Here are two free schools, one for the boys of the parish at large, endowed by William Smith, A.D. 1606, with twenty pounds a year to the schoolmaster, and with an annual stipend of forty shillings to a poor boy of each of the following parishes, namely, Northop, Flint, Whitford, Cwm, and St. Asaph. Dr. David Ellis also left five pound a year towards the maintenance of the said school. One Owen Jones left twenty-eight pounds a year towards the education of seven poor boys of the parish, from the age of eight to the full age of thirteen, besides a further sum of eight pound a year to be reserved for the apprenticeship of each. Owing to the increase in the value of landed property, the number of boys now on the establishment is augmented to twelve, and the annual sum for the support of each to six pounds. The school house is a spacious edifice in the north corner of the churchyard. John Wynne, D.D. was educated for some time at this place. The other school was endowed by Margaret Ellis, in A.D. 1700, for poor girls. She left fifty pounds for the purpose, and John Ball left sixty-four pounds more; the interest of which sums are paid for their learning. There is no school house. The vicar and churchwardens have added to the salary of this school, and divided it into four; namely, one in each quarter of the parish, with a salary of four pounds a year each. A Sunday school was begun here in 1786, under the direction of the late Rev. John Williams, curate, which was well attended, and carried on with spirit for some years; and has been the means of qualifying many a person to fill respectable stations in society. In 1823, a national school was established here in which about 150 children are educated; the house, a neat commodious building, stands a little above the village. The Church stands on a small eminence, and is a low irregular building; it is embattled in the front, and supported by clumsy buttresses. The length is 113 feet within, and the breadth 38 feet: it consists of two aisles; the east end of the north aisle, called Capel Vair, or St. Mary's chapel, was probably the original church; it is different from the rest of the edifice, in point of building and roofing; the latter is slanting and slated, the roofing of the other part of the church is flat and covered with lead. It has two entrances, one in the north side, and the other in the south; the latter through a handsome stone porch, which opens into the aisle. It is enlightened by ten windows, many of which were of painted glass, but now so broken and confounded, that nothing can be made out of them. On a window in St. Mary's chapel, is, "Sancte, Lansenie, Daniel, Maria, Damese, William ap Johan ap Gr., Madoke, Vechanne; as, ejus a ma m mo cccccxx. (milesimo, 1520.)" There have been three dedications of it; first, to St. Eurgain; second, to St. Mary; and, third, to St. Peter. Several improvements have lately been effected in the church; a new gallery has been erected, and many new pews made. The most remarkable monuments are three effigies, formed of freestone. One of a corpulent person, with a helmet and a coat of mail; this figure is much mutilated, and the lineaments of the face completely obliterated; in the right hand is a plain lance, and in the left a sword. The writer is of opinion that this monument represents Edwin Tegeingl, formerly of Llys, in this parish; and in support of that opinion, the following observations are adduced: 1st. It is recorded that Edwin was buried in Northop, in 1073. 2d. Monumental statues of kings and episcopal dignitaries were begun to be erected in Wales about that period. 3d. We do not know of any king, prince, or baron, in this neighbourhood, at that time possessing wealth and respectability sufficient to entitle him to be perpetuated by a monumental record, excepting Edwin of Llys. And The other effigy is that of a warrior in complete armour; on his shield is a cross pattee, charged in the middle, with a mullet between four others: the inscription round it is "Hic jacet Ith. Vach, ap Bledd. vach." In some мss. at the Herald's College, the property of E. Protheroe, esq. M.P., his pedigree is thus traced: "Ithel Vychan, ab Bleddyn, ab Ithel Llwyd, ab Ithel Gam, ab Maredydd, ab Uchtryd, ab Edwin Tegeingl." among the Harleian collection, it is said, "Ithel Anwyl, ab Bleddyn, ab Ithel Llwyd, ab Ithel Gam, lived in Ewloe Castle; he was one of the captains of Englefield, to keep the English from invading them; he layeth buried in Northop; in a monument, vixit temp. E. I." "Ithel Vychan married Alice, coheiress to Rees ap Cadwaladyr, ap Gryfydd ap Cynan." another Ms. "Ithel Vychan, of Northop, married Alice, da. to Rhys ap Cadwalader, 29 E. I." In 1301 he did homage at Chester, to Edward, prince of Wales, for his land in this and other parishes. This monument was erected to his memory by his son Ithel, who was then the "parson of Llaneurgain." The third is the effigy of a lady, having a square towered head-dress, a necklace hanging down to