A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Institution 

 24 May 1624 



4 Feb. 1637-8 

 c. 1644 . . 

 27 Oct. 1662. 



8 June 1698 

 23 Jan. 1698-9 



5 Oct. 1716. 

 1 8 Mar. 1719 



14 July 1724. 



6 Apr. 1757 



15 Oct. 1757 

 i Oct. 1784 

 i Feb. 1839 



1867 . . 

 26 June 1896 



Name 

 Robert Walkden 10S . . . . 



Peter Shaw, 106 M.A 



Thomas Pyke, lor B.A 



Charles Beswick 108 



Charles Pinkney, 109 B.A. . . . 



Roger Dale 110 



Edward King, 111 M.A. . . . 



Henry Lister, 11 * M.A 



William Lawson, 113 B.A. . . . 

 Richard Assheton, 114 M.A. . . 

 Richard Wroe (Walton), 1 " M.A. 

 Thomas Foxley, 116 M.A. . . . 

 Nathaniel Milne, 117 M.A. . . 

 Henry Arthur Starkie, 118 M.A. . 

 Stanley Swinburne, 119 M.A. . . 



Patron 



Robert Holt, &c. . 

 Ralph Assheton 



>> 



Sir Ralph Assheton 



Lord Grey de Wilton 

 Earl of Wilton . 



Cause of Vacancy 

 d. Leon. Shaw 

 d. R. Walkden 



exp. T. Pyke 

 d. C. Beswick 

 depr. C. Pinkney 

 d. Roger Dale 

 d. E. King 

 d. H. Lister 

 d. W. Lawson 

 res. R. Assheton 

 res. R. Wroe Walt 

 d. T. Foxley 

 res. N. Milne 

 res. H. A. Starkie 



As the benefice was of small value and the people 

 few, it is probable that even before the Reformation 

 the clerical staff consisted of the rector and his curate 

 only. 1 * There was no endowed chantry. Little is 

 known of the rectors, but some of them may have 

 been pluralists. The church does not seem to have 

 been very well furnished in I552. 1 * 1 About this time 



the rectors of Radcliffe were also rectors of Middle- 

 ton, 12 * but there seems usually to have been a resident 

 curate. The later resident rectors seem to have 

 managed without a curate. 1 * 3 As at Middleton a new 

 rector, a Protestant, appears in 1559, but the reason 

 is not ascertained. 1 * 4 The later history has been un- 

 eventful, with the exception of the Commonwealth 



105 Compounded for first-fruits 25 May 

 1624. The institutions from this time 

 are printed in Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Notes, 

 from the Inst. Bks. P.R.O. The patrons 

 in 1624 were Robert Holt, John Grccn- 

 halgh, and Robert Heywood, by grant 

 of Sir Richard Assheton ; the Earl of 

 Nottingham was impropriator. There 

 must be some error in the last state- 

 ment. 



Robert Walkden was schoolmaster at 

 Middleton in 1599. He contributed ship- 

 money, &c., in 1634, and later; Misc. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 95, 



112. 



106 The Church P. at Chester begin 

 here. Compounded for first-fruits 9 Mar. 

 1637-8. He was of Trinity Hall and 

 Magdalene College, Cambridge ; Cooper, 

 A then. Cantab, ii, 493. 



There is a very unfavourable account 

 of him, alike as to character and conduct, 

 by Canon Raines in Manch. Fellows (Chet. 

 Soc.), ii, 135-7. He was fellow from 

 1634 till 1645, when the chapter was 

 dissolved by Parliament. Nothing is 

 known of his subsequent career. 



W Possibly of New Inn Hall, Oxford, 

 B.A., 1634 ; Foster, Alumni. In 1650 it 

 was recorded that ' about six years ago ' 

 Ralph Assheton of Middleton, patron, had 

 bestowed the parsonage of Radcliffe, ' with 

 the benefices and appurtenances thereunto 

 belonging,' on Mr. Thomas Pyke, B.A., 

 who was ' a godly preaching minister, well 

 qualified in life and conversation ' ; Com- 

 monwealth Ch. Suri>. 29. He was a mem- 

 ber of the Bury Classis from its forma- 

 tion in 1647. The first-fruits, however, 

 were not paid till 31 Jan. 165x5 Lanct. 

 and Ches. Rec. ii, 414. He signed the 

 'Harmonious Consent' of 1648. 



After his expulsion from the rectory in 

 1662 he continued to minister to Non- 

 conformist congregations in the neigh- 

 bourhood until his death in 1672 ; Night- 

 ingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iii, 216. See also 

 Manch. Classis (Chet. Soc.), iii, 444 ; Bury 

 Classis, ii, 251, and passim. 'Good Mr. 

 Pyke' is mentioned in O. Heywood's 

 Diaries. 



