SALFORD HUNDRED 



MANCHESTER 



by popular association, if not by birth, is John Brad- 

 ford, burnt to death at Smithfield on I July 1555 

 for Protestantism." He was born about 1520-5 and 

 educated at Manchester. Embracing a secular career, 

 he entered the service of Sir John Harrington, pay- 

 master of the English forces in France ; a fraud in 

 his accounts at that time, to the hurt of the king, 

 afterwards caused him deep sorrow, being greatly 

 moved to this " by Latimer's preaching." He 

 became a Protestant, and that of the more extreme 

 type, studied law, and then went to Cambridge, 

 where he was almost immediately elected fellow of 

 Pembroke and made Master of Arts.'* He was urged 

 to preach, and was ordained deacon by Bishop Ridley," 

 but does not appear to have advanced further. He 

 was made prebendary of St. Paul's and chaplain to 

 the king, and preached in London, Lancashire, and 

 Cheshire, without undertaking any parochial charge.'* 

 Soon after the accession of Mary he was lodged in the 

 Tower on charges of sedition, preaching without a 

 licence, and heresy." His first examination took 

 place in the Tower, and he was again examined on 

 23 January 1 554— 5, and later days ; afterwards he was 

 excommunicated as a heretic." Fresh efforts to con- 



vince him that he was in error were made by various 

 prelates and theologians," but in vain, and at last he 

 was delivered to the executioners, suffering a cruel 

 death with great courage. He was a zealous and 

 eloquent man, of irreproachable life, and consequently 

 of wide influence." He was not married, and the 

 only relatives known are his mother, his two sisters, 

 and his ' brother Roger,' who is no doubt Roger 

 Beswick, husband of one of the sisters." 



The water-mill at Blackley was long in the occupa- 

 tion of a family named Costerdine." 



A constable for the township or hamlet is mentioned 

 in 161 8." 



There was an oratory at Blackley 

 CHURCH as early as 1360," probably the origin 

 of the chapel existing in 1548." This 

 was rebuilt in 1736," and again in 1844 ; it is called 

 St. Peter's.*' In 1 6 1 1 the Byrons sold to John 

 Cudworth, James Chetham, and Edmund Howarth 

 the chapel and chapel yard, and the chamber and 

 garden there, for use as a place of worship for the 

 people of Blackley." The stipend of the minister 

 was derived from seat rents and offerings. Service 

 was maintained there during the latter part of Eliza- 



son John, who died in 1786, and whose 

 only surviving child, Sarah, married the 

 Hon. Edward Perceval. The estate was 

 sold in 1808 to the Earl of Wilton. 



Abraham Howarth, described as of 

 Crumpsall, appears in the Mancb, Ct, Leet 

 Rec. in 1684 and 1685 (vi, 214, 235). 

 * Mr. Howarth*8 house in [Long] Mill- 

 gate,' is one of those depicted on Casson 

 and Berry's Plan. 



Some particulars of the Dickenson and 

 Beswick estates are given by Booker, op. 

 cit. 47, 48. Several deeds relating to the 

 Beswicks of Blackley are among the 

 Raines deeds in the Chetham Library ; 

 the dates range from 16 11 to 1674. 



In the Chetham Library also are a few 

 17th-century deeds of the Sandiforth 

 family. 



^^ For biographies see Diet, Nat. Biog. ; 

 Bradford's Works (Parker Soc. 1848), 

 Foxe, Acts and Monts, (ed. Cattley), vii, 

 143—285 ; Cooper, Atbenae Cantab, i, 

 127-9. 



Bradford described himself as 'bom in 

 Manchester' (Foxe, op. cit. vii, 204), and 

 this probably refers to the town rather 

 than to the parish. The family no doubt 

 derived its surname from an adjacent 

 township, and many members of it occur 

 from time to time in the records. In 

 1473 John Bradford held two closes in 

 Manchester at the will of the lord at 15s. 

 rent ; Mamecestre, iii, 486. Thomas Brad- 

 ford and Margaret his wife sold land in 

 Manchester in 1553 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet 

 ofF. bdle. 15, m. 123. Thomas Bradford of 

 Failsworth occurs in 1557; Manch, Ct, 

 Leet Rec, i, 39 j see also Mancb, Sessions 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 57. There 

 was a John Bradford at Newton Heath 

 in 1585 and 1619 ; Newton Chafelry 

 (Chet Soc), ii, 65, 76. 



'2 On this point see N, and Q, (Ser. 2), 

 i, 125. The fraud did not benefit Brad- 

 ford himself, but his master, who was 

 quite unaware of it, and he forced Sir 

 John Harrington to make restitution by 

 threat of denunciation to the Council. 



