Chapter V: Preface (5)

The court rolls were formerly kept in a large chest at Halton Castle, but have now been removed to London. The late Mr. William Beamont gives a very interesting account of these rolls in his book, _An Account of the Rolls of the Honour of Halton_, and sets out numerous extracts detailing the work performed by the Court Leet in former days. The following are some of them, and will, we think, be of interest to our readers:--

In 5 Ed. IV. the inquest at the court make this short return, “Nil presentant propter breve tempus.”

At the Halton Court held in 4 Hen. VIII., 1512, Elizabeth Heath, servant to John Blinsten, and Agnes, wife of John Owen, were found to be common carriers away of the poles of the park, and were fined for it; and Agnes was further charged with stealing the racks placed in the park to hold the hay which had been placed there for the King’s deer (_feris_).

In 1544 the jury at Thelwall presented Robert Bold and Thomas Heypey for keeping cards “talos [dice] et alia joca illicita,” in their houses, “contra firmam statuti.”

In 1559 a tenant was presented at the court for not ringing his swine.

In 1608 John Lawton was fined 3s. 4d. for allowing Thomas Whiteley to remain tippling in his house, which it is presumed was public, for one hour.

In 1655 a man was fined for suffering his wife to fight and draw blood.

On Thursday before St. George’s Day, 4 Hen. VIII., 1512, William Hicson was excused attending at the Manor Court because he was going with the King on his wars in France. This man probably went with the Marquis of Dorset’s unfortunate expedition, with which, however, the King did not go.

In the 42 Edward III., 1370, Hamon de Warburton is fined by the court for taking a hare in the lord’s warren at Whitley. The warren here spoken of must mean the lord’s free warren, for hares are not, like rabbits, confined in an enclosed warren.

In 1507 the jury at the Halton Court held at Thelwall presented John Bollyng of Warrington, yeoman, for that he on 1 February, and on divers other days as well before as after at Appleton and elsewhere within the fee of Halton with greyhounds and other dogs (cum greybitches venaticis et aliis canibus) was a common hunter “vi et armis,” not having lands and tenements to the value of xls. a year, and, it is added, “nil habet ideo capiatur.”

In 1512, at the Runcorn halmote, the jury, as we have before mentioned, presented William Runcorn of Runcorn, chaplain, for that he not being beneficed to xls. a year did keep a hare hound and was a common hunter.

In 1380 one William Harper, who had been tried at Chester and found guilty of the murder of Adam Mushet, was brought back to Halton and there hanged by the bailiff, and the lord of the fee received six pence for the value of his goods.

In 1450 six or more persons were charged with feloniously entering and breaking into a dwelling-house at Halton and stealing thereout money and goods.

In 1474 there is a notice of a more serious charge. Two Welshmen from Mold having committed a burglary at Keckwick, and stolen thereout, among other articles, a sheaf of arrows, and having been committed for it, broke out of the castle, taking with them their fetters and chains, which must have helped to discover them, for they were soon afterwards retaken and tried before Thomas, Lord Stanley, the seneschal, and, being found guilty, were hanged at Halton.

At the Widnes Court in 4 Hen. VIII., 1512, Robert Woodfall was charged with walking at night through the King Street in Farnworth in front of the houses of the King’s tenants, and with force and arms, namely, a staff and a dagger, calling out “Whoever wishes to fight me, let him come out,” whereby the King’s subjects were disturbed and put in fear; wherefore he was fined by the court.

In the same year three persons were presented for _lucrum excessivum_, by which it is supposed usury was meant; though in 1375 some butchers were presented _quia ceperunt lucrum excessivum_, meaning that they had charged too much. In 1512 some men were presented for using bows and arrows to drive a man off some land where he was digging turf.

In 1544 one George Amery of Barnton was presented for that he did keep and harbour crows in his grounds and did permit them to build in his woods, to the injury of the country and contrary to the statute in such case made and provided.

On October 3, 1561, Helena Ditchfield was charged with a trespass in pulling down her neighbours’ fences.

In 1593, a grievous murder having been committed at Grappenhall Heath on the person of John Findley, a hawker of Scottish cloth, the crime was brought home to one William Geston, a servant of the Bishop of Chester. The jury at Halton presented the fact, and the prisoner, having been tried for it and convicted at Chester Assizes, was hanged in chains on April 27, 1593, near the spot where the murder was committed.

In 1608 one Stockton was presented for selling ale without the justices’ licence, and taking in and entertaining irregular and pernicious persons to the disturbance of his neighbours, and one Lawton for permitting a man to tipple in his house for one hour was fined 3s. 4d., and Charles Hall for taking in inmates was fined 6s. 8d.

On January 16, 1660, Roger Drakeford, who had conveyed a prisoner to Sir Peter Leycester’s (the great Cheshire antiquary), a journey of fourteen miles, was paid 3s. 6d. for himself and his horse, a small sum for so long a journey.

In 1388 the Prior of Norton was charged with making two fish-yards in the Mersey, one called Gracedieu and the other Charity, which obstructed the passage of the lord’s boat of eight oars from Fresh Pool to Thelwall.

In 1598 the jury found that Robert Dutton of Preston did fish in Thomas Dutton’s pit and did take his fish in the daytime without leave or licence from him, and therefore they did amerce him.

In 1605 the court complained of the number of the fish-yards at Thelwall and of the encroachments they made on the river.

