MADELEY. (continued 7)

The Three Horse Shoes is the oldest Sign in Madeley; it swings over the door of one of the oldest houses in Madeley, the walls being of rubble, mud, and plaster: and the Sign itself, no doubt, is one of the oldest in the kingdom. A horse shoe, when found and nailed over the door was supposed to bring good luck—hence the single shoe, which is uppermost. The Horse Shoes is kept by Mr. J. H. Robinson.

The Hammer, in Park Lane, kept by Mrs. Lloyd, is the next in point of age. It was a trade emblem when the house was much more used than at present by ironworkers, particularly by forgemen.

The Royal Oak was the first newly-licensed house for many years in Madeley. The license for it was very adroitly obtained by Mr. Charles Dyas. The Sign is a universal favourite, as emblematic of our old ships and seamen. The house is kept by Mrs. Shingler.

The Heart of Oak, in Court Street, kept by Mr. Joseph Currier, is another popular Sign, indicative of character, and illustrative of old national songs.

The Barley Mow, in Court Street, is kept by Mr. Pitchford.

The Crown, Court Street, now void, is one of the oldest English signs.

All Nations, kept by Mrs. Baguley, is the only Sign of its name we know of.

The Six Bells, kept by Mr. Ward, near the Church, is a Sign significant of the number of bells in the Church tower.

The Royal Exchange, kept by Mr. Goodwin, is a modern house, with an ancient Sign; whilst the Railway Inn, kept by Mr. Taylor, is modern in both respects.

The Coopers’ Arms is now down, but another house has been built, which has not yet been christened.

The Prince of Wales’s Feathers, Lower Madeley, kept by Mr. Daniel Adams, as the name implies, is a royal badge.

The Miners’ Arms, kept by Mr. Kearsley, is so sufficiently significant, as not to need comment. Also The Turners’ Arms, kept by Mr. John Brown; and the Three Furnaces, kept by Mr. Biddulph.

The Tweedale is kept by Mr. G. Ray.

The Cuckoo-oak Inn, by Mr. H. Wilkes, takes its name from the place.

The Britannia, kept by Mr. E. Hopley, Aqueduct, and the Anchor, by Mr. Evans, Court Street, are modern houses with ancient signs.

There are also the Commercial Inn, kept by Mrs. Heighway, and a Beershop in Church Street, kept by Mr. Durnall.

Then there is the Chestnuts, formerly the Red Lion, which fakes it name from the tree in front, and is kept by Mr. James Hancock.

The Park Inn, by Mr. Reynolds, and the New Inn kept by Mr. Jones, Park Lane, with the Pheasant, kept by Mr. Francis, complete the list of houses at Madeley, where, within our recollection, there were formerly but two.

At Coalport we have the Shakespeare, kept by Mr. Beard, and the Jug, we presume of Toby Philpot fame, of whom it is said,

His body, when long in the ground it had lain, And time into clay had resolved it again, A potter found out, in his covert so snug, And with part of old Toby he made this brown jug.

There is also the Brewery Inn, kept by Mr. George Gough.

The Pit’s Head, formerly a noted house for old beer, kept by Barnabas Spruce, has long since disappeared; also the Turk’s Head. Then there is the Robin Hood, by Mr. J. Roe; the Block House, by Mr. Dunbar, come next; and near to these is the Bird in Hand, the motto of which (more truthful than grammatical) is—

A bird in the hand far better ’tis Than two that in the bushes is.

The Lake Head, by G. Barrat, takes its name from a small reach of the Severn.

In Madeley Wood we get the Unicorn, kept by Mr. Fiddler; The Old House by Astbury, and the Golden Ball (formerly a silk mercer’s sign) by Mr. T. Bailey.

The Horse and Jockey, by Mrs. Davies, and the Fox, by Mr. Curzon, come next, to remind us of old English sports.

The George & Dragon also, by Mr. Granger, reminding us of still more ancient times.

Hodge Bower, by Mr. Wilson, is a sign which lakes its name from the place.

The White Horse, kept by Mrs. Edwards, at Lincoln Hill is a very old Sign.

The Crown, the Queen’s Head (by Mr. Nevitt), the Oak by Ketley, the Severn Brewery and the Tontine (erected by the Bridge Company), and Three Tuns are all well-known Inns,

The Bath Tavern, the Setters’ Inn, the Roebuck, and Belle Vue, are extinct.

The Wheat Sheaf by Aaron Lloyd, the White Hart, by Woolstein; the Talbot, by Toddington; the Swan by Bailey; the Rodney, by Griffiths; the Meadow and the Commercial Inn, Coalbrookdale, complete the list of Houses of Refreshment for the parish.

THE BROOKE FAMILY.

From the time that Lord Chief Justice Brooke purchased the manor of Madeley, the names of members of the Brooke family constantly figure in the ecclesiastical and civil records of the parish of Madeley. Until the year 1706 they continued to occupy the Elizabethan mansion known as the Old Court House, now unhappily fallen into decay, the habitable portions being converted into cottages, and the chapel in which they once worshipped being, on the occasion of our last visit, occupied by poultry, whose cackling takes the place of the chant and psalm, which once rose to heaven from voices long ago silenced by the grim king Death. In this, the most important house of the parish, surrounded by a pleasant park, with moat, pleasure grounds, and fish ponds, dwelt Ann Brooke with John her husband, performing her duties as a wife and mother, as well as those social duties pertaining to her station, with honour to herself and profit to her family and neighbours. She died on the attainment of the allotted three score years and ten, having been ten years a widow.

