IWERNE-COURTNAY, otherwise SHROTON, a parish in the hundred of REDLANE, Sturminster division of the county of DORSET, 5¼ miles (N.N.W.) from Blandford-Forum, containing, with the chapelry of Farringdon, 512 inhabitants.

The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol, rated in the king's books at £25. 8. 1½. Lord Rivers was patron in 1810. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, has a tower surmounted by battlements and pinnacles. Lady Elizabeth Freke, in 1640, founded a free school here, and endowed it with a rent-charge of £20. The river Ewern runs through the parish, and gives name to it, the adjunct being derived from the Courtneys, its ancient proprietors.

Volume 2, page 471