On October 8, 1655, the old complaint of the river being obstructed by fish-yards was again renewed.

In 1655 a number of persons were presented and fined for keeping up their weirs and fish-yards in the mid-stream of the Mersey so that the Lord of the fee could not pass by the “key” of Thelwall with boats and barges.

It will thus be seen that the Court in former days had a wide and extensive jurisdiction and dealt with a variety of matters. Nowadays, as before stated, the court has no powers, but the court is held by the deputy steward at the Castle, or rather at the Castle Hotel adjoining the ruins, once every three years, simply to keep up the old custom, and for the sake of past memories. A jury summons signed by the Bailiff of the Court in the following form:--

=Manor and Fee of Halton=, in the County of Chester, TO WIT.

By Virtue of a Precept to me directed, I hereby require you personally to be and appear at a Court Leet and View of Frank Pledge and Court Baron to be held at Halton Castle, according to the custom there time immemorial used and approved, on Saturday, the day of at the hour of to be upon the Jury there.

Herein fail not at your peril.

=Witness= my hand at Halton aforesaid, this day of 19

Bailiff of the said Court.

is sent to the Overseers of the following townships:--

Aston juxta Budworth, Aston juxta Sutton, Appleton, Antrobus, Astmore, Barnton, Bartington, Bexton, Budworth (Great), Comberbach, Cotton, Church Hulme (Holmes Chapel), Cogshall, Crowley, Daresbury, Halton, Hatton, Kekewick, Lymm, Millington, Newton juxta Daresbury, Preston o’th Hill, Sutton, Stretton, Seven Oaks, Toft, Tabley (Over), Weston, Walton Superior, Walton Inferior, Whitley Superior, Whitley Inferior.

A jury is appointed, and sworn in by the deputy steward, and a constable and two burleymen are appointed.

The following is the form of oath administered to the foreman and rest of the jury:--

“You as foreman of this inquest, with the rest of your fellows, shall duly inquire and true presentment make of all such matters and things as relate to the present service, wherein you shall spare no man for fear, love, favour, or affection, nor present any man out of malice or hatred, but according as things here presentable shall come to your knowledge, by information or otherwise, so shall you make thereof true presentment without concealment. So help you God.”

Before the opening of the court by the deputy steward, the bailiff makes the following proclamation:--

“Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All manner of persons who owe suit and service to this Court Leet and view of Frankpledge and Court Baron of His Most Gracious Majesty the King, as Duke of Lancaster, Baron of Halton, and paramount Lord of this Manor and Fee, draw near, give your attendance, and answer to your names.”

No business is, of course, transacted, and the proceedings finish up with a dinner, over which the deputy steward presides.

As before stated, the court must have had jurisdiction over a wide area, as the jurors are summoned from Barnton, near Northwich, and from Toft and Tabley, near Knutsford, and also from Holmes Chapel. It is also evident from the extracts from Mr. Beamont’s book that minor courts were held in connection with the Halton Court at a variety of places, and it is also to be noticed that the jurisdiction of the court extended across the river Mersey into Lancashire, and that courts were held at Widnes and Farnworth. In fact, there is the Manor of Widnes, comprising land on the Lancashire side of the river, which also belongs to the Duchy of Lancaster, and of which the King is the lord, and it is presumed the jurisdiction of the court would extend over the area of this manor.

In some remarks on the last Court Leet, held in December 1908, the _Warrington Guardian_ stated:

“That the Widnes or Farnworth Leet, which was subject to Halton, had the power to mete out only four punishments. These included the pillory, an ignominious punishment; and the cuck-stool or ducking-chair, for punishing a scold, of whose unruly member it was said:

‘Of members the tongue is the worst and the best,
And an ill tongue sows often the seeds of unrest.’

To curb the tongue, they had also the brank, an iron bridle which kept the tongue quiet by more mechanical means. The court had also the stocks, the constable’s prison as it was called, and the whipping-post, but the Farnworth or Widnes Leet, though allied to Halton, had not the power which Halton certainly possessed of inflicting the punishment of death.”

In addition to its powers of punishment, there is no doubt that, prior to the days of printing and when only few people could read or write, the court was used as a means of making public proclamations, and that presentments were made to it of matters of general interest to the people which otherwise could not have been brought to their knowledge. To-day we have our telegraphs and telephones, our newspapers and our books, and all other ways of letting every one know everything. Who shall say which were the happier days?

“Let the great world spin for ever
Down the ringing grooves of change.”

In conclusion, we may remark that there is another relic of old times in connection with the Manor of Halton, in that part of the land there, and also in the Manor of Widnes before referred to, is still of copyhold tenure, and the ordinary laws of conveyancing do not apply to it. For instance, a conveyance of land is carried out by way of what is called a Surrender and Admission and a mortgage by a Conditional Surrender, and the deeds have to be signed by the parties before the deputy steward. These deeds are all entered on the court rolls of the manor, the originals being sent to the Duchy Office in London, and copies are kept at the office of the deputy steward, and other copies handed to the parties dealing with the property.

This mode of transfer of the land is cumbersome and expensive, and is gradually dying out, for any copyholder can apply to the Duchy of Lancaster to have his land enfranchised, and on the payment of certain fees he obtains a conveyance of same from the King, as Lord of the Manor, and the property then becomes his absolute freehold, and is dealt with afterwards like any other property. The seal of the Duchy of Lancaster is always affixed to the enfranchisement deeds, and is so large that it has to be attached to the deed by a strip of parchment and kept in a tin box.

