A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



l(F> 





Birch of Birch. A- 

 aure three fleurs de lis 

 argent. 



the French wars of the 1 5 th century," but its most 

 noteworthy member was Colonel Thomas Birch,^° 

 a Puritan and Parliamentarian 

 of a somewhat brutal type/' 

 who took an active part in the 

 Civil War in Lancashire. He 

 was made Governor of Liver- 

 pool on the recapture of the 

 town in 1 644, and represented 

 it in Parliament from 1 649 to 

 1658.^^ On the Restoration 

 he retired into private life," 

 and was in 1678 succeeded by 

 his son Thomas Birch the an- 

 tiquary.'" Thomas's son died 

 without issue, and his brother. 

 Dr. Peter Birch, a prebendary of Westminster, came 

 into possession." He died in 1710, and his son 

 Humphrey, who took the surname of Wyrley, sold 

 Birch in 1 743 to George Croxton of Manchester ; 

 by him it was transferred two years later to John 

 Dickenson, another Manchester merchant, who gained 

 some wider notoriety for becoming the host of Prince 

 Charles Edward during his stay in the town.'* His 

 great-granddaughter Louisa Frances Mary Dickenson, 

 who died in 1837, carried the Birch estate to her 

 husband General Sir William Anson, bart. ; it has 

 remained in the possession of their descendants. 



Birch Hall stands in a pleasant situation to the 

 east of the church, well protected on three sides by 

 trees, and overlooking Birch Fields on the north. 

 The original site would seem to have been deter- 

 mined by a small brook, which still forms the boun- 

 dary of the grounds of the hall on the south side.'** 

 The house was originally a timber and plaster 

 building of considerable extent, to judge from the 

 list of rooms mentioned in an inventory taken 

 in 1678/' but the only portion now remaining 

 has been so much modernized and added to that 

 it presents little or nothing of its former appear- 



ance. It consists of two wings at right angles 

 facing north and west, the latter of which appears to 

 be part of a 1 7th-century building. A good deal of 

 the timber construction of the outer walls, and the 

 old roof, still remains, though the walls have been 

 much restored and filled in with brickwork at a later 

 time and new windows inserted. The west elevation ' 

 and the end gable facing north, however, retain some- 

 thing of their old black and white appearance, though 

 the gable has been mutilated by later work, and por- 

 tion of the ' half-timber ' framing is only plaster and 

 paint. The north wing is of brick with stone quoins, 

 and is probably a rebuilding of a former timber struc- 

 ture. In front of this, at a later time, most likely at 

 the beginning of the 1 9th century, a new brick front, 

 consisting of two rooms and entrance, has been added, 

 projecting considerably in front of the north wing, 

 and altogether altering the appearance of the house. 

 The building is of two stories with grey stone slated 

 roofs, and all the brickwork is painted yellow. In 

 the west wing are three upper rooms with good 1 7th- 

 century oak wainscot, but the panelling is not all in 

 its original position, and in one room is painted over. 

 There is a small oak stair to an attic, and one or two 

 old windows remain with diamond quarries. There 

 are portions of 1 7th-century woodwork in different 

 parts of the house, the fittings of the old building 

 no doubt being treated with little respect in the later 

 alterations. These have been so effective that nothing 

 very definite can be stated as to the original plan or 

 arrangement of the house. There are brick out- 

 buildings on the south side at the end of the west 

 wing. 



SLADE, anciently Milkwall Slade, was a composite 

 estate, partly in Rusholme and partly in Gorton,'* 

 but the mansion-house was in the former district. 

 From about the middle of the 13 th century until the 

 reign of Elizabeth it was the property of a branch of 

 the family of Manchester, who adopted the local sur- 

 name.'* It was then sold to the Siddalls,'" Manchester 



ter ; Booker, op. cit. 72. The will of George 

 Birch, dated 1532, is printed ibid. 74-6. 

 Thomas Birch, his son and heir, in 1548 

 agreed to marry Elizabeth daughter of 

 Thomas Chetham of Nuthurst, deceased ; 

 ibid. 77. In 1551 Thomas Birch bought 

 messuages, &c., in Rusholme from Wil- 

 liam son and heir apparent of Philip 

 Strangeways ; they were held by Robert 

 Davenport and Katherine his wife, for 

 the latter's lifetime ; Pal. of Lane. Feet 

 of F. bdle. 14, m. 226. Thomas's younger 

 son, William Birch, a Protestant divine, 

 was warden of Manchester for a short 

 time. Thomas, who made a settlement 

 of his estate in 157J, died in 1595 ; 

 Booker, Birch, 78, his will being printed 

 78-80. 



