Shropshire Routes to Roots - Shropshire places - Wem
by Samuel Garbet
The name, boundaries, extent, manor, soil, and valuation of Cotton.
The name is written several ways, as Cooton, Coton, and Cotton; being derived from the Saxon, cot, a small house, and tou, a town. The name imports, that it was a town consisting chiefly of small houses, such as were usually built about woods by the poorest sort of people, for the conveniency of fuel.
On the north it is bounded by Tilstock, on the south by Edstaston, on the east by Steel, and on the west by Whixall. There are four small brooks which separate this township from those that border on it.
Its length from Quino brook which divides it from Edstaston, to Sandland's brook which divides it from Tilstock is two miles. Its breadth from east to west is about a mile and a half.
It formerly had the honour of being a manor, as appears from the book of survey 1561, where Joan Pryn, and Ann Burton are said to hold lands of lord Dacre, as of his manor of Cotton in Wem, i.e. in the parish of Wem. It was one of the twenty-eight lordships which Roger de Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury, gave to William Pantulph.
The soil is a mixture of earth and clay, and when turned up by the plough is a reddish, but in a few places of a whitish colour. It is generally very ebb, about six or eight inches deep, and so naturally poor, but capable of improvement. The usual manure is muck and marl, the last of which lies about two feet below the surface of the earth. As the ground is cold and wet, it agrees best with wheat and oats; and yet when marled it will bear good barley. But the greatest profit arises from the dairy, of which the tenants chiefly make their rents.
In respect to the land-tax, this township is valued at £269. 3s. 4d. per annum. So that the sum charged upon it at one shilling in the pound is £13. 9s. 2d.
At the survey in 1561, by far the greatest part of Cotton was copyhold, but there were some free-holders, viz, sir Arthur Mainwaring, of Ightfield, of a house and twenty-eight acres of land in Edstaston and Cotton, which I suppose are now part of Edstaston Hall farm; John Bartley of one close jointly with Mr. Arthur Mainwaring; John Higonson of a messuage and lands, most of which did lie between the new Park on the west, and Yocking's lane, i.e. the road to Whitchurch on the east; Richard Higon son of the messuage and estate now held by John Morton, senior; Joan Pryn and Ann Burton of lands afterwards parcel of the Woods, now of the Leigh's estate; and John Hinton of five ridges of land in the common field, called, Nether field. Several estates have been enfranchised since that time.
Cotton Wood was one of the five woods within the lordship of Wem. It is about three measured miles in circuit, and still retains the name of a wood, though there is scarce a tree left on it. The common feeds great numbers of sheep and other cattle, affords turf in its moors, and fish in two pools which turn the Wood-end mill, belonging to the school of Wem. The soil is the lords, but the inhabitants of the township have a right to the grass it bears, and therefore the lord cannot alienate, or inclose any part of it without their consent.
There were formerly three common fields belonging to Cotton, the names of which are found only in very ancient writings.
1st, The Hill field, or Great Hills was on that hilly ground to the west of Cotton wood. Allen Hotchkis, who lived at time house on the hill; Allen Higonson, who lived at the Wood-end hall, and Nicholas Calcott had land.
2nd, The Nether, Lower, or East field abutted on Moor lane, now called Warmoor lane, and extended south-west. Here the living of Mr. William Tyler, and those held by Richard Wood and William Price, had shares.
3rd, The Middle field was so called, because it did lie between the other two, abutting on Yocking's lane, i.e. the road to Whitchurch on the right hand as you go from Wem. Here Ralph Coton, Allen Sherratt, Richard Higonson, &c. had their particular divisions.
The whole township is called Cotton; but this name is more especially given to three houses that lie at a small distance from each other, about half a mile north of Quino Brook.
The first of these is copyhold, and with a small estate belonged formerly to John Higonson, who held the herbage, and half the panage of the new Park in Edstaston, at the rent of twenty shillings a year. From the heirs of this John Higonson it passed to the Sherrats, of Pepper-street. John Sherrat of that place, sold it to Robert Astley, of the Park house, whose eldest son Thomas now enjoys it.
