SALFORD HUNDRED 



ECCLES 



The chapel of ELLEN BROOK 

 CHURCH owes its foundation to the lords of Wors- 

 ley, and has remained to the present day 

 a donative in their gift. The Abbot of Stanlaw, as 

 rector of Eccles, between 1272 and 1295, granted his 

 licence to Richard de Worsley to have a free chantry 

 in his chapel of Worsley, provided that no loss was 

 caused to the mother church, to which 6J. was to 

 be paid yearly as oblations. 1 * 3 There is no con- 

 tinuous record of the chapel's existence, but in 1549 

 Sir Richard Brereton complained that his son Richard, 

 among other lawless deeds, had recently taken a 

 chalice from his chapel in the manor of Worsley, 

 which chalice the inhabitants had purchased for use 

 in divine service. 1 * 4 The fate of the chapel in the 

 Reformation period is uncertain, but as the lords of 

 Worsley appear to have conformed to the Elizabethan 

 system without difficulty, service was probably con- 

 tinued in it with but little interruption. Dame 

 Dorothy Legh in 1638 left the interest of 50 for its 

 maintenance, and other small gifts were made ; lf * 

 but in 1650 it was found that there was no certain 

 income, and that it sometimes had a preaching minis- 

 ter and sometimes not. 1 * 6 



In 1677 the Bishop of Chester made an order as to 

 the payment of seat rents, the endowment of the 

 chapel not exceeding zo a year. 1 * 7 Lord Willoughby, 

 on coming to live at Worsley about 1693, appears to 

 have had a design to use this as a Nonconformist 

 place of worship ; he locked out the curate in charge 

 and put a Mr. Cheney in as preacher, but was de- 

 feated by the feoffees, headed by Roger Kenyon, and 

 the bishop. 1 * 8 In 1719 Bishop Gastrell found the 

 income to be 23 6s. $J., of which ij was the rent 

 or value of the house and ground attached to the 

 chapel. 129 Though it was a donative the curates 

 .appear at times to have been licensed to it by the 



bishop. 1 * The following are the names of some of 

 them : 181 



oc. 1 6 1 o 

 oc. 1617-26 

 1646 

 1647 

 1648 

 1650 

 1654 

 1657 



oc 



oc 



oc. 



1664 



? 1669 

 1682 

 1709 



oc. 1725-48 

 oc. 1769 



1792 

 1819 



1854 



1872 

 1890 



1907 



Hunt 1 " 

 Thomas Johnson m 



Roger Baldwin, M.A. (Edin.) "* 

 Hugh Taylor, M.A. (Edin.) 



Boate 1S6 

 James Valentine 1 * 7 

 James Brads haw lss 



William Coulburn, B.A. 1 * 9 (St. John's 



Coll., Camb.) 

 Joseph Hanmer, M.A. (Trin. Coll., 



Camb.) 



Samuel Hanmer " 

 Miles Atkinson M1 

 Thomas Chaddock, B.A. 1 " 

 John Key 14J 

 John Crookhall, B.A. 144 

 John Clowes, M.A. 144 

 Wilson Rigg 

 St. Vincent Beechey, M.A. 1 * 6 (Caius 



Coll. Camb.) 

 Constantine Charles Henry Phipps, 147 



Earl of Mulgrave 



Frederick Carslake Hodgkinson, M.A. 

 Thomas Harrison 



Since 1854 this chapel has been held with St. 

 Mark's, Worsley, which was built by the first Earl of 

 Ellesmere and opened in 1 846 ; it has an effigy of 

 the founder. St. Mark's is a vicarage, the Earl of 

 Ellesmere being patron. Several other churches have 

 been erected for the Established worship. St. Peter's, 

 Swinton, built in 1869, replaces an older building 

 erected in 1781 ; the vicar of Eccles is patron. 148 

 Holy Rood, Moorside, and the school-chapels of All 

 Saints and St. Stephen, are also in Swinton. At 



122 The dedication is now given as St. 

 Mary the Virgin. 



138 Ellesmere D. no. 127. The chap- 

 lain to be provided was to be presented 

 to the abbot at Eccles and swear fidelity 

 and obedience to the abbot and the church, 

 and thus receive the ministry of the 

 chapel. 



