MAC 



manor of Macclesfield. By this aft, all encroachments within 

 the manor (except fuch as had occurred within fixty years, 

 and had no buildings), were fecured on certain terms to 

 their refpeftive poflefFors ; the manorial rights of the crown, 

 with refpeft to the foil, mines, and minerals of the feveral 

 walle-grounds within the manor and borough were extin- 

 guirtied, with the rcferve of coal-mines : as a compenfation 

 for which concellions, an allotment of n8^ acres was 

 made to his majefty, which allotment, and the right of 

 digging coal, were fold in 1803, under the land-tax re- 

 demption aft to Charles Cooke of this town. Tlie corpo- 

 ration are entitled to ail fprings and water-courfes for {ap- 

 plying the town with water, from which fources, with the 

 tolls of the market and fairs, a confiderable emolument is 

 derived. A court of record is held once a month for the 

 liberty of the hundred, and another for the manor and foreft ; 

 a court leet is alfo held for thefe jurifdiftions. In former 

 times the juftices of Chefter fat as jullices in eyre at Mac- 

 clesfield, and prifoners for felony and other crimes were 

 tried there, and fuffered the fentence ot the law. After this 

 praftice was difcontinued, courts were held by the king's 

 ileward or his deputy. Two feffions are now held in May 

 and November, befides the monthly courts before-mentioned. 

 In a ftreet, called Backwall-Gate, are fome remains of a 

 manfion of the dukes of Buckingham. Smith, in his de- 

 fcription of Chelhire ( 1585 ), defcribes it as " a huge place, 

 all of Hone, in manner of a caftle, which belonged to the 

 duke of Buckingham, but now gone to decay." Webb, 

 writing in 1622, fays, " in this towne are yet feen fome 

 ruines of the ancient manor-houfe of the renowned duke of 

 Buckingham, who (as yet report goeth) kept there his 

 princely refidence, about the time of king Edward IV., 

 of whofe great hofpitality there, much by tradition is re- 

 ported." 



Other ancient manfions of this town were formerly oc- 

 cupied by families of diflinftion : among thefe was Staple- 

 ton-hall, belonging to the Stapletons of Upton : Beate-hall. 

 inhabited by the earl of Courtown, is now a public-houfe ; 

 Worth-hall was the town refidence of the family of Worths : 

 and is traditionally faid to have been the bu-th-place of arch- 

 bifhop Savage. 



The parochial chapel of this town was originally built by 

 king Edward I. in the year 1278; it was almoft rebuilt, 

 and greatly enlarged, in 1740. On the fouth fide of this 

 chapel is an oratory, or burial chapel, which belongs to the 

 Savage family ; feveral of whom were interred here. It 

 now belongs to the earl of Cholmondeley. In the Legli 

 chapel are fome iepulchral memorials of the family of Legh 

 of Lyme. 



A new chapel was erefted at Macclesfield in the year 

 1775, by Charles Roe, efq. and an aft of parliament was 

 obtained in 1779, when it was called Chrift's-church, or 

 chapel, and the living was made a perpetual cure, or bene- 

 fice, to be fubjeft to the bifhop of Cheller. In the chancel 

 is a handfome marble monument by Bacon, for the founder, 

 who died in 1781. 



In this town are two meeting-houfes for Melhodifts, and 

 one for each of the following fefts : Prelbyterians, Quakers, 

 and Independents. A grammar-fchool was founded here by 

 fir John Percival, knt., and not by king Edward VI., as 

 commonly ilated. This monarch increafed its revenues, by 

 giving lands and houfes in and near the city of Chefter. 

 An aft of parliament was obtained, in 1768, to i-egulate the 

 management, and define the conftitution of this noted femi- 

 nary. Four miles S.S.E. of the town is the townlhip of 

 Macclesfield foreft. Lyfons's Magna Britannia, vol. ii. 

 part 2. 4to. 181C. 



