Malpas in 1837 Malpas, situated on an elevation near the river Dee, in the hundred of Broxton, is 168 miles north-west from London : the population of the parish 5,565, of the town 1,004. The parish contains two rectories, one with the curacy of St. Chad, and the other with the curacy of Whitwell. The church was formerly the chapel of a religious house for monks of the Cluniac order ; it is built of unhewn stone, and consists of a nave and chancel, without either aisle or steeple : it is highly ornamented, and some of its decorations have been supposed to be of Saxon origin. Courts leet are held here for the recovery of debts under 40 shillings. Besides several meeting-houses, there are here two chapels of ease, an endowed grammar school for 12 boys and 12 girls, and also many charitable institutions. Malpas is the birth place of Matthew Henry, the commentator on the Bible.