Morton (Holy Cross)
MORTON (Holy Cross), a parish, in the union of Chesterfield, hundred of Scarsdale, N. division of the county of Derby, 3½ miles (N.) from Alfreton; containing, with the township of Brackenfield, 646 inhabitants, of whom 187 are in the township of Morton. The manor, previously given to Burton Abbey, belonged at the Domesday survey to Walter Deincourt, and Roger Deincourt, in 1330, claimed a park here, and the right of having a gallows for the execution of criminals. The estate passed, with other lands, to the Leakes; and on the death of Nicholas Leake, Earl of Scarsdale, in 1736, the earl's trustees sold it to Henry Thornhill, of Chesterfield, from whom it was purchased in 1749, by the Sitwells; from them it passed, by will, to Richard Staunton Wilmot, who assumed the name of Sitwell. The parish comprises 2714 acres, of which 1157 are in the township of Morton; of the latter number, 449 acres are arable, 674 meadow, and 34 woodland. The surface is elevated, the soil a cold clay, and the surrounding scenery is diversified: chamomile is extensively grown. The village, which is pleasant, lies on the Matlock and Mansfield road. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £11. 10., and in the alternate patronage of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Gladwyn Turbutt, Esq.; net income, £360: the glebe comprises 67 acres, with a house. In the church are handsome monuments to the Turbutt family. Brackenfield has been formed into an ecclesiastical district. There are a few small bequests for the benefit of the poor.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.