off from the Collegiate Church certain ornaments and plate belonging to the queen, of the value of £500.' In the same year the commons of Collyhurst were enclosed, a proceeding which appears to have given great offence to the inhabitants of the town, for they sallied forth and tore down the enclosures. This determined resistance to the regulations of the lord of the manor, who looked upon the same as an infringement of his rights and privileges, induced William West, lord la Warre, to visit Manchester, and while here he let Collyhurst, to all such as would take the same, at four shillings an acre per annum, and twenty shillings fine in advance. A few years later, in 1577, Crossford or Crossferry Bridge, near Stretford, was rebuilt of stone, having previously been of wood, and towards the expense incurred the inhabitants of Manchester, in addition to paying their share of the general assessment made for that purpose, 'of their benevolence' gave £40.

About this time Camden, in the pursuit of his topographical enquiries, visited Manchester, of which town he gives the following short description in his 'Britannia:'-'At the confluence of the Irwell and the Irk,' says he, '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. It surpasses the neighbouring towns in elegance and populousness; there is a woollen manufacture, market, church, and college, founded by Thomas Lord de la Warre, who took orders, and was the last male heir of his family in the time of Henry V. He was descended from the Gresleys, who are said to have been the ancient lords of the 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 under Henry VIII. transferred to Chester.'

In 1578 the college of Manchester was refounded by Queen Elizabeth, when it was ordered that the collegiate body should consist of a warden, four fellows, and two chaplains, besides choristers. No sooner was the new arrangement of the ecclesiastical affairs of the town effected than a difference arose between the lord of the manor and the inhabitants in the choice of a boroughreeve. The lord's steward chose John Gee, but the

town's people, taking their stand on the provisions of their charter, which expressly stated that the burgesses ought or might 'elect a boroughreeve of themselves, whom they would,' elected Robert Langley. This manifestation of spirit and resistance to dictation on the part of the burgesses, engendered great animosity between the inhabitants and the lord of the manor, and no doubt had great influence in determining the latter to alienate the manor, which for so many centuries had been in the possession of his family. This event took place on the 15th of May, 1579, when by an indenture, 'Sir William West, Knight, lord la Warre, and Thomas West, his son and heir apparent, in consideration of £3,000, did grant, bargain, and sell to John Lacye, citizen and cloth-worker of London, and to his heirs and assigns for ever, all the manor, lordship, and seigniory of Manchester, in the county of Lancaster, with its appurtenances, with all manner of court leets, views of frank-pledge, and all fairs, markets, tolls, liberties, customs privileges, free warren, jurisdiction, &c., to the same manor belonging.' From this date the La Warres ceased all connection with this ancient town. William Lord la Warre married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Strange, Esq., of Chesterton, in the county of Gloucester, by whom he had issue, Thomas, his son and heir, and three daughters. By an inquisition taken after his decease, it appears he died at Wherwell, December 30th, 1595, and that Sir Thomas West, Knight, was his son and heir, aged forty years. From this, Thomas West, and ninth in lineal descent, is descended George John Sackville West, the present Earl Delawarr, Viscount Cantilupe, Baron Delawarr, Baron West, and high steward of Stratford-upon-Avon, whose seats are Bourn Hall, Caxton, Cambridgeshire, and Buckhurts Park, East Grimshead, Sussex.

СНАРТER XIII.

Proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Commission-Increase of Puritanical principlesPope Gregory XIII. sends a body of priests to England to attempt its re-conversion-Increased severities against Catholics-The Bishop of Chester and Earl of Derby resident in Manchester-Removal of Recusants from Halton Castle, in Cheshire, to Manchester-Their Prisons in the town-Radcliff HallExecution of Catholics at Lancaster and at Knott Mill-The Spanish ArmadaCorps raised in Manchester for the defence of the country-State of society in Manchester in the reign of Elizabeth.

IN the year 1579, William Chadderton, D.D., a native of Nuthurst, in the township of Moston, was made bishop of Chester, and shortly afterwards received the wardenship of the Collegiate Church of Manchester. He was one of the ecclesiastical commissioners for the North of England, whose province it was to root out the old religion and establish the tenets of the Reformation. He appears to have been on the most intimate terms with the Earl of Derby, another of the commissioners, who, at that time, resided at Alport Lodge. Scarcely had he