Etheldreda was the daughter-in-law of Mrs. Ann Brooke, being the wife of Sir Basil Brooke, of whose knighthood we have no account. She was a woman richly endowed with mental and moral qualities, and had received an education far in advance of that acquired by most women of her day, having been conversant with four languages in addition to her mother tongue, as well as skilled in music.

The dust of these ladies was laid with that of their husbands in the Old Parish Church of Madeley, their tombs being adorned with their effigies. On the erection of the present edifice, they were placed in the niches they now occupy outside the church. We give below the Latin inscriptions and the English translations, for which latter we are indebted to the kindness and courtesy of the Rev. C. Brooke, of Haughton, himself a descendant of a branch of this honoured family.

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS.

Madeley Church, 1815.

(British Museum) 21, 181.

Hic jacet Johannes Brooke, Arm: filius Roberti Brooke: equitis aurati Justiciarii, capitalis de communi Banco (qui eqregiam reginam Mariam in obtinendo avito regno contra improborum machinationes navavit operam, et jus Anglicanum pluribus editis voluminibus mirifice illustravit) et Elizabethæ filiæ et hæredis Francisci Waring armig: qui postquam vixerat jurisprudentiæ doctrinæque ceteræ fama insignis, pluribus beneficus omnibus charus diem sunm sancti pie-que obiit Anno Dom: 1598, Oct. 20, ætat sua 60.

Hic jacet Anna uxor Johann: Brooke armig: et familia Shirleyonis celeberrima et antiquissima oriunda viro suo filios duos Basilium et Franciscum filias item tres Dorotheam Priscillam et Milburgam peperit, priscæ disciplinæ matrona, avitæ fideitenacissima, omnis officii quæ uxor, qua mater singulare exemplum obiit, Anno Dom: 1608, September 29. Ætat sua 70, viduitatis 10.

Basilii Brooke equitis aurati fil: Johan: Brooke armig: et Ann uxoris filiæ Francisci Shirley armigeri de Staunton Harold com. Leicest: et nepotis Roberti Brooke equitis aurati Justiciarii Capitalis de Communi Banco, duxit duas uxores (viz) Etheldredam filiam et hæredem unicam Edmundi Brudenell equitis aurati de Dene com Northam: et Frances filiam Henrici Baronis Mordaunt et sororem Joannis Comitis de Peterborough. Obiit Decem. 31. Anno 1646.

Hic jacet Etheldreda uxor Basilii Brooke equitis aurati, filia et hæres unica Edmundi Brudenell eq: aurati, fæmina pariten Latina, Gallica, Hispanica et musica perita, pietate fide et prudentia maquanimite pudicitiata et mansuetudine instructissima. Reliquit viro suo inaritissimo filium unicum Thomam, filias quinque—Annam Wilhelmo Fitzherbert armig: Autonii Fitzherbert eq: aurati Justiciarii Capitilis de Cummuni Banco legum nostratium interpretis clarissimi pronepoti. Mariam Tho: Moro armig: illustrissimi et sancti illius Thomæ Mari summi olim Angliæ Cancellarii (cujus vita et mors inomnium est ore) abnepoti et hæredi nuptam—Dorotheam Agatham et Catharinam, singularis materæ indolis (id est) optimam obiit anno Domini.

The following is the English translation:—

Here lieth interred John Brooke, Esquire, the son of Robert Brooke, Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (which said Robert assisted the illustrious Queen Mary in obtaining her rights to the crown in opposition to the violent factions of that time, and published an excellent Commentary on the English Law in several volumes), and of Elizabeth the daughter and heir of Francis Waring, Esquire. After he had lived, distinguished for his knowledge in the Science of Law and other learning, being of an extensively liberal mind, and universally beloved, he made a pious and Christianlike end, Oct. 20th, in the year of our Lord, 1598, in the 60th year of his age.

Here lieth Arm, the wife of John Brooke, Esquire, descended from the very ancient and renowned family of the Shirleys. She had by her husband two sons, Basil and Francis, and also three daughters, Dorothy, Priscilla and Milburga. She was a lady of strict discipline, a rigid adherent to her ancestral faith, and as a wife and mother most exemplary in the discharge of every duty. She died September 19th, in the year of our Lord 1608, in the 70th year of her age, and in the 10th year of her widowhood.

Sacred to the memory of Basil Brooke Knight, the son of John Brooke, Esquire, and Ann, his wife, who was the daughter of Francis Shirley, of Staunton Harold, in the County of Leicester, Esquire, and the grandson of Robert Brooke Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He had two wives, Etheldreda the daughter and sole heiress of Edmund Brudenell, of Dean, in the County of Northampton, Knight, and Francis, the daughter of Henry, Baron Mordaunt, and the sister of John, Earl of Peterborough. He departed this life the 31st of December, in the year 1646.

Here lieth Etheldreda, the wife of Basil Brooke Knight. She was the daughter and sole heiress of Edmund Brudenell Knight—a woman not only well-skilled in the knowledge of the Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish languages, and in the science of music, but also exemplary for piety, faith, prudence, courage, chastity, and gentle manners. She left to lament her loss an husband with an only son, named Thomas, and five daughters—namely Ann, the wife of William Fitzwilliam, Esquire, the grandson of Anthony Fitzherbert Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, eminent for his Commentary on the Laws. Mary, the wife of Thomas More, Esquire, a descendant of that renowned and upright character, Thomas More, formerly Lord High Chancellor of England, a man in his life and death universally esteemed. Also Dorothy, Agatha, and Catharine, of dispositions the most motherly, the best of all. She died in the year of our Lord . . (the date is defaced).