Marchwiel (Marchwiail) - From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849) MARCHWIEL (MARCHWIAIL), a parish, in the union of Wrexham, hundred of Bromfield, county of Denbigh, North Wales, 2 miles (S. E.) from Wrexham; containing 553 inhabitants. This parish is situated in the eastern part of the county, and bounded by Iscoed in Malpas, by Wrexham, Ruabon, and Bangor. It is intersected by the road from Wrexham, which here branches off to Whitchurch and to Ellesmere; and consists of the townships of Marchwiel and Sontley, the former comprising 2691 acres, with a population of 466, and the latter, 585 acres, with a population of 87. The lands are inclosed and in a good state of cultivation, except about one-eighth part; the soil is partly gravel and partly clay, producing wheat, barley, and oats: the prevailing timber is oak. Marchwiel Hall, for many years the property and residence of the younger branch of the Broughton family of Broughton, forms an interesting feature in the scenery of the immediate neighbourhood.
The living is a rectory, rated in the king's books at £12. 16. 8.; patron, the Bishop of St. Asaph: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £635. 13.; and there is a glebe of three acres, with four cottages, the whole valued at £50 per annum. The church, dedicated to St. Marcellus, and in early times connected with the more ancient church of Bangor, was rebuilt in 1789, and enlarged and repaired in 1829, the expense of the enlargement being defrayed by the mortgage of a messuage called Tyddyn Daniel, left in 1626 for the profits to be appropriated to the repairing of the church. The structure is in the Grecian style of architecture, from a design by Wyatt. There is a National school, supported almost wholly by the rector. James ab Edward, in 1628, gave in trust to the churchwardens and their successors three pieces of land, comprising together twelve acres and two roods, the rental of which, now amounting to £14. 10., he directed to be annually distributed among the industrious poor not receiving parochial relief: it is accordingly so given away on Good Friday in blankets and bread to about sixteen or eighteen poor families. Lady Jeffreys, in 1730, bequeathed £20, but it has been either lost or misapplied, together with other sums of £5 each, left by five individuals at different periods. The farm of Tyddyn Daniel, containing about fourteen acres, and now yielding a rent of £17 per annum, was purchased in fee from the crown in 1626, by Sir E. Broughton, of Marchwiel Hall, Knt., and four others, for the purpose of applying the proceeds to the repairs of the church, on which they are expended after paying the interest of £200 appropriated to its enlargement in 1829.
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