I Alport Lodge, the seat of the Earl of Derby, is thus described by Mr. Palmer, in his history of the 'Siege of Manchester:-"The Lodge was situated in Alport Park, which was held, soon after the first foundation of the Collegiate Church, by the warden thereof, under a rent of four marks per annum, from Richard West, lord de la Warr, lord of Manchester, and continued to be enjoyed by his successors in office under the same annual rent, till the dissolution of the college in the reign of Edward VI., when it was granted to the Earl of Derby, with the rest of the college land. It appears that Alport Park and Over Alport contained in the whole ninety-five acres and upwards, and would cover the whole area between the rivers Irwell and Tib, and between the river Medlock and the present Quay Street. The Park was situated upon the right of the road to Knott Mill, and included the present Castle and Camp fields; for Camden mentions the foundations of the Castle as being visible in his time, within the park of the Earl of Derby. The precise situation of the lodge cannot be ascertained with accuracy, but there is reason to suppose that it stood near the spot adjoining Alport Street, now called Dean's Gate, and almost opposite to the end of Fleet Street.'

taken possession of his dignities than new and more severe measures were adopted by the commissioners against the Catholics of Manchester and the surrounding district. Fines were levied against such recusants as did not appear at church; but this proving ineffectual, the queen ordered the principal offenders to be imprisoned at Halton Castle, in the county of Chester. The commissioners at Manchester seem to have carried out this order in a manner most satisfactory to their royal mistress, who sent to them a letter of thanks. This imprisonment of the recusants was followed by a representation from the court to the Bishop of Chester, of the inconveniences with regard to the queen's safety, of young gentlemen being educated in popish countries, and requiring him to call before him divers gentlemen of his diocese, and to take bonds of them to call their children home in three months' time; and also to inquire by his archdeacons, what other persons were abroad, that they might be ordered home.'

Puritanism seems to have increased in Manchester about this period, for Hollingworth informs us that in 1579, the Earl of Derby and the Bishop of Chester, and others, her majesty's commissioners, being assembled at Manchester, gave forth orders and injunctions against 'pipers and minstrels playing, making and frequenting alehouses, bear or bull baiting on Sundays, or any other days in time of divine service or sermons; also against superfluous and superstitious singing, wakes and common feasts, &c.' The number of alehouse keepers and bakers in Manchester at this period, was represented to the lords of the council, as being excessive, and a letter was addressed to Sir John Byrom, Knt., Thomas Holcroft, Richard Ashton, and Richard Brereton, Esqs., requiring them to call before them all such persons, and to suppress as many of their houses as they should think advisable. According to this despatch, the houses of entertainment were the very nurseries of all malefactors, and the harbourers of all lewd and disorderly persons, and, as such, stood in the way of that reformation of morals, which it was the object of the ecclesiastical commission and of the government, by whom the commissioners were appointed, to effect.

In 1580, the Pope, Gregory XIII. sent a body of priests to England to attempt its re-conversion. Its leaders were Robert Parsons and Edmond Campion, who had formerly been members

of the University of Oxford, and had been Protestants before their conversion to Catholicity. They reached England in July, and soon reconciled many to the ancient faith. A proclamation was shortly afterwards issued against them, to which Campion prepared a reply, in which he expressed a desire for a public disputation. The Parliament of 1581 met the endeavours of this body of priests with the most stringent enactments. The first act of the session of the 23rd Elizabeth recites that the statute against bringing in bulls and writings from Rome has been evaded, and that 'divers evil-affected persons have practised contrary to the meaning of the said statute, by other means than by bulls written and printed, to withdraw the queen's majesty's subjects from their natural obedience to her majesty, &c.' This is distinctly levelled against those who interpreted the decrees of the Pope through their oral communications; who, invested with especial authority, moved quietly about from town to town, and from village to village; who were cherished and concealed in mansions, where they were cautiously introduced to those timid souls who were wavering in their attachment to the Catholic religion. The statute provides that, any person reconciling another to the See of Rome should be punished as a traitor, and the person so reconciled incur misprision of treason; saying mass was to be punished by a fine of 200 marks; hearing it, by a fine of 100 marks, with, in each case, a year's imprisonment; absence from church was to be punished by a fine of £20 a month, and if continued a year two sureties of £200 each were to be given for future good behaviour. All schoolmasters were to be licensed by the bishop of the diocese, or suffer a year's imprisonment, and persons employing them to be fined £10 a month.

These severe measures produced consternation in every part of the country. Lancashire, the most Catholic county in England, was in a very agitated state. This we learn from a letter written by Lord Burleigh to the Bishop of Chester. His lordship also states that the revenues of the Collegiate Church were misapplied, owing to the want of proper supervision. These things induced the Bishop of Chester to take up his residence at Manchester, where his fellow-commissioner, the Earl of Derby, already resided. This resolution of the bishop was much approved of by the Lord President of the North, at whose suggestion public