CHESHIRE WORTHIES

By P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A.

Cheshire, the “seed-plot of gentility,” as Speed loved to call his native shire, can boast of many illustrious sons who have conferred honour on their county. A large volume would be needed wherein to chronicle all their achievements, their deeds of prowess, their successes as poets, divines, lawyers, and philosophers. We can only record the names of the most illustrious Cestrians who have achieved fame in various professions and are worthy of a niche in these memorials of the county.

SOLDIERS

Cheshire men have always been good fighters. They have played their part bravely on many a battlefield at home and abroad, and honour shall first be done to the soldiers of the shire. In civil war there was little unity amongst the gentlemen of Cheshire. They fought with, or against, each other as party faction or inclination dictated; but against the enemies of England they were formidable foes. The great Civil War that raged between King and Parliament brought most of these Cheshire soldiers into prominence, and most of the names on our list of warriors are connected with that period.

In the wars with France when the third King Edward reigned, Cheshire men showed well the stuff they were made of, their valour and bravery in arms. Foremost amongst their number in this group of early warriors stands Sir Thomas Danyers, who fought gallantly in the battle of Crecy under the banner of the Black Prince. He plunged into the thickest of the fight, and when the King bade his son “win his spurs and the honour of the day for himself,” Sir Thomas “relieved the banner of his Earl and took prisoner the Chamberlain of France, de Tankerville.” For this gallant feat of arms the Prince rewarded the Cheshire knight with a goodly sum of money, and the promise of the grant of an estate in his native county. This promise was not fulfilled until after the warrior’s death, when the fair lands of Lyme were bestowed upon his daughter, who had married Sir Piers Legh; and thus the famous family of the Leighs of Lyme began their existence, and happily the connection still survives after the lapse of many centuries.

Another brave soldier of the period was Sir John Delves, who with his companions in arms contributed greatly to the glorious victory of Poictiers. That fight was memorable for Cheshire men. The gallant James, Lord Audley, a native of the shire, though he lived in Staffordshire, had for his four squires, John Delves, Dutton of Dutton, Foulshurst of Crewe, and Hawkeston of Wrine Hall, a Cheshire man though residing in Staffordshire. When the battle day dawned Audley vowed to be foremost in the field and lead the attack, and “with the ayde of his four scuyers dyd marvels in arms, and foughte always in the cheyfe of the batyle; y^t day he never toke prisoner, but always foughte and wente on his enemyes.” He was sorely wounded, and was borne from the field by his faithful squires. For his bravery the Prince made him a grant of five hundred marks a year for ever. This reward the good knight handed over to his squires, saying that they had deserved it as much as he, and had more need of it. So the Prince gave him a second grant of a like amount. Audley, as a further reward to his squires, ordered that they should bear on their coats of arms his own proper achievement, gules a fret, d’or. Sir John Delves purchased Doddington, near Nantwich, where he erected a goodly mansion in 1364, and where the statues of himself and his brave companions, carved in later times, could be seen. There is an alabaster effigy of Sir Robert Foulshurst, one of the gallant squires, in Barthomley Church.

Sir Hugh Calveley sleeps at Bunbury, a mighty hero of the French wars who fought under the brave leader Sir John Chandos. You can see his fine alabaster tomb, a lion couching at his feet, and his crest, a calf’s head, which he bore on many a foreign battlefield. Fuller says of him: “Tradition makes him a man of teeth and hands, who would feed as much as two, and fight as much as ten men; his quick and strong appetite could digest anything but an injury, so that the killing a man is reported the cause of his quitting this country, making hence for London and France. Here he became a most eminent soldier.” It were vain to tell of all his exploits. He fought in Brittany in 1357, at Auray in 1364, Navarete in 1367, in Brittany again with Sir John Arundell in 1380, when the expedition was almost entirely destroyed by a storm and 20,000 men perished. Many of these warriors lived a wild and turbulent life during the wars, and Sir Hugh, perhaps repenting of his deeds, in his old age converted the Parish Church of Bunbury into a collegiate church, with a master and six chaplains to pray for his soul. One of his companions in arms was Sir Robert Knowles, born of mean parentage in Cheshire, but brave and valiant. He fought with Sir Hugh Calveley in Brittany in 1351, when thirty Englishmen encountered the like number of Bretons and were sorely worsted. The ruined castles that he left behind him in France were termed “Knowles’s Mitres.” His last service to his country was the suppression of Wat Tyler’s rebellion.

The Wars of the Roses claimed some Cheshire victims. On the bloody field of Blore Heath, when the Earl of Salisbury defeated Lord Audley and the Yorkists on September 25, 1459, fell Sir Robert Booth, the ancestor of the Booth family of Dunham Massey. His brass memorial, with that of his wife, the heiress of that estate, is in the church at Wilmslow. Sir William Stanley, second son of the first Lord Stanley, in the time of Henry VII. held Ridley, being Chamberlain of Cheshire. He distinguished himself at the battle of Bosworth, rescuing Henry from great peril and saving his life. He was the first to set the crown of England on King Henry’s head, after it had been found on the battlefield trampled under the feet of the fighters. A gratified monarch bestowed upon him wealth and honour, but he was accused of favouring the design of Perkin Warbeck, and perished on the scaffold. His manor of Ridley was forfeited to the Crown and given to another distinguished soldier, Sir Ralph Egerton, who fought bravely at the battle of the Spurs, and at the siege of Terouenne and Tournay, capturing the standard of the French. He also fought at Flodden Field, and was appointed royal standard-bearer of England, a high distinction nobly earned. He lies in the church at Bunbury, and from him descended the lines of the Earls and Dukes of Bridgewater.

