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S. i^otrbjcn ant) *'Zf)t SrlitU of 43vaftHoU)r." 



By Rev. Chas. Kerry. 



|IR W. DUGDALE in his " Monasticon," in the list 

 of the abbots of Burton (I., 272) — quoting from the 

 chronicle of that monastery — under his account of 

 "Galfridus " {Mala- Terra), writes : " Hujus tempore, 

 contigit illud grande miraculum vel ilia horrenda vindicta de 

 duobus rusticis de Stapinhull apud Drakelowe, qui confugerunt 

 ad Rogerum Pictarium "Comitem de Drakelowe, ut habetur in 

 Miraculis sanctse Modwenae virginis, unde processit illud vulgare 



dictum " iibe DeviU of 2)raftelowe." 



The location of Burton-on-Trent without doubt owes its origin 

 to the devotion of S. Modwen, a noble Irish virgin, who made her 

 home during the Saxon era in the little island in the Trent called 

 Andersey, immediately opposite and very near the old parish 

 church. This occurred during the reign of Ethelwulf, soon after 

 the year 840, about which time, writes Alban Butler, she came 

 into England. Andersey ere long became wrapped in holy 

 memories, and within two centuries after her deatii and in the 

 reign of Ethelred, Wulfric Spott, one of the wealthiest of the 

 king's thanes, constructed or founded the famous abbey of Burton, 

 on the banks of tlie Trent, contiguous to the island on which was 

 then the oratory dedicated to S. Andrew, containing the bones of 

 S. Modwen. 



Wulfric endowed his new religious settlement with all his 

 paternal inheritance, the rental of which amounted to 700 libras, 

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