GNOSALL, a parish in the western division of the hundred of CUTTLESTONE, county of STAFFORD, comprising the townships of Cowley, Gnosall, Knightley, and a part of Apeton, Alstone, Brough, and Rule, and the hamlet of Moreton, and containing 267 1 inhabitants, of which number, 1038 are in the township of Gnosall, 6 miles (W.S.W.) from Stafford. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Lord of the Manor of Gnosall, endowed with £400 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. The church, dedicated to St. Lawrence, has lately received an addition of three hundred free sittings, the Incorporated Society for the enlargement of churches and chapels having granted £150 towards defraying the expense.

It was given by King Stephen to the church of Lichfield, but afterwards became a royal free chapel, and had an establishment of secular canons; in the reign of Henry VIII., the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry was titular dean, to which office no profits were attached, and there were four prebendaries, vis., of Chiltrenhall, Baverley-hall, Mordhall, and Suckerhall; the first valued at £14. 6. 8., and the others at £11 each per annum. Edward Cartwright, in 1653, enfeoffed to trustees a cottage and ground for the education of fourteen children; the income is £21. 4. 6. per annum. Five others are instructed by a schoolmistress for £2 per annum, the gift of Alice Hudson in 1860.

APETON, a township in the parish of GNOSALL, western division of the hundred of CUTTLESTONE, county of STAFFORD, containing 59 inhabitants.

COWLEY, a township in the parish of GNOSALL, western division, of the hundred of CUTTLESTONE, county of STAFFORD, 5 miles (E.) from Newport, containing 498 inhabitants.

MORETON, a hamlet in the parish of GNOSALL, western division of the hundred of CUTTLESTONE, county of STAFFORD, 4 miles (E.S.E.) from Newport, containing 754 inhabitants. It 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.