124 Duchy of Lane. Plead. Edw. VI, 

 XXT, B, 15. Though the chapel is called 

 Sir Richard's the gift of a chalice by the 

 people is evidence that it was not a private 

 chapel at Worsley Hall. 



125 End. Char. Rep. Eccles, 1904, pp. 

 6, 34; Dame Legh in 1638 gave ,400 

 for charitable uses to trustees, one of 

 whom in 1654 deposed that 'her intention 

 was that it should go for the maintenance 

 of a minister at the chapel of " Ellen- 

 borough," so that the bishop should have 

 no hand in the putting in, placing or dis- 

 placing of the minister there . . . and 

 for so long time as the Lord Bridge-water 

 should suffer the chapel to stand.' 



128 Commoniv. Ch. Surv. 140. It ap- 

 pears that 40 a year had in 1646 been 

 ordered to be paid to the minister at Ellen- 

 brook out of Christopher Anderton's se- 

 questered tithes, but the order had to be 

 renewed in 1 650 ; Plund. Mint. Accts. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Che*.), i, 88, 

 252. 



W Hitt. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 

 104. 



la8 Ibid. 275, 289, 290 (' Perhaps if 

 j ou told my Lord Bridgewater of the Lord 



Willoughby's designing to make Ellen- 

 brook Chapel into a barn, to conventicle 

 it, it might do good service'), 417, 418. 

 The endowment is stated to have been 

 then 33 a year. 



139 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 53. 

 uo Ibid. 54; nominations in 1669 and 



1 709 are mentioned to the ' free chapel ' 

 of Ellenbrook. 



131 This list is due in part to the late 

 Mr. Earwaker. 



1M Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 

 1 2 ; he was ' a preacher.' 



188 Piccope, Frills, iii, 207 ; Misc. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 54, 66, 

 where he is called ' curate ' and ' lecturer.' 

 He was presented in 1622 for not wearing 

 the surplice ; Visit. P. at Chester. 



184 Plund. Mint. Accts. i, 265. Accord- 

 ing to Calamy he became vicar of Pen- 

 rith, and losing this at the Restoration, 

 was afterwards minister of the Noncon- 

 formist congregation at Monks' Hall, 

 Eccles. 



us Ibid. ; Manch. Classis (Chet. Soc.), i, 



53- 



188 Plund. Mint. Accti. i, 260, 266. 

 "" Ibid, i, 88, 242. 



188 Mancb. Classis, iii, 419 ; ejected 

 from Hindley in 1662 ; life in Diet. Nat. 

 Biog. 



189 Manch. Classis, ii, 266 ; iii, 423. 

 He conformed in 1662. 



140 There was a vacancy in July 1668 ; 

 Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 82. 



141 Visit. List of 1691. He was ' com- 



39 1 



formable' in 1691 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. 

 xiv, App. iv, 229. It was he who was lock- 

 ed out in 1697 by Lord Willoughby, and 

 Roger Kenyon, writing to the Bishop of 

 Chester, says : ' Mr. Atkinson has been 

 our minister, I think, at least a dozen 

 years,and his local licence was exhibited and 

 allowed at your Lordship's late visitation, 

 as it had often been before ; but he now 

 saith he is willing to resign when your 

 Lordship and the minister of the parish 

 and the feoffees have a person such as they 

 approve of, ready for the place." Lord 

 Willoughby had put in ' one Cheney, who, 

 as is said, never saw an university, but 

 has been a justice of the peace his clerk, 

 and proving a gifted brother, used to 

 preach to all the conventicling barns about 

 him, and now frequently uses so to do ' ; 

 ibid. 417. 



148 Gastrell, Notitia, ii, 54. He became 

 vicar of Eccles in 1721, and died three 

 years later. 



1<8 End. Char. Rep. Eccles, 7. 



144 Vicar of Eccles 1768-92 ; probably 

 held Ellenbrook chaplaincy also. 



145 Vicar of Eccles 1792-1818. 



146 Previously vicar of Flcetwood ; one 

 of the founders of Rossall School. 



14 7 Now Marquess of Normanby; canon 

 of Windsor. He revived the May Day 

 festivities at Worsley ; Pal. Note Bk. ii, 

 131. 



148 For district assigned in 1865, see 

 Land. Gam. 10 Jan. 



