[1] Knight's "England.">

[2] See pp. 7 and 8.

[3] Sawrey was eventually drowned, an untimely end that was by some accounted a Divine judgment.

[4] "The Fells, of Swarthmoor Hall," p. 139.

[5] The fanatical outbreak of the Fifth Monarchy men in 1661 had been made the excuse for a proclamation for closing the conventicles of Quakers, Anabaptists, and other sectaries; and in 1662 an Act of Parliament was passed by which they were to be fined for assembling for public worship, and for a third offence to be banished.

[6] PrÆmunire involved the forfeiture of all real estate during life, personal estates for ever, and imprisonment during the King's pleasure.

[7] From a rare broadsheet in the British Museum, issued, as it would seem, in 1683, for the use of the Constables and Officers of the Peace, we find specified the nine following "unlawful meetings" of the people called Quakers: Bull and Mouth; Devonshire Buildings; Gracechurch Street; Quaker Street, in Spitalfields; the Peel, Clerkenwell; Tothill Street, Westminster; Savoy, near the church; Horsleydown; and Winchester Park, Southwark.

[8] Lancashire Puritanism and Nonconformity, p. 258, ed. 1872.

[9] A phrase that in those days signified a merchant or wholesale dealer, i.e., a dealer in gross.

[10] It is worthy of note that, according to Earwaker, while Mr. Turner was resident upon his benefice at Wilmslow he had under his tuition the present Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.A., the Bishop of Sodor and Man, and Sir C. A. Wood.

[11] The occasion was that when Charles, untaught by the signs of the times, with almost incredible infatuation, accelerated the fatal crisis by going down to the House on the 4th January, 1641-2, and attempting to seize the five members of the Commons—Pym, Hollis, Hampden, Hazlerig, and Strode, on the charge of traitorously endeavouring to deprive him of his regal power, and subvert the fundamental laws and government of the kingdom.

[12] Hunter's "Life of Oliver Heywood," p. 63.

[13] Worthington's Diary, Chet. Soc.

[14] William, third Lord Brereton, of Leighlin, in Ireland, and Brereton, in Cheshire, who married Frances, daughter of Lord Willoughby, and died in London, March 17, 1679.

[15] ArchÆologia, V. v.

[16] The Sir William Stanley here named was the eldest son of Sir Rowland Stanley, of Hooton, in Wirral, Cheshire, and the one who afterwards covered himself with infamy by his shameless violation of trust in the betrayal and surrender of Deventer to the enemies of his country while holding the commission of the Queen and charged with its defence—an act of perfidy that was only equalled by Cardin Allen's (a Lancashire man) attempted justification of it. He had accompanied the English auxiliaries under Leicester, and in a few weeks after the Earl's return to England he and Rowland Yorke entered into a treacherous correspondence with Baptisti Tasse, governor of Zutphen, and began to propose their measures for delivering to him the important fortresses that had been entrusted to their care, and in the beginning of February both Deventer and the fort opposite Zutphen were given up to the Spaniards. Stanley is said to have been concerned in Babington's conspiracy in favour of Mary Queen of Scots, and was probably betrayed by a dread of discovery into this unworthy conduct.

[17] It is on record that, so late as the reign of Elizabeth, of the 30 "sworn men," a kind of select committee chosen by the inhabitants to take charge of the affairs of the parish of Kirkham, only one could write, and consequently in his absence the business of the parish had not unfrequently to be postponed.

[18] The fire was really caused by the carelessness of the sexton, but it happening to be a tempestuous day the catastrophe was by him confidently affirmed to be caused by lightning, and was generally believed to the hour of his death; but he then confessed the truth of it, after which "the burning of St. Paul's by lightning" was left out of our common almanacks.

[19] These desecrations, notwithstanding Pilkington's denunciation, continued long after, for 60 years later Bishop Earl in his "Micosmography," says:—"Paul's walk is the land's epitome, or you may call it the lesser isle of Great Britain. It is the great exchange of all discourse, and no business whatever but is here stirring and afoot.... It is the general mint of all famous lies, which are here, like the legends of popery, first coined and stamped in the church. All inventions are emptied here and not a few pockets. The best sign of a temple in it is that it is the thieves' sanctuary." The place was the common resort and lounge for idlers and hunters after news, wits and gallants, cheats, usurers and knights of the post; the font itself being used as a counter. It was here that Sir Nicholas Throgmorton held a conference with the emissaries of Wyat; here, too, the bravoes who murdered Arden, of Faversham, were hired; Captain Bobadil was a "Paul's man," and Shakespeare's Falstaff bought Bardolph in Paul's.

[20] Wordsworth, in "The White Doe of Rylstone."

