inhabitants of the parish, an additional advantage has been gained by
annexing the two Welsh townships of Pentregaer and Cynynion to the new
church at Rhydycroesau. This church is situated on the high road to
Llansilin, about three and a half miles from the town of Oswestry. It
owes its foundation to the Rev. G. N. K. Lloyd, late Rector of Selattyn,
who contributed liberally himself, and, with the co-operation of the
first and present Incumbent, the Rev. Robert Williams, M.A., raised a
sufficient fund, by voluntary contributions, to complete the church and
erect a glebe-house. The church was consecrated August 2nd, 1838, by the
Bishop of St. Asaph, and the glebe-house was built in 1840. It is a
Consolidated District Church, licensed for all parochial purposes; and
has a legally-assigned district, consisting of the townships of Cynynion
and Pentregaer, in the parish of Oswestry; a detached portion of the
parish of Llanyblodwel, called Cefnymaes; with portions of the parishes
of Llansilin and Selattyn. A very neat Gothic building has also been
erected by the present Incumbent, aided by voluntary contributions, and
opened as a National School in January, 1850. The sites for the school
and playground, as well as for the church and church-yard, are the
munificent gifts of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart. The portion of the
population of the parish of Oswestry thus transferred to the district of
Rhydycroesau is about 200.
Nothing is now needed to make the ecclesiastical arrangements of the
parish of Oswestry complete but the building of a chapel-of-ease at
Maesbury, and the annexing a district to Morton Chapel; the latter of
which objects will no doubt be effected whenever a new Incumbent shall be
appointed to it.
Oswestry is a discharged Vicarage, in the gift of the Earl of Powis. The
present Incumbent is the Rev. Thomas Salwey, B.D.
LIST OF VICARS.
David Owain instituted 1534
Rector of Whittington 1532, and Prebendary of
Myfod 1534
Peter Brereton 1537
John Price, L.L.B. 1552
He became Prebendary of Myfod 1558, and
Chancellor 1559.
William Owen 1583
William Horton 1587
Thomas Somerfield 1588
John Bagshaw 1591
Rector of Whittington 1588.
William Morgan 1599
Vicar of Pool 1575.
Richard Pagot 1602
Nathaniel Tattersall (deprived) 1603
Richard Muckleston 1612
John Kyffin, B.D. 1625
Humphrey Wynne 1639
Rowland Nevet, A.M. —
Ejected by the Act of Uniformity.
Richard Edwards 1664
Richard Jones 1680
Samuel Wilson, A.M. 1690
Archibald Guild 1694
Thomas Jones 1697
Thomas Owen 1707
Edward Parry 1713
Thomas Trevor, A.M., Bodynfol 1736
Turner Edwards, L.L.B., Talgarth 1784
Vicar of Llansilin.
Daniel Griffiths 1803
J. W. Bourke, A.M. 1807
Vicar of St. Martins 1803.
Thomas Salwey, B.D. December, 1823
The present esteemed Vicar of Oswestry, suffering much from illness, has
long been unable to attend personally to the duties of his office. When
however occasion has offered to promote, by his counsel and aid, any
measure of benevolence in the Parish, he has been active in the good
work. There are two Curates at present attached to the Parish Church—the
Rev. Llewelyn Wynne Jones, and the Rev. George Cuthbert, both of whom are
zealous and faithful in their ministerial labours, and have acquired the
regard and affection of the numerous congregations to whom they dispense
the Bread of Life.
Dissenting Places of Worship.
THE OLD CHAPEL.
