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[edit] Transactions of the Shropshire Archæological and Natural History Society.Established 1877. 2nd SERIES, VOL. II., 1890. [edit] History of Shrewsbury Hundred or Liberties.By the late Rev. JOHN BRICKDALE BLAKEWAY, M.A. << Editor's preface < Bicton | Clive >
[edit] Broughton, anciently Burghton.A small parish within the Liberties of Shrewsbury, containing the Townships of Broughton and Yorton. Mr. Reynolds, in his Commentary on Antoninus, would suppose this place the Roman Rutunium, but he adduces no proof. An alleged similarity in the names and the proper distance from Wroxeter are his only grounds for this untenable position. The Church of St. Chad of Shrewsbury held Burtone in the hundred of Bascherche in the Saxon times, and at the general survey. It was rated to the Danegeld at 2 hides, but there were 5 carucates[1] in tillage, 2 of which (as I conceive) were occupied by 3 villans. The excess of carucates over hides and the quantity of land assigned to each villan bespeaks much attention in the ecclesiastics to the improvement of their estates and the comfort of their tenants. Burtune, in the hundred of Bascherche, occurs likewise in Domesday under the possessions of St. Mary, to which it also belonged in the days of the Confessor. It was rated to the Danegeld at 5 hides, yet no more than 3 carucates[1] were accounted for, the half of one of which was holden by a priest, and the other two and a half by 7 villans. [page 320] The surveyors note that there was room for 3 more carucates [teams], and that there was a wood capable of fattening 24 hogs. This is a great difficulty. I can find no place except the place before us to which both these entries can refer. Yet its extent is far unequal to the existence of 7 hides. I can only conjecture that St. Mary's Broughton is the present Clive and Sansaw.[2] They do not occur in Domesday, nor does St. Mary in any subsequent record appear to have any connection with Broughton except, as will be seen hereafter, in a way which adds some strength to the present conjecture. It is certain that Broughton was a place of much greater consequence in days of yore than it is at present, and the two names are in effect the same, Brough being one of the modes in which more recent times have endeavoured to represent the guttural sound of the Saxon burh, so difficult to be pronounced by modern organs. We learn from Camden (Britannia, ed. Gibson, p. 283) that Burton in Gloucestershire is in ancient grants Burgtone. Yorton is a township of Broughton. At the time of Domesday a separate manor and township. It is there written Jartune,[3] and was then holden (as it had been in Saxon times) by the Church of St. Chad of Salop. It was rated at 2 hides, but the land comprised 4 carucates [teams], one of which was occupied by a priest and a villan. Yorton passed through the same hands with Broughton. [page 321] In 2 Edward I. the Dean and Canons of St. Chad are found to hold it in socage of the Bishop of Chester.[4] In the Inquisition of St. Chad's possessions, 1326, is a list of the Dean's tenants in Yorton. Its tithes, which were a part of the property of the deanery of that church, were demised with those of Broughton for 61 years to Humphrey Onslowe, Esq., in 34 Hen. VIII. ; and in 2 Edward VI. the reversion was leased to Beston for 21 years, as is stated in the account of Broughton. In 21 Elizabeth, land and tithe held by Roger Bromley, and the advowson of the church, were granted to Sir Christopher Hatton, but I am not sure that we can certainly conclude from these words that there was actually a church at Yorton. The clerks of that day seem to have inserted almost any words into royal grants which the purchasers of such grants suggested. One of the prebends of St. Chad was called the prebend of Yorton. Under the rental of it, in the grant to Beston, are included :—“ Diverse yearly rents issuing out of lands there to the amount of 5s. 4d., and the ferm of the tithe of sheafs, hay, and all other tithes there, demised to Bromley as above mentioned, amounting to 16s. 8d., which sum was to be divided between four of the prebendaries.” In 28 Edward I. it is found that Broughton and Yorton are held of the Dean and Canons of St. Chad in free socage, and that the Dean himself holds it of the Bishop of Chester without any service ; and in the Inquisition of the possessions of St. Chad's in 1326, among the tithes belonging to the [page 322] Dean, is the whole tithe of the town of Burton, also 18s. of the lordship. From the manner in which the Church of Broughton lies unenclosed and open to the adjoining fields, without any appearance of a churchyard fence, it should seem to have been a mere feldeyrie or chapel of ease (on which, see Whitaker's History of Whalley, p. 46). The field-kirk, indeed, had no right or place of sepulture, whereas a few graves are huddled together on the south side of Broughton Church, but they are all of late date, and Mr. Dawson expressly speaks of it as a church in the fields. It was, however, a place of note in the days of Popery, if the indulgences recorded in a paper preserved in Gough's History of Middle, and thence printed in Phillips's History of Shrewsbury, p. 94, refer to it. But concerning this there is some difficulty. That paper purports to contain the “ Statutes, indulgences, and pardons granted to the holy chapel of our lady of Broughton, in the county of Salop,” and Mr. Gough, the