Shropshire Routes to Roots - Shropshire places - Wem
by Samuel Garbet
RICHARD RODERICK born at Oswestry, in the county of Salop. He was in orders, but did not accept of any preferment in the church. He taught in a large room over the old markethouse till August 1665, when Daniel Wycherley, gentleman, having purchased the barony, and manor of Wem, would not suffer him to teach there any longer. This obliged him and the other masters to remove to the church; but the church being inconvenient, as well as too sacred for such a use, on the 20th of January, 1668, the feoffees agreed to build a school, as had been intended from the beginning. Their design was not carried into execution before the year 1670, when the present school was erected. Mr. Roderick had the pleasure to be the first chief master that taught in it. Under him the school flourished exceedingly. Great numbers of young gentlemen were committed to his care. Richard, earl of Bradford told me, that he had been his scholar. And how much he improved his scholars appears from his two sons, Richard and Charles, who were men of great leaning, and obtained considerable preferments in the church. He was particularly remarkable for the strict discipline he kept, and the dread his scholars were under, of Incurring his displeasure. A messuage, and lands in Northwood, in the parish of Wem, were purchased by him, which, in 1666 he sold again, for £240. By some accident unknown, he had the misfortune to hurt one of his feet, which occasioned a little lameness, and his being called Club-foot Roderick. After he had taught upwards of twenty-three years, he died at Wem, and was buried there April 5th, 1674, as Ann his wife had been July 1671.
CHARLES RODERICK, his youngest son was elected 1674. He was a considerable benefactor to the school, to which, he gave £20. At this time he was in holy orders, and probably Fellow of King's college, in Cambridge; whither he returned upon a difference that arose between him and the feoffees, because he neglected, or refused to pay to the treasurer the money due for play-days. They ejected him by virtue of his resignation bond; and this event which might have ruined another, proved the making of his fortune. For applying himself to his studies, in 1689 he commenced doctor in divinity; and acquired so much favour in his college, as to be chosen their provost; and so much interest at court, as to be collated to the deanery of Ely. He lived in great credit and splendour, and died, in 1712, leaving two or three children by a young woman, whom he married in the sixty-third year of his age.
ROBERT ROE, gentleman, was born at Arleston, near Wellington, in Shropshire, where his father had been a noted schoolmaster. In his time March 3rd, 1677, the great fire happened, which consumed his dwelling house, the birth place of the founder, and reduced him to the necessity of living with his family in the upper story of the school, where the present library was his bed-chamber, and the other room was his kitchen, the chimney there being run up at his expense. He rebuilt that part of the school house, which is brick; and in 1679, purchased the new pool meadow. He was a man of large stature, but of mean capacity; so that he did neither shine in conversation, nor was able to keep up the reputation of the school. His heavy genius, and the loss of his scholars exposing him to affronts, he thought fit to relinquish a post which he could not keep with honour. He retired to Arleston, and not long after purchased the lordship of Hadley, near Wellington, where he taught a private school in the manor house, and sent his two sons to the university of Cambridge.
FRANCIS WILLIAMS, born at Lilleshil, in the county of Salop, was elected about 1682. He was educated at Newport school, of which he was afterwards chosen under master. When he settled at Wem, he obtained the curacy of Newtown, in that parish, worth £42. per annum, and with it, in process of time, the vicarage of Wednesbury, in Staffordshire. This last he resigned in 1706, upon his being presented to the vicarage of Great Nesse, in the county of Salop. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Thorp, of Wem, timber-merchant, and with her he lived in a house of steward Jebb, near the long Stone, till his was finished. To his address, and importunity in procuring money and materials, is entirely owing the larger, and better part of the school-house, being the timber building. He was a jolly personable man, had a pleasant way of discourse, and brought up a great number of scholars. He put them upon acting plays, not only in the latin, but also in the greek language. I saw them perform in a handsome manner, and before a great audience, the Plutus of Aristophanes. His unlawful amours were expensive to him; but managed with so much secresy, as to bring no scandal upon his profession. He was often afflicted with the gout, the effect of his intemperance; and more often with the want of money, the effect of his ill conduct. August 17th, 1710, he died at Wem, leaving a widow, one son, and many daughters.
PETER EDWARDS, born at Smethcot, in the parish of Wroxeter, and county of Salop, was elected September 26th, 1710. He was educated at Donnington school, in the said parish, and in Christ church, Oxford, where he took both degrees in arts, and then removed to Edmund Hall. He was my cousin german, travelled with me to Oxford, when I was admitted there, and was one of the three masters that examined me for my degree. Before he left the University, he was preceptor to a gentleman's son in Buckinghamshire; and when he came from Oxford, he assisted the chief master of Wolverhampton school. Mr. Husbands gave him a presentation to the rectory of Stoke, in the county of Salop, on condition of marrying his daughter; but then only in deacon's orders, he lost this advantage, because bishop Hough refused him a private ordination, and the living would lapse before there could be a public one. After he had been some years at Wem, he got the rectory of Moreton Corbet, which he resigned as soon as Mr. Vincent Corbet, the son of his patron was qualified for it. From this living, and the school, he acquired so much money, as to leave an estate of £50. per annum for three lives under Henry, earl of Bradford. Whilst he was rector of Moreton, he preached a visitation sermon at Shrewsbury, before bishop Hough. Another sermon of his preached at Wem, was remarkable only on account of the text, "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love,". Solomon's song, ch.2 v. 5. In his time the school flourished exceedingly, and great numbers of young gentlemen were bred up under him. He was politick, discreet, well bred, and had a majestic presence, being a big and comely man. He took great pains in the school, but in the latter part of his time, especially in the summer, his fatness disposed him to be sleepy. In 1724, upon the decay of his health, and some little bickerings with the feoffees, he resigned the school, and with a few of his scholars, retired to his nativity. At his father's death, which happened not long after; he succeeded him in a good estate at Smethcot. September 21st, 1729, he died of a relaxed state of body, brought on by the medicines which he took to relieve him from a feverish disorder.