The Congregational Church of Protestant Dissenters now assembling in the
Old Chapel, Arthur-Street, was formed in the township of Sweeney, in the
year 1662, and the Rev. Rowland Nevet, A, M., ejected from the vicarage
of Oswestry by the Act of Uniformity, was its first pastor. Mr. Nevet
laboured in the ministry for thirty years; seventeen as a clergyman of
the established church, and thirteen as a dissenting preacher. Calamy,
in his “_Nonconformists’ Memorial_,” mentions to his honour, that when
the Plague prevailed at Oswestry, he still continued with his people,
extending to them both temporal and spiritual aid. He died December 8th,
1675, and was succeeded by the Rev. James Owen, a distinguished minister,
who bore part, as we have already mentioned, in a theological controversy
which took place in the Oswestry Guildhall, in the year 1681, in the
presence of Bishop Lloyd. He was appointed pastor at Sweeney in
November, 1676, the duties of which office he faithfully discharged, as
well as those of chaplain to Mrs. Baker, a pious lady residing on her own
estate at Sweeney Hall. Vestiges of the ancient burial-ground of the
first Nonconformists are yet to be seen near the site of the old mansion
at Sweeney, enclosed within iron railings by the late T. N. Parker, Esq.
The following inscriptions are still legible:—
“Here lieth Mrs. ABIGAIL CHETWOOD, daughter to Sir Richard Chetwood,
who died the 1st May, 1658.”
“THOMAS BAKER, Esq., deceased March 19, aged 68, A.D. 1675.”
The above Thomas Baker served the office of High Sheriff of the county,
in 1649, the first year of Cromwell’s Protectorate; and in the parliament
of 1653 he was summoned by Cromwell, with John Brown, of Little Ness, as
a knight of the shire. In 1692 the place of worship was removed, for
convenience, from Sweeney into the town of Oswestry. The room fitted up
for religious worship was part of a house in Willow-Street, now known as
the Butchers’ Arms. Here Mr. Owen laboured for eight years, and then
removed to Shrewsbury, where he was soon placed at the head of the
dissenting theological seminary. He was succeeded by the Rev. Jenkyn
Evans, who died in 1709, and his funeral sermon was preached by the
celebrated Mathew Henry. The Rev. Joseph Venables was the next minister
appointed; and after Mr. Venables came the Rev. Thomas Morgan. During
his ministry the site on which the present chapel and chapel-house stand
was purchased, with an old maltkiln upon it, for £38. The sum of £200
having been given for the purpose by Mrs. Sarah Lloyd, a chapel was
erected, and opened for public worship in July, 1750. The immediate
successors of Mr. Morgan were Mr. Davies and Mr. Dewhurst; the latter
became Socinian or Arian in his doctrines, and soon left. In September,
1777, the Rev. Dr. Edward Williams removed from Ross to Oswestry. In
1783 he enlarged the chapel; and the Collegiate Institution at
Abergavenny having been removed to Oswestry, Dr. Williams became its
Tutor, and for the accommodation of the students he enlarged the
chapel-house also. In 1791 he removed to Carr’s-Lane, Birmingham;
afterwards to Rotherham College, of which he was appointed Principal, and
there he died. The Rev. John Whitridge, who had been minister of the
Congregational Church at Newcastle-under-Lyme for nine years, succeeded
Dr. Williams, and he remained the kind and benevolent pastor of his
congregation, which greatly increased under his ministry, till the period
of his death, October 11th, 1826. On the west side of the chapel, and
over the spot where the pulpit then stood, in which for thirty-five years
he had dealt out the bread of life to his congregation, a plain marble
tablet was erected, bearing the following inscription:—
“In Memory of the Rev. JOHN WHITRIDGE, this Tablet is affectionately
inscribed by the Church over whom for 35 years he was the devoted
Pastor. An example—in word—in conversation—in charity—in spirit—in
faith—in purity. ‘Whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the
Churches.’ He was born 23rd March, 1760. Died 11th October, 1826.
His body reposes in a tomb beneath, waiting the spirit’s union at the
resurrection of the just.”