historian of Middle, who lived in the neighbourhood, expressly says, it was “ afterwards ” (i.e., after the destruction of a small monastery, of which more presently) accounted a chapel in the parish of St. Mary. Yet it is certain that the Broughton which belonged to St. Chad was dedicated to St. Margaret ; and the Inquisition of the town liberties in 7 Henry VIII. expressly states that the townships of Burghton and Yorton are within and of the parish of St. Chad. Mr. Gough, already quoted, says that “ Broughton did formerly belong, as some say, to a small monastery, which stood on a bank cast up by men's hands near Broughton church,” though he intimates his own belief that it was a castle which stood on the bank, and gave name to the place, “ Broughton quasi Burghton.” I have already intimated that the most diligent searcher into our provincial antiquities was assailed by the same difficulty that now perplexes us. William Mytton, writing to Browne Willis in 1741, says :—“ In my last I sent you word that Broughton [page 323] was dedicated to St. Margaret, but looking over some papers drawn up by an old attorney in my neighbourhood, he says 'tis dedicated to St. Mary, and mentions old bulls of two Popes, viz., St. Julian (sic) IInd and Leo Xth, which tell the occasion of its being built, and in short, makes a long story of it. This he says he found in the minister's study of that parish after his death, but whether this was the original or a copy I can’t say, and so I leave it to your choice.” By the old attorney, Mr. Mytton evidently means Gough, who states himself to have found the paper quoted above in the study of his old schoolmaster, Mr. Wm. Sukar, minister of Broughton, after his decease. The mistake of Julian for Julius proves further the identity, but Mr. Gough was no attorney. My opinion is that St. Mary's Burtune in Domesday is the present Clive and Sansaw,[5] but it is not improbable that that collegiate church might retain an oratory in Broughton in token of its former connection with the place, and that this oratory stood on the spot indicated by Gough, and for which the Dean of St. Mary's might have interest enough with the sovereign pontiffs, Julius II. and Leo X., who filled the papal chair at the commencement of the 16th century, to procure the privileges contained in the paper preserved by Gough. That document states that “the holy chapel of our Lady of Broughton was begun by the revelation and power of God, and the miracle of our Lady,” but the particulars of this legend are not recorded. Every person who visited the chapel, and recited a pater noster and ave maria before the image of the Virgin, and every benefactor to the building and support of the chapel, were to receive 1,500[6] days of pardon, with clear remission. [page 324] But it should seem that the prayers which were to be followed by these valuable privileges must be pronounced on the feasts peculiarly appropriated to the Virgin Mary, viz., her conception (Dec. 8), nativity (Sep. 8), purification (Feb. 2), annunciation (Mar. 25), assumption (Aug. 15), and the octaves of those feasts. Permission was also to be purchased at this chapel, for each individual to choose a priest, who should, once in his lifetime and again at the hour of death, grant him clear remission and absolution of all his sins, nothing excepted. As a further inducement to the faithful to contribute by their bounty to this chapel, an obit with dirge and mass of requiem was kept four times in the year for all those who had entitled themselves to become the objects of its benefits. These privileges, it is added, were granted by Pope Julian (Julius) IInd and Leo Xth, and lately confirmed by 15 cardinals of the court of Rome, and most of the bishops of England. This confirmation, then, must have taken place in the interval between the death of the last of those Popes and the English Reformation, a space of only seven years ; yet so little was that event in contemplation of the person who drew up this advertisement (for such, in fact, it is), that he concludes with a declaration “ that the prayers which shall be said and done within the holy chapel, shall endure there for evermore.” Almost immediately after this unlucky prediction, the stately fabric of papal superstition,—eremites and friarswhite, black, and gray, with all their trumpery . . .were brushed away by the rude hand of reformation ; and what candid and attentive peruser of the document just quoted can pronounce that reformation either wanton or unnecessary ? I am no unqualified panegyrist of the English Reformation. Its great author was truly—monstrum nullâ virtute redemptum, and many of its chief instruments were compassed about with human frailty. Deep, and I fear, irreparable, has been the wound it gave to Christian unity. Most important would have been the benefits resulting, had it been [page 325] attainable, from a reform without a separation from the Church of Rome. Neither would I willingly paint the errors of that church in colours darker than the truth. I revere in her the traces of primitive antiquity, and I would emulate the models of sincere piety which she has produced both in her clergy and laity. But masses for the dead, absolution of all sins, “ nothing excepted,” pardon of “ all punishment due in purgatory for faults and offences committed against God and man ” (the terms of the form annexed to the paper just quoted)—surely enormities in doctrine such as these, leading by inevitable