Of the brave men of Elizabethan times we may mention the Cheshire warrior Sir Uryan Legh, of the Leghs of Adlington, who, present at the taking of Cadiz under the leadership of the Earl of Essex in 1590, was knighted for his gallantry, and in the time of James I. became Sheriff of Cheshire. You can see his portrait at Bramall Hall attired in Spanish dress, in which, according to an old ballad, he wrought mischief in the heart of a fair Spanish lady who made violent love to him, and could only be deterred by the somewhat lately imparted knowledge that Sir Uryan had already a wife. Sir George Beeston, another gallant soldier, lies at Bunbury, where a fine monument records his memory. He was one of those who, though advanced in years, took an active part in defeating the Spanish Armada, and fought valiantly at the siege of Boulogne.

Fiercely did the great Civil War rage in Cheshire, and fiercely did the Cestrians fight. Foremost among them was Sir William Brereton, the great Cheshire leader of the Parliamentary army, and commander-in-chief of the Cheshire forces. The story of his fights is the history of the Civil War in this and the neighbouring counties, and cannot be told here. His relative Lord Brereton, the owner of the seat Brereton, one of the finest mansions in the county, was a brave supporter of the Royalist cause. Sir William lived to see the Restoration, and died at the archiepiscopal palace at Croydon, which had been granted to him by the Parliament. Lord Brereton returned to his goodly house, but families, alas! become extinct, and the name once so famous in Cheshire history now no longer exists save in memory.

Colonel Edward Massey, of the ancient family of the Masseys of Coddington, was a soldier of fortune who fought on both sides in the war. He, however, threw in his lot with the enemies of the King, and was made Governor of Gloucester. He held the city during the siege; but on the triumph of the Independents his career was chequered, and he found his way back to the King, and became Major-general in the Royal army. History tells not when he died.

Another Parliamentary leader was Colonel Robert Dukinfield, of Dukinfield, who came of an ancient Cheshire family. He defended Stockport Bridge against Prince Rupert, laid siege to and captured Whiltenshaw, became Governor of Chester, took part in the disgraceful court-martial of the Earl of Derby, who was judicially murdered at Bolton, and obtained the surrender by the Countess of the Derby estates in the Isle of Man. He wrote a delightful letter to Cromwell, in which he tells the Protector that he firmly believes that the root of the tree of piety is alive in him, though the leaves thereof, through the abundance of temptations and flatterers, seemed to the writer to be withered much of late, yet he hoped time and experience would have a good influence upon his lordship, _Deo juvante_. This letter, and other outspoken words, did not endear Dukinfield to the Protector’s followers, who showed their distrust of him. However, he crushed the abortive rising of Sir George Booth, and received the thanks of the Parliament and a reward for his services. He did not escape persecution at the Restoration, but the Royalists admired the staunch old Colonel, and the King made his son a baronet.

This Sir George Booth, who before the return of Charles II. was appointed commander-in-chief of the King’s forces in Cheshire, Lancashire, and North Wales, and headed an abortive attempt to restore his Majesty to the throne, was well rewarded for his services. After his defeat he escaped in a woman’s habit, riding on a pillion behind one of his grooms. But his sex was detected by the landlord of an inn where he sojourned, and he was captured and sent to the Tower. In 1660 the House of Commons voted him £10,000 for his services in effecting the Restoration. He was created Baron Delamere of Dunham Massey, and was appointed Custos Rotulorum for the county. He died at Dunham Massey, and was buried at Bowdon in 1673. In his attempt to regain the throne for Charles II. he was greatly assisted by Roger Grosvenor, ancestor of the Dukes of Westminster, who have always “stood by their pious principles of faith and loyalty,” as Randle Holme truly testifies. His son, Sir Thomas, commanded a troop in the Earl of Shrewsbury’s regiment of horse in 1685, which encamped at Hounslow Heath, and he was offered a peerage by James II. for his answer to the repeal of the Test Acts, a bribe which he had the courage to resist. He was M.P. for Chester, Mayor of the city, and Sheriff of the county.

The Astons were unfortunate Royalists. Sir Thomas was defeated by Sir William Brereton at Middlewich, and Sir Arthur, after being Governor of Reading, and earning the praise of his sovereign, who deemed that “there was not a man in his army of greater reputation, or one of whom the enemy had greater dread,” lost his leg and then his life in the slaughter of the garrison of Tredagh, in Ireland. Two other gallant Royalists must be mentioned, Sir Francis Gamul, of Buerton, who watched from the Phœnix Tower with the King the fatal fight of Rowton Heath, and helped him to escape from his enemies; and Sir Geoffrey Shakerley, who performed many deeds of daring during the war; and at Rowton Heath, in order to convey a message to the King, crossed the Dee in a tub, holding the bridle of his horse, which was swimming at the side. He was a good friend and servant of the King, Governor of the Castle of Chester, and lies beneath his fine monument at Nether Peover Church.