Dr. Jenkyn, of Wem, succeeded to the pastoral office, and afterwards the
Rev. W. Reeve. The Rev. J. Davies was followed by the present able
pastor, the Rev. James Matheson (son of the Rev. Dr. Matheson, the
indefatigable Secretary of the Home Missionary Society), who entered upon
his ministerial labours in September, 1851, and who, by his distinguished
talents, great urbanity, and ardent zeal for the spiritual prosperity of
his people, has succeeded in greatly increasing the number of his
hearers, and in commending himself to the good opinion of all classes of
his fellow-townsmen.
[Picture: The Old Chapel]
The present Chapel (of which we give a sketch) was built during the
ministry of the Rev. Dr. Jenkyn. The old Chapel having become too small
for the increased number of hearers, it was pulled down, with the
exception of part of one wall, and the present one was erected. It is a
substantial and commodious place of worship, and capable of containing,
when closely seated, about eight hundred persons.
THE BAPTIST CHAPEL,
Situated on the English Walls (opposite the Cattle Market), was erected
by voluntary contributions, in the year 1805, and enlarged in 1818. It
contains two galleries, and will accommodate between 300 and 400 persons.
The Baptist Church in Oswestry was formed September 6th, 1806, and then
consisted of a few members dismissed from the Baptist Church, at
Shrewsbury, at that time under the pastoral care of the late Rev. John
Palmer, who, with other Baptist Ministers, preached the Gospel in
Oswestry and its neighbourhood some time prior to the erection of the
Chapel. The Rev. William Pain was the first Pastor, and was succeeded by
the Rev. Thomas Cooke, in the year 1817, who, for twenty years,
honourably sustained the office to which he had been chosen. In 1838 the
Rev. Robert Clarke (late of Bridgnorth) became the Pastor; and his
successor was the late Rev. H. G. Grainger, who settled in Oswestry, in
the year 1846. The present Pastor, the Rev. David Crumpton, took the
oversight of the Church in the year 1852. There is a Sabbath-School
connected with this congregation. The Chapel is free from debt, as is
also the Baptist Chapel at Sweeney, erected by this Church and
congregation in the year 1831.
THE WESLEYAN-METHODIST CHAPEL
Is a plain brick building, situated in the Coney Green, and was erected
in the year 1813. The interior is without galleries, but will
accommodate on the ground floor about 500 persons. The Wesleyan body in
Oswestry is included in the Wrexham Circuit, the present Superintendent
being the Rev. Samuel Atkinson.
ZION CHAPEL.
Throughout the Principality the Calvinistic Methodists are the most
numerous body of dissenters, and their annual meetings, or associations,
are seasons of much interest and excitement. In 1814 a small chapel was
erected on the Welsh Walls for the accommodation of persons of this
persuasion resident in Oswestry, and this was occupied as a place of
religious worship until 1836, when the great increase of the congregation
rendered the erection of a larger chapel necessary. Accordingly the
present building was commenced in Gatacre Place, and opened for public
worship on the 6th of July, 1836.
It is a substantial stone structure, of rather imposing appearance, and
affords accommodation for upwards of 500 persons.
THE PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPEL.
The first chapel erected by this body was on the site of the Bath in
Upper Willow Street, and was opened in 1825. So rapid has been the
increase of the members of this denomination, that from the summer of
1825, when their first travelling preacher visited Oswestry, to the
present time, they have built in this circuit no fewer than sixteen
chapels; and the number of preachers on their quarterly plan amounts to
120. Their place of worship in Willow Street having become incapable of
accommodating their increasing numbers, the present chapel and
chapel-house were erected in 1840, in Castle Street. It is a neat and
convenient building, and will seat about 450 persons. The Superintendent
is the Rev. Thomas Parr.
BETHESDA CHAPEL
Is a small neat building in Castle Street, erected in the year 1844, for
the use of the Welsh Congregationalists, or Independents. The Rev.
Robert Thomas is the present Minister.
THE INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHAPEL
Stands below the Horse-Market, and was built in 1848 by a body of
seceders from the Primitive Methodists. It is a plain brick building,
and capable of seating about 300 persons.
