history, but at the
dissolution there was a Prior and 29 Canons; and the possessions of the
Priory, valued at 5 pounds 11s. 1.5d., per annum, were sold in May, 1546,
to Robert Longe, citizen and mercer of London. {ia}

In 1845 the manor and advowson of Ratlinghope were purchased by Robert
Scott, Esq., of Great Barr, M.P. for Walsall, and at his death in 1856
they passed to his son John Charles Addyes Scott, Esq., who died in 1888,
and on the death of his widow in 1907, their son, James Robert Scott,
Esq., became lord of the manor and patron of Ratlinghope.

Stitt and Gatten, two miles north-west, were members of the _Domesday_
manor of Ratlinghope. Between 1204 and 1210, William de Botterell
confirmed a moiety of Stitt to Haughmond Abbey. Robert Corbet, of Caus,
also gave to the Canons of Haughmond his culture of Gateden, and an
assart situate near their culture of Gatteden. There was a church at
Stitt in the reign of Henry II., but since the dissolution of Haughmond
Abbey nothing more is heard of it, and its district with Gatten was
annexed to the parish of Ratlinghope. W. E. M. Hulton-Harrop, Esq., is
lord of the manor of Gatten, which, he inherited in 1866 from his
maternal grandfather, Jonah Harrop, Esq.

The Church of St. Margaret, at Ratlinghope, is a small stone building,
consisting of nave and chancel, with south porch, and a wooden bell
turret. The original Church erected in the 12th century was no doubt the
Priory Church also. The Rev. D. H. S. Cranage says that the mediaeval
Church may have entirely disappeared, and that there are no details which
prove that the present building is not entirely of post-Reformation date.
{ib}

The south and only door was made in 1625, and erected by Humfrey Bigge
and Thomas Bright, then Churchwardens. The roof may be of the same date.
There are two fonts. In 1341, Ratlinghope Church was in the Deanery of
Clun. It was afterwards held to be in the Deanery of Pontesbury. It is
not named in the _Valor Ecclesiasticus_ of 1534-5. Until the dissolution
of the Priory it was considered as extra-parochial and extra-diocesan.

The Church was served by the Canons until the dissolution; and no
Incumbent seems to have been instituted by the Bishops of Hereford until
1555. The following is the most complete list of the Incumbents we have
as yet been able to make out:--

1549. Sir Lances Philson, clerk, curate.

1555. Laurence Johnson, a Canon of Wigmore, presented by Ph