conclusion to equal enormities in practice, are enough almost to excuse the lustful violence of a Henry, quite sufficient to vindicate the tear of pity we shed over the infirmities of a Cranmer, and the raptures of deathless veneration with which we contemplate the sufferings of a Ridley. “ But the Church of Rome never taught that these absolutions were of any avail without the sincere repentance of him who was their object!” I grant it. I am assured that an enlightened Romish priest would rate their effects at a value not much higher than that at which they would be prized by a sober Protestant. And I know that an enlightened Methodist teacher, and a sound divine of the English Church would differ little in their estimate of the comparative value of faith and works. But as in that I can complain that an ignorant congregation are deluded by ignorant and interested teachers into a false reliance on faith alone without works, so do I contend in this, that the benefits of a pardon were too ostentatiously blazoned, and the necessity of repentance too studiously suppressed. That neither of these pernicious doctrines produce their full effect upon morality, or, we trust, upon salvation, we ascribe to that conscience of good and ill, that lamp of the Lord implanted by God within us, which, as it were instinctively, warns the sound mind from gross aberration in practice : “ Cum ventum ad verum est, sensus moresque repugnant, Atque ipsa utilitas justi prope mater et æqui.”[page 326] But I return to the history of Broughton, from which, if I have too long digressed, it is not, as Mr. Gough observes upon the same occasion, without a pardon. The later Deans of St. Chad's, who appear to have been much absent from their preferment, seem to have been much in the habit of leasing out their deanery. We have an instrument of this kind, dated Feb. 28, 1542–3,[7] by which Master George Lee, brother of the Bishop of Lichfield, lets his deanery to ferm to Humphrey Onslow, Esq., of Onslow, for 61 years. This lease, which was made by consent of his chapter, is absolute for the term, and not dependent upon the life of the lessor. The tithes of the townships of Broughton and Yorton are expressly excepted, and reserved to the dean and his successors. But they were almost immediately afterwards, viz., on the 3rd day of the following April, demised to Roger Bromley of Broughton, gent., and Johan his wife, by a lease in which “the ferm of the Church of St. Margaret of Broughton, with all the glebes thereunto belonging, viz., a croft adjoining in the Netherfelde, a nook of land in the Wyndemyll fylde, another nook in the Crassefelde (I suppose the field abounding in cresses), and 2 acres of meadowe in Brode medowe, and all tithes, pensions, portions, oblations, and all other profits belonging to the said church,” are demised to them for their lives, rendering to the dean and his successors 24s. at Michaelmas, 6d. yearly for synodals, and to a chaplain celebrating divine offices in the said church, £4 6s. 8d. yearly, besides divers other rents paid yearly to certain of the prebendaries. The rapacity of Henry spared, as is well known, the collegiate churches. Sated by his unhallowed spoil, or touched in conscience, or sensible of the utility of such parochial establishments, he left the world without this additional guilt upon his soul, but he had given his [page 327] ministers an example, upon the atrocity of which they were eager to improve. In the first parliament of his innocent successor, they were all thrown down by a single enactment of the unprincipled Somerset ; and as they were chiefly situated in large towns, it is to this statute that we are to ascribe that general inadequacy of provision for the incumbents of the most populous parishes, to which Mr. Studley, minister of St. Chad's in the portentous times immediately preceding the great rebellion, mainly attributes the progress of Puritanism which led to that event. On this dissolution, the whole property of St. Chad's college was leased 22 June, 2 Edward VI., to George Beston, Esq., for 21 years.[8] The ferm of St. Margaret of Broughton, as already described, and valued beyond reprises at £6 16s. 8d, being part of the dean's portion, is included in this demise from the Crown, but subject to the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Bromley. They were probably dead in 21 Elizabeth, when the queen granted the advowson of the church and tithes of St. Margaret of Broughton, belonging to the late college of St. Chad, to her favourite, Sir Christopher Hatton.[9] In 1713, Richard Lyster, Esq., was seised in fee of the rectory and parsonage of Broton in fee, and was entitled to all the tithes of every description, great and small. [Mr. Blakeway has inserted in his manuscript the following newspaper advertisement, undated :—“ To be sold by auction in lots, in a few weeks, the Manor of Broughton with the Rights, Royalties, and Appurtenances thereof, and the donative of the Parish Church [page 328] of Broughton, together with several Lands, Farms, and Hereditaments in the Parishes of Broughton and Middle, in the County of Salop ; and also the tithes of the township and parish of Broughton. The Broughton estate lies on each side the road leading from Shrewsbury to Wem, about 5 miles distant from each place. Further particulars will appear in a future paper, and may be known by application at Messrs. Lloyd and Williams's Office, Shrewsbury.”] [edit] Broughton.
