HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 407 



be shewed to the contrary. In witness whereof I have hereunto 

 set my hand, and caused my seal episcopal to be hereunto placed 

 at the time and place abovesaid. 



" ROBERT LICHFIELD AND COVENTRY." 



" THOMAS GOODFEI.LOW, Clayton^ Churchwardens for the Year 

 " JOSEPH BOURNE, Ford Bays, } of our Lord 1772." 



Some obscurity in the above document appears at the beginning, 

 by the position of the subsequent confirmations in 1664 and 1668, 

 whether the list applies to the period of 1634, and afterwards 1668; 

 or wholly to the latter : and some sentences are not clearly ex- 

 pressed, which we have taken the liberty of filling up between 

 brackets according to our judgment. Whatever obscurity might 

 exist, originally, or by copying, the article is sufficiently explicit 

 for the purposes already stated, and which induced its insertion. 

 By some it may be considered not uninteresting in furnishing a list 

 of the names of the ancient householders in the parish of Stoke ; 

 and in affording a partial means of judging of the comparative state 

 of the parish in regard to the population in the seventeenth and 

 nineteenth centuries. 



Mr. Main waring, whose name appears, as Rector, in the beginning 

 of the above instrument, is remarkable not only as an instance of 

 longevity, but for the duration of his incumbency. The following 

 has been handed to us as being an extract from the Parish Register, 

 though it is evidently imperfect : 



" May 1692. Johannes Mainwaring, s. T. p. Rector Ecclesie de Stoke sup, 

 Trent: sepult." 



" Johannes Mainwaring cum extitissit Rector Ecclesie Stoke p. spatium 

 Quinquaginta et non'm annor' expiravit die et anno s'pra diet.' 1 



If Mr. Mainwaring was 59 years rector of Stoke, his age, at the 

 time of his death, could not be less than 83 years. He was suc- 

 ceeded by the Rev. John Repton, who was likewise perpetual cu- 

 rate of Norton-on-the-Moors. 



In the year 1815, a very handsome and commodious National 

 School, for the education of 500 children of the poor in the Princi- 

 ples of the Established Church, was erected at this place, at an 

 expense of nearly 1000. which sum was raised principally by vo- 

 luntary contributions. It is situated at the east end of and ad- 

 joining the church-yard. 



There are two or more meeting-houses at Stoke for the Dissenters. 



The first steam-engine for grinding burned flint for the use of the 

 potters, was established at Stoke. 



3 F 



