• 10 PARISH CHURCH OF WEAVERHAM

The word " waste " is significant. Edwin, Earl of Mercia was allowed to live on here after the Norman Conquest, but in 1068 he joined in an uprising to overthrow the Normans and the Conqueror sent his nephew, Hugh Lupus, with an army to quell the rebellion. William swore a favourite oath of his, " by the sword of God," to exterminate the Saxons, and Lupus was ordered to lay the country " waste." This he did to such a degree that there were only about thirty men left in the place, and he had to bring in " Ten Burgesses " from Chester to cultivate the farms here.

In 1093 Hugh Lupus and Ermentrude his countess gave the tithes of Wcavcrham to the Abbey of St. Werburgh at Chester. This was resisted by Herveus, Rector of Weaverham, and all the Abbey received was " decimns pullorum el Equarum " (every tenth pullet and mare). In the reign of King John, the barons of Halton held lands in Weaverham, when Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester, granted all his lands here to " Geoffery prepositus de Weverham," on condition " that the said Ceoffery and his heirs provided for Roger and his heirs* fitting hospitality and fire and water for ever in the same." The family of" de Wcvcrham " held the Manor for some time,¹ one of them, James de Weverham, in 1309, leasing the town of Northwich from the King.

In 1277, Edward I and his Queen cafne to lay the foundation stones of the Vale Royal Abbey and on his way he paid a visit to Weavcrham (his Royal Manor) and stayed three days as the guest of his friend Sir Adam de Wringle at WaJlcrscote. On that occasion he gave the manor with the church and the advowson to the abbey which he had just founded. On a second visit in 1283 he confirmed this gift and settled the bounds of the manor and the abbey by the Founder's Charter 27 Edward I, 1299.

The manor, with the advowson, remained in the hands of the abbots until the dissolution in 1538, when it was

⁴ Ormerod, op. cit., ii, 116.