* * * * *
Besides the above, there is a small but highly-respectable body of
Christians who hold their meetings in the Assembly Room at Osburn’s
Hotel, under the ministry of the Rev. J, Stewart; and also a congregation
of Welsh Wesleyan-Methodists, who assemble in a school-room at Black
Gate.
Municipal and Civil Government.
The Corporation of Oswestry is of great antiquity. Its civic honours,
primitively, flowed from its Barons or Lords, who, exercising themselves
the power of petty sovereigns, appointed Bailiff’s and other officers to
superintend the civic affairs of the borough. Its first assumption of
civic dignities appears to have been in the reign of Henry II., when
William, Earl of Arundel, granted to the town a short charter (called by
the Welsh “_Siarter Cwtta_”), denominated also a Charter of Protection.
A clause in this ancient document sets forth that “I (the Earl of
Arundel) have received in Protection my Burgesses of Blanc-Minster”
(Oswestry). Richard de Chambre was Constable at this period. Here was
subsidiary power given to the inhabitants of Oswestry, for the government
of the town; but in the reign of Richard II., August 14th, 1399, that
monarch granted to Oswestry its first royal charter, incorporating the
Burgesses by the name and title of “The Bailiffs and Burgesses of
Oswestry, _infra Palatinatum Cestriæ_, _in marchia inter Angliam et
Walliam_.” In 1407, as heretofore noticed, Thomas, Earl of Arundel,
granted a comprehensive and valuable charter, showing that still the
exercise of power, in his lordship or barony, for the good government of
the burgesses, &c., was fully recognized by the crown.
The rights and privileges granted by Richard II. seem to have been
strictly guarded and maintained by the inhabitants down to the reign of
Elizabeth, when they were confirmed by that sovereign. It would appear,
however, that subsequently “divers doubts and ambiguities” arose
concerning the ancient liberties, franchises, &c., of the borough, and in
the reign of James I., 1616, the king granted a charter to the town,
extending its liberties and privileges, and confirming the Bailiffs,
Burgesses, &c., as a body corporate, by the name of “The Bailiff and
Burgesses of Oswestry, in the countie of Salop.” The charter of Charles
II., granted January 13th, 1673, to “the ancient borough and corporation
of Oswestry, alias Oswaldstrey, in the county of Salop,” enacted “That
they be incorporated by the name of the Mayor, Aldermen,
Common-Councilmen and Burgesses of Oswestry.” This charter, it will be
seen, was the instrument which first called into existence the offices of
Mayor, Aldermen, Common-Councilmen, and Recorder. That charter was
immediately acted upon, and Mr. Richard Pope was elected _the first Mayor
of Oswestry_. Sir John Trevor, Knight (afterwards speaker of the House
of Commons, and Master of the Rolls), Morgan Wynne, Esq., Edward Owen,
Richard Edwards, Richard Lloyd, the before-mentioned Richard Pope,
gentleman; Gabriel Edwards, woollen-draper; Hugh Price, woollen-draper;
John Jones, mercer; Richard Jones, John Blodwell, gentlemen; and John
Lloyd, mercer, were chosen as _the first Aldermen_. Richard Price,
brewer, Richard Jones, mercer, John Glover, tanner, Richard Jones,
glover, Edward Evans, apothecary, John Jones, glover, John Muckleston,
shoemaker, Thomas Edwards, gentleman, Thomas Edwards, baker, Nathaniel
Jones, brewer, Hugh Edwards, shoemaker, Timothy George, mercer, Thomas
Vaughan, chandler, William Price, butcher, and Thomas Felton, brazier,
were _the first Common-Councilmen_. Morgan Wynne, Esq., was _the first
Recorder_ of the town, and John Worral, Esq., first Common Clerk of the
Borough, and Clerk of the Court. It may be mentioned as a fact worth
knowing, that Sir John Trevor was the _second_ Mayor of Oswestry, under
the charter of Charles II. Sir John was an eminent man, and his history,
connected as he was with the borough of Oswestry, is worthy of brief
record in these pages. He was the second son of John Trevor, Esq., of
Brynkinalt, in the county of Denbigh, by an aunt of Sir George Jeffreys.
