SALFORD HUNDRED 



MANCHESTER 



Chester men' in various excursions to places in South 

 Lancashire, by which the town added to its reputation 

 and the Icing's forces were harassed or defeated. The 

 remuneration promised him having been refused later, 

 he wrote a bitter complaint of the townsmen ; ' never 

 let an unthankful man and a promise-breaker have 

 another name ' than Manchester man." A grant of 

 j{^i,ooo was made for the relief of Manchester out of 

 the sales of ' delinquents' ' estates by Parliament in 

 1645." 



The Restoration appears to have been welcomed 

 with hearty loyalty, for the clergy and principal in- 

 habitants were Presbyterians and had in 1659 shown 

 their dissatisfaction with the existing government™ ; 

 but soon afterwards the religious cleavage between 

 Conformists and Nonconformists " was supplemented 

 by the political cleavage between Tories and Whigs. 

 The 'Church and King' riots of 1715,™ which led 

 to the destruction of Cross Street chapel and other 

 Dissenting meeting-places, showed that the Tories, 

 headed by the collegiate clergy. Sir Oswald Mosley, 

 and others, had a considerable following ; while the 

 Whigs, headed by Lady Bland, included all the Non- 

 conformists and many Churchmen. The composition 

 of the town is shown by the abortive proposal of 

 173 1 that a workhouse should be built, with a board 

 of twenty-four guardians, of whom a third should be 

 High Church, a third Low Church, and a third 

 Nonconformist." The town, not being a borough, 

 had no means of enforcing its political opinions, though 

 public ' town's meetings ' were called by the borough 



reeve and constables on occasion ; the court leet con- 

 fined itself to local business. 



The postmaster is mentioned in 1648.'° A number 

 of local tradesmen's tokens were issued about 1666." 

 An official survey of the town was made in 1672.°' 

 A ' wonderful child ' appeared in 1679, speaking — so 

 the story went — Latin, Greek, and Hebrew at three 

 years of age.*' 



Celia Ficnnes about 1700 rode most of her way 

 from Rochdale between hedges of quickset cut smooth 

 and even. She writes : 'Manchester looks exceed- 

 ingly well at the entrance. Very substantial buildings; 

 the houses are not very lofty, but mostly of brick and 

 stone ; the old houses are timber work. There is a 

 very large church, all stone ; and [it] stands so high 

 that walking round the churchyard you see the whole 

 town. There is good carving of wood in the choir.' 

 After describing the Chetham Hospital and Library, 

 with its curiosities, she proceeds : ' Out of the Library 

 there are leads on which one has the sight of the 

 town, which is large, as also the other town that lies 

 below it, called Salford, and is divided from this by 

 the River Irwell, over which is a stone bridge, with 

 many arches .... The Market place is large ; it 

 takes up two streets' length when the market is kept 

 for their linen cloth [and] cotton tickings which is the 

 manufacture of the town. Here is a very fine school 

 for young gentlewomen, as good as any in London ; 

 and music and dancing and things are very plenty 

 here. This is a thriving place.' '* 



A traveller, supposed to be Defoe, about 1730 calls 



Colonel Holland of Denton was in favour 

 of yielding, on the ground that the de- 

 fenders had neither powder nor match ; 

 but Rosworm counteracted such counsels 

 by sending Mr. Bourne, one of the minis- 

 ters of the church, an ' aged and grave ' 

 man, to encourage the different bodies of 

 defenders ; ibid. 222. Little was done on 

 Thursday ; on Friday there was more 

 cannonading, but the guns were withdrawn 

 in the evening, and the whole attaclcing 

 force left next day. It is said that their 

 men had been deserting all the time. On 

 the other hand the town's soldiers 'from 

 first to last had prayers and singing of 

 psalms daily at the street ends, most of 

 our soldiers being religious, honest men. 

 . . . The townsmen were kind and re- 

 spective to the soldiers ; all things were 

 common ; the gentlemen made bullets 

 night and day ; the soldiers were resolute 

 and courageous, and feared nothing so 

 much as a parley ' ; ibid. 54—6. In ad- 

 dition to those named alcove, Captains 

 Robert Bradshaw, Radcliffe, Channell, and 

 Barrington did good service-; Chetham of 

 Nuthurst sent men ; ibid. 46, 52. The 

 thanks of Parliament were at once given 

 to the town ; ibid. 57, 



A little later proposals were made on 

 behalf of Lord Derby for the neutrality of 

 the town, but the inhabitants considered 

 that they were able to defend themselves ; 

 ibid. 61. 



