Church Minshull

"CHURCH MINSHULL, a parish and township in the hundred of Nantwich, in the county of Chester, 6 miles N. of Nantwich, and 11 mile from the Minshull Vernon station on the Grand Junction branch of the London and Northwestern railway. It is situated on the banks of the river Weaver, which is crossed by a bridge of five arches, and near the canal belonging to the Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company, which crosses the borders of the parish. The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Chester, value £108, in the patronage of H. Brooke, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is a brick edifice, with tower and monuments to the Delameres and Cholmondeleys. The parish registers commence as early as 1561, and under date 1649, February 20, is entered " Thomas Damme, of Leighton, buried, being of the age of seven score and fourteen." Here is a school for both sexes endowed with about £15 per annum, being the interest of moneys left by the Rev. Christopher Minshull in 1614, and others since that period. In this parish are the halls of Lea Green and Minshull, now occupied as farmhouses, the former anciently having belonged to the Vernons, and afterwards to the Crewe family. The parish is so called to distinguish it from Minshull Vernon, which adjoins it. In former times Church Minshull formed part of the parish of Acton, and belonged to the barony of Wich Milbank, but on the division of that lordship it fell to the lot of Philip Basset, and afterwards passed to the Levels. The mesne manor for many centuries belonged to the family of Minshull, from whom Elizabeth Minshull, the third wife of Milton, was descended; it then passed by marriage to the Cholmondeleys, and was by them sold to Sir Richard Brooke, Bart., the ancestor of Henry Brooke, Esq., the present lord of the manor."