Part 16

Also in the same vault is interred the body of Mr. John Goodwin, (son of the above) who died Feb. 21st, 1774, In the 28th year of his age.

Likewise in the same vault is interred the body of Mr. Edward Reding, (brother-in-law to the above Mr. Wm. Goodwin) who died Jan. 19th, 1797, aged 39. And also the remains of Mr. William Goodwin, who departed this life Feb. 25th, 1797, in the 48th year of his age.

Here is another.

Near this place lie the remains of Benjamin Nicholls, late of this parish, who died 27th May, 1775, in the 75th year of his age.

He was a good husband, a tender father, A good neighbour and sincere friend.

Also Elizabeth his wife who died 27th Dec., 1779, in the 73rd year of her age. And also of Benjamin, son of William and Lydia Nicholls, of the parish of Stirchley, who died 7th Sept., 1761, in the 4th year of his age.

Near the entrance are the following:—

Mary Yate, aged 45, Died 20th May, 1779. Prœivit. Fanny Yate, relict of Timothy Yate, Esq., of this parish, died August 21st, 1834, aged 53 years, and was interred in the family vault in this church yard.

The sad affliction which befel the family of the Rev. J. H. A. Gwyther when vicar of Madeley, by the successive illness and death of his children, has been commemorated by sympathising friends and neighbours by means of a white marble tablet, on which are a group of well executed crushed lilies, at the base, and another erected by the family of Mr. Gwyther. The following are the inscriptions:—

As A Solemn Memorial Of the affecting death within nine days of five children of the Rev. J. H. A. Gwyther, M.A., Vicar of this parish, And in testimony of respectful sympathy with the bereaved parents This tablet is erected by friends and neighbours, parishoners of Madeley.

Hephzibah Mary, born Nov. 28th, 1845, died April 12th, 1856. Emily Maria, born August 17th, 1847, died April 13th, 1656. Phœbe Catharine, born August 10th, 1848, died April 14th, 1856. James Bulkley Phillips, born Aug. 7th, 1850, died April 16th, 1856. Clara Artemisia, born Oct. 10th, 1852, died April 21st, 1856.

“The voice said cry, and he said what shall I cry? all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

ISAIAH XL. 6–8.

It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.

I. SAMUEL III. 18.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

GENESIS XVIII. 25.

In Affectionate Memory of Richard Cecil Henry, The second beloved son of James Henry Gwyther, M.A., Vicar of this Parish, And Mary Catharine his wife. Born Sep. 21st, 1851. Died April 4th, 1855.

Yes, Thou art fled and saints a welcome sing, Thine infant spirit soars on angels’ wing, Our dark affection might have hop’d thy stay, The voice of God has called his child away. Sweet Rose of Sharon, plant of holy ground, Like Samuel early in the temple found; Oh; more than Samuel blest, to thee ’tis given, The God he served on earth, to serve in heaven.

BENEFACTIONS.

1706. May 28th, Basil Brooke, Esq. of Madeley gave by will £40, to which an addition of £60 was made by unknown Benefactors, wherewith certain Cottages and Premises were purchased and conveyed to Trustees for the benefit of the Poor of this Parish.

1800. The yearly sum of five shillings was given to the Poor of this Parish to be paid out of the Rates of the Premises lately belonging to Mr. Richard Beddoes, but now in the possession of Walter Bowdler, of Madeley.

1825. Joseph Reynolds, Esq., of the Bank House, presented a Service of Communion Plate for the use of this Church, of the value of £100.

1810. Sept. 6th, Mr. William Yate, of this Parish, gave by will to the Churchwardens for the time being in Trust, four kneelings in his Pew, No. 13 in the Gallery, for the benefit of the Sunday Schools of this Parish.

1852. Thomas Lister, Esq., of Broseley, gave £100 to the Sunday and National Schools connected with the Parish Church of Madeley, which sum was invested in the three per cent Consolidated Annuities, on the 19th day of January, 1853, in the names of Rev. J. H. A. Gwyther, John Anstice, and Thomas Smith, Vicar and Churchwardens, Managers of the said Schools.

The Foundation Stone of this Church was laid by the Rev. George Pattrick, L.L.B., September 22nd, 1794.

Divine Worship first performed therein by the Rev. Samuel Walter, A. M., Curate of this parish, on Easter Day, being

April 16th, 1797.

William Purton, Thomas Wheatly, } Churchwardens.

MADELEY. EXTINCT AND ANCIENT NAMES.

An old book containing tithe charges has names of places now no longer known. In 1786, for instance, Mr. Botfield is stated to occupy under the family of the late Sir Joseph Hawley some pieces of land called the Hoar Stones. The Rev. Charles Hartshorne in his Salopia Antiqua describes hoar stones at some length and quotes passages from sacred and profane writers to shew that they were in some cases memorial, and in others division marks between property. They occur at a place called Hoar, or “Whure Edge,” on the Titterstone Clee, and in several other places in Shropshire and neighbouring counties, whilst in Wales, both north and south, they are still more numerous.

