A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



rated by the John Rylands Library in Manchester, 

 founded by his widow.*" 



From a survey of the tithes made in 1649 it 

 appears that there were in Stretford Manor twenty- 

 four whole seats, or holdings. The tithe corn in 1643 

 had filled three bays and the greater part of a fourth ; 

 it was mostly oats and barley.'" 



The land tax returns of 1796 show that John 

 Trafford was then the principal landowner, he paying 

 more than one-third of the tax ; the remainder of the 

 land seems to have been much divided." 



The earliest record of the chapel 

 CHURCH of Stretford is in a lease of 141 3, in 

 which land is described as lying next 

 to the chapel." Rather more than a century later 

 a chantry was founded in it by Sir Edmund Trafford, 

 for the souls of his ancestors." At the confiscation in 

 1 547'-8 the rental of the chantry was only 44/. ; 

 the chapel had a chalice and two vestments." Service 

 appears to- have been maintained in this chapel even 

 after the Elizabethan changes, for in 1563 William 

 Hodgicinson was ' curate of Stretford,' " and seems to 

 have remained there until 1586; he was in 1581 

 censured for keeping an alehouse.™ The names of 

 many curates are on record," but except during the 

 Commonwealth period there was no adequate pro- 

 vision for them, there being neither residence nor 

 endowment." At the beginning of the 1 8th century 

 the ' settled maintenance ' was only I is. zd.P but 



some further endowments and contributions were 

 secured, the chapel was rebuilt in 1 718,*" and from 

 about that time the succession of curates and rectors 

 appears to be unbroken. In 1842 the present church 

 of St. Matthew was consecrated ; " it was enlarged 

 in 1861. A district had been assigned in 1839." 

 The Dean and Canons of Manchester present to the 

 benefice. 



The following is a list of the recent curates and 

 incumbents " : — 



1 716 Samuel Bolton, M.A. (Brasenose College, 



Oxf) 



1 717 Roger Masterson 



1718 Robert Armitstead, B.A. (Magdalen Hall, 



Oxf.) 

 1 72 1 John Jackson, M.A. 

 1 74 1 John Baldwin, M.A. 

 1747 John Baxter," B.A. 

 1 766 William Stopford,** B.A. (Brasenose College, 



Oxf.) 

 1778 Thomas Seddon *« 

 1796 Thomas Gaskell 

 18 18 Robinson Elsdale," D.D. (Corpus Christi 



College, Oxf.) 

 1850 Joseph Clarke,** M.A. (St. John's College, 



Camb.) 

 i860 William Edward Brendon 

 1 864 Thomas Daniel Cox Morse " 



^^ Crofton, op. cit. 164-6 5 ^ portrait 

 is given. John Rylands was born at St. 

 Helens in 1801, began business in Man- 

 chester in 1823, and died in 1888. He 

 was a Congregationalist in religion. There 

 is a notice of him in Diet. Nat. Biog. 



"* Crofton, op. cit. 193-6. 



'1 Land tax returns at Preston. 



T* Quoted in Raines, Chantries (Chet. 

 Soc.), i, 5 ;. 



78 The only endowment was a tenement 

 at Whitehall in Budworth, Cheshire, and 

 the chantry priest in 1547 could produce 

 no deeds. There were long suits con- 

 cerning the lands from 1554 onwards; 

 Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xxiii, 72 d, and 

 Crofton, Stretford, i, 51-5. From the 

 depositions it appears that the land had 

 been purchased from Thomas Hardware 

 by Edmund TrafFord, father of the Sir 

 Edmund TrafFord living in 1560, i.e. by 

 the Sir Edmund who held the TrafFord 

 estates from 1513101533. This chantry 

 was probably founded soon after 1530, for 

 a witness stated that her husband, who had 

 been tenant, had ' twenty years past ' (i.e. 

 in 1540) been told that the chantry priest 

 had become his landlord. This chantry 

 is not named in the l^alor Eccl. of 1535. 



Two cantarists are known : 



c. 1 540, Christopher Rainshaw ; Crof- 

 ton, op. cit. ; Clergy List (Rcc. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 1 1, * paid by Edmund TrafFord 

 and others at Stretford.' 



1,. 1547, Charles Gee, whose name 

 also appears in the Visitation lists of 1548 

 and 1554. 



7^ Raines, Chantries, i, 55, 56. The 'or- 

 naments' were sold for 10^. ; ibid. ii,277. 



'5 Visit. List at Chest. 



