ADVOWSONThe endowment of St. Mary's Church at Manchester is recorded in Domesday Book. Rather more than a century later the rector is named. Jordan, Dean of Manchester, occurs in 1177, when he was fined for some offence against the forest laws; ibid. 38. In 1193–4 he rendered account of £20 'for the service of Count John'; ibid. 78, 92, 97. Geoffrey, Dean of Manchester, attested a Grelley deed about 1200; Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xvii, 42. G. Dean of Manchester, perhaps the same, occurs about 1240; Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), ii, 601. See also Booker, Birch (Chet. Soc.), 231. Randle, the dean in 1294, was witness to a grant of land in Ancoats; Trafford deed quoted by Canon Raines. He was no doubt the same as Randle de Welhum, dean; Booker, Prestwich, 250. In addition to the parish, there was a deanery of Manchester, and several of the early deans are known; their position with regard to the parish church, however, is not ascertained; they may have been the chaplains in charge.
William Knight, archdeacon of Chester, held the deanery in 1534; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 224. In later times (it has been asserted) the dean's office was annexed to the rectory or wardenship, because the charter of Charles I speaks of the wardens as 'installed into the wardenship or deanship of that church.' In 1594, however, the rural dean was Thomas Richardson, and Bishop Bridgeman (between 1619 and 1636) reserved the deaneries of Manchester and Amounderness as preferments for his chaplains; Dansey, Horae Decanicae Rurales, ii, 375, 381.
The original endowment was the plough-land in Newton referred to above; to this Albert Grelley the elder added four oxgangs from his demesne, supposed to be the land afterwards called Kirkmanshulme, which, though detached, was considered part of the township of Newton; the church had also some land between Deansgate and the Irwell, known as the Parsonage land. In 1282 the value of the rectory was estimated as 200 marks, though in the official taxation of nine years later it is given as less than half that sum, viz. £53 6s. 8d. The value of the ninth of the sheaves, wool, &c., was returned as 60 marks in 1341.
Instituted in 1291, William de Marchia was rector. Pope Nicholas IV granted him, at the king's request, he being treasurer, a dispensation to hold Manchester and six other benefices, as well as the deanery of St. Martin's le Grand, and canonries in Salisbury, Chichester, and Wells, though he was only a subdeacon; he resigned one benefice, and was to resign others; Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 530. In 1293 he became Bishop of Bath and Wells, and died in 1302; Le Neve, Fasti (ed. Hardy), i, 135. He was much venerated, and miracles were said to be wrought at his tomb; Dict. Nat. Biog. In 1292 the Abbot of Merivale sued Hugh de Stanstead, rector of 'Manecestre,' for a debt; De Banco R. 92, m. 94. This was perhaps Mancetter. In 1295 Boni face VIII at the king's request allowed his clerk Walter de Langton, deacon, papal chaplain, to hold a number of benefices and canonries, resigning some and accepting Manchester among others; Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 559. In 1299 W. Bishop of Lichfield and formerly rector of Manchester agreed with William de Gringley, rector of Marnham, and the other farmers of the church of Manchester concerning moneys due to him, amounting to over £40; also 6s. which the Dean of Manchester received during the time of vacancy, and 10s. 6d. which the farmer of William Sygyn, rector in 1299, had received; Lich. Epis. Reg. Langton, i, fol. 4. The king presented his clerk Master William Segini del God to the rectory in 1296; Cal. Pat. 1292–1301, p. 190. In 1297 the pope allowed his chaplain Master William Siguin to hold the rectory of Manchester, having resigned a benefice in Agen (France), and having canonries and prebends there and in Wells and Howden; he had been under age when first beneficed; Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 572.
Thomas Grelley, the lord of Manchester, was a minor in 1299, so that the king presented, as in the preceding vacancies; Cal. Pat. 1292–1301, p. 440. In 1301 the pope made provision, at the request of Otho de Grandison, to his nephew Otho of a canonry and prebend of York, notwithstanding that he held canonries and prebends of Lausanne and Autun, the church of Manchester, and two others which he was to resign; Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 594. In the same yeare Otho was a clerk at Cambridge, and he and his men were the victims of an assault; Cal. Pat. 1292–1301, p. 629. In 1304 he had the king's licence to go beyond the seas (ibid. 1301–7, p. 217), and does not seem to have returned to Manchester.