Broughton Register begins 1586, but contains no entries of special interest. [It seems doubtful in whom the Manorial rights are now vested. The Directories state that Viscount Hill is Lord of the Manor. Mr. Blakeway describes Robert Lyster, Esq., of Rowton, as then being lord ; and, if this were so, he is now represented by Lord Rowton, of Rowton Castle. Lord Hill sold his property in Broughton to J. Wilson, Esq., of Beobridge, and his executors sold it to Mr. Rd. Barber, of Harlescott, who now owns it. Robert Gardner, Esq., sold his property in [page 329] Broughton (or more strictly, Yorton), partly to J. J. Bibby, Esq., of Hardwicke, but the great bulk of it to William Nevett, Esq., in 1873. Mr. Nevett's estate in Yorton consists of about 335 acres, and his house was built by Mr. Davies. In Bilmarsh is a well, flowing out of the hollow trunk of a tree, and called “ The Captain's Well.” The legend connected with it, if any, is not now remembered. The parish of Broughton contains about 800 acres.] [edit] The Church.[The early records as to the Chapel of Broughton are scanty, as it was a mere dependency of St. Chad ; and the Diocesan Registers contain no records of its pre-Reformation Incumbents. There was probably a Church at Broughton at the time of the Domesday Survey, which was, no doubt, served by the Yorton priest mentioned in that record. Some account of the 16th century leases of the Church, glebe, and tithes of St. Margaret of Broughton will be found in Owen and Blakeway's History, ii. 202, &c. In 1548 the King's Surveyor reported as follows :—“ Also the said churche of Broughton is a parishe churche in the countrie, distaunte from the said town miles : and the deane and collegians of the said collegiatt churche, having the profetts of all the tenths of the said towne of Broughton and Yarton, have byn allwayes chardged to fynd a curatt there to minister : and have demised the said xths to Roger Bromley, who is bounde by his lease to find the curatt there, and to paie suche further somes for the same, as in his lease above declarde maie appere.” The old church was stripped of its roof and left to decay, in the year 1857, when a new church was erected. In a circular issued by the Vicar in that year, it is stated to be the most dilapidated church in the county, as well as the dampest and coldest. The church was a very small building. The east wall remains, with two lancet windows ; also the south wall, which contains a door-way and window, and a piscina ; and portions of the west wall. The real motive for destroying the old building was the dampness of the burying ground ; but the act cannot be defended. In the old churchyard is the base of a Cross, and several tombstones. Amongst others are these :—Isabell Hales, daughter to George and Isabell Strange of Bridgnorth, and wife to John Hales of Broughton, died 1815 ; Isabell Brid, died 2 Oct., 1802 ; Edmund, son of Richard and Elizabeth Parr ; Charles, son of Cornelius and Elizabeth Maddock, died 1823, aged 16, &c. The new church was erected by subscription, some distance away from the old church and on higher ground, on a site given by Robert Gardner, Esq., in the year 1858, and was opened in April, 1859. It consists of chancel, nave, and bell turret, and contains a tablet to a member of the Nevett family. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. There is a most interesting pre-Reformation chalice, with possibly a [page 330] later stem and cover, belonging to the church. The patronage is vested in Viscount Hill. E. Percivale, Esq., is lay impropriator, having purchased the titles from Lady Charlotte Lyster.] [edit] Incumbents of Broughton.