The next messuage stands upon a freehold estate formerly in the possession of Richard Higonson, who at the survey produced an old deed with an ancient seal, but without date, whereby Madoc the son Yarefoot, son of Madoc, of Acton in Brumfield, gave to William the son of Roger de Tyshoo, four bovate of arabic land lying in the fields of Cotton, in the fee of Wem. A bovate is about thirteen acres. Some part of this land had been sold by Richard Higonson, who produced other new deeds, whereby it appeared that he held a messuage with several parcels of land by knight's service, viz, the tenth part of a knight's fee, and did pay the same part, being ten shillings upon the death of his father, William Higonson. It is observable that many fields of the estate retain their ancient names; but they have often changed their owner. Mary, widow of John Higonson, of the Ashe house, by marriage brought this estate to Robert Adams, a tailor, who thereupon left off his trade. She survived this her second husband, and lived here in good credit many years. 1710. Her son sold the estate to Menlove of London, an attorney, and Menlove in 1717 to the honourable Richard Hill, who settled it on his nephew, sir Rowland Hill, of Hawkstone, the present possessor.
The third is a good house designed for a gentleman's family. For some generations it was inhabited by a younger branch of the Wards. At the survey a small part of the estate was freehold, but the bulk of it copyhold. One of the Wards got that enfranchised by Playters and Onslow. Fifteen acres of it did lie up to the new Park on the south, twelve acres in the east-end field at Cotton, and two acres up to Cotton wood, not to mention other particulars. The proprietors will be found under Cotton hall; for both the estates successively belonged to the same person.
On the west side of Hill lane stands the ancient freehold messuage of the Cotons, now called Cottons, who take their name from this town, and are branched out into several great families. At the time of the survey Ralph Coton, or Cooton, then of Alkington, in the parish of Whitchurch, gentleman, son and heir of Thomas Cotton, produced three deeds, to prove that this his estate was freehold, of which the first was without date, the second was dated in the reign of Edward III. and made by Roger, the son of Roger de Cotton, to John de Chobesay, the third was dated in the reign of Ed ward III. to Roger, the son of Richard de Cotton, and Ellen his wife. Allen Cotton, grandson to Ralph above, was a draper in London, where he became so considerable, that in the 1st Charles I. 1625, he was made lord mayor, and knighted that year, if not sooner. He died in 1628, being seventy years old. He was succeeded in this estate by his grandson Rowland, who was knighted in or before 1634. This estate belonged to William Cotton, of Alkington, esq. at the beginning of the civil war, from whom it has descended to the Cottons, of Bellaport, in the parish of Norton, esqrs. and still points out their original.
At the end of Hill lane, and at the top of the hill is a house and copyhold estate, which at the survey belonged to Allen Hotchkis, of a good family, which flourished much in this township. From the Hotchkises it passed to the Holegates, and from them to the Pools.
At the foot of the hill the same Allen Hotchkis had another copyhold messuage and estate; Arthur Hotchkis lived here 10th Charles I. and in some writings which I have seen had the title of gentleman. From the Hotchkises it came to the Wilkensons, who in my time sold it to Michael Brickdale, of Shrewsbury, esq.
Near to this is a copyhold messuage and estate of time Callcotts, which has continued the same, and descended from father to son above two hundred years. This cannot be said of any other estate, or family in this township except the Cottons. For in the space of time all the oilier estates have changed their owners, and all that are considerable are now in the hands of tenants.
Cotton Hall is an ancient house, which about the reign of Edward VI. belonged to Nicholas Maddox, as did also the third estate mentioned in this chap ter. This Nicholas leaving no issue male, his large estate, of which only a small part was free, was inherited by his two daughters, Joan and Ann, of which, the former married one Pryn, and the other one Burton, and in 1561 they were both widows. They did not preserve the estate, for 32nd Elizabeth, Richard Ward, gentleman, was possessed of it, and upon that account, was that year made foreman of the Homage extra barram, or country jury at the first court at Wem, called in the name of queen Elizabeth. Being bred up to the law, he was chosen deputy steward of this manor, in which capacity he acted from 1608 to the time of his death in 1619. March 4th, 1614, he obtained a licence to eat flesh in Lent, which being the only one to be found in the parish register, it will not perhaps be improper to insert a copy of it.
