frankwell

Coopers’ Arms, Jn. Williams, Frankwell

Cross Guns, James Thompson, New street, Frankwell

Cross Keys, John Vaughan, High street

Crow, John Lott, Abbey Foregate

Crow, William Edwards, Frankwell

Crown, John Grindley, St. Mary’s street

Crown and Anchor, John Symcock, Castle Foregate

Dog and Partridge, Richard Bratton, St. Mary’s place

Dolphin, Thomas Howell, Dolphin’s row

Dun Cow, Ann Morris, Abbey Foregate

Eagle, Henry Goodby, St. Michael’s street

Eagle and Tun, Richard Timbs, Castle Foregate

Elephant and Castle, Robert Buttriss, Mardol

Fighting Cocks, Thomas Pugh, Castle Foregate

Fox Inn, Alice Strange, Princess street

George Hotel, George Fox, Market street

Glove Thomas Price, St. John’s buildings

Golden Cross, Sarah Smith, Golden Cross passage

Golden Hart, William Henry Langford, Claremont st.

Golden Lion, Jas. Haycock, Frankwell

Grapes, Samuel Edwards, Castle Foregate

Gullett Inn, John Jones, Hills lane

Hen and Chickens, Ann Edwards, Dogpole

Hill’s Arms, John Lloyd, Hill’s lane

King’s Arms, Ed. Vaughan, Claremont street

King’s Head, Margt. Evans, Mardol

Leopard, Louisa Jones, Pride hill

Lion and Pheasant Inn, Richard Smith, Wyle Cop

London Apprentice, Mary Thacker, Coton hill

London Coffee House, Sarah Owen, Dogpole

Market Tavern, Sarah Pugh, Pride hill

Mason’s Arms, Geo. Wade, Chester street

Mermaid, Thomas North, Shoplatch

Moulders’ Arms, John Fletcher, Castle gates lane

Nag’s Head, John Taylor, Castle Gates

Nag’s Head, Margt. Brightey, Wyle Cop

Nelson Arms, Thomas Jones, St. Austin street

New Inn, Margaret Gittins, Frankwell

Oddfellows’ Arms, Henry Keeling, Barker street

Old Anchor, Thomas Batho, Frankwell

Old Bell, Mary Stanway, Abbey foregate

Old Bush, John Dixon, Abbey foregate

Old Post Office, Geo. Rogers, Milk street

Old Thrasher, Jas. Richard Pickering, Abbey foregt

Old Trumpet, John Lloyd Mardol

Old Wheat Sheaf, John Simmonds, High street

Old Wherry, Geo. Minshull Wyle cop

Park Inn, William Parker Abbey foregate

Peacock, Anne Hand, Islington

Plough, Chas. Lloyd, Market square

Plough, Thomas Roberts, Castle foregate

Plough and Harrow, John Pugh, Coleham

Queen’s Head, Edw. Teckoe, Mardol

Raven and Bell Hotel (and posting house), Samuel Hayward, Wyle cop

Raven Hotel (and posting house), Sarah Dance, Castle street

Red Lion, Joseph Jones, Castle foregate

Red Lion, John Walmsley Hadnal road

Refreshment Rooms, Railway Station, John Whitmore, Castle foregate

Robin Hood, John Batho, St. Michael’s street

Royal Oak, Wm. Medlicott, Coton hill

Seven Stars, William Rogers, Frankwell

Seven Stars, Edward Parker, Coleham

Shrewsbury Arms, William Bowdler, Church street

Ship, Elizabeth Thomas, Bridge street

Spread Eagle, John Daniel, Wyle cop

Sun, William Jones, Milk st

Sun, William Weaver, Roushill

Swan, Edward Maddox, Coleham

Swan, Margaret Davies, Frankwell

Talbot Tap, Susannah Harvey, Swan hill

Theatre Tavern, Ann Cartwright, Theatre buildings

Three Fishes, Charles News, Fish street

Three Tuns, Joseph Davis, Coleham

Unicorn, John Hulett, Wyle cop

Wagon and Horses, Ann Cadwallader, Pride hill

Waterloo House, Richard Williams, Abbey foregate

Wheat Sheaf, William Ward, Wyle cop

White Hart, John Davies, Mardol

White Horse, John Jervise, Frankwell

White Lion, Edward Munford, St. John’s hill

Woodman, David Jones, Coton hill

Wool Pack, Martha Marshall, Coleham

Yorkshire House, Henry Ryder, St. Mary’s place

Beerhouses.

Alcock John, Frankwell

Artlett James, Spring gardns

Ashley Geo., Barrack passage

Badger Joseph, Kingsland

Badger Samuel, Coleham

Barton Thomas, Bellevue

Bond John, Claremont hill

Brown Ann, Coleham

Deakin Edward, Frankwell

Edisbury Thomas, Castle foregate

Edwards Edward, Castle foregate

Edwards William, Chester st

Embrey John, Frankwell

Fletcher William, Butchers’ row

France Henry, Cattle foregt

Griffiths Mary, Canal buildings

Hammond Richard, Castle gates

Holmes William, Frankwell

Howell Thomas, St. Michl’s street

Hughes Thomas, Mardol

Jones Richard, Meadow place

Keeling Joshua, Castle gates

Leake Thomas, Castle street

Lloyd Charles, St. Michael’s street

Lewis David, Gullett passage

Lewis Francis B., Abbey foregate

Mansell George, Castle foregt

Mansell John, Castle foregt

Matthews Charles, Butchers’ row

Matthews John, Chester st

Matthews Joseph, Spring gardens

Morris Charles, Butchers’ row

Phillips Thomas, Frankwell

Phillips William, Frankwell

Price William, Abbey foregt

Pugh John, Castle foregate

Pugh Joseph, Wyle cop

Randles Robert, Swan hill

Rowlands James, The Mount

Ryder George H., Old heath

Swallow Charles, Castle fields

Thomas David, Frankwell

Thomas Richard, Spring gardens

Thomas Samuel, Raven road

Vaughan Richard, Castle foregate

Williams John, St. Austin’s street

Williams Richard, Hill’s lane

Williams Richard, Frankwell

Wilson Samuel, Roushill

Woodward Robert, Frankwell

Ink Manufacturers.

Lacy John William (printing and writing), Castle fields

Phillips Thomas, Mardol

Iron and Brass Founders.

Lacy John (brass), Fire office court, High street

Stuttle William, Longden, Coleham

Young and Spence, Canal wharf

Iron Merchants.

Young and Spence, Canal wharf

Ironmongers.

Alltree Jemima and Henry, Corn market

Beacall Richard, Mardol

Bullock Samuel, Frankwell

Davies James and Son, Wyle cop

Gittins William, Mardol

Jones Eliza, Mardol head

Juckes Samuel, Mardol

Linell and Jenks, Wyle cop

Swain William, Mardol

Wilkinson Thomas, High st

Young and Spence, Canal wharf

Joiners and Builders.

Birch Benjamin and Joseph, Castle gates

Evans John, Kingsland

Evans John, jun., Frankwell

Goucher, William, Mardol

Groves Thomas and John, St. Austin friars

Jackson John, Abbey foregt

Jarvis Charles, Frankwell

Jones John, Swan hill

Jones Thomas, Pride hill

Jones William, Castle foregt

Lewis Richard, Castle foregt

Lloyd Thomas, New street, Frankwell

Morris John, St. Austin st

Owen Edward, Abbey foregt

Price David, Castle gates lane

Rushton & Bowdler, Pride hill

Simons John, Pride hill

Smith John, Swan hill

Stant Joseph, St. Julian’s friars

Tanswell John, Shoplatch

Thomas Henry, St. Austin street

Thomas John, Barker street

Vaughan John, Claremont st

Wycherley George, St. Alkmund’s place

Lead Merchants.

Burr Brothers, and manufacturers of red, sheet, and pig lead, Wyle cop

Libraries [Circulating].

Davies John, High street

Humphreys, Elizabeth, St. Alkmund’s place

Leake, J. H. Market square

Subscription, St. John’s hill; Elinor Urwick, librarian

Linen Manufacturer.

Minn Robert, Castle fields

Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

Barron Anthony, Pride hill

Bazeley John, High street and Pride hill

Carden Robert, Mardol

Davies John and Charles, 26, High street

Eddowes George, Mardol

Farnell and Company, Pride hill

Hall Thomas, High street

Harris William, Pride hill

Jones Charles, Mardol

Jones Thomas, Mardol head

Lloyd & Blythe, Market sqre

Maddox Richard, Castle st

Meara John Augustin (woollen), High street

Muckleston William, Pride hill

Nightingale Richard, Wyle cop

Poole Thomas and Samuel, Wyle cop

Powell William, Mardol

Thomas Charles, Mardol

Livery Stables.

Wicks Mary Ann, Cross hill

Maltsters.

Asterley Samuel, Frankwell

Brayne John Gregory, Abbey foregate

Buttriss Richard, Frankwell

Clarke William, Frankwell

Cooke Joseph, Abbey foregt

Davies John, Chester street

Dixon John, Abbey foregt

Ford George, Barker street

Hughes John, Frankwell

Hughes William, St. Julian’s friars

Lloyd Charles, Market square

Minton Thos., Beeches lane

Oakley Robert, Castle foregt

Pugh John, Coleham

Randles John, Butchers’ row

Rees John, Coleham

Rees William, Wyle cop

Ryder Edward, Old heath

Selley Matthew, Frankwell

Stanway Mary, Abbey foregt

Swain John, Mardol

Swain Richard, Mardol

Swain William, Mardol

Taylor Richard, Abbey foregt

Taylor Richard, Old heath

Trouncer and Son, Coleham

Trouncer William, Frankwell

Turner Anne Maria, Frankwell

Woodword Robert, Frankwell

Malt & Coffee Mill Makers.

Parkes Z., Frankwell

Powell Benjamin, Frankwell

Milliners & Dress Makers.

Alltree Ann and Amelia, Windsor place

Barnaby Isabel, Market sqre

Barnett Emma, Frankwell

Bazeley John (silk mercer), High street

Bell The Misses, Wyle cop

Blount Mary, Princess street

Boodle Mary, Reabrook place, Coleham

Burnett Ann and Harriet, Swan hill court

Cotton Ann and Sarah, Princess street

Cross Sarah & Ann, Mardol head

Davies Harriet, Marine terrce

Davies Helen, Dogpole

Davies Mary, Barker street

Davies and Oldroyd, Pride hill

Davies Winifred, Barker st

Deaves Hannah, Shoplatch

Ehn Jane, 38, High street

Gittins Frances, Wyle cop

Gray Harriet and Caroline, Cross hill

Hickman Mary, Wyle cop

Horton Rebecca, High street

Jackson Rebecca, Abbey foregate

Jenks Sarah, Abbey foregate

Jervis Elizabeth, Bridge st

Jones Frances, Frankwell

Jones Margaret, Dogpole

Lewis Elizabeth, Frankwell

Morgan Martha Ann, Barker street

Price Emily, Castle street

Pritchard Ann, Princess st

Rowlands Jane, St. Alkmund’s place

Rowland Misses, St. Mary’s street

Tagg Ann, Claremont hill

Woosnam Elizabeth, Pride hl

Millwrights.

Davies James, Chester street

Thomas James, Cross street

Musical Repository.

Boucher George, Castle st

Nail Makers.

Bayliss James, Frankwell

Beacall Richard, Mardol

Burrows John, Roushill bank

Davies James and Son, Wyle cop

Jones Eliza, Mardol head

Juckes Samuel, Mardol

Young & Spence, Canal wharf

News Agents.

See also Booksellers and Stationers.

Davies David, Mardol

Wall Benjamin, Mardol

Newspaper Publishers and Proprietors.

Eddowes’ Journal (Wednesday), Martha Eddowes, Corn market

Shrewsbury Chronicle (Friday), John Watton, St. John’s hill

Shropshire Conservative (Saturday), Thomas John Ousley, head of Pride hill

Nurserymen & Seedsmen.

Instone Henry and Son, Wyle cop

Oldroyd Henry John, High st

Optician.

Davies Edward, High street

Painters & Glaziers.

Birch Thomas, Belmont

Bower John, St. Mary’s place

Breeze Henry, Castle street

Brown William, Abbey foregt

Cawthorn Wm., Frankwell

Cole Thomas, Wyle cop

Cooke Henry, Cross hill

Evans and Marston, High st

Farmer Edward, Old heath

Ford, John, Barker street

Hughes Thomas, Dogpole

Hulme Henry, Castle foregt

Leake Charles W. and Geo. E., Wyle cop

Lloyd George, Roushill

Lloyd William, Coleham

Mansell Emma, Mardol

Molineux Thos., Bridge court

Munday Joseph, Shoplatch

Pierce John, Hill’s lane

Pugh Robert, Castle foregate

Pugh William, Abbey foregt

Purslow William, Barker st

Rogers Wm., St. Alkmund’s place

Smith Richard, St. John’s hill

Steadman George, Castle gts

Tanswell James, St. John’s hill

Tanswell Thos., Castle street

Taylor Richard, Hill’s lane

Paper Dealers.

Edgerley Henry, Pride hill

Harries George, Mardol

Pawnbrokers.

Kent John, Shoplatch

Robinson Ann, Roushill bank

Patten & Clog Makers.

Harvey Thomas, Barker st

Hinton Richard, Mardol

Perfumers.

Bowdler Thomas, High st

Evans John, Market street

Hulme Samuel, High street

Nightingale John Thomas, High street

Physicians.

Burd Edward, Belmont

Drury Thomas James, Quarry place

Jeffreys Thos., Castle house

Johnson Henry, Dogpole

Wood William, Castle street

Plasterers.

Hughes Thomas, Frankwell

James Richard, Windsor pl

Parry Robert, Cross hill

Small John, Butchers’ row

Plumbers.

Cawthron Wm., Frankwell

Edwards Ann, Claremont st

Edwards John, Mardol

Edwards Richard, Hill’s ln

Farmer Edwards, Old heath

Hartshorn Henry, St. John’s hill

Jones David, Castle Foregt

Lloyd Henry, Chester street

Morris Stephen, Castle st

Printers [Letter Press].

See also Booksellers and Newspaper Publishers

France John, Mardol

Jones Fred. A., Wyle cop

Lewis David, Gullett passage

Professors & Teachers.

Those with * affixed teach music, thus † languages, and thus ‡ dancing.

* Adams William Hay, College hill

† Bentley Thomas Amand, Castle street

† Bourley William V., Castle street

* Brown Philip, Castle st

† Deshormes Francis, U.G., Crescent fields

* Hay George E., Hill’s lane

* Hiles John, Swan hill

‡ Le Mercier Nicholas Robt., St. Julian’s friars

* Lewis William, High street

‡ Mercerot Emma, Abbey Foregate

† Moore Marius Salvator, Cross hill

Pump Makers.

Harper George, Abbey Foregt

Price George, Frankwell

Williams Thomas & Robert, Coleham

Rag and Bone Dealers.

France John, Hill’s lane

Ketler John, St. Austin’s st

Smith Andrew, Canal wharf

Taylor George, and sieve maker, Chester street

Rope Makers.

Cooper William, Castle st

Davies Robert, Frankwell

Mottram Sarah, Mardol

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Dales Richard, Wyle cop

Edson John, & trunk & portmanteau maker, Wyle cop

Glover Robert, Castle street

Harrison and Kempster, Shoplatch

Jones William, & trunk and portmanteau maker, 5, High street

Morgan Thomas, Mardol

Tanner John, & trunk and portmanteau maker, High street

Salt Merchants.

Henshall and Co., Castle Foregate

Rogers William, Frankwell

Tilston and Co., Canal wharf

Shopkeepers.

Dealers in Provisions, Sundries, and Groceries.

Allen Sarah, Coton hill

Arthur Richard, Princess st

Badger Samuel, Coleham

Bates Ann, Castle Foregate

Blower Thomas Joseph, Coleham

Bromley Elizth., Frankwell

Brown John, Castle Foregt

Cooper George, Abbey Foregate

Corbet Walton, Frankwell

Davies Edward, Bellevue

Davies Edward, Coleham

Davies John, Wyle cop

Dyas Edward, Castle street

Dyas Jane, Frankwell

Evans Ann, Abbey Foregate

Evans Joseph, Frankwell

Evans Thomas, Longden, Coleham

Fallowes Richard, Frankwell

Fenna John, Castle gates

Ferrett Elizabeth, Frankwell

Fletcher Francis, Claremont street

Ford Joseph, Barker street

Giles Jane, St. Alkmund’s pl

Griffiths Hugh, St. Austin st

Griffiths Thomas, Castle st

Groves Joseph, Castle gates

Harris John Kent, Hill’s lane

Hassall John, St. Michael’s street

Healing William, Frankwell

Hewlett George, St. Michael’s street

Hitchcock Richard, Mardol

Holmes Joshua, Chester st

Hughes Henry, Coleham

Humphries William, Claremont street

Humphreson Thomas, St Michael’s street

James John, Abbey Foregate

Jones Evan, St. Michael’s st

Jones Evan, Coleham

Jones John, Castle Foregate

Jones Margaret, Castle gates

Jones Richard, Chester street

Jones William, Mardol

Joseph Thomas, Longden, Coleham

Kirkham John, Castle Foregt

Leach Thomas, Castle Foregt

Molineux Jane, Wyle cop

Morgan Evan, St. Michael’s street

Morgan Morgan, Frankwell

Morris Ann, Bridge street

Oliver John, Longden, Coleham

Parry David, Abbey Foregt

Parry David, Frankwell

Perrott John, Claremont st

Phayre John, Mardol

Price George, Frankwell

Price Sarah, Coton hill

Price Thomas, Abbey Foregate

Rees John, Coleham

Richards Thomas, Abbey Foregate

Roberts Edward, Chester st

Roberts Henry, Abbey Foregt

Rogers William, Castle st

Salter & Rogers, St. Mary’s st

Shorland John, Longden, Coleham

Speake John, Coleham

Swain Richard, Mardol

Tanswell John, (flour), Shoplatch

Taylor Robert, Spring Gardens

Taylor Richard, Old heath

Thomas Ann, Longden, Coleham

Thomas Edward, The mount

Tisdale Elizabeth, Frankwell

Vaughan Hannah, Shoplatch

Watkins John H., Coton hill

Wilkes James, Castle fields

Williams Frederick Edward, Barker street

Worrall Mary, Frankwell

Skinners & Fellmongers.

Beddoes John, Frankwell

Hales Richard, Chester st

Soda Water Manufacturers.

Blunt Thomas and Henry, Wyle cop

Edwards Richard, Mardol

Louch Charles, Claremont st

Slate and Tile Merchants.

Chune George and Joseph, Chester street

Stant Joseph, St. Julian’s friars

Tilstone and Co., Canal wharf

Silversmiths, Jewellers, and Cutlers.

Baker William, Corn market

Bowdler & Barnett, Market st

Moore William, (working), Mardol

Sharp Alexander (working), Milk street

Stained Glass Manufacturer.

Evans David, Wyle cop

Stay Makers.

Driver Ann, St. Alkmund’s place

Ellis Mary, Coleham

Fenn James, Castle street

Fenton Elizabeth, Benbow place

Gordon Elizabeth, Coleham

Smith Thomas, Castle street

Stone and Marble Masons.

Birch John, Coleham

Carline John, Abbey Foregt

Cross James, Raven road

Dodson Rd., Abbey Foregate

Eccleston Thos., Frankwell

Groves Thomas and John, St. Austin’s priory

Jones Arthur, Abbey Foregt

Stant Joseph, St. Julian’s friars

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Barnaby Isabel, Market sq

Blount Mary, Princess st

Davies Ellen, Frankwell

Ehn and Co., 38, High st

Elias Hannah, Barker st

Forrester Elizabeth, Claremont street

Gwynn Mary Ann, Pride hill

Hickman Mary, Wyle cop

Hughes Maria, Peacock pas

Jones Misses, Pride hill

Muckleston Maria, Bellevue

Rushton Julia, Dogpole

Steadman Mary, Castle gates

Weatherby Harriet, Frankwell

Surgeons.

Arrowsmith and Stephens, College hill

Bratton James, Claremont st

Burd and Fenton, Belmont

Clarke Charles Thomas Hughes, Castle street

Clement William Jones, Council house

Crawford David, St. John’s hill

Dickin John, St. John’s hill

Fenton Henry, High street

Foulkes Edwin, Castle st

Gill George Philip, Milk st

Glover Samuel, Coton hill

Griffiths William, Claremont hill

Heathcote John Nigel, Council house court

Humphreys John Robert, Infirmary

Keate Henry, Claremont hill

O’Hara Henry Lewis, Dogpole

Onions William, Broom villa

Pidduck Thomas, Pride hill

Walmsley John, Abbey ter

Whitwell Francis, St. Mary’s street

Williams Edward, Mardol

Wood Samuel, The abbey

Surgeon Dentists.

Jones Henry Nicholls, Mardol head

Jones Horatio, St. John’s hill

Surveyors.

Burd & Son, Hatton house, Abbey Foregate

Chune George and Joseph (timber), Chester street

Groves Thomas and John, St. Austin’s priory

Haycock Edward, (county), St. Austin’s priory

Preece William Goodwin, Corn market

Tisdale Thos., Mardol head

Tailors.

See also Tailors and Woollen Drapers.

Allart George, Frankwell

Armstrong John, Coleham

Barton Thomas, Bellevue

Blair Wm. H., Welsh bridge

Blount Walter, Princess st

Breeze Edward, Frankwell

Chester George, Shoplatch

Davies Rd., St. John’s hill

Evans James, Market street

Evans John, Gullett passage

Geary Henry, Swan hill

Green Robert, St. John’s hill

Haynes John, Wyle cop

Hewlett George, St. Michael’s street

Hodges Thomas Cross hill

James Benjamin, Hill’s lane

Jones Andrew, Meol road

Jones David, St. Mary’s st

Jones Joseph, Frankwell

Jones Thomas, Frankwell

Keeling Henry, Barker st

Lloyd John, Abbey Foregate

Lloyd Thomas, New street

Manning John, St. Mary’s pl

Manning Josiah, Castle street

Morgan William and Son, Princess street

Morris Richard, The mount

Peplow William, Wyle cop

Phillips Edward, St. Alkmund’s place

Prune John, Frankwell

Pugh John, Frankwell

Roberts Edward, Abbey Foregate

Rowland William, Roushill

Thatcher Abraham, Frankwell

Watkins Mathew, Claremont street

Williams John, Marine ter

Williams John, Castle Foregt

Wilson John, Abbey Foregt

Tailors and Woollen Drapers.

Alcock Thomas and Sons, Claremont street

Armstrong William, High st

Breeze Richard, High street

Clayton George, Claremont hill

Heath John, Pride hill

Howell Henry, 42, High st

Humphreys John, Shoplatch

Jones David, St. Mary’s st

Jones Thomas, Mardol head

Owen John Ingram, Mardol head

Phillips James, High street

Roberts Edward, Butcher’s row

Saxelby Charles, and agent to Syrian paletot, Castle st

Wilkes Richard, Wyle cop

Williams John, Dogpole

Woodall John, Mardol head

Tallow Chandlers.

Asterley Samuel, Frankwell

Bromley John, Wyle cop

Jones Maurice, Mardol

Meredith Lewis & Co., Wyle cop

Tanners.

Brayne John Gregory, The priory

Sheppard Joseph, St. Austin street

Tea Dealers.

Done Robert & Co., Mardol head

White Sarah Ann, Wyle Cop

Tea Dealers and Drapers [Travelling].

Andrew James, Wyle Cop

Andrew John, Wyle Cop

Andrew Robert, Coleham

Andrew William, Wyle Cop

Fraser John, Coleham

Gordon Thomas, Coleham

Hanney Thomas, St. Alkmund’s place

Lawson Stewart, Abbey Foregate

Ross Peter, Coleham

Smith William, Cross hill

Taggart Walter, Wyle cop

Timber Merchants.

Blockley William, Longden, Coleham

Chune George and Joseph, Chester street

Drayton John, New street, Frankwell

Hall John, Abbey Foregate

Stant Joseph, St. Julian’s friars

Wilson John, Raven road

Tobacco and Snuff Manufacturer.

Harries George, Mardol

Tobacconists.

Evans James, Market street

Harries George, Mardol

Parsons Mary, Market street

Shaw John, Wyle cop

Stewart Penelope, Wyle cop

Tobacco Pipe Manufacturer.

Taylor William, Longden Coleham

Toy Dealers.

Evans John, Market street

France John, and general dealer, Mardol

Morris Richard, Princess st

Nightingale John Thomas, and fancy repository, High street

Richards Henry, Wyle cop

Walker William, Mardol

Trunk and Portmanteau Makers.

Edson John, Wyle cop

Jones William, High street

Tanner John, High street

Turners in Wood, &c.

Nichols Thomas, Castle st

Stevens George, Barker st

Stevens William, Mardol

Westall Thomas, Fire office court, High street

Veterinary Surgeons.

Breeze Charles, Coton hill

Clay Joseph, Wyle cop

Crowe Henry, Castle street

Jones Edward, Claremont st

Langley & Son, Dogpole

Richards Evan, Castle gates

Skitt James, Old heath

Tomkins Henry, Coleham

Watch and Clock Makers.

Davies Daniel, Mardol

Evans Mary, Wyle cop

Fesser Andrew, Mardol

Giles Richard, Shoplatch

Hay Thomas William, High street

Hanny James, Wyle cop

Kelvey Rebecca, Mardol

Walker William, Market sq

Wharfingers.

Crowley and Co., Canal wharf

Henshall & Co., Canal wharf

Lowe Edward Henry, Mardol quay

Rogers William, Frankwell

Shropshire Union Canal Company, Canal wharf

Wheelwrights.

Davies Edward, Coleham

Drayton Edward, Welsh bridge

Griffiths Benjamin, Frankwell

Jones Thomas, Frankwell

Jones William, Castle Foregt

Owen Thomas, Coton hill

Price William, Abbey Foregt

Whitesmiths and Bellhangers.

Alltree Jemima and Henry, Corn market

Easthope William, High st

France James, Castle gates lane

Gittins William, Mardol

Holland Richard, Shoplatch

Howells Thomas, Castle Foregate

Linell and Jenks, Wyle cop

Rowland James, The mount

Wine & Spirit Merchants, & Spirit Vaults.

Beck Peter and William, Claremont street

Cadwallader William, Castle gates

Cartwright Ann, Theatre buildings

Cripps Gordon H., Claremont street

Cripps Lewis G., High st

Drinkwater Richard, High st

Hughes Edward, Corn markt

Humphreys John, St. Mary’s street

Morley Henry, Castle street

Niccolls William Owen, Mardol

Simpson Deborah, Mardol

Southam Thomas, jun., (spirit), Wyle cop

Vaughan John, High street

Wire Workers.

Lawson William, Frankwell

Phillips & Jones, Shoplatch

Woollen Drapers.

See also Linen and Woollen Drapers, & Tailors & Drapers.

Meara John Augustin, High street

Wool Merchants.

Bains Thomas, David Smith, agent, Hill’s lane

Drinkwater Rchd., Frankwell

Simpson Hortensius Coates, Hill’s lane & St. John’s hill.

Taylor Samuel, Hill’s lane

Wilding William, Circus yd

COACHES.

To Aberystwith—The Royal Mail, from the Lion Hotel, every morning, at four o’clock.

To Aberystwith—The Greyhound, from the Lion Hotel, every morning, at ten o’clock (Sundays excepted); goes through Welshpool, Newtown, &c.

To Aberystwith—The Prince of Wales, from the George Hotel, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at ten o’clock in the morning; goes through Welshpool, Newtown, &c.

To Hereford—The Engineer, from the Lion Hotel, at a quarter to two in the afternoon daily (Sundays excepted); goes through Church Stretton, Leominster, &c.

To Ludlow—The Royal Mail, from the Lion Hotel, daily, at a quarter to five o’clock in the morning.

To Whitmore—The Victoria, to the Railway Station, daily (Sundays excepted), from the George Hotel.

Omnibuses from the Lion, the Raven, the George, and the Raven and Bell Hotels, await the arrival and departure of the trains.

CONVEYANCE BY RAILWAY.

On the Shrewsbury & Chester, the Shrewsbury & Birmingham, and on the Shrewsbury and Stafford Branch of the Shropshire Union Railways.  Station: Castle Gates; William Patchett, station master.

OMNIBUSES.

To Ironbridge, from the Unicorn Inn, Benjamin Wright, on Saturday.

To Llandisio, from the Mermaid, John Williams, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

To Much Wenlock, from the Unicorn Inn, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

CARRIERS BY RAILWAY.

To London, Birmingham, and all parts of the kingdom, Pickford & Co., Canal Wharf; James Elledge, agent.

To London, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton, &c., Crowley, Hicklin, & Co., from their Warehouse, Welsh Bridge; John Brazier, agent.

Shropshire Union Railway & Canal Co., General Carriers to all parts of the kingdom.  Goods Depôt, Castle Foregate; James Smith, agent.

CONVEYANCES BY WATER.

To London, Dover, Liverpool, Hull, &c., Pickford and Co., from the Canal Wharf; James Elledge, agent.

To London, Birmingham, &c., Crowley, Hicklin, & Co., Welsh Bridge; John Brazier, agent.

To Bristol, and all the intermediate places, Henry Lowe, Mardol Quay.

To Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, and all intermediate places, the Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company, from Commercial Wharf; James Smith, agent.

To London, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton, and all intermediate places; Wm. Rogers, wharfinger, Frankwell.

CARRIERS FROM THE INNS.

To Aberystwith—Richard Morgan, from Rogers’ Warehouse, Frankwell, Tuesdays and Fridays.

To Acton Burnell—Richard Onions, from the Barge Inn, on Saturday; and Richard Pascall, from the Spread Eagle, on Wednesdays and Saturday.

To Baschurch—John Taylor, from the Mermaid, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

To Berriew—David Davies, from the Old Trumpet, on Wednesdays; and John Pugh, from Rogers’ Wharf, Frankwell.

To Berrington—William Mallett, from the Lion and Pheasant, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Bilston—William Davey, from the Old Trumpet, on Wednesdays.

To Bishops Castle—John Nightingale, from the White Horse, on Fridays; Richard Preese, from the Old Trumpet, Wednesdays and Saturdays; William Hindley, from the Bell, Saturdays; John Bright, from the Red Lion, Wednesdays and Fridays; and Thos. Black, from the Red Lion, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

To Broseley and Ironbridge—Richard Thomas, Abbey Foregate, Tuesdays and Fridays; and William Williams, Wyle Cop, on Mondays and Fridays.

To Buddington—John Jones, from the Mermaid, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Cardington—John Perks and Ellen Corfield, from the Swan, on Saturdays.

To Church Stretton—Benjamin Jones, from the Old Trumpet, Saturdays; William Harley, from the Barge Inn, Saturdays; and John Lea, from his house, Coleham, on Tuesdays and Fridays.

To Condover—Huffer, from the Spread Eagle, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Cound—Geo. Taylor, from the Spread Eagle, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Dawley Green—Thomas Mansell, from the Old Trumpet, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Dorrington—John Blaney, from the Barge Inn, Saturdays.

To Ellesmere—Richard Williams, from the Prince of Wales, Tuesdays and Fridays.

To Grinshill and Yorton—Thomas Gregory, from the Bell Inn, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Habberley—Thomas Bromley, from the Mermaid, Saturdays; and Edw. Houghton, from the Queen’s Head, Saturdays.

To Hadnal and Preston Brockhurst—William Eccleston, from the Bell, Saturdays.

To Hawkestone—Edward Tudor, from the Bull’s Head, Saturdays.

To Hereford—By the carriers to Ludlow.

To High Ercall—John Bates, from the Bull’s Head, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Kerry and Newtown—David Jones, from the Queen’s Head, Wednesdays.

To Lebotwood—John Williams, from the Lion and Pheasant, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Llanfair—Evan Reese, from Rogers’ Wharf, Frankwell, Wednesdays.

To Llanidloes—Richard Morgan, from Rogers’ Wharf, Frankwell, Tuesdays and Fridays.

To Llanymynech—William Morris, from the Elephant and Castle, Saturdays.

To Ludlow—David Jones, from the Barge Inn, Wednesdays and Saturdays; and John Lea, from his house, Coleham, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Loppington—Charles Brown, from the London Apprentice, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Minsterley—S. Madox, from the White Hart, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays; and Samuel Swan and Joseph Hill, from the Castle and Falcon, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Montgomery—Ann Jones, from the Britannia, Wednesdays; John Oliver, from the Queen’s Head, Wednesdays and Saturdays; and R. Evans, on Wednesdays, from Lowe’s Warehouse, Mardol.

To Much Wenlock—Richard Thomas, from his house, Abbey Foregate, Mondays; Richard Nicklin, from the Spread Eagle, on Wednesdays and Saturdays; Jeremiah Aston, from the Sun Tavern, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Newtown, Llanidloes, & Aberystwith—Evan Reece, on Wednesdays, and Richard Morgan, on Thursday, from Rogers’ Warehouse, Frankwell.

To Picklescott—James Wild, from the Barge Inn, Wednesdays and Saturdays; Wm. Griffith, from the Seven Stars, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Poole—R. Jones, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, from Circus Yard.

To Pontesbury & Minsterley—Thos. Everall, from Rogers’ Warehouse, Frankwell; Thomas Davies, from the Queen’s Head, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

To Preston Brochhurst—Trevor, from the Bull’s Head, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Pulverbatch—Richard Dovaston and Philip Morris, from the Spread Eagle, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Shawbury—Thomas Richards, from the Mermaid, Saturdays; Thos. Humphreys, from the Bell, on Saturdays.

To Stretford Bridge—Thos. Humphreys, from the Bell, on Saturday.

To Trewerne and Welshpool—Thos. Williams, from the Queen’s Head, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Uffington—Elizabeth Davies, from the White Hart, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Wellington—Edward Thomas, from the Barge Inn, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays; and Jackson, from the Lion and Pheasant, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

To Welshpool, and Newtown—Robert Sackett, from Rogers’ and Crowley’s Warehouses, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays; and Edward Harris, from the Queen’s Head, on Wednesdays.

To Westbury—John Handley, from the Mermaid, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Weston & Hawkstone—John Phillips, from the Queen’s Head, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Withington—Thomas Leary, from the Yorkshire House, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Wolverhampton—Frederick Worthington, from the White Hart, Saturdays.

To Worthen—William Downes, from the Elephant and Castle, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

THE ALBRIGHTON DIVISION.

The Albrighton division was formed into a separate jurisdiction for magisterial purposes under the authority of an Act of parliament, passed in the 4th of William IV.  It comprises the following places:—The parishes of Battlefield, Broughton, Fitz, Grinshill, Preston Gubballs, and Uffington; the chapelries of Albrighton, Astley, Clive, and Hadnal; and the township of Acton Reynold, Albrightlee, Harlscott, Hencott, Longner, Berwick, Leaton, Merrington, Newton and Wollascot; and the extra-parochial liberty of Haughmond.  It may be necessary to observe, that the arrangement of this work being by hundreds, the townships, or chapelries, comprised in the several hundreds, will be found alphabetically arranged, under the head of the respective town or village, in which the parish church is situated.

ALBRIGHTLEE,
a small township in St. Mary’s parish three miles N.N.E. from Shrewsbury, containing 742a. 2r. 21p. of land, is the property of Andrew William Corbet, Esq.  At the census of 1841 there were 8 houses and 45 inhabitants.  The principal residence is an antique house of timber and plaster, occupied by Mr. John Minton, who farms a considerable portion of the land in the township, and is also a maltster.

HARLSCOTT
township, situated two and a half miles N.N.E. from Shrewsbury, is partly in St. Alkmund, and partly in that of St. Mary’s.  In 1841 there were 8 houses and 41 inhabitants returned as in the former parish, and 6 houses and 28 inhabitants in the latter.  The land owners are Andrew William Corbet, Esq., and Scarlett LLoyd Parry, Esq.

The principal residents are Thomas Briscoe Barber, farmer; Scarlett LLoyd Parry, Esq., solicitor; John Ralphs, carpenter; and William Hewlett, shoemaker.

HENCOTT,
a small township with a scattered population, is about one and three quarter miles N. from Shrewsbury.  Colonel Wingfield is the only proprietor in this township, which in 1841 had 14 scattered houses and a population of 84 souls.  The Shrewsbury and Chester railway intersects this township.  The soil for the most part is a fertile loam.

The following are the principal farmers, viz.:—Robert Legh, Cross Hall; Ann Bromley, Hencott farm, Robert Parry, manager; Edward Randles, Old Heath; and Joseph Yates, Old Heath.

BATTLEFIELD
is a small parish, pleasantly situated three and a quarter miles N.N.E. from Shrewsbury, which contains 1,008a. 0r. 3p. of land, the whole of which is the property of Andrew William Corbet, Esq., of Sundorne Castle.  In 1801 there was a population of 83 souls; in 1831, 70; and in 1841 there were 14 houses and 64 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,008. 6s. 8d.  The name is derived from the battle fought here on the 21st of July, 1403, between Henry IV. and the forces under Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and generally denominated the battle of Shrewsbury, which will be found noticed in a preceding page.  The king afterwards built a collegiate church for secular canons, upon the spot where the battle was fought, and “endowed it with a piece of ground, with all the buildings on it, within the lordship of Albrighton Husee, in the field called Battlefield, which piece of ground was ditched in, and contained in length and breadth two acres of land, together with two inlets and outlets along the lands of Richard Husee, one twenty feet wide and the other fifteen feet wide.”  No doubt appropriate buildings for the residence of the canons and servants of the establishment were erected on the land inside this ditch: these probably were demolished at the period of the dissolution of monasteries, but no remains of them are now to be seen.

The Church, a venerable fabric dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, consists of nave, chancel, and embattled tower ornamented with pinnacles; the nave, however, has long been roofless, the windows are destroyed, and the tower is in a dilapidated state.  Divine worship is now performed in the chancel, which has been neatly fitted up, and a new font recently added.  The fine east window was formerly richly adorned with stained glass.  In a recess on the south side of the altar is a mutilated carving of the Virgin Mary, with a small figure of the dead Saviour on her lap.  A beautiful monument of the white Grinshill freestone, enriched with Gothic tracery, remembers John Corbet, Esq., Emma Elizabeth, his wife, and John Kynaston Corbet, their son.  About half a century ago, when the vault was made in which rest the remains of Mr. Corbet, the workmen discovered an ancient stirrup and bridle bit, which had lain among the ashes of the slain since the period of the battle which gave origin to the church.  Near the chancel wall, surrounded by pallisades, is the tomb of the Rev. Edward Williams, incumbent of this parish and Uffington, who died on January 3, 1833, aged 70 years.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £233, in the patronage of A. W. Corbet, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. J. O. Hopkins, who is also the perpetual curate of Uffington.

Albright Hussey, an ancient moated residence, situated about half a mile from Battlefield church, was formerly the seat of the Husseys, a family of consequence in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  The mansion, in the reign of Charles I., became the seat of the Corbets, who resided there for more than one hundred years.  One of the rooms has a fine oak chimney piece, most elaborately carved.  Near to the mansion formerly stood a chapel, the remains of which, and the old font, are still to be seen.  Roger Roe, rector of the chapel of St. John the Baptist, at Albrighton Husee, by his will, dated 1444, ordered his body to be buried near the high altar of Battlefield church, and bequeathed to the five chaplains in the college three silver chalices, one paxbrede of silver gilt, two silver cruets, three brass bells hanging in the belfry, two cases after the manner of Sarum, otherwise called lyggers, three gilt copper crosses, two new missals, two new graduals, three old missals covered with old leather, one old case, one processional, one executor of the office, one book of collects, four placebo and dirage, one pair of vestments of red velvet, one red velvet cope, two velvet dalmatics, one pair of vestments of white silk, one white silk cope, and four pair of other vestments.  Mrs. Margaret Jones, in 1773, left £50, and directed the interest to be given to the poor of the parish on Easter Sunday.

Directory.—Henry Colley, farmer, Huffley; Edward Moreton, farmer, Allbright Hussey; Martha Winnall, farmer, Battlefield farm

BROUGHTON,
a parish and township in the Albrighton division, also contains the township of Yorton, which conjointly contain 878a. 2r. 1p. of land, and in 1841 had 37 houses and 188 inhabitants.  The soil is mostly a stiff loam, and the meadow land is of good quality.  There are 27a. of woods and plantations in the parish.  The principal land owners are Viscount Hill, Spencer Roger Dickin, Esq., Mr. William Teece, and Cornelius Maddocks, the former is lord of the manor.  Rateable value of the parish, £1836. 10s.  The Church is a small ancient structure, dedicated to St. Mary, and was formerly subordinate to that of St. Mary, Shrewsbury; it is built of rubble stone, and rough cast, and has nave, chancel, porch, and small turret.  The living is a perpetual curacy returned in £67, in the patronage of Viscount Hill, and incumbency of the Rev. Francis Parkes.  It is related on a late occasion the parish clerk of Broughton was desired to acquaint the congregation during public worship that the then officiating minister would perform divine service at that church and at the Clive alternately, when, not exactly understanding the meaning of the latter term, he very gravely gave notice the Rev. Mr. W. “will preach here and at the Clive to all eternity.”  The tithes are commuted for £105, Henry Lister, Esq., is the impropriator.  In the field where the church stands an attempt has recently been made to open coal works; it appears that coal was found and lime works were also established, but the project was shortly after abandoned.

Directory.—Mr. William Clay, The farm; Mr. Alderton Clay, The hall; Joseph Molynax, blacksmith; Mr. Samuel Sherratt, The villa, William Sutton, wheelwright.

YORTON,
a small scattered township in the parish of Broughton, is situate about one mile from the church.  The population and acres are included in the returns for Broughton.  Viscount Hill is lord of the manor, Robert Panting Gardener, Esq., Mrs. Sarah Bayley and others are land owners.  The greatest portion of the township is in the hands of R. P. Gardner, Esq.

Yorton Villa, the residence of the Rev. William Jaudwine, M.A., is a square stuccoed house pleasantly situated, and beautified with pleasure grounds, and shrubberies laid out with great taste.  The following are the principal residents in this township:—Those with † affixed reside at Yorton Heath, Rev. William Jaudwine, M.A., The villa; † Thomas George, shopkeeper; † George Lea, farmer; † Joseph Lea, farmer; Lucy Martin, farmer; † Benjamin Shuker, farmer, Black Birch.  Thomas Gregory carrier to Shrewsbury on Wednesday and Saturday.

LONGNER
is an isolated portion of the parish of St. Chad, situated three miles south east from Shrewsbury.  Robert Burton, Esq., of Longner hall, is owner of the whole township, which in 1841 is returned as containing four houses and 13 inhabitants.  The hall is a handsome and commodious mansion, with projecting gables ornamented with turrets and pinnacles, and fronted with the beautiful white Grinshill free stone; it stands on an acclivity commanding a rich view of the surrounding country, and of the Severn, which rolls immediately beneath it.  The views up and down the river and over the adjoining highly cultivated and well wooded country are peculiarly picturesque and beautiful, affording a great variety of landscape scenery.  An extensive and finely timbered park surrounds the hall, the immediate vicinity of which is tastefully ornamented with pleasure grounds and shrubberies.  The interior of the mansion is elegantly furnished, and contains some beautiful paintings; a fine portrait of Queen Elizabeth is supposed to have been presented by her Majesty to the ancestors of the present proprietor.  A magnificent gothic window of stained glass ornamented with figures of different members of the family, lights the entrance hall.

In the garden is a tomb placed over the body of Edward Burton, Esq., a zealous protestant in Queen Mary’s days, and is by Fox, in his Acts and Monuments, named among those who by various means escaped persecution.  He one day sitting in his parlour alone, meditating on the troubles of the times, and the deliverances he and others had found; and whilst thus reflecting heard a general ring of bells in Shrewsbury, which he concluded must be for the accession of the Lady Elizabeth to the throne.  Anxious to know the truth, and not daring to send any of his servants to inquire, he sent his eldest son—a youth about sixteen years of age, ordering him if the bells rang for the Lady Elizabeth’s accession to throw his hat up into the air on his arrival at a certain place where he could he seen from the hall.  The young man finding it as was expected, threw up his hat, which his father seeing, was suddenly affected with a transport of joy, that he with difficulty reached a chair, and immediately expired.  By his will he ordered that his body should be buried in the parish church of St. Chad, in Shrewsbury, and that no mass monger should be present at his interment.  His friends designing to execute his will in this respect, brought his corpse to the church, and were there met by the curate, who said that “Mr. Burton was an heretic and should not be buried in his church.”  His friends were therefore obliged to carry his body back again, and bury it in his own garden.  A monument was set over him, which, being injured and defaced with the weather, Edward Burton, Esq., his grandson, in the year 1614, re-edified the tomb.  The following is the epitaph placed on the tomb, written by Sir Andrew Corbet, Bart.:—

“Was’t for denying Christ, or some notorious fact,
That this man’s body Christian burial lack’d?
Oh no! his faithful true profession,
Was the chief cause, which was then held transgression;
When popery here did reign, the See of Rome,
Would not admit to any such a tomb,
Within their idol temple walls; but he
Truly professing Christianity,
Was like Christ Jesus in a garden laid,
Where he shall rest in peace till it be said—
Come faithful servant, come, receive with me,
A just reward for thy integrity.”—1614.

There is a free school at Longner, situated in the park, which is supported by R. Burton, Esq.; 42 children are now taught in the school.

The principal residents at Longner are Robert Burton, Esq., Longner hall, and Robert Weatherby, schoolmaster.

FITZ
is a parish and village delightfully situated on a gentle eminence 5¾ miles N.W. from Shrewsbury; the country around is fertile, and pleasingly diversified with graceful undulations; the scenery is very beautiful, and includes the picturesque windings of the river Severn.  The parish contains 1512a. 1r. 32p. of land; in 1801 there were 236 inhabitants; in 1831, 211, and in 1841 fifty houses and a population of 246 souls.  Rateable value, £2,774. 6s.  The river Perry intersects the township, and has its confluence with the Severn a little below Mytton.  The soil is rich, producing good wheat and barley, and there is some rich pasture land.  The Shrewsbury and Chester railway passes this township over Leaton Heath, where there is a station, about a mile and a half from Fitz.

The Church, dedicated to St. Paul, is situated on an eminence, and consists of nave and chancel, with a lofty square tower, in which is one bell.  It is a birch fabric with stone finishings, and contains a fine toned organ; the pews are of oak, and there are some interesting monuments within its sacred walls to the families of Wood, Powell, Lloyd, Jones, Denstons, Hopkins, Pytons and others; it is also beautified with two finely executed stained glass windows.  Twenty-two free sittings were added in 1842, at the expense of the Rev. William Hopkins, then rector of this parish.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s books at £5. 5s. 8d., now returned at £272 in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and incumbency of the Rev. Daniel Nihill, M.A., who resides at the rectory, a pleasantly situated mansion near the church.  There are 34a. 2r. 1p. of glebe land, and the tithes were commuted in 1839 for £266.  There is a neat school in the village, built in 1850, at the cost of near £100, which was raised by subscriptions, and a collection in the church; 45 children are instructed.  A residence has been provided for the master near the school.

The Hall, a handsome stuccoed mansion, pleasantly situated and beautified with pleasure grounds, is the residence and property of Richard Middleton, Esq.  Among the land owners in the parish are John A. Lloyd, Esq.; Robert A. Slaney, Esq., M.P.; Richard Middleton, Esq.; Mr. Joseph Hignett, Mrs. Morris, Mr. Richard Vaughan, Rev. Edward H. Dymock, Mr. Richard Lloyd, James Payne, Esq., Mr. James Davies, Devisees of late Sir John Betton, and others.  The Duke of Cleveland is the lord of the manor.

MYTTON
is a scattered village in the parish of Fitz, salubriously situated, containing some good residences, and surrounded with picturesque scenery.  Mytton is celebrated as the birth place of Edward Waring, M.D., whose mathematical publications prove the extent and profundity of his knowledge.  He was born in the year 1734, and after being educated at Shrewsbury free school, was sent on one of Millington’s exhibitions to Magdalen College, Cambridge, where he applied himself with such assiduity to the study of Mathematics, that when he left the university he carried with him the credit of being one of the most able mathematicians that ever filled the professor’s chair.  In 1776 he entered into a matrimonial connection with Miss Oswell, and not many years after retired from the university, first to a house in Shrewsbury, and at length to his own estate at Plealey, near Pontesbury, where he died on the 15th of August, 1798, in the 64th year of his age.—Grafton is another small village in the parish of Fitz.  Here are several good farms, and Grafton Lodge, a good house pleasantly situated, the residence of John Henry Denston, Esq.

Fitz Directory.—John Bather, Esq., Richard Middleton, Esq., The hall; Rev. Daniel Nihill, M.A., The Rectory; Farmers, Joshua Burroughs, Leaton Heath; Richard Middleton, Samuel Onions, Leaton Heath; Thomas Vaughan, corn miller; John Walmsley, Leaton Heath; Alban Davies, fisherman; Maria Davies, schoolmistress; William France, farm bailiff; John Vaughan, butcher.—Grafton Directory: Mrs. Ann Denston, John Henry Denston, Esq.; Edward Davies, farmer; John Davies shopkeeper; Richard Davies, blacksmith; Richard Lloyd, wheelwright; John Pugh, farmer; and Thomas Vaughan, farmer.—Mytton Directory: William Davies, farmer; John Evans, farm bailiff; Mrs. Jemima Hopkins; John Litttlehales, basket maker; Mrs. Elizabeth Morris, farmer; William Rowland, farmer and corn miller; Richard Wildig, farmer.

GRINSHILL
is a parish and township seven miles N. from Shrewsbury, which contains 872a. 0r. 34p. of land, the chief owners of which are Viscount Hill, Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., trustees of Shrewsbury School; Rev. John Wood; Mr. Richard Kilvert; P. Gardner, Esq.; Mr. William Embrey Wood; Mr. John Williams; and the devisees of the late John Kilvert.  Viscount Hill is Lord of the Manor.  The beautiful and romantic village of Grinshill is delightfully situated, and contains many good residences, occupied by respectable families.  In 1801 there was a population of 179 souls, and in 1841 there were 56 houses and 255 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £587. 5s. 6d.

The Church, dedicated to All Saints, has a neat, light, and beautiful appearance, and exhibits the decorative style of English architecture; it is built of the Grinshill free stone, and ornamented with a square tower.  The interior consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles: a neat mural tablet remembers Robert Embrey, and other members of that family.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £82, in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. John Wood.  The parsonage, near the church, is pleasantly situated, and the grounds neatly ornamented with shrubberies.  The Independent Methodists have a small stone chapel, built in 1843.  The Free School in connection with the church was built by, and is supported by, Sir A. V. Corbet.  There are 56 scholars attending the day school.  The spacious building occupied by Mr. Barkley as a classical and commercial school, was built about half a century after the Shrewsbury Free School, for the safety of the masters and scholars of that seminary, in case any contagious disease should prevail in that town.

The Quarries, where the beautiful white Grinshill freestone is got, are very extensive, and give employment to a considerable number of hands.  Many of the churches and public buildings in the county are built of this stone, which is of a fine close quality, and superior to most others for carving and ornamental purposes.

Charities.—Major Richard Corbet bequeathed £20, and Mrs. Judith Corbet a like sum, and directed the interest to be expended in books and the education of poor children; Eleanor Allen and Thomas, her sons, left £20 for the poor.  William Key left £50, the interest to be given to the minister of this parish, if approved of by his trustees, if not to the poor.  Thomas Embrey left £10.  John Kilvert, £5; and an unknown donor £9, for the benefit of the poor.  The Rev. Mr. Price left £12. for the instruction of two children.  The above moneys were laid out in the purchase of 10a. 2r. 20p. of land, at Coton, which was let on lease in 1757, for the term of 100 years, at the yearly rent of £4. 18s.  The premises are stated now to be worth £20 a year.  Of the rent, £1. 10s. is paid to the minister, £2. 2s. to the schoolmaster, and the residue is distributed among the poor.  Sir Andrew Corbet, in 1830, gave £15. 15s. to the poor of this parish.

Barkley Richard, boarding school, The Grove

Blantarn Robert, farmer

Boora Charles, farmer

Carline John, quarry master and contractor

Cureton Edward, quarry master & stonemason

Downes Andrew, quarry master & stonemason

Downes Mrs. N., dress maker

Downes Nathaniel, tailor and draper

Griffiths William, parish clerk

Higgins John, farmer

Huffa William, blacksmith and vict., Barley Corn Inn

Jessop Francis, butcher and salesman

Jessop John, farmer, Hill farm

Killan John, butcher and horse breaker

Kilvert Mrs. Catherine

Matthews John, farmer

Naylor Miss, school teacher

Nelson Arthur, farmer

Onslow Mrs. M., boarding house and vict., Elephant and Castle

Onslow Margaret, farmer and maltster

Phillips William, shopkeeper & shoemaker

Smith Thomas, quarry master and mason

Williams Henry Parton, farmer

Williams Joseph, wheelwright

Wood Rev. John, M.A., the Parsonage

Wood William Embrey, Esq., the Vineyard

HAUGHMOND,
an Extra-parochial Liberty, three and a half miles N.E. from Shrewsbury, contains 1,564a. 0r. 3p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had 27 houses and 169 souls.  This place forms a portion of the Sundorne demesne, which comprises 8,634a. 1r. 26p., and is the property of Andrew William Corbet, Esq.  The stately pile of Haughmond Abbey is now fallen into almost total decay, but the magnificent ruins have an imposing appearance; they stand on rising ground, backed by woods, and command an extended view the plain of Shrewsbury, its town, and castle, and the fine demesne of Sundorne.  From the extent of the ruins it must have been a place of great magnitude.  Of the Abbey Church few remains exist: the south door of the nave, which opened into the cloister, exhibits an elegant specimen of Anglo-Norman architecture.  The outer walls of the chapter house are in a perfect state of preservation.  The entrance is by a finely ornamented round arch, with a window on each side, divided into small lights.  Southward of the chapter house are the remains of the refectory, and beyond it the shell of a noble hall, measuring eighty-one feet by thirty-six feet.  The windows were formerly filled with Gothic tracery.  The ruins of the cloister and abbots’ lodging may also still be traced.  The monastery was founded in the year 1110, by William Fitz Alan, for canons of the order of St. Augustine.  It was richly endowed with lands by the founder, and other individuals, and had many valuable privileges and immunities granted by the Popes Honorus III., Nicholas III., Boniface IX., and Martin IV.  The yearly revenues of the abbey at the dissolution were £269. 13s. 7d., according to Dugdale, and £294. 13s. 9d. according to Speed.  Leland says, “There were an hermitage and chapel on this spot before the abbey was built.”  William Fitz Alan and other members of the family were buried here.

Sundorne Castle, a spacious and splendid Gothic mansion, adorned with battlements and turrets, is situated on a beautiful lawn, amidst the rich verdure of the adjoining grounds, which are pleasingly diversified with shrubberies and pleasant walks, and ornamented with a fine sheet of water, covering upwards of sixty acres.  The interior of the mansion is superbly furnished.  The chairs in the drawing room are of ebony, most elaborately carved.  It also contains a remarkably fine antique statue of Venus.  There are some exquisite paintings by Titian, Salvator Rosa, Rembrandt, Guido, Raphael, Rubens, Wouvermans, and Van Huysum, among which is the original design for the altar-piece at Antwerp, by Rubens, and the Holy Family, exquisitely executed by Raphael.  The library contains a valuable and extensive collection of rare books, and the windows are ornamented with stained glass.  Amongst a collection of antiquities is the chapter roll of Haughmond Abbey, and the seal of the abbot: the latter was found about thirty years ago, near the ruins of the abbey.  A beautiful sequestered carriage drive, of five miles in length, leads through the woods of the Sundorne demesne.  The kitchen gardens and vineries are situated at the back of the castle, and cover an extent of about four acres.  The Corbets of Lee removed to Albright Hussey in the reign of Charles I., and to Sundorne Castle in the middle of the last century.

Directory.—Andrew William Corbet, Esq., Sundorne Castle and Pimley House; Henry Jarvis, butler; Martin King, gardener; John Metcalf, bailiff.  Richard Ford, farmer, Home barns; Elizabeth Latham, farmer; Samuel Whitehouse, farmer, Haughmond hill.

ALBRIGHTON,
a township and chapelry in St. Mary’s parish, pleasantly situated on the Shrewsbury and Whitchurch road, three miles N. from the former place, contains 800 acres of land, of which 90 acres are in woods and plantations; rateable value, £883.  In 1801, there were 58 inhabitants; and in 1841, 12 houses and 85 souls.  Colonel Studd owns all the land in this township, about two-thirds of which is arable.  The soil is various: in some places a rich loam prevails, in other parts it is not so fertile.

The Episcopal Chapel, a neat structure in the Elizabethan style, situated on elevated ground, near the turnpike road, is built of red sand stone, and has a neat porch on the south side, and a small belfry at the west end.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £52 per annum.  The income arises from a farm in Wales, which, since the return was made, has augmented in value.  The Rev. George H. Moller is the incumbent, and the Rev. John D. Letts, B.A., officiating curate.  The magistrates hold a petty session for the Albrighton division the second week in every month, at the Fox Inn.  The Hall, a spacious brick mansion, formerly the seat of the Ireland family, is now unoccupied.  The principal residents in this township are:—Charles Smallman, farmer, Perrill farm; Richard Yates, farmer; Ann Brown, victualler, Fox Inn; and Richard Gough, blacksmith.

ASTLEY,
a township, chapelry, and scattered village, five miles N.N.E. from Shrewsbury.  In 1801 had 141 inhabitants, and in 1841, a population of 264 souls, and 55 houses.  The township contains 1181a. 3r. 3p. of land, more than two-thirds of which is the property of John Bishton Minor, Esq., of Astley House; besides whom, Mr. Richard Minton and Mrs. Wildig are proprietors.  There is also a farm belonging to the trustees of the charities for St. Chad’s parish.  Gross rental £1,936. 13s. 5d.  Rateable value, £1,763. 13s.  The Episcopal Chapel, a neat stone fabric in the Gothic style, was repaired and beautified in 1837, when a new tower was added at the west end.  The entrance, formerly on the south side, exhibits the Saxon style of architecture.  In the interior is a neat marble tablet, in memory of the Minor family, of Astley House.  A new font was added at the time the tower was built.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £56, in the patronage of the corporation of Shrewsbury, and enjoyed by the Rev. William Vaughan.  In the church yard are the following lines, on a grave stone in memory of Rowland Deakin, who died in 1751, aged 95 years:—

“Many years I’ve seen, and
Many things I’ve known:
Five kings, two queens,
And a usurper on the throne;
But now lie sleeping in the dust.
As you, the reader, shortly must.”

The governors of the Free Grammar School, in Shrewsbury, are the impropriators of the tithes, which are commuted for £211.  Astley House, a handsome mansion, beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies, and pleasantly situated a short distance from the church, is the residence and property of John Bishton Minor, Esq.  The Primitive Methodists have a chapel in this township, situated on the Hadnal road.  The particulars of the several charities, founded by the will of Joseph Jones, in 1729, will be found noticed with the parish of Atcham.  Out of the residuary rents of the estates, held in trust for the purposes mentioned in the testator’s will, £10 per annum is applied in educating poor children of this chapelry, and £6 per annum paid to the minister of Astley chapel, for reading prayers and preaching in the said chapel every first and last Sunday in the month, and administering the sacrament four times during the year.  It appears when Mr. Jones made this bequest, that divine service in Astley chapel was only held every third Sunday in the month.

Minor John Bishton, Esq., Astley House

Adams Edward, farmer

Adams James, farmer

Barker James, shoemaker

Birch William, farmer, Braidway House

Davies Charles, butcher

Dodd William, blacksmith

Hughes John, shoemaker

Minton John, farmer

Minton Richard, farmer

Minton Samuel, farmer

Minton Thomas, farmer

Moreton Ann, butcher

Morgan John, farmer

Oliver Rev. William, Astley Lodge

Powell John, farmer, New House

Stanley Thomas and Richard, brick and tile makers

Williams Richard, provision dealer and victualler, Dog Inn

BERWICK,
a township pleasantly situated two miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury; at the census of 1841 had 67 houses, and a population of 271 souls.  Here the country has an undulating surface, richly clothed with timber, and presents many interesting views of picturesque beauty.  The estate is now the property of the Honourable Henry Wentworth Powys.  Berwick House is a handsome mansion, of considerable extent, composed of brick with stone finishings.  It is delightfully situated in a spacious and finely wooded park; and the immediate vicinity of the house is richly beautified with shrubberies and pleasure grounds.  The iron gates, at the entrance of the park, are of the most elaborate workmanship; they have a noble and magnificent appearance, and are said to have cost £1,000.  Berwick House is now the temporary residence of Thomas Hope, Esq.; and Upper Berwick House, a neat brick structure, is the occasional seat of the Hon. Henry Wentworth Powys.

A short distance from the hall are the almshouses, erected and endowed in 1672 by Sir Samuel Jones.  They consist of sixteen tenements, and a small room for the use of the chaplain, with gardens attached thereto, and are surrounded by a lofty wall.  The yearly income amounts to about £183. 7s. 6d. per annum, and arises from the following sources:—Nine acres of land in Castle Foregate, let for £36 per annum; the several sums of £20, £40, and £80 per annum charged on the Berwick estate; and the dividends on £245. 18s. 3d.  South Sea Annuities.  From the sources above mentioned, each inmate receives about £5. 8s. annually, besides clothing and coal.  The emoluments of the chaplain amount to about £54. 9s. per annum.  Between the almshouses and the hall is the chapel appropriated to the use of the inmates of the adjacent almshouses.  It is a small fabric, of a primitive appearance, with a tower at the west end, and was built in 1762, on the site of a former edifice which had become ruinous.  There is a free school in the township, supported by the Hon. Henry W. Powys, where forty scholars are educated.  Leaton Knolls, the delightful residence of John Arthur Lloyd, Esq., is just within the bounds of this township, situated in a picturesque glen, and surrounded with beautiful shrubberies and thriving plantations.

Powys Honourable Henry Wentworth, Upper Berwick House

Hope Thomas, Esq., Berwick House

Lloyd John Arthur, Esq., Leaton Knolls

Briscoe, Mrs. Mary

Davies John, blacksmith

Davies Samuel, farmer, Cross Green

Gough Edward, farmer

Jones John, wheelwright

Maddox Martha, schoolmistress

Morris Jeremiah, shoemaker

Oakley Thomas, farm bailiff

Roberts Mary, farmer

Roberts Thomas, farmer, Great Berwick

Slinn John, gamekeeper

Vaughan Richard, farmer, Almond Park

CLIVE
is a chapelry in the parish of St. Mary, Shrewsbury, 3½ miles south from Wem, and eight miles north from Shrewsbury.  In 1801 there was a population of 289 souls, and in 1841 there were 61 houses and 273 inhabitants.  The township contains 1370 acres of land, mostly highly productive; the soil is a mixture of sand and loam, and considered good turnip land.  Rateable value, £2,546 10s.  The Duke of Cleveland is the principal owner and lord of the manor; Mr. Joshua Holmes, George Harding, Esq., Mrs. Nickson, Mrs. Griffith, and others, are also freeholders.  The village is pleasantly situated on high ground, and commands some pleasing views of the romantic and rural scenery by which it is surrounded.

The Church is a plain stone fabric, dedicated to All Saints, and consists of nave and chancel, with a small turret containing two bells; it is neatly pewed, and the roof is of groined timber.  The pulpit is of white free stone exquisitely carved, and a new front has recently been added.  The windows on the south side and at the west end were beautified, and had new mullions introduced in 1849, when other alterations and improvements were made by the incumbent.  The living is a perpetual curacy returned at £66 in the patronage of the corporation of Shrewsbury; incumbent, Rev. William Jaudwine, M.A.  The Independents have a small chapel built in 1844; the congregation is under the pastoral care of the Rev. David Jones.  Clive Hall, a plain substantial stone edifice in the Elizabethan style, was built by Daniel Wycherley, father of the poet William Wycherley; it is now the property of George Harding, Esq.  Sansaw Hall, the residence of Captain Martin, a handsome and commodious brick residence, is delightfully situated in park-like grounds, and surrounded by lawns and shrubberies laid out with great taste and beauty.  Shooters’ Hill, another good house delightfully situated, is the property and residence of Mrs. Griffiths.

Clive is said to have been the birth place of the poet Wycherley, though some affirm that he was born at Wem.  Wycherley was one of the wits and poets of Charles II., and was born about the year 1640.  After receiving an education at school, he was sent to France, where he embraced the Roman Catholic religion.  A little before the restoration he returned to England, and entered as a gentleman commoner at Queen’s College, Oxford; but, being never matriculated, he quitted the university without a degree, and took chambers in the middle temple.  He soon, however, deserted the law, and following the taste of that dissipated age, devoted himself to the composition of comedies.  His first piece, “Love in a wood, or St. James’ Park,” made its first appearance in 1672, and quickly brought its author into notice.  He was much esteemed by Villiers, the witty Duke of Buckingham, and was honoured with the attentions of his Majesty.  His marriage with the Countess of Drogheda proved an unhappy one.  His lady was excessively jealous of him, and though on her death a few years after, she settled her whole estate on her husband, the title was disputed, and he became so involved in his circumstances by law expenses and other incumbrances, that he was thrown into prison.  He remained in confinement about seven years, when James II., going to see his comedy of “The Plain Dealer,” was so much delighted with it that he gave orders for the payment of the author’s debts, and granted him a pension of £200 a year.  Wycherley died in 1675, at the age of 75.  His posthumous works in prose and verse were published in 1728.

Abbot James, carrier to Shrewsbury

Cartwright Margaret, schoolmistress

Done Richard, quarry master and bricklayer

Green Hannah, shopkeeper

Griffiths Mrs., Shooters Hill House

Groom William, farmer

Harding Miss Elizabeth, The Hall

Harding Geo., farmer, Hall Farm

Hill Ann, schoolmistress

Huffa George, blacksmith

Huffa Sarah, vict., Three Horse Shoes.

Jones John, grocer, builder, and quarry master

Lea George, farmer, Sansaw farm

Lee Francis, farmer, Hopes.

Martin Capt. Murrey, Sansaw Hall

Massey Thomas Harris, farmer, The Wood

Needham John, farmer

Northwood Richard, farmer

Parker Thomas, shopkeeper and cattle salesman

Parr Lawrence, farmer, Clive farm

Peters Edward, shoemaker

Peters George, tailor

Puliston Mrs. Charlotte

Puliston Francis, farmer

Smith Thomas, quarry master and stone mason

Williams William, wheelwright

Yeomans William, farmer, Holbrook

LEATON
township, four and a half miles N.W. by N. from Shrewsbury, in 1841 contained 60 houses and 245 inhabitants.  John Arthur Lloyd, Esq., is the proprietor of the whole township, and resides at Leaton Knolls, a beautiful modern mansion, which has been erected about thirty years.  The house stands on the acclivity of a hill, overlooking a romantic glen, planted with thriving plantations.  The grounds are beautifully diversified with shrubberies and pleasant walks; and in no place in the county is there to be seen such a fine collection of rare shrubs and choice forest trees as are to be met at Leaton Knolls.  Among the more remarkable objects is an extensive and valuable collection of the conifera tribe, with their curious and varied foliage.  A short distance from the house a large plot of ground has been enclosed with a lofty brick wall, for a kitchen garden, which is now in course of formation.  The house and a portion of the pleasure grounds stand within the bounds of Berwick township.  There is also a neat free school, at the cross of roads, built in 1828, by John A. Lloyd, Esq., who also pays for the education of the children, of whom 35 attend.  Leaton Hall, now a good farm residence, was built in 1683.  The Shrewsbury and Chester railway intersects the township, and has a station here.  Bomere Heath is partly in this township and partly in Preston Gobalds.

Directory.—John Arthur Lloyd, Esq., Leaton Knolls; Thomas Daighton, land agent, Leaton Lodge; Charles Kynaston, carpenter and beerhouse keeper, Bomere Heath; Richard Littlehales, shoemaker; John Morgan, schoolmaster; William Nevett, farmer, Leaton Hall; Oliver Francis, farm bailiff; Sarah Legh, farmer; John Wilson, gardener to J. H. Lloyd, Esq.; and William Withers, carpenter.

NEWTON,
a small township, comprising two farms only, is the property of the Hon. Henry Wentworth Powys, and Richard Betton, Esq., and is situated three and a half miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury.  At the census of 1841 there were 2 houses, and a population of 21 souls.  The Shrewsbury and Chester railway passes through the township.  The farm premises of Samuel Davies, at Cross Green, Berwick, are situated within the bounds of this parish.

The resident farmers are Samuel Davies and Charles Kent.

WOLLASCOTT,
another small township in the parish of St. Mary’s, is situated four miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury.  In 1841 there were 4 houses and 23 inhabitants.  John Arthur Lloyd, Esq., and Lady Tyrwhitt are the land owners.  The occupants of the farms are James Teece and Richard Tonkies.

HADNAL, OR HADNAL EASE,
is a township and chapelry in the parish of Middle, five miles N.N.E. from Shrewsbury.  The village is pleasantly situated on the turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Chester, and contains some good farm houses and a commodious and respectable inn.  The township contains 814a. 2r. 19p. of land.  Viscount Hill is the principal land owner; besides whom Sir Andrew V. Corbet, Mr. Charles Woodward, Mr. Joseph Morris, Mrs. Wildig, and others, are also owners.  The population in 1801 was 362; and in 1841 there were 92 houses and 429 souls in the chapelry, and 221 in the township.  Rateable value, £1,119. 16s. 8d.  Rent charge, £107. 18s.

The Episcopal Chapel is a neat stone edifice, mantled with ivy; it has a square castellated tower, ornamented with a clock, and the chapel is surrounded with a spacious cemetery, the margin of which is fringed with flourishing limes, yews, and fir trees, which give it a pleasing and rural appearance.  In the east window are several fragments of stained glass, apparently of the date of the erection—the sixteenth century.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the rector of Middle, and enjoyed by the Rev. William Oliver, of Astley Lodge.  In the Liber Ecclesiasticus the living is returned at £55.  The annual value, however, now is upwards of £70, arising from the sum of £400, royal bounty, and the moiety of the rent of a farm in the township of Criggion, which was purchased with money belonging to the livings of Preston Gubbals, Hanwood, and Hadnal, by the then incumbent, who, in consequence of enjoying several benefices, was denominated “St. John of the Seven Churches.”  The chapelry contains the townships of Alderton, Hardwick, Haston, Shotton, and Sneethcott.  Rateable value of the chapelry, £5,614. 17s. 9d; acres, 2,418 0r. 20p.  The Banasters, a family of considerable note in former times, had an estate and seat at Hadnal as early as the time of William the Conqueror.  The hall was a spacious mansion of chequered timber work, and occupied a site near the episcopal chapel.  The moat may still be traced, adjoining the turnpike road.  Mr. Hulbert is of opinion that Hadnal Hall was the place where the Duke of Buckingham was betrayed by Humphrey Banaster, in 1483, from whence he was taken to Shrewsbury, and, without trial, beheaded, by command of Richard III.  Thomas Banaster, of Hadnal, was sheriff of the county in 1403.

Providence Grove is a neat house, the residence and property of Mr. Charles Hulbert, the author and publisher of an elaborate history of the county, and numerous other publications.  On the 7th of January, 1839, an awfully destructive fire occurred at Providence Grove, and so rapid was the progress of the devouring element, that all the valuable property, consisting of a library of more than 3,000 volumes, manuscripts, curiosities, paintings, furniture, a large stock of new books and engravings, with the whole of the house, and a great portion of the houses adjoining, were consumed.  The loss to the proprietor was irreparable, as only the premises were insured, and those at one half of their value.  Mr. Hulbert has now arrived at a good old age, and is publishing an account of his own life, which he entitles “Seventy Years of an eventful Life.”

The Independent Chapel, a neat stone fabric, was built in 1832.  The congregation is under the pastoral care of the Rev. David James.

The Free School is endowed with £300, bequeathed by Dame Mary Hill, in 1787, who at the same time made the following bequests, viz., £30 towards building a school-house in Hadnal, £100 to the treasurer of the Salop Infirmary, the interest of £100 to be distributed among poor persons residing in Hadnal, the same amount for the benefit of the poor of Middle, and the residue of her personal estate for such charitable purposes as she by a codicil to her will should direct.  The residue of the personal estate amounted to £1,305 2s. 5d., in respect of which £30 per annum is paid to a dissenting minister at Hadnal, £14 towards the support of the school, and £10 to Prees school.  These several sums appear to be the interest of £1,200, at 4½ per cent.; it is stated the balance, £105. 2s. 5d. was applied in building the school at Weston.  In respect of the £300 bequeathed to Hadnal school, £12 per annum as the interest thereof is paid to the teacher.  It does not appear that any new trustees have been appointed for carrying into effect the trusts declared in the will of Dame Mary Hill.  The management has therefore continued in that family.

It is stated in the parliamentary returns of 1786, that Mr. Watkins gave £15 for the use of the poor of Hadnal.  About thirty years ago Sir Andrew Corbet gave £10, on the marriage of his son, for the same purpose.  These two sums are in the hands of Viscount Hill, and he pays 20s. annually as the interest thereof.

Birch William, provision dealer

Brittain Mr. Thomas

Brookes Benjamin, farmer

Cooper the Misses, the Academy

Davies John, farmer

Dodd Samuel, blacksmith

Ellis William, farmer

Heath Thomas, provision dealer and boot and shoe maker

Hulbert Charles, author and publisher, Providence grove

James David, Independent minister

Lee William, farmer

Leech John, farmer

Leech Sarah, schoolmistress

Payne Stephen, farmer

Powell John, wheelwright

Preston John, farmer

Walton Ann, vict., Saracen’s head

ALDERTON,
a township and village in the chapelry of Hadnal, three miles N.N.W. from the latter place, contains 239a. 3r. 37p. of land, the owners of which are Mrs. Minor, Miss Corbett, and Mr. William Teece.  Population in 1841, twenty-five.  Rateable value, £410. 6s. 8d.  Rent charge, £54. 5s.  The resident farmers are John Clay, Cornelius Maddocks, and Richard Williams.  The following are resident in the village of Alderton, but situated within the boundaries of the parish of Broughton, viz.: Joseph Mullinex, blacksmith; William Sutton, wheelwright; and Richard Williams, blacksmith.

HARDWICK,
is a small township about a mile north from Hadnal, which comprises 372a. 2r. 1p. of land, the rateable value of which is £551. 6s. 2d.  Inhabitants in 1841, thirteen.  Rent charge, £23.  Hardwick Hall, a handsome mansion delightfully situated in a well wooded park, was the country seat of that distinguished warrior, the late General Lord Hill, who greatly improved the hall and pleasure grounds, and erected a handsome lodge of Grinshill free stone, at the entrance from the Shrewsbury turnpike road.  A more detailed account of this illustrious commander, who spent his last years amidst the rural beauties of Hardwick, has been given at a preceding page.  The property is now vested in Viscount Hill, and the Misses Hill reside at Hardwick Hall.  Robert Blantern, Hardwick Grange, is the only resident farmer in this township.

HASTON
township, situated one mile W.W. by N. from Hadnal, contains about 400 acres of good land, the owners of which are Viscount Hill, Wilbraham Egerton, Esq., and Messrs. Richard and William Boodle Pickstock.  Rateable value of the township, £574. 18s. 6d.  Population in 1841, 78, Rent charge, £62.  There are two respectable farm residences in this place, one of which has recently been built by the Messrs. Pickstock.  The resident farmers are Mr. George Blantern and Messrs. Richard and William Boodle Pickstock.

SHOTTON,
a small township pleasantly situated on elevated ground, two miles N.W. from Hadnal, contains 230a. 2r. 13p. of land, the rateable value of which is £417. 4s. 6d.  Colonel Watkins owns the whole township.  The number of inhabitants at the census in 1841 were twenty-two, at which period the land was divided into two farms.  Within the last few years the two farms have been united, and the whole township is now farmed by Mr. John Groome.  The tithes are commuted for £54. 5s.

SMETHCOTT
township, situated a mile and a half W. by N. from Hadnal, in 1841 had a population of seventy souls.  The houses are scattered, and the land is well timbered, which gives the whole a pleasing and rural appearance.  The township contains 588a. 0r. 28p. of land, the owners of which are Mrs. Sarah Bayley and the two Mr. Edward Groomes.  Rent charge, £92. 3s. 6d.  Rateable value, £767. 9s. 1d.  The Black Birches is a handsome and pleasantly situated house, the property and residence of Mrs. Sarah Bayley; besides whom, Mr. Francis Lloyd Bayley, Mr. Edward Groome, farmer, and Mr. Edward Groome, farmer, are residents in this township.

PRESTON GUBBALS OR GOBALDS
is a parish township, and small village 4½ miles N. from Shrewsbury, on the turnpike road from that town to Chester.  The township contains 1350a. 3r. 5p. of land, the principal owner of which is Lady Tyrwhitt; R. R. Slaney, Esq., M.P., is a small proprietor, and there are also a few small freeholders.  The former is lady of the manor and impropriatoress.  Population in 1801, 313, and in 1841, 388.  Rateable value, £1,386.  This place is said to have derived its name from one Godebalte, a clerk to Roger de Montgomery, and was anciently called the priests town of Godebalte, which eventually became corrupted to Preston Gubbals.  The Church, dedicated to St. Martin, is a small fabric of primitive simplicity, with a porch on the south side, composed of massive oak timber; the living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Prees, and is endowed with a farm at Criggion, in Montgomeryshire, of 58a. 3r., with a sheep walk of about 28 acres; the Rev. William Stephens Burd, M.A., is the incumbent, and resides at a neat residence near the church, which has been built with the intention of attaching it to the living.  There is a small library, of standard divinity, in the vestry of the church, which was given by Charles Mather, Esq., for the use of the officiating clergyman.  The tithes are commuted for £170.  This township includes a portion of Bomere Heath, where there are a number of small cottages, and a Wesleyan New Connexion chapel within the bounds of it.  In the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is stated that Richard Brethens in 1777 bequeathed £100 for the benefit of the poor of Preston Gobalds; the interest is usually laid out in coals, and distributed among the most deserving poor of the parish.  Besides the farmers given in the directory, John B. Minor, Esq., holds the Lea Hall farm in the township.  There are 220 acres of wood land in the parish.

Directory.—Rev. William Stevens Burd, M.A.; Farmers, Edward Acton, Robert Hales, and Richard Poole; William Littlehales, wheelwright; William Thompson, wood bailiff to Lady Tyrwhitt.

MERRINGTON
township, 1¼ miles N.W. from Preston Gobalds, and 5½ N.N.W. from Shrewsbury, contains 898a. 1r. 26p. of land, which is the property of Lady Tyrwhitt, except one farm held by R. R. Slaney, Esq., M.P.  The population in 1841 was returned at 188 souls, at which time there were 46 houses.  Rateable value, £1073 5s. 6d.  This township comprises a considerable portion of Bomere Heath, which was enclosed upwards of forty years ago; it is now the most densely populated part of the township, and consists chiefly of small detached cottages, with a few acres of land or a garden plot attached to each cottage.  Here is an Independent chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, and a Wesleyan New Connexion chapel, not far from each other, the two former are in this township, and the latter in Preston Gobalds township.  There is also a free school for all the children in the parish, which is supported by R. R. Slaney.  About two-thirds of the land in Merrington is arable, a deep loamy soil prevails in some places, and in other parts a cold clay.

Directory.—Farmers, John Jones, Joseph Kent, William Kent, John Shore, and William Shore; William Dodd, blacksmith; the rest are at Bomere Heath, Richard Ellis, shoemaker; James Holmes, contractor; Martha Owen, butcher; John Price shopkeeper; and John Wright, schoolmaster.

UFFINGTON
is a parish and small village delightfully situated on the banks of the Severn, three miles E.N.E. from Shrewsbury.  The parish contains 1309a. 3r. 9p. of land, and forms a part of the Sundorne domain, which is the property of Andrew William Corbett, Esq.  At the census of 1801 the population was returned at 120 souls and in 1841 there were 32 houses and 163 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1804. 19s.  The picturesque beauty of the village, surrounded by a lovely and fertile country, and its contiguity to Haughmond Hill, which commands a most delightful view of the surrounding district, causes this to be a place of much attraction in the summer season for pleasure parties from Shrewsbury and other places.  There is a good inn, with a spacious bowling green, which is kept in admirable order, where parties may recreate themselves and have every attention and comfort at a moderate charge, from the worthy host of the “Corbet Arms.”  A spacious room which opens upon the bowling green will accommodate nearly a hundred persons.

About half a mile east from Uffington is Haughmond Hill, from the summit of which is seen a most beautiful, panoramic view of the fertile plains of Shropshire, the lofty steeples of its ancient capital, the windings of the graceful Severn, and in the distance the blue mountains of Wales, whilst in the foreground is seen the stately mansion of Sundorne Castle, adorned with battlements and turrets, which forcibly reminds us of the beautiful lines of Mrs. Hemans:—

The stately homes of England,
How beautiful they stand!
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
O’er all the pleasant land.

Upon the summit of the hill has been built a castellated tower, which is a conspicuous object for many miles around.  Near the tower is a steep crag, down which the Earl of Douglas leaped with his horse, on being closely pursued, after his escape from the battle of Shrewsbury.  He was seriously injured by this daring act, and on his being taken prisoner, the king set him at liberty, in admiration of his valour.

The Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a small fabric of venerable appearance, with a porch on the south side, and a small belfry.  The interior harmonizes with the simplicity of the structure.  The font is large and circular.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £49, in the patronage of Andrew William Corbett, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. John Oliver Hopkins, M.A.  In the churchyard are several fine old yew trees.

Pimley House is a handsome residence, pleasantly situated about a quarter of a mile from the village.  It stands on a gentle acclivity rising from the Severn, and commands some fine prospects.  The house was completed in 1849; it is of brick, with stone finishings, exhibiting the Elizabethan style of architecture.  Pimley House is the occasional residence of Andrew William Corbet, Esq., of Sundorne Castle.

A Neat Schoolhouse and residence for the teachers was built in 1849, on the turnpike road leading to Shrewsbury, by A. W. Corbet, Esq., who also munificently supports the institution, which is free to all the children of the tenants upon the Sundorne estate.  There is also a good Sunday school nearly opposite the church.  This parish is intersected by the river Severn, and the Shropshire union canal.

Corbet Andrew William, Esq., Sundorne Castle, and Pimley House

Allen John, farmer, corn miller, and brick and tile makers

Bullock Richard, blacksmith

Davies John, farm bailiff, Pimley

Evans John, farmer

Evans Robert Lloyd, gentleman

Grice Thomas, vict., Corbet Arms

Hazledine John and Co., coal merchants; John Mabury, agent

Heath Thomas, shoemaker

Hopkins Rev. John Oliver, M.A., Parsonage

Jarratt Stephen, schoolmaster

Ralphs Samuel, carpenter and clerk

Sproston Edward, tailor

THE OSWESTRY HUNDRED.

The Oswestry hundred is bounded on the east by the hundred of Pimhill, on the north and west by Denbighshire, and on the south-west by Montgomeryshire.  The river Ceiriog bounds the hundred at the northern extremity, and the Vernieu and the Severn form the southern boundary.  The population of this hundred in 1821 was 17,189; and in 1841, 19,858, of whom 3,956 were in the lower division of the hundred, and 15,902 in the upper division.  Of the total number of inhabitants at the latter period, 9,805 were males, and 10,054 females.

The lower division of the hundred contains the following parishes and townships, viz., Cotton, Dovaston, Eardiston, Edgerley, Felton West, Haughton, Kinnerley, Knockin, Kynaston, Maesbrook Issa, Maesbrook Ucha, Melverley, Osbaston, Rednal, Ruyton of the Eleven Towns, Sandford, Shelvock, Shotatton, Sutton, Tedsmore, Twyford, Tyricoed, Woolston, and Wykey.

The upper division contains Aston Abertanatt, Berghill, Blodwell, Bryn, Cynynion, Crickheath, Daywell, Ebnall, Fernhill, Frankton, Halston, Henlle, Hindford, Hisland, Ifton Rhyn, Llanvorda, Llanyblodwell, Llanytidman, Llanymyneck, Lynclys, Maesburg, Marton Old, Martin St., Middleton, Morton, Oswestry, Pentregaer, Porkington, Selattyn, Sychtyn, Sweeney, Treprenal, Trefarclawdd, Treflach, Trefonen, Weston Cotton, Weston Rhyn, Whittington, and Wootton.

HALSTON,
an Extra-parochial Liberty, three-quarters of a mile east from Whittington, and three and a quarter miles E.N.E. from Oswestry, contains upwards of 500 acres of land, which is the property of Edmund Wright, Esq., of Halston Hall.  This place formerly belonged to the Knights Templars, or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.  It is called in deeds Halystone, or Holystone, and was formerly a sanctuary.  Meyrick Lloyd, lord of some part of Uwch Ales, in the reign of Richard I., would not submit to the English government, to which the hundred of Dyffryn Clwydd, and several others, were at that time subject; and having seized some English officers, who came there to execute the laws, put several of them to death.  From this fact the lands were forfeited to the king, and Lloyd fled and took sanctuary at Halston, where its possessor, John Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, received him under his protection.  It was given by this family to the Knights Templars, and in the 26th of Henry VIII. we find the commandary valued at £160. 14s. 10d. a-year.  On the abolition of this religious order, King Henry VIII. empowered John Sewster, Esq., to dispose of this manor to Alan Horde, who made an exchange with Edward Mytton, Esq., which alienation was confirmed by Queen Elizabeth.  Halston was the birth place of the celebrated General Mytton, who was born in 1608.  By his courage and conduct many strongholds in North Wales and Shropshire were subdued, and he greatly distinguished himself in several battles.  An ardent love of liberty, it seems, was the motive which governed his conduct; for finding that Cromwell’s views were ambitious, he resigned his command and retired.  General Mytton died in London, in 1656: his remains were conveyed to Shrewsbury, and interred in St. Chad’s church.  The church or chapel is a small fabric, situated in the park, about five hundred yards from the south front of the hall.  The interior is neatly fitted up, and contains an ancient font, of an octagonal shape, rudely carved; an old stone coffin which has been dug up, lies near the tower.  The living is a donative, without any other revenue than what the chaplain is allowed by the owner.  The Halston estate, after being held by the Myttons from the time of Henry VIII. to the present century was sold in 1817 to Edmund Wright, Esq., the present proprietor.  The hall, a spacious and elegant mansion of brick with a stone portico, has been greatly improved by the present owner.  It is beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies, and opens into a beautiful and finely-timbered park of about 200 acres.  Near the front of the hall is a fine sheet of water, and the river Perry, a small stream, takes its course through the park.  The kitchen gardens are in a sheltered situation a little west from the hall, and cover upwards of five acres.  Pineries and greenhouses are now in course of erection.  At the census of 1841, Halston is returned as containing three houses and thirty-four inhabitants.

Directory.—Edmund Wright, Esq., Halston Hall; Charles Galloway, gardener, the Hall; Thomas Ward, farmer, Kinsall.

KINNERLEY
parish contains the townships of Kinnerley and Argoed, Dovaston, Edgerley, Kynaston, Maesbrook Issa, Maesbrook Ucha, Osbaston, and Tyrycoed, which together have an area of 5,891a. 2r. 28p. of land.  Rateable value, £7,761. 9s. 9d.  Rent charge, £942. 1s., of which £170 is apportioned to the vicar, and £772. 1s. to the impropriators.  Population in 1801, 1,110; in 1841, 1,286.

Kinnerley and Argoed, a township and pleasantly situated village, seven miles S.E. from Oswestry, and twelve miles N.W. by W. from Shrewsbury, contains 848a. 0r. 9p. of land, mostly an undulating district, producing good wheat and barley.  The principal land owners are Edward Downes, Esq.; John Morris, Esq.; Mr. John Doune; Rev. Thomas Frank; Mr. John Hilton; Mr. William Parkes; Mr. John Lewis; Mr. Thomas Barlow; Mr. Henry Bowman; Mr. Edward Baddow; Mr. John Pugh; Mr. Edward Evans; the vicar of Kinnerley; Mr. Jones; Mr. Griffiths; and others.  George Edwards, Esq., is lord of the manor, and holds a court, the jurisdiction of which extends over Kinnerley Argoed and Edgerley.  It is stated in ancient records that Kinnerley Castle was plundered and destroyed by Llewellyn, prince of Wales, during the early part of the reign of Henry III.  We afterwards find that he was compelled to promise to make satisfaction for the injury he had done; but it appears the restoration of the castle never took place.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is built of red sandstone, and has a square tower, with the date of 1600.  The nave and chancel were enlarged and beautified in 1755.  There are several beautiful monuments in the church, one of which remembers the Rev. John Bridgeman, D.D., bishop of Chester, who died in 1719.  In the tower are three fine-toned bells, which were re-cast at Kinnerley.  It is related that a farmer returning from Shrewsbury fair, where he had sold two cows named Dobbin and Golden, passing the furnace, was asked what he would give towards the new bells, when he jocularly replied that he would give Dobbin and Golden, at the same time emptying a large handkerchief of silver coin into the furnace.  From this circumstance the bells have ever since been called Dobbin and Golden.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the King’s book at £7. 6s. 8d.; now returned at £114; in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and incumbency of the Rev. Edmund Wolryche Orlando Bridgeman.  The vicarial tithes of this township are commuted for £18. 12s. 2d.; and £103. 4s. 6d. are paid to Mrs. Tayleur, and £2. 16s. 6d. to other impropriators.  There are 30a. 1r. of glebe land.  The tithes formerly belonged to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, in whom the patronage of the living was also vested.

Charities.—John Payne left £6, Edward Payne a yearly sum of 4s., and Richard Payne the sum of 10s. yearly, for the benefit of the poor.  These sums are secured upon a piece of land in Lwynygo.  Nicholas Thornes bequeathed £10, Roger Thornes a like sum, and Thomas Thornes £5, which gifts are secured upon land in Edgerley township, called Brokist.  Mr. Kynaston gave the interest of £10 to the poor; Elizabeth Morgan bequeathed £50.  Henry Morgan a rent charge of 10s. per annum.  The three last bequests are secured on land in Melverley.  A yearly sum of £2 is paid to the churchwardens from land which was formerly the property of the Hanmer family.  There are two pieces of land in Edgerley, the rent of which, £2. 17s. 6d. per annum, is received by the churchwardens, but from whom it was derived is not known.  The amount of these rents, with the produce of the several charities above mentioned, being £11. 7s. 6d. per annum, are distributed in small sums on Good Friday.  Roger Gethin left £40, which was laid out in the purchase of two small crofts in Tyr-y-coed, for the benefit of the poor.  The land produces £3. 10s. yearly.  John Hickin left a rent charge of 10s. yearly, and the poor have a like sum yearly from the bequest of Margaret Dyos—noticed with Great Ness.  Hester Farmer, in 1691, gave the rent of a close every fourth year, to be distributed among the poor of Kinnerley.  The field is now let for £23 per annum:—See the charities of St. Chad, Shrewsbury.

Post Office—At Mr. Jonathan Rodgers.  Letters arrive from Oswestry at 11.30, and are
despatched at 2 40 P.M.

Barrett Richard, grocer and provision dealer

Bather Thomas, grocer, druggist and seedsman, wholesale and retail

Beddow Thomas, carrier to Oswestry and Shrewsbury

Bevan Edward, thrashing machine and drill man

Bridgeman Rev. Edmund W. O., vicarage

Croft William, farmer

Davies Thomas, blacksmith

Davies William, shoemaker

Downes Edward, Esq., Argoed hall

Glover Timothy, carrier to Oswestry and Shrewsbury

Griffiths Edward, carpenter

Griffiths Joseph, wheelwright

Hanmer John, corn miller

Jones Richard, shoemaker, Argoed

Morgan John, farmer

Morris John, farmer

Morris Richard, shoemaker

Parkes William, grocer and vict., Cross Keys

Pugh John, maltster and farmer

Roberts Edward, cooper

Rodgers Elizabeth, boarding and day school

Rodgers Henry, painter and glazier

Rodgers Henry, farmer

Rodgers Jonathan, vestry and parish clerk and assistant overseer

Rodgers Jonathan, vict., Swan Inn

Thornes Mr. Henry, Argoed farm

DOVASTON
township is pleasantly situated one mile and a half N.E. from Kinnerley, and seven and a half S.E. from Oswestry, and contains 353a. 2r. 10p. of land.  In 1841 there were 39 houses and 157 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £725. 8s. 6d.  The soil is good pasture land, and, being a mixture of peat and loam, produces good barley.  The Earl of Bradford is the lord of the manor; and the principal landowners are J. F. M. Dovaston, Esq., Mr. Richard Candlin, Mr. John Frank, Mr. John Hilton, Mr. James Jones, Mr. Joseph Lloyd, Mr. John Mansell, the Vicar of Kinnerley, Millington Hospital, Mrs. Thornes, Mr. Thomas Pugh, and Mr. Henry Whitford.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £6. 17s. 8d., and the rectorial for £36. 3s. 1d.

Bennion John and Edward, carpenters

Bevan John, farmer and carrier

Butler Samuel, farmer

Cambage George, farmer

Davies David, carpenter, The Heath

Davies Thomas, sawyer

Davis William, carrier

Edwards Richard, stone-mason

Griffiths Edward, sawyer, Knuckin Heath

Griffiths Samuel, carpenter

Grindley George, farmer

Jones Thomas, shoemaker

Jones Thomas, farmer

Lloyd John, wheelwright, The Heath

Mansell John, farmer

EDGERLEY,
a scattered village and township in the parish of Kinnerley, three miles and a quarter S. from Kinnerley church, contains 1383a. 0r. 9p. of land, and in 1841 had a population of 265 souls and 64 houses.  Rateable value, £1,694, 4s. 8d.  The rectorial tithes are commuted for £120. 18s. 4d., and the vicarial for £44. 9s. 9d.  The following are the chief landowners:—The Earl of Bradford, Mr. Thomas Bather, Mr. James Candlin, E. H. Dymock, Esq., Mr. John Comberbach, Sir B. Leighton, Bart., Thomas Mansell, Esq., Mr. Owens, Mr. Parker, Messrs. Rogers, Rev. William Thomas, and others.  George Edwards, Esq., is lord of the manor.  Pentre is a small scattered hamlet, in the township of Edgerley, where is a venerable ash tree of immense girth, remarkable as standing upon a site where the dioceses of Hereford, Lichfield and Coventry, and St. Asaph, all unite.  It also marks the division of the parishes of Great Ness and Kinnerley.

Croxen Richard Jones, Esq.

Davies Mrs. Elizabeth, Edgerley Hall

Davies John, farmer

Davies Richard R., butcher

Edwards Richard, tailor

Evans Robert, mason

Heatley E., Brookhouse farm

Higginson Saml., victualler, Royal Hill Inn

Hopkins Richard, gardener

Jones John, farmer and butcher

Jones Thomas, farmer

Jones William, farmer

Lloyd John, wheelwright

Lloyd Samuel, farmer

Newall Thomas, farmer

Owens Robert, farmer

Price Jeremiah, farmer

Pritchard Thomas, horse breaker

Rigley Smith, beerhouse & shopkeeper

Rodgers William, farmer

Roberts William, farmer

Williams John, bricklayer

Williams William, farmer & grazier

KYNASTON
is a small township, mostly an undulating district, with a fertile soil, one mile and a half S.E. by S. from Kinnerley, and nine miles from Oswestry.  In 1841 here were 32 houses and 135 inhabitants.  The township contains 517a. 1r. 39p. of land, of which 245 acres are arable, 240 meadow, 11 woodland, and the remainder in gardens and homesteads.  The landowners are the Earl of Bradford, Mrs. Eleanor Bather, Rev. S. S. Burroughs, Mr. John Candlin, John Hilton, Esq., Mr. William Duckett, Mr. Thomas N. Parker, and Mrs. Thornes.  The tithes were commuted in 1836, when £11 was apportioned to the vicar, and £61 to the impropriators.  The Independents and the Primitive Methodists have each a small chapel in this township.  Directory.—Farmers: John Candlin, John Mansell, William Probert, William Rodgers, and William Rodgers, jun.  William Davies, tailor.

MAESBROOK ISSA,
a township situated two miles S.W. by S. from Kinnerley, and seven and a quarter miles from Oswestry, contains 864a. 3r. 28p. of land, and in 1841 had 19 houses and a population of 101 souls.  Rateable value, £1,226. 17s. 2d.  Of the land, 254a. 1r. 27p. are arable, 584a. 0r. 33p. rich meadow land, and the remainder 24a. 2r. 12p. are in homesteads.  The land has an undulating surface, and the soil is a stiff loam, producing good wheat and barley.  The land owners are the Earl of Bradford, Mr. Richard Bennett, Mr. R. J. Croxon, Mr. John Edmunds, Mr. John Frank, The Earl of Liverpool, Mr. James Payne, Mr. Richard Savage, Mr. Hugh Skelhorn, the executors of William Shuker, and the Vicar of Kinnerley.  The Earl of Bradford is lord of the manor.  The vicarial tithes were commuted in 1845 for £25, and the large tithes for £103. 2s. 6d.  The freeholders are the impropriators.  Pentreheylin Hall, a delightfully situated residence commanding beautiful views of the country, is the property of Richard Jones Croxen, Esq., and residence of Mr. John Edwards.  The farm premises are spacious and admirably arranged.  The cattle are chiefly stall fed; there are stalls for feeding 90 head of cattle, besides accommodation for upwards of fifty milk cows.  The cheese made is of a superior quality.

Bennett Catherine, farmer

Brown Mrs. Elizabeth, Pentre Parva House

Brown Joseph, farmer

Davies John, farmer and corn miller

Edwards John, farmer, Pentreheylin

Edwards John and Sons, cattle dealers

Howells Samuel, wheelwright

Jones Edward, grocer, draper, and general provision dealer

Lloyd John, farmer, The Grove

Pritchard Samuel, farmer

Skelhorn Hugh, farmer

MAESBROOK UCHA
is a pleasant village and township, containing some genteel residences, two miles and a half W. from Kinnerley and seven miles S. from Oswestry.  The township contains 1060a. 3r. 36p. of superior land; the meadows producing an abundance of vegetation, on which large flocks of sheep and herds of cattle are grazed.  The land stretches to the extreme western verge of the county, and is separated from Montgomeryshire by the river Vernieu.  The up-land has a gravelly soil, and produces wheat, barley, and oats.  In 1841 here were 49 houses and 264 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,461. 4s. 1d.  The land owners are the Earl of Bradford, Richard Croxen, Esq., George Edwards, Esq., the Earl of Liverpool, James Payne, Esq., Mr. Evan Arthur, Mr. William Shuker, William Taylor, Esq., John William Thornes, Esq., Rev. Mr. Thomas, Samuel Ward, Esq., and others are also proprietors.  The Earl of Bradford is lord of the manor.  The tithes were commuted in 1847, when £37 was apportioned to the Vicar of Kinnerley, £146. 19s. 9d. to Mrs. Tayleure, and £9. 2s. 6d. to Samuel Ward, Esq.  Pentra Ucha Hall, the residence of Frederic Alexander Payne, Esq., is a handsome stuccoed mansion, commanding beautiful views of the surrounding country.  Dyffryd House is the property and residence of William Taylor, Esq., celebrated as a breeder and feeder of superior stock.  The house is pleasantly situated near the banks of the Vernieu, and the farm premises exhibit a pattern of completeness.  The turnpike road from Burlton to Llanymyneck crosses the township.  The Baptists and the Primitive Methodists have each a place of worship here.

Adams John, painter, plumber, and glazier

Breadley Richard, wheelwright

Davies Edmund, butcher

Davies John, gentleman, Greenfield House

Davies John, farmer

Davies Thomas, farmer

Davies Thomas, farmer and carrier

Dean Thomas, painter, plumber, and glazier

Grindley John, farmer

Hayes George, grocer and vict., Black Horse

Lawrence Samuel, farmer

Lewis John, farmer

Lloyd John, farmer

Payne Frederick Alexander, Esq., Pentra Ucha Hall

Perry Edward, farmer, The Wood

Ridge Mrs., farmer, The Field

Rodgers John, farmer

Taylor William, farmer and grazier, Dyffryd House

Tudor John, blacksmith

Ward Charlotte, farmer

Ward Samuel, gentleman, The Wood

OSBASTON
township, two miles N.W. by W. from Kennerley, and 5½ miles S. from Oswestry, contains 558a. 3r. 11p. of land, and in 1841 had 23 houses and 125 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £757 18s. 6d., of the land; 259a. are meadows and pasture 267 areable, and 8 acres are in wood and homesteads.  The soil is a mixture of marl and sand; the farmhouses are well built and provided with convenient out premises.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Bradford; Mr. Thomas Clemson; J. F. M. Doveston, Esq., Mrs. Ann Williams; John Jones, Esq.; Mrs. Jones; Mr. James Knight; Rev. E. H. Dymock; J. J. Thomas, Esq.; and Mr. Samuel Ward.  The tithes were commuted in 1848, when £120 was apportioned to John E. Pugh, Esq., the impropriator, and £17 5s. to the vicar of Kennerley.

The following are the principal residents, viz.: Capt. Thomas Evans, R.N., Osbaston Wood; Farmers, Thomas Griffiths, James Knight, Edward Pugh, and George Peacock; George Bate, gardener; John Lloyd, blacksmith; and John Rogers, tailor and clothier.

TIR-Y-COED,
a scattered township 1½ mile S.W. from Kennerley, and 8½ S.S. by W. from Oswestry, in 1841 had 7 houses and 29 inhabitants, and has 305a. 0r. 3p. of land, of which 105 are arable, and the remainder meadow and pasture.  The soil is chiefly a strong loam.  Rateable value, £363 9s. 6d.  The tithes were commuted in 1847, when £9 was appropriated to the vicar and £51. 9s. to the impropriators.  The chief landowners are Sir Edward C. Disbrowe Knt., Mr. David Adams, Mr. Richard Downes, Trustees of Millington Hospital, Mr. William Downes, Mr. William Duckett, Rev. E. Dymock, Mr. John Edmunds, Mr. John Jones, Mr. James Payne, Mrs. Thornes, Mr. John Suckley and others.  The residents are John Gittins, gentleman; William Richards, farmer, The Field; Joseph Evans, bricklayer; and William Rogers, basket maker.

KNOCKIN,
a parish and pleasant rural village, contains several genteel residences, and is situated six miles S.S.E. from Oswestry, and twelve miles N.W. by W. from Shrewsbury.  It has 1389a. 3r. 16p. of land, and had in 1801 210 inhabitants, in 1831 311, and in 1841 54 houses and 271 souls.  The soil is a mixture of sand and loam.  The returns of 1841 include Heath Farm an extra parochial liberty, having two houses and seven persons.  Rateable value, £1,982. 1s.  The principal land owners are the Earl of Bradford; Joseph Lloyd, Esq.; Mrs. Sarah Jones; Richard Hilton, Esq.; John Hilton, Esq.; Mrs. Ann Williams; Mr. Thomas Higginson; Mr. William Thomas; Edware Downes, Esq.; Edward Parry, Esq.; and lady Tyrhwitt.  There are also several smaller freeholders.  The Earl of Bradford is lord of the manor, and holds a court at the Bradford Arms.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, a small handsome structure in the early English style of architecture, was re-built in 1847 of red sand stone.  The interior has a very chaste and elegant appearance, and the fabric exhibits some fine specimens of decorated workmanship.  The living is a rectory in the patronage of the Earl of Bradford, enjoyed by the Rev. Robert Ridsdale, a non-resident.  The Rev. F. B. Foulkes is the officiating minister.  The tithes are commuted for £325.

The National School and residence for the teacher is a neat building, erected by the Earl of Bradford.  It is supported by subscriptions and a small charge from each scholar.  The income is about £60 per annum.

Knockin Hall, situate on the east side of the village, a spacious mansion of brick, is the seat of the Hon. Captain Charles Orlando Bridgeman.  It stands on a gentle eminence commanding delightful views into Wales.  The interior is finely adorned with antique carved furniture, and the walls are ornamented with valuable and beautifully executed paintings.  The park is small, but pleasingly diversified with graceful undulations, and enriched with fine timber.  A beautiful avenue leads to the hall.  The Knockin Heath Farm, situated about two miles S.E. from the church, contains 350a., and is the residence of John Cooke, Esq.  The Hall Farm, an extensive range of premises a short distance from the village, is the residence of Richard Hilton, Esq.

Knockin is said to have given name to the ancient family of L’Estrange, who built Knockin Castle, and fixed their seat here.  Guy L’Estrange had three sons, Guy, Hamon, and John, all of whom held lands in Shropshire by gift of Henry II.  The younger, Guy, was sheriff of this county from the 2nd to the 11th of Henry II.; other branches of the family were subsequently appointed knights of the shire.  Ralph, son of the above Guy, gave the chapel of Knockin to the canons of Haughmond.  John L’Estrange, in the 33rd of Henry III., procured a market for the town on Tuesday, and a fair on the eve, day, and day after the anniversary of the decollation of St. John Baptist.  Madoc, who was at the head of an insurrection against the king’s officers of North Wales, marched against Lord L’Estrange and defeated him at Knockin.  The male line of the family failing in John L’Estrange in the 17th of Edward IV., who leaving an only daughter Joan, she married George Stanley, who was created Earl of Derby by Henry VIII.  The title of Knockin is still kept up, though the family is extinct; the eldest son of the Derby family being styled Lord Strange.  The castle was demolished during the civil wars in the time of King John.  At present there is scarcely a vestige remaining.  Some of the stones were used to build the churchyard walls, and a bridge over the brook, and a large quantity of them were carried away to mend the roads.  The fairs and market have long been obsolete.

Bridgeman The Hon. Capt. Charles Orlando, R.N., Knockin Hall

Adams Mr., painter, plumber, and glazier

Barrett Thomas, farmer and vict., Bradford Arms

Barneby Alban M., schoolmaster

Burroughs John, vict., Cross Keys

Cooke John, farmer, Heath house

Davies Edward, farmer

Davies Edward, farmer, Heath Farm

Evans John, butler

Evans Mrs., shopkeeper and baker

Foulkes Rev. F. B., The Wain

Griffiths Alice, farmer

Griffiths Edward, farmer and land agent

Griffiths Edward, builder and contractor

Gwynne George, cooper

Haustin William, tailor

Hilton John, Esq., farmer, Knockin House

Hilton Richard, farmer, Hall Farm

Jones John, joiner and carpenter

Jones John, surveyor and collector

Lloyd Joseph, builder and contractor

Lloyd William, farmer

Maddox John, veterinary surgeon

Maddox William, blacksmith

Maddox William, assistant overseer and collector

Morris John, tailor

Morris Samuel, grazier and butcher

Price William, butcher

Price S. M., shopkeeper

Ratcliffe James, shopkeeper

Ratcliffe Richard, saddler and harness maker

Roberts Thomas, boot and shoemaker

Thomas William, farmer

Llanyblodwell is a parish on the western verge of Shropshire, adjoining the county of Denbigh, comprising the townships of Abertannat, Blodwell, Bryn, and Lynclys, which together, at the census of 1841, contained a population of 961 souls and 200 houses.  The parish is bounded on the east by Offa’s-dyke, noticed at the preceding page.

ABERTANNAT,
a village and township one mile S.E. from Blodwell, contains 1073a. 3r. 17p. of land, 19 houses, and 102 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,135. 12s 5d.  The land has mostly a strong soil, upon the limestone, considered good for grazing purposes.  The proprietors are Lord Godolphin and John Hamor, Esq.  Earl Powis is lord of the manor.  The tithes have been commuted for £90. 2s. 2d., of which £39. 7s. has been apportioned to the Rev. R. Williams; £13. 9s. 10d. to the Rev. R. M. H. Hughes; and £37. 5s. 4d. to the Rev. John Parker.  Abertannat Hall is the pleasantly situated mansion of John Edwards, Esq.  The scenery in the vicinity is most beautiful and picturesque.  Upon the towering heights of some of the hills are seen prospects of unbounded extent.  The lands abound with game, and the rippling stream of the Tanat meanders at the foot of the hills, well stocked with trout and other fish.

Directory.—John Edwards, Esq., The hall; James Davies, farmer, Llan; Robert Edwards, farmer, Cafn; Thomas Jones, shopkeeper; Charles Jones, gamekeeper; John Jones, farmer, Garth-issa; William Jones, farmer, Gath-ucha; Richard Jones, gamekeeper; William Lloyd, blacksmith and vict., Horse Shoe Inn; Richard Lewis, farmer, Tynycoed; John Morgan, huntsman; William Pritchard, farmer, Cafn; Matthew Roberts, schoolmaster.

BLODWELL
is a pleasant village in a hilly and romantic country, six miles S.S.W. from Oswestry, having 87 houses and 384 inhabitants.  The township contains 1677a. 1r. 18p. of land.  Rateable value, £1777, 1s. 9d.  Gross estimated rental, £1989 18s. 9d.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Powis, Earl of Bradford, Mrs. Aubrey, Rev. John Parker, John Bonner, Esq.; John Edwards, Esq.; and John George Edwards, Esq.; the former is lord of the manor.  The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a venerable fabric, the exterior of which is now undergoing a complete reparation at the expense of the present incumbent.  The body of the church is divided into two compartments, and has a pitched roof, supported by columns and arches in the Norman style of architecture.  The chancel is tastefully decorated, and contains a splendid stained glass window; it is fitted up with stalls, and separated from the body of the church by an antique oak screen, richly carved.  The church has had additions and alterations made at several different periods; in 1835 the accommodation of the church was increased by the addition of 47 sittings.  The chancel contains several handsome memorials, one of which remembers the Bridgemans, of Blodwell; another very elegantly designed is commemorative of the late Sir John Bridgeman, Bart.; there are also monuments to the Godolphins, Matthews, and others.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s books at £7. 12s. 6d., and now returned at £271 in the patronage of the bishop of St. Asaph, and incumbency of the Rev. John Parker, M.A.  Divine service is performed alternately in the Welsh and English languages.  The vicarage is a modern and commodious erection of brick, in the decorative style, with ornamental chimneys, and is situated a short distance from the church; a considerable portion of the house has been built by the present incumbent.  The bishop of St. Asaph is the impropriator of the large tithes, which are commuted for £211 9s. 6d., and the small tithes payable to the vicar are commuted for £36. 9s. 3d.

Blodwell Hall, a modern stuccoed mansion delightfully situated, is the residence of William Lyons, Esq.  The hills above the hall command a scene of sublimity and beauty, perhaps unsurpassed in any part of Wales.  The summits of innumerable mountains are seen at once, rising in every variety of ridge, the distant in softest azure, and the near clothed in the richest verdure, with hanging woods, fertile meadows, and the bright rivers, Vernieu and Tanat, meandering at the foot of the hills, on their way to join the sunny waters of the magnificent Severn.  Turning towards England, a perfect contrast is presented, in the fertile and expansive plains of Shropshire, richly wooded, and profuse in luxuriant vegetation, terminated on the south by the noble Wrekin, and on the north and east by the faint outline of the distant hills of Cheshire and Stafford.  The river Tanat is crossed by a stone bridge at the point of separation of this township and that of Abertannat; at the Grove about a mile and a half below Blodwell it has its confluence with the river Vernieu, which here separates Shropshire and Denbighshire.

The School is endowed with £100 bequeathed by Ursula Bridgeman in 1713; £100 the gift of Sir John Bridgeman in 1739; and £100 given by Judith Bridgeman.  In 1825 it was discovered that there was £300 stock in the old south sea annuities standing in the names of trustees, but that no dividends had been received thereon since the 6th April, 1801.  In September, 1825, £211. 10s. was received for the arrears of dividends, out of which sum £57. 10s. 6d. was paid for the expense of recovering them, of transferring the stock, and of the new trust deed, and £123. 7s. 2d. was expended in 1826 and 1827 in re-building the school.  Out of the dividends amounting to £9 per annum, £7 is paid to the schoolmaster, the residue having hitherto been reserved for repairs.  According to the deed of 1753 the master is entitled to three-fourths of the dividends; 50 scholars attend the school, which is partly supported by the vicar.

Edward ap Thomas, by his will bearing date 13th October, 1657, gave a rent charge of £2. 12s. yearly to the poor of Llanyblodwell and Llansilin, in equal portions.

Directory.—William Lyons, Esq., The hall; Rev. John Parker, The vicarage; Farmers, John Davies, Sarah Ellis, Richard Hughes, Edward Morris, Thomas Owen, Mary Roberts, and Edward Wall, The hall farm; Matthew Roberts, schoolmaster.

BRYNN,
a small village and township 1¼ mile N.W. from Blodwell, has 1118a. 0r. 35p. of land, 37 houses and 200 inhabitants.  The country around Brynn is bold and mountainous, and the uplands are cold and exposed.  The farms are in general small.  Rateable value, £1063. 15s.  The principal landowners are John Wynn Eyton, Esq.; John Hamor, Esq.; Mrs. Owens; Rev. John Parker; and the Earl of Powis; there are also several other freeholders.  The tithes are commuted for £176. 16s. 10d., of which £85. 8s. 5d. is apportioned to the vicar of Blodwell, £27 7s. 1d. to the Rev. Maurice Jones, and £64. 1s. 4d. to the bishop of St. Asaph.  Glanyrafon House, the seat of John Hamer, Esq., is situated on an eminence, on the line of road leading into North Wales; it is surrounded with park-like grounds finely timbered and studded with thriving plantations, and from the elevated position of the mansion it has an imposing appearance.  It commands views of great diversity and picturesque beauty; the meanderings of the Tanat giving an additional charm to the fairy scene.  Bryntanat Hall, the occasional residence or hunting box of William Henry Perry, Esq., is picturesquely seated on the knoll of a hill, the foot of which is washed by the rippling stream of the Tanat.  Although the hall is situate near to Bryan, it stands within the bounds of the county of Denbigh.

Directory.—John Hamor, Esq., Glanyrafon Hall; William Henry Perry, Bryntanat Hall; Farmers, Walter Davies, Edward Edwards, Richard Edwards, Richard Griffiths, Robert Hughes, Edward Jones, William Jones, Richard Kilner, Richard Phillips, and Richard Richards.

LLYNCLYS,
a village and small township, four miles S.W. by S. from Oswestry, contains 608a. 0r. 3p. of land; and in 1841 there were 57 houses and 275 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £917. 4s. 3d.; gross estimated rental, £1,013. 11s. 10d.  The Earl of Bradford; Earl Powis; Rowland Hunt, Esq.; Philip Jennings, Esq.; Hon. Thomas Kenyon; Rev. John Parker; Mr. Humphrey, and others, are land owners.  The township is crossed at right angles by the Oswestry and Welshpool and the Knockin and Llansilin turnpike roads.  There are extensive lime works in this township: a considerable quantity of that commodity is used by the farmers on the western borders of Shropshire and in Wales for agricultural purposes.  Llynck Lys Pool is a small but beautiful lake of great depth, of which strange and superstitious tales prevailed in former times.  It is stated that the lake was formerly the site of a royal palace, which in fairy times was sunken below the earth by a fairy spell.  The late Mr. Dovaston, of the Nursery, in a ballad entitled “Llynch Lys,” thus beautifully introduces the tradition:—

“Still the villagers near, when the lake is clear,
Show the towers of the palace below,
And of Croes Willin there, will the traveller hear,
And the cave called the grim Ogo.

And oft from our boat of a summer’s eve,
Sweet music is heard to flow,
As we push from the side of the blue lake’s tide,
Where the long green rushes grow.”

The rushes and reeds which grow on the margin are of extraordinary length; some have been drawn upwards of eighteen feet in length.  The water lily here flourishes with the greatest luxuriance, and throws out a profusion of blossoms upon the surface of the crystal waters.  Porthy-Waen is a populous hamlet in Llynclys township.

Those with * affixed are at Llynclys, and the rest at Porthy-Waen.

Davies Thos., vict., Red Lion

* Evans Thomas, farmer

* Griffiths Ann, farmer, Nut Tree Bank

Griffiths Francis, shopkeeper and baker

Griffiths Mary, farmer

Hughes Thos., toll collector

Hughes John, shopkeeper

Howell John, schoolmaster

Jones Edward, beerhouse

* Jones Mary, farmer

Jones David, shoemaker

* Lawrence Edward, farmer

Lewis Mary Ann, lime works

Lewis John, beerhouse

* Lloyd William, beerhouse keeper and lime works

Martin Maria, beerhouse

Newal Mrs., quarry owner

Pryce William, shopkeeper

Parkes Edward, blacksmith

Probert Edward, assistant overseer and collector

Roberts John, Dolgorth lime works

Savin Mary, lime works

Williams John, lime works

Williams John, jun., lime works

LLANYMYNECH
is a parish which contains the townships of Llanymynech-Llanytidman and Treprenal, partly situated in this county, and partly in the counties of Denbigh and Montgomery, in Wales.  The entire parish in 1801 had 596 inhabitants; in 1831, 887; and in 1841, 954.  Rateable value, £3,987.  The village of Llanymynech is pleasantly situated, six miles south from Oswestry, and ten miles N.W. by S.S. from Shrewsbury.  It has attained its present importance from the extensive quarries of limestone with which the vicinity abounds.  Considerable quantities of the stone are sent to the Staffordshire iron works, for fluxing the metals.  It is also burnt into lime.  The Chester, Ellesmere, and Newtown canal affords facilities for carrying the material to distant parts.  Copper ore was formerly found in considerable quantities, but the mines have not been worked for some time.  There are 1,281 acres of land, the principal owners of which are the Earl of Bradford; Earl Powis; John Lloyd, Esq.; Richard Nightingale Broughton, Esq.; Rev. William Evans; Rev. John Luxmoore; Robert Wall, Esq.; Mr. Parker; Philip Jennings, Esq.; R. W. Kynaston, Esq.; T. W. Thomas, Esq.; Robert Wall, Esq.; Rev. William Thomas; Mrs. Evans; Hon. Francis West; Thomas West, Esq.; and Robert West, Esq.  Earl Powis is lord of the manor.  The soil is various in this parish.  The meadow lands on the banks of the Vernieu are enriched by that river frequently overflowing its banks.  The river is here crossed by a substantial stone bridge of three arches; and about a mile and a half from the village a branch of the Ellesmere canal is conducted over the river by an aqueduct of five arches, near which it is joined by the Montgomeryshire canal.

The Church, dedicated to St. Agatha, consists of nave, chancel, side aisles, and a square tower with one bell.  It was rebuilt in 1845, in the decorative style of English architecture, and exhibits some fine chiselling and ornamental workmanship.  The interior is neatly pewed, and has a very chaste appearance.  The living is a rectory, valued in the King’s book at £12. 13s. 4d., now returned at £394, in the patronage of the Bishop of St. Asaph, and enjoyed by the Rev. John Luxmore, M.A.  The rectory, a neat stuccoed residence a short distance from the church, has been much improved by the present incumbent.  The tithes are commuted for £380.  The National School stands near the churchyard, and is supported by subscriptions and a small charge from the scholars: about sixty children are educated.  There is a school for girls in the village.  Fairs are held on April 1st, May 29th, and September 23rd, and are generally well attended.  A coach leaves the Red Lion Inn for Shrewsbury and Welshpool daily.

On Llanymynech hill is an artificial cave of considerable length, called Ogo (from the Welsh word Ogof, signifying a cave), supposed to have been worked by the Romans as a copper mine.  It contains many sinuosities, and is generally about three yards wide, having many turnings and passages connected with each other.  Some years ago, all the passages of this subterraneous labyrinth were explored by J. F. M. Dovaston, Esq., when none of the paths were found to extend more than two hundred yards from the entrance.  The passages are cut through the rock, which is of limestone, whereon frequently appear the marks of chisels, and the various ramifications have no doubt been made in quest of the rich veins of ore.  Subsequent to the Romans, it probably became either a place of refuge after battle, or a depository for the dead, for human skeletons, culinary vessels, hatchets, and Roman coins have been found in this cavern.  A finger-bone was picked up with a ring on it.  One of the skeletons had a curious battle-axe beneath his arm, and not far from it were the bones of a man, woman, a child, a dog, and a cat.  Some time ago several Roman coins, mostly of Constantine, were found in the earth which was washed down the side of the hill.  The water which drops in some parts of the cave is of a petrifying quality, and forms stalactites; the drops of water hanging on the points of each, catch the light of the candle, and give the surrounding space a glittering illumination extremely beautiful.  It is probable that a battle has been fought here in disputing for this mine, or that the large entrenchments, that run parallel with the Clawdd Offa eastwardly, were made to defend it.  Not far from this cave is a Cromlech, called the Giant’s Grave.  At the north-east end are four large stones, which formerly supported a fifth flat stone on their points, in form of a Brandart, called in Welsh Trwbad; but these are now thrown down.  Towards the south-west proceed two rows of flat stones, six feet asunder, and thirty-six in length.  On digging here a Druid’s celt was found, and several other things, with human bones, the teeth very perfect.

There is a sum of £26 in the hands of the churchwardens, the origin of which is not known.  It was received from the executors of the late incumbent, who died in 1829.  The interest is distributed among poor women of the parish at Christmas.

LLANYTIDMAN
is a township with a scattered population, five and a half miles south from Oswestry, having in 1841, 113 houses and 545 inhabitants.  Here are extensive stone quarries and lime works, and the township is intersected by the Ellesmere and Llanymynech canal, and the Oswestry and Llanymynech turnpike road.

TREPRENAL
is a small township in Llanymynech parish, comprising three houses and 21 inhabitants.  Here is Llwynygroes Hall, the residence of R. N. Broughton, Esq., delightfully situated, commanding fine views of the surrounding country.

Post Office.—At Mr. John Lloyd’s.  Letters arrive by gig mail from Oswestry at 9.30 A.M., and are despatched 4 P.M.

Those marked 1 reside at Llanytidman, 2 at Treprenal.

2 Asterley Thomas, farmer

Asterley William Lloyd, Esq.

Batterbee Charles, brazier, plumber, painter, and beerhouse keeper

Baugh Margaret, vict., Cross Keys

1 Bothell Mary, farmer

Bower William, wool agent

2 Broughton Richard Nightingale, woolstapler and maltster, Llwynygroes hall

Broughton and Asterley, grocers, drapers, and general dealers

Davies Mrs., gentlewoman

1 Davies John, farmer and miller

Dovaston Edward Milward, surgeon

1 Dyke Isaac, farmer

Ellis Letia, tailor and draper

1 Evans John, farmer, gardener, and rate collector

Griffiths Richard, blacksmith

Griffiths Richard, draper and grocer

1 Griffiths Jn., quarry master

Gwynne George, cooper

Gwynne George, shoemaker

Hackett John, tallow chander

1 Harris Geo., quarry master

1 Harrison John, farmer

Hughes Edward, shoemaker

1 Humphreys James, vict., Cross Guns

Jeffreys John, weaver

Jones Edward., saddler and harness maker

1 Jones Thomas, farmer

Leak Francis, toll collector

Lloyd John, farmer, timber merchant, builder, and vict., Lion Inn

Lloyd Richard, vict., Dolphin

Luxmoore Rev. John, the Rectory

Morgan Edward, saddler and dealer

Morris John, shoemaker

Parkins Charles, shoemaker

Poole Mrs., gentlewoman

1 Price Elizabeth, farmer

Price Hugh, seedsman

1 Pryce William, gentleman, Holly Bush

Pugh Henry, seedsman and druggist

Pugh James Owen, grocer and draper

Ratcliffe Samuel, farmer

Richards Richard, farmer, maltster, and vict., Bradford Arms

1 Roberts William, gentleman, Prospect cottage

Rodgers Edward, farmer

1 Savage Elizabeth, farmer

2 Sheldon Wm., gentleman

Thomas Thomas, farmer

Thomas Robert, schoolmaster and parish clerk

Watson Miss, post office

Whitticose Mary, gentlewoman

Williams Sarah, schoolmistress

Carrier.—Hugh Price, to Oswestry on Wednesdays and on Mondays, Saturdays, and Welshpool on Mondays.

ST. MARTIN
is a parish, and small but pleasantly situated village, five miles N.E. from Oswestry, and about the same distance W. from Ellesmere.  The parish comprises the townships of Bronygarth, Ifton Rhyn, and Weston Rhyn, containing together 5,314a. 2r. 25p. of land, and had in 1801, 1,476 inhabitants; in 1831, 2,099; and in 1841, 2,200.  The village of St. Martin is included in Ifton Rhyn township, which contains 2,813a. 2r. 33p. of land; and at the census of 1841 had 217 houses and 1,620 souls.  Rateable value, £4,570.  The principal land owners are the Right Hon. Arthur Trevor Viscount Dungannon, of Bryn-Kinalt Castle, the Hon. W. M. B. Nugent, Dean and Chapter of Winchester, R. G. Jebb, Esq., J. Haslam, Esq., Joshua Jones, Esq., Mrs. Fallows, and Edward H. Dymock, Esq.  This township lies on the N.W. confines of the county, and has some fine grazing land.  It is separated from Denbighshire by the Ceiriog river.  The Morlass brook here turns several corn mills, and has its confluence with the Ceiriog about a mile from the Erewescob corn mill.

The Church, dedicated to St. Martin, stands on an eminence, and is a conspicuous object for many miles around.  It consists of nave, north aisle, chancel, and a massive square tower at the west end.  The side aisle is separated from the nave by five pointed arches rising from octagonal pillars.  The east end of the church and the east window have recently been rebuilt; the lower part of the window is divided into three compartments, and the upper part is foliated, and ornamented with stained glass.  The windows on the south side of the church are also richly adorned with stained glass.  The one near the pulpit has beautiful representations of St. Peter and St. Paul; another has the armorial bearings of the bishop of the diocese, the rural dean, and the vicar.  There are also the armorial bearings of Viscount Dungannon, by whose munificence the church has been renovated; and these beautiful decorations have been added within these last twenty years.  The old font, which is of stone, has been re-hewn and modernized.  A beautiful mural marble monument remembers Richard Phillips, Esq., of Thyn-y-rhos, who died in 1824, and his second son, Richard, ensign of the 17th regiment of the Hon. East India Company’s service, who died at sea, off the Cape of Good Hope, on his return from India in 1832.  There are also several other neat tablets in the church.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £5. 2s. 3½d., now returned at £320, in the patronage of the Bishop of St. Asaph, and enjoyed by the Rev. William Hurst, M.A.  The Vicarage is a neat residence, a little W. by S. from the church.  The vicarial tithes have been commuted for £261, and the rectorial for £862.  On the west side of the churchyard is a lofty and finely proportioned elm tree, which is seen at a great distance; and about a quarter of a mile west from the church, near the toll-gate, stands a magnificent oak tree of considerable magnitude.  Ifton Heath is a scattered district, chiefly of detached cottages, half a mile N.W. from the church.  Here the Primitive Methodists and the Wesleyan Association have each a small chapel.  The Primitive Methodists have also a chapel on St. Martin’s Moor, a scattered district of houses near a mile, W. by S. from the church.

Charities.—Bryngwyla School, situated about a mile W.W. by S. from the church, was founded in 1705 by Edward Phillips, for the instruction of twelve poor boys of the parish of St. Martin to read and write.  Mr. Phillips also endowed the school with the sum of £100, and directed £3. 12s. yearly to be paid to the schoolmaster, who was to occupy the school-house rent free, on condition of his keeping the premises in repair.  The donor also directed 4d. to be given to each boy every Ascension day for his encouragement; and 5s. to be expended by the vicar, trustees, and schoolmaster, in remembrance of the benefactor.  The master now receives £4. 13s. 6d. per annum, from which 5s. is paid to the trustees, but nothing is paid to the children.  The master receives 25s. yearly in respect of John Price’s charity hereafter mentioned.

Almshouses.—The almshouses are situated near the west side of the churchyard.  They consist of six tenements, mantled with ivy, and are supported by Lord Dungannon.  The inmates are clothed, receive 15s. a quarter, a loaf of bread on Fridays, and two tons of coal yearly.  There is also a school, where twelve children are clothed and educated.

Arthur Trevor, of Kay Mark, left £2 a-year; one half to be given to the poor on St. Thomas’s day, and the other half on Good Friday.  The amount is paid by the agent of Lord Dungannon.

Thomas Abellis left 21s. per annum, payable out of a piece of land called Cae-Rhoes.  In 1812, Edward Birch, a mortgagee, and Edward Jones, in consideration of £220. 10s., conveyed to the Ellesmere Canal Company a parcel of land called Cae Rhoes, and the said Edward Jones covenanted that he would indemnify the said company from a rent-charge of 20s., payable out of the said premises.  The property is still in the possession of the Ellesmere Canal Company, but nothing had been paid thereout to the poor for a period of twelve years when the Charity Commissioners published their report.  Application had been made to Mr. Price, of Felton Butler, who married the heiress of Mr. Jones, and he promised to continue the payment of this rent-charge.

Edward Phillips charged a piece of land with the payment of 4s. yearly for the benefit of the poor.

John Price bequeathed £100, and directed the interest of £25 to be applied in the education of youth, and the interest of £75 to be bestowed in clothing for some of the poorest parishioners.  The amount is secured on a piece of land in Weston Rhynn, from which £5 are paid yearly.

There are two cottages in the township of Soutley, in the parish of March Weil, Denbighshire, adjoining premises purchased by the governors of Queen Ann’s Bounty, for the augmentation of the vicarage of St. Martin’s.  These cottages have for a length of time been let for the benefit of the poor; but it is not known when or how the rents became thus appropriated.  They were repaired some time ago at an expense of £30, which was borrowed for this purpose, and they are now let for £6 a-year.  Of the rent, £3 is applied in paying off the debt, and the remaining £3 is given among the poor on St. Thomas’s day.

Hugh Lloyd left a rent-charge of 16s. per annum, issuing out of certain lands, called Cae Dickin, in Weston Rhynn, and directed the amount to be expended in sixteen dozen of bread, to be distributed on St. Thomas’s day.  It is stated on the table of benefactions, that “Richard Berkley, for Hugh Lloyd, pays for ten dozen of bread on St. Thomas’s day for ever.”  The gift of Edward Edwards, of 20s. per annum to the poor of St. Martin’s, is void under the statute of 9 George II.  It is stated in the parliamentary returns of 1786, that David Hughes left £10 for the benefit of the poor; and among the parish documents there is a bond, dated in 1746, from Thomas Phillips, of Trehowell, for the payment of this money.  Nothing, however, has been paid on this account for many years.

Post Office—At Esther Edwards.  Letters despatched at 2.30 P.M.

Beckitt Godfrey, butcher

Beckitt John, victualler, Cross Keys

Beckitt Roger, farmer, and land and timber valuer, Cadwagans Palace

Boodle William, shopkeeper

Dodd Richard, farmer, Pennybank

Dodd William, farmer and corn miller

Edwards David, tailor

Edwards Esther, farmer and shopkeeper

Edwards Mary, farmer, Peny-bryn

Edwards William, farmer

Griffiths Richard, schoolmaster

Harrison Francis, tailor

Hughes, Mrs. Jane

Hughes John, farmer, Erewescob

Hughes Robert, shopkeeper

Hughes Sarah, farmer and corn miller, Erewescob Mill

Hurst Rev. William, M.A., vicar

Isaac Jane, farmer, Rhosyllan

Jones Edward, wheelwright

Jones Elizabeth, farmer

Jones George, shoemaker

Jones Jane, shopkeeper

Jones Joshua, Esq., Wigginton Hall

Jones Richard, bricklayer, Glynmorlass

Jones Thomas, farmer, Wigginton

Jones William, provision dealer, St. Martin’s Moor

Jones William, shoemaker

Kynaston William, farmer, Wigginton

Lee Richard, farmer, Ifton Hall

Lee William, parish clerk

Lewis Thomas, grazier, Brook House

Matthews George, schoolmaster

Newnes Peter, shoemaker

Owen Richard, farmer, Glanywern

Parry Joseph, cooper

Powell Frances, schoolmistress

Powell Thomas, wheelwright

Powell William, wheelwright

Poynton John, farmer, Glenrid

Price John, farmer

Prynallt William, farmer

Randles Elizabeth, farmer

Roberts Edward, farmer, Wigginton

Roberts Joseph, tailor

Roberts Mary, farmer

Roberts Samuel, victualler, Crown Inn

Rogers Jane, schoolmistress

Rogers John, farmer and maltster, Ifton

Rogers Joseph, registrar & assistant overseer

Rogers Richard, shoemaker

Rogers Robert, stonemason

Rowland Elizabeth, farmer

Williams Daniel, farmer

Williams Jane, farmer

Williams John, farmer, Wigginton

Woodvill Thomas, farmer and maltster, Pine Bryn

Woollam Charles, farmer

Woollam John, farmer

WESTON RHYN
is a township and scattered village from two to three miles W. from St. Martin’s Church, containing 1850a. 2r. 4p. of land, and in 1841 here were 195 houses and 856 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £4,053.  The principal land owners are Frederick Richard West, Esq.; Rev. John C. Phillips; John Richard Powell, Esq.; Mr. James Edwards; E. H. Dymoch, Esq.; T. E. Ward, Esq.; Mr. John Pritchard, and Mrs. Dickin, Mr. Edward Heys, and others are also proprietors.  A neat and ornamental school, in the early English style of architecture, was built in the year 1850 at the Lodge.  The structure is of stone got from the neighbouring quarries, with the Cafn hewn stone for the windows and ornamental portions of the building; it measures 20 feet by 40 feet, and has a pitched roof with a neat belfry.  The cost of the structure was £700, of which £40 was given by the National Society and £130 by the Privy Council on Education, the rest was raised by voluntary subscriptions.  A residence for the teacher adjoins the school.  The Calvinistic Methodists have a chapel at the lodge, built in 1811, the services of which are conducted in the Welsh language.  Coal of a good quality is found upon the estate of John R. Powell, Esq.; a steam engine is now in course of erection to clear the mines of water.  The Quinta, a handsome castellated residence built of lime stone, stands on a gentle acclivity, and commands some pleasing views to the south.  It is surrounded with shrubberies and park-like grounds, and is the residence of Rowland Jones Venables, Esq., and the property of F. R. West, Esq.  On the knoll of a hill a short distance from the hall, the owner of the estate about ten years ago caused immense blocks of stone to be reared up in the exact form of the celebrated Druidical Temple at Stonehenge.  From this eminence a most beautiful panoramic view of the surrounding country is seen.  Prees-gwene House, the residence and property of John Richard Powell, Esq., stands in a sheltered situation embosomed in foliage.  The Shrewsbury and Chester railway intersects this township, and has a station at Preesgwene, 1½ mile from Gabowen, and 22 miles from Chester.  The large tithes of Weston Rhyn are commuted for £270.

Calcott William, corn miller

Davies William, butcher

Duckett Mary, corn miller, New mill

Duckett Mrs. Tamar, Weston villa

Edwards Moses, maltster & vict., The Lodge Inn

Evans David, boot and shoe maker, The Lodge

Evans William, farmer, Berllan-deg

Griffiths Francis, wheelwrigt

Griffiths Thomas, colliery owner and shopkeeper

Hayes Mr. Ed., The Lodge

Hughes Hugh, farmer

Hughes John, inland revenue officer, The Lodge

Hughes John, carpenter

Hughes William, carpenter

Jackson Richard, butcher, The Lodge

Johnson William, maltster and vict., New Inn

Jones John, blacksmith

Jones Peter, saddler and shopkeeper

Jones Thomas, paper manufacturer, Morda

Jones Thomas, farmer

Lewis Richard, farmer

Lloyd Elizabeth, blacksmith

Peate Martha, farmer and maltster, Moreton hall

Phillips Rev. John Croxon, Tryn-y-rhos

Powell John Richard, Esq., Prees-gwene house

Poynton Thomas, farmer, Weston hall

Richards Thomas Anderson, station master, Prys-gwane

Roberts Daniel, provision dealer, The Lodge

Roberts Hugh, farmer

Roberts Thomas, farrier

Rogers John, farmer

Rogers Walter, farmer

Scudamore Mr. John, Moreton hall

Smith Frederick William, Esq., Green field lodge

Thomas David, farmer, The Vron

Turner Joseph, beerhouse & shopkeeper, The Lodge

Usher John, butcher

Vaughan William, tailor

Venables Rowland Jones, Esq., The Quinta

Williams Ann, farmer

Williams Edward, farmer

Williams John, farmer

Williams John, shoemaker and shopkeeper

Williams John, carpenter

Williams Thos., corn miller

BRONYGARTH,
a small township in St. Martin’s parish, with 645a. 1r. 28p. of land, lies on the verge of the county, and is separated from Denbighshire by the Ceireog river.  It lies about four miles W.W. by N. from the parish church, and in 1841 had 71 houses and 164 inhabitants.  Frederick Richard West, Esq., and the Rev. John Croxon Phillips, are the land owners and impropriators; to the former was apportioned £36, and to the latter £56, when the tithes were commuted.  The rateable value of the township is £1168.  Tyn-y-rhos is a good house pleasantly situated, the residence and property of the Rev. John C. Phillips.  The scenery in this township is bold and romantic, and some of the land is cold and exposed.  Lime works have been established on the northern confines of the township, bordering on Wales; lime is extensively used by the farmers as a fertilizer, particularly in the north-west parts of the county.

Directory.—Rev. John Croxon Phillips, Tyn-y-rhos; Moses Edwards, lime burner; John Hughes, carpenter; John Jones, blacksmith; William Lloyd, blacksmith; William Mason, shoemaker; Richard Orford, vict., Britannia, John Owen, farmer; Thomas Owen, farmer; Robert Roberts, butcher; Jane Williams, shopkeeper.

MELVERLEY,
a parish and township with a scattered population, 12 miles W.W. by N. from Shrewsbury, and 9 miles S.S. by E. from Oswestry, is situated on the western verge of the county, and is separated from Montgomeryshire by the river Vernieu and the Severn; the former having its confluence with the Severn at the Cymmeran Ferry.  The parish contains 1,445a. 2r. 22p. of land, which from its low situation is frequently inundated by the overflowing of the Severn, thus enriching the meadows and producing the greatest luxuriance; large herds of cattle are usually fed upon the meadows.  In 1801 here was a population of 218 souls; in 1831, 216; and in 1841, 229.  Rateable value, £2,317 5s.  The manor in the time of the confessor was held by one Edric, in whose family it continued till the 9th of Elizabeth, when Henry Earl of Arundle sold it to Young, from whom it subsequently passed to the Willastons.  Lord Craven was afterwards lord of the manor, and it is now vested in George Edwards, Esq.  The freeholders are Colonel Desbrow, Hon. Thomas Kenyon, Mrs. E. Bather, Mr. Henry Adams, Mr. William Parkes, Mr. Edward Williams, Rev. Mr. Maddocks, Mr. A. D. Benyon, Mr. James Jones, Mr. Stephen Matthews, Mr. William Cooper, Mr. Thomas Bromley, Mr. James Payn, Rev. Mr. Dimmock, Mr. William Downes, Mr. Oswell, Mr. Betta, Mr. John Edmunds, Thomas Justice Bather, Esq., Mr. Owen Owens, Mr. Jones, Mr. Manford, Mr. Duckett, and others.

The Church, dedicated to St. Peter, a large fabric of very primitive appearance, built of wood, stands on an elevated piece of ground near the banks of the Vernieu; part of it was swept away subsequent to the year 1478.  Although the workmanship is of the rudest description, yet the magnitude of the building and the fine old porch, give it an attractive and venerable appearance.  The windows are small and admit of very little light.  It contains several ancient memorials, and was fitted up with oak pews in 1718, previous to which it was provided with massive benches.  The living is a rectory annexed to Llandrinio, in the patronage of the bishop of St. Asaph, and enjoyed by the Rev. Henry Rogers.  The tithes were commuted in 1841 for £177. 11s., and there are five acres of glebe.  The parsonage is a neat residence of brick in the Elizabethan style of architecture, built during the years 1846–7.  The Independents have a small chapel with a residence annexed, built in the year 1842.

Charities.—There is a field called the Poor’s Croft, in the upper division of Melverley, containing 2r. 2p., and another piece of land containing about an acre and a half, in the township of Tir-y-coed, in respect of which W. B. Price has for many years paid a rent of 12s. a year.  The premises are stated to be worth £3 per annum, and notice has been given to the parties holding the lands to give up possession to the parish.  There is also a small piece of ground in Melverley, about one and a quarter acre, producing a yearly rent of £3. 3s., which for many years has been carried to the account of the poor’s rate.  Henry Morgen gave a rent charge of 10s. yearly, which is given to the poor on Good Friday.  The poor have also a yearly sum of 5s., left by Mrs. Prees.  The charities of Richard Lloyd and Elizabeth Lloyd are lost; the former left a rent charge of 20s. per annum in 1780, and the latter bequeathed the sum of £20 for the benefit of the poor.

Bather Mrs. Eleanor, Cross lane house

Bill Edward, farmer

Brown Edward, farmer

Davies William, farmer, Melverley hall

Gittings Benjamin, farmer

Jones David, farmer

Jones Ed., grocer & beerhse

Jones Richard, blacksmith

Jones William, farmer

Lewis John, shoemaker and parish clerk

Lewis Thomas, farmer

Lloyd William, farmer

Manford Thomas, farmer, The green

Morgan William, farmer & cattle dealer

Morris Edward, farmer, Cross lane

Owens John, farmer

Pugh John, shopkeeper & beerhouse

Richards John, grocer and cattle salesman

Rodgers Rev. Henry, The parsonage

Rodgers John, assistant overseer and rate collector

Vaughan Richard, farmer

Vaughan Thomas, saddler

Wild John, butcher

Wild John, farmer

Wild Richard, vict., New Inn

Williams Edward, farmer, The green house

OSWESTRY
is a parish, borough, and considerable market town, locally situated in the hundred to which it gives name, seventeen miles and a half N.W. from Shrewsbury, and 179 miles N.W. from London.  The name of Oswestry is connected with some of our earliest historical recollections.  On this spot, on August 5th, 652, was fought the battle between the Christian Oswald, king of the Northumbrians, and the Pagan Penda, king of the Mercians.  Oswald was defeated, and lost his life.  The battle began about four hundred yards west of the church.  The assailant appears to have driven Penda’s forces to a field near the town, called Cae Nef, where Oswald fell, and Penda, with a savage barbarity, caused the breathless body to be cut to pieces, and stuck on poles as so many trophies of his victory.  Oswald’s strict virtue, and zeal for the religion he had embraced, gained him the esteem of his subjects, and his character was so much revered by the monks, that a short time after his death he was canonized.  The importance of the situation, which rendered it one of the keys to the principality of Wales, soon attracted the attention of the political monarch, whose prowess annexed that territory to his dominion.  This place was called by the ancient Britons Tre’r-cadeirian, literally the town of chairs or seats commanding an extensive view.  Notwithstanding the place was Welsh, and continued so above a century after the death of King Oswald, yet it has since gone under his name, and for some time was famed for the miracles wrought there through his intercession.  An ancient poet in noticing Oswald and the fate of Penda says:

“Three gibbets raised, at Penda’s dire commands,
Bore Oswald’s royal head and mangled hands;
The tenor of the fact, and Oswald’s fate,
Were things of moment to the Mercian state.
Vain policy! for what the victor got
Proved to the vanquished king the happier lot;
For now the martyred saint in glory views,
How Oswy with success the war renews;
And Penda scarcely can maintain his own,
Whilst Oswald wears a never fading crown.”

Oswestry is one of the principal towns on the Welsh borders, and is now the most flourishing and prosperous of any in the county.  In 1801 there were 2,672 inhabitants; in 1831, 4,478; and in 1841, 987 houses and 4,566 souls; of whom 2,121 were males, and 2,445 females.  The entire parish of Oswestry, including the town and liberties of Oswestry in 1841, contained 8,843 inhabitants.  The town is situated on a gentle eminence, the streets are in general spacious, and there are many good houses, and retail shops in all the different branches of trade; yet vestiges of its antiquity, timbered buildings with projecting gables, are still to be seen in various parts of the town.  The beautiful prospects from the high ground above the town are perhaps not surpassed by any in the county.  The rich and luxuriant vale of Shropshire lies as it were a map beneath the feet; while the Staffordshire hills, Nesscliff, the Wrekin, and the Styperstones, are seen in the distance.  Towards Wales, the alpine heights and lovely vales are seen in rich profusion; and here the beholder glances upon a country which was eminently distinguished as the birth-place and residence of the children of freedom—a people, who, by their independent spirit and martial prowess, for centuries chastised rapacity and injustice, and made oppression and tyranny tremble upon the throne.  The parish of Oswestry contains the townships of Aston, Cynyion, Crickheath, Hisland, Llanvorda, Maesbury, Middleton, Morton, Oswestry, Pentregaer, Sweeney Trefraclawdd, Trevlock, Trefonen, Weston Cotton, and Wootton.

The Britons were in the possession of Oswestry till the latter part of the eighth century, when the warlike King Offa, passing the Severn with a mighty force, expelled them from their fruitful seats on the plains, and reduced the kingdom of Powis to the western side of the celebrated ditch still known by his name.  The princes of Powis were then constrained to quit their ancient residence at Pengwern and remove to Mathrafel, in the vale of Myfod, and the plains of Shropshire became a confirmed part of the kingdom of Mercia.  The Britons shortly after entered into an alliance with the king of Sussex and Northumberland, and, having made a breach in the rampart, passed the boundary at early dawn, attacked the camp of Offa in an unprepared state, and put great numbers to the sword.  In the middle of the following century, we find Roderic, Prince of Wales, added Powisland to his dominions.  He, according to the custom of gavel-kind, divided his principality among his children.  To Anarawd he gave North Wales; to Cadell, South Wales; to Mervyn, Powisland.  Each wore a talaith, or diamond of gold, set with precious stones; whence they were styled Y Tri Tywysog Taleithiog, or the three crowned princes.  Bleddyn ap Cynoyn, who ruled Wales jointly with his brother, at the Conquest re-united the kingdoms of North Wales and Powis.  The latter, however, eventually devolved to his eldest son, Meredydd, and Oswestry was called Trefred, in honour of this prince.  He made the division, which finally destroyed the potent kingdom of Powis.  To his eldest son, Madog, he gave the part which bore afterwards the name of Powis Madog.  Madog’s chief residence was at Oswestry, where, according to Welsh historians, he built the castle about the year 1140.  He died at Winchester, and his body was honourably conveyed to Powis, and buried at Myfod.  His widow married Fitzalan, Lord of Clun; who, in right of his wife, obtained the town and castle of Oswestry.  This William was a descendant of Alan, who came into England with the Conqueror, and was the first of the Fitzalans that was baron of Oswestry.  This honourable distinction was possessed by the Fitzalans, a powerful race, that existed with fewer checks than common to dignity for more than five hundred years.  The title of Baron of “Oswaldestre” is now held by the Duke of Norfolk.  His ancestor, Thomas Duke of Norfolk, married Lady Mary, daughter of Henry, the last Earl of Arundel, of the name of Fitzalan, in the 13th of Elizabeth, when the lordship of Oswestry was conveyed to the duke.  The Powis family subsequently became possessed of the manor.  Powisland extended from the Broxton hills, in Cheshire, to Pengwerne Powis, or Shrewsbury, including a large tract of land in both those counties, and also comprehended a considerable portion of Wales.  This part of England, previous to the reign of Edward II., was termed the Northern Marches, and was governed by a Lord President, who kept his court at Ludlow Castle, and lived in a style little inferior to that of royalty.

The town of Oswestry had various immunities and privileges granted by different monarchs.  In the 12th of Henry III. John Fitzalan obtained the grant of a fair at his manor of Blancminster, upon the eve, the day, and the day after the feast of St. Andrew, and for two days following.  Edward I. surrounded Oswestry with walls, that it might be less liable to plundering excursions, and as a key to his intended conquest of Wales.  A murage or toll was imposed upon the whole county (except the burgesses of Shrewsbury) for the building of the same for a period of six years.  The walls were about a mile in circumference, with an entrenchment on the outside, which could be filled with water from the numerous springs in the vicinity.  The remains of this fortification may still be traced.  There were also four gates, the only inlets into the town.  These gates, in process of time, became exceedingly inconvenient for the passage of carriages and merchandise, and the Blackgate was taken down in 1766, by the consent of Earl Powis, the lord of the manor.  In 1782, the corporation entered into an agreement for the demolition of the three remaining gates, and appropriating the materials to the erecting of a prison.  This was carried into effect, and pillars substituted in their stead.  The New Gate was built in the reign of Edward II.  It was used as a prison and guard-room for the soldiers.  Beatrice Gate is said to have been named in compliment to Beatrice, wife of Henry IV., and was probably erected in that king’s reign.  Willow Gate or Wallia Gate took its name from being the thoroughfare into Wales.

The governing charter, previous to the date of the municipal act, was one of 25th Charles II., styling the corporation the “Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council, and Burgesses, of the Borough of Oswestry, in the County of Salop,” and appointing a mayor, fifteen aldermen, fifteen common councilmen, a steward of the lord of the manor, recorder, coroner, or old mayor, town clerk, &c.  The mayor, steward, coroner, and recorder, were appointed to act as justices of peace for the borough.  A court of quarter sessions for the criminal jurisdiction within the borough was appointed to be held by the mayor, as president, and one to three of the magistrates.  The boundaries were from the beginning restricted to a certain district within the parish, and in the maps of the municipal boundary commissioners they are still further restricted to the more immediate vicinity of the town.  Under the new municipal act, the borough is divided into two wards, and appointed to be governed by six aldermen and eighteen councillors, under the usual corporate style.  It is included in schedule A among the boroughs to have a commission of the peace, which has accordingly been granted.  The following is a list of persons who have served the office of mayor since the new municipal act came into operation:—1835, John Croxon, Esq.; 1836, Francis Campbell, Esq.; 1837, Charles Thomas Jones, Esq.; 1838, George Dorsett Owen, Esq.; 1839, Griffith Evans, Esq.; 1840, Thomas Penson, Esq.; 1841, John Hayward, Esq.; 1842–3, William Williams, Esq.; 1844, William Price, Esq.; 1845, Thomas Rogers, Esq.; 1846, John Miles Hales, Esq.; 1847, Thomas Hill, Esq.; 1848, John Jones, Esq.; 1849–50, Edward Morris, Esq.  The magistrates who act in the Oswestry district are Joseph V. Lovett, Esq., Thomas Lovett, Esq., Richard H. Kinchant, Esq., W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., the Hon. Thomas Kenyon, and Viscount Dungannon.

Recorder: John Robert Kenyon, Esq.  Coroner: John Miles Hayes, Esq.  Town Clerk and Clerk to Magistrates: Richard Jones Croxon, Esq.  Clerk of the Peace: Robert Simon, Esq.  Surveyor: Mr. Thomas Hughes.  Treasurer: Mr. George Cooper.  Superintendent of Police and Clerk and Inspector of Markets: Mr. Jacob Smith.  The police force consists of a superintendent and six constables.  The income of the borough for the year ending September, 1st, 1850, was £706. 8s. 5d.  The principal items of expenditure were for salaries, £180; police constables and watchmen, £143; prosecutions, £65; gaol expenses, £144; conveyance of prisoners, £29; and miscellaneous expenses, £152.

For upwards of two hundred years the Welsh webs were brought to Oswestry, as the common market, and there bought by the Shrewsbury drapers.  The Welsh wished to draw the trade more into their own country, but the English purchaser could not be persuaded to follow them, on account of the unsettled state of the Principality; and thus Oswestry was constituted an emporium of merchandise, in consequence of its contiguity to Wales.  The “Company of Drapers” in Shrewsbury made a weekly visit to Oswestry to purchase the cloths.  The peril attending these pilgrimages must have been considerable, if we may judge from an order appearing in the records of the Shrewsbury corporation, where, in the 25th of Elizabeth, 1583, it was ordered, that “no draper set out for Oswestry on Mondays before six o’clock, on forfeiture of 6s. 8d., and that they shall wear their weapons all the way, and go in company.”  The corporation paid yearly the sum of £20 to the vicar of St. Alkmund for reading prayers; 6s. 8d. for the light; and 6s. 8d. to the clerk for ringing the bell on Monday mornings, before the drapers set out for Oswestry market.  In 1621, it was agreed by the drapers to buy no more cloths in Oswestry.  The then recorder of Oswestry regarded this withdrawment as inevitably ruinous, and says, “Oswestry flourished and was happy indeed by reason of the market of Welsh cottons.  A thousand pounds in ready money was left in the town every week, sometimes more; but now, since the staple of cloth is removed to Shrewsbury, the town is much decayed and impoverished, Shrewsbury having engrossed the said market.”  For the defence of the rights secured to the burgesses by the various municipal charters, the members of each trade formed themselves into a guild or company, whose duties it was to guard the monopolies of the brotherhood.  Thus we have notices of the company of hatters, glovers, butchers, corvsers, bakers, hucksters, and ale sellers.  The charter of Richard II. directs “that the bailiff should treat as well the poor as the rich, and that the burgesses within the town and liberty should be quit of tolls and stallage.  That none but burgesses should buy any fresh hides or new cloth in the borough.  That they should not be bound to keep any fugitive coming to the church or churchyard, except only for one day and one night next after such flight, within which time they should give notice to the bailiff of the hundred, who should take such fugitive into custody.  That the burgesses should be discharged from all fees of the constable, usher, and door-keeper of the castle, for any felonies committed within the town, for which such burgesses might be imprisoned in the castle, except that the constable at the feast of St. Stephen should receive from every mansion of the burgesses one loaf, from every hall one penny, and from every cottage one halfpenny.  That the penalty of 6s. 8d. should be imposed for selling Shrewsbury ale in the town, half of such fine to go to the burgesses, and half to the lord.  That no such ale should be sold in the town of Chirkslound, Melverdeley, and Kinnardeley, except in the town of Chirk, under the like penalty.  That none of the inhabitants of those lordships, or of Oswestry, Edgerley, and Ruyton, should take any cattle, corn, victuals, or other articles to any foreign fair or market, until the same had been exposed for sale in the town of Oswestry, under the penalty of 6s. 8d.”  Philip, Earl of Arundel, in the year 1581, affected an uncommon concern for the well doing of the town, and in a charter of that date he states “that by the misconstruction of certain words of the charters theretofore given to the town, several acts which ought to have been passed by the common council, had been done and proceeded in by the general voice of all the co-burgesses, whereby contentions and suits of law were occasioned by such popular governments.  Therefore for the quiet and better ordering of the said town,” he arbitrarily appoints the mode of election, directs an oath to be taken by all the burgesses to be loyal and faithful to the Queen’s Majesty, and to be loving and dutiful to the said earl and his heirs, grants them a number of privileges, which had been enjoyed, as he states, from time immemorial, and, with true baronial modesty, not till the close does he discover the secret of all this paternal affection, by the significant clause,—“In consideration of all which agreements, and to the intent that the said bailiffs and burgesses may show their loyalty and good will to the said noble earl, they do undertake to pay him one bundled pounds.”

In the year 1400 Oswestry was burnt during an insurrection of the Welsh.  After a peaceable submission of upwards of a century, they made an attempt to regain their ancient independence under the renowned Owain Glyndwr.  Lord Grey had unjustly seized upon some part of Glyndwr’s estates, which lay between Llangolen and Corwen.  Owain sought satisfaction without having recourse to parliament, but he met with no redress.  He, therefore, animated by his descent from the ancient line of British princes, caused himself to be proclaimed Prince of Wales on September 20th, 1400, and commenced his warlike career by attacking his enemy, Lord Grey, from whom he immediately recovered the lands which that nobleman had deprived him of.  Relying on the valour of his soldiers and the inaccessible mountains of his country, he set at defiance the whole power of England.  He assembled his forces at Oswestry, in order to join Lord Percy against the king.  The Welsh chieftain sent off his first division of 4,000 men (an account of which has been noticed in a preceding page), and at the head of 12,000 men had the mortification of being obliged to remain inactive at Oswestry.  Gough observes, that about two miles from Shrewsbury, where the Welshpool road diverges from that which leads to Oswestry, there stands an ancient decayed oak tree, of which there is a tradition, that Glyndwr ascended it to reconnoitre; but finding that the king was in great force, and that the Earl of Northumberland had not joined his son, Percy, he fell back to Oswestry, and immediately after the battle retreated precipitately into Wales.  In 1409 Glyndwr made great devastations in the Marches, and the estates of Lord Powis suffered greatly.  Several of the officers of the lords of the Marches, for the sake of preserving their country from the fury of the Welsh, by their own authority formed a truce with Glyndwr and his partizans.  King Henry, highly indignant at these agreements, immediately issued writs to the lords of Knockin, Ellesmere, and other bordering manors, to cause such illegal compacts to be rescinded, and Glyndwr and his adherents to be pursued and attacked with the utmost vigour.  Owain appears after this to have secured himself in the mountainous districts of Wales, and to have acted entirely upon the defensive.  He died on the 20th of December, 1415.

That dreadful scourge the plague raged in Oswestry in 1559, and continued throughout the principal part of the year, during which time upwards of five hundred persons were swept away.  About half a mile from the town, on the Welshpool road, is Croes wylan, where a cross formerly stood, the base of which still remains.  During the time of the plague, the market is said to have been held at this cross, lest the country people by coming into the town should be infected.  The plague again appeared in Oswestry in 1585, which the parish register states began in March, and continued until July, when three score and four persons died.  The market for the sale of the flannel webs was held at Knockin until the calamity abated.  In 1542 there was a fire in the town, by which two long streets, with extensive property, were consumed.  In 1567 a fire again broke out and burnt two hundred houses.  The houses were then principally built of timber.  Leland, who passed through Oswestry in the time of Henry VIII., says, “There be within the town X notable streates: the iii. most notable streates be the Cross streate, the Bayly streate, and Newgate streate. with barns for corn and hay to the number VII. score several barns.  There is a castelle set on a mont, be likelihood made by hand, and ditched by south west, betwixt Beatrice streate and Willow gate, to which the wall commith.  The towne standeth most by sale of cloth made in Wales.  There goeth thro’ the towne by the Crosse a broke, comming from a place caullid Simon’s well, a bow-shot without the waulle by N.W.  This broke commith in by the waulle betwixt Willow gate and New-gate, and so renning through the towne, goith out under the Black-gate.  There be no towers on the waulles beside the gates.  The towne is dicked about, and brokettes ren ynto it.  The chirch of St. Oswalde is a very fair leddid church, with a great tourrid steple, and it standeth without the New-gate; so that no church is there within the towne.”

The Castle.—The remains of the cattle consist only of an artificial mount on the north side of the town.  It had a deep ditch extending to Beatrice gate on the one side and Willow gate on the other.  According to Caradoc, the Welsh historian, the castle was founded in 1149, by Madoc, Prince of Powis.  Leland says a tower went by the name of Madoc’s tower, which seems to confirm the account respecting the founder of the castle.  The English historians, however, assign to it a more ancient date, and inform us that it was in being before the Norman conquest, and that Alan had the town and castle bestowed upon him by William the Conqueror soon after his accession.  In the 15th of John, John, nephew of William Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke, being guardian of the Marches of Wales, was at that time constituted governor of the castles of Blancminster and Shrawarden, in the county of Salop.  Llewellin, son of Griffin, son of Madoc, made his complaint to the archbishop of Canterbury against this constable of Oswestry, for disturbing him in the possession of the third part of the ville of Ledrot, and who had compelled him to send two young noblemen to be put to death in an ignominious manner, in derogation of their birth and extraction, which disgrace their parents would not have undergone for £300 sterling; also that the constable had twice imprisoned sixty of his men, for which they were forced to pay 10s. a man for their liberty; also that when the Welsh came to Oswestry fair, the constable would seize their cattle by driving them into the castle, and refusing to pay for the same.  The castle and manor continued in the possession of the Fitzalans, with little interruption until the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  The square now called Bailey-head was the ballium or yard of the castle.  A mount in the castle field outside the great ditch is the site of the Barbican, or the outer gate at which the halt and blind were usually relieved, and is still called the cripple gate.  Within the precincts of the castle there stood a chapel, dedicated to St. Nicholas, wherein during troublous times religious services were performed.  The castle was garrisoned for Charles I. in the beginning of the civil wars; a Colonel Lloyd was governor, Sir A. Shipman succeeded him, and continued in that post until the town and castle surrendered to the parliamentary forces under the Earl of Denbigh and General Mytton, the 22nd June, 1644.  Gough, in his manuscript history of Middle, relates, in his own quaint manner, the assault and capture of Oswestry.  “I will speak of some things that have happened here in my time.  The governor of this town, when it was a garrison for the king, pulled down many houses that were without the walls, lest they might shelter an enemy; the church also being without the walls was pulled down, and the top of the steeple only leaving where the bell frame stood; the bells were brought into the town and the organs were embezzled after.  The town was well fortified, and the castle, which is but small, yet very strong, built by a Prince of Wales, A.D., 1149.  General Mitton, with parliament forces, came and besieged it; he planted his cannon near that part of the steeple which was left; he battered the gate, called Church gate in such sort, that the garrison of soldiers could not stay at it.  General Mitton supposing it was so, but not being sure of it, sent George Cranage, a bold and daring young man, to see whether it were so, who took a hatchet in his hand and went to the drawbridge, and found that the soldiers were gone, and the gate was open, for the cannon had broken the doors, and this Cranage broke the chains of the draw bridge with the hatchet, and let it down, so that the soldiers made haste to enter the town, but those who were within made like haste to meet them, which Cranage perceiving, and seeing a box of drakes standing within the gate ready charged, he turned the box of drakes towards those in the town, and one of Cranage’s partners came with a fire lock and gave fire to them, which made such slaughter amongst the garrison that they retreated and fled to the castle.  Cranage was well rewarded, and being well filled with sack, was persuaded by the general to hang a battau on the castle gate; now a battau is an iron shell as big as an iron pot; it was filled with powder and wild fire balls, and had a handle with a hole in it, by which it might be fastened with a nail to any place.  Cranage takes this battau, with a cart nail and a hammer, and got from house to house into the house next the castle, and then stepping to the castle gate he fixt his battau, and stepping nimbly back again escaped without any hurt.  The battau burst open the gate.”  The inmates were granted quarter, but the royalists failed notwithstanding several attempts to regain the town.  The castle was shortly afterwards demolished, and nothing is now to be seen of it but a lofty circular mount.

About half a mile N.W. from the town of Oswestry is an insulated eminence of an oblong form, surrounded by two ramparts and fosses of great height and depth, which in former days was known by the name of Caer Ogyrfan and Hen Dinas, but now recognized by the title of Old Oswestry.  This elevation bears the strongest marks of having been at some time a place of defence; the top is an extensive area containing 15a. 3r. 0p., and the fortifications which encompass it cannot be less than forty or fifty acres.  A gentleman who visited this spot in 1797 says that a well and pavement had been discovered here.  Some pieces of iron supposed to be armour had been dug up.  The original entrance to this fortification appears to have been on the opposite side of the hill from the great Holyhead road.  There is strong ground for the belief that this eminence was the original site of the town, which afterwards took and now bears the name of Oswestry, and that it was planted there by the ancient Britons at a very remote period.  That it was known to the Britons will appear evident from the fact of both the names we have mentioned as having been applied to it being British or Welsh, Caer Ogyrfan signifying “The Field of Ogyrfan,” who was contemporary with King Arthur, and Hen Dinas signifying “The Old City.”  It is evident that this magnificent work was not a sudden operation like that of a camp, but that it was a work of immense labour and ample security.  The character of the elevation answers to the description given of the position of ancient British towns.  They are said almost always to have been placed on a hill, and Speed tells us that the Britons “gave the name of townes to certain combersome woods which they had fortified with ramparts and ditches, whither they resort and retreat, to eschue the invasion of their enemies, which stand them in good stead, for when they have by felling trees mounted and fenced therewith a spacious plot of ground, there they build for themselves houses and cottages.”  In 1767 as much timber was cut down from the ramparts as sold for £17,000.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a fine old fabric of considerable magnitude, ornamented with a massive square tower at the west end, in which are eight musical bells.  The structure was enlarged and beautified in 1807, and since that period it has undergone great improvements.  A handsome organ was erected by subscription in 1812; it is stated that the old organ, a fine toned instrument, is now in one of the churches in London.  The chancel, commonly called St. Mary’s, was destroyed in 1616, and the tower and part of the body of the church were demolished in the civil wars of 1644.  The vicarage house, which stood on a piece of ground adjoining the churchyard, with many other buildings, were burnt to the ground at the same period, in consequence of the town being besieged.  The church contains many handsome tablets and monumental inscriptions, among which is a beautiful canopy of elaborate workmanship, and underneath it two figures in the attitude of prayer, in memory of Hugh Yale, alderman of this town, and Dorothy, his wife, whose bodies were interred within the chancel of this church, before its demolition in 1616.  On the north side of the chancel is an elegant mural monument, with a latin inscription, commemorative of Richard Maurice, who died in 1700, and other members of the family who died at a subsequent period.  A superb monument at the east end of the chancel remembers Robert Powell Lloyd, who died in 1769, aged five years; Sarah Lloyd, mother of the above, who died in 1790; and Robert Lloyd, Esq., the father, who died in 1793.  A neat tablet at the same end records the death of the Rev. Thomas Trevor, in 1784, vicar of this parish 50 years, and of Rhuabon 15 years, chaplain to W. W. Wynne, Bart., and one of his Majesty’s justices of the peace for the counties of Salop and Denbigh.  There are various other marble tablets, some of them beautifully executed, which our limits will not allow us to notice.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £23. 15s. 7½d., now returned at £507, in the patronage of the Earl of Powis, and incumbency of the Rev. Thomas Salway.  The iron gates facing the town were put up in 1738 at the expense of the parish, at a cost of £46 1s. 4d.  The churchyard was enlarged in 1817.  The elm trees were planted between the years 1707 and 1713.  The vicarial tithes upon 1,832a. 2r. 23p. of land in the town and liberties of Oswestry are commuted for £70 1s. 6d., and the rectorial for £211. £13s. 6d.  There are 82a. 2r. 7p. of land tithe free.  Earl Powis is the impropriator and lord of the manor.  The principal landowners are Earl Powis, W. W. Wynn, Bart.; Earl of Bradford; Richard Jones Croxon, Esq.; William Ormsby Gore, M.P.; Mrs. Lloyd, Thomas L. Longueville, Esq.; and Mr. Williams, besides whom are several other proprietors.

Trinity Church, situate in the Salop road, a neat fabric built of free stone in the decorative style of English architecture, was erected in 1837; it consists of nave and chancel, and the roof is of groined timber, which gives it a very interesting appearance.  There are 670 sittings, of which 400 are declared free and unappropriated for ever, in consequence of a grant from the Incorporated Society, for building and enlarging churches.  There are 28 pews in the body of the church, 29 in the gallery, and the free sittings are open benches.  The gallery contains a small organ, which was presented to the church, on the condition that the incumbent for the time being be allowed to receive the rent of the six pews in front of the communion table, in lieu of the pews in the gallery, partly taken up by the organ, and partly thrown open as free sittings.  The chancel exhibits some fine chiselling and decorative workmanship; the east window is also richly adorned with stained glass.  The living is a perpetual curacy returned at £450, in the gift of the vicar of Oswestry, and is enjoyed by the Rev. John Jones.

The Independent Chapel, situate in Arthur-street, is a commodious and well built brick structure, with stone finishings, and a portico of the Doric order, which gives it a chaste appearance.  The pews are arranged in a semicircular form, and there is a gallery; it will accommodate about 600 hearers.  There is a flourishing society and a Sunday school in connection with the chapel.

The Baptist Chapel, situated in Smithfield, was built in 1805, and enlarged in 1818; it is provided with galleries, and will hold 300 persons.

The Methodist Chapel is a good brick structure, erected in 1811, in the Salop road, and will accommodate 400 worshippers.

The Primitive Methodist Chapel, built in 1801, and situated in Castle Fields, is a brick building cemented; it is neatly pewed and calculated to hold 600 hearers.  There is a small burial ground annexed to the chapel, and a house has been built for the resident minister.

The Welsh Independent Chapel, a small fabric, is situated in Castle Fields.  Divine service is performed in the Welsh language.

The Welsh Calvinistic Chapel (Zion), a good building of brick with a stuccoed front, is situated in Gateacre place, and was erected in 1836.  The interior arrangements have a neat appearance.  The service of this chapel is also in the Welsh language.

The Welsh Methodists meet for worship in a room near the Welsh walls.  The society contemplate building a chapel in a short period.

The Plymouth Brethren assemble for worship in a large room on the premises of Mrs. Macdongall, in Bailey street.

The Independent Methodists have a small chapel in Castle Terrace, built in 1848, which will hold about 150 hearers.

The National School, situate at Pentrepoeth, is a handsome building, in the Elizabethan style of architecture, with a convenient residence for the teacher.  The centre of the building is occupied by the girls, and the wings on each side are for the accommodation of the boys and the infants.  The school is pleasantly situated, has a play ground attached, and the whole is enclosed by a wall.  The institution is supported by subscription, and a small charge from each scholar.

The British School, a substantial and commodious building in Arthur Street, was built by subscription and a grant from the School Society.  The building is ornamented with stone quoins and cornices; the upper room is occupied by the girls, and the lower room by the boys.

The Young Men’s Institute was established in October, 1850, with the object of extending the moral and intellectual culture of the young men of the town of Oswestry.  We are happy to observe that many of the young men in the town have enrolled themselves as members, a library has been established, and the news room is furnished with papers, and some of the most popular periodicals of the day.  The ordinary members pay 1s. 6d. per quarter, honorary members pay an annual subscription of 10s. 6d., or a donation of £10 or upwards.  The corporation have kindly granted a room in the Council Hall for the accommodation of the members.

The Savings Bank, in Bailey Square, was established in 1818.  The capital stock of the bank on November 20th, 1850, amounted to £50,973. 6s. 1d., at which time there were 1463 separate accounts; of which 23 were charitable societies, having deposits amounting to £851. 8s. 10d., and 31 friendly societies, with deposits amounting to £5,884. 0s. 8d.  Of the individual depositors, there were 697 whose respective balances did not exceed £20; 442 were above £20, and not exceeding £50; 180 were above that sum, and not exceeding £100; 62 above £100, and less than £150; 26 did not exceed £200, and two accounts were above that sum.  The bank is open on Wednesdays, from twelve to two o’clock.  Thomas L. Longueville, Esq., is treasurer, and Mr. John Hughes, secretary.

The House of Industry is an extensive range of building, composed of brick, pleasantly situated about a mile from the town.  It was erected by the joint subscription of the town and parish of Oswestry, the several parishes of Whittington, West Felton, St. Martin’s, Chirk, Selattyn, Knockin, Kinnerley, Ruyton, Llansilin, Llanyblodwell, and the township of Llwytidman, in the parish of Llanymynech.  The house will accommodate 600 inmates; the average number is about 190.  It was built under Gilbert’s Act.  The respective parishes appoint the officers, who collect the rates, and pay the out-poor.  The board days are every Monday.  Richard Nightingale Broughton, Esq., is the chairman, Mr. John Hughes, clerk, Mr. Thomas Morris, governor, Mr. Thomas Davies, relieving officer, and Edward and Ann Jones, schoolteachers.

The Dispensary, in Lower Brook Street, under the superintendence of Mr. Hales, is supported by annual subscriptions and donations.  It is worthy of increased support from the charitable and humane; for since its establishment hundreds have partaken of the healing benefits of this Samaritan institution, the object of which is to check, and ameliorate suffering humanity, in whatever form it is found.

The Town Hall is situated near the site of the Castle, and forms one side of the square called Bailey-head.  It is a plain stone building, comprising a large room (where the sessions and public affairs of the town are transacted) and offices for the clerks, &c.  The front is enclosed by an iron palisade.  Near the centre of the building is a figure of King Oswald, carved in stone.  At the back of the hall is the police establishment, built in 1830, and residence of Mr. Jacob Smith, clerk of the market and superintendent of police.

The Borough Gaol, in Castle Fields, is a brick structure, erected in 1826, which contains three cells and two airing yards.  It is now used as a lock-up, under the control of the borough and county magistrates.

The County Court Office adjoins the Town Hall, at Bailey-head.  The jurisdiction of the court embraces the following parishes and places, viz.:—Knockin, Ruyton of the Eleven Towns, West Felton, Kinnerley Llanymynech, except Carreghova township, Llansilin, part of Soughton township, part of Selattyn, Llanblodwell, Oswestry town and liberties, St. Martin’s, Chirk, Ellesmere, except Penley, Welsh Hampton, and Hordley.  Judge: Edward Lewis Richards, Esq.  Clerk: William Simons, Esq.  Assistant Clerk: Thomas Askew Davies.  High Bailiff: Mr. Charles Scarlett Andrews.  Bailiff; Mr. Ellis Hughes.  Broker: Mr. Edward Evans.

The Powis Market Hall forms one side of the spacious area of the Bailey Square, and is a plain stone building, with a high clock turret.  The front part of the structure was formerly used as the Guild Hall, at the back of which additional erections have been made of brick, chiefly through the instrumentality of P. Cartwright, Esq., and a few other resident gentlemen.  It is a spacious structure, partly covered with glass.  Here the corn market is held on Wednesdays, and is very numerously attended by the farmers in the surrounding district.

The Fairs at Oswestry are held on the first Wednesday in each month, for the sale of butter, cheese, and other commodities, which take place in the Powis Market Hall.  The North Shropshire and North Wales yeomen are justly proud of their fine dairies of cheese and butter, and the market is unrivalled in Shropshire for the extent of business that is transacted in these commodities.  The day preceding the above is for the sale of cattle, sheep, and pigs, which takes place in the Smithfield Market.

The Market held on Wednesdays for butter, poultry, and butchers’ meat, is very numerously attended.  The meat and provisions brought to the market are abundant in quantity and excellent in quality.  Considerable quantities of poultry (geese, ducks, as well as the small Welsh mutton) are brought here weekly for sale.  The shambles are in Willow Street and Bailey Street; and the butter and poultry market is conveniently arranged and covered in.

The Gas Works, situated near Gallows Tree Gate, on the Salop road, were established in 1842.  The premises are conveniently arranged, and from 8s. to 10s. are charged per 1,000 cubic feet for the luminous vapour.  Mr. Robert Roberts is the proprietor.

The Theatre, a small building in Willow Street, is usually open for a few weeks in the year by a company of comedians.

The Races are held at Cen-y-bwch, a beautiful piece of ground situated on an eminence to the west of the town.  The races of late years have not commanded that attention and support which they formerly did, and they were altogether discontinued last year.  It is expected, however, they will again take place during the present year about the usual time, in the autumn of the year.

The Railway Station is situated on the north-east side of the town.  There are ten trains arrive and depart during the day to Gabowen, where the branch from Oswestry joins the trunk line of the Shrewsbury and Chester railway.  Mr. E. Jones is the station-master.  The Assembly Room and Bowling Green are at the Wynstay Arms.  The Stamp Office is in Willow Street.  The Excise Office is at the Cross Keys Inn.  The News Room is at the Court House, Bailey Square.  The Cricket Ground is in Lower Brook Street.  The Oswestry Advertiser, a small publication which makes its appearance on the first Wednesday in each month, is extensively patronised as an advertising medium, and is worthy of support for the interesting local information which it furnishes.  Mr. John A. Roberts is the publisher and proprietor.

Charities.—The Free Grammar School is pleasantly situated on the west side of the town.  It was founded as early as the reign of Henry IV. by David Hobech, who granted, for the maintenance of a schoolmaster, and the reparation of the school-house there, certain lands in Sweeney, Treflach, Maesbury, and Crickheath.  By an inquisition, under a commission of charitable uses, taken at Oswestry, and dated 10th April, 1634, it is stated that although the bailiffs of Oswestry had the ordering and disposing of the school and the school lands, they had done the same without any just authority, and that if they had been trusted they had manifestly abused the trust, in making leases at an under value and for secret rewards for themselves.  The said commissioners therefore decreed, that the bailiffs of the said town should be for ever discharged and excluded from any trust or intermeddling with the school lands, that the schoolmaster for the time being should let the premises in possession, and not in reversion, for the term of seven years, with the consent of the bishop and chancellor of the diocese.  The commissioners further ordered that the schoolmaster should have an usher, to be allowed £10 a year; and the master for the time being to keep the school premises in repair.

The property now held by the master consists of 34a. 3r. 18p. of land at Crickheath, let for £30 per annum; three closes of land in Treflach, containing 23a. 1r. 7p., producing a yearly rental of £36; land in the township of Sweeney, containing altogether 68a. 3r. 10p., let for £134 per annum.  There was also a small piece of land in Sweeney, of about half an acre, of which the master had lost possession.  It was surrounded by property belonging to Sir W. W. Wynne, and had in fact been sold by him.  The master having established his title thereto, a small piece of land adjoining the school premises was given up to him in lieu thereof.  Four closes of land in Weston Cotton, containing 19a. 2r. 9p., producing £40 per annum; and an allotment in the same township of 1a. 2r. 9p., let for £3 yearly; land in the township of Maesbury consisting of 16a. 0r. 18p. producing an annual sum of £24; and the yearly sum of £1. 6s. 8d. as a free farm rent, issuing out of a corn mill in Maesbury.  The rents of the above premises amount in the whole to £271. 10s. 2d., and are received by the master of the school.  In addition to the premises already noticed, there is a school and school-house, and seven acres of land in the town of Oswestry, held under lease from Sir W. W. Wynne, bearing date 22nd September, 1815, for 10,000 years, at the clear yearly rent of £12.  The school now existing was built by Dr. Donne, the expenses of which amounted to about £1,400.  The school is open to all boys born in the parish of Oswestry, for instruction in English, Latin, and Greek; but it is expected that they should be able to read before they are admitted.  No payment is demanded of the scholars, except 7s. 6d. for entrance, and 2s. a-year for fire money.  The course of instruction in the school is chiefly classical; but algebra, geometry, history, and writing are also taught.  For the latter a separate charge is made.  In addition to the scholars on the foundation, the master takes a limited number of boarders.  We cannot but observe on the inconveniences that have occurred, and are likely to occur, for want of trustees.  It is true that Dr. Donne recovered possession of a great part of the school property, or an equivalent for it, at his own expense; but few persons in his situation would have undertaken the same risk; and the necessity for such proceedings was probably owing to the reluctance felt by former masters to involving themselves in litigation with the tenants.  The Rev. Stephen Donne, M.A., is the head master.

Thomas Owen, in 1713, left £20 for the use of the charity school.  Daniel Poole, in 1716, left the interest of £20 for the same use.  In 1737, £32 was laid out on the poor house in Church street, which sum was paid out of the above legacies; and it was ordered at a vestry that a yearly sum of 40s. should be paid towards the support of the charity school.  Nothing, however, has been paid in respect of these charities for many years.  The poor house in Church street has been sold, and the produce applied to the general purposes of the town.

The Almshouses.—Dame Ellen, widow of Sir Francis Eure, by will bearing date 20th August, 1626, devised six tenements in William street, to the bailiffs and burgesses of Oswestry, and their successors, to be used and employed for the habitation of six poor men and six poor women, to be appointed by the said bailiffs and their successors.  Jane Owen, in 1732, bequeathed to the twelve poor persons, inmates of the almshouse commonly called Porkington almshouses, the sum of 18s., to be paid to them yearly for ever; and she ordered her executor to charge her real and personal estate with the payment thereof.  It does not appear that this gift was ever in any way settled to the use of the almspeople, Mrs. S. Ormsby, by her will in 1805, requested her daughter (now the wife of W. Ormsby Gore, Esq.), and those who should succeed her in the Porkington estate, would pay, “as she had done,” the poor people in the almshouse for ever.  Mrs. Gore distributes £3 among the inmates on Christmas day, that being the sum her mother had previously given.  The almshouses are kept in repair by Mrs. Gore, and she appoints the inmates.

Margaret Godolphin, in 1748, gave a messuage and shop, and other premises to the use of the vicar of Oswestry for the time being, provided he should live in the said house; and if the vicar should not reside in the said dwelling, the same should be let yearly, and the rents paid to the churchwardens, to be applied in placing out poor fatherless children apprentices.  The premises above were exchanged in the year 1823, for other premises situate in Brook street.  Before this exchange took place the house originally devised was not occupied by the vicar, but was let by the overseers, and the rent improperly carried to the general account of the poor’s rate.  Owen Morgan, in 1604, gave certain property to the Haberdashers’ Company, London, subject to the payment of £20 yearly, for the relief of the poor people of the parish of Oswestry, to be distributed where most need should appear, by the parson, curate, and the churchwardens of the said parish.  The yearly sum of £20 is received from the Haberdashers’ Company, through the Oswestry bank.  This forms part of a general fund, which is distributed as hereafter mentioned.

Hugh Yale, by his will bearing date 2nd January, 1605, gave a messuage and garden adjoining the churchyard of Oswestry, with a croft near the Chapel Fields, and the reversion of a house and garden adjoining the school, in trust, to bestow the rents among the necessitous poor of the town; and he directed that if any preacher, lawfully licensed, should upon that day preach in the Welsh tongue in the parish church of Oswestry, he should receive 6s. 8d. out of the rents.  The property belonging to Yale’s charity consists of a field called the Poor’s Croft, let for £8 per annum; two small tenements in Upper Brook street, producing a rental of £5 yearly; two plots of ground near the churchyard, demised to Richard Price for a term of 99 years, from 1st May, 1809, at a yearly rent of £2. 12s. 6d.; a piece of ground near the churchyard, let on lease in 1808 for a term of 99 years, to Thomas Davies, Esq., for 20s. per annum; two small cottages adjoining the churchyard, one let for £2 a year, and the other for £3 a year.  A garden, for which a yearly rent of 2s. 6d. from the year 1688 till 1825 was received, when the party holding it disputed the right of the claim; the churchwardens, however, intended to take proceedings for possession of the land.  In 1782, 10s. is entered as received of Thomas Griffith, for one year’s rent for a yard and a saw-pit adjoining the Lawn House.  The same rent was afterwards paid by the Rev. Mr. Maurice, and, in 1804, by John Bonner, Esq., who succeeded to Mr. Maurice’s property.  Nothing, however, has been paid since 1806, and the piece of ground could not be satisfactorily identified when the charity commissioners published their report.  The income of this charity is added to the general fund, disposed of as hereafter mentioned.  There seems to have been great negligence in the management of this charity, in admitting tenants who were unable to pay the rent; in not keeping up the boundaries of the land; and in not preserving the counterparts of those leases which appear to have been granted.

John Morris gave an annual payment of £1. 10s., issuing out of lands at Crickheath, for the use of the poor of the town of Oswestry.  The amount is paid by the agent of W. Eyton, Esq., as the owner of the land upon which the payment is charged.

Richard Witcherley gave a parcel of land in Beatrice street, and directed 1s. per week to be expended in bread out of the rent thereof, and the overplus to be applied in apprentice fees.  The premises consist of a croft, containing 1a. 2r., let at a yearly rent of £7.

Mrs. Dorothy Southey’s Charity.—A yearly sum of £2. 12s. is paid from a field in the liberties of the town of Oswestry, as the gift of Mrs. Southey, for a distribution of bread.

William Gough, in 1669, left a rent charge of £5. 6s. 8d., charged on certain lands in Trevlach, and directed £5 per annum to be applied in placing out poor children apprentice, born in the parish of Oswestry, and the remaining 6s. 8d. to be paid to the minister for a sermon on St. Stephen’s day.

A donor unknown gave a small plot of land for the use of the poor of Oswestry.  A yearly payment of 5s. is made by William Ormsby Gore, Esq., out of a piece of land near Llwyn gate, in respect of this charity.  There is also a yearly payment of 5s. issuing out of a house and premises in Cross street, the property of D. O. Cooper, which is distributed in bread among the poor.

Winifred Matthews, in 1709, left a yearly sum of £2. 10s., payable out of a piece of land in Trefonen, called Maes-y-Benglog, towards putting apprentice one poor child of the town of Oswestry one year, and the next year from Trefonon, Treflach, Sweeney, or Trever clawdd.  The property from which this payment is made belongs to Sir W. W. Wynne, and the amount is paid by his agent.

Mary Lloyd, in 1727, bequeathed £100, and directed the yearly interest thereof to be laid out in woollen cloth for the poor of the town of Oswestry, and apprenticing a poor boy of the said town alternately.  Mrs. Peacock, in 1732 gave £5, the interest to be distributed among poor decayed housekeepers.  These two sums are laid out upon the security of the tolls of the turnpike road leading from Oswestry to Selattyn, called the Willow Gate Trust; and £5. 5s. is paid as the interest.

Thomas Turner, by his will, 1777, bequeathed £20, the interest thereof to be distributed among the poor of the parish of Oswestry.

The produce of the eleven charities last mentioned, amounting to £55. 11s., are brought to one account, kept by the churchwardens appointed for the town of Oswestry, and disposed of for the benefit of the poor of the town, exclusive of the rest of the parish.  Six shillings worth of bread is given away in the church every alternate Sunday, and the residue is given away at different times of the year, in bread, clothing, or shoes, according to the discretion of the churchwardens for the time being.  As it appeared the churchwardens had frequently selected for distribution such articles as they themselves dealt in, the charity commissioners strongly recommended that some regular mode of distributing these charities should be adopted, and that the directions of the respective donors should be followed as far as they could be ascertained, and circumstances would admit.

Sir John Swinnerton, by will 1616, charged his lands with the payment of £5. 4s. for bread, which, by the sale of the lands, was increased to £7. 4s. per annum.  The money for which the land was sold was in the hands of T. Kynaston, Esq., nearly fifty years, and subsequently of Mr. Lloyd, for which interest was regularly paid till 1781, when this money was called in, for the purpose of enabling the town to purchase and repair certain premises near the churchyard, intended for a workhouse.  The money was probably applied accordingly; but in 1808 this workhouse was sold for £280, by the directors of the Oswestry house of industry, under the powers of an act of parliament, passed 31 George III.  We are informed, however, that the produce of this sale was not added to the funds of the house of industry, but was applied in obtaining an act of parliament for lighting and paving the town of Oswestry.  It appears, therefore, the inhabitants of the town of Oswestry have appropriated to their own use a sum of £120 applicable to charitable uses, without making the poor any compensation in lieu thereof.

Richard Muckleston, in 1638, gave 40s. per annum to be distributed in bread to the poor of Oswestry, charged on premises in the parish of Kilgurran, and at Llandrau.  The amount is expended in bread and distributed on Good Friday.

Francis Shore, in 1691, charged his mansion house in Oswestry, with the payment of 20s. yearly, to be distributed among the poor.  Mr. Jones, the owner of the house, gives 20s. yearly among poor persons, according to his own discretion, on St. Thomas’s day.

Margaret Lloyd, by will 1694, charged her house and croft in the parish of Oswestry, with the annual payment of 20s., to be given among twenty poor labourers or decayed tradesmen.

Elizabeth Williams, in 1703, left to poor housekeepers 40s. per annum, to be distributed by the churchwardens on Palm Monday, for ever, which money was to be paid out of the Mixen Hall estate.

Rebecca Lloyd, by will 1733, gave £20, which was afterwards secured on premises in Cross street.  The amount is paid by Mr. Penson, the owner of a house and garden in Cross street, and distributed by the churchwardens among forty poor persons on New Year’s day.

Sir William Williams, by his will, 7th September, 1734, bequeathed £200, the annual produce thereof to be distributed among poor persons of the town and parish of Oswestry.  This money is in the hands of Sir Watkin W. Wynne, whose agent pays the yearly sum of £10 as the interest thereof.  One half of this money is distributed by the churchwardens of the town, in sums of 6d. and 1s. each.  The other half is divided between the upper and lower divisions of the parish.

Sir Nathaniel Lloyd’s Charity.—In the will of Sir Nathaniel Lloyd, bearing date All Souls day, 1740, there is the following clause:—“I give to some of the meaner inhabitants of Oswestry and Whittington a yearly benefit, equally among them, as shall arise out of my South Sea Stock and old annuities; the first putting in of such persons to be in the heir of Aston, of the family of my grandfather, Andrew Lloyd, Esq., and the nomination to any vacancy to be in the bishop of that diocese and the heir of Aston alternately.”  Soon after the death of the testator, proceedings were instituted in the Court of Chancery, and by a decree made 14th November, 1743, it was referred to the master to inquire of what South Sea Stock and Old South Sea annuities the testator died possessed; to appoint trustees, to whose names the same should be transferred, and to approve of a scheme for the application of the charity; and it was declared that the bequest to the meaner inhabitants of Oswestry and Whittington was a perpetual charity, and ought to be distributed among the meaner inhabitants, who should not receive alms.  The master, by his report, made 15th May 1745, certified that the testator was possessed of £660. 16s. 9d. South Sea Stock, and £2,623. 16s. Old South Sea annuities; and he approved of a scheme, whereby it was provided that the charity should be extended to the whole town and liberty of Oswestry; and that three-fifths of the dividends should be paid among the meaner inhabitants, not receiving alms, and two-fifths among the like persons in Whittington; and that twelve persons of the town and liberty of Oswestry, and eight persons of Whittington, be nominated alternately by the heir of Aston, and the bishop of St. Asaph, should be allowed £4 each yearly, by quarterly payments.  That a power should be vested in seven trustees thereinafter named, to make orders for the better management of the charity; and that on the death of any of the trustees, the survivors should within six weeks appoint another.  The master’s report was confirmed, and the stock and annuities duly transferred into their names.  The dividends, amounting to £97 19s. 8d. per annum, are received by Messrs. Child, and £50 is transmitted every Christmas, and £45 every Midsummer, to Mr. Lloyd, who pays to twenty poor persons of the parishes of Oswestry and Whittington, £4. 10s. per annum, by half-yearly payments.  No persons are appointed unless at the time they reside in one of the parishes above mentioned; but if they afterwards cease to reside there, the allowance is not taken away from them.  The parties receiving the charity are generally such as have been reduced from better circumstances.

OSWESTRY DIRECTORY

A LIST OF STREETS, COURTS, SQUARES, AND PLACES IN THE BOROUGH OF OSWESTRY

Albert place, Beatrice street

Albion hill, Bailey head

Arthur street, Bailey head

Bailey head, Bailey street

Bailey street, Cross street

Bailey square, Bailey head

Beatrice street, Legge street

Black gate, Legge street

Borough gaol, Bailey head

Brook st., Lower, Pool road

Brook st., Upper, Church st.

Butter market, Cross street

Butter and cheese mart, Powis hall

Castle buildings, Willow st.

Castle fields, Up. Bailey sq.

Castle street, Castle fields

Castle terrace, Beatrice street

Church street, Cross street

Church st., Upper, Pool road

Clawddu street, Willow street to Cross street

Coney green, Salop road

Corn market, Powis market hall

County court, Bailey square

County hall, Bailey square

Cross street, Church street

Croxon’s square, Smithfield road

Dispensary, Lower Brook st.

English Walls, Smithfield rd

Excise office, Legge street

Gatacre place, Welsh walls

Horse fair, Castle fields

Kent place, Salop road

Legge street, Salop road

Londonderry, Upper Willow street

Love lane, Church street

Middleton road, Salop road

Oswell’s place, Pool road

Paradise row, Salop road

Pentropoath, Pool road

Police office, Bailey head

Poultry and fruit market, Clawddu street

Pool road, Church street

Porkington terrace, Willow street

Post office, Willow street

Powis market hall, Castle fields

Quadrant place, Legge street

Race course, two miles W.W by N. of the borough

Railway station, Lower Beatrice street

Salop road, Legge street

Shambles, Willow street

Shoe and merchandise market, Bailey square

Smithfield road, Salop road

Smithfield beast, sheep, and pig market, English walls

Stamp office, Willow street

Theatre, Upper Willow street

Union place, Beatrice street

Victoria place, Smithfield rd

Warrington place, Upper Willow street

Welsh walls, from Brook street to Willow street

Willow street, Cross street

Willow street, Upper, Welsh walls

ALPHABETICAL DIRECTORY
OF
NAMES, PROFESSIONS, TRADES, AND RESIDENCES
OF THE
INHABITANTS OF OSWESTRY.

Allen Thomas, market gardener, Kent place

Andrews Charles Scarlett, Esq., high bailiff

Arthur Evan, provision dealer, Cross street

Asterley Catherine, seminary, Castle buildings

Aubrey Mrs., Broom hall

Barnett Henry, surgeon, Willow street

Barrett James, vict., Coach and Horses, Legge street

Basnett Miss, Salop road

Bassett Joseph, solicitors’ clerk, Salop road

Bate Mrs. Mary, Salop road

Batchelor and Grindley, maltsters, Beatrice street

Batten William, veterinary surgeon, Upper Brook street

Batterbee William, brazier and glazier, Legge street

Baverstock John, tailor, Salop road

Bayley Charles, glass and china dealer, Cross street

Beard Hannah Jemima, dress maker, Willow street

Beckett James, vict., Fighting Cocks, Beatrice street

Bentley John, parish clerk, Upper Church street

Bennion and Meredith, surgery, Welsh walls

Bickerton George Morrel, hardware dealer, Willow street

Bill Mrs. Jane, Bailey street

Blaikei Robert, surgeon, Church street

Bowen John, painter, Legge street

Bowyer Thomas, cooper, Beatrice street

Brayne Mrs. Elizabeth, maltster, Beatrice st.

Brayne Thomas, accountant, Beatrice street

Breese John, vict., Victoria, Willow street

Bridden Mary, confectioner, Albion hill

Brocklehurst Rev. T. H., Brook street

Buffey Mr. Samuel, Brook street

Bull Mrs. Elizabeth, Kent place

Bull William Isaac, solicitor, Church street

Cadwallader Thos., basket maker, Salop road

Carry Mrs. Mary Ann, Kent place

Cartwright Peploe, Esq., Church street

Cash Thomas, slater, Beatrice street

Churchill Benjamin, Esq., Lime house

Churton Joseph, provision dealer, Beatrice street

Clayton Thomas, boot and shoe maker, Upper Brook street

Collier Henry, teacher of dancing, Coney green cottage

Cooke Ann, dress maker, Pool road

Coombs Samuel, boot and shoe warehouse, Church street

Cooper George, bank manager, Willow st.

Corken Archibald, watch and clock dealer, Cross street

Corney William, confectioner, Cross street

Corney and Jones, wine merchants, Church street

Cowdell John, book stationer, Legge street

Cross Thomas, bird and animal preserver, Brook street

Croxon Mrs., Church street

Croxon Richard Jones, Esq., Church street

Davies Mrs. Catherine, Beatrice street

Davies David Christopher, tin plate worker, Legge street

Davies Edward, mail contractor, Coney green

Davies Edward, lets post horses, Salop road

Davies Edward, cheese factor, Church street

Davies Edward, confectioner, Cross street

Davies Elizabeth, straw bonnet maker, Cross street

Davies Ellen, confectioner, Cross street

Davies Francis, blacksmith, Willow street

Davies Henry, solicitor, Willow street

Davies James, beerhouse, Bailey street

Davies John, vict., Three Tuns, Bailey head

Davies John, mercer & draper, Cross street

Davies John, saddler and harness maker, Bailey street

Davies John, tailor, Cross street

Davies Mary, confectioner, Albion hill

Davies Richard and William, mercers and drapers, Cross street

Davies Robert, beerhouse, Upper Brook st.

Davies Sarah, straw bonnet maker, Church st.

Davies Susannah, shopkeeper, Willow street

Davies Thomas, vict., Red Lion, Bailey head

Davies Thomas, plumber and glazier, Albert place

Davies Thomas, glazier, Beatrice street

Davies Thomas, machine maker, Bailey sq.

Davies Thomas Askew, county court clerk, Cross street

Davies William Morris, mercer and draper, Cross street

Dempster Thomas, upholsterer, Legge street

Dicker Philip, surgeon, Arthur street

Dodd Edward, vict., The Eagles, Bailey sqre.

Donne Rev. Stephen, Brook street house

Doughty William, baker, &c., Willow street

Edmunds Griffith, tailor and draper, Albion hill

Edmunds John, Esq., Porkington terrace

Edmunds Mrs. Martha, Union place

Edwards Mr. David, Beatrice street

Edwards David, basket maker, Brook street

Edwards Edward, vict., Unicorn, Albion hill

Edwards Edward, butcher, Willow street

Edwards Edward, vict., Five Bells, Willow street

Edwards George, boot and shoe dealer, Cross street

Edwards John, boot and shoe maker, Croxon’s square

Edwards John, butcher, Bailey street

Edwards James, Esq., Upper Brook street

Edwards Luke, vict., Swan, Beatrice street

Edwards Richard, tailor, Salop road

Edwards Richard, lets post horses, Londonderry

Edwards Thomas, Esq., Porkington terrace

Edwards Thomas, tallow chandler, Cross st.

Edwards Thomas, bricklayer, Willow street

Edwards Thomas, currier, Beatrice street

Edwards Walter, chemist and druggist, Church street

Edwards William, spirit merchant, Legge st.

Edwards William, nurseryman, Welsh walls

Edwards William, vict., Star, Bailey street

Edwards William, hairdresser, Church street

Ellis Henry, attorney’s clerk, Smithfield cottage

Ellis Thomas, tallow chandler, Brick kilns

Ellis Thomas, glazier, Croxon’s square

Evans Edward, auctioneer, Legge street

Evans Edward, builder, Lower Brook street

Evans Evan, butcher, Poole road

Evans Francis, saddler and harness maker, Cross street

Evans George, boot and shoe maker, Upper Brook street

Evans John, provision store, Pool road

Evans John, cow keeper, Beatrice street

Evans Lydia, milliner, Quadrant

Evans Richard, chemist and druggist, Willow street

Evans Robert, tanner, Legge street

Evans Samuel, news agent

Evans Mrs. Selina Clementia, Salop road

Evans Thomas, shopkeeper, Pool road

Evans William, dyer, Pool road

Eyeley Charles, painter, Lower Brook street

Eyeley and Son, painter, Upper Brook street

Farmer Charles, saddler and harness maker, Willow street

Farr Thomas, coach builder, Salop road

Faulkes Edward, beerhouse, Legge street

Faulkes Robert, draper and mercer, Church street

Fisher John Edward, ironmonger, Cross street

Fitzgerald Samuel, attorney’s clerk

Fox John, accountant, Upper Brook street

Fox Ralph, shopkeeper, Upper Brook street

France George, commercial school, Beatrice street

Franklin Mrs. Elizabeth, Willow street

Fuller William, surgeon, Salop road

Gee Margaret, vict., Albion, Church street

Gerrard William, hairdresser, Legge road

Gilpin Mrs. Mary, Union place

Gittins Samuel, maltster, Beatrice street

Gough John, glazier, Beatrice street

Gough Mrs. Maria, Church street

Gregory Thomas, silversmith, Cross street

Griffith William, boot and shoemaker, Willow street

Griffith William, surgeon, Church street

Grindley and Co., maltsters, Beatrice street

Hales John Miles, gentleman, Lower Brook street

Hammons Edward, farrier, Church street

Hamor Mrs., The Cottage

Hardy Mary, baby linen repository, Church street

Hardy Thomas, slater, Church street

Haswell Charles, beerhouse, Legge street

Hawkins Henry George, agent, Union place

Hayward William, Esq., Willow street

Hayward and Davies, solicitors, Bailey head

Hill Thomas, auctioneer, Upper Brook street

Hilditch George, auctioneer; office, Church street

Hingham George, gunsmith, Cross street

Hodges Richard, corn factor, Willow street

Hodges William, seed factor, Bailey street

Holbrook Sarah, seminary, Salop road

Holden Richard, vict., Horse Shoe, Legge street

Holland Isaac, builder, Beatrice street

Hughes Edward, whitesmith, Beatrice street

Hughes Edward, wheelwright, Salop road

Hughes Elizabeth, bonnet maker, Willow st.

Hughes Ellis, county court bailiff

Hughes Hannah, straw bonnet maker, Beatrice street

Hughes John, bank manager, Bailey square

Hughes John, beerhouse, Salop road

Hughes John, shopkeeper, Beatrice street

Hughes Mary, shopkeeper, Salop road

Hughes Price, butcher, Willow street

Hughes Richard, butcher, Upper Brook street

Hughes Thomas, wine merchant, Church st.

Hughes Thomas, bricklayer, Upper Brook street

Hughes Thomas, beerhouse, Willow street

Hughes Thomas, tailor, Willow street

Hughes William, tanner, Willow street

Hurdman John, temperance house, Bailey sq.

Humphreys Clara, clothes dealer, Legge street

Jackson George, butcher, Bailey street

Jackson Joseph, beerhouse, Church street

Jackson Mary Ann, seminary, Willow street

Jackson Thomas, butcher, Willow street

Jameson David, provision store, Bailey street

Jarvis James, painter, Church street

Jarvis Ann M., bonnet maker, Bailey street

Jarvis Miss, milliner, Cross street

Jennings R. W., commercial traveller

Johnson James, grocer and dealer, Bailey st.

Johnson Joseph, butcher, Albion hill

Jones Charles, engraver, Pool road

Jones Charles, shopkeeper, Upper Brook st.

Jones and Corney, wine and spirit merchants, Church street

Jones David, baker, Willow street

Jones David, shopkeeper, Beatrice street

Jones David, boot and shoe warehouse, Church street

Jones Edward, tailor, Pool road

Jones Edward, shopkeeper, Beatrice street

Jones Edward, boot & shoemaker, Bailey st

Jones Edward, vict., George, Bailey head

Jones Edward, attorney’s clerk, Arthur street

Jones Edwin, station master, Beatrice street

Jones Elizabeth, dress maker, Welsh walls

Jones Evan, wheelwright, Pool road

Jones Evan, butcher, Upper Brook street

Jones Frederick, grocer & tea dealer, Legge st

Jones Gwen, glass & china dealer, Cross st.

Jones Miss Harriet, Salop road

Jones Henry, butcher, Willow street

Jones Hugh, shopkeeper, Willow street

Jones James Thomas, bank manager, Willow street

Jones John, gentleman, Lower Brook street

Jones Rev. John, the Cross

Jones John, vict., White Horse, Church street

Jones John, Esq., Plasffynnon

Jones John, gentleman, Willow street

Jones John, pawnbroker, Bailey street

Jones John, butcher, Bailey street

Jones John, cabinet maker, Church street

Jones John, butcher, Beatrice street

Jones John, lets post horses, Willow street

Jones John, shopkeeper, Brook street

Jones John, slater, Upper Brook street

Jones John, upholsterer, Church street

Jones John, hairdresser, Legge street

Jones John, hat manufacturer, Church street

Jones John, shopkeeper, Legge street

Jones John, shopkeeper, Church street

Jones John clothes dealer, Bailey head

Jones John blacksmith, Legge street

Jones John, blacksmith, Lower Brook street

Jones Jonathan, bricklayer, Corneabrun

Jones Leonard, beerhouse, Salop road

Jones the Misses, Willow street

Jones Miss Elizabeth, Lower Brook street

Jones Morris, blacksmith, Middleton road

Jones Richard, hat manufacturer, Bailey st

Jones Richard, shopkeeper, Cross street

Jones Richard, skinner, Willow street

Jones Robert, wheelwright, Willow street

Jones Robert, butcher, Church street

Jones Thos., vict., Plough, Beatrice street

Jones Thomas, wheelwright, Beatrice street

Jones Thomas, pipe manufacturer, Pentrapoath

Jones Thomas, grocer and dealer, Willow st.

Jones Thomas, gentleman, Church street

Jones Thomas, merchant, Low Willow street

Jones Watkin, grocer and dealer, Cross street

Jones William, blacksmith, Beatrice street

Jones William, shopkeeper, Willow street

Jones William, lets post horses, Beatrice st.

Jones William, plasterer, Beatrice street

Jones William, farmer & grazier, Hays farm

Jones Wynne the Rev., Upper Brook street

Kiffin Mrs. Elizabeth, Salop road

King Francis the Rev., Upper Brook street

King John Edward, vict., the Cross Keys Hotel, commercial and posting house, Legge street

Killon John, tailor, Beatrice street

Lacon John, iron merchant, Legge street

Large Joseph, surgeon, Union place

Lawford William Robinson, Esq., Orley hall

Leeke Thomas, soda water manufacturer, Welsh walls

Leeke Thos., lets post horses, Willow street

Leigh Mrs. Mary, Willow street

Lewis George, stamp office, Willow street

Lewis John, hairdresser, Albion hill

Lewis Margaret, dressmaker, Beatrice street

Lewis Mary, dressmaker, Bailey street

Lewis Martin, butcher, Cross street

Lewis Thomas, vict., Bear Inn, Legge street

Lewis William, painter, Beatrice street

Lloyd David, vict., Wynnstay Arms Hotel, commercial and posting house, Church st.

Lloyd Eleanor, hosier, Legge street

Lloyd John, beerhouse, Willow street

Lloyd Joseph, bricklayer, Willow street

Longueville Thomas Longueville, Esq. Mount Pleasant

Longueville & Williams, solicitors, Brook st

Lowe James, vict., Butchers’ Arms, Willow st

Lowther William, broker, Beatrice street

Lucas Francis, agent, Salop road

Lucas Miss, Salop road

Lucas Mr. Francis, Salop road

Macdougall Mary, victualler, Osbourn’s Hotel, Commercial and Posting House, Legge st

Mackiernin Thomas, flax dresser, Bailey st

Mansell Richard, gentleman, Rod Meadows

Marriott Edward Birch, Esq., Willow street

Mathews Richard, watch and clock maker, Bailey street

Mellor William, glass & earthenware dealer, Bailey Head

Menlove Richard, Esq., Upper Brook street

Meredith John, surgeon, Willow street

Minshill & Dale, ironmongers, Bailey street

Minshill John, gentleman, Salop road

Minshill Rebecca, Castle fields

Minshill Sarah, Porkington terrace

Minshill Thomas and Charles, solicitors, Arthur street

Milnes Richard, gentleman, Pool road

Milnes Richard, stone mason and builder, Pool road

Mine John, maltster, Pool road

Minett Sarah, Pickton house

Mitton George, boot & shoe dealer, Willow st

Mitton Sarah, milliner, Willow street

Moreaton Ann, vict., Boar’s head, Willow st

Moreaton Wm., butcher, Willow street

Morgan Abraham, hair dresser, Cross street

Morris Edward, Esq., Salop road

Morris Edward, maltster, Willow street

Morris Edward, commission agent: office, Albion Inn

Morris Edward, beerhouse, Warrington place

Morris Griffith, timber merchant, Salop road

Morris Mrs. Mary, Pool road

Morris James, plasterer, Oswall’s place

Morris John, cooper, Legge street

Morris Mrs. Price, Willow street

Morris Richard Esq., Salop road

Morris Richard, glazier, Willow street

Morris Robert, bricklayer, Upper Brook st

Morris and Savin, mercers and drapers, Legge street

Morris Thomas, butcher, Bailey street

Moses Edward, lime burner, Bronygarth

Oliver John, cooper, Legge street

Oswell Edward, Esq., Derwen house

Oswell Edward, solicitor, Church street

Owen Arthur, butcher, Bailey street

Owen Edward, tailor, Bailey street

Owen Mrs. Jane Emma, wine & spirit dealer Legge street

Owen Mrs. and Miss, Brook street

Owen Wm., watch & clock maker, Cross st

Painter Mary, shopkeeper, Beatrice street

Parry James, currier, Legge street

Parry Mary, skinner, Willow street

Parry Thomas, woolstapler, Londonderry

Parry Thomas, skinner, Willow street

Payne John, cooper, Willow street

Peat the Misses, Union place

Peate & Teece, mercers & drapers, Cross st

Penson Richard Kyrke, architect, Willow st

Penson Thomas, general architect, Willow st

Phillips Elias, whitesmith, Pool road

Phillips John, mercer and draper, Cross st

Pickstock Ann, dressmaker, Pool road

Pierce Edward, shopkeeper, Church street

Pierce Robert, maltster, Beatrice street

Pierce Robert, shopkeeper, Castle terrace

Pierce Richard, maltster, Beatrice street

Poole Emma, straw bonnet maker, Cross st

Poole Edward, tailor, Salop road

Poole Richard, maltster, Cross street

Poole William, painter, Upper Brook street

Pope Ann, shopkeeper, Church street

Porter Isaac, surveyor, Salop road

Powell Richard, hosier, &c., Church street

Price Ann, confectioner, Bailey street

Price David, nurseryman, Pool road

Price Jane, stay maker, Willow street

Price Mary, spirit vaults, Cross street

Price Richard, soot dealer, Upper Brook st

Price William, printer & stationer, Cross st

Price Mrs. William, The Cross

Price William, gentleman, Cross street

Pritchard Margaret, victualler, King’s Head, Church street

Probett Ann, dressmaker, Kynaston lane

Pryce Thomas, ironmonger, Church street

Prynailt Rchrd., vict., Feathers, Albion hill

Pugh Mrs. Elizabeth, Pool road

Pugh Thomas, boot & shoemaker, Willow st

Ralphs Samuel, governor of borough gaol

Redrobe James, slater, Upper Brook street

Rees John, butcher, Beatrice street

Rees John, Temp. Coffee House, Bailey st

Rees John, vict., Victoria Bailey sheet

Richards Elizabeth shopkeeper Willow st

Richards James, saddler, &c., Bailey street

Richards Martha Paynter, milliner & dressmaker, Willow street

Richards Rchd., commercial school, Brook st

Richards Richard, assistant overseer and collector of poors’ rates, Victoria place

Richards William, land surveyor, Beatrice st

Ridge Mary, shopkeeper, Beatrice street

Roberts Ann, dressmaker, Salop road

Roberts David, shopkeeper, Legge street

Roberts Edward, provision store, Bailey st

Roberts Edward, shoemaker, Legge street

Roberts Edward, butcher, Willow street

Roberts Eleanor, vict., Grapes, Willow st

Roberts Elizabeth, Upper Brook street

Roberts Frank, bank manager, Willow street

Roberts Hugh, vict., White Lion, Willow st

Roberts John, shopkeeper, Londonderry

Roberts John, fruiterer, Willow street

Roberts John Askew, bookseller, printer, stationer, &c., Advertiser office, Bailey Head

Roberts John, gentleman, Cross street

Roberts John, beerhouse, Warrington place

Roberts John, saddler, Bailey street

Roberts Margaret, bonnet maker, Beatrice st

Roberts Miss, seminary, Castle fields

Roberts Miss, dressmaker, Beatrice street

Roberts Mrs. Mary, Lower Brook street

Roberts Richard, butcher, Bailey street

Roberts Robert, maltster, Salop road

Roberts Robert, hydraulic engineer, plumber, glazier, and gas-fitter, Brook street

Roberts Sarah, baker, Church street

Roberts Thomas, bookkeeper, Canal Compy.

Roberts William, joiner, Beatrice street

Roberts Thomas, shopkeeper, Middleton rd

Roberts William, solicitor, Brook street

Robley Isaac, maltster, Salop road

Rodgers Edward, fish-tackle maker, Cross st

Rodgers Edward, beerhouse, Willow street

Rogers Jones Raura, draper, Cross street

Rogers John, tanner, Lower Brook street

Rogers John, solicitor, Willow street

Rogers Mary, confectioner, Church street

Rogers Sarah, dressmaker, Willow street

Rogers Thomas, wine, spirit, and porter merchant, Stone House, Cross street

Rowland Thomas, flour dealer, Bailey street

Russell Frederick, mercer & draper, Bailey st

Sabine Charles, Esq., Salop road

Salter Jackson, printer & stationer, Church st

Salter Richard, toy and fancy repository, Bailey Head

Salter Richard, glass & china dealer, Bailey st

Salter Thomas, gentleman, Salop road

Salwey the Rev. Thomas, M.A., The Vicarage, Brook street

Saunders George James, chemist & druggist, Cross street

Sheaf Samuel, bank clerk, Victoria place

Shone Lazarus, provision store, Cross street

Sides Mary, staysmaker, Upper Brook street

Simon Robert, Esq., clerk of the peace, Church street

Simons William, Esq., chief clerk county crt.

Smale William, chemist & druggist, Cross st

Smith Jacob, clerk of the markets, Bailey Head

Smith Mr., inland revenue officer, Willow st

Southall John, fishmonger, Legge street

Stanton Robert and John, gun makers Bailey street

Stennett Eliza, berlin repository, Church st

Stevens Mary, vict., Royal Oak, Church st

Teece & Peate, mercers and drapers, Cross st

Thaxter Chas., vict., Railway Inn, Beatrice st

Thomas Charles, beerhouse, Upper Brook st

Thomas David, gentleman, Willow street

Thomas David, bricklayer, Legge street

Thomas Edward, woolstapler, Castle street

Thomas Edward Wynne, draper and mercer, Cross street

Thomas Henry, plumber, &c., Salop road

Thomas John, builder, Legge street

Thomas John, gentleman, Cross street

Thomas John, beerhouse, Bailey street

Thomas John, maltster, Beatrice street

Thomas John, woolstapler, Willow street

Thomas John and Peter, grocers and tea dealers, Cross street

Thomas Jeremiah, solicitor, Salop road

Thomas Mary, vict., Coach & Dogs, Church st

Thomas Mary, dressmaker, Upper Willow st

Thomas Richard, carrier, Church street

Thomas Samuel, shopkeeper, Pool road

Thomas Mr. Stephen, Salop road

Tomkies John, shoemaker & dealer, Bailey st

Thompson John, dyer, Legge street

Titley Charles, seedsman, Willow street

Turner John, shopkeeper, Salop road

Tyley Thomas, vict., Sun, Church street

Varty William N., gentleman, Salop road

Vaughan Edward, painter, Beatrice street

Vaughan John, butcher, Bailey street

Vaughan James, timber merchant, builder and joiner, Beatrice street

Vaughan James, upholsterer, Beatrice street

Vaughan Jas., tailor & draper, The Quadrant

Vaughan Richard, boot & shoemaker, Pool rd

Vaughan Samuel, slater, Bailey street

Vaughan William, whitesmith, Welsh walls

Walker Charles, shopkeeper, Church street

Warren John, Esq., Porkington Terrace

Watson Miss Elizabeth, Church street

Weaver James, chemist & druggist, Bailey st

Weston Geo., chemist & druggist, Church st

Whitaker Mary, lets post horses, Legge st

Whitridge Miss, Arthur street

Wildblood Hugh, bank clerk, Victoria place

Williams Edward, solicitor, Upper Brook st

Williams David, shoemaker, Willow street

Williams Edward, Esq., Lawrea House

Williams Edw., surveyor of stamps, Willow st

Williams Evan, grocer & dealer, Bailey street

Williams Harvey, surgeon, Church street

Williams John, tailor, Pool road

Williams John, bricklayer, Upper Church st

Williams John, vict., Golden Lion, Pool road

Williams John, beerhouse, Pool road

Williams Margaret, shopkeeper, Up. Brook st

Williams Mary, milliner, &c., Willow street

Williams Richard, tailor, Upper Brook street

Williams Robert, mercer & draper, Church st

Williams Thomas, butcher, Willow street

Williams William, Esq., Willow street

Williams William, Esq., Castle buildings

Williams William, vict., Bell, Church street

Windsor John, agricultural implement maker, wire worker, and dealer, Beatrice street

Wood Jane, upholsteress, Upper Brook street

Wood Richard, victualler, Britannia, Brook st

Worton Harriet, stay maker, Willow street

Worton Richard, staymaker, Upper Brook st

Wright Mrs., Willow street

Wright Edward, tailor, Victoria place

Wynn John, surgeon, Willow street

CLASSIFICATION
OF THE
PROFESSIONS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES
IN THE
BOROUGH OF OSWESTRY.

Academies.

Marked * are Boarding Schools.

* Asterley Catherine, Castle buildings

Bentley John, Church street

British School, Arthur street, Richard Orton, master; Mary Jones, mistress

France George, Lower Brook street

* Grammar School or College, Brook street, Rev. Stephen Donne, M.A., head master

* Holbrook Sarah, Salop rd

Infant School, Welsh walls, Ann Pearce, mistress

* Jackson Mary Ann, Willow street

Jones Elizabeth, Beatrice st

National School, Welsh walls, Edward Wynne, master; Fanny Whitfield, mistress

Richards Richard, Willow st

Roberts Ann, Castle fields

Wynne Edward, Black gates

Accountants.

Brayne Thomas, Beatrice st

Fox John, Upper Brook st

Agricultural Implement Makers.

Davies Thomas, Bailey head

Windsor John, Beatrice st

Architects.

Penson Thomas, Willow st

Penson Richard Kyrke, Willow street

Porter Isaac, Salop road

Attorneys.

Bull Wm. Isaac, Church st

Croxton Richard Jones, and town clerk, Church street

Hayward & Davies, Arthur st

Longueville and Williams, Upper Brook street

Minshall Thos. and Charles, Arthur street

Oswell Edward, Church st

Roberts William, Cross st

Rogers John, Willow street

Sabine Charles, Salop road

Thomas Jeremiah Jones, Cross street

Auctioneers & Valuers.

Evans Edward, Legge street

Hilditch George, office, Wynnstay Hotel

Hill Thomas, Upper Brook street

Bakers & Flour Dealers.

Arthur Evan, Cross street

Clurton Joseph, Beatrice st

Corney William, Cross street

Davies Edward, Cross street

Jones David, Willow street

Roberts Sarah, Church street

Rowland Thomas, Bailey st

Bankers.

The Old Bank, Willow street, Croxton, Longueville, & Co.; draw on Masterman and Co., London; Geo. Cooper, Esq., manager

North and South Wales Banking Company, Willow street; draw on London and Westminster Bank; Frank Roberts, manager.

Savings’ Bank, Bailey head, open on Wednesday from ten to four; John Hughes, secretary

Basket Makers.

Cadwallader Thomas, Salop road

Edwards David, Upper Brook street

Blacksmiths.

Davies Francis, Willow st

Jones John, Lower Brook st

Jones Morris, Middleton rd

Jones William, Legge street

Jones William, Beatrice st

Phillips Elias, Pentrapoath

Booksellers, Printers, Stationers & Bookbinders.

Bayley Chas. George, Cross street

Cowdell John, Legge street

Jarvis James, Cross street

Price William, Cross street

Roberts John Askew, Bailey street

Roberts Samuel, Advertiser Office, Bailey head

Salter Jackson, Church st

Boot & Shoemakers.

Clayton Thomas, Upper Brook street

Combs Samuel Howard, Church street

Edge Wm., Upper Church st

Edwards George, Cross st

Edwards John, Croxon’s sq

Evans George, Upper Brook street

Griffith’s Wm., Willow st

Jones David, Church street

Jones Edward, Bailey street

Mitton George, Willow st

Pugh Thomas, Willow st

Roberts Edward, Legge st

Taylor John, Cross street

Tomkins John, Bailey st

Turner Richard, Beatrice st

Vaughan Richard, Pool road

Williams David, Willow st

Braziers & Tin Plate Workers.

Batterbee John, Legge street

Bickerton George Morrell, Willow street

Davies David Christopher, Legge street

Minshall and Dale, Bailey street

Price Thomas, Cross street

Bricklayers.

Edwards Thomas, Willow st

Hughes Thomas, Upper Brook street

Jones Jonathan, Corneabrun

Lloyd Joseph, Willow street

Morris Robert, Lower Brook street

Thomas David, Legge street

Williams John, Upper Church street

Brick & Tile Makers.

Holland Isaac, Beatrice st

Jones John, Salop road

Morris Griffith, Salop road

Rogers Thomas, Cross st

Thackster Charles, Beatrice street, agent to W. O. Gore, Esq.

Vaughan James, Beatrice st

Builders.

Evans Edward, Lower Brook street

Holland Isaac, Beatrice st

Morris Griffith, Salop road

Thomas John, Legge street

Vaughan James, Beatrice st

Butchers.

Marked * only attend the weekly market.

* Davies Edward, Market

Davies James, Bailey street

Edwards Edward, Willow st

Edwards John, Bailey street

Evans Evan, Pool road

* Finsley David, Market

Hughes Price, Willow street

Hughes Richard, Upper Brook street

Jackson George, Bailey st

* Jacks John, Market

Jackson Thomas, Willow st

* Jackson William, Market

Johnson Joseph, Albion hill

* Jones Edward, Market

Jones Evan, Upper Brook street

Jones Henry, Willow street

Jones John, Bailey street

Jones John, Beatrice street

* Jones Robert, Market

Jones Robert, Church street

* Jones William, Market

Lewis Margaret, Cross street

* Lloyd Charles, Market

* Llewellyan Charles, Market

* Morris Thomas, Market

Morris Thomas, Bailey st

Moreton William, Willow st

Owen Arthur, Bailey street

Poole Richard, Cross street

* Pratt Charles, Market

Reese John, Beatrice street

* Reese John, Market

Roberts Edward, Willow st

Roberts Richard, Bailey st

* Simpson Charles, Mardol

Vaughan John, Bailey street

Williams Thomas, Willow st

* Williams William, Market

Cabinet Makers.

Holland Isaac, Beatrice st

Jones John, Church street

Vaughan James, Beatrice st

Cheese & Butter Factors.

Arthur Evan, Cross street

Davies Edward, Church st

Thomas Edward, Castle st

Chemists & Druggists.

Edwards Walter, Church st

Evans Richard, Willow st

Roderick Wm., Legge st

Saunders George James, Cross street

Smales William, Cross street

Weaver James, Bailey st

Weston George, Church st

China & Glass Dealers.

Marked * are only glass dealers.

* Bailey Charles George, Cross street

Gregory Thomas, Church st

Jones Gwen, Cross street

Mellor William, Bailey st

* Salter Richard, Bailey street

Coach Builders.

Farr Thomas and Brother, Salop road

Coal, Slate, & Lime Agents.

Evans Edward, Legge street

Hawkins Henry George, Plasmadoc coal

Jones Thomas, Blackpark coal

Lucas Francis, South Sea coal

Roberts Frank, Ruabon and Cefn coal; offices at the Railway wharf

Confectioners.

Bridden Mary, Albion hill

Corney William, Cross st

Davies Edward, Cross street

Davies E. and Mary, Bailey street

Davies Mary, Albion hill

Price Mary, Cross street

Rogers Mary, Church street

Walker Charles, Church st

Coopers.

Bowyer Thomas, Beatrice st

Morris John, Legge street

Oliver John, Legge street

Payne John, Willow street

Corn Dealers.

Arthur Evan, Cross street

Hodges Richard, (merchant) Bailey street

Jameson David, Bailey st

Roberts Edward, Bailey st

Curriers and Leather Cutters.

Edwards David, Beatrice st

Evans Robert, Legge street

Hughes William, Willow st

Thomas Richard, Church st

Dyers.

Evans William, Pool road

France George, Brook street, agent to Mr. Booth, of Chester

Thompson John, Legge st

Eating Houses.

Hardman John, Bayley st

Lloyd John, Willow street

Rees John, Bailey street

Richards Elizth., Willow st

Engineers.

Penson Thomas, Willow st

Penson Rd. Kyrke, Willow street

Roberts Robert, (hydraulic) Brook street

Engraver.

Jones Charles, Pool road

Farmers.

Edwards William, Legge st

Jackson Thomas, Willow st

Jones William, Hays farm

King John Edward, Legge st

Lloyd David, Church street

Poole Richard, Cross street

Fire and Life Office Agents.

Birmingham, Thomas Hill, Upper Brook street

Clerical, Medical, & General, George Cooper, Salop road

Crown, William Hayward, Willow street

Eagle, Samuel Roberts, Bailey head

English & Scottish, William Hayward, Arthur street

European, George Lewis, Willow street

General, James Vaughan, Beatrice street

Guardian, Mr. John Bentley

Hand-in-hand, Mr. Hayward, Arthur street

Law, Mr. Haywood, Arthur street

Norwich Union, William Roberts, Cross street

Phœnix, Mr. George Cooper, The Bank

Royal Exchange, Thomas Hughes, Church street

Salop Union, William Price, Cross street

Scottish Equitable, John Minshall, Bailey street

Scottish Union, Wm. Isaac Bull, Church street

Shropshire & North Wales, John Lacon, Legge street

Temperance Provident, John Windsor, Bailey street

Fishmonger.

Southall John, Legge street

Fishing Tackle Maker.

Rogers Edward, Cross street

Fruiterers.

Jones Thomas, Willow street

Roberts John, Willow street

Furniture Brokers.

Holland Isaac, Beatrice st

Jones John, Bailey head

Lowther William, Beatrice st

Game Dealer.

Poole Richard, Cross street

Grocers & Tea Dealers.

Davies John, Cross street

Davies Richard and William, Cross street

Foulkes Robert, Church st

Fisher John Edward, Cross street

Jameson David, Bailey street

Johnson James, Beatrice st

Jones Edward David, Legge street

Jones David, Beatrice street

Jones Frederick, Willow st

Jones Mary, Cross street

Jones Thomas, Willow st

Jones Mary Watkin, Cross st

Lacon John, Legge street

Morris & Savin, Legge street

Phillips John, Cross street

Roberts Edward, Bailey st

Shone Lazarus, Cross street

Teece & Peate, Cross street

Thomas John and Peter, Cross street

Williams Evan, Bailey street

Wynne Thomas Edward, Cross street

Gun Makers and Cutlers.

Higham George, Cross street

Staunton Robert & Son, Bailey street

Gutta Percha Dealer.

Roberts John Asknew, Bailey head

Hair Dressers.

Edwards William, Church st

Gerrard William, Legge st

Jones John, Legge street

Lewis John, Albion hill

Morgan Abraham, Cross st

Hatters.

Hardy Thomas, Church st

Jones John, Church street

Jones Richard (and furrier), Bailey street

Hop Dealers.

Fisher John Ed., Cross st

Hodges William, Bailey st

Jameson David, Bailey st

Jones Thomas, Willow st

Minshall John, Smithfield rd

Saunders George, Cross st

Weaver James, Bailey street

Hosiers.

Lloyd Eleanor, Legge street

Powell Richard, Church st

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Albion, Margt. Gee, Church street

Bear, Thos. Lewis, Legge st

Bell, William Williams, Church street

Boar’s Head, Ann Moreaton, Willow street

Britannia, Richard Wood, Brook street

Butchers’ Arms, Jas. Lowe, Willow street

Coach and Dogs, Mary Thomas, Church st

Coach and Horses, James Barratt, Legge street

Commercial Hotel and Posting House, Mary Macdougall, Legge street and Bailey street

Cross Keys Commercial and Posting House, John Edward King, Legge st

Duke of York, Geo. M. Bickerton, Willow street

Eagles, Edward Dodd, Bailey square

Feathers, Richard Prynallt

Fighting Cocks, James Beckett, Beatrice street

Five Bells, Edward Edwards, Willow street

George Edward Jones, Bailey head

Golden Lion, John Williams, Pool road

Grapes, Eleanor Roberts, Willow street

Horse Shoe, Richard Holden, Legge street

King’s Head, Margaret Pritchard, Church street

Plough, Thomas Jones, Beatrice street

Queen’s Head Commercial and Posting House, Wm. Edwards, Legge street

Railway Inn, Charles Thaxter, Lower Beatrice st

Red Lion, Thomas Davies, Bailey head

Royal Oak, Mary Stephens, Church street

Star, William Edwards, Bailey street

Sun, Thos. Tyley, Church st

Swan, Luke Edwards, Beatrice street

Three Tuns, John Davies, Bailey street

Unicorn, Edward Edwards, Albion hill

Victoria, John Reece, Bailey street

White Horse, John Jones, Church street

White Lion, Hugh Roberts, Willow street

Woolpack, John Preese, Willow street

Wynnstay Arms Hotel, Commercial and Posting House, David Lloyd, Church street

Beerhouses.

Davies James, Bailey street

Davies Robert, Upper Brook street

Foulkes Edward, Legge st

Haswell Charles, Legge st

Hughes John, Salop road

Hughes Thomas, Willow st

Jackson George, Bailey st

Jackson Joseph, Church st

Jones Leonard, Salop road

Jones Thomas, Beatrice st

Lloyd John, Willow street

Morris Ed., Warrington pl

Pierce Edward, Church st

Roberts John, Londonderry

Rogers Edward, Willow st

Thomas Charles, Upper Brook street

Thomas John, Bailey street

Williams John, Pool road

Iron Merchants.

Lacon John, Legge street

Minshall and Dale, Smithfield road

Ironmongers.

Bickerton George Morral, Willow street

Brown Robert, Bailey street

Fisher John Edward, Cross street

Lacon John, Legge street

Minshall & Dale, Bailey st

Price Thomas, Church street

Joiners and Builders.

Evans Edward, Low Brook st

Holland Isaac, Beatrice st

Jones Evan, Pool road

Morris Griffith, Salop road

Roberts William, Beatrice st

Thomas John, Legge street

Vaughan James, Beatrice st

Libraries [Circulating.]

Price William, Cross street

Salter Jackson, Church street

Roberts John Askew, Bailey Head

Linen and Woollen Drapers.

Davies John, Cross street

Davies Rchd. & Wm., Cross st

Davies Wm. Morris, Cross st

Faulkes Robert, Church st

Morris & Savin, Legge street

Phillips John, Cross street

Powell Richard, Cross street

Rogers Jones L., Cross street

Russell Frederick, Bailey st

Teece and Peate, Cross st

Thomas Edw. Wynne, Cross st

Williams Robert, Church st

Livery Stable Keepers.

Those marked * are Licensed to Let Post Horses.

* Davies Edward, Salop road

* Edwards Richard, Londonderry

Edwards Wm., Queen’s Head Hotel

* Jones John, Bailey street

* Jones William, Beatrice st

King John Edward, Cross Keys Hotel

* Leeke Thomas, Willow st

Lloyd David, Wynnstay Arms Hotel

Macdougall Mary, Osbourn’s Hotel

* Whitaker Mary, Legge st

Maltsters [Licensed].

Brayne Elizabeth, Beatrice street

Edwards Edward, Albion hill

Gittins Samuel, Beatrice st

Grindley & Co., Beatrice st

Hughes John, Salop road

Jameson David, Bailey street

Jones John, Bailey street

Jones William, Welsh walls

Mine John, Pool road

Morris Edward, Willow street

Pierce Robert & Son, Beatrice street

Poole Richard, Cross street

Roberts Robert, Salop road

Robley Isaac, Salop road

Rogers Thomas, Church st.

Thomas John, Beatrice street

Tyley Thomas, Upper Brook street

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Beard Hannah Jemima, Willow street

Cooke Ann, Pool road

Evans Lydia, Quadrant

Hughes Elizabeth, Willow st

Jarvis Miss, Cross street

Jones Elizabeth, Welsh walls

Lewis Margaret, Beatrice st.

Lewis Mary, Bailey street

Mitton Sarah, Willow street

Pickstock Ann, Pool road

Probert Ann, Kynastone lane

Richards Martha, Willow st.

Roberts Ann, Salop road

Rogers Sarah, Willow street

Stanton Margaret, Bailey st.

Taylor Mary, Pool road

Thomas Mary, Willow street

Williams Mary, Willow street

Nursery and Seedsmen.

(See also Seedsmen.)

Edwards Wm., Welsh walls

Price David, Pool road

Titley Charles, Willow street

Painters.

Batterbee John, Beatrice st

Brown John, Legge street

Eyeley Charles, Lower Brook street

Eyeley and Son, Upper Brook street

Lewis William, Beatrice st.

Poole William, Upper Brook street

Vaughan Edward, Beatrice st.

Vaughan James, Beatrice st.

Pawnbroker.

Jones John, Bailey street

Plumbers and Glaziers.

Batterbee John, Legge street

Davies Thomas, Beatrice st.

Davies Thomas, Albert place

Ellis Thomas, Croxon square

Gough John, Beatrice street

Morris Richard, Willow st.

Roberts Robert, Brook street

Thomas Henry, Salop road

Porter Dealers.

Corney & Jones, Church st.

Edwards Wm., Legge street

Hawkins Henry George, Union place

Rogers Thomas, Stone house

Rope Maker & Flax Dresser.

Mac Kiernin Thomas, Bailey street

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Davies John, Bailey street

Evans Francis, Cross street

Farmer Charles, Willow st.

Richards James, Bailey street

Roberts John, Bailey street

Throstle Mr., Cross street

Salt Dealers.

Hawkins Henry George, Low Beatrice street

Roberts Edward, Bailey st.

Seedsmen.

Allen Thomas, Kent place

Edwards Wm., Welsh walls

Evans Richard, Cross street

Hodges William, Bailey st.

Jameson David, Bailey street

Jones Thomas, Willow street

Roberts John, Willow street

Salter Richard, Bailey street

Saunders George, Cross st.

Weaver James, Bailey street

Weston George, Church st.

Shopkeepers and Dealers in Provisions and Sundries.

Arthur Evan, Legge street

Churton Joseph, Beatrice st.

Davies Susannah, Willow st.

Davies Thomas, Beatrice st.

Doughty William, Willow st.

Evans John, Pool road

Evans Thomas, Pool road

Fox Ralph, Upper Brook st.

Hughes John, Beatrice street

Hughes Mary, Salop road

Hughes Price, Willow street

Jones Charles, Upper Brook street

Jones Edward, Beatrice st.

Jones Hugh, Willow street

Jones John, Upper Brook st

Jones John, Church street

Jones John, Legge street

Jones Richard, Salop road

Jones William, Willow street

Painter Mary, Beatrice street

Pierce Edward, Church street

Pierce Robert, Beatrice street

Pope Ann, Church street

Richards Elizabeth and Ann, Willow street

Ridge Mary, Beatrice street

Roberts David, Legge street

Roberts Edward, Bailey st.

Roberts John, Londonderry

Roberts Thomas, Middleton road

Shone Lazarus, Cross street

Southall John, Legge street

Thomas Samuel, Pool road

Turner John, Salop road

Walker Charles, Church st.

Williams Margaret, Upper Brook street

Worton Richard, Upper Brook street

Silversmith and Cutler.

Gregory Thomas, Cross st.

Skinners & Leather Dressers.

Jones Richard, Willow street

Parry Thomas, Willow street

Slaters and Plasterers.

Cash Thomas, Beatrice street

Jones John, Lower Brook street

Jones Wm., Beatrice street

Morris James, Oswell’s place

Redrobe James, Upper Brook street

Vaughan Samuel, Bailey st.

Soda Water Manufacturers.

Edwards Walter, St. Oswald’s well

Leek Thomas, Welsh walls

Staymakers.

Price Ann Jane, Willow st.

Sides Mary, Upper Brook st.

Worton Harriet, Willow street

Worton Richard, Upper Brook street

Stone Mason and Builder.

Milnes Richard, Pool road

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Davies Elizabeth, Cross st.

Davies Sarah, Church street

Davies William Morris, Cross street

Hughes Hannah, Beatrice street

Jarvis Ann Margaret, Bailey street

Poole Hannah, Cross street

Roberts Margaret, Beatrice street

Surgeons.

Barnett Henry, Willow street

Blaikei Robert, Church street

Bennion and Meredith, Welsh walls

Cartwright Peploe, Church street

Dicker Philip, Arthur street, Bailey head

Fuller William, Salop road

Griffith Wm., Church street

Large Joseph, Union place

Roderick William, Legge st.

Williams Harvey, Church st.

Wynne John, Willow street

Surveyors.

Jones Joseph, Church street

Penson Richard Kyrke, Willow street

Penson Thomas, Willow st.

Porter Isaac, Salop road

Richards Richard, Upper Brook street

Richards William, Beatrice street

Tailors.

Baverstock John, Salop road

Davies John, Cross street

Edmunds Griffith, Bailey head

Edwards Richard, Salop road

Hughes Thomas, Willow st.

Jones Edward, Pool road

Killon John, Beatrice street

Owen Edward (and clothier), Bailey street

Poole Edward, Salop road

Vaughan James (& clothier), Quadrant

Williams John, Pool road

Williams Richards, Upper Brook street

Wright Ed., Victoria place

Tallow Chandlers.

Ellis John, Brick hills

Edwards Thomas, Cross st.

Fisher John Edward, Cross street

Tanners.

Evans Robert, Legge street

Hughes William, Willow st.

Rogers John, Lower Brook street

Timber Merchants.

Evans Edward, Smithfield road

Holland Isaac, Beatrice st.

Morris Griffith, Salop road

Porter Isaac, Salop road

Thomas John, Salop road

Vaughan James, Beatrice st.

Tobacco Pipe Maker.

Jones Thomas, Pentrapoath, Pool road

Veterinary Surgeons.

Batten William, Upper Brook street

Hales John Miles, Lower Brook street

Upholsterers.

Dempster Thomas, Legge st.

Holland Isaac, Beatrice street

Jones John, Church street

Vaughan James, Beatrice st.

Watch and Clock Makers.

Corken Archibald, Cross st.

Matthews Richard, Bailey street

Owen William, Cross street

Wheelwrights.

Hughes Edward, Salop road

Jones David, Beatrice street

Jones Edward, Beatrice street

Jones Evan, Pool road

Jones Robert, Willow street

Jones Thomas, Beatrice st.

Whitesmiths and Bell Hangers.

Hughes Edward, Beatrice st.

Phillips Elias, Pentrapoath

Vaughan Wm., Welsh walls

Wine and Spirit Merchants.

Marked * are retail dealers only.

Edwards William, Legge st.

* Hughes Thomas, Cross st.

Jones and Corney, Cross st.

Owen Jane Emma, Legge st.

* Price Mary, Cross street

Rogers Thomas, Cross street

Wire Workers.

Davies Thos., Bailey square

Windsor John, Beatrice st.

Woolstaplers.

Parry Thomas, Londonderry

Thomas Edward, Castle st.

Thomas John, Willow street

CARRIERS FROM THE INNS.

To Bala—J. Jones, from the King’s Head, Tuesdays.

To Cefn—Jones, from the Swan; and Edwards, from the Crown, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

To Ellesmere—Pearce, from the George, Wednesdays.

To Felton—Fox, from the Horse Shoe, and Jones, from the Barley Mow, Wednesdays.

To Knockin and Kinnerley—Beddoes, from the King’s Head, and Glover, from the Three Tuns, Wednesday.

To Llandrinio—Williams, the Albion; Lewis, the Grapes; Richards, Coach and Dogs; Bagley, Green Dragon, Wednesdays.

To Llanfyllin—Davies, Coney Green, daily; Lloyd, Macdougall Hotel; Davies, Bell, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

To Llangollen—Thomas, the Boar’s Head; and Evans, the Horse Shoe, Wednesdays.

To Llangedwin—Davies, George Inn, Wednesdays.

To Llanrhaiadr—Hughes and Davies, Boar’s Head; Evans, Three Tuns, Wednesdays.

To Llansaintffraid—Edwards, the Fox, Wednesdays.

To Llansilin—Evans, the Boar’s Head; and Ellis, the Five Bells, Wednesdays.

To Llanyblodwel—Mason, the Star, on Wednesdays.

To Llanymynech—Price, King’s Head, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To Maesbrook—Briggs, White Horse, Wednesdays.

To Maesbury—Kenthric, Barley Mow, Wednesdays and Fridays.

To Merford—Roberts, the Sun, Wednesdays.

To Nesscliff—Benyon, White Horse, Wednesdays.

To Rhosymedre—Jones, the Swan; Edwards, the Crown, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

ASTON
is a small township in the parish of Oswestry, comprising 860a. 2r. 17p. of land, which is the property of Mrs. Louisa Lloyd, who is also lady of the manor.  The township is two miles S.E. from Oswestry, and in 1841 had 12 houses and 68 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £197. 19s., of which £138. 12s. 1d. is apportioned to Mrs. Lloyd, £42. 8s. 11d. to Lady Tyrwhitt, and £16. 8s. to the Vicar of Oswestry.  Aston Hall, the seat of Mrs. Lloyd, is a handsome mansion of brick, with stone finishings.  It is surrounded with a park of upwards of 100 acres, with a fine undulating surface, and richly timbered.  Some of the beech trees are of immense size; and opposite the front of the hall is a large sheet of water.  A little south from the hall is the Domestic Chapel, a neat structure of brick, with a square tower.  It is stated, on the table of benefactions of 1792, in Oswestry church, that Mr. Thomas gave by will an annual payment of £2. 12s., to be distributed every Sunday at Aston chapel.  A quantity of bread was formerly supplied by he owners of the Aston estate, now belonging to Mrs. Lloyd, and given after divine service in Aston chapel among the poor of the township.  Divine service having been discontinued in this chapel, Mrs. Lloyd usually distributes a quantity of beef and bread on St. Thomas’s day.

Directory.—Mrs. Louisa Lloyd, Aston Hall; Edward Harvey Lloyd, Esq., Aston Hall; Ann Evans, farmer, Bromwich Park; Sarah Hughes, farmer; Richard Legh, farmer, Fox Hall; Zachariah Larkin, farm bailiff and gardener, The Hall; John Roberts, agent to Black Park Coal Works, Queen’s Head Wharf.

CRICKHEATH,
a village and township four miles S. from Oswestry, has 1,286a. 2r. of land, and at the census of 1841, 89 houses and 370 inhabitants.  The landowners are the Earl of Bradford, Earl Powis, W. Eaton, Esq., Mr. Thomas, Miss Wheeler, and Mr. Thomas Jones.  The tithes are commuted for £246. 1s. 6d., of which £225 are paid to Earl Powis, and £21. 1s. 6d. to the Vicar of Oswestry.  The soil is various.  The meadow land is subject to be flooded by the Morda overflowing its banks.  It is the opinion of many that minerals abound in this township.  A party of gentlemen have commenced works in search of copper ore, but none had been found when our agent visited the township.

Pant is a hamlet in this township, in a mountainous district, where there are several immense quarries of limestone.  A number of persons are employed in working the quarries and burning lime.

Directory.—Those with * affixed reside at the Pant.—* John Griffiths, blacksmith; Thomas Jones, farmer; * Robert Llwyd, wheelwright; John Murray, blacksmith; Hugh Pugh, farmer; * Samuel Pugh, shopkeeper and coal dealer; John Rogers, farmer, The Hall; * Robert Roberts, victualler, Powis Arms; * Robert Roberts, jun., farmer and quarry master; William Rowland, blacksmith; Edward Sockett, farmer; Thomas Ward, farmer; John Williams, farmer.

CYNYNION
is a township and scattered village, three miles and a half S.W. by W. from Oswestry, which contains 760a. 1r. 6p. of land, mostly a bleak, mountainous district.  The village is situate at the verge of the range of limestone rock, near the borders of Denbighshire, and had in 1841, 27 houses and 68 inhabitants.  Sir Watkin W. Wynne, Bart., is lord of the manor, owner of the whole township, and impropriator of the large tithes, which are commuted for £14. 15s. 6d.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £13. 13s. 5d.  The Church, situated at the Lawnt, is a small fabric of stone, with a square tower.  Divine service is performed both in English and Welsh.  The Rev. Robert Williams is the incumbent, and resides at the Parsonage, a good residence a short distance from the church.  Mr. Williams receives a limited number of scholars as hoarders.  A school was built in the village in 1850.  The lime works in this township are extensively worked by Messrs. Croxon and Co.  Lawnt is a small hamlet in this township.

Croxon & Jones, lime works & quarry masters

Edwards John, farmer

Evans Robert, farmer, Pandy

Evans Wm., farmer & quarry master, Lawnt

Evans William, victualler, Cross Foxes Inn

Evans William, blacksmith

Jones Humphrey, shoemaker

Jones Thomas, farmer and lime agent

Jones William, farmer

Lloyd John, farmer

Owens Edward, farmer, Cafn-byrlallt

Thomas Thos., gentleman, Cynynion House

Williams David, farmer

Williams Rev. Robert, M.A., incumbent, and boarding school proprietor, Parsonage House.  Lawnt

HISLAND,
a small township, with 571a. 1r. 36p. of land, two miles and a quarter S.E. from Oswestry; had in 1841, 14 houses and 66 inhabitants.  Mrs. Lloyd is owner of the whole township.  The tithes have been commuted for £165. 18s. 8d., of which £113. 6s. 8d. is paid to Mrs. Lloyd, £41. 1s. 10d. to Lady Tyrwhitt, and £11. 10s. 11d. to the Vicar of Oswestry.  The residents in this township are Henry Legh, farmer, Buckley; Edward Parry, farmer; Thos. Briscoe, blacksmith; and Mary Williams, schoolmistress.

LLANFORDA, OR LLANVORDA,
a pleasantly situated village, one mile and a half W. by S. from Oswestry, at the census of 1841 had 61 houses and 304 inhabitants.  The township contains 1,278 acres of lands, mostly elevated, from which are seen some fine views over the fertile plains of Shropshire, and into the mountainous district of Wales.  Sir Watkin William Wynne, Bart., is the landowner, lord of the manor, and impropriator of the large tithes, which are commuted for £87. 19s. 6d.; the vicarial tithes are commuted for £23. 11s.  Llanvorda Hall is a handsome mansion, delight fully situated on a gentle acclivity, commanding picturesque views over a luxuriant country of great beauty.  The park is spacious, and studded with thriving plantations.  There are several genteel residences in this township, which our limits will not allow us to notice in detail.  A MSS. of John Davies, Esq., of 1635, says, “Rynerus, bishop of St. Asaph, suppreesed the old church of the Mercians, called Llanvorda.”  Elizabeth Williams gave, by will, an annual payment of 30s., issuing out of a croft in Croes Willyn, to buy clothes for poor people of this township.  The amount is paid out of a plot of land, about two-thirds of an acre, called The Poor’s Croft, and expended in suitable clothes for the poor.

Andrews Chas. Scarlett, Esq., Bryn Haford

Aubrey Mrs. Llanforda House

Bennion Edwd. David, Esq., Summer-hill House

Croxon Captain John, Llanforda Issa

Davies Hugh, slater and farmer

Davies Mary, farmer

Ellis Robert, Bwlch farm

Evans Joseph, farmer

Francis Thomas, farmer

Hayward Peter, Esq., Llanforda Hall

Jones William, Hayes farm

Kilbrook John, gamekeeper

Knox William, gardener

Lawfoot William R., Esq., land and estate agent, Ordley Hall

Leeke Thos., tailor & farmer

Lloyd David, Llywn-y-maan farm

Llongueville Mrs., Penylan Hall

Morris Elizabeth, farmer

Parker John, farmer and wood ranger

Price Edward, Tynycoed farm

Thomas Sarah, farmer

Thomas Thomas, farmer

MAESBURY
is a pleasant village, in a bold undulating country, three miles S.E. from Oswestry, having in 1841, 107 houses and 414 inhabitants.  This township and that of Sweeney contain together 3,164a. 3r. 35p. of land, chiefly a productive soil.  The meadow lands on the banks of the Morda Dyke are occasionally flooded by those waters overflowing their banks.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Lloyd, Mrs. Parker, George W. Edwards, Esq., John Pickstock, Esq., Mr. John Davies, Mr. John Furmston, Mr. Thomas Jones, Mr. Edward Peat, J. F. M. Doveston, Esq., Mrs. Wildblood, Mrs. Hughes, Mr. John Frances, Mrs. Edwards, and the executors of Thomas Basnitt, Esq.  The township is intersected by the Oswestry and Llanymyneck turnpike road and the Shropshire Union Canal.  The latter has a wharf at Maesbury Marsh, which affords every facility for forwarding merchandise to the inland counties.  The tithes of the above land are commuted for the sum of £674, of which £80. 3s. are apportioned to the vicar, £30 to J. A. Lloyd, Esq., £11 to L. J. Venables, Esq., £3. 15s. to Rowland Hunt, Esq., £520 to T. N. Barker, Esq., £16 to Mr. J. Davies, and £13 to L. Bentley, Esq.

Davies John, farmer, The Fields

Duncon John, farmer

Edwards Mrs., farmer

Evans Edward, farmer

Evans Mrs., jun., farmer

Fardoe William, shoemaker

Frances John, maltster and farmer

Frank Edward, farmer, The Dairy

Hughes John, farmer, Pentrecoed

Humphreys Joseph, farmer

Jones Thomas, corn miller

Lea John, miller & corn factor

Leeke Catherine, beerhouse keeper

Minett William, farmer

Peat Edward, miller and corn factor

Pickstock John, Esq.

Price Morris, victualler, Navigation Inn

Wildblood Mrs.

Williams John, beerhouse keeper

MIDDLETON,
a small township, one mile and a half S.E. by E. from Oswestry, contains 650a. 1r. 16p. of land, the owners of which are William Ormsby Gore, Esq., Mrs. Lloyd, Mr. Thomas Humphreys, Mr. John Tomley, John Jones, Esq., Mrs. Webster, and Shrewsbury Free Grammar School.  Earl Powis is the impropriator of the large tithes, which are commuted for £110. 5s., and the small tithes, £13, are paid to the Vicar of Oswestry.  In 1841, here were 41 houses and 98 inhabitants.  This township has generally a level surface, the soil is various, some of it highly productive.

The Farmers are Thomas Humphreys, Margaret Jones, Nathaniel Jones, John Manford, John Tomley, and Samuel Williams.  Mrs. Jane Humphreys, Middleton Cottage, is also a resident here.

MORTON,
a chapelry and township pleasantly situated 3½ miles S. from Oswestry, and at the census of 1841 had 28 houses and 147 inhabitants; the township contains 685a. 1r. 18p. of land; the Earl of Bradford is lord of the manor.  Morton chapel is situated within the bounds of Llanyblodwell parish; it was built by Mrs. Bridgman in 1774, who endowed it with funds to the annual value of £47; with this property, and a grant of £200 obtained from Queen Anne’s bounty, certain lands were purchased in Staffordshire.  Some time after the lands so purchased were found to contain a valuable bed of coal, and they were ultimately sold for the sum of £19,000, when the amount was invested for the benefit of the incumbent.  The living was formerly presented to by the Earl of Bradford, who neglecting to appoint, it became vested in the bishop of the diocese, who is now patron; incumbent, Rev. John Henry M. Luxmore; officiating minister, Rev. David Lewis.  The church is a plain brick fabric, with nave and transepts; the parsonage house is a neat modern erection, a short distance from the church.  The tithes have been commuted for £211, of which £190 are apportioned to the Earl of Bradford, and £21 to the vicar of Oswestry.  The living of the church is returned at £669.  The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel at Morton Common, built in 1838.  The poor of Morton, Maesbury, and Crickheath, are entitled to one-third of the rent of an estate at Osbaston, left by Mr. Jeffreys, and now amounting to £4. 8s. per annum.  The donor directed that out of every 10s. of the rent, 4s. should be distributed in Morton, 3s. in Maesbury, and 3s. in Crickheath.

Directory.—Croxon Jones and Co., Coal and Mine Wharf; Samuel Davies, shoemaker; Edward Edwards, farmer, Ley; John Jones, farmer, Lower Farm; Thomas Jones, tailor and draper; Rev. Mr. Lewis, curate; Richard Lloyd, dealer in coal, fire bricks, and flagstones, &c.; Redwith, Old Wharf; John Peirce, beerhouse; William Thomas, farmer.

PENTREGAER
township has 512a. 2r. 28p. of land, and is situated 5 miles W.W. by S. from Oswestry; in 1841 here were 17 houses and 98 inhabitants; the township lies on the borders of Denbigh; the scenery is varied and romantic, and the whole district mountainous; a strong soil prevails, which is mostly upon the limestone; upon the hills the land is cold and bleak, but in the valleys there is some fine grazing and arable land.  Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart., is the impropriator of the large tithes, which are commuted for £24. 1s. 11d., and the small tithes which are commuted for £10. 16s. 6d. are paid to the vicar of Oswestry.  Coad-y-gaer Tower, the occasional summer residence of Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart., is a square lofty structure, situated on a bold eminence, commanding most extensive and delightful views into the counties of Denbigh and Montgomery, the western borders of Shropshire and the lovely vale of Llansilin.  Near the tower is a large pool of water covering several acres, which is well stocked with fish.  Tan-coed-y-gaer, a hamlet returned as a separate township on the commutation map, but of which there is no return for 1841, contains 357 acres of land, the principal owner of which is Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart., who is also lord of the manor; when the tithes were apportioned £12 was awarded to Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart., to the vicar of Oswestry £1. 7s. 6d., to the vicar of Llansilin £14. 15s., and to the parish clerk of Llansilin 5s.

Edwards John, farmer

Ellis Robert, Tan-y-coad-y-gaer farm

Evans T., Nant-y-gollan farm

Hughes Allen, farmer

Hughes John, Tan-y-coad-y-gaer farm

James John, farmer and wheelwright

Jones John, farmer

Jones Richard, Tan-y-coad-y-gaer farm

Lewis David, Warnydeuon farm

Lewis Thomas, farmer

Morris Hugh, Tan-y-coad-gaer farm

Morris Robert, farmer

Thomas John, Pennybrin farm

SWEENEY
is a village and township 2½ miles S. from Oswestry, having conjointly with Maesbury 3,164 acres of land, and in 1841 had 105 houses and 513 inhabitants.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor, the chief freeholders are Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Haines, Mrs. Jennings, Thomas Jones, Esq., Mr. Thomas Evans, Miss Oldnall, Miss Dymoch, the Vicar of Oswestry, Mrs. Evans, Mrs. Owen, Charles Clay, Esq., Mr. James O. Pugh, William Roberts, Esq., Colonel Wynn, and others.  In this township are immense heights and rocks called the Sweeney Mountains: here coal is found in considerable quantities, which is conveyed to distant parts by the Hordly Aston Moor and Llanymynech canal.  There is a wharf here where Messrs. Croxon Jones and Co. have on sale coal and lime, Edward Jones, manager; coal, slate, and fire bricks are also sold by Richard Lloyd, at the Old Wharf.  Sweeney Hall, the seat of Mrs. Parker, is a handsome mansion of free stone, delightfully situated in a well timbered park near the Welshpool turnpike road; the pleasure grounds and shrubberies are laid out with great taste; the interior of the mansion is elegantly furnished, and contains some fine paintings and statuary.  In the grounds near the hall are the vestiges of a burial ground, adopted as such in the turbulent period of the Commonwealth.  Thomas Barker, Esq., who died in 1675, was buried here; he served the office of high sheriff for the county, A.D. 1649, the first year of Oliver Cromwell’s usurpation, and in the parliament of 1653 he was summoned by Cromwell, with John Brown, of Little Ness, as a knight of the shire.  Mr. Pierce gave one moiety of the rent of land called Cae Mark to the poor of Sweeney.  The amount is paid out of certain land in Llanyblodwell, the property of Mrs. Oliver, and she distributes 10s. in money and 10s. worth of bread yearly among the poor.  The same property is considered as charged with 6s. 8d. yearly for a sermon in the Welsh language, but the payment has not been made of late years, no sermon having been preached at Sweeney in Welsh.

British Coal Company, Croxon, Jones, and Company, coal and lime masters, Drilth, Sweeney, and Coed-y-goe Collieries

Davies Thomas, farmer

Edwards Thomas, farmer

Evans Thomas, farmer

Evans Thomas, jun., farmer

Haines Elizabeth, vict., The Drill Inn

Jennings Mrs., farmer

Jones and Co., coal masters

Jones David, farmer

Jones Edward, Esq., Llwynymapsis House

Lloyd William, blacksmith

Owens John, blacksmith

Parker Mrs., gentlewoman, The Hall

Pugh Thomas, farmer and miller

Rogers George, bookkeeper, Colliery

Rogers Mary, beerhouse

Rogers Richard, grocer and collector

Savin John, farmer and lime master

Savin Mary, farmer

Wainwright Richard, farmer

Wall William, farmer

Watkin Edward, wheelwright

Williams John, tailor

Yorke Thomas, farmer, and lets thrashing machine.

TREFARCLAWDD,
a village and township, lies about 2¼ miles W.W. by S. from Oswestry; the township comprises 934 acres of land, the owners of which are Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart., and John Croxon, Esq.; the Earl of Powis is lord of the manor; here were 94 houses and 435 inhabitants when the census was taken in 1841.  There are extensive collieries in this township, which are worked by Messrs. Jones and Co.; fire bricks and ornamental tiles are also manufactured here by Mr. John Howell, of Trefonen Cottage.  The tithes were commuted in 1837, for £49. 3s. 2d., of which £33. 3s. 1d. were appropriated to Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart., and £16. 0s. 1d. to the vicar of Oswestry.  Trefarclawdd House, the residence of John Croxon, Esq., is a handsome stuccoed mansion, embosomed in foliage, and beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies.  Pentre Shannel House is a good residence with extensive premises attached, now in the occupation of Mr. William Hughes, farmer.

Directory.—British Coal Company’s Coal Works, Coed-y-Goe; Croxon John, Esq., Trefarclawdd House; Thomas Davies, farmer; John Howell, fire brick and fancy tile manufacturer; Mr. William Hughes, Pentre Shannel House; Jane Hughes, farmer, Ty-tan-y-myn-ydd; Edward Price, blacksmith; Godfrey Roberts, farmer and corn miller; John Thomas, farmer; John Williams, farmer, Vron.

TREFLACH OR TREVLACH,
a scattered village three and a half miles S.W. by S. from Oswestry, in 1841 had 103 houses and 396 inhabitants; the township contains 1,098a. 0r. 31p. of land, mostly a poor soil, in a bleak and mountainous district.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor, L. J. Venables, Esq., and Rowland Hunt, Esq., are land owners and impropriators: to the former 5s. were apportioned, and to the latter £13. 10s.; the tithes payable to the vicar are commuted for £13. 10s.  The Wood Hill Hall, the property and residence of Lazarus Jones Venables.  Esq., is a pleasantly situated house in park-like grounds, which are studded with thriving plantations.  The Hall is an ancient residence, in the occupancy of George Hilditch, estate agent.  At Treflach Wood are several extensive quarries of stone, which is used for building purposes, blocks of immense size are frequently raised; there is also a small stone got here which is burnt into lime.  The Independents have a small chapel at Treflach Wood.

David Jones, relieving officer

Edwards Jane, quarry owner

Edwards John, quarry mastr

Hilditch George, auctioneer & estate agent, The Hall

Jones David, beerhouse and shopkeeper

Jones David, lime burner

Jones John, higgler

Jones Thomas, blacksmith

Jones John & Owen, farmers

Jones Richard, shopkeeper

Lloyd William, farmer

Moreton Edward, farmer

Roberts John, quarry master

Stoakes Walter, beerhouse and shopkeeper

Tudor Thomas, farmer

Venables Lazarus Jones, Esq., Wood hill Hall

Williams Edward, higgler

Williams Walter, shoemaker

TREFONEN,
a township and village with a scattered population, four miles S.W. from Oswestry, in 1841 contained 146 houses and 632 souls; there are 953a. 3r. 9p. of land, with a strong soil lying upon the limestone; the land rises into bold swelling hills.  The tithes are commuted for £82. 15s. 8d., of which £74. 5s. 8d. are apportioned to the bishop and dean of St. Asaph, £5. 13s. 4d. to the vicar of Llansilin, and £2. 16s. 8d. to the vicar of Oswestry.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart., is the principal land owner.  The church, a plain structure of stone, was built in 1821, and enlarged in the year 1828, when 95 additional sittings were obtained.  The service is performed alternately in the Welsh and English languages.  The living is a perpetual curacy returned at £85 in the patronage of Earl Powis and incumbency of the Rev. David Lloyd, M.A.  In the last thirty years 836 burials have been registered here.  The parochial school has an attendance of 65 children.  It is supported by subscriptions, charity sermons, and a small charge from each scholar attending the school.  The Independents have a neat chapel here built in 1832.  The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have also a chapel built of stone called “Carmel.”  There are Sunday schools connected with the several places of worship, which are numerously attended.

Davies Edward, farmer, lime master, and maltster

Davies Morris, shopkeeper

Dolbey Mrs., gentlewoman

Ginder John, Esq.

Gittins Edward, farmer

Howel John, brick and tile maker, The Cottage

Hughes Evan, vict., The Eel Inn and charter master, Coal Works

Hughes John, schoolmaster and parish clerk

Lloyd Rev. David, M.A., incumbent

Probert John, farmer and lime master

Smout Jane, farmer

Stoakes Edward, farmer and maltster

Thomas Mary, farmer

Thomas John, farmer

Thomas William, farmer

Tudor Samuel, farmer

Watkins Thomas, shoemaker

Williams John, farmer and lime master

WESTON COTTON,
situated one and a half mile S.S. by E. from Oswestry, is a small township, having in 1841 49 houses and 361 inhabitants.  The turnpike road from Oswestry to Welshpool, and the Morda Stream intersects the township; the latter is here crossed by a stone bridge.  The land owners are Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart.; Mrs. Lloyd; John Croxon, Esq.; Mrs. Parker; Henry Warren, Esq.; Mr. Edward Peat, and Mr. John Warren.  Earl Powis claims the manorial rights.  Belle View, the residence of William Banning, Esq., is a neat and pleasantly situated mansion in this township.  The House of Industry will be found noticed at a preceding page.

Banning William, Esq., Belle View

Davies Francis, shopkeeper

Griffiths, Jones and Co., corn millers and factors, Morda

Hayward Joseph, farmer

Hayward Joseph, jun., farmr

Hughes John, Paper Mills, agent, Morda

Jones Thomas, paper manufacturer, Morda

Minnitt Mr. Thomas, bookkeeper, Morda

Morris Edward, corn factor and commission agent

Morris Mr. Thomas, Morda House

Morris Thomas, wheelwright

Lea Job, Weston corn mills

Peate Ed., miller & farmer

Phillips Griffiths, shopkeepr

Poole Richard, farmer and butcher

Price William, schoolmaster

Roberts Benjamin, Morda corn mills

WOOTON
is a small village and township, three and a quarter miles S.E. from Oswestry, bounded on the east by the Shropshire union canal; there is a wharf near the Queen’s Head Inn, not far from which the townships of Ashton, Wooton, and Twyford converge.  At the census of 1841 here were 29 houses and 162 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £167. 2s. 4d., the impropriators Mrs. Lloyd receives £136. 1s. 3d., and Lady Tyrwhitt £19.  To the vicar of Oswestry was also apportioned £12. 1s. 1d.

Directory.—Farmers: John Jones, Thomas Roberts, Thomas Williams, and Wm. Windsor; Francis Dodd, beerhouse; John Evans, blacksmith; John James, vict., Queen’s Head; John Jones, provision and coal dealer; Richard Jones, shoemaker; Thomas Lacon, shoemaker; Edward Kynaston, wheelwright; Richard Thomas, gamekeeper to Mrs. Lloyd.

Ruyton of the Eleven Towns is a parish, containing the six townships of Cotton, Eardiston, Ruyton of the Eleven Towns, Shelvock, Shotatton, and Wikey, all situated in the lower division of the hundred of Oswestry, and altogether comprising an area of 3,991 acres of land.  In 1801, the number of inhabitants was 720; in 1831, 933; and in 1841, 1,083, and 216 houses.  George Edwards, Esq. is lord of the manor.  The soil is a mixture of loam and sand, producing good wheat and barley.  There is also some fertile grazing land.  The farms are in some instances of considerable extent, and are provided with good houses and commodious outbuildings.

RUYTON OF THE ELEVEN TOWNS
is a place of great antiquity, and though now considered as a village only, it was formerly a borough of honourable account.  “Edmund, Earl of Arundel, in the 5th of Edward II., obtained a grant of a market on a Wednesday at his manor of Ruiton, in the Marches of Wales, and a fair to be kept yearly, on the eve of the day of St. John the Baptist, and for three days following.”  The charter is confirmed by Richard II. and Henry VI., and grants that the burgesses may have certain customs and laws as freely as the burgesses of Shrewsbury.  Fairs are held the second Monday in April, July 5th, and second Monday in November.  The market has long been obsolete.  Ruyton is pleasantly situated two and a half miles west from the Baschurch railway station, ten miles N.W. from Shrewsbury, and nine miles S.E. from Oswestry.  The township contains 1,717a. 3r. 22p. of land, and in 1841 there were 142 houses and 658 souls.  Rateable value, £1,865. 4s. 5d.  The land rises into bold swelling hills, thickly studded with plantations, and watered by the river Perry.  The following are the freeholders in this township:—Samuel Bickerton, Esq.; Robert Broughton, Esq.; Robert S. Comberbach; John Comberbach; George Davies; Edward Davies; Mrs. Edwards; Rev. George Evans; Richard Griffiths; Thomas Griffiths; David Hiles; Thomas Hall; the Hon. Ths. Kenyon; John Kough, Esq.; Henry Kent; Edward Leeke; Miss Middleton; Saml. Minton; Richard Minton; Robert Peel; John Price; William Rodgers; John Thomas; and John Walford, Esq.

The Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, has been built at different periods.  The chancel is very ancient, and the tower is massive and lofty.  The south side of the fabric was built about the year 1696, and the north side was re-built and enlarged in 1845, when 96 additional sittings were obtained, which, in consequence of a grant from the Incorporated Society for building and enlarging churches, the whole are declared free and unappropriated for ever.  Previous to the alterations there were 294 sittings, of which 30 were free.  The body of the church has a double pitched roof, supported by lofty pointed arches, and the ceiling is of dark oak, which gives the interior of the edifice a very interesting appearance.  There are several neat mural monuments to the families of Kinaston, Hunt, Evans, and others.  The Kinastons were formerly numerous in the parish.  In the churchyard are some fine tombs, beautifully chiselled, remembering some of the principal families who were formerly residents in the parish.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the King’s book at £5. 18s., now returned at £313.  The patronage is vested in the Lord Chancellor.  Rev. George Evans, M.A., is the incumbent, and resides at the vicarage, which is pleasantly situated on an eminence.  The tithes were commuted in 1839, when £94 was apportioned to the vicar, and £105 to the impropriators.  There are 44a. 1r. 11p. of glebe land.  The National School, a good building, with a residence for the teacher, was built in 1819, by subscription, and a grant of £60 from the National Society.  It is endowed with £438. 11s. 10d., of which £200 is secured on the Oswestry House of Industry, and £238. 11s. 10d. are invested in government securities, Mrs. Margaret and Mrs. Anne Kinaston gave the site, and left £20 towards the repairs of the school.  The Independents have a neat chapel and a residence for the minister, built in 1833.  The congregation is under the pastoral care of the Rev. David Harris.  The Primitive Methodists have also a chapel here.  There is a small Lock-up in the village.  The following are the principal houses in the township:—Ruyton Park, the residence of the Hon. Charles Nowell Hill; the Villa, a modern erection of brick, the residence of Robert Broughton, Esq.; west from the church is the residence of R. S. Comberbach, Esq.; the Hall, a pleasantly situated house with projecting gables, is occupied by the Rev. L. Slater, the officiating minister; the residence and boarding school of the Rev. David Harris, lies nearly a mile north-west from the church; the residence of Samuel Harmon, Esq., is also a good house.

Post Office.—At Mary Cooper’s.  Letters arrive from Shrewsbury at 9.45 A.M., and are despatched at 4 P.M.

Alexander Elizabeth, farmer

Benbow Joseph, vict., Admiral Benbow Inn

Bickerton Samuel, farmer, Park

Bickley Miss, dress maker

Broughton Robert, surgeon, The Villa

Bullock Richard, corn miller and baker

Brown John, farmer

Comberbach Charles, farmer

Comberbach John, corn miller, New Mills

Comberbach Robert Suker, Esq.

Comberbach Thomas R., grocer and draper

Cooper James and Mrs., National School teachers

Cooper Mary, postmistress

Cooper Sarah, farmer

Cooper William, saddler and harness maker

Cooper William, bailiff

Corden Thomas, farmer, The Lawn

Croft John M., surgeon, The Cottage

Davies George, shoemaker

Davies Robert, butcher

Evans Rev. George, M.A., The Vicarage

Evans Mrs., gentlewoman

Fisher Charles, inland revenue officer

Foulkes Joseph, joiner and cabinet maker

Foulkes Joseph, farrier and horse breaker

Griffiths David, blacksmith

Griffiths Richard, farmer

Griffiths Richard, maltster and shopkeeper

Harmon Samuel, Esq.

Harris Rev. David, boarding school

Harris John, farmer, The Hill

Hiles Richard, maltster

Hill Hon. Charles Nowell, Ruyton Park

Jones George, farmer

Jones John, wheelwright

Jones Mrs., dressmaker

Jones Robert, saddler and harness maker

Jones Robert, quarry master, Queen’s court

Leek Edward, shoemaker

Llawalling Mary, vict., Talbot Inn

Lloyd John and Son, blacksmiths

Maddocks Thomas, farmer

Minton Mr., assistant overseer

Minton Thomas Rowland, butcher

Minton William Rowland, machine manufacturer

Morris Edward, shoemaker

Morris John, shoemaker

Morris Thomas, farmer

Parry William, mason

Pickering Miss

Price John, brazier and painter

Price Mary, draper and bonnet maker

Price William, tailor and draper

Roberts John, farmer

Slater Rev. Leonard, M.A., The Hall

Stant Thomas, builder and contractor

Thomas John, bricklayer

Stokes Joseph, cooper and undertaker

Tanswell Henry, hairdresser

Taylor John, carrier to Shrewsbury

Tomlinson Edward, wheelwright

Tomlinson Edward, farmer

Tomlinson Miss, dress maker

Timmis Lydia, vict., Commercial Inn

Timmis Thomas, farmer and maltster

Timmis Thomas, jun., farmer, The Hill

Vaughan William, farmer, The Lodge

Wace Charles R., solicitor, office, Powis Arms

Wilde Robert M., tailor, Blackbow hill

COTTON

(usually called Coton), a small township, salubriously situated, one and a quarter mile S.W. from Ruyton, contains 233a. 2r. 9p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had one house and 14 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £181. 15s. 9d.  The tithes were commuted in 1847, when £10. 15s. was apportioned to the vicar, and £40 to the impropriator, George Edwards, Esq.  Mr. Thomas Thomas is the principal landowner, and occupies all the land in the township.

EARDISTON,
a village pleasantly situated two and a half miles west from Ruyton, contains some good residences.  The township is bounded by the London and Holyhead turnpike road, and has 705a. 0r. 25p. of land, the soil of which is mostly a stiff loam, with a portion of sand.  In 1841 here were 26 houses and 160 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £977. 4s. 6d.  The landowners are the Hon. Thomas Kenyon; Thomas Basnett Oswell, Esq.; Mr. Thomas Wilkinson; Mr. John Wilkinson; Mrs. Cureton; Mr. Menlove; and a few smaller proprietors.  The vicarial tithes were commuted for £61 in 1847, when £120 was apportioned to the impropriators.  There is a school here, where about thirty children attend.  The Hon. Thomas Kenyon gives a yearly sum of £15 towards the support of the school, in consideration of which twenty children are taught free.

Directory.—The Hon. Thomas Kenyon, The Pradoe; William Dovaston, tailor; John Edwards, farmer; Joseph Edwards, grocer and vict., Barley Mow; Joseph Evans, jun., mole catcher; William Gydvill, butcher; John Jones, farmer; Thomas Basnett Oswell, Esq., Eardiston House; John Pearce, blacksmith; Thomas Williams, maltster and farmer; Thomas Wilkinson, farmer.

SHELVOCK
township contains 324a. 3r. 30p. of land, and is situated two miles and a quarter S.W. by W. from Ruyton.  Buckley Owen, Esq., is the land owner and impropriator.  In 1841 here were two houses and sixteen inhabitants.  Rateable value, £341. 7s. 9d.  The principal residents here are Buckley Owen, Esq., John Morris, farmer, and John Hughes, farm bailiff and woodranger to B. Owen, Esq.

SHOTATTON,
a scattered village in the parish of Ruyton, two miles and a quarter S.W. by W. from the church, in 1841 had 14 houses and 84 inhabitants.  The township has 850a. 3r. 1p. of land, of which 730a. 1r. 37p. are arable, 101a. 1r. 6p. meadow, and 26a. 3r. 38p. are in woods and plantations.  The soil is of a light sandy nature.  Rateable value, £748. 15s. 5d.  John Arthur Lloyd, Esq., owns the whole township.  The tithes were commuted in 1838, when £30. 18s. were apportioned to the Vicar of Great Ness, £15. 9s. to the Vicar of Ruyton, £93 to the late Countess of Bridgewater, £11. 17s. 6d. to R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P., £33. 10s. to J. A. Lloyd, Esq., and £1. 17s. 6d. to several smaller impropriators.

The principal residents are Samuel Bickerton, Esq.; Joseph Humphreys, farmer, Handley Hall; Robert Lee, farmer; Robert Wall, farmer; Samuel and Joseph Briscoe, blacksmiths and agricultural implement makers; Samuel Briscoe, registrar for the Knockin district; and John Lloyd, wheelwright.

