A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The cathedral staiF consists of the dean, four 

 residentiary canons, who have rectories within the 

 parish, and undertake the duties of the sub-dean, 

 bursar, collector of rents, and registrar ; twenty-four 

 honorary canons and two minor canons, assisted by 

 two clerks in orders, of whom one acts as precentor.'" 



Of the fellows and canons no account is given in 

 this place, but as many of them were beneficed in the 

 county, they are not altogether unnoticed. 



The earlier rectors were often men of distinction, 

 but pluralists and non-resident. It was to remedy 

 this abuse that the college was founded, and to some 

 extent it met the necessities of the case. The various 

 chantries also helped to maintain an adequate supply 

 of clergy ; in particular, the foundation of Richard 

 Bexwick for priests and schoolmaster in the Jesus 

 chapel was made with this intention.^'' The first 

 college possessed a library, which seems to have 

 perished with it ;"' but ahother was in 1653 founded 

 in the Jesus chapel and maintained by the town."" 

 Just before the destruction of the college there appear 

 to have been the warden, five priests, and four 

 deacons on the foundation, ' all resident and ob- 

 serving their statutes ' ; also two curates, six chantry 

 priests, and a fluctuating number of others — fifteen 

 or more — who had casual ofiices or served the out- 

 lying chapelries. Thus for a population estimated at 

 6,000 ' houseling people,' there were over thirty 

 priests available. The church was decently furnished 

 with plate, vestments, and other ornaments.'^' 



The simultaneous abolition of college and chan- 

 tries and the confiscation of the endowments made a 

 vast difference. It is not exactly known how the 

 Edwardine services were conducted, or what pay- 

 ments were made to the ministers.^' In the Visitation 

 list of 1 548 twenty-two names appeared ; ten of 

 them reappeared in 1554, when six new names were 

 added, two being those of the ' curates ' — Ralph 

 Birch and Hugh Ormishaw. In 1563 Thomas 

 Herle, the warden, headed the list ; he had two 

 curates — Robert Prestwich and Edward Holt ; five 

 of the chapels of ease had curates in charge ; there 

 were four other names, two of which were soon 

 erased, and another was described as ' decrepit.' The 

 number of clergy therefore had been reduced to 

 twelve, nine being effective. In the list of 1 565 only 

 those on the foundation were recorded — the warden, 

 four chaplains, four deacons, and four (lay) choristers. 

 The omission of any notice of the chapels of ease 

 was perhaps a fault of the registrar's clerk ; but it 

 seems clear that the Pre-Reformation staff of thirty 

 to thirty-four had been reduced to a dozen or less. 

 Only two of the clergy of 1548 appear in the 1565 

 list, but some of the chapels of ease, if just then in 

 use, may have retained the former curates.'^ 



Though the gentry held, for a time at least, to the 

 old ways, and though such wardens as Collier and 

 Vaux were in life and doctrine an instructive contrast 

 to their successors,'^^ the people of the district rapidly 

 accepted Protestantism, and that in its more pro- 



"1 By an Act of 1850 (13 & 14 

 Vict. cap. 41) the dean has cure of souls 

 in the fragment of the ancient parish 

 which is still served by the cathedral in 

 its parochial aspect, and has the assistance 

 of the chaplains or minor canons. The 

 residentiary canons are rectors of four 

 parishes, formed out of the old parish — 

 St. Andrew, Manchester ; St. Matthew, 

 Manchester 5 St. George, Hulme ; and 

 St. Philip, Salford. While the dean is 

 presented by the Crown the canons are 

 collated by the bishop. 



The Act named was preceded and 

 accompanied by a sharp local controversy. 

 An important contribution was one by 

 Thomas Turner, in the form of a letter to 

 the Bishop of Manchester ; the second 

 appendix contained translations of the 

 licence of Henry V, the petition of the 

 parishioners, and the charter of the Bishop 

 of Lichfield in 1421 ; also of the charters 

 of Philip and Mary, Elizabeth, and 

 Charles I ; with other documents. He 

 showed that practically the whole endow- 

 ments (as restored by Queen Mary) were 

 rectorial, and ,that Lord La Warre's 

 additional gifts were of small extent, 



^^^ Richard Bexwick's foundation was 

 originally for four priests to do divine 

 service, assist the warden, keep the choir, 

 be present at matins, mass, evensong, &c. 

 as it was found that the parish, with 

 ' 7000 housling people and more resident,' 

 could not be sufficiently served by the 

 warden and fellows without further help. 

 Richard Bexwick was ' an especial bene- 

 factor,' having given a suit of vestments 

 worth ^45, and built a chapel and one 

 side of the choir at a cost of 300 or 

 400 marks ; Duchy PUad, (Rec. Soc, 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 81-3 ; ii, 233. 