[21] It is a singular fact that even at the present day the wife of a bishop has absolutely no rank or title whatever, and is the only wife in English society who reflects none of the lustre of her husband's dignity, nor appropriates even by courtesy the feminine of his masculine titles. The wife of every other lord is addressed as "My lady," whilst she is never anything more than plain "Mrs."

[22] Edited by the Rev. James Schofield, M.A., Regius Professor of Greek, Cambridge.

[23] Brereton's Travels, Chet. Soc. v. I, p. 122.

[24] Ibid. p. 161.

[25] There is a tradition, unsupported, however, by any evidence, that so many of the burgesses of Macclesfield fell at Flodden that the survivors had to petition the King to grant the continuance of their charter, though they could not muster a sufficient number of aldermen to constitute a corporation.

[26] Hynde Swyer—a courteous esquire.

[27] Robert Fouleshurst of Crewe.

[28] Kere—return.

[29] It is an absurd mistake to suppose that Richard wore the Royal crown upon his helmet during the battle; he was too experienced a soldier to put on such a headgear, even supposing the crown could have been attached to the helmet. The story may have arisen from his wearing some distinguishing ornament, resembling a crown, such as was worn by Henry V. upon his helmet at the battle of Agincourt, and which then served to break the force of the stroke of the Duke of AlenÇon's battle axe.

[30] i.e., Fierce men, proud, furious.

[31] The eagle's foot—"A fote of the faireste foule," was a cognizance of the Stanleys, and three eagles' feet were borne upon the shield of Sir John.

[32] "Nooks and Corners of Lancashire," p. 314.

[33] It may be mentioned that at his death, in 1637, Jonn Paget was succeeded by his brother Thomas, "a man of much frowardness," and able to create "much unquietness," as Henry Newcome affirms, who had been minister of Blackley, in Manchester parish, but deprived in 1631 by Dr. Bridgman, Bishop of Chester, when, to escape the fines imposed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, he fled to Holland and joined his brother, whom he eventually succeeded in the pastorate of the English Church. Brook, in his "Lives of the Puritans," says he "most probably spent the remainder of his days there," but this was not so; in 1646 he returned to England, was appointed to the rectory of St. Chad's, Shrewsbury, and remained there until 1656, when he was presented by the Commonwealth party to the rich rectory of Stockport. Thomas Paget's son, Nathan Paget, who practised as a physician in London, was the intimate friend of John Milton, and cousin to the great epic poet's fourth wife, Elizabeth Minshull, and also of Thomas Minshull, the Manchester apothecary and noted Nonconformist, whose name, as well as that of his residence, Chorlton Hall, in Manchester, is still perpetuated in Minshull and Chorlton streets, where he at that time owned considerable property.

[34] The "Mr. Urione Brereton," who, according to the Cheadle registers, was buried there "Jan. 6, 1631," must have been another member of the family.

[35] Peter Venables had been elected with Sir Wm. Brereton, but, being a Royalist, he withdrew, and was succeeded by George Booth.

[36] An old portrait in oil of the loyal and intrepid mayor taken in 1657, when he was 61 years of age, was presented some years ago by Mr. J. Edisbury, of Bersham, near Wrexham, to the Water Tower Museum, at Chester, where it is now preserved.

[37] Richard Percival, linen webster, of Kirman's Hulme, is said to have been the first person whose blood was shed in the great Civil War. The Manchester Register thus records his burial: "1642, Julie 18, Richard Parcivall, of Grindlowe."

[38] This work, which has been commonly recognised as Burghall's, can be no longer attributed to him, the bonÂ-fide author, as Mr. Hall, the historian of Nantwich, has recently shown, being Thomas Malbon, of Nantwich.

[39] Sergeant-major Lothian.

[40] Congleton has been noted for centuries for its confectionery and for the excellence of its sack. Among the recent celebrations was the hospitable reception given by the corporation to the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Francis Graham Moon, Bart., in 1855, when the entertainment well represented the ancient festivity. On the chairman's table lay the gold and silver maces of the borough, and capacious china corporation bowls full of sack, and flanked by large old two-handled silver flagons by which the sack was gradually drawn off and circulated among the company. On every plate was placed a "count cake," and the centres of the tables were covered with delicate cakes and confectionery, among which was pre-eminent the famous Congleton gingerbread and a profusion of choice fruit. The brewage of the sack was entrusted to Joseph Speratti, who boasts that he alone possesses the true recipe.