WIKEY, OR WYKEY,
a township, two miles west from Ruyton, has 869a. 1r. 38p. of land, 31 scattered houses, and 151 inhabitants.  The soil is a mixture of peat and loamy sand.  Rateable value, £800. 4s. 3d.  The landowners are John Basnett, Esq.; Richard Oswell, Esq.; T. B. Oswell, Esq.; Mrs. Richards; Mrs. Cureton; William Price, Esq.; and the devisees of the late Mr. Humphreys.  The tithes were commuted in 1847, when £50. 8s. were awarded to the Vicar of Ruyton, £20 to John Basnett, £3. 10s. to Thomas B. Oswell, Esq., £25 to William B. Oswell, Esq., and £25 to Richard B. Oswell, Esq.  The Chester and Shrewsbury railway intersects the township.  The residents are John Basnett, Esq., The Hall; John Humphreys, farmer; Richard B. Oswell, Esq.; Thomas B. Oswell, Esq.; Edward Jones, blacksmith; and William Morgan, shoemaker.

SELATTYN
is a parish on the N.W. verge of the county, bordering on Shropshire, comprising the townships of Upper and Lower Porkington, and containing 5,437 acres of land.  In 1801 the parish embraced a population of 701 souls; in 1831, 1,143; and in 1841 there were 241 houses and 1,128 inhabitants, of whom 556 were males, and 572 females.  The village of Selattyn lies on an acclivity, three miles N.N.W. from Oswestry, and consists of a few detached houses near to the church.  The rest of the population reside in dwellings which are scattered throughout the parish.  To the north and west of the village, a bleak and mountainous district stretches to the extremity of the county.  The principal landowners are William Ormsby Gore, Esq., M.P.; Thos. George Warrington Carew, Esq.; John Wynn Eyton, Esq.; John Povey, Esq.; Richard Henry Kinchant, Esq.; Mrs. Lloyd; Richard Lewis, Esq.; Thos. Jones, Esq.; Thomas Lovett, Esq.; Mr. John Williams; Mr. John Edwards; Mr. Richard Jones; Messrs. Gilpin and Owen; and the trustees of Shrewsbury Grammar School; besides whom are several other proprietors.

The Church is a plain cruciform structure, with a square tower, and is dedicated to St. Mary.  A small organ was added in 1847, at a cost of £70.  The Rev. Thomas Edwards, who died in the year 1800, is remembered on a neat tablet.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £12. 9s. 7d., in the patronage of Mrs. Lloyd, and enjoyed by the Rev. Albany Rosendale Lloyd, M.A.  The tithes were commuted in 1840 for £813.  James Wildig, one of the assembly of divines, and the Rev. Henry Sacheverall, D.D., remarkable for their different principles, were rectors of Selattyn.  A Chapel of Ease, dedicated to St. Barnabas, was opened for divine service on June 11th, 1850, at Hengoed.  It is a small edifice, in the early English style, with nave and chancel, and has a chaste and neat appearance.  The cost of the structure was about £500, which was raised by subscription, to which the rector was a liberal contributor.  The Rev. Thomas Lewis Lewis is the officiating minister.  Previous to the erection of this chapel there was a small place of worship here, which has since been converted into a school, where about fifty children are educated.  The Free or Parochial School is situated a short distance from the parish church, where about 100 boys are educated.  There is also a girls’ school, where 40 children are instructed.  Mr. William Cullis, the teacher, is writing master to the juvenile branches of the royal family, and has published a small school book, which has had a large circulation.  (For the endowment, see “Charities.”)  The village is supplied with an abundance of excellent water, by means of a Water Ram Fountain, which was placed on the road side, at the sole expense of the rector, in the year 1847.  The water is brought from a distance of about 1,000 feet, and rises 100 feet in perpendicular height.  There are lime works on the western verge of the parish.  About half a mile W. by N. from the church is a tower, upon the lofty summit of a hill, which is a conspicuous object for many miles.  It was built by the Rev. Gerald Carew, and has the following inscription:—

GORSEDD ORWYNION.
It is recorded in the poems of the aged Prince and Bard, Llywarch-hen,
that in the 7th century, from
this spot he saw his son Gwen slain in a battle
between the Britons and Saxons, on the brook Morlas below.
Oedd gwr-vy-mâb oedd ddysgywen hawl
Ar ryd Vorlâs-y-llass Gwen.

A sepulchral urn, containing bones, was found underneath this tower, A.D. 1847.

From the tower a most beautiful panoramic view of the fertile plains of Shropshire is seen towards the south-east, and in the opposite direction the bold and picturesque scenery of the counties of Denbigh and Montgomery open to view.  Porkington, the seat of William Ormsby Gore, Esq., M.P., lies about a mile N.W. from Oswestry.  This plane takes its name from Brogyntyn, an old castle of the Welsh princes, which stood in the neighbouring grounds, and was surrounded by a deep fosse, which may still be traced.  Porkington is a Grecian edifice, with an elegant portico.  The park is extensive, and has a fine undulating surface, richly adorned with timber, and the prospects are extensive, varied, and beautiful.  Pentre-pant Hall is a handsome residence, in a sequestered situation about two miles south from Selattyn; the hall is elegantly furnished, and the grounds beautifully wooded.  It is the property of Thomas George Warrington Carew, Esq., and residence of the Rev. Gerald Carew.  The Derwen is a neat house, S.E. from Selattyn, the residence and property of John Povey, Esq.  The Rectory is a pleasantly situated house, a little south from the church.

Charities.—John Hanmer, D.D., bishop of St. Asaph, by will, 1628, gave the inheritance and fee-simple of his tenement in Selattyn to the use of the poor of the parish.

Charles Morris, in 1721, bequeathed £500 in trust, and directed the amount to be laid out in the purchase of lands, and out of the yearly proceeds thereof 20s. to be paid yearly for a sermon on Candlemas-day, and the residue to be employed for the maintenance of the poor charity children and other poor persons of this parish.  The legacy was laid out in the purchase of land soon after the death of the testator, but there are no title deeds now to be found in the parish relating thereto, and that it is so intermixed with the property devised by Bishop Hanmer that it would now be difficult to distinguish them.  The whole estate consists of 53a. 3r., including 18 acres of allotment, and about one rood of ground, obtained by exchange with Mr. John Edwards.  The estate produces £60. 5s. per annum, to which is added 4s. yearly, the moiety of rent due to this parish from certain land left by J. R. Powell.  There is a school and school-house on the premises, devised by Bishop Hanmer, the former of which was built in 1812.  The Rev. G. N. K. Lloyd, the rector, contributed £100 towards this building, on condition that he, and the successors to his property in this parish, should have the privilege of sending to the school six poor children resident in, though not belonging to, the parish, to be taught free.  The school at Hengoed was built upon land given by G. H. Carew, Esq., principally at the expense of the rector, who gave £200, expressly upon the condition that the children of all poor residents in the parish should be admitted to both the schools.

Colonel Owen charged certain lands, which now form part of the Porkington estate, with the payment of £6 yearly to the poor of this parish.  A yearly sum of £10 is now paid by Mrs. Gore to the rector, who distributes the amount in sums varying from 5s. to 10s.

Mrs. Margaret Ormsby, by her will, dated 25th February, 1805, requested those who should succeed her in the Porkington estate, to distribute £20 annually among poor persons in the neighbourhood.  In compliance with this request, the daughter of the testatrix gives £20 yearly among the most deserving poor.

Carew Rev. Gerald, Pentre-pant Hall

Cullis William, schoolmaster

Drury Richard, farmer, Mardon

Edwards Mr. John, Tower hill

Edwards John, farmer, Fron

Edwards Richard, farmer, Pentre

David Edwards Richard, farmer, Underhill

Edwards Richard, corn miller, Oak Mill

Evans John, farmer, Paradwys

Evans John, farmer, Ty-cock

Fenna Richard, farmer, Gyrn

Gore William Ormsby, Esq., M.P., Porkington Hall

Hales Sarah, farmer, Cerny-bwch

Harding Mr. Frederick, Fron Lodge

Holland James, carpenter, builder & farmer, Peny-bont

Hughes Edward, farmer, Park Farm

Jackson George, farmer and butcher, Pentre-clawdd

Jones Isaac, blacksmith, Pant-glass

Jones John, farmer, Birch House

Jones John, farmer, Forrest

Jones John, farmer, Five Cross Lanes

Jones John, blacksmith, Pentrewerne

Jones John, wheelwright

Jones Thomas, farmer, White House

Kenrick Elizabeth, vict., Hart and Trumpet

Lewis Mrs. Letitia

Lewis Margaret, shopkeeper

Lewis Richard, farmer, Pentrewerne Cottage

Lewis Rev. Thomas Lewis, curate, Hengoed

Lloyd Mrs. Ann, Nant Issa

Lloyd Rev. Albany Rosendale, M.A., Rectory

M’Kie W. H., agent to W. O. Gore, Esq., Scybar Issa

Meredith Humphrey, farmer, Pentre David

Morgan George, farmer, Springs

Morgan Joseph, farmer, Tyng-drain

Newstead Mary, school teacher, Hengoed

Nicholas Thomas, parish clerk, assistant overseer, and collector of assessed taxes

Peate Robert, farmer, Pentre clawdd

Povey John, Esq., The Derwen

Roberts Edward, farmer

Roberts John, maltster & vict., Cross Keys

Roberts Robert, shopkeeper

Sands Hugh, farmer, Cross lanes

Sands Thomas, farmer, Craignant

Thomas David, farmer, Llawry-pant, Ucha

Thomas John, corn miller

Thomas John, farmer, Penrhos

Thompson Thomas, farmer, Crown house

Vaughan Edward, farmer, Nantucha

Williams David, farmer, Pentrewerne

Williams Edmund & Thos., corn millers

Williams Richard, farmer, New Barn

Williams Samuel, farmer, Fron

Williams George, farmer, Grouse Lodge

Williams Peter, farmer, Selattyn Lodge

Williams Richard, blacksmith & beerhouse

Whitehurst John, Esq., Marddu

Wynn William Williams Edward, Esq., Sion House

SYCHTYN
is a township in the parish of Llansilin, with a scattered population, in a bleak and mountainous district, five miles S.S. by W. from Oswestry.  The rest of this parish is included in the county of Denbigh.  The township contains 1,414 acres of land, and in 1841 had 55 houses and 251 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £907. 1s. 6d.  The principal landowners are Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart.; John Wynn Eyton, Esq.; the Earl of Liverpool; Thomas Fitzhough, Esq.; Richard Morris, Esq.; and Messrs. Poole and Haslam.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor.  The tithes have been commuted, and £96. 15s. awarded to the Bishop of St. Asaph, to whom Robert Owen Tudor, Esq., is the lessee; £2 to the vicar of Llansilin, and £1. 7s. to the parish clerk of Llansilin.  There are extensive limestone quarries in this township, and large quantities are annually burnt into lime, and used for agricultural purposes.  The Independents and Welsh Methodists have each a small chapel in this township.

Davies Edward, farmer

Davies Edward, collector of rates

Davies Evan, farmer

Davies Richard, farmer

Edwards Edward, farmer

Griffiths John, farmer

Hughes Margaret, farmer

Jones Edward, lime burner and victualler, New Inn

Jones John, farmer and lime burner

Morris Richard, Esq., Pentre-cefn

Rees John, butcher

Richards Hugh, farmer and lime burner

Roberts Thomas, blacksmith

Roberts William, farmer

Rodenhurst John, farmer

Tudor Thomas, farmer

Williams John, farmer

West Felton
parish includes the townships of West Felton, Haughton, Rednall, Sandford, Sutton, Tedsmore, Twyford, and Woolston, together comprising 5,989a. 2r. 9p. of land, the soil of which is a mixture of sand and loam.  The meadows produce a fine herbage, and being intersected by the river Perry, which, frequently overflowing its banks, and covering hundreds of acres, produces the greatest fertility and luxuriance.  In 1801 the parish contained 926 inhabitants; in 1831, 1,093; and in 1841, 1,087.  Rateable value, £8,314. 14s.  George Edwards, Esq., is lord of the manor.  The tithes were commuted in 1838 for the sum of £1,008.

WEST FELTON
is a well built village and township, intersected by the Holyhead and London turnpike road, five miles S.E. from Oswestry and thirteen N.W. from Shrewsbury.  In the village are some good houses, and the immediate vicinity is a rich farming district, in which are scattered several neat villa residences.  The township contains 800a. 3r. 15p. of productive arable and pasture land, having a loamy soil with a mixture of sand.  In 1841 here were 43 houses and 214 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,285. 10s.  The principal landowners are John Freeman Dovaston, Esq.; Rev. Peter George Bentley; Edward Frank, Esq.; Thomas Frank, Esq.; Rev. Thomas Hunt; executors of the late R. L. Murray, Esq.; Mrs. Duckett; Mr. Richard Fardoe; Mr. John Brookfield; George Withers Edwards, Esq.; Mr. John Hopkin; Mr. Edward Rodgers; and Messrs. Sides.

The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, a handsome structure in the decorative style of English architecture, consists of nave, chancel, and side aisle, the latter being separated from the nave by lofty Norman arches, rising from circular pillars; the floor of the nave and chancel are ornamented with encaustic tiles of beautiful design, and the communion table and two chairs are of oak, elaborately carved.  In 1842 the structure was enlarged and renovated at a cost of upwards of £600, which was raised by subscriptions and grants from the diocesan and incorporated societies, in consequence of which 202 additional sittings were added, and 58 were declared free and unappropriated for ever.  The east end of the sacred building is beautified by two stained glass windows, one the gift of the Hon. Thomas Kenyon, and the other the gift of the Hon. Mrs. Kenyon and the junior members of the family.  They exhibit a masterly display of workmanship, and were executed by Evans, of Shrewsbury.  The stone work was the gift of the Rev. Mr. Hunt.  The window on the north side, over the entrance door, has fine representations of Moses and Aaron, and was the gift of Viscount Dungannon.  The roof of the church is of dark oak, beautifully designed; and the whole has a chaste and elegant appearance.  It is ornamented with a square tower, in which are three bells.  The living is a rectory, valued in the King’s book at £20. 12s. 6d., now returned at £1,032.  The patronage is vested in the Earl of Craven.  The Rev. Thomas Hunt, M.A., is the incumbent.  The tithes of this township are commuted for £127. 5s. 3d.  The Rectory, a commodious brick edifice near the east end of the church, beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies, has been much improved by the present incumbent.  There is a free school near the church.

West Felton House, the residence of the Rev. P. G. Bentley, M.A., is a delightful mansion, pleasantly situated and ornamented with pleasure grounds tastefully laid out.  The Manor House is a commodious mansion of great antiquity, the property and residence of Mr. Thomas Frank.  Near the house is a mound, surrounded by a deep moat; tradition says a building formerly stood on the summit.  The Shropshire union canal intersects the township, and there is a railway station at Rednal, about two miles from West Felton.  The county constabulary have a station here: Mr. Robert Jones is the superintendent, and there are eight constables stationed in the adjacent district.

Charities.—George Iveson, in 1616, bequeathed a rent charge of 40s. per annum for the use of the poor.  John Edwards gave 20s. per annum for the same object in 1686.  These two gifts are paid from land at Osbaston, belonging to Mr. Price.  Joseph Withers, in 1731, directed a yearly sum of £2 to be paid out of the rent of his tenement in Moreton, to the poor of this parish.  A sum of £125, derived from different benefactors, is secured upon the tolls of the Holyhead road, by an instrument bearing date 18th January, 1762.  The interest, £6. 5s. per annum, with 5s. yearly paid by a farmer at Llan Rhaiadyr for an encroachment, are carried to one account with the produce of the preceding charities, making in the whole £11. 7s. 10d.  The amount is given one year to the poor residing in the township, and the next year to the poor residing out of it.  Mary Jones, in 1758, charged certain lands in Tedsmere with the payment of £5 per annum for the benefit of the poor, and a further sum of 10s. 6d. yearly to the minister, provided he preach a sermon in the parish church of Felton on the 12th of September.  Sarah Owen, by will 1764, gave to the minister and churchwardens £200 in trust, to distribute the interest (with the approbation of the owner of Woodhouse for the time being) among poor and indigent persons.  This legacy is secured on the Oswestry house of industry.

Post Office.—At Mr. Thomas Roberts’s.  Letters arrive at 6.30 A.M., and are despatched at 6.40 P.M.

Bentley Rev. Peter George, Felton house

Davies George, farmer and butcher

Davies John, saddler and harness maker

Duckett Mrs., The Villa

Edwards William, farmer

Evans John, farmer

Evans Mrs. Margaret, Hall farm

Evans Thomas, farmer

Fardoe Richard, farmer

Fox Thomas, farmer and carrier

Frank Thomas, farmer, Manor house

Hampton William, farmer

Hollis Edward, farmer

Hopkin John, shopkeeper

Howell William, farmer and road surveyor

Hunt Rev. Thomas, M.A., The Rectory

Jones Edward, farmer and maltster

Jones John, farmer, The Cross

Lloyd Edward, vict., Fox and Hounds

Lloyd Edward, blacksmith

Murray Miss Lathrop, Felton hall

Pugh John, shoemaker

Roberts Thomas, overseer and vict., the Lion

Roberts Thomas, farmer & assistant overseer

Rogers Edward, farmer and tailor

Vaughan William, builder and stone mason

HAUGHTON,
a township two miles N.E. from West Felton, contains 1,010a. 3r. 22p. of land, chiefly low fertile meadows, frequently flooded by the river Perry overflowing its banks.  In 1841 here were 38 houses and 212 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,482. 3s.  The principle landowners are Mr. Thomas Austin, Mr. Thomas Briscoe, Mr. William Prue, Mr. John Roberts, Mr. John Vaughan, and Mr. Thomas Vaughan; besides whom are several other freeholders.  The tithes are commuted for £163. 16s. 4d.  The Chester and Shrewsbury railway intersects the township.  A superior freestone for building purposes is got here.  The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel in the village.

The Farmers in Haughton are William Humphreys, Robert Large, Thomas Minshall, Charles Peacock, William Prue, and Joseph Vaughan.  There is also a farm held by the family of the late Robert Rogers.  The other residents are Thomas Austin, tailor; John Kynaston, wheelwright; and John Vaughan, blacksmith.

REDNAL, OR REDNALL,
a township two and a quarter miles from West Felton, with a scattered population, contains 1,566a. 1r. 23p. of land, and in 1841 had 24 houses and 140 inhabitants.  The soil is chiefly a strong fertile loam, with a mixture of clay, producing good wheat and barley.  On the low lands, near the banks of the river Perry, which forms the boundary of the township, is some good grazing land, some parts of which are occasionally flooded.  William Mostyn Owen, Esq., owns the land.  The tithes are commuted for £233. 4s.  The Ellesmere and Queenshead turnpike road crosses the township, and the Shrewsbury and Chester railway has a station here, which is two miles distant from West Felton.  Woodhouse is a beautiful mansion of white freestone, the seat of William Mostyn Owen, Esq., delightfully situated on a gentle eminence, commanding fine views, and surrounded by park-like grounds beautifully wooded.  The mansion is approached by a noble portico, supported by four circular columns; and there is a fine avenue of beech and other trees on the south side of the park.

Directory.—William Mostyn Owen, Esq., Woodhouse.  Farmers: Thomas Cartwright, the Buildings; Edward Humphreys, the Old Mill; Edward Meredith; William Meredith; John Thomas, the Leys; and Robert Williams, Lower Lees.  James Adams, station master; Paul Briscoe, blacksmith; Robert Brookfield, slater; Moses Tomlinson, shopkeeper.

SANDFORD,
a small township comprising 719a. 0r. 34p., of land, situate one and a half mile from West Felton, in 1841 had 18 houses and 92 inhabitants; the soil is of a light nature, producing good wheat, barley, and turnips.  The chief landowners are Samuel Bickerton, Esq., Mr. Thomas Beamand, and Mr. Abraham Hancox.  Rateable value of the township, £876. 15s.  The tithes are commuted for the sum of £132. 15s.  Sandford Hall is a well built modern erection of brick, the present occupier of which is highly respected as a spirited farmer and grazier, and noted for his zeal in advocating the cause of protection to native industry.  Near to the hall is a large pool of water.  There is a fox cover in the township.  The principal residents are Thomas Beamand, gentleman; Samuel Bickerton, Esq., The Hall; Edward Goff, farmer; Abraham Hancox, farmer; Edward Kent, farmer; Richard Clarke, wheelwright; Edward Evans, corn miller.

SUTTON
township lies four and a half miles S.E. from Oswestry, and one and a half mile from Weston Felton, near the Rednal railway station.  In 1841 here were 31 houses and 135 inhabitants; the township comprises 664a. 3r. 22p. of land, the owners of which are Mr. Edward Edwards, Mr. John Edwards, Messrs. Sides, Mr. John Manford, Mr. William Duckett, and the executors of late Mr. Croxon.  The tithes were commuted in 1838 for £116. 7s. 9d.  Rateable value of the township, £810. 17s.  Sutton Hall, an ancient edifice pleasantly situated on an eminence, has had additions from time to time made, and of late years has been much modernized.  Grimpo is a hamlet consisting of well built houses, and being near the parish of Weston Felton, a commodious school has been erected, with a residence for the teacher; it was built by subscriptions, and the site was given by William Mostyn Owen, Esq.; it is supported by a few benevolent individuals, and a small charge from each of the scholars; the average attendance is about eighty scholars.  The Independents have a chapel at Grimpo, built in 1831.

Sutton and Grimpo Directory.—George Dawes Brittain, The Hall; James Hargreaves, Esq., The Hall; Edward Furmston, farmer, Grimpo; William Manford, farmer, Sutton farm; Thomas Morgan, farmer; John Morgan, farmer and parish clerk; William Walton, farmer; John Morgan, schoolmaster; Edward Parkes, butcher; Edward Vaughan, builder and farmer.

TEDSMERE,
one mile east from West Felton, is a township with 383a. 3r. 39p. of land, having in 1841 17 houses and 87 inhabitants; the chief part of the land is grass, and in large enclosures.  Rateable value, £551. 18s.  The tithes are commuted for £63. 10s. 6d.  T. B. B. Owen, Esq., and Joseph Pemberton, are the landowners.  Tedsmere Hall, the seat of Thomas Bulkeley Bulkeley Owen, Esq., is a handsome stone structure, on a considerable elevation, commanding a fine view of the vale beneath, and of the bold mountainous district of North Wales.  The front and portico of the hall are now being rebuilt of white free stone.  A superior quality of free stone found in this township is much used for ornamental building, the quarries are extensively worked, and blocks of immense size are frequently raised.  The principal residents here are Thomas Bulkeley Bulkeley Owen, Esq., The Hall; John Cureton, farmer; John Thrumpston, farmer; John Williams, farmer, Bentley marsh; and John Smith, butcher.

TWYFORD,
a small township adjoining West Felton, and four and a half miles south from Oswestry, intersected by the Holyhead turnpike road, and the Shropshire union canal, contains 341a. 3r. 9p. of land, and in 1841 had 29 houses and 110 inhabitants.  The freeholders are J. F. M. Dovaston, Esq.; Mr. Edward Downes, Mr. John Brookfield, Mr. Richard Lloyd, Mr. William Manford, and Mr. Isaac Ratcliff.  The land is of good quality, an undulating district, and well wooded.  Rateable value, £598. 3s.  Rent charge, £56. 16s. 7d.

The Nursery is the elegant seat of John Freeman Milward Dovaston, Esq., barrister, a gentleman of classical learning, high genius, ardent benevolence, and indeed possessed of every estimable quality which adorns the mind.  It is deeply to be regretted that Mr. Dovaston has not been able to leave his bed for several years.  It may be said that he has inherited the virtues of his father, John Dovaston, Esq., a gentleman of learning, science, and ingenuity, who died March 31st, 1808.  He was born of humble parents, who lived on their small estate at West Felton.  “He was taught to read by an old woman in the village, and that was the whole of his education; every other acquirement which he afterwards possessed in so eminent a degree was entirely his own.  He was the eldest son of seven, all of whom he brought up to respectable professions.  From his father he received his little estate, swallowed up by mortgages, which he redeemed at a very early period of life, by two voyages to the West Indies, and afterwards considerably increased by prudence and industry.  Though he left scarcely any science untouched, his turn of mind was principally directed to antiquities, natural philosophy, music, mechanics, and planting; of the first he left a large collection of manuscripts, historical observations relating to Shropshire and the Welsh borders; on druidical relics, tracing traditional vulgar errors from the remote times of superstition.  In mechanics he left a set of philosophical and musical instruments made by his own hands, and just before his death he projected an orrery to show the satellites on a new method.  In planting he has clothed the country around him with forest and fruit trees, all raised and grafted with his own hands; and his villa (which from his fondness for planting he called “The Nursery”), is laid out with much taste and rural elegance.  He was well versed in the Hebrew, Anglo-Saxon, and Latin tongues, and had some knowledge of Greek.  His reading was very extensive, his mind vigorous, and his application intense.  He was remarked for the plainness of his dress, yet his person always appeared dignified, and his manners were courteous and gentlemanly.  He was fond of a cheerful glass, remarkably communicative and sociable, full of facetious anecdote, which he had a singularly agreeable manner of imparting.  To the very last day of his life he rose at five, it being one of his maxims always to get start of the sun.  Though he lived to the age of 68 years, it was the opinion of his medical friends that his excessive and laborious application of mind and body brought a somewhat premature decay.  In his youth he was the close friend of Shenstone, to whose memory he was always much attached.  On his death bed he spoke to his son these remarkable words:—‘Jack, I believe in my soul it has pleased God to prosper all my undertakings; my lad, be honest, and you will be independent; be liberal, and you will be esteemed; deserve God’s blessing, and you will be happy.’”

Dovaston John Freeman Milward, Esq., The Nursery

Brookfield John, painter, plumber, & glazier

Davies John, farmer

Downes Edward, Esq., Twyford House

Duckett William, Esq., The Cottage

Edwards Edward, farmer

Edwards John, farmer

Foulkes William, shoemaker

Howell William, grocer and draper

Jones Robert, superintendent of police

Lloyd Richard, vict., Punch Bowl

Morris Rev. John (Independent)

Phillips Ann, shopkeeper

Savin William, farmer, Ford’s & Hey’s farm

WOOLSTON,
a small village and township two miles and a half S.W. from Felton, has 501a. 2r. 14p. of undulating land, and in 1841 had 15 houses and 77 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £748. 13s.  Rent charge, £106. 4s.  The landowners are Lady Tyrwhitt; Edward Beamand, Esq.; George W. Edwards, Esq.; and Mr. Samuel H. Burrows.  There are several well built and pleasantly situated farm residences in this township.  Coal is found here; and several years ago a party of miners opened coal works, but finding the seams of small thickness, and the water breaking in upon them, the works were abandoned.  There is a well here called St. Winefred’s Well, which was formerly in great repute for its medicinal properties.  The baths are walled in, and the water filters through a red grit stone rock; they are now in a delapidated and neglected state.  Woolston House, a modern erection of brick, pleasantly situated, is the residence of George W. Edwards, Esq.

Directory.—Edward Beamand, gentleman; George Withers Edwards, Esq., Woolston House; Richard Clarke, farmer; Richard Drury, farmer; John Sides, farmer; Richard Williams, farmer.

WHITTINGTON
is a parish and village, pleasantly situated on the turnpike road from Oswestry to Ellesmere, two miles and a half E.E. by N. from the former town, and sixteen miles N.N. by W. by railway from Shrewsbury.  The parish comprises the townships of Berghill, Daywell, Ebnall, Fernhill, Frankton, Henlle, Hindford, Old Marton, and Whittington, which, together, in 1801 contained a population of 1,398 souls; 1831, 1,788; and in 1841, 1,919.  The tithes of the whole parish are commuted for £1,000.  The township of Whittington, in 1841, contained 164 houses and 808 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Edmund Wright, Esq.; Mrs. Lloyd; Richard Henry Kinchant, Esq.; William Ormsby Gore, Esq., M.P.; Thomas Lovett, Esq.; Thomas Broughall, Esq.; Rev. John Davies; and Mr. Hugh Davies.  Extent of parish, 3157a. 3r. 23p.  Rateable value, £2,736.  The Church is a plain brick fabric, rebuilt in 1806, at a cost of £1,500.  The exterior is partially covered with inscriptions from the Holy Bible.  The original fabric was of stone, and is said to have been built by the first Fulk Fitz Warine, out of the refuse of the materials when the castle was built.  A commission was directed from the council in the Marches of Wales, A.D. 1630, to John Trevor and Richard Lloyd, gentlemen, to make a terrier of the glebe land of this church, as also to return an inventory of the utensils belonging to the same, amongst which there were three pairs of armour, furnished with two pikes and two head pieces.  These are supposed to have been employed by the rector for the defence of the castle against the Welsh.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £25. 4s. 2d., now returned at £1,224, in the patronage of Mrs. Lloyd, who is also lady of the manor.  Incumbent, Rev. Charles Arthur Albany Lloyd, M.A.  There are 58a. 1r. 3p. of glebe land in this township.

The chief object of attraction at Whittington are the ruins of The Castle.  It is supposed to have been built in the year 843, by a British nobleman, who was succeeded by his son, Tudor Trevor, who, though possessed of many houses with rich and extensive domains, made this his chief residence.  The descendants of Tudor continued possessed of the castle for several generations, and many families in this neighbourhood and North Wales boast their origin from him.  At the Domesday survey this place is called Wititone, and consisted at that time of eight corn farms, twelve ox-stalls, and a very extensive wood; the cows yielding five shillings per annum, and all Welsh residents were obliged to pay twenty shillings among them.  The Castle of Whittington next passed into the hands of Hugh, and afterwards of his brother Robert, sons of the Earl of Shrewsbury.  Upon the defeat of Robert by Henry I. it was restored to the Peverels.  William de Peverel had two daughters, the younger of whom was named Mellet, and being a valiant knight himself resolved to marry his daughter Mellet to none but a knight of consummate valour.  Her father promised the Castle of Whittington as her dower.  Several distinguished combatants assembled at Peverel’s Castle, in the Peak of Derbyshire, to contend for the fair prize.  When Guarine de Metz, then Lord of Aldberbury, went there, and fighting with a son of the king of Scotland, and a Baron of Burgoine, overthrew his rivals, and obtained the beautiful Mellet.  The posterity of this great man, for nine generations, assumed the Christian name of Fulk.  They continued possessed of the castle from the end of the reign of Henry I. till the time of Henry VIII., a period of nearly four hundred years.  On the rebellion of the barons against King John, Fulk joined with them, for we find his name among the number that were excommunicated by the Pope for extorting from John that firm basis of English liberty called Magna Charta.  In the reign of Henry III., Fitz Guarine procured a grant of his estates to him and his heirs for ever; for which he gave the king two coursers and two hundred and sixty-two pounds,—an enormous sum in that age, and gives some idea of the wealth of Fitz Guarine.  The same monarch granted him the liberty of a fair on St. Luke’s day, and a market on Wednesday, at Whittington; but on account of its proximity to Ellesmere and Oswestry, both market and fair have long been obsolete.  Subsequently fairs were held on the last Thursday in April, July and November, but these have also been discontinued.  After the castle passed into the hands of Henry VIII. we hear nothing further respecting it till the following reign, when the king presented it to Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, who forfeited it in consequence of being convicted of high treason.  Shortly after, Queen Mary granted the castle to Fitz Alan, the last Earl of Arundel.  He mortgaged it to several persons, who obtained the place in default of payment from him.  William Albany, a chief man among the number, was, by the joint consent and approbation of the rest, put into sole possession of it.  By the marriage of his great granddaughter with Thomas Lloyd, Esq., of Aston, Whittington passed into the hands of that family, and is now the property of Mrs. Lloyd.  The castle was fortified with five round towers, each forty feet in diameter, and a hundred feet in height, and the walls were twelve feet in thickness.  It was surrounded by a moat, part of which still remains, and the fosses and intrenchments may yet be traced to a considerable distance.  About the year 1760, the eastern tower fell into the moat; and some years afterwards one of the northern towers and the western wall were taken down to repair the roads leading from Whittington to Halston-bridge.  The towers of the gate-house are still entire; and some portions of the ancient building have been modernised, and converted into a dwelling, which is inhabited by Thomas Broughall, Esq.

The Free School is endowed with a farm and two cottages, producing about £47 per annum.  The school is taught in the Old Tithe Barn, a long brick building of considerable antiquity; about 90 children attend.  There is also a girls’ school, where about 60 scholars attend.  The rector is a liberal contributor towards the support of the schools.  The Independents have a small chapel here, built in 1844.  Brabins Wood consists of a number of cottages and a Primitive Methodist chapel, about a mile S.E. from the church.  The Shrewsbury and Chester Railway Company have a station about a quarter of a mile west from the church.  Park Hall, an ancient mansion with projecting gables, chiefly composed of timber, and situated near the Oswestry road, about one mile and a quarter W. from Whittington, is the residence and property of Richard Henry Kinchant, Esq.  The entrance hall is wainscotted, ornamented with paintings, banners, &c., and contains a massive oak table, cut from one plank, measuring 23 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 2½ inches thick.  Several of the apartments contain antique oak furniture elaborately carved, and the ceilings are of curious workmanship.  There are also some fine paintings, chiefly family portraits.  On the west side of the hall is the domestic chapel, which was probably erected in the time of Henry VIII.

Charities.—Robert Jones, in 1679, devised all his lands and houses in Whittington, for the support of an “honest ingenious schoolmaster.”  The premises consist of 5a. 2r. 28p. of land, and two dwelling houses built thereon.  The land is stated to be worth about £11 per annum.

Griffith Hughes, in 1706, devised certain lands and a dwelling house, at Rhuabon, and directed out of the yearly proceeds 20s. to be paid for teaching poor children to read, in Aston township, and the residue of the rents and profits to be appropriated for educational purposes in Whittington and Rhuabon.  The estate islet for £28 per annum.  In 1813, a sum of £142, the produce of some timber cut and sold from the estate, was laid out in the purchase of a piece of land in Whittington, containing 2a. 1r. 15p., which produces a yearly sum of £5.

Elizabeth ap Robert, in 1675, devised two pieces of land in Pentrewerne, containing 7a. 1r. 18p., for the benefit of the poor of this parish.  The rents were formerly applied in apprenticing children, but for some time they have been paid to the mistress of the girls’ school in Whittington.  In the year 1822, a sum of £146 was laid out in the purchase of 1a. 3r. 16p. of land, in the township of Whittington.  Of this sum, £5 was a legacy left to the poor by Richard Evans; £15 was the produce of timber cut and sold from the lands belonging to Trustan’s charity; £31. 16s. was money which had been paid for the property tax for several of the charity estates, but which was returned, and the residue was made up by the rector.  The land is let for £5 per annum, which is paid to the schoolmistress.

John Trustan, in 1659, gave certain lands, and directed the yearly proceeds to be expended in bread, and distributed every Sabbath day for ever.  The land devised, in eluding an allotment awarded in 1781, consists of 11a. 0r. 36p., and is let at a yearly rent of £12.

Walter Rogers, in 1685, left a rent charge of 40s. per annum, issuing out of land called Bryn Rhig.  The amount is expended in flannel, and given away on St. Thomas’s day.

Elizabeth Lloyd, by will, 1696, bequeathed £200 to be laid out in the purchase of land, the yearly rent to be divided among twelve of the poorest families of the township of Whittington.  It appears this sum was placed out at interest, and the principal and interest in 1837 amounted to £350, which sum was laid out in the purchasing of a rent charge of £14 per annum, issuing out of a farm in Whittington.

Robert Conway, in 1727, charged his lands in the parish of St. Martin with the payment of 20s. yearly, for the benefit of the poor of Whittington parish.  The particulars of Sir Nathaniel Lloyd’s charity will be found noticed with Oswestry.

Mrs. Frances has recently left £200, the interest to be divided among six poor widows of Whittington and Dudleston in equal proportions.  The amount is invested in the three per cent. stock.

Broughall Mrs. Elizabeth

Broughall Mrs. Sarah, Penny-bryn

Broughall Thomas, Esq., The Castle

Hargreaves Mr. James, horse trainer

Jones John, station master

Kinchant Richard Henry, Esq., Park Hall

Lloyd Rev. Charles Arthur Albany, M.A., The Rectory

Lunt Mrs.

Peate Mr. Richard

Perkins Francis, post office

Thomas Mrs., Rose hill

Woods Rev. Robert M‘Clure, curate

Yates Richard, valuer and land surveyor, The Mount

Academies.

Jones Eliza

Roberts William Henry

Spencer John

Blacksmiths.

Briscoe John

Tudor John

Boot & Shoemakers.

Bickley Joseph

Grinley Joseph

Lea Richard, & rate collector

Butchers.

Haycock Thomas

Llewelyn John

Carpenters, &c.

Bowyer William

Griffiths John (wheelwright)

Mansell Edward

Marsh John

Nicholas Samuel

Farmers.

Davies David

Davies Robert

Holland George

Hughes Edward Foulkes, Park Farm

Jervis George

Jones Edward, Perry Moor

Jones Rd., Tinkers’ Green

Jones Thos., Brabins’ Wood

Munslow Rd., & maltster

Ward John, Donnet Farm

Inns & Taverns.

Boot Inn, George Jervis

Lion, Ann Venables

Beerhouses.

Davies David

Evans Nathaniel

Shopkeepers.

Davies John, and saddler and harness maker

French Ann

Parry Elizabeth

Venables Elizabeth

Watkin Henry

Tailors.

Price Richard

Williams Richard

BERGHILL
is a small township two and a half miles east from Whittington, comprising 688 acres of land, and had in 1841 six houses and 46 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £592. 8s. 6d.  Edmund Wright, Esq., of Halston, is the owner of the land in this township, which is intersected by the river Perry and the Shropshire union canal.

The Farmers are Jonathan Grindley, Thomas Jones, Thomas Lee, John Morris, and Thomas Evans Thomas; Charles Sykes, gamekeeper to E. Wright, Esq.

DAYWELL
is a village and township two and a half miles north from Oswestry, and two and a half miles N.N.W. from Whittington, having in 1841 71 houses and 328 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,212. 4s. 6d.  There are 1,134a. 2r. 18p. of land in the township, of which Joseph Venables Lovett, Esq., is a considerable owner; the other principal owners are John Wynn Eyton, Esq., Rev. E. Edwards, Mr. Joseph Bickerton, Mr. John Gardener, and Mr. Robins.  The celebrated Watts Dyke makes its appearance at Gabowen in this township, and may be traced from thence into the parish of St. Martin.  The extent between this dyke and Dyke Offa’s, which crosses the hills above Selattyn, is about four miles.  The intervening space between these dykes is said to have been a common mart, where the English and Welsh met to carry on commercial intercourse with each other; but if either party transgressed these bounds, they were exposed to the severities of war.  Upon Watts Dyke at a place called Bryna Castle, near to Gabowen, is the site of an old Watchfort, and another a little further on towards St. Martin’s.  Bryna Castle consists of a few cottages a quarter of a mile N.E. from Gabowen; here the Independents built a small chapel in the year 1831.  Belmont is a delightfully situated mansion in a fine park, the seat and property of J. V. Lovett, Esq.  At Gabowen there is a railway station on the Shrewsbury and Chester line of rails, which is 18 miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury, and 24 miles S.E. from Chester.  There is also a branch railway from here to Oswestry.  Upper Hengoed is a scattered district of houses at the north extremity of the township.  The Primitive Methodists have a chapel here, built in 1839.

Those with * affixed reside at Upper Hengoed.

Bickerton Joseph, farmer, Rose Cottage

Cartwright Eli, shopkeeper

* Cound Thomas, shoemaker

Edwards David, farmer, Preese Henlle

Evans Thomas, farmer

Figg Francis Fowler, station master, Gabowen

Furmstone Mrs. Amelia, Rose Cottage

Gardener John, farmer, Bark House

Haycock Thomas, farmer

Howell Thomas, farmer

Jones Thomas, farmer

Jones Thomas, shopkeeper

Lovett Joseph Venables, Esq., Belmont

Morgan Richard, shoemaker

* Morris Thomas, maltster

* Phillips Mrs. Mary, Stone Cottage

Philips Philip, tailor

Price John, maltster and vict., Cross Foxes, Gabowen

Roberts Edward, farmer, Pentre Kenrick

Stewart Mrs. Alexander

Taylor Mr. Peter Poole, Green Bank Cottage

* Weston Edward, beerhouse keeper

Weston Owen, farmer

Williams Edward, farmer

EBNALL
township contains 1,033a. 2r. 32p. of land, and is situated four miles N.N.E. from Oswestry, and twenty-three and a quarter miles north from Whittington; in 1841 here were 51 scattered houses and 240 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,000. 2s.  The principal landowners are John Venables Lovett, Esq.; Thomas Broughall, Esq.; Thomas George Warrington Carew, Esq.; Mr. Robins, Mrs. Ann Owen, Mr. Edward Griffiths, and others, are also proprietors.

The Farmers are James Boodle, William Croft, Prees Henlle; Josiah Holland, Ann Owen, Elizabeth Owen, John Owen, Mary Price, and William Woollam; Thomas Davies, carpenter and wheelwright; John Eaton, blacksmith; Mr. Edward Griffith, Moor Wharf Cottage; John Jones, shoemaker.

FERNHILL,
a small township one and a quarter mile north from Whittington, contains 274a. 3r. 4p. of land, and in 1841 had nine houses and 65 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £265. 18s.  Thomas Lovett, Esq., is sole proprietor in this township, and resides at Fernhill Hall, a neat mansion of free stone, which stands on the knoll of a hill, and commands some beautiful views of the surrounding country; the hall is surrounded with pleasure grounds and shrubberries, and the park is beautifully wooded with thriving plantations.  The river Perry flows through this township; it is formed of several small streams which have their rise in the high grounds of Selattyn, and have their confluence in this township.

The principal residents are Thomas Lovett, Esq., Fern Hill Hall; Edmund Edmunds, farmer; William Broughall, farmer; and Richard Edwards, corn miller, Oak Mill.

FRANKTON,
commonly called Welsh Frankton, is situated three miles east from Whittington; the township contains 931a. 1r. 14p. of land, and in 1841 here were 54 houses and 275 persons.  Rateable value, £85. 14s. 6d.  The chief land owners are Edmund Wright, Esq., Thomas Broughall, Esq.; Joseph Dutton, Esq.; William Francis Oswell, Esq.; Mr. Landford and Mr. Thomas Danily.  The high grounds in this township command a most extensive and delightful view of the fertile plains of Shropshire.  A small chapel of ease stands on the road side leading from Oswestry to Ellesmere; there is a school adjoining, and a little higher up the road near the summit of the hill is a neat Independent chapel.  The Shropshire union canal takes its course on the eastern verge of this township, where there are four locks, and a fall of about forty feet.

Directory.—Farmers, Thomas Danily, William Drury, John Nicholas, Stephen Walley; William Edwards, beerhouse and shopkeeper; Elizabeth Hodnet, schoolmistress; William Jenks, boat builder; William Francis Oswell, Esq.; Edward Teggin, blacksmith; Thomas Teggin, beerhouse keeper; Thomas Williams, provision dealer.

HENLLE,
usually called Hentley, is situated one mile and a half north from Whittington, and four and a half miles N.E. from Oswestry.  The township is returned as having nine houses, 43 inhabitants, and 396a. 1r. 13p. of land.  Rateable value, £340. 9s. 6d.  The land owners are Thomas Lovett, Esq.; Mr. John Duckett, Mr. John Jones, and Mr. Thomas Hughes.

Farmers, Thomas Brookfield, John Danily, and maltster, Edward Davies, and Walter Munslow; Mr. John Duckett is also a resident here.

HINDFORD,
a small township with 196a. 2r. 10p. of land, lies a little more than a mile north from Whittington, and has 20 houses and 91 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £241. 1s. 6d.  Edmund Wright, Esq., and Mr. Broughall are the principal proprietors.  The Chester and Shrewsbury railway intersects the township, and is crossed by a bridge on the road leading to Old Marton.

The resident farmers are Edward Edwards, William Jackson, and Thomas Parry; William Jackson, butcher.

OLD MARTON
township, three miles N.E. from Whittington, has four houses, 23 inhabitants, and 496a. 2r. 3p. of land, which is the property of Richard James Griffiths, Esq., Rev. George Salt, and Mr. Jones.  Mr. John Pridden, who was born at Old Marton Hall, was one of the many instances in which integrity and perseverance have introduced their votaries to ease and affluence.  His father dying when he was only twelve years old, and his mother marrying again, he was subjected to the most unmerciful and cruel treatment of a step-father.  Having endured his unmerited sufferings for several years, he bade adieu to his unpropitious home, and arrived in London in March, 1748, where he soon found protectors in Mr. Nourse and Mr. Manley, the latter of whom he succeeded in business as a bookseller, where he soon found himself supported by a numerous and respectable set of friends, and eventually rose to wealth and affluence.  To do good was his delight; to communicate happiness to all around him was his unceasing aim.  He died in 1807, and left two sons and three daughters.

The resident farmers in Old Marton are Thomas Brayne, Stephen Burrows, and Amelia Jones.

PIMHILL HUNDRED.

The Hundred Pimhill is bounded on the north by Flintshire, on the west by the Oswestry Hundred, on the east by the Albrighton division and the Bradford Hundred, and on the south by the Hundred of Ford and the Albrighton division.  The population of this hundred in 1801 was 11,874; the number of inhabited houses 2,112.  In 1841 there was a population of 11,857 souls, of whom 5,900 were males., and 5,857 females.  At the same period there were 2,297 inhabited houses, 48 uninhabited, and 10 houses building.  This hundred comprehends the Baschurch and Ellesmere divisions.  The former contains the following townships and chapelries, viz., Alderton, Baschurch, Birch, Boreatton or Bratton, Ensdon, Eyton, Felton Butler, Fennemere, Hopton, Kinton, Merehouse, Montford, Ness Cliff, Ness Great, Ness Little, Newtown, Petton, Prescott, Shrawardine, Stanwardine-in-the-Fields, Stanwardine-in-the-Wood, Walford, Weston Lullingfield, Wilcott, and Yeaton.

The Ellesmere division contains Balderton, Birch and Lythe, Burlton, Cockshutt and Crosemere, Colemere, Crickett, Criftins, Dudleston, Eastwick, Ellesmere, Elson and Greenhill, Frankton, Hampton Welsh, Hampton Wood, Hardwick, Hordley, Kenwick Stockett and Whattall, Kenwicks Park, Kenwicks Wood, Lee, Lineal, Loppington, Marton, Middle, New Marton, Newnes, Newton, Noneley, Northwood, Oteley, Newton and Spoonhill, Sleap (part of), Stocks and Coptiviney, Tetchill, Trench.

BASCHURCH
is a respectable village, pleasantly situated about half a mile west of the Baschurch railway station, and eight miles N.W. from Shrewsbury.  The parish contains the several townships of Baschurch, Birch, Boreatton, Eyton, Fennemere, Merehouse, Newtown, Prescott, Stanwardine-in-the-Fields, Stanwardine-in-the-Wood, Walford, Weston and Yeaton, which together have an area of 10,758 acres of land.  Rateable value, £11,470. 11s. 6d.  Population in 1801, 1,059; in 1831, 1,321; and in 1841, 1,491.  Baschuch is a place of great antiquity.  Cynddylan, the British prince, slain at Whittington by the Saxons, about the year 570, was interred here.  The parish church is one of the eighteen churches found in the county at the Doomsday survey, at which time Baschurch was the head of a hundred.  About a mile from the village is a remarkable British fortress, or hold, the remains of which are very distinct, and an object of great attraction to the antiquary.  It consists of two positions, one a natural eminence about forty-five feet high, surrounded at the bottom by a circular vallum; the other an elliptical entrenchment, on which more pains have been bestowed, very much lower than the other, and perfect on three sides, the fourth being open, and apparently extended into a wider and more irregular form.  The vallum of this elliptical entrenchment, where it faces the eminence described above, is thrice the height of any other part of it.  These two positions are surrounded, on one side by a deep pool, on the other sides by an extensive tract of black peaty soil, which was probably at an early period covered with water.  The works are connected by a low road, made, by incredible labour, of small stones heaped together; and both are connected with the main land by a similar road leading across the morass in a curve.  If this road was covered with water, as probably it was to the depth of a few inches, strangers would not know where it was; and the loftier fortress had a farther defence in an interruption of the roads, which do not reach all the way to it, but cease within a few feet of the point of juncture, and thus act as a kind of rude draw-bridge, where those in the fortress might lay down a plank for those without to pass over.  At the point where this interruption of the road exists, was evidently the road into the fort, which is there defended by two outworks; one on each side.  It was in this fastness that Cynddylan, imitating his aboriginal forefathers, who fortified themselves in woods and marshes, sought an asylum after his expulsion from Pengwern (Shrewsbury).  No reason can be assigned why he should be buried at Baschurch, but that his residence was in the immediate vicinity.

The Church is an ancient structure, dedicated to All Saints, and consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower, in which are four bells.  There is a gallery at the west end, upon which is a fine-toned organ.  The south side of the church was built about the year 1615, and the north side in the year 1790.  It contains several handsome tablets and memorials to some of the principal families in the neighbourhood; one of which, a handsome pyramidal monument of elegant and costly workmanship, executed in marble, records the death of William Basnett, Esq., of London, a native of Baschurch, whose nephew and adopted heir, William Birch, assumed the name of Basnett.  Another memorial remembers Rowland Hunt, Esq., and there are others to the Preslands, Slaneys, Mucklestons, and Corbets.  There is an ancient Bible chained to the reading desk.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the King’s book at £10. 16s., in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and enjoyed by the Rev. William Jones.  The church stands on the site of a former edifice, which was burnt down in the year 1404.  Divine service was performed in the Manor House, at Walford, till a new church was built.  A stone in the churchyard remembers William Green, who died at the age of ninety years; and about fifteen years ago Mrs. Jones Hill Green died at the age of ninety-nine years.  The tithes were commuted in 1844 for £285.  The vicarage is a good residence, pleasantly situated, and stands a little east from the church.  It has been considerably improved by the present incumbent

Newtown may be considered to form a part of Baschurch.  It is a separate township, situated between the railway station and the village, the Shrewsbury and Chester railway intersecting the eastern side of the township.  In 1841 here were 25 houses and 131 inhabitants.  There are two neat and capacious schools at Newtown, and a preparatory school at Weston, supported from the funds of Mrs. Harris’s charity.  In consequence of the advantages of gratuitous education, the village is constantly improving.  The salubrity of the air, the facilities of railway communication, and the general order and quiet retirement, render it a desirable place for the erection of villa residences.  A commodious inn has recently been built at the railway station, which is conducted by Mr. Thomas Wilkinson.  A market has been established on Friday, for the sale of corn, butter, and poultry, which is held near the railway station.  There is a bowling green at the Admiral Duncan, and a female benefit society, which is well supported.  Rowland Hunt, Esq., is lord of the manor.  The principal landowners are the lord of the manor; the Rev. William Jones; Robert A. Slaney, Esq., M.P.; Richard Edwards, Esq.; Frederick Edwards, Esq.; Edward Edwards, Esq.; William Sparling, Esq.; Mary Pickstock; and others are also proprietors.  The soil is a mixture of gravel and loam, highly productive, and about one half may be considerable arable.  The river Perry divides Baschurch from Ruyton, and skirts Boreatton Park.

Charities.—Eleanor Harris, by will, bearing date 17th May, 1709, devised certain land and tenements, at Stanwardine-in-the-Fields, in trust, to pay certain annuities therein mentioned, and to dispose of the residue for the providing of schooling for the boys and girls of such of the lowest rank of inhabitants within the parish of Baschurch as should not be able to give them a proper schooling; and she directed that such children should be taught to read and spell well, and to write fair hands and cast accounts, so as to fit the boys for ordinary trades; and that when the profits of the trust estate should be sufficient her trustees should apply a reasonable part thereof for putting out the boys apprentices, and for providing portions for the girls, to be given them on marriage; and she further directed that her trustees should pay yearly 20s. to the officiating minister of the parish for a sermon in the church, on the afternoon of the Sunday next after the anniversary of her death, at which time she desired such minister to declare publicly the principal directions of her will, to the intent that the same might never be concealed or suppressed; and that the trustees should lay out 20s. for a dinner for themselves.  The property belonging this charity consists of 267a. 2r. 36p. of land and certain houses, besides 7a. 2r. 31p., which was planted about fifty years ago with oaks, and the school premises, consisting of 1a. 1r. 32p., at Newtown.  When the Charity Commissioners published their report the yearly income amounted to £323. 10s.  The boys are taught reading, writing, and accounts, and the girls reading and needlework.  They are all supplied with every article of clothing, except linen, once a year, and with books and all school requisites; and they are permitted to remain in the school till they are of sufficient age to go out to service, or to be bound apprentice.  When the children go out to service they receive a complete suit of clothing, and a Bible and a Prayer Book; and if they continue in the same place with credit for five years, they receive a gratuity of £3; and if for seven years, £5.  In this respect no difference is made between the boys and girls.  The boys are occasionally placed out apprentice, with a premium of £6 each.  Nothing is paid out of the fund for marriage portions.  There is also a dame school supported out of the funds, for teaching the younger children of poor persons residing at Weston.  The present trustees are R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P.; William Matthews, Esq.; Richard Wall, Esq.; and Mr. John Jebb.

Thomas Baker, in 1839, gave a rent charge of £4 per annum, to be expended in bread, and given to the poor of the parish on Sundays for ever.

Edward Tomkies, by will, in 1771, bequeathed to the poor of the parish of Baschurch £100.  The interest to be laid out in sixpenny loaves of good bread, and given to the poor over and above their usual allowance on Christmas days and Easter Sundays.

Richard Wilkins gave £20, the interest to be distributed by the vicar and churchwardens to such poor people as should not receive relief.

Rev. John Barnet gave £20, and directed the interest to be distributed to the poor.

A yearly sum of £4. 11s. 2d. is paid to a schoolmaster, as the interest of £114 in the hands of R. Hunt, Esq.  It does not appear from whose benefaction this money was derived; but it appears it was formerly laid out on turnpike security, with £130 belonging to two other charities, making altogether £244; which sum was afterwards placed in the hands of R. Hunt, Esq.

Sarah Atcherley gave £30 to the poor, the interest to be given in bread on Christmas days.

Thomas Presland, in 1779, gave £20, the interest to be distributed yearly to poor distressed housekeepers.

Post Office.—At Mr. John Morris’s.  Letters arrive at 8.45 A.M., and are despatched at 4 45 P.M.

Those marked 1 reside at Baschurch; 2 New town; 3 Railway Station.

1 Birch Edward, Esq., The Hall

2 Birch Miss M. A., boarding school

1 Buckley and Davies, milliners and bonnet makers

1 Carr William, tailor

2 Crookenden Mrs., schoolmistress

1 Davies Richard, baker and parish clerk

3 Haycock Robert, agent to the Brymbo Company, dealer in coal, lime, slate, &c.

1 Hinksman John, shoemaker

2 Humphreys Mary, provision dealer

2 Jebb John, station master

2 Jones Joseph, farmer and maltster

2 Jones Joseph, butcher

2 Jones Mary, farmer

2 Jones Thomas, farmer

2 Jones William P. schoolmaster, and collector of rates

1 Jones Rev. William, The Vicarage

1 Leek Thomas, wheelwright

1 Matthews William, farmer

2 Morris Charles, licensed to let post horses

3 Morris Charles, agent to Mr. Ward for the Black Park Coal, dealer in lime, slate, &c.

1 Morris John, grocer and innkeeper

2 Mullinex John, blacksmith

2 Oliver Joseph, shoemaker

1 Pickstock Henry, farmer

1 Poole Edward, tailor

2 Poole Sarah, beerhouse-keeper

1 Pugh John, shoemaker

1 Pugh Thomas, farmer

1 Roberts Thomas, blacksmith

1 Simpson John, joiner and builder

2 Throckmorton J. Esq.

1 Thomas John, shoemaker

3 Thomas William, agent to G. Young for the Cefn coal, and dealer in lime and bricks, &c.

3 Wilkinson Thomas, victualler, Station Inn and Posting House, and Admiral Duncan Inn

BIRCH
is a small township in the parish of Baschurch, two miles N.W. from the Baschurch Railway Station, which in 1841 was returned as containing two houses and twenty-two inhabitants.  The river Perry divides this township from Ruyton, and is skirted on the east by Boreatton Park.  Rowland Hunt, Esq., is the landowner, and lord of the manor.  The township contains 432 acres of land.  Rateable value, £439.  The Birch Park farm is occupied by John Vaughan.

BOREATTON, OR BRATTON,
is a township pleasantly situated nine miles and a half N.W. by N. from Shrewsbury, and about two miles from the Baschurch Railway Station.  In 1841 there were seven houses and 32 inhabitants.  (The acres are given with the parish.)  Rateable value, £708. 5s.  The soil is of a superior quality, producing good wheat and barley.  Large flocks of sheep are kept in this neighbourhood.  Boreaton Hall, an elegant mansion of brick in the Elizabethan style of architecture, is the seat and property of Rowland Hunt, Esq.  The mansion is approached by a handsome portico of free stone, supported by four circular pillars.  The grounds are tastefully laid out with pleasure grounds and shrubberies; and the Park, though not of great extent, is richly wooded, and beautified with some fine avenues of beech and other trees.

The principal residents are Rowland Hunt, Esq., Boreatton Hall; Miss Hunt, Boreatton Park House; John Grant, farm bailiff; George and Henry Hunt, farmers and corn millers, Platt Mills, Thomas Payne, gamekeeper.

EYTON,
a small township and sequestered village, is situated about two miles N.E. by E. from Baschurch.  At the census of 1841 there were 11 houses and 56 inhabitants.  The township is intersected by the railroad from Shrewsbury to Chester.  Here are several large pools of water, covering many acres of land, and are well stocked with fish.  The land has an undulating surface, and the soil is a mixture of loam and clay.  The principal landowners are the Duke of Cleveland, and D. F. Atcherley, Esq.; besides whom there are several smaller proprietors.  The Birch Grove House, the residence of John Evans, Esq., is a neat edifice, stuccoed, and is surrounded with pleasure grounds tastefully laid out.  Near it is a fine sheet of water.  Elizabeth Waring bequeathed £20, and directed the interest to be distributed among the poor of this township on the Sunday before Christmas day.

The farmers in Eyton are Richard Cutt, Samuel Price, Ann Teece, John Weston, and Thomas Whittingham.  John Mason, blacksmith.

FENNEMERE,
another small township in Baschurch parish, had six houses and 43 inhabitants at the census of 1841.  It is situated two miles and a quarter from Baschurch, and five miles S.W. of Wem.  (The acres are returned with the parish.)  The land presents gentle undulations and inequalities on the surface, and the soil is in general heavy, producing good crops of wheat and barley.  The Duke of Cleveland is the sole proprietor.  In this township there is a fine sheet of water, covering a considerable extent of land.  The farms are extensive, and the houses and out-buildings are conveniently arranged.  The resident farmers are Edward Kent, Joseph Lee, and Charles Wood.

MEREHOUSE
is a township intersected by the Shrewsbury and Chester railway, situated about a quarter of a mile from the Baschurch station, and eight miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury.  The township contained one house and sixteen persons in 1841.  Rateable value, £200. 5s.  Rowland Hunt, Esq., is the lord of the manor, but the land is the property of Richard Wall, Esq., who resides on the estate, having erected a pleasantly situated house to the east of Baschurch station, with commodious and conveniently arranged farm buildings.  In this township is situated the British Fortress, previously noticed with Baschurch, as the retreat of Cynddylan, a British Prince, after being driven by the Saxon invader from the city of Pengwerne (Shrewsbury).  It is protected by a pool of water of considerable extent, called the Berth, and a morass.  Richard Wall, Esq., of Merehouse Hall, is the only resident.

NESS LITTLE, OR NESS CLIFF,
is a chapelry and village, consisting chiefly of respectable farm houses, in the parish of Baschurch, pleasantly situated two miles and a half S.W. from the Baschurch station, and seven miles and a half N.N.W. from Shrewsbury.  In 1801 the population was 202, and at the census of 1841 there were 46 houses and 238 inhabitants.  The tithes were commuted in 1847 for £232. 10s.  The rectoral tithes of this township are paid to the Rev. David Birds, except those of the Milford and Adcott Hall estates.  The incumbent of Baschurch receives the small tithes.  The township contains 1,348 acres of land.  The soil is generally a stiff sandy loam, producing good crops of wheat, barley, and beans.  About two-thirds of the land is arable.  Rateable value, £1,326. 13s.  Earl of Powis is lord of the manor.  The principal landowners are Henry Dickinson, Esq.; George Edwards, Esq.; R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P.; Edward Brayne, Esq.; William Matthews, Esq.; Mrs. Jones; and Samuel Bickerton, Esq.  Henry Dickinson, Esq., has recently purchased an estate from the Earl of Powis, and is now erecting an extensive and costly range of farm premises on the most approved principles.  The Church is an ancient structure, paved with encaustic tiles, and was new pewed in 1835, the expense of which was defrayed by public subscription.  It contains a fine old font, with the date of 1565.  The communion cup, which is of silver, exhibits a curious piece of handicraft, and has the date 1565 upon it.  The living is a curacy annexed to the vicarage of Baschurch.  Adcott Hall, the residence of Thomas Mansell, Esq., is an ancient erection, with extensive farm premises, conveniently arranged, connected with it.  Milford Hall, an ancient timbered residence in good preservation, exhibits a fine specimen of the domestic architecture of by-gone days.

Directory.—Farmers: Edward Brayne, and maltster; Thomas Brookfield, Adcott Mills; Andrew Mansell; Thomas Mansell, Adcott Hall; James Payne, Milford House; Abraham Powell, Milford Mill; Alice Smith, Milford Hall; Abraham Woolrich; Thomas Gilston, farm bailiff to Henry Dickinson, Esq.  Edward Griffiths, shoemaker; William Hughes, parish clerk; William Jones, shopkeeper, Vale lane; Edward Pugh, wheelwright.

PRESCOTT
is a township and pleasantly situated village on the Shrewsbury and Baschurch turnpike road, seven and a half miles N.E. by N. from the former place, and one mile south from the latter.  In 1841 there were 23 houses and 103 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Robert A. Slaney, Esq., M.P.; John Bromley, Esq.; and Mrs. Barrett; besides whom there are several other freeholders.  The land has an undulating surface, with a strong loamy soil.

Directory.—John Bromley, Esq.; Andrew Mellor Needham, Esq.; Thomas Pearce, blacksmith; John Poole, tailor; Richard Smith, farmer; William Thomas, grocer and provision dealer; David Vaughan, farmer; Griffith Windsor, builder.

STANWARDINE-IN-THE-FIELDS
is a township and well-built village, near the line of the Shrewsbury and Chester railway, one and a half mile N.W. from Baschurch, and nine miles N.W. by N. from Shrewsbury.  The railway is here crossed by a substantial stone bridge.  At the census of 1841 there were 30 houses and 160 inhabitants.  The land in this township is generally good, and produces fine crops of wheat and turnips.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor; and the trustees of Mrs. Eleanor Harris’s charily, Mrs. Phillips, Mr. Hilton, Sir John R. Kynaston, Bart., Miss Emma Jones, and the vicar of Baschurch, are the principal landowners.  The Park House, a good residence of brick, stands about half a mile north-west from the village, and is the residence of Mr. Richard Hiles.  It was built two years ago.  The farm premises are admirably contrived, and replete with every convenience.

The residents are—Farmers: Thomas Atcherley, Edward Corden, Thomas Davies, the Beith; Richard Hiles, Stanwardine Park; John Pembrey, Thomas Perry, and James Windsor.  Edward Griffiths, blacksmith; Richard Parbutt, shopkeeper.

STANWARDINE-IN-THE-WOOD
is a small township and secluded village with a scattered population, four and a quarter miles north from Baschurch, and 12 miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury.  In 1841 there were 9 houses and 69 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,037. 8s.  The Hall is an antique mansion, built about the year 1681, and occupied by Stephen Denston, Esq.  It is approached by a flight of steps and a portico; the sides of the great hall are of panelled oak, enriched with carved work, and upon one of the scrolls is the date 1588.  The apartments are decorated with some fine paintings and costly prints; the steps of the staircase are of solid blocks of oak, and the floors are laid with oaken planks four inches thick.  In the front of the hall is a pedestal of stone, upon which is affixed a sun-dial; on the plate, which is of silver, is a beautiful engraving and some fine tracery, bearing the arms of the Corbets and the Wynns, and the date 1560.  The ancient hall of Stanwardine was a moated mansion, and stood a little south from the present structure.  It was in early times the seat of a branch of the ancient family of Corbet, and subsequently of the Wynns.  In the front of the present hall are the family arms of the Corbets and the Wynne, exhibiting a beautiful specimen of chiselling.  Wicherlry Hall, an ancient structure chiefly composed of timber, has recently undergone considerable reparations, and a new front has been added.  It is the property of C. K. Mainwaring, Esq., and occupied by Mr. George Belliss, who farms upwards of 200 acres of the land in this township.  William Sparling Esq., is the principal landowner; Charles Kynaston Mainwaring, Esq., and others, are also proprietors.

Directory.—Farmers, George Belliss, Wicherley Hall; John Williams, Stanwardine Hall; Mary Jones, Andrew Jones, and John Young.

WALFORD,
a small township with a scattered population, is situated two and a half miles S.E. from Baschurch, and six miles and a half N.W. by N. from Shrewsbury.  In 1841 there were 74 inhabitants.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor; Robert A. Slaney, Esq., M.P., is a considerable land owner.  The land has generally a fertile soil.  The turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Baschurch intersects the township.  Walford Manor is a handsome mansion of modern erection, the seat and property of Robert Aglionby Slaney, Esq., M.P. for Shrewsbury; Mr. Slaney has been a member of parliament for thirty years, devoting himself to the advancement of the people, labouring to disclose and have removed the causes injurious to the public health, and to increase the means of instruction and healthful recreation of the working classes.  Free trade and political reforms have had his constant support.  He has also published several works, on subjects identical with those which have busied him in public life—an “Essay on the employment of the poor,” (to this was awarded a silver medal from the Board of Agriculture); an “Essay on the beneficial direction of rural expenditure;” a “Plea to power and parliament for the working classes,” &c.  The old Manor House is an ancient dilapidated structure, now occupied as a farm dwelling.

Slaney Robert Aglionby, Esq., M.P., Walford Manor

Burroughs Joshua, farmer, The Heath

Davies John, blacksmith

Griffiths Richard, shoemaker

Jennings Thomas, beerhouse

Jones Isaac, wheelwright

Jones John, farmer

Jones Mary, farmer

Jones William, gamekeeper

Lee Wm. farmer, The Heath

Price Thos. farmer, Leasows

Price Thomas, jun., butcher

Shore Thomas, farmer and maltster

Smith Richard, farmer, bailiff, The Manor

Speake Samuel, joiner and carpenter

Williams William, tailor

Wycherley John., farmer, The Hayes

WESTON LULLINGFIELD
is a township and straggling village two and a half miles north from Baschurch, and ten and a half miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury.  There are several good farm houses here, with commodious and conveniently arranged out premises.  The chief landowners are the trustees of Mrs. Harris’s charity, Mrs. Bowman, William Birch, Esq.; the Earl of Bradford, the Vicar of Baschurch, Thomas Tisdale, Esq.; William Sparling, Esq.; D. F. Atcherley, Esq.; C. K. Mainwaring; Esq.; Sir John R. Kynaston, Bart.; Mrs. Mary Parton, and Mr. Hilton.  The Primitive Methodists have a neat stone chapel here.  The Free School for the junior children of the parish is a branch in connection with the school at Newtown, under the management of the trustees of Mrs. Eleanor Harris’s charity.  The master receives a progressive payment according to the number of children instructed.  This place is returned at the census of 1841 as having a population of 213 souls, at which time there were 46 houses.  A branch of the Chester and Ellesmere canal runs into this township.

Adams John, farmer

Adams William, farmer

Birch William, farmer

Boliver Edward, cooper

Boliver Richard, shopkeeper

Boliver William, tailor

Cotton Thomas, farmer

Griffiths Wm., wheelwright

Haycocks John, blacksmith

Higgins John, farmer

Jones Thomas, farmer

Jones Thomas, wheelwright

Lee George, tailor

Lee John, shoemaker

Lee John, farmer

Parton Thomas, shoemaker

Price Richard, shopkeeper & vict., Boat Inn

Trevor William, farmer and tailor

Williams Edward, agent to Richards & Co., Ruabon, coal and lime merchants, Canal Wharf.

YEATON
is a village and township two and a half miles S.E. from Baschurch, and six and a half miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury, returned in 1841 as having 37 houses and 195 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Robert A. Slaney, Esq., M.P.; J. A. Lloyd, Esq.; Captain James Parry, Mr. Richard Williams, and John Smith, Esq.; the former is lord of the manor and impropriator.  The hall, a handsome stuccoed residence occupied by George Wade, Esq., is pleasantly situated near the turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Baschurch.  There are also several neat villas of modern erection.

The principal residents are Miss Beech, The Hall; Captain James Parry, The Grove; George Wade, Esq., The Hall.  Farmers, Richard Cotton, William Cotterhill, Upper Corn Mills; Samuel Onions, Medley Farm; James Perry, The Grove Farm; William Turner, and corn miller, and Richard Williams, The Flour Mills.

ELLESMERE
is a respectable market town and extensive parish, partly in the hundred of Maylor, in the county of Flint, but chiefly in the Ellesmere division of the Pimhill hundred, in the county of Salop, sixteen miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury, and eight miles N.N.E. from Oswestry.  The parish contains the following townships in this county, viz.:—Birch and Lythe, Cockshutt and Crosmere, Crickett, Dudleston, Eastwick, Ellesmere, Elson and Greenhill, Frankton, Hampton’s Wood, Hardwick, Kenwick Stockett and Whattall, Kenwick’s Park, Kenwicks Wood, Lee, Lineal, New Marton, Northwood, Oteley Newton and Spoonhill, Stocks and Coptiviney, Tetchill, and Trench, which together contain 25,676a. 0r. 20p. of land.  Rateable value, £42,341.  In 1801 there were 5,909 inhabitants; 1831, 7,057, and in 1841, 7,080.  The rectoral tithes have been commuted for £2,351, when £1,576 were apportioned to the trustees of the Earl of Bridgewater, £515 to C. K. Mainwaring, Esq., £174 to J. Dickin, Esq., £46 to Richard Wynn, Esq., and £15 to Mr. Benyon.  The vicarial tithes were commuted for £430.

Ellesmere, formerly written Aelsmere, is a place of considerable antiquity, and derives it name from a fine sheet of water or mere on the east side of the town, which covers one hundred and sixteen acres.  Leland describes the town in his day as having four streets, while Camden speaks of it, “as a small tract of rich fertile ground, together with a small castle, which King John settled on Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, when he made up the match between him and Joan, his natural daughter.”  The town now contains several respectable inns, and many good houses and shops, in all the different branches of the retail trade.  The malting business is extensively carried on.  Mr. John Frumston’s is one of the largest establishments in the county.  The cultivation of barley being particularly attended to in the neighbouring country, causes the farmers usually to attend the market here, which is held on Tuesday.  Fairs are held on the first Tuesday after February 2nd, third Tuesday in April, Whit Tuesday, first Tuesday in July, last Tuesday in August, and the third Tuesday in October and November for horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs.  The castle of Ellesmere stood on an artificial mount, near to the church.  At the present time there are no vestiges of it to be seen, the top of the mount being formed into a bowling green, which is kept in admirable order, and supported by the gentry and tradesmen of the town.  From this eminence a most extensive and delightful panoramic view of the fertile plains of Shropshire is seen; the fine mere and the beautiful residence of C. K. Mainwaring, Esq., are charming objects in the vicinity.  History is silent as to the time and by whom the castle was built.  In the 6th of King John, the king gave the castle and manor of Ellesmere in marriage with his daughter Joan to Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales; in the 10th of that reign Bartholomew Turve, the governor, he having turned his arms against the English, was commanded upon his allegiance to put the place into the possession of William, Earl of Shrewsbury, the king’s natural brother, and Thomas de Edginton.  In the 4th of Henry III., Roger L’Estrange held this castle, and it continued to his successors for a long period.  In the 25th of Henry III., David, son of Llewellyn, late Prince of Wales, by his charter, surrendered up Ellesmere and Englefend to the crown of England, and after that we hear no more of its being in the hands of the Welsh.  This being a frontier town and of some importance to the marches, and consequently not to be left in the power of the Prince of Wales.  The continued skirmishes between the English and the Welsh, made the tenure of the latter very uncertain; and though King Henry II. and King John, being embroiled in foreign wars, gave the town and castle in dower, the first with his sister and the latter with his daughter, in order to conciliate the ancient animosities of both people; yet upon the least appearance of a rupture those kings might and did resume at pleasure, or gave what recompense they thought fit upon the seizure, and such as the Prince of Wales holding upon their good behaviour were glad to receive.  On the 12th of Edward II., Roger L. Estrange, with the king’s approbation, granted several parcels of land, part of the demesnes of the manor, to several persons in fee, at which time the wastes and the commons of the manor were enclosed, and converted into freeholds.  Two years after Oliver de Ingeham, who adhered so firmly to the king, upon the insurrection of the Earl of Lancaster and other lords, was governor of this castle.  In the following reign a writ was issued, to inquire concerning the encroachments made by the tenants of the neighbouring manors, and to settle the boundaries, which being performed, the king gave the castle and manor of Ellesmere to Eubule L. Estrange, a younger son of the baron of Knockin.  In the reign of Elizabeth we find Thomas Egerton, an ancient lawyer, created Baron Ellesmere; in the 23rd of Elizabeth he was made Solicitor-General, and afterwards Attorney-General, from which advancement he was soon after promoted to the Mastership of the Rolls and the office of Keeper of the Great Seal, which he held till that queen’s death.  The Duke of Bridgewater is deserving of notice in this place, as having been possessed of large estates in Ellesmere and its neighbourhood, and as being distinguished for his public spirit, and for the vast plans he formed and executed for the improvement of his estates.  He died in 1803, and the dukedom became extinct.  On the death of the late Countess of Bridgewater the estates became vested in Viscount Alford, and he dying in the autumn of the year 1850, they are now vested in trustees.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, stands on a considerable elevation, overlooking the Mere, and presents a fine specimen of ecclesiastical architecture, for the most part in the decorative style.  It is a spacious cruciform structure, comprising nave, chancel, side aisles, transepts, two side chapels, and a handsome square tower, adorned with pinnacles.  The sacred edifice underwent a thorough restoration during the year 1849, when an entirely new nave and side aisles were built, at a cost of upwards of £8,000, from a design of George G. Scott, Esq., architect.  The original nave bore marks of being the most ancient part of the building, and presented traces of the old Norman style.  One of the pillars which stands near the pulpit on the north side of the western arch of the tower is the only part of the old nave remaining.  On entering the church at either of the transept doors the spectator cannot fail to admire the bold span of the central arches on which the tower rests.  The exterior of the eastern end remains as it was, the work of enlargement being confined to the western side.  The roof is of open timber work of very high pitch, and the curve of the beams according so exactly with the form of the central arches, renders the vista of the church singularly fine.  The same character of roof is extended over the side aisles.  This part of the building receives the bulk of the congregation, and is neatly fitted up with open seats of oak, uniform in their character, with their facings relieved by tracery of various patterns, and affording about 900 appropriated sittings.  The transepts have been provided with benches, thereby affording room for more than 300 sittings.  On the north side of the western arch of the tower stands the pulpit, which is of stone, and richly carved.  On the opposite side is the desk for reading prayers; and under the central part of the tower is placed the lectern, from which the lessons are read.  The chancel has been thoroughly restored and altered, and the old screens which separated it from the side chapels renovated, and decorated with highly-finished tracery.  On each side are stalls with carved finials, and otherwise ornamented, containing seats for the clergy and the choir.  The paving is composed of encaustic tiles, in patterns which increase in richness as they approach the east.  The altar stands on an elevation of five steps from the level of the entrance of the chancel, and is backed by a reredos of encaustic tiles.  The three sedilia on the south side, which were in good preservation, have been restored to their original use.  By means of a separate subscription a new organ, which cost 300 guineas, built by Holditch, of London, has been placed in the south chapel: the instrument is of great power and sweetness, and finely contributes to the musical part of the services.  A new octagonal font of carved stone—an exact representation of the old one—has been placed in the south aisle.  The south chapel, commonly called the Otely chapel, is distinguished by a curious oak roof, with carved panels, and though it cannot lay claim to a date earlier than the 16th century, yet it forms one of the most beautiful features in the old part of the church.  This chapel contains a fine altar tomb, elaborately ornamented, on which are recumbent figures cut in marble, to the memory of Francis Kynaston and his wife, with the date 1790.

Other decorations, in various parts, are not wanting to help the effect and beauty of the restoration.  Besides the rich carving in stone on the corbels and doors, and the wood tracery and highly-finished screen work, eighteen of the windows are richly ornamented with stained glass, by the liberality of various donors.  The magnificent east window, the gift of Robert Clarke, Esq., late agent to the Bridgewater estates, was executed by Evans, of Shrewsbury, some twenty years ago.  In the different compartments of the window are the four evangelists; the arms of David Prince of Wales; Llewellyn Prince of Wales; Sir Roger le Strange, who in the reign of Edward III., granted the second charter to the town; Lord Chancellor Egerton, &c., &c.  The west window, a beautiful specimen of the decorated Gothic, is conceived and executed in the highest taste, and is illustrative of the four Christian graces of Faith, Hope, and Charity.  It was the joint presentation of J. and G. Stanton, Esqs., in memory of Thomas Stanton, Esq., and was executed by Warrington of London.  In the south transept is a fine window by Wailes of Newcastle, in memory of the late vicar, the Rev. J. A. Cotton, added by his surviving family.  The three windows in the south aisle are by the same artist, and all gifts to the church.  The first, representing the crucifixion of our Lord, was presented by the widow of the late Captain Fowler; the next, the gift of the Oswell family, is illustrative of our Saviour’s ascension into heaven; the third represents infant and adult baptism, and was presented by Colonel Salisbury.  Some of the other windows are filled with ornamental glass, with a light pattern foliage upon each square, and scrolls containing texts of scripture running obliquely through them.  One of the same sort, but more richly ornamented, is placed in the Oteley chapel, in memory of some of the faithful retainers of the household of C. K. Mainwaring, Esq.  The church has thus been rendered one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical edifices in the county, by the liberality of the parishioners and other donors, under the skill and taste of its able architect.  The extreme length of the church is 140 feet, and width 79 feet.  The late Countess of Bridgewater gave the munificent sum of £3,300 towards the restorations; the Diocesan Society, £350; the Incorporated Society for Enlarging and Building Churches, £150; and £227. 2s. 6d. was collected after a sermon preached by the Bishop of Lichfield at the consecration of the church, on the 11th October, 1849.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the King’s book at £17. 18s. l½d.; returned in the Clergy List at £386; in the patronage of the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, and incumbency of the Rev. John David Day, M.A.; curate, Rev. John Peake, B.A.  The churchyard was enlarged in 1850, by the addition of near half an acre of land on the west side of the church.  The vicarage is pleasantly situated on elevated ground near the south side of the churchyard.  Ellesmere is remarkable for the longevity of its inhabitants: in 1767 Jane Holt died, at the age of 108 years; and her husband died in 1757, aged 98 years.  Among the various memorials in the churchyard is a remarkable epitaph to William Parks, who died at Lee, in 1746, aged 104 years:—

“Interr’d here, lies one hundred years and four;
No one knew scripture less and virtue more:
Peace his ambition, contentment was his wealth,
Honesty his pride,—his passions health,
The father’s duty, and the husband’s guide;
By nature good, the age’s wonder died.”

The Independent Chapel, situated in Chapel street, is a plain brick building, erected in 1815; it is provided with galleries, and has accommodation for about 500 worshippers.  The Wesleyan Chapel is a small fabric in Watergate street, erected in the year 1844.  There is also a Wesleyan Association Chapel, built in 1835, and a Primitive Methodist Chapel, built in 1840, both situated in Scotland street.  The National School, which stands near the wharf, has an attendance of 160 scholars.  The school room is spacious and lofty, and was built at the sole expense of the Countess of Bridgewater, who also gave the sum of £200 towards the support of the school.  The Girls’ National School, situated on St. John’s hill, has an attendance of 85 children.  The vicar, with a laudable desire to extend the advantages of education, established what is termed the Middle School, in 1848, on St. John’s Hill, where the youths are instructed in the higher branches of learning.  The school is built of wood, and covered with thatch, and the interior lined with panelled oak, taken from the old church on its restoration.  It was built at the sole expense of the vicar, whose zeal and persevering efforts in the education of youth are worthy of commendation.  The Town Hall, a handsome building of freestone, was erected by the munificence of the late Countess of Bridgewater.  The lower compartment of the structure is used for the sale of butter, poultry, &c., on the market days; above it is a spacious room for magisterial and other purposes, with suitable offices.  The magistrates hold a petty sessions here on the first Monday in the month.  The Countess of Bridgewater kindly granted the use of the large room to the Mechanics’ Institution, which was established in 1845.  There are about forty members, adults paying 6s. per annum, and apprentices 4s.  A library has been established, and gratuitous lectures are occasionally given by the clergy and gentlemen in the neighbourhood, on interesting and scientific subjects.  G. H. Smith is the secretary.  A Court Leet is held annually, when a coroner and two bailiffs are appointed.  The Savings’ Bank is situated in Scotland street.  It was established in 1817, and then held in a private house.  The present structure was built in 1830, from the surplus funds of the bank, at a cost of £550.  The capital stock of the bank on November 20th, 1849, was £29,562. 15s. 2¼d., at which time there were 752 separate accounts, of which eight were charitable societies, having deposits to the amount of £854. 14s. 10½d., and twelve friendly societies, the deposits of which amounted to £3,527. 15s. 2¼d.  Of the total depositors there were 392 whose respective balances did not exceed £20; 180 above £20 and not exceeding £50; 90 above that sum and not exceeding £100; 41 not exceeding £150; 21 not exceeding £200; and 8 above £200.  Mr. William Lee is the actuary.  Gas Works have been established in the town by a company of shareholders.  The works are situated near the canal wharf.  The commercial intercourse of Oswestry is facilitated by the Shropshire union canal, previously noticed.  The township of Oswestry, in 1841, comprised 446 houses and 2,326 inhabitants.

The Ellesmere Union House is a spacious brick structure, pleasantly situated about a quarter of a mile from the church, on a gentle acclivity overlooking the Mere.  It was built in 1792, and will accommodate 350 inmates.  The average number in the house is usually about 150.  The internal arrangements are well managed, and have a clean and orderly appearance.  The union comprehends eighteen parishes, of which nine are in the county of Flint, and nine in Shropshire, embracing an area of 109 square miles.  The parishes are Bettisfield, Bronington, Halghton, Hanmer, Iscoyd, Overton, Penley, Tybroughton, Willington, Baschurch, Ellesmere, Hadnal Ease, Hordley, Middle, Ness Great, Ness Little, Petton, and Welsh Hampton.  The south-west wing is occupied by the males, and the north-east wing by the females.  In the latter is the Chapel, which is neatly and appropriately fitted up, and set apart for divine worship.  In this respect, we think the authorities of the Ellesmere union have set a laudable example, which might be followed by other unions; for the honest poor are scarcely put on a level with the felons of our prisons in chapel accommodation.  There are twenty-three guardians appointed by the different parishes.  Richard George Jebb, Esq., is chairman; Thomas Wood Lee, Esq., vice-chairman; Rev. George Walker, chaplain.  The surgeons are:—Thomas Gwynn, for the house and town district; Thomas Mousley, for Hordley and Dudliston district; Edward Ellis Eyton, Welsh Hampton district; Charles Tomlinson, Hanmer district; John Ellis Eyton, Overton district; Mr. Broughton, Baschurch district; and Andrew M. Needham, for the Middle district.  Clerk: Andrew Bickley.  Relieving officers: John Wood Jones, Ellesmere district, and John Poycott, Hanmer district.  Master: John Pembrey Pritchard.  Matron: Sarah Pritchard.  Schoolmaster: Edward Jones.  Schoolmistress: Mary Pay.

Charities.—Edward Jeffereys, by his will, bearing date January 4th, 1687, devised a messuage and lands, in Osbaston, to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of Oswestry and Ellesmere, upon trust, to dispose of two parts of the yearly profits for the relief of poor inhabitants of Ellesmere, 16s. 8d. at Christmas, and the rest on Good Friday; and 16s. 8d. of the yearly profits to be divided among the poor inhabitants of Maesbury, Moreton, and Crickett—6s. 8d. to the former, and 5s. each to the two latter townships.  The property thus devised consists of two cottages and six closes, containing together 5a. 1r. 22p.  It is let, from time to time, by the churchwardens of Ellesmere, and now produces a rental of £12. 2s.

The following benefactions were probably laid out in the purchase of the Whixall estate, as hereafter noticed:—£10 given by Jerome Hanmer, the interest to be applied in apprentice fees; £6 by Hugh Dod, for a distribution of bread in Hardwick and about the Perthy; £20 by William Thorowgood, for the instruction of poor children; £50 by John Lyth, for the use of the poor; £50 by Catherine Pennant, the interest to provide twelve blue coats for six poor men and six poor women; £20 by Catherine Wenlock, the interest to educate five boys; £10 by Thomas Pitchford, for the poor of Trench and Northwood; £5 by Catherine Higginson, for a distribution of bread in Ellesmere; £5 by Edward Teggin, for bread to be distributed in Hardwick; £7 by William Pearce, for charitable uses; £40 by John Powell, the interest to be given among poor inhabitants of Ellesmere and Colemere; £20 by Mrs. Powell, for the same purpose; £10 by William Pearce, for the benefit of the poor of Welsh Northwood; £10 by John Davies, for a distribution of bread every Sunday; £10 by John Higginson, for the good of the poor; £5 by Charles Mason, for charitable uses; £10 by Margaret Eddowes, the interest to be given away among the poor of Trench, Northwood, and Hampton’s Wood.  These several gifts amount in the whole to the sum of £288.  About the year 1733, the several charitable legacies left to the poor of the parish had for some time laid dead, with interest, when the churchwardens purchased an estate at Whixall, for the sum of £320, having borrowed £30 to make up that sum.  The estate consists of seven closes in Whixall, containing 22a. 0r. 30p.  There is also an allotment of peat ground on Whixall Moss, containing 1a. 2r. 25p.  The premises are let at a yearly rent of £28, and after deducting the amount of any incidental expenses that may be incurred, is generally applied in the following manner, viz.:—£10 as a subscription to the National School; £2 to Dudleston School; £4 to Cockshut School; £3. 14s. 9d. for three gowns and three coats for old men and old women; 12s. to the poor of Colemere; 12s. to the poor of Northwood; 12s. to the poor of Trench; £1. 16s. for a distribution of bread; and the residue is distributed by the vicar and the churchwardens in small sums among the most necessitous poor.

William Wenlock, by will, 1691, charged his tenement, with its appurtenances, in Northop, in the county of Flint, with the payment of £6 per annum, to buy yearly good books, and particularly Bibles, the Whole Duty of Man, and other books of practical divinity, to be distributed in the parish of Northop and Ellesmere—£3 thereof to be expended for each parish.  The £3 is annually received by the vicar of Ellesmere, and the amount is laid out in the purchase of Bibles, and other books published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

Jane Higginson, by will, 1707, gave to the poorest and most necessitous children of the parish of Ellesmere, the sum of £6, payable out of certain premises once in every five years—20s. thereof to be expended in clothing.  The sum of £6 is received by the vicar once in five years, which is generally disposed of in buying different articles of clothing; but occasionally a portion has been paid for their schooling.

Ruth Davies left £10, the interest to be given in bread to the poor, every Sunday in Lent.  This sum is secured, with other charity money hereafter mentioned, on the Ellesmere House of Industry.  The yearly sum of 9s. is paid as interest, and given away in bread.  John Higginson, in 1771, bequeathed £20 for the benefit of the poor.  This sum is also secured on the House of Industry, and 18s. paid as the interest thereof.

Richard Oulton, by will, 1780, gave to the vicar and churchwardens of Ellesmere £100, to be placed out on good security, and the interest applied in buying coals for the use of poor decayed housekeepers.  This sum of £100, with £10 belonging to Davis’s charity, £20 the legacy of John Higginson, and £20 left by the same person to the use of the organist of Ellesmere, making altogether £150, is secured by a bond, bearing date 13th October, 1795, given to the vicar and churchwardens by the directors of the Ellesmere House of Industry, which was established under an act passed 31st George III.

John Whittall, of East Greenwich, by will, 1798, bequeathed to the parish of Ellesmere £200 five per cent. annuities, the dividends to be paid by the churchwardens and overseers to ten poor housekeepers, on the 24th of December annually.  In respect of this legacy there are now £210 new four per cents, standing in the names of certain trustees.  The dividends, amounting to £8. 8s. per annum, are distributed by the vicar and overseers every 24th of December equally among ten poor housekeepers; no person being appointed two successive years.

Penelope Vaughan, who died in 1805, bequeathed to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of Ellesmere £100, to be disposed of for the use of the poor of the said parish.  The sum of £90, the produce of this legacy after the payment of the duty, was invested on the security of the Ellesmere House of Industry, the bond bearing date 7th January, 1808.  The interest, amounting to £4. 1s., at four and a half per cent., is applied by the vicar, partly for the support of different schools, and partly distributed in small sums among the poor of the parish.

Richard Wynn, Esq., who died in 1823, bequeathed £100 to the vicar and church wardens of Ellesmere, upon trust, to place out the same, and pay the interest, on St. Thomas’s day yearly, to poor widows and widowers resident in the township of Crickett, Hardwick, and Upper and Lower Ridge, in such proportions as the owner, for the time being, of the testator’s mansion at Crickett should think fit.  The sum of £90, received in respect of this legacy (£10 being deducted for duty), is placed in the Savings’ Bank at Ellesmere.

Lady Bridgewater bequeathed £200 for the support of the National School at Ellesmere

Post Office, Scotland street; Andrew Bickley, postmaster.  Letters arrive at fifty eight minutes past six in the morning, and are despatched at six o’clock in the evening.

Antley John, boot & shoemaker, Birch lane

Antley Thos., boot & shoemaker, St. John’s hl

Astley Mr. James Lancaster, Sparbridge

Atcherley Richard, linen & woollen draper, Cross street

Badger John, assistant overseer, Willow st

Bailey Thos., supervisor of inland revenue, Sparbridge

Barlow Edward, ironmonger and brazier, and tin plate worker, Cross street

Barlow John, grocer, tea dealer, and cheese factor, Cross street

Bate Edward, corn miller, Mere side

Baugh Ann, hair dresser, High street

Baugh Edward, bookseller, printer, and stationer, Stamp Office; agent to the Sun Fire Office, and depôt of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Cross street

Becket William, saddler & harness maker, Cross street

Bennett John, boot & shoemaker, Watergate street

Bickley Andrew, post master, and registrar of births, deaths, and marriages for the Ellesmere district, Scotland street

Bickley Robert, vict., White Hart, Birch ln

Birch Miss Amelia, Scotland street

Birch Eliza, boarding school, Woodbine Cottage

Birds Rev. David, Church street

Blackburne Edward, Esq., solicitor, clerk to the magistrates, deputy superintendent registrar, commissioner for taking deeds of acknowledgements of married women, and agent to Crown Life and Law Fire Offices, Town Hall; residence, Trimpley

Blackburne Mrs. Jane, Trimpley

Boyling John, shoemaker, Charlotte row

Brookfield John, slater, St. John’s hill

Brotheridge Charles, grocer & tea dealer, Cross street

Burrows Rev. Samuel Holinshead, Church st

Butler John, currier and leather cutter, Watergate street

Butter John, shopkeeper, Sparbridge

Butter Robert, farmer and vict., Bull & Dog, Scotland street

Chandler Charles, Esq., solicitor, and agent to Shropshire and North Wales Fire Office, The Retreat

Clay Edward, butcher, Charlotte row

Clay John, blacksmith and vict., Cross Keys Church street

Clay John, butcher, Cross street

Coffin Mr. Arthur, Watergate street

Coffin Thomas, ironmonger, cutler, and locksmith, Scotland street

Colemere Ann, provision dealer and baker, Cross street and St. John’s hill

Colemere John, parish clerk, St. John’s hill

Cooke Charles, grocer, tea dealer, and maltster, Watergate street

Cooley Charles E., land agent, and agent to Salop Fire Office, Canal wharf

Cooley William Wilson, land surveyor, Canal wharf

Cotton William Aldrich, Esq., St. John’s hill

Copnall Richard, butcher, Church street

Copnall Thomas, vict., Dolphin Inn, Church street

Cross William, watch and clock maker, Cross street

Cumpstone Joshua, county police officer, St. John’s hill

Cumpstone Susannah, school teacher, St. John’s hill

Davenport Richard, boot and shoemaker, Scotland street

Davies David, blacksmith, Cross street

Davies Edward, builder and wood bailiff to Viscount Alford, Canal wharf

Davies Martha, vict., Canal Tavern, Canal wharf

Davies Mary, nail manufacturer and vict., George and Dragon, St. John’s hill

Davies Mary, school teacher, St. John’s hill

Davies Richard, hater and confectioner, Swine Market street

Davies Thomas, linen and woollen draper and silk mercer, corner of High street

Davies Thomas, tailor, Scotland street

Davies Thomas, whitesmith and blacksmith, Scotland street

Davies William, tailor, Chapel street

Day Rev. John David, M.A., vicar, The Vicarage

Deighton Mrs. Jane, Church street

Dymock Mrs. Mary, The Mount

Dymock Robert Middleton, Esq., solicitor, The Mount

Edge Rev. George (Independent), Scotland st

Edge William, wheelwright, Birch lane

Edwards Mr. Edward, Trimpley

Edwards Mr. Edward, Scotland street

Edwards John, vict., Bull’s Head Inn, Cross street

Edwards Miss Mary, Church street

Edwards Mary, boarding school, Scotland st

Ellis Thomas, plumber, painter, and glazier, Cross street

Evans Thomas, hair dresser, St. John’s hill

Evans William, blacksmith, Willow street

Everett Simon, hair dresser, Swine Market st

Fallowes Mrs. Mary, Church street

Freeman Edward, cooper, Watergate street

Furmston John, maltster and cheese factor, Scotland street

Furmston Mrs. Sarah, Trimpley

Gibbons Mr. John Gibbons Parry, High st

Gough Ann and Mary, boarding school, St John’s hill

Gough William, saddler and harness maker, High street

Gwynn Thomas, surgeon, St. John’s hill

Haley Mary Ann, milliner, Cross street

Hampson John, linen and woollen draper and maltster, Cross street; residence, Trimpley

Hampson Thomas, veterinary surgeon, Sparbridge

Hampson Thomas, spirit vaults, Cross street

Hanley Thomas, pump maker, Church st

Harris James, baker & confec., Church st

Harrison Samuel, baker, confectioner, and shopkeeper, Scotland street

Hawkins, Mr. William, Willow street

Hewitt John, linen and woollen draper and maltster, Cross street

Higginson Sarah & Elizabeth, dressmakers, Watergate street

Hollis William, boot and shoemaker, Watergate street

Howell Margaret, bonnet maker, Watergate street

Howell Rowland, plasterer & slater, Chapel st

Hughes Mrs. Mary, Watergate street

Humphreys Richard, tailor, Watergate street

James Robert, shoemaker, Sandy lane

James Thomas, Esq., Higher Grange

Jenks Edward, bricklayer, Scotland street

Jenks Joseph, builder & vict., spirit vaults, Cross street

Jenkins Edward and Son, auctioneers and valuers, Willow street

Jones Anna Maria, berlin wool dealer, Scotland street

Jones Edward, vict., Black Lion Inn, Scotland street

Jones Edward schoolmaster, Union House

Jones Elizabeth dressmaker, Scotland street

Jones James, butcher, Cross street

Jones James, tailor, Scotland road

Jones John, coal merchant, Canal wharf; residence, Scotland street

Jones John, grocer and tea dealer, confectioner and baker, Scotland street

Jones John, cooper, Watergate street

Jones John, gardener and seedsman, Swine Market street

Jones John Wood, relieving officer for Ellesmere district, Watergate street

Jones Jonathan, schoolmaster, St. John’s hl

Jones Robert, vict., Talbot Inn, Sparbridge

Lacy George, boot & shoemaker, Sparbridge

Langford John Davies, Esq., Chapel street

Lea John, maltster, Elston Cottage

Lea Samuel, grocer and tea dealer, chemist and druggist and hop merchant, Scotland street, and tallow chandler, Canal wharf

Lee Helen, milliner and dressmaker, Scotland street

Lee William, saddler and harness maker, High street

Lee William, actuary at Saving’s Bank, Scotland street

Lloyd Edward, plumber, painter, & glazier, St. John’s hill

Lloyd Edward, artist, Watergate street

Lloyd Mrs. Mary, Trimpley

Lloyd Thomas, plumber, painter, & glazier, Watergate street

Lloyd Wm., plumber, painter, and glazier, St. John’s hill

Lovett Elizabeth, bonnet maker, Willow st

Lovett Samuel, tollgate contractor, Willow st

Lowe Samuel, chandler, High street

Lowe Samuel, butcher, Church street

Lowe Thomas, Esq., Church street

Maddocks Charles, vict., White Lion, Swine Market street

Marsh John, vict., Golden Lion, Watergate st

Menlove Joshua Lewis, tanner, Church st

Menlove Miss Sarah, Trimpley

Menlove William Edward, Esq., solicitor, Church street

Morgan Samuel, butcher, Watergate street

Morrall Robert, Esq., solicitor, superintendent registrar, and recorder of Viscount Alford’s Court Leet; office, Town Hall

Morris Edward, maltster, Trimpley

Morris Peter, provision dealer, and depot for British and Foreign Bible Society, High street

Morris William, boot & shoe maker, Cross st

Mousley Thomas, surgeon, Chapel street

Oswell Mrs. Mary Dorothy, Scotland street

Oswell Thomas Stephen, Esq., Scotland st

Paddock William, wine merchant and vict., Bridgewater Arms, High street

Parry John, ropemaker and vict., Unicorn Inn, Cross street

Parry Thomas, grocer, tea dealer, baker, and confectioner, Cross street

Parry William, grocer, tea dealer, ironmonger and nail manufacturer, High street

Pay William, vict., Red Lion Inn, Church st

Peake Rev. John, B.A., curate, Sparbridge

Pearce Charles, bookkeeper to Shropshire union railway and canal company; office, Canal wharf

Pearce Richard, maltster, Sparbridge

Pearce Thomas, timber merchant and wheelwright, Swine Market street

Pemberton Richard, hatter, St. John’s hill

Perkins John, painter, Willow street

Phillips William, butcher, Scotland street

Platt Frederick, tailor, Willow street

Ponton James Batt, Ellesmere Academy, Willow street

Povey Francis, grocer & tea dealer, druggist, ironmonger, and seed and hop merchant, High street

Povey Thomas, grocer and tea dealer, ironmonger, brazier, and tin plate worker, glass dealer, and nail manufacturer, Market place, and spirit Vaults, Scotland street

Povey Thomas, jun., linen and woollen draper and silk mercer, Scotland street

Povey William, coal, lime, slate, and brick agent, Market place

Powell Richard, boot and shoe maker, Birch lane

Price Elizabeth, shopkeeper, Charlotte row

Price Mrs. Hannah, Trimpley

Pritchard John Pembrey, master of Ellesmere union, The Union House

Pritchard Peter, Esq., solicitor, and clerk to commissioners of property and assessed taxes, agent to Farmers’ Royal Insurance Office, and solicitor to Ellesmere union, Chapel street

Provis William, Alexander, Esq., The Grange

Ralphs James, vict., Eagle Inn, Birch lane

Ralphs Edward, bricklayer, bird preserver, and vict., Bricklayers’ Arms, Scotland st

Randles Joseph, inland revenue officer, Sparbridge

Randles Mary, Elizabeth, and Maria, school teachers, Sparbridge

Reay Maria, ladies boarding school, Scotland street

Reynolds Mark, tailor, Watergate street

Roberts Ann, milliner and dress maker, Swine Market street

Roberts Ann, bonnet maker, Scotland street

Roberts John, tailor, Scotland street

Roberts Robert, earthenware dealer, Scotland street

Roberts Robert, tailor, Scotland street

Roberts William, grocer, tea dealer, and linen and woollen draper and silk mercer, High street

Robinson John, blacksmith and earthenware dealer, Scotland street

Rodenhurst Thomas, tailor, St. John’s hill

Rodenhurst William, maltster, Cross street

Rowland John, cooper, Scotland street

Rowland John jun., cooper, Scotland st

Rowland Richard, inland revenue officer, Church street

Salter George, Esq., solicitor, a commissioner for taking deeds of acknowledgments of married women, Willow street; residence, Prynallt

Scott Mr. William, Willow street

Sheraton Harry, land agent to Viscount Alford, Church street

Sheraton Mrs. Jane, Church street

Shuker Mrs. Catherine, Scotland street

Stanton John, Esq., The Hollies

Stant Richard, vict., Back’s Head, Watergate street

Stokes William, schoolmaster, Chapel street

Stoker John, vict., Three Tuns, St. John’s hl

Thomas Mary, dressmaker, Watergate street

Thompson Edward, cabinet maker and upholsterer, Watergate street

Thompson Henry, maltster, Watergate street

Thompson Robert, tailor, Church street

Thompson Thomas, bookseller, printer, and stationer, and agent to Royal Exchange Fire and Life Office, High street

Tilston John, maltster, Church street

Tomkin’s John, vict., New Inn, Trimpley

Towler Samuel, plumber, painter & glazier, and brazier and tin plate worker, High st

Townsend Daniel, inland revenue officer, Sparbridge

Turner George, boot and shoemaker, High st

Turner Wm., boot & shoemaker, Birch lane

Varley Elizabeth, bonnet maker, Scotland st

Wace Charles Rd., Esq., solicitor, Cross st

Walter Rev. George, M.A., Trimpley

Watson James Eyton, surgeon, High street

Wellings Mary, shoemaker, Chapel street

White Captain John, Watergate street

Whitechurch and Ellesmere Banking Co., High street, (open on Tuesdays), John Lowe, manager

Wilkinson Jones, vict., Swan Inn, Cross st

Williams Mr. George, Scotland street

Williams John, tailor and woollen draper, Cross street

Wilson Elizabeth, school mistress, Willow st

Windsor George, maltster, Sparbridge

Worrall Mark, gardener & seed dealer, Cross street

Wright Henry Joho, currier and leather cutter, Church street

Young John, canal inspector, Canal Office.

Academies.

Those with * affixed are Boarding Schools.

* Birch Eliza, Woodbine cottage

Cumpstone Susannah, St. John’s hill

Davies Mary (National), St. John’s hill

* Edwards Mary, Scotland st

* Gough Ann and Mary, St. John’s hill

Grange Elizabeth, Chapel st.

Jones Jonathan, St. John’s hill

* Ponton James Batt, Willow street

Randles Mary Elizabeth and Maria, Sparbridge

* Reay Maria, Scotland street

Stokes William, Chapel street

Wilson Elizabeth, Willow st

Attorneys.

Blackburne Edward (and clerk to magistrates), Town hall

Chandler Charles, The Retreat

Dymock Robert Middleton, The Mount

Menlove William, Church st.

Morrall Robert (and superintendent registrar), Town hall

Pritchard Peter, Chapel st.

Salter George, Willow street

Wace Charles Richard, Cross street

Auctioneers.

Jenkins Edward and Son, Willow street

Bakers and Flour Dealers.

Colemere Ann, Cross street and St. John’s hill

Davies Richard, Swine market street

Harris James, Church street

Harrison Samuel, Scotland street

Jones John, Scotland street

Morris Peter, High street

Parry Thomas, Cross street

Banks.

Shrewsbury Old Bank, High street; open on Tuesdays; draw on Robarts, Curtis, and Company, London

Savings’ Bank, Scotland street; open on Tuesdays; William Lee, actuary

Whitchurch and Ellesmere Banking Company, High street; open on Tuesdays; draw on the Union Bank, London; John Lowe, manager

Blacksmiths.

Clay John, Church street

Davies David, Cross street

Davies Thomas (and whitesmith), Scotland street

Evans William, Willow street

Robinson John, Scotland st.

Booksellers, Printers, Bookbinders, and Stationers.

Baugh Edward (and stamp office), Cross street

Thompson Thomas, High street

Boot and Shoe Makers.

Antley John, Birch lane

Antley Thomas, St. John’s hill

Bennett John, Watergate st.

Boylin John, Charlotte row

Davenport Richard, Scotland street

Hollis William, Watergate st.

James Robert, Sandy lane

Lacy George, Sparbridge

Morris William, Cross street

Powell Richard, Birch lane

Turner George, High street

Turner William, Birch lane

Wellings William, Chapel st.

Braziers and Tin Plate Workers.

Barlow Edward, Cross street

Povey Thomas, sen., Scotland street

Fowler Samuel, High street

Builders.

Davies Edward (to Viscount Alford), Canal wharf

Jenks Joseph, Cross street

Bricklayers.

Jenks Edward, Scotland st.

Jenks Joseph, Cross street

Ralphs Edward, Scotland st.

Ralphs William, St. John’s hill

Butchers.

Clay Edward, Charlotte row

Clay John, Cross street

Copnall Richard, Cross street

Jones James, Cross street

Lowe Samuel, Church street

Morgan Samuel, Watergate street

Phillips William, Scotland street

Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer.

Thompson Edward, Watergate street

Cheese Factors.

Barlow John, Cross street

Furmston John, Scotland st.

Chemist and Druggist.

Lea Samuel, Scotland street

Coal Merchants.

Jones John, Canal wharf

Povey William, Marketplace

Confectioners.

Barlow John, Cross street

Davies Rich., Swine market

Harris James, Church street

Harrison Samuel, Scotland street

Jones John, Scotland street

Parry Thomas, Cross street

Coopers.

Freeman Edward, Watergate street

Jones John, Watergate street

Rowland John, Scotland st.

Rowland Jn., Jnr., Scotland st

Corn Miller.

Bate Edward, Mere side

Curriers and Leather Cutters.

Butler John, Watergate street

Wright Henry John, Church street

Cutler and Locksmith.

Coffin Thomas, Scotland st.

Fire and Life Office Agents.

Crown, Edward Blackburne, Town hall

Eagle, Charles Richard Wace, Cross street

Farmers’ Royal Insurance, Peter Pritchard, Chapel street

Law, Edward Blackburne, Town hall

Metropolitan, Edward Jenkins, Willow street

Mutual, Edward Barlow, Cross street

Royal Exchange, Thomas Thompson, High street

Salop, Charles E. Cooley, Canal wharf

Shropshire and North Wales, Charles Chandler, The Retreat

Sun, Edward Baugh, Cross street

Gardeners and Seedsmen.

Jones John, Swine market street

Worrall Martha, Cross street

China, Class, and Earthenware Dealers.

Povey Thomas (glass), Market place

Roberts Robert, Cross street

Robinson John, Scotland st.

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Barlow John, Cross street

Brotheridge Charles, Cross street

Colemere Ann, Cross street

Cooke Charles, Watergate st.

Jones John, Scotland street

Lea Samuel, Scotland street

Morris Peter, High street

Parry Thomas, Cross street

Parry William, High street

Povey Francis, High street

Povey Thomas, Market place

Roberts William & company, High street

Hair Dressers.

Baugh Ann, High street

Evans Thomas, St. John’s hill

Everett Simeon, Swine market street

Hatter.

(See also Linendrapers and Hatters.)

Pemberton Richard, St. John’s hill

Hop and Seed Dealers.

Cooke Charles, Watergate st

Lea Samuel, Scotland street

Povey Francis, High street

Povey Thomas, Market place

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Black Lion, Edward Jones, Scotland street

Bricklayers’ Arms, Edward Ralphs, Scotland street

Bridgewater Arms (excise office and posting house), William Paddock, High street

Buck’s Head, Richard Stant, Watergate street

Bull and Dog, Robert Butter, Scotland street

Bull’s Head, John Edwards, Cross street

Canal Tavern, Martha Davies, Canal wharf

Cross Keys, John Clay, Church street

Dolphin, Thomas Copnall, Church street

Eagles, James Ralphes, Birch lane

George and Dragon, Mary Davies, St. John’s hill

Golden Lion, John Marsh, Watergate street

New Inn, John Tomkin, Trimpley

Red Lion, William Pay, Church street

Swan, Jonas Wilkinson, Cross street

Talbot, Robert Jones, Sparbridge

Three Tuns, John Stocker, St. John’s hill

Unicorn, John Parry, Cross street

White Hart, Robert Bickley, Birch lane

White Lion, Charles Maddocks, Swine market st.

Wine and Spirit Vaults, Joseph Jenks, Cross street

Ironmongers.

Barlow Edward, Cross street

Coffin Thomas (and cutler and locksmith), Scotland street

Parry William, High street

Povey Francis, High street

Povey Thomas, Market place

Linen and Woollen Drapers and Hatters.

Atcherley Richard, Cross st.

Davies Thomas, High street

Hewitt and Hampson, Cross street

Povey Thomas, jun., Scotland street

Roberts William and Co., High street

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Haley Mary Ann, Cross st.

Higginson Sarah and Elizabeth, Cross street

Jones Elizabeth, Scotland street

Lee Helen, Scotland street

Roberts Ann, Swine market street

Thomas Mary, Watergate st.

Maltsters.

Cooke Charles, Watergate st.

Furmston John, Scotland st.

Hewitt and Hampson, Cross street

Lea John, Elson cottage

Morris Edward, Trimpley

Pearce Richard, Sparbridge

Rodenhurst William, Cross street

Thompson Henry, Watergate street

Tilston John, Church street

Windsor George, Sparbridge

Nail Makers.

Davies Mary, St. John’s hill

Parry William, High street

Povey Thomas, Marketplace

Plumbers, Glaziers, and Painters.

Ellis Thomas, Cross street

Lloyd Edward, St. John’s hill

Lloyd Thomas, Watergate street

Lloyd William, St. John’s hill

Perkins John (painter), Willow street

Towler Samuel, High street

Plasterers and Slaters.

Brookfield John, St. John’s hill

Howell Rowland, Chapel st.

Howell William, Church st.

Rope and Twine Maker.

Parry John, Cross street

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Beckett William, Cross street

Gough William, High street

Lee William, High street

Shopkeepers and Dealers in Groceries and Sundries.

Butter John, Sparbridge

Harrison Samuel, Scotland street

Jones John, Scotland street

Price Elizabeth, Charlotte row

Wright, Henry John, Church street

Spirit Vaults.

Hampson Thomas, Cross st.

Jenks Joseph, Cross street

Povey Thomas, Scotland st.

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Howell Margaret, Watergate street

Lovett Elizabeth, Willow st.

Roberts Ann, Scotland street

Varley Elizabeth, Scotland street

Surgeons.

Gwynn Thomas, St. John’s hill

Mousley Thomas, Chapel st.

Watson James Eyton, High street

Surveyor.

Cooley William Wilson, Canal wharf

Tailors.

Davies Thomas, Scotland st.

Davies William, Chapel st.

Humphreys Richard, Watergate street

Jones James, Scotland street

Platt Frederick, Willow street

Reynolds Mark, Watergate street

Roberts John, Scotland st.

Roberts Robert, Scotland st.

Roberts William, Swine market street

Rodenhurst Thomas, St. John’s hill

Thompson Robert, Church street

Williams John, Cross street

Tallow Chandlers.

Lea Samuel, Canal wharf

Lowe Samuel, High street

Tanner.

Menlove Joshua Lewis, Church street

Veterinary Surgeon.

Hampson Thomas, Sparbridge

Watch & Clock Maker.

Cross William, Cross street

Wheelwrights.

Edge William, Birch lane

Pearce Thomas (and timber merchant), Swine market street

Omnibuses.

To Wrexham & Chester, from the Red Lion Inn, at 7 o’clock in the morning, returning at 8 in the evening.

To Ruabon, from the White Lion Inn, at half-past 6 in the morning, returning at 7 o’clock in the evening.

To Whittington Station, from the White Lion Inn, at 8 o’clock in the morning and 6 in the evening.

Carriers.

Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company, general carriers to all parts of the kingdom; Charles Pearce, agent, Canal wharf

BIRCH AND LYTHE
is a small township, nearly a mile S.E. from Ellesmere, comprising 652a. 2r. 27p. of land, and in 1841 had eleven houses and 65 inhabitants.  The township contains some good land, has an undulating surface, and is intersected by the Shropshire Union Canal, on the banks of which are a commodious residence and offices erected by the Canal Company.  The landowners are the trustees of the Earl of Bridgewater and Richard George Jebb, Esq.  The latter gentleman resides at a neat mansion, pleasantly situated and beautified with pleasure grounds, called The Lythe.  Birch Hall is a good farm house, with commodious out-buildings, of modern construction.

The principal residents in Birch and Lythe are Richard George Jebb, Esq., The Lythe; William Shingler, farmer, Birch Hall; William Whalley, builder; and John Young, canal inspector, Canal-office.

COCKSHUT AND CROSEMERE
is a township and well-built village on the turnpike road from Ellesmere to Shrewsbury, four miles S.E. from the former town.  The village contains some good residences, and is situated in an important and flourishing agricultural district, noted for producing fine cheese.  The magistrates hold a petty sessions at the Court-room on the second Thursday in every month, except in the months of April and November, when they are held on the first Thursday in each month.  The presiding magistrates are Sir John R. Kynaston, Bart., C. K. Mainwaring, Esq., Richard G. Jebb, Esq., and Wm. Sparling, Esq.  The township contains 1,533a. 1r. 19p. of land, and in 1841 there were 93 houses and 434 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater; Mr. Samuel Lee; Mr. Thomas Austin and Mr. John Trevor are also owners.  William Sparling, Esq., is lord of the manor.  Fairs are held on May 3rd and the last Friday in October for the sale of cattle, sheep, and general merchandise, which are well attended.  A Feast is held on the first Sunday after the 25th of October.  The Church is a neat brick structure, erected in 1776, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower containing two bells and a clock.  The interior has a neat appearance, and is fitted up with oak sittings.  The chancel contains a beautiful altar piece, and a neat mural monument in memory of F. Lloyd, of Crosemere.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Ellesmere, and enjoyed by the Rev. Samuel Hollinsend Burrows.  The church was repaired and beautified in 1842.  The Primitive Methodists have a neat chapel, ejected in 1847.  Crosemere is a joint township with Cockshut, about three miles S.E. from Ellesmere, and is noted for the extent of its meres or pools.  That of Crosemere covers a surface of 44 acres; and Sweat-mere is also of considerable extent; they are well stocked with different sorts of fish.  Crosemere Hall is a good house, the residence and property of Mr. Samuel Lee.  Wackley Lodge, a neat house, with commodious farm premises, is the residence of Richard Hampson.

Francis Lloyd, Esq., in 1691, gave a rent charge of 6s. per annum, issuing out of a croft in Frankton, to be distributed to the poor of Cockshut, Crosemere, and Frankton.

John Parker, in 1849, bequeathed £200, the interest to be expended in bread for the poor, by the minister and chapel wardens, at such times and in such quantities as they shall think fit.

Post Office.—At John Green’s.  Letters arrive from Ellesmere at 9.10 A.M., and are despatched at 3.20 P.M.

Those marked * reside at Crosemere.

* Austin Thomas, farmer

* Belliss Richard, farmer

* Birch Edward, farmer

* Buckley William, farmer

Burlton William, shoemaker

Burroughs Thomas, farmer

Burroughs William, farmer

Butler James, maltster and beerhouse

* Cartwright Sml. wheelwright

Chester Jeffrey, vict., Lloyd’s Arms and Excise Office

Dickin Thomas, butcher

Evans John, saddle & harness maker

* Faulkes George, farmer

Faulkes Richard tailor

Green John, schoolmaster and parish clerk

Hampson Richard, farmer, Wackley Lodge

Haycocks Richard, blacksmith

Haycocks Thos., shoemaker

Haycocks William, farmer

Haycocks William, butcher and salesman

* Lee Samuel, farmer, Crosemere Hall

Lee Samuel, farmer

Maddocks Thos., bricklayer

Marsh Richard, farmer

Peevar John, shoemaker

Read John, shopkeeper and farmer

Read John, baker and shopkeeper

Read John, blacksmith

Shingler Thomas, farmer

Thomas Edward, wheelwright

* Thomas Edwd., shoemaker

Thompson James, tailor

Townsend Ann, victualler, Golden Lion

Townsend William, glazier

Trevor John, farmer & vict., Crown Inn

White Edward, farmer

Wynn John, farmer

COLEMERE
is a township, having a scattered population, three miles E.E. by S. from Ellesmere, containing 1,449a. 3r. 8p. of land, of which 1,248 acres are vested in the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater.  The soil is generally fertile, and produces good crops of wheat and barley.  There is a fine mere or pool of water, which covers a considerable surface, within the bounds of this township.  At the census in 1841 there were 39 houses and 192 inhabitants.

The principal residents in this township are the following Farmers, viz.:—William Bate, Thomas Baty, Mary Birch, William Birch, John Clark, Jane Haycock, Richard Jones, and tailor, Thomas Jones, and corn miller, Thomas Thomas, William Wenlock, Hannah Wilkinson, and Catherine Young.  Mary Butler, shopkeeper.

CRICKETT
is a small township, containing 339a. 1r. 12p. of fertile land, situated two miles and a quarter S.W. from the church of Ellesmere.  Richard Wynn, Esq., is the proprietor of the whole township.  In 1841 the township is returned as containing four houses and 30 inhabitants.

Directory.—Richard Wynn, Esq., Old Crickett; Thomas John Rider, gentleman New Crickett.

DUDLESTON, OR DUDLISTON,
formerly written Duddlestone, is a township and chapelry in the parish of Ellesmere, four miles and a half N.W. from that town, and eight miles N.N.E. from Oswestry.  The chapelry comprises the townships of Pentrecoed, Criftins, Chapel, Coadyrallt, and Dudleston, which together have an area of 4,640a. 1r. 24p. of land, mostly an undulating district, in some parts highly productive, and in other parts of an inferior quality.  At the census of 1841 there were 950 houses and 1,207 inhabitants.  The houses are in general scattered, and there are a considerable number of detached cottages, which in many instances were originally built upon the unenclosed land; and they have generally a small plot, or a few acres of land attached to each cottage.  The principal landowners are Edward Morrall, Esq.; Lord Dungannon; George Harper, Esq.; James Edwards, Esq.; Rev. John Morrall; George Bennett, Esq.; John Owen, Esq.; Charles Brown Owen, Esq.; John Davies, Esq.; William Dickin, Esq.; Hon. William M. B. Nugent; Mr. Richard Edwards; Miss Benyon; Mr. Samuel Lea; Mr. Robert Grindley; Mrs. Elizabeth Jones; Miss Boydell; Mr. Dymock; Mr. John Vaughan; Miss Kynaston; Mr. James Munslow; and Miss Broom; besides whom are several other freeholders.  Edward Morrall, Esq., is lord of the manor of Traian, which includes the parish of St. Martin’s and Dudleston chapelry.  The Chapel is a neat structure, situated on elevated ground, built of rough stone, with hewn quoins and finishings.  It consists of nave and side aisles, with an octagonal tower surmounted with short pinnacles.  The body of the church was rebuilt in 1819, at a cost of £431. 13s., towards which the Society for Building and Enlarging Churches gave the sum of £200.  It contains several neat mural monuments to the Boydells, of Kilhendre and Sodylt Hall, and the Morralls.  The pulpit is of oak, curiously carved.  At the west end of the church are three venerable yew trees, now much decayed.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £238, in the patronage of the Vicar of Ellesmere, and enjoyed by the Rev. David Birds.  The Wesleyan Methodists and the Independent Methodists have each a small chapel on Dudleston Heath.  The Association Methodists have a chapel at the Gravel Holes.  There are two manufactories of bricks, tiles, and brown earthenware, in this township; and coal is got at the Flannag colliery, near to Coed-y-rallt.  The pits, however, are within the bounds of St. Martin’s parish, but the underground works extend into this chapelry.  The coal is of a superior quality, and the seams are from one foot to three feet in thickness.

About a quarter of a mile from the church, on the brow of a hill, overlooking a beautiful valley richly wooded, is Kilhendre, the residence of Captain Johnson.  On the site of the present house, about fifty years ago, stood a very ancient mansion of chequered timber and brick work, the residence of the Edwards, who had been settled there for upwards of six centuries, and possessed considerable estates, in Dudleston, St. Martin’s, and the neighbouring townships.  Here Colonel Jones, governor of Dublin, a very active and successful officer during the Commonwealth, for some time found a peaceful asylum after Cromwell’s death.  In the centre of the house was a chamber, into which you descended by steps, and the passages to which were hidden by tapestry, evidently intended as a place of concealment in cases of sudden danger.  The rooms were low, gloomy, and inconvenient, and a large hall occupied half the house.  The house and demesnes were alienated in the year 1800, and soon after purchased by Mr. Boydell, in whose representative, Miss Boydell, they are now vested.  Plas Yollen is a handsome and pleasantly situated dwelling, the residence of Robert Morrall, Esq.  Plas-warren, an ancient house, the residence and property of Edward Morrall, Esq., who is also the owner of Plas-yollen.  The Erway is a handsome house of modern construction, and the residence of Richard Ellerton, Esq.  Sodylt Hall is a pleasantly situated house, with tasteful pleasure grounds, the residence of George Bennett, Esq.  Shelbrook is a good house, the residence and property of John Jones, Esq.  Pentre-coed is the residence and property of William Dickin, Esq.  Dudleston Hall, a modern brick house, stands about 100 yards south from the site of the old hall, and is the residence and property of John Davies, Esq.  At the northern extremity of the chapelry of Dudleston the county terminates in an elevated and precipitous rock, called Coed-y-rallt, which commands one of the most beautiful views of bold and romantic scenery that can well be conceived.  The shelving precipice is clothed with a thriving plantation; and deep below wind the dark waters of the Dee, which separates this county from Wales.  Other features in the scenery are the beautiful grounds and woods of Nant-y-lielan, the aqueducts of Chirk and Ponte-y-cysyllte, Chirk Castle, and Bryn-Kynalt, the beautiful seat of Lord Dungannon, all backed by the bold swells and the Alpine heights of the Welsh mountains.

Charities.—Frances Edwards, in 1719, conveyed certain premises in Dudleston, and directed them to be converted into a school and residence for a schoolmistress; to be kept in repair by such person as for the time being should be entitled to her capital messuage called Kilhendre; she also gave a rent charge of £10 per annum, issuing out of the great farm in Dudleston; £4. 10s. thereof to be paid to the schoolmistress, who should instruct twenty-four poor children; 10s. to buy books for the children; £3 to be paid in apprentice fees; 20s. for a distribution of bread every Sunday to five poor aged persons; and 20s., the residue thereof, to be expended in flannel, and given to the poor.  The school is situated near the church, and occupied by a female, who teaches twenty-four poor children.  The rent charge is expended in carrying out the donor’s intentions.

John Jones, by his will, dated 26th February, 1725, directed his executors to pay £100 to the incumbent, chapelwardens, and overseers, of the poor of Dudleston, to purchase land for the benefit of the poor.  This gift, with £20 given by a servant, £10 by Roger Jennings, and £5 by Mr. Roberts, were laid out in 1740 in the purchase of 6a. 0r. 21p. of land.  There is also an allotment of about a quarter of an acre set out on the enclosure of Dudleston common, the whole of which is let for £8. 12s. 6d., and distributed to the poor on St. Thomas’s day.  The sum of £10, left by a servant man in 1735, and £10 left by another servant man in 1739, are charged upon the Sodylt estate, and the interest, 20s. per annum, is distributed with the above charity.

Thomas Kynaston, in 1761, left £200, the interest to be annually distributed to the poor.  This money is invested on the security of the turnpike road from Wem to Bron-y-Garth.

William Challnor, in 1791, bequeathed £100, the interest to be applied in the relief of twenty of the poorest inhabitants of the chapelry.  Elizabeth Challnor, by will, 1807, bequeathed £100 to augment the charity of her father-in-law, William Challnor.  The first bequest is secured on the tolls of the road from Wem to Bron-y-Garth; and the latter is secured on the Ellesmere House of Industry.  The interest, £9. 1s., is distributed on New Year’s day among the most necessitous poor.

Post Office.—At Mr. Richard Evan’s, the Griffin Inn.  Letters are despatched to Chirk at two o’clock in the afternoon.

Bennett George, Esq., barrister, Sodylt Hall

Davies Edward, blacksmith, Criftins

Davies John, Esq., Dudleston Hall

Davies Richard, colliery proprietor, Flannag Colliery

Davies Thomas, wheelwright

Ellerton Richard, Esq., Erway

Evans Richard, victualler, Griffin Inn

Evans Joshua, wheelwright

Furmston Mrs. Emma, Criftins

Handley William, brick, tile, earthenware manufacturer, and victualler, The Grapes, Criftins

Humphreys Thomas, blacksmith

Jones John, Esq., Shelbrook

Jones John, shoemaker, Criftins

Jones Walter, shoemaker, Gravel Holes

Johnson Captain Robert, Kilhendre

Kilvert Joseph, shopkeeper and victualler, Fox Inn, Criftins

Morrall Edward, Esq., Plas-warren

Morrall Robert, Esq., solicitor, Plas-yollen

Newnes William, shoemaker

Owen Richard, farmer and victualler, Three Pigeons Inn

Phillips Robert, blacksmith

Preston Samuel, shoemaker, Gravel Holes

Spencer Thomas, brick, tile, flower pot, and black earthenware manufacturer

Winter Rev. John Bowyer, curate

FARMERS.

Belmont Charles, The Pant, Pentrecoed

Boote Joseph (executors of), Gadless

Corns Richard, Criftins

Darlington Thomas, Plas-Thomas, Coadyrallt

Davies John, Dudliston Hall

Dickin William, Pentrecoed

Edwards Richard, Rock House, Coadyrallt

Foulkes John, The Vron, Coadyrallt

Garner Benjamin, Coadyrallt

Gough Edward, Pentre-Morgan

Hampson Daniel, Coadyrallt

Hampson Jane, The Castle

Hampson John, Chapel

Hughes Arthur, Pentrecoed

Hughes James, and corn miller, Pant Mill

Hughes Thomas, and butcher, Chapel

Humphreys John, Chapel

Jones Elizabeth, New Hall, Chapel

Jones John, Shelbrook, Coadyrallt

Jones Roger, Cross lanes, Pentrecoed

Jones Richard, Dudleston Grove

Lee Richard, Cross lanes, Coadyrallt

Manford John, Coadyrallt

Manford Martha, Pit House

Murslow James, Chapel

Owen Charles Brown, Dee Field

Owen Thomas, Pentrecoed

Parry John, Sodylt Lodge

Pay Margaret, Chapel

Roberts Robert, Pentrecoed

Rogers Henry, Chapel

Rutter Ann, Pentrecoed

Shone Thomas, Coadyrallt

Steen John, Criftins

Strange David, Pentre-madoc

Teggin John, Coadyrallt

Thomas Joseph, Plas-warren

EASTWICK,
a small township, two miles and a half N.W. from Ellesmere, contains 503a. 2r. 33p. of land, and in 1841 had 18 houses and 87 inhabitants.  The principal landowners in this township are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, Samuel Y. Kenyon, Esq., Mrs. Elizabeth Jones, Miss Kynaston, and Mrs. Broom.  The chief residents in Eastwick are Edward Broughall, farmer, Gadless; Josiah Hughes, tailor; Mrs. Elizabeth Jones, farmer and tanner, Gadless; Joseph Strange, blacksmith; Francis Thomas, farmer; and Mrs. Mary Wall, farmer, Pleasant Grove.

ELSON AND GREENHILL,
a township, a mile and a half N.W. from Ellesmere, contains 547a. 0r. 18p. of land; the most considerable owner of which is Charles Kynaston Mainwaring, Esq.  The other owners are Miss Kynaston, Mr. Joshua Lewis Menlove, Mr. John Furmston, and Mrs. Broom.  This township has a scattered population; in 1841 there were 11 houses and 65 inhabitants.

Directory.—Daniel Boote, farmer, Elson; John Boote, farmer, Greenhill; John Lea, maltster, Elson Cottage; Joshua Lewis Menlove, farmer, land agent, and brick and tile maker, Elson; Thomas Williams, farmer, Greenhill, and Mrs. Ann Williams, Elson.

FRANKTON, OR ENGLISH FRANKTON,
is so called to distinguish it from Frankton, in Whittington parish, which is sometimes called Welsh Frankton.  The village is pleasantly situated on high ground, four miles and a half south from Ellesmere, and in 1841 contained 41 houses and 199 inhabitants.  The houses are in general straggling, and there are a considerable number of small cottages.  The township contains 956a. 0r. 34p. of land; the principal owners of which are John Povey, Esq., Mrs. Jane Griffiths, Nicholson Robinson, Esq., and Mr. William Downes.

The principal residents are Mr. John Borne Oekley; William Downes, farmer, Frankton Grove; William Downes, jun., farmer; William Foulkes, farmer; Elias Puleston, farmer; Thomas Stanyer, farmer; Thomas Smith, blacksmith; and John Williams, wheelwright.

HAMPTON WOOD
is a small township, with 703a. 0r. 18p. of land, situated three miles from Ellesmere, and in 1841 had 37 houses and 175 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, Lord Kenyon, C. K. Mainwaring, Esq., and Joshua Lewis Menlove, Esq.  The resident farmers are William Boughey; Mary Boyling; Robert Jacks; James Price, and corn miller; Thomas Reeves; John Rodenhurst; and John Smith.

HARDWICK
is a township, containing 449a. 3r. 17p. of land, and in 1841 had 27 houses and 441 inhabitants.  The whole township is the property of Sir John Roger Kynaston, Bart., who resides at Hardwick Hall, an elegant mansion, delightfully situated in a park, with a fine undulating surface, richly wooded with noble timber.  The south front of the hall opens upon a terrace, ornamented with flowers, vases, and an open balustrade, which leads into the park.  On the west side of the hall are the pleasure grounds and shrubberies, which contain some rare shrubs of remarkably fine growth; the arra-caxia imbricata is upwards of sixteen feet high, and one of the finest specimens in the country.  The cedar deodora is also a beautiful specimen.  There are upwards of thirty varieties of the pinus tribe planted in different parts of the grounds.  Adjoining the west side of the hall, a new conservatory has just been completed, which is chiefly used as an orangery.  The vineries adjoin the kitchen gardens, which cover about an acre and a half of land.  About two hundred yards from the south front of the hall is a magnificent specimen of the cedar of Lebanon, which measures fourteen feet and a half in circumference.  A portion of the top was broken off about three years ago with the weight of snow that fell upon it.  Perthy Bank, or The Brow, consists of a public house and a few cottages, partly in this township and partly in Tetchill, situated on the brow of a hill, on the turnpike road leading from Ellesmere to Oswestry.  Hardwick Cottage is a neat residence, pleasantly situated near the turnpike road, occupied by Lovett Ferrall, Esq.

Directory.—Sir John Roger Kynaston, Bart., Hardwick; Lovett Ferrall, Esq., Hardwick Cottage; John Cureton, farmer; Samuel Carsley, blacksmith; Edward Heyes, victualler, Green Man Inn, The Brow; Samuel Stockton, gamekeeper; Mrs. Martha Thomas; Richard Woolf, farmer, Old Hardwick.

KENWICK STOCKETT AND WHATTALL,
a township three miles south from Ellesmere, contains 874a. 3r. 29p. of land; the owners of which are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, Thomas Buckley Buckley Owen, Esq., and the Rev. William Thomas.  In 1841 the township had nine houses and a population of 55 souls.  The principal residents are Samuel Burrows, farmer; Richard Gough, farmer, Whattall; Thomas Furmston, farmer, Lower Kenwick; John Stoakes, farmer, Higher Kenwick; and Joseph Stoakes, farmer, The Springs.

KENWICKS PARK
is a small village and township, three miles and a quarter south from Ellesmere, having 1,054a. 3r. 26p. of land, which is the property of the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater.  At the census in 1841 there were 22 houses and 120 inhabitants.  The resident Farmers are Edward Colemere; William Gough, The Lodge; Thomas Hamson, Kenwick Park; Ann Harrison, Top House; Jane Harrison, Old Cast; Lazarus Harrison, Lower House; John Hassall; Thomas Jacks; John Reynolds; and James Williams.

HENWICKS WOOD
is a township, situated four miles south from Ellesmere, embracing 865a. 3r. 16p. of land; an undulating district, the high ground of which commands a most beautiful view of the fertile plains of Shropshire and of the mountainous district of Wales.  In 1841 there were 23 houses and 137 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are William Sparling, Esq.; Sir John Roger Kynaston, Bart.; Thomas Buckley Buckley Owen, Esq.; Mrs. Sutton; and Mr. Joseph Hignett.

The following are the chief resident Farmers, viz.:—Stephen Burrows, Edward Hayward, Sarah Nickson, John Shingler, and Edward Stoakes.

LEE
is a pleasant little village and township, a mile and a half south from Ellesmere, which contains 815a. 1r. 30p. of land, the whole of which is the property of Thomas Buckley Buckley Owen, Esq.  This is a fine agricultural district; the land produces good crops of all kinds of grain, and many of the farms are of considerable extent The Old Hall, the residence of Mr. Thomas Lewis, is an antique structure of timber and plaster, with projecting gables, and has the date of 1594 on the front.  One of the rooms is wainscotted with oak, and has the date of 1657 over the fire place.  A fine old yew tree stands in front of the house.

The resident Farmers in Lee are Thomas Burrows; Thomas Gough; Thomas Hollis; Joseph Jones, John Lewis, John Price, and Richard Williams; Mr. John Lewis, Old Hall.  John Morgan, blacksmith.

LINEAL
is a village and township, three miles S.E. from Ellesmere, which contains 1,897a. 3r. 3p. of land, of which 1,620 acres are vested in the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater.  The township is intersected by the Shropshire Union Canal and the turnpike road from Ellesmere to Wem.  There are lime works here which were formerly carried on to a very considerable extent, the canal affording facilities for sending that commodity to distant parts of the country.  At the census of 1841 there were 44 houses in the township and 247 inhabitants.

Directory.—Andrew Bickley, farmer; Samuel Hignett Bickley, farmer; Isaac Birch, boot and shoemaker; Richard Bright, farmer; William Clay, engineer, blacksmith, and ironfounder; Mary Darlington, farmer; Francis Dickin, farmer; John Medeley, farmer; Hannah Mercer, victualler, New Inn, Hampton Bank; Robert Parry, farmer; Mary Peak, farmer and shopkeeper, Hampton Bank; William Rogers, farmer; John Wilkinson, victualler, Blue Dog; William Youd, farmer.

NEW MARTON,
a small village pleasantly situated four miles W. by S. from Ellesmere, is returned as having 21 houses and 106 inhabitants at the census of 1841; the landowners are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater; the township contains 587a. 0r. 14p. of land, mostly an undulating surface, having a fertile soil, which produces good crops of grain.  Dr. Thomas Bray, an eminent, learned, and pious divine of the seventeenth century, was born at Marton, in Shropshire, in 1656.  He was educated at Oswestry Grammar School, and was the principal promoter of the Missionary Society denominated The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.  Dr. Bray was instrumental in raising lending libraries in many parts of England and Wales, in connection with episcopal places of worship, out of which the neighbouring clergy might borrow the books they had occasion for, and where they might consult upon matters relating to their function and learning; similar libraries were also established in the American colonies for the use of the missionaries, which were subsequently secured to posterity by an act of parliament passed for that purpose in 1708.  In the year 1712 the Dr. printed his “Martyrology, or Papal Usurpation,” in folio.  This work consists of some choice and learned treatises of celebrated authors, which were grown very scarce, ranged and digested into a regular history.  He proposed to compile a second volume, and had, at no small expense and pains, furnished himself with materials for it, but he was afterwards obliged to lay the prosecution of his design aside, and bequeathed by will his valuable collection of martyrological memoirs, both printed and manuscript, to Zion College.  In the year 1726 he was employed in composing and printing his Directorium Missionarium, and his Primordia Bibliothecaria.  About this time he also wrote a short account of Mr. Rawlet, the author of the Christian Monitor, and reprinted the life of Mr. Gilpin.  Some of these were calculated for the use of missionaries, and in one of these he has endeavoured to show that civilizing the Indians must be the first step in any successful attempt for their conversion.  As the furnishing the parochial clergy with the means of instruction would be an effectual method to promote Christian knowledge, so another expedient manifestly subservient to the same end would be, he thought, to imprint on the minds of those who are designed for the ministry, previously to their admission, a just sense of its various duties, and their great importance.  With a view to this he reprinted the Ecclesiastes of Erasmus, a name of great authority in the republic of letters, and to whom the re-establishment of polite literature was principally owing.  Dr. Bray was a frequent visitor of the prisons, the inmates of which always excited the highest degree of compassion in his breast, and to the temporal benefits which he munificently bestowed, he always subjoined spiritual comforts.  He died on the 15th February, 1730, in the 73rd year of his age.

Directory.—John Bate, farmer and maltster; John Cooke, farmer; John Gabriel, wheelwright; Edward Lewis, maltster and shopkeeper; John Lewis, farmer; John Powell, blacksmith; William Williams, boot and shoemaker.

NEWNES
is a very small township on the turnpike road from Ellesmere to Oswestry, about a mile S.S. by W. from the former town.  It contains 333a. 2r. 36p. of land, of which 310 acres are now vested in the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater.  In 1841 there were six houses and 46 inhabitants.  The resident farmers are Henry Pearce and James Thomas; Edward Lloyd, nurseryman.  There is an erroneous tradition that the celebrated Whittington, Lord Mayor of London, was born at Newnes.

NORTHWOOD,
a village and township on the verge of the county, two and a half miles N. from Ellesmere, is separated from the county of Flint by a small stream, on the banks of which is a corn mill.  The township is well wooded, has an undulating surface, and contains 1,321a. 3r. 5p. of land, the principal owners of which are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater.  Mr. Richard Evans and Mrs. Sarah Lindop are also proprietors.  In 1841 there were 29 houses and 150 inhabitants.  The resident farmers are John Cooke, Richard Evans, Mary Hassall, Sarah Lindop, Thomas Madeley, and Andrew Wycherley; Charles Reeves, corn miller.  When our agent visited Northwood there were two farms unoccupied.

OTELEY, NEWTON, AND SPOONHILL,
a township with a scattered population, extending from half a mile to a mile and a half E. from Ellesmere, contains, 1,221a. 1r. 24p. of land, the whole of which is the property of Charles Kynaston Mainwaring, Esq., who resides at Oteley Park, an elegant mansion built of the Cafn free stone in 1827, and exhibiting a fine specimen of the florid English style of architecture, which prevailed during the reign of Henry VII.  The mansion is most delightfully situated upon an elevated plot of ground, overlooking a magnificent sheet of water covering a surface of one hundred and sixty acres.  In the front of the hall is one of the finest terraces in the country, it is surrounded with ornamental vases, filled with scarlet geraniums, which have a most beautiful appearance during the summer months, and give an additional charm to the fairy scene.  The interior of the mansion is most superbly furnished, and contains an extensive and costly collection of antique, china, and curious ornaments of the most elaborate workmanship.  There is a fine collection of family portraits, executed by the most celebrated Italian, Dutch, Flemish, and English masters.  The library contains a fine collection of books, and is richly ornamented with carved oak.  The entrance to the corridor is of stained glass, tracing the royal tribes of Wales, and the window of the hall traces the pedigree of the family: these are beautifully executed by Evans, of Shrewsbury.  A little north from the hall is the billiard room, the interior of which is ornamented with Flemish tapestry.  The shrubberies and pleasure grounds, which cover upwards of eighteen acres, are kept in the most admirable order, and beautified with rockeries, rustic bridges, and a very tastefully designed Swiss cottage.  The grounds contain some fine shrubs, and the cyprus and the arbavitus, which are very numerous, exhibit the greatest luxuriance of growth.  The park has a fine undulating surface, and is stocked with deer.  This township at the census of 1841 contained 14 houses and 87 inhabitants.

Directory.—Charles Kynaston Mainwaring, Esq., Oteley Park; Robert Butter, farmer and maltster and vict., Dog Inn, Ellesmere; Edward Edwards, farmer, Crimps; George Foulkes, farmer and carpenter; Edward Groom, gardener to C. K. Mainwaring, Esq.; Elizabeth Price, farmer; Mary Whitfield, farmer; Thomas Whitfield, farmer, Spoonhill.

RIDGE HIGHER AND LOWER,
a township and village situated S.W. from Ellesmere, contains 1,625a. 2r. 13p. of land, the principal owners of which are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater; Mr. Menlove and Mrs. Jones are also owners.  At the census of 1841 there were 31 houses and 157 inhabitants.  Higher Ridge is situated about three miles from Ellesmere, on elevated ground, which commands a most extensive and delightful view of the country.  Lower Ridge, about a mile further from Ellesmere, consists of two good farms.  The principal residents are Thomas Brayne, farmer, Higher Ridge; Edward Jones, farmer, Lower Ridge; John Matthews, farmer, Lower Ridge; Edward Price, farmer, Higher Ridge, and John Urion, farmer, Ridge.

STOCKS AND COPTIVINEY,
a small township two miles N.E. from Ellesmere, comprising 455a. 2r. 7p. of land, in 1841 is returned as having five houses and 48 inhabitants.  The whole of the land is the property of Charles Kynaston Mainwaring, Esq.  The principal residents are Ambrose Nixon, farmer, Stocks; George Rodenhurst, farmer, Stocks, and Thomas Whitfield, farmer, Coptiveney.

TETCHILL
is a township and village situated three miles S. from Ellesmere, which contains 1,735a. 0r. 20p. of land, the whole of which is the property of the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, except one farm, the property of Sir John Roger Kynaston, Bart.  In 1841 there were 63 houses and 333 inhabitants—the houses are for the most part scattered.  George Salter, Esq., resides at a neat residence called Prynallt, near the western verge of the township; the house stands on high ground, and commands a fine view of the country.  “This village is celebrated as the birth place of William Fromston, the Shropshire giant; he died at Tetchill, in 1795, aged 77 years; he is said to have been remarkably active for his age and surprising height; his coffin measured eight feet two inches inside.”  The principal residents are Ann Boodle, farmer, Winstone; Edward Boylin, farmer; William Carsley, blacksmith; William Cooke, farmer, Tetchill Moor; William Cox, shoemaker; Elizabeth Davies, farmer; John Davies, maltster and tailor; Thomas Davies, maltster; Thomas Foulkes, farmer, Tetchill Moor; Thomas Harrison, wheelwright and shopkeeper; Samuel Higginson, tailor; Joseph Jones, farmer; Thomas Jones, tailor; Richard Lee, farmer, Onston; Henry Legh, farmer, The Buildings; Elizabeth Mathers, farmer, Tetchill Moor; William Morgan, shopkeeper and boot and shoe maker; William Price, farmer, The Wood; George Salter, Esq., solicitor, Prynallt; Wm. Sheraton, farmer, Broom Farm; Henry Townsend, farmer, Tetchill Moor.

TRENCH,
a township on the northern verge of the county, situated about two miles N.N. by W. from Ellesmere, contains 854a. 0r. 6p. of land, the principal owners of which are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater; Charles Kynaston Mainwaring, Esq.; and Rev. John Phillips, are also proprietors.  In 1841 the township contained 28 houses and a population of 65 souls.  The resident farmers are Thomas Cross, John Evans, John Groom, William Higginson, William Nunnerley, William Paddock, and Thomas Pearce.

GREAT NESS
is a considerable parish and pleasantly situated village in the lower division of the Pimhill hundred, four miles S.W. from Baschurch, ten S.E. by S. from Oswestry, and seven and a half miles N.W. by N. from Shrewsbury.  The parish embraces the townships of Alderton, Felton Butler, Great Ness, Hopton, Kinton, Nesscliffe, and Wilcott, which together contain 3,865a. 3r. 30p. of land, and in 1801 had 732 inhabitants, 1831, 850, and in 1841, 143 houses and a population of 876 souls.  Rateable value, £4,431. 5s. 4d.  The village of Great Ness contains several good houses, and is surrounded with an undulating district, which commands some fine views of great diversity and picturesque beauty.  The township contains 856a. 3r. 37p. of land, and in 1841 there were 16 houses and 84 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,198. 1s. 5½d.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Bradford; George Edwards, Esq.; Henry Calveley Cotton; and Thomas Justice Bather, Esq.  The former is lord of the manor.  The soil is a mixture of sand and loam, producing good wheat and barley.  The Church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is an ancient structure, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower, in which are three bells.  It contains several neat tablets to the families of Perry, Prosser, Payne, and Gittins.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the King’s book at £9, now returned at £345, in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor; incumbent, Rev. Henry Calveley Cotton.  The vicarage is a neat residence a little west from the church.  The vicarial tithes of Great Ness are commuted for £47. 10s.  The Hall, the residence of George Edwards, Esq., is a handsome house of brick, in the Tudor style of architecture, rendered conspicuous by a tier of rooms with semi-octagonal projections.  The grounds are tastefully laid out, and the park, though not extensive, is densely wooded.  North-west from the hall are the lofty heights and plantations of Nesscliffe hills.  This township is intersected by the Holyhead turnpike road.

Charities.—By indenture, dated 8th September, 1753, John Edwards, Esq. conveyed a plot of land called the Chapel Yard, at Nesscliffe, to the Rev. William Parry, then vicar of Great Ness, for the erection of a school and residence for the teacher.  The following benefactions are stated to have been given towards the support of the school, viz., Sir Orlando Bridgeman, £20; Sir John Langham, £10; Mrs. Pridie, £20; the Rev. William Parry, £25; and Mrs. Parry, £25.  This sum, amounting to £100, was in the hands of John Edwards, Esq., when the charity commissioners published their report, and he paid interest for it at the rate of five per cent.  The master resides in a house built on the land, containing about an acre in the whole, and in consideration of the above emoluments is required to teach six poor children in reading, writing, and accounts, without any charge.

Samuel Shuker, by will bearing date June 18th, 1821, devised two leasehold estates, then let at a yearly rent of £148. 15s., to John Edwards, Esq., upon trust to sell the same, and to invest the proceeds of such sale in the public funds, and out of the first year’s dividends to improve the present school house, and afterwards to pay the dividends yearly, in promoting the views of the said school, by causing so many poor children of indigent parents, not exceeding the age of twelve years, nor under the age of six years, to be properly instructed in reading, writing, and the four first rules of arithmetic, and finding them in books, pens, ink, and paper; the proportions of such children to be admitted into the said school being two boys and one girl.  The property above mentioned was sold by John Edwards, Esq., to whom the testator left the residue of his personal estate, not otherwise disposed of, the bequest to the charity being void under the statute of 9 George II., c. 36.  The produce of the sale of the above estates was about £1,070.  Mr. Edwards proposed settling this property ultimately upon the school, but retaining the disposal of the produce thereof for his life.

Margaret Dyos, by will 1729, bequeathed £10, and directed the proceeds to be distributed to the poor of Great Ness for the first three years, and the fourth year to the poor of Kinnerley, and so on in rotation from four years to four years.  This gift and £5 in the hands of the parish officers was laid out in the purchase of a piece of land in Melverley, which now produces a yearly rent of £1. 10s.

William Phillip left a rent-charge of 5s. yearly, to be distributed among twenty poor housekeepers.  The sum of 5s. is paid yearly to the churchwardens of Great Ness, as charged upon the Plough Inn, at Wellington, by Mr. Leeke, the owner of those premises.

Directory.—Thomas Justice Bather, Esq.; Rev. Henry Calverley Cotton; George Edwards, Esq., the Hall; James Jones, gentleman.  Farmers: William Davies, grazier, William Hughes, Samuel Smith, John Sides, John Wildblood.  Thomas Davies, butcher.

ALDERTON
is a small township one and a half mile from Great Ness, having one house, 13 inhabitants, and 196a. 3r. 10p. of land, with an undulating surface and light sandy soil.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor, and sole proprietor.  The tithes have been commuted, and £17. 15s. apportioned to the impropriator, and £7. 7s. 6d to the vicar of Great Ness.  Alderton Hall is a neat brick residence, occupied by Mr. Thomas Jones.  The farm buildings are extensive, and near to the hall is a pool of water of considerable extent.  The rateable value of this township is £234.

FELTON BUTLER
is a pleasantly situated township, with a scattered population, one and a half miles S.W. by S. from Great Ness, having at the census of 1841 twelve houses and 65 inhabitants.  It contains 534a. 3r. 3p. of land of a light sandy nature, about two-thirds of which is arable.  Rateable value, £642. 18s. 9d.  The Earl of Powis and Thomas Justice Bather, Esq., are the landowners.  The former is lord of the manor.  One half of the rectoral tithes are apportioned to the vicar of Great Ness, and the other moiety of £28. 17s. 6d. to the prebend of Holgate.  The vicar receives £46. 15s.  Mr. Thomas Harris resides at a very neat house, with grounds tastefully laid out.  The farm premises are of considerable extent and conveniently arranged.

The principal residents are Thomas Harris, farmer and grazier; John Lewis, jun., farmer; Thomas Lewis, farmer; and Robert Jones, shoemaker.

HOPTON,
a township in Great Ness parish, near to the Holyhead turnpike road, contains 653a. 2r. 5p. of land, the soil of which is a mixture of peat and sand, upon which rye, turnips, and some little wheat are grown.  There is some good pasture land below the cliffs.  The village is divided into what may be considered Higher and Lower Hopton, and is pleasantly situated a mile and a quarter N.W. by N. from Great Ness, and eight and a half miles N.W. from Shrewsbury.  To the north-east of the village are the Nesscliffe hills, which rise four hundred feet above the level of the village.  In 1841 there were 38 houses and 179 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £607.  The Earl of Bradford is lord of the manor.  The freeholders are Mr. Richard Minton; Mr. Samuel Minton; Thomas Justice Bather, Esq.; Mr. Richard Wildblood; the Earl of Bradford; Mr. Thos. Bather; Mrs. Haddy; Mr. John Rodgers; Miss Williams; Mr. James Canlin; Mr. Charles Lloyd; Mr. John Povey; Mr. William Payne; and Mr. James Jones.  The rectoral tithes have been commuted for £81. 15s., and apportioned to Thomas I. Bather, Esq.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £32.  There are stone quarries here, from which a fine red freestone is procured, in blocks of almost any dimensions.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a neat stone chapel near the village.

The principal farmers are Thomas Clayton, Startlewood; Edward Davies; Samuel Minton; Richard Minton; and John Suckley.  William Davies, butcher.

KINTON
is a village pleasantly situated two miles W. from Great Ness, commanding views of great strength and diversity; the township contains 1,163a. 0r. 3p. of land, the soil of which is sandy, upon a strong sub-soil, producing good wheat and barley.  The Earl of Bradford is lord of the manor.  The chief landowners are the Earl of Bradford, Mr. Richard Wildblood, Thomas Justice Bather, Esq., Mrs. Haddy, Miss Williams, Mr. Charles Lloyd, Mr. James Canlin, Mr. John Rodgers, Mr. William Payne, and others are also proprietors.  At the census of 1841 there were 21 houses and 97 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,115. 2s. 2d.  There are several neat villa residences in the village.  The Grove is a modern erection, the residence of Mr. Robert Suckley, and has conveniently-arranged farm premises attached.  The Wolf’s Head Farm, the residence of Mrs. Mary Suckley, was formerly a noted public house, and is situated near to Knockin Heath, on the side of the Holyhead turnpike road.  It was the rendezvous of thieves and vagabonds, and robberies were so frequently committed in this locality that the stout-hearted had a dread on passing this road.

Canlin Mrs. Maria

Canlin James, gentleman

Evans Edward, shoemaker

Gittins Thomas, blacksmith

Higginson William, grocer and provision dealer

Jones Richard, shoemaker

Lloyd Thomas, farmer

Massey James, farmer

Mansell Richard, farmer

Payne Mrs., gentlewoman

Suckley Mrs. Mary

Suckley Robert, farmer, The Grove

Taylor George, farmer

Wildblood Richard, farmer, The Hall

NESSCLIFFE
is a township in the parish of Great Ness, pleasantly situated on the Holyhead turnpike road, four and a half miles W. by S. from Baschurch, and eight miles N.W. from Shrewsbury.  There are 28 houses and 189 inhabitants, and the township contains 86a. 5r. 13p. of land.  Rateable value, £157.  Thomas Justice Bather, Esq., George Edwards, and the Earl of Bradford, are the landowners; the latter is lord of the manor, and holds a court leet.  The village is remarkable for its clean and neat appearance, and there are two respectable and commodious inns.  An annual fair is held here on the last Monday in April, and there are meetings in the season for coursing, archery, and steeple chasing.  There is a prosperous friendly society in the village, having 267 members and a reserve fund of £1,904. 5s. 9d.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £9, and Mr. Payne and Mr. Bather, the impropriators, receive £3. 11s. 8d.  The endowed school, supported with money arising from the benefactions noticed with the general charities of the parish, is situated in this village.  The school is capable of accommodating eighty children; there are now 52 receiving instruction.  The master receives 20s. per annum for every scholar admitted; John Jones is the teacher.  Over the school house door is the following inscription, which has reference to a chapel dedicated to St. Mary, which formerly stood near the site of the school:—

“God prosper and prolong this public good,
A school erected where a chapel stood.”

The school was built in 1753.  This village is celebrated for its immense quarries of red sand stone, from which blocks of almost any dimensions can be raised.  The red stone of which the castle, town walls, abbey, and most other old buildings in Shrewsbury are formed, was in all probability brought from this place.  Nesscliffe hill will amply repay the labour of an ascent, the prospect is most delightful and varied.  On the side of the hill is the celebrated Kynaston’s Cave, perched like an eagle’s nest upon the brow of an overhanging precipice.  Humphrey Kynaston was the keeper or constable of Middle Castle, who from his dissolute and riotous manner of life, was surnamed The Wild.  The enormous debts he contracted by his conduct caused him to be declared an outlaw, upon which he fled from Middle Castle, and sheltered himself in a cave in Nesscliffe rock, called to this day “Kynaston’s Cave.”  It is divided into two rooms by a strong pillar of the rock, upon which is carved, “H. K., 1564.”  One of these was the stall for the celebrated outlaw’s horse.  The approach was by a flight of broad steps, which have since been partly cut away.  Many a deed of daring is rehearsed of this high-born freebooter; among others, his draining to Mr. Lloyd’s health, in that gentleman’s court yard, the great hall tankard of ale; and while some of the retainers were closing him in, and others were securing every way of escape, Kynaston coolly pocketed the silver cup, and clapping spurs to his horse, cleared the gates and the heads of his would-be gaolers at a leap.  All his depredations seem more to have been dictated by whim than a desire to plunder, for he supplied the wants of the poor by dispensing the spoils he abstracted from the rich.  His grateful pensioners cooked for him in return, and found provender for his elf-like steed; the rich paying him tribute through fear, and the poor from gratitude.  Kynaston was never taken, but died, as tradition says, in his cave.

Post Office.—At Mr. Richard Minion’s.  Letters arrive at 5.40 A.M., and are despatched at 7.20 P.M.

Bickley Andrew, farmer and vict., Nesscliffe Inn

Dovestan Thomas, stone mason

Evans Robert, maltster, farmer, and vict., The Pigeons

Evans Richard, wheelwright

Gittins John, blacksmith

Gittins Stephen, sawyer

Humphreys Thomas, joiner & cabinet maker

Jones John, schoolmaster

Lloyd Richard, blacksmith

Minton John, saddler and harness maker

Minton Richard, postmaster

Morris John, carpenter

Owen John, tailor and draper

Randell George, cooper

Roberts Elizabeth, shopkeeper

WILCOTT,
a township and small well-built village in the parish of Great Ness, one and a half mile S.W. by W. from the church, having in 1841 eleven houses and 57 inhabitants.  The scenery in the vicinity of Wilcott is bold and romantic; the soil is fertile, producing good wheat and barley.  The principal landowners are William Payne, Esq.; John Povey, Esq.; George Edwards, Esq.; Richard Wildblood, Esq.; and Thomas Bather, Esq.  At the apportionment of the tithes, £76. 15s. was awarded to the impropriators, John Povey, Esq., Thomas Bather, Esq., and William Payne, Esq., and £25. 15s. to the vicar of Great Ness.  There are 374a. 0r. 22p. of land in this township.  Rateable value, £477. 2s. 9d.  The Independents have a small chapel, built of stone, and situated between this village and Kinton.

Directory.—Thomas Bather, Esq., The Villa; David Frumstone, blacksmith; Thos. Higginson, farmer and maltster; Owens Owen, farmer, grazier, maltster, and cattle salesman; William Payne, Esq.; Jane Price, gentlewoman.

HORDLEY
is a parish and pleasantly situated village, three miles south from Ellesmere.  The parish comprehends the townships of Hordley and Bagley, and contains 2,417a. 1r. 39p. of land, and in 1801 had a population of 247 souls; 1831, 325; and in 1841 there were 62 houses and 308 inhabitants.  The township of Hordley contains 1,211a. 1r. 18p. of land.  Rateable value, £1,802. 2s. 6d.  The soil is a mixture of sand and loam, producing good crops of wheat, barley, and turnips; but there is a considerable breadth of grazing land in this locality, which has a bold undulating surface.  The farm houses have a respectable appearance, and are provided with convenient out-premises.  Sir John Roger Kynaston, Bart., is lord of the manor, and owner of the whole township.  A remarkable elm tree, of immense size, stands at the cross roads.  The canal to Weston and the Ellesmere turnpike road intersect the township.

The Church, situated at Higher Hordley, is a plain structure, with a small turret, in which there are two bells.  It consists of nave and chancel, and contains neat tablets to Sir John Kynaston, Bart., John Kynaston, Esq., and to the family of Cureton.  The chancel contains a fine altar-piece of elaborate workmanship; and there is a beautiful stone font.  The living is a rectory, valued in the King’s book at £3. 19s. 2d.; now returned at £330; in the patronage of Sir John Roger Kynaston, Bart., and incumbency of the Rev. John Walter Moore; curate, Rev. William Frazer.  The tithes are commuted for £358, of which sum £272 are apportioned to the rector of Hordley; £16 to the rector of Baschurch; £40. 10s. to Mrs. Topp; and £29 to other impropriators.  The Rectory is a commodious and modern erection, situated on a gentle eminence about a quarter of a mile south-east from the church.  It was built by the present incumbent, aided by a grant from Queen Anne’s bounty.  The old rectory is now occupied as a farm residence.  A National School and residence for the teacher was built at Lower Hordley, near the centre of the parish, in 1844.  The average attendance of scholars is about sixty.  It is supported by subscription and a small payment from the children.  There are 28a. 2r. 24p. of glebe land in the parish.

Directory.—Stephen Burroughs, farmer, Lower Hordley; Mary Cureton, farmer; Rev. William Frazer, curate, the Rectory; John Groom, farmer; Richard Harper, blacksmith; Thomas Hewitt, farmer; Joseph Hignett, farmer; Joseph Hignett, farmer, Dandyford farm; Edward Jones, parish clerk and rate collector; Robert Lewis, farmer, Lower Hordley.

BAGLEY
is a township and village in the parish of Hordley, the population of which is returned with that village.  The township contains 1,206a. 0r. 21p. of land.  Rateable value, £1,785. 10s.  The landowners are Rowland Hunt, Esq.; Rev. John Walter Moore; John Dodd, Esq.; Mr. John Groom; Mrs. Davies; Mrs. Leigh; Mrs. Topp; Hon. Thomas Kenyon; Mr. Edward Lewis; Mr. Joseph Hignett; Mr. Edward and John Martin; Mrs. Sutton; Mr. John Langford, and others.  Rowland Hunt, Esq., is lord of the manor.  The township is bounded by the river Perry, and intersected by the Ellesmere and Weston canal.  There are several farms here of considerable extent, and the farm premises are extensive and conveniently arranged.

Directory.—Samuel Bickley, farmer and maltster; Jane Davies, farmer; John Davies, farmer, The Oaks; Samuel Cheshire, blacksmith; Stephen Denston, Esq., The Hall; John Dodd, farmer; William Griffiths, farmer; John Higgins, grocer and vict., Fox Inn; Thomas Lea, farmer; Joseph Lea, farmer and butcher; Edward Martin, farmer; Sarah Nickson, farmer; Richard Paddock, farmer, Bromley Green; Robert Pembury, farmer, Bromley House; Edward Stant, farmer; Edward Tomlinson, wheelwright; Edward Wilson, wheelwright.

LOPPINGTON
is a parish and pleasantly situated village two and a half miles W.W. by S. from Wem.  This place, from its contiguity to Wem, was the scene of several skirmishes between the royal and the parliamentary forces in the civil wars.  In one of these skirmishes the royal party set fire to the floor and roof of the church, which being covered with shingles was the more easily accomplished, and the parliamentary soldiers who had taken refuge in the church, were compelled to surrender it to the king’s party.  The parish of Loppington comprises the townships of Loppington, Burlton, and Noneley, and contains 3,411a. 1r. 36p. of land, of which 97 acres are in woods, plantations, and fox covers.  Gross estimated rental, £5,162. 12s.; rateable value, £4,197. 15s.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor, and holds a court.  At the census in 1841 there were 612 inhabitants.  The township of Loppington contains 1159a. 0r. 33p. of land, and in 1841 had 68 houses and 331 inhabitants.  Major Thomas Dicken, is the most considerable landowner; George Wycherley, Harriet Kynaston, Thomas Lloyd Dickin, Esq., The Trustees of the Poor’s Land, Mr. William Williams, Rev. William Thomas, Robert Chambre Vaughan, Esq., and Thomas Windsor, are also proprietors.  The soil is in general a strong clay, and a mixture of turf and sand.  There is a flat of waste land called the Brown Moss, of which the freeholders are entitled to the herbage; the moss extends into other townships and covers a considerable surface; 7a. 0r. 21p. are within the bounds of Loppington township.

The Church is an ancient structure, dedicated to St. Michael, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower, in which are three bells; the nave is lofty, and supported by arches rising from oaken pillars; the body of the church is neatly pewed with oaken sittings, and there is an antique stone font.  The north wall was demolished during the civil wars in 1650; it was rebuilt and the interior beautified in 1655.  There is a very handsome marble tablet to Richard Marigold Noneley and others of the family; the families of Dickin, Chambre, Wingfield, Payne, Groom, Chester, Griffiths, and others, are also remembered on other mural tablets.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £6. 12s. 1d., now returned at £270 in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor and incumbency of the Rev. William Thomas, M.A.  The vicarial tithes of Loppington township are commuted for £111. 16s., and the rectoral for £93.  Thomas Dickin, Esq., is the impropriator.  There are 24a. 1r. 26p. of glebe land.  The Vicarage is a commodious brick residence, pleasantly situated a little S.W. from the church, with pleasure grounds tastefully laid out.  Loppington House, the mansion of Thomas Dickin, Esq., J.P., is a handsome and extensive range of building, the front of which is ornamented with a portico; it is surrounded with a park of considerable extent finely wooded; the pleasure grounds and shrubberries are laid out with great taste, and beautified with fine shrubs and choice flowers.  The Hall or Manor House, a good brick residencies is occupied by Mr. James Baddaley, farmer.

Charities.—John Kynaston, by his will, bearing date 30th May, 1694, devised a house, garden, stable, and croft, in the township of Loppington, to his kinsman, Roger Kynaston, and his heirs, to the use of the then schoolmaster of Loppington, and his successors as a salary, for their pains in teaching to read six of the poorest children within the parish, to be appointed by the said Roger Kynaston and his heirs; and if there should happen to be no schoolmaster, he directed that the profits of the premises should be to the use of Roger Kynaston and his heirs.  The property devised by the testator consists of a public house in Loppington, with a stable, garden, and croft, containing altogether half an acre.  The property, when the Charity Commissioners published their report, was claimed by Thomas Kynaston, grandson of Richard Kynaston, named in the following conveyance:—“By indenture, bearing date 17th November, 1741, between Roger Kynaston, grandson of Roger Kynaston, the devisee above-mentioned, of the one part, and Richard Kynaston, of Loppington, of the other part, reciting the will as above extracted, the said Roger Kynaston, party thereto, in consideration of £4 conveyed to the said Richard Kynaston and his heirs, the messuage, tenements, and lands, and all other the premises in the said will mentioned, and all his estate and interest therein, subject nevertheless to the trusts in the said will mentioned concerning the same.”  The premises are let for £13 per annum, an additional sum of £2 being paid by the tenant for a piece of garden formerly no part of the trust premises.  The rent of £13 is received by Thomas Kynaston, and he pays thereout £2 yearly to a schoolmaster for the instruction of six poor children.  The residue of the rent Thomas Kynaston reserves to his own use; but it is clear that the whole of the rent above-mentioned is applicable to the charitable uses mentioned in the testator’s will, and that notwithstanding that in the conveyance of 1731, £4 was paid as a consideration, Thomas Kynaston can only be considered as a trustee for such charitable uses.  It is stated that within the last twenty years Thomas Kynaston has laid out upwards of £300 in rebuilding and improving the premises, but as he has been in possession between thirty and forty years, and during that time has enjoyed the benefit of all the surplus rent beyond the yearly sum of £2, there seems to be no reason why the schoolmaster should not from the present time receive the benefit of the whole rent.  It seems also desirable that new trustees should be appointed; but considering the testator vested the property solely in his kinsman, Richard Kynaston, and his heirs, we apprehend that a conveyance to new trustees would not be enforced in a court of equity, provided the said Thomas Kynaston gives up all claim to any beneficial interest therein.

Jane Manlove, in 1751, bequeathed £10, and directed the interest to be disposed of in the purchase of clothing for poor widows; the interest to be applied two years to poor widows resident in Loppington township, and the third year to widows of Burlton township.

Thomas Price, in 1797, bequeathed £50, the interest to be applied in a distribution of bread every Sunday; he also bequeathed the residue of his personal estate, after the payment of certain legacies, for the same purpose.  To this legacy of £50 and £30 in augmentation thereof out of personal estate, and the sum of £10 given by Mrs. Menlove, as above-mentioned, £10 was added by the parish to make up £100, which sum was laid out on mortgage of three cottages in Wem, the deed bearing date the 1st August, 1820.  The interest, £4, is distributed according to the donor’s intentions.  The particulars of Richard Corbet’s charity will be found noticed with Wem.  There is a farm of about 63 acres of land in this parish, the rent of which for a great number of years (certainly from 1690) has been considered as applicable to the repairs of the church, the relief of the poor, and such other purposes as the parishioners should direct, and has been so applied at their discretion.

Mary Griffiths, in 1837, bequeathed £300 in the three per cent. consols, and directed the interest to be distributed in money or clothes for the benefit of the poor.

Post Office.—At Elizabeth Matthews.  Letters arrive by foot post from Middle at 10 a.m., and are despatched at 3 p.m.

Allen William, bricklayer and plasterer

Astley Thomas, farmer and shopkeeper

Austin John, shoemaker and shopkeeper

Baddaley James, farmer, The Hall

Barnes Mr. William

Bickerley Margaret, farmer

Booth Thomas, gentleman

Brown Charles, farmer and gamekeeper

Capp John, gentleman

Cheetwood Samuel, farmer, Stump House

Chorley James, schoolmaster and assistant overseer

Danks Henry, farrier

Dannelly Richard, farmer and vict., Fox Inn

Davies Joseph, farmer

Dickin Thomas, Esq., Loppington House

Dovaston John, farmer and gardener

Eaton Richard, wheelwright

Eddowes Rev. John, curate

Evans Henry, farmer and wheelwright

Evans Richard, farmer

Harper Hannah, farmer

Harper Samuel, farmer

Heatley Thomas, farmer

Jones John, farmer, Hollywell Moor

Kynaston Harriett, corn miller

Kynaston Rebecca, vict., Dickin’s Arms Inn

Matthews Thomas, farmer

Price John, tailor, The Lodge

Pugh Joseph, farmer

Shingler Miss, gentlewoman

Stanway William, farmer

Thomas Harwood, solicitor

Thomas Rev. William, M.A., The Vicarage

Thomas William, surgeon

Turner Ann, farmer

Vaughan Edward Goldsborough Chambre, Esq., Wood Gate

Watson Robert, farmer and shoemaker

Williams Robert, gentleman

Williams William, blacksmith and vict., Blacksmith’s Arms

Wycherley George, gentleman

Wycherley Robert, farmer

BURLTON
is a village and township, intersected by the Shrewsbury and Ellesmere and the Baschurch and Wem turnpike roads, two miles E. from Baschurch, and five miles S.W. from Wem.  The township contains 1,324a. 0r. 14p. of land, and in 1841 had 35 houses and 172 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,604.  The soil is various; in some parts a cold clay prevails, and in other places there is a loamy soil, with a mixture of gravel.  The principal landowners are R. C. Vaughan, Esq., Thomas Woodfield, Samuel Lee, Robert Leeke, John Menlove, Esq., William Sparling, Esq., The Corporation of Shrewsbury, Thomas Dickin, Esq., Mr. John Platt, Mr. Nicholas Robinson, Mr. Peter Shingler, and Mr. Peter Shingler, jun.; besides whom there are several smaller proprietors.  Burlton Green is a plot of waste land, containing two acres, the herbage of which is claimed by the freeholders.  There is also a considerable tract of woodland in this township.  A court leet and baron is held yearly at the Coach and Horses, by the lord of the manor, Robert C. Vaughan, Esq.  The jurisdiction of the court embraces the following townships, viz.:—Burlton, Balderton, Eyton, Fennymere, Frankton, Stanwardine-in-the Field, and Walford.  About four-fifths of the township is tithe free; the residue has been commuted; the vicarial for £17. 12s., and the rectoral for £50. 19s., of which £28. 8s. are paid to Messrs. Shingler and Son, and £22. 11s. to Thomas Bulkeley Bulkeley Owen, Esq.  The manor, tithes, and estate of Burlton were granted by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, in the reign of William the Conqueror, to the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, in Shrewsbury, in the possession of which house it remained till the dissolution of monastic institutions in the time of Henry VIII.  In the reign of Elizabeth we find it possessed by one Griffith.  It then passed to the family of Lawley, of whom was Sir Edward Lawley, K.B., who, dying, left an only daughter, named Ursula.  She married, first, Sir Robert Bertie, K.B., and secondly, George Penruddock, Esq., who thus became possessed of Burlton.  This gentleman, taking an active part in the wars of King Charles and the Parliament, and being a zealous royalist, his manor, as did many others in the kingdom, changed its owner, and became the property of Captain Arthur Chambre, in whose family it has remained to the present time, and now belongs to his descendant, Robert Chambre Vaughan, Esq., who resides at Burlton Hall, a very ancient mansion, embosomed in foliage.  The greater part of the hall was built about the year 1420; having become much dilapidated, it was thoroughly repaired and beautified during the year 1837.  It is handsomely furnished, contains some beautiful paintings, and curious cabinets of the most elaborate workmanship.

Adams Edward, farmer

Baker Joseph, blacksmith and shopkeeper

Baker Robert, beerhouse keeper

Beamont Thomas, farmer, The Coppice

Brown James, farmer, The Grove

Cheshire Thomas, blacksmith

Dean George, fish-net maker

Desert Joseph P., farm bailiff

Dodsworth George, farmer, Wood farm

Done William, shoemaker

Fletcher Richard, shopkeeper

Griffiths Thomas, police officer

Moorehouse Henry Charles, tailor & draper, and victualler, Coach and Horses Inn

Pearce Robert, farmer and maltster, The Wood

Platt John, farmer, The Mill

Pickstock Seth, gentleman

Sadler James, farm manager

Sadler Joseph, farm manager

Sadler Thomas, farmer

Shingler Peter, farmer, The Grange

Vaughan Robert Chambre, Esq., The Hall

Williams Joseph, farmer

NONELEY, OR NUNNELEY,
is a township in Loppington parish, having a scattered population, situated about a mile and a half south from the church.  The township contains 931a. 0r. 29p. of land, and in 1841 had 19 houses and 107 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,018. 10s.  The tithes have been commuted, and £37. 7s. apportioned to the Vicar of Loppington; £11. 16s. to the Vicar of Baschurch; and £97. 18s. to Peter Shingler, Esq., the impropriator.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Margaret Noneley, Rev. John Evans, Thomas Dickin, Esq., Mr. George Clay, Mr. George Harris, Mr. William Groom, Rowland Hunt, Esq., Mr. John Brayne Gregory, Mr. Robert Betton, D. F. Atcherley, Esq., and Vernon Dolphin, Esq.

Directory.—Farmers: John Davies Bentley; Robert Betton; Samuel Brayne; Thos. Brown; Thomas Harris, The Hall farm; John Higgins; Evan Jones, and maltster; William Jones; Mary Morgan, Ruewood; George Tunnah; John Vernon; George Wall; Thomas Weaver; and William and Richard Webb, The Shaws.  Thomas Astley, boot and shoemaker.  Arthur Austin, blacksmith.

MIDDLE
is a considerable parish, partly in the Ellesmere division of the hundred of Pimhill, and partly in the Albrighton division, the former comprehending within its bounds the townships of Balderton, Marton, Middle, and part of Sleap; and the latter the chapelry of Hadnal, which consists of the several townships of Alderton, Hadnal, Haston, Hardwick, Shotton, and Smethcott.  The entire parish contains 6,902a. 3r. 27p. of land.  Mostly a fertile soil, it presents a fine agricultural district, with an undulating surface, interspersed with woods and plantations, and every agreeable feature in landscape beauty.  The woods and plantations cover 55a. 3r. 19p. of land.  The parish includes the celebrated eminences of Pimhill and Harmour Hill, from whence a most delightful and varied prospect of the country is seen.  In 1801 there was a population of 1,141 souls; in 1831, 1,205; and in 1841, 1,330 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £4,943.  The Duke of Cleveland and the trustees of the late Duke of Bridgewater are joint lords of the manor.  The village of Middle is pleasantly situated on an acclivity of red sand-stone rock, on the line of the Shrewsbury, Chester, Ellesmere, and Holyhead turnpike roads.  These roads are, however, now but little traversed, the railroads having diverted the greatest portion of the traffic.  There are some good houses in the village, which has a straggling appearance; and in the immediate vicinity there are several respectable family residences.  The township contains 2,179a. 2r. 15p. of land, the soil of which in some parts is a cold clay, in other parts it is more fertile.  In 1841 there were 87 houses and 456 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,240.  The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Viscount Alford, William Henry Bickerton, Esq., William Teece, Esq., Mr. John Chilton, Mr. Edward Birch, Edward Edwards, Esq., and J. A. Lloyd, Esq.

Middle Castle.—Of this ancient baronial fortress there are but few vestiges remaining.  Lord John L’Estrange, in the time of Edward I., obtained licence to make a castle of his house at Middle, which lay less exposed to the incursions of the Welsh than his castles of Knockin and Ruyton.  The castle was two stories high, with a flat roof, and some part of the walls were remaining about the year 1640.  These were in a great measure destroyed by an earthquake in 1688.  It was a quadrangular structure, with a square court inside, and was surrounded by a moat.  The moat is yet very perfect, and filled with water; but the castle is completely demolished, except a tower and a few fragments of the walls.  These existing vestiges were recently put in a state of repair, by order of the late Viscount Alford.  On the east side of the castle, there was a piece of ground of about half an acre, surrounded by a moat.  The entrance to this piece was by a gatehouse, which stood near the north-east corner of the castle moat, and near it was a drawbridge over the moat.  In the 3rd of Edward III., John L’Estrange had a grant of free warren, the view of frankpledge and waif, in this manor.  A settlement made by Richard L’Estrange may be found in the chancery rolls in the 18th of Henry VI.  After the death of this family it descended to the Derby family, and William Dod was appointed constable or keeper; and after him Sir Roger Kynaston was, by commission, keeper of Middle and Knockin castles.  Upon the decease of Sir Roger, his son Humphrey (who, from his dissolute and riotous mode of life, was called Wild Humphrey) was tenant here.  On his being outlawed, he left Middle Castle, which he had suffered to become ruinous, and went and took up his abode in a cave, near Nesscliff, which to this day is called Kynaston’s cave.

The Church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, was rebuilt about a century ago, with the exception of the tower, which was erected in the year 1634.  It consists of two aisles and a chancel, and exhibits the debased style of English architecture.  Two handsome windows were put into the chancel about a year ago, in the decorated style, at the expense of Mrs. Egerton, widow of the late rector, the Rev. Thomas Egerton, to whose memory the east one is dedicated.  The windows are richly beautified with stained glass, by Wailes, of Newcastle.  There are several neat memorials in the church to the Atcherleys, Bickertons, Kynastons, and others.  It is neatly pewed with oak sittings, and the whole has a chaste and orderly appearance.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £12. 7s. 3½d., now returned at £1,003, in the patronage of the trustees of the late Viscount Alford, and enjoyed by the Rev. George Henry Egerton, M.A., who resides at the Rectory, a delightfully situated mansion, beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies.  The rectory was rebuilt in 1747, by Dr. Egerton Leigh, the then rector.  Subsequent additions have from time to time been made.  The tithes have been commuted for £345. 19s. 6d.  There is a Parochial and Infant School in Middle, in which upwards of 100 children are educated.  They are chiefly supported by the rector, by whom the infant school was established.  The Middle Friendly and Benefit Society has 107 enrolled members, and a capital stock of £675. 15s. 11d.; besides which, there is the Middle Old Friendly Society, and a branch of the Oddfellows, which have a considerable number of members.

Charities.—William Gough, in 1669, devised his lands, subject to the payment of £5 per annum, on the 25th of December, to the minister and churchwardens of Middle, to be applied in putting forth poor children apprentices.  Richard Newton left a rent charge of 12s., issuing out of the Newton estate, to be given in bread to the poor on the second Sunday in the month.  This gift, and the yearly sum of 25s., paid out of the poor’s-rate, are applied in the purchase of bread, and distributed every Sunday.  This 25s. is supposed to be paid as the interest of some charity money applicable to this purpose, and carried to the account of the parish.  The same sum has been paid from the year 1786.  Thomas Atcherley, by will, 1680, devised a rent charge of 24s. per annum, payable out of certain lands in Baschurch parish, to be given to the poor of Middle on Easter Monday.  There is a plot of land, consisting of about three-fourths of an acre, which is let for 30s. per annum, and the amount is distributed by the churchwardens every Easter Monday, with the sum of 16s. 6d., paid from the parish-rates, as the interest of money supposed to have been given for charitable uses, and carried to the account of the parish.  There are ten other bequests, which are stated to be vested in the parish, amounting altogether to £70.  If the £24 paid for the purchase of the above mentioned land be deducted from that sum, there will remain £46, which is supposed to have been taken to the account of the parish, and for which the two sums of £1. 5s. and 16s. 6d., paid as above stated, would be interest at 4½ per cent.

The Rev. Thomas Watkins left to the poor of this parish not receiving parochial relief, the sum of £20.  Richard Watkins left £30 for the like purpose.  John Mansell gave £10 to the poor.  The three sums above mentioned amounting to £60, are secured on the Ellesmere House of Industry, by bond, bearing date 19th February, 1793.  The interest is distributed among the most necessitous poor of the parish.  The poor are entitled to partake of the benefit of Dame Mary Hill’s charity, noticed with the chapelry of Hadnal.  Francis Henry Earl of Bridgewater, by his will, bearing date August 29th, 1828, gave to the overseers and churchwardens of the parish of Middle £2,000, to be laid out by them in the public funds, and the dividends thereof to be expended by the rector for the time being for the benefit and relief of the poor of Middle, including Hadnal.  The dividends amount to £65 per annum, which is chiefly appropriated by the present rector to a clothing club, the poor receiving the addition of the charity to their savings.

Post Office.—At Mr. William Parry’s.  Letters arrive from Shrewsbury at 8.30 A.M., and are despatched at 5 P.M.

Bate Abigail, farmer, Hollins

Bickley Joseph, farmer

Birch Thomas, farmer

Brisbourne William, farmer

Cheshire Jane, blacksmith and victualler, Blacksmiths’ Arms

Chilton John, wheelwright

Davies Thomas, farmer

Done John, boot and shoemaker

Eaton William, tailor

Egerton Rev. George Henry, M.A., The Rectory

Fardoe Samuel, boot and shoemaker

Fox John, farmer

Grice James, shopkeeper and boot and shoemaker

Griffiths Mary, dressmaker

Hignett Samuel, maltster

Hodnett John, tailor

Humphreys Sarah, farmer

Jones Edward, grocer and provision dealer

Majoribanks Sir John, Bart.

Majoribanks Miss Mary

Majoribanks William, Esq.

Madeley Thomas, farmer

Marsh Henry, farmer

Nisbet Rev. John Majoribanks, curate

Paddock Richard, farmer

Parry Emma, infant school teacher

Parry Sarah, girls’ school teacher

Parry William, postmaster and victualler, Lord Alford’s Arms

Parry William, parish clerk, registrar, and perpetual overseer

Pritchard William, gentleman, Grove Place

Rees John, farmer

Rogers John, tailor, The Wood

Sharrow Jesse, schoolmaster

Wilkes Thomas, wheelwright

William Richard, farmer

BALDERTON
is a small township in the parish of Middle, comprising 714a. 2r. 24p. of highly productive land, with an undulating surface, well wooded.  It is situated a little to the north-east of Middle, and in 1841 had six houses and 26 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £787.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor.  The principal freeholders are the Rev. Thomas Staniforth; John Arthur Lloyd, Esq.; Thomas Dickin, Esq.; William H. Bickerton, Esq.; the trustees of the late Lord Alford; Mrs. Price; and Peter Shingler, Esq.  The Primitive Methodists have a neat stone chapel at Webscott lane.  The tithes of Balderton are commuted for £124. 9s.

The principal residents are Francis Lee, farmer; Rev. Thomas Staniforth, The Hall; and James Young, farm bailiff.

MARTON
is a township in the parish of Middle, one and a half mile north-east of Baschurch, which contains 921a. 0r. 16p. of land, and in 1841 had 28 houses and 134 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,023.  The farm houses have here a respectable appearance, and the farms are of considerable extent.  The Shrewsbury, Ruyton, Middle, and Loppington turnpike roads intersect the township.  The principal landowners are the Duke of Cleveland; the trustees of the late Viscount Alford; David Francis Atcherley, Esq.; Miss Feaston; and Thomas E. Horseman, Esq.  The tithes are commuted for £135. 12s.  Marton Hall is an ancient mansion, the residence and property of David F. Atcherley, Esq., whose ancestors were seated here at a very early period.  The house is pleasantly situated, and stuccoed; it is surrounded by park-like enclosures, which are richly wooded, and there is a fine pool of water on the verge of the grounds, which covers a surface of 45a. 2r. 15r.  There are three outlets from the pool, which are well stocked with fish.

Atcherley David Francis, Esq., The Hall

Boliver John, cooper

Davies Edward, farmer, Martin lane

Evans John, land agent

Griffiths Geo., clock maker & general dealer

Horseman J. F. Esq., The Wood

Roberts Thomas, farmer, The Wood

Shingler Thomas, farmer

Wall George, farmer

NEWTON-ON-THE-HILL
is a scattered village, salubriously situated on an eminence, seven miles north from Shrewsbury.  The township contains 669a. 3r. 2p. of land; and in 1841 there were 63 houses and 265 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £893.  The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Viscount Alford; Richard Palin Bickerton, Esq.; William Henry Bickerton, Esq.; Mr. Richard Whitfield; Edward Edwards, Esq.; and Thomas Watkins, Esq.  The Independents have a neat stone chapel, built in 1833, at a cost of about £700.  There is a residence for the minister attached to the chapel.  The congregation is under the pastoral care of the Rev. George Rogers, who admits a limited number of youths into his residence as boarding scholars.  There is a Sunday school in connection with this place of worship.  A small cemetery adjoins the chapel.  Harmer Hill is a delightful eminence, which commands a fine view of the rich agricultural district with which it is surrounded.  The situation is highly salubrious, and the vicinity is beautified with several respectable residences.  Near to this place is Pimhill, distinguished as having given name to an important section of the county.  It is clothed with thriving fir trees to its very summit, and is a conspicuous object for many miles round.

Those names with * affixed reside at Harmer Hill.

* Barlow Thomas, farmer and vict., Bridgewater Arms

Bickerton William Henry, Esq., The Hill House

* Boliver John, wheelwright

* Carr Robert, mason and quarry master

* Carr Robert, gamekeeper

* Cooke William, mason and quarry master

Garmston Seth, farmer

* Harris Jane, shopkeeper and vict., Red Castle

* Harris Mrs. S., farmer

Leech George, shopkeeper

* Marsh John, butcher

* Pearce John, medicine vendor (Ploughman’s drops)

* Rogers Rev. George, Independent minister and boarding school proprietor

* Walmsley Robert, farmer

MONTFORD
is a parish and pleasantly situated village on the banks of the river Severn, five miles N.W. from Shrewsbury.  The parish of Montford contains the townships of Montford, Endson, and Forton, having conjointly 2,937 acres of land; and in 1801, 456 inhabitants; 1831, 566; and in 1841, 102 houses and a population of 490 souls.  Rateable value, £3,519. 10s.  There is a fine sheet of water in this parish, covering 47 acres.  The river Severn is crossed by a noble and substantial stone bridge, and hence Montford is usually called Montford Bridge.  The London and Holyhead turnpike road intersects the township, which contains 987a. 2r. of land.  Rateable value, £1,308. 5s.  The soil is a mixture of loam and sand, and highly fertile.  At the census of 1841 Montford township is returned as containing 92 houses and 434 inhabitants; but there is no separate return made of the township of Forton, which contains 19 houses.  The Church is a venerable fabric, consisting of nave and chancel, with a square tower, in which are three bells.  The chancel and the body of the church were re-built in 1737.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the King’s book at £4. 18s. 6d.; now returned at £246; in the patronage of the Earl of Powis, and incumbency of the Rev. George Arthur Clive, M.A.  The vicarage is a good residence of brick, about a quarter of a mile from the church.  It was built in 1842, and being lofty, has an imposing appearance.  There is a free school in the village, which is chiefly supported by voluntary subscriptions.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor and proprietor of the whole township.  The houses on the south side of the river at Montford Bridge are partly in Bicton and partly in Montford.  There is a branch post office at Mr. Jones’s, Swan Inn, Montford Bridge.

Clive Rev. George Arthur, M.A., The Vicarage

Austin Thomas H., farmer

Bowen John, constable

Davies Richard, basket and fish net maker

Davies William, basket maker

Dawson Thomas, farmer and vict., Powis Arms

Edwards John, basket maker, assistant over-seer, registrar for the Montford district, and collector of rates for the townships of Montford, Shrawardine, Ensdon, and Forton

Groom Ann, Post Office

Jones William, vict., The Swan, Montford bridge

Mansell Timothy, schoolmaster

Mathews Stephen, farmer

Matthews Thomas, farmer

Randles John, blacksmith

Thomas John, shopkeeper

Till William, farmer

Wilding Edward, farmer

ENSDON,
township in the parish of Montford, six miles W. by N. from Shrewsbury, contains 983 acres of land, and in 1841 had ten houses and 56 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,138. 10s.  The soil is a mixture of clay and sand; the whole township is the property of the Earl of Powis.  Ensdon House, the residence of Evan Bowen, Esq., is a handsome and pleasantly situated brick structure, in the Elizabethan style of architecture.  The farm premises are conveniently arranged, and of considerable extent.  A steam apparatus has been provided to prepare the food for cattle, and various other appliances for economising labour.  Mr. Bowen farms more than a thousand acres of land.  Beam House farm, the residence of George Benjamin Cureton, is provided with extensive out premises, and the farm is of considerable extent.

Bowen Evan, Esq., Ensdon House

Bowker Samuel, farmer

Cureton George Benjamin, farmer, Beam House

Edwards John, farmer and farrier

Gough Lucy, farmer

Gouch Thomas, farmer

Hughes William, blacksmith

Minton Mrs., farmer

Nunnerley John, shoemaker

Till Thomas, farmer and gamekeeper

FORTON,
a township in Montford parish, with a scattered population, six miles N.W. from Shrewsbury, contains 966 acres of land, chiefly arable, the soil of which is a mixture of sandy loam and clay.  Rateable value, £1,072. 15s.  The Earl of Powis is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  Mrs. Middleton is also a proprietor.  The tithes have been commuted, and £76 apportioned to the Earl of Powis, and £61 to the vicar of Montford.  There are several large farms here, and the homesteads are provided with conveniently-arranged out-premises.  There was no separate return made of this township at the census of 1841.

Cadman John, farmer and builder

Crane Edward, farmer

Edwards John, wheelwright

Jones Thomas, wheelwright

Middleton Margaret, farmer

Mansell John, farm bailiff to Mrs. Middleton

Minton Samuel, farmer, Forton Hall

Onions John, sawyer and joiner

Price Thomas, maltster, The Heath

PETTON
is a small parish, six miles S.E. by S. from Ellesmere, and twelve miles N.N. by W. from Shrewsbury, comprising 822a. 1r. 16p. of land, and in 1841 had five houses and 39 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £978.  A century ago the Petton estate was held by John Chambre, Esq., who died in 1752, and left three daughters co-heiresses, Hannah, Rebecca, and Mary.  Hannah married a Mr. Corbet, Rebecca died unmarried, and Mary married John Hill, Esq., of Prees, afterwards Sir John Hill, of Hawkstone, and grandfather to the present Viscount Hill.  Mrs. Hill’s moiety of the estate was sold to her sister, Mrs. Corbet, by whom and her husband the whole estate was alienated, about the year 1794, to John Sparling, Esq., merchant, of Liverpool, father of the present proprietor, William Sparling, Esq., who resides at Petton Hall, a handsome stuccoed mansion of considerable extent.  It is approached by a lofty portico, supported by stone pillars, and in the front of the mansion are beautiful pleasure grounds and shrubberies, which open into a park of considerable extent, having a fine undulating surface, richly wooded with noble timber, and occasionally studded with thriving plantations.  The kitchen gardens and vineries are extensive, and highly productive.  The Church, situated near to the Hall, is a plain brick structure, consisting of nave and chancel.  The interior has a chaste and neat appearance.  The reading desk and pulpit were the gift of Mrs. Sparling; they are of dark oak and elaborately carved; the altar is also of oak, beautifully carved.  There are neat tablets to the Chambre and Morris families, and a beautifully designed memorial to two members of the family of Sparling, who were cut off in their early years.  The living is a rectory, valued in the King’s book at £3. 4s. 2d.; now returned at £142; in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and enjoyed by the Rev. George Cunliffe, M.A.  The Rev. George Walker is the curate.

Directory.—William Sparling, Esq., The Hall; Captain Charles Sparling, The Hall; William Sparling, jun., Esq., The Hall; Miss Sparling, The Hall; Thomas Davies, gardener; Thomas Drury, coachman; Richard Danneley, groom; Henry Smith, house steward.  Farmers: Edward Johnson, The Grange Farm; Thomas Shingler Wakley.

SHRAWARDINE,
usually called Shraden, is a village and parish in the lower division of the hundred of Pimhill, bounded on the north by the river Severn, six miles N.W. from Shrewsbury, and 13 S.E. from Oswestry.  In 1801 there were 186 inhabitants; 1831, 189; and in 1841 there were 34 houses and 196 souls.  The parish contains 1,903 acres of land.  The Earl of Powis is the landowner.  Rateable value, £2,798.  The Church is a plain Gothic structure, dedicated to St. Mary, which stands upon an elevated site, overlooking a fine undulating district, covered with fruitfulness, and richly clothed with timber.  It contains a small but fine-toned organ, the gift of Earl Powis, and the Rev. Isaac Frowd, the rector of Shrawardine, in 1832.  It is expected ere long that the unsightly tower, which is of wood, will be taken down, and one of stone, of a more ornamental character, added in its place.  There are several neat tablets in the chancel to the Newlings, and others; and a brass memorial remembers Martha Botevyle.  It also contains an antique old font.  The living is a rectory, valued in the King’s book at £9. 12s. 6d.; now returned at £380; in the patronage of Earl Powis, and incumbency of the Rev. George Arthur dive, M.A.; curate, Rev. John Norgreave Baker.  The following account of Shrawardine is copied from an old parish register book, now in the possession of the curate:—“In the time of our unnatural broil and unhappy wars that were between the king and his parliament, Shrawardine Castle was made a garrison for the king, September 28th, 1644.  Sir William Vaughan, colonel, was made governor of it.  This garrison was the head quarters of all his forces.  Whilst this garrison continued the church and chancel were pulled down; the outbuildings of the castle, the parsonage house, with all edifices thereto belonging, and the greatest, fairest, and best part of the town were burnt, for the safety, as it was pretended, of the garrison.  In this firing, the register book, with many books of the minister, were burned.  Shrawardine chancel was thrown down on St. Matthias’ day, February 24th, 1644.  The church was pulled down on Whit Sunday eve, June 8th, 1645.  The town was burnt on Midsummer eve and Midsummer day, 1645.  The garrison was cowardly surrendered up to the parliament forces under the command of Colonel Hunt, Colonel Lloyd, and Mr. Charlton, after five days’ siege; and within less than a fortnight after all the timber of the castle, and much goods that were in it, were all consumed with fire, upon a sudden report that Sir William Vaughan was coming to surprise it.  Afterwards the stone work was pulled down, and carried to Shrewsbury for the repairing of the castle there, and the making of Rousal wall, standing on the Severn side.  The church was re-built by a voluntary collection through the county, in the year 1649.  In the meanwhile the parishioners assembled for the worship of God in the castle stables.”  The chancel of the church was rebuilt in 1722.  Oliver Cromwell, shortly after the castle was taken, ordered its destruction, at which period he dismantled and destroyed a great number of the ancient baronial fortresses.  The castle stood near to the church; the remains of it consist of mere fragments of mortar and rough stones.  It was anciently the seat of the Fitz Alans, and subsequently of the Bromleys.  It is now the property of Earl Powis, who is also a considerable owner of land in this district.  The Hall Farm House is an ancient structure, occupied by Mr. James Crane.  The farm premises have been newly erected, upon a commodious and conveniently arranged plan.  Shrawardine Castle is a modern building of red freestone, and being situated on elevated ground, commands a most delightful and picturesque view of the adjacent country.  There is a fine sheet of water, covering several acres of land, in the vicinity of the castle.  The castle farm contains 506 acres.  The farm premises are of considerable extent, most admirably arranged, and furnished with all the modern appliances for agricultural purposes.  Thomas Bowen, Esq., is now the occupant.  Joseph Jones, by his will, bearing date 30th September, 1729, reciting that he had in his hands £30 belonging to the poor of Shrawardine, which was intrusted to him by the family of Bromley, of Holt Castle, to be put out to interest, and the amount yearly expended in coals for the poor.  Mr. Jones, to secure the legacy, charged certain premises with the payment of 30s. per annum, and this amount is now paid out of an estate which was subsequently given by Mr. Jones to the poor of Atcham, subject to the above rent-charge.

Asterley John Nightingale, farmer

Baker Rev. John Norgreave

Bowen Thomas, farmer, The Castle

Bowen Even, farmer, Buckley

Bryne Edward, wheelwright

Crane James, farmer

Edwards John, parish clerk

Jones James, shopkeeper and shoemaker

Onions Mary, farmer

Plimley Henry, farmer

Price John, blacksmith

WELSH HAMPTON
is a parish and village in the Ellesmere division of the Pimhill hundred, pleasantly situated three miles east from Ellesmere.  This parish lies on the northern verge of the county, adjoining Flintshire, in Wales.  At the census in 1801, there was a population of 373 souls, in 1831, 532; and in 1841 there were 118 inhabited houses, four uninhabited, and 569 inhabitants.  The parish contains 2,970 acres of land, the soil of which is various; in some places it is highly fertile, and in other parts of an inferior quality.  The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, Charles K. Mainwaring, Esq., Mr. Samuel Reeves, Mr. Richard Thomas, Mr. James Smith, Mr. Thomas James, Joshua Lewis Menlove, Esq., Mr. Thomas Grindley, Mr. Richard Evans, Mr. William Hewes, Mr. Thomas Williams, Mr. Thomas Baleman, Sir John Hanmer, Mr. Thomas Speakman, Lord Kenyon, Mr. William Williams, Mr. William Cartwright, Mr. John Price, and Mr. William Stant; besides whom there are several other small proprietors.  The living of the church is a perpetual curacy, valued in the king’s book at £6, now returned at £139; in the patronage of Charles K. Mainwaring, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. George S. Master.

Lane Mary, schoolmistress, Hampton Wood

Lawrence Mr. Thomas, Hampton House

Master Rev. George Streyncham

Speakman Thomas, assistant overseer

Thomas John, parish clerk

Warwick Emma, schoolmistress

Windsor Mrs. Jane, Hampton Wood

Blacksmith.

Marth Clay, Hampton Wood

Boot and Shoemakers.

Dodd John

Harris Edward

Kynaston John

Ralphs Matthew

Sproston William

Stant William

Butcher.

Morgan Thomas

Carpenter and Joiner.

Hatton Thomas

Farmers.

Bowen John

Brigg John Bishop

Cooper John

Cook Mary

Downward Peter

Edge Joseph, The Roe

Grindley Mary

Harris John

Holbrook John

Hughes William

Jones John

Lewis Thomas

Lewis William

Oakley Edward

Pay John

Phillips Joseph

Price John

Speakman Thomas

Stant William

Williams Edward, The Fields

Woodall Mary

Grocers & Provision Dealers.

Davies John

Peate Edward

Inns and Taverns.

Red Lion, William Sproston

Royal Oak, Wm. Williams

Sun, Thomas Hatton

Maltsters.

Edge Joseph

Jones John

Stay Makers.

Hughes Jane

Lloyd Sarah Ann

Tailors.

Deakin Benjamin

Trevor Thomas

Wheelwrights.

Jones John

Lloyd William

Speake Thomas

THE NORTH BRADFORD HUNDRED.

The hundred of North Bradford is bounded on the north by Cheshire, on the east by Staffordshire, on the west by the hundred of Pimhill and the Albrighton division, and on the south by the hundred of South Bradford.  There is a considerable extent of land in this hundred which is highly fertile, and the cheese, which is extensively made, is said to be quite equal in quality to the celebrated Cheshire cheese in the adjoining county.  The soils are various.  The meadow lands in general produce a rich herbage, and the arable lands are seen covered with luxuriant crops of grain.  The scenery is rich and beautiful, and in some places highly picturesque.  The land in most parts is pleasingly diversified with gentle undulations, and in some places there are considerable inequalities of surface and bold swells, interspersed with rising plantations and woody scenery, which add to the beauty of the prospects.  In this hundred is found superior clay for making bricks, marl for improving the land, and peat or turf for firing.  The hundred is divided into the Drayton Division, Wem Division, and Whitchurch Division, and at the census of 1841 contained 5,428 inhabited houses, 204 uninhabited, and 26 houses building, with a population of 27,971 souls.

The Drayton Division contains the parishes and townships of Adderley, Bearstone, Betton, Betchley, Bolas Little, Cheswardine, Chipnall, Childs Ercall, Drayton Magna, Drayton Parva, Dorrington, Eaton, Goldstone, Gravenhanger, Hinstock, Hodnet (part of), Hawkstone, Hopton, Kenstone, Longslow, Losford, Longford, Marchamley, The Morrey, Moreton Say, Norton-in-Hales, Ollerton, Peplow, Sambrook (part of), Sowdley, Spoonley, Sutton, Styche and Woodlands, Stoke-upon-Tern, Woodseaves, Wollerton, Westanswick, and Woore.

The Wem Division contains the parishes and townships of Acton Reynold, Aston, Besford, Cotton, Edgbolton, Edstaston, Horton, Lacon, Lowe and Ditches, Moreton Corbet, Muckleton, Newtown, Northwood, Preston Brockhurst, Shawbury, Sleap (part of), Soulton, Tilley and Trench, Weston-under-Redcastle, Wem, Wolverley, Wytheford Magna, and Wytheford Parva.

The Whitchurch Division contains Alkington, Ash Magna, Ash Parva, Black Park, Broughall, Booley, Calverhall or Corra, Chinnell, Darliston, Dodington, Edgeley, Fauls, Harcourt, High Hatton, Hinton, Hollyhurst, Ightfield, Lee Brockhurst, Mickley, Millenheath, Moston, Prees, Tilstock, Sandford, Steel, Stanton-upon-Hine-Heath, Whitchurch, Whixall, Willaston, Woodhouses New, and Woodhouses Old.

ADDERLEY
is a parish and small rural village, four miles N.N.W. from Market Drayton, which contains 3,938a. 2r. 38p. of land, and comprehends the townships of Adderley, The Morrey, Spoonley, and part of Shavington.  In 1801 there were 365 inhabitants in the parish; in 1831, 468; and in 1841, 64 houses and 404 inhabitants.  The township of Adderley, in 1841, contained 48 houses and 297 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £3,096. 10s.  Though now an inconsiderable village, it was in early times of sufficient importance to become a market town.  In the 9th of Edward II., Bartholomew Badlesmere had a charter for keeping a market on a Thursday, at his manor of Adderley, and a fair on the eve, and the day and the morrow after the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, with the privilege of free warren.  The manor and estate were afterwards carried in marriage to William Lord Roos, who died in the Holy Land, without issue.  Thomas Lord Roos died on his journey thither.  John Lord Roos died on his journey to Jerusalem.  His son, Thomas Lord Roos, for his fidelity to the Lancasterian interest, was attainted in the parliament 1st of Edward IV., and the manor was seized by the king.  Richard Corbet, Esq., and the Earl of Kilmorey are the principal landowners.  The Church is a neat structure, dedicated to St. Peter, and consists of nave, chancel, transept, and side chapel.  The tower is dated 1732, and the body of the church was rebuilt in 1801.  On the north side is the Kilmorey chapel and family vault, the windows of which are ornamented with armorial bearings in stained glass.  There are several neat tablets in memory of this family, one of which contains the following inscription:—

Sacred to the memories of
Robert Viscount Kilmorey and Frances Viscountess Kilmorey,
daughter of Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton, Bart., of Combermere Abbey.
Their conjugal felicity, during an union of twenty-seven years,
knew no interruption, felt no decline.
The blow which severed them on earth
was mercifully healed by an early reunion in heaven;
and their mortal remains were together consigned
to the vault beneath, on the 7th day of December,
A.D. M,DCCCXVIII.

There is also a brass plate, with representations of one of the Earls of Kilmorey, his lady, and the figures of seven boys and two girls, in fine preservation, dated 1556; near to which is another brass plate, with the mutilated figure of a person in priestly vestments.  The church-yard is ornamented with several fine yew trees, and the ancient font has been placed in the church-yard, and converted into a sun dial.  The living is a rectory, in the patronage of the Cotton family, and incumbency of the Rev. William Cotton.  The Rev. Leonard Slater is the officiating curate, and resides at the Rectory; a good residence, a little north from the church.  Adderley Hall, a handsome stuccoed mansion, with centre and wings, is approached by a noble portico, and is the seat and property of Richard Corbet, Esq.  It is beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies, and stands in a well wooded park, ornamented with a fine sheet of water.

Charities.—The Rev. Robert Adams, in 1719, devised certain lands, in trust, for charitable uses, which then produced a yearly income of £13. 12s. per annum.  The donor directed £8 to be paid by the rector, vicar, and churchwardens of Muccleston, Adderley, and Drayton, alternately, on the 25th of March every year, for the setting a poor boy or girl yearly apprentice; the yearly sum of 30s. to be paid for the instruction of children in Adderley; the same sum for the like purpose in Muccleston; and the sum of 52s. to be expended in bread, and distributed to the poor who should attend divine service in the parish of Adderley.  The estate now produces a yearly income of £35. 12s.; and the whole of the clear rents, since 1815, have been applied to the charitable uses mentioned in the will.  The same person also bequeathed £20, to be placed out at interest, and distributed among the poor of the parish of Adderley.  There is no evidence to show how this legacy has been applied.

Thomas Reynolds, in 1725, devised a messuage at Walkerton, near Wybunbury, in Cheshire, to apply one moiety of the rents and profits thereof, for the benefit of the poor of Adderley; and the other moiety among the poor of Dodcot-cum-Wilksley, in the parish of Audlem.  The premises at Walkerton were subsequently sold for £1,050; and in 1814 the amount was placed in the hands of Sir Corbet Corbet, on the security of a messuage in Staffordshire-street, Market Drayton, and certain lands situated in Betton-lane, subject to redemption on the payment of £1,050, and lawful interest for the same.  The yearly sum of £42 is now received from the trustees, under the will of Sir Corbet Corbet, by the churchwardens of Adderley, and one half is transmitted to the overseers of Dodcott-cum-Wilksley; and the other moiety is distributed among the poor of this parish, in sums varying from 5s. to 10s.

Thomas Viscount Kilmorey, by will, 1766, charged his whole estate with the payment of £1 per month, to be laid out in bread, and distributed among the poor every first Sunday in the month, in the parish church of Adderley.

Thomas Clayton, in 1760, left £100, and directed the interest to be expended in bread for the benefit of the poor.  This money was invested in the purchase of £131. 7s. 3d. three per cent. consols, and the dividends, amounting to £3. 18s. 8d., are applied by the churchwardens in the purchase of bread, which is distributed every third Sunday in the month amongst seven poor widows.

Corbet Richard, Esq., Adderley Hall

Burgwin William, gardener, The Hall

Burrows Hester Maria, boarding school

Campell Archibald, farm bailiff, The Hall

Duckers John, farmer, The Lees

Groucott John, farmer

Hudson Thomas Heath, farmer

Kemp John, farmer, Pool farm

Lee Robert, shoemaker and parish clerk

Lowe John, shoemaker

Malem Thomas, farmer

Massey William, victualler, The Raven Inn

Moore George, shopkeeper and blacksmith

Moore John, farmer, Adderley Lodge

Moore Thomas, farmer

Pearce Richard, farmer

Roberts John, lime burner; Ellis Wynne, agent

Simons John, blacksmith

Slater Rev. Leonard, B.A., The Rectory

SPOONLEY,
a small township two miles N. from Market Drayton, at the census of 1841 contained 12 houses and 82 inhabitants, the acres of which are included in the return of Adderley.  Rateable value, £1,421. 1s.  Richard Corbet, Esq., is owner of the whole township, and lord of the manor.  The poor of this township participate in the benefit of the charities noticed with Adderley.  The principal residents are John Hudson, farmer, Castle Hill; William Lewis, farmer; Thomas Mulliner, farmer; and Richard Swan, farmer.

SHAVINGTON, OR THE MORREY,
is a township four miles N.W. from Market Drayton, partly in this county and partly in that of Cheshire, situated on the northern verge of Shropshire.  In 1841 there were three houses and 25 inhabitants returned as within the bounds of this county, and in the parish of Adderley.  Rateable value £1,541. 9s.; the acres are given with the parish.  The Earl of Kilmorey is owner of the land, and lord of the manor, and occasionally resides at Shavington Hall—a spacious and elegant mansion of brick, surrounded with a park richly wooded, and beautifully adorned with sylvan beauty, comprising upwards of fifteen hundred acres.  The noble owner enlarged the park, and began to enclose the whole with a brick wall several years ago—upwards of five miles of the wall has already been built; the park is about seven miles in circumference.

Directory.—The Earl of Kilmorey, Shavington Hall; John Gregory, Esq., steward, Shavington Hall; James Lunt, farmer, The Morrey; and Richard Vernon, farmer, The Morrey.

CHESWARDINE
is a parish and village delightfully situated near the N.E. verge of the county, four miles S.S.E. from Market Drayton.  The parish comprehends the townships of Cheswardine, Chipnall, Goldstone, Sambrook, and Sowdley, and contains 5,723a. 3r. 4p. of land.  In 1801 there was a population of 628 souls; 1830, 1051, and in 1841, 1015.  The township of Cheswardine contains 1,715a. 3r. 10p. of land, and in 1841 had 71 houses and 367 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,989. 10s. 9d.  In the time of King Henry II. Cheswardine was held by John L’Estrange by knight’s service, and in the 32nd of Edward I. Roger L’Estrange had the grant of a market to be held on a Monday, and a fair on the eve, the day, and the day after the translation of St. Swithin.  Sir John Mainwaring, knight, was keeper of the park of Cheswarthyn in the 13th of Edward IV.  The church is an ancient structure, dedicated to St. Swithin, and consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a tower, in which are six musical bells, which were put up, and also a new clock, about two years ago; from the summit of the tower a most extensive and beautiful prospect of the country is seen.  The clock and the bells were purchased with money raised by voluntary subscriptions, and the gallery on the west side of the church was erected at the joint expense of John Butter, of Sowdley Park; William Butter, of Chipnall, and Richard Meeson, of Little Sowdley.  There is a mural tablet in memory of the Rev. Samuel Orpe, who was vicar of this parish for 56 years; he died in 1724, aged 86 years.  A small memorial of brass remembers Gabriel Lloyd, who died in the year 1623, and another brass plate states that Richard Jervis died in the year 1688.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £5. 6s. 8d., now returned at £260, in the patronage of T. Smallwood, Esq.; the Rev. Charles Miller is the officiating curate.  This church was anciently held by the abbot of Haughmond, having been given to the Abbey by John L’Estrange in the time of Henry II.  He also gave to the abbey the mill at Cheswarthyn, with the appurtenances.  Queen Elizabeth, in the 26th of her reign, devised the tithes of the parish to Richard Corbet, Esq.  On the western verge of the parish there is an open common, covering an area of about 100 acres.  The Shropshire Union Canal intersects the parish, taking its course through some deep cuttings about a mile west from the church; on the banks of the canal there is a wharf called the Goldstone Wharf.  The National School for boys was built in 1838; there is also a girl’s school, which was erected in 1738.

Charities.—The girls’ school was originally built by Richard Smithiman, and in 1738 it was rebuilt by the parishioners.

Richard Meeson, in 1712, left the yearly sum of £4, to be applied by the ministers and churchwardens of the parish, as an additional salary to the schoolmaster there, for instructing four poor boys in the English tongue, for so many years as the minister and churchwardens should think fit.

John Sawdley left to the poor of this parish £100.  The churchwardens have been in possession of several closes at Foxbrook, in the parish of Dilhorne, in Staffordshire, from the year 1721.  Altogether there are about ten acres, and it would appear from entries in the churchwarden’s book, that this property was purchased with the legacy above mentioned, but the purchase deeds are not now in the possession of the parishioners.  The land is let at a yearly rent of £12.

Several sums of money, amounting in the whole to £172, left at different periods, and by various donors, were held by the churchwardens in trust for the poor of the parish, previous to 1754; in that year the sum of £155 was laid out in the purchase of an estate in the parish of Hinstock, comprising between eight and nine acres, which now produces a yearly income of £20.  The rents of the above two charities are received by the churchwardens, and the amount, with the produce of other charities, is given away on the Friday before the first of July, and on St. Thomas’s day, in wheat to the poor parishioners in quantities varying from two gallons to a bushel.

Richard Jervis, by will, 24th July, 1688, gave to the poor of Cheswardine parish £10, to be disposed of at the discretion of his executors.  The yearly sum of 10s. has been paid in respect of this legacy.  The last payment was made by Cresswell Pigott, Esq., as executor of Henry Z. Jervis, who was the personal representative of the donor.  For two years previous to the Charity Commissioners publishing their report nothing had been received, in consequence of a suit in the Court of Chancery having been instituted respecting the estate of Mr. Jervis.  An affidavit was sworn by one of the churchwardens in support of a claim to this legacy.

Francis Butler, by will, 1694, gave a rent charge of £2 10s. per annum for the benefit of the poor of Cheswardine parish.  The property from which this gift is payable is situate in the township of Chipnall, and was part of the estate of the late Henry Zachariah Jervis, whose property became the subject of a suit in the Court of Chancery, as already mentioned.

In the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is stated that Sarah Sambrook left 2s. 2d. per month, to be given to the poor in bread.  A distribution of bread takes place on the first Sunday in every month, in respect of this charity, and the amount, £1. 6s. per annum, is paid by the owner of Sowdley Park farm, upon which the payment appears to be charged.

In the parish books in which the distribution of charities is entered from 1721 to 1767, there is a memorandum stating that John Butter gave to the poor of this parish three dozen of bread on Good Friday, in respect of the legacy left by John Bold, of Great Sawdley.  The last entry to this effect is in 1760, and we have not met with any proof of bread having been distributed on Good Friday since that time.

William Goodall, who died in 1808, left £10 to the poor of the parish, and John Goodall, who died in 1826, left the like sum for the same purpose; 20s., the interest of these legacies, are expended in bread and given amongst the most deserving poor.

There is an estate in Sowdley, the rents of which have been applied from time immemorial in aid of the church rate.  The estate consists of two closes called Denway Croft and Ames Field, and two other closes containing altogether about eight acres and a half, which is let at a yearly rental of £14. 14s.  There are also two cottages, with gardens, let by the overseers for the use of poor persons, at the yearly rental of £3.  The rents are applied in aid of the church rates, and in paying the interest of £150 borrowed towards the erection of the new church.

Post Office.—At Mr. Henry Bates.

Arkinstall William, tailor

Bate Edwin, butcher

Bate Henry, parish clerk and schoolmaster

Bayley Mr. Edward, surgeon, &c.

Beeston James, grocer and druggist

Beeston William, maltster & beerhouse keepr

Boffey Samuel, tailor

Challenor John, corn miller

Cooper George, shoemaker

Edge Samuel, beerhouse keeper & maltster

Goodall John, farmer

Green Samuel, draper and tea dealer

Hoole John, farmer

Hudson Thomas, Esq., Cheswardine Hill Hall

Hughes Theodore Alfred, plumber & glazier

Hurst Mr. John

James George, wheelwright

Lamford James, shoemaker

Lea James, shopkeeper

Marsh George, farmer

Miller Rev. Charles, curate, The Vicarage

Nagginton James, farmer

Nicholas Abraham Barlow, shopkeeper

Pearce James, shoemaker

Pointer Edward, farmer

Ratcliffe Mr., farmer

Spender William, farmer, Haywood

Shropshire John, farmer and butcher

Shropshire William, tailor

Turnbull Mr. John, builder and victualler, Fox and Hounds

Wakefield Thomas, farmer

Walker Mr. John

Whilton Matthew, farmer, Haywood

Whittaker Henry, saddler

Wild John, farmer

Williams William, blacksmith

CHIPNALL, OR CHIPPENHALL,
is a township and village in the parish of Cheswardine, four miles N.E. from Market Drayton.  At the census of 1841 there were 30 houses and 70 inhabitants.  The township contains 1,309a. 0r. 10p. of land, which is the property of Thomas Hudson, Esq.  Rateable value, £1,615. 15s. 11d.

The principal residents in Chipnall township are William Adams, farmer, Lipley; Joseph Duckers, farmer, Chipnall Hall; James Goodall, farmer and beerhouse keeper; John Moreton, farmer, Lipley; Matthew Plant, farmer and corn miller; John Taylor, blacksmith; Thomas Birbeck Wakefield, farmer, Lipley; Henry Yates, farmer.

ELLERTON
township is situated three miles from Cheswardine church, and contains 448a. 2r. 0p. of land, the whole of which is the property of Robert Masefield, Esq.  At the census in 1841 there was no separate return for Ellerton as a distinct township, but the inhabitants were included in the returns for Cheswardine.  Ellerton Hall, a handsome modern mansion, the residence of Robert Masefield, Esq., was built in 1836, on the site of an ancient house composed of timber and plaster.  The hall is delightfully situated on an acclivity near the verge of the county, and commands a beautiful prospect of great extent over the counties of Salop and Stafford.  The county is here separated from Staffordshire by a small stream, which meanders in the front of the hall.  Not far from the hall is a fine sheet of water, which covers upwards of six acres, near to which is a corn mill.  Rateable value of the township, £732. 4s. 1d.

The residents are Robert Masefield, Esq., Ellerton Hall, John Challenor, farmer and corn miller; and William Challenor, farmer.

GOLDSTON
is a township and small village pleasantly situated on the declivity of a hill about a mile and a half west by south from Cheswardine church.  The township contains 452a. 1r. 16p. of land, and at the census of 1841 there were 14 houses and 75 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £598. 1s. 6d.  There are only three farms in this township, two of which are the property of William Vardon, Esq., and the other is possessed by Mrs. Charlotte Masefield.  Goldston Hall is a neat brick house, the occasional residence of William Vardon, Esq.  Near to the hall is an antique house, chiefly composed of timber and plaster, which was most probably erected about the middle of the fifteenth century; it is now the residence of Mr. Alfred Holden, farmer.  On the banks of the Shropshire union canal, which passes about half a mile from the village, there is a wharf where coal is sold, called the Goldston wharf.

The resident farmers in this township are Thomas Beeston, Alfred Holden, and Ann Lea; William Vardon, Esq., The Hall; Thomas Finn, gardener to W. Vardon, Esq.

SAMBROOK
is a small rural village, partly in the parish of Cheswardine, and partly in that of Chetwynd, three and a half miles south from Cheswardine, and three miles north from Chetwynd church.  At the census of 1841 there were 22 houses and 96 inhabitants in the former parish, and 15 houses and 80 inhabitants in the latter.  John Charles Burton Boroughs, Esq., is the principal landowner; Dr. Swanwick is also a proprietor.  A small chapel of ease was erected here in the year 1839.  The turnpike road from Newport to Market Drayton intersects the township; and at Stamford Bridge there is a respectable inn, kept by Mr. Cordwell.

Directory.—Thomas Beddall, mason; John Cordwell, timber merchant, Oak Cottage; Thomas Cordwell, timber merchant and vict., Talbot Inn, Stamford Bridge; Thomas Dix, blacksmith; Joseph Goodwin, blacksmith and beerhouse keeper; William Jones, farmer; Joseph Lockley, wheelwright; Miss Stanley, The Cottage; George Stokes, farmer; Joseph Wainwright, farmer.

SOWDLEY GREAT
is a township and scattered village in the parish of Cheswardine, situated about three quarters of a mile south-east from the church.  The township contains 1,497a. 3r. 22p. of land, and in 1841 there were 75 houses and 333 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,280. 3s. 8d.  The principal landowners are Robert Masefield, Esq.; Thomas Addison, Esq.; George Addison, Esq.; Mr. Thomas Buckley; Mr. William Buckley; Mr. William Manley; Mr. Stanley; and Mr. William Brian.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel in Great Sowdley, built in the year 1837, on land given by Mr. John Butterton.  The poor of the several townships in this parish participate in the general charities noticed with the township of Cheswardine.

Allen Sarah, farmer

Arkinstall Henry, farmer

Ashley John, farmer, Little Sowdley

Beeston Joseph, tailor

Benbow James, farmer, Sowdley park

Brian William, farmer

Buckley Thomas, shopkeeper

Hamner George, farmer

Hayward John, carpenter, wheelwright, and beerhouse keeper, Hopshort

Hazledine Thomas, farmer, Sowdley park

Hughes James, shoemaker, Hopshort

Jackson Thomas, farmer

Lea John, farmer

Lee Philip, farmer, Little Sowdley

Pointon George, farmer

Robinson William, beerhouse

Simkin Thomas, farmer, Little Sowdley

Stanley Henry, farmer, Hanwood House

Swinnerton William, blacksmith and farmer

Walton John, farmer

Whittall John, schoolmaster

Worrall John, farmer

Worrall William, brickmaker

DRAYTON-IN-HALES, OR MARKET DRAYTON,
is a parish and considerable market town, in the Drayton division of the North Bradford Hundred, 153 miles N.W. by N. from London, 19 miles N.E. by N. from Shrewsbury, 11 miles N. from Newport, and 12 miles S.E. from Whitchurch.  The town is pleasantly situated on the north-east extremity of the county, and is watered by the river Tern.  It is a place of great antiquity; and, according to Nennius, was one of the principal cities of the ancient Britons.  From the discovery of foundations, and other traces of buildings in the fields adjoining the town, it is probable that its extent was once more considerable than at present; and though no coins, pavements, or other monuments of antiquity have been discovered here, it is nevertheless strongly conjectured that this town was the Roman Station, Mediolanum.  It is still a place of importance, and the head of a division of the county, in which the petty sessions are held.  It contains several good inns, and many respectable shops in all the different branches of the retail trade.  There are three firms engaged in the manufacture of hair seating, which together employ about two hundred operatives.  The manufacture of paper was formerly carried on to some extent, but was discontinued about five years ago.  Here is a tannery, ironfoundery, and agricultural implements are extensively made.  The various handicraft trades, in which a considerable number of the population are employed, will be seen on reference to the directory.  The general traffic of this locality is facilitated by the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal, which passes on the eastern side of the town.  Drayton is twice mentioned in the Domesday survey, and it was then held by knights’ service under Earl Roger.  In the 30th of Henry III. the Abbot of Combermere had a grant of a market here on a Wednesday, and a fair on the eve, the day, and the day after the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The market is still held on Wednesdays, and numerously attended by the farmers who reside in the surrounding district, when considerable quantities of grain are sold.  Fairs are held on the first Wednesday in February, Wednesday before Palm Sunday, first Wednesday in May, Wednesday before June 22nd, first Wednesday in August, September 19th, October 24th, and the last Wednesday in November.  The parish comprehends the townships of Betton, Drayton Magna, Drayton Parva, Longslow, Sutton and Woodseaves, in this county; it also extends into the Pirehill hundred, in the county of Stafford, and is divided into four quarters for parochial purposes, viz.:—Church quarter, containing Drayton Magna and Drayton Parva; the north quarter, containing Betton, Ridgewardine, and Tunstall; south quarter, Longslow, Sutton, and Woodseaves; and Tirley quarter, containing Almington, Blore, Hales, and Tirley.  The entire parish, in 1801, contained a population of 3,162 souls; 1831, 3,882; and in 1841, 4,680 souls.  It embraces 7,726a. 3r. 11p. of land.  The township of Drayton Magna contains 678a. 2r. 35p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had 361 houses and 1,699 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Richard Corbet, Esq., P. Sillitoe, Esq., the Earl of Powis, William Church Norcop, Esq., Thomas Whitfield, Esq., and John E. Wilson, Esq.  The former is lord of the manor, and impropriator of the rectoral tithes, which are commuted for £51. 5s. 9d.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £40. 19s. 9d.  Drayton Parva is a populous district, forming a western suburb to the town, chiefly consisting of cottage residences, many of which are small, ill-ventilated, and have a miserable appearance.  At the census of 1841 there were 352 houses and 1,462 inhabitants.  The township contains 520a. 2r. 32p. of land.  Among the principal landowners are Thomas Whitfield, Esq., and Mr. Brocklehurst.  Richard Corbet, Esq., and Peter Broughton, Esq., are joint lords of the manor.  Mr. Benjamin Beeston, Mr. William Godwin, and Mr. Samuel Swinnerton, are also landowners; besides whom there are upwards of one hundred and fifty small freeholders.  Little Drayton Common, containing 97a. 0r. 36p., was enclosed in 1850, when five acres were allotted for the site of the new church, the parsonage, and the burial ground.  The rectoral tithes have been commuted for £54. 19s. 7d., and the vicarial for £21. 13s. 1d.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a massive structure, void of architectural beauty, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a castellated tower, supported by butresses.  It was built in the reign of King Stephen, and underwent a complete reparation in 1786, when it was stripped of its gothic honours.  But little of the original structure remains; the pillars and arches which separate the nave from the side aisles are undoubtedly the most ancient part of the building.  The approach is at the west end, under a tower, by a Norman doorway, ornamented in the zig-zag style; the ornaments and clustered pillars are, however, much corroded by time.  The tower, with the exception of a small portion at the bottom, appears to have been wholly rebuilt.  On a beam in the belfry there is the date 1590, but there is no historical record to show that the tower was rebuilt in that year.  There are six musical bells; the tenor bell, weighing 17½ cwt., was added about five years ago.  The interior is spacious and lofty, and provided with commodious galleries.  Upon the gallery at the west end is a small organ.  Each side aisle is divided from the nave by five pointed arches rising from octagonal pillars, the ornamental portions of which have been defaced.  In the centre aisle is a capacious font, of an octagonal form.  The east window is richly beautified with stained glass, which was added about twenty-five years ago, at the expense of Sir Andrew Corbet.  An antique tablet remembers Dame Anne Corbet, who died in 1682, aged 80 years.  “She was the mother of ten sons and ten daughters, whereof seventeen lived to be men and women.”  The walls of the chancel and side aisles are ornamented with numerous other tablets in memory of members of some of the principal families resident in this neighbourhood, but which our limits will not allow us to notice; several of modern erection are very beautifully designed.  There was a chantery in this church, founded by Ralph de Basset in the 14th of Edward I., for three chaplains, who had three acres of land here.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £12. 10s. 7½d., now returned at £173, in the patronage of Richard Corbet, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. James Lee, M.A.  The Vicarage, a neat residence a little west from the church, was erected in 1837, at a cost of £1,000, by the present incumbent.  The old vicarage stood near the west end of the church, and was taken down when the present edifice was built.  The site and the garden, measuring about half an acre, were sold by the vicar to the parishioners for the sum of £400, and were added to the church-yard.  The church stands considerably elevated, and is a conspicuous and imposing object when seen from the Newport road, the southern approach to the town.  The church-yard commands a fine prospect towards the south.  Immediately before you is an abrupt declevity, with cottages nestling under the cliff; the meanderings of the Tern water the fertile meadows beneath; and on the opposite acclivity is seen the beautiful seat of Purney Sillitoe, Esq., embosomed in thriving plantations with a fine extent of richly-wooded country extending into Staffordshire.

The New Church, situated on Little Drayton Common, is dedicated to our Saviour, and was built in 1846.  It is a neat structure, in the early English style of architecture, with nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a tower at the north-west corner.  The interior has a chaste and pleasing appearance, and will accommodate about six hundred worshippers.  The sittings are uniform in character, and are all free, with the exception of forty.  The total cost of the structure was £2,600, of which Mrs. Nonelly gave the munificent sum of £500, and a like sum towards the erection of a residence for the minister.  The parsonage stands a little south from the church, and was built in 1847, on the five acres of land given for the site of the church and parsonage.  About an acre and a half has been enclosed for a burial ground, and the rest is appropriated as gardens and pleasure grounds to the parsonage.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Drayton; incumbent, Rev. Edward Cheere, M.A.  The district of this church comprises Little Drayton, the township of Sutton, and part of Woodseaves.

The Independent Chapel, a plain brick structure, situated in Back-lane, was built in the year 1778.  It is neatly fitted up and provided with galleries.  The congregation had no settled pastor when our agent visited Drayton.

The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, situated in Shropshire-street, within the bounds of the township of Little Drayton, was built in the year 1808.  The structure is plain, is provided with a gallery, and will accommodate between four and five hundred people.

The Baptist Chapel, a small structure, situate at Little Drayton, has a residence attached.  There is no baptist minister residing here, but members of this persuasion meet for worship every alternate Sunday.

The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel, situated a little back from Cheshire-street.  This is the only place of worship in the town,—too small for the number of hearers who attend religious service.  It is expected a new chapel will shortly be built.

The Free Grammar School, situated on the south-east side of the church yard, was founded by Sir Rowland Hill, in 1554, who charged the manor at Wellington Hey, with the lands thereto belonging, with the payment of £22 per annum, for the support of the said school.  The churchwardens of the parish were incorporated governors of the school, and were directed to pay twenty marks yearly out of the above sum to the master, to the usher £6. 13s. 4d., and the yearly sum of 40s. residue thereof should be kept as a fund for the reparations of the school.  The governors covenanted for themselves and their successors that the hall or tenement on the south side of the church yard at Drayton, commonly called St. Mary’s Hall, wherein a grammar school was then kept, or such other house as should be thereafter erected on the site, should be for ever used for the said grammar school.  The school was to be free for all children whose parents should place them there for learning to read English, the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and that neither the master nor the usher should agree for any recompense for such instruction.  Sir Thomas Lake, in 1662, gave a rent charge issuing out of certain lands in the parish of Baschurch, amounting to £9. 19s. per annum, £6. 12s. 8d. thereof to the schoolmaster, and £3. 6s. 4d. to the usher.  By an order in the Court of Chancery made 22nd January, 1816, on a petition presented by the governors it was ordered that the offices of master and usher should be consolidated, and that the office of usher should be abolished.  That the governors should be at liberty to expend a sum not exceeding £191 in repairing the school house and other buildings belonging to the school; and that such sum should be raised by a mortgage of the said premises.  That the governors should let the house then occupied by the usher.  That a salary of £25 should be paid to the master, and that the residue of the annual revenues of the school should be applied in discharge of the principal money to be borrowed for the said repairs, and of the necessary repairs that might from time to time be wanted.  The income of the school consists of the two rent charges above mentioned, and £7 per annum arising from the rent of the house formerly occupied by the usher.  Out of the income amounting to £38 19s. there is paid a salary of £25 to the master, £9. 2s. as interest on the £182 laid out in the repairs of the school premises, and some small sums annually for repairs and incidental expenses.  The Rev. Charles Cooke, M.A., is the master.

The Parochial and National School is a neat brick structure in the Elizabethan style of architecture, situated on a bold eminence a short distance west from the church.  It was built in the year 1835, and is supported by annual subscriptions, and small weekly payments received from the children.  There are one hundred and sixty boys and one hundred and thirty girls now educated in the school.  William Scott is the teacher.

The Market Drayton Poor-law Union comprehends twelve parishes, embracing 61,637 acres of land, and an area of 91 square miles, with a population returned at the census of 1841 of 13,925 souls.  The Union House, situated in Shropshire-street, was formerly used as the parish workhouse; it was enlarged by the poor-law guardians in the year 1839; the average number of inmates is usually about one hundred.  A new Union House will shortly be built upon Little Drayton Common, which will accommodate about 350 inmates.  The district comprised within the union is the same as that of the county court, the several places of which are stated here below:—Chairman of the Guardians: Thomas Twemlow, Esq.  Vice Chairman: Walter Minor, Esq.  Clerks: Messrs. Wilkinsons.  Chaplain: Rev. Robert Upton.  Surgeons: William W. Saxton, Market Drayton district; John Hopkins, Moreton Say district; John Walmsley, Hodnet district; Edward Bayley, Cheswardine district; and Michael Ryan, Ashley district.  Master: William Crutchley.  Matron: Mary Crutchley.  Schoolmistress: Martha Crutchley.

The County Court Offices, situated in Cheshire-street, is a neat structure of brick with stone finishings, and was built in the year 1850, at the expense of Joseph Loxdale Warren, Esq.  The lower part of the building is used as offices for the despatch of business connected with the county court, and above is a large room capable of holding upwards of 400 people, which is used for magisterial purposes.  The court embraces within its jurisdiction the following townships and places, viz.:—Adderley, Almington, Ashley, Aston, Bearston, Betchley, Betton, Blore, Bolas Parva, Cheswardine, Childs Ercall, Chipnall, Dorrington, Drayton Magna, Drayton Parva, Eaton, Ellerton, Goldstone, Gravenhanger, Hales, Hinstock, Hodnet, Hopton and Espley, Howle, Hungary Hatton, Kenstone and Hopley, Knighton, Langford, Longslow, Losford, Marchamley, Moreton Say, Muckleston, Norton-in-Hales, Ollerton, Peplow, Pickstock, Sambrook, Shavington, Sowdley, Spoonley, Stoke-upon-Tern, Stych and Woodlands, Sutton, Tittenley, Wistanswick, Woodseaves, Woolerton, and Woore.  Judge: Uvedale Corbett, Esq.  Clerk: Joseph Loxdale Warren, Esq., The Lodge.  Bailiff: Mr. William Darbyshire Green, Cheshire-st.

Petty Sessions are held on the last Saturday in every month, in the spacious room above the county court offices, when prisoners are committed to Shrewsbury or Stafford, as the case may occur, in which county the offence is committed, the magistrates having jurisdiction in both counties.

The Police Office is situated in Cheshire-street nearly opposite the county court office.  It was built in 1850, and has two cells, where prisoners are confined before committal by the magistrates.  In which case they are sent to Shrewsbury if the offence has been committed in this county, and to Stafford if committed in Staffordshire.  Attached to the cells is a residence for the constable; William Hemming is the police officer.

The Market Drayton Society for the Acquirement of Useful Knowledge was established in September, 1850.  The objects of the institution are to extend to all classes aid for cultivating, and occasion for exercising their mental powers; to afford to its members the powerful advantages and incitement of association for prosecuting their several studies in the various branches of useful knowledge, and to secure to them opportunity for engaging in such pursuits as shall tend to their moral as well as intellectual advancement.  For these objects the society has taken convenient premises situate in the beast market; classes for mutual improvement have been formed, a library and news room have been established, and it is intended to have lectures on natural and experimental philosophy, and the fine arts, as occasion may occur; the news room is furnished with the principal London and provincial journals and the most popular periodicals of the day; and the library, although only recently established, contains many valuable and standard works.  Persons are admitted to all the privileges of the institution on the payment of 8s. per annum.  An annual subscription of 21s. per annum constitutes an honorary member, and any person giving the sum of £10. 10s., or books, or apparatus to that amount, or a course of not less than ten lectures, is considered an honorary member for life.  The honorary members have the exclusive use of the reading room from nine o’clock in the morning till six o’clock in the evening.  The institution has the patronage and active support of the principal gentry and clergy of the town and neighbourhood.  Patrons: Henry Bayley Clive, Esq., M.P.; John Whitehall Dod, Esq., M.P.  President: Thomas Twemlow, Esq.  Treasurer: W. M. Wilkinson, Esq.  Secretary: Mr. William Crutchley.

A News Room has been established by the gentry and tradesmen in the town, at Mrs. Barnett’s, High-street.  It is supported by subscriptions of 21s. per annum.

The Gas Works are situated in the outskirts of the southern side of the town, near the river Tern; they were established by a company of shareholders, who reside in Staffordshire, and the town is expected to be lighted with gas during the autumn of the present year (1851).

Provident Societies.—There are in this town several societies or clubs, the members of which pay small contributions to their respective funds, from which they are relieved in case of sickness, infirmity, or superannuation, and from which the friends of deceased members receive a sufficient sum for their decent interment.  Among these are the Market Drayton Tradesmen Club, and the fraternities or sacred Orders of Oddfellows, M.U.; Ancient Forresters, and Female Societies, &c.

The Grove is a handsome brick mansion, a quarter of a mile east from the church, the residence and property of John E. Wilson, Esq.—Spring Fields, a good house a little west from the church, situated on elevated ground, commands fine prospects of the country, and is the residence and property of Thomas Whitfield, Esq.

Near this town, during the desolating wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, a desperate conflict took place at Blore Heath, on the borders of Staffordshire, which proved very disastrous to numbers of the Cheshire gentry, and many of the principal families of the adjoining district.  The battle took place on the 23rd of September, 1459, when Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, commanded the forces of the white rose, and had an army of 5,000 men encamped on a hill near Market Drayton.  He was opposed by James Touchet, Lord Audley, on the part of the red rose, with an army of 10,000.  Though so disproportionate in numbers, the army of Salisbury proved victorious: 2,400 men are said to have been slain in this bloody conflict, together with their brave and loyal chief, who fell by the hand of Robert Kynaston, Esq., of Hordley, a zealous partizan of the house of York.  In a field adjoining the turnpike road from Market Drayton to Newcastle, a stone has been set up to mark the spot where Lord Audley fell.  What rendered the battle more calamitous was, that the principal families ranged nearly in equal numbers on the side of each of the contending parties.  The old English poet, Michael Drayton, in his “Polyalbion,” represents the conflict as partaking of the form of a duel, in which one relative falls a sacrifice to the resentment of the other:—

“There Dutton Dutton kills; a Done doth kill a Done;
A Booth a Booth; and Leigh by Leigh is overthrown;
A Venables against a Venables doth stand,
A Troutbeck fighteth with a Troutbeck hand to hand;
There Molineux doth make a Molineux to die,
And Egerton the strength of Egerton doth try.
O Cheshire! wert thou mad of thine own native gore,
So much until this day thou never shedd’st before;
Above two thousand men upon the earth were thrown,
Of whom the greater part were naturally thine own.”

Thomas Whitfield, Esq., of Drayton, has in his possession the crest of the Egertons, a sword handle, and a brass stirrup, richly ornamented and in good preservation, which were found about thirty years ago on the field of battle.  During the struggles between Charles I. and the parliament, a skirmish took place in the neighbourhood of Drayton, between the King’s party, under the command of Prince Rupert, and the parliamentary forces under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax, when the royal cause gained a temporary success.

The Market Drayton Savings’ Bank, on November 20th, 1850, had a capital stock of £29,004. 3s., invested with the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, at which period there were 866 separate accounts, of which ten were charitable societies, with deposits amounting to £260. 12s. 1d.; and ten friendly societies, with deposits amounting to £1,706. 2s. 6d.  Of the total number of deposits, there were 449 whose respective balances did not exceed £20; 218 were above £20 and not exceeding £50; 109 above £50 and not exceeding £100; 36 above £100 and not exceeding £150; and 29 between that sum and £200.  John Moore is the secretary.

Charities.—Frances Hill, in 1557, gave a rent charge of 29s. per annum, out of premises in Castle Donnington, and directed 2s. to be paid yearly to the vicar or priest of Drayton to say mass in the parish church, or such divine service as should be lawful to be observed there; 8d. to the parish clerk, and 16d. to the bell ringers; 2s. 8d. for two wax tapers; 8d. to her heirs for the trouble of payment; and the residue to be given to the poorest inhabitants of Drayton.  Out of this gift 2s. is paid to the minister, 2s. to the clerk, and to the two churchwardens 8d. each, and the remainder is distributed among the poor, in groats, on Trinity Sunday.

Elizabeth Wetenhall, by her will, bearing date 19th December, 1693, devised to Robert Clive and John Gardner, and their heirs, two parcels of land at Drayton, called the Gallow Tree Field and the Clay Pits, which then produced a rental of £6. 16s. per annum; also a yearly rent of £4, issuing out a messuage and lands at Winstanwick; and a yearly rent of 8s. 4d. out of a farm at Childs Ercall.  And she also bequeathed to the same persons £60, to be laid out in the purchase of land, or a rent charge, and out of the yearly proceeds, £4 to be paid in apprenticing one poor boy of the parish of Drayton to some useful trade; 40s. to be equally distributed among forty poor widows, or old decayed workmen of Drayton; 20s. to the vicar of the parish, provided he should preach a sermon on St. Thomas’s day; £6. to be paid to Gabriel Wetenhall and George Dodd, and their heirs and assignees; £4 for the purpose of putting forth a poor boy of the parish of Audlem, in Cheshire, apprentice; and 40s. to be distributed among forty of the poorest widows or decayed labourers of the said parish.  In 1811, an information was filed against Robert Farbeck and Samuel Redshaw, as the representatives of the co-heiresses of Robert Clive, the surviving trustee, and against Richard Grant, who acted as the trustee of the charity by the attorney-general, at the relation of the Rev. William Cotton and others.  On the 21st of July, 1848, a new scheme for the administration of the charity and distribution of the income thereof, was made, and certain trustees appointed.  In this scheme the trustees are ordered, after paying any expenses incident to the administration of the charity, to divide the income into thirteen parts, and apply the same in the following manner, viz., four-thirteenths thereof in apprenticing a poor boy of the parish of Drayton, selected by the majority of the trustees; two-thirteenths to be distributed in money, or laid out in the purchase of coals, blankets, provisions, or clothing, at the discretion of the trustees, and distributed among forty poor widows, and old decayed workmen of the parish of Drayton; one-thirteenth to be paid to the vicar of Drayton, provided he shall have preached, or cause to be preached, two sermons on St. Thomas’s day, in Drayton church; four-thirteenths in apprenticing poor boys of the parish of Audlam, in Cheshire; and the remaining two thirteenths to be distributed in money or clothes, among forty poor widows or decayed labourers of the said parish of Audlem.  From certain technicalities not yet complied with by the legal gentlemen, and which few can see the reasonableness of but a lawyer, the charity yet remains in abeyance.  The accumulations amount to upwards of £1,400, out of which between £400 and £500 had been expended in the prosecution of the suit up to December, 1850.  The trustees appointed for the administration of the charity by the attorney-general, July, 1848, are the Rev. George Pitt; Richard Corbet, Esq.; Henry Clive, Esq.; William Tayleur, Esq.; Thomas Twemlow, Esq.; William Wilkinson, Esq.; and Richard Grant, Esq.

John Wright left the yearly sum of 10s., to be given in bread on the feast of St. John the Baptist, and the feast of St. John the Evangelist: he also left the like sum yearly for the poor of Tyrley quarter.  In respect of this charity, 20s. per annum is received from certain premises at Stoke-upon-Tern, which is applied according to the donor’s intentions.  Lawrence Thompson left 20s. per annum to the poor of Drayton, to be given on St. Lawrence’s day.  Ralph Kendrirk gave an annual sum of 20s. to the poor, and Mr. Cooke, a yearly sum of 3s. 4d.  These several sums are carried to the poor’s account, and bread distributed to the amount on New Year’s Day.

The Rev. Richard Price, by will 1730, devised certain lands and houses in and near Drayton to the poor of Drayton and Hodnet; viz., £5 per annum, for a distribution of bread every Lord’s-day, and the remainder for the schooling of poor children of each place.  The premises now held by the parish officers of Drayton, as derived from the Rev. R. Price, consist of a building in Little Drayton, formerly used as a poor house.  This building was probably erected upon the site of the five messuages conveyed in trust by the Rev. R. Price; but it does not appear how the parish of Drayton became entitled to the whole, as part was allotted to the parish of Hodnet.  The are also two pieces of land, called the Town Field and Crab Tree Field, and a small plot of land in Longslow lane, which produce a yearly rental altogether of £19. 11s.  This sum is carried to the general account, kept by the churchwardens, entitled the Poors’ Account.

John Bill left £240, the interest to be disposed of in the Shropshire part of the parish.  In 1781 the sum of £240 was lent to Thomas H. Alcock, on his bond, but he subsequently failing, a dividend of £106 was received from the bankrupt’s estate.  In 1819 a sum of £190 was advanced by the churchwardens for the repairs of the Grammar School, for which interest was to be paid at the rate of five per cent.  It is stated in a memorandum, entered in the churchwardens’ book, that £118, part of this money was left by Mr. Bill for the purpose of a charity school in Little Drayton, and apprenticing poor children, at the discretion of the churchwardens.  Interest is now paid on £182 from the school funds, and the amount is carried to the poors’ account; but it may be observed, that in the application of those funds, only £4 is disposed of annually for the education of poor children of Little Drayton, which sum falls short of the income of Price’s charity before mentioned, which is also applicable to this purpose, and nothing whatever is applied in binding out apprentices.

It appears from a schedule of benefactions, that a great number of legacies have been left for the benefit of the poor of this parish.  Among the donors is Stephen Denstone, who gave £100 in 1705, and directed the yearly produce to be distributed among the poorest widows and housekeepers of Great and Little Drayton.  Richard Heeley gave £100, and directed half the interest to be expended in bread, and the other half as the minister and churchwardens of Drayton should think fit.  Margaret Blest gave £50, the interest to be distributed among fifty poor housekeepers.  Various other legacies, 36 in number, amounting in the whole, with the above gifts, to £577. 13s. 4d., have been laid out at different periods in the purchase of land, situate at Hinstock, Ightfield, Drayton, and Cheswardine.  The income derived from these rents, with the interest on the money laid out on the school, amounting altogether to £114. 11s., is carried to one account, with the produce of other charities, entitled the “Poors’ Account;” and after defraying some few incidental expenses, there is paid thereout the following sums:—£7 in sums of 6d. each on St. Stephen’s day; £2. 10s. in small sums on St. Margaret’s day; bread to the amount of 5s. for the poor of Tyrley; bread to the amount of 19s. to the poor of Drayton on Easter Sunday; £4 to a schoolmistress; 2s. worth of bread is given away every Sunday, amounting to £5. 4s. per annum; and 5s. worth is given in addition on one Sunday in every month, amounting to £3; making a total of £22. 18s.  The residue of these funds is applied principally in purchasing blankets and clothing, which are given to poor persons of the parish who have met with accidents or occasional distress, in sums of money, varying from 6d. to 5s.  We cannot but observe that the small sums given away on St. Stephen’s and St. Margaret’s days, as applications are made to the churchwardens, appear to be too small to be of any real benefit to the parties receiving them.

The Rev. Robert Adams, in 1719, devised certain lands at Winnington upon trust to pay £13. 12s. yearly (the then value thereof) as follows:—£8 to the rector, vicar, and churchwardens of Muccleston, Drayton, and Adderley, alternately, on the 25th of March, every year, for putting forth a poor boy or girl apprentice; 30s. for the education of poor children in Adderley, and a like sum for educational purposes at Muccleston; and the sum of 52s. residue thereof to be expended in bread for the poor of Adderley.  The estate is now let for £35. 12s. per annum, and the rents are applied to the charitable uses above mentioned.

Clara Church, by will 1753, bequeathed £150, and directed the officiating minister to distribute 2s. weekly, except in the months of June, July, and August, among poor people frequenting the church on prayer days, and who should come into the church at the beginning, and behave with decency during the time of divine service; to pay 16s. to the minister for visiting poor sick people in the parish, and distribute the residue of the interest among poor members of society visited with sickness.  It appears that the amount of Mrs. Church’s legacy was not invested in the funds until December, 1823, when £174 was laid out in the purchase of certain stock in the four per cent. annuities.  In 1825 part of the stock, and of another sum of £21. 4s., purchased with a legacy of £20 left by J. Grosvenor, for an addition to the organist’s salary, appear to have been improperly sold out, so as to leave £150 stock for this charity, and £20 stock for the organist.  The dividends of the £150 stock amount to £5. 5s. per annum; and during forty weeks in the year 2s. are regularly distributed to the poor, and the sum of 16s. per annum is paid to the vicar.  The residue of the dividends is appropriated with the proceeds of the church rate.

Joseph Williams, by will 1796, bequeathed to the minister and churchwardens of Drayton £250, invested in the four per cent. consols, to pay out of the yearly dividends the sum of 20s. to the minister of the parish, for preaching a sermon on Midsummer day; 5s. each to twenty poor widows or widowers, and twelve pennyworth of bread, on Midsummer day; to the ringers, to ring from six to eight o’clock on the same day, 15s.; to an eligible person for receiving the dividends and paying the same to the parish officers, 10s.; to the clerk of the parish, for keeping an inscription of his donations clean, 5s.; and 30s. to the overseers, for distributing his donations.  He also gave a further sum of £20 to have an inscription placed in Drayton church, containing the above donations.  The dividends, amounting to £8. 15s. per annum, are received by the churchwardens, and applied in the proportions directed by the testator.

Mrs. Lawrence left £500 in the five per cents, to purchase coals to be distributed to the poor inhabitants of the parish during the winter season; and she left a further sum of £100, the interest thereof for the Sunday school of the established church.  In respect of the first legacy, there is £525 new four per cents, the dividends of which, amounting to £20 per annum, are received by the churchwardens, and laid out in coals, which are sold to the poor at about 3d. per cwt. under the cost price; and the produce of the sale is laid out in like manner, till the fund is exhausted.  The interest of the sum of £100 is applied for the benefit of the Sunday school.

Sophia Grosvenor, in 1816 bequeathed £100, and directed the amount to be invested in government security, and the dividends distributed among the poor of Drayton.  Lucina Riddlesden bequeathed £100, and directed the yearly proceeds to be applied in the purchase of warm stockings and shoes, to be given among poor boys and girls who should attend the National School.  These two gifts, after deducting the legacy duty, were invested in the purchase of £200 three and a half per cent. stock, which now stands in the names of certain trustees, and of the dividends, amounting to £7 per annum, £3. 10s. is divided among twenty-eight poor old persons, men and women, belonging to the parish; the remaining £3. 10s. is laid out according to the donor’s intentions, in worm stockings and shoes.

Charles-Grooby, by his will bearing date 6th October, 1810, gave to Sir Corbet Corbet, the Rev. William Judgson, and the vicar and churchwardens of Drayton, £1,200 three per cent. bank annuities, upon trust that they should lay out the dividends on the 7th of May, yearly, being the birth day of the testator, towards clothing six poor men and six poor women of the parish of Drayton.  The sum of £1,200 stock now stands in the names of certain trustees, and the dividends, amounting to £36 per annum, are received by the churchwardens, and they provide clothing to that amount, which they divide among six poor men and twelve poor women of the parish of Drayton.

Post Office.—At Mr. Richard Grant’s, Beast Market.  Letters arrive from the Whitmore railway station at a quarter past four o’clock in the morning, and are despatched at half-past nine in the evening.

Adams Richard, draper and silk mercer, (Adams and Powell) Shropshire street

Adams & Powell, linen and woollen drapers, silk mercers and hatters, Shropshire street

Allen John, tailor, Beast market

Andrews George, gentleman, Stafford street

Arkinstall Mr. John, The Sitch

Arkinstall the Misses, boarding school, Shropshire street

Arkinstall William, tailor, Shropshire street

Barker John, butcher, Beast market

Barnett John, vict., Wheat Sheaf, Old wharf

Barnett Lydia, spirit vaults, High street

Barnett Martha, vict., George Inn, Beast mrkt

Barratt Thomas, builder & timber merchant, Stafford street

Basford Joseph, gardener, Tinkers’ lane

Bate Mary, shopkeeper, Shropshire street

Beeston Mr. Benjamin, Summer hill

Bennion Thomas Platt, bookseller, printer, stationer, bookbinder, circulating library, and depôt of Christian Knowledge Society, High street

Bonell Samuel, pump maker, Stafford street

Boughey and Woodcock, bonnet makers, Church street

Boulton Henry, vict., Crown Inn, Stafford st

Bowker George, watch and clock maker, Cheshire street

Bradbury John, agricultural implement maker, and wheelwright, Longslow lane

Bradbury John, boot & shoe mkr, Shropshire st

Bradbury Maria, bonnet maker, Shropshire st

Bradbury Walter, linen and woollen draper, silk mercer and hatter, High street

Bradshaw John, cabinet maker, and provision dealer, Beast market

Brasnell Thomas, beerhouse keeper, Little Drayton

Bratton John, land agent, Beast market

Brayn Joseph, linen and woollen draper, silk mercer and hatter, High street

Brayn Samuel, gentleman, Stafford street

Brookshaw Benjamin, blacksmith, and beerhouse keeper, Old Wharf

Brookshaw William, blacksmith, Beast markt

Brown Thomas, carpenter and beerhouse keeper, Cheshire street

Burd George, Esq., solicitor, Stafford street

Cartwright Martha, milliner, Shropshire st

Carver Hugh, cheesefactor, Shropshire street

Cash Philip, paper dealer, and trunk maker, Shropshire street

Cheere Rev. Edward, M.A., Parsonage, Little Drayton

Chritchley Cornelius, coach builder, Beast market

Cockayne Edward, coach and house painter, Stafford street

Cooke Rev. Charles, M.A., head master at Grammar School, Church yard side

Corfield Joseph, boot and shoe maker, Cheshire street

Craston Edward, hatter, and shoe warehouse, High street

Crutchley William, master of Union House, Shropshire street

Cutler Joseph, shopkeeper, Little Drayton

Dale Mary, butcher, Stafford street

Dale, Sarah, victualler, Elephant and Castle, Shropshire street

Davenport James, grocer, tea dealer, and tallow chandler, High street

Davies Richard, farmer and corn miller, Almington

Davies Thomas, hair dresser, Stafford street

Davies Thomas, shopkeeper, Stafford street

Deakin Peter, baker and confectioner, Shropshire street

Dickin Miss Rachael, Shropshire street

Done Robert, shoe maker, Stafford street

Drury Thomas, cooper, Shropshire street

Eaton George, schoolmaster, Shropshire st

Eaton William, tailor, Shropshire street

Edge Robert, timber merchant, wheelwright, and victualler, Stag’s Head, Beast market

Elock Frances, boarding school, Stafford st

Embrey Thomas, grazier, Stafford street

Evans George, maltster and vict., Red Lion, Beast market

Farnell John, tailor, Bell lane

Farnell Zacharia, tailor, Cheshire street

Fell Robert, agent to Hazledine and Co., coal merchants, Old Wharf

Fielding Henry, patten and clog maker, Cheshire street

Frith Joseph, land agent, Stafford street

Fletcher Joseph, maltster, Cheshire street

Fletcher Elizabeth, beerhouse, Cheshire street

Foden James, victualler, Corbet Arms Hotel, Posting house, and Excise office, High st

Fox James, plumber & glazier, Shropshire st

Frith John, hair dresser, Shropshire street

Gad Thomas, chair maker, Shropshire street

Godwin William, grocer, and chemist & druggist, Shropshire street, hair seating manufacturer, and nurseryman, Kiln bank

Goodall George, maltster, Cheshire street

Goodall John, chemist and druggist, glass dealer, Stamp Office, and agent to Salop Fire Office, Cheshire street

Gower Andrew Woodgate & Son, agricultural implement manufacturers, Stafford street

Graham Robert, currier, Little Drayton

Grant Mr. Richard, postmaster, Beast markt

Green George, solicitor’s clerk, Terrace cottage

Green William Darbyshire, auctioneer, and high bailiff of County court, Cheshire st

Grimley Henry, Esq., solicitor, Stafford street

Griffith Benjamin, brazier and tin plate worker, Beast market

Griffith Isaac, builder, cabinet maker, and registrar of marriages, Stafford street

Griffith Thomas, cabinet maker and upholsterer, Cheshire street

Griffith William, hair dresser, Shropshire st

Groom Thomas, leather cutter and provision dealer, Stafford street

Grosvenor John, tailor, Shropshire street

Grosvenor Mary Ann, bonnet maker, Shropshire street

Grosvenor Robert, watch and clock maker, registrar of births and deaths, and parish clerk, Church street

Hall Thomas, cooper and beerhouse keeper, Shropshire street

Harding Miss Sarah, Shropshire street

Harper George, shopkeeper and cabinet maker, Shropshire street

Harper William, farmer, corn miller, provision and british wine dealer, High street

Haslam Joseph, hair seating manufacturer, Stafford street

Haslam Joseph N., surgeon, Shropshire street

Hawley William ap Richard, professor of music, Back lane

Hayward Charles, butcher, Shropshire street

Haywood Richard, hosier, Stafford street

Heatley Thomas, linen and woollen draper, silk mercer and hatter, High street

Hemming William, police officer, Cheshire st

Herbert John, coal agent, Victoria Wharf

Hill Ann, vict., Royal Oak, Cheshire street

Hill Mrs. Ann, Church street

Hill Henry, saddler & harness maker, High st

Hill Robert, saddler & harness maker, High st

Hill Thomas, tanner and currier, Cheshire st

Hinton Robert, plumber, glazier, and beerhouse keeper, Shropshire street

Holdcroft Mrs. Susannah B., The Sitch

Horner, Captain John, Cheshire street

Hope Thomas, provision dealer, Shropshire st

Hopkins Eliza, milliner, Beast market

Hopkins John, surgeon, Shropshire street

Hopkinson James, shopkeeper, Cheshire st

Hopwood John, saddler and harness maker, Stafford street

Hughes Enoch, blacksmith, Bell lane

Hughes Maria, bonnet maker, Shropshire st

Jackson John, porter agent, Shropshire street

Jarvis Joseph, butcher, Cheshire street

Jones John, nail maker, Shropshire street

Jones John, hatter and provision dealer, Shropshire street

Jones Josiah, joiner and builder, Cheshire st

Jones Richard, shoemaker, Little Drayton

Jones Samuel, shoemaker, Bell lane

Jones William, shoemaker, Little Drayton

Key John Sayers, malster and vict., Star Inn, Stafford street

Kirkham William, vic., Old Cheshire Cheese, High street

Lee Rev. John, M.A., vicar, Vicarage

Leigh Emily and Fanny, dress makers, Cheshire street

Lewis George, provision dealer and currier, Little Drayton

Liseter John, letter carrier, Beast Market

Lloyd Edmund, linen and woollen draper, silk mercer and hatter, Shropshire street

Lockett John, bookseller, printer, &c., (Silvester and Lockett), High street

Lockett George, butcher, Cheshire street

Manchester and Liverpool District Bank, Shropshire street; open on Wednesday; Samuel Walter Moore, manager

Massey Mary Ann, bonnet maker, Stafford st

Massie Thomas, grocer, tallow chandler, and hop dealer, Cheshire street

Matthews James, vict., Lamb Inn, Stafford st

Matthews Miles, farmer and veterinary surgeon, Cheshire street

Mc. Manus Chas., shopkeeper, Shropshire st

Minor Mrs. Elizabeth, Shropshire street

Montford Thomas, builder, cabinet maker, and upholsterer, Church street

Moody Hy., bone merchant, Victoria Wharf

Moore Ann, milliner, High street

Moore John, baker, provision dealer, and actuary at Savings’ Bank, Cheshire street

Moore Thomas, grocer and tea dealer, Cheshire street

Morris William, shoemaker, Stafford street

Noden William, carpenter, Cheshire street

Noneley Mrs. Margerette, Beast Market

Oldcroft Eliza, glass & china dealer, High st

Painter Richard, butcher, Kiln Bank

Parsonage Frederick, plumber and glazier, Stafford street

Peake Thomas, plumber and glazier and beerhouse keeper, Little Drayton

Pegg John, beerhouse keeper, Little Drayton

Pigott Creswell, Esq., solicitor, Stafford st

Pimlett Joshua, veterinary surgeon, Stafford street

Poole Thomas, butcher, Little Drayton

Povell James, shoemaker, Little Drayton

Powell William, draper and silk mercer, (Adams & Powell,) Shropshire street

Preston Geo., beerhousekeeper, Little Drayton

Preston Mrs. Dorothy, Back Lane

Ralphes Joseph, shoemaker, Little Drayton

Ray Uriah, chair maker, Cheshire street

Ridgway William, (executors of), grocers, chemists and druggists, and glass dealers, High street

Roberts Jane, dressmaker, Shropshire st

Roberts Samuel, gardener and seedsman, Beast market

Roberts Mr. Thomas, Church street

Robson James, stone mason, Beast Market

Roden Adam, carrier, Little Drayton

Roden William, pig dealer and beerhouse keeper, Cheshire street

Rodenhurst William and John, ironmongers, agricultural implement makers, grocers, and hop and seed dealers, Cheshire street

Rogers George, jeweller, silversmith, and watch and clock maker, High street

Roylance Thomas, shoemaker, Little Drayton

Ryder George, blacksmith, Little Drayton

Salter Samuel Colley, linen and woollen draper, and silk mercer, Shropshire street

Salter Sarah, shopkeeper, Shropshire street

Sandells Thomas, maltster and vict., Unicorn Inn, Stafford street

Sandbrook Benjamin Bayley, wine & spirit merchant, Shropshire street

Sandbrook William and Son, wine and spirit merchants, Shropshire street

Sandbrook William, hair seating manufacturer, Walk Mill

Saxton William Waring, Esq., banker and surgeon, Stafford street

Scott William, schoolmaster, (National), Shropshire street

Sergeant Matthew, butcher, Stafford street

Shaw John, tailor, Stafford street

Sherwin Harry John, woollen draper, tailor, and hatter, High street

Sherwin Margery, stay maker, Shropshire st

Shuker John, bricklayer, Back lane

Sillitoe Aaron, saddler and harness maker, Beast Market

Sillitoe Purney, Esq., Pell Wall House

Silvester and Lockett, booksellers, printers, stationers, bookbinders, and circulating library, High street

Silvester Samuel, bookseller, &c., (Silvester and Lockett), High street

Simester John, rope maker, Shropshire st

Simester William, rope maker, Cheshire st

Slaney Thomas, plumber, glazier, & painter, Cheshire street

Smith Henry Jn., solicitors’ clerk, Church st

Snow Thomas, furnishing ironmonger, brazier and tin plate worker, grocer, and hop, seed, and colour merchant, High st

Spencer Mr. Walter, The Mount

Spendelow William, grocer, chemist and druggist, and hop merchant, Shropshire st

Stevens Thomas, hatter and woollen draper and tailor, Shropshire street

Steventon John, shoemaker, Little Drayton

Steventon Wm., shoemaker, Little Drayton

Stubbs Elizabeth, beerhouse, Bell lane

Swinchett George Williamson, brazier and tin plate worker, High street

Swinnerton Samuel, surgeon, Shropshire st

Tayleur Mrs. Frances, The Fields

Taylor Mr. William, Stafford street

Taylor William, cooper, Stafford street

Tomlinson William, guano, corn, and salt dealer, Old Wharf

Trueman Charles, dyer, Cheshire street

Wade Hill, beerhouse keeper, Little Drayton

Walsh Joseph, brazier and tin plate worker, Shropshire street

Warren Charles, Esq., solicitor, Shropshire st

Warren Joseph Loxdale, Esq., solicitor, clerk to magistrates, clerk to county court, and deputy-lieutenant, The Lodge

Whitfield George, ironmonger, grocer and tea dealer, and hop and seed merchant, High street

Whitfield Thomas, Esq., Spring Field

Whittington Margt., schoolmistress, Cheshire street

Wilkes Jane, dressmaker, Church street

Wilkinson Joseph Edmund, Esq., solicitor, Shropshire street

Wilkinson William Manley, Esq., solicitor and superintendent registrar, Shropshire street

Williams Mrs. Elizabeth, Stafford street

Williams John, shoemaker.  Little Drayton

Williams Sarah, bonnet maker, Shropshire st

Williamson James, boot and shoemaker, Shropshire street

Wilson John Edwards, Esq., The Grove

Woodcock Thos., beerhouse, Little Drayton

Woodhouse Thomas, tailor, Little Drayton

Wright Nathaniel, beerhouse & shopkeeper Shropshire street

Wycherley Samuel, wheelwright, Beast Market

Academies.

Arkinstall The Misses, (boarding), Beast Market

Bratton Miss, (boarding), Beast Market

Eaton George, Cheshire st

Bratton Mary, Back lane

Elcock Frances, Stafford st

Grammar School, Churchyard side; head master, Rev. Charles Cooke, M.A.; second master, C. F. King

National, William Scott and Eliza Green, Back lane

Whittingham Margaret, Cheshire street

Wigley Henry William, (boarding), Shropshire st

Agricultural Implement Manufacturers.

Bradbury John, Longslow lane

Gower and Son, Stafford st

Rodenhurst William & John Cheshire street

Ale & Porter Merchants.

Foden James, High street

Jackson John, Shropshire st

Rogers George, (Burton ales) High street

Sandalls Thomas, Stafford st

Attornies.

Grimley Henry, Stafford st

Pigott Creswell, Stafford st

Warren Charles, Shropshire street

Warren & Burd, Cheshire st

Wilkinson William M. and Joseph E., Shropshire st

Auctioneer.

Green William Darbyshire, Cheshire street

Banks.

Manchester and Liverpool District Bank, Shropshire street, open on Wednesday, Samuel Walker Moore, manager

Savings’ Bank, Shropshire st.; John Moore, actuary

Saxton Brothers, High-st., draw upon Williams and Co., London

Blacksmiths.

Brookshaw Benjamin, Stafford street

Brookshaw William, Beast Market

Hughes Enock, Bell lane

Ryder George, Little Drayton

Bone Merchant.

Moody Henry Church, Victoria Wharf

Booksellers, Printers, Stationers, Bookbinders, and Circulating Libraries.

Bennion Thomas Platt, High

Silvester & Lockett, High st

Boot and Shoemakers.

Bradbury John, Cheshire st.

Corfield Joseph, Cheshire st.

Oraston Edward (dealer), High street

Done Robert, Stafford street

Jones Richard, Little Drayton

Jones Samuel, Bell lane

Jones Wm., Little Drayton

Morris William, Stafford st.

Povell James, Little Drayton

Ralphes Joseph, Little Drayton

Roylance Thomas, Little Drayton

Steventon John, Little Drayton

Steventon William, Little Drayton

Williams John, Little Drayton

Williamson James, Shropshire street

Braziers and Tin Plate Workers.

Griffith Benjamin, Beast market

Snow Thomas, High street

Swinchatt Geo. Williamson, High street

Walsh Joseph, Shropshire street

Butchers.

Barker John, Beast market

Dale Mary, Stafford street

Hayward Charles, Shropshire street

Jarvis Joseph, Cheshire st.

Lockett George, Cheshire st.

Painter Richard, Kiln Bank

Poole Thomas, Little Drayton

Sergeant Matthew, Stafford street

Cabinet Makers and Upholsterers.

Bradshaw John, Beast Market

Griffith Isaac, Stafford street

Griffith Thos., Cheshire street

Harper George, Shropshire street

Montford Thomas, Church street

Carpenters and Builders.

Barratt Thomas, Stafford st.

Brown Thomas, Cheshire st.

Griffith Isaac, Stafford street

Jones Josiah, Shropshire st.

Montford Thomas, Church street

Noden Wm., Cheshire street

Chemists and Druggists.

Godwin William, Shropshire street

Goodall John, Cheshire street

Ridgway William (executors of), High street

Spendelow Richard William, Shropshire street

Coach Builder.

Critchley Cornelius, Beast Market

Coal Merchants.

Hazledine & Co., Old Wharf, Robert Fell, agent

Ryley & Sandbrook, Victoria Wharf, John Herbert, agent

Confectioners.

Deakin Peter, Shropshire st.

Harper William (and British wine dealer), High street

Coopers.

Drury Thomas, Shropshire street

Hall Thomas, Shropshire st.

Taylor William, Stafford st.

Corn Millers.

Davies Richard, Almington

Harper William, High street

Curriers.

Hill Thomas, Cheshire street

Lewis and Graham, Little Drayton

Dyers.

Hayward Richard, Stafford street

Trueman Charles, Cheshire street

Farmers.

Beeston James, Almington

Davies Richard (and corn miller), Almington

Embrey Thomas, Stafford street

Harper William, High street

Matthews Miles, Cheshire st.

Poole Thos., Little Drayton

Fire and Life Office Agents.

Clerical & Medical, William Waring Saxton, Stafford street

Crown, Charles Warren, Shropshire street

Law, Henry Grimley, Stafford street

Legal and Commercial, Joseph Edmund Wilkinson, Shropshire street

Manchester, George Rogers, High street

Market Drayton Cattle Club, Wm. D. Green, Cheshire street

Norwich Union, Joseph L. Warren, Cheshire, st.

Royal Farmers and General, Wm. D. Green, Cheshire street

Salop, Jn. Goodall, Cheshire street

Shropshire and North Wales, Joseph Firth, Stafford st.

Glass and China Dealers.

Marked * are glass only.

* Goodall John, Cheshire st.

Oldcroft Eliza, High street

* Ridgway William (executors of), High street

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Davenport James, High st.

Godwin William, Shropshire street

Harper William, High street

Massie Thomas, Cheshire street

Moore Thomas, Cheshire street

Ridgway William (executors of), High street

Rodenhurst William and John, Cheshire street

Snow Thomas, High street

Spendelow Richard William, Shropshire street

Whitfield George, High st.

Hair Dressers.

Davies Thomas, Stafford street

Frith John, Shropshire street

Griffith Wm., Shropshire st.

Hair Seating Manufacturers.

Godwin William, Kiln bank

Haslam Joseph, Stafford st.

Sandbrook H. and W., Walk Mill

Hatters.

(See also Linen Drapers and Hatters.)

Craston Edward, High street

Jones John, Shropshire street

Sherwin Harry John, High street

Stevens Thomas, Shropshire street

Hosier.

Haywood Richard, Stafford street

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Crown, Henry Boulton, Stafford street

Corbet Arms Hotel (posting house and excise office), James Foden, High street

Elephant and Castle, Sarah Dale, Shropshire street

George, Martha Barnett, Beast market

Lamb, Jas. Matthews, Stafford street

Man in the Moon, James Beeston, Almington

Old Cheshire Cheese, James Kirkham, High street

Red Lion, George Evans, Beast market

Royal Oak, Ann Hill, Cheshire street

Stag’s Head, Robert Edge, Beast market

Star, John Sayers Key, Stafford street

Unicorn, Thomas Sandalls, Stafford street

Wheat Sheaf, John Barnett, Old wharf

Beerhouses.

Brasnell John, Little Drayton

Brookshaw Benjamin, Old wharf

Brown Thomas, Cheshire street

Fletcher Elizabeth, Cheshire street

Hall Thomas, Shropshire st.

Hinton Robert, Shropshire street

Peake Thos., Little Drayton

Pegg John, Little Drayton

Preston George, Little Drayton

Roden William, Cheshire street

Stubbs Elizabeth, Bell lane

Wade Hill, Little Drayton

Woodcock Thomas, Little Drayton

Wright Nathaniel, Shropshire street

Hop and Seed Merchants.

Groom Thomas, Stafford st.

Godwin William (seed), Shropshire street

Massie Thomas, Cheshire st.

Rodenhurst William and John, Cheshire street

Snow Thomas, High street

Spendelow Richard William, Shropshire street

Whitfield George, High street

Ironmongers.

Rodenhurst William & John, Cheshire street

Snow Thomas, High street

Whitfield Geo., High street

Ironfounders.

Rodenhurst William and John, Cheshire street

Linen and Woollen Drapers, Silk Mercers, and Hatters.

Adams and Powell, Shropshire street

Bradbury Walter, High street

Brayn Joseph, High street

Heatley Thomas, High street

Lloyd Edmund, Shropshire street

Salter Samuel Colley, Shropshire street

Maltsters.

Evans George, Beast Market

Fletcher Joseph, Cheshire street

Goodall George, Cheshire st.

Hill Ann, Cheshire street

Key John Sayers, Stafford st.

Sandalls Thomas, Stafford st.

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Cartwright Martha, Shropshire street

Hopkins Eliza, Beast Market

Leigh Emily and Fanny, Cheshire street

Moore Ann, High street

Roberts Jane, Shropshire st.

Virgen Betsy, Longslow lane

Wilkes Jane, Church street

Nail Maker.

Jones John, Shropshire st.

Painter.

(See also Plumbers, Glaziers, and Painters.)

Cocayne Edward (coach and house), Stafford street

Patten and Clog Maker.

Fielding Henry, Cheshire st.

Plumbers, Glaziers, and Painters.

Fox James, Shropshire street

Hinton Robert, Shropshire street

Parsonage Frederick, Stafford street

Peake Thos., Little Drayton

Slaney Thomas, Cheshire st

Professor of Music.

Hawley William Ap Richard, Back lane

Pump Maker.

Bonell Samuel, Stafford street

Rope Makers.

Simester John, Shropshire street

Simester William, Cheshire street

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Hill Henry, High street

Hill Robert, High street

Hopwood John, Stafford st.

Sillitoe Aaron, Beast market

Shopkeepers, Dealers in Sundries, and Grocers.

Bate Mary, Shropshire street

Bradshaw John, Beast Market

Cutler Joseph, Little Drayton

Davies Thomas, Stafford st.

Groom Thomas, Stafford st.

Harper George, Shropshire street

Hope Thomas, Shropshire street

Hopkinson James, Cheshire street

Jones John, Shropshire st.

Lewis George, Little Drayton

Mc Manus Charles, Shropshire street

Moore John, Cheshire street

Salter Sarah, Shropshire st.

Wright Nathaniel, Shropshire street

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Boughey and Woodcock, Church street

Bradbury Maria, Shropshire street

Grosvenor Mary Ann, Shropshire street

Hughes Maria, Shropshire street

Keeling Mary Ann, Little Drayton

Massey Mary Ann, Stafford st

Ryder Elizabeth, Little Drayton

Williams Sarah, Shropshire street

Surgeons.

Haslam Joseph Nickson, Shropshire street

Hopkins John, Cheshire st.

Saxton William Waring, Stafford street

Swinnerton Samuel, Shropshire street

Tailors.

Marked * are Woollen Drapers and Hatters.

