Baddiley (St. Michael)
BADDILEY (St. Michael), a parish, in the union and hundred of Nantwich, S. division of the county of Chester, 3 miles (W. S. W.) from Nantwich; containing 275 inhabitants. The manor belonged, as early as the time of William I., to the family of Praers; and in the reign of Edward III. passed, by marriage with the coheiresses of William Praers, to the Bromleys, Hondfords, and Mainwarings, in which last family it ultimately became solely vested. The parish comprises 2300 acres of land, the soil of which is clay and sand: the Ellesmere canal passes through. Baddiley Hall, once the noble residence of the Mainwarings, is now a farmhouse. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £24. 3. 6., and in the gift of John Tollemache, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for £195; the glebe consists of nine acres, and a house built in 1844. The church is of oak, and of great antiquity; the upright timbers, being much decayed, were cased with brick in 1811, but the roof and ceiling are still in fine preservation. About £50, obtained from 39 acres of land, are yearly distributed among the poor.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.