^^ Cardinal Langley in 1437 be- 

 queathed the Flores Bernardi to the 

 college of Manchester ; Raines, Chant. 

 (Chet. Soc), i, 121. A later bequest of 

 books to the college library was made by 



Henry Turton, one of the fellows ; 

 Piccope, WilU (Chet, Soc), ii, 13. 



885 Manch. Ct. Leet Ra. (ed, Earwaker), 

 iv, 91-100, &c ; Raines, Chant, i, 50-2 ; 

 N. and Q. (ser, 5), viii, 61, 81. 



888 Raines, op. cit. i, 7-22; a full account 

 is given of the revenues, expenditure, and 

 vestments, &c. For the clergy not on any 

 of the foundations see Clergy List (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 11, 12. The 

 Visitation list of 1548 omits the clergy 

 of the college, then dissolved, but some 

 of them were probably resident in the 

 town ; their names are given in Chant, i, 

 19, 20. 



The 'ornaments' remaining in 1552 

 are recorded in Ch. Goods (Chet. Soc), 4 ; 

 they included ' certain ornaments for the 

 sepulchre,' but no organ is named. 

 There were five bells in the steeple, which 

 are said to have remained in use until 

 1706. Some were sold to Didsbury 

 chapel ; ibid. 8. 



887 The only authority is Hollinworth, 

 who states that the Earl of Derby, having 

 obtained the college, &c., 'was careful, 

 as our fathers have told us, to provide 

 very well for three or four ministers offi- 

 ciating in the church' ; Mancuniensis, 63. 



838 These details arc from the Visitation 

 lists preserved at Chester, John Glover, 

 a * deacon ' of the old college, still 

 appeared in 1565, and Robert Prestwich's 

 name occurs in the lists of 1548, 1563, 

 1565 ; his absence in 1554 may mean 

 that he was a Protestant, but he had been 

 one of the chantry priests. 



889 In all nine fellows and deacons of 

 the college were named in 1548. The 

 story of Vaux has been given above ; 

 that of John Cuppage, his friend, is in 

 many ways similar ; he refused to appear 

 at the Visitation of 1559, suffered perse- 

 cution for adhering to the old faith, and is 

 supposed to have died in Salford prison 

 about 1584; Vaux, Catechism, 75-8, 84 

 note (introd.). 



198 



In 1559 four of the fellows — Edward 

 Pendleton, Robert Prestwich, Richard 

 Hart, and Richard Ford — appeared, but 

 Hart refused to subscribe ; Prestwich was 

 warned against frequenting taverns ; Ch, 

 Goods, 7 (quoting S.P, Dom, Eliz, x, 

 loi) ; Gee, Eliz. Clergy, 81, In 1562 

 Vaux, who had been ordered to live in 

 Worcestershire, and Hart in Kent or 

 Sussex, were ' thought to behave them- 

 selves very seditiously and contrary to 

 their recognizances, secretly lurk in Lan- 

 cashire and are thought to be maintained 

 there by rulers and gentlemen of that 

 county'; ibid. 181, In 1574 three of 

 the old clergy (1548) were receiving pen- 

 sions — John Cuppage, Edward Pendleton 

 (then vicar of Eccles), and Robert Prest- 

 wich ; of the rest Collier, Johnson, Ryle, 

 Woodall, and Wolstoncroft had died be 

 fore the accession of Elizabeth, and 

 Ralph Hunt and James Barlow died about 

 1571 ; Ch. Goods (quoting Spec, Com. 

 16 Eliz. no, 3258). John Glover, as 

 above shown, also conformed under Eliza- 

 beth, 



In 1570 Roger Cooksey, clerk, made 

 claim to an annuity of ^^6 135. 41/., for 

 service and prayer, against Thomas Herle, 

 warden, Richard Hall, paymaster, and Ed- 

 ward Holt, receiver ; Ducatits Lane. (Rec. 

 Com.), ii, 389. 



At an inquiry in 1571 Warden Herle 

 confessed that he had been absent for two 

 years and more, having a dispensation. 

 Neither he nor the fellows were bound to 

 preach. The only ornament the church 

 possessed was a broken chalice ; the 

 building was in decay and the ' painted 

 pictures ' had not been defaced. Nicholas 

 Daniell, one of the fellows, averred that 

 Edward Holt, another fellow, kept an ale- 

 house and frequented such places, being a 

 drunkard. Richard Hall, another fellow, 

 practised medicine, ' and when he should 

 serve God he runneth after his physic and 

 surgery' ; Raines, Wardens, xv. The 



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