Allen John, Beast Market

Arkinstall William, Shropshire street

Eaton William, Shropshire street

Farnell John, Bell lane

Farnell Zachariah, Cheshire street

Grosvenor John, Shropshire street

Shaw John, Stafford street

* Sherwin Harry John, High street

* Stevens Thos., Shropshire street

Woodhouse Thomas, Little Drayton

Tallow Chandlers.

Davenport James, High st.

Massie Thomas, Cheshire street

Tanner.

Hill Thomas, Cheshire street

Timber merchants.

Barratt Thomas, Stafford st.

Dymock and Co., Shropshire street, residence, Shelton

Edge Robert, Beast market

Veterinary Surgeons.

Matthews Miles, Cheshire street

Pimlett Joshua, Stafford st.

Watch and Clock Makers.

Bowker George, Cheshire st.

Grosvenor Robert, Church street

Rogers George (and silversmith and jeweller), High street

Wheelwrights.

Bradbury John, Longslow lane

Wicherley Samuel, Beast market

Wine and Spirit Merchants.

Sandbrook William and Son, Shropshire street

Wine and Spirit Vaults.

Barnett Lydia, High street

Wood Turners and Chair Makers.

Gad Thomas, Shropshire st.

Ray Uriah, Cheshire street

Carriers by Water.

Crowley and Co., general carriers to all parts of England; William Tomkinson, agent, Old wharf

Grand Junction Canal Company (to London); Wm. Tomkinson, agent, Old wharf

Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company, general carriers to all parts of England; William Tomkinson, agent, Old wharf

BETTON
is a township and small rural village, in the parish of Market Drayton, two miles N.N. by E. from the parish church.  The township comprises 2,185a. 0r. 27p. of land, the principal owners of which are Peter Broughton, Esq., and William Church Norcop, Esq.  The other proprietors are Richard Corbet, Esq., Purney Sillitoe, Esq., and Sir John Chetwode, Bart.  In 1841 there were 38 houses and 254 inhabitants within the bounds of the township.  Rateable value, £2,963. 2s.  The tithes have been commuted, and £223. 5s. 9d. apportioned to William Church Norcop, Esq.; £40. 7s. 6d. to Peter Broughton, Esq.; £32. 18s. 3d. to Richard Corbet, Esq.; and to the Vicar of Drayton, £5. 13s. 6d.  Betton Hall, a handsome and pleasantly situated mansion on elevated ground, is the residence and property of William Church Norcop, Esq.  It was considerably enlarged and beautified about forty years ago.  A pillar, in the field a little south from the hall, marks the site of an ancient chapel that formerly stood here, but no remains have been seen of it within the memory of man.  Tunstall Hall, a spacious and elegant mansion, situated in park-like grounds, about a mile from Market Drayton, is the seat and property of Peter Broughton, Esq.  Betton Moss is a tract of unenclosed land, containing 56a. 0r. 33p.  Oakley Corn Mill is situated on the banks of the river Tern, which divides this township from the county of Stafford.

Bourne John, farmer, Betton Coppice

Broughton Peter, Esq., Tunstall Hall

Crutchley John, farmer, Brownhills

Davies Richard, farmer, Brownhills

Dobson Thomas, farmer, Ridgewardine

Duckers Charles, farmer, Ridgewardine

Heath William, farmer, Betton

Johnson Robert, farmer, Betton

Norcop William Church, Esq., Betton Hall

Spragg John, farmer, Ridgewardine

LONGSLOW,
a small township in the parish of Market Drayton, one mile and three quarters N.W. by N. from the church, contains 645a. 2r. 3p. of land, the whole of which is the property of the Earl of Powis.  Rateable value, £1,866. 13s.  Richard Corbet, Esq., is the impropriator of the large tithes, which are commuted for £81. 12s. 6d.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £21. 4s. 1d.  At the census in 1841 there were 12 houses and a population of 70 souls.  The principal residents are George Harris, farmer; Joseph Kemp, farmer; Joseph Sillitoe, farmer; John Thomas, farmer; and Robert Bruckshaw, blacksmith and general agricultural implement manufacturer.

SUTTON,
a township in the parish of Drayton, pleasantly situated about a mile and a half S.E. from the church, in 1841 had 32 houses and 177 inhabitants.  The township contains 1,915a. 2r. 3p. of land.  Rateable value, £326. 15s.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £268. 13s. 4d., of which £60 was apportioned to John Tayleur, Esq., and £208. 13s. 4d. to Richard Corbet, Esq.  The small tithes, payable to the Vicar of Drayton, are commuted for £33. 9s. 1d.  Buntingsdale Hall is a brick mansion of considerable extent, the seat and property of John Tayleur, Esq., a considerable landowner.  P. Sillitoe, Esq., is also a landowner.  The township is watered by the river Tern, which turns several corn mills within the bounds of the township.  This locality has a bold undulating surface, is well timbered, and the scenery beautifully picturesque.

The principal residents are John Tayleur, Esq., Buntingsdale Hall; John Adams, corn miller, Tern Hill; Samuel Blenford, blacksmith; James Foden, farmer, Holly Grove; George Harding, farmer, Cliff Gravel; George Harding, farmer, Coalhurst; William Harper, corn miller, Sutton Mill—residence, Drayton; John Harris, farmer; Samuel Shaw, corn miller, Rosehill; George Smith, farmer.

WOODSEAVES,
a township and village in the parish of Drayton, on the eastern verge of the county, bordering on Staffordshire, three miles south from Market Drayton, contains 1,781a. 0r. 31p. of land, and in 1841 had 55 houses and 268 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,040. 15s.  The principal landowners are John Tayleur, Esq., Walter Minor, Esq., Purney Sillitoe, Esq., Mr. Beeston, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Silvester.  Richard Corbet, Esq., is the impropriator of the rectoral tithes, which are commuted for £105. 4s. 4d.  The small tithes are commuted for £27. 0s. 6d.  A small Episcopal Chapel has been built at Woodseaves, by Mrs. Nonely; divine service is performed every Friday evening.

Directory.—James Boughey, farmer; John Breeze, boot and shoemaker; Richard Delves, shopkeeper; Clement Dickenson, farmer, Rose Hill; Peter Duckers, farmer and butcher; Joseph Ellis, farmer; William Hendley, gentleman; John Hill, farmer, Sutton Heath; Richard Lewis, farmer; Joseph Meakin, farmer; James Poole, farmer, butcher, and victualler, Fox Inn; George Pye, blacksmith; Mary Steel and Sons, shoemakers; Richard Steel, farmer and beerhouse-keeper; William Sutton, farmer; Thomas Thomas, farmer; Charles Townsend, farmer.

ERCALL CHILDS,
a parish and village, pleasantly situated seven miles S.W. from Market Drayton, and seven miles N.W. from Newport.  The parish comprises 3,585a. 0r. 8p. of land, and in 1801 here were 466 inhabitants; 1831, 416; and in 1841, 82 houses and 471 inhabitants.  The soil is chiefly a light fertile loam.  Richard Corbet, Esq., is owner of the whole parish, except about fifty acres, which are the property of the Duke of Sutherland.  The tithes are commuted for £730.

The Church, an ancient structure, dedicated to St. Michael, exhibits various styles of architecture, and no doubt has been erected at different periods.  It consists of nave, chancel, south aisle, and a tower at the west end.  Four pointed arches divide the nave from the side aisle, at the east end of which there is an ancient piscina.  A neat marble tablet remembers the Cooke family.  There are also two small brass memorials.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £72, in the patronage of Richard Corbet, Esq.  The Rev. Bertie Entwisle Johnson is the incumbent, and also rector of Hinstock.  The Parsonage is a handsome brick residence, a little north-west from the church; it was built by the present incumbent in the year 1846; in consideration of which the Governors of Queen Ann’s Bounty made a grant of £200 towards the augmentation of the living of Ercall.  There is a National School in the village, situated near the west end of the church-yard; sixty-two boys and forty-two girls attend.  Dodecote Grange is a pleasantly situated house, and extensive farm comprising upwards of 500 acres, in the occupancy of Mr. Richard Heatley.  There is a considerable tract of land covered with thriving plantations in the parish.

HUNGARY HATTON,
a township in the parish of Childs Ercall, one mile north from the church, and about five miles and a half south from Market Drayton, has a scattered population, the returns of which were included in Ercall at the census of 1841.  On the north verge of the township there is a plantation of thriving timber covering upwards of thirty acres, which joins the estate and plantations of Henry Justice, Esq., in Hinstock parish.  The acres and tithes are included in the returns of Ercall.

Those marked * are in Hungary Hatton, and the rest reside in Ercall Childs.

Aston William, farmer

* Atkin William, farmer and maltster

Benbow Mary, farmer

Bourne Edward, farmer, Old Hall

* Boughey George, farmer

Bourne Thomas, brickmaker

* Bruckshaw Benjamin, farmer

* Bruckshaw Thomas, blacksmith

Carnall John, farmer

* Cheshire John, blacksmith

Dawes Thomas, farmer

* Downes William, shoemaker

Edwards Joseph, farmer, Caynton Wood

Evason Francis, farmer

Evanson George, tailor

* Freeman John, farmer

Green Thomas, shoemaker

Harper Charles, wheelwright

Heatley Richard, farmer, Dodecote Grange

Hewitt George, schoolmaster & parish clerk

Heycock William, blacksmith

Johnson Rev. Bertie Entwisle, M.A., Parsonage

* Morgan George, farmer

* Morgan John, farmer

Morgan John H., carpenter

Palmer William, farmer, Nagington

* Rister Philip, wheelwright

Thacker James, victualler, Elephant

Woodhouse George, maltster

HINSTOCK
is a considerable parish and village, pleasantly situated on the turnpike road from Newport to Market Drayton, six miles N.N.W. from the former, and five miles S. from the latter.  The population of this parish is widely scattered, and there are a great number of small detached cottages.  The parish contains 3,036a. 1r. 16p. of land, the soil of which is various; in some parts a strong loam, and in other parts a light sandy soil prevails.  The land has a bold undulating surface, and on the western verge of the parish are some thriving plantations.  In 1801 the parish contained a population of 536 souls; 1831, 805; and in 1841 there were 173 houses and 897 inhabitants.  There are 14a. 1r. 37p. of glebe land.  The tithes have been commuted for £530.  Rateable value of the parish, £4.722. 19s. 1d.  Henry Justice, Esq., is a considerable landowner.  The other principal landowners are Robert Masefield, Esq., Richard Corbet Esq., Mr. William Griffiths, Mr. Henry Meakin, Rev. Matthew Davies, the Trustees of Drayton Poor, Mr. John Griffiths, William Howard, Esq., Mr. Walter Meakin, Mrs. Masefield, Mr. Thomas Poole, Mr. Rowley, Mr. John Adams, Mr. Thomas Beeston, the Executors of the late Colonel Dawes, and the Devisees of the Mr. Thomas James; besides whom there are upwards of seventy small freeholders, who, in most instances, own the cottages in which they live, and a small plot or a few acres of land contiguous thereto.

The Church is a small venerable fabric, dedicated to St. Oswald, and is situated on an elevated plot of land, nearly in the centre of the village.  The structure consists of nave, chancel, and a small south aisle, with a square tower at the west end.  A small gallery was erected in 1831, with funds raised by subscriptions.  The font is very ancient, and is of a circular shape with an octagonal base.  A neat marble tablet has been erected in memory of Hannah Davies, who died in 1828, wife of the Rev. Matthew Davies, formerly curate of Hinstock.  There is also a tablet in memory of the Vaughans, with the date of 171^4/5.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £5. 16s., now returned at £556., and enjoyed by the Rev. Bertie E. Johnson, M.A.  There is a small Methodist Chapel in the village.  The National School, a neat brick structure, was erected in 1839; seventy-five children attend.  The Rectory is an ancient residence on the north side of the church-yard.  Hinstock Hall, a handsome mansion of freestone, delightfully situated on elevated ground, about a mile north-west from the church, is the seat and property of Henry Justice, Esq.  It is a modern structure, built about sixteen years ago, beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies, and sheltered with rising plantations.  The situation commands extensive views over the fertile plains of Shropshire and the adjoining county of Stafford.  Pixley are two good farm houses, situated near a mile west from the church.  The land is partly in this parish and partly in that of Chetwynd; 89a. 1r. 32p. are in the latter parish.

Post Office.—At Mr. Samuel Cooper’s Falcon Inn.

Justice Henry, Esq., Hinstock Hall

Abbotts Ann, schoolmistress

Adams John, farmer

Ash Charles, land surveyor

Blagg John, farmer

Bowring Robert, shopkeeper

Cappur Thomas, farmer, Gill of Stafford

Challenor John, shopkeeper

Churm John, farmer, Mount Pleasant

Churton Rev. Charles, M.A., curate

Cooper Samuel, victualler, Falcon Inn

Crump John, shopkeeper

Davies William, farmer

Eccleston James, farmer

Freeman John, farmer, Pixley

Glover Thomas, beerhouse

Goodwin George, wheelwright

Griffiths William, farmer

Hamlet William, shopkeeper

Hardy Sarah, farmer

Hardy William, farmer

Harvey James, maltster

Jackson George, shoemaker

Jackson John, farmer

Jackson Thomas, blacksmith

Jackson William, farmer

Lockley John, wheelwright

Lockley Thomas, farmer

Machin Jn., farmer & maltstr

Machin Mary, vict., Cock Inn

Maltby John, Esq., Hinstock Villa

Matthews John, horse dealer

Meakin Henry, farmer, Longpools

Meakin Walter, farmer

Morgan William, bricklayer

Nagington William, farmer, corn miller, and maltster, Shakeford

Pearse William, farmer and shoemaker, Lockley

Phillips John, farmer

Pitt George, shopkeeper

Podmore William, tailor

Poole Thomas, farmer

Pooler Benjamin, blacksmith

Reeves John, shoemaker

Reeves Mary, schoolmistress

Robinson Richard, farmer, Pixley

Sambrook Job, bricklayer

Sambrook John, bricklayer

Sambrook William, bricklayer

Sutton Mary & Ann, farmers

Talbot William, tailor

Titley Wm., farmer & butcher

Ward John, schoolmaster

Watts Andrew, farmer

Weat Wm., farmer & butcher

Woodcock William, farmer

Worrall Mary, farmer

Williams William, beerhouse

Wynn William, clock maker

HODNET
is a pleasantly situated and considerable village on the turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Market Drayton, thirteen miles N.N. by E. from the former, and six miles S.S. by W. from the latter.  At the Domesday survey Earl Roger held Odenet, which gave name to the hundred, which has since undergone the denomination of Bradford North.  In the 20th of Edward I., a quo warranto was brought against William de Hodenet, to show what right he claimed to hold a market, take assize of bread and beer, and have free warren in the manor of Hodnet; for plea he produced the charter of King Henry, father of the then king, which proved his right, and so was dismissed with honour.  The jury at the same assizes found that the serjeantry of William de Hodenet was to be steward of the castle of Montgomery, and to defend the outworks of the castle with his family and servants, and that this serjeantry had been given to his ancestors by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Salop.  The market at Hodnet has long been obsolete, but fairs are held on the Monday before the second Wednesday in March, May 4th, and the Monday before October 24th.  These fairs are usually well attended by the farmers residing in the surrounding district.  The parish of Hodnet contains the townships of Hodnet, Bolas Parva, Hawkstone, Hopton and Espley, Kenstone, Losford, Marchamley, Peplow, Woollerton and Weston under Red Castle.  There are 11,596a. 1r. 6p. of land, the rateable value of which is £13,396. 6s.  Population in 1801, 1386; 1831, 2097, and in 1841 there were 408 houses and 2185 inhabitants.  The township of Hodnet at the census of 1841 contained 120 houses and 596 inhabitants, Odo Hodenet came into England with William the Conqueror, and fixed his seat here; from this family the estates passed by a female heiress to the Vernons, and Elisabeth Vernon carried the estates by marriage into the Heber family, from which family it again passed in like manner by an heiress to the present proprietor, Algernon Charles Heber Percy, Esq., who resides at Hodnet Hall, a plain stuccoed mansion, in a low situation, a little south from the church; it was formerly of considerable extent, and composed of timber and plaster, and the cloisters were adorned with ancient armorial bearings, but only a part of the original house is now standing, and that has been greatly modernized.  Near the hall is a large mound called Castle Hill, supposed to have been the ancient residence of the Hodenets.  The mound is planted with trees, and was probably the keep of the castle, but not a vestige of the stone work remains; the whole was surrounded by a moat, which may still be traced.  The high grounds above the hall, which are studded with thriving plantations, were in former tithes a densely wooded park of considerable extent, and well stocked with deer.  No deer have been kept there since the death of Sir Richard Vernon, who caused most of the timber to be cut down.  Viscount Hill is also a considerable land owner.  A. C. H. Percy is lord of the manor and patron of the living.

The Church is a spacious and elegant structure, consisting of nave and south aisle, equal in size to the nave, and an octagonal Norman tower at the west end, in which are six bells.  The side aisle is divided from the nave by seven pointed arches, rising from octagonal and circular pillars alternately, and the roof is of timber stained in imitation of oak.  The structure has recently undergone a complete reparation, the entire cost of which, with various embellishments, was £3,200, of which the munificent sum of £1,000 was given by Thomas Cholmondely, Esq., late of Hodnet Hall; Charles Cholmondely, Esq., gave £500; Lord Hill, £100; the parishioners raised by voluntary subscriptions £170; and the rest, £1,430, was given by the present rector.  The organ cost £150, and was the gift of Richard Cholmondely, Esq.; the communion plate cost £100.  The interior has a very chaste and imposing appearance, and at the east end of the chancel there is a beautiful stained glass window, commemorative of Mary Heber, who died in 1846, sister to the late Bishop Heber.  At the east end of the aisle are twelve stalls, six on each side, which are for the use of the rector and the lord of the manor.  The organ stands at the west end of the nave in a beautiful recessed arch.  At the east end of the south aisle is a stained glass window, with representations of the four evangelists, beautifully executed by Evans, of Shrewsbury.  The font is very ancient, and of an octagonal shape rudely carved.  Several handsome monuments ornament the church, particularly one of fine statuary marble, exquisitely executed by Chantrey, in memory of Bishop Heber, formerly rector of this parish.  Opposite it are two beautifully executed monuments of Grinshill free stone, near to which is another in the same gothic style to the memory of Charles Cooper Cholmondely, formerly rector of Hodnet, who died in 1831.  Near the west end of the nave, a handsome marble tablet remembers Lord Hill and his Lady, the former died in 1814 and the latter in 1842; not far from which Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., is remembered on an elegant tablet; he died in 1783, and was buried in this church.  On the same side is an elaborately ornamented tablet to the Vernon family.  A lofty slate coloured marble tablet commemorates the death of several members of the Hill family; there is also an antique tablet near the pulpit to the memory of Hugh Pigot, who died in 1697, besides which there are various other monuments which our limits will not allow us to notice.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £26 0s. 10d., now returned at £2,336.  The Rev. Samuel H. Macauley, B.D., is the incumbent, and resides at the rectory, an elegant mansion of free stone, built by the late Bishop Heber, in 1812; the house stands on an eminence a little S.W. from the church, and commands most delightful views of the surrounding country.  The old rectory stood on the grounds adjoining the hall, a little south from the church; not far from the rectory stood the tithe barn of capacious dimensions, which, with the old parsonage, was taken down soon after the erection of the present rectory.  The tithes of this parish have been commuted for £1,735.  There is a national school where fifty girls and sixty boys are educated.  Hodnet Common, situated on the south and south-east side of the township, contains 375 acres, the whole of which is the property of A. C. H. Percy, Esq., except about thirty acres.  A considerable tract of the common was enclosed in 1850.  There is a small lock-up with two cells situated on the Shrewsbury road.

The late Reginald Heber, the eminent Bishop of Calcutta, was rector of Hodnet when he was raised to the episcopal dignity of Bishop of Calcutta.  He was born April 21st, 1783, at the Higher Rectory, in Malpas, of which place his father was rector.  He received his education, principally under a private tutor, Mr. Bristow, at Neasdon, and in 1800 he removed to Oxford, where he was a commoner at Brazennose College, and afterwards a Fellow of All Souls.  It was at Oxford that he laid the foundation of his high fame.  Besides being known for his general acquisitions in scholarship, he gained every distinction which the university then had to bestow, the regular under graduates and bachelors’ prizes.  He was also the successful competitor for an extraordinary prize that had been offered for an English poem on the subject of Palestine.  This poem is now of standard reputation; and certainly, for splendour of imagery and for poetical diction, it has deservedly placed its author—scarce twenty years old when it was written—in an elevated rank amid our English poets.  After taking his degree, Heber left the university to engage in active life.  The living at Hodnet was at his option, and this circumstance, coupled with his strong religious bias, determined him to devote himself to the church as his profession.  But as he was still young for holy orders, he wished to employ two or three years in foreign travel; and the customary route upon the continent then being shut up by war, he bent his steps towards Russia and the east of Europe.  At length the time arrived when Heber was to devote himself seriously to the duties of his sacred profession, in the humble office of a village pastor.  There is on his monument in Hodnet church, a delightful testimony how for fifteen years he performed his pastoral duties “cheerfully and diligently, with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength.”  And in this calm retreat, which the subsequent changes in his fortune seemed only the more to endear him to, he would cheerfully have closed his days.  But his reputation would not allow him to be buried in retirement.  In 1823 he was elected preacher at Lincoln’s Inn.  This was an appointment peculiarly suited to him.  With what credit he acquitted himself is well known, and it was generally believed that the highest honours awaited him at home, when he was called to another sphere of action, by his acceptance of the proffered bishopric of Calcutta.  Never, it is believed, did any man accept an office from a higher sense of duty; once he declined the proposal; but his exalted piety considered it as a call from heaven, from which he might not shrink; and he resolutely determined to obey the summons.  His career in India was short, but brilliant.  It is not easy to conceive a situation of greater difficulty than awaited him there.  He had to preside over a diocese much larger in extent than the whole of Europe, with his clergy scattered about at stations thousands of miles apart, and over a body of Christians living in the midst of a multitude of misbelievers; and those Christians, if such more than in mere name, accustomed to be a law to themselves in religious matters; yet to all these difficulties Bishop Heber resolutely addressed himself.  He went forth strong and invincible; first, in his trust in God, and next in that kindliness of disposition, which almost disarmed opposition.  His memorable exploit was his extra-ordinary visitation of his diocese.  Starting from Calcutta, he pursued the course of the Ganges almost to its source; visited Himalaya mountains; crossed the northern provinces of India; and, after visiting Bombay and the island of Ceylon, returned again to Calcutta.  We may easily imagine what must have been the delight, to a mind ardent and poetical like Heber’s, to have had the opportunity of visiting scenes so interesting and so novel; and we have the advantage of knowing the impression they made on his mind, by the posthumous publication of his interesting journal.  It was not long after the bishop’s return from the visitation of which we have been speaking, that he undertook another episcopal visitation, when the hand of death arrested him in his career of usefulness.  On the 3rd of April, 1826, at Tritchinopoli, he was found drowned in a bath, owing, it was supposed, to the sudden transition of cold water, after great exertion in confirming some native Christians.  A deep and painful sensation was produced by his unexpected decease, both in India and at home; and in him the Christian civilization in the east seemed to have lost its most zealous, most active, and most enlightened friend.

Charities.—There was an old school in the church yard at Hodnet, which was pulled down in 1814, and a new school and schoolhouse were built in the following year, in a more convenient situation, chiefly at the expense of Richard Heber, Esq., and with a sum of £25 given by Sir Andrew Corbet to the poor, as hereafter mentioned.  The master of the school receives £8, as the interest of £200 left by Mrs. Sarah Price, for the endowment of a free school, and he occupies the school house, paying the church-wardens £1. 1s. annually, as interest of the £25 derived from Sir A. Corbet’s benefaction.  In consideration of the above the master teaches seven scholars free.  The site of the school and schoolhouse, and the garden and play ground, including altogether about a quarter of an acre, was given by Mr. Heber.—Stephen Denstone, of Ashley, left the poor of the township of Hodnet £100, the interest to be distributed on Stephen’s day yearly.—John Stirrop, in 1646, left £20 to the use of the poor.  This gift is stated in the parliamentary report to be lost.—Abraham Deshin, in 1707, bequeathed £5, the interest to be given in bread on Christmas-day.—Mary Mollineux left £10, the interest to be distributed by the ministers and churchwardens.—Thomas Burrowes left £100, and directed the interest to be given away on the 2nd of December yearly.—William Burrowes bequeathed £100 to the poor of Hodnet, the interest to be given to the poor on the 23rd of September, yearly, by the minister and churchwardens.—Samuel Dickin left £20, the yearly proceeds thereof to be distributed by his heirs for ever.—Rowland Hill bequeathed £50 to the use of the poor.—Thomas Hill, Esq., son of the said Rowland Hill, left £350 for the benefit of the poor.—Mrs. Ann Catchpool left £50 to the use of the said poor.—John Hill, Esq., left £100, the interest to be expended in bread and given to the poor every Sunday.—The Right Hon. Richard Hill, in 1726, left £100 for the benefit of such poor as the minister and churchwardens should think fit.—Richard Clay, in 1750, left £100 to the poor.—Mrs. Brooke, in 1756, left £100, the interest to be given at the discretion of Sir Rowland Hill and his heirs.—Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., by a codicil to his will, 1779, left £100 to the poor of this parish, to be distributed at the discretion of his executor.—Mrs. Jane Hill left £100.—Sir Richard Hill, by his will, dated January 1st, 1808, left to his brother, John Hill, £300, on trust, to pay the interest of £100 thereof, at the rate of five per cent., among the poor of the parish of Hodnet, one half to be reserved for the poor of the chapelry of Weston.—Mr. Grocott left £5 to be given in bread yearly.—Stephen Stubbs, in 1815, left £10, the interest to be distributed yearly on St. Stephen’s day.  A legacy of £50 was left by Sir Rowland Hill for the schooling of poor children.  Some lands called Steel Lands were sold by the parish about the year 1750 for £92.  The gifts amount in the whole to £1355, of which sum £150 were laid out in the purchase of a messuage and lands at Hodnet in 1701; £56 in the purchase of two cottages at Hodnet in 1728; £175 were paid into the hands of Sir John Hill; £431 in the purchase of an estate at Wem: £450 were held by Sir Rowland Hill, derived from the charities of Sir Rowland Hill, and other members of that family, and a further sum of £138 from other sources.  The property at Hodnet consists of certain lands and a cottage and poor house with a garden and croft adjoining, and a cottage and croft on Hodnet Heath, with a right of common thereon, the whole of which produces a yearly income of £35. 12s., which is distributed with other charities hereafter mentioned.  The property at Wem consists of five closes of land, lying in two detached parcels near the town, containing altogether about twelve acres and a half, let at a yearly rent of £40.  The sum of £160 placed in the hands of Sir Richard Hill was subsequently laid out in the buildings at Hodnet.  The rents derived from the estates above mentioned, and the interest of the sum of £77, with the produce of Price’s and Sir A. Corbet’s charities hereafter mentioned, amounted at the time the charity commissioners published their report to £93. 1s. 6d.  The rent of the Wem estate is received by the churchwardens of Marchamley division, and the remainder of the rents is received by the churchwardens appointed for the division of Hodnet.  Four shillings worth of bread is placed in the church every Sunday, and given to 32 poor persons, and bread to the amount of 15s. is also given on St. Stephen’s-day, and 5s. on Christmas-day.  Each of the churchwardens pays equally towards the weekly distribution of bread, and each of them gives 30s. away on St. Stephen’s day, as the interest of Denstone’s legacy.  The churchwardens of Marchamley also pay about 30s. annually towards schooling poor children at Marchamley.  The remainder of the money is distributed by the churchwardens among the poor of their respective districts, in sums varying from 3s. to 8s.  Of the money in the hands of Sir Rowland Hill, exclusive of the sum of £200 mentioned in the school account, and £77 for which a promissory note was given in 1818, the charity commissioners conceived that it could not be less than £558 when they published their report, for which the sum of £21 is paid as interest, and distributed by the rector of Hodnet, and a further sum of £4. 8s. is received by the curate of Weston chapelry, which is distributed in small sums among the poor.—The Rev. Richard Price, in 1730, devised certain premises to the poor of Drayton and Hodnet, and directed that £5 per annum should be distributed in bread every Lord’s day, and the residue employed for the schooling of poor children in each place.  The property now held by the churchwardens of Hodnet in trust for this charity consists of three pieces of land in Drayton, containing between three and four acres, which produces a yearly rental of £12. 11s. 6d.  The rents are carried to one account with the other charity money, from which a very small portion only is disposed of in schooling.  It seems advisable that the rents should be employed according to the particular directions of the donor.—Sir Andrew Corbet, in 1815, gave £25 to the use of the poor of Hodnet.  This donation was laid out in the building of a new school, and the yearly sum of £1. 1s. is paid in respect thereof by the master of the school to the churchwardens, by whom it is distributed with the other charities.

Post Office.—At Mr. Edward Jones’, schoolmaster.  Letters arrive at 8 A.M. from Market Drayton, and are despatched at 6 P.M.

Acton Rev. William, B.A., curate

Ashley Ann, schoolmistress

Ashley George, wheelwright

Baker Mr. John

Bellis Elizabeth, shopkeeper and baker

Baydon James, registrar of births & deaths

Cartwright George, vict., Unicorn

Cartwright Samuel, boot and shoemaker

Cartwright William, tailor

Churton Thomas, boot and shoemaker

Donkin Thomas, painter and glazier

Downes Thomas, parish clerk

Eason William, veterinary surgeon

Edge William, wheelwright

Ellerthorpe Mrs. Helen

Foster Alfred, tailor

Jackson Edward, butcher

Jones Edward, schoolmaster

Laytham Henry, wheelwright

Lees Barnard, surgeon

Lester John, farmer and vict., Lion Inn

Macauley Rev. Samuel Herrick, B.D., Rectory

Morris Samuel, saddler and harness maker

Pace Piercy, grocer, draper, and ironmonger

Percy Algernon Charles Heber, Esq., Hodnet Hall

Powell John, farmer

Powell Mrs. Sarah

Pratchett Miss Jane, Ash court

Pritchard & Co., chemist, druggist, draper, and silk mercer

Ridway William, boot and shoemaker

Robinson John, boot and shoemaker

Taylor George, tailor and woollen draper

Titley Charles, butcher

Trevor James, wheelwright and beerhouse

Walmsley John Allen, surgeon and coroner for North Bradford Hundred

Wardley Mary, farmer, Horn Farm

Watson Alexander, farm steward to A. E. H. Percy, Esq.

Wild George, maltster and vict., Bear Inn, and posting house

Wild Thomas, grocer and ironmonger

Worral Henry, blacksmith

A coach from Shrewsbury to the Whitmore station passes through Hodnet at 9 A.M. and returns to Shrewsbury at 4 P.M.

BOLAS PARVA,
a small township consisting of only two farms, is pleasantly situated five miles south from Hodnet; at the census of 1841 there were nine houses and 44 inhabitants.  The township comprises 594a. 1r. 15p. of land, which is vested in the devisees of the late Mr. Hatherall.  The tithes have been commuted for £112. 1s. 1d.  William Jennings is the only resident farmer in the township; Thomas Jones holds the other farm, but resides in the adjoining township.

HAWKSTONE
is a township, in the parish of Hodnet, six miles S.W. from Market Drayton, eight miles and a half S. from Whitchurch, and thirteen miles N.N. by W. from Shrewsbury.  At the census in 1841 here were six houses and 60 inhabitants.  The township contains 693a. 2r. 32p. of land, the tithes of which have been commuted for £115.  Hawkstone Park, the magnificent seat of Viscount Hill, is delightfully situated in a park of great extent and picturesque beauty, not far from the turnpike road leading from Shrewsbury to Whitchurch, and has long been an alluring object to the admirers of nature, as well as to persons of taste and curiosity.  The mansion is of brick, with stone finishings, and occupies three sides of a quadrangle, but it does not appear by whom it was originally built.  The principal front is approached by a flight of steps, leading through a noble portico (supported by four elegant pillars of the composite order), considered an admirable piece of architecture.  Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., added the wings, and made other considerable additions to the hall, which was the family mansion of the Hills in the time of Edward VI., in which reign we find, A.D. 1549, Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., was Lord Mayor of London.  The Entrance Hall is adorned with ancient and modern armour, much of it collected at Waterloo, by the late General Lord Hill.  The Saloon is a lofty and spacious apartment, fitted up in a costly manner, and adorned with some fine paintings; among which is the Siege of Namur, the five principal characters of which were taken from life.  They are William III., the Elector of Bavaria, the Duke of Marlborough, Count Cohorn, and the Right Hon. Richard Hill, who was at that time Paymaster of the Army, Member of the Privy Council, and Envoy at the Court of Turin.  The Drawing Room is a noble apartment, exquisitely furnished, and containing several fine paintings, executed by some of the most celebrated masters.  The ceiling and walls are richly ornamented and gilt, and the furniture is of the same gorgeous description.  The Library contains an extensive and valuable collection of books, chiefly modern works; several fine paintings; and in a glass case are the sword and orders of the late General Lord Hill.  The Billiard Room contains several valuable pillars brought from Egypt by General Lord Hill.  The Chapel forms the south-west wing of the hall, and is now undergoing a complete reparation.  A marble pulpit and stained glass windows (the latter illustrative of scripture history) have been added, which give the interior a solemn and imposing appearance.  The Museum contains many interesting objects of curiosity, and an extensive and valuable collection of British birds.  Adjoining the library is the Sculpture Gallery.  There are also various other apartments, adorned in the most tasteful and costly style, which our limits will not allow us to notice.  The Gardens are laid out with taste, and contain a number of small ponds for aquatic birds.  Near the hall on a gentle eminence is the Summer House, a handsome octagonal building of Grinshill freestone; the interior of which is painted in fresco, and represents the four seasons.  From the window there is a pleasing prospect of a fine sheet of water; and in the distance appear the Broxton hills and Delamere forest, in Cheshire.  A pleasant walk leads from the summer house to the Gulph, which separates the grotto rock from the opposite heights.  On emerging from the beautiful lawn, the most romantic scenery suddenly presents itself to the eye of the spectator; and proceeding along a rising walk on the side of the rock, the traveller is conducted to the entrance of The Grotto, a cleft in the rock, which had lain for ages undiscovered, till Sir Richard Hill caused all the earth to be dug away, when it was found that the two sides of the rock so nearly corresponded with each other that they were doubtless once united, and separated either by an earthquake or some other violent convulsion of the earth.  After proceeding about a hundred yards, you arrive at the grotto, which is a vast subterraneous cave, supported by rude pillars hewn out of the solid rock; in the midst of which is a spacious recess, ingeniously inlaid with shells, fossils, and curious petrefactions.  Through a colonnade of rude pillars this labyrinth is quitted by a door on the west, which opens on an awful precipice of huge rocks and pending crags, hoary with age, forming a striking contrast with the verdant lawn and fertile plain in the distance.  Proceeding under the grotto hill, by a road cut out of the shelving rock, and looking upwards, you behold enormous crags hanging over you, as if on the very point of falling.  This hill stretches to the south-west to a considerable distance; and the gigantic rocks heaped one upon another look more like ruined castles than the turrets of nature.  On leaving the grotto hill, you proceed by the side of stately oaks and rugged cliffs till you arrive at a natural cave called The Retreat, the top of which is tinged with variegated copper.  In this cave, with its straw-matted seat and stone table, is a beautiful stanza, penned by the late Sir Richard Hill.  After quitting the retreat, you pass by The Canopy and The Indian Rock, surrounded by scenery of the most romantic character, and mount up a curiously hewn pathway along the rock till you reach a little cottage, in which is the figure of a hermit, in a sitting posture, with a table before him, on which is a skull, an hour glass, a book, and a pair of spectacles.  The next attraction is St. Francis’s Cave, the entrance to which is under a curiously twisted root of a venerable yew tree.  After groping for some yards in total darkness, you suddenly emerge into cheering light, and which ever way you turn the most enchanting prospects are stretched out before you.  A detached piece of rock of a pyramidical form is called The Fox’s Knob, from the circumstance of a fox, some years ago, leaping from the top to the valley beneath; and being followed by some of the dogs, the pursuers and the pursued perished together.  Turning to the left, a verdant walk leads to the summit of The Terrace.  This delightful walk is embosomed in the varied foliage of forest trees, which reach down to the ground, with openings here and there through which distant prospects are viewed.  Passing beyond the limits of these Alpine heights, you arrive at Reynard’s Banqueting House, a natural cavern, in which were found the remains of hares, rabbits, and all sorts of poultry, which the foxes had carried there to feast upon.

On the highest point of the terrace is erected a noble Obelisk, built of white freestone, and about one hundred and twelve feet high.  From the top of this column a most unbounded prospect presents itself to view, and England and Wales vie with each other in the loftiness of their mountains and the richness of their plains.  The gallery of the obelisk forms an observatory for the astronomer.  The inscription on the base transmits to posterity the piety and noble acts of a venerable ancestor, a statue of whom in his lord mayor’s gown, copied from an ancient monument which stood in the church of St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, before the fire of London, is placed on the top, holding the Magna Charta in his hand.  The following is the inscription at the base:—

“The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.”—Psalm, cvi. 6.

The first stone of this pillar was laid by Sir Richard Hill, Bart. (member in several parliaments for this county), on the 1st day of October, in the year 1795; who caused it to be erected, not only for the various uses of an observatory and to feast the eye by presenting it at one view with a most luxuriant and extensive prospect, which takes in not less than twelve (or, as some assert, fifteen) counties, but from motives of justice, respect, and gratitude, to the memory of a truly great and good man, viz., Sir Rowland Hill, Knight, who was born at the family mansion, Hawkstone, in the reign of King Henry VII., and being bred to trade and free of the city of London, became one of the most considerable and opulent merchants of his time, and was lord mayor of the same in the second and third years of the reign of Edward VI., anno 1549 and 1550, and was the first Protestant that filled that high office.  Having embraced the principles of the Reformation, he zealously exerted himself in behalf of the Protestant cause, and having been diligent in the use of all religious exercises, “prayerful, conscientious, and watchful” (as a writer of his character expresses it), yet trusting only in the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, he exchanged this life for a better, a short while after the death of that pious young monarch, being aged nearly seventy-eight years.

For a considerable time previous to his decease he gave up his mercantile occupations that he might with more devotedness of heart attend to the great concerns of another world.  His lands, possessions, and church patronage were immense, particularly in the counties of Salop and Chester, the number of his tenants (none of whom he ever raised or fined) amounting to 1,181, as appears from his own hand writing.  His private virtues, good deeds and munificent spirit, were quite unlimited and extended—like the prospect before us, east, west, north, and south, far surpassing all bounds.  “Being sensible,” saith Fuller, speaking of him in his “Worthies of England,” “that his great estate was given him of God,” it was his desire to devote it to His glory.  He built a spacious church in his own parish Hodnet, and likewise the neighbouring church at Stoke at his own expense.  He built Tern and Atcham bridges in this county, both of hewn stone, and containing several arches each.  He also built other large bridges of timber.  He built and endowed several large schools, particularly that of Drayton.  He made and paved divers highways for the public utility.  He founded exhibitions and educated many students at both universities, and supported at the inns and courts others who were brought up to the law.  He was the unwearied friend of the widow and fatherless.  He clothed annually three hundred poor people in his neighbourhood, both with shirts and coats; and in the city of London he gave £500 (an immense sum in those days) to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, besides (saith Fuller) £600 to Christ’s Hospital.  He also gave most liberally to all other hospitals, and at his death bequeathed £150 to the poor of all the wards in London.  He had no children, but his relations and kinsfolk were numerous, who all partook largely of his bounty, both in his lifetime and at his death.  He constantly kept up a great family household, where he maintained good hospitality.  Many resorted to him for his wise and salutary advice, and none who came to him were sent empty or dissatisfied away.  Go thou and do likewise, as far as thy ability will permit, without injury to thy own relations.  It is worthy of remark that as Sir Rowland Hill was the first protestant lord mayor, anno 1549, so his father, Thomas Hill, Esq., of Hawkstone, was the last lord mayor of the Roman Catholic persuasion.

A walk from the terrace leads to the White Tower, a Gothic structure, situated on a bold projection on the south-west side of the terrace, which is a conspicuous object for several miles round.  In the glen not far from the White Tower is a cave in the rock, made accessible by means of some steps through a narrow romantic walk, and which is remarkable for having been the hiding place of an ancestor of the Hill family, who met with great hardships from the parliamentary forces during the commonwealth.  In memory of this gentleman the late Sir Richard Hill caused a handsome urn to be placed near the cave above mentioned, with the following inscription on the base of it:—

Anno 1784.

This urn
was placed here by Sir Richard Hill, Bart.,
(eldest son of Sir Rowland Hill, Bart.)
one of the Knights of this Shire,
as a token of affection to the memory of his much respected ancestor,
Rowland Hill, of Hawkstone, Esquire;
a gentleman remarkable for his great wisdom, piety, and charity, who, being
a zealous royalist, hid himself in this glen, in the civil wars in the
time of King Charles the First.

But being discovered, was imprisoned in the adjacent castle, commonly called Red Castle, whilst his house was pillaged and ransacked by the rebels.  The castle itself was soon after demolished.

His son, Rowland Hill, Esq., coming to his assistance, also suffered much in the same loyal cause.

The Vineyard is a sequestered glen, embosomed in foliage and screened by the rocks behind and on each side, and open only to the south sun, and apparently peculiarly adapted to the growth and culture of the vine; but although every effort was tried, the attempt did not succeed.  It was laid out in the manner of a fortification, with turrets, walls, and bastions, at very great expense, by the late Sir Richard Hill.  From the tower may be seen the town of Shrewsbury, many of the Cambrian hills, the magnificent Wrekin, and the towering heights of the Briedden hills, on the latter of which is the pillar erected in honour of Lord Rodney.  About a mile from the tower is the Burgh Walls, or Bury Walls, the remains of a grand Roman camp, allowed by antiquarians to be the most perfect in the kingdom.  It encompasses about twenty acres of ground, and is screened on all sides but one by a chain of inaccessible rocks.  The side on which there is no natural defence is strongly guarded by a triple entrenchment, which must have been a work of immense labour.  Here Roman coins have frequently been found, and in the year 1821 a spur, pronounced by competent judges to be of Roman workmanship, was found in the garden of the Bury farm, about a quarter of a mile from Bury Walls.  The Elysian Hill is another object of attraction; and here you find various rude and whimsical seats to rest upon, by the side of the mossy bank or rocky cavern, as you ascend the steep acclivity.  An enchanting valley divides this hill from the Red Castle Hill, so called from the colour of the rock, and of the stone with which the castle is built.  Having ascended the romantic heights, you enter the castle through a strong door or gateway.  This fortress, long the seat of warriors, and remarkable for its strength and the prodigious thickness of its walls, is now a heap of ruins, and inhabited only by birds of prey, whilst its martial sons are buried in oblivion, and nothing left to perpetuate their deeds of prowess but these fragments of desolation.  Dugdale informs us that this castle was erected in the reign of Henry III.; but an ancient manuscript in the Audley family proves it to have had a much earlier existence.  It is there said that “Maud, or Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, gave to John de Audley and to his heirs, the lands about Red Castle, in the county of Salop, for certain services done by him to the state.”  The castle and surrounding domain were purchased by Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., about the middle of the eighteenth century.  On the castle hill there is a deep well, commonly called the Giant’s Well, the depth of which, from the top of the tower, is two hundred and six feet; it is ten feet in diameter at the entrance, and hewn out of the solid rock.  The tower is also hewn out of the solid rock to the height of about forty feet.  Near to the well a coffin was found, many years ago, which, on being exposed to the air, crumbled into dust; in it were discovered several human bones, and the iron beard of an arrow.  The southern entrance to the glen, which divides the castle into two nearly equal parts, is flanked on each side by a rock, on which formerly stood watch towers; and where the fosse, which intersected the glen, required additional defence or altitude, masonry was employed.  A wall of great strength has crossed the glen at each end, passing up the slopes of the hill, connecting the rocks which overlook the entrances, and enclosing an area of an oblong form.  The approach to the highest division of the castle is by steps cut out of the solid rock, and continued through a low tortuous passage, the entrance to which has been guarded by a door.  A wall of about three hundred feet in circumference has been carried round the summit of the rock, the sides of which are for the most part perpendicular.  The park is richly adorned with timber, and the scenery is pleasingly diversified and enchanting—the awfulness of its shades, the horrors of its precipices, the verdure of its hollows, and the loftiness of its rocks, all combine to give an additional charm to the fairy scene.  A fine sheet of water, in some parts nearly one hundred yards in breadth, stretches for upwards of two miles in length, and forms the boundary to the north and west sides of the park.  The park is stocked with herds of Scotch bullocks, and upwards of six hundred head of deer.

The principal residents in Hawkstone are Rowland Viscount Hill, Hawkstone Park; Rev. William Blackley, domestic chaplain; William Carling, butler; Mrs. Morgan, housekeeper; Frederick Nieman, gardener; John Hopkins, farmer; and Thomas Holding, farmer.

HOPTON AND ESPLEY,
a township in the parish of Hodnet, one mile south from the church, contains 969a. 2r. 16p. of land, and in 1841 had twelve houses and 77 inhabitants; the tithes have been commuted for £183. 12s. 7d.  There are only three farms in this township, two of which are the property of Viscount Hill, and the other is the property of A. C. H. Percy, Esq.

The principal residents are Samuel Cartwright, farmer, Hopton; George Gill, farmer and land agent to Viscount Hill, Hopton; John Liversage, farmer, Espley.

KENSTONE,
a township and small village one mile W.W. by S. from Hodnet, contains 858a. 0r. 9p. of land, mostly a bold undulating district, the high grounds of which are covered with thriving plantations.  The land is chiefly the property of Viscount Hill; Mr. George Clay is the owner of one farm.  The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel near the verge of the township, on the turnpike road leading from Hodnet to Wem.  The tithes have been commuted for £73. 1s. 8d.  At the census of 1841 there were twenty houses and 104 inhabitants.

Directory.—James Cartwright, farmer; Martha Ellis, farmer; George Clay, farmer; Richard Powell, farmer, Hopley Hill; William Gregory, carpenter and joiner.

LOSSFORD, OR LOSTFORD,
a small township two and a half miles N. from Hodnet, with a few scattered houses, near the turnpike road from Hodnet to Market Drayton, contains 438a. 0r. 9p. of land, which is the property of Richard Corbet, Esq., and Miss Mary Murhall; the latter resides at a neat residence of modern construction, on an acclivity near the turnpike road.  In 1841 here were 11 houses and 64 inhabitants.  A small stream intersects the township, and tradition says that a person was formerly lost here in fording the stream, and hence the name of Lost-ford, now corrupted to Lossford, has been given to the township.

Directory.—Thomas Glassey, farmer; John Lodmore, farmer and cheese factor; John Merry, farmer; Miss Mary Murhall, farmer.

MARCHAMLEY
is a township and small village pleasantly situated on elevated ground, commanding fine prospects of the surrounding country, one mile N.W. from Hodnet, and six miles S.W. from Market Drayton.  The township contains 1424a. 0r. 29p. of land, and in 1841 here were 84 houses and 441 inhabitants; the tithes have been commuted for £217. 2s. 9d.; Viscount Hill is the principal landowner in the township.  The village is situated near the entrance to Hawkstone Park, some portions of which are within the bounds of this township.  The poor of Marchamley and the other townships comprising the parish of Hodnet participate in the benefit arising from the several charities noticed with the township of Hodnet.  The farm premises of Viscount Hill, who holds a considerable extent of land in his own hands, are situated at Marchamley.

Directory.—Thomas Cotton, farmer; Jane Lane, shopkeeper; Robert Graham, farmer and architect and builder; Richard James, police constable; John Martin, joiner; John Powell, farmer, The Well House; Samuel Vaughan, blacksmith; Samuel Whittaker, farm steward to Viscount Hill.

PEPLOW,
a township and small rural village in the parish of Hodnet, three miles S. from the parish church, contains 1,388a. 2r. 30p. of land, which is the property of Viscount Hill.  At the census of 1841 there were 28 houses and 220 inhabitants.  The tithes have been commuted for £532. 19s. 9d.  The hall is a spacious brick mansion, which was originally built by the Pigott family; it is now the residence of Captain George Hill.  On the north side of the hall is a private chapel, an ancient structure mantled with ivy, where the residents at Peplow usually attend divine service, which is performed by the rector or curate of Hodnet.  Not far from the chapel is a neat school and residence for the teacher, which was built and is supported by Viscount Hill.  The township is watered by the river Tern, the meadow lands on the banks of which are enriched by that river occasionally overflowing its banks; a little below the village it turns a corn mill.  The land for the most part in this locality is flat, it has been greatly improved by superior cultivation, and is generally highly productive.

Directory.—Captain George Hill, Peplow Hall; Ralph Brett, corn miller; John Cartwright, farmer; Thomas Casewell, farmer; Samuel Deakin, farmer; Richard Everall, farmer; James Gray, farmer, Hall Green; Samuel Hughes, blacksmith; Thos. Liversage, blacksmith; John Ravencroft, farmer; Samuel Shuker, shoemaker; George Topham, farmer, maltster, and butcher; Elizabeth Williams, schoolmistress.

WESTON UNDER RED CASTLE
is a township and chapelry in the Wem division of the North Bradford Hundred, the rest of the parish being returned in Drayton division.  The village is delightfully situated near the verge of Hawkstone Park, four miles E. from Wem, and in 1841 there were 76 houses and 348 inhabitants.  The township contains 2,210 acres of land, of which 576 acres are in woods and plantations, and 15 acres in roads.  Rateable value, £2645. 4s. 10d.  The tithes are commuted for £195. 17s. 6d.  Viscount Hill is the principal landowner and lord of the manor; Philip Hill, Esq., is also a landowner.  The country around Weston is pleasantly diversified with hill and dale, richly clothed with timber, and the scenery beautifully picturesque.  Here are extensive quarries of free stone, which is much used for building purposes; blocks of immense size are frequently raised from the quarries.  The Chapel is a neat structure of free stone, with a tower containing a clock; it was rebuilt in 1791, with funds raised by subscriptions, towards which Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., gave the munificent sum of £720.  The organ was purchased by subscriptions in 1838, and cost upwards of £100, of which £83. 2s. were given by various benevolent individuals, and the remainder was given by General Lord Hill, together with the communion plate.  The font is of Grinshill free stone, and exhibits some fine workmanship.  A neat marble tablet dated 1809 remembers George Downward and his wife Elizabeth.  The living is enjoyed by the Rev. John Hill.  The National School is a neat modern erection, with a residence for the teacher, built and endowed by the Hill family, of Hawkstone, (see charities noticed with Hodnet), 54 boys and 20 girls attend; the teachers have each a stipend of £20 per annum.  The Citadel is a stately pile of building in the castellated style of architecture, situated on a bold eminence, commanding delightful views, and beautified with park grounds richly clothed with timber.  It is the residence of the Rev. John Hill, M.A.  Hawkstone Hotel is a commodious and handsome structure elegantly fitted up, and situated near the entrance to the park.  From its contiguity to Hawkstone, the magnificent seat of Viscount Hill, it is frequented by immense numbers, who annually visit this delightful locality.  Wixhall is a hamlet in this township, the acres of which are returned with the parish.  Viscount Hill is the chief landowner; Phillip Hill, Esq.; C. D. Hill, Esq.; J. H. Sandford, Esq.; Mr. E. Evanson, and Clara Beddow, are also freeholders.

Those marked * reside at the hamlet of Wixhall.

* Ashley Ann, The Hall

* Ashley Samuel, farmer

* Ashley Thomas, farmer

Blakeway Richard, coachman

Clewes Richard, grocer, draper, & provision dealer

Denham James, Esq., architect

Evanson Edward, beerhouse keeper

Farnandez Mariano, vict., Hawkstone Hotel

Gill George, Esq., land agent and steward to Lord Hill

Hamer Mrs.

Higginson William, blacksmith

Hill Rev. John, The Citadel

Holding Thomas, Abbey Farm

Izzard Susannah, schoolmistress

Jones John, shoemaker

Lester Samuel, farmer

* Lewis Edward, quarry master

Lewis Samuel, tailor, The Heath

Lewis Thomas, mason, The Heath

Lewis William, mason, The Heath

Massey William, The Berry Farm

Phillips John, shoemaker, The Heath

* Powell Ann, farmer

Robinson Thomas, gamekeeper

Snape John, park keeper

Vigers John, Hawkstone Farm

Watson Joseph, shoemaker

Whalley James, The Hermitage Farm

* Williams Enoch, wheelwright and machine maker

Williams William, schoolmaster

WOLLERTON
is a straggling but pleasantly situated village a little more than a mile E.E. by N. from Hodnet.  At the census of 1841 there were 46 houses and 231 inhabitants; the township contains 1,334a. 2r. 6p. of land, the principal owners of which are A. C. H. Percy, Esq., Viscount Hill, Walter Minor, Esq., Mr. Richard Whitfield, Mr. William Massey, Mr. John Beacall, Mr. Samuel Brayn, and Mr. Thomas Pritchard.  There is a small Independent Chapel with a residence for the minister, situated on rising ground not far from the turnpike road leading from Hodnet to Market Drayton; it was built about half a century ago, and will accommodate about 120 hearers; the congregation is under the pastoral care of the Rev. Daniel Davies.  The tithes of Wollerton are commuted for £196. 1s. 1d.  The township is watered by the river Tern, on the banks of which there is a corn mill.

Directory.—Walter Minor, Esq.; Betty Blockley, farmer; Rev. Daniel Davies, Independent minister; Richard and John Cartwright, farmers, maltsters, and corn millers; John Hope, wheelwright; Phillip Hughes, blacksmith; Samuel Hughes, blacksmith; Margaret Icke, beerhouse keeper; John Lester, farmer; William Massey, farmer; William Massey, jun., farmer; James Pickering, cooper; William Powell, farmer.

IGHTFIELD,
a parish and village in the Whitchurch division of the hundred of North Bradford, four miles and a quarter S.E. by E. from Wem, contains 2,800 acres of land, mostly a strong soil, which produces good crops of grain.  In 1801 there were 209 inhabitants; 1831, 301; and in 1841, there were 70 houses and 361 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,959.  The principal landowners are Lord Kilmorey, Messrs. Corsers, Mr. John Walmsley, Mr. Isaac Forrester, Miss Morton, Mr. Samuel Lea, the Misses Hinton, Rev. John Justice, George Harper, Esq., and the representatives of William Skitt; besides whom there are several smaller freeholders.  The Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is situated on an eminence, and has a lofty square tower, ornamented with pinnacles.  It is an ancient structure in the Gothic style of architecture, much delapidated, and fast falling to decay.  The body of the church is divided into two compartments, and has a pitched roof, supported by octagonal stone pillars with pointed arches; the caps of the pillars are curiously carved.  The tower contains four bells; and from its summit a most delightful and extensive prospect over the fertile plains of Shropshire is seen.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £7. 19s. 4½d., in the patronage of H. Justice, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. John Justice, M.A.  The tithes were commuted in 1839 for the sum of £657. 16s. 5d., of which the sum of £320 was apportioned to the rector.  The estate of Lord Kilmorey in this parish is tithe-free, but he pays a small modus, and keeps a portion of the north compartment of the church in repair.  Kempley House is an ancient residence, and was formerly surrounded by a moat, which may still be traced.

Charities.—Several sums of money, amounting in the whole to £113, left by ten several donors, were laid out in the year 1819 in the purchase of certain premises, for the purpose of converting the same into a poor-house.  The sum of £5. 10s. has been since paid annually as the interest of the charity money out of the parish rates, and disposed of as follows:—The sum of £1 is divided annually among poor widows of this parish; 18s. are expended in penny loaves, and distributed every Sunday amongst poor old persons most constantly attending the church; and the residue is distributed among the most necessitous poor of the parish, in sums varying from 4s. to 8s.

Bentley William, farmer, The Heath

Bentley William, jun., farmer

Blackmore John, farmer

Burgess Geo., farmer, Dairy House

Dickin Robert, farmer

Ebrey John, butcher

Gresty William, maltster and farmer

Haynes Thomas, tailor

Heath John, farmer

Hinton John, farmer and butcher

Jones Elizabeth, farmer

Justice Rev. John, M.A., The Rectory

Langford Enoch, shoemaker

Langford Joseph, bricklayer

Langford Joseph, victualler, Lamb Inn

Shelley John, farmer, The Hall

Shucker William, blacksmith

Skitt Wm., farmer, Kempley

Tyler Thomas, shoemaker and parish clerk

Wainwright John, shopkeeper

Walmsley Samuel, farmer

Wharton John, shopkeeper

Wiggin Richard, farmer

Williams Richard, beerhouse-keeper and blacksmith

Wilson George, wheelwright

Wilson John, wheelwright

Worrall Josh., farmer, Yew-tree House

LEE BROCKHURST
is a small parish and village, two miles and a half S.E. from Wem, in the Whitchurch division of the hundred of North Bradford.  In 1801 there was a population of 137 souls; 1831, 151; and in 1841 there were 31 houses and 165 inhabitants.  The parish contains 564a. 2r. 21p. of land, of which 216a. 3r. 36p. are arable, 75 acres meadow, 10a. 2r. sheep walks, 61a. 2r. woods and plantations, and about eleven acres in gardens and homesteads.  Of the total acreage 374a. 3r. 23p. are titheable, and the remainder tithe-free.  Rateable value, £588. 11s. 3d.  The principal landowners are Viscount Hill, John H. Walford, Esq., Mrs. Brooks, and Samuel Long Waring, Esq.  The tithes are commuted for £74; John H. Walford, Esq., is the impropriator.  The turnpike road from Whitchurch to Newcastle intersects the parish, which is bounded on the south-east and south west by the river Roden, the stream being crossed by two stone bridges.  At Lee Bridge there is a respectable and commodious inn, the Corbet Arms; near to which are immense rocks of red sandstone, the soil on the summits of which is planted with fir and other timber trees.  On the top of one of these rocks a tower has been erected, from which a most extensive and picturesque view of the country is obtained.  The whole district has a bold undulating surface, finely wooded, and the scenery towards Hawkstone, the fine domain of Viscount Hill, is truly magnificent.  An Obelisk has been erected by the tenantry of Besford and Lee Bridge, as a token of esteem and respect to their landlord, Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., and to commemorate the coming of age of his eldest son, Vincent Rowland Corbet, Esq., August 11th, 1842.  It bears the following inscription:—

“May there be Corbets and Hills this obelisk to pass,
So long as time and it doth last.”

A bath has been cut out of the red sandstone rock, which is supplied with an abundance of fine spring water.  The Church, dedicated to St. Peter, is a plain unpretending structure of venerable appearance; the interior is neatly pewed, and consists of nave and chancel, and contains a small gallery.  A neat tablet remembers John Henshaw, Esq., and there are several tombs in the church-yard in memory of the Heatleys.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £74, in the patronage of John H. Walford, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. William Walker.  The parish register is in good preservation, and dates from the year 1566.  Near the church is a barrow or tumuli, where it is stated human bones have been found.

Directory.—Mrs. Brookes; Miss Harris; Samuel Heatley, farmer, The Hall; John Holding, shopkeeper and shoemaker; William Ikin, farmer, Cranberry farm; Mary Ikin, schoolmistress; Richard Powell, farmer; Richard Powell, jun., farmer; the Misses Skitt; William Staples, huntsman to the Albrighton Subscription Hunt, and victualler, the Raven and Hand and Corbet Arms.

MORETON CORBET
is a village and parish seven miles N.N. by E. from Shrewsbury, and four and a half miles south-east from Wem.  The parish contains the township of Moreton Corbet and part of the townships of Preston Brockhurst and Besford, and comprises 2,140a. 1r. 17p. of land, of which 200 acres are in woods and plantations.  In 1801 there was a population of 180 souls; in 1831, 679; and in 1841 there were 37 houses and 226 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,765. 8s.  Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., is lord of the manor, impropriator, and owner of the whole parish.  The land is of a superior quality; the soil is a mixture of sand and loam.  There is a fine breed of sheep kept here, and several of the farmers have large flocks.  The tithes have been commuted for £400.  The township of Moreton Corbet contains 607a. 3r. 1p. of land, of which 214 acres are woods and plantations.

Moreton Corbet Castle stands a short distance from the church, and presents a noble pile of ruins, magnificent in decay.  A considerable portion of the walls is still standing, but its roof has been many years demolished.  In early times it was the stately mansion of the Corbets.  Several dates may be discovered in different parts of the building, but the date of its erection is uncertain; it is probable that only a portion of the original design was ever completed; and it has by no means the appearance of having been intended for a fortress, for the windows are large, and unlike those of castles in general.  It was garrisoned in 1644 by the parliament against Charles I.  The king having possession of Shrewsbury and several places in the neighbourhood, the parliament sent part of the garrison from hence against Shrewsbury, which soon after surrendered to their forces.  This castle is said to have been partly burnt during the civil wars, since which it has gradually sunk into insignificance and dilapidation.  The present noble owner is descended from an ancient and honourable family, who have been seated in this county from the time of the conquest, when Roger Corbet held large possessions under the Earl of Shrewsbury.  Sir Vincent Corbet was created a baronet in 1641, whose descendant, Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., now resides at Acton Reynald.  Mr. Blakeway gives the following tradition of the Pilgrim of Moreton:—“The real progenitor of all the Shropshire Corbets had but one son that we know of, William, who left issue.  Ebraid and Simon occur as granting lands in Wentnor to the Abbey of Shrewsbury, but we know nothing of them.  William Corbet is stated to have made Wattlesborough his residence, and no doubt dwelt in that ancient castle, of which, however, there are no remains so old as his age.  He had three sons, Thomas Corbet of Wattlesborough, Robert of Caus, and Philip.  Several circumstances concur to show that the former was the eldest, though Robert became much the more considerable personage.  A tradition still subsists that the heir of Moreton Corbet went to the Holy Land, and was kept in captivity so long that he was supposed to be dead.  In consequence of this his younger brother engaged to marry, that he might continue the line.  On the morning of his marriage, says the tradition, a pilgrim came to the house to partake of the hospitalities of that festal occasion.  After dinner he revealed himself to the assembled company as the long-lost elder brother; but when the bridegroom would have surrendered the estate, he declined the offer, and desired only a small portion of the land, which he accordingly received.  Such incidents are related of other families, and were perhaps not unfrequent in a romantic age; and some were doubtless feigned.  I am inclined to think the present has a basis of truth, for we are assured that Thomas Corbet of Wattlesborough went beyond sea, and left his lands in the custody of his brother Robert; and this may have given rise to the tale I have just related.  The primogeniture of Thomas is established by the armorial bearings of his posterity,—the single raven.  The descendants of Robert bore two such—a proof that they were a younger line; but they were barons of the realm, an elevation never attained by the Wattlesborough branch: and Caus, the seat of their barony, appears to have been carved out of the elder line, Westbury, where it lies, having been granted by Earl Roger to their progenitor, Roger, son of Corbet.  All these coincidences, with the tradition above mentioned, afford it some support.  Moreton, indeed, has in this case been made prematurely the scene of the transaction.”

The Church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is a handsome structure of free stone, in the decorative style of English architecture, with a square tower.  The interior has a very beautiful and chastened appearance, and the tablets and monuments to the Corbet family exhibit some very elaborate workmanship.  A monument to Vincent Corbet, the third baronet, who died in 1670, is richly decorated with festoons of oak leaves, finely executed in marble.  The four corners are held up by ravens, in allusion to the armorial bearings of this ancient family, and surmounted by their crest, the elephant and castle.  The latter is said to have been the armorial bearings of the Scottish Oliphants, one of whom was taken prisoner by a Corbet, in a war between the two kingdoms.  The livingis a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £5. 3s. 6d.; now returned at £376; in the patronage of Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., and incumbency of the Rev. Robert F. Wood, M.A., who resides at the rectory, a good residence situate near the church.  There are 39a. 2r. 26p. of glebe land.  The National School, a spacious stone building, is supported by Sir A. V. Corbet.  About eighty children attend.  The poor of this parish are entitled to a yearly sum of £1. 5s., the gift of Andrew and Elizabeth Downes, which is now paid out of certain lands in Ollerly lane, in the manor of Wem.  Various benefactions left for the benefit of the poor, in the whole amounting to £86. 5s., were formerly placed out at interest; but in 1821 the amount was laid out in building some cottages for the poor, upon land rented for this purpose by the parish officers.  The parishioners having found that no benefit had been derived from the use of these houses, prevailed on Sir Andrew Corbet to take the land with the cottages thereon, and to repay them the sum they had expended, which was again put out at interest for the benefit of the poor.

The principal residents in Moreton Corbet are Eleanor Bennett, school teacher; Robert Broughall, farmer; John Harris, farmer; John Harris, jun., farmer; Mrs. Ann Henshaw, the Castle; Richard Henshaw, the Castle Farm; William Lawley, blacksmith; Rev. Robert Faulkner Wood, M.A., the Rectory.

PRESTON BROCKHURST
is a scattered village and township, partly in the parish of Shawbury, and partly in the parish of Moreton Corbet, three and a quarter miles south-east from Wem.  At the census of 1841 there were 21 houses and 138 inhabitants, of which 2 houses and 17 persons were returned as in the parish of Shawbury, and the remainder in this parish.  The township contains 1,482a. 1r. 23p. of land, much improved by superior cultivation.  The village is delightfully situated on the turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Hawkstone; the vicinity has a bold undulating surface, richly wooded, and pleasingly diversified with rural scenery.  Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., is lord of the manor and sole proprietor.  The Hall is a fine specimen of ancient architecture, with projecting gables and bay windows, and was in early times the seat of a branch of the Corbet family.  It is lofty and spacious, and entered by a fine old porch, above which is a watch tower; the whole has a venerable yet interesting appearance.  The interior contains some fine specimens of elaborate oak carving; the entrance hall is of panelled oak, and the antique staircase is also of oak, of massive and beautiful workmanship, the whole of which is in excellent preservation.  Preston Wood covers an area of 204a. 1r. 20p. acres of land.

Brayne Richard, farmer, the Hall

Darlington Thomas, vict., the Elephant and Castle

Deakin James, butcher

Edwards William, farmer, Bridleway-gate

Evans John and Son, blacksmiths and agricultural implement makers

Evans John, farmer, Shawbury house

Huxley Richard, farmer, the Grove

Lewis Thomas, maltster and vict., Corbet Arms

Morgan Mr. Thomas

Snape Thomas, shopkeeper and gamekeeper

Travar John, sawyer

Travar Richard, joiner and cabinet-maker

Travar Samuel, wheelwright and van proprietor

Windsor Thomas, farmer, Wainhouse

MORETON SAY, OR MORETON SEA,
is a parish which comprehends the townships of Betchley, Longford, Moreton Say, Styche, and Woodlands, and contains 4,804a. 1r. 30p. of land, of which 53a. 2r. 13p. are woods and plantations, roads, and waste; the soil for the most part is a strong tenacious clay: in other parts a fertile loam prevails.  In 1801 the parish contained 683 inhabitants; in 1831, 679; and in 1841, there were 126 houses and 770 inhabitants.  Rateable value of the whole parish, £5,299. 8s.  Rent charge, £645.  The middle and the northern verge of the parish bordering on Cheshire, present a bold undulating surface, and from the high grounds a most beautiful prospect of the surrounding country may be seen.  Richard Corbet, Esq., and John Tayleur, Esq., are joint lords of the manor.  The village of Moreton Say is pleasantly situated three miles west from Market Drayton, and in 1841 had 42 houses and 202 inhabitants.  Rateable value of the township, £1,928. 11s.  The population are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits, and the land in this locality has been greatly improved by draining and superior cultivation.  The principal landowners are John Whitehall Dod, Esq., M.P.; the Earl of Powis; and John Tayleur, Esq.  The Church is a venerable fabric, with a tower surmounted by a wooden turret.  The structure underwent a complete reparation in 1788, at a cost of £386. 8s., which was raised by private subscriptions.  The chancel is ornamented with a beautiful stained glass window, of exquisite workmanship.  The walls of the chancel are decorated with implements of war, taken by the late Lord Clive in his campaign through India; there are also six beautifully designed marble tablets, in memory of the predecessors of Lord Clive, of Styche Hall; a fine tomb of elaborate workmanship, with three full sized figures in a recumbent posture, remembers the Grosvenors of Eaton, and is dated 1619.  A beautiful mural monument, chastely executed, has been erected in commemoration of John Bostock, Esq., who died in 1623.  There is also a tablet of curious workmanship in memory of Elizabeth Rotton, with others to the Corser, Redshaw, Woolley, and other families.  In the churchyard is a magnificent altar tomb of marble, to the memory of Sir John Markham, who died in 1778.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the rector of Hodnet, and enjoyed by the Rev. Robert Upton, M.A.  The tithes have been commuted, and £555 apportioned to the rector of Hodnet, and £90 to the incumbent of Moreton Say.  There are 48a. 2r. 39p. of glebe land.  The parsonage is an ancient structure a short distance from the church.  There is a school here, which is chiefly supported by the minister and a few benevolent individuals.

In the parliamentary returns of 1786 several sums of money are mentioned as having been given to the poor of this parish, amounting in the whole to £199. 10s., which sum is stated to have been laid out in the purchase of £250 stock in the four per cents.  There is reason to question the accuracy of this statement, as we find that most of the charities recorded (many of which do not exceed £5) are supposed to have been distributed as soon as received.  There was, however, a close called the Poor’s Field, containing about seven acres, the rent of which was given away to the poor; but whether this field was purchased with any part of the charities bequeathed to the parish, or derived from any other source, is not now known.  This field was sold about seventy years ago, with the consent of the parishioners, by the churchwardens and overseers, to Archdeacon Clive, the then incumbent of Moreton Say, who gave for it £250 stock in the four per cents., producing £10 a year, being the rent at which the close was then let.  The dividends of this stock now amount to £8. 15s., with £1. 5s. added from the poors’ rate, to make up £10, is expended in bread, and given away among poor persons attending divine service at the church.

Directory.—Francis Grocott, farmer, Calverhall; Johnson and Moore, farmers, Styche farm; William Lea, farmer and corn miller; Samuel Minor, farmer, Moreton Hall; William Overton, farmer, Higgins Wood; William Parker, farmer, the Wood; Thomas Peplow, farmer; Rev. Robert Upton, M.A., the Parsonage.

BETCHLEY
is a township and scattered village, pleasantly situated one mile south from Moreton Say, which in 1841 had 16 houses and 101 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £684. 16s.  The acres and tithes are included in the returns given of the parish.  The Earl of Powis and George Corser, Esq., are the landowners.  The soil is mostly a cold clay, but has been much improved by draining and by freely using bone-dust as a fertilizer.

The principal residents are Thomas Baker, farmer; Mrs. Cartwright, farmer; William Humphreys, farmer; and Samuel Sharratt, farmer, Oldfields.

LONGFORD,
a township and village, delightfully situated on elevated ground, two miles S.E. by E. from Moreton Say, in 1841 contained 53 houses and 262 inhabitants.  The land produces good crops of wheat and barley, and there is some fine grazing land; the soil is chiefly strong.  The Market Drayton, Shrewsbury, Whitchurch, and Newport turnpike roads intersect the township.  The scenery around is beautifully varied and picturesque.  Gross estimated rental, £1,537. 14s.  John Tayleur, Esq., is lord of the manor and a landowner; besides whom the Rev. Thomas Henshaw Jones, Mr. Charles Warren, Mr. Samuel Hudson, Richard Corbet, Esq., John Hazledine, Esq., and others are also proprietors.

Directory.—George Harding, Esq., estate agent and steward to Richard Corbet, Esq., Tern Hill House; Joseph Harris, farmer; Samuel Harris, farmer; John Hazledine, Esq., Tern Hill; John Hill Stephenson, farmer; Samuel Hudson, farmer; Joseph Johnson, blacksmith and victualler, the Lion; Joseph Sillitoe, farmer, Tern Hill; James Wood, beerhouse-keeper.

STYCHE AND WOODLANDS,
a township and village on the northern verge of the county, bordering on Cheshire, at the census of 1841 contained 24 houses and 145 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,148. 7s.  The soil is mostly a strong clay; there is some good meadow land in the township.  The Earl of Powis and Lord Kilmorey are the landowners.  Styche Hall is an elegant mansion of brick, with stone quoins and stuccoed, which produces a light and handsome appearance.  It is situated on a gentle elevation, and being lofty and spacious, and approached by a fine portico, gives it an imposing aspect.  The front of the mansion opens into a fine extent of park-like grounds.  The offices and stables are behind the hall, and form a spacious quadrangle.  Styche is now the seat of Henry B. Clive, Esq., M.P., for the borough of Ludlow.  The celebrated Lord Clive, the founder of the present noble family of Powis, was born at Styche.  He was the son of Richard Clive, Esq., and received his education first at the free-school in Drayton, and afterwards at Dr. Stirling’s school, Hempsted.  He subsequently became a celebrated commander in the East India Company’s service, and contributed to the prosperity of the company in a most unexampled manner.  He represented the town of Shrewsbury in parliament from 1760 to 1774, but rarely spoke in the house, though upon special occasions he displayed great powers of elocution.  By his will he bequeathed £70,000 to the invalids in the Company’s service.

Directory.—Henry B. Clive, Esq., Styche Hall; Thomas Akers, farmer, Shavington Park; Samuel Beeston, farmer, Nobridge; Thomas Betterley, farmer, Shavington; Richard Caldicot, farmer.  New-street Lane; Charles Gregory, farmer, Barnetts; John Horton, beerhouse-keeper; Abraham Price, farmer; Thomas Sharratt, farmer, New-street Lane.

BEARSTON
is a township and small village, pleasantly situated four miles and a half N.E. from Market Drayton, in the parish of Muckleston, which is mostly comprised within the bounds of the Pirehill Hundred, in the county of Stafford.  The Church is also in Staffordshire, and situate about a mile to the north of Blore Heath.  It is an ancient structure, with a lofty tower, from the top of which Queen Margaret witnessed the slaughter at the battle of Blore Heath.  The townships comprised in this county are Bearston, Dorrington, Gravenhanger, and Woore.  The township of Bearston contains 1,084a. 1r. 6p., of land.  The soil for the most part is a strong loam, in other parts it is of a light sandy nature, particularly near the banks of the river Tern.  In 1841 there were 17 houses and 101 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,196. 4s. 5d.  Gross estimated rental, £1,319. 9s. 8d.  The land is the property of Thomas Kinnersley, Esq., except one farm, the property of the Rev. Hugh Ker Cokburne.  The river Tern here divides the county from that of Stafford, on the banks of which is the Bearston Corn Mill, occupied by Mr. Bruckshaw, whose residence is just within the bounds of this county.

Directory.—John Benbow, farmer; Thomas Bennion, farmer; George Bruckshaw, farmer, maltster, and corn miller, Bearston Mill; Robert Tilsley, farmer.

DORRINGTON,
a small village and township, in the parish of Muckleston, five miles and a quarter N.N.E. from Market Drayton, in 1831 contained 35 houses and 188 inhabitants.  The township contains 965a. 0r. 35p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £1,296. 3s. 6d.  Rateable value, £1,181. 2s. 1d.  Sir J. W. L. Chetwode, Bart., is the principal landowner.  Miss Birchall is also a proprietor.  Pipegate is a hamlet, a little to the east of Dorrington.  Irelands Cross, a hamlet on the turnpike road to the north of Dorrington.  Here is the old Workhouse; a plain brick structure, now unoccupied.  Adjoining the workhouse are four small tenements, called The Almshouses, which are stated to have been built at the expense of the parish.  The inmates have no income, and they have been so long in undisturbed possession, that they now claim them as their own.

Directory.—Thomas Ball, victualler, Fox and Hounds; Sarah Benbow, farmer; Elizabeth Birchall, farmer; Mary Goodall, farmer; Henry Hopwood, farmer; Jane Latham, beerhouse-keeper; Mary Lindop, farmer; Henry Taylor, manager to Miss Birchall; Robert Timmis, farmer; Matthew and William Wildig, joiners, builders, and brick-makers, Irelands Cross.

GRAVENHANGER,
a township six miles N.N.E. from Market Drayton, contains 1,144a. 2r. 9p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £1,745. 9s. 7d.  The principal landowners are William Barber, Esq., Thomas Eld, Esq., Messrs. Wilkinson, Mr. Samuel Sherrard, Miss Elizabeth Birchall, George Kendrick, Esq., Executors of the late Mr. Latham.  The Hall is an ancient residence, occupied by Mr. John Beeston.  Gravenhanger Moss is a tract of land of about twenty acres unenclosed.

The principal residents are John Beeston, farmer, The Hall; Ralph Bennet, farmer; Henry Buckley, beerhouse-keeper; Samuel Foxley, victualler, Crow Inn; Robert Huntback, farmer; Jane Latham, farmer; Thomas Latham, farmer; John Lea, farmer; Charlotte Morrey, farmer; James Sandbach, farmer, Brooklands; Samuel Wilkinson, farmer.

WOORE
is a chapelry and considerable village, pleasantly situated at the north-east extremity of the county, seven miles N.N.E. from Market Drayton.  The village contains many good houses, a neat church, and a respectable hotel, and stands on a salubrious acclivity, which commands extensive views of the surrounding country.  The township contains 1,000a. 2r. 26p. of land, and in 1841 there were 98 houses and 372 persons.  Gross estimated rental, £1,810. 15s. 2d.  Rateable value, £1,632. 17s. 9d.  The principal landowner is George Kendrick, Esq.  Mr. Smith, Mr. Richard Clough, and the Devisees of the late Mr. Latham, are also proprietors.

The Church is a neat structure, dedicated to St. Leonard, and has been built about twenty years.  The cost of the fabric was £1,300.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £100, in the patronage of the Kendrick and Kinnersley families alternately; incumbent, Rev. John Hawksworth, M.A., who resides at the Parsonage, a neat residence a short distance from the church.  The old church was taken down on the erection of the present structure, and stood near the site of the parsonage house.  The National School was built by voluntary subscriptions and a grant from the national society in 1832.  At the present time, forty boys and sixty girls and infants attend.  The master has £15 per annum paid him, for which fifteen children are educated free; the children of cottagers pay one penny per week, and an additional charge is made for farmers’ children.  The Manor House, a handsome residence embosomed in foliage, was unoccupied when our agent visited Woore.  The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel here.  Fairs are held on the last Thursday in April and November.

Post Office.—At John Hitchen’s.  Letters arrive from Market Drayton at 9 A.M., and are despatched at 4.30 P.M.

Baddiley Gregory, grocer

Bradbury William P., farmer and victualler, Swan Hotel

Brooke George, farmer

Buckley Thomas, grocer

Burslem Thomas, tailor

Collier George, cabinet and chair maker

Clough Richard, farmer

Clough Wm., schoolmaster

Dunkley Rev. John, curate

Goodall William, farmer, Woore Hall

Hayward Mr. John

Hawksworth, Rev. John, M.A. The Parsonage

Hitchens John, Post Office

Hough David, farmer

Hulse Mr., farmer

Jackson George, blacksmith

Latham Mr. Thomas

Lander George, butcher

Lewis Abraham, tallow chandler

Lewis John, shoemaker

Lindop John, victualler, The Falcon Inn

Minor Henry Robert, farmer

Morrey Richard, cooper and victualler, Coopers’ Arms

Morrey Thomas, shopkeeper

Mullington Mary, school-mistress

Nickson William, saddler

Rowley William, tailor

Salt John, surgeon

Taylor James, farmer

Vickers Richard, farmer

Watmough Charles, surgeon

Wayte Henry, shopkeeper

NORTON IN HALES,
a parish and village situated three and a half miles N.E. by N. from Market Drayton, at the census of 1841 contained 64 houses and 312 inhabitants.  In 1801 there was a population of 269 souls, and in 1831, 311.  The parish contains 1,845 acres, the gross estimated rental of which is £2,732, 16s. 8d.  Rateable value, £2,475 1s. 8d.  The tithes are commuted for £305.  P. Sillitoe, Esq., is the principal land owner, the other chief owners are William Church Norcop, Esq., Mrs. Heath, and Rev. Hugh Ker Cokburne, the latter of whom is lord of the manor.  At the Domesday survey Nortone in Odenet hundred was Held by one Helgot.  The Church is an ancient structure dedicated to St. Chad, consisting of nave and chancel, with a handsome square tower at the west end, embattled and ornamented with pinnacles; the chancel is of much older date than the rest of the church.  There is a magnificent monument of Derbyshire alabaster, with full length figures, of Sir Rowland Cotton and his lady, in a recumbent posture; it is dated 1686; the Cottons had a seat at Etwall in Derbyshire, and Bellaport in this county.  Over the tomb is an ancient helmet.  There is also a neat tablet in memory of the Cotton family in the chancel.  The church will accommodate about 100 hearers, and there is a gallery at the west end which holds about fifty children.  The old antique font of rude construction is now disused and stands under the tower; a small new font has recently been added and placed in the chancel.  The pews belonging to the rector and the lord of the manor are handsomely carved.  The curfew bell tolls at eight o’clock from Michaelmas-day to Lady-day, a practice still continued in many of the rural villages of this county.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £5. 9s. 4d., now returned at £330, in the patronage of W. Silver, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Frederick Silver, M.A., who resides at the Rectory, a good stuccoed house pleasantly situated near the north-east side of the churchyard.  There are eleven acres of glebe land.  The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel in the village.  Bellaport House, the occasional residence of the lord of the manor, the Rev. Hugh Ker Cokburne, is delightfully situated on high grounds, and commands views of great extent and beauty.  Brand Hall, a good brick mansion, the property of P. Sillitoe, Esq., was unoccupied when our agent visited Norton.

Charities.—The National School is a small structure, where about fifty children are educated.  In 1751 Margaret Higginson left £50 towards founding a school at Norton; Sir Rowland Cotton gave a house of two bays and a barn for the use of the schoolmaster, and Ralph Pilsbury left £6 towards teaching one child.  It is supposed that the money given by Mrs. Higginson was laid out in the purchase of land, though no deeds can be found relating thereto.  The property belonging the school consists of the school, with a yard and garden, containing 1r. 9p., and an allotment of 21p. added at the inclosure.  The schoolhouse with a garden containing 19p., and two closes containing 5a. 0r. 20p., producing together a yearly rental of £12.  There is also a yearly sum of 4s. 9d. paid by the churchwardens as the interest of £6 left by Ralph Pilsbury, the principal having been applied to the use of the church previously to the year 1746, from which period this payment has been made.  In respect of this income the master instructs seven children.

William Shore, in 1675, gave a rent charge of 26s. 8d. per annum, issuing out of a meadow in Dorrington, for the use of the poor, and afterwards in consideration of a sum of £40 conveyed the said land in trust, that all the rents and profits should be disposed of for the benefit of the poor.  The said £40 having been given by various donors for the good of the poor of this parish.

Several sums of money given by the Cotton family about the year 1694, amounting in the whole to £80, were laid out in the purchase of land and premises at Wem; the property consists of a house and about six acres of land, which are let for about £15. 12s. per annum.  The income derived from the above estates forms one fund, which is distributed among poor parishioners on Good Friday and Christmas-day.

Richard Grosvenor left 20s. per annum to the poor.  In the churchwarden’s accounts about the year 1756, there is an entry of £30 paid by Robert Davison for the purpose of exonerating the estate which then belonged to him from the rent charge, and the amount is carried to the general account of the church rate.  No payment has been made in respect of this charity from the church rate, but we conceive that interest on the purchase money ought to be paid from this account, for the benefit of the poor.

Beech William, tailor, Norton Forge

Benton Thomas, farmer, Norton Wood

Blackhurst James, blacksmith and grocer

Bloore Thomas, wheelwright

Brookshaw George, blacksmith

Butters Snow, tailor

Churton Thomas, shoemaker, Forge

Clorley Thomas, parish clerk

Cokburne Rev. Hugh Ker, Bellaport House

Duckers Thomas, vict., The Crescent and Anchor

Eardly Richard, farmer, Bellaport Lodge

Eley William, butcher

Fox Henry, bailiff to Rev. H. K. Cokburne

Green Thomas, wheelwright, Norton Forge

Jones George, farmer

Jones Richard, farmer

Keay John, farmer and shoemaker

Leighton Daniel, farmer and maltster

Mate William, farmer, Norton Wood

Matthews John, farmer, Brand Common

Minshall William, shoemaker

Morris Richard, wheelwright and beerhouse

Randles William, grocer

Ratcliff Thomas, gardener, The Hall

Rowe Isaac, painter and glazier

Silver Rev. Frederick, M.A., The Rectory

Simcock Joseph, tailor

Snow Sarah, farmer

Spragg Samuel, gamekeeper

Walley Elizabeth, farmer

Wickstead John, master of National School

PREES
is an extensive parish and considerable village, situated on a gentle acclivity, four miles north-east from Wem, and fourteen miles north-east from Shrewsbury.  The parish contains the townships of Calverhall or Corra, Darliston, Fauls, Mickley, Millen Heath, Prees, Sandford, Steele, Willaston, and the chapelry of Whixall, which together contain 14,160 acres of land, of which 2,657a. 1r. 10p. are in mosses, woods, covers, and heath land.  In 1801 the parish had a population of 2,653 souls; 1831, 3,355; and in 1841 there were 638 inhabited houses 24 uninhabited, and 3,270 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £17,466. 2s. 8d.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £1,041. 1s., and the vicarial tithes for £636.  Some part of the land is mossy, others of a peaty nature, and in some instances gravelly; there is also a portion of clay soils, of a reddish colour.  The township of Prees contains 3,854a. 3r. 11p. of land, and is intersected by the Ellesmere, Whitchurch, Newport, Shrewsbury, and Market Drayton turnpike roads.  Rateable value, £5,474, 8s. 8d.  In 1841 here were 302 houses and 1,473 inhabitants.  The land has a bold undulating surface, and commands interesting views of the surrounding country.  Prees is celebrated as the birth place of the Salopian hero General Lord Hill, and has acquired importance from its contiguity to Hawkston, the magnificent seat of Viscount Hill.  In the 43rd of Henry III. the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield had a grant of a market here on a Tuesday, and of a fair on the eve, the day, and the morrow of St. Chad the Bishop, with the liberty of free warren.  In the 35th of Edward I. the market was changed to Wednesday, but the markets were never of much consideration, and subsequently were discontinued.  Two fairs are, however, still held, on the second Monday in April and the second Monday in October, for the sale of sheep and cattle, which are well attended by the farmers and graziers of the surrounding country.  Viscount Hill is lord of the manor, and the principal landowner.  Sir R. C. Hill, Bart.; George Harper, Esq.; John Dickin, Esq.; and a few others are also proprietors.

General Lord Hill, whose brilliant military services have acquired such general renown, was born at Prees, August 11, 1772.  His lordship entered the army in the sixteenth year of his age, and commenced his military duty at Edinburgh.  His friends being anxious for his early promotion, obtained permission for him to raise an independent company, which gave him the rank of captain in the army, in the year 1792.  In the interval of his being attached to any particular corps, he accompanied Frances Drake, Esq., on a diplomatic mission to Genoa, from whence Captain Hill proceeded to Toulon, and was employed as aide-de-camp to Lord Mulgrave, General O’Hara, and Sir David Dundas, successive generals there.  He was deputed by Sir David Dundas to be the bearer of the despatches to England relating to the evacuation of Toulon by the British.  He was shortly after promoted to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 90th regiment, and went through a great deal of arduous duty at Gibraltar, and had his full share in the memorable Egyptian campaign.  In the action of the 13th of March Colonel Hill commanded the advanced guard, and received a wound in the right temple from a musket ball, the force of which was providentially averted by a strong brass binding in front of his helmet; the blow, however, was severe, and he was removed from the field of battle in a state of insensibility.  After the return of the troops from Egypt, the 90th was ordered to proceed to Ireland, where Lord Hill continued to perform his regimental duty till he was appointed brigadier-general.  Early in the summer of 1808 he joined the army in England, destined to act in the Peninsula.  In the battles of Roleia and Vimiera he was fully employed, and gained the thanks and approbation of his comrades; and during the whole of Sir John Moore’s advance and retreat Lord Hill continued indefatigible in his exertions.  His humanity and attention to the troops on their landing at Plymouth earned him the admiration of the inhabitants, and he was voted the freedom of the borough.  About this time he became possessed of the seat and estate of Hardwick Grange, left him by his uncle, Sir Richard Hill, Bart.  At the battle of Talavera Lord Hill was slightly wounded on the head, but his firmness and courage in repelling the successive attacks of the French, greatly contributed to the success of the day.  The generalship and activity of Lord Hill in surprising and capturing a French corps under General Girard, in Spanish Estremadura, is deserving of commemoration.  The force that Girard had with him consisted of 2,500 infantry and 600 cavalry, the whole of which were totally dispersed or captured.  Among the latter were General Brune, the Prince d’Aremberg, several colonels, thirty captains and subalterns, and upwards of 1,000 soldiers, with the whole of their baggage, artillery, and commissariat.  The enemy’s loss in killed was very severe, whilst from the activity and skilful manœuvres of Lord Hill, it was very trifling on the side of the British.  Lieutenant-general Hill, during his detached command in Spain, was principally opposed to Soult, perhaps the most able general whom Napoleon employed in that country; and the acuteness of General Hill in foreseeing the intentions of that officer very materially contributed to the happy results of the action at Buzaco.  In the memorable battle of Vittoria the centre of the allied army was commanded by the Duke of Wellington, and the right by Lord Hill.  Here the enemy were completely routed, and the booty which was captured was immense.  Besides the baggage horses, and other articles taken on the field, the value of the specie, plate, and jewels, was estimated at six millions of dollars.  Of this sum only 100,000 dollars came to the military chest; the rest was divided by the troops on the spot.  When Lord Hill occupied the valley of Bastan with an army of 3,000 men, he was attacked by a force of 14,000 men; but notwithstanding the superiority of the numbers, the enemy acquired but little advantage over these brave troops, during the seven hours they were engaged.  At the conclusion of another brilliant achievement shortly after, the noble Wellington rode up to Lord Hill, and in the spirit of a great and candid mind said, “Hill, this is all your own.”  The various other engagements in which Lord Hill took a prominent position, our limits will not allow us to notice.  On his return to his native country, every token of honour was manifested by his grateful countrymen, and on his first visit to Shrewsbury thousands went out to meet him, and his lordship was presented with the freedom of the borough in a gold box.  But the most splendid and durable token of gratitude and esteem is the column erected in Shrewsbury to his honour, which is the largest Doric column in the world.  On the unexpected return of Napoleon from Elba, the allied sovereigns immediately flew to arms, on which occasion Lord Hill again obeyed the voice of his sovereign, and in the memorable battle of Waterloo, on the 18th June, 1815, his lordship gave fresh proofs of his skill, bravery, and intrepidity.  In this conflict Lord Hill’s favourite charger was shot under him; and whilst he was on foot, completely exposed to the enemy, he was discovered by an officer of Lord Wellington’s staff, who procured him the horse of a French dragoon.  For a full hour the officers of his lordship’s staff were in a state of the greatest consternation, and twice met under the apprehension that their beloved general had fallen.  On the Duke of Wellington accepting office as prime minister, in 1828, Lord Hill was appointed commander-in-chief.  The following are the titles and dignities which he bore:—Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Knight of the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword, Knight of the Grand Cross of the Guelphic Order, Knight of the Order of Maria Theresa, Knight of the Russian Order of St. George, Knight of the Belgian Order of Wilhelm, Baron Hill of Almarez, Hawkstone, and Hardwick Grange.

The Church, a venerable fabric of red sandstone in the Norman style of architecture, consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, and a square tower, in which are six musical bells.  The body of the church is of much older date than the tower, which is of modern construction.  The church is entered by a fine old porch; the interior has a solemn and imposing appearance; and the chancel contains several beautifully designed monuments of exquisite workmanship: that to the memory of Sir John Hill, with figures in basso relievo, is a most admirable specimen of modern sculpture.  Major-general Clement Hill is remembered on a neat tablet erected by his friends and comrades in the Madras presidency, and by the officers of the Royal Horse Guards, in testimony of their love for his person and esteem for his character.  He was born at Prees, on December 6th, 1781, and died at the Falls of Guersoppa, and was buried at Hanowar, 22nd January, 1845.  There are various other memorials, and over the charity box is a curiously-carved figure of the Saviour.  The churchyard is elevated, and commands a fine view of Hawkstone hills and the distant country.  There are several fine old yew trees of considerable girth.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £10; now returned at £507; in the patronage of the Bishop of Lichfield, and incumbency of the Venerable Archdeacon John Allen, M.A.  The rectoral tithes of this township are commuted for £329. 15s. 9d., and the vicarial for £83. 2s. 7d.  The vicarage, a good residence, has been rebuilt on the site of a former edifice, by the present incumbent; the gardens and pleasure grounds are tastefully laid out.

The Independents have a small chapel in Prees, with a burial ground attached; the Rev. Samuel Minshall is the minister.  The Primitive Methodists also have a small chapel here.  There is a National School and an Infant School, which are numerously attended.  Prees Hall, the property and residence of Sir Robert Chambre Hill, Bart., J.P., is a commodious, pleasantly-situated, and well built mansion of brick.

Charities.—The Right Hon. Richard Hill, by will, October 17, 1726, bequeathed £300 for the poor of the parishes of Hodnet, Prees, and Wem, to be applied for the benefit of such poor as the minister and churchwardens of each parish should think fit.  With respect to the legacy left to the poor of this parish, it appears to have been laid out in the purchase of land, which now produces a yearly sum of £10. 10s.  Sir Rowland Hill, in 1769, bequeathed to the poor of the parishes of Hodnet and Prees the sum of £200.  Sir Richard Hill, by will, 1808, bequeathed £30 to his brother, John Hill, in trust, to pay the interest to the poor of the parish of Hodnet, Prees, and Wem, in such proportions as his said brother should think fit.  Several sums of money, left by various donors, amounting in the whole to £140, in the year 1812 was placed in the hands of Sir John Hill, who gave a promissory note for the same; and the interest is distributed amongst the poor.  Arthur Harper, by will, 1787, directed his trustees to pay the interest of £40 to the minister, churchwardens, and overseers of the parish of Prees, to be distributed among poor housekeepers of the township of Darliston.  The yearly sum of £5. 4s. is paid as a rent charge issuing out of a field in Williston, called the White Bread Field.  It does not appear from whose benefaction this arises.  The amount is expended in bread and given among the deserving who attend divine service.  Elizabeth Barbour devised certain lands, and directed the proceeds to be expended in bread and given amongst the poorest parishioners every Sunday.  The property thus devised consists of 9a. 0r. 35p., with a small cottage, which was built by the vicar on the site of an old house destroyed by lightning.  It is let for £12 a year, which is applied in carrying out the donor’s intentions.

Post Office at Mr. William Langford’s.—Letters arrive from Whitchurch at 9.10 A.M. and are despatched at 5.0 P.M.

Aldersea George Ora, farmer

Allen The Rev. Archdeacon, The Vicarage

Arthur Thomas Norway, Esq.

Bather Richard, farmer

Bather Stephen, Prees Corn Mills

Bather William, farmer

Barber Emma Mary Burd, dressmaker

Bayley Mary, school teacher

Bennett Arthur, tailor

Bootroyd John, decorative painter

Boote Thomas, farmer, Heath Bank

Blantorn Miss Mary

Boyd Allen, sergeant major

Chester William, shoemaker

Churton Joseph, watch and clock maker

Clay John, blacksmith

Colley Thomas, saddler

Croxon Richard, tailor

Darlington Abraham Edward, Esq.

Davies Charles, baker and confectioner

Dickin Elizabeth, vict., The Well House

Dickin Mrs. Elizabeth

Dickin John, gentleman, Platt House

Dickin John, Prees Wood Farm

Dickin John, cattle salesman

Dickin William Francis, Esq., The Hill

Dovey Richard, police officer

Drury John, corn machine maker

Drury Thomas, vict., The College Inn

Drury William, maltster

Dutton Joseph, farmer, Ferney Leys

Ebrey Robert, butcher

Eccleston William, carrier

Edwards Edward, house steward

Foulkes Richard, joiner and carpenter

Gregory Mr. John Paul

Handley John, carrier

Hares Robert, draper and druggist

Hares Samuel, gentleman

Hares Samuel, grocer and tea dealer

Hill Sir Robert Chambre, Bart., J.P., The Hall

Holding John, draper and grocer

Holding Mrs. Mary, Cruck Moor

Holding William, maltster

Hopwood Samuel, farmer

Ikin William, maltster, draper, and registrar

Jenkins Samuel, tailor and draper

Johnson Mr. William, The Fields

Kay Richard, basket maker

Longford Richard, postmaster

Lee Luke, schoolmaster

Maddocks Thomas, tailor

Minshall Rev. Samuel, Independent minister

Moore Thomas, blacksmith and farrier

Morray Thomas, shoemaker

Muller Mr. Charles, professor of music

Mumford Charles, gentleman

Paling John, butcher

Powell Joseph, farmer, Yew Tree

Powell Joseph, grocer and shopkeeper

Powell John, shoemaker, The Wood

Powell Mr. Thomas, The Villa

Powell Thomas, Manor House Farm

Powell William, bricklayer

Ray Thomas, vict., The Lion and Commercial Inn and posting house

Reaves John, shoemaker

Rightson Captain W.

Ruscoe John, Heath Gate Farm

Sandford Rev. H. R. P., curate

Shirley Captain John

Skitt Thomas, Lee Hall Farm

Spencer James, wheelwright

Stubbs Thomas, baker and confectioner

Whatmouth Miss Ann

Whitfield Mrs. Ann

Whitfield Miss Mary

Whitfield Mrs. Mary

Wilkinson Andrew, farmer, Prees

Wood Wilkinson Thomas, gentleman

Worrall Thomas, machineman & wheelwright

Vaughan Samuel, beerhouse

Academies.

Boarding School, The Hill Rev. Samuel Minshall, proprietor

National School, Luke Lee, boys; Mary Bayley, girls

Bakers & Flour Dealers.

Davies Charles, & confec.

Stubbs Thomas, & confec.

Basket & Bendware Maker.

Kay Richard

Blacksmiths.

Clay John

Moore Thomas, and farrier

Boot & Shoemakers.

Chester William

Morray Thos., & leather cutter

Powell John

Reeves John

Butchers.

Dickin John

Ebsey Robert

Paling John

Coopers.

Drury George

Drury William

Farmers.

Aldersea George Ora

Bather Richard, Lighteach Farm

Bather William

Boote Thomas

Dickin John, Prees Wood Farm

Drury Thos. College Farm

Drury William, and cooper

Dutton Joseph, Ferney Leys

Ebrey Robert

Holding Mrs. Mary, Cruck Moor

Hopwood Samuel

Johnson William

Powell Joseph

Powell Thomas

Ray Thomas

Skitt Thomas

Wilkinson Andrew

Wilkinson Thomas, The College Farm

Grocers & Tea Dealers.

Hares Messrs. Robert and Samuel

Holding John, hop & seed merchant

Ikin William

Powell Joseph

Hairdresser.

Boothroyd John

Hotels & Inns.

Dickin Elizabeth, The Well House

Ray Thomas, The Lion and Commercial Inn

Drury Thos., The College Inn

Beerhouses.

Churton Joseph

Vaughan Samuel

Steam and Horse Thrashing Machines to Let for Hire.

Drury Thomas

Carriers.

To Shrewsbury, William Eccleston & John Handley, on Saturdays.

CALVERHALL, OR CORRA,
is a chapelry and scattered village three miles north-west from Prees, which in 1841 contained 33 houses and 151 inhabitants.  The township contains 1,287a. 0r. 22p. of land, mostly an undulating district.  The principal landowners are John Whitehall Dod, Esq., M.P.; Viscount Hill; Lord Kilmorey; Mrs. Dale; and Thomas Hugh Sandford, Esq.  Viscount Hill is lord of the manor and impropriator of the rectoral tithes, which are commuted for £86. 18s. 9d.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £26. 7s.  The Chapel is a modern erection of beautiful workmanship, executed in freestone.  The interior has a chaste and imposing appearance; the roof is of groined timber, and the seats are of oak; the windows are decorated with stained glass, and the altar-piece is of freestone of elaborate workmanship.  A neat marble tablet remembers Elizabeth, the wife of the Rev. Edward Mainwaring, the present incumbent; another very beautifully designed, has been erected to the memory of Elizabeth, the wife of John W. Dod, Esq., M.P.; there is also a neat tablet to John Dod, Esq.  The living is perpetual curacy, in the patronage of John W. Dod, Esq., and enjoyed by the Rev. Edward Mainwaring, who resides at the Parsonage, a modern brick residence, pleasantly situated and embosomed in foliage; it is beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies.  The Almshouses consist of eight tenements, and were founded and endowed by Catherine Kerr, in 1724; the inmates are widows or aged people, who have about £4. 10s. per annum.

The Hall, the residence and property of John W. Dod, Esq., M.P., is a commodious brick mansion, stuccoed, with a front of hewn freestone, and a noble portico supported by six fluted pillars.  It stands on a gentle eminence, and the views it commands are beautifully varied, picturesque, and extensive.  The park grounds are richly clothed with timber, and the pleasure grounds and shrubberies are laid out with great taste.  There are no remains of the ancient hall; it was surrounded by a moat, which still is filled with water, a neat bridge connecting the site on which it stood with the gardens.  There is a school in the village, endowed with £20 per annum, free for all cottagers’ children.  The teacher also receives £6 annually from subscriptions.  Jack of Corra is a well-known liquor vessel, composed of leather, which has received the patronage of successive generations in this locality, and is interesting as a relic of the hospitality of by-gone days.  It is stated that a person of the name of Corra or Kerr charged lands with the payment of £10 annually, and directed that any wayfaring traveller should call and refresh himself with the Jack filled with good malt liquor, on the payment of one penny.  The bottom and the top of the vessel are encircled with a broad rim of silver, upon which is engraved, “From time immemorial: Jack of Corra is my name, don’t abuse me then for shame.”  This chapelry comprises Corra, with Willaston and Millen Heath.

Post Office.—At Mr. James Jenkins’.  Letters arrive by foot post from Whitchurch, at 9.30 A.M., and are despatched at 4 P.M.

Dod John Whitehall, Esq., M.P., The Hall

Dod John Whitehall, Esq., jun.

Mainwaring Rev. Edward, M.A., The Parsonage

Beeteley George, farmer

Beeteley John, farmer & vict. Jack of Corra

Court William, postman

Growcott Francis, farmer

Growcott Francis, jun., farmer

Jenkins James, schoolmaster

Newell James, gentleman

Newnes John, farmer

Mac Cload John, gardener

Morris Charles, blacksmith

Overton William, farmer

Owens Owen, farmer

Perry Robert, butcher

Reeves Josiah, farmer

Snipes Robert, coachman

DARLISTON
is a township and well-built village, five miles and a quarter N.E. from Wem, which in 1841 had 53 houses and 278 inhabitants.  The township contains 714a. 3r. 23p. of land, the soil of which is a mixture of sand and loam.  There are several extensive farms here, with commodious out-buildings.  Viscount Hill is lord of the manor, and owner of the whole township.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £85. 15s. 3d., and the vicarial for £19. 15s.  The township is intersected by the London and Chester and the Whitchurch and Drayton turnpike roads.  There is a school at Lower Heath, in this township, supported by Viscount and Lady Hill.  About 200 children attend for instruction, and are also partly clothed.  The teacher has a fixed salary, and resides in a good residence adjoining the school.  There is a noted coursing meeting held annually at the White Lion Inn.

Adams Abraham, tailor

Adams Thomas, farmer

Adams William, farmer

Dickin Joseph, farmer, and dispenser of medicine

Dickin William, farmer and butcher

Dickin John, butcher

Goffin Robert, schoolmaster

Hartley Timothy, gentleman

Machon William, blacksmith, and collector of tolls

Morris George, farmer

Powell John, shopkeeper and wheelwright

Ruscoe John, farmer, Heath-gate

Shingler Thomas, tailor

Sutton John, shoemaker

Titley Jacob, wheelwright

Watkins John, victualler, White Lion

FAULS,
a township with a scattered population, contains 886a. 0r. 34p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had 22 houses and 102 inhabitants.  The soil is mostly a strong clay.  Viscount Hill is lord of the manor, impropriator, and principal landowner.  Mr. Thomas Ruscoe is also a proprietor.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £116. 15s., and the vicarial tithes payable to the incumbent of Prees for £25. 1s. 3d.  The turnpike road to Drayton crosses this township.

Directory.—Richard Benbow, farmer; Abraham Ford, farmer, Northwood; Wm. Hares, farmer, Fauls Green; Thomas Hatton, farmer and collector of revenue taxes; William Hudson, farmer, Northwood; George Oakley, gamekeeper, The Green; Elizabeth Powell, farmer; Thomas Ruscoe, farmer and victualler, The Talbot; George Williams, brick and tile agent; Thomas Williams, brick and tile agent.

MICKLEY,
a small township in the parish of Prees, in 1841 had four houses and a population of 36 souls.  The township contains 575a. 2r. 36p. of land, chiefly the property of Viscount Hill.  Rateable value, £744. 7s.  The tithes were commuted in 1841, when £72. 9s. were apportioned to Viscount Hill, and £16. 0s. 4d. to the Vicar of Prees.  The farmers are Martha Churton, Richard Edgerley, George Robinson, and Thomas Ash Wilkinson.

MILLEN HEATH,
a township with only one house and ten residents, contains 359a. 3r. 17p. of land, which is the property of Lord Kilmorey.  Rateable value, £268. 10s.  The tithes have been commuted, and £33. 3s. 2d. apportioned to Viscount Hill, and £9. 6s. 3d. to the Vicar of Prees.  Mr. Thomas Hares is the resident farmer.

SANDFORD,
a township with a scattered population, five miles and a half N.E. from Wem, contains 1,213a. 3r. 21p. of land.  The soil is a mixture of sand and loam, with a portion of clay.  The land is chiefly used for grazing purposes; and there is a considerable extent covered with woods and plantations.  The tithes were commuted in 1841, when £151. 13s. 1d. was apportioned to Viscount Hill, and £36. 5s. to the Vicar of Prees.  At the census of 1841 there were nine houses and 76 inhabitants.  The rateable value of this township, with that of Darliston and Fauls, is £4,354. 3s.  Thomas Hugh Sandford, Esq., is the principal landowner.  Mr. Thomas Ebrey is also a proprietor.

Directory.—Sarah Bather, farmer; John Fox, farmer; Robert Garmstone, wheelwright and victualler, The Mill House; Ann Hales, farmer; Mary Humphreys, farmer; William Rogers, blacksmith; Thomas Steventon, farmer and corn miller; Joseph Woolrich, farmer, Morton Wood; Stephen Worthen, farmer.

STEELE,
a township in the parish of Prees, at the census of 1841 had 12 houses and a population of 65 souls.  The township contains 436a. 3r. 36p. of land.  Viscount Hill is the impropriator and the principal landowner.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £54. 12s. 6d., and the vicarial for £13. 14s. 6d.  The principal residents in Steele are John Bradshaw, shopkeeper, The Heath; John Heatley, glazier; Ann Hodgskin, farmer; Thomas Hodgskin, farmer; Daniel Holding, tailor; Richard Holding, farmer; Joseph Hussey, farmer.

WHIXALL
is a township, chapelry, and populous village, in the parish of Prees, four miles N. from Wem, which at the census in 1841 contained 211 houses and 978 inhabitants.  The township comprises 3,361a. 1r. 32p. of land.  Interspersed with gentle undulations, there is some good meadow and pasture land, which produces a fine herbage, and cheese is made to a considerable extent.  The houses are chiefly cottage residences, with a small portion of land to each, and the residents are in many instances freeholders.  The houses are built of brick, and slated, and have a comfortable appearance.  The inhabitants are chiefly employed in cutting the moss, which they dry, and then take it to distant parts of the country for sale.  The moss, usually called Whixall Moss, covers a surface of upwards of 5,000 acres, and extends into the several townships of Northwood, Whixall, Bettisfield, and Fenswood.  It is cut to a depth of from sixteen to thirty feet, and in some instances to a greater depth.  The moss is mostly submerged in water.  A company of gentlemen have recently taken a lease for a term of years of a considerable tract of the moss, and are about to erect works for converting this hitherto comparatively useless commodity into articles of appliance for useful purposes.  It is said to be superior to the Irish moss for some particular uses.  Sir John Hanmer is the owner of about two-thirds of the moss; the other principal landowners are Lord Kenyon, W. P. Poole, Esq., James Foster, Esq., John C. Coham, Esq., John Bowen, Esq., Mr. George Hutchinson, Mr. John Phillips, Mr. John Keay, William F. Dickin, Esq., Mr. William Furber, Rev. John Evans, Mrs. Weaver, Mr. William Cartwright, Mr. Thomas Clay, John Taylor, Esq., Robert Salmon, Esq., Mr. Thomas Jones, Mrs. Hazledine, Mr. Thomas Salt, A. Duff, Esq., Mr. Benjamin Sandbrook, Mr. Jarvis, Rev. R. Young, Mrs. Cooper, Joshua Lee, Esq., Mr. James Rodenhurst, Mr. Thomas Sadler, Mr. William Whitfield, Mr. John Whitfield; besides whom there are many smaller proprietors.

The Church is a plain unpresuming edifice of brick, erected in the form of a cross, and has the date of 1640 upon it.  It was enlarged and beautified in 1826, when 155 free sittings were added.  The living is a perpetual curacy, valued at £107, subordinate to the vicarage of Prees, and enjoyed by the Rev. John Evans, M.A., whose income arises from certain lands, £5 yearly from the Lord of the Manor, and £4 per annum from the Vicar of Prees.  The Parsonage is a pleasantly situated residence near the church.  The National School, a commodious structure, with a residence for the teacher, was built during the years 1848 and 1849.  The cost of the structure was £655. 13s. 6d., of which the Committee of Council on Education gave £100, and £50 towards the master’s residence; the National Society £50; the Diocesan Society £40, and £10 for fittings; and the sum of £405. 18s. 6d. was raised by subscriptions and donations, of which £276. 18s. 6d. was given by the Incumbent of Whixall.  About 100 children attend the school.  The Independents have a neat chapel here, which is numerously attended.  The Primitive Methodists have also a small chapel here.  The Llanymynech, Ellesmere, Whitchurch, and Quina Brook canals intersect the township.  Whixall Hall and Bostock Hall are two ancient residences, now occupied as farm houses.  James Foster, Esq., is lord of the manor, and holds a court leet and baron.  The poor have a yearly sum of 5s., the gift of Mr. Minshull, which is paid out of land in the parish of Wem.

Brookes Thomas, blacksmith

Butler Richard, shoemaker

Callcott Samuel, farmer

Cureton William, shopkeeper

Dawson Thomas, farmer

Eales James, schoolmaster

Evans Rev. John, M.A., incumbent of Whixall, and domestic chaplain to Viscount Combermere, The Parsonage

Forrester Arthur, farmer

Furber Widow, farmer

Furber William, Well Farm

Green James, tailor

Green Joseph, shopkeeper

Hales Walter, The Hall Farm

Hall Richard, beerhouse

Hall William, shopkeeper

Heath Elizabeth, farmer

Heath John, joiner and upholsterer

Hinton Henry, farmer

Hinton John, farmer and butcher

Hughes George, blacksmith

Hunley John, farmer

Jarvis Widow, farmer

Jarvis William, farmer and beerhouse

Jones Richard, Bostock Hall Farm

Jones Samuel, farmer

Jones William, farmer

Keay John, vict., Chapel House, cattle dealer and farmer

Newbrook Richard, shopkeeper & shoemaker

Newbrook Samuel, farmer

Newbrook Thomas, farmer

Newbrook Thomas, shopkeeper

Newbrook William, wheelwright

Parsons William, farmer

Pitt William, shopkeeper and farmer

Poole William Price, maltster and farmer

Powell Samuel, farmer

Powell Thomas, shopkeeper, Waterloo

Powell Thomas, farmer

Powell Widow, shopkeeper

Powell William, farmer

Preston Ellis, farmer

Reeves William, blacksmith

Roberts John, brick and tile manufacturer

Rodenherst Mr. James

Shaw Edward, shoemaker

Shingler Thomas, farmer and corn miller

Sparkes John, farmer

Vardy James, Esq.

Vardy and Co., The Betisfield Moss Works

Walters Sarah, Manor House Farm

Weever William, tailor

Whitfield Frederick, farmer

Williams Henry, farmer

Williams William, farmer

Woolham Thomas, jailor

William Price Poole, coal, lime, slate, and brick dealer, Whixall Wharf

WILLASTON,
a small township in the parish of Prees, contains 767 acres of land, and in 1841 had 18 houses and 101 inhabitants.  The soil in some parts is clayey, and in other places it is a mixture of sand and loam.  Viscount Hill and John Whitehall Dod, Esq., are the landowners, the former is also the impropriator, and receives the large tithes, which are commuted for £109. 18s. 6d.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £21. 8s. 4d.

The principal residents are John Hussey, farmer, Cloverley; Robert Wilkinson, farmer, The Lawn; James Simons, farmer, and James Simon, jun., farmer.

SHAWBURY
is an extensive parish comprehending the townships of Acton Reynold, Besford, Edgebolton, Muckleton, Shawbury, Wytheford Magna, and Wytheford Parva, which together have an area of 7,222 acres of land, of which 600 acres are in woods and plantations.  Rateable value, £8,486. 1s.  Rent charge, £838.  This parish, although chiefly in the North Bradford hundred, extends into the Shrewsbury liberty, and the hundred of Pimhill.  In 1801 the parish had a population of 948 souls; 1831, 915, and in 1841 there were 212 inhabited houses and 1062 inhabitants.  The soil, to a considerable extent, is a mixture of loam and sand, in other places a strong soil mixed with gravel prevails.  The land has generally an undulating surface, and on the northern verge there are considerable eminences, in which is found a red grit stone.  Shawbury is a delightfully situated village, containing some good residences on the Shrewsbury, Market Drayton, Wem, and Whitchurch turnpike roads, six miles S.S. by E. from Wem, and seven miles N.E. by N. from Shrewsbury.  In the centre of the village there is a commodious hotel and family boarding house occupied by Mr. Welling, which is much frequented during the summer months by respectable families.  The township contains 1,605a. 0r. 37p. of land, and in 1841 there were 55 houses and 279 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,854. 16s.  Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., is lord of the manor and principal land owner; Rev. W. S. Marvin and Mr. Samuel Winnall are also owners.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient structure exhibiting some beautiful workmanship, and consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a lofty square tower ornamented with twelve pinnacles; the tower contains six bells, has a clock and sun dial; in the chancel are two windows beautifully ornamented with stained glass; the altar piece and reading desk are of oak, elaborately carved, and there is an ancient font.  There is a beautiful tablet of marble in memory of Philip Charlton, who died in 1845, and another commemorative of John Minor, Esq., and his wife, with the date of 1836.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £7. 1s. 5½d. in the patronage of Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., and incumbency of the Rev. William S. Marvin, M.A.; curate, Rev. William Howell, M.A.; clerk, William Wright.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £397. 12s. and of the rectorial £247. 18s. was apportioned to Sir Andrew V. Corbet, Bart., £181. 10s. to Mr. Charlton, and £11 to Captain Horner.  The vicarage is a pleasantly situated residence a little north from the church.  There is a free school in the village which has an attendance of about thirty children.  Shawbury heath contains 270a. 2r. 7p. of land, and Shawbury woods contain an area of 159a. 2r. 32p.  Charlton Grange is situated in this township, and contains 433a. 3r. 27p.

Charities.—Elizabeth Corbet, by will, October 29th, 1702, bequeathed the sum of £200, and directed the amount to be laid out in land, and the yearly proceeds to be applied in feeding or clothing the poor, or in apprentice fees, as the vicar for the time being and her heirs should think fit.  The amount was laid out as directed by the donor, and now produces a yearly rental of £45 which is divided into three equal parts, one portion applied in clothing the children of the national school, another in apprentice fees, and the remainder in a weekly distribution of bread.

Robert Wood gave £20, the interest to be distributed among the poor on St. Thomas’s day.  Andrew Peplow gave £16 towards clothing the poor.  Richard Wood £40, and Andrew Syth £10, for the benefit of the poor.  Ralph Collins gave £80 towards the maintenance of a schoolmaster in Shawbury, and if there should be no schoolmaster then to the poor of the parish during each vacancy.  Dame Rachael Corbet left £10, Sarah Venables £20, and an unknown donor £17 for the benefit of the poor.  These several sums amounting to £213, are in the hands of Sir Andrew V. Corbet, bart., secured by two bonds.  Of the interest amounting to £9. 6s. 6d., at four per cent, 14s. is paid annually in purchasing a coat for one poor man, £4 in respect of Collins’ charity to a schoolmaster, and the remainder is distributed on St. Thomas’s day amongst the poor, with some voluntary donations, in sums varying from 1s. to 3s. 6d.

John Minor gave £20, the interest to be distributed on St. Andrew’s day.  This sum, together with £26. 5s. given by Sir Andrew Corbet, is in the hands of the Rev. W. S. Marvin, and £20 collected many years ago towards building a school house, making together £66. 5s., for which he gave a promissory note to the churchwardens, bearing date 2nd February, 1830, with interest at four and a half per cent.  Of the interest, £1 is given away as Minor’s charity, 18s. are added to the subscriptions collected for the school, and the remainder is distributed on Candlemas day among the poor of the parish.

Mrs. Charlotte Corbet left £100, the interest to be given among the most indigent inhabitants of this parish yearly, as the minister and churchwardens should think fit.  This sum is in the hands of Mr. John Kilvert, who pays £4 as the interest thereof.

Thomas Downes left £5, the interest to be given in bread to the old labourers at Shawbury Park, yearly, on St. Thomas’s day.  This sum was in the hands of Mr. John Harris, who paid 5s. as interest, when the charity commissioners published their report.

Post Office.—At Mr. William Wright’s.  Letters arrive at 9 A.M., and are despatched at 5 P.M.

Armson Charles, cattle salesman

Bayley Mary, straw bonnet maker

Bayley Samuel, butcher

Bayley William, beerhouse keeper

Cartwright Samuel, saddler and harness maker

Clowes Job, cooper and shopkeeper

Davies John, cashier and clerk to William Wyley, Esq.

Deakin Peter, baker

Dickin John, farmer, the Grove

Downes Thomas, tailor

Drury Joseph, farmer and brickmaker

Drury and Rayner, surgeons

Drury Thomas, Esq., Roden villa

Friend James, shoemaker

Hewes Ann, laundress

Hollis Benjamin, farmer, the Heath

Hopwood Peter, farmer

Howell Rev. Alfred, curate

Mainwaring Richard, bricklayer

Marvin Rev. William S., Vicarage

Oswell Thomas, farmer

Owen Edward, blacksmith

Owen Thomas, whitesmith

Pascall William, farmer, the Heath

Pickford Thomas, farmer

Pickford William, farmer, the Park

Powell John, farmer

Plummer John, mole catcher

Rayner Alfred Philip, Esq., the Castle

Southerton Edward, farmer, the Heath

Trevor Samuel, carrier to Shrewsbury

Webb John, coachman

Wellings Joseph, farmer, maltster, and vict., Elephant and Castle Hotel, and posting house

West Thomas, seedsman and green grocer

Wildblood George, gentleman, the Cottage

Williams William, shopkeeper

Winnall Samuel, farmer, Heath Grove

Woodvine James, farmer, the Heath

Wright Robert, wood ranger

Wright William, post master

ACTON REYNALD,
a pleasantly situated township, contains 1,448 acres of land, of which 381a. 3r. 21p. are in park grounds and plantations.  In 1841 there were 37 houses and 159 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,854. 16s.  Acton Reynald Hall, the seat of Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., is a stately pile of building in the Elizabethan style of architecture, erected of white freestone, got from quarries on the estate.  The mansion exhibits the characteristic style of the period in which it was erected, and has from time to time had improvements and additions made to it, up to the year 1848.  The drawing room and other apartments are magnificently furnished.  It stands on a gentle eminence, and commands a most delightful view over a luxuriant and richly wooded country; the pleasure grounds are extensive, and laid out with great taste; the choicest shrubs and the most beautiful flowers are scattered in the greatest profusion, and planted in designs most admirably executed.  The conservatories and greenhouses are extensive, and kept in the most beautiful order.  These gardens are highly creditable to the taste and superior management of Mr. Francis Bell, the gardener.  The Corbets have been seated in this county from the time of the conquest, when Roger Corbet held large possessions under the Earl of Shrewsbury, “comprising the manors of Huelbeck, Hundeslet, Actun, Terneley, and Preston.  Robert, his brother, held of the same the earl manors of Ulestan, Ratlinghope, Branton, Udecote, Langedunin, Weymore, Rorenton, Middleton, and Meredon.  Sir Vincent Corbet was created baronet in 1641.  His widow, Sarah, daughter of Sir Robert Monson, was created Viscountess Corbet and Linchlade in 1679.  Moreton Corbet afterwards became the property of Richard Corbet, Esq., of Shawbury Park, whose descendant, Sir Andrew Corbet, was created baronet 24th September, 1808.”  Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., is the principal landowner: Viscount Hill, and William Embrey Wood, Esq., are also proprietors.

Corbet Sir Richard Vincent, Bart., Acton Reynald

Corbet Vincent Rowland, Esq.

Acton James, house steward

Bell Francis, head gardener and bailiff

Blantern Robert Hardwick

Evans Thomas, coachman

Fowler John, farmer, Acton Reynald farm

Gough John, gardener

Lee Francis, farmer, New House

Lee William, farmer, Painsbrook

Minton Samuel, farmer, Woodstyle

Ratcliffe Joseph, game and park keeper

Wildblood George, steward

BESFORD,
a small township situated two miles north-west from Shawbury, contains 707a. 2r. 19p. of land, the soil of which is highly fertile, and produces good barley and wheat.  In 1841 this township is returned as containing 35 houses and 167 inhabitants.  It extends into the parish of Moreton Corbet, in the hundred of Pimhill.  Rateable value, £1,263. 9s.  Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet is lord of the manor, and owner of the whole township.

The principal residents are Joseph Taylor Reynolds Ogle, Esq.; John Powell, farmer; and William Powell, farmer.

EDGEBOLTON
is a small village pleasantly situated six miles south-east from Wem.  The township contains 617a. 3r. 33p. of land, mostly an undulating district, diversified with picturesque scenery.  Rateable value, £710. 14s.  At the census in 1841 there were 37 houses and 199 inhabitants.  The farms here are much smaller than in the neighbouring townships.  Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., St. J. C. Charlton, Mrs. Bayley, Mr. Harris, and Mr. Thomas Onslow, are the chief landowners.

The resident farmers are Samuel Alltree, William Astley, George Cartwright, John Dickin, George Done, Charles Green, John Henshaw, Thomas Onslow (and licensed victualler), Thomas Richmond, William Shuker, William Spencer, and William Tudor; John Buttery, blacksmith; John Onslow, Pool Cottage; and Thomas Ward, maltster.

MUCKLETON,
a village and township in the parish of Shawbury, seven miles south-east from Wem, contains 1,033a. 3r. 14p. of land.  In 1841 there were 20 houses, and a population of 113 souls.  Rateable value, £955. 1s.  St. J. C. Charlton, Esq., is the landowner.

The principal residents are Richard Higginson, farmer, the Moss; Henry Lawley, farmer, the Moss; Thomas Phillips, farmer, the Moss; Richard Powell, farmer, the Hall; Richard Powell, farmer, Pool House; Thomas Pritchard, boot and shoemaker; Thomas Wellings, the Farm; and John Wright, farmer.

WYTHEFORD MAGNA
is a township and village pleasantly situated on the turnpike road from Shawbury to Wellington, seven miles north-east from Wem.  The township contains 955a. 1r. 7p. of land, the soil of which is a mixture of sand and loam, or red earth.  There are woods and plantations, which cover 207a. 1r. 27p. of land.  In 1841 there were 18 houses and 101 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,114. 10s.  Wytheford House is an ancient brick structure of considerable antiquity, now in the occupancy of Mr. William Taylor, as a farm residence.  St. J. C. Charlton, Esq., and Miss Cooke, are the principal landowners.

Directory.—William Bayley, farmer and maltster; Robert Davies, farmer; Robert Hampton, farmer; Thomas Humphreys, farmer; John Stockton, farmer; and William Taylor, farmer, the Hall.

WYTHEFORD PARVA,
a small township two and a quarter miles N.E. by N. from Shawbury, contains 334 acres of land, and in 1841 had 10 houses and 44 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £354. 18s.  The landowners are Captain Horner, St. J. C. Charlton, Esq., and Miss Steedman.

The principal residents are Samuel Davies, wheelwright; William Davies, farmer; David Ferrington, farmer; John Jones, farmer; Peter Light, farmer; Richard Owen, farmer; Joseph Powell, farmer; and Eleanor Wainwright, farmer.

STOKE-UPON-TERN
is a parish which comprehends the townships of Stoke-upon-Tern, Eaton, Ollerton, and Wistanswick, and contains 5,602a. 2r. 26p. of land, of which 328a. 3r. 12p. are in woods and plantations, and 74a. 2r. 3p. in roads and waste.  At the census in 1801 there were 626 inhabitants; 1831, 1,031; and in 1841, 1,000.  Rateable value, £6,703. 4s.  The village of Stoke-upon-Tern is pleasantly situated five miles S.S. by W. from Market Drayton.  In 1841 the township contained 106 houses and 528 inhabitants.  A. C. Heber Percy, Esq., and Richard Corbet, Esq., are the most considerable landowners in this township; Mr. William Taylor, Mr. William Meakin, Mr. Richard Whitfield, Mr. Thomas Goodall, Mr. John Heatley, Mr. Thomas Heatley, Mr. William Palmer, Sir R. Leicester, Rev. Thomas H. Jones, William Barber, Esq., John Tayleur, Esq., are also landowners.  Rateable value of the township, £4,429. 7s. 6d.  Stoke-upon-Terne was anciently the manor and estate of the Verdon family, and was in after times carried by marriage to the Ferrers.  The village takes its name from its situation on the river Tern.  The Church is an ancient structure, dedicated to St. Peter, consisting of nave, south aisle, side chapel, and chancel, with a castellated tower, ornamented with grotesque figures, and containing five bells.  The side aisle is separated by pointed arches rising from octagonal pillars.  At the east end of the side aisle is the Corbet chapel, built in 1782.  It contains a magnificent altar tomb of alabaster, elaborately ornamented with two full length figures in the costume of the times of Sir Reginald Corbet and his lady, lying in a recumbent posture.  On the sides of the tomb are figures of eleven children, six sons and five daughters, with the date when each child was born; but several of the figures have been mutilated.  The children were all born between the years 1549 and 1564.  Sir Reginald Corbet was a judge of the Common Pleas in the time of Queen Elizabeth.  A beautiful marble tablet, very chastely designed, has been erected against the north wall, in memory of the Cotton family.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £20; incumbent, Rev. John Gladstone, who resides at the Rectory, a good residence, a little east by north from the church, rebuilt in 1844 upon the site of the old rectory.  The tithes have been commuted for the sum of £949. 10s.  A short distance west by south from the church, near the banks of the Tern, is an antique house, composed of timber and plaster, called Petsey; in one of the windows is the date 1511.  The Grange, an extensive farm of between 600 and 700 acres, is the property of Richard Corbet, Esq., and residence of Mrs. Charlotte Lea.  The Tern takes its course a little south from the church, and at the distance of about a quarter of a mile turns a corn mill.

Charities.—Andrew Turner left £20, the yearly interest to be expended in bread, and distributed to the poor of the parish the first Sunday in every month, after Christmas day, Easter day, and Whit-Sunday.  James Talbot directed twelve penny loaves to be distributed on the same day as Turner’s charity.  In respect of this gift there is 15s. per annum paid out of an estate in Stoke, called The Mount.  There is also paid the yearly sum of 10s., from an estate called Stoke Park, which is also distributed in bread.  The parish officers are in possession of a parcel of ground, containing between two and three acres, on which a workhouse has been built, and also of about half an acre of ground, with six small tenements, and gardens attached to each.  It is not known how the parish became possessed of these premises; but it is supposed that they may have been purchased with the benefactions of Thomas Burrowes, William Burrowes, and Henry Bunbury, each of whom formerly gave £50 to the poor.

EATON
is a small township, two miles and a quarter S. from Stoke-upon-Tern, which in 1841 contained 28 houses and 127 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £916. 16s.  The principal landowners are Mr. Robert Heatley, Mr. John Heatley, Mr. Richard Heatley, and Mr. John Topham.

OLLERTON,
a small township in Stoke-upon-Tern parish, one mile and a half S.E. from the church, in 1841 had 31 houses and a population of 135 souls.  Rateable value, £735. 13s.  The landowners are Viscount Hill, Mrs. Whitfield, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Pointon, and Mr. Freeman.  There is a small Independent Chapel here, erected in 1838.  The congregation is under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Parker.

WISTANSWICK,
a township and small village, two miles N.E. from Stoke, and four miles S.W. from Market Drayton, had in 1841, 46 houses and 200 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £621. 7s.  The principal landowners are William Taylor, Esq., Mr. Thomas Goodall, Mr. W. Adams, Mr. William Corfield, and Mr. Robert Dawes; there are also a few smaller proprietors.  The Independents have a small chapel here, of which the Rev. D. Dawes is the pastor.

Stoke-upon-Tern, Eaton, Ollerton, and Wistanswick Directories.

Adams Thomas, farmer, Petsey Stoke

Benbow William, farmer, Ollerton

Blainey James, tailor, Ollerton

Dawes Robert, farmer, Wistanswick

Davies Robert, shoemaker, Stoke

Dutton James, shoemaker, Stoke

Evenson John, butcher, Wistanwick

Gladstone Rev. John, The Rectory, Stoke

Goodall James, farmer, Stoke

Goodall John, farmer, Wistanswick

Goodall Thomas, farmer, Wistanswick

Goodall William, farmer, Wistanswick

Gosnell Edward, farmer, Wistanswick

Gosnell Thomas, farmer, Wistanswick

Green Francis, saddler and harness maker, Ollerton

Griffiths Joseph, shoemaker, Ollerton

Harding George, farmer, Stoke

Hardy Daniel, wheelwright, Ollerton

Heatley John, farmer, maltster, and corn miller, Eaton

Heatley Robert, farmer, Eaton

Heatley Richard, farmer, Eaton

Jenkins Samuel, farmer, Stoke

Juckes Henry, farmer, Stoke

Keay George, blacksmith, Ollerton

Latham Thomas, blacksmith, Stoke

Lea Charlotte, farmer, The Grange, Stoke

Lea William, farmer, Stoke

Lester Robert, farmer, Ollerton

Massey James, wheelwright, Stoke

Massey John, farmer, Ollerton

Meakin George, farmer, The Bendles, Stoke

Meakin William, farmer, Woodhouse, Stoke

Mullock William, farmer, Stoke

Palmer William, farmer, Ollerton

Parker Rev. John, Independent, Ollerton

Pears William, shoemaker and shopkeeper, Wistanswick

Phillips Thomas, farmer, Wistanswick

Pitchford Joseph, weaver, Wistanswick

Powell Edward, farmer, Stoke

Powell John, farmer, Stoke

Powell Thomas, corn miller, Stoke

Preston George, farmer, Ollerton

Preston William, farmer, Stoke

Rodgers Elizabeth, shopkeeper, Eaton

Shaw Stephen, beerhouse-keeper, Wistanswick

Simon John, farmer, Stoke

Talbot Richard, tailor, Wistanswick

Taylor William, farmer, Heathcote, Stoke

Topham John, farmer, Eaton

Walley Samuel, farmer, Stoke

Whitfield Richard, farmer, The Manor, Stoke

Williams Ann, shopkeeper, Ollerton

STANTON-UPON-HINE HEATH
is a considerable parish, which comprehends the townships of Booley, Harcourt, High Hatton, Moston, and Stanton-upon-Hine Heath, and comprises 5,490 acres of land, of which 263a. 2r. 3p. are in woods and plantations, and 35 acres in roads and waste.  The soil for the most part is a mixture of sand and loam, in some parts highly fertile.  The northern verge of the parish presents a bold undulating surface, and in some instances the hills rise to a considerable elevation, from which a fine view of the country is seen.  The farm houses are in general well built, and provided with commodious out-premises.  In 1801 the parish contained 579 inhabitants; 1831, 722; and in 1841 there were 127 houses and 669 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £258. 15s.  The village of Stanton is pleasantly situated nine and a half miles N.E. by N. from Shrewsbury, and at the census of 1841 had 50 houses and 264 inhabitants.  The township contains 1,698a. 3r. 28p. of land, of which 120a. 0r. 32p. are in plantations.  Rateable value, £1,655. 2s.  When the tithes were commuted for this township, £73 were apportioned to the vicar, £27. 15s. to Sir Andrew V. Corbet, Bart., and £8. to Rowland Hill.  The Church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is an ancient Norman structure, with a square embattled tower at the west end, of later date, containing five bells; the pews are of oak, and have a very primitive appearance.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £5. 10s. l0d.; now returned at £205.; in the patronage of Viscount Hill, and enjoyed by the Rev. D. Holloway, B.A., who resides at the vicarage, a plain brick structure, near the outskirts of the village.  The Woodlands, a delightfully situated mansion, surrounded with pleasure gardens and park-like grounds, is the residence of Mrs. F. Wood.  Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., is lord of the manor, and the principal landowner.  Viscount Hill, John F. Wood, Esq., and the Rev. D. Holloway, are also proprietors.  Stanton was the birth place of John Boydell, Esq., the liberal and spirited patron of talented engravers.  His father was a farmer, and his son was intended for a land surveyor; when, however, about twenty years of age, he was put apprentice to an engraver, in which art he soon excelled, and from the profits derived from the sale of a book of 152 prints, engraved by himself, he began to encourage the best English engravers, and presented the public with a series of engravings of the works of the best masters, which soon laid the foundation of an ample fortune.  He was elected an alderman in 1782, sheriff in 1785, lord mayor of London in 1790, and in the same year master of the Stationers’ Company.  He was the greatest encourager of the art that this country ever had, and the English engravings, which before were considered much inferior to those of foreign nations, began from that time to be highly prized; and the exportation of them became a valuable branch of commerce.  He also was a great encourager of the art of painting, and to this effect he undertook the superb edition of the Shakspeare gallery, the expense of which was enormous, and more perhaps than any individual had ever before embarked for such an object.  Mr. Boydell, in a letter to Sir John Anderson, says, “I have laid out, with my brethren, in promoting the commerce of the fine arts, £350,000.”  To the charitable and benevolent institutions he was a generous benefactor, and an attentive guardian.  He died December 12th, 1804, and his remains were interred in great funeral state, in the church of St. Olave, Jewry.

Charities.—Stanton School was endowed with £5 per annum by Mrs. Baddiley, in 1721, who also left £40 towards the erection of the school house.  The site was given by Sir Rowland Hill, and nine other persons subscribed towards the building of the school the sum of £14. 11s. 6d.  About twenty children now attend.  The £5 per annum is paid out of lands called Chealey Meadows and Chealey Wood, in Cheshire.  Mrs. Baddiley left £2. 12s. per annum for a distribution of bread to the poor.  The amount is paid out of the same land, and twelve penny loaves are given in the church every Sunday.

Richard Colley, in 1717, left £50; Joseph Smith left the interest of £20; Richard Smith, clerk of the parish, £2. 2s.; and Sir Andrew Corbet, in 1817, gave 25 guineas.  These several sums, amounting to £98. 7s., together with £1. 13s. advanced from the poor rates, were placed in the hands of Sir Rowland Hill, who gave a promissory note for the amount to the churchwardens and overseers.  Of the interest, £2 is laid out in bread, which is distributed every Sunday, in respect of Colley’s charity, 9s. is laid out on Christmas day, and the same sum on Good Friday, as the gifts of Richard and Joseph Smith.  The remainder is given away in small sums on St. Andrew’s day.

Thomas Harper, in 1828, gave £150, upon trust, and directed the interest of £50 to be distributed among poor widows on St. Thomas’s day; the interest of £50 among poor men; and the profits of the remaining £50 to be paid to the master or mistress of the Sunday school at Stanton.  This sum was placed in the hands of Sir John Hill, and secured by bond, bearing date September 29th, 1813.  The interest is divided into three shares, and distributed according to the donor’s intentions.

Alford William, shoemaker

Astley William, farmer, Sowhatch

Besford Thomas, farmer, the Heath

Buttery William, farmer, the Heath

Faulkes William, farmer, the Heath

Ferrington James, shoemaker

Gollins William, shopkeeper, the Heath

Griffiths Thomas, farmer, the Heath

Hamer James, farmer, the Hazles

Hanmer Samuel, accountant

Hilditch John, farmer

Hollins John, vict., Lord Hill’s Arms

Holloway Rev. Dr. Jas. Thos., B.A., Vicarage

Jackson James, farmer, the Heath

Jeffries Jonas, farmer and corn miller, the Wood Mill

Jeffries William, corn miller, Stanton Mill

Lewis John, farmer, the Lodge

Massey Charles, farmer

Podmore Edward, Greenfields farm

Powell Caleb, farmer

Powell Samuel, farmer

Powell William, farmer, the Heath

Taylor John, blacksmith

Taylor Charles, shopkeeper, the Heath

Taylor John, shoemaker and shopkeeper

Thomason Richard, farmer

Tudor John, shoemaker, the Heath

Wood Mrs., Woodlands

Wood Thomas F., land and estate agent and valuer

BOOLEY, OR BOWLEY,
a township two and a quarter miles N.E. by N. from Stanton, contains, conjointly with High Hatton and Greenfields, 2,978a. 3r. 11p. of land: the soil is a mixture of sand and loam.  The land in this locality has generally a bold and irregular surface; the scenery is beautifully diversified.  The rateable value of Booley is £2,247, 9s.  Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart., is the principal landowner, who, with St. John C. Charlton, Esq., are the impropriators of the large tithes, which are commuted for £20 for the above townships; the vicarial tithes are commuted for £78. 10s.  Mr. George Dale is also a freeholder.

The principal residents are Mrs. Ann Betton; Thomas Betton, farmer; James Cadman, farmer; John Hendley, farmer; Thomas Lewis, quarry master; William Phillips, farmer; Benjamin Powell, farmer.

HARCOURT
is a small township with a few houses, picturesquely situated one and a half mile north from Stanton.  The township contains 234a. 3r. 34p. of land, the owners of which are John Faulkner Wood, Esq.; Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart; and Mrs. Wood.  Rateable value, £373. 16s.  The rectoral tithes have been commuted for £55. 10s., of which £48 are paid to the impropriators, John F. Wood, Esq., and Sir A. V. Corbet, Bart.  The vicar of Stanton receives £7. 10s.  Harcourt Park House is a good building of stone.

The principal residents here are William Dale, farmer; The Park farm; and John Powell, The Mill.

HIGH HATTON,
a township and pleasant village, situated two and a half miles east from Stanton-upon-Hine Heath, in 1841 contained 34 houses and 201 inhabitants.  The area of this township, conjointly with Booley, is 2,837a. 1r. 4p.  The land is generally fertile, and there is some strong soil; in other places there is a mixture of sand and loam.  Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet is lord of the manor and the principal landowner.  The rent charge of this township is included in the return for Booley.  Rateable value, £2,095, 1s.  St. John Charlton, Esq., is the landowner.

Directory.—William Betteney, farmer; John Espley, blacksmith; John Gollins, farmer, Greenhurst; Ann Heatley, farmer; William Heatley, farmer, the Hall; William Stephen Hoole, farmer, the Wood; Ibbs Margery, farmer; Richard Rodenhurst, farmer, the Heath; Charles Taylor, farmer and shopkeeper.

MOSTON
township is situated two miles north from Stanton, and contains 639a. 0r. 23p. of land, which is the property of Viscount Hill, who is also lord of the manor.  The tithes have been commuted for the sum of £16.  At the census of 1841 there were 11 houses and 61 inhabitants.  Rateable value £960.

The principal residents in Moston are Robert Cartwright, beerhouse keeper; Thomas Chidley, farmer; George Dale, farmer and maltster; Samuel Forrester, boot and shoemaker; William Harris, farmer; William Ikin, farmer, Pool farm.

WEM
is a market town and considerable parish, which embraces the chapelries of Edstaston and Newtown, and the townships of Ashton, Cotton, Horton, Lacon Lowe and Ditches, Northwood, part of Sleap, Soulton, Tilley and Trench, Wem and Wolverley, which together contain an area of 13,841a. 1r. 10p. of land, of which 193a. 2r. 6p. are in roads and waste.  Gross estimated rental, £26,594; rateable value, £24,944.  In 1841 there was a population of 3,919 souls, of whom 1,952 were males and 1,967 females, at which period there were 832 inhabited houses, 40 uninhabited, and two houses building.  The tithes have been commuted for £2,100.  The town of Wem is pleasantly situated near the banks of the river Roden, 11 miles north from Shrewsbury; the streets are irregularly formed, and many of the houses have an ancient appearance; there are, however, many good houses and shops, and several respectable private residences of more modern erection, particularly in those parts of the town called New-street and Islington.  The township contains 1,202a. 3r. 30p. of land, of which 14a, 3r. 24p. are in roads and waste.  Rateable value, £6,428. 5s.  Wem is a place of considerable antiquity, and was anciently written Wemme.  At the Domesday survey it was held by William Pantulph, or Pantulf, of Earl Roger, when there were “four geldable hides and an airy of hawks.”  At this time most of the land about Wem lay waste, covered with a vast pool, or overgrown with woods.  When William the Conqueror deprived the English of their estates he gave the greatest part of Shropshire to Roger de Montgomery, and he shared it out among the principal officers that commanded under him, on condition that they should pay him homage, fight for him, not dispose of their daughters in marriage, nor their goods by will without his leave; that their heirs whilst minors should be in wardship to him, and pay a relief for admission to their estates when they came of age.  On these terms Earl Roger granted to William Pantulph 28 towns or manors in the county of Salop, whereof Wem being one of the chief places Pantulph made it his seat, and the head of his barony.  In the 7th of King John, A.D. 1205, Warin Fitzgerald procured the grant of a market to be held weekly, and a fair yearly at his manor of Wemme.  It has therefore been a market town 646 years.  The market was then held on Sunday, as was then commonly done in other places.  This continued till the 24th of Edward III, when Simon Islip, archdeacon of Canterbury, forbid the going to market on the Lord’s day for the future, and the market was subsequently held on Thursday, on which day it still continues to be held, and is numerously attended by the farmers who reside in the surrounding district.  Fairs are held on the first Thursday in March, May 6th, Holy Thursday, June 29, last Thursday in September, and November 22nd.

The barony of Wem was of considerable extent; on the north it stretched to Whitchurch, on the east it took in Tilley and Cresswell, in Staffordshire, on the south it bordered on the Clive, and on the west on the parish of Ellesmere.  The first baron was William Pantulph, who had great estates in Normandy, which he held of his superior lord Roger de Montgomery, a relation of one of the generals of William the Conqueror.  By his tenure he was obliged to attend this Roger in war, and came over with him in the expedition against England.  Shortly after the battle of Hastings Roger de Montgomery bestowed 28 manors in this county upon the said Pantulph, to be held by military service.  These manors consisted of as many knight’s fees as composed a barony, the head of which Pantulph fixed at Wem, which he chose for the place of his residence.  The Earl of Shrewsbury, A.D. 1102, engaged in a rebellion against the king, and required William Pantulph, his vassal, to aid him with such a number of men as he was obliged to furnish by his tenure.  On his refusing he disinherited him of all his lands and possessions in Shropshire, upon which the king made him governor of Stafford Castle.  The king having resolved to beseige Shrewsbury, William Pantulph attended the king on this expedition, and finding the roads bad and narrow and the country full of woods lined with archers, the king employed 6,000 soldiers in cutting down the woods and opening the roads.  On the royal troops appearing before Shrewsbury the king threatened to hang all that he should take therein, and shortly after the town was surrendered.  The Earl of Shrewsbury by his treason having forfeited his honour and estate to the crown the barony of Wem was henceforth held immediately by the king, and hence the lords thereof had a right to sit in the great councils of the realm.  William Pantulph lived to a great age and died beyond sea.  The last of this family who held the barony was William Pantulph, who died in the 7th of Henry III., A.D. 1233.  About this period a perambulation was made to settle the boundaries of the manor of Wem and that of Prees; the latter belonged to the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry.  On the death of the above William Pantulph, his father-in-law, Fulk Warine, gave the king 6,000 marks for the wardship of his lands and heir, with the benefit of her marriage.  This Fulk was one of the barons that in 1214 confederated against King John, and who was subsequently excommunicated by the pope.  On the marriage of Maud, the heiress of William Pantulph, with Ralph de Boteler, he settled at Wem, and in 1370 the barony was carried by an heiress of the Botelers into the family of Ferrars, and afterwards in like manner to the Greystocks, a noble family whose principal seat was Greystock Castle, in the county of Cumberland.  Ralph Lord Greystock, the second baron of this family, left a granddaughter, who married Thomas Lord Dacre; this family had their chief seat at Dacre Castle in Cumberland.  The fourth baron of this name, George Lord Dacre, being a minor at the death of his father, Thomas Duke of Norfolk obtained the wardship of him, but had not enjoyed it long before this young lord died, and his three sisters became co-heiresses.  Ann married Phillip Earl of Arundle, and Elizabeth Lord William Howard, son of the Duke of Norfolk, but Mary died unmarried.  Thomas Duke of Norfolk, on the death of his third wife, formed the project of marrying Mary Queen of Scotts.  In the 15th of Elizabeth, however, he was beheaded for what his peers adjudged to be treason.  By his attainder his eldest son Philip, having lost his titles of honour that were to have descended to him from his father, assumed the style of Earl of Arundle in right of his mother, who was daughter to Henry Fitzallan, the last Earl of Arundle of that family.  In the 25th of Elizabeth the court of Wem was first called in the name of Philip Earl of Arundle, and of lady Ann, his wife.  His zeal for popery, and the resentment he was supposed to entertain for the hard usage of his family, rendered him suspected by the government, and he was eventually condemned to imprisonment during the queen’s pleasure, and fined £10,000.  In the 31st of Elizabeth the court at Wem was first called in the name of the queen, on account of the attainder of Philip Earl of Arundle, but as he had held the barony and manor of Wem in right of his wife, by his attainder he forfeited them only during his own life, so that on his decease they reverted to the Countess Dowager Ann, on whose death, Thomas Howard, her only son, succeeded to the dignity of baron of Wem.  On the accession of James I. to the throne, this Thomas was restored in blood, with the title of Earl of Arundle and Surrey, and put in possession of the estates forfeited by his grandfather’s attainder, thus he had a great fortune by descent, and a much larger one with his wife, who was the heiress of the great house of Shrewsbury.  In 1611 he was made knight of the garter, and in 1621 he was created Earl Marshall of England, with a pension of £2,000 per annum.  In the 8th of Charles I. we find the court baron of Wem called in the name of the Right Honourable Thomas, Earl of Arundle and Surrey, premier, Earl of England, Lord Howard, Fitzallans, Maltravers, Mowbray, Segrave, Bruse, and Wem, Earl Marshall of England, knight of the most noble order of the garter, and one of the lords of the king’s honourable privy council.  He is said to have been a proud man, and his expenses always exceeded his revenue; he was the greatest encourager of painting, sculpture, designs, carving, and building that the age produced, and he employed persons many years in Italy and Greece to collect rarities for him; his statues and paintings were equal in number and value to those in the houses of most princes, and he provided the most sumptuous and magnificent entertainments.  The barony was subsequently held by the Playters, Onslows, Wycherleys, and Jeffreys.  On the death of John Lord Jeffreys, in 1720, the barony and manor of Wem descended to his daughter, then a minor, and shortly after the barony of Wem and the manors of Wem and Loppington, and the land and tenements thereto, were sold to Henry Lord Newport, afterwards Earl of Bradford, for £12,000.  In 1730, Lord Newport, by will, devised all his real estate, in trust, for Mrs. Ann Smith, and his natural son by her, John Harrison.  He took the name of Newport; but losing the use of his reason, his mother conveyed the estate after his death to William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, from whom it has descended to the present proprietor, the Duke of Cleveland.  A court leet and baron is held yearly in October.  Jonathan Scarth, Esq., steward; Thomas Griffiths, bailiff.  Formerly at these courts causes were tried for debts or trespass in actions under 40s.

The freeholders at Wem are numerous, among whom are William Egerton Jeffreys, Colonel Wynn, Thomas Dickin, Esq., the Trustees of Wem Free School, Jonathan Forgham, Mr. John Jenks, Mr. Craig, Mr. John Rodgers, Mary Llewellin, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Phillips, William Owen, Esq., William Barber, Esq., Mr. James, Mr. Leek, Mrs. Kynaston, H. J. Barker, Esq., Mrs. Burd, Mrs. Gwynn, John Everall, Esq., Mr. George Clay, Mr: Glazebrook, Mr. Ashley, Mr. Holding, Mr. Robert Gough, Mrs. Tyler, Mr. John Basnet, Mr. Snape, Mr. Edward Broomfield, Mr. Breakspear, Mr. Drury, J. H. Walford, Esq., Mr. John Boughey, Mr. Poole, and upwards of forty others.

The Church is a venerable structure dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a heavy square tower sixty-nine feet high, in which are six musical bells; on the west side stands the statue of a man, as large as life, with a truncheon in his hand, supposed to represent Ralph, lord Greystock, baron of Wem, who probably was at the charge of building the steeple; on the east side is the statue of a lady, with the model of the church in her right hand, and a cross in her left hand.  The north porch, and the lower part of the walls are built of red sand stone, coarsely worked, and are perhaps the remains of the first church erected here in Saxon times.  The tower and upper part of the walls, and most of the buttresses are of the Grinshill free stone.  The vestry was built before the great fire which burnt the roof, then covered with shingles, the gallery, and all the timber work, damaged the walls and melted the bells.  The west window and the tower were built in 1667, and the west end of the church, the roof, and the pews, in 1678.  The chancel was built about the year 1680: since that period the frequent reparations and alterations have left but little of the ancient character of the church remaining.  The bells were cast in the same year, and a clock and chimes added in 1726.  The communion plate are of large size, and consist of chalice, pattin, flagon, and basin, which were the gift of Gerrard Shelley, and Cicely his wife in 1707.  The accommodation in the church was increased by building two new galleries, one on the north and another on the south side, and altering the pews in the old gallery at the west end in 1840, when 274 additional sittings were obtained, which are free and unappropriated, in consequence of a grant from the incorporated society for building and enlarging churches.  There are also 703 appropriated sittings.  There are tablets to the Smiths, Wycherleys, Fields, Traceys, and others.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £26. 4s. 4½d.; in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland, and incumbency of the Rev. John Charles D. Merest, M.A., who resides at the rectory, a pleasantly situated mansion, built by the late rector, who exchanged the old rectory, and obtained a grant from Queen Anne’s bounty, towards the erection of the present structure.  Dr. Henry Aldrich, an eminent divine and polite scholar, was rector of Wem.  He was born at Westminster, in 1647, and educated under the famous Busby.  In 1662 he was admitted into Christ Church College, Oxford and having passed through the gradations of bachelor of arts in 1666, and master in 1669, he took orders and became an eminent tutor in his college.  In 1681 he was installed canon of Christ Church, and in the same year took the degrees of bachelor and doctor of divinity.  During the reign of James II. he published several tracts on the popish controversy, which are said to have shown a clearness of arguing and depth of learning far beyond anything that had at that time appeared in our language.  In order to excite and cherish a taste for polite literature, he annually published some piece of an ancient Greek author, as a new year’s gift for the students of the college.  He wrote a system of logic, entitled “Artis Logicæ Compendium,” Oxon, 1691, 8vo.; and “Elements of Geometry,” in Latin, never published.  He was also concerned in Gregory’s Greek Testament, printed at Oxford in 1703, folio; and Havercamp’s edition of Josephus.  By his skill in architecture he improved the buildings of the college; and that part of it called Peckwater quadrangle, deservedly admired, was designed by him.  His abilities as a musician rank him, in the opinion of competent judges, among the masters of the science; and although he chiefly applied himself to the composition of sacred music, yet he occasionally diverted himself by producing pieces of a lighter kind.  For the entertainment of smokers, to which fraternity he belonged, he composed a smoking catch, to be sung by four persons while they were smoking; and he was also the author of “Hark! the merry Christ church bells.”  He died at his college in 1710, leaving an order to be buried, without any memorial, in the cathedral.  “His modesty and humility, his easy pleasantry, his attention to academic business, and to the credit of his college, his exertions for the encouragement of learning, and the proofs which his memoirs afford of reputable talents, various accomplishments, and amiable qualities, unite to transmit his name with honour to posterity.”  The Independent Chapel, situated in Chapel street, is a considerable building of brick, fronted with freestone.  The interior has a neat and chaste appearance, and is provided with a circular gallery.  It was built in 1834, and will accommodate five hundred hearers.  The congregation is under the pastoral care of the Rev. Joseph Pattison.  There is a Sunday school in connection with the chapel, with about 150 scholars.  The Independents have another chapel in Noble street, where the Rev. John Saddler is the pastor.  The Primitive Methodist Chapel is a neat structure in Chapel street; and the Baptists have a chapel in Cripple street.  The Irvingites have a meeting house in Noble street.

The Grammar School.—Sir Thomas Adams, the founder of the free school at Wem, was born in the year 1586; he was the son of Thomas Adams, a respectable tanner at Wem, who had his tan pits where the school now stands.  His son received a liberal education at the university of Cambridge, and was afterwards brought up a draper in London.  In 1639 he was elected sheriff of London, on which he gave up business, and devoted his time entirely to the duties of his office, and the good of the citizens.  He was elected Lord Mayor of London 1645, which office he filled with the greatest disinterestedness.  About this time the enemies of Charles I., who were then coming into power, thought proper to search his house, in pursuit of that unfortunate monarch, knowing his strong attachment to the royal cause; in the year 1647 he was committed to the tower, where he remained some time.  He, however, continued his attachment to the royal cause, and is said to have carried his zeal so far as to have remitted ten thousand pounds to Charles II. while in exile.  On the accession of that monarch to the throne, Sir Thomas was advanced to the dignity of baronet.  Amongst the documents belonging to the free school there is a copy of the orders and statutes prescribed by him for the government of the same, purporting to have been made March 4, 1650.  By these orders it is declared Rowland Hill, Esq., and fourteen others, should be enfeoffed of the lands and hereditaments appertaining to the school.  That the said school should be for all children within the parish of Wem, except the children of those parents who being of ability should not have contributed towards the advancement of the said school.  The statutes also contain regulations for the internal management of the school, and directions that prayers should be read every morning and evening, and the scholars catechised in the principles of the Christian religion.  The gross annual income derived from the school property when the charity commissioners published their report amounted to £336. 15s., out of which the head master received a salary of £160 per annum, the second master £70, and the third master £70 per annum.  The school is free to all boys of the parish of Wem for instruction in classics and English grammar; each scholar pays a small entrance fee, and if they learn writing or accounts they pay for such instruction from 7s. 6d. to 10s. 6d. per quarter.  A portion of the income of the school arises from lands purchased by the first Feoffees of the school, who were instrumental in raising upwards of £370, which sum was laid out in the purchase of land for the general benefit of the school.  The principal object of the foundation was evidently the instruction of free scholars, but when the charity commissioners published their report there were only two on the foundation, and there were only six when our agent visited Wem.  The Rev. William Boulton is the head master.

The British School, a neat brick structure pleasantly situated, was erected in 1839, at the cost of about £800; it is capable of accommodating 200 boys and 200 girls, and consists of an upper and lower room; the latter is occupied by the boys, and the entrance is from Dark-lane, and the former by the girls, who have an entrance from Chapel street.  At the present time 130 boys and 90 girls attend the school, which is chiefly self-supporting.  The Privy Council on Education gave the sum of £200 towards the erection of the school.  Thomas H. Taylor and Mrs. Taylor are the teachers.

The National School, a commodious brick building situated in an open situation, consists of two spacious rooms, which were erected at an expense of about £1,000, including the cost of the site.  Thomas Grainge and Mary Ebrey are the teachers.

The Infant School, situated in Chapel-street, has an attendance of about 120.  Mary Green is the teacher.

The Wem Union House, situated on the Whitchurch road, near to Islington, is a spacious brick structure erected to accommodate 200 inmates.  The union comprehends twelve parishes, and has an area of eighty square miles.  The average annual expenditure of the three, preceding the formation of the union, was £4,018.  The following are the parishes in the union, viz.:—Wem, Broughton, Clive, Grinshill, Ightfield, Lee Brockhurst, Loppington, Moreton Corbet, Prees, Shawbury, Stanton upon Hine Heath, Weston under Red Castle, and Whixall.  Clerk and Superintendent Registrar, William Owen, Esq.; Relieving Officer, Thomas Hanmer; Master and Matron, Mr. and Mrs. Rowley.

The County Court for law proceedings on actions and claims not exceeding £50 comprehends the following places, viz.:—Wem 4, Preston Brockhurst 3, Grinshill 4, Clive or Cliff 3, Yorton 4, Tilley 1, Sleap 2, Nunnerley 2, Loppington 3, Northwood 5, part of Whixall 8, Newtown 4, Ightfield 8, Corra 8, Prees 5, Darliston 6, Marchamley 6, Weston under Red Castle 4, Lee 3, Aston 1, Lacon 1, Edgboulton 6, Stanton 6, Shawbury 6, and Burton 6.  The figures refer to the mileage from Wem.  Judge, Uvedale Corbet, Esq., Aston Hall, near Shiffnal; Treasurer, William B. Collis, Esq.; Clerk, Henry John Barker, Esq.; High Bailiff, Mr. Thomas Griffiths, jun.

The Lock-up is a small brick structure situated in Grove-street; prisoners on committal are sent to Shrewsbury.  William Freeman is the superintendent.

The Market House is a brick fabric with stone finishings, supported by arches and pillars in the front.  The county court is held in the spacious room over the market.  Mr. Thomas Griffiths is clerk of the markets.

The Stamp Office is in Market-street.  Mr. George W. Poole, distributor.

The Excise Office is at Mrs. Sand’s, the White Lion Inn, High-street.

The Court House for magisterial purposes is situated in Noble-street; the magistrates who usually attend the petty sessions here are Sir Robert Chambre Hill, Bart.; Sir Andrew Vincent Corbet, Bart.; A. C. Heber Percy, Esq.; Thomas Dickin, Esq., and George Bowen, Esq.  William Lucas, Esq., is clerk to the magistrates.

The Gas Works are situated in Grove-street; they were established in 1835 by Messrs. Thomas and Burton, since which they have been transferred to the mortgagee, Mr. Craig.  The gasometer will hold 4,000 cubic feet of gas.  A charge of 10s. per 1,000 cubic feet is made to the consumer for this luminous vapour.  Mr. John Brown is the secretary and manager.

The National Provincial Bank of England has a branch bank here, situated in High-street.  Mr. John Daniel Lloyd is the manager.

The traffic of Wem is facilitated by a branch of the Ellesmere canal, which terminates near to Edstaston, about two miles from Wem.  It is chiefly used for the conveyance of coal.  Mr. John Brown, coal, slate, lime, and guano merchant, has a wharf here.

The Wem corn mill is an extensive modern erection of brick, situated on the river Roden; the machinery is of a superior construction; it is occasionally worked by steam power, but the water power is constructed so as to work the machinery without any delay after the rise of the water.  Mr. J. Boughey is the proprietor.

The following account of the state of Wem during the civil war is chiefly extracted from Garbet’s interesting history of that town.  When the war broke out in 1642 the populace were in general in favour of royalty; the persons of most distinction in the county who supported the parliament were Mr. Mitton, Mr. Mackworth, and Thomas Hunt, Esq., M.P. for Shrewsbury.  The above gentlemen, attended by Richard Baxter, a famous dissenting minister, having got a small body of troops about the latter end of August, 1643, settled a garrison at Wem, being the first which the parliament had in this county.  To fortify the town a rampart or wall of earth was thrown up, which began at Drayton gate, and ran along the side of Sandland’s yard, and about fourscore yards into Cordwell, where it formed an angle, defended by a wooden tower; then it turned towards the mill, crossing a meadow and a road just below Oliver’s well, and passed along the side of the parsonage garden, till it came to the Shrewsbury gate.  It then crossed the alleys to the corner of the school garden, whence it turned through the tan pits on the east side of the brook to Ellesmere gate.  Thence it extended along the Noble-street garden to two houses, then in the fields where a guard was kept, and from those houses to the Whitchurch gate, and thence over Shenton’s field it came up to Drayton gate.  The ditch was about four yards wide and of a proportionate depth, but probably narrower in those places where the land could be flooded, for the low grounds were laid under water from Woodhouse’s croft to Cordwell.  The earth thrown out of the ditch made the wall or rampart, which was strengthened by palisades placed so thick that a whole coppice in Lacon was cut down for this purpose.  All the houses and buildings without the rampart were burnt to prevent their giving shelter to the enemy.  As soon as the king had notice of a garrison having been placed at Wem, he sent Lord Capel to Shrewsbury, as lieutenant-general of Shropshire; the parliament sent Sir William Brereton, a Cheshire gentleman, to oppose him.  Lord Capel, at the head of 5,000 men, made an attack upon Wem before its works were finished.  At the same time Sir William Brereton, with his Cheshire forces, drew near the town to support and defend it.  By a manœuvre Lord Capel induced General Brereton to return to Nantwich, and in the meantime he attacked Wem, which was but ill provided against an assault, the gates were without hinges, being only reared up, and only forty soldiers remained in the town, the rest of the forces consisted of the rabble of the town, among whom a number of women particularly distinguished themselves, and gave occasion for the following rhyme:—

“The women of Wem and a few musketeers,
Beat the Lord Capel and all his cavaliers.”

The principal attack was made at Drayton gate; and old Vicars, in his “God’s Ark overtopping the World’s Waters,” says, “The great slaughter and execution which were performed upon the enemy when they set upon Wem, there being six cart loads of dead men carried away at one time, besides the wounded; and as it is said, there were fifteen found buried in one grave.  Little execution was done upon our men; we lost not above three in the town—Major Marcow, one soldier, and one boy.”  Of the king’s party he enumerates Colonel Wynn, slain; Major Vaughan, wounded; one of Winter’s captains shot in the back; Captain Davison, taken prisoner, since dead; Captain Manley, Captain Ellis, and Colonel Scriven, wounded.  As the troops of Brereton approached, Lord Capel drew off his forces and returned to Shrewsbury.  In 1644 the garrison of Wem seems to have been better provided for their defence.  Prince Rupert, on his march to Chester, seemed determined to attack Wem; but having taken a view of the place from the Trench farm, he slighted it, saying, “It is a crow’s nest that will not afford each of my men a piece of bread.”  At this time the greater part of Shropshire was for the king; but after the fatal battle of Naseby he lost ground in almost every part of the kingdom.  Major-general Mytton was governor of Wem, the garrison whereof took Ercall House, belonging to Lord Newport; Apley Castle, belonging to Mr. Charlton; Moreton Corbet House, belonging to Sir Andrew Corbet; and Shrawardine Castle, the seat of the Bromleys.  The plunder brought into Wem during these unhappy disturbances contributed greatly to induce an appearance of prosperity.

The dreadful fire which happened March 3rd, 1677, is a remarkable era in the history of Wem.  It was occasioned by a girl suffering a lighted caudle to ignite the thatch of her parents’ dwelling.  The season being dry and the wind boisterous, the devouring flames were speedily carried along the High street, Cripple street, and the Horse Fair, consuming every edifice except the free school.  In Noble street it extended as far as the Draw well house, and in Milk street as far as the Rector’s barn.  The church, the market house, seven score houses, and treble the number of outbuildings were burnt.  The wind blew the burning thatch and shingles to a vast distance, so that in one hour the town was completely enveloped in flames.  The loss of the property consumed was estimated at £23,677. 3s. 1d.

Among the eminent individuals of which Wem has been the birth place or residence, may be enumerated the benevolent Sir Thomas Adams, before mentioned, the founder of the Grammar School.  Wycherley, one of the most eminent wits and comic poets of his day, was born here in 1640; he married the Countess of Drogheda, but after her death, from law suits with her relatives, he became embarrassed in his circumstances.  He married a second wife a few days before his death, which happened in September, 1815.  John Astley, Esq.: This artist, from the peculiarity of his good fortune, rather than by his exertions as an artist, has obtained a memorial in biographical history.  He was born at Wem, and when of age to assume a profession he was sent to London, and placed as a pupil under Mr. Hudson; when he left him he visited Rome, and on his return from thence he went to Dublin, where he practised as a painter for about three years, and in that time acquired three thousand pounds by his pencil.  On his coming over to England, and painting his way back to London, in his own post chaise, with an outrider, he loitered, with a little pardonable vanity, in his native neighbourhood, and visiting Knutsford assembly with another gentleman, Lady Daniel, a widow then present, was at once so won by his appearance, that she made arrangements to sit for her portrait, and then made him the offer of her hand; a boon which he did not think it prudent to refuse.  This lady, by marriage articles, settled the whole of the Duckinfield estate upon him, after the death of her daughter by Sir William Daniel.  Mr. Astley eventually became possessed of these estates, and died at his house, Duckinfield Lodge, Cheshire, November 13th, 1787, and was buried at the church in that village.  John Ireland, the author of “Illustrations of Hogarth,” and other esteemed works, was also born at Wem.

Charities.—Francis Chambre, by his will, dated December 26th, 1676, charged certain lands with the payment of 40s. per annum, to be disposed of for the benefit and repairs of the chapel at Newton, or for the augmentation of the salary of the third school-master at Wem, or to both, at the discretion of his kinsman, George Chambre of Loppington, and the Rev. William Chettoe, and their heirs for ever.  The premises charged with this payment are now the property of Mr. Dickin, who pays £2 to the schoolmaster and chapel warden every alternate year.

In 1703 Richard Corbet, Esq. granted a yearly rent charge issuing out of two farms at High Hatton, and directed that £4 thereof should be laid out every alternate year in buying six cloth coats or gowns for six poor people, four to be chosen from the parish of Wem, and two from Loppington; the said persons to be housekeepers reduced to poverty by misfortune; that £4 should be laid out every alternate year in clothing three poor boys of the parish of Wem, to be set out apprentices to husbandry; that 20s. per annum be paid to a writing master for teaching four poor boys writing and arithmetic.  And he further directed, that every alternate year the said rent charge of £10 should be laid out in binding two boys, of the parish of Wem, apprentices to handicraft trades.  The sum of £9 to be disposed of in one year, and £11 the next year, and so on from year to year.  The yearly sum of £10, with some additions thereto, varying according to circumstances, is paid by Sir Andrew Corbet, the owner of the estate at Hatton.  The objects of the charity are selected by the trustees, who meet about February every alternate year for the purpose, and 21s. is paid on that day towards the expenses of such meeting.

William Hinton, and Dorothy, his wife, in consideration of £101. 1s. 6d., conveyed to certain trustees and their successors two pieces of land in Whixall, called the Stanley End Pieces, to the use of the poor of the parish of Wem.  Of the above, £50 was the gift of Thomas Spendelow during his lifetime, who directed the proceeds thereof should be laid out in bread every Lord’s day for the poor inhabitants of the parish.  There has been no subsequent conveyance to trustees, and the churchwardens have from time to time let the property, which consists of two fields, containing rather more than seven acres, now let at a good rent of £12 per annum.  There is also an allotment on Whixall Moss, given in lieu of a right of turbury, which is let for 5s. per annum.  The rents are carried to the account of the churchwardens of Wem quarter, and out of this account there is paid, in respect of the rents above mentioned, and for Sir Andrew Corbet’s charity hereafter mentioned, 4s. a week, amounting to £10. 8s. per annum, which is disposed of in bread, and £3 of which is distributed in money.  The sum of £3 is divided by the churchwardens and vestry clerk, together with £2 paid in respect of the Hon. Richard Hill’s charity, in small sums among the poor.

The Hon. Richard Hill, in 1726, bequeathed £100 to the poor of the parish of Wem, to be applied as the minister and churchwardens should think fit.—Rowland Whittingham, in the same year, bequeathed £10 for the objects of the said charity.  With these two sums, and £2 advanced by the overseers, three messuages were purchased adjoining the church-yard.  These premises were pulled down in the year 1822, and the site added to the church-yard.  Before this period, the rents never exceeded £5 or £6 a year.  The sum of £2 has been since paid out of the church-rate collected for Wem quarter, and £1 out of the rate collected for each of the other three quarters.  When the charity commissioners published their report there was a sum of £40 in the hands of Thomas Wilkinson, which is understood to have been left many years ago by Mr. Minshull of Tilley.  Mr. Wilkinson pays 40s. yearly as the interest thereof, of which 20s. is paid to the minister of Whixall, 10s. among the poor of Wem, 5s. among the poor of Tilley and Trench, and 5s. to the poor of Hollingwood End.

Sir Richard Hill, by his will bearing date January 1st, 1808, bequeathed £300 in trust to pay the interest of £100 to the poor of each of the parishes of Hodnet, Prees, and Wem, in such proportions as his brother John Hill, during his life, and after his decease, the owners of his mansion house, at Hawkstone, should think fit.  The interest on the sum of £100 is paid by Sir Rowland Hill to the poor of each of the parishes of Hodnet and Prees.  Nothing however was paid when the charity commissioners visited Wem, in respect of the legacy for Wem, nor had they any evidence to show the principal had ever been paid.  If the payment of the principal cannot be proved, we apprehend that Sir Rowland Hill is accountable for it as the representative of the testator.

Sir Andrew Corbet, in 1817, gave the sum of 25 guineas, the interest to be given to the poor of the parish.  This sum was applied in rebuilding the church, and the sum of 25s. is paid out of the church-rate as the interest thereof, which sum is expended in bread for the poor.

Mary Hankey, by will 1818, bequeathed £40, to be placed out at interest, and laid out in bread, to be distributed every Easter Sunday among poor housekeepers of the parish of Wem, at the discretion of the churchwardens.

Upwards of two hundred years ago there were three common fields belonging the town: they consisted of arable land, and were divided by stones or other land marks, so that each proprietor knew his own ground, which he ploughed and sowed, but when harvest was gathered in, their cattle ranged in common and fed promiscuously.  The cross field took its name from a cross erected on that road, as was usual in popish countries.  The chapel field extended towards Horton, and the middle field towards Edstaston road.

A LIST OF
STREETS, LANES, AND PLACES IN THE PARISH OF WEM.

Back street, High street

Bank house, Ireland

Bow street, Market street

Brunswick house, Islington

Brunswick row, Islington

Chapel street, Market street

Church street, Mill street

Court house, Market street

Cripple street, Noble street

Crown street, Back street

Dark lane, High street

Draw well lane, Back street

Ellesmere road, Ireland

Grove house, Grove street

Grove street, Bow street

High street, May pole end

Hibernia cottages, May poll end

Ireland, Grove street

Islington, Whitchurch road

Islington cottages, Islington

Islington crescent, Islington

Islington house, Islington

Islington row, Islington

Maiden lane, High street

Market street, High street

Market house, Market street

May pole end, Drayton and Aston road

Mill street, Salop road

New street, Islington

Noble street, Back street

Roden lodge, Mill street

Rose cottage, New street

Salop road, Tilley

Union Buildings, Market st

Wembrook place, Islington

Well house lane, Dark lane

Whixall road, Ireland

Post Office.—At Miss Jane Deakin’s, Market-street.  Letters arrive at 6 20 A.M. and are despatched at 7 20 P.M.

Aston John, gentleman, Market street

Barker Henry John, Esq., Salop road

Barker Charles Frederick, Esq., Market st

Barker Mr. Thomas, Salop road

Barlow Henry, tallow chandler and soap boiler, Market street

Beetenson Charles, Esq., Noble street

Boughey John, Salop road

Boulton Rev. William, Grove street

Brown Thomas Dickin, Esq., New street

Burd Mrs., Bow street

Cartwright Miss, Church street

Cotgrave Miss, Chapel street

Clay George, gentleman, New street

Deakin Miss Jane, Market street

Dickin Roger Spencer, Esq., Grove street

Dickin Thomas, Esq., Noble street

Dickin Mr. Thomas, Grove street

Dickin Mr. Richard Parker, Grove street

Dixon Rev. Wm., Noble street terrace

Edwards Edward, bookkeeper, Market st

Everall John, gentleman, Grove street

Ferrett Henry, inland revenue officer, Back st

Forgham Mrs., Noble street

France Thomas, Noble street

Gough Mrs., Back street

Gough Robert, gentleman, Back street

Gough Mr. Samuel, Market street

Greenwood Joseph, gentleman, Chapel st

Griffiths Henry, porter dealer, Market street

Griffiths Richard, draper, High street

Gwynn Edward, Esq., Noble street

Gwynn Samuel Betten, Esq., Noble street

Gwynn Miss, Grove house

Hanmer Thos., relieving officer, Wem union

Heatley William, Esq., Market street

Ireland Mrs., Islington house

Jones William, Chapel street

Jones Miss, Chapel street

Jones Samuel, cattle salesman, Back street

Kindillow Wm. Nail, governor union house

Kynaston Mrs. Mary, High street

Lee Henry, Esq., Chapel street

Lee Mrs. Mary, Chapel street

Leeke Miss Mary Ann, New street

Littlehales Fred., clerk, county court office

Lloyd John Daniel, gentleman, High street

Lucas William, Esq., Noble street

Mason John, skinner, Ireland

Meredith Charles David, registrar, Islington

Meredith Mrs., Islington

Meredith Rev. Charles David, Crescent

Merest Rev. John William D., The Rectory

Morris Henry, gentleman, Islington Crescent

Morris Mrs., Islington Crescent

Nickson Mrs., Chapel street

Oldham Charles, Esq., Tilley house

Owen William, Esq., New street

Parkes Mrs., The Crescent

Parkes Mr. Richard, Islington Crescent

Pattinson Rev. Joseph, Islington villa

Pearson Mrs. Sarah, Grove street

Phillips Mr. George, May pole end

Poole Mr. George Wright, Market street

Prince Captain Charles, Market street

Pritchard Rev. Mr., Chapel street

Ravenshaw Richard, bank clerk, New street

Sadler Rev. John, Islington

Smith Mrs. Wycherley, New street

Smith John, tea dealer, Noble street

Snape Walter, gentleman, Creamore road villa

Stockhall Henry, attorney’s clerk, Market st

Thomas Thomas, gentleman, Islington

Walford John Henshaw, Esq., Roden lodge

Walker Mrs., Back street

Walmsley Thomas, Esq., Cripple street

Walmsley George, gentleman, Hawkstone rd

Walmsley Mr. John, Hibernia cottage

Wilkinson Mr. William, Ellesmere road

Williams Sir John Bickerton, Knight, The Hall

Wilson Joseph, Esq., New street

Academies.

Marked * take boarders.

British School, Dark lane, Thomas Hickson Taylor, master; T. H. Taylor, mistress

* Cooke Miss, Noble street

* Foncier Miss, Noble street

* Grammar, Grove street, Rev. William Boulton, M.A., principal; Benjamin Burd, English master

Infants’, Chapel street, Mary Green

* Meredith Mrs. Hannah, Bow street

National, Back street, Thos. Grainge, master; Mary Ebrey, mistress

* Strutt Miss, Noble street

Accountants.

Burd John, Mill street

Wycherley Thomas, Noble st

Attorneys.

Barker Charles Frederick, Market street

Barker Henry John, clerk to county court; office, Market street

Brown Thomas Dickin, New street

Burd Jonathan, Market st

Lucas William, clerk to magistrates, Noble street

Owen William, clerk to the Wem union, and superintendent registrar, New street

Auctioneers & Valuers.

Burd John, Mill street

Franklin Josiah, Market st

Wycherley Thomas, and appraiser for the Wem county court, Noble street

Bakers & Flour Dealers.

Astley Mary, Back street

Harris George, Grove street

Kynaston Charles, Market st

Vaughan Thomas, High st

Watkin Sarah, High street

Weever George, Market st

Bankers.

The National Provincial Bank of England Company, draw on the London Joint Stock Bank, John Daniel Lloyd, manager

Blacksmiths.

Humphreys Wm., Noble st

Rogers Robert, Ireland

Watkin Thomas, Dark lane

Watkin William, Grove st

Wilkinson John, Market st

Booksellers, Bookbinders, and Stationers.

Cooke Mary, Draw well ter

Franklin Josiah, & printer, Market street

Boot & Shoemakers.

Marked * dealers only.

Bannister John, Back street

Forgham Jonathan, May pole end

Higgins Williams, Rookery, Ireland

Jenkins George, Grove st

Jenks John, Market street

* Owen Miss Ann, High st

Robins Henry, Market st

* Tomlins Charles, Market st

Watkin Richard, Chapel st

Weaver John, High street

* Wilkinson Thomas, Market street

Braziers & Tin Plate Workers.

Barlow Henry, Market street

Edge John, Bow street

Edge Samuel, Union place

Brewer.

Cooke Joseph, Draw well brewery

Bricklayers.

Beckett William, Cripple st

Hewes William, Back street

Morris John, New street

Richards William, Back st

Tomey Jonathan, Back st

Brick and Tile Merchants.

Barker Henry John, Northwood

Brown John, Grove street

Maddocks Samuel, Barker’s green

Builders.

Beddoe John, Wem brook pl

France Thomas and Son, Noble street

Prince Frederick and Son, Church street

Walton Thomas, Salop road

Butchers.

Astley Thomas, Noble street

Davies Benjamin, Grove st

Deakin Henry, Market street

Elkes George, Market street

Hales William, Bow street

Parkes John, High street

Watkin James, High street

Weaver Charles, High street

Weaver George, High street

Weever Frederick, Market st

Cabinet Makers.

Broomhall John, foreman, Cripple street

France Thomas, Noble st

France Thomas, jun., Noble street

Lee John, New street

Prince Frederick and Son, Church street

Carriage Builders.

Eaton George, May pole end

Prince John, Church street

Cheese Factors.

Richards John, Market st

Vaughan Thomas, High st

Chemists and Druggists.

Bickerton Samuel, High st

Lee Thomas, Market street

Micklewright George, Market street

Onslow Richard, & dispensing, Cripple street

Clothes Dealer.

Huntington John, Market st

Coal Agent.

Brown John, Grove street, and Edstaston wharf

Coal Dealers.

Jenkins George, Grove street

Ralphs Jane, Noble street

Wilkinson Thos., Dark lane

Confectioners.

Kynaston Charles, Bow st

Stockall John, Market street

Vaughan Thomas, High st

Watkin Elizabeth, High st

Weaver George, High street

Coopers, Turners, and Dealer in Bendware.

Crewe Joseph, High street

Drury William, Noble street

Corn Factor.

Richards John, Market street

Curriers & Leather Cutters.

Everall John, Grove street

Gough Robert, Noble street

Gough Samuel, Market st

Dyer—Silk, Woollen, & Cotton.

Yoad Samuel, High street

Farmers.

Barber Wm., May-pole-end

Clay George, New street

Cooke Joseph, Draw-well lane

Everall John, Lowe-hill lane

Forgham Thomas, Foxley

Forgham Wm., Well-house farm

Griffiths Thomas, Soulton lane

Jenks John, Market street

Jones John, Noble street

Parkes John, Market street

Richards John, Market street

Snape Walter, Creamore road

Farm Tillage Dealers.

Brown John, Edstaston wharf, and guano merchant

Lowe Thomas, New street

Richards John, Market street

Fire and Life-office Agents.

The Agriculturists Cattle Insurance Compy., Benjamin Burds, Market street

Legal and Commercial, John Everall, Grove street

Pelican, Family Endowment and Manchester Fire, Wm. Owen, New street

Salop Fire, Josiah Franklin, Market street

Shropshire and North Wales, Messrs. Barker, Market st

Fishmonger.

Salt William, Market street

Glass, China, and Earthenware Dealers.

Franklin Josiah, Market st

Green Jane Charlotte, High street

Robins Henry, Market street

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Heatley Wm., Market street

Kynaston Charles, High st

Kynaston Henry, Market st

Lee Thomas, Market street

Onslow Richard, Cripple st

Poole & Wilkinson, Market st

Richards John, Market street

Vaughan Thomas, High st

Wilkinson Andrew, High st

Hairdressers.

Green Samuel, Bow street

* Jenkins Richard, and perfumer, Market street

Hatter.

Howard Andrew, High street

Hosier & Berlin Repository.

Russell Lucy, Noble street

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Black Lion, Thomas Nevett, Market street

Buck’s Head, Martha Higley, Church street

Bull’s Head, James Russell, Bow street

Castle, Commercial & Posting House, Robt. Higley, High street

Corbet Arms, John Lewis, Chapel street

Crown, Frederick Wycherley, Market street

Dickins’ Arms, John Jones, Back street

Fox Robert Rogers, Ireland

Hawkstone Arms, Richard Wire, Islington

Horse and Jockey, Robert Davies, Bow street

Lord Hill’s Arms, Thomas Lloyd, High street

Plough, Thomas Griffiths, Market street

Royal Oak, Mary Llewellin, May-pole end

Seven Stars, John Jenks, Market street

Shropshire Arms, Oliver Snape, Bow street

Talbot, Richard Darlington, High street

White Horse Hotel, Commercial & Posting House, Thomas Griffiths, Market street

White Lion, Ann Sands, and Excise-office, High street

Ironmongers.

Kynaston Henry, Market st

Wilkinson Andrew, Market street

Joiners and Builders.

Beddow John, Islington

Francis Thomas and Son, Noble street

Prince Frederick and Son, Church street

Walton Thomas, Market st

Jewellery & Cutlery Dealers.

Franklin Josiah, Market st

Jenkins Richard, Market st

Land & House Agent.

Francis Thomas, Noble st

Lime Dealer.

Brown John, Grove street

Linen & Woollen Drapers Silk Mercers.

Heatley William, Market st

Huntington John, Market st

Poole & Wilkinson, Market st

Livery Stable-keepers.

Marked * are Licensed to Let Post Horses.

* Burd Benjamin, Noble st

Griffiths Thomas, Market st

Higley Robert, High street

* Owen Joseph, High street

Maltsters.

Abbott William, Noble street

Barber John, High street

Barber William, May-pole end

Cooke Joseph, Draw-well terrace

Elkes John, Ireland

Higley Robert, High street

Wilkinson Sarah, High street

Merchants.

Francis Thomas (timber), Noble street

Onslow Rd. (hop), Cripple st

Miller and Corn Factor.

Boughey John, Wem Steam and Water Mills

Milliners and Dressmakers.

Green Sarah, New street

Phillips Eliza, Union Buildings

Williams Ann, Chapel street

Painter, Glazier, and Paper-Hanger.

Worrall George, High street

Plumbers, Glaziers, & Painters.

Davies Samuel, Mill street

Parsonage Frederick, New st

Shenton William, High st

Shenton William, Market st

Rope Makers.

Green John, High street

Fowles James, Bow street

Saddlers and Harness Makers.

Stockall John, Market street

Tomlins Charley, Market st

Seedsmen and Gardeners.

Bickerton Samuel, Market st

Llewellin Mary, High street

Newnes John, Back street

Richards John, Market street

Shopkeepers and Provision Dealers.

Green Jane Charlotte, High street

Harris Ellen, High street

Harris George, Grove street

Jackson Sarah, Bow street

Jones Richard, High street

Owen Joseph, Market street

Stockall John, Market street

Sherratt William, New street

Vaughan Thomas, High st

Watkin Sarah, High street

Skinners & Leather Dressers.

Everall John, Grove street

Mason John, Ireland

Slaters and Plasterers.

Hughes William, Back street

Richards William, Back st

Smallware Dealers.

Burd Benjamin, Market st

Harris Ellen, Market street

Spirit Vaults.

Griffiths Thomas, Market st

Ireland Richard, Market st

Onslow Richard, Cripple st

Stays Makers.

Owen Mrs. & Miss, Market st

Surgeons.

Gwynn Edward, Noble street

Gwynn Samuel Betten, Noble street

Lee Henry, Chapel street

Walmsley Thomas, Market street

Wilson Joseph Green, New street

Surveyor (Land).

Burd John, Mill street

Tailors.

Butter Richard, Market street

Cartwright John, Backstreet

Cartwright William, New st

Drury John, Noble street

Edwards John, Backstreet

Parsonage John, New street

Powell Joseph, High street

Tallow Chandler.

Barlow Richard, May-pole end

Tanners.

Everall John, Grove street

Gough Robert, Noble street

Veterinary Surgeon.

Burd Benjamin, Market st

Burd William, Noble street

Upholsterers.

Francis Thos., Noble street

Prince Frederick and Son, Church street

Watch and Clock Makers.

Butler Henry, High street

Hill Thomas, Market street

Wheelwrights.

Eaton George, May-pole end

Phillips Samuel, Bow street

Watkin John, May-pole end

Wine and Spirit Merchants and Porter Agents.

Ireland Richard, Market st

Onslow Richard, Cripple st

Carriers.

To Shrewsbury—Thomas Harris and Joseph Owen, Wednesdays & Saturdays.

ASTON
is a scattered village and township one mile E. from Wem, which contains 1,460a. 0r. 25p. of land, the soil of which in some parts is clay, in other parts a mixture of mould, gravel, and sand prevails; the strong soils produce excellent wheat.  At the census in 1841 there were 47 houses and 212 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,107.  There are 15a. 3r. 37p. in roads and waste.  The principal landowners are Viscount Hill, Major Dickin, John H. Walford, Esq., and Thomas Holly Cooke, Mrs. James, Mrs. Nickson, the Duke of Cleveland, Sir Andrew Corbet, Bart., Mrs. Griffiths, Mr. Caleb Powell, and the executors of the late Mr. Gwynn and Mr. Hassall are also proprietors; Major Dickin is lord of the manor.  At the survey in 1561 there was only one estate that was freehold in the township, and that was the property of John Astley.  The river Roden intersects the township, and is crossed by bridges to Lee Brockhurst and Aston.  Barker’s Green in this township is noted for clay which makes a superior kind of bricks.  Hill Cop Bank is also in this township.  Aston Hall, an ancient structure built of timber and plaster, is now occupied as a farm homestead.  At the Domesday survey the Astleys were seated here, from whom are descended the Astleys, of Ashton; the estate was then of much larger extent.  It was afterwards sold to the Wilkinsons, and about the year 1680 Lord Chancellor Jeffreys purchased this estate; it is now the property of Mr. Thomas Holley Cooke.  It is stated on the table of benefactions that Ralph Wilkiss, of Aston, left to the poor housekeepers of that township four nobles a year, charged on Shaw’s land in the said township.  The yearly sum of £1. 6s. 8d. is paid out of the said land now vested in the executors of Mr. Hassall, and is distributed in small sums among the poor.

Directory.—Farmers, Thomas Holly Cooke, The Hall Farm; Thomas Harris, The Old Hall Farm; Thomas Kempster, Brook Farm; Edward Morgan, Moat House; Thomas Powell Brookhouse, and John Woodfin; Thomas Abbott, shopkeeper; William Hewes, maltster and beerhouse keeper; Edward Williams, blacksmith and agricultural implement maker.

COTTON,
a pleasantly situated village and township three miles N. from Wem, is variously written in ancient records as Cotton, Coton, and Cooton, being derived from the Saxon, cot, a small house, and ton, a town.  The name may import that it was a town consisting chiefly of small houses, such as were usually built about woods by the poorer sort of people for the conveniency of fuel.  The township contains 1,703a. 3r. 7p. of land, and is separated by four small brooks from the townships that border on it; there are 30 acres in roads and waste.  At the census in 1841 there were 95 houses and a population of 439 souls.  Rateable value, £2,774.  The soil is a mixture of mould and clay, naturally poor, but of late years has been much improved by draining and superior cultivation; marl abounds in the township, which is much used for top dressing the land.  This was one of the 28 lordships which Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, gave to William Pantulph.  Cotton wood was one of the five woods within the lordship of Wem.  It is about three miles in circumference, and still retains the name of wood, although there is scarce a tree left on it.  The chief landowners are Viscount Hill, George Bowen, Esq., Mrs. Cooper, V. Dolphin, Esq., the trustees of Wem school, Mr. Robert Sandland, Mr. John Rodenhurst, Mr. Thomas Ashley, and Mr. William Ikin.  Cotton Hall in the time of Edward IV. belonged to the Maddox family, and in the reign of Elizabeth we find it possessed by Richard Ward, who in 1614 obtained license to eat flesh in Lent.  The following is a copy of the indulgence granted by Richard Sankey, rector of Wem, as found in the parish register:—“For that Richard Ward, of Cotton, in the parish of Wem, and county of Salop, gentleman, is notoriously sick, and enforced for the recovery of his health to eat flesh for the time of his sickness.  Therefore I, Richard Sankey, parson of the said parish, forasmuch as in me lieth by force of authority to me given by the statute in the fifth year of our late sovereign lady Elizabeth, do license the said Richard Ward to eat flesh according to the contents of the said statute, by me, Richard Sankey, rector of Wem.  Registered according to the statute in presence, and with the consent of the churchwardens for the time being, March 22nd of the same month, by reason of the continuance of the forementioned sickness.”  Cotton Hall is now a good brick mansion, the residence and property of George Bowen, Esq., J.P.  On the west side of Hill-lane stands the ancient residence of the Cotons, who took their name from this township, and are branched out into several families of respectability.  Ralph Coton, a draper, and lord mayor of London in the 1st. of Charles I., was of this family.

Bowen George, Esq., J.P., Cotton Hall

Ashley James, shopkeeper

Ashley Thomas, farmer

Bather Thomas, farmer, Wood End House

Bather Wm., farmer, Rookery

Bather William, farmer and corn miller

Bennett Benjamin, farmer

Boote William, farm bailiff, The Hall

Calcott John, watch & clock maker

Cartwright Joseph, farmer

Cooper Henry, farmer, Bank Farm

Cooper Mrs., farmer, Bank House

Cotton Thomas, farmer

Davies Abraham, bailiff to V. Dolphin, Esq.

Dickin Thomas, farmer, Common

Dickin William, farmer and butcher

Hall Richard, shoemaker

Higgins John, farmer, Common

Rodenhurst John, farmer

Ruscoe George, farmer, shopkeeper, & wharfinger

Ruscoe Messrs., lime works

Sandland Robert, farmer

Sparks John, farmer, The Brook

Tasker Francis, vict., Bull and Dog

Williams Thos., blacksmith

EDSTASTON,
anciently written Edstanton, signifying the town of Edstan.  This Edstan may probably have been the founder of the chapel here, and had his seat on the north side of it, where the site of an ancient building is still visible.  The fine north door of the chapel is opposite it, and was probably made for the convenience of the family that resided there.  Edstaston is a township, chapelry, and considerable but scattered village, two miles N.N. by E. from Wem, having in 1841 95 houses and 452 inhabitants; in 1821 there was a population of 397 souls.  The township contains 2,018a. 1r. 2p. of land, of which 28a. 3r. 36p. are in roads and waste.  Rateable value, £3,385. 5s.  The soil for the most part is a cold clay, it has been greatly improved by draining, and there is some good land for grazing purposes.  The tithes are commuted for £298. 9s. 10d., payable to the rector of Wem.  The township is intersected by the Wem and Whitchurch turnpike road, and a branch of the Ellesmere and Quino brook canal.  The principal landowners are Daniel Boote, Esq., V. Dolphin, Esq., E. H. Chamberlain, Esq., Misses Knights, Mr. Edward Holding, Mr. Edward Groom, Mr. Godfrey Lewin, Mr. Samuel and James Lea, Mr. Walter Snape, Sir John Williams Bickerton, Knight, Mr. John Walmsley, Henry John Barker, Esq., Mr. Samuel Calcott, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Nickson, and others; the Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor.  The new park was formerly reckoned one of the five woods within the bounds of this township, but it has been so well cleared of trees that no remains of a wood are left.  It was formerly enclosed with pales and stocked with wild beast of chase.  Chetal wood in 1561 was held by Arthur Mainwaring, at the rate of 6s. per annum.  There were formerly three common fields, the greater part of which was enclosed upwards of two hundred years ago.

The Chapel, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in ancient writings is usually called our Lady’s chapel of Edstaston.  The festival of the nativity of the blessed Virgin being on the 8th of September, is the day appointed for holding the feast or wake, if that day happen on Sunday; if not, on the Sunday following.  Mr. Garbet is of opinion that this was a free chapel built by Edstan, for the health and welfare of his own soul, as it lost its endowment at the time of the general suppression of religious houses in the reign of Henry VIII.  In the times of popery mass was sung here every day for the advantage of the deceased, and on Sunday the usual church service was performed for the living.  It was not only independent of the rector of Wem, but also free from the visitation of the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, who neither instituted nor inducted the incumbent, so that in this respect it was much on the same footing as a donative.  The structure has a very ancient appearance, and is 23 feet wide and 82 feet in length.  It is entered by a spacious porch of elaborate workmanship, built in 1710, exhibiting the Norman style of architecture.  It is neatly pewed with oak sittings, and there is a gallery at the west end, erected by private subscriptions and a grant from the Diocesan Society amounting to £84. 4s., in consequence of which the sittings are free and unappropriated for ever.  There are some relics in the chancel of the superstition of popish times; on each side of the altar are stands cut in stone, to bear the tapers that usually burn there; on the east wall is a stone jutting out, on which stood the image of the blessed Virgin, the patroness of the chapel; near the altar is a recess probably used for the preservation of the consecrated host, and in each of the side walls is a stone basin to hold holy water.  On the north side of the altar there formerly stood a sacristy, or vestry where the sacred utensils and priestly vestments are kept.  In 1723 a part of the west end wall of the chapel fell down, and the roof was so much decayed that it was found necessary to take the greatest part of it down.  To lessen the charge, a license was obtained from the bishop, to make the chapel ten or eleven feet shorter than it had been.  On the south side is a window beautifully foliated and ornamented with the family arms in stained glass, in memory of Admiral George Bowen and his wife, of Cotton Hall.  In the chancel is an ancient mural tablet in memory of Richard Goldisborough; another to John Knight, Esq., and one to Thomas Payne, gentleman, with the date of 1760; a brass memorial remembers Richard Chambre, Esq.  The living is a curacy annexed to the rectory of Wem.  The Rev. John Stewart is the incumbent, and resides at Edstaston House, a handsome mansion of brick, delightfully situated, and beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberries.

Creamore House is a good residence, occupied by John Unsworth, Esq.  In Saxon times it belonged to a person of consideration, whose mansion house stood at some distance from the present dwelling, the site of which is overgrown with brushwood; but the broad and deep moat that surrounded it may still be traced.  Edstaston Hall, a residence of considerable antiquity, formerly the seat and property of the Mainwarings, is now the residence of Daniel Boote, Esq.  There are several other respectable houses, which our limits will not allow us to notice.  The Independents have a chapel at Quino Brook, and at Quino Brook Wharf there are extensive lime works, and a coal depôt.

Boote Daniel, Esq., the Hall

Brown John, coal merchant, Park Bridge wharf

Chamberlain, E. H., Esq., the Park

Cliff Thomas, vict., Canal Tavern, Quino Brook

Cowley John, farm bailiff to Sir John Bickerton, Knight, Foxholes Farm

Davies Abraham, farm bailiff to Vernon Dolphin, Esq.

Dickin Edward, farmer, the Park

Groome Edward, farmer and shopkeeper

Hayward John, coal agent

Holding Daniel, tailor

Holding Thomas, shopkeeper, Quino Brook

Hope Thomas, wheelwright

Jebb William Thomas, Creamore cottage

Jebb and Son, farmers and corn millers

Kynaston John, Bank house

Lea James, farmer, High field

Lea Joseph, farmer, High field

Lea Samuel, farmer, High field

Matthews John, farmer, Rye bank

Nicholas Edward, shopkeeper

Richards Thomas, vict., Duke of Wellington, and agent and canal clerk for the Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company

Rogers Edward, blacksmith and vict., the Harp

Ruscoe George and Abraham, dealers in coal, slate, tile, brick, lime, and general tillage merchants’ warehouse, Quino Brook

Stewart Rev. John, curate

Taylor William, farmer, Pepper street

Unsworth John, Esq., Creamore house

Unsworth William, Esq., Creamore farm

Walmsley John, farmer and maltster, Creamore bank

Walmsley Thomas, Rye bank farm

Wallace William, farm bailiff to E. H. Chamberlain, Esq.

Wilkinson William, farmer, Pepper street

Withington George, Foxholes farm

HORTON,
a small township one and a half mile north-west from Wem, contains 496a. 1r. 20p. of land, of which 8a. 3r. 34p. are in roads and waste.  Rateable value, £725. 5s.  In 1841 there were 20 houses and 86 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Thomas Dickin, Esq.; Mrs. Lawrence; Mrs. Young; and the devisees of the late Mr. Nickson; and Mr. Ireland.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor.  The tithes are commuted for £88. 13s. 2d.  About the middle of the sixteenth century the Husseys were the largest landowners here; the Moodies were the next considerable family; the Chettoes, Allens, and Tylers, were also families of consequence.  The Ellesmere and Wem turnpike road crosses this township.

Directory.—Farmers: Ann Kynaston, John Onslow, Caleb Powell, and Philip Ratcliff.

LACON,
a small township one and a half mile north-east from Wem, in 1841 had 12 houses and 84 inhabitants.  It contains 398a. 3r. 5p. of land, of which 5a. 0r. 36p. are in roads and waste.  The soil is various; in some places sandy, in other parts clayey; with portions of moss land prevailing in other places.  From the latter large quantities of oak and fir timber have been raised, from a depth of from sixteen to twenty feet below the surface.  The Wem and Market Drayton turnpike road intersects this township.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor and sole owner.  Rateable value, £1,017. 15s.  The tithes are commuted for the sum of £122. 5s.  Ralph Bannister was lord of the manor of Lacon in the reigns of Edward IV. and Richard III.  He had been brought up by Humphrey Stafford, the great Duke of Buckingham, and put in places of trust above all his servants.  To his house the duke retreated when he was deserted by his army in 1483.  He was proclaimed a traitor by the king, and lands of the value of one hundred pounds a year; and a thousand pounds in ready money were offered for his discovery.  This no doubt tempted the cupidity of Bannister to betray his master, and John Mytton, Esq., sheriff of the county, coming suddenly with a strong body of armed men, apprehended the duke, disguised in the garb of a peasant.  Tradition says that the duke, falling on his knees, cursed Bannister to the tenth generation.  Sir Thomas Moore, in his history of these times, takes notice of the vengeance of heaven which soon after fell on this family, and observes, “Bannister’s son and heir lost his senses, and died mad in a hog-stye; his eldest daughter, of excellent beauty, was suddenly stricken with foul leprosy; his second son became a deformed cripple; a younger son was drowned in a small puddle; he himself, in his old age, was arraigned and found guilty of murder, and saved only by his clergy.”  Joseph Bannister, Esq., was the last of the family that resided here, or was possessed of this lordship, which he sold to Sir Richard Newport, from whom it has descended, with other estates, to the present proprietor, the Duke of Cleveland.

The resident farmers are William Cooke, William Holding, Abraham Ruscoe, and Thomas Woodfin, Lacon Hall.

LOWE AND DITCHES,
a township one mile north-west from Wem, contains 668a. 2r. 38p. of land, of which 10a. 0r. 36p. are in roads and waste.  In 1841 there were 16 houses and 98 inhabitants.  Rateable value £992. 15s.  This place takes its name from its situation on rising ground; low, in Saxon, signifying a little hill; hence the tumuli, or mounds which the Danes raised over the dead bodies of their famous men were called “lowes.”  The name of “Ditches” may have arisen from some remarkable fosses or ditches, of which there are no remains or certain tradition.  The soil is a reddish clay or marl, with a mixture of mould.  The principal landowners are Lewin Jeffreys, Esq.; Mr. James Lea; Mr. George Craig; Mr. John Richards; Mrs. Langford; Mrs. Nickson; Mr. Forgham; Rev. Mr. Parkes; and the devisees of the late Mr. Watson.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor.  The Ditches Hall, an antique erection chiefly composed of wood, was the seat of the Twyfords, a family of consequence upwards of two centuries ago.  It is a commodious, lofty structure, now in the occupancy of Mr. Edward Elkes, farmer.  The Lowe Hall, formerly a place of consideration, was the residence of the Baron family.  The coat of arms, still in good preservation, has the date of 1489.  In the 5th of Henry VII., William Baron of the Lowe was of the Homage extra barram, or country jury.  The Pym Farm takes its name from the circumstance of one Pym, at the beginning of the civil war, having been murdered in a field a little below the house, which was then covered with brushwood.  He was the tenant of this farm, which will probably bear his name when all the ancient landlords are forgotten.  This township is crossed by the Wem, Ellesmere, and Loppington turnpike road.

Directory.—Farmers: Edward Elkes, Ditches Hall; Thomas Elkes, Lowe Hall; George Greaves, Pym Farm; Thomas Hamlet; James Lea; Ann Kynaston; John Richards, Lowe farm.

NEWTOWN
is a chapelry and small village, four miles N.W. from Wem, which in 1841 contained 16 houses and 79 inhabitants.  The township contains 639a. 0r. 26p. of land, of which 12a. 1r. 20p. are in roads and waste.  Rateable value, £844. 15s.  The Rector of Wem receives the tithes, which are commuted for £87. 14s. 6d.  The chief landowners are Mrs. Maddocks, Henry John Barker, Esq., Thomas Dickin, Esq., and Arthur Dickin, Esq.; besides whom are several smaller proprietors.  The Duke of Cleveland claims the manorial rights.  The roads to Whixall, Northwood, Edstaston, and Wem, intersect the township.  About two centuries ago, the inhabitants of Newtown, Wolverley, and Northwood, being at a great distance from the parish church, agreed to have a Chapel of Ease, and for this purpose purchased a private house, which was fitted up for divine worship, and procured a minister, to whom the Rector of Wem gave a liberal stipend.  The register of Wem mentions the baptism of a child in Newtown chapel, April 17th, 1659.  In 1665 the owners of land consented to settle £10 per annum on a minister, and charged that sum on their lands for ever.  The Governors of Queen Anne’s Bounty, in 1754, made a grant of £200 to this chapel, which was subsequently laid out in the purchase of freehold lands.  It is remarkable, that Andrew Barton, who was the last person born here when it was a private house, was the first person that was buried here when it became a consecrated chapel.  He died, November 10th, 1666.  In the year 1836, the ancient structure was taken down, and a neat edifice of brick erected on the site, at a cost of £417. 12s. raised by subscriptions, which sum includes the expense of fittings.  It consists of nave, transepts, and square tower, in which is one bell.  The patronage is vested in the inhabitants of the above townships which form the chapelry.  The living is returned at £50 per annum, and is enjoyed by the Rev. William Dixon, of Wem.

Charities.—There is an estate at Newtown, charged with the payment of £2. 10s. yearly, to be given in bread to the poor attending divine service at the chapel there.  The donor of this gift is unknown.  Arthur Harper, in 1787, bequeathed £90, upon trust, to place the same out at interest, and apply the produce of £50 thereof in the relief of industrious housekeepers of the townships of Newtown, Wolverley, and Northwood; and the produce of £40, the residue thereof to be distributed by the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of Prees, in the township of Darliston, on St. Thomas’s day.  This legacy had never been invested as directed by the testator, but was in the hands of William Matthews, the surviving executor, when the charity commissioners published their report.  Mr. Matthews pays interest for it at the rate of 4½ per cent.

Directory.—Francis Burd, gentleman; Farmers: John Hales; Mrs. Matthews, The Hall; John Matthews; Thomas Parks; John Tagg; and Samuel Wollan.

NORTHWOOD
is a small rural village, on the borders of Flintshire, four miles N.W. from Wem, which takes its name from the large wood that was formerly here and its situation in respect of Lineal Wood, which was south of it.  The township contains 1,409a. 1r. 16p. of land, and in 1841 had 47 houses and 233 inhabitants.  There are 21a. 1r. 14p. of land in roads and waste.  Rateable value, £1,824.  The tithes are commuted for £181. 15s.  The soil in some places is sandy, with a mixture of gravel; in other places a clay soil prevails, and there is a small portion of moss.  In 1561 the township contained six small tenements and four cottages.  The great wood was cut down during the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, so that nothing remains of it now but the name.  The principal landowners are Lord Kenyon, George Bowen, Esq., Mr. James Rodenhurst, Mrs. Wilkinson, Mr. Bickerton, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Groome, John Barker, Esq., the Devisees of the late Mr. Watson, the Trustees of Wem School, Mrs. Maddocks, Mrs. Hassel, Mr. Edward Dickin, Mr. Edward Phillips, Mr. Thomas Windsor, and Mr. Walter Hales; others are also proprietors.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor.  This township lies contiguous to the Betchfield and Whixall mosses, where many of the labouring population are employed in cutting the moss and raising the submerged timber, which they carry to the surrounding towns for fuel; immense quantities of oak and fir trees are constantly got up.  This and the neighbouring townships are noted for producing fine dairies of cheese, and the farms are occupied by practical and intelligent agriculturists.  Considerable flocks of sheep are kept on the borders of Flintshire.  The Redfellis brook has its rise on the fens of Whixall moss, passes through Northwood, and enters Newtown with a considerable stream, which, after heavy rains, overflows its banks, and covers the adjacent meadows.  The Blackford brook divides Northwood from Flintshire.  Northwood Lawns, the residence of Mrs. Wilkinson, is a pleasantly situated house, surrounded with tasteful pleasure grounds.  The Hall is occupied as a farm residence.

Post Office—At Mr. Joseph Davies’s.  Letters arrive from Ellesmere by gig mail at 7.30 A.M., and are despatched at 6.45 P.M.

Bowen George, farmer, The Pinfold

Brown Mr. John

Clay George, farmer

Darlington Thomas, farmer

Davies Elizabeth, grocer and shopkeeper

Davies John, farmer

Davies Joseph, victualler, Horse and Jockey Inn, and postmaster

Davies J. and Son, boot and shoemakers

Davies Thomas, blacksmith

Dobel John, cheesefactor and farmer

Dobel Thomas, cheesefactor

Ebrey John, farmer

Groom Edward, shopkeeper

Haycocks Richard, gamekeeper

Heighway John, farmer

Kynaston Arthur, butcher

Law Robert, The Border Farm

Madeley Wm., butcher and farmer

Madeley Wm., sen., farmer

Phillips Edward, Esq., agent to Lord Kenyon

Stocks James, farmer

Stocks John, wheelwright

Windsor Edwd., shopkeeper

Wilkinson Mrs., Northwood lawn

Wilkinson Mr. John

Wilkinson Rchd., gentleman

Williams John, Pinfold house

SLEAP,
a small township, two miles and a half S.W. from Wem, contains 407a. 3r. 32p. of land, of which 6a. 1r. are in roads.  In 1841 there were seven houses and 57 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £580. 10s.  Of the above, one house and eleven persons were returned at the census of 1841 as in the parish of Middle and in the Pimhill hundred.  The tithes have been commuted for £72. 4s. 10d., and apportioned to the rector of Wem.  The trustees of the late Duke of Bridgewater are lords of the manor.  The principal landowners are William Groom, Esq., Henry John Barker, Esq., Mrs. Thomas Betton, and the representatives of Miss Lloyd.  The soil is for the most part sandy or peaty earth on a gravelly sub-soil.  In the reign of Henry II. Richard de Sleap had a grant of all the village at a fee-farm rent of 16s. per annum.  The vassals of the said Richard de Sleap and his heirs were obliged to grind their corn at the lord of the manor’s mill at Wem, to assist at drawing the mill stones, and cleansing the pond, and to help Hugo Pantulph, then the lord, to make his castle.  The reserved rent of 16s. is still paid; but homage ceased with the forest, the repair of the castle at its demolition, working at the mill upon its alienation, and the serving the king in his wars, upon the change of all tenures by knights’ service into common socage.  In 1738, Sleap was laid in ashes by a sudden fire, which spread with such rapidity, that three houses and all the outbuildings were consumed.  A brief was obtained for the unfortunate sufferers.

The resident farmers are Benjamin Adams, John Chidlow, Thomas Kent, John Phillips, and Robert Whall.

SOULTON,
a small township two miles north-east from Wem, contains 672a. 0r. 15p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had 3 houses and 34 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £796.  The soil in some parts is of a sandy nature; in other places a clayey soil prevails.  There are five and a half acres in roads and waste.  The tithes have been commuted for £96. 9s. 5d., and apportioned to the rector of Wem.  Viscount Hill is lord of the manor, and sole proprietor.  There are several thriving plantations here, covering upwards of thirty acres of land.  The Wem and Market Drayton turnpike road intersects the township.  Soulton Hall is a brick structure of considerable extent, exhibiting a fine specimen of antique architecture; the exterior has an imposing aspect, and the summit is surrounded by a parapet.  It was formerly a seat of the Corbets, whose arms are carved over the entrance: it is now occupied as a farm residence, and near it are extensive farm premises, chiefly of modern erection, and on the granary is the date 1783.

The residents are George Bell, farmer, the Brook; Henry Dakin, farmer, the Hall; and Thomas Williams, farmer, Dairy House.

TILLEY AND TRENCH
is a considerable village and township, situated one mile south-west from Wem, which contains 1,636a. 3r. 36p. of land; and in 1841 had 80 houses and 352 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,418. 5s.  The rent charge payable to the rector of Wem amounts to £263. 15s. 1d.  The roads and waste in this township occupy 25a. 2r.  The soil is various: the Trench farms are generally of a cold, reddish clay; in other parts a loam and gravelly soil predominates.  Marl of a superior quality is found here in great abundance.  This place no doubt took its name from Sire Tillie, who is mentioned in the list of great men who came into this country with William the Conqueror.  In the Trench farm there is a close called the Castle Stead, that is, the place of the castle, whence it appears a castle had been built there, which must have been in Saxon times, for Pantulph the Norman fixed on Wem for the site of his castle, and no other was built in this parish by his ancestors.  On an eminence a little above Tilley Green are the remains of a Roman camp: it is an oblong square, and contains about two acres of ground; the rampart and trench on every side may still be traced.  This was probably the site of the manor house, for the Saxon lords frequently built their castles on Roman camps, on account of the strength of such places and the fortifications already raised.  No doubt the Roman vallum occasioned this to be called the Trench farm.  The river Roden bounds the township, and is crossed by a substantial bridge at Wem Mills.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor.  The principal landowners are William E. Jeffreys, Esq.; Sir Andrew Corbet, Bart.; C. Howard, Esq.; Mr. John Boughey; Colonel Wynn; A. D. Watkiss, Esq.; William Groom, Esq.; Mr. George Kynaston; Charles Oldham, Esq.; Mr. Samuel Heatley; Mr. William Kilvert; Mr. Bowers; Mr. Thomas Davies; Mr. Thomas Wood; Mr. William Evans; Mrs. Richards; the executors of S. Wycherley; and William Brooks, Esq.  There is a noted mineral spring in this township, which is reckoned good for sore eyes and all cutaneous eruptions.  William Price, a mason, is said to have flagged the well in consideration of having been cured of rheumatism by bathing in it.  The old park, Roowood, the property of Lord Hill, and Palm’s Hill, are in this township.  The poor of this township have 28s. yearly, from the bequest of Sarah Higginson, in 1727, who left £28, which was laid out in the purchase of a rent charge of 28s. per annum: the amount is now paid from land the property of Major Dickin.

Abbot Alfred, farmer

Barnet Thomas, farmer

Burgess Ed., farmer, Trench

Davies William, farmer, Park

Dowler Richard, farmer

Ebrey Thos., farmer, Trench

Evans William, farmer, Palm’s hill

Heatley Samuel, farmer

Jones Thomas, farmer

Kilvert Richard, farmer, Palm’s hill house

Kynaston William, farmer, Woodhouse

Leeke Wm., farmer, Roowood

Lewis Robert, farmer

Lloyd Miss Ann, Trench

Lloyd Wm., farmer, Trench

Menlove Mrs. Mary

Morris Rd., vict., New Inn

Oldham Charles, Esq., Tilley house

Owen James, farmer

Simons Stephen, Wain house farm

Wood Charles, gentleman

WOLVERLEY,
anciently written Wolfordeley, took its name from the proprietor of it in Saxon times.  It is a pleasantly situated village and township on the road from Wem to Ellesmere, three miles north-east from the former place.  The township contains 716a. 0r. 20p. of land, of which 8a. 1r. 9p. are in roads and waste.  Rateable value, £1,050. 5s.  The tithes are commuted for £104. 10s. 2d.  The river Roden intersects the township, on the banks of which is some fine meadow land, enriched by that river occasionally overflowing its banks.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor.  The principal landowners are Thomas Dickin, Esq.; Mrs. Maddocks; Mr. Edward Windsor; and Edward Dickin, Esq.  Wolverley Hall, in the year 1404, was the residence of William de Wolferdeley.  In 1561 it was the seat of Thomas Sturry, Esq., and it subsequently came into the possession of the Corbets and Menloves.  There was anciently a small domestic chapel attached to the hall.  Woodlands House, the residence of Mrs. Maddocks, is a square brick structure, pleasantly situated, and beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies, tastefully laid out, and ornamented with choice flowers.

Directory.—Joseph Cooke, farmer, Wolverley Hall; Lewis Cook, farmer, the Leys; Joseph Harper, farmer; Mrs. Mary Maddocks, Woodlands House; John Pitchford, farmer; William Williams, farmer.

WHITCHURCH
is a parish and respectable market town salubriously situated in a picturesque country, twenty miles N.N. by E. from Shrewsbury, and 161 miles N.W. from London.  The town is well built, and stands on a gentle eminence, embracing many fine points of view in the vicinity; there are many good inns and shops and respectable private residences, but some of the cottages have a mean appearance.  The principal traffic is in grain and malt, and commercial intercourse is facilitated by the Ellesmere and Chester canal, and its contiguity to the Chester and Crewe railway.  The fairs and markets are well attended by the agriculturists of the surrounding neighbourhood, both of Shropshire and Cheshire.  The populous township of Dodington, of which a separate directory is given, may be considered a suburb to Whitchurch.  From the ancient name of this place, which was Album Monasterium, or Blancminster, it is supposed that a monastery formerly existed here.  Of this no account has been handed down, and no traces of the building have ever been discovered.  Bishop Tanner says, “Here was an hospital of several poor brethren, to which John le Strange in the reign of Henry III., gave the town of Winelecote, which, together with the hospital, was afterwards annexed to the abbey of Haughmon.”  Whether this refers to a hospital at this place or at Oswestry (since the Fitzallans, lords of Oswestry, were founders of the abbey of Haughmon) is submitted to the reader’s determination.  In the 7th of Edward III., John le Strange had the liberty of free warren here, and in the 36th of the same reign a fair was granted to John, son of John le Strange de Whitchurch, on the vigil, the feast, and the morrow of the apostles St. Simon and St. Jude.

The parish of Whitchurch comprehends the townships of Alkington, Ash Magna, Ash Parva, Black Park, Brougnall, Chinnel, Dodington, Edgeley, Hinton, Hollyhurst, Tilstock, Whitchurch, Woodhouses New, and Woodhouses Old, which together in 1801 contained a population of 4,618 souls; 1831, 5,902, and in 1841 there were 1,243 houses and 6,373 inhabitants.  Acres, 14,237.  The parish is divided into four quarters or divisions, viz., Whitchurch quarter, which contains 2,033 acres; rateable value, £6,196.  Dodington quarter, 3,186 acres; rateable value, £5,281.  Tilstock quarter, 5,558 acres; rateable value, £5,809, Broughall quarter, 3,497 acres; rateable value, £3,089.  The tithes of Whitchurch are commuted for £1,351, and of Marbury, Norbury, and Wirswell an appendage to the rectory of Whitchurch for £398, making a total of £1,749.  The township of Wirswell, although in the county of Cheshire, is in the parish of Whitchurch.  The town has a high steward, and inferior officers; the former is appointed by the lord of the manor, and holds a court leet and court baron.  The land in general has a gentle undulating surface, and there is a considerable extent of pasture land in this locality of a superior quality, which produces fine dairies of cheese, and is generally considered as good as the celebrated Cheshire cheese of the neighbouring county.  The soil is various, on the low grounds it is of a peaty nature, in some places a sand and gravelly soil prevails, and in other parts a strong clay predominates; marl is found in some places, which is used for improving the surface soil.  The township of Whitchurch contains 2,867 acres of land, and in 1841 had 668 houses and 3,403 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £5,698. 10s.  The tithes of this township are commuted for £247. 16s.  The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater; Thomas Boycott, Esq.; George Harper, Esq.; R. Parry Jones, Esq.; Thomas Jebb, Esq.; William Halstead Poole, Esq.; Archibald Worthington, Esq., besides whom there are upwards of two hundred small freeholders.  The trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater are lords of the manor.  The market is held on Friday, when the town is well supplied with butchers’ meat, butter, poultry, and other provisions, of excellent quality and abundant in quantity.  The corn market is very numerously and respectably attended by the farmers of North Shropshire, Cheshire, and the county of Flint, the town lying on the verge of Shropshire is central for an extensive and fine agricultural district in the three counties.  Fairs are held the second Friday in April, Whit-Monday, Friday after the 2nd of August, February 23rd, and December 1st.

The Church is a noble structure of the Tuscan order, built in the reign of Queen Anne, at an expense of about £4,000, and will accommodate about 2,000 hearers.  It is dedicated to St. Alkmund, and considered by the best judges to be almost a perfect model of what a church ought to be; it consists of nave, chancel, side aisles, and lofty square tower adorned with pinnacles, and is built of red free stone; the tower contains a peal of eight musical bells, and is ornamented with a clock and sun dial,—the whole has an imposing appearance, and for elaborate workmanship and chasteness of design, is seldom equalled.  The side aisles are separated from the nave by arches rising from circular pillars.  The chancel is lofty and supported by fluted columns, and paved with black and white marble.  The communion table is of mottled alabaster, with an oak frame beautifully carved.  The organ is a fine toned instrument, which was renovated and greatly improved in the year 1849 by public subscription.  The sittings are neat and appropriate, and admirably arranged, so that almost every member of the congregation has a view of the officiating minister.  The church stands on the site of a former edifice, which was in the gothic style of architecture, and which fell down from age and decay, on July 31st, 1711.  The monuments of the Talbots were removed from the ruins of the old structure into the present edifice, which was completed in the year 1713.  Among the most remarkable of these monuments is that to our English Achilles, Sir John Talbot, the first Earl of Shrewsbury of this family, who was so renowned in France that no man in that kingdom dared to encounter him single handed.  The venerable old warrior is represented in a recumbent posture, clad in armour, partly covered by his mantle of the garter; his hands are closed and uplifted, as if in prayer; his feet rest on a tablet, while his head, encircled by a coronet, reposes on his brassart.  Around the tomb is the following inscription in black letter:—

“Orate pro anima prænobilis viri, Domini Joanis Talbot quandam Comitis Salopæ; Domini Furnival, Domini Verdun, Domini Strange de Blackmere et Marechalli Franciæ; qui obiit in bello apud Berdews.  7 Julii, MCCCCLIII.”

The earl was buried on this spot by his own express desire, and tradition gives the following interesting story for the circumstance:—In one of his battles in France, he was struck by an arrow from one of the cross-bows, and fell severely wounded from his horse.  As he was some distance from any considerable body of his troops, the French soldiers rushed furiously to seize as a prisoner their most formidable and most dreaded enemy; him alone whose name carried terror into every castle and cottage through the broad realm of France;—or, if foiled in that, to finish if possible the campaign and his career at one blow.  His faithful body guard, however, which was composed of his own immediate followers, those who held lands of him in Shropshire by feudal service, seeing the danger of their beloved chief, flew like roused lions to the rescue.  A terrific conflict ensued around, and even over the old warrior who was still lying on the field.  The struggle was maintained with undiminished fury for a considerable period.  The shout of “St. George for Merry Englande,” was fiercely answered back by the cry of “St. Denis for France.”  Each party fought hand to hand; the casques of the combatants rang with the heavy blows of the battle-axe.  Not only the fate of the present battle, but of the whole campaign, the war itself depended on the result of the isolated combat.  Many a stalwart Shropshire yeoman shouted from his hoarse throat his leader’s war cry, “A Talbot, to the rescue!” threw aside his weapon, which in the thronged melee he had not space to use, and springing furiously at his adversary, seized him with an iron grip, from which death alone could liberate him.  The conflict ended at last in the entire defeat of the French; and the earl, to show his gratitude to his brave followers, many of whom had lost their lives in defending his, told the survivors that in memory of their courage and devotedness that day, his body should be buried in the porch of their church; that, as they had fought and strode over it while living, so should they and their children for ever pass over and guard it when dead.  Sir John Talbot was created Earl of Shrewsbury by King Henry VI.  He was twenty years in the king’s service abroad, and for his valour had many signal honours bestowed on him.  At the siege of Chastillion his horse was shot under him, and he being dangerously wounded, died July 20th, 1453, and was buried at Roan in Normandy, but afterwards removed to Whitchurch.

There is an altar tomb, with a full length alabaster figure in clerical robes, in memory of Sir John Talbot, rector of Whitchurch, which was also taken out of the old church.  There are various memorials and tablets, elegantly designed, which our limits will not allow us to notice, in memory of the Boycotts, Fowlers, Balls, Chetwoods, Sandfords, Longs, and others.  A mural monument remembers Philip Henry, M.A., father of Matthew Henry, the commentator.  The font is of curious workmanship, and dated 1661.  The Book of Martyrs, chained to the wall, was the gift of Mr. Thomas Yates, in the year 1701, for the instruction and use of the public.  An oil painting of the royal arms of England is very ancient; and there is a fine specimen of embroidery of the arms of England, with a portrait of Queen Anne, beautifully executed in needlework.  The church is heated by a most perfect hot water apparatus, admirably contrived.  The living is a rectory, with that of Marbury annexed; valued in the king’s book at £44. 11s. 8d.; now returned at £2,004; in the patronage of the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, and incumbency of the Rev. William Egerton, M.A.; curates, Rev. Edward Pickering, Rev. John Thomas Nash, and Rev. Robert R. Turnbull; clerk, Richard Crosse.  The rectory is a commodious and pleasantly situated residence, a short distance from the church, with pleasure grounds and shrubberies tastefully laid out.  There are 35a. 0r. 17p. of glebe land.

The Baptist Chapel stands a little back from the road, near to Greenend street, and will hold about three hundred hearers.  The interior is neatly pewed, and provided with a gallery.  This place of worship is respectably attended.  The Methodist Chapel, situate in St. Mary’s street, is a commodious structure which will hold six hundred worshippers.  It is neatly pewed and fitted up with galleries.  There is a Sunday school in connection with this place of worship, which is numerously attended.  The Baptists have also a Sunday school in connection with their chapel.

The Free Grammar School and residence for the master is a noble pile of buildings, situated in Bargates street, and was erected in the year 1548.  The school is a chaste and elegant structure, ornamental to the town, and highly creditable to the feoffees under whose auspices it was erected.  The school was founded in 1550, and we find in the preamble to the schedule of a deed of feoffment, bearing date 16th September, 1550, that Sir John Talbot, late parson of Whitchurch, was resolved to have founded in his lifetime a free school in the town of Whitchurch, at his own expense, for the bringing up of youth in virtue and learning; and that he had delivered into the hands of Thomas Cotton the sum of £200 towards the erection and establishment of the said school, but that the said Sir John Talbot died before the accomplishment of the same; and that with the said sum and other moneys given by charitably disposed persons, there had been purchased a messuage called Cow Hall, to the intent that they should observe the several articles contained in the deed of feoffment.  The substance of the statutes contained in this deed is,—That the feoffees, with the parson of the parish, if he should be inhabiting there, should within six weeks after the death, departure, or removal of any schoolmaster appoint another unmarried man, if he could be conveniently provided, and if not a married man—honest, virtuous, and well learned in Latin and literature—to be schoolmaster there, such schoolmaster to be presented, within eight days after his election, to the diocesan or his chancellor to be examined, and if he should be thought competent on such examination, then to be admitted.  That if the feoffees and parson should not appoint within six weeks, the Earl of Shrewsbury should appoint a master.  That if any of the feoffees should depart out of the parish and reside elsewhere, he should release his interest to the other feoffees.  The master was to receive £10 per annum, and to have the appointment of the usher, who was to receive five marks yearly.  That the feoffees should not demise any of the premises for more than ten years, and that they should yearly account in the parish church of Whitchurch for the rents and profits of the same.  If the rents and profits should at any time exceed the sum before appointed to be paid to the schoolmaster and usher, the feoffees should deliver the overplus to the churchwardens, to be kept in a chest in the said church, for the repairs of the schoolhouse, and for the relief of such schoolmaster as should have laudably taught in the said school, until by sickness or age he should have given over, or have been removed from his place, and for the relief of poor fatherless and friendless scholars.  That after the death or removal of a schoolmaster, the usher should be elected in his place if he should be thought by the parson and feoffees learned and meet for the same.  That there should be taught in the school children of “all countries that will come.”  William Thomas, in 1662, conveyed 16 acres of land in the parish of Ubley, in the County of Somerset; two thirds of the rent to be paid to the master of this school and one third to the usher.  Edward Beddon and Ann, his wife, left certain lands, the rents to be employed to the sole use of the school at Whitchurch.  All the real estates above-mentioned, with the school and other premises held therewith, have from time to time been conveyed to new trustees.  In 1725 proceedings in Chancery took place between the master and usher and the then trustees.  The matters in dispute were the amount of the salaries to which the schoolmaster and usher were entitled, the right of the master to take any payments from the scholars, and the right of the trustees to remove the master from his office.  By a decree, made 16th December, 1725, it was ordered that the schoolmaster should have only £10 per annum, and the usher five marks from the Cowhall estate; that the rest of the profits should go to the uses mentioned in the statutes; that the rents of the Ubley estate should be divided as directed by the donor; and the rent of the Beddow estate in like manner; and it was declared that it was the intention of the donor that all people’s children should be taught in the said school gratis, and that the rector and feoffees had power to remove the master.  In a subsequent cause, between the Attorney-General, at the relation of the Bishop of Hereford, it was decreed, on March 21st, 1747, that there should be paid to the head master £13. 6s. 8d., and to the usher £6. 13s. 4d. in addition to their former salaries, and so much as should remain after the payment of repairs and other incidental expenses relating to the school should be deposited in the chest; that whenever £100 should have arisen from such surplus, the same might be placed out on government securities for the augmentation of the salaries of the master and usher, in the proportions of two thirds to the former and one third to the latter, until such time as there should be a decayed master or poor scholar entitled to a subsistance according to the donor’s intention.  The Cowhall estate is situate at Backford, in Cheshire, and consists of 153a. 3r. 37p. of land, with a farm house and suitable outbuildings, let at a yearly rent of £200, but the trustees, in 1822, agreed to allow the tenant £20 per annum, to be laid out in manure.  In the year 1822, timber was cut from this farm and sold for £200, which was partly applied in repairing the farm premises: the residue, £80 13s. 10d., was paid to the trustees.  The Ubley estate, near Bristol, consists of 26a. 1r. 4p. of land, and is let for £30 a year.  There is also a yearly sum of £52 arising from lands the gift of Edward Beddow.  The trustees, when the charity commissioners published their report, were possessed of £6,400 in three per cent. consols, which has arisen from the investment of surplus rents, in accordance with the decree of Chancery.  The gross annual income amounts to £454, from which the master had a salary of £210. 8s. 6d., and the usher £97 per annum.  Upon application being made to the trustees, on behalf of orphan or friendless children, such as are considered fit objects, are appointed at a meeting of the trustees, they also receive clothing and are supplied with books.  The Rev. James R. Peake, M.A., is the master.

The National School is situated in New street, Dodington.  The British School is also in Dodington, where they will be found noticed.  The Church Sunday School is a modern erection of brick, situated near the church.  The Infant School, in Claypit street, is a neat building, erected in 1848.

The Savings’ Bank is situated in St. Mary’s street.  The capital stock of the bank on November 20th, 1850, amounted to £52,954. 0s. 4d., at which period there were 1,489 separate accounts, of which nine were charitable societies, having deposits amounting to £518. 3s. 4d., and nineteen friendly societies, with deposits amounting to the sum of £6,898. 2s. 10d.  Of the total number of accounts there were 790 depositors, whose respective balances did not exceed £20; 385 were above £20, and not exceeding £50; 187 were between £50 and £100; 62 above £100 and not exceeding £150; 33 above that sum, and not exceeding £200; and four above £200.  President: The Right Hon. George Lord Kenyon.  Secretary and Actuary: Mr. S. H. Parker.  The bank was established in the year 1818.

The House of Industry, situate on Deer Moss, was established in 1794, and is under the management of twelve directors or guardians, who nominate a chairman.  They constitute a board for the regulation of the house and the paupers belonging to the fourteen townships of the parish of Whitchurch, which are embraced in the jurisdiction of the board.  The house will accommodate 150 inmates; the present number on the books is 63.  Chairman: Archibald Worthington.  Vice-Chairman: Mr. Thomas Andrews.  Treasurer: George Corser, Esq.  Surgeon: Mr. Thomas Groom.  Clerk: Mr. Robert B. Jones.  Governor: Thomas Huxley.  Matron: Mrs. Huxley.  Relieving Officer and Assistant Overseer: Thomas Huxley.  Schoolmistress: Mary Price.

The County Court Office for the recovery of debts, not exceeding £50, is situated in St. Mary’s street.  The court embraces within its jurisdiction the following townships and places, viz.:—Whitchurch, Alkington 2, Ash Magna 3, Ash Parva 3, Dodington 1, Black Park 2, Broughall 3, Edgeley 2, Hinton 2, Hollyhurst and Chinnell 2, Tilstock 3, New Woodhouses 4, Old Woodhouses 4, Ightfield 4, Hanmer 7, Betisfield 8, Bronington 6, Halghton 9, Tybroughton 6, Wellington 9, Iscoyd 6, Agden 4, Chidlow 4, Chorlton 8, Cuddington 8, Malpas 5, Newton by Malpas 7, Old Castle 7, Overton 7, Church Shocklach 11, Shocklach Oviatt 11, Stockton 6, Whichaugh 7, Wigland 5, Threapwood 10, Audlem 10, Bickley 6, Buerton 11, Dodcot and Wilkesley 8, Hampton 7, Macefen 4, Marbury with Quoisly 3, Norbury 5, Tushingham with Grindley 3, and Wirswall 3.  Judge: Uvedale Corbet, Esq., Aston Hall, near Shiffnal.  Clerk: Mr. Benjamin Lakin.  Assistant Clerk: Charles Foulkes.  High Bailiff: Mr. Thomas Whittingham, jun.  Bailiff: William Baxter, Auctioneer and Broker: Mr. William Lakin.  The figures refer to the mileage from Whitchurch.

The News and Reading Room is held in a commodious and neatly fitted up room in the Market Hall; it is under the management of a committee of gentlemen, and supported by annual subscriptions.

The Market Hall, situate in High street or Market street, is a spacious building of brick, with stone finishings and supported by stone pillars.  Underneath the hall is a spacious area, where the corn-market is held.  Here the farmers assemble in considerable numbers on the market day, which has a business-like and animated appearance while the market continues.

The Assembly Rooms is at the Victoria Inn, High street.

The Theatre is a small structure, situated in Mill street.

The Stamp Office is in High street, Mr. Thomas Joyce distributor.

The Excise Office is at the Lord Hill Hotel, in Watergate street.  The Pensioners’ and Corn Returns Offices are at the same place.

The Gas Works were established in 1826, by Messrs. Edwards and Smith, and are now the property of Mr. William Smith, engineer.  There are two small gasometers, which will hold conjointly 3,600 cubic feet of gas.  A charge of about 10s. per 1,000 cubic feet is made to the consumer.

The Circulating Library is at Mr. Robert Barrow Jones’s, in High street

Petty Sessions are held for the Whitchurch division on the last Friday in every month.  Magisterial business is also transacted at the office in St. Mary’s street, on Mondays at nine o’clock, A.M., and on Fridays at eleven, A.M.  The magistrates who usually attend are Sir Robert Chambre Hill, Bart., John W. Dod, Esq., M.P., William H. Poole, Esq., and George Bowen, Esq.  Clerk: Benjamin Lakin.  Deputy Clerk: Charles Foulkes.

The religious and charitable institutions, which have for their object the promotion of Christian knowledge and to ameliorate suffering humanity, are liberally supported in Whitchurch.  The members of the Established Church and the various sectarian communities have their respective Bible, Missionary, and Tract Societies.  The Depository of the British and Foreign Bible Society is at Mrs. Clutton’s, in Bargate street.  The Dispensary is at the Market Hall.  The Depôt for Coals for the poor is in Watergate street.  There is a Library of Miscellaneous Works at the National School, which has been established for the benefit of the humbler classes of society.  For Benefit and Sick Societies the town stands pre-eminent; they are efficiently conducted, the members are very numerous, and several of the societies have a very considerable accumulated capital.  The Whitchurch Old Friendly Society, established in 1754, in 1850 had 264 members and a capital stock of £1,667. 17s. 11½d.  Mr. John Fowles is secretary, and Mr. Henry Corser treasurer.

The Lock-up and Police-office, situated in Clay-pit street, was built in 1850.  It consists of two cells for the reception of prisoners before committal by the magistrates; and also a residence for the superintendent constable.

The Bowling Green, in St. John’s lane, affords healthful and amusing recreation to the residents of the town, is supported by subscription, and under the management of a committee of gentlemen and tradesmen.

There is an Almshouse for six poor decayed housekeepers, liberally endowed, as will be seen on reference to the charities of the parish.  A School-house adjoins the almshouse, and here about fifty children are instructed.

The commodious premises, formerly occupied as a silk-mill here, have been purchased by Mr. Thomas Burgess, an extensive cheese-factor and corn-merchant, and are now converted into a warehouse.  There is a wharf at the bottom of Mill street, on the banks of the Chester and Ellesmere canal, which is now the property of the Shropshire Union Canal and Railway Company.  Goods are forwarded to London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Chester by the company; who are also general carriers to all parts of England.  Of the Castle at Whitchurch, which stood upon Castle-hill, not a vestige remains.  Some portion of the walls are said to have been standing in the year 1760.

During the years 1830 and 1831, the inhabitants of Whitchurch and the neighbourhood were held in constant alarm by a succession of incendiary fires.  On the 14th of December the first fire commenced on the premises of a poor man of the name of Heath.  On the following day the out-buildings of the Swan Inn burst into flames; and on the 21st the out-premises belonging to Mr. Nunnerley, of Prees Heath, were destroyed.  On the 7th of January, 1831, Mr. Moss, of Heath lane, had a stack burnt; and on the day following the barn of Mr. G. T. Whitfield and two cottages were destroyed.  On the 12th, a barn belonging to the same gentleman was discovered to be on fire.  A stack was fired belonging to Mr. Huxley on the 2nd of February.  On the 10th of March, a second fire broke out on the premises of Mr. Nunnerley, of Prees Heath, and so rapid were the flames that the whole of the out-buildings were entirely destroyed before the arrival of the fire-engines from Whitchurch.  Five cows, two horses, and ten pigs, were also destroyed.  The next fires which took place were the stacks of Mr. Bradbury.  On the 4th of April, the farm buildings of Mr. Huxley, of Tilstock, and a great quantity of grain, were entirely consumed.  The same evening, a range of buildings, on the road from Prees Heath to Tilstock, burst into flames, and the fire proceeded with so much rapidity that no efforts could check them.  On the 13th of September, a stack belonging to Mr. Nunnerley, of Prees Heath, was consumed.  The stack-yard and out buildings of Mr. Booth, and the stacks of Mr. Darlington, were in flames at the same time, and very great damage sustained.  Shortly after this the incendiaries were brought to justice, and Richard Whitfield, a farmer and maltster, was transported for life, at the Shropshire Spring Assizes of 1832, and James Lea and Joseph Grindley were executed.

Whitchurch was the birth place of Dr. Tylston, an eminent physician in 1663.  He was admitted into Trinity College, Oxford, and his brilliant talents adorned by a deportment in all respects exemplary soon attracted the notice of Dr. Bathurst, then president of the college, whose able directions much assisted him.  When about Bachelor’s standing, his inclinations suggested the study of physic, as the employment for life, and having by an acquaintance with natural philosophy laid a good foundation for medical enquiries, he speedily turned the course of his reading into that channel.  After he had left college he removed to London, where he studied industriously under Sir Richard Blackmore.  On his return he commenced his professional career at Whitchurch, and though young, quickly obtained celebrity.  At the request of many friends in Chester he quitted his native town for that city in the year 1690, and by successful practice continued to increase in fame.  His mental powers rose above the ordinary standard, and in the prosecution of an enquiry he regarded the opinions of others rather as guides to direct than authoratitives to govern the efforts of his own mind.  After his attainments had become considerable, such was his thirst for knowledge that he redeemed for study all the time his professional engagements would allow.  The writings of antiquity, especially those of Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch, afforded him great delight.  In the works of Pliny he took much pleasure, and shortly before his death read with great satisfaction the writings of Lactantius.  Passages which illustrated any portion of Scripture he transcribed into an interleaved Bible, or other repository.  In his professional pursuits he was as remarkable for charity to the poor as for diligence, fidelity, and concern for his patients.  The Scriptures he perused with unfeigned delight, and was influenced by their authority as a supreme rule.  By frequent meditation he became conversant in an unusual degree with the instructive doctrines and sublime mysteries of the Gospel.  When a subject particularly interesting filled his attention, he clothed his conceptions in writing; these have survived him, and not only show the evidences of erudition, but of an experimental acquaintance with revealed religion.  He died on the 8th of April, 1699, in the 36th year of his age.  The celebrated Matthew Henry bears honourable testimony to his worth, in a letter to a friend shortly after his death, from which the following is an extract:—“I find it easy to say a great deal to aggravate the affliction we are under in the death of Dr. Tylston, whom we miss daily.  What improvement I have made in learning of late years has been owing as much to my converse with him as to any one thing.  He was the ornament of our congregation, and a great reputation to us.”

This town was the residence of Nicholas Barnard, a man of great learning, chaplain to Archbishop Usher, and Dean of Armagh.  In the time of the rebellion in Ireland he was a great sufferer, and often in danger of his life; he consequently fled to England, and was presented with the rectory of Whitchurch, where he lived till his death in 1661.  Abraham Wheloch, a person of great learning, and noted as a linguist of distinguished abilities, was born in this town.  He was author of a Persian translation of the New Testament, which task he undertook in the hope that it might open the way for the conversion of the natives of Persia to Christianity.  He greatly assisted Dr. Brian Walton in his Polyglot Bible, and published an edition of the works of the venerable Bede.  He was fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, library keeper, Arabic professor, and minister of St. Sepulchre’s.  His death took place in 1654.

There are 333a. 3r. 0p. of waste land called Whitchurch Heath, which has a barren and sterile appearance.  It has a flat surface, covered with gravel, and incapable of cultivation.

Charities.—Samuel Higginson, by will, bearing date 28th September, 1697, devised certain lands in Whixall, and gave the sum of £200 in trust, for the erection of an almshouse, and the benefit of poor persons appointed as inmates; and if any poor relations of the family or kin should apply, he directed that they should be first admitted to receive the benefit thereof.  Jane Higginson, widow of the above Samuel Higginson, by her will, in 1707, gave £5 per annum to five decayed tradesmen’s widows in Ludlow, in consideration that the five poor widows should take care to keep the chancel in Ludlow church clean.  She also gave to the rector of Ludlow and his successors £5 per annum.  And she gave all her lands and tenements in the counties of Salop, Flint, and Chester, in trust, and after payment of certain legacies, she gave for the use of her own and her husband’s almhouse in Whitchurch £12 per annum, charged upon her estate at Ash, in the county of Chester, the necessary repairs of the almshouse to be first deducted thereout; and she directed that the sum of £7. 10s. per annum, given by her daughter for the support of the said almshouse, should also be paid out of her estate at Ash.  She also gave to the poorest and most necessitous children of the parish of Hanmer the sum of £6, payable once in five years, whereof 20s. was designed for their clothing, and the rest to be bestowed for the benefit of the children, and £6 in like manner to the parish of Ellesmere.  And she gave the debts due to her to build a schoolhouse upon the piece of ground lying between her almshouses and those of the town, and bequeathed £10 per annum to the teacher, and 20s. yearly to buy English books.  She directed her trustees to meet on the 24th June, yearly, to settle the accounts, and left 30s. yearly for their expenses, and 10s. to the minister to preach a sermon on the same day.

Under the will of Samuel Higginson, an almshouse was built consisting of six tenements, and also a schoolhouse.  These premises, with small gardens attached to the almshouses, comprise the whole of the property devised by him in Whitchurch, except a small parcel which was sold to the parish for £10, for the purpose of building other almhouses thereon.  The Whixall estate consists of about 22 acres of land, producing a yearly rental of £42.  The property devised by Mrs. Higginson consists of a messuage and land containing 110a. 2r. 20p. let at a rent of £140.  Certain lands and a house at Milton Green, comprising in the whole 40a. 3r. 30p., producing a yearly rental of £40.  The trustees took no estate at Ash in the county of Chester, and the yearly sum of £12 left as payable out of the Ash estate to the almspeople is considered as payable out of her other estates.  The rents above mentioned amounts to £252 per annum, out of which each of the almspeople receive £4. 4s. yearly at Midsummer, and £2. 2s. on each of the other quarter days.  The sum of £6 is transmitted every fifth year to Hanmer; and a yearly stipend of £10 and an allowance of £2 for coal is paid to the master of the national school, who teaches the boys in a school erected by subscriptions for that purpose; the girls are taught in the school adjoining the almshouse, built according to the directions of Mrs. Higginson.  Out of the residue £15. 15s. is distributed among the poor of Great Ash, Little Ash, and Tilstock, and a considerable amount is given in small sums to the poor of Whitchurch and the vicinity.

Thomas Benyon, in 1707, charged certain premises in the township of Alkington with the payment of 40s. per annum, for the benefit of the preaching minister of the then new erected Presbyterian meeting house in Dodington, to continue so long as such minister should officiate there and no longer, and that the residue of the yearly rents should be applied in educating so many poor children of the parish of Whitchurch as could be conveniently taught therein; and he directed that if preaching at the said meeting house should cease, or none be there by a Presbyterian minister, the said payment of 40s. should cease, and be applied for educating the said poor children.  The property devised by Mr. Benyon contains 22a. 1r. 14p., and is let for £50 per annum.  The nomination of the free scholars is left to the members of the Presbyterian congregation, instead of being appointed by the trustees, as directed by the testator.

Mary Whetton, by her will, bearing date March, 1811, gave to the rector of Whitchurch £100, navy five per cents., in trust, to pay the interest half yearly among the widows of Higginson’s almshouses.  A portion of this stock having been sold for the payment of the legacy duty, and the navy five per cents. having been converted into new four per cents., there is now in respect of this charity £94. 10s. new four per cents., standing in the name of certain trustees.  The dividends, amounting to £3. 15s. 6d., are distributed as directed by the donor.

Phillip’s Charity.—The particulars of James Phillip’s charity for the providing a lecture every Thursday in the parish church of Whitchurch, and for the supplying the poor with flannel, will be found in the account of the charities for the town of Shrewsbury.

John Gossage, by will, 1671, gave to the poor of the parish of Whitchurch the sum of £2. 12s. per annum, to provide twelve pennyworth of bread every Lord’s day.  He also gave a similar bequest to the poor of the parish of Plumstead, in Kent, and for the payment of the same he charged his lands in Plumstead and Erith, and gave the residue of the proceeds to St. Thomas’s Hospital.  This rent charge is received from the treasurer of St. Thomas’s Hospital, and distributed to the poor in bread.

Ralph Brereton, haberdasher, of London, by his will, date May 1st, 1630, among other charities bequeathed £250 to purchase a yearly dole for ever for the poor of Whitchurch.  In 1635 this bequest was laid out in the purchase of 21 acres of land in Edgeley, and this land was sold in the year 1804 for the sum of £1,230.  This sale was supposed to have been authorized by an act of parliament, passed 32nd George III., for building a house of industry at Whitchurch, whereby it was enacted that all lands, rents, hereditaments, and sums of money, and all charitable gifts, legacies, and benefactions belonging to the parish of Whitchurch, and applicable to the relief of the poor, not being directed by the donors to be applied to any private person, or for the relief of any particular poor, should be invested in the directors who were thereby incorporated.  And it was thereby declared that it should be lawful for them to dispose of the same, and apply the money for carrying on the purposes of the act, or otherwise in aid of the poor’s rate.  At the time the property was sold it was let for £17 a year, and this sum has been paid annually by the directors of the house of industry to the churchwardens, to be disposed of as the charity of Ralph Brereton.  The amount is added to the yearly sums of £2 12s. paid from Gossages charity, £1 from Griffith’s charity, and £8 from the church rate, probably in respect of some benefactions which were applied many years ago in rebuilding the church.  From this fund eleven dozen penny loaves are distributed every Sunday, ten penny loaves in Tilstock chapel, and the remainder in the parish church.

A yearly sum of £1, left by Morris Griffith, is charged on land called the Green Field, an estate belonging to Mrs. Ann Brown, whose tenants pay the amount, which is added to the produce of Brereton’s charity.  Several sums of money left at different periods and by various donors, amounting in the whole to £340, were held by the church-wardens and overseers for the use of the poor; of this sum £300 was laid out in the purchase of a rent charge issuing out of certain land in Alkington.  The yearly sum of £15 is paid to the treasurer of the house of industry, and it is applied for the general purposes of that establishment in pursuance of the provisions contained in the act of 32nd George III., already noticed in the account of Brereton’s charity.  Of the above sum £55 was the gift of John Taylor, in consideration of which one dozen of penny loaves are distributed every Sunday, according to the intentions of the donor.  The residue of the sum of £340 was probably laid out with other money, as hereafter mentioned.

The churchwardens and overseers of the poor, in the year 1699, purchased an estate in Broughall, with the sum of £100, the gift of Edward Williams, and a further sum of £110, part of the poors’ money.  It does not appear what specific benefactions were comprised in the sum of £110 above mentioned.  There are, however, a great number of gifts and legacies recorded in the church, to the amount of £492; and in the purchase of the Broughall and Alkington estates, before mentioned, £410 is accounted for.  It is probable that the residue, with some other money, was laid out in re-building the church, and was the origin of the payment of the sum of £8 from the church rates, which is distributed in bread, as already mentioned under the head of Brereton’s charity.  The estate at Broughall consists of 14 acres, and is let at a rent of £21 per annum, one-fourth of which has always been paid to the master of the grammar school, and three-fourths to the account of the directors of the house of industry, under the provisions of an act to which we have before alluded.

At a court held for the manor of Whitchurch, 26th January, 1630, John Rawlinson D.D., and Catherine his wife, surrendered certain lands to the use of Richard Alport, and Joyce his wife, in tail, and for want of issue, to the use of Richard Alport and his heirs, they paying £12 yearly out of the said lands to the churchwardens of Whitchurch, to the use of the poor of the said parish.  The estate thus charged with the yearly payment of £12 lies near the town of Whitchurch, and is now called Alport’s land.  It was in the possession of the assignees of Samuel Fowles, when the charity commissioners published their report.  The amount is distributed among the poor of the parish on St. Thomas’s day.  It is stated in the parliamentary returns of 1786, that a Mr. Cotton left a rent charge of £4 yearly to the poor of Whitchurch.  The sum of £4 is now paid in respect of this charity from the Alkington hall estate.  The churchwardens receive £9 annually, about November, from the Company of Drapers in London, as the amount of the gifts of Roger Cotton, William Cotton, and Sir Allen Cotton.  Thirty-two sixpenny loaves are given away to poor persons as the charity of Mr. Evans, on Good Friday.

Clement Sankey, D.D., rector of Whitchurch, by his will bearing date 27th September, 1706, gave to the poor of this parish the sum of £100, to continue under the care of the overseers of the poor and their successors; half the interest to be disposed of in bread every Lord’s day, at their discretion, and the remainder to be distributed on St. Thomas’s day.  The amount of this legacy was paid to the churchwardens in 1714, and applied towards the building of the church; half the interest is paid from the church rate, and the other half from the poors’ rate.

Elizabeth Turton, in 1794, bequeathed £500 in trust, to be laid out in government or other securities, as her trustees should think fit, the profits thereof to be distributed among poor persons belonging to the parish of Whitchurch.  By a codicil to her will, dated 1796, the testatrix directed that the residue of her estate and effects, subject to the payment of her debts and legacies, should be converted into money, and the produce paid to the same trustees, for the benefit of the poor.  John Hand, one of the trustees named in her will, gave £200 upon the same trusts, and in augmentation of the charity.  From the legacy of £500 bequeathed, £30 was deducted as legacy duty, and the residue was invested in 1801, in the purchase of £839. 8s. 4d. three per cent. consols.  The following stock has been subsequently purchased, with the produce of the residuary estate, viz., November, 1801, £200; January, 1805, £800; July, 1816, £100; November, 1816, £200; and in 1818, in order to make £2,200, £60. 11s. 8d. was purchased.  For the distribution of these charities, the trustees meet annually, three weeks or a month before the 19th of January, and select such poor widows, poor housekeepers, and other poor persons belonging to the parish of Whitchurch, and not receiving parochial relief, as they think the most fit objects of charity.  Each poor person receives from 5s. to 20s., according to the necessities of the case.

Richard Woollam, by his will, bearing date June 23rd, 1801, bequeathed £500 in trust, to place the same out on real or personal security, and to dispose of the produce weekly in threepenny loaves, to be distributed by the churchwardens every Sunday morning, after divine service, in the parish church.  When the trustees, by death or removal from the parish, should be reduced to two, the testator directed the survivors to assign the trust money to three other persons resident in the parish of Whitchurch.  This legacy has been invested in the funds, and the dividends are disposed of as directed by the donor.

Brereton Grafton, in 1811, bequeathed £300 stock in the three per cent. consols, upon trust, to apply the produce weekly in the purchase of threepenny loaves, to be disposed of in like manner with Woollam’s charity.  In respect of this and Woollam’s gift, there is £1,120. 2s, 7d. three per cent. consols standing in the name of trustees, and the dividends, amounting to £33. 12s. per annum, are disposed of in the purchase of bread, which is given away every Sunday.

Francis Henry Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, by his will, bearing date 29th August, 1828, bequeathed to the overseers and churchwardens of Whitchurch-cum-Marbury, £2,000, to be by them laid out in the public funds, and the dividends thereof to be expended by the rector for the time being, according to his sole will and pleasure, without being subject to any control whatsoever, for the use, benefit and relief of the poor of the said parish.

Post Office, St. Mary’s street.  Mr. Richard Crosse, postmaster.  Letters arrive from London and various parts of England at 5.30 A.M., and are despatched at 7 P.M.; letters from Chester and the west of England arrive at 7 A.M., and are despatched at 7.30 P.M.

Ackers Ann, shopkeeper, Watergate street

Allen Benjamin, builder, Newtown

Allen Charles, butcher, Watergate street

Allenson William, shoemaker, Claypit street

Allwood and Andrews, drapers and silk mercers, High street

Amson John, blacksmith, Grindley brook

Arden Edwin, coach proprietor, High street

Arrowsmith Thomas, cabinet maker, Green-end street

Baker Thomas, straw-bonnet dealer, High st

Barber William, hosier, Watergate street

Bass Charles, draper, High street

Bate John, flour dealer, High street

Bather John, beerhouse, Watergate street

Batho George, shopkeeper, Bargates street

Baxter William, shopkeeper, Green-end st

Beacall Mrs., Watergate street

Bebbington John, shopkeeper, Newtown st

Beck Edward, chemist, Watergate street

Bolas Susannah, milliner, Back street

Bottwood William, hairdresser, Watergate st

Boughey Elizabeth, dressmaker, Castle hill

Boughey William, cabinet maker, Newtown

Bradbury Thomas, cattle dealer, Claypit st

Bradbury Francis, victualler, Coach and Horses, High street

Bradshaw George, victualler, Swan Hotel and Commercial House, Watergate street

Bradshaw John, watchmaker, High street

Bradshaw John, shopkeeper, High street

Breeze William, shopkeeper, Newtown

Brereton George, currier, Watergate street

Bright William, confectioner, High street

Brookes and Lee, solicitors, Dodington

Brookes Miss, Green-end street

Bromfield John, surgeon, Green-end street

Broster John, shopkeeper, Green-end

Brown John, surgeon, Claypit street

Brown Sml., victualler, Eight Bells, High st

Brown William, grocer, High street

Burgess Ralph W., factor, Newtown

Burgess and Son, corn and cheese factors

Burgess Thomas, Esq., Small-brook Lodge

Caldecott Thomas, seedsman, High street

Cartwright Mary, stay-maker, Sherrunans, High street

Cartwright William Andrew, registrar and veterinary surgeon, Watergate street

Carver William, fish & game dealer, High st

Churton George, timber merchant, High st

Churton John, cabinet maker, High street

Churton William Parker, auctioneer, High st

Clay Charles, Esq., Newtown

Clay Charles, jun., solicitor, Newtown

Clay Mrs. Broughton, Claypit street

Clutton Mrs., Missionary Bible Repository

Clutton Thomas, whitesmith, Green-end st

Colclough Sarah, pot dealer, High street

Cooke George, Josh., and Henry, coopers, High street

Cooke Miss, boarding-school, St. Mary’s st

Cooper Edward, shopkeeper, High street

Corser George, Esq., St. Mary’s street

Corser Henry, gentleman, High street

Corser Miss Letitia, St. Mary’s street

Corser, the Misses, St. Mary’s street

Corser The Misses, Green end

Cotgreave Richard, saddler, High street

Cotton Captain, R.N., Allport Cottage

Cox John, wheelwright, Mill street

Crosse George, tailor & draper, St. Mary’s st

Crosse Richard, postmaster, St. Mary’s street

Crosse Thos., tailor and draper, Claypit st

Crosse Thomas, painter, Bargates street

Davy The Misses Mary & Betsey, St. Mary’s street

Davies William, shopkeeper, Newtown

Dawson Thomas, victualler, Fox and Goose, Green-end street

Dimmock The Misses, Bargates

Dodd George, plumber, High street

Done James, draper, High street

Dunning John, shopkeeper, Watergate street

Eastham Rev. Theophilus, M.A., St. Mary’s street

Edge John, woodturner, Green end

Edge John, clog and patten maker, Pepper st

Edge William, beerhouse, Newtown

Edwards John, Brick-kiln lane farm

Edwards Thomas, plumber, High street

Egerton Rev. William Henry, M.A., The Rectory

Elliott James, Allport farm

Elliott Thomas, cheese factor, Tarporley road

Etches James Goulburn, solicitor, St. Mary’s street

Evans William, currier, Green-end street

Evans Thomas, blacksmith, Carlow’s yard

Evanson late, (Simms John, manager,) chemist and druggist, High street

Farrell Edward, fishmonger, Pepper street

Fenna Thomas, Wickstead farm

Foulkes Charles, clerk, County Court

France William, The Moss farm

Gaskin Miss Ann, Chester road

Godsal P. L., Esq., Iscoid Park

Goodall Mr. John, Belvedere house

Gorse James, grocer, High street

Grafton John, shoemaker, Castle hill

Green Charles, victualler, Victoria Hotel, High street

Green Thomas Fallows, shoemaker, High st

Griffiths Samuel, confectioner, Newtown

Griffiths Thomas, baker, Green-end street

Griffiths William, beerhouse, Yardington

Groom Samuel, surveyor, Claypit street

Groom Thomas, surgeon, St. Mary’s street

Hanmer Sir John, M.A., Bettisfield Hall

Hales Philip, Denston’s farm

Harper George, grocer and glover, Watergate street

Harper and Parry Jones, solicitors, St. Mary’s street

Harris Thomas, victualler, Bull’s Head, Watergate street

Harrison Robert, inland revenue officer, Green end

Hassall John and William, High street

Hassall Thomas, Hadley farm

Hassall William, maltster, Castle hill

Henshall Robert, victualler, Greyhound, Bargates street

Hesketh John, shoemaker, Green-end street

Hesketh William, patten maker, Green-end st

Hewitt Ann, shopkeeper, Claypit street

Hewitt Ann, school, St. John’s street

Hewlett Richard, shoemaker, High street

Hinton Catherine, Watergate street

Hinton Elizabeth, milliner, Green-end street

Hogan John, fruiterer, Claypit street

Hort Edward, horse-breaker, Claypit street

Howell Edward, brazier, High street

Hughes Richard, gentleman, Beech cottage

Humpstone John, canal clerk, Wharf

Huxley Thomas, Deer-moss house

Jackson Lucy, seminary, Dodington street

Jarvis James, victualler, George and Dragon, Green-end street

Jarvis John, clockmaker, Green-end street

Jarvis William, victualler, Golden Ball, Pepper street

Jebb Thomas, Corn miller, Wrexham road

Jenkins George, architect, Green-end street

Johnson Robert, china and glass dealer, High street

Joinson John, coach builder, Green-end

Jones Barrow, wine merchant, Pepper street

Jones Edward, wine merchant, St. Mary’s st

Jones Edward, shopkeeper, Green-end street

Jones John, gunmaker, Watergate street

Jones John, victualler, Star Inn, Watergate street

Jones Miss Ann, Watergate street

Jones Mrs. Honor, hotel-keeper, Watergate street

Jones Robert Barrow, gentleman, Pepper st

Jones Robert Barrow, printer, High street

Jones Richard Parry, Esq., Church street

Jones Thomas, butcher, High street

Jones William, shoemaker, Yardington

Joyce Thomas and Son, jeweller, High street

Keable Wm. Clarke, commercial academy, Chester road

Keay Samuel, veterinary surgeon, Green-end street

Kempster Benjamin, hairdresser, Watergate street

Kempster Mr. Thomas, Claypit street

Kent Martha, victualler, Red Cow, Pepper st

Kent William, gentleman, Green-end street

Kent William Corbet, Esq., Green-end street

Kenyon Lord, Gredington Hall

Lakin Benjamin, solicitor, St. Mary’s street

Lakin William, auctioneer, High street

Large James, victualler, Black Bear, High st

Lee Joseph, Esq., Red-brook house

Lee John, Clap-gates farm

Lee John, victualler, Black Lion, High street

Lee Thomas Wood, Esq., Oak bank

Lewis Edward, shoemaker, High street

Lewis William, chandler, Watergate street

Lomax John, Laurel-bank house

Lowe John, Esq., bank, High street

Lowe John, draper, High street

Lowe Thomas, bone and coal dealer, Pepper street

Maddocks John, plumber, Green-end street

Maddocks Thomas, The Lodge farm

Mellor Thomas, flour dealer, High street

Milnes Joseph, butcher, Bull ring

Miller Mrs., Girls’ Free School

Morris Henry, bank accountant, High street

Morris John Harper, High street

Moyle Richard, draper, High street

Nash Rev. John, St. John’s street

Newling Henry, printer, Bull ring

Nokes Thomas, clothier, High street

Nunnerley Thomas, The Fields farm

Ormiston William, bank clerk, High street

Oulston Eliza, milliner, Bargates

Oulton Samuel, builder, Bargates

Overton Charles Griffiths, grocer, High street

Overton Thomas, Mill-bank farm

Parker Samuel H., bank manager, St. Mary’s street

Parton Jeremiah and William, wire workers, Pepper street

Peake Rev. James Roome, M.A., Grammar School

Pearson Mr. Henry, St. Mary’s street

Peak Thomas, shoemaker, High street

Peters John, marble and stone mason, Old Wharf

Phillips Ann, confectioner, Bull ring

Piggott Mrs., Chester road

Poole Mary, flour dealer, Watergate street

Poole William, Esq., county magistrate, Jerrick Hall

Porter George, saddler, Green-end street

Porter Richard, shopkeeper, Green-end street

Poston John, whitesmith, Watergate street

Price Ann, vict., Lord Hill Hotel, Mill street

Price John, farmer, Watergate street

Price Robert, grocer, High street

Purcell John, tailor, Bargates

Rawson Robert Wm., schoolmaster, Bargates

Read Thomas, tailor, Bargates

Reddrop Mrs., Claypit street

Roberts John, bone merchant, Canal Wharf

Roberts Thos., steam corn mill, Canal Wharf

Roberts Thomas, vict., Lamb Inn, High st

Robinson Jonathan, brazier, Bargates

Rogers Ann, shopkeeper, Watergate street

Rogers William, painter, Watergate street

Roome Mrs., Chester street

Ruscoe Eliza, shopkeeper, Pepper street

Ruscoe John, victualler, George & Commercial Hotel, High street

Ruscoe Thomas, confectioner, High street

Sadler Peter, The Mount farm

Sadler John, beerhouse, Watergate street

Sandford Elizabeth, victualler, Horse and Jockey, Claypit street

Sandford Holland, Bargates

Sandford The Misses, Church street

Savage Josh., blacksmith, Green-end street

Saxton William Charles, professor of music, Dodington street

Shone John, draper, Green-end street

Shone Joseph, ropemaker, Green-end street

Skidmore James, painter, High street

Smith Joseph, innkeeper, Green-end

Smith Mr. Charles, Green-end street

Stevens Rev. George Henry, Bargates street

Summer William and Daniel, pumpmakers, Dodington street

Tetlow John Richard, Grove Cottage

Thelwall Thomas, hosier, High street

Tilston, Smith, and Co., dealers in tillage, salt, slates, &c., &c., Canal

Totherick Robert, methodist minister, St. Mary’s street

Tudman Edward, spirit dealer, High street

Turnbull Rev. Robert, M.A., Allport Cottage

Venables Samuel, confectioner, High street

Venables Richard, gentleman, St. Mary’s st

Walmsley and Parson, drapers, High street

Wardle Joseph, Fenshall farm

Welsh Benjamin, omnibus proprietor, Green-end

Whittingham Thos., timber merchant, Green-end street

Whittingham Thos., jun., bend-ware manufacturer and accountant, Green-end street

Williams John, coal agent, Old Wharf

Williams William Chaloner, nurseryman, High street

Wood Mrs., straw-bonnet maker, High street

Wood Thomas, shoemaker, High street

Woodward William, Wirswall Hall farm

Worthington Archibald, Esq., The Mount

Wright George, shopkeeper, Mill street

Wycherley Hannah, beerhouse, Green-end st

Wycherley John, saddler, Bull ring

Youd Thomas, dyer, Bark Hill

Academies.

Marked * are Boarding Schools.

* Cooke Miss, St. Mary’s st

* Dupre Lucy, Dodington

* Grammar School, Bargates street; Rev. James R. Peake, principal

Hewitt Ann, St. John street

* Jackson Miss, Dodington

Keable William Clarke, commercial, Chester street

National, Clay pit street; Ann Miller, teacher

Accountants.

Parker Samuel H., St. Mary’s street

Whittington Thomas, jun., Green end

Architects & Surveyors.

Groom Samuel, Clay pit st

Jenkins George, Green end street

Smith William, Dodington

Attorneys.

Brookes & Lee, Dodington

Clay Charles, New town

Etches James Gouldburne, St. Mary’s street

Harper and Parry Jones, St. Mary’s street

Lakin Benjamin, and clerk to magistrates and county court, St. Mary’s street

Auctioneers & Valuers.

Churton William Parker, High street

Churton John, High street

Churton George, High street

Lakin William, High street

Bakers.

Bright William, High street

Mellor Samuel, High street

Phillips Ann, Bull ring

Poole Mary, Watergate st

Ruscoe Thomas, High street

Venables Samuel, High st

Banks.

The National Provincial Bank of England, High street; George Corser, Esq., manager

Savings Bank, St. Mary’s st; S. H. Parker, secretary and actuary

The Whitchurch and Ellesmere Banking Company, High street, (draw upon the London Union Bank), John Lowe, Esq., manager

Blacksmiths.

Hampson John, Grindley brook

Evans Thomas, Barlow’s yd

Hudson John, Blue gates

Poston John, Watergate st

Savage Joseph, Green end

Booksellers, Printers, Bookbinders, and Stationers.

Jones Robert Barrow, and circulating library, High street

Newling Henry, and print seller, Bull ring

Boot & Shoemakers.

Allinson William, Clay pit st

Carker John, Pepper alley

Cooper Thomas, Venables yd

Dakin Samuel, Green end

Grafton Thos., Venables yd

Green Thomas, High street

Hesketh John, Green end st

Hewlett Richard, High street

Jones William, Yardington

Lewis Edward, High street

Montford Thomas, Pepper st

Newbrook John, Watergate st

Penk Benjamin, Chester st

Penk Thomas, High street

Plant Thomas, Clay pit st

Scott Samuel, Green end

Wood Thomas, High street

Bone & Guano Dealers.

Lowe Thomas, The wharf

Parker Samuel H., The wharf

Roberts John and Son, The wharf

Braziers & Tin Plate Workers.

Gill Robert, Watergate st

Howell Edward, High street

Robinson Jonathan, Bargates street

Brewers.

Brown William, High street

Jones Edward, Alkington rd

Bricklayers.

Edmunds William, Bargates street

Jarvis James, Green end st

Jarvis William, Pepper st

Street Samuel, Green end

William Edward, Castle st

Brick and Tile Merchants.

Brown John, Canal wharf, and agent for Minton, Hollins, and Co., encaustic tyle, of Stoke-upon-Trent, & dealer in slates, bearers, slabs, laths, draining pipes, blue flags, grave stones, &c.

Churton William Phillips, Turnbridge yard

Halsall Thomas and Wm., High street

Tilotson, Smith, and Co., Old wharf

Builders.

Allen Benjamin, Newtown

Jenkins George, Green end st

Oulton Samuel, Bargates st

Butchers.

Those with * affixed are country butchers who stand in the market in High street.

Allen Charles, Watergate st

* Bradbury John, High street

* Cooke Joseph, High street

* Davies Thomas, High street

* Davies William, High st

* Day James, High street

* Dickin William, High st

* Dickin William, jun., High street

* Ebrey John, High street

* Ebrey Robert, High street

* Gostage Thomas, High st

* Hall James, High street

* Hollowood Thomas, High st

* Hudson John, High street

* Jones John, High street

Jones Thomas, High street

* Littler William, High st

Milnes Thomas, Bull ring

* Paling John, High street

* Reeves Jeremiah, High st

* Roberts Edward, High st

* Thomas George, High st

Cabinet Makers and Upholsterers.

Arrowsmith Thomas, Green end street

Boughey William, Newtown

Burrowes Thos., Havannah buildings

Churton Messrs. W. P. & J., High street

Lakin William & Abraham, High street

Chandlers.

Brown William, High street

Lewis William, Watergate st

Cheese Factors.

Burgess Messrs. Thomas & R. W., Newtown

Bromfield William, Green end street

Elliott Thomas, Tarporley rd

Lythgoe Thomas, High gate road

Chemists and Druggists.

Beck Edward, Watergate st

Evanson late Executors of, High street

Coach Maker.

Joinson John, Green end st

Coal Agents.

Roberts John, Victoria wharf

Williams John, New wharf

Lowe Thomas, Whitchurch wharf

Wright George, Mill street

Confectioners.

Bright William, High street, and dealer in British wines

Griffiths Samuel, Newtown

Gorse James, High street

Griffiths Thomas, Green end street

Phillips Ann, Bull ring

Ruscoe Thomas, High street

Venables Samuel, High st

Coopers.

Cooke George and brothers, High street

Dawson Thomas, High street

Wright George, Newtown

Corn Factors.

Burgess Thomas and Son, High street

Chester George, Bark hill

Lythgoe Thomas, High st

Cutlery Dealers, &c.

Bradshaw George, High st

Corser Henry, High street

Hassall John and William, High street

Joyce Thomas & Son, High street

Curriers & Leather Cutters.

Brereton George, Watergate street

Evans William, Green end st

Wycherley John, Bull-ring

Farmers.

Churton William Parker, High street

Edwards John, Brick kiln lane farm

Elliott James, Allport farm

Fenna Thomas, Wickstead farm

France William, Moss farm

Hales Philip, Denston’s farm

Hassall Thos., Hadley farm

Jebb Thomas, Wrexham road

Joinson John, Green end st

Jones Thomas, High street

Joyce Thomas, Hinton hall farm

Lee John, Clap gates farm

Lee Joseph, Redbrook farm

Maddocks Thos., Lodge farm

Nunnerley Thos., Fields farm

Overton Thomas, Mile bank farm

Price John, farmer, Prospect place

Sadler Peter, Mount farm

Wardle Joseph, Fens hall farm

Fire and Life-office Agents.

Agricultural, Wm. Andrew Cartwright, Watergate st

Atlas, Robert Barrow Jones, High street

Birmingham, Thomas Wood Lee, Oak bank

British, Richard Thomas, New street

Farmers, Thos. Whittington, jun., Green end street

Farmers and Graziers, Thos. Whittington, jun., Green end street

Legal & Commercial, Samuel H. Harker, St. Mary’s st

Manchester & Pelican, Rd., Crosse, St. Mary’s street

Norwich Union, Wm. Parker Churton, High street

Phœnix, William Lakin, High street

Provident, Thomas Joyce, High street

Royal Exchange, John and William Hassall, High st

Star, Robt. Smith, Dodington

Sun, Walmsley and Pearson, High street

Fishmongers & Dealers in Game.

Carver William, High street

Farrell Edward, Pepper st

Flour & Bread Dealers.

Bate John, High street

Griffiths Thomas, Green end street

Mellor Thomas, High street

Morgan Mary, Watergate st

Poole Mary, Watergate st

Ruscoe Thomas, High street

Venables Samuel, High st

Wright George, Canal street

Fruiterers.

Farrell Edward, Pepper st

Hogan John, Clay pit street

Glass and China Dealers.

Colclough Sarah, High street

Johnson Robert, High st

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Brown William, High street

Corser Henry, High street

Gorse James, High street

Harper Robert, Watergate st

Hassall John and William, High street

Overton Thomas Griffith, High street

Price Robert, High street

Venables Samuel, High st

Gun Maker.

Jones John, Watergate st

Hair Dressers.

Bottwood Wm., Watergate st

Foulkes Wm., Watergate st

Kempster Benjamin, Watergate street

Hardware & Toy Dealers.

Green Thomas Fallowes, High street

Harper Robert, Watergate st

Hosiers and Glovers.

Barber William, Watergate st

Harper Robert, Watergate st

Thelwell Thomas, High st

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Anchor, Robt. Barrow Jones, Pepper street

Black Bear, James Large, High street

Black Lion, John Lee, Tarporley road

Bull’s Head, Thomas Harris, Watergate street

Coach and Horses, Francis Bradbury, High street

Eight Bells, Samuel Brown, High street

Fox and Goose, Thomas Dawson, Green end street

George and Commercial Hotel, John Ruscoe, High street

George and Dragon, James Jarvis, Green-end street

Golden Ball, William Jarvis, Pepper street

Greyhound, Robert Henshall, Bargates

High Gate, Richard Bradshaw, High gates

Horse and Jockey, Elizabeth Sandford, Claypit street

Lamb, Thomas Roberts, High street

Lord Hill, and Commercial, Ann Price, Watergate street and Mill street

Red Cow, Martha Kent, Pepper street

Star, John Jones, Watergate street

Swan (commercial and posting), George Bradshaw, Watergate street

Victoria (and commercial), Charles Green, High street

White-Bear, John Lee, High street

White Lion (commercial and posting), Mrs. Honor Jones, Watergate street

Beerhouses.

Boote William, High street

Butler John, Watergate street

Edge William, Newtown

Griffiths Wm., Yardington

Lloyd John, Yardington

Morgan Mary, Watergate st.

Sadler John, Watergate st.

Smith Joseph, Greenend st.

Welsh Benjamin, Greenend street

Wycherley Hannah, Green-end street

Ironmongers.

Brown William, High street

Corser Henry, High street

Hassall John and William, High street

Howell Edward, High street

Overton Charles Griffiths, High street

Iron Merchants.

Hassall John and William, High street

Joiners and Builders.

Allen Benjamin, Newtown

Churton Messrs., Newtown

Foulkes Thomas, Greenend street

Jenkin George, Greenend street

Oulton Samuel, Bargates

Woodhall John, St. John st

Land, Estate, and House Agents.

Parker Samuel H., Back st

Whittingham Thomas, jun., Greenend street

Lime Merchant.