THOMAS HUGHES, born at Pont-fary, in the county of Flint, was elected April 20th, 1724. He had his education at Rythin school, in the county of Denbigh, and in Jesus' college, Oxford, where he took the degree of master of arts, but never entered into holy orders. He had a flourishing school at Whitchurch; but offering some insult, or affront to the rector of that place, then bishop of Hereford, and having been concerned in engaging a man to proclaim the Pretender, the bishop commenced a suit in chancery against him, and obtained a decree, for ejecting him from Whitchurch, and after his election to Wem, represented him as a jacobite to doctor Chandler, bishop of this diocese, who thereupon refused to grant him a licence. Being not able to get over this difficulty, he accepted of the school at Hanmer, where he died a few years after. Though he had the profits of Wem school for six months, yet he taught here but part of one afternoon, having deputed his usher Baduly to supply his absence. He was a strong well-made man, had the character of a good, but severe master; keeping a strict discipline, though he was a little whimsical in the management of it.
JOHN APPLETON, born at Holt, in the county of Denbigh, was elected November 30th, 1724. He had his school learning under Mr. Thomas Hughes, at Wrexham, in the same county, and his academical instruction in Cambridge, under Mr. Robert Lambert, fellow of St. John's college, afterwards master of it. He followed his studies diligently, but his circumstances would not permit him to take a degree. He first taught school at Hanmer, and from thence removed to Wrexham, where he had a great number of scholars. Ten, or more young gentlemen came with him to Wem, and this school flourished under him a considerable time; but I do not know by what fatality it was at length reduced to so low an ebb, that in 1734, he had but three scholars. By degrees the number increased, and the school continued in good credit till his death. He delighted much in riding, and never thought himself more happy than when he was on horseback. He had been many years curate at Tilstock, to doctor Egerton, bishop of Hereford, who at last promised to prefer him, but was prevented by death. This made a deep impression on Mr. Appleton. A misunderstanding with Mr. Blaney, curate of Whitchurch, whom he was obliged to assist every sacrament day, gave him so much uneasiness, that he threw up his curacy of Tilstock, though it was £40. per annum. An asthma seemed to threaten him, but be imagined he had an infallible remedy, in cider, and apples. The gout often laid him up, but he conceived, that it might be prevented, by bathing his legs in cold water, An unhappy experiment of this kind occasioned a pleuretick fever, of which he died May 3rd, 1748. He was a middle sized man, strong, and active, till he contracted a lameness. In company he was facetious, and merry, and would tell abundance of pleasant stories, in the pulpit he was a boanerges, in respect to the loudness of his voice, and the earnestness and the vehemence of his delivery. His preaching was long admired at Whitchurch, till it was eclipsed by Mr. Talbot's. That town desired him for their schoolmaster, but he declined the offer, because the full revenues of their school were not then recovered. He was the first that taught hebrew at Wem, and seemed to take more pleasure, and pains in teaching it, than either latin, or greek. He was well skilled in most parts of the mathematicks, particularly in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and the doctrine of the globes. By Eleanor, daughter of Alexander Pulford, of Wrexham, gentleman, he had one son, now a clergyman.
STEPHEN PRYTHERCH, a Cambro-Briton, succeeded Mr. Appleton. His father teaches school at Ruabon, in Denbighshire, where his son was born. Having in this place imbibed the first rudiments of learning, he was sent to Wrexham school, and thence to Jesus' college, in Oxford, where he took the degree of master of arts. His first preferment was the mastership of Wrexham school, and a curacy under Mr. Jones, rector of Ruabon, who introduced him into acquaintance of sir Watkin Williams Wynn. This gentleman was so well pleased with him, that he made a promise of the next presentation to the vicarage of Great Wenlock, in the county of Salop, but unfortunately he died by a fall from his horse as he was hunting, before the vacancy happened. However his lady fulfilled his promise, and Mr. Prytherch was inducted to that living in 1752. Soon after, he married Mrs. Chambre, a considerable fortune, and at Michaelmas, 1755, removed with her to Wenlock. He is an agreeable, and well-accomplished man, reads distinctly, sings admirably, and so is an agreeable companion, as well as a good scholar.
Page created 7 September 2003 and last updated 22 June 2007