Henry Booth, Earl of Warrington and Baron Delamere, second son of Baron Delamere before mentioned, played as distinguished a part in the Revolution and in establishing William III. on the English throne as his father had done for Charles II. A brave assertor of his country’s rights, and a defender of the Protestant religion, he fell foul of James II., and was tried on a groundless charge of high treason, the notorious Jefferies being his accuser. He escaped that peril, and soon raised an army in Cheshire and Lancashire to aid Dutch William. To him fell the duty of telling the last Stuart king that he must leave Whitehall, treating the fallen monarch with a respect and deference that touched his Majesty. Many honours were heaped upon him, including the Earldom of Warrington and a pension of £2000 a year; but he did not long enjoy his dignity, as death summoned him at the early age of forty-two years in 1693-4.

Colonel, and afterwards General, Werden risked his life and fortune for King Charles, had to fly from the country, and continued with the royal family until the Restoration, after which he was appointed to several offices of trust, and was comptroller of the royal household. His son John was created a baronet, and held many important posts.

Sir Roger Mostyn, of Mostyn, Baronet, was a gallant soldier who raised 1500 men for the King’s service, captured Hawarden Castle, was Governor of Flint Castle, which he maintained until the death of the King’s cause. His house of Mostyn was plundered, and he was imprisoned in Conway Castle; at the Restoration a baronetcy was the reward of his services.

Doubtless Cheshire had many other brave soldiers, but this list must now suffice.

BISHOPS

The county has seen many of her sons raised to the Episcopal Bench. Foremost amongst these was the saintly Bishop Wilson of Mona’s Isle, who was born of humble parents in the parish of Burton in the Wirral district. Three years after the Restoration Thomas Wilson first saw the light; his holy, wise, charitable, God-fearing life was a burning and a shining light in his age, and his influence spread far and wide. He planted the Church anew in his remote little diocese. In vain did Queen Anne and Queen Caroline try to tempt him to leave the island by the offer of another diocese. He set his face against pluralism, the curse of his time, refusing to hold any preferments in addition to his See, which was poor and impoverished. Crowds flocked to see him, to crave from him a blessing. The writer has been with the fishermen of this island, and heard them sing their sweet hymns as they kneel beside their bulwarks when they are going to ply their calling on the sea, and he was told that Bishop Wilson first taught their fathers to sing those hymns and seek a blessing on their toil.

We know little of Dr. Hugh Bellot, Bishop of Bangor and Chester. He was the son of Thomas Bellot, of Great Moulton Hall, in the parish of Astbury in this county, and died in 1596. Nor can I say much of Bishop Rider, who was born in 1562 at Carrington in this county. He became Bishop of Killaloe in 1612, and found time amid his episcopal duties to compile a Latin Dictionary. But every one has heard of the famous Bishop Heber, who was born at Malpas in 1783, the son of the rector of that place. His poems and hymns are known to all. It was his Newdigate Prize Poem at Oxford on the subject of Palestine that first brought him fame. For some years he was rector of Hodnet, where he delighted in the calmness of village life. At length he received a call to the See of Calcutta, where he died at the early age of forty-three years.

Bishop Edward Stanley was the son of Sir J. T. Stanley of Alderley Park, and was born in 1779. He was rector of Alderley from 1805 to 1837, and proved himself a model clergyman, shining as a light in a dark age. He came to an entirely neglected parish, and by his example and precept transformed it into a totally different place. He was an early educationist, and took care that his children should be well taught. He put down drunkenness and prize-fighting, and was a close observer of nature--a northern White of Selborne. In 1837 he was called to the See of Norwich, which he held until his death in 1849--a very worthy Bishop.

A few learned divines we may mention. Dr. Samuel Clarke, a Puritan, minister of Shotwick, where he was a favourite preacher. He was a very voluminous writer, and died in 1682. Dr. John Hulse, the founder of the Hulsean Lectures at Cambridge, was born at Middlewich in 1708. When a child he was rescued by his grandfather from squalid circumstances, and obtained high university distinction at Cambridge. He became vicar of Goostrey until, on his father’s death, he became possessed of the family estate of Elworth, near Sandbach. John Barron, D.D., canon of Salisbury, chaplain to Lord Chancellor Egerton, and founder of a Hebrew lectureship at Brazenose College, Oxford, should be mentioned, who died in 1642. He is described by a contemporary biographer as “a bountiful housekeeper, of a cheerful spirit and a peaceful disposition.” Many other names of learned bishops and divines will occur to the reader, and this list would include many of the bishops and deans of Chester, but few of them were natives of the county, and are therefore not included in these biographical notes.

POETS

Of poets, we have mentioned the saintly Heber. But there are others of an earlier age. John Brownswerd, a native of the shire, was born in 1540, and after graduating at Cambridge became master of the Grammar School at Macclesfield, earning fame as one of the best Latin poets of his age. A tablet was raised to the memory of this “vir pius & doctus,” who is described as

Alpha poetarum, coryphæus grammaticorum
Flos pædagogum hic sepelitur humo.

