During the years 1830 and 1831, the inhabitants of Whitchurch and the neighbourhood were held in constant alarm by a succession of incendiary fires. On the 14th of December the first fire commenced on the premises of a poor man of the name of Heath. On the following day the out-buildings of the Swan Inn burst into flames; and on the 21st the out-premises belonging to Mr. Nunnerley, of Prees Heath, were destroyed. On the 7th of January, 1831, Mr. Moss, of Heath lane, had a stack burnt; and on the day following the barn of Mr. G. T. Whitfield and two cottages were destroyed. On the 12th, a barn belonging to the same gentleman was discovered to be on fire. A stack was fired belonging to Mr. Huxley on the 2nd of February. On the 10th of March, a second fire broke out on the premises of Mr. Nunnerley, of Prees Heath, and so rapid were the flames that the whole of the out-buildings were entirely destroyed before the arrival of the fire-engines from Whitchurch. Five cows, two horses, and ten pigs, were also destroyed. The next fires which took place were the stacks of Mr. Bradbury. On the 4th of April, the farm buildings of Mr. Huxley, of Tilstock, and a great quantity of grain, were entirely consumed. The same evening, a range of buildings, on the road from Prees Heath to Tilstock, burst into flames, and the fire proceeded with so much rapidity that no efforts could check them. On the 13th of September, a stack belonging to Mr. Nunnerley, of Prees Heath, was consumed. The stack-yard and out buildings of Mr. Booth, and the stacks of Mr. Darlington, were in flames at the same time, and very great damage sustained. Shortly after this the incendiaries were brought to justice, and Richard Whitfield, a farmer and maltster, was transported for life, at the Shropshire Spring Assizes of 1832, and James Lea and Joseph Grindley were executed.
Whitchurch was the birth place of Dr. Tylston, an eminent physician in 1663. He was admitted into Trinity College, Oxford, and his brilliant talents adorned by a deportment in all respects exemplary soon attracted the notice of Dr. Bathurst, then president of the college, whose able directions much assisted him. When about Bachelor’s standing, his inclinations suggested the study of physic, as the employment for life, and having by an acquaintance with natural philosophy laid a good foundation for medical enquiries, he speedily turned the course of his reading into that channel. After he had left college he removed to London, where he studied industriously under Sir Richard Blackmore. On his return he commenced his professional career at Whitchurch, and though young, quickly obtained celebrity. At the request of many friends in Chester he quitted his native town for that city in the year 1690, and by successful practice continued to increase in fame. His mental powers rose above the ordinary standard, and in the prosecution of an enquiry he regarded the opinions of others rather as guides to direct than authoratitives to govern the efforts of his own mind. After his attainments had become considerable, such was his thirst for knowledge that he redeemed for study all the time his professional engagements would allow. The writings of antiquity, especially those of Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch, afforded him great delight. In the works of Pliny he took much pleasure, and shortly before his death read with great satisfaction the writings of Lactantius. Passages which illustrated any portion of Scripture he transcribed into an interleaved Bible, or other repository. In his professional pursuits he was as remarkable for charity to the poor as for diligence, fidelity, and concern for his patients. The Scriptures he perused with unfeigned delight, and was influenced by their authority as a supreme rule. By frequent meditation he became conversant in an unusual degree with the instructive doctrines and sublime mysteries of the Gospel. When a subject particularly interesting filled his attention, he clothed his conceptions in writing; these have survived him, and not only show the evidences of erudition, but of an experimental acquaintance with revealed religion. He died on the 8th of April, 1699, in the 36th year of his age. The celebrated Matthew Henry bears honourable testimony to his worth, in a letter to a friend shortly after his death, from which the following is an extract:—“I find it easy to say a great deal to aggravate the affliction we are under in the death of Dr. Tylston, whom we miss daily. What improvement I have made in learning of late years has been owing as much to my converse with him as to any one thing. He was the ornament of our congregation, and a great reputation to us.”
This town was the residence of Nicholas Barnard, a man of great learning, chaplain to Archbishop Usher, and Dean of Armagh. In the time of the rebellion in Ireland he was a great sufferer, and often in danger of his life; he consequently fled to England, and was presented with the rectory of Whitchurch, where he lived till his death in 1661. Abraham Wheloch, a person of great learning, and noted as a linguist of distinguished abilities, was born in this town. He was author of a Persian translation of the New Testament, which task he undertook in the hope that it might open the way for the conversion of the natives of Persia to Christianity. He greatly assisted Dr. Brian Walton in his Polyglot Bible, and published an edition of the works of the venerable Bede. He was fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, library keeper, Arabic professor, and minister of St. Sepulchre’s. His death took place in 1654.
There are 333a. 3r. 0p. of waste land called Whitchurch Heath, which has a barren and sterile appearance. It has a flat surface, covered with gravel, and incapable of cultivation.
