ILAM, a parish in the northern division of the hundred of TOTMONSLOW, county of STAFFORD, 4 miles (N.W.) from Ashbourn, containing, with the hamlets of Casterton and Throwley, 253 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Stafford, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, rated in the king's books at £6. 13. 4. 3. Watts Russell, Esq. was patron in 1814. The church is dedicated to the Holy Cross. Here is a National school, in which fifty boys and thirty girls are instructed at the expense of Jesse Watts Ritssell, Esq., with the exception of a benefaction of £4 per annum, left by Lady Bellot for the education of eight children, which is now applied towards the support of this school. Congreve, the dramatic poet, retired to this secluded and romantic spot, after his return from Ireland, and here composed his first comedy, The Old Bachelor.

THROWLEY, a hamlet in the parish of ILAM, northern division of the hundred of TOTMONSLOW, county of STAFFORD, 7 miles (N.W. by W.) from Ashbourn. The population is returned with the parish. 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.