He died in 1589, a good example of the learned men of the Elizabethan age, who trained their pupils in good classic lore. There were several such schools in Cheshire--at Chester, Audlem, Northwich, and other places. Another Elizabethan poet owed his education to such schools. Geoffrey Whitney, who was born at Nantwich, learned his classics at Audlem and Northwich, graduated at Oxford, and then migrated to Leyden. There he published his _Choice of Emblemes_, printed in 1586 in the famous printing-press of Christopher Plantyn, and a collection of fables. Each poem is dedicated to one of the principal gentlemen in Lancashire and Cheshire. The Cheshire historian Ormerod quotes a poem addressed “to my countremen of the Namptwicke in Cheshire,” relating to a fire that had lately destroyed the town, and comparing the place to a phœnix, of which the poet gives a device. Near Northwich was born Sir John Birkenhead, poet and political writer, of humble origin, his father being either a saddler or an innkeeper. The excellence of the Cheshire schools is again shown by his ability in taking a degree at Oxford and a fellowship at Oriel College. When the Civil War broke out he started the newspaper the _Mercurius Aulicus_ for the purpose of “communicating the intelligence and affairs of the Court of Oxon to the rest of the kingdom.” The King was pleased with this product of his fluent pen, and appointed him Reader in Moral Philosophy. When misfortune befell him with the fall of the Royal cause, he wrote poems and divers political tracts, and at the Restoration was rewarded for his loyalty with a knighthood and other lucrative appointments. He has been described as a man “of great courage in words, scoffing humour, an unscrupulous conscience, and an inexhaustible fund of arch and mischievous drollery, ... one of the most expert and successful guerilla partisans on the side of the Royalists.”

The poet Milton is connected with this county, as his third wife, Elizabeth Mynshal, a lady connected with some of the best Cheshire families, came from Cheshire and died at Nantwich. She is believed to have been a termagant, and brought the poet little pleasure, but others have described her as of “a peaceful and agreeable humour.”

The Rev. William Broome, a native of Cheshire, was a poet of some distinction, a translator of Homer, and the coadjutor of Pope in the translation of the _Odyssey_. He supplied all the notes to that work, but he quarrelled with Pope, and was lampooned in the _Dunciad_. Dr. Johnson gave him a niche in his _Lives of the Poets_, describing him as an excellent versifier; “his lines are smooth and sonorous, and his diction is select and elegant.” Another name must be honoured among Cheshire poets, that of Henry Birkenhead, M.D., a poet of distinction, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, a founder in 1707 of the Professorship of Poetry in that University.

JUDGES AND CHANCELLORS

Some Cheshire lawyers have achieved fame. In the spacious days of Queen Elizabeth, at Nantwich in 1588 was born Randolph Crewe, who came of the distinguished family of the Crewes of Crewe Hall, though his father was in poor circumstances at the time of his birth. He and his brother Thomas were fired with the idea of regaining the family estates. The good schools of Cheshire enabled them to go to Oxford; they became students at Lincoln’s Inn, Serjeants-at-Law, and successively Speakers of the House of Commons. Randolph rose rapidly in his profession, and in 1624 became Lord Chief Justice of England. In the discharge of his high office he showed a perfectly honest and independent spirit, much learning and ability, strict honour and integrity, therein differing from many of the venal judges of his age. He refused to bow to the King’s will in respect of the imposition of illegal taxes, and in consequence was deprived of his rank. He retired to his beloved Cheshire, purchased the old family estates, and built for himself a new manor house. Fuller tells in his quaint way that Sir Randolph “first brought the model of excellent building into these remote parts; yea, brought London into Cheshire, in the loftiness, sightliness, and pleasantness of their structures.” His letter to the Duke of Buckingham is a model of straightforward honesty, stating his reasons for his decision in the matter of the taxation, and asking for his Grace’s intercession with the King. While the war was raging between King and Parliament he quietly passed away in his Hall at Crewe, and lies at rest in the Crewe Chapel at Barthomley.

Another eminent lawyer was Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, Thomas, Viscount Brackley, the natural son of Sir Richard Egerton of Ridley, born in 1540. Queen Elizabeth on one occasion heard him pleading with his usual shrewdness against a Crown case, and exclaimed, “In my troth, he shall never plead against me again,” and from that day his rise was rapid. He became Attorney-General in 1592, was knighted, Master of the Rolls in 1594, and two years later Lord Keeper and Member of Privy Council. On the death of the Queen he was called upon to conduct the affairs of the nation until the arrival of King James of Scotland, who constituted him Lord Chancellor and Baron Ellesmere. For twelve years he held the reins of office, conducted many important trials, helped to unite the kingdoms of England and Scotland, and at length, full of years and honours, with much pathos resigned his high office, being succeeded by Sir Francis Bacon. His body rests in Dodleston Church.

The name of Sir Edward Fitton, Lord President of Connaught and Thomond, and Treasurer of Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth, must not be forgotten or omitted from our list of Cheshire worthies. He was born at Gawsworth, and a memorial to the knight may be seen in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

Sir Humphrey Davenport was Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the reign of Charles I., and had a distinguished legal career. He was the fourth son of William Davenport of Bramhall, near Stockport. Sir Peter Warburton of Grafton, one of the Judges of the King’s Bench about the same period, was also a Cheshire man. Another great lawyer was Richard Peter Arden, Lord Alvanley, born at Bredbury in 1745. In 1780 he became King’s Counsel, M.P. for Newton in the Isle of Wight, Master of the Rolls, and, in 1801, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, when he was created Lord Alvanley, taking his title from a manor in the parish of Frodsham which had been held by his ancestors. He was a somewhat outspoken, hasty, and flippant judge, and amusing stories are told of his sayings in court and of his disputes with Lord Chancellor Thurlow.