Brown John, Grindley brook

Linen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

Allwood and Andrews, High street

Bass Charles, High street

Done James, High street

Lowe John, High street

Moyle Richard, High street

Shone John, Greenend street

Walmsley and Parson, High street

Licensed to Let Horses and Gigs, &c.

Bradshaw George, Watergate street

Cox John, Mill street

Dawson Thomas, Greenend street

Joinson John, Greenend

Jones Mrs. Honor (and mourning coaches), Watergate street

Welsh Benjamin, Greenend

Maltsters.

Brown William, High street

Burgess and Son, Prospect place

Dawson Thomas, Greenend street

Grindley George, New street

Hassall John and William, Castle hill

Jones Edward, Alkington road

Joyce Thomas, High street

Lea Edward, Greenend street

Merchants.

Burgess and Son (corn), Factory buildings

Garratt Sarah (timber), Havannah

Tilston Smith and Co. (salt, &c.), wharf

Whittingham Thomas (timber and maw skin manufacturer)

Whittingham Thomas (timber and bend ware manufacturer)

Millers.

Jebb Thomas, New mill

Roberts John, Lower wich

Roberts John (steam), Canal side

Milliners and Dressmakers.

Bate Harriet, High street

Baxter Jane, Bark hill

Bolas Susannah, St. Mary’s street

Boughey Elizabeth, Newtown

Chester Hannah, Bark hill

Gorse Alice, High street

Heath Mary, Bargates street

Hinton Jane and Elizabeth, Greenend

Morgan Ann, Bark hill

Oulton Miss Elizabeth, Bargates

Savage & Carter, Pepper st

Nail Makers.

Evanson William, Watergate

Hamer William, Mill street

Hassall John and William, High street

Nursery and Seedsmen.

Bayley William (nurseryman), Ledge ford

Brown William (seedsman), High street

Calcott Thomas (seedsman), High street

Grisdale Richard (nurseryman), High street

Hassalls Messrs. (seeds and hop), High street

Williams William Chaloner, High street

Painters and Gilders.

Crosse Thomas, Bargates st.

Rodgers William, Watergate street

Skidmore James Stephen, High street

Wragg Isaac, Bark hill

Plasterers and Slaters.

Griffith Wm., Yardington

Lee John, Claypit street

Ruscoe John, High street

Ruscoe William, Pepper st.

Plumbers and Glaziers.

Dodd George, High street

Edwards Thomas, High st.

Kent John, Claypit street

Maddocks John, Greenend street

Slayney William, Dodington street

Porter Dealers.

Bradshaw George, Watergate street

Jones Edward, St. Mary’s street vaults

Jones Barrow, Pepper street vaults

Tudman Edward, High street

Provision Dealers.

Baxter William, Greenend street

Bradshaw John, High street

Caldecott Thomas, High st.

Carver William, High street

Cooper Edward, High street

Newbrook John, Watergate street

Rope and Cover Makers.

Batho Richard, attends from Tilstock

Barrass John, Alkington road

Shone Joseph, Greenend street

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Cotgreave Richard, High st.

Porter George, Greenend st.

Wycherley John, Bull ring, & dealer, Weigh machine

Shopkeepers and Dealers in Sundries.

Ackers Ann, Watergate street

Barber William, Watergate street

Batho George, Bargates street

Baxter William, Greenend street

Bradshaw John, High street

Davies William, Newtown

Griffiths Widow, Greenend street

Donning Robert, Watergate street

Rodgers Ann, Watergate st.

Ruscoe Eliza, Pepper street

Silversmiths and Jewellers.

Bradshaw John, High street

Joyce and Son, High street

Spirit Vaults.

Bradbury Francis, High st.

Jones Barrow, Pepper street

Jones Edward, St. Mary’s st.

Tudman Edward, High street

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Baker Thomas (dealer only), High street

Baxter Jane, Bark hill

Hinton Elizabeth, Greenend street

Howlett Rebecca, Bargate st.

Johnson Elizabeth, St. Mary’s street

More Mary Ann, Dodington street

Phillips Mary, Pepper street

Smith Elizabeth, Sherriman’s hill

Venables Mary, High street

Wood Eliza, High street

Surgeons.

Bromfield John, Dodington street

Brown John, Claypit street

Groome Thomas, St. Mary’s street

Marsh Thomas Palmer, Dodington street

Swinnerton John, Prospect place

Surveyors.

Groome Samuel, Claypit st.

Lee and Son, Red brook

Tailors.

Catherall John, Claypit street

Chester Joseph, Watergate street

Chidlow Richard, Dodington street

Crosse Richard, St. Mary’s street

Crosse Thomas, Claypit street

James George, Greenend st.

Jones John, Mill street

Nokes Thomas, High street

Purcell John, Bargates street

Read Thos., Bargates street

Trantum William, Greenend

Tailors & Woollen Drapers.

Crosse Richard and George, St. Mary’s street

Crosse Thomas, Claypit st.

Nokes Thomas, High street

Tallow Chandlers.

Brown William, High street

Lewis William, Watergate street

Tanners.

Hassall John and William, Castle hill

Turners and Chair Makers.

Edge John, Greenend street

Millwood James, Castle st.

Veterinary Surgeons.

Cartwright William Andrew, Watergate street

Keay Samuel, Greenend st.

Watch and Clock Makers.

Bradshaw George, High st.

Bradshaw Joseph, High st.

Calcott Thomas, High street

Jarvis John, Greenend street

Joyce and Son, (and church turret and spring clock makers and general dealers)

Wharfingers.

Brookes John, Sherriman’s hill

Humstone John.  Sherriman’s hill

Roberts John, Victoria wharf

Lowe Thomas, New Canal wharf

Wheelwrights.

Higgins William, Yardington

Joinson John, Greenend st.

Read Thos., Grindley brook

Whitesmiths.

Clutton Thomas, Greenend

Poston John, Watergate st.

Wine and Spirit Merchants.

Jones Barrow, Pepper street

Jones Edward, St. Mary’s st

Carriers by Canal and Railway.

Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company’s boats from the wharfs to Chester

Liverpool and Ellesmere docks, from which places goods are forwarded to all parts of the kingdom—John Humstone, agent

Omnibuses and Cars, &c.

To Chester, Edwin Arden, from the Victoria Inn, every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, at 7 a.m., and return at 4 p.m.

To Beeston Railway Station, Benjamin Welsh, Greenend, leaves Whitchurch at 8 o’clock a.m., on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday

To Crewe, daily, John Joinson’s coach leaves Whitchurch 30 min. past 8 a.m.

To Wem, Joseph Owen, on Monday and Friday

Carriers.

To Burslem, James Green, on Friday, returns on Wednesday, to the Victoria Inn

To Crewe, John Welsh, from the Fox and Goose, Whitchurch, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

To Wem, Joseph Owen, from the Lord Hill Inn, on Monday and Friday

To Wem, Robert Harris, from the Swan Inn, on Monday and Friday

ALKINGTON,
a small but pleasantly situated village and township, two miles south-west from Whitchurch, contains 1,144a. 1r. 7p. of land, the soil of which is various, and consists of a mixture of peat, sand, and gravel.  The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater; Samuel Yate Benyon, Esq.; Miss Benyon; William Lee Brookes, Esq.; Rev. George Richard Downward; Mr. John Goodall; Francis James Hughes, Esq.; and Mrs. Wood; besides whom there are several other smaller proprietors.  Rateable value of the township, £1,240. 16s.  The rectoral tithes have been commuted for £121. 18s.  At the census of 1841 there were 23 houses and 135 inhabitants.

Directory.—James Bennion, farmer, Spring hill; Randle Bennion, farmer; Thomas Cooke, farmer; John Griffiths, farmer, Heath lane; George Heath, farmer; John Hinton, farmer; William Hokenhull, farmer; John Holland, farmer; Mrs. Jones, farmer; John Keay, beerhouse keeper; James Lee, farmer, Dernford hall; Stephen Oliver, blacksmith; Mrs. Wilson, farmer; Thomas Wilson, farmer, Alkington hall.

ASH MAGNA
is a township, chapelry, and village, pleasantly situated on an eminence two and a half miles south-east from Whitchurch.  The village is straggling, and the farm buildings are mostly of brick, with convenient out-premises, and occupied by respectable agriculturists.  Several of the farms are of considerable extent.  The township contains 626a. 3r. 14p. of land; and in 1841 there were 39 houses and 204 inhabitants.  Rateable value £893. 2s.  The tithes have been commuted for £86. 9s.  The soil is variable; in some places it is light and sandy, and in other places loam and clay prevail.  The scenery is beautifully diversified, and the high grounds command prospects of unbounded extent.  The principal landowners are Samuel Yate Benyon, Esq.; John Goodall, Esq.; William Lee Brookes, Esq.; Mrs. Groom; and Mr. James Hughes.  There are also several small freeholders.

The Church, dedicated to our Saviour, is a brick structure, simple in its design of architecture, and has a tower at the west end, which contains one bell.  It was erected in 1836, at an expense of £1,556. 19s. 10d., including the cost of the parsonage house, and consecrated August 31st, 1837.  Of the above sum, £856. 19s. 10d. was raised by voluntary subscriptions; the Rev. C. M. Long and family gave £450, and the Diocesan and Church Building Society granted £250.  The internal arrangements are neat and appropriate, and there is a gallery at the west end; the roof is pitched, and supported by groined timber.  It contains three hundred and sixty sittings, of which two hundred and fifty are declared free and unappropriated for ever, in consequence of the grant from the Incorporated Society for Building and Enlarging Churches.  It contains several neat marble monuments, one of which remembers Samuel Yate Benyon, Esq., and his wives, Elizabeth and Constance, and also of twin sisters, Elizabeth and Mary Benyon, daughters of the said Samuel Benyon, all of whom were interred at the Presbyterian chapel in Whitchurch, but have been exhumed and removed from thence, and are now deposited in a vault in this churchyard.  There is also a brass plate in memory of Eliza, the wife of Thomas M. Griffiths, Esq., of Ash grove.  There is also a family vault to the Langfords, in which are deposited the remains of the late Mrs. Elizabeth Langford, who bequeathed £500 three per cent. consols, in augmentation of the endowment of the living.  The communion plate and clock were the gift of Joseph Booth, Esq.; the stone font was the gift of the Rev. John Brookes; the communion cloth and cushions were given by Mrs. Hughes.  In the churchyard are altar tombs of beautiful workmanship to John Gregory, gentleman, of the Ash Acres; and to Joseph Brown, Esq., of Drayton.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £100, in the patronage of the Rector of Whitchurch.  Incumbent, Rev. William Bryans, who resides at the Parsonage, a pleasantly situated house, a short distance from the church, which commands some fine views of the distant country.  The National School, with a residence for the schoolteacher, was erected in 1848.  It is a brick structure, and will accommodate 120 scholars; 68 now attend.  It is chiefly supported by voluntary subscriptions, but each scholar pays a small sum weekly.  The premises are also used for a Sunday school.  The turnpike road to Nantwich, Market Drayton, and Whitchurch, intersects the townships.

Directory.—Frederick Bailey, farmer, Ash Hall; Rev. William Bryans, The Parsonage, John Cliffe, blacksmith and beerhouse keeper; William Eardley, farmer, Ash Farm; William Morton, shopkeeper and shoemaker; William Moreton, wheelwright; George Parry, blacksmith and victualler, Lion; John Ravenshaw, farmer, The Grove; Robert Ravenshaw, farmer; Jane Mary Thackaberry, schoolmistress.

ASH PARVA
is a township, with a scattered population, situated three miles S.E. by S. from Whitchurch, which contains 2,377a. 2r. 27p. of land, mostly a fine tract of country, studded with respectable farm-houses, with commodious outbuildings adjoining.  The soil is variable; in some places a rich loam is found, in other places a strong soil, which produces good crops of grain, and in other parts it is a mixture of sand and gravel.  In 1841 there were 36 houses and 208 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,079. 12s.  The tithes are commuted for the sum of £224. 19s.  The principal owners of land in this township are the Devisees of the late Ashton Beckett, Esq., Samuel Yate Benyon, Esq., George Brookes, Esq., Joseph Hares, Esq., Viscount Hill, Wm. Church Norcop, Esq., Mrs. Whitfield, Richard Hughes, Esq., Mrs. Groom, Miss Becks, and Mr. Hewes.

Directory.—Captain Henry Bertles; John Bishop, parish clerk; James Blackshaw, farmer, Ashfield; William Dale, farmer, Twemlows; William Darlington, farmer, Twemlows; Charles Davies, shopkeeper and wheelwright; Mrs. Mary Groom, Ash House; Jas. Hamnett, farmer, Ashwood; Joseph Hares, Esq., Ashacres house; Henry Hewes, farmer, Ashwood; William Hickman, farmer and land-surveyor; John Hough, boot and shoemaker; Rev. William Jones; William Nield, farmer, Ashwood; John Ravenshaw, farmer, Twemlows; Ann Whitfield, farmer, Lee Hall.

BLACK PARK
is a township and small village, in a pleasant situation, two miles and a quarter N.E. from Whitchurch.  The township contains 1,334a. 2r. 25p. of land, and in 1831 there were 13 houses and 46 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,379. 16s.  The tithes are commuted, and included in the returns given of the town of Whitchurch.  There are several good residences here; the farm premises are extensive, and the farms of considerable extent.  Large quantities of superior cheese are made in this district, which is quite equal to the best Cheshire cheese.  The Trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater are owners of the whole township.

Blackmere, or Bletchmore, one mile and a half N.E. from Whitchurch, is noted as the birth-place of John Talbot, the first Earl of Shrewsbury.  He was the second son of Sir Richard Talbot, of Goodrich Castle, in Herefordshire; and on the death of his elder brother, he became heir to that family.  John Talbot, who was called to Parliament by Henry IV. by the title of Lord Furnival (having married the eldest daughter of that nobleman), was appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1412, and Lord Lieutenant in 1414.  In 1420 he accompanied Henry V. to France, where he remained till the death of that monarch.  He afterwards served in France under the Regent (the Duke of Bedford), and by his exploits rendered his name more terrible to the foe than that of any other English officer.  He was afterwards raised to the rank of general, and commanded the troops which were sent into the province of Maine to the succour of the Earl of Suffolk, and made himself master of Alencon.  He joined the Earl of Salisbury at the siege of Orleans, which failed through the intervention of the celebrated Maid of Orleans, under whose guidance the French recovered their lost courage, became assailants in their turn, and defeated the English at Patai, where Talbot was taken prisoner.  He obtained his liberty by ransom, and raising fresh troops, recrossed the sea, and defeated the French in several engagements.  For these and other services he was raised to the dignity of Marshal of France, and the title of Earl of Shrewsbury was conferred upon him.  He was a second time sent to Ireland as lord lieutenant, and the earldom of Wexford and Waterford in that kingdom was added to his honours.  In 1541, the English influence in France continuing to decline, Talbot was again sent thither, and constituted Lieutenant General, with extraordinary powers.  His presence restored success; he took Bordeaux, and brought back several other places to their allegiance to the English crown.  He afterwards marched to the relief of Chastillon, and made an attack on the enemy, when he was shot in the thigh by a cannon ball, and soon after died, at the age of eighty years.  In this engagement one of his sons was slain, the English were defeated, and the consequence was their total expulsion from France.  The remains of this celebrated general were interred at Whitchurch, where a splendid monument was raised to his memory, which has been previously noticed.  Blackmere is a noted and extensive sheet of water in this township, well stocked with fish.

Directory.—George Bradshaw, farmer; Arthur Dickin, farmer, The Yockings; John Edwards, farmer; Thomas Maddocks, farmer, The Lodge; James Price, farmer; William Reddrop, farmer; Joseph Savage, blacksmith.

BROUGHALL.

a township in Whitchurch parish, one mile S.E. from the parish church, contains 818a. 2r. 9p. of land, the soil of which is a mixture of sand and stiff loam.  In 1841 here were 44 houses and 203 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,024. 10s.  The tithes have been commuted for the sum of £82. 4s.  The chief landowners in this township are Mr. John Weaver, Mr. Robert Tudman, Misses Ann and Mary Beckett, Mr. Thomas Overton, Mr. John Brookes, William Lee Brookes, Esq., George Harper, Esq., Mrs. Hopley, the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, William Palmer Churton, Esq., Archibald Worthington, Esq., William Worthington, Esq., and Mrs. Jones; there are also several other proprietors.  The Methodists have a neat chapel in this township.

The chief residents are the Misses Ann and Mary Beckett; John Brookes, farmer; Peter Caldecott, farmer; Thomas Caldecott, farmer; Rev. Mr. Colley; Arthur Dickin, farmer; William Etchess, farmer, Broughall House; John Fox, boot and shoemaker; Thomas Goodall, farmer; George Hales, farmer, The Fields; Mr. Jones, farmer, Broughall Cottage; William Edward Jones, gentleman; Richard Nickson, farmer; Thomas Palmer, carpenter and joiner; John Pennill, farmer; John Weaver, farmer; William Vicars, wheelwright.

CHINNEL, OR CHIMNEL,
is a small township in the parish of Whitchurch, one and three quarters of a mile N. from the parish church, which contains 240 acres of land, three houses and sixteen inhabitants.  Rateable value, £296. 4s.  The tithes have been apportioned, and are returned in the amount given with Hollyhurst township.  The freeholders are Viscount Combermere, Lord Kenyon, Domville Halstead Cudworth Poole, Esq., Mr. Thomas Overton, and Mr. Sarah Saddler.  The residents are Thomas Overton, farmer, Chinnel farm; and Ann Tomlinson, farmer.

DODINGTON
is a township and populous chapelry half a mile S. from Whitchurch, and may be considered a suburb to that town.  In 1841 there were 211 houses and 1,010 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £3,406. 8s.  The township contains 1,626a. 3r. 14p. of fine land, highly productive both the arable and pasture; the soil is a mixture of sand and loam, and there are some good farm houses with commodious out premises, and farms of considerable extent.  There are also several respectable family mansions and neat villa residences scattered over the township.  The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, William Lee Brookes, Esq., Rev. George Richard Downward, George Harper, Esq., John Lowe, Esq., John Faulkner Wood, Esq., Mr. Thos. Burgess, Mrs. Kirkpatrick, besides whom there are 39 smaller freeholders.  The tithes are commuted for £130. 3s., and apportioned to the rector of Whitchurch-cum-Marbury.

The Church of St. Catherine is a commodious structure of brick, with an elegant front of white free stone, exhibiting the Grecian style of architecture, and was erected in the year 1836 by the late Countess of Bridgewater, at a cost of upwards of £8,000.  The church has a noble appearance, and is ornamented with some very elaborate workmanship; it is very beautifully fitted up with oak pews, and has a gallery supported by iron pillars; it consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles.  The solemnity of the whole is greatly heightened by the chastened light entering from the richly stained glass window in the chancel, which has a most pleasing and magnificent effect.  The living is a curacy subordinate to the rectory of Whitchurch, the ministers of which perform divine service here.

The Independent Chapel is a handsome, lofty, and commodious edifice of brick, fronted with free stone, and ornamented with a portico supported with pillars of the doric order; the whole has a chastened and beautiful appearance.  It was built in 1846, and cost upwards of £2,000.  The interior fittings are neat and appropriate, and there is accommodation for more than 500 hearers.  The structure stands partly on the site of a former edifice, which was erected in the year 1796.  There is a respectable and increasing congregation, under the pastoral care of the Rev. William Tiler.  In connection with the chapel there is a flourishing Sunday school.

The Unitarian Chapel is now being enlarged and remodelled.  A previous chapel was built here by the congregation under the pastoral care of the Rev. Phillip Henry, of Broad Oak, father of Matthew Henry, the celebrated commentator.  This chapel was the place of sepulchre of many of the descendants and friends of the pious Henry’s—the Benyons, and others.  The British School, formerly the Unitarian chapel, is under the management and inspection of the dissenting bodies in this place.  It was endowed by Thomas Benyon, in 1707, a particular account of which will be found in general account of charities of this parish, noticed with the town of Whitchurch.  The property devised by Mr. Benyon produced £50 per annum when the charity commissioners published their report; out of the income, however, he bequeathed 40s. per annum to the Presbyterian minister.  About 140 children attend the school.  It is also used as a Sunday school, and numerously attended; Mr. and Mrs. Sandland are the teachers.

The National School is a commodious structure, situate within the bounds of this township, measuring sixty feet by thirty feet, and will accommodate 300 scholars; the average attendance is about 150.  It is supported by subscriptions and donations, and a charge of one penny per week from each scholar.  The income is about £60 per annum.  There are three government pupils placed here as teachers.  Charles Frederick Bird is the master.  The Girls’ National School, in Clay pit street, has an attendance of 85 scholars.  The above are also used as Sunday schools, and numerously attended.  There is a Parochial Lending Library in the national school, which contains a considerable number of valuable and instructive publications.  It was established for the benefit of the humbler members of society, to whom the books are lent without any payment.  Moss Field House is a commodious structure of brick, with projecting gables, and a noble portico of free stone supported by massive pillars.  The pleasure grounds and shrubberies are extensive, and laid out with great taste, and the park-like grounds and beautiful scenery add much to the interest of the place.  Messrs. Lee and Brookes are stewards of the courts leet and baron, which are held for the manor.  A branch of the Ellesmere and Chester canal intersects this township, and terminates near to New-street.

Andrews Thomas, gentleman

Arrowsmith Rev. Aaron

Baxter Jane, milliner, Bark hill

Bayley William, gentleman, The Nursery

Benson Mrs. Mary

Bird Charles Frederick, schoolmaster

Boughey Joseph, farmer, Blackoe

Boughey Mrs. Ellen, High street

Boyes Robert, vict., New Inn, High street

Bradshaw Richard, vict., High gate

Brett Miss, High street

Bromfield John, surgeon

Bromfield The Misses Elizabeth and Mary

Brookes George, Esq., High street

Brookes William Lee, Esq., High street

Burgess Thomas, Esq., The Hall

Burrows John, Bark hill

Burston Mrs., High street

Cartwright Mary, stay maker, Sherriman’s hill

Carver Captain Daniel, High street

Chester George, farmer, Bark hill

Chester Hannah, milliner, Bark hill

Chidlow Richard, tailor, High street

Churton William Phillip, Turnbridge

Clarke Thomas, bricklayer, Alkington road

Cureton John, farmer, Blackoe

Currie Mrs. Mary, High street

Currie William F., Esq., High street

Dupre Mrs. Lucy, Ladies’ seminary

Evanson Joseph, shopkeeper, High street

Foulkes Charles, deputy registrar, Bark hill

Finn Thomas, furniture dealer, Bark hill

France William, farmer

Garratt Mrs. Sarah, High gate

Gould Mr. William

Grindley William Thomas, New street

Griffiths Wm., beerhouse, Sherriman’s hill

Harper George, Esq., Moss field

Hassall Thomas, farmer, Hadley farm

Hinton Thomas, farmer, Fields farm

Humpston John, canal clerk

Jackson Lucy, boarding school

James George, shoemaker, Bark hill

Jarvis John, painter, &c., High street

Jarvis Thomas, grocer, tea dealer, & draper High street

Jebb Thomas, gentleman, Wrexham road

Jones Edward, maltster, Alkington lane

Keay John, vict. and farmer

Kempster Thomas, gentleman, High street

Kirkpatrick Edward Brace, Esq.

Kirkpatrick Miss Lousia, gentlewoman

Lea Edward, maltster, Bark hill

Lee John, Esq., High street

Lee Robert, tailor, High street

Lowe Thomas, wharfinger, New wharf

Lyth Richard, Hadley farm

Lythgoe Thomas, factor, High gate

Maddocks Joseph, beerhouse, Sedge ford

Marsh Thomas Palmer, physician

Morgan Ann, dressmaker, Bark hill

Morgan Charles, cabinet maker, Bark hill

Morrall Rev. John, Bark hill

Morray William, beerhouse, Havannah

Nunnerley Thomas, gentleman, The Farm

Pace John, tailor, High street

Pickering Rev. Edward, High street

Podmore John, gentleman, High gate

Roberts John, Danston’s yard

Roberts John, The Dairy Farm

Roberts Thos., cabinetmaker, Alkington ln

Sadler John, beerhouse, Bark hill

Sadler John, jun., blacksmith, Bark hill

Sandland Stephen, schoolmaster

Sanders Mr. S., High street

Saxton Charles, gentleman

Sharkes Mary, Blackoe farm

Slaney William, plumber, High street

Smith Joseph, beerhouse keeper

Smith Robert, iron founder

Smith William, engineer

Smith William, tailor, New street

Sumner William and Daniel, pump makers

Swinnerton John, surgeon, New street

Tiler Rev. William, Independent minister

Turner The Misses

Watkiss Miss, High street

Wood John Foulkner, Esq., High street

Woollam John, parish clerk

Woolley William, farmer, New street

Wragg Isaac, vict., Bark hill

Wright Elizabeth, vict., Royal Oak, High st

Yond Thomas, dyer, Bark hill

Academies.

Dupre Mrs. Lucy, Ladies’ boarding

National, New street; Charles Frederick Bird, master

British, High street; Mr. & Mrs. Stephen, Sandland

Accountants.

Parker Samuel H., Saving’s bank

Smith William, High street

Architect.

Smith William, High street

Attorneys.

Brookes and Lee Messrs., High street

Harper George, Moss fields

Kirkpatrick Edward Bruce, High street

Auctioneer.

Churton William Parker

Baker & Flour Dealer.

Poole Mary, Watergate street

Blacksmith.

Saddler John, Bark hill

Boot & Shoemaker.

James George, High street

Brewer.

Jones Edward, The brewery

Brick and Tile Merchant.

Roberts John, New wharf

Cabinet Makers.

Burrows Thos., Havannah buildings

Lakin William, New street

Cheese Factors.

Burgess Messrs. Thomas and Ralph; warehouses, The Factory buildings, canal side, and Prospect row, canal head

Lythgoe Thomas, High gate

Civil Engineer.

Smith William, High street

Coal Agents.

Lowe Thomas, New wharf

Roberts John, New wharf

Wright George, New street

Corn Factors.

Burgess Messrs. T. R. W., Prospect row, and Factory buildings

Farmers.

Boughey Joseph, Blackoe

Chester George, Bark hill

Cureton John, Blackoe

France Wm., Dodington lane

Hassall Thos., Hadley farm

Hinton Thomas, Fields farm

Keay John, Dodington

Lyth Richard, Hadley

Nunnerley Thos., The fields

Podmore John, High street

Roberts John, Dairy farm

Sharkes Mary, Blackoe

Woolley William, New street

Fire and Life-office Agents.

The British Empire Fire & Life, Richard Thomas, Prospect place

The Star and General Insurance Company, Robert Smith, Dodington

Grocer and Draper.

Jarvis Thomas, High street

Inns and Taverns.

Boyes Robert, High street

Bradshaw Richard, High gate

Wragg Isaac, Bark hill

Wright Elizabeth, High st

Beerhouses.

Griffiths Wm., Sherriman’s hl

Maddocks Joseph, Sedge ford

Murray William, Havannah

Sader John, Bark hill

Ironfounders.

Smith Wm. & Son, Dodington

Land & Estate Agents.

Brookes and Lee, High street

Lime & Guano Dealers.

Lowe Thomas, New wharf

Roberts John, New wharf

Machine Makers.

Smith Wm. & Son, High st

Maltsters.

Burgess & Son, New street

Jones Edward, Alkington rd

Lea Edward, Bark hill

Millers.

Jebb Thomas, Old mills

Roberts John, Steam mills

Painters.

Jarvis John, High street

Wragg Isaac, High street

Plumber & Glazier.

Slayney William, Dodington

Professor of Music.

Saxton Charles, High street

Surgeons.

Bromfield John, Dodington

Marsh Thos. Palmer, High st

Swinnerton John, New street

Tailors.

Chidlow Richard, High st

Morray William, High street

Smith William, High street

Timber Merchant.

Garratt Mrs. Sarah, High st

Wharfingers.

Brooks John, Sherriman’s hl

Humstone John, Sherriman’s hill

Lowe Thomas, New wharf

Roberts John, New wharf

Wheelwrights.

Davies William Augustus, Dodington

Smith William, Doddington

EDGELEY,
a small township with 416a. 0r. 24p. of land situated 1½ miles S.E. by S. from Whitchurch, in 1841 contained seventeen houses and seventy-three inhabitants, the soil is in general strong, with a portion of sand and gravel.  Rateable value £583. 14s.  The tithes are commuted for the sum of £37. 10s.  The freeholders are William Lee Brookes, Esq., Wm. Worthington, Esq., Samuel Alexander Duff, Esq., John Goodall, Esq., Peter Soole Taylor, Esq., John Lowe, Esq., Archibald Worthington, Esq., and Mr. Richard Weaver.  The Baptists have a neat chapel with a residence for the minister and a school attached.  It is situated in the lane leading from Edgeley Moss to Ash, near the verge of the township, and was built and endowed by Mr. Brown.  The school is open for the instruction of the children residing in the surrounding townships; those that are admitted free must belong to the children who attend the chapel, and prefer the Baptist faith.  The master has an income of £30 per annum, which is now paid by Mrs. Brown.  The pastor of the congregation also teaches the school.  There is a small plot of ground used as a burial place for members of the congregation.  Edgeley Moss, usually called Brown Moss, contains 77a. 2r. 7p. and is now chiefly covered with water.  Edgeley House, the residence of John Lowe, Esq., is a modern erection of brick, stuccoed.  It is delightfully situated, and beautified with shrubberies and park-like grounds.

The principal residents are John Lowe, Esq., Edgeley House; William Poole Churlton, farmer; James Harding, farmer; Rev. William Jones, Baptist minister.

Grindley Brook is a detached hamlet on the high road from Whitchurch to Malpas, a mile and a half north-west from the former place.  It lies on the verge of the county, and is separated from Cheshire by the Grindley brook, a small stream which is here crossed by a stone bridge.  The Whitchurch, Ellesmere, and Chester Canal takes its course near the village, and near to the wharf are extensive lime works carried on by Mr. John Roberts.  The chief freeholders are the trustees of the late Duke of Bridgewater, Mr. James Hancock, Mr. Robert Roe, Mr. Joseph Rycroft, Miss Harper, Mr. Parry Jones, and Mr. George Blanton.

Directory.—Mr. Joseph Beddoe, toll collector at the canal locks and tonnage clerk; Mr. Richard B. Briscoe, Brookhouse; Thomas Cliff, beerhouse and shopkeeper; Philip Hales, farmer, Denston; William Hassall, Esq., land and estate agent, Bubney House farm, Thomas Peake, boat builder; John Roberts, lime merchant; George Seaman, victualler, Canal Inn; James Whittingham, victualler, Horse and Jockey.

HINTON,
a township one and a quarter miles north from Whitchurch, in 1841 had six houses and forty-one inhabitants: the township contains 498a. 0r. 36p. of land the soil of which is a mixture of gravel and loam; the principal land owner is Thomas Boycott, Esq.  William H. Poole Esq., and George Harper, Esq. are also proprietors.  The district here has a bold undulating surface.  The tithes payable to the rector of Whitchurch have been commuted for the sum of £51. 15s.

The residents are Thomas Chester, farmer; Thomas Joyce, farmer, the Hall; W. H. Poole, Terrick Hall; Joseph Vernon, farmer, the Field.

HOLLYHURST,
a small township with a few scattered houses one mile and three quarters north-east from Whitchurch, contains 241 acres of land, and in 1841 had seven houses and thirty-eight souls.  The rateable value is included in the return of the township of Chinnel, and the tithes with those of Chinnel have been commuted for £22. 9s. 6d., which is paid to the incumbent of Whitchurch.  The land owners are Lord Combermere, John Nickson, Esq., Mrs. Sarah Sadler, and Domville Poole, Esq.

The principal residents are John Sadler, farmer; Sarah Sadler, farmer; and Thomas Venables, farmer.

TILSTOCK
is a chapelry and populous village delightfully situated one and a half miles south from Whitchurch; the township contains 2,549a. 2r. 20p. of land, and at the census of 1841 there were 136 houses and 637 inhabitants; the soil is a mixture of sand and loam, with a portion of gravel, considered good turnip land; the country around is pleasingly diversified with rural scenery, and there are some extensive farms, with good farm houses occupied by intelligent and respectable agriculturalists.  The township is intersected by the Ellesmere and Chester Canal, and the Wem and Whitchurch turnpike road.  The principal land owners are the trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, George Corser, Esq., John Goodall Esq., Rev. Geo. Richard Downward, Francis Jas. Hughes, Esq., Daniel Kempster, Esq., Rev. William Renton, Mr. John Whitfield, and Mrs. Wood.  There are also several other freeholders.

The Church, dedicated to our Saviour, is a neat erection of brick, with a small square tower ornamented with stone finishings.  It was built in 1835, not far from the site of a former edifice which was dedicated to St. Giles; the cost of the structure was about £2,000, which was defrayed by the munificence of the late Countess of Bridgewater.  It consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles; the body of the church will accommodate 303 hearers, and there is a gallery which will hold 100 persons; the whole has a neat and tasteful appearance.  The living is a perpetual curacy endowed with a grant from Queen Anne’s bounty, and funds given by the Bridgewater family which were laid out in the purchase of land situated in Wales.  The value of the living is returned at £120.  The rector of Whitchurch is the patron; the Rev. William Renton, M.A. is the incumbent.  Tilstock was formed into a district parish for ecclesiastical purposes in 1844.  The church, the parsonage, and the national school, have all been erected during the incumbency of the present minister.  There is a vestry attached to the church in which are kept two volumes of Jones’s Book of Martyrs.  The Parsonage House, a neat and commodious residence near the church yard, was built at a cost of £1,000 given by the munificent family who also built the church.  The tithes have been commuted for the sum of £244. 11s. which is paid to the rector of the parish.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a neat place of worship, which was built in the year 1837, adjoining which is a small burial ground.

The National School, a modern erection of brick, with a residence for the teacher, stands on the site of the old church, and was built by subscription and a grant of £60 from the National Society.  Among the most liberal donors towards its erection were the Countess of Bridgewater, who gave £60, the Rev. Charles M. Long, rector of Whitchurch, £60, and Lord Farnborough £20.  About 100 children attend the school, which is chiefly supported by the incumbent of the church and a few benevolent individuals.  The minister and his lady assiduously superintend the school.

Samuel Austin bequeathed £10, and directed the interest to be distributed to the poor every St. Thomas’s day.  Ten shillings per annum is now paid from a farm in the township of Tilstock, which belongs to G. S. Corser, Esq.  The amount is given among the poor by the officiating minister with the sacrament-money at Christmas.  The poor also participate in a bread charity, noticed with Whitchurch.

Allen Joseph, inland revenue officer

Allmark Joseph, victualler (Horse Shoe) and wheelwright

Batho Richard, rope maker

Batho Stephen, farmer, rope maker, and shopkeeper

Bayley John, farmer

Bayley Thomas, farmer

Beckett William, maltster, farmer, and beerhouse-keeper

Bennett John, blacksmith

Bennon Randle, farmer

Bolton John, castrator

Broomhall John, maltster, farmer, and victualler, Black Lion

Catterall William, tailor

Cliff Ann, dressmaker

Cliff Joseph, blacksmith, The Heath

Darlington Abraham, shopkeeper and shoemaker

Dudleston Ann, farmer, The Park

Dudleston Richard, farmer, The Park

Dutton Ann, schoolmistress

Eaton Thomas, farmer, Wood-lane Farm

Edwards George, schoolmaster

Edwards John, shoemaker

Fenna William, grocer and ironmonger

Groome Joseph, wheelwright & parish clerk

Hinton James, farmer

Hinton Thomas, butcher and grazier, and victualler, Red Lion

Jones Daniel, shoemaker

Jones Samuel, shopkeeper

Kempster Mr. Daniel, Ivy House

Kempster Miss Mary

Massey Samuel, Tilstock-park Farm

Morris John, tailor

Parbutt John, shopkeeper

Parry John, farmer, The Hollins

Reece John, farmer

Renton Rev. William, M.A., The Parsonage

Roberts John, lime-master, maltster, and farmer, Brick-walls

Watling John, drill-machineman

Wenlock William, farmer

Whitfield John, farmer, Tilstock Park

WOODHOUSES (NEW),
a pleasant but scattered village and township, two miles and a half S.E. from Whitchurch, containing 714a. 3r. 11p. of land, had in 1841, 27 houses and 115 inhabitants.  The chief landowners are the Trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater, Mr. Richard Bellington, Mrs. Gretton, Samuel Yate Benyon, Esq., Mrs. Beckett, Mr. John Cookson, Viscount Combermere, W. L. Brookes, Esq., Mr. John Moore, and Mr. Edward Nickson; besides whom there are several other freeholders.  This township has a bold undulating surface, and the soil is strong and clayey.

Directory.—James Goulbourn Etches, Esq., Oak Villa; William Bather, farmer; Martha Beckett, farmer; Prudent Blundell, beerhouse and shopkeeper; Mrs. Mary Boulton; Richard Boulton, farmer; John Leeveley, farmer; John Lewis, farmer; John Moore, farmer; George Robinson, farmer, Old Wood; Thomas Stringer, farmer; Thomas Unett, farmer; Daniel Warrington, farmer, Fir Tree House; James Weston, farmer; Joseph Wright, farmer.

WOODHOUSES (OLD),
a small village and township, three miles N.E. from Whitchurch, contains 391a. 2r. 37p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had 13 houses and a population of 62 souls.  The soil in some places is a strong loam, in other places it is sandy.  Viscount Combermere is owner of the whole township.  There is a fine sheet of water near here, which covers a considerable surface, called Comber-mere.

The principal residents are John Ellis, farmer; William Evans, boot and shoemaker; Richard Hassall, carpenter and joiner; James Reddrop, farmer, The Grove.

WIRSWALL, OR WIRSHALL,
is a township and village in Whitchurch parish, situated in the county of Cheshire, two miles north from Whitchurch.  In 1841 there were 17 houses and 91 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are John Goodall, Esq., George Harper, Esq., Rev. C. W. Ethelstone, Charles Robert Cotton, Esq., and the Representatives of the late John Parsons, Esq.  The tithes are commuted for £70.  The Earl of Shrewsbury had land here from the time of Henry VI. to the reign of Philip and Mary; and the manorial rights are divided between this family and Viscount Combermere.  Belvidere is a handsome house, the property and residence of John Goodall, Esq.  The situation is delightful, and the prospect most extensive and diversified.

Directory.—Joseph Cliffe, blacksmith; Samuel Davies, cattle dealer; James Goodall, farmer, The Grange; John Goodall, Esq., Belvidere; Robert Goodall, farmer, Dairy-house; Mr. William Hale; Mrs. Mary Harrison, Wood Cottage; John Nunnerley, farmer; Miss Reddrop; John Smith, farmer; John Wood, farmer; Wm. Woodward, farmer.

THE SOUTH BRADFORD HUNDRED.

The South Bradford Hundred is bounded on the north by North Bradford Hundred, on the east by the county of Stafford, on the south by the Brimstree and Condover Hundreds and the Wenlock Franchise, and on the west by Albrighton Division and the Shrewsbury Liberty.  The hundred is divided into the Newport and Wellington Divisions.  The Newport Division, in 1841, contained 2,111 inhabited houses, 61 uninhabited, and five building.  At the same period there were 10,929 inhabitants; of whom 5,446 were males and 5,483 females.  The Wellington Division at the same period contained 5,959 inhabited houses, 211 uninhabited, and 43 building; and 30,938 inhabitants; of whom 15,856 were males and 15,082 females.  The hundred of Bradford at the Domesday survey was divided into the hundreds of Odenet and Recordin, and are now distinguished by North and South Bradford.  These names in early times had a certain meaning, and were given either by reason of the importance or situation of a place, or in respect of some remarkable circumstance—as the name before us, Bradan Forde (that is, Broad Ford), is said to have its name from a ville named Bradford, situate on the river Tern, near Ercall, and long since destroyed.

The South Division contains the several parishes of Bolas Magna, Chetwynd, Edgmond, Kinnersley, Lilleshall, Longford, Newport, Preston-upon-the-Wild-Moors, and Woodcote Chapelry.

The Wellington Division contains the parishes of Atcham, Buildwas, Dawley Magna, Eaton Constantine, Ercall Magna, Eyton-upon-the-Wild-Moors, Leighton, Longdon-upon-Tern, Roddington, Stirchley, Uppington, Upton Magna, Upton Parva, Wellington, Withington, Wombridge, Wrockwardine, and Wroxeter.

ATCHAM, OR ATTINGHAM,
is a parish in the Wellington Division of the South Bradford Hundred, comprising 3,491 acres of land, mostly a fertile undulating district, richly timbered, and watered by the rivers Severn and the Tern.  The soil in some parts is a strong fertile loam, producing good wheat and barley; in other parts it is of a lighter nature, and the meadow lands are very fertile.  Rateable value, £6,126.  In 1801 there were 430 inhabitants; 1831, 463; and in 1841, 95 houses and a population of 513 souls.  The parish comprises the townships (for highway purposes) of Chilton, Cronkhill, and Emstrey, on the south-west bank of the Severn, and of Berwick, Atcham, and Uckington, on the north-east side of that river.  The village and township of Atcham is delightfully situated in a salubrious district richly adorned with sylvan beauty, and contains Attingham Hall, the princely seat of the Right Honourable Richard Noel Hill (Lord Berwick), and several handsome villa residences.  The Hotel is a noble pile of buildings, and affords every accommodation to the numerous visitors who resort here in the summer season to enjoy the fishing as well as the beautiful views of this interesting locality.  The river Severn is crossed near to the hotel by a magnificent stone bridge of seven arches, and is about one hundred and thirty-four yards long.  The river Tern has a bridge across it of beautiful workmanship, which is forty-four yards across.  It is ornamented with an open balustrade of fine chiselling, upon which is engraved, “This bridge was erected at the expense of the county, in 1780, and decorated at the expense of Noel Hill, Esq.”  The great Holyhead and London turnpike road which intersects the township is in an admirable state of repair.  The village is three miles and six furlongs south-east from Shrewsbury.  The Right Hon. Lord Berwick is lord of the manor and the principal landowner.  Robert Burton, Esq. and others are also proprietors.  A branch of the Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Chester, and Shropshire Union Canal passes through Atcham parish, where there is a tunnel of about a mile in length.

The Church, dedicated to St. Hyatia, and situated in a sequestered spot near the banks of the Severn, is built of free stone, and consists of nave and chancel, with a square tower.  It was built in 1665, and has recently undergone a complete reparation.  The sittings are of oak, and the pews of Lord Berwick and those of the Burton family are elaborately adorned with carved work.  The interior has a very chaste appearance, which is much heightened by the subdued light admitted through the richly stained glass windows.  The altar is of the most elaborate workmanship.  The central window on the south side is a stained glass memorial of superb workmanship, in memory of Blanch, daughter of Henry Milnes Parry, Esq., who held the appointment of “chief gentlewoman of Queen Elizabeth’s privy chamber,” whom she served from the birth of her majesty, and died at court on the 18th of February, 1589, aged 82.  There are also two beautiful windows of stained glass, embodying the arms of the Burton family.  On an altar tomb, with two full length figures in memory of deceased members of this family, is a brass plate, on which is engraven—“This monument was removed from a pew belonging to the estate of Longnor, in the parish church of St. Chad, Shrewsbury, on the fall of that church, July, 9th, 1788.”  There are also several beautiful mural tablets in memory of the Burtons and others.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £11. 6s. 8d., now returned at £300 in the patronage of Robert Burton, Esq.  Incumbent, Rev. Henry Burton, M.A.  The vicarage is situated near to the church.

The manor, vicarage, and lands in Attingham, otherwise Atcham, together with other property of great extent, were given to the monastery of the blessed Virgin Mary, of Lilleshall, by persons of the name of Blemies, in honour of God and the Virgin Mary.  This was subsequently confirmed by King John.  In the reign of Henry III., the abbot of Lilleshall was questioned as to his right in taking toll at the bridge of the Severn of passengers that travelled that way.  In the 53rd of the same reign the abbot had a grant of a fair to be kept at Attingham on St. Giles’s day, and two days after.  In the 4th of Edward I. the said abbot had a grant of another fair in the month of May, to be held on the feast of St. Augustine, and the two following days.  On the dissolution of religious houses the manor and tithes of Attingham were granted by the crown to Thomas Palmer, Knight, but Sir Thomas subsequently became convicted of treason, and his lordship and estate was forfeited to the crown, and was soon after granted to Sir John Gage, Knight.  In 1693 it was possessed by the Gowers, and the lordship is described as containing twenty messuages, three water mills, twenty gardens, 200 acres of land, forty acres of meadow, 200 acres of pasture, ten acres of wood, twenty acres of furze, and the fishery of the Severn.  In the 1st year of Queen Anne, William Gower obtained an act for the sale of the manor, when it was conveyed to Rowland Hill, Esq., for the sum of £3,413.  His descendant, the Hon. Richard Hill, in consideration of his affection and regard for his sister, Margaret Harwood, wife of Thomas Harwood, Esq., conveyed the manor of Attingham to the use of his sister Margaret for her life, with remainder to Thomas Harwood, the younger, who afterwards took the name of Hill, on whose decease this property descended to his son, Noel Hill, who was created a baron by the title of Baron Berwick, of Attingham, in the year 1784, on whose decease it came to his eldest son, Thomas Noel Lord Berwick, who dying in 1833 without issue the manor and domain of Attingham descended to his brother, William Noel Hill Lord Berwick, and is now held by the Right Hon. Richard Noel Hill Lord Berwick, whose princely seat is Attingham Hall, one of the most extensive and elegant mansions in the county.  It was built from a design by Stewart, and consists of a centre adorned with a magnificent portico of the composite order, supported by four circular pillars upwards of forty feet in height, and two wings connected with the main building by corridors.  The situation of the mansion is peculiarly fine, and the extensive park by which it is surrounded is beautifully enriched with wooded scenery; the waters of the majestic Severn and the river Tern adding much to the picturesque beauty of the whole.  The interior of the mansion is magnificently furnished, and contains a fine gallery of pictures, chiefly by the early Italian masters, also a fine collection of Etruscan vases and other antiquities from Herculaneum.  In the picture gallery is a curious model of Mount Vesuvius, upon a large scale, made of the materials of the mountain by the late traveller Dr. Clarke.  The park is stocked with deer.  Attingham hall has not been occupied for several years, the present noble lord having chiefly resided at Cronkhill, on the opposite side of the Severn.

Berwick Mavaston is a lordship within the parish of Atcham, and was bestowed on Malvesyn, “one of those two hundred and sixty knights famous in the conqueror’s army,” who fought in his cause at Hastings, and by whose means he won the crown of England.  Malvesyn having braved all the dangers, and therefore having a right to share the spoils of victory, would be eager to fix his residence on some of the conquered lands.  His valour was rewarded by the grant of the lordship of Rideware, which was probably held by this Norman knight, under the Earls of Shrewsbury by the knightly tenure of bearing arms against the Welsh.  He got possession of other lands about the same period, among which was the lordship of Berwicke Juxta Attingham, which he held under the same barony, by military service; and as the leading branch of this family gave their name to the seigniory of Manvesin Rosny, in France, so we find the younger branch communicated the same name to the respective lordships of Manvesin Ridware, and Manvesin Berwick, in England, where this family flourished in the days of our Henrys and Edwards—a knightly race in an age of gallantry; foremost like their Norman kindred in deeds of arms and works of piety.  The situation, however, not being very distant from the borders of Wales, and holding the domain by the tenure of border service, his descendants found it no easy task to defend what their common ancestor had won by the sword.  In the reign of Henry IV. John Malvesyn being slain at a hunting match, with men of Shropshire, at the Wrekin, and dying without issue, his niece Editha carried the Berwick estate into the family of Wydcomb, from whom it passed in like manner to the Hambrooks, and was purchased from them by the ancestor of the present proprietor, Lord Berwick.

Chilton, Cronkhill, and Emstrey are three small townships for highway purposes, in the parish of Atcham on the western side of the river Severn, near the Holyhead and Shrewsbury turnpike road.  The land in Chilton is chiefly the property of Robert Burton, Esq.  Cronkhill is the property and seat of the Right Hon. Richard Noel Hill Lord Berwick, whose principal seat is Attingham hall.  The house at Cronkhill is a plain stuccoed structure.  Emstrey is situated about two miles and a half from Shrewsbury, and has upwards of 500 acres of land, which is the property of Lady Tyrwhitt.  Uckington township is situated on the eastern side of the Severn; the land is the property of the Duke of Cleveland, who is also the impropriator.

Charities.—Joseph Jones, by will, 1729, directed that six o’clock prayers in St. Alkmund’s church, Shrewsbury, should be continued for ever, for which purpose he gave a yearly rent charge of £7. 10s., issuing out of his tenement and lands in Astley, £6 thereof yearly to be paid to the vicar or curate of the parish of St. Alkmund, or St. Mary, or on their neglect to such other minister of the church of England as should read prayers in either of the said churches about the hour of six o’clock in the evening, and 20s. to the clerk, and 10s. to the sexton for officiating on such occasions; and in case of neglect or refusal, he gave the said legacy to the poor of the parish of Atcham, to be applied in the education of poor children, or in the maintenance of decayed housekeepers; and he further directed that the payment of 20s. yearly, for the instruction of two poor boys or girls in the charity school of Shrewsbury, should be continued for ever, if his wife should think fit.  And as to the residue of the rents of the lands in Astley, he bequeathed the same to his wife, with liberty for her to sell a parcel of land called the Wood Meadow; and after her decease, without issue, he decided that she, by her will or otherwise, should dispose of the remainder of the rents reserved upon the lease to such charitable uses as she should think fit; but for want of such appointment after his wife’s decease, he directed that as there was divine service in the chapel of Astley only every third Sunday in the month, 10s. monthly should be paid to a minister to read prayers and preach in the said chapel every first and last Sunday in the month; but in case of neglect or refusal, he gave the rent charge to the poor of Atcham and Astley, or for educational purposes, at the discretion of the trustees.  As executor to Thomas Cox, Mr. Jones had in his hands a legacy of £5, given for the poor of Atcham, and a sum of £30 entrusted to him by the Bromley, to buy coals for the poor of Shrawardine; for securing the payments of 5s. and 30s. as interest of the above, Mr. Jones charged his lands in Astley and Coleham with the payment thereof.  Elizabeth Jones directed the six o’clock prayers should he continued in the parish of St. Alkmund as mentioned in her husband’s will; and the yearly sums of £6. 20s., and 10s. paid as by him directed; and she appointed 40s. to be paid to the said minister to provide candles during the winter, in case the parish should refuse, and £5 yearly to be paid to the organist of St. Mary’s.  The estate at Astley contains 58a. 2r. 6p., and when the charity commissioners published their report, produced a yearly rental of £60, out of which £6 is paid to the minister of Astley, £5 to the organist of St. Mary’s, and £1. 10s. to the poor of Shrawardine.  Though the last-mentioned payment, and the interest of £5 as Cock’s legacy, were charged upon the testators’ estates in Shrewsbury and Coleham, as well as that in Astley, the Shrewsbury and Coleham estates have been sold or passed to different hands as being exonerated from the charge.  Nothing has been paid for many years for maintaining prayers in the church of St. Alkmund, or St. Mary’s, Shrewsbury, the duty required not having been performed.  The interest of Cock’s legacy is to be considered as included in the portion of the residue paid to the parish.  After the payment of the several sums above mentioned, and any incidental expenses that may be incurred, the residue is divided between the parish of Atcham and the township of Astley, £40 generally to the former, and £10 to the latter.  The Atcham portion is disposed of with the produce of other charities, in money or clothing, on St. Thomas’s day, chiefly among such of the poor as do not receive parochial relief.

Thomas Burton, Esq., of Longnor, in 1730, bequeathed £10 per annum for the use of the poorest inhabitants of this parish, and charged an estate in Berwick with the payment of the same.  The amount is given away with the produce of Jones’s charity.

The Countess of Harborough, in 1765, left to the poor of this parish the sum of £200, the interest to be annually distributed by the patron and minister of Atcham.  This sum was laid out, in the year 1792, in the purchase of £193. 11s. 6d. stock, four per cent. annuities, and in the year 1803 the sum of £44. 2s. 10d., which was raised by suffering the dividends to accumulate, was laid out in the purchase of additional stock to make up the sum of £250.  The dividends, amounting to £8. 15. per annum, together with £1. 5s. added by the vicar to make up the deficiency occasioned by the reduction of the dividends, is also disposed of with the produce of Jones’s charity.

Margaret Thompson, in 1751, gave £6, the yearly interest to purchase bibles and prayer books for poor children.  This sum is in the hands of the vicar, and he applies the interest according to the donor’s intentions.

Thomas Hill, in 1779, bequeathed £100 to the vicar, churchwardens, and overseers of Atcham, on trust, to apply the interest in relieving the necessities of the poor not receiving parochial relief.  This gift is in the hands of Lord Berwick, who distributes annually a quantity of meat and provisions, exceeding the amount of the interest.

In 1666 John Cox left £20 to the poor of the parish.  Joan Blakeway, in 1684, left a yearly sum of 6s. to be distributed among the poor.  John Calcott, in 1698, charged a tenement in Worthen with the payment of 12s. and 7s. a year, to be distributed among poor housekeepers of Atcham.  He also charged the same premises with the legacy of Joan Blakeley, of 6s. yearly.  It is supposed that something was paid in respect of these charities by Scarlet Lloyd, Esq., who died about fifty years ago.  Nothing, however, has been paid since that period; and though some pains have been taken to discover the tenement in Worthen subject to the payment of the charities, no satisfactory information has been obtained.

Richard Cox gave £5, and directed the interest to be expended in bread and given to the poor on Easter day.  The sum of 5s. was paid in respect of this charity for several years, by Robert Burton, Esq., of Longnor, supposing it to be charged on property taken by him from one of the Calcott family, in exchange for other lands.  On examining the title deeds at a subsequent period, no such charge is mentioned, and he therefore declined paying in any longer.

Dorothy Whitcome left £10 for the benefit of the poor.  In 1742, this gift, by some means which we are unable to account for, was reduced to £4. 7s. 8½d., and at a parish meeting held in that year, it was agreed to distribute the principal among the poor.

Atcham, Berwick, Chilton, Cronkhill, Emstrey, and Uckington Directories.

The Right Hon. Richard Noel Hill, Lord Berwick, Attingham Hall and Cronkhill

Adams John, farm bailiff, Cronkhill

Burgwin Thomas, blacksmith, Atcham

Burton Rev. Henry, the Vicarage, Atcham

Casewell Thomas, shoemaker, Atcham

Clayton John, farmer, Berwick

Cotterill Edwin, farmer, the Grange, Atcham

Ditcher Joseph, farmer, Uckington

Hand Ann, vict., Berwick’s Arms, commercial and boarding house

Higgins John, farmer, Berwick

Hughes Hannah, vict., Horse Shoe, Uckington

Leigh Edward, coal agent, to Shropshire Coal Company, Atcham

Linell Henry, farmer, Emstrey

Lowe James, farmer, Uckington

Mancell Ann, shopkeeper, Atcham

Mason Robert, wheelwright, Atcham

Miller William, farmer, Uckington

Nunnerley William, coal agent to Hazledine and Co., Atcham

Peach Miss, boarding school, Chilton

Peach William, maltster & saddler, Atcham

Price John, farm bailiff, Berwick

Price William, farmer, Chilton

Rose John, farmer, Emstrey

Vaughan John, Esq., Chilton grove

Weatherby Robert, registrar, Atcham

BOLAS MAGNA, OR GREAT BOLAS,
is a parish and small rural village, in a retired part of the country, seven miles W. by N. from Wellington.  The houses are in general scattered, but pleasantly situated on the banks of the river Tern, which divides this parish from Little Bolas.  The parish contains 1,784 acres of land; mostly a bold undulating district, the soil of which is a mixture of sand and loam.  The meadow lands are highly fertile.  In 1801, there were 207 inhabitants; 1831, 255; and in 1841, 55 houses and a population of 228 souls.  Rateable value, £2,682.  The principal landowners are John Taylor, Esq., Thomas Taylor, Esq., Joseph Ogle, Esq., and Mrs. Pooler, besides whom there are several smaller proprietors.  The Newport, Preston Brockhurst, and Wellington turnpike roads cross the township.  The Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is a brick structure, except the chancel which is of stone, situated on a gentle eminence near the banks of the river Tern.  It has a square tower, which contains two bells.  The interior has a neat appearance; it is pewed with oak sittings, and has a small gallery.  In the chancel is a neat tablet in memory of John Ogle, Esq., and his wife, dated 1840.  Another mural tablet remembers Thomas Griffith, and several members of that family, and is dated 1745.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £7. 9s. 4½d.  Gross income, £368. 14s, in the patronage of Viscount Hill, incumbent, Rev. John Hill, M.A., who resides at The Rectory, a pleasantly situated house, on elevated ground, near the banks of the river Tern.  The rectory was built a few years ago by the present incumbent, in aid of which a grant was obtained from the governors of Queen Anne’s Bounty.  There are 46 acres of glebe land.  A small organ was purchased for the church in 1843; the cost of it, £63, was raised by subscriptions, chiefly given by the family of Hill.  There is a School in the village, where 20 children are educated free; other children are admitted on the payment of a small sum weekly.  Bolas House, the residence of John Taylor, Esq., is a spacious brick structure, surrounded with neat pleasure grounds and park-like enclosures.  Burleigh Villa, a good house, with projecting gables, is approached by an avenue of trees, and delightfully situated, is the property and residence of Thomas Taylor, Esq.  Bolas is celebrated as the place where the late Marquis of Exeter domiciled for a time under the assumed name of Mr. Jones, courted, and married Miss Sarah Hoggins, and finally raised her to the rank of a British peeress.  At the time Mr. Cecil visited Great Bolas, Mr. Hoggins had a farm and kept a small shop.  One evening, just as the day had closed, a stranger presented himself at the door, and stated that he was benighted in a strange part of the country, and would be grateful for the accommodation of a bed, or, in case that would be inconvenient, to rest on a chair or otherwise.  Mrs. Hoggins, however, very abruptly gave a refusal, but Mr. Hoggins expressed it as his opinion that it was their christian duty to befriend the stranger; to which Mrs. Hoggins eventually assented.  In the morning, the stranger arose, and went to survey the farm premises and stock; but the principal object that attracted his attention was the farmer’s daughter, Sarah, feeding the poultry.  She was a handsome girl, with a lively and cheerful countenance, bespeaking sensibility and happiness.  The heart of the stranger was no longer his own, but he determined not to be too premature, and therefore made an agreement to become an inmate of the farmer’s dwelling.  He employed his leisure hours in assisting Mr. Hoggins in the rural affairs of his farm, and in domestic matters as occasion occurred, frequently visiting Wellington in the market cart.  Mr. Jones eventually began to manifest a degree of partiality for Miss Hoggins, and placed her at a school at Wellington.  This circumstance did not escape the notice of the neighbours, and the mysterious stranger was the talk of the surrounding district.  Most people could discover that he was no ordinary person, and various were the suppositions as to his real character; but generally the idea prevailed among the gossips of the neighbourhood that he was captain of a gang of robbers, and this opinion was strengthened by the occasional visit of strangers and the absence of Mr. Jones every now and then for a few days, after which he had always plenty of money.  He finally made proposals of marriage to Miss Hoggins, whose heart had from the first felt a kindred flame, and he was accordingly accepted.  He then pressed his suit with the parents, but the cautious mother sternly refused, and thought there might be some truth in the supposition of her neighbours as to the real character of her guest; but the father had observed their mutual attachment, and the conclusiveness of his reasoning, “Has he not plenty of money to keep her?” eventually prevailed with the good old dame.  After his marriage with Sarah, he engaged masters in every branch of polite education to accomplish his bride.  In the course of time the lovely bride had a daughter, which died, and was buried at Bolas.  Her second child, Brownlow, became the Marquis of Exeter.  On the demise of his uncle, in December, 1793, he became entitled to the honours and estates of the Earldom of Exeter; he, therefore, found it necessary to repair to London.  He accordingly set out, as on a journey of pleasure, taking his wife with him, and on the route called at several noblemen’s houses, where, to the astonishment of his wife, he was welcomed in the most friendly manner.  At length they arrived at the beautiful patrimonial seat of his lordship (Burleigh, in Northamptonshire), and on approaching the house he asked his wife, with an air of unconcern, whether she would like it to be her home; which she immediately assenting to, he then said, “My dear Sarah, it is yours!” and on making his appearance in front of the house, he was instantly recognised, and received with acclamations of joy by the family and domestics.

His lordship shortly afterwards returned to Bolas, discovered his rank to his wife’s father and mother, put them in a house he had built there, and settled on them an income of £700 per annum.  He also amply provided for the brothers and sisters of his countess; and generously pensioned all the servants and workpeople of the villa.  The countess, from her pleasing and unassuming manners, was received with the greatest cordiality in the high circle of her noble husband, and was introduced to her majesty, the late Queen Charlotte.  She, however, lived but a short period to enjoy her exalted station, dying in child-bed January 8th, 1797.

Messon is a small township, in Great Bolas parish, about half a mile S.E. from the church, the acres of which are returned with the parish.  The landowners are the Duke of Cleveland, Joseph Ogle, Esq., Mr. Collier, Mr. Samuel Miner, Mr. William Flemming, Mr. William Wild, and Mr. Thomas Wild.  At the census in 1841 the township contained 17 houses and 85 inhabitants.  Messon Hall is now occupied by Mr. Joseph Ogle, as a farm residence.

Charities.—Elizabeth Walker, in 1723, bequeathed £20 to the poor of this parish, the interest to be expended in bread, and given every Lord’s day among the poor.  John Whitfield, who had lived 55 years a servant in the family of Sir Rowland Hill, and who died in 1747, left £10 for a distribution of bread on St. John’s day.

Bolas Directory.—William Oxon, farmer; John Betley, farmer; John Blanton, farmer; Samuel Brasenell, shopkeeper and victualler; Fox and Hounds; Samuel Buckley, farmer and corn miller; Richard Cherrington, shoemaker; Richard Fox, farmer; Rev. Matthew Kinsey, curate, The Rectory; Benjamin Phillips, wheelwright; John Taylor, Esq., Bolas House; Thomas Taylor, Esq., Burleigh Villa.

Meeson Directory.—Thomas Bellingham, farmer, Shrey-hill; Thomas Blanton, farmer; William Flemming, tailor; Samuel Miner, farmer; Joseph Ogle, farmer, Meeson Hall; Thomas Wild, shoemaker; William Wild, farmer.

BUILDWAS
is a parish township and small rural village delightfully situated near the banks of the Severn, four and a half miles N.E. from Much Wenlock.  The parish contains 2,152 acres of land, of which 350 acres are in woods and plantations, the remainder is about equally divided in arable and pasture or meadow lands; the soil is mostly heavy, and produces good wheat and barley.  In 1801 there was a population of 258 souls; 1831, 240, and in 1841 there were 59 houses and 273 inhabitants.  A beautiful iron bridge of one arch 130 feet span was erected by the Coalbrook-dale Company over the Severn at this place in 1796, at an expense of £6,034.  The rise of the bridge is 24 feet, and as the road-way could not be carried to a greater height, advantage was taken of the Schaffhausen principal by making the ribs rise to the top of the railings, and connecting them to the lower ribs by means of dove-tailed king posts.  The old bridge, which had narrow arches that impeded the navigation of the river, was carried away by a flood in 1795.  Walter Moseley, Esq., (a minor), is landowner, lord of the manor, and impropriator of the tithes, which are commuted for £350.  The incumbent of the parish has a payment of £16. 2s. 6d. issuing out of certain lands contiguous to the abbey.  The Church is a small structure of free stone, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and consists of nave and chancel, with a wooden turret; it was rebuilt in 1720.  It contains several neat marble tablets, one of which on the north wall remembers Margaret Smitheman, who died 1818; another on the south side remembers John Smitheman, and is dated 1809; Humphrey Wheeler and his four sons are also remembered on a neat mural tablet dated 1739, besides which there are several others.  The living is a donative in the patronage of W. Moseley, Esq.  Incumbent, Rev. John Bartlett, M.A., who resides at Marn Wood, a pleasantly situated residence just within the bounds of Madeley parish.  The poor of this parish enjoy the benefit of a rent charge of £5 per annum, the benefaction of Miss Ann Lacon.  The annuity is received by the churchwardens, who distribute in equal moieties at Michaelmas and Lady-day among four poor widows in shares of 12s. 6d. each.  Near to the bridge there is a respectable inn, conducted by Mr. William Jones.

Buildwas Abbey.—The magnificent ruins of Buildwas abbey are situated in a picturesque vale, near the banks of the river Severn, whose silvery waters are here crossed by a noble cast iron bridge, having a span of 130 feet.  The massive walls of the abbey, with the grey pillars and arches, present a fine contrast to the rich verdure which surrounds them, and being environed with high grounds crowned with timber, it presents one of the most lovely spots for conventual retirement that can well be imagined.  The outer walls of the abbey church are almost entire.  The structure was cruciform with a massive tower in the middle, which rested on four pointed arches.  On each side of the nave are seven pillars, with indented capitals, from whence spring arches with obtuse points.  Above is a clerestory with small round headed windows.  The side aisles, the transept, and the chapel of the choir are entirely in ruins.  Under the north wing of the transept is the crypt, the whole of which has evidently been groined with stone, and was supported by circular and diagonal pillars.  Over the chapter house and other apartments forming the east side of the cloister are the remains of a second story, which was probably the dormitory.  A little eastward of the cloister are probably the remains of the refectory.  The view of this venerable structure from the west end is peculiarly striking: the huge pillars with their bold arches and projecting capitals, the lofty arches which supported the tower, and the windows of the gloomy choir, contrasted with the rich verdure, and the luxuriant ivy mantling the walls, altogether form a solemn spectacle of fallen grandeur.  The abbey was founded by Roger de Clinton, in 1135, for monks of the order of Savigny, who were afterwards united to the Cistercians.  The house was dedicated to St. Mary and St. Chad, and the foundation was confirmed by King Stephen, in the year 1139.  Leland in his itinerary says, “Matilda de Bohun, wife of Sir Robert Burnell, was founder of Buildwas abbey,” but among the charters of the monasticon there is no mention of this Matilda, and the foundation is in two or three places ascribed to Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Chester.  Rustandus, the pope’s legate, with the assistance of the bishop of Hereford, extorted large sums of money from the clergy; the legate summoned the abbots of the Cistercian order to meet at Reading, when he demanded supplies for the use of the pope and the king, which amounted to the value of their wool.  The abbots made answer that the tax was very grievous, and therefore could come to no resolution without the consent of their convents.  Rustandus incensed at that answer acquainted the king that the Cistercians refused to grant him supplies.  The king swore that those who refused to submit to his demands should feel the effects of his power.  There was then at court the abbot of Buildwas, whom the king reprimanded after this manner, “What is the meaning, abbot, that you refuse to supply my necessities; am I not your patron?”  To whom the abbot replied, “I would to God, sir, you were our patron, our father, and defender; but it does not become your majesty to extort money from those who can only assist you with their prayers; let the exemplary piety of the king of France be a precedent to your majesty in this respect.”  The king replied, “I demand both your money and your prayers.”  “How is that consistent,” said the abbot, “for one of them you must be without.”  At the suppression here were twelve monks who, according to Dugdale, were endowed with £110. 19s. 3d. per annum, but Speed estimates the value at £129. 6s. 10d.  The site, with all the land in Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire, were granted to Edward Lord Powis in the 29th of Henry VIII.

An extraordinary phenomena occurred on the 27th of May, 1775, at a place called the Birches, situated between Buildwas and Ironbridge, which will be found noticed with the latter place.

Moseley Mrs. Elizabeth, Buildwas Park

Moseley Walter, Esq., Buildwas Park

Bartlett Rev. John, M.A., Marnwood

Birkin Charles, farmer

Eveson Thomas, farmer and gardener

Francis Thomas, farmer

Hewlett John, farmer, Lawleys Cross

Intone Thomas, blacksmith

Jones William, maltster, farmer, and vict. Bridge Inn, Buildwas

Lewis William, farmer, Abbey farm

Nickless Enoch, farmer & builder; residence, Iron bridge

Nunn Rev. John, B.A., curate, Wire Hill Cottage

Pothan William, farmer

Ridley Edward and Samuel, farmer and corn millers

CHETWYND
is a parish which includes the townships of Chetwynd and Howle, part of Pickstock and part of Sambrook; the latter will be found noticed in Cheswardine parish, and Pickstock is given with Edgmond in which parish it is chiefly situated.  The hamlet of Pixley noticed with Hinstock contains 89a. 1r. 28p. of land in this parish.  The parish of Chetwynd contains 3,803a. 0r. 30p. of land, and in 1801 had 594 inhabitants, 1831, 766, and in 1841, 760.  The village of Chetwynd forms the northern suburb to the town of Newport, on the line of road leading from that town to Market Drayton, but the church, the hall, and the rectory are situated on the same line of road nearly two miles north from Newport.  The township contains 1,727a. 2r. 5p. of land, and in 1841 had 109 houses and 543 inhabitants.  John Charles Burton Borough, Esq., is the principal land owner and lord of the manor; Robert Fisher, Esq., Thomas Collier, Esq., the Rev. William Dalton, are also land owners.  The Church, a plain brick structure dedicated to St. Michael, has been built about one hundred years; it consists of nave and bay, and has a square tower in which are six bells; there is a gallery at the west end built in the year 1841 by voluntary subscriptions.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £10. 16s. 3d., now returned at £775. in the patronage of J. C. B. Borough, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. Rev. Thomas Whateley, M.A., who resides at the rectory, a good residence near the church.  The tithes are commuted for £742. 4s. 11½d.  The Hall is an ancient structure near the east end of the church, which appears to have been built at different periods; in the low grounds in front of the hall, the river Meese, an inconsiderable stream takes its course.  The park comprises about 300 acres of land, and is situated on the west side of the turnpike road leading from Newport to Market Drayton; it has a bold undulating surface, well timbered and stocked with about two hundred head of deer; a fine sheet of water covers about thirty acres.  The National School is situated about midway between Newport and Chetwynd church; there is a residence for the teacher, and the number of scholars that attend average about seventy.

Charities.—In 1717 a house and croft situated in High street, Newport, was conveyed in trust for the benefit of the poor of Chetwynd, in consideration of £80 paid to James and Thomas Liversage, whereof £50 was money given by Honor Dryden and others for charitable uses.  This house has been unfortunately long lost to the charity, and there is no evidence to show that the poorhouse ever derived any benefit from it.  Of the croft in Chetwynd a small part, about a rood, was taken upwards of fifty years ago for the site of a house of industry, for which no compensation had been made when the charity commissioners published their report.  The remainder of the land produces about £3 per annum.

There is a piece of land containing about three acres known by the name of Lady meadow, the rent of which was received by the parish officers as early as the year 1625, but there is no trace of the source from which the land was derived.  The sum of £1 0s. 4d. was the rent paid from the above year down to 1820, although the premises were then worth about £8 per annum.  There are certain premises in the parish of Edgmond now consisting of three cottages with gardens and about nine acres of land, which were purchased in 1728 with certain benefactions left by Ann Pigott and Robert Pigott for the benefit of the poor of Chetwynd; the rents from these premises amount to £28 per annum.

There is reason to believe from entries in the parish books, that the land at Hinstock consisting of about ten acres, was purchased for the use of the poor of Chetwynd about the beginning of the 18th century, but there is no evidence to show what was the amount of purchase money, or from what particular source it was derived.  It first appears in the parish books in the year 1700 at a rent of £2. 10s., which continued without increase until 1760.  In 1783 it was let for £4. 15s. and the amount has since been raised to £14. 14s.

William Unite’s charity of five penny loaves weekly, and several sums of money amounting to £30 left by several benefactors, have been applied to the use of the parish, and the parish officers now pay £2. 11s. 8d. as the interest thereof.

The gross income of the several charities above mentioned amounts to £49. 6s. per annum, and at the time the charity commissioners visited Chetwynd, was expended in the following manner: £1. 14s. applied in aid of the church rates, £5. 6s. 8d. in distributions of bread, £4 in the purchase of coal, and £38. 10s. was carried to the poor’s rates.  The latter, we conceive, is an objectionable mode of applying money left for charitable uses, and totally at variance with the donors’ intentions.  It was intended, however, by the parishioners, to have a fresh application of the charitable funds, and to apply a portion towards the support of a school.

Robert Pigott, who died in 1746, left the sum of £50, the interest to be distributed among poor housekeepers.  Certain benefactions, recorded on tables in the church, left by twelve several donors, amounting to £68, in the absence of any account of their disposal, may be presumed to have formed the purchase money of the lands, of which there are no documents to trace their origin.

The inhabitants of Chetwynd End are entitled to participate in the benefits of the Grammar School and other charities at Newport.

Those names with * affixed are at Chetwynd End.

Boroughs John Charles Burton, Esq., Chetwynd hall

* Allen Harry, spirit merchant

Allmen George, blacksmith, Pilson

* Bailey Robert, maltster and farmer

* Brittain Thos., corn miller

* Cobb John, builder and architect

* Cockayne Miss Sarah

* Cockerill Thomas, Esq.

Collier Thos. Esq., Beech hill

* Derrington Thomas, Chetwynd villa

Emberey Mrs. Ann, Summerhill house

Fisher Robert, Esq. Chetwynd lodge

Ford William, woolstapler

* Franklin John, vict., King’s Arms

* Geates Joseph, gardener

* Hector Miss Elizabeth

Holt David, gamekeeper

* Icke Mrs. Mary

Ingram George, land agent

* Jellicore Mrs. Mary

* Matthews Charles veterinary surgeon

* Morris Thomas, seedsman

Myatt Richard, farmer

* Palin Mrs. Jemima

* Pickworth Mrs. Elizabeth

Podmore Thomas, farmer

* Pritchard Mary Ann, boarding school

* Randal John, architect

Rowley Andrew, schoolmaster and parish clerk

* Rylands Mrs. Jane

* Stevens Mary Ann, schoolmistress

Thompson Mark, woolstapler

Veitch John, farmer

* Washbourne William, Esq., solicitor, Chetwynd house

* Watkin Watkin, timber merchant

* Weate William, farmer and butcher

Webb Joseph, farmer, New house

* West Samuel, shopkeeper

Whately Rev. Thomas, M.A., the Rectory

HOWLE
is a small township with a scattered population, five miles north-west from Newport, and three miles north-west from Chetwynd.  The township contains 765a. 1r. 28p. of land; and at the census in 1841 there were 18 houses and 102 inhabitants.  The land here has an undulating surface, and is highly fertile.  Arthur Mountford, Esq., is the principal landowner, and farms most of the land.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel in the township.

The chief residents are Arthur Mountford, Esq.; and Messrs. Dawes and Whitfield, corn millers.

DAWLEY MAGNA,
a populous parish busily engaged in the extensive iron works and collieries with which the vicinity abounds, is situated four miles S.E. from Wellington.  The parish comprises the townships of Dawley Magna, Dawley Parva, and Malinslee.  In 1801 there was a population of 3,869 souls; 1831, 6,877, and in 1841 there were 1,716 houses and 8,641 inhabitants, of whom 4,490 were males, and 4,151 females.  The township of Dawley Magna contains 997a. 1r. 21p. of land, and in 1841 had 904 houses and 4,485 inhabitants.  R. A. Slaney, Esq., is lord of the manor and a considerable landowner; Beriah Botfield, Esq., the Coalbrook Dale Company, Robert Burton, Esq., and the Langley Field Company, are also proprietors.  The collieries vary from 150 yards to 200 yards in depth, and the seams of coal from two feet to four feet in thickness; the coal is of a very superior quality, and got in immense quantities.  The Coalbrook Dale Company give employment to upwards of 3,500 hands, and the quantity of coal raised by this firm in the parish of Dawley alone amounts to 8,500 tons per month, or 102,000 tons per annum, of ironstone 42,000 tons a year.  The same company also make 17,880 tons of pig iron, at the Horse Hay Works in this parish, besides 14,200 tons of finished merchant iron yearly.  A very ingenious contrivance is adopted at the Horse Hay Works, by means of which 100 tons of coal per month are saved.  Attached to the furnace chimnies where the iron is made are pipes by which the gas is brought down under the immense steam engines which are necessary for raising the coal and ironstone from the mines contiguous to the works.  On the gas uniting with the atmospheric air under the engines it immediately ignites, and thus an immense saving and power is acquired which is generally neglected in other establishments.  At the time we saw the works there was a surplus supply of gas thrown off, which would have put in motion an engine of 100 horse power.  The Horse Hay Works took their name from the circumstance of this place, in former days being the depository for hay, when the minerals were carried on pack horses from Ketley-bank to Coalbrook dale—this was a half-way house where the horses were fed, and hence the name Horse Hay Works.  Each of the adult workmen employed at this extensive establishment pays 1s. per month, which forms a fund for educational purposes and funeral expenses.

The Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a handsome structure of free stone, erected in 1845, at a cost of about £3,000, raised by subscriptions and grants from the church building societies.  The stone was got from a neighbouring quarry.  It consists of nave, chancel and side aisles, with a tower at the west end, in which are six bells.  The interior has a chaste appearance: the nave is separated from the side aisles by four lofty arches; on the north side of the chancel is a neat stone pulpit, and there is a gallery at the west end, upon which there is a superior organ erected in 1851 at a cost of £200.  The pews are uniform in character, and there are 831 sittings, of which 664 are free and unappropriated.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of the Messrs. Phillips.  Incumbent, Rev. William Richards, M.A.  The parsonage is about half a mile N.W. from the church.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £82. 10s.  Messrs. Phillips are the impropriators.  The incumbent receives £1.  The parish register dates from the year 1666.  The old church stood a little S.E. of the present edifice; it was a small structure of primitive simplicity, and had a short tower at the west end.  On the east side of the church yard stands the old parsonage, an antique fabric of wood and plaster with a thatched roof; it is much dilapidated by time, and is expected shortly to be taken down.  The Wesleyan Chapel, Dawley Green, is a plain octagonal structure, which will hold about 400 hearers.  The Wesleyans have also a spacious chapel at Dawley Bank, built in 1846.  The Wesleyan New Connection Chapel is a spacious structure at Dawley Green, which will hold about 1,000 persons.  The Particular Baptist Chapel is a small structure situated at Dawley Bank.  The Primitive Methodist Chapel is a spacious structure capable of holding about 1,000 persons, situated in Dawley Green-lane.  Dawley Green is a most densely populated part of the parish, and is about half a mile from the church; in High street are many good houses and shops in all the different branches of the retail trade.  Pool Hill School is a noble pile of buildings, erected at a cost of upwards of £3,500, defrayed by the munificence of different members of the Darby family.  The interior is spacious and lofty, and the roof is of groined timber stained in imitation of oak.  There is a good library containing upwards of 400 volumes.  The school has been built for the education of the children of workmen belonging to the Coalbrook Dale Company, and is partly supported from a fund into which each workman pays 1s. per month for educational purposes and funeral expenses of deceased members; the residue necessary for the support of the school is paid by the Coalbrook Dale Company.  The National School is a plain structure, erected in 1841, and situated near the parsonage house.  About 100 children attend.  It is supported by subscriptions and the pence of the children.  Finger Lane is a scattered district to the east of the church.

DAWLEY PARVA,
a township situated near a mile W. of Dawley Magna, comprises 900a. 1r. 38p. of land, and in 1841 had 270 houses and 1,435 inhabitants.  The canal and roads occupy 30a. 1r. 8p.  The tithes of Dawley Parva have been commuted, and £146 apportioned to Messrs. Phillips, the impropriators, and £6 to the incumbent.  The Church is a neat structure, dedicated to St. Luke, and consists of nave and bay, with a belfry at the west end, built of hewn stone of very beautiful workmanship.  The roof is of groined timber, and there is a gallery at the west end.  The cost of the fabric was about £1,300, which was raised partly by grants from the church building societies and partly by subscriptions.  There are 507 sittings, which are all free and unappropriated.  The church was built under Sir Robert Peel’s act, and is endowed with £150 per annum.  The patronage is vested in the crown and the bishop of Lichfield alternately.  The Rev. James Morris is the incumbent.  The vestry is used as a Sunday school for girls, and the boys are taught in the church.  The parsonage is a neat residence situated near the church.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a spacious chapel, built in 1837.  Holywell Lane is a populous district, chiefly of cottage residences, which take their name from a well here called Holy Well.  At Hinkhay are a number of scattered cottages.

MALINSLEE
is a township in the parish of Dawley, situated about a mile N. from the parish church, which comprises 736a. 1r. 9p. of land, and in 1841 there were 510 houses and 2,721 inhabitants, Robert H. Cheney, Esq., is the principal landowner; Beriah Botfield, Esq., is also a proprietor.  The Shropshire union canal occupies 34a. 1r. 31p., and there is 1a. 2r. 20p. of glebe in the township.  Malinslee forms a part of the great Shropshire coal field; ironstone is found in large quantities, and the iron and coal works of Beriah Botfield, Esq., are of considerable extent.  The Old Park coal works are celebrated for superior coal.  The Church is an octagonal structure, erected in the early part of the present century; it is built of free stone, and will accommodate about 800 persons.  The expenses of the erection were defrayed with money left by J. H. Browne, Esq., of Burton-upon-Trent.  The patronage is vested in the incumbent of Dawley Magna; the living is a perpetual curacy enjoyed by the Rev. William Harris.  Malinslee House is a good brick residence, built about sixty years ago by the late William Botfield, Esq.  It is now occupied as offices by the clerks of B. Botfield, Esq.  About 150 yards from the house are the ruins of a small religious house called Malinslee Abbey.  This may have been subordinate to some of the larger abbeys in the vicinity, but of which we find no record.  The ruins consist of a small oblong square with walls at each end about twenty feet high, and on each side from six to nine feet in height, having traces of the Saxon style of architecture.

Charities.—Richard Hodden, by will, dated 19th June, 1684, devised his land of inheritance, situated in Dogpole-street, Shrewsbury, and also his lands lying in Middleton-on-the-Hill, in the county of Hereford, to Richard Hodden and his heirs, on condition that he should (among other things) pay an annuity of £7 to the poor of Dawley Magna.  The premises in Dogpole-street, Shrewsbury, mentioned in Hodden’s will, cannot now be identified, but the annuity is paid by Mr. Bird, the occupier, and part owner of the premises of Middleton, which consists of a farm and buildings, and about seventy acres of land.  The amount is divided among poor widows, who are relieved according to their necessities.

Rebecca Walthall, who died in 1756, bequeathed to the churchwardens of Dawley £40, and directed the interest to be distributed yearly to the poor of Malinslee.  This money was in the hands of the late William Botfield, Esq., who distributed 40s. as the interest thereof among poor widows.  When the charity commissioners published their report Mr. Botfield had also a further sum of £50 in his hands, left as he believed by Rebecca Walthall, for which he paid interest to the incumbent of Dawley.

In the year 1738, by deed, dated 14th of April, Richard Styche, in consideration of £20 paid to him by Edward Forsbrook, with the consent of the parishioners, for placing the said money at interest for the benefit of the poor of the parish, assigned a cottage at Madeley Wood, which had been granted to him in 1732, by George Yorke, for securing the repayment of £30 advanced by him to Yorke, and of which £10 had been since paid off.  And by a memorandum at the back of the deed the parties agreed that interest at four per cent. should be paid for the £20.  On the 7th March, 1857, the said George Yorke, by endorsement on this deed, acknowledged to have borrowed of the parish officers of Dawley the sum of £13, which sum, with interest at the rate of 10s. a year, he agreed should be payable from the said premises, making the whole principal sum £33.  We could not ascertain with certainty the origin of this poor’s money, but find that Enoch Cooper, in 1721, left a sum of £20 to the use of the poor of Great Dawley, and this sum probably formed the first amount advanced on this mortgage.  In the returns of the commissioners under the act of the 26th of George III., there is mention of a benefaction by another person of the name of Cooper of £13, which agrees with the further sum advanced on the mortgage in 1757, but we have not found any other trace of this donation.

Post Office.—At Mr. Samuel Deakin’s, High street.  Letters arrive at 8 A.M., and are despatched at 5 30 P.M.  Money orders are granted at this office.

Those names with 1 affixed are in High street; 2 Chapel lane; 3 Dawley Green lane; 4 Dawley Bank, 5 Horse Hay; 6 Finger lane; 7 The Wickets.  Those marked * are Dawley Magna; and † in Malinslee.

4 Bailey Edward, farmer

1 Bailey George, grocer, seedsman, and ironmonger

1 Bailey Henry, butcher

2 Bailey John, relieving officer

1 Bailey Michael, shopkeeper

5 Bailey Robert, cashier

2 Bailey William Henry, surveyor of highways, accountant, assistant overseer, and agent to Birmingham District Fire Office

1 Barclay John Brown, shopkeeper

* Barker John, cabinet-maker, registrar of births, deaths, and marriages, and vict., Crown Inn

3 Barnes Richard, inland revenue officer

1 Bason Edward, grocer and tea dealer

1 Baugh John, saddler

1 Belshaw Robert, draper and hatter

† Blakemore Thomas, victualler, Stag Inn

† Bishton William, victualler, Plough Inn

† Bishton Geo., accountant, Malinslee House

† Botfield Beriah, Esq., ironmaster

1 Bradbury Thomas, chemist and druggist, & agent to the Royal Farmers & Medical, Legal, and General Insurance Office

5 Bratton John, accountant

6 Bray and Garbett, timber dealers

6 Bray Moses, shoemaker

6 Bray Thomas, victualler, Queen’s Arms

4 Brown Richard, butcher

4 Broom William, shoemaker

1 Brown William, butcher

1 Burroughs James, watch and clockmaker

1 Carver James, joiner and builder

1 Chilton Joseph, beerhouse

1 Chirm Jane, shopkeeper

3 Clarke John, tailor

4 Clarke William, wheelwright

3 Clemson William, maltster and victualler, King’s Arms

1 Cooke Henry, grocer, maltster, corn-miller, and seedsman

4 Cox Rev. Alfred (Baptist)

5 Dobbs James, boot and shoemaker

1 Davies George, surgeon

Darby and Co. (Colebrook Dale Company), ironmasters, Horse Hay

3 Deakin Catherine, beerhouse

1 Deakin Samuel, plumber, glazier, painter, and postmaster

* Deakin Thomas, grocer and draper

1 Deakin Wm., painter, glazier, & beerhouse

* Dixon Thomas, farmer

4 Done James, grocer and draper

1 Egerton Joseph, butcher, and beerhouse

1 Egerton Samuel, victualler, Angel Inn

1 Evans Thomas, victualler, Crown Inn

2 Faulkner Richard, beerhouse

Finley Jane, schoolmistress, Pool-hill school

* Fletcher George, farmer

3 Franklin Francis, shoemaker

3 Garbett and Bray, timber dealers

1 Garbett John, draper

2 Garbett Matthew and Benjamin, charter masters

* Garbett Michael, clerk of St. Luke’s

5 Garbett William, victualler, Peacock

1 Gill Robert, brazier

3 Green Charles H., surgeon, The Terrace

* Greenhalgh Robert, grocer

1 Greenhalgh William, grocer, draper, and hop and corn dealer

3 Gregory Mary, bonnet maker

1 Gun Robert, shoemaker

4 Guy Mary, grocer and victualler, Queen’s Head

1 Guy Thomas, pork butcher

6 Harris James, blacksmith and chainmaker

† Harris Rev. William, curate, Parsonage

3 Hayward George, shoemaker & beerhouse

1 Heaford Jonathan, tailor and draper

3 Hewlett Jane, shopkeeper and beerhouse

† Hudson William, accountant, Dark-lane House

1 Hudson William, timber dealer & builder

Hughes Andrew, butcher, and victualler, Red Lion

James Joseph, police constable

1 Jones Benjamin, ironmonger

4 Jones George, blacksmith

3 Jones John, charter master

3 Jones Phillip, beerhouse

1 Jones Thomas, confectioner

2 Jones William, charter master

1 Kirby Samuel, tailor

Langley Field Coal Company

1 Lane Rosannah, beerhouse

* Leigh Randle, beerhouse

1 Lewis George, butcher

3 Lewis James, butcher and grocer

2 Lord Mrs. Mary Ann

1 Lloyd Robert, shoemaker

* Mancell Thomas, shoemaker

3 Mason Thomas, shoemaker

† Mason William, tailor, Church lane

5 Maun James, victualler, Labour in Vain

6 Merrington Charles, blacksmith, iron-fence and chain maker

1 Millington John, beerhouse

1 Millman Richard, wheelwright

1 Mogg William, earthenware dealer

7 Morgan Thomas, blacksmith

3 Morgan Jeremiah, grocer and victualler, The Lamb

* Morris Rev. James, The Parsonage

3 Onions Enoch, shopkeeper and beerhouse

5 Owen Mary, victualler, Craven Arms

* Nightingale Saml., farmer & vic., Unicorn Inn

3 Parish Joseph, spade maker

7 Parsons John, vict., Wickets Inn

1 Pearce Richard Reynolds, leather dealer

3 Pickin James, hair dresser

4 Pierson John, hair dresser

† Poole James, boiler, chain, and nail maker, and vict., New Wickets Inn

1 Poole and Son, hair dressers

† Poole Robert, ground bailiff

1 Poole Sarah, dress maker

3 Poole William, tailor

4 Poole William, charter master

* Powell Matthew, farmer

4 Powis George, shoemaker

3 Pritchard Charles, shoemaker

6 Pritchard George, vict., Peter’s Finger

4 Pursell Lancelot, butcher

Richards Rev. William, M.A., Parsonage

5 Roden Benjamin, rolling mill manager

1 Roum Alice, beerhouse

1 Roum Maria Louisa, bonnet maker

1 Russell Joseph, draper and hatter

6 Sandlands John, saddler

Sides John James, schoolmaster (National)

1 Simms John, tailor

6 Smallman William, beerhouse and grocer

1 Slater Joseph, stationer, and at Ironbridge

5 Stanley William, grocer and draper

Stewart Elizabeth, beerhouse

Smart Rev. John, Wesleyan

Summers Thomas, maltster, farmer, and vict., Hinkshey

Taylor John Joseph, maltster and vict., Dun Cow

1 Taylor Richard, grocer, maltster, and draper

* Taylor William, farmer

4 Teece James, tailor and draper

4 Tipton Henry, charter master and vict., Red Lion

† Tipton Mark, manager to B. Botfield, Esq.; residence, Mossy Green

1 Tranter Sarah, maltster & vict., Elephant and Castle

1 Tranter William, vict., Lord Hill

* Trigger Elizabeth, farmer

3 Vaughan Thomas, charter master

3 Walford John, tailor

3 Walford Mary, dressmaker

3 Walkis Miles, joiner

1 Webb Mathew, surgeon

5 Wilkes Thomas, mine agent

5 Wilkes Mark, furnace and forge manager

5 William Edward, vict., Pudlers’ Arms

* Wright Peter, farmer

EATON CONSTANTINE,
is a parish and delightfully situated village, near the Wrekin Hill, seven miles S.E. from Shrewsbury, and five miles S.W. from Wellington.  The parish comprises 874a. 0r. 10p. of land, the principal owners of which are the Duke of Cleveland and Mrs. Maun, besides whom Mrs. Langley, Mr. Samuel Dalloe, Mr. George Davies, and Mr. William Langley, are also proprietors.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor.  In 1801 Eaton parish contained 204 inhabitants; 1831, 244, and in 1841 59 houses and 294 souls.  The Church, a neat stone edifice dedicated to St. Mary, exhibits the gothic style of architecture, and was almost wholly rebuilt during the years 1847–8, at a cost of £775.  Of this sum £490 was raised by subscriptions, £125 was granted by the Diocesan Society, £60 by the Incorporated Society for Enlarging and Building Churches, and £100 was raised by a parish rate on the parishioners.  It is considered a free chapel or rectory, in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland; incumbent, Rev. Henry Beckwith.  The tithes are commuted for £176, of which £46 is paid to the vicar of Leighton, and the residue is paid to the incumbent of Eaton Constantine.  There are 25 acres of glebe land.  The National School is a modern structure erected at the cost of £190, and situated near the church.  The Privy Council on Education granted £40 towards the erection, the Diocesan Society £20, the National Society £15, and the residue was raised by public subscriptions.  The average attendance of children is about sixty.

There is belonging to the poor of this parish the sum of £20, the origin of which is not known.  It is secured on the Atcham House of Industry, and the interest, amounting to 18s. per annum, is distributed among four of the poorest parishioners.  William Warham, in 1806, bequeathed after the decease of his wife the interest of £100, and directed the same to be distributed among five of the poorest parishioners of the parish.  The testator’s widow died in 1826, and £90 (£10 having been deducted for the legacy duty), was laid out in the purchase of £114. 2s. 1d. three per cent. consols.  The dividends, amounting to £3. 8s. 4d. per annum, are divided on Candlemas-day among five poor men residing in the parish.

Directory.—The Rev. Henry Beckwith, The Parsonage; John Bullock, carpenter; Samuel Dalloe, carpenter; John James, carpenter, Longwood; Maria Langley, beerhouse keeper; John Morris, blacksmith; Henry Smith, grocer; Zechariah Smith, farmer; Robert Thomas, farmer; Thomas Ward, carpenter.

EDGMOND
is a considerable parish, comprising the townships of Adeney, Butterey, Calvington, Caynton, Cherrington, Chetwynd Aston, Church Aston, Stanford, Tibberton, and part of Pickstock.  The parish contains 5,026a. 0r. 31p. of land; gross estimated rental, £9,227. 16s. 1½d.; rateable value, £7,854. 8s. 11½d.  Population in 1801, 1,699; 1831, 2,300, and in 1841, 2,471.  The village of Edgmond is pleasantly situated on elevated ground, about a mile W. from Newport; it contains several good residences, and commands some pleasing prospects of the surrounding country.  The township contains 1,933a. 2r. 27p. of land, and in 1841 there were 174 houses and 792 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £3,741. 4s.  9¼d.  The lands are intersected by the Shropshire union canal, which covers 20a. 0r. 32p. of land.  The principal landowners are Thomas Bayley, Esq., Mr. John Cooke Hill, Rev. John D. Pigott, Rev. William Dalton, Mr. John Moore, Mr. John Alcock, Mr. Thomas Harper Adams, and Mrs. Dewson; J. C. H. Borough, Esq., is lord of the manor.

The Church is a fine old castellated structure, dedicated to St. Peter, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower in which are six bells; four pointed arches rising from octagonal pillars divide the nave from the side aisles.  The chancel is spacious and covered with tesselated pavement.  Above the altar is a beautiful stained glass window, added a few years ago at the expense of the present rector; it contains figures, chastely executed, representative of St. Peter, St. James, and St. John, the other compartments being richly ornamented with gothic tracery.  The west window has also been beautified with stained glass by the liberality of the parishioners.  In the centre aisle is a brass with two full length figures, the armorial bearings of the family, and figures of thirteen children, in memory of the Young’s, a family of consequence in this locality in former days.  A neat tablet in the south aisle remembers William Briscoe, Esq., of Caynton, who died in 1828; near to it is another tablet to the memory of John Bayley, Esq., who died in 1833.  The font has been re-hewn, but the original characters have been preserved.  An alabaster slab, recently removed from the chancel to the west end of the church, remembers Nicholas Peckell, supposed to have been the last Roman Catholic rector of this place.  The church was anciently appropriated to the abbey of Shrewsbury.  In the 10th of Henry VII., the advowson was given to the Carthusian priory at Shortly, near Coventry.  The patronage is now vested in the Rev. John Dryden Pigott, B.A., who is also the incumbent.  The tithes have been commuted for £2,400, and there are 62a. 2r. 25p. of glebe land.  The rectory is a very ancient building on the south side of the church yard; it was no doubt built for the reception of some of the religious orders in Catholic times.  A low doorway and some other small fragments are all that remain of the ancient fabric.  Edgmond Hall, a handsome brick residence pleasantly situated a little south from the church, is the property of Mr. John C. Hill, but unoccupied when our agent visited Edgmond.  The National School, situated a little west from the church, has an attendance of 54 boys and 46 girls.  The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel built in 1835.

Charities.—In 1699 certain lands were purchased with the sum of £70, which is supposed to have been derived from some of the numerous benefactions which are recorded on a tablet in the church, and for the greater number of which, amounting to £211, no permanent mode of application is there designed.  In the purchase deeds it is directed that six penny loaves should be distributed in the parish every Sunday, from which it is inferred that John Moreton’s gift of £26 formed part of the purchase money, the interest of which at five per cent. would exactly suffice for the weekly distribution of six penny loaves.  These lands, with an allotment of about three-fourths of an acre made in respect of them some years ago, contain in the whole 13a. 0r. 22p., and now produces a yearly rental of £12.  There are also about twelve acres of land situate in the parish of Edgmond, and belonging to the poor of the parish, which are supposed to have been purchased with other of the benefactions recorded upon the tablet in the church, but there are no deeds or documents now extant indicating the source from which the property was derived, or the trusts on which it is held.  There are four pieces of land which together are let for £26. 12s. per annum; from this fund, and £4. 10s. added from the rents of the Hinstock estate, 7s. worth of bread is distributed every week among the poor of Edgmond, and 14s. worth is sent every Easter to Tibberton. £1. 19s. is distributed among the poor of Edgmond on St. David’s-day in sums of 6d. each, as the gift of David Oliver.  The residue of the fund amounting to £10. 5s. is expended in warm clothing for the poor during the winter season.

The Rev. Dryden Pigott, in 1734, bequeathed £200, and directed the interest thereof to be employed in clothing and schooling, and for books for such poor boys inhabiting the village of Edgmond as his executor and the rector of Edgmond, their heirs and successors, should judge to be a sufficient number for the purpose; the said boys to be clothed and kept at school so long as the said trustees should think fit.  This legacy in 1806 was invested in the purchase of £258. 8s. 3d. four per cent. stock, and the dividends, which amount to £10. 4s. 8d., are employed in the clothing and education of seven or eight boys.

John Smith left £100, the interest to be given upon St. John’s-day to the poor of Edgmond.  Robert Pigott, in 1746, left £50, the interest to be given to the poor of Edgmond and Adeney.  An annual sum of £7. 10s. is paid by the Rev. John D. Pigott as the interest of these two benefactions.  The amount is given away in half-crowns to the poor of Adeney and Edgmond on St. John’s-day.

Adams Thomas Harper, farmer, Anceller House

Alcock John, gentleman

Bayley Thomas, gentleman

Blakemore John, farmer

Bolas Benjamin, shoemaker

Bolas John, shoemaker

Bratton Thomas, tailor

Buckley Thomas, tailor

Casewell William, farmer

Davies William, wheelwright

Dewson Mrs. Catherine, Hill House

Evans Edward, shoemaker

Harper John, tailor and vict., Lion Inn

Hill Capt. Clement, Summer Hill

Hill John Cooke, farmer

Hollins Mr. John

Icke Mrs. Elizabeth Glover, Edgmond Grove

James John, shopkeeper

Large John, shopkeeper and carpenter

Lewin George, schoolmaster

Littleton Ben., blacksmith

Mansell Thomas, blacksmith

Moore John, farmer

Morris William, tailor

Patrick James, shoemaker

Phillips John, wheelwright

Pigott David, shoemaker

Pigott Rev. John Dryden, B.A., The Rectory

Pigott William, wheelwright

Pinson William, shoemaker

Pooler Richard, butcher

Sillitoe John, farmer

Sillitoe Thomas, farmer

Tomlins Rev. Richard, M.A.

Vigers Peter, carpenter

Wainwright Abrm., road surv.

Wiggin Thomas, farmer and vict., Old Lamb

Williams John, farmer

Yeomans John, maltster, butcher, and vict., New Inn

ADENEY, OR ADNEY,
is a small township in the parish of Edgmond, situated about a mile W. from the parish church; the township contains 618a. 2r. 22p. of land, the soil of which in some places is light and sandy, and in other parts a strong fertile loam.  The Shropshire union canal intersects the township, and occupies 15a. 0r. 2p. of land; Lady Tyrwhitt is the owner of the land, the gross rental of which is £1,175. 13s. 3d.  Rateable value, £982. 2s. 7½d.  At the census in 1841 there were ten houses and a population of 71 souls.

The principal residents are Richard Asterley, farmer; George Hammond, farmer and surveyor; and John Pooler, farmer, and brick, tile, and draining pipe manufacturer.

BUTTEREY
is a township with only one house, partly situated in the parish of Edgmond and partly in that of Lilleshall; in the former are 239a. 3r. 38p. of land, and in the latter about 30 acres.  The rateable value of the land in Edgmond is £354. 16s. 5d.  The Shropshire union railway crosses the township and occupies 5a. 2r. 6p.  There is a considerable extent of low marsh land, which is used for grazing purposes.  The Duke of Sutherland is the proprietor.  Mrs. Sarah Masefield, farmer, occupies the land, and resides at a good residence near the banks of the canal, about two miles S.W. from Edgmond.

CAYNTON,
a township two miles N.W. from Edgmond, has 670a. 0r. 17p. of land, which is the property of George Briscoe, Esq.  Rateable value, £995. 12s. 6d.  At the census of 1841 there were 14 houses and 51 inhabitants.  Caynton House is a handsome brick residence pleasantly situated, in the occupancy of Mr. Thomas Paddock, farmer.  There is a corn mill here situated on a small stream, which has its confluence with the river Tern in the parish of Ercall Magna.  Calvington, returned as in the township of Caynton at the census of 1841, is held as a separate township by the parish officers.  It contains 339a. 2r. 18p. of land, which is the property of Mr. Charles Morris.  Rateable value, £464. 0s. 1½d.  Stanford, a good farm two miles N. from Edgmond, has 221a. 0r. 23p. of land, which is the property of the Rev. William Dalton.  Rateable value, £228. 17s. 1d.

Directory.—Thomas and William Paddock, farmers, maltsters, and corn millers, Caynton; Thomas Paddock, farmer, Caynton House; Sarah Pooler, farmer, Calvington; Edward Banton, farmer, Stanford Hall.

CHERRINGTON
is a township in the parish of Edgmond, three miles and a quarter from the parish church, comprising 1,035a. 1r. 12p. of land, mostly a light fertile loam, about equal portions arable and in pasture lands.  The Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor and owner of the whole township, except 29a. 1r. 20p. of land, which is the property of Mr. Joseph Ogle.  In 1801 there were 173 inhabitants; 1831, 192; and in 1841, 39 houses and 189 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,522. 12s. 4d.  The farms here are of considerable extent, and the land has been much improved by superior cultivation.

John White gave the sum of £20 to the poor of Cherrington, and directed the interest to be distributed by the minister, churchwardens, and overseers of the parish, among the most deserving objects of charity.  This gift is now in the savings’ bank, and the interest is usually distributed among old men or widows of Cherrington.  There are traces of the distribution of this charity for more than a century back; and an entry in the churchwardens’ book for the year 1788, describes it as money left by the late Captain White.

The principal residents are Thomas Browne, farmer; Henry Green, farmer, Day House; Sarah Palin, farmer, Cherrington Manor; William Podmore, farmer; William Fletcher, joiner and builder; William Harper, shoemaker; Richard Hobson, shoemaker; Thomas Jones, shoemaker; Richard Middleton, rope maker; Benjamin Rea, corn miller; and John Williams, shopkeeper and vict., Four Crosses.

CHETWYND, OR FIELD ASTON,
is a township in the parish of Edgmond, situated near the eastern verge of the county, about a mile south from Newport.  The township is intersected by the railway, and the Newport station is within the bounds of this township, situated about half a mile from the church.  The township contains 1,244a. 0r. 8p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £3,051. 11s. 3d.  Rateable value, £2,670. 7s.  The principal landowners are the Duke of Sutherland; John Cotes, Esq.; John Tayleur, Esq.; Miss Elizabeth Slaney; Lilleshall Company; Mr. Phillips; and Mr. Stoneley.  The population of this township in 1801 was 268; 1831, 246; and 1841, 385; at the latter period there were 82 houses, which are for the most part straggling, and form in part the southern suburb to the town of Newport, and stretch on the turnpike road as far as Pave Lane, upwards of a mile and a half.

Pave Lane is a hamlet on the turnpike road, where the Lilleshall company have a depôt for coal, which is brought by canal from the extensive collieries of the Duke of Sutherland, which are leased by the Lilleshall company.  The town of Newport is almost wholly supplied by the coal brought hither, which is of very superior quality, and varies in price from 6s. 3d. to 10s. 10d. per ton.

Allman John, shoemaker and blacksmith

Baddeley Charles, farmer, Aston cottage

Baleson Rev. John, curate of Church Aston

Birks Thomas, beerhouse

Bridgwood Mr. William

Brittain Richard, farmer

Brittain Thomas, farmer and corn miller

Collier Joseph, commercial academy

Cheadle James, agent to Lilleshall company, Pave Lane

Goodwin Joseph, wheelwright

James John, farmer, Pave Lane

Hall John, station master

Humphreys Joseph, farmer and butcher

Lawley Thomas, shoemaker

Lilleshall Company, coal & lime merchants

Mancell Walter, maltster and vict., Fox and Duck, Pave lane

Mancell William, vict., Horse and Jockey, Pave Lane

Nevett John, toll-gate contractor

Paddock James, farmer

Slaney Miss Elizabeth, Holly grove

Slaney Elizabeth, farmer

Stoneley James, brick maker and farmer

Tomkinson Joseph, tailor

Treasure John, land agent, surveyor, and builder, Aston villa

CHURCH ASTON
is a chapelry and small village, with some genteel residences, pleasantly situated about a mile south from Newport, and a mile and a half east by south from Edgmond.  The township contains 720a. 2r. 37p. of land.  Ralph M. Leeke, Esq., is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  William Underhill, Esq.; John Treasure, Esq.; Miss Elizabeth Slaney; and Charles B. Brown, Esq., are also proprietors.  Gross estimated rental, £2,769. 9s. 6d.  Rateable value, £2,459. 11s. 1d.  In 1801 there was a population of 451 souls; 1831, 451; and 1841, 512, at which period there were 110 houses.  The Chapel is a neat brick structure, consisting of nave, bay, and transepts, with an octagonal tower surmounted by a vane.  The chapel was enlarged in 1823, by which means 200 additional sittings have been obtained; and in consequence of a grant from the Society for Promoting the Enlargement and Building of Churches and Chapels, 150 of that number are free and unappropriated for ever, in addition to 50 sittings formerly added; it is provided with galleries, has a small organ, a neat font, and the east window is beautified with stained glass.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of the rector of Edgmond; the Rev. John Baleson is the officiating minister.  Aston Hall is a handsome stuccoed mansion, embosomed in foliage, and has been built about twenty years; it is the property of R. M. Leeke, Esq., and seat of Ralph Ormsby Gore, Esq.  Mr. Underhill has recently built a neat villa residence on elevated ground a short distance from the village, which commands a pleasing view of the country.  The township is crossed by the Newport and Wellington turnpike road, by the Shropshire Union railway, and the canal formed by the Lilleshall company, for the conveyance of coal and lime; of the latter large quantities are made in this township; it is extensively used for agricultural purposes.  There is a large reservoir in this township of excellent water, which partly supplies the town of Newport.  The National School is a brick structure, where about eighty children are educated.

Charities.—Mrs. Mary Broughton, by will, 1728, gave to Robert Pigott and Henry Jervis the sum of £650 in trust, and directed the rents or profits thereof to be applied to the following uses, viz., 20s. to be laid out in bread and distributed among the poor of the village on the 28th July; 20s. to be laid out yearly, and distributed in like manner on the day of the month on which she should happen to die, and the residue of the yearly profits to be applied by the trustees in educational purposes, and in apprenticing poor children of this township.  By a decree of the Court of Chancery, made the 7th of May, 1752, in a cause in which the Attorney-general, at the relation of Adam Jervis and Richard Jervis plaintiffs, and Robert Pigott defendant, it was decreed that £650 should be laid out in the purchase of stock, which was accordingly invested in the purchase of £611. 15s. 4d south sea annuities.  The costs of the suit were paid out of a sum of £136. 5s. 8d., which had accumulated as interest before the stock was purchased.  The trusts of this charity had been very inefficiently carried out when the charity commissioners published their report.  The amount expended up to the year 1819 was for bread, £103. 15s.; schooling and books, £115. 5s. 10d.; apprenticing, £120; extra charges on the charity estate, £59. 14s., making a total of £398. 14s. 10d., whilst the dividends to October 1820 amounted to £688. 2s. 4d.

A sum of £20, supposed to have been the gift of Francis and Elizabeth Watson, is placed in the Newport Savings’ Bank.  The interest is distributed among the poor, with other sums collected for the same purpose from the parishioners, at Christmas.  An annual sum of 5s. is expended in bread for the poor on Good Friday.

Brown Charles Baldwin, Esq.

Bullock Elizabeth, vict., The Last

Crump Mr. Thomas

Doody Mrs. Elizabeth, Aston grove

Felton Joseph, farmer

Gore Ralph Ormsby, Esq., Aston hall

Icke James Joseph, farmer, and corn and guano merchant, Vanx hall

Jackson William, farmer

Kittridge William Smith, schoolmaster

Lowe William, shopkeeper, winnowing and thrashing machine and general agricultural implement manufacturer

Norris Mrs. Martha

Underhill William, Esq.

Vaughton Thomas, Esq., Ashton villa

Ward George Joseph, timber merchant

Williams Mrs. Sarah

PICKSTOCK
is a township and small village in the parish of Edgmond, situated on an acclivity near the eastern verge of the county adjoining Staffordshire, about three miles north-east from the parish church.  It is a detached part of the parish separated from the rest of Edgmond by the parish of Chetwynd intervening.  The township contains 1003a. 0r. 14p. of land, the principal owners of which are Robert Gardener, Esq., William Justice, Esq., Rev. William Dalton, Mr. Pooler, and Mr. Joseph Smith.  Gross estimated rental, £1,298. 13s. 0½d.  Rateable value, £1,087. 15s. 5d.  At the census in 1841 there were 29 houses and 157 inhabitants, of which three houses and fifteen persons were returned as in Chetwynd parish.

Directory.—William Bevan, farmer and corn miller: John Firmstone, farmer; Richard Hazledine, farmer; John Rudge, farmer; John Stokes, farmer and butcher; Mary Maria Stokes, farmer; Richard Wright farmer; Theodore Wright, farmer.

TIBBERTON
is a chapelry, township, and small village three miles W.W. by N. from Edgemond, which contains 1418a. 1a. 22p. of land, the soil of which is chiefly a cold clay, in some parts it is of a light loamy nature, and highly fertile, having been much improved by superior cultivation.  The farms here are of considerable extent, the land held by fourteen different tenants within memory of man, is now held by three farmers; nearly the whole of the land is the property of the Duke of Sutherland, there are, however, three small freeholders, viz., the Rev. J. D. Pigott, Mr. J. Brittain, and Mr. J. Fletcher.  Rateable value of the township, £2,410. 5s. 5d.  At the census in 1801 there were 289 inhabitants; 1831, 351, and in 1841 72 houses and 329 souls.  The Chapel is a small structure of free stone, and consists of nave and chancel, with a square tower.  It stands near the site of a former edifice which had become dilapidated.  The Rev. George Pigott is the officiating minister.  There are several handsome monumental tombs in memory of members of some of the principal families in the neighbourhood in the cemetery which surrounds the chapel.  A National School has been built in the village; about sixty scholars attend.  The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel here, built in the year 1842.  The paper mill of Mr. J. Brittain is situated near the church.  The Spray Hill is an eminence planted with a clump of Scotch pine trees, which is a conspicuous object for many miles round.  The poor of this township receive 14s. worth of bread out of the rents of the poor’s lands at Edgmond.  In the returns of charitable donations made to parliament under the act 26th George III. there is mentioned a legacy of £40 by one Mr. Matthews, to poor housekeepers at Tibberton, which is stated to be then in the hands of William Fletcher, rendering an annual interest of £1. 12s.  There is no evidence to show what become of the ultimate destination of this gift, but its benefits have long been lost to the poor.

Directory.—The farmers are Thomas Green, Day House; Thomas Jones and William Taylor, Tibberton Grange; the other principal residents are Robert Bates, wheelwright; John Booth, butcher; John Brittain, paper manufacturer; Henry Cotton, blacksmith; John Crawford, shoemaker; Theophilus Fletcher, shoemaker and beerhouse keeper; William Howle, tailor; William Lawley, schoolmaster; Mary Morgan, beerhouse keeper; Elizabeth Podmore, schoolmistress; Robert Simpson, wheelwright.

ERCALL HIGH, OR ERCALL MAGNA,
is a considerable parish in the Wellington division of the South Bradford hundred, comprehending the townships of Cold Hatton, Cotwall and Mooretown, Cruddington, Ellerdine, Ercall Magna, Haughton, Isombridge, Osbaston, Poynton, Rowton, Sleap, Tern, and Walton, together containing 11,152 acres of land, of which 179a. 3r. 24p. are in woods, roads, and waste, and there are 39a. 1r. 11p. of glebe.  The parish in 1801 contained 1,091 inhabitants; 1831, 2,048, and in 1841 there were 364 houses and a population of 1,999 souls.  Rateable value, £14,140. 19s. 6½d.  The houses are in general built of brick, and slated; the cottages are also of brick, and in many instances the occupants have a small allotment of ground.  The ancient residences of the gentry are in most instances converted into farm dwellings; there are, however, many neat villa residences in the modern style of architecture, of a respectable character, surrounded with park like enclosures.  The soil is chiefly a mixture of sand and loam, and the land is mostly used for arable purposes, in some instances large dairies of cheese are made, and the district is celebrated for a fine breed of sheep.  The land is chiefly tithe free, the tithes on the rest of the parish were commuted in 1841 for £829. 15s.  The village of High Ercall is pleasantly situated eight miles N.E. from Shrewsbury and five and a half miles N.N.W. from Wellington.  Here are several good shops and respectable residences; the air is salubrious, and the country around beautifully diversified with picturesque scenery.  The township contains 1,589a. 1r. 18p. of land, and in 1841 had 42 houses and 213 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,453.  Few districts possess so good a soil; the farms are extensive, and in most cases the land has been greatly improved by superior cultivation, and removing the fences and throwing the land into large enclosures.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor and owner of the whole township.  The turnpike roads to Newport, Shawbury, Wem, Whitchurch, Wellington, and Shrewsbury, intersect the township.  In the 51st of Henry III., John de Ercalewe had a grant of a market here on a Monday, and a fair on the eve and the feast of the nativity of the Virgin Mary and the day after.

The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, an ancient structure, consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a massive square tower containing six bells, and a clock.  The side aisles are separated from the nave by four pointed arches rising from circular pillars; the church is neatly pewed with oak sittings, and the pulpit and reading desk are of carved oak of the most elaborate workmanship.  The chancel is lofty and contains several mural monuments, one of which remembers Sarah, the wife of Edward Steedman, and children, dated 1834; another remembers the Rev. Henry Wood, who died in 1795; there are also tablets to Cecil Frederick Juckes, the Rev. Lawrence Gardener, and a full length figure, which exhibits a fine specimen of chiselling, near the north end of the church.  In the church yard are many monumental tombs of fine workmanship, to some of the principal families resident in the neighbourhood.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £17. 6s. 8d., now returned at £290 in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland; incumbent, Rev. Robert Forester, M.A., who resides at the vicarage, a good brick building a short distance from the church.  Near the west end of the church are the ruins of an ancient structure, which was formerly moated.  Sir Richard Newport, of High Ercall, Knight, by letters patent, bearing date at Bridgenorth, 14th October, 18th Charles I., was advanced to the dignity of baron of this realm, by the title of Lord Newport, of High Ercall.  That gentleman advanced six thousand pounds for the king’s use when at Shrewsbury, by which means the artillery was put in a position to march against the parliamentary forces, upon which followed the battle of Edge hill.  The Hall, an ancient residence with projecting gables, was built by Sir Francis Newport, Knight.  This house is said to have been garrisoned in the time of the civil wars.  In levelling a mound near it, Mr. Steedman’s labourers discovered about a thousand silver coins, the greater part of the reign of Charles I., some of Elizabeth, and others of the reign of Philip and Mary.  The hall is now in the occupancy of Edward Blakeway Steedman, Esq.  Ercall Park is a handsome structure, the residence of William Holt Midgley, Esq.; it is built in the Elizabethan style of architecture, and beautified with shrubberies and pleasure grounds tastefully laid out; the house is surrounded by large enclosures containing some thriving plantations.  Sherlowe, the residence of George Townsend Forester, is a modern structure built within the last three years, with farm premises on a scale of considerable magnitude.  The Lodge, another good residence of modern construction, is in the occupancy of Mr. Thomas Jukes.  The above houses have all very extensive out premises, and all the modern appliances, with steam engines for carrying out the operations of extensive farms in the most economical manner.

The Free School was founded by Thomas Leeke, one of the Barons of the Court of Exchequer, in 1663.  In January, 1816, the Attorney-General, at the relation of Ralph Leeke, filed an information against Rann Dolphin Edwards, and John Douglas, for the purpose of setting aside a lease which had been granted in 1772 for a term of 99 years, at the yearly rent of £30, and for obtaining the directions of the court as to the future application of the rents.  The master by his report, made 18th February, 1828, and subsequently confirmed by the court, ordered that the school should be for teaching English, writing, and accounts free, and also Latin and Greek when required; the master to charge a guinea a quarter and a guinea entrance for the latter; that the schoolmaster’s salary should be £50 per annum, with liberty for the trustees to increase it at their discretion; that no boys should be admitted until they are capable of reading the New Testament; that any surplus which should arise from the accumulations of rent during a vacancy, or from the annual income not expended in the master’s salary, or repairs, should be expended in rewards to four or more of the scholars at the examination, or who should be reported by the master to the trustees as deserving thereof, or in providing a library of useful books for the school: that the trustees should have power to displace the master in case of incapacity, immorality, or neglect, and that the trustees should have power to make such orders as they should think necessary for the better government of the school.  The master, in a report made June 3rd, 1828, found that the sum of £960 was due for rent up to Lady Day, 1828, out of which Mr. Edwards was entitled to retain costs, leaving £831. 1s. from which £428. 2s. 8d. was paid for the costs of the other parties, leaving £402. 18s. 4d., which was ordered to be divided proportionably between the representatives of the two schoolmasters who had officiated between November, 1815, and December, 1827.  The charity estate is situated near Trefnanny, in the parishes of Guilsfield and Myford, in the county of Montgomery, and produces a yearly income of £93.  Out of the income of the charity the master receives a salary of £50, and he also receives £6. 13s. 4d. per annum in respect of Stevinton’s gift.  The school is conducted according to the scheme established by the Court of Chancery, except that the master makes a charge of 10s. 6d. for the entrance of such boys as are not classical scholars, which appears to be contrary to the directions of the court.

Richard Stevinton, by his will, in 1652, devised an annuity of £6. 13s. 4d., payable out of lands at Arleston, to be applied towards the maintenance of a schoolmaster of High Ercall, who should teach children resident in the said parish without any reward from the parents of the children.

The Hospital consists of seven dwellings, and each inmate has a room above and a room below, and a small garden annexed.  The hospital was founded by the Newport family.  The building is kept in repair at the expense of the Duke of Cleveland, from whose agent the inmates receive £3 per quarter, with an additional payment of 21s. at Christmas, and 5s. at Midsummer.  The selection of these persons is not confined to the parishioners or inhabitants of High Ercall, but are selected from deserving objects residing in the neighbourhood, a preference being given to those who have seen better days, and have been reduced by misfortune to poverty.

Poors’ Land.—There are two closes in the township of Eaton, in the parish of Stoke-upon-Trent, which have for a long period been let from time to time by the churchwardens.  The last lease was dated 29th August, 1795, and it was therein recited that the then churchwardens of High Ercall were lawfully seized of the premises, in trust to distribute the rents among the poor of the parish of High Ercall, two shillings every fortnight in bread, and the remainder in money on St. Thomas’s-day.  There does not appear any documents in the parish to show from whom this land was devised, or on what trust it is held.  The two closes contain together 3a. 3r. 4p. of land, and are let at a yearly rental of £8.  The amount is given away on St. Thomas’s-day.

Several sums of money, amounting in the whole to £199, left by eight several donors, for the benefit of the poor of this parish, were for many years placed out at interest on private security, and previous to the year 1814 £40 of the above sum was lost.  About that period the remainder was called in, and with £20 advanced from the poor’s rates, was laid out in the purchase of certain premises for a parish workhouse.  Since 1814 the sum of £8 has been paid out of the poor’s rates as the interest of this money, and distributed among poor persons in small sums, seldom exceeding one shilling.

Thomas and Edward Thomas, each gave £100 in trust, to invest the same for the benefit of the poor of the parish of High Ercall.  These donations were invested by the trustees in 1798 in the purchase of three per cent. consols, which were increased in 1816 by the accumulation of dividends to the sum of £500, when the stock was transferred to John Colley and Edward Steedman.  Of the sum of £193. 8s. 2d. received in 1816 for the arrears of dividends, after payment of expenses of recovering the same, and the purchase of the additional stock, there remained in the hands of Mr. Colley the sum of £74. 6s. 1d., out of which he disposed of £38. 15s. to different charitable purposes, and in 1830 when the charity commissioners published their report he had still £35. 11s. 1d. in his hands.  The principal part of the dividends is now applied in the purchase of bread, which is distributed among poor persons of the parish, a preference being given to widows, the remainder of the dividends is given among the necessitous poor in money.

Mr. Henry Harris is the registrar of births and deaths for the High Ercall district.

Post Office.—At Mr. Harris’s.  Letters arrive daily from Wellington by a foot messenger at 9 45 A.M., and are despatched at 5. P.M.

Bates Richard, shoemaker and gardener

Blakeway William, farmer and victualler, Cleveland Arms.

Clarke Robert, farmer and maltster

Dingle Rev. John, schoolmaster and curate, of Upton

Forester George Townsend, Esq., Sherlowe

Forester Rev. Robert Townsend, M.A., The Vicarage

Harris Henry, grocer, druggist, seed, corn, hop, iron and steel merchant, ironmonger, guano and tillage dealer, cheese factor, and nail maker

Jebb William, thrashing machine man

Juckes Mr. Thomas, The Lodge

Large Thomas, joiner and wheelwright

Midgley Mrs., Park House

Midgley William Holt, Esq., Ercall Park

Pigott Mr. John

Powell Thomas, farmer and corn miller

Steedman Edward Blakeway, Esq., The Hall

Steedman Mary, gentlewoman

Taylor William, blacksmith

Vaughan Elizabeth, tailor

Wilding Ana, gentlewoman

COLD HATTON,
a township and pleasant village four miles N.N. by E. from High Ercall, is situated on a bold eminence, and commands extensive views over a luxuriant country.  The township contains 787a. 3r. of land, and at the census of 1841 there were 51 houses and 253 inhabitants; the soil is for the most part a mixture of loam and sand, producing good crops of barley and turnips.  There are 16a. 0r. 8p. in roads and waste.  Rateable value, £907. 6s. 2d.  The tithes are commuted for £90, of which £84 has been apportioned to the vicar of High Ercall, and £6 to the impropriator; the chief part of the large tithes have been purchased by the owners of the soil.  The Duke of Sutherland and the Duke of Cleveland are the landowners.

The principal residents in this township are George Colley, tailor; Robert Hick, farmer; Richard Lewis, carpenter; William Morgan, pig dealer and shopkeeper; George Nicklin, boot and shoemaker; John Nicklin, wheelwright; William Pitchford, farmer; George Ridgeway, blacksmith; Joseph Shakes haft, farmer; William Shakeshaft, farmer; John Webb, vict., Seven Stars.

COTWALL AND MOORETOWN,
is a township situated about a mile E. from High Ercall, which contains 925a. 3r. 13p. of land, the whole of which is the property of the Duke of Cleveland, who is also lord of the manor.  At the census of 1841 there were nine houses and 65 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,237. 1s.  The land in this locality is pleasingly diversified with undulations; the low lands produce a rich herbage, and the arable lands produce fine crops of grain and turnips.  The turnpike road from Newport to Wellington intersects the township, and a small stream separates Mooretown from the township of Rowton.  The farm houses are well built, provided with convenient and commodious out-premises, and the farms are of considerable extent.  The Cotwall farm, the residence of Mr. Richard Juckes, is pleasantly situated on an eminence, and commands a fine view of the country.

The principal residents are Thomas Allan, farmer, Mooretown; Robert Atcherley, farmer, Mooretown, and Richard Juckes, farmer, Cotwall.

CRUDGINGTON
is a township in the parish of Ercall, two and a half miles E. from the parish church, and four miles N. from Wellington.  In 1841 here were 43 scattered houses and a population of 96 souls; this township and the adjoining township of Sleap conjointly contain 1,450a. 1r. of land; the soil is various, in some places a strong loam prevails, which produces excellent crops of all kinds of grain, in other parts it is light and sandy.  Rateable value, £1,680. 2s. 8d.  The Duke of Sutherland is the sole landowner, in this and the adjoining township of Sleap, and is also lord of the manor.  Sleap is a small township about the same distance E. from High Ercall as Crudgington, which in 1841 had 17 houses and 85 inhabitants.  The rateable value of this township is included in the returns for Crudgington.

The following are the principal residents in Crudgington, viz.:—William Rider, farmer; Thomas Lancelot Steward, farmer, The Leasows; William Humphreys, blacksmith; Charles Madeley, beerhouse keeper, and Mrs. Elizabeth Tudor.  The principal farmers in Sleap are John Jenkinson and Mrs. Prudence Davies.

ELLERDINE
is a township with a scattered population, three miles north-east from High Ercall.  The air in this locality is salubrious, and the land has a fine undulating surface, the high grounds of which command extensive and interesting views of the surrounding country.  The township contains 1,329a. 1r. 27p. of land, the soil of which in some places is a strong clay, in other parts sandy, and some places has a fertile loam.  The land has been much improved by draining and superior cultivation.  The farmers in general are respectable, and hold considerable breadth of land.  At the census in 1841 there were 57 houses and 300 inhabitants.  Rateable value of the township, £1,384. 10s. 3½d.  The Duke of Cleveland is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  The other freeholders are the Rev. Henry Delves Broughton; Mr. George Adney; John Kilvert, Esq.; John Taylor, Esq.; Mr. John Whitfield; and Mr. Harris.  The tithes of this township and that of Rowton are commuted for £376. 12s., of which £165. 12s. has been apportioned to John Kilvert, Esq.; £146 to Jonathan Scarth, Esq.; and £65 to the vicar of High Ercall.  Oak House, the residence and property of John Taylor, Esq., is a neat modern structure of brick.  The situation is delightful, and the grounds are beautifully laid out.  The Wesleyan Methodists and Primitive Methodists have each a small chapel here.

Butterey William, shoemaker and shopkeeper

Cliff Thomas, Heath farm

Cotterall Elizabeth, farmer

Cotterall John, Newhouse farm

Dickin Mrs. Margaret

Dickin Thomas Adney, the Hall farm

Foulkes Wm., vict., the Oak

Green Elizabeth, farmer

Green John, farmer

Hamer William, Windy Oak farm

Jones William, gardener and seedsman

Peplow George, shoemaker

Taylor John, Esq., Oak House

Wellings William, clock and watch maker

HOUGHTON,
a small township four miles south-west from High Ercall, in which parish it is situated, at the census of 1841 contained five houses and twenty-three inhabitants.  The township contains 376a. 2r. 8p. of land, of which 5a. 2r. 27p. are in woods and waste.  The soil is mostly strong, with a clayey sub-soil, some parts of which have been much improved by draining, and other parts are undergoing the same process.  The Duke of Cleveland is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  Mrs. Ann Corbet is also a proprietor in the township.  Rateable value, £260. 9s.  The tithes of Houghton, and those of the township of Poynton, were commuted in 1841 for £82. 5s.

The resident farmers in Houghton are Thomas Brisbourne and John Leeke.

ISOMBRIDGE,
a township and scattered village in the parish of High Ercall, at the census of 1841 contained 38 houses and 94 inhabitants.  The cottagers in general hold a small portion of land, but the cottages in most instances have a mean appearance, and are thatched.  The township contains 567a. 1r. 37p. of land.  The soil in some places is strong, and in other parts a fertile loam prevails; the meadows produce a rich herbage, and are chiefly used for pasturage.  The township is intersected by the Shropshire union canal, the river Tern, and the Wellington turnpike road.  There are 11a. 1r. 22p. in roads, water, and waste.  The tithes have been commuted, and £90 apportioned to the Duke of Cleveland, and £38 to the vicar of High Ercall.  The landowners are John Tayleur, Esq., Mr. John Griffiths, and Mrs. Isabella Ickle.  Marsh Green, and part of Long Waste is partly in this township; at the former the Primitive Methodists have a small brick chapel, built in 1841.

Directory.—Richard Bevan, farmer, Mirelake; Jeremiah Bromley, farmer; Richard Edwards, gardener and seedsman, Marsh Green; Harriet Dixon, farmer, the Marsh; Joseph Nevols, beerhouse and shopkeeper, Marsh Green; George Price, farmer; John Tudor, vict., Tayleur’s Arms, Long Green.

OSBASTON, OR ASBASTON
township is situated about a mile north-west from Ercall Magna, and in 1841 contained seven houses and fifty-seven inhabitants.  The houses are pleasantly situated on the turnpike road leading to Hodnet; the farm houses are commodious, and provided with extensive and convenient out-premises.  The township contains 589a. 3r. 26p. of land, which is the property of the Duke of Cleveland, who is also lord of the manor.  Rateable value, £705. 6s. 6d.

The chief residents in Osbaston are Thomas Bates, boot and shoemaker; Sarah Brookes, farmer; Mrs. Sarah Colley, the Hall; and John Colley, farmer.

POYNTON,
another small township in the parish of High Ercall, with a few scattered houses pleasantly situated on the turnpike road leading to Shrewsbury, three miles south-west from the parish church, contains 587a. 3r. 9p. of land, principally a strong soil; some parts of the land have been much improved by draining.  Rateable value, £610. 4s.  At the census in 1841 there were 20 houses and 95 inhabitants.  The tithes of this township and that of Houghton are commuted for the sum of £82. 5s.  The Duke of Cleveland and Mrs. Ann Corbet are the landowners: the former is lord of the manor.

Directory.—William Breeze, farmer; Samuel Buttery, boot and shoemaker; Robert Hamer, farmer; Thomas Madeley, farmer; Richard Morgan, farmer; Eleanor Wainwright, farmer.

RODEN,
a township and small village in the parish of High Ercall, pleasantly situated on the banks of the river Roden, two miles S.W. from the parish church; the township contains 1,351a. 2r. of land, of which 26 acres are in woods and plantations, and 14 acres water, roads, and waste; the soil is variable, in some parts a cold clay prevails, and in other parts a mixture of sand and loam.  Rateable value, £1,331. 12s.  The Duke of Cleveland and Charles Orlando C. Pemberton, Esq., are the landowners, the latter is lord of the manor; John Tayleur, Esq., is the impropriator of the rectoral tithes, which have been commuted.  A modus of £3. 3s. is paid to the vicar of High Ercall.  The Shrewsbury and Ercall turnpike road passes through this township.  At the census in 1841 Roden contained 33 houses and 161 inhabitants.

Directory.—Joseph Beddow, beerhouse keeper and maltster; John Birch, farmer, Rodenhurst; Thomas Bourne, brickmaker; John Evanson, maltster; Edward Jones, farmer; William Light, farmer; Elizabeth Marshall, shopkeeper; William Taylor, farmer; Samuel Woodfin, farmer, New Farm; Robert Yeomans, shopkeeper.

ROWTON,
a township, chapelry, and pleasant village situated on high ground, in a pleasant part of the country, two and a quarter miles N.E. from High Ercall.  The township contains 800a. 0r. 33p. of land, and in 1841 there were 26 houses and 181 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,118. 19s. 4d.  There are some good farm houses in this township with commodious outbuildings, and the farms are of considerable extent; cattle and sheep are extensively fed in this locality.  The Chapel of Ease is a small unpresuming edifice built of red free stone, and ornamented with a wooden turret; the interior is neatly pewed, and there is a small gallery at the west end; the Rev. Mr. Robinson is the officiating minister.  The tithes of Rowton and those of the township of Ellerdine are commuted for £376. 12s.  The Duke of Cleveland is the principal landowner and lord of the manor; Mr. Adney, Mrs. Dickin, Mr. Thomas Nicklin, and John Whitfield, Esq., are also proprietors.

The celebrated nonconformist divine, Richard Baxter, was born at Rowton, November 12th, 1615.  His father was an honest and religious man, in humble circumstances, but a small freeholder; his estate, however, was very inconsiderable.  His son is said to have given strong indications of that piety and purity which appeared in his subsequent life and conversation.  He passed his infancy at Rowton, under the roof of his grandfather, and in 1625, when about ten years of age, was removed from Rowton to his father’s house at Eaton Constantine.  He received the chief portion of his learning at Ludlow, but had not the advantages of an academical education; when at school he had the use of an excellent library, which, by his great application, proved of infinite service to him.  His first engagements in life it appears was teaching a free school at Newport, and he was afterwards appointed master of the free school at Dudley, with an usher under him.  While he taught the school there he read several practical treatises, by which he was brought to a deep sense of religion, and having an earnest desire to engage in the ministry, he in 1638 addressed himself to Dr. Tharnborough, bishop of Worcester, for holy orders, which, after examination, he received, having at that time no scruples of conscience which hindered him from conforming to the Church of England.  He shortly after frequently preached at Dudley, and the neighbouring villages, with great acceptance among his hearers, but when the et cætera oath came to be imposed, Mr. Baxter applied himself diligently to study the case of episcopacy as in other instances, the thing which was intended to fix him to the hierarchy, gave him a dislike to it.  In the year 1640 he accepted the invitation of the bailiffs and feoffees of Kidderminster to preach there for an allowance of £60 a year.  In the memorable struggles of this period, he sided with the parliament, and recommended the protestation they directed to be taken by the people.  This exposed him to some inconveniences which obliged him for a time to retire to Gloucester, but be afterwards returned to Kidderminster and resumed the work of the ministry.  He hindered, as far as it was in his power, the taking of the covenant, and preached and spoke publicly against it.  When Cromwell assumed the supreme power he was not afraid to express his dissatisfaction at his tyranny, and in a conference which he had with him afterwards, stated his views in terms not to be misunderstood by the Protector.  After the restoration he became one of the king’s chaplains in ordinary, had frequent access to his royal person, and was always treated by him with peculiar respect.  At the Savoy conference Mr. Baxter assisted as one of the commissioners, and then drew up the reformed liturgy, which all allow to be an excellent performance.  He was offered the bishopric of Hereford by the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, which he refused to accept.  At this period he would gladly have returned to his beloved town of Kidderminster, and have preached there, but this was refused him.  When he found himself thus disappointed, he preached occasionally about the city of London, and afterwards returned to Acton, in Middlesex, where he went to church every Lord’s-day, and spent the rest of the day with his family and a few poor neighbours, in explaining the Scriptures and prayer.  His auditors continued to increase, and shortly after, upon a warrant signed by two justices, he was committed for six months to New Prison jail.  After the indulgence of 1672 he returned to London, and was one of the Tuesday lecturers at Pinner’s Hall.  He had a Friday lecture at Fetter-lane, but only preached occasionally on the Sunday.  In 1682 he suffered severely on account of his nonconformity.  One day he was suddenly surprised by an officer, who apprehended him upon a warrant to seize his person for coming within five miles of a corporate town; producing, at the same time, five more warrants to distrain for £195 for five sermons.  At this time he lay on a sick bed, but he was dragged before five justices, and took his oath that he could not go to prison without danger of death.  But the officers executed their warrants on the books and goods in the house, and even sold the bed on which he lay sick.  In 1684 he was bound in a penalty of £400 to keep the peace, by the justices of Middlesex, and in the year following he was committed to the King’s Bench prison, by a warrant from the Lord Chief Justice Jefferies, for his paraphrase on the New Testament; the trial took place on the 30th of May, when he was found guilty, and received a severe sentence.  In 1686 the king, by the mediation of Lord Powis, granted him a pardon.  After this he settled in Charter house yard, contenting himself with the exercise of his ministry, as assistant to Mr. Silvester.  He died on the 8th of December, 1691, and was buried in Christ Church.  His remains were followed to the grave by a large concourse of people of all ranks and qualities, who prudently paid this last tribute of respect to a great and good man, whose labours deserved much from true Christians of all denominations.  Mr. Baxter was in several respects one of the most eminent persons of his time; he preached more sermons, wrote more books, and engaged in more controversies than any other nonconformist of his age.  He spoke, disputed, and wrote with ease, and discovered the same intrepidity when he reproved Cromwell, and expostulated with Charles II., as when he preached to a congregation of mechanics.  His works are extremely voluminous, and they are still held in high estimation.  An eminent divine observes of them, that his practical writings were never mended, his controversial, seldom refuted.  The celebrated Doddridge, in a letter to a friend in 1723, says, “Baxter is my particular favourite.  It is impossible to tell how much I am charmed with the devotion, good sense, and pathos, which is every where to be found in him.  I cannot forbear looking upon him as one of the greatest orators, both with regard to copiousness, acuteness, and energy that our nation hath produced.”

Directory.—Mrs. Elizabeth Adney, The Hall; John Adney, farmer and grazier; William Edwards, shopkeeper; George Fowler, beerhouse keeper; Charles Jukes, maltster and farmer; Samuel Nicklin, boot and shoemaker; Thomas Nicklin, wheelwright; George Vickers, blacksmith and agricultural implement maker; John Whitfield, Esq., The Villa farm, and chairman to the Wellington Poor Law Board of Guardians.

TERN, OR TEARN,
a small township in the parish of High Ercall, with a few houses delightfully situated two miles S.E. from the parish church, contains 487a. 3r. 13p. of land, of which four acres are in roads and waste; the river Tern bounds the township on the S.E.  At the census in 1841 there were seven houses and 41 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £659. 18s.  The Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor and owner of the land.  Tern House, a commodious brick residence, occupied by Thomas Juckes, Esq., is pleasantly situated on a gentle acclivity near the stream of the Tern; the views it commands of the surrounding country are extensive and pleasingly diversified.  The farm buildings are of considerable extent, and are provided with all the modern appliances for farming extensively in the most economical manner.

The principal residents are George Jukes, solicitor, and Thomas Juckes, Esq.

WALTON
is a township and parish of High Ercall, situated in a delightful part of the country, about a mile W. by N. from the church; the township contains 855a. 0r. 8p. of land, and in 1841 here were 23 houses and 135 inhabitants; the houses are for the most part scattered on the turnpike road leading from Ercall to Shawbury.  The farm houses are good residences, occupied by respectable agriculturists.  Rateable value of the township, £969. 12s.  The Duke of Cleveland is the proprietor of the whole township and lord of the manor.  Walton Hall, a structure of considerable antiquity, composed of timber and brick work, was a place of no mean pretensions in by-gone days, is now occupied as a farm dwelling.

Directory.—John Breeze, boot and shoemaker; George Brookes, farmer; William Hughes, tailor; William Juckes, butcher; William Rogers, shopkeeper; Edward S. Webster, The Hall Farm; Mrs. Jane Webster, The Hall; James Wilding, farmer, New House.

EYTON-UPON-THE-WILD-MOORS,
a parish and small village, is pleasantly situated in a retired locality, two miles and a half north from Wellington.  The parish comprises 1,190a. 2r. 37p. of land, and in 1801 had 323 inhabitants; 1831, 350; and in 1841, 389; at the latter period there were 82 houses.  Rateable value, £2,187. 10s.  The Church is a small brick fabric, dedicated to All Saints.  It contains an antique stone font; there is a small gallery at the west end; the east window contains some fragments of stained glass; the other windows are ornamented with armorial bearings of the Eyton family.  The living is a rectory united to the vicarage of Wellington.  The celebrated Edward Herbert, Lord Chirbury, was born at this place.  His lordship stood in the highest rank among the public ministers, historians, and philosophers of the age in which he lived.  Lord Herbert was the first and most candid of our English infidels, and his system of deism contains less of acrimonious censure of Christianity than that of any other writer.  He was created Knight of the Bath at the accession of James I.  He distinguished himself at the siege of Juliers; and, in 1616, was sent ambassador to Louis XIII., but was recalled on account of a dispute between him and the Constable De Luynes.  In 1625 he was created a baron of the kingdom of Ireland, and in 1631 was elevated to the English peerage.  His lordship left a History of Henry VIII., in folio; a treatise, “De Religione Gentilium um and expedito Buckingami ducis in Ream Insulam,” and an account of his own life.  His lordship was born in 1581 and died in 1648.  The present noble family of Powis is descended on the female side from Lord Herbert, of Chirbury.  Granger, in his “Biographical History of England,” in speaking of his lordship, observes, “It is hard to say whether his person, his understanding, or his courage, was the most extraordinary.  But the same man was wise and capricious, redressed wrongs and quarrelled for punctilios; hated bigotry, and was himself a bigot to philosophy; he exposed himself to such danger as other men of courage would have carefully declined; and called in question the fundamentals of a religion which none had the hardiness to dispute besides himself.”  Eyton Hall is a handsome stuccoed residence, with a piazza in front supported by twelve pillars; it opens into a neatly laid out garden, beautified with shrubberies; and in front of the hall is a small park, stocked with deer.  It is the seat and property of Thomas Eyton, Esq., who is the principal landowner and lord of the manor; the Trustees of Preston Hospital are also proprietors.  This parish is intersected by the Shropshire Union Canal.  Among the gentlemen who compounded for their estates during the Commonwealth, Sir Thomas Eyton, of Eyton, paid £976.

Directory.—Thomas Eyton, Esq., The Hall; William Anslow, farmer; Samuel Cartwright, farmer; Helena Cooke, farmer; Matthew Davies, farmer and maltster; Richard Edwards, farmer and farm-bailiff to T. Eyton, Esq.; Mary Jenkins, farmer; John Jones, gardener; Stephen Reynolds, corn miller; John Robinson, blacksmith, agricultural implement maker, and parish clerk; Thomas Shuker, saddler.

KINNERSLEY
is a parish and village, in a pleasant situation, three miles and a half N.N.W. from Wellington, which in 1801 contained 210 inhabitants; in 1841 there were 49 houses and a population of 295 souls.  The parish comprises 1,789a. 2r. 36p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £2,720.  Rateable value, £2,443. 3s.  There are 104a. 3r. 14p. of woods and plantations, and 75 acres of glebe land.  The Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor and owner of the land.  The village is surrounded by what is called moor-land, which was enclosed about half a century ago.  It has, however, lost all the characteristics of a moor, and is now chiefly in large enclosures, and generally good grazing land.  About half a mile north-east from the church there is a large mound, which encloses upwards of twenty acres of land, and surrounds the premises of the Wall Farm.  This is supposed to have been a British encampment, and to have been raised before the moors became boggy; for there is no trace of any road across the moors by which this vast rampart of sand-rock could be conveyed, which must have been the case, if the moss at those early periods was as boggy as in after ages.  The rampart measures 1,900 yards in circumference, and is from sixteen to twenty feet in breadth.

The Church is a small structure, mantled with ivy, and dedicated to St. Chad.  It consists of nave and chancel, with a tower at the west end, in which are three bells.  There is also a small gallery at the west end; and neat tablets have been erected in memory of the Marriot and Ogle families.  The body of the church is very ancient, but the tower was erected in 1726.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £6. 1s. 8d., now returned at £494.  Patron, Duke of Sutherland; incumbent, Rev. Andrew Burn, M.A.  The Rectory is an ancient residence, on the west side of the church-yard.  The tithes are commuted for £340.  There is a Parochial School in the village, which is chiefly supported by the Duke of Sutherland and the Rector.

Directory.—Rev. Andrew Burn, M.A., The Rectory; Thomas Brown, farmer; John and Thomas Davies, shoemakers; John Felton, shoemaker; William Gough, shoemaker; Thomas Hitchin, wheelwright; George Hooper, farmer; William Hooper, farmer and maltster, Margaret Hughes, farmer, Wall Farm; Richard Ogle, farmer, Manor House; John Taylor, farmer; William Weston, farmer; William Weston, blacksmith; Richard Williams, farmer and victualler, Crown Inn.

LEIGHTON
is a parish and delightful little village, situate on the banks of the Severn, and near the foot of the Wrekin hill, nine miles S.E. from Shrewsbury.  In 1801 the parish contained 338 inhabitants; 1831, 360; and in 1841, 80 houses and a population of 403 souls.  Rateable value, £2,691.  Robert Gardner, Esq., and Sir George Harnage, Bart., are the principal landowners.  The soil is mostly of a superior quality, and produces good crops of all kinds of grain.  The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a plain brick structure, situated a short distance from the village, and consists of nave and chancel, with a small tower, in which are three bells.  In the chancel are several handsome tablets, chiefly in memory of the Leighton and Kinnersley families, who formerly resided here, and had large possessions in this locality.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £7. 12s. 6d., now returned at £224, in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. Robert Maddocks.  The salubrious situation of Leighton and the vicinity is proverbial, and several extraordinary cases of longevity among the inhabitants have occurred.  A short time ago, Stephen Davies was living at the advanced age of 97 years.  He recollected old Sarah Beech, who lived in this parish, and died about the year 1738 at the age of 106 years, and who had a sister that lived to the age of 103 years.  Stephen Davies had then a brother living at Wroxeter of the age of 96 years.

Garmstone is a hamlet, in the parish of Leighton.

Charities—Ann Lacon, by her will, left £15 a-year for ever to the poor of Leighton, Sheinton, and Buildwas, to be given to four poor persons of each parish.  This gift is secured on a messuage and lands at Much Wenlock, and the moiety belonging to this parish is divided equally among four of the poor inhabitants, Richard Leighton, Esq., left the sum of £100, the interest to be distributed by the minister and churchwardens for the time being among the poor of the parish on Candlemas-day.  This bequest, and several other legacies amounting to £8, were placed out about sixty years ago upon the security of the tolls arising from the turnpike road which passes through Leighton, the interest of which, £5. 8s., is distributed in small sums among the poor on Candlemas-day.

Directory.—John Bagley, tailor; John Barnet, victualler, Barnet’s Grove; Job Basnett, farmer; Rev. Frederick Burd, curate; John Drury, farmer; John Evans, corn-miller; Daniel Everall, farmer; Thomas Everall, farmer; James Farmer, corn-miller; Robert Gardner, Esq., Leighton Hall; Thomas Gervis, farmer, Garmston; Sir George Harnage, Bart.; Harry C. Jeffries, farmer, Garmston; John Machin, farmer, Eye Farm; Thomas Richards, farmer; Isaac Shepherd, farmer, Longwood; Thomas Tart, tailor.

LILLESHALL
is a parish in the Newport division of the South Bradford hundred, which comprises the townships of Lilleshall, Donington, and Muxton, and embraces 6,111a. 3r. 9p. of land.  In 1801 the parish had a population of 2,060 souls; 1831, 3,596; and in 1841 there were 708 houses and 3,851 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £12,034. 1s. 8d.  The Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor, and owner of the whole parish, except about half a dozen acres, the property of Mr. John Bradborn, in the township of Muxton.  The village of Lilleshall is pleasantly situated on the acclivity of a hill, three miles south-west from Newport.  The township in 1841 contained 155 houses and 795 inhabitants; the houses are scattered, and the population find employment in the extensive collieries and iron works with which the vicinity abounds.  The Church is a venerable structure mantled with ivy, and dedicated to St. Mary; in the tower is a peal of six bells.  On the north side of the chancel is an altar tomb, with two full length figures, in memory of dame Catherine Leveson and Sir Richard Leveson: the former died March 31st, 1674, and the latter June 2nd, 1661.  The old font, about twenty years ago, was used as a cistern to a pump at Lilleshall old hall; it was removed by the late vicar, and now stands at the west end of the church.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £6. 17s. 11d.; now returned at £338; in the patronage of the Duke of Sutherland; incumbent, Rev. Henry George Bunsen; curate, Rev. Thomas Bucknall Lloyd.  On Lilleshall Hill, in this parish, a monument was erected in 1839, to the memory of the first Duke of Sutherland; on June 20th, 1839, it was struck with lightning, and sustained considerable damage; but it was shortly after put in a state of complete reparation.  On the north side is the following inscription.—

To the memory of
George Granville Leveson Gower, K G
First Duke of Sutherland,
The most just and generous of landlords.
This monument is erected
by the occupiers of his Grace’s Shropshire farms,
as a public testimony that he
went down to the grave with the blessings
of his tenants on his head,
and left behind him upon his estates
the best inheritance which a gentleman of England
can bequeath to his son:
men ready to stand by his house
heart and hand.

On the south side of the monument is the inscription, “Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country’s, thy God’s, and truth’s.”  It is related that at the trial of Queen Caroline, the Lord Chancellor Eldon, in his charge to the peers, told them to “Be just and fear not,” when the Duke of Sutherland immediately rose from his place in the house and declared that he echoed the sentiments of his noble and learned friend on the wool sack, and would copy the immortal bard still farther by saying, “Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country’s, thy God’s, and truth’s.”  This was the occasion of the inscription being placed on the monument.  The obelisk was designed by Sir Francis Chantrey.

His Grace, in March, 1803, succeeded to the trust estates and canal of his maternal uncle, the late Duke of Bridgewater, and in October in the same year, by the death of his father, he became Marquis of Stafford, and entered into possession of the paternal estates of the Leveson branch of the family, in Staffordshire and Shropshire, and to the ancient patrimony of the Gowers of Yorkshire.  For some time he filled the office of postmaster general, and was ambassador to the court of France at the commencement of the revolution in that country.  His titles were George Grenville, Duke of Sutherland, Marquis of the County of Stafford, Earl Gower, Viscount Trentham, Baron Gower of Sittenham, and a baronet.  His Grace was also a Knight of the Garter, and a Privy Councillor.  Among the near relations of the Duke of Sutherland may be enumerated the distinguished families of Bedford, Rutland, Lansdowne, Marlborough, Dorset, Kingston, Waldegrave, Jersey, Thanet, and Warwick.  The Shropshire estates of the Duke of Sutherland are upwards of 20,000 acres.

The National School, a plain brick structure a little south from the church, has an attendance of about eighty boys and sixty girls.  It is supported by the Duke of Sutherland and a small charge from each scholar.  There are about three roods of garden ground attached to the school, which is divided into twenty allotments, and cultivated by twenty of the senior scholars for their own benefit.

Lilleshall Abbey.—In a solitary and retired situation, about a mile south from the church, may be seen the ruins of Lilleshall Abbey.  At the great western entrance is a fine Norman arch, richly recessed with ribs and running foliage.  The pillars and arches of the church have been entirely destroyed, but the doors and windows still remain.  The south door, by which a communication was formed with the cloister, is doubtless one of the most highly ornamented arches in the kingdom.  A semi-circular arch, overspread with ornaments peculiar to the Saxon and early Norman buildings, is supported by clusters of slender shafts, some of which are spiral, and others covered with lozenge work, having the intermediate spaces embellished with mouldings.  The east window of the choir has a beautiful pointed arch of the fourteenth century, and the north and south windows are narrow plain, and round headed.  The walls of the refectory have been converted into a residence.  The church was cruciform, and had probably two towers: one in the centre and the other at the west end; the breadth of the nave is thirty-six feet, and the length two hundred and twenty-eight feet.  The boundary wall of the abbey encompassed several acres, and in some parts is still entire.  The ruins of the abbey are scattered over a large space, and the walls, which in some parts are mantled with ivy, are of considerable height, and the fragments of superb workmanship still to be seen show it to have been a place of great magnificence and architectural grandeur.  The stalls of the choir at the dissolution were removed to the collegiate church of Wolverhampton, where they now remain.  Richard de Belmeis, says Bishop Tanner, the last dean of the collegiate church of St. Alkmund, in Shrewsbury, about the year 1145, with the consent of pope Eugenius and King Stephen, surrendered up that church with all the lands and churches belonging to the same to the use of some regular canons of the order of St. Augustine, who came from Dorsetshire and began to build an abbey to the honour of the blessed virgin, upon one of the prebendal estates, here in the wood of Lilleshall, to which his kinsman, Philip de Belmeis was an early and great benefactor.  Other authorities state that in the time of the Saxon dynasty a religious house was dedicated here to the use of secular canons or prebendaries, and afterwards became a nunnery, which was reduced to a state of desolation by the predatory incursions of the Welsh tribes, and it so continued until about the year 1145.  Among the principal benefactors to this abbey were Alanta Zouche John le Strange, who gave the church of Hulme; and Hillaria de Trussebut, the wife of Robert de Bulders, who gave certain lands, and directed her body to be buried within the precincts of the abbey.  In the 34th Henry III. the abbot had leave to grub up twenty-three acres in the woods of Lilleshall, and in the 7th of Edward to make an assart of the wood near Watling street, in the forest of Wombridge.  In the 11th of Edward I. the abbot had leave to make a park.  The abbey was endowed at subsequent periods by different pious individuals, and the annual income at the general dissolution of religious houses was valued at £229. 3s. per annum.  On account of the situation of this monastery, near the Chester road, the abbots were sometimes known to complain that their income was too scanty to entertain the continual influx of visitors that travelled that road.

Charities.—Sir Richard Leveson, by will, dated 5th of November, 1660, gave to the poor people inhabiting the parish of Lilleshall a rent charge of £5 per annum, issuing out of certain lands called Kainton Meadow.  The Marquis of Stafford pays this gift yearly, which is distributed on St. Thomas’s-day by the minister and churchwardens.  There is a piece of land still called Kainton Meadow, which is no doubt the land charged by the testator.

Lady Catherine Leveson, by her will, in 1670, devised to trustees her manor of Foxley, in Northamptonshire, and directed the yearly proceeds to be put to charitable uses; among others to the payment of £120 a year to the maintenance of twelve poor widows, three of whom were to be inhabitants of the parish of Lilleshall, and she directed that there should be provided by the minister and parish officers, out of the £10 respectively allowed for their maintenance, a gown of grey cloth, upon the breast of which gown the letters of K. L. in blue cloth should be set, which gown should be constantly wore by the widows, and if any one should refuse to wear them she should lose the benefit of the charity.  The testator gave a further sum of £100 yearly to be applied in putting forth ten poor boys apprentices, two of whom should be children of the inhabitants of Lilleshall.  In respect of this charity £50 a year is received by the churchwardens of Lilleshall, out of which £10 a year are paid to three poor widows, appointed by the minister, churchwardens, and overseers of the poor, a preference being given to such as have fallen into poverty from better circumstances, and have not received parochial relief.  The gowns have not been provided for them for many years.  Two boys are usually apprenticed every year with premiums of £10 each.  Upon inspection of the parish books which commence in 1634, it appears that various small benefactions have been given to the poor, which were placed in the hands of different persons, who paid interest for them.  These sums appear to have passed in various proportions to other persons, and the interest thereon to have fluctuated so as to afford no certain information as to the amount or donation of the benefactions.  In the year 1718 the poor’s stock appears to have amounted to £40.  In 1734 the sum of £56 was put by the churchwardens into the parish chest for the use of the poor.  No further entry occurs till 1757, when a sum of £20 appears to have been in the hands of Charles Lawrence, and £15 in the hands of Henry Barber.  The £20 subsequently passed into the hands of Robert Garmeson, who in 1786 gave his note of hand for the money, and shortly after died insolvent.  The entries of receipt of interest of the £15 cease in 1800, for several years previous to which it appears to have been paid by Mr. James Barber, about which time he died in bad circumstances, so that this sum may also be considered as lost.

Lilleshall House, the magnificent seat of the Marquis of Stafford, is situated on a commanding eminence, from which extensive and beautiful prospects of the surrounding country are seen.  The mansion is about a mile from the ruins of Lilleshall Abbey, within the bounds of the parish of Sheriff Hales, and was erected by the late Duke of Sutherland; it is built of beautiful white free stone, and exhibits a fine specimen of the Tudor style of architecture, from designs by Sir John Wyattville.  The garden and pleasure grounds are laid out with admirable taste, and cover between forty and fifty acres.  The flower garden from its extent and the beautiful order in which it is kept is surpassed by few in the kingdom; the manner of planting the flowers of one particular colour so as to form the greatest contrast with the beds contiguous to it has a most brilliant and dazzling effect.  An avenue in the garden, which stretches 300 yards in length, has a very pleasing appearance; the frame work is of wood, to which are trained roses, japonicas, the various sorts of clamitas, and fruit trees, and in the delightful season when the clustering fruits hang in profusion, enriched with the autumnal tints, among the beautiful blossoms of the japonica and rose—the whole has a most enchanting appearance.  The terrace commands a fine view of the park, the woody scenery in the vicinity, and a large tract of the country extending over North Shropshire into Staffordshire, Cheshire, and the mountainous district of Wales.

The village and parish of Sheriff Hales is mostly situated in Staffordshire.  The residents of a few scattered farms, and at the mansion of Lilleshall House, are included in the following directory.

Those with * affixed are in the parish of Sheriff Hales, and the rest in Lilleshall parish.

* Stafford The Marquis of, Lilleshall House

Adams John, assistant overseer & constable

Adams Thomas, nursery and seedsman

Bates William, parish clerk and bricklayer

Birch Thomas, surveyor

Bunsen Rev. Henry George, vicar, Lilleshall Old Hall

Diggens Emma, schoolmistres

Diggens William, schoolmaster

Duncalfe Rd., farmer, Honnington Grange

Edwards Thomas, vict., Red House

* Elliot Wm., gardener, Lilleshall House

Higgins Mr., farmer, Lubstree Park

Howle Jane and Mary, shopkeepers

Hughes George, cashier

Hunt John, farm bailiff

James Mary, farmer, Cheswall Grange

Jones John, farmer

* Johnson Thomas, farmer, Red Hill

* Leman Tubal Cain, butler, Lilleshall House

Lloyd Rev. Thos. Bucknall, curate, Vicarage

Maddings Thomas, corn miller & maltster

* Pearce John, farmer, Hinks

* Pearce Mary, farmer

Phillips John B., farmer, Brockton Leasows

* Phillips Joseph Taylor, farmer, Manor House

* Smith William, Esq., land agent to the Duke of Sutherland, Little Hales

Spearman Elizabeth, farmer

Timmis John, farmer, Abbey farm

West Francis, farmer, Lilleshall Grange

Wilde Edward, farmer, Lilleshall Hill

DONINGTON, OR DONINGTON WOOD,
is a considerable township with a scattered population, situated about a mile W. from Lilleshall, and four miles S.W. from Newport.  At the census in 1811 there were 498 houses and 2,757 inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in the extensive iron works, collieries, and ironstone mines, with which this neighbourhood abounds.  The collieries vary from 100 to 300 yards in depth, and there are twelve seams from which coal is got; the mines from which the ironstone is procured are also of very great depths; the country extending south and south west for several miles present one vast field of collieries and iron works, and has a teeming population, all busily employed in these and their subordinate manufactures and employments.

The Church is a neat modern structure, situate at Donington Wood, built about the year 1844, at a cost of £2,000.  The seats are all free and unappropriated.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of the vicar of Lilleshall; incumbent, Rev. Thomas O’Regan.  The Baptists have a chapel here, which was built about twenty years ago.  The National School was built at the expense of the Duke of Sutherland, who is also a munificent contributor towards the support of the institution; Thomas Townsend is the teacher.  The Donington Wood Mechanics’ Institution was established in February, 1851, for the object of providing useful and intellectual entertainment for the numerous artisans and other inhabitants of Donington; for this object a library and reading room has been established, which is furnished with the leading London and provincial journals and magazines.  Toward the library the Duke of Sutherland has kindly presented a large and valuable collection of books.  It is intended to employ lecturers on popular subjects, to which members are admissable.  The Lilleshall Company holds the collieries in this locality in lease of the Duke of Sutherland.

Post Office.—At Mr. Samuel Hollis’s.  Letters despatched at 7 P.M. to Newport.

Adams John, railway station master

Anslow James, shopkeeper

Bennett James, shoemaker

Bott John, shopkeeper

Bott Sarah, schoolmistress

Boycott William, farmer and corn miller

Bradbury Isaac, blacksmith

Bulger William, ground bailiff

Hollis Samuel, agent to Lilleshall Company and post master

Horton Charles, ground bailiff

Jarrett John, schoolmaster

Jones Edward, mining engineer and manager to Lilleshall Company

Morton William, agricultural implement manufacturer, &c.

O’Regan Rev. Thomas, incumbent

Roystone Thomas, painter, plumber, and glazier

Tipton Thomas, bookkeeper

Townsend Thomas, schoolmaster

Ward Joseph, spade tree maker

Wheeler James, engineer

Wheeler James Henry, engineer

MUXTON
is a township in the parish of Lilleshall, situate near a mile W. from the church, and three and a half miles S.W. from Newport, the acres and value of which are included with the parish.  The land is the property of the Duke of Sutherland, with the exception of about six acres, the property of Mr. John Bradborn.  At the census in 1841 there were 55 houses and 299 inhabitants.  Mrs. Rebecca Walthall by will 1740 bequeathed £10 to the churchwardens of Lilleshall, and directed the interest thereof to be distributed to the poor of Muxton on St. Thomas’s-day.  It does not appear that this legacy were paid to the churchwardens of Lilleshall.  An annual sum of 5s. was paid to them by the late Isaac H. Browne, Esq., and is still paid by the agent of his widow, which is supposed to be on account of the above benefaction, and to have been charged on an estate derived from Mrs. Walthall by Mr. Browne, which he sold some time ago in various lots.  It is more probable however that the money had been left at interest in the hands of the residuary legatees, and that this 5s. was Mr. Browne’s share of such interest.  A similar sum was formerly paid by Mr. Walthall, the other residuary legatee and administrator, who resided at Wistaston, in Cheshire, but this payment has been discontinued many years.  The 5s. paid by Mrs. Browne is distributed among the poor of this township.

Bradborn John, maltster

Dawes Mary, farmer, Muxton bridge

Gaunt Edward, farmer

Greene John, surgeon

Hawkins Richard, butcher

Hitchin William, shoemaker

Johnson Jane, farmer, Woodhouse

Jones Richard, carpenter and joiner

Pearce George, maltster & vict., Holly Bush

Thursfield Richard, maltster

Tudor Samuel and William, farmers, Street Grange

Webb Richard, shoemaker

LONGDEN-UPON-TERN
is a parish and village in the Wellington Division of the South Bradford Hundred, three miles and a half N.W. by W. from Wellington.  The villager is scattered, but pleasantly situated on elevated ground on the southern banks of the river, and commands many interesting views of rural beauty.  In 1801 there were 102 inhabitants; 1831, 109; and in 1841, 15 houses and 99 inhabitants.  The parish contains 796A. 1R. 32P. of land, and is intersected by the Shropshire Union Canal, and the turnpike road from Wellington to Shrewsbury.  The river and its tributary streams are crossed by two bridges—one of metal, the other of stone,—and the canal by a brick structure.  The canal is carried over the vale of the river by an aqueduct of sixty-two yards in length.  There are 6a. 1r. of land in roads and waste.  The soil is various: in some parts it is cold and wet.  Gross estimated rental, £1,522. 9s. 2d.  Rateable value, £1,358. 8s.  The Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor, and the principal landowner, William Howard, Esq., is also a proprietor.

The Church, a small brick structure dedicated to St. Bartholomew, has a square turret, containing one bell.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Duke of Sutherland, and incumbency of the Rev. Edward Meredith, M.A.  The tithes are commuted for £110.  The Parsonage is a neat brick residence, embosomed in foliage, and pleasantly situated a short distance from the church.  The minister receives a limited number of young gentlemen as boarding scholars.  The Hall is a spacious structure, of considerable antiquity, with lofty chimneys; it is built of brick, with stone quoins and finishings, and is the property of William Howard, Esq., and residence of Mr. Henry Stormont.  Extensive and conveniently arranged farm-buildings have recently been added to the farms occupied by Mr. Peter Brisbourne and Mr. George Belliss.  The School is a brick structure, erected in 1849, at the expense of the Duke of Sutherland, who also gave the site.  It is partly supported by subscription, but chiefly from the private resources of the minister, and a small payment from the children that attend for instruction.  There are extensive corn mills on the banks of the river in this parish.

Directory.—George Belliss, farmer; Edward Brisbourne, farmer; Mrs. Brisbourne; Peter Brisbourne, farmer; Joseph Cooke, corn miller; Elizabeth Hatton, schoolmistress; John Jones, farmer; Rev. Edward Meredith, boarding-school, and incumbent of the church; Thomas Paddock, farmer and corn miller, Manor House; Henry Stormont, farmer, The Hall.

LONGFORD
is a parish, with a scattered population, situated about a mile and a half west from Newport, which comprises 1,907a. 2r. 13p., and in 1801 had 182 inhabitants; 1831, 206; and in 1841, 209; at the latter period there were 38 houses.  The township of Longford contains 1,257a. 3r. 10p. of land, and in 1841 had 24 houses and a population of 125 souls.  Gross rental, £2,774. 4s. 7d.  Rateable value, £2,529. 14s.  Ralph Merrick Leeke, Esq., is lord of the manor, and owner of the whole township.  The Church is a small neat structure, dedicated to St. Mary, and consists of nave and chancel, with a tower at the west end, built about forty years ago.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £6. 2s. 8½d., now returned at £425, in the patronage of Ralph Merrick Leeke, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. John Kynaston Chorlton.  The tithes have been commuted for £144.  About twenty yards north from the church is a small structure, which was left standing when the old church was taken down.  This was a private chapel, built as an appendage to the old edifice, and was the burial place of a branch of the Talbot family.  The Talbots formerly owned the Longford estate, which was subsequently inherited by the Shrewsbury family, from whom it passed by sale; except the site of this small structure, which still remains the freehold property of the Earl of Shrewsbury.  On the south side of this chapel is an elegant marble monument in memory of a Lady Talbot, which is richly ornamented with carved work and gilt embellishments.  On the north side of the chapel is an alabaster slab, but without date.  Longford Hall, the residence and property of Ralph Merrick Leeke, Esq., is a spacious and handsome mansion of free-stone, with a noble portico supported by four massive pillars of the Doric order.  The hall is delightfully situated on a gentle eminence, and opens into a finely-timbered park of about a hundred and fifty acres.  Not far from the hall is a fine sheet of water, which covers about seven acres.

Brockton is a hamlet, a little more than a mile south from the church, which consists of two good farm residences and the rectory; near to which is a farm called the Brockton Leasowes, but the house is just within the bounds of Lilleshall parish.  The Rectory is an ancient residence, mantled with ivy.  The soil in this township is highly fertile, and well adapted for the growth of barley and turnips.  A little north-west from the church is a corn mill, which was unoccupied when our agent visited Longford.

Directory.—Ralph Merrick Leeke, Esq., Longford Hall; Rev. John Kynaston Chorlton, The Rectory; Clifford Firth, farmer, Brockton; George Veitch, farmer, Longford Mill; James Veitch, farmer, Brockton; Thomas Clues, gardener, The Hall; Robert Stevenson, gamekeeper; James Rowley, blacksmith.

STOCKTON
is a small township, in the parish of Longford, three miles and a half E. by S. from the church, and two miles and a half S.E. from Newport.  The township contains 649a. 3r. 3p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had 14 houses and 84 inhabitants.  Gross estimated rental, £189. 18s. 7d.  Rateable value, £820. 16s.  The tithes are commuted for £112.  There are eight acres of glebe land.  All the land is the property of John Cotes, Esq.

The principal residents are Humphrey James, farmer; and John Meredith, farmer.

NEWPORT
is a parish and market town in the Newport division of the South Bradford Hundred, pleasantly situated in the line of the ancient Watling Street, and near the eastern confines of the county, eleven miles S. from Market Drayton, seventeen E.N.E. from Shrewsbury, and 139 miles N.W. by N. from London.  The town principally consists of one spacious, handsome street, stretching for about a mile in length, containing many good inns, private residences, and respectable shops in all the different branches of the retail trade.  About the centre of the town, and in the middle of the street, stands the venerable parish church, an ancient market house, and a few dwellings, which are some of the oldest houses in the town of Newport.  The parish in 1801 contained 2,307 inhabitants; 1831, 2,745; and in 1841 there were 553 houses and 2,497 inhabitants.  The number of acres the parish embraces is 567a. 0r. 25p., the chief owners of which are Sir Thomas H. F. Boughey, Bart.; Thomas Collier, Esq.; John Morris, Esq.; Mr. Wilde; Mr. Silvester; Miss Bennett; and the trustees of Newport Marsh.  Rateable value, £6,847. 13s.  The inhabitants are supplied with an abundance of excellent water, from large cisterns and wells in various parts of the town, which are filled from a spring, about a mile distant, by means of a water-course and pipes, the expenses of which are paid from the income arising from the common lands.  Newport was granted municipal privileges as early as the reign of Henry I., which were confirmed by succeeding sovereigns.  The government is vested is a high steward, deputy steward, two bailiffs, and twenty-five burgesses.  John Cotes, Esq., is the high steward; Robert Fisher, jun., Esq., deputy steward; and William Washbourne, Esq., and G. H. Duncalfe.  Esq., are the bailiffs.  Petty sessions for the Newport division of the hundred are held in the town: the presiding magistrates are Sir Thomas Fletcher Fenton Boughey, Bart.; John Charles Burton Borough, Esq.; and John Justice, Esq.  The principal features in the trade of Newport are the engineering establishment and brass foundry of Messrs. Massey; the manufacture of agricultural implements by Mr. Underhill; and those belonging to Mr. Thomas Boughey and Mr. Lewis Atkins—ingenious establishments for the manufacture of all descriptions of bendware, wood turnery, together with hair sieves and dairy requisites of the most approved descriptions.

The Church is a venerable structure of red sand-stone, situated nearly in the centre of High-street.  It consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower and an illuminated clock; the tower is dated 1,662; but this probably is the date of certain reparations, for the upper and some other parts of the tower appear to have been re-faced.  The chancel and side aisles are of red brick, and were rebuilt in the year 1728, previously to which the church exhibited a beautiful specimen of the architecture of the fifteenth century.  The interior has a spacious and handsome appearance.  The roof is of groined timber, and the nave is separated from the side aisles by five pointed arches on each side.  It contains a small organ, and there are some neat mural tablets.  The living is a perpetual curacy, valued at £297, in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor; incumbent, Rev. William Sandford, M.A.  The Abbot and Convent of St. Peter and St. Paul, at Shrewsbury, were patrons of the church at Newport; from them it was purchased in the twentieth of Henry VI., by Thomas Draper, citizen of London, who made it collegiate, placing in it a warden, who was to be in priests’ orders, and four chaplains or fellows, who were to pray for the King and the Royal Family, and for the soul of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, (the King’s uncle,) and for the fraternity of St. Marie’s Guild in the church of Newport.

The Catholic Church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, is situated at the outskirts of the town, on the site of an ancient residence called Salter’s Hall, which was long the inheritance of the Shrewsbury family, adjoining which was a domestic chapel.  The present structure was built about twenty years ago by the Earl of Shrewsbury.  The interior of the structure presents a chaste and elegant appearance; the seats or benches are all open and uniform in character, and the altar is richly carved and gilt; on each side of it are beautifully carved figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Joseph.  The windows on each side of the altar are adorned with representations of St. Peter and St. Paul, the patron saints of the church.  The Rev. Michael Trovell is the priest.

The Independent Chapel, situated on the Wellington road, is a neat stuccoed structure, erected in the year 1817, at a cost of £1,300.  It is provided with galleries, and is calculated to hold four hundred hearers.  There is a flourishing congregation connected with this place of worship, who enjoy the talented ministrations of the Rev. William Berkeley Leach.  The Sunday school in connection with the chapel is numerously attended.  The old Independent chapel, which stood in Beaumaris lane, has been converted into two cottages.

The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel is a plain brick structure, of small dimensions, situated in the Upper Bar, and was formerly used as a theatre.

The Wesleyan New Connexion Chapel, a small brick fabric, is also situated at the Upper Bar.

The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel on the Stafford road, built in 1830.

The Free Grammar School.—William Adams, of the city of London, devised certain lands for the endowment of a grammar school and other charitable uses, in Newport, in 1656.  By an act of parliament passed in the 12th year of the reign of King Charles II., after reciting the erection of the school-houses and alms-houses by William Adams, and his settlement of lands for the maintenance thereof, it was enacted that the master and four wardens of the Company of Haberdashers in London for the time being, and their successors, should be governors of the possessions of the Free Grammar School of Newport; and that they should have a common seal, for the sealing of their affairs, and hold all possessions granted by Mr. Adams for the maintenance of the school and other charitable uses.  Among the objects of the trust Mr. Adams directed £20 yearly to be paid to the minister of Newport, for his encouragement in the works of the ministry, and upon the condition that the preacher for the time being should weekly catechise the scholars, children, and servants of the town of Newport, or such of them as for that purpose should repair to the parish church; and if the preacher should wilfully neglect to perform the weekly duty, the governors should apply the said £20 for the benefit of the poor, or in such charitable uses as they should think fit.  A yearly sum of £60 was to be paid to the schoolmaster, and £20 to the usher; also £24 per annum to the inmates of the four alms-houses which he caused to be erected, and a like annual sum to be paid in apprentice fees, with various other gifts.  The estate which Mr. Adams devised is situated at Knighton, in Staffordshire, and comprises 797a. 2r. 26p. of land.  There is also a farm situated at Woodseves, in the parish of Market Drayton, containing 85a. 1r. 38p., which was purchased with the sum of £500, obtained from a sale of timber cut from the Knighton estate.  In 1667 the testator demised the premises at Knighton for a term of twenty-one years to Luke Justice, at the annual rent of £175; and in 1714 the governors, on the surrender of the lease, which had become vested in William Justice, re-demised the premises to the said William Justice for another term of seventy years, at the same rent.  The provisions of the will in behalf of Luke Justice were evidently intended as matter of favour to that individual; but it is difficult to conceive that two successive terms, embracing a period of 106 years, were in contemplation of the testator, when he authorized the granting of a lease for so long a time.  Upon the expiration of the last lease the premises were let in several farms, on leases of twenty-one years and a half, at rents amounting to £476. 14s., which considerably exceeded the amount of the several payments prescribed by the founder; and it became necessary to obtain the directions of a Court of Chancery as to the disposal of the surplus.  In the course of the proceedings which were instituted on that occasion, the heir-at-law of William Adams interposed his claim to the surplus rents beyond the sum of £175, the amount of the several charitable uses appointed by the founder; but it was determined by the court that there was no resulting trust in the charity estate for the said heir-at-law.  By a decree made November, 1797, and a subsequent decree made December, 1808, on the occasion of a further advance of the rents to the sum of £768. 17s., a scheme for the disbursement of the income was established, which augmented the expenditure to £692 per annum.  The leases having expired in 1814, new leases were granted under the direction of the court, and the advanced rents made the yearly income £957. 3s. 6d.  From this fund the head master receives £200 per annum, the second master £100, and the third £100.  The other principal items of expenditure are a sum of £60 per annum paid to the minister of Newport; to putting out three apprentices yearly, £54; exhibitions to four scholars at the university, £90; to the four alms-people, £78; to twenty-four persons free of the Haberdashers’ Company, £75; an allowance for books, £10; repairs of the school-house and alms-house, £10; to a boy for ringing the school bell, £3; to a boy for sweeping the school, £3; to the clerk of the Haberdashers’ Company, £6; to the two beadles, £3; Woodreave, £2; the receiver, £21; besides which there are several small items for incidental expenses.

The school premises is a spacious building situated a little back from the High street, and is respectively appropriated to the use of the school, and to the residence of the master and usher, as directed by the founder.  By the statutes of the school it was intended for the instruction of eighty scholars; but the town of Newport and its neighbourhood, to which a preference was given by the founder, not being able to supply the full number, the scholars are admitted indifferently from other parts; and to facilitate their admission, it has been left to the head master to appoint them on their application to him, without the intervention of visitors, on whom that duty was imposed by the statutes.  The course of education was intended to embrace the Hebrew language; but it appears to have been hitherto confined in practice to Greek and Latin, with the addition of writing and arithmetic.  In December, 1850, there were 59 scholars on the foundation.  Charles Waring Saxon, D.D., is the head master; Rev. William Sandford, M.A., second master; Mr. Richard Crowther, third master.  The particulars of the four exhibitions on Careswell’s foundation will be found noticed with Bridgnorth Grammar School.  The alms-houses above mentioned are situated near the gates, at the entrance to the Grammar School.

The English School is a neat brick building, erected in 1843, and situated on the Wellington road.  This school appears to have had its origin in a certain grammar school, which, by the certificate of the commissioners under the statute of the 1st of Edward VI., now remaining in the augmentation office, was certified to have been always kept by Richard Robins, one of the Fellows of the college of Newport, to whom was paid out of the revenues of that college the annual stipend of £5.  In the twenty-third year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, her Majesty granted to Edmund Downing and Peter Ashton, “all that site of the late college of Newport, in the county of Salop, late the possession of the said college, with all rights, members, and appurtenances, rendering to her said Majesty £15 yearly, to be paid for a salary or stipendary curate of Newport, and school-master there—that is to say, to the curate £10, and to the schoolmaster £5.”  William Robson, in 1633, deposited £5,000 in the hands of the Salters’ Company for charitable uses, among which he directed £5 per annum to be paid to the master of the free school at Newport, and £10 per annum to a lecturer, and a like sum annually for the benefit of the poor.  William Adams gave to the bailiffs and burgesses of Newport, and their successors for ever, all those two closes, situate at Norbroom, upon trust, to apply the rents for the support of the English school.  William Barnfield, in 1665, gave “six days’ work of ground in Norbroom, four tenements let for 16s. a year each, and a shop let for 30s. per annum, towards the support of the free school.”  The total income, when, the charity commissioners published their report, amounted to £49. 1s., of which £24 arises from Adams’s gift, £15. 11s. from Barnfield’s, £5 from Robson’s benefaction, and £4. 10s. from the receiver-general.  The school has long been confined to the instruction of children in reading English, and we find it described by the name of the English school as early as 1660.  How long before that period it had ceased to teach grammar we have not been able to discover; but it may reasonably be conjectured to have been about the time when that branch of education became otherwise so largely provided for by the establishment of the Free Grammar School of William Adams.  The school is free to the children of the humbler classes of society for instruction in English: fifty-four scholars now attend.

The Infant School, situate on the Wellington road, was built in 1841 at a cost of £250; the room is spacious and lofty, and has an average attendance of 95 scholars.  The Sunday school in connection with the Independent Chapel is also situated on the Wellington road, and has an attendance of 150 children.

The Girls’ National School is a neat brick structure, situated in the Workhouse lane; it was built in 1842, and has an average attendance of seventy children.

The Town’s Almshouses.  In 1446 the burgesses or commonalty of Newport granted to William Glover a plot of land between the church-yard and the king’s highway, towards the north, between two stiles in the said church-yard, that the said William Glover should build on the land a hospital for the use of the poor.  The almshouses are appropriated to the use of four poor old women of the town of Newport, who are appointed from time to time by the trustees, and retain their respective places for life.  The rents of lands and dividends of funded property, left by various benefactors, produced a yearly income of £69. 14s. when the charity commissioners published their report.  Each inmate has a weekly payment of 4s. 6d. from Lady-day to Michaelmas, and 5s. from Michaelmas to Lady-day.  They also receive 10s. each for coals, and a gratuity of 5s. each at Christmas.  The present almshouse was built in 1836, and is situate in Workhouse lane.

The Savings’ Bank, held at Mr. Silvester’s, High street, was enlarged in 1818, on November 20th; the capital stock of the bank amounted to £36,221. 12s. 10d., at which period there were 1,450 separate accounts, of which twelve were charitable and seven friendly societies.  Of the total number of depositors 963 had respective balances under £20; 268 were above £20 and less than £50; 135 did not exceed £100; 51 did not exceed £150; 31 were above the latter sum and less than £200; and two exceeded £200.  Mr. Charles Silvester is the secretary.

The County Court Office, for the recovery of debts, and in all pleas of personal action where the damage does not exceed £50, is situated in High street.  The several parishes and places within the jurisdiction of the court in Shropshire are Adney, Brockton, Caynton, Cherrington, Cheswell, Chetwynd.  Chetwynd Aston, Chetwynd End, Church Aston, Donington, Donington Wood, Edgmond, Howle, Lilleshall, Longford, Littlehales, Lynn, Muxton, Newport, Pave Lane, Pickstock, Pilston, Sambrook, Stockton, Tibberton, Vauxhall, Woodcote.  The places in Staffordshire are Adbaston, Alston, Apeton, Aqualate, Batchacre, Beffcote, Bishops Offley, Bromstead, Coton, Cowley, Flashbrook, Forton, Gnosall, Great Chatwell, High Offley, Knighton, Knightley, Loynton, Meertown, Moreton, Norbury, Oulton, Outwoods, Plardiwick, Shebdon, Sutton, Tunstall, Weston Jones, Wilbrighton, and Woodseaves.  Judge: Uvedale Corbett, Esq., Aston Hall.  Clerk: William Liddle, Esq., Newport.  High Bailiff: George Hill Townsend, Wolverhampton.  Appraiser and Auctioneer: Joseph Doody, High street, Newport.  Bailiff: Thomas Roberts, Upper Bar, Newport.

The Newport Union House, situated in Workhouse lane, a plain brick structure, will accommodate about sixty inmates; the aged, infirm, and the older children are sent to the union house of Gnosall, in Staffordshire, which is connected with the Newport union, and this house is for the reception of the able-bodied poor and very young children.  The several places comprised in the union in the county are Newport, Chetwynd, Chetwynd Aston, Church Aston, Cherrington, and Edgmond.  The townships and places in Staffordshire are Adbaston, Forton, Gnosall, High Offley, Norbury, and Weston Jones.  Chairman to the Guardians: John Cotes, Esq.  Clerk: Henry Heane, Esq.  Chaplain: Rev. William Sandford.  Surgeons: Mr. William Lindop, Mr. Godley, and Mr. John Green.  Relieving Officer: Mr. Benjamin Rees.  Master: Samuel Winnell.  Matron: Emma Wellings.

The Market Hall is an ancient structure, standing upon pillars, and situate nearly in the centre of High street.  The area between the pillars is appropriated to a corn market; and here the farmers assemble on a market day for the sale of corn and other grain, which is sold by sample.  The market is held on Saturday, when the town has a busy and animated appearance.  Above the corn market is a spacious room, which is used for magisterial purposes.  Here the petty sessions are held every alternate Tuesday, and the official business of the county court is also transacted here.  An adjoining room is used as a Sunday school.  The Market Hall was chiefly erected at the expense of William Adams, the munificent founder of the Grammar School, who “gave £550 towards building a town house.”  Near to the Market Hall is a butter market, a covered area, which is of more modern construction.  Under this covering is the market cross, a structure of considerable antiquity, consisting of four steps, and a fluted pillar broken at the top, the whole much dilapidated by time.

Fairs.—The chartered fairs at Newport have merged into the fortnightly cattle market, held every alternate Tuesday, except the fair held on May 28th, which is still continued.  These markets are well attended by the farmers in the surrounding district, and considerable quantities of fat and other stock are sold.  Whether the growing importance of the Shrewsbury cattle market, which is held on the same day, will not tend to diminish the number of buyers at Newport remains to be seen.

The Gas Works, situate in Marsh lane, were established in 1835 by a company of shareholders with a capital stock of £1,800, since which £400 has been added to the capital.  There are two gasometers, each of which will hold about 8,000 cubic feet of gas.  A charge of 7s. 6d. per 1000 cubic foot is now made to the consumer.  The expense of lighting the streets is paid from the income arising from the town lands, and the cost of pitching the streets is also paid from the same source.

The Lock-up, situate on the Stafford road, has been built within the last few years.  It is a small structure with two cells, and residence for the constable.

The Railway Station is situated about half a mile S.E. from the church, within the bounds of the township of Field Aston.  There are six trains each way daily; an omnibus meets the different trains, and calls at the principal inns in the town.  Newport is distant 17½ miles from Shrewsbury and 11½ miles from Stafford by railway.

Newport sustained great damage by a fire which broke out on the 16th May, 1655; it consumed 162 houses, the loss of which with what they contained was estimated at £30,000.  It is stated that a festival was formerly kept on the 30th August, in memory of Mr. Adams, the founder of the Grammar School and almshouses.  Tradition says that Charles II., being informed what large sums Mr. Adams had expended in charitable uses, expressed a desire to see him when he was on a visit to the city; and Mr. Adams being introduced to his Majesty, the King asked him whether he had not straitened his fortune by his great benefactions.  Mr. Adams replied that he had not, and if his Majesty pleased he would present him with £1,000, provided he would procure an act of parliament to exempt his land from taxes, to which the king consented.  How far the above may be true we are unable to affirm; it is certain, however, that the estate at Knighton, with which the Grammar School is endowed, is exempt from parliamentary and parochial taxation.

The Marsh Trust.—By an Act of Parliament passed in the 4th of George III., intituled “An act for dividing and inclosing a waste ground called the Marsh, in the township of Newport, in the county of Salop, and for applying the produce thereof to the several purposes therein mentioned;” after reciting that there was within the said township a common waste ground called the Marsh, containing 117 acres, or thereabouts, wherein each householder in the said town had from time immemorial a right of turning a milch cow, which privilege had proved of very little advantage to the town, but rather an inconvenience, by increasing the poor thereof; and that it was apprehended that the enclosing and improving the said Marsh, and applying the profits thereof from time to time, after making satisfaction to the lords of the manor for their respective rights therein, in paving and keeping in repair the streets of the town of Newport, and in keeping in repair the Market Hall and Cross there; and also in establishing and encouraging some manufacture, and in apprenticing the children of the poor parishioners of Newport, would be of great advantage to the town in general, and might be a means of extending a manufactory throughout the neighbourhood; it was enacted, that certain persons therein named, and their heirs and successors respectively should be trustees, for enclosing, improving, and dividing the said Marsh, and for putting the said act into execution: and it was further enacted, that from and immediately after passing that act, all right of common or pasturage in or upon the said Marsh should cease and be extinguished; and the trustees were authorized to set out to the Earl of Shrewsbury such portion of the Marsh as two indifferent persons should appoint, as a recompense and satisfaction for the said earl’s four beast-gates upon the Marsh: and it was further enacted, that the residue of the said Marsh, after the allotment so made, should be vested in the said trustees and their successors, and be freed from all right, title, and interest whatsoever, of the householders of the township.

A survey being made in pursuance of the directions of the act, the Marsh was found to contain 111a. 3r. 31p., of which four acres being allotted to the Earl of Shrewsbury for beast-gates, there remained 107a. 3r. 31p. to be employed for the beneficial objects of the trust.  This remainder, the trustees then proceeded to inclose and subdivide; and as an effective mode of providing for the fencing-in and improvement of the different parcels, they granted leases for 99 years, determinable on three lives, binding the lessees by covenants to plant and set the fences, within a limited time, with good hawthorn sets; to make ditches of certain dimensions; and otherwise to improve and properly manage the respective parcels demised to them.  The leases originally granted produced a yearly income of £91. 7s.; but a considerable income may reasonably be looked for on the falling of leases, determinable on three lives, the lands being valued at upwards of £3 per acre, which would produce an annual rental of about £350.  The income is subject to a charge for land-tax of £6. 2s.; chief rent, £1; and £5. 5s. to the collector of rents.  In the application of their annual rents, the trustees were in the first instance called upon to defray the expenses attending the Act of Parliament and the preliminary arrangements in execution of their trust, which amounted to £663. 0s. 8d.  These expenses being discharged, the income was next applied, for several years, to the purpose of repairing the streets and public buildings specified in the act; and having appropriated to those uses, from time to time, the sum of £808. 3s. 5½d., the trustees had in hand, on the balancing of their accounts in April, 1785, the sum of £93. 8s. 7½d.  In the year 1787 the benefits of the trust were extended to the establishment of a Sunday school, and in 1790 to that of a stocking manufactory.  This undertaking being found not to prosper, was superseded in 1796 by the erection of a wind-mill for grinding corn.  This measure appears to have been loudly called for by the inhabitants of Newport, as a means of protecting themselves against what were deemed the extortionate demands of the millers of the neighbourhood.  The speculation, however, proved exceedingly ruinous, and was finally abandoned in the year 1801; since which time the rents of the premises have been applied, as before, to the repairs of the streets and public buildings, as far as there has remained a surplus, after keeping down the annual interest of the debts which these abortive schemes have entailed upon the trust.  It appears that £460 was expended in the attempt to establish the manufacture of stockings, and the corn-mill cost £2,000.  The latter, however, was subsequently sold for £900.  Previously to the year 1799 debts had been contracted to carry on these schemes, amounting to £2,300.  This sum had been reduced to £1,100, when the Charity Commissioners published their report, which had been secured by mortgage of the Marsh, at five per cent. interest; so that there remained an annual charge of £55 in respect of the debts which remained unpaid.  In addition to the debts contracted for the purposes above mentioned, £192. 4s. 3d. was borrowed from the treasurer in 1811, for the benefit of the public repairs, for which it was agreed to allow him five per cent. interest until he should reimburse himself from the rents.

The Bridge Trust.—By an indenture, dated 5th May, 1749, purporting to be made between the Earl of Shrewsbury and Earl Gower, lords of the manor of Newport, and Robert Pigot, Esq., steward of the borough of Newport, and the burgesses of the said borough, of the first part, and Robert Barber, Esq., and others, of the second part, it was witnessed that the said earls, steward, and burgesses, granted to the said Robert Barber, and others, all those parcels of lands lying waste, but formerly covered with water, called the Strine, or Newport Pool, and the Flags, with the appurtenances, in trust, that, with the rent, issues, and profits thereof, the Pool Dam, at the lower end of the town, should be repaired and kept in good order; and if any surplus should remain, the same should be appropriated to keeping in good order the pavement of the streets, or in the reparation of the Market House or Town Hall.  A subsequent indenture was made, dated 17th October, 1750, granting the waste lands called the Flags, and also a small parcel of land lying near the entrance to the same, rendering the annual rent of 5s.  The premises conveyed in these indentures were found by a survey, made in 1804, to contain 2a. 2r. 21p. of land, which produced an annual rental of £18.  The rent, after deducting the 5s. reserved to the burgesses, and certain incidental expenses, appears to have hitherto been confined to the repair of the Bridge and Bridge-street; which not having exhausted the whole, the surplus has been deposited, from time to time, in the Newport Bank.

Charities.—The Rev. Thomas Perkes, by will, dated 26th March, 1734, gave (after the death of his wife, Hannah) to the minister and churchwardens of the parish of Newport, and their successors, the sum of £200, to be laid out in lands, and the profits thereof (except the sum of 20s. to be paid to the minister, as a recompense for disposing of the charity) to be expended in purchasing Holy Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, and books intitled The Whole Duty of Man, to be yearly distributed among the poorer sort of inhabitants of Newport; and when such poor people should, in the judgment of the minister, be sufficiently supplied with such books, then the yearly rent should be laid out in clothing old people residing in and being parishioners of the town of Newport.  A preference to be given to those that should be of the most religious and orderly life.

Hannah Perkes, wife of the above Mr. Perkes, who appears to have died in 1766, bequeathed £600, to be put upon land or other good security, to the intent that the interest should be duly applied towards the setting out three poor boys, of the parish of Newport, apprentices in some place of manufacture, to be elected annually by the minister, church-wardens, head-schoolmaster, together with five men nominated by the parish yearly,—especial regard being had that the boys so chosen should be able to read the English tongue well.  She likewise left £100, to be laid out in land, or some other good security, the interest to be distributed amongst the poorest inhabitants of the parish, upon St. Thomas’s day.  These several legacies, amounting together to the sum of £900, were laid out in the purchase of £996. 1s. 9d. three per cent. reduced annuities, producing annual dividends amounting to £29. 17s.; two-ninths of which are annually paid to the minister on account of Mr. Perkes’s charity, and on account of Mrs. Perkes’s charity six-ninths are annually applied on apprentice fees, and one-ninth is expended in bread for the poor.

Mrs. Mary Scott bequeathed £100, and desired the minister and two masters of the free-school, whom she constituted trustees, to dispose of the yearly produce in the relief of poor housekeepers of this parish, except that every fourth year they should lay out the income in Bibles, Common Prayer Books, and The Whole Duty of Man, which should be distributed among poor children whose parents should not be able to provide them.  This gift, and a further legacy of £20, the gift of Mrs. Felicia Vyse, was laid out on the 8th of March, 1786, in the purchase of a plot of land, situated at Chetwynd End, called the Four-day Math, and containing 3a. 0r. 36p., which land was conveyed to the then minister and two masters of the grammar school, on trust, to apply five-sixths of the rents to the charitable uses appointed by Mrs. Scott, and to pay the remaining sixth among the poor of the parish.  The land produces an annual rental of £13. 17s.  The rent is received by the minister, as one of the trustees; but in the application of it the trusts do not appear to have been duly kept in view, the rent having been paid to the churchwardens for general distribution among the poor, without reserving any portion for the purchase of books, as directed by the will of Mrs. Scott.

Dole Charities.—By an indenture, dated the 23rd of March, 1675, certain lands, situated at Little Aston, called the Foxhall lands, were conveyed for the sum of £220 to William Harding, one of the churchwardens of the parish, for charitable uses, subject to a yearly rent of 3s. 6d. to Thomas Talbot, the lord of the manor.  It does not appear from what source the consideration money of this purchase was derived, but it is probable that it arose from a stock of £161, recorded in an inquisition as having been given by several donors, and the additional sum might be the subsequent accumulations of interest upon it.  The premises consist of a cottage and garden, and three closes; containing in the whole about 13 acres of land.  They were let under a lease of 14 years at Lady-day, 1814, at the annual rent of £82.  It appears Mr. Leek was induced by particular circumstances to offer the above mentioned rent, though far exceeding the fair value of the premises.

Robert Hawkins, on the 15th December, 1660, charged a certain house in Newport, with the payment of 13s. 4d. per annum, and directed the same to be distributed to the poor.

William Adams; who died in 1690, gave a rent charge of 26s. per annum, payable out of his lands and tenements in Newport, and directed the same to be expended in bread, and given to the aged poor in sixpenny loaves for ever, according to the discretion of the minister, churchwardens, and overseers of the town.  This charity is understood to be comprised in a weekly supply of twelve penny loaves which has been for many years made for the use of the poor, by the late Richard Marsh, Esq., as owner of certain lands, at Norbroom.  There does not, however, appear any mention of such a charge in the title deeds, nor was Mr. Marsh able to give any information as to the origin of the weekly supply, which, having been made before his time, he had felt it proper to continue.  There is no charity to which the residue of this weekly supply might with any likelihood be ascribed, except that of Thomas Sprig, who is recorded on the benefaction table to have left six penny loaves, to be given to the poor every Lord’s-day, and twelve every Sacrament-day.

Richard Haynes, in 1713, left to the poor of this parish six penny loaves to be given every Lord’s-day.  This benefaction appears to have been charged upon a parcel of land which became the property of Mrs. Humpherson some time ago, by whom a weekly supply of six penny loaves was duly made.  In 1713 Stephen Denston left £100 to the poor; and we also learn from the churchwarden’s book of donations that Richard Fletcher, in 1721, left £30 to the poor, and that Mrs. Moreton by her will bequeathed £20, the interest to be distributed in bread.  These several sums, amounting together to £150, were invested on the 2nd April, 1770, on a mortgage of the tolls of the Forton and Lilleshall turnpike, producing at five per cent. interest the annual sum of £7. 10s.  It is also stated in the churchwarden’s book that Felicia Vyse, who died in 1747, gave by her will £20, the interest to be given yearly to the poor of the parish.  We have already shown that this legacy, in conjunction with Mrs. Mary Scott’s, was applied in the purchase of the Four Math Meadow.  The whole rents having been paid over to the churchwardens for the same common purpose, no severance has taken place in the application.

Abraham Hadderton, by will, dated 9th September, 1770, gave to the minister, churchwardens, and overseers of the poor, and their successors, £1,000 in trust, to keep the same at interest, and apply the proceeds thereof for the benefit of the poor.  This legacy was invested in the purchase of £1,141. 8s. 6d. three per cent. reduced annuities, producing the annual dividends of £34. 5s. 6d.

William Brown gave a rent charge of 10s. yearly, payable out of a certain house in Newport, which became the property of William Crump in 1820.  The Dole charities above specified produce an annual sum of £156. 6s. 2d., and are administered by the churchwardens.  £15. 7s. 8d. is expended in bread, and distributed at different periods, and the residue, £140. 12s. 5d., is given in money.

Elizabeth Symonds gave a certain croft, the yearly rent thereof to be applied to the benefit of the poor of Newport for ever.  The croft thus given contains about an acre and a quarter, which produces a yearly rental of £7. 10s.  The amount is distributed in small sums among the poor not receiving parish relief.

William Hawkins, by will, 1724, gave to the poor of this parish £5 per annum, charged on certain premises, the property of Mr. Collier.  The amount is expended in warm clothing, and given to the poor about Christmas.

John Hayley charged a certain house with the payment of 4s. yearly, to be distributed in bread.  It appears that Eleanor Richards, in 1758, paid the sum of £4 into the hands of the then minister and certain other persons, trustees for repairing the bridge, in order to exempt the house from the annual payment of the said 4s.  It seems reasonable to presume that the sum thus paid to the trustees of the bridge was applied by them to the purposes of their trust, which would create, we apprehend, a liability on their part to pay the annuity of 4s.  We do not, however, find any instance of such a payment.

A rent charge of £5 per annum, left by John Staunton, payable out of a tenement in Newport, has not been paid for many years; the premises having passed to several successive owners without any mention of the rent charge in the title deeds.  A yearly sum of 6s. 8d., left by Roger Simonds, has long been lost.  The gift of £20 by Francis Wells, in 1680; £20 by Mr. Edwards, and £30 by Mrs. Brayne, in 1713, recorded on the table of benefactions, have also been lost.

Post Office.—High street.  Miss Maria Justice Sillitoe, postmistress.  Letters to London, Birmingham, Stafford, &c., are dispatched at 6 40 A.M., and 10 40 P.M.  Letters to Shrewsbury, Wellington, South Wales, &c., are dispatched at 1 50 A.M., and 2 20 P.M.

See also the Directories of Chetwynd, Chetwynd Aston, and Church Aston.

Adams Joseph Harrison, gentleman, High st

Adderley Thomas William, hair dresser, High street

Allen Harry, wine & spirit merchant, High street; residence, Chetwynd End

Allkins Lewis, turnery, bendware, and hair sieve manufacturer, Mill Works

Appleby Cowton, solicitor’s clerk, Beaumaris lane

Aston George, grocer, tea dealer, ironmonger, and chemist and druggist, Lower Bar

Atkinson Frances, boarding school, High st

Baddeley Thomas Bernard, solicitor, St. Mary’s street; residence, High street

Baddeley William Edward, surgeon, High st

Ballard John, cattle dealer, Beaumaris lane

Barber Charles, maltster & butcher, High st

Barber The Misses, High street

Barlow George, maltster and vict., Feathers Inn, High street

Barlow Mary Ann, vict., Bull’s Head, St. Mary’s street

Barlow Mary Ann, infant school teacher, Wellington road

Barlow Samuel, contractor and vict., White Horse Inn, High street

Beeston John, boot & shoemaker, Lower Bar

Bennett William, gentleman, High street

Blest Richard, shoemaker, Workhouse lane

Bolas Wm., boot & shoemaker, St. Mary’s st

Booth Richard, vict., White Lion, High st

Boughey Thomas, turnery, bendware, and hair sieve manufacturer, Mill Works

Bowring Thomas, fishmonger and game dealer, St. Mary’s street

Bradbury Charles, soda water manufacturer, cigar & wine & spirit agent, High street

Bradbury Charles, tailor and draper, High st

Bradbury Helen, school teacher, Upper Bar

Bradbury Samuel, ale, porter, and wine and spirit agent, High street

Breese John, tailor, High street

Breese Thomas, tailor, High street

Brittain Miss, milliner, High street

Brittain William, grocer, tea dealer, and agent to Salop Fire Office, High street

Brookes Ambrose, solicitor, Upper Bar

Brown William, plumber, glazier, & painter, High street

Bryan Robt., inland revenue officer, Upper Bar

Chalmers Henry, chemist & druggist, High st

Chettar John, rope maker, Upper Bar

Clift Roger, hosier, Lower Bar

Cobb Samuel, cabinet maker & upholsterer, High street

Collier Mary Ann, milliner, High street

Cooke Joseph, blacksmith, Salthouse lane

Cooper Mrs. Mary Ann, Old Hall

Crowther Richard, third master, Grammar School, High street

Darley Matthew, vict., Old Star, High street

Davies Mr. David, Brown’s Cottage, Beaumaris lane

Davies Mr. David, St. Mary’s street

Davies Samuel, plumber & glazier, High st

Davies Thomas, brazier & tin plate worker, High street

Davieson Thomas, cabinet maker, High st

Dawes James, blacksmith, Stafford street

Dawson John, basket maker and vict., Plough Inn, High street

Dodd George, saddler and harness maker, Lower Bar

Doody John, solicitor’s clerk, High street

Doody Joseph, auctioneer, maltster, and ale and porter agent, High street

Duncalfe George, surgeon, St. Mary’s street

Duncalfe Thomas, chemist and druggist and veterinary surgeon, St. Mary’s street

Eardley Thomas, saddler & harness maker, High street

Eccleshall John, cooper, Upper Bar

Edwards David, linen and woollen draper, High street

Edwards Joseph, beerhouse keeper, High st

Eldershaw Mrs. Jane, Upper Bar

Evanson Ann, bonnet maker, St. Mary’s st

Felton John, seedsman, St. Mary’s street

Fieldhouse Ann, milliner, High street

Fieldhouse Thomas, auctioneer & maltster, High street

Fieldhouse William, grocer, tea dealer, and tallow chandler, High street

Fisher Robert, jun., Esq., solicitor, and auditor of the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire audit district, High street

Fisher and Washbourne, solicitors, High st

Fishwick Mary Ann and Alice, dressmakers, High street

Fishwick William, saddler and harness maker, High street

Fletcher Mrs. Helen, High street

Ford and Co., woolstaplers, Stafford street

Fowler Alexander, bank manager, High st

Fox William, beerhouse keeper, Upper Bar

Gater Charles, tailor, High street

Glover Alfred, beerhouse keeper, St. Mary’s street

Godby Augustus Hardy, surgeon, High st

Goodall John, vict., Fox & Grapes, St. Mary’s street

Gosnell John, butcher and shopkeeper, Lower Bar

Griffiths John, confectioner, & glass, china, and earthenware dealer, High street

Guy Ann, schoolmistress, High street

Hall George, bookkeeper to Shropshire Union Canal Company, Canal Wharf

Harker Francis, shopkeeper, High street

Harrison Jas., vict., New Inn, Stafford road

Harvey Robert, hair dresser, High street

Haycock Thomas, vict., Bridge Tavern, Lower Bar

Heane Henry, Esq., solicitor, clerk to commissioners of property and assessed taxes, clerk to poor law guardians, and superintendent registrar, High street

Higgins Mr. Robert George, High street

Hickin Miss Catherine, St. Mary’s street

Holland John, auctioneer, St. Mary’s street

Hollins John, shopkeeper, High street

Horton Miss Mary Ann, High street

Hughes Robert, Esq., High street

Humphreys Miss Elizabeth, Stafford street

Hutchinson James, currier and leather cutter, High street

Hutchinson Mary Ann, milliner, High street

Huxley John, grocer, tea dealer, and general provision warehouse, Lower Bar

Icke James Joseph, corn & guano merchant, Vauxhall

Icke and Yates, grocer, tea dealers, and chemists and druggists, High street

James John, cooper, St. Mary’s street

James Lewis and Josiah, linen and woollen drapers, High street

Jenkins William, cabinet maker, St. Mary’s st

Jervis William, tailor, High street

Johnstone Moses, tailor, Lower Bar

Jones Edward, grocer, tea dealer, ironmonger, chemists and druggists, Lower Bar

Jones John, inland revenue officer, High st

Jones and Aston, grocers, tea dealers, ironmongers, chemists and druggists, and iron-hurdle makers, Lower Bar

Keeling John, tailor and draper, High street

Keeling Mrs. Sarah, High street

Keeling William, solicitor, High street

Kyffin Mrs. Margaret, High street

Lamonby George, vict., Swan Inn, High st

Leach George, boot & shoemaker, Upper Bar

Leach Samuel, farrier, Upper Bar

Leach Rev. William Berckeley (Independent), Upper Bar, Aston

Leech Ann and Elizabeth, dressmakers, Upper Bar

Leech and Humphreys, wood turners, Upper Bar

Lees John, schoolmaster, High street

Leigh Mary, vict., Pheasant Inn, High street

Liddle William, Esq., solicitor, and clerk to magistrates and county court, High street

Lindop William, surgeon, St. Mary’s street

Littleton William, winnowing machine maker, Beaumaris lane

Lockley James, grocer, tea dealer, cheese factor, maltster, corn miller, and vict., King’s Arms Inn, High street

Lockley George, vict., Old Bell Inn, High st

Lowe Edwin, painter, High street

Lowe Emma, bonnet maker, High street

Lowe Richard, clothes dealer and agent to Birmingham Fire Office, High street

Macefield John, banker’s clerk, High street

Macklin Frederick, hair dresser, High street

Mansell Thomas, timber merchant and wheelwright, Stafford road

Massey William and George, engineers, millwrights, and iron and brass founders, Lower Bar

May Edward, county police officer, Stafford road

Morgan Miss Elizabeth, High street

Morris John, Esq., High street

Morris Samuel, butcher, Stafford street

National Provincial Bank of England, High street; Alexander Fowler, manager

Northwood James, watch and clock maker, High street

Oastler William, chemist and druggist, and agent to clerical and medical assurance office, High street

Owen Ann, beerhouse keeper, Summer House

Owen William, shoemaker, Watery lane

Parsons Joseph, vict., George and Dragon, High street

Pearse John, supervisor of inland revenue, High street

Pember John, boot and shoemaker, High st

Pickin Peter, vict., Pig Fould Inn, High st

Plant Caroline, dressmaker, St. Mary’s street

Plant Stephen, boot and shoemaker, and leather cutter, St. Mary’s street

Plant Thomas, saddler and harness maker and beerhouse keeper, Lower Bar

Pooler Thos., boot & shoemaker, Upper Bar

Pritchard Edward, law stationer and agent to district fire and industrial and general life offices, High street

Rees Benjamin, relieving officer and registrar of births and deaths for Newport district, High street

Rees John, saddler & harness maker, High st

Rees Philip, butcher, High street

Rees Philip, butcher, Upper Bar

Roberts Thomas, bailiff to county court, Upper Bar

Rogers Elizabeth, tanner, Watery lane

Rogers Stephen, baker, St. Mary’s street

Rowley James, blacksmith, Upper Bar

Rutter Jane, vict., Crown Inn and Posting House, High street

Sandford Rev. William, M.A., Incumbent of Newport, the Grammar School, High st

Saxton Rev. Charles Waring, D.D., head master of Grammar School, High street

Scott Robert, gentleman, High street

Serjeant Elizabeth, shopkeeper, High street

Serjeant John, solicitor’s clerk, Lower Bar

Serjeant Peter, cabinet-maker & upholsterer, High street

Serjeant William, currier and leather-cutter, High street

Shaw Abraham Pierpont, bookseller, printer, stationer, bookbinder, patent medicine vendor, and agent to Times Life and Assurance and Guarantee Co., High street

Shaw John, wheelwright, Workhouse lane

Sherry Richard, omnibus proprietor, and victualler, Anchor Inn, St. Mary’s street

Sherry Thomas, maltster, High street

Shropshire Banking Company, High street, Mr. William Silvester, manager

Sillitoe Maria Justice, postmistress, High st

Sillitoe William, gentleman, Lower Bar

Silvester Henry Price and Charles, booksellers, printers, stationers, bookbinders, musical instrument dealers, patent medicine vendors, stamp-office, and patent machine rulers, High street

Silvester Mr. William, bank-manager, High street

Simpson Charles, town crier, High street

Skitt Mrs. Emma, St. Mary’s street

Slaney Henry, cabinet-maker & upholsterer, St. Mary’s street

Slaney William, grocer & tea dealer, High st

Smallwood Brooke Hector, Esq., solicitor, St. Mary’s st.; residence, Chetwynd End

Smallwood George, shopkeeper, Stafford st

Smart Elizabeth, bonnet-maker, St. Mary’s st

Smart George, patten and clog maker, Upper Bar

Smart Richard, tailor, High street

Smith Mrs. Ann, High street

Smith Mr. Edward, High street

Steed Charles Christopher, boot and shoemaker, leather-cutter, and toy-warehouse, High street

Steed George, boot and shoemaker and leather-cutter, High street

Steeple Thomas, accountant, Upper Bar

Steventon Charles and John, butchers, High street

Steventon Martha, shopkeeper, High street

Stokes Charles, shopkeeper, Upper Bar

Stokes John, surveyor of highways, collector of assessed taxes, and manager of the gas works, Marsh lane

Stokes Thomas, maltster and victualler, Shakspere Inn, Upper Bar

Stokes William, maltster, Wellington road

Sturgess George, painter and shopkeeper, High street

Sturgess Sarah, bonnet-maker, High-street

Taylor Mrs. Frances, High street

Thomas Alexander, hosier, High-street

Thompson John, fishmonger, fruiterer, and game dealer, High street

Thurstan Thomas, Esq., St. Mary’s street

Tipping Richard, gun and pistol maker, Upper Bar

Tomlin Sarah, schoolmistress, Workhouse lane

Tomkinson James, cooper, High street

Tomkinson John, baker and shopkeeper, Stafford street

Tomkinson Job, shopkeeper, High street

Treasure John, land agent, surveyor, and builder, Chetwynd Aston

Trovell Rev. Michael, Catholic priest, Salter’s Hall

Underhill William Scott, grocer, tea dealer, ironmonger, brazier, and tin-plate worker, nail, hurdle, and agricultural implement maker, High street

Ventriss Rev. E. F., curate, High street

Waldron Joseph, victualler, Horse & Jockey, High street

Walker Emma and Elizabeth, milliners, High street

Walker William, victualler, Unicorn Inn, High street

Ward Elizabeth, victualler, Wharf Tavern, Canal wharf

Ward George, maltster and victualler, Barley Mow Inn, High street

Ward George Joseph, timber and tile merchant, Canal wharf; residence, Church Aston

Ward John, maltster and victualler, Raven and Bell Inn, High street

Ward Martha and Elizabeth, milliners, High street

Warner John, linen and woollen draper and silk mercer, High street

Warner & Co., woollen drapers, clothiers, and hatters, High street

Washbourne William, Esq., solicitor, High-street; residence, Chetwynd House

Watkin John, linen and woollen draper, clothier and hatter, High street

Watkin John, ironmonger, brazier, and tin-plate worker, High street

Westbrook Samuel, shoemaker, Wellington road

Whiston Joseph, watch and clock maker, High street

Whiston Thomas, watch and clock maker, Upper Bar

Whittingham Joseph, stone mason, Upper Bar

Wilde Martha, grocer and tallow-chandler, St. Mary’s street

Williams John, bricklayer, High street

Williams John, shopkeeper, Upper Bar

Williams William, joiner, Upper Bar

Woods William Barnett, accountant & paper-hanger, St. Mary’s street

Worrall Joseph, tailor and draper, High st

Wright Joseph, hatter, High street

Yale Elizabeth, dressmaker, High street

Yates John, grocer, tea-dealer, and chemist and druggist, High street

Academies.

Atkinson and Cooke, High st

Bradbury Helen, Wellington road

Catholic School, Mrs. Baldwin

Grammar School, High st., Rev. Chas. Waring Saxton, D.D., head master; Rev. Wm. Sandford, M.A., second master; Mr. Rd. Crowther, third master

Guy Ann, High street

Infants’ School, Mary Ann Barlow, Wellington road

National School, (Girls), Sarah Tomlin, Workhouse lane

Royal Free School, John Lees, Wellington road

Agricultural Implement Maker.

Underhill Wm. Scott, High street

Ale, Porter, & Spirit Agents.

Bradbury Charles, High st

Bradbury Samuel, High st

Doody Joseph, ale & porter, High street

Attorneys.

Baddeley Thomas Bernard, St. Mary’s street

Brookes Ambrose, Upper Bar

Fisher & Washbourne, High street

Heane Henry, High street

Keeling William, High street

Liddle William, and clerk to magistrates, High street

Smallwood Brooke Hector, St. Mary’s street

Auctioneers.

Doody Joseph, High street

Fieldhouse Thomas, High st

Holland John, St. Mary’s st

Bakers.

Griffiths John, High street

Huxley John, Lower Bar

Rogers Stephen, St. Mary’s st

Tomkinson John, Stafford st

Banks.

National Provincial Bank of England, High st., (draws on London Joint Stock Bank); Mr. Alex. Fowler, manager

Savings’ Bank, High, street, open every alternate Saturday from 10 A.M. to 1 P.M.; Mr. Charles Silvester, secretary

Shropshire Banking Co., High street, (draw on Hanbury & Co., London); Mr. William Silvester, manager

Blacksmiths.

Dawes James, Stafford street

Cooke Joseph, Salt house ln

Rowley James, Upper Bar

Booksellers, Printers, Stationers, Bookbinders, and Patent Medicine Vendors.

Shaw Abraham Pierpoint, High street

Silvester Henry Price and Charles, High street

Boot and Shoemakers.

Beeston John, Lower Bar

Blest Richard, Workhouse ln

Bolas William, St. Mary’s st

Leech George, Upper Bar

Owen William, Watery lane

Pember John, High street

Plant Stephen, St. Mary’s st

Pooler Thomas, Upper Bar

Steed Charles Christopher, and toy warehouse, High street

Steed George, High street

Westbrook Samuel, Wellington road

Braziers & Tin-Plate Workers.

Davies Thomas, High street

Underhill Wm. Scott, High street

Watkin John, High street

Bricklayer.

Williams John, High street

Butchers.

Barber Charles, High street

Gosnell John, Lower Bar

Morris Samuel, Stafford st

Rees Philip, High street

Rees Philip, Upper Bar

Steventon Charles and John, High street

Cabinet Makers and Upholsterers.

Cobb Samuel, High street

Davieson Thomas, High st

Jenkins William, St. Mary’s street

Serjeant Peter, High street

Slaney Henry, St. Mary’s st

Chemists & Druggists.

Chalmers Henry, High st

Duncalfe Thos., St. Mary’s st

Icke and Yates, High street

Jones and Aston, Lower Bar

Oastier William, High street

Clothiers.

Lowe Richard, High street

Warner and Co., and general outfitters, High street

Watkin John, High street

Confectioners.

Griffiths John, High street

Serjeant Elizabeth, High st

Sillitoe Fanny, High street

Coopers.

Eccleshall John, Upper Bar

James John, St. Mary’s st

Tomkinson James, High st

Corn Miller.

Lockley James, High street

Curriers & Leather Cutters.

Marked * leather cutter.

Hutchinson James, High st

Serjeant Wm., St. Mary’s st

* Steed George, High street

Engineers, Millwrights, and Brass Founders.

Massey William and George, Lower Bar

Fire & Life Office Agents.

Birmingham, Richard Lowe, High street

District, Edward Pritchard, High street

Industrial and General, Ed. Pritchard, High street

Law, William Washbourne, High street

Medical and Clerical, Wm. Oastler, High street

Norwich Union, Jas. Joseph Icke, High street

Palladium, Alexander Fowler, High street

Phœnix, Alexander Fowler, High street

Salop, Henry Chalmers, High street

Shropshire & North Wales, Thomas Fieldhouse, High street

Times Life and Assurance and Guarantee, Abraham P. Shaw, High street

Glass & China Dealers.

Griffiths John, High street

Underhill William Scott, (glass), High street

Fish and Game Dealers and Fruiterers.

Bowring Thos., St. Mary’s st

Thompson John, High street

Grocers & Tea Dealers.

Brittain William, High st

Fieldhouse William, High st

Huxley John, Lower Bar

Icke and Yates, High street

Jones and Aston, Lower Bar

Lockley James, High street

Slaney William, High street

Underhill Wm. Scott, High street

Wild Martha, St. Mary’s st

Gun & Pistol Maker.

Tipping Richard, Upper Bar

Hair Dressers.

Adderley Thomas William, High street

Harvey Robert, High street

Macklin Frederick, High st

Hatters.

Keeling John, High street

Warner & Co., High street

Watkin John, High street

Worrall Joseph, High street

Wright Joseph, High street

Hosiers and Haberdashers.

Clift Roger, Lower Bar

Lowe Richard Goolden, High street

Thomas Alexander, High st

Hotels, Inns, & Taverns.

Anchor, Richard Sherry, St. Mary’s street

Barley Mow, George Ward, High street

Bridge Tavern, Thomas Haycock, Lower Bar

Bull’s Head, Mary Ann Barlow, St. Mary’s street

Crown Inn (posting house), Jane Rutter, High street

Feathers, George Barlow, High street

Fox & Grapes, John Goodall, St. Mary’s street

George and Dragon, Joseph Parsons, St. Mary’s st

Horse and Jockey, Joseph Waldron, St. Mary’s st

King’s Arms, James Lockley, High street

New Inn, James Harrison, Stafford road

Old Bell, James Lockley, High street

Old Crow, Benjamin Parton, High street

Old Star, Matthew Darley, High street

Pheasant, Mary Leigh, High street

Pig Fold, Peter Pickin, High street

Plough, John Dawson, High street

Raven and Bell, John Ward, High street

Royal Victoria Hotel (posting house), St. Mary’s street

Shakspere, Thomas Stokes, Upper Bar

Swan, George Lamonby, High street

Unicorn, William Walker, High street

Wharf Tavern, Elizabeth Ward, Canal wharf

White Horse, Samuel Barlow, High street

White Lion, Richard Booth, High street

Beerhouses.

Edwards Joseph, High street

Fox William, Upper Bar

Glover Alfred, St. Mary’s st.

Owen Ann, Summer House

Plant Thomas, Lower Bar

Ironmongers.

Jones and Aston, Lower Bar

Underhill William Scott

Joiners and Builders.

Treasure John Chetwynd, Aston

Williams William, Upper Bar

Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

Edwards David, High street

James Lewis and Isaiah, High street

Warner John, High street

Watkin John, High street

Maltsters.

Barber Charles, High street

Barlow George, High street

Doody George, High street

Fieldhouse Thos., High st.

Lockley James, High street

Parton Benjamin, High st.

Stokes William, Wellington road

Ward George, High street

Ward John, High street

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Brittain Miss, High street

Collier Mary Ann, High st.

Fieldhouse Ann, High street

Fishwick Mary Ann and Alice, High street

Hutchinson Mary Ann, High street

Leach Ann and Elizabeth, Upper Bar

Plant Caroline, Upper Bar

Walker Emma and Eliza, High street

Ward Martha and Elizabeth, High street

Yale Elizabeth, High street

Patten and Clog Maker.

Smart George, Upper Bar

Plumbers, Glaziers, and Painters.

Marked * Painter and Glazier only.

Brown William, High street

Davies Samuel, High street

* Lowe Edwin, High street

Sturgess George, High street

Sturgess George, High street

Rope and Twine Maker.

Chettar John, Upper Bar

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Dodd George, Lower Bar

Eardley Thos., High street

Fishwick William, High st.

Plant Thomas, Lower Bar

Rees John, High street

Shopkeepers, Dealers in Sundries, and Groceries.

Gosnell John, Lower Bar

Harker Francis, High street

Hollins John, High street

Steventon Martha, High st.

Stokes Charles, Upper Bar

Sturgess George, High street

Swallow George, Stafford st.

Tomkinson John, Stafford street

Tomkinson Job, High street

Williams John, Upper Bar

Soda Water Manufacturer.

Bradbury Charles, High st.

Stone Mason.

Whittingham Joseph, Upper Bar

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Evanson Ann, St. Mary’s st.

Lowe Emma, High street

Smart Eliza, St. Mary’s st.

Sturgess Sarah, High street

Surgeons.

Baddeley William Edward, High street

Duncalfe George, St. Mary’s street

Godby Augustus H., High st.

Lindop William, St. Mary’s street

Surveyor and Builder.

Treasure John Chetwynd, Aston

Tailors.

Those with * affixed are Woollen Drapers.

* Bradbury Charles, High st.

Breese John, High street

Breese Thomas, St. Mary’s street

Gater Charles, High street

Jervis William, High street

Johnstone Moses, Lower Bar

* Keeling John, High street

Smart Richard, High street

* Watkin John, High street

* Worrall Joseph, High street

Tallow Chandlers.

Brittain William, High street

Fieldhouse William, High st.

Wilde Martha, St. Mary’s st.

Tanner.

Rogers Elizabeth, Watery lane

Timber Merchants.

Ward George Joseph, Canal wharf

Mansell Thomas, Stafford road

Turnery, Bendware, and Hair Sieve Manufacturers, & General Wood Turners.

Atkins Lewis, Mill Works

Baughey Thos., Mill Works

Veterinary Surgeon.

Duncalfe Thomas, St. Mary’s street

Watch & Clock Makers.

Northwood James, High st

Whiston Joseph, High street

Whiston Thomas, Upper Bar

Wheelwrights.

Mansell Thomas, Stafford st

Shaw John, Workhouse Lane

Wine & Spirit Merchants.

Allan Harry, High street

Liddle William, High street

Wood Turners.

Leech and Humphreys, Upper Bar

Wool Staplers.

Ford and Co., Stafford street

General Carriers.

The Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company, George Hall, clerk

PRESTON-UPON-THE-WILD-MOORS
is a parish and small rural village, three miles N.E. of Wellington, comprising 1,153a. 4r. 30p. of land, and in 1801 had 170 inhabitants; 1831, 218; and in 1841 there were 80 houses and a population of 389 souls.  Rateable value, £1,422. 1s. 10d.  The village is retired, but pleasantly situated, and contains some good farm residences.  St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., and the Trustees of Preston Hospital are the landowners.  The Church is a small brick structure, consisting of nave and chancel, with a tower, in which are two bells.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £3, now returned £198, in the patronage of the Trustees of Preston Hospital and St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., alternately; incumbent, Rev. William Taylor Bird, M.A.  The tithes are commuted for £119, and there are 23 acres of glebe land.

Preston Hospital.—Lady Catherine Herbert, widow of Henry Lord Herbert, by her will, bearing date 11th April, 1716, gave the sum of £6,000, in trust, to be laid out in the purchase of lands, in the county of Salop, and building an almshouse thereon, for the reception of 12 poor women and 12 poor girls; the patronage to be vested in the Earl and Countess of Bradford.  Thomas Lord Torrington, by will, 1718, devised his real estate in Preston-upon-the-Wild-Moors, subject to certain annuities, in trust, to apply the rents and profits to the same use as Lady Herbert’s gift; and directed the almshouse to be built upon such part of the estate at Preston as his trustees should think proper; and he gave £1,000, then due to him from his nephew, the Earl of Bradford, to the trustees, to be laid out in building a hall in the middle of the hospital.  The property belonging the hospital, when the Charity Commissioners published their report in the year 1828, consisted of the sum of £9,621. 4s. 6d., three per cent. consols; certain lands, chiefly situated in the parish of Preston, comprising 1,077a. 0r. 31p. of land, let at a yearly rental of £1,301. 5s. 6d.; and the dividends of £5,539. 12s. three per cent. consols, producing £166. 3s. 4d. per annum.  The latter stock is in respect of a legacy of £4,000, bequeathed in 1802 by Charles Henry Coote, Earl of Montrath, to be applied by the trustees in the augmentation of the poor widows’ stipends.

The hospital is a spacious and elegant brick structure, with stone finishings, and was originally built so as to form three sides of a square, with a large hall in the centre, used both as a chapel and as a school.  The old buildings contain apartments for 20 widows, and sufficient accommodation for 20 girls and the matron who superintends the school, together with a kitchen and other offices.  There are also apartments for the receiver, who has occasion frequently to attend on business connected with the trust.  Under an order of the Court of Chancery, made 27th March, 1827, new buildings have been erected as wings at each end.  These comprise eight apartments, for an additional number of widows.  Each of the widows has for her own use a small garden.  There are also three meadows and a large garden, which are kept in hand, and stocked for the general use of’ the hospital.  Since the erection of the wings, the number of widows have been increased from 20 to 27.  The widows are selected by the trustees, without any restriction as to the place of birth or residence.  Twenty inmates receive £26 per annum, and seven have £18 a-year; in addition they have two tons of coal each, and are provided with beds, bedding, and other necessary articles of furniture.  They were formerly supplied with medicine and medical attendance from the funds of the charity; but some years ago this expense was found to be so great that it was thought expedient that every almswoman that should be appointed after that time should deposit a sum of £10 in a savings’ bank, for the purpose of providing herself with such medical assistance as she might require during her residence in the hospital.  When a widow dies, £5 is allowed for the expense of her funeral.  The twenty widows who have the largest income receive the additional allowance under the bequest of the Earl of Montrath.  Upon this establishment there are also 20 girls appointed by the trustees.  They are provided with board and lodging, and are clothed and fed without any expense whatever to their parents; and at 16 years of age, when they leave the hospital, they receive £5 to supply them with clothing.  The matron who instructs the girls, and has the management of this branch of the establishment, as well as the superintendence of the widows, receives a salary of £30 a-year in addition to her board and lodgings.

Bird Rev. William Taylor, M.A., rector

Brown Henry, farmer

Chilton Thomas, farmer

Colley Ann, shopkeeper and beerhouse

Getley Edward, farmer, The Wich Farm

Hartley John, farmer

Hawkins Richard, farmer, Preston Farm

Hawkins Richard, farmer, Preston Hall

Higgins Mrs. Jane, Preston Cottage

Higgins Thomas, farmer

Hughes Jas., carpenter, joiner, & shopkeeper

Kirkham Mary Ann, farmer

M’Lean Mrs. Ann, governess of Preston Hospital

Pritchard Elizabeth, shopkeeper

Wood George, parish clerk

RODINGTON, OR RODDINGTON,
a parish and scattered village, which derives its name from its situation on the river Roden, is pleasantly situated five miles N.N. by W. from Wellington.  The parish also includes the township of Sugdon, which together contain 1,615a. 0r. 8p. of land.  In 1801 the parish contained 372 inhabitants; 1831, 423; and in 1841 there were 106 houses and 466 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,717. 4s. 2d.  The landowners are the Duke of Cleveland, John Tayleur, Esq., Mr. S. Pain, and Mr. S. Smith.  The township of Roddington, at the census in 1841, contained 88 houses and 365 inhabitants.  It is intersected by the river Roden and the Shrewsbury Canal.  There are some good farms here, the farm-houses are respectable, and there is a good inn in the village.  The Church, dedicated St. George, is a brick structure, consisting of nave and chancel, and a tower in which are two small bells.  There is a small gallery at the west end.  A memorial, with the date of 1737, remembers John Tayleur, Esq., formerly a resident in Roddington.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £6. 13s. 4d., in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and enjoyed by the Rev. Henry Thomas Whateley, The tithes have been commuted for £296, and there are thirty acres of glebe land.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel built in 1834.  The National School, a neat brick structure, is situated a little south from the church; fifty-six children now attend.

Sugdon is a small township in Roddington parish, situated about a mile from the church, which at the census in 1801 contained 18 houses and 101 inhabitants.  The land is all the property of the Duke of Cleveland.  Longwaist is a hamlet in Sugdon township.

Poors Land.—In the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is stated that Walter Davies, by will, gave to the poor of this parish £50 in the year 1674, and that William Tayleur, Esq., in 1722, left £30 for the like purposes, and that those legacies were then laid out in land.  The premises referred to consist of two enclosures containing 4a. 2r. 25p. of land.  There is also an allotment of 3a. 8p. set out thereto on an enclosure about the year 1805.  The land was let for £17. 17s. per annum when the charity commissioners published their report.  The amount is distributed to the poor in December and Easter, in sums varying from 2s. to 10s.

Post Office.—At Mr. John Prices’s, Bull’s Head.  Letters arrive at 9 A.M., and are despatched at 5 P.M.

Rodington Directory.—Robert Allen, boot and shoemaker; Thomas Belcher, wharfinger; John Hodges, farmer; George Hulse, butcher and farmer; Thomas Jukes, farmer, Rodington Hall; Samuel Pain, farmer; John Price, farmer and vict., Bull’s Head.; Mrs. Elizabeth Ralphs, The Grove; Edward Rogers, parish clerk; George Shinglar, farmer, Somerwood; Hugh Shinglar, farmer; Samuel Smith, farmer, Rodington Villa; Edward and Arabella Wainwright, teachers; Rev. Henry Thomas Whately, The Rectory.

The residents in Sugdon are Wm. Thomas Davies, farmer; James Powis, bricklayer; Longwaist Hamlet, John Bourne, brick and tile agent for the Duke of Cleveland; Jane Dunn, schoolmistress; James Dyke, coal agent; William Lockley, blacksmith; James Reeves, shopkeeper; Thomas Tudor, coal agent, The Wharf.

STIRCHLEY
is a small parish and village five miles S. E. from Wellington, and three miles W. from Shiffnal, which in 1801 contained 189 inhabitants; 1831, 271, and in 1841, 301; at the latter period there were 61 houses, which are mostly scattered; there are a number of cottages in the immediate vicinity of the church, which are small, ill ventilated, and most miserable hovels; this, however, is not the character of cottages generally in this locality, or indeed in the county, for on the whole we conceive them to be far superior to cottage residences in most other counties.  The parish contains 833a. 0r. 36p. of land, the principal owner of which is R. H. Cheney, Esq.; the Duke of Cleveland, Robert Burton, Esq., and Beriah Botfield, Esq., are also proprietors.  A considerable part of land is held in lease by Beriah Botfield, Esq., who has extensive collieries and ironworks in the parish.  The Church is a small fabric dedicated to St. Mary, and consists of nave, chancel, and north transept, with a gallery over it built by the Botfield family, for the use of their own workmen.  There are ten pews in the body of the church, and two in the chancel,—the whole has a very primitive appearance.  The church was formerly lighted with small pointed windows, but these have all been made up, and a large window void of taste and of unmeaning character has been added to the east end to supply their place.  The chancel is divided from the nave by a Saxon arch of exquisite workmanship, which modern renovators have attempted to improve by adding sundry coats of lime wash.  A neat marble tablet has been erected in memory of Thomas Botfield, Esq., who died in 1801, and of his wife, Margaret, who died in 1803.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £6. 5s. 10d., now returned at £274, in the patronage of the Phillips family, and enjoyed by the Rev. Hugo Moreton Phillips, M.A., who resides at the rectory, situated near the church, and has 45a. 3r. 38p. of glebe.  There is a parochial school which is chiefly supported by B. Botfield, Esq., and the rector.  There is a Wesleyan Chapel on the Dawley road, which is just within the bounds of Dawley Magna township.  The Shropshire union canal intersects this parish.  Gross estimated rental of the parish, £2,500. 15s. 6d.; rateable value, £2,364. 8s. 6d.  Stirchley Hall is a good residence a little west from the church.

Thomas Clowes, in 1748, gave to the poor of this parish the sum of £20 per annum, to be disposed at the discretion of the churchwarden and overseer.  This annuity has long been paid by the tenant of Stirchley Hall estate, formerly the property of Mr. Clowes, and which he charged with the payment of the same.

Richard Cookes, in 1799, demised certain premises in Stirchley for the term of 1,000 years, at the yearly rent of 17s., payable to the lessor, his heirs and assigns.  This rent has for a great many years been paid to the overseers of this parish for the use of the poor, and it is supposed to have been assigned for their benefit by Richard Cookes, the lessor, but at what time or under what circumstances they first became entitled to it there is no evidence to show.  The term is at present invested in Mr. Darral, who has improved the premises by building to the annual value of £13.

Botfield Beriah, Esq., iron master and colliery proprietor

Barnard Richard, vict., Rose and Crown

Blakemore Thomas, farmer

Blocksidge John, schoolmaster and parish clerk

Hayward Sarah, shopkeeper

Onions Thomas, agent to B. Botfield, Esq.

Phillips Rev. Hugo Moreton, The Rectory

Smith George, farmer, The Hall

Smith William, farmer

Tipton Mark, agent to B. Botfield, Esq.; residence, Mossy Green

Trigger Robert, farmer

UPPINGTON
is a parish and township in the Wellington division of the South Bradford hundred, four miles S.W. by S. from Wellington, which contains 747a. 0r. 36p. of land.  In 1801 there were 107 inhabitants, 1831, 117, and in 1841 18 houses and 96 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £937. 10s.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor and proprietor of the whole parish.  The village is delightfully situated in a salubrious country, pleasingly beautified with rural scenery, and commands a fine view of the majestic Wrekin.  An avenue of trees extends nearly through the length of the village, which gives it an air of quiet retirement.  There are several good houses, with pleasure grounds neatly laid out, and tastefully planted with shrubs.  The Church has a venerable appearance, it is built of brick and rough cast, and dated 1678; it consists of nave and chancel, with a turret containing two bells.  The interior underwent a complete reparation in 1844, at a cost of about £120, raised by subscriptions and a grant from the Diocesan and Incorporated Societies,—the whole has now a tasteful and orderly appearance.  A brass plate which remembers John Stanier and family is dated 1691.  A neat marble tablet dated 1793 has been erected to the memory of Rich aid Boycott, Esq.  A tablet very chastely designed, of coloured marble, and dated 1789, records the death of Charles Stainer and several members of that family.  An altar tomb to Silvanus Boycott is dated 1686.  There is also a beautiful marble scroll, exquisitely executed, in memory of John Middleton Ashdown, Esq., agent to the Duke of Cleveland, which was put up at the expense of the Duke’s Shropshire tenantry.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland, and enjoyed by the Rev. John Meredith, M.A.  In the church-yard are two yew trees of immense girth, one of which is completely hollow, and will admit of twelve persons standing within the trunk at the same time; although nothing remains of the trunk at the bottom but a shell, yet the tree shows vigorous signs of life, and the branches cover a large surface of ground.  The tithes have been commuted for £155. 2s., when £115. 2s. was apportioned to the Duke of Cleveland, and £40 to the incumbent of the parish.

The Grammar School at Donnington, in the parish of Wroxeter, appears to have been founded for the benefit of the parish of Uppington, as well as that of Wroxeter.  An account of the foundation will be found noticed with Wroxeter.

Post Office.—At Mary Wood’s.  Letters arrive from Wellington by foot post at 8 A.M. and are despatched at 6 P.M.

Directory.—William Allen, farmer; Samuel Harding Ashdown, Esq., land and estate agent; John Bagley, shopkeeper; John Boore, gentleman; Richard Boore, farmer; Charles Durnell, parish clerk, agricultural implement maker, and blacksmith; Richard Jones, wheelwright; Charles Stanier, Esq.; Mary Wood, post office.

UPTON MAGNA
is a parish and village, pleasantly situated five miles east from Shrewsbury and seven west from Wellington, having the facilities of railway communication to both places, by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham railway, which intersects the parish.  At the census of 1801 there were 482 inhabitants; 1831, 512; and in 1841, 99 houses and 494 souls.  The parish comprises the townships of Upton Magna, Downton, Haughton, Hunkington, and Preston Boats, which together have an area of 3,260a. 3r. 25p. of land.  Rateable value, £4,171. 2s. 6d.  The principal landowners are Andrew William Corbet, Esq.; the Duke of Cleveland; and Robert Burton, Esq.; besides whom there are a few small freeholders.

The Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is an antique structure, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a tower, in which are four bells; the body of the church is built of red sand stone, and the tower of a white stone, which it is said was brought from an ancient moated mansion at Hunkington; the seats and pulpit are of oak, over the latter is the date of 1591; there is a gallery at the west end, and an ancient stone font.  The church has been greatly beautified within the last ten years by the munificence of Miss Arabella Pigott, who has added a new organ and altar-piece, adorned the windows with stained glass, and made other additions.  There is a book chained to a desk near the pulpit entitled, “An answer to a certeine booke lately set forth by Mr. Harding, entitled a confutation of the apology of the Church of England.”  An altar tomb in the chancel, with full length figures in chain armour, remembers Waiter Barker, Esq., who died in 1644.  There is also a handsome marble memorial to the memory of Mary Elizabeth Pigott, who died in 1837, and of Frances Pigott, who died in 1829, daughters of the Rev. William Pigott, rector of Edgmond and Chetwynd.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £12, now returned at £546, in the patronage of Andrew William Corbett, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Corbet Brown.  The School is situated in the church-yard; forty-three children attend, eight of which are educated free; the school has the liberal support and assiduous attention of Miss Pigott.  Upton Magna Cottage was built about forty years ago, and is the delightful residence of Miss Arabella Pigott; it is tastefully furnished, the walls are decorated with some choice paintings, and there is a good library containing many valuable standard works.  The pleasure grounds are very beautifully laid out, and command fine views of the surrounding country, and of the majestic Wrekin.

Downton is a small township in Upton Magna parish, situated about a mile W. from the church.  Of the townships in this parish there were no separate returns made of the population and acres at the census of 1841, they are therefore included with Upton Magna.  Andrew William Corbet, Esq., is the landowner.

Haughton, another small township, is situated about three miles N. from Upton Magna.  The Duke of Cleveland and A. W. Corbet, Esq., are the landowners.

Hunkington is situated about a mile N.E. from the church, and is the property of Andrew William Corbet, Esq.  There was formerly a moated mansion here, but of which we possess no historical record; not a vestige of the building now remains, but the moat may still be traced.

Preston Boats is a village and township two miles S.W. from Upton, on the banks of the river Severn, over which there is a ferry for passengers.  The land is the property of Robert Burton, Esq.

Charities.—Thomas Blakeway, in 1767, bequeathed £300 upon trust to apply one-third part of the yearly proceeds thereof in relieving the necessities of poor housekeepers, and the residue for the instruction of children belonging to poor parishioners.  He also bequeathed £20 to be laid out in the repairs of the school.  As the produce of this bequest there is now £322 stock, three and half per cents., the dividends of which amount to £11. 5s. 4d., two thirds of which are applied in the education of youth, and one-third is distributed among the poor.  The Rev. Richard Andrews, in 1726, left £10 to the use of the poor.  Mrs. Ann Peploe, in 1728, gave £16 to buy a garment for the poor.  Ann Barker gave £20, and Thomas Jewkes £20 for the benefit of the poor.  These several sums, amounting in the whole to £71, were laid out in building a parish work-house, which was subsequently sold, and the charity money was laid out in 1813, in the purchase of £80. 0s. 7d. stock in the navy five per cents., and there is now in respect of the charity money £84. 0s. 7d. standing in the names of certain trustees in the new four per cents.  Out of the dividends 5s. is given away in bread, 16s. laid out in the purchase of two garments for poor persons, and the residue is distributed in small sums on St. Stephen’s-day.

Upton Magna, Downton, Hunkington, Haughton, & Preston Boats Directories.

Pigott Miss Arabella, The Cottage, Upton Magna

Allen Thomas, station master

Allen William, farmer, Hunkington

Barber Richard, farmer, The Sales, Upton Magna

Bladon John, wheelwright, Upton Magna

Brisbourne Thomas, farmer, Haughton

Bowen Wm., farmer, Somer Wood, Upton Magna

Brown Edmund, farmer, Upton Magna

Burroughs Daniel, tailor, Upton Magna

Clarke Mrs. Mary, Upton Magna

Davies James, farmer, Downton

Davies Robert, farmer, Preston Boats, Ferry

Davies John, shoemaker, Upton Magna

Elkes John, shoemaker, Haughton

Elsmere Colley, farmer, Upton Magna

Gregory Mary Ann, farmer, Preston Boats

Humphries Mary, schoolmistress, Upton Magna

Humphries Nathaniel, schoolmaster, Upton Magna

Humphries Richard, farmer, Rae House, Upton Magna

Humphry John, farmer and vict., Corbet Arms, Upton Magna

Jervis Robert, farmer, Upton Magna

Jones Hannah, farmer, Preston Boats

Jones John, farmer, Preston Boats

Jones Richard, farmer, Downton

Keay Henry, parish clerk, Upton Magna

Keay Walter, basket maker, Upton Magna

Leeke John, farmer, Haughton

Lockley Henry, blacksmith, Upton Magna

Matthews William, farmer, Preston Boats

Pickin Helen, shopkeeper, Upton Magna

Ralphs Henry, wheelwright, Upton Magna

Rogers Joseph, tailor, Upton Magna

Tart Thos. Sharratt, farmer, Upton Magna

UPTON WATERS, OR PARVA,
is a small parish, township, and pleasantly situated village, five and a half miles N. from Wellington, in the Wellington division of the South Bradford hundred.  The parish contains 732a. 3r. 35p. of land, and in 1801 had 169 inhabitants, 1831, 193, and in 1841, 43 houses and 228 souls.  Gross estimated rental, £1,346. 18s.; rateable value, £1,256. 0s. 11d.  The principal landowners are Thomas Whitfield, Esq., Miss Ann Dickin, Mrs. Elizabeth Groucock, Mrs. Rider, Mr. William Boycott, and Mr. John Williams, besides whom there are several small freeholders.  The village is pleasantly situated on elevated ground, and commands an extensive view of the surrounding country; on the western verge of the parish is the river Tern, which separates Upton Waters from the parish of Ercall.

The Church is a small unpresuming structure, dedicated to Saint Michael, consisting of nave and chancel, with a small belfry at the west end; the interior of the fabric corresponds with its architectural simplicity.  A brass plate in the aisle remembers the Reverend William Jones, formerly rector of this parish for 62 years, and died in the year 1691, aged 82 years.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £3. 17s. 3½d., now returned at £204, in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and incumbency of the Rev. Richard Corfield, a non-resident; curate, Rev. Sidney Philip Robertson, B.A.  The rectory is a good residence a little west from the church.  The Hall, the residence and property of Miss Ann Dickin, is a neat brick house a little north-west from the church.  About a quarter of a mile north-west from the church is a large brick structure, originally built as a workhouse for Ercall Magna parish.  It is now used for the reception of the children belonging the Wellington Poor-law Union, and will accommodate about one hundred; the average number is about fifty.  The building stands on the banks of the river Tern, and is just within the bounds of the parish of Ercall, the river here dividing the two parishes.

Bennett Thomas, shoemaker

Davies John, schoolmaster, Union House

Dickin Miss Ann, the Hall

Edwards Rd., wheelwright

Gregory James, tailor

Groucock Elizabeth, farmer

Icke William, maltster and vict., the Swan

Leighton Robert, farmer

Matthews William, farmer

Morgan John, surgeon

Ridgway James, blacksmith

Roberson Rev. Sidney Philip, curate, the Rectory

Titley John, butcher

Tudor Samuel, bricklayer and shopkeeper

Whitfield Thomas, farmer

WELLINGTON
is a considerable parish and flourishing market town, pleasantly situated eleven miles E. from Shrewsbury, and 142 N.W. from London, and by railway 11 miles from Shrewsbury, 7½ miles S.W. from Newport, 31 miles from Birmingham, and seven miles W. by N. from Shiffnal.  The parish contains the townships and hamlets of Arleston, Aston, Apley, Dothill, Hadley, Horton, Ketley, Lawley, Newdale, Walcott, Wellington, Wapenshall, and Lee Gomery, and part of Preston and Eyton, together embracing an area of 9,184a. 1r. 7p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £36,120. 19s. 3d.  Rateable value, £32,656. 7s. 7d.  The joint railway companies are rated at £776. 18s.  The tithes have been commuted, and £1,484 awarded to St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., the impropriator, and to the vicar, £470. 6s.  Population in 1801, 7,531; 1831, 9,671; and in 1841, 11,099.  The township of Wellington contains 727a. 1r. 16p. of land; and in 1841 had a population of 6,084 souls, of whom 3,104 were males and 2,980 females; at the same period there were 1,181 inhabited houses, 101 uninhabited, and 18 houses building.  Wellington is a well-built town, of considerable importance, and from its contiguity to the great seat of the iron and coal works in this county, it has a much frequented market.  It is also the centre of a rich agricultural district, has ample communication by railway to all parts of the kingdom, and the Shropshire Union Canal, in its immediate vicinity, opens a water communication with the Severn and distant parts of the country.  The town contains many good houses, with shops in all the different branches of the retail trade; there are also several good inns.  The malting business is extensively carried on; the establishment of Mr. James Shepard is on a large scale.  There are also an iron foundry, a tannery, and several establishments for the manufacture of nails; agricultural implements are also made.  Hugh Burnel, in the reign of Edward I., obtained the grant of a market (to be held on Thursdays), and of two fairs in the year—the first to be held on the day after the feast of St. Barnabas, and the second on the eve, the day, and the day after the decollation of St. John the Baptist.  The market is still held on the Thursday, and the fairs are held March 29th, June 22nd, September 29th, November 17th, Monday week before Christmas day, and the last Monday in each of the other months.  At these fairs large quantities of farm and dairy produce, as also horses, horned cattle, and sheep, are usually sold.  The magistrates of the county hold petty sessions monthly.  William and Thomas Turner, Esqrs., are clerks to the magistrates.  A Court of Record was formerly held for debts not exceeding £20, but this has been superseded by the New County Court Act.  The lord of the manor holds a Court Leet annually in November, at which officers are appointed for the government of the town, and constables for the different townships within this division of the hundred.

The Church, dedicated to All Saints, a commodious and elegant structure of freestone, was erected, M,DCCXC., and consists of nave, side aisles, and bay, with a square tower crowned with a dome, gilt cross, and vane.  The galleries are supported by cast-iron pillars.  At the west end is a handsome and fine-toned organ, and over the bay is a glory.  The roof is lofty, and the whole has a very beautiful and chaste appearance.  At the east end of the south aisle is an elegant marble memorial, executed by Hollins, in memory of Martha Elizabeth Oliver, who died June 20th, aged 26 years.  Another marble monument remembers Richard Emery, Esq., who died April 13th, 1839, aged 65 years, and several other members of that family.  The interior of the church was painted, and the gas-fittings added, in the year 1847, chiefly at the expense of the vicar and St. John C. Charlton, Esq.; the cost was upwards of £300.  In the tower of the church is a peal of six musical bells.  The church is surrounded with a large burial ground, which, with the site of the church, contains upwards of three acres.  It contains numerous tombs, some of which are of elaborate workmanship, and have been erected in memory of some of the principal families of the parish.  The church formerly belonged to the abbey of Shrewsbury.  The living is a vicarage annexed to the rectory of Eyton, valued in the king’s book at £9. 5s., in the patronage of Thomas Eyton, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Benjamin Banning, M.A., who resides at The Vicarage, a spacious and handsome residence, about a quarter of a mile south from the church.  The house commands a fine view of the Wrekin, and is surrounded with pleasure grounds and shrubberies.  In the 15th of Henry VI. the guild of the Holy Trinity and of the Virgin Mary in the church of All Saints, in Wellington, obtained a pardon from the king, for having acquired twenty messuages, ten acres of heath, and six acres of meadow in Wellington, without license.

The New Church is dedicated to our Saviour, and is pleasantly situated on elevated ground, at the southern outskirts of the town.  It was built by subscription and grants from the church building societies, at a cost of £3,600.  The structure is of white brick, with a lofty square tower, ornamented with four crocketted pinnacles.  The interior consists of nave and side aisles, with spacious galleries.  Over the side aisles and at the west end, upon the latter, is a small organ, erected at a cost of £170.  On each side of the church are seven narrow windows, in the lancet style.  The roof is of groined timber, and the pews are painted in imitation of oak, which gives the whole a neat and light appearance.  There are 1,144 sittings: of which 744 are declared free and unappropriated for ever.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Wellington: incumbent, Rev. Charles Campe.  The church is surrounded with a spacious cemetery; and on the west side is the Parsonage House—a neat brick structure, erected shortly after the Church was built.

The Particular Baptist Chapel, situated in King-street, is a neat brick structure, which will accommodate about 500 hearers.  It was built in 1828, on the site of a former edifice, that had been erected about half a century.  The Rev. William Keay has been the pastor of the congregation worshipping here for the last 30 years.  The Rev. Henry Gabriel Granger has recently been appointed to assist Mr. Keay in the pastorate.  A small burial ground adjoins the chapel.

The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel is a lofty brick fabric, situate in New street, and was built in 1836.  It has galleries on three sides, and is capable of holding five hundred worshippers.  A small organ was added in 1851, at a cost of £80.  The Old Methodist Chapel, which stood in Chapel Lane, has been taken down.  The Primitive Methodist Chapel, situate near the Tan Bank, was built in 1837.

The Catholic Chapel, a plain brick structure, has been built about fifteen years.  It has a gallery at the end, and will hold about 400 persons.  A painting of our Saviour is placed over the altar.  There is no resident priest in Wellington at the present time, but the Rev. William Molloy, of Madeley, officiates at stated periods.

The Independent Chapel is a good brick structure, situate on the Tan Bank.  The congregation worshipping here have no settled minister at the present time.

The National School is a spacious brick building on the north side of the churchyard.  It is supported by voluntary subscriptions, charity sermons, and a small weekly charge from each scholar.  One hundred and sixty-eight boys, and one hundred and twenty girls attend.  The teacher receives £4. 0s. 10d. from the receiver of the Crown rents.

The Catholic School, situate at the back of the catholic chapel, on Mill Bank, is also supported by subscriptions and a small charge from each scholar.  The Savings’ Bank, situate in Walker street, was established in 1818.  On November 20th, 1850, the capital stock of the bank amounted to £27,623, at which period there were 692 depositors.  Mr. Thomas Turner is the actuary.

The County Court Office is situate near the Market Hall.  All pleas of personal action, where the debt or damage claimed is not more than £50, may be heard and determined by the County Court.  The jurisdiction of the Wellington Court embraces the parishes of Bolas Magna, Ercall Magna, Eyton, Kinnersley, Longdon, Preston, Rodington, Waters Upton, Wellington, Wombridge, and Wrockwardine.  Judge: Uvedale Corbett, Esq., Aston Hall, near Shiffnal.  Clerk: Frederick Buckle, Esq., New street, Wellington.

The Market Hall is a brick building, stuccoed, and situated a little back from the Market-square.  A spacious room, measuring sixty feet by twenty feet, is used for magisterial purposes, public meetings, assemblies, musical concerts, &c.  Under it is an open area, provided with benches, where the butter market is held.  The hall was built by a company of shareholders, established in 1842, with a capital stock of £5,000, of which £2,000 was raised by the shareholders, and the rest was borrowed on a mortgage of the premises.  The company have purchased the tolls of the market for the sum of £700 from the lord of the manor; and they are now held on lease by Mr. John Sandals, at a yearly rental of £140.

The Union House, a plain brick building, situate in Walker street, is capable of holding one hundred and sixty inmates.  From the report for the half year, ending March 25, 1850, we learn that the total expenditure was £4,028. 19s. 1½d: the number of out-paupers for that period was 2,033, and of in-door paupers 184: the average weekly cost per head of the latter was 2s. 11d.  The Union embraces the parishes of Bolas Magna, Ercall Magna, Eyton-on-the-Wild Moors, Kinnersley, Longdon-upon-Tern, Preston-on-the Wild Moors, Rodington, Waters Upton, Wellington, Wombridge, and Wrockwardine, for which nineteen guardians are chosen, to whom John Whitfield, Esq. is chairman.  The medical officers are, Charles Harwood Greene, Robert Plowden Weston, and John Francis Steedman.  Relieving Officers: Edward Vickers, Ketley; and George Marcy, Watling street.  Master and Matron: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis.  The Old Workhouse is situated about a mile and a half south-west from the town, and is now converted into cottages.

The Wellington Mechanics’ Institute, situated in New street, has been established with the object of affording tradesmen, mechanics, and others, opportunities of acquiring, at their leisure hours, the principles of science and the arts, and for the cultivation of literature.  Persons subscribing ten shillings per annum are entitled to all the privileges of the institution; and persons under eighteen years of age subscribing five shillings a-year, are deemed students of the society.  There is a good library of about eight hundred volumes, which have been chiefly contributed by a few gentlemen.  A news-room has been established, which is furnished with some of the most popular periodicals, and the principal London and provincial journals; lectures are also occasionally given on interesting and useful scientific subjects.  There are now about seventy members.  The institution has the patronage and support of the principal gentry and clergy in the neighbourhood.  Mr. John Haynes and Mr. William M. Taylor are the honorary secretaries.

The News-room.—The news-room was established in 1846, by a number of gentlemen and tradesmen of the town.  It is held at Mr. Edwards’s, in the Market square, and is supported by annual subscriptions of 21s.  There is also a billiard-room for the use of the subscribers.  There are forty-five members.

The Gas Works.—The Gas Works are situated upon the Tanbank, and were established in 1823, by Mr. William Edwards.  In consequence of some dispute with reference to lighting the streets, an Act of Parliament has been obtained during the present year (1851) for the establishment of a joint stock company, to be called “The Wellington Coal and Gas-light Company.”  The company will have a capital of £3,000, raised in three hundred shares of £10 each.  The site chosen for the erection of the necessary works is the garden-ground lying between the top of Tanbank and the Wrekin road.  Estimated cost of the works, £2,000.  R. D. Newell, Esq., is the solicitor and secretary.

The Water Works.—The Wellington Water Works were provisionally registered in 1851, under 7 and 8 Vic. c. 110.  The imperfect supply of water, both as respects quantity and quality, has long been felt in the town of Wellington; and it is to remedy this defect in the condition of the town, as well as to afford other supplies which local interest may require, that the company has been established.  It is a well ascertained fact that many of the houses, particularly those where water is most needed, are so ill supplied, that the occupants are obliged, throughout the year, to procure it from a distance, at a considerable cost in both time and money; or, in many instances, especially among the poor, to be content with a supply totally inadequate to the ordinary necessaries of life.  It is proposed to raise the requisite supplies from the Ercall Pools, which afford every natural facility for conveying water to any part of the town, without materially interfering with private interests.  The water is free from deleterious matter, and considered excellent for culinary and household purposes.  It is proposed to have a capital stock of £3,000, to be raised in three hundred ten pound shares.  F. Buckle, Esq., is the solicitor to the company.

The County Constabulary Office is situated in Walker street, Mr. John M’Michael is the superintendent, under whose directions are twelve police constables.  There is a small lock-up on the north-west side of the church-yard.

The Horticultural Society was established in 1850, and is supported by the principal gentlemen in the town and neighbourhood.  The exhibitions are held in the Market Hall.

The Old Hall, an ancient structure mantled with ivy, situated on the Watling street road, is the property of Lord Forester, the lord of the manor.  One of the rooms is wainscotted with oak, which remains in good preservation.  The hall is now converted into a boarding-school establishment, conducted by Joseph Edward Cranage.  A road which runs past the Old Hall leads to a few scattered cottages and some extensive lime-works, called Steeraway, which is about a mile and a half south from the town.

It was in Wellington and the vicinity that Charles I. mustered his forces, and, after issuing orders for the maintenance of strict discipline, made a solemn protestation that he would defend the established religion, govern by law, and preserve the liberty of his subjects, and that if he conquered he would uphold the privileges of parliament.  It is to be lamented that he should have found it necessary to make a protestation of his adherence to the duties of an English monarch; had he earlier practised them, he would have avoided the contentions between himself and his parliament.  The celebrated Dr. Withering, author of the “Botanical Arrangements of British Plants,” was born at Wellington, in the year 1741.  His father was a physician, and the family had resided during many generations on a small patrimony in this county.  Dr. Withering in his early years seems to have received a good classical education; and in the autumn of 1762 he was matriculated at the University of Edinburgh, where he distinguished himself by pursuing his studies with the greatest diligence and attention.  Whilst he was unwearied in the pursuit of academic learning, as well as in all those branches of knowledge which belong more immediately to the medical profession for which he was intended, he did not neglect the cultivation of the lighter and more elegant accomplishments.  In the year 1766, Dr. Withering finished his academical studies with great credit to himself, and obtained the degree of Doctor of Physic.  He first settled at Stafford, and here he attended the accomplished lady who became the partner of his future life; and it is not improbable that this attachment produced that botanical turn which has since rendered his name so conspicuous in this department of science.  She drew beautifully; and he appears to have gathered wild plants as subjects for her pencil.  This soon became a favourite pursuit; and possessing at this time a good deal of leisure, he collected specimens for that herbarium which he afterwards rendered so complete.  Dr. Withering removed to Birmingham in the year 1775, and notwithstanding the time he continued to devote to chemistry and botany, he soon realised £1,000 per annum by his professional labours.  During the following summer he presented the public with the first edition of his English Botany, a work which claims the attention of every botanical student; and is, perhaps, exceeded by none for the facility it offers to the inquirer, and for the copiousness and correctness of its selection.  His philosophical attention extended to chemistry, mineralogy, and every branch of natural philosophy connected with his profession occupied him in succession.  In the year 1791, in the month of July, he and his family suffered much alarm and some injury in the riot at Birmingham.  He died in 1799.  Before his death, he directed no ostentatious display to be made at his funeral, and ordered his body to be carried to church by six honest peasants.  Dr. Withering, besides his Botanical Arrangement of British Plants, gave to the world several medical works.

The Wrekin, situated about two miles S. from Wellington, is said to be the highest hill in Europe for the circumference of its base.  This proud monarch of the plain rises to the altitude of 1,320 feet, and being in the heart of Shropshire forms a conspicuous feature in the landscape from all parts of the surrounding country.  The distance is about a mile from the London road to the summit of the hill; about half way up the ascent is a neat cottage, where numerous parties, after luxuriating in the enjoyment of prospects of unparalleled magnificence, assemble for social repast.  This huge mountain is covered with thriving plantations, but the trees as they gradually ascend towards the summit appear of more stunted growth.  From the cottage a broad pathway covered with rich verdure leads to the summit, from which seventeen counties can be seen; in every direction the most extensive, varied, and magnificent prospects open to view.  The Wrekin is regarded by the residents in Shropshire as the centre towards which the best wishes and affections of the heart converge in that well known convivial sentiment, unchanged by time and never out of place, “All Friends Round the Wrekin.”  The Rev. Richard Corfield thus beautifully describes the scenery around the lofty mount:—

“The summit gained, the weary toil’s repaid,
By prospects varied—mountain, wood, and glade;
O’er Salop’s plains with beauteous verdure drest,
The Cambrian mountains stretch along the west.
Turn to the north and Hawkstone’s hill you see,
With Cheshire prospects reaching to the Dee;
When to the east you lend th’ admiring gaze,
The barren Peak your startled thoughts amaze;
More eastward still you ken in distant view
Edge Hill, where Charles his faithful followers drew.
This fairy circle let us onward trace
O’er Brecon’s beacons, Radnor’s forest chase,
And as the outline may be further known,
So past its limits may our love be shown—
Love to our country and to all held dear
By ties of kindred, friendship’s off’ring bear—
Love to our country, and to all friends round
The Wrekin’s circle may our love resound—
Such wishes these all Shropshire hearts inspire,
In social converse round the winter’s fire.”

Watling Street is a populous hamlet forming the eastern suburb to the town of Wellington, from which it is distant about half a mile.  It is called Watling street from being situated on the great Prœtorian highway of the Romans, which enters this county at Boningale, and terminates in the county of Cardigan.  It is now the Shrewsbury and Birmingham highway, and before the establishment of railways was a road of immense traffic.  There are several respectable houses and a good inn and posting house.  The names of the principal residents will be found incorporated in the Wellington directory.  At the census of 1841 there were 66 houses and 299 inhabitants.  Acres, 1,096a. 0r. 31p. of land.  Rateable value, 2,194. 4s.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £125. 3s., and the vicarial for £29. 5s.

Charities.—Almshouses.—There are on the north side of the church-yard six small tenements erected at the expense of the parish about the year 1790, in lieu of some almshouses in the old church-yard which were then pulled down.  The old almshouses appear to have had no endowment, and were occupied by parish paupers, and the present are occupied in the same manner, the inmates being selected by the vicar and church-wardens.  Three of the inmates have 1s. 6d. per week, and the other three receive 2s. weekly.  There are also four or five small tenements called almshouses opposite the pound, supposed to have been built about a century ago by a person of the name of Ick, or some person related to that family.  There is no endowment to them, and the persons residing in them when the charity commissioners published their report claimed them as their own.

Richard Stevington, by will, bearing date 23rd March, 1658, devised a rent charge of £10 per annum to certain trustees for the use of the poor of the parish of Wellington, to be paid out of certain land called the Bury Yards.  These lands are situate near the town of Wellington, and consist of two fields, one of which was sold by Lord Forester about thirty years ago.  The other is still held by his lordship, and his agent pays the sum of £10 annually, which is laid out in cloth coats for poor men, and warm gowns for poor women.

Paviour’s Charity.—The yearly sum of £4 is paid by the agent of the Marquis of Cleveland, the owner of lands in Garmson, in the parish of Leighton; and in the churchwardens book there is entered a copy of a receipt, given 29th March, 1772, to John Newport, Esq., for the like sum as one year’s annuity, due at Lady-day then last, to the honest poor of the parish of Wellington.  This is paid yearly to the churchwardens, and distributed on Easter Monday in sixpences among the aged poor of the parish.  We have not been able to obtain any account of the origin of this charity.

Phillip’s Charity.—The only account of the origin of this charity we have met with is a statement in the charity book of the parish of Great Ness, from which it appears that William Phillips gave 20s. yearly to this parish, payable out of the same estate as was charged with the payment of 5s. yearly to the poor of Great Ness.  The payment is charged upon a copyhold estate in the parish of Wem, belonging to Mr. Nunnerley and others.  The amount is distributed in small sums on Good Friday.

Post Office—At Mr. Benjamin Smith’s, New street.  Letters arrive from London and the south at 2.30 A.M. and 3 P.M., and from Shrewsbury and the north at 6.25 A.M. and 10.25 P.M.; and are despatched at 6.25 A.M. and 10.25 P.M. to all parts of the kingdom.

LIST OF STREETS, ROADS, LANES, &c., IN WELLINGTON.

Butcher’s lane, Market square

Chapel lane, New street

Chapel house, Church street

Charlton place, Church st

Church street, Market square

Dun Cow lane, Market sqre

Field Cottages, Wrekin road

Foundry lane, Tan bank

Fountain place, New street

Jarrat’s lane, Tan bank

King street, Park street

Mill bank, New street

Nailor’s row, New street

Park street, Church street

Park terrace, Park street

Parville, Vineyard road

Pump street, New street

Rose hill, King street

St. John street, New street

Street lane, Wrekin road

Summer row, King street

Swine market, Crown street

The Mount, Wrekin road

Tan bank, Swine market

Vineyard road, Church street

Walker street, Market street

Wrekin road, Walker street

ALPHABETICAL DIRECTORY OF NAMES, PROFESSIONS, TRADES, AND RESIDENCES, IN WELLINGTON.

Adney George and Edward, tanners, The Grove, Park street

Agnew David, travelling draper, St. John st

Allinson John, tea dealer, Watling street

Alltree Thomas, tailor and draper, Crown st

Allwood William, linen draper, Church street

Anslow Mrs. Mary Ann, Vineyard road

Anslow Edward, farmer, King street

Archer Wm. John, schoolmaster, (Catholic) Mill bank

Atkins Elizabeth, bonnet-maker, Church st

Austin Wm., baker & confectioner, New st

Aston Mr. John, Vineyard road

Baddeley Thomas, ironmonger, iron and steel merchant, and nail and agricultural implement manufacturer, Market square

Bagshaw Joseph, provision dealer and seedsman, Crown street

Banning Rev. Benjamin, vicar, The Vicarage

Barber John, auctioneer and land and engineering surveyor, Church street, residence Mill Bank

Barnes John, shoemaker, King street

Becall Andrew, farmer, Watling street

Beeston John, surgeon, New street

Beeston Miss Tabitha, Rose Hill

Beetlestone Misses, academy, New street

Bellingham Wm., smallware dealer, New st

Bennett Samuel, tailor, New street

Benson John Esq., bank manager, Church st

Berks Mary Ann, New street

Betton Mr. William Howard, Mill Bank

Binns and Smith, milliners and dressmakers, Church street

Birch John, tailor, New street

Birch William, vict., The Wicketts, Street Lane

Bird Francis, provision dealer, Crown street

Botwood William, coach builder, Tan Bank

Bowring Robert, fishmonger, New street

Bradbury Charles, chemist, druggist, and grocer, New street

Brannan Michael, umbrella maker, Walker st

Bratton Thomas Benjamin, draper and silk mercer, Market square

Brookes George, provision dealer, and boot and shoemaker, New street

Brookes John, clerk, New street

Brookes Wm., brazier, New street

Burton Mr. John, Watling street

Butler Joseph, smallware dealer, New street

Butterey John, provision and salt dealer, New street

Brown John, shopkeeper, Park street

Brown John, vict., Dun Cow, Dun Cow Lane

Brown Thomas, shoemaker, New Town

Buckle Fredk., solicitor and clerk to County Court, New street

Campe Rev. Charles, incumbent of Christ Church, The Parsonage

Capsey Thomas, vict., White Lion, Crown st

Carrane John, old clothes dealer, New st

Cartwright Edw. senr., provision dealer, New street

Cartwright Edward, junr., provision dealer, New street

Cartwright Thomas, beerhouse, Street Lane

Cartwright William, butcher, New street

Chalmers Alex. W., draper, Church street

Chapman Martin, basket maker, New street

Childs John, maltster, Church street

Clay Thomas, butcher, Newtown

Clayton Richard, hair dresser, Newtown

Collier Mrs., Vineyard row

Cooke Henry, corn miller, Wind Mill road, Dawley Green

Corbett John, beerhouse, Wrekin road

Corbett John, tailor and beerhouse keeper, New street

Corbett Samuel, blacksmith, King street

Corbett Thomas, wheelwright and beerhouse, King street

Corbett Thomas, shoemaker, Watling street

Cotterill William, grocer and tea dealer, Church street

Cotton Robert, blacksmith, Walker street

Cranage Joseph Edward, boarding school, The Old Hall

Crowder John, timber merchant, and vict., Britannia, King street

Dabbs Moses, beerhouse, Park street

Dale Wm., station master to joint committees of Shrewsbury and Birmingham & Shropshire Union Railways, The Station

Danby John, grocer and tea dealer, Stamp Office, and agent to Salop Fire Office, Walker street

Davies Charles, tailor and draper, New street

Davies David, hatter, New street

Davies Evan, beerhouse, New street

Davies Henry, beerhouse, New street

Davies James, butcher, New street

Davies John, plumber and glazier, New st

Davies John, hair dresser, New street and Crown street

Davies John, painter, plumber, and vict., Market Tavern, Crown street

Davies William, cooper, New street

Dax John, linen draper, and vict., Bell Inn, New street

Delvecchio and Dotti, jewellers, and furniture brokers, New street

Dickin Mrs. Elizabeth, Vineyard road

Dolphin Joseph, butcher, Butcher’s row

Dolphin William, beerhouse, Watling street

Downing Mary, wine & spirit vaults, Church it

Downes John, bricklayer & builder, Church st

Downes Vincent, stone mason, Church st

Edward Jane, shoemaker, New street

Edwards Thomas, agent, King street

Edwards Thomas, cooper, New street

Edwards Thomas, shoemaker, New street

Edwards Wm., chemist and druggist, and hop merchant, Market square

Edwards Wm. and Son, brass and iron founders, Tan Bank

Ellis Gertrude, dress maker, Church street

Espley George, pork butcher, New street

Espley John, malster, nurseryman and vict., King’s Head, New street

Evans Hannah, bonnet maker, New street

Evans Jane, hosier, New street

Evans Thomas, beerhouse, Pump street

Evans Thomas, tea dealer, New street

Evett Mrs. Ann, Chapel House

Eyton Thomas Campbell, Esq., The Vineyard

Farmer Edward, beerhouse keeper, New street

Farmer James Bayley, solicitor, New street, office, Crown street

Farries Alexander, tea dealer, Watling street

Fieldhouse John, shopkeeper, New street

Foulkes James, agent to Mr. Taylor, brick and tile maker, Gerrard’s lane

Fox Mary, schoolmistress (National) Church yard side

France William, beerhouse, Jarrat’s lane

Gawthrop Rev. Thomas, M.A., curate, Prospect House, Park street

Gibson John, seedsman, Park street

Gill Robert, brazier, New street

Goodman John, vict., Bull’s Head, New street

Goodall Peter, gentleman, Parville

Gough James, shoemaker, Crown street

Grant Alex., travelling draper, Mill Bank

Grant Wm., travelling draper, Mill Bank

Grainger Rev. Henry Gabriel, (Baptist) Fountain Place

Grainger Edward, vict., Red Lion, Street lane

Greatwood Robert, solicitor, Parville

Green Miles, tailor, woollen draper & hatter, Church street

Griffiths Charles, shoemaker, Mill Bank

Griffiths John, beerhouse and shopkeeper, Mill Bank

Griffiths John, blacksmith, Swine Market

Griffiths Mr. James, Vineyard road

Griffiths William, saddler, Walker street

Groom & Sons, timber merchants, New street

Groom Isaac, baker, Walker street

Groom John, joiner and cabinet maker, New street

Groom William, painter, glazier, paper hanger, and provision dealer, New street

Hall Catherine, dress maker, Park street

Hall Michael, tailor, Park street

Hampton Rebecca, vict., Crown Inn, Crown street

Hamlet Richard, vict., Odd Fellows’ Arms, New street

Harper William, saddler, New street

Hartley Henry, beerhouse, New street

Harris George, shoemaker, Church street

Harris George, shoemaker, New street

Hayes Henry, surgeon, Vineyard road

Hayley Sedgley, gentleman, Park street

Haynes John, currier and leather cutter, New street

Haynes John, scripture reader, Church st

Hayward Thomas, professor of music, Church street

Heaford Mary, beerhouse, New street

Heighway Thomas, hair dresser, New street

Heywood Charles, rope and twine maker, New street

Hobson Robert, printer, stationer, bookseller, and bookbinder, and publisher of the Wellington Advertiser (monthly), and honorary secretary of the London Art Union, Market square

Hodgkiss Anne, vict., Cock Inn, Watling street

Holland Ann, confectioner, Church street

Houlston Edward, beerhouse, Watling street

Houlston John, auctioneer, office over the County Court Office, Market square, residence Oaken Gates

Howlet William, surgeon, Park street

Hughes Robert, beerhouse, New street

Hughes William, shopkeeper, New street

Hutchinson John, surveyor of highways, New street

Hussey John, schoolmaster, Church street

Irwin Robert, vict., Sun Inn, Walker street

Ison John, chemist, druggist, and grocer, New street

Ison John, beerhouse, Watling street

Jackson William, beerhouse, New street

Jacobs Maurice, clothier, Crown street

Jonathan William, agent to London bone and guano company, Wrekin road

Jones Charles, maltster and porter merchant, Vineyard road

Jones John, butcher, New street

Jones John, farmer, maltster, hop, seed, and porter merchant, Park street

Jones John, tailor & beerhouse, Church st

Jones John, umbrella maker, New street

Jones Joseph, shopkeeper, Watling street

Jones Samuel Haden, surgeon, New street

Jones Thomas, carpenter, Vineyard road

Jones Thomas, wine & spirit vaults, New st

Jones Thomas William, high bailiff to county court, King street

Juckes Charles, linen draper, New street

Keay Charlotte, shoemaker, Market square

Keay James, printer, bookseller, & stationer, New street

Keay Rev. William, (Baptist), Spring field house, King street

Kimberley Mrs. Mary, Vineyard road

Knowles Isaac, solicitor, Church street

Lane John, veterinary surgeon, Swine market

Large John, joiner, Church street

Lawley Joseph, watch maker, Swine market

Lawrence Richard, tailor, draper, and pawnbroker, New street

Lawson Charles, shoemaker, New street

Leah Edward, seedsman, Park street

Leake Thomas, bookseller, printer, bookbinder, and stationer, New street

Lewis Charles, gentleman, Park villa

Lewis James, plumber, glazier, and painter, Watling street

Lewis John, linen and woollen draper and hatter, High street

Liggatt John, shoemaker, New street

Lloyd Emma, milliner, New street

Lloyd Joseph, shopkeeper, New street

Lloyd Richard, blacksmith, Wrekin road

Lloyd Thos., brazier & tin plate worker, New st

Lloyd William, shoemaker, Field cottages

Lockett John, draper & silk mercer, New st

Lockley Richard, blacksmith, Jarrat’s lane

Luckcock Richard, nail maker, New street

Lunn Mrs. Helen, Mill Bank

Mc.Michael John, superintendent of police, Walker street; residence, Park street

Mansell William, beerhouse, New street

Mansell William, ironfounder, Foundery ln

Marcy George, Esq., solicitor, clerk to Wellington union, & superintendent registrar; Watling street

Matthews Edward, veterinary surgeon, Walker street

Matthews Mary Ann, bonnet maker, Park st

Mawdsley George, patten and clog maker, New street

M’Cabe Thomas, fruiterer, New street

M’Crea James, travelling draper, Mill Bank

Milward Cornelius, beerhouse, New street

Moore James, earthenware dealer, New st

Moore Samuel, ironmonger, grocer, and tallow chandler, Market square

Moreton Joseph, inland revenue officer, Park terrace

Morgan Francis, shopkeeper, New street

Morgan Henry, druggist and grocer, New st

Morgan John, maltster & vict., Nelson Inn, New street

Morgan John, shoemaker, New street

Morris George, pawnbroker, New street

Morris Henry, saddler, Church street

Morris John, hair dresser, Church street

Morris John, goods manager for Shropshire union railway, Fountain place

Morris John, tailor, draper, & hatter, New st

Newill Robert Daniel, Esq., solicitor, and coroner for the Bradford district, New st

Nickless Samuel, vict., Red Lion, New street

Nock William, Esq., solicitor, and agent to Guardian Insurance Office, New street

Oliver James, Esq., Spring hill

Onions Robert, assistant overseer, Church st

Padmore Thomas, vict., Fox and Hounds, Crown street

Page Francis, cabinet maker and builder, New street

Parker James, beerhouse, New street

Parker John, inland revenue officer, Fields cottage

Park George, beerhouse, New street

Parton Thomas, maltster, Church street

Parton William, cabinet maker, New street

Paterson Edward, timber merchant, Mill bank

Peake Richard, corn, seed, and hay dealer, King street

Peplow Richard, woollen draper, tailor, hatter, and agent to Anchor Insurance Office, Charlton place, Church street

Peplow Wm., watch & clock maker, New st

Peplow William, tailor & draper, Watling st

Perry Samuel, beerhouse, King street

Phillips Elizabeth, dressmaker, Walker st

Phillips Jane, dressmaker, St. John’s street

Piggott Rev. Wm., (Wesleyan) St. John’s st

Pinches Wm., maltster, (Taylor & Pinches), St. John’s street

Plant Robert, shoemaker, King street

Poble John, blacksmith, Watling street

Pointon Henry, painter, plumber, and provision dealer, Crown street

Poole William, butcher, Dun Cow lane

Pooler William, tailor and draper, New st

Price Jane, shopkeeper, Church street

Price Edward, schoolmaster (National), Churchyard side

Price Richard, beerhouse, Park street

Price Robert, wheelwright, timber merchant, and vict., Queen’s Head, Walker street

Pritchard Mrs. Ann, Mill Bank

Randles Richard, beerhouse, Park street

Robinson James, shopkeeper, Watling street

Robinson John, tea dealer, Watling street

Roe Richard, cab maker, Swine market

Rogers Mary, shopkeeper, New street

Roper George, carpenter, Wrekin road

Ridding Mrs. Lettice, the Mount

Richards Richard, butcher, St. John’s street

Rimmer Henry, manager of goods department at Shrewsbury and Birmingham railway, St. John street

Russell John, sexton, Church street

Ryder John, surgeon, Crescent house, Park street

Sagah Mrs. Sarah, Park street

Sambrook William, beerhouse, Park street

Sandels John, maltster, porter merchant, and vict., Groom and Horses, Walker st.

