CAVERSWALL, a parish in the northern division
of the hundred of TOTMONSLOW, county of STAFFORD,
3 miles (W.) from Cheadle, containing, with the township
of Weston-Coyney with Hulme, 1082 inhabitants.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
of Stafford, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry,
rated in the king's books at £7. 5. 3., and in the
patronage of T. H. Parker, Esq. The church, dedicated
to St. Peter, contains several old monuments, and one
to the lady of the late Earl St. Vincent. There is a
place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. The parish
is in the honour of Tutbury, duchy of Lancaster, and
within the jurisdiction of a court of pleas held at Tutbury
every third Tuesday, for the recovery of debts
under 40s. Caverswall Castle, originally founded by
Sir William de Caverswall in the time of Edward II.,
and rebuilt in that of Elizabeth, or James I., was garrisoned
for the parliament in 1645, and at the commencement
of the French revolution, in 1789, was
purchased, with some adjoining fields, for the English
Benedictine nuns of Ghent, who had been driven from
their house and possessions in Belgium, and who have
since added a neat chapel of the Doric order to the
building.