Charities.—Samuel Higginson, by will, bearing date 28th September, 1697, devised certain lands in Whixall, and gave the sum of £200 in trust, for the erection of an almshouse, and the benefit of poor persons appointed as inmates; and if any poor relations of the family or kin should apply, he directed that they should be first admitted to receive the benefit thereof. Jane Higginson, widow of the above Samuel Higginson, by her will, in 1707, gave £5 per annum to five decayed tradesmen’s widows in Ludlow, in consideration that the five poor widows should take care to keep the chancel in Ludlow church clean. She also gave to the rector of Ludlow and his successors £5 per annum. And she gave all her lands and tenements in the counties of Salop, Flint, and Chester, in trust, and after payment of certain legacies, she gave for the use of her own and her husband’s almhouse in Whitchurch £12 per annum, charged upon her estate at Ash, in the county of Chester, the necessary repairs of the almshouse to be first deducted thereout; and she directed that the sum of £7. 10s. per annum, given by her daughter for the support of the said almshouse, should also be paid out of her estate at Ash. She also gave to the poorest and most necessitous children of the parish of Hanmer the sum of £6, payable once in five years, whereof 20s. was designed for their clothing, and the rest to be bestowed for the benefit of the children, and £6 in like manner to the parish of Ellesmere. And she gave the debts due to her to build a schoolhouse upon the piece of ground lying between her almshouses and those of the town, and bequeathed £10 per annum to the teacher, and 20s. yearly to buy English books. She directed her trustees to meet on the 24th June, yearly, to settle the accounts, and left 30s. yearly for their expenses, and 10s. to the minister to preach a sermon on the same day.
Under the will of Samuel Higginson, an almshouse was built consisting of six tenements, and also a schoolhouse. These premises, with small gardens attached to the almshouses, comprise the whole of the property devised by him in Whitchurch, except a small parcel which was sold to the parish for £10, for the purpose of building other almhouses thereon. The Whixall estate consists of about 22 acres of land, producing a yearly rental of £42. The property devised by Mrs. Higginson consists of a messuage and land containing 110a. 2r. 20p. let at a rent of £140. Certain lands and a house at Milton Green, comprising in the whole 40a. 3r. 30p., producing a yearly rental of £40. The trustees took no estate at Ash in the county of Chester, and the yearly sum of £12 left as payable out of the Ash estate to the almspeople is considered as payable out of her other estates. The rents above mentioned amounts to £252 per annum, out of which each of the almspeople receive £4. 4s. yearly at Midsummer, and £2. 2s. on each of the other quarter days. The sum of £6 is transmitted every fifth year to Hanmer; and a yearly stipend of £10 and an allowance of £2 for coal is paid to the master of the national school, who teaches the boys in a school erected by subscriptions for that purpose; the girls are taught in the school adjoining the almshouse, built according to the directions of Mrs. Higginson. Out of the residue £15. 15s. is distributed among the poor of Great Ash, Little Ash, and Tilstock, and a considerable amount is given in small sums to the poor of Whitchurch and the vicinity.
Thomas Benyon, in 1707, charged certain premises in the township of Alkington with the payment of 40s. per annum, for the benefit of the preaching minister of the then new erected Presbyterian meeting house in Dodington, to continue so long as such minister should officiate there and no longer, and that the residue of the yearly rents should be applied in educating so many poor children of the parish of Whitchurch as could be conveniently taught therein; and he directed that if preaching at the said meeting house should cease, or none be there by a Presbyterian minister, the said payment of 40s. should cease, and be applied for educating the said poor children. The property devised by Mr. Benyon contains 22a. 1r. 14p., and is let for £50 per annum. The nomination of the free scholars is left to the members of the Presbyterian congregation, instead of being appointed by the trustees, as directed by the testator.
Mary Whetton, by her will, bearing date March, 1811, gave to the rector of Whitchurch £100, navy five per cents., in trust, to pay the interest half yearly among the widows of Higginson’s almshouses. A portion of this stock having been sold for the payment of the legacy duty, and the navy five per cents. having been converted into new four per cents., there is now in respect of this charity £94. 10s. new four per cents., standing in the name of certain trustees. The dividends, amounting to £3. 15s. 6d., are distributed as directed by the donor.
Phillip’s Charity.—The particulars of James Phillip’s charity for the providing a lecture every Thursday in the parish church of Whitchurch, and for the supplying the poor with flannel, will be found in the account of the charities for the town of Shrewsbury.
John Gossage, by will, 1671, gave to the poor of the parish of Whitchurch the sum of £2. 12s. per annum, to provide twelve pennyworth of bread every Lord’s day. He also gave a similar bequest to the poor of the parish of Plumstead, in Kent, and for the payment of the same he charged his lands in Plumstead and Erith, and gave the residue of the proceeds to St. Thomas’s Hospital. This rent charge is received from the treasurer of St. Thomas’s Hospital, and distributed to the poor in bread.