Wrington (All Saints)
WRINGTON (All Saints), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the union of Axbridge, hundred of Brent with Wrington, E. division of Somerset, 7 miles (N. N. E.) from Axbridge; containing, with the tything of Broadfield, 1589 inhabitants. This parish is situated near the Mendip hills, and comprises 5786 acres. The inhabitants are principally employed in agricultural pursuits, especially in the cultivation of teasel, of which great quantities are produced in the neighbourhood, for the supply of the clothiers in the adjoining districts, and those of Yorkshire, who use it in dressing the cloth. The town consists chiefly of two streets, intersecting obliquely, with other houses irregularly built in detached situations. The county magistrates hold petty-sessions here. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £39. 9. 4½., and in the gift of the Duke of Cleveland: the tithes have been commuted for £600, and the glebe comprises 54 acres. The church, situated at the southwest extremity of the town, is a spacious and handsome structure in the later English style, with a square embattled tower surmounted by angular turrets crowned with pinnacles; a very handsome monument has been erected in it by public contribution, to the memory of Mrs. Hannah More and her four sisters, who are interred in the churchyard. At Redhill is a church dedicated to Christ: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the Rector's gift. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans. In 1704 George Legg devised nine acres of land, now producing £20 per annum, for instruction. Dr. John Rogers, a learned divine, held the rectory. John Locke, the eminent philosopher, was born in an old thatched house on the north side of the churchyard, in 1632; and Mrs. More resided for twenty-five years in a cottage built by herself and her sisters, at Barley Wood, in the parish.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.