'' A fellow student of the Inner Temple, 

 Thomas Sampson, afterwards the Puritan 

 dean of Christ Church, Oxford, also had 

 great influence with him. 



^* M.A. 1549 by special grace. The 

 universities were in a very low state at 

 that time, but Bradford had given evi- 

 dence of study in the previous year by 

 translations from Peter Artopoeus (a 

 Protestant divine) and St. Chrysostom, 

 with prefaces by himself ; Atben, Cantab, 

 i, 127, where a list of his works is 

 printed. On the other hand, at his exa- 

 mination before Bishop Gardiner, he was 

 reproved as ' ignorant and vainglorious,' 

 ' an arrogant and stubborn boy ' ; Foxe, 

 op. cit. vii, 150, 151. At Cambridge he 

 formed a close friendship with Martin 

 Bucer. 



85 The new Ordinal was not suiiiciently 

 reformed for Bradford, and the bishop had 

 to modify it till it was ' without any abuse ' ; 

 Foxe, op. cit. vii, 144. 



"" In Lancashire he preached at Ashton- 

 under-Lyne, Manchester, Eccles, Middle- 

 ton, RadclifFe, Bury, Bolton, Wigan, Liver- 

 pool, and Preston. 



8" A sermon by Dr. Bourne at St. 

 Paul's Cross, soon after Mary's acces- 

 sion, occasioned a disturbance among the 

 audience, and a dagger was thrown at the 

 preacher. Bradford, who was present, 

 seems to have been at first regarded as 

 the real instigator of the uproar, but he 

 cleared himself by calling Bourne himself 

 as a witness. 



8' The fragmentary record of the three 

 examinations is in Foxe, op. cit. vii, 149, 

 &c. The principal judge was Bishop 

 Gardiner, then Lord Chancellor. Brad- 

 ford was condemned for his rejection of 

 the supremacy of the pope — 'the Anti- 

 christ of Rome,' as he called him — and 

 transubstantiation. 



^^ Those who came to argue with him 

 included Archbishop Heath, Bishop Day, 

 Dr. Harpsfield, Dr. Harding, Fr. Alphon- 

 sus a Castro, Dean Weston, and (from 

 Manchester), Dr. Pendleton, Warden Col- 

 lier, and Stephen Beck. The Earl of Derby 

 seems to have taken a particular interest 

 in him. 



■"> It is stated that the gaoler several 

 times allowed him to go out merely on 

 his promise to return. The fraud above 

 mentioned was referred to at the trial, 

 but nothing else is known against him. 



In prison ' preaching, reading, and praying 

 was his whole life/ 



He was * tall and slender, spare of body, 

 of a faint sanguine colour, with an auburn 

 beard' ; Foxe, op. cit. vii, 145. 



^^ Roger Beswick was present at the 

 burning, and had his head broken by the 

 sheriff for trying to shake hands with 

 Bradford ; ibid, vii, 148. 



The children of Margaret Beswick his 

 wife are mentioned in the will of Henry 

 Bury, 1634 ; Piccope, Wills (Chet. Soc), 

 iii, 177. 



■** Booker, op. cit, 112, 113. The Sir 

 John Byron who sold Blackley was the 

 illegitimate son of Sir John Byron and 

 Elizabeth Costerdine of Blackley ; ibid. 

 17. The name is also spelt Consterdine 

 and Constantine. 



^^ Manch, Quarter Sessions (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 36. It was treated as a 

 separate township in 1620 ; Misc. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 1 50. See also 

 Manch. Ct. Leet Rec. iii, 74, 



*•■* The Bishop of Lichfield on 3 1 Dec. 

 1360 granted a two-years' licence for it 

 to Roger La Warre ; Lich. Epis. Reg. 

 Stretton, v, fol, 4. 



^5 In the Visitation lists of 1548, 1554, 

 and 1^63, appears the name of Robert 

 Fletcher ; in the last he is described as 

 * curate of Blackley ' and ' decrepit' The 

 •Father Travis' of the Bradford corre- 

 spondence, called * minister of Blackley ' 

 by Foxe, does not appear in these lists. 

 Perhaps he was a layman who preached 

 occasionally ; * father' seems merely a title 

 of respect or affection applied to an elderly 

 man by a young one. A Richard Travis 

 of Blackley contributed to the subsidy of 

 1541 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 139. There is no mention of Blackley 

 Chapel in the accounts of the chantries 

 or the church goods of 1552, so that it 

 was probably regarded as the private pro- 

 perty of the Byrons. 



^^ BookcTf Blackley y 59 ; a view is giver* 

 on p. 60. The cost {£24,^) was defrayed 

 by subscription. 



^7 Ibid. 61-4 and frontispiece. This 

 building was enlarged in i$8o. 



48 Ibid. 49-51. 



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