Rothwell (Holy Trinity)
The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £7. 18. 11.; net income, £145; patrons, W. T. Smyth, Esq., and two others; impropriators, the family of Turville. The tithes were commuted for land and a money payment in 1812. The church, which appears to have been built about the reign of the Conqueror, has an embattled tower at the west end, and is enriched with a fine door in the early English style; underneath is a crypt, containing the bones of several thousand men. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans. The free school was founded prior to the time of Edward VI., and was further endowed in the 36th of Charles II., when some commissioners of charitable uses applied St. Mary's chapel in Rothwell to that purpose, and directed that Queen Elizabeth's endowment to the chapel, of £3. 4. 11., received out of the crown rents, should be paid to the master. Jesus' Hospital was established, and endowed with the manor of Olde, its mansion-house and lands, and the tithes of Overton and Thorpe, by Owen Ragsdale, in the 33rd of Elizabeth; it affords accommodation to twentyfour almsmen and a principal, and the income is about £430 per annum. Six small tenements for widows were founded and endowed by T. Ponder, in 1714; and funds to the amount of £64 are yearly distributed among widows, arising from bequests by Agnes Hill, in 1728, and Edward Hunt. Here are two springs, one of which is of a strong petrifying quality.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.