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.