M A C 



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MACDONALD, Andrew, in B'lography, was bom 

 at Leith, where he was educated, chiefly by the affiftance of 

 bifhop Forbes. For fome time he had the charge of a chapel 

 at Glafgow, in which city he publifhed a novel, entitled 

 " The Independent." He afterwards came to London, 

 and wrote for the newfpapers. His works were lively, 

 fatirical, and humorous, and were publifhed under the fig- 

 nature of Matthew Bramble. He naturally poffeffed a fine 

 genius, and had improved his underllanding with claiTical 

 and fcientific knowledge ; but for want of conneftions in 

 this fouthern part of the united kingdom, and a proper op- 

 portunity to bring his talents into notice, he was always 

 embarraffed, and had occafionally to ftruggle with great 

 and accumulated dillrefs. He died in llie 33d year of his 

 age, at Kentifh Town, in Aug. 1790, leaving a wife and 

 infant daughter in a (late of extreme indigence. A volume 

 of iiis " Mifcellaneous Works" was publifhed in 1791, in 

 which were iromprifed ; " The fair Apoflate," a tragedy; 

 " Love and Loyalty," an opera ; " Princefs of Tarento," 

 a comedy ; and " Vimonda," a tragedy. Biog. Drama- 

 tica. 



MACDOWAL's Bay, in Geography, a bay on the W. 

 coaft of the ifland of .lava. 



MACDUFF, a confiderable fea-poic town Ctuated on 

 the banks of the Moray frith, in the parifh of Gamvie, 

 and fhire of Banff, Scotland, at the diftance of two miles 

 from the county-town. Previous to the year 1732, it was 

 merely a trifling village, compofed of a few fifliemxen's 

 huts, with no other harbour for their boats but a faady 

 creek. It is now, through the exertions of the earl of Fife, 

 on whofe property it ftands, a very thriving place. The 

 houfes, which are eftimated at about 300 in number, are 

 generally built with much neatnefs, and arranged into re- 

 gular ftreets of a commodious width. The population ex- 

 ceeds twelve hundred perfons, a great proportion of whom 

 is engaged in the extenfive iifheries which have been elta- 

 blifhed on this part of the coafl. There are feveral Ihips 

 belonging to this town employed in the Baltic and London 

 trade. Many veffels from other ports likewife refort hither ; 

 the harbour, formed at the expence of the nobleman already 

 mentioned, being confidered one of the fafeft and moff com- 

 modious in the Moray frith. As this place lies at fome 

 diftance from the parifh church, the fame noble individual 

 has alfo erefted a chapel of eafe here, and pays a fuitable 

 falary to the clergyman fettled in it. A great variety of 

 little fifhing villages lie along the fhore on both fides, and 

 on the oppofite bank of the river Doveran. 



MACE, in ylnciciit Armoury, a weapon formerly much 

 ufed by the cavalry of all nations, and hkewife by eccle- 

 fiaftics, who, in confequence of their tenures, frequently 

 took the field, but were, by a canon, forbidden to wield the 

 fword. The mace is commonly of iron ; its figure much 

 refembles a chocolate-mill. Many fpecimens may be feen 

 in the Tower of London, and other armouries. It was not 

 out of ufe long after the invention of hand-guns ; for we 

 read of its having been ufed by moft nations more than 100 

 years ago ; and in a medley, it is faid, they may be more 

 ferviceable than fwords ; for when tliey are guided by a 

 ftrong arm, we find that the party ilruck with them was 

 either felled from his horfe, or, having his head-piece beat 

 clofe to his head, was made to reel on his faddle, with the 

 blood nmning plentifully from his nofe. This kind of mace, 

 which is the fame as that ufed by the Turks, is im.properly 

 called by fome military writers the club of Hercules ; the 

 club given to that demi-god by the Grecian ilatuarics, 

 being a huge knotty hmb of a tree. Father Daniel has 

 engraved two weapons, fhewn In the abbey of Roncevaux, 



as 