Among old names of places applying to portions of Madeley Court property we find the Hopyard, adjoining “the slang,” a piece of 11 acres, 2 perches, and 16 roods, formerly in the occupation of Mr. W. Purton, and belonging to Richard Dyott Esq.; and the Coneberry, and Coneygrey; Deer Close, and Battlefield, all belonging to the same in 1787.

MADELEY MARKET.

Grants of markets and fairs appear to have been made by kings in former times by way of favour to the holders of manors, rather than from a wish to accommodate the people who shared the privileges. Madeley market was granted by the necesstous king, Henry III., to the Prior of Wenlock, July 6, 1269. He also granted an annual fair, to be held on three days; namely, on the vigil, the day, and the morrow of St. Matthew the apostle. The market was to be held on Tuesdays, but it fell into disuetude, and was either removed to or revived in another portion of the same manor; and the inhabitants of the village for many years, had no market nearer than Ironbridge or Dawley. The old market was at one time held at Cross Hill, in an open space where a group of cottages now divide the roads. It was also held at one time in a building which served as a market hall, now the property of Mr. Legge, adjoining the barn in which king Charles was lodged. Subsequently it was removed to Madeley Wood; and afterwards to Ironbridge, which was at that time a rising place. Ineffectual attempts were made in 1857 to re-establish a market, but nothing effectual was done till 1869, when an energetic committee was appointed, of which Mr. Legge was Treasurer and the writer of this article was Sec., which succeeded in establishing the market, first in the open street and secondly in treating with the lord of the manor, through his agent, W. R. Anstice, Esq., for the erection of a suitable building, on condition that a scale of tolls was adopted sufficient to cover the outlay. The market has proved of great advantage to the town; not only to purchasers but to tradesmen, by causing more ready money to be spent in the town than formerly.

MADELEY AS A PART OF THE FRANCHISE OF WENLOCK.

Madeley for the last 900 years has been associated with Wenlock. It formed part of the possessions of the Church of St. Milburgh in the time of King Edward (son of the Great Alfred) at the commencement of the tenth century, and is mentioned as such in Domesday. It shared the privileges which the many franchises obtained by the Prior of Wenlock conferred. These privileges and exemptions from taxation gave, Mr. Eyton observes, to each acre of land a two-fold value. On the other hand it suffered from the occasional extortions of the Priors, and inconveniences from being subject, as all lands of the Borough were, to the Mother Church of Holy Trinity, Wenlock. It was subject to the Courts of Wenlock, and as early as 1267 a case is mentioned in which the Provost of Wenlock and the Prior were engaged in _disseizen_ one of the tenants of the Prior at Madeley.

The Bailiff and his peers, together with the Recorder, were Justice of the Peace, with a Jurisdiction co-extensive with the Borough.

These officers had Constables in the several divisions of the Borough, termed Allotments, sometimes Constablewicks. The men selected for the office appear to have been men of substance, standing, and integrity; and upon them devolved the duties of maintaining the laws, of collecting monies for the king &c.

Here, for instance, are the “Articles which the constables” of Madeley and Little Wenlock were called upon “to present upon oath.”

1.—What felonies have been committed and what default . and by and in-whom.

2.—What vagrant p’sns. and sturdy beggars have passed through yo’r. limitts unpunished, and whether the same and impotent poor of yo’r. p’ share provided for, and poor children bound apprentices according to Law.

3.—What Recusants of about the age of sixteen are in yo:e limitts, and who absent themselves from church on ye Lord’s Day, and how many sabbaths.

4.—Who have profaned the Sabbath by swearing, labouring or otherwise.

5.—What Ingrossers, forestalled, or . . . of the market, of cow or cattle, or other dead victuals are within yo’r limitts, or any Badgers or Drovers of cow or cattle.

6.—Who make mault to sell of corn or grain or tythe or tylth not being their own . and are not licensed thereunto.

7.—What Masters or Servants give or take greater wages than is appointed by Justices of the Peace according to Law.

8.—What cottagers or inmates are evicted, removed or maintained, and by whom, and how long.

9.—What unlawful games, drunkenness, tipling other evil rule or disorder hath been in Inns, ale houses &c. and by whom.

10.—What Servants have departed from their masters, and what masters have put away their servants within the compass of their time.

11.—Who use gunns, or take or destroy hawks or hawk’s eggs, of pheasants, partridges, younge deer, hares, snipes, fish, or fowl, with snares or other engines whatsoever for that purpose against the Law.

12.—Who use unlawful weights or measures or buy by a greater and sell by a lesser weight or measure.

