WOLVERLEY, a parish partly in the upper division
of the hundred of HALISHIRE, but chiefly in, and
forming, a detached portion of, the lower division of the
hundred of OSWALDSLOW, county of WORCESTER, 2
miles (N. by W.) from Kidderminster, containing 1529
inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the peculiar
jurisdiction and patronage of the Dean and Chapter of
Worcester, rated in the king's books at £ 13. 6.8. The
church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was erected
in 1772 5 it is a neat brick structure, occupying an ele--
vated site. At Cookley there is a place of worship for
Wesleyan Methodists; there are also manufactures of
iron and tin ware. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire
canal, and the river Stour, pass through the parish.
William Sebright, Esq., in 1618, erected a free school,
in support of which, and for other public purposes, he
bequeathed two houses in Mark-lane, London, with
twenty acres of land at Bethnall Green, now producing
a considerable income, from whichhe directed that the
master should receive £20 a year, and the overplus
be applied to the increase of that stipend, and the
repair of the church and bridges, &c: in 1816 the
Madras system of education was introduced, on which
about ninety boys and seventy girls are taught, by a
master and a mistress, who have each a salary and a
rent-free residence. John Baskerville, an eminent printer,
was born here, in 1706; he died in 1775.