Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/770

Rh MANCHESTER. 762 MANCHESTER borough. Now, with the Saxons a borough was the same as a city, though afterwards those principal towns which were the seats of bishops did engross the name of cities, and the rest were called boroughs. William the Conqueror, after the Conquest, assigned to Roger of Poitiers all that land or province lying between the Eibble and Mersey described under Yorkshire and Cheshire, and not as Lancashire, in Domesday Book. But it soon after passed from his hands into those of Albert de Gredley, who was in the train of the Con- queror. In Domesday Book there is mention of a church called St. Marie's in Manchester, and a church called St. Michael's, which had unani Cantcam quietam ab omni coiisuetudine praeter Geldam. Albertus de Gredly gave to the church of Manchester four bovates or oxgangs of lands in Frank Almoigne of his own demesne. Man- chester seems to have possessed a rectory early in the 13th century. In 1299 Otto de Grandison was made rector by the presentation of the king. The manor lands joined to the rectory of Manchester, saving that a place called Bleu Orchard, or Wall Greens, was between them. The manor-house stood in or near the place where the college now stands, and was called Barons Court, or Barons Yard, and the place was called Barons Hall, as a neighbouring bank was called Hunts Hall, now Hunts Bank ; and the parsonage-house was near to a field called the Parsonage, in or near the street called Deansgate. As has been already mentioned, Manchester passed from the hands of Hugh of Poitiers into those of Albert de Gredley, from whom it descended to Thomas de la Warr, the last heir male of the De la Warrs, and through his sister, Joan, to West, Lord de la Warr, about 1390. This Thomas de la Warr, who has been already referred to, was the founder of the college, to which was annexed the collegiate church, which is now the cathedral. The 32nd Henry VIII. (1540) confirmed Manchester as a place of privilege, having been anciently a sanctuary. But in 33rd Henry VIII. the privilege, being found prejudicial, was annulled. Leland passed through the country in. the reign of Henry VIII., and he mentions Mancestre as " the fairest, best builded, quickest, and most populous town of Lanca- shire." He proceeds " It has but one parish church, but that collegiate, and almost throughout double aisled, with very hard squared stone. There are several stone bridges in the town, but the best, of three arches, is over the Irwell, dividing Manchester from Salfourd, which is a large suburb to Manchester. On this bridge is a pretty little chapel. The next is the bridge over the Irk, on which the very fair builded college stands. On this river are divers fair mills that serve the town. In the town are two market-places." In the year 1519 Hugh Oldham (a native of Oldham), Bishop of Exeter, by will endowed a free grammar school in Manchester with lands, and a long lease of the water, flour, and dyeing mills in the neighbourhood ; and in 1524 conveyance was made, under the trusts of the will, to trustees, for the purposes of carrying out this intention. It was free, and no male infant of any age was to be re- fused. The choice of the head-master and usher were vested in the president of Corpus Christ!, Oxford; in default, in the warden of Manchester College. The Col- lege of Manchester was abolished by Act of Parliament of the 1st of Edward VI., and the land and revenues were given by the king to the Earl of Derby. Queen Mary, however, refounded the College, and restored some of the lands. Up to this period there are few evidences beyond the fact of dyers having settled on the liver's bank, of Manchester having attained, or occupying any manufacturing position ; but it is recorded rather as a tradition than as a fact, that in 1520 there were three famous clothiers living in the north country, viz. Cuth- bert of Kendal, Hodgekius of Halifax, and Martin Brian, or Byrom, of Manchester. Each of these kept a great number of servants at work spinners, carders, weavers, pillers, dyers, shearnien, &c. In 1552, the 5th and 6th of Edward VI., gives us, however, a large insight into the condition of the staple trade of the town at that time. This statute regulated the width and weight of Man- chester, Lancashire, and Cheshire cottons, and ordain, " that all the cottons called Manchester, Lancashire, am. Cheshire cottons, shall be in length twenty-two yards, and contain in breadth three quarters of a yard on ih> water, and shall weigh thirty pounds in the piece at least.' From the rest of this statute, as well as from other circum- stances, it may be inferred that Manchester cottons at this time were made of wool. In 1557 another Act was passed to amend the preceding statute. In 1565 thu plague visited Manchester. In 1567, the 8th of Queen Elizabeth. an aulnager was appointed to measure the cottons and fustians of Manchester, on account of the frauds practised in these towns. In 1578, Queen Elizabeth gave a new foundation to the College, and incorporated it as Christ's College, Manchester. In the preamble of the Act, the number of parishioners is alleged to be 10,OOU. 'I foundation is to consist of a warden, a bachelor divinity, four fellows, who are, like the warden, to be priests and bachelors of art, two chaplains, a vicar, four singing men, and four children ; the warden to be ai pointed by the crown, the fellows and others to elected by the wardens and fellows. In 1595, John] the celebrated astrologer, was appointed warden of College. In 1605 the pestilence again visited the town. Camden travelled through Lancashire in 1G07, and his description of Manchester, as it then existed, assumes great value. (Camden's Britannia ; Nichols, vol. i. Ed. 1789.) "At the confluence of the Irwell and Irk, on the left bank, which is of reddish stone, scarce three miles from the Mersey, stands that ancient town called by Antoninus, according to the various readings, Mancunium and Manucium, and by us at present, with some traces of the old name, Manchester. This surpasses the neigh- bouring towns in elegance and populousness, and cun- tains a woollen manufacture, market, church, and col- lege, founded by Lord la Warr (summoned to parliament by the name of Magister Thomas de la Warr), who took orders, and was the last male heir of his family, 1 Henry V. He was descended from the Gredleys, who are said to have been the ancient lords of this town. In the last age it was much, more famous for its manufacture of stuffs called Manchester Cottons, and the privilege of sanctuary, which the parliament of Henry VIII. trans- ferred to Chester." Bishop Gibson, in his edition of Camden, 1772, adds, "But the growth of this place, in this and the last age, having been so considerable, and what has set it above its neighbours in all respects, it may deservedly claim a particular account to be given of its present state, for, though it is neither a corporation, nor sends burgesses to parliament, yet, perhaps, as an inland town, it has the best trade of any in these northern parts. The fustian manufacture, called Manchester Cottons, still continues there, and is of late very much improved by some modern inventions of dying and printing, and this, with the great variety of other manufactures knuwn by the name of Manchester Wares, renders not only the town itself, but also the parish about it, rich, populous, and industrious." Froma poem in" Hackluyt's Voyages," published in 1430, it appears that, at that early period, cotton was imported into England by the Genoese ; and, between 1511 and 1534, "divers tall ships are mentioned by Hackluyt, of London and Bristol, which had an unusual trade to Sicily, Candia, and Chios, and sometimes to Cypius and Tripoli, and Baruth in Syria. They exported thither sundry sorts of woollen cloths, calf skins, &c., and imported from thence silks, camlets, rhubarb, malm- sey, muscadel, and other wines, oils, cotton wool, Turkey carpets, galls, and Indian spices." (Baines's History of Lancaster, vol. ii. p. 404.) The first mention made of Manchester in connection with the cotton manufacture was in Lewis lloberts's " Treasure of Traffic," published in 1641, as a seat of linen and also of cotton manufac- ture : " The town of Manchester, in Lancashire, must be also herein remembered, and, worthily for their en- couragement, commended, who buy the yarn of the Irish in great quantity, and, weaving it, return the same again into Ireland to sell. Neither doth their industry rest here, for they buy cotton-wool in London, that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and at home work the