Shakeshaft Benjamin, plumber, glazier, and painter, and beerhouse, Church street

Shakeshaft Helen and Ann, braziers and victs., Fox and Grapes, Market street

Shaw Benjamin, bricklayer, Newtown

Shaw John, vict., Charlton Arms, Church st.

Shelton Annette, vict., Duke of Wellington, New street

Shelton Edward, vict., Raven Inn, Walker street

Shelton Robert, farmer and saddler, Watling street

Shepard James, maltster, Park street

Sheppard John Henry, tailor and draper, New street

Shepherd Abraham, vict., Queen’s Head, New street

Shepherd Isaac, beerhouse, King street

Shepperd Robert, chair maker, New street

Shropshire Banking Company, John Benson, Esq., manager, Church street

Simpson Charles, smallware dealer, New street

Slaney John, wine and spirit merchant, Church street

Smith John, shopkeeper, Park street

Smith Benjamin, postmaster, bookseller, printer, stationer, and bookbinder, New street

Smith Henry, hairdresser, New street

Smith Peter, travelling draper, Mill Bank

Smith William, travelling draper, Mill Bank

Snook George, maltster and road surveyor, Tan bank

Stamper John, supervisor of inland revenue, Spring street

Stean Jane, dressmaker, Park street

Steedman John Francis, surgeon, Park street

Steel James, farmer, Buckatree hall

Stephens Richard, shoemaker, Dun Cow lane

Stokes James, vict., Holly Bush, Street lane

Stones Francis, furniture broker, New street

Summers Richard Dickson, currier and vict., Duke’s Head, New street

Swift Martha, schoolmistress, Church street

Tarbitt David K., tea dealer (travelling), Watling street

Taylor William Muchall, solicitor, and agent to general life office, and law fire office, Church street

Thompson Emanuel, shoemaker, Summer row

Thompson Thomas, shoemaker, Dun Cow ln

Titley Joseph, butcher, Pump street

Turner John, joiner, Foundry lane

Turner James, saddler, Dun Cow lane

Turner Thomas, Esq., clerk to magistrates and actuary at Saving’s Bank, Walker st

Turner Thomas, cabinet maker and butcher, New street

Turner Thomas, grocer & bricklayer, New st

Turner William, Esq., solicitor, Walker st.; residence, Field House

Vaughan James, hair dresser and toy dealer, New street

Vaughan Thomas, hair dresser & toy dealer, New street

Venables Charles, draper and silk mercer, Church street

Vickers Richard, cooper, New street

Vickers Thomas, beerhouse, Pump street

Warren Robert, beerhouse, New street

Wase John, solicitor, and agent to law fire office, Church street

Webb Charles, confectioner, New street

Webb Henry, confectioner, New street

Webb James, draper & silk mercer, Market square

Webb Thomas, ironmonger, Crown street

Webb William and Co., grocers, chandlers, and hop, seed, and guano merchants, Market square

Welsh Robert, travelling tea dealer, Hope Cottage

West Marshall, beerhouse, New street

West Thomas, butcher, Market street

Weston Emma, boarding school, Watling st

Weston Robert, surgeon, St. John street

Whittall Thomas, beerhouse, King street

Whittall William, maltster, King street

Whitfield John, grocer, tea dealer, and ironmonger, Market square

Williams Thomas, shopkeeper, Watling st

Winnall Richard, shopkeeper, New street

Winter Simon, watch & clock maker, New st

Wood Richard, tailor, Mill Bank

Wood William, wheelwright, Summer row

York James, baker, New street

York William Henry, plumber, glazier, and vict., George and Dragon, New street

CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROFESSIONS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES IN THE TOWN OF WELLINGTON.

Academies.

Beetlestone Misses, New st

Binnell Jane, Rose hill

Catholic, William Thomas Arthur, Mill Bank

Cranage Joseph Edward, (boarding), The Old Hall

Hussey John, Church street

National, Edward Price and Mary Fox, Church yard side

Swift Martha, Church street

Weston Emma, (boarding), Watling street

Agricultural Implement Makers.

Baddeley Thos., Market sq

Price Robert, Walker street

Attornies.

Buckle Frederick, New street

Greatwood Robert, Parville

Farmer Jas. Bayley, New st

Newill Robert Daniel, New st

Knowles Isaac, Church st

Marcy George, and clerk to poor law union, and superintendent registrar, Watling street

Nock William, Church st

Palin Richard, Church st., and Shrewsbury

Taylor William Muchall, Church street

Turner William, Walker st

Wase John, Church street

Auctioneers.

Barber John, Church street

Houlston John, office over county court

Bakers.

Austin William, New street

Berks Mary Ann, New street

Broom Isaac, Walker street

York James, Church street

Banks.

Shropshire Banking Co., John Benson, Esq., manager, (draw on Hanburg, Tailor, Lloyd, & Company.)

Basket Maker.

Chapman Martin, New street

Blacksmiths.

Baddeley Thos., Market sq

Corbett Samuel, and whitesmith, King street

Cotton Robert, Walker street

Lockley Richard, Jarrat’s ln

Lloyd Richard, Wrekin road

Griffiths John, Swine market

Poble John, Watling street

Booksellers, &c.

Hobson Robert, Market sq

Keay James, New street

Leake Thomas, New street

Smith Benjamin, New street

Boot and Shoemakers.

Barnes John, King street

Brookes George, New street

Brown Thomas, New town

Corbett Thomas, Watling st

Edwards Jane, New street

Edwards Thomas, New st

Gough James, Crown street

Griffiths Charles, Mill Bank

Harris George, New street

Harris George, Church st

Holland Ann, Church street

Keay Charlotte, Market sq

Lawson Charles, New st

Liggatt John, New street

Lloyd Wm., Fields cottages

Lloyd William, New street

Morgan John, New street

Plant Robert, King street

Stephens Rd., Dun Cow ln

Thompson Emanuel, Summer row

Thompson Thos., Dun Cow lane

Braziers.

Baddeley Thomas, Market sq

Brookes William, New street

Gill Robert, New street

Lloyd Thomas, New street

Shakeshaft Helen and Ann, Market street

Bricklayer.

Shaw Benjamin, New town

Brick makers.

Corbett John, Wrekin road

Turner Thomas, Market sq

Builder.

Downes John, Church street

Butchers.

Clay Thomas, New town

Cartwright William, New st

Davies James, New street

Dolphin Joseph, Butchers row

Espley George, (pork), New street

Poole William, Dun Cow ln

Richards Rd., St. John street

Titley Joseph, Pump street

West Thomas, Market street

Cabinet Makers & Furniture Brokers.

Delveccio and Dotti, New st

Groom John, New street

Page Francis, New street

Parton William, New street

Roe Richard, Swine market

Stones Francis, New street

Turner Thomas, New street

Chair Maker.

Shepperd Robert, New street

Chemists & Druggists.

Bradbury Charles, New st

Edwards William, Market sq

Ison John, New street

Moore Samuel, Market sq

Morgan Henry, New street

Clog and Patten Maker.

Mawdsley George, New st

Clothiers.

Jacobs Maurice, Crown st

Morris George, New street

Morris John, New street

Pooler William, New street

Coach Builder.

Botwood William, Tan bank

Confectioners.

Austin William, New street

Holland Ann, Church street

Webb Charles, New street

Webb Henry, New street

Coopers.

Davies William, New street

Edwards Thomas, New st

Vickers Richard, New street

Corn Millers.

Cooke Henry, Wind mill

Reynolds Stephen, King st

Corn, Seed, and Hay Dealer.

Peake Richard, King street

Curriers & Leather Cutters.

Haynes John, New street

Summers Richard Dixon, New street

Fire and Life Offices.

Anchor, Richard Peplow, Charlton place, Church st

Guardian Assurance Office, William Nock, Church st

Law Fire Office, William M. Taylor, Church street

Law Fire Office, John Wase, Church street

Minerva, John Barber, Church street

Phœnix, John Barber, Church street

Royal Exchange, William Edwards, Market square

Salop, John Danby, Walker street

Shropshire and North Wales, Richard Lawrence, New st

Solicitors’ and General Life, Wm. M. Taylor, Church st

Star Life Office, Benjamin Smith, New street

Fishmonger.

Bowring Robert, New street

Fruiterer.

Mc.Cabe Peter, New street

Green Grocer.

Brown John, Park street

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Cotterill Wm., Church st

Danby John, Walker street

Edwards William, Market sq

Ison John, New street

Moore Samuel, Market sq

Morgan Henry, New street

Turner Thomas, Market sq

Webb Wm. & Co., Market sq

Whitfield John, Church st

Hair Dressers.

Clayton Richard, New street

Davies John, New street & Crown street

Heighway Thomas, New st

Morris John, Church street

Smith Henry, New street

Vaughan James, New street

Vaughan Thomas, New st

Hatters.

Davies David, New street

Green Miles, Church street

Lewis John, Market square

Morris John, New street

Peplow Richard, Charlton pl

Hop, Seed, and Guano Merchants.

Jones John, Park street

Webb William & Company, Market square

Hosiers.

Evans Jane, New street

Butler Joseph, and rag and bone dealer, New street

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Bell Inn, John Dax, New st

Brittannia, John Crowder, King street

Bull’s Head, John Goodman, New street

Charlton Arms, John Shaw, Church street

Cock Inn, Anne Hodkiss, Watling street

Crown Inn, Rebecca Hampton, Crown street

Duke’s Head, Richard Dixon Summers, New street

Duke of Wellington, Annette Shelton, New street

Dun Cow, John Brown, Dun Cow lane

Fox and Grapes, Helen and Ann Shakeshaft, Market st

Fox and Hounds, Thomas Padmore, Crown street

George and Dragon, Wm. Henry York, New street

Groom and Horses, John Sandells, Walker street

Holly Bush, James Stokes, Street lane

King’s Head, John Espley, New street

Odd Fellows’ Arms, Richard Hamlett, New street

Market Tavern, John Davies, Crown street

Nelson Inn, John Morgan, New street

Queen’s Head, Robert Price, Walker street

Queen’s Head, Abraham Shepherd, New street

Raven Inn, Edward Shelton, Walker street

Red Lion, Samuel Nickless, Park street

Red Lion, Edward Grainger, Street lane

Shakespere, Thomas Jones, New street

Sun Inn, Robert Irwin, Walker street

White Lion, Thomas Capsey, Crown street

Wickett William Birch, Street lane

Beerhouses.

Cartwright Thomas, Street ln

Corbett John, New street

Corbett Thomas, King st

Dabbs Moses, Park street

Davies Evan, New street

Davies Henry, New street

Dolphin William, Watling st

Evans Thomas, Pump street

Farmer Edward, New street

France Robert, Gerrard’s ln

Griffiths John, Mill Bank

Hartley Henry, New street

Heaford Mary, New street

Houlston John, Watling st

Hughes Robert, New street

Ison John, Watling street

Jackson William, New st

Jones Richard, Church st

Mansell William, New st

Milward Cornelius, New st

Park George, New street

Parker James, New street

Perry Samuel, King street

Randles Richard, Park street

Sambrook William Jones, Park street

Shakeshaft Benjamin, Church street

Shepperd Isaac, King street

Vickers Thomas, Pump st

Warren Robert, New street

West Marshall, New street

Whittall Thomas, King st

Ironmongers.

Baddeley Thomas, Market sq

Moore Samuel, Market sq

Webb Thomas, Crown street

Whitfield John, Church st

Iron and Brass Founders.

Edwards William and Son, Tan Bank

Mansell William, Foundry ln

Joiners and Builders.

Groom John, New street

Jones Thomas, Vineyard yd

Large John, Church street

Roper George, Wrekin road

Turner John, Foundry lane

Linen and Woollen Drapers.

Allwood William, Church st

Bratton Thomas Benjamin, Market square

Danby John, Church street

Dax John, New street

Juckes Charles, New street

Lewis John, Church street

Lockitt John, New street

Venables Charles, Church st

Webb, James Market square

Maltsters.

Child John, Church street

Espley John, New street

Jones John, Park street

Jones Charles, Vineyard rd

Morgan John, New street

Parton Thomas, Church st

Pinches William, (Taylor & Pinches) New street

Snook George, Tan Bank

Sandells John, Walker street

Shepard James, Park street

Summers Richard D., New st

Whittall William, King st

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Binns and Smith, Church st

Hall Catherine, Park terrace

Lloyd Emma, New street

Phillips Elizabeth, Walker st

Phillips Ann, St. John street

Pugh Margaret, Springhill

Roden Eliza, Rose hill

Stean Jane, Park terrace

Nail Makers.

Baddeley Thomas, Market sq

Griffiths John, Mill Bank

Luckcock Richard, New st

Webb Thomas, Crown street

Nurseryman.

Espley John, New street

Pawnbrokers.

Laurence Richard, New st

Morris George, New street

Porter Merchants.

Jones John, Park street

Jones Thomas, New street

Jones Charles, Vineyard road

Sandells John, Walker st

Plumbers, Glaziers, & Painters.

Davies John, Crown street

Davies John, Walker street

Groom William, New street

Lewis James, Watling street

Poynton Henry, Crown street

Shakeshaft Benj., Church st

Rope and Twine Maker.

Heywood Charles, New st

Saddlers.

Griffiths William, Walker st

Harper William, New street

Morris Henry, Church street

Shelton Robert, Watling st

Turner James, Dun Cow ln

Seedsmen.

Barnes John, King street

Gibson John, Park street

Leah Edward, Park street

Shopkeepers.

Austin William, New street

Bagshaw Joseph, Crown st.

Bird Francis, Crown street

Buttery John, salt dealer, New street

Cartwright Edward, sen., New street

Cartwright Edward, jun., New street

Fieldhouse John, New street

Hughes William, New street

Jones Joseph, Watling street

Lloyd Joseph, New street

Morgan Francis, New street

Poynton Henry, Crown street

Price Jane, Church street

Robinson James, Watling st

Rogers Mary, New street

Smith John, Park street

Williams Thos., Watling st.

Winnall Richard, New street

Smallware and General Dealers.

Bellingham Wm., New street

Butler Joseph, New street

Simpson Charles, New street

Vaughan James, New street

Vaughan Thos., New street

Stone Masons.

Downes Vincent, Church st.

Snook George, Tan Bank

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Atkins Elizabeth, Church st.

Evans Hannah, New street

Matthews Mary Ann, Park terrace

Surgeons.

Beeston John, New street

Howlett William, Park street

Hayes Henry, Vineyard road

Jones Samuel Haden, New street

Ryder John, Crescent house, Park street

Steedman John Francis, Park street

Weston Robert P., St. John’s street

Surveyors.

Barber John, Church street

Hutchinson John, Park st.

Tailors.

Marked * are woollen drapers.

* Alltree Thomas, Crown st.

Bennett Samuel, New street

Birch John, New street

* Corbet John, New street

* Davies Charles, New street

* Green Miles, Church street

Hall Michael, Park street

Jones Richard, Church street

Jacobs Maurice, New street

* Lawrence Richard, New street

* Morris John, New street

* Peplow Richard, Charlton Place

* Peplow William, Watling street

* Pooler William, New street

Sheppard John Henry, King street

Sheppard Joseph, New street

Swift Joseph, Wrekin road

Wood Richard, Mill Bank

Tallow Chandlers.

Moore Samuel, Market square

Webb William and Co., Market square

Tanners.

Adney George and Edward, the Grove

Tea Dealers and Drapers (Travelling).

Allinson John, Watling st.

Farries Alexander, Watling street

Dod Agnew, St. John street

Grant Alexander, Mill Bank

Grant William, Mill Bank

M’Crea James, Mill Bank

Robinson John, Watling st.

Smith Peter, Mill Bank

Smith William, Mill Bank

Tarbitt David K., Watling street

Welsh Robert, Hope Cottage

Wilson William, Jarrat’s lane

Timber merchants.

Crowder John, King street

Groom and Sons, New street

Paterson Peter, Mill Bank

Price Robert, Walker street

Umbrella Makers.

Brannan Michael, Walker st.

Jones John, New street

Veterinary Surgeons.

Lane John, Swine market

Matthew Edward, Walker st.

Watch and Clock Makers.

Delvecchio and Dotti, New street

Lawley Joseph, Swine market

Lawrence Richard, New st.

Peplow William, New street

Winter Simon, New street

Wheelwrights.

Corbett Thomas, King street

Wood William, Summer row

Price Robert, Walker street

Wine and Spirit Merchants.

Downing Mary, Church st.

Jones Thomas (retail only), New street

Slaney John, Church street

Conveyance by Railway.

To all parts of the kingdom by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham and the Shropshire Union Railways, from the Railway Station, near the Market square

Omnibus.

An omnibus leaves the Bull’s Head Hotel for Ironbridge, at 2 P.M., and 8 P.M., and arrives from thence at 9 A.M. and 5 P.M.

ARLESTONE
is a email township in the parish of Wellington, which comprises 612a. 3r. 3p. of land, and in 1841 had 33 houses and 181 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,525. 10s.  This township is the property of Lord Forester, and situated about a mile and a half south-east from Wellington; the houses are scattered; a commodious house in the village, composed of brick and timber, is the residence of Mr. John Poole, farmer.  Newdale is a hamlet about two miles from Wellington, returned as having 37 houses and 196 inhabitants, at the census of 1841.  The population of this hamlet is chiefly employed in the collieries in the immediate vicinity.

Directory.—Richard Brown, tailor; John Garbitt, beerhouse keeper; Francis Groome, farmer; Edmund Oliver, joiner and cabinet maker; John Poole, farmer; Enoch Upton, farmer; Edward Williams, farmer and shopkeeper, Newdale.

APLEY
is a township a mile and a quarter north from Wellington, embracing 382 acres of land, which is the property of St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq.  Rateable value, £790. 2s.  Apley Castle is a handsome mansion embosomed in foliage, the seat of St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., and situated in a park of considerable extent.  The principal front of the mansion is ornamented with a noble portico, and not far from the entrance is a fine sheet of water.  On the south-west side of the house is the conservatory and flower garden, tastefully laid out, and kept in the most beautiful order.  About a hundred and fifty yards from the mansion are the remains of the ancient castle, which was in early times the manor house of the Charltons, Lords of Powis, of which family the first we find mentioned is John de Charlton, who, in the first year of Edward II., obtained a charter of free warren in all his demesne lands; and in the tenth year of the same reign procured a licence to make a castle of his manor house here.  The old castle was moated, part of which still remains; some small fragmentary portions of the walls are also still to be seen.  The site is now occupied by a range of stables.  The rectoral tithes of Apley Dothill are commuted for £49. 4s.

The residents are St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., Apley Castle; John Mitchell, gardener; and Joseph Walker, farm bailiff.

ASTON
is a township in the parish of Wellington, with a scattered population, three miles south-west by south from the parish church, comprising 1,389a. 3r. 22p. of land, which is the property of the Duke of Cleveland and Mrs. Cludde.  In 1841 here were 15 houses and 84 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,420. 10s.  The tithes have been commuted, and £178. 10s. apportioned to St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., and £48. 8s. to the vicar of Wellington.

The principal residents are Robert Dickin, farmer; George Dodsworth, builder; John Edwards, farmer, Wrekin farm; John Keay, farmer, Wrekin; Miss Abigail Rider, farmer, the Hall; Joseph Steele, farmer.

DOTHILL
is a small township in the parish of Wellington, comprising 323a. 3r. 14p. of land, which is the property of Lord Forester.  Rateable value, £710. 18s.  Dothill Park, a good house pleasantly situated about a mile north from Wellington, is the only residence in the township, and is occupied by William Wyley, Esq.

HADLEY
is a township and populous village in the parish of Wellington, on the Newport and Wellington turnpike road, about a mile and a quarter north-east from the latter place.  The township contains 1,199a. 1r. 18p. of land, and in 1841 there were 246 houses, and 1,280 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £5,217. 18s.  The rectoral tithes, commuted for £272. 11s., are paid to St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., and the vicarial tithes for £87. 8s.  The labouring population find employment in the extensive iron works and collieries in the immediate vicinity, and trade is facilitated by the Shropshire union railway, which intersects the township, and also by the Shropshire union canal, which crosses Hadley Park a short distance from the hall.  The opposition between the Shrewsbury and Birmingham and the Shropshire Union railways, has caused a greater reduction in the fares for the last twelve months, in this locality, perhaps than in any other part of the kingdom; the charge being but one penny for third-class passengers to Shrewsbury, a distance of about a dozen miles; and threepence for second-class passengers.  The Hadley station is situated a short distance from the Hall.  The Baptists and Primitive Methodists have each a place of worship here.  Hadley Hall is a commodious brick structure, pleasantly situated in park-like grounds, the occasional residence of George Benjamin Thorneycroft, Esq., who is lord of the manor and a considerable landowner.  The other chief landowners are Mr. Phillips, Mr. Boycott, Mrs. Cartwright, Rev. T. Stoneham, and Mr. Poyner.  The Manor House is an ancient timbered residence, in the occupancy of Mr. Thomas Jones, farmer.

Thorneycroft George Benjamin, Esq., the Hall

Bennoin Charles, farmer and maltster, Hadley Park

Brown Joseph, farmer, maltster, and vict., King’s Head

Brown Robert, shoemaker

Brown William Henry, maltster and shopkeeper

Bullock Thomas, maltster and beerhouse

Clayton John, maltster and farmer

Collier George, Esq.

Davies Joseph, shopkeeper

Draycott Elizabeth, dressmaker and shopkeeper

Dunn William, farmer

Evans Thomas, tailor

Getley William, crown, sheet, and plate glass merchant

Ireland Philip Henry, vict., Bush Inn

Jones Benjamin, agent to Wombridge coal works

Jones George, schoolmaster

Jones Henry Windsor, station master

Jones John, farmer, Hadley lodge

Jones Richard, farmer and shopkeeper

Jones Thomas, bricklayer

Jones Thomas, farmer, the Manor House

Jones Thomas, vict., Cross Keys

Jones Whitmore, butcher

Lawrence Elizabeth, beerhouse

Lloyd William, shoemaker

Lover John, sergeant-major in yeomanry cavalry

Medlington Benjamin, blacksmith

Nickleys Thomas, farmer and beerhouse

Palin John, farmer

Pearce John, corn miller, Hadley mill

Pooley Thomas, Esq., iron master

Poyner Henry, Esq.

Siddens Mrs. Emma

Shuker William, shopkeeper

Thomas Robert, cattle dealer

Tomlinson John, corn miller, Leegomery

Turner Samuel, shopkeeper

Ward James, joiner, builder, and cabinet maker

Webb Matthew, Esq. surgeon, Haybridge

Whittingham Samuel, Esq., Haybridge

Worrall Timothy, shopkeeper and shoemaker

HORTON,
a small township and scattered village in the parish of Wellington, comprises 354a. 1r. 15p. of land, which is principally the property of Mrs. Icke.  The village is situated about three miles north from Wellington, and in 1841 there were 27 houses and 117 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £706. 6s.  St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., is the impropriator of the large tithes, which are commuted for £81. 18s.; the vicarial tithes are commuted for £15. 2s.

The chief residents in Horton are James Barge, maltster; Thomas Barker, black smith and vict., Horse Shoe Inn; Thomas Blest, boot and shoemaker; Thomas Chilton, bricklayer; John Doody, tailor; John France, farmer; Richard Griffiths, carpenter and joiner; Elizabeth Icke, farmer; Samuel Middleton, shopkeeper

KETLEY
is a township and populous district in the parish of Wellington, situated in the great Prœtorian road of the Romans called the Watling Street, two miles east from Wellington.  The township contains 774a. 3r. 2p. of land, which is chiefly the property of the Duke of Sutherland; the Rev. Thompson Stoneham, and others, are also proprietors.  At the census of 1841, there were 498 houses, and 2,642 inhabitants, most of whom are employed in the extensive iron works, collieries, and ironstone mines, situated in this and the adjoining townships.  Rateable value, £3,033, 4s.  St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., is the impropriator of the large tithes, which are commuted for £92; the vicarial tithes are commuted for £31. 10s.  The commercial intercourse of Ketley is facilitated by the Shropshire union canal, and the railway in the immediate vicinity, by which the valuable mineral productions with which this locality abounds are conveyed to distant parts.  The Ketley Company (Messrs. Lawley, Ogle, Williams, Hombersley, Cope and Cope) have an extensive establishment for the manufacture of pig and bar iron, and are also the proprietors of extensive collieries, which are held in lease under the Duke of Sutherland.  The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, a neat cruciform structure, exhibiting the lancet style of architecture, was built and endowed in 1838, by his grace George Granville, Duke of Sutherland.  Upon the organ is an inscription, from which we learn that the inhabitants of Ketley and the neighbourhood, “under a deep sense of gratitude, have caused the organ to be erected as a thank offering to Almighty God, for having thus disposed the heart of his servant.”  The situation of the church is judiciously chosen, elevated and central, and the churchyard commands most extensive views of the surrounding counties.  The home views embrace a fine extent of the fertile plains of Shropshire, the celebrated Wrekin, and the far-famed iron works of the neighbourhood.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Lichfield, and patronage of the Duke of Sutherland; incumbent, Rev. Thompson Stoneham, M.A., who resides at the Parsonage, a good and commodious residence, also the gift of his grace.  The Parochial Schools, situated near the church, were built by his grace the Duke of Sutherland, by whose liberality they are also chiefly supported.  There is an average attendance of about one hundred and fifty scholars.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel, built in 1823; there is also a commodious Wesleyan Chapel at Ketley Bank, built in 1823.  Ketley Bank is a scattered but populous district, partly in this township and partly in the parish of Wombridge.  The Wesleyan chapel above mentioned is in the latter parish.  Many interesting varieties of fossils and petrifactions are found in this neighbourhood.

Post Office.—At Mrs. Ann Williams’.  Letters arrive at 7 A.M., and are dispatched at 6 P.M.

Marked 1 are in Ketley Bank, 2 in Ketley Sands, and the rest in the village of Ketley.

Adams Geo., cabinet maker

1 Allen George, schoolmaster (parochial)

1 Blakemore Thomas, tailor

Bourne Maria, maltster and shopkeeper

Bourne William James, grocer, tea dealer, and draper

Bradbury George, Esq., Spring grove

1 Chunn Enoch, shoemaker

Conniff Robert, hair dresser

Cooke Joseph, maltster, residence Shrewsbury

Dickson Mr., Bank house

2 Dorset William, beerhouse

Dunning Roger, vict., Lord Hill

Gallier Charles, butcher

Gallier William, vict., Stars Inn

1 Gittins John, blacksmith

1 Guy Roland, shopkeeper

1 Hazledine John, shopkeepr

Hughes John, cashier to Ketley Iron Works

Jeffs Henry, tailor

1 Jones James and Jeffry, farmers

1 Jones James, farmer and shopkeeper

1 Jones James, farmer

1 Keay Elizabeth, shopkeepr

1 Keay Richard, shoemaker

1 Light Robert, joiner

Lloyd John, shoemaker

1 Lloyd Sarah, beerhouse

Mackay John, agent to the Duke of Sutherland

Macknight George, surgeon, Mossy Green Cottage

Macknight James, farmer, Mossy Green Cottage

1 Morley Thomas, grocer and draper

1 Maddocks John, blacksmth

Millington John, maltster, timber merchant, & brick maker

Moore William, beerhouse

Morris John, vict., Horse Shoes

1 Ollerenshaw Rev. H., (Independent)

1 Onions William, shoemaker

Onions William, vict., Red Lion

2 Palin Richard, boot and shoemaker

Pearce Mr. Thomas

Perry William, vic., Stafford Arms

Picken Richard, beerhouse

Pinches John, shoemaker

1 Pocock Robert, schoolmast

Price Aaron, grocer and tea dealer

Price Thomas, beerhouse

Ravenscroft William, tailor

1 Shepherd William, vict., Sun Inn

Stoneham Rev. Thompson, M.A., incumbent, The Parsonage

1 Teague John, shopkeeper and beerhouse

Tipton Mark, agent to Beriah Botfield, Esq., and vict., Wheat Sheaf, Mossy Green

Turner Elizabeth, beerhouse

Vickers Edward, relieving officer

Williams Ann, postmistress

Williams Ann, schoolmistrss

Williams Emanuel, shoemkr

Williams John, Esq., iron master, Ketley Hill

Woodall Peter, shoemaker

LAWLEY
is a township in the parish of Wellington, with a scattered population chiefly engaged in the extensive collieries and iron works in the immediate vicinity.  The village is situated three miles south-east from Wellington, and five miles west by north from Shiffnal.  The township contains 708a. 0r. 1p. of land, and at the census of 1841 there were 33 houses and 173 inhabitants.  Rateable value £3,033. 4s.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £78.  St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq. is the impropriator.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £25. 4s.  The Wesleyan New Connexion have a commodious chapel, situate at Lawley Bank, erected in the year 1838.

The following are the principal residents:—Those with * affixed are at Lawley Bank.  Robert Bailey, cashier, Spring cottage; * William Dunning, vict., Bull’s Head; * Mary Ann Garbitt, farmer; Richard Garbitt, farmer and land agent; * Elizabeth Hart, vict., King’s Head; Susannah Hewlett, farmer; William Ison, manager to Coalbrook Dale company; * James Jones, farmer and shopkeeper; * Thomas Jones, farmer, shopkeeper, and maltster; * Robert Lloyd, boot and shoemaker; * Enoch Morgan, shopkeeper; Mr. Edward Rowlands; * George Shepherd, grocer and draper; John Williams, farmer; Joseph Williams, farmer, butcher, and vict., White Horse.

WALCOT, OR WALCOTT,
a small township in the parish of Wellington, comprising 408a. 3r. 27p. of land, at the census in 1841 had nine scattered houses and forty-three inhabitants, chiefly engaged in agricultural pursuits.  The township is situated four miles south-west by south from Wellington.  The landowners are Lord Berwick, Miss Cludde, Mr. George Walmsley, and Mrs. Ann Walmsley.  The soil in this locality is a mixture of sand loam, with a portion of gravel.  The river Tern bounds the township, and is crossed by a stone bridge of three arches, built by subscription in 1782; and the Shrewsbury and Wellington line of railway intersects the township, and has a station here.

The chief residents are Susannah Cotterill, farmer; William Cotterill, farmer and corn miller; Thomas Plant, farmer, the Grove; Ann Walmsley, farmer; John Walmsley, the Cottage.

WAPPENSHALL AND LEEGOMERY
is a township in the parish of Wellington, embracing 834a. 0r. 15p. of land, but of which there was no separate return of the population at the census of 1841.  Wappenshall is situated about two and a half miles N.E. from Wellington, where there is a respectable inn, a wharf and warehouses on the banks of the Shropshire union canal, which here branches off to Wolverhampton; there is also a branch of the extensive iron works and collieries in the immediate vicinity, which from thence passes on to Coalport.  The land here is the property of the Duke of Sutherland.  Leegomery House, a good residence pleasantly situated a mile and a quarter N.E. from Wellington, is occupied by William Shakeshaft Lawley, Esq.  A short distance from Leegomery is a corn mill, also in this township.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £194. 14s.  St. John Chiverton Charlton, Esq., is the impropriator.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £70. 12s.  The principal residents are Harriet Balliss, farmer, Wappenshall; William Shakeshaft Lawley, Esq., Leegomery House; John Tomlinson, corn miller; John Tranter, wharfinger and vict., Sutherland Arms.

WITHINGTON
is a parish and small rural village in a retired part of the county, six miles W. from Wellington; which comprises 1,135a. 0r. 13p. of land, the principal owners of which are Andrew William Corbet, Esq., R. D. Edwards, Esq., Rev. Thomas Husband, and Mr. Bernard Hiles.  At the census in 1801 the parish had a population of 170 souls; 1831, 193, and in 1841 there were 44 houses and 219 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,694. 12s.  The Church is a plain structure, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, consisting of nave and chancel, with a tower in which are two bells.  The chancel, which is the most ancient part of the building, is of stone, and the body of the church of brick.  The interior has a neglected appearance.  Upon a stone in the nave, there is a brass plate, with the figure of a person in priestly habiliments, with the following inscription in old English characters:—“Here lieth buried Mr. Adam Graffton, the most worshipful priest living in his days, sometime chaplain to the famous princes, King Edward V. and Prince Arthur; Archdeacon of Stafford, Warden of the Battlefield, Dean of St. Mary’s College, in Salop, and parson of this church: deceased the 20th of June, A.D. one thousand five hundred and thirty, whose soul God keep.”  Another brass plate, with the figure of a man and a woman and seven children, remembers John de Onley and family, and is dated 1500.  There are neat marble tablets to the memory of Peter Blakeway, who died in 1808; to Elizabeth Browne, who died in 1788; and to the Rev. Corbet Browne, rector of this parish and Upton Magna, who died in the year 1807, aged 80 years.  The living is a perpetual curacy, subordinate to the rectory of Upton Magna.  The Rev. Corbet Browne is the incumbent: Rev. Thomas Honeyman, curate.  This township is intersected by the Shrewsbury Canal.  A sum of £16 mentioned in the charity returns of 1786, as given by Andrew Peplow in 1728, appears to have been lost many years ago, by the insolvency of the person in whose hands it was placed.

Browne Rev. Corbet, rector, The Rectory

Browne Corbet, jun., farmer

Edwards Rann Dolphin, Esq.

Evans Richard, tailor and shopkeeper

Hiles Bernard, farmer

Honeyman Rev. Thomas, curate

James Edward Topham, farmer

Milward Frederick, saddler

Moore Helen, dressmaker

Pain Thomas, farmer

Richards Edward, wheelwright

Shingler George, wheelwright

Smith William, vict., Hare and Hounds

Topham Benjamin, farmer

Williams John, blacksmith and beerhouse

Williams Robert, shoemaker

Woolstein John Edward Israel, tailor

WOMBRIDGE,
a parish and small village two miles east from Wellington, containing most of the populous district of Oakengates within its bounds.  The parish contains 790 acres, and in 1801 had 1835 inhabitants, 1831, 1855, and in 1841 there were 406 houses and a population of 2057 souls.  Rateable value £2,395.  The village is situated at the junction of the Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and Marquis of Stafford’s Canals, and intersected by the Watling street and the various railways connected with the extensive coal and iron works in the immediate vicinity.  There are some slight remains in the garden of Mr. Shepherd of a Priory that was founded here by William Fitz-Alan, for canons of the order of St. Austin.  It was endowed by Henry II. with the church of St. Sutton; Hugh, Bishop of Coventry, confirmed the grant of Sutton, together with the grant of the chapel at Uppington, the gift of Roger de Mussun, on condition that the canons should present their chaplains to the bishop and his successors to receive at his and their hands, institution and induction for that church and chapel.  The canons were to allow their chaplains a competent maintenance, and the residue of the profits was to be employed in charitable uses.  There were various other benefactors to this priory, among whom were the lords of Cherrington, who gave the revenues of certain lands in that township to it.  The various possessions of those canons with divers liberties granted by their several benefactors, were confirmed by King Edward II.  The revenues at the general dissolution of religious houses were valued at £65. 7s. 4d.  The Church is a brick structure, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Leonard, and consists of nave and transepts, with a short tower.  It was enlarged and galleries added in 1823, when upwards of 300 sittings were thereby obtained, of which 295 were declared free and unappropriated, and are in addition to 100 free sittings formerly provided.  There is a small organ at the west end.  This church stands on the site of a former structure, which was blown down by a storm which happened in the spring of the year 1756.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £86.  The Rev. John Dawson is the officiating minister.

OAKENGATES
is a populous district, partly in Wombridge and partly in Ketley, three miles east from Wellington, and four miles north-west from Shiffnal.  The inhabitants of this populous locality find employment in the extensive collieries and iron works with which the neighbourhood abounds.  The town consists of one long street which contains many good shops and several respectable inns.  A market was established here in 1826, which is held on Saturdays, and the after part of the day has a very animated and business-like appearance.  Fairs are also held in March, June, September, and December, but the specific days have not been finally settled.  The fairs are toll free.  To the west of Market street is Ketley or Coalpit Bank, a scattered district with a considerable population, partly in Wombridge parish, but chiefly in Wellington parish.  The inhabitants have the advantage of railway communication by the Shropshire Union Railway, which passes through the town, and has a station within a hundred yards of Market street.  The extensive iron works of the Lilleshall company will be transferred from Oakengates to Prior’s Lee before the expiration of the present year, in consequence of that place being nearer the iron-stone mines, but the extensive collieries will be carried on as heretofore by that company.  The coal got here is of a very superior quality, and immense quantities are conveyed to distant parts by the railway and canals in the vicinity.  The extensive iron works of Messrs. S. Horton, Simms and Bull, at Oakengates, are just within the bounds of the parish of Shiffnal.  The Independents have a commodious chapel at Oakengates; the congregation is under the pastoral care of the Rev. H. Ollerenshaw.  The Primitive Methodists have a spacious chapel built in 1847.  The National School was chiefly built at the expense of James Oliver, Esq., of Wellington, aided by a grant from the National Society.  Mr. Oliver also purchased the site for the school.  It is a neat structure of brick, erected in 1846, comprising two commodious rooms and a residence for the teacher.  The average number of scholars at the present time is fifty girls and eighty boys.

Post Office at Mr. Henry Shepherd’s, the Lion Inn.  Letters arrive at 7 A.M., and are despatched at 6 P.M.

Oakengates and Wombridge Directories.

Those with * affixed are at Wombridge, and the rest at Oakengates, or where specified.

Bell Frederick, butcher

Bennett and Co., colliery proprietors

Cludde Moses, brazier

Davies George and Thos., colliery proprietors

* Dawson Rev. John, the parsonage

Eardley Mr. Robert, Hollins Wood

* Groom Thomas, farmer and maltster

Hanes John, tailor

Harper George, seedsman

Hill Enoch, builder

Horton, Simms and Bull, iron masters

Houlston John, auctioneer, and Wellington

Jones Arthur, accountant, Snedshill

Jones Alfred Charles, furnace manager to Lilleshall Company

Jones Charles Crawford, agent, Snedshill

Knox John, station master

Lilleshall Company, colliery proprietors and iron masters

Littlehales Thomas, schoolmaster (national)

Mansell William, currier

Ollerenshaw Rev. H., independent, Ketley Bank

Peplow Andrew, brick maker, Hollingswood

Robinson James, ironmonger

* Shepherd John Pike, farmer and maltster

Snead John, brickmaker, Snedshill

Turner Thomas, solicitor

Beerhouses.

Arkinstall George

Baugh Joseph

Bell Frederick

Brown John

Clarke William

Corbett Thomas

Peplow Andrew

Perry George

Scarrot Emanuel

Boot & Shoe Makers.

Cooper William

Jones Samuel

Grey Thomas

Light Francis

Hair Dressers.

Capsey Samuel

Hill James

Grocers & Provision Dealers.

Arkinstall George

Blackband Gerrard

Chapman Joseph

Corbett Thomas

Cotterill Joseph

Day Sarah

Hayes Henry

Jones Richard, and chemist and druggist

Matthews Thomas

Parkes John

Picker Mary

Pugh William

Robinson Alexander

Wright Sarah

Inns & Taverns.

Bull’s Head, Henry Onions

Black Horse, Rd. Holmes

Caledonian, Benj. Marrion

Charlton Arms, John Bourne

Compasses, William Pugh

Duke of York, Henry Hayes

Fighting Cocks, Wm. Light

Grey Hound, Thos. Marrison

Hand & Hammer, Sampson Pitchford

Leopard, Rebecca Rigby

Lion, Henry Shepherd

Red Lion, George Ellis, and watch maker

Talbot, William Hooper

Linen & Woollen Drapers & Hatters.

Davies John

Hayes Henry

Hopkins George, & clothier

Parkes John

Tarbett John

Maltsters.

Davies Thomas

Parkes John

WOODCOTE
is a township and chapelry in the parish of Sheriff Hales, three miles south-east by south from Newport, which in 1801 contained 130 inhabitants; 1831, 195; and in 1841 there were 29 houses and a population of 140 souls.  The township contains upwards of 1,000 acres of land; rateable value, £1,003. 10s.  Woodcote Hall is a spacious and handsome mansion, of free stone, delightfully situated on a gentle acclivity, and surrounded with park-like grounds finely timbered and richly diversified with sylvan beauty.  A little west from the hall are extensive gardens.  The Hall is the seat of John Cotes, Esq., who is owner of the whole township.  The Chapel, situated near to the hall, is a plain structure of free-stone of considerable antiquity.  On the south side is a door which exhibits the Saxon style of architecture.  It contains several neat tablets in memory of the Cotes family, the last of which is in memory of John Cotes, Esq., M.P. for the county of Shropshire, who died in 1821, aged 72 years, leaving two sons and six daughters.  A large marble slab, reared up against the pews near the altar rails, appears to have been the top of an altar tomb.  It is curiously ornamented with two full length figures, and has a mutilated inscription round the edge.  We did not observe any date upon it, but it is very ancient and worthy of inspection.  A little west from the hall is an eminence called Heath Hill, which commands an extended view over this and the adjacent county of Stafford, and also of the towering heights of the Welsh mountains.  On the eastern side of the township a small stream called Moreton Brook divides this county from that of Staffordshire; on the banks of which is a dilapidated corn-mill.  The rest of the parish of Sheriff Hales, except Lilleshall House and a few scattered farms, are within the bounds of the county of Stafford, and may at a future period be included in a similar volume for that county.  The village of Sheriff Hales is pleasantly situated three miles north from Shiffnal and five miles south from Newport.  The parish contains 5,317a. 2a. 37p. of land, and at the census of 1841 there were 32 houses and 191 inhabitants returned as in the county of Shropshire, the names of the principal residents of which have been given in the Lilleshall directory.

The following are the principal residents in Woodcote township, viz.:—John Cotes, Esq., Woodcote Hall; George Alsop, farmer, Lynn; John Bedford, farm bailiff; John Downes, gamekeeper; James Lockley, farmer, Pave lane; Richard Lascombe, butler, The Hall; John Morris, farmer, Lynn; Cornelius Whitehouse, gardener, The Hall.

WROCKWARDINE
is a considerable parish in the Wellington division of the South Bradford hundred, which comprises the several townships (for highway purposes) of Admaston, Allscott, Bratton, Burcott, Charlton, Clotley, Long Lane, Wrockwardine, and Wrockwardine Wood.  The parish contains 4,630a. 3r. 12p. of land, of which 469a. 0r. 28p. are woods, plantations, roads, and waste.  The soil is various, the arable lands produce good crops of grain, and the grazing lands an abundance of grass.  Gross estimated rental, £11,727, 7s. 4d.; rateable value, £10,554. 15s.  In 1801 there were 1,913 inhabitants; 1831, 2,528, and in 1841, 541 houses and 2,741 inhabitants.  A court leet and baron is held for the manor.  Mrs. Mary Cludde, of Orleton, is lady of the manor, but Miss Anne Maria Cludde, daughter of the late Mr. Cludde, took the estate as heiress on September 9th, 1851.  Wrockwardine township is pleasantly situated in a rich country pleasingly diversified with undulations, and contains 1,094a. 1r. 20p. of land, and in 1841 had 258 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,464. 14s.  The village stands on elevated ground, and commands some fine views of open landscape scenery, of the hilly country in the Condover hundred, and of the Wrekin.  The Church is an ancient structure of red sand stone, dedicated to St. Peter, with a tower rising from the centre, in which are six musical bells; the tower is supported by four pointed arches rising from fluted pillars.  It is neatly pewed, and the pulpit and reading desk are of beautiful carved oak.  The organ was erected in 1846, at a cost of about £200 raised by subscriptions.  The east window is beautified with stained glass, and contains a representation of our Saviour, very chastely executed.  In the chancel are several handsome monumental tablets, one of which remembers Edward Pemberton and his wife, dated 1800, and is very beautifully executed in the Grinshill free stone.  Another of the same stone has been erected to the memory of Edward Cludde, Esq., and is dated 1785.  There are also very beautiful tablets to other members of this family, and to the Cockburns, Phillips, Roe, and others.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £7. 8s. 6d., now returned at £427 in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and incumbency of the Rev. George L. Yate, M.A.  The vicarage is a good residence a short distance from the church.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £353. 19s., and the rectoral for £225.  It appears from the parish register that the Houlston family have held the office of parish clerk for a period of 257 years, and is still held by the same family.

Wrockwardine Hall is a commodious mansion of brick stuccoed, beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberries, and is the seat of Miss Anne Maria Cludde.  Orleton Hall, a delightfully situated mansion, the seat of the ancient and highly respected family of Cludde, is now the residence of Mrs. Cludde; the hall is stuccoed, and the gardens and pleasure grounds are very extensive, and kept in the most admirable order.  It commands a fine view of the Wrekin, and is surrounded by a park of 160 acres, beautifully wooded.  The Boys’ School, a substantial brick building, was built at the cost of Mrs. Cludde, who is also a munificent contributor towards its support; 75 children attend.  The Girls’ School has an attendance of sixty children, and is supported by Miss Cludde.  Two Almshouses were erected in 1841, “and endowed for the maintenance of two poor women in their declining years; they are dedicated to the memory of Edward Cludde, Esq., late of Orleton, in this parish, by his tenants and neighbours, in testimony of their respect for a man who was an eminent example of pure and undefiled religion, visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keeping himself unspotted from the world.”

Charities.—Edward Pemberton, in 1680, devised a rent charge of £3 per annum for putting forth an apprentice every other year, fatherless or motherless children to be always preferred.  The amount is charged upon an estate now the property of Mrs. Cludde.  A yearly sum of 10s. is paid as charged upon the Burcot estate, and a like sum as charged upon the Leaton property; in respect of 10s. payable by Mrs. Cludde, two bushels of wheat flour are given away by her agent to the poor.  The other sum is laid out in the purchase of bread.  It is supposed these charities were left by one of the Langley family.

Several sums of money given for charitable uses, amounting in the whole to £60, were laid out in the purchase of a piece of land called Tidicross Furlong, which was improved in 1670 by Edward Pemberton, who built a house and barn thereon.  About the year 1801 a parish workhouse was built on these premises, and the old house and barn was pulled down.  Up to the year 1829 the sum of £4. 10s. per annum (which was the amount of the rent when the workhouse was built) was paid out of the poor’s rate, and given away on Good Friday.  In consequence of a suggestion of the charity commissioners that the rent ought to be raised, it was resolved at a vestry meeting of the parish, held 5th May, 1830, that the sum of £8 should in future be paid by the parish annually for the lands above mentioned.

Thomas Ore, in 1798, gave a yearly sum of 40s., payable out of his freehold estate in the township of Walcott, in the parish of Wellington, the same to be given among the poor every St. Thomas’s-day, in his seat of the south aisle of the church, at Wrockwardine, after morning prayer.  The Rev. Joshua Gilpin, who died in 1828, bequeathed £50 to the vicar of Wrockwardine, in trust, to divide the interest in equal portions among eight of the poorest families residing in Wrockwardine, on the day before Christmas day.

Cludde Mrs., Orleton Hall

Cludde Miss Anne Maria, Wrockwardine Hall

Bullock Benjamin, carpenter

Burrell John, gamekeeper

Clayton John, farmer

Clayton Samuel, farmer, David’s bank

Cooper Thomas, farmer, Austins

Davies John, farmer, The bank

Edwards William, wood steward

Gilpin Mrs. Jane, The villa

Houlston Charles, blacksmith, and agricultural implement maker

Houlston John, shoemaker

Houlston Josiah, farmer

Houlston Joshua, assistant overseer and vestry clerk

Houlston Thomas, farmer, parish clerk, and assessed tax collector

Jones Sarah, maltster

Pickin Eliza, farmer, Sydney house

Poole William, butler and coachman

Speake Richard, shopkeeper

Taylor Henry William, vict., The Talbot, and posting house, Hay gate

Trumper William, farm bailiff

Turner Charles, nursery and seedsman

Vaughan, and Mary Ann, school teachers

Webb William, butler

ADMASTON
is a township and delightfully situated village in the parish of Wrockwardine, one and a half mile north-west by north from Wellington.  The township contains 509a. 2r. 19p. of land, and in 1841 here were 188 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,164. 13s.  The principal landowners are Mr. Jones; Mrs. Webb; Mr. William Taylor; James Oliver, Esq.; Mr. John Haynes; Mrs. Elizabeth Mansell; William Wyley, Esq.; Mrs. Austin; Mr. Waring; Mr. Richard Tew; Mr. John Burgiss; and Mrs. Mary Williams.  The village of Admaston is pleasantly situated near the station on the line of the Shrewsbury and Wellington railway, and is crossed by beautiful drives and fine open roads, commanding most delightful views over a luxuriant country, finely timbered, and studded with beautiful residences.  It is also within a few miles of the far-famed Salopian mountain, the Wrekin, which commands views of unparalleled extent and sublimity.  The Admaston Spa lies in a sheltered situation, near the verge of the village, the waters of which have long been celebrated for their medicinal purposes, and are highly recommended by eminent physicians.  There are two wells, one of which is sulphurous, and the other chalybeate; the upper well contains a large portion of muriate of soda, or common salt, and a portion of muriate of lime, and is found exceedingly beneficial in giving a salutary stimulus to the stomach, correcting dyspepsia, and highly efficacious in scrofulous affections.  The lower spring contains a large quantity of chloride sodium, and in its analysis approaches nearer to the Harrogate waters, so justly celebrated and efficacious in cutaneous disorders.

The solid contents of an imperial wine pint weigh seventy-seven grains of the chalybeate saline water, and the proportion in which the several ingredients exist may be stated as follows:—

Grains.

Chloride sodium (common salt)

54.5

Chloride calcium (muriate lime)

14.3

Chloride magnesium

5.2

Carbonate iron and lime, and alumina and silica

1.5

Loss

1.5

Bromine, a trace

0.0

77.0

The solid contents of a wine pint from the sulphur spring weigh 79 grains, the component parts of which, according to an analysis by Messrs. Blunt, in 1847, may be thus stated:—

Grains.

Chloride sodium

65.0

Chloride calcium

10.5

Chloride magnesium

2.0

Carbonate lime

1.0

Carbonate iron, slightest trace

0.0

Bicarbonate soda, a trace

0.0

78.5

The Hotel and Boarding House in connection with the baths is a handsome pile of buildings, greatly admired for its architectural beauty, erected at an expense of £6,000.  The house is elegantly furnished, and replete with every convenience and comfort for the accommodation of the numerous parties who frequent the spa during the summer season.  The baths are admirably arranged, and no expense has been spared to combine elegance, comfort, and utility.  The walks and pleasure grounds are tastefully laid out, and are surrounded by a salubrious country, richly variegated and picturesque.  Mr. John Purcell is the proprietor of the hotel.

Admaston Hall, a beautiful modern mansion, delightfully situated, is the residence of the Hon. Charles Nowell Hill.  The pleasure grounds and shrubberies are very beautifully laid out.  The Boarding School, conducted by Mr. J. W. Smart, is a commodious building in a pleasant situation, where a limited number of young gentlemen receive the advantages of a classical and commercial education.  This locality is noted for its annual steeple chase meetings, its field sports, and for fishing.

Beech John, superintendent of the Shropshire union railway

Bennett John, engineer

Buchannan Philip, Esq.

Bullock Elizabeth, dress maker

Bullock John, wheelwright

Bullock Richard, joiner, &c.

Burgiss John, surgeon

Burton Robert, farmer

Davies Thomas, beerhouse

Haynes John, farmer

Hicks Thos., station master

Hill the Honble. Charles Nowell, the Hall

Houlston William, farmer

John Johnson, horse breaker and steeple chase trainer

Mansell Elizabeth, gentlewoman

Marsh James, blacksmith

Newns John, butcher

Purcell John, hotel and boarding house, Admaston Spa

Proctor Dr., physician

Robinson Richard, farmer and maltster

Smart Joseph Wm., boarding school proprietor

Tew Richard, farmer, maltster, and vict., the Pheasants

Titley Joseph, farmer

Williams Mary, gentlewoman

Wyley William, Esq., land and estate agent, surveyor, and conveyancer

ALLSCOTT,
a township with a scattered population, about a mile north from Wrockwardine, at the census of 1841 had 98 inhabitants.  The township contains 357a. 0r. 17p. of land.  Rateable value, £796. 16s.  The principal landowners are W. S. Lawley, Esq.; Miss Cludde; Henry Povall, Esq.; Mr. Samuel Nevett; Messrs. Juckes and Dixon; Mr. William Franks; and Sarah and Robert Clarke.  The river Tern bounds the township for a short distance; it is also watered by two small streams, and intersected by the Shropshire union railway.  The hamlets of Cross Green, Rushmore, and Broomfield House are within the bounds of this township.  Broomfield House is a handsome brick residence, pleasantly situated, the residence of Mr. Thomas Edwards.

Directory.—Marked * are at Cross Green, † Rushmore, and the rest at Allscott.—Robert Clarke, farmer and maltster; Sarah Clarke, farmer and maltster; Francis Delves, butcher and farmer; Edward Ditcher, farmer, the Hall; Thomas Edwards, farmer, Broomfield; * William Edwards, blacksmith; † William Edwards, shoemaker; William Franks, farmer; Roger Hawkins, farmer and corn miller; * John Hollis, shoemaker and beerhouse keeper; Thomas Lees, farmer and gardener; George Milnes, farmer; † Francis Phipps, gardener; * Ambrose Robinson, beerhouse; † William Smith, shoemaker; Charles Tew, farmer and maltster; † James Ambrose, machine maker.

BRATTON,
a small township comprising 459a. 0r. 19p. of land, is pleasantly situated two miles and a quarter north-west by west from Wellington.  At the census of 1841 here were 66 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £755.  The soil is mostly a strong loam, with some portions of clay.  The chief landowners are Miss Cludde, Thomas Eyton, Esq., and the trustees of the Shrewsbury Free Grammar School.

The principal residents are Thomas Basnett, farmer; William Blackmore, shopkeeper; John Felton, farmer and butcher; Thomas Plant, farmer; Joseph Read, gamekeeper; Joshua Sankey, farmer; Samuel Tudor, vict., the Gate; George West, vict., Buck’s Head, Long lane; James Winnall, farmer, Rushmore.

BURCOTT, LEATON, CLOTLEY, AND CLUDDLEY,
are separate townships, but returned as one division of the parish, and together contain 614a. 3r. 22p. of land.  Rateable value, £1,020.  They are situated near to the Wrekin, and intersected by the Shrewsbury, Birmingham, and Wellington turnpike roads; by the Street, Lane, and Watling Street.  On this great thoroughfare is a commodious family hotel and posting house, situate at Hay-gate, in the occupancy of Mr. John Henry Taylor.  The situation is delightful, and being the nearest hotel to the Wrekin, it is the frequent resort of parties who visit that far-famed Salopian mountain.  The land at Burcott is the property of Mrs. Cludde; at Clotley, Mrs. Mary and Mr. Henry Stillgoe are the proprietors; the Leaton estate is the property of John Stanier, Esq., and Miss Crowther; and at Cluddley, Mrs. Cludde and Thomas Baddeley are the principal owners.  Burcott Hall, the residence of Charles Emery, Esq., is pleasantly situated a short distance from the Wrekin, and surrounded with park-like grounds, well timbered.  The farm premises are very extensive, and situated a short distance from the hall.  Leaton Hall, an ancient mansion in a salubrious and delightful situation, is the residence and property of John Stanier, Esq.

Directories.—Burcott: Charles Emery, Esq., the Hall; Samuel Nicholls. tailor.  Clotley: Henry Charles Stillgoe, farmer and corn miller; Mrs. Mary Stillgoe, Clotley House; Richard Shelton Stillgoe, farmer.  Cluddley: Thomas Baddeley, farmer; Richard Bailey, farmer, the Hall farm; John Edwards, farmer, Wrekin farm; Thomas Nigington, farmer.  Leaton: John Clayton, farmer, Wheatfields; John Stanier, Esq., the Hall; Harriman Willings, farmer.

CHARLTON
is a township and village, in a salubrious situation, two miles S.W. by S. from Wrockwardine, embracing 714a. 1r. 25p. of land, mostly a fertile district, producing good crops of barley and other grain.  At the census in 1841 there were 101 inhabitants.  The Shrewsbury and Wellington railway passes through the township, and has a station near to the village, which also lies contiguous to Shrewsbury, Wellington, and Shiffnal turnpike road.  Rateable value, £1,007.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor and owner of the whole township.  From the few fragmentary remains of Charlton Castle, it was no doubt a place of consequence in by-gone days.  The ruins are mantled with ivy, and the moat which surrounded it may still be traced.  Not far from the castle are several artificial mounds, which may have been raised for military purposes in past ages.  As it is in the line of road of the celebrated Roman station at Wroxeter it may have had some connection with that important military station.

The principal residents are William Capsey, butcher; Robert Hawkins, farmer; Henry Povell, farmer; John Pritchard, farmer.

LONG LANE,
a small township, comprising 379a. 0r. 37p. of land, stretches for two miles in length, and is situated about three miles north from Wellington.  In 1841 there were 137 inhabitants within the bounds of this township.  The houses are chiefly small cottage residences.  The chief landowners are Thomas Eyton, Esq., William Henry Dickinson, Esq., and Mr. John Jones.  Cheshire Coppice, the residence of William Henry Dickinson, Esq., is an ancient structure, situated on a gentle eminence, which commands some fine views of the distant country.

Directory.—William Henry Dickinson, Esq., Cheshire House; John Griffiths, farmer; John Jones, farmer; John Jones, jun., farmer; Susannah Smith, farmer.

WROCKWARDINE WOOD
is a populous township, four miles and a half S.W. from Newport, and four miles and three quarters N.E. from Wellington.  The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in the collieries and iron works in the immediate vicinity.  The township contains 502a. 0r. 8p. of land, and in 1841 had 342 houses and 1,698 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,836. 4s.  The collieries are the property of the Duke of Sutherland, and held in lease by the Lilleshall company.  The Church is a brick structure, dedicated to the Holy Trinity.  It was built in 1833, and contains 610 sittings, of which 420 are free and unappropriated in consequence of a grant from the Incorporated Society for Building Churches.  It is endowed with the small tithes of Wrockwardine Wood, and the living has been augmented with grants from Queen Anne’s Bounty.  There is a neat font, which was the gift of Mr. Thomas Webb, late churchwarden.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Wrockwardine, and incumbency of the Rev. Reginald Yonge, B.C.L.  The Primitive Methodists have a chapel, built in 1832, which will hold about 500 persons.  The structure and fittings have cost altogether £498.  The National School was built in 1830, partly by subscription and partly by the National Society.  It stands a little north from the church, and has an attendance of about sixty boys and forty girls;

Trench Lake is a straggling district on the Wellington and Newport turnpike road, three miles from the former place and five miles from the latter.  The houses are chiefly in the township of Wrockwardine Wood, but also extend into the township of Eyton-on-the-Wild-Moors.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a chapel here, built in 1823.  The Earl of Bradford is the principal landowner; Mr. Webb is also a proprietor.

Wrockwardine Wood and Trench Lake Directories.

Marked * are in Wrockwardine Woody and the rest in Trench Lane.

Barker Richard, tailor

Beech William, shoemaker

Bennett John, Esq., Coal Works (Proprietor)

Bourne Mary, beerhouse

* Bowen Rebecca, schoolmistress

* Bowen William, schoolmaster

* Bullock John, manager to Donington Wood Mill Company

Chilton Thomas, butcher

* Chilton William, blacksmith

Davies George, hat maker

Deakin George, farmer

Downing Mary, milliner and dressmaker

Downing Thomas, saddler

Farmer Henry, beerhouse

* Fenn William, shoemaker

* Getley Henry, butcher

* Getley Elizabeth, shopkeeper

Green James, victualler, Old Shaw Birch

* Grieves Rev. Joseph, Primitive Methodist

Hill Richard, shopkeeper and beerhouse

Jeffs Richard, shopkeeper

Johnson James, farmer

Johnston Thomas, shopkeeper

Jones Edward, farm bailiff

* Jones Thomas, victualler, Queen’s Head

* Kite Jane, shopkeeper & victualler, White Horse

Latham James, farmer

* Leese Mary Ann, milliner and dressmaker

Lockley Samuel, blacksmith

Lowe Thomas, shoemaker and beerhouse

Mainwaring Mary and Son, shopkeepers

Manwaring Richard, victualler, The Crown

* Martin John, victualler, The Lamb, and shopkeeper

* Millward Mary, shopkeeper

Paice William, railway gate keeper

Palmer Thomas, tailor

Parton John, saddler

Pickering James Richard, vict., Dun Cow

Reynolds Evan, shoemaker

* Simpson William, shoemaker, and vict., Bull’s Head

Slaney Henry, confectioner

Taylor William, farmer

Wakely Dorothy, victualler, Duke of York

Webb Catherine, maltster and victualler, King’s Arms

* Yonge Rev. Reginald, B.C.L., incumbent, The Parsonage

WROXETER
is a parish in the Wellington division of the South Bradford Hundred, situated on the eastern bank of the river Severn, which contains the townships (for highway purposes) of Donnington, Dryton, Eyton-upon-Severn, Norton, Rushton, and Wroxeter.  The parish comprises 4,212 acres of land, of which 188 acres are in woods and plantations, roads, and waste.  Gross estimated rental, £7,131.  Rateable value, £6,274. 3s. 6d.  The Duke of Cleveland is the most considerable landowner.  Lord Berwick and the Vicar of Wroxeter are also owners: the former is lord of the manor and holds a court leet and baron.  There is a considerable portion of stiff soil in the parish, which is mostly used for arable purposes.  A sandy soil prevails in some places; the meadows and grazing land on the banks of the Severn have a rich herbage.  At the census of 1801 the parish contained 544 inhabitants; and in 1841 there were 126 houses and 636 inhabitants.  The houses in general are composed of brick and slated, and have a respectable appearance.

The Village of Wroxeter is delightfully situated on elevated ground, near the eastern banks of the Severn, five miles and three-quarters S.E. from Shrewsbury, commanding fine views over a rich and beautiful country of the Wrekin, and of the hilly country in the Condover Hundred.  The turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Wellington, Ironbridge, and Bridgnorth, intersects the township, and a little north from the village the river Tern has its confluence with the Severn.  Wroxeter is generally supposed by our antiquaries to be the Uriconium, one of the cities of the Cornavii, the ancient inhabitants of Britain.  This city was also called Wreckencester, which is manifestly retained in the name of the adjacent hill, The Wrekin, to this day; from which the word Uriconium itself may proceed.  Whether the town was built by the Romans or the Britons is uncertain; but that the former fortified it is most likely, since the river Severn hereabouts has more fords than in any other place.  The foundation of a bridge is sometimes discernible at low water, which was at first discovered by some workmen erecting a wear upon the river.  The circumference of the wall which surrounded the city was about three miles, and was built upon a gravel full of pebble stones.  The wall was three yards broad, with a deep trench on the outside, which may be traced in several places to this day.  The remains of the walls are called by the inhabitants the Old Works at Wroxeter; being about twenty feet high and a hundred feet in length, made of hewn stone, distinguished with seven rows of British bricks at equal distances, and arched within, after the manner of the Britons.  Where these remains appear, it is thought the citadel stood, and what favours the opinion is the evenness of the ground, and the rubbish of walls that lie in great heaps thereabouts.  It is supposed by some that the blackness of the soil in certain places proceeds from the fire that burnt the town, but it can hardly be conjectured that the footsteps of such a casualty should remain so long, especially since the ground has been so often ploughed up and exposed to the weather.  The Roman coins found here are a proof of the antiquity of the place.  The lords of the manor, from time to time, have obliged all their lease tenants, under certain penalties, to bring all the old coins they meet with to them.  The coins found are generally so rusty and decayed that the inscription is scarcely legible or the image to be distinguished.  None of the Saxon coins have ever been found here, which is a proof that the place was destroyed before the Danish times.  It is impossible to look upon the fields, teeming in rich luxuriance, and remembering that there flourished a Roman city, not a vestige of which remains but the fragments of a wall, without sensibly feeling the instability of human greatness, and exclaiming with Cowper:—

“We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works
Die too.  The deep foundations that we lay,
Time ploughs them up, and not a trace remains.
We build with what we call eternal rock;
A distant age asks where the fabric stood?
And in the dust, sifted and search’d in vain,
The undiscoverable secret sleeps,”

The graves that have been met with here are deep and wide, the corpse enclosed in red clay, both under and over, and to prevent the mixture of other mould with that clay, the graves were faced on the sides with slates, and then covered with stones, sometimes five or six upon one grave; bones have been found that were interred after this manner, which contributed to their preservation several hundred years.  Teeth have been taken out of the jaw-bones of men near three inches long, and many thigh bones have been found of full a yard in length.  Several urns have been discovered within the memory of man, after digging four or five feet deep in the earth, and it is to be noted that as the dead bodies are here buried in red clay, so urns are found deposited in red sand.  About half a century ago were discovered three large urns composed of a beautiful transparent green glass, each having one handle elegantly ribbed, and severally containing burnt bones, and a glass lachrymatory.  Several earthen urns, an earthen lamp, and a few Roman coins were also found at the same place, the whole being covered with large flat stones.  Tesselated pavements, sepulchral stones with inscriptions, moulds for coining money; seals, an Apolla elegantly cast in lead; copper, gold, and silver coins, and many interesting remains of Roman manufacture, have from time to time been found whilst excavating on this site.  A stone altar found near the vicarage in the year 1824, is thus inscribed:—

“BONO REI PVBLICAE NATVS.”

The precise epoch of the first establishment of this Roman station at Wroxeter has been hitherto held as uncertain by all historians, but a recent event has thrown some light on this historical point.  In 1844 a large brass coin of the Emperor Trajan, in a fine state of preservation, was found imbedded in the mortar of the Roman wall (usually called the old works) still remaining at Wroxeter, which warrants a conclusion that although the erection of this station might have been posterior to the reign of Trajan, it would seem clear that this station could not have been raised at an earlier period.  Marcus Ulpius Trajanus Crinitus, or Marcus Ulpius Nerva Trajanus, was born A.D. 53.  He was governor of Germania under the Emperors Domitian and Nerva, and in the year 97 was associated with the latter in the government of the empire, and invested with the titles of Cæsar and Imperator.  He succeeded Nerva, and took the title of Augustus in A.D. 98, and died in the year 117.  It may therefore reasonably be supposed, from the perfect state and freshness of the above mentioned coin, that the station of Uriconium was built either at the latter end of the first or early in the second century.

The Church is an ancient structure, dedicated to St. Andrew, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a massive square tower, ornamented with a clock, and the heads of rude figures of a grotesque character.  The interior is neatly pewed.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £11. 18s., now returned at £330, in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland, and enjoyed by the Rev. Edward Egremont, M.A., who resides at the vicarage, a good residence a short distance from the church.  The Duke of Cleveland, Lord Berwick, and Mrs. Jenkins, are the impropriators of the rectoral tithes, which were commuted in 1840 for £606. 6s.  The vicarial tithes have been commuted for £248. 14s.

Charities.—Thomas Alcock, who died in 1627, gave twenty marks yearly towards the support of a free grammar school for the instruction of youth of the parishes of Wroxeter and Uppington.  An addition was made to this endowment by the will of Richard Stevinton in 1652, whereby he gave a rent charge of £13. 6s. 8d., issuing out of his lands in Arleston, in the parish of Wellington.  There is a school and schoolhouse situate at Donnington, and six acres of land adjoining thereto, but it is not known from whom this property was derived.  The school premises have been greatly improved at the expense of the master, and are worth about £12 a year.  The school has been considered as free for classical instruction only to forty children of the inhabitants of Wroxeter and Uppington, but there is no document showing that the number of free scholars is thus limited; and it is to be observed that the benefaction of Richard Stevinton was for the use of a master who should teach English as well as Latin.  Scholars educated in this school are entitled to the benefit of two of the exhibitions founded by Edward Careswell, an account of which has already been noticed with the Royal Free Grammar School at Shrewsbury.

From an entry made in the churchwarden’s book in 1765, it appears that the sum of £61 belonging to the poor of Wroxeter, and which had formerly been placed out at interest, was called in, and laid out in building and repairing the church, and that £2 was to be paid yearly as the interest thereof.  This has been regularly paid from the churchwarden’s account, but it appears to have been an inadequate sum to be allowed as the interest of £61.

In the same book there is an entry also made in the year 1765, stating that £20 given by Edward Wellings, to buy Bibles for poor children of Wroxeter, at the discretion of the minister was laid out for the same purpose.  In respect of this gift 10s. is paid annually, and laid out in the purchase of Bibles.

The Rev. Roger Clayton, in 1327, invested £100 in the purchase of £113. 10s. stock, three per cent. consols, in compliance with the wish of his late brother William Clayton, in trust, to apply the interest for the benefit of the poor of Wroxeter.  A memorandum was drawn up and placed in the parish chest, dated 16th October, 1827, and signed by Roger Clayton and Richard and Edward Stanier, acknowledging the stock to have been purchased for the aforesaid object.

Donnington is a township and pleasant village situated a mile and a half E. from Wroxeter; the Duke of Cleveland is the landowner and lord of the manor.  The population of the several townships in this parish are included in the returns for Wroxeter.  The Charlton Hill corn mill is situated in this township; it was erected by the farmers in the surrounding neighbourhood to grind their own corn.  The grammar school noticed with the charities of the parish is situated at Donnington.

Dryton, a small township near the banks of the river Severn, is also the property of the Duke of Cleveland, and is situated two miles and a quarter S.S. by E. from Wroxeter.

Eyton-on-the-Severn, a township two miles S. from Wroxeter, takes its name from its situation near the Severn.  The land here is highly fertile, and the meadow lands have a rich herbage.  It is also the property of the Duke of Cleveland.

Norton, a small township, has a few scattered houses on the Shrewsbury and Wellington turnpike road, about a mile N.E. from Wroxeter.  The land is mostly arable, producing good wheat and barley.  Lord Berwick is the sole proprietor of this township.

Rushton township is situated three miles E. from Wroxeter, near the western verge of the Wrekin.  The land here has an undulating surface, with a stiff soil.  The Duke of Cleveland is the landowner.  The acres, rateable value, tithes, and population of the above townships are included in the returns for Wroxeter.

Post Office.—At Mr. Andrew Weatherby’s.  Letters arrive from Shrewsbury at 8 A.M., and are despatched at 5 P.M.

Wroxeter Directory.

Clarke Maria, farmer

Egremont Rev. Edward, The Vicarage

Ford William, butler

Hoggins Edward, farmer, Smithcott

Oatley William Henry, Esq., The Villa

Stanier Edward, Esq., The Hall

Weatherby Andrew, shopkr.

Wood Thos., farmer, Beslow

Donnington Directory.

Bennett Richard, farmer

Jebb Thos., manager, Corn mill

Jenkins Elizabeth, farmer, Charlton hill

Mainwaring William, shoemaker

Meredith Rev. John, M.A., Grammar School

Parton Benj., shoemaker

Dryton Directory.

Clayton Henry, farmer

Farmer James, farmer

Eyton Directory.

Careswell Benjamin, farmer

Davies Sarah, farmer

Mansell William, blacksmith

Miner John, shepherd

Scott Mary, farmer

Norton Directory.

Bayley Robert, farmer

Powell John, shopkeeper

Upton Elizabeth

Rushton Directory.

Brisbourne Peter, farmer

Jarvis Richard, farmer

Jarvis Robert, farmer

Jarvis Thomas, farmer, Wrekin farm

Pathan Thomas, farmer

BRIMSTREE HUNDRED.

The Hundred of Brimstree is divided into the Bridgnorth and the Shiffnal divisions.  Hales Owen, formerly a third division of this hundred, being a detached part of the county surrounded by Worcestershire, has recently, by act of parliament, been annexed to the county of Worcester.  This hundred is bounded on the north by the county of Stafford and the South Bradford Hundred, on the west by the Wenlock Franchise and South Bradford Hundred, on the east by Staffordshire, and on the south by the Stottesden Hundred.  Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., M.P., is lord of the hundred, and holds a court on the 24th April; Mr. George Pritchard, steward; and Mr. John Cullwick, bailiff.  The population in 1801 was 18,817; in 1841 there were 2,577 houses and 12,458 inhabitants.  The annexing of the populous district of Halesowen to the county of Worcester is the cause of the returns at the census of 1821 being greater than those of 1841.

The Bridgnorth division contains the following townships and places, viz., Aston, Beobridge, Bobbington (part of), Broughton, Claverley, Dallicott, Farmcott, Gatacre, Heathton, Hopstone, Ludstone, Shipley, Sutton, Woundale, and Worfield.

The Shiffnal divisions contains Albrighton, Badger, Beckbury, Boningale, Boscobal, Donnington, Kemberton, Ryton, Shiffnal, Hatton, Priors’ Lee, Woodside, Stockton, Sutton, Maddock, and Tong.

ALBRIGHTON
is a parish and populous village in the Shiffnal division of the Brimstree Hundred, situated five miles south east by east from Shiffnal, and twenty-three south-east from Shrewsbury.  The parish lies in the eastern verge of the county, and contains 3,365 acres of land, of which 59 acres are in roads and plantations.  In 1801 there were 901 inhabitants; 1831, 1,054; in 1841, 1,058, and 236 houses; and in 1851, 242 houses and 1,141 souls.  Rateable value, £7,089, 16s. 11d.  This pleasant rural village is delightfully situated in a salubrious part of the county, intersected by good roads, and contiguous to the Shrewsbury and Birmingham railroad.  Within the last few years it has attracted much attention, and several handsome villa residences have been built, which are chiefly occupied by respectable families and tradespeople from Wolverhampton and the neighbourhood.  There are many good shops in the different branches of the retail trade, and the inns and boarding houses afford every accommodation to the numerous visitors who annually attend the celebrated Albrighton Hunt.  The land in this locality has a bold undulating surface, and the views are varied and beautiful.  The farms are extensive, and by unremitting industry, and an outlay of capital, have been brought to a state of productiveness far superior to what has been hitherto known in this district.  The farm houses are in general well built, and provided with commodious out-premises.  The Earl of Shrewsbury is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  The other chief owners are Thomas Plowden Presland, Esq.; Launcelot Shadwell, Esq.; William Oatley, Esq.; the Earl of Dartmouth; Mr. John Oatley; John Yates, Esq.; George Jones, Esq.; the representatives of the late John Meeson; Richard Wood, Esq.; and the trustees of the poor of Tong, Albrighton, and Tattenhall; besides whom there are several smaller owners.

In the time of Edward the Confessor Albrighton was in two manorial, divisions, held by Algar, Earl of Menia, and a Saxon, named Godit.  In the reign of the Confessor, one hide and a half of land in this parish were taxed to the king.  After the conquest it extended to four carucates, when they were in demesne three carucates, thirteen servants, three villains, and three borderers, with one carucate of plough land.  There was at that time a wood sufficient to fatten one hundred hogs, which was then in the hands of the king.  In the reign of the Confessor it was valued at 21s., and at the Conquest at 16s., when it was found wasted, from whence we may learn that the hand of the Saxon destroyer had been raised in revenge.  In a manuscript of Dr. Hardwicke’s, now preserved at the vicarage, the parish is spoken of as comprising the lordships of Albrighton and Bishton, the manors and granges of Cosford and Whiston, and many other places of less note.  This lordship being enjoyed by Norman the Hunter, shortly after the conquest, was undoubtedly in his possession in 1066, when he and Roger his brother, lord of Beckbury, attended their superior Lord Roger, the Count Palatine, and Adelaisa his second countess, at their palace at Quatford, near Bridgnorth, on the great festal occasion of the dedication of that church, 22nd July, 1086, which they so amply endowed with lands and tithes, arising out of several parishes in this county, as these two lords are particularly noticed as attesting witnesses, with many other lords of manors, the vassals of the count.  In the reign of King Henry I. (1102) the manor was granted by the king to his favourite Sir Ralph de Pitchford, in whose family it continued through several generations; as Camden states that a Sir Ralph de Pitchford, 29th of Edward I., had his residence within this manor of Albrighton, where he died, leaving three sons, John, Nicholas, and Hugh, and Margery his relict, who in the 32nd year of this reign, recovered in the Court of King’s Bench, his service against Roger Charles and William the Beadle of Brimstree, of eleven marks rent, with appurtenances in Albrighton.  John de Pitchford, the eldest son, was lord of Albrighton and Pitchford, holding them of the crown by the service of one knight’s fee each.  It afterwards passed to Sir John de Tregon, Lord Tregon, who, dying without male issue, it came to his grandson, Sir John la Warre, who held in chief by one knight’s fee, and in the 31st of Edward I. obtained a charter to hold a market on a Tuesday, and a fair on the eve of the day, and the day after the translation of St. Thomas the Martyr; and also to hold courts leet and view of frankpledge in the manor half yearly.  He was summoned to parliament from 26th August, 1307, to 26th February, 1342, and died in the 21st of Edward 3rd, 1347.  About this period Roger Careless, a considerable proprietor of lands in Albrighton, gave 60 acres of land there to found a chantry in the Church at Albrighton, to which he added lands and 2s. rent within his manor of Ryton adjoining.  The charter of Albrighton was renewed by King Charles II., and the manor given or confirmed to the Talbots in 1663.  The Lady Mary Talbot presented the borough with a mace.  The market has long been obsolete, but fairs are held for cattle, sheep, swine, and general merchandise on the first Monday in March, 23rd of May, and the last Saturday in June.  A feast is held on the first Sunday after the 18th of July, and races on the following Monday.  A flourishing society of the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows, is held at Mr. Bucknall’s, the Crown Inn.  The Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway Company have a station here: Mr. James Davies is the station master.  Flys and cars are daily in attendance at the station on the arrival of each train.

The Church is a venerable fabric, dedicated to St. Mary, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with, a square tower, containing six bells.  The interior is spacious and handsome, and is neatly pewed with dark oak sittings.  Upon the gallery, at the west end, there is a fine-toned organ.  The chancel is divided from the nave by a lofty pointed arch, and the east window is richly foliated.  The church contains some beautiful tablets and other memorials to the Talbots and several other distinguished families.  An alabaster tomb has two full length figures in a recumbent posture, with hands joined in the attitude of prayer; the knight clothed in a surcoat and chain armour, and his feet resting on a lion.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £5. 10s., now returned at £651, in the patronage of the Haberdashers’ Company and the Governors of Christ’s Hospital, London, alternately.  The Rev. George W. Woodhouse, M.A., is the incumbent.  Divine service is performed twice a-day throughout the year in the church.  The Vicarage, a spacious stuccoed residence, a little east from the church, is ornamented with pleasure grounds tastefully laid out.  The tithes have been commuted, and £626. 7s. 2d. apportioned to the vicar, and £20 to Mr. George Jones.  There are 15a. 2r. 32p. of glebe land.  Gilbert Talbot, bishop of Bertha, in Italy, resided chiefly at Lower Pepperhill, in this parish, where he erected a brick mansion, with a court before it.  The pope, in consideration of his high birth, family connections, and enormous wealth, raised him to the see of Bertha.  He enjoyed his great hereditary property nearly twenty-six years in much privacy and seclusion, engaging himself in acts of charity and devotion, and dying at Lower Pepperhill, on the 12th of December, 1743, was interred in the Catholic Cemetery of the White Ladies, near Albrighton.  There is a Parochial School, in which six boys are taught gratuitously, in consideration of the schoolmaster having the free use of the school-house.

Charities.—By indenture, dated 18th May, 1682, reciting two bequests to the inhabitants of Albrighton, one of £20 by one Southall, the other of £10 by Roger Brooke, the interest of which was to be yearly disposed of among poor people, and which two sums, with some accumulation of interest, had increased to £40; and further reciting a gift by George Bromley of £100, the yearly profits to be distributed on St. George’s day and the Feast of All Saints, with the yearly increase thereof then amounted to £150; it was witnessed that in consideration of the sum of £210, composed of the above benefactions and a sum of money borrowed for the use of the parish, to make up the deficiency, certain lands were conveyed in trust for the benefit of the poor.  In the year 1771, William Whitwich, the only surviving trustee, with the approbation of the parishioners and inhabitants assembled at a parish meeting, exchanged the two pieces of land, called the Wooden Croft, and the Six Butts, containing together four acres, for certain lands, called the Pool Field, containing two acres and rood, and a sum of £60 in money.  The lands held in trust for the poor, when the charity commissioners published their report, comprised 14a. 3r. 16p. and a workhouse which had been built upon the charity land, together producing a yearly rental of £61 16s. 1d.  The sum of £60 paid by Thomas Meeson, in part consideration for the exchange for lands in 1771, was suffered to remain in his hands at an interest of £4 per cent. till May, 1779, when it appears to have been paid up and applied, together with two other sums of £31. 10s., and £20 belonging to the trust, making in the whole £111. 10s. in the erection of a building for the reception of paupers, for which the parish paid a rent of £7 from the year 1780.  This application of these several sums is not indeed expressly stated in the trustees’ books, or in any of the parish books or other documents that we could procure; but it seems sufficiently to be inferred from the circumstance that the payment of interest on those sums appears in the books till the year 1780, when it ceases, and the payment of rent for the workhouse commences.  As this house is kept in repair from the trust funds, it does not seem to have been a very beneficial investment of the money.  From whence the two sums of money above mentioned were derived does not appear.  In the returns, under the act of the 26th Geo. III., two legacies to this parish of uncertain date are mentioned, one of £40 by William Scot, and the other of £20 by T. Davenhill.  It is possible that a part of the first and the whole of the second of these legacies may have constituted part of the funds for the erection of the parish poorhouse.  This, however, is mere conjecture, as we could learn nothing further concerning these charities.

Thomas Chapman, in 1655, granted to trustees three several rent charges, amounting in the whole to 30s., issuing out of a messuage called Harbour House and certain lands within the manor of Donington, and directed 13s. 4d. (part thereof) to be distributed among the poor of Albrighton, 10s. among the poor of Donington, and 6s. 8d. (the residue) for the relief of the poor inhabitants within the parish of Boningale.  The amount allotted to Albrighton is carried to the general charity fund of the parish.

Mrs. Mary Waltho, in 1783, gave the sum of £20, in trust, to place out the same, with the approbation of the minister and churchwardens of the parish, the interest to be disposed of among poor widows.  An annual sum of 16s., which is understood to be the interest of this legacy, was paid by Mr. Meeson.  Mr. Meeson stated to the Charity Commissioners that his father had been accustomed to make the payment to poor widows, from whence he concluded that he had received the £20 left by Mrs. Waltho.  It does not appear that any security is given for it; nor do the minister and churchwardens interfere with the distribution of the interest.

In 1848, a portion of the charity land was required for making the railway, for which the Charity Trustees received the sum of £712. 3s. 3d., which has been invested in government securities; the dividends of which and the rent of lands amount at the present time to about £74 per annum, which is distributed on Holy Thursday and St. Thomas’s day among widows and the indigent poor not receiving parochial relief.

Post Office—At Maria Jones’s.  Letters arrive at 9 A.M., and are despatched at 5.30 P.M.

Bedwell Orson, Esq.

Bishton Rev. Henry, M.A.

Crump Henry, Esq.

Dale Miss

Davies James, station master

Dickens Richard, gentleman

Dodd Rev. George, M.A., curate, Donington

Edwards Mrs.

Holyoake Captain Thomas

Johnson Mrs. Catherine Grecina

Jones Mrs. Maria, Post office

Law Richard, gentleman

Letts James, fly proprietor

Mitchell Mr. James

Parry The Misses, Albrighton Hall

Pitt Frances, gentlewoman

Presland Thomas Plowden, Esq., Cosford Hall

Savage Mrs. Lydia

Stubbs William, gentleman, Bowling-green House

Taylor George, Esq., Boningale Park

Thomason Henry, gentleman

Thorneycroft Mrs.

Totty Mr. John, registrar and vestry clerk

Wood Richard, surgeon and farmer

Woodhouse Rev. George W., M.A., The Vicarage

Yates John, gentleman, Shaw lane

Academy.

Hammersley Thomas, and bookseller and stationer

Baker and Flour Dealer.

Austin George

Boot and Shoemakers.

Fletcher Thomas

Stanley Edward

Taylor John

Taylor Thomas

Wedge Daniel

Brick and Tile Maker.

James Thomas

Bricklayers.

Nickolds George

Stockton Joseph

Totty George

Butchers.

Austin Frederick

Bailey George, Lea Hall

Darley Joseph, Woodhouses

Cabinet Makers.

Perry William, & carpenter

Thomas Thos., & carpenter

Chemist and Druggist.

Whatmore Thomas

Coal Dealers and Carters.

Moore Thomas

Powell John Thomas

Coal and Lime Agent.

Davies James

Corn Millers.

Shenton Benjamin, Cosford mills

Shepherd James

Farmers.

Bailey George and Thomas, Lea Hall Farm

Bate William, Over Pepper hill

Bayley John, Park side

Boulton John

Bradshaw Thomas, Lea

Earp William, Cosford

Fletcher George, Dead Woman’s Grave Farm

Gibbs Henry, Lower Pepper hill

Head Charles, Birches

Husselby William, bailiff to Earl of Dartmouth

Oatley John, Bishton Hall

Oatley Joseph, The Hall Farm

Oatley William, The Hall Farm

Roberts John, Harriotshay

Shenton Benjamin, Cosford

Stanford Joseph, and horse dealer, Harriotshay

Stubbs Walter, Bowling Green

Thomas Rd., farm steward to Earl of Shrewsbury

Yates John, Elms Farm

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Marked * are Provision Dealers.

Brown Jane

Ewart John

* Molineux George

* Tomkins James and John

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Boulton Thomas, victualler, Talbot

Bucknall William, vict., The Crown Hotel, Commercial and Boarding-house

Jones Henry, vict., Whiston Cross

Letts James, vict., Harp Inn, and Posting-house

Steele Benjamin, vict., The Bush

Beerhouse.

Fletcher Thomas

Linen & Woollen Drapers.

Delf John, and clothes dealer

Hammersley Susannah

Maltsters.

Austin George

Bailey George and Thomas

Bucknall George

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Delf Mrs. John, and straw bonnet maker

Hammersley Susannah

Swann Mary Ann

Plumbers, Glaziers, & Painters.

Harris Henry

Meredith Joseph

Saddler and Harness Maker.

Eardley William

Sawyer and Wood Dealer.

Gough George

Shopkeeper.

Moore Paul, and huxter

Smiths.

Howell Thomas

Ward John

Stone Masons and Builders.

Burns and Collins

Thomas Henry

Surgeons.

Bedwell and Son

Crump Henry

Tailor and Woollen Draper.

Totty William

Veterinary Surgeons.

Howell John, Beamish Hall Farm

Watch and Clock Makers.

Morris Thomas

Nickolds Thomas

Wheelwrights.

Parker William

Sutton William

Carrier

To Wolverhampton, Bessy Wheeler, on Monday, Wednesday, & Saturday

BADGER
is a parish in the Shiffnal division of the Brimstree hundred, six miles N.N.E. from Bridgnorth and five and a half miles S. from Shiffnal, comprising 980 acres of land, of which upwards of 100 acres are covered with woods and thriving plantations.  The soil is various, the meadows and pastures produce a rich herbage, and the arable lands are highly productive.  Rateable value £768.  The parish in 1801 contained 88 inhabitants: 1831, 142: 1841, 137: and in 1851 there were 38 houses and a population of 101 souls, of whom 79 were males and 92 females.  The village of Badger is delightfully situated in a district pleasingly diversified with bold undulations and rural scenery; the low lands are watered by the meanderings of the Cosford brook, and the small stream of the Worf.  A romantic glen called the Dingle stretches for upwards of a mile in length, and the banks of the stream have been planted with shrubs and evergreens with great taste; in several places the waters are precipitated over the shelving rocks into the dingle below, which gives an additional charm to the picturesque scenery.  This locality is the frequent resort of pleasure parties from Birmingham and the surrounding country during the summer months.  Robert Henry Cheney, Esq., of Badger Hall, is the principal landowner, and lord of the manor; Mr. John Green is also a landowner.

The Church, dedicated to St. Giles, is a small but neat structure of free stone, having a square tower ornamented with crocketted pinnacles; the tower is beautified with a clock, sun-dial, and contains three bells; the interior of the church has a tasteful and elegant appearance, and the side compartments are neatly pewed with oak sittings.  The east window is beautifully decorated with stained glass illustrative of scripture history; the appendages of tracery are of the most exquisite workmanship.  The altar exhibits a fine specimen of elaborate carving.  The parishioners of Worfield, who reside near Badger, in consideration of being accommodated with sittings in this church, presented a new organ in the year 1844.  In the chancel is an elegant memorial in memory of Isaac Hawkins Brown, Esq., of this parish, D.C.L., and F.R.S., who died in 1818.  A full length figure of the purest statuary marble, (one of Chantrey’s masterly productions) is represented as seated and perusing a book, on the side of which are several large quarto volumes in marble.  Underneath the monument is an inscription in memory of his wife Elizabeth Brown.  There is also a tablet beautifully designed, with the figure of a female in bass-relief to Jane Brown, and other members of the family, dated 1783.  The Rev. William Smith, late rector of Badger, is remembered on a neat memorial dated 1837.  There are others to Joseph Green and his wife, and to Elizabeth Kinnersley, the latter is dated 1619.  In the church yard are several ancient tombs which have been erected in memory of deceased members of some of the principal families in the parish.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £4. 13s. 4d., now returned at £280, in the patronage of Robert Henry Cheney, Esq.: incumbent, Rev. Thomas Freeman Boddington, M.A.  In the churchyard is a yew tree of immense growth, and near it a lofty mutilated column.

Badger Hall is an elegant and spacious mansion, the seat of Robert Henry Cheney, Esq., J.P.  The structure is of brick with stone finishings, and situated on elevated ground, commanding delightful views over a luxuriant country.  The vicinity of the mansion is finely timbered, and the extensive enclosures of park-like grounds are pleasingly diversified with sylvan beauty.  The pleasure grounds and shrubberies are of considerable extent, and display the taste and superior management of the head gardener, Mr. George Cooke.  Robert Henry Cheney, Esq., was appointed high sheriff of the County of Shropshire, for the year 1851.  The Rectory is a good residence a little west of the church; it is pleasantly situated, and the gardens and pleasure grounds are neatly laid out.  There is a school in the village which is supported by Mr. Cheney, where about fifty children are instructed.  The Rev. T. C. Hartshorn gave £10 to the poor in 1752, and the Rev. Thos. Hartshorn gave a like sum which was laid out in the purchase of a rent charge of 20s. per annum, issuing out of a messuage and garden in Badger; the amount is expended in bread for the poor.

Directory.—Robert Henry Cheney, Esq., J.P., Badger Hall; William Bate, gentleman; William Bate and Sons, farmers; Rev. Thomas F. Boddington, M.A., the Rectory; William Braithwaite, corn miller; Henry Brewster, farmer and corn miller, Higford; George Cooke, gardener; John Green, gentleman, The Heath; John Mole, butler; Matthew Taylor, coachman; Richard Worrall, farmer.

BECKBURY
is a parish and village in the Shiffnal Division of the Brimstree Hundred, comprising 1321a. 0r. 10p. of land, and situated six miles and a half N.E. from Bridgnorth, and four miles S. from Shiffnal.  In 1801 there were 231 inhabitants; 1831, 307; and in 1841, 61 houses and 312 souls.  Rateable value, £1,942. 9s. 8d.  The principal landowners are C. H. Slaney, Esq., Walter Stubbs, Esq., Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., Dr. Windham, Dr. Fowler, and Mrs. Frances Horton.

The Church, dedicated to St. Milburgh, is built of red free-stone, and consists of nave and chancel, with a square tower, in which are three bells.  In the chancel are several memorials, one of which remembers W. J. Yonge, Esq., of Caynton House, who died in 1825, aged 71 years; also of Captain William Horton, who died in 1844.  There are also several memorials to various members of the Stubbs family and others, one of which (a slab of limestone) has the outlines of the figures of a male and a female, with smaller figures of ten children.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £5. 3s. 4d., in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor; incumbent, Rev. Henry Ralph Smythe.  The tithes are commuted for £333, and the rector has 31a. 0r. 18p. of glebe land.  Beckbury Hall is a commodious family mansion, of brick, the residence and property of Walter Stubbs, Esq., a considerable landowner in this parish.

Post Office—At Thomas Page’s.  Letters arrive at 8 A.M., and are despatched at 4.45 P.M.

Directory.—Benjamin Adams, shoemaker; Thos. Baugh, beerhouse-keeper; Isaac Bradburn, draper and shopkeeper; Samuel Brown, farmer; Benjamin Corfield, farmer; George Hand, butcher; John Hand, carpenter; Thomas Hand, parish clerk and builder; William Hand, joiner; William Hampton, blacksmith; Thomas Page, shopkeeper and postmaster; William Poyner, butcher; John Richards, maltster and farmer; Rev. Walter Ralph Smythe, rector, The Rectory; Thomas Southall, beerhouse keeper; Samuel Thurstaus, farmer and maltster, Heath House; Walter Stubbs, Esq., Beckbury Hall; John Ward, Esq., R.N., Lower Hall; Richard Williams, shopkeeper; John Warren, tailor and draper; Benjamin Worrall, farmer, Snowdon Pool.

BOBBINGTON
is a small parish, partly in the Bridgnorth Division of the Brimstree Hundred, but chiefly in the county of Stafford, situated eight miles and a half S.W. from Wolverhampton, and eight miles E. from Bridgnorth.  That portion of the parish in the county of Salop at the census of 1841 contained six houses and 22 inhabitants.  This county is here divided from Staffordshire by a small stream; the Bridgnorth and Stourbridge turnpike road bounds the parish on the south-east side.  The Church is a small ancient structure of free-stone, with a tower, in which are four bells.  The interior is small, and fitted up with primitive simplicity.  The living is enjoyed by the Vicar of Claverly; officiating curate, Rev. Henry Pennant Cooke, M.A.  William Moseley, Esq., is the owner of the land in that part of the parish, in the county of Salop.

Directory.—Richard Barrimore, wheelwright and machine-maker; Samuel Brimsford, maltster and victualler, Six Ashes Inn; Sarah Bytheway, shopkeeper and victualler, Lion Inn; Rev. Henry Pennant Cooke, MA.; Edward Fenn, blacksmith, Six Ashes; John Knowles, farmer; Philip Pearman, farmer, Whatmore Hall; Mrs. Sarah Pearman.

BONINGHALL, OR BONINGALE,
is a small parish and village, in the Shiffnal Division of the Brimstree Hundred, five miles S.E. by S. from Shiffnal, and seven miles S.W. by S. from Wolverhampton, which in 1841 contained 184 inhabitants; and at the census in 1851 had 36 houses and 195 souls; of whom 99 were males and 96 females.  The turnpike road from Shiffnal to Wolverhampton intersects the parish, which contains 986a. 0r. 18p. of land.  The soil is a mixture of loam and gravel, and produces good wheat, turnips, and barley.  There is also some fine grazing land.  Rateable value, £1,948. 14s.  George Taylor, Esq., is lord of the manor, and the most considerable landowner.  The Executors of the late William Wood, Mr. John Oatley, Mr. Richard Wood, Mr. James William Weaver, Mr. James Riddle, and the Incumbent of King Swinford, are also proprietors.  The village is situated in a salubrious district, commanding pleasing and diversified views of the surrounding country.  The Kennels for the fox-hounds of the celebrated Albrighton hunt are at the Summer House in this parish.  The Church, a plain antique structure, in a sequestered situation, is built of free-stone, and, as an ornamental appendage, has a tower of wood, in which are three bells.  It contains a small gallery, and the sittings are of oak.  The ceiling is supported by a framework of wood, and empanelled with dark oak, varnished.  There is a tablet in memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson, and another to William Tindal, who died in 1830.  The living is a perpetual curacy annexed to the rectory of Stockton.  The Rev. Charles Blaney Cavendish Whitmore, M.A., is the incumbent.  The tithes have been commuted, and £236 apportioned to the incumbent; the minister has also 11a. 0r. 29p. of glebe land.  There is no parsonage house in this parish.  Boninghall Park, the seat and property of George Taylor, Esq., is a spacious erection, pleasantly situated in the midst of park-like grounds, well-timbered, and commanding some five views of the distant country.  The pleasure-grounds are planted with choice shrubs and beautiful flowers.

Charities.—John Littleford, by his will, dated the 27th of February, 1712, gave the sum of £4, to be laid out for the use of the poor of Boningale, “with £10, which Mr. Green had promised should be paid.”  It is probable that both these sums were duly received, and that they compose a sum of £14, which the parish has long enjoyed, and which was designated as the gift of an unknown benefactor for the use of the poor of the parish.  An additional benefaction of £16 was subsequently received from Miss Jane Skeinton.  These sums appear to have remained at interest in the hands of the parish officers, upon their personal security, until the year 1812, when they were laid out in the purchase of a messuage and a garden, which it was thought advisable to purchase for the use of the parish.  The premises were accordingly charged with the repayment of the sum of £30, so borrowed, to the churchwardens and overseers of the said parish for the time being, with interest for the same at five per cent. per annum, such interest to be paid on the 25th of March yearly, and to be distributed annually on Easter Sunday, by the minister, churchwardens, overseers, and the inhabitant freeholders of the parish for the time being, among poor industrious parishioners.

A rent charge of 6s. 8d., derived from the bequest of John Chapman, is usually allowed to remain for two years, and 13s. 4d. is then distributed among the poor of the parish with the above charity.

Directory.—George Bayley, butcher, Lea Hall; Benjamin Cox, shopkeeper; Joseph Darley, farmer, Woodhouses; Joseph Lowe, victualler, Summer House and Commercial Inn; Edmund Nicklin, shopkeeper; John Oatley, farmer, Woodhouses; Benjamin Southall, farmer, Boningale Farm; Mr. William Staples, huntsman, Summer House; George Taylor, Esq., Boningale Park; Thos. Taylor, farmer; James Thomas, victualler, The Horns Inn; Richard Wood, farmer, Whiston.

BOSCOBEL
an Extra Parochial Liberty in the Shiffnal division of the Brimstree hundred, is remarkable in history as a place in which King Charles II. concealed himself from his pursuers, after the unfortunate battle of Worcester.  The liberty comprises two houses and 691a. 2r. 17p. of land, of which eighty acres are in woods, and is situated on the eastern verge of the county, adjoining Staffordshire, seven miles east from Shiffnal.  The bold eminence upon which Boscobel is situated is most delightful, and is one of the finest tracts of table land in England; the scenery is most extensive, beautiful, and varied.  Boscobel manor house is a spacious and ancient timbered mansion exhibiting a fine specimen of the domestic architecture of bygone days; part of it has been recently modernized and stuccoed, which gives it a light and handsome appearance.  The house stands partly in Shropshire and partly in Staffordshire, and the southern portion now forms the summer residence of the Misses Evans, of Darley, near Derby.  The dining room is spacious, and the walls are wainscotted with oak, exhibiting some fine carving; on the right of the entrance is shown the secret recess through which King Charles II. made his escape from the house to the oak tree when pursued by the infuriated rebels.  There is a fine painting in this room of the youthful monarch, and in a side room is a beautifully executed painting of Oliver Cromwell.  Although the interior of the mansion has been much improved and beautified from time to time, yet whatever relates to the concealment of the unfortunate Charles has been preserved with the greatest care.  On ascending the staircase is seen the bed room and the secret recess where he took shelter from his pursuers, and which communicates with the garden by a trap-door.  In the upper room is what is denominated the “sacred hole” from the circumstance of his majesty occasionally concealing himself there, the trap-door and step-ladder remain in their original state.

The following circumstances relating to this remarkable and interesting event are taken from various authorities:—His majesty, as soon as he perceived which way the victory at the disastrous battle of Worcester inclined, was not unmindful to provide for his own safety.  He had during the battle performed all the offices both of a valiant man and a good commander, riding about incessantly to encourage his soldiers, and when he saw they began to fail he was heard to utter this pathetic expression, “Rather shoot me than let me live to see the sad consequences of this fatal day.”  Many parties of horse were sent out through all the country after the flying troops.  Few of the infantry escaped from the field alive, and but about three thousand horse, of whom one thousand were taken near Bewdley by Colonel Barton, and more by others in different places.  In this fatal engagement the number of the slain was supposed to be three thousand, among whom were many of the nobility and gentlemen, and principal officers who supported the royal cause.  The king lost a hundred and fifty-eight stand of colours, his standard bearer, his collar of S.S., his coach and horses, and other things of great value.  His majesty after the battle was very narrowly searched for, and it was on his account that the greater diligence was employed in following and intercepting the routed Scots; but notwithstanding all the search and inquiry no news could be heard, nor could any one certainly tell what was become of him.  When the enemy had forced the gate, all possible care was taken to secure his majesty, and for this purpose the Earl of Cleveland, Sir James Hamilton, and others, kept the enemy engaged in Sudbury street, while the king unpursued took his way with a body of horse through St. Martin’s gate about six o’clock in the evening.  When he arrived at Brabon’s bridge, about half a mile from the town, he halted in order to advise with a few noblemen and gentlemen that were with him, and as there was not the slightest probability of being able to rally again, it was determined with all speed to make their way to Scotland.  Having proceeded about half way to Presteign, the king was informed that a detachment of troops was in pursuit of him, on which he immediately changed his route to Shropshire, the Earl of Derby recommending Boscobel house as a place of temporary sanctuary.  Mr. Giffard and Mr. Yates having been chosen as guides, they arrived at break of day, at a house called White Ladies, about half a mile from Boscobel.  This house was formerly a monastery of Cistercian nuns, who from their habit were denominated the White Ladies, and this name, notwithstanding the abolition of the order, adhered to the house.

Here his majesty was committed to the care of the Pendrills, and for his better disguise, put on the green Kendal breeches and leathern doublet of Richard Pendrill.  Lord Wilmot who performed the office of barber, cut the hair of the King in a most rustic manner, and caused his hands and face to be discoloured with the intention of giving him the appearance of a country labourer.  His majesty thus transformed, with a wood bill in his hand assumed the character of a wood cutter, and was taken by a back road into a wood called Spring Coppice belonging to Boscobel House, by Richard Pendrill, who attended the King while the three other brothers of Richard were set to watch and give intelligence of any threatened danger.  A short time after the King had left the house a party of horse came to search it; it was therefore thought the safest course for his majesty to remain in the wood all that day, although the rain fell in torrents.  The King being in urgent want of refreshment, made his wishes known to Richard Pendrill, who accordingly applied to the wife of Francis Yates to provide some provision for a person in want and to carry it to an appointed place in Boscobel wood.  She accordingly provided a dish of such fare as her cottage afforded, and taking a blanket with her, proceeded therewith to the wood.  On her approaching the spot fixed upon she perceived the King, who being much surprised at the appearance of a woman, became apprehensive that she might possibly divulge the secret of his retreat, till demanding of the good woman if she could be faithful to a distressed cavalier, she answered “Yes Sire, I would rather die than discover you.”  At night his majesty resolved to proceed into Wales, and take Richard Pendrill with him as his guide; they began their journey that night to Madeley, where lived a zealous royalist named Wolfe.  The night was very dark and as they passed by Evelyn bridge, Richard permitting a gate to clap too loudly, brought out a miller at that place, and on his bidding them stand Richard ran through the water and the King followed by the sound of his calfskin breeches.  The miller imagining that these persons were on the search was not less alarmed than they were, having then under his protection in the mill several fugitive loyalists who had escaped from the bloody field of Worcester.  On their arrival at Madeley they proceeded to Wolfe’s house, but there being so many soldiers in the neighbourhood it was considered unsafe for them to remain in the house, and they found refuge in a hay-loft which was their bed till Friday night.  It had been his majesty’s intention to pass the Severn and so proceed into Wales, but learning that all the passages over the river were strictly guarded and that all the ferry boats were stopped, they returned somewhat late on Friday night towards Boscobel.  Colonel Carles, who when his majesty left Worcester was bravely combating the enemy in Sudbury street to favour the King’s escape, was now come to that place for refuge and relief.  The Colonel who was well acquainted with the house and its inhabitants, having been born and educated not far off, was no sooner informed that the King was in the wood than he hastened with joy to present himself to his majesty.  After mutual congratulations they proceeded to the house to refresh themselves, and then immediately retiring into the wood and finding a large oak whose branches afforded them a safe retreat, they ascended the tree, and with the help of cushions made a tolerable abode there till night.  At night they betook themselves again to the house where his majesty thought proper for the future to trust himself while he remained in that part of the country, being much pleased with a secret corner which William Pendrill shewed him, where the Earl of Derby concealed himself after the misfortune of his defeat at Wigan.  Being now in hopeful security he permitted William Pendrill to shave him and cut his hair short at the top, but leaving it long about the ears, as was the country mode in those days.

On Humphrey Pendrill going to Shiffnal to pay his share of the monthly tax, he was accosted at the house of Captain Broadway, by a colonel who had come hither to enquire after the search of the White Ladies.  The colonel understanding that Humphrey lived near the place, put him to a strict examination, and after he had tried the effect of menaces to induce a confession, began to tempt him by the reward of the thousand pounds which was offered to the person that discovered his majesty; Humphrey’s discreet answers, however, rendered his dissembled ignorance the more unsuspected.  On this being told to his majesty he was determined to leave Boscobel, and it was arranged that he should ride upon Humphrey Pendrill’s mill horse, for Humphrey was miller at the White Ladies Mill.  The king mounted his steed on Monday evening and was attended by four of the Pendrills and their brother-in-law Francis Yates, who guarded him on the road with bills and pike staves.  Humphrey led the horse by the bridle, and on his majesty complaining that it was the dullest jade he ever rode on, Humphrey made a witty apology for his steed by telling his majesty that it was no wonder he went so slow since he carried the weight of three kingdoms on his back.  The King at this time was dressed in a leathern doublet and an old greasy hat, his hands and face being coloured with soot and walnut leaves.  In this way they journeyed to Moseley in Staffordshire, and there found a place of safety in the house of Mr. Whitgrave, who had formerly been engaged in the king’s service, and being a suspected person his house was searched while the king was there, but the readiness of Mr. Whitgrave to let the soldiers enter, and his open deportment, gave the men so much satisfaction that they went away with little more than a bare enquiry.  The White Ladies was also searched the same day, on the information of an ensign, and the proprietor strictly questioned about the king with a musket presented at his breast.  He acknowledged that a large party had been there who had almost eaten him out of house and home, but the king he did not know from any other man, and no such person being there to be found, the searchers at last went away, storming that they had troubled themselves so much in vain, and the ensign was paid for his diligence with blows and contempt.  The King on one occasion being concealed in a house belonging to Mrs. Jane Lane, his pursuers having some idea of his being there, came in a body to examine it, but on Mrs. Lane observing their approach she immediately clad the king in a rustic dress and put a slouched hat on his head, and on the entering of the soldiers Charles looked around, which the good old dame observing seized a basting ladle, and giving the king a sharp blow on the back exclaimed in apparent anger “And what do you stare at, you dog you; why don’t you mind what you’re about.”  This reprimand furnished the King with a pretext for keeping his eyes towards the spit, by which means he escaped discovery.

His majesty having gratefully acknowledged the kindness of Mr. Whitgrave, went with Lord Wilmot to Colonel Lane’s, at Bentley, where shortly after he had an opportunity of being conveyed to Bristol, in order to embark for France.  Miss Jane Lane procured a pass for herself and servant, to visit a pretended sister of hers who resided near to Bristol, and in the journey his majesty assumed the character of Miss Lane’s servant; Colonel Lascelles, Miss Lane’s relation, with his wife behind him, accompanied them; and Lord Wilmot, with a hawk in his hand, as if he had met them accidentally, and had occasion to travel that way.  In passing through Broomsgrove they were obliged to employ a smith to shoe one of the horses; the conversation of the bystanders was of the battle of Worcester and the king’s escape.  His majesty, amidst many conjectures, gave it as his decided opinion that the king had fled to Scotland, and lay concealed there.  “I rather think,” replied the smith, “that he remains somewhere concealed in England, and how glad should I be if I knew where.”  On the third day they arrived at the house of Mr. George Norton, of Leigh, about two miles from Bristol, where the king was introduced as the son of one of her father’s tenants, and on pretence of suddenly being attacked with fever, kept his bed, and was attended by Dr. George, who asked the sick man many questions about the king’s escape, and being told by his majesty that he did not wish to be troubled with such questions, declared that he could not help thinking that his patient was a sider with the roundheads.  His majesty had not been long here before he was discovered by the butler, who had formerly been in the service of his royal father.  This man, on the promise of close secrecy and loyalty, was entrusted by his majesty in several important services.  From this place he proceeded amidst great dangers, experiencing unchanging fidelity, to Brighthelmston, in Sussex, when on the 15th of October, 1659, he took sail in a small coasting vessel, employed in the colliery trade, and being favoured with a prosperous gale they arrived in a short time at Feccam, a small sea port in Normandy, his majesty assisting himself to steer the vessel.  From Feccam his majesty proceeded to Roan, and on the 30th October was met on his journey to Paris by his mother, the Queen Dowager of Great Britain, his brother the Duke of York, the Duke of Orleans, and other nobles of France, with a great retinue of English and French gentlemen.

On the restoration of King Charles, the family of the Pendrills, who consisted of five brothers, attended upon his majesty on the 13th of June, 1660, at Whitehall, when the king was pleased to remark that the simple rustic who serves his sovereign in the time of need to the extent of his ability, is as deserving of our commendation as the victorious leader of thousands.  “Friend Richard,” rejoined the king, “thou wert my preserver and conductor—the bright star that shewed me my way to Bethlehem, for which kindness I will engrave thy memory in the tablet of a grateful heart;” and having requested Richard to state to the lords in attendance what passed when he quitted the oak at Boscobel, “Your majesty,” replied Richard, “must well remember that when brother Humphrey brought his old mill horse from White Ladies, not accoutered with knightly gear, but with a pitiful old saddle and bridle; not attended with royal guards, but only by half a dozen raw and undisciplined rustics, who had but little else but good will to defend your majesty; it was when your majesty mounted, and as we journeyed your majesty did most heartily complain of the jade you rode on, and said it was the dullest creature you ever met with, whereupon Humphrey remarked, ‘My liege, can you blame the horse to go heavily when he had the weight of three kingdoms on his back?’”

The royal oak before mentioned stood about 200 yards from the house, and was a flourishing tree, the branches of which were so richly covered with ivy that the soldiers who were in pursuit of the king, and who suspected him to be there, could not discover him.  In the course of time the original oak was so mutilated by visitors that to preserve its remains the Fitzherberts erected a brick wall around it.  The tree, however, has long been destroyed, and there is now standing on the site a flourishing oak, produced from an acorn of the old tree, for the preservation of which a lofty iron palisading surrounds it.  The following inscription on a brass plate is affixed to the bole of the tree:—

“Felicissimam Arborem,
Quam in Asylum Potentissimi Regis Caroli II.,
Deus optimus maximus per quem Regis regnant
Hic crescere voluit
Tam in perpetuam rei tantæ memoriam,
Quam in specimen firmæ in Regis fidei.
Muro cinctum posteris commendant
Basilius et Jana Fitzherbert.
Quod Pietatis monumentum vestustate collapsum,
Paternarum vertutum Hieredes,
Et evitæ in Principes fidei amulatores.
In integrum restituerunt
Basilius et Eliza Fitzherbert,
iiii Cal Junii, A.H.S., MDCCLLXXXII.
Qua ex arbore Quercum hanc uti fertur ortam,
Ferreis his quæ hodie sunt repagulis.
Circummunivit
Ejusdam hujusce agri possesor,
Evdemque erga Regis animo prædita.”

The Convent of White Ladies.—Near half a mile south from Boscobel, in a sequestered and romantic spot, are the ruins of the Nunnery of White Ladies, an establishment of nuns of the Cistercian order, designated the White Ladies by reason of the conventical habit which they adopted being of that colour, as also to distinguish it from another establishment in its immediate vicinity, denominated the Black Ladies, situated at Bishop’s Wood, in the county of Stafford.  The ruins of this venerable structure are mantled with ivy, and the walls of the church are of immense thickness, with a recessed circular doorway.  It is dedicated to St. Leonard, and the foundation is supposed to have been as ancient as the time of King Richard I., or King John.  The two seals that have been met with relating to this establishment represent the virgin and child, one of which bears the legend, “Sigillum commune nigrarum monalium D’Bre,” and the other “S. Convent.  S. Marie Nigras d’narum,” and seem to have been used as the common seal of the White Ladies and Black Ladies conjointly, these two houses having been considered as comprising the convent of Brewood.  The ruins and grounds of this religious house are walled in, and the interior, which is spacious, is nearly covered with gravestones.  It is still used as a place of sepulchre by members of the catholic religion.  There are several tablets on the walls, and some remarkable epitaphs.  On a gravestone is the following inscription: “Here lies Winifred White, late of Wolverhampton, who was instantaneously cured of hemiphegia by bathing in St. Winifred’s well, Flintshire, June 11th, 1805.  She died of consumption, January 13th, 1824, aged 45 years.  May she rest in peace.”  The White Ladies Nunnery became celebrated in history from the circumstance of its having afforded a temporary shelter and a place of successful concealment to his Majesty King Charles II., immediately on his flight from the disastrous and fatal battle of Worcester.  At the dissolution of religious houses, this nunnery, then styled the Convent of Brewood, consisted of six religious.  The total revenue was stated to amount annually to £31. 1s. 4d.  In the reign of Henry VIII. the site was granted to William Whorwood; it is now possessed by the Catholic community.  The Misses Evans are the principal freeholders in Boscobel, and have been instrumental in building a church at Bishop’s Wood, which has just been completed.  The ladies also liberally contribute towards the education of the children, and in supplying the necessities of the poor in this vicinity.

The principal residents are Miss Elizabeth Evans, Boscobel House; Miss Fanny Evans, Boscobel House; Mrs. Walker; Thomas Wilson, farmer, White Ladies; Thomas Wilson, jun., farmer, Boscobel Farm.

CLAVERLEY
is an extensive parish in the Bridgnorth division of the Brimstree hundred, comprising the townships of Aston, Beobridge, Broughton, Claverley, Dallicott, Farmcott, Gatacre, Heathton, Hopstone, Ludstone, Shipley, Sutton, and Woundale, and embraces 8,145a. 0r. 39p. of land.  In 1801 there were 1,328 inhabitants; 1831, 1,521; 1841, 1,669; and in 1851, 1,612, of whom 825 were males, and 787 females.  The last census shows a decrease of 57 persons in ten years.  Gross estimated rental of the parish, £17,796. 8s. 2d.  Rateable value, £15,766. 10s.  The tithes have been commuted for £2,060. 13s. 6d.  The principal landowners are Edward Lloyd Gatacre, Esq.; George Mackenzie Kettle, Esq.; Edward Farrer Acton, Esq.; Farmer Taylor, Esq.; Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., M.P.; William Wilson, Esq.; John Wilson, Esq.; Thomas Wilson, Esq.; Thomas H. Windle, Esq.; Thomas Boycott, Esq.; and Mrs. Emma Fox; besides whom there are several smaller freeholders.  The village of Claverley is well built and pleasantly situated, six miles east from Bridgnorth, and ten miles south-west from Wolverhampton.  At the census in 1841, the township contained 90 houses and 404 inhabitants.  This was the birth-place of Sir Robert Brooke, who was educated at Oxford, from whence he removed to the Middle Temple.  In 1553 he became chief justice of the common pleas, in which office he conducted himself with inflexible integrity, and died in 1558.  He published several works, among which are, “An Abridgment of the Year Books,” in folio; “Certain Cases Adjudged;” and “Reading on the Statutes of Limitations.”  Richard Dovey, the founder of the Free School, bequeathed eight shillings per annum to a poor man of this parish who should undertake to awaken sleepers and whip out dogs from the church of Claverley during divine service.  King Charles II. granted the inhabitants a charter to exempt them from paying tolls.

The Church, dedicated to All Saints, is an antique structure, exhibiting various styles of architecture, and consists of nave, chancel, side chapels, and side aisles, with a square tower, in which are six bells.  The body of the church is neatly pewed, and will accommodate about eight hundred persons.  There is a gallery at the west end, upon which is an organ, erected in the year 1840 at a cost of £180.  The pulpit is of oak, and has been beautifully carved at the expense of the present incumbent.  The side chapels are the property of the ancient family of Gatacre.  In the south chapel is an altar tomb, dated 1558, on which are three full length figures, in a recumbent position, in memory of Lord Chief Justice Brooke and his two wives.  On the sides of the tomb, in basso-relief, are small figures of his eighteen children.  A beautiful memorial window of stained glass, exquisitely executed, remembers Colonel Gatacre, who died in the year 1849.  Another has been erected to the memory of Arabella, wife of the late Colonel Gatacre.  One of the windows has recently been beautified with stained glass by Edward Lloyd Gatacre, Esq.  The church contains several neat mural tablets to deceased members of some of the principal families of the parish.  The font, which is of free-stone, has been painted in imitation of marble.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £267, in the patronage of Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., M.P.; incumbent, Rev. George Hilder Betterton Gabert, M.A.  The parish register dates from the year 1568.  The ancient stone cross, now standing in the church-yard, was removed from the central part of the village some years ago, in consequence of its obstructing the traffic of the road.  This is called The Processional Cross of Claverley, and was erected, it is presumed, in the 33rd of Edward III., to commemorate the dreadful plague which devastated this neighbourhood, and carried the horrors of death into every dwelling.  When the tithes were commuted £1,599. 8s. were apportioned to T. C. Whitmore, Esq., £448. 5s. 6d. to other lay impropriators, and £12 to the Incumbent of Claverley.  The Parsonage House is a neat brick structure, pleasantly situated near the church.  The National School, situated on the east side of the church-yard, was built in the year 1790; about 60 children attend.  There is also a Girls’ School in the village, supported by voluntary subscriptions, which has an attendance of about thirty children.

Charities.—John Dovey, of Farmcote, by deed of feoffment, dated 23rd of August, 1659, granted to John Sanders and others a stone house, with a garden and plot of land adjoining, situated at Hawe’s Acre; and also certain cottages adjoining the parish church of Claverley, and a messuage and farm known by the name of Lindridge farm, in trust; the stone house and garden to remain as a free-school, to be called The Free School of Richard Dovey, at Claverley; and as to the messuage, farm, and cottages before mentioned, the trustees were directed, with the yearly profits thereof, to keep in repair the school premises, and to pay the schoolmaster yearly, at Michaelmas and Lady-day, £8, in equal portions, towards his maintenance; to pay to the best scholar to be elected by the feoffees, the minister, and the schoolmaster, the sum of 20s. to be an under-teacher in the said school; and also to place in some room of the cottages adjoining the church-yard, a poor man, and allow him a stipend of eight shillings yearly to whip out dogs and awaken sleepers during divine service in the church; and 12s. to the trustees for their pains.  It appears that the cottages, having become untenable about the year 1784, were taken down; and a new building convenient for a school having been erected upon the site, the school was removed to it, and has since continued to be kept there.  Upon the removal of the school, the old premises were exchanged for a parcel of land more convenient in situation to the new school-room.  It appears, however, that a substitution has since taken place of another parcel of land, in lieu of that which was first given in exchange to the charity, and that upon the parcel so substituted timber has been cut, and other acts of ownership exercised from time to time by the agents of the Glynne family; while on the other hand no acknowledgment of ownership has been made to the charity.  The premises at Lindridge, to which an allotment of about two acres was added about ten years ago, under the powers of an enclosure act, consist of about 42 acres of land, producing a yearly rental of £26. 53.  Richard Bennett, Esq., by will, 22nd March, 1794, gave the sum of £100, to be paid at the expiration of six months after his decease, and directed the same to be placed out at interest, and the yearly proceeds applied for the benefit of the free-school of Claverley.  This legacy remained in the hands of the Glynne family, as the personal representatives of the testator, at an annual interest of five per cent. when the Charity Commissioners published their report.  This interest being added to the rent of the farm makes an annual income of £31. 5s.; from which the following disbursements are made:—To the schoolmaster, £21; coals for the school, 10s.; annuity for awaking sleepers, 10s. 6d.; chief rent, 1s. 4d.; average of school repairs, £2. 12s.  The twenty shillings which were allowed by the founder for one of the boys to act as usher, do not appear to have ever been paid, nor do we find that the trustees have taken advantage of the 12s. per annum allowed for their pains.  The expenditure left a surplus of £6. 11s. 2d. per annum, which, with a sum of £14 produced from a sale of timber from the school estate in 1819, had increased to £195. 2s. 9½d., and was then in the hands of Edward Gatacre, Esq., one of the trustees.  John Dovey, in 1695, gave a rent charge of 10s. per annum, and directed the amount to be given to one of the poor scholars.  John Sanders, in 1702, devised certain lands, subject to the payment of £5 per annum, to be laid out in clothing poor boys in the free school.  The property thus charged with the payment is now possessed by the Glynne family, whose agent supplies clothing to an amount much exceeding the annuity charged upon the lands.  The scholars are appointed by the trustees of the school from among poor children of the parish, and are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and are also each provided with a coat, waistcoat, and breeches (of blue cloth), and a hat.

William Perry, of Broughton, by will dated 9th December, 1674, after reciting that his father had given the sum of 3s. 4d. to be yearly distributed at Christmas and Easter among the poor of the parish in wheaten or mun corn bread, gave a like sum of 3s. 4d. to be distributed in bread at Whitsuntide and All Saints for ever.  And for the maintenance of the dole, (and of bread to the amount of 6s. 8d. also to the poor of Worfield), he granted a rent charge of 13s. 4d. yearly, issuing out of certain lands in Claverley and Worfield.  It is recorded on one of the benefaction tables in the church at Claverley that William Perry of Broughton, by will left 14s. a year for ever to be distributed in bread amongst the poor of the parish at four times in the year.  There is reason to believe that William Perry here referred to was a descendant of the former, but we are unable to discover whether this was an original grant of his own, or whether it included the 6s. 8d. which had before been granted by his ancestors in the same manner as the first William Perry had by his will embraced the previous donation of his father Roger.  The sum of 14s. is however all that is now paid, or that we can find any trace of having ever been received.  It is paid out of the rents of lands in Broughton, formerly the property of the Perrys.

Thomas Whitmore, of Ludstone, in 1679 gave to the poor of the parish of Claverley £5 per annum, payable out of a tenement in Claverley, and he appointed the same to be received by the inhabitants for the time being of his then dwelling house in Ludstone, and to be by them distributed among the necessitous poor.  The amount is usually distributed among fifty poor persons.

Margaret Fregleton, of Powk Hall, by will left 10s. yearly to be given amongst ten poor widows not chargeable to the parish.  There is reason to believe this legacy to be the same which is referred to and secured by the will of Mrs. Margaret Hill, dated 7th January, 1728, when she charges all her lands in Claverley with the payment of 10s. yearly to ten poor widows of Claverley, as directed by her mother’s will, and also paying thereout £2. 10s. per annum, on St. Thomas’s day, to be distributed among fit objects of charity, by the minister and churchwardens.  The premises charged with the payment came into the possession of the Glynne family, by whose agent the rent charge is paid.

Thomas Acton in 1734 gave the sum of £100 to be laid out in the purchase of lands, and the rents and profits to be yearly paid by the churchwardens for the time being, to five decayed labourers, and five poor widows belonging this parish.  This legacy was laid out in 1741 in the purchase of about seven acres of meadow land in the parish of Hopton Wafers, which at the time of the purchase produced a rent of £3. 8s., but are now let for £15 per annum.  There was timber on the land at the period the charity commissioners published their report, to the value of £100, which it was intended soon to dispose of.

John Fenton, by his will bequeathed £30, and directed that with the interest thereof bread should be purchased, and on every Sunday a distribution made to six poor widows belonging the parish of Claverley.  In 1777 this bequest was expended in the erection of three small tenements at the back of the workhouse, fronting the Holloway, for the use of the parish as habitations for the poor, and the overseer of the poor covenanted to distribute six penny loaves every Sunday according to the intentions of the donor.

Mrs. Mary Hodgkiss in 1774, by will gave £100, and directed the interest thereof to be on the 19th of March in every year distributed by the churchwardens among twenty poor widows of this parish.

Thomas Farmer Thornes in 1779 bequeathed £30 to the churchwardens of Claverley, the interest thereof to be distributed in bread annually to poor housekeepers.  This sum and an accumulation of interest making in the whole £47. 18s. 1d. was subsequently laid out in building a parish workhouse, the parish officers agreeing to provide out of the poor’s rates the interest of that sum.

Mrs. Sarah Taylor left a legacy of £50 many years ago to the poor of this parish, to be under the management of the trustees of the Free school.  This gift was placed in the hands of Mr. Farmer Taylor, he being one of the trustees of the School.  The interest was distributed with a private charity of Mr. Taylor’s.

Edward Barker, by will in 1702, charged a piece of land situate at Aston with the payment of 10s. yearly; 5s. thereof to be given to the minister of Claverley, for a sermon on New Year’s day, and 5s. to buy bibles for poor children.

Richard Dovey, the founder of the free school, in 1660 left certain lands lying in Broughton, for the better maintenance of the parson of Claverley.  The lands which are supposed to have been left consist of 6a. 0r. 21p. at Broughton, and now produce a rental of about £10 per annum, which is received by the minister for his own use.

William Whitmore, Esq., of Apley, in 1724 gave the sum of £200 to be laid out for the perpetual augmentation of the curacy of the parish church of Claverley, which with the further sum of £200 advanced by the governors of Queen Anne’s bounty, was applied to the purchase of about forty-four acres of land in the parish of Higley, for the benefit of the incumbent.  The premises produce £49 per annum, which the minister of Claverley receives.

It appears that the rent of a piece of land called the School House bank, containing about two acres, has been for many years appropriated to the repair of the church, but we have been unable to discover the source from which it was derived.  It was sold in 1818 by the parishioners to Sir Stephen Glynne for the sum of £120, and the amount was applied in building the workhouse before mentioned, and interest at the rate of five per cent, amounting to £6 per annum is now paid by the overseers to the churchwardens, by whom it is applied to the repairs of the church.  The rent of a small cottage which produces one pound per annum, the origin of which is involved in similar obscurity, is also applied to the same use.

Aston, a small township in the parish of Claverley, is pleasantly situated about a mile east from the parish church.  At the census in 1841 there were 22 scattered houses and a population of 126 souls.  Aston Hall, a good brick house built in 1842, is the residence of John Wilson, Esq.  The old hall was formerly a seat of the Brindleys, and their descendants the Skinners, men of high consequence in the city of London.

Beobridge, a township in the parish of Claverley, is situated about a mile south from the parish church, and in 1841 had eleven houses and sixty one inhabitants.  William Wilson, Esq., and Thomas H. Windle, Esq., are the land owners.  The acres and the tithes of the several townships are included in the returns for the parish of Claverley.  The directories of the several townships will be found alphabetically arranged after the township of Claverley.

Broughton township and small village is situated about a mile and a half south from Claverley, and at the census of 1841 had twelve houses and eighty inhabitants.  There was a chapel here prior to the reformation subject to the church of Claverley.

Dalicott, a township in the parish of Claverley, delightfully situated in a salubrious district richly beautified with pastoral scenery, is about a mile and a half north-west from the parish church.  The land is the property of George M. Kettle, Esq.  At the census in 1841 there were three houses and twenty inhabitants.  Dalicott House is a pleasantly situated mansion, commanding extensive views over a luxuriant country of great diversity and beauty; it is a handsome brick structure, the residence of George Mackenzie Kettle, Esq.

Farmcott township and small rural village is situated about a mile south from Claverley, and in 1841 had 39 houses and 191 inhabitants.  The land is the property of Thomas Wilson, Esq.

Gatacre, a pleasantly situated village and township in the parish of Claverley, in 1841 contained 23 houses and 125 inhabitants.  The landowners are Edward Lloyd Gatacre, Esq., and Edward Farrer Acton, Esq.  Gatacre Hall, a well built and commodious brick mansion delightfully situated, is the residence of Edward Lloyd Gatacre, Esq., whose ancestors were seated here, and in possession of the manor, in the reign of Edward the Confessor.  The ancient mansion, which was remarkable for the peculiarity of its construction, has been taken down some time.  Camden, in speaking of this house, observes, “It was built of dark grey free stone coated with a green vitrified substance about the thickness of a crown piece.  The hall was nearly exactly square, and most remarkably constructed at each corner; in the middle of each side and in the centre were immense oak trees hewn nearly square and without branches, set with their heads on large stones laid about a foot deep in the ground, and with their roots uppermost, which roots with a few rafters formed a complete arched roof.  The floor was of oak boards three inches thick, not sawed but plain chipped.”  Gatacre Park, a handsome mansion, the seat and property of Edward Farrer Acton, Esq., J.P., and deputy lieutenant of the county of Shropshire, is a brick structure pleasantly situated, beautified with tasteful pleasure grounds, and was erected during the year 1850.  It stands on the site of an ancient Elizabethan structure, which was rased to the ground in 1849; it was in this house that the Earl of Derby took shelter immediately after the battle of Worcester, and shortly before he was brought to the scaffold in his way to Newport.  Several swords were found on taking down the house, one of which is in a state of good preservation.

Heathton, a township and village in the parish of Claverley, is situated about a mile and a half S.E. by E. from the parish church.  On the eastern verge of the county is Long Common, which here divides Salop and Staffordshire.  Some remains of a military encampment may still be traced upon this common, supposed to have been a Danish fortification; about thirty years ago several skeletons were discovered, and weapons of war have from time to time been found.  The township contains 840a. 2r. 32p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had 52 houses and 208 inhabitants.

Hopstone, a township and village in the parish of Claverley, is situated about a mile N. from the parish church.  At the census in 1841 there were 43 houses and 188 inhabitants.  G. M. Kettle, Esq., is the landowner.  Hopstone was long the inheritance of the Ridley family.

Ludstone, a township in the parish of Claverley, situated about a mile N.E. from the parish church, at the census in 1841 had 13 houses and a population of 95 souls.  Ludstone was in early times part of the possessions of the deans of Bridgnorth, but after the reformation was purchased by the Leveson family, and now belongs to Thomas C. Whitmore, Esq., and Mrs. Emma Fox.  The manor house, now Ludstone Hall, a curious and interesting structure of the domestic architecture of by-gone days, was built in the early part of the reign of Charles I., by the Whitmore family.  It is surrounded by a moat, and partly by a brick wall of about eight feet in height.  This was long the seat of a branch of the Whitmore family; it is now occupied as a farm house by Mr. William Stokes.  In this township was born Sir Francis Jones, Knight, whose family had an estate here till within the last sixty years.  Sir Francis Jones was of the haberdasher’s company, and lord mayor of London in 1620.  Ludstone also gave birth to Richard Yate, an ingenious poet, and almost self-taught scholar of great talents, which he very frequently displayed in the Gentleman’s Magazine from the year 1734 to 1767, and generally on the most abstruse subjects.  He was the instructor of the Right Rev. Dr. Percy, late bishop of Dromore.  He died at Roughton in June, 1680, at the advanced age of 82.  On the south-east extremity of this manor lies the Danesford Brook, so called from the marauding Danes, who were in the habit of crossing this brook when they commenced their summer incursions to the banks of the Severn, and passed over carrying extermination and plunder into every part of the county.

Shipley is a township in the parish of Claverley, two miles and a half N.E. from the parish church, comprising 500a. 1r. 18p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had six houses and forty inhabitants.  Thomas Boycott, Esq., is the landowner.  This place is pleasantly situated on the Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth turnpike road.

Sutton township is situated about half a mile N.E. from Claverley, and at the census of 1841 contained three houses and 17 inhabitants.

Woundale, a township and village in Claverley parish, a little more than a mile from the church, at the census in 1841 had 24 houses and 114 inhabitants; the land is the property of Farmer Taylor, Esq., who resides at a pleasantly situated mansion of brick, stuccoed.  The acres and rateable value of the several townships in this parish will be found included in the returns of Claverley.

Post Office.—At Mr. Thomas H. Perry’s.  Letters arrive at 8 A.M., and are despatched at 7.25 P.M.

Claverley Directory.

Acton Edward Farrer, Esq., Gatacre park

Gabert Christopher, Esq., Rose Cottage

Gabert Rev. George Hilder Betterton, M.A., vicar, the Vicarage

Gatacre Edward Lloyd, Esq., Gatacre hall

Haslehust Thomas, Esq., surgeon, Powk hall

Kettle George Mackenzie, Esq., Dalicott house

Lea Mrs. Wolryche, Ludstone house

Stokes Mr. William, Ludstone hall

Taylor Farmer, Esq., Chykenell

Widdell Thos., Esq., Wood Field

Wilson John, Esq., Aston hall

Wilson William, Esq., Beobridge cottage

Ash Wm., miller and farmer

Austin Joseph, carpenter and joiner

Bate Daniel, millwright

Beasley Charles, schoolmaster (National)

Bishton George, shoemaker

Brazier Helen, schoolmistress

Brown Charles, shoemaker

Chapman James, accountant

Corns Mrs. Elizabeth

Crowder John, butcher and farmer

Crowder Joseph, painter, plumber, and glazier

Crowder Miss Ann

Davenport John, tailor

Evans Mr. William, Digbeth cottage

Evason Benjamin, tailor, draper, and tea dealer

Evers Henry, beerhouse

Evers William, shoemaker

Halfman Dinah and Mary, dressmakers

Halfman George, inland revenue officer

Harles Job, vict., the Crown

Jackson Richard, shoemaker

Page John, miller, Ashford mill

Parbut Mary, shopkeeper

Perry Helen, schoolmistress

Perry James, blacksmith

Perry Joseph, farmer and maltster

Perry Mrs. Elizabeth

Perry John, saddler and harness maker

Perry Thos. H., postmaster

Pickrill John, shoemaker

Preece Francis, shoemaker

Pritchard John, beerhouse

Rushton Francis, carpenter, joiner, builder, and vict., Glynne Arms

Weaver William, registrar of births and deaths, and vict., King’s Arms

Weston John, tailor

Whythse Elizabeth, grocer

Williams Benjamin, butcher

Wilson Thomas, saddler and harness maker

Aston Directory.

Bryan Mr. Joseph

Farrington John, farmer

Griffiths Thomas, wheelwright

Hill Wm. Thomas, farmer

Perry John, farmer and timber merchant

Wilson John, farmer, maltster, house and estate agent, and appraiser Aston hall

Beobridge Directory.

Brinsford Samuel, farmer and corn miller, Lower Beobridge

Brown Edward, wheelwright, Lower Beobridge

Cox Joseph, farmer, Upper Beobridge

Rea Benjamin, blacksmith, Broad Oak

Thomas Thomas, farmer, Lower Beobridge

Wilson William, Esq., Beobridge cottage

Wilson William, farmer, Upper Beobridge

Windle Thomas H., Esq., Lower Beobridge

Broughton Directory.

Edmonds Joseph, farmer, the Bank

Harley Edward, beerhouse keeper

Webster Thomas, farmer

Dalicott Directory.

Kettle George Mackenzie, Esq., Dalicott House

Malpass Joseph, farm bailiff

Farmcott Directory.

Darley Richard, farmer, Sytch house

Edwards Mr. Vincent

Head John, shoemaker

Lees William, corn miller, Sytch house mill

Preece William, farmer

Thomas John, farmer, timber merchant, and wheelwright

Wilson Thomas, farmer

Gatacre Directory.

Acton Edward Farrer, Esq., J.P., and deputy lieutenant for Shropshire

Gatacre Edward Lloyd, Esq., Gatacre hall

Griffiths William, farmer, Gatacre park

Woolrich Henry, farmer, the Valley

Heathton Directory.

Booth William, tailor

Brandford Samuel, painter, plumber and glazier

Crowder Martha, asylum keeper

Davenport James, tailor

Heynes Benjamin, farmer

Lloyd Charles, vic., Swan Inn

Munday William, shoemaker

Plimley John, vict., Old Gate

Hopstone Directory.

Brazier Richard, Wheelwrigt

Broughall George, farmer, corn miller, and maltster

Felton William, shoemaker and beerhouse keeper

Pound Thomas, blacksmith

Ridley Samuel and Edward, corn millers, residence Bridgnorth

Ludstone Directory.

Lea Mrs. Wolryche, Ludstone House

Morris Francis, farmer

Smith William, farmer, Upper Ludstone

Stokes William, farmer, Ludstone Hall

Shipley Directory.

Bott Samuel, farmer

Farmer Alexander, farmer

Francis Robert, farmer

Lakin Charles, vict., Talbot Inn

Miles Matthew, cattle dealer and shopkeeper

Stokes Mary, farmer

Whatelan Benjamin, beerhouse keeper

Sutton Directory.

Jackson Joseph, farmer, Sutton Mill

Smith James, farmer

Woundale Directory.

Davies Edward, farmer

Penzer John, boot and shoe maker

Preece Thomas, vict., Red Lion

Taylor Farmer, Esq., Chykenell

DONINGTON
is a parish in the Shiffnal division of the Brimstree hundred, comprising 2,655 acres of land, and in 1801 had 289 inhabitants; 1831, 318; 1841, 380, and in 1851 81 houses and 352 inhabitants, of whom 197 were males and 195 females.  Rateable value, £3,977.  The chief landowners are George Jones, Esq., Francis Yates, Esq., and the Rev. Henry Edward John Howard, D.D., dean of Lichfield.  Donington is situated about four and a half miles S.E. from Shiffnal, and has a scattered population; the houses are in general of brick, well built, and commodious, and the cottages have a neat appearance.  At the Doomsday survey Earl Roger held Donitone, and there was then a mill that rendered five horse load of corn, a wood a mile and a half long, and half a mile broad, and in the Wyke there were five salinæ that paid 20s.  This Church is a venerable structure, supposed to have been built early in the fourteenth century; it consists of nave and chancel, with a square tower, in which are two bells.  The interior has a neat appearance, and the pews are of oak.  The chancel is separated from the nave by a pointed arch, and the windows are beautified with stained glass.  The chancel contains several memorials, among which is one to Edmund Waring, Esq., who died on the 30th January, 1682–3, aged 63 years.  A brass plate remembers John Chapman, formerly rector of Donington, who died in 1607.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £5. 6s. 5½d., now returned at £721, enjoyed by the Rev. Henry Edward John Howard, D.D., dean of Lichfield, who resides at the rectory, a spacious and handsome mansion of modern construction, situated near the church.  Shakerley House, a good brick house situated about half a mile north from the church, is the residence and property of George Jones, Esq., iron master, who is also a considerable landowner in this parish.  The mansion is delightfully situated, and the pleasure grounds are tastefully laid out.

Charities.—Sarah Manning charged her real estate in Shakerley with the payment of 10s. annually to the poor of the parish of Donington.  From a deed in the possession of the owner of the Shakerley estate, dated 3rd April, 1729, it appears that this annuity was charged on a butt or section of land called Green Furlong, adjoining to the Kilsale Green, and which was by the provisions of that deed to be conveyed by Thomas Jellicorse and Jonathan Ruston, the trustees therein named, after the death of Sarah Manning, to William Bishton.  What is the particular piece of land subjected to this payment cannot now be ascertained, but the amount is paid as a charge on the Shakerley estate.

The poor have also an annuity of 10s., as a portion of a rent charge of 30s. per annum, given by Mr. Chapman, to be divided between the poor of the parishes of Albrighton, Donington, and Boningale, as stated in the account of the charities of Albrighton.  The owner of the Shakerley estate is not aware in what manner the payment of that rent charge was apportioned, so as to subject him to this share of it, but he considers it as a general charge on the Shakerley estate, and pays it accordingly.  These two sums are distributed among the most necessitous poor of the parish.

Boulton John, farmer, Humphreston

Boulton William, farm bailiff, Sidnall

Cartwright William, farmer, Wood Farm

Dodd Rev. George, curate

Duncalfe William, farmer and surveyor, Chapel House

Holyoake George, Esq., banker, Nachley

Howard Rev. Henry Edward John, D.D., rector and dean of Lichfield, The Rectory

Howell Joseph, shopkeeper

Jones George, Esq., iron master, Shakerley House

Jones John, Esq., ironmaster, White House

Lander Richard, jun., farmer

Miller William, farmer

Moore William, miller, Shakerley Mill

Radford Henry, blacksmith, Shakerley

Reynolds Richard, shopkeeper & shoemaker, Shakerley

Russell John, tailor, Sidnall lane

Sherratt John, farmer, Low Wood Farm

Ward Matthew, Esq., Blue House

Wilkes Samuel, farmer and corn miller, Shakerley

KEMBERTON,
a parish and small rural village, pleasantly situated two miles and a half S.W. by S. from Shiffnal, at the census in 1801 contained 289 inhabitants; 1831, 318; and in 1841, 79 houses and a population of 380 souls.  The parish comprises 1,385a. 2r. 16p. of land, of which twenty-three acres are in woods and plantations.  Rateable value, £1,930.  The Shiffnal, Madeley, Bridgnorth, and Ironbridge turnpike roads intersect the parish.  The principal landowners are Robert Aglionby Slaney, Esq., M.P., Mr. John Bradburne, Lord Sudeley, Mr. Henry Thomason, and Mr. T. L. Beddows; besides whom Mr. Thomas Harper, Mr. Ward, Mr. S. Broughall, Mr. John Cherrington, Mr. William Harper, and others, are also proprietors.  The soil is variable; in some parts a light loam prevails, in other parts the soil is strong, and there is a portion of clay.  This locality is noted for the salubrity of the air.  The land is broken into bold swells, from the high grounds of which some fine views of the surrounding country and of the distant county of Stafford are seen.

The Church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is a small fabric, with a square tower ornamented with pinnacles.  The interior consists of nave and chancel, and is neatly pewed with oak sittings; the tower contains four bells.  A neat marble tablet has been erected, at the expense of the parishioners, in memory of the Rev. John Williams.  The living is a rectory, with the vicarage of Sutton Maddock annexed; valued in the king’s book at £5. 6s. 5½d., in the patronage of Robert Aglionby Slaney, Esq., M.P.; incumbent, Rev. George Whitmore, M.A.  The tithes are commuted for £580.  The Rectory is a handsome stuccoed residence adjoining the church-yard, beautified with pleasure grounds, tastefully laid out.  There is a Parochial School in the village, which is chiefly supported by the rector.

Directory.—George Adlington, wheelwright; Samuel Barker, shoemaker; William Bowdler, farmer; John Cherrington, gentleman; James Clulow, farmer; Wm. Downes, shoemaker; Charles Gough, shopkeeper and wheelwright; Thomas Harper, victualler, Masons’ Arms; Wm. Harper, bricklayer and parish clerk; Benjamin Heyward, gardener; William Richard Jackson, farmer; William Lumley, farmer; John Onions, maltster; Peter Reynolds, farmer; Elizabeth Rogers, school-teacher; Thomas Spenser, gentleman, Langley Cottage; Thomas Stonely, corn-miller; Mrs. Eliza Lloyd Thomas, farmer; Mary Ann Tomkins, shopkeeper; James Vaughan, blacksmith; Rev. George Whitmore, M.A., The Rectory; William Williams, tailor.

RYTON
is a parish, in the Shiffnal Division of the Brimstree Hundred, which embraces 1,390 acres of fertile land, yielding fine crops of wheat, barley, and turnips.  The village is pleasantly situated, three miles S. from Shiffnal, and the same distance W. of Albrighton.  The river Worf, which is celebrated for the excellency and abundance of its trout, intersects the parish.  At the census in 1801 there were 160 inhabitants; 1831, 154; and in 1841, 41 houses and 195 souls.  Rateable value of the parish, £2,507.  The principal landowners are William Angeworth, Esq., Charles Head, Esq., Rev. Robert William Eyton, M.A., and R. A. Slaney, Esq.; there are also several smaller proprietors.  The Church is a neat structure of free-stone, erected in the year 1710, to which additions have from time to time been made.  It consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower, in which are three bells and a clock; the interior has a neat and orderly appearance: the pews are of oak, and the east window is beautifully ornamented with stained glass, with figures illustrative of Scripture history.  There are some neat tablets and memorials to the Hardings, Heads, Sansoms, and others.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £5. 12s. 1d., now returned at £508, in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. Robert William Eyton, M.A.; curate, Rev. Richard Seddon, B.A.  The tithes for Royton parish are commuted for £445.  The Rectory is a handsome modern residence, pleasantly situated a little south from the church, and was built on the site of the old rectory.  The National School, a neat Elizabethan brick structure, situated a little east from the church, was built in the year 1850.  The average attendance of children is about forty.  Not far from the National School the stream of the Worf is crossed by a small stone bridge.

Directory.—Robert Bradley, farmer; John Candlin, farmer; Edward Corbett, blacksmith; Elizabeth Corbett, schoolmistress; Samuel Dalloe, schoolmaster; Rev. Robert William Eyton, M.A., The Rectory; Charles Head, farmer, Atchley House; Thomas Hodgkiss, shoemaker; William Holloway, shoe and patten maker; John Knight, wheelwright; William Miles, farmer and beerhouse-keeper, Grindle; George Powell, farmer, Grindle; John Roberts, butler; Rev. Richard Seddon, B.A., curate, Ryton Bank; Thomas Wheeler, farmer, Atchley; John Yates, farmer, Grindle.

SHIFFNAL,
anciently called Idesall, or Idsal, is a parish and market town the head of a division of the Brimstree hundred, eight miles south from Newport, ten miles north from Bridgnorth, and eighteen miles east by south from Shrewsbury.  The town chiefly consists of one street upwards of a mile in length, with several minor streets diverging from it.  The houses are irregularly built, and many of the cottage residences have a mean appearance; there are however several good inns and private houses, and a number of respectable shops in most of the branches of the retail trade.  Though the situation of the town is low, it is built on a dry sandy soil, and by no means unpleasant.  According to tradition Idesall was a place of more considerable note in former times, and the principal portion of the town stood westward of the church; foundations and traces of buildings have frequently been discovered which would seem to confirm this supposition.  In the 9th of Edward II.  Bartholomew de Badlesmere obtained for him and his heirs a market on Monday and Friday, and two fairs in the year, one on the eve of the day, and the day after the feast of the Holy Trinity, and the other on the eve, the day, and the morrow after Michaelmas, as also the liberty of free warren in his demesnes in Ideshall, Adderley, Sponley, Calverhall, and Shavington.  He was one of those mutinous lords who took part in the battle of Boroughbridge, March 16th, 1322, where he was taken prisoner and afterwards executed at Canterbury.  The possessions of Bartholomew Badlesmere were granted in the 15th of Edward II. to Edmund Earl of Arundel and the heirs male of his body, but that noble lord was in like manner attainted about four years after, and so we find Giles de Badlesmere, son of the said Bartholomew, restored to the inheritance of his family.  In the 11th of Edward IV., John Earl of Shrewsbury had a grant of a market and two fairs at the Ville of Suffenhall.  The market is still held on Tuesday, but is not of much consideration; formerly corn was sold to a considerable extent.  Fairs are held on the first Monday in April, August 5th, and November 22nd.  The great London and Holyhead road passes through the town, upon which there were formerly seventeen coaches passing and repassing daily, which, with other traffic, added much to the commercial importance and advantage of Shiffnal.  Although the inhabitants have the facilities of railway communication and a station in a central part of the town, this has rather had a tendency to diminish the importance of Shiffnal, by diverting the attention of parties who formerly frequented the market here to places of more consideration at no great distance.

The parish contains 11,433 acres of land, of which 1,090 acres are in woods and plantations, 74a. 3r. 28p. in roads and waste, and there are 60 acres of glebe.  Rateable value, £24,561. 16s.  Population in 1801, 3,632; 1831, 4,779; 1841, 5,244; 1851, 5,616; of whom 2,820 were males, and 2,796 females; at the latter period there were 1,050 houses.  The Marquis of Stafford is lord of the manor and a very considerable landowner.  The parish comprises four divisions, viz.: that of Shiffnal, embracing the town and its suburbs; Hatton district, comprising the hamlets of Idsal, Hem, Wyke, Evelith, and Hinnington; Priors Lee, those of Snedshill, Haughton, and Woodhouse; and the division of Woodside, containing the hamlets of Crackley bank, Decker hill, the Lizzard, Aston, Stanton, Upton, and Coppice green.  The parish is intersected by the London and Holyhead, Shiffnal and Bridgnorth, and the Albrighton and Newport turnpike roads, and is watered by the small streams of the Sal, Worfe, Cosford, and the Lizzard.  The township of Shiffnal contains 188a. 2r. 10p. of land, and in 1841 had 412 houses and 1,872 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £4,153. 4s.  The principal freeholders are the Marquis of Stafford, W. H. Slaney, Esq., William Cope, Esq., Mr. Edward Cherrington, and Mr. Thomas Eaton Lander, besides whom there are between forty and fifty small freeholders.  The tithes were commuted in 1839, when the rectoral tithes were apportioned as follows, viz: £923 to the Rev. John Brooke; £580 to Henry Sidney Herbert, Esq.; £105 to the Duke of Cleveland; and £26 to Messrs. John and George Pritchards.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £307.  A considerable extent of land, the property of the Duke of Cleveland, Lord Forester, R. A. Slaney, Esq., Rev. John Brooke, and others, is tithe free, and other portions of the parish pay a small modus.

The Church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is a large interesting cruciform structure, exhibiting various styles of architecture, with a handsome square tower rising from the centre and supported by four pointed arches resting on massive pillars with ornamented capitals.  The side aisles are separated from the nave by four semi circular arches, and terminated by side chapels.  The chancel is spacious, and was re-roofed a few years ago at the expense of the late vicar, the Rev. John Brooke.  The ceiling is of oak, and varnished, which gives the venerable structure a very interesting appearance.  On the gallery at the west end is a fine toned organ; a noble old window at the east end is beautifully foliated.  The altar is remarkably fine.  Among the numerous memorials is a magnificent altar tomb, having a full length figure in a recumbent position, with the hands joined and uplifted in prayer, in memory of Oliver Briggs, who died 20th November, 1596.  Another alabaster tomb of beautiful workmanship, with the figure of a knight and his lady, remembers Humphrey Briggs, Esq., and Ann, his wife, dated 1622.  In a niche in the wall is a full length figure of Thomas Forester, some time prior of Wombridge, warden of Tong, and vicar of Idesall, dated 1526.  A splendid white tablet has been erected to the memory of Dame Magdalene Briggs, who died September 15th, 1698.  There are also handsome tablets to the Slaneys, Corbets, Pitts, Jackson, Charltons, and Brookes.  The memorial to George Brooke, Esq., of Haughton, who died in 1776, is beautifully executed in free stone.  A neat marble tablet has been erected to the memory of Mary Bagott, daughter of Ralph Clayton, of Sheffield, in the county of Yorkshire; she died July 27th, 1748, aged 88 years.  From the inscription on the tablet to William Wakley, we learn that he was baptised at Idsal, May 1st, 1590, and was buried November 28th, 1714, aged 124 years.  He lived in the reigns of eight kings and queens, viz., Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., Charles II., James II., William and Mary, Anne, and George I.  Mary, wife of Joseph Yates, who died August 7th, 1776, aged 127 years; she is stated to have married a third husband at the age of 92, and to have been hearty and strong when 120 years old.  Besides which are recorded in the church yard many instances of extreme longevity, for which this parish is peculiarly eminent.  The advowson of the church in early times was granted to the abbey of Shrewsbury; in the 24th of Henry VI. the impropriation was annexed to the college of Battlefield, near Salop.  The living is now a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £15. 6s. 8d.; now returned at £492.; in the patronage of the Rev. John Brooke, of Haughton Hall; incumbent, Rev. Townshend Brooke, M.A.  The Vicarage is a handsome residence pleasantly situated a short distance from the church.

The Baptists have a neat chapel situated on the Salop road, built in 1843, and another chapel in Aston street.  The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel is situate in the Back lane.  The National Schools are situated in the Innage.  Seventy-five boys and about seventy girls attend.  It is supported by endowments and annual subscriptions, together producing about £40 per annum.  The endowments of the schools will be found noticed with the charities.  The Christian Knowledge Society have a branch depository for the circulation and sale of religious books, situated in High street; Mr. Cornelius Bennet is the librarian.

The Mechanics’ Institution was established in 1849, and is under the management of a president, vice-president, and committee of proprietary members.  The general object of the institution is for the establishment of classes for the study of most of the branches of a liberal education, the formation of a library, and affording the members facilities for hearing lectures on literary and scientific subjects.  A Reading-Room has been established, which is furnished with many of the leading newspapers, and some of the most popular periodicals of the day.  President: Rev. J. Brooke, Haughton Hall.  Vice-President: W. Cope, Esq.  Secretary and Librarian: Mr. B. L. Beddow.  The Town Hall, situated in High street, was built in the year 1840.  The Petty Sessions are held here on the first Friday in each month.  The officiating magistrates are Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., M.P., Uvedale Corbet, Esq., Robert Henry Cheney, Esq., and George Holyoake, Esq.  Mr. Peter Osborne is clerk to the magistrates.  In 1850, a Lock-up and residence for the constable was erected adjoining the Town Hall.  The Stamp Office is at Mrs. Ann Edmunds, Market-place.  The Excise Office is at the Bell Inn.

The Savings Bank was established in 1819, and is situated in New-street Terrace.  The capital stock of the bank on November, 20th, 1850, amounted to £15,198. 3s. 2d., at which period there were 469 separate accounts; of which nine were charitable societies, and three friendly societies.  Of the respective balances, 260 did not exceed £20, 108 were above £20 and not exceeding £50, 46 did not exceed £100, 30 were above £100 and not exceeding £150, and the deposits of 13 were above the latter amount and under £200.  The amount received from depositors from November 20th, 1849, to November 20th, 1850, was £2,204. 14s. 8d.  The payments during the same period were £2,275. 4s. 7d.  Mr. Thomas Eaton Lander, Treasurer; and Mr. Peter Osborne, Secretary.  The bank is open every alternate Tuesday from ten till one o’clock.

The Shiffnal Union House, a brick structure, situated a short distance from the town, was partly built in 1817, at the expense of the ratepayers.  In the year 1840, additional buildings were erected by the guardians of the union, at a cost of about £800, which will accommodate about one hundred and fifty inmates.  The interior arrangements are well contrived for the comfort, convenience, and cleanliness of the inmates, the number of whom is usually about sixty.  The union comprises an area of sixty-seven square miles, and embraces the parishes of Albrighton, Badger, Beckbury, Boninghall, Donington, Kemberton, Ryton, Shiffnal, Stockton, Sutton Maddock, and Tong, in the county of Salop; and the parishes of Blymhill, Pateshull, Sheriff Hales, and Weston-under-Lizard, in the county of Stafford.  There are twenty guardians appointed for the several parishes, who meet at the board-room every alternate Monday.  The Rev. John Brooke is the chairman; Mr. Peter Osborne, clerk and superintendent registrar; John Fielding, deputy-registrar; Mr. William Roden, of Haughton, registrar of births and deaths for the Shiffnal district; Mr. John Totty, registrar for the Albrighton district; surgeons, Mr. Thomas Eaton Lander and Messrs. Bennett and Orwin; relieving officer, Mr. Richard Venables; master, Mr. George Bailey; matron, Mrs. Bailey; schoolmistress, Hannah Maria Thomason.

The Gas Works, situated in High street, were established by a company of shareholders, with a capital stock of £2,300.  The premises are conveniently adapted for the purposes intended, and there is a gasometer for the reception of the luminous vapour, which will hold 10,000 cubic feet.  A charge of 7s. 6d. per 1,000 feet is made to the consumer.

The Railway Station, situate in the Market place, near the centre of the town, presents a beautiful pile of buildings, in the Italian style, and is approached by a flight of fifty-seven steps.  The railway is carried over the town, and crosses the Birmingham, Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, and Newport turnpike roads, at an elevation of sixty feet above the level of the ground.  This noble viaduct comprises twenty brick arches, of thirty-seven feet span each; and at the turnpike roads, which are eighty feet wide, are six semi-circular metal arches, resting on brick abutments, with stone capitals.  The embankment extends for several miles.  The metal viaduct and its battlements were cast at the Horseley Iron Works, Tipton, in the year 1848, and the railway was opened on the 12th of November, 1849.  Twelve trains leave the station daily for Shrewsbury and Birmingham.  Mr. George Augustus Frederick Hill is station-master and resident manager.  Mr. Charles Lloyd, station-clerk.  Omnibuses leave the railway station daily for Bridgnorth and Ironbridge.

Shiffnal was the birth-place of Dr. Thomas Beddoes, a physician of considerable eminence and a talented author, whose works are characterized by much acuteness of observation.  He died in 1808.  In a field contiguous to Shiffnal is a military station; the mound was circumscribed by a ditch, which may still be traced.

Aston Hall, a handsome mansion, the property of Major Moultrie, is the residence of Uvedale Corbet, Esq., J.P., and Judge of the County Court.  The house is delightfully situated about half a mile east from Shiffnal.  Crackley Bank is a hamlet, about two miles north from Shiffnal.  Here the Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel.  Deckerhill Hall, a spacious stuccoed mansion, delightfully situated, is the residence of Mrs. Botfield.  The pleasure grounds and shrubberies are of considerable extent, and laid out with great taste.  Coppice Green and Lizard are hamlets north east of Shiffnal.  Burlington, three miles north of Shiffnal.  Stanton, a hamlet, a mile and a half east from the parish church, is noted as the residence of Mr. Henry Wadlow, a celebrated race-horse trainer.  Stanton Farm, the residence of John Eyke, Esq., land-agent to Lord Stafford, comprises upwards of one thousand acres.  Mr. Eyke is noted for having extensive flocks of superior bred sheep.

Hatton is an extensive district, in the parish of Shiffnal, comprising 3,982a. 0r. 3p. of land, the soil of which in many parts is a strong fertile loam, producing good crops of barley, wheat, and turnips.  Rateable value, £5,761. 12s.  The township of Hatton, situated two miles and a half south from Shiffnal, at the census of 1841 was returned as containing 108 houses and 542 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Robert Aglionby Slaney, Esq., M.P., Lord Forester, Michael Goodall, Esq., The Duke of Cleveland, Thomas Eaton Lander, Esq., Rev. George Burder, Mrs. Ann Turner, and the Rev. Townshend Brooke; besides whom there are several smaller proprietors.  This is a pleasantly situated district, with a fine undulating surface, containing many good family mansions and farm residences; the houses are mostly built of brick, and the farms are of considerable extent.  Hutton Grange, a handsome brick mansion, the residence of William Henry Slaney, Esq., barrister-at-law, is delightfully situated in a sequestered part of the country, three miles south-east from Shiffnal.  The park grounds are beautifully studded with timber, and the gardens and pleasure grounds are of considerable extent, and laid out with great taste.  Evelith Manor, a beautiful modern mansion, situated a mile and a half south from Shiffnal, is the residence of Michael Goodall, Esq.  Hem is a hamlet, a mile and a half south-west from Shiffnal.  Idsal contains several rural villas, and forms a southern suburb to the town of Shiffnal.  Hinnington, a hamlet south of Shiffnal; and Wyke is situated about a mile to the south-west.

PRIORS LEE
is a chapelry, township, and populous district, situated three miles N.W. from Shiffnal, and four and a half miles N.E. from Wellington, intersected by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham railway, and the Shiffnal and Wellington turnpike road.  This is a flourishing district, the inhabitants of which are busily engaged in the coal and iron-stone mines, and the extensive iron works, with which this part of the county abounds.  The houses are irregularly built, and chiefly occupied by a labouring population; the cottage property in this township is scattered over an area of 86 acres.  At the census of 1801 there were 1,589 inhabitants; 1831, 2,130, and in 1841 there were 480 houses and a population of 2,470 souls.  This portion of the parish comprises 3,077 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £9,045.  On the eastern side is an extensive farming district, the land of which is broken into bold undulations.  The Marquis of Stafford, the Rev. John Brooke, W. H. Slaney, Esq., and others, are landowners.  The Lilleshall company are also considerable holders of leasehold property.  At Oakengates, adjoining Priors Lee, there is a railway station.  The Episcopal Chapel is a brick structure in the decorative style, with a square tower containing one bell.  It was rebuilt in 1836, when it was enlarged; the interior consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, and contains 415 sittings, 210 of which are free and unappropriated, in consequence of a grant from the Incorporated Society for building and enlarging churches.  The living is a perpetual curacy endowed with £600 private benefaction, £600 royal bounty, and £1,400 parliamentary grant, in the patronage of the vicar of Shiffnal; incumbent, Rev. James Thomas Matthews, B.D.; clerk, James Astbury.  The Wesleyans have a chapel which will hold about 300 hearers.  The National School has an attendance of seventy boys and fifty girls.  Priors Lee Hall, the residence of John Horton, Esq., is pleasant situated a short distance from the village.  The offices of the Lilleshall company are at the hall.  There are several good residences in the village.

Haughton is a pleasantly situated village in a secluded vale about a mile W. from Shiffnal, watered by the small stream of the Sal, and crossed by the Newport and Priors Lee turnpike road.  There are several neat villa residences here, beautified with tasteful gardens.  Haughton Hall, a spacious and elegant mansion, is the residence of the Rev. John Brooke.  The edifice is of brick, and stuccoed, and being situated on a gentle eminence commands some fine views of the surrounding country.  The gardens and pleasure grounds are beautifully laid out, and the park is richly wooded with fine timber.

Snedshill is a populous district in the parish of Shiffnal, adjoining Oakengates, noted for the extensive iron works of Messrs. Horton, Simms, and Bull, and the iron works and collieries of the Lilleshall company.  Woodhouse is situated three miles N.W. from Shiffnal.  Woodside, a township three miles N.E. from Shiffnal, at the census of 1841 had 72 houses and 360 inhabitants.  This is an extensive farming district, which comprises 4,086 acres of land, of which 324a. 2r. 26p. are in woods and plantations.  Rateable value, £5,592.  The Marquis of Stafford, Mrs. Botfield, Major Moultrie, Rev. John Brooke, Rev. Townshend Brooke, and Mr. Thomas Langley, and others, are landowners.

Charities.—Shiffnal Free School.  The earliest mention that we find of this school is contained in the will of John Aron, dated 5th July, 1595, in which subject to certain contingencies he gives the sum of £20 towards erecting a school house in Shiffnal.  From the will of Gordian Strowbridge, dated 22nd November, 1626, it appears that a school house was there “erected and set up” in the town, in which eight poor scholars were instructed to read and write under the auspices of the testator; and for the continuance of which number therein, after his death, he provides by a legacy of £50.  But contemplating the possibility of a cessation of the school in the house which had been so erected, he in that event appoints the interest of the legacy to other uses, one moiety to be given to any schoolmaster who should teach a school either in the town or parish.  An uncertain or temporary interest in the building which had been there erected would sufficiently explain the grounds of the testator’s apprehension that the school might cease to be kept in it; and we are led to believe that such was the nature of the interest which the charity at that time possessed, from the testimony which we find subsequently recorded on the benefaction table, that “John Careswell, in 1652, gave the sum of £10, with which he purchased the school house for the use of the inhabitants of the town and parish of Shiffnal.”  It is probable, therefore, from this recorded purchase, that we are to derive the title to the school house which the town and parish now enjoy; although a later date seems to be assigned to the present building or some part of it, by an inscription in the year 1682, which appears upon one of its walls.  Of the legacy given by Gordian Strowbridge we do not find any further mention, but it is supposed to have formed a part of the consolidated charities hereafter mentioned.

Sir Humphrey Briggs, Bart., by deed dated 9th November, 1652, granted to certain trustees all the tithes of corn, grain, and hay, coming within the titheable places of the township of Hem, on trust for the security of the payment, among other things, of the sum of £1. 13s. 4d. out of the profit of the premises to the schoolmaster of Shiffnal.

Eliazer Careswell, by will, 1675, gave to certain trustees an annuity or rent charge of 48s., to be for ever issuing out of a tenement and lands within the manor of Shiffnal, and directed the same to be paid half yearly to some schoolmaster or schoolmistress for the education of six poor boys.  The sum of £2. 4s. is all that is at present paid in respect of this annuity, nor do we find that more has been received for a considerable period.  It seems probable that the 4s. were deducted under the provisions of the land tax act.

Consolidated Charities.—Robert Sidney, in 1677, in consideration of the sum of £200, which money had been given by ten several donors for charitable uses, granted a rent charge of £10 per annum, to be issuing out of his manor of Grindle, as to 10s. of it for the payment of the Tenstree rent, the residue thereof to be applied in apprentice fees, and other charitable uses.  On the 15th August, 1761, at a general meeting held in the parish church, the vicar, churchwardens, overseers, and others, signed a written declaration in the parish book, testifying that they thereby assigned the annuity so charged for the use of the schoolmaster in consideration of his teaching six additional children to read and write.  In consequence of this proceeding the master has since continued to receive this annuity, which, with the respective annuities of £1. 13s. 4d. and £2. 4s., constituted the whole of his income down to the year 1816, in which year it was resolved to adopt the national system of education, and with the interest of a legacy amounting to £4. 10s., and funds raised by subscriptions, the annual income now amounts to about £40.

Careswell’s Exhibitions.—The particulars of this endowment will be found noticed with the account of the free grammar school at Bridgnorth, where it will be seen that three scholars of the free school at Shiffnal are eligible to exhibitions at Christ College, Oxford.  It does not appear that the free school, properly so called, has ever participated in the benefit of these exhibitions, not having at any time included classical instruction in its course of education.  But it seems that the practice has been to elect the exhibitioners from a private classical school kept in the town of Shiffnal—a practice probably grounded upon the provision which extended the benefit of the endowment to scholars not free of the school.  We conceive (observe the charity commissioners) that the true meaning of that provision was to include the private scholars of the master of the free school, and not the scholars of any other school, having no connection or communication with the free school.  Such, however, as far as we can trace it, appears to have been the character of the classical school to which we have alluded, into which if any scholars were ever admitted from the free school, it was not as free scholars, but on payment of the same price, and subject to the same conditions that were required from the other scholars.  It appears indeed that the master of this school received a formal appointment as classical tutor of the free school from the minister, trustees, and principal inhabitants of Shiffnal; but he was at the same time exempted from affording any tuition or discharging any duties towards the free school, other than preparing for Christ Church such exhibitioners as came forward as candidates agreeably to the provisions made for them in Mr. Careswell’s will.  The duty, therefore, which he thus engaged to perform, appears to have been simply to receive and instruct such of the free scholars of the free school as should be able to pay that price, and comply with these conditions.  We cannot but think that a more important benefit to the free school was contemplated by the founder of these exhibitions, who in extending the benefit to scholars not free of the school, probably intended to provide for a classical master such a source of remuneration from private scholars as should entitle the free scholars gratuitously to participate in the advantages of his instruction.

Richard Bennet, in 1794, bequeathed £100 upon trust, and directed the interest or proceeds thereof to be paid to the master of the free school.  The interest, £4. 10s., is now paid to the master of the national school.

Beatrice Jobber, in 1716, bequeathed £200, and directed the interest to be applied in clothing and instructing six poor children, daughters of widows or other poor persons belonging to the parish of Shiffnal.

Dole Charities.—It is recorded in an old book belonging to the trustees of the poor’s stock, and purporting to contain an account of the charities of this parish, that in 1506, Sir John Leigh, a priest who had long served in the church of Wolverhampton, gave £12. 13s. 4d. to purchase a mark a year, to be given to the poor of Shiffnal.  An annuity of 13s. 4d., which has long been received for the use of the poor, appears to be charged upon certain premises in Pipers-row, Wolverhampton.

Sir Humphrey Briggs, in 1652, left a rent charge of 40s. per annum, to be distributed by the churchwardens and overseers among the poor of the parish.

Arthur Mainwaring, in 1690, gave four butts of ground lying in Churchfield and Wykefield, within the parish of Shiffnal, to Mary, his wife, and Ann, his daughter, and their heirs for ever, on trust, to pay 20s. yearly on the feast of St. Andrew, to forty poor old people belonging the parish.

Vincent Latham gave £20 for the use of the poor.  In respect of this gift there is now a rent charge of 20s. per annum, issuing out of a certain tenement in High-street, which is divided among the poor on the feast of St. Andrew.

William Smith, in 1713, gave £10 to the poor of Shiffnal, and directed the interest to be distributed among poor widows who do not receive parochial relief.

Edward Revell, by deed, 1693, assigned to certain trustees a bond which had been made to him for the payment of £200, with lawful interest, in trust, for the benefit of the poor.  The bond which was thus assigned appears to have been discharged in 1698, and £100 of the money, after passing successively through several hands at interest, was in 1847 given to Humphrey Pitt, Esq.  John Revell, in 1723, gave £100 for charitable uses; this, it appears, eventually also came into the hands of Mr. Pitt, and at his death in 1769 it was found necessary to institute a suit against his representatives for the recovery of the money due from his estate.  An arrangement afterwards took place, by which it was agreed that the sum of £312 should be paid to the trustees, in full of all principal and interest then due, of which £12 was immediately distributed among the poor, and the remaining £300 was placed out at interest.  The other £100 left by Edward Revell, above mentioned, after being held by the Phillip’s family, came into the possession of George Appleby, Esq., in whose hands the above £300 was also placed, and who paid interest at the rate of five per cent. for the same till the year 1804, when the principal was transferred to George Brooke, Esq., who gave a promissory note for the security of the same, and pays interest at the rate of five per cent.  This money, with other charities previously noticed, produces a yearly income of £25. 3s. 4d., which, with other monies furnished by voluntary contributions, is distributed at Christmas in small sums among the poor.

Reginal Piper, in 1659, granted to the churchwardens of Shiffnal a rent charge of 10s. issuing out of his messuage in the Sheep market, and directed the same to be disposed of among twenty poor old people.

Henry Green, in 1702, granted to trustees a rent charge of 20s. per annum, to be disposed of on Good Fridays and Christmas-days among poor widows.

Frances Moreton, in 1781, devised to her nephew, John Brooke, a piece of land, called Aston Croft, in trust, to permit the vicar of the parish to dispose of the rents and profits among poor housekeepers.  By indenture, dated 5th of May, 1788, reciting the abovementioned will, and that the said Frances Moreton had no power to devise the said land, the same descending to Sarah Atkis, as heir-at-law of Robert Moreton, deceased; the said Sarah Atkis conveyed to trustees the plot of land called Aston Croft, to permit the vicar to take the rents thereof, and during the life of Mary Stockwell, to apply a part, and after her decease, the whole of the profits amongst decayed housekeepers.  The land, about the year 1806, was exchanged for 3a. 3r. 12p. situate at Aston, in the parish of Shiffnal, which now produces a rent of £12 per annum.  The amount is distributed at Christmas eve among poor widows or other indigent persons, in sums varying from 4s. to 10s. each, according to their several necessities.

Sir Humphrey Briggs, by a deed, dated 9th of November, 1652, charged the tithes of Shiffnal with the payment of £1. 6s. 8d. to the clerk or deacon of the parish.  Francis Mallard and Elizabeth, his wife, in 1587, left an annuity of 16s. for the benefit of the poor.  This gift has long been lost to the poor.

Post Office—At Miss Frances Adams’s, New street.  Letters arrive at 5.30 A.M., and are despatched at 7.30 P.M.

Adams Miss Frances, New street

Allen William, Esq., Bank House

Bailey Mr. George, Union House

Barnfield Mrs., The Cottage

Bennett Cornelius, organist, High street

Bennett Mr. Samuel, The Grove

Bidlake Roger, gentleman, Old road

Bothfield Mrs. Lucy, Decker-hill Hall

Bradburn William, Old road

Brooke Rev. John, Haughton Hall

Brooke Rev. Townshend, Idsal Vicarage

Cannon Chas., inland revenue officer, Innage

Cherrington Mr. Edward, Church street

Cope William, Esq., barrister, Park House

Corbet Uvedale, Esq., Aston Hall

Cuxson Mrs. Eleanor, New street

Evett Mr. James, Horse fair

Eyke John, Esq., Stanton House

Fletcher Mr. John, Park Villa

Gas Company (office) High street

Gilbert Mr. Thomas, Old road

Glover William Cheshire, Esq., High street

Goodall Michael, Esq., Evelith

Gray Mrs., New street

Hills Mr. George A. F., High street

Horton John, Esq., Priors Lee Hall

Hudson Mr. Job, Old road

Jones Miss Martha, Innage

Jones The Misses, Uplands

Lander Edward, Market street

Lander Mr. Thomas Eaton, Beech House

Lander Mr. Thomas Eaton, Innage

Leake James, solicitors’ clerk, High street

Lello Mrs. Mary, High street

Lloyd Charles, railway clerk, High street

Masefield Mrs. Alice, Woodhouse

Masefield Mrs. Ann, Aston street

Masefield Mr. Thomas, Woodhouse

Orwin Mr. James, High street

Osborne Mr. Peter, New street terrace

Perrin Dudley Josiah, New street

Phillips Mr. Andrew, Market street

Pidgeon Robt., Esq., land agent, Russell place

Roden Mrs. Charlotte, Church street

Roden William, registrar, Haughton

Shirley Mr. William, trainer, Church street

Smyth Amelia, Rock terrace

Spedding Rev. Francis, M.A., New street

Thomas Evan, inland revenue officer, High st

Venables Richard, relieving officer, Church st

Wadlow Henry, horse trainer, Stanton

Academies.

Beetlestone John, Old road

Beetlestone Mrs., Aston st

Gentlemen’s Boarding, High street; Rev. James Thos. Matthews, principal

Gilbert Mary, Church street

Ladies’ Boarding, Rock terrace; Miss Smyth

National (Boys), Innage; David Whittle

National (Girls), Innage; Jemima Owen

Accountant.

Gilbert Thomas, Old road

Attorneys.

Glover William, Cheshire High street

Perrin Dudley Josiah, New street

Phillips Andrew, office back of Market place

Auctioneers.

Houlston John, office Mr. Fraser’s, Market place

Weare Wm., office Market pl

Bakers and Flour Dealers.

Lowe Mary, Horse fair

Randle Catherine, Market pl

Bankers.

Shropshire Banking Company, Horse fair; Wm. Allen, manager

Savings Bank, New street; Peter Osborne, secretary

Blacksmiths.

Clarke Thomas, High street

Evans Richard, Church st

Ferney John, Aston street

Smout John, Aston street

Tozer William (and whitesmith), High street

Booksellers, Printers, Stationers, & Bookbinders.

Beddow Barnabas Leman, New street

Edmunds Ann, Market place

Boot and Shoemakers.

Bullock Thomas, High street

Fenn William, High street

Harper John, Aston street

Jones Joseph, Church street

Norton George, High street

Norton Thomas, High street

Owen John, Church street

Warrender Jas. (and dealer), High street

Westbrooke John, Market place

Williams Thos., High street

Braziers and Tin-plate Workers.

Bullock John, High street

Tomlinson Wm., Market pl

Bricklayers and Masons.

Beetlestone Benjamin, Aston street

Beetlestone John, High street

Ingram William, Aston street

Yates Richard, High street

Yates Thomas, High street

Butchers.

Hall Mary, Market street

Hall Robert, High street

Hall William, High street

Haywood Thomas, Market pl

Parkes Francis, High street

Poyner William, High street

Ward George, Market place

Cabinet Makers & Upholsterers.

Blud Thomas, Back street

King Charles (and dealer in British wines), Back st

Linall William, High street

Pointon William, High st

Cheese, Butter, and Bacon Factors.

Dagleish William, High st

Pointon Thomas, Market pl

Randle Catherine, Market pl

Chemists and Druggists.

Bate Wm. Stokes, Market pl

Langman Frederick, Market place

Pace William Cherrington, Back street

Coal Agents.

Fellows Aaron, Railway statn.

Hills and Phillips (and lime and salt), Railway station

Coal Merchants.

Botfield Beriah, Old Park Colliery

Horton & Company, Priors Lee Works

Lilleshall Co., Priors Lee

Confectioners.

Bartley John, Market place

Lowe Mary, Marketplace

Coopers.

Wakelain Joseph (and dealer in turn and bend ware), High street

Williams Charles, High st

Williams Robert, High street

Corn Factor.

Fellows Aaron, Aston street

Curriers & Leather Cutters.

Cherrington Roger, High st

Lello George, High street

Farmers.

Masefield Thos., Woodhouse

Norton Alfred, New street

Powell John, Church street

Roden John, High street

Fellmongers.

Fenn Samuel, High street

Hodgkinson John, High st

Fire and Life Office Agents.

Accidental Death; Mr. Beddow, New street

Birmingham Fire and Life; Charles King, Back street

Great Britain Life; Mr. Osborne, New street

Salop Fire, Mr. Beddow, New street

Shropshire & North Wales; Lander & Sons, Market pl

Fishmonger.

Harris John, Market street

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Bate William Stokes, Market place

Bryant John, Market place

Bullock John, High street

Dagleish William, High st

Pace William Cherrington, Back street

Hair Dresser.

Morris James, Market place

Hatters and Dealers.

Hardy Charles, High street

Higgins William, Church st

Reynolds Peter and George, High street

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Bell Hotel, John Podmore, Church street

Crown, Robt. Williams, High street

Eight Bells, Richd. Morgan, Market place

Jerningham Arms Hotel, Commercial, and Posting House, Miss Anne Masefield, Church street and Horse fair

Lion, Donald Fraser, New street

Nag’s Head, John Lowe, Market place

Plough, Thomas Williams, High street

Queen’s Head, Chas. Leake, High street

Railway Tavern, Thomas Latham, Aston street

Star Hotel, Elizabeth Wild, Market place

Talbot, Richard Pointon, High street

Union Inn and Coaching House, Edward Nickless, New road

Unicorn, James Medlicott, Horse fair

Victoria Hotel, Family, Commercial, & Posting House, John Wood, Market pl

Wheat Sheaf, Thos. Dunn, High street

White Hart, Elizabeth Simpson, High street

White Horse, Emma Smallman, Market place

Wonder, Thomas Lowe, Horse fair

Beerhouses.

Evans Thomas, High street

Fenn Samuel, High street

Ward Sarah, Aston street

Yates Richard, High street

Yates Thomas, High street

Ironfounders.

Botfield Beriah, Old Park Works

Horton & Simms, Priors Lee

Lilleshall Company, Snedshill Iron Works

Ironmongers.

Bate William Stokes, Market place

Bullock John (and nail-manufacturer), High st

Joiners and Builders.

Cherrington Edward (and timber merchant), Salop road

Power Michael, New street

Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

Hardy Charles, High street

Higgins William, Church st

Lander & Sons, Market pl

Reynolds Peter and George, High street

Livery Stable Keepers.

Masefield Anna, Horse fair

Roberts John, Horse fair

Wild Elizabeth, Market pl

Wood John, Market place

Maltsters.

Fellows Aaron, Aston street

Forrest William, High street

Lello John, Aston street

Masefield Thomas, Aston st

Morgan Richard, Market st

Podmore John, Church st

Roden George, Old street

Roden William, High street

Thomason Samuel, (and dealer in British wines), High street

Wakelam Samuel, High st

Milliners and Dressmakers.

Biss Eliza, New street

Fenn The Misses, Old road

Jones Elizabeth, Aston st

Nicholas Rebecca, High st

Peake Jane (bonnet maker), New street

Plumbers, Painters, and Glaziers.

Heyward George, High street

Lawson William, New street

Phillips Samuel, Horse fair

Yates James, Horse fair

Rope, Oil Cloth, and Tarpauling Makers.

Heywood Thomas, High st.

Heywood William, High st.

Saddlers and Harness Makers.

Hitchcock Thomas, High st.

Lowe Thomas, Market place

Smith Moses, Horse fair

Tillage Dealers and Farm Seedsmen.

Longman Frederick, Market place

Lander & Sons, Back street, Richard Owen, agent

Shopkeepers and Dealers in Sundries and Groceries.

Cullwick John, High street

Evans Thomas, High street

Fenn Samuel, High street

Mole Allen, High street

Morgan William, High street

Ralphs Mary, Market place

Rudge Joseph, Aston street

Yeardley Andrew, High street

Smallware Dealer.

Morris James, High street

Spirit Vaults and Wine and Spirit Merchant.

Cherrington Edward, Church street

Surgeons.

Bennett Samuel, Aston street

Evett James, Horse fair

Lander Thomas Eaton, Innage

Orwin James, High street

Tailors.

Bennett William, Horse fair

Clemson John, Church street

Hitchcock Thomas, High st.

Pugh Henry, Innage

Roberts Thomas, Aston st.

Tallow Chandler.

Rayworth Wm., High street

Veterinary Surgeons.

Harris Thomas, Church st.

Poole George, cow leech, High street

Robinson Sampson, New st.

Rexham George, High street

Watch and Clock Maker.

Davies John, Back street

Wheelwrights.

Pointon John, Aston street

Pointon Richard.  Back street

Hatton District Directory.

Ashdown Wm., Hem farm

Badger and Hewitt, Grange farm

Barker Thomas, Spring Bower farm

Bill John, corn miller, Hinnington

Booth Henry, Naird and Shaw farms

Bradbury Messrs., bone mills and merchants

Burgess George, Evelith corn mills

Crawley John Leatham, farmer and maltster, Rookery

Durant Rev. Francis Osian, Old hall, Evelith

Goodall Michael, Esq., Evelith manor

Hoole Richard, Common farm

Lander Thomas Eaton, surgeon, Innage

Lander Thomas Eaton, gent., Beech house

Langley Thomas, maltster, Upton farm

Lawrence John, gardener, Hatton grange

Mellor James, farmer, Wyke

Miller Martha, farmer, Wyke

Morgan George, the Elms farm

Morgan Thos., farmer, Wyke

Morris John, Manor farm and miller

Pepper Sander, the Hill farm

Powell John, farmer, Shaw lane

Power Michael, contractor

Slaney Miss, the Grange

Slaney William Henry, Esq., Hatton grange

Smith John, farmer, Wyke

Smith the Misses, Rock terrace

Smith Robert, Hem farm, and miller

Smith William, Homer farm

Smith William, butler, Hatton grange

Summers Charles, coachman, Hatton grange

Swain Thomas, farmer, Hinnington

Taylor Robert, farmer, Evelith

Wright Herbert Hancox, Grange farm

Haughton Directory.

Baddeley William, farmer

Brooke Rev. John, the Hall

Coulston Joseph, farmer

Old Park and Stirchley Iron Works, Beriah Botfield, Esq., proprietor; George Bishton, secretary and cashier; William Hudson, accountant; William Summers, bookkeeper; Mark Tipton, manager

Phillips David, corn miller

Roden William, farmer

Sharratt Thomas, road surveyor

Ward James, gentleman

Priors Lee Directory.

Astbury James, parish clerk

Booth Edwin, maltster and farmer

Booth Thomas, Castle farm

Booth William, farmer

Bulger Christopher, mine bailiff

Colebank Rev. Robert, M.A.

Dawes Wm., schoolmaster

Franks William Henry, shopkeeper

Garbett John, tailor

Horton John, Esq., the Hall

Horton Samuel, Esq., ironmaster

Horton, Simms and Bull, ironmasters and forgers, Snedshill works

Hughes John, vict., the Lion, and accountant

Hughes Thomas, vict., the Pigeon Box

Jones William, Wood green, farm

Langley Richard, farmer

Langley Samuel, Blythbury farm

Latham Roger, Woodhouse, farm

Lilleshall Company, ironmasters and coal proprietors

Llewyllyn Mary, shopkeeper

Masefield Alice, Woodhouse

Sargent Elizabeth, schoolteacher

Smart Ellen, boarding school proprietor

Smart John, farmer

Tipton Edward, accountant

Tipton Luke, secretary, Lilleshall company

Tipton William, bookkeeper

Tipton William, mine manager

Woodside District Directory.

Abercrombie James, farmer and vict., Hare and Hounds, Crackley bank

Botfield Mrs., gentlewoman, Decker hill hall

Butterton Enoch, farmer, Lizzard

Butterton Mary Ann, farmer, Burlington

Butterton Miss Hannah, Burlington

Corbet Uvedale, Esq., Aston hall

Dunn George, farmer

Embrey Stephen, butler, Aston hall

Eyke John, Esq., land agent to Lord Stafford, Stanton house

Hadin Joseph, farmer, Lizzard

Inscoe Daniel, farmer, Lizzard

Kendrick Mrs. Ann, Burlington

Kendrick Thomas and Wm., farmers, Burlington

Langley Thomas, gentleman, Coppice green hall

Lawrence Charles, farmer, Drayton lodge

Norton Alfred, farmer, Aston

Pickin Widow, Coppice green farm

Revitt John, shoemaker, Crackley bank

Revitt Thomas, shoemaker Crackley bank

Richards Wm., beerhouse, & blacksmith, Crackley bank

Rudge Henry, coachman, Aston hall

Smith John, farmer, Woodside

Wadlow Henry, race horse trainer, Stanton

Wild Samuel, farmer, Upton

Wilkes Samuel, Brewar’s Oak farm

STOCKTON
is a parish and village on the turnpike road from Bridgnorth to Shiffnal, five miles N.N.E. from the former town and five miles S.E. from the latter.  At the census in 1801 there were 409 inhabitants; 1831, 459; 1841, 422, and in 1851 88 houses and 479 inhabitants, of whom 237 were males and 242 females.  The parish embraces the hamlets of Apley, Higford, Norton, and part of Cheswardine-lane, and contains 3,162a. 0r. 21p. of land, of which 1,065a. 1r. 37p. are in Apley; the park and pleasure grounds contain 484 acres, and there are 79a. 3r. 19p. in the red deer park.  Rateable value, £4,262. 17s.  The soil is various, in some parts a light loam upon a red sand prevails, in other parts the soil is strong, and in some places there is a mixture of gravel.  The strong soil yields fine crops of barley and wheat, the meadow lands on the banks of the Severn produce a fine herbage, and is highly fertile.  Considerable flocks of sheep are kept in this parish.  Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., M.P., is lord of the manor, and owner of the whole parish.  The vicinity of Stockton is pleasingly diversified with hill and dale, and beautified with romantic scenery; the high grounds command some fine views of the distant country, and the woody scenery in the immediate neighbourhood.  Within the last few years several handsome residences have been erected, and some of the older houses have been modernized and beautified.  The farms in this parish are of considerable extent, and by a judicious outlay of capital and superior management have been brought to a state of high productiveness.  A court leet and court baron is held every five years at the Hundred House Inn, Norton.

The Church, dedicated to St. Chad, is a venerable structure of free stone, (some portions of which have been rough cast,) consisting of nave and chancel, with a square tower, in which are five bells and a clock; the ceiling is of panelled oak, with projecting rests, on which are carved figures of the twelve apostles; the ceiling of the chancel is also of beautiful dark oak, and the pulpit and reading desk are elaborately carved.  The living is a rectory, with the curacy of Boningale annexed, valued in the king’s book at £13. 11s. 3d., in the patronage of Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Charles Blaney Cavendish Whitmore, M.A.; the Rev. Stutville Isaacson, M.A., is the officiating minister.  The tithes are commuted for £635. 15s., and there are 184a. 2r. 26p. of glebe land.  The rectory is a commodious brick structure pleasantly situated a short distance from the church.  There is a commodious school and residence for the teachers at Norton, which is supported by the munificence of T. C. Whitmore, Esq.  At the present time there are about one hundred children instructed in this school.

Apley Park is the magnificent seat of Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., M.P. for the borough of Bridgnorth.  The mansion is an elegant structure of the Grinshill free stone, in the castellated style of architecture, with polygonal turrets at the angles, and a porch of three arches at the entrance of the eastern front.  A lofty square tower ornaments the centre of the southern front, and on the north is a domestic chapel.  It stands on a gentle eminence, and exhibits a noble specimen of architectural skill and superb workmanship, and may justly be considered one of the most costly and splendid mansions in the county of Shropshire.  The terrace is one of the most extensive and delightful in the kingdom, and commands fine views over a park richly adorned with sylvan beauty and stocked with red deer; the windings of the Severn, whose silvery waters are seen through the rich foliage, forming an interesting object in the views.  The gardens, pleasure grounds, greenhouses, and vineries are extensive, and stocked with a profusion of the choicest flowers and rare plants, which exhibit a luxuriance and beauty that show them to be under the management of a skilled gardener.  This manor before the reign of Henry III. belonged to the family of Huggeford, from whom it passed in marriage to Sir Thomas Lucy.  Its proprietor, Sir Thomas Lucy, disposed of the manors of Stockton, Apley, and Huggeford, and the estates within the parish, with the advowson of the church of Stockton, in 1551, to William Whitmore, Esq., of Oxton, near London,—a gentleman whose ancestors had long been resident at Whitmore, in the parish of Claverley.  The above William Whitmore was a merchant who had acquired an immense fortune by trading with Spain in fine cloth, being a freeman of the Haberdashers’ Company, London.  The abundant wealth of this great merchant laid the foundation of the future prospects of this respectable family, who soon after increased their possessions around their ancient patrimony, as well as in many other counties in the kingdom.  Sir George Whitmore, Knight, the second son of the above William, was Lord Mayor of London in 1632.  Sir William Whitmore, Knight, of Apley, was sheriff in this county in 1620, in which year he was elected member of parliament for Bridgnorth, of which borough his successors, the Whitmores, of Apley, have almost uniformly been representatives.  The Whitmores were distinguished for their loyalty and sufferings in the troublous times of the great rebellion; and among the gentlemen of this county who compounded for the estates during the commonwealth, we find Sir Thomas Apley, of Whitmore, paid £5,000.  Apley House was besieged by the parliamentary forces under Sir John Price, when Sir W. Whitmore and his son, Sir Francis Oateley, Mr. Owen, Mr. Fowler, Mr. Griffiths, and about sixty soldiers were taken prisoners.

The South Lodge at Norton is the residence of William H. Austin, Esq., a neat and pleasantly situated mansion, beautified with tasteful pleasure grounds.

Charities.—Mr. Thomas Talbot, in 1678, bequeathed £34 for the use of the poor of the parish of Stockton, the interest to be expended in bread.  John Gough gave £30, and directed the yearly produce to be expended in bread, and given among six poor people.  This legacy, as well as Talbots, was placed on private security in the hands of Mr. Thomason, who gave his note of hand for the same.  Mrs. Eleanor Church, in 1798, gave to the churchwardens of Stockton £20, the interest to be given to the poor of the parish in bread on the first Sunday after the 26th of May.  This money was also lent to Mr. Thomason.  The interest of these three legacies now forms one fund for the distribution of bread, amounting to £4. 4s. a year.  The annual cost of the loaves distributed when the charity commissioners published their report was £3. 9s. 4d.  It did not appear why the whole of the interest had not been yearly expended, but the party holding the money agreed to pay up the principal, which it was intended to deposit in the Bridgnorth Savings’ Bank.

An omnibus leaves the Hundred House Inn twice a day, for the conveyance of passengers to and from the station at Shiffnal, and to Bridgnorth.

Post Office.—Receiving house at Mrs. Margaret Summer’s.

Whitmore Thomas Charlton, Esq., M.P., Apley Park

Whitmore Rev. Charles Blaney Cavendish, M.A., The Rectory

Arkinstall Abraham, blacksmith

Austin Wm. Hazledine, Esq., South Lodge

Bate John William, Asthall Farm

Branson Thomas, Esq., land & estate agent, Echoeshill

Brewster Henry, Higford Corn Mills

Bridgeman Mrs., Higford House

Bridgeman Orlando Jack, Esq., Cotsbrook House

Cherrington William, farmer

Darby Richard Sorton, Esq., Crowgreaves

Edgerley Thomas, carpenter and joiner

Edgerley John, butcher

Ferguson Alexander, farmer, Higford

Fletcher Mary, school teacher

Isaacson Rev. Stuteville, M.A., curate

Lee George, tailor

Lee John, tailor

Medcalf Charles, schoolmaster and organist

Nock Mrs. Mary Ann, farmer, Greaves

Nock Thomas, farmer, Leavenhall

Payne James, butler & farm bailiff, Rectory

Pearman Richard, farmer

Robinson Walter, shopkeeper

Rushton Edward, farmer

Summers Margaret, grocer, farmer, & vict., The Hundred House Inn

Yates Bartholomew, farmer, Old Park

SUTTON MADDOCK
parish is situated in the Shiffnal division of the Brimstree hundred, and comprises 3,240 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £4,042.  The arable lands are highly fertile, and the grazing lands produce a fine herbage.  The village is pleasantly situated on the Bridgnorth and Shiffnal turnpike road, six miles north from the former, and five miles south-west from the latter.  At the census in 1801 there were 400 inhabitants; 1831, 384; and in 1841, 79 houses and a population of 352 souls.  The principal landowners are Richard Phillips, Esq., Brockton Hall; T. C. Whitmore, Esq.; Richard Phillips, gentleman; Mr. William Wilkinson; Mr. William Braidley; and the Rev. John Brooke; there are also several other smaller proprietors.  The Church is a freestone structure, dedicated to St. Mary, and consists of nave and chancel, with a tower, in which are five bells.  The tower appears much older than the body of the church, which has in all probability been re-built, but of which we find no historical record.  There is a small organ placed upon the gallery.  A neat memorial remembers Elizabeth Farmer, of this place, who died on the 16th December, 1827, aged thirty years; there is also a neat tablet in memory of William Jones, late of Harrington, in this parish, who died in 1823, and various others.  This church was given to the priory of Wombridge by King Henry II.  The living is a discharged vicarage, annexed to the rectory of Kemberton.  The Rev. George Whitmore, M.A., is the incumbent.  In the 15th of Henry III., Madoc, the son of Griffin, held Sutton by knights’ service.  From this person it acquired the name of Sutton Madoc, now corrupted to Sutton Maddock.  Brockton is a hamlet in this parish, pleasantly situated on the turnpike road from Shiffnal to Bridgnorth, about a mile north from the parish church.  It contains several good family mansions.  The noble family of Sutton de Dudley are said to be descended from the Suttons of Sutton Maddock.

Directory.—William Braidley, gentleman; John Broughall, farmer, Sutton Hall; Mrs. Mary Broughall, the Villa, Brockton; William H. Davies, farmer, Harrington; William Jones, Esq., Brockton; Thomas Nock, farmer, Sutton farm; Richard Phillips, Esq., Brockton hall; Richard Phillips, Esq., the Grange, Brockton; Francis Ray, parish clerk; Mr. George Roden; William Rose, Esq., porcelain manufacturer, Rock house; Henry Smith, farmer, New house; John C. Titterton, blacksmith; Rev. George Whitmore, M.A., vicar, residence Kemberton; William Wilkinson, maltster and farmer.

TONG, OR TONGE,
is a parish in the Shiffnal division of the Brimstree hundred, comprising 3,464a. 3r. 37p. of land, mostly a strong loamy soil.  The woodlands cover one hundred and twenty acres.  At the census in 1801 there were 404 inhabitants; 1831, 510; and in 1841, 115 houses and a population of 566 souls.  Rateable value of the parish, £4,505. 1s.  The village of Tong is of considerable antiquity, and is delightfully situated in a fertile district richly beautified with picturesque scenery, three and a half miles east by south from Shiffnal, and ten miles south-east from Wolverhampton, George Charles Selwyn Durant, Esq., is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  The Earl of Bradford, Mrs. Celeste Durant, and Mr. Jones, are also proprietors.  Tong Castle is stated to have been in ancient times the seat of Hengist the Saxon, whom Vortigern the British king called in to his assistance; and having been successful in his warlike engagements, he afterwards begged of Vortigern as much land as an ox-hide would inclose.  On his request being granted, he cut the ox-hide into small thongs, and had as much land as it encompassed, whereon he built a castle.  The present castle is a magnificent structure, erected in the last century by George Durant, Esq., on the site of the old castle, which he purchased in 1764, and demolished.  The architecture is a fantastic mixture of Gothic and Moorish, and though bad in detail, the effect produced is strikingly grand, arising from the numerous turrets and pinnacles, the rich colour of the stone, the wide extent, and stately crown given to the whole by two lofty and magnificent Turkish domes.  It is beautifully situated in a fine champaign country, watered by a serpentine river which flows through the grounds, and passes close to the castle.  The park comprises 319a. 3r. 19p. of land, and is finely wooded with venerable timber.  The castle is now occupied by two female servants, the owner, G. C. S. Durant, Esq., being abroad.

The Church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, stands within the fine demesne of Tong Castle, and is a spacious and beautiful structure in the pointed style of the fourteenth century, consisting of nave, side aisles, choir, chancel, and side chapel.  From the centre rises a handsome but singular tower.  Immediately above the roof it is square; on it rests an octagonal bell-story, which is lengthened in a chastely-executed and lofty spire, about half-way up adorned with pinnacles, springing as it were out of the shaft.  The nave is divided from the side aisles by three handsome pointed arches, with clustered pillars on each side.  The tower contains a peal of eight musical bells, besides the great bell of Tong, and is ornamented with a clock and sun-dial.  It is supported by four lofty pointed arches, rising from clustered pillars enriched with Gothic tracery.  The ceiling is of dark oak, and the pews and reading desk are of the same material, the latter exhibiting some fine carving.  The rood loft or screen is nearly perfect, and embellished with much carving; the choir is small, and contains eight stalls on each side, of beautiful workmanship.  The east window is beautifully foliated, and a portion of it ornamented with stained glass, and underneath is the communion table, which is of alabaster; a remarkable old font exhibits some fine chiselling.  Adjoining the south aisle is a beautiful chantry chapel, erected by Sir Henry Vernon, in 1515; the roof is of groined freestone, having a profusion of delicate ribs and centre pendants.  The windows are richly adorned with stained glass.  The tomb of Sir Henry Vernon, Knight, is in the wall which separates the chapel from the church.  It has the figure of a knight and his lady in a recumbent posture.  Over this is a fine open screen, rising about ten feet; on the divisions are four rich tabernacles, with the original painting and gilding, but bereaved of their statues.  Within the area of the tower are four superb monuments, with recumbent figures on altar tombs, all of alabaster, highly adorned with elaborate workmanship, in memory of the Pembruges and Vernons.  It appears the former family possessed the castle and estates of Tong as early as the year 1280.  In the south aisle is a magnificent tomb, with the full length figure of a knight and his lady, in memory of the Hon. Thomas Stanley, second son of the Earl of Derby, and Margaret his wife, dated 1576, and has the following inscription:—

“Ask who lies here, but do not weep;
Hee is not dead, he do but sleep,
This stonie register is for his bones,
His fame is more perpetual than these stones;
And his own goodness with himself being gone,
Shall live when earthlie monument is none.

Not monumental stone preserves our fame,
Nor skie-aspiring pyramids our name;
The memory of him for whom this stands,
Shall outlive marble and defacer’s hands.
When all to time’s consumption shall be given,
Stanley, for whom this stands, shall stand in heaven.”

In a canopied niche is a carved figure, beautifully executed in basso-relievo, in memory of Mrs. Wylde, one of the co-heiresses of Sir Thomas Harris, Bart., the owner of Tong Castle and domain, which he purchased from the Stanley family about the year 1610.  Near to the pulpit is an alabaster tomb, of superb workmanship, with two figures representing a knight and his lady with hands joined in the attitude of prayer, remembering Richard Yernon, of Nether Haddon, and his wife Margaret.  The former died in 1557, and the latter in the year 1500.  On the opposite side is a large monumental tomb of grey marble, the top of which is inlaid with brass figures, and dated 1460.  This also remembers a branch of the Vernon family.  A neat tablet of white marble has been erected over the vestry door to the memory of Elizabeth Pierpoint, only daughter of Gervaise Pierpoint, Esq., the grandson of Robert Pierpoint, Earl of Kingston, a gallant soldier who fell a victim to loyalty in defending his prince, King Charles I.  He was descended from Robert de Pierpoint, a companion-in-arms of William the Conqueror, whose family is still extant in Normandy.  On the north side of the altar is a sumptuous pyramidal monument of white marble on a black ground, in memory of George Durant, Esq., and several other members of that family.  A splendid marble monument also remembers George Durant, Esq., who died November 29th, 1844, aged 69 years.  On the left of the altar is a grey marble monument to the memory of William Skeffington, Esq., of the White Ladies, who died in 1550.  From the crest and armorial bearings, he would appear to have descended from the ancient family of Massarene.  Gervaise Lord Pierpoint is interred in a family vault under the communion table.  He died May 22nd, 1715, aged 66 years.  Thomas Stanley, Esq., and his wife lie in the same vault.  There are many other interesting tablets and memorials, which our limits will not allow us to notice.  The great bell in this church was given by Sir Henry Vernon, Knt., in 1518.  It was broken by the Parliamentary forces in the troublesome times of King Charles I., and recast at the expense of the parish in 1720.  The bell remained entire till the first Wednesday in Lent, 1849, when it cracked while tolling for divine service.  It is stated that nine persons may comfortably stand under this bell at the same time.

King Henry IV., in 1411, in consideration of £40 granted to Isabel, relict of Sir Fulke de Pembrugge, Knt., the liberty of purchasing of the abbot and convent of Shrewsbury, the advowson and patronage of the church of St. Bartholomew, at Tong, then holden of the king in capite, paying an annual pension of 6s. 8d. to the monastery of Salop; and further, that the said church should be erected into a college, consisting of five chaplains, one whereof to be custos or warden of the college.  The duty of the warden and fellows was to pray for the souls of the king and of his brother, Thomas de Beaufort, and for the soul of the said Isabel.  The endowments, besides the provision for the warden and fellows, were to be applied for the maintenance and support of thirteen decrepid old men.  The priory of Lapley, anciently a cell of the convent of Rheimes, seized by King Edward III. as an alien priory, was annexed to this foundation.  The statutes and ordinances of the college, confirmed by the Bishop of Coventry, were to this effect:—That none of the fellows should be capable of any other ecclesiastical preferment, except the master; that the master was to have a man and a pair of horses kept at the expense of the college, to travel about the business of the fraternity—but, if occasion required it, he might keep more horses; that the warden was excusable from constant residence, but with the restriction not to be absent more than two months in the year, and if longer his salary was to be applied to the use of the college; that whoever of the fellows were absent from mass should forfeit one penny.  Every Sunday the mass of the Holy Ghost was to be celebrated for the founders and benefactors; on Mondays the mass of the Holy Ghost; on Tuesdays, Salus Populi, or the mass for the salvation of all men; on Wednesdays, the angels’ mass; on Thursdays, the mass de Corpore Christi; on Fridays, the mass of the Holy Ghost; and on Saturdays, the mass of rest.  That whoever was guilty of adultery, incest, perjury, sacrilege, robbery, after penance done for the first offence, he was to take an oath not to commit the like crime again, and if convicted the second time, to be expelled the house.  The church living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of G. C. S. Durant, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. George Shipton Harding, M.A.  The rectoral tithes have been commuted, and £391. 1s. 10d. apportioned to the impropriators.  The incumbent receives £80 per annum, with parsonage, and 2a. 0r. 37p. of glebe land.

Charities.—Gervaise Lord Pierpoint, by indenture of the 23rd of October, 1697, granted to trustees all the tithes (except the tithes of corn and grain) yearly growing within the parish of Tong, and also six several annuities or yearly rents of £30, £14, £6, £12, £12, and £10, making together £84 per annum, to be issuing out of the manor of Tong, on trust, as to the said tithes and the several annuities of £30, £14, and £6, to permit the minister or curate to enjoy the same; one of the annuities of £12 to be distributed among the six poor widows in the almshouses; and the other £12 to be expended in purchasing Stafford shalloon, and setting to work the poor people of Tong in manufacturing the same into cloth, part thereof to be made into six gowns for the said poor widows, and the remainder to be applied in clothing the necessitous poor; the residue £10 to be disposed of in buying hemp and flax and setting the poor at work in manufacturing it into cloth, and after selling the same, to apply the proceeds in putting forth poor children apprentices.  Lord Pierpoint granted a further annuity of £30, to be also issuing out of the manor of Tong, on trust, to permit the minister to receive and enjoy the same from such time as he could not (without covin or neglect on his part) have and enjoy the said tithes; but the minister was not to enjoy the tithes and last mentioned annuity at the same time.  The minister had also the privilege of holding a certain chamber in the castle of Tong, as the same was then furnished with books and presses, together with the free use of the said books; and also stabling for one horse, and the privilege of depasturing it for a certain time in Tong Park.  And for the better assuring the performances of the several grants, Lord Pierpoint granted to the trustees three other annuities of £5. 40s., and 40s. to be for ever issuing out of the manor, castle, and premises, and to be respectively forfeited, and to continue payable so long as the minister should not enjoy the said chamber, stabling, and pasture, respectively.

By an indenture of the 11th of August, 1725, in which it is recited, that the premises charged had descended to Evelyn Duke of Kingston, upon the death of Lord Pierpoint; and that the Castle of Tong had been a long time uninhabited and Tong Park disparked and inclosed, and that the said duke, at his own charge, built with brick a strong handsome and convenient house in Tong, with a room for a library, and stable and hayloft, and other conveniences, for the habitation of the minister, and had delivered the books to him and his successors; so that the covenants made by Lord Pierpoint in respect of the room and library in Tong Castle, and the stabling and depasturing, were become unnecessary, and the several annuities granted for enforcing the specific performance thereof should therefore be repealed; and that the common fields in Tong having been inclosed and converted into pasture, the revenue of tithes granted to the minister had been reduced to £12 per annum, but that the duke was willing, on condition that the said small tithes should be invested in him and his heirs, to be discharged from the trust; that the said annuity of £30 should be absolutely and indefeasibly settled and assured to the said minister and his successors for ever; which, together with the several annuities of £30, £14, and £6, make £80 per annum.  And after reciting that the said duke and the late Lord Pierpoint had for a long time paid £4 a year for maintaining a schoolmaster, the said duke for perpetuating the charily, conveyed a messuage, situated near the west end of the church, then used as a school-house, in trust, to permit the same to be occupied as a school for teaching ten poor boys within the parish of Tong to read, and granted a rent charge of £4 per annum, issuing out of the manor of Tong, to be paid to the schoolmaster.  The library above mentioned, which is understood to have been augmented by Mr. Peitier, was removed several years ago to the vestry room.

It appears that shortly after the late Mr. Durant came into the possession of the estate, the old almshouse and school-house were taken down, and new ones built by that gentleman on other sites.  It is stated that the old buildings had become too dilapidated to admit of any effectual repairs, and that Mr. Durant having, under these circumstances, conceived the idea of erecting new buildings, was induced to select new situations as better suited for the purpose; and the charity has derived much advantage from the change.  But it is to be observed that no regular transfer of the new premises was ever made to the trustees, an omission it appears desirable to supply.  In the year 1802, the almshouse having grown much in need of repair, the sum of £102, from the funds of a charity to be presently adverted to, was applied to that purpose; since which time the repairs have been kept up at the expense of the parish, aided by the voluntary contributions of Mr. Durant.  The inmates of the almshouses each receive £3 quarterly, and occasionally other benefactions.  The ruins of the old hospital are still to be seen.

By an indenture dated 31st May, 1734, it is recited that the sum of £100 was given by the late Lady Harris, for the use of the poor of the parish; the sum of £200 was likewise bequeathed by Lady Pierpoint, and a sum of £100 was given by Lewis Peitier, minister of Tong, and party to the said indenture, making in the whole the sum of £400, which was laid out in the purchase of certain premises in Albrighton, called the New Lands and the Hawklees, containing 30a. 3r. 2p., now producing £45 per annum.  In 1781 a sale of timber from this farm produced the sum of £100, which in 1802 was applied to the repairs of the almshouse granted by the Duke of Kingston.  In the year 1814 £100 was laid out in the purchase of a cottage and 1a. 3r. 2p. of land in Horsebrook, which is now let for £10 10s. per annum; the rent of the last mentioned premises is apportioned to the schoolmaster, who has also £10 from the farm at Albrighton, and £4 from the manor of Tong, making altogether the sum of £24. 10s., with the additional benefit of a house and garden from the charity of the Duke of Kingston, in consideration of which the children are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and they are furnished with the necessary books and clothing from the charity.  The master has also £5 per annum for teaching a Sunday school.  The portion of income which is allotted for general distribution is laid out in the purchase of warm clothing, which is given to the poor during the winter season.

A feast is held at Tong on the Sunday before St. Matthew’s-day.  Mr. Durant’s agent at the present time is holder of four of the largest farms in the parish, viz., Tong Park farm, Hubbal farm, Holt farm, and the Mees farm.

Andrews George, carpenter

Archer Henry, Little White Oak farm

Bennion Owen, Tong farm

Bennion Owen, The Hill farm

Bennion Owen, jun., White Oak farm

Boden John, shoemaker and shopkeeper

Bucknal Richard, farmer and beerhouse

Chipps Mrs. Mary

Cherrington William, wheelwright

Earp William, Lizard Grange farm

Georges The Misses

Harding Rev. George Shipton, M.A., The Rectory

Hempenstall George, Esq., land steward

Higgs William, Offoxey farm

Holder Charles, shoemaker

Hounsom Abraham, farmer, Norton, and deputy land agent

Hufferdine Charles, wheelwright

Humpage Samuel, shoemaker

Icke Thomas, grazier, Vauxhall

Jaundrell John, tailor

Jones William, vict., The Bush Inn, grocer and provision dealer and farmer

Langford William, nursery and seedsman

Longstaff John, schoolmaster & parish clerk

Milner Thomas, maltster

Page John, vict. and farmer, The Bell

Quantrell Walter, Ruckley Wood

Savage Gilbert Cole, The Knowle farm

Thornycroft Mrs., Tong Lodge

Wilks Samuel, Lizard Grange, corn miller

Worrall William, New Buildings farm, and maltster

WORFIELD
is an extensive parish in a delightful and salubrious part of the county, watered by the meandering stream of the Worf.  The land exhibits inequalities of surface, and bold swells, which in some instances rise to a considerable height, from whence most beautiful and varied prospects over a luxuriant country are seen.  The soil is variable, the arable lands produce good wheat, turnips, and barley, and the meadows and grazing lands are highly fertile.  The farms in most instances are large, and the houses in general are good residences, with conveniently arranged out premises.  Several ancient dwellings have been taken down, and handsome villa residences erected in their place.  The cottages are for the most part well built, and in most instances have small allotments of garden ground.  The parish comprises 10,314 acres of land, and at the census in 1801 had 1,354 inhabitants; 1831, 1,676, and in 1841 there were 357 houses and 1,643 souls.  Rateable value, £16,145. 19s. 9d.  Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., M.P., of Apley Park, and William S. Davenport, Esq., are the principal landowners; the two former, with Mrs. Bache, are joint lords of the manor.  The parish contains the following hamlets or townships for highway purposes, viz., Ackleton, Allscott, Barnsley, Bentley, Bromley, Bradney, Burcote, Chesterton, Cranmere, Catstree, Ewdness, Fenngate, Hilton, Hoccom, Hallon, Hartleberry, Kingslow, Little Gane, Oldington, Newton, Roughton, Ringleford, Rowley, Stanmore, Stableford, Swancote, Worfield, Wheel Green, Winscote, and Wyken, which places are divided into four districts or collections, called north-east quarter, south-east quarter, north-west quarter, and south-west quarter.

The small and sequestered village of Worfield is pleasantly situated at the foot of an immense rock of red sand stone, except on the northern verge where the houses stand on the side of a precipitous acclivity, and is three and a half miles N.E. from Bridgnorth, eight miles S. from Shiffnal, and eleven miles S.W. by S. from Wolverhampton.  From the summit of the rock, which is crowned with timber, a most delightful panoramic view of the surrounding country is seen, the romantic situation of the village, and the circuitous windings of the Worf adding much to the picturesque beauty of the scenery.  The river Worf is noted for its fine trout.  The land between this place and Claverley stretching as far as Bridgnorth was the celebrated Morffe Forest, where the inhabitants of Worfield had common pasture; the king, however, appointed stewards and rangers to take care of the woods and deer.  In the reign of Henry VIII. the Earl of Shrewsbury was steward or ranger for life with a fee of 4d. per day.  The forest has long been enclosed, and is now covered with luxuriance and fertility.  On the south east side of the Morffe in early times was an important military station, which may still be traced; the ground is elevated, and the moat still visible, circumscribing a large area.  The Church, dedicated to St. Peter, is an ancient structure of red sand stone, which has been enlarged and beautified from time to time.  The tower is ornamented with pinnacles, and surmounted with a lofty spire; it is beautified with a clock, and contains a peal of six musical bells.  The interior has a chaste and beautiful appearance, the side aisles are separated from the nave by pointed arches rising from octagonal pillars, the pews are of oak, and upon the gallery at the west end is a fine toned organ.  The pulpit and reading desk are elaborately carved.  Several of the windows are richly adorned with stained glass, and the altar is of dark oak, exquisitely carved.  The chancel is spacious, and contains memorials to deceased members of some of the principal families in this locality.  A side chapel, separated by a richly carved oak screen, contains an altar tomb, with two figures in a recumbent posture, in memory of Sir George Bromley and his lady, dated 1688.  Under a canopy of beautiful workmanship are two figures in a recumbent position, which remembers Sir Edward Bromley, Knight, chancellor of England, and his wife, dated 1626.  There are also many elegant mural monuments of beautiful design and admirable workmanship, in memory of the Davenports, Broughtons, Vickers, Marindins, Fletchers, Masons, Johnsons, and others.  In the church-yard are several family vaults cut in the solid rock.  Archdeacon Vickers was entombed in one of these vaults with much solemnity in May, 1851.  The southern entrance to the church is by an ancient porch, and through a door of remarkable and curious workmanship.  Over the centre of this door are located a swarm of bees, which tradition states have been there for ages.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £16. 15s., in the patronage of William S. Davenport, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Cornelius Francis Broadbent, M.A.  The Rev. Henry Cunliffe, M.A., is the officiating minister.  The vicarial tithes have been commuted for £288. 10s.  Mr. Davenport, the impropriator of the rectoral tithes, receives £1,745.  The vicarage is an ancient erection a short distance from the church.  “The annals of the church of Worcester assert that King Edward I. gave the church of Worfield to their prior and convent for the sustenance of three monks, and for maintaining two wax candles to be kept continually burning at the feast of St. Wulstan, and for eight days after, and to be daily lighted at the saying of high mass both at matins and vespers.  This was done in accomplishment of a vow made to St. Wulstan.”  There is an endowed Grammar School, which will be found noticed with the charities, and a National School for boys and girls—a spacious structure of modern erection, with residences for the teachers; about sixty boys and fifty girls attend.  It is partly supported by endowment and partly by subscriptions.  Davenport House is a handsome and spacious mansion of brick, with stone finishings, the seat of William Sharington Davenport, Esq., J.P.  The situation is delightful, and the extensive park grounds are richly studded with fine timber, the drives and pleasure grounds are kept in the most beautiful order, and several of the eminences in the park are ornamented with sculptured figures.

Charities.—King James I., by his letters patent, dated 1st of May, in the 10th of his reign, in consideration of £5. 4s. paid by Thomas Beech and Thomas Bradburne, granted to William Lloyd and Thomas Parker, and their heirs, certain premises in Worfield, Bridgnorth, and Quatford, in trust, that the yearly proceeds thereof should be employed by the parishioners towards the maintenance of a school for the instruction of youth in reading and writing English, and in the accidence and principles of grammar and the Latin tongue.  This is usually called Lloyd and Parker’s charity, after the names of the original grantees of the crown, but they appear to have been in fact only the channel through which these premises were conveyed to the real purchasers, who were Beech and Bradburne.  Besides the rent an annual sum of £9 was received from Mr. Smythe when the charity commissioners published their report, as interest at 4½ per cent. on a joint bond from his father and himself for £200, dated December 13th, 1796, being an accumulation of funds which he held in his hands as receiver of the rents of this charity.  The total income was £46. 1s., which was applied in a distribution of money to the poor, in the reparation of the trust premises and schoolhouse, and in paying a small salary to a schoolmaster.  Thomas Smith left a rent charge of 16s. a year, for the instruction of two poor boys to read English.  William Lewis, who died about fifty years ago, left £60, the interest to be applied for educating three boys in Worfield school.

Thomas Woolley, in 1609, gave £100 for purchasing lands for the use of the poor of Worfield, which was laid out in lands at Brierley.  Other premises in Brierley were afterwards purchased by the parish for the sum of £202. 4s., made up of six different benefactions.  Soon after the last purchase, these properties were combined into one estate.  The premises consist of 17a. 2r. 5p., and produce a yearly rental of £40.  In the course of certain proceedings in chancery respecting this charity in the year 1808, it appears to have been stated in a valuation on oath before the master, that the mines lying under these lands were worth £300 per acre.  Of the income, £1. 16s. is paid to the vicar, for preaching sermons according to the intentions of the donors; £6 to the treasurer of Lloyd and Parker’s charity; and the rest is distributed to the poor, according to a list made out by the trustees.

Thomas Beech, in 1645, surrendered to the use of his nephew, William Beech, certain lands in Hilton and Halton, in trust.  After the death of Dorothy, wife of the said Thomas Beech, to pay 12s. 4d. at the feast of St. Michael, for engrossing the court rolls, and placing them in the church chest at Worfield; and after the expiration of ninety-nine years, beginning at the death of the said Dorothy, to pay yearly at the feast of the Ascension, to the vicar of Worfield 3s., and to the poor of Worfield 10s.  The charity commissioners state the land to be vested in Mr. Smythe and Mr. Hardwick, but there was no evidence to show that these annuities have ever been paid; and it would appear that forty-two years’ arrears were then due to the vicar and the poor, as the payment ought to have commenced in the year 1777.

William Perry charged a loft and half yard of land and a cottage in Wykem with the payment of 6s. 8d. yearly, on four specified days, to buy bread for twenty poor people of the parish of Worfield.  The premises afterwards became possessed by Thomas Smith and John Bache, the former agreeing to pay 2s. 3d. of the said rent-charge, and the other 4s. 5d.

Dr. William Congreve, of Broadney, by his will dated 20th October, 1775, reciting that £10 had been left in his hands by his father and grandfather, the interest to be paid every Good Friday to persons who had lived servants at Bradney, and that Robert Littleford, his late servant, had left in his hands £10, the interest to be given yearly, the Sunday after Midsummer-day, to eight servants who had lived at the least one year at Bradney.  Dr. Congreve charged his lands with the payment of 10s. and 8s., as the interest of these two sums, which is distributed according to the donor’s intentions.

Robert Crudgington, in 1714, surrendered to the lord of the manor of Worfield half a yard of land and three parts of a nook of land, in Newton, on condition that the persons in possession should pay out of the rents 20s. per annum, to be distributed among poor widows or other necessitous persons inhabiting in the parish of Worfield.

Mr. Bache, of Chesterton, left £5, the interest to be paid on New-year’s day to ten poor widows nominated by the heirs of the family.  Mr. Thomas Bache gave £10, and directed the interest to be applied in the same manner.  The interest of these two sums is now distributed by the representatives of Mr. Bache.  There is no document respecting these benefactions, but they are considered as charged generally on the family estate.

Thomas Devey, in 1725, surrendered a croft to the use of his heirs, subject to the payment of 10s. yearly, which he directed to be distributed among poor widows of this parish.  This seems to be the gift mentioned on the benefaction table, as a legacy of Mrs. Elizabeth Devey.

Thomas Smith, in 1726, charged two pieces of land called Uphill and Downhill, and the Fen lands with the payment of 30s. per annum, 16s. thereof to be paid to the schoolmaster of Worfield, and 14s. to be divided among seven poor persons, to be nominated by the possessors of the land.

Mrs. Mary Dolman left by will £40, the interest of £20 thereof to be given among the poor of Worfield, and the proceeds from the other £20 to be applied in buying bibles; one of her executors secured the payment of 40s. per annum on his estate at Ackleton.

Mrs. Arabella Davenport, in 1763, bequeathed £200 to the vicar and churchwardens, in trust, to be laid out in lands, and the rents to be distributed among poor widows and maidens of this parish.  No purchase of lands has been made with this money, but it is placed in the hands of Mr. Smythe, and secured on bond dated 9th September, 1809, with lawful interest at four and a half per cent.

Mrs. Sarah Mason, in 1809, gave to the churchwardens of Worfield for the time being, an annuity of £5, to be divided among poor widows residing in this parish.  The payment is charged upon the freehold and copyhold estates of the donor, to be paid on the 24th of June and 25th December, by equal portions.

It is stated on the table of benefactions that George Bromley, Esq., gave £120 to charitable uses, £30 of which had been laid out in a purchase of land at Brexley, and £90 remained in the hands of the trustees, which was laid out in 1730 in building a workhouse for the use of the parish.

The following benefactions appear on the tablet in the church, of which nothing further is now known.  £50 given by William Rowley for a distribution of bread, £5, the gift of John Beech, and a legacy of £20 bequeathed by John Bradburne.

Ackleton is a small well-built village, and township in the parish of Worfield, two and a quarter miles north-east from the parish church.  The acres and population of the several townships in Worfield are included in the general returns of the parish.  The principal freeholders are the executors of the late Mr. Eykyn, Mr. Green, Mrs. Clarke, Mrs. Patrick, Mr. Thomas Priest, and Mr. John Richards.  Ackleton House is a good residence occupied by Mrs. Eykyn.  Allscott is pleasantly situated about a mile and a quarter north-west from Worfield; the land is the property of Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq.  Barnsley township is situated two miles south-east from Worfield, and the freeholders are Mr. John Hoccom, Mr. William Hoccom, and Miss Hoccom.  Bentley lies about two miles to the south-west of Worfield, and is the property of George Pritchard, Esq.  Bentley House is a good brick residence beautified with tasteful pleasure grounds, and occupied by Mr. William Sing.  The farm premises which are commodious are situate a short distance from the house.  Bromley township is chiefly the property of Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq.; the village is situated about a mile to the south-west of Worfield.  Bradney, or Bradley, a pleasantly situated township, half a mile east from Worfield, is intersected by the Wolverhampton turnpike road.  Bradney House, the residence of Captain Brazier, is a beautiful modern erection with pleasure grounds tastefully laid out.  Warner House, an ancient residence, is now occupied as a farm dwelling.  Capt. James Brazier is the land owner.  Burncote, or Burcot, is a small rural village and township situated on a gentle eminence; the principal freeholders are Mr. John Bell Hardwick, Mr. Richard Hardwick, Mr. Parkes, and Mrs. Bache; the township is bounded by the river Worf and the Shiffnal and Wolverhampton turnpike road.  In 1809, a large semi-circular cave was discovered at Burcot, in which were found human bones, sculls, and the bones of several animals.  The ancient name of Bourncote, which in the Saxon language means the cote or dwelling near to the river, of which this cave is within a few paces serves to show the probability of this having been the cote or dwelling, which may have given rise to the word Burcot, the present name of the township.  It is presumed the bones found in this cave may have been those of persons who made this cave the place of their occasional residence, and that it was destroyed by a sudden convulsion of the rock, and downfall of the soil above it.  Chesterton village is delightfully situated on a gentle eminence, commanding fine views over a country teeming with luxuriance.  The residence of John Bache, Esq., is a handsome mansion, with pleasure grounds most beautifully laid out.  The residence of Mrs. Marindin is also spacious and elegant.  The landowners are John Bache, Esq., Mrs. Marindin, Mr. Thomas Wilson, and Mr. Samuel Marindin.  Near to the village, which is about two miles N.E. from Worfield, are the remains of a Roman encampment, which is said to have covered an area of more than twenty acres.  A small structure in this township prior to the reformation was used as a chapel, but since that period has been occupied as an humble dwelling; it was dedicated to St. John the Baptist.  Cranmere, or Cranmere Heath, is situated about a mile and a half to the N.W. of Worfield.  The land is the property of William S. Davenport, Esq., and Valentine Vickers, Esq.  Catstree, another small township, anciently formed part of the demesnes of the Saxon lords of the manor of Worfield.  The family of Catstree resided here till the year 1819.  Thomas C. Whitmore, Esq., and W. S. Davenport, Esq., are the landowners.  Ewdness, a pleasantly situated township on the Bridgnorth and Shiffnal turnpike road, two miles north from Worfield, contains 441 acres of land, which is the property of Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq.  Rateable value, £490. 4s. 10d.  The tithes have been commuted, and £74 apportioned to the impropriator, and £22 to the vicar of Worfield.  Ewdness House is a commodious Elizabethan structure, with bay windows; the interior contains some fine specimens of antique oak carving.  The house is occupied by Mr. Richard M. Barker.  Fenn Gate, a hamlet two miles from Worfield, has only one farm.  The land is the property of T. C. Whitmore, Esq.  Hilton is a pleasantly situated village and township on the turnpike road from Bridgnorth to Wolverhampton, four and a half miles N.E. from the former place.  A small stream here called Hilton Brook is crossed by a stone bridge erected in 1814, with funds raised by subscriptions, and from the Bridgnorth turnpike trust.  The principal landowners are Mr. Samuel Ridley, Mr. Kettle, Mr. Thomas Smythe, Mrs. Hammond, and Mrs. Smythe, besides whom are several other proprietors.  Hilton House, the residence of George Smith Dorset, Esq., is a handsome residence with grounds tastefully laid out, besides which there are several other good houses in the village.  Hoccom, or Hockham, is a small hamlet about two miles N.E. from Bridgnorth; the landowners are Mr. John Meredith and Mr. William Sing.  Hallon is a hamlet adjoining Worfield, situated on a bold eminence.  Hallon House, a beautiful modern erection of considerable extent, is the residence of James Farmer, gentleman.  The freeholders are William S. Davenport, Esq., and Valentine Vickers, Esq.  Hartleberry is situated N.W. from Worfield, about a mile and a quarter from the church.  Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., is the landowner.  Kingslow is a small hamlet delightfully situated, three miles N.E. from Worfield.  The freeholders are Lord Lewisham and Mrs. Devey.  Kingslow House is a good residence occupied by John Farmer, gentleman.  Stanlow House is occupied as a farm residence by Mr. Thomas Wilson.  The hamlet of Little Gane lies about three miles from Worfield; the freeholders and residents are Samuel and Edward Ridley, gentlemen.  Oldington township is situated two miles N.W. from Worfield, and is the property of Thomas C. Whitmore, Esq.  Newton, situated near to Oldington, is also the property of the same gentleman.  Roughton is a well built and respectable village on the Bridgnorth and Wolverhampton turnpike road, two and a half miles from the former place; there are several genteel residences embosomed in foliage, and beautified with tasteful pleasure grounds.  The landowners are John and George Pritchard, Esq., Mrs. Fletcher and Mrs. Stokes.  Riddleford, or Rhuddleford, is of British derivation, and signifies the Red Ford.  It is a small township about two miles E. of Bridgnorth, which formerly belonged to the family of the Walkers, a branch of the Walkers, of Burncote and Roughton, who disposed of it to the Colley family, and they to the late William Hardwicke, Esq., of Burncote, who married Miss Mary Purton, by whom he had two children, John Role Hardwicke, Esq., deceased, and William Hardwicke, Esq., of Bridgnorth, an eminent antiquary and genealogist, whose widow is the present proprietor.  Rowley is another small hamlet nearly a mile from Worfield, where William S. Davenport and Mrs. Martha Johnson are the landowners.  Stanmore is a village and township on the Stourbridge road, two miles E. from Bridgnorth.  John and George Pritchard, Esqrs., W. S. Davenport, Esq., and T. C. Whitmore, Esq., are the landowners.  Stanmore Grove, the residence of R. Pigott, Esq., is a good house, pleasantly situated.  Stableford, or Stapleford, is a small hamlet two miles N. from Worfield, not far from which runs the Cosford Brook.  The freeholders are Mr. Jasper, and the executors of the late Richard Taylor.  Swancote is situated about a mile and a half to the N.E. of Bridgnorth.  George Pritchard, Esq., is the proprietor of the land.  Swancote House, a commodious residence pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, and ornamented with pleasure grounds neatly laid out, is occupied by William Sing, Esq.  Wheel Green is a hamlet on the Bridgnorth and Northampton turnpike road, three and a half miles N.E. from the former place, and near to the river Worf.  Winscote is situated two miles from Worfield, and the land is the property of T. C. Charlton, Esq.  Wyken, derived from Wycke, (Saxon, “Place and Residence,” and Hen, British, “Old, or the Old Place”), is a small township and manor within the parish and manor of Worfield, situated about three miles N.E. of Bridgnorth.  This manor was granted, together with the church of Worfield, and chapel of Chesterton, in the same parish, by King Edward II., in the 11th year of his reign, to the dean of Lichfield, in exchange for the manor of Greenford, in Middlesex.  In the 2nd Edward VI., Richard William, then dean of Lichfield, with the chapter conveyed this manor with the advowson of the vicarage of the parish church of Worfield, and most of the great tithes of that parish, to Sir John Talbot, Knight, of Albrighton, which manor and tithes are now vested in William Sharrington Davenport, Esq., of Davenport House, in Worfield parish.  The chief landowner in this township is Joseph Parkes, Esq., (in right of his wife Anna, the only child of the late John Bache, Esq.,) who resides at Wyken House, situated on the Streetford Brook, which has its confluence with the Worf below; Mr. Nicholas and Mr. J. Mollineux are also proprietors in this township.

Worfield.

Bennett William, shopkeeper

Brown John, mill manager

Broadbent Rev. Cornelius Francis, M.A., The Rectory

Broughall Geo., corn miller

Clutton George, butcher

Clutton Mary, beer retailer

Crookshanks Alex., gardener

Crow Emily and Caroline, dressmakers

Cunliffe Rev. Henry, M.A., curate

Davenport Elizabeth, gentlewoman

Davenport Wm. Sharrington, Esq., and county magistrate, Davenport House

Hall John, vict., Grey Hound Inn

Humphreys Hugh, National School master

James Samuel, principal of Endowed Grammar School

Mead William, butler

Piper Mary, dressmaker

Piper Thomas, wheelwright

Powell Mr. Edwd., The Low

Price Richard, tailor

Pritchards Theophilus, game keeper

Rogers Thomas, shoemaker, and parish clerk

Sherry William, tailor

ACKLETON.

Eykyn Mrs., The Hall

Gibbons James, farmer

Holden Francis, blacksmith

Painter Thomas, shopkeeper

Poole Francis, beer-retailer and farmer

Priest Thomas, farmer

Richards John, maltster and farmer

Richards Sarah, farmer

Wilson Richard, maltster and farmer

ALLSCOT.

Reynolds Wm., shoemaker

Wray Richard, farmer

BARNSLEY.

Haccom Miss, farmer

Haccom John, farmer

Haccom William, farmer

BENTLEY.

Sing William, farmer

BROMLEY.

Iddins Thomas, farmer

Jones John, wheelwright

Smith Thomas, gentleman

Worrall Richard, farmer

BRADNEY.

Brasier Captain James

Gibbons James, farmer

BURCOTE.

Cartwright John, farmer

Hardwicke John Bell, maltster and farmer

Hardwicke Richard, farmer and corn miller, The Villa

Rowley Richard, machineman (lets)

Sharpe Mrs.

Turner Thomas, manager, Mill

CHESTERTON.

Bache John, Esquire

Holding Francis, blacksmith

Hunt John, farmer & miller

Johnson John, farmer

Marindin Ellen, gentlewoman

Smith Edward, farmer

CRANMERE.

Braidley Thomas, shoemaker

Humphreys John, farmer

CATSTREE.

Nicholls Sarah, farmer

Price John, farmer

EWDNESS.

Barker Richard M., farmer

FENN GATE.

Whitehouse Cornelius, farmer

HILTON.

Darley Thomas, farmer

Davies Edward Harrison, builder and maltster

Dorset George Smith, Esq., Hilton House

Gibbons James, Blue Barn farm

Lane James, beer retailer

Poole Mr. William

Pope William, wheelwright

Ridley Samuel, gentleman

Roles Benjamin, shopkeeper

Tolly John, blacksmith

White John, wheelwright and machine maker

Wilcox Richard, gentleman

HOCCOM.

Meredith George, farmer

Meredith John, farmer

Sing William, farmer

HALLON.

Barney Theophilus, blacksmith

Farmer James, gentleman, Hallon House

Tarrant Isaac, builder and joiner

Turner John, blacksmith

HARTLEBERRY.

Dudley Samuel, wheelwright

Littleford Thomas, senior, farmer

Wood Eleanor, shopkeeper and farmer

Wood Thomas, brick & tile maker, and farmer

KING SLOW.

Farmer John, gentleman, Kingslow farm

Wilson Thomas, Esquire, Stanlow

LITTLE GANE.

Ridley Samuel and Edward, farmers

OLDINGTON.

Worrall Arthur, farmer

Worrall Thomas, farmer

NEWTON.

Sing William, jun., farmer

ROUGHTON.

Meredith John, farmer

Pratt Edward Richard, farmer, miller, & corn factor, Brook Cottage; Corn Mills at Smestow and Union Steam Mills, Tipton

Smith John, gentleman

Smith William, gentleman, The Hall

Smithyman Mrs Jane

Smithyman William, farmer

Stokes Martha Corser, gentlewoman

RINGLEFORD.

Ridley Samuel and Edward, corn factors, millers, maltsters, farmers, seedsmen, and guano and tillage dealers

Wellings Benjamin, blacksmith

ROWLEY.

Johnson Martha, farmer

STANMORE.

Beeston Richard, farmer, carrier, and van proprietor

Pigot Richard, Esq., The Grove

Ridley Samuel and Edward, Grove farm

Tedstall Thos., beer-retailer

Warder James, farmer

STABLEFORD.

Hill Henry, farmer

Humphrey George, wheelwright

Jasper John, Esq., The Hall

Smith Thomas, farmer

SWANCOTE.

Sing William, Esq., Swancote House

WHEEL GREEN.

Hammond Jane, farmer and victualler, The Wheel, and Post Office

WINSCOTE.

Sing William, jun., farmer

WYKEN.

Adams Thomas, plumber, glazier, and painter

Bache Ann, gentlewoman

Lloyd James, shoemaker

Lloyd James, blacksmith

Mantle John, shopkeeper, market gardener, nurseryman and seedsman

Mollineux James, gentleman

Mollineux James, butcher and farmer

Mollineux Michael, farmer

Painter John, blacksmith

Parkes Joseph, Esq., The Hall

Piper Moses, shopkeeper

Powell William, bricklayer

THE CONDOVER HUNDRED.

The Condover hundred is bounded on the north by the liberties of Shrewsbury, on the east by the South Bradford hundred and the Wenlock franchise, on the west by the Ford hundred, and on the south by the hundred of Munslow.  The land presents a considerable inequality of surface; the soil is various; in some places there is a good deal of gravelly loam and sand, and in other places a clayey soil prevails, lying upon the red sand stone.  The Lyth hill stands within the bounds of this hundred, and the lofty heights of the Caradoc, Lawley, and Longmynd connect it on the south and west with the hundreds of Munslow and Purslow.  The population of this hundred in 1801 was 5,818, and in 1841, 7,349, of whom 3,701 were males and 3,648 females.  At the latter period there were 1445 inhabited houses and 73 houses building.  This hundred comprehends the Condover and the Cound divisions.  The Condover division contains the following townships and places, viz: Bayston, Betchcott, Betton and Alkmere, Castle Pulverbatch, Chatford, Church Pulverbatch, Churton, Condover, Cothercott, Dorrington, Frodesley, Lee Botwood, Longnor, Meole Brace, Newton and Edgbold, Nobold, Picklescott, Pulley, Smethcott, Stapleton, Sutton, Walkmills, Wilderley, Woolstaston, and Wrentnall.

The Cound division contains Acton Burnell, Berrington, Church Preen, Cound, Cressage, Harley, Kenley, Pitchford, and Ruckley and Langley.

ACTON BURNELL
is a parish and pleasant well-built village, seven miles S.S.E. from Shrewsbury, comprising 2,650 acres of land, and in 1801 had 272 inhabitants; in 1841 there were 54 houses and a population of 311 souls.  Sir Edward Joseph Smythe, bart., is the land owner and lord of the manor, and resides at the Hall, an elegant mansion of white free stone, approached by a beautiful portico of the Ionic order; the pleasure grounds are tastefully laid out, and the park commands a beautiful prospect of the surrounding country.  Near to the Hall are the ruins of Acton Burnell Castle, which is memorable in history for a parliament held here in the year 1283, by King Edward I., on which occasion the lords sat in the castle and the commons in a barn.  It was in this parliament that the statute known by the name of the statute of Acton Burnell was made for the purpose of enforcing the statutuno de mercatoribus.  It appoints the mode in which a statute merchant is to be made, and by whom; fixes the manner of seizing and valuing goods for the payment of debts; in what case the debtor shall be imprisoned, and how maintained in prison; when sureties shall be compelled to pay the debts of their principals, and when they are to be exempted, &c.  Sir Robert Burnell, who lived in the reign of William the Conqueror, had his seat here, and his posterity flourished in this vicinity for a long period.  Philip Burnell, in the 54th Henry III., had the grant of a market on Tuesday, and two fairs in the year, the one on the eve, the day, and the day after the annunciation of the blessed Virgin, and the other on the eve, the day, and the morrow of St. Michael the Archangel.  Robert Burnell, bishop of Bath and Wells, is said to have repaired or built the castle here in the reign of Edward I.  The walls of the castle are of immense thickness, and adorned with battlements and rows of curiously carved windows.  A short distance from the castle stood the barn, where the commons are stated to have assembled when the parliament was held here, it is now a complete ruin, and the gables only remain.  The Church is a venerable fabric dedicated to St. Mary; the living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £6. 10s., now returned at £350, in the patronage of Sir E. J. Smythe and incumbency of the Rev. Edward Arthur Wainwright.  Adjoining the hall is a very beautiful Catholic Chapel, which has recently been considerably enlarged and improved at the cost of Sir E. J. Smythe.  The family at the hall and a great portion of the tenantry usually attend divine worship here.

Acton Pigott is a hamlet with one farm and a few cottages, one mile north-east from Acton Burnell.

Charities.—Several sums of money left to the poor by different donors amounting in the whole to £20, were applied in repairing the workhouse, and the inhabitants agreed to pay 20s. yearly out of the rent of the said house, as the interest thereof, to be distributed in bread.  Edward Bayley, in 1789, left a rent charge of 10s. yearly for a distribution of bread.  Thomas Smyth, in 1673, left 5s. per annum for a distribution of bread, to be paid “out of his estate to the world’s end, if his estate should so long continue sufficient to make it good.”  It does not appear that anything has been paid in respect of this charity for a long period.

Directory.—Sir Edward Joseph Smythe, bart., the Hall; John William Benbow, farmer; Edward Everall, shopkeeper; Eli Charles Moore, bailiff to Sir E. J. Smythe; Thomas Morris, farmer; Peter Perry, farmer and maltster, Acton Pigott; Thomas Reynolds, butcher; William Southall, vict., Nag’s head; Rev. Edward Arthur Wainwright, rector.

RUCKLEY AND LANGLEY
is a small village and chapelry in the parish of Acton Burnell, about one mile east from that place, and five and a half miles west from Much Wenlock.  At the census in 1801 there were eighty-two inhabitants; in 1841, fifteen houses and a population of eighty-three souls.  The chapelry contains 952 acres of land, which is the property of Sir Edward Joseph Smythe, bart., who is also lord of the manor.  The chapel is an inconsiderable structure where divine service is performed only twice during the year.  The living is a curacy subordinate to the rectory of Acton Burnell.  Langley Hall, an ancient mansion of considerable extent, is now occupied as a farm house, and although much dilapidated it has an imposing aspect, and shows many traces of its former grandeur.  King Charles during his troubles was for a short period concealed here; a fine old oak table, elaborately carved, is said to have been in the hall since the time of King Charles, and was used by that monarch as a dining table.

The Farmers are George Carter, Langley; Ellen Evans, Causway wood; Richard Farr, Mere Oak; John Grainger, Langley Hall; James Hartwright, Ruckley; Richard Stedman, Park gate; and Edward Sumner, Ruckley.

Betton and Alkmere is a small township in the parish of St. Chad, in the Condover hundred.  The parish of St. Chad is partly returned in the Albrighton division and partly in the Ford division of the Ford Hundred, but is chiefly situated within the limits of the borough of Shrewsbury.  The village of Little Betton, or Betton Strange, is pleasantly situated two and a half miles south from Shrewsbury, and was returned at the census of 1841 as having ten houses and forty-eight inhabitants.  The land owners are Lord Berwick, and George Jonathan Scott, Esq., the latter gentleman resides at a good house embosomed in foliage usually called Betton Strange.

The principal residents are Joseph Cross, farmer; Thomas Elsmere, farmer; and John Scott, Esq., Betton Strange.

BERRINGTON
is a small rural village pleasantly situated four and a half miles S.E. by S. from Shrewsbury.  The parish contains the several townships of Berrington, Brompton, Betton, Cantlop, and Eaton Mascot, which together in 1801 had a population of 603 souls; 1831, 684, and in 1841 there were 97 houses and 651 inhabitants.  There was no separate return of the respective townships at the census of 1841.  The township of Berrington contains 880 acres of land, with a fertile soil highly productive.  Lord Berwick and Sir Edward Smythe, Bart., are the principal landowners, the latter is lord of the manor.  The church is an ancient structure, dedicated to All Saints; the living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £10. 12s. 1d., now returned at £400 in the patronage of Lord Berwick, and incumbency of the Hon. and Rev. T. H. N. Hill.  There is a national school in the village, where 45 children are educated.  Betton is a small township with 564 acres, which is the property of Lord Berwick.  Rateable value, £759.  Brompton township has 864 acres, which is also the property of Lord Berwick.  Within the bounds of this township at Cross Houses is situated the Atcham Union House, a spacious brick pile, calculated to accommodate 350 inmates.  It consists of a centre and wings; the receiving wards and infirmary are now in course of erection at the back part of the premises, the estimated cost of which is £1,510; the old infirmary was taken down in consequence of its being too small for the accommodation of the patients.  The average number of inmates in the union house is usually about 200.  The average annual expenditure on the poor of the district for three years preceding the formation of the union was £9,768.  Total expenditure of the union for the year ending March, 1850, £4,101. 5s., being 4s. 4¾d. per head on the population comprised within the union.  Total number of admissions during the year, 586.  Total number relieved during the year, exclusive of vagrants, 703.  The union comprehends the following 43 parishes, viz.:—Acton Burnel, Alberbury, Albrighton, Astley, Atcham, Battlefield, Bauseley, Berrington, Cardiston, Church Preen, Church Pulverbatch, Condover, Cound, Cressage, Criggion, Eaton Constantine, Fitz, Ford, Frodesley, Habberley, Hanwood, Harley, Highley, Kenley, Leighton, Melverley, Minsterley, Montford, Pitchford, Pontesbury, Preston Gubbals, Ruckley, Shineton, Shrawardine, Stapleton, Sutton, Uffington, Uppington, Upton Magna, Westbury, Withington, Woolaston, and Wroxeter.  The guardians meet three times during the month.  Chairman: Sir B. Leighton.  Vice-Chairman: Rev. H. Burton.  Clerk: Mr. Thos. Everest.  House Surgeon: Mr. F. Whitfell.  Relieving Officers: Mr. George Jackson and James Hampton.  Governor: Mr. Robert Rowlandson.  Matron: Mrs. Rowlandson.  The New Connexion Methodists have a small chapel in Brompton, which was built in 1836.  Cantlop, a small township lying to the S.W. of Berrington, contains 681 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £839.  The Earl of Liverpool and E. W. S. Owen, Esq., are the principal landowners.  Eaton Mascot township contains 495 acres of land, which is the property of Mrs. Williams.  The rateable value of this township is £690.

Charities.—John Churm, in 1629, gave £13, which was laid out in the purchase of a rent charge of 20s. per annum, issuing out of a piece of land called Leeberries.  It is the practice to receive the payment once in three or four years, and distribute it with other money to the poor, in sums varying from 2s. to 5s.  In 1723, Richard Wellings gave £20 for the good of the poor of Berrington.  This money is now in the Savings’ Bank at Shrewsbury.  Margaret Thompson bequeathed £6 to buy Bibles for poor children.  This money is also in the Savings’ Bank.  The interest on this and the preceding legacy amounts to 21s. yearly, and in respect of Thompson’s charity a Bible or prayer book is purchased for the use of the Sunday school, or given to some poor person of the parish, and the remainder is distributed among the poor.

Berrington, Betton, Brompton, Cantlop, and Eaton Mascot Directories.

Bromley John, farmer, Betton

Bromley William, wheelwright, Berrington

Cadwallader Mr. Richard, Brompton

Calcott Charles, farmer, Betton

Calcott Mr. Richard, Brompton

Caswell James, shopkeeper, Brompton

Clark William, farmer, Cantlop

Dilcher Edward, farmer, Brompton

Dixon Joseph, farmer, Betton

Elsmere Thomas, farmer, Berrington

Hill Hon. and Rev. T. H. Noel, Berrington

James Rev. William J., curate, Cantlop

Jones Christiana, blacksmith, Berrington

Lateward John, wheelwright, Berrington

Lawrence William, farmer, Cantlop

Lee Richard, farmer, Brompton

Massie Richard, vict., Bell Inn, Berrington

Miere Joseph, farmer, Berrington

Millward Miss, school teacher, Berrington

Newell Edward and Son, tailors and drapers, Berrington

Onions Henry, butcher, Cross Houses

Parker Thomas, farmer, Cotons

Poole Thomas, farmer, Berrington

Rogers James, vict., Golden Cross, Cross Houses

Rowlandson Robert, governor of Atcham union house

Sides Thomas, shoemaker, Cantlop

Vickerstaff Thomas, beerseller, Cantlop

Wigley John, schoolmaster, Berrington

Whitfield Thomas, corn miller, Cantlop

William Charles Arthur, Esq., Eaton Mascot

Williams Mrs. Sarah H. H., Eaton Mascot

CONDOVER
is a considerable parish, embracing 7,422a. 3r. 21p. of land, of which 6,632 are titheable, and the remainder tithe free.  In 1801 there was a population of 1,451 souls; 1831, 1,455; and at the census in 1851 there were 1,550 inhabitants.  The parish embraces the townships and hamlets of Condover, Dorrington, Bayston, Chatford, Boreton, Lyth, Ryton, Westley, and Wheatall.  The rectoral tithes have been commuted for £1,303. 5s.  E. W. S. Owen, Esq., is the impropriator.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £211. 5s.  The village of Condover is pleasantly situated in a fertile vale, five miles south from Shrewsbury, on the road leading towards Church Stretton and Ludlow.  It is a place of considerable antiquity, and retains the same name as entered in the Doomsday book.  William the Conqueror gave Condover to Roger de Montgomery, who gave the church thereof to the abbey of Shrewsbury.  Upon the attainder of the last Earl of Shrewsbury of that family, it was seized by King Henry I., and continued in the hands of the crown until the 11th of Henry III., when that king granted it to his sister, the Princess of Wales.  It was subsequently granted to the Hastings, in whose family it continued till the time of Edward I., when Robert Burnell, bishop of Bath and Wells, became possessed of it by purchase.  From the Burnells it passed to the Lovells, and Lord Viscount Lovell forfeited it to the crown.  King Henry VIII. granted it to Richard Cornwell for the term of his life, and afterwards to Henry Knyvett and his heirs male.  George and John Isam, who had the fee of this manor, sold it to Thomas Owen, Esq., whose representative, Edward William Smythe Owen, Esq., a considerable landowner in this neighbourhood, is now the proprietor, and resides at The Hall, an elegant mansion in the Elizabethan style of architecture, built in the year 1598.  It is surrounded by a park of considerable extent, beautifully diversified with picturesque scenery.  The Owen family suffered much for their adherence to the royal cause during the civil wars.

The Church, which was appropriated to the abbey of Shrewsbury, is dedicated to St. Andrew.  The living is a discharged vicarage, to which belong all vicarial tithes and a rent charge of £69, payable out of the Moot Hall estate.  It is valued in the king’s book at £4. 14s.  Edward W. S. Owen, Esq., is the patron; incumbent, Rev. J. W. Harden.

Bayston Hill is a pleasantly situated village on the road from Shrewsbury to Ludlow, partly in the parish of Condover and partly in St. Julien’s parish.  A small District Church was built here about eight years ago, the necessary funds for which were raised by voluntary subscriptions.  The structure consists of nave and chancel, and a square tower.  The living is a perpetual curacy, enjoyed by the Rev. John Breese.  Bayston township, at the census of 1841, is returned as having 148 houses and 1,193 inhabitants; Chatford township, five houses and 29 inhabitants; and Dorrington, 66 houses and 328 inhabitants.  The above townships comprise the whole parish.

Charities.—Thomas Owen, justice of the Common Pleas, in 1598 charged certain lands, at Great Ryton, with the payment of 53s. yearly, and directed a distribution of bread to be made every Sunday after divine service.  Henry Brickdale, in 1700, bequeathed £44, to be laid out in land, and the proceeds expended in bread, and distributed to six poor housekeepers every Sunday.  This bequest, and certain gifts in the hands of the parish officers of Condover and Pulverbatch, amounting in the whole to £65. 17s. 6d. was laid out in 1709, in the purchase of a rent charge of £2. 11s. 8d., of which £1. 5s. 10d. is applied in a distribution of bread in Condover; 6s. 8d. is carried to the church rate, and the remaining part of the rent charge, 20s., is given in bread among the poor in Pulverbatch.  William Haynes gave £1. 6s. per annum, which is charged on lands in Berrington.  It is stated, in the Parliamentary returns of 1786, that Mr. Owen left land for bread to the poor, then vested in the Rev. Mr. White, and producing £2. 12s. per annum.  Mr. White was the vicar of this parish, and he and his successors have always paid this sum, which, with the above, is added to the bread charity.  Henry Haynes, in 1659, left a rent charge of 26s. per annum, issuing out of land at Netley, for the benefit of the poor.  The owner of this property, Mr. Hope, in the year 1800, sold it to Mr. Edwards; but the charge was accidentally omitted to be mentioned in the conveyance, and Mr. Hope continues to pay the rent charge.  Richard Plumer in 1811, bequeathed £50, in trust, the interest to be distributed on Christmas day yearly.  This money is placed in the Salop bank, and the proceeds expended in bread for the poor.  Benjamin Price, in 1797, gave the poor of the parish of Condover £50, to be given in bread; one-half exclusively to such poor as should reside in Dorrington, without regard to what parish they should belong.  He also gave to the churchwardens and overseers of Condover, £500 stock three per cent. consols, in trust, to receive the interest, and purchase bread therewith for the most distressed poor, one-third of which interest, or £5 per annum, he directed should be yearly laid out exclusively for poor persons residing in Dorrington; and the remaining two-thirds in like manner for the poor residing in the remaining part of the parish.  The sum of £50 above mentioned, was given away soon after the testator’s death.  The dividends of the £500 stock ore applied in the purchase of bread, and given away on two different days in the year.  Joseph Pryce, in 1824, directed his executors to invest £200, free of legacy duty, in public stock, and to apply the dividends thereof, as the same should from time to time be received, in providing a competent person to superintend the education of poor children residing at Dorrington.  This sum of £200 was laid out together with the like sum belonging to the chapelry, in purchasing £453. 16s. 3d. stock, in the three per cent. consols, immediately after the testator’s death.  The share of the dividends applicable to this charity, amounting to £6. 16s. 1d. annually, is paid to a person who keeps a school at Dorrington, who in respect thereof, teaches six or eight children without any charge.  It is stated on the table of benefactions that Edward Owen left 12d. weekly to the poor.  The churchwardens used to receive this charity at Condover Hall, but it does not appear that anything has been paid in respect of this charity since the year 1804.  Benjamin Hodges gave £10 for the benefit of the poor, this sum was in the hands of the churchwardens, who paid 8s. yearly previous to the year 1805, since which nothing has been paid in respect of this charity.  John Reynolds left £50, the interest to be given by the churchwardens among the poor.  In 1786 this sum was vested in the overseers, who paid £2 per annum as the interest.  The same interest was paid by the overseers to the churchwardens up to the year 1829.  In that year the church was broken open and the communion plate stolen; and it was agreed, at a vestry, that the sum of £50 owing by the overseers to the churchwardens should be called in and laid out in the purchase of plate, which was accordingly done.  The parishioners contend that this was money lent by the churchwardens to the overseers, out of the rents of the church lands, but as there is no entry in the churchwardens accounts to justify such a notion, it appears to us more likely to have been the produce of Reynolds’ charity, which was in the hands of the overseers in 1786, and which is not otherwise accounted for.

There are two parcels of land in the parish of Condover, which forms what is called the Church Estate, one parcel containing 6a. 3r. 23p. is situate in the township of Dorrington, and the other containing 8a. 2r. 29p. is situate at Mount Sion, in the same parish.  These lands were originally given for the reparations of the church, and other things thereto appertaining.  The land at Dorrington is let for £22 per annum, and the land at Mount Sion at the yearly rent of £9.  The amount is applied by the churchwardens to the general purpose of a church rate.

Condover, Bayston, Boreton, Chatford, Lyth, Ryton, Westley, and Wheathall Directories.

Bowen John, shoemaker, Wheathall

Boyer Thomas, maltster, Condover

Bromley John, farmer, Bomere

Bromley William, farmer, Boreton

Brwyne Richard, wheelwright, Ryton

Carter John, rope maker, Lyth

Cloud John, maltster, Ryton

Crowe Mr. Henry, The Syche, Ryton

Davies John, wheelwright and beerseller, Bayston

Deakin Benjamin, grocer, Condover

Downes Edward, farmer, Weathall

Edmonds Edward, farmer, Lyth

Edmonds Thomas, farmer, Chatford

Edmonds Thomas, farmer, Lyth

Everall Miss Martha, Condover

Ferriday William, farmer, Condover

Frank Thomas, farmer, The Grange

Gittings Thomas, shopkeeper, Bayston

Goff Harriett, farmer, Chatford

Goff John, farmer, Westley

Gough Thomas, shoemaker, Condover

Hampton George, farmer, The Grove, Condover

Hampton Thomas, farmer, Condover

Hancocks Richard, bricklayer, Condover

Harden Rev. J. W., vicar, Condover

Hartshorn John, tin plate worker, Bayston

Heighway Mr. William, Ryton

Hickman Thomas, farmer, Ryton

Hotchkiss John, farmer, Condover

Hotchkiss Richard, farmer, Condover

Holden William, farmer, Bayston

Howells John, blacksmith, Bayston

Hughes Thomas, farmer, Ryton

Humphreys Mrs. Elizabeth, Condover

Hussey Richard, tailor, Condover

Jones George, maltster and shoemaker, Bayston

Jones Richard, farmer, Lyth

Jones William W., farmer, Wheathall

Jones William, schoolmaster, Condover

Loxdale John, Esq., solicitor, Lyth

Lucas John, farm bailiff, Ryton

Mansell Elizabeth, vict., Three Fishes, Condover

Meire Joseph, farmer, Norton

Millington Richard, surgeon, Ryton Fields

Millman Thomas, blacksmith, Condover

Morgan Thomas, farmer, Westley

Owen Edward William Smythe, Esq., Condover Hall

Olliver John, farmer, Bayston

Pincher Richard, wheelwright, Bayston

Probert Samuel, grocer, Wheathall

Roberts Thomas, farmer, Condover

Rogers Richard, butcher, Condover

Russell Mr. William, Ryton

Stewart Robert, Esq., Ryton Grove

Thomas Mrs. Ann, Condover

Thomas John, farmer, Ryton

Thomas William, saddler, Condover

Watters Miss Jane, Condover

Wilcox Philip, gentleman, Condover

Williams John, parish clerk, Condover

Wood Benjamin, vict., Condover Arms

Wood Richard, farmer, Pigeon Door

Wycherley George, painter & glazier, Bayston

DORRINGTON
is a township and improving village in the parish of Condover, six and a half miles N. from Church Stretton, and seven miles S. from Shrewsbury, having in 1841 66 houses and 328 inhabitants.  It is expected a railway station will be formed at Dorrington, on the Shrewsbury and Hereford line of railway, now in course of formation, which will no doubt add greatly to the importance of the place.  A new District Church has been erected at Dorrington; it exhibits the early English style of architecture, and contains about 300 sittings, the greater part of which are free.  Its simple and unassuming exterior harmonises well with the retired and pastoral character of the surrounding country, and forms a very picturesque object from every point of view.  It is built of free stone, and consists of nave, chancel, and transepts, with a tower surmounted with pinnacles.  The interior decorations are neat and appropriate, and it has a groined roof; a vestry has since been added.  The church was built by John Thomas Hope, Esq., at an expense of £3,000, and endowed with the sum of £3,800 by the same individual.  An elegant and spacious parsonage house, commanding a beautiful and extensive view of the Lawley, Caradoc, and Longmynd hills, has since been erected by the munificence of the same respected gentleman, at a cost of £1,800.  The living is a perpetual curacy enjoyed by the Rev. George Masters, M.A.  The district embraces 545 acres.  Convenient schools have also been erected in the village.  Edward W. Smythe Owen, Esq., is lord of the manor.  John Thomas Hope, Esq., and Mr. George Heyward, are the principal landowners.  The Independents have a small chapel in the village; the congregation is under the pastoral care of the Rev. J. Beynon.

Beynon Rev. J. (Independent)

Bromley Thomas, farmer

Cavill John, nurseryman and seedsman

Clayton Francis, maltster

Cloud Samuel, schoolmaster

Crumpton Jonathan, brazier and tin plate worker

Evans Eleanor, agricultural implement maker

Evason Thomas, butcher

Farmer Thomas, maltster and vict., Grey Hound Inn

Farr James, cooper

Heighway Philip, saddler & harness maker

Heighway Thomas, vict., Cock Inn

Heyward George, farmer, Walford House

Hope John Thomas, Esq., Netley Hall

Hughes Thomas, plumber and glazier

Jones John, tailor

Jones Mr. Thomas

Jones Mrs. Mary

Maddox John, farmer

Masters Rev. George, M.A., Parsonage

Morgan John, draper and grocer

Pugh Thomas, blacksmith

Shakeshaft Mr. Edward

Snaxton Edward, maltster

Taylor Thomas, beerhouse keeper

Tedstone Richard, boot and shoemaker

Turner Edward, vict., Horse Shoe Inn

COUND
is a parish and small village delightfully situated six miles S.S.E. from Shrewsbury, and six miles N.W. from Much Wenlock.  The township contains 1,406 acres of land, and in 1841 had 107 houses and 511 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £2,006.  Mrs. Thursby is the principal landowner and lady of the manor.  The church is an ancient structure, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a tower, in which is a peal of bells.  It contains several monuments, one of which remembers Edward Cressett, D.D., bishop of Llandaff, who died February 13th, 1755.  The pulpit exhibits an elaborate specimen of oak carving.  The living is a rectory with the chapelry of Cressage annexed, valued in the king’s book at £33, now returned at £906.  The patronage is vested in Mrs. Thursby; incumbent, Rev. Henry Thursby, M.A.

Harnage is a scattered village containing some respectable residences, one and a half miles S.E. from Cound: the township contains 1,642 acres of land, the principal owner of which is John Thomas Smytheman Edwards, Esq.; the population returns are included in Cound.  Rateable value, £1,854. 6s.

Golding is an estate of 385 acres, the property of the Earl of Liverpool.  It is rated as a separate township in the parish books at £441.  There was however no distinct return of it as a separate township at the census of 1841.

Charities.—Thomas Langley, in 1694, left a rent charge of £2. 10s. per annum for a distribution of bread every Sunday in the year except two, “for which two Sundays better provision was made.”  Thomas Bishop, in 1768, bequeathed to the minister and churchwardens of Cound £20, the interest to be given in penny loaves to the churchwardens on Sunday mornings.  A further sum of £60, supposed to have been left by a person of the name of Sicke, for the benefit of the poor of the parish, with the above £20, was laid out in the purchase of £102. 4s. 9d. stock, three per cent consols.  Mr. Dodd, in 1774, left £20, the interest to be distributed in bread to the poor.  There is a sum of £100, three per cent consols, standing in the name of John Dodson Esq., which was purchased with £50, a legacy left by Richard Dutton, to poor housekeepers, and £10. 2s. 6d. added by John Dodson Esq.; of the dividends 30s. are distributed in Cressage and an equal amount among the poor of Cound.  Richard Cheese, in 1808, bequeathed £50 in trust, and directed the interest to be distributed in bread to the poor on Christmas day.  This bequest was subsequently invested in the purchase of £65. 18s., three per cent consols.

Marked 1 reside at Cound, 2 Harnage.

1 Thursby Mrs. Frances, The Hall

1 Thursby Rev. Henry, M.A., rector

1 Bowen Edward, schoolmst

2 Brazener Miss Ann

1 Burd Rev. George

2 Clayton Martha, farmer

2 Clayton William, farmer

2 Corbett Rev. Robert, curate

2 Cuckson John, vict., Fox Inn

1 Farmer Mr. Joseph

2 Granger Edward, farmer

Hill Richard, farmer, Golding Hall

2 Horton Thomas, farmer

1 Linell, George, farmer

1 Meire Thomas L., farmer

2 Norris John, farmer, Mosterley

1 Price John, farmer

1 Price Richard, farmer

1 Richards John, farmer

2 Woodcock Richard, farmer

CRESSAGE
is a chapelry in the parish of Cound, four miles N.W. from Much Wenlock, and eight miles S.E. from Shrewsbury.  The village is delightfully situated near the Severn, in a fertile district, beautifully diversified with picturesque scenery.  The township contains 1,900 acres of land, the gross estimated rental of which is £2,393. 12s. 3d.  Rateable value, £1,995. 19s. 4d.  At the census in 1841 here were 63 houses and 297 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are the Duke of Cleveland, Sir George Harnage, Bart., and William Morris, Esq.  Cressage is supposed to have derived its name from a venerable oak of gigantic proportions which stands near the village.  Some time ago a fire was kindled in the hollow of the tree, by which it was greatly injured and nearly destroyed; it is supported by iron cramps, and there is now flourishing in the midst of the tree a young oak, raised from an acorn of the old tree.  It was formerly called Christ’s Ache, Ache being the Saxon word for oak, and eventually became corrupted to Cressage.  The shade of spreading trees we often find were chosen by the early missionaries as preaching places for the propagation of the Christian faith.  Hence we have Bishop’s Oak, Postle’s Oak, and at Cressage, Christ’s Oak.  The Chapel of Ease is a small unadorned structure, subordinate to the church of Cound.  It was built in 1841 at a cost of £1,400, and contains 260 sittings.  The funds were raised by voluntary subscriptions and grants from the government and diocesan church building societies.  The original structure was situated in a meadow a short distance from the village, and from its dampness and dilapidated condition was totally unfit for divine worship.  The Rev. George Burd is the curate.

This village is celebrated as the birth place of Thomas Lodge, who settled in London as a grocer, accumulated great wealth, and rose to the civic honour of Lord Mayor of London in the year 1562.  Balswardyne Hall is a handsome mansion, the seat and property of Sir George Harnage, Bart.; the estate comprises 750 acres, and is partly in this chapelry, and also extends into the liberties of Wenlock, Leighton, and Harley.  It was purchased by the ancestor of the present proprietor in the year 1541.  By indenture bearing date January 13th, 1672, it was agreed on the part of the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of Cound, that 20s. yearly should be paid to the churchwardens and overseers of Cressage, as their proportion of the yearly produce of a legacy therein stated to have been left for the benefit of the poor, by the will of Dame Ann Eldred in the year 1671.  Nothing appears to be known of this charity either in the parish of Cound, or in the chapelry of Cressage.

Harnage Sir George, Bart., Balswardyne

Brazier William, shopkeeper

Brookes Andrew G., surgeon

Carrington Margaret, vict., Crown Inn

Cross Decima, farmer

Dodson George, farmer

Dorricutt William, tailor, and post office

Edwards John, farmer, The Buildings

Hudson Edward, farmer

James William, joiner and shopkeeper

Langley Mr. Samuel

Lewis William, farmer

Mullard Edward, blacksmith

Mullard Michael, blacksmith and shopkeeper

Pinkey Joseph, farmer

Rogers Thomas, shoemaker

Studley Edward, Esq.

Tudor Joseph, butcher

Wild Sarah, vict., Eagle Inn

Williams Robert, saddler and harness maker

CHURCH PREEN,
sometimes called Preen Church, is a parish and small rural village five miles W. by S. from Much Wenlock.  The parish contains 1,026 acres of land, the principal owners of which are F. T. Webster, Esq., and the Rev. Samuel Minton.  In the year 1801 here were 84 inhabitants; 1831, 75, and in 1841, 17 houses and 101 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,026. 18s. 6d.  Here was formerly a small cell of cluniac monks, subordinate to the priory of Wenlock.  “In the 29th of Edward I., the cell of Preene was holden of the lords of Holgod, and that on a vacancy the lords of that castle had the custody of the same, and the prior of Wenlock in such a vacancy presented the custodes to the lords of Holgod, who being so presented received the temporalities.”  The Church is remarkable for its length, and the chancel, which belongs to the lay impropriators, occupies more than half the space.  It is situated close to the hall, and indeed the walls are so incorporated as to form a part of the mansion.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of F. T. Webster, Esq., and enjoyed by the Rev. Robert Armitage.  No tithe or rent charge is paid to the perpetual curate, but a small modus is due from the landowners, and the living is also endowed with £800 royal bounty, and £200 parliamentary grant.  The Manor House or Hall, an ancient mansion, originally formed part of the cell above noticed, is now the residence and property of Frederick T. Webster, Esq.  The main portion of the land in this parish lies upon a sunny slope, the high grounds of which command some extensive and beautiful prospects.  It is generally thought that coal abounds beneath the soil in this parish.

Directory.—Frederick T. Webster, Esq., The Hall.  Farmers, John Aslop, John Dixon, John Everall Newhouse, and Edward Madeley.

CHURCH PULVERBATCH,
usually called Churton, is a parish and small rural village 7½ miles S.S.W. from Shrewsbury, and about half a mile from the turnpike road leading from Bishop’s Castle to the former town.  The village is delightfully situated, and commands a most extensive and beautiful prospect over thousand of acres of land, with a fine undulating surface teeming with fruitfulness; the majestic Wrekin, Caradoc, and the Lawley are seen in the distance, and give an additional charm to the scene.  The parish contains the townships of Church Pulverbatch or Churton, Castle Pulverbatch, Cothercott, Wilderley, and Wrentnall.  In 1801 here were 439 inhabitants; 1831, 557, and in 1841, 543.  Acres, 3,583.  Pulverbatch was formerly a place of some consequence, and had a weekly market.  We find Philip Marmyn in the 38th of Henry III. obtained a charter for a market to be held on a Monday, and a fair on the eve, the day, and the morrow of St. Edith.  An annual fair is still held on September 27th, but the market has long been obsolete.  A short distance south from the village formerly stood a castle, the site of which may still be traced.  In the 6th of King John, William de Cantilupe was governor of this castle.  It was afterwards the seat of the Botelers, and was a place of great strength.  The escheat roll of the 6th of Henry VI., makes mention of a free chapel belonging to the castle, in the patronage of Edward le Botiler.  The Church is an ancient structure dedicated to St. Edith.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £10. 13s. 4d., now returned at £566 in the patronage of Lord Kenyon; incumbent, Rev. George C. Guise.  The township of Churton or Church Pulverbatch at the census in 1841 contained twenty houses and ninety inhabitants.  The Hon. H. W. Powis is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.

Charities.—The poor of this parish have 20s. yearly from Henry Brickdale’s charity, noticed with Condover.  It appears the poor of this parish are entitled to receive 6s. more in respect of this charity, the division at present made between this parish and Condover not being according to the directions of the donor.  Ann Jaundrell, in 1777, left by will £20, the interest to be expended in bread for the poor.  This gift was subsequently laid out in pewing the church, and a yearly sum of 20s. is paid by the parish as the interest thereof.  The bread is distributed on St. Thomas’s-day.  James Perkins, by his will, bearing date 11th July, 1790, charged his tenement and farm at Marton, in the parish of Chirbury, with the payment of £1. 6s. per annum to the minister for the time being of Church Pulverbatch, in trust, to lay out the same in the purchase of bread to be distributed every Sunday to six decayed widows, who should attend divine service at the church.  There is a distribution of bread every alternate Sunday, with this gift and Brickdale’s charity, among the most necessitous poor.  Richard Perkins, who died in 1798, left £1. 6s., charged upon his estate at Church Pulverbatch, to be distributed to the poor on New Year’s-day.  The 26s. is annually expended in bread and given on the above day among the most deserving poor.

Bowen George, schoolmaster

Bradley John, shoemaker

Gittins Abraham, saddler

Gittins Richard, farmer

Guise Rev. George Clifford, The Rectory

Madewell Rev. Mr.

Oakley John, farmer

Rowson Orlando, butcher

Tibbey Richard, farmer

Woodcock Samuel, farmer and maltster

CASTLE PULVERBATCH
is a small village and township in the parish of Church Pulverbatch, pleasantly situated on the high road from Shrewsbury to Bishop’s Castle, nine miles S.S.W. from the former place, and eleven miles N.E. from the latter.  The township contains 994 acres of land, and in 1841 here were 36 houses and 154 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £912. 12s. 10d.