George Birch, the son and heir of 

 Thomas, died at Withington on 31 Jan. 

 1601-2, holding two messuages called 

 Birch Hall, and other lands, &c., in Birch 

 and Rusholme of Rowland Mosley as of 

 his manor of Withington in socage by a 

 rent of 41. 7.d. ; also messuages in Man- 

 chester of Sir Nicholas Mosley by the 

 fiftieth part of a knight's fee and a rent 

 of i.id. ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xviii, 

 3. By his marriage with Anne daugh- 

 ter and heir of John Bamford he added 

 considerably to the family estates ; she 

 survived him. George, the son and heir, 

 was nineteen years of age at his father's 

 death. He died in 161 1, leaving a son 



and heir Thomas, aged five ; see Booker, 

 op. cit. 85-90, where the will and Inq. 

 p.m. are printed ; also Lanes. Inq. p.m. 

 (Rec. Soc, Lanes, and Ches.), i, 258-61; 

 ii, 177. In this the free rent for Birch 

 is recorded as 31. zd. 



25 This is the legendary origin of the 

 family arms — Azure, three fleurs de lis 

 argent ; Booker, Birch, 72, quoting Burke. 



^ He was the above-named Thomas 

 son of George Birch. For his life see 

 Booker, op. cit. 90-8 ; also Civil War 

 Tracts (Chet. Soc). 



2^ E.g. his treatment of Lord Derby and 

 his family, of Humphrey Chetham, and of 

 Warden Heyrick. 



'^^ Pink and Beaven, Pari. Rep. of Lanes. 

 189. 



2^ A pedigree was recorded in 1664; 

 Dugdale, Visit. 32. 



8" Booker, op. cit. 99. The ' Birch 

 Feodary,' printed with other of his collec- 

 tions in Gregson's Fragments (ed. Har- 

 land), *333— 59, takes its name from him. 



'1 Booker, op. cit. 100-3, where his 

 will is printed. He married Sibyl, a 

 daughter and co-heir of Humphrey Wyr- 

 ley of Hampstead. He was one of the 

 High Churchmen of the time and has a 

 notice in Diet. Nat. Biog. 



°2 Booker, op. cit. 104 ; the Dickenson 

 and Anson pedigree is given ibid. 105. 



8^2 In front of the house on the north 

 is a ditch, said to be the line of a moat. 



306 



^3 In the inventory of goods of Colonel 

 Thomas Birch at Birch Hall, 14 Aug. 

 1678, the following rooms are named : — 

 The hall, the garden parlour, the white 

 chamber, the middlemost room, the 

 painted chamber, the dining room, the 

 red chamber, Mrs. Birch's chamber, old 

 Mrs. Birch's chamber, the yellow cham- 

 ber, the old wench's chamber ; Booker, 

 op. cit. 97. 



*' In 1320 Hugh de Bloxden held lands 

 in Milkwall Slade of the lord of Man- 

 chester by a rent of izd., and was bound 

 to grind at the mill ; Mamecestre (Chet. 

 Soc), ii, 279. 



'» Booker, op. cit. 121, &c. ; some 

 deeds are printed on pp. 231—4. By on 

 of these Thomas son of Geoffrey son of 

 Luke de Manchester granted to Jordaa his 

 brother lands in Didsford and Milkwall 

 Slade, an acre in ' Banereris * and lands in 

 Akedone. The date is about 1240. A 

 little later land in Didsbury was granted 

 to Jordan son of Geoffrey. In 1349 a 

 settlement of lands in Withington was 

 made by Robert de Milkwall Slade, with 

 successive remainders to his sons Robert 

 and John ; the elder Robert's wife was 

 Ellen daughter of Robert del Piatt. 



8* The Slades went to live at Breer- 

 hurst in Staffordshire and granted a lease 

 of Slade to the Siddalls, who afterwards 

 purchased it ; ibid. 122. 



In 1565 a settlement of a messuage, 



Digitized by IVIicrosoft® 



