Moreton Say

History

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From “The Register of Moreton Say”, by H. M. AUDEN, F.R.Hist.S. of Condover Vicarage, March 1907. Printed in Volume 8 of the Registers of the Diocese of Lichfield.

Moreton Say is a parish of 5,999 acres, in the diocese of Lichfield, archdeaconry of Salop, rural deanery of Hodnet, and hundred of North Bradford. It comprises the townships or hamlets of Longford, Bletchley, Styche and Woodlands, and Tern Hill, and, for civil purposes, Shavington, which ecclesiastically is in Adderley parish. It lies 18 miles north-east of Shrewsbury, and three miles west from Market Drayton.  The population in 1901 was 858.

The Manor of Moreton, as it was then termed, was held in 1086 by Roger de Lacy, under Earl Roger de Montgomery, as a manor of three hides.  It had belonged to a Saxon franklin, Elmund, who apparently was not dispossessed without a struggle, as the manor was waste when it came to its Norman possessor, though in the time of King Edward the Confessor, it had been valued at the then large sum of 40s. a year.

De Lacy had a tenant here named William, and the manor was valued at 30s.  There was one ox-team on the demesne land, and 8 serfs, 4 villeins, and 4 bordars had 2 teams, but there was arable land sufficient to employ 6 teams more.  The wood of the manor could fatten 100 swine.  The De Say family seem to have become possessed of Moreton in the 12^th century and they continued to be lords of the manor till the 14^th.  From them the place became called Moreton Say.  John Tayleur, Esq., of Buntingsdale, is the present lord of the manor.

The family of Bostock was of note in Moreton Say in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.  Hugh Bostock entered his pedigree at the heralds’ Visitation of 1582.  They seem to have been originally a Cheshire family, but were settled at Moreton before the close of the 15^th century, as Anne Burton of Longner was about that time married to a Bostock of Moreton Say.

Styche in early days consisted of two estates, one held under the lords of Stoke-on-tern, and the other under the De Says of Moreton.  A family of De Stuche were tenants there under the De Says of Moreton, and the Sandfords of Sandford also had an interest in the place.  The Clives, who were originally a Cheshire family, obtained the estate in the 15^th century by the marriage of James Clive, of Huxley, co. Chester, with Katherine, daughter and heir of John Stuche of Stuche.  The great Lord Clive was born at Styche on 29^th September 1725.  In 1784, his son Edward, second Lord Clive, married Lady Henrietta Anthonia Herbert, sister and heir of the second Earl of Powis; their son in 1807 took the name and arms of Herbert.  Styche, the residence of the Lady Mary Herbert, is the property of the Earl of Powis.  It was re-built by Lord Clive after his return from India, probably about 1765, and in 1798 was considerably altered and repaired by the Hon. Robert Clive.  Reginald Corbet, Esq., of Adderley, is lord of the manor of Styche.

Another member of the manor of Moreton Say, but now lost, was Waranshall, where Richard de Pulesdon in 1294 had the Royal licence to crenellate his manor house.  The place called Oldfields is mentioned in deeds apparently as near Waranshall.  It is a detached portion of the Manor of Bletchley.  Another place spoken of as Hulle (i.e., Hill) gave its name to a family that occurs in connection with the neighbourhood.

 In 1086, the small manor of Lai is mentioned next to Moreton, and seems now to be represented by Audley Brow.  In the 12th century the men of Audley were tenants of Robert De Say of Moreton, and later William Stuche held land here.

Bletchley, another township, was in early times held under the elder branch of the De Says by a family taking their name from the place, one of whom, William de Bletchley, with his overlord, Helias de Say of Stoke, confirmed the gift of his father Nicholas, of the mill at Bletchley, to the canons of Lilleshall.  Sir Richard de Sandford about 1245 allowed the canons to enlarge their mill-stank there, though it encroached on his land at Mickley, and was a disadvantage to his mill at Aychley.  William de Bletchley’s son, Sir Robert, gave his wood of Over, near the mill, to the canons and also some meadow-land at Bletchley.  Robert de Bletchley parted with his interest in the manor to Robert Corbet, and in 1285 it was put down as a member of the manor of Stoke-on-Tern.  The Abbey of Lilleshall retained its estate at Bletchley till the dissolution.  In later times William Hill of Bletchley and Soulton married Elizabeth, daughter of William Bostock of Moreton Say, and their grandson, Rowland, in 1592 was of Hawkestone.  In 1712 Rowland Hill sold the manor and estate of Bletchley to John Corser, whose descendant, E. G. S. Corser, Esq., of Shrewsbury, is now lord of the manor of Bletchley, and a landowner there.  There are two picturesque half-timbered houses at Bletchley, in one of which Charles II. is said to have slept.

Longford was connected with Hodnet as part of the Fee of the Seneschals of Montgomery, who were lords of Hodnet.  It was held in the 12^th century by Robert de Longford, who gave half-a-virgate of land in Longford, together with his body to the Abbey of Combermere.  The abbey exchanged this land with Ivo Meverel, retaining a rent of 6d., which was duly paid till the dissolution.  A family of De Ford also held land in Longford in the 13^th century.  They seem to have taken their name from what is now Fordhall.

Longford apparently took its name from the great road that ran in Roman times, and still runs from Bletchley to Hinstock, though it is not situated upon it.  The road itself was known as the Longford, and in the time of Henry III. Its place of crossing the Tern at Tern Hill was called Stratford.  In 1319, the Sheriff of Shropshire was ordered to enquire into the state of the “Royal Road called Longeford, between Bletchley and Newport; whether the bridges and footpaths were so dilapidated by the overflowing of the circumjacent marshes that no one could pass thereby without peril of life; whether many passengers had actually thus perished; whether any one was bound to repair the road.”  The inquiry was held at Market Drayton in June, 1319, and a levy of the due called Pontage ordered for the repair of the road.  The old manor house at Longford, now cottages, possesses some fine chimneys of unusual design.  John Tayleur, Esq., is the present Lord of the manor of Longford.

Moreton Say Church, dedicated to St. Margaret, dates from the 12^th century, when it was founded as a chapel of Hodnet.  It was cased in substantial brickwork in 1788.  It consists of chancel and nave, with south porch and western tower; and there is a transition door, and a font of the same date.  It contains monuments to the Vernon, Clive and Corser families, a 17^th century tomb to John Bostock who died 21^st December, 1611, and to Jane his wife, the daughter of Sir Thomas Vernon of Haslington, which Jane afterwards married Richard Grosvenor of Eaton; and a modern memorial to the great Lord Clive, whose baptism is recorded in the register on October 2^nd, 1725, and his burial on November 30^th, 1774.

In 1553, the commissioners of Edward VI. left to the parishioners of Moreton Say “two bells in the steeple, one small bell, and one chalice of silver with the paten.”   Roger Masse was then curate, and John Yeaton and Thomas Eyre, Churchwardens.

In 1634, Jane, wife of Richard Grosvenor, and daughter of Sir Thomas Vernon, gave £10 towards putting up the handsome Jacobean gallery, and in 1642 she put up the quaint wooden mural monument to her sisters Elizabeth, Mary and Rachell Vernon.  Possibly Robert Vernon, Esq., buried here in 1741, was connected with Moreton Say through her.  This Jane was the widow of John Bostock, son of Hugh Bostock of Moreton Say, when she married on 25^th May, 1614, Richard Grosvenor, of Eaton.