Parton Thomas, shoemaker
Price Richard, shopkeeper & vict., Boat Inn
Trevor William, farmer and tailor
Williams Edward, agent to Richards & Co., Ruabon, coal and lime merchants, Canal Wharf.
YEATON
is a village and township two and a half miles S.E. from Baschurch, and six and a half miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury, returned in 1841 as having 37 houses and 195 inhabitants. The principal landowners are Robert A. Slaney, Esq., M.P.; J. A. Lloyd, Esq.; Captain James Parry, Mr. Richard Williams, and John Smith, Esq.; the former is lord of the manor and impropriator. The hall, a handsome stuccoed residence occupied by George Wade, Esq., is pleasantly situated near the turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Baschurch. There are also several neat villas of modern erection.
The principal residents are Miss Beech, The Hall; Captain James Parry, The Grove; George Wade, Esq., The Hall. Farmers, Richard Cotton, William Cotterhill, Upper Corn Mills; Samuel Onions, Medley Farm; James Perry, The Grove Farm; William Turner, and corn miller, and Richard Williams, The Flour Mills.
ELLESMERE
is a respectable market town and extensive parish, partly in the hundred of Maylor, in the county of Flint, but chiefly in the Ellesmere division of the Pimhill hundred, in the county of Salop, sixteen miles N.N.W. from Shrewsbury, and eight miles N.N.E. from Oswestry. The parish contains the following townships in this county, viz.:—Birch and Lythe, Cockshutt and Crosmere, Crickett, Dudleston, Eastwick, Ellesmere, Elson and Greenhill, Frankton, Hampton’s Wood, Hardwick, Kenwick Stockett and Whattall, Kenwick’s Park, Kenwicks Wood, Lee, Lineal, New Marton, Northwood, Oteley Newton and Spoonhill, Stocks and Coptiviney, Tetchill, and Trench, which together contain 25,676a. 0r. 20p. of land. Rateable value, £42,341. In 1801 there were 5,909 inhabitants; 1831, 7,057, and in 1841, 7,080. The rectoral tithes have been commuted for £2,351, when £1,576 were apportioned to the trustees of the Earl of Bridgewater, £515 to C. K. Mainwaring, Esq., £174 to J. Dickin, Esq., £46 to Richard Wynn, Esq., and £15 to Mr. Benyon. The vicarial tithes were commuted for £430.
Ellesmere, formerly written Aelsmere, is a place of considerable antiquity, and derives it name from a fine sheet of water or mere on the east side of the town, which covers one hundred and sixteen acres. Leland describes the town in his day as having four streets, while Camden speaks of it, “as a small tract of rich fertile ground, together with a small castle, which King John settled on Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, when he made up the match between him and Joan, his natural daughter.” The town now contains several respectable inns, and many good houses and shops, in all the different branches of the retail trade. The malting business is extensively carried on. Mr. John Frumston’s is one of the largest establishments in the county. The cultivation of barley being particularly attended to in the neighbouring country, causes the farmers usually to attend the market here, which is held on Tuesday. Fairs are held on the first Tuesday after February 2nd, third Tuesday in April, Whit Tuesday, first Tuesday in July, last Tuesday in August, and the third Tuesday in October and November for horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs. The castle of Ellesmere stood on an artificial mount, near to the church. At the present time there are no vestiges of it to be seen, the top of the mount being formed into a bowling green, which is kept in admirable order, and supported by the gentry and tradesmen of the town. From this eminence a most extensive and delightful panoramic view of the fertile plains of Shropshire is seen; the fine mere and the beautiful residence of C. K. Mainwaring, Esq., are charming objects in the vicinity. History is silent as to the time and by whom the castle was built. In the 6th of King John, the king gave the castle and manor of Ellesmere in marriage with his daughter Joan to Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales; in the 10th of that reign Bartholomew Turve, the governor, he having turned his arms against the English, was commanded upon his allegiance to put the place into the possession of William, Earl of Shrewsbury, the king’s natural brother, and Thomas de Edginton. In the 4th of Henry III., Roger L’Estrange held this castle, and it continued to his successors for a long period. In the 25th of Henry III., David, son of Llewellyn, late Prince of Wales, by his charter, surrendered up Ellesmere and Englefend to the crown of England, and after that we hear no more of its being in the hands of the Welsh. This being a frontier town and of some importance to the marches, and consequently not to be left in the power of the Prince of Wales. The continued skirmishes between the English and the Welsh, made the tenure of the latter very uncertain; and though King Henry II. and King John, being embroiled in foreign wars, gave the town and castle in dower, the first with his sister and the latter with his daughter, in order to conciliate the ancient animosities of both people; yet upon the least appearance of a rupture those kings might and did resume at pleasure, or gave what recompense they thought fit upon the seizure, and such as the Prince of Wales holding upon their good behaviour were glad to receive. On the 12th of Edward II., Roger L. Estrange, with the king’s approbation, granted several parcels of land, part of the demesnes of the manor, to several persons in fee, at which time the wastes and the commons of the manor were enclosed, and converted into freeholds. Two years after Oliver de Ingeham, who adhered so firmly to the king, upon the insurrection of the Earl of Lancaster and other lords, was governor of this castle. In the following reign a writ was issued, to inquire concerning the encroachments made by the tenants of the neighbouring manors, and to settle the boundaries, which being performed, the king gave the castle and manor of Ellesmere to Eubule L. Estrange, a younger son of the baron of Knockin. In the reign of Elizabeth we find Thomas Egerton, an ancient lawyer, created Baron Ellesmere; in the 23rd of Elizabeth he was made Solicitor-General, and afterwards Attorney-General, from which advancement he was soon after promoted to the Mastership of the Rolls and the office of Keeper of the Great Seal, which he held till that queen’s death. The Duke of Bridgewater is deserving of notice in this place, as having been possessed of large estates in Ellesmere and its neighbourhood, and as being distinguished for his public spirit, and for the vast plans he formed and executed for the improvement of his estates. He died in 1803, and the dukedom became extinct. On the death of the late Countess of Bridgewater the estates became vested in Viscount Alford, and he dying in the autumn of the year 1850, they are now vested in trustees.