[41] By that fatal coincidence which arrayed friends and kinsmen under the opposite banners in the contest, Sir William Brereton, both at Nantwich and Chester, the greatest scenes of his exertions, was opposed to Lord Byron, whose family was nearly allied to that of the Parliamentary general, his brother, and ultimate heir, Sir Richard Byron, equally distinguished as a Loyalist, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Booth, and the sister of Lady Brereton,—_Ormerod._

[42] Ormerod (Hist. Ches. v. 2), says the minister who ejected Seddon was "unquestionably" Richard Banner, but this is an error; the one whose "name and character" William Seddon's son "entirely forgot" was none other than John Murcot, the son of a Warwickshire attorney, and well known in the literature of Nonconformity. He was ordained by Warden Heyricke and others at Manchester, February 9th, 1647, and preceded Henry Necome as reader to the celebrated John Ley at Astbury. He had been there only a short time when he removed to Seddon's vicarage house at Eastham, and before he had been there a year he received a "call" to be minister of West Kirby, but, being dissatisfied with the condition of his congregation and refusing an invitation to settle at Chester, he crossed over to Dublin, became pastor of an Independent congregation, and died there before the close of the year 1654. Richard Banner succeeded him at Eastham.

[43] Besides the Puritan brother Peter, who was an officer in the army of the Parliament, there was a third, a Ralph Seddon, M.A., who resided some time as probationer with the Rev. John Angier, at Denton, in Manchester parish, in order that he might have "the benefit of his grave example, pious instruction, and useful converse." He succeeded Adam Martindale as pastor of the Independent Church at Gorton, whence he removed to Langley, in Derbyshire, whence he was ejected in 1662.

[44] It is from a portrait by Vicars that our illustration is taken.

[45] The Rev. Edmund Law, who was curate of Staveley from 1693 to 1742, and master of the school there, resided at Buck Crag, in Lindale, about four miles distant. It has been computed that he must have walked 2,504 miles every year, and during the time he was curate and schoolmaster 122,696 miles, or a distance nearly equal to five times the circumference of the globe; and this for a pittance of £20 a year. Mr. Stockdale relates that about the year 1818 a grandson of the humble curate visited the house at Buck Crag accompanied by his secretary and a posse of clergymen, examined every part of the premises, and overwhelmed the then occupant with questions; the poor man when he had recovered from his amazement exclaiming in the vernacular "t' bishop inquir't t' dog tail oot a-joint."

[46] From the Cymric Caer, an enclosure or camp, and mell a bare hill or fell.

[47] Before the dissolution of the priory the canons of Cartmel maintained a guide to conduct travellers across the broad expanse of sand left by each receding tide, paid him out of "Peter's Pence," and, in addition, gave him the benefit of their prayers. Since the suppression of their house the expenses of the "carter," as he is locally designated, have been charged upon the revenue of the Duchy of Lancaster, but the office is now almost a sinecure.

[48] The "sworn men," which answered in some degree to a select vestry, was an institution common in many parts of North Lancashire, though rarely met with in other parts of the kingdom.

[49] In the churchwardens' accounts there is an item of 4s. for "painting the umbrella." In the church books of Prestbury, in Cheshire, there is an entry of a payment made in 1745 of £3 for an umbrella, from which it would seem that the article was not uncommon in country churches.

[50] Chronicles, p. 376.

[51] Froissart's Chronicles, I, p. 157.

[52] The particulars of this grant are given in a paper read before the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, February 20th, 1879, by Mr. J. Paul Rylands, F.S.A., of Thelwalls, near Warrington.

[53] Piers Legh was Chief Justice of Macclesfield Hundred, but the office of Chief Justice of Chester had not then been created.

[54] ArchÆologia, v. xx.

[55] Clifton, near Halton, was the property of Sir Peter Legh's mother, and there Sir Peter seems to have resided in the earlier years of his married life, for, in the proof of age of his son, taken in 1436, one of the witnesses, John de Worth, testified that he "was at Clifton, near Halton, where the said Peter (the son) was born; and when he was baptised in the church of Runcorn he held a burning wax candle in his hand near the font in which he was baptised."

[56] It has been computed that the number of Englishmen slain at Towton exceeded the sum of those who fell at Vimeria, Talavera, Salamanca, Vittoria, and Waterloo.

[57] Sir Peter Leycester affirms that Peter Legh was made a banneret upon the field at Wakefield, but Dr. Whitaker, with much show of reason, argues that from the hasty nature of the fight there the Duke of York could hardly have found time to confer the honour upon the field, and the opinion of Whitaker is strengthened by the fact that the annuity of xxli (£20), granted to him for life by the Duke of York out of the "issues, profitez, and revenews of the lordship of Wakefield" was made in the name of "Perez Legh Esquier."

[58] Warrington in 1465. Chet. Soc. v. xvii.

[59] Redland Heath, on which the battle was fought, is three miles from Bosworth.

[60] The bells were afterwards removed to Norbury and recast.

[61] Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life of Himself, p. 16.