" For that Richard Ward, of Cotton, in the parish of Wem, and county of Salop, gentleman, is notoriously sick, and enforced for the recovery of his health to eat flesh for the time of his sickness. Therefore I, Richard Sankey, parson of the said parish, for asmuch as in me lieth by force of authority to me given by the statute made in the fifth year of our late sovereign lady Elizabeth, do licence time said Richard Ward to eat flesh according to the contents of the said statute, by me Richard Sankey, rector of Wem. Registered according to the statute in the presence, and with the consent of the church-wardens for the time being March 22nd, of the same month by reason of the continuance of the forementioned sickness."
His son Richard gave five pounds to Wem school, got his own estates made free, and in 1653 was one of the trustees for the enfranchised estates of Mr. Payne. He died about the time of the restoration. Richard, his son in 1663 married Mrs. Margaret Hill, of Soulton, and in 1669 Mrs. Eleanor Fog. In 1667 he gave timber to the value of ten pounds for the repair of Wem church. By his last wife he had a daughter Eleanor, who married George Sandford, of Twemblow, she dying in 1709 of the small pox, when far advanced in pregnancy, was buried at Wem at the same time, and in the same grave with two of her children, cut off by the same distemper. By his first wife he had also a daughter, Magdalene, who in 1685 married Robert Lee, of Winsham, in Cheshire, esq. The issue of this marriage were Robert and Thomas, which Robert an ideot left two daughters, the eldest of which married Charles Leg, of Albington, in the county of Chester, esq. who had one moiety of the estate; and Glegg, the youngest daughter has another . Mr. Ward their great grand father died in 1714.
The Wood-end hall at the time of the survey 1561, belonged to Allen Higonson, who had a large copy-hold estate here. Before 1642 it was sold to the Morgils, who got it made free. A female heir of this family by marriage brought it to sir Edward Minshall, of Minshall, in Cheshire, whose grand son Edward sold it with other messuages and tenements to the honourable Richard Hill, by whom they were devised to his nephew, sir Rowland Hill, of Hawkstone.
Ann Cureton held the Wood-end Hall as tenant sixty years. She died here March 10th, 1743, above ninety-eight years old, having nearly accomplished her desire of living to an hundred.
Near the road to Wood-end Hall to Prees sir Rowland Hill has another freehold estate purchased by his uncle, I suppose of the Minshalls, who had it from the Morgils, but before it came to them it belonged to the Pestrals, a very ancient and flourishing family, which has produced several knights. Sir Richard Pestral was a witness to a chart of William le Boteler, baron of Wem, dated at Wem in the year 1356.
A little further on the same road is a copyhold messuage and estate of Mr. William Tyler. At the survey this estate with other lands belonging to Randle Hinton, his grandson, as is most probable sold them to Mr. George Tyler, who is said to have had one hundred pounds per annum in Cotton and Edstaston.
Hinton's estates seem to have been of that value. Tyler was in possession of them in 1642; how much sooner I cannot tell. He had two sons, John and George, who when the war broke out engaged on different sides. John the chavalier had the misfortune to be taken prisoner, and sent to Shrewsbury gaol. John has been succeeded here by three Williams, in a direct line.
Yocking's lane from Quino brook to Cotton wood. Cotton lane from the finger-post near Wood-end hall towards Prees.
Crew lane from Cotton lane by Crew hall to Cotton wood.
Moor lane from Cotton lane beyond Mr. Tyler's house towards Pepper-street.
Hill lane from Cotton pinfold to the Bankhouse.
Fenton's lane from the Hall formerly Mr. Ward's to Cotton wood.
Page created 7 September 2003 and last updated 22 June 2007