Chief Justice Williams was the son of a rector of Bunbury, where he was born in 1777, and had a brilliant legal career. His reputation was made at the trial of Queen Caroline, whose junior counsel he was, with Mr. Brougham, afterwards Lord Brougham, as his senior. His able advocacy was the chief cause of the vindication of the unfortunate Queen. He was returned to Parliament for Lincoln in 1823, became Attorney-General in 1830, and Puisne Judge of the King’s Bench four years later, when he was made a knight. A volume of Greek epigrams testifies to his devotion to classical studies.

The last Cheshire lawyer on our list is Lord Kenyon. Though not actually born in the county, his native place being Greddington, just over the border in Flintshire, he had a Cheshire lady for his mother, and began his career at an attorney’s office in Nantwich. He might have spent his life there, having been offered a partnership; but he soared higher, went to London, and was called to the Bar in 1756. He was M.P. for Hindon and Chief Justice of Chester in 1780, and was engaged in the defence of Lord George Gordon in that memorable trial of the Gordon rioters. After being Attorney-General and Master of the Rolls, he was created a baronet, raised to the peerage, and appointed Chief Justice in 1788. He was noted for his parsimonious ways, relics of his early poverty; but his biographers assert that few lawyers so able, and none more honest, ever entered Westminster Hall.

SCIENTISTS

Edward Brerewood, the son of a Chester tradesman, born in 1565, was a celebrated mathematician and antiquary. From the Free School at Chester he went to Oxford, and became the first professor of astronomy in Gresham College. Several of his works were published after his death by his nephew, Robert Brerewood, of Chester.

Cheshire can boast of an early botanist and herbalist, John Gerarde, who was born at Nantwich in 1545. He was head gardener to Lord Burghley from 1577. He took his early lessons in the book of nature when wandering on the banks of the Weaver in his native shire. He wrote, in 1596, his work, entitled _Catalogus arborum, fruticum ac plantarum_, and he was the author of _The Herball or General Historie of Plantes_, “gathered by John Gerarde, of London, Master in Chirurgerie.”

A more eminent scientist was Samuel Molyneux, son of a learned father, and was born at Chester in 1689. He was a wonderful, precocious genius, and could do marvellous things when he was only five years old. His biographer tells us that “when he advanced to manhood he was acknowledged to be one of the most polite and accomplished gentlemen in England or Ireland, and was appointed secretary to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., and had a house in Kew, near Richmond, where he improved himself in his favourite study astronomy.” He greatly improved the making of telescopes. He married Elizabeth, sister to the Earl of Essex.

The third Lord Brereton, unlike his father, who loved warlike pursuits and fought for the King in the Civil War, was a lover of science and peaceful pursuits. He was educated at Breda in Holland, under the care of Dr. John Pell, and became a good mathematician and algebraist. He was one of the founders of the Royal Society, associated with all the learned men of his time, and always endeavoured to advance the cause of science. He was somewhat of a poet, musician, and composer. The proceedings of the Royal Society often record his name, which learned Society in its infant days seems to have concerned itself with somewhat childish questions, and exercised the minds of its members on the divining-rod and the superstition with regard to the portents presaging the death of any member of the Brereton family.

Lawrence Earnshaw was a wonderful mechanical genius, a native of Mottram-in-Longdendale in the first half of the eighteenth century. Nothing came amiss to his skilful fingers. He could shear sheep and make the wool into cloth entirely with implements of his own making. Engraver, painter, gilder, glass-stainer, blacksmith, gunsmith, bell-founder; maker of sundials, harpsichords, violins, organs--he could do everything. But his great achievement was in the art of clockmaking, producing a curious astronomical and geographical machine which represented the motions of the earth, moon, stars, &c. He anticipated the invention of the spinning-jenny, but destroyed his machine lest it should decrease labour and take bread from the mouths of the poor. Another noted clockmaker was John Whitehurst, Fellow of the Royal Society, born at Congleton in 1713. He was author of some philosophical papers, amongst others of an _Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth_.

Another learned Cestrian was Dr. William Falconer, born at Chester in 1741. He was learned in science and horticulture, and published several works, including _An Historical View of the taste for Gardening and Laying-out Grounds among the Nations of Antiquity_; _An Essay on the Means of Preserving the Health of those employed in Agricultural Labours_; and _A Sketch of the History of Sugar in Early Times_.

HISTORIANS

Many are the writers on Cheshire history whose names should be recorded--men who have loved their county and desired to tell of its beauties and historical associations. We can only mention a tithe of those worthy sons who have done honour to their shire, and accomplished work which has been often little understood or appreciated by their fellows.

The first of these is a name honoured by all historians, Henry Bradshaw, a native of Chester and a monk of St. Werburgh’s Abbey, who lived in the latter part of the fourteenth century. He was one of the earliest chroniclers of Cheshire, and wrote his works in the cloistered shade of his monastic house. His works consist of a treatise, _De Antiquitate et Magnificentiâ Urbis Cestriæ_, and a translation of “The Holy Lyfe and History of Saint Werburge, very frutefull for all Christen people to rede.” The first work is believed to have been lost, unless it is incorporated in the latter treatise, as Dr. Gower suggested. Perhaps we should have included Henry Bradshaw amongst our poets, in whose company he well deserves a high and important niche. His body lies near the shrine of the saint of whose virtues he loved to sing.