Directory.—Thomas Bromley, farmer; John Brunt, farmer and vict., White Horse Inn; John Clare, vict., Woodcock Inn; The Misses Gilpin; Thomas Jordan, shoemaker; Humphrey Roberts, blacksmith; John Savage, maltster.

COTHERCUTT
is a township with a few scattered houses, delightfully situated in a hilly district, commanding pleasing views of the surrounding country; the air is peculiarly dry and salubrious, and the situation is one of a retired and pastoral character.  Not far from here is Stiperstone Hill, which rises an immense height, and is seen at a considerable distance.  Upon this hill are several great heaps of stones, close together, called by the Britons Carneddan tewion.  It is uncertain whether these were some of those alluded to by Giraldus Cambrensis in these words, “The last Harold on foot with a company of foot soldiers lightly armed, and furnished with such provisions as the country produced for them, went over all Wales, and made his way through it in so brave a manner that he left very few alive.  In token and perpetual memory of this victory, you will find in Wales many heaps of stones, according to the ancient custom of the places where he gained an advantage, with these letters inscribed on them:—‘Hic fuit victor Haraldus; Here Harold was victorious.’”  Cothercutt is situated eleven miles S.W. from Shrewsbury, and the township contains 560 acres of land.  In 1841 here were six houses and 33 inhabitants.

The resident farmers are David Clayton, John Smith, and William Woodcock.

WILDERLEY
township lies about a mile from Church Pulverbatch, and ten miles S.W. from Shrewsbury.  It contains 671 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £659. 1s. 4d.  In 1841 here were 11 houses and 71 inhabitants.

The principal residents are the following farmers, viz., James Ambler, Richard Dovaston, Joshua Roderick, and Thomas Jarratt.

WRENTNALL,
a township with 927 acres of land, is situated about a mile N.W. from Church Pulverbatch; the scenery around is beautifully picturesque, and the situation one of quiet retirement.  In 1841 here were 38 houses and 195 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,195. 8s.  The Baptists have a small place of worship in the village.  James Freme, Esq., is the principal landowner in this township, and resides at an elegant mansion most delightfully situated on elevated ground, commanding views of great diversity and beauty.

The principal residents are James Freme, Esq.; John Breese, farmer; and Benjamin Burgwin, farmer.

FRODESLEY
is a parish and village, eight miles south-east from Shrewsbury, containing 2,188 acres of land, and in 1841 had 39 houses and 214 inhabitants: population in 1801, 158; in 1831, 186.  Rateable value, £2,322. 7s. 6d.  This parish is bounded on the south by one of the Frodesley hills, which form a connecting link between the Caradoc, Lawley, and the Wrekin.  Though it possesses little to recommend it to the notice of the antiquarian, it is a parish of ancient date, being mentioned in the Doomsday Survey as held by one Siward, a freeman; the manor is subsequently inserted among the fees of Philip Burnel.  The principal landowners are Sir E. J. Smythe, Bart., and Panton Corbet, Esq.  The Roman Watling street runs for about two miles through this parish, in a line with the present turnpike road from Atcham to Church Stretton.  The Hall is an ancient structure in the Elizabethan style, of rough stone, with dressed quoins and mullions.  It was formerly the residence of Colonel Scriven, a staunch adherent to King Charles I.  The Lodge is of a later date, partaking somewhat of the same style as the hall, and was formerly surrounded by a well-wooded and picturesque park.  About the year 1780 it was inhabited by Godolphin Edwardes, Esq., then the possessor of the greater part of Frodesley.  The Church dedicated to St. Mark, a plain structure, was rebuilt in 1809.  The interior is neat, and the chancel was recently entirely refitted and decorated with much taste by the present incumbent.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £4. 14s., now returned at £392, in the patronage of the Rev. T. L. Gleadowe, M.A., the present rector.  The rectory is a commodious house delightfully situated and surrounded with shrubberies and pleasure grounds tastefully laid out.  Major Herbert Edwardes, C.B., was born at the rectory, whose father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were severally rectors of Frodesley.  A few years ago a coal mine was worked for a short period, but the bed of coal being very thin and of an inferior quality it was closed.

Charities.—There is in the parish of Frodesley a slip of land containing about one acre, formerly a part of the waste which is supposed to have been given for the use of the poor by Godolphen Edwardes, Esq., who was lord of the manor.  Thomas Scriven left £5 for the benefit of the poor.  This sum was expended in the reparations of the church some time ago, and the churchwardens pay 5s. yearly as the interest.  The Rev. Francis Edwardes, rector of Frodesley, who died in the year 1767, left £20 for the benefit of the poor.  These gifts are distributed by the rector among the most necessitous parishioners.

Directory.—Rev. Peter Downward, Longnor Green; Rev. Thomas L. Gleadowe, M.A., The Rectory.  Farmers: Thomas Brereton, Frodesley Park; Richard Deakin, Edward Francis, Richard Hotchkiss, William Ison, and brick, tile, and draining pipe maker; William Jones, William Keight, The Lodge; Edmund Meredith, Frodesley Farm; and John Morgan.

HARLEY
is a parish and village, two miles north-west from Much Wenlock, and ten miles south-east from Shrewsbury, containing 1,955 acres of fertile land, the most considerable owner of which is the Duke of Cleveland, who is also lord of the manor.  Sir W. W. Wynne, Bart., Samuel Meire, Esq., and Francis Oakes, Esq., are also proprietors.  The soil is various, and wheat is grown here to a large extent.  There are several plots of land of different dimensions in the vicinity of Harley that are in the parish of Wenlock, although surrounded by land in the parish of Harley.  The parish in 1801 contained 221 inhabitants; 1831, 257; and in 1841, 219; at which time there were 47 houses.  Rateable value, £1,828. 8s. 4d.; gross estimated rental, £2,070. 8s.  The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, has a handsome tower in the perpendicular style of architecture, the nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1846 by subscriptions, the greater part of which was contributed by the Duke of Cleveland, and the present incumbent.  The interior has a neat and chaste appearance, and the east and west windows are beautified with stained glass, the gift of the late Rev. R. Scott, B.D.  The living is a rectory in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland, valued in the king’s book at £5. 12s. 1d., now returned at £290.; incumbent, Rev. John Gibbons, M.A.  The pious and celebrated Benjamin Jenks held the rectory of Harley for 56 years; he was author of “Prayers and Devotions for Families,” a work at one time very popular.  A neat monument has been erected to his memory in the chancel, he died in 1734, aged seventy-eight years.  There is a monumental stone slab with brass ornaments and an inscription in the old English characters in the vestry, which was formerly placed over a vault in the church.  The Rectory is a commodious residence pleasantly situated near the church, which from the east commands a picturesque view of Wenlock Edge, the beauty of which is much increased by an elegant pyramidal monument in the church yard.  There are 46 acres of glebe land, 36 acres of which are situated contiguous to the rectory.  Harley was the birth place of Silas Domville, one of the parliamentary committee in the time of the great rebellion.  He was a lover of antiquities, and had some curious manuscripts.

Richard Corfield, by will 1715, gave to the poor of the parish of Harley the sum of £20, the interest to be distributed on St. Andrew’s day.  This legacy when the charity commissioners published their report, was in the hands of Richard Woofe, who paid interest at the rate of four per cent.

Adney G., farmer & maltster

Bailey Adam, maltster

Bailey Thomas, farmer

Cartwright Mary, farmer

Cartwright Richard, farmer

Casewell William, shoemakr

Davies Richard, farmer and corn miller

Gibbons Rev. John, M.A., The Rectory

Gwinn William, wheelwright

Langford Richard, victualler, Unicorn Inn

Macham William, corn miller

Maddox John, farmer

Meire Samuel, farmer, Castle hill

Partridge Mr. Thomas, Harley Tower

Roberts Robert, blacksmith

Runners Thomas, farmer, Blakeway

Worrall Wm., farmer, Cressage

KENLEY
is a small parish and village with a scattered population four miles W. from Much Wenlock, which in 1801 contained 300 inhabitants; 1831, 281, and in 1841 there were 62 houses and a population of 294 souls.  The parish comprises 1,794 acres of land, some of it tolerably good and others of an indifferent quality.  Gross estimated rental, £1,305. 4s.  Rateable value, £992. 1s.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor, and owner of the whole parish.  The tithes are commuted for the sum of £170.  The church is an ancient structure, much dilapidated.  The living is a rectory in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, and deanery of Salop, returned at £131 in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland, and incumbency of the Rev. H. R. Slade.

Directory.—Farmers, Ann Bailey, Thomas Bailey, Richard Bishop, Elizabeth Blakeway, Thomas Bryan, Richard Crowther, Thomas Evans, Thomas Hall, Henry Hamlet, Thomas Jarvis, and Edward Pattin; John Jarratt, blacksmith

LEEBOTWOOD,
a small parish and village on the road from Church Stretton to Shrewsbury, four miles N.N.E. from the former place, contains 1,294 acres of land, and in 1801 had 81 inhabitants; 1831, 223, and in 1841, 39 houses and 214 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,574. 18s.  Panton Corbett, Esq., and W. Whitmore, Esq., are the landowners.  The industrious poor of this locality find employment in the coal works, and the manufacture of bricks, which is carried forward in this parish.  The church is an unadorned structure of considerable antiquity, dedicated to St. Mary, and consists of nave and chancel, with a small tower.  The view from the church-yard is beautiful and extensive, including the celebrated Caer Caradoc hill.  The living is a perpetual curacy, with the chapel of Longnor annexed, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £600 royal bounty.  The living is valued in the king’s book at £8. 1s., now returned at £135 in the patronage of Panton Corbett, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. Waties Corbett, M.A.  The tithes were commuted in 1839 for £104. 9s. 8d.  The poor of this parish are entitled to participate the benefits of the charities of Sir Richard Corbett, which will be found noticed with Longnor parish.

Directory.—John Dickins, blacksmith; William Dodd, vict., The Pound Inn; Thomas Everall, farmer, The Park; William Heighway, farmer; Mary Lee, farmer; Richard Preen, shopkeeper; James Smith, coal master, and brick, tile, and draining pipe manufacturer; Thomas Wigley, carpenter.

LONGNOR
is a parish and small rural village in a well wooded and fertile country, the prospects of which are enlivened by rich pastoral landscape, rendered more delightful by its contrast with the majestic Carodoc and other hills.  The village lies on the road from Shrewsbury to Ludlow, eight miles S. from the former place, and five miles N.N.E. from Church Stretton.  The parish contains 790 acres of land, which is chiefly the property of Panton Corbett, Esq., who is also lord of the manor, and resides at Longnor Hall, a handsome brick mansion, built in the year 1670, by Sir Richard Corbett; the situation commands several fine views, and the pleasure grounds are tastefully laid out.  The population of Longnor in 1801 was 177; in 1831, 244, and in 1841 there were 53 houses and 243 inhabitants.  The church is a small structure situated in the park, with lancet windows, exhibiting the style of architecture prevalent during the 12th century.  It was formerly a free chapel belonging to the abbey of Haughmond.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of Panton Corbett, Esq., and enjoyed by the Rev. Waties Corbett, chancellor of Hereford.

Sir Richard Corbett, by his will, dated 19th of November, 1764, devised for a term of 900 years, all his lands and tenements, on trust, among other things by sale or mortgage, to raise £100, and lay out the same on government or other security, and dispose of the interest yearly among the necessitous poor of Longnor.  And upon further trust to raise in the same manner £700, and to apply of the interest yearly on the 24th of April £12 yearly among three industrious young or decayed tradesmen, actual housekeepers and shopkeepers, carrying on business and residing in the county of Salop, in equal shares, such persons to be appointed by the owner of the testator’s capital mansion at Longnor, and the residue to be disposed of yearly in clothing six poor boys and six poor girls of Longnor, Cardington, Leebotwood, and Frodesley.  The testator also gave the further sum of £200, the interest to be disposed of in the instruction of poor children in the township of Longnor; and also such poor children of the tenants as should he thought proper objects in the parishes of Leebotwood, Cardington, and Frodesley.  All the above legacies remain charged upon the estates of the testator, now in the possession of Panton Corbett, Esq., who pays the yearly interest, for the objects specified in the testator’s will.

George Corbett, by will, dated 5th of December, 1664, bequeathed £50, and directed the interest to be applied in clothing two poor persons.  In a memorandum containing an account of the legacies and public money belonging to Longnor, the above legacy and the following gifts are noticed, viz.:—£2 given by a maiden relation of William Longford; Humphrey Corbett £3; Francis Walker £5; Mrs. Anne Corbett £20; Miss Elizabeth Corbett £10.  It is understood that these sums are in the hands of the owner of the estate at Longnor, and that instead of paying interest yearly in respect thereof, four or five poor persons of the parish are permitted to occupy certain cottages rent free.  The five cottages now occupied in this manner are valued at £13. 10s. per annum.  The poor have also a yearly sum of 10s., bequeathed by Edward Bayley.

Corbett Panton, Esq., Longnor Hall

Corbett Rev. Waties, Longnor Bank

Carter Thomas, builder

Dayus Samuel, farmer, maltster, & veterinary surgeon

Edwards John, shoemaker

Everall Charles, shopkeeper

Everall Richard, farmer

Heighway Thomas, farmer

Hamilton Mrs.

Pugh Thomas, blacksmith

Scott Richard, farmer

Thomas Edward, corn miller

Wigley Richard, butcher

Wigley William, wheelwright

Wilcox Thomas, farmer

MEOLE BRACE
is a populous and delightful village situated about a mile S. from Shrewsbury, and indeed may be considered a suburb to that town, as there is a continuation of pleasing villas and good residences, occupied by gentlemen and tradesmen, who have by the exertions of honest industry acquired a tolerable share of the conveniences and comforts of this life, scattered on the road from Shrewsbury to the church at Meole.  The best situation for viewing this pleasing village is perhaps on the bank, just on crossing the bridge.  In the front is the little bridge thrown over the Rea brook, which meanders through the rich meadows, covered with fruitfulness and studded with plantations.  The quiet requirement of Meole, with the church embosomed in foliage, and a distant prospect of Shrewsbury, with its turrets, spires, and a pleasing variety of objects, adds much to the picturesque beauty of the scene.  The parish of Meole embraces the townships of Newton and Edgbold, Nobold, part of Pulley, and also extends into the borough of Shrewsbury, and in 1801 comprised 1,253 inhabitants; 1831, 1207, and in 1841 there were 209 houses and 1,195 inhabitants.  There are 2,487a. 1r. 34p. of land in the parish.  Rateable value, £7,375. 15s.  The landowners in Meole are Mrs. Bather, Hon. Henry Wentworth Powis, James Loxdale, Esq., George Jeffreys, Esq., and others; the former is lady of the manor.  The Church, dedicated to All Saints, is a neat brick cruciform structure, with a short tower at the west end.  It stands on the site of an ancient edifice taken down in the year 1799.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £5, now returned at £389 in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. Edward Bather.  There is a National School in the village, which was built by the late Ven. Archdeacon Bather.  It is supported by voluntary subscriptions and a small charge from each scholar; 120 boys and girls are educated in the school.  John Davies is the teacher.  The rectoral tithes, not purchased by the landowners, are commuted for £24. 1s. 6d., and the vicarial for £196. 19s. 1d.  A neat almshouse has recently been erected upon an elevated plot of land near the turnpike road.  It is a brick structure with stone finishings, and was built with funds bequeathed by the late Mr. Evans, who also bequeathed certain funds for the endowment.  There are nine poor widows inmates; each poor person has a convenient low room and a bed room, with a small plot of garden ground, and an allowance of eight pound per annum.  There is a respectable inn and Bowling Green kept by Mrs. Vicars, which is frequented by the tradesmen from Shrewsbury, who here spend a pleasant evening’s relaxation from business.  There are collieries at Nobold and some other places, but no coal has been got at Meole for the last four years.  The House of Industry noticed with the account of Shrewsbury stands within the bounds of this parish.  There was formerly a castle at Meole, which in early times was the residence of the Mackworths; there are no vestiges of the structure left.

Andrews Thomas, farmer

Andrews William, farmer

Badger Joseph, beerseller

Badger Thomas J., Esq., solicitor, Kingsland House

Bather Rev. Edwd., vicarage

Bather Mrs. Mary

Blunt Mr. Henry

Bromley Robert, beerseller

Bullock Thomas, tailor

Burr George, lead merchant, Kingsland

Burr Thomas William, lead merchant, Kingsland

Craig Mrs. Elizabeth, Severn hill

Davies John, schoolmaster and assistant overseer

Darlington Thomas, shoe maker and parish clerk

Edwardes Lady

Edwards Mrs.

Evans Mr. John

Evans Mrs. Martha

Ford Mrs. Ann

Griffiths Thomas, butcher

Hale Miss Elizabeth

Hayward George, tailor

Hiles Timothy, corn miller

Hilditch Mrs.

Holbrook John, shoemaker

Homer Wm., land surveyor

Howells Charles, blacksmith

Hughes John, farmer and maltster

Hughes Wm., corn miller

Humphreys Rev. Henry

Jobson Thomas, farmer, Bank House

Kinaston Miss Eliza

Large Mrs. Elizabeth

Leake Mr. John, Port hill

Mancell Rev. Spencer Percival

Nevett Francis, farmer

Rowlands Benj., beerhouse

Rowlands Elizth., shopkr.

Rowlands Rd., wheelwright

Rowlands Simon, wheelwrt.

Smith John, Esq., Radbrook villa

Stephenson Mrs. Elizabeth

Vaughan Peter Fdk., farmer

Vicars Ann, vict., Bowling Green Inn

Ward Mr. Thos., Kingsland

Woodward Mr. John, Asylum

NEWTON AND EDGBOLD
is a small township in the parish of Brace Meole, about three and a half miles W.W. by S. from the parish church.  In 1841 here were ten houses and fifty-six inhabitants; the rectoral tithes have been purchased by the land owners; the small tithes are commuted for £69 16s. 2d.  The landowners are the Rev. Edward Bather, and George Jonathan Scott, Esq.

The residents are John Bather, Esq.; Jacob Brown, farmer and butcher; Richard Jones, farmer; and Thomas Morris, farmer.

NOBOLD,
another township, situated west by south of Meole, and three miles from Shrewsbury, in 1841 contained 44 houses and 187 inhabitants, the acres of which are included with Meole; the land owners here are Robert Parr, Esq., Mr. Berrington, William Henry Slaney, Esq., Mr. Richard Juson, the latter is also proprietor of the Corn Mill.

Directory.—Hartshorn Barney, shoemaker; Thomas Beacall, farmer; George Farmer, cattle dealer and farmer; Samuel Gammon, blacksmith; Elizabeth Griffiths, farmer; John Harris, wheelwright; Edward Heath, farmer; William Juson, farmer and corn miller, Red hill Mill; Thomas Ramsell, vict., Cock Inn; Thomas Ramsell, shopkeeper; Thomas Ramsell, beerhouse keeper.

PULLEY
is a township partly in Meole Brace parish, and partly in that of St. Julian’s, in the former in 1841 there were 77 houses and 295 inhabitants; and in the latter, three houses and 13 inhabitants.  Mr. Timothy Hiles and the Hon. Henry Wentworth Powis are the principal landowners.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £64. 7s. 2d., and the rectoral for £63.

The principal residents are Miss Mary Flavell; James France, farmer; Thomas Griffiths, butcher; Samuel Hiles, farmer; James Hughes, maltster and farmer; John Mitchell, beerhouse-keeper; John Norris, farmer; Mrs. Woolaston, farmer.

PITCHFORD
is a pleasant village, containing some genteel residences, seven miles south from Shrewsbury.  The parish contains 1,617 acres of fertile land; and in 1801 here were 220 inhabitants; 1831, 197; and in 1841, 35 houses and 186 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,868. 9s.  Gross estimated rental, £1,998. 5s.  The Earl of Liverpool is the landowner in this township.  The name of the place arises from a spring, upon which a scum of a bituminous nature flows.  Camden compares the scum of this well with the matter that is found in the lake Asphalites, in Palestine, and says there is a spring of the same kind in Samasota.  This place was formerly the seat and inheritance of a family of the same name.  In the 5th of Edward I. we find John de Pycheford held the manor by the service of one knight’s fee.  The last of this family of whom we read is Ralph de Pycheford, who, in the time of Edward I., levied a fine to Walter de Langton, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and to his heirs of the advowson of the church and of lands in Albrighton “et de maner de Pycheford”.  In the 15th of Edward II. that bishop was found to be seised of this manor at his death.  The Church is a venerable fabric, dedicated to St. Michael, and contains a curious oaken figure in memory of a Baron de Pycheford, a crusader, in chain armour, who was buried here.  There are also four handsome alabaster monuments to the ancient family of Ottley.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £6. 5s. 4d., now returned at £228, in the patronage of the Earl of Liverpool, and enjoyed by the Rev. Charles Powell Peters.  Pitchford Hall, situated a short distance from the church, the seat of the Earl of Liverpool, is a fine and rare specimen of the old English mansion.  The house is framed with timber springing into a variety of forms for its support, the interstices being filled with plaster and painted black and white.  It is exceedingly picturesque in appearance, and the grounds are beautifully diversified and richly wooded.  It was formerly the residence of the Ottley family.  William Ottley was sheriff of this county in 1499, and again in 1513.  The mansion, from its style of architecture, was probably built about that period.

Charities.—In the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is stated that Lucy Ottley, by will, in 1687, gave £20, and Sir Adam Ottley, by will, in 1693, £50 to the poor of Pitchford, and that there was a parish stock of £20 then vested in Thomas Ottley, Esq., in respect of which sums £5 was paid yearly.  This payment continued up to the year 1806, when Thomas Ottley, Esq., died, and his estates became the property of the Hon. C. C. Jenkinson, afterwards Lord Liverpool.  In the year 1807 there is an entry in the parish book of £5, received from him, “to exempt him from serving offices,” and that the same sum was paid annually up to the year 1815 inclusive, and from that time the payment was no longer made.  In a letter written by Lord Liverpool to the rector, dated 10th March, 1830, in answer to an application upon the subject, his lordship states that he took no personal property from the Ottleys, and that the payment of £5 made by him for a few years after he succeeded to the estate was to exempt him from serving the parish offices, and that when he took the office of overseer in 1815, the payment of course ceased.

Directory.—The Right Hon. the Earl of Liverpool, Pitchford Hall; John Durnell, surgeon; Maria Hancock, shopkeeper; George Haughton, farmer; John Lindop, farmer, Stockbatch; Richard Lloyd, tailor; Rev. Charles Powell Peters, The Rectory; Elizabeth Snaxton, farmer; John Turnbull, agent to the Earl of Liverpool.

SMETHCOTT, OR SMETHCOTE,
is a parish and village pleasantly situated in a hilly country, eight and a half miles south-west by south from Shrewsbury.  The tops of the hills have a bleak and barren aspect, but the lowlands are clothed with rich verdure, and finely timbered, which gives the scenery a very beautiful and picturesque appearance.  A waterfall a little south from the parsonage and the scenery in its vicinity are peculiarly attractive, and the frequent resort of pleasure parties.  The parish contains the townships of Smethcott, Picklescott, and the hamlet of Walk Mills.  In 1801 there was a population of 338 souls; 1831, 366; and in 1841, 371.  The township of Smethcott contains 1,049 acres of land, and at the census of 1841 had 27 houses and 129 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,218. 5s.  At the Doomsday survey, Edmund held of Earl Roger Smerecote in Conodoure hundred.  In the 1st of Edward I. it was reputed among the fees belonging to the barony of Montgomery, then in the tenure of George de Cantilupe.  In the 9th of Edward II., Edward Burnele was seized of the third of the ville of Smethcott, with the liberty of common in the woods there, and had 48s. 3d. issuing out of lands in that manor.  Upon the attainder of Lord Lovell, 1st of Henry VIII., Smethcott was given to the Duke of Bedford in tail, who, dying without issue, 5th of Henry VIII., it was granted to the Duke of Norfolk.  The principal landowners now are W. W. Whitmore, Esq., and Richard Bromley, Esq.  The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, exhibits the early English style of architecture, and was almost re-built a few years ago.  It has a neat and chaste appearance.  The expenses were defrayed by the liberality of the parishioners and the present incumbent.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £4. 9s.; now returned at £276; in the patronage of the trustees of Hulme’s charity; incumbent, Rev. R. J. Buddicom, M.A.

Charities.—By indentures of lease and release, dated 30th September, 1741, Henry Powis, lord of the manor of Wilderley, conveyed to the overseers of Smethcott a cottage and land on Smethcott Common, in trust, for the sole benefit and advantage of the poor of the said parish.  There are now four cottages, with a little garden to each, and three closes, containing about an acre and a half of ground altogether.  Two of the cottages were occupied by paupers, rent free, and the other two for three pounds per annum each.  The land is let at £4. 10s. per annum, and the whole of the rents received are carried to the poor’s rate.  All these cottages and premises, about twenty years ago, were in the occupation of persons who, having been long in possession, refused to pay rent, or give them up.  By the interference of the magistrates, they were obliged to pay an acknowledgement, and afterwards a full rent was paid.  It appears from the terms in which these cottages were given, that they were intended for the benefit of the poor, and therefore any rates received from the premises ought to be given away in charity, and not carried to the poor’s rate.

An entry in the parish book, dated 24th May, 1810, states, that the Rev. Henry Fletcher, rector of Smethcott, had that day transferred £200 navy five per cents, in the name of the rector, the Rev. William C. Curtis, curate, and Mr. Prestland, his attorney, in trust for the poor of this parish, for educating six poor children, and for relieving six of the most necessitous poor widows.  Mr. Fletcher died on the 17th of February, 1830, and the sum of £10 was paid on account of this charity by his agent shortly after.  Of the £10 received, £6 are applied in relieving the distressed poor, and £4 in educating poor children.

Betchcott is a small township in this parish, a short distance from the village of Smethcott, having 625 acres of land, 3 houses, and 32 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £357.  The Hon. Henry Wentworth Powis is the landowner.

Picklescott, another small township in the parish of Smethcott, has 531 acres of land, and in 1841 had 33 houses and 143 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £435. 5s.  There are a few scattered houses in the parish of Smethcott, usually called The Hamlets, which contain 427 acres, and in 1841 are returned as having 15 houses and 67 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £270. 5s. 1d.  The Hon. Henry Wentworth Powis is the landowner.

Those marked 1 reside at Smethcott; 2 Betchcott; 3 Picklescott; 4 The Hamlets.

3 Bromley Richard, farmer

4 Bromley Richard, farmer

1 Bromley William, farmer, New Hall

4 Bromley William, farmer, Underhill

3 Broxton William, farmer

1 Buddicom Rev. Robert Joseph, The Rectory

1 Davies Thomas, farmer

3 Gamble Edw., blacksmith

1 Gittins Robert, farmer

1 Groves William, farmer

4 Gwilliam Edward, farmer

4 Hill William, farmer

1 Hill William, joiner

3 Howell Richard, farmer

2 Massie Charles, farmer

1 Meredith John, farmer, New House

2 Parry John, farmer

1 Rogers Richard, farmer

1 Rogers Robert, farmer

3 Rogers Thomas, farmer and vict., Bottle & Glasses Inn

2 Rogers William, farmer

4 Savage Jn., farmer, Coppice

3 Thomas David, blacksmith

3 Thomas Samuel, farmer

1 Vaughan Thomas, shop-keeper and post office

3 Willings John, farmer

STAPLETON
is a parish and village, five and a half miles S.S.W. from Shrewsbury, comprising 870 acres of land, and in 1801 had 228 inhabitants; 1831, 235; and in 1841, 46 houses and 257 inhabitants.  A short distance from Stapleton are the remains of an ancient barrow, which on being opened some years ago was found to contain a large funeral urn placed near the centre, the ashes it contained were no doubt the remains of a person of distinction in former days.  The Hon. H. W. Powis, and John T. Hope, Esq., are the principal landowners.  In the 18th of Edward I., Robert de Stapleton had a grant of free warren in Stapleton; two years after the king’s attorney brought a writ of right against the said Robert de Stapleton, for the manor of his name as being seizen of King Henry II., the king’s ancestor, but without effect, for the said Robert died seized of the manor, in the 49th of Edward III.  The Church is a venerable fabric dedicated to St. Julian.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £6. 7s. 6d., now returned at £624, in the patronage of the Hon. Henry Wentworth Powis, and incumbency of the Hon. and Rev. E. R. B. Fielding.  An ancient residence, now partly surrounded by a moat, exhibits a fine specimen of the domestic architecture of by-gone days; the walls are of great thickness, and the house contains some beautiful specimens in antique oak carving, which are in a good state of preservation.  The moat, now partly filled up, is about 200 yards in circumference, and the width 36 feet.  Netley is a small hamlet in this township.  Netley Hall is a good house, the residence of John Thomas Hope, Esq.; a little west from it is the site of a British camp, some parts of which have recently been levelled for agricultural purposes, so that now only a part of it can be traced.  In a field not far from here were found four peculiarly hard stones, with a sharp axe-like edge all round; they are known by the name of celts, and were used by the priests to slay the victims of their sacrifices.

Bayley Wickliffe, blacksmith

Allen John, farmer

Allen Mary, farmer

Bromley Jeremiah, farmer, The Moat

Bromley William, farmer

Cassels Robert, farmer, Netley

Clayton John, farmer, Shady Moor

Cook Robert, farmer, Shady Moor

Dickin Edward, farmer, Netley

Evans Thomas, cow keeper

Fielding Hon. and Rev. E. R. B., The Rectory

Gittings William, farmer, Netley

Hope John Thomas, Esq., Netley Hall

Jones William, joiner

Philips Thomas, farmer, Shady Moor

Richards John, farmer, Vinnels

Sankey Edward, farmer, Netley Old Hall

Sankey Humphrey, farmer, The Moat

Woodfin John, farmer

SUTTON,
a small parish and pleasant little village one and a quarter mile S.E. by S. from Shrewsbury, is watered by the Reabrook stream, upon the banks of which two corn mills have been erected.  This parish was formerly an appendage to Wenlock priory, and extra parochial.  At the general dissolution of religious houses in the reign of Henry VIII., it fell to the crown, at which time there was an hermitage here.  The parish contains upwards of 703 acres of land, and at the census of 1841 there were 16 houses and 67 inhabitants.  In 1801 there was a population of 45 souls here.  The parish church is a very humble structure of primitive simplicity, dedicated to St. John; it stands on a gentle eminence, and commands some pleasing views of rural scenery.  The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford and archdeaconry of Salop, valued in the king’s book at £3, now returned at £17 in the patronage of Lord Berwick and incumbency of the Rev. Henry Hill.  Divine service is performed once a month.  A short distance from the church is the celebrated Sutton Spa.  “The spring issues from a rocky stratum of ash-coloured clay or argillaceous schistus, containing (as appears by its effervesence with nitrous acid) a small portion of lime.  Fresh from the spring the Sutton water is clear and colourless, and exhales a slightly sulphureous smell, which is most perceptible in rainy weather.  It sparkles little when poured into a glass, having no uncombined carbonic acid in its composition.  When first drawn its strong salt taste is evidently mixed with a chalybeate flavour; but the latter is wholly lost on exposure for a few hours, bubbles of air repeating slowly, and a reddish sediment lining the sides and bottom of the vessel.  The Sutton water has by many been compared with that of Cheltenham, and supposed to contain nearly the same ingredients.  It bears, however, a much closer resemblance to sea water, and has accordingly been found most beneficial in those cases for which sea water is usually recommended.  In the case of scrophula, the superior merits of sea water have been universally acknowledged.  A similarity of ingredients would naturally lead us to expect similar effects from the Sutton water; and I am happy to bear testimony, says Dr. Evans, that a twenty years attendance at the Salop Infirmary, as well as in private practice, has furnished me with abundant proofs of its success in the treatment of scorphulous affections; and in addition to the properties possessed by the Sutton spring in common with sea water, it enjoys an evident advantage in containing iron.”  It is to be lamented that there are not any accommodations for the residence of invalids.  The air is pure and salubrious, and as a site for building purposes the immediate vicinity is peculiarly romantic and interesting.  There is a cottage at the Spa, where parties sometimes take tea, and a bath has been erected, which is open to the public on reasonable terms.  All parties visiting the spring are allowed to partake of the water without any charge.  The land in this parish is the property of Lord Berwick.

Directory.—John Bemand, farmer; Joseph Clay, farmer; George Davies, farmer; Thomas Pugh, corn miller; Edward Thornton, farmer.

WOOLSTASTON
is a village and parish five miles N. from Church Stretton, which contains 834 acres of land.  In 1801 there were 101 inhabitants; 1831, 89, and in 1841 17 houses and a population of 84 souls.  In the 9th of Edward I.  Robert Burnel, bishop of Bath and Wells, had a grant of free warren in Wolfestantone.  In the 34th of the same reign we find John de Sibeton had the privilege of free warren here, with the grant of a free market to be held on a Wednesday, and a fair to continue for three days.  Upon the attainder of Lord Lovell in the time of Henry VII. this manor was given to Jasper Duke of Bedford, but he dying without issue, Thomas Duke of Norfolk had a grant of it in the 5th of Henry VIII.  W. W. Whitmore is now chief landowner in this parish.  The Church is a small structure, with nave, chancel, and tower.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £5, now returned at £162 in the patronage of W. W. Whitmore, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. E. Carr.  Richard Lucas, who died about twenty years ago, was parish clerk for 74 years; he died at the age of 95 years, and rung the church bell almost to the day of his death.  In the latter part of his life he would frequently observe he had seen the end of all his parishioners three times over, and had been the clerk to two rectors and six curates.  The Hall, now occupied by Mr. Everall as a farm dwelling, was formerly a place of consequence, and the residence of families of consideration.  One of the apartments exhibits some line specimens of carved oak; the floor, ceiling, and sides are all of highly polished oak.  A piece of land containing about four acres, supposed to have been given by a person of the name of Pope, for keeping the church in repair, is in the possession of the churchwardens, and is let at the yearly rent of £1. 14s., which is carried to the account of the church rates.  There does not appear to be any document in the parish relating to this land.

Directory.—Meole Rev. Henry, curate.  Farmers, Richard Everall, The Hall; Robert Heighway, and John Wigley.  Mary Bowen, shoemaker.

THE MUNSLOW HUNDRED.

The hundred of Munslow comprehends the Upper and Lower divisions, and is bounded on the north by the hundred of Condover, on the east by the Wenlock Franchise, the Stottesden hundred, and a detached part of the hundred of Overs; on the west are the hundreds of Clun and Purslow, and on the south the county of Hereford.  In the hundred of Munslow there is much clay, with considerable quantities of a stony soil of a great variety lying upon the lime stone.  The upper surface of the rocks is frequently broken up by the plough and becomes with the soil a rocky loam, which produces good crops of grain.  The population in 1821 was 10,478, exclusive of the borough of Ludlow; the number of houses 1,888.  In 1841 there were 12,043 inhabitants, of whom 8,126 were in the Upper division, and 3,917 in the Lower division.  At the same period there were 1,576 inhabited houses, 49 uninhabited in the Upper division, and 747 inhabited, and 36 uninhabited in the Lower division.  The Lower division comprises the following parishes, viz.: Abdon, Ashford Bowdler, Ashford Carbonell, Bromfield, Clee, St. Margaret, Diddlebury, Easthope, Holdgate, Hopton in the Hole, Halford Chapelry, Ludford, Munslow, Onibury, Richards Castle, Skirmage Extra Parochial, Staneton Lacy, Stanton Long, Stoke St. Milborough, Stokesay, Tugford, and Weston Cold.

The Upper division contains the parishes of Acton Scott, Cardington, Eaton, Hope Bowdler, Rushbury, Shipton, and Church Stretton.

ABDON
is a small parish and village in the Lower division of the Munslow hundred, ten miles south-east from Much Wenlock, which contains 710 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £609.  At the census in 1801 the parish had a population of 134 souls; 1831, 170; and in 1841 there were 36 houses and 155 inhabitants.  Sir Sidney Herbert is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  The Church is a small structure dedicated to St. Margaret, and consists of nave and chancel.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £3. 6s. 8d., now returned at £147; patron, Sir Sidney Herbert; incumbent, Rev. John Sheppard.  A commodious school, with a residence for the teacher, has recently been built by the lord of the manor, at a cost of upwards of one thousand pounds; it is also munificently supported by the founder.  About thirty children attend.

Directory.—George Bradley, farmer; Thomas Bradley, farmer; Cheswick Cooper, farmer; Rev. John Sheppard, rector; Robert Williams, schoolmaster.

ACTON SCOTT, OR ACTON-ON-THE-HILL,
a parish in the upper division of the Munslow Hundred, three miles and a half S.S.E. from Church Stretton, is bounded on the western side by the Shrewsbury and Ludlow turnpike road, and that from Wenlock to Bishop’s Castle passes through it.  It is divided into the townships of Acton Scott and Alcaston, and contains 1,889 acres of hilly land, moderately fertile, resting on sand-stone, in some places rich in fossil shells, and watered by the Quenny and Marbrook streams.  At the census of 1801, the parish contained 164 souls; 1841, 34 houses and 204 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,727.  On an eminence, above the Shrewsbury road, called the Castle Hill, it is supposed a fortification once existed; and in a field, adjoining the church-yard, some remains of a tower were standing in the memory of some of the old inhabitants, but all traces of it are now gone.  In the year 1817, in straightening a road, some remains of a Roman ville were discovered, consisting of hypocausts, tiles, &c.  Several eastern coins were also found, which is remarkable as being the only instance in which these coins have been found in Roman stations in England.  On some of the tiles were impressions of the sandals of the Roman soldiers, made before the clay had been burned; there were also the foot-marks of dogs and other animals.  These remains were found within a mile of the Roman road which runs from Wroxeter, by Church Stretton, to Shenchester.  The name of Acton is derived from Ac (the Saxon for oak) and ton (a town), and that of Scott from a family who were very early settled here, and about the 12th century ceased to use their original name and adopted this of their residence only.  At the time of the Doomsday survey the manor belonged to Rainald, the Sheriff, and it afterwards passed to the Fitzalans.  In the year 1290, an inquest was held to determine the boundaries of the royal forests in Shropshire, when Acton Scott, Henly, and Alcaston, were declared to be without the limits, though Shetton, Minton, and Rushbury, were found to be within them, and subject to all the grievances of forest laws.  The present lord of the manor is Edward William Wynne Pendarves, Esq., of Pendarves, in Cornwall, one of the representatives in parliament for that county, who succeeded to the property in 1835, on the death of his brother, who inherited this and other estates in right of his mother, the only daughter of Edward Acton, Esq., of Acton Scott, the last male representative of the elder branch of the family, who died in 1775, Sir John d’Albery Acton, Bart., being descended from a younger branch.  The mansion house of Acton Scott is of the Elizabethan period, with projecting gables and bay windows, and stands in a commanding situation near to the church.  It is at present occupied by Mrs. Stackhouse Acton.  The whole of the township of Acton Scott is the property of E. W. W. Pendarves, Esq.

The Church, dedicated to St. Margaret, though devoid of architectural beauty, is remarkably neat, and contains a few monuments, chiefly to the Acton family, and a brass tablet, of the date of 1579, to the memory of Elizabeth Mytton.  The tower is of much older date than the body of the church, and was probably an appendage to the church to which the bishop of Hereford inducted Hugh de Pentone (by lapse of time) in 1276.  In the tower are three bells, on two of which are inscribed in old letters:—“Ave Maria in gratia plena dominus tecum,” and on the other, “Marie eternis et bonis resonet campana.”  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £5. 10s.; patron, the lord of the manor; incumbent, Rev. Walter Corbett, chancellor of the diocese; curate, Rev. George Magee.  The Rectory is a neat residence, pleasantly situated, and there are 40 acres of glebe land.  The tithes are commuted for £230.

Charities.—John Monsell devised four parcels of land, containing, by estimation, 60 acres, in the parish of Mainstone, upon trust, to pay thereout the following sums on the 1st March, viz.:—20s. to the parish of Morvill; 10s. to the poor of Wistanstow; 10s. to buy Bibles for poor children of Bishop’s Castle; and 5s. to the poor of Acton Scott.  The above sums had all been regularly paid when the Charity Commissioners published their report, except the yearly sum of 5s. to Acton Scott, which the owner of the estate agreed for the future to pay.  In the parliamentary returns of 1786 three donations are mentioned as given for the benefit of poor housekeepers of this parish.  To the two first, amounting to £36, no names are given as the donors thereof; the third, being £20, is attributed to Edward Acton.  Interest on the sum of £56 is now paid, which is laid out in fuel by the resident curate, which he distributes to the poor.

Alcaston, a small village and township in the parish of Acton Scott, comprises 527 acres of land, and is situated about a mile south from the parish church.  Rateable value, £381. 14s.  Alcaston was at an early period taken out of the manor of Acton Scott; it consists of three farms, belonging respectively to Thomas Dunne, Esq., G. M. Benson, Esq., and the Rev. Mr. Hill; the latter gentleman being of the same family as the Hills of Hawkestone.  This branch was settled here in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and occupied a curious old timber mansion, a great part of which was taken down about ten years ago.  Mr. Benson’s farm house also bears marks of antiquity; it is of brick, and has been moated, but it has lost much of its ancient character by modern repairs.  A portion of the long line stone ridge, known as Wenlock Edge, stretches into this township.

Directory.—The residents in Acton Scott are Mrs. Stackhouse Acton, The Hall; Rev. George Magee, curate; John Monsell, farmer, Henley; Robert Morgan, farmer, Church Farm; Joseph Hotchkiss, blacksmith; Mary Keep, farmer; Thomas Parker, farmer.  The residents of Alcaston are Benjamin Martin, farmer; Richard Edwards, farmer; Thomas Lewis, farmer.

ASHFORD BOWDLER
is a parish and village delightfully situated on the south west bank of the River Terne, on the southern verge of the county, adjoining Herefordshire, and about three miles south from Ludlow.  The parish comprises upwards of 600 acres of land, the principal owners of which are Mrs. Walker and General Russell.  Rateable value of the parish, £884. 3s.  At the census in 1801, there were 79 inhabitants; 1831, 99; and in 1841, 17 houses and 96 inhabitants.  The village contains several handsome family residences, and a small but elegant church, consisting of nave and chancel, with a tower surmounted with a spire.  The living is a perpetual curacy, valued at £55 per annum, in the patronage of the Walker family.  Mrs. Mary Green, of this parish, by will dated October 16th, 1832, bequeathed to the minister and churchwardens for the time being, the sum of £55, to be invested in the funds in trust, to pay the interest thereof annually among such of the poor inhabitants as they should consider most in need of aid.  “Between the village of Ashford Bowdler and Ludlow is Huck’s Barn, said to have been the residence of George Barnwell, the hero of the popular tragedy named after him.  Barnwell’s Green, near it, was so called from his waiting there to rob his uncle as he returned from Leominster fair: adjoining the green is the wood in which he perpetrated the murder of his relative.”

The principal residents are Mr. William P. Bale, Grove Cottage; Isaac Froggatt, farmer, Feather Knowl; Thomas Harper, farmer, Ashford Grove; Thomas G. Powis, farmer; General Lechmere Russell, Ashford Hall; Robert Thomas, Esq., Church House.

ASHFORD CARBONELL
is a parish and village delightfully situated in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, three miles south-east from Ludlow.  The parish contains 1335 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,890. 5s. 11d.  The principal landowners are J. F. Downes, Esq.; Mr. Walker; John Carter, Esq.; and William Eaton, Esq.; besides whom there are a few smaller proprietors.  At the census in 1801, the parish contained 227 inhabitants; 1831, 289; and in 1841, 58 houses, and a population of 226 souls.  The church is a small unpretending structure, the living of which is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £800 royal bounty: the living is annexed to the rectory of Little Hereford, and the patronage is vested in the Chancellor of Hereford Cathedral.  The Rev. William Tomkin is the officiating minister.  Ashford Hall is an elegant modern mansion, on rising ground, commanding extensive prospects, and embellished with tasteful pleasure grounds.  Ashford Court, the residence of Mrs. Walker, is also a handsome residence.

Directory—Mr. William A. Bate; John Bloom, boot and shoe maker; Mary Eaton, farmer; William Eaton, farmer; Mr. Thomas Evans; Edward Evans, maltster; James Davies, carpenter; Joseph Davies, carpenter; John F. Downes, Esq., Ashford Hall; Thomas Cantrill, corn miller and vict., The Bridge Inn; John Carter, farmer, Brook House; Henry George, farmer, Huntingdon; John Jones, wheelwright; Mrs. Mary Lowe; John Mason, wheelwright; James Powell, farmer; William Roberts, farmer, Huntingdon; John Thompson, blacksmith; Mrs. Bridgett Walker, Ashford Court; Richard Whiteman, farmer.

BROMFIELD
is a parish and pleasant rural village, two miles north-west from Ludlow, formerly distinguished for its priory which was situated near or adjoining to the present church.  The parish comprises 5,592a. 2r. of land, the principal owner of which is the Hon. R. H. Clive; the trustees of Ludlow charities are also proprietors.  At the census in 1801, this parish contained 540 inhabitants; 1831, 517; and in 1841, 114 houses, and 531 souls.  Rateable value, £7,308. 17s. 7d.  The few remains of the ancient priory are situated near to the church.  The establishment in the time of Henry I. consisted of a small college of prebendaries or secular canons.  Osbertus Prior, of Bromfield, is witness to a deed before the year 1148.  This priory was greatly enriched by Henry II., who granted to it his church in Bromfield, which was dedicated to the blessed St. Mary, with his royal licence and protection of their extensive possessions of the towns and lands of Haverford, Dinchope, Efford, Felton, Burghey and Lethewick; three prebends in Bromfield, and three in Halton.  In the second of Henry II. the prior and brothers of Bromfield subjected themselves, by authority of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Benedictine Monastery of St. Peter’s, near Gloucester, called Lanthony Secunda, and became Benedictines, and continued so to the time of the general dissolution of religious houses.  At the assizes of Salop, 20th Edward I., the prior of Bromfield claimed free warren in the manor of Bromfield by charter of Henry II., which was allowed.  The said charter also comprised a grant of Infangthef; and a jury found one Henry de la Chapele guilty of theft, who was tried and condemned by the prior, and hanged at Bromfield.  The yearly revenues of the priory were valued at the dissolution at £78. 19s. 4d.  In the 4th of Philip and Mary it was granted to Charles Fox.  He was the founder of four families, most of which were in opulence for four generations; but his estate at Bromfield, including what is now called Oakley Park, passed by marriage to Matthew Herbert, whose descendant George, late Earl of Powis, devised it to his nephew, the Hon. Henry Clive, whose representative of the same name now inherits the estate, and resides at Oakley Park, an elegant mansion, mostly of modern construction, delightfully situated on the banks of the Terne.  The surrounding grounds are extremely romantic and beautiful, and the pleasure grounds and gardens are tastefully laid out.  It commands many fine views in different directions; the meanderings of the river adding much to the effect.  The park, which formerly contained nine hundred acres, and included within its circuit the priory to which it belonged, is yet of considerable extent.  It is finely adorned with groves and clumps of stately oaks.  The lordship of Bromfield is co-extensive with the parish, and the chapelry of Walford and Dinchope, and the township of Ledwich.  The manor abounds with game, and is watered by the river Terne, esteemed one of the finest fishing streams in the kingdom.

The Church is picturesquely situated, and consists of nave, chancel, transept and tower: it exhibits some fine specimens of elaborate workmanship, and is said to have formed a part of the structure belonging to the benedictine priory.  The interior has a chaste and elegant appearance; the roof is beautifully painted, and the windows are adorned with stained glass.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £6, now returned at £350; the patronage is vested in the Hon. R. H. Clive; incumbent, Rev. Thomas J. Longworth.  The Court of Augmentation decreed the vicar of Bromfield a yearly pension from the dissolved monastery at Gloucester; and there are, in vellum hooks in the king’s remembrancer office, accounts of several decrees relating to the possessions of the priory and the rights of the vicar of this place.

Directory.—The Hon. Robert Henry Clive, Oakley Park; Samuel Bluck, farmer, Bromfield house; the Misses Davies, ladies’ academy; Peter Davis, farmer, King’s head farm; Henry Fletcher, farmer; George Jacks, cow-leech; Rev. Thomas I.  Longworth, vicar; Henry Lippitt, farmer, Priors Walton; Thomas Payter, shoe maker; John Preece, vict., The Clive Arms; William Swift, farmer, Hill Halton; Herbert Titley, farmer, Cookridge; Richard White, agent to the Hon. R. H. Clive; Henry Vaughan, farmer, The Butts.

CARDINGTON
is a considerable parish, in the upper division of the Munslow Hundred, comprising upwards of 6,000 acres of land, and containing the several townships of Cardington, Broome, Chatwall, Comley, Enchmarsh, part of Gretton, Holt-Preen, Lydley Heys, Plaish, and Willstone.  At the census of 1801 the parish had a population of 623 souls; 1831, 718; and in 1841 there were 138 houses and 691 inhabitants.  The village of Cardington is situated is a secluded and romantic country, three miles and a half E.E. by N. from Church Stretton, having the lofty heights of the Caradoc and Lawley to the east, and the Hope Bowdler hills on the south-west.  The township contains 995 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £815. 15s.  Panton Corbett, Esq., is the principal landowner; there are also a few small freeholders.  The Church is a plain unpretending structure, consisting of nave and chancel, with a tower, in which is a peal of bells.  The handsome altar tomb, erected in memory of Sir William Leighton, of Plaish, who died December 20th, 1607, is now much dilapidated.  He was chief justice of North Wales, and one of the council of the Marches of Wales, which offices he held with integrity and honour for more than forty years.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £6. 2s. 6d., now returned at £294, in the patronage of Rowland Hunt, Esq.: incumbent, Rev. William J. Hughes.  The court leet and court baron, with view of frank-pledge, held for the manor of Lydley and Cardington, as a court of record, is of the highest antiquity, and accounted a king’s court, of which Panton Corbett, Esq., is the present lord.  The jurisdiction existed long before the conquest, and the first formation of it is attributed by several law authorities to King Alfred.  “The term leet is not discoverable in Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, but is understood to be derived out of the Sheriffs’ tourn, whose power therein was suspended, if not superseded.”  The nature and extent of the court leet jurisdiction, in its first formation, may probably be best illustrated by a brief view of the different ranks of people and the mode of administering justice in the Anglo-Saxon era.  The lowest order of the people were complete slaves, either by birth or by forfeiture of their freedom, by crimes or breach of faith, and were incapable of any office of trust or honour.  But the spread of Christianity led to the frequent manumissions, and established a class of people called Frilazin; and persons so made free were considered to be in a middle state only, between slaves and freemen.  Those who were freemen from birth were called Ceorls, and constituted a middle class between the nobility and such labourers and mechanics as were slaves, and being generally devoted to agriculture, a Ceorl was the usual appellation of a husbandman; but the acquisition of 500 acres of land, the attainment of holy orders, or by the owner of a ship or cargo making three voyages beyond sea, advanced a Ceorl to the dignity of a Thane of the lower order; and the higher class of this order, which were styled King’s Thanes were of three different degrees.  The Thanes were the only nobility among the Anglo-Saxons; but all members of royal families were of superior rank.  The kings were chief judges in their respective territories, and frequently administered justice in person.  King Alfred employed both day and night in hearing appeals, with the aid of learned assessors; thus forming a supreme court of justice, until the establishment of monarchy, when it was found necessary to appoint a chief justicary to preside in the king’s court; and the first institution of such office is supposed to have been at the time of the incursion of the Danes.  In 1622, Sir John Hayward obtained from the crown a licence to alienate the manor of Lydley and Cardington to Edward Corbett, Esq., for the sum of £3,200.

Charities.—The School.—William Hall, by his will, dated 6th April, 1720, bequeathed £400 to the parsons of the parishes of Cardington, Hope Bowdler, and Longnor, in trust, for the building a schoolhouse at Cardington, and the maintenance of a schoolmaster.  A school was subsequently built with part of the above mentioned legacy, and the residue was laid out in the purchase of copyhold lands, held of the manor of Lydley and Cardington.  In 1827, an order was made in the Court of Chancery, on the petition of Richard Butcher and others, overseers and inhabitants of the parish of Cardington, whereby it was referred to the master to take an account of the charity estate, and of the value thereof, and to approve of a scheme for the future management of the charity.  The master, by his report made April 1st, 1828, directed £10 a-year to be reserved out of the rents, to put the schoolhouse and the premises on the school estate in good repair, and afterwards such less sum as the directors should see fit, but not less than £5; and that the surplus rents should be paid to the schoolmaster and his assistant.  The school estate consists of 27a. 3r. 32p., and an allotment containing 5a. 1r. 10p. on Cardington Moor, allotted to the trustees of the school under an enclosure act, passed 41st Geo. III.  The estate now produces £34. 3s. 1d. per annum.  The school is open to all the children of the parish (boy and girls) without any charge, except 1s. for entrance and 1s. yearly for fuel.  They are taught reading, writing, and accounts.

Roger Maunsell, by will, 1651, devised a piece of ground, called Bowneford, in the parish of Long Stanton, to the churchwardens of the parish of Cardington, and their successors, and to Thomas Powell and his heirs, and ordered that the said churchwardens, at the feast of St. Michael, should receive the sum of 26s. 8d. yearly for ever.  He directed the first three years after his decease, the said sum of 26s. 8d. should be expended in a weekly distribution of bread, to be divided among six poor men one week, and among six poor women the following week; and that for the next three years it should be laid out in buying sacramental bread and wine; and the seventh year in adorning or buying any ornament to be used in the church at Cardington; and so from seven years to seven years.

Anne Tipton gave a rent charge of £1. 10s. per annum, issuing out of the Day House, and directed six penny loaves to be given to six poor men and six poor women of this parish, alternately every Sunday in the year; but on Easter Sunday, Whit Sunday, the last Sunday in the old and first Sunday in the new year six threepenny loaves each day.

The sum of £1. 6s. is paid every alternate year to the churchwardens of Cardington, as a gift of Dinah Roberts.  This and the like payment made to the parish of St. Julian, in Shrewsbury, are charged upon a farm in Wilstone, which was purchased by Archdeacon Corbett about fifty years ago.  The amount is applied in a distribution of six penny loaves every Sunday in the year in which it is received.

Francis Southern, by will, dated May 9th, 1773, bequeathed to the minister and churchwardens of the parish of Cardington and their successors £42. 10s., upon trust, that the interest of £32. 10s., part thereof, should he laid out in bread and given away every Lord’s day to three poor widows or old men of this parish, who should attend divine service; and the interest of the other £10 he left to the minister of Cardington for preaching a sermon every New Year’s-day.  Of this money we are informed £32. 10. was laid out in 1814 in the purchase of a cottage at the east end of the town, called the Butt, which was formerly occupied by poor persons placed there by the parish.  £1. 6s. is paid from the church-warden’s account for providing bread for the poor.  The remaining £10 was paid to the churchwarden’s account in 1819, and the churchwardens pay the interest thereof to the minister.

In the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is stated the poor’s stock amounted to £45, for which interest was paid for many years.  It is understood that £5 of this money was lost, and that in 1799 £40 having been borrowed of Joseph Powell by the parish for building a poor house, the poor’s stock was applied in paying off the debt.  Nothing has been paid in charity in respect of the above sum for a long period.  The poor, we conceive, are entitled to the interest of the money which was left for charitable uses, and not for the ease of the ratepayers.

John Russell, by will, 1813, gave to the minister of Cardington for the time being £1 yearly for preaching a sermon annually on the day preceding the day of his interment.  He also gave to the poor of Cardington thirty threepenny loaves on each of the following days—Christmas-day, Easter-day, Whit Sunday, and the Wakes Sunday; and to six of the poorest widows of the parish a blue woollen gown every Christmas-day, and the same to six of the poorest girls of the said parish on the same day, and also to a schoolmistress £10 a year to teach twelve poor girls of the said parish to read, knit, and sew.  He also gave £5 a year towards a Sunday school, and he bequeathed to certain trustees £570, on trust, to place out the same in public funds, and out of the dividends pay the annuities before mentioned, and also an annuity to the Rev. John Witts for his life.  In respect of this charity there is now £628. 12s. 4d. new four per cents. standing in the names of the trustees, producing annual dividends of £25. 2s. 10d.  The trustees, after carrying out the specific intentions of the donor, apply the surplus in the purchase of coal, which is distributed among the most necessitous poor.

There were in this parish certain lands called the Church Estate, consisting of several detached parcels; but on the enclosure of the lands in the manor of Lydley and Cardington, in 1817, exchanges were effected, whereby between fifteen and sixteen acres lying together were set out by the churchwardens.  There are also nine cottages, chiefly occupied by poor persons.  The rents of these premises were formerly paid half to the churchwardens, to be applied in the repairs of the church, or in aid of the church rate, and the other moiety to the overseers of the poor, by whom the amount was given away in charity.  But for many years the rent, now amounting to £14, has been carried to the overseers’ account, and applied to the general purposes of the poor’s rate.  Coals to the amount of £5 or £6 are, however, annually given away by the overseers.  It appears questionable, from the usage which formerly prevailed, whether the rent of this estate ought not to be applied, one moiety thereof in the repairs of the church, and the other to such poor persons as appear fit objects of charity.

Directory.—William Aincham, carpenter and wheelwright; John Brazier, maltster and beerhouse keeper; John Corfield, farmer; Joseph Dayus, farmer; Samuel Evans, vict., Royal Oak; Mr. John R. Durnell; William Eaton, butcher; Samuel Edwards, farmer; Edward Haynes, shopkeeper; Rev. William Jones Hughes, vicar; John Parker, schoolmaster; George Onslow, farmer; William Preen, farmer and beerhouse keeper; Thomas Price, wheelwright; Francis Smout, farmer; Francis Waters, gentleman; Ann Woof, farmer.

CARDINGTON TOWNSHIPS

Broome is a small township in the parish of Cardington, having 177 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £178. 10s.  At the census of 1841 there were three houses and thirteen inhabitants.  Mr. John Evans is the only resident farmer.

Chatwall township in 1841 had six houses and thirty inhabitants, and contains 763 acres of land, the principal owners of which are Panton Corbett, Esq., John Norris, Esq., Richard Butcher, Esq., Mrs. Bourne.  The land is mostly poor and cold.  Rateable value, £575. 15s.  The chief residents are Samuel Jones, farmer and beerhouse keeper; John L. Mitton, farmer; Richard Wall, farmer, and Thomas Woodcock, farmer, Lower Chatwall.

Comley and Botvylle is a township in the parish of Cardington, containing 464 acres of land, which is chiefly the property of Panton Corbett, Esq.  Rateable value, £330 10s.  At the census of 1841 there were 17 houses and 57 souls.  The principal residents are Edward Evans wheelwright; Philip Hayward, farmer; William Higgins, farmer, The Shoe Trough; John H. Smith, farmer; William Tomlinson, farmer.

Enchmarsh is a township and village two miles N. from Cardington, comprising 400 acres of land, and in 1841 contained eighteen houses and a population of 94 souls.  Rateable value, £392. 5s.  Panton Corbett, Esq., is the chief landowner.  The principal residents are Richard Evason, farmer; William Haynes, blacksmith; William Norris, farmer.

Holt Preen is a township in the parish of Cardington, situated about a mile from Church Preen, and four miles N.E. from Cardington.  It contains 793 acres of land, and in 1841 had sixteen houses and 111 inhabitants.  Rowland Hunt, Esq., is the landowner and lord of the manor.  The principal resident is Mr. Thomas Norris, Holt Hall.

Lydley Heys, a township in Cardington parish, has 790 acres of land, and in 1841 had eight houses and 52 inhabitants.  Panton Corbett, Esq., is the sole proprietor in this township.  Rateable value, £580. 5s.  The chief residents are Richard Everall, farmer, Day House; Henry Matthews, farmer, Lawley Farm; John Russell, farmer, Court House; Richard Shuker, farmer, Pankridge Hall.

Plaish township in Cardington parish is situated about three miles from the parish church, and at the census of 1841 had six houses and 37 inhabitants.  The township contains 908 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £611. 10s.  Rowland Hunt, Esq., is sole proprietor and lord of the manor.  The Hall is a venerable old structure, partly in ruins, and partly occupied as workshops and granaries.  It was formerly the seat of Sir William Leighton, chief justice of North Wales, and one of the council of the Marches.  He died in 1607, and was buried under a sumptuous monument in Cardington church.  The Hall contains some fine specimens of oak carving, and although decayed and ruinous bears traces of its former splendour.  The principal residents in Plaish are Samuel Eaton, farmer, Plaish Hall, and Thomas Lewis, farmer, The Sheaves.

Willstone, a township in Cardington parish, containing 711 acres of land, at the census of 1841 had four houses and 34 inhabitants.  Rateable value of the parish, £469. 10s.  Panton Corbett, Esq., and Thomas Bolton, Esq., are the landowners; the former is lord of the manor.  The resident farmers in Willstone are Isaiah Lindop, and William Minton.

CHURCH STRETTON
is a market town and parish in the Upper division of the Munslow hundred, thirteen miles S.S.W. from Shrewsbury, fourteen miles N.N.W. from Ludlow, and 153 miles from London.  The parish comprises the townships of Church Stretton, All Stretton, Little Stretton, and Minton, and contains 5,717 acres of titheable land, and 5,000 of common, making a total of 10,717 acres in the parish, the gross estimated rental of which is £7,592.  Rateable value £6,133.  At the census of 1801 there were 924 inhabitants; 1831, 1,302; 1841, 1,604.  At the latter period there were 346 houses, of which 183 houses and 860 persons were in the township of Church Stretton.  This place is supposed to have derived the name of Stretton (formerly Street Town), from its contiguity to the Watling Street, the Roman road that led from Uriconium (now Wroxeter), the principal city of the Cornavii, to Kinchester, near Hereford.  This ancient road runs nearly parallel with the turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Hereford.  The town is small, and chiefly consists of one street, in the widest part of which is the market hall.  It is a polling place for the southern division of the county, and is situated in a picturesque vale, from which rise gradually wooded eminences of great beauty, backed by lofty ranges of hills.  On the eastern side are the Lawley and the far-famed Caer Caradoc, one of the military entrenchments of Caractacus in his long and arduous struggle with the Romans; on the western side is the lofty range of the Longmynds, extending eight or nine miles, and on the summit of one called Boddbury was a Roman station or camp of observation.  A pole has been erected on the highest point of the Longmynds, from which spot there is a most delightful and commanding view of a wide extent of country.  The prospect includes on the west the Stipperstones, the mountainous district of Wales, including the Sugarloaf near Abergavenny, the Table mountain, Cader Idris, and the intervening range from that mountain to Snowdon; on the east and north-east are seen the Edgwood, the Clee, and Malvern hills, and the majestic Wrekin; to the south-west are the hills of Radnorshire, and on the north-west the Denbighshire hills, besides which there is a fine view of the fertile plains of Shropshire, with many other objects of deep interest.  The secluded and romantic situation of Church Stretton, the grand and majestic character of the surrounding scenery—its proximity to scenes of great historical interest—the mildness and salubrity of the air, which is at the same time peculiarly bracing,—its general exemption from contagious and epidemic disease, and the excellence of the water, all conduce to render it peculiarly attractive to parties in pursuit of health and pleasure.  During the summer months it is a very favourite resort of visitors from the neighbouring towns, the great variety of the scenery rendering it almost impossible to weary the most fastidious taste.  When it has become more easy of access by railway it will no doubt become a favourite retreat for persons from all parts of the kingdom.  The Shrewsbury and Hereford railway now in course of construction will pass within three hundred yards of the town.

Camden, who wrote in the time of Elizabeth observes, “Near Stretton, in a valley are yet to be seen the rubbish of an old castle called Brocard’s Castle and the same set amiddest greene meadowes that before time were fish ponds.”  In the 17th of King John, Hugh de Mortimer received command from the Barons to deliver up the castle of Stretton Dale to Hugh de Neville, but standing firm to the king he was rewarded the next year by receiving a grant of the castle of Holdgate from John.  The Caer Caradoc probably acquired that name from having been one of the military stations of Caractacus, and it was once considered the place where he fought his last battle until a strict comparison of its situation, with the description given by Tacitus, caused the opinion to be abandoned.  Formerly a society of gentlemen used to meet annually on this hill to celebrate the fame of the British chief in compositions of prose and verse.  A very spirited poetical effusion was on occasion delivered almost extempore by the Rev. Sneyd Davies.  Almost every dingle and narrow valley of this locality has its peculiar brook or rivulet, which in several instances form beautiful cascades over their rocky channel; they all produce excellent trout.  At the foot of the Caradoc, near All Stretton, is a farm house called Botvylle which a family of that name at an early period held under the Knights Templars of Jerusalem.  One of this family was a lawyer, and was called John of the Inns, which was corrupted into John Thynne, and from him there is a tradition that the family of the Marquis of Bath is descended, who possessed the manor till the year 1808, when it was sold to Thomas Coleman, Esq.  In the 10th of Edward III. the king bestowed Stretton on Richard, Earl of Arundel, and the year following he obtained the grant of a market on Thursday, and a fair on the eve, the day, and the day after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.  The market is still held on Thursday, and is well attended with provisions.  Fairs are held on the Monday before Shrewsbury first March fair; 14th May, 3rd of July, for wool, 25th of September, and the last Thursday in November.  The Market Hall is a neat and spacious building in the Elizabethan style, consisting of a good room where public meetings are held, and an area underneath for the market.  It was erected in the year 1839, at a cost of about £1000, and was conveyed to the following trustees, some of whom were the principal subscribers to the funds for its erection, namely: the Earl of Powis, Lord Darlington, Lord Clive, Hon. R. H. Clive, Rev. N. R. Pemberton, E. W. Smythe Owen, Esq., G. R. Benson, Esq., Panton Corbett, Esq., Thomas S. Acton, Esq., E. B. Coleman, Esq., William Pinches, Esq., Mr. John Broome, and Mr. John Robinson.  The old market hall, an antique structure much admired for its primitive appearance, was chiefly composed of timber and plaister, and was built in the year 1617; it was fast falling to decay when it was taken down; the inhabitants purchased the site and the tolls for £200, which was raised by subscriptions, so that the market is now toll free.  In a deep valley about a quarter of a mile from the town is a flourishing flannel manufactory, the machinery being turned by a mountain stream; the inhabitants are however chiefly engaged in agricultural pursuits; large flocks of sheep are pastured on the neighbouring hills.  The principal landowners are Moses George Benson, Esq., Charles Orlando Childe Pemberton, Esq., and Mrs. Coleman; the latter is lady of the manor.

The Church, an ancient cruciform structure with a central tower, chiefly in the early English style of architecture, is dedicated to St. Lawrence, having an image of that saint in the eastern angle of the tower.  The tower exhibits some elaborate workmanship, and contains a very melodious peal of bells and an excellent clock.  On the north and south sides of the edifice are doorways of Norman character.  The tower is supported by four clustered pillars and pointed arches, which divide the nave, chancel, and transepts.  The chancel is beautifully ornamented with richly carved oak in antique devices, collected at a considerable cost by the late rector, the Rev. Robert N. Pemberton, who bestowed great care and expense in the embellishment of the sacred edifice.  In the centre compartment of the altar is an elegant and well carved representation of Christ after the crucifixion.  The windows, principally in the decorated style, with rich and flowing tracery, are beautified with stained glass.  The eastern one is peculiarly chaste and elegant, and being immediately over the altar gives the interior a very chastened and effective appearance.  The centre division contains a fine figure of our Saviour, and on one side is a representation of St. Peter, and on the other of St. John.  This window was the gift of the late rector, the Rev. R. N. Pemberton.  The living is a rectory, rated in the king’s book at £15. 10s., in the patronage of C. O. C. Pemberton, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. Hugh Owen Wilson.  The tithes are commuted for £505, and there is a glebe land attached to the rectory, of the annual value of £60.  The parish is in the diocese of Hereford, and the triennial visitation is held here by the bishop.  The visitation in the intermediate years is held by the archdeacon.  Roger Mainwaring, D.D., vicar of St. Giles in the Fields, and chaplain to King Charles I., was born in this town.  His two sermons, entitled “Religion and Allegiance,” were censured in parliament, and he was afterwards imprisoned and suspended for three years.  In 1633 the king presented him to the rich rectory of Stanford Rivers, in Essex, made him dean of Worcester, and in 1635 he was consecrated bishop of St. David’s, which see he held till the bishopric was abolished.  He was cruelly dealt with by the prevailing powers in the time of anarchy and confusion, and died in 1653, leaving behind him the character of a person of great learning and true piety.

There is a Branch Savings Bank at Church Stretton, which commenced in the year 1821, the business of which is conducted at the school house every Friday.  About 300 depositors have their names in the books, and a sum of about £9,000 standing to their credit.  The Independent Order of Odd Fellows of the Manchester Unity have a lodge here, with their funds in a prosperous condition.  There is also a clothing club for the benefit of poor families, and one for the supply of coals during the winter season.  A police station has been erected at the expense of the county, near to the union house, in connexion with which are cells for the temporary confinement of offenders, and a residence for the superintendent constable.

The Church Stretton Union Workhouse is situated nearly a quarter of a mile from the town, on the Shrewsbury and Ludlow turnpike road, and in the immediate vicinity of the Longmynd hills.  The situation is remarkably dry and salubrious, and the building is admirably contrived for the convenience and comfort of the inmates.  The building is in the form of a cross, which, with the outer wall, forms four quadrangles, and these are used as airing yards.  It was built in 1838, of the rough stone got from the neighbouring quarries, with quoins and cornices of hewn free stone.  The cost of the structure was £2,000, and the sum of £200 was paid for the site and land attached, which covers an area of about two acres.  The money necessary for the erection was borrowed, and it was agreed to pay back the principal by instalments of £100 per annum: there remains unpaid at the present time £600.  The parishes comprised within the union are, Acton Scott, Church Stretton, Cardington, Easthope, Eaton, Hope Bowdler, Leebotwood, Longnor, Rushbury, Shipton, Sibdon, Carwood, Smethcott, Wistanston, and Woolstaston.  The house is capable of accommodating 110 inmates, and the guardians meet at the board room every fortnight for the transaction of the business connected with the union.  The expenditure for the half year ending Lady day, 1850, was £1,266. 16s., and the average weekly cost per head of the in-door paupers was 2s. 1½d., of which 3d. was for clothing.  The number of in-door paupers at the same period was 55.  John Belton, Clerk to the Guardians.  Thomas Heighway, Relieving Officer.  Medical Officers: Richard Wilding, for the house and first district; Thomas R. C. Downes, second district; Robert Jones, third district; Charles Mott, fourth district.  Rev. P. Nunn, Chaplain.  Henry Evans, Governor.  Mary Ditcher, Matron.  Sarah Atkinson, Schoolmistress.

Charities.—There is a school and schoolhouse in the town of Church Stretton, built in 1779 on the site of an old school, supposed to have been erected on the waste land by subscription, and another room has since been added thereto.  By an act of parliament, passed 28th George III., for enclosing the commons and waste lands in the manor of Church Stretton, it was enacted that all encroachments which had heretofore been made on the said commons and waste lands, for the use of the school and schoolmaster at Church Stretton, should be confirmed by the commissioners to the rector of the parish for the time being, together with nine other persons therein named, and their successors to be appointed as therein directed, on trust to receive the rents and apply the same to the use of the schoolmaster as an augmentation of his salary, and to permit such master to occupy the buildings for the uses for which they were intended.  In pursuance of this act the commissioners allotted a parcel of land containing 27a. 0r. 29p., (including a road containing about one acre), which was let, when the charity commissioners published their report, for the yearly sum of £27.

The following legacies have at different periods been left for the benefit of the school, viz:—Sir Rowland Hayward, Knt. £1. 13s. 4d. yearly, payable out of certain lands in the parish.  In respect of the charity of Thomas Bridgman, 40s. yearly is paid to the schoolmaster for teaching four poor children.  From Lloyd’s Charity the trustees receive the sum of £2. 5s., and £3. 3s. yearly for the support of a Sunday school.  The trustees also receive £4. 10s. yearly from Mainwaring’s Charity, and £2. 1s. annually from the churchwardens.  The whole annual income derived from these sources amounts to £42. 12s. 4d.  The schoolmaster is appointed by the trustees, and receives a salary of £40 a year, and resides in a house free of expense, and for these emoluments he also teaches a Sunday school.  The school is conducted on the national system: about 60 boys and 60 girls attend.

Thomas Hawkes, by will dated 19th August, 1703, left £30 to the use of the poor of the parish of Church Stretton, to be laid out in land; the yearly produce thereof to be distributed in bread as follows; viz: eight penny loaves every Sunday, and sixteen penny loaves every first Sunday in the year, Easter Sunday, and Whit-Sunday, to such poor persons as should frequent the church.  The aforesaid sum of £30 was laid out in 1708 in the purchase of a copyhold tenement situated in Church Stretton, called Walter’s House, formerly used as a poor-house, in respect of which 30s. is paid yearly as Hawke’s Legacy out of the poor’s rates, and applied with the produce of other charities hereafter noticed.

By Indenture, bearing date 3rd May, 1684, John Garratt and Henry Richards conveyed a meadow, containing by estimation two acres, in the township of Little Stretton to Thomas Hawkes and others, and their heirs on trust, that they should succour and relieve (with the yearly rents and profits) such poor of the said parish as they thought most needy.  The meadow called Little Stretton Pools, containing 1a. 1r. 2p. of land, is let at a yearly rent of £5, which is distributed amongst the poor with the other charities.

On the table of benefactions, it is stated that Randolph Jones, in 1710, left £10, the interest to be distributed in bread.  This money is supposed to have been laid out in building the poor-house, and the interest thereof, 10s., is paid yearly from the poor’s rates, and forms part of the funds distributed in bread at Easter and Christmas.

Thomas Bridgman, by will dated 28th May, 1718, devised to the school at Church Stretton 40s. yearly, to be paid at Michaelmas and Lady-day to the schoolmaster, on condition that he should teach four poor children till they could perfectly read in the Bible, and then to receive four more, to be nominated from the parish by his executors and trustees, and the minister of the parish.  He also gave to the poor housekeepers of Church Stretton 20s., to be given on St. Thomas’s day; and also 10s. more to be distributed in twenty sixpenny loaves to housekeepers of the said parish, not receiving parochial relief.

Edward Phillips, by indenture bearing date 19th May, 1735, left land to the amount of 2a. 3r. 10p. called the Street Meadow, in trust to apply the annual rent of the same for the benefit of the poor.  This land was let in 1830 at a rent of £7, which forms part of the general distribution on St. Thomas’s day and Easter.

Edward Lloyd, who died in 1790, bequeathed £100, to be placed out at interest, half the produce to be paid to the schoolmaster, as an augmentation to his salary, and the other half to be applied towards raising a sum to apprentice two boys of the age of 14 scholars of the said school.  He also gave £21, on trust, to place out the same to pay the interest to sixteen poor parishioners of Church Stretton, on St. Thomas’s day, to be nominated by the minister and churchwardens.  The testator also charged his estate, called The Bank, in Church Stretton, with the payment of £3. 3s. yearly to the trustees of Church Stretton school, for the aid and support of a Sunday school there.  The sum of £100 is placed out on a bond, given out under the provisions of an act of parliament, passed for rebuilding St. Chad’s church, Shrewsbury, bearing interest at 4½ per cent.  One moiety is paid to the trustees of the school, as before stated; and the other is carried to a separate account, called the apprentice fund, from which children are placed out as apprentices, with a premium of £4 each.

John Bridgman, by will, dated 5th October, 1796, bequeathed £100, in trust, to the minister and churchwardens of Church Stretton, to be by them placed out at interest, on such security as they should think proper, and distributed by them on the 28th of March to poor housekeepers.

Edward Phillips, jun., by will, dated 22nd of September, 1781, gave to the parish of Church Stretton the sum of £30, to be laid out in land, and the produce thereof to be given in bread to poor housekeepers.  The yearly sum of £1. 10s. has been considered as a charge upon land in Church Stretton, belonging to the Rev. Robert Norgrave Pemberton, which was formerly the property of the family of Phillips.

The Rev. John Mainwaring, by will, dated 12th of May, 1800, and by a codicil, dated 5th October, 1805, directed that the sum of £100 should be invested in the purchase of stock in the public funds, the interest whereof to be applied to the relief of poor industrious persons residing in the parish as should be thought most deserving; and also £100, the interest whereof to be paid to the master of the Church Stretton school, in augmentation of his salary; and he also directed that £21 should he laid out in the purchase of stock, the interest to be paid to such person as should have the keeping of the churchyard in order, on condition that the parishioners of Church Stretton should continue the yearly payment of 8s. or 10s. hitherto allowed for that purpose.  Interest is paid on these sums at 4½ per cent.

The preceding charities, amounting to £27. 1s., are carried to one general fund, of which £4 are disposed of in bread—20s. worth every St. Thomas’s day, the like sum every Easter Tuesday, and 40s. towards a distribution of eighteen pennyworth of bread three Sundays in every month, the residue being paid from the parish rates.  The remainder, £23. 1s., with the money collected at the sacrament, and some voluntary additions thereto, are distributed to the poor at Easter and on St. Thomas’s day, in nearly equal proportions.

William Minton, in 1701, left £6, the interest to be distributed in bread every Christmas day.  The amount of 6s. is given away in twopenny and threepenny loaves before evening service on the aforesaid day.  It is stated, on the table of benefactions, that Thomas Harrison, in 1794, left £10, the interest to be given to the poor on St. Thomas’s day.  Widow Owen left £1 yearly, payable from certain houses in Mardol, in Shrewsbury, to repair the west window of Stretton church.  At the time the Charity Commissioners published their report, there was a surplus of upwards of £9 ready to be applied to the repair of the aforesaid window.

Andrews Thomas, saddler & harness maker

Beetlestone George, victualler, Crown Inn

Bridgman Mr. John

Bellingham Robert, hair dresser

Broome Mrs. Margaret, Post Office

Corfield The Misses, ladies’ seminary

Childe Thomas, tin plate worker and brazier

Davies Eliza, milliner and dressmaker

Duppa, Banks, & Co., woollen manufacturers

Firm—Duppa Duppa, Esq., and William Banks, Esq., Kington

Evans David, victualler, The Raven

Everall Richard, beerseller

Faulkner John, butcher

Faulkner John, wheelwright

Glover Edward, saddler and harness maker

George William, victualler, The Talbot

Groves Thomas, farmer, Ashbrook

Gwilliam Edward, shoemaker

Howells Mr., farmer

Heighway James, grocer & provision dealer, and agent to the Shropshire and North Wales Fire Office

Heighway Richard, maltster and farmer, Lower Wood

Heighway Thomas, farmer, Pensylvania

Home Richard, grocer and seedsman, and registrar of births and deaths for Church Stretton district

Hopwood Mr. Robert, The Priory

Jones Miss Sarah, Lower Wood

Langford William, farmer, Lower Wood

Lewis John, painter and maltster

Lewis John, blacksmith and victualler, The Queen’s Head Inn

Lewis William, plumber and glazier

Lloyd John, shoemaker

Lloyd Charles, victualler, The Buck’s Head

Lucas John, tailor

Lucas Mary, shopkeeper

Mills Jonathan, victualler, The Red Lion

Mills Thomas, farmer

Mott Charles, surgeon

Morris John, leather dealer

M’Cartney Mr., travelling tea dealer

Meredith Lewis & Co., grocers and drapers

Marston William, tailor

Nunn, Rev. Preston, curate

Pearson George, tailor

Phillips Mrs. Maria, Ashbrook

Phipps George, victualler, The Plough

Painter Thomas, farmer, Lower Wood

Robinson John, ironmonger

Robinson James H., draper

Robinson John, shoemaker

Rogers Thomas, butcher

Steadman John S., farmer and maltster

Teague William, victualler, King’s Arms

Wilding Richard, surgeon

Wilson Rev. Hugh Owen, rector

ALL STRETTON
is a township and village in the parish of Church Stretton, situated about a mile north from the church, which contains 2,192 acres of land, and at the census of 1841 had 88 houses and 454 inhabitants.  Gross estimated rental, £2,268. 15s.  Rateable value, £1,825. 5s.  The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Samuel Wilding, Esq., A. B. Markham, Esq., Panton Corbett, Esq., Edward Medlicott, Esq., Duppa Duppa, Esq.  The village is in a romantic situation, near the mountainous range of the Longmynd, and not far from the Caradoc and Lawley hills.  The occasion of the prefix, “All,” to this Stretton is accounted for by the following tradition:—When James II. was on his journey from Ludlow to Shrewsbury, approaching the first, or Little Stretton, he inquired its name: “Stretton, Sire,” was answered.  Arriving at Church Stretton, he made the same inquiry: “Stretton, Sire,” was again the reply.  Coming to the third, he renewed the question, and received the same answer.  “Upon my word,” said the king, “they are all Strettons in this country.”

LITTLE STRETTON
is a township, about a mile and a half south from Church Stretton, which contains 816 acres, the gross estimated rental of which is £1,054. 15s., and the rateable value £841. 5s.  The landowners are, Thomas Bolton, Esq., Mrs. Davies, John Robinson, Esq., Edward Gibbon, Esq., John Mansell, Esq., and Mrs. Coleman.  The latter is lady of the manor.  The village is pleasant, and the country around is beautifully picturesque.  In 1841 there were 41 houses and 165 inhabitants.

MINTON
township has 803 acres of land, and the village is situated in the wild and romantic district of the Longmynd range of hills, three miles south-west from Church Stretton.  At the census of 1841 there were 30 houses and 125 inhabitants.  Gross estimated rental, £936. 3s.  Rateable value, £752. 10s.  The chief landowners are W. M. Beddows, Esq., Mr. Richard Minton, C. O. C. Pemberton, Esq.  The former is lord of the manor.

ALL STRETTON DIRECTORY.

Belton Mr. John, Innwood

Dolphin Edward, farmer

Donelly Michael, shopkeeper

Edwards Rchd., vict., New Inn

Galliers Rowland, beerseller

Griffiths William, beerseller

Haverkum Mrs. Mary, All Stretton Hall

Heighway Richard, farmer and maltster, Lower Wood

Heighway Thomas, farmer

Hide John, cattle dealer

Hide Wm., vict., Yew Tree

Hince Mr. Cs, Dudgley house

Jones Miss Sarah, Lower Wood

Jones Mr. William

Langford William, farmer, Lower Wood

Lewis John, blacksmith

Lewis William, plumber and glazier

Painter Thos., farmer, Lower Wood

Rawlins Mary, shopkeeper

Smith Timothy, farmer, Dudgley

Taylor Mary, farmer, Hodghurst

Williams Samuel, shoemaker

LITTLE STRETTON DIRECTORY.

Acton Mrs. Mary

Bridgman Francis, farmer

Childe Elizabeth, blacksmith

Corfield William, farmer, The Hall

Davies Mrs., Eleanor The Cottages

Davies George, farmer

Davies John, shopkeeper

Gwynn James, shoemaker

Hammond Thomas, wheelwright

Hammond Richard, wheelwright

Longmore William, farmer

Mansell John, farmer

Miles Thomas, shoemaker

Preen Samuel, butcher

Preen Thomas, tailor

Pritchard John, victualler, Green Dragon

Ray Edward, farmer

Robinson John, maltster

Speake John, farmer

Speake John, victualler, Sun Inn

Simpson William, tanner

Taylor Thomas, tailor

Turner Margaret, victualler, Crown Inn

MINTON DIRECTORY.

Beddows Mrs. Jane, Well House

Beddows William Minton, Esq., Well House

Briscoe Thomas, victualler, New Inn, Marsh Brook

Edwards Francis, miller, Queen Batch Mill

Downes John, farmer, New House

Hotchkiss Thomas, farmer

Jones Pryce, machine maker

Minton Richard, farmer, Manor House

Rogers Edward, farmer

CLEE ST. MARGARET, OR CLEE TOWN,
is a township, parish, and large village in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, seven and a half miles N.N.E. from Ludlow, containing 988a. 2r. 36p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £1,323. 10s.  Rateable value, £889. 4s.  The village is salubriously situated, a little to the west of the Brown Clee hill, and the inhabitants are celebrated for their longevity.  At the census in 1841 there were 71 houses, including the hamlet of Coxheadford, and 269 inhabitants; population in 1801, 294; 1831, 294.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Thursby, Richard Turner, Esq., Thomas Millichap, Esq., Mr. Thomas Turner, Mr. William Heighway, the Earl of Craven, Sir Sidney Herbert, and Mr. Samuel Jones.  Mrs. Thursby is lady of the manor.  The church is a small structure of unpretending appearance, consisting of nave and chancel, with a square tower.  The living is a perpetual curacy, formerly of very little value, but has been increased by royal bounty, parliamentary grant, and private benefactions, to £179 per annum.  The patronage is vested in the lady of the manor.  Incumbent, Rev. J. Corbett.  Coxheadford is a hamlet in the parish of Clee St. Margaret, situated in a sequestered and romantic dingle formed by two lofty elevations of the Brown Clee hills.  Upon that portion of the Clee hill called Norley Bank are traces of an encampment.  There is a small place of worship belonging to the Joanna Southcotts.

The principal residents in Clee St. Margaret are Edward Burton, vict., Shoulder of Mutton; Thomas Hall, farmer, Burnt House; John Hanson, farmer, New House; Samuel Heighway, farmer, The Marsh; Isaac Howell, vict., The Boot Inn; Rev. Morgan Jones, The Marsh; Richard Lawrence, corn miller; Thomas Millichap, farmer; Thomas Wall, farmer, Church House; Thomas Wheelwright, farmer, Brook House; Thomas Turner, farmer and cider dealer, Coxheadford; Samuel Hall, weaver and shopkeeper, Coxheadford.

Scirmage, an Extra Parochial Liberty situated about a mile from Clee Town, where the three parishes of Stoke St. Milborough, Cold Weston, and Stoke St. Margaret converge, contains about half an acre of land, and one small house, which is the property of Mr. Thomas Wheelwright, and occupied by Elizabeth Burton.

COLD WESTON
is a small township and parish in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, seven and a half miles N.N. by E. from Ludlow, which contains 415 acres of land, three cottages, and a farm house.  At the census in 1841 there were 27 inhabitants, and in 1841 31.  Gross estimated rental, £362. 10s.  Rateable value, £258.  Mrs. Cornewall is the proprietor of the whole township.  The church is a very humble structure, the living of which is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £2. 8s. 4d., now returned at £100 in the patronage of Mrs. Cornewall.  Incumbent, Rev. Henry Cowdell; the Rev. Lancelot Dixon is the curate.  There was formerly a woollen mill in this parish.  The land in this locality has mostly a poor soil.  Thomas Keysell is the only resident farmer.

CULMINGTON
is a considerable parish in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, comprising the townships of Bache and Norton, Burley, Culmington, and Siefton, and embracing 3,460a. 3r. 0p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £4,874. 10s. 6d.  Rateable value, £3,249.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Craven, George Wood, Esq., and James Beddows, Esq.  In 1801 there was a population of 419 souls; 1831, 515, and in 1841 there were 109 houses and 541 inhabitants.  At the Doomsday survey Earl Roger held Comintine, which Edric held before the conquest.  It was for some time held by the same lord, and included in the same tenure as the castle of Corfham.  King Henry II. gave Culmington to Walter de Clifford, and it was afterwards carried in marriage to William Longspe, who, being overthrown in a tournament, is stated to have died of grief in the flower of his age.  His widow married Sir John Giffard, who procured a charter of free warren for his lands here, and died possessed of them in the 27th of Edward I.  It afterwards passed to the L’Estranges, and then to the Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury.  The village of Culmington is delightfully situated in the beautiful and fertile vale of the Corve dale, five miles N.W. from Culmington.  The church is dedicated to All Saints, and consists of nave and chancel, with an octagonal tower surmounted by a spire; the tower contains three bells.  The interior is neat, and contains several tablets, chiefly to the family of the present rector.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £18. 9s. 2d., in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. William Johnstone.  The tithes have been commuted for £762. 10s., and the glebe land is of the annual value of £79. 10s.  A tower has been built on a plot of land where the estates of the four principal landowners of this locality converge; the owners are the Earl of Craven, Hon. Robert Henry Clive, Francis Marston, Esq., and George Wood, Esq.  The monument is built on a lofty eminence, and commands a prospect of great extent and diversity.

The principal residents are Alexander Anslow, beerhouse keeper; Samuel Anslow, blacksmith; Thomas James, wheelwright; John Morris, farmer; Richard Pearce, shoemaker; Edward Taylor, farmer; James Williams, farmer.

Bach and Norton, a township and small rural village six miles N.W. from Ludlow, in 1841 had 19 houses and 87 inhabitants.  The land in this locality is highly fertile.  The chief owners in the township are the Earl of Craven, the Marquis of Crosemere, and George Wood, Esq.; the latter is lord of the manor.  The principal residents are Richard Bach, farmer, Norton; Edward Bassett, farmer, Bach; William Bromley, farmer, Norton; William Tarte, farmer, Bach.

Burley is a small township situated about a mile N.W. from Culmington, returned in 1841 as containing 28 houses and 140 inhabitants.  The Earl of Craven is the landowner.  John Onions is the principal farmer.

Siefton, a small village and township in the parish of Culmington, situated about a mile from the parish church, in 1841 had 41 houses and 223 inhabitants.  There is a national school in the village, which is supported by the lord of the manor; upwards of seventy scholars attend.  The rectory of Culmington, a handsome residence, is situated in this township.  The Earl of Craven and George Wood, Esq., are the landowners.  The principal residents are Rev. William Johnstone, rector; William Bach, farmer, New House; Richard Bach, farmer, Madeley Park; Henry Instone, farmer; Thomas Lucas, schoolmaster.

DIDDLEBURY
is an extensive parish in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, which comprises the townships of Corfton, Diddlebury, Earnstrey Park, Lawton and Little Sutton, Lower Parks and Broncroft, Middlehope Paston, Peaton, Sutton Great and Westhope, together containing 9,043 acres of land: population in 1801, 837; 1831, 920; 1841, 896; at the latter period there were 190 houses.  The village of Diddlebury is pleasantly situated seven miles and a half north from Ludlow, and in 1841 had 25 houses and 132 inhabitants.  The township contains 1,149 acres of Land; rateable value, £1,191. 16s. 8d.  The principal landowners are the Cornewall family, James Davies, Esq., Mr. E. Lodge, William A. Roberts, Esq., and George Wood, Esq.  There was formerly an alien priory at Diddlebury, which was subordinate to the convent of Seez, in Normandy, and was afterwards appropriated to the abbey of Shrewsbury.  The church, dedicated to St. Peter, consists of nave and chancel, and has a square tower, in which are five bells: there are several memorials, chiefly to the family of Cornewall.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £12. 1s. 3d.; now returned at £384; in the patronage of the dean and chapter of Hereford; incumbent, Rev. Thomas Underwood.  There is a National school in the village, attended by about forty scholars.  The tithes of this township have been commuted, and £35 apportioned to the vicar, and £45. 10s. to the dean and chapter of Hereford.  Delbury Hall, in this township, the property of Herbert Cornewall, Esq., and residence of Henry Wood, Esq., is said to have formerly belonged to the monks of Wenlock Abbey, from whom it passed to the family of Baldwin, whose monuments are in the chancel of Diddlebury church.  It was purchased by Captain Cornewall, father of the late bishop of Worcester, and grandfather of the present proprietor.  There has existed a school at Diddlebury every since the year 1595.  Lord Herbert, of Chirbury, was partly educated at this school in his youth.

Charities.—The parish officers are in possession of a house which was purchased in 1720 for £150, of which, £128 was money belonging to the parishioners of Diddlebury; the residue £22 was borrowed of Philip Luttley.  After paying of interest for the said £22, it was agreed to appropriate the rent in equal moieties to the support of a school, and to the benefit of the poor.  At a meeting of the parishioners, held May 13th, 1830, it was resolved that the clear rents (then £8 per annum) should in future be applied to the support of a Sunday school.  There was a sum of £21 in the hands of Mr. Beddoes when the charity commissioners published their report, for which he paid £4 a year as the interest; but it is not known from whose gift this charity was derived.  This money has been improperly, as it seems to us, carried to the poor’s rate; but at the parish meeting above mentioned it has been determined to apply the interest also for the benefit of the school.

Mary Valentine, by her will, bearing date 23rd May, 1822, bequeathed to the minister, churchwardens, and overseers of the poor of the parish of Diddlebury, £1,000 four per cent. consols, to be transferred into their names as trustees, the dividends to be laid out in bread, and distributed every Sunday to poor housekeepers of this parish not receiving parochial relief.  The dividends, amounting to £35 per annum, are received through a bank at London.  The income is applied in a weekly distribution of bread amongst all the poor belonging the parish, and not receiving parochial relief; some who are not resident in the parish being included.  For the purpose of regulating the distribution, the parish is divided into three districts; and about twenty-six persons from each district in rotation receive a sixpenny loaf each every third Sunday.

The principal residents are John Child, farmer; Mrs. Mary Downes, Melford Lodge; Henry Wood, Esq., Delbury hall; John Morris, farmer; Frederick North, schoolmaster.

CORFTON
is a township and village in the parish of Diddlebury, containing 1,205 acres of land, and in 1841 had 48 houses and 232 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,453. 3s. 4d.  The tithes of Corfton and Sparchford are commuted for £116. 17s.  The church of Culmington, with the manors of Corfeham, Culmington, Erneston, and Les Clyves, were held by Walter de Clifford of King Henry II., by the service of one knight’s fee, paying £31 rent.  “This Walter was the father of Fair Rosamond, the mistress of Henry II., and mother of the noted William, Earl of Salisbury, whom she bore to the king.  Walter de Clifford, grandson of the first Walter, espousing the cause of Richard Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, then in rebellion, was outlawed 17th of Henry III., and his castle and manor of Corfeham seized by the sheriff of Shropshire for the king’s use; but restored to him shortly after upon his submission.  He married the daughter of Lewelin, Prince of Wales, relict of John de Braose, and left issue by her one daughter, first married to William Longspe, Earl of Sarum, who had with her in frank marriage Culmington, in the county of Salop, valued at £28. 8s. 2d. per annum, with this proviso, that in case it did not yield the sum aforesaid, the deficiency was to be made up out of the manor of Corfeham: the whole estate given to her in frank marriage being £200 per annum.  After the decease of the Earl of Sarum, her second husband was John Giffard, of Brimsfield, Knt., of whom she complained to the king, that he had taken her by force out of her own castle and carried her to his at Brimsfield, where she was kept in duress.  To this accusation Sir John Gifford made answer that he had the free consent of the countess, as the sequel would prove, and so tendered the king a fine of three hundred marks for marrying the lady without licence, which was accepted in satisfaction of the contempt, if the countess made no further application upon that score.”  It would appear, therefore, that the ancient owners of the manor were the daughters of the Fair Rosamond.

The principal residents in Corfton are Richard Bowen, farmer, Hill house; Edward Bowen, farmer, Lower house; James Beddoes, farmer, Sparchford; Mary Dyer, vict., Sun Inn; Edward Pearce, farmer; William Hince, butcher; Rev. Thomas Underwood, vicar of Diddlebury.

Earnestry Park is a township in the parish of Diddlebury, situated at the foot of the Brown Clee Hill, which contains 1,017a. 1r. 33p. of land, a great part of which is shaded from the sun a considerable portion of the day by that lofty eminence.  The Misses Mytton, of Cleobury North, are the proprietors of the whole township.  The summit of the Brown Clee Hill is 1,805 feet above the level of the sea, and commands a most extensive and magnificent prospect of the surrounding country.  At the census in 1841 there were six houses and thirty-eight inhabitants.  The vicarial tithes have been commuted for £20, and the rectoral for £33.  The chief residents are Thomas Bradley, farmer; John Evans, farmer; John Hanson, farmer; and Thomas Hanson, farmer.

Lawton and Little Sutton, a township in Diddlebury parish, five and a half miles north from Ludlow, in 1841 had fifteen houses and eighty five souls.  Lawton contains 460 acres, the tithes of which are commuted for £51.  Sutton portion of the township comprises 331 acres, and the tithes are commuted for £33. 11s.  The principal landowners are Herbert Cornewall, Esq., and Charles Powell, Esq.; the former is lord of the manor.  Sutton Court is a handsome house of modern erection, and is the residence of Charles Powell, Esq., J.P., who, with William Cocks, farmer, Lawton, and Francis Keysell, farmer, Sutton, are the principal residents in the township.

Lower Park and Broncroft, a small township in the parish of Diddlebury, comprising 795 acres of land, is situated eight and a quarter miles north-east from Ludlow.  At the census of 1841 there were five houses and twenty-six inhabitants.  Rateable value, £627. 13s. 4d.  The small tithes are commuted for £27, and the large tithes for £47; the dean and chapter of Hereford are the appropriators.  George Johnstone, Esq., is the principal landowner.  The chief residents are George Johnstone, Esq., Broncroft castle; and John Price, farmer, the Lodge farm.

Middlehope, a township in the parish of Diddlebury, contains 1,091 acres of land, which is mostly the property of John Francis Wright, Esq.  At the census of 1841 there were sixteen houses and 100 inhabitants.

The tithes have been commuted for £60, of which £20 has been apportioned to the vicar and £14 to the dean and chapter of Hereford.  The principal residents are Thomas Jones, farmer, Berwood; Thomas Jones, farmer; Thomas Webster, farmer; William Yapp, farmer; and John Yapp, farmer.

Poston, a township in the parish of Diddlebury comprises 394 acres of land, two houses, and thirteen inhabitants, and is situated six and a half miles north from Ludlow; Archdeacon Vicers is the landowner.  The small tithes are commuted for £8. 10s., and the large tithes for £13. 7s.  John Chatham is the resident farmer.

Peaton, a small township and village in the parish of Diddlebury, with 22 houses and 103 souls, contains 1,022 acres of land, which is the property of Lady Louisa Clinton; the tithes have been commuted for £106, of which £30 has been apportioned to the vicar, and £76 to the dean and chapter of Hereford.

Directory.—William Dyer, shopkeeper; John Gwilt, farmer, New House; Thomas Passey, farmer; Samuel Price, farmer.

Sutton Great, a township with a scattered population, in the parish of Diddlebury, six miles north-east from Ludlow, contains 734 acres of land, principally the property of Herbert Cornewall, Esq.; the vicarial tithes are commuted for £26, and the rectoral for £35. 14s.  At the census of 1841 there were thirteen houses and a population of sixty-four souls.  The chief residents in Sutton are Benjamin Pitt, farmer, and John Yates, farmer.

Westhope, a township in the parish of Diddlebury, nine miles north-west from Ludlow, has 1186 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £668.  In 1841 there were 17 houses and 103 inhabitants.  There is a Chapel of Ease here, a small unpretending structure, the living of which is a curacy subordinate to the vicarage of Diddlebury; the small tithes are commuted for £25, and the large tithes for £82. 4s.

Directory.—John Banks, farmer, Westhope House; Thomas Banks, farmer, Lower Westhope; William Price, farmer, Chapel farm; Richard Smout, farmer; John Smout, farmer, The Hall End.

EASTHOPE
is a parish and small rural village, situated in Hopedale, in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, five miles south-west from the ancient town of Much Wenlock, eight miles east from Church Stretton, and ten miles west from Bridgnorth.  The parish contains 815 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £803.  At the census in 1801 there were 85 inhabitants; 1831, 103; and in 1841, 21 houses and a population of 103 souls.  In the 34th Edward I. John de Easthope died seized of the manor of Easthope, 18th of Edward II. a fine was levied between Thomas de Easthope and John de Hopton defendant, of the manor and of the advowson of the church, to the use of Thomas and Joanna his wife in fee tail.  The 21st of Richard II. Richard Earl of Arundel was found to have a knight’s fee in Easthope, holden then by Thomas de Hynkeley.  In the 12th of Henry VII. a fine was levied between Henry Warley and Nicholas Warley complainants, John Haltman and his wife defendants, of both the manor and advowson of the church et de terris in Easthope, Presthope, Astwale, Louthwyche, Willey, Bratton, Henley, and Bould.  Moses George Benson, Esq. is the principal landowner and lord of the manor; the soil is mostly upon the limestone, and there is a good deal of limestone rock in the parish and neighbourhood.  The water is very good and some of the springs are accounted efficacious in scorbutic complaints, and are also of a petrifying quality.  The scenery is beautifully diversified and romantic, and some of the high grounds command fine views of the celebrated Wrekin, the Clee hill, and Caradoc, so named after Caractacus, who had a camp on the summit.  The Wenlock edge is a great feature in this part of the country; it is a steep wooded acclivity which runs nearly through the centre of the parish, and is of an interesting nature to the geologist.

The Church is a small structure unpretending in its architecture, and dedicated to St. Peter.  It has a short tower, and there is a well-proportioned window in the east end in the early English style: the font is very ancient.  On the north side of the church, between two venerable yews, are two tombs without date or inscription but simply a cross upon each.  It is supposed that two monks are interred there, who might be connected with the Abbey of Wenlock.  The stones have given rise to some curious legends among the people.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £3. 3s. 1½d., now returned at £133, in the patronage of M. G. Benson, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. Robert Armitage.  The rectory is a neat structure in a sheltered situation, and there are thirty-six acres of glebe land.

On some rising ground situated about a mile west of the turnpike road leading from Wenlock to Ludlow, and about half way between Larden Hall and Lutwyche Hall, is a celebrated British encampment.  It encloses about eight acres, and the form is nearly a circle, surrounded by inner and outer fosses; the inner wall falls on the side due east twelve feet, externally twenty-five feet, across the crest of the parapet, six feet.  The relief of the second vallum rises ten feet from the foss, and is at present twelve feet wide across its parapet; externally it falls eight feet.  It is however partially obliterated, either in consequence of the mounds and ditches being planted over, or through their being injured by natural causes.  These ditches have formerly been a post of some importance, for they supply a necessary link in the chain of British entrenchments which stretch throughout the country.  The present position is in the immediate view of Nordy Bank, and within observation of both the Caers Bury ditches and the Wrekin.  The entrance appears to have been on the north-east side.  Were there no other reason for the assumption, the fact of a British urn having been found here would sanction the idea that these were the works of the ancient Britons.  A little to the north-west is the semblance of a tumulus, which a few years ago was more prominent than at present; on a recent occasion after making a cut from west to east, the workmen came to a black deposit which led to the supposition that the interment had been simple, and by cremation.  On a previous occasion by mere accident an earthen vessel was found by making a drain about three hundred yards south-east from the encampment.  It was formed of a sort of red clay so slightly baked on the outside that it washed away when a brush and water were applied to it.  The inside was black and somewhat harder as though it had been baked by making the fire within.  “Before I saw it,” says Mr. Mytton, “the workmen had broken the lower part which was next the surface of the ground, but by putting the pieces together the form could be made out.  It was found with the mouth downwards, and contained fragments of bones.  At seems most likely that Astorius made a diversion of part of his forces against Caer Caradoc and the ditches, and after having driven out the Britons from those elevated posts he left garrisons in the country.”  The Mogg, or Mock Forest, in which the camp is situated, is reckoned among the ancient forests of this county.

The principal gentleman’s seat in this parish is Lutwyche Hall, built by Judge Lutwyche, in the time of Queen Elizabeth; a full length portrait of the judge adorns an apartment inside the mansion.  It is supposed that there has been a mansion at Lutwyche from the time of, or probably earlier than the Conquest.  It was sold in 1786 by the last of the Lutwyches, and after passing through several intermediate owners was purchased in 1806 by Moses Benson, Esq., whose grandson Moses George Benson, Esq. now resides there.  The derivation of the word Lutwyche is said to be from lut, the gathering of an army, and wyche, a cleft or valley.

The chief residents in Easthope are Moses George Benson, Esq., Lutwyche Hall; The Rev. Robert Armitage, The Rectory; Edward Evans, shoemaker; Samuel Evans, farmer; Edward Preece, wheelwright; Francis Ray, farmer; Easthope Cottage; Margaret Wadlow, farmer and corn miller.

EATON-UNDER-HEYWOOD
is a parish, in the upper division of the Munslow Hundred, which comprises the townships of Eaton, Hatton, part of Longville-Lushcott-East Wall, part of Hungerford, Millichope Upper, and Ticklerton.  Population in 1801, 513; 1831, 539; 1841, 579.  The village of Eaton is pleasantly situated nine miles south-west from Much Wenlock, and the township contains 1,639 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,026. 3s.  At the census in 1841 there were 12 houses and 77 inhabitants.  Among the landowners are Miss Eatons, Mrs. Stackhouse, Mr. Powell, and Mr. Nugent; besides whom are several other proprietors.  The Church is a neat structure, with nave, chancel, and a tower, in which are three bells.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £5.  Gross income, £300.  Patron and incumbent, Rev. Richard Sandford.  The tithes are commuted for £178. 10s., and there are 148 acres of glebe land.  The principal residents are Benjamin Beddows, farmer; Richard Cleeton, farmer; Thomas Farmer, farmer; Thomas Hince, farmer, New Hall; William Harris, corn miller, New Hall Mill; John Medlicott, farmer; Rev. Richard Sandford, rector.

Hatton is a township in the parish of Eaton, twelve miles south-west from Much Wenlock, with 644 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £407. 5s.  In 1841 there were nine houses and 54 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Edwin W. W. Pendarvies, Esq., Rev. Thomas C. Powell, and Mr. Downward.  The chief residents are Alice Benbow, victualler, The Bell; Susannah Evans, farmer; Edward Jones, farmer; Joice Rawlins, farmer; William Wall, farmer.

Hungerford is a township partly in Eaton parish and partly in that of Munslow.  In the former, at the census of 1841 were eight houses and 55 inhabitants, and in the latter one house and nine persons.  It comprises 1,002 acres of land.  Rateable value, £703. 1s.  C. O. C. Pemberton, Esq., is the principal landowner.  The residents are Robert Craig, farmer, miller, and tanner; Edward Rowley, victualler, Buck’s Head.

Longville Lushcott and East Wall township will be found in Rushbury parish.

Millichope is a small township, in the parish of Eaton, returned at the census of 1841 as having 15 houses and 94 inhabitants.  John Francis Wright, Esq., is the principal landowner.  The resident farmers are William Downs and John Preece.

Ticklerton township has 1,384 acres of land, and is also in the parish of Eaton, and situated about a mile south-west from the church.  The village is pleasantly situated, and in 1841 had 40 houses and 211 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,008. 10s.  The Rev. Robert Joseph Buddicom is the principal landowner.  The chief residents are the Rev. Robert Joseph Buddicom; William Downes, farmer; John Edwards, farmer; Thos. Galliers, farmer; Benjamin Pursland, beerhouse-keeper; Francis Wall, blacksmith.

HALFORD,
a chapelry and small village, formerly united to the parish of Bromfield, contains, with the hamlet of Dinchope, 1,320 acres of land, and in 1841 had 26 houses and 124 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,328. 19s.  The whole of the land in this parish belongs to the Hon. R. H. Clive, except about fifty acres, which is the property of James Baxter, Esq.  The former is lord of the manor.  The soil is mostly upon the limestone, and produces tolerable crops of grain, but a considerable portion of the land is used for grazing purposes.  The Chapel is a small structure, and the living a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Hon. R. H. Clive, Esq., who is also lord of the manor.  The Rev. William E. Lumb is the incumbent.

Directory.—John Dalloway, corn miller, Halford Mill; John Davies, farmer, Halford; Richard Jukes, farmer, Dinchope; Sarah Lambe, blacksmith, Newington; Richard Marston, farmer, Halford; Henry Ratcliffe, clerk; Joseph Swift, farmer, Dinchope.

HOLDGATE
is a parish in the lower division of the Munslow Hundred, which embraces the townships of Holdgate, Bouldon, and Brookhampton, and contains 1,623 acres of land.  Population in 1801, 197; in 1831, 188; 1841, 224.  At the latter period there were forty houses.  The village of Holdgate seems once to have been a place of some note, and stands on rising ground, eleven miles north from Ludlow.  The township comprises 649 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £854.  At the census of 1841 there were 12 houses and 79 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Thursby, Rev. Joseph Corbett, and George Phillips, Esq.  The former is lady of the manor.  There was anciently a castle here.  Thomas Maudit being in arms with the rebellious barons, his castle was seized by the king and given to Hugh de Mortimer, but returning to his allegiance he had restitution of his castle at Holgot.  In the 7th of Henry III., he obtained the charter for a market there every week upon a Thursday.  After him William Maudit had a confirmation of the grant of the market.  In the 19th of Edward I. Robert Burnel, bishop of Bath and Wells, procured a charter for changing the market day to Tuesday, and to keep a fair on the eve, the day, and on the day after the feast of the Holy Trinity.  In the 15th of Richard II., Hugh Burnel, Knt., held the castle and manor of Holdgate at the yearly rent of £2. 13s. 3¼d., which was assessed upon several tenants at Clee St. Margaret.  The service for the manor was to find two horsemen at Montgomery for forty days.  The heiress of Burnel married Lord Lovell in the time of Edward II., in which family the inheritance rested till Jasper, of Hatfield, Earl of Pembroke, obtained a grant hereof in special trial, who, after the battle of Bosworth, was created duke of Bedford; but dying without issue, in the 24th of Henry VIII. the king gave the manor to Thomas, duke of Norfolk, and his heirs, to be held by the fourth part of a knight’s fee.  The Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is evidently of Norman architecture, having the massive and lofty embattled tower peculiar to that style, adorned with rude figures, which may go far to prove the antiquity of the edifice.  The principal entrance is through a fine stone doorway, with a cluster of slender pillars on each side, supporting a beautifully carved arch, the effect of which is considerably lessened by several coats of whitewash.  The font is of primitive simplicity and curiously sculptured, seems coeval with the building itself, but is seen under similar disadvantage.  The back of a large pew is ornamented with the coat of arms, handsomely carved in wood, of the family of Minton, who formerly resided at the Coates, in this parish.  Near to the church-yard is an artificial mound called “The Mount.”  It was probably thrown up to its present height for the purpose of erecting a watch-tower, or post, during the civil wars, or in the unsettled times when the warlike barons of the feudal system were perpetually invading each other’s territories.  The situation is admirably adapted for this purpose, commanding, as it does, an extensive and important tract of country.  The living of the church is a rectory with that of Tugford annexed, valued in the king’s book at £13. 9s. 9½d., now returned at £500, in the patronage of the Bishop of Hereford; incumbent, Rev. Joseph Corbett.  In the 12th of King John it appears that the abbot of Salop had the third part of the advowson of the church at Castle Holdgate.  Thomas Maudit released to him the right of patronage in two parts of the church; yet he reserved the third part to himself, for which he presented to the bishop his clerk.  There is a daily school in the village.  The poor of this parish enjoy a rent charge of 10s. per annum, under the will of Robert Ellis, in 1652.

Bouldon is a small township, with a few scattered houses, in the parish of Holdgate, which comprises 325 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £274. 10s.  At the census of 1841 there were 13 houses and 61 inhabitants.  There is a quarry in this township where stone is got in considerable quantities for building and other purposes.

Brookhampton is another township in Holdgate parish, with 549 acres of land, and in 1841 had fifteen houses and eighty-five souls; rateable value, £390. 15s.  Mrs. Thursby and the Corporation of Ludlow are the landowners; the former is lady of the manor.

Directory.—Jeremiah Cox, farmer and maltster, Holdgate; William Wall, farmer, Holdgate; Edward Esq., farmer, Stanton Holdgate; William Cox, vict., Tally-Ho Inn, Bouldon; William Page, farmer, Bouldon; William Penn, corn miller, Bouldon; Richard Turner, farmer, Bouldon; Thomas Clark, farmer, Brookhampton; Thomas Edwards, farmer, Brookhampton; Ann Harper, shopkeeper, Brookhampton

HOPE BOWDLER
is a parish in the upper division of the Munslow hundred, which comprises the townships of Hope Bowdler, Chelmick, and Ragdon, and contains 1,385 acres of land.  In 1801 the parish had a population of 130 souls; 1831, 202; 1841, 184; at the latter period there were thirty-four houses.  The village of Hope Bowdler is pleasantly situated two and a half miles south-west from Church Stretton, and at the census of 1841 had 19 houses and 112 inhabitants: the township contains 741 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £672. 3s. 6d.  Moses George Benson, Esq., is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  In the 1st of King Edward I., George de Cantilupe held Hope Bowdler by knight’s service under the barony of Montgomery.  Philip Burnel, at the assizes in the 20th of King Edward I., upon a quo warranto against him, was adjudged to have free warren in this manor, with the liberty of a fair and market both granted by the king.  The manor was afterwards carried in marriage by an heiress of the Burnels to John, Lord Lovel, in whose family it continued till the attainder of Francis Lord Viscount Lovel, who was slain on the 16th of June, 3rd of Henry VII., at the battle of Stoke, near Newark-upon-Trent.  The Church consists of nave and chancel, with a tower in which are three bells.  In the 40th of Henry III. the parson of Hope Bullers impleaded the prior of Wenlock for estovers in the prior’s wood of Sutley and Eastwood, and for the common of pasture in the said woods lying in Eaton, as appendant to the church of Hope Bullers.  The Prior pleaded that Stephen de Hope, patron of the church about twenty-five years past, dissiezed the prior of the said woods, and a verdict was accordingly granted to the prior.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £6. 13s. 4d., now £228, in the patronage of certain trustees: incumbent, Rev. George W. Marsh.

Charities.—The charity commissioners state, “We are informed by the Rev. George Walkin Marsh, the rector of Hope Bowdler, that for about four years after he came to the benefice he received from his predecessor 12s. yearly, to be distributed in bread, 6s. to be given in money on St. Thomas’s day; that, upon the death of his predecessor about twenty-four years ago, he applied to his representatives for the principal, and ultimately received from them £18.  This sum Mr. Marsh states he now has in his hands, that he has added thereto £4, so as to make up £22, and has signed a memorandum to that effect in one of the parish books.  He pays 22s. yearly as the interest thereof, and with the churchwardens distributes to the poor of the parish 12s. yearly in bread and 10s. in money on St. Thomas’s day.”

Chelmick is a township and village in the parish of Hope Bowdler, in a romantic district near the Ragdon and Hope Bowdler hills, about a mile south from the parish church.  The township contains 305 acres of land, and in 1841 had thirteen houses and fifty nine souls.  Rateable value, £281. 13s. 7d.  The Corporation of Ludlow are the landowners.

Ragdon township in Hope Bowdler parish has 339 acres of land, two houses, and thirteen inhabitants.  Rateable value, £309. 5s. 6d.  The landowners are J. Stanier, Esq., and Thomas Dunn, Esq.

Directory.—Hope Bowdler: William Adams, farmer, The Hall; Richard Cartwright, farmer; John Craxton, farmer and blacksmith, Francis George, farmer, The Coombs; John Griffiths, shopkeeper; George Hills, farmer, The Coombs; John Jones, wheelwright; Rev. George W. Marsh, rector.  Chelmick: John Rodgers, farmer.  Ragdon: Martha Heynes, farmer; and Thomas, Wilding, farmer.

HOPTON-IN-THE-HOLE, OR HOPTON CANGEFORD,
is a small parish in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, four miles N.E. from Ludlow, containing 320 acres of land.  At the census in 1801 there were 35 inhabitants, and in 1841 six houses and a population of thirty souls.  The church is a small unpretending structure of brick, and the living a perpetual curacy returned in the king’s book at £5. 13s. 8d., now returned at £51 in the patronage of Sir W. R. Broughton.  There is no resident clergyman in the parish.  The resident farmers are Thomas Green and William Roberts.

LUDFORD
is a parish and village situated about a mile from Ludlow, and separated from that town by the river Teme, which is here crossed by a stone bridge.  This parish is partly in the county of Hereford and partly in Salop.  The entire parish at the census of 1801 had 34 inhabitants; 1831, 528, and in 1841 there were 46 houses and 294 inhabitants within the bounds of this county.  Acres, 2,920.  Rateable value, £3,290. 10s.  Ludford House, the seat and property of Francis Lechmere Charlton, Esq., is a fine old mansion, situated on a gentle eminence contiguous to the village.  Though greatly modernized, its interior quadrangle and the massive style of masonry, are indications of great antiquity.  The proprietor has in his possession a deed in which mention is made of a house here as early as the eleventh century.  This manor in the time of William the Conqueror was possessed by Osborne, Lord of Richards Castle.  It was afterwards enjoyed by the Jordens, from whom it passed by an heiress to Howel Vaughan.  The hospital of St. John being seized by the crown at the time of the dissolution of religious houses, this manor, as appertaining to that foundation, was also conveyed to King Henry VIII.  In the time of Edward VI. it was granted to John Earl of Warwick, from whom it passed by sale to William Foxe, and in the year 1607 came into the possession of the Charlton family.  This family enjoyed extensive possessions in this county, and were seated at Apleby Castle, near Wellington.  To the south of the house are tasteful gardens and pleasure grounds, and on the western side is the park, well stocked with deer, and remarkable for its fine sylvan beauty and luxuriant woody scenery.  Leland, who visited Ludford between the years 1500 and 1550, observes, “The suburbs over Teme bridge by south is called Ludford, and in it is a little parish church.  There be three fayre arches in this bridge over Teme, and a pretty chapel upon it of St. Catherine.  It is about 100 years since this stone bridge was erected.  Men passed along by a ford a little below the bridge.”  The Church, an ancient structure, is situated in the county of Hereford, contiguous to Ludford house, and consists of nave and chancel, with a square tower.  The altar and basons for holy water indicate that Catholicism had not declined at the time of its erection.  The chancel is evidently a modern appendage to the church, and was built by William Foxe, who formerly resided at Ludford house.  It is the place of sepulchre for several members of the Foxe family, and also of the Charltons.  In a recess is the figure of Sir Job Charlton, reclining in his magisterial habiliments.  The living is a perpetual curacy, returned at £105 in the patronage of F. L. Charlton, Esq.  Ludford Hospital was founded by Sir Job Charlton in the year 1672 for six poor and impotent persons, one of whom was to be warden; the incorporation to be denominated, “The warden and poor of the hospital of Ludford,” The said warden and poor in their corporate capacity to have power to purchase and hold lands, and to sue and be sued, and to have a common seal.  The name and distinction of warden as head of the corporation has long ceased to exist.  The latest instance of the use of the common seal is on a lease of Saunder’s meadow in 1618.  The subsequent lease bears the seal of Sir Francis Charlton.  The income is about £63 per annum.  The “pretty chapel of St. Catherine,” noticed by Leland, has long been forgotten.  The celebrated well, however, of St. Julian, under the garden wall of the hospital, is still remembered by the inhabitants of the village; but the wonderful cures believed to have been miraculously performed ceased with the superstition of the times.

Directory.—Francis Lechmere Charlton, Esq., Ludford House; Thomas Lowe, farmer, Hucks Barn; George Penny, machine maker and brass founder; John Wade, paper manufacturer, Ludlow Paper Mills; Margaret Worley, vict., Ludford Arms.

Sheet, a township and village situated about a mile from the parish church, in 1841 contained seven houses and 29 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are the Hon. R. H. Clive, F. L. Charlton, Esq., and the corporation of Ludlow.  The chief residents are Thomas Callon, farmer, Saltmoor; Mary Lawrence, farmer, Saltmoor; Mary and Betsy Longmore, farmers, Steventon; James Wild, farmer, Steventon; Frederick Wood, Esq., The Sheet.

MUNSLOW
is a parish and small village in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, which was of sufficient importance in early times to give name to the division of the county in which it is locally situated.  The parish contains 4,110 acres of land, and embraces the townships of Aston, Bach, or Beach Mill, Broadstone, Holloway, part of Hungerford, Millichope, Munslow, Poston, Lower Thonglands, and Topley-vill: population in 1801, 610; 1818, 770.  Rateable value, £3,779. 12s. 9d.  The village of Munslow is pleasantly situated in a romantic district nine miles north from Ludlow: this township at the census of 1841 had 29 houses and 160 inhabitants.  C. O. C. Pemberton, Esq., is the chief landowner.  Sir Edward Littleton, son and heir of Sir Edward Littleton, of Henley, in the county of Salop, was made Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, in the 15th Charles I.; and the year following Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and Lord Littleton, Baron Munslow.

The Church is a fine old structure dedicated to St. Michael, and consists of nave, chancel, and north aisle, the latter divided from the nave by pointed arches, and a broad obtuse arch; the chancel is divided from the body of the church by a handsome oak screen.  The ceiling is carved, resting on strong oak brackets.  The font is very ancient, and there are various monuments.  Several of the windows are adorned with stained glass of antique workmanship, one of which was added at the expense of Richard Sheppard and Joanna his wife, in the time of Henry VII.; the beautiful decorations of the east window are of more modern date.  The living is a rectory with the curacy of Broadstone annexed valued in the king’s book at £21. 15s. 2½d., now returned at £730, in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. T. C. Powell.  In the church-yard there is a singular building the uses of which are unknown.  It consists of a roof supported by four oak pillars and arches of the same material; as it now stands it is raised little more three feet from the ground.  There is a National School in the village which is supported by subscriptions and a small charge from each scholar.

Charities.—In the year 1795, the sum of £300, five per cent stock, was purchased with a legacy of £100 left to the poor of the parish of Munslow in 1762, by Major John More, and a legacy of £200 left by his sister Catharine More in 1792, the interest of which sum it was directed should be distributed annually to poor housekeepers within the said parish, at the discretion of the minister and churchwardens.  When this stock was paid off, £328 stock was purchased in the new four per cents, which is now standing in the name of the rector.  The dividends amounting to £13. 2s. 6d. per annum, are distributed to poor housekeepers in the parish by the rector.

Directory.—Arthur Bach, saddler and harness maker; William Bowley, butcher and shopkeeper; Thomas R. C. Downes, surgeon; Edward Edwards, farmer; Edward Evans, tailor; Edward Hughes, farmer; Edwin Keysell, maltster, corn dealer, and seedsman; Charles Pothecary, surgeon; William Power, surgeon; Rev. Thomas C. Powel, rector; David Pugh, builder; Obadiah Newnham, schoolmaster; John Roberts, farmer.

Aston, a small township in the parish of Munslow, at the census in 1841 had 31 houses and 164 inhabitants: the acres and rateable value of the several townships in this parish are returned with the parish of Munslow.  John Francis Wright, Esq., is the principal landowner.  The principal residents in the township of Aston are John Downes, Esq., Aston Hall; John Hince, plumber and glazier; Edward Mullard, blacksmith; Miss Ann Pearce, The White House; Samuel Preece, farmer; William Shirley, farmer; Benjamin Wall, wheelwright; William Wigmore, vict., The Hundred House.

Bach or Beach Mill, a hamlet in the parish of Munslow, at the census in 1841 had twelve houses and a population of forty eight souls.  The landowner in the township is Herbert Cornewall, Esq.  The principal residents are James Dyer, carpenter; Samuel Handcocks, blacksmith; Joseph Sankey, tailor and shopkeeper; Richard Sankey, tailor, and post office; John Stubbs, shopkeeper.

Broadstone, a township and tolerable village in Munslow parish, is pleasantly situated near the turnpike road from Munslow to Much Wenlock.  There is a small Chapel of Ease at Broadstone, where divine service is performed once a month.  In 1841 this township contained 42 houses and a population of 120 souls.  The chief residents are William Bishop, cooper; John Blockley, farmer and maltster; Joseph Childe, wheelwright; Thomas Cocks, vict., Seven Stars; John Jones, shoemaker; Samuel Lewis, farmer; Thomas Lewis, bricklayer.  Holloway Ville, situated in the parish of Munslow, consists of only one farm house, which is occupied by Walter Watkins.

Millichope, a township in the parish of Munslow, at the census of 1841 had fourteen houses and fifty-seven inhabitants.  The land is chiefly the property of Charles Orlando Childe Pemberton, Esq., of Millichope Park, an elegant mansion in the Grecian style of architecture, beautified with tasteful pleasure grounds and surrounded with woody scenery.  The house is a modern structure, built near the site of an antique mansion which was chiefly composed of timber and plaster, bearing the characteristics of the reign of Elizabeth, and was taken down about eight years ago.  On the top of a rock facing the hall, a beautiful Cenotaph has been built in the Grecian style, in memory of two brothers of the name of More, one of whom was an officer in the 79th regiment, and the other in the British navy.  It has been erected about seventy-five years.  The small but very ancient manor house of Upper Millichope formerly belonged to the Prior of Wenlock; it consists of only one room on a floor.  The walls are seven feet in thickness, and lighted by narrow slips of windows; the entrance is by an ornamented circular-headed doorway, to the right of which are some steps of an old stone staircase carried up in the solid wall to the upper chamber, the entrance to which is guarded by three doors, the centre one being secured by a massive wooden bar which passed through the wall of the room into the outer wall on the opposite side of the staircase.  The structure now forms part of a farm residence.  It is supposed by antiquaries that the lower compartment in the warlike times of former ages was used for the purpose of securing the cattle in times of danger, while the upper story formed the habitation of the family.  The principal residents in Millichope are Charles Orlando Childe Pemberton, Esq., Millichope Park; Mr. William Cadwallader, Thomas Clifton, mason; Thomas Wall, blacksmith.

Thonglands is a township and small village in the parish of Munslow, which in 1841 contained fifteen houses and eighty-three inhabitants.  C. O. C. Pemberton, Esq., of Millichope Park, and the Rev. Frederick Lakin, are the landowners.  The chief residents are Joseph Edwards, beerhouse keeper; William Lello, farmer; and Thomas Wall, farmer.  Topley Ville, comprising two houses and twelve persons, is in the parish of Munslow.  Mr. John Price is the only resident farmer.

Poston Lower is a township in the parish of Munslow, situated six miles north from Ludlow, which comprises three houses and twenty-three inhabitants at the census of 1841.  The land is the property of Archdeacon Corbet.  John Kelly, blacksmith, and Richard Wellings, farmer, are the residents.

ONIBURY
is a parish in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, which embraces the townships of Onibury and Walton, and contains 1,900 acres of land, the principal owner of which is Earl Craven; the other part is the property of the Hon. R. H. Clive.  At the census in 1801 there were 359 inhabitants; 1831, 438; 1841, 368: at the latter period there were 73 houses.  Rateable value £2,311. 17s.  The village of Onibury is pleasantly situated on the east bank of the river Oney, and on the turnpike road leading from Shrewsbury to Ludlow: 24 miles S. from the former, and five miles N.W. from the latter.  The Shrewsbury and Hereford line of railway, now in course of formation, will intersect the parish, and cross the turnpike on a level with the road.  A portion of the village south east of the river is in the respective parishes of Stanton Lacy and Stokesay.  A saw mill has been erected by Lord Craven on the river Oney.  In the time of Edward the Confessor, Oniberie was in the possession of the bishop of Hereford, and after the conquest Roger de Lacy held it of him.  The manor and patronage of the church was long possessed by the Burnels, and eventually passed, in marriage, to the Lovels, in whose family it remained till the attainder of Lord Lovel, in the time of Henry VII.  It was subsequently held by the Mainwarings and Barkers, and about the year 1620 came into the hands of Lord Craven, the ancestor of the present proprietor, by purchase.  There was formerly a park at Onibury, which is now divided into farms.  Wootton, an ancient mansion of considerable extent, in the Elizabethan style of architecture, and moated, has recently been taken down.  It was formerly the seat of distinguished families, and the park above mentioned was in all probability connected with this mansion.  The Church is rather a plain structure of the early English style, with a tower at the west end containing four bells.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £8. 17s. 8½d.; in the patronage of Earl Craven, and enjoyed by the Rev. J. J. Hodges.  The tithes have been commuted for £330.  There is a good rectory house, and ninety acres of glebe land.  The Parochial School is a small structure built by subscriptions in the year 1836, and situated at the south-east corner of the church-yard.  The school is free to the children of the parish, and those resident in the immediate neighbourhood, and is supported by subscriptions and a rent-charge of £6. 13s. 4d., left for educational purposes by William Norton, in 1593.  The township and small village of Walton, situated about a mile from Onibury, in 1841 had fifteen houses and ninety-five inhabitants; it comprises 625 acres of land, which are the property of Earl Craven.

Directory.—Samuel Amies, farmer, the Park; Philip Bach, farmer; Herbert Blakeway, farmer, Wootton; William Bright, schoolmaster; William Coston, farmer; Ann Jones, vict., the Griffin; Rev. John J. Hodges, the Rectory; Benjamin Pugh, farmer; Thomas Matthews, wheelwright; William Watkins, blacksmith; Mr. Thomas Wells, Onibury cottage; Thomas Wells, agent to Earl Craven.  The residents at Walton are William Blakeway, farmer; Samuel Botfield, shoemaker; Thomas Hotchkiss, farmer.

RICHARDS CASTLE,
a parish in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, comprises the townships of Moore and Batchcott, Overton, and Woofferton, and is partly in this county, and partly in Herefordshire.  The parish contains 4,512 acres of land; and at the census of 1801, 509 inhabitants; 1831, 586; 1841, 656.  The village of Richards Castle is delightfully situated about three miles from Ludlow, in the county of Hereford.  It was anciently called Gayton, and was a place of considerable importance until the reign of Henry III.  “Richards Castle,” says Leland, “standeth upon the top of a very rocky hill, well wooded, and at the west end of the parish then.  The keep, the walls, and towers of it stand, but going to ruin.  There is a poor house of timber in the castle garth for a farmer.  It belongeth now to the king; it belonged of late to the Lord Vaux; after to Pope.  There is a park impaled.”  Robert de Mortimer, in the reign of King John, had the grant of a fair and market at this place, both of which have long been obsolete.  The castle was built before the conquest.  At the doomsday survey it was held by Osborn Fitz-Richard, whose granddaughter married Robert de Mortimer, from whose family it passed in like manner by an heiress to the Talbots, who possessed it till the reign of Richard II.  King Edward VI. granted the manor to the Bishop of Worcester.  In the fifteenth century T. Bradshaw obtained it of the bishop on a long lease, and his grandson sold the lease to Richard Salwey, Esq., in whose representatives it is now vested.  Some parts of the keep and walls of the castle are still remaining, but are so embosomed in foliage as scarcely to be discovered until they are nearly approached.  Camden says, “Beneath this castle nature, which nowhere disporteth itself more in showing wonders than in waters, hath wrought forth a pretty well, which is always full of little fish-bones, or, as some think, of small frog-bones, although they be from time to time drawn quite out of it, whence it is called Bone Well.”  This curious phenomenon is still in existence, and is the frequent resort of the curious, particularly in the spring and autumn, when the bones are found in great abundance.  On the declivity of a hill near the castle, the Royalists, amounting to nearly 2,000, were defeated by an inferior number of Parliamentary troops, under the command of Colonel Birch.

The following is a grant to the burgesses made by Lord Mortimer, in the 29th of the reign of King Edward:—“Know all men present and to come, that I, Hugh, the son of Robert Lord Mortimer, lord of Richards Castle, I have given, granted, and by this my present writing conferred, to all my burgesses of Richards Castle, and to all my tenants of the townships of Moor Batchcott and Whitbrook, and to all my tenants of the township of Overton, for their good services done to me in the time of the Welsh war, and for twenty pounds sterling to me in hand paid common of pasture for all manner of their cattle and beasts in my fields at Bury Hynton, at all times after the grain is carried thence, and in all my meadow called Shule Meadow, after the feast of St. John the Baptist, and also common of pasture for all their beasts in all my woods within the said lordship of Richards Castle, as well within the county of Hereford as within the county of Salop, at all times in the year (except my park called Morbeck, and my Heys, lying between the ditch called Farthings Lawnde, and one hedge called the Royard, which are inclosed, and parted in at all times of the year).  I have also given and granted to my said burgesses and tenants sufficient house-boot, hay-boot, and fire-boot, with all other necessaries that belong to husbandries, to be yearly taken at all times of necessaries in the said woods, by the order and delivery of my bailiff or constable there for the time being; to have and to hold all the aforesaid common of meadow, pasture, and wood ground as aforesaid, to my said burgesses and tenants of the aforesaid village of Richards Castle, Moor Batchcott, Whitbrook, and Overton, of me and my heirs, the sum of twelve shillings at the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, viz., the burgesses of Richards Castle four shillings, the tenants of Moor Batchcott and Whitbrook four shillings, and the tenants of the township of Overton four shillings, for all manner of service, exaction, and demand; and if it shall happen that this my grant gains aid, withheld, or retained by me, my heirs, or by any person claiming under us at any time for the future, then I will and grant that all my said burgesses and tenants thereby, their own proper wills shall take and hold the aforesaid common in all the said meadows, pasture, and wood grounds aforegranted, and in all places thereby strength and virtue of the said deed: and I, the aforesaid Hugh, and my heirs, all the aforesaid common, together with house-boot, hay-boot, and fireboot, as aforesaid, (except as before excepted,) to the aforesaid burgesses of Richard Castle, and my tenants of Moor Batchcott, Whitbrook, and Overton, their heirs and assigns, for the consideration and rent aforesaid, against all nations whatsoever, will warrant and for ever defend; and that this my grant may be for ever ratified and established, I have hereunto set my seal.”

The Church is a fine structure, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, and stands contiguous to the castle; the tower stands a few feet from the body of the church, and had formerly a spire, which was burnt down.  The windows contain some beautiful stained glass.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £15. 1s. 3d.  Patron, the Bishop of Worcester; incumbent, Rev. George Landon.  The tithes have been commuted for £650, and there are 110 acres of glebe land of the annual value of £270.  There are 2,324 acres of land in the township of Richards Castle, the rateable value of which is £1,652. 8s.  Gross estimated rental, £1,862. 8s. 6d.  The principal landowners are the representatives of J. Salway, Esq., Walter Stubbs, Esq., and William Moreton, Esq.

Moore and Batchcott is a township and pleasantly situated village two and a half miles from Ludlow, embracing 928 acres of land, the principal proprietors of which are Richard Betton, Esq., and the trustees of the Rev. J. Salway.  Rateable value, £1,244. 12s.  At the census in 4841 there were 37 houses and 206 inhabitants.

Overton and Woofferton is a delightfully situated township and village in the parish of Richard’s Castle, about two miles south from Ludlow, on the borders of Herefordshire.  The township contains 1,260 acres of land, the chief owners of which are Francis L. Charlton, Esq., Richard Betton, Esq., and the representatives of the late E. Salwey, Esq.  Rateable value, £1,677. 8s.  At the census of 1841 Overton contained 18 houses and Woofferton nine houses, and together had a population of 137 souls.

Directories.—Richard’s Castle.—Edmund S. Davenport, Esq.; Samuel Davies, shoemaker; Miss Ann Child, Westbrook Cottage; John Hammond, vict., The Salwey Arms; Charles Mapp, farmer, Church House; Richard Mason, farmer, The Green; George Mason, farmer, The Rock; Henry Oseland, farmer and horse trainer, The Wood House; Richard Parker, farmer; Benjamin Ridley, farmer; Mary Taylor, vict., The Castle Inn; Mrs. Martha Taylor; Thomas Wheeler, farmer, The Merefield.

Moore and Batchott.—William B. Cooke, farmer; Thomas Froggat, farmer, The Leys; Rev. George Landon, rector of Richard’s Castle; William Parker, farmer; John Salwey, Esq., Moor Park; Thomas Summers, farmer; John Williams, blacksmith; William Wood, boot and shoemaker; Richard Woodhouse, wheelwright

Overton and Woofferton.—Richard Betton, Esq., Overton House; Thomas C. Bridges, Esq., The Lodge; John Burnett, farmer, Overton; Thomas Bywater, farmer; William B. Cooke, farmer; Richard Green, corn miller, Barratt’s Mill; John Lancet, farmer; Thomas Lowe, farmer, Hucks Barn; Richard Hardman, vict., Salwey Arms; William Heywood, farmer; Thomas Nottingham, farmer; Edward Stubbs, farmer.

RUSHBURY
is a considerable parish in the upper division of the Munslow hundred, comprising the townships of Rushbury, Stone Acton, Wall-under-Haywood, and Wilderhope and Stanway, and part of the townships of East Wall and Getton.  The parish comprises upwards of 5,600 acres of land, and at the census of 1801 had 356 inhabitants; 1831, 507, and in 1841 had 109 houses and a population of 502 souls.  The village of Rushbury is situated about nine miles S.W. from Much Wenlock, and the township contained 26 houses and 115 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Lutwyche, Barnard Dickinson, Esq., and Mrs. Thursby; the latter is also lady of the manor.  Some authors conjecture this place to be the Roman station Bravinium, between Magnum and Uriconum; the distance agreeing better with the Roman itinerary than Bridgnorth.  At the Doomsday survey Roger de Lacy held of Earl Roger Riseberie, and Odo of him, at which time there was an eyrie of hawks.  In the 11th of Edward I. Hugh Burnel had a charter for a market on a Thursday, and a fair on the eve, the day, and the day after the feast of St. Margaret the virgin, which upon a quo warranto brought against Sir Philip Burnel in the 20th of Edward I. was ratified and confirmed by the king’s council.  In the time of Edward I. Richard de Harley had free warren here.  John de Handelo levied a fine on the manor of Rushbury in the 14th of Edward III.  Among the fees of Roger Earl of March, Nicholas Burnel held one knight’s fee.  In the 3rd of Edward VI. the king gave Rushbury in exchange to Nicholas Bishop of Worcester and his successors for lands in Warwickshire.  The Church is a small structure, dedicated to St. Peter, consisting of nave and chancel, with a tower in which are five bells.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £19. 7s. 8½d., now returned at £449 in the gift of the Bishop of Worcester.  Incumbent, Rev. Matthew Y. Starkey.  The endowed school, where twelve children are educated, and the almshouses, will be further noticed with the various gifts to charitable uses.  The tithes are commuted for £384.

Charities.—Benjamin Wainwright, M.D., by his will, bearing date 1st December, 1817, directed certain trustees to raise out of his personal estate the sum of £1,200, and appropriate £400 in building a school-room and a small dwelling house for a schoolmaster, and also two almshouses, all to be erected in the little church-yard near the Pound, in Rushbury, if the rector would allow it.  And he directed that the following words should be cut upon the stone in the front part of the dwelling house:—“This school and almshouse were built and endowed by Benjamin, the seventh son of the late Richard and Mary Wainwright, of Stanway.”  The residue of the said sum of £1,200 he directed to be invested in the funds, and 50s. of the yearly dividends thereof to be given to each of the poor widows resident in the said almshouses; the trustees to provide coals for the almshouses, and also to pay £5 yearly to a schoolmaster for teaching poor children of Rushbury, Eaton, and the adjacent parishes every Sunday; £5 to be laid out in warm clothing on the 1st of December for the poor of Rushbury; £5 per annum to be paid to a schoolmistress for teaching children to knit and sew, and to pay the remainder of the dividends to a schoolmaster to instruct nine poor children of Rushbury and three of Eaton in reading, writing, and common arithmetic.  The sum of £400 above mentioned was reduced by the payment of the legacy duty to £360, and a school was erected at a cost of upwards of £500, part of the surplus having been advanced by such of the trustees as were of the testator’s family.  The remainder of the sum of £1,200 was invested in the purchase of stock, and there is now standing £737 new four per cent. stock, producing dividends amounting to £429. 10s. per annum, of which £20 is paid to a schoolmaster for teaching a Sunday as well as a week day school.  Two poor women are appointed by the trustees to reside in the almshouses, each of whom receives £2 annually, including an allowance of coals.

There is a parcel of land in the parish called the Poor’s Land, containing about six acres, and four small tenements with gardens, and also an allotment set out in respect of the above mentioned premises containing about an acre and three quarters, altogether producing a rental of £12 per annum.  The four tenements were long used for the reception of paupers.  A portion of the poor’s land was given to the rector in exchange for a part of the glebe near the church-yard, on which the school was built.  The sum of £2. 2s. is paid to the rector as his portion of the rent, and the residue is chiefly expended in coals and distributed to the poor.

Edward Lutwyche, in 1601, granted a rent charge of 40s. per annum out of his lands in Wall-under-Haywood and East Wall, and directed six penny worth of bread to be distributed every Sunday to six poor parishioners, each of the said poor people to receive 2s. 4d. in money every Good Friday.  And he directed that every poor person appointed should receive the charity for life.  The yearly sum of 30s. is payable out of Day-house farm in the township of Holt Preen, as the bequest of Anne Tipton.  The amount is distributed in bread to six poor men and six poor women, alternately, according to the intentions of the donor.  Martha Baker, who died about fifty years ago, is stated to have left £20 to the poor of Rushbury, the interest to be given in bread.  This money was applied soon after the death of the testatrix in repairing a house on the poor’s land used as a poor house, and in respect thereof £1 is paid annually from the poor’s rates, which is expended in bread for the poor.

East Wall is a township and village seven miles S.W. from Much Wenlock, partly in the parish of Rushbury and partly in that of Eaton, and is usually called Longville, Lushcott, and East Wall township.  The portion in Rushbury parish at the census of 1841 contained five houses and 27 inhabitants.  Thomas Gibbon, Esq., and Mrs. Lutwyche are the principal landowners.

Gretton township is partly in Rushbury and partly in Cardington, and is situated about a mile N.E. from the latter place.  In 1841 thirteen houses and 73 inhabitants were returned as in Rushbury, and one house and eleven persons in Cardington parish.  Lady Tyrwhitt is the principal landowner.

Stone Acton, a township in Rushbury parish about a mile S.W. from the church, at the census of 1841 had four houses and 24 inhabitants.  The land is the property of Mr. William Jones and Mr. Daniel Mytton.  Mr. William Jones is the resident farmer.

Wilderhope and Stanway, a township in Rushbury parish, is situated about five miles S.W. from Much Wenlock, and at the census of 1841 had thirteen houses and 76 inhabitants.  Moses George Benson, Esq., and Richard Wainwright, Esq., are the landowners.

Wall-under-Haywood, a township and village in the parish of Rushbury, with 43 houses and 166 inhabitants, is situated about a mile west of Rushbury.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Cleeton and John Baker, Esq.

Directories.—Rushbury.—Edward Cleeton, farmer; Thomas Corfield, farmer; Richard Cox, saddler and harness maker; Mary Fewtrell, schoolmistress; Julian Fewtrell, registrar of births, deaths, and marriages; William Fewtrell, farmer; Rev. Matthew Y. Starkey, rector.

East Wall.—Richard Butcher, farmer, Longville; Thomas Gippins, farmer; Thomas Haynes, blacksmith and shopkeeper; Charlotte Hotchkiss, farmer; Thomas Hughson, bailiff; Morris Jones, bailiff, Lushcott; Sarah Makin, farmer; Edward Onslow, farmer; Thomas Preen, stone mason; Thomas Roberts, farmer.

Gretton.—Edward Esp, farmer; Richard Haynes, bailiff; Timothy Smout, blacksmith; Edward Humphrey, farmer.—Stone Acton.—William Jones, farmer.

Wall-under-Haywood.—Mrs. Margaret Cleeton; Richard Cleeton, farmer; Thomas Corfield, farmer; Richard Cox, saddler; William Downes, farmer and maltster; John Evason, shoemaker; William Gough, farmer, Cotes; Thomas Hammond, blacksmith; John Moore, vict., Lutwyche Arms; George Morgan, vict., The Plough; John Pritchard, farmer; Thomas Smout, wheelwright; Richard Smout, wheelwright; Mrs. Mary Woof.

Wilderhope and Stanway.—John Norris, farmer, Upper Stanway; John Webster, farmer, Lower Stanway; Mary Webster, farmer, Wilderhope.

SHIPTON
is a parish and village in the upper division of the Munslow hundred, pleasantly situated on the road from Much Wenlock to Ludlow, six and a quarter miles S.W. from the former and fifteen miles N.W. from the latter.  The parish contains 1,570 acres of land.  Rateable value, £2,220.  Population in 1801, 119; 1831, 154; 1841, 153, at the latter period there were 24 inhabited houses.  The principal landowners are Thomas Mytton, Esq., Rev. Robert H. G. More, Moses G. Benson, Esq., and John Corser, Esq.; the former is lord of the manor.  The Church is an ancient structure, dedicated to St. James, and consists of nave and chancel, with a square tower.  The interior contains several handsome memorials, chiefly to the Mytton family.  From a brass plate we learn that the chancel was re-edified from the foundation and glazed, at the charge of John Lutwyche, of Lutwyche, in the 31st of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1589.  The living is a donative curacy in the patronage of Thomas Mytton Esq.  Incumbent, Rev. Robert H. G. More.  Shipton Hall, a handsome mansion, the residence and property of Thomas Mytton, Esq., exhibits a beautiful specimen of the Elizabethan style of architecture.  Thomas Mytton, Esq., is in possession of the original letter, of which the following is a copy, addressed by a needy monarch to the ancestor of Mr. Mytton, then resident at Shipton Hall, and dated February 14th, 1643:—

“Trusty and Well-beloved, we greet you well.  Whereas, all our subjects of the kingdom of England and dominion of Wales, are both by their allegiance and the act of pacification bound to resist and suppresse such of our subjects of Scotland as have in a hostile manner already entered, or shall hereafter enter into this kingdome.  And by law your personal service, attended in a warlike manner for the resistance of, may be required by us, which we desire to spare, chusing rather to invite your assistance for the maintenance of our army in a free and voluntary expression of your affections to our service, and the safety of this kingdom.  And whereas the members of both houses of parliament assembled at Oxford, have taken into their consideration the necessity of supporting our army for the defence of us and our people against this invasion, and for the preservation of the religious lawes and liberties of this kingdome, and thereupon have agreed upon the speedy raising of the summe of one hundred thousand pounds by loane from particular persons, towards the which themselves have advanced a very considerable portion, and by their example hope that our well affected subjects throughout the kingdome will in a short time make up the remainder, whereby we shall not only be enabled to pay and recruite our army, but likewise be enabled to put our armies in such a condition as our subjects shall not suffer by free quarter or the unruliness of our soldiers, which is now in present agitation, and will (we doubt not, by the advice of the members of both houses assembled) be spedily effected.  We doe towards so good a work, by the approbation and advice of the members of both houses assembled, desire you forthwith to lend us the sum of thirty pounds, or the value thereof in plate, toucht plate at five shillings, and untoucht plate at four shillings per ounce, and to pay or deliver the same within seven daies after the receipt thereof to the hands of our high sheriffe of that our own county, or to such whome he shall appoint to receive the same, upon his acquittances for the receipt thereof to the hands of our high sherriffe of that our county, who is forthwith to returne and pay the same at Corpus Cristi Colledge in Oxford, to the hands of the Earle of Bath, the Lord Seymour, Mr. John Ashburnham, and Mr. John Fettiplace, or any of them who appointed treasurers for the receiving and issuing thereof by the said members, (by whose order only the said money is to be disposed), and to give receipts for the same, the which we promise to repay as soon as God shall enable us.  This sum to be advanced with speed.  We are necessitated to apply ourselves to such persons as yourself, of whose ability and affection we have confidence, giving you this assurance—that in such further charges that the necessity of our just defence shall inforce us to require of our good subjects, your forwardnesse and disbursements shall be considered to your best advantage.  And so presuming you will not fail to expresse your affection herein, we bid you farewell.  Given at our court at Oxford, the 14th day of February, in the nineteenth yeare of our raigne, 1643.”

Directory.—Timothy Bluck, farmer, Newhouse; John Corser, farmer, More House; Mrs. Frances Danzey, Larden Hall; Richard Esp, farmer, Larden Grange; John Fortune, wheelwright; Richard Jones, farmer; Thomas Mytton, Esq., Shipton Hall; William Partridge, vict., Bull’s Head; John Price, blacksmith.

STANTON LACY
is a considerable parish in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, comprising the townships of Downton, Hayton Lower, Hayton Upper, part of Henley, part of Hopton, Rock, Stanton Lacy, and Wooton, and the hamlets of East and West.  In 1801 there were 905 inhabitants; 1831, 1,467; 1841, 1,540.  Acres, 7,765; rateable value, £11,008. 5s.  The township of Stanton Lacy has 2,393 acres of land; at the census of 1841 it contained 141 houses and 724 inhabitants, of which 146 persons are returned as in the Ludlow Union Workhouse.  The village is pleasantly situated three and a half miles N.N.W. from Ludlow, near the eastern bank of the Corve.  The Earl of Craven is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  In the 20th of Edward I., a quo warranto was brought against the Prior of Lantone Prune, in Wales, for claiming pleas of the crown and wayffe, and for holding a fair and a market in the manor of Stanton Lacy, and in Rokele.  The Prior pleads that he is not lord of the manor, but is only patron of the church, and holds Rokele that lies in the parish.  Hugh de Lowther replies that the bishop cannot prove any of his predecessors to have come in with the Conqueror, and to have acquired those privileges by conquest, because being men in holy orders they come to their freeholds by the grants of others, and therefore he ought to produce some special grant from the crown to support his claim.  This place was part of the royal demesnes when the house of York recovered their right to the crown.  In the time of Henry VIII., Sir William Thomas, Knt., held the manor of Stanton Lacy and a pasture known by the name of Stanton Fryth, for the term of twenty-one years, at the rent of £7. 10s.  The Church is a fine old structure, some portions of which are unquestionably of great antiquity; it has recently been beautified, and the interior has undergone a complete renovation at a cost of about £1000.  The chancel is very beautiful; the altar exhibits some very elaborate workmanship, and the floor is covered with tesselated pavement.  The living is a vicarage, rated in the king’s book at £16, now returned at £518, in the patronage of the Earl of Craven; incumbent, Rev. Joseph Bowles, D.D.  There is a national school in the village, towards the support of which the Earl of Craven is a liberal contributor.  Richard Nash, in the year 1814, bequeathed £100 for the benefit of the poor of this parish.

Downton, a township in the parish of Stanton Lacy, situated four miles from Ludlow, contains 765 acres of land, and in 1841 had 17 houses and 90 inhabitants.  Sir W. E. R. Boughton, Bart., is the principal landowner and lord of the manor, and resides at Downton Hall, an elegant mansion of modern erection commanding most beautiful and varied prospects over a luxuriant country richly clothed with woody scenery.  The pleasure grounds are tastefully laid out and beautifully ornamented with choice shrubs and flowers.

Hayton Lower, a small township and village four miles N.N.W. from Ludlow, contains 535 acres of land, and at the census of 1841 had 24 houses and 104 inhabitants.  The Earl of Craven is the principal proprietor of the land.

Hayton Upper, a village and township in the parish of Stanton Lacy, comprises 935 acres of land, and is situated four and a half miles N.N.W. from Ludlow.  At the census of 1841 there were 53 houses and 256 inhabitants.  The Earl of Craven is the landowner and lord of the manor.  In this township is the hamlet of Hayton’s Bent, where the Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists have each a small chapel.  A small rivulet which flows from the hilly ground in this township becomes on its passage through rocks strongly impregnated with carbonate of lime, and is found to possess the property of forming petrifactions of such articles as are placed in it.  The township of Henley, partly in this parish and partly in that of Bitterley, is noticed in the latter parish.  The township of Hopton also partly in this parish, is noticed with Hopton parish.

Rock, a small rural village and township in the parish of Stanton Lacy, contains 735 acres of land, and runs into the borough of Ludlow.  At the census of 1841 there were 32 houses and 134 inhabitants.

Wootton, another small township in the parish of Stanton Lacy, contains 544 acres of land, and in 1841 had 9 houses and 65 inhabitants.  Wootton Hall, a fine specimen of the domestic architecture of by-gone days, has been taken down during the present year and a farm house erected near the site.  The Earl of Craven is owner of the land in this township.

East Hamlet, in the parish of Stanton Lacy, contains 734 acres of land, the principal owner of which is Frederick Nash, Esq.; William Pattrick is the farmer.  In 1841 there were four houses and twenty-four inhabitants.

West Hamlet contains 650 acres of land, and in 1841 had nine houses and sixty-five inhabitants.  The chief landowners are the Earl of Craven, Hon. R. H. Clive, Mrs. Wakefield, and J. B. Cummings, Esq.

Directories.—Stanton Lacy: Herbert Blakeway, farmer, Stanton Cottage; Rev. Joseph Bowles, D.D.; John Davies, blacksmith; John S. Edwards, farmer; Richard Edwards, farmer, Manor House; Henry Evans, vict., Craven Arms; Richard Fletcher, butcher and shopkeeper; Edward Farmer, farmer and shopkeeper; John Hotchkiss, farmer, Woodlands; Ann Oseley, Proprietary School.  Downton: Sir William Edward Rouse Boughton, Bart., Downton Hall; Thomas Hotchkiss, farmer.  Hayton Lower: Richard Coston, farmer; Sarah Coston, farmer; Samuel Weaver, farmer; and Samuel Weaver, beerhouse keeper.  Hayton Upper: Edward M. Burgess, farmer; Rev. Lancelot Dixon; William Price, farmer; and Thomas Smout, farmer.  Rock: Mr. Wm. Gardener; James Harding, vict., The Raven; James Hince, timber merchant; John Price, manager at Gas Works; Elias Rollings, coach and jobbing smith; William Russell, governor of Union House; William Thompson, vict., Greyhound; James Watkins, stone and marble mason.  Wootton: William Blakeway, farmer, The White House; Josiah Meredith, corn miller.  East Hamlet: William Patrick, farmer.  West Hamlet: Thomas Lloyd, farmer, Langley; John Mellings, farmer, The Pools; Deborah Sanders, farmer, Ruckley; John Sanders, farmer; and William Small, farmer, Aintree.

STANTON LONG
is a parish and small rural village in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, seven miles S.S.W. from Much Wenlock, and ten west from Bridgnorth.  At the census of 1801 there was a population of 206 souls; 1831, 278; and in 1841, fifty-three houses and 327 inhabitants.  Acres, 1,710a. 1r. 10p.  Rateable value, £2,636. 4s. 6d.  The parish extends about four miles in length and one in breadth, and is adjacent to the parishes of Holdgate, Shipton, Monk Hopton, and Ditton Priors.  The soil on the north side of the river Corve is well adapted for the growth of turnips and barley; on the south side it is of a stiffer nature, and better suited for wheat.  The principal landowners are the Duke of Cleveland; Rev. R. H. G. More; J. Deighton, Esq.; and J. Corser, Esq.; there are also several other proprietors.  Mrs. Thursby is lady of the manor.  Brockton and Patton are two small townships for highway purposes in this parish, the former containing 376 acres, and the latter 697 acres.  The Church, situated at the south-western extremity of the parish, is a neat edifice dedicated to St. Michael; the interior, however, contains little of interest, except a handsomely-carved oak pulpit, and there are some fine Gothic windows.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £7, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Hereford.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £95. 6s. 10d.; and there is a good vicarage house and 66a. 3r. 3p. of glebe land attached, commanding a pleasing prospect of the Corve Dale.  The rectoral tithes are commuted for £133. 17s. 5d., of which £7. 12s. 7d. is paid to the rector of Holdgate.  The Rev. Thomas P. Williams is the curate.  There is a National School at Brockton, capable of containing 120 children.  The interest of a sum of £20, left by an unknown donor, is expended in bread and given to the poor.

The principal residents are Charles Acton, farmer, Brockton; Thomas Bywater, farmer, Brockton; Thomas Chatham, farmer, Stanton Long; Edward Corks, farmer and maltster, Stanton Long; William Crudington, shoemaker, Brockton; Isaac Day, blacksmith, Stanton Long; Evan Davies, farmer, Patton; Thomas Downes, farmer, Patton; James Edwards, wheelwright, Stanton Long; Edward Esp, farmer, Stanton Long; Edward Instone, farmer, Brockton house; Thomas Mancell, blacksmith, Brockton; Edward Philpot, vict., Feathers; John Pope, carpenter, Stanton Long; Rev. Thomas P. Williams, curate.

STOKE ST. MILBOROUGH
is a parish in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, comprising 4,400 acres of land, and is divided for highway purposes into the townships of Clee Downton, Clee Stanton, and Stoke, and the chapelry of Heath.  At the census of 1841 there were 110 houses and 553 inhabitants exclusive of the chapelry of Heath, which contained ten houses and a population of sixty-three souls.  Rateable value, £4,454. 8s.  The village of Stoke is delightfully situated in a romantic district, near the southern side of the Brown Clee Hill, six miles and a half N.N.E. from Ludlow.  From the summit of the Brown Clee Hill, which is chiefly situated in this parish, a most beautiful panoramic view is seen of the country, which for extent and diversity is not surpassed in England.  To the north and south are seen the fruitful plains of Shropshire, pleasingly varied with woody hills, and lovely vales dotted with the humble cottage of the labourer and the mansion of the opulent, whilst the Cambrian hills, which rear their lofty heights in wild grandeur towards the west, give an additional charm to the enchanting scene.  According to the description given of the manor of Stoke St. Milborough at the Doomsday survey, it would seem then to have consisted of seven hides of land, and a large wood.  Earl Roger gave it to the chaplains of the church of St. Milborough.  The principal landowners are the Hon. Sidney Herbert; Dr. Cavendish Wall; E. H. Owen, Esq.; and Mr. John Patrick; there are also several other proprietors.  The Hon. Sidney Herbert, lord of the manor, regularly pays a fee farm rent of £29. 10s. 3d. to the Duke of Cleveland, as the representative of the grantee of it from the crown; and the Hon. S. Herbert collects from various freeholders of the manor several rents amounting in the aggregate to the said sum.  The Church is a venerable structure, dedicated to the saint from whom the name of the parish is derived.  The interior is commodious, and contains an antique font, and several ancient monuments to the Lee family.  It has a handsome tower and four bells.  The living is a vicarage, with the curacy of Heath annexed, returned at £474, in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. George Morgan, M.A.  The Vicarage is a good residence, and pleasantly situated.  The Methodists and Primitive Methodists have each a small chapel here; and there is a National School.  “In the afternoon of Monday, July 25, 1768, there happened an extraordinary gust of wind, a few miles to the north-west of Cleobury, in Shropshire.  Its effects were most remarkable in the parish of Stoke St. Milborough, where it unroofed the dwelling house, barns, stables, and every other building belonging to a farmer of the name of Bishop; one of which buildings was entirely levelled with the ground.  In his orchard it destroyed upwards of sixty apple and pear trees, which were either broken off in the butt, or forced up by the roots.  Several large elms and poplar trees were likewise blown down.  He computed the damage he had sustained at £300.  His son, a youth sixteen years of age, being in the fold, was lifted four or five yards above the surface of the ground, and carried to the distance of eighty yards, part of the space being over a fish-pond, a hedge, and a stone wall; but at last, falling gradually in a field of hay, he received but little hurt.”  A donation of £400 has been invested by the present incumbent in the three per cent. consols, in the names of certain trustees, the dividends of which are laid out in bread, and distributed among such poor as are most regular in their attendance at church.

Directory.—Richard Andrews, shoemaker; James Blakemore, farmer; John T. Bright, farmer and corn miller, Court house; Thomas Colton, vict., Red Lion; John Humphries, shopkeeper; Thomas Humphries, wheelwright; John Jones, blacksmith; Samuel Jones, shoemaker; E. H. Owen, Esq., St. Milborough lodge; John Patrick, farmer; Henry Speak, farmer; John Wall, farmer.

Clee Downton, a small scattered village in the parish of Stoke St. Milborough, consists of a few scattered houses about a mile from the church.  E. H. Owen, Esq., is the landowner.  The chief residents are Edward Powell, farmer; Edward Poyner, farmer; Richard Sambrook, farmer; William Summers, farmer; and Richard and Thomas Whiteman, farmers.

Clee Stanton is a village with a few straggling houses, at the foot of Titterstone Hill, two miles east from Stoke St. Milborough.  Sir William R. Boughton, and Robert Head, Esq., are the landowners.  The principal residents are Henry Ainsworth, farmer; Edward Millichamp, farmer; John Poter, farmer.

Heath, a chapelry in the parish of Stoke St. Milborough, contains 386 acres of land, and is situated two miles north by west from the church.  Gross estimated rental, £492. 10s.  The landowners are the Earl of Craven; Edward Turner, Esq.; and Thomas and Edward Millichamp.  At the census of 1841 there were ten houses and sixty-eight inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £28, and there are 28 acres of glebe land.  The Chapel is a small but interesting structure, the interior of which is admired for its beautiful carved oak.  Its architecture displays traces of the Norman style.  Service is performed only once during the month.

The principal residents at Heath are Benjamin Cocks, farmer; Edward Millichamp, farmer, New house; Edward Powis, bailiff to E. Turner, Esq.; Mr. Edward Price, Heath cottage.

STOKESAY
is a parish and village in the lower division of the Munslow hundred, containing 3,609 acres of land, and comprising the townships of Aldon, Stoke and Newton, Wettleton, and parts of Broom and Rowton; the latter however is chiefly in the Hopesay parish, where it will be found noticed.  At the census of 1801, there were 512 inhabitants: 1831, 529: 1841, 556; at the latter period there were 108 inhabited houses.  Rateable value, £3,939 15s.  The township of Stoke and Newton contains 1,222 acres of land, and in 1841 had 38 houses and 188 inhabitants.  The Craven Arms is a handsome and commodious hotel, not surpassed by any in the county: in the front of which is a conical column, on which is inscribed the distance of this place from all the principal towns in England, Scotland, and Wales.  At the Doomsday survey, Roger de Lacy held Stoches of the King, at which period there were eight plough lands, twenty villains, belonging to the manor, and a mill.  The Lacy family continued in possession of it till the year 1207, when it was carried by an heiress to John de Vernon.  Soon after 1240 the manor was sold to William de Ludlowe, whose son Lawrence de Ludlowe lived at the castle.  In 1497 it passed to Thomas Vernon, and afterwards to Sir George Mainwaring, and he sold it about the year 1620 to Lord Craven, whose representative the Earl of Craven is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  Stoke Castle, formerly the seat of the Baldwin family, is a curious specimen of the castellated mansion of former days.  A gate house constructed of wooden framework, with curious carvings, leads to a quadrangular court, on one side of which are the remains of the rampart, and on the other sides the house, offices, and tower.  The hall and tower is opposite the gate house, in the latter is a winding staircase.  The hall is very spacious, but there is no vestige of a fire-place, the ancient mode of warming apartments of this description being by a reredoss, or brazier, filled with burning charcoal, and placed in the centre; at one end is the gallery for the minstrelsy on days of festivity; the wainscot is of oak, and the chimney piece is elaborately carved.  The tower which is lofty and in the form of an irregular polygon, rises from the south-west corner of the court, and is crowned with an embattled parapet; the ground floor is a gloomy apartment lighted by four small pointed windows, and the upper stories are divided into very small rooms.  This stately mansion has suffered a degradation not uncommon to places of ancient note, part of it having been used as an out-house to an adjoining farm, and the rest suffered to fall to decay.

The Church is a venerable structure situated near the castle, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and consists of nave and chancel, with a tower in which are six bells.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £4. 13s. 4d., now returned at £340.; incumbent, Rev. William Williams.  The Parochial school was formerly held in the church belfry, it is now taught in a private house, but a new school is expected shortly to be built.  Roger Powell who died in 1616, left to this parish £10. a year, and directed one shilling a week to be distributed to the poor, and the residue towards the maintenance of a schoolmaster.  Of this annuity, which is paid out of a farm in Church Stoke and Lydham, £2. 12s; is given away with the sacrament money on St. Thomas’s day, and the remainder is paid to the schoolmaster.  Mary Pearce, in 1769, bequeathed £5 to the poor of this parish, and it was then agreed that the said sum should be laid out in the purchase of a bier cloth, the cost of which was £4. 5s. 7½d., and the rest in books for the poor children of the parish; it was further agreed that in lieu of the interest of the said £5, a bible should be given yearly on Easter Monday to such poor child as the parishioners should appoint.

Directory.—Richard Coston, farmer, Newton; William Jones, wheelwright, Newton; Enoch Morris, farmer, Stoke Castle; Richard Owen, vict., Craven Arms Hotel; Francis Owen, vict., Red Lion, Newton; Joseph Speakes, schoolmaster; Rev. William Williams, vicar, Stokesay.

Aldon, a township and village in the parish of Stokesay, in 1841 contained 45 houses and 236 inhabitants.  The chief landowners are Henry Lester, Esq., Hon. R. H. Clive, and Mr. William Hotchkiss, there are also a few small proprietors.  Limestone is found in abundance in this township; in getting the stone, bones have frequently been found of animals that are now extinct,—not long ago some very large antlers of the deer were found.  The principal residents are John Bishop, farmer; William Hotchkiss, farmer and lime burner; Edward Medlicott, farmer, Aldon Court; Benjamin Pugh, farmer, Steperside; Lady Mary Ann Syer, Stone House.

Broom and Rowton is a township partly in the Munslow hundred and partly in the Purslow hundred, situated about a mile and a half east from Clungunford.  At the census of 1841 two houses and eighteen inhabitants were returned as in Stokesay parish, and two houses and fifteen inhabitants as in the parish of Clungunford.  The principal residents are Francis Bach, farmer, Rowton; George Beddows, farmer, Rowton; Timothy Bishop, farmer, Rowton; John and Richard Marston, farmers, The Weo.

Wettleton, a township and small village, is situated about half a mile N.E. from Stoke, and in 1841 had 25 houses and 114 inhabitants.  The land is the property of the Earl of Craven, and the resident farmers are Jeremiah Sheppard and William Sheppard.

TUGFORD
is a parish in the upper division of the Munslow hundred, nine miles N.N.E. from Ludlow, which contains 1,990 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,609. 5s.  The soil is well adapted for the growth of turnips and barley.  Population in 1801, 165; 1831, 188; 1841, 145; at the latter period there were 31 houses.  The village of Tugford is on a good road leading to Ludlow, the situation is low, but dry, pleasant, and warm, being sheltered from the east by a tall plantation rising at the back of it.  A small stream called Tugford Brook turns a corn mill in the village, and shortly after has its confluence with the river Corfe.  In the time of Henry III. the abbot and convent of Shrewsbury held the ville of Tugford, which was computed to consist of two hides and a half of land.  At the assizes, in the 20th of Edward I., the abbot of Salop claimed the liberty of free warren here, of which his successors had a confirmation in the time of Richard II.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Craven and C. O. Childe Pemberton, Esq.  The parish church, dedicated to St. Catherine, is a small but handsome structure, probably erected about the middle of the 16th century.  The living is a rectory annexed to that of Holdgate, in the patronage of the Bishop of Hereford.  Incumbent, Rev. Joseph Corbett.  The rectory house is a good residence adjoining the church-yard.  Thomas Clinton, in 1815, gave £100, the interest to be given among ten poor widows of this parish.  In 1652, Robert Ellis bequeathed 10s. each to the several parishes of Tugford, Abdow, Holdgate, Tregnon, and Llanwithilaw.  The tithes were commuted in 1839; aggregate amount, £178. 18s. 10d.

The principal residents in Tugford are the Rev. Joseph Corbett, The Rectory; John Blakeway, shopkeeper; John Blockley, farmer; Edward Downes, farmer; John Page, farmer and corn miller; Edward Parsons, farmer; Richard Shirley, farmer; Fanny Wall, blacksmith.

THE WENLOCK FRANCHISE.

The Wenlock Franchise is bounded on the east by the Brimstree Hundred, on the south by the Stottesden Hundred, on the west by the Condover and Munslow Hundreds, and on the north by that of South Bradford.  The borough and franchise of Wenlock were formerly co-extensive with the Hundred of Patintern, mentioned in Doomsday Book, which comprised the following parishes, viz.:—Much Wenlock, Little Wenlock, Broseley, Madeley, Benthall, Barrow, Tinley, Badger, Beckbury, Priors Ditton, Stoke St. Milborough, Eaton-under-Heywood, Hughley, Shipton, Monk Hopton, Willey, Deuxhill, and the Extra Parochial Liberty of Posenhall.  By an order of quarter sessions, held at Shrewsbury, April 4th, 1836, the parishes of Badger, Deuxhill, and Beckbury, were added to the Brimstree Hundred; and the parishes of Eaton, Shipton, and Stoke St. Milborough, should thenceforward be considered as part of the Munslow Hundred.  Ironstone, coal, limestone, and a superior clay, are found in this division of the county, which is celebrated for extensive iron-works, the manufacture of porcelain earthenware, tobacco pipes, bricks, tiles, and draining pipes.  The manufacturing district is chiefly confined to the north and north-east verge of the franchise.  It is intersected by the river Severn at the northern extremity, and the river afterwards forms the boundary of the franchise for some distance.  At the census of 1841 this division of the county contained 3,703 inhabited houses, 155 uninhabited, and 29 building; and a population of 18,016 souls; of whom 8,936 were males and 9,080 females.  Of the total population 16,518 persons were born in the county, and 1,498 elsewhere.

BARROW
is a small but pleasantly situated village and parish, in the Wenlock Franchise, two miles east from Much Wenlock, and two miles south-west from Broseley.  The parish contains 2,989a. 0r. 39p. of land, the rateable value of which is £3,086. 6s. 1d.  At the census in 1801 there were 479 inhabitants; 1831, 351; and in 1841 there were 85 houses and a population of 383 souls.  Lord Forester and Sir Richard Acton, Bart., are the landowners.  Willey Hall, a handsome mansion, is the occasional seat of Lord Forester.  The lands in this parish abound with game, which is rigidly preserved.  The Church is a venerable structure, dedicated to St. Giles, and consists of nave and chancel, with a turret, in which are two bells.  The walls display many tabular monuments, and there is an antique font, with a capacious basin.  On the south side of the church-yard is buried Tom Moody, the celebrated whipper-in to George Forester, Esq.  The grave-stone is simply inscribed “Tom Moody, died 19th November, 1796.”  The church was formerly an appendage to the Priory of Wenlock.  The living is a perpetual curacy annexed to the rectory of Willey.  The Rev. Henry Bridgeman is the incumbent.

The School and Almshouse.—John Slaney, merchant tailor of London, having, in his life-time, built in the parish of Barrow an almshouse for six poor aged men or women that had been ancient dwellers thereabout, and appointed six acres of ground to be laid out for their better relief and to the support of a school.  He also directed an allowance of 1s. 4d. weekly to be made to each inmate, and every alternate year a good frieze gown to be given to each person, worth 13s. 4d., and hose and shoes to the value of 6s. 8d.  Mr. Slaney also erected a school for the free teaching of twenty children, and ordained that a great part of the six acres of land above mentioned should be for the maintenance of the school; and he gave towards the maintenance of the schoolmaster £10 a-year for ever.  For the performance of the said allowance he gave a rent charge of £30 per annum issuing out of his manor of Willey.  And for the residue of his gift to make up the pensions of the said schoolhouse and almshouse, he charged his cousin, John Slaney, that he and his heirs and assignees should for ever pay the same as a rent charge out of his lands called the Hem, which lands he gave to his said cousin on his continuing the charities according to the conditions of his will.  In this will Mr. Slaney is directed to keep the school and almshouse in continual repair, and to provide fuel.  The premises thus conditionally devised became the property of John Stephens, Esq., who, in 1816, exchanged the lands with Cecil Weld Forester, Esq., lord of the manor of Willey, for lands situated near Barrow church.  The almshouse having become much dilapidated, the said Cecil W. Forester, Esq., agreed to be at the expense of taking down and rebuilding the school and almshouse (at his own expense), and keeping the same in repair during the term of his natural life, and to find garments and coals, pursuant to the will of the founder.  In pursuance of this arrangement, the almshouse was taken down, and a new one and a schoolhouse built on the lands which he had given in exchange.  The yearly expenditure when the Charity Commissioners published their report was £33. 16s., of which the rent charge on the manor of Willey provides for £30; so that there remained for the annual charge upon the lands of Mr. Stephens £3. 16s., but which was then paid by Mr. Forester, besides the cost of twelve tons of coals.  With respect to the terms of this exchange, it cannot escape observation that the £3. 16s. and the twelve tons of coals which are furnished by Mr. Forester, in pursuance of his agreement, and the expense that he may be at in repairs, are a part of the consideration that he was to give for the old schoolhouse and almshouse, and the land belonging to them; and not the annual supply which Mr. Stephens’s estates were charged by the will of Mr. Slaney to furnish.  When the charity has received Mr. Forester’s supply, it has received nothing more than the stipulated equivalent for the old schoolhouse and almshouse premises.  But before the exchange it was entitled to something more, namely, to the supply charged on Mr. Stephens’s estates.  It must, therefore, continue still entitled to that supply since the exchange; unless the effect of the exchange has been to exonerate the estates of Mr. Stephens during the life of Mr. Forester at the expense of the charity.  We think that such has not been the effect, but that Mr. Stephens’s estates are liable to make good to the charity the annual supply of £3. 16s. and twelve tons of coals yearly, and to continue that supply in future.  The school teacher, in addition to the £10 prescribed by the will of Mr. Slaney, has the use of a schoolhouse, and about five acres of land attached to it, with the privilege of taking private scholars.

It appears from the parish books, that a sum of £9 poors’ stock, which had for many years been in the hands of successive parish officers, was applied in the year 1788 to the repairs of the church, as interest of which the sum of 10s. is distributed by the churchwardens at Christmas in fourpenny loaves among the poor of the parish.

Directory.—John Michael Howell, farmer, The Marsh; Thomas Instone, farmer, Swinney; Augusta Jones, schoolmistress; Robert Peake, farmer; William Thursfield, Esq., farmer and land agent to Lord Forester.

BENTHALL
is a small parish with a scattered population, three miles and a half from Much Wenlock, which comprises 1,195a. 3r. 1p. of land, the whole of which is the property of Lord Forester, who is also lord of the manor.  The land has a bold swelling surface, and abounds in limestone.  There are lime works in this parish, which give employment to a number of the inhabitants.  There is also a tobacco pipe manufactory, and an establishment for the manufacture of earthenware, carried on by Mr. Edward Bathurst.  At the census of 1801, the parish contained 636 inhabitants; 1831, 525; and in 1841 there were 131 inhabited houses, and 587 souls.  The Church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, consists of nave and chancel, and has a small turret, in which is one bell: it was rebuilt in 1667, and stands on a gentle eminence: it is neatly pewed with oak sittings, and has a gallery at the west end.  On the north wall of the chancel there is a tablet to the memory of Ralph Brown, Esq. and Catherine, his wife; the former died in 1707: he was lord of the manor of Benthall.  On the south wall is a neat memorial to Edward Brown, gentleman, of Broseley, who died January 29th, 1849, aged 74 years.  In the nave of the church is buried Philip Benthall, Esq., who died July 26th, 1713, aged 81 years.  The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Much Wenlock; incumbent, Rev. W. H. Wayne; curate, Rev. Thomas H. Edwards.  Benthall Hall is a stone mansion situated near the church, some portions of which were erected in the year 1535.  It is the property of Lord Forester, but is now unoccupied.  In the time of the civil wars it was garrisoned by the royalists, at which period tradition states the old church was destroyed.

Mrs. Ann Brown, by her will dated 30th May, 1764, directed that the dividends of £200 stock, consolidated three per cents, belonging to her, should be yearly, at Christmas, distributed by her brother, Francis Turner Blithe, and his heirs, and the minister of Benthall, as they should think fit.  The dividends are received under the power of attorney, and are paid to the minister, who regularly distributes them about Christmas in small sums among the poor.

Edward Brown, Esq., of Broseley, bequeathed £200 to the minister and churchwardens for the time being of Bethnall in the county of Salop, on trust to invest the same in funds, or government or real securities, and to apply the interest in repairing and maintaining the vault and tombstone of his late brother in-law, Sir Humphrey Charlton, situated in the church yard at Benthall, and to apply the surplus to the relief of poor persons from time to time resident in the parish.

Posenhall is an extra parochial liberty, contiguous to Benthall, which at the census of 1841 is returned as containing five houses and twenty-two inhabitants.  There is only one farm here, which is in the occupancy of Mr. Thomas Pitt; there is also an earthenware manufactory: the names will be found included in the Benthall directory.

Directory.—Edwin Bathurst, earthenware manufacturer, Benthall Pottery; John and Edward Burton, farmers and brick makers; Joseph Currier, shopkeeper; John Duckett, timber merchant; Rev. Thomas H. Edwards, B.A., curate, Benthall House; Mary Gother, vict., Britannia Inn; John Gother, joiner; Hiram Hill, lime burner, residence, Broseley; Joshua Instone, blacksmith; John Jones, vict., Leopard Inn; Warren Taylor Jones, earthenware manufacturer, Posenhall Pottery; John Patten, lime burner and barge owner; Ann Pitt, farmer; Thomas Pitt, farmer, Posenhall; Edward Roden, farmer and corn miller; Mary Roden, farmer; Noah Roden, tobacco pipe manufacturer; James Shepard, maltster.

BROSELEY,
anciently written Burwardsley, is a parish and considerable market town in the Wenlock franchise, four miles east from Much Wenlock, 13 miles south-east from Shrewsbury, and 146 miles north-west from London.  The town is seated on an eminence above the Severn, and consists principally of one long irregular built street, with minor streets branching off in different directions.  The houses are mostly of brick, some of them of respectable appearance, interspersed with others of a more humble description, inhabited chiefly by miners and the operatives employed in the brick and iron works.  It stands in the middle of an extensive mining district, in which coal and ironstone are obtained; and there is an extensive iron foundry here, with others in the immediate vicinity.  The town and neighbourhood are also famous for the manufacture of fire bricks and tobacco pipes, which are exported to all parts of the kingdom.  Broseley is the only place in England where the celebrated glazed tobacco pipes are manufactured, and it is supposed this was the first place where the manufacture of this article commenced; upwards of two centuries ago they were made from clay procured in this locality, now the clay got here is used for the manufacture of bricks, tiles and earthenware, and the pipeclay is procured from Devonshire and Cornwall.  Messrs. William Southron and Co. have an extensive establishment for the manufacture of the glazed pipes, employing upwards of forty operatives, and using forty tons of the Devonshire pipeclay annually.  The bricks and tiles made at Broseley are not surpassed by any in the kingdom; there are several extensive establishments conducted by the Messrs. Davies and others.  The parish contains 1,970a. 3r. 24p. of land, the principal owners of which are Lord Forester: Francis Harrison, Esq.; John Onions, Esq.; John Davenport, Esq.; and William Taylor, Esq.  There are also a number of other freeholders.  At the census in 1801, this parish had a population of 4,832 souls; 1831, 4,299; 1841, 4,829, and in 1851 there were 4,738 inhabitants, of whom 2,229 were males, and 2,509 females: at the latter period there were 1,005 inhabited houses, 43 uninhabited, and two building; rateable value of the parish, £7,891. 8s. 6d.  The market held on a Wednesday is not very numerously attended.  Fairs are held on the last Tuesday in April, and October 28th.  The Market Hall is a brick structure, situated in High street, built about the year 1779.  The Court Room, over the market hall, contains a fine oak chair beautifully carved, and dated 1626; in this room the petty sessions are held every six weeks.  Here also was formerly held the court of requests, which had jurisdiction in eight of the neighbouring parishes; this, however, has been superseded by the new County Court Act.

The Church, dedicated to All Saints, is a free-stone structure, consisting of nave, chancel and side aisles, with a square tower in which are six bells; the nave is separated from the side aisles by five pointed arches on each side; over the side aisles and at the west end are galleries; upon the latter is placed an organ.  The church was rebuilt in 1845, and in consequence of a grant of £400 from the Incorporated Society, 694 of the sittings are free and unappropriated for ever; there is now accommodation for 1,200 hearers; it is neatly fitted up with oak sittings, and the roof is of groined timber.  The old church was a brick structure, with a low tower of free stone, and had sittings for 782 persons.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £7. 18s. 6d., in the patronage of Lord Forester: incumbent, the Hon. and Rev. Orlando Watkin Weld Forester, M.A.; curate, Rev. Andrew Burn, B.A.  The tithes are commuted for £453.  The Baptists have small chapels in Duke street and on Harris’s Green.  The Independents have a chapel in Duke street.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a chapel at Duke street and one at Coalford.  The Primitive Methodists have a chapel at Broseley Wood.  The National School is held in a spacious room over the Market Hall, which measures sixty-one feet long and twenty-one feet broad.  The average attendance of scholars at the present time is one hundred and ninety-five.

Jackfield is a populous hamlet, in the parish of Broseley, stretching along the banks of the Severn, and situated near a mile north of the parish church.  Here the inhabitants are busily engaged in extensive works for the manufacture of bricks and tiles.  At this place is also situated the Ivanhoe Pottery, an establishment conducted by Mr. George Proudman, where all kinds of earthenware are manufactured.  The clay used in the manufacture is got from mines on the premises, and is found in regular layers above the coal and limestone; some of the mines extend to the depth of one hundred yards.  The Church (or Chapel of Ease) at Jackfield is a handsome brick structure, with stone finishings, consisting of nave and chancel, with a square tower.  It is situated on an eminence overlooking Ironbridge and a part of Coalbrook Dale.  It is dedicated to St. Mary, and was built in 1759, by Francis Turner Blythe, Esq.  The interior has a neat appearance, and on the south side there is a neat marble tablet to the memory of Alexander Brodie, Esq., ironmaster, of Calcutt, who died June 5th, 1830.  Another neat tablet remembers the founder of the church, Francis T. Blythe, Esq., who died September 22nd, 1770, aged 61 years.  There is also a tablet to Thomas Carter Phillips, Esq., who died in 1783.  The National School is a commodious brick structure, erected in the year 1844.  The school-room is used as a place of worship on Sunday and Wednesday evenings.  The rector and curate of Broseley officiate alternately.

Not far from Jackfield formerly stood the ancient mansion of the Tuckies.  About sixty years ago this house was repaired for Lord Dundonald, father of Lord Cochrane, who resided here a considerable time, making chemical experiments, among the principal of which was that of extracting tar from coals.  For this purpose many kilns or ovens were erected on the banks of the Severn, and the process was conducted in the following manner:—“A range of stoves was supplied with coal kept burning at the bottom; the smoke was conveyed by horizontal tunnels into a capacious funnel built of brick, supported by arches, and covered on the top by a shallow pond of water.  The smoke, condensed by the chill of the water, fell on the bottom of the funnel in the form of tar, and was conveyed by pipes into a receiver, whence it was pumped into a large boiler, and boiled to a proper consistence, or otherwise inspissated into pitch; the volatile parts which arose during this inspissation were again condensed into oil used for varnish.”  Great quantities of this useful article were sent for the use of the navy, and much of it was used in japanning.  Lord Dundonald expended large sums of money in these undertakings, which were unsuccessful as to profitable remuneration.  On the site of these operations was afterwards erected the great iron foundry where so many cannon were cast by Mr. Brodie during the late war.

A most melancholy accident occurred near Broseley on October 23rd, 1799.  The passage boat in crossing the Severn, which at this place is very rapid, was overturned.  There were forty-one persons in the boat who were employed in the china works of Messrs. Rose and Co., of these thirteen only escaped, the remaining twenty-eight were all drowned.  Tradition states that a large house in Broseley was formerly in possession of some Dutchmen, who had a mint for coining money secreted in cellars under the house.  They lived in a very expensive style, and kept race horses.  There is a curious fossil found here in the stratum of coal resembling a fish with the head and tail cut off.  It is covered with scales, and measures about eight inches long.  Its solidity is much greater than the substance in which it is infolded, and when broken appears like limestone; if thrown into the fire it explodes with considerable violence.

In the year 1711 a very remarkable inflammable spring was discovered at Broseley, of which the Rev. Mr. Mason, professor at Cambridge, gives the following account:—“The well for four or five feet deep is six or seven feet wide, within that is another hole of like depth, dug in clay; in the bottom whereof is placed a cylindric earthern vessel, of about four or five inches diameter at the mouth, having the bottom taken off, and the sides well fixed in, the clay rammed close about it.  Within the pot is a brown water as thick as puddle continually forced up with a violent motion, beyond that of boiling water, and a rumbling hollow noise rising and falling by fits; but there was no appearance of any vapour arising, which perhaps might have been visible had not the sun shone so bright.  Upon putting the candle down at the end of a stick, at a quarter of a yard distance, it took fire, darting and flashing after a very violent manner, for about half a yard high, much in the manner of spirits in a lamp, but with great agitation.  It was said that a tea kettle had been made to boil in about nine minutes time, and that it had been left burning for forty-eight hours without any sensible diminution.  It was extinguished by putting a wet mop upon it, which it was necessary to keep there for a considerable time, otherwise it would not go out.  Upon the removal of the mop there arises a sulphurous smoke, lasting about a minute, and yet the water is cold to the touch.  The cause of this inflammable property is most probably the mixture of the waters with petroleum, which is one of the most inflammable substances in nature, and has the property of burning on the surface of water.”  In the year 1755 this well entirely disappeared by the sinking of a coal pit in its neighbourhood.

Charities.—John Barrett, Esq., of the Madeiras, bequeathed the sum of £200 to the poor of Broseley.  Frances Morgan left £50, the interest to be divided among twelve poor widows on Christmas-day annually.  Richard Edwards, of Rowton, left £110 to be laid out in land, and the profits thereof to be distributed on Christmas-day and Easter-day, in equal proportions, among such poor widows of the parish as his heirs and the minister of the parish should judge proper objects of charity.  Esther Hollyman left £20 to be added to the poor’s stock in 1730.  It appears from entries in a modern parish book and from a memorandum in the handwriting of a late curate of the parish, that the several legacies above specified, amounting together to the sum of £380, were lent to the parish about the year 1777, and employed (with other monies borrowed and raised by subscriptions) in building a market house and shops, from the rents of which it was agreed that a sum not exceeding £18 should be annually distributed among the poor.  By a more recent resolution, which purports to have been made at a parish meeting held on the 31st May, 1802, it was resolved—“That there should be paid to the poor, from the revenues of the market hall, in half yearly payments, the annual sum of £18 until the £3 above £15 should liquidate a debt which appeared due to the said poor of £43; and that then £15 per annum should be paid only as the permanent interest of £380 borrowed of the trustees of the said poor, and for the purpose of building the said market hall.”  How the debt of £43 originated we are not able to state, the old parish books, which would probably have thrown some light upon the subject, having been lost.  It appears to us, however, not improbable that this sum may be the remains of the poor’s stock arising from the benefactions which are recorded on the tables in the church, left by ten several donors, and amounting to £51. 10s.  If the debt of £43, stated to be due from the parish to the poor, was part of the stock arising from the above benefactions, the resolution by which it was determined to distribute it by instalments among the poor seems to be at variance with the intentions of the respective donors, whose object clearly was the establishment of a fund that should continue permanently productive.  It may be necessary to observe that although by the payment of £3 per annum, according to the terms of the resolution above mentioned, the debt of £43 would be wholly liquidated in the year 1816, yet the annual payment of £18 has been since continued without any abatement.  This sum is distributed by the minister in equal moieties at Christmas and Easter, among the poor inhabitants of Broseley, in sums proportioned to their necessities.

William Lewis, by indenture, dated January 2nd, 1740, granted a yearly rent charge of 20s., issuing out of a messuage and two acres of land, situate near the church, in Broseley, with the penalty of 6s. for every day that the payment should be in arrear, and directed the same to be distributed among twenty poor widows.  It further appears from the benefaction table that Andrew Langley, of the Woodhouse, left 12s. yearly to be distributed by the minister and churchwardens on St. Andrew’s-day yearly, and to be paid for ever by the owner of the Woodhouse estate.

Mary Cotton, who died in 1838, bequeathed to the minister and churchwardens for the time being of this parish the sum of £300, three per cent consolidated bank annuities, upon trust, to receive the interest and divide it among forty poor widows of this parish on the 29th of December, yearly.  Fanny Pritchard left £100 in trust to the same parties, to be invested in government securities, and directed the interest to be divided among ten poor widows on St. Thomas’s day.

At a place called the Birches, between Buildwas and Ironbridge, and not far from Broseley, an extraordinary phenomenon occurred in May, 1775, of which the following account has been given by the Rev. John Fletcher, of Madeley.  “When I went to the spot,” says Mr. Fletcher, “the first thing that struck me was the destruction of the little bridge that separated the parish of Madeley from that of Buildwas, and the total disappearing of the turnpike road to Buildwas bridge, instead of which nothing presented itself to my view but a confused heap of bushes, and huge clods of earth tumbled one over another.  The river also wore a different aspect; it was shallow, turbid, noisy, boisterous, and came down from a different point.  Whether I considered the water or the land the scene appeared to me entirely new, and as I could not fancy myself in another part of the country, I concluded that the God of nature had shaken his providential iron rod over the subverted spot before me.  Following the track made by a great number of spectators, who came already from the neighbouring parishes, I climbed over the ruins and came to a field well grown with rye-grass, where the ground was greatly cracked in several places, and where large turfs, some entirely, others half turned up exhibited the appearance of straight or crooked furrows, imperfectly formed by a plough drawn at a venture.  Getting from that field over the hedge, into a part of the road which was yet visible, I found it raised in one place, sunk in another, concave in a third, hanging on one side in a fourth, and contracted as if some uncommon force had pressed the two hedges together.  But the higher part of it surprised me most, and brought directly to my remembrance those places of mount Vesuvius where the solid stony lava has been strongly worked by repeated earthquakes, for the hard beaten gravel that formed the surface of the road was broken every way into huge masses, partly detached from each other, with deep apertures between them exactly like the shattered lava.  This striking likeness of circumstances made me conclude that the similar effect might proceed from the same cause, namely, a strong convulsion on the surface if not in the bowels of the earth.  Going a little farther towards Buildwas I found that the road was again totally lost for a considerable space, having been overturned, absorbed, or tumbled with the hedges that bounded it to a considerable distance towards the river; this part of the desolation appeared then to me inexpressibly dreadful.  Between a shattered field and the river there was that morning a bank on which besides a great deal of underwood grew twenty fine large oaks, this wood shot with such violence into the Severn before it that it forced the water in great columns a considerable height like mighty fountains, and gave the overflowing river a retrograde motion.  This is not the only accident that happened to the Severn; for near the Grove, the channel which was chiefly of a soft blue rock burst in ten thousand pieces, and rose perpendicularly about ten yards, heaving up the immense quantity of water and the shoals of fishes that were therein.  Among the rubbish at the bottom of the river, which was very deep in that place, there were one or two huge stones and a large piece of timber, or an oak tree, which from time immemorial had lain partly buried in the mud I suppose in consequence of some flood; the stones and tree were thrown up as if they had been only a pebble and a stick, and are now at some distance from the river, many feet higher than the surface of it.  Ascending from the ruins of the road I came to those of a barn, which after travelling many yards towards the river had been absorbed in a chasm where the shattered roof was yet visible.  Next to those remains of the barn, and partly parallel with the river, was a long edge which had been torn from a part of it yet adjoining to the garden hedge, and had been removed above forty yards downward together with some large trees that were in it and the land that it enclosed.  The tossing, tearing, and shifting of so many acres of land below, was attended with the formation of stupendous chasms above.  At some distance above, near the wood which crowns the desolated spot, another chasm, or rather a complication of chasms excited my admiration; it is an assemblage of chasms, one of which that seems to terminate the desolation to the north-east, runs some hundred yards towards the river and Madeley wood; it looked like the deep channel of some great serpentine river dried up, whose little islands, fords, and hollows appear without a watery veil.  This long chasm at the top seems to be made up of two or three that run into each other, and their conjunction when it is viewed from a particular point exhibits the appearance of a ruined fortress whose ramparts have been blown up by mines that have done dreadful execution, and yet have spared here and there a pyramid of earth, or a shattered tower by which the spectators can judge of the nature and solidity of the demolished bulwark.  Fortunately there was on the devoted spot but one house, inhabited by two poor countrymen and their families; it stands yet, though it has removed about a yard from its former situation.  The morning in which the desolation happened, Samuel Wilcocks, one of those countrymen, got up about four o’clock, and opening the window to see if the weather was fair he took notice of a small crack in the earth about four or five inches wide, and observed the above mentioned field of corn heaving up and rolling about like the waves of the sea; the trees by the motion of the ground waved also, as if they had been blown with the wind, though the air was calm and serene; the river Severn, which for some days had overflowed its banks, was also very much agitated and seemed to turn back to its source.  The man being astonished at such a sight, rubbed his eyes, supposing himself not quite awake, and being soon convinced that destruction stalked about, he alarmed his wife, and taking children in their arms they went out of the house as fast as they could, accompanied by the other man and his wife.  A kind Providence directed their flight, for instead of running eastward across the fields that were just going to be overthrown, they fled westward into a wood that had little share in the destruction.  When they were about twenty yards from the house they perceived a great crack run very quick up the ground from the river; immediately the land behind them with the trees and hedges moved towards the Severn with great swiftness and an uncommon noise, which Samuel Wilcocks compared to a large flock of sheep running swiftly by him.  It was then chiefly that desolation expanded her wings over the devoted spot and the Birches saw a momentary representation of a partial chaos! then nature seemed to have forgotten her laws: trees commenced itinerant!—those that were at a distance from the river advanced towards it, while the submerged oak broke out of its watery confinements and by rising many feet recovered a place on dry land; the solid road was swept away as its dust had been on a stormy day;—then probably the rocky bottom of the Severn emerged, pushing towards heaven astonished shoals of fishes and hogsheads of water innumerable;—the wood like an embattled body of vegetable combatants stormed the bed of the overflowing river, and triumphantly waved its green colours over its recoiling flood;—fields became moveable,—nay, they fled when none pursued, and as they fled they rent the green carpets that covered them in a thousand pieces;—in a word, dry land exhibited the dreadful appearance of a sea-storm.  Solid earth as if it had acquired the fluidity of water tossed itself into massy waves, which rose or sunk at the beck of him who raised the tempest; and what is most astonishing, the stupendous hollow of one of those waves ran for nearly a quarter of a mile through rooks and a stony soil with as much ease as if dry earth, stones, and rocks had been a part of the liquid element.  Soon after the river was stopt, Samuel Cookson, a farmer who lives a quarter of a mile below the Birches, on the same side of the river, was much terrified by a dust of wind that beat against his windows as if shot had been thrown against it, but his fright greatly increased when getting up to see if the flood that was over his ground had abated he perceived that all the water was from his fields, and that scarce any remained in the Severn.  He called up his family, ran to the river, and finding that it was dammed up, he made the best of his way to alarm the inhabitants of Buildwas, the next village above, which he supposed would soon be under water.  He was happily mistaken, providence just prepared a way for their escape; the Severn, notwithstanding a considerable flood which at that time rendered it doubly rapid and powerful, having met with two dreadful shocks, the one from her rising bed and the other from the intruding wood, could do nothing but foam and turn back with impetuosity.  The ascending and descending streams conflicted about Buildwas bridge; the river sensibly rose for some miles back, and continued rising till just as it was near entering into the houses at Buildwas it got a vent through the fields on the right, and after spreading far and near over them collected all its might to assault its powerful aggressor, I mean the grove, that had so unexpectedly turned it out of the bed which it had enjoyed for countless ages.  Sharp was the attack, but the resistance was yet more vigorous, and the Severn repelled again and again was obliged to seek its old empty bed, by going the shortest way to the right, and the moment it found it again it precipitated therein with a dreadful roar, and for a time formed a considerable cataract with inconceivable fury, as if it wanted to be revenged on the first thing that came in its way, began to tear and wash away a fine rich meadow opposite to the grove, and there in a few hours worked itself a new channel about three hundred yards long, through which a barge from Shrewsbury ventured three or four day after, all wonder at the strangement of the overthrow.  Some ascribe it to an earthquake, others to a slip of the ground, and not a few remain neuter, confessing that providence has conducted this phenomenon in such a manner as to confound the wisdom of the wise, and force even philosophers to adore in silence the God of nature whose ways are past finding out, who giveth not always account of his matters, and who perhaps strikes an ambiguous blow to convince us that the how of his vengeance has more than one string, and that, to say nothing of the other elements, our mother earth may afford us an untimely grave, either by the slipping of her back or the convulsion of her bowels.  My employment and taste leading me more to search out the mysteries of heaven than to scrutinize the phenomena of the earth, and to point at the wonders of grace than those of nature; I leave the decision of the question about the slip and the earthquake to some abler philosopher.”

Post Office—At Mr. Jeremiah Ashwood’s.  Letters arrive at 8 A.M., and are despatched 5.35 P.M.

Marked 1 are in Cape or King street; 2 Church street; 3 High street; 4 Queen street; 5 Barratt’s hill; 6 Broseley Wood; 7 Jackfield and neighbourhood; 8 Barber’s row; and 9 Duke street.

2 Amphlet Susannah, vict., The Dog

3 Ashwood Jeremiah, corn miller, maltster, and postmaster

3 Bartlam Edward Glover, Esq., surgeon, and coroner for borough of Wenlock

5 Bathurst Henry Martyn, schoolmaster (national)

5 Baker Mrs. Frances

3 Baker The Misses, drapers and mercers

2 Baugh George, Esq.

2 Bayliss Miss Helen, ladies’ boarding school

7 Beard Thomas, victualler, Werps Inn

3 Beddoes John, shoemaker

6 Beddow Thomas, grocer

6 Bill Jeremiah, butcher, shopkeeper and beerhouse

3 Birch Thomas, coalmaster

7 Boden Susannah, shopkpr.

3 Booth Henry, farmer and butcher

6 Bradley Richard, tobacco pipe maker

3 Bourne Wm., blacksmith and beerhouse-keeper

2 Boycott Richard, baker and confectioner

2 Broadhurst Thos., timber merchant & wheelwright

2 Brodie Mrs.

7 Brown Edwd., blacksmith, and vict., Summer House

3 Burnet Henry, hosier and haberdasher

3 Burnet Isaac, boot and shoemaker

3 Burnet John, grocer and dealer in hops

7 Burn Rev. Andrew, B.A., curate, Rock House

7 Burton Edward, brick and tile manufr. & barge owner

7 Burroughs John, rope manufacturer

3 Cartwright Chas., butcher

6 Cartwright James, butcher

3 Charlton Humphrey, wine and spirit and hop and seed merchant

4 Colley Bernard Wilkinson, maltster

8 Collins Thos., locksmith

2 Cooke Joseph, victualler, Old Crown

3 Corfield Thomas, butcher

3 Cowley Jas., grocer, ironmonger, and seedsman

3 Cox Robert, saddler

3 Crowder Leonard, painter, plumber, and glazier

3 Crump William, butcher

7 Crumpton William, ferryman and barge owner

7 Cullis William, victualler, Tumbling Sailors

7 Davies Ann, brick and tile maker

7 Davies James, sen., brick and tile maker, The Rock

7 Davies James, jun., brick and tile maker, The Rock

3 Davies John, farmer

6 Davies Samuel, butcher and maltster

7 Davies Thos., shopkeeper, and brick and tile maker

Davies Thomas, tailor, The Delph

6 Dean James, thatcher and beerhouse-keeper

1 Davies Thomas, victualler, Duke of Cumberland

7 Dillon Joseph, bargeowner, Salt house

7 Dodd Andrew, bargeowner, Salt-house

7 Doughty Geo., bargeowner, Salthouse

7 Doughty Robert, bargeowner, Salthouse

7 Doughty Theophilus, brick & tile maker, Lloyd Head

6 Easthope Mrs. Ann

2 Edwards Ann, victualler, Foresters’ Arms

3 Evans Edwin R. auctioneer, accountant, house & estate agent, valuer & appraiser, agent to the Sun Fire office, and superintendent registrar

3 Evans Mrs. Maria, draper and mercer

9 Evans Richard, registrar of births and deaths

6 Evans John, shopkeeper and poulterer

Evans Robert, Esq., J.P., The Dunge

8 Evans Susan, confectioner

3 Evans Thos., confectioner

8 Everall Robert, butcher and vict., The Plough

1 Everall Thomas, baker and grocer

3 Fawkes Arthur, victualler, Cape of Good Hope

8 Fenton John, brazier and tinman

2 Forester The Honourable and Rev. Orlando Watkin Weld, M.A., The Rectory

5 Firfield Mrs.

5 Francis Robert, tailor

8 Glover Edwd., hairdresser

6 Gough Mrs. Martha

2 Griffiths Edward, shopkeeper, Salt-house

2 Griffiths John, timber merchant and wheelwright

Griffiths Miss, milliner

3 Gwynn Geo., basket-maker

5 Gwynn Martha, basket-maker

7 Harris Richard, tailor, Salt-house

3 Hartshorne Edward, boot and shoemaker

2 Hartshone Frederick H., Esq., surgeon

3 Hartshorne George, auctioneer, appraiser, cabinet-maker, builder, and upholsterer

1 Harvey John, grocer, draper, accountant, agent to the Birmingham fire office, and medical, clerical, and general life office

9 Hayman John, glass dealer and victualler, The Fox

1 Holmes Wm., coalmaster

8 Hill Benjamin, joiner and builder

5 Hill Hiram, grocer and coal master

8 Hiskett Thomas, tin-plate worker

7 Holt Thomas, victualler, Woodbridge Inn

3 Humphries John, grocer, chandler, and hop dealer

2 Instone Samuel, grocer

2 Jones Adam, surveyor and victualler, The Pheasant Commercial Inn

Jackson Rev. Wm. (Baptist), Broseley Cottage

8 Johnson John, tailor and habit maker

7 Jones Isaac, blacksmith

7 Jones John, vict., Duke of Wellington, The Werps

6 Jones Samuel, baker

3 Jones Stephen, tailor and habit maker

Jones Rev. Wm. (Baptist), Chapel Hill

3 Jones Richard, painter, plumber, glazier, & paper hanger

7 Jones Thos., fishmonger, and beerhouse-keeper, The Rock

2 Knight Henry, Esq., professor of music

3 Leadbetter Enoch, agent to Crown Life Assurance office

9 Legge Mrs. Margaret

3 Lister Edward, victualler, The Elephant

6 Lister Thomas, Esq.

7 Lloyd Henry, waterman and vict., The Oak

6 Lloyd William, beerhouse-keeper

3 Mason James, shoemaker, and licensed to let post-horses

7 Mapp Thomas, cement manufacturer

6 Mason Henry, hatter and marine-store dealer

6 Mason John, grocer and tea dealer

7 Miles Francis, shopkeeper, Salt-house

3 Miles Thomas, victualler, The Albion

3 Molineux Thomas, boot and shoemaker

6 Morris John Cox, Esq.

Morgan Mrs., Rock House

Mortimer Mrs. Favell Lee, Broseley Hall

3 Nevitt Enoch, stationer

3 Nevitt Samuel, shopkeeper

Nicholas William, Esq., Field House

3 Oakley Jesse, druggist and grocer

3 Oare Charles, Esq.

2 Onions John, Esq., iron-founder, and brick & tile maker, White Hall

7 Oswell George, beerhouse-keeper and ferryman

Page Thomas, maltster

7 Parker Benj., bargeowner & vict., Lloyd’s Head Inn

7 Parker Charles, victualler, Black Swan

3 Parsons Wm., blacksmith

3 Perrin William, draper, mercer, and hatter

9 Peters Moses and Richard, nail makers & ironmongers

3 Potts Geo., Esq., solicitor, clerk to borough of Wenlock & to Madeley County Court, The Green

3 Potts & Nicholls, solicitors

2 Pountney Edwin, baker

3 Pountney Samuel, grocer

9 Pountney Samuel, tailor

6 Powell Richd., shopkeeper

7 Price Robert, mine agent, Calcott

3 Pritchard’s Boycott and Nicholas, bankers; draw on Barnett, Hoares, and Company, London

2 Pritchard George, Esq.

3 Pritchard John, Esq.

2 Pritchard Miss

7 Proudman Geo., earthenware manufacturer, Ivanhoe Pottery

3 Pugh Helen, milliner and dressmaker

3 Pugh Thos., china painter

5 Raspass Elizbeth, shopkpr.

7 Reynolds John, bargeowner

3 Rhodes Charles, vict., The Lion Commercial Inn

7 Richards Geo., beerhouse, The Salt-house

7 Richards Robert, victualler, Severn Trow

3 Richards Thomas, saddler

7 Robinson Jas., blacksmith

7 Roden Samuel, brick and tile manufacturer; house, Ironbridge

7 Roden Thomas, joiner, Salt-house

6 Rowe Chas., wheelwright

6 Rufus Hannah, victualler, King’s Head

2 Rushton Henry, joiner and builder

3 Rushton Richard, grocer

2 Shaw William P., agent to legal and general life assurance office, and to Salop fire office

6 Smith Moses, hosier

4 Salmon John, hosier

6 Southorn Ann, beerhouse

6 Southorn Joseph, tobacco-pipe manufacturer

6 Southorn Wm. & Co., tobacco-pipe manufacturers

4 Speak Thos., shopkeeper

5 Squires Richard, builder

2 Stable Mrs. Mary, The Deanery

2 Stables Miss Jane, The Deanery

3 Stephan Caroline, milliner and dressmaker

4 Taylor William, butcher

7 Taylor William, coal and brick master, The Tuckies

2 Thorn John, Esq., White Hall

4 Thursfield Richard, Esq., surgeon, and high bailiff to Madeley County Court

5 Tonkiss Richard, tobacco-pipe maker

5 Trupp Thomas, inland revenue officer

7 Transom Jas., bargeowner

9 Watkin Richd., shoemaker

Watkins Wm., victualler, Duke of York

6 Weaver Mary, shopkeeper

9 Weeks John, shoemaker

6 Weeks Thos., shoemaker

9 Weeks Richard, boot and shoemaker, & beerhouse

8 Willings Benjamin, boot and shoemaker

9 Westover John, attorney’s clerk

7 Wiggins John, schoolmaster (national)

7 Wild John, bargeowner

2 Wilkinson John, blacksmith

5 Wilkinson Mrs. Lucia

3 Williams Ann, shopkeeper and poulterer

7 Williams Edward, shopkeeper, and brick and tile maker, The Werps

7 Williams Edwd., jun., vict., Dog & Duck, Lloyd Head

7 Williams Mr. Silvanus, Salt-house

9 Whooton Herbert, butcher and farmer

Wyke Richard, surgeon, Salt-house

5 Yates Elizabeth, victualler, The Crown

7 Yates Robt., vict., Ash Tree

HUGHLEY
is a parish and village delightfully situated in a lovely vale four and a half miles S.W. from Much Wenlock; the Wenlock Edge bounds the parish on the eastern side, and on the west is a small mountain stream.  The parish contains 1,111a. 3r. 38p. of land, the soil of which for the most part is of an inferior description, but produces tolerable crops of oats, and wheat is also grown.  Rateable value £817.  The land in this parish is the property of the Earl of Bradford, except about three roods and a small cottage.  A bridge has recently been built over the stream here, which is a great advantage and convenience to the inhabitants, as the waters occasionally rush with great impetuosity from the hilly district, and render the fording of the stream dangerous.  The bridge was built by subscriptions, under the superintendence and aid of the late rector.  In former times the extensive woods with which Hughley was surrounded were long the retreat of robbers; a commission was issued in the reign of Richard II. to inquire into the best means of securing the banditti, and protecting travellers from their lawless depredations.

The Church, a small but interesting specimen of the gothic style of architecture, is dedicated to St. John the Baptist; it is very ancient, and consists of nave and chancel, the latter divided from the nave by a beautifully rood loft elaborately carved; on the roof also is some beautifully carved work.  A recess in the wall containing a number of human bones is conjectured to have been a shrine; the bones are probably the remains of some reputed saint, and were formerly secured by a door, but this has long been destroyed.  There is a piscina on a pedestal, whereon in former times would very probably stand the patron saint of the church.  The living is a rectory valued in the King’s book at £4. 11s. 3d., now returned at £160, in the patronage of the Earl of Bradford, and enjoyed by the Rev. John Wakefield, M.A.  The parish of Hughley, at the census of 1801, contained 83 inhabitants; 1831, 115; and in 1841 there were twenty houses and 127 souls.  Job Littleford, in 1772, gave to the parish of Hughley 6s. yearly to maintain a poor child at school; 4s. to be distributed among the poor by the rector; and 2s. 6d. to the parish clerk yearly.  The premises charged with this payment are situate at Holt Praed, and are the property of Mrs. Thursby.

Directory.—Richard Bullock, blacksmith; Edward Corfield, miller; Elizabeth Owen, farmer; Thomas Madeley, farmer; Rev. John Wakefield, M.A., rector; Andrew Walker, farmer, Upper Hill farm; Richard Walleter, farmer, Lower Hill farm.

LINLEY
is a small parish in the Wenlock franchise, situated about three and a half miles south-east from Much Wenlock.  The parish comprises 636 acres of land, the principal owners of which are Lord Forester and John Stephens, Esq.  At the census in 1801 there were 108 inhabitants; 1831, 111; and in 1851, 105; of whom 42 were males, and 63 females.  At the same period there were 19 inhabited houses, and one uninhabited.  Gross estimated rental of the parish, £809. 2s.  Rateable value, £729. 18s.  Lord Forester is lord of the manor and impropriator.  The Church, a plain, unpresuming structure, has the appearance of great antiquity: the windows are small and square headed, and there is a short tower.  The church is situated in a field, and near it stands a venerable yew tree, but there is no inclosed burial ground.  The living is a rectory, annexed to that of Broseley.  The Hon. and Rev. Orlando Forester is the incumbent.  Divine service is only performed once a month.  Linley Hall was formerly the seat of the ancient family of Lacon, who possessed the greater part of the parish.  It is a plain brick structure, now occupied by Miss Martha Onions.

Directory.—George Carpenter, vict., Duke of Wellington Inn; Robert Harrison, farmer; Joseph Langmore, wheelwright and blacksmith; Ann Newton, vict., Britannia Inn; Miss Martha Onions, Linley Hall; Edward Owen, proprietor of Owen’s pills and drops, Linley Villa; Josiah Wellings, bailiff to Mr. Hembry.

LITTLE WENLOCK
is a parish and small rural village, styled in ancient records “Wenlock under the Wrekin,” and is situated three miles south from Wellington, thee miles north-west from Ironbridge, five miles N.N.E. from Much Wenlock, and eleven miles south-east from Shrewsbury.  The village is pleasantly situated on a bold acclivity, near the eastern side of the Wrekin, commanding some fine views over a picturesque and delightful district.  The Wrekin stands partly in this parish, and also extends into the parishes of Wellington, Wroxeter, and Uppington.  The Willow Moor or Wrekin farm is situated in a sequestered vale near to the Wrekin.  This valley is supposed to have been the scene of a battle at some remote period.  As a labourer was cutting a drain in the year 1835, about a hundred yards from the turnpike from Little Wenlock to Wellington, he suddenly came upon a heap of broken spears, which had been thrown together, and which it is stated numbered between two and three hundred.  In the immediate vicinity are five barrows, which were opened about sixteen years ago, but nothing was discovered in them.  The parish comprises 2,460 acres of land, the soil of which is a mixture of clay and gravel, producing tolerable crops of wheat, barley, and turnips.  The minerals are ironstone, coal, and limestone, but none of these valuable minerals are got except on the northern verge of the parish, probably in consequence of their abundance in the adjacent parishes, where extensive iron works and collieries have long been established.  Lord Forester is the owner of the land, and lord of the manor.  At the census in 1801 the parish contained a population of 980 souls; 1831, 1,057; and in 1841 there were 202 houses, and 1,091 inhabitants, of whom 578 were males, and 513 females; in 1851 there were 1,034 inhabitants, and 199 houses.  Gross estimated rental of the parish, £3,760. 10s.  Rateable value, £4,351. 8s.

The Church is a very ancient structure, dedicated to St. Lawrence.  The body of the church appears of older date than the tower, which was built in 1667.  The fabric was enlarged in 1822 by adding a south transept of brick; the rest of the structure is of free stone.  The tower contains five bells.  The pulpit is of carved oak, very ancient.  There is accommodation for upwards of 600 persons: 520 of the seats are free and unappropriated.  A neat marble font is placed at the west end.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £11. 13s. 4d., in the patronage of Lord Forester: incumbent, Rev. George Edmonds, M.A.  The tithes have been commuted for £584. 3s. 4d., and there are nine acres of glebe land.  The parish register dates from the year 1689.  In the church-yard are several venerable yew trees.  The Rectory is a commodious brick residence, a short distance from the church, from which are seen some pleasing and picturesque views of the country.  The house stands 600 feet above the level of the Severn, whose silvery waters flow in the vale beneath.  Wenlock Hall is now divided into cottage tenements.  Huntington is a hamlet about a mile north from the church.  Coalmoor a hamlet a mile south from the church.

Charities.—Maurice Haywood, who died in 1760, bequeathed the sum of £10, the interest thereof to be distributed in bread to the poor of the parish on St. Thomas’s day, yearly.  This legacy was paid to the churchwarden, and the parish has ever since made a distribution of bread to the amount of the interest at five per cent.  Mrs. Alice Green gave an annuity of 11s. 6d. to the poor of this parish, payable out of an estate called the Dairy House Farm, at Brierley, in the parish of Sedgley, in Staffordshire, of which 10s. was to be given to the poor, and 1s. 6d. to the person who fetched it for his trouble.  The estate on which this annuity is charged is the property of Mrs. Foley.  Much irregularity has taken place in the payment of this little annuity, in consequence apparently of the distance from which it was to be procured.

Mrs. Mary Tipton, in the year 1844, bequeathed £50, and directed so much of the interest as should be necessary to be applied in painting and keeping in repair her monument in the church-yard, and the residue to be annually distributed among the poor.  Mrs. Hannah Shepherd bequeathed the sum of £100, the interest to be applied in the purchase of suitable clothing for the benefit of the poor.

Marked 1 are at Coalmoor, 2 Huntingdon, and the rest in Little Wenlock or where specified.

Boore Edward, maltster

Boore George, grocer

Boore John, farmer

1 Boycott Richard, charter master

1 Boycott William, draper, grocer and farmer

Chant Thomas, shoemaker

Davis Richard, farmer

Davis Thomas, farmer and maltster

2 Dawes Benjamin, maltster

Edmonds Rev. George, A.M. rector, The Rectory

Edmonds William, Esq.

1 Garbitt Wm., vict., Peacock

Harper Daniel, farmer, Wrekin farm

Harris Edwin, vict., Spread Eagle

Hulse John, beerhouse keeper

2 Jervis Francis, farmer, maltster, and collector of taxes

Jones Martha, beerhouse keeper

1 Milner William, farmer and maltster

1 Maun James, vict., Labour in Vain

Poole Mrs. Charlotte

Poole Henry, blacksmith and shopkeeper

1 Ralphs John, sawyer and beerhouse

1 Shepherd, Richard, farmer

Steele William, farmer and vict., Five Bells

Walker Edward, farmer, Willow Moor

Wellings, Walter, farmer

Williams Mrs. Emma

Wilson John, farmer

2 Yates Catherine, farmer

MADELEY
is a considerable parish and market town in the Wenlock Franchise, four and a half miles S.W. from Shiffnal, nine miles N.N. by W. from Bridgnorth, and fifteen miles S.E. from Shrewsbury.  This parish is celebrated for its valuable mines of coal and ironstone, its extensive and flourishing ironworks, the Coalport china manufactory, and the manufacture of superior bricks.  The parish comprises 2,810 acres of land; at the census of 1801 there were 4,758 inhabitants; 1831, 5,822; 1841, 7367; and in 1851, 8,524; of whom 4,163 were males and 4,361 females; at the latter period there were 1,711 inhabited houses, 47 uninhabited, and four houses building.  Rateable value, £19,900.  The principal landowners are Joseph Reynolds, Esq., James Foster, Esq., Abraham Darby, Esq., Rev. John Bartlet, Francis and John Yates, Esqrs., and the representatives of the late Francis Darby, Esq.  Joseph Reynolds, Esq., is lord of the manor.  The town of Madeley so far as regards that portion in the vicinity of the church is irregularly built, and consists chiefly of detached ranges of cottages rather than streets; in the immediate vicinity are a number of handsome villa residences and neat cottages.  The Prior and convent of Wenlock in the 53rd of Henry III. had the grant of a market on Tuesday, to be held at Madeley, and a fair on the eve, the day, and the morrow of St. Matthew the apostle and evangelist.  This market subsequently became obsolete, but was revived in 1763, when a new market house was built in the Dale at Ironbridge; here a flourishing market is held on Friday, and fairs are held on January 26th, May 29th. and October 12th.  The extensive establishment of Abraham Darby and Company, ironmasters, and the porcelain manufactory of Messrs. Rose and Co., give employment to a great number of the labouring population.  The Madeley Wood Company’s iron works employ about eight hundred operatives, and in the establishment of James Foster and Company are employed upwards of five hundred hands, chiefly in making pig iron.  A house and barn not far from the church at Madeley, afforded shelter to the unfortunate Charles II., after his defeat at the battle of Worcester.  Madeley Court House, an antique old mansion in the Elizabethan style of architecture, was formerly the residence of Sir Basil Brooke, fourth in descent from Sir Basil Brooke, a zealous royalist in the time of Charles I.  It is now the residence of Mr. George Jones; in the grounds is a curious old sun-dial.  The Madeley County Court, for the recovery of debts, embraces the following parishes and places, viz.: Albrighton, Badger, Barrow, Beckbury, Benthall, Blymhill, Bonninghall, Broseley, Buildwas, Dawley, Donnington, Kemberton, Linley, Little Wenlock, Madeley, Much Wenlock, Patshull, Posenhall, Ryton, Sheriff Hales, Shiffnal, Stirchley, Stockton, Sutton Maddock, Tong, Weston-under-Lizard, and Willey.  Judge, Uvedule Corbet, Esq.: Clerk, George Potts, Esq.: Assistant Clerk, Mr. William Bailey: High Bailiff, Mr. Richard Thursfield.

The Madeley Poor Law Union comprehends twelve parishes, embracing an area of forty-three square miles, with a population returned at the census of 1831 of 22,164 souls: in 1841 the inhabitants had increased to 26,172, and at the last census in 1851 there were 27,626 inhabitants, of whom 13,668 were males and 13,958 females.  The Union House is a plain brick structure which will accommodate 140 inmates; the average number of paupers is about 70.  The parishes embraced within the Union are Madeley, Little Wenlock, Buildwas, Dawley, Stirchley, Broseley, Benthall, Posenhall, Barrow, Linley, Willey, and Much Wenlock.  Clerk to Guardians, William Reynolds Anstice, Esq.: Superintendent Registrar; Mr. Edwin R. Evans: Chaplain, Rev. James H. Gwyther: Governor, William Wildblood.

The Church is a handsome and spacious octagonal structure, with a finely-proportioned square tower in which is a peal of bells.  This fabric was built in 1795, and subsequently enlarged; it is partly fitted up and provided with commodious galleries, having accommodation for upwards of a thousand worshippers; the organ is a handsome fine-toned instrument.  The old church which was taken down on the erection of the present building exhibited the Norman style of architecture; a chantry was erected in the ancient structure and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in the 11th of Richard II.  Several of the ancient monuments were removed from the old church when it was taken down and are now placed in the new one.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £4. 17s. 10d., now returned at £305; incumbent, Rev. James H. Gwyther, who is also chaplain to the Madeley Union, and the Right Hon. Lord Milford.  The tithes have been commuted, and £226 apportioned to the vicar, and £115. 10s. to Sir Joseph Hawley, Bart., the impropriator.  The vicarage, situated near the church, is a good residence mantled with ivy, and is an object of attraction to strangers, as being the residence of the celebrated pious Fletcher, formerly vicar of Madeley, a short account of whose life will be found on the following page.  The Catholic Chapel, a neat structure, was built about the year 1760, and will hold 300 persons.  The interior has a chaste appearance, and the altar is beautified with some fine workmanship.  The Rev. William Molloy, the priest, resides in a house adjoining the chapel.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a neat chapel built in 1841, capable of holding about 600 hearers.  The National School is a handsome structure of brick with stone finishings, built in the year 1845, exhibiting the Elizabethan style of architecture.  The cost of the building was £859. 1s. 4d., towards which the sum of £629. 1s. 4d. was raised by local subscriptions, and a grant of £230 was obtained from the Committee of Council on Education.  One hundred and thirty boys and one hundred and twenty-five girls attend the school; it is conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and three pupil teachers.

Ironbridge, a populous and interesting portion of the parish of Madeley, takes its name from an iron bridge which has been erected across the Severn at this place.  Here are many handsome residences, good inns, and shops in all the different branches of the retail trade.  A flourishing market is held on Friday.  A market hall has been built, gas introduced, and the whole has a thriving and prosperous appearance, and may be considered the focus of commercial pursuits in the parish.  The iron bridge which spans the Severn is a magnificent structure, and was cast at the Coalbrook Dale Works, in 1799.  The span of the arch is one hundred feet six inches, height forty feet, and the road way twenty four feet broad.  It was the first iron bridge erected in England.  The total weight of the iron in the bridge is three hundred and seventy-eight tons, and the whole was erected in the space of three months.  The abutments of the bridge are of stone, covered with plates of iron, with mortices, in which stand two upright pillars of the same.  Against the foot of the inner pillar, the bottom of the main rib bears on the base plate.  This rib consists of two pieces connected by a dove-tail point, in an iron key, and secured by screws.  The cross stays, braces circle in the spandrils, and the brackets connect the larger pieces, so as to keep the bridge perfectly steady; while a diagonal and cross stays, and top plates, connect the pillars and ribs together in opposite directions.  The bridge is covered with iron top plates, projecting over the ribs on each side, and on this projection stands the balustrade of cast iron.  The bridge being private property a small charge is made to pass over.  Large quantities of iron, all kinds of castings, coal, and lime are shipped at the wharf to distant parts of the country.  Near to the Lodge Farm are several beds of fine sand, which is much used by the Coalbrook Dale Company in their beautiful castings.

The Church, a handsome structure of brick, dedicated to St. Luke, is situated on elevated ground, and approached by a flight of steps one hundred and nineteen in number.  It was built in the year 1836, and consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a tower, in which is one bell.  The east window is richly beautified with stained glass, and has full length figures of St. Peter, St. James, and St. John, executed by the celebrated Evans, of Shrewsbury.  The church is provided with galleries, and has a small organ.  There are a thousand and sixty-two sittings, of which six hundred and sixty-two are free and unappropriated.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the gift of the vicar of Madeley.  Incumbent, Rev. John Andrew Jetter.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a chapel at Madeley Wood, built in the year 1837, which will hold about seven hundred persons.  They have also a place of worship near to the wharf, and a spacious Sunday school at Madeley Wood, where four hundred children are instructed.  The Wesleyan New Connection have a chapel situated at Foxholes.  The Dispensary and Savings’ Bank are at Mrs. Rogers’s, Bridge-street; Mr. William Smith is the secretary of the latter.  The Parochial School, situate on the Madeley road, is numerously attended, and there is a Ragged School situated in Milner’s-lane.  The Mechanics’ Institution was established in the year 1840.  The objects of the institution are to afford to mechanics and others opportunities of acquiring at their leisure hours the principles of science and the arts, and for the cultivation of literature.  The Gas Works, situated near the Madeley Wood brick works, were established in 1839, and the streets in Ironbridge were first lighted with gas on November 5th, 1839; Mr. Charles W. Smith is the manager and secretary.  An extraordinary phenomenon occurred at the Birches not far from the iron bridge in 1775, a particular account of which has been given with Broseley.

Coalbrook Dale, a winding glen two miles from Madeley, hemmed in by lofty hills and hanging woods, is celebrated for the most considerable iron works in England; the forges, mills, and steam engines, with all their vast machinery,—the flaming furnaces, and smoking chimneys, with handsome residences nestling under the cliffs of the hills, have altogether a most romantic and singular appearance, and perhaps in no part of the globe are features of so diversified and wonderful a character brought together within so limited a compass,—here art has triumphed over nature, and the barren wilderness has been converted into one of the most animating abodes of commerce, and being studded with residences of taste and elegance, it gives the whole a very interesting appearance.  Coalbrook Dale is chiefly the property of the Darby family, who carry on the extensive iron works here and in the adjoining parish of Dawley, where they have been already noticed.  The Coalbrook Dale Company is one of the largest establishments in England, justly celebrated for the superiority of their castings, and for the manufacture of every description of iron goods.  The Friends’ Meeting House, a neat brick structure, was built in 1789, and has a small burial ground attached.  It stands near the site of a former meeting house.  The Wesleyan Chapel, a plain brick structure, was occasionally the scene of the labours of the eminent Fletcher, the vicar of Madeley.  A spacious school room has been built at the expense of the Coalbrook Dale Company, where about eighty boys are instructed.  It is chiefly supported by the liberality of the same company.  The room above the school is used as an episcopal place of worship, and here the curate of Madeley usually officiates twice on the Sabbath.  A commodious school for girls has been built near the works, which is supported by Mrs. Abraham Darby; here about one hundred girls and an equal number of infants are now receiving instruction.  Sunny-side House, a good brick residence on the heights above the dale, was unoccupied when our agent visited Coalbrook Dale.  The residences of Abraham Darby, Esq., Richard Darby, Esq., and the Mrs. Darby, are handsome mansions, situated near the works in the dale.  East Field is a good residence at the bottom of the dale, the seat of Barnard Dickinson, Esq., near to which is Severn House, the residence of Henry Dickinson, Esq., besides which there are several other handsome residences.

Coalport, celebrated for its rich and extensive china works, is situated about two miles from Ironbridge.  The eminent firm of Rose and Company has been established here upwards of half a century; and the articles produced at this manufactory, for superior taste and elegant workmanship, are nowhere excelled.  The establishment is known as the Coalbrook Dale China Manufactory, and is the most extensive in the kingdom.  The firm employs 537 operatives.

Charities.—By an Indenture dated 29th May, 1706, we find that Basil Brook, by his will bequeathed to the poor of the parish of Madeley the sum of £40, which the churchwardens and parishioners desired might be laid out in the purchase of lands and tenements for the use of the poor of the parish.  It was witnessed that Comerford Brook, in consideration of the said £40, and also of a further sum of £30 paid to him by Audley Bowdler and eight others, parties to the said indenture, granted to Audley Bowdler and others three cottages with gardens thereto, on trust, to employ the rents and profits thereof for the use of the poor.  By another indenture, dated 26th December, 1713, William Johnson, in consideration of £30, conveyed a tenement in Madeley Wood to the trustees mentioned in the former deed, upon similar trusts.  No further account can be obtained of the source from whence the two sums of £30 consideration money were derived.  In course of time, the cottages having become out of repair, and there being no fund for repairing them, it was thought advisable to sell them for long terms at nominal rents, and apply the money received for the leases towards the building of a house of industry.  Accordingly, on the 2nd January, 1797, the vicar, parish officers, and trustees granted six leases of the trust property for terms of 999 years, in consideration of a sum of £235. 15s. and a nominal rent of 4s. 6d. per annum.  The sum thus received was added to a subscription raised in the parish to the further amount of £806. 13s. 6d., making together £1,042. 8s. 6d., and applied in the erection on a part of the charity land of a house of industry, the cost of which was £1,086. 14s. 7½d.; and a lease of that piece of land, with the house so erected upon it, containing 3r. 12p., was granted to certain trustees for the use of the parish for a term of 999 years, at the yearly rent of £18.  The income of these premises, amounting to £18. 14s. 6d., together with 5s. a year derived from another fund, has been for many years applied in providing clothing for the poor.

The annuity of 5s. above mentioned was formerly paid out of premises belonging to Mr. Beddoes, but by whom given is not known.  In the returns made under the Act of the 26th George III., it is attributed to a person of the name of Johnson, and there was formerly such a person who had property in this parish.  A person of the name of Bowdler, who held the premises after Beddoes, became bankrupt, when the premises were sold, and there being no means of establishing a claim to this annuity against the purchase, it was agreed that the trustees of the other charity should receive from the assignees the sum of £5, in lieu and in discharge of this annuity.  This sum, and 20s. for four years arrears, was accordingly paid to the trustees, and by them placed in the savings bank.  Mr. William Yate, in 1810, bequeathed four kneelings in his pew in the gallery of the church for the benefit of the Sunday school.

The following biographical sketch of the Rev. John Fletcher, formerly vicar of Madeley, is taken from the account of that celebrated individual published by the Rev. Robert Cox, curate of St. Leonard’s, Bridgnorth, and other authorities:—“John Guillaume de la Flechere, or as he was generally designated in this his adopted country, John William Fletcher, was born in Switzerland, at Nijon, in the Pays de Vaud.  His father, in the early part of his life, had been an officer in the French service, but on his marriage retired from the army, and afterwards became a colonel in the militia of his own country.  Young Fletcher having passed the early part of his boyhood at Nion, was sent to the University of Geneva, where he was soon distinguished by the superiority of his talents, and the intensity of his application.  About this period Fletcher met with a providential escape, which he never afterwards mentioned without the strongest expressions of gratitude.  He lived for some time at a place very near the Rhine, where he frequently bathed, being careful to keep near the shore that the stream might not carry him away.  Once, however, being less careful than usual, he was drawn into mid-channel, where the course of the water was very swift.  He endeavoured to swim against it, but in vain, till he was hurried a distance of five miles from home.  At last, despairing of life, he was cheered by the sight of a fine smooth creek, into which he was swiftly carried by a violent stream.  A powder mill stood directly across it, and the last thing he could remember was the striking of his breast against one of the piles on which it stood.  He then lost his senses, and knew nothing more till he rose on the other side of the mill, in a calm safe place, perfectly well.  Many persons gladly welcomed him on shore; and one gentleman in particular said, ‘I looked when you went under the mill, and again when you rose on the other side.  The time of your being immerged among the piles was exactly twenty minutes.’”

After Fletcher had gone through the usual course of study at the university, he was sent to Leutzbourg, a small town in the Swiss cantons, when, in addition to his other literary pursuits, he studied Hebrew and German.  Hitherto it had been the intention of Fletcher to enter into the church; but, contrary to all expectation, before he had arrived at the age of twenty, he manifested views of a very different nature.  Disgusted by the necessity of subscribing to the high Calvinism of the Geneva articles, and disinclined to enter upon so sacred an office from any secular motives, he yielded to the desire of some of his friends, and entered the army.  Soon after he obtained a commission in the Portuguese service, and was ordered to hold himself in readiness to sail to Brazil; but an accident, occasioned by a servant overturning a kettle of boiling water on his leg, confined him to his bed until the ship had sailed.  Being disappointed in a subsequent attempt to enter into the Dutch service, he resolved to visit England, partly from a desire for further improvement, and partly from a hope of obtaining some situation for his future support.

After the arrival of Mr. Fletcher in this country, he resided about eighteen months in the house of a Mr. Burchell, in Herefordshire, under whose directions he studied the English and various branches of polite literature.  At length he was engaged as a tutor in the family of Mr. Hill, M.P. for Shrewsbury, who resided at Tern Hall, in this county.  Mr. Fletcher generally accompanied the family to London, when Mr. Hill went to attend his parliamentary duties; and on one of these journeys he accidentally met with a poor woman who, he said, talked to him so delightfully of Jesus Christ, that he knew not how the time passed away.  This little circumstance was attended with the most important results; and although at first he felt somewhat indignant at the idea of not being perfectly acquainted with the nature of religion, yet at length he obtained that lively faith which, through the grace of God, will incite men to do all they can do, whilst it teaches them to rely upon nothing which they have done.

Not long after this period, Mr. Fletcher’s attention was again directed to the work of the ministry; but being diffident of his qualifications for so weighty an office, two years elapsed before his ordination.  “Before,” said he, “I was afraid; but now I tremble to meddle with holy things.”  At length his reluctance being overcome, he solemnly determined to offer himself as a candidate for holy orders in the English Church, and was accordingly ordained deacon at the Chapel Royal of St. James’s, on the 6th of March, 1757, and preached on the following day.  After having preached to some French refugees in his own language, and also in several chapels belonging to Mr. Wesley, with whom he was now acquainted, he determined to return to the charge of his pupils at Tern Hall.  The churches of Atcham, Wroxeter, St. Alkmunds, and the Abbey Church in Shrewsbury, were now the occasional scenes of his gratuitous services.  In the summer of 1779 he was frequently engaged in performing the duty of Madeley, and during the following year was presented to the vicarage of that place.  This living he accepted in preference to another of above double the value, which was offered to him about the same time; his affection for the people to whom he had ministered would not allow him to be separated from them.  The circumstance of his appointment to Madeley is worthy of notice.  One day, Mr. Hill informed him that the living of Dunham, in Cheshire, then vacant, was at his service: “The parish,” he continued, “is small, the duty light, the income good (£400 per annum), and it is situated in a fine healthy sporting country.”  After thanking Mr. Hill most cordially for his kindness, Mr. Fletcher added, “Alas, sir!  Dunham will not suit me; there is too much money, and too little labour.”  “Few clergymen make such objections,” said Mr. Hill, “it is a pity to decline such a living, as I do not know that I can find you another: What shall we do?  Would you like to go to Madeley?”  “That, sir, would be the very place for me.”  “My object, Mr. Fletcher, is to make you comfortable in your own way; if you prefer Madeley, I shall find no difficulty in persuading Chambray, the present vicar, to exchange it for Dunham, which is worth more than twice as much!”  In this way he became vicar of Madeley, with which he was so perfectly satisfied that he never after sought any other honour or preferment.  The inhabitants of Madeley, at this period, were notorious for ignorance and impiety; and in this benighted village Fletcher stood forth as a preacher of righteousness for the space of twenty-five years.

There was an energy in his preaching, observes Mr. Gilpin, that was irresistible; his subjects, his language, his gestures, the tone of his voice, and the turn of his countenance, all conspired to fix the attention and affect the heart.  Without aiming at sublimity, he was truly sublime, and uncommonly eloquent without affecting the orator.  He was wonderously skilled in adapting himself to the different capacities and conditions of his hearers.  He could stoop to the illiterate and rise with the learned; he had incontrovertible arguments for the sceptic, and powerful persuasions for the listless believer; he had sharp remonstrance for the obstinate, and strong consolation for the mourner.  Mr. Wesley describes him as superior to Whitfield in his qualifications as a public preacher.  Instead of being confined, says he, to a country village, he ought to have shone in every corner of our land.  He was full as much called to sound an alarm through all the nation as Mr. Whitfield himself; nay, abundantly more so, seeing he was much better qualified for that important work.  He had a more striking person, an equally winning address, together with a richer flow of fancy, a stronger understanding, a far greater treasure of learning, both in languages, philosophy, philology, and divinity; and above all, which I can speak with full assurance, a more deep and constant communion with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ.  It is not to be supposed that so zealous a minister of the gospel would meet with no opposition.  The drunken colliers and self-interested publicans were his special enemies.  The voluptuary detested his temperance; the licentious were offended at his gravity and strictness; and the formal were roused to indignation by that spirit of zeal and devotion which influenced his whole conduct.  And to these opponents must be added some of the neighbouring clergy and magistrates, who objected to his well-intended but unauthorised interference in their parishes.  In spite, however, of these oppositions, his piety and benevolence won upon the people, and the church, which at first was so thinly attended that he was discouraged by the smallness of the congregation, began to overflow, and he saw an effectual change take place in many of his flock.  Madeley abounded with persons in extreme indigence, and over this destitute part of his flock Mr. Fletcher watched with peculiar concern.  The whole rents of his small patrimonial estate were set apart for charitable uses, and he drew so liberally from his other funds as at times almost to deprive himself of the necessaries of life.  In order to feed the hungry, he led a life of self-denial and abstinence; and to cover the naked he clothed himself in the most homely attire.

The incessant labours of Mr. Fletcher, both in public and in private, with intense application to his studies, at length impaired his health, and in 1777 he was induced to visit Switzerland for the benefit of his native air.  He continued at Nijon, the place of his nativity, and its vicinity for nearly three years; during which period, though his health was gradually improving, he was still too weak to undertake much public duty, but he employed his time in writing, giving private exhortations, and in instructing the children who assembled, in the first principles of religion.  The fearless intrepidity of Mr. Fletcher’s Christian character was strikingly exemplified in his conduct towards one of his nephews during his residence in Switzerland.  This young man had been in the Sardinian service, where his profligate ungentlemanly conduct had given such general offence to his brother officers that they were determined to compel him to leave their corps or fight them all in succession.  After engaging in several duels he was obliged to quit the service, and return to his native country.  As a desperate man he resorted to desperate measures.  He waited on his uncle, General de Gons; and having obtained a private audience, he presented a pistol, and said, “Uncle de Gons, if you do not give me a draft on your banker for five hundred crowns, I will shoot you.”  The general, though a brave man, yet seeing himself in the hands of a desperado capable of any mischief, promised to give him the draft if he withdrew the pistol.  “But there is another thing, uncle, you must do; you must promise me, on your honour as a gentleman and a soldier, to use no means to recover the draft or bring me to justice.”  The general pledged his honour, gave him the draft for the money, and at the same time expostulated freely with him on his infamous conduct.  In the evening, passing the door of his uncle, Fletcher, the fancy took him to call and pay a visit.  As soon as he was introduced he began to tell him, with exultation, that he had just called upon his uncle, General de Gons, who had treated him with unexpected kindness, and generously given him five hundred crowns.  “I shall have some difficulty,” said Mr. Fletcher, “to believe the last part of your intelligence.”  “If you will not believe me, see the proof under his own hand,” holding out the draft.  “Let me see,” said Mr. Fletcher, taking the draft and looking at it with astonishment; “It is indeed my brother’s writing, and it astonishes me to see it, because he is not in affluent circumstances; and I am the more astonished because I know how much and how justly he disapproves your conduct, and you are last of his family to whom he would make such a present.”  Then folding the draft, and putting it into his pocket: “It strikes me, young man, that you have possessed yourself of this note by some indirect method, and in honesty I cannot return it, but with my brother’s knowledge and approbation.”  The pistol was immediately at his breast; and he was told as he valued life instantly to return the draft.  ‘My life,’ replied Mr. Fletcher, ‘is secure in the protection of Almighty power who guards it, nor will he suffer it to be the forfeit of my integrity and your rashness.’  This firmness drew from the other the observation that his Uncle de Gons, though an old soldier, was more afraid of death than he was.  ‘Afraid of death,’ rejoined Mr. Fletcher, ‘do you think that I have been twenty-five years the minister of the Lord of life to be afraid of death now?  No, sir; thanks be to God who giveth me the victory!  It is for you to fear death who have reason to fear it.  You are a gamester—a cheat.  You call yourself a gentleman.  You are a duellist, and your hand is red with your brother’s blood; and for this you style yourself a man of honour.  Look there, sir; look there.  See, the broad eye of heaven is fixed upon us.  Tremble in the presence of your Maker, who can in a moment kill your body, and for ever punish your soul in hell!’  By this time the unhappy man was pale: he trembled alternately with fear and passion: he threatened, he argued, he entreated.  Sometimes he withdrew the pistol, and fixing his back against the door, stood as a sentinel to prevent all egress; and at other times he closed on his uncle, threatening instant death.  Under these perilous circumstances Mr. Fletcher gave no alarm to the family, sought for no weapon, and attempted neither escape nor manual opposition.  He conversed with him calmly; and at length perceiving that the young man was affected, addressed him in language truly paternal until he had fairly disarmed and subdued him.  ‘I cannot,’ said he, ‘return my brother’s draft; yet I feel for the distress in which you have so thoughtlessly involved yourself, and will endeavour to relieve it.  My brother de Gons, at my request will, I am sure, voluntarily give you a hundred crowns.  I will do the same.  Perhaps my brother Henry will do as much.  And I hope your other family will make out the sum among them.  He then prayed with him and for him.  By Mr. Fletcher’s mediation, the family made up the sum he had promised; and with much good advice on one side, and fair promises on the other, they parted.

In March, 1781, Mr. Fletcher took a final leave of Switzerland and returned to England, and in the autumn of the same year was married to Miss Bosanquet, a lady of respectable family and eminent piety.  From the time of his marriage Mr. Fletcher experienced no return of his consumptive symptoms, and his general health materially improved.  In compliance with the solicitation of Mr. Wesley, Mr. Fletcher was sometimes present at the annual conference, when his sermons and pious conversation became the theme of every tongue.  No employment of Mr. Fletcher’s seemed more pleasing to him than that of being engaged in preparing food or medicines for the poor.  On Sundays he provided for numbers of poor people who came to the church from a distance.  Indeed he scarcely seemed to enjoy his meals unless he knew that some sick or indigent neighbours should partake of them.  But with all his generosity he was still careful to live within his income.  If he overtook a poor person on the road with a burden too heavy for him, he did not fail to offer his assistance to bear part of it; and under such circumstances he would not easily take a denial.  As he approached the end of his course the graces he had kept in continual exercise for so long a season became more illustrious and powerful, his faith was more assured, his hope more lively, his charity more abundant, his humility more profound, and his resignation more complete.  After lingering some time under the pressure of an exhausted constitution, but supported by the hopes and consolations of Christianity, Mr. Fletcher calmly expired on the 14th August, 1785, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.

As a clergyman he was never exceeded in zeal, disinterestedness, affection for his flock, or anxiety for their spiritual welfare.  As a writer Mr. Fletcher was considerably above mediocrity, and had he been a candidate for literary distinction he had talents to have occupied no inconsiderable rank.  His deportment and manners were of the most engaging and courteous kind, presenting such a combination of gravity, condescension, and gentleness as few have ever witnessed.  Of his appearance in the pulpit the liveliest fancy could not frame from any of the ancient saints an aspect more venerable or more apostolic.  The abundant current of his charity flowed in affection towards all, and his liberal heart rejoiced in the spiritual welfare of other denominations.

In the church-yard is a plain and simple tomb to his endeared memory, covered with a cast iron plate, on which in raised letters is the following memorial:—

“He lies the body of
The Rev. John William De La Flechere,
vicar of Madeley.
He was born in Nijon, in Switzerland,
September 12th, MDCCXXIX,
and finished his course in this village,
August 14th, MDCCLXXXV,
where his unexampled labours will be long remembered.
He exercised his ministry for the space of
twenty-five years in this parish,
with uncommon zeal and ability.
Many believed his report and became his joy
and crown of rejoicing,
while others constrained him to take up the
lamentation of the prophet:—
‘All day long I have stretched out my hands
unto a disobedient and gainsaying people,
yet surely my judgment is with the Lord
and my works with my God.’
‘He being dead yet speaketh.’”

The following is a copy of the entry in the parish register:—“John Fletcher, clerk, died on Sunday evening, August 14th, 1785.  He was one of the most apostolic men of the age in which he lived.  His abilities were extraordinary, and his labours unparalleled.  He was a burning and shining light, and as his life had been a common blessing to the inhabitants of this parish, so the death of this great man was lamented by them as a common and irreparable loss.  This little testimony was inserted by one who sincerely loved and honoured him.  Joshua Gilpin, vicar of Wrockwardine.”

MADELEY DIRECTORY.

Albert William, plumber, glazier, & painter

Alker Thomas, plumber, glazier, & painter

Bailey John, builder

Bailey John, chartermaster

Bailey Joseph, chartermaster

Bailey William, assistant clerk, county court

Barker John, boot and shoemaker

Bartley Thomas, grocer and draper

Bartlett Rev. John, M.A., Marnwood

Beddell Thomas, beerseller

Blanthorne Isabella, beerseller

Bowdler Henry, farmer, Cuckoo Oak

Brewer Francis, grocer

Brickhill Mr. Solomon

Bryan Arnold F., draper

Cartwright George, butcher

Caswell John, boot and shoemaker

Chalmers Rev. John, curate

Currier Thomas, cabinet maker

Dainty William, chartermaster

Davies John, brick, tile, & draining pipe mkr

Dawes William, organ builder

Dyas Charles, vict., Royal Oak

Dyas William, butcher, farmer, maltster, and grocer

Eastwick Miss Mary

Edwards Mr. Edward

Farmer Miss Ann

Farr James, wheelwright

Farr John, beerseller

Fenton Samuel, brazier and tin plate worker

Ferriday Charles James, Esq.

Ferriday Miss Jane

Fisher Jesse, manufacturing chemist

Ford John C., draper

Foster & Co., iron & coal masters; Francis Pearce, agent

Garner Joseph, stone mason

Glaze George, beerseller

Glover Thomas, hair dresser

Green Henry, beerseller

Griffiths Philip, tailor and clothier

Groom Richard, tailor

Guy Benjamin, beerseller

Gwyther Rev. James H., vicar, surrogate for granting marriage licenses, and chaplain to Madeley union

Harper Ann, draper and grocer

Harper William, farmer

Harris William, chartermaster

Harvey Richard and Randall John, grocers and ironmongers

Harvey Thomas J., vict., Horse Shoes

Headley James, chemist and druggist

Heaford William, tailor and woollen draper

Holmes John, chartermaster

Hopley Peter, farmer and chartermaster

Hopley William, chartermaster

Jacks John, chartermaster

Jacks Joseph, painter and glazier

Johnson William, schoolmaster

Jones George, mine agent to James Foster, Esq., Madeley Court

Jones Jonas, chartermaster

Kearsley James, chartermaster

Kearsley Sarah, milliner

Keay John, beerseller and grocer

Keay John, chartermaster

Keay Peter, beerseller

Lane John, wheelwright

Lavender Samuel, draper and milliner

Lissiter William, beerseller

Madeley Wood Company ironmasters; Mr. Anstice, agent

Millard Thomas, gardener and seedsman

Mollineaux Thomas, grocer

Molloy Rev. William

Morgan Mr. Joseph, Gothic Villa

Morris Richard, blacksmith

Munday Thomas, bookseller and stationer

Onions James, confectioner

Owen Thomas, saddler and harness maker

Page William, butcher

Patrick Miss Mary Ann

Pearce Francis, agent to James Foster, Esq., Park Cottage

Peirce Richard, surgeon

Penn Thomas, furnace manager to James Foster, Esq.

Powell William, beerseller

Rayner Mr. Charles, Holley House

Roberts Charles, boot and shoemaker

Rodgers William M., grocer

Rose Mrs. Appilona

Rushton Jane, milliner

Rushton Samuel, blacksmith

Rushton William, grocer

Smith Edward, ale and porter merchant, and maltster and limeburner

Smith Samuel and Co., brick, tile, and drainage pipe manufacturers

Smith Thos., architect, builder, & surveyor

Street Elizabeth, earthenware dealer

Thompson Matthew, chartermaster

Trevor Thomas, grocer and chandler

Walker John, beerseller

Wall William, shopkeeper

Ward Mrs. Alice

Ward George, mine agent to Madeley Wood Company

Ward William, chartermaster

Watson Andrew, tailor

Webb Matthew, surgeon

Wilkins James, grocer and ironmonger

Willcox Mr. Thomas

Williams Mrs. Elizabeth

Williams James, beerseller

Williams Joseph, wheelwright

Williams Richard, farmer, and furnace manager to Madeley Wood Company

Williams Richard, farmer, The Cottage

Williams Susannah, beerseller

Wones John, beerseller and shopkeeper

Yate Joseph, Esq., Madeley Hall

Post Office at Mr. Henry P. Baldwin’s, Bridge street.  Letters arrive at 7 45 A.M., and are despatched at 5 50 P.M.

Ironbridge and Madeley Wood Directories.

Anstice John, Esq., manager to Madeley Wood Company, The Lloyds

Anstice Wm. Reynolds, solicitor and clerk to Madeley Board of Guardians, Church street

Bartlett Rev. John, M.A., Marnwood

Ball William, supervisor, Church street

Bayliss William, engineer to Madeley Wood Company, The Lloyds

Cartwright Mrs., Hodge Bower

Clarke William, tea and whiskey dealer, Severn Terrace

Cock Miss Ann, Brockholes

Cooke Emanuel, locksmith, Lincoln’s Hill

Davies Mrs., The Orchard

Evans William, secretary to Mechanics’ Institution, house, Broseley

Fisher, John, Esq., Madeley Wood

Ford John, parish clerk, Church street

Gordon, Wm. Pierson, Esq., solicitor & clerk to magistrates, residence, Linley

Haywood John, wire worker, Bridge street

Jetter Rev. John Andrew, incumbent, The Parsonage

Jones Thomas, nail maker, Madeley Wood

Kelsall Rev. Henry, curate, Brockholes

Lewis John Bennett, inland revenue officer, Severn Terrace

Lewis Edward, manager to Joseph Reynolds, Esq., Coalport

Madeley Wood Company, ironmasters, and brick and tile manufacturers, John Anstice, Esq., manager, The Lloyds

Nicholas Joseph, patten maker, Lincoln Hill

Nickless Enoch, ale, porter and cider merchant, Lincoln Terrace

Pugh Charles, agent to Lilleshall Company and Beriah Botfield, Esq., Coalport

Pugh William, Esq., porcelain manufacturer, Coalport

Reeves William, chartermaster, Lincoln Hill

Riddiough William, patten and clog maker, Madeley Wood

Rose John & Co., porcelain manufacturers

Rose William, Esq., porcelain manufacturer, Coalport

Stokes William Smith, gent., Old Parsonage

Wase John, farmer, The Hay

Whiteley Mr. James, agent to Jno. Rose & Co. porcelain manufacturers, Coalport

Wildblood Wm., governor of Union House, Brockholes

Woodruff James, gent., Lincoln Terrace

Wright Henry, ale & porter dealer, Lincoln’s Hill

Yates Adam, gent, Madeley Wood

Weare William, auctioneer, house and estate agent, accountant, agent to Shropshire and North Wales Fire Office, and British Empire Life Office, Madeley Wood

Academies.

Brassington & Southern, the Misses, (Ragged School), Severn Side

Evans Wm., Waterloo street, house, Broseley

Johnston John, (Boarding) Brockholes

Lusmore Miss, (Parochial) Severn Side

Timmis Mrs and the Misses, (Ladies Brdng) Dale Coppy

White Miss, (Ladies Boarding) Church street

Attornies.

Anstice Wm. Reynolds, and clerk to Madeley Board of Guardians, Church street

Gordon Wm. Pierson, & clerk to magistrates for borough of Wenlock, house, Linley

Bakers and Flour Dealers.

See also Shopkeepers.

Broadbridge Chas., Bridge st

Milner George, Bridge street

Bankers.

Savings Bank, Church street, William Smith, manager, residence, Bridgnorth

Shropshire Banking Compy., Hy. C. T. Dickenson, Esq., manager, The Elms

Barge Owners.

Bailey James, The Lloyds

Burton J. & Edw., The Wharf

Goodwin George, The Wharf

Owen Benjamin, The Wharf

Owen Thomas, The Wharf

Owen Edward, The Wharf

Yates Francis and John, The Wharf

Blacksmiths.

Bisall John, Madeley Wood

Edwards Jno., Madeley Wood

Walton John, Church street

Booksellers, Binders, Printers and Stationers.

Slater John, Bridge street

Smith Geo. Mortimer, Market square

Smith Saml. C. Bridge street

Boot & Shoe Makers.

Blocksidge John, Coalport

Crowder John, The Lloyds

Dodd Richd., Church street

Hughes Chas., Bridge street

Lloyd Benj., Madeley Wood

Price Thos., Madeley Wood

Roberts Thos., The Wharfage

Wood Thos., The Wharfage

Braziers & Tin-plate Workers.

Bartham Chas., Bridge street

Fenton Thomas, & constable, Waterloo street

Brick & Tile Manufacturers.

Bayliss John and George, Madeley Wood

Burton John and Edward, The Wharfage

Davis John, Madeley Green

Madeley Wood Company, Waterloo street

Roden Saml., Hodge Bower

Butchers.

Barnett Thos., Bridge street

Barnett Wm., Bridge street

Delves Joseph, Bridge street

Dyas William, Bridge street

Page John, Bridge street

Poole Charles, The Lloyds

Wilcox John, Madeley Wood

Wilcox William, Brockholes

Cabinet Makers and Upholsterers.

Davies George, High street

Jones William, The Wharfage

Chemists & Druggists.

Baldwin Henry P., and post master, Bridge street

Hartshorne Wm., Market sqre

Clothiers.

Cohen Luke, Bridge street

Gotthimer Aaron, Waterloo st

Confectioners.

Barclay William, & dealer in British Wines, Bridge st

Milner George, Bridge street

Rogers Mary, Bridge street

Cooper.

Roberts Richd., Church street

Curriers.

Cock John and James, Madeley Wood

Stirrop Robert J., and leather cutter, Bridge street

Drapers & Silk Mercers.

Brown Samuel, and laceman, Bridge street

Bowyer Thomas, and woollen draper, Market square

Charlton Henry, Bridge st

Evans Thos., Madeley Wood

Goodwin Wm., The Wharfage

Greenhalgh Brothers, Bridge street

Pardoe Edward, Bridge street

Farmers.

Barnett Thos., Bridge street

Dyas William, Bridge street

Thompson Isaac, Lodge Farm

Wase John, Hay Farm

Yates Francis and John, Castle Green

Fire & Life Office Agents.

British Empire Life, William Weare, Madeley Wood

Clerical, Medical & General Life, George M. Smith, Market square

Medical, Legal and General Mutual Life, George M. Smith, Market square

Shropshire and North Wales Fire, Wm. Weare, Madeley Wood

Furniture Brokers.

Davies George, High street

Franks William, High street

Jones Wm., The Wharfage

Grocers & Tea Dealers.

Dax William, Madeley Wood

Evans Wm., Madeley Wood

Franks Benj., Madeley Wood

Greenhalgh Brothers, Bridge street

Hammond Thos., Brockholes

Latham John, & glass dealer, Madeley Wood

Milner Betsey, Bridge street

Price Chas. L., (firm, Smith and Price) Bridge street

Smith & Price, Bridge street

Smith Charles W., Bridge st

Smith Henry, (firm, Smith and Price) Bridge street

Wilcox Thos., Madeley Wood

Hair Dressers.

Baugh George, Bridge street

Poole Thomas, Bridge street

Reynolds Rd., The Wharfage

Hat Manufacturers.

Shingler John, The Lloyds

Shingler John, Bridge street

Hosiers and Haberdashers.

Brown John, Madeley Wood

Crowther The Misses, The Wharfage

Owen Miss Sarah, Bridge st

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Bird in Hand, John Shingler, The Lloyds

Blockhouse, John Heighway, The Lloyds

Golden Ball, John Wilcox, Madeley Wood

Half Moon, Joseph Pugh, Madeley Wood

Horse, Joseph Edwards, Lincolns Hill

Lake Head, William Yates, The Lloyds

Retreat, William Shingler, Bridge street

Robin Hood, James Bailey, The Lloyds

Rodney, Susannah Lloyd, The Wharfage

Royal Oak, Thomas Nivitt, Church street

Swan Inn, John Barrow, The Wharfage

Swan, Wm. Fowler, Lincolns Hill

Talbot, George Boycott, The Wharfage

Three Tuns, Thos. Corfield, and licensed to let post horses, Bridge street

Tontine Hotel, and commercial and posting house, Elizabeth Jones, Bridge st

Unicorn, Samuel Harvey, Madeley Wood

White Hart, commercial and posting house, William Shingler, The wharfage

Beerhouses.

Broadbridge Chas., Bridge st

Davies Jas., Madeley Wood

Franks Benj., Madeley Wood

Harper Joseph, Brockholes

Jones Ann, The Wharfage

Lloyd Samuel, Waterloo st

Morrall Rd., Madeley Wood

Hoole Fred. W., Bath lane

Pugh Thos., Madeley Wood

Taylor Catherine, The Loyds

Thompson Isaac, Madeley Wood

Wood Thos., The Wharfage

York Mary, Madeley Wood

Ironmongers.

Davies Richard, and patten maker, Wharfage

Smith Chas. W., Bridge st

Joiners and Builders.

Marked * Builders only.

Bailey Wm., senr., Madeley Wood

Bailey Wm., jun., Madeley Wood

* Barclay John, Bridge street

Davies George, High street

* Jenks Thomas, High st

Nevitt & Co., Madeley Wood

Nickless Enoch, Lincoln ter.

Maltsters.

Barrow John, The Wharfage

Lloyd Benj., Severn Terrace

Smith Edward, Park lane

Yates Francis and John, The Wharfage

Milliners & Dressmakers.

Armstrong Miss Maria, Market street

Crowther Miss Sarah, The Wharfage

Ferrington The Misses, Church street

Owen The Misses, Bridge st

Stodd Miss Emma, Bridge st

Painters, Plumbers, & Glaziers.

Crowther Leonard, The Wharfage

Hinsley John, The Loyds

Williams Abr., The Wharfage

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Poole George Hy., Bridge st

Woof Edwd., The Wharfage

Spirit Vaults.

Charlton Humpy., Bridge st

Stirrop Robert, Bridge street

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Acton Mrs., Market square

Hartshorne Mrs., Bridge st

Surgeons.

Proctor Richd., Esq., Severn Terrace

Rowlands Jas., Esq., Church street

Tailors.

Bates Edwin, Madeley Wood

Gwynne Thomas, & woollen draper, Market square

Heaford Hiram, & woollen draper, The Wharfage

Shotton John, Madeley Wood

Timber Merchant.

Chune Joseph Fred., Lincolns Hill

Watch & Clock Makers.

Hinkley Wm., Bridge street

Peplow Fran., The Wharfage

Omnibuses.

To Shiffnal at 7-30 A.M. from the Tontine Hotel, returning at 6-45 P.M.

To Wellington at 8 A.M. and 4-30 P.M. from the Tontine Hotel, returning at 2-45 P.M. and 9 P.M.

Coalbrook Dale Directory.

Marked 1 reside at the bottom of the dale.

Bailey Benj., boot & shoekr.

Bailey John, beerhouse kpr.

Bailey William, grocer

Biddiough William, grocer

Boycott Thomas, accountant

Branford Thomas, painter, plumber and glazier

1 Chune George and Joseph, timber merchants

Chune John H., miller and corn factor, Coalbrook Dale Mill

1 Clarke William, grocer and seedsman

Coalbrook Dale Company, ironmasters

Cookson Samuel, engineer

Crookes Mr. Chas., manager of the foundry, Paradise House

Darby Abraham, Esq., The Chesnuts

Darby Mrs. Hannah, White House

Darby Mrs. Lucy, Dale House

Darby Richard, Esq.

Delves Joseph, butcher

1 Dickenson Henry C. T., bank manager, The Elms

1 Dickinson Barnard, Esq., East Field

1 Dickinson Henry, Esq., Severn House

Dorsett Joseph, shopkeeper and blacksmith

1 Dunbar Sarah, hosier

Edwards Edward, surgeon

Fox John, accountant

Gething George, tailor

Graham Mr. Thos., Woodside Cottage

Harbridge John, accountant

Hughes John, draughtsman

Lane Julia, schoolmistress

1 Lloyd Aaron, grocer

1 Lowe Geo., tailor & draper

Morgan The Misses Priscilla and Rebecca

Norris William, cashier

1 Oliver William, shopkeeper

Onions Isaac, schoolmaster

1 Owen Benj., barge owner

1 Owen Edwd., barge owner

1 Owen Mr. Thomas

1 Phillips John, tailor

Ramsell Edward, shoemaker

Robinson Mr. John

Roberts William, clerk

Rose Mrs. Ann

Buckley Mrs Sarah, Hawkeshead Cottage

Sankey Mrs. Hannah

Smith and Price, grocers

1 Turton George, inland revenue officer

Timmis Mrs., boarding schl.

Weston Phillip, accountant

Wilbraham Charles, draper, (travelling)

Wright Benjamin, registrar of births, deaths, and marriages, & Commercial Inn and posting house

Wright Peter, farmer, and agent to the Royal Exchange Fire & Life Office

Coalport Directory.

Anstice John Esq., agent to Madeley Wood Company

Blocksidge John, grocer & shoemaker

Doughty Daniel, butcher

Fennell Susannah, shopkr.

Hargreave Rebecca, beerhse

Harper John, butcher

Harper Joseph, beerhouse

John Rose and Co., porcelain manufacturer

Lewis Edward, manager to Joseph Reynolds, Esq.

Musgrave Wm., beerhouse

Oakes George, shopkeeper

Pugh Chas., agent to Lilleshall Company and Beriah Botfield, Esq.

Pugh Wm., Esq., porcelain manufacturer

Rose William, Esq., porcelain manufacturer, Rock House

Wase John John Holland, farmer, Hay Farm

Wheeler Thomas, beerhouse

Whiteley James, Esq., agent to porcelain manufactory

MONK HOPTON
is a parish and small rural village pleasantly situated six miles W. from Bridgnorth, and four and a half miles S. from Much Wenlock, contains 2,240a. 0r. 37p. of land, chiefly the property of Lord Wenlock, who is also lord of the manor.  The farm houses and cottage residences are mostly neat structures, having been in many instances rebuilt by the late proprietor Sir Francis Lawley.  Rateable value, £1,814. 13s. 9d.  At the census in 1801 this parish had a population of 212 souls; 1831, 208, and in 1841 there were thirty-five houses and 189 inhabitants.

The Church, a small structure, has been beautified and repaired within the last few years.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the gift of the lord of the manor, and incumbency of the Rev. Robert W. Dayrell.  There is a school in the village, which is chiefly supported by Lord Wenlock and the minister; about forty children attend.  Weston is a hamlet in the parish of Monk Hopton, about two miles from the church; the Duke of Cleveland and Mrs. Susannah Butcher are the landowners.

The principal residents are Edward Bradley, farmer; Rev. Robert W. Dayrell; William Dixon, farmer and corn miller; Mary Evans, schoolmistress; Elizabeth Evans, blacksmith; Edward Marston, farmer, Monk Hall; Richard Nichols, vict., Wenlock Arms; William Shiston, bailiff; Richard Wall, wheelwright.  The residents in Weston are Susannah Butcher, farmer; Richard Lewis, farmer; and Thomas Reynolds, farmer.

MUCH WENLOCK
is a parish, market town, and borough, having separate and independent jurisdiction, twelve miles south east from Shrewsbury, and 148 miles from London.  The town consists principally of two streets, at right angles to one another.  The houses in general have an ancient appearance, and are ill built; there are, however, several houses and shops of modern appearance of a more respectable character.  The parish contains 8,821 acres of land; and at the census of 1841 had 2,487 inhabitants.  In 1851 there were 2,398 souls, of whom 1,179 were males, and 1,219 females; and at the same period there were 487 inhabited houses and 17 uninhabited.  Rateable value, £14,006. 11s.  The townships comprised in this parish are Much Wenlock, Atterley, Bourton, Callaughton, Farley, Wyke, and Bradley, Harley Wigwig and Homer, Presthope, and Walton.  The township of Much Wenlock contains 2,492 acres of land, the principal owners of which are W. W. Wynne, Esq., and Lord Forester.  At the census of 1841 there were 373 houses and 1,627 inhabitants in the township.  Gross, estimated rental, £7,440. 6s. 2d.  Rateable value, £6,549. 5s.  The tithes have been commuted, and £341 apportioned to the vicar, and £387. 14s. to the impropriators.  Monday is market day, for which the town is indebted to the Prior and other religious brethren.  Fairs are held second Tuesday in March, May 12th, October 17th, and December 4th.  The fair held on July 5th has been discontinued within the last few years.

A charter of incorporation was granted to Wenlock in the 8th of Edward IV.  The second and last charter, which is a confirmation and extension of the former, was granted in the 7th of the reign of Charles I.  Under this charter the government was invested in a bailiff, a recorder, bailiff’s peers, a treasurer, a coroner, a town clerk, a serjeant-at-mace, and other officers.  The bailiff, recorder, and bailiff’s peers, were justices of the peace; the recorder held his office for life, and the others were elected annually on Michaelmas day by a jury of the burgesses.  The jurisdiction of these magistrates was co-extensive with the borough.  By the charter they were allowed a court of common pleas every second Tuesday, and also an assize court for the trial of criminals, not even excepting those suspected of capital crimes; and from the early registers of the parish of Wenlock many executions seem to have taken place.  A court of record was also held by the mayor every alternate Tuesday, and considerable business was done in this court.  Under the municipal reform act the government of the borough is vested in a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors.  Quarter sessions are held before the recorder.  The mayor is elected annually on the 9th of November by the council.  His duties are to preside at all meetings of the council, and to sign notices thereof, and with the assessors to revise the burgess list.  He is a justice of the peace ex-officio for the year of his mayoralty and the year following, and has precedence within the borough, and is returning officer at elections for members of parliament.  In the absence of the recorder he is empowered to open and adjourn the court of quarter sessions.  Any councillor elected mayor, but refusing to serve, is liable to a fine not exceeding £100.  The aldermen are one-third of the number of councillors, and are elected triennially by the council on the 9th of November.  Half of their number go out of office every three years, but are eligible to be re-elected.  An alderman is to preside at elections in case of death or inability of the mayor, and refusing office is to pay a fine not exceeding £50.  The councillors are chosen in the different wards on the 1st of November, by persons whose names are on the burgess roll; one-third of the councillors go out of office annually, but are capable of re-election.  All such elections are held before an alderman, and two assessors appointed for each ward.  The recorder is appointed by the crown, has precedence after the mayor, and is sole judge at quarter sessions and in the court of record, and ex-officio justice of the peace.  He must be a barrister of at least five years standing.  He cannot be a member of parliament, alderman, or councillor, of the borough.  The town-clerk is appointed by the council, and must be an attorney.  The freemen’s roll is made out by him.  He receives from the overseers, on the 5th of September, the list of burgesses, which he has to get printed, and expose copies on the Town Hall door.  He receives claims of persons omitted in the burgess list and of persons objected to.  He issues instructions to overseers to make out lists of electors, and publishes the same when revised; attends and takes minutes of all proceedings at council meetings, and makes out warrants for borough-rates, and has charge of all borough registers and other documents.  The clerk of the peace is appointed by the council.  His duties are to give ten days’ notice of time and place of holding quarter sessions; to summon, at least seven days before, a sufficient number of jurors, and to make out a list of names and descriptions of jurors summoned.  The fees paid to this officer are fixed by the town council, and confirmed by the secretary of state.  The coroner is appointed by the council, and makes an annual return of the inquests held by him to the secretary of state, as well as a quarterly return to the council.  The following is a list of the members of Parliament, the corporate body, and the municipal officers of the borough and franchise of Wenlock for the year 1851:—

Members of Parliament:—The Hon. George Cecil Weld Forester, Esq., and James M. Gaskell, Esq.

Justices of the Peace:—Moses George Benson, Esq.; George Pritchard, Esq.; John Pritchard, Esq.; Thomas Mytton, Esq.; William Pugh, Esq.; Henry George Harnage, Esq.; John Anstice, Esq.; John Stephens, Esq.; W. P. Brookes, Esq.; and Richard Thursfield, Esq.

Corporation.—Mayor: Charles Belsher, Esq.

Aldermen: Richard Thursfield, Esq.; William Nicholas, Esq.; J. W. Rowlands, Esq.; John Anstice, Esq.; Charles Belsher, Esq.; and John Parry, Esq.

Councillors of Wenlock Ward: George Adney; Joseph Amphlitt; William Canlin; Robert Horton; William Newill; and William Jeffrey.

Broseley Ward: George Pritchard; Thomas Lister; John Onions; William Thursfield; Thomas Pitt; Robert Evans.

Madeley Ward: Henry Charlton; George Chune; William Cooke; Edward Edwards; Henry Davies; Henry Dickinson.

Recorder: Uvedale Corbet, Esq.  Clerk of the Peace: George Potts, Esq.  Town Clerk: Roger Charles Blakeway, Esq.  Clerk to Justices: William P. Gordon, Esq.  Treasurer: Mr. Joseph Roden.  High Constable: Mr. Richard Patten.

Wenlock is remarkable as being the first borough that acquired the right of representation by charter in parliament.  The boundary of the present parliamentary borough is the same as prior to the passing of the Reform and Corporation Act, but the municipal boundary is not so extensive.  The revising barristers divided Wenlock into the three wards of Wenlock, Broseley, and Madeley; Wenlock ward to consist of the several parishes of Much Wenlock, Ditton Priors, Hughley, Monk Hopton, and such part of the parish of Shipton as lies on the left side of the streams called Brockton brook and the river Cowe in descending the same.  The Madeley ward to consist of the parishes of Madeley and Little Wenlock; and Brosley Ward to consist of the parishes of Broseley, Barrow, Benthall, Linley, and Willey, and the Extra Parochial Liberty of Posenhall.  And having regard as well to the number of persons rated to the relief of the poor in each ward, as to the aggregate amount of the sums at which all the said persons are so rated, they apportioned and assigned six councillors and two aldermen to each of the said wards.  The town returned one member to parliament in 1478.  It afterwards acquired the privilege of sending two, who were elected by the burgesses (in number about five hundred), the writ being returned by the bailiff.  The greatest number of electors polled previous to the Reform Act was 258.  The freedom was acquired by inheritance, and occasionally by election from a common hall.  The whole precinct now called the franchise appears to have been included in the original charter.  The number of electors is now upwards of nine hundred.  The lord of the manor holds annual courts at Michaelmas and Easter, at the former of which constables are appointed.

The town of Wenlock gives name to a deanery, and the Borough and Franchise were formerly co-extensive with the hundred of Patintern, mentioned in Doomsday book, which comprised the following parishes—viz., Much Wenlock, Little Wenlock, Broseley, Madeley, Benthall, Barrow, Linley, Badger, Beckbury, Priors Ditton, Stoke St. Milborough, Eaton-under-Heywood, Hughley, Shipton, Monk Hopton, Willey, Deuxhill, and the Extra Parochial Liberty of Posenhall.  By an order of Quarter Sessions, held at Shrewsbury, April 4, 1836, the parishes of Beckbury and Badger, were henceforward to be taken as part of the Shiffnal division of the hundred of Brimstree; and the parish of Deuxhill was henceforward to be taken as part of the Bridgnorth division of the hundred of Brimstree: the parishes of Eaton and Shipton were henceforward to be taken as part of the upper division of the hundred of Munslow; and that the parishes of Culmington and Stoke St. Milborough shall henceforward be taken to be part of the lower division of the hundred of Munslow; and it was further ordered that the day from which this should take effect, should be the 11th day of April, 1836.

The Parish Church, which stands near the ruins of the priory, is a venerable structure, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower, surmounted by a neat spire of timber, covered with lead.  The structure bears many evidences of great antiquity, and the architecture of the Saxon and Norman ages is discoverable.  The interior, during the present year, has been restored and re-pewed at a cost of £1,350.  The arches, which separate the nave from the side aisles, rise from clustered pillars, and are very beautiful, having been cleared of the plaster and mortar which had accumulated for ages.  A lofty round arch separates the nave from the chancel, which contains the remains of a very elegant sedilia, together with a piscina and aumbrey, and several old brass memorials.  The Church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity; and from the parish register, it appears that service was first celebrated in the English tongue in this church on the 26th of June, 1559.  The church-yard has just been enlarged by the addition of three quarters of an acre, and contains several tombs, but none of them sufficiently remarkable as to deserve special notice.  The living is a vicarage, rated at £12. 9s. 6d., in the patronage of Sir W. W. Wynn: incumbent, Rev. William Henry Wayne.  The Methodists have a small chapel in the town.  The National School was built in 1847, at a cost of about £1,000, of which £500 was obtained of the National Society and the Committee of Council on Education.  150 children attend.

The Town Hall or Guild Hall is an antique structure, chiefly composed of timber and plaster, resting on piazzas.  It is evidently of great antiquity, but there is no record to show the date of its erection.  In the parish register of Wenlock, however, which seems to have been also a chronicle of remarkable events of the parish, it is stated that the house over the prisons, which is clearly an addition to the original building, was put up in 1577.  The interior consists of two commodious rooms, the first is the sessions room, and over the Recorder’s seat are the arms of Charles II.  The inner room is the Municipal Court House, which has recently been panelled and furnished with carved oak of the most elaborate and costly workmanship, principally at the expense of W. P. Brookes, Esq., one of the borough magistrates.  The chairs (two of which were presented to the corporation by the Rev. R. H. G. More), as well as the table, chimney piece, and seats, are remarkably handsome, the cost is stated to have been not far short of £1000.

The Savings Bank is a plain brick building situated near the church.  The total number of depositors on November 20th, 1850, were 1,909, including thirty-six charitable societies and thirty-four friendly societies.  The capital stock of the bank at the same period amounted to £62,650. 12s.; of the total number of depositors there were 1,061 whose respective balances did not exceed £20., 451 were above £20 and not exceeding £50., 210 not exceeding £100., 66 above £100 and not exceeding £150., 42 not exceeding £200., and nine were above the latter sum.  The deposits of the charitable societies at the same period amounted to £2,608. 11s. 8d., and of the friendly societies to £3,248. 17s. 6d.  Treasurer, George Pritchard, Esq.: Secretary, Mr. William Smith.