13.—Whether watch and ward be duly observed and kept according to ye statute; that is to say, between Ascension Day and Michaelmas in convenient places, and who has made default therein.

14.—What highways have been repaired and what have been neglected.

15.—Who have sold beer, or syder, or perry, &c. unlicensed, or who hath evaded ye assize of bread and drink unlawfully, either the bakers or assizers.

16.—What butchers have killed or sold meate on the Lord’s Day, or sold any unwholesome flesh at any other time.

17.—Who have any assault, battery, or bloodshed.

18.—Who have profanely sworn or cursed, and how often.

19.—What common brawlers, drunkards, scoulds, eavesdroppers, talebearers, and such disordered p’sns are within y’re limits.

20.—Who have sold ale or beer on the Sabbath day, or who have been drinking or tipling in any alehouse on that day.

As the reader may surmise, from references to recusants and others who refused or neglected to attend church, or to acknowledge the supremacy of the King as the head, these instructions were drawn up and submitted by the Bailiff to the Constables of Madeley, Little Wenlock, Beckbury, and Badger, in the early part of reign of William and Mary.

Vagrants and sturdy beggars, it appears, were to be strictly looked after; they swarmed through the country, giving themselves up to pilfering; the women breeding children whom they brought up to the same idle way of living, so that, according to a writer about that period, (1677) there were 100,000 paupers in England. Harsh measures were therefore resorted to: the law of Settlement was passed, and once more the poor were reduced to bondage to the soil from which they had been emancipated a century or two before. By this law, which remained in force 130 years, and which was not repealed till the close of the last century, the poor were imprisoned within their allotments; and upon the complaints of the Churchwardens or Overseers, any two Justices of the Peace had power to lay hold of the new comer and within forty days remove him to the Parish in which he was last settled, unless he could prove that he was neither a pauper nor a vagabond, or that he rented a tenement of the value of £10 per annum.

Here, for instance, is a copy of a letter addressed to the constables of Madeley.

Wenlock

To the Constables of the p sh. of Madeley, Greeting.

Whereas I have been informed yt. Thomas Richasson doth endeavour to make a settlement within the s’d p’ish of Madeley, contrary to the laws &c. I am therefore in the King and Queen’s Ma’ties names, of England that now are, to will and require you the said Constables, or one of you that you bring before me or some other of their Ma’ties Justices of the Peace for the said Town and lib’ties, the body of the said Thomas Richasson, to the Serjeant’s House in Much Wenlock, upon Tuesday the tenth day of this instant month of March, to answer to such matters as shall be objected against him by the overseers of the poor of the parish of Madeley. And you, the said constables, are required to give notice to John York of yo’r p’sh, Smith, that he be and appear before me &c. at the time and place above said, by nine o’clock in the morning, to put in sureties for his and his wife’s good behaviour towards Elinor Alnord, Widdy, and all their Ma’ties loyal people. And you are to make due returns of this warrant at the time above stated &c. Given under my hand and seal this second day of March, Anno domini 1690.

You must give notice to Thomas Cope, Anne Cludd, and Elizabeth Morris to appear to testify the truth of their knowledge.

Lan. Stephens.

Probably there were other reasons for these strict enquiries, as the feudal bondage to which the poor were reduced was closely interwoven with another evil, the thriving-traffic of Shipping likely young paupers to American Plantations, as was done by the Bristol Corporation, which held out to the poor wretches the alternative of leaving England or being flogged or imprisoned.

It may perhaps be a redeeming feature in the character of that “ermined iniquity and prince of legal oppressors,” as Judge Jeffreys, who was not unconnected with Shropshire, was called, to say that as Lord Chief-Justice he exerted himself successfully to put down this abomination.

Another summons from Wenlock to the constables requires them by virtue of an Act of Parliament (fifth of William and Mary) to give notice to all householders, and to all others they may believe to be disaffected, inhabiting within their “Constablewick,” being sixteen years of age and above sixteen, to appear at the house of, Humphrey Powell, Sergent-at-mace, at Wenlock &c. to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to their Ma’ties, and to subscribe the declaration in the Act &c. Dated 16th June, 1692.

Signed Thos. Crompton, Bailf. Chas. Rindar. Recorder. Lan. Stephens. John Mason.

This summons does not appear to have brought the parties to book, for we find a large number charged with contempt, and again summonsed under a fine of 40s. to appear before the Sergeant-at-mace.

In 1693, William Hayward, Roger Brooke, Gent., and John Smytheman, Gent., and others are applied to, as assessors for Madeley, Beckbury and Little Wenlock, in carrying out the Act passed in the fifth year of the reign of William and Mary, entitled “an Act for granting to their Majesties an aid of Four Shillings in ye pound for one year, for carrying on a vigorous War against France.” After giving the nature of the property to be taxed, the Bailiff and his Officers call upon the assessors to levy a double tax upon “every papist, or reputed papist, of ye age of 16 years or upwards, who hath not taken the oath mentioned and required to be observed in an Act of Parliament passed in the first year of that reign, entitled an Act for abrogating the oaths of Supremacy and allegiance,” unless they then take the oath they shall administer. The papists however were not alone in this respect; others who had not taken the oaths, or who refused to take those tendered, were to be similarly rated or assessed.

