Overton and Woofferton.—Richard Betton, Esq., Overton House; Thomas C. Bridges, Esq., The Lodge; John Burnett, farmer, Overton; Thomas Bywater, farmer; William B. Cooke, farmer; Richard Green, corn miller, Barratt’s Mill; John Lancet, farmer; Thomas Lowe, farmer, Hucks Barn; Richard Hardman, vict., Salwey Arms; William Heywood, farmer; Thomas Nottingham, farmer; Edward Stubbs, farmer.
RUSHBURY
is a considerable parish in the upper division of the Munslow hundred, comprising the townships of Rushbury, Stone Acton, Wall-under-Haywood, and Wilderhope and Stanway, and part of the townships of East Wall and Getton. The parish comprises upwards of 5,600 acres of land, and at the census of 1801 had 356 inhabitants; 1831, 507, and in 1841 had 109 houses and a population of 502 souls. The village of Rushbury is situated about nine miles S.W. from Much Wenlock, and the township contained 26 houses and 115 inhabitants. The principal landowners are Mrs. Lutwyche, Barnard Dickinson, Esq., and Mrs. Thursby; the latter is also lady of the manor. Some authors conjecture this place to be the Roman station Bravinium, between Magnum and Uriconum; the distance agreeing better with the Roman itinerary than Bridgnorth. At the Doomsday survey Roger de Lacy held of Earl Roger Riseberie, and Odo of him, at which time there was an eyrie of hawks. In the 11th of Edward I. Hugh Burnel had a charter for a market on a Thursday, and a fair on the eve, the day, and the day after the feast of St. Margaret the virgin, which upon a quo warranto brought against Sir Philip Burnel in the 20th of Edward I. was ratified and confirmed by the king’s council. In the time of Edward I. Richard de Harley had free warren here. John de Handelo levied a fine on the manor of Rushbury in the 14th of Edward III. Among the fees of Roger Earl of March, Nicholas Burnel held one knight’s fee. In the 3rd of Edward VI. the king gave Rushbury in exchange to Nicholas Bishop of Worcester and his successors for lands in Warwickshire. The Church is a small structure, dedicated to St. Peter, consisting of nave and chancel, with a tower in which are five bells. The living is a rectory valued in the king’s book at £19. 7s. 8½d., now returned at £449 in the gift of the Bishop of Worcester. Incumbent, Rev. Matthew Y. Starkey. The endowed school, where twelve children are educated, and the almshouses, will be further noticed with the various gifts to charitable uses. The tithes are commuted for £384.
Charities.—Benjamin Wainwright, M.D., by his will, bearing date 1st December, 1817, directed certain trustees to raise out of his personal estate the sum of £1,200, and appropriate £400 in building a school-room and a small dwelling house for a schoolmaster, and also two almshouses, all to be erected in the little church-yard near the Pound, in Rushbury, if the rector would allow it. And he directed that the following words should be cut upon the stone in the front part of the dwelling house:—“This school and almshouse were built and endowed by Benjamin, the seventh son of the late Richard and Mary Wainwright, of Stanway.” The residue of the said sum of £1,200 he directed to be invested in the funds, and 50s. of the yearly dividends thereof to be given to each of the poor widows resident in the said almshouses; the trustees to provide coals for the almshouses, and also to pay £5 yearly to a schoolmaster for teaching poor children of Rushbury, Eaton, and the adjacent parishes every Sunday; £5 to be laid out in warm clothing on the 1st of December for the poor of Rushbury; £5 per annum to be paid to a schoolmistress for teaching children to knit and sew, and to pay the remainder of the dividends to a schoolmaster to instruct nine poor children of Rushbury and three of Eaton in reading, writing, and common arithmetic. The sum of £400 above mentioned was reduced by the payment of the legacy duty to £360, and a school was erected at a cost of upwards of £500, part of the surplus having been advanced by such of the trustees as were of the testator’s family. The remainder of the sum of £1,200 was invested in the purchase of stock, and there is now standing £737 new four per cent. stock, producing dividends amounting to £429. 10s. per annum, of which £20 is paid to a schoolmaster for teaching a Sunday as well as a week day school. Two poor women are appointed by the trustees to reside in the almshouses, each of whom receives £2 annually, including an allowance of coals.
There is a parcel of land in the parish called the Poor’s Land, containing about six acres, and four small tenements with gardens, and also an allotment set out in respect of the above mentioned premises containing about an acre and three quarters, altogether producing a rental of £12 per annum. The four tenements were long used for the reception of paupers. A portion of the poor’s land was given to the rector in exchange for a part of the glebe near the church-yard, on which the school was built. The sum of £2. 2s. is paid to the rector as his portion of the rent, and the residue is chiefly expended in coals and distributed to the poor.
Edward Lutwyche, in 1601, granted a rent charge of 40s. per annum out of his lands in Wall-under-Haywood and East Wall, and directed six penny worth of bread to be distributed every Sunday to six poor parishioners, each of the said poor people to receive 2s. 4d. in money every Good Friday. And he directed that every poor person appointed should receive the charity for life. The yearly sum of 30s. is payable out of Day-house farm in the township of Holt Preen, as the bequest of Anne Tipton. The amount is distributed in bread to six poor men and six poor women, alternately, according to the intentions of the donor. Martha Baker, who died about fifty years ago, is stated to have left £20 to the poor of Rushbury, the interest to be given in bread. This money was applied soon after the death of the testatrix in repairing a house on the poor’s land used as a poor house, and in respect thereof £1 is paid annually from the poor’s rates, which is expended in bread for the poor.
East Wall is a township and village seven miles S.W. from Much Wenlock, partly in the parish of Rushbury and partly in that of Eaton, and is usually called Longville, Lushcott, and East Wall township. The portion in Rushbury parish at the census of 1841 contained five houses and 27 inhabitants. Thomas Gibbon, Esq., and Mrs. Lutwyche are the principal landowners.
Gretton township is partly in Rushbury and partly in Cardington, and is situated about a mile N.E. from the latter place. In 1841 thirteen houses and 73 inhabitants were returned as in Rushbury, and one house and eleven persons in Cardington parish. Lady Tyrwhitt is the principal landowner.
Stone Acton, a township in Rushbury parish about a mile S.W. from the church, at the census of 1841 had four houses and 24 inhabitants. The land is the property of Mr. William Jones and Mr. Daniel Mytton. Mr. William Jones is the resident farmer.
Wilderhope and Stanway, a township in Rushbury parish, is situated about five miles S.W. from Much Wenlock, and at the census of 1841 had thirteen houses and 76 inhabitants. Moses George Benson, Esq., and Richard Wainwright, Esq., are the landowners.