Part 2

— 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.