John Booth of Twamlowe, a contemporary of Sir William Brereton, was a distinguished Cheshire genealogist who occupies a foremost place amongst the antiquaries of the county. His works have been most useful to subsequent writers.

John Speed, born at Farndon in 1552, is a writer of whom any county may be proud. An account of this learned historian has already appeared in this volume.

The disputes of the learned often cause amusement, and the controversy between the rival baronets, Sir Peter Leicester and Sir Thomas Maynwaring of Over Peover, aroused much merriment in 1673-75. Sir Peter published a learned work in two volumes on the historical antiquities of Great Britain and more particularly of Cheshire, in which he asserted that Amicia, daughter of Hugh Keveliock, fifth Earl of Chester, a descendant of Hugh Lupus, was illegitimate. This aroused Sir Thomas Maynwaring, whose ancestor had married the said Amicia. He published a defence of the injured lady. Then Peter wrote an answer to Sir Thomas’s book, who retaliated with another book. So the controversy went on, each disputant waxing more wroth, until at last a law-suit ensued, the result being in favour of the champion of Amicia.

One of the earliest historians of Cheshire was Daniel King, the author of _The Vale Royal of England, or History of Cheshire_. He was more skilled in engraving than in writing, and his work was adorned with plates by Hollar. He was greatly aided by William Smith, _Rouge Dragon_, William Webb, clerk of the Mayor’s court at Chester, and William Aldersey, Mayor of Chester. Webb had some pretensions to be accounted a poet, and wrote “a Discourse on English poetry” in 1586. King’s _Vale Royal_ was not a great book, but it has served its purpose in preserving a record of many things which might have been forgotten, and its engravings and illustrations will always be valuable. An abridged and revised edition was subsequently published by Thomas Hughes.

An account of the Randle Holmes--father, son, and grandson--a noted family of antiquaries, appears in another chapter. Mr. T. Worthington Barlow, F.L.S., barrister of Gray’s Inn, wrote much on the county; and we are greatly indebted to his _Historical and Literary Associations of Cheshire_ for much valuable information which has been useful in the compiling of this record of Cheshire worthies. Nor must we forget the interesting diary of the Rev. Edward Burghall, the Puritanical vicar of Aston, who records with much perspicuity the events of the Civil War in Cheshire with many “moral reflections.” His animadversions on the Quakers, who troubled him sorely, are rather amusing reading.

Amongst Cheshire worthies must not be forgotten Sir Richard Sutton, co-founder with Bishop William Smyth of Lincoln, of Brazenose College, Oxford, “for the study of Philosophy and Sacred Theology, to the Praise and Honour of Almighty God,” in 1509. He was born at Prestbury, near Macclesfield, and was a lawyer, Governor of the Inner Temple, and Steward of the Monastery of Syon, afterward Sion College. He was the author of a work entitled _Orcharde of Syon_, but his chief fame rests on his completion of the foundation of the Oxford College which had been commenced by the bishop.

Such, then, are some of the worthies of Cheshire. Many others might be included, but the roll of honour of the county is already lengthy. We might mention the names of several of the illustrious families of the shire whose scions still continue to follow in the footsteps of their forefathers, and have conferred credit on their houses and on their native county. Some of the great and good men of Cheshire have but recently passed away, whose names are household words in the Cestrian land. They need no mention, no memorial, save that which their lives and good deeds have afforded. The love of the men of Cheshire for their shire has inspired many an act of daring, much toil, much devotion; may it continue so to do in the Vale Royal of England.

There is one name more that must be mentioned. He has been denounced as a “viper of hell,” a “monster of men,” whose bones were dragged from his tomb in Westminster Abbey and buried beneath the Tyburn gallows tree. Shall a regicide be mentioned among the worthies? Such was John Bradshaw, the judge of the Martyr King. He came of a good Cheshire family, and spent his life in studying law, rising high in his profession. This is not the place to judge his motives. He was no time-server, nor was he a universal favourite with his political colleagues. It is enough for us to note that he was born in Cheshire. A facsimile of the register of his baptism is shown with the additional word “traitor” added by a later hand, marking the writer’s detestation of the man who was called upon to play so prominent a part in the tragedy of the murder of a king, the chief instrument in the travesty of justice that ended on the scaffold at Whitehall.

1602 December 1602 fol 98
John the Sonne of Henrye Bradshawe
of Marple was baptized the: 10^{th}
traitor
]

THE FOUR RANDLE HOLMES OF CHESTER

(An Epitome of a Paper by the Late J. P. Earwaker, F.S.A.)

By the Archdeacon of Chester

No book dealing with memorials of old Cheshire would be complete which did not give due prominence to those noted antiquaries of former generations, the Randle Holmes, and acknowledge gratefully and without stint the indebtedness of subsequent writers and students to their research and patient investigations. What follows will show, however inadequately, how great these obligations are. At the outset it may be said that some confusion has arisen from the fact that the name Randle Holme was borne by four members of the family in successive generations, and as a consequence the work of one has sometimes been assigned to another.