The custody of the church (in sequestration) was granted on 31 Mar. 1306 to Geoffrey de Stokes, one of the king's clerks, and a fortnight later he was instituted to the rectory; Lich. Epis. Reg. Langton, i, fol. 10b. The reason for the sequestration is not expressed. Geoffrey de Stokes was rector of Gransden, Cambridge, in 1302, and resigned Wotton for Brightwell in 1304; Cal. Pat. 1301–7, pp. 63, 304. In the survey of 1322 it is recorded that John de Everdon was rector, and in possession of the endowment, valued at 200 marks a year, consisting of eight burgages in Manchester, the vills of Newton, Kirkmanshulme, and appurtenances; Mamecestre (Chet. Soc.), ii, 378. He held a prebend at St. Paul's and became dean in 1323; he died 15 Jan. 1336–7; Le Neve, op. cit. ii, 417, 311. He had held other benefices and canonries before coming to Manchester; Cal. of Papal Letters, ii, 23, &c.; Le Neve, op. cit. i, 586, 418.
In June 1344 John de Claydon had leave of absence for fifteen months; ibid, ii, fol. 11. He attested several local deeds; see Raines, Wardens, 8. He was rector of Swineshead in 1327; Dods. MSS. cxlix, fol. 156b. Probably he resigned it for Manchester. In 1330 John XXII granted him the provision of a canonry at St. Paul's, with reservation of a prebend; Cal. of Papal Letters, ii, 321; Le Neve, op. cit. ii, 407. From a plea in the following yeare it appears he had owed £130 to John son of Roger La Warre; De Banco R. 286, m. 28d. In the following January, Thomas de Wyke, a chaplain being described as priest, he received leave of absence for study; ibid. ii, fol. 12b. He obtained leave of absence for a yeare or two at various later dates—1355, 1361, 1362, 1365, 1371, and 1380; ibid. ii, fol. 14b; v, fol. 7b, 9b, 24b, 33b; Raines, (op. cit. 10) records a similar licence in 1357, so that Wyke's residence at Manchester was but intermittent. In 1368 he had leave to absolve his parishioners until Easter, and to choose a confessor for two years; Lich. Epis. Reg. Stretton, ii, fol. 19. He is sometimes called 'the elder' to distinguish him from Thomas de Wyke the younger, rector of the adjoining parish of Ashton from 1362 to 1371. On 22 Feb. 1458–9 a writ was issued to allow Sir Richard West to present to the church; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. 177. Dr. Radcliffe was Canon of York in 1456 and of St. Paul's in 1458, Archdeacon of Sarum in 1465, and Dean of St. Paul's in 1468, holding these dignities till his death in 1471; Le Neve, op. cit. iii, 203; ii, 383, 625, 313. Lich. Epis. Reg. Hales, xii, fol. 97, 97b; an exchange was made by which Roger Radcliffe became rector of Adbolton, John Booth resigning. The patrons of Manchester were Sir Richard West Lord La Warre (lord of Manchester), and Thomas Uvedale, John Whittokesmede, Richard Cooke, and Thomas Baille, feoffees of the lordship to the use of Lord La Warre. For the patronage at this time see Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. 177. John Booth son of Sir Robert Booth of Dunham, who had been rector of Leigh, held many ecclesiastical dignities, finally becoming Bishop of Exeter, 1465 to 1478; Le Neve, Fasti, i, 376, &c.
The date of his institution has not been discovered, but was probably about 1390; he had the bishop's leave of absence for two years, the church being let to farm; Lich. Epis. Reg. Scrope, vi, fol. 125b. He succeeded to the lordship of Manchester in 1398 on the death of his brother John, being then 'over forty years' of age; Inq. p.m. 22 Ric. II, no. 53. In 1363, being 'in his twentyfirst year,' he obtained the papal dispensation to be ordained priest and hold a benefice; Cal. of Papal Letters, iv, 31. From 1371 to 1373 he was rector of Ashtonunder-Lyne; he held a canonry at Lincoln from 1376 till his death in 1427, others at York from 1381 to 1397 and 1407 to 1427, at Southwell 1397; Le Neve, Fasti, ii, 161, 158; iii, 191, 209, 450. He was also rector of Swineshead in Lincolnshire in 1423; Raines, Wardens, 15. In 1390 Boniface IX, in consideration of his noble birth and at the request of Richard II, granted him a dispensation to hold another benefice with cure, he then having, in addition to the rectory of Manchester, the free chapel of Barthorpe in Lincolnshire and canonries at Lincoln and York; Cal. of Papal Letters, iv, 356. He resigned the rectory of Manchester in order that the college he founded in its place might begin its work without incumbrance. He would then be nearly eighty years of age.
