by Samuel Garbet
The complete text of this work is being prepared by voluntary contribution to the Shropshire Routes to Roots project. You can find the text at www.shropshireroots.org.uk
The history of Wem was first published in 1818, over sixty years after the death of the author. Samuel Garbet wrote it while he was Second Master of Wem Grammar School in Shropshire. He could have been headmaster but, according to Iris Woodward, in her The story of Wem (1952), he preferred to have more leisure time in which to devote to his mission to write at least part of a survey of the natural and civil history of Shropshire.
His history is so important because it gives such a unique insight into this Shropshire market town in the middle of the eighteenth century. It is not easy to read today, being in a style typical of a period of somewhat elite scholarship. From his preface, it is clear that Garbet was thinking of publishing the work, and he makes assumptions that the reader will be similarly of a academic inclination and would know of the places and many of the people he is describing. Iris Woodward consciously attempted to add to Garbet's work by trying to identify some of the more obscure references for the ordinary, twentieth century, reader and is an essential companion.
Page created 7 September 2003 and last updated 19 April 2008