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.