In July 1643 the Earl of Newcastle 

 called upon the Manchester men to lay 

 down their arms, but he was unable to 

 penetrate into Lancashire ; ibid. 145-7. 



7^ For Rosworm's narrative see Civil 

 War Tracts, 217-47. He had been pro- 

 mised an annuity of j^6o for the lives of 

 himself and his wife ; it was paid for 

 two years only, and he could obtain no 

 redress by law, not being an English- 

 man. An account of him, with portrait, 



is given in Lanes, and Ches. Antiq, Sac, 

 viii, 188. 



^^ Royalist Comp. Papers (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 113. For lists of 

 the principal inhabitants of the town in 

 the middle of the 17th century see Pal. 

 Note Bk. i, 80, c&c. (Protestation of 1642); 

 Manch, Constables^ Accounts, ii, 181, &c. 

 Court Leet Rec. iv, 305 ; v, 246. 



^^ The Presbyterians and Independents 

 united under an ' accommodation ' signed 

 on 13 July 1659. 500 men left the town 

 at the end of the month to join Sir 

 George Booth, who had raised the cry of 

 a * free parliament.' A day of humilia- 

 tion was observed on 5 Aug., the people 

 being afraid that Lilburne would march 

 on the town ; and the defeat of a rising 

 at Northwich on ig Aug. was followed 

 by the occupation of Manchester by Birch 

 and Lilburne, many of the fugitives having 

 taken refuge there. See Newcome's 

 Autohiog, (Chet. Soc), 108-16 ; Adam 

 Martindale (Chet. Soc), 128-42; Or- 

 merod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, p. Ixv. 



The festivities at the king's coronation are 

 described in Court Leet Rec, iv, 28 1. After- 

 wards, in 1663, there was an attempt, 

 according to an informer, to bring an 

 accusation against Presbyterians and others 

 of forming a plot to overthrow the 

 government ; Local Glean, Lanes, and 

 Ches, iii, 361, 421. 



77 In 1669 it was reported to the Bishop 

 of Chester that Nonconformists preached 

 every Lord's day at the chapels of Denton, 

 Gorton, and Birch, and had great numbers 

 of hearers ; Visit. P. at Chester. 



7S The rioters were led by Thomas 

 Siddall, a blacksmith. They damaged 

 many of the Nonconformist chapels in 

 the neighbourhood. Siddall was sent to 

 Lancaster Castle, but soon afterwards 

 released by the Jacobites, whom he joined. 

 He was captured at Preston, tried for 



treason, condemned, and sent to Man- 

 chester to be executed. Four others were 

 hanged with him in the same cause on 

 II Feb. 1715-16 ; Pal. Note Bk. ii, 240 ; 

 iv, 93. See also Hariand's Manch. Coll. 

 (Chet. Soc), i, 208-25. General Willis 

 passed through Manchester on his way to 

 meet the Jacobites at Preston, and left 

 some troops in the town to prevent any 

 danger of a rising. 



7' ReiUy, Manch. 232 ; Mosley, Family 

 Mem, 44 ; Pal. Note Bk. ii, 91. In the 

 ' case for the Petitioners ' against the bill 

 it was stated that the workhouse project 

 originated in Oct. 1729, with some few 

 traders who wished to monopolize the 

 labour of the poor for their own exclusive 

 profit, and to preserve • a perpetual suc- 

 cession of guardians of the poor in their 

 own families and friends.' On the other 

 side it was shown that the proposals had 

 met with general approval at first. 



8" Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xxii, 9. 



^^ For a list see Lanes, and Ches. Antiq, 

 Soc, y, 82, xiii, 119. Halfpenny tokens 

 were issued by several traders in 1793. 

 Two more recent tokens (1812) are no- 

 ticed in Pal. Note Bk, i, 84. 



82 Court Leet Rec. v, 1 94. 



S3 The tracts concerning it are printed 

 in Chet. Soc. (new sen). Misc. i. 



^* Through Engl, on a Side-Saddle, 187, 

 188. 



Lady Ann Bland was the leader of ^ 

 fashion in the place. She was the principal . 

 patroness of a weekly dancing assembly, 

 for which a room in King Street was 

 built; Aikin, Country round Manch. 183- 

 8. "The same writer gives a sketch of 

 the social life of the town in the early 

 part of the 1 8 th century. Its provision- 

 ing at the end of the century is also de- 

 scribed ; ibid. 203-5. An account of 

 the Manchester ladies of 1709 is printed 

 in Local Glean. Lanes, and Ches. ii, 11. 



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