The following is an authentic account, from the “Antiquarian Repertory,”
of the incumbents of a vicarage near Bridgenorth in Shropshire. Its
annual revenue, till the death of the last incumbent here mentioned, was
not more than about seventy pounds per annum, although it is a very
large and populous parish, containing at least twenty hamlets or
townships, and is scarcely any where less than four or five miles in
diameter. By a peculiar idiom in that country, the inhabitants of this
large district are said to live “in Worfield-home:” and the adjacent, or
not far distant, parishes (each of them containing, in like manner, many
townships, or hamlets) are called Claverly, or Clarely-home,
Tatnall-home, Womburn-home, or, as the terminating word is every where
pronounced in that neighbourhood, “whome.”
“A list of the vicars of Worfield in the diocese of Lichfield and
Coventry, and in the county of Salop, from 1564 to 1763, viz.
“Demerick, vicar, last popish priest, conformed during the six first
years of Elizabeth. He died 1564.
Barney, vicar 44 years; died 1608.
Barney, vicar 56 years; died 1664.
Hancocks, vicar 42 years; died 1707.
Adamson, vicar 56 years; died 1763.
Only 4 vicars in 199 years.”
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