In some cases the Constables were required to look after and to report upon all young men of a certain age and height, likely to be of use to his Majesty in war times, &c.

Here is a specimen.

(To the Constables of Madeley.)

“We whose names” &c., His Ma’ties Justices of the Peace, having received a summons from the Deputy Lieutenant of the county, together with a copy of a letter from the Lords of the Privy Council &c., Command you to make diligent search for all straggling seamen, watermen, or seafaring men, and to impress all such, giving each one shilling, impressment money, and to bring the same before us, to the intent that they may be sworn and provided for, as by the said letter directed; and You, the sd. Constables are not to impress any very old, crazy, or unhealthy men, but such as are younge, and of able healthy bodies, fit for se’vice; and herein you are to use yo’e: best endeavours as you and any of you will answer the contrary. Given under our hands &c.

“You are to take notice that what monye you shall lay out of yo’e: purse upon this service we will take care the same shall be speedily repaid you according to the order of their Majesties Privy Council.”

Jas: Lewis, Balf. Geo: Weld. Tho: Compton.

Turning back to the period when great political, religious, and moral changes were taking place in the country, when Royalists and Republicans had been struggling for the mastery, and the latter were victorious, to ascertain their reflex and influence upon the little local parliaments sitting in the Guildhall at Wenlock, we found some characteristic presentments by those then important officers the constables, from the several constablewicks within the franchise, with other matters coming before the bailiffs and Justices of the Peace, and instructions issued by them such as may be of interest in shewing the intermeddling spirit of Puritanism in its then rampant attitude, when the neglect of public worship, and the walking out of sweethearts, and even husbands and wives, during sermon time, was punished with fines, imprisonments or the stocks. The stocks in fact appear to have been in frequent requisition, and fines as frequently imposed for such trivial offences as hanging out clothes on a Sunday, being seen in an ale house on the Sabbath, and for the very mildest form of swearing, or for the least utterance of disaffection or disrespect of the Commonwealth. Here, for instance, is the presentment of

“Articles of evil behaviour of Edward Jeames, of Long Stanton Clee, in the Liberties of Much Wenlock, xiiiith day of September, 1652, John Warham, gent., Bailiff.

“First, that the said Edward Jeames is a common disturber of the Publike Peace, of this Commonwealth, by stirring up strife and sedition among his neighbours.”

The presentment then proceeds to state that the said Edward Jeames doth often quarrel with his owne wife and family.

“Secondly That the said Edward Jeames doth take abroade wh. him a Welsh servt. Lad wch. he keepeth, to the end yat if any neighboure being by him abused by opprobvious and unseemely language and word of provocation, doe make any answeare or reply to him, out of which any advantage may be taken, the said Lad shall verify ye same upon oath on purpose to vex and molest the same neighboure and to gaine revenge against him. Thirdly that the said Edward Jeames, in September, 1651, when the titular king of Scotte invaded yis land wh. an army, saied openly in ye heareing of divse persons yt he was glad yt ye kinge was comen into ye land, for if he had not come he thought yt ye pesent. government would have altered religion & turned all unto Popery.”

We did not turn to other old parchments containing the decisions of the Justices to see what punishment, if any, was meted out to Mr. Jeames for his evil behaviour, but turned to note some of the Informations laid against ale house keepers, and persons frequenting ale houses on the Sabbath. Here is one from Barrow, not from the Constable, or from one living within the franchise; but from a gentleman who first proclaims his own goodness by telling us that he himself had attended service twice on the Sunday, but who, like many others just then, felt it to be his duty to look after others. He commences by saying

“that yesterday, being Lord’s Day, I was at Wenlock morning and evening prayer, and going home by the house of John Thompson of Barrow, ale seller, both the doors being open I saw both hall and parlour full of people, both men and women drinkeinge and some drinkeinge forth of dores. There is a private house standing farr from any rode and hath the report to bee a verye rude house on ye Lord’s Day. I am Louth to be the informer, because I doe nott live wthin ye franchise, but leave yt to ye worshps. consideration hoping you will take som course whereby God may bee better honoured, and his Sabbathes less defamed in that house. What I can speke of that man further I forbear, for ye pesent.

Yours to command, WILLIAM LEGG, senr.”

“Sworn before the Bailiff, John Warham, gent.”

The above John Thompson appeared, and we find

“& is ordered to appear at any tyme hereafter when Mr. Bailiff shall requyer.

6th September, 1652.”