On 23 Nov. 1422, at the manor of Swineshead, Thomas La Warre presented Mr. John Huntington to be instituted to the wardenship of the collegiate church of Manchester, viz. of one college, with master or warden, chaplain, and eight fellow chaplains, four clerks, and six choristers; two days later Huntington was admitted, all episcopal rights and customs and the pension of 40s. being reserved. The new warden, who was rector of Ashton, resided in Manchester; his great work was the building of the quire of the church. He was buried in this part of the building. His life is told by Raines, op. cit. 16–23. He died 11 Nov. 1458, and by will of 1454 left his lands in Manchester and Salford towards the building of the new work of the chancel of the church of our Lady of Manchester by him begun. His Chesterfield property he left to his kinswoman Elizabeth Barret. The testator's directions were not carried out fully, for lands in Nether Alport came into the possession of the Hulme family, and it was not until 1507 that a settlement was made by arbitration. The feoffees were then directed to receive £5 a yeare for a chantry priest to be nominated by Ralph Hulme and his heirs, to pray for the souls of John Huntington and others. The warden also acquired land in Hanging Ditch for an almshouse, but his intention was not fulfilled. Warden Huntington's last will is printed in Wills (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), 17, and Lancs. and Ches. Antiq. Soc. iii, 144. For his memorial brass still remaining, see ibid. ii, 92.
During his wardenship there was a stormy incident. One of the clerks, Thomas Barbour, had given offence to the Booths and others, who attempted his arrest in church. The people protecting him, the Booths summoned Sir John Byron and others of the gentry, who with their men to the number of 500, all armed, laid siege to the warden's house. The clergy dare not enter the church, which remained closed.Warden Langley took the prebend in St. Paul's vacated by James Stanley, who had held it since 1458. The new warden was also Archdeacon of Chester, 1478 to 1485, and held the family rectory of Winwick; see Le Neve, op. cit. John Stanley became rector of Winwick in 1493, and was also rector of Walton on the Hill and Rostherne; he was Dean of St. Martin's le Grand, and Archdeacon of Richmond (1500); he became Bishop of Ely in 1506, and died in 1515. In the Stanley family poem he is called 'a proper man,' but regret is expressed that he became a priest instead of a soldier, not having the gift of continence. His illegitimate son, Sir John Stanley of Hanford in Cheshire, was a soldier of distinction, and became a monk at Westminster; Earwaker, East. Ches. i, 245–50. The bishop was fond of cockfighting down to the later years of his life; Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 63. For a defence of his character see the Rev. E. F. Letts in Lancs. and Ches. Antiq. Soc. vi, 161, &c. He died at Manchester and was buried there; his memorial brass remains in the cathedral. There are notices of him in Dict. Nat. Biog. and Cooper, Athen. Cantab. i, 16. Robert Cliffe had in 1496 studied the civil law at Oxford and Cambridge for eight years; Grace Bk. B. (Luard Mem.), 99. He had been rector of Winwick from 1485 to 1493, and after leaving Manchester held benefices in Cambridgeshire; see Cooper, Athen. Cantab. i, 66, 67, for his later career. The Lichfield registers state that the wardenship was vacated by his death, but this appears to be an error, as letters from him written at Cambridge are printed in Raines, Wardens, 47–50; they are endorsed 'Mr. Warden's letters about the tithe of the Moor, 11 Hen. VIII,' and speak of an approaching meeting of Parliament. The endorsement may be erroneous, as Parliament did not meet in 1520. He was adverse to the king's divorce from Queen Katherine; Cooper, Ann. of Camb. i, 338 (quoting Burnet's Records, I, ii, no. 22).
The patrons were Richard Hatfield and Nicholas Statham, by grant of Lord La Warre and the feoffees named in the last note. Ralph Langley was also rector of Prestwich, 1445 to 1493. He is said to have given the first chimes to Manchester Church. He had a dispute with his predecessor in respect of certain goods claimed by the bishop; Pal. of Lanc. Plea R. 34, m. 30. The patronage of the church descended with the manor until the confiscation of the college endowments in 1547; on the refounding by Mary it was assumed by the Crown. The list of rectors and wardens gives evidence of this. Thomas West, Lord La Warre, died in 1554 seised of the manor of Manchester and the advowson of the church; Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. The Crown seems to have exercised the patronage from the refounding of the college in 1557, and expressly claimed it in the charters of Elizabeth and of Charles I..