He was born about the year 1637, and it is supposed never received
educational advantages beyond those furnished by a village school. He
was sent to London to his uncle, Arthur Trevor, a leading barrister, who
employed him as his clerk in his chambers in the Inner Temple. The Rev.
Robert Williams, in his careful and elaborate “_Biographical Dictionary
of Eminent Welshmen_,” says of him, that—
“On his first arrival he displayed very lively parts, although his
manners were rather uncouth, and he could not speak a sentence of
correct English. His diligence, however, was so great, that being
entered a student of the Inner Temple, he rendered himself well
versed in all branches of his profession, and soon acquired extensive
practice. Through the interest of his cousin, Sir George Jeffreys,
he was made a king’s counsel, in 1678, and he obtained a seat in the
House of Commons. Here he acquired considerable influence among the
members, and such was his reputation as a high prerogative lawyer,
that at the meeting of James II’s. parliament in May, 1685, he was
elected Speaker. In October of the same year he was appointed Master
of the Rolls, and in July, 1688, he was sworn a Privy Councillor. On
the accession of William and Mary, Sir John Trevor was dismissed from
the office of Master of the Rolls. In the Convention Parliament he
sat for Beraldstone, and opposed by every means in his power the
measures of the Government. In the next Parliament, called in 1690,
he made his peace with the Court, and was unanimously elected
Speaker. In May, 1691, he was made first Lord Commissioner of the
Great Seal, which office he held until May 2nd, 1693, and in January,
1693 he was restored to his office of Master of the Rolls. Such was
his talent for managing party, and of recommending himself to the
Government by his bold and dexterous measures, that had it not been
for his great indiscretion, he would probably have reached the great
object of his ambition, which was to become Lord Chancellor, and to
be created a peer. In 1695 a violent outcry was raised against
bribery, and a committee was appointed by the House of Commons, to
inquire into the charges, which were made against members, and it
reported that Sir John Trevor had received a bribe of a thousand
guineas for furthering a bill called the ‘Orphan’s Bill,’ promoted by
the City of London. Accordingly, March 12th, 1695, he was subjected
to the unparalleled humiliation of putting the resolution from the
chair, and declaring himself guilty. He then resigned the chair, and
was expelled from the House. Receiving money for voting in
parliament was in those days so common, that his offence was not
regarded in a very serious light, and he was permitted to retain his
high judicial office of Master of the Rolls, for the long period of
twenty-two years after his expulsion from the House of Commons. By
the death of his elder brother he succeeded to the paternal estates
of Brynkinalt, which, with large possessions of his own acquisition,
have descended through his only daughter Anne to the present Viscount
Dungannon. Sir John Trevor died May 20th, 1717, being nearly eighty
years of age, at his house in Chancery Lane, and was buried in the
Rolls Chapel.”
Yorke, in his “_Royal Tribes of Wales_,” relates a droll anecdote of Sir’
John, which is worthy of transplantation.
“Among his other virtues,” says Yorke, “Trevor was an economist. He
had dined by himself one day at the Rolls, and was drinking his wine
quietly, when his cousin Roderic Lloyd was unexpectedly introduced to
him from a side door. ‘You rascal,’ said Trevor to his servant, ‘and
you have brought my cousin Roderic Lloyd, Esquire, Prothonotary of
North Wales, Marshal to Baron Price, and so forth, and so forth, up
my _back stairs_. Take my cousin Roderic Lloyd, Esquire,
Prothonotary of North Wales, Marshal to Baron Price, and so forth,
and so forth; take him instantly back, down my _back stairs_, and
bring him up my _front stairs_.’ Roderic in vain remonstrated, and
whilst he was conveyed down one, and up the other stairs, his Honor
removed the bottle and glasses.”