108 He had been ordained deacon and 

 priest on 13 Dec. 1656 by the Bishop of 



Ardfert and Aghadoe, and must therefore 

 have been an episcopalian on principle. 

 Before his presentation to Radcliffe he had 

 received the Archbishop of York's licence 

 to preach in the province ; Stratford's 

 Visit. List, 1691. He was, however, 

 found ' conformable ' in 1689 ; Hist. MSS. 

 Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 230. See Raines, 

 Byrom Fed. (Chet. Soc.). He rebuilt the 

 tower and did other reparation in the 

 church. 



In 1665 he made 'bitter complaints' 

 to the justices regarding 'conventicles,' 

 but they ' put him off" ; Oliver Heywood, 

 Diaries, i, 197. He was suspended by the 

 bishop in 1671, for, though' a scholar and 

 no mean poet,' he was ' a dissipated and 

 immoral man ' ; Raines MSS. (Chet. 

 Lib.), iv, 203. He was again in trouble 

 in 1685, sentence of deprivation being 

 pronounced ; Church P. at Chester. 



Administration of his effects was granted 

 in 1703. 



109 Of Christ's College, Cambridge, B.A. 

 1683. 



110 In 1691 Roger Dale was curate of 

 Northenden ; he had been curate of Den- 

 ton ; Booker, Demon, 88. Administration 

 of his effects was granted in 1716 ; see 

 Earwaker, East Ches. i, 418. 



111 As B.A. of Trinity College, Dublin, 

 he was admitted a pensioner of St. John's 

 College, Cambridge, in 1715; M.A. Cam- 

 bridge, same year ; Admissions St. John's C. 

 ii, 220. There is a monument to him in 

 the church. 



112 Educated at University College, Ox- 

 ford, M.A. 1718 ; Foster, Alumni. He 

 was buried at Radcliffe 21 June 1724. 



118 Educated at Brasenose College, Ox- 

 ford ; B.A. 1711. He bequeathed 10 

 to the poor. His will shows that he had 

 a brother Richard, vicar of Bosham, Sus- 

 sex ; Mr. W. F. Irvine's note. 



114 Resigned this benefice for Middleton; 

 see the account of the rectors of that 

 parish. 



115 Of Brasenose College, Oxford ; M.A. 

 1725 ; Foster, Alumni. Only son of 

 Thomas Wroe, fellow of Manchester, and 

 grandson of Richard Wroe, warden of 

 Manchester. He succeeded in 1784 to 

 Marsden Hall, Whalley, and resigned his 



66 



benefice ; see If ardent of Manch. (Chet. 

 Soc.), ii, 155. In 1763 he wrote as 

 follows to George Kenyon : ' My friend 

 Smethurst plays his old game ; he has 

 sowed his grain in so many different fields 

 that he has in some of them only nine 

 riders a rider is ten sheaves- in others 

 nineteen, and *e on. Another litigious 

 fellow has bound up all his oats into nine 

 large riders. They will say corn has 

 usually been set up in riders in this coun- 

 ty ; but if I do not gather it of these 

 people in the sheaf I am precluded from 

 receiving tithe ' ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. 

 xiv, App. iv, 499. 



116 Son of Thomas Foxley, fellow of Man- 

 chester. Educated at Manchester Gram- 

 mar School and Brasenose College, Ox- 

 ford ; M.A. 1780. He also held the 

 curacy of Chowbent in Leigh and the 

 vicarage of Batley, Yorkshire ; Foster, 

 Alumni. He resided at Unsworth. In 

 1824 the parsonage at Radcliffe was 

 occupied by the Rev. Thomas Parkinson, 

 who had a school there. 



U 7 Educated at St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge ; M.A. 1835. He restored the 

 church, adding the north transept. He 

 died at Leamington in 1892. 



U8 Educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. 

 M.A. 1869. Vicar of Padiham 1863 to 

 1865 ; and of Stainforth 1865 to 1867. 



119 Educated at Worcester College, Ox- 

 ford ; M.A. 1883. Vicar of St. Mar- 

 garet's, Prestwich, 1885 to 1891 ; rector 

 of St. John's, Broughton, Manchester, 

 1891. 



no The Clergy List of 1541-2 (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), and the Visit. Lists 

 1548 to 1565 mention only a curate in 

 addition to the rector. 



121 Ch. Gds. (Chet. Soc.), 18. There 

 were three sets of vestments, three bells, 

 two hand-bells, &c 



1W From 1547 to 1584. 



183 E.g. there was no assistant minister 

 in 1650. There was one in 1620; Misc. 

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



124 The Visitation List names Laurence 

 Pilkington as curate in 1563, while in 

 1565 the rector was at Durham, so that 

 John Ashton appears to have been of the 

 extremer sort of Protestants 