The church was made collegiate in 1421–2 by Thomas, Lord La Warre, the rector and patron, in honour of St. Mary, St. Denis, and St. George. The tithes were appropriated to its maintenance, and the old manor-house and certain lands were given to increase the endowment, £3,000 being set apart for building a suitable residence on the site of the manorhouse. The ancient rectory house is supposed to have been in Deansgate, on the church land there. The new foundation consisted of a warden or master, eight fellows or chaplains, four clerks or deacons, and six choristers. In 1534 the revenue from lands was £40 5s. 3d., and from tithes £186 7s. 2d.; payments of £13 1s. 6d. had to be made, and the clear value therefore was £213 10s. 11d. The warden received £20, and each of the eight fellows or vicars £4, so that a large sum remained for the minor officers and the general expenses of maintenance.
The college was dissolved in 1547 under Edward VI, and its lands were confiscated; it was, however, refounded on the old lines by Mary in 1557, and parts of its lands in Newton and Kirkmanshulme which still remained in the Crown, as also the rectorial tithes, were given back to it. As Mary's refoundations were again confiscated at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign the position of Manchester College was doubtful; it was not actually seized by the Crown, though plundered indirectly, and in 1578 was formally refounded by the queen. The name was changed to Christ's College; the warden and four fellows constituted the foundation, and were to appoint two chaplains or vicars to visit the sick, administer the sacrament and other divine services; also four laymen and four children skilled in music were to sing, say prayers, read chapters, and continue other divine exercises in the collegiate church. The warden was to receive 4s. for each day he was present and resident; each fellow 16d. each day he was present; a chaplain 6¾d. a day, a chorister 4½d., and a singing boy 2¾d. The warden and subwarden were to have a house rentfree.
On account of various abuses it became necessary in 1635 to obtain a new charter, refounding the college; and this charter—except during the Commonwealth, when Manchester, like other collegiate foundations, was suppressed —continued in force until the foundation of the bishopric of Manchester in 1847, when the church became the cathedral, and its warden the dean, other consequent changes being made.
The Commonwealth Surveyors in 1650 found the warden and fellows in nominal possession of lands in Deansgate, Newton, and Kirkmanshulme, of a total rent of £46, with the benefit of fines; the payment had recently been stopped 'by order.' The tithes were estimated at the clear value of £550; the greater part of these had also been detained. The warden, one of the fellows, and another minister were in charge of the parish church, being 'godly preachers.' With the growth of the town the value of the church lands constantly increased. They are now in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who, after making the regulated payments to the dean, canons, and others, and providing for the maintenance of the services, devote the remainder to various ecclesiastical purposes in the neighbourhood.
The cathedral staff consists of the dean, four residentiary canons, who have rectories within the parish, and undertake the duties of the sub-dean, bursar, collector of rents, and registrar; twenty-four honorary canons and two minor canons, assisted by two clerks in orders, of whom one acts as precentor. Of the fellows and canons no account is given in this place, but as many of them were beneficed in the county, they are not altogether unnoticed. The earlier rectors were often men of distinction, but pluralists and non-resident. It was to remedy this abuse that the college was founded, and to some extent it met the necessities of the case. The various chantries also helped to maintain an adequate supply of clergy; in particular, the foundation of Richard Bexwick for priests and schoolmaster in the Jesus chapel was made with this intention. The first college possessed a library, which seems to have perished with it; but another was in 1653 founded in the Jesus chapel and maintained by the town. Just before the destruction of the college there appear to have been the warden, five priests, and four deacons on the foundation, 'all resident and observing their statutes'; also two curates, six chantry priests, and a fluctuating number of others—fifteen or more—who had casual offices or served the outlying chapelries. Thus for a population estimated at 6,000 'houseling people,' there were over thirty priests available. The church was decently furnished with plate, vestments, and other ornaments. The simultaneous abolition of college and chantries and the confiscation of the endowments made a vast difference. It is not exactly known how the Edwardine services were conducted, or what payments were made to the ministers.
In the Visitation list of 1548 twenty-two names appeared; ten of them reappeared in 1554, when six new names were added, two being those of the 'curates'—Ralph Birch and Hugh Ormishaw. In 1563 Thomas Herle, the warden, headed the list; he had two curates—Robert Prestwich and Edward Holt; five of the chapels of ease had curates in charge; there were four other names, two of which were soon erased, and another was described as 'decrepit.' The number of clergy therefore had been reduced to twelve, nine being effective. In the list of 1565 only those on the foundation were recorded—the warden, four chaplains, four deacons, and four (lay) choristers. The omission of any notice of the chapels of ease was perhaps a fault of the registrar's clerk; but it seems clear that the Pre-Reformation staff of thirty to thirty-four had been reduced to a dozen or less. Only two of the clergy of 1548 appear in the 1565 list, but some of the chapels of ease, if just then in use, may have retained the former curates.
