Whitmore in 1817

Description from A Topographical History of Staffordshire by William Pitt (1817)

WHITMORE.

Whitmore is a parish in the hundred of Pirehill North. It was anciently called Witemore; and in the Conqueror's Survey the following description occurs : 

" The same R, (Richard Forester) holds Witemore (of the king) and Nigel of him. Ulfac held it and was a free man. It contains half a hide. The arable land is three carucates, one is in demesne, and three villains, and two bordars hold one carucate. There is one acre of meadow. A wood a mile in length and half-a-mile in breadth. The whole is worth 10 shillings." 

The village of Whitmore is situate on the public road from Newcastle to Market-Drayton, about four miles from the former place. 

The population in 1811 was 43 families, containing in all 291 persons, whereof 156 were males, and 135 females ; 35 families were employed in agriculture, six in trade, and two were of neither description. The number of houses was 44. 

The Church is situate in the village, and was, we apprehend, rebuilt in 1632, as that date appears on a stone over the west door. It is a small stone building of an oblong form, with a half-timber turret on the west end, containing three bells, and is capable of holding about 150 persons. The turret probably exhibits a specimen of the kind of walls erected in the ancient churches prior to the use of stone. 

A few monuments are in the Church to the memory of some of the respectable family of Mainwaring, which has been seated at Whitmore for several generations. On the north side of the Church appears a neat walk flanked with rows of trees, forming a beautiful avenue, which is terminated by Whitmore-hall, the seat of Edward Mainwaring, Esq. and which, judging from a date over the front door, was built or rebuilt in 1676. 

The Living till of late was a chapel of ease to Stoke-upon-Trent. It is now a rectory endowed with all the great and small tithes in the parish, surplice-fees, and between 30 and 40 acres of glebe ; part of which lies near Burslem, and part near Newcastle; but the bulk is situated in and near Whitmore. The reputed value is about £400 a year. The Rev. J. S. Brasier, is Rector, and Edward Mainwaring, Esq. Patron. 

It is not known to what Saint the Church is dedicated, as no Wake has been kept for a number of years at Whitmore ; nor do the bells determine the point one of them is inscribed in Latin, " St. John," and another ' All Saints" 

Benefactions to the Poor, inscribed on a tablet on the north wall in the Church : 

" Mr. Joseph Ball, late of this town, left to the poor of the parish of Whitmore, two pieces of land (fifty pounds purchase) the one called Ball's Meadow adjoining to the Town Meadow, and a Meadow belonging to Master John Eardley. The other call'd Holliegrieve [grove-croft] lying between lands belonging to Mr. John Knight and Mr. John Walton. 

" Another charitable person left the interest of twenty pounds for ever to the poor of the said parish, in the trust of the Churchwarden and Overseer. 

Mr. MIDDLETON, Minister, SAML. LATHAM, Churchwarden, Jos. HILDICH, Overseer, Ann. Dom. 1736." 

It is conjectured that this last donation was left by one or more of the name of Cleyton, as will be hereafter noticed, and that the first benefactor might be a descendant of the Rev. John Ball, formerly minister of this Church, respecting whom a few memoirs, abstracted from an old printed book, are here subjoined, not out of respect to some acts of non-conformity there recorded, for such a sincere Churchman must regret, but for reasons stated in the conclusion, and because he appears to have been an honest man, generally respected, and an active, pious minister, much revered in his parish and neighbourhood. 

JOHN BALL, called in scorn " the Presbyterians' Champion' was minister at Whitmore, near Newcastle, Staffordshire, from about the year 1610 to the time of his death, Oct. 20, 1639. He was born about the year 1585 at Cassington, an obscure village, a mile from Hanborough, in Oxfordshire, and educated at Yarnton school ; from whence he was removed to Brazen-nose College, Oxford, where he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts. His parents being of low estate, he was kept at school through the partiality of his master, who admired his pupil's abilities ; and was supported at College chiefly by the aid of friends. After he left the University, he was engaged as tutor to the children of Lady Cholmley, at her house in Cheshire, where he also taught other children.