Trevor had an obliquity of vision, or, in plainer words, he squinted
abominably! When he was expelled from the House of Commons for bribery,
pasquinades were issued against him, in one of which it was wittily said,
that “Justice was blind, but Bribery only squinted.”
The charter of the 25 Charles II. (which was the governing charter
previous to the passing of the Municipal Reform Act,) granted to the
Borough of Oswestry a general Court of Quarter Sessions, to be held
before the Mayor, the Steward, and the Recorder, or any two of them, of
whom the Mayor was to be one. On the passing of that Act the Government
refused to renew the grant of a separate Quarter Sessions, although
strong and unanimous petitions from the town were presented in favour of
this privilege. In 1842, however, when the Ministry of Sir Robert Peel
was in office, Sir James Graham being Secretary of State for the Home
Department, the application was renewed, and was ultimately complied
with. The grant is dated the 27th May, 1842, and under it John Robert
Kenyon, Esq., was appointed Recorder. The first Quarter Sessions, under
this grant, were held on July 8th in the same year. Mr. Kenyon has ably
and impartially discharged the duties of Recorder since that period; and
to his legal acumen and zealous interest for the borough the inhabitants
are indebted for many advantages.
The Corporation are chosen from the respectable and enterprising classes
of the borough, so that all men who by perseverance and success in trade
or commerce, in the learned profession of the law, or medical science, or
who move in the quieter and more elevated ranks of life, where the _otium
cum dignitate_ is to be seen in perfection,—if to be seen anywhere,—are
in the legitimate path to Magisterial authority and Aldermanic greatness.
The Municipal Act came into operation in Oswestry in January, 1836.
James Edwards, Esq., was elected Mayor of the borough in 1834, and held
office, pursuant to the new Act, until January 1st, 1836, on which day
John Croxon, Esq., was elected the _first Mayor_ under the Municipal
Reform Act, and continued in office till November 9th, 1836, when Francis
Campbell, Esq., was elected as the _second_ Mayor of the borough under
the same Act.
The Hon. Thomas Kenyon (second son of the celebrated Lord Kenyon, and
father of the present Recorder of Oswestry) was appointed High Steward of
the Borough in the year 1823. Mr. Richard Jones Croxon (who had
succeeded Mr. Lewis Jones to the Town-Clerkship in 1834) was appointed
Town-Clerk under the Municipal Act, and has continued to perform the
duties of that office to the present time, with great credit to himself
and satisfaction to the town.
Under the New Corporation Act the borough was divided into two Wards,
viz., the _East Ward_, comprising 148 burgesses, and the _West Ward_,
numbering 166 burgesses.
THE CORPORATION OF OSWESTRY, for the year 1854–5, consists of the
following gentlemen:—
G. H. WILLIAMS, MAYOR.
_Aldermen_:
THOMAS LONGUEVILLE LONGUEVILLE, THOMAS ROGERS,
PEPLOE CARTWRIGHT, EDWARD MORRIS,
THOMAS HILL, THOMAS MINSHALL.
_Councillors_:
WILLIAM HODGES, THOMAS EDWARDS,
WILLIAM EDWARDS, JAMES THOMAS JONES,
EDWARD WYNNE THOMAS, WILLIAM ISAAC BULL,
DAVID LLOYD, WILLIAM MORRIS,
GEORGE MORRALL BICKERTON, RICHARD KYRKE PENSON,
WILLIAM HAYWARD, JOHN LACON,
FRANCIS ROBERTS, JOHN MINSHALL,
GEORGE JAMES SAUNDERS, JOHN PHILLIPS,
JOHN ROBERTS.
_Town-Clerk_:—R. J. CROXON.
_Clerk of the Peace_:—ROBERT SIMON.
_Coroner_:—JOHN MILES HALES.
_Treasurer_:—GEORGE COOPER,