Though the gentry held, for a time at least, to the old ways, and though such wardens as Collier and Vaux were in life and doctrine an instructive contrast to their successors, the people of the district rapidly accepted Protestantism, and that in its more pro nounced forms. The preaching of John Bradford may have had something to do with the change, though he was so little satisfied that he warned his audiences that 'because they did not readily embrace the Word of God, the Mass should again be said in that church, and the play of Robin Hood acted there.' His letters and George Marsh's show that there were a certain number of resolute Protestants in the town in Mary's reign, and some are stated to have been imprisoned in the college.
The refoundation of the college by Queen Elizabeth gave the church a respectable body of Calvinistic divines, but the wardenships of Dee and Murray again proved disastrous. One of the fellows, however, William Bourne, acquired a dominating position in the town; 'This is Mr. Bourne's judgement,' was sufficient for the people. It is not surprising to learn that two of the chaplains in 1591 administered the sacrament without a surplice and that other irregularities were allowed; many of the people, it seems, preferred the churchyard to the church at sermontime. The growing influence of Puritanism is seen in the stricter Sunday observance. The new foundation of Charles I had no perceptible effect in neutralizing its prevalence.
Under the Presbyterian discipline established in 1646 Manchester became the head of a classis, which included also the adjoining parishes of Ashton, Eccles, Flixton, and Prestwich-with-Oldham. Four years later there seems to have been a regular staff of twelve ministers in the parish, of whom three were at the parish church and the others at the various chapels. Just before the Restoration Richard Heyrick, Henry Newcome, and Joshua Stopford were in charge.
After 1660 a tone a little more High Church gradually prevailed, so that by the end of the 17th century the clergy were strongly Jacobite, and remained so until after 1745. Bishop Gastrell about 1717 found that the warden and four fellows supplied all the turns of preaching, and the two chaplains read prayers and did all the other duty of the whole parish, receiving the surplice fees; a 'cathedral service' was performed by the four singing men, four choristers, and organist. At this time and afterwards the building of new churches and the growth of Nonconformist congregations continually diminished the importance of the collegiate clergy; while the great increase of their wealth rendered a change of its distribution desirable, and this was effected in the least injurious mode by several Acts of Parliament. From 1854 the various district chapelries have become independent parishes, the incumbents having the title of rector. As might be expected from the importance of the place there were a number of chantry endowments, of which particulars are given in the record of their confiscation in 1547. The curates, i.e. the two fellows or chaplains who served the parish, had in addition to their college stipend the profits of the 'Obit lands,' given at various times by a number of benefactors, being in return bound to celebrate certain obits yearly for the souls of the donors. The rents amounted to 102s. 11½d.
The chantry of St. James, founded by Ralph Hulme in 1507 from lands left by the first warden, John Huntington, had a clear income of £6 1s. 8d. The 'new chapel' of St. John Baptist—later known as the Stanley or Derby chapel—begun by James Stanley, Bishop of Ely and formerly warden, and completed by his son Sir John Stanley, had an endowment of £4 2s. 8d. This chapel, which has the small Ely chapel at its north-east corner, was used as the baptistry a century ago. The Trafford chapel or 'closet of St. Nicholas' had a chantry founded, it was believed, by Robert Grelley—possibly the lord of Allerton and Chorlton, living in the 14th century; the clear income was £5 9s. 7d. In the same chapel was another chantry founded by the ancestors of Sir Edmund Trafford, the incumbent being known as 'the Lady priest'; the endowment being very small, 65s. net, the parishioners contributed a quantity of oats for him. At St. George's altar there were two chantries, both founded by Robert Chetham; at one of them the priest was to celebrate Mass at six o'clock in the morning for the souls of the founder and his ancestors; the net endowment of this chantry was £6 2s. 7d., and that of the second £5 0s. 8d. Another chantry was that founded by William Radcliffe at the altar of the Trinity, with a net income of £5 3s. 2d.
An important foundation, already mentioned, was that of Richard Bexwick at the Jesus altar. His intentions do not seem to have been carried out fully, but in 1547 two priests, one of them teaching a school, were maintained. There were gilds associated with the Jesus and St. George's chapels; also a gild of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which may have been associated with the Lady chapel. This chapel was at the east end of the church, and there was an altar of St. Michael, probably at the east end of the south aisle of the quire. The chapel of Salford Bridge does not appear to have had any special chaplain or endowment. The grammar school, founded by Hugh Oldham in 1515, and Chetham's Hospital and Library, founded under the will of Humphrey Chetham, who died in 1653, are described elsewhere.