her waist, and her close vest bound with a girdle; the inscription is, "Llewci, anno domini 1482." Miss Angharad Llwyd, of Caerwys, states that the person which this monument represents, was "Lleuci Llwyd, daughter of Rhys ab Rotpert, of Cinmael, she married Howel ab Tudyr, of Mostyn and Llys, in Llaneurgain parish: and she * The lance or spear, is among the oldest weapons recorded in history, and is nearly coeval with the sword or bow; long spears and lances were used by the Saxons and Romans. was mother to Angharad, heiress to those places, who married Iefan ab Adda, of Pengwern; ancestors to Syr Thomas Mostyn, &c." The date 1482, was the last year of the reign of Edward IV. when the Stanleys came in possession of Llys estate. The other monuments are the following: on a slab of blue marble, lying flat in the chancel, is inscribed: "John Wynne, D.D. created Bishop of St. Asaph in 1714, translated to the See of Bath and Wells in 1727, departed this life July 15, 1743, in the 76th. year of his age." "Here also lies his daughter, Anne Fane, On a marble tablet, fixed in the wall behind the communion table, "Underneath lyes Thomas Brereton Salisbury, of Leadbrook, Esq. She was the daughter of Brigadier General Her Family was noble, Her virtues Godlike, 1750." On a mural monument of marble in the north aisle, "Nigh hereunto Likewise in the same vault lieth * His lordship's arms are cut on the tablet. On a neat plain mural monument of white marble in the same aisle: * "To the memory of Eldest daughter of the late of forty-nine years, four months, and six days, In the county of Denbigh, esq., The Steeple is the finest and loftiest in North Wales, excepting that of Wrexham; it is built of free-stone, and is of excellent workmanship; it is adorned with eight pinnacles, and has double bell-windows; it stands twenty-seven feet square at the base, and is ninety-eight feet high. Owing to an architectural error in the position of the windows and formation of the buttresses, one side only has a regular appearance. The top is accessible by a narrow geometrical stone staircase, very much worn. It contains a good clock, and three large discordant bells, besides a small one, to inform the congregation, by its tinkling noise, when the service is about to commence.. The date of its erection, 1571, is to be seen on a carved spout,, in the south-west corner; where also is inscribed, in raised letters, "Two faces under a hood no one good;" alluding, no doubt, to the carving. Writing of the steeple brings to recollection a singular occurrence, which happened to one Thomas Rowland, the parish carpenter, who lived in a house by the road side, in front of the steeple. Some repairs being wanted about the clock, Rowland, in order to supply himself with a seat, tied a ladder at both ends, underneath the flooring of the rope-loft, as it is called; while there engaged, the cord at one end gave way, and in sliding down, he caught the last step of the ladder, to which he clung, and swing like a pendulum, till his strength failing, his swinging motion threw him into a recess in the wall, called the wire windrow, where he remained till a shoemaker, of the name of John Jarnes, who lived at the Flint gate house, released him from his perilous situation, by placing planks through a door-way, usually boarded up, on the stairs of the steeple. Had Rowland fallen to the bottom, a depth of about forty-five feet, in all probability he would have been killed. The fact was related by the man himself to the writer, when a youth at Northop school. The churchyard is a large plot of square ground, surrounded with a rustic stone wall. Several persons of distinction are interred here. The only tomb in the burial ground worthy of notice is the one thus inscribed: The south side of the churchyard is crowded with graves, perhaps from the foolish notion of many that the north side is unhallowed ground. Here is a brass sundial, and a fine stately sycamore tree. In the north side stood a yew tree, which must have defied the storms for ages; but the steady course of time succeeded, a few years back, in its downfall. When it stood, the Rev. John Owen, late curate of the parish, was buried under its shade. Northop was made a sinecure to William Fleetwood, bishop of St. Asaph, about the year 1708, in order to compensate for the mortuaries due to the bishop on the death of every beneficed clergyman in the diocese. From an account taken in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the following were customary: Imprimis, His best gelding, horse, or mare. Item, His best gown. Item, His best coat, jerkin, doublet, Item, His hose, or nether stockings, and garters. Item, His waistcoat. Item, His purse and girdle. These mortuaries amounting to a very inconsiderable value, and having been by Bishop Fleetwood never, above once or twice, taken in kind, his lordship forgiving the poor widows, and com * A prejudice not unknown in England, but religiously observed in the greater part of Wales. |