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.