Shropshire Routes to Roots - Shropshire places - Wem
by Samuel Garbet
Shropshire is divided into twelve hundreds, the liberty of Shrewsbury, and the Franchise of Wenlock. These parts are very unequal, for the hundred of Bradford contains near a quarter of the county. Bradford is a contraction of Bradanford, and signifies a broad and safe passage through a river or brook; but the situation of that broad ford, which gave name to the hundred, is entirely unknown. The author of the late Magna Britannia is mistaken in asserting that Bradford is a small inconsiderable village in North Bradford, for no such village can there be found.
In the 24th Charles the II. the Right Honourable Francis Newport, Baron of high Ercal, obtained of that King a grant of the Fee of the hundreds of Bradford, Stottesden, Condover, and Pimhill, to him and his heirs for ever, paying, as I am told, a certain annual rent to the Crown: and this was the reason, that upon his advancement to higher degrees of nobility, he had the title, first of Viscount, afterwards of Earl of Bradford. At present, 1740, the Fee of the hundred of Bradford is invested in Mrs. Ann Smith, as trustee for her son John Newport, Esq. She nominates the officers belonging to the hundred Court at Wellington, which is a Court of Record, where persons may sue for any sum not exceeding £20. There are live Attornies belonging to it, according to the number of Market Towns in the hundred.
The author of the late Magna Britannia, Spelman's Villare Anglicum, and all the maps of Shropshire that I have seen, reckon North Bradfnrd and South Bradford two distinct hundreds, whereas they are but one. In this error Speed led the way, and the rest followed him as in a beaten track.
North Bradford sends no Members to Parliament, but contains two Boroughs, three Market Towns, fourteen Parishes, and seventy nine villages. It is bounded on the north by Cheshire, on the east by the county of Stafford, on the south by South Bradford, on the west by the liberty of Shrewsbury. the hundred of Pimhill, and the county of Flint. It is about fifteen miles long from its north-east Angle., near Gravenhunger, to its south-west point, near Little Whiteford. It is about twelve miles. broad from Hinton to Sambroke.
Page created 7 September 2003 and last updated 22 June 2007