(From MS. Top. Salop, C. 9). Thomas Newnes, of Middle ; rector of Broughton in 1577. See Register of Middle. See also Clive. William Sugar, minister 1628 ; sep. 17 Nov., 1675. [He married Mary Otley on 16 Oct. 1628. Curate also of Clive and Grinshill.] James Doughty, curate ; sep. 12 May, 1730, Holy Cross. . . . . . Sutton. See Newtown. [William Bagley, minister 1754 to 1778 ; Incumbent of the Clive ; died 22 Feb., 1783, and buried 28th at Preston Gobalds.] Thomas Moses Lyster, See Oldbury. Francis Salt. [Signs the Register as Curate in 1810–11 ; and as Minister from 1815–1836. Qu. also Headmaster of Wem Grammar School. M.A. Ch. Ch., Oxford. Born at Bridgnorth, 1795 ; died 14 April, 1841. Son of the Rev. Francis Salt, of Bridgnorth.] [William Boulton, M.A. Ch. Ch., Oxon. Headmaster of Wem Grammar School, 1839–1878. Born at Bridgnorth, 1808 ; died 22 April, 1880. Son of Mr. William Boulton, of Bridgnorth. Francis Barney Parkes, B.A. Ch. Ch., Oxon. Signs the Register as Curate in 1836. Perpetual Curate 1840–1855. Afterwards Rector of Southwick, Sussex, 1858–1873, and Vicar of Atcham, 1873–1881. Born at Loppington, 1812 ; died 24 Sept., 1881. Son of the Rev. Richard Parkes, Vicar of Hanmer and Loppington ; and grandson of Mr. Pryn Parkes, of St. Martin's, co. Warwick. John Wood, M.A. Ch. Ch., Oxon. Incumbent of Grinshill, 1849, and of Broughton 1855 to 1864. During his incumbency, in 1857, the old church was unroofed, and the new church erected. Born at Grinshill, 1801 ; died 18 May, 1864. Son of Mr. John Wood, of Grinshill. John Hawkesworth. Formerly a barrister-at-law. He died at Wem in 1876. [page 331] John Wright, M.A. St. John's Coll., Camb. ; Vicar of Broughton 1876. Also Vicar of Grinshill since 1874. The following also sign the Registers as Curates of Broughton :— Edward Powys, Curate, 1781. William Clarke, 1782. Thomas Jones, 1783. R. Howell, 1790–4. [Qu. Richard Howell, of Wem.] D. Evans, 1797–1800. Richard Walker, 1800–9. John Kynaston, 1826. Viscount Hill is patron of the Vicarage of Broughton. There is no Vicarage house; but the living has usually been held with other preferment. For this addition to Mr. Blakeway's list of Incumbents I am indebted to the Rev. John Wright, M.A.—Ed.] [edit] Broughton Register Extracts.(Extracted from Geo. Morris's MS. Shropshire Registers, &c., in the Shrewsbury Free Library). The Register begins 1586.
[The earliest Register is lost. The present one commences only in 1705. Vol. I. extends from 1705 to 1774, Vol. II., 1775 to 1812, Vol. III., 1754 to 1811, Marriages ; Vol. IV., 1815 to 1837, Marriages. These names occur in the earliest existing Register :—Hales, Ebry, Eaton, Newnes, Kilvert, Edwards, Maddock, Garmson, Painter, Miles, Yeomans, &c. A Court Book of the Shrewsbury Municipal Court Leet, preserved amongst the Corporation Records, and dated 1647–8, names these inhabitants of Broughton :—Thomas Lister, Joshua Richardson, Richard Prees, John Ford, and Francis Gough ; and of Yorton :—Thomas Heath, William Crosse, William Nowans, Roger Gittyns, and William Wood. A Court Roll of 1649–50 names Joshua Richardson, gent., John Soudlyn, and John ffoord, as then living at Broughton. In 1580 there seem to have been 16 men in Broughton and 16 men in Yorton, over the age of 16, capable of bearing arms. Their names and particulars of their arms will be found at page 275 ante.]
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