[62] Mr. Legh's removal to Chester is referred to in the following Treasury order signed by William III.:—"To Robert Lord Lucas, governor of our Tower of London, in satisfaction of so much expended and disbursed by him in sending down the gentlemen (late prisoners in the Tower) into Cheshire and Lancashire—to wit, Caryl Lord Visc. Molyneux, Sir Thomas Clifton, Sir William Gerard, Sir Roland Stanley, Peter Lea of Lyme, Bartholomew Walmsley, and William Dicconson, Esq.—and all other charges and expenses of the guards and attendants.

[63] After the defeats at Preston and Sheriff Muir, which destroyed the hopes of the Pretender, the members of this Cheshire club "unanimously agreed to commemorate the fortunate decision," as they phrased it, which had been come to on Peter Legh's recommendation, by having their several portraits painted life-size. The pictures remained at Ashley Hall, near Bowdon, until about twenty years ago, when they were removed by the late Lord Egerton, to Tatton, where they now grace the upper panels of the staircase. The members of the club were Thomas Assheton, of Ashley; Sir Richard Grosvenor, of Eaton; James (Barry) Earl of Barrymore, of Marbury; Charles Hurleston of Newton; Amos Meredith, of Henbury; Alexander Radcliffe, of Foxdenton (Lancashire); Robert Cholmondeley, of Holford; John Warren, of Poynton; Henry Legh, of High Legh; and Peter Legh, of Lyme. The club was dissolved in 1720.

[64] Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the perpetrator of this notorious outrage, died at Wellington, New Zealand, May 16, 1862. In after life he rendered good service to his country, and engaged in enterprises much more honourable than the one that cast such a stain upon his earlier career. He was largely instrumental in forming the important colonies of South Australia and New Zealand, and afterwards acted as private secretary to the Earl of Durham while Governor-general of Canada.

[65] Mr. John Paul Rylands, F.S.A., of Thelwall, has made a careful examination of these windows, and with painstaking zeal, identified almost every coat and quartering. A list of the shields, as identified by him, is given in the second volume of Mr. Earwaker's "East Cheshire," and some interesting particulars are supplied in Dr. Renaud's "Ancient Parish of Prestbury."

[66] Mr. John Dickenson, a wealthy merchant, who lodged and entertained the Pretender on the occasion of his visit to Manchester, purchased, in 1745 the Birch Hall estate, in Rusholme. His grandson, John Dickenson, had an only daughter, Louisa Frances Mary Dickenson, who married General Sir William Anson, Bart., K.C.B., a distinguished Peninsular officer, and by him was mother of Sir John William Hamilton Anson, who was killed in the railway accident at Wigan, August 2nd, 1873, and of the Venerable and Rev. George Henry Greville Anson, rector of Birch and Archdeacon of Manchester. It is stated that the bed on which the Pretender lay while Mr. Dickenson's guest, was removed to Birch Villa, where it remained until the death of Miss Dickenson, when it was sold.

[67] Dr. Deacon's tomb and strange epitaph, describing him as "the greatest of sinners and the most unworthy of Primitive Bishops," may still be seen in the north-east corner of St. Ann's churchyard.

[68] It is said that on the occasion referred to a soldier approached with a drawn sword and demanded that in the prayer for the King he should substitute James for George, when the intrepid divine, whose loyalty was afterwards rewarded with the Wardenship of Manchester, unhesitatingly read the prayer for King George and the House of Brunswick.

[69] Ensign Maddock, who was admitted as evidence for the Crown.

[70] It was to Dr. Hall, whilst paying his addresses to the lady who became his wife, that Byrom addressed the following epigram:—

[71] The name is evidently a compound of the Celtic Mole, a hill, and its Saxon equivalent Cop, of which the modern designation is only a corruption.

[72] "Kimber's Barons," vol. i., p. 84, Lanc. Famil. MS.

[73] In pre-Reformation times wax was extensively used in the churches, and it was not uncommon for offerings of it to be made at the altar. Dr. Rock, in his "Church of our Fathers," says it was not unusual for our forefathers to make a vow when sick to offer to the Church, in case of recovery, a wax candle of their own height or that of the diseased limb from which they were suffering.

[74] Cornet Alexander Rigby was of the house of Layton, near Wigan, but, though bearing the same name, was in no way connected with Colonel Sir Alexander Rigby, who rendered such distinguished service in Lancashire to the cause of the Parliament.

[75] The entry is thus recorded in the burial register—"1714-15, January 26. Thos. Tinsley, of Lodge."

[76] Seacombe attributed the execution of the Earl of Derby to the "inveterate malice" of Bradshaw, originated, he says, because of the Earl's having refused him the Vice-chamberlainship.

[77] Some authorities give the date of her death as 1786, but the name is not mentioned in any of the family deeds later than 1742, and there is good reason to believe that her decease occurred in that year, or shortly after.