Witherslack

WITHERSLACK, a chapelry, in the parish of Beetham, union and ward of Kendal, county of Westmorland, 7½ miles (W. N. W.) from Milnthorpe; containing 489 inhabitants. A fishery here in the river Belo, which passes through the chapelry, belongs to the Earl of Derby, who holds his manorial court at the Derby Arms, on the second Tuesday after Trinity: the ancient Hall has been converted into a farmhouse. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £93; patrons, the Trustees of Barwick's charity. The chapel, dedicated to St. Paul, was built in 1664, by Dr. John Barwick, a native of the place, and Dean of St. Paul's, London, who bequeathed the impropriate rectory of Lazonby, to which his brother, Peter Barwick, M.D., added an estate near Kirk-Oswald, to provide an annuity of £26 to the curate for teaching 40 children, one of £4 for repairing the chapel, and another of £10 for placing out apprentices or as a marriage portion to maidens. These allowances have been considerably augmented by the increased value of the lands, which now let for about £400 a year. About a mile from the chapel, a chalybeate spring was discovered, and named Holy Well, in 1656; but it has since disappeared.