The Public Library is situated near the ruins of the abbey, and contains about 1,500 volumes, mostly valuable works, chiefly presented by gentlemen in the neighbourhood, and the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Anglesey, and Major Herbert Edwards.  Wenlock Edge is a precipitous ridge about two miles from Wenlock, formerly densely covered with wood.  King Henry I. on his March to Shrewsbury to besiege that town was under the necessity of employing detachments from his numerous army to cut down the wood and make a road ere he could proceed.

Wenlock Monastery, Bishop Tanner says, that a nunnery was erected at Wenlock about the year 680, by Milburga, daughter to King Merwald, and niece to Walphere king of Mercia, of which she became abbess; she was renowned for sanctity, and it is recorded by William of Malmesbury, who wrote early in the 12th century, that for some “time after the arrival of the Normans, through ignorance of the place of her burial she was neglected; lately however, while a new church was erecting, a boy running violently along the pavement, brake into the hollow of a vault and discovered the body of the virgin, when a balsamic odour pervading the whole church she was taken up, and performed so many miracles, that the people flocked thither in great multitudes; large spreading plains could hardly contain the troops of pilgrims, a common faith impelling all, nor did the saint deceive their expectations, for no one departed without either a perfect cure or a considerable abatement of his malady, and some were even cured of the king’s evil where medical advice had been unavailing.”  Traditions of miracles worked by Milburga are still preserved in the neighbourhood, and her shrine is said at length to have been burnt in the market place.  The blind devotion which led crowds of people of all ranks with their hands filled with rich oblations to offer at this shrine produced a large income to the monastery, and for some time kept in the shade the wondrous doings of canonized saints of the rival establishments in this neighbourhood.  The canonization of saints was for centuries a source of great wealth to the Roman Catholic Church, and much of their success no doubt depended on a wily priesthood trumpeting forth their miraculous powers among the ignorant multitude.  To show the craftiness of the priesthood in this respect we may observe that St. Dunstan after his death in 988 was canonized, and his relics were held in such esteem that they shortly after produced an immense revenue to the cathedral of Canterbury.  About the time of Henry VII. however, the monks of Glastonbury anxious to bring a portion of grist to their own mill, began to boast of having the relics of St. Dunstan in their possession, which soon turned the tide of affairs and caused the rich offerings and oblations to flow to Glastonbury.  This sorely troubled the archbishop of Canterbury, who had the tomb of Dunstan opened, when the body was found in a lead coffin in his pontifical habit; the archbishop therefore immediately issued his mandate charging the monks of Glastonbury to desist from all further boasting of their possession of St. Dunstan’s relics.  Notwithstanding the objectionable mode the priesthood had of obtaining riches, it is but justice to observe that their revenues and gains were all expended either in alms or hospitality, or in building and adorning their magnificent churches and abbeys; and although learning was then at a low ebb, it being generally styled the dark or illiterate age, yet what learning there was then was mostly to be found in the cloister of the monks, where some attained to great reputation for their proficiency in knowledge.

The house founded by Milburga was destroyed by the Danes, but was restored by Leofric Earl of Chester, at the request of his wife, the lady Godiva.  Before the Norman conquest it had again fallen into decay, and in the 14th of William the Conqueror was rebuilt and endowed by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel, Chichester, and Shrewsbury, a person of vast possessions in these parts, who placed therein a prior and convent of monks of the Cluniac order, and made it a cell to the house of De Charitate, in France; this house suffered the same fate with other alien priories till it was naturalized in the 16th year of Richard II.  It was dedicated to St. Milburga, and according to Dugdale, in the 26th of Henry VIII. had revenues to the yearly value of £431. 1s. 2d.

In the Monastican is the patent of King Edward III. reciting and confirming the charter of Isabel de Say, lady of Clun, whereby she granted to these monks the church of St. George, at Clun, with seven chapels depending on it, namely, the chapel of St. Thomas, in Clun, of St. Mary’s, at Waterdune, of St. Swithin, at Clumbierie, St. Mary, at Cluntune, St. Mary, at Appitune, with those of Eggedune, and Subbledune.  There is likewise an inquisition taken the 29th of Edward I. determining the right of presentation to the cell of Ferne to be in the monks of Wenlock.  In “Stevens’ Supplement,” seven deeds are translated into English from the Latin originals in the hands of Francis Canning, Esq., of Foxcote, in the county of Warwick, viz., the deed of Geoffrey de Say, for the manor of Dointon; a confirmation of that deed by Henry II.; another deed by the same king, granting that these monks might always enjoy the said manor, unless he and his heirs gave them eleven pounds per annum in churches and other things in lieu of it; the charter of Henry III. to them for the same manor; the deeds of William Mitleton and Adam Fitzwilliam about a yard of land in Mitleton; a composition between Simon, Dean of Brug, and the prior and convent of Wenlock, about the chapel at Duddington.  The prior of Wenlock, John Cressage, on surrendering the monastery to King Henry VIII. had a pension of £80 per annum assigned him, together with the manor house of Madeley; twelve monks had also pensions assigned to them amounting in the aggregate to £100 per annum.  Besides the churches already mentioned, the following advowsons belonged to the monastery at the time it was surrendered, viz., Wenlock Magna, Wenlock Parva, Clun, Burton, Shipton, and Eaton.  It had also at an earlier period Sutton, near Shrewsbury, Stoke St. Milborough, and Church Preen.  During the wars between Henry III. and his barons he was often called into the Marches of Wales, and several documents were signed at Wenlock by the king, which would lead to the supposition that he was frequently lodged and entertained by the Prior.  The monastery is situated near the east end of the churchyard, and the entrance from the town was through a massive gateway; very considerable remains of this magnificent and spacious fabric are still to be seen, and fragments are scattered to a great distance from the site.  The great centre tower has long since disappeared, but the four massive piers the bases of which are still in existence, show that it must have been built on a scale of no ordinary splendour, and the size must have been equal to many of our cathedrals.  The Chapter House is probably a part of the building erected by Roger de Montgomery, and is a singularly beautiful example of interesting Norman arches, supported on columns of which the capitals are all of different designs.  It was entered from the cloisters by three richly ornamented circular porches.  Of the Priory church only the south transept and a part of the south aisle of the nave remain, they present an elegant example of the early English style of architecture, but no record has been discovered of the date of their erection.  The fragments of the south side of the nave consist of pointed arches which have never been open, but within them there are inserted lower arches of a similar form rising from octagonal pillars.  Over the higher arches are the remains of a beautiful gallery which ran along the whole of the second story of the church, and consisted of a series of pointed arches, divided by slender clustered pillars; above these are single lancet windows forming a clerestory; between every arch runs a slender clustered pilaster, and where they break off at the top are remains of the ramifications of a groined ceiling.  The room adjoining the dormitory was probably occupied by those monks whose task it was to perform the midnight office of the choir.  From the bases of the columns which are all that remain of the choir it appears to have been in the same style of architecture as the Chapter house.  The Lady Chapel was east of the choir and may still be traced by its foundations.  The length of this stately structure from east to west was 401 feet, the nave being 156 feet, space under the middle tower 39 feet, choir 156 feet, Lady Chapel 48 by 40, and the breadth of the nave and aisles 66 feet.

Adjoining the south side of the nave was the great cloister, which was encompassed by the refectory, dormitory and chapter house.  Two arched doors which open in the cloisters still remain, but not a fragment of the cloister itself.  The chapter house is an oblong square, 66 feet by 31 feet.  It communicates by a small door with the house of the Prior, the exterior of which, and some of the apartments, retain their original character.  The whole of the eastern side of the building has a singular cloister or ambulatory, consisting of upper and lower story, each of which is formed by a continued line of arches, that have originally been glazed.  Opening into the upper gallery are two apartments, one of which is supposed to have been the dining hall, which was lighted by a line of windows somewhat resembling those of the ambulatory, but having in the angles curious little pedestals, of the height of a table.  In some parts of these apartments are traces of fresco painting.  A narrow stone staircase in one corner communicates with the kitchen underneath.  In another part is the private chapel, now divided into several rooms, in one of which is the stone altar, and a beautifully carved dish was dug up some years ago.  The architecture of the Prior’s house would lead to the conclusion that it had not been built long at the time of the dissolution of the priory.  Fragments of this opulent monastery are scattered to a great distance, and the precinct included full thirty acres.  About a century ago a considerable part of the ruins was taken down by an agent of the manor to rebuild some houses which he had on lease, but Sir W. Wynne put a stop to any further demolition.

The site of this monastery and manor was granted soon after the dissolution to Augustine de Augustine, and was sold in 1545 to Thomas Lawley, Esq., who made it his residence, and it continued in the Lawley family till it was sold by Robert Bertie (who was the son of Ursula, the great granddaughter of the said Thomas Lawley,) to the family of Gage.  Viscount Gage sold it about the year 1632 to Sir John Wynne, of Wynnstay, in whose family it continues in the person of Sir W. W. Wynne, whose father was happily called (by George IV., when Regent) “the real prince of Wales.”

The most memorable prior was one Joybert, a Norman, who held the monasteries of Coventry, Daventry, Wenlock and Bermondsey, all at the same time.  The annals of Worcester state that a confederacy was entered into in the year 1253, between that house and this, for the mutual support of both; and the same annals take notice of one William, a monk of Wenlock, who put himself at the head of a gang of robbers, but was afterwards taken and executed.  John Cressage, who surrendered this monastery January 26th, 1539, had a pension assigned him of £80 per annum.

Charities.—The Rev. Francis Southern by his will, proved on the 19th December, 1778, left to the minister and churchwardens of Great Wenlock, and their successors, the sum of £300, to be disposed of as follows.  The interest of £200 to be paid to a school-master for teaching ten poor boys to read and write, to be continued till they can read the Bible and write a plain legible hand, and repeat the catechism with Lewis’s expositions readily and distinctly, and understand the first five rules of arithmetic.  The interest of £65 to be laid out in bread, to be given every Lord’s day to six poor widows, or old men, who should attend divine service.  The interest of £25 to buy Bibles, Testaments and Expositions, to be distributed on New Year’s day among the poor schoolboys.  And lastly, the interest of the remaining £10 he gave to the minister for preaching an annual sermon on New Year’s day.  This legacy of £300 was invested in the purchase of £640. 2s. 3d. three per cent consols, the dividends of which amount to £19. 4s. per annum, and are disbursed in the following manner. £14. 5s. 10d. paid to a schoolmaster; £1. 5s. expended in books; 12s. 6d. to the minister for a sermon; and £3. 0s. 8d. is distributed in bread.  There have been always ten free boys in the school, and generally twelve.  A charge is made to each of 2s. 6d. a year for fire money, which is the only expense incurred by them.

The following benefactions to the poor of this parish are noticed on a table in the church, the donors of which directed the interest of the several sums affixed to their names to be distributed in bread:—Ralph Pendlebury and Dorothy his wife, £20; William Churchman, £5; Thomas Lokier, £4; Henry Sprott, £5; Edmund King, £5; Joan Patten, £8; William Parsons, £111; Richard Cleveley, £10; John Clark, £5; Richard Littlehales, £10; Edmund Hancocks, £10; Joseph Read, £10; Mrs. Jane Litllehales, £5; and Thomas Patten, £10.  Of these specific benefactions, the total amount of which is £213, no further trace remains in any parish book or document; but there is a sum of £240. 19s. 4d. stock, in the three per cent. consols, now standing in the name of trustees, supposed to have resulted from a part of these benefactions.  The money with which a part of this stock was purchased was £150, which had formerly been placed on the security of the Wenlock turnpike trust.  With the dividends of this stock, amounting to £7. 4s. per annum, 420 fourpenny loaves are annually distributed to the poor.

John Murrall, dyer, by will, dated in 1796, bequeathed to such poor people as frequent divine service in the parish church of Much Wenlock, the yearly sum of £7. 4s. to be distributed in bread; twelve twopenny loaves on every Sunday in the year, and ten twelvepenny loaves on each of the following days, namely, St. Thomas’s day, Old Christmas day, Good Friday, and Easter day.  Mr. Murrall died in 1769, and his will having been contested, his executors were not able to establish any fund for securing the payment of this charity till 1781, when a sum of £250 stock in the three per cent. consols was purchased for that purpose.  The dividends, amounting to £7. 10s. a year, are now received by Dr. Rowley and Geo. Pritchard, Esq., and a distribution of bread takes place on St. Thomas’s day and Good Friday.

John Skett, by will, dated 13th March, 1727, left 10s. per annum to be given to the poor of this parish in bread, chargeable on a certain house in Shineton street, the property of Mr. France.

John Littlehales, by will, 1760, devised to Richard Woof a messuage in Shineton street, in Much Wenlock, in trust, that he and his heirs should pay yearly out of the profits thereof, to the minister and churchwardens, the sum of 30s., on the 25th of December, to be given in wheaten bread, as follows:—Twelve twopenny loaves to be placed near a tombstone erected by him, before the service begins, on the first Sunday of every month, and to be given when the communion is ended by his heirs, the vicar and churchwardens, to twelve ancient people of the parish, regard being had to those who frequent the church service; and so to continue the first Sunday of each calendar month, Christmas day, Good Friday, and Easter day, yearly.

Mrs. Mary Smyth, by will, dated 23rd November, 1773, gave the interest of ten guineas to be distributed yearly in sixpenny loaves on the feast of St. Thomas, amongst poor widows and housekeepers of the parish of Wenlock.

Almshouses.—Mrs. Ann Sprott bequeathed £10, the interest to be applied in the repairs of the almshouses.  In the parliamentary reports of 1786 it is stated that a person of the name of Price left, for clothing the poor in the almshouse, land then vested in Harry Yate, and producing £4 a-year.  With respect of the first mentioned sum of £10, it is conjectured that it formed part of a sum of £150 poor’s stock, previously noticed, as an entry found in the churchwardens’ book, in 1773, states that 10s. was then received, to be laid out in the repairs of the almshouse, being part of the money due to the poor of the parish from the turnpike security; but nothing has been paid for this purpose from the produce of the poors’ stock for many years.  With respect to Price’s benefaction, it appears that clothing was formerly provided for the poor in the almshouse by Harry Yate, formerly a draper at Ludlow, in respect of a small estate in Herefordshire, but this was discontinued upwards of seventy years ago by the above mentioned Harry Yate, on the ground that the gift was void under the statute of George II., c. 36.

At the time the Charity Commissioners published their report, William Moseley, Esq., the representative of the Sprott family, appointed the almspeople, and stated that when he succeeded to the estate he found the almshouses consisting of four tenements, in miserable condition, and was requested to repair them; and that he rebuilt three brick tenements, with tiled roofs, adjoining another tenement in a different part of the town, with the approbation of the inhabitants.  This he did chiefly from charitable considerations; but he was unable to give any information respecting the almshouses from any documents in his possession.  He always understood that they were for the benefit of decayed widows of the parish of Wenlock, to be nominated by or with the approbation of the representative of the Sprott family.  After referring to the legacy as stated to have been left by Mrs. Ann Sprott, he stated he should decline paying anything in future for the repairs of the almshouses, unless the interest of that money was brought in aid; but that if the churchwardens were willing to advance any money for this purpose he should always be ready to join them.

Mrs. Ann Minshull left £20, the interest to be applied in teaching poor children to read.  Nothing has been paid in respect of this legacy for upwards of fifty years.  A legacy of £10, left by the Rev. George Carver, and £5 left by the Rev. Mr. Baker, noticed on a tablet in the church, have long been lost.

Post Office.—At Mr. Thomas Lawley’s, Wilmore street.  Letters arrive at 7-30 A.M. and are despatched at 5 P.M.

Those Marked 1 reside in Barrow street; 2 The Bank; 3 Bull Ring; 4 High street; 5 Shienton street; 6 Spittal street; and 7 Wilmore street

1 Adney Miss Elizabeth

5 Adney George, tanner

5 Ainsworth Thomas, farmer

4 Amphlett Joseph, currier

6 Aston Jeremiah, victualler, Bull’s Head

2 Aston Jonathan, beerseller

1 Barnett Joseph, butcher

1 Beavan Thos., vict., Black Lion

7 Belcher Charles, grocer

6 Binnell Henry H., tailor and woollen draper

Blakeway Roger C., Esq., solicitor

Boughton Chas., Esq., The Abbey

6 Bowyer Mrs. Fanny

6 Boycott Rd., confectioner

7 Brookes Wm. P., surgeon

Canlin William, maltster, Burton road

7 Castle Wm., provis. dealer

1 Clayton William, boot & shoemaker

1 Christopher James, joiner

4 Coley James, brazier and tin plate worker

1 Cooper & Purton, bankers, (draw on Williams & Co., London), open on Monday and Thursday

2 Cooper Jermh., limeburner

4 Cooper John, vict., The Fox

4 Cooper Lettice, milliner

7 Cooper Thomas & Samuel, graziers

1 Crowther George, boarding school, and registrar for Wenlock district

2 Crowther Edward, farmer

Davies Mrs. Eliz., Burton rd

4 Devey John, shoemaker

3 Divers James, schoolmastr.

4 Edwards Thos., wheelwrt.

2 Felteaus John, vict., Robin Hood

6 Fox William, joiner

4 Franks Richard, builder

1 Griffiths William, agent to Salop fire office and legal and commercial fire and life offices

1 Hartland Rt., vict., Raven

6 Haynes Thos., blacksmith

3 Heighway Mary, librarian

4 Hopton Henry, grocer

Hollis Mary, schoolmistress

1 Horton Ann, vict., The Plough

6 Horton Robert, chemist & druggist

Hinton Edward, land agent to Sir W. W. Wynne

1 Hughes Edwd., shoemaker

5 James James, farrier

5 James John, farrier

4 James Wm. A., surgeon

Jeffreys William, farmer and miller, The Downes

1 Jeffreys Elizabeth, draper

1 Jenks Sarah, vict., Royal Oak

1 Johnson Thomas, tailor

1 Johnson John, tailor

6 Jones Ann, milliner

1 Jones John, skinner

1 Jones Jno., vict., Britannia

6 Jones Sarah, butcher

6 Jones William, skinner

4 Keysell Edwin, maltster, seedsman, and corn dealer

7 Lawley Thomas, stationer and printer

6 Mansell Thos., ironmongr.

4 Martin Mary, vict., The Harp

3 Mason Edwd., vict., Punch Bowl

4 Mason Wm., shoemaker

4 Massey Thomas, boot and shoemaker

6 Miles Thomas, maltster

Minton Rev. Samuel, St. Mary’s lane

4 Minshall Josiah, saddler

7 Moreton George, vict., The Pheasant

6 Moreton George, vict., Talbot

6 Moreton Francis, hat manufacturer

5 Newell William, farmer & maltster

1 Nicholson Martha, tea dealer

5 Palmer Thomas, nailmkr.

1 Parton Benjamin, vict., The Swan

1 Patten Mr. Richard

1 Pearce Chas., wheelwright

1 Phillips Mr. Thomas

1 Phillips Henry & Samuel, curriers

4 Phillips Andrew, solicitor

5 Power Elizabeth, schoolmistress

1 Poyner Wm., confectioner

4 Rhoden Joseph, vict., Wynnstay Arms, hotel and posting house

6 Rowe John, vict., Crown

1 Share Thomas, painter, plumber and glazier

Shepherd George, farmer & limeburner, Westwood Cottage

6 Smith William, grocer & druggist

1 Summers Thomas, draper

1 Thomas Henry, beerseller

5 Silley William, tailor

7 Trevor Edward, provision dealer and baker

6 Trevor Henry, grocer, chandler, & stamp office

5 Vaughan Miss Sarah

4 Wayne Rev. Wm. H., vicar

Wayne William H., Esq., The Grange

6 Webb Feild, saddler

4 Wheeler John, watchmkr.

4 Wheeler George, vict., The Falcon

6 Williams Thomas, grocer

4 Wilkinson Francis, shopkr

4 Woofe William, saddler

4 Yardley Edwin, cooper

6 Yates Mary, vict., The George

6 Yates Thomas, hairdresser

2 Yates Wm., blacksmith

MUCH WENLOCK TOWNSHIPS.

Atterley is a small township in the parish of Much Wenlock, two miles S.E. from the parish church, and at the census of 1841 contained eight houses and 52 inhabitants.  This township and that of Walton conjointly contain 903a. 3r. 11p. of land, the principal owner of which is Sir John Acton.  Watton is situate about a mile S.E. from Much Wenlock, and in 1841 had four houses and a population of 23 souls.  Gross estimated rental, £1,115. 15s. 4d.  Rateable value, £1,016. 18s.  The tithes of both townships are commuted for £54. 13s.

The principal residents in Atterley and Walton are Thomas Bayer, farmer, Atterley; Ann Howells, farmer, Walton; John Howells, farmer, Walton; Frank Pardoe, farmer, Atterley.

Burton, or Borton, and Calloughton are two townships in the parish of Much Wenlock, containing together 3,163a. 2r. 39p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £3,501. 7s. 1d.  Rateable value, £3,160. 8s.  Burton is situated two and a half miles S.W. from Much Wenlock, and at the census in 1841 is returned as having 33 houses and 181 inhabitants; Calloughton at the same period had 23 houses and 149 inhabitants.  Lord Wenlock, the principal landowner, occasionally resides at Burton Cottage—an elegant and ornamental structure of only one story in height, the interior of which is very beautifully furnished.  The farm houses have most of them been rebuilt by the late proprietor, Sir Francis Lawley, Bart.  They are good residences, with commodious and convenient out premises.  The church is a small but interesting structure in the gothic style of architecture, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisle, the latter added at the expense of Lady Lawley; it has a tower containing four bells.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the gift of the vicar of Much Wenlock, and enjoyed by the Rev. Samuel Minton.  The income of the living is derived from a farm in Radnorshire of the annual value of £50, and a sum of £200 given by Sir Robert Lawley to augment the living.  The village of Calloughton is situated about a mile and a half south from Much Wenlock, and is chiefly composed of cottage residences.  The farms are scattered and mostly modern erections; there is also a corn mill which can either be worked by steam or water power, in the occupancy of Mr. W. B. Childs.  The tithes of Burton and Calloughton are commuted for £74. 18s.

Directory.—Those marked 1 are at Burton, and 2 are at Calloughton.  2 Benjamin Ainsworth, farmer, Beggarley Brook; 2 Samuel Ainsworth, farmer, Spoonbill; 1 Thomas Blunt, agent to John Onions, Esq.; 1 John Brooks, farmer; 2 William Baldwin Childs, corn miller; Francis Dickinson, farmer; 1 Joel Evason, shopkeeper; 2 Thomas Instone, farmer; 1 Thomas Instone, farmer; 1 Edward Kinsey, gentleman; 1 Thomas Lewis, blacksmith; John Massie, farmer, Bradeley; 2 Thomas Trow, farmer, Spoonhill; 1 John Woof, painter and vict., Talbot.

Farley Wyke and Bradley, a township in the parish of Much Wenlock, situated three miles N.E. from the parish church, comprises 960a. 0r. 8p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £1,948. 5s. 3d.  Rateable value, £1,787. 8s.  The principal landowners are Sir W. W. Wynn, Abraham Darby, Esq., and Lord Forester.  At the census in 1841 this township had 34 houses and 166 inhabitants.  Farley is situated in a romantic dale, watered by a small brook.  In the dingle there is a corn mill in the occupation of Mr. Thomas Harper and Son, which is worked both by steam and water power.  The tithes are commuted for £18. 19s. 5d.

The principal residents in this township are Ann Cadwallader, beerhouse keeper; Thomas Chidley, wheelwright and beerhouse keeper; Thomas Harper, corn miller; Caleb Harper, corn miller; Edward Hill, wheelwright; William W. Hull, Esq., Tickwood; John Perry, farmer, Wyke; Joseph Lloyd, farmer and stone dealer.

Harley-Wigwig and Homer, a small township in the parish of Much Wenlock, containing 552a. 1r. 20p. of land, at the census of 1841 had 47 scattered houses and a population of 218 souls.  Gross estimated rental, £861. 11s. 6d.; rateable value, £765. 6s.  The principle landowners are the Duke of Cleveland, Lord Forester, Samuel Meire, Esq., Sir George Harnage, and the Rev. Samuel Minton.  The land is chiefly farmed by the owners except at Harley.  The residents in this township are chiefly cottagers, and the houses are for the most part scattered.  The tithes are commuted for £48. 15s.

Presthope is a township with a few scattered houses in the parish of Much Wenlock, situated on the Wenlock Edge, upwards of three miles from the parish church; at the census of 1841 there were fourteen houses and 71 inhabitants in the township, which comprises 742a. 2r. 8p. of land, the principal owners of which are Lord Bradford, and M. G. Benson, Esq.  Gross estimated rental, £807. 6s. 8d.; rateable value, £727. 6s.  Wenlock Edge is a precipitous ridge running about eleven miles in a south-westerly direction.  King Henry I. after the capture of Bridgnorth commanded his army to pass through Hunel Hege and lay siege to Shrewsbury.  “Hunel hedge is the English name for a passage through a wood; in Latin it may be called malus callis or vicus; for it was a hollow way of a mile in length, full of great sharp stones, and so narrow as scarcely to admit two horsemen abreast.  It was overshadowed on each side by a dark wood wherein were stationed archers in ambuscade who greatly annoyed the army with arrows and other missile weapons; but as the king had more than 60,000 men in his army he detached large parties to cut down the wood and make a wide road which should endure for the use of posterity.”  From this period we may probably date the existence of a road over this steep ridge which has since been rendered more commodious.  Many of the passes however down this rugged steep retain much of their wild and romantic character.  The tithes are commuted for £80. 6s.

The chief residents at Presthope are Richard Child Milner, farmer; Rev. Robert H. G. More, and John Shirley, farmer.

PRIORS DITTON,
or Ditton Priors is a parish and village pleasantly situated on the northern verge of the Brown Clee Hill, eight miles south-west from Bridgnorth.  The parish contains the townships of Priors Ditton, Ashfield and Ruthall, and Middleton Priors, and has 5,284 acres of land, mostly of an inferior quality, the rateable value of which is £3,451. 4s. 8d.  At the census of 1801 the parish had a population of 620 souls; 1831, 620; and in 1841 there were 137 houses and 660 inhabitants.  The township of Priors Ditton contains 2,154a. 0r. 34p. of land, and in 1841 had 81 houses and 359 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,597. 1s. 8d.  The principal landowners in this township are Philip Henry Howard, Esq., William Millward, Esq., and Mrs. Ann Howells; the former is lord of the manor, and impropriator.  The Church dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is an ancient structure consisting of nave, chancel, and south aisle, with a short tower upon which was erected a spire in the year 1831, at a cost of £231; the roof is of groined timber finely wrought, which gives the interior a very beautiful appearance.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £5. 15s. 8d., now returned at £147, in the patronage of Philip Henry Howard, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. Edward Ridsdale.  This church was formerly an appendage to the abbey of Wenlock.  In the reign of Henry VIII., Humphrey Pakington, citizen and mercer of London, purchased of the king the farm of the manor of Dutton, alias Dytton, in Shropshire, with the rectory there, late the property of the Priory of Wenlock, The Methodists have small chapel built in 1816.

Charities.—Mrs. Catherine Barker, by her will dated the 24th of January, 1699, devised to trustees certain freehold estates in Priors Ditton, on trust, (after certain other purposes specified by her) that they should out of the residue assure to the use of the poor of the said parish the yearly sum of £5, to continue for ever, and to be paid to the parson and churchwardens at the feast of Christmas and St. John the Baptist in equal portions.  This annuity is paid by Francis Canning, Esq., of Foxcote, in the county of Warwick, who is the proprietor of the premises charged.  The amount is distributed in small sums among the poor.  Mrs. Dorothy Holland, by her will dated November 15th, 1723, bequeathed to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish, the sum of £20 in trust, to be invested in lands, and the rents of such lands she directed to be laid out in bread and distributed by the minister and churchwardens among twelve poor people of the parish, one half on Easter-day and the other half on Christmas-day.  We do not find any account of the disposal of the money prior to the 2nd June, 1783, when it appears to have been placed in the hands of Francis Canning, Esq., at five per cent interest, upon the security of his bond.  The interest is distributed by the churchwardens in the same manner as Barker’s charity, a course of distribution which is somewhat at variance with the directions of the donor.

Ashfield and Ruthall is a small township in the parish of Priors Ditton, on the north-west side of the parish, and within the bounds of the Munslow hundred, the rest of the parish being in the Wenlock Franchise.  The township contains 697a. 3r. of land, and at the census of 1841 had nine scattered houses and fifty-five inhabitants.  Rateable value, £373. 6s.  Lady Boyne is the proprietor of the land at Ashfield.  The landowners in Ruthall are Thomas Roberts, Esq., Richard Onslow, Esq., and John Adney, Esq.; the former is lord of the manor.  The lord of the manor claims a heriot (usually the best beast) on the death of every owner in his lordship.

Middleton Priors is a township in the parish of Priors Ditton which comprises 2,450a. 0r. 34p. of land, mostly an inferior soil.  The land as chiefly the property of Philip Henry Howard, Esq., who is also lord of the manor.  At the census in 1841 there were 47 houses and 109 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,479. 19s. 6d.  Middleton Hall is a spacious modern house which stands on a considerable elevation and is a conspicuous object many miles around.  It was formerly the residence of the Howard family, when the top story of the hall was converted into a private oratory; it is adorned with some fine paintings, and over the altar is a beautifully executed representation of the crucifixion; adjoining is a room for robing and unrobing the priests, and another room is used as the confessional.  A commodious and airy school room has been built by the lord of the manor, who also pays for the gratuitous education of the children; about sixty attend.  A dwelling house for the teacher has also been built.

Priors Ditton, Ashfield and Ruthall, and Middleton Priors Directories.

Adney John, farmer, Ruthall

Amies John, wheelwright, Priors Ditton

Andrew William, vict., Plough, Priors Ditton

Barnbrooke, Timothy, farmer, Middleton

Bradley Thomas, farmer, Priors Ditton

Chidley Edward, farmer, Priors Ditton

Cubby William, schoolmaster, Middleton

Davis Edward, surgeon, Priors Ditton

Darrell Thomas, farmer, Middleton

Downes John, farmer, Manor house, Ruthall

Easthope Thomas, farmer, Middleton

Evans John, farmer, Priors Ditton

Evans William, wheelwright, Priors Ditton

Goode Thomas, farmer, Priors Ditton

Green Henry, farmer, Priors Ditton

Green Mary, farmer & corn miller, Middleton

Hicks William, blacksmith, Priors Ditton

Jones George, farmer, Priors Ditton

Jones Thomas, farmer, Middleton

Millward William, farmer, Priors Ditton

Power Michael, maltster, miller, and steward to P. H. Howard, Esq., Middleton

Prentice Mrs. Martha, Priors Ditton

Reynolds Francis, farmer, Priors Ditton

Reynolds Richard, farmer, Middleton

Reynolds Richard, farmer, Priors Ditton

Ridsdale Rev. Edward, vicar, Priors Ditton

Smallman Richard, blacksmith, Priors Ditton

Southern Henry, vict., Cannings Arms, Priors Ditton

Thomas Edward, farmer, Middleton

Thomas John, cattle dealer, Priors Ditton

Wainwright Mary, farmer, Ashfield

WILLEY
is a small parish comprising 1353a. 2r. 6p. of land, situated in a pleasant part of the county, four miles east from Much Wenlock, and four and a half miles north-west from Bridgnorth.  At the census in 1801 there were 163 inhabitants; 1831, 159; and in 1851, 144; of whom 75 were males, and 69 females.  Inhabited houses, 30.  Rateable value, £1,888. 8s. 5d.  Lord Forester is the principal landowner, and lord of the manor.  Henry Cartwright, Esq., is also a proprietor.  Willey Park, the magnificent seat of Lord Forester, is a spacious and elegant mansion of freestone, delightfully situated in an extensive and richly wooded park.  The principal front, with the offices, extends upwards of three hundred feet, and is approached by a portico of the Corinthian order, greatly admired for superb workmanship and architectural effect.  The interior of the mansion is splendidly furnished, and contains many fine paintings, many of which are the exquisite productions of some of the most celebrated masters.  The library is extensive, and contains a valuable and choice collection of standard works.  The gardens and pleasure grounds are laid out with great taste, and the park is beautifully adorned with sylvan beauty, a fine lake adding much to the interest of the scene.  The family of Weld had anciently a seat at Willey.  “William Weld was sheriff of London in 1352: his descendant, Sir John Weld, purchased Willey from Sir Thomas Lacon, of Kinlet, between 1612 and 1623.  His descendant in the fourth degree, Elizabeth Weld, married Brooke Forester, of Dothill Park, near Wellington; whose son George, dying unmarried, bequeathed Willey and his other great estates, with an injunction to adopt the name of Weld, to his cousin, Cecil Weld Forester, created Lord Forester, of Willey Park, in 1821.”  Mr. Moule, author of a work on Heraldry, says, “Lord Forester is lineally descended from John Forester, Esq., of Watling street, who held a singularly curious grant from King Henry VIII. to wear his hat in the royal presence; which identical document is preserved in the family.”

The Church is a small venerable fabric, consisting of nave and chancel, with a short tower, which contains three bells.  There are several memorials to the various members of the ancient family of Weld.  The living is a rectory, with the perpetual curacy of Barrow annexed, valued in the king’s book at £5. 6s. 3d., now returned at £329, in the patronage of Lord Forester: incumbent, the Hon. and Rev. George O. Bridgeman.  The tithes of Willey have been commuted for £233. 18s.

Charities.—Robert Evans, of the Dean, bequeathed 10s. per annum to be expended in bread for the poor.  The payment of this gift commenced in 1709, and the legacy is now considered to be secured by a bond in the possession of the parish, given by the late Mr. John Perry, of Willey, whose executors pay the money to the parish officers.

The Rev. Francis Wheeler, rector of Willey, bequeathed 10s. yearly, to be paid at Christmas by the ministers of the two churches in Bridgnorth; 5s. each to be given to the poor of Willey in money or bread.  This gift is distributed at Christmas, together with the sacrament money and Evan’s gift.

The following benefactions, also given to the poor of Willey, are involved in much obscurity.  Elizabeth Weld in 1688 gave £10.  Dorothy Weld in 1674 gave £10, the interest to be distributed on St. Thomas’s day.  Mrs. Mary Saltalston £20, to be added to the poor’s stock, and the interest of £10 to be distributed to the poor yearly.  Mary Ogden gave 40s. to the poor in 1680.  Judith Corbett £5 in 1691.  Mary Evans £5 in 1729.  Mrs. Catherine Strange £20.  From the parish books it appears that £10 of Mrs. Saltalston’s benefaction, and £10 of Mrs. Weld’s, were applied in 1712 towards building a new tower to the church.  It further appears that at a vestry meeting held 7th October, 1777, it was agreed that £40, part of a stock of £60, left for the benefit of the poor of Willey, and then in the hands of Mr. Thomas Perry, of the Dean, should be laid out in the necessary repairs of the church, and that the parish should pay reasonable interest for the same, to be distributed one half on St. Thomas’s day, and the other half on Good Friday.  Another agreement, not entered in the parish books, dated 15th August, 1802, and signed by Morgan Jones, minister, and two respectable farmers of the parish, stating that the interest of the £40 mentioned in the former agreement, which had never been paid, then amounted to £50, and agreeing to consolidate the principal and interest, making together £90, and to pay interest on the whole.  From the entries in the parish books above stated, it clearly appears that £60 of these benefactions were applied to the repairs of the church, but what became of the rest we have in vain endeavoured to discover.  No interest appears to have been paid by the parish, but there has been for many years an annual distribution of corn made by the farmers to the poor on St. Thomas’s day, to the value of £5 and upwards.

The principal residents in Willey are the Right Hon. Lord Forester, Willey Park; the Hon. and Rev. George O. Bridgeman; Henry Cartwright, Esq., The Dean; George Goodfellow, bailiff to George Pritchard, Esq.; Edmund Raby, farmer; and John Stobbs, farmer.

LUDLOW
is a borough and market town, on the southern border of the county, 143 miles N.W. by W. from London, and twenty-five south from Shrewsbury, situated on an eminence, at the junction of the Corve with the Teme, and surrounded by a country varied with delightful prospects in every direction.  This ancient and populous town is upwards of a mile in length and half a mile in breadth, having a number of regular and wide well paved streets, lying in diverging and inclined directions from the highest and most central part of the town; a circumstance which greatly promotes its cleanliness and salubrity.  The houses in general are neat, well built, and better arranged than those of most inland towns of the same antiquity.  The town is skirted by the rivers Corve and Teme, and abundantly supplied with water by pipes from springs in the vicinity to the public pumps, as well as from the river Corve by machinery and pipes to the different houses.  The glove trade formerly employed upwards of one thousand hands here, but owing, it is thought, to the introduction of French gloves, and the establishment of marts for articles of a cheaper fabrication in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, the trade declined some years ago, and has now become almost extinct.  Malt is made to a considerable extent, and there is a paper mill, and an establishment for the manufacture of blankets and a coarse kind of woollen cloth chiefly used for horse collars.  The town has, however, been kept in a flourishing state by the numerous respectable residents which the extreme beauty of its situation has attracted to it.  There is a market here on a Monday for grain, provisions, and poultry, which is usually well attended.  Markets are also held on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, for provisions.  Fairs for horned cattle, horses, pigs, and general merchandise, are held on the Monday before February 13th, Tuesday before Easter, May 1st (for hiring servants), Wednesday in Whitsun-week, August 21st, September 28th, and the first Mondays in November and December.  Population in 1801, 3,897; 1831, 5,253.  In 1841 the parish of St. Lawrence contained 1,086 houses and 5,064 inhabitants; of whom 3,041 were males and 3,157 females.  Rateable value of the borough, £12,812. 4s. 9d.  An act of parliament was obtained in 1794 for lighting and paving the town.  The annual races are held in July, and continue for two days.

Ludlow was no doubt a town of note in the time of the Britons from the British name it bears (Dinan), though we have no historical record left of it.  How it came to be called Dinan, a word of no affinity with Ludlow, we have not found.  After the conquest, a noble knight assumed the name of Dinan in honour of the place.  It may be observed that Dinas and Dinan are words of frequent occurrence in the account of British antiquities; and upon a careful investigation, it will generally appear that places so denominated have been formerly occupied by some chief or prince of the country.  Ludlow seems to have been incorporated from time immemorial.  The earliest charter extant is one of confirmation from Richard Duke of York, father of Edward IV.  This charter, styling the corporation as “the bailiff’s, burgesses, and commonality, of the town and borough of Ludlow,” and conferring important privileges, has ever since, till the date of the recent municipal act, been deemed, in effect, the governing charter of the borough, though numerous charters were hereafter granted by succeeding sovereigns.  The following corporate officers were appointed by charter, viz.:—Two bailiffs, two capital masters and justices, a recorder, twelve aldermen, twenty five common-council, a town clerk, coroner, three serjeants-at-mace, four beadles, and a town crier.  No small display of civic pomp and splendour has been here exhibited in the annual election of the corporate officers.  The high bailiff was appointed by charter to be elected by the aldermen, and the low bailiff from among the common councilmen; indeed the system of self-election was strictly established, and so were its usual consequences.  The bailiffs, and recorder, or steward and capital masters, were all appointed to act as justices of the peace, ex-officio, within the liberties.  General sessions of the peace were appointed by Charles I. to be held quarterly, in the same week as the county sessions.  Capital convictions, it is said, with executions on the Gallows-hill, anciently took place.  Prisoners on higher offences were latterly, however, sent to Shrewsbury gaol for trial at the assizes.  The privilege of burgess-ship was inherited by the sons of burgesses; and those who marry their daughters were entitled also to be admitted into this body; for which purpose they were required to petition, according to a prescribed form given in a by-law made in the year 1663.  A court of record was instituted by Edward IV. for the trial of debts of 1s. and upwards, and the trial of issues in all personal actions within the municipality.  Ludlow first returned members to parliament in the 12th of Edward IV.  The boundaries of the borough were little more than co-extensive with those of the old municipal borough; but they have been much extended.  Previous to the passing of the Reform Act the borough returned two members, as it still does, and is one of the polling places for the southern division of the county.

Under the Municipal Reform Act, a commission of the peace has been granted anew, and the court of quarter sessions re-appointed.  Petty sessions are held weekly, and a court leet annually for swearing in constables.  The borough is now governed by four aldermen and twelve councillors, under the usual corporate style.  The persons qualified to vote for the town council, after the passing of the act, amounted to 307 in the parish of St. Lawrence, and seven in the township of Ludford, of which latter district the boundary commissioners proposed the exclusion, it being practically beyond the corporate limits.  In other respects, the boundaries laid down in their report are extended on the west and east; particularly the latter, which stretches into the parishes of Stanton Lacy, on building ground as far as the parliamentary borough.  The following is a list of the members of parliament, borough magistrates, and corporate officers for the year 1851:—

Members of Parliament: Colonel Salwey and Henry B. Clive, Esq.

Magistrates: Francis Massey, Esq.; Humphrey Smith, Esq.; John Thomas, Esq.; Robert Thomas, Esq.; and Benjamin Urwick, Esq.

Mayor: Richard Marston, Esquire.  Aldermen: Francis Massey; Benjamin Urwick; Samuel Valentine, and Henry Whittall.  Councillors: Francis Boulton, Joshua Cooper, George Griffiths, Ambrose Grounds, James Hand, Charles Harper, James Jones, Horatio Russell, Edward B. Smith, Richard Valentine, Philip Wayn.  Town Clerk and Coroner: John Williams, jun.  Treasurer: Thomas Childe.  Assessors: George Cocking and Richard Jones.  Auditors: Thomas Jones and Samuel Oliver.  The corporate property chiefly consists of that anciently belonging to Palmer’s Guild, which in 1833 produced a yearly income of £2,120. 8s. 8½d.  In 1840 it was reduced to £968. 13s.  This great reduction was caused by the corporation having to pay several expensive law suits.

It is well known that the aboriginal inhabitants of this island made a last and determined stand against their invading enemies in that district which had its boundary in what in later times was called the Marches of Wales, in which Ludlow seems to have been anciently included.  This tract, however, might be extended from time to time, one way or the other, as either party occasionally gained ground; it is certainly known that Ludlow was early occupied as a military station to withstand the incursions of the Britons, who manfully disputed every inch of ground as they slowly retreated before their powerful enemies.  The Romans are said to have been engaged nearly two hundred years in subduing Britain, and of the active operations of the contending parties interesting traces yet remain.  Upon the remarkable hill called Caer Caradoc, historical accounts agree in stating it to have been occupied by the brave Caractacus, and many fierce battles to have been fought in its vicinity.  An ancient writer describes this place as “exceedingly well fortified, both by nature and art, upon the toppe of an high hill, environed with a tripple ditche of greate depth.  There were iij gates, and on three sides steepe headlong places, and compassed on the lifte hande with the river Colun, on the right with Themis.”  Different situations have been ascribed to the scene of the last decisive action between Ostorius and Caractacus, but none rest upon such strong grounds of probability as the stations of Brandon Camp and Coxwall Knoll.  The first of these is situated a little west of the Roman road leading from Magna to Ariconium or Wroxeter.  The second is within sight, and distant from the Roman Camp about three miles, near the village of Brampton Brian.  It crowns the summit of a lofty hill, and is of irregular shape, strong by nature, but made stronger by art.  A survey of these two camps by the antiquarian must be peculiarly interesting, when he recollects that an Ostorius stood on one camp and a Caractacus on the other; and that their heroic deeds were recorded by the pen of a Tacitus.  Each particular related by the historian concerning their respective situations coincides with the natural position of the river Teme and the camps of Brandon and Coxwall hills.  From the departure of the Romans to the Norman conquest history supplies no certain information concerning Ludlow; yet it is probable that there existed here a town or fortress previous to the recorded erection of the castle.

Ludlow Castle.  It is recorded in old chronicles that “Roger de Montgomery erected the greatest part of the castle, and fortified the town with walls,” from which it may be inferred, that in the times and place alluded to a town and fortress must have been co-incident with each other.  This Roger came over with the conqueror, to whom he was related, and led the centre division of his army in the memorable battle which secured the conquest of England, and was afterwards advanced to the Earldoms of Arundel and Shrewsbury.  He was the liberal founder of several rich monasteries and churches, particularly the monastery of Wenlock, and the abbey of Shrewsbury.  Having completed his favourite structure, “Ludlow Castle,” he enjoyed it until his death in 1094.  It was forfeited to the crown by the attainder of his son Robert, who being banished the realm, King Henry I. gave Dinan or Ludlow, with the territory of Corvedale, to a Norman Knight, known by the name of Fulke Fitzwarine, surnamed de Dinan; between whom and Walter de Lacy, Lord of Ewias by right of conquest, there arose several contests, whether out of emulation, or about fixing the boundaries of their royalties, is not known.  In one of these skirmishes the said Sir Walter de Lacy, and his trusty knight, Sir Ernauld de Lis, were taken prisoners of war and carried to Dinan, where being in custody, by intriguing with a fair damsel they found a way to make their escape.  Gervas Pagnel, governor of the castle, having betrayed his trust in joining the Empress Matilda, King Stephen besieged it, and in conducting the operations of the siege the king gave a signal proof of his courage and humanity.  The young Prince Henry, son of King David, who was actively engaged in this enterprise, having approached too near the walls of the castle, was caught from his horse by means of an iron hook fastened to the end of a rope.  Stephen, observing the perilous situation of the young prince, boldly advanced and rescued him at the risk of his own life.  What right or title the several governors had in the reign of Henry II. is uncertain; though it is most probable that they were only governors, without any fixed interest, till the 16th of King John, when Walter de Lacy had a grant of Ludlow, from whom the title of the place is clearly derived to the house of York, whereby it became vested in the crown.  Between the governors of this castle and Hugh de Mortimer terrible dissensions arose.  At length it happened that Mortimer was surprised and seized.  He was conveyed to Ludlow Castle, and confined in one of the towers, which to this day bears his name.

In the 47th of Henry III., Roger Mortimer, James de Alditheley, and Hamo L’Estrange had a general rendezvous with the barons of the Marches at Ludlow, to concert proper measures for suppressing the insolence of Simon de Montford, Earl of Leicester, and the other barons who had taken up arms against the king.  The Earl of Leicester, to oppose the powers of the Marches, made a league with Leoline Prince of Wales, who with united forces attacked the castles of Hay and Ludlow, which were both burnt and demolished.  Roger Mortimer, governor of the castle in the time of Edward II., was committed to the tower for a riot that he promoted on account of his dissatisfaction with the ministry of the Spencers: being jealous of a design against his life, he made an entertainment for Sir Stephen de Segrave, the constable of the tower, and in the midst of their cups and jollity, he privately gave him a soporiferous medicine, which, with the contrivance of his keeper, gave him an opportunity of sliding down a rope, and so flying into France.  Upon his return, out of a grateful acknowledgment of divine providence for his deliverance out of the tower, he built a chapel in Ludlow castle, dedicated it to St. Peter, and appointed a priest to celebrate divine service for ever.  In the second of Edward III. he was made chief justice of Wales, and created Earl of March; and the same year he celebrated with great magnificence the feast of the round table at Bedford.  Soon after, the king making a progress into Wales, he was entertained at Ludlow.  The promotion of this lord to exalted stations made him excessively proud, and he eventually fell into disgrace at court.  He was apprehended at Nottingham, and carried under arrest to London; all his land being seized, and his chattles secured at the same time to the king’s use.  The two main articles against him were, his having a hand in conspiring the murder of King Edward II., and his lewd familiarity with the queen, for which he was executed near Smithfield, where his corpse hung two days, and was exposed to greater indignities than usual.  The castle, on his insurrection, having come into the possession of Richard Duke of York, was subjected to a siege by the forces of Henry VI.  As he advanced towards Ludlow, the army of the Yorkists was drawn out into an intrenched camp in the fields of Ludford.  Sir Andrew Trollop, who had been made marshal of the Yorkist army, deserted to the royalists, carrying with him the veteran troops under his particular command, and betrayed all their councils to the king.  Dismayed by this defection, the Yorkists broke up their camp and fled, and the Lancasterians entered Ludlow, and wreaked their vengeance on the town and castle, which are said by old historians to have been plundered to “the bare walls.”  The Duchess of York, with her two sons, were taken and placed in safe ward, and many of the rich partisans of the duke were executed, and their estates confiscated.

Edward Earl of March was on the Welch border when he received the first intelligence of the disastrous battle of Wakefield, and of the death of his father.  He had collected an army in the north and was already marching against the Queen when he was called to oppose a large force of Welsh and Irish, which, under the Earl of Pembroke were advancing in the hope of making themselves master of his person.  The two armies met at Mortimer’s Cross, near Ludlow, and it is said that before the battle commenced three suns appeared in the sky over the field, which approached each other till they joined in one, and that Edward taking this as a favourable omen subsequently adopted a sun as his badge in remembrance of this circumstance.  The Yorkists obtained a decisive victory and nearly four thousand of the enemy were slain.  All the persons of rank were beheaded at Hereford in retaliation for the Queen’s cruelties at the battle of Wakefield.  Edward immediately proceeded to London and was proclaimed king under the title of Edward IV.  Among the towns which had supported the house of York, none had been more staunch than that of Ludlow.  On the 7th of December, in the first year of his reign, he rewarded the townsmen with a charter which extended the privileges of the inhabitants.  He created his eldest son Edward, then a mere infant, Prince of Wales, and sent him and his younger brother to the Castle of Ludlow.  Hall, in his Chronicles, tells us that he was sent to Ludlow “for justice to be doen in the Marches of Wales, to the end that by the authoritie of hys presence the wild Welshemenne, and evill-disposed personnes should repair from their accustomed murthers and outrages.”  On the King’s death, in 1483, the two princes were immediately recalled to London, and perished there within a few weeks, amid the mysterious events which attended the accession of Richard III. to the throne.  In 1631, Sir John Egerton was appointed Lord President of Wales and the Marches.  At this period Charles I. visited Ludlow, and was welcomed with much ceremony and rejoicing, at which time the exquisite effusion, the “Mask of Comas,” was performed before his Majesty.  It is said to have been founded on an incident which occurred in the Lord President’s own family, and which is thus related by Nightingale:—“When the Earl had entered on his official residence he was visited by a large assembly of the neighbouring nobility and gentry.  His sons, the Lord Brackley and Sir Thomas Egerton, and his daughter, the Lady Alice, being on their journey, were benighted in Haywood Forest, in Herefordshire, and the lady, for a short time, was lost.  Their adventure being related to their father on their arrival at the Castle, Milton, at the request of his friend Henry Lawes, wrote the Mask.  Lawes set it to music, and it was acted on Michaelmas night, the two brothers, the young lady, and Lawes himself, each bearing a part in the representation.”  The poem, familiar to every English reader, has been allowed by the most competent judges to be one of the finest compositions in the English language, and will ever be held in peculiar estimation, as exhibiting the fair dawn of that genius which burst forth in full splendour in the poem of Paradise Lost.

In the civil wars between Charles I. and the Parliament, Ludlow was occupied by the royal party.  In the summer of 1645, a force of nearly two thousand horse and foot, drawn together out of the garrisons of Ludlow, Hereford, and Worcester, were, by a less number of the Parliamentary forces, defeated at Stokesay, near Ludlow.  It was not, however, till the following year that Ludlow Castle fell into the hands of General Sir Wm. Brereton, to whom it was given up by Sir Michael Woodhouse.  The Earl of Bridgwater, governor of the castle, died in 1648, and was succeeded by Richard Lord Vaughen, Earl Carbery.  Samuel Butler, the satirical author of “Hudibras,” was appointed his secretary and steward.  A tower is still shown as the place where Butler wrote a part of his incomparable work, the first part of which was published in 1663.  This poem was universally admired; the King quoted, the courtiers studied, and the royalists applauded it, but the author was the dupe of promises which were never fulfilled.  In the midst of disappointment and neglect he published the third part in an unfinished state, and in 1080 he died in indigence.

The ruins of this ancient baronial fortress are strikingly fine; the sullen stillness that now reigns throughout these forlorn and deserted towers, once the scene of royal splendour and feudal revelry, present a spectacle of the fallen magnificence of past ages, rarely to be equalled.  The structure stands at the extremity of a bold headland, and its foundations are laid upon a bare grey rock.  The part towards the north consists of square towers, with high connecting walls which are embattled; the old foss and part of the rock have been formed into walks and planted with beech, elm, and lime trees.  These trees having now arrived at maturity, form an agreeable shade, and add much to the picturesque ruins of the castle.  The principal entrance is by a gateway under a low pointed arch, on the height of which are the ruins of the barracks, which were in constant use when the castle was the residence of the lords presidents of the Marches of Wales.  A portion of the barracks has lately been converted into a dwelling house.  Further on is a square tower, the embattled rampart pierced with loops here and there, remain in picturesque masses.  On the left is a range of stone buildings supposed to have been the stables; contiguous are the ruins of the court house, and beyond it rises a lofty tower called Mortimer’s Tower.  The lowest apartment of this tower appears to have been a prison, the original entrance being through a circular aperture in the ponderous keystone of its vaulted roof.  On the north and west sides a deep foss cut in the solid rock guarded the body of the castle.  The place of the ancient draw-bridge is supplied by a stone bridge of two arches.  The portal was built during the presidency of Sir Henry Sidney; over it are the arms of England and France, and the following inscription:—

“Anno Domini Millessimo Quinquitesimo Octagesimo completo, Anno regni illustrissimæ ac serenissimæ regina Elizabethæ vicesima iertio currente, 1581.”

The court is an irregular square, and not very spacious, but the lofty embattled walls by which it is enclosed, though in ruins, still preserve their original outlines, and the frowning towers and bold masses, luxuriously mantled with ivy, present a rare specimen of the fallen magnificence of the feudal ages.  The keep is a large square embattled tower, divided into four stories, and rises to the height of 110 feet.  It is probably the only part of the castle which dates from the time of Roger de Montgomery.  Most of the windows and doorways are distinguished by their round Norman arches.  The ground floor is the dungeon half under ground.  The arched roof is twenty feet in height.  In the arch are three square apertures, which communicating with the chamber above, served for the purpose of admitting and inspecting the prisoners, and were probably intended also for raising supplies of ammunition and provisions, during a time of siege.  On the second floor is a room measuring 30 feet by 18, with a fire place.  The room communicates on the left with a square arched chamber, and on the right with a narrow oblong room.  This tower measures 46 feet by 34, and the walls are from 9 to 12 feet thick.  Facing the gate is the hall, measuring 60 feet by 30, and was originally approached by a flight of steps.  There remains now neither roof nor floor to this once elegant apartment where the splendid scene of Comus was first exhibited, and where hospitality and magnificence blazed for ages in succession without diminution or decay.  Two pointed arches lead to a spacious tower attached to the west end of the hall, in which are several apartments, one of which is still called Prince Arthur’s room.  On the opposite end of the hall is another square tower, one of the rooms of which is pointed out as the banqueting hall.  A spacious chamber above has been adorned with an unusual degree of rude magnificence.

The chapel was built in the reign of Henry I. by Joce de Dinan; all that now remains of it is the nave—a circular building, one of the earliest of this description in England.  The approach is by a remarkably elegant Norman doorway, richly adorned with ornaments peculiar to the style of the period in which it was built.  In the interior rising from the floor are fourteen recesses in the wall formed by small pillars, with indented capitals supporting round arches, which have alternately plain and zigzag mouldings.  A filleted ornament runs round the exterior of the wall.  A covered way led from the state apartments to the chapel.  In the time of Queen Elizabeth the interior was covered with panels exhibiting the armorial bearings which church-yard describes as “armes in colours sitch as few can shewe.”

From an inventory of goods found in Ludlow Castle bearing date 1708, the eleventh year of the reign of Queen Anne, we learn that about forty rooms were found entire at that period.  Among these were the hall, council chamber, lord president’s and my lady’s, with drawing rooms, the steward’s room, great dining room, chief justice’s room, second judge’s room, Prince Arthur’s room, captains’ apartments, kitchen, &c.; and as in this inventory a table and altar are stated to have been found in the chapel, we may presume the choir was at that time remaining.  In the account prefixed to Buck’s antiquity published in 1774, it is observed that many of the apartments were then entire, and that the sword of state and the velvet hangings were preserved.  Dr. Todd in his learned edition of Comus says, “A gentleman who visited the castle in 1768 has acquainted me that the floor of the great council chamber was then pretty entire, as was the staircase.  The covered steps leading to the chapel were remaining, but the covering of the chapel was fallen, yet the arms of the lord presidents were visible.  In the great council chamber was inscribed on a wall a sentence from I. Samuel, chapter 12, verse 3; all which are now wholly gone.  On the accession of George I. an order is said to have come down for unroofing the buildings, and stripping them of their lead.  The decay of this magnificent structure soon ensued.  Many of the panels bearing the arms of the lord presidents were converted into wainscotting for a public house in the town, a former owner of which enriched himself by materials clandestinely taken away.  The Earl of Powis, who previously held the castle by virtue of a long lease, acquired the reversion in fee by purchase from the crown in the year 1811.”

The Church, which stands in the highest part of the town, is a very beautiful cruciform edifice in the decorated gothic style of the latter part of the fifteenth century, forming undoubtedly the finest ecclesiastical fabric in the county, and perhaps the most stately parochial church in England.  The structure is dedicated to St. Lawrence, and has a lofty and noble appearance; it consists of nave, chancel, choir, side aisles, transepts, and two chantry chapels, with a handsome tower rising from the centre, having at each angle an octangular turret, surmounted by a pinnacle.  The tower contains eight musical bells, and a set of chimes was put up at the expense of the parish in the year 1795.  The principal entrance is by a large hexagonal porch.  The nave is divided from the aisles by six lofty pointed arches on each side, springing from light clustered pillars.  Above them is a clerestory with a range of heavy windows.  The four great arches under the tower are remarkably bold, beneath the eastern arch is the choral rood loft, embellished with open carved work, but upon it is erected a modern gallery, above which stands a powerful and fine toned organ, the gift of Henry Arthur Earl of Powis, in the year 1764; it cost £1,000.  The choir is lighted by five lofty pointed windows on each side, and one of much larger dimensions at the west end.  This window is richly adorned with stained glass, chiefly representing the legend of St. Lawrence, the patron saint of the church.  The other windows in this venerable edifice bear evidence of having once been enriched with a profusion of stained glass of the most exquisite workmanship.  The large eastern window containing the legendary history of St. Lawrence having been so defaced and wantonly broken that the various subjects could with difficulty be traced.  It remained in this state till the year 1828, when the corporation of Ludlow directed Mr. David Evans, of Shrewsbury, to restore the window according to its original design.  It was completed in a masterly manner in 1832, and the skill displayed by the artist in overcoming the difficulties he had to encounter has excited the admiration of every one who has seen it.  The window is justly considered the most magnificent specimen of the art of glass staining in the county, and for general effect is surpassed by few in England.  The window is divided into sixty-five compartments, and contains five hundred and forty feet of glass.  The whole of the subjects depicted in the window are under elegant canopies of delicate tabernacle work, differing in design; and the costume of the figures throughout the various scenes are particularly curious, and well deserve attention, as the richness of colour and general effect is not inferior to some of the finest specimens of the ancient stained glass.  The window is supposed originally to have been setup during the episcopacy of Thomas Spoford, who was promoted to the see of Hereford in 1421.  The three large windows on the south side of the chancel display full length figures of bishops, apostles, and Romish saints, the apex of each containing twelve small curious figures.  The glass in the windows on the north side has been greatly mutilated, but sufficient remains to show the splendour and magnificence of the colouring.

The north and south chapels of the choir are separated from the transepts by remarkably handsome carved screens; in the windows are paintings representing the history of the apostles, and also very splendid remnants of stained glass, portraying the story of the ring presented by some pilgrims to Edward the Confessor, who, as “The Chronicles” relate, “was warned of his death certain days before he died by a ring that was brought him by certain pilgrims, which ring he had secretly given to a poor man that asked his charity in the name of God and St. John the Evangelist.  These pilgrims, as the legend recites, were men of Ludlow.”  The ceiling is of oak resting on corbels, which spring from highly decorated figures of angels bearing shields.  The extreme length from east to west is 203 feet, and the breadth across the transepts measures 130 feet.  The tower rises 131 feet in height, forming a prominent object, and gives considerable beauty to many prospects from the neighbouring country.  In the church there are two highly finished effigies of Judge Bridgeman and his lady, but much mutilated.  The head of the tomb was opened in 1805 (on sinking a grave for the body of Mrs. Turner) when the hair of both Sir John and his lady was found perfectly entire; the coffins mouldered on exposure to the air.  In the high chancel is a large Grecian monument displaying an elegant sculptured cherub and emblems of time and eternity, in memory of Theophilus Salwey, Esq., who died in 1760.  A handsome altar tomb of white marble has recumbent effigies of chief Justice Waiter and his lady; and on the front are figures representing their issue.  Judge Walter died in 1592.  Within the communion rails is a tomb in memory of Sir Robert Townsend and his lady, with two full length figures, and surrounding the base stand their children.  Dame Mary Evre, who died in 1612, has a tomb erected to her memory, at the back of which are the armorial bearings of the family.  Upon the tomb is a recumbent figure resting on a cushion, habited in the dress of the times and the head covered with a hood.  In various parts of the building will be found several interesting tablets and mural monuments.  Though not collegiate the church of St. Lawrence anciently possessed a chantry of ten priests, maintained by the rich guild of St. John, who gave to its choral services the splendour of a cathedral.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £19. 12s. 6d., now returned at £160 in the patronage of the lord chancellor.  The tithes have been commuted for £23. 13s. 6d.  Ecclesiastical courts are held here for granting probates of wills and letters of administration.

The Independent Chapel, situated in Old street, is a neat structure capable of accommodating upwards of three hundred persons, and was erected in 1830.  The congregation formerly assembled for divine worship in a chapel still standing, situate on the banks of the river, near the bottom of Corve street.  Before the erection of this fabric, in which they continued to meet for nearly a century, the dissenters conducted their religious services in a licensed dwelling house, where, in the early part of 1731, they were furiously assailed by a mob.  This vain attempt to crush them led to the erection of the first dissenting house in the borough.  The Rev. Theophilus Davies is the pastor of the congregation.

The Methodist Chapel, a plain structure situated in Lower Broad street, was enlarged in 1835, and is now capable of holding about five hundred hearers.  The Primitive Methodist Chapel, situated in Old street, is a substantial building erected in 1836, and has accommodation for upwards of three hundred worshippers.

The Boys’ National School is held in a spacious room over the Market Cross; and the Girls’ School is held in a house in Brand lane.  They are supported by voluntary subscriptions and charitable benefactions: the latter will be found noticed with the general charities of the borough.  The gross income for the year 1850 was £155. 16s. 3d.

The Savings’ Bank, held in the public buildings, Castle street, was established in 1816.  On November 20th, 1850, the total number of accounts was 1,939, of which twenty-three were charitable societies and eighteen friendly societies.  The capital stock of the bank at the same period amounted to £70,958. 18s. 4d.  The respective balances of 961 depositors did not exceed £20; 543 were above that sum and not exceeding £50; 231 not exceeding £100; 96 not exceeding £150; 62 not exceeding £200; and five accounts exceeded the latter sum.  Mr. John Williams, actuary.

The Ludlow County Court, for law proceedings in actions and claims not exceeding £50, embraces the following places, viz., Abdon, Ashford Bowdler, Ashford Carbonell, Aston, Acton Scott, Bitterley, Bromfield, Burrington, Cainham, Clee St. Margaret, Cold Weston, Culmington, Diddlebury, Downton, Elton, Halford, Heath, Holdgate, Hope Baggot, Hopton Cangeford, Leinthall Starkes, Leintwardine, Ludford, Munslow, Onibury, Richards Castle, St. Lawrence Ludlow, Sibdon Carwood, Stanton Lacy, Stoke St. Milborough, Stoke Say, Tugford, Wigmore and Wistanston.  Judge, Uvedale Corbett, Esq.; Clerk, John Williams, Esq.; High Bailiff, William Davies.

The Ludlow Library, and Mechanics’ Institution, established in 1841, is held in one of the rooms of the market hall, the use of which has been granted by the corporation.  The institution has an interesting library of nearly 300 volumes.  Mr. George Cocking is the secretary.

The Public Rooms, situated in Castle street, were erected in 1840 by a company of shareholders.  One portion is set apart for the Ludlow Natural History Society, where there is deposited a choice and valuable collection of fossils, British and foreign birds and animals, &c.  This institution was established in 1834.  There is also a spacious and elegant Assembly Room, and another for magisterial purposes, besides a Reading Room well supplied with the principal London and provincial journals.  The Market Cross is a neat edifice, with a cupola, where butter and other productions are sold on the market days.  The Market House is a plain brick building in Castle street, containing large and convenient rooms for the meetings of the corporation.

The Dispensary is supported by voluntary subscriptions, a collection made in Ludlow church every alternate year, and the dividends of certain charitable bequests.  The number of patients cured or relieved during the year 1851 was 279.  Mr. H. Hodges, consulting surgeon; and Mr. Harley, dispenser.  The Lying-in Institution was established in 1810, since which 3,561 persons have been relieved and visited, under the direction of the managing directors.

The Gas Works.  The Union Gas Works were established in 1840 by a company of shareholders with a capital stock of £3,050.  The old gas works are situated on the road to the Clee Hill.

The Water Works are the property of the corporation.  The water is forced by an engine from the river to a reservoir at the top of the Market-hall, and thence conveyed in pipes to different parts of the town.  There are also conduits supplied by pipes with excellent water from the neighbouring hills.

Ludlow Poor-law Union Workhouse is a spacious stone edifice, situated in the parish of Stanton Lacy.  The union comprehends an area of 125 miles, and embraces the following parishes, viz.:—Abdon, Ashford Bowdler, Ashford Carbonel, Bitterley, Bromfield, Caynham, Clee St. Margaret, Cold Weston, Culmington, Diddlebury, Halford, Heath, Holdgate, Hope Baggott, Hopton Cangeford, Munslow, Onibury, Richard’s Castle, St. Lawrence Ludlow, Stanton Lacy, Stoke, St. Milborough, Stokesay, and Tugford, all in the county of Salop; Aston Burrington, Downton, Elton, Leinthall Starkes, Richard’s Castle, and Wigmore, in Herefordshire; the parishes of Leintwardine and Ludford are situated in both counties.  Expenditure for the year ending 28th September, 1850, £3,533. 15s. 10½d.  Clerk: Robert Thomas.  Medical Officers: Henry Meymott, John Southern, Charles Pothecary, Daniel Gingell, Robert Jones.  Relieving Officers: William Russell, James Jones, John Harding, Edward Millichap.  Chaplain: Robert Meyricke.  Master and Matron: William and Mrs. Russell.

Gaolford Tower, a small structure, situated in Tower street, has four cells for the confinement of prisoners, and a day room and airing yard.  It was built by the corporation in the 4th of George III.

Dinham House, an elegant and spacious mansion, situated near the Castle (now the residence of John Thomas, Esq.), towards the close of the late war was occupied by Lucien Bonaparte, being then detained a prisoner in England.  He left Ludlow on Sunday, June 30th, 1811.

Among the customs peculiar to this town that of rope pulling is not the least extraordinary.  On Shrove-Tuesday the corporation provides a rope, three inches in thickness and thirty-six yards in length, which is given out at one of the windows of the Market House, when a large body of the inhabitants, divided into two parties (one contending for Castle street and Broad street wards, and the other for Old street and Corve street wards), commence an arduous struggle; and as soon as either party has gained a victory, by pulling the rope beyond the prescribed limits, the pulling ceases.  The rope is usually purchased from the victorious party, and then given out again.  Ludlow preserves the custom of walking over the limits of the township once a-year.  This procession takes place on the Wednesday before Holy Thursday, on which occasion the boys of the different schools, attended by one of the clergy, proceed from the church to a place near Corve Bridge, where a cross formerly stood.  Here the Epistle for the preceding Sunday is read; from whence passing to Weeping Cross, the boys again kneel down, and the Gospel for the same day is read by the clergyman.

The Broad Gate, the only one now remaining entire, receives its name from an ancient religious foundation called Barnaby House, famous in past ages as the temporary resting place of the numerous devotees passing through Ludlow on their way to the Holy Well of St. Winefrede, in North Wales.  Adjoining formerly stood a chapel, dedicated to St. Mary of the Vale.  The Gateway of Millgate is at the end of Barnaby lane.  In Lower Millgate traces of the town wall are still to be seen.  In 1786 Dinham gate remained entire, adjoining which anciently stood a chapel, approached by a flight of steps.  The land leading from the bottom of Mill street to Dinham bears the name of Camp, from the frequent encampment of soldiers there.  Old Gate stood at the bottom of Old street.

A religious house of White Friars was founded at Ludlow, in 1349, by Sir Laurence de Ludlowe, Knt., which we are informed by Leland “was a fayre and costlie thinge, and stoode without Corve Gate by north, almost at the end of that suburb.”  Stukeley, who wrote about the year 1720, says, “There was a rich priory out of the town, on the north side.  Little remains now to be seen, excepting a small adjoining church once belonging to it.  About the same place an arched gateway went across the street, but now demolished.”  The church above mentioned was the chapel of St. Leonard, founded in 1590, and intended for a charitable and religious establishment, the almshouse having survived its chapel, and, according to the will of the founder, contributes to the maintenance of four poor persons.  Near to Friars’ lane was situated the establishment of Augustine Friars, to which Edmund de Pontibus was a benefactor.  There was an Hospital, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, situated near the bridge, founded by Peter Undergod, and endowed with certain lands for the maintenance of certain religious brethren, and sustentation of poor and infirm people.  The annual value at the dissolution was £17. 13s. 3d.

Thomas Johnes, Esq., was born at Ludlow, in the year 1783.  He received his early education at Shrewsbury school, and took his degree of M.A. at Oxford.  In 1783 Mr. Johnes erected an elegant mansion at Hafod, which in 1807 was consumed by a destructive fire, with much of its valuable contents, the loss amounting to £70,000.  Notwithstanding this disaster, he rebuilt and adorned his mansion anew.  Here he indulged his taste for literature, employed a printing press on his own premises, and produced some elegant historical works.  He died in 1814, and was buried in the church which he had built at Hafod.

Richard P. Knight, Esq., an elegant scholar and distinguished in the literary circles of Europe, represented Ludlow in parliament for many years.  Mr. Knight bequeathed his fine collection of medals, drawings, and bronzes (worth at least £30,000), to the British Museum.  They include a single volume of drawings by the inimitable Claude, which was purchased for £1,600 from a private individual, who a short time previously had given £3 for the same volume.

Charities.—The Grammar School.—It appears that all the premises specified in a certain grant, and constituting the possessions of the Guild or Fraternity of Palmers, had been unconditionally surrendered by them to King Edward VI. by deed under their common seal, dated 1st June, in the fifth of his reign.  The property thus unconditionally surrendered to the king was granted by him to the corporation for the relief and better sustaining of the town and borough of Ludlow, and for the corporation, “at their own costs and charges,” to maintain a free grammar school, and other charitable institutions mentioned in the charter.  It appears the legal import of the charter was not to grant the property upon trust to employ the whole of the rents and profits to the maintenance of the charities, but to make a beneficial grant of it to the corporation, coupled with a condition that they should, out of the income they thus acquired, sufficiently maintain the charitable institutions therein specified.  The school premises comprise two houses, in which the master resides.  About fifty years ago, the premises were nearly rebuilt, at a cost of £700.  The school is open to the whole town, without any limitation of number, on payment of £3 annually.  Four of the boys, nominated by the bailiffs, receive a benefaction of £2. 13s. 4d. per annum, under the will of Dr. Langford.  The school is also entitled to two exhibitions of £45 to Baliol College, Oxford, for 11 years, founded by the Rev. Richard Greaves in the year 1704.  There are also three exhibitions of £50 for three years to any college in Oxford, Cambridge, or Durham.  It is stated in the particular of the Guild estate, that “there is an almshouse to the Guild appertaining, with thirty-three chambers therein inhabited by poor people, according to the foundation and ordinance of John Hoyser, to every of which poor people is weekly allowed 4d.”  The Palmers Guild was a religious fraternity, established about the year 1248, for the relief of the poor, and for the administration of charitable bequests.  Before the period of the Reformation, their funds had increased so considerably that they formed a college, with a warden for three priests, and maintained the above almshouse for thirty-three poor people, and the grammar school.  On the passing of the Municipal Act, in 1835, it became necessary to separate the charity from the municipal property; and, after much litigation, lands yielding a clear rental of £1,800 a-year were secured to the charity for the purpose of maintaining the above-named objects.  The preacher, now called the lecturer (and who, as well as the assistant, is appointed by the corporation), received from them a salary of £26. 13s. 4d. per annum, when the Charity Commissioners published their report.  It appears that the Palmers Guild had been used to pay yearly to a schoolmaster, for keeping a free grammar school, £10; to one priest, £6; and to two others, £5. 6s. 8d. each.  The particular duties of these priests are not specified; but it seems probable that the usher, preacher, and assistant, were intended to be substituted by the charter in their stead.

From an old book belonging to the corporation, containing copies of wills and other documents relating to the charities of the town, it appears that James Walters, Esq., in 1624, devised an annuity of £20 to be paid out of his lands in Stanton Lacy and Richards Castle; £10 thereof to be distributed among the inmates of the almshouse, and £10 to be bestowed on the preacher.  It appears that a fee farm rent of £24. 13s. 4d., reserved by a charter of King Edward IV., out of certain lands granted to the corporation of Ludlow, and also the rent of £8. 13s. 4d., reserved by charter of King Edward VI., eventually became vested in the corporation; and £20 is now paid to the treasurer of the national school, and the remainder, £13. 6s. 8d., is considered as forming a part of the weekly payments to the almspeople.

Thomas Candland, by will dated 1617, gave a house and shop in Ludlow to William Bevan and Alice his wife, and their heirs, in trust, that they should pay annually the sum of 20s. out of the profits thereof to the bailiffs of the town, to be disposed of by them; to every chamber in the almshouse, 4d.; and the residue of the said 20s. to such other poor of Ludlow as they should think fit.  William Archer, by deed dated 1677, charged his close, called Sutton’s close, with a yearly rent of 20s., to be divided among the poor in the almshouse near the parish of St. Lawrence.  Susan Gay, by indenture dated 1724, conveyed to Richard Plummer and his heirs, a piece of land called Old Hill, in Kingsland parish, in Herefordshire, in trust, that after her death the bailiffs, rector, lecturer and reader of Ludlow for the time being, should receive from the rents and profits thereof an annuity of £7 for ever; £6 thereof to be yearly distributed among the poor of the almshouses in the upper room and in Corve street, and 20s. to the person who received the rent and looked after the estate.  An annual sum of 13s. 4d, from one of the Earl of Powis’s stewards, which is distributed among the 33 almspeople in the upper almshouse.  The origin of this payment is not known.  Mary Beetenson, who died about the year 1806, bequeathed to the bailiffs of the town of Ludlow, and their successors, the sum of £100, to be placed out at interest, and distributed to the poor people inhabiting the almshouse opposite the church of St. Lawrence.  Ann Smith in 1809 gave £50 to the corporation of Ludlow, in trust, to be placed out at interest, and distributed in coals to the poor inhabiting the upper almshouse.  Susannah Smith, by will in 1801, gave to the rector of the parish of St. Lawrence, in Ludlow, the sum of £100 to be placed out at interest, and distributed among the inhabitants of the almshouses near the church.  These small payments amount annually to the sum of 12s. 5¾d, for each of the almspeople.

Charles Foxe, by his will dated 1590, after reciting that he had lately purchased the chapel of St. Leonard, in Corve street, Ludlow, and a parcel of ground near thereto, whereon he had begun to erect four almshouses, for four poor and impotent persons, gave and bequeathed to certain trustees, in trust, four messuages, and all lands, tenements and hereditaments, with their appurtenances, situated in the city of Worcester, of the annual value of £8; to be by them so settled that out of the rents £4 should be paid to the four poor persons in the almshouse, and divided amongst them quarterly.  To the curate of Ludford, or some other sufficient minister, for reading divine service to the poor there, the sum of 40s. yearly.  To some learned preacher for a sermon in the said chapel at Christmas, 6s. 8d.; and the like sum for a sermon there in Lent.  And the residue of the rents (being £1. 6s. 8d.) he directed to be employed for the necessary repairing the said almshouses and chapel, and other necessary charges.  He gave two bells to be hung up in the steeple of the chapel.  About the year 1751 the chapel had gone greatly to decay, and the houses in Worcester become so ruinous and incapable of repair, that in 1758 the ground on which the tenements stood was let on building leases, at an annual rent of £11. 9s. 6d., for 99 years.  James Foxe the trustee, by deed in 1769, conveyed to the bailiffs, burgesses and commonalty of Ludlow, the aforesaid premises, in trust, for the support of the almshouse, in consequence of his residing so remote from Ludlow.  The present income of the charity is £14. 13s. 10d.  The almshouse consists of four dwellings, with a garden to each, and is inhabited by two poor persons from the parish of Bromfield, and two from Ludlow; who also receive from the corporation 1s. 6d. per week each, and 3s. 2d. yearly from Mrs. Susan Gay’s benefaction.

Thomas Lane, by will in 1674, after giving certain legacies, bequeathed all the rest of his estate to Sir Job Charlton and two others, to be disposed of by them as he should appoint; and in default of such appointment, to some charitable use according to their best discretion.  From the will of Sir Job Charlton, bearing date 1691, it appears that the money derived from this bequest had been employed in repairing and furnishing an old house which had been granted to the trustees by the town of Ludlow, and in purchasing certain lands in Middleton of the annual value of £30.  Under the residuary clause of Thomas Lane’s will, a reversion passed to the use of this charity of a dwelling house, a garden, and two meadows, containing 5a. 1r. 9p. of land, which had been granted to his wife by a codicil to his will.  These lands, comprising an area of 74a. 2r. 9p. of land, and let at an annual rent of £44 per annum, were exchanged in 1790 with C. W. B. Rouse, Esq. for meadow and pasture lands, situated in Stanton Lacy, containing 41a. 3r. 7p. of land, let for £56 per annum.  At the time the charity commissioners published their report, the income of the charity amounted to £120, (exclusive of the interest of £216. 8s. 3d., the amount of a balance due in 1816, arising from savings of income,) which was applied in paying to the governor of the workhouse a salary of £20; in disbursements for taxes and repairs of the building and furniture; and in providing flax, hemp and yarn for making stockings, and leather for shoes, for the poor people in the house to work up.

Thomas Lane, by a second codicil to his will, in 1676, devised his closes of meadow and pasture land, lying near the east side of Broad street, in Ludlow, to be conveyed to feoffees in trust, that the rents and profits should be weekly disposed of in bread and money to twelve poor widows of the town of Ludlow.  The land contains 1a. 3r. 34p., which produces an annual income of £23. 10s.

From an entry in an old book belonging to the corporation, it appears that Evan Phillips gave £22 to remain a stock for ever for the poor of the town of Ludlow; and directed certain trustees to dispose of the same in the purchase of lands, or otherwise, as they should think fit; the profits of the £20 to be given to twelve poor persons, and the remaining 40s. to be spent by the trustees, for their recreation, at their meetings on the business of the charity.  It appears from the same book that he also gave a judgment debt of £10, due to him, for the use of six more poor persons of Ludlow.  There is now a piece of land in Lynney appropriated to this charity, called the Poor’s Close, containing 3r. 26p., which is let at an annual rent of £13; of which £12. 6s. 8d. is distributed among eighteen poor persons by the bailiffs of the town.

Richard Davies, by will dated 1699, bequeathed £100 to be laid out in lands, in trust, to distribute the rents and profits among eight poor widows of Ludlow, not partakers of any other charity in the town.  In respect of this sum the corporation make an annual payment of £6, which is distributed as the donor directed.  Eleanor Handford left £25, the interest thereof to be given to ten poor persons in Castle street ward on Good Friday, yearly.  John Long, by will, gave to the poor of the parish of St. Lawrence, in Ludlow, the sum of £20, the interest thereof to be distributed among the poor.  There is also found copied into the charity book a statement that Mrs. Robinson left £100 to the poor of Ludlow, the interest to be applied as follows; viz.: 50s. to the Charity school, and 50s. to twenty poor housekeepers, to be named by the bailiffs and rector on St. John the Evangelist’s day.

Thomas Meyricke, by will, dated 1724, bequeathed to the bailiffs, burgesses, and commonalty £40, in trust, to lend it from time to time to four poor tradesmen, not being ale sellers for three years, without interest, in sums of £10 each, upon sufficient security.  Sir Timothy Tourueur, Knight, also gave £100, to be lent for a like time to four young tradesmen upon good security.  Thomas Meyricke also bequeathed £40, the interest to be paid to the charity schools at Ludlow.

Richard Gwilliams, by will, dated 1629, gave to the parson of Ludlow and vicar of Leominster, and the vicar of Kings Capel £3 a year, issuing out of all his messuages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments in the county of Hereford, to the intent that they should distribute 20s. thereof yearly to the poor impotent people of each of those places.

Charles Sonnibank, D.D., by deed dated 10th of October, 10th Charles I., after reciting a grant made by him to Margaret Postern and her heirs of a messuage and lands containing about 155 acres, situated at Brome, in the parish of Hopesay, in Shropshire, reserving to him and his heirs a rent of £13. 6s. 8d., granted the said rent to trustees, in trust, to distribute it among ten poor widows inhabiting Ludlow, in weekly payments of 6d. each, and the parson to retain 6s. 8d. for his care in receiving it.

Robert Horne, by will, dated 1640, gave to the rector and rectors of the parish church of St. Lawrence, in Ludlow, for the time being for ever, a rent charge of £10 per annum issuing out of lands in the parish of Kingsland, in the county of Hereford.

Jane Higginson, by will, dated 1707–8, gave £5 per annum to five decayed tradesmen’s widows in Ludlow, for keeping clean the chancel of the church, to be paid on the 28th day of February.  She likewise gave an annuity of £5 to the rector of Ludlow and his successors for ever.

The Rev. Richard Morgan, in 1766, left £140, in trust, the interest therefrom to be expended in teaching poor children.  The present fund derived from this bequest is £120, three per cent. consols, the dividends of which are £3. 12s. per annum, which is now paid to the national school.  There was an ancient charity school in Ludlow called the Blue Coat School, which has formed the basis of a national school now established there.  It has been seen in the report of Tonlyne’s charity that in the year 1716 it was ordered by the corporation that £20 should be secured to the trustees of this charity school out of the tolls of the market, as forming part of Mr. Tonlyne’s charity.  From an entry in the corporation ledger in 1782 it appears that this sum of £20 was paid by the chamberlain to the treasurer of the charity school till the 28th of October, 1761, from which time it had been in arrear; and that this arrear, together with the interest of the several sums of £100, £50, and £40 due to the charity school on several bonds from the corporation, then amounted to the sum of £629, which sum was afterwards invested in the purchase of £1,000, three per cent. consols.  It appears from the ledger that on the 29th of October, 1806, a further arrear of the annuity and of the interest on the bonds had occurred, which left a balance due from the corporation of £458.  This balance it was resolved to apply in the purchase of a schoolhouse, which was effected in 1815.  The purchase money of this house, with the charges of repairing and fitting up, amounted to £600. 13s., exceeding the amount of the arrears by £142. 13s., which was paid out of the corporation funds.  From the year 1806 the annuity of £20 was paid by the charity school till its combination with the national school.  The house is now used for the female department of the national school.  The children of the Blue Coat School were clothed, and accordingly clothing to the amount of £27 a year is now given to children in the national school, chosen by the subscribers in rotation.  These children are also put out apprentice with a premium of £3 each.

Thomas Hollingworth, by will, dated 1809, gave £50 four per cent. bank annuities, to be transferred to the rector and churchwardens of St. Lawrence, Ludlow, the dividends to be laid out in bread and distributed at Christmas to poor widows, inhabitants of the said parish.  Richard Nash, by will, dated 1814, gave to the ministers and churchwardens of the parish of St. Lawrence, Ludlow, £100, the interest thereof to be distributed among the poor of the parish.  Lost Charities: Among the books of the corporation are mentioned charities left by six several donors, amounting in the whole to £200, which have long been lost to the poor.

Letters arrive from London and Shrewsbury at 8 A.M., Birmingham and London 8.45 P.M., Hereford, &c., 9.58 A.M., and Worcester at 11.58 A.M., and are despatched to London and Shrewsbury at 4.50 P.M., Birmingham 8.45 A.M., Hereford, 2.47 P.M., and Worcester at 1.30 P.M.—Eleanor Sankey, post-mistress.

Acton Capt. Edward, Gravel Hill

Barnes Thomas, wool agent, Castle street

Baxter Mrs. Elizabeth, Broad street

Breakwell Mr. Thomas, Friars Cottage

Brittle Mrs. Penelope, Broad street

Bryce Dr. Charles, Broad street

Burlton Miss Ann, Mill street

Butler Miss Sarah, Mill street

Calvert Mrs. Hannah, Old street

Childe Mr. Thomas, Corve street

Crocker Joseph, inland revenue officer, Corve street

Davenport Mrs. Mary, Bull Ring

Davies Mrs. Ann, Mill street

Davies Miss Mary, Mill street

Davies Rev. Theophilus, (Independent), Brand lane

Dean Rev. Wm., (Prim. Meth.), Old street

Gardner Mr. William, Upper Gaolford

Greenhouse Mrs., Old street

Griffiths Mrs. Ella, Dinham

Hammond Richard, town crier, Old street

Hodges Mrs. Elizabeth, Broad street

Hodges Miss Ann, Cave street

Hodson Mr. William, Castle street

Hookey George, gentleman, Corve street

Hutchings Hubert, Esq., Broad street

Jefferson Mrs. Mary, Mill street

Jenson Mary, poulterer, Harp lane

Jones Robert, superintendent of police

Jones Miss Selina, Brand lane

Lambe Mr. William, Corve street

Lambe Mrs. Sarah, Mill street

Leake Mr. John Linney

Ledderdale Miss Margaret, Corve street

Leech Mr. Edward, Corve street

Locke Rev. John, (Wesleyan), Old street

Mallett Mrs. Mary, Corve street

Maund Mrs. Sarah, Mill street

Middleton Rev. Joseph (Prim. Meth.), Old st

Owen Mr. John, Corve street

Pardoe Miss Isabella, Broad street

Page Mrs. Martha

Parry James, pump maker, Brand lane

Parsons Mrs. Hannah, Brand lane

Penny Mr. John Dingham

Penwarne John, Esq., Mill street

Phillips Rev. John, Broad street

Pillinger Maria and Charlotte, Italian warehouse, Bull Ring

Price John, manager of gas works, Upper Gaolford

Pritchard Mrs. Ann, Corve street

Ree Adam, organist, Mill street

Robinson John, parish clerk, Dinham

Rocke, Eytons, Campbell, and Co., bankers, Broad street

Russell Miss Ann, Mill street

Russell Mr. Benjamin, The College

Salwey Mrs. Isabella, Broad street

Sargeant Richard, supervisor, Corve street

Smith Mr. Jacob, Dinham

Smith The Misses, Broad street

Stott Rev. Ralph, (Wesleyan), Lower Broad st

Swainson Rev. Edward C., Broad street

Taylor Mrs. Elizabeth, Dinham

Thomas John, Esq., Dinham House

Thomas Mrs. Jane, Old street

Thomas Edward, warden, Almshouses, The College

Vaughan Mr. Brettle, Castle street

Warman George, horse trainer, Raven lane

Wayn Mary, stamp office, Corve street

Weems Mrs. Mary, Corve street

Wellings Capt. George, Brand lane

Williams John, town clerk, Mill street

Woodyatt Mary, fancy repository, High st

Academies.

Marked * take Boarders.

Copner Maria, Linney

* Evans Caroline, Castle st

* Evans Thomas, Old street

* Harley Elizabeth, Linney

* Lewis Misses, Corve street

Legge John, College

National, John Robinson and Charlotte Baker

* Powill E. & C., Castle st

* Russell Horatio, Mill street

Williams John, Mill street

Willis Rev. Arthur, (Free Grammar School), Mill st

Whitwell Thomas, Old street

Accountants.

Oliver Samuel, Old street

Whitwell Thomas, Old street

Agricultural Implement Maker.

Hodges Chaplin, Dinham

Artists.

Gill George, Mill street

Gwynn William, Corve street

Attorneys.

Anderson George & Rodney, Mill street

Clark Lutrell, Mill street

Dansey George, Castle street

Lloyd John, Brand street

Russell Charles, College

Salwey Humphrey, Guildhall

Southern Francis, Mill street

Urwick & Marston, Castle st

Weyman Thomas, Corve st

Williams J. & Son, Guildhall

Auctioneers and Valuers.

Bach James, Broad street

Crosse John, High street

Davies William, Guildhall

Griffiths Thomas, Bull ring

Bakers and Flour Dealers.

Christmas William, Corve st

Collings George, Bell lane

Crundell James, Tower st

Davies John, Lower Broad st

Gatehouse Richard, Corve st

Harris William, Harp lane

Holloway Charles, Old street

Jacob Joseph, Old Gate Fee

Leary Edward, Tower street

Lewis Thomas, Bull ring

Whatmore John, Broad st

Bankers.

Shrewsbury and Ludlow Old Bank, Broad st.  Rocke, Eytons, Campbell, & Co.; draw on Robarts and Co., London

Ludlow & Tenbury Banking Company; draw on Barnett and Co., London.  H. Whittall, manager

Basket Makers.

Price Edward, Corve street

Price Joseph, Lower Gaolford

Blacksmiths.

Lowe Joseph, Corve street

Pillinger Sarah, Bull ring

Pound John, Raven lane

Pugh Richard, Raven lane

Rudd Thos., Lower Gaolford

Booksellers, Binders, Printers and Stationers.

Evans John, Castle street

Felton William, Narrows

Griffiths Thomas, Bull ring

Griffiths Thos. jun., Narrows

Humphries George, Bull ring

Jones Richard, Broad street

Partridge Edward, Broad st

Woodyatt William, High st

Boot & Shoe Makers.

Ashcroft Edward, Bull ring

Baker John, High street

Barker Thos., (and Grindery dealer), Brand lane

Byrne Hugh R., Brand lane

Evans John, Bull ring

George James, Raven lane

King Henry, Bull ring

Morris Thomas, Old street

Needham John, High street

Pearce Alex., Lower Broad st

Pugh William, Bell lane

Robinson John, High street

Venables Charles, Broad st

Watkeys Mary, High street

Wilkes Ricd., Lower Gaolford

Brazier & Tin-plate Worker.

See also Ironmongers.

Cobbin Jph., Upper Gaolford

Builders.

Atkins Robert, Corve street

Griffiths Jno. Lower Gaolford

Grosvenor John, Bell lane

Smith Blakeway, Corve street

Stead Edward, St. John’s

Brick & Tile Manufacturer.

Sheffield T. Upper Gaolford

Butchers.

Chipp S., Tower st. & Bell ln

Coleman Thomas, Broad st

Dayus Samuel, Bull ring

Griffiths John, Old street

Nash John, Bull ring

Pitt Benjamin, High street

Preen Thomas, Old street

Price John, High street

Price Richard, Bull ring

Towers, John Harrows

Williams Charles H., Harp ln

Cabinet Makers.

Marked * are Upholsterers.

* Bowen Thomas, Bull ring

* Davies William, Bull ring

Harper Joseph, Broad street

Price Edward, Castle street

Carvers and Gilders.

Bowen Richard, Old street

Gwynn William, Old street

Chemists & Druggists.

Cocking George, Bull ring

Foster Edward, Castle street

Grounds Ambrose, King st

Grieves John E., Old street

Marston Richard, Broad st

Coach Makers.

Griffiths James, Raven lane

Hunt Thomas, Raven lane

Rollings Elias, Upper Gaolford

Confectioners.

Crane Thomas, Bull ring

Crundell James, Tower street

Lewis Thomas, Bull ring

Powell George, Narrows

Taylor William, Broad street

Coopers.

Bayliss Thomas, Bull ring

Cooke James, Bull ring

Green Geo., Lower Gaolford

Price Edward, Corve street

Sankey Jeremiah, Broad st

Sankey Mry, Lower Gaolford

Curriers and Leather Cutters.

Griffiths Margaret, Narrows

Lello Thomas, Bull ring

Mantell Fred., Lower Gaolford

Cutlery Dealer.

Bursnell Francis, Tower st

Farmers.

Ball Richard, Broad street

Griffiths George, Bull ring

Hand James, Corve street

Fellmonger.

Weaver Joseph, Tower street

Fire & Life Offices.

County.—E. Foster, Castle st

Merchants’ and Tradesman’s.—Geo. Cocking, Bull ring

North Wales.—Philip Wayn, Corve street

Norwich.—William Felton, King street

Phœnix.—Thos. Laurence, Broad street

Salop.—Richard Marston, Broad street

Sun.—T. Griffiths, Bull ring

Fishmongers.

Messer James, Bull ring

Russell Mr., Old street

Williams William, High st

Fruiterer.

Humphries George, Bull ring

Furniture Broker.

Williams William, High st

Glass and China Dealers.

Brown Elizabeth, Bull ring

Crump Ann, Broad street

Milner Benjamin, Harp lane

Jolley Sarah, Broad street

Jones Edward, Broad street

Glover.

Bottomley Mary, Bull ring

Grocers, Tea Dealers, and Cheesemongers.

Bowen John, Narrows

Brown Charles, Tower street

Harding William, Narrows

Hawkins Joseph, Broad st

Mason Charles, King street

Morris Benjamin, Tower st

Morris Thomas, Castle street

Patrick William, Old street

Penny William, Bull ring

Pugh George, Harp lane

Reynolds John, Bull ring

Stokes Mary, High street

Valentine Samuel, Broad st

Gun Makers.

Holland Titus, Old street

Lonorgan Timothy, Old st

Hair Dressers and Perfumers.

Anthony John, Bull ring

Crundell George, Broad st

Griffiths Catharine, Broad st

Pearce Benjamin, King st

Hat Manufacturers.

Ashworth John, Broad street

Jones Blanch, High street

Hop Merchants.

Lloyd Henry, Old street

Rawlins William, Corve st

Hosiers.

Jones Mary Ann, Broad st

Powell Edward, High street

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Angel, Eliz. Cooke, Commercial Inn & Posting House, Broad street

Barley Mow, Eliz. Juckes, Broad street

Bear and White Lion, Mary Ann Harrington, Bull ring

Bell, Ths. Js., Upper Gaolford

Bell, Jas. Pillinger, Lower Broad street

Black Boy, Thomas Jenkins, Tower street

Blue Boar, J. Davies, Mill st

Bricklayers’ Arms, Andrew Fielding, Upper Gaolford

Bull Inn, William Whiteman, Commercial Inn & Posting House, Bull ring

Coach and Horses, Henry Oliver, Bell lane

Compasses, J. Pearce, Corve st

Crown and Horse Shoe, G. Davies, Lower Broad st

Dolphin, Thomas Cooper, Upper Gaolford

Eagle, Jno. Mantell, Corve st

Elephant & Castle, Matthew Evans, Bull ring

Feathers Hotel, T. Prothero, Commercial Inn & Posting House, Bull ring

Fox, Esther Davies, Upper Gaolford

Friars, John Hancock, Old st

George Inn, Margaret Bach, Castle st

Globe, William Coates, Hand and Bell lane

Golden Lion, Wm. Morris, Old street

Green Dragon, Ed. Edwards, Corve street

Green Dragon, Tho. Hodges, Old street

Greyhound, Wm. Thompson, Upper Gaolford

Half Moon, John Davies, Lower Gaolford

Hand and Bell, Jas. White, Hand and Bell lane

Harp, James Dye, Harp lane

Hop Pole, Jno. Wems, Mill st

Horse and Jockey, Wm. Key, Old Gate Fee

Horse Shoes, William Lugg, Upper Gaolford

Mitre, Robert Allum, Corve st

Lowe Frederick, beerhouse, New road

King’s Arms, Ann Owen, Bull ring

Knight John, beerhouse, Lower Broad street

Nag’s Head, James Evans, Corve street

Old Red Lion, Timothy Price, Hand and Bell lane

Ozyer John, beerhouse, Old Gate Fee

Paul Pry, Richard Powis, Lower Broad Street

Pheasant, Henry Hardwick, Tower street

Plough, Thomas Whatmore, Raven lane

Plumbers’ Arms, Jas. Collier, Raven lane

Portcullis Arms, Ed. Painter, Gaolford

Prince of Wales, Wm. Pea, Raven lane

Queen’s Arms, Richard Bird, Corve street

Queen’s Head, Tho. Sheldon, Lower Gaolford

Railway Arms, Hy. Thomas, Old Gate Fee

Ram, John Evans, Corve st

Raven, Jas. Harding, Upper Gaolford

Raven, Rd. Pugh, Raven lane

Rose and Crown, Thomas Amies, Bull ring

Royal Oak, William Pearce, Lower street

Spread Eagle, Ann Ellis, Corve street

Star and Garter, Thomas Coston, Corve street

Sun Inn, William Shepherd, Castle street

Talbot, Jph. Weaver, Tower st

Three Tuns, Thomas Dunn, Mill street

Trotting Horse, Richard Coleman, Corve street

Unicorn, Hny. Oliver, Corve street

Wheat Sheaf, Thomas Humphries, Lower Broad st

White Hart, Thos. Berrington, Old street

Wright John, beerhouse, Lower Broad street

Ironmongers.

Cooper & Bluck, Castle st

Egginton Edward, Bull ring

Hodges Chaplin, Dinham

Penny Thomas, Bull ring

Smith John C., King street

Joiners.

Davies Samuel, Raven lane

Evans John, Mill street

Smith Rd., Lower Broad st

Land, Estate, & House Agents.

Baines Thomas (wool agent), Castle street

Harrison John (wool agent), Linney

Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

Boulton Francis, Corve street

Evans James, The Cross

Gardener Robt. G., Bull ring

Harding Jas. & Ewd., High st

Harper Charles, High street

Jones Wm. & Harley, High st

Leake James, Castle street

Shepperd John, Broad street

Steward Mr., Narrows

Maltsters.

Acton William, Corve street

Atkins Robert, Corve street

Corfield John, Corve street

Davies Richard, Corve street

Harding Henry, Corve street

Hand James, Corve street

Hockey James, Old street

Jones James, Bull ring

Jones John, Corve street

Lloyd Henry, Old street

Rawlins Wm., Corve street

Smith John, Corve street

Millers and Corn Dealers.

Harding William, Mill street

Hockey James, Old street

Williams Joseph, Dinham

Whatmore John, Broad street

Milliners & Dress makers.

Cartwright Martha, Corve st

Daniel Decime & Catherine, Corve street

Glaye Matilda, Broad street

Hotchkiss Elizabeth, King st

Heighington Harriet, Brown street

Jones Ann M., Broad street

Lello Mary, Bull ring

Montgomery Margaret

Pearce Sarah, King street

Price Sarah, Castle street

Poole Mary, Harp lane

White Mary, Corve street

Millwright.

Hodges Chaplin, Dinham

Nursery and Seedsmen.

Marked * are Nurserymen only.

Bowen Ann, Broad street

Cooke Ann, Raven lane

* Cox Elizabeth, Old street

Hand James, Corve street

* Pillar Thomas, Old gate fee

* Rooke Owen, Corve street

* Tyler William, Old street

Painters.

Bowen John, Broad street

Cooke Thomas, Old street

Gwynn William, Old street

Osborn John, Old street

Powell Edward, Castle street

Powell Samuel, Raven lane

Ward James, Raven lane

Wayn Philip, Corve street

Pawnbroker.

Collins Francis, Corve street

Paper Manufacturer.

Wade John, Paper mills

Physician.

Bryce Charles, Broad street

Plumbers and Glaziers.

Collins Samuel, Old street

Cooke Thos. (and gas fitter), Old street

Powell Edward, Castle street

Powell Samuel, Raven lane

Round Jas., Lower Gaolford

Ward James, Raven lane

Wayn Philip, Corve street

Williams Richard, Brand lane

Poulterers.

Evans Sarah, The Narrows

Jenson Mary, Harp lane

Professor and Teacher.

Price John (dancing and fencing) Corve street

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Amies Samuel, Bull ring

Gough John, Castle street

Hotchkiss Thos., King street

Jones James, Bull ring

Roberts Edward, High street

Sharebroker.

Bach James, Broad street

Shopkeepers.

Bradley Thos. Lower Gaolford

Dukes Richd. Lower Gaolford

Frances Rosetta, Corve street

Griffith Martha

Hodnett Martha, Lower Broad street

Jones David, Tower street

Leary Edward, Tower street

Pelly Thomas, Old gate fee

Small Wm., Lower Broad st

Spade Tree Makers.

Harper John, Linney

Sankey Jeremiah, Broad st

Stone & Marble Masons.

Greenhouse John, Broad st

Hammond Andrew, Corve st

Russell Edward, Old street

Russell John, Mill street

Stead Samuel, Castle street

Watkins Jas. Upper Gaolford

Straw Hat Makers.

Baker Maria, High street

Gray Hannah, Bull ring

Powell Jane, Old street

Wall Ann, High street

Surgeons.

Hodges George, Broad street

Hodges Henry, Broad street

Meymott Henry, Broad street

Southern John, Broad street

Valentine Richard, College

Walker Henry, Broad street

Surveyors.

Brettle Cornelius (land and mine), Broad street

Clark Edwin F., Corve street

Evans Herb. (land), Castle st

Smith E. Blakeway, Corve st

Tench John & Richard (and land agents), Church-yard

Tailors.

Marked * are Woollen Drapers also.

* Carter John, Narrows

Crosse Samuel, Mill street

Crundell Daniel, High street

Downes Edward, Tower street

* Jones Isaac & Son, High st

Morgan Edwin, Bell lane

Pearce Samuel, Bell lane

* Wall Henry, High street

Wall Richard, Brand lane

Williams Henry, Harp lane

Tanner.

Unwick Benjamin, Corve st

Timber Merchants.

Harper John, Linney

Hind James, Upper Gaolford

Sankey Jeremiah, Broad st

Toy and Fancy Repositories.

Crosse Elizabeth, High street

Crundell George, High street

Woodyett Mary, High street

Trunk Maker.

Powell John, Harp lane

Turner in Wood.

Bennett Wm., Lower Gaolfrd

Veterinary Surgeons.

Cresswell Charles, Broad st

Jones James, Corve street

Watch and Clock Makers.

Ashby John, Raven lane

Edwards Robert, Raven lane

Farmer Joseph, Old street

Payne George, Bull ring

Phillips William, Castle street

Wood Samuel, Bell lane

Whitesmiths.

Day George, Lower Broad st

Halford Thomas, Bell lane

Wells Henry, Old street

Wine & Spirit Merchants.

Evans Edward, The Cross

Massey Francis, Bull ring

Parry Jas., Hand & Bell lane

Powell Edward, Castle street

Sankey Eleanor, Broad street

Woollen Manufacturer.

Evans Wm., Lower Broad st

Carriers.

To Shrewsbury—Dodd Daniel, Corve street

To Worcester—Webb Hry. and James, Upper Gaolford street

THE HUNDRED OF STOTTESDEN.

The hundred of Stottesden is bounded on the north by the Wenlock franchise, on the south by the hundred of Overs and the county of Worcestershire, on the east by the liberty of Bridgnorth and the county of Staffordshire, and on the west by the Wenlock franchise and the hundreds of Munslow and Overs.  Farlow is a detached part of the hundred of Herefordshire, bounded by this hundred and an isolated part of Overs.  The minerals found in this hundred are coal, ironstone, and limestone.  On the western verge of the hundred is a range of hills, some of which rise to a considerable altitude; there are also considerable inequalities of surface, and bold swells in most parts of the hundred.  The soil is various; the land which lies over the limestone is mixed with a calcareous gravel, and mostly fertile; the soil over the freestone produces good turnips and barley.  The population in 1821, exclusive of the borough of Bridgnorth, was 12,160; and in 1841 there were 12,282 inhabitants, and 2,426 inhabited houses.  At the latter period the liberty of the borough of Bridgnorth contained 1,231 inhabited houses, and a population of 6,198 souls.  This hundred is divided into the Chelmarsh and Cleobury divisions.

The Chelmarsh division contains the parishes of Acton Round, Alveley, Astley Abbotts, Billingley, Chelmarsh, Chetton, Cleobury North, Deuxhill, Glazeley, Higley, Middleton Scriven, Morville, Neenton, Oldbury, Quatford, Quatt, Rudge Sheinton, Sidbury, Tasley, and Upton Cressett.

The Cleobury division contains Aston Botterell, Burwarton, Cainham, Cleobury, Mortimer, Coreley, Dowles, Hope Baggot, Hopton Wafers, Kinlet, Neen Savage, Stottesden, Wheathill and Farlow chapelry.

ACTON ROUND, OR ROUND ACTON,
in a parish and small village six miles north-east by east from Bridgnorth, which contains 1,940 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,447.  At the census of 1841 there were 36 houses and 180 persons.  Population in 1801, 200; and in 1831, 203.  Sir John Acton, bart., is the principal landowner, and lord of the manor.  The Church is an ancient edifice, situated on an eminence commanding extensive and varied prospects of the surrounding country.  In the church are several monuments to the memory of deceased members of the Acton family.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Sir John Acton, Bart.; Rev. William G. Day is the incumbent.

Directory.—William Ainsworth, farmer; William Davies, farmer; Rev. William G. Day, perpetual curate; Margaret Duff, cow keeper; Thomas Embrey, farmer; Richard Evans, farmer; George Farmer, farmer; Samuel Littlewood, farmer; William Lowe, farmer; Jasper Madeley, farmer; Francis Powell, wheelwright; John Powell, bailiff; William Preen, farmer; Charles Rhodes, farmer; Richard Russell, farmer; Edward Tipton, farmer; Henry Wadlow, farmer, the Hall.

ALVELEY
is a considerable parish in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden hundred, which comprises the townships of Alveley, Nordley Regis, and Romsley Liberty.  Population in 1801, 791; 1831, 949; 1841, 1,062; 1851, 1,041.  The parish is bounded on the western side by the river Severn, on the south and east by the county of Stafford, and on the north by the parishes of Quatt and Claverley.  The soil in this parish is variable; in some parts a red sand and loamy earth prevails, and in other parts it is light and sandy.  The farms are generally large, and particular attention has been paid to draining and the improvement of the lands; the farm houses are mostly of brick, and have been greatly improved of late years.  The village of Alveley is well built and pleasantly situated, six miles and a half south from Bridgnorth, and eight miles north from Bewdley.  The township in 1841 contained 187 houses and 914 inhabitants; and has 5,147a. 2r. 37p. of land, 122a. 3r. 15p. of which are in woods and plantations.  Rateable value, £5,601.  Among the landowners are Miss Green; Mrs. Brittle; Mr. John Crowther; Mary Hayward; Rev. William Wakeley; Trustees of Claverley school; Mr. Edward Hughes; Christ Church College, Oxford; Mr. Richard Veal; Mr. Homer; Messrs. Tunnicliff; Mr. John Hall; Mr. William Wyer; Mr. John Stockall; Rev. Dr. Jenkins, dean and chapter of Bath and Wells; Thomas Beach, Esq.; William Beach, Esq.; Lord Standford; John Bacon, Esq.; the poor of Alveley; John M. Wingfield, Esq.; William Trow, Esq.; Mr. William Corser; Mrs. Hand; Mr. Thomas Feriday; Mr. William Bowen; and others.

The Church is an ancient structure, dedicated to St. Mary, and consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower, in which are six musical bells.  The nave is divided from the side aisles by four semi-circular arches, and there are two side chapels belonging to the owner of the Coton estate.  The tower was taken down and rebuilt in 1666, part of the chancel was rebuilt in 1585, and the south part was repaired in 1638.  There are several neat tablets.  The church will accommodate 416 hearers.  At the east end of the church is a large stone coffin.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Edward G. Gatacre, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. Robert Augustus Wellesley Considine, M.A.  The Parochial School, and residence for the teacher, are situated in the churchyard.  It is endowed with certain lands, as will be seen on reference to the charities, from which the teacher receives £25 per annum, in consideration of which he teaches a limited number of scholars free; the rest pay a small weekly stipend; about fifty scholars attend.  The feast is held on the first Sunday after the 15th of August.  A court leet and baron is held for the manor every three years.  Stone quarries near the village are worked to a considerable extent; immense blocks are raised and worked into grinding stones for gunsmiths and others.

Nordley Regis is a township with a few scattered houses in the parish of Alveley, pleasantly situated two miles north-east from the church.  Coton is a small hamlet in Nordley Regis.  Coton Hall and estate have recently been sold by E. L. Gatacre to the Rev. Mr. Wakeley.  The house is a stuccoed mansion pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, commanding some fine views of the adjacent country.  The park comprises about eighty acres, and is pleasingly diversified with graceful undulations.

Romsley is a township and village situated about two miles east from Alveley, which at the census of 1841 contained 27 houses and 110 inhabitants; and has 1,900 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,334. 5s. 6d.  Abraham Stephen Cresswell, Esq., is lord of the manor and the principal landowner.  Dr. Jenkins is also a considerable owner; and John M. Wingfield, Esq., the Misses Cresswell, Mr. Richard Palmer, and Mr. Stephen Cresswell, are also freeholders.

Charities.—John Grove, by will, dated 10th of December, 1616, bequeathed a yearly stipend of £10 to the schoolmaster of Alveley, and a like yearly payment of £10, to have continuance for ever, to be distributed among five poor aged and impotent men.  For the establishing of these yearly stipends, the executors purchased a messuage, with the appurtenances, called Longhurst, situated in Ledbury and Eastnor, in Herefordshire, which contained 74a. 2r. 4p. of land, and which was exchanged with Charles Lord Somers in the year 1793 for certain lands in Alveley parish, containing 111a. 0r. 27p. of land, which was held at the time the Charity Commissioners published their report at a rent of £73 per annum.  The schoolmaster’s stipend was increased in 1800 to £20, and has since been augmented to £25, with a house rent free, and an allowance of two loads of coal; and five poor men of Alveley receive from this charity a yearly stipend of £6 each.

Thomas Grove, in 1743, left certain lands, comprising 31a. 3r. 0p., upon trust, that the annual rents and profits should be divided among the poor of the parish of Alveley.  The land is let to several tenants, at a rent of £42 per annum.

This parish participates in the charity of Mr. William Seabright, who, by his will, dated 1620, gave certain premises, the rents thereof to be employed towards the relief of the poor of several parishes in Worcester, Stafford, and Salop, of which Alveley is one.  The parish receives from the charity money wherewith to distribute fourteen pennyworth of bread every Sunday, which is given among the poor.

James Bowen, by will, dated 1st April, 1715, gave to the poor of Alveley the sum of £6, to be put forth at interest by the churchwardens, and the proceeds to be applied to the purchase of good books, to be distributed to the poor families of the parish.  About thirty years ago this charity was lost, in consequence of the bankruptcy of the person in whose hands it was placed.

George Garbett, by will, dated 19th June, 1758, bequeathed £100, to be put out at interest, which was to be disposed of on the 1st of January every year to such poor persons of the parish of Alveley as should not receive parochial relief.

Humphrey Dovey, in 1700, left £20, the interest thereof to be distributed among the poor of the parish in bread.  In respect of which forty-three penny loaves are distributed on Good Friday, and forty on St. Thomas’s day.

Arthur Arden left a piece of land, containing two acres and a half, the profits of which were to be expended in bell ropes (when required) for the use of the parish church.  At the time the Charity Commissioners published their report the land was let at a rent of £6 per annum.  It is said the land was given to the parish clerk on condition that he should find bell ropes, but the original conveyance, which had been kept in the church chest, was lost about fifty years ago; and it appears that for more than 100 years the rents of the land have been received by the parish clerk for his own use, and he has provided the bell ropes as they were wanted.

Thomas Russell, in 1842, gave the sum of £40, and directed the interest to be appropriated for the benefit of poor parishioners.

Post Office—At William Evans’s.  Letters from Bridgnorth at 9.45 A.M., and are despatched at 3.30 P.M.

ALVELEY DIRECTORY.

Ameys Edmund, farmer

Ameys Thomas, farmer, Dunbolds

Bache William, farmer, Leekhouse

Bacon Jno., farmer, Hall Close

Brewer William, Gorton’s Flour Mills

Bridge James, farmer

Clarke John, butcher and shoemaker

Clarke Stephen, butcher and farmer

Considine Rev. Rbt. Agustus Wellesley, M.A.

Craig John, farmer

Crow Wm., farmer, Turley Green

Davies Henry, farmer

Doolittle Samuel, maltster

Evans George, stone mason and farmer

Evans John, farmer

Evans Thomas, farmer, Moor House

Evans William, postmaster

Fellows Michael, farmer, Pool Hall

Fereday Thomas, farmer

Fox John, farmer

Foxall Mary, farmer, Dod’s Green

Giles Thomas, vict., Bell Inn

Griffiths William, tailor and shopkeeper

Haines Joseph, blacksmith

Harris Rchd., farmer

Hayward John, farmer, The Butts

Hayward Mary, Little London farm

Head John, beer-retailer, Kitlands

Hick Thos., farmer, Hadleys

Higgs John, butcher

Hobbs William, victualler, Squirrel Inn

Hobbis Mary, vict., Three Horse Shoes

Jenning William, shoemaker

Jones James, Hollies farm

Lane John, quarry-master and farmer

Lane Thomas, quarry-master and mason

Lowe Thomas, farmer

Millward John, beerhouse-keeper and wheelwright

Powell Francis, shoemaker

Richards Thomas, farmer

Stockall John, farmer, Cookscroft

Taylor Job, farmer

Veal Rd., farmer, Langford

Walker Charles, butcher and farmer

Warder John, farmer, Hay farm

Webb Benjamin, carpenter

Wilks Jos., farmer, Turley Green

Williams Thos. quarry-mstr.

Wood James, stone mason

Wood James, quarry-owner

Wyer Wm., farmer, Cookscroft

Yates William, wheelwright

NORDLEY REGIS DIRECTORY.

Bache Thomas, Esq., Greenfield House

Berkin Geo., farmer, Astley

Bowen Thomas, farmer

Bowen William, farmer

Cox Thomas, miller, Alan Bridge

Crowther John, farmer, Bolthole

Edmonds William, farmer, High Barns

Edwards Martha, farmer, Hubbolds

Fereday Thomas, farmer, Tuck Hill

Hobbs Wm., farmer, Bird’s Green

Lowe Thomas, farmer, Perry House

Marston George, farmer, Barretts

Massey William, shopkeeper

Nicholls John, farmer

Page William, farmer

Webb Benjamin, shopkeeper, Bird’s Green

Wootton John, beer-retailer

ROMSLEY DIRECTORY.

Cox Thomas, miller and farmer, Alam Bridge

Cresswell Abraham Stephen, Esq.

Cresswell, Ezekiel, farmer, Pool House

Cresswell Nancy, gentlewoman, The Hall

Cresswell Sarah, farmer, The Hall

Cresswell Stephen, farmer

Doolittle Wm., beer-retailer

Edmonds John, farmer, Bowels farm

Foxall John, blacksmith

Foxall William, blacksmith

Gritton Jos., farmer, Harts Green farm

Hincks Wm., farmer, Ulet Hall

Leigh George, wheelwright

Winnell John, farmer, New House

ASTLEY ABBOTTS,
a parish and village in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden Hundred, two miles and a half north from Bridgnorth, contains 3,137 acres of land, intersected by the Broseley turnpike road and the Tasley and Linley streams, and is bounded on the eastern side by the river Severn.  193 acres are in woods, plantations, and water.  The soil in some parts is a mixture of earth and sand, and in other places a strong loam.  Rateable value £4,023. 1s. 2d.  At the census in 1801 there were 740 inhabitants; 1831, 666; and in 1841, 657.  At the latter period there were 139 inhabited houses.  The situation of Astley Abbotts is pleasant and highly salubrious, and there are several handsome residences.  The farms are mostly of considerable extent, and by a judicious outlay of capital in draining and other improvements have been brought to a state of great productiveness.  The principal landowners are Thos. Charlton Whitmore, Esq.; Lady Tyrwhitt Jones; John Stephens, Esq.; Mr. John Ward; Miss Pilkington; Mr. John Bowen; Rev. C. Whitmore; Lord Forester; Mr. John Lee; Sir John Acton, Bart.; Mr. Thomas Yapp; and George Pritchard, Esq.  The former is lord of the manor.  There are also several smaller proprietors.  The Church, an ancient fabric neatly pewed with oak sittings, has a groined roof, resting on hammer head projections, upon which are carved figures of the apostles.  A neat tablet remembers Sir Tyrwhitt Jones, Bart., F.R.S. and M.P., who died in 1811.  The same tablet also records the deaths of several other members of the family.  An elegant tablet commemorative of Sir Thomas Jones, Knt., is dated 1782.  A memorial of elaborate workmanship to Francis Billingsley, Esq., of Astley, an officer in the army of King Charles, is dated 1656.  It also records the deaths of various other members of the Billingsley family.  Upon a garland suspended from the sounding board hangs a pair of white kid gloves, and from an inscription we learn that Henry Phillips died in 1707 when presenting himself at the altar to be married.  The lady to whom he was about to be united survived him but a short period.  The reading desk and pulpit exhibit an exquisite specimen of carved workmanship.  The living is a perpetual curacy, enjoyed by the rector of Stockton; officiating minister, Rev. John Wing, B.A.  The lord of the manor is patron of the living.  The tithes are commuted for £220.  Astley Hall, the elegant mansion of Alfred Darby, Esq., is delightfully situated near the banks of the river Severn, and presents a beautiful specimen of the decorative style of the Elizabethan age.  The house was originally built in 1642, but has been greatly enlarged and beautified at subsequent periods.  The pleasure grounds are tastefully laid out, and the park is richly clothed with sylvan beauty.  Astley Abbotts House is an ancient timbered mansion, the residence and property of George Pritchard, Esq.  Albynes, a good house of modern erection, the residence and property of John Stephens, Esq., is pleasantly situated in a bold undulating district, and surrounded with park-like grounds.  Dunvall House, the property and residence of Mr. John Bowen, is a place of great antiquity, and was formerly the seat of the Acton family.  It is chiefly composed of massive timber and plaster, and is an interesting specimen of the domestic architecture of by-gone days.

Charities—John Huxley, Esq., in the year 1714, gave by his will a rent charge of 20s. per annum, to be distributed among twenty poor widows.  A sum of £20, supposed to have been left by one Litttehales, was lent to a person named Bache, of Bridgnorth, and afterwards to William Bourne, a baker, of the same place, who used to send a monthly supply of bread to the amount of the interest.  Shortly before the Charity Commissioners published their report Mr. Bourne became bankrupt, and the parish officers had not applied to prove this debt, from an idea that they had not the means of substantiating the claim.  Mrs. Catherine Phillips, by will, 1815, gave to the incumbent and churchwardens of Astley Abbotts the sum of £300 stock in the three per cent. consols, in trust, to pay out of the yearly dividends the sum of 20s. among twenty poor widows on St. Thomas’s day, and the remainder to some proper person for teaching poor children to read and write, and for bringing them to church every Sunday in an orderly manner.

Baldwin William, block and pump maker, and vict., Fox and Hounds, Linley Brook

Bate William, beer-retailer and bricklayer

Bentley John, butcher, Cross Houses

Bowen John, farmer and maltster, Dunvall House

Bromley James, farmer, Frog Mill

Clutton Wm., farmer, Nordley Common

Clutton William, butcher

Cox John, farmer, Binnall

Craig Wm., farmer, Bowlings

Crowe John, farmer

Darby Alfred, Esq., Astley Hall

Downes Edw. farmer, Rhodes

Farmer Thomas, farmer

Hall John, farmer, Raven’s Nest

Jones Thos. market-gardener

Littlewood Jane, beer-retailer, Cross lane head

Lowe Launcelot, beer-retailer, Nordley

Morris Wm., farmer, Severn Hall

Nock Thomas, Severn Hall

Nock Thomas, farmer, Cross lane head

Phillips Richard, farmer

Pritchard Geo., Esq., Astley Abbotts House

Pugh Wm., farmer, Hoard’s Park

Reynolds Mrs., Weavers’ Coppice

Smith Caroline and Sarah, Cantern Bank

Stephens John, Esq., The Albynes

Ward John, farmer & brick maker

Wing Rev. John, B.A., curate

Yardley John, blacksmith

Yardley William, shopkeeper

ASTON BOTTEREL
is a parish and scattered village nine miles S.W. of Bridgnorth, containing 2,198a. 0r. 14p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,960. 11s. 10d.  Population in 1801, 247; 1831, 260, and in 1841 173.  The principal landowner is the Duke of Cleveland.  John W. Sparrow, Esq., John Hincksman, Esq., and Henry George Mytton, Esq., are also proprietors.  The manor of Aston was formerly held under the Fitzalans Earls of Arundel, by the family of Botterels, from whom it received the addition of their name to distinguish it from the other Astons in the county.  In the 48th of Henry III. Thomas Botterel had a grant of a market on Tuesday, and a fair at Michaelmas, and also the privilege of free warren.  At the time of the commonwealth circular letters were sent to chose one hundred and four godly men to assist Cromwell in his government, and for this county the choice fell upon William Botterell, and Thomas Baker.

The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, is an ancient structure built of stone, having a square tower, in which are three bells.  The interior contains nave, chancel, and south aisle, in which is a monument to the memory of John and Mary Botterel, supposed to have been erected about the year 1585.  The side aisle is separated from the body of the church by three pointed arches.  The church was enlarged and repaired in the year 1830, when one hundred and eight free sittings were provided, in addition to twenty formerly free.  The registers of the parish commenced in the year 1559.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £7. 1s. 0½d.  The tithes are commuted for the sum of £345.  There are seventy acres of glebe land.  Patron of the living, His Grace the Duke of Cleveland; rector, Rev. Forbes Smith, B.A.

Directory.—Rev. Forbes Smith, B.A., The Rectory; Thomas Beddoes, farmer, Moor Brook; Richard Bishop, farmer, Norton; William Bryan, tailor; Edward Davies, farmer, Norton; Richard Eddowes, farm bailiff, The Bould; John Hincksman, farmer, Charlcott; Francis Lawley, farmer and vict., The Fox; Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe, farmer, Aston Hall; George Meredith, farmer; William Meredith, farmer; Ann Miles, farmer, Charlcott; Joseph Wellings, blacksmith; Nathan Weatherall, farmer, Haywood.

BILLINGSLEY,
a parish in the Chelmarsh division of the hundred of Stottesden, six miles S. of Bridgnorth, is pleasantly situated on the Bridgnorth and Cleobury Mortimer turnpike road.  It contains 1,285 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £900. 10s.  In 1841 there were 29 houses and 149 persons; population in 1801, 320; 1831, 161.  The Duke of Cleveland is the principal landowner.  William Lacon Childe, Esq., and the rector are also proprietors.  This place it is said was anciently called Biligesleague, and that an important congress was held here in 1055 between King Harold and Griffin Prince of Wales, in which they engaged to maintain peace and mutual good will.  Dr. Thomas Hyde, the great linguist and librarian, was born at this place in 1638.  The Church is a small structure containing nave, chancel, and has a turret, in which are two bells.  The accommodation of this church was increased in 1836, by which means twenty additional sittings were obtained, and in consequence of a grant from the Incorporated Society fourteen of that number are declared free and unappropriated for ever.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £4. 13s. 4d., now £195.  The Duke of Cleveland is patron of the living, and the Rev. Thomas Vaughan is rector.

Directory.—John Barker, blacksmith; Margaret Benbow, farmer, The Hall; William Birchley, farmer and vict., The Cape of Good Hope; John Green, shoemaker; Darius Griffin, farmer and carrier to Bridgnorth (every Saturday); Edward Humphries, farmer, The Oak; John Humphries, farmer, The Upper House; Rev. William Lewis Jones, curate; Samuel Jordin, farmer; Mary Lawley, farmer, The Bank; John Parry, farm bailiff, The Hall; Benjamin Reynolds, shoemaker.

BRIDGNORTH
is a populous and well built market town and borough, both corporate and parliamentary, having separate jurisdiction, and locally situated in the Stottesden hundred, 139 miles N.W. from London, twenty miles S.E. from Shrewsbury, thirteen miles S.W. from Wolverhampton, and eight miles S.E. from Much Wenlock.  The town is situated on the banks of the Severn which divides it into two portions called the Upper and Lower towns.  The Upper town is on the western bank of the river, on the sides and summit of a red sandstone rock which rises to the height of near two hundred feet above the level of the river.  The appearance of this part of the town is remarkably picturesque, and the view is very fine, especially from that part where the remains of the castle stand, where a terrace walk has been laid out, overlooking the Lower town, the river, and a widely spreading country.  This walk extends 622 yards, and was much admired by King Charles I. who was at Bridgnorth three times during the civil wars, and preferred it to all other terraces, in the kingdom.  Persons visiting Bridgnorth universally consider it highly interesting, and are charmed with the beautiful scenery it opens to view.  The town contains many good houses and handsome shops in the different branches of the retail trade, there are also some good family mansions and villa residences, which are ornamented with pleasure grounds tastefully laid out.  Under the brow of the hill are many rude dwellings cut out of the sandstone rock, with several caves, over which the inhabitants have gardens, which gives the whole a very romantic appearance.  The road from the Low town to the High town winds round the rock, but the nearer approaches for foot passengers are by several flights of steps, one of which called the Stoneway-steps formed by pebbles secured by a framing of ironwork, consists of 179 steps.  The town comprises the two parishes of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Leonard, and at the census of 1801 had 4,408 inhabitants; 1831, 5,065; and 1841, 5,770.  Rateable value of St. Mary’s parish, £7,402. 12s. 8d.  Rateable value of St. Leonard’s parish, £7,635. 10s. 11d.  The principal trade of Bridgnorth is an extensive establishment for the manufacture of carpets and rugs, malting, worsted spinning, and boat building.  The town, however, derives its chief importance from its situation on the river, and is a thriving inland port.  A large portion of the labouring class obtains employment in the navigation of the Severn, but the market and retail trade with the neighbourhood afford the principal source of profit to the inhabitants.

Bridgnorth is a place of great antiquity; it was originally called Brugia, or Bruges, and derived its name from a bridge erected over the Severn here.  The first memorable transaction that we find of this town was in King Alfred’s days, A.D. 894, when the Danes being driven from Norfolk, were forced to leave their ships and spend the winter at Brug upon Severn, on the borders of Wales, where they built a strong fort.  Whether the fort was destroyed by the chance of war we are unable to discover, but it is stated that Elfled, daughter of King Alfred, repaired both the town and castle, then fallen to decay.  It subsequently underwent the common vicissitudes of the country, being harassed both by the Saxons and the Danes, till Roger de Montgomery having obtained a grant of the earldom of Salop, built a new castle here.  Robert de Belesme, eldest son of the said Roger, in the time of Henry I. declared for Robert Curthose, and fortified his castle against the king, but after a siege of three weeks it was surrendered, and with the rest of his possessions annexed to the crown.  In the 16th of Edward III. the out-liberties of the castle which anciently were held of the Norman earls of Shrewsbury by the annual service of ten marks, were incorporated with the town.  The fee of the keeper of this castle in the time of Elizabeth was £9. 2s. 6d.  The castle having not been a sufficient defence of the town without walls about it, therefore in the 11th of Henry III. an aid was granted for two years for the walling of the town, and six years after another aid was granted for the same purpose.  The first charter of which any knowledge exists is of the 16th of King John, which grants to the burgesses of Bruges and their heirs, certain liberties and free customs, and freedom from toll throughout the kingdom, except within the liberties of London.  The burgesses maintained a suit at law against the Salopians, who hindered them from bringing raw hides and flannel cloth in their market, both towns depending on the validity of their charters which were fully enquired into.  In the 10th of Henry III. the grant of a fair was obtained to be held on St. Luke’s day, which subsequently became remarkable for the sale of hops, cheese, and walnuts.  The burgesses had liberty in this reign of holding pleas in personal actions, and of erecting fraternities or guilds of tradesmen.  In the 33rd of Edward III. the inhabitants obtained the grant of a fair to be held at the feast of the Translation of St. Leonard, and for the three days following.  Fairs are now held on the third Thursday in February, third Tuesday in March, 1st May, third Tuesday in June, first Tuesday in August, third Tuesday in September, 20th October, and the first Tuesday after Shrewsbury December fair.  The market is held on Saturday, and well supplied with butchers’ meat, butter, poultry, and other provisions of excellent quality.  The corn market is numerously attended, and business to a considerable extent is usually transacted.

The old corporation consisted of two bailiffs, a recorder, a deputy recorder, twenty-four aldermen, forty-eight common councilmen, two chamberlains, and two bridge masters, with a town clerk, sergeants at mace, and other officers.  The bailiffs were justices of the peace, and justices of the court of record; the senior acted as coroner for the borough.  The recorder held his office for life; his deputy whom he appointed was always a barrister, and the legal adviser of the corporation.  The bailiffs were chosen every year on St. Matthew’s day, out of the twenty-four aldermen, in the following remarkable manner:—The court being met, the names of twelve aldermen, seniors of those then present, being separately written upon small bits of paper, all of them of the same size and rolled up close by the town clerk, were thrown into a large purse, which after being well tossed by the chamberlains was held betwixt them before the bailiffs, when each bailiff according to seniority took out a scroll; by these scrolls the callers were fixed, who immediately mounting the chequer, alternately called the jury out of such persons as are burgesses, and then presented them to the court to the number of fourteen; these being all sworn, (neither to eat nor drink till they, or twelve of them, had made choice of two fit persons, who have not been bailiffs before for three years), were locked up until they were agreed, a regulation which has sometimes occasioned long fasting.  At the election in 1793, the jury fasted no less than seventy-four hours.  By the new municipal act, Bridgnorth is governed by a bailiff, or mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors.  A commission of the peace has been granted, and a court of quarter sessions and recorder appointed.  The following is a list of the members of parliament, borough magistrates, and corporate body, for the year 1851:—

Members of Parliament: Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., and Sir Thomas Pigot, Bart.

Borough Magistrates: Henry Slater Richards, Esq., mayor; William Jones, Esq., Henry George Mytton, Esq., Thomas Whitmore Wylde Brown, Esq., Edward Farrer Acton Esq., Joshua Sing, Esq., Farmer Taylor, Esq., Thomas Bangham, Esq., Wm Hallen, Esq., and John Stephens, Esq.

Mayor: Henry Slater Richards, Esq.

Aldermen: John Smalman, Esq., Thomas Nock, Esq., Edward Ridley, Esq., and Benjamin Boucher, Esq.

Councillors: Thomas Deighton, James Brown Grierson, Joseph Southwell, Joseph Minton Glase, Samuel Nicholls, James Henry Martin, Robert Harrison, Joshua Sing, Henry Slater Richards, James Edward Newall, Frederick Homfray, and William Jones.  Recorder: Uvedale Corbet, Esq.  Coroner: William Dones Batte, Esq.  Town Clerk: John Jacob Smith, Esq.  Clerk to Borough Magistrates: Edward William Hazlewood, Esq.  Town Crier: George Evans.

The ruins of a Castle fortified by Robert de Belesme, the third Norman earl of Shrewsbury, are still standing.  The edifice was erected on the site of a former structure, but a portion of the square tower now standing 17 degrees out of its perpendicular is almost the only relic of this baronial fortress left.  A chapel within the walls of the castle was made collegiate, and had a dean and six prebendaries.  When Robert de Belesme held this castle in rebellion in 1102, against Henry I., Ralph de Pitchford behaved himself so valiantly, that the king gave him the little Brugg near it to hold by the service of finding dry wood for the great chambers of the castle, against the coming of his sovereign.  A romantic act of loyalty is related of Hubert de St. Clare, who with King Henry II. was besieging the castle of Bridgnorth, and seeing one of the enemy taking aim at his sovereign, stepped before him and received the arrow in his own breast, and therewith his death-wound.  In the civil wars the castle was garrisoned for the King, who marched here from Shrewsbury to meet the parliamentary army; an engagement took place near to St. Leonard’s church wherein the royalists were defeated, the castle totally demolished, and the collegiate church so injured that it had to be taken down and rebuilt.  The Gates and Walls of the town were thrown down in the civil wars.  The north gate was afterwards rebuilt at the expense of the corporation, over which is a room now used for the Blue Coat School.  A handsome and substantial stone Bridge crosses the Severn, and stands near the site of a former bridge erected by the Saxons.  A portion of the Lower town is subject to be flooded by the Severn overflowing its banks.  The Races have been discontinued for several years, but have been revived during the present year.  The race-course is situate about a mile from Bridgnorth, in the parish of Tasley.  There are Billiard Tables at the Raven Inn, Whitburne street, and the Star Inn, Underhill street.  Mr. Edwards has generously granted the use of Trap-field for a Cricket Ground.

There is a Bowling Green at the Hundred House Inn, situated about a mile from Bridgnorth; Mr. George Jarratt is the proprietor.  Baths were established in 1841 upon the premises of the South Shropshire Infirmary.  The Society for the Promotion of Religious and Useful Knowledge hold their meetings annually in December.  The depository for the Christian Knowledge Society is at Messrs. Wilmot and Brickley’s, Market street.  The Mechanics’ Institution, situated in High street, is furnished with a library comprising 366 volumes.  A reading room has also been established, which is furnished with periodicals, and some of the leading London and provincial journals; Joseph L. Whatmore, secretary.  The Town Library is situated in Castle Terrace, and contains 3,037 volumes; John Pinkstone is the librarian.  The Public Library in St. Leonard’s church-yard contains upwards of 4,000 volumes.  There are also Circulating Libraries at Mr. Smith’s and Miss Partridge’s.  The Stamp Office is at Mr. Southwell’s, West Castle street, and the Excise Office at the Castle Inn.

The Town Hall, situated in the centre of the market place, is an antique structure, built in 1682, and supported by pillars and arches.  The large room is appropriated to the town’s business and magisterial purposes.  The space under the hall is used for the sale of butter and poultry on the market days.  No sessions were held in the town in 1646 by reason of the war.  In this conflict the high town was burnt.

The Infirmary, in Listley street, is a handsome structure salubriously situated, and constructed with every attention to the convenience and convalescence of the inmates.  This institution was established in 1841, and is chiefly supported by subscriptions, and a few small benefactions left by charitable individuals; the Rev. J. Purton is the treasurer.

The Water Works.—The town is supplied with water raised from the Severn, and forced by machinery through a four inch main into a tank, situated upon Castle Walk, which when full is capable of holding about 6,500 gallons.  The funds for the support of the works are levied by a rate upon the inhabitants.  These works being inefficient for the supply of the town, it is proposed to construct a capacious reservoir near Palmer’s Hospital, six feet above the present tank, and twenty feet above High street, capable of holding 14,000 gallons, and so to improve the hydraulic machinery, as to give the inhabitants an abundant supply of this pure beverage of nature; Mr. Thomas Corser is the superintendent.

The Gas Works, situated on the western banks of the Severn, were established in 1838, by Mr. Edward, of Wellington.  There are two gasometers for the reception of the luminous vapour, and a charge of 8s. 6d. per cubic feet is made to the consumer; John Lloyd Whatmore, manager.

The Police Office is in East Castle street; Thomas A. Wilmot is the superintendent.  The Lockup is in Whitburne street.  The mayor and borough magistrates hold a court every alternate Monday for the trial of petty offences committed within the borough.  The county magistrates hold quarter sessions and petty sessions every alternate Saturday, and the borough has continued to return two members to parliament since the time of Edward I.  The places embraced within the jurisdiction of this borough are the parishes of St. Mary, St. Leonard, Quatford, Oldbury, Tasley, and Astley Abbots, and the townships of Quatt, Jarvis, and Eardington, and the liberty of Romsley.  In the year 1850 there were 721 electors to vote in the choice of members to serve in parliament.  Of this number 387 were freemen of the borough, and the rest electors in right of occupation.  The principal freeholders in the parishes of St. Mary and St. Leonard are Lord Sudeley, Thomas C. Whitmore, Esq., Sir John Acton, Bart., Trustees of Christ Church, Oxford, Messrs. Grierson and Law, A. F. Sparkes, Esq., Mr. John Green, Joshua Sing, Esq., Earl of Shrewsbury, Robert Harrison, Esq., Messrs. F. and J. Oakes, Mr. John Reece, Mr. Thomas Southall, Mr. John Summers, and others, are also proprietors.

The County Court, St. Leonard’s place, for the recovery of debts, and in all pleas of personal action where the damage does not exceed £50, comprises the following parishes and townships, namely:—Alverley, Astley Abbotts, Acton Round, Aston Eyres, Billingsley, Burwarton, Chelmarsh, Chetton, Claverley, Cleobury North, Deuxhill, Ditton Priors, Eardington, Glazeley, Middleton Scriven, Monkhopton, Morville, St. Leonard’s, St. Mary Magdalene, Neenton, Oldbury, Quatford, Quatt, Romsley, Sidbury, Stanton Long, Tasley, Upton Cressett, and Worfield.  Judge, Uvedale Corbett, Esq., Aston Hall.  Clerk, Harry Childe, Esq.  High Bailiff, Mr. John Lacon Bennett.  Appraiser, George Evans.  Treasurer, W. B. Collins, Esq.

The Bridgnorth Union House stands in an open and pleasant situation at the Innage, and was built in 1850, at a cost of £5,299. 17s. 8d., and will accommodate 200 inmates.  The number at present on the books is 53.  The union embraces an area of 68,076 acres of land, and a population of 15,805 souls.  The parishes in the union are 29 in number, namely:—Acton Round, Alverley, Astley, Abbotts, Aston Eyres, Billingsley, Burwarton, Chelmarsh, Chetton, Claverley, Cleobury North, Deuxhill, Ditton Priors, Eardington, Glazeley, St. Leonard’s, St. Mary Magdalene, Middleton Scriven, Monk Hopton, Morvill, Neenton, Oldbury, Quatford, Quatt, Romsley, Sidbury, Stanton Long, Tasley, Upton Cressett, and Worfield.  Chairman to the Guardians, Richard H. Gwyn, Esq.  Vice Chairman, John Wilson, Esq.  Clerk to the Guardians, Arndell Francis Sparkes, Esq.  Surgeons, William P. Brookes, Charles Pothecary, William Thursfield, James H. Martin, and Thomas Haslehust.  Chaplains, Rev. George Bellett, Rev. William K. Marshall, and the Rev. Robert A. W. Considine.  Relieving Officers, George Griffin and William Wall.  Master and Matron, Seth Bennett Barber and Mrs. Barber.  Superintendent Registrar, James H. Martin.  Deputy Registrar for Bridgnorth, William Roberts.

The Savings’ Bank is situated in Bank street, the capital stock of which on November 20th, 1850, amounted to £81,045. 2s. 3d., at which time there were 2,167 depositors; 60 charitable societies and 24 friendly societies had accounts with the bank.  Of the depositors there were 1,161 whose respective balances did not exceed £20; 531 were above £20 and not exceeding £50; 290 were above £50 and not exceeding £100; 102 not exceeding £150; 59 not exceeding £200; and 24 exceeding the latter amount.  The gross amount of capital invested by the charitable societies is £5,170. 16s. 1d., and of the friendly societies £2,672 19s.

The Church of St. Leonard, an ancient and venerable edifice, rebuilt in 1448, was nearly destroyed during the civil wars, but repaired soon after the restoration.  It is built of red sandstone, in the Gothic style of architecture, and has a massive square tower, crowned with pinnacles, containing a peal of six bells, a clock, and sun-dial.  The interior consists of nave, side aisles, and chancel, the latter of which underwent a complete reparation a few years ago.  The south compartment is separated from the body of the church by three arches.  The church is neatly pewed with oak, and in the gallery is a powerful and fine-toned organ.  The roof is supported by a framework of oak, each beam of which is ornamented by a figure of one of the apostles.  The window at the east end was restored by subscription, and beautified in memory of the late Thomas Whitmore, Esq., who by will gave the rectoral tithes of Bridgnorth, due to him as impropriator to the minister of this church, and also to that of St. Mary Magdalene.  On the south side is a stained glass memorial window, “restored in 1847 in memory of Mr. Boulton, formerly of the grammar school, by a priest of the English church, as a poor offering of thankfulness to Almighty God for many means of grace and good instruction vouchsafed both in this church and at the adjoining grammar school.”  This church had near it a college for the habitation of two chantry priests, appointed to pray for the rest of the soul of Thomas à Beckett, archbishop of Canterbury.  It was destroyed, with most part of the high town and church, at the time the parliamentary forces took possession of Bridgnorth.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. George Bellett.  The tithes are commuted for £308.  The parish of St. Leonard contained at the census of 1841, 627 houses and 2,997 inhabitants.

The Church dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene is a handsome edifice in the Grecian style of architecture, built in the year 1792, of white freestone, at an expense of £6,027. 11s. 9d.  It has a tower, surmounted by a cupola, containing six bells, a clock, and four dials.  The interior is spacious and handsome, and on the western gallery is a fine-toned organ.  The altar is of oak, richly carved.  The church is styled in ancient records, “Liberia regia capella;” that is, a free chapel of the kings, made exempt from episcopal jurisdiction by King John, who personally visited this town on his way to Worcester.  It was made parochial in 4th Edward III.  This church was a free collegiate chapel, founded by William the Conqueror, consisting of a dean and five prebends.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. W. K. Marshall.  The tithes are commuted for £268.  There are thirteen and a half acres of glebe land.  The parish of St. Mary Magdalene in 1841 contained 577 houses, and 2,773 inhabitants.

The Baptist Chapel, situated in West Castle street, is a brick structure, and will accommodate about 280 persons.  It was built in the year 1704.

The Catholic and Apostolic Church, in West Castle street, is a commodious edifice, built of freestone in the year 1835.  The building has Gothic windows, ornamented with stained glass.  The interior has a beautiful appearance; the altar is of stone, and there are richly carved oak stalls and desks for the priests.  The seats are all free.  “The congregation is under the rule and government of the apostles, being in charge of an angel, who, with priests, assisted by deacons, fulfil their several duties clothed with appropriate vestments.”

The Independent Chapel, built of brick in the year 1711, will accommodate about 400 hearers.  It is situated on the Stoneway Steps.

The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, situated on St. Mary’s Steps, was erected in the year 1832, and has since been enlarged.  It is now capable of seating 250 persons.  A Sabbath school is connected with the chapel, where about seventy children attend.

The National and Infant Schools, situated on elevated ground in Listley street, were established in 1820.  There is accommodation in these schools for 300 children: 150 boys and 50 girls attend.  The schools are supported by annual subscriptions, donations, charity sermons, and small weekly payments from the scholars.  The income for the year ending March 25th, 1851, amounted to £228. 14s. 3d.

The British School, in West Castle street, is held in a spacious and convenient room under the Baptist chapel: it is numerously attended.  There is also a school taught in a room over the Independent chapel, where about sixty children are instructed.

St. Mary’s School, situated in the Low Town, is a commodious building of brick, erected by public subscriptions in 1847, at a cost of £756.  Upwards of 100 children attend the school.

The Free Grammar School.—This school was founded more than three hundred years ago, by the bailiffs and burgesses, for the purpose of affording, free of expense, to “all comers,” instruction in literature and good learning, until they shall be capable to be sent to the universities of Oxford or Cambridge.  For the better maintenance of the school, Sir Rowland Hayward, in 1624, gave a rent charge of £20 per annum; £4 a year was left by his son; £2 a year was left by Sir John Hayward for the usher; and £8 a year, called the king’s allowance, was also paid to the usher out of the audit money.  In 1639, the lease of a house was granted by Sir William Whitmore, at an annual rent of 8s., for a residence for the master.  In 1687 Sir William Whitmore renewed the lease, and by a covenant therein, bound his successors to continue the lease on the same conditions, as long as the school should continue to be a free school.  It appears that the master of the free school has always received some allowance from the corporation, which in 1726 amounted to £10; in 1817 it was increased to £30; and it was further agreed to supply from the private funds of those members of the corporation who sent their sons to this school, as much money as, in addition to the several sources of emolument before particularised, would make up an annual salary of £100 for the master.  For the last two years the grant from the corporation has been discontinued: it is hoped, however, the corporate body will see the propriety of renewing their grant.  The various bequests to this school, and the exhibitions at Christ College, Oxford, will be found noticed with the following account of the general charities of Bridgnorth.

Charities.—Edward Careswell, by will dated 3rd February, 1689, left certain lands in the counties of Salop and Stafford, in all containing 1,075a. 2r. 23p. of land, chargeable with the maintenance of eighteen scholars in the college of Christ Church, in Oxford, four of the aforesaid scholars to be chosen from Shrewsbury Free Grammar School, three from Bridgnorth, four from Newport, three from Shiffnal, two from Wem, and two out of Donnington, in the parish of Wroxeter, who were to receive while undergraduates £18 each for four years, after he should have commenced bachelor of arts; £21 each for three years, until he should commence master of arts; and £27 yearly to each for three years after he should commence master of arts, and no longer.  In the year 1813, a considerable surplus of the rents and profits having accrued, the sum of £1,500 was applied to the purchase of the rectoral tithes of the Walker’s Low and Walkham Wood farms: and in 1815 the further sum of £1,515. 7s. was laid out in the purchase of 26a. 0r. 38p. of land, with a new built brick and tiled barn in the parish of Quatford.  This farm had previously gained an addition of 36a. 1r. 14p., under the Morfe Enclosure Act; and on the Priors Ditton enclosure, in 1813, an allotment of 10a. 1r. 2p. was awarded to the Sydnall Farm.  The tenants of the land respectively hold from year to year, and the rents are varied from time to time, as circumstances are found to require.  At the time the charity commissioners published their report, the annual rent was £1,191. 2s.  From the surplus rents and profits there remained on 25th January, 1820, the amount of £9,394. 7s. 6d. three per cent. consols, and in cash the sum of £1,093. 18s. 1d.; the former sum affording an income of £281. 16s. 7½d., which, with the rents, make the sum of £1,472. 18s. 7½d. as the total annual income, which is subject to a charge of £308. 1s. 4d. for repairs, leaving for the objects of the charity the sum of £1,164. 17s. 3½d.  By a codicil to the will of the aforesaid Edward Careswell, dated 24th February, 1689, he devised the sum of £10 to be annually paid to the minister of Bobbington, in augmentation of his salary, which sum was to be deducted out of the several allowances of the eighteen scholars, when the same shall become payable, by an abatement of 11s. 1½d. out of each of the said scholars’ allowance.

Arthur Weaver, Esq., by will, dated 27th February, 1709, gave to his son Anthony and his heirs the granary, and garden thereunto adjoining, in Bridgnorth, and £112. 12s. 6d. to be disposed of as follows:—First, he desired that it should be employed for keeping about 900 bushels of corn, to be bought when it was 2s. 6d. per bushel and sold when it was above 4s. per bushel, and that the residue of the building and garden should be employed towards the charge of looking after the corn.  For perpetuating the stock, he desired that 2s. 6d. should be reserved out of each bushel sold, the residue to be given from time to time to the poor housekeepers having three or more young children of both the parishes of Bridgnorth only, as also the product of the stock when not laid up in the said granary, it being found after the testator’s death impossible to comply with those directions, the sum of £112. 12s. 6d. was placed out at interest and the interest, as also the rents of the granary, were distributed as directed by the will.  In 1779, by an order, the aforesaid sum was directed to be invested in the three per cent. consols, and the interest is now distributed to poor housekeepers.  The rents accruing from these charities are now applied in aid of a free school, called the Blue Coat School, in which thirty boys are instructed and clothed, and at the time of their leaving school a small sum is allowed to each scholar to apprentice him to some trade.  The school is situated over the North Postern Gate.

The Almshouses—The earliest mention of the almshouses is contained in a document preserved among the archives of the corporation, which purports to be the presentment and verdict of a jury, impanelled at Bridgnorth, on the 2nd of September, in the 6th year of Charles I., under a commission of charitable uses, by which they presented that William Swanwicke gave to divers feoffees, on the 2nd of March, 2nd and 3rd of Philip and Mary, a tenement and three gardens for the use of the poor almsfolk residing within the almshouses in Church street of the said town.  They further presented that Henry Taycock gave towards the relief of the poor almspeople aforesaid a certain close called Brown’s Croft, and seven acres and two selions of land; and William Sparry, by indenture, dated the 2nd of May, 26th Elizabeth, gave two acres of ground in Astley Abbotts, for 3,000 years, to the intent that the profits of one acre should redound to the use of the poor almspeople aforesaid, and the rent of the other acre to the use of the poor of St. Leonard’s parish.

The sum of £80 was vested by the bailiffs and burgesses in the year 1709, with other monies, in the purchase of an estate at Higley, of which we shall give an account when treating of St. Leonard’s parish.  In respect of this, an annual sum of £4 is distributed by the churchwardens of St. Leonard’s among the twelve almswomen, together with 10s., which in some of the earlier entries in the parish books is termed “the interest of £10,” and in others, “the interest of late Milner’s money.”

In a common hall order, dated 18th of January, 1768, reciting that twenty elms, the property of the almshouses, were sold for £11, it was agreed that the corporation should take the money, and pay the almswomen 12s. yearly at Christmas for the same.  The corporation likewise pays the sum of 20s. yearly for the interest of £25, which was left for the use of the poor people in the almshouses.  The inmates have the interest of £100, left in 1838, by Mr. Milner, and of a sum of £37. 5s. 6d., the gift of Mrs. Bell in 1832.  Each almswoman has 3s. 6d. weekly.  They are appointed by the corporation.

Paul Bridgen, by will, dated 24th of February, 1769, gave to the corporation of Bridgnorth the sum of £24, for the poor women of the almshouses to have a shilling each paid to them on Good Fridays, and one upon the second day of March, it being the interest thereof.

Sarah Pardoe, in 1808, left the sum of £100, to be placed out at interest for the use of the almshouses.  This donation was invested in the purchase of £156. 3s. 3d. consols, the dividends of which being £4. 12s. per annum, which sum, after deducting charges, is divided among the twelve poor women in January and July, in shares of 3s. 10d. each.

Mr. Clark left 10s. for a sermon on the 11th day of January, and three shillings to be given in bread the same day.

William Taylor, by will, dated 6th of February, 1735, directed that every person who should hereafter be an owner of his two freehold messuages, land, and premises, with the appurtenances, situated in High street, in the parish of St. Leonard’s, should yearly for ever provide a dinner on the 26th of December, for the poor persons called almshouse-women; or, in default, he ordered the sum of £10 to be divided between the aforesaid almswomen, the same to be chargeable yearly upon the said messuages and premises.

Mary Childe, by her will, dated 27th of August, 1817, and proved in November, 1819, gave the sum of £100, to be placed at interest on some good security, and to pay the interest, dividends, and produce thereof, in equal shares at Christmas, to the almswomen of Bridgnorth.

Bread Fund.—The almswomen also participate in the general distribution of bread from the parochial fund of St. Leonard’s, of which we shall give an account among the charities of that parish.

Walter Wrottesley, by will, proved in 1630, bequeathed to the poor people of Bridgnorth the sum of £100, to be disposed of by the magistrates of the town as they should think fit.  It was resolved in 1633 to repair the conduit pipes of the town with the principal, and that £5 per annum as interest should be given to the poor of St. Leonard’s and St. Mary’s parishes; which sum they now receive.

William Pulley bequeathed a house and land, situated in Beauchamp Roothing, in Essex, on the 20th of December, 1640, to the inhabitants of Bridgnorth for ever, on condition that they should give £16 every year to two young men or women who should stand in need of it; and that those who had it one year should have it no more for the space of three years after.

The Rev. Francis Wheeler, by will, dated 8th of February, 1686, gave five meadows in St. Mary’s parish, containing 21a. 2r. 5p. of land, on condition that the sum of £10 should be given to the poor of Bridgnorth, as an annuity or rent charge; £10 per annum for a sermon to be preached by the minister of St. Leonard’s on the feast of St. James.  And having further charged the lands with an annuity of 50s. yearly to the curate of Masemoor, and 10s. to the poor of Willey, he directed that if the rent of the premises should be improved, the increase of the rents should solely redound to the settled public preachers of Bridgnorth.  The premises were let in 1818 for a rent of £102. 2s. 6d., which, after deducting the rent charges, left the sum of £44. 11s. 3d. to each of the two ministers, subject to occasional expenses for repairs.

The Spinners’ Money—It seems that the sum of £215 is in the hands of the corporation (which was left by Mr. Blakeway, Mr. Lamb, and Mr. Elliot, for the use of the spinners and carders), for which is paid the small sum of £3. 18s, 4d. yearly, as interest, which is divided among the poor of the town.—Bridge Lands: There are several tenements in Bridgnorth, the rents of which are applied to the repair of the bridge, but when and by whom left is unknown.  The annual rents amount to £18. 7s. 2d.

Charities of the Upper Town.—Palmer’s Hospital.—The Rev. Francis Palmer, by will, dated 2nd September, 1680, bequeathed the sum of £800, to be laid out in the purchase of free lands in or near the county of Salop, of the clear yearly value of £30 per annum; and he also willed that his executors should cause to be erected an almshouse containing ten distinct rooms for ten several poor widows of the Upper Town, such as should frequent the church, and to allow each of them the sum of £3 per annum, save only repairs to be deducted.  The executors purchased an estate in Hopton Wafers, containing 111a. 3r. 32p., which was let in 1807, at a rent of £93. 6s. per annum; by a valuation of premises made when the Charity Commissioners published their report it was found that the annual value was £119. 6s. 3d.  From sales of timber in 1797 and 1810, and a donation of £200 in 1803 from the executors of the late Mr. Hawkins, the sum of £24 is paid to the charity as interest of the money, in addition to the rent of the land.

Mary Elton, by will, dated 24th of September, 1770, bequeathed the sum of £200, upon trust, to apply the interest for the use and benefit of the ten poor widows of Palmer’s Hospital.—Richard Adney bequeathed in 1805 the sum of £200, the interest thereof to be divided among the inhabitants of Palmer’s Hospital.

William Warter gave the sum of £20 to Palmer’s Hospital, in respect of which 20s. is paid from an estate at Rudge, which formerly belonged to the donor, on St. Thomas’s day, and distributed among the inmates.

Bread Fund.—The poor women of this charity also participate in the general distribution of bread in the parish of St. Leonard’s.

The Low Town.—Sir Robert Lee, Knt., in 1635, bequeathed £100, to be applied in the purchase of land, the rents and profits thereof to be given for the use of the poor residing in the Low Town of Bridgnorth.  The money was applied in the purchase of a close containing about five acres of ground, situated in Oldbury Lordship, the annual rent of which amounts to about £21, which is distributed as the donor directed.

Charities of St. Leonard’s.—Henry Bourne bequeathed in 1693 the sum of £50, the interest thereof to be given away to the poor of the parish in bread every Sunday, as the churchwardens and overseers should think fit.—Edward Jackson, who died in 1709, gave the sum of £100, the interest of which was to be given to the poor in bread every first Sunday in the month.  In the year 1709 the bailiffs and burgesses of Bridgnorth purchased an estate at Highley for the sum of £390, which was made up of the following sums:—£50 of Henry Bourne’s legacy, £100 of Edward Jackson’s charity, £50 of John Lem’s legacy, the interest of which was left for the minister of the parish, together with a further sum of £10, said to be given for putting out apprentices, £80 of the almshouse money, and the residue, £110, was money belonging to the parish.  This estate consists of 33a. 2r. 20p. of land, which produced in 1820 the sum of £70. 16s. 9½d., and after payment of £4. 10s. to the almspeople, has formed the basis of a general bread fund.

John Bennett, by will, dated 18th January, 1732, gave an annual rent charge of £5, clear of all reduction, to be paid out of his estate at Bobbington, to be laid out in bread and given to such poor as attended church on the days of Wednesday and Friday.  He also gave 20s. yearly to the minister of St. Leonard’s for a sermon to be preached every 10th day of October.  The £5 for bread forms one of the items in the general distribution.

John Guest, by will, dated 15th of December, 1773, gave to the bailiffs and burgesses of Bridgnorth for the time being the sum of £200, to be put out at interest, and he directed that the interest of £50, part of the said legacy, should be laid out in bread and distributed every 9th day of January, or the Sunday following, at each of the parish churches of Bridgnorth.  This legacy was invested in the three per cent. consols, and produces the annual sum of £7. 17s. 6d., of which the sum of £1 is annually paid to the parish of St. Leonard’s, and forms part of the general bread fund, and £1 to the parish of St. Mary.—John Guest, the younger, by will, dated 10th December, 1780, gave £20 to the two parishes of Bridgnorth, in trust, to apply the interest annually for the use of the poor, to be distributed in bread.

William Guest, by will, dated 21st June, 1811, bequeathed £400, upon trust, to apply the interest thereof in the purchase of bread, to be distributed among the industrious poor of the parish.

Bread Fund.—A general distribution of bread is made every Sunday in the year by the churchwardens to such objects as appear to be most in need, from the charities of Wheeler, Bennett, John Guest, John Guest, jun., and William Guest, which in all amounts to £96. 19s. 10½d.

Edward Guest, by will, dated 13th March, 1797, bequeathed the sum of £300, upon trust, to place out the same at interest, and of the profits thereof to pay one-third part to the minister of the church of St. Leonard, and one-third part to the minister of St. Mary’s, and he gave to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of each of the said parishes £50, to be by them placed out at interest, and the dividends distributed in bread at Christmas, to the poor of the said parishes.

The £2. 10s. which the parish of St. Leonard’s receives on account of Wrottesley’s charity, as stated in the report of the borough, has been hitherto improperly applied in aid of the poor’s rates.

Mrs. Law, by will, bequeathed the sum of £40, upon trust, to place the same out at interest, or purchase land with it, and yearly to buy as much cloth or linsey woolsey as the interest or rent would buy, and have the same made into ten women’s petticoats, and to give the same away at Christmas to ten poor widows, four of whom should be of the parish of St. Leonard’s and six of the parish of St. Mary’s.  The benefactions to the minister, amounting to the sum of £65. 11s. 3d. annually, have been noticed in the preceding pages.

Mary Elton, whose bequest to Palmer’s Hospital has been already mentioned, further gave the sum of £100 towards augmenting the income of the minister of this parish.  There is reason to believe that this sum formed part of a sum of £200, which the Rev. Thos. Littleton appears to have deposited in the year 1775 with the Governor’s of Queen Anne’s bounty, the remaining £100 being probably a benefaction of his own.  This sum, with a like one advanced by the governors, was applied to the purchase of certain premises, containing, by estimation, about nine acres, in the parish of Eye, in Herefordshire.

The Earl of Thanet left a legacy of £200 in the year 1776, for the augmentation of the living of St. Leonard’s Church.  The Governors of Queen Anne’s bounty having added a like sum, the amount was applied in 1777 to the purchase of certain premises at Tenbury, in Worcestershire, containing about ten acres of land, which produces a sum of £15 annually.

The rents of two houses and a garden have been long applied to the repairs of the church, but from what source they were derived is unknown.  The annual rents amount to £25. 10s.

Charities of St. Mary’s Parish.—The Rev. David Llewellin, by his will, dated 25th of April, 1794, gave the sum of £50, on trust, to the minister, churchwardens, and overseers of the parish of St. Mary’s, to place the same out at interest, on good security, and to apply the interest thereof to the use of the poor, in such manner as they should direct.

Eleanor Church, by will, dated 1798, gave the sum of £20, the interest thereof to be distributed in bread the first Sunday after the 26th of May.  John Guest bequeathed a legacy of £20 to this parish, which is mentioned in our report of St. Leonard’s parish.  Sarah Medlicott gave the sum of £10 in the year 1780, the interest thereof to be laid out in sixpenny loaves, and given to twenty poor housekeepers of this parish, on every 14th day of February for ever.  Bread Fund.—There is a general distribution of bread weekly, amounting in the whole to £10. 8s. per year.  The distribution in September, 1819, appeared to have settled to the amount of four shillings worth of bread weekly, which was far short of the amount of the several charities for which the charity trustees were accountable.  Richard Goodden, in 1806, assigned four pews in the church of St. Mary Magdalene to the minister and churchwardens, on trust, to pay and distribute the rents among poor persons not receiving parochial relief, in sums of not more than 5s. each.  The rents amount to £3. 18s. annually.

Mrs. Law’s Charity; the particulars of which (the parish of St. Mary’s is entitled to six-tenths) have been given in the report of St. Leonard’s parish.

Paul Bridgen, by will, dated 1763, gave £10 to this parish to purchase a pew, or part of a pew, in the church, from the rent of which 5s. was to be given to the minister for preaching a sermon on Good Friday, and one shilling to the clerk to toll the bell on the said day, and the remainder to be given to the poor.  The benefactions to the minister, amounting to £49. 1s. 3d., have been noticed in the preceding pages.  William Hand, by will, in 1706, bequeathed to the minister of this parish and his successors, for ever, a messuage, which is let to weekly tenants at 2s. 6d. per week, which sum the minister now receives.  Bridget Stackhouse, by will, in 1756, gave the sum of £131 to the minister of the parish of St. Mary Magdalene and his successors, for ever.  This legacy was invested in the purchase of £145 South Sea annuities, the dividends of which, amounting to £4. 7s. per annum are duly received by the minister.

It appears that in the year 1811 and 1812 the Governors of Queen Anne’s bounty agreed to augment the curacy of St. Mary’s with five several sums of £200 each, out of grants made to them by parliament, and that, in the year 1816, they agreed further to augment the same with the sum of £300 out of the said grants, in conjunction with Thomas Whitmore, Esq., the patron, who gave the sum of £200, and paid the same to the treasurer of the said governors for the purpose of such augmentation, which said several sums, amounting together to the sum of £1,500, were ordered by the said governors to be laid out in the purchase of lands, tithes, or other hereditaments, to be settled for the perpetual augmentation of the curacy of the said parish.  The sum of £1,150 was laid out in 1816 in the purchase of a dwelling-house, with appurtenances thereto, situated in Bridgnorth, together with a pew in the parish church of the said parish.  The minister also receives the sum of £14, as interest on £350 (the residue of the said £1,500), which remains on their hands applicable to a further purchase.

Thomas Milner, by will, dated 1837, bequeathed £150, the interest thereof, to be distributed in bread on the first Sunday in every month, after divine service, to the poor of this parish.  He also gave the sum of £100, the interest thereof to be applied towards clothing and educating boys of the Blue Coat School, and the sum of £100, the interest to be applied to the benefit of the poor widows of the almshouse of Bridgnorth.

Post Office—Mr. Charles Edward Macmichael’s, East Castle street.  Letters from all parts arrive at 6.35 A.M., and are despatched at 5.30 P.M.

Acton Edward Farrer, Esq., Gateacre Park

Acton Sir John E. D., Bart., Aldenham Hall

Adams Mrs. Anne, West Castle street

Audsley Thomas, engineer, West Castle st

Ayre Rev. Legh Richmond, M.A., Newtown

Bache John, Esq., Chesterton

Backhouse Richard Onions, solicitor, Whitburne street

Baker John, Esq., Walsbatch

Baugham Benjamin, Esq., Oldbury Wells

Baugham Thomas, Esq., St. Leonard’s

Bank, Cooper, and Co., High street

Bank, Pritchards, and Co., Waterloo terrace

Bank Saving’s, Bank street

Barber Rev. John, Stoneway head

Barker Rev. John, West Castle street

Batte William, Esq., East Castle street

Batte William Jones, gent., West Castle st

Beeston Richard, van proprietor, The Lodge

Bellett Rev. George, St. Leonard’s Rectory

Bennett John Lacon, St. Mary’s street

Benwell Rev. John Fred., Neenton Rectory

Blathwayte Rev. Chas. W., Clelmarsh Rectory

Brazier Captain James, Bradney

Briggs Rev. Fred. Wm., Wesleyan minister

Brown Mrs. Sarah, St. Mary’s street

Brown Thomas Whitmore Wylde, Esq., Woodlands

Carr Rev. Edmund, M.A., Quatt Rectory

Childe Harry Joseph, solicitor, St. Leonard’s

Clarke Joseph and Brother, Listley street

Colley Miss, Mill street

Colley Mrs. Elizabeth, Cann Hall

Colley Mrs. Mary, St. John’s street

Corser Thomas, engineer, West Castle st

Cooper John Henry, Esq., Knowle sands

Curtis Mr. William Fitz Harry, St. Leonard’s

Darby Alfred, Esq., Stanley Hall

Dalton Thomas Wm., gent., East Castle st

Davenport Wm. S., Esq., Davenport House

Deeton Mrs. Mary, The Square

Deighton Thomas, Esq., Castle Terrace

Downes John, gentleman, High street

Dyer John, accountant, High street

Edmonds Edward, Esq., Tasley

Elson Thomas, inland revenue officer, St. Leonard’s Walk

Fernie Mrs. Mary, Whitburne street

Gabert Christopher, Esq., Claverley

Gabert Rev. G. H. B., Claverley Rectory

Gatacre Edward Lloyd, Esq., Gatacre Hall

Gillitlie George, inland revenue officer, Whitburne street

Gitton Miss E., High street

Gitton Thomas, solicitor, High street

Grierson and Law, worsted spinners, Spital

Grierson Thomas, gentleman, The Grove

Green Mr. George, Head’s Buildings

Greenstreet Rev. Frederick Wm., Low Town

Gwyn Richard Hodges, Esq., Astbury Hall

Hall J. Claude, land agent, East Castle st

Hall Mr. Joseph, West Castle street

Hallon Captain William, St. Mary’s steps

Hanbury Mr. George, West Castle street

Hardwicke Thomas Bell, solicitor, High st

Hardwicke T. H. P., Esq., Whitburne street

Harrison Robert, Esq., Mill street

Haslehurst Edwin Wm., solicitor, High st

Haslewood Edward W., gent., East Castle st

Haslewood John, gentleman, Tower House

Haynes Robert, Esq., Danesford

Herbert Rev. Richard, Chetton Rectory

Homfray Frederick, Esq., St. Mary’s steps

Jackson Thomas Austin, gent., Eardington

Jones Mr. Joseph, accountant, St. Mary’s st

Jones William, wine merchant, Underhill st

Kettle Geo. Mackenzie, Esq., Dalicot House

Law John, gentleman, Underhill street

Lea Mrs. Wolryche, Ludstone House

Leah Rev. Mr., curate of St. Mary’s

Leake Mr. Robert, High street

Leonard Wm. Henry, engraver, High street

Lewis Anne, wine merchant, High street

Lewis Miss Elizabeth, Chapel House

Lewis Miss Ann, High street

Lewis Misses Ann & Mary, Head’s Buildings

Llewyllan Mr. Thomas, St. Mary’s street

Lloyd Mrs. Ann, Mill street

Locke Miss, Head’s Buildings

Macmichael Charles Edward, West Castle st

Macmichael Elizabeth and Son, High street

Marshall Rev. William Knox, M.A., St. Mary’s Rectory

Martin Mr. James Henry, Mill street

Merriman Rev. Henry Gordon, M.A., Grammar School

Nicholls Samuel, gentleman, Mill street

Nock Thomas, gentleman, High street

Parkes Joseph, Esq., Wyken Hall

Parsons George, Esq., Whitburne street

Phillips John, gentleman, Whitburne street

Pilkington Miss Mary Ann, East Castle st

Pilkington Mr. Samuel, Head’s Buildings

Pinkstone Mr. John, Library steps

Postlethwaite Rev. John, Tasley Rectory

Potts and Nicholls, solicitors, Mill street

Pritchard George, Esq., Astley Abbots

Purton Rev. John, High street

Purton Thomas, gent., St. Leonard’s Cottage

Purton Thomas Pardoe, Esq., Faintree Hall

Reece John Smythyman, castrator, Newtown

Reece Mr. Edward, Severn side

Richards Henry Slater, Esq., St. Mary’s st

Ridley Edward Wm., Mill street

Ridley Messrs. Samuel and Edward, factors, Mill street

Ridley Mrs., Mill street

Robinson Mrs. Baths, Infirmary

Roby Mrs., The Lodge

Rowley Rev. Thomas, D.D., Middleton Scriven

Rowley Mr. William Jepson, High street

Sing Joshua, Esq., East Castle street

Smalman John, Esq., Quatford Castle

Smith Herbert, solicitor, St. Leonard’s

Smith John Jacob, Esq., St. James’s

Smith Wm. Henry Steedman, gentleman, Listley street

Southwell Fred., accountant, Whitburne st

Southwell Joseph, gentleman.  East Castle st

Southwell Robert B. stamp office, West Castle st

Southwell Mr. William, Rock House

Sparkes Arndel Francis, sol., St. John’s st

Stephens John, Esq., Albynes

Strange William, M.D., High street

Stringer Mrs. Ann, Salop-road House

Stringer Mrs. Catherine, St. Leonard’s lane

Taylor Farmer, Esq., Chykenell

Tilly Rev. Alfred, Bap. min., East Castle st

Titler George, gentleman, East Castle street

Trevor John, Esq., The Vinery

Trevor Mrs., Bank street

Vickers Henry, Esq., East Castle street

Wall James, Esq., Severn Cliff

Wasley Rev. George Leigh, Knowle Sands

Watts Benjamin, gentleman, Listley street

Westhall Mr. John, St. Mary’s street

Whitcombe Thos., woolstapler, Underhill st

Whitmore Thomas Charlton, Esq., M.P., Apley Park

Whitmore Wm. Wolryche, Esq., Dudmaston Hall

Williams Charles, land agent, Morville Hall

Williams Mr. Edward Vaughan, Bank street

Wilmot Mr. Thomas Abel, superintendent of police, High street

Wilson John, estate agent, Aston Hall

Wilson Thomas, corn agent, High street

Wing Rev. John, Astley Abbots

Wylde Miss, Head’s Buildings

Wyllie James, inland revenue officer, High st

Academies.

Marked * receive Boarders.

* Barber Seth, Castle Terrace

* Barber Mrs., (ladies), Bank street

Blue Coat School, North Gate, William Bower

Brickley Anne, High street

British School, West Castle street

Dodd Samuel, Underhill st

* Grammar School, St. Leonard’s church yard; Rev. Henry Gordon Merriman, M.A., principal; Wm. Fitz Harry Curtis, second master

Independent School, Stoneway, Jane Akrigg

Infant School, Listley street

* Kirtlan Mary, Whitburne st

Moore Mary, St. Mary’s st

National, (boys and girls), Listley street, Mr. & Mrs. Trott, teachers

Nock Ann, St. Mary’s street

* Parker Harriett, St. Mary’s street

Roby Miss, Salop road

Saint Mary’s, St. John’s st., George Marsh

* Wase Mary Ann, (ladies), High street

Wigley Joshua, Commercial, Bank street

Accountants.

Bennett John, Lacon, St. Mary’s street

Jones Jos., bank, Waterloo Terrace

Pilkington Samuel, Head’s Buildings

Architects and Surveyors.

Griffiths Edward Francis, Quatford

Hall John Claude, (land), East Castle street

Penzer Ezer; office, Underhill street

Attornies.

Backhouse Richard Onions, Whitburne street

Batte William, East Castle st

Cox J., High street

Gitton Thomas, (and master in chancery), High street

Hardwicke Thomas Bell, High street

Haslewood Edward William, East Castle street

Nicholls Samuel, Mill street

Potts and Nicholls, Mill st

Smith John Jacob, St. Leonard’s

Sparkes Arndell Francis, St. John’s street

Vickers Henry, East Castle st

Auctioneers and Valuers.

Backhouse Richard Onions, Whitburne street

Nock and Wilson, High st

Perry and Phillips, Postern Gate

Bakers and Flour Dealers.

Birkmire William, Waterloo Terrace

Cureton Thomas, High st

Evans John, High street

Long Henry, High street

Ostin Benj., Bernard’s hill

Peters Ann, Listley street

Roberts Wm., St. John’s st

Weale George, Listley street

Wellings William, Mill st

Barge Owners.

Bradley Saml., Underhill st

Broadfield John Holloway, Underhill street

Brown Wm., Underhill st

Davies Thos., Bernard’s hill

Doughty Benj., Underhill st

Doughty Rd., Underhill st

Doughty Wm., Underhill st

Head Richard, Bernard’s hill

Jones Wm., Underhill street

Longmore Henry, Underhill street

Oakes William, Underhill st

Preece William, Cartway st

Reece Richard, Friar’s road

Reece Thomas, Underhill st

Ridley Messrs., Bridge-foot Wharf

Rutter Samuel, Listley st

Salt William, Spital street

Wilson Andrew, Mill street

Boat Builders.

Oakes William, Underhill st

Penzer Ezer, Underhill Wharf

Rushton George, Cartway st

Bankers.

Cooper & Purton, High st., (draw on Williams, Deacon, and Co., London).

Pritchard, Boycott, and Nicholas, Waterloo ter., (draw on Barnett, Hoare, and Co., London).

Savings’ Bank, Bank street, (open on Mondays and Saturdays from ten till one o’clock).

Basket Makers.

Gwynn Charles, Cartway st

Gwynn Edwin John, St. Mary’s street

Gwynn James, Salop street

Berlin Repository.

Williams Fanny, fancy stationer and drawing materials, High street

Blacksmiths.

Atcherley J. Rennell, shoeing forge, High street

Binnell Francis, Whitburne street

Bishop John, North gate

Phillips Walter, Bridge end

Pope Alexander & William, Mill street

Tunkiss John, Listley street

Wellings Benjamin, St. John street

Bookbinders.

Edkins Lousia, High street

Rowley Wm. Jepson, High st

Booksellers, Printers, and Stationers.

Edkin Lousia, High street

Gitton George Robt., High st

Partridge Charlotte, Waterloo Terrace

Rowley Wm. Jepson, High st

Boot and Shoemakers.

Those marked * are dealers

* Badham Henry, Listley st

Badham Joseph, East Castle street

Bagnall Sarah, St. Mary’s st

* Beman Richard, High st

Bright Samuel, St. Mary’s st

Davies Thomas

Felton John, High street

Gregory John, Oldbury road

Heighway Samuel, Whitburne street

Lloyd Fredk., St. John’s st

Lay Matthias, St. John st

Lewis William, High street

* Milner Wm., Waterloo ter.

Newall Henry, Underhill

Pinner Rd., West Castle st

Reynolds James, Newtown

Reynolds James, jun., Newtown

Reynolds Thos., Whitburne street

Smith Charles, East Castle st

* Whatmore John, High st

Winsley Thomas, Newtown

Braziers & Tin-plate Workers.

Broadfield Wm., Cartway st

Coley Thomas, Whitburn st

Edwards Geo., Whitburn st

Glase Jos. Minton, High st

Hill William Whitehouse, High street

Lee Charles, High street

Nicholas William, High st

Bricklayers & Masons.

Case James, Newtown

Elcock Edward, Newtown

Foxall Francis, West Castle st

Gower Thomas, Newtown

Hayward Michael, Bernard’s hill

Lewis James, Friar’s lane

Piper Thomas, West Castle st

Rogers John, Newtown

Brick & Tile Makers.

Doughty Wm., Underhill st

Evans George, Kingslowe

Penzer Ezer, Underhill Wharf

Builders.

Griffiths Edward Francis, Quatford Works

Holding William, East Castle street

Lewis Richard, North gate

Page William, Newtown

Penzer Ezer, Underhill st

Perry and Phillips, Postern gate

Powell Thomas, builder

Preece Benjamin, East Castle

Butchers.

Barker George, Whitburn st

Bowen Edward Farmer, Castle Terrace

Brawn Charles, High street

Brown Thomas, High street

Cureton Benjn., High street

Edwards George, Newtown

Giles Joseph, St. Mary’s st

Hall John, St. John’s street

Maun Thomas, Mill street

Miles Francis, Listley street

Reynolds John, High street

Roberts Thomas, Listley st

Rawley William, Underhill st

Smith Thos., West Castle st

Southwell Josiah, Bridge st

Townshend William, High st

Who attend the Market only.

Bill Jeremiah Fred., Broseley

Bentley John, Cross Houses

Cartwright James, Broseley

Cartwright J., sen., Broseley

Clutton George, Worfield

Clutton William, Nordley

Doughty Daniel, Madeley

Edgerley John, Norton

Edwards George, Neenton

Higgs John, Alveley

Jarratt James, Erdington

Mollineux James, Wyken

Poyner George, Beckbury

Reece Thos., Smithy Houses

Scoffham Henry Francis, Chelmarsh

Tasker Jeremiah, Morville

Wellings Benjamin, Ackleton

Yapp Henry, Tasley

Cabinet Makers.

Marked * are Upholsterers.

* Cartwright Richd., High st

* Edwards John, High street

Gower Edward, High street

* Jones Dodo Davies, High st

* Perry and Phillips, Theatre buildings

Carpet & Rug Manufacturers.

Southwells & Co., Friars’ rd. and Pendleston Mills

Carvers and Gilders.

Lingen Francis, Market street

Perry and Phillips, Theatre buildings

Cement and Plaster Dealer.

Penzer Ezer, Underhill Wrks

Chair Maker & Broker.

Colley James, Whitburne st

Charcoal Iron Manufacturer.

Foster James, Eardington

Cheese, Butter & Bacon Dealers.

Callant George, High street

Jefferies Henry, High street

Saloway Benjamin, Bridge st

Southwell Ellen, High street

Southwell Robt. Baker, West Castle street

Chemists & Druggists.

Coley William, Mill street

Fisher George, High street, and dealer in chemical manures

Leake Robert, (dispensing) High street

Macmichael & Son, High st

Steward William, (dispensing) Medical Hall

Clothes Dealers.

Bagnall Mary, Listley street

Dudley Richard, Listley st

Tonkiss Richd. Whitburne st

Coach Makers.

Botwood Thos., Cann bldgs

Pearce Frederick, North gate

Warner John, Newtown

Coal Dealers.

Bradley Samuel, Underhill st

Case James, Newtown

Jones Elizabeth, Severn side

Reece Edward, Severn side

Reece Thomas, Underhill st

Rutter Solomon, Listley st

Wilson Andrew, Mill street

Coal Merchants.

Doughty Wm., Underhill st

Evans George, Kingslow

Confectioners.

Birkmire William, Waterloo terrace

Lewis John, East Castle st

Long Henry, High street, and dealer in british wines

Roberts Wm., St. John’s st

Southwell George, High st

Coopers.

Gwynn Charles, and wood turner, Cartway street

Gwynn Edwin John, St. Mary’s street

Jones William, Mill street

Yardley Daniel, Whitburne st

Corn Factors & Seed Merchants.

Bangham Benjamin, Oldbury Wells

Bangham Thos., Granary steps

Nock & Wilson, warehouse, Underhill street

Ridley Edward Wm., Mill st

Ridley Messrs. Samuel and Edward, Severn warehouse

Cow keepers.

Barker Edward, Newtown

Barker George, Whitburn st

Jones John, Northgate

Newall Richard, Underhill st

Perry William, Salop road

Preece William, Mill street

Southwell George, High st

Cutlery Dealers.

Baker Jas. (working), Listley street

Doharty Martin, Listley street

Williamson Thos., Waterloo Terrace

Curriers and Leather Cutters.

Clarke Messrs, Listley street

Lello William, High street

Lewis Francis, Underhill st

M’Michael Charles Edward, West Castle street

Summers John, Underhill st

Dyers.

Lowe Edward (wool), Bernard’s Hill

Rogers Mary (silk), North gate

Engravers.

Broadfield Thos. Underhill st

Gower Jas. (stone), Newtown

Fish-tackle Dealers and Net Makers.

Ball Thomas, High street

Broadbent John, Underhill st

Williamson Thos., Waterloo Terrace

Farmers.

Adams John, Friars’ road

Ball Thomas, High street

Bishop William, Mill street

Garbett Thos., Oldbury road

Newell Richard, Willow Tree House

Nock Thos., Cross lane head

Ridley Saml. & Miss, Low town

Wiar John, Oldbury lane Villa

Fellmongers, Skinners, and Wool Dealers.

Milner William, Robert, and Thomas, Pound street

Wheeler Jos. (executors of) Newtown

Fire and Life Office Agents.

Atlas—John Jacob Smith, solicitor, St. Leonard’s

Birmingham—Mrs. Macmichael & Son, High st

Crown—Richard Boycott, Waterloo Terrace

Horse and Cattle Insurance—Mrs. Macmichael & Son, High street

Legal and Commercial and British Guarantee Insurance—John Lacon Bennet, St. Mary’s street

Minerva—Clement Edkins, High street

Phœnix—Miss Partridge, Waterloo Terrace

Royal Exchange—Mr. Smith, Cantern Bank

Shropshire and North Wales—Clement Edkins, High street

Fishmonger & Dealer in Game.

Davies Edward (& fruiterer), High street

Flour Dealers.

Instone Thos., Whitburne st

Jones John, St. Mary street

Meredith Richard, High st

Norcop Henry, Listley street

Furniture Dealers and Paper Hangers.

Cartwright Richard, High st

Edwards John, High street

Jones Dodo Davies, High st

Norwood Samuel, High st

Perry & Phillips, Postern gt

Gardeners & Seedsmen.

Bromage Thos., Mill street

Maun John, Newtown Nursery

Smith Jas., West Castle st

Smith Thomas, Listley st

Thomason Thos., North gate

Woodhouse Wm., High st

Glass & China Dealers.

Brown Thomas, High street

Liner William, Bridge street

Meredith Sarah Broadfoot, High street

Glover.

Bower Wm., Underhill street

Grocers & Tea Dealers.

Callant George, High street

Callant Wm., St. Mary’s st

Coley William, Mill street

Cooke Richard, High street

Crockett George, High street

Fisher George, High street

Hall Thomas, Underhill st

Jeffries Henry, High street

Lewis Francis, Underhill st

Macmichael Elizabeth & Son, High street

Morris William, High street

Pearson Benjamin, Bridge st

Saloway Benjamin, Bridge st

Southwell Ellen, High street

Southwell Robert Baker, West Castle street

Yate Josh., Waterloo terrace Gun Maker

Williamson Thos., Waterloo terrace

Hair Dressers and Perfumers.

Botwood Beriah, Listley st

Botwood Benjamin, High st

Botwood Benjamin, Mill st

Brickley John, High street

Curtis Thomas, Bridge street

Evanson Edw., St. Mary’s st

Milner Thomas, Cartway st

Hatters.

Ellis Langslow, High street

Gething Thomas, High street

Whatmore Joseph Lloyd, High street

Wollatt John Thos., High st

Hop Merchants.

Deighton Thos., Castle terrace

Mapp Thomas, warehouse, Underhill street

Hosiers.

Edwards Matthew, High st

Whatmore Joseph Lloyd, High street

Hotels, Inns and Taverns.

Ball, James Lowe, East Castle street

Bandon Arms, Wm. Bishop, Mill street

Bear, Jno. Bishop, North gate

Bell, George Evans, High st

Bell and Talbot, Richard Evans, Salop road

Bird-in-Hand, Thomas Piper, West Castle street

Black Horse & Commercial Inn, John Maun, Bridge street, Low Town

Bricklayer’s Arms, Susan Piper, Listley street

Bull, Thomas Southwell, Bridge street

Bull’s Head, Elizabeth Matthews, Listley street

Castle Inn, Samuel Willcox, High street

Castle (Old), Richd. Pinner, West Castle street

Commercial, William Davies, Salop street

Cross Keys, John Reynolds, High street

Eagle, Francis Smith, St. Mary’s street

Falcon, Commercial & Posting house, William Preece, Mill street, Low Town

Fox, Elizabeth Rutter, St. John’s street

Friar, John Adams, Friars road

Golden Lion, Charles Austin, High street

Greyhound, Robert Milner, Listley street

Harp, John Price, High st

Hen & Chickens, John Hudson Munday, St. Mary’s street

King’s Head, and Railway Coach Office and Posting House, George Edwards, Whitburne street

Leopard, Joseph Mason, Salop road

Lion, James Cooper, West Castle street

New Inn, James Andrews, St. Mary’s street

New Inn, William Davies, Salop road

Pheasant, John Churns, High street

Plough, Mary Salt, St. John’s street

Prince of Wales, John Shipman, Friars road

Raven Hotel, Commercial Inn and Posting House, Thomas Whitefoot, Whitburne and Raven street

Red Lion, Henry Longmore, Underhill street

Rein Deer, Thos. Dallaway, North gate

Rose and Crown, Walter Phillips, Stoneway

Royal Oak, George Perry, High street

Royal Hotel and Crown Inn, Commercial and Posting House, Joseph Bateman, High street

Shakspere, Francis Foxall, East Castle street

Ship and Anchor, William Walford, Cartway street

Squirrel Inn & Commercial, Thomas Charles Burrows, Newtown

Star Inn and Commercial, Thomas Ross Southwell, Bridge street

Swan Inn, James Rennell Atcherley, High street

Tumbling Sailors, Thomas Reece, Underhill street

White Hart, John Martin, Cartway street

Woodman’s Inn, Ed. Elcock, Newtown

United Kingdom, Samuel Walters, Mill street

Vine Tavern, Thos. Maun, Mill street

Beerhouses.

Bennett James, Underhill st

Broadfield John Holloway, Underhill street

Brown Edmund, St. Mary’s st

Brown Wm., Underhill st

Brown Wm., Bernard’s hill

Collins Rd., Whitburne st

Evans Addison, Cartway st

Felton John, High street

Foxall James, Cartway st

Gower Thomas, Newtown

Hall Thos., Shiffnal road

Hayward Michael, Bernard’s hill

Jones Eliza Ann, Severn side

Jordan Edward, Underhill st

Lane Francis, St. John’s st

Lowe Edward, Bernard’s hill

Mason Joseph, Salop road

Page William, Newtown

Parker John, Whitburne st

Perry William, Salop road

Preece William, Cartway

Roberts Sarah, Listley st

Roberts Wm., Underhill st

Rutter Solomon, Listley st

Tench Edward, St. Mary’s st

Tipton Benj., St. John’s st

Wellings Elizabeth Hannah, West Castle street

Ironfounders.

Barker Hannah, Underhill st

Pope Alexander, Mill street

Pope William, Mill street

Irondealers.

Glase Jos. Minton, High st

Hill W. Whitehouse, High st

Lee Charles, High street

Pope Alexander and Son, Mill street

Ironmongers.

Glase Jos. Minton, High st

Hill William Whitehouse, High street

Lee Charles, High street

Joiners and Builders.

Andrew John, Newtown

Baker John, West Castle st

Gower Edward, High street

Hall Henry, St. John’s st

Holding Wm., East Castle st

Lewis John, West Castle st

Lewis Richard, High street

Moore John, for T. C. Whitmore, Esq.

Overton W., St. Mary’s steps

Page Wm., Yew Tree Cotge.

Penzer Ezer, St. Mary’s st

Perry & Phillips, Postern gt.

Pickard John, Whitburne st

Rea William, Listley street

Lacemen.

Edwards Matthew, High st

Nock Edwin, High street

Land and Estate Agents.

Hall, J. Claude, East Castle street

Parsons George, to Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., Whitburne street

Linen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

Bowen Henry, High street

Bromwich & Oakes, High st

Grierson James Brown, Waterloo terrace

Pidduck William, High st

Locksmiths.

Binnall John, Whitburne st

Hardy John, Underhill street

Hardy John, Bernards hill

Piper Thomas, Cartway st

Livery Stable Keepers.

Bateman Josh., Royal Hotel

Edwards Geo., Kings Arms

Machine Makers.

Gittons Richard, Salop road

Perry William, Spital street

Maltsters and Dealers in Hops.

Boucher Benj., St. Mary’s st

Bowen John, High street

Deighton Thos., Postern gt

Edkins Clement, High st

Jones Wm., Underhill street

Lewis John, Listley street

Lewis John, East Castle st

Mapp Thomas, Cartway st

Maun John, Bridge street

Morris Richard, High street

Newell John, Whitburne st

Oakes Francis, Underhill st

Oakes John, Underhill st

Price John, High street

Ridley Samuel and Edward, Mill street

Salt William, Bernard’s hill

Southwell Josiah, St. Mary’s street

Summers John, Underhill st

Weston Elias, Mill street

Whitefoot Thos., Whitburne street

Market Gardeners.

Maun John, Newtown Nursy.

Power Edward, St. Mary’s st

Woodhouse Wm., High st

Millers.

Crowther John, St. Mary’s st

Ridley Messrs. S. and E., Steam Mill

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Baker Mrs. West Castle st

Edwards Mary, Newtown

Haines Hannah, St. Mary’s st

Lawley Ann, Bridge street

Maddocks Mary, West Castle street

Nock Harriett, High street

Onians Edith, The Square

Ree Elizabeth, Listley street

Rushton Susannah, Underhill street

Whatmore Sarah Ann, High street

Nail Makers.

Dodd Joseph, Underhill st

Hill William, High street

Oil and Faint Dealer.

Lee Charles, High street

Painters, Plumbers, and Glaziers.

Brown and Crump, Whitburne street

Corser Thos., West Castle st

Hughes Wm., Bridge street

Hunter Thomas, High street

Lees Charles, West Gate Cottage

Nicholas Henry, North gate

Patent Medicine Dealers.

Edkins Mrs., High street

Leake Robert, High street

Partridge Charlotte, Waterloo Terrace

Rowley Wm. J., High street

Yate Joseph, Waterloo Ter.

Pawnbroker.

Edwards Mary, St. Leonard’s lane

Physician.

Strange William, High st

Porter Agents.

Jones Wm., (Stone), Stoneway

Lewis Ann, High street

Whitefoot Thomas, Raven st

Post Horses.  For Hire.

Boatman Joseph, High st

Edwards Geo., Whitburne st

Price John, High street

Southwell George, High st

Tench Edward, St. Mary’s st

Professors and Teachers.

Mercerot Wm., (dancing), Shiffnal road Villa

Sewell Wm., (music), St. Leonard’s lane

Williams Edward Vaughan, (astronomy), Bank st

Rope and Twine Makers.

Baker Joseph, Whitburne st

Roberts Thomas, Listley st

Saddlers and Harness Makers.

Clayton Charles, High st

Evans Henry, Listley street

Garbett Thos., Whitburne st

Giles John, Whitburne st

Jehu William, High street

Munday John Hudson, St. Mary’s street

Salt Dealers.
Fine and Agriculture.

Doughty Benjamin, Underhill street

Doughty Richard, Underhill street

Seed, Guano, & Tillage Dealers.

Ridley Samuel and Edward, Riddleford Mills

Shopkeepers.
Dealers in provisions & sundries.

Armstrong George, Newtown

Bates & Pearce, St. Mary’s st

Case James, Newtown

Cheese Mary, Bridge street

Cox John, Listley street

Foxall James, Cartway st

Garbett Maria, Whitburne st

Giles Joseph, St. Mary’s st

Hall John, Cartway street

Jenkins Mary, Whitburne st

Jones John, North Gate

Lawley John, Bridge street

Lay Thomas, Friars lane

Lee Richard, Underhill st

Matthews Thos., Listley st

Owen Thomas, Ebenezer pl

Page Wm., Whitburne st

Page Elizth., Whitburne st

Pearce Jane, St. Mary’s st

Phillips Ann, Friars lane

Ravenscroft Wm., Spital st

Sanders Alexander, West Castle street

Scott Gabriel, St. John’s st

Stowers Henry, Library steps

Townsend Thos., North gt.

Wellings William, Mill st

Whittingham Danl., Underhill street

Winsley Thomas, Newtown

Spirit Vaults.

Downes John, High street

Jones William, Stoneway

Lewis Ann, High street

Stay Maker.

Sharp Mary, Whitburne st

Stone Masons and Slaters.

Collins Rd., Whitburne st

Nuttall Thos., Whitburne st

Gower Thomas, Newtown

Gower William, Newtown

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Ball Mary Ann, High st

Nock Harriet, High street

Rogers Mary, North Gate

Southwell Maria St. Mary’s st

Surgeons.

Martin & Burleigh, Mill st

Mathias Alfred, Mill street

Newall James Edward, West Castle street

Phillips John, Whitburne st

Smith Steadman, Listley st

Thursfield Wm., High st

Surveyors.

Brown John, (road), St. Mary’s street

Hall Claude, (land), East Castle street

Taylor Richard, (land), Vine Cottage

Tailors.

Marked * are Woollen Drapers.

* Bache John, East Castle st

Brown Richard, Whitburne

Dudley Richard, Listley st

* Gething Thomas, High st

Hall George, High street

Hall Thos., Underhill street

* Hughes Wm., St. Leonard’s Walk

Lyster Thos., West Castle st

Pinner Ezekiah, West Castle street

Pursall Jas., West Castle st

Roberts Thos., St. Mary’s st

Sharpe Charles Jas., Whitburne street

Swayne James, Cartway st

Swayne Wm., Whitburne st

Tench John, West Castle st

* Tonkiss Richd., Whitburne street

Walford Wm., Cartway st

Walton John, Whitburne st

* Williams David, High st

Tallow Chandler.

Morris Benj., Listley street

Tanners.

Clarke Messrs. Joseph and Brother, Listley street

Sing Joshua, Mill street

Tea and Coffee Dealers.

Long Henry, High street

Macmichael Chas. Edward, West Castle street

Southwell George, High st

Timber Merchants.

Elcock Thomas, Newtown

Lewis Richard, North gate

Oakes William, Underhill st

Penzer Ezer, Underhill st

Perry & Phillips, Postern gt

Richard John, Whitburne st

Tobacco Pipe Makers.

Phillips Danl., The Foundry

Southern Thomas, Pound st

Toy & Fancy Repository.

Evanson Ed., St. Mary’s st

Wilmott & Bickley, High st

Veterinary Surgeons.

Atcherley James Rennell, High street

Bradshaw Henry Ainsworth, Castle Terrace

Churns John, High street

Pope John, West Castle st

Watch and Clock Makers.

Addison John, High street

Glase Thomas, High street

Pearson James M., (gilder and dentist), St. Mary’s street

Wharfingers.

Doughty Rd., Underhill st

Doughty Wm., Underhill st

Jones Wm., Underhill st

Ridley Messrs. J. and E., Underhill street

Wheelwrights.

Gittons John, Salop street

Lay Thomas, Friars lane

Lloyd John, Salop street

Pearce Wm., West Castle st

Perry John, Bernard’s hill

Preece Benj., East Castle st

Price Benjamin, Newtown

Whitesmiths & Bell hangers.

Binnall John, Whitburne st

Downes Jane, Underhill st

Lewis John, West Castle st

Wine and Spirit Merchants.

Downes John, (vaults) High street

Jones Wm., (vaults), Underlain street

Lewis Ann, High street

Wood Turners.

Gwynn Charles, Cartway st

Langford Ed., North gate

Langford Henry Thomas, North gate

Worsted Spinners.

Law & Grierson, Spital works

Wool Staplers.

Grierson & Law, Spital works

Grierson Thos., Grove house

Southwell Messrs. Josiah, William, and Joseph, Pendleston Mills

Whitcombe Thomas, Underhill street

Woollen Drapers.

Ball Thomas, High street

Brown Henry, High street

Bromwich & Oakes, High st

Gething Sophia, High street

Grierson James Brown, Waterloo house

Pidduck William, High st

Wager James, High street

Coaches.

To Birmingham—Ryl. Htl., at 7-45 A.M., dly., Sun ex.

To Shrewsbury—Ryl. Htl., Mon. Wed. & Fdy., 2-30 P.M.

Omnibuses.

To Shiffnal—Twice a day from the King’s Head

To Wolverhampton—From the Leopard Inn on Monday, Wednes., & Friday

Carriers.

The market carriers leave the several inns on Saturday afternoon, except when specified

To Billingsly—A van from the Ball

To Stottesden—A van from the Ball

To Stourbridge—Eliza Gough, from the Bell

To Much Wenlock—Wm. Clayton, from the Bell

To London, Birmingham, &c.—Crowley and Co., from the Cross Keys every Monday, Tuesday, Wed. and Friday, and to Ironbridge and Broseley on Tuesday and Friday; T, Moseley, agent

To London, Birmingham, &c.—Pickford and Co., from the Cross Keys daily

To Crofton—John Beddoes, from the King’s Head

To Stoke & Ludlow—T. Colton, from the King’s Head

To Corve Dale—Edward Hopkins, from the King’s Head

To Church Stretton—J. Jones, from the Bell

To Kidderminster—Saml. Hill, from the Black Horse

To Ludlow Hall—From the Squirrel, Monday

To Ludlow & Kidderminster—Samuel Breakwell, from the New Inn

To Munslow—J. Edwards, from the Raven

To Stottesden—Edward Bytheway, from the Ball

To Wolverhampton—Rd. Beeston, from the Fox, on Tuesday, Thurs., & Sat.

BURWARTON
is a parish and village in the Cleobury division of the Stottesden hundred, on the turnpike road from Bridgnorth to Ludlow, nine miles south-west from the former, and ten miles north-east from the latter.  The parish contains 1,236 acres of land, and in 1801 there were 107 inhabitants; 1831, 112; and in 1841, 27 houses and a population of 151 souls.  Rateable value, £1,115. 11s. 6d.  The Hon. G. F. H. Russell is the principal landowner, and occasionally resides at Burwarton Hall, an elegant free stone mansion, in the Italian style of architecture, delightfully situated in a park richly clothed with sylvan beauty, and watered by several mountain streams.  There are some fine lakes of water, and to the north-west of the park is the majestic Brown Clee Hill, which adds much to the picturesque beauty of the scenery.  The pleasure grounds and shrubberies are laid out with a pleasing variety, and kept in the most admirable order.  The Church, a small structure dedicated to St. Lawrence, has recently been repaired and beautified by the Hamilton family; the east window is ornamented with stained glass, and cost upwards of £50, which was defrayed by Lady Hamilton, who also presented the communion table.  The pulpit and seats are of oak, elaborately carved, and there is accommodation for about ninety persons.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £4. 6s. 8d.; gross income, £140; patron, Rev. John Churton; incumbent, Rev. T. Theodosius.  The tithes have been commuted for £90.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel at Burwarton.  The Hamilton Russell Arms Hotel and posting house is a commodious inn, and the post office for a wide district.  Letters arrive from Bridgnorth at 11 30 A.M., and are despatched at 3 P.M.

Directory.—Hon. G. P. H. Russell, Burwarton Hall; John Bradley, farmer; William Jones, vict., the Hamilton Russell Arms; James Prece, carpenter; Rev. John Rathbone, curate; John Reynolds, shoemaker.

CAINHAM
is an extensive parish and scattered village three miles south-east from Ludlow, comprising upwards of 3,040 acres of land.  At the census of 1801 there were 711 inhabitants; 1831, 1,005; 1841, 973.  Gross estimated rental, £3,730.  Rateable value, £3,333. 5s.  The principal landowners are Major Calcott, Hon. R. H. Clive, and Sir W. R. Broughton; the former is lord of the manor.  Cainham Court, an elegant mansion surrounded by plantations and shrubberies, was formerly the residence of the Calcott family; it is now unoccupied.  Not far from the above mansion is the site of an ancient castle, noticed by Leland, who observes, “Kainsham or Kensham Castle, clene down, stood within two miles of Ludloe, on a hill top.”  The place is now known by the name of Castle Fields, in which is a deep and wide entrenchment.  Tradition says that this was a depository of the military stores of Cromwell, during the siege of Ludlow Castle.  In the neighbourhood of Cainham apples are extensively grown for making cider.  The Church, a venerable structure, picturesquely situated, and dedicated to St. Mary, has a massive low tower containing three bells.  It consists of nave, chancel, and north transept, the latter having been recently added at a cost of £140, of which sum the Hereford Diocesan Society contributed £60.  The interior has a neat appearance.  The beautiful altar was added at the expense of the late vicar.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £4. 13s. 4d., in the patronage of Charles K. Mainwaring, Esq.: incumbent, Rev. Charles Adams.  There are upwards of 240 acres of glebe land.  The Methodists have a small chapel here.

The District of St. Paul’s Knowbury is partly in this parish and partly in that of Bitterley.  A considerable portion of the scattered district called Bennett’s End is in the former parish.  In 1839 a church was erected at a cost of £1,200, which is dedicated to St. Paul.  The structure is built in a simple style of architecture, and has a square tower.  The living is a perpetual curacy; and the patronage is vested in the Bishop of Hereford: incumbent, Rev. Burleigh James.  In connexion with the church, spacious schools have been erected, by the Hon. R. H. Clive, who also munificently supports the same: upwards of one hundred children are educated in them.  The Methodists and Primitive Methodists have small meeting houses.  The labouring population of this locality are chiefly employed in collieries and brick works.  The chief landowners are the Hon. R. H. Clive, Sir W. R. Broughton, and William Poyser, Esq.

CAINHAM DIRECTORY.

Adams Rev. Charles, vicar

Bozwood Thos., wheelwright

Corbett Thomas, shoemaker

Gould Mary, farmer

Grosvenor William, farmer

Harding William, blacksmith

Langston Captain, Poughnill

Medlicott Sarah, farmer, Pervin

Morris Benjamin, farmer

Small Edward, farmer

Small Elizabeth, farmer

Small William, farmer

Swift George, farmer, Camp farm

Ricketts Gregory, farmer

Turley Benjamin, miller

Turley Samuel, farmer, Poughnill

KNOWBURY DIRECTORY.

Bate Wm., vict., Golden cross

James Rev. Burleigh, incmbt.

Lewis James, agent to Hon. R. H. Clive, and Sir W. R. Broughton

Meyrick Thos., vict., Crown

Meyrick Wm., vict., the Oak

Poyser William, coal & lime master, and manufacturer of bricks, tiles, drainage pipes and earthenware

Price, B. J., schoolmaster

CHELMARSH
is a parish and small village, pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, four miles S.E. from Bridgnorth, which contains 3,126 acres of land, having a rich loamy soil in some parts, and in others a strong clay.  There is a small colliery on the western side of the village, and free-stone is got from the quarries on the common.  Rateable value of the parish, £3,660.  At the census of 1801 there was a population of 411 souls; and in 1841, 104 houses and 495 inhabitants.  Chelmarsh Common is an unenclosed piece of land, containing 119 acres.  The principal landowners are Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq.; John Nicholls, Esq.; John F. Wylde, Esq.; Edward Hughes, Esq.; and Mr. Richard H. Gwyn; besides whom are several other smaller proprietors.  Earl Edwin was lord of Chelmarsh before the Conquest, and for some ages afterwards it was the inheritance of the Mortimers.  In the 49th of Edward III., Edmund Lord Mortimer gave the manor to the Abbey and Convent of Wigmore, to maintain a secular priest resident in the church of Lentwardine, to sing mass, and daily pray for the souls of himself, family, and ancestors.  The Church is an ancient structure, consisting of nave, chancel, and north aisle, with a tower, in which is a peal of six musical bells.  The aisle is separated from the nave by four pointed arches, and there is a gallery at the west end.  The east window is beautified with stained glass.  A tablet in the chancel, dated 1645, remembers John N. Minnis.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £6. 5s. 8d., now returned at £264; patron, Sir John Seabright; incumbent, Rev. Charles W. Blathwayt, B.A.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £237, and the rectoral for £369. 3s., of which £358 are paid to Sir John Seabright, and £11. 3s. to Edward Hughes, Esq.  There are 24 acres of glebe land.  The National School, a neat stone structure, built in the year 1850, has a residence for the teacher annexed.  About fifty children attend.  Chelmarsh Hall, an ancient structure, in the Elizabethan style of architecture, was formerly the residence of the Nicholl family.  It is now the property of John Nicholl, Esq., but occupied as a farm house.  Hempton’s Load is a small village in the parish of Chelmarsh, two miles south-east from the church, pleasantly situated on the banks of the Severn, which is here crossed by a ferry.  Sutton is a small hamlet, about a mile south from the church.

Post Office—At George Dudley’s.  Letters arrive at 9 A.M., and are despatched to Bridgnorth at 4.30 P.M.

Ball Thomas, woollen draper, tailor, & farmer

Barker Thomas, blacksmith

Bishop Francis, farmer, The Hall

Blathwayt Rev. Charles Welfitt, B.A., vicar, The Vicarage

Corfield William, farmer, Spadeley

Detton Richard, tailor, The Common

Detton William, tailor, Hempton’s Load

Dovey William, joiner and carpenter

Draper George, farmer, Hempton’s Load

Draper John, farmer, Sutton

Dudley George, postmaster and parish clerk

Evans John, beerhouse-keeper, The Common

Fellows Wm., blacksmith, Hempton’s Load

Gwyn Richard Hodges, Esq., Astbury Hall

Hughes Edward, farmer, Hempton’s Load

Jordin John, farmer

Jordin Thomas, shoemaker

Lewis Thomas, shoemaker, Hempton’s Load

Mapp Thos., maltster & hop merchant, Sutton

Mapp William, maltster and farmer, Sutton

Martin John, farmer and ferryman and vict., The Unicorn, Hempton’s Load

Page John, blacksmith

Page Thomas, corn miller

Perry John, beerhousekpr. & bricklayer, The Common

Powell Richard, wheelwright and carpenter

Radner William, beerhouse and shopkeeper, The Common

Scoffham Henry Francis, butcher and shopkeeper

Spare Mary, schoolmistress (national)

Weaver James, farmer, Hempton’s Load

Williams Richard, cooper, The Common

Wyer Richard, farmer, New House

Wylde John Fewtrell, Esq., The Uplands

Wylde Rev. Charles Edmund, The Uplands

CHETTON
is a parish and pleasantly situated village, four miles and a half S.W. of Bridgnorth, partly in the Chelmarsh and partly in the Cleobury divisions of the Hundred of Stottesdon.  The parish contains 3291a. 1r. 12p. of land, the gross estimated rental of which is £4,495. 13s. 6d.  Rateable value, £4,026. 18s. 0d.  In 1841 there were 113 houses and 580 persons in the Chelmarsh division, and 19 houses and 113 persons returned as in the Cleobury division.  Population in 1801, 526; in 1831, 627.  The principal landowners are Lord Liverpool; John and George Pritchard, Esqrs.; Thomas Pardoe Purton, Esq.; John Baker, Esq.; John Dallewy, Esq.; and George Joseph Dallewy, Esq.; besides whom there are several smaller proprietors.  The tithes are commuted at £569. 14s. 9d.

The celebrated Wheatland hounds, belonging to John Baker, Esq., are kennelled in this parish.  The country over which they hunt embraces the Wrekin and surrounding district.  The hounds have been in the possession of the present proprietor for eight years, and were principally bred from the packs of Lord Yarborough, the Belvoir, the Shropshire, and Mr. Hellier’s.  There is a small colliery and also a brick manufactory in this parish.

The Church, dedicated to St. Giles, is a stone structure, with square tower, containing six bells, recast in 1829, at which time the tower was rebuilt.  The interior consists of nave, chancel, and gallery, on which is a small organ.  The church has a chaste appearance, and has been recently repaired at the joint expense of the parish and the late Venerable Archdeacon Vickers, formerly rector of Chetton.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £11, in the patronage of T. W. Wylde Browne, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Richard Herbert.  The National School is a neat brick building, erected in 1820.  The average attendance of boys and girls is about forty.  Mrs. Ann Adams is schoolmistress.  Faintree, Favon-tree, or Fanonia-tree, is a township in Chetton parish, five miles S.W. of Bridgnorth.  The name signifies the western town.  The township is situated on elevated ground, facing the west, or Favonian wind, and hence its name.  This manorial estate was formerly the property of the Briggs family, from whom it was purchased by the ancient family of the Pardoes of Cleeton, in Bitterley parish, whose descendant, Thomas Pardoe, Esq., died, leaving an only child, Esther, with whom this manor passed in marriage to John Purton, Esq., of Eudon Burnall, in whose family it now continues, Thomas Pardoe Purton, Esq., being its present proprietor, who resides at Faintree Hall, a neat brick residence, erected in the year 1802, upon the site of an ancient edifice.  Eudon Burnall and Eudon George are small townships situated about a mile from the church.

Charities.—Dorothy Holland, by will, dated 1723, bequeathed to the poor of this parish the sum of £20, in trust, to be placed out at interest, and distributed to twelve poor people of the parish in bread, on Easter days and Christmas days.

Richard Pardoe, by will, dated 1760, bequeathed the sum of £100, to be placed out at interest, which was to be divided into forty parts, one of which should be paid in bread every week to the poor and indigent persons of the parish, in the months of January, February, March, April, May, June, July, November, and December, for ever.

Henry Aston, who died in 1736, bequeathed the sum of £20, the interest thereof to be applied in teaching the poorest children in the parish to read.

Thomas Pardoe, by will proved in 1802, gave the sum of £50, the interest thereof to be applied in the teaching of poor children to read whose parents were not rated either to the church or poor.

Sarah Pardoe also gave the sum of £50 in the year 1805, the interest to be disposed of in the same manner as the preceding charity.

Loughton is a chapelry and village in the parish of Chetton, nine miles north-east from Ludlow, which contains 851a. 3r. 14p. of land, the rateable value of which is £635. 1s.  At the census of 1801 there were 130 inhabitants; 1831, 112; and in 1841, 19 houses and a population of 113 souls.  The duke of Cleveland and Viscountess Boyne are the principal landowners.  The chapel is a small fabric of free stone of unpretending appearance, exhibiting the style of architecture prevalent in the sixteenth century.  The living is a curacy, subordinate to the rectory of Chetton.

Adams James, gardener

Adams Ann, schoolmistress

Baker John, Esq., Walsbatch

Broom George, shoemaker, Eudon Gorge

Corfield Cornelius, farmer, Eudon Gorge

Corfield Thomas, farmer and cider shop, Tedstill

Dallewy John, Esq., Lower House

Davies James, farmer, Hollicott and Cockshutt

Edmonds Joseph, farmer, Down House

Farmer Thomas, farmer, Lower Faintree

Fletcher Benjamin, farmer, The Bush

Foxall Harry Smith, farmer, Lower Faintree

Gordon Alexander, farmer, Eudon Burnall

Gratton John, miller, Eudon Gorge

Griffin Geo., relieving officer

Hall Edward, jun., farmer, The Drales

Harley Edw., farmer, Eudon Gorge

Herbert Rev. Richard, rector, The Rectory

Hinsley John, farmer, Little Cockshutt

Jones Thomas, shopkeeper

Jones William, shoemaker and beerseller, Old Field

Porter William, farmer and beerseller, Down

Porter William, wheelwright, Down

Purton Thos. Pardoe, Esq., banker, Faintree Hall

Reece Harriet, farmer, Criddon

Reynolds Wm., shoemaker and vict., Old Inn

Rudd John, farmer, Scotland

Smith James, farm bailiff, Tedstill

Taylor Thomas, farmer, Upper House

Wallace William, farmer, Hill Farm

Wall Thos., farmer, Archley

Walters Thos., miller, Down Mill

Yeardley Wm., blacksmith and farmer, Down

Loughton Directory.

Blakemore Jesse, farmer

Chatham William, farmer

Evans John, shoemaker

Hall Richard, farmer

Kitson Mary, farmer

Lawley John, farmer

Noakes Thomas, shopkeeper

CLEOBURY MORTIMER
is parish and market town in the Cleobury division of the hundred of Stottesden, situated 137 miles N.W. of London, thirty-three miles S.S.E. of Shrewsbury, eleven miles E. of Ludlow, and eight miles W. of Bewdley.  It is divided into four quarters, viz.: Cleobury Town Liberty, West Foreign Liberty, East Foreign Liberty, and Doddington Liberty, which together contain 7,671 acres of land, of which 738 acres are in woodlands, 104a. 0r. 14p. of public roads, 2a. 2r. water, and 619a. 2r. 3p. in common lands and waste.  Rateable value of the parish, £7,300.  At the census in 1841 there were 364 houses and 1,730 inhabitants; population in 1801, 1,368; and in 1831, 1,716, William Lacon Childe, Esq., is lord of the manor.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Craven; Sir Edward Blount, Bart.; W. L. Childe, Esq.; Charles Wickstead, Esq.; Mrs. Lucy Botfield; Beriah Botfield, Esq.; John Downes, Esq.; Richard and Henry Backhouse, Esq.; Trustees of Cleobury School; George James Compson, Esq.; Thomas Foxhall, Esq.; and Thomas Pardoe Purton, Esq., besides whom are a number of smaller freeholders.  The tithes are commuted for £676. 12s. 6d., of which £602. 10s. is apportioned to the vicar of the parish, £34. 10s. to the Earl of Craven, and 12s. 6d. to William L. Childe, Esq.

The name of Cleobury Mortimer is said to be derived from its situation in a district abounding with clay, and from the Saxon word Byrig, a town, and the adjunct by which it is distinguished from North Cleobury is obtained from its ancient possessor, Ralph de Mortimer, who held it at the time of the general survey.  The town principally consists of one long street extending from east to west, and contains several family mansions and good shops, in all the different branches of the retail trade.  The labouring population are chiefly engaged in agricultural pursuits.  There were formerly extensive ironworks in the vicinity, but these have now disappeared.  There are two paper mills in the adjoining parish of Neen Savage, carried on by Mr. T. L. Hall.  The Clee Hill collieries, about three miles west of the town, have of late been little wrought, though they contain extensive fields of good coal, ironstone, and limestone.  This town is generally thought to have been the birth place of Robert Langlande, author of the “Vision of Pierce the Ploughman,” which was published in the year 1369.  A strong castle which formerly stood in this place was entirely destroyed in the wars between Henry II. and his rebellious barons; it was built by Hugh de Mortimer.

The Church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is an ancient and venerable structure, built of rubble stone, probably about the 14th century.  Hugh de Mortimer settled this church for part of the endowment of the Abbey of Wigmore, about the time of Henry II.  The square tower, containing a peal of six musical bells, a clock, and two dials, is surmounted by an octagonal spire of wood painted white.  The interior consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, the latter is separated from the nave by five pointed arches on each side.  The chancel is separated from the body of the church by a pointed arch.  The western gallery contains a fine-toned organ, built by subscriptions about seven years ago, at a cost of £250.  On the south side is a stained glass window, with the representation of Christ and the emblems of the crucifixion, and underneath are the words, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.”  On the north side is a beautiful stained glass window in memory of Mary Ann, the wife of John Lynn Priest; and also a stained glass window containing figures of St. Anne and St. Mary the Virgin, erected in memory of Ann Golderby, who died in 1849.  There are several marble tablets and tombs within the church, to the memory of deceased members of the various families in the neighbourhood.  Within the entrance of the porch is the following epitaph to the memory of Honor Evans.

My days, alas! my mortal days, were short and wretched too:
Evil and few, the patriarch says, and well the patriarch knew
That death, like overflowing stream, sweeps all away; life’s but a dream,
An empty tale, a morning flower, cut down and withered in an hour.
Remember, Lord, man’s mortal state; how frail is life, how short the date,
Where is the man that draws his breath, safe from disease, secure from death,
For man, weak man is born to die, made up of guilt and vanity.
Thy dreadful sentence, Lord, is just; return ye sinners to your dust.

The living of the church is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £12. 10s. 10d., in the patronage of William Lacon Childe, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Edward George Childe, M.A.

The Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel in High street, built of brick.  The Roman Catholics have also a chapel near Mawsley Hall, in this parish.

The Free School was founded and endowed by Sir Lacon William Childe, knt., in the year 1714, for the education of the youth of Cleobury Mortimer; for which purpose he gave by will, dated 28th of October, 1714, all his personal estate, undisposed of, to be put out at interest or to be invested in land for the maintenance of a master, to whom he gave £30 for ever to teach and instruct the children of the parish.  By an order of the court of exchequer, dated 19th of June, 1735, it was ordered that £200 should be laid out in the building or purchasing a school and schoolhouse, and that the residue of the trust money should be laid out in the purchase of lands, the rents and profits thereof to be applied to the payment of £30 a year to the schoolmaster, buying English books for the scholars, repairing the school and schoolhouse, and putting out six or more poor children of the parish to husbandry, as the trustees should think fit.  By a further order it was directed that the securities should be called in, and the money invested in the South Sea Annuities, which produced in 1742 the sum of £2,475. 6s. which with an outstanding mortgage of £100 constituted the whole of the testator’s personal estate.  In 1751, the sum of £2,700 was expended in the purchase of 348a. 3r. 36p. of land, in the parish of Cleobury Mortimer, which is now let at a yearly rent of £343.  There is also funded property consisting of £1,700 south sea annuities; £1,600 three per cent. consols; and a sum of £600 composed of surplus income, and £198. 16s. received for return of property tax.  Of this fund £1000 three per cents were bequeathed to the trustees in 1810 by Mr. John Winwood, of Bristol, towards paying an usher to assist in teaching.  The interest of these funds with the rents of land beforementioned amount to the sum of £463. 1s. 5d. per annum.  Upwards of 160 children are now educated in the school, of whom twelve boys and twelve girls are annually clothed, and a fee is given yearly for the apprenticing of six or more poor scholars to some mechanical or agricultural pursuit.  The head master is appointed by William Lacon Childe, Esq., of Kinlet, as representative of the founder, and receives £60 per annum, besides other perquisites; especially an allowance of 30s. per head for copy books, &c.  The Rev. Henry Kemp, B.A. is the head master: James Birchall, second master.

The County Court for the recovery of debts, and in all pleas of personal action where the damage does not exceed £50, is held monthly at the Town’s Offices, in the Lower town.  The several parishes and places within the jurisdiction of the court are Aston Botterel, Bayton, in Worcestershire, Cleobury Mortimer, Coreley, Farlow, in Herefordshire, Highley, Hopton Wafers, Kinlet, Loughton, Mamble, Milson, Neen Savage, Neen Solars, Rock, in Worcestershire, Silvington, Stottesden, and Wheathill.  Judge, Uvedale Corbett, Esq., Aston Hall: Clerk, Samuel Phillips Southam, Esq.; Assistant Clerk, William Nichols: High Bailiff, William Cooke: Bailiff and Appraiser, William Farmer.

Cleobury Mortimer Union House is situated half a mile north-west of the church.  The union comprises the following parishes, viz.:—Aston Botterel, Coreley, Farlow, Highley, Hopton Wafers, Kinlet, Loughton, Milson, Neen Savage, Neen Solars, Silvington, Stottesden and Wheathill, in the county of Salop; and Bayton, Rock and Mamble, in the county of Worcestershire.  The union comprehends an area of upwards of 50,000 acres, or 88 square miles, and a population of 8,632 souls.  Chairman to the Guardians, Sir Edward Blount, Bart.: Clerk, William Cooke, Esq.: Surgeon, Henry Vevers: Relieving Officer, Mr. William Wainwright: Master, Isaac Alfred Read: Matron, Sarah Read: Schoolmistress, Sarah Jones.

The Market Hall, situated near the church, is a modern erection of stone, in which the weekly market is held on Wednesday.  Fairs are held on April 21st, May 2nd, first Monday after Whitsuntide, and October 27th, which are well attended.  There is also a feast held the first Sunday after the 15th of August.

The Petty Sessions are held on the third Tuesday in each month, at the Towns Offices, in the lower town.  There is a Lock-up in Church street, which was built of freestone in 1836; it is a small structure, containing two cells: Richard Roberts, police constable.  The Excise Office is held at the Talbot Inn, where there is also a reading room, supported by annual subscription.  There is a Circulating Library in Market street, of which Joseph Wainwright is the proprietor.

Cleobury Mortimer township and liberty contains 947a. 1r. 27p. of land, of which 315 acres are woodlands, 31a. 3r. 35p. are public roads, and 2a. 2r. are water.  The soil is fertile and productive, and is watered by numerous fine springs, as well as the River Rea, which intersects the township, and is crossed by a bridge a short distance east of the village.  At the census of 1851 the liberty contained 211 houses and 1,122 persons.  The rent charge payable to the vicar is £131.  William Lacon Childe, Esq., is lord of the manor, and holds a court leet and baron, at the Talbot Inn annually, in November; Mr. James Boucher is the steward.

Doddington liberty, situated two miles west of the parish church, at the census of 1851 had 87 houses and a population of 383 souls.  It contains 2,878a. 6r. 19p. of land, of which 35a. 0r. 16p. are public road, and 619a. 2r. 3p. are moor, common, and waste, being part of the Clee Hill.  The tithes are commuted, and £172 apportioned to the vicar of Cleobury Mortimer and £34. 10s. to the Earl of Craven.  William Lacon Childe Esq., is lord of the manor.

The District Church, situated on the side of Clee Hill, was founded and endowed by the late Thomas Botfield, Esq., and his widow, Mrs. Lucy Botfield, of Hopton Court, who has invested the sum of £1,000 for the endowment, erected a parsonage house near the church, and given five acres of land.  The church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and built of stone, with a square tower, the site and building of which cost about £4,000.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of Mrs. Botfield, and incumbency of the Rev. Henry Brown, M.A.  There are several coal works on the Clee Hill in this township, carried on by Beriah Botfield, Esq.  The townships in this liberty are Catherton, Ditton, Dudnell, Hill Houses, and Woodhouses, an extra parochial liberty, situated two miles from Cleobury.

The East Foreign Liberty, situated three miles from Cleobury Mortimer, contains 1,878a. 1r. 39p. of land, of which 17 acres are public roads, and 132 acres woods and plantations.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for the sum of £121.  W. L. Childe, Esq., is lord of the manor.  The liberty contains the townships of Mawley and Weston.

Mawley Manor House, situated one mile S.E. of Cleobury Mortimer, is the seat and residence of Sir Edward Blount, Bart.  The mansion is a commodious and handsome brick structure, with stone facings and mullions, and surrounded by a richly wooded park.

West Foreign Liberty, situated two miles from Cleobury, contains 1,312a. 1r. 24p. of land, of which 291 acres are woods and coppices, 20 acres public roads.  The rent charge amounts to £122. 2s. 6d., of which the sum of £121. 10s. is apportioned to the lord of the manor.  William Lacon Childe, Esq.  This liberty, with that of East Foreign, contains 48 houses and a population of 242 souls.

Charities.—Sir William Lacon Childe, the founder of the free school previously noticed, also gave by will the sum of £100, the interest thereof to be distributed to the poor in bread every Sunday.

Richard Walker, gave by will, dated 1666, the sum of 1s. every Lord’s day and 2s. every Christmas day, to be distributed in bread to the poor of the parish of Cleobury Mortimer.  This gift is paid out of certain lands in the parish.

It is stated on a tablet in the church that Benjamin Bateman, clerk, left £20, and Mrs. Joyce Cumber left £5, for teaching poor children to read.  From a copy of part of the will of Mr. Bateman in the parish book it appears that the £20 given by him was to be disposed of by the vicar of Cleobury Mortimer and one Mr. Read in such a manner as they should think fit.

Henry Fox, by deeds of lease and release, dated 1743, reciting that his sister, Mary Fox, had by her will given £50, which she intended should be laid out in land, and the rents applied to teaching poor girls to read, conveyed to the vicar a field containing one acre, in trust, that he should raise yearly the sum of 54s., and pay the same to a poor woman of the parish to teach ten poor girls to read.  Also German Fox, in 1775, bequeathed £50, the interest thereof to be applied towards teaching poor boys to read.

Near to Cleobury Mortimer is a large school room and school house annexed, usually called the Old School Premises, but now uninhabited and in complete decay.  From an indenture dated 1727 it appears that these buildings were erected upon a piece of land belonging to John Meysey, Esq., by means of contributions raised among the neighbouring gentry, for the purpose of a school for the benefit of the children of the parish of Cleobury Mortimer.

The Post Office.—Mr. William Jeffries, postmaster, Church street.  Letters arrive from Bewdley at 7-45 A.M., and are despatched at 4-30 P.M.

Adams George, carrier, High street

Ashwood Thomas, gardener, Market place

Baker Slade, Esq., Sandbourne

Birchall James, second master of Free School, Market street

Blount Sir Edward, Bart., Mawley Hall

Boucher James, Esq., Church street

Bourne James, Esq., Mawley town

Bourne James, Esq., The villas

Botfield Lucy, gentlewoman, Hopton court

Brown Rev. William Henry, M.A., Doddington Parsonage

Childe Rev. Ed. Geo., M.A., The Vicarage

Childe Wm. Lacon, Esq., Kinlet Park

Childe William Lacon, Esq., junr., Kinlet

Cocks Rev. Charles Richard Somers, M.A., Neen Savage Rectory

Cocksey Mr. Charles, Market street

Colerick William, inland revenue officer, High street

Cooke Mr. William, junr., High street

Crump Thomas, Esq., Chorley

Crump Thomas, Esq., jun., The Hall

Dorrell Benjamin, miller and farmer

Farmer Wm., parish clerk & perpetl. overseer

Hall Thomas Lambert, paper manufacturer

Hardwicke Rev. Thos., D.D., Milson Rectory

Harris Sarah, school teacher

Hayton Rev. John, Market street

Hulme Rev. Benjamin, Mawley

Jefferies William, postmaster, Church street

Jones James, carrier, Market street

Jones Sarah, school teacher

Jones William Weaver, gentleman, Market st

Kemp Rev. Henry, B.A., Grammar School

Lowe Arthur Charles, Esq., Court of Hill

Marcy Wm. Nicholls, solicitor, and agent to Shropshire Fire Office, Bewdley

Mytton Henry George, Esq.

Nichols Wm., county court clerk, Market st

Pardoe George, Esq., Nash court

Pope Benjamin David, Market place

Pope Thomas, gentleman, Market street

Read Isaac Alfred, M.A., Union house

Reynolds Mrs. Elizabeth, Church street

Roberts Richard, county police officer, Lower town

Southam Samuel Phillip, Esq., Market st

Tongue Mary, school teacher, Free School

Vevers Henry, gentleman, Lower town

Wainwright William, relieving officer

West Margaret, carrier, High street

Whatmore John, town crier, Church street

Whitcombe Edmund Bancks, gentleman, High street

Wickstead Charles, Esq., Skakenhurst

Woodward Mrs., Lower town

Woodward Rev. Thomas, M.A., Hopton Rectory

Academies.

Free School, Rev. Henry Kemp, principal; Birchall James, second master; Sarah Harris, mistress

Infant, Mary Tongue

Attorneys.

Backhouse Richard Onions, Lower town

Marcy William Nicholls, Lower town

Pope Benj. David, Market place

Southam Samuel Phillips, master extraordinary in chancery, coroner for the southern district of Shropshire, and clerk to the county court

Auctioneers and Valuers.

Backhouse Richard Onions, Lower town

Hill William, Lower town

Jones Lloyd, Lower town

Baker and Flour Dealer.

Price James, Market street

Blacksmiths.

Harris Thomas, Church st

Hay John, (& ironmonger), Market street

Potter Edward, Lower town

Webb Thomas, High street

Boot and Shoemakers.

Bodenham John, Market st

Breakwell Thos., The Hurst

Whatmore John, (& leather cutter), Church street

Wheeler James, Church st

Butchers.

Bright Edward, High street

Lloyd Thomas, (& farmer), Market place

Williams Thos., (& grazier) Market place

Coopers.

Knott John, High street

Simmonds Wm., Market pl

Chemist and Druggist.

Wainwright Joseph, Market place

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Downes John, High street

Downes Thomas, (& provision dealer), Lower town

Eaton Robert, High street

Jefferies Wm., (& chandler), Church street

Wainwright Joseph, Market place

Williams Elizth., Church st

Yapp Thomas, Market pl

Hair Dresser.

Griffiths John, Lower town

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Bell, Jas. Lane, Lower town

Crown, James Wm. Smith, High street

Fountain, Elizth. Williams, Church street

Fox Inn, Thomas Farmer, High street

King’s Arms, commercial inn and spirit vaults, Benjamin Taylor, Church st

Lion, Thomas Worrall, Church street

Plough, Jas. Wood, High st

Swan, Benjamin Dorrell, Church street

Talbot Hotel, and commercial inn & posting house, Wm. Dorrell, Market pl

Beer and Cider Retailers.

Eaton Robert, High street

Wadeley James, Lower town

Whetstone Wm., High st

Butter and Cheese Dealer.

Yapp Thomas, (& dealer in corn), Market place

Joiners and Builders.

Hare Thomas, High street

Hardy Edwin, (upholsterer and & bell hanger), Church street

Smith John, High street

Land Agents.

Boucher James, Church st

Bourn James, junr., Mawley town

Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

Downes Wm., Market place

Mytton James, Market pl

Maltsters.

Beddoe Charles, (and hop merchant), Church street

Wheeler Wm., (and corn miller), Lower town

Milliners and Dressmakers.

Dallow Jane, (fancy repository and hosiery), Market place

Wright Elizth., Church st

Paper Manufacturer.

Hall Thomas Lambert, Neen Savage

Painters, Plumbers, & Glaziers.

Hume Benjamin and Sons, (& paperhanger), Market place

Hume Benj., Lower town

Hume James, Union road

Napper William, High st

Saddlers and Harness Makers.

Littler Wm., Market place

Palmer Samuel, Market pl

Shopkeepers and Dealers in Groceries and Sundries.

Allen Rebecca, High street

Beddoe Ann, High street

Farmer Thomas, High st

Keysall Edward, Market pl

Whetstone William, High st

Skinner and Woolstapler.

Dallow James, High street

Stone Masons.

Haberley Wm., Lower town

Hare Thomas, High street

Potter James, Lower town

Surgeons.

Jones Wm. Weaver, Markt. st

Pope Thomas, Market pl

Vevers Henry, Lower town

Whitcombe Edmund Bancks, High street

Surveyors.

Dallow Wm. Aloysius, (land and road), Mortimer pl

Hill William, (land), Lower town

Tailors.

Mytton James, Market st

Pennington George, Lower town

Potter George, Lower town

Tinman and Brazier and Ironmonger.

Evans John, Market street

Watch and Clock Maker.

Stockall Thomas, Market st

Wheelwrights.

Merrick John, Lower town

Williams Thos., Market st

Carriers.

To Birmingham—From the King’s Arms (Cleobury Mortmr.), passing through Bewdley, Kidderminster, and Hales Owen, to the Swan with Two Necks, Birmingham, every Monday, Benjamin Taylor, proprietor

To Bewdley—James Jones, Mondays and Saturdays

To Kidderminster—Geo. Adams, Saturdays

To Ludlow—Margt. West, Mondays

CLEOBURY NORTH
is a small village in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden hundred, on the turnpike road from Bridgnorth to Ludlow, eight miles south-west from the former, and eleven miles north-east from the latter.  The parish contains 1,560 acres of land, of which 461 acres are in waste and commons.  At the census of 1801 there were 136 inhabitants; 1831, 187; and in 1841, 33 houses and a population of 176 souls.  Rateable value, £1,001. 14s. 6d.  The principal landowners are the Rev. J. Knight, H. G. Mytton, Esq., the Earl of Powis, and Mr. John Hinksman; and the Corporation of Ludlow are also proprietors.  The Church is dedicated to St. Peter, and consists of nave, chancel, and south aisle, with a short tower in which are two bells.  The windows exhibit the style of architecture which prevailed during the reign of Henry VII.: in other parts are traces of the Norman character.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £5. 12s. 3d., in the patronage of the Mytton family; incumbent, Rev. John R. Webb.  The tithes are commuted for £149. 9s.; and there are 75 acres of glebe land, of the annual value of £60.  The rectory is a good residence, almost surrounded with water, and has a very picturesque appearance, not far from which are the towering heights of the Brown Clee Hill.  The church has recently been restored and beautified, at the expense of the landowners and the principal residents.  A fine toned organ has been added, at a cost of £120, which was raised by the interest and exertions of the present incumbent.  Cleobury Hall, the residence of Henry George Mytton, Esq., and the Misses Mytton, is a handsome mansion of free stone, erected by the grandfather of the present proprietor; it is beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberies, and surrounded with fine scenery.

Directory.—Henry George Mytton, Esq., Cleobury Hall; The Misses Mary Ann, Harriette, Ann, and Frances Mytton, Cleobury Hall; Launcelot Dixon, joiner; Thomas Green, farmer and corn miller; John Minton, yeoman; John Miles farmer; William Powell, farmer; Jeremiah Sambrook, farmer; Rev. John R. Webb, the Rectory.

CORELEY
is a parish and small village four and a half miles N.N.E. from Tenbury, containing 2,173a. 3r. 9p. of land, of which 877a. 2r. 6p. are common lands.  The rateable value of the parish is £2,266. 10s.: gross estimated rental, £2,624. 3s. 6d.  At the census of 1841 there were 112 houses, and 525 souls; population in 1801, 458; and in 1831, 553.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Craven, John Pritchard, Esq., W. S. Davenport, Esq., Mrs. Lucy Botfield, and Miss Compson; besides whom there are several smaller proprietors.  There are coal works in this parish, carried on by Beriah Botfield, Esq.  The Church, dedicated to St. Peter, is built of brick, and has a square tower, surmounted by a spire of wood.  The interior is neatly pewed with oak.  The pulpit is carved, and has the date of 1648.  On the south wall is a tablet to the memory of William Coling, of Coreley, dated 1657.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £5. 5s. 8d.; patron and incumbent, Rev. Walter Haliburton, M.A.  The tithe is commuted for £168.  There are 65 acres of glebe land in the parish.

Directory.—William Adams, farmer, Hince; William Bishop, blacksmith; Samuel Brown, wheelwright; Benjamin Bytheway, shoemaker and shopkeeper; George Corfield, farmer, Brick House; James Davies, Esq., banker, Church stile; William Davies, farmer; Rev. Walter Haliburton, M.A., rector, the Rectory; William Honeybourn, vict., the Poplar; Jeremiah Jeffries, farmer; John Kay, farmer; Edwin Wall, vict., the Colliers Arms; John Webb, shoemaker; Richard Wyer, farmer, New Barn.

DEUXHILL
a small parish in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden hundred, contains 683 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £471.  The principal landowners are the Rev. Mr. Haden, Mrs. Deenton, and the Rev. Richard Herbert; besides whom there are a few smaller proprietors.  At the census in 1801 there were 30 inhabitants; and in 1841, eight houses and a population of 45 souls.  The village is pleasantly situated on the Bridgnorth end Cleobury Mortimer turnpike road, four and a half miles S.S.W. from the former town.  The Church is a small structure, consisting of nave and chancel, with a small turret, in which is one bell.  Over the porch is the date 1668.  A neat tablet remembers John Lewis, who died in 1804, and his wife Frances, who died in 1809.  The living is a rectory, annexed to that of Chetton: incumbent, Rev. Richard Herbert.

The principal residents are Charles Birkin, farmer; Mary Ann Birkin, farmer; Mary Jenkins, schoolmistress; Thomas Stonyer, corn miller, Horsford.

DOWLES,
a small parish in the Cleobury division of the hundred of Stottesden, situated one mile north of Bewdley, contains 1080 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1130. 10s., and gross estimated rental £1300.  In 1841 there were nine houses and eighty persons; population in 1801, fifty-seven; 1831, sixty-two.  The Misses Taylors are ladies of the manor and the principal landowners, Mr. James Taylor, Rev. Joseph Fletcher, and others are also proprietors.  The word Dowles comes from the British Dôl, which signifies a bottom surrounded with hills, or perhaps from the Saxon Doelar, to divide, as it is on the extreme border of the county, a small brook dividing it from Worcestershire.  It is situated on the bank of the river Severn and surrounded with beautiful scenery.  The Bewdley Gas Works are in this parish, and the manufacture of bricks and tiles is carried on extensively here.

The Church, dedicated to St. Andrew, stands in a sequestered situation near the Severn.  It is built of brick and has a small turret; the interior consists of nave and chancel and the fittings are neat and appropriate.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £4, in the patronage of the Misses Taylor, and incumbency of the Rev. J. Fletcher, B.A.  The tithes are commuted for £120.  There are two acres of glebe land.

Charities.—An old parish book records benefactions to the poor between the year 1636 and 1710 to the amount of £13. 10s., which in the year 1786 was applied towards the rebuilding of the church, the rent of one of the pews thereof being given to the poor in consideration of this sum, which was regularly distributed till the year 1800, when a new minister of the parish opposed the further letting of any pews and ordered them to be thrown open to the public.

Directory.—Samuel Hill Crocket, farmer; William Downing, farmer; Rev. Joseph Fletcher, B.A., The Parsonage; Benjamin Jeffries, parish clerk and overseer and inspector of the Bewdley police; James Lawley, farmer; William Meredith, farmer; and Thomas Perry, farmer.

GLAZELEY
is a parish and village situated on the Bridgnorth and Ludlow turnpike road, three and a half miles S.S.W. from the former town.  This parish is in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden hundred, and contains 636 acres of land.  At the census in 1801 there were 31 inhabitants; 1831, 47, and in 1841 eight houses and 38 souls.  Thomas Whitmore Wylde Browne, Esq., is lord of the manor and owner of the land.  Adjoining the church-yard is a mound or tumulus.  The Church is a small unpretending structure of brick, consisting of nave and chancel, and will accommodate about eighty persons.  In the chancel is a tablet in memory of Edmund Wylde, Esq., who died in 1695.  On the floor is brass, in a good state of preservation, with two full length figures and six children, commemorative of Thomas and Elizabeth Wylde and their children; it is dated 1599.  The living is a rectory annexed to that of Chetton, enjoyed by the Rev. Richard Herbert.  The parsonage house is a neat brick residence on the south side of the church-yard.  The Woodlands, a handsome stone mansion, the seat and property of T. W. Wylde Browne, Esq., is surrounded by a finely timbered park, and commands extensive views of the surrounding country.

The principal residents are Thomas Whitmore Wylde Browne, Esq., J.P., Woodlands; and Edward Brown, farmer.

HIGHLEY
is a parish and pleasant rural village near the western bank of the Severn, seven miles S.S.E. of Bridgnorth, situated on an eminence commanding fine views of the surrounding country, and noted for its extensive orchards and the excellency of its cider, which is made to a considerable extent in this locality.  There are several quarries of superior stone in the parish.  At the census of 1841 there were 88 houses and 360 inhabitants; population in 1801, 274, and in 1831, 404.  Highley contains 1,527a. 1r. 7p. of land, of which 780 acres are arable, 570 acres meadow and pasture, and 40 acres are woodlands, the rateable value of which is £1,128. 3s. 4d; gross estimated rental, £1,929. 18s. 6d.  The tithes are commuted for £225. 1s. 6d.  William Jordin, Esq., is lord of the manor and principal landowner, besides whom Mr. John Crane, Rev. Samuel Du Pre, Mr. Easthope, Mr. Thomas Fenn, Mr. J. H. Windle, Mr. Daniel Jordin, Mr. Levi Jordin, Mr. Thomas Jordin, and Mr. George Peplow, are proprietors.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is built of free stone, with square tower, in which is four bells.  It consists of nave, chancel, and has a gallery on which is placed a small organ.  The Rev. Samuel Burrows is the patron, and the Rev. Samuel Du Pre, incumbent.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £5. 19s. 2d.  Some portion of the land is tithe free, the rest has been commuted and apportioned as follows:—To the vicar the sum of £115. 10s.; to Mr. Jordin, £89. 11s.; to the Rev. P. Haslewood, £19, and to Thomas Lowe, £1.  The vicar has 89a. 3r. 2p. of glebe land.

Charities.—Richard Lowe gave the sum of £10 by will in 1579; George Harris, in 1607, gave £1. 6s. 8d.; and Giles Rawlins, by will, in 1677, gave £5, to be employed for the use and benefit of the poor of the parish of Highley.  With this money land was purchased containing two acres, on which two cottages have been built, and the rents have been given to the poor of the parish in bread every Sunday.  Thomas Getton, Esq., in 1808, gave £5. 10s., the interest thereof to be distributed in bread to the poor of the parish on Christmas day.

Directory.—Decimus Burrows, farmer, Church Hill; William Burrows, farmer, Rea Farm; John Davies, shopkeeper; Rev. Samuel Du Pre, The Vicarage; William Easthope, farmer, Haylewells; William Evans, builder; Thomas Fenn, farmer, Dustley; George Gough, shopkeeper; William Thomas Homer, schoolmaster; Martha Hughes, beer and cider retailer; Daniel Jordin, miller and farmer; Levi Jordin, farmer; Thomas Jordin, farmer, Netherton House; William Jordin, Esq., New House; William Jordin, farmer, Highley House; William Kirk, shopkeeper and quarry owner; John Kirkham, vict., The Ship; William Lloyd, shoemaker; John Oakley, farm bailiff; William Pritchard, blacksmith; Richard Tomlinson, farmer, The Heath; William Walford, shoemaker; Benjamin Williams, tailor.

HOPE BAGGOT,
a small parish five miles east by south of Ludlow, containing 650 acres of land, in 1841 had 21 houses and 75 inhabitants; population in 1801, 94; 1831, 62.  The tithes of this parish have been commuted for £75.  In the 22nd of Richard II., William de Hulle held half a knight’s fee here under the Earl of March, which was formerly possessed by Robert Baggard, from whom this place took its name.  The principal landowners are Benjamin Giles, Esq., Mrs. Lucy Botfield, Mrs. J. Hooley, and Mr. Richard Bray.  The Church, dedicated to St. John, is a small stone edifice, capable of accommodating 63 persons.  The interior consists of nave and chancel, in the latter of which is a tablet to the memory of Benjamin Giles, Esq., dated 1795, and another to the memory of Benjamin Giles, Esq., dated 1813.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £3. 6s. 8d., now returned at £90; in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland, and incumbency of the Rev. David Jones.  Directory.—Richard Bray, farmer; Edward Downes, shoemaker; Benjamin Giles, Esq., Hope Court; Mrs. Jemima Hooley; Rev. David Jones, the Rectory; and James Geo. Lewis, Esq., Hope Villa.

HOPTON WAFERS
is a parish and pleasantly situated village on the Cleobury Mortimer and Ludlow turnpike road, 9 miles from the latter place.  It contains 1,610a. 3r. 26p. of land, of which 22a. 3r. 18p. are roads; 236a. 3r. 26p. common; and 60a. are in woods and plantations.  In 1851 there were 94 inhabited houses, 20 uninhabited, and 444 inhabitants; population in 1801, 392; 1841, 481.  There were formerly three paper mills in this parish.  Hopton Wafers is remarkable as giving a singular instance of longevity in William Hyde, who resided in this place, and lived to the advanced age of 106 years, and at the time of his decease in 1798, had sons upwards of eighty years old.  The principal landowner is Mrs. Lucy Botfield, who is also lady of the manor; the trustees of Ludlow charities, trustees of Palmer’s charities, and the rector are also proprietors.  Rent charge, £186. 12s.  There are 83a. 1r. 21p. of glebe land.  The Church is a fine gothic structure, built of free stone, having a square tower with pinnacles at the angles.  In consists of north and south aisles and chancel, and has a gallery, in which is a small organ.  On the altar is represented in statuary a Bible opening to the Ten Commandments, and on each side of the window are marble scrolls with the Creed and Lord’s Prayer engraved thereon.  The church is dedicated to St. Mary, and the patronage is vested in Mrs. Lucy Botfield, incumbent, Rev. Thomas Woodward.  The Primitive Methodists have a chapel, built in the year 1837.

Directory.—Joseph Allen, blacksmith; Mrs. Lucy Botfield, Hopton Court; John Bishop, farmer, Bank House; John Caldwell, tailor; Thomas Caldwell, tailor; John Dolphin, farmer and beer retailer; William Edwards, schoolmaster; William Farr, blacksmith; Richard Hatton, wheelwright; William Highfield, farmer; Eliza Hyde, schoolmistress; Thomas Hyde, shoemaker; William Hyde, shoemaker; William Jones, farmer, Little Shote; Thomas Page, farmer, Roch Head; William Radnor, farmer, Sproseley; Thomas Ree, farmer, White House; William Steed, stone mason; William Thatcher, farmer, Great Shote; John Whitehead, vict., the Crown and farmer; Rev. Thomas Woodward, M.A., the Rectory.

KINLET
is a parish in the Cleobury division of the Stottesden hundred, embracing the townships of Kinlet and Earnwood, and contains 6,692 acres of land, of which 1,079 are in woods, plantations and water; and 30 acres in public roads.  Population in 1801, 602; 1831, 532; 1841, 480; at the latter period there were 98 houses.  Rateable value, £5,760. 19s. 8d.  The soil is various; in some parts a strong loam, and in other places a light soil prevails.  The meadow land produces a rich herbage.  William Lacon Childe, Esq., is lord of the manor, and the principal landowner.  John White, Esq., Rev. Edward George Childe, Esq., George Crump, Esq., and Mr. William Rudd are also proprietors.  The village of Kinlet is delightfully situated in a luxuriant district, five miles north from Cleobury Mortimer, and eight miles south from Bridgnorth.  The township is intersected by the Bridgnorth, Cleobury Mortimer, and Bewdley turnpike roads, and a portion of the land stretches to the Severn side.  This locality is richly timbered, and the high grounds commands some fine views of the surrounding country.  At the census of 1841 there were 45 houses, mostly scattered, and a population of 227 souls, within the bounds of this township.

The Church, dedicated to St. Peter, is a venerable cruciform structure, situated near the mansion in Kinlet Park: it has a lofty square tower containing six bells.  The interior has a very chaste and elegant appearance, and the Saxon or early Norman arches of the nave bespeak its antiquity.  The structure was repaired and beautified in the year 1814, when the east window was restored, at the sole expense of Mr. Childe; it is richly adorned with armorial bearings and figures in stained glass.  The altar is of oak exquisitely carved.  On the south side of the church is an altar tomb, with the figures of a knight and two ladies in a recumbent position; the male figure is in steel armour, and remembers Sir William Childe, Knight; his feet rest on a lion couchant.  On the north side is a tomb with two full length figures, in memory of Sir William Childe and his lady, dated 1678.  There is also a beautiful marble tomb, with a rich canopy, having the figures of a knight and his lady, in a kneeling position, with those of a boy and a girl between them; it has the date of 1584.  There is also the figure of a knight in a recumbent posture, in memory of George Blount, formerly lord of Kinlet, who died in 1581.  Several elegant marble tablets, some of which are very chastely designed, have been erected to the memory of various members of the Childe family, of Kinlet Hall.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £8. 2s. 4d., now returned at £360 in the patronage of William Lacon Childe, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Edward George Childe, M.A.; officiating minister, Rev. Edward Prest, M.A.  The tithes have been commuted, and £322 apportioned to the vicar, and £3. 7s. 6d. to the impropriator, the lord of the manor.  There are 45a. 0r. 16p. of glebe land.  A neat school and residence for the teachers was built in the year 1844, by William Lacon Childe, Esq., by whose munificence and that of the incumbent it is entirely supported.

Kinlet Park, the seat and property of William Lacon Childe, Esq., J.P., is a stately mansion of considerable extent, built in 1789, near the site of a former mansion, which was taken down.  It stands on a gentle eminence in a delightful park, commanding views of great diversity and beauty.  The pleasure grounds are tastefully laid out, and kept in the most admirable order, and the park is well timbered and beautifully picturesque.  A magnificent avenue stretches across the grounds.  The park contains 456 acres of land, besides which there are 1,076 acres covered with woods, plantations, and water.  W. L. Childe, Esq., at the present time has upwards of 4,000 acres of land in his own hands.  A feast is held at Kilnet on the first Sunday after Midsummer day.  Cider is made to a considerable extent in this neighbourhood.

Childe Wm. Lacon, Esq., J. P., Kinlet Park

Barker Henry, farmer, Winnell

Beach Henry, farmer, Rotton row

Boucher James, Esq., steward & land agent

Chappell John, butler

Childe Rev. Edward George, The Hall

Childe William Lacon, Esq., junr.

Deverell Mr. William, farm steward

Elcock John, farmer, Winwoods

George George, farmer, Fastings

Hall John, farmer, Severn lodge

Jones William, Tip house

Jones William, farmer, Tip house

Lawley James, farmer, Norton’s end

Lawley John, farmer, Birch

Lawley Joseph, farmer, Button bridge farm

Lawley Thomas, blacksmith

Okey Edward, farmer

Pearson John, forrester and gardener

Pitt Hannah, school mistress

Pountney Charles, farmer, Catsley hall

Pountney Richard, farmer, Tilley grove

Prest Rev. Edward, The Vicarage

Reynolds Thomas, farmer, Braidley

Rhodes Richards, farmer and vict., Eagle and Serpent Inn

Rolf John, coachman

Rudd William, farmer, Hall of Hammons

Ward John, wheelwright

Whitehead John, park and gamekeeper

MIDDLETON SCRIVEN
is a parish and small rural village, in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden Hundred, five miles S.W. from Bridgnorth.  The parish contains 786a. 0r. 16p. of land, the soil mostly a strong marl, producing wheat, barley, and turnips.  The village is watered by two small streams, and in 1801 contained 80 inhabitants; 1831, 99; 1841, 108: at the latter period there were twenty houses.  The principal landowners are the Rev. Thomas Rowley, D.D., and the Rev. F. S. Bolton; the former is lord of the manor.  There are also several smaller freeholders.  Gross estimated rental of the parish, £903. 16s.; rateable value, £827. 9s.  The Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was almost entirely rebuilt in 1845 by the present worthy rector.  It consists of nave and chancel, and is neatly fitted up with oak sittings; several of the windows are beautified with stained glass, which gives the interior a very chastened and pleasing appearance.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £4. 6s. 8d., now returned at £150 in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. Thomas Rowley, D.D.  The rectory is a good residence a little south from the church.

Directory.—The Rev. Thomas Rowley, D.D., The Rectory; Joseph Brown, farmer, The Vicarage House; Richard Giles, joiner; Thomas Hall, junr., farmer, The Cave; Richard Lane, wheelwright; James Lock, draining contractor; John Tongue, farmer and shopkeeper; Silas Webley, farmer; William Wellings, blacksmith.

MORVILLE
is a parish in the Chelmarsh division of the hundred of Stottesden, three miles N.W. of Bridgnorth, and five miles S.E. of Much Wenlock.  At the Doomsday survey it was written Membrefelde, and was granted by William the Conqueror to Roger de Montgomery.  The parish contains 2,778 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £4299. 5s. 2d.  The principal landowners are Sir John E. D. Acton, Bart., and Lord Sudeley; Mrs. Thursby, Lord Forester, and Thomas C. Whitmore, Esq., M.P., are also proprietors.  At the census of 1841 Morville contained eighty houses and 412 inhabitants; population in 1801, 415; in 1831, 517.  The parish is intersected by the Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock turnpike road, and watered by the Mar brook.

The Church, dedicated to St. Gregory, was rebuilt in the year 1118, on an old Saxon foundation, and formed a part of the possessions of Salop abbey.  The interior contains nave, chancel, and side aisles, the latter is separated from the body by three arches on each side.  The structure is neatly pewed, and will accommodate 294 persons.  In the family seat of the Acton’s is a tablet to the memory of Sir Edward Acton, Bart., who departed this life September 28th, 1716, aged 64 years.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of Lord Sudeley, and incumbency of the Rev. George Leigh Wasey, M.A.  The chapelry of Aston Eyre is annexed to this church.  The tithes have been commuted, and £645 apportioned to Lord Sudeley, and £21 to Sir John E. D. Acton.

The Roman Catholics have a neat chapel near Aldenham Hall, which was built about the year 1836 by Lady Granville, and will accommodate near 200 persons.  The interior has a chaste and elegant appearance.  The east window is of stained glass, having a beautiful representation of our Saviour.  In the chapel is a marble tablet to the memory of Sir Richard Ferdinand Acton, Bart., who died at Paris, January 31st, 1837, aged 35 years.  The Rev. Francis Ruiz is the priest.

Aldenham Hall, a handsome stone mansion, the seat and property of Sir John E. D. Acton, Bart., situated four miles north-east from Bridgnorth, was built in the year 1691.  It is approached by a fine avenue of lofty elms, and surrounded by a park of 170 acres.  The owner of the mansion and estate is now a minor

Charities.—Thomas Burte, by will, dated 30th January, 1631, gave the sum of £100 to Walter Acton, Esq., of Morville, to the intent that he should add thereto the like sum of £100, and should lay out the whole £200 in the purchase of land for the use of the poor people of the parish of Morville.  The money was expended in the year 1635 in the purchase of fifteen acres of land in the parish of Claverley, to which was added 2a. 1r. 19p. of land in 1812 on the Enclosure of the common of Morfe.  The whole of the land is now let at a yearly rent of £20, one half of which is paid to the perpetual curate of Morville, and the other half is distributed among the poor

On the benefaction table it is stated that John Mousall gave 10s. per annum to the poor of Morville, to be expended in the purchase of Bibles, which sum is charged upon an estate at the Reilth, in the parish of Mainstine.

It is further stated on the benefaction table that Arthur Weaver gave to the poor at Morville on every Sunday sixpenny loaves, which is charged upon an estate in this parish, which formerly belonged to that family.

John Guest, by will, dated 1,773, directed his son and executor, John Guest, junr., to distribute the interest of £10 to such of the poor of the parish of Morville as he should think the greatest objects of charity.  The interest of this sum, with another sum of £5 said to have been left by Richard Geary, and £20 left by the aforesaid John Guest, in 1797, has been regularly distributed in bread to the poor of the parish.

Aston Eyre, a chapelry in the parish of Morville, four miles N.E. of Bridgnorth, contains 1,200 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,111.  At the census of 1841 it had 23 houses and 130 inhabitants; population in 1801, 106, and in 1831, 120.  The landowners in this chapelry are Sir John E. D. Acton, Bart., Lord Sudeley, and St. John C. Charlton, Esq.  The chapel was built in the year 1147, and endowed by Robert Fitz Aber, with sixty acres of land, the title deeds of which are still extant.  Over the door on entering the chapel is a tympanum of antique workmanship, representative of our Saviour entering Jerusalem on an ass.  The chapel is built of stone, and contains nave and chancel, which is separated from the body by a pointed arch.  There is accommodation for 76 persons.  The living is subordinate to that of Morville.

Acton Sir John E. D., Bart., Aldenham Hall

Backhouse Henry O., farmer & auctioneer

Braithwaite John, farmer, Haughton

Brown Mary & Sons, blacksmith

Brown Sarah, farmer, The Croft

Bryant Michl., miller & gardener, Aldenham

Clarke John, farmer, The Croft

Cureton Thomas, farmer, Bridgwalton

Downes John, farmer, and wine & spirit mer

Dutertre Rev. Peter, (Catholic), The Priory

Elcock Wm., miller & farmer, Ley mill

Fortel Rev. Thomas, (Catholic), The Priory

Green John, miller and farmer, Harpswood

Henbury Charles, farmer, The Hurst

Meredith James, farmer, Underton

Oliver William, farmer, Bridgwalton

Panter Charles, farm bailiff, Croft

Reece Edwin, farmer, Harpsford

Reynolds Joseph, farmer, Underton

Richards Rev. Fred., B.A., curate, Morville Hall

Rudd The Misses, farmers, The Croft

Ruiz Rev. Frances, O.M.C., (Catholic), The Priory

Russell Thomas, farm bailiff

Taylor Thomas, farmer & vict., Acton’s Arms

Trudeau Rev. Alex., (Catholic), The Priory

Wadlow Charles, farmer, The Hurst

Wasey Rev. George Leigh, M.A., incumbent, The Knowle Sands

Wall Francis, shoemaker and shopkeeper

Williams Charles, steward to Sir J. E. D. Acton, Bart., Morville Hall

Willis Joseph, farmer, Morville Hall

Aston Eyre Directory.

Beddoes Mr. George, Aston Cottage

Corser William, farmer

Embrey William, farmer

Gittings Richard, farmer

Taylor Thomas, farm bailiff

Wall Hercules, farmer

NEEN SAVAGE
is a parish in the Cleobury division of the hundred of Stottesden, one mile north-west from Cleobury, situated in a sequestered valley watered by the River Rea.  It contains 3,690 acres of land, and had at the census of 1841, 99 houses and 490 inhabitants; population in 1801, 469; 1831, 450.  The landowners in the parish are the Rev. Charles Richard Somers Cocks, M.A.; William Lacon Childe, Esq.; C. B. Ogle, Esq.; Robert Hinckesman, Esq.; and a few smaller proprietors.  There are two paper mills in this parish, in the occupancy of Mr. Thomas Lambert Hall.  The tithe of this parish is commuted for £420.  The Church is an ancient gothic edifice of stone, consisting of nave and chancel, and will accommodate 300 persons.  It was appropriated to the Abbey of Wigmore, by Hugh de Mortimer, immediately after the finishing of that abbey.  It is rated in the king’s books at £6.  In 1630, the advowson of Neen Savage, now worth £445, was sold for only £80.  On the 19th of January, 1825, the wooden spire of the church was struck with lightning and burnt to the tower; the roof was much injured, and the bells were melted and fell to the bottom of the tower, and but for the exertions of the surrounding inhabitants, the whole edifice would soon have been in ruins.  There are seven acres of glebe land in the parish.  The Lord Chancellor is patron of the living; and the Rev. Charles R. Somers Cocks, M.A., is the vicar.

Charities.—Richard Edwards, by will, gave the sum of £400, in trust, that the same should be laid out in land, and the rents and profits thereof paid to some good schoolmaster to teach twenty poor boys of the parish of Neen Savage.  In 1732 the sum of £285 was applied in the purchase of 17 acres of land in Stottesden parish, which is now let at a rent of £35.  The remainder of the money was placed out at interest until some opportunity may offer of making an advantageous purchase in land.

Richard Hinckesman, Esq., by will, dated 1780, charged certain lands in this parish with the payment of 6s. 8d. annually, for a sermon; and 13s. 4d. to be given to 10 poor widows annually.

John Longmore, by will, dated November 7th, 1835, gave the sum of £500, to be invested in government securities; the interest, dividends, and produce thereof to be expended in bread, and distributed to the most deserving poor of the parish every Sunday morning after Divine service.  The aforesaid £500 was invested on the eighth day of March, 1839, in the purchase of £538. 7s. 2d. in the three per cent. consols, in the name of the vicar and churchwardens.

Bluck Samuel, farmer, Stepple Hall

Cleeton William, farm bailiff, Stone House

Cocks, Rev. Charles Richard Somers, vicar, the Vicrge.

Corbett Michael, farmer, Nethercott

Dallow John, castrator

Dorrall James, farmer, Wyer

Edmonds John, farmer, Wall Town

Hall Thomas Lambert, jun., paper manufacturer

Meredith Joseph, farmer, Rea Side

Minton Josh, farmer, Upper Beavney

Moore Thomas, blacksmith

Nisbett, Rev. Mr.

Preece John, farmer

Reynolds Thomas, farmer, Upper Beavney

Stephens Francis, farmer, Bank Top

Ward William, schoolmaster

Ward Elizh., schoolmistress

Weston Thomas, farmer

Wheeler George, farmer

Wheeler Joseph, miller

Whooton Thomas, farmer, the Lodge

Worrall John, farmer, Nash

Worrall Thomas, farmer, Elcott

NEENTON
is a parish and township in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden hundred, situated on the western bank of the River Rea, near the foot of the Brown Clee Hill, and six and a half miles south-west from Bridgnorth.  The parish contains 1,000 acres of land, and is intersected by the Ludlow and Bridgnorth turnpike road.  The land has mostly a strong soil, tolerably productive.  In 1801 there were 120 inhabitants; 1831, 130; and in 1841, 29 houses and a population of 144 souls.  The principal landowners are Henry Lyster, Esq.; John Minton, Esq.; Rev. J. F. Benwell, and Mr. T. Edwards; besides whom there are several smaller freeholders.  The Church is an inconsiderable structure of brick, consisting of nave and chancel, with a turret in which are two bells.  The living is a vicarage, rated in the king’s book at £5. 3s. 6½d., now returned at £196: patron and incumbent, Rev. John Frederick Benwell.  The Vicarage is a neat brick residence, situated a short distance from the church.

Directory.—James Amiss, wheelwright; Rev. John Frederick Benwell, The Vicarage; William Childs, farmer, The Park; Richard Cleeton, wheelwright and beerhouse keeper; Richard Dodd, farmer, The Hay; George Edwards, butcher; George Edwards, farmer; Edward Hall, farmer, The Hall; John Hodnett, tailor and vict., New Inn; William Massey, farmer, The Bank; John Medlicott, farmer.

OLDBURY
is a parish and village in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden hundred, situated about a mile S.S.W. from Bridgnorth.  The village is on a gentle eminence, and contains some respectable family residences, and is surrounded by scenery of the most picturesque and romantic character.  The parish comprises upwards of 1,400 acres of land, and is bounded on the east by the River Severn, and intersected by the Bridgnorth, Ludlow, and Cleobury Mortimer turnpike roads.  At the census in 1801 there were 107 inhabitants; 1831, 126; and in 1841, 28 houses, and a population of 142 souls.  The Church is a plain structure, dedicated St. Nicholas, consisting of nave and chancel, with a tower partly composed of wood.  The interior is neatly pewed, and the nave is separated from the chancel by a carved oak screen.  The Rev. Joseph Woolley, rector of this place 51 years, is remembered on a neat tablet dated 1728.  There are also tablets to members of the families of Dethic, Beech, Hincksman, and others.  The living is a rectory, rated in the king’s book at £5, now returned at £254, in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor: incumbent, Rev. John Purton, M.A.  There are 16½ acres of glebe land.  Sir John E. D. Acton, Bart. is the principal landowner, and lord of the manor.  Mr. Nicholas Edwards and the Rev. John Purton are also proprietors.  The Rectory is a good residence, situated near the church.

Charities.—Mrs. Mary Harris left by her will £5 for the poor of the parish.  The time of this bequest is not mentioned; but in April, 1770, it appears that the principal and interest then amounted to £10.  No application of this legacy seems to have been made to the use of the poor for a period of upwards of fifty years.  About thirty years ago the principal and interest were paid over by Mr. Thomas Farmer, and invested in the stock; the money so invested produced a sum of £57. 12s. stock in the three per cent. consols; the dividends of which are yearly distributed among the poor.

The Rev. Thomas Littleton, by his will, dated 17th September, 1792, gave to the minister and churchwardens or Oldbury the sum of £10, upon trust, to pay the interest among the poor who frequent the service of the church.  The personal property of Mr. Littleton passed into the hands of his executor, Richard Green, and eventually into those of his brother, Jonathan Green, who became embarrassed in his circumstances.  The property had been sold when the Charity Report was published, and it was expected that this, with other claims, would soon be liquidated.

Directory.—John Bentley, butcher, Crosshouses; Samuel Bentley, farmer; Edmund F. Bowen, farmer and beerhouse keeper; Mr. James Brawn; William Brown, blacksmith; Miss Edwards; Nicholas Edwards, farmer, Westwood; John Green, farmer and corn miller; Mrs. Sophia Elizabeth James, The Cottage; Richard Jerrett, farmer and vict., The Hundred House; Margaret Wynne Jones, gentlewoman, The Lodge; Mrs. Mary Longmore, The Villa; Rev. John Purton, M.A., The Rectory; Miss Spalding; John Warden, farmer; Edward Welding, wheelwright; Mary Wheatley, gentlewoman, Oldbury House; Mr. Wright

QUATFORD,
a small parish and village on the banks of the river Severn, about a mile and a half south from Bridgnorth, derives its name from Coed and Forda (British), signifying the Wood at the Ford—originally within the Forest of Morfe.  The parish contains 1,773 acres of land, and includes the lordships of Hay and Eardington, which are situated on the opposite side of the river Severn.  The parish in 1801 contained 417 inhabitants; 1831, 492; 1841, 553.  Rateable value, £3,586, 18s. 3d.  The township of Quatford comprises 514 acres of land, and in 1841 had 44 houses and a population of 204 souls.  The manor belongs to the corporation of Bridgnorth, and the mayor for the time being is lord of the manor.  John Smalman, Esq., is the principal landowner; George Pritchard, Esq., W. W. Whitmore, Esq., Henry Vickers, Esq., Mary Jones, Mr. Thomas Hudson, Lord Sudeley, Mr. William Hughes, Mr. Thursfield, and others, are also proprietors.  In this township stands the castellated residence of John Smalman, Esq., J.P., called Quatford Castle.  It stands within sight of the rock where stood the castle erected by Ethelfleda Countess of Mercia (the wife of Ethelred, the first Earl Palatine of Mercia), prior to the year 919.  Mr. Smalman is descended from an ancient family long seated at Wilderhope Hall, in the parish of Rushbury.  The castle is built on a prominent hill, surrounded by plantations overlooking the beautiful river Severn for several miles, and only approached by an artificial road on its eastern side.  This enchanting spot, from its varied views and pleasurable walks, is the constant attraction of families resident in the town and neighbourhood of Bridgnorth, who are welcomed by its liberal and much respected proprietor.

The Church, a venerable structure, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, has a square tower, surmounted with pinnacles, and contains three bells.  The interior of the church has a handsome appearance; the altar is elaborately carved, and the floor of the chancel is covered with encaustic tiles.  There are several neat monumental tablets, one of which remembers Thomas Crump, who died in 1718; another is erected to the memory of Joseph Corbet, Esq., who died in 1790.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Lord Sudeley, and enjoyed by the Rev. George Leigh Wasey, M.A.  Mr. Cox has the following account of Quatford:—“The manor of Quatford, belonging to Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, he built a church here, upon this occasion: Adaliza, his wife, coming out of Normandy, there happened so great a storm at sea that nothing but shipwreck was expected by the mariners; but her chaplain being wearied with much watching, fell fast asleep, and as he lay at rest a venerable matron appeared to him, and said: ‘If your lady will make a vow to build a church to St. Mary Magdalene, in the place where she first meets the earl, her husband, in England, she shall be preserved from the danger of this tempest.’  This vision being told his lady, she presently vowed accordingly, and got safe to shore; from whence, going towards her husband at Shrewsbury, she met him in this place a hunting, and telling him the vision, he willingly fulfilled her vow, and built this church at Quatford, and dedicated it to St. Mary Magdalene, endowed it with ample possessions, and gave it to his collegiate chapel, in the Castle of Bridgnorth.  Robert de Belesme, his eldest son, coming to his father’s inheritance in England (by the death of his younger brother, Hugh), removed from this town of Quatford,—but whither, we find not.”

The Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel in the village.  There is also a School here, a decorated structure, built in the year 1847, by subscription; about thirty children attend.  A Library for the use of the parish is kept in the church vestry.

Charities.—John Corfield, in 1718, directed six twopenny loaves to be distributed the first Sunday in every month in the year.  This annuity is paid out of land in Stottesden.  Arthur Weaver, Esq., in 1709, bequeathed out of the several tithes of Morville, Aston Eyre, and Quatford, to the curates of each yearly; the bequest to the curate of Quatford being £3. 13s. 4d.

It appears that in the years 1767 and 1769, Arthur Weaver granted two rent charges of £7 each, towards the augmentation of this curacy, and that the Governors of Queen Ann’s Bounty, in conjunction with the said Isaac Weaver, agreed to augment the curacy with two several sums of £200 each, having previously agreed to augment the same with a like sum of £200 by lot.  In pursuance of this agreement, in the year 1784, the sum of £600 was laid out in the purchase of a certain messuage and about seven acres of land, situated at Eardington, which were conveyed to the then curate, to hold to him and his successors for ever.

Church Lands.—The following premises have been appropriated to the repairs and uses of the church for a long period, but from what source they were originally derived we have been unable to discover:—A parcel of land, called Paradise, containing four acres and three-quarters, producing £10 per annum.  A house and garden let for 10s. a-year, also rendering the service of rowing over the parishioners at all times free to the parish church on the other side of the river.  There are also several other plots of land, comprising upwards of 14 acres, which, with the above sums, produce an annual rent of £20. 1s. 11d.  In the year 1810, timber was sold from the church land for £100. 12s. 6d., part of which was laid out for a new boat, and there remained a sum of £70 in the Bridgnorth Bank.

William Nicholls, in 1846, bequeathed £150 to the minister of Quatford, upon trust, to dispose of the interest thereof among the most deserving poor of the parish.

The sum of £20, left by Thomas Spencer in 1722, for the benefit of the curate of Quatford, and £10, left by Elizabeth Oldburg in 1730, have long been lost.

Directory.—John Smalman, Esq., The Castle; John Clayton, Esq., Quatford House; John Davies, beerseller; Robert Griffiths, timber merchant, architect, builder, quarry-master, and dealer in tiles, bricks, slates, &c., Chantrey House; Thomas Hudson, beerseller; Mary Lambert, school-teacher; William Martin, victualler, Red Lion Inn; Thos. Owen, shopkeeper, and foreman to Mr. Griffiths; John Thomas Poole, farmer, The Bank; The Misses Shepherd, The Grove; John Sing, Esq., The Hall; Richard Turley, parish clerk and ferry-house keeper; Stephen Wolryche, Esq., The Villa.

EARDINGTON
is a township and pleasantly situated village, in the parish Quatford, one mile south from Bridgnorth, which contains 1,259a. 0r. 7p. of land, the rateable value of which is £2,727. 13s.  Gross estimated rental, £2,997. 18s.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Mary Oldbury; Mr. William Baldwin; The Devisees of the late Thomas Duppa, Esq.; Lord Liverpool; and Lord Sudeley; besides whom there are several other small freeholders.  In Doomsday Book we find this place written Ardintone, and though annexed to the mother church of Quatford (on the opposite side of the river Severn) in ecclesiastical matters, yet in all other respects is virtually a parish of itself.  About three miles below Bridgnorth, on the western bank of the Severn, is the Eardington Forge, a charcoal iron manufactory, celebrated for making the best charcoal wire, horse nail, and gun iron.  The works are carried on by James Foster, Esq., of Stanton Castle, in Worcestershire, under the able management of Mr. Thomas Austin Jackson, and are the largest of the kind in the kingdom.  The National School is a neat brick structure, which will accommodate about fifty children.  It was erected in the year 1837.  This township in 1801 had a population of 328 souls; 1831, 325; 1841, 349.  At the latter period there were 71 inhabited houses.

Angeworth William, farmer, Hay Farm

Baker Thomas, farmer

Cooper John Henry, Esq., banker, The Knowle Sands

Cole George, stock taker, The Forge

Crowder John, corn miller

Duppa Mrs. Georgiana Elizb.

Fryer John, blacksmith

Garbett Francis, shoemaker

Harrison Mr. Samuel

Hudson William, victualler, The Crown

Jackson Mr. Thomas Austin, manager, Eardington Forge

James David, beerhouse

Jarratt James, butcher

Lloyd Thomas, shoemaker

Miles Thos., vict., Red Lion

Minshull John, miller

Noakes Samuel, farmer

Oldbury Mrs. Mary, farmer, Eardington House

Oldbury The Misses Anne and Margaret

Pitt James, engineer

Powell Martha, shopkeeper

Simkiss John, manager of Coal and Buck’s Works

Summers Samuel, farmer

Wasey Rev. Geo. Leigh, M.A. incumbent of Quatford and Morville Knowle Sands

Weaver William, maltster, and farmer

QUATT,
an extensive parish, anciently within the forest of Morfe, is intersected by the Bridgnorth and Kidderminster turnpike road, and bounded on the western side by the river Severn, which is crossed at several places by ferry boats.  The parish comprehends the hamlets of Quatt Malvern, Quatt Jarvis, Mose, Wooton, and Dudmaston, and contains 2,674a. 1r. 11p. of land, of which 238a. 0r. 14p. are in woods and plantations, 33a. 3r. 36p. water, 23a. 1r. 4p. public roads, and 66a. 2r. 26p. in the demesne and grounds of Dudmaston Hall.  The soil is for the most part highly fertile.  Rateable value, £3,514. 4s. 5d.  Population in 1801, 300; 1831, 328; 1841, 365; part of the population is included within the limits of the borough of Bridgnorth.  The township of Quatt Malvern at the census of 1841 is returned as containing 29 houses and 141 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £415. 9s. 8d.  Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., M.P., is the principal landowner and lord of the manor; John Sing, Esq., Thomas Bowen, and others, are also freeholders.  The village of Quatt is scattered, but pleasantly situated, four miles S.E. from Bridgnorth; it contains some good residences, and the surrounding country is beautifully picturesque and romantic.  In Leland’s time there were to be seen here the ruins of the manor house of Robert de Montgomery.  About four miles from Quatt Malvern are the remains of a Roman camp called The Walls.  The form of it is nearly quadrangular, and there have been four gates into it; one in the middle of the north front, another in the middle of the west, a third in the south-east, and a fourth at the north-east corner.  The odd position of the two last take advantage of declivities in the rock.  Besides these a sloping way is cut through the bank, and down the rock in the middle of the south face, to the water.  The west side has been doubly fortified with a deep trench cut out of the solid rock between two ramparts.  To the north it has only one bank.  It embraces an area of more than twenty acres, but no coins or antiquities have been found there.  Not far from the Severn an ancient sword was discovered, differing in form and metal to any hitherto found in Great Britain.  Similar have been found in Ireland.

