The living, though properly a curacy, has long been styled a vicarage, and is in the patronage of the crown. The incumbent is always the mayor’s chaplain.
This parish is by far the largest in the place, comprising very nearly half the town, and a great extent of the surrounding country.
The day-spring of the Reformation early visited our town. In 1407, Master William Thorpe, a priest, came to Shrewsbury, and mounted the pulpit in St. Chad’s church, from whence he boldly condemned the favourite tenets of popery. Thorpe was in consequence thrown into prison, subsequently conveyed to Lambeth, and after a confinement of several months convened before the Archbishop of Canterbury at Saltwood, on a complaint exhibited against him by “the bailives and worshipful cominalte” of this town. In his examination he candidly admitted the charges laid against him, but adhered to his opinions with manly and unshrinking steadiness. Of the result of the trial and his subsequent history we possess no account.
In the year 1394, this church, which had at that time a wooden steeple covered with lead, was consumed by accidental fire, which extended its ravages to a great portion of the town, then chiefly consisting of timber houses with thatched roofs. The damage sustained was so considerable, that Richard II. remitted the payment of the fee farm of the town for three years towards the repairs.
In 1490, Henry VII., accompanied by his queen and son, Prince Arthur, kept the feast of St. George, (April 23,) in this church. In 1581, Sir Henry Sidney, President of the Council of the Marches, as a Knight of the Garter, kept the feast of St. George, (April 23,) in this town, with great splendour. He marched in solemn procession from the Council House to St. Chad’s Church, the choir of which was fitted up in imitation of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and the stalls decorated with the arms of the Knights of the Garter. Sir Henry sat in his proper stall, near that reserved for the Queen; in passing which he bowed with the same respect as if her Majesty had actually been present. On the conclusion of divine service Sir Henry devoted the afternoon to feasting the burgesses.
THE COLLEGE OF ST. CHAD
adjoined the south-western extremity of the church. Its buildings, now converted into three handsome houses, are so entirely modernized, that scarce a vestige is visible, except a portion of the wall adjacent to the church-yard. The outer walls of its precinct may be traced to a considerable distance in the neighbouring gardens.
North of the church-yard, in a close passage called “the Sextry,” are some old timber buildings, once communicating with the church by a covered passage over the street. These were, as is supposed, the dwellings of the Vicars Choral. In this old tenement the attendants of Henry VII. were lodged during his visit to the town in 1496, when the Bailiffs entertained him in almost sumptuous and royal manner. These premises were subsequently used as
THE MERCERS’ HALL,
though the Company have long since ceased to hold their meetings here. The Company of Mercers, on their union with the Ironmongers and Goldsmiths, received on May 11, 1480, a confirmation of their composition, from Edward V. then Prince of Wales, and resident in Shrewsbury. This fraternity were patrons of the Altar of St. Michael in St. Chad’s Church.