Whitchurch in 1841
Whitchurch is in the hundred of North Bradford, and on the borders of Cheshire, into which county a portion of the parish extends. The population of the entire parish, which comprises twelve townships, in 1831, was 5,819. The town is situated on an acclivity, at the top of which stands the church, a handsome structure, erected in 1722. It appears that part of the wall of Whitchurch castle was standing in 1760. The road from Shrewsbury to Chester passes through this place. A weekly market and four annual fairs are held here. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Marbury in Cheshire, of the net annual value of £1,458. There is one infant-school ; seventeen day-schools, one of them a free grammar-school endowed by John Talbot in the reign of Edward VI, and subsequently augmented ; one a national school supported by subscription, two others partly supported by subscription, and two day and boarding schools ; three day and Sunday schools, one supported by endowment, and to which a lending library is attached, and another partly supported by subscription, and both appertaining to Unitarians. The third is a Lancasterian school. Besides these there are six Sunday-schools supported by contributions. There is an almshouse for six poor persons endowed by the wills of Mr. Samuel Higginson and Jane his widow. Nicholas Barnard, chaplain to Archbishop Usher, and afterwards dean of Ardagh, and the author of several works, was born and buried here. Abraham Wheelock, professor of Arabic at Cambridge, and distinguished as a linguist, was also born here.
|