7* Crofton, op. cit. i, 60 ; he is described 

 as * aged 40 ' — i.e. forty or more — in 

 1586, so that he must have been quite 

 young in 1563. A William Hodgkinson 

 obtained a schoolmaster's licence for Mid- 

 dlewich or elsewhere in the diocese in 

 1576 ; and later in the year the same 



or another of the name was executor of 

 Roger Hodgkinson, clerk, deceased ; Pen- 

 nant's Acct. Bk. Chest. 



77 In 16 19 William Cheeseman was 

 named as * preacher ' at the chapel ; he 

 did not wear the surplice nor make the 

 sign of the cross in baptism. George 

 Nicholson, ' late curate,' was named ; 

 Visit. P. at Chest. Mr. Crofton gives, 

 with biographical notes, the following 

 names :-Before 1604, William James, 'sus- 

 pected of fornication ' (Visit. List) ; 1 618, 

 Richard Wylde ; 1619, W. Cheeseman; 

 1622, — K-nott {Misc. Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches. i, 66) ; t. 1625, Humphrey 

 Tylecote, a * known opposer of Prelacy ' 

 (d. 1626); 1638, Robert Williams; 1642, 

 Edmund Hopwood ; 1647, Hugh Newton 

 (? ordained) ; 1649, John Odcroft (un- 

 ordained) ; 1651, Arthur Francis ; 1653, 

 — Nuttall ; 1655, Jeremy Scholes, M.A. 

 (Emmanuel College, Camb.) ; 1658, 

 Edward Richardson, silenced in 1662. 

 Notices of several of these may be seen in 

 W. A. Shaw's Manch. Classis (Chet. Soc). 



The registers begin in 1599. Copious 

 extracts may be seen in Mr. Crofton' s 

 work (i, 120, &c.), where also are given 

 particulars of the bells, plate, monumental 

 inscriptions, extracts from account books, 

 and lists of officers. The inscriptions are 

 copied in the Owen MSS. 



7^ About 1 610 Stretford was included 

 in the list of chapels, the curates and 

 preachers whereof were maintained by the 

 inhabitants ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, 

 App. iv, II. 



In 1650 Mr. John Odcroft, preacher 

 of God's word, was ' paid by the inhabi- 

 tants . . . without any allowance from 

 the rectory or parish church of Manchester 

 or otherwise, to the insupportable burden 

 and charge of the said inhabitants' ; Com- 

 monivealth Ck. Sur-v, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), 5. A recommendation was added 

 that Stretford should be made a parish. 

 An allowance of j^io was made to Od- 



334 



croft about 1649, but it was not till 1654 

 that a share of the tithes, ^^35 ioj., was 

 appropriated to Stretford ; Plund. Mins. 

 Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 260; 

 ". 55. 77- 



73 Gastrell, Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc), 

 ii, 95 ; the surplice fees amounted to los. 

 and the voluntary contributions to ;^io. 

 There were two wardens in 1673. There 

 were four Presbyterian families known. 



The following curates occur after the 

 Restoration: — c. 1665, Francis Mosley ; 

 1671, James Lees (also at Chorlton), 

 'went away' ; 1679, — Stockton ; 1689, 

 Peter Shaw ; 1696, — Diggles (Visit. 

 List) ; 1706, John Collier ; Crofton, op. 

 cit. i, 68-71, Some of them served other 

 churches in addition to Stretford. 



*» Crofton, op. cit. i, 71, 82 ; a view is 

 given. There was a sundial on the wall 

 above the south door. 



8^ Ibid, i, 83, 84, with views. 



^ Land. Gaz. 29 Mar. 1839, 16 June 

 1854. 



8" This list is taken from Crofton's 

 Stretford, i, 71-86, where short notices 

 will be found. 



** A John Baxter was admitted to St. 

 John's College, Camb., in 1724, and 

 graduated as B.A. in 1727 ; R. F. Scott, 

 Admissions, iii, 39. 



^ Rector of Wyham, Lines. ; Foster, 

 Alumni. 



8' Crofton, op. cit. i, 75-8 and Diet. 

 Nat. Biog. He was under suspension for 

 debt during most of his tenure. 



87 High Master of Manchester Gram- 

 mar School, 1837-40. 



** He procured the building of the pre- 

 sent church and also stopped the pande- 

 monium of Wakes Sunday. The chancel, 

 with a stained glass window, was erected 

 as a memorial of him. He projected a 

 history of the township. He is noticed 

 in Diet. Nat. Biog. 



89 Vicar of Christ Church, Newgate 

 Street, London, 1882, 



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