The Church is a venerable fabric, dedicated to St. Andrew, partly composed of free stone, and partly of brick.  It consists of nave, chancel, side chapel, and north aisle, the latter separated from the nave by three arches resting on octagonal pillars; the tower contains four bells.  The pulpit and reading desk are beautifully carved, and dated 1629.  The font is very ancient, and there is a gallery at the west end, upon which is placed an organ.  The altar is of oak, exquisitely carved.  On the floor is a remarkable inscription, with some curious tracery, dated 1387 and 1495.  On a pillar are remembered some of the ancient family of Wolryches.  In the side chapel is a black marble tomb in memory of Sir Francis Wolryche, who died in 1668, near to which is an elaborate monumental tomb with figures in black marble, in bold relief set in a block of alabaster.  There is also a fine figure in alabaster, exquisitely carved, in memory of Dame Marie Wolryche, dated 1628.  Another tomb of fine workmanship has the figures of a knight and his lady, and remembers Francis Wolryche, Esq., and Margaret, his wife, and is dated 1614.  There are also some neat tablets in the church which our limits will not allow us to notice in detail.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £14. 15s., now returned at £415. 4s. 8d., in the patronage of W. W. Whitmore, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Edmund Carr, M.A.  The rectory is a handsome and spacious residence situated near the church.  On rebuilding the church of Quatt in 1763 were found a number of figures painted on the walls, representing the Seven Charities and the Day of Judgment; and on a piece of vellum nailed to an oak board the figure of our Saviour rising from the sepulchre, underneath the figure were the following lines:—“Saynt Gregory and other popes and byshops grantes sex and twenty thousand zere of pardonz thirtti dayes to alle that saies devoutlye knelyng afor yis is ymage fife paternosters, fife aves, and a cred.”

The South Eastern Shropshire District School has been established for the reception of children belonging to the several unions of Bridgnorth, Cleobury Mortimer, Madeley, and Seisdon.  The object of the institution is not only to give a sound healthy education, but so to improve both the physical and mental powers as shall break the thread of pauperism, and enable this hitherto unhappy class to establish themselves in after life as independent labourers.  The experiment has proved most satisfactory, and even more successful than was expected, not only in giving a good healthy education combined with labour to the children, but yielding such a return in money as altogether prevented any additional cost to the ratepayers, and even paid a portion of the former expenses.  The actual profits of the four acres of land cultivated having amounted to between £60 and £70 per annum.  The question of profit, though of importance, is trifling when compared with the benefits derived by the children, who are here removed from scenes of inferiority and degradation and brought up in habits of industry, and a knowledge of gardening combined with the inculcation of honest principles and religious knowledge, are blessings of incalculable amount.  The house is capable of accommodating 170 children, and the boys are employed in the cultivation of the land, in the management of cows, pigs, and a pony; the girls are employed in the house and dairy work.  Henry Garland is the governor, and Mrs. Garland matron.

Dudmaston Hall, the seat and property of W. W. Whitmore, Esq., J.P., is a handsome brick mansion, situated near the Bewdley and Bridgnorth turnpike road.  It stands in an extensive and richly wooded park, and is beautified with tasteful pleasure grounds and choice shrubs.  Dudmaston is a manor within the manor of Quatt, and was in early times the residence of Dudmastons, from whom it passed in marriage to the Wolryches, and they devised it to their maternal relation, William Whitmore, Esq., whose descendant now inherits the estate and mansion.

Charities.—By an indenture, dated September 17th, 1687, the churchwardens and two parishioners of this parish devised, for a term of 99 years, to Richard Gough, a piece of land in St. Leonard’s parish, in consideration that the said Richard Gough should, within five years, erect thereon a bay of building with brick and stone; and also should pay, during the term, the annual rent of five shillings, for the benefit of the poor of Quatt.  It does not appear to what source the parish was indebted for this land, but in an old corporation book belonging to the corporation of Bridgnorth, there is an entry, purporting to be an extract from the will of Thomas Dovey, dated 13th of February, 1601, whereby he gave to the parish of Quatt £5 for the use of the poor for ever.  In 1788, the former lease having expired, a new lease of the premises was granted for the like term, and at the same rent; the sum of £12 being paid as a fine for renewal.

This parish appears also to have enjoyed for many years the property of a house and land, in the parish of Worfield, of the origin of which we have not been able to discover any trace.  The earliest notice that we find of it is in the year 1759, when it appears in the occupation of a tenant at the rent of £2. 10s. per annum.  In 1802 the premises were sold for £110, and the amount was placed in the bank of Bates and Jones, at Bridgnorth, which subsequently failed.  A dividend of 4s. in the pound was afterwards paid, and this sum, amounting to £22. 13s. 2d. was placed in the Stourbridge bank.  The interest is carried to the poor rates.

Directory.—William Wolryche Whitmore, Esq., Dudmaston Park; Miss Elizabeth and Ellen Bowen; Thomas Bowen, farmer, Wooton; Rev. Edmund Carr, M.A.; Thomas Clare, farmer, Mose; William Clare, maltster and farmer; Wm. Coupar, farmer, Hoult; John Craig, farmer, Wooton; Henry Garland, governor of Union School; William L. Loundes, Esq., The Lodge; Samuel Minor, farmer, Mose; George Pool, farmer, Morfe; John Sayce, farmer, Lye Hall; Robert Sayce, farmer, The Hall Farm and Harles Farm; William Spence, agent to W. W. Whitmore, Esq.; John Warder, farmer, Morfe.

RUDGE
is a sequestered village and township in the parish of Pattingham, situated seven miles east of Wolverhampton, and eight miles south by west of Bridgnorth, bordering on the county of Staffordshire, from which it is separated by a small stream of water.  This township has no connexion with the mother parish except for church assessments, all other parochial rates being raised by a collection from the resident holders of property.  In 1841 there were 19 houses and 101 persons.  There are 1,567 acres of land here, of which 40 acres are woodlands, 10a. 2r. 18p. roads, 166a. 2r. 25p. of meadow or pasture, 894 acres arable, and 455a. 3r. 14p. common and waste, which is now being enclosed by Thomas Boycott, Esq., who gives employment to a number of the labouring population.  The Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth turnpike road crosses Rudge Heath.  Rateable value of the township, £1,792. 1s.  The tithes were commuted in 1839 for £199. 10s. 10d. to the impropriator, and £75. 15s. to the vicar of the parish.  Thomas Boycott, Esq. is lord of the manor, and the principal landowner.  Rudge Hall, the seat and property of Thomas Boycott, Esq., is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, commanding most beautiful prospects of the surrounding country.  It is built of brick, and stuccoed.  The park grounds are of considerable extent, and richly wooded.

Directory.—Thomas Boycott, Esq., Rudge Hall; Rev. William George Greenstreet, M.A., The Vicarage; James Bentley, machine maker; John Bentley, carriage builder and smith; Thomas Edwards, farmer; Robert Francis, farmer; James Herbert, shopkeeper; Benjamin Hithcock, gardener; George Jones, jun., farmer; George Jones, farmer; Sarah Jones, dressmaker; William Jones, farmer; Richard Keysell, coachman; Charles Lakin, farmer and vict., New Inn; William Lyndon, farmer; Alexander Mac Donald, gardener; Richard Morris, butler; William Nash, farmer; Thomas Pound, blacksmith, Hobston; James Tomkiss, grocer and provision dealer; Robert Turnbull, farm bailiff; Benjamin Waklam, beerhouse keeper.

SHEINTON, OR SHINETON,
a parish and small rural village in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden hundred, picturesquely situated in a romantic district, 2¾ miles N.N.W. from Much Wenlock, contains 967a. 3r. 4p. of land, bounded on the north by the river Severn.  Gross estimated rental, £1,428. 14s.  Rateable value, £1,352. 17s.  Population in 1801, 163; 1831, 133; 1841, 154; at the latter period there were 36 houses.  The principal landowners are the Duke of Cleveland, Sir George Harnage, Francis Benthall, Esq., and the devisees of the late Walter Moseley, Esq.  The family of Sheynton were seated here at a very early period.  William de Sheynton held one knight’s fee in this manor in the 22nd of Richard II.  Hugh de Sheynton had the grant of free warren here in the time of Edward II.  The land is for the most part fertile in this parish, and produces good turnips and barley: the low lands have been improved by draining.  The Church consists of nave and chancel, with a tower, in which are three bells.  It is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, and has an ancient appearance.  There are no memorials worthy of notice.  Some of the curious carving in oak is of great antiquity.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £6. 9s. 2d., now returned at £360; in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. H. Bagnall.  Ann Lacon bequeathed a rent charge of £5 per annum for the benefit of the poor.  The amount is received by the overseers, who distribute it in equal shares of 25s. each, among four poor widows of the parish.  They are appointed by the minister and churchwardens, and continue to enjoy the charity during their respective lives.

The principal residents are the Rev. Henry Bagnall, rector; Charlotte Adney, farmer; Andrew Dodson, farmer; John Young, vict., The Rising Buck.

SIDBURY
is a parish and small village, six miles S.W. by S. from Bridgnorth, in the Chelmarsh division of the hundred.  It is situated on a slight eminence in a bold undulating district, and contains 1248 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £966. 14s. 6d.  In 1841 the parish had 14 houses and 94 souls; population in 1801, 92; in 1831, 103.  The parish of Sidbury formerly belonged to the family of the Cresswells, whose ancestor was Richard the faithful servant of Charles I., who was in attendance on the king when he took the fatal step of escaping from the University of Oxford.  This was one of those villes that Edmund de Mortimer separated from the hundred of Stottesden in the time of Edward I.  The landowners in this parish are William Henry Cresswell, Esq., Thomas Crump, Esq. and Mr. Barnard Acres.

The Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, consists of nave, chancel, and north side chapel, the latter built by the Cresswell family; it contains a tablet to the memory of Richard Cresswell, Esq., dated 1705.  The church is built of stone, with a small turret in which is one bell.  On the south wall is a tablet to the memory of Jacob Smith, Esq., dated 1795, and also one to the memory of George Smith, Esq., who died in 1802.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £4. 13s. 4d., now returned at £227.; patron, the Earl of Shrewsbury; incumbent, Rev. R. Maddox.  There are 34 acres of glebe land.  Sidbury Hall is a good stone residence, in the occupancy of Mr. James Pugh, farmer.

Directory.—Barnard Acres, farmer, Oxwood; John Corfield, farmer, Lower House; Rev. William Lewis Jones, curate; Joseph Massie, farmer, The Batch; William Powell, farmer, The Rectory; Samuel Pritchard, farmer, New Barn; James Pugh, farmer, Sidbury Hall; Jane, Catharine, and Harriet Snow, farmers, The Upper House.

STOTTESDEN
is an extensive parish in the Cleobury division of the hundred to which it gives name, situated five miles north of Cleobury Mortimer, containing the townships of Bardley and Harcourt, Chorley, Duddlewick, Hinton, Kingswood and Button, Oak, Newton, Ingwardine and Lowe, Oreton, Overton, Prescott, Walton and Bagginswood, Picton, Stottesden, Walkerslowe, Wricton and Northwood, which together comprehend an area of 12,074a. 2r. 27p. of land, the rateable value of which is £8,796. 16s. 8d.  At the census of 1841 there were 259 houses and 1,217 persons in the Shropshire portion of the parish, part of it extending into the Wolphy hundred of the county of Hereford.  The tithes have been commuted for £987. 17s. 1d.  The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor, and a considerable landowner.  The farms in the parish are generally large, excepting on the south-western side, adjoining the Clee Hill, where are collieries and ironstone mines, which give employment to a number of the labouring population, but the principal part are engaged in agricultural pursuits.  There is a considerable portion of clayey soil in the parish, other parts are of a more light and sandy nature, and in some places a fertile loam prevails.  Stottesden is a pleasant village, 13 miles north-east by east of Ludlow, five miles north of Cleobury Mortimer, and eight miles south-west by south of Bridgnorth.  The township contains 987a. 2r. 19p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,216. 4s. 7d.; and at the census of 1841 there were 53 houses and 215 inhabitants.  The principal landowners in the township are Mrs. Oldbury; Rev. Charles J. Maddison; Rev. Mr. Wakefield; Mr. Edward Bytheway; Mrs. Jones; Mrs. Waterhouse; Mr. Frier; Mr. Pope; Mr. Edward Cleeton; Mr. Turner, and Mrs. Howard.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £42. 3s.  There are 27a. 3r. 4p. of glebe land.  The manor of Stottesden was the possession of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, (at the time of Edward the Confessor), who rebelled against that monarch, in consequence of which it was given to Roger de Montgomery, in whose family it remained till a failure of male heirs.  On the 28th of Henry III., John de Plessitis had a grant of a market here on a Tuesday, and a fair on the eve, the day, and the day after the assumption of the Blessed Virgin.  There is a feast held the first Sunday after Michaelmas day.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient edifice, built of rubble stone, having been covered with three roofs, supported on each side of the interior by five semicircular arches of equal size, rising from four slender pillars, and from a pillar on each side.  From these latter spring two small arches, slightly pointed, and adjoining to the rector’s chancel; the one is connected with and opening into the Stottesden chancel, which is still kept apart by its ancient oak screen.  The other semicircular arch served as an opening to admit the staircase leading up to the ancient rood loft, which no doubt stood under an arch between the church and the communion chancel.  The rood loft was swept away at the reformation, and the arch probably about the period of the civil wars.  At the west end of the north and south aisles are still to be seen the Norman pilasters, decorated with mouldings, and carried up with the walls in the interior; probably the oldest part of the fabric.  The elegant part of the exterior of this mouldering pile has been most sacrilegiously destroyed; its parapets and battlements, with its lead roof, have entirely disappeared.  The north wall has been lowered, and the windows cut through, having removed the upper or traceried part to within five feet six inches of the surface of the cemetery.  The fine mullioned windows in the rectory and Wrickton chancels, as well as on the south side of the church, afford a beautiful display of architectural taste.  The eastern window of the former had twelve figures of its ancient lords and their connections, with their armorial bearings, including that of the sovereign of the day, and the royal arms displayed on shields, exhibited upon their breasts: five only of these now remain, in a very mutilated state.  The upper or traceried compartments are still ornamented with stained glass.  In the south wall is still to be seen the piscina or sink for the reception of any impurity falling into the elements.  In the same wall appear the canopied seats of the priest, deacon, and sub-deacon, in their beautifully ornamented niches; and near to these is an ancient oilet or loophole window, with exquisitely fine mouldings, all of which savour much of the reign of Edward I.  The circular stone font at the west end is of large dimensions, well adapted for the ancient practice of immersion; it is most elaborately carved, having a beautiful cordage twisted with much taste around the verge of the upper extremity: it is greatly ornamented, having eight compartments, the one exhibiting the Agnus Dei, the others those of Griffins, Cockatrices, and Centaurs, and is altogether a beautiful and rare specimen of an inimitable chisel of its day, probably as early as the reign of Henry III.  The pulpit exhibits much ancient carving, beautifully executed, and put up with a sounding board in 1675.  The desk, also much ornamented with carving, was set up in 1583.  The entrance of the porch to the south is under a semicircular arch of great antiquity, probably introduced from a former porch.  This, the principal approach into the interior of the edifice, is under an ancient arch of the pointed style; that on the north side is of a very early period, as well as that into the chancel.  This latter is singular and rare, exhibiting an unusual display of fine chiselling.  The entrance out of this chancel into the vestry is under a stone arch of the florid style, executed by a tasteful und scientific artist.  The tower is lofty, and standing on a commanding eminence is a beautiful land mark in the country: the lower part to the second string course is built like the church with rubble material, but from that course upwards, including its battlements, is of good Ashler stone.  It was rebuilt in 1583, and contains a peal of five musical bells, and clock and sun dial.  Over the doorway leading from the tower to the church is an ancient and curious tympanum.  The church was repaired in the year 1840, by which means 268 additional sittings were obtained, of which 215 are declared free and unappropriated for ever, in consequence of grants from the Incorporated and Hereford Diocesan Societies.  The living is a vicarage, to which the curacy of Farlow is annexed, valued in the king’s books at £5. 10s. 10d., now returned at £676; in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland, and incumbency of the Rev. Charles John Maddison.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel here built of stone in the year 1849.  The National School, supported by donations and subscriptions, will accommodate 80 children; about 53 is the average number that attend.

Bardley is a township in Stottesden parish, two and a half miles south-east by east of the parish church.  It contains, with the township of Harcourt, 1,800a. 0r. 20p. of land, of which 760 acres are arable, 774a. 3r. 34p. pasture, and 170a. 1r. are woodlands.  William Lacon Childe, Esq. is lord of the manor, and the principal landowner.  Thomas Crump, Esq., Mr. Hyde, Miss Smith, John and Robert Lateward, Esqrs., Mr. Kyer, Messrs. Jones, Thomas Gregory, Richard Porter, and others are also proprietors.  This township contained at the census of 1841, 38 houses and 178 persons.  The tithes are commuted for £232. 9s. 0d., of which £92. 15s. 6d. to the vicar of Stottesden; £48. 16s. 6d. to William Lacon Childe, Esq.; £40 to Mr. John Humphries; £14. 16s. 6d. to John and Robert L. Lateward, Gents.; to Mr. Jones, £11. 6s.; to the Duke of Cleveland, £10. 3s. 6d.; to Mr. Hyde, £8. 16s. 6d., of which £5 yearly is paid to the rector of Dowles; to Mr. Compson, £5. 8s., and 16s. 6d. to Thomas Crump, Esq.

Chorley is a township pleasantly situated one and a half mile north-east by north of Stottesden, containing with Northwood 1,210a. 2r. 17p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,402. 7s. 5d.  In 1841 there were in this township 21 houses and 114 inhabitants.  The tithes were commuted in 1847 for £63. 14s. 7d., and the sum of £50. 8s. 7d. was apportioned to the vicar of Stottesden, £12 to Mr. Hincksman, and £1. 6s. to the Duke of Cleveland, Thomas Crump, Esq., is lord of the manor, and principal landowner.  Lord Sudeley, Mr. John Hinckesman, W. L. Childe, Esq., Mr. John Gittins, and several others are also proprietors.

Duddlewick is a small township one mile north west by west of Stottesden, which in 1841 had 4 houses and 36 inhabitants, and contains, with the township of Hinton, 932a. 0r. 6p. of land.  The tithes are commuted for £127. 10s.  The Duke of Cleveland is the principal landowner.  Thomas Crump, Esq., is also a proprietor.

Harcourt is a township 1½ mile south east by east of the parish church, containing, with Bardley, 1,800a. 0r. 20p. of land, the rateable value of which is £2,004.  0s. 2d.  The tithes are commuted for £232. 19s., of which £83 7s. 8d. is apportioned to the vicar of Stottesden, and £140. 3s. 6d. to the impropriators.  There are six houses and 34 inhabitants in this township.  W. L. Childe, Esq., is lord of the manor and sole landowner.

Hinton, a small township one mile north west of the church, contains, with Stottesden and Duddlewick, 1,916a. 2r. 3p. of land, of which 1,070a. 2r. 25p. are arable: 823a. 0r. 19p. meadow and pasture: and 22a. 3r. 33p. are roads and waste.  The tithes are commuted for £169. 13s., of which £84 is apportioned to the vicar of Stottesden; £64 to the respective landowners; £12. 13s. to the Duke of Cleveland, and £9 to William Whitesides, Esq.  The Duke of Cleveland is sole proprietor of this township.

Ingwardine is a small township three miles north west by west of Stottesden, containing 4 houses and 20 souls.  The tithes are commuted and apportioned to the vicar of the parish for £110.  This township, with that of Lowe, contains 652a. 0r. 34p. of land, the freeholders of which are the Rev. G. D. Pardoe and Mr. Johnson.

Kingswood is a rural village with twenty-three houses and ninety-seven inhabitants, situated six miles south west by south of Stottesden, from which place it is separated by the parishes of Kinlet and Neen Savage intervening.  It contains, with the hamlet of Button Oak, 1,392a. 1r. 31p. of land, a great portion of which is woodland, of which 524a. 2r. 2p. are woods belonging to Lord Ward, and 588a. 2r. 29p. belonging to Sir Edward Blount, bart., who are the principal landowners.  Mrs. Elizabeth Doolittle, Mr. Frier, Mr. Joseph Mole, Mr. Thomas Trow, the Misses Lewis, and Mr. Boycott are also proprietors.  The tithes have been commuted for £22. 14s, 10.

Lowe township, situated 2½ miles north west by west of Stottesden, contained at the census of 1841 one house and 10 persons, and with the township of Ingwardine, has 652a. 0r. 34p. of land, of which Mrs. Goulder is sole proprietor.

Newton is a township 2 miles north of the parish church, which in 1841 had three houses and 23 souls, and contains, with the townships of Wrickton, Overton, and Walkers Lowe, 2,186a. 1r. 17p. of land, of which 125a. 3r. 26p. are arable: 904a. 3r. 17p. pasture, and 21a. 2r. 14p. are roads and waste.  The tithes of these townships have been commuted for £180. 10s., of which the vicar of Stottesden receives £95, and the remainder is paid to several impropriators.  George Peach Aston, Esq., is the sole proprietor of Newton.

Northwood is a small township 1½ mile north west of Stottesden, which had, at the census of 1841, three houses and 16 persons.  It contains, with the township of Chorley, 1,210a. 2r. 17p. of land, the principal proprietors of which are Thomas Crump, Esq., Mr. John Hincksman, and Lord Sudeley.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £18. 4s. 6d., and the rectorial for £12.

Oreton is a township two miles south of the parish church, containing 68 houses and 275 inhabitants.  It contains 580a. 1r. 37p. of land, of which upwards of 300 acres are in common and waste.  In this township are extensive lime works and stone quarries.  The tithes are commuted for £100. 5s. 8d., of which £38. 10s. are apportioned to the vicar of Stottesden, and £61. 15s. 8d. to the Duke of Cleveland.  George Compson, Esq., is lord of the manor and principal landowner.  Rev. G. D. Pardoe, Mr. John Page, Mr. Edward Wyer, Mr. Wm. Page, Mrs. Page, Mr. Preston, and Mr. Wm. Wheeler are also small proprietors.

Overton is a township and small village 2¾ miles north of the parish church, containing 3 houses and 22 souls.  It has, with the townships of Wrickton, Newton, and Walkers Lowe, 2,186a. 1r. 17p. of land.  The tithes are commuted for £24. 10s. 11d.  Hamilton Tennant, Esq., is sole proprietor of this township.

Pickthorn is a township, one mile north-west of the parish church, containing 560a. 0r. 37p. of land, and had at the census of 1841 four houses and 16 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £61, of which £19 is apportioned to the Vicar of Stottesden, and £42 to William Henry Cresswell, Esq.

Prescot township, situated two miles south of Stottesden, contains, with the townships of Walton and Bagginswood, 804a. 2r. 34p. of land.  The tithes are commuted for £47, of which £44. 19s. is apportioned to the vicar, and £2. 1s. to Mrs. Botfield.  Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Botfield are the principal landowners.

Walton is a township, one mile and a half south-east of the church, containing 804a. 2r. 34p. of land, with the townships of Prescot and Bagginswood, and had at the census of 1841 one house and 12 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £47.  The Duke of Cleveland is the principal freeholder; W. L. Childe, Esq., is also a proprietor.

Wrickton is a scattered township, two miles and a half north-west by west from the parish church, having at the census of 1841, 21 houses and 123 inhabitants.  It contains, with the townships of Walkerslowe, Overton, and Newton, 2,186a. 1r. 17p. of land.  The tithes are commuted for £95. 1s. 4d., namely, from Wrickton township, £33 18s.; Walkerslowe, £26. 14s.; Overton, £24. 10s. 11d.; and Newton, £9. 18s. 5d.  The principal freeholders are Mrs. Haynes; Mr. Thomas Lowe; Panton Gardner, Esq.; and Mr. John Maddocks.

Charities.—There was formerly a sum of £30. 6s. 8d. in this parish, called the poors’ stock, the origin of which is unknown, and which, with some additions raised by subscription, made the sum of £45, which was lent to the trustees of the turnpike road from Bewdley to Prescott, and secured by a mortgage on the tolls in the year 1763, at an interest of four per cent., in respect of which two pounds five shillings are annually paid and distributed to the poor of Stottesden on St. Thomas’s day.  Thomas Morris, by will, in 1723, bequeathed to the poor of the parish of Stottesden the sum of 20s. yearly, issuing out of his estate at Bardley, in this parish.  George Rushbury and Richard Rushbury, in 1703, granted to trustees a piece of land in Stottesden, containing one acre or thereabouts, in trust, for the erection thereon of an almshouse to lodge some of the poor impotent persons of the said parish.  An almshouse was accordingly erected, the expense of which, amounting to £35, was defrayed from the poor rates and contributions from the parishioners.  The house consists of five distinct dwellings, with a garden to each, which are inhabited by the poor belonging to the parish.  James Rushbury, by will, dated 1717, gave the sum of £100, to be laid out by his executor in the purchase of land, the yearly rents and profits thereof to be distributed in the following manner, viz.: £3 yearly towards maintaining an orthodox parson at Wombridge, who should read divine service and preach yearly on the day of the testator’s death; 20s. yearly to the poor of the parish of Wombridge; and 20s. yearly to the poor of the parish of Stottesden.  The Rev. Samuel Meredith, by will, dated 1756, devised all his messuages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments whatsoever and wheresoever, to his godson Charles Hinckesman, his heirs and assigns, he and they paying thereout (among other things) the sum of £120 to the minister, churchwardens, and overseers of the poor of the parish of Stottesden, upon trust, that they should place the same out at interest, and apply it in educating and teaching poor children of the said parish to read.  This legacy has never been received, the present proprietor of the estate alleging that it is void under the statute of mortmain.

STOTTESDEN DIRECTORY.

Alltree John, farmer, New House

Bytheway Edw., shoemaker, shopkeeper, carrier, and parish clerk

Bytheway John, butcher and farmer

Brookes Joseph, farmer, Woodhouse

Cleeton Edward, farmer

Cleeton Emma, farmer, Hardwick

Elcock John, farmer

Gittins John, farmer, maltster, and wheelwright

Hancox John, joiner

Hyde Mrs., The Hall

Hyde Thomas, farmer, The Hall

Jones Dorothy, blacksmith and victualler, The Cock

Jones John, blacksmith

Jones Mrs.

Lane William, wheelwright

Maddison Rev. Chas. John, The Vicarage

Millichap Richard, farmer

Nott Henry, cooper

Page Thomas, farmer

Price John, beerhouse and shopkeeper

BARDLEY DIRECTORY.

Beach James, shoemaker

Deverell William, farmer, Knowle Bays

Edwards Richard, farmer

Gittins William, wheelwright

Gregory Thomas, shoemaker

Lateward John, farmer, The Hall Orchard

Lateward Mr. Robt., Lambert

Millington Thomas, farmer, Headcroft

Nuth William, schoolmaster

Pugh John, farmer, Ribbly

Smith Thomas, farmer, The Lower Farm

BUTTON OAK DIRECTORY.

Bevan Edward, beer retailer

Giles John, farmer and vict., Button Oak Inn

CHORLEY DIRECTORY.

Those marked * reside at High Green.

Birkin Benjamin, farmer

Birkin Sarah, farmer

* Cooke Thos., beer retailer

* Corfield William, engineer and blacksmith

Crump Thomas, Esq., The Hall

* Downes Henry, shoemaker

Jordin Joseph, farm bailiff

Page John, farmer

Powell William, farmer

* Richards Thos., shopkeeper

Wall Richard, wheelwright

DUDDLEWICK DIRECTORY.

Dorrell William, farmer, The Hall

Hyde Thomas, farmer

Meredith John, miller and farmer

Pugh John, farmer

HARCOURT DIRECTORY.

Benbow Edward, farmer

Deverell William, farm bailiff

HINTON DIRECTORY.

Hyde John, farmer

INGLEWARDINE DIRECTORY.

Amies Edward, farmer

Pardoe Rev. G. D., The Hall

KINGSWOOD DIRECTORY.

Band Richard, miller and farmer

Doolittle James, farmer

Doolittle Samuel, maltster

Doolittle William, farmer

Mole Joseph, farmer

Parkes Thomas, farmer

LOWE DIRECTORY.

Bishop William, farmer

NEWTON DIRECTORY.

Fletcher John, farmer

NORTHWOOD DIRECTORY.

Brown William, farmer

Medlicott William, farmer

ORETON DIRECTORY.

Boddy George, blacksmith

Chatham George, saddler

Clayton Samuel, lime and quarry master

Davies John, farmer, Lower House

Haycocks James, beerhouse and shopkeeper

Jones John, farmer, Middle House

Martin Mary, wheelwright

Martin John, wheelwright

Page Mrs., Stocking House

Page Wm., farmer, Upper House

Page Wm., farmer, Stocking Farm

Preston Thos., lime master and farmer

Trow Edward, beer retailer and shopkeeper

OVERTON DIRECTORY.

Baker William, farmer

Fletcher Thomas, farmer

FICKTHORN DIRECTORY.

Fletcher Thomas, farmer

PRESCOTT DIRECTORY.

Gittins Elizabeth, farmer

Preeton Thomas, miller and farmer

WALKERSLOWE DIRECTORY.

Colebach George, farmer

Wyer Richard, farmer, Manor House

WALTON DIRECTORY.

Farmer George, farmer, The Hall

Oakley Richard, farmer

Page John, farmer, The Heath

WRICKTON DIRECTORY.

Cox John, farmer, The Hall

Haynes Mrs., The New House

Maddocks John, miller and farmer

Passey George, farmer

Wellings Humphrey, blacksmith

TASLEY
is a parish and scattered village in the Chelmarsh division of the Stottesden hundred, two miles N.W. from Bridgnorth, which contains 1,120 acres of land, and at the census of 1841 had 18 houses and 83 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,243. 13s.  Gross estimated rental, £1,328. 7s.  The land has an undulating surface, and in some parts a strong soil, which produces tolerable crops of grain; the meadow land is generally of an inferior quality, and cold.  The Earl of Shrewsbury is the most considerable landowner, the other principal proprietors are Edward Farrer Acton, Esq.; the Earl of Liverpool; the Executors of the late William Clayton; Mr. Newell; Thomas C. Newport, Esq.; and Edward Edmonds, Esq.  Edward Farrer Acton is lord of the manor.  In the 18th of Edward II. Reginald de la Leigh gave lands in Tasseley towards the endowment of a chantry in Bruges.  The Bridgnorth race course is situated in this parish.  The Leasows, the property and residence of Captain Edward Edmonds, is a handsome modern erection of brick, pleasantly situated, and surrounded by rural scenery.  The Church is a small structure rebuilt in 1840, consisting of nave and chancel, with a turret in which are two bells.  There is a gallery, the front of which is ornamented with antique oak carvings, and there is a beautiful screen which separates the chancel from the nave.  The font is very ancient, and there is a small organ upon the gallery.  The living is a rectory in the patronage of Edward Farrer Acton, Esq.; incumbent, Rev. John Postlethwaite.  The tithes have been commuted for £212, and there are 8a. 2r. 37p. of glebe land.  When the church was rebuilt 115 additional sittings were added to the original number, and in consequence of a grant from the Incorporated Society for building and enlarging churches, 62 of that number were declared free and unappropriated for ever.  A handsome tablet remembers Rowland Hill, Esq., who died in 1766.  There is also a neat tablet in the chancel in memory of the Rev. William Moore, M.A., late rector, who died in the year 1848.

Directory.—Samuel Arthur, farmer and vict., Boar’s Head; William Clayton, farmer, Henley; Mr. William Cleaton, Tasley Cottage; John Corbet, farmer; Robert Corbet, farmer, Race-course; Edward Edmonds, Esq., The Leasows; Joseph Giles, farmer, Church Farm; Enoch Gwynn, basket maker; Thomas Lees, farmer, Hundred House; Henry Yapp, butcher.

UPTON CRESSETT
is a parish and village pleasantly situated on an acclivity four miles and a half W.W. by S. from Bridgnorth.  The family of Cressett, of ancient and honourable distinction, gave name to the place, and were seated at Cressett Hall, an ancient mansion in the Elizabethan style, built in the year 1580; it was formerly surrounded with a moat, traces of which are still to be seen; several of the rooms are wainscotted with oak.  In the old lodge, now converted into a granary, is a spiral stair case, with blocks of solid oak.  The parish contains 1,300 acres of land, which is the property of Mrs. Thursby.  At the census of 1841 there were 53 inhabitants; 1831, 43, and in 1841 ten houses and a population of 56 souls.  The Church is a small antique structure consisting of nave, chancel, and side chapel, with a small spiral turret in which is two bells; an arch of Norman character separates the nave from the chancel.  In the side chapel is a brass memorial in memory of Richard Cressett, his wife, two sons and three daughters, dated 1640.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £4 15s. 2½d., now returned at £125; incumbent, Rev. Henry Burton, M.A.

Directory.—Thomas Bishop, farmer, Upper House; Martha Churms, farmer, New House; William Corser, farmer, The Hall; George Giles, farmer, Upton Park; Richard Howells, farmer, Stapeley; Edward Morris, gamekeeper, The Rectory; Richard Porter, farmer, The Lodge.

WHEATHILL
is a small parish and retired village nine miles N.E. by E. of Ludlow, containing 1,094a. 2r. 16p. of land, the rateable value of which is £861. 6s. 5d., and gross estimated rental, £1,179. 12s. 6d.  At the census of 1841 there were 24 houses and 140 souls; in 1801, 152, and in 1831, 123 inhabitants.  The landowners in the parish are Viscountess Boyne, Mrs. Lucy Botfield, Mr. Richard Haynes, John Onions, Esq., and John Whitefoot, Esq.  Wheathall appears to have been a place of importance in former times, for on the 28th of Edward I.  Walter Hakett obtained a grant for a market on a Thursday, and of a fair on the eve and feast of the Holy Trinity, and the day after.  These have long been obsolete.  The Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a small stone edifice consisting of nave and chancel, in which is a tablet of stone to the memory of Henry Holland, gentleman, dated 1684.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £7. 5s. 7½d., now returned at £277., and enjoyed by the Rev. Bernard Churton.

Directory.—Samuel Breakwell, shopkeeper, farmer, and carrier to Bridgnorth; Harriett Bradnee, farmer, Townsend; John Bradnee, farmer, Townsend; Thomas Bytheway, beerhouse and blacksmith; Rev. Bernard Churton, The Rectory; Edward Duce, farmer, Weathall Green; William Griffiths, farmer, Lower Bromden; Richard Haines, farmer, Duns Living; John Hardwick, farmer, Wheathill House; Edward Hodnett, farmer, Besam; Richard Sambrook, farmer; and Thomas Thomas, farmer.

FARLOW
is a detached portion of the county of Hereford, but a chapelry annexed to the church of Stottesden, situated three miles S.W. of the parish church.  In 1841 here were 301 persons, and in 1831 345 inhabitants.  The township contains 1,419a. 3r. 35p. of land, and 20 acres of public roads.  The Duke of Cleveland is the lord of the manor.  The Church is an ancient edifice built of stone, with a tower in which are two bells.  The living is a perpetual curacy annexed to Stottesden, in the patronage of the vicar, and incumbency of the Rev. David Williams, B.A.  The tithes are commuted for £127. 14s. 11½d.  There are three acres of glebe land.  The Parsonage House, a short distance south of the church, is a modern erection, built of brick, in the year 1847, at the sole expense of the late Thomas Botfield, Esq., of Hopton Court, who also bequeathed by will the sum of £800 the interest to be invested in the three per cents., the interest thereof to be applied towards the augmentation of the salary of the curate of Farlow, on condition that there should be divine service performed twice every Sunday in the church.

Directory.—Thomas Bowen, wheelwright; Joseph Dolphin, farmer and vict., Maypole Inn; James Hauslow, blacksmith; William Harris, beerhouse keeper; George Hancox, shopkeeper and wheelwright; Charlotte Humphry, farmer; William Jones, farmer and corn miller; Mary Jordin, shoemaker; James Lane, farmer; Rev. John David Williams, B.A., curate, The Parsonage House.

THE OVERS HUNDRED

Is bounded on the west and north by Stottesden, and on the east and south by Worcestershire.  A detached part of it is bounded on the west by Munslow, and on the east and south by Stottesden.  It contains the parishes of Bitterley, Burford, Greet, Milson, Neen Solars, and Silvington; and at the census of 1841 had a population of 2.637 souls.

BITTERLEY,
an extensive parish in the hundred of Overs, comprises the chapelry of Middleton, and the townships or Cleeton, Henley, Hill-upon-Cot, and Snitton, which together contain 5,718 acres of land; of which 197 acres are woods, plantations and public roads, and 26 acres in common lands.  Rateable value, £6,494. 10s. 10d.  At the census of 1801 there were 1,083 inhabitants; 1831, 1,194; 1841, 1,098; at the latter period there were 191 houses.  The soil is mostly strong and fertile.  On the summit of the Clee hill are vestiges of a Roman encampment; the prospect from this lofty eminence is most extensive and delightful; coal and ironstone are found in abundance, but the mines at present are but little worked.  On the lofty height of Titterstone hill a stately and elegant pillar has been erected to the memory of the late Duke of Sutherland.  Sir William E. R. Broughton, Bart., is a considerable proprietor of land, and lord of the manor.  Sir Charles Corley, Rev. Charles Walcot, Mr. P. Jones, Captain Horton and others are also landowners.  Bitterley Court is a good residence, delightfully situated at the foot of the range of Clee hills.  The Kington Canal intersects the parish.  The houses in Bitterley are scattered, but pleasantly situated four miles north-east by east from Ludlow.  The township at the census of 1841 contained 40 houses and 204 inhabitants.  The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, stands in a sequestered locality, and consists of nave and chancel, with a tower, in which are three bells.  It was rebuilt in 1667, and repaired in 1761.  The south transept was built in 1848–9, by subscriptions and a grant from the Church Building Society.  The church contains some interesting memorials, some of which are of very elaborate workmanship.  Among the families remembered are those of Powys, Pardoe, Rocke, Walcot and others.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £16. 16s. 3d.; in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. Charles Walcot, M.A.  The tithes are commuted for £740; and there are 88 acres of glebe land.

Charities.—The Free Grammar School was founded by Sir John Newborough in 1711, who bequeathed £400, in trust, to purchase an estate in fee simple for the benefit of the master.  The property now belonging to the school consists of 38a. 2r. 20p. of land, which produces a yearly income of £42.  Sergeant Powis left £50, which was laid out in the purchase of a rent charge of 50s. per annum, issuing out of certain lands, called “The Hales,” now the property of the Rev. Charles Walcot.  This sum, with other monies, is distributed to the poor on St. Thomas’s-day.  The poor have 8s. a year, as the interest of £10, left by Richard Page.  Ann Shephard, of Middleton, left by her will the sum of £500, which has been invested in government stock; the dividends are distributed on St. Thomas’s-day.

Cleeton is a township in the parish of Bitterley, three miles east from the church, having in 1841 fourteen houses and seventy inhabitants.  The Earl of Powis is the principal landowner.  Mrs. Lewis, Rev. G. D. Pardoe, and Mr. Crowther are also freeholders.

Henley township in 1841 had six houses and fifty two inhabitants, and is situated two miles south from the church.  The Rev. S. J. Knight is the chief landowner.

Middleton is a chapelry and township in the parish of Bitterley, two and a half miles north-east from Ludlow, having 31 houses and 198 souls at the census of 1841.  Sir W. E. R. Broughton, Bart., is lord of the manor and owner of the land.  The chapel is an ancient structure, built of rubble stone, with a tower of wood.  An antique oak screen which divides the nave from the chancel has the date of 1582.

Snitton township lies about two and a half miles east from Ludlow.  At the census of 1841 it had 118 houses, chiefly cottages, and 564 inhabitants.  The Earl of Powis is the landowner and lord of the manor.  A chapel of ease was built here in 1839.  The Rev. John Burleigh James, M.A., is the officiating minister.

BITTERLEY DIRECTORY.

Beddoes William, Warthill Farm

Carter John, Astbach Farm

Cross Miss, boarding school proprietor

Froggatt John, Luppencot Farm

Gardner George, farmer

Green James Haynes, schoolmaster, Endowed Schools

Horton Captain

Nott William, shoemaker

Price Mrs., The Villa

Tomkins Harriet, school teacher

Tomkins William, shoemaker

Vaughan John, Lowbridge Farm

Walcot Rev. Charles, The Rectory

CLEETON DIRECTORY.

Edwards Charles, farmer, Clee Hill

George Anne, vict., Angel Inn

Glover Richard, farmer, Clee Hill

Nash Saml., farmer, Clee Hill

Onslow Thos., Gold Thorn Farm

Pardoe, Rev. G. D., Cleeton Hall

Powell William, farmer

Tunks Richard, farmer

HENLEY DIRECTORY.

Cuyler Sir Chas., The Hall

Hardwick Thos., blacksmith

Knight Rev. S. J., The Villa

Walker Charles, farmer

MIDDLETON DIRECTORY.

Adney John, farmer

Adney William, farmer

Braithwaite Stephen, farmer

Fletcher Edwd., Crow Leasow Farm

Hammonds Thomas, tailor

Hardwick Benjamin, joiner and cabinet maker

Hardwick Wm., wheelwright

Meyrick Samuel, blacksmith

Patrick William, farmer

Ricketts Wm., Torgrove Farm

Swift Joseph, Brookhouse Farm

Wall John, Meason’s Farm

Wilcox Joseph, Hill’s Farm

SNITTON DIRECTORY.

Beniams Edwd., shoemaker

Bray Benjamin, West Farm

Butcher Thos., South Farm

Pardoe Rev. G. D., Longhouse Farm

Reynolds Saml., Hall Farm

BURFORD
is an extensive parish in the Overs hundred, comprising the townships of Burford, Buraston with Whetmore, Nash, Tilsop, Weston, and Whitton, Greet, and Stoke, which have an area of 8,537a. 2r. 19p. of land, of which 312 acres are in hop grounds.  Rateable value, £9,875. 18s. 9d.  At the census of 1841 there were 212 houses and 1,031 inhabitants; population in 1801, 819; and in 1831, 1,086 persons.  The parish is bounded on the south by the river Teme, which is here crossed by a handsome stone bridge of six arches; the river here separates Salop from Worcestershire.  The township of Burford is situated one mile west of Tenbury, and contains 1,510a. 2r. 1p. of land, the rateable value of which is £2,683. 3s. 3d.  In 1841 here were 67 houses and 297 persons; population in 1801, 215; in 1831, 365.  George Rushout, Esq., M.P., is lord of the manor and the principal landowner.  In 1839 springs of strongly impregnated saline water were discovered in the immediate locality of this place.  The water is similar to that of Cheltenham, except that there appears to be double the quantity of saline matter in the fluid, one pint of which, on slow evaporation in a shallow vessel, produced an ounce of crystalline salt.  The analysis of one of the springs is as follows:—Chloride of sodium 923.52 grains, of calcium 461.9, of potassum 38.63, of magnesium 41.81; sulphate of magnesia 1.57, protoxide of iron 4.82; silica 4.54, and bromine and iodine .84;—total, 1,476.89 grains.  Convenient and elegant buildings have been erected for the accommodation of the numerous visitors who frequent the baths.  In the immediate vicinity of the baths are several good inns.  The situation is remarkably salubrious, and the scenery beautifully picturesque and varied.  Coaches from Ludlow to Bewdley, Kidderminster, Dudley, and Birmingham, pass and repass twice a day, calling at the Swan Inn and the Royal Oak Hotel.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a handsome stone edifice with a square tower.  It contains some interesting tombs and monumental tablets.  On the north wall of the chancel is a very elegant tryptych to the memory of Edmund Cornwall, Baron of Burford, who was sheriff of Shropshire in 1580; on the outer part are the representations of the apostles, and in the inner compartment are the figures of Edmund Cornwall, his father and mother, and below a representation of the baron in his winding sheet.  He is said to have been 7 feet 8 inches in height.  The triptych was painted in 1588, by Melchior Salaboss, better known by the name of Gherardino Milanese.  This very beautiful work of art is in admirable preservation, and with two others in different parts of the kingdom are the only triptychs in England.  There is a recumbent figure, beautifully carved in oak, to the memory of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of John of Gaunt, and sister of Henry IV., who died and was buried at Burford in the year 1426.  There is also a recumbent figure of wood to the memory of Edmundas Cornewalle.  An ancient tomb remembers Elizabeth Devroke, daughter of Sir Walter Devroke, Knight, who lived to see seventeen score and more children raised from her body, she died in 1508; besides which there are various memorials which our limits will not allow us to notice.  In the chancel are two beautiful stained glass windows.  The organ was the gift of the Misses Rushout, in 1846.  The tithes have been commuted for £1,644. 18s. 11½d.  The bishop of the diocese has recently divided the parish into three divisions, and assigned to each rector a separate districts, namely—Buraston and Nash chapelry to the rector of the first portion, Whitton chapelry to the second, and the district of the Mother Church to the rector of the third portion.  Handsome residences have recently been built for the rectors of the second and third portions.  Burford House is a beautiful and commodious structure, the seat and property of George Rushout, Esq., M.P.

Charities.—John Turner, by will, dated 1753, bequeathed £100, the interest thereof to be distributed to the poor of the parish.  John Knowles, by a codicil to his will proved in 1814, bequeathed £200, the interest of which was to be distributed to the poor in bread at Christmas and Whitsuntide annually.

Boraston is a township, chapelry, and pleasant village one mile and a half N.E. of Burford, which in 1841 had 41 houses and 199 residents.  In this chapelry are the townships of Boraston and Whetmore, which have an area of 1,386a. 0r. 36p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,765. 6s.  The principal landowners are John Dalleyway, Esq., Mr. Edward Good, Rev. H. Mac Laughlin, Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Edmund Edwards, Mr. John Benbow, and several others.  Boraston Chapel is an ancient edifice with a short tower.  The tithes are commuted for £470, of which £250. 14s. 4d. is apportioned to the rector of the second portion, and the remainder to the rector of the first portion, Hubert Mac Laughlin, M.A., is the incumbent of the first portion of the parish.

Greet is a small township three miles N.W. by W. of Burford, containing seven houses and 115 persons in 1841.  The principal landowners are J. H. Hope, Esq., and Thomas Hodgkiss, Esq.

Nash is a township and chapelry two and a half miles north of Burford, which in 1841 had 23 houses and 115 persons.  The chapelry comprises the townships of Nash, Tilsop, and Weston, which have an area of 2,377a. 2r. 35p. of land.  The Church is a small structure with a square tower surmounted by a wooden spire.  The south window is beautified with stained glass.  The tithes are commuted for £560.  Nash Court is a handsome brick mansion, the seat and property of George Pardoe, Esq.  It is surrounded by beautiful pleasure grounds, and the park is richly timbered.  Court of Hill, the ancient seat of the family of Hill, is now the residence of Major Arthur Charles Lowe.

Stoke is a small township four miles N.W. of Burford, containing 23 houses and 115 inhabitants.  The principal landowner is P. P. Williams, Esq.  Stoke Hall is a handsome residence surrounded with park-like grounds, the seat and property of Philip Penrey Williams, Esq.

Tilsop, a scattered township three and three quarter miles north of Bridgnorth, in 1841 had 61 houses and 226 inhabitants.  The principal freeholders are Mr. Benjamin Bridgman and Mr. John Pugh.  Tilsop and Nash school was erected in 1846 by voluntary subscriptions; about forty scholars attend.

Weston township, three miles N.W. by W. of Burford, at the census of 1841 had ten houses and 41 residents.  The tithes are commuted for £46. 11s.  Major A. C. Lowe is the sole landowner.

Whetmore, or Whatmore, is a small town containing seven houses and 24 persons.  The principal freeholders are Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Edwards, Mrs. Wilks, and George Pardoe, Esq.  Captain Rushout, Mrs. Mary Beddoes, and Mr. Foxall, are also proprietors.

Whitton, a chapelry four miles N.W. by N. of Tenbury, embraces the townships of Greet, Stoke, and Whitton, which have an area of 1,582 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £674. 10s.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Lucy Botfield, the Ludlow Corporation, and the Rev. Charles Adams.  The Church is a plain structure with a square tower.  The Rev. Caleb Whiteford, M.A., is the incumbent.  The tithes are commuted for £327.  Whitton Court, a fine old mansion in the Elizabethan style of architecture, was formerly the seat of the Charlton family.  It contains some fine specimens of carved oak.

BURFORD DIRECTORY.

Berrington John, farmer, Venns

Davies and Edwards, brick and tile makers

Davies William, Dean Park

Edwards Edmund, farmer

Edwards Jno., miller & farmer

Giles William, farmer

Grove William Henry, vict., Swan Inn

Holmes Thomas, gentleman, Park Villa

Jones George, Bank Farm

Joyce Rev. J. W., rector

Morris John, farmer, The Lodge

Rushout George, Esq., M.P., Burford House

Smallman Hy., vict., Rose & Crown

Tenbury, Gas Co.’s Office

Tranter John, wine & spirit merchant, vict., Royal Oak Hotel, Commercial and Posting House

Wall Mary, Rockhill Mill

Weaver Wm., Wall House

Webb John, fly waggon proprietor, from Ludlow and Worcester daily.

Williams Philip Penrey, Esq., Stoke Hall

BORASTON DIRECTORY.

Bowden Thomas, cooper

Down Thomas, blacksmith

Good Edmund, miller

Good Edward, farmer

Howells William, mason

Mac Laughlin Rev. Hubert, The Rectory

Meakin Thomas, farmer

Reynolds William, farmer

Rudge Rev. William

Sayer Benjamin, farmer

Smallman Esau, farmer and vict., Peacock Inn

Smallman William, farmer

GREET DIRECTORY.

Griffiths John, farmer

Grove Joseph, farmer

NASH DIRECTORY.

Brown William, wheelwright

Cork John, farmer

Hardwick Vincent, farmer, Hartall

Holt Letitia, farmer, Underhill

Hotchkiss Samuel, farmer

Jones John, farmer, Batch

Jones Thomas, farmer, The Shire

Lowe James, farmer, Greenway-head

Lowe Major Arthur Charles, Court of Hill

Morris Joseph, farmer, Shirebourne

Nott Mrs., Hartall

Pardoe George, Esq., Nash Court

Price Wm., farmer, Cliffords

Quaterman John, schoolmr.

STOKE DIRECTORY.

Wall Mary, farmer

Williams Philip Penrey, Esq., The Hall

TILSOP DIRECTORY.

Bridegman Benj., farmer

Pugh John, farmer

Ricketts George, farmer, The Wood

Robinson George, farmer, Cottrills

WESTON DIRECTORY.

Godfrey Benjamin, farmer, The Court

Tantram Thomas, farmer, Old Furnace

WHATMORE DIRECTORY.

Farmers.

Beddoes Mary

Brown Richard

Meakin Richard

Mytton James, & miller

Potts George

Powell William, carpenter

Weaver Joseph

Wilks Mary

WHITTON DIRECTORY.

Adams Rev. Charles

Amies Francis, wheelwright

Bill James, farmer, Whiteway Head

Bill John, farmer

Swift John, farmer, Whitton Court

Town Benjamin, shopkeeper and parish clerk

Whiteford Rev. Caleb, The Rectory

Whiteman Saml., wheelwrt.

GREET
is a small but pleasant village and parish, five miles south-east from Ludlow, which contains 1,041 acres of land, of which fourteen acres are in woods and plantations, and 8a. 2r. 15p. in roads and waste.  At the census of 1801 there was a population of 90 persons; 1831, 93; and in 1841, 22 houses and 112 inhabitants.  Rateable value of the parish, £1,276. 14s.  The principal landowners are J. H. Hope, Esq.; P. P. Williams, Esq.; Devisees of the late Mr. Mason; and the Trustees of Ludlow Charities.  The Church is a small structure, of unpretending appearance (built of rubble stone), having a small turret.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £5, now returned at £170.  The patronage is vested in the Hope family; incumbent, Rev. J. C. Bradney, M.A.  The tithes of this parish have been commuted, and £161. 5s. 8d. apportioned to the rector of Greet, and £24. 1s. 6d. to the rector of Whetton.  The Rectory is a good house, of modern erection, pleasantly situated a short distance from the church.  It was built by the present incumbent, on the site of the old rectory, about three years ago.  The cost of the structure was upwards of £1,400.  The rector has 6a. 2r. 13p. of glebe land.  The Rev. Francis Edwards, who died in 1767, left £10 for the benefit of the poor of this parish, the interest of which was formerly paid by the tenant of the Court Farm, at Greet; but it does not appear to have been a charge upon the estate.  A voluntary donation of 10s. yearly is now distributed by the Hope family in lieu of it.

Directory.—John Berrington, farmer; Rev. Joseph C. Bradney, M.A., The Rectory; Mrs. Elizabeth Griffin; John Griffin, farmer; John Hardwicke, wheelwright; Richard Mason, farmer, Brick House; Thomas Morgan, farmer, Rock Hill; William Morgan, farmer; Samuel Price, blacksmith; Mary Rawlins, farmer, Stoke; Lydia Smith, farmer, Longlands; Mary Wall, corn miller, Rock Hill; Richard Whiteman, farmer, Bower.

MILSON
is a parish and small rural village, three miles south-west of Cleobury Mortimer, and one mile north-west of Neen Sollars, which in 1851 had 31 houses and 170 inhabitants.  Population in 1801, 134; and in 1831, 156; 1841, 160.  The parish contains 1,102a. 2r. 39p. of land, the rateable value of which is £934. 13s. 4d.  Gross estimated rental, £1,028. 3s. 6d.  The principal landowners in Milson are H. G. Mytton, Esq.; Thomas Perry, Esq.; Mr. William Lowe; and Mr. Thomas Jones; besides whom are several smaller proprietors.  The Church, dedicated to St. George, is a small structure, consisting of nave, chancel, and small square tower, surmounted by a turret.  On the south side of the church-yard is a fine old yew tree.  The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the rectory of Neen Savage.  Incumbent, Rev. Thos. Hardwicke, D.D.

Directory.—Rev. Thomas Hardwicke, D.D., rector, The Rectory; William Barker, farmer; John Cox, farmer; William English, blacksmith; John Evans, tailor; Thomas Jones, farmer, Upper Langley; William Lowe, farmer, Church House; Edward Palmer, farmer; Francis Penny, farmer, Lay Fields; John Radnor, farmer, Little Down; Edward Smallman, carpenter and wheelwright; John Watters, farmer, Hill House.

NEEN SOLLARS
is a parish and pleasant rural village, in the Hundred of Overs, situated three miles south-west from Cleobury Mortimer, and ten miles east by south from Ludlow.  It is intersected by the river Rea, which is crossed a short distance below the village by a brick bridge.  In this parish are several hop plantations.  It contained at the census of 1851, 40 houses and 218 persons.  Population in 1801, 197; and in 1831, 208; 1841, 190.  There are 1,916a. 1r. 31p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,732. 14s.  The principal landowners are Sir Edward Blount, Bart.; Mr. John Cooke; Mrs. Ann Wall; Mrs. Lucy Botfield; Charles Wickstead, Esq.; Mr. Joseph Mantle; and Mr. Richard Hall; besides whom are several smaller proprietors.  The family of the Conynsbys were formerly lords of this manor and residents in the parish.  In the church is a monument to the memory of Humphrey Conynsby, Esq., who was born about the year 1567, and commenced his travels in 1594, and for four years remained on the continent, when he returned home a little while, and then took his journey again into Bohemia, Polonia, and Hungary, where for the defence of the Christian faith, he put himself under the banner of Rodulph, the second emperor of the Romans, and was at the siege of Stregonium, in Hungary, against the Turks.  Afterwards he visited most of the ancient cities of Greece, and from thence he went to Constantinople, in the reign of Mahomet, the third emperor of the Turks, who, to do him honour, gave him a Turkish gown of cloth and gold; and his mother, the Sultana Ebrita, gave him another rich gown of cloth and silver, and fifty chequins in gold.  After a twelvemonths sojourn there, he returned to England; where, after staying a while, he went into Spain, and came back in safety: and again, the fourth time, took his journey from London to Venice, in October, 1610; from which time he was never seen by any of his acquaintances, nor any certainty known of his death.  Thomas Hearne, speaking of the descent of the family of Coningsby, informs us that an ancient parchment is preserved by them as a precious relic, on which is written:—

“William de Coningsby
Came out of Brittany,
With his wife Tiffany,
And his maid Manifras,
And his dog Hardigras.”

The Church, dedicated to All Saints, is a cruciform structure, built of stone, with a spire of wood, in which are three small bells.  In the south transept is a monument to Humphrey Conynsby, which has already been noticed.  In the chancel are two marble tablets to the memories of the Rev. Edward Baugh, M.A., late rector of this parish, dated 1813, and to Margaret Baugh, dated 1802.  The living is a rectory, with the curacy of Milson annexed, valued in the king’s book at £13. 2s. 3d., now £550; in the patronage of the Provost and Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford, and incumbency of the Rev. Thomas Hardwicke, D.D.  The church was formerly annexed to one of the abbeys of Gloucester.  There are ninety-eight acres of glebe land.

Directory.—William Bishop, farmer and corn miller; John Cooke, farmer, New House; Benjamin Crow, blacksmith; Thomas Griffiths, tailor; Richard Hall, farmer; Thomas Harris, farmer; Jane Mantle, beerhouse and shopkeeper; Joseph Mantle, carpenter and joiner; John Massey, shoemaker; Pattronella Morris, farmer, Haughton; Thomas Morris, farmer, The Bank; Thomas Moss, farmer; Ann Palmer, farmer; Geo. Parker, farmer; Ann Wall, farmer, Hill Top; James Williams, farmer; William Yates, farmer.

SILVINGTON,
a parish and village in a sequestered situation, between Titterstone and Clee Hills, eight miles north-east of Ludlow, contains 1,120 acres of land, and at the census of 1801 had fifty-eight inhabitants; 1831, thirty; 1841, forty-six; at the latter period there were nine houses.  Of the land 170 acres are arable, 254 meadow and pasture, 36 woods, 655 moor land and hills, and 4a. 3r. 20p. in public roads.  Richard Betton, Esq., is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  The Rev. John Hayton is also a proprietor.  This locality has a bold undulating surface, and the soil for the most part is of an inferior quality.  The Church is an ancient structure, dedicated to St. Michael, consisting of nave and chancel, and has a square tower, in which are two bells.  There is an antique font.  The altar was the gift of Edward Mytton, Esq., in 1676: he died in 1683, and was interred in the chancel.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £3. 6s. 8d.; now returned at £120; in the patronage of Richard Betton, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. John Hayton.  The tithes have been commuted for £50, and there are 31 acres of glebe land.

The principal residents are Richard Betton, Esq.; George Boddy, blacksmith; Thomas Green, farmer; John Hammond, parish clerk; Rev. John Hayton; Richard Palmer, farmer; William Powell, farmer.

THE FORD HUNDRED
is bounded on the north by the Oswestry and Pimhill hundreds, on the west by Montgomeryshire, on the south by those of Purslow and Chirbury, and on the east by the Condover hundred and the liberty of Shrewsbury.  It is divided into the Ford and the Pontesbury divisions.  The Ford division contains the parishes of Ford, Cardiston, Minsterley, and Westbury; and part of the parishes of Alberbury, St. Alkmund, St. Chad, and St. Julian; and at the census of 1841 had 5,669 inhabitants.  The Pontesbury division contains the parishes of Habberley and Pontesbury, and at the same period had a population of 3,436 souls.

ALBERBURY
is an extensive parish, comprising the townships of Alberbury, Benthal with Shrawardine, Amaston, Bulthey, Eyton, Ford (part of), Rowton, Stanford, Trefnant, Wattlesborough (part of), Winnington, Woolaston, which are situated in Shropshire; and Bausley, Coydway, Crew Green, Criggion, upper and lower, Middleton and Uppington, which are in Montgomeryshire.  The entire parish contains 10,780a. 2r. 2p. of land, the rateable value of which is £7,731.  This parish is beautifully diversified with picturesque scenery, and watered by the river Severn.  At the census of 1841 there were 472 houses, and 1,861 inhabitants.  Population in 1801, 1,204: and in 1831, 1,799, Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart., Henry Lyster, Esq., and others are joint lords of the manor.  Alberbury is a township and pleasant rural village eight miles west of Shrewsbury.  In this quarter or district are the townships of Alberbury, Amaston, Benthal with Shrawardine, Eyton, Rowton, and part of the township of Ford, which have an area of 3,104a. 2r. 27p. of land; of which 1,277a. 1r. 20p. are arable, 1,532a. 0r. 16p. are meadow and pasture, 116a. 3r. 13p. are woods, and 67 acres are roads and water.  The township, at the census of 1841, had 130 houses and 638 inhabitants.  Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart., is the principal landowner.  John Lloyd, Esq., and All Souls College are also freeholders.  A fair is held on the 8th of August.

The Abbey, of which but little now remains, is situated near the village, and called the White Abbey.  It was founded by Fulk, the son of Warine, in the reign of Henry II., and was subject to the Black Monks of Grandmorst, in Limosin.  At the suppression of the alien priories it was bestowed on Queen Joan, widow of Henry IV., and after passing through several hands it was granted to the fellows of All Souls College, Oxford.  There were formerly a chapel within the site of this abbey, dedicated to St. Stephen, in which were interred the remains of Fulk Warine, its founder.

The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a venerable structure, with a square tower, in which is a peal of five bells.  The interior consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles.  The south compartment belongs to the estate of Loton.  On the walls are various monuments and tablets to various deceased members of the Leighton family: to Dame Dorothy Leighton, who died in 1638; and to General Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart., who died in 1828.  The chancel is separated from the body of the church by one arch, and was rebuilt in the year 1845.  On removing a tomb-stone in the south wall, the skeleton of a man was found quite perfect, but the coffin and grave clothes all gone.  It was placed in a coffin, and interred in the same place.  Several of the windows are ornamented with stained glass, and the altar is very beautiful.  The patronage of the church is vested in the fellows of All Souls College, Oxford: incumbent, Rev. Richard Webster Huntley, B.A.  The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £5. 10s.  The tithes are commuted for £2,624, and apportioned to the fellows of All Souls College, Oxford, to the dean and chapter of Hereford, and the vicar of Alberbury.  The Parochial School was founded and endowed with £3. 6s. 8d. per annum, by the fellows of All Souls College, Oxford: it is principally supported by the neighbouring gentlemen.  Loton Park is a handsome brick mansion, the seat and property of Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart., surrounded by a park well stocked with deer, and richly diversified with sylvan beauty.

Charities.—On the table of benefactions in the church are the names of twelve several donors, who left £169 for the use of the poor of this parish.  This sum is supposed to have been applied in building a school or workhouse, and the yearly sum of £8. 5s. is paid as the interest thereof, which is distributed to the poor on Christmas day.  Richard Lyster bequeathed the sum of £100, the interest thereof to be given to the poor.  John Asterley in his lifetime gave £10 for the use of the poor of the township of Wattlesborough.  John Morgan also left £10, the interest to be given in bread to the poor of this parish.

Amaston is a small township three miles south; Benthal is a township two miles north-east; and Little Shrawardine is a small township two miles and a half north-east, of Alberbury.  Bulthey is a scattered township one and a half mile north-west by north of Woolaston, which contains 711a. 3r. 19p. of land; of which 371a. 3r. 19p. are arable, and 340 acres are pasture.  Robert Gardner, Esq., is the sole landowner.

Bausley, or Balasley, is a scattered township and district, ten miles north-east of Welshpool, which comprises Upper and Lower Criggion, Crew Green, and Coydway, and has an area of 4,309 acres of land.  Rateable value, £1,954. 17s. 7d.  The principal landowners are the Rev. F. K. Leighton, who is lord of the manor; John Asterly, Esq.; Mr. Eddowes; Mr. Edward Bufton; Dr. Crawford; Sir Edward Desbrowe, Knt.; Rev. Edward Humphrey; Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart.; Isaac Swaine; Mr. John Ruscoe; and Mr. Williams.  The township contains 1,684 acres of land, and at the census of 1841 there were 78 houses and 352 inhabitants.  On the enclosure of Bausley Common, in 1832, the Vicar of Alberbury had allotted to him eleven acres of land, in lieu of small tithes.  There are 31 acres of glebe land.

Criggion is a township and chapelry, one mile east of Llandrinio, which at the census of 1851 had 35 houses and 189 inhabitants.  It contains 2401a. 2r. 17p. of land, the rateable value of which is £874. 12s. 2d.  The tithes are commuted for £220, of which £176 are appropriated to the Fellows of All Souls College, and £44 to the vicar.  On the summit of Breidden hill, 1,004 feet above the Severn, is “Rodney’s Pillar,” erected in memory of that brave naval commander.  Near the Breidden is the range of hills called Moel-y-Golfa, on which are the traces of an encampment.  In this district is a fine bed of coal.  The Chapel is a neat structure, built of brick, with a square tower.  The Rev. Leicester Darnwell, M.A., is the perpetual incumbent.

Eyton is a small township, one mile east of Alberbury.  The Hon. and Rev. R. W. Hill is the proprietor of the land.

Middleton is a township, two miles south-west of Woolaston, which contains 269½ acres of pasture, 426 acres of arable, 43 acres of woods, five acres of roads, and 230 acres of common land, the rateable value of which is £620. 10s.  Panton Corbett, Esq., is lord of the manor, and the principal freeholder.  Mrs. Williams and Captain Close are also landowners.

Rowton and Amaston is a pleasant township and small rural village, seven miles and a half west of Shrewsbury.  At the census of 1811 here were 225 inhabitants, and in 1821 227 inhabitants.  Henry Lyster, Esq., is lord of the manor, and principal landowner.  Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart., is also a small landowner.  Camden says this is the Rutunium described by Antonious.  Rowton was anciently in the possession of the Corbets, and afterwards of the Le Estranges, from whom it passed to William Lyster, who was styled Lord of Rowton.  In the year 1482 Rowton Castle was razed to the ground by Prince Llewellyn, at the time the Le Estranges possessed this manor.

Stanford is a township, one mile and a half west of Alberbury.  Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart., is lord of the manor and the principal landowner.  Mr. Asterley and Mr. Edmund Phillips are also proprietors.  Trefnant is a township and small village, two miles and a half south-west by south of Woolaston, which contains 518 acres of land.  Rateable value £171.  The principal landowners are Miss Oldnall, Mr. Thomas Vincent Potter, Mr. William Meredith, and the Rev. Mr. Cureton.  Uppington is a scattered township, three miles and a half south-west by west of Woolaston, containing 968 acres of land, of which 308 acres are in common and woodlands.  In 1841 here were 123, and in 1851 167 inhabitants.  The principal landowner is Miss Oldnall.  Wattlesborough is a township, partly situated in this parish and partly in the parishes of Cardiston and Westbury.  Roger Corbet de Watlesburg, in the 56th Henry III. had the grant of a market on Tuesday and a fair on the eve, the day, and the day after the feast of St. James the Apostle, to be held at this manor.  There was formerly a castle here, little of which now remains.  Winnington is a township, one mile and a half south-west by south of Woolaston, which contains 1,605a. 3r. 10p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,146. 3s. 10d.  Winnington is celebrated as the birth place of Old Parr, who was born at the Glyn, in this township, in the year 1483.  When eighty years old he married his first wife, and in the space of thirty-two years had two children, both of whom died young.  Being aged 120 years, he became enamoured of Catherine Mitton, whom he married, and had children by her.  At the age of 130, a prosecution was entered against him in the Spiritual Court for bastardy, and Parr did penance in Alberbury Church.  He lived in ten reigns, and died at Westminster on the 15th of November, aged 152 years.  The cottage in which he lived stands in a sequestered spot, near the Shrewsbury and Welshpool road.  Mrs. Oldnell and others are landowners.

Woolaston is a township and chapelry, pleasantly situated eight miles north-east by east of Welshpool, which comprehends the townships of Woolaston, Bulthey, Trefnant, Winnington, Middleton, and Uppington, which have an area of 5,274a. 1r. 17p. of land, the rateable value of which is £4,432. 6s. 6d.  This chapelry at the census of 1841 had 126 houses and 609 persons.  Woolaston township contains 496 acres of land.  The principal landowners are Sir Richard Jenkins, Mrs. H. S. Taber, and Mr. Smith.  Smythe Owen, Esq., is lord of the manor.  The Chapel was built in 1783 of rubble stone, and endowed with a grant from Queen Anne’s Bounty, which amounts to £46. 16s. 7d. per annum.  There are 20 acres of glebe land.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Alberbury, and incumbency of the Rev. J. H. A. Harries, M.A.  Elizabeth Collins left £10, the interest thereof to be given to the poor of this chapelry.  Owen George bequeathed £50, 40s. of the interest thereof to pay for six sermons, and 20s. to be given in bread to the poor.

Post Office.—At Wm. Rogers, Letters arrive at 8 A.M. and are despatched at 5 P.M.

ALBERBURY DIRECTORY.

Barrett John, farmer & vict., Cross Gates

Bennett John, farmer & vict., Windmill Inn, posting House, Rowton

Bromley Rd., farmer, Eyton

Brown Thomas, farmer and vict., The Dragon

Bruce Donald, butler, Loton Hall

Cooper William, farmer and lime master, Loton

Crane Geo., farmer, Benthall

Davenport Benj., farmer

Davies Mr., farmer, Whattlesborough

Derwas Thos., farmer, Hays

Evans Edward, farmer, Braggington

Evans Griffiths, tailor

Fox William, blacksmith

Gell Daniel, park keeper, Loton

Gittins James, farmer, The Wood

Gittins Jn., farmer, Amaston

Gittins R., frmer, Lower Wood

Huntley Rev. Rd. Webster, vicar, Bloxwell

Jenner Rev. Mr., M.A., curate, Vicarage

Jones Mary, housekeeper, Loton Hall

Kempster Richard, farmer, Little Woolaston

Lee Mrs. Francis, farmer, Rowton

Leighton Sir Baldwin, Bart., J.P., and chairman of Montgomery quarter sessions, Loton Park

Lyster Henry, Esq., Rowton Castle

Mansell Stephen, farmer, Little Shrawardine

Onions William, basket mkr

Parry Thomas, farmer, Whattlesborough

Plunley John, farmer, Hilly House

Plunley Samuel, farmer

Pearce John, police constable

Powlter Richard, grocer & blacksmith, Rowton

Price John, traveller

Rogers Elizth., shopkeeper

Rogers William, postmaster

Teece John, farmer, Red Abbey

Tullock David, farmer

Wilde John, farmer, White Abbey

Wilde Wm., farmer, Hays

BAUSLEY DIRECTORY.

Derwas John, farmer

Derwas Richard, farmer

Evans John, basket maker

Evans Thomas, farmer, Pecknall

France John, farmer, Brimpoeth

Jones John, carpenter and builder

Pritchard Mrs., Brook Cot.

Speake Thomas, farmer, The Hill

Swaine Isaac, farmer, Hill

Wilde John, butcher and farmer

Wilde Richard, farmer, Plas-y-Court

BULTHEY DIRECTORY.

Burley Thomas, farmer

Swaine John, farmer, The Bank

Williams Richard, farmer, The Hall

COYDWAY DIRECTORY.

Brown Thomas, grocer and beer retailer

Harris Sarah, farmer

Jones Thomas, vict., Hand and Diamond

Jones Thomas, maltster and farmer

Richard George, shoemaker

Richards Thomas, saddler

Swaine Samuel, farmer

Wynne Thos., wheelwright

CREW GREEN DIRECTORY.

Briscoe John, farmer

Davies David, farmer

Downes Richard, farmer

Everall John, farmer

Mansell Mrs.

Payne Charles, farmer and maltster

Pritchard John, farmer

Pugh William, farmer

Ruscoe Abrahm., shopkeeper and beerhouse

Ruscoe Abraham, junior, farmer

Swaine Robert, blacksmith

Turner Joshua, blacksmith

Vaughan Samuel, shoemakr

Vaughan Thomas, saddler & harness maker

Watkin Evan, cooper

Williams John, grocer and provision dealer, & beerhouse, Glen, Newtown

Williams John, cooper and shopkeeper

CRIGGION DIRECTORY.

Brentnall Mrs., The Hall

Brentnall Samuel, farmer

Darwell Rev. Leicester, M.A., Parsonage

Davies Richard, farmer

Ford John, farmer

Gregory Richard, farmer and butcher

Jones John, farmer, Brinford

Morris John, farmer

Morris Mrs., Upper Farm

Owens John, farmer, Coppice

Ridge Francis, farmer

Vaughan William, farmer

Williams Richard, farmer

MIDDLETOWN DIRECTORY.

Harris Rev. John Henry Acton, M.A.

Hughes Mr. Thomas

Jones Isaac, farmer & beerhouse, Bell Isle

Morris Edward, farmer

Parry Thomas, farmer

Parry William, farmer

Poole Robert, machineman

Pritchard Miss, Doves Cot.

Pritchard Srh., vict., New Inn

Thomas Benjamin, gent.

Thomas Stephen, bricklayer and beer retailer

STANFORD DIRECTORY.

Harris James, farmer

Middle John, farmer

Turner Edward, blacksmith

TREFNANT DIRECTORY

Brown John, farmer

Edwards John, farmer

UPPINGTON DIRECTORY.

Dickin Arthur, farmer

Henley Thomas, farmer

Meredith William, miller and farmer

Rogers Thomas, farmer

WINNINGTON DIRECTORY.

Brown Thomas, farmer

Davies William, vict., Rose and Crown, farmer and blacksmith

Jasper James, carrier

Jones Evan, farmr., Hargreave

Rogers Ths. Hall, Mill Farm

Rogers William, farmer

WOOLASTON GREAT DIRECTORY.

Pigford Chas., wheelwright

Clemson Thomas, farmer

Cooper Joseph, wheelwright

Eddowes Thomas, farmer

Jones Elizabeth, farmer

Jones Henry, timber merchant, registrar of births and deaths for the Alberbury district

Marsh Walter, tailor

Turner Edward, blacksmith

BICTON AND CALCOTT,
a township and village with a scattered population, three miles and a half west from Shrewsbury, at the census of 1841 had 107 houses and 560 inhabitants, The principal landowners are Sir Richard Jenkins; John Lloyd, Esq.; Hon. H. W. Powyes; Dr. Crawford; Colonel Wingfield; Mr. R. B. Blakemore; Mr. T. Wall; and Mr. Matthews; besides whom Mr. Richard Russ, Mr. Samuel Roberts, and others, are proprietors.  The Chapel of Bicton is a small structure, dedicated to the Holy Trinity; in the patronage of the vicar of St. Chad, and enjoyed by the Rev. Edward Sandford.  Bicton Hall is a neat stuccoed house; the residence of the Misses Cotes.  There is a school, chiefly supported by voluntary subscriptions.  Bickton Heath was enclosed about forty years ago, and is now covered with luxuriance and fertility.  The New Connexion Methodists have a chapel here, and a site had been chosen for a new church when our agent visited this township.  The Cottage Buildings are a number of cottages on the road leading to the Isle.  Several scattered residences near to Montford Bridge are in this township, where there is a small Methodist Chapel.  Up and Down Rossal contains upwards of 1,200 acres of land.  The Isle is a compact estate of 645 acres; the property of the Rev. Humphrey Sandford.  The Severn here makes a great bend, and forms a peninsula, with so very narrow an isthmus as to occasion to be called the Isle of Up Rossal.  It acquired the name of Rossal from the circumstance of a family of that name formerly owning the property.  The estate was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Richard Sandford, Esq., an officer of the crown, and ancestor of the present proprietor: a family long before possessed of other estates in this neighbourhood.  The Isle House is a good residence on elevated ground, commanding pleasing views of the country, occupied by the Rev. H. Sandford, the owner of the estate.  Rossal, an ancient brick residence, built in 1077, stands in a sequestered situation, and is the seat of the Dowager Countess Fielding.

The Lunatic Asylum for the counties of Salop and Montgomery, situated at Bicton Heath, is a spacious and handsome structure in the Tudor style of architecture, consisting of centre and wings.  It is a brick edifice, with stone finishings, and was built under the provisions of an act of parliament obtained in the 9th of George IV.  The buildings and airing yards occupy about four acres of land; and there are eleven acres of gardens and pleasure grounds, laid out with admirable taste, and cultivated by the patients.  A terrace has been raised round the kitchen garden, where the females are allowed to walk, which affords a cheerful prospect of the country, and contributes to the comfort and gratification of the patients.  The men are employed in useful mechanical trades, attention being paid to diversify the modes of employment and the means of amusement, so as to excite agreeable emotions, and to soften the unavoidable severity of confinement.  The establishment will accommodate 220 inmates, and the cost of the structure, with the site and various alterations up to October, 1849, has been £33,537. 16s. 7½d.  The interior arrangements are admirably contrived for the convenience and comfort of the inmates, and the whole has a clean, orderly, and well-regulated appearance.  The establishment is under the able superintendence of Richard Oliver, M.D.

BICTON AND CALCOTT DIRECTORY.

Bowlker Frances, schoolmistress

Breese Mary, boarding school, Lower Calcott

Cotes the Misses, Bicton Hall

Cotton William, farmer, Montford Bridge

Crawford William, D.D., Bicton House

Edwards Mr. John, Udlington

Edwards Thomas, clerk

Evans John, bricklayer, Calcott

Hill Rev. Francis, Montford Bridge

Hilton Ann, farmer

Jellicoe Christiana Ann, boarding school, Bicton Cottage

Jenkins Miss Frances, Lower Calcott

Lloyd John, Esq.

Lloyd Richard, vict., Four Crosses

Millman John, nurseryman, Calcott

Oliver Richard, M.D., Bicton Asylum

Peters Martha, farmer

Pritchard Mrs. Mary

Roberts Samuel, farmer

Rowlands Philip, blacksmith

Russ Richard, farmer

Wall Thomas, farmer, Upper Calcott

Whitehorn Jno., Nag’s Head, Montford Bdge.

Wilkinson Mr. Robert, Lower Calcott

UP AND DOWN ROSSAL DIRECTORY.

Fielding Ann Catherine, Dowager Countess Ross, Hall

Hilton Robert, farmer, Down Rossal

Sandford Folliott, Esq., solicitor, The Isle Hse.

Sandford Rev. Humphrey, incumbent of Bicton and Edgton, The Isle House

Sandford Humphrey, Esq., barrister-at-law, The Isle House

Spearman Andrew, Esq., Udlington

Tomkies Richard, farmer, The Isle

Whitfield Thomas, farmer, Down Rossal

Williams Robert, corn miller, Isle Mill

Wood Henry, farmer, Isle Park Farm

CROW MEOL,
a township in the parish of St. Chad, on the Shrewsbury and Montgomery turnpike road, two miles west from the former town, at the census of 1841 had 24 houses and 120 inhabitants.  The township contains 200a. 3r. 11p. of land, about one half of which is the property of Thomas Brocas, Esq., and the remainder is held by upwards of twenty freeholders.  Copthorne House, the residence and property of Thomas Brocas, Esq., is pleasantly situated, and commands a pleasing view of the country.  Adjoining the hall a neat chapel has been built by Mr. Brocas, where the ministers of the Wesleyan New Connexion officiate.  The principal residents are Thomas Brocas, Esq., Copthorne Hall; Robert Phillips, Esq., Bowbrook House; William Adams, farmer; John Bowdler, tailor; and Francis Pool, farmer.

Onslow is a township four miles west from Shrewsbury, having 10 houses and 76 inhabitants at the census of 1841.  The land is the property of Colonel Wingfield, who resides at Onslow Hall, a handsome stuccoed mansion, partly in the parish of St. Chad and partly in that of Pontesbury.  A pillar in the kitchen of the hall is the point of separation between the two parishes.  The principal residents are Colonel Wingfield, Onslow Hall, and Charles Edward Boore, Richard Vaughan, and John Wood, farmers.

Whitley and Welbach is a township in the parish of St. Chad; four miles west by south from Shrewsbury, having in 1841, 21 houses and 113 inhabitants.  A short distance from the bridge at Nobold, the parishes of St. Chad, Condover, and Brace Meole converge.  Hooker Gate is a hamlet in this township, consisting of a few cottages and a small Baptist Chapel, near to which collieries were worked till within the last few years.  The land is the property of George Jonathan Scott, Esq.  The principal residents are Thomas Savage, farmer, Whitley; John Mason, farm bailiff to G. J. Scott, Esq.; John Croft, shopkeeper; and William Juckes, beerhouse.

Woodcote and Horton, a township in the parish of St. Chad, three miles and a half from Shrewsbury, at the census of 1841 had 11 houses and 78 inhabitants.  The chief landowners are Colonel Wingfield; John Walton, Gent.; Rev. John Yardley; and Mr. Thomas Woodward.  The principal residents are Edward Kynaston, farmer; James Large, farmer; Thomas Lloyd, farmer; William Sherratt, farmer; John Walton, Gent.; John Wilding, blacksmith and wheelwright.

CARDISTON,
a parish containing the township of Cardiston and part of Wattlesborough, is situated six miles and a half west of Shrewsbury.  It comprises 2,548a. 2r. 13p. of land, of which 2,395 acres are titheable.  Rateable value of the parish, £2,692. 5s.  Sir Baldwin Leighton is lord of the manor, and the principal landed proprietor; the Rev. Francis Leighton, bart.; Henry Lyster, Esq.; John Lloyd, Esq.; and the representatives of the late John Vaughan are also freeholders.  At the census of 1841 here were 76 houses and 372 inhabitants.  The parish is bounded on the south by the river Severn, and is intersected by the Shrewsbury and Welshpool road.  The remaining part of Wattlesborough township is situated in Alberbury parish.  The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, was rebuilt of stone in the year 1749.  The tower and windows were re-edified in 1844, at the expense of Sir Baldwin Leighton, bart., who is patron of the living.  Rector, the Rev. Francis Leighton, M.A.  The tithes are commuted for £392, of which £267 are apportioned to the Rev. Francis Leighton, M.A.; £120 to Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart.; and £5 to the small impropriators.  A yearly sum of 10s. is paid to the churchwardens of this parish on account of Morgan’s Charity, which is distributed among the poor.  On the table in the church three other benefactions, amounting to £25, are mentioned, which have been long lost.

Directory.—Richard Bromley, farmer; Richard Dyas, farmer; Thomas Hordley, wheelwright, and shopkeeper; Thomas Evans, coachman; John Lamb, shopkeeper; John Lee, farmer; Rev. Francis Leighton, M.A., The Rectory; John Netherway, painter and glazier; Captain Owen; Thomas Poole, farmer, The Park; Richard Poulter, shopkeeper and blacksmith; Ann Thomas, housekeeper; Richard Weaver, butler.

FORD
is a parish and township, in the hundred to which it gives name, five miles west by north of Shrewsbury, containing 2,140 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £2,040. 10s.  At the census of 1841 here were 66 houses and 309 inhabitants.  Population in 1801, 349; and in 1831, 263.  Sir Offley P. Wakeman, Bart., is lord of the manor, and a considerable landowner; the Rev. Robert L. Burton; Henry Gardner, Esq.; Mr. Henry Leey; and Mr. John Baldwin, are also proprietors.  The river Severn and the Watling street intersect the parish.  Earl Edwin held Ford in the Confessor’s time; and Earl Roger in the time of the Conqueror.  In the 14th of Henry III.  Henry Andele had a grant of the manor of Ford; and in the 37th year of Henry III. James Aldithele had a grant of free warren here, as had also Thomas Boterel some time after.  The manor of Ford continued in the Talbot family, Earls of Shrewsbury, until the year 1824, when the same was sold to Sir Henry Wakeman, Bart., in whose family it now continues.  The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a small structure, built of rubble stone.  The interior is neatly pewed with oak.  The chancel is separated from the nave by a screen of oak of antique carving.  There is also an ancient stone font.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of G. E. W. Tomline, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. John Wason, M.A.  It was valued in the king’s book at £3. 6s. 8d., now £138.  In the taxation of Pope Nicholas, A.D. 1291, Ford chapel is estimated at £10.  In the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is stated that Joseph Waring, by will, in 1726, gave to the poor of this parish £10., which produces 10s. yearly.

Directory.—John Baldwin, farmer, Shoot Hill; John Barrett, farmer, maltster, and victualler, Cross Gates; Hy. Brayne, wheelwright; Ths. Breese, shoemaker; Edw. Bufton, shopkeeper and draper; Edwd. Bufton, jun., farmer; Rchd. Clayton, blacksmith; David Evans, farmer; Jno. Gittins, farmer, Ford heath; Joseph Gough, farmer, Ford heath; Rchd. Hughes, shoemaker; Thomas Humphreys, farmer, Chavel; Wm. Jones, shoemaker; Wm. Pugh, shopkeeper; John Quay, shoemaker; George Rogers, farmer; Thomas Rogers, tailor; William Wall, farmer; Joseph Waring, shopkeeper; Rev. John Wason, M.A., The Rectory; William Weaver, carpenter and parish clerk.

Post Office—At Mary Bishop’s.  Letters arrive at 5.30 A.M., and are despatched at 6.30 P.M.

HANWOOD GREAT
is a parish and pleasantly situated village four miles S.W. of Shrewsbury, which contains 415a. 2r. 21p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,066. 10s. 5d.  Gross estimated rental, £1,122. 12s.  Sir Offley P. Wakeman is lord of the manor.  The principal freeholders are Francis Harris, Esq., R. and W. Blakeway, Rev. Edward Warter, Mr. Nicholl, Joseph Sheppard, Esq., Messrs. Marshalls, Eleanor Hill, and H.D. Warter, Esq.  In 1841 here were 43 houses and 167 residents; population in 1801, 264; and in 1831, 288.  There are bleach grounds and mills in this parish carried on by Messrs. Marshalls and Co.  The Church is built of brick, and has a small wooden turret, in which are two bells.  At the east end is a handsome stained glass window, the gift of Henry Diggory Warter, Esq., the patron of the living.  There is a stone font dated 1683.  The church-yard is nearly surrounded by venerable yew trees.  The parish register bears date from the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  The tithes are commuted for £237, and there are 32a. 1r. of glebe land.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £3, in the incumbency of the Rev. Edward Warter, M.A., who resides at the rectory, a commodious residence near the church.  Mrs. B. M. A. Harries, by will, in 1833, bequeathed to the rector and churchwardens for the time being of this parish the sum of £100, the interest thereof to be distributed amongst the poor inhabitants.

Alltree John, whitesmith, shopkeeper, and parish clerk

Blakeway, Richard, corn miller and farmer

Blakeway Wm., corn miller

Bridge Joseph, grocer and provision dealer

Bromley Mary, gentlewoman

Cotton John, bleach mill manager

Crane John, shoemaker

Edwards Thomas, higgler

Harries Francis Blythe, Esq.

Harrison Rev. Wm., M.A., Bank house

Hayward Rd., blacksmith

Higginson William, tailor

Hill Mrs. Eleanor

Hullen Eliza, boarding sch.

Jones Ann, vict., The Cock Inn

Jones Thomas, wheelwright

Jones Thomas, shoemaker

Jones Wm., basket maker

Littlehales John, wheelwrt.

Littlehales Rd., blacksmith and shopkeeper

Lloyd Mr. John

Matthews John, farmer

Oakey William, farm bailiff

Phillips Thomas, tailor and draper

Rydar Robert, gentleman

Ward John, shoemaker

Warter Rev. Edward, The Rectory

Yallowley Mary, gentlewmn.

HABBERLEY
is a parish and village in the hundred of Ford, nine miles S.W. from Shrewsbury, pleasantly situated in a bold undulating district, the scenery of which is pleasingly diversified with romantic beauty.  The parish comprises 754a. 2r. 19p. of land having mostly a fertile soil, and 335a. 1r. 21p. in hills and common land.  485 acres of the titheable land are arable, 231 acres meadow, 38 woods and water, and five acres in public roads.  William Henry Sparrow, Esq., is the principal landowner and lord of the manor; there are also a few smaller freeholders.  Population—1801, 104; 1831, 128; and in 1841 there were 27 houses and 125 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £1,108. 15s.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient gothic fabric consisting of nave and chancel, having a wooden turret.  It was partly rebuilt and made parochial in the year 1558.  The chancel window was restored by the late rector; the floor is covered with encaustic tiles.  Among the memorials is a tomb to William Mytton, Esq., who died in 1747.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £4. 0s. 2½d. in the patronage of W. H. Sparrow, Esq., and enjoyed by the Rev. Richard White, M.A.  The tithes are commuted for £132, and there are 23 acres of glebe land.  The parish register dates from the year 1599.

Edward Corbett, in 1654, charged a messuage and certain land with the payment of 20s. yearly, and directed the interest to be distributed among the poor, especially orphans and poor widows.  Only 6s. is now received as Corbett’s benefaction.  John Gittins, who died in 1808, left £20, and his widow, Elizabeth, who died in 1819, a like sum, the interest to be given away among the poor of the parish.  The produce of these two legacies are now in the Savings’ Bank.

Directory.—Ann Bromley, farmer; Martha Evans, farmer and corn miller; John Everall, farmer; Thomas Highley, blacksmith, wheelwright, and parish clerk; John Onions, beerhouse keeper; Richard Lewis, blacksmith; Mr. Morris, farmer, The Hall; Thomas Pearce, agent to W. H. Sparrow, Esq.; Thomas Rogers, farmer; Rev. Richard White, M.A., The Rectory.

MINSTERLEY
is a parish, nine miles S.W. by W. of Shrewsbury, containing 2,875a. 3r. 7p. of land, the rateable value of which is £3,165.  At the census of 1841 there were 168 houses and 914 persons.  Population in 1811, 705; and in 1831, 809.  Half a century ago Minsterley consisted of only a few farm houses; but since the lead mines have been extensively worked it has greatly increased.  The lead ore of this place is found enclosed or covered with a spar, over which is a kind of blue stone or slate, and contains a great quantity of red lead, and a small portion of silver.  The Snailbeach mines are situated about a mile from Minsterley, and have been worked for 60 years in a most efficient and profitable manner, without experiencing any stoppage.  The shafts are from 300 to 360 yards in depth, and the engine and machinery for crushing the ore are on an extensive scale.  There are about 500 miners daily at work, besides others engaged in washing and smelting the ore.  Upwards of £2,000 per month is paid in wages.  The mines are the property of Messrs. Lovett, Jones, and Company, and under the management of Mr. John Harrison.  In the year 1851 a Roman pig of lead was found by some workmen in sinking through a slag heap of smeltings, on which appears the following inscription in raised letters:—

IMP.  HADRIANI.  AVG.

It is in length twenty inches, and the girth is twenty inches, weighing 173 pounds.

Some years ago, an act of parliament was obtained by several landed proprietors to form a canal to carry the surplus water from Marton Pool to the Severn, which covered upwards of 200 acres of land for several months in the year.  Since the cutting of the canal a great part of the land has been reclaimed, and brought into a state of cultivation.  The Marquis of Bath is lord of the manor, and principal landowner.  The Fair, or “Gentlemen’s Meet,” at Minsterley, is held on July 25th.

The Church is a brick fabric, built about the latter end of the 16th century.  It consists of nave, chancel, and has a small wooden tower, in which is one bell.  It is neatly pewed with oak, and the reading desk and sounding board are elaborately carved.  In the chancel is a tablet, erected by the Snailbeach Company to the memory of their late agent, Mr. John Nealor.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Marquis of Bath, and the rector of the first portion of Westbury, and enjoyed by the Rev. Emilius Nicholson, M.A.  The incumbent has a rent charge, derivable from the Cause Castle estate, amounting to £60 per annum.  The Methodists have a neat brick chapel here, which was built in 1833.  The Free School was erected in 1843, at the joint expense of the Marquis of Bath and several gentlemen belonging to the Snailbeach Company, in compliance with the requisitions expressed in the will of the late John Johnson, Esq., who provided an endowment to establish and perpetuate a day-school for the education of all children resident in the parish.  The Snailbeach Mining Company have endowed the school with £40 yearly, and ordered that every miner shall pay to the schoolmaster sixpence every quarter.  The school will accommodate one hundred children.  The average attendance of the scholars is eighty.  Joshua Williams, by will, in 1819, bequeathed an annuity of £20 for the education of poor children in the parish of Minsterley.

Adams Wm., maltster, farmer and vict., Miners’ Arms

Beady George, shoemaker

Beady Tryphena, milliner and dressmaker

Bowen Wm., underground assistant bailiff

Brumbil Thomas, victualler, Angel Inn

Clarke William, wheelwright

Croft Richard, perpl. overseer, Hawkstowbank

Davies David, engineer and mineral draftsman

Davies John, grocer & draper

Dolphin John Lloyd, druggist, draper, grocer, and maltster

Dorrcott Edward, schoolteacher and barber

Dyas Richard, blacksmith

Eddowes Edward, Hockstow Corn Mills and farmer

Eddowes Mrs. Judith, Reabrooks

Evans William, farmer

Everall William, farmer

Griffiths Mrs. Ann, ladies’ boarding school

Harrison John, gentleman, Snailbeach

Hincks Mary, dressmaker

Hincks Thomas, mason

Hughes Thomas, beer retailer

Hughes Vincent, engineer

Hughes Wm., linen weaver, and parish clerk

James Joseph, blacksmith

Jones Edward, shopkeeper

Jones George, tailor

Jones John, schoolmaster

Jones John and Co., Snailbeach Mines

Kempster John, Park Farm

Lee William, saddler and harness maker

Nealor Mr. Edwd., The Hall

Nealor William, Esq.

Nicholson Rev. Emilius, The Rectory

Philpot Jno. & Son, engineers

Powell Thomas, beer retailer

Robinson Thomas, tailor

Speake John, Wood Farm

Thomas Arthur, tailor

Turner John, grocer and draper

Vaughan Edwd., shoemaker

Whitefoot Richd., shoemaker

Whitefoot Thos., shoemaker

Woodhouse Samuel, farmer

Woodhouse Thomas, farmer

PONTESBURY
is an extensive parish containing the townships of Arscott, Asterley, Boycott, Cruckmeole, Cruckton, Edge, Farley, Halston, Hanwood (Little), Hinton, Lea, Longden, Newnham, Oakes, Onslow, Plealey, Pontesbury, Pontesford, Sascott, and Siberscott, with the hamlets of Exford’s Green, Ford Heath, Horton, Lea Cross, Longden Wood, Moathall, Pansom, Polmer, Malehurst, Shorthill, and Woodhall, which together comprehend an area of 10,635a. 2r. 13p. of land, the rateable value of which is £14,513. 10s.  At the census of 1841, here were 697 houses and 3,311 inhabitants; population in 1801, 2,053; and in 1831, 2,936 persons.  Edward William Smythe Owen, Esq., is lord of the manor.  A great portion of the labouring population find employment in the extensive lead and coal works of this parish.  The township of Pontesbury is situated seven and a half miles S.W. of Shrewsbury, and fifteen and a half miles N.N.E. of Montgomery, and, with the hamlet of Malehurst, contains 1,119a. 1r. 30p. of land.  Francis Harries, Esq., is the principal landowner.  Sir Joseph Hawley, Bart., H. D. Warter, Esq., Colonel Wingfield, Henry Gardener, Esq., T. H. Hope, Esq., and Sir Offley P. Wakeman, and others are also proprietors.  The turnpike road from Shrewsbury, which joins the Montgomery road at Brockton, passes through this township.  In May, 1811, Pontesbury was visited by a most terrific tempest, when “a cloud burst upon the Stiperstone hill,” and the waters rushed down the acclivities with irresistible force, sweeping away cottages, mills, cattle, and trees, and drowning nine persons.  The water being in many places from thirteen to seventeen feet deep.

The Church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, was formerly collegiate, having a dean and two prebendaries.  The old structure was taken down in 1825, except the chancel, and was rebuilt of rubble stone in the year 1829.  At the west end is a lofty square tower containing a peal of five bells.  The interior consists of nave, lofty north and south aisles, and chancel.  The living is a rectory divided into three portions, the first portion is in the patronage of the present incumbent, the Rev. William Harrison, M.A.  The tithes of this portion are commuted for the sum of £780. 6s.  There are 21a. 3r. 21p. of glebe land.  The second portion is in the gift of Brazen-nose College, and incumbency of the Rev. Charles Drury, M.A., the tithes of which amount to £774. 11s. 10d., and there are 58a. 2r. 3p. of glebe land.  The third portion is in the gift of the present rector, the Rev. William Vaughan, who purchased it from Smythe Owen, Esq., for his life and ten years after.  The tithes are commuted for £571. 6s. 4d., and there are 59a. 2r. 36p. of glebe land.  The Rev. William Harrison, M.A., also receives £129. 9s. as the impropriator.  The Independents have a neat brick chapel, built in 1839, which will accommodate 200 hearers.  The Baptists have also a small chapel here.  The National School is a spacious brick structure.  Charities—It is stated on the table of benefactions that Thomas Davies left £200, John Peers £10, Eleanor Peers £10, and Thomas Higgins, D.D., left £10 the interest thereof to be distributed to the poor.  This sum, amounting to £230, was expended in the purchase of 21a. 3r. 2p. of land in 1716, the rent of which is distributed to eight poor widows of this parish.

Arscott is a small township and sequestered village situated two and a half miles N.E. by E. of Pontesbury, which contains 463a. 3r. 5p. of land.  The soil is mostly strong.  Coal is got in the township.  In 1841 here were 24 houses and 127 persons.  The tithes are commuted for £93. 15s. 6d., and apportioned to the rector of the second portion.  Francis Harries, Esq., is the sole landowner.

Asterley and Inwood is a township and pleasant village, one mile and a half west of the parish church, which at the census of 1841 had 61 houses and 305 residents.  The township contains 535a. 3r. 31p. of land.  The tithes are commuted, and apportioned to the rector of the third portion, for the sum of £90. 15s. 6d.  The principal landowners are Henry Gardner, Esq.; William Gardner, Esq.; and Mr. Everall.  Extensive coal works are carried on here.  The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel.

Boycott is a small township, three quarters of a mile N.W. by N. of Pontesbury, containing 344a. 2r. 9p. of land.  In 1841 here were three houses and 33 persons.  The tithes are commuted for £75. 2s.  Thomas Baycott, Esq., and Henry Warren, Esq., are the principal freeholders.

Cruckmeole is a township and pleasant rural village four and a half miles S.W. of Shrewsbury, which contains 512a. 0r. 13p. of land.  At the census of 1841 here were 33 houses and 136 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for the sum of £114. 17s.  The township is intersected by the Reabrook and the Shrewsbury and Minsterley turnpike road.  H. D. Warter, Esq., and Francis Harries are the principal freeholders.  Cruckmeole Hall is a handsome brick mansion, the property and residence of Henry Diggory Warter, Esq.

Cruckton is a township, chapelry, and pleasant village four and a half miles S.W. by W. of Shrewsbury, which contains 900a. 1r. 28p. of land.  In 1841 here were 27 houses and 155 persons.  The tithes are commuted, and £76. 4s. 4d. is paid to the rector of the first portion, to the Rev. Wm. Harrison, as impropriator, £10. 9s. 4d., and to Geo. Tomline, Esq., £7.  Francis Harries, Esq., is sole landowner.  The Chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas, was built in the year 1839.  On the entrance door are two figures of angels carved in oak.  It will accommodate 180 persons.  This chapel was built for the district comprising the townships and hamlets of Arscott, Sibberscott, Shorthill, Cruckmeole, Cruckton, Sascott, Horton, Nox, Onslow, Woodhall, Moathill, Panson, and Little Hanwood, so much of the township of Newnham as is north of Yockleton brook, and for the places on Ford’s Heath.  The Rev. Charles Drury, M.A., is patron and incumbent.  The Hall, a commodious and handsome mansion in the early English style of architecture, is built of brick, with stone facings, and is the seat and property of Francis Harries, Esq.

Edge township, situated two miles N.W. by W. of Pontesbury, contains 422 acres of land.  In 1841 here were 15 houses and 68 persons.  The tithes are commuted for £95. 11s. 6d.  The executors of the late Mr. Thornes are the principal landowners.

Farley is a small township one mile N.W. by N. of Pontesbury, which contains 172a. 0r. 10p. of land.  At the census of 1841 here were three houses and 19 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £34. 3s. 3d.  The principal proprietors are Mr. Thomas Inions, and Mr. John Hughes.

Halston is a small township to the S.W. of Shrewsbury, which contains 275a. 0r. 39p. of land.  In 1841 there were three houses and 17 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £78 17s. 9d.  W. L. Childe, Esq., is the sole landowner.  Hanwood Little is a small scattered township four miles south of Shrewsbury, which contains the hamlets of Moathall, Woodhall, and Pansom, and comprehends an area of 667a. 2r. 37p. of land.  In 1142 here were 11 houses and 60 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £133. 13s. 9d.  The principal landowners are Miss Oldnell, John Berrington, Esq., and Francis Harries, Esq.  Coal is got here in considerable quantities.

Moothall, an ancient half timbered mansion the property of John Berrington, Esq., is still surrounded by a moat filled with water.  The interior of the house is of curious workmanship, and has some fine specimens of elaborate oak carving.  It is now occupied as a farm residence.  Woodhall was built in the year 1684, on the site of a more ancient structure; it is now occupied as a farm house.  Hinton is a small rural township one and a half mile north of Pontesbury, which contains 339a. 3r. 13p. of land.  In 1841 here were 12 houses and 59 persons.  The tithes are commuted for £80. 18s. 3d.  Sir Offley P. Wakeman, Bart., is the sole landowner.

Lea is a small township pleasantly situated on the turnpike road from Pontesbury to Shrewsbury, which comprehends the hamlets of Crosshouses and Shorthill.  In 1841 here were 27 houses and 132 inhabitants.  There are 481a. 3r. 21p. of land.  The tithes are commuted for £143. 6s. 3d., of which £33. 15s. 8d. is apportioned to the rector of the first portion of Pontesbury, and £109 10s. 7d. to the Rev. William Harrison, as impropriator.  The principal landowners are Sir Offley P. Wakeman, Bart., and William Henry Nicholls, Esq.  There are several collieries at Shorthill.  The National School, situated at Shorthill, was built in the year 1842.  It is supported by voluntary contributions and a small charge from each scholar.  About ninety scholars attend.

Longden is a chapelry and township six and a half miles S.W. by S. of Shrewsbury, which contains 1,604 acres of land, of which Sir Joseph Hawley, Bart., is the principal landowner.  John Walton, Esq., Rev. George Jewdwyne, Samuel Harris, Captain Parr, and Robert Hesketh, Esq., are also proprietors.  In 1841 there were 80 houses and 371 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £330. 19s. 2d., one half of which is apportioned to the rector of the second and the other half to the rector of the third portion of Pontesbury.  The Chapel is a small structure consisting of nave and chancel.  The living is a donative curacy in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. Edward Homfray, M.A.  The Independents have a chapel here built of brick.  The British School is held in the chapel.  About forty children attend.

Newnham is a small township six miles west of Shrewsbury, which with the hamlets of Polmer and Ford’s Heath contains 345a. 2r. 6p. of land.  In 1841 here was one house and nine inhabitants.  The rent charge is commuted for £79. 14s. 5d.  The principal landowners are W. H. Nicholls, Esq., Francis Harries, Esq., and the Rev. F. D. Dimmock.

Nox is a hamlet in Newnham township, situated five and a half miles west of Shrewsbury, which contains five houses and 22 inhabitants.  Mr. Richard Lloyd is the sole landowner in this hamlet.

Oakes is a township and scattered village three miles west of Pontesbury, which contains 630a. 2r. 25p. of land.  In 1841 here were nine houses and 42 inhabitants.  H. D. Warter, Esq., is lord of the manor and sole landowner.  The tithes are commuted for £110. 12s. 3d., and £97. 10s. are apportioned to the rector of the first portion, and £13. 2s. 3d. to the rector of the second portion.

Onslow is a small hamlet three and a half miles W.W. by N. of Shrewsbury, which contains 251a. 3r. 20p. of land.  In 1841 here were two houses and twelve persons.  The tithes are commuted for £54. 4s. 8d.  Colonel John Wingfield is lord of the manor and sole landowner.

Plealey is a pleasant rural township and village seven miles S.W. of Shrewsbury.  It contains 664a. 2r. 12p. of land.  This township had in 1841 43 houses and 212 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £134. 11s.  The principal landowners are Dr. Griffiths, Mr. Thomas Wilkinson, Joseph Phillips, Esq., Rev. Mr. Phillips, Mr. Richard France, and Mrs. Cross.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a neat chapel here.

Pontesford is a township seven miles south of Shrewsbury, containing 387a. 2r. 38p. of land, and at the census of 1841 had 67 houses and 283 inhabitants.  The tithe is commuted for £82. 12s. 2d.  There are coal, lime, and lead works in this township.  The Wesleyan Methodists have a small chapel here.

Sascott, a small township five miles west of Shrewsbury, containing 221a. 2r. 28p. of land, in 1841 had 24 persons and three houses.  The tithes are commuted for £52. 6s. 6d.  Francis Harris, Esq., is the sole landowner.

Sibberscott is a township five and a half miles S.W. of Shrewsbury, having 147a. 3r. 6p. of land, and in 1841 had one house and nine inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £34. 18s. 1d.  H. W. Meredith, Esq., is the sole landowner.

Post Office.—At Mr. Samuel Griffith’s.  Letters arrive at 6 A.M. and are despatched at 7 P.M.

PONTESBURY & PONTESFORD DIRECTORIES.

Bennett Isaac, inland revenue officer

Birkenshaw Mr.

Chapman Miss

Croft Mr. Richard, registrar

Deakin William, farrier

Drury Rev. Charles, M.A., The Rectory

Eddowes William, surgeon

Harrison Rev. Wm., M.A., The Rectory

Heighway Miss, gentlewmn., Upper House

Jones Frederick, Esq., Pontesford Hall

Jones John and Company, Pontesford Works

Jones Mrs. Sarah

Jones Rev. Thomas, Independent minister

Jones Robert Corbet, gentleman

Jones The Misses

Jones Wm., land surveyor

Nicholls Thomas, parish & vestry clerk

Philpot Charles, mine agent

Plimmer Mrs.

Preece Richard, engineer

Rogers Robert, agent, lead works

Rogers Thomas, schoolmr.

Vaughan Mr. John

Vaughan Rev. William, M.A., The Rectory

Ward and Co., Shorthill Colliery

Agents.

Jones William, (land)

Philpots Charles, (coal)

Rogers Robert, (lead)

Blacksmiths.

Elks William

Griffiths John

Boot and Shoemakers.

Breeze John

Hughes John

Bricklayer.

Barber John, and builder

Butchers.

Cross Forrester

Blackmore William

Broxton William

Coal Merchants.

Harries Francis

Jones Frederick

Snailbeach Co., Nagshead Colliery

Whitegrit Co., Shorthill Colliery

Cooper.

Griffiths Edward

Corn Millers.

Blakeway Richard and Wm.

Edwards Patience

Evans Thomas

Farmers.

Croft William, Pontesford

Inions Edward, Red House

Jones Frederick

Jones Henry, New House

Jones John and Company

Morris Edward, Nills

Morris Thomas, Woodhouse

Price Widow

Ward and Company

Wilde Samuel, White Hall

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Griffiths Samuel

Owens Owen & Son, drapers, outfitters, shoemakers, & leather cutters

Roderick John, and druggist

Innkeepers.

Breese Mary, vict., Red Lion

Croft Mary, vict., Seven Stars

Langford John, vict., Nag’s Head Inn

Beerhouses.

Evans Ann

France John

Tipton Edward

Wilde Samuel

Lead Merchants, Miners, and Smelters.

Snailbeach Company

White Gritmines Company

Shopkeepers.

Davies Mary

Jones Hugh

Shevlin John

Saddler.

Brazanor Samuel

Tailors.

Davies Richard

Littlehales Mr.

Powell William

Tomlins William

ARSCOTT DIRECTORY.

Bearcroft Rev. Thos., M.A.

Bridgeman John, farmer

Deakin Thomas, farmer

Nicholls Henry, butcher

ASTERLEY DIRECTORY.

Breese John, blacksmith

Chapman Richd., vict., Wind Mill

Everall Richard, farmer

Gardner Hry, Esq., The Hall

Gardner Messrs., coal masters and farmers

Jones Robert, beerhouse

Lewis William, shopkeeper and joiner

Marsh Henry, shopkeeper

Pritchard John, farmer

Tipton Jacob, mine agent

Wheelding John, wheelwrt.

BOYCOTT DIRECTORY.

Andrews Thomas, farmer

Jones Edward, farmer

CRUCKMEOLE DIRECTORY.

Cumpson Joseph, miller & farmer

Pugh William, farmer

Warter Henry Diggery, Esq., The Hall

Weaver William, farmer

Whittall Thomas, miller

Wilding James, farmer

CRUCKTON DIRECTORY.

Bates John, farmer

Crump Thos., vict., Hare and Hounds, maltster & farmer

Harries Fras., Esq., the Hall

Wilding Henry, Holly Bank

Shepherd Mr. Jph., the Lodge

EDGE DIRECTORY.

Jackson George, assistant overseer and collector

Pugh William, farmer

Thornes George, gentleman, The Grove

FARLEY DIRECTORY.

Briscoe John, farmer

Inions Thomas, farmer

HALSTON DIRECTORY.

Bennett Thos., underground bailiff

Blowet Benj., Shorthill farm

Glover Joseph, farm bailiff

Lee Mr. farmer

Ward & Company, farmers

HANWOOD LITTLE DIRECTORY.

Crapper and Proctor, coal-masters, Moathall colliery

Gibbs William, farmer

Passant Jas., Woodhall farm

Savage Thos., Moathall farm

HINTON DIRECTORY.

Everall John, farm bailiff to Sir O. P. Wakeman, Bart.

Parry John, Esq.

LEA DIRECTORY.

Baldwin John, farmer, Shorthill

Bowen John, farmer

Davies Richard, wheelwright

Diggery John, machine mkr.

Edwards John, machine mkr.

Hudson William, vict., the Cross, and farmer

Lashbrook Richard, National Schoolmaster

Rowland David, blacksmith

LONGDEN DIRECTORY.

Bowers William, parish clerk

Casewell Richard, beer retailer, Exford’s green

Crisp Alfred, school teacher

Davies Thos., beer retailer

Deakin Edward, farmer

George Samuel, joiner

Gittins Adams, blacksmith

Harris Mr. Samuel, farmer and maltster

Higley William, wheelwright and beer retailer

Homfray Rev. Edward, M.A.

Jewdwyne Rev. George

Jones Edward, saddler and harness maker

Jones Richard, vict., Tankerville Arms Inn, & farmer

Jones Richard, farmer

Jones William, farmer

Littlehales Rd., blacksmith

Matthews John, vict., Red Lion, the Wood

Morgan Thomas, Hall farm

Munslow Join, farmer, the Wood

Nicholls Henry, butcher

Preece Joseph, tailor

Richards Edward, bricklayer

Roberts William, cowleech

Sutton John Hart, surgeon

Thomas John, farmer

Thompson Wm., farm bailiff

Timmis Rd., grocer & draper

Tipton Wm., pump maker

Whittall Edward, beerseller

Woodcock Samuel, farmer

MALEHURST.

Issard Thomas, farmer

NEWNHAM AND POLMER DIRECTORY.

Niccolls Wm. Henry, Esq., Newnham house

Skyrinsher John Mytton, Polmer farm

NOX DIRECTORY.

Dillow William, blacksmith

Lloyd Richard, gentleman

Nicholls Thomas, farmer

Tomlins Thomas, wheelwright

OAKS DIRECTORY.

Howells Wm., gamekeeper

Lewis Jeremiah, farmer

Perks Thomas, farmer

Whitehurst Jn., the Hall Farm

Woodcock John, farmer

ONSLOW DIRECTORY.

Vaughan Richard, farmer

Wingfield Col. John, the Hall

PLEALEY DIRECTORY.

Bowers James, shoemaker

Bromley Edward, blacksmith

Bromley Richard, farmer

Cross Mrs., the Villa

France Richard, farmer

Hall Mary, farmer

Little Thomas, wheelwright

Peacock George, farmer

Phillips Joseph, farmer

Phillips Mrs., the Cottage

Phillips William, glazier

Wilkinson Thomas, farmer

SASCOTT DIRECTORY.

Evans Robert, farmer

Higginson Thomas, farmer

SIBBERSCOTT DIRECTORY.

France Richard, farmer

France Samuel, farmer

PRESTON MONTFORD, AND DINTHILL
is a township in the parish of St. Alkmund, returned in 1841 as containing 17 houses and 76 inhabitants.  Preston Montford is situated four miles N.W. from Shrewsbury, and consists of a few scattered houses leading to Montford Bridge.  Dinthill is completely severed from Montford, and lies about three and a half miles S.W. from Shrewsbury, near the Shrewsbury and Welshpool road.  It is considered as a distinct township by the parochial officers.  Mr. Thomas Hawkins, farmer, Dinthill Hall, is the only resident.  The chief inhabitants of Preston Montford are John Bowen, police officer; William Jones, farmer and vict., Swan; John Randles, blacksmith and machine maker; John Thomas, grocer and general dealer; George Whitehorn, vict., Nag’s Head; George Whitehorn, Jun., fish net and shoemaker; Miss Wingfield, The Cottage; Mrs. Wingfield, The Hall.

WESTBURY
is a parish and considerable village situated on the Shrewsbury and Montgomery turnpike road, nine miles S.W. by S. of the former place, and twelve miles N.E. of the latter.  It comprises the townships of Marsh district, Newton, Stretton, Vennington, Wallop, Westbury, Westley, Whitton, Wigmore, Winsley, and Yockleton, which have an area of 18,347 acres of land.  Rateable value, £10,810.  The woodlands are 197 acres, and roads 67½ acres.  Edward William Pembroke Smithe Owen, Esq., is lord of the manor and the principal landowner.  Colonel John Wingfield and John Michael Severne, Esq., are also considerable proprietors.  The rent charge is £1,459. 16s. 5d.  Population in 1801, 1,991; 1831, 2,228; and in 1841 there were 314 houses and 2,412 persons.  Westbury, anciently written Wesberie, was held in the reign of the Confessor by Ernui, and was free.  Roger, the son of Corbet, held of Earl Roger most of that tract of land lying in the hundred of Ford, with parts of Chirbury and Condover hundreds, which in the whole consisted of 39 manors or hamlets, and for his seat he built the Castle of Cause.  It is thought that Roger Corbet or his son espoused the cause of his patron, Robert de Belesme, against Henry the I., and upon incurring the king’s displeasure, forfeited his inheritance, which was given to Pain Fitz John.  In 2nd Henry III. the king commanded the Earl of Chester to restore to Thomas Corbet the Castle of Cause and all his lands.  In 30th Henry III. the said Thomas Corbet had a grant of free warren in Cause and two years after, the grant of a fair to be kept on the eve, the day, and the day after, the translation of Thomas the martyr.  The site of the castle is lofty and commanding; it stood on an isolated ridge, rising abruptly from a deep ravine on one side, and sloping towards a vast valley bounded by the Stiperstones on the other.  The castle is in a state of complete dilapidation.  There is a colliery in this township, and bricks and tiles are also made near the village.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, has a square tower, in which are five bells.  The interior is neatly pewed, and consists of nave, side aisles, and chancel.  There are many neat tablets in the church.  The living is a rectory divided into the two portions of Westbury in Dextra and Westbury in Sinistra.  The former portion is rated in the king’s book at £13. 9s. 4½d., now returned at £643, and the latter at £11. 12s. 8½d., is now returned at £556.

Charities.—John Topp, by deed, dated 1716, left a yearly rent charge of £30 issuing out of certain lands in Vennington, upon trust, to dispose of the same yearly in the education of poor children of the parish of Westbury, and in putting out such children apprentices.  Letitia Barnster, by indenture, dated 1726, left for the benefit of the poor of the parish a small parcel of land fourteen yards in length and six yards eight inches in breadth.  On this land a school was built in 1736, and a residence for the master has since been built upon land belonging to E. W. P. S. Owen, Esq.

On the tables of benefactions in the church are noticed charities left by twenty several donors for the benefit of the poor, amounting to the sum of £153. 13s. 4d.  This sum, with an additional £6. 6s. 8d., was expended in the year 1710 in the purchase of three parcels of land in the parish of Worthen, containing about 17 acres, the rent of which amounted to £43. 10s. per annum at the time the Charity Commissioners published their reports.  One-fourth of these rents are distributed in bread to the poor of the parish on Good Friday, and the residue given away on St. Thomas’s day in clothing, fuel, and money, as is most advisable.

Newton is a small township in Westbury parish, one and a half mile N.E. by E. of Westbury, containing twenty inhabitants.  Robert Corbet Jones, Esq., is the sole landowner.  Marsh is one and a half mile N.E. by N. of Westbury.  The principal landowners are Mr. William Howells, Mr. John Turner, and John Wood, Esq.  Stretton and the Heath is situated two miles N.E. of Westbury, and contains 290 inhabitants.  The landowners in this township are Mr. J. Cadwallader, Mr. S. Dovaston, Mr. R. James, Mr. William Millman, Mr. Timothy Oakley, Mr. Rd. Evans, Mr. Rd. Hughes, and Mr. R. H. Gwynn.  Vennington is a township 1½ miles S.W. by W. of Westbury, which contains 313 persons.  The Rev. Mr. Parr is the principal landowner.  Wallop is a small township containing 77 inhabitants, situated two miles west of Westbury.  John Michael Severne, Esq., is the sole landowner.  Westley, a township two and a half miles east of Westbury, contains 88 persons.  The principal landowners are Mr. R. Butler, Mr. E. Butler, Richard Gardner, Esq., Mr. John Gardner, Mr. John Smith, and Mr. Rogers.  Whitton has a population of 38 persons, and Mrs. Topp is the sole landowner.  Wigmore township lies two miles N.W. of Westbury, and contains 63 inhabitants.  The freeholders are Mr. Edward Davies, Mr. John Davies, Mr. John Dorricott, Mr. Richard Hillhouse, and Mr. Thomas Randles.  Winsley township is situated two miles from Westbury, and contains 15 inhabitants.  Mr. John Blakeway Tipton and Mr. John Phillips are the principal landowners.  Yockleton is a township containing 231 inhabitants, and situated two miles N.E. of Westbury.  The principal landowners are Colonel Wingfield and Thomas Nichols, Esq.

Post Office.—At Thomas Clark’s.  Letters arrive at 8 A.M. and are despatched at 6 P.M.

WESTBURY DIRECTORY.

Bebb Thos., farmer, Wigmore

Birch Benj., farmer, Forest of Hayes

Corfield Richard, farmer

Clarke Thos., farmer & vict., Red Lion Inn

Clemson Thomas, farmer, Perton Woods

Cureton Rev. William, M.A., Chaplain to the Queen

Darrell Geo., undergrd. agent

Davies Richard, blacksmith and parish clerk

Dickenson Joseph, Esq.

Evans John, farmer, Wigmore

Hanley Wm., pump-maker

Harrison William, farmer and beerhouse, The Wood

Hayman Elzbth., shoemaker

Hayman William, shoemaker

Inions John, frmr., The Hall

Jasper Jas., carrier to Shrewsbury

Jones Sarah, grocer & draper

Mason Richard, stone-mason

Meredith Mrs.

Owen Jeremh., frmr., Sightly

Parr Rev. Thos., The Rectory

Perry Joseph, farmer, Wigmore Hill

Phillips John, Esq., Winsley Hall

Preece John, farmer, Wigley

Pugh John, farmer, Cause Castle

Randalls Thomas, victualler, The Bear, Wigmore

Reese Edward, farmer

Reeves Rev. J. Somerville, M.A., curate

Roberts Jos., farmer, Marsh

Sambrook Chas., mine agent

Sambrook Mrs., The Cottage

Smith John, frmr., Radbrook

Smout Richard, shoemaker

Smout Thomas, linen weaver

Smout Thomas, butcher and farmer

Trantham Edward, tailor

Webster Thomas, shoemaker

Wood John, Esq., Marsh Hall

MARSH DIRECTORY.

Davies Edward, farmer

Davies John, farmer

Dolphin Edward, farmer and butcher

Dorricott John, farmer

Edwards Thomas, maltster

Hills Wm., farmer, Irongate

Howell William, blacksmith

Kempster Richard, farmer, Woolaston Little

Perry Thos., beerhouse and shopkeeper

Turner Jno., victualler, Half-way House

Turner John, jun., farmer

Wilde George, shopkeeper

Wilde Sml., farmer, Wattlesborough Heath

Wood John, farmer

NEWTON DIRECTORY.

Pitchard Thomas, farmer

Williams William, farmer

STONEY STRETTON DIRECTORY.

Brazenor Thomas, victualler, Elephant and Castle

Beddoe Robert, blacksmith

Cadwallader John, farmer, Heath

Cooper James, shoemaker

Griffiths Mrs., beerhouse and shopkeeper

Jones Elizabeth, shopkeeper

Morgan John, farmer

Nicholls Richard, glazier

Oakley Timothy, farmer

Padduck Robert, tailor

Parry John, farmer, Hinton

Pugh George, farmer

Richards Richard, shopkeepr

Tomkins Thomas, farrier

Tomlins Wm., wheelwright

VENNINGTON DIRECTORY.

Dorricott Richard, farmer

Evans William, blacksmith

Gittins Samuel, farmer

Habberley George, wheelwright

Hanley John, shopkeeper and carrier

Knight George, farmer

Maddocks John, farmer

Mason Thomas, corn miller, farmer, and beerhouse kpr.

WALLOP DIRECTORY.

Davies John, farmer

Gittins Samuel, blacksmith

Marsh Joseph, farmer, Napps

Morris Wm., farmer, Broomhill

Rydar Richard, farmer, Tilled House

Severne John Michael, Esq., The Hall

WESTLEY DIRECTORY.

Gardner John, farmer

Gardner Richard, coalmaster and farmer

WHITTON DIRECTORY.

Brayton Edward, farmer

Dickinson Joseph, farmer

Edwards Thos., frmr., Grange

Palmer Thomas, shoemaker

Parry Joseph, Field Farm

Topp Mrs., Whitton Court

Wilding Matthew, farmer and wheelwright

WINSLEY DIRECTORY.

Corfield William, farmer

Eddowes William, farmer, The Lakes

Morris David, farmer, Forest of Hayes

Nevett William, farmer, The Hem

Parry William, farmer, The Hurst

YOCKLETON DIRECTORY.

Beddoe Edward, shoemaker

Bland Joseph, blacksmith

Bromley Thomas, farmer, Lynches

Bromley William, butcher

Bromley William, farmer

Broughall Richard, farmer

Broughall Richd., grocer, &c.

Gittins George, butcher

Gittins Richard, farmer

Meredith John, Bank Farm

Nichols Thomas, Esq., The Hall

Tudor Mrs., The Villa

SHELTON AND OXON,
a small township and pleasant village, with some neat villa residences, two miles west from Shrewsbury, partly in St. Chad, and partly in the parish of St. Julian, at the census of 1841 had twenty-three houses and 100 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Robert Burton, Esq.; Edward Morris, Esq.; and Sir Richard Jenkins.  At this place stands the celebrated Shelton Oak, famed from the tradition that Owen Glendower, in 1403, ascended its branches to ascertain the event of the battle of Shrewsbury.  The interior is hollow, and capable of holding a dozen persons.  This venerable monarch of the forest, although much decayed, and many of the branches broken off, yet shows vigorous signs of life.  The girth, five feet from the ground, is 34 feet 4 inches; and at the base, 44 feet 3 inches.

Directory.  Those with * affixed are at Bicton Heath.  Miss Ann Burton; * Samuel Cookson, shoemaker; * Stephen Davies, blacksmith and shopkeeper; William Davies, farmer; * George Evans, vict., The Grapes; Edward Evans, pig dealer; William Evans, cow keeper; * Mr. Joseph Lakelin; * Joseph Lloyd, shopkeeper; * Thomas Mansell, tailor; James Martin, butcher, Little Oxon; * Magdalene Morgan, beerhouse; John Morris, Esq., Oxon; Thomas Norton, Esq., solicitor; * John Roberts, joiner and wheelwright; * John Rowlands and Sons, iron and brass founders, engineers, millwrights, and agricultural implement makers; * Mr. William Smith, Zion Villa; * Mrs. Mary Urwick; Francis Walford, Esq.; * John Williams, shoemaker.

THE HUNDRED OF CHIRBURY
is bounded on the north by the hundred of Ford, on the south and west by Montgomeryshire, and on the east by the hundred of Ford and Purslow.  It is divided into the upper and lower divisions; the former containing 1,783 inhabitants, and the latter 2,956, at the census of 1841.  The upper division contains the parish of Chirbury, and part of Church Stoke; and the lower division the parishes of Shelve, Worthen, and part of Hyssington.

CHIRBURY
is an extensive parish and considerable village in the upper division of the hundred of Chirbury, comprising the several townships of Chirbury, Dudston, Hockleton, Marrington, Marton, Middleton, Priestweston, Rorrington, Stockton, Tunberth, Walcot, Wilmington, Winsbury, and Wotherton, which together embrace an area of 11,041a. 1r. 27p. of land.  Gross estimated rental, £12,648. 15s. 5d.  Rateable value, £11,442. 12s. 6d.  Population in 1801, 1,391; 1831, 1,576; 1841, 1,593; 1851, 1,533; at the latter period there were 303 houses.  The most considerable landowners are the Earl of Powis; Sir Offley Pembury Wakeman, Bart; George Pritchard, Esq.; Rev. R. H. M. Price; Edward Humphries, Esq.; William Rubbathan, Esq.; and John Davies, Esq.  The former owns the whole township of Chirbury, which contains 1,125a. 1r. 16p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,606. 10s.  At the census of 1841 there were 56 houses and 278 inhabitants.  The village of Chirbury is pleasantly situated in a fertile valley on the confines of Montgomeryshire, eighteen miles and a half south-west from Shrewsbury, and two miles and a half east from Montgomery.  Petty Sessions are held here the first Wednesday in each month.  The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in agricultural pursuits.  Some few, however, are employed in the lead mines and stone quarries in the immediate vicinity.  The village is watered by the Camlad stream, which is noted for the excellency of its trout.  It is presumed that the place was at one time of more consequence than it is at present, as it gives name to the hundred in which it is situated, and had a castle, erected in the tenth century by Ethelfleda, Queen of the Mercians, with a view to repel the incursions of the Welsh.  It is said to have been a strong and stately structure, but no vestiges of it now remain.  Chirbury is celebrated as having given the title of Baron to Edward, Lord Herbert.  He was made Knight of the Bath at the coronation of James I., and subsequently appointed ambassador to Louis XIII., King of France, to mediate for the Protestants.  On his return he was made Lord Herbert, of Castle Island, in Ireland, where he had a large estate.  He greatly assisted his majesty in council and arms, and on that account was created a baron of England by the title of Baron Herbert, of Chirbury.  He was author of several publications, among which is a life of Henry VIII.  Chirbury Priory was of the order of St. Bennett, and founded in the time of King John.  In the 9th of Edward I. the prior and convent removed to Snede, the place of their first institution and abode; for Chirbury it seems was represented as a situation not so convenient for celebrating divine mysteries: the religious were to continue the same good offices to the parishioners, and the right of burials and christenings was reserved to the church at Chirbury.  This monastery had a grant of the tithes of Montgomery Wood, and of the mill there.  At a subsequent period the chapel of Hyssington was given to the prior of Chirbury.  On the dissolution of religious houses, King Henry VIII. granted the house, and lands on which it stood, to Edward Hopton and his heirs forever.  In the 13th of Elizabeth, the rectory and parsonage of Chirbury, belonging to the late priory, was given to augment the income of the grammar school of Shrewsbury, where it remains at present.

The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, consists of nave, chancel and side aisles, and was formerly a portion of the conventual church of Chirbury priory.  It is a commodious structure, having on each side of the nave six pointed arches rising from circular pillars.  There is a fine tower at the west end, surmounted by an open-worked battlement, and eight pinnacles.  It contains six musical bells, set up in 1808, and partly re-cast from the fine deep-toned priory bell which was formerly used for ringing the curfew.  The living is a vicarage, rated in the king’s book at £9. 6s. 8d., now returned at £180.; in the patronage of the corporation of Shrewsbury: incumbent, Rev. James Wilding, M.A.  The tithes have been commuted, and £1000 apportioned to the Free School of Shrewsbury.

Charities.—The Free School was founded and endowed by the Rev. Edward Lewis in 1765.  The trust property consists of a farm at Hem, in the county of Montgomery, comprising 38 acres of land, and producing a yearly rental of £65.  A farm at Meadow Town, in the parish of Worthen, consisting of 41a. 3r. 23p., with suitable premises, let for £35 a year.  The school premises consist of a school and residence for the teacher, with a small garden attached, and the master has a salary of £20 per annum.  After paying for repairs and other contingencies, the residue of the rent is distributed among ten poor widows, as directed by the donor.

Thomas Edwards, of Rorrington, gave by will 20s. yearly, to be given in bread on St. Thomas’s-day.  There are two other bequests recorded on the table of benefactions, one a sum of £10, and the other a rent charge of 20s. per annum, which have long been lost to the poor.

Dudston, a township and small village, is situated about a mile and a half west from Chirbury, and at the census of 1851 had twelve houses and 96 inhabitants.  There are 679a. 3r. 12p. of land, the rateable value of which is £786.  The Earl of Powis is owner of the land in this township.  Rent charge, £93. 11s. 2d.

Hockleton township comprises 487a. 2r. 9p. of land, and is situated about a mile N.E. of Chirbury.  The rateable value is £422. 15s.  At the last census there were seven houses and a population of 38 souls.  The Earl of Powis is owner of the land.  The small stream of the Camlad intersects the township.  The tithes have been commuted for £49. 10s. 8d.

Marrington, a small rural village a mile and a half south from Chirbury, is situated in a picturesque glen, watered by a small stream.  The hills on each side rise to a considerable altitude, and being richly covered with foliage, it forms one of the most romantic dingles in the county of Shropshire, and is the admiration of every visitor.  The township contains 1,002a. 3r. 37p. of land, and at the census of 1851 had 15 houses and 77 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £801.  The Earl of Powis and John Davies, Esq., are the landowners.  Rent charge, £65. 14s. 11d.  Merrington Hall is an antique structure composed of timber, the property of John Davies, Esq., and residence of Mrs. Helena Forbes.

Marton is a township and pleasant village situate on the Shrewsbury and Montgomery turnpike road, three miles N.E. from Chirbury.  The township contains 1,318a. 2r. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,419.  The village contains several good residences, and at the census of 1841 there were 64 houses and 273 inhabitants.  Rent charge, £133. 11s. 7d.  Marton Pool covers 40a. 2r. 37p., of which 27a. 2r. 35p. are in this township, and the rest in that of Wilmington.  It is well stocked with various kinds of fish, and is the frequent resort of wild fowl.  John Hamer, Esq., is the principal landowner in this township.  A neat Independent Chapel was built some years ago by William Nevitt, Esq., of Marton Villa.

Middleton is a village, township, and chapelry, three miles S.E. from Chirbury, comprising 1,247a. 3r. 33p. of land, and at the last census had 31 houses and 156 inhabitants.  Rent charge, £55. 14s. 7d.  The Church is a neat structure, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, consisting of nave, chancel, and transepts, and has 280 sittings, of which 262 are free and unappropriated.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of the vicar of Chirbury; incumbent, Rev. Robert Edward Warren, M.A.  On Middleton hill are some druidical remains, which no doubt originally consisted of twelve upright stones; vestiges of eleven are still to be seen, in an upright position, and about six feet above the surface of the ground.  The diameter of the circle is about ninety feet.  The National School was built in 1843, and enlarged in 1848.  The average attendance of children is about fifty.  The principal landowners in Middleton are George Pritchard, Esq., and Mrs. Stokes.

Priestweston is a township in the parish of Chirbury, comprising 1,107a. 2r. 26p. of land, the rateable value of which is £847. 12s. 1d.  The village of Priestweston, pleasantly situated three miles S.E. from Chirbury, contains fifty houses and a population of 222 souls.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Powis, Sir Offley P. Wakeman, Bart., George Pritchard, Esq., David Lloyd, Esq., John Beeman, Esq., and Edward Smith, Esq.  Rent charge, £82. 17s. 2d.  The Calvinistic Methodists have a small chapel, built in the year 1845.

Rorrington, a small village and township in the parish of Chirbury, four and a half miles east from the church, contains 969a. 0r. 9p. of land, and at the census of 1851 had 23 houses and 111 persons.  Rateable value, £532. 12s. 6d.  Sir Offley P. Wakeman, Bart., is the sole landowner in this township.

Stockton township is situated two and a half miles N.E. from Chirbury, and has 404a. 3r. 14p. of land, the rateable value of which is £547. 15s.  It contains eleven houses and 53 inhabitants.  Rent charge, £35. 2s. 9d.  The Rev. H. Mostyn Pryse and Edward Humphries, Esq., are the landowners.

Timberth township has 257a. 1r. 27p. of land, seven houses and 31 inhabitants, and lies about a mile and a half S.W. from Chirbury.  Rateable value, £258. 5s. 6d.  Rent charge, £24. 11s. 8d.  The land is the property of Earl Powis.

Wilmington is a township with a few scattered houses, pleasantly situated four miles N.E. from Chirbury, and has 693a. 1r. 16p. of land, the rateable value of which is £777. 10s.  At the census of 1851 there were nine houses and 37 inhabitants.  Rent charge, £85. 13s. 10d.  A fine sheet of water called Marton Pool covers upwards of forty acres, of which 13a. 0r. 2p. are in this township.  The landowners are J. Medlicott, Esq., and Mr. William Rubbathan.

Walcot, a township situated on the Shrewsbury and Montgomery turnpike road, and about half a mile N.E. from Chirbury, contains 345a. 2r. 1p. of land, and has three houses and a population of 18 souls.  Rateable value, £459.  Rent charge, £56. 7s. 1d.  Edward Humphries, Esq., is the landowner.

Winsbury, a small township a mile and a quarter west from Chirbury, intersected by the Shrewsbury and Montgomery turnpike road, contains 658a. 1r. 4p. of land, and at the census of 1851 had six houses and 41 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £850.  Rent charge, £96. 7s. 1d.  The land in this township is the property of the Earl of Powis

Wotherton, a small village and township, at the census of 1841 had 18 houses and 95 inhabitants.  Rateable value, £756. 13s. 4d.

Post Office.—At Mr. William Gough’s.  Letters arrive at 9 A.M. and are despatched at 4 30 P.M.

CHIRBURY DIRECTORY.

Bower Edward, blacksmith

Bridgewaters Benjamin, registrar of births, deaths, and marriages

Bridgewaters Saml., blacksmith

Cotterell Richard, shoemakr

Davies Thomas, shoemaker

Evans Samuel, tailor

Fletcher Mr. Geo., assistant overseer

Gough William, shopkeeper and postmaster

Groves Samuel, farmer

Harris Ann, schoolmistress

Langford Jane, farmer, The Hall

Price John, farmer

Pugh Jno. Frederick, schoolmaster (endowed)

Sneade Mrs. Margaret, vict., The Cross

Watts Thomas, farmer

Whittingham Wm., shoemkr

Wilding Rev. James, M.A., vicar, The Vicarage

Williams Henry, shopkeeper, auctioneer, and butcher

Wood Edward, wheelwright

DUDSTON DIRECTORY.

Gardner Humphrey, farmer, Little Moat

Groves Robert, farmer

Harris John, farmer, Great Moat

Jones Matthew Edwd., farmr

Powell Jeremiah, farmer

Smith Philip, farmer

HOCKLETON DIRECTORY.

Hughes Richard, maltster and farmer

Robinson Joseph, farmer

MARRINGTON DIRECTORY.

Bemand John, farmer

Benson Thomas, shoemaker

Farmer Thomas, farmer

Forbes Mrs. Helena, the Hall

Gittins Thomas, miller

Hurdley Francis, farmer

Makelin William, farmer

Pearce John, farmer, Kingswood

Reynolds William, farmer

Thomas John, farmer, The Bank

MARTON DIRECTORY.

Bemand Richard, farmer

Edwards Matthew, wheelwrt.

Gardner John, blacksmith

Gough Joseph, shopkeeper

Griffiths John, maltster and beerhouse keeper

Griffiths John, farmer

James William, beerhouse and shopkeeper

Jones Rev. John Peter (Independent)

Lewis Richard, farmer

Meddings John, farmer

Morgan Richard, victualler, The Sun Inn

Oliver John, cooper, shopkeeper, and carrier

Phillips Richard, farmer

Preece Mary, farmer

Roberts Samuel, blacksmith

Wilcox Richard and Evan, shoemakers & shopkeepers

MIDDLETON DIRECTORY.

Bromley William, farmer

Gittins John, farmer, Kinton

Mellings Jane & Sons, frmrs.

Preece Vincent, farmer

Price Charles, schoolmaster (national)

Rogers Richard, blacksmith

Warren Rev. Robert Edwd., M.A., incumbent

PRIESTWESTON DIRECTORY.

Davies Wm., farmer, Little Weston

Francis John, farmer, Rudge

Gough Thomas, blacksmith

Holloway John, victualler, Red Lion

Mountford John, farmer, Stapeley

Pearce Saml., farmer, Rudge

Poulton Thos., farmer, Over House

Powell Mary, farmer, Lower Aldrees

Prince Thos., farmer, Brook House

Richards Samuel, shopkpr.

Rolands John, farmer

Taylor George T. R., surgeon

Thomas John, farmer, Upper Aldrees

Thomas William, tailor

Ward John, farmer, Little Weston

Ward Thomas, farmer, New House

Williams Thomas, farmer, Hagley

RORRINGTON DIRECTORY.

Bowen William, shoemaker

Corfield John, miller

Gittins Edward, farmer

Parry William, farmer, Rorrington Hall

Powell John, farmer

Roberts Mary Ann, farmer

Stokes John, shoemaker

Whettall John, blacksmith

Whettall Martha, farmer

STOCKTON DIRECTORY.

Croft Richard, blacksmith

Jones William, farmer

M’Cape Rev. Alex., curate of Chirbury

Morris John, miller

Williams Thomas, farmer

TIMBERTH DIRECTORY.

Davis Edward, farmer

WALCOT DIRECTORY.

Humphries Edward, Esq.

WILMINGTON DIRECTORY.

Miller Samuel, farmer

Rubbathan William, farmer

Whettall Thomas, farmer

WINSBURY DIRECTORY.

Farmer Thomas, farmer

WOTHERTON DIRECTORY.

Blockley Edwd., stone mason and quarry master

Chelmick Edward, farmer

Evans David, farmer

Titley William, farmer and gamekeeper

Whettall John, farmer

BROMPTON-WITH-RISTON, OR RHISTON,
is a township in the parish of Church Stoke, six miles north-west by west of Bishop’s Castle, containing 1,560 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,168. 18s. 4d.  At the census of 1841 there were 22 houses and 119 persons returned as in Brompton, and 10 houses and 71 persons in Riston.  Church Stoke parish is situated in the hundred of Cawrse, in Montgomeryshire, excepting the above township.  There is a good Inn in the village, called the Blue Bell, situated on Offa’s Dyke, at the junction of the Montgomery, Newtown, Bishop’s Castle and Shrewsbury turnpike roads.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Powis; Rev. Richard John Davies, M.A.; Sir Offley P. Wakeman, Bart.; Mr. George Montford: Mr. Lloyd; and Thomas Brown, Esq.

Brompton Directory.—Thomas Barrs, farmer; Samuel Beamond, wheelwright; Richard Blaney, farmer, The Ditches; Edward Davies, farmer, Penyllan; William Davies, farmer and vict., Blue Bell; William Ellis, farmer; Edward Evans, blacksmith; William Lockley, mason; George Montford, farmer, Pentra-heylin; William Pugh, farmer, Wellingwern farm; Evan Watkin, miller and farmer; Stephen Williams, farmer, Lock.  Riston Directory.—David Blaney, farmer, Gwarthlow; Richard Griffiths, wheelwright; Samuel Groves, farmer, Rockley; Richard Lewis, farmer, Gwarthlow; Edward Price, farmer, Cœprion Farm.

Mucklewick is a township in the parish of Hyssington, in the Chirbury hundred, the rest of the parish being comprised within the bounds of the county of Montgomery.  The village of Mucklewick lies in a valley five miles north of Bishop’s Castle, and at the census of 1851 had 13 houses and 64 inhabitants.  The township contains 296 acres of land, exclusive of common lands, the rateable value of which is £292. 18s. 6d.  The principal landowners are Richard Tibby, Esq.; R. B. More, Esq.; and Mr. William Llewellyn; besides whom there are several other smaller proprietors.  An act of parliament has recently been obtained for the enclosure of the common lands in this township.

The principal residents are Thomas Evevall, farmer; William Llewellyn, farmer; William Mellings, farmer; John Preece, farmer; and Robert Preece, farmer.

SHELVE
is a sequestered parish, situated in the lower division of the hundred of Chirbury, six miles north of Bishop’s Castle, containing about 587 acres of enclosed land, 200 acres of common, and 18¾ acres of glebe; the rateable value of which is £456. 6s. 10d., and gross estimated rental, £507. 4s.  Robt. Bernard More, Esq. is lord of the manor and sole landowner.  At the census of 1841 there were 14 houses and 69 persons; population in 1801, 71; and in 1831, 71.  This manor formerly belonged to the Corbets of Caux Castle, though it is not mentioned in Doomsday book.  In the 45th Henry III., Thomas Corbet had the grant of a market here on a Friday, and a fair on the vigil, the day, and the day after the Invention of the Cross.  On the Lords Corbet of Caux dying without male issue, in the 24th Edward III., Robert de Harley paid twenty-five marks relief to the king for the fourth part of the barony of Caux, of which Shelve was a parcel.  The White Grit and the Bog lead mines are near this township.  It is supposed that these mines were worked by the Romans in the time of Adrian; a pig of lead having been found, on which was a Roman inscription.  Messrs. Edward Lloyd, Ward, and Company are the proprietors, and Mr. Edward Dickin, manager.  The Church, dedicated to All Saints, is a stone edifice, with square tower, in which is one bell.  It was built in the year 1839 by Robert Bernard More, Esq.  The Rev. Thomas Frederick More, M.A., is the incumbent.  A National School was built in the same year by the same benevolent individual, by whom it is also munificently supported.

Directory.—John Beamond, farmer, Benree; William Bennett, underground steward; Edward Dickin, manager, The Lead Works; John Higgins, schoolmaster; Jeremiah Powell, farmer; Thomas Powell, farmer; Thomas Price, farmer, Squilva Farm; William Rawson, farmer; Messrs. Ward and Co., White Grit Lead Mine proprietors and smelters.

WORTHEN
is an extensive parish twelve miles S.W. of Shrewsbury, which contains the townships of Aston Pigott, Aston Rogers, Beachfield, Brockton, Bromlow, Bynweston, Grimmer, Habberley Office, Hayes, Heath (Upper and Nether), Hope, Leigh, Meadow Town, Walton, Worthen, Leighton, Rhos Goch, and Trelystan,—the last three townships are partly in Montgomeryshire.  The townships of Grimmer, Habberley Office, Hayes, Upper and Nether Heath, and part of Hope, are in the Ford hundred.  The entire parish comprehends an area of 14,798a. 3r. 31p. of land, the rateable value of which is £11,520.  Population in 1801, 1,602; in 1831, 2,290; in 1841, 3,195; and in 1851 here were 701 houses and 3,227 inhabitants.  The parish is divided into five parts or districts, namely—Bynweston district, which comprehends the townships of Bynweston, Walton, and Beachfield; Worthen, comprehending the townships of Worthen, Brockton, Aston Rogers, and Aston Pigott; Bromlow district, containing Bromlow, Meadow Town, Leigh, Grimmer, and Hope; the Heath division comprehends Upper and Lower Heath and Habberley Office; and Trelystan district, Trelystan, Rhos Goch, and Leighton.  The township of Worthen is situated nine miles N.E. of Montgomery, and contains 707a. 1r. 39p. of land, the rateable value of which is £755. 16s. 6d.  In 1841 there were 223 inhabitants, and in 1851 had 48 houses and 240 persons.  This division of the parish contains the townships of Worthen, Aston Rogers, Aston Pigott, and Brockton, which together have an area of 3,300 acres of land.  The rent charge apportioned to the rector is £461. 2s. 10d.  The principal landowner in the township is Sir John Roger Kynaston, Bart., who is also lord of the manor; the Rev. Charles Awdry, Mr. Joseph Bunts, the Venerable Archdeacon Clive, Mr. Thomas Hughes, Mr. John Inions, Baldwin Francis Leighton, Esq., John Arthur Lloyd, Esq., Mr. Thomas Morris, Mr. Thomas Vaughan, and Mr. Robert Woodward, are also proprietors.  The name of Worthen is derived from Worth, an old Saxon word, signifying an habitation.  This manor was part of the portion that fell to Roger Corbet at the conquest.  In 30th Henry III. Thomas Corbet had a grant of free warren here, and in the 54th year of the same reign he had a market on Wednesday, and a grant of two fairs, one on the eve, day, and day after the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the other on the eve, day, and day after the exaltation of the Holy Cross.  Fairs are now held on April 7th, July 7th, and October 6th, for the sale of cattle and merchandise, and on the 2nd of May for the hiring of servants.  The fairs are well attended with all kinds of stock.

The Church is an ancient stone edifice, dedicated to All Saints, having a square tower in which is a clock and a peal of six bells.  The interior consists of nave, side aisles, and chancel, the various compartments are neatly pewed with oak.  The chancel was rebuilt in the year 1761, at the expense of the then rector, and the arch which separates it from the body of the church by the parish.  The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £28. 14s. 7d., now returned at £1,495 in the patronage of the New College, Oxford, and incumbency of the Rev. Charles Awdry, B.C.L.  The tithes of the whole parish amount to £1,194. 14s. 4d., and there are 160 acres of glebe land.  There is a free school now building, chiefly at the expense of the rector.

Charities.—Martha Scarlett, by will, dated 1725, bequeathed £100, the interest thereof to be paid annually to six poor widows.  Besides the above there are nine other pecuniary gifts recorded on the benefaction table, amounting to £160, making in the whole £260.  There are no deeds or documents relative to these bequests in the parish, but it is understood that about £160 was laid out many years ago in the purchase of a farm in Chirbury, which was sold in 1793 for £375, which, with £100 then on private security, was soon after placed out on the Pool and Montgomery House of Industry.  The interest of this sum is distributed among the poor at St. Thomas’s-day.

Robert Nicholson left a house and yard in Aston for the benefit of the poor of Worthen parish for ever.  In the year 1793 they were sold for £211. 2s., which, after paying the solicitor’s bill, left £204. 11s. clear.  This sum was taken by the overseers of the parish (to defray an expense incurred by a new survey and valuation), who pay an annual sum of £10 as interest, which is distributed to the poor on St. Thomas’s-day.

Peter Scarlett also left a rent charge of £3 per annum for the benefit of the poor of the parish of Worthen.  John Powell, by will, in 1774, bequeathed to the minister and churchwardens £150, in trust, to distribute the interest amongst the poor of the parish.

Aston Pigott is a small township and pleasant village eleven miles S.W. by W. of Shrewsbury, containing 541a. 0r. 16p. of land, the rateable value of which is £495.  At the census of 1841 here were 14 houses and 82 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Mr. John Leech Rowlands, Mr. Kennedy Smith, Mr. George Griffiths, and Mr. John Inions.  The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel here.

Aston Rogers is a small rural township and village ten and a half miles S.W. by S. of Shrewsbury, which had at the census of 1851 35 houses and 140 persons.  It contains 807a. 1r. 31p. of land, the rateable value of which is £747. 15s.  The principal landowners are Captain Clutton, Mrs. Platt, Mr. Kennedy Smith, and Mr. Phillips.

Beachfield is a small township two and a half miles west of Worthen, which contains 597a. 2r. 4p. of land, the rateable value of which is £604. 13s. 9d.  At the census of 1851 here were five houses and 23 inhabitants.  The principal freeholder is Thos. Nicholls, Esq.

Brockton is a township and well built village thirteen miles S.W. of Shrewsbury, containing 1,114a. 1r. 21p. of land, the rateable value of which is £914. 3s. 6d.  Sir John R. Kynaston, Bart., is the principal landowner; Baldwin Francis Leighton, Esq., Mr. Benjamin Broston, Mr. Aaron Davies, Mr. John Evans, Mr. Alexander Hughes, Mr. Joseph Hickman, Mr. Evan Stephen, and several others are also proprietors.  In 1851 here were 72 houses and 295 persons.

Bromlow is a scattered township two miles S.W. of Worthen, situated in a bold undulating district, containing at the census of 1851 96 houses and 406 residents.  The township contains 864a. 3r. 6p. of land, the rateable value of which is £557. 0s. 6d.  The principal freeholders are Mr. B. Betton, Mr. Bryan, Mr. Richard Betton, Mr. John Blakemore, Mr. Thomas Blakemore, Mr. Thomas Bromley, Mr. Job Davies, and John Eddowes, Esq.  Bromlow district comprehends the townships of Bromlow, Grimmer, Hope, Leigh, and Meadow Town, and contains 3,406a. 2r. 19p. of land, the rent charge on which is £282. 2s.

Bynweston is a township and small well built village fourteen and a half miles S.W. by W. of Shrewsbury.  It contains 998a. 0r. 28p. of land, the rateable value of which is £835. 11s. 6d.  At the census of 1851 here were eleven houses and eighty persons.  John Arthur Lloyd, Esq., is lord of the manor and sole proprietor.  Bynweston district comprises the townships of Bynweston, Walton, Beachfield, and the Forest of Hayes, and contains 2,112 acres of land, the rent charge on which is paid to the rector of Worthen, and amount to £229. 7s. 3d. annually.

Grimmer is a small township one and a half mile south of Worthen, which in 1851 had eight houses and 39 persons.  It contains 382a. 2r. 31p. of land, the landowners of which are the Venerable Archdeacon Clive, M.A., and the Marquis of Bath.

Habberley Office is a scattered township three miles S.E. by S. of Worthen, containing 61 houses and 313 inhabitants in 1841, and 58 houses and 302 persons in 1851.  The township contains 1,779a. 2r. 1p. of land, the rateable value of which is £895. 17s. 3d.  The Marquis of Bath is the principal landowner.  The Earl of Tankerville and the Venerable Archdeacon Clive, M.A., are also proprietors.  There are lead mines in this township worked by a company of shareholders.

Hayes, a small township two and a half miles S.W. of Worthen, contains two houses and 13 residents at the census of 1851.  The landowners in this township are Sir John R. Kynaston, Bart., and the trustees of the late John Edwards, Esq.

Heath Upper and Nether are townships situated about three miles S.E. of Worthen, containing 1,679a. 0r. 32p. of land, a great portion of which is heath and moor land.  At the census of 1851 here were 142 houses and 719 persons.  The principal landowners are the Marquis of Bath, Earl Tankerville, and Mr. John Rogers.  The Batholes and Stiperstone lead mines are in this district.  The lead ore obtained at these mines is of a superior quality, and got in large quantities.  The works are carried on by Messrs. Jones and Company, who are erecting new offices and powerful engines for the purpose of extending their mining operations.  Mr. William Baratt is the resident manager.  The Heath division of the parish comprises the townships of Upper and Nether Heath, and Habberley Office, which together contain 4472a. 2r. of land, the tithes of which are commuted for £158. 19s. 6d.

Hope is a chapelry and township in Worthen parish, eight miles and a half N.E. by N. of Bishop’s Castle, which contains 664a. 3r. 30p. of land, the rateable value of which is £425. 12s.  At the census of 1851 here were 78 houses and 355 inhabitants.  The Chapel is a small structure, erected in 1843, and consists of nave and chancel, having a small turret.  It is neatly pewed with open benches, and will accommodate 280 persons.  In consequence of a grant from the Incorporated Society, 230 sittings are free and unappropriated.  The Hope school was built in 1844, by means of a government grant and private subscription.  The average attendance of scholars is 80.  The principal freeholders are Mr. James Davies, Mr. William Eddowes, and John Arthur Lloyd, Esq.

Leigh is a small township, one mile from Worthen, which contains 868a. 3r. 6p. of land, the rateable value of which is £559. 9s.  In 1851 there were seven houses and 29 persons.  The Venerable Archdeacon Clive is sole proprietor of the township.

Leighton is a township and well built village, one mile and a half S.E. by S. of Welshpool, containing 1,568 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,792. 8s. 4d.  John Naylor, Esq., is the sole proprietor of this township.  In 1841 here were 44 houses and 220 persons.  The village is situated on the eastern bank of the river Severn, which is crossed by a stone bridge.  This estate was purchased a few years ago by its present owner, who has at a great expense drained the land, and erected new homesteads and farm buildings, and is now engaged in building a magnificent mansion.  In July, 1851, the worthy proprietor commenced building a new district church, and a parsonage house for the minister.  The tithes of this township are commuted for £172, of which sum £100 is given to the incumbent of Leighton.  This township is in the county of Montgomery.

Meadowtown is a scattered township, situated between the Hope and Shelve hills, having a population of 131 persons at the census of 1851 and 27 houses.  It contains 264a. 2r. 26p. of land, the rateable value of which is £151. 13s. 6d.  Mr. J. M. Edwards, Mrs. Wildblood, Mr. Morris, the Trustees of Chirbury School, and Mr. Edward Parry are the principal landowners in this township.

Rhos Goch is a small township, in the parish of Worthen and the county of Montgomeryshire, eight miles and a half north-east of Montgomery.  At the census of 1841 here were six houses and 38 inhabitants.  It contains 851 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,060.  The tithes are commuted for £57. 15s., and apportioned to the Rector of Worthen.  John Naylor, Esq., is the principal landowner.  Rhos Goch is celebrated for its mineral springs, which are efficacious in the cure of scorbutic complaints.  The Beacon Ring, or mountain, is in this township, on the summit of which are the remains of a Roman encampment.

Trelystan is a chapelry and district in Worthen, comprising the townships of Rhos Goch, Trelystan, and Leighton, which comprehend an area of 3,528 acres of land, the rent charge of which is £292. 10s.  The township contains 21 houses and 113 inhabitants, and has an area of 1,109 acres of land.  Trelystan is situated in the county of Montgomery.

Walton is a small township, two miles and a half west of Worthen, which had at the census of 1851 three houses and twenty three persons.  The principal freeholders of this township are Mr. Wm. Thomas, Miss M. Shuker, Sir J. R. Kynaston, Bart., Thos. Howell, Esq., and Mr. Edward Menlove.  The township contains 953a. 0r. 3p. of land, the rateable value of which is £601.

Post Office at Miss Woodward’s.  Letters arrive at 9 A.M., and are despatched at 5 P.M.

WORTHEN.

Awdry Rev. Chs., The Rectory

Bennett Jsh., farmer, Scantley

Bryan Edw., farmer, Leighton

Bunce William, shoemaker

Butler Jno., farmer, The Hall

Downes Arthur, saddler and harness maker

Downes Mr. William

Downes Rd., grocer & draper

Downes Rchd., jun., relieving officer & carrier to Shrewsbury, Wednsy. & Saturday

Gough Geo., c. police const.

Gorner Rbt. plumber & glazier

Green Rev. Mr., B.A., P. C. Trelystan

Howells Thomas, shoemaker

Hughes Alx. farmer, Leighton

Hughes Susannah, farmer, Trelystan

Jacks Job, farmer, Rhos Goch

James David, farmer, Red House, Trelystan

Jones Jno. contractr. & buildr.

Jones Thos. farmer, Trelystan

Maddox Thomas, carpenter

Menlove John, Bank Farm

Morris Mr. Thomas

Naylor John, Esq., Leighton Hall

Passant Wm., Rowens Farm

Poston Rbt. farmer, Shelfield

Preece Philip, farmer, Capsill

Speake William, farmer, Minsterley Bank

Thomas William, joiner

Tomlins Edwd. farmer, Rhos Goch

Tomlinson Rev. Edward, B.A., curate

Trantem Edward, tailor

Vaughan Evan, farmer, Grove Trelystan

Weaver Mr. John

Weaver Wm., farmer & vict., Kynaston’s Arms

Williams Wm., shoemaker

Woodhouse Edward, farmer, Hogstow

Woodward Robt., grocer, draper, maltster, porter agent, and vict., White Horse

Young Alexander, vict. and maltster, Plough, Little Worthen

ASTON PIGOTT.

Cumpston John, farmer

Evans John, farmer

Home Samuel, wheelwright

Kempster Thomas, farmer

Meredith John, wheelwright

Randle Ths. maltster & farmer

Williams John, miller

ASTON ROGERS.

Bromley Thomas, farmer

Croft Thomas, blacksmith

Done Richard Sutton, farmer

Lloyd John, maltster and beer retailer

Owen Richard, farmer

Parry Jno. farmer, The Hurst

Platt Sarah, farmer

BEACHFIELD.

Groves Sarah, farmer

BROCKTON.

Braxton Benjn., wheelwright

Broston Benjamin, farmer

Davies Aaron, shopkeeper

Davies Mr. William

Evans Mr. John

Evans William, wheelwright

Hickman Joseph

Lloyd Edward, wheelwright

Menlove John, farmer, The Bank

Savage Richard, farmer

Stevan Evan, farmer

Timmis Thos. the Hall Farm

Wall William, farmer

Young Thomas, blacksmith

BROMLOW.

Bright Samuel, farmer

Butler John, blacksmith

Eddowes Edwd. Betton Farm

Eddowes John, farmer

Edwards Edwd., shopkeeper

Ellis Thomas, farmer

Hammons Jane, farmer

Jones Thos., farmer, Mincop

Rogers John, victualler, Sun Inn, and shopkeeper

Watkin Evan, farmer

BYN WESTON.

Davies John, farmer

Eddowes Richard, farmer

Jebb Thomas, farmer

Wall Robert, farmer

GRIMMER.

Eddowes John, farmer

Morris John, farmer

HABBERLEY OFFICE.

Bromley William, farmer, Lord’s Hill

Cadwalader Thomas, farmer

Johnson Wm., wood bailiff

Powell Hannah, farmer

Speake William, farmer

Vaughan John, farmer

Williams William, farmer

HAYES.

Corfield Jno. farmer, The Has

Jones Saml., farmer, Hampton Hall

HEATH UPPER AND NETHER.

Rarratt Wm., mine steward, Batholes

Davies Thos., farmer, Snailbeach

Horton, Johnson, Stainsby and Jones, lead mine proprietors, Batholes and Stiperstones

Lakin Jos. farmer, Crow Nest

Passant John, shoemaker, Gravells

Rawson Arthur, mine manager, Snailbeach

Rogers Edward, victualler, Tankerville Arms

Rogers John, victualler and shopkeeper, Gravel mine

Rogers Richard, blacksmith

Rogers Wm. farmer, Batholes

HOPE.

Dorricott Richard, carrier

Eddowes Edward, Hogster Farm and Mill

Gough Ths. farmer, Ivy House

Lindley Wm., farmer, Hope’s Gate

Rogers Mary Ann, dress mkr.

Rogers Sarah, school teacher

Williams John, farmer

LEIGH.

Jebb Thos. farmer, The Hall

MEADOWTOWN.

Clare Thos., miner & farmer

Evans Evan, frmr., Whitchley

Gwynne David, cooper

Harrison John, lead mine manager

Higginson Thomas, farmer

Jones William, shoemaker

Powlter Abrm. tailor & carrier

Quilt John, farmer

Reece Cornelius, farmer

Titley Richard, farmer

WALTON.

Brown Richard, farmer

Hilton William, farmer

Menlove Edward, farmer

Menlove John, farmer

Smout Richard, farmer

THE PURSLOW HUNDRED
is divided into the Bishop’s Castle and Stow divisions; the former of which contains the parishes of Bishop’s Castle, Lydbury North, Lydham (part of), Mindtown, More, Norbury, Ratlinghope, and Wentnor; and the latter, Bedstone, Bucknell (part of), Clunbury, Clungunford, Edgton, Hopesay, Hopton Castle, Sibdon Carwood, Stowe, and Wistanstow.  At the census of 1841 the two divisions of the hundred contained a population of 9,016 persons.

BEDSTONE
is a parish and township, situated six miles north-east of Knighton, which contains 737 acres, the rateable value of which is £926. 17s.  At the census of 1851 here were 28 houses and 151 persons.  This place was part of the inheritance which Isabel de Say, Lady of Clun, brought to William Fitzallen, her husband, in King Stephen’s time.  Edward Bennett, Esq., is lord of the manor, and sole proprietor of the land.  The Church is a small structure, consisting of nave and chancel, and dedicated to St. Mary.  It is undergoing a complete reparation, at the expense of the rector and the lord of the manor.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £4. 13s. 4d., in the patronage of Benjamin Brown, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. James R. Brown.  The tithes are commuted for £135, and there are 68 acres of glebe land.

Directory.—John Abley, wheelwright; Edward Bennett, Esq., Bedstone House; William Bryan, blacksmith; James Chandler, tailor; Mrs. Rosannah Edwards; John Gittins, stone mason and well sinker: Rev. Thomas Green, The Rectory; Thos. Jones, carpenter; Richard Pitchford, shopkeeper; William Plant, carrier to Ludlow and Knighton on market days; Edward Tilley, farmer; William and John Smith, farmers; William Steadman, farmer, Bedstone Hall.

BISHOP’S CASTLE
is a parish, borough, and market town, twenty miles south-west of Shrewsbury and seventeen miles north-west from Ludlow.  It contains the townships of Bishop’s Castle, Broughton, Colebatch, Lea and Oakley, and Woodbatch, which comprehend an area of 5,630 acres, the rateable value of which is £9,220. 10s.  The town is pleasantly situated on a declivity, near the course of the Clun, and the houses are irregularly built.  In the 20th Edward I. the Bishop of Hereford claimed for his tenants of Bishop’s Castle an exemption from attending the county or hundred court, and the privilege of keeping a market every Friday, and a fair on the eve and feast of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist, and the day following.  A market is still held every Friday, and fairs on the Friday before February 13th, March 26th and 27th, the first Friday after May day, on the second Monday in June, on July 5th, September 9th, and November the 13th.  Bishop’s Castle, prior to the passing of the Reform Bill, returned two members to parliament.  The government of the town is vested in fifteen burgesses, inclusive of a bailiff, justice, and recorder, whose jurisdiction is co-extensive with the borough.  The property at their disposal produces an annual income of £38.  John Beddoes, Esq., is the present bailiff; Richard Wollaston, Esq., justice; and Richard Beddoes, Esq., recorder.  On the site of the Castle Inn formerly stood a castle, belonging to and a residence of the Bishop of Hereford, from whence arises the name of Bishop’s Castle.  The township of Bishop’s Castle contains 1,717 acres of land.  At the census of 1841 here were 373 houses and 1510 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Powis and R. H. Kinchant, Esq.  The bailiff of the town for the time being is lord of the manor.  In 1801 the parish had a population of 1313; 1831, 2,007; 1841, 1,781.  The Church, dedicated to St. John, is a cruciform structure, with a fine old Norman tower of massive proportions.  On the south side is an entrance of beautiful Norman workmanship.  On a board in the church is the following inscription:—“This church being burned in ye civil wars, Walter Waring, Esq., of Owlbury, gave ye timber yt rebuilt it, and ye rest of ye charge was defrayed by contributions of ye parishioners.”  The living is a vicarage, in the patronage of the Earl of Powis, and incumbency of the Rev. William M. Rowland.  There are two small chapels in the town, one belonging to the Independents, and the other to the Primitive Methodists.  The National School is built of stone, in the Elizabethan style, and was erected to commemorate the majority of Viscount Clive, on November 5th, 1839.

The County Court, for the recovery of debts not exceeding £50, is held at the Town Hall.  The jurisdiction of the court embraces the following parishes, viz:—Bishop’s Castle, Clun, Clunbury, Clungunford, Church Stoke, Hopton Castle, Hyssington, Hopesay, Lydbury North, Lydham, Mainstone, More, Norbury, Ratlinghope, Sneade, Shelve, and Wentnor.  Judge, Uvedale Corbet, Esq., Aston Hall, near Shiffnal: Clerk, Frederick Pardoe, Esq.: Bailiff, Mr. Edward Griffiths.

The Union House is a brick structure faced with stone, which was built in 1844, and is capable of accommodating 240 inmates.  The union embraces the parishes of Bishop’s Castle, Clun, Clunbury, Clungunford, Edgton, Hopesay, Hopton Castle, Hyssington, Lydbury North, Lydham, Mainstone, Myndtown, More, Norbury, Ratlinghope, Shelve, Sneade, and Wentnor.  The Medical Officers are Henry Brook, Robert Jones, Robert D. Shield, and Richard G. Wollaston: Master and Matron, Mr. and Mrs. Hamar.

Charities.—Mary Morris, by will, dated 1785, left £1000 to be placed out at interest, and applied in the support of a charity school; and she also bequeathed £200 for the purpose of erecting a schoolhouse, to be called Mr. Wright’s Charity School, in remembrance of her first husband, John Wright, Esq.  The testatrix further directed, that if her estate should exceed £1000, the further sum of £200 should be invested, and the interest applied to the benefit of the school.  The property belonging to this charity consists of £1,598. 13s. 1d. three per cent. consols, which produce an annual dividend of £47. 19s. 2d.  There is a house in Bishop’s Castle, called the Stone House, the rent of which was formerly applied in teaching poor children to read.  The rent now amounts to £6. 6s., and is distributed by the churchwardens to the poor.  George Baxter, by will, in 1658, left 20s. a year for ever to the poor of this parish.  John Tanner, by will, dated 1677, bequeathed an annuity of £6 a year for ever, in trust, to dispose of the same as follows; viz.:—52s. yearly to be distributed in bread to twelve poor people of Bishop’s Castle; 4s. 4d. to be given to the clerk in bread annually; 20s. to be paid to the vicar of Bishop’s Castle for preaching a sermon on the second day of June, yearly; and the remaining 43s. 8d. to be given to the poor persons of the town that attend divine service on the aforesaid day.  Walter Wollaston, in 1818, gave 40s. yearly for the benefit of the poor of this parish.  George Bostock left £5, the interest to be given to the poor.  Thomas Jones bequeathed £20 to the poor of Bishop’s Castle.  The poor also participate in Mousell’s Charity, the particulars of which have been already given.  Ann Gwilliam also left £100, the interest to be given to poor housekeepers resident in the out liberties of the town.

Broughton is a township one mile north-west of Bishop’s Castle, which contains 850 acres of land.  Rateable value, £848. 10s.  At the census of 1841 there were nine houses and seventy inhabitants.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Powis; Rev. Arthur Oakeley; John Coates, Esq.; William Summonds, Esq.; and Isaac Maddox, Esq.

Colebatch is a township one mile and a half south-west by south of Bishop’s Castle, containing 1,119 acres, the rateable value of which is £1,171. 10s.  The principal landowners are Beriah Botfield, Esq.; Earl of Powis; Miss E. Sayce; Samuel Home, Esq.; and Joseph F. Spencer, Esq.  At the census of 1841 there were 22 houses and 104 persons.

Lea and Oakeley is a township two miles north-east of Bishop’s Castle, containing 1,060a. 10p. of land.  Rateable value, £1,171. 10s.  In 1841 there were six houses and 48 persons.  The land is the property of the Rev. Arthur Oakeley.  There are some small remains of a castle here.

Woodbatch is a township containing 886a. 0r. 24p. of land, the rateable value of which is £838. 10s.  In 1841 there were seven houses and 49 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Beriah Botfield, Esq.; T. Hunt, Esq.; and Robert Chester, Esq.

BISHOP’S CASTLE DIRECTORY.

Anstey Jno. vict., Three Tuns

Bailey Thomas, shopkeeper

Beddoes Mr. Jno. Green Fields

Beddoes Rd. maltster & farmer

Bird John, blacksmith

Bird Martha, dress maker

Bond Henry C., watch maker

Bowen John, registrar of birth and deaths

Bowen Ths. painter, plumber and glazier

Bowyer Richard, butcher

Bluck Ths. vict. White Horse

Bright Edward, chair maker

Bright John, carpenter, and carrier to Shrewsbury

Bright Samuel, manager of North & South Wales Bank

Brook Henry, surgeon

Butler Mary Ann, tea dealer

Cooke George, shoemaker

Davies, Legge & Co, drapers and grocers

Davies Edward, chemist and druggist, & agent for Shropshire & North Wales Fire Office

Davies John, shoemaker

Davies Jno. vict. The Plough

Davies Thomas, hair dresser

Davies Agnes, dressmaker

Dubber William, printer, stationer and bookseller

Edwards George, butcher

Edwards Thomas, butcher

Farmer George N., solicitor

Green Charles, skinner

Green John, butcher

Green Richd., beerseller and chair maker

Greenhouse Howard, carrier to Shrewsbury & Ludlow, and vict., Boar’s Head

Griffiths Mr., postmaster, stationer and printer

Griffiths James, saddler and harness maker

Griffiths Thomas, solicitor

Griffiths Wm. H. watchmaker

Hammonds Charles, farmer

Hebet Mary, shopkeeper

Holl George, ironmonger

Home Edward, shopkeeper

Home Fanny, dressmaker

Home George, tea dealer

Home Hannah, dressmaker

Home Levi, vict., Red Lion

Howells Rebecca, shopkpr.

James Elizabeth, staymaker

Jenkins George, painter, plumber and glazier

Johnston John, grocer

Jones and Norton, wine and spirit merchants.  (Henry H. Jones & Wm. Norton)

Jones Samuel, glass & china dealer

Knill Thomas, grocer

Lewis Richard, saddler

Lewis Thomas, blacksmith

Matthews John, watchmaker

Medlicott Jeremiah, surgeon

Meredith Richard, Academy

Minton Andrew, boot and shoe maker

Newbery, James, vict., The Castle, Excise Office and Posting House

Newell Elizbh., Stamp Office

Nicholas Edwd. stone mason

Nicholas Jno. painter & glazr.

Nicholas Richd. stone mason

North & South Wales Banking Company, Samuel Bright, Esq., manager

Nightingale John, carrier to Shrewsbury

Norton Charles, carpenter

Norton John, butcher

Norton John, tailor & woollen draper

Norton John, tanner, currier, maltster, butcher & farmer

Norton Robert, ironmonger

Norton Robert, farmer

Norton William, draper

Onians John, vict., The Harp

Palmer Francis, tailor

Pardoe Frederick, solicitor

Partridge John, blacksmith

Phillip Jno. & Co. ironmngrs.

Phillips George, shoemaker

Playfair Thomas, shopkeeper

Pugh Edward, beerseller

Pugh Thomas, carpenter

Pugh Willm. tailor & draper

Richards Thos., turner, &c.

Rimboult Rev. Samuel F., Independent

Robinson Jas. vict., The Bull

Robinson Wm., blacksmith

Rowland Rev. Wm. M., vicar

Sayce James, beerseller

Sayce John, shoemaker

Sayce John, stone mason

Thomas George, tailor and woollen draper

Tomlins Edward, shoemaker

Vickers John, cooper

Watters John, cooper

Woodhouse James, farmer

Wollaston Richard, surgeon

Williams John, baker

BROUGHTON DIRECTORY.

Bailey Thomas, farmer

Beddoes John, farmer

Maddox Isaac, farmer

COLEBATCH DIRECTORY.

Carden William, farmer

Harris William, farmer

Howard Richard, farmer

Mason Hamar, farmer

Owen John, carpenter

Thomas Edward, farmer

LEA AND OAKELEY DIRECTORIES.

Davies Wm. farmer, The Lea

Harris Jerh. farmer, The Lea

Oakeley Rev. Arthur, rector of Lydham, Oakeley House

WOODBATCH DIRECTORY.

Morris Edward, farmer

Thomas Richard, farmer

BUCKNELL
is a parish, partly in the hundred of Wigmore, in Herefordshire, and partly in that of Purslow, in Salop.  That portion which is situated in Shropshire contains 2,976a. 0r. 14p. of land, the rateable value of which is £2,079. 7s. 6d.  At the census of 1841 here were 85 houses and 416 persons.  The village is pleasantly situated five miles N.W. of Knighton.  W. G. H. Sitwell, Esq., is lord of the manor; Samuel Hotchkiss, Esq., James Steadman, Esq., P. M. Matthews, Esq., and Mr. Thomas Jones, are also proprietors.  The Church is a small edifice mantled with ivy, and dedicated to St. Mary.  The body of the church was repewed in the year 1684.  There are three bells, one of which is dated 1639.  The living is a rectory valued in the kings book at £5. 6s. 8d., in the patronage of the Grocers’ Company, London, and incumbency of the Rev. Joseph Richard Coope.

Charities.—Joseph Freemantle, by will, in 1635, left a rent charge of 40s. to the poor of the parish.  There is a sum of £321. 10s. 6d., three per cent. consols, standing in the names of John Stedman and Thomas Edwards, who were churchwardens about the year 1812.  Of this sum £200 is supposed to have been given by John Davies, in 1745, and £50 was probably the gift of — Gretton, who is stated to have left that sum, in the Parliamentary returns of 1786.  The dividends of this money are distributed to the poor of the parish.  Edward Jones, by will, in 1815, left a rent charge of 20s. per annum, to be distributed to the poor in bread.

Beavan William, farmer, The Lye

Botwood Chas., shopkeeper

Coope Rev. Joseph Richard

Crow Richard, shoemaker

Davies John, builder and cabinet maker

Evans Richard, shopkeeper

Ford Thomas, agent to W. G. H. Sitwell, Esq.

George Joseph, wheelwright

Green Bine, vict., Sitwell Arms

Hotchkiss Samuel, farmer, New House

Hull Edward, beerseller and blacksmith

Jerdan William, wheelwright

Jones Richard, house agent to W. G. H. Sitwell, Esq.

Jones Thomas, farmer, Woodside

Lello Edward, farmer, Mynde

Mason John, miller

Matthews Philip Morris, Esq. Turkey Hall

Pitch Mary Ann, shopkeeper

Price William, land surveyor

Probert John, butcher

Powell Joseph, schoolmaster

Rogers Samuel, shoemaker

Sitwell Wm., G. H., Esq.

Steadman Edward, woollen draper and tailor

Steadman Miss Margaret, New House

Steadman Richard, farmer, The New Farm House

Williams John, miller

CLUNBURY
is a parish, comprising the townships of Clunbury and Causton, Clunton, Kempton, Obley, and Purslow, which at the census of 1841 had a population of 994 persons.  The township of Clunbury is pleasantly situated 7 miles south-east of Bishop’s Castle, and contains with Causton 1,661a. 3r. 36p. of land, the principal owners of which are Edward Turner, Esq.; Captain Gordon; John Morris, Esq.; John Rocke, Esq.; and Charles Meteyard, Esq.  In 1841 here were 66 houses and 279 persons.  The Church is dedicated to St. Swithin.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Earl of Powis, and incumbency of the Rev. T. J. Hogg.  The tithes are commuted for £179.  Causton township in 1841 had five houses and 21 inhabitants.  Clunton lies about two miles east of Clun, and contains 1,974a. 3r. 33p. of land, the rateable value of which is £2,436. 5s.  The tithes are commuted for £173.  In 1841 here were 69 houses and 304 persons.  The principal landowners are Philip Morris, Esq.; Rowland Statham, Esq.; and Rocke, Eyton, and Co.  Kempton, a small village and township, one mile west of Clunbury, contains 1,885a. 3r. 33p. of land.  Rateable value, £2,095. 10s.  In 1841 here were 43 houses and 216 inhabitants.  The Earl of Powis is sole landowner.  Obley is a township on the south-western extremity of the parish, containing 1,025a. 3r. 33p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,023. 1s.  The tithes are commuted for £110.  In 1841 here were 30 houses and 164 inhabitants.  The Earl of Powis is the sole landowner.  Purslow is a small township in this parish, containing five houses and 31 persons.

Charities.—The Parish School of Clunbury was built on the waste, by subscription, and is partly supported by the rents of two closes of land.  In the parliamentary returns of 1686 it is stated that Mr. Tankard left £12, the interest thereof to be given to the poor.

Directory.—Clunbury: Thomas Anthony, shopkeeper; Richard Hints, beerseller; Rev. Thomas J. Hogg, curate; Edward Jones, victualler, Purslow Hundred House; Charles Meteyard, surgeon; John Morris, farmer; John Rudd, farmer; Edward Turner, Esq., Causton Hall; Edward Tomkins, schoolmaster; John Woolley, farmer; Thomas Taylor, farmer, Causton; Thomas Weyman, farmer, Purlow Hall.  Clunton: Richard Brown, farmer; John Farmer, victualler, Crown; George Hamar, farmer; Richard Williams, beerseller.  Obley: James Edwards, farmer, The Combs; Joseph Edwards, farmer, Pool House; Richard Edwards, farmer; Richard Jones, farmer, New House; John Palfrey, farmer, Llanadevey.  Kempton: Samuel Bright, farmer; and Francis Southern, farmer.

CLUNGUNFORD
is an extensive parish, comprising the townships of Abcott, Beckjay, Broadward, Clungunford, and Shelderton, which have an area of 3,397 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £3,054. 13s. 2d.  In 1841 here were 107 houses and 554 persons.  Population in 1801, 436: and in 1831, 488.  The township is situated nine miles north-east of Knighton.  This manor was part of the ancient inheritance of the Fitzalans, Earls of Arundel, who were also patrons of The Church, which is dedicated to St. Cuthbert.  It is in the Gothic style of architecture.  In the interior are some fine specimens of stained glass.  The living is a rectory, in the patronage of John Rocke, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Thomas O. Rocke.  The tithes are commuted for £538. 12s. 1d., and there are 51 acres of glebe land.  The principal landowners are John Rocke, Esq.; Mr. John Bridgewater; Mr. John Langslow; and Mr. John Howells.  There is an Endowed School here for the benefit of the children of this parish and Broom, in Hopesay.  It is endowed with 25a. 2r. 29p. of land, the rent of which is paid to a schoolmaster.  There is the sum of £150 three per cent. consols, standing in the name of the Rev. John Rocke, the dividends of which are given to the poor and the school.

Abcott is a small township, half a mile from Clungunford, which contained at the census of 1841, 17 houses and 87 persons.  The principal landowners are John Rocke, Esq.; Mr. John Langslow; Rev. John Knight; Mr. Thomas Bird; and the Trustees of Clungunford School.  Beckjay and Broadward is a scattered township, two miles from Clungunford, containing 15 houses and 91 persons.  The principal landowners are the Rev. S. J. Knight and George Bright, Esq.  Shelderton is a township, two miles from the parish church.  W. W. Sitwell, Esq., and the Rev. Henry Cowdell are the principal landowners.

Directory.—Clungunford: William Anslow, victualler, Cross Keys; Timothy Bishop, farmer, Rowton; John Bridgewater, farmer; Samuel Eyre, schoolmaster; John Howells, farmer; Edward P. Langslow, butcher; John Rocke, Esq., Clungunford House; Rev. Thomas O. Rocke, rector; Richard Yapp, blacksmith.  Abcott: Thomas Bird, tailor; John Greenhouse, victualler, The Bird on the Rock; John Langslow, farmer, Abcott Cottage; Aaron Woolley, farmer; Thomas Woolley, farmer.  Beckjay: Samuel Urwick, farmer.  Shelderton: Rev. Henry Cowdell, and Charles Blakeway, farmer.

EDGTON BRUNSLOW AND HORDERLEY
is a parish situated five miles S.E. by E. of Bishop’s Castle, comprehending an area of 1,645a. 1r. 30p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,304. 0s. 9d.  In 1841 here were 47 houses and 214 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are the Rev. Humphrey Sandford, George Beddoes, Esq., and the Earl of Craven.  The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a small structure consisting of nave and chancel, with a tower in which are three bells.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of the Rev. Humphrey Sandford, and incumbency of the Rev. Folliett Sandford.

Horderley is an Extra Parochial Liberty eight miles east of Edgton, which is included in that parish by the population returns.  There is only one house here, called Horderley Hall, the property of Thomas Hotchkiss, Esq., and residence of John Hotchkiss, farmer.

Charities.—It is stated in the parliamentary returns of 1786 that Edward James, in 1620, left £5, Humphrey Sandford, in 1735, £5, and Charles Lucas, in 1728, £2, the interest thereof to be given to the poor of this parish.

Directory.—George Beddoes, Esq.; William Bird, farmer; John Brown, farmer; Elizabeth Herbert, farmer; Thomas James, farmer; William Lucas, farmer; Charles Luther, farmer; Mary Norncott, shopkeeper; Thomas Poundley, parish clerk; and Roger Wellings, farmer.

HOPESAY
is an extensive parish and rural village situated six miles S.E. by E. of Bishop’s Castle, which contains 3,857a. 1r. 18p. of land.  Rateable value, £4,430 8s. 8d.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor.  The principal landowners are William M. Beddoes, Esq., Captain Henry Beddoes, James Baxter, Esq., Mr. Samuel Griffiths, and Mr. Francis Davies.  In 1841 there were in this parish 160 houses and 660 inhabitants.  The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, comprises nave, chancel, and a massive square tower.  The living is a rectory in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. Philip P. Adams.

Aston is a township and considerable village on the Ludlow and Bishop’s Castle turnpike road, seven miles S.E. of the latter place.  In 1841 here were 70 houses and 292 persons.  The principal landowners are Richard Marston, Esq., Mrs. Margaret Nicholls, Mr. John Cadwallader, and John Whitefoot, Esq.  There is a small Baptist chapel in this village.  Barlow township is returned as having one house and eight inhabitants.  Broom and Rowton is partly in Hopesay parish and partly in Clungunford; in the former in 1841 there were 25 houses and 96 inhabitants, and in the latter parish two houses and fifteen persons.  The principal landowners are George Bright, Esq., Miss A. M. Tunstall, and Ralph Benson, Esq.  Carwood township is returned as having seven houses and 29 inhabitants at the census of 1841.  Little Brompton is a township four miles east of Clun, which contains eleven houses and 44 persons.  The Earl of Powis is sole landowner.  Thomas Parks, by will, dated 1726, left £50, in trust, to be placed out at interest and given to a schoolmaster to teach six poor children of this parish.  Dennis Harris left a rent charge of 10s. per annum to be given to the poor.  Elizabeth Newnham, by will, dated 1750, bequeathed £30, the interest to be given to the poor of Hopsay.  Jane Pugh, by will, dated 1808, bequeathed an annuity of £10, for the benefit of the poor of this parish.

Directory.—Hopesay: The Rev. Philips B. Adams, rector; William Bedell, stone mason; John Childe, shopkeeper; John Cruckson, farmer; Francis Davies, farmer; William Evans, farmer, Barlow; Samuel Griffiths, farmer; Joseph Price, vict., New Inn; The Rev. Folliett Sandford, P.C., of Edgton.  Aston: John Beddoes, vict., Kangaroo; John Cadwallader, tailor; Thomas Childe, farmer; Charles Childe, farmer; James Dislee, blacksmith; Martha Griffiths, shopkeeper; Edward Jacks, farmer; Edward Lewis, corn miller; George Proctor, farmer; William Pugh, postmaster; Sarah Weyman, farmer, The Hall; John Whitefoot, Esq.  Broom: George Bright, farmer; William Jacks, farmer.  Little Brompton: Richard Smith, wheelwright; John Weyman, farmer.

HOPTON CASTLE
is a parish and pleasantly situated village nine miles south of Bishop’s Castle, which contains 2,366a. 3r. 5p. of land, exclusive of the hills, the rateable value of which is £1,730.  At the census of 1841 here were 31 houses and 164 persons.  Population in 1801, 138; and in 1831, 145.  Thomas Salway Beale, Esq., is lord of the manor and the principal landowner.  This manor was anciently the possession of Roger Lord Mortimer, who obtained a charter of free warren in the 14th of Edward I.  In this township are the remains of a castle, from which this parish takes its name.  Camden mentions Hopton Castle as being given to Walter de Clifford by Henry II.  The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a small structure consisting of nave and chancel.  The living is a rectory in the patronage of T. S. Beale, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. George D. Pardoe.  The tithes are commuted for about £280.  There are eighty acres of glebe land.

Directory.—Richard Filer, steward to T. S. Beale, Esq.; Thomas Harley, joiner; Thomas Mansell, Esq.; Rev. George D. Pardoe, rector; John Sawyer, shopkeeper; and Edward Tanner, farmer.

LYDBURY NORTH
is an extensive parish and considerable village, two and a half miles south-east from Bishop’s Castle.  The parish includes the townships of Acton, Brockton, Lower Down, Eaton and Choulton, Eyton and Plowden, North Lydbury, and Totterton, which together in 1841 had a population of 908 souls; 1801, 829; 1831, 955.  The township of North Lydbury contains 2,253a. 0r. 35p. of land, and in 1841 had 84 houses and 337 inhabitants.  Rateable value £2,651. 7s.  The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a plain substantial structure with a massive tower.  The living is a vicarage, with the perpetual curacy of Norbury annexed, in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. John Bright.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £486, and the rectoral for £439. 8s., of which £411. 8s. have been apportioned to W. Plowden, Esq., £11 to the parish clerk, for the time being, and £17 to the rector of Pontesbury.  The church contains many elegant monuments to the Plowden and Walcott families.  The chief landowners are Earl Powis, and William Plowden, Esq.  Walcott Hall is a spacious and elegant mansion, the occasional seat of the Earl of Powis.  It contains a fine collection of paintings and Indian curiosities, collected by the first Lord Clive.  The pleasure grounds are very beautifully laid out, and the park is richly wooded.  At Tangley Hill are prominent vestiges of a British encampment, called the Bury Ditches.  The interest of £200, bequeathed by John Shipman, in 1662, is applied in the support of the national school, another £100 has been raised by the liberality of the parishioners and the Earl of Powis for the same object, in addition to which a considerable sum is raised by annual subscriptions.  The school, a substantial stone building, has been built about six years.  The Poor’s Estate produces a yearly sum of £27. 10s., out of which £7 per annum is paid for educational purposes, and the residue applied in a general distribution among the poor.  Richard Sayce, in 1754, left a rent charge of £2. 12s. per annum, to be given in bread.

The following are the out-townships of this parish, namely: Acton, situated two miles south-west from Lydbury, having 816 acres of land, and in 1841, 23 houses and 108 inhabitants.  Brocton township lies about a mile from Lydbury, and has 694 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,102. 4s.  In 1841 there were 30 houses and 137 inhabitants.  Lower Down, a small village and township, lies to the south west of Lydbury, and contains 1,207 acres, the rateable value of which is £875; population in 1841, 116; at which period there were 25 houses.  Eyton and Plowden township has 872 acres, and in 1841 had 11 houses and 59 inhabitants.  Rateable value £747. 13s.  Eaton and Choulton in 1841 had 16 houses and 87 inhabitants, and contains 699 acres of land.  Totterton township is distant about a mile from Lydbury, and contains 775 acres of land.  In 1841 there were 11 houses and 64 inhabitants; William Plowden, Esq., and the Earl of Powis, are the landowners in the above townships.

LYDBURY NORTH DIRECTORY.

Beddoes Geo. farm., Brunslow

Brereton John, farmer

Brown John, schoolmaster

Colgan Rev. Rd. (Rom. Cathol.)

Gwilt Rd., farmer, The Folly

Hodgkiss John, farmer

Lane Thomas, farmer

Lawrence John, blacksmith

Mason William, farmer

Newell Joseph, agent to the Earl of Powis

Norncott Rd. farmr. & shopkpr

Owens John, farmer

Phillips William, farmer

Southern William H., farmer

Statham John, farmer

Whitefoot Mrs. E. the Vicarage

Williams John, parish clerk

ACTON DIRECTORY.

Gwilt Richard, farmer

Luther Robert, farmer

Price George, farmer

Robinson Joseph, farmer and blacksmith

BROCKTON DIRECTORY.

Bluck William, beerseller

Blayney Thos., vict., New Inn

Bore Mr., vict., Wheat Sheaf

Davies Jane, farmer

Hamar Thomas, miller

Evans Samuel, farmer

James Mr. Thomas

Marston Richd., wheelwright

Mountford Edward, farmer

Powell James, blacksmith

Powell John, farmer

Tomlins John, farmer

CHOULTON DIRECTORY.

Edwards Ann, farmer

Gwilt Evan, farmer

Gethyn, Thomas, farmer

Wood Thomas, blacksmith

EATON DIRECTORY.

Watkins Joseph, farmer

EYTON AND PLOWDEN DIRECTORIES.

Amies Samuel, farmer

Evans Gabriel, miller & farmr

Gwilt William, farmer

Hacock Thomas, farmer

Watts Thomas, farmer

Williams John, farmer

LOWER DOWN DIRECTORY.

Farmer George, farmer

Hamar Thomas, farmer

Titley John, farmer

Whittall John, farmer

Whittall Thomas, farmer.

TOTTERTON DIRECTORY.

Bright Rev. John, vicar of Lydbury

Everall Jph. farmer, Friezland

Hodges William, farmer

Shuker William, farmer

LYDHAM
is a parish, two miles north-east from Bishop’s Castle, partly in Salop and partly in Montgomeryshire.  In this county are 1,760 acres of land.  Rateable value, £2,319. 5s.  Gross estimated rental, £2,535. 5s.  In 1841 here were 19 houses and 128 inhabitants.  The Rev. Arthur Oakeley is the sole landowner and lord of the manor.  The river Camlad has its source in this parish.  The Church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the living is a rectory, rated at £10.  Gross income, £462.  Patron and incumbent, Rev. Arthur Oakeley.

Directory.—Richard Bright, farmer; William Davies, farmer; Edward Gwilliam, farmer, The Lodge; Thos. Mapp, farmer, Heblands; Rev. Arthur Oakeley, The Rectory; Edward Rogers, blacksmith; Edward Williams, miller.

MORE
is a parish and township, situated two miles north of Bishop’s Castle, containing 3,511 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £2,124.  In 1841 here were 46 houses and 246 persons in the parish.  Population in 1801, 288; and in 1831, 272.  R. B. More, Esq., is the principal landowner in this parish.  This place takes its name from the family of More, who have been settled here since the thirteenth century.  The Church is a handsome Gothic structure, consisting of nave and chancel, in which is a beautiful stained glass window.  The living is a rectory, in the patronage of R. B. More, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Thomas F. More.  The tithes are commuted for £242.

Linley is a township three miles N.E. of More, containing 26 houses and 123 persons.  R. B. More, Esq., is sole landowner.  Linley Hall is a handsome mansion in the Grecian style of architecture, the seat and property of R. B. More, Esq.  Charities.—The Rev. Edward Rogers left £35. 13s., the interest to be distributed amongst the poor.  This sum, £15. 13s. of the parish stock, and £8. 14s. which was borrowed, were laid out in the purchase of land, the rent of which is now paid to a schoolmaster to teach eight poor children.  Morewood township at the census of 1841 had ten houses and 63 inhabitants.

Directory.—More and Morewood: Martha Burgess, farmer; James Harris, farmer; John Hill, carpenter; Robert James, farmer; Richard Jones, farmer; William Medlicott, farmer; John Mellings, farmer; Margaret Mellings, farmer; Thomas Morris, farmer; John Thomas, farmer; Thomas Wardman, farmer; John Wardman, farmer; John Wilks, farmer.  Linley: Evan Abley, carpenter and wheelwright; William Jones, farmer: Robert B. More, Esq., Linley Hall; Benjamin Perkin, gardener; Richard Poulter, blacksmith; Rd. Pugh, farmer; Ed. Tomlins, shoemaker; and Joseph Whittall, mine agent.

Dinmore is an Extra Parochial Liberty two miles from Bishop’s Castle, containing about 100 acres of land, the property of William Plowden, Esq.  Mr. Richard Guilt is the resident farmer.

MYNDTOWN
is a small parish five miles north east of Bishop’s Castle, on the western side of the Longmynds.  It contains 906a. 3r. of land, including 347a. of common.  Rateable value £425. 10s.  William Plowden, Esq., is sole landowner and lord of the manor.  The church is a small structure, dedicated to St. John.  The living is a rectory in the patronage of Earl Powis, and incumbency of the Rev. John Rogers.  The tithes are commuted for £52. 11s. 9d.  There are 33 acres of glebe land.

Directory.—Edward Hammonds, farmer; John Lewis, farmer, The Hall; and Philip Shukar, farmer.

NORBURY
is a parish 4 miles N.N.E. of Bishop’s Castle, which comprises the townships of Asterton, Norbury, Whitcott, and Hardwick, and has an area of 2,685a. 2r. 25p. of land, the rateable value of which is £2,600. 3s. 8½d.  The principal landowners of the township of Norbury are Robert Scott, Esq., and Thomas Harris, Esq.  In 1841 there were 33 houses and 174 persons.  The Church, dedicated to All Saints, is a neat structure, consisting of nave and chancel, and has a tower, in which are three bells.  The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to North Lydbury.  The tithes are commuted, and £180 has been apportioned to the vicar, and £145 to William H. Plowden, Esq.

Asterton is a township in this parish, one mile and a half from Norbury, which had at the census of 1841 had 37 houses and 164 persons.  The principal landowners are Wm. Plowden, Esq.; Edward Medlicott, Esq.; Ralph Benson, Esq.; and Edward Home, Esq.  There is a small Primitive Methodist Chapel in this township.

Whitcott and Hardwick is a scattered township, containing 14 houses and 82 persons.  The principal landowners are Mr. Thomas W. Ambler; James Wilkes, Esq.; and Edward Home, Esq.  Charity.—Thomas Jacks left £10, the interest thereof to be given in bread to the poor of this parish.

Directory.—Norbury: Thomas Beamond, farmer; William Bowen, farmer; John Cook, beerseller; Thomas Cook, farmer; John Dewin, farmer; John Everall, farmer; Thomas Harris, farmer; Joseph Jones, farmer; Charles Morris farmer; Jeremiah Pugh, maltster and victualler, The Red Lion; Thomas Williams, farmer.  Asterley: John Pincher, farmer; and William Pincher, farmer.  Whitcott and Hardwick: Thomas W. Ambler, farmer; William Davies, miller and farmer; Edward Dewin, farmer; William Marston, farmer and beerseller; William Morris, farmer; James Wilks, farmer.

RATLINGHOPE
is a parish comprising the townships of Ratlinghope, Stitt, and Gatten, which have an area of 3,690 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,901. 8s.  At the census of 1841 there were 50 houses and 315 inhabitants.  The township is pleasantly situated 13 miles south-west of Shrewsbury, and comprises 1,269 acres of land, exclusive of common.  Rateable value, £750. 12s.  Ratlinghope township in 1841 contained 25 houses and 162 persons.  Robert Scott, Esq., is lord of the manor, and the sole landowner.  This place, at the Doomsday survey, was in the possession of Robert, the son of Corbet, one of whose descendants gave it to the canons regular of St. Augustine.  There was anciently a priory here, in which were placed a few black canons.  The Church is dedicated to St. Margaret.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £3. 6s. 8d., in the patronage of Robert Scott, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Edward Homfray.

Stitt and Gatten is a township in this parish, ten miles south-west of Shrewsbury, which contains 2,421 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,151. 8s.  In 1841 there were 25 houses and 153 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Samuel Smith, Esq., and the Hon. H. W. Powys.  James Rowson, in 1746, left £20 for the benefit of the poor of this parish.

Directory.—Ratlinghope: Thomas Cooke, farmer, The Coppice; John Elison, farmer; Thomas Jones, farmer; Thomas Lello, farmer; Mary Partridge, blacksmith and victualler, The Bridges; Randolph Poston, miller; Emanuel Preece, farmer.  Stitt and Gatten: Edward Andrews, farmer, The Stitt; William Groves, farmer, The Stitt; Samuel Medlicott, farmer, Gatten; William Mellings, farmer, Gatten; and John Munslow, farmer, Gatten.

SIBDON CARWOOD
is a small parish eight miles S.S.E. of Bishop’s Castle, which contains 754 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £858. 12s. 6d.: gross estimated rental, £869. 13s.  James Baxter, Esq. is the sole landowner, and lord of the manor.  At the census of 1841 there were 12 houses and 59 persons.  The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a neat edifice, rebuilt in 1741.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of James Baxter, Esq. and incumbency of the Rev. W. E. Lumb, M.A.  Sibdon Castle is an ancient castellated mansion, situated in a picturesque position, commanding extensive and varied views of the surrounding country, and is the property of James Baxter, Esq.

Directory.—James Baxter, Esq., the Castle; Thomas Cooper, farmer; Richard Dawes, farmer; William Griffiths, farmer.

STOWE
is a parish and small village about two miles north-east by east from Knighton, which contains 2,724a. 0r. 11p. of land.  At the census of 1841 there were 38 houses and 135 souls.  The township of Stowe contains 748a. 2r. 25p. of land, the rateable value of which is £531.  The village is romantically situated, and surrounded by lofty hills.  Edward Rogers, Esq., is the landowner in this township.  The Church is dedicated to St. Michael, and the living a vicarage, in the patronage of the crown: incumbent, Rev. Thomas Green.  The tithes are commuted for £250, of which £45 is apportioned to Clun Hospital.  There is also glebe land of the annual value of £20.  Directory.—Sarah Baldwin, miller and farmer, William Langford, stone mason, and Caleb Steadman, farmer.

Lurkinhope is a township in Stowe parish, containing 1,265a. 1r. 26p. of land, the rateable value of which is £586. 15s.  The principal landowner is Charles Edwards, Esq.  Sarah Bright is the resident farmer.

Weston is a small township in the parish of Stowe, containing 710 acres, the rateable value of which is £475. 10s.  Edward Rogers, Esq., is sole owner in this township.  Directory.—Charles Steadman, farmer, and Edward Turner, cattle dealer.

WENTNOR
is an extensive parish comprising the townships of Adston, Home, Kinnerton, and Ritton, Medlicott and Wentnor, which have an area of 4,190 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £2,978.  The village of Wentnor is pleasantly situated five and a half miles N.E. of Bishop’s Castle, and in 1841 had 43 houses and 200 inhabitants.  There is a small woollen manufactory in this parish, worked by water power.  The Church is dedicated to Saint Michael.  The living is a rectory in the patronage of the dean and canons of Christ Church, Oxford, and incumbency of the Rev. Thomas Hunt.  The tithes are commuted for £212. 10s.  The principal landowners are the Rev. John Bright, Rev. G. D. Pardoe, Robert Scott, Esq., Thomas Downes, Esq., and Mrs. Sarah Medlicott.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor.

Adston is a township situated to the north of Wentnor, the principal landowners of which are the Rev. John Bright, Jeremiah Medlicott, Esq., Francis Norton, Esq., John Whitehurst, Esq., and H. Walters, Esq.  In 1841 here were 19 houses and 100 inhabitants.

Home is a small township containing three houses and 24 persons.  The land is the property of the Rev. John Rogers.

Kinnerton and Ritton is a township and village three miles from Wentnor, which contains 58 houses and 322 persons.  Henry Lyster, Esq., is the proprietor of the land and lord of the manor.

Medlicott is a township one mile from Wentnor, containing 14 houses and 60 inhabitants.  John Medlicott, Esq., is lord of the manor and chief landowner; Mrs. Sarah Medlicott and Mr. Thomas Bright are also owners.

Charities.—Rev. Edward Rogers, by will, dated 1788, left £50, the interest to be applied in teaching poor children of the parish to read.  This sum, with the surplus of a subscription raised for building a school, to which Charles Rogers, Esq., contributed £100, was invested in the purchase of £100 stock new four per cents., and the dividends paid to a schoolmaster who teaches twelve poor children.  Dr. Price bequeathed £10, and Edward Redrobe gave £10, the interest to be given to the poor on St. Thomas’s-day.

WENTNOR DIRECTORY.

Beamond John, farmer

Jones Richard, farmer

Hotchkiss William, farmer

Humphrey Rev. Thos., curate

Mapp Richard, farmer

Medlicot John, woollen manufacturer

Medlicot Sarah, beerseller

Morris John, farmer and maltster

Kirkham Edward, farmer

ADSTON DIRECTORY.

Andrews Edward, farmer

Evans John, farmer and miller

Harding John, farmer

Jameson George, farmer

Kirkham George, farmer

Kirkham Samuel, farmer

HOME DIRECTORY.

Gething John, farmer

Rogers Rev. John, rector of Myndtown

KINNERTON AND RITTON DIRECTORY.

Beamond Robert, farmer

Blockley William, farmer

Davies John, farmer

Davies William, farmer

Hotchkiss Francis, farmer

Mountford John, farmer

Potter John, farmer

Potter Jonathan, farmer

Pugh John, farmer

Walters Edward, farmer

MEDLICOTT DIRECTORY.

Bright Thomas, farmer

Hotchkiss Jeremiah, farmer

Maddox Thomas, farmer

WISTANSTOW
is an extensive parish, partly in this hundred and partly in that of Munslow, pleasantly situated ten miles north-west of Ludlow, and intersected by the Shrewsbury and Ludlow turnpike road, the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway, and the Watling street, which here divides the hundreds of Munslow and Purslow.  The township contains 728a. 2r., the rateable value of which is £1,126. 1s.  In 1841 the parish contained 227 houses and 1051 persons.  Population in 1801, 586; and in 1851, 989.  The Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a cruciform structure, with a massive square tower.  The living is a rectory, in the incumbency of the Rev. Christopher Swainson, and patronage of the Earl of Craven.  The principal landowners are the Rev. Christopher Swainson; James Cartwright, Esq.; Thomas D. Duppa, Esq.; Mr. Thomas Owens; Mr. Edward Lewis; and Mr. William Potter.

Cheney Longville is a township, ten miles north-west of Ludlow, containing 805a. 1r. 21p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,144, 6s. 10½d.  The principal landowners are W. M. Beddoes, Esq.; Thomas D. Duppa, Esq.; and Mr. Joseph Humphreys.  In 1841 here were 24 houses and 125 persons.  There is a Methodist Chapel in the township.  A pack of hounds has been kept here for upwards of 80 years.

Felhampton and the Grove is a township, one mile and a half north-east of Wistanstow, containing 1,524a. 2r. 19p. of land, the rateable value of which is £2,015, 13s. the principal owners of which are the Earl of Craven; Mrs. Thursby; and Francis Marston, Esq.  Strefford is a small village and township, ten miles north-west of Ludlow, which contains 372a. 2r. 24p. of land, the rateable value of which is £532.  The Earl of Craven is the sole landowner.  Wittingslow is a township, one mile and a half north-west of Wistanstow, containing 536a. 2r. 12p. of land.  Rateable value, £608. 4s.  The chief landowners are W. M. Beddoes, Esq.; John Mier, Esq.; Mr. J. Broom; and Mr. Thomas Beman.  Woolston is a small village, one mile from Wistanstow, which contains 772a. 0r. 13p. of land, the rateable value of which is £721. 3s.  The principal landowner is the Rev. S. J. Knight.

WISTANSTOW DIRECTORY.

Cartwright James, farmer, The Hall

Cox Thomas, butcher

Cox William, farmer

Davies Mrs. Jane

Edwards Mrs. Sarah

Ellis Rev. John S., curate

Home Richard, shopkeeper and postmaster

Jones John, farmer

Oliver Thomas, victualler, The Plough

Owens Thomas, victualler, White Horse

Owens Thomas, farmer, The Corner

Potter Mr. William

Rogers William, shopkeeper

Wilding James, draper and grocer

Williams William, saddler and harness maker

CHENEY LONGVILLE DIRECTORY.

Back Edward, farmer

Beddoes Francis, farmer

Duppa Thomas D., Esq.

Harris Elizabeth, farmer

Humphreys Joseph, tanner and shoemaker

Lucas George, farmer, Newington

Speake Joseph, schoolmaster

STREFFORD DIRECTORY.

Davies Henry, vict., The Boot

Jones John, veterinary surgn.

Jones Robert, surgeon

Rickards James, farmer

Rickards Richard, Esq.

FELHAMPTON & THE GROVE.

Blockley Edward, farmer

Bowen Richard, miller

Goode Thomas, blacksmith

Hancocks George, miller

Oakes John, Esq., Affcott

Marston Francis, Esq.

Martin John, vict., The Rest

Poole Richard, cooper

Thomas William, miller

Tomlinson John, farmer, The Marsh

Urkick Richard, farmer

WITTINGSLOW DIRECTORY.

Beman Thomas, farmer

Clare Peter, farmer

Falkingham Wm., beerseller

Harris Edward, farmer

Hotchkiss Wm., victualler, Cross Pipes

Howells John, farmer

WOOLSTON DIRECTORY.

Broom John, farmer

Martin Benjamin, farmer

Venables Thomas, farmer

THE CLUN HUNDRED
lies on the south-western verge of the county, and is bounded by Radnorshire on the west and Montgomery on the north; by the hundred of Purslow on the east and Radnorshire on the south.  It is divided into the Clun and Mainstone divisions, the former having in 1841 a population of 2,077, and the latter 1,331 inhabitants.  The Clun division contains the parish of Clun, and the Mainstone division the parish of Llanvair-Waterdine, part of Mainstone, and part of Bettwys-y-Crwyn.

CLUN
is an extensive parish and market town twenty-six miles S.S.W. of Shrewsbury, containing the townships of Bicton, Clun, Edicliffe, Guilden Down, Hopebendrid, Mannutton, Newcastle, Obarras, Pentrehodrey, Peerlogne, Shadwell, Spoad, Treverward, Whitcott-Evan, and Whitcott-Keysett, which together comprehend an area of about 22,000 acres, inclusive of common; of this number there are 11,882 acres subject to tithe.  At the census of 1841 there were 424 houses and 2,077 persons, and in 1851 here were 2,119 inhabitants.  The rent charge paid to the vicar is £802. 2s. and that to lay impropriators £415.  In the township of Clun there are 3,075a. 2r. 12p. of land, the rateable value of which is £3,505. 5s., and at the census of 1841 there were 191 houses and 913 inhabitants; population in 1811, 734; and in 1831, 930 persons.  The principal landowner is the Earl of Powis, who is also lord of the manor; Philip Morris, Esq., Rev. Christopher Swainson, P. M. Matthews, Esq., Thomas Evans, Esq., Mr. Thomas Hamer, Mr. Charles Bright, Mr. Edward Chelmick, Mr. John Law, and Mrs. Elizabeth Jones are also proprietors, besides whom are a number of smaller freeholders.  Clun takes it name from the river Colun or Clun, which rises six miles east of the town, and flows through it, dividing it in two parts, and thence pursuing its course to the west.  The town is romantically situated on a gentle eminence surrounded by lofty hills, and consists principally of one irregular street on the northern bank of the river, over which is an ancient stone bridge of five pointed arches, leading to that part of the town where the church stands.  The borough of Clun, now greatly declined from its ancient station, appears from Dugdale to have been of sufficient importance, in the age immediately succeeding the Norman Conquest, to have conferred a title on the celebrated family of “Fitz-Allan.”  It remained in the possession of this family till the reign of Elizabeth, when by the marriage of Mary Fitz-Allan with Philip Howard, son of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, the estate became vested in that family.  From them it passed to the Walcotts, and afterwards by purchase to the family of its present possessor, the Earl of Powis, who is lord of the manor, though the Duke of Norfolk still retains the title of Baron Clun.  The castle was built about the reign of Stephen by William Fitz-Allan Earl of Arundel, and being exposed to the ravages of the Welsh, it was well fortified in the 8th of King Stephen.  In Richard the First’s time, the king being in the Holy Land, this castle was taken by Rees Prince of Wales, who laid all the country around waste.  Prince Llewellyn in the year 1234 advanced with an army against the town, burnt the suburbs, but could not take the castle; this damage was fully revenged A.D. 1264, by an entire rout of the Welsh army at the battle of Clunne.  Lewis says, “Within a quarter of a mile to the north-west of the town is a single entrenchment, said to have been raised by Owen Glendwr, as a shelter for his troops during their attack on the castle, and within half a mile to the south is Walls Castle, from which it was battered.”  We are informed by Leland that this castle was “somewhat in ruins” in his time.  The remains now present an interesting and picturesque object, consisting of lofty walls, the keep, and the banquet hall, and considerable masses of the ruin mark out both the ancient form and extent of this once stately pile.  About two miles and a half to the N.E. is the camp of Ostorious, and five miles S.E., near the confluence of the river Clun and Teme, are the Caer or Bury Ditches, the station of that British hero, Caractacus, and the scene of his last effort against the Roman powers.  The camp is of an elliptic form, comprehending an area of three or four acres of land, on the summit of a lofty eminence, commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country.  The steep acclivities of the hill are defended by a triple entrenchment, which after the lapse of so many centuries is still entire.

Clun was formerly a lordship in the Marches, and was first incorporated by the Lords Marches, whose charter was confirmed by Edmund Earl of Arundel in the reign of Edward II., at which time its prescriptive right was admitted, but the charter not having been enrolled in Chancery, and all the records of the Lords Marches having been destroyed, its being an incorporate borough was proved by parole evidence.  In the sixth year of King John, William Fitz Allan had a charter for a fair to be kept here for three days at Martlemas, which was the 11th of November and two days after.  Fairs are now held on the last Friday in January, May 11th, June 15th, September 23rd, and November 22nd, and a market is held every Tuesday.  The poor-law union of Clun comprises nineteen parishes, seventeen of which are in Shropshire, and contains a population of 10,024 persons.

The Church, dedicated to St. George, is an ancient structure in the early style of Norman architecture, and has evidently been of greater extent than it is at present.  It has a low tower of great strength with a pyramidal roof, from the centre of which rises another tower of similar form, but of smaller dimensions; there is a peal of six bells.  The most ancient part of the building is the nave, which no doubt existed prior to the Norman Conquest.  The arch under the tower forming the western entrance bears a strong resemblance to the Saxon style.  The northern entrance is under a highly ornamented Norman arch, on the east side of which is an arched recess, richly cinquefoiled.  This church was partly destroyed in Oliver Cromwell’s time by Fleetwood, one of his generals.  The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £18. 10s. 5d., now £680, in the patronage of the Earl of Powis and incumbency of the Rev. Christopher Swainson.  The Primitive Methodists have a neat stone chapel at Clun, built in 1834, which will accommodate 150 persons.  The Wesleyan Methodists have also a chapel here.

Charities.—Henry Earl of Northampton, by will, dated 1614, founded Clun Hospital (dedicated to the Holy Trinity), and endowed it with tithes now producing a revenue of £1,600 per annum, for the support of thirteen poor brethren, including a master or warden.  The buildings comprise a quadrangle forty yards in length and the same in breadth, which were extended in the year 1845, by the erection of a chapel, and a dining hall, and a house for the warden.  The management of the hospital is vested in the bailiff, vicar, and churchwardens, the steward of the lordship, the rector of Hopesay, and the warden.  The Bishop of Hereford is visitor of the hospital, which now consists of 18 poor brethren, who receive 10s. per week, and a warden who receives £80 per year, with a house rent free, and firing.  The chapel is beautified with a handsome window ornamented with the arms of the founder, the Earl of Powis and the Bishop of Hereford.

Sarah Like, by will, 1725, left £60, and directed that the interest thereof should be expended in teaching 15 poor children to read English.

William and Elizabeth Stirchley, by indenture, dated 1730, bequeathed nine acres of land at Hopebendrid township, in this parish, in trust, to apply the rents and profits thereof for the benefit of the poor inhabitants of Clun, to be distributed to them every Sunday in bread.

Francis Brown, who died in 1795, left £100 for the benefit of the poor of Clun, the interest thereof to be distributed in bread every Sunday.  There is a sum of money in the hands of the present vicar amounting to £80, the origin of which is unknown, but it is probable that the sums of £50 stated in the returns of 1786 to have been given by Peter Meredith, and £20 by William Acton, form part of it.  Interest is paid for this sum at the rate of five per cent., and what is not required for the weekly supply of bread, is given away in clothing.  Randle Tonna, who died in 1799, left £100, and directed the interest thereof to be distributed among twenty poor people, in such sums as the vicar and churchwardens should appoint.

Bickton and Weston is a township in Clun parish, one and a half mile N.W. by N. of that place, which in 1841 had seven houses and forty persons.  It contains 1,787a. 1r. 25p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,138. 18s. 4d., and gross estimated rental, £1,208.  The rent charge of this township paid to the vicar is £79. 1s. 2d., and to the lay impropriators £6. 15s. 9d.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor and the principal landowner.

Edicliff is a township two miles north of Clun, containing 1,028a. 2r. 9p. of land, the rateable value of which is £944. 10s., and gross estimated rental £1,037. 5s.  At the census of 1841 there were 35 houses and 157 persons.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Powis, John and Thomas Price, Esqrs., and Mr. John Luther.

Guilder Down is a small township, one mile north of Clun, containing 919a. 2r. 10p. of land, the rateable value of which is £944. 10s.  The Earl of Powis is sole landowner.  The rent charge paid to the vicar is £37. 8s.  In 1841 here were eight houses and fifty persons.

Hopebendrid is a township, four miles south of Clun, containing 1,727a. 2r. 35p. of land, the rent charge of which is £53. 11s. 8d. paid to the vicar, and £29. 16s. 6d. to the lay impropriators.  At the census of 1841 here were 25 houses and 138 persons.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Middleton, Mr. John Hamer, and Mr. Thomas Galliers.  In this township is the village of Chapel Lawn, where stands a chapel of ease to Clun, which was erected in the year 1844.  There are 232 sittings, of which 162 are declared free and unappropriated for ever, in consequence of a grant from the incorporated society.  The chapel is in the early English style of architecture.  In the chancel is a richly stained glass window representing the Crucifixion.

Manutton is a township, one mile and a half south-west by west of Clun, containing 302a. 2r. 37p. of land, the rent charge on which is £37. 11s. 8d.  The principal landowners are Mr. Thomas Jones and Mr. William Edwards.  In 1841 this township contained 10 houses and 39 persons.

Newcastle is a village, three miles and a half south-west by west of Clun, which contained in 1841, 32 houses and 176 inhabitants.  The township has 2,989 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £1,066. 6s. 8d.  The rent charge paid to the vicar amounts to £85. 12s. 8d., and that to the lay impropriators £22. 13s. 1d.  The principal landowners are John Oakes, Esq.; the Earl of Powis; Mrs. Beaumond; Mrs. Ann Richards; and Mr. Thomas Owen.  There is a Chapel of Ease here annexed to Clun parish.

Obarris is a township in the parish of Clun, contains 622a. 2r. 32p. of land, the rateable value of which is £308. 10s.  Rent charge paid to the vicar, £19. 16s., and that to the lay impropriators is £16. 12s. 3d.  In 1841 here were 17 houses and 67 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are William Hamer, Esq.; Thomas Whettall, Esq.; and Mr. Thomas Middleton.

Pentrehodrey township lies about four miles south west from Clun, and consists of two farm houses and a few cottages.  There are 670a. 2r. 10p. of land, the rateable value of which is £439. 12s. 6d.  The small tithes paid to the vicar amount to £27. 12s. 4d., the tithes paid to the impropriators amount to £29. 12s. 10d.  The principal landowners are Richard Edwards, Esq.; B. J. E. Williams, Esq.; and Richard Matthews, Esq.

Peerlogue, a township three miles south-west of Clun, containing 1,009a. 2r. 24p. of land.  The vicarial tithes are commuted for £39. 16s. 2d., and the rectoral for £29. 11s. 4d.  Rateable value of the township, £439. 12s. 6d.  The principal landowners are the Rev. Christopher Swainson; Mr. Samuel Pugh; Mrs. Clark; and Mr. Thomas Jones.

Shadwell is a small township, four miles from Clun, containing 813a. 1r. 3p. of land, the rateable value of which is £709, and the small tithes are commuted for £47. 12s. 11d., and the rectoral for £31. 13s. 8d.  In 1841 here were nine houses and 59 persons.  The principal landowners in this township are William Botfield, Esq., and Mr. John Luther.

Spoad, a township three miles south-west by west of Clun, contains 12 houses and 31 persons, and has an area of 1,251a. 3r. 26p. of land, the rateable value of which is £592. 15s. 10d.  Rent charge paid to the vicar, £43. 10s. 5d., and that to the lay impropriators £20. 2s.  The principal landowners are Thomas Brown, Esq.; Thomas Moore, Esq.; Mr. Thomas Owen; Rev. Christopher Swainson; and Edwd. Morris, Esq.

Treverward is a small township, two miles and a quarter from Clun, and contains 1,025a. 2r. 4p. of land, the rateable value of which is £315. 5s. 10d.  Of the rent charge £25. 1s. 5d. is apportioned to the vicar of the parish, and £12. 2s. 1d. to the lay impropriators.  In 1841 here were 20 houses and 94 persons.  The principal landowners are Thomas Jones, Esq.; Trustees of T. B. Davies, Esq.; Mr. Thomas Middleton; and Mr. Richard Turner.

Whitcott-Evan is a township in the parish of Clun, two miles west of the church, situated in a beautiful vale, and has an area of 426a. 1r. 11p. of land, the rateable value of which is £326. 5s The vicarial tithes are commuted for £22. 1s. 1d., and the amount paid to the lay impropriators is £13. 12s.  In 1841 here were six houses and 38 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Roger Bryan, Esq., and Edward Rogers, Esq.

Whitcott-Keysett is a village and township two miles west of Clun, divided from Whitcott-Evan by the river Clun.  It contains 2,303a. 0r. 24p. of land, the rateable value of which is £1,267. 18s. 8d.  The rent charge paid to the vicar is £81. 8s., and that to the lay impropriators £56. 13s. 5d.  In 1841 here were 51 houses and 225 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are Rev. John Rogers; Richard Bright, Esq.; Francis Brown, Esq.; Richard Parry, Esq.; John Wellings, Esq.; William Jones, Esq.; the Earl of Powis; Rev. Christopher Swainson; and several others.  There is a small Baptist Chapel in this township.

Post Office at Mrs. Thomas.  Letters arrive at 11 A.M., and are despatched at 2 P.M.

CLUN DIRECTORY.

Addis John, shoemaker

Addis Richard, tailor

Baker John, baker

Beaumond Mrs. Sarah

Beaumond Wm., hairdresser

Bradley Mrs. Mary, Cromfryd

Braze Mary, baker

Bright Jeremh. vict., Buffalo

Bright Margaret, dressmaker

Bright Thomas, maltster

Bowen John, carrier to Salop

Carter Rev. William, curate

Chelmick Edwd., shoemaker

Chelmick William, beerseller

Childe Joseph, farmer

Cooke John, joiner

Coombs Lawrence, inland revenue officer

Cullis Mrs. Dorothy

Davies Ann, stationer

Davies Benjamin, stone and marble mason

Davies John, beerseller

Davies John, carpenter

Davies John, cooper

Davies Margaret, academy

Davies Mary, baker

Davies Thomas, butcher

Davies Thomas, glazier and ironmonger

Davies Wm., relieving officer

Dear Wm., supervisor, Villa

Evans Daniel, beerseller

Evans Mrs. Elizbth. Cottage

Evans Ths. Esq. Castle Cttge.

Faulkner John, mason

Farmer William, beerseller

Francis John, shoemaker

Francis John, wheelwright

Francis William, shoemaker

Gwilliam Benjamin, farmer

Hamer Jas. grocer & ironmgr.

Hamer John, farmer

Hamer Ths. frmr., Woodside

Harris Thomas, farmer

Haynes John, joiner

Heighway Thomas P. farmer, Cock’s Hall

Hinckman Walter, carrier to Ludlow

Howells Mrs. Elizabeth

Hughlings Mrs. Martha

Jones James, shoemaker

Jones Jeremiah, blacksmith

Jones Richard, tailor

Jones, William and Harley, drapers and grocers

Jones William, warden, Clun Hospital

Langford Jno. frmr. the Villa

Lewis Rev. Lewis, curate

Luther Mr. Richard

Luther William, beerseller and maltster

Matthews Thomas, farmer

Moore Jane, draper & grocer

Morgan Rev. Jenkin, curate

Morris Philip, Esq. the Hurst

Morris Thomas, butcher

Oldbury Charles, vict., White Horse

Parry Thomas, saddler

Poston Samuel, shopkeeper

Price Edward, shoemaker

Rawlings Francis, shoemaker

Rawlings John, draper and grocer

Roberts John, skinner

Rogers Mrs. Ann

Sheild Robert D., surgeon

Smith Mrs Martha

Speake Samuel, stone mason

Swainson Rev. Chrisr., vicar

Taylor Edwin, vict. Six Bells

Thomas Eliza, grocer

Thomas Richard, druggist

Vaughan Rich., stone mason

Walters Edward, weaver

Whiston John, vict. the Sun

Whittall Thomas, shoemaker

Williams Morgan, saddler and harness maker

BICTON DIRECTORY.

Collings John, farmer

Hamar Henry, farmer

Luther Martin, farmer

Statham Rowland, farmer

EDICLIFFE DIRECTORY.

Adams Richard, beerseller

Gough Thomas, farmer

Gwillian James, farmer

Thomas Edward, farmer

GUILDEN DOWN DIRECTORY.

Gwilliam Richard, farmer

Luther Thomas, farmer

HOPEBENDRID DIRECTORY.

Baldwin Saml., maltster and victualler, the Woodcock

Bright Richard, farmer

Jones John, blacksmith, Chapel Lawn

Lloyd William, farmer, Lyne-y-ven

Williams Jno. farmer, Chapel Lawn

MANUTTON DIRECTORY.

Edwards William, farmer

Matthews Isaac farmer, Wear

NEWCASTLE DIRECTORY.

Beaumond William, farmer, Fron End

Beddows Geo., farmer, Garn

Evans John, blacksmith

Hamar Henry, farmer

Hamar Thomas, farmer

Jones Richard, beerseller and shopkeeper

Southern Robert, miller

OBARRIS DIRECTORY.

Edwards Thomas, farmer

Gittins Wm. frmr. Penywarne

Hamar William, Esq.

Middleton Thomas, farmer

PENTREHODREY DIRECTORY.

Davies John, farmer

Edwards Richard, farmer, Bryncalled

PURLOGUE DIRECTORY.

Bevan Francis, farmer

Bright Charles, farmer

Jones Thomas, farmer

Mason Edward, farmer

Lewis Thomas, farmer

SHADWELL DIRECTORY.

Jones Thomas, farmer, Llanhedrick

Luther John, farmer and corn miller

Sankey John, farmer

SPOAD DIRECTORY.

Brown Thomas, farmer

Hamar Henry, farmer

Hudson Stephen, farmer

Wooley Thomas, farmer

TREVERWARD DIRECTORY.

Davies Mr. William, Upper Treverward

WHITCOTT-EVAN DIRECTORY.

Bryan Roger, Esq. Little Hall

Owens Richard, farmer

WHITCOTT-KEYSETT DIRECTORY.

Bright Richard, farmer

Brown Francis, farmer

Edwards John, farmer

Miles John, farmer

Francis John, wheelwright

Gough John, farmer

Hamar Henry, farmer

Jones James, blacksmith

Parry Richard, farmer

Wellings John, farmer

BETTWS-Y-CRWYN, OR BETTWS,
is an extensive parish, near the south-western verge of the county, nine miles north-west from Kington, comprehending the townships of Kevancalanog, Rugantine, and Trebrodier, which together comprise an area of 8,664 acres of land, of which 5,950 are in common lands.  The tithes are commuted for £214. 2s.  Rateable value of the parish, £2,037. 2s. 6d.  At the census of 1841 there were 308 inhabitants; 1851, 452.

Kevancalanog township has a scattered population, and in 1841 had 232 inhabitants, at which period 19 persons were returned as resident in Clun parish.  This township contains 4,800 acres of land, the tithes of which have been commuted for £67. 5s.  The Earl of Powis is the principal landowner and lord of the manor.  Michael Jones, Esq., and others are also proprietors.

Rugantine township lies on the western borders of the county, and contains 1,970 acres of land, separated from Radnorshire by the river Teme, which adds beauty and fertility to this delightful valley.  One thousand three hundred and fifty acres of the land in this township are in open common.  The principal owners are the Earl of Powis; John Lloyd, Esq.; William Price, Esq.; and George Green, Esq.  At the census of 1841 there were 19 houses and 100 inhabitants.  The tithes are commuted for £66. 7s.

Trebrodier, a township in the parish of Bettws-y-Crwyn, is situated on the south-west verge of the county, on the borders of Wales.  In 1841 there were 26 houses and 139 inhabitants.  The chief landowners are the Earl of Powis; Edward Jones, Esq.; Thomas Hamer, Esq.; Michael Jones, Esq.; Mr. Francis Howells; and Mr. Charles Lloyd.  At the Moat, in this township, the residence of E. Jones, Esq., is a lofty mound, or barrow of the ancient Britons, which is surrounded by a deep moat.  The Church is an irregular built structure of considerable antiquity, in an isolated position, and surrounded by uninclosed lands.  It consists of nave and chancel, and has a belfry with one bell, which can only be heard at one house in the whole parish.  The ceiling of the church is of timber, beautifully carved.  The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Earl of Powis, and incumbency of the Rev. R. N. Kinchant.

Directories.—Kevancalanog: John Brown, farmer, Dyfryn; William Davies, farmer, Brook House; Richard Gough, farmer; Mary Hamer, farmer, Dyfryn; Richard Hudson, farmer, Black Mountain; Edward Jones, farmer, Moar Hall; Edward Owen, farmer, Hall of the Forest; John Price, farmer, Upper Lawn; William Pritchard, farmer, New House.

Rugantine: Joseph and Thomas Chandler, farmers; John Davies, farmer; George Lloyd, farmer; John Lloyd, farmer; William Price, farmer.

Trebrodier: George Hamer, farmer; William Hughes, farmer; Edward Jones, farmer, The Moat: Mr. Chas. Lloyd, Bettws; John Lloyd, farmer, Bettws; John Morris, farmer, Hambly-cot-farm; William Richards, farmer, Cross House.

LLANVAIR-WATERDINE
is an extensive parish on the extreme south western borders of Shropshire, divided from Radnorshire by the river Teme.  It contains the townships of Clewilsey, Funnanvair, Llanvair, Maneythesney, Selley, Skyborry, and Trebert, which had at the census of 1841 108 houses and 603 inhabitants; population in 1801, 466; and in 1831, 566.  The village of Llanvair is pleasantly situated on the northern banks of the river Teme, four miles N.W. of Knighton, and has an area of 280a. 1r. 20p. of land, the rateable value of which is £312. 0s. 6d.  The principal landowners are the trustees of Millington’s charity, Shrewsbury; George Davies, Esq., and Edward Griffiths, Esq.  The township had at the census of 1841 twenty houses and 102 persons.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, consists of nave, chancel, and south aisle, which is separated from the body of the church by a row of oak pillars, beautifully carved.  The living is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of the Earl of Powis and incumbency of the Rev. John R. N. Kinchant.  The tithes are commuted for £375.  Previous to the year 1714 several donors left sums of money, amounting in the whole to £40, for the benefit of the poor, which was expended in 1714 in the purchase of about three acres of ground, the rent of which is now given to the poor.  The Rev. John Davies, D.D., by will, left the sum of £100 for the benefit of the poor.  This sum was lost in 1772, by the insolvency of the person in whose hands it was placed out at interest.

Directory.—Richard Bright, vict., Red Lion; Benjamin Brown, blacksmith; George Davies, farmer, Black Hall; Richard Davies, wheelwright; John Griffiths, shoemaker; Joseph Miles, shoemaker; Mary Price, farmer, Meadow Cottage; Edward Trudge, farmer, Llanvair Hall.

Clewilsey is a township three miles N.W. of Llanvair, containing 1,167a. 3r. of land, the rateable value of which is £825. 6s.  The principal landowners are Mrs. Conway, Edward Price, Esq., Mrs. Maria Rutter, Mrs. Ann Richards, and the Earl of Powis.  The village contains 32 houses and 306 persons.  Directory.—Martha Bowen, farmer; James Edwards, farmer, Brynbeddow; Edward Price, farmer, The Runnis; Richard Thomas, farmer.

Funnanvair is a township in Llanvair-Waterdine parish, which contains 432 acres of land.  Rateable value, £321. 18s.  In 1841 there were fifteen houses and 74 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are C. L. Duppa Duppa, Esq.; Edward Griffiths, Esq.; and Mr. John Griffiths, besides whom are a number of smaller freeholders.  Directory.—Evan Davies, farmer, Blain-y-dree; John Lyre, farmer, Cwm Brain.

Maneythesney is a township one and a half mile S.W. of Llanvair, which contains 712 acres of land.  Rateable value, £685. 7s. 6d.  The township at the census of 1841 had eleven houses and 52 inhabitants.  The principal landowners are the trustees of Millington’s charity, Shrewsbury; and Thomas Jones, Esq.  Directory.—Edward Griffiths, farmer, Melling-y-groge; Thomas Jones, farmer, and Jonathan Swancott, farmer.

Selley is a township two and three quarter miles N.E. of Llanvair, which contains 516 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £285. 6s. 8d.  The principal landowners are Henry Powell, Esq.; Walter Lander, Esq.; and Edward Hamar, Esq.  At the census of 1841 here were three houses and 25 persons.  Directory.—Richard Edwards, farmer, Garbett; John Collins, farmer, Little Selley; and Penry Powell, farmer, Selley Hall.

Skyborry is a township one mile N.W. of Knighton, which has a population of 98 persons and 21 houses.  It comprehends an area of 839 acres, the rateable value of which is £775. 3s. 4d.  The principal landowners are John Davies, Esq.; John Edwards, Esq.; Michael Jones, Esq.; Henry Powell, Esq.; and Mr. Thomas Bright.  Directory.—John Bevan, farmer, Monach-ty; Charles Edwards, farmer; Michael Jones, Esq., Nether Skyborry; and William Parr, farmer.

Trebert is a small township containing 662a. 2r. of land, the rateable value of which is £422. 6s. 8d.  The principal landowners are the trustees of Millington’s charity, Shrewsbury; the Rev. John R. N. Kinchant; and James Lee, Esq.  The parsonage house is situated in this township.  Directory.—Charles Davies, Esq., The Craig; Mrs. Jane Davies, Landinshup; the Rev. John R. N. Kinchant, incumbent, of Llanvair-Waterdine; and Ann Price, farmer, The Veddw.

MAINSTONE
is a parish partly in this county and partly in that of Montgomery, which comprises the townships of Mainstone, Edenhope, Knuck and Reilth.  At the census of 1801 the parish had 406 inhabitants; in 1831, 462; 1841, 449; of whom 276 persons were returned as in this county, and the remainder in Montgomeryshire.  “The village of Mainstone is situated in a hilly district, four miles south-west by west from Bishop’s Castle.  The township contains 362a. 1r. 38p. of land, and in 1841 had 17 houses and 91 inhabitants.  Rateable value £306. 12s. 6d.  The principal landowners are the Misses Beck, Rev. John Harrison, and Mr. Benjamin Beddoes.  The Earl of Powis is lord of the manor.  The Church is an antique structure of unpresuming appearance, dedicated to St. John.  The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £4. 13s. 4d., in the patronage of the lord chancellor: the incumbent is a non-resident.  The tithes are commuted for £343.  This parish is intersected by Offas Dyke.

Charities.—Lewis Reynolds, John Price, Hugh Edwards, John Daniel, William Farmer and John Lateward, left in the whole £25. 10s., of which £23. 10s. was laid out in the purchase of about an acre of land, called Comb-y-Llan, which is let for £1. 10s. per annum.  Catherine Thomas in 1722 left a rent charge of 12s. issuing out of a meadow in Mainstone, and directed it to be distributed among the poor not receiving parochial relief.  Nathaniel Shuker in 1735 conveyed a piece of land called the Little Meadow, in trust, for the benefit of the poor; it now produces a yearly rent of 25s.  The several sums above mentioned, amounting to £3. 7s. per annum, are divided into two parts, and one part is distributed on the north side, which is in the county of Montgomery, and the other on the south side, in the county of Salop.  Humphrey Bird left £10 to the poor of the Shropshire part of the parish of Mainstone.  John Edwards in 1722 left £5 for the benefit of the poor.  The sum of 10s. was annually paid by the donor’s grandson up to the time of his death, in 1806, and he requested his executor to pay 10s. a year in addition to the 5s. a year left by his grandfather.  Since Mr. Edwards’ death, the sum of 10s. only has been received; but it appears evident that 15s. yearly ought to be paid in respect of these charities, according to the intentions of the donors.

Edenhope, a township and small village in the parish of Mainstone, six miles north-west from Clun, comprises 1,673a. 1r. 1p. of land, the rateable value of which is £764. 7s.  The tithes are commuted for £86.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Powis; Henry Lyster, Esq.; John Coates, Esq.: there are also a few smaller proprietors.

Knuck, a small township with a few cottage residences, is situated about a mile south from Mainstone, contains 594 acres of land, and in 1841 had five houses and 26 inhabitants.  The chief landowners are the Misses Beck, Earl Powis, and John Sankey, Esq.  Rateable value of the township, £355. 18s. 6d.

Reilth, a township in Mainstone parish, comprising 717a. 3r. 13p. of land, the rateable value of which is £484. 0s. 6d.  The principal landowners are the Earl of Powis; Richard Sankey, Esq.; Beriah Botfield, Esq.; and the Rev. R. Browne.  In 1841 there were 10 houses and 64 inhabitants.  Directory.—Mainstone: Benjamin Beddoes, farmer; John Lewis, farmer; George Morris, blacksmith; John Powell, schoolmaster, Churchtown; Thomas Powell, shoemaker.  Edenhope: Edward Davies, farmer; Richard Hudson, farmer, Helfield; Edward Jones, farmer; John Thomas, farmer.  Reilth: Richard Sankey, Esq., The Reilth.

FINIS.

PRINTED BY SAMUEL HARRISON, BOOKSELLER, &C., 5, HIGH STREET, SHEFFIELD

FOOTNOTES.

[ii]  Unfortunately this was not present in the copy transcribed and so has had to be omitted in this transcription.—DP.

[32]  The errata has been applied in the transcription.  However, the page 445 has not because Charles Nowell Hill name occurs on other pages where it is not corrected.—DP.

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Table of Contents

HISTORY, GAZETTEER, AND DIRECTORY OF SHROPSHIRE;

PREFACE.

GENERAL INDEX.

GENERAL HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF SHROPSHIRE.

A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL SEATS & RESIDENCES OF THE NOBILITY, GENTRY, & CLERGY, IN THE COUNTY OF SHROPSHIRE.

ERRATA. [32]

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

CHURCHES.

DISSENTING CHAPELS.

SCHOOLS.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

Annals of the Town of Shrewsbury.

CHARITIES.

PARISH OF ST. ALKMUND.

PARISH OF ST. CHAD.

PARISH OF HOLY CROSS.

ST. MARY’S PARISH.

PARISH OF ST. JULIAN.

A LIST OF STREETS, COURTS, GATES, ROWS, PLACES, SQUARES, &c., IN THE TOWN OF SHREWSBURY.

POST OFFICE, CORN MARKET. MR. JOHN WILLIAM TOWERS, POST MASTER.

SHREWSBURY ALPHABETICAL DIRECTORY OF NAMES, TRADES, PROFESSIONS, AND RESIDENCES.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROFESSIONS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES IN THE TOWN OF SHREWSBURY.

Academies.

Accountants.

Agents.

Agricultural Implement Makers.

Architects and Surveyors.

Artists.

Attorneys.

Auctioneers, Appraisers, and House and Estate Agents.

Bakers.

Bankers.

Barristers.

Basket Makers.

Blacksmiths.

Booksellers, Printers, Bookbinders, and Stationers.

Boot and Shoemakers.

Braziers & Tin-plate Workers.

Brewers.

Bricklayers.

Brick and Tile Makers.

Brush Manufacturers.

Builders.

Butchers.

Cabinet Makers, Upholsterers, & Paper Hangers.

Carpenters.

Carvers & Guilders.

Cheese Factors.

Chemists & Druggists.

Clog & Patten Makers.

Clothes Dealers.

Coach Builders.

Coach & Car Proprietors.

Coal Agents.

Coal Merchants.

Coffee & Dining Rooms.

Confectioners.

Cooking Apparatus Manufacturers.

Coopers.

Copper Plate Printers.

Cork Cutter.

Corn Factors.

Corn Millers.

Cow Keepers.

Curriers & Leather Cutters.

Dyers & Scourers.

Engineers.

Engraver & Copper Plate Printer.

Farmers.

Fellmongers.

Fancy Repositories.

Fire & Life Office Agents.

Fishmongers, Game Dealers, & Fruiterers.

Fishing Tackle Manufacturers.

Flannel Merchants.

Flax Spinners and Linen Thread Manufacturers.

Fruiterers & Green Grocers.

Furniture Brokers.

Glass, China, & Earthenware Dealers.

Grocers, & Tea Dealers.

Gunsmiths.

Hair Dressers.

Hardware & General Dealers.

Hatters.

Hop and Seed Merchants.

Hosiers & Smallware Dealers.

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Beerhouses.

Ink Manufacturers.

Iron and Brass Founders.

Iron Merchants.

Ironmongers.

Joiners and Builders.

Lead Merchants.

Libraries [Circulating].

Linen Manufacturer.

Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

Livery Stables.

Maltsters.

Malt & Coffee Mill Makers.

Milliners & Dress Makers.

Millwrights.

Musical Repository.

Nail Makers.

News Agents.

Newspaper Publishers and Proprietors.

Nurserymen & Seedsmen.

Optician.

Painters & Glaziers.

Paper Dealers.

Pawnbrokers.

Patten & Clog Makers.

Perfumers.

Physicians.

Plasterers.

Plumbers.

Printers [Letter Press].

Professors & Teachers.

Pump Makers.

Rag and Bone Dealers.

Rope Makers.

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Salt Merchants.

Shopkeepers.

Skinners & Fellmongers.

Soda Water Manufacturers.

Slate and Tile Merchants.

Silversmiths, Jewellers, and Cutlers.

Stained Glass Manufacturer.

Stay Makers.

Stone and Marble Masons.

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Surgeons.

Surgeon Dentists.

Surveyors.

Tailors.

Tailors and Woollen Drapers.

Tallow Chandlers.

Tanners.

Tea Dealers.

Tea Dealers and Drapers [Travelling].

Timber Merchants.

Tobacco and Snuff Manufacturer.

Tobacconists.

Tobacco Pipe Manufacturer.

Toy Dealers.

Trunk and Portmanteau Makers.

Turners in Wood, &c.

Veterinary Surgeons.

Watch and Clock Makers.

Wharfingers.

Wheelwrights.

Whitesmiths and Bellhangers.

Wine & Spirit Merchants, & Spirit Vaults.

Wire Workers.

Woollen Drapers.

Wool Merchants.

COACHES.

CONVEYANCE BY RAILWAY.

- OMNIBUSES.

- CARRIERS BY RAILWAY.

- CONVEYANCES BY WATER.

- CARRIERS FROM THE INNS.

THE ALBRIGHTON DIVISION.

- ALBRIGHTLEE,
- HARLSCOTT
- HENCOTT,
- BATTLEFIELD

- BROUGHTON,

- YORTON,

- LONGNER

- FITZ

- MYTTON

- GRINSHILL
- HAUGHMOND,
- ALBRIGHTON,
- ASTLEY,
- BERWICK,
- CLIVE
- LEATON
- NEWTON,
- WOLLASCOTT,
- HADNAL, OR HADNAL EASE,
- ALDERTON,
- HARDWICK,
- HASTON
- SHOTTON,
- SMETHCOTT
- PRESTON GUBBALS OR GOBALDS
- MERRINGTON
- UFFINGTON

THE OSWESTRY HUNDRED.

- HALSTON,
- KINNERLEY
- DOVASTON
- EDGERLEY,
- KYNASTON
- MAESBROOK ISSA,
- MAESBROOK UCHA
- OSBASTON
- TIR-Y-COED,
- KNOCKIN,
- ABERTANNAT,
- BLODWELL
- BRYNN,
- LLYNCLYS,
- LLANYMYNECH
- LLANYTIDMAN
- TREPRENAL
- ST. MARTIN
- WESTON RHYN
- BRONYGARTH,
- MELVERLEY,

- OSWESTRY

- OSWESTRY DIRECTORY

- ALPHABETICAL DIRECTORY OF NAMES, PROFESSIONS, TRADES, AND RESIDENCES OF THE INHABITANTS OF OSWESTRY.

- CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROFESSIONS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES IN THE BOROUGH OF OSWESTRY.

- ASTON
- CRICKHEATH,
- CYNYNION
- HISLAND,
- LLANFORDA, OR LLANVORDA,
- MAESBURY
- MIDDLETON,
- MORTON,
- PENTREGAER
- SWEENEY
- TREFARCLAWDD,
- TREFLACH OR TREVLACH,
- TREFONEN,
- WESTON COTTON,
- WOOTON
- RUYTON OF THE ELEVEN TOWNS
- COTTON
- EARDISTON,
- SHELVOCK
- SHOTATTON,
- WIKEY, OR WYKEY,
- SELATTYN
- SYCHTYN
- West Felton
- WEST FELTON
- HAUGHTON,
- REDNAL, OR REDNALL,
- SANDFORD,
- SUTTON
- TEDSMERE,
- TWYFORD,
- WOOLSTON,

- WHITTINGTON

- Academies.

- Blacksmiths.

- Boot & Shoemakers.

- Butchers.

- Carpenters, &c.

- Farmers.

- Inns & Taverns.

- Beerhouses.

- Shopkeepers.

- Tailors.

- BERGHILL

- DAYWELL

- EBNALL
- FERNHILL,
- FRANKTON,
- HENLLE,
- HINDFORD,
- OLD MARTON

PIMHILL HUNDRED.

BASCHURCH
BIRCH
BOREATTON, OR BRATTON,
EYTON,
FENNEMERE,
MEREHOUSE
NESS LITTLE, OR NESS CLIFF,
PRESCOTT
STANWARDINE-IN-THE-FIELDS
STANWARDINE-IN-THE-WOOD
WALFORD,
WESTON LULLINGFIELD
YEATON

ELLESMERE

Academies.

Attorneys.

Auctioneers.

Bakers and Flour Dealers.

Banks.

Blacksmiths.

Booksellers, Printers, Bookbinders, and Stationers.

Boot and Shoe Makers.

Braziers and Tin Plate Workers.

Builders.

Bricklayers.

Butchers.

Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer.

Cheese Factors.

Chemist and Druggist.

Coal Merchants.

Confectioners.

Coopers.

Corn Miller.

Curriers and Leather Cutters.

Cutler and Locksmith.

Fire and Life Office Agents.

Gardeners and Seedsmen.

China, Class, and Earthenware Dealers.

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Hair Dressers.

Hatter.

Hop and Seed Dealers.

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Ironmongers.

Linen and Woollen Drapers and Hatters.

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Maltsters.

Nail Makers.

Plumbers, Glaziers, and Painters.

Plasterers and Slaters.

Rope and Twine Maker.

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Shopkeepers and Dealers in Groceries and Sundries.

Spirit Vaults.
Straw Bonnet Makers.
Surgeons.
Surveyor.
Tailors.
Tallow Chandlers.
Tanner.
Veterinary Surgeon.
Watch & Clock Maker.
Wheelwrights.
Omnibuses.
Carriers.
BIRCH AND LYTHE
COCKSHUT AND CROSEMERE
COLEMERE
CRICKETT
DUDLESTON, OR DUDLISTON,
FARMERS.
EASTWICK,
ELSON AND GREENHILL,
FRANKTON, OR ENGLISH FRANKTON,
HAMPTON WOOD
HARDWICK
KENWICK STOCKETT AND WHATTALL,
KENWICKS PARK
HENWICKS WOOD
LEE
LINEAL
NEW MARTON,
NEWNES
NORTHWOOD,
OTELEY, NEWTON, AND SPOONHILL,
RIDGE HIGHER AND LOWER,
STOCKS AND COPTIVINEY,
TETCHILL
TRENCH,
GREAT NESS
ALDERTON
FELTON BUTLER
HOPTON,
KINTON
NESSCLIFFE
WILCOTT,
HORDLEY
BAGLEY
LOPPINGTON
BURLTON
NONELEY, OR NUNNELEY,
MIDDLE
BALDERTON
MARTON
NEWTON-ON-THE-HILL
MONTFORD
ENSDON,
FORTON,
PETTON
SHRAWARDINE,
WELSH HAMPTON

THE NORTH BRADFORD HUNDRED.

ADDERLEY
SPOONLEY,
SHAVINGTON, OR THE MORREY,
CHESWARDINE
CHIPNALL, OR CHIPPENHALL,
ELLERTON
GOLDSTON
SAMBROOK
SOWDLEY GREAT

DRAYTON-IN-HALES, OR MARKET DRAYTON,

Academies.

Agricultural Implement Manufacturers.

Ale & Porter Merchants.

Attornies.

Auctioneer.

Banks.

Blacksmiths.

Bone Merchant.

Booksellers, Printers, Stationers, Bookbinders, and Circulating Libraries.

Boot and Shoemakers.

Braziers and Tin Plate Workers.

Butchers.

Cabinet Makers and Upholsterers.

Carpenters and Builders.

Chemists and Druggists.

Coach Builder.

Coal Merchants.

Confectioners.

Coopers.

Corn Millers.

Curriers.

Dyers.

Farmers.

Fire and Life Office Agents.

Glass and China Dealers.

Grocers and Tea Dealers.

Hair Dressers.

Hair Seating Manufacturers.

Hatters.

Hosier.

Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

Beerhouses.

Hop and Seed Merchants.

Ironmongers.

Ironfounders.

Linen and Woollen Drapers, Silk Mercers, and Hatters.

Maltsters.

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Nail Maker.

Painter.

Patten and Clog Maker.

Plumbers, Glaziers, and Painters.

Professor of Music.

Pump Maker.

Rope Makers.

Saddlers & Harness Makers.

Shopkeepers, Dealers in Sundries, and Grocers.

Straw Bonnet Makers.
Surgeons.
Tailors.
Tallow Chandlers.
Tanner.
Timber merchants.
Veterinary Surgeons.
Watch and Clock Makers.
Wheelwrights.
Wine and Spirit Merchants.
Wine and Spirit Vaults.
Wood Turners and Chair Makers.
Carriers by Water.
BETTON
LONGSLOW,
SUTTON,
WOODSEAVES,
ERCALL CHILDS,
HUNGARY HATTON,
HINSTOCK
HODNET
BOLAS PARVA,
HAWKSTONE
HOPTON AND ESPLEY,
KENSTONE,
LOSSFORD, OR LOSTFORD,
MARCHAMLEY
PEPLOW,
WESTON UNDER RED CASTLE
WOLLERTON
IGHTFIELD,
LEE BROCKHURST
MORETON CORBET
PRESTON BROCKHURST
MORETON SAY, OR MORETON SEA,
BETCHLEY
LONGFORD,
STYCHE AND WOODLANDS,
BEARSTON
DORRINGTON,
GRAVENHANGER,
WOORE
NORTON IN HALES,
PREES
CALVERHALL, OR CORRA,
DARLISTON
FAULS,
MICKLEY,
MILLEN HEATH,
SANDFORD,
STEELE,
WHIXALL
WILLASTON,
SHAWBURY
ACTON REYNALD,
BESFORD,
EDGEBOLTON
MUCKLETON,
WYTHEFORD MAGNA
WYTHEFORD PARVA,
STOKE-UPON-TERN
EATON
OLLERTON,
WISTANSWICK,
STANTON-UPON-HINE HEATH
BOOLEY, OR BOWLEY,
HARCOURT
HIGH HATTON,
MOSTON
WEM
ASTON
COTTON,
EDSTASTON,
HORTON,
LACON,
LOWE AND DITCHES,
NEWTOWN
NORTHWOOD
SLEAP,
SOULTON,
TILLEY AND TRENCH
WOLVERLEY,
WHITCHURCH
ALKINGTON,
ASH MAGNA
ASH PARVA
BLACK PARK
BROUGHALL.
CHINNEL, OR CHIMNEL,
DODINGTON
EDGELEY,
HINTON,
HOLLYHURST,
TILSTOCK
WOODHOUSES (NEW),
WOODHOUSES (OLD),
WIRSWALL, OR WIRSHALL,

THE SOUTH BRADFORD HUNDRED.

ATCHAM, OR ATTINGHAM,

- Atcham, Berwick, Chilton, Cronkhill, Emstrey, and Uckington Directories.

BOLAS MAGNA, OR GREAT BOLAS,
BUILDWAS
CHETWYND

HOWLE

- DAWLEY MAGNA,

- DAWLEY PARVA,

MALINSLEE

- EATON CONSTANTINE,

- EDGMOND

ADENEY, OR ADNEY,
BUTTEREY
CAYNTON,
CHERRINGTON
CHETWYND, OR FIELD ASTON,
CHURCH ASTON
PICKSTOCK
TIBBERTON
ERCALL HIGH, OR ERCALL MAGNA,
COLD HATTON,
COTWALL AND MOORETOWN,
CRUDGINGTON
ELLERDINE
HOUGHTON,
ISOMBRIDGE,
OSBASTON, OR ASBASTON
POYNTON,
RODEN,
ROWTON,
TERN, OR TEARN,
WALTON
EYTON-UPON-THE-WILD-MOORS,
KINNERSLEY
LEIGHTON
LILLESHALL
DONINGTON, OR DONINGTON WOOD,
MUXTON
LONGDEN-UPON-TERN
LONGFORD
STOCKTON

NEWPORT

- Academies.

- Agricultural Implement Maker.

- Ale, Porter, & Spirit Agents.

- Attorneys.

- Auctioneers.

- Bakers.

- Banks.

- Blacksmiths.

- Booksellers, Printers, Stationers, Bookbinders, and Patent Medicine Vendors.

- Boot and Shoemakers.

- Braziers & Tin-Plate Workers.

- Bricklayer.

- Butchers.

- Cabinet Makers and Upholsterers.

- Chemists & Druggists.

- Clothiers.

- Confectioners.

- Coopers.

- Corn Miller.

- Curriers & Leather Cutters.

- Engineers, Millwrights, and Brass Founders.

- Fire & Life Office Agents.

- Glass & China Dealers.

- Fish and Game Dealers and Fruiterers.

- Grocers & Tea Dealers.

- Gun & Pistol Maker.

- Hair Dressers.

- Hatters.

- Hosiers and Haberdashers.

- Hotels, Inns, & Taverns.

- Beerhouses.

- Ironmongers.

- Joiners and Builders.

- Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

- Maltsters.

- Milliners and Dress Makers.

- Patten and Clog Maker.

- Plumbers, Glaziers, and Painters.

- Rope and Twine Maker.

- Saddlers & Harness Makers.

- Shopkeepers, Dealers in Sundries, and Groceries.

- Soda Water Manufacturer.

- Stone Mason.

- Straw Bonnet Makers.

- Surgeons.

- Surveyor and Builder.

- Tailors.

- Tallow Chandlers.

- Tanner.

- Timber Merchants.

- Turnery, Bendware, and Hair Sieve Manufacturers, & General Wood Turners.

- Veterinary Surgeon.

- Watch & Clock Makers.

- Wheelwrights.

- Wine & Spirit Merchants.

- Wood Turners.

- Wool Staplers.

- General Carriers.

PRESTON-UPON-THE-WILD-MOORS
RODINGTON, OR RODDINGTON,
STIRCHLEY
UPPINGTON
UPTON MAGNA
UPTON WATERS, OR PARVA,

WELLINGTON

- LIST OF STREETS, ROADS, LANES, &c., IN WELLINGTON.

- ALPHABETICAL DIRECTORY OF NAMES, PROFESSIONS, TRADES, AND RESIDENCES, IN WELLINGTON.

- CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROFESSIONS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES IN THE TOWN OF WELLINGTON.

- ARLESTONE
- APLEY
- ASTON
- DOTHILL
- HADLEY
- HORTON,
- KETLEY
- LAWLEY
- WALCOT, OR WALCOTT,
- WAPPENSHALL AND LEEGOMERY
- WITHINGTON
- WOMBRIDGE,
- OAKENGATES

WOODCOTE
WROCKWARDINE
ADMASTON
ALLSCOTT,
BRATTON,
BURCOTT, LEATON, CLOTLEY, AND CLUDDLEY,
CHARLTON
LONG LANE,
WROCKWARDINE WOOD

WROXETER

- Wroxeter Directory.

- Donnington Directory.

- Dryton Directory.

- Eyton Directory.

- Norton Directory.

- Rushton Directory.

BRIMSTREE HUNDRED.

ALBRIGHTON

- Academy.

- Baker and Flour Dealer.

- Boot and Shoemakers.

- Brick and Tile Maker.

- Bricklayers.

- Butchers.

- Cabinet Makers.

- Chemist and Druggist.

- Coal Dealers and Carters.

- Coal and Lime Agent.

- Corn Millers.

- Farmers.

- Grocers and Tea Dealers.

- Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

- Beerhouse.

- Linen & Woollen Drapers.

- Maltsters.

- Milliners and Dress Makers.

- Plumbers, Glaziers, & Painters.

- Saddler and Harness Maker.

- Sawyer and Wood Dealer.

- Shopkeeper.

- Smiths.

- Stone Masons and Builders.

- Surgeons.

- Tailor and Woollen Draper.

- Veterinary Surgeons.

- Watch and Clock Makers.

- Wheelwrights.

- Carrier

BADGER
BECKBURY
BOBBINGTON
BONINGHALL, OR BONINGALE,
BOSCOBEL

CLAVERLEY

- Claverley Directory.

- Aston Directory.

- Beobridge Directory.

- Broughton Directory.

- Dalicott Directory.

- Farmcott Directory.

- Gatacre Directory.

- Heathton Directory.

- Hopstone Directory.

- Ludstone Directory.

- Shipley Directory.

- Sutton Directory.

- Woundale Directory.

DONINGTON
KEMBERTON,
RYTON
SHIFFNAL,

PRIORS LEE

- Academies.

- Accountant.

- Attorneys.

- Auctioneers.

- Bakers and Flour Dealers.

- Bankers.

- Blacksmiths.

- Booksellers, Printers, Stationers, & Bookbinders.

- Boot and Shoemakers.

- Braziers and Tin-plate Workers.

- Bricklayers and Masons.

- Butchers.

- Cabinet Makers & Upholsterers.

- Cheese, Butter, and Bacon Factors.

- Chemists and Druggists.

- Coal Agents.

- Coal Merchants.

- Confectioners.

- Coopers.

- Corn Factor.

- Curriers & Leather Cutters.

- Farmers.

- Fellmongers.

- Fire and Life Office Agents.

- Fishmonger.

- Grocers and Tea Dealers.

- Hair Dresser.

- Hatters and Dealers.

- Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

- Beerhouses.

- Ironfounders.

- Ironmongers.

- Joiners and Builders.

- Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

- Livery Stable Keepers.

- Maltsters.

- Milliners and Dressmakers.

- Plumbers, Painters, and Glaziers.

- Rope, Oil Cloth, and Tarpauling Makers.

- Saddlers and Harness Makers.

- Tillage Dealers and Farm Seedsmen.

- Shopkeepers and Dealers in Sundries and Groceries.

- Smallware Dealer.

- Spirit Vaults and Wine and Spirit Merchant.

- Surgeons.

- Tailors.

- Tallow Chandler.

- Veterinary Surgeons.

- Watch and Clock Maker.

- Wheelwrights.

Hatton District Directory.

- Haughton Directory.

- Priors Lee Directory.

- Woodside District Directory.

STOCKTON
SUTTON MADDOCK
TONG, OR TONGE,

WORFIELD

- Worfield.

- ACKLETON.

- ALLSCOT.

- BARNSLEY.

- BENTLEY.

- BROMLEY.

- BRADNEY.

- BURCOTE.

- CHESTERTON.

- CRANMERE.

- CATSTREE.

- EWDNESS.

- FENN GATE.

- HILTON.

- HOCCOM.

- HALLON.

- HARTLEBERRY.

- KING SLOW.

- LITTLE GANE.

- OLDINGTON.

- NEWTON.

- ROUGHTON.

- RINGLEFORD.

- ROWLEY.

- STANMORE.

- STABLEFORD.

- SWANCOTE.

- WHEEL GREEN.

- WINSCOTE.

- WYKEN.

THE CONDOVER HUNDRED.

- ACTON BURNELL
- RUCKLEY AND LANGLEY
- BERRINGTON
- CONDOVER
- DORRINGTON
- COUND
- CRESSAGE
- CHURCH PREEN,

- CHURCH PULVERBATCH,

- CASTLE PULVERBATCH
- COTHERCUTT
- WILDERLEY
- WRENTNALL,

- FRODESLEY
- HARLEY
- KENLEY
- LEEBOTWOOD,
- LONGNOR

- MEOLE BRACE

- NEWTON AND EDGBOLD
- NOBOLD,
- PULLEY

- PITCHFORD
- SMETHCOTT, OR SMETHCOTE,
- STAPLETON
- SUTTON,
- WOOLSTASTON
- THE MUNSLOW HUNDRED.
- ABDON
- ACTON SCOTT, OR ACTON-ON-THE-HILL,
- ASHFORD BOWDLER
- ASHFORD CARBONELL
- BROMFIELD
- CARDINGTON
- CARDINGTON TOWNSHIPS

- CHURCH STRETTON

- ALL STRETTON

- LITTLE STRETTON

- MINTON

- ALL STRETTON DIRECTORY.

- LITTLE STRETTON DIRECTORY.

- MINTON DIRECTORY.

- CLEE ST. MARGARET, OR CLEE TOWN,
- COLD WESTON
- CULMINGTON
- DIDDLEBURY
- CORFTON
- EASTHOPE
- EATON-UNDER-HEYWOOD
- HALFORD,
- HOLDGATE
- HOPE BOWDLER
- HOPTON-IN-THE-HOLE, OR HOPTON CANGEFORD,
- LUDFORD
- MUNSLOW
- ONIBURY
- RICHARDS CASTLE,
- RUSHBURY
- SHIPTON
- STANTON LACY
- STANTON LONG
- STOKE ST. MILBOROUGH
- STOKESAY
- TUGFORD

THE WENLOCK FRANCHISE.

BARROW
BENTHALL
BROSELEY,
HUGHLEY
LINLEY
LITTLE WENLOCK

MADELEY

- MADELEY DIRECTORY.

- Ironbridge and Madeley Wood Directories.

- Coalbrook Dale Directory.

- Coalport Directory.

MONK HOPTON
MUCH WENLOCK
MUCH WENLOCK TOWNSHIPS.

PRIORS DITTON,

- Priors Ditton, Ashfield and Ruthall, and Middleton Priors Directories.

WILLEY

LUDLOW

- Academies.

- Accountants.

- Agricultural Implement Maker.

- Artists.

- Attorneys.

- Auctioneers and Valuers.

- Bakers and Flour Dealers.

- Bankers.

- Basket Makers.

- Blacksmiths.

- Booksellers, Binders, Printers and Stationers.

- Boot & Shoe Makers.

- Brazier & Tin-plate Worker.

- Builders.

- Brick & Tile Manufacturer.

- Butchers.

- Cabinet Makers.

- Carvers and Gilders.

- Chemists & Druggists.

- Coach Makers.

- Confectioners.

- Coopers.

- Curriers and Leather Cutters.

- Cutlery Dealer.

- Farmers.

- Fellmonger.

- Fire & Life Offices.

- Fishmongers.

- Fruiterer.

- Furniture Broker.

- Glass and China Dealers.

- Glover.

- Grocers, Tea Dealers, and Cheesemongers.

- Gun Makers.

- Hair Dressers and Perfumers.

- Hat Manufacturers.

- Hop Merchants.

- Hosiers.

- Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

- Ironmongers.

- Joiners.

- Land, Estate, & House Agents.

- Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

- Maltsters.

- Millers and Corn Dealers.

- Milliners & Dress makers.

- Millwright.

- Nursery and Seedsmen.

- Painters.

- Pawnbroker.

- Paper Manufacturer.

- Physician.

- Plumbers and Glaziers.

- Poulterers.

- Professor and Teacher.

- Saddlers & Harness Makers.

- Sharebroker.

- Shopkeepers.

- Spade Tree Makers.

- Stone & Marble Masons.

- Straw Hat Makers.

- Surgeons.

- Surveyors.

- Tailors.

- Tanner.

- Timber Merchants.

- Toy and Fancy Repositories.

- Trunk Maker.

- Turner in Wood.

- Veterinary Surgeons.

- Watch and Clock Makers.

- Whitesmiths.

- Wine & Spirit Merchants.

- Woollen Manufacturer.

- Carriers.

THE HUNDRED OF STOTTESDEN.

ACTON ROUND, OR ROUND ACTON,

ALVELEY

- ALVELEY DIRECTORY.

NORDLEY REGIS DIRECTORY.
ROMSLEY DIRECTORY.
ASTLEY ABBOTTS,
ASTON BOTTEREL
BILLINGSLEY,

BRIDGNORTH

Academies.

Accountants.

Architects and Surveyors.

Attornies.

Auctioneers and Valuers.

Bakers and Flour Dealers.

Barge Owners.

Boat Builders.

Bankers.

Basket Makers.

Berlin Repository.

Blacksmiths.

Bookbinders.

Booksellers, Printers, and Stationers.

Boot and Shoemakers.

Braziers & Tin-plate Workers.

Bricklayers & Masons.

Brick & Tile Makers.

Builders.

Butchers.

Cabinet Makers.

Carpet & Rug Manufacturers.

Carvers and Gilders.

Cement and Plaster Dealer.

Chair Maker & Broker.

Charcoal Iron Manufacturer.

Cheese, Butter & Bacon Dealers.

Chemists & Druggists.

Clothes Dealers.

Coach Makers.

Coal Dealers.

Coal Merchants.

Confectioners.

Coopers.

Corn Factors & Seed Merchants.

Cow keepers.

Cutlery Dealers.

Curriers and Leather Cutters.

Dyers.

Engravers.

Fish-tackle Dealers and Net Makers.

Farmers.

Fellmongers, Skinners, and Wool Dealers.

Fire and Life Office Agents.

Fishmonger & Dealer in Game.

Flour Dealers.

Furniture Dealers and Paper Hangers.

Gardeners & Seedsmen.

Glass & China Dealers.

Glover.

Grocers & Tea Dealers.

Hair Dressers and Perfumers.

Hatters.

Hop Merchants.

Hosiers.

Hotels, Inns and Taverns.

Beerhouses.

Ironfounders.

Irondealers.

Ironmongers.

Joiners and Builders.

Lacemen.

Land and Estate Agents.

Linen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

Locksmiths.

Livery Stable Keepers.

Machine Makers.

Maltsters and Dealers in Hops.

Market Gardeners.

Millers.

Milliners and Dress Makers.

Nail Makers.

Oil and Faint Dealer.

Painters, Plumbers, and Glaziers.

Patent Medicine Dealers.

Pawnbroker.

Physician.

Porter Agents.

Post Horses. For Hire.

Professors and Teachers.

Rope and Twine Makers.

Saddlers and Harness Makers.

Salt Dealers. Fine and Agriculture.

Seed, Guano, & Tillage Dealers.

Shopkeepers. Dealers in provisions & sundries.

Spirit Vaults.

Stay Maker.

Stone Masons and Slaters.

Straw Bonnet Makers.

Surgeons.

Surveyors.

Tailors.

Tallow Chandler.

Tanners.

Tea and Coffee Dealers.

Timber Merchants.

Tobacco Pipe Makers.

Toy & Fancy Repository.

Veterinary Surgeons.

Watch and Clock Makers.

Wharfingers.

Wheelwrights.

Whitesmiths & Bell hangers.

Wine and Spirit Merchants.

Wood Turners.

Worsted Spinners.

Wool Staplers.

Woollen Drapers.

Coaches.

Omnibuses.

Carriers.

BURWARTON

CAINHAM

- CAINHAM DIRECTORY.

- KNOWBURY DIRECTORY.

- CHELMARSH

CHETTON

- Loughton Directory.

CLEOBURY MORTIMER

- Academies.

- Attorneys.

- Auctioneers and Valuers.

- Baker and Flour Dealer.

- Blacksmiths.

- Boot and Shoemakers.

- Butchers.

- Coopers.

- Chemist and Druggist.

- Grocers and Tea Dealers.

- Hair Dresser.

- Hotels, Inns, and Taverns.

- Beer and Cider Retailers.

- Butter and Cheese Dealer.

- Joiners and Builders.

- Land Agents.

- Linen and Woollen Drapers and Silk Mercers.

- Maltsters.

- Milliners and Dressmakers.

- Paper Manufacturer.

- Painters, Plumbers, & Glaziers.

- Saddlers and Harness Makers.

- Shopkeepers and Dealers in Groceries and Sundries.

- Skinner and Woolstapler.

- Stone Masons.

- Surgeons.

- Surveyors.

- Tailors.

- Tinman and Brazier and Ironmonger.

- Watch and Clock Maker.

- Wheelwrights.

- Carriers.

CLEOBURY NORTH
CORELEY
DEUXHILL
DOWLES,
GLAZELEY
HIGHLEY
HOPE BAGGOT,
HOPTON WAFERS
KINLET
MIDDLETON SCRIVEN

MORVILLE

- Aston Eyre Directory.

NEEN SAVAGE
NEENTON
OLDBURY
QUATFORD,
EARDINGTON
QUATT,
RUDGE
SHEINTON, OR SHINETON,
SIDBURY

STOTTESDEN

- STOTTESDEN DIRECTORY.

- BARDLEY DIRECTORY.

- BUTTON OAK DIRECTORY.

- CHORLEY DIRECTORY.

- DUDDLEWICK DIRECTORY.

- HARCOURT DIRECTORY.

- HINTON DIRECTORY.

- INGLEWARDINE DIRECTORY.

- KINGSWOOD DIRECTORY.

- LOWE DIRECTORY.

- NEWTON DIRECTORY.

- NORTHWOOD DIRECTORY.

- ORETON DIRECTORY.

- OVERTON DIRECTORY.

- FICKTHORN DIRECTORY.

- PRESCOTT DIRECTORY.

- WALKERSLOWE DIRECTORY.

- WALTON DIRECTORY.

- WRICKTON DIRECTORY.

TASLEY
UPTON CRESSETT
WHEATHILL
FARLOW

THE OVERS HUNDRED

BITTERLEY,

BITTERLEY DIRECTORY.

- CLEETON DIRECTORY.

- HENLEY DIRECTORY.

- MIDDLETON DIRECTORY.

- SNITTON DIRECTORY.

BURFORD

- BURFORD DIRECTORY.

- BORASTON DIRECTORY.

- GREET DIRECTORY.

- NASH DIRECTORY.

- STOKE DIRECTORY.

- TILSOP DIRECTORY.

- WESTON DIRECTORY.

- WHATMORE DIRECTORY.

- WHITTON DIRECTORY.

GREET
MILSON
NEEN SOLLARS
SILVINGTON,
THE FORD HUNDRED

ALBERBURY

- ALBERBURY DIRECTORY.

- BAUSLEY DIRECTORY.

- BULTHEY DIRECTORY.

- COYDWAY DIRECTORY.

- CREW GREEN DIRECTORY.

- CRIGGION DIRECTORY.

- MIDDLETOWN DIRECTORY.

- STANFORD DIRECTORY.

- TREFNANT DIRECTORY

- UPPINGTON DIRECTORY.

- WINNINGTON DIRECTORY.

- WOOLASTON GREAT DIRECTORY.

BICTON AND CALCOTT,

- BICTON AND CALCOTT DIRECTORY.

- UP AND DOWN ROSSAL DIRECTORY.

CROW MEOL,
CARDISTON,
FORD
HANWOOD GREAT
HABBERLEY
MINSTERLEY

PONTESBURY

- PONTESBURY & PONTESFORD DIRECTORIES.

- ARSCOTT DIRECTORY.

- ASTERLEY DIRECTORY.

- BOYCOTT DIRECTORY.

- CRUCKMEOLE DIRECTORY.

- CRUCKTON DIRECTORY.

- EDGE DIRECTORY.

- FARLEY DIRECTORY.

- HALSTON DIRECTORY.

- HANWOOD LITTLE DIRECTORY.

- HINTON DIRECTORY.

- LEA DIRECTORY.

- LONGDEN DIRECTORY.

- MALEHURST.

- NEWNHAM AND POLMER DIRECTORY.

- NOX DIRECTORY.

- OAKS DIRECTORY.

- ONSLOW DIRECTORY.

- PLEALEY DIRECTORY.

- SASCOTT DIRECTORY.

- SIBBERSCOTT DIRECTORY.

PRESTON MONTFORD, AND DINTHILL

WESTBURY

- WESTBURY DIRECTORY.

- MARSH DIRECTORY.

- NEWTON DIRECTORY.

- STONEY STRETTON DIRECTORY.

- VENNINGTON DIRECTORY.

- WALLOP DIRECTORY.

- WESTLEY DIRECTORY.

- WHITTON DIRECTORY.

- WINSLEY DIRECTORY.

- YOCKLETON DIRECTORY.

SHELTON AND OXON,

THE HUNDRED OF CHIRBURY

- CHIRBURY

- CHIRBURY DIRECTORY.

- DUDSTON DIRECTORY.

- HOCKLETON DIRECTORY.

- MARRINGTON DIRECTORY.

- MARTON DIRECTORY.

- MIDDLETON DIRECTORY.

- PRIESTWESTON DIRECTORY.

- RORRINGTON DIRECTORY.

- STOCKTON DIRECTORY.

- TIMBERTH DIRECTORY.

- WALCOT DIRECTORY.

- WILMINGTON DIRECTORY.

- WINSBURY DIRECTORY.

- WOTHERTON DIRECTORY.

- BROMPTON-WITH-RISTON, OR RHISTON,

- SHELVE

- WORTHEN

- WORTHEN.

- ASTON PIGOTT.

- ASTON ROGERS.

- BEACHFIELD.

- BROCKTON.

- BROMLOW.

- BYN WESTON.

- GRIMMER.

- HABBERLEY OFFICE.

- HAYES.

- HEATH UPPER AND NETHER.

- HOPE.

- LEIGH.

- MEADOWTOWN.

- WALTON.

THE PURSLOW HUNDRED

- BEDSTONE

- BISHOP’S CASTLE

- BISHOP’S CASTLE DIRECTORY.

- BROUGHTON DIRECTORY.

- COLEBATCH DIRECTORY.

- LEA AND OAKELEY DIRECTORIES.

- WOODBATCH DIRECTORY.

- BUCKNELL
- CLUNBURY
- CLUNGUNFORD
- EDGTON BRUNSLOW AND HORDERLEY
- HOPESAY
- HOPTON CASTLE

- LYDBURY NORTH

- LYDBURY NORTH DIRECTORY.

- ACTON DIRECTORY.

- BROCKTON DIRECTORY.

- CHOULTON DIRECTORY.

- EATON DIRECTORY.

- EYTON AND PLOWDEN DIRECTORIES.

- LOWER DOWN DIRECTORY.

- TOTTERTON DIRECTORY.

- LYDHAM
- MORE
- MYNDTOWN
- NORBURY
- RATLINGHOPE
- SIBDON CARWOOD
- STOWE

- WENTNOR

- WENTNOR DIRECTORY.

- ADSTON DIRECTORY.

- HOME DIRECTORY.

- KINNERTON AND RITTON DIRECTORY.

- MEDLICOTT DIRECTORY.

- WISTANSTOW

- WISTANSTOW DIRECTORY.

- CHENEY LONGVILLE DIRECTORY.

- STREFFORD DIRECTORY.

- FELHAMPTON & THE GROVE.

- WITTINGSLOW DIRECTORY.

- WOOLSTON DIRECTORY.

THE CLUN HUNDRED

- CLUN

- CLUN DIRECTORY.

- BICTON DIRECTORY.

- EDICLIFFE DIRECTORY.

- GUILDEN DOWN DIRECTORY.

- HOPEBENDRID DIRECTORY.

- MANUTTON DIRECTORY.

- NEWCASTLE DIRECTORY.

- OBARRIS DIRECTORY.

- PENTREHODREY DIRECTORY.

- PURLOGUE DIRECTORY.

- SHADWELL DIRECTORY.

- SPOAD DIRECTORY.

- TREVERWARD DIRECTORY.

- WHITCOTT-KEYSETT DIRECTORY.

- BETTWS-Y-CRWYN, OR BETTWS,
- LLANVAIR-WATERDINE
- MAINSTONE

FOOTNOTES.

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE