Chapter Three TUDOR ROCHDALE : 1485-1603 THE MANOR AND THE BYRONS . FTER the death of Sir Nicholas Byron in 1504 there were five successive John Byrons, all of whom were eventually knighted . The first Sir John had a bastard son by Elizabeth Halgh of A Moston, whom he afterwards married, dying in 1567 .1 This Lady Elizabeth, now twice widowed, survived him by some thirteen years ; her personal possessions reveal her as a fashionable and practical lady, with a red petticoat, a kirtle of velvet with a purple satin forepart, a gorget of taffeta at her throat, and a gown of damask, furred with lamb . Both her husband and her son lived at Royton Hall ; perhaps she rode there in her grey mantle, on her horse with a velvet-covered lady's saddle . As was usual, she drank beer, and also owned a spinning-wheel, worth Is . l0d . Her husband's stewardship of the Manor was one long battle to enclose and encroach on land-then greatly in demand for sheep-grazing and the supply of wool . According to a copy of a certificate dated 1519-20, he enclosed part of Buersill common with a dyke, but this was " in peaceable manner " cast down again by certain women and children . Some time before 1552 he set up boundary stones well within the Crompton district .2 (One of these massive stones still stands near the hawthorn lane which leads from Snipe Leach to Moorgate West Farm and to Broad Lane . During recent perambulations of the boundaries it has been the custom to climb over the Moorgate Farm roof, since a through door has been stopped up) . Eventually, after disputes and lawsuits he bought houses and about 300 acres in Buersill in 1554.3 In 1543 Henry VIII granted, at a rental, the subordinate Manor of Spotland to the powerful Holts of

30 ROCHDALE RETROSPECT Gristlehurst,4 near Bury, with whom the Halts of Stubley were connected . For 20 years Sir John Byron was unable to collect rents from the Holts ; he also complained that they would not go to the Scotch wars under him and that they held a Court Leet of their own . Charles Holt of Stubley held Naden, which was said to contain a manor house . In 1573, accor- ding to a deed quoted by Fishwick, a Court was reported as having been held in Spotland . In 1575 Francis Holt of Gristlehurst became the High Sheriff of Lancashire. The second Sir John Byron (known as " Little Sir John with the Long Beard "), succeeded in 1567, on the death of his father. Being twice made High Sheriff, in 1572 and 1581, he was knighted in 1579 . Apart from inheriting his father's troubles with the Hells he became embroiled with Sir John Savile and many others over the question of enclosing the wastes . For many years there had been an unsystematic acquiring of land in Rochdale-in many cases without warrant . In 15865 a Duchy Com- mission granted to Sir John Byron the right to search out " ancient cus- tomary lands and tenements " which had been escaping their proper dues . Byron was allowed to re-grant these lands at a rental and also to grant out the wastes to copyholders, i.e. to tenants who would hold a written copy of their grants as recorded in the Manor Court Rolls . This naturally caused much discontent . In 15876 Byron was obliged to buy out Sir John Savile's rights in the wastes for £1,000, but in 1588, after complaints, Byron's rights were limited to one half of the wastes ; the other half was to remain free ; moreover, copyholders with at least 12 acres of land were to be allowed to build on it . The position was now clearer, but revolts still followed ; Sir John's new fences continued to be pulled up and when, in 1595, the Byron representatives, headed by Gabriel Gartside, went to drive strangers' sheep from the Byron lands and into the Manor fold they were attacked by the swords, rapiers and daggers of the Halts and their supporters and forced to give up the sheep .7 It may here be mentioned that there might once have been a " Manor House . . . now commonly called by the name of the Castlehill " in Rochdale . A . P. Wadsworth instances a 1696 Chancery document which so describes one,s but the 1610 Inquisition of Rochdale states that the Courts had " always been kept " in inns in Rochdale town. However, in 1610 the Lord of the Manor owned the Castle Hill (as he still does today) and the house which stood upon it, then occupied by a Gabriel Taylor. This Sir John Byron died during the last year of the Tudor era and two years after the passing of the 1601 Poor Law Act which gave to those prominent but unpaid local gentry, the Justices of the Peace, power to appoint Overseers in each parish, and to enforce taxes towards the relief of the poor . Some indication of the change in money values is shown by the

TUDOR ROCHDALE : 1485-1603 31 Manor Court Rolls : in those of 1366 the fine for breaking the peace was usually between 3d . and 6d., but in 1566 fines of 20d . and 3s . 4d. were imposed for such " frays."9 DISSOLUTION AND CONFISCATION . The struggle for land ownership was stimulated by Henry VIII's dissolution of the smaller and then the larger monasteries in 1536 and 1539 respectively . In 1541 Lancashire became part of the See of Chester ; in 1548 Edward VI suppressed the chantries (i.e . privately endowed chapels) . Most of the property of the monasteries and of the chantries was sold to speculators and others ; the proceeds went to the Crown . Here was the end of Stanlaw and of Whalley-only a stone or two remains of the former, but the roofless ruins of the latter still stand . John Paslow, last Abbot of Whalley, took part in the great northern rising, the Pilgrimage of Grace, being afterwards imprisoned in Lancaster Castle, where in 1537 he was hanged, drawn and quartered . In the north of England, ever conservative, the sympathies of the people were with the monks, who had been at least reasonable landlords and employers, as well as learned, hospitable and charitable. Never- the less they had lived richly and at the expense of the parochial clergy, whose morale had deteriorated . Between 1522 and 1554, Gilbert Haydock was the Vicar of Roch- dale. Until 1547 the clergy were still required to be celibate, yet Hay- dock's will (now, with many other Rochdale documents, in the Lancashire Record Office at Preston) names " Johane, my basterde doughter and Anne the doughter of Richarde Haydocke my hasterde sonne " as his executors. He died leaving debts of over £80, nearly as much as the total value of his goods . (At this time a couple of shillings would buy a whole sheep or about 500 eggs .) The suppression of the chantries caused, in Rochdale, a pitiful state of affairs . Men who had seen small chapels built were obliged to watch their confiscation together with vestments and chalices, although finally they were allowed to buy them hack . In the Parish Church the Trinity Chapel (north) had been founded in 1487, and St . Katherine's (south) at about the same time ; a chapel at Littlehorough was built some years earlier, those at Todmorden and Milnrow a little later, and a Whitworth Chapel was built in about 1529 . In the inventories of church possessions there is a mention of an early " payre of orgaynes " and " fyve grete belles " belonging to the Parish Church .'() Only two other churches in Lancashire had one of these 16th century organs, which customarily had two keyboards . "ALL CHANGE" AT THE HALLS . It is difficult to establish the dates when the earliest halls were first built in some durable form, but from a wealth of material quoted by Fishwick and by the Victoria County History it is clear that during the first half of the 16th century there were certain well-established " mess- uages " and also that there was an almost general " all-change " between

3 2 ROCHDALE RETROSPECT

the intermarrying families who lived in these dwelling-places . which were probably made of timber, filled in with wattle and daub, with no chimneys and with wicker " panes " to the windows, instead of glass . Stubley and the Holts . Stubley Hall, the seat of the Rochdale Holt family, is said to have been rebuilt in about 1529, by the first of three successive Robert Holts; the 16th century timber frame of the north and west wings are still visible from the outside of the house . This Robert Holt owned doublets (or waistcoats) of satin and " saye " (or serge, probably mixed with silk), also a damask-lined gown . He appears to have been a little unreasonable with the herald who came to record Lancashire pedigrees in 1533 and who wrote down tersely that Robert Holt had married an old woman by whom he had no issue and that therefore he would not have her name entered . A nephew, Robert Holt, succeeded him, leaving a will dated 1556, two years later than his uncle's, after which Robert Holt of Whitwell, (near Walmersley, Bury) inherited . It is this third Robert's 1561 will which gives details of " my lord's chamber, the great chamber, the chapel chamber, the inner chamber, the new parlour, the hall, the inner parlour, the old parlour, or Sr . Myghell's chamber, the chamber without and the closet," also mentioning an iron chimney in the hall, " sylyng tymbre " or wainscoting, a " sylver " salt and 14 spoons, etc. C'astleton and the Ho/ts . In 1542 Robert Holt had bought part of the Whalley estates in Castleton, and this later hall is believed to have been built during the reign of Elizabeth . Towards the end of the century the third Robert's son and grandson (Charles and John) were evidently living here in some fine style, but not until the 18th century did this hall become the most important in the parish . Clegg and the Belfie/ds . A branch of the Belfields had long held lands in Clegg and had intermarried with the Clegg family ; in 1557 Ralph Belfield of Clegg died, leaving two daughters who both had made child- marriages on the same day . Elizabeth Belfield married Alexander Barlow at Middleton Church and was divorced on the grounds that her husband was so young that " he doth not remember that he ever was marryed ." Anne Belfield married Richard Leigh, who afterwards went to school at Shrewsbury, where she sent him a " gilt book " and he sent her a knife (then a valued possession) which she wore at her girdle . She, too, was divorced and the two sisters married Arthur Ashton's sons, Edward, Rector of Middleton, and William, respectively . Arthur Ashton, a wealthy attorney-at-law, who died in 1591, left the customary Id. dole (or manchet) to the poor of Rochdale, also £20 to them which he " once intended towards Beile Bridge making." Clegg Hall eventually passed to Theophilus Ashton, the son of William and Anne . It had a reputation for being haunted, and gave rise to the local saying " As ill as Clegg Hall boggart." At some early time the rightful heirs were supposed to have been dispossessed by being drowned in the moat : John Roby's Traditions of Lancashire contains this legend and other lively tales connected with the hall .

TUDOR ROCHDALE : 1485-1603 33

Belfield and the Buttermorths . Probably Robert Butterworth, who died in 1557, was the first of his family to own Belfield Hall. He was succeeded by his nephew Edward, who died in 1570, leaving a son Alex- ander, then aged 6, and three younger daughters . Alexander in 1593 married Grace, daughter of William Ashton of Clegg . Healer and the C'hadn'icks . Healey Hall descended, by marriage settlements, to John Chadwick, who died in 1496. His son, Thomas, was then only 10 years old, having been, as Fishwick records, at the age of 9 contracted to marry Grace Radcliffe, but the contract was afterwards annulled . In about 1581 Robert Chadwick of Healey married Alice, the youngest sister of Alexander Butterworth, when she could scarcely have been more than 14 . Robert's brother, another Thomas, who died in 1614, left a " night gowne " to his father, Mr . John Chadwick of Healey, and a silver bowl to his nephew Richard Entwisle . Branches of the Healey family continued to hold possessions in the district. Chadwick and the C'hadn'icks . Meanwhile, when Oliver Chadwick died in 1542 he was " seised of a capital messuage and lands " at Chadwick, which he held of Robert Holt " in socage," with the right of hereditary tenantship . The Chadwicks of Healey were a branch of this family, long established at Chadwick. Oakenrod and the Gartsides . The original Oakenrod family, like the Stubleys, appear to have been short-lived, and their Spotland holdings passed through many hands . Eventually, in 1598 Sir Alexander Radcliffe of Ordsall granted a messuage and mill at Oakenrod to Alice, widow of Gabriel Gartside and mother of Henry . From the middle of the 15th century a branch of the Gartsides had held land at Longfield, near Oaken- rod, and had spent good money on ditching and improving it . In 1543-4, shortly after the Holts' leasing of the Whalley lands in Spotland, James Gartside and others, intent on defending their ground and having " bows, arrowes, swords and bokelers, staves and billes and other weapons," riotously entered upon the land called Longfield and " shote fyve arrowes " at Thomas Holt and his wife (of Gristlehurst) and cut asunder the " temes " of oxen which were drawing the ploughs . Schofield and the Schofields. In a turbulent age, the Schofields did not lag behind . " James Schofeld, of Schofeld, gentleman " in 1537 laid claim to houses, lands and moors called " Wittaker," near to Scho- field. In 1557 Arthur Scolfeld of .Scolfeld left a silk doublet, a brooch and a sword to his heir Cuthbert Scolfeld . His other bequests included a silk hat, and, to his servant, a buckskin doublet, a leather jerkin and a pair of hose . Between 1560 and 1570 alone, Cuthbert Schofield was in- volved in no less than five law-suits, the first one concerning his wife Anne (the illegitimate daughter of Sir John and Lady Elizabeth Byron), whom he charged with having committed adultery at his home, Schofield Hall, while he and his mother went to Rochdale " Markat." Cuthbert chased his wife and her lover, Michael Goodricke, out of a window with

34 ROCHDALE RETROSPECT

Ashton By ran JOY r"

b u

Chadwitk 6arfside Halliwell

Healey arrlo' Sd o`ield ddanlaiime : N ifnrtu . Shields of Rochdale families .

TUDOR ROCHDALE : 1485-1603 35 his sword, and soon divorced her . Next he alleged that Edmund Butter- worth had stopped up a highway for " cart and carriage " through Little Haworth, and this was followed by a determined attempt to enforce his right of way through lands leading to Milnrow Chapel, and, indeed, his rights to the land on which the " late dissolved chantry " stood. Sir John Byron complained that Cuthbert " in veric riotous and forceabic manor . . . hath shut up" the chapel, and when people arrived for a service they found there " several disordered persons with drawn swords . and lyke to have slain divers of them, especially one Adam Brereley, then constable of the said town (Constables of townships, unpaid and appointed annually by the lords of manors, had been in existence in England since the 13th century). Soon afterwards Sir John Byron again complained that Cuthbert Schofield and others had misappropriated "certain writings" and wrongly taken part of Hollingworth waste . In another year or two Cuthbert re-opened his father's claim to Whittaker . The family's ancient arms were confirmed and a somewhat fitting crest of a red and horned bull's head was granted to Cuthbert Schofield in 1583 by the herald William Flower. In 1588 and 1590 this aggressive gentleman had baseborn sons by a Jane Langley . He died in 1605, and one wonders how close was the relationship between him and the Robert Schofield who was supposedly killed by witchcraft some years before . For this particular crime one Alice Brereley, having first been condemned to death, was pardoned in 1597 .11 Cuthbert was succeeded at Schofield Hall by his nephew Gerard, who married Mary, the daughter of Richard Lynney. Pike House and the Halliivells . The Halliwells of Pike House (once called Waterhouse) originally came from Yorkshire but in 1522 were settled at Ealees and in 1561 acquired Pike House from the Earl of Derby . On a sundial dated 1563, and still existing in 1926, were the letters " Sensi . . . ine," probably " Sensim sine sensu," or " Softly, and no man knows." Pike House became the centre of a cluster of long- surviving houses at the foot of Blackstone Edge : Ealees, Bent House, Lightowlers and Windy Bank were all at some time or other inhabited or at least partly owned by the Halliwells, whose connections also extended to Wild House and Birchinley . The Great House. In the very heart of Rochdale stood the Great House, specified in a deed of 1565 as " a house where Robert Garside dwelleth, abuttinge upon the Towne Gate in Rochdale . .. . This gate was known as the Lower Gate : the Great House itself was later rebuilt, standing in a garden between the Lortburn, or Lord's Burn, and the Roch, and, still later, becoming popularly known as Amen Corner . A MERCATE TOWNE WELL FREQUENTED . Between 1534 and 1543 John Leland made his famous tour of England, but he came no nearer to Rochdale than Manchester, Leigh, Chorley and Preston. However, he described it as " a market town of no small resort," and of " Byri," or Bury, he wrote that " now for lakke

36 ROCHDALE RETROSPECT of woodde the blow-shoppes decay there ." He died insane, leaving unpublished notes which William Camden made use of in his Britannia of 1586. Philemon Holland's 1610 translation of Camden's work includes engravings from the first county maps, which were surveyed by Christopher Saxton in 1579 . For many years Saxton's surveys were copied by other cartographers ; looking at many of these renderings one sees the same names over again : the chapels of " Mylnerau," " Todmer- den," " Lytllebrugh " and Whitworth are shown, also " Blakestone edge hill," " Stublye " and " Clegge," but few others, apart from, once or twice, Healey and Wolstenholme . One sees, too, what importance was placed on the thickly drawn rivers which had to be forded and on (he vague humps of hills which had to he avoided . No wonder that Camden said of " Lonkashire " : " I goe unto (God speede me well) after a sort somewhat against my will . . . but least I might be thought to neglect the harty good Lancashire men, I will proceed ." The Pennines are described as " those mountaines, which . . . shoote along through the middle of England, and interpose themselves as umpiers and Bounders ." "Lancashire lieth towards the West," and " where the ground is plaine and champion it yieldeth good store of barley and wheat : that which lieth at the bottome of the hilles, is better for otes . . . Irwell . . . bringeth along with him all the rivers of this Eastern part . Among these, Roch is of greatest name, which hath standing upon it in the Vale, Rochdale a mercate towne well frequented ." (At about the middle of the century the Rochdale " New " market was held south-west of what is now Yorkshire Street) . However, the Lancashire " umpiers and Bounders " attracted the rain ; the then easily flooded streams which cut up the country from east to west were the same which provided water-power, not only for the numer- ous corn-mills, but for the fulling-mills which were being built . In days when there were no reservoirs and few bridges, a spate of rain meant difficulty and danger for townsfolk and travellers alike . Sir John Byron, during the dispute over Milnrow Chapel, pleaded that " the waies to the parish church are so verie fowle and rough and over so many great rivers dangerous to be passed ." But along the banks of these rivers the first fulling or " walk " mills were set up . Town Mill (near the then Town Corn-mill) was already existing in 153212 and was to be followed by others along that stretch of the Roch between New Gate and Mitchell Hey, on the Town Meadow side . The first Robert Holt of Stubley, who died in 1554, left property which included four fulling mills ; some of his property was in Bury and Middleton, but the Greave walk-mill at Naden was held by the third Robert's son, Charles Holt, in 1585, and the Hill House walk-mill, on the Roch, west of Marland, was on the Holt's land and may well have been another of these four mills . Also on the Roch was the 16th century mill at Inchfield, Walsden . Cloth which formerly had to be pressed firm by human feet was now " walked " by artificial " tramplers " whose long handles were

TUDOR ROCHDALE : 1485-1603 37

attached to a post with their ends protruding and alternately depressed and released by the action of the water-wheel . This water-power process was a step forward towards a " factory " system and to a kind of antici- patory "ribbon-building" of mills along the Roch and its tributaries : principally the Spod, Buckley Brook and Beat . At the beginning of the 16th century the Pennine valleys of Lan- cashire were manufacturing coarse woollen cloths: the " cottons " or " coatings " were probably so called from the " frizing or cottoning " of the finishing processes, which frizzed up the nap of the cloth. A. P. Wadsworth has given details of the early development of the trade :1i " The Lancashire cottons were dyed bright colours, and largely sold to France, Portugal and Spain " . . " the manufacture had outgrown the local supplies of wool, although a great deal was raised on the surrounding moorlands. It depended largely on Irish wool imported through Liverpool and Chester, and on the coarse wool of the midlands ." But still, most of the work could be and was done by small-holders at their homes : " the farmer would have a pair of looms in his house, where all the processes of carding, spinning, winding, warping and weaving would be performed although for the earlier processes he would also employ the women of neighbouring cottages ." After the raw wool had been sorted, and scoured or washed, the carding was done by boys who worked the wool evenly between wire points mounted on wood, and rolled it off, rather after the fashion of making butter-pats. It was now ready to be drawn out and on to a spin- dle revolved by a spinning-wheel-traditionally women's work, and a task which needed much walking : backwards to draw out, and forwards to wind on, as in early days there was no treadle . After winding, washing again, and stretching, yarn for the warp would be sized to make it strong . When dried, warp threads would be measured and wound firmly on to the loom beam . During weaving, which is, after all, much the same as large scale darning, the shuttle with the weft had to be thrown from side to side and caught, which limited the width of cloth that could be woven by one unaided man . During the 16th century the local wool trade increased rapidly. By a 1566 Act the Queen's Aulnager (or Inspector and Measurer) was allowed a deputy in Rochdale ; also a 1568 document instances the by then common practices of having family agents in London and of payment by bills : Arthur Healey of Rochdale desptached 14 pieces of cloth done up into two packs, by carrier to Roger Healey, who lived in London . The cost of conveyance was I Is . 4d. and they were to be sold for £20, payable in two months. Middlemen, too, generally unpopular with the public then, for the same reasons as they are today, were very necessary to the isolated cottage weavers, if not to the wealthy clothiers, for the small weavers could take their cloth by pack-saddle to Rochdale and travel back with the wool which they bought there from the middlemen . In 1588 the Rochdale justices successfully complained to the Privy Council that if middlemen were not allowed, thousands of poor people would be

38 ROCHDALE RETROSPECT • utterlie undone."14 It was at the end of the century that cloth made partly of cotton was made in Lancashire, but Rochdale was to become a stronghold of wool, to which, however, a worsted warp was sometimes added to produce the new light cloth called bays . Worsted needed a heavy process of combing between rows of pointed teeth, instead of wire carding . Although wool was the staple trade, other industries were growing. • Lakke of woodde," for instance, stimulated the use of both coal and stone . During the last half of the century Ralph Holt and Richard Lynney were concerned in a dispute over a coal mine in Falinge ; there were other lawsuits over the coal mine at Shore Moor, or " Featherstean," in Wardle, and the " cole pittes " near " Cronkayshaw " ; also the slate quarries at Brown Wardle and Middle Hill, and " divers mynes of myl- stones, gryndlestones and ridging stone " on Blackstone Edge . In 1563 the importation of cutlery was banned, and there is a 1588 record of a William Hallowes, cutler, of Rochdale . In 1592, Will- iam Brerley (or Brearley), a Roch- dale cutler, was tried for assault, at Manchester. Cutler's Green, in Brandwood and south of Stack- steads, was said to be named from the Ashworth family who carried on this trade before 1561 near the site of an old-established iron forge, or " bloomery."15 It is noteworthy that the famous old Sheffield cutlery firm of Wostenholm springs from the original family at Wolstenholme Hall. These Rochdale Wolster.- holmes claimed land on Know] Hill and later mined coal on Shore Moor : they were likely to be acquainted with the use of " blow-shoppes," or forges. One of their descendants, the second Sir John Wolstenholme, helped to finance the ill-fated Henry Hudson in his attempt to find the North-West Passage in 1610 : hence the name of Cape Wolstenholmeand Phom: Harold Be FPld. of the still functioning Hudson Bay Death-mask of Sir John Wolstenholme, trading post at Fort Wolstenholme1° born 1562, died 1639. -both derived from an ancient boundary mark, on Naden Brook : the Wolf Stone . The 1591 inventory of Charles Holt of Stubley includes his " Goodes at Castletone " and amongst these were two "paler of smithye bellies," also " brewinge geares . . . & othr woodden vessel],"

TUDOR ROCHDALE : 1485-1603 39

According to the Parish Registers, the two children of " one David a hattmaker dwellinge at Facyde" (Facit) were buried in 1587 . Printing-presses, brought into England by Caxton in 1477, were slow in spreading to the north-in the 17th century the number of English master-printers was limited to twenty-but in 1562 a Henry Bamforthe of Rochdale was sent to be apprenticed to John Cawood (a printer of the Bible) and in 1565 John Chetham and John Holles were apprenticed to Luke Harys and Gyles Hake of London . Every craftsman throughout the country was, by law, at this time, obliged to serve for seven years under a master of his trade. It was said that " Until a man grow into 23 years, he for the most part, though not always is wild, without judgment and not of sufficient experience to govern himself ." After studying the habits of the Tudor Rochdalians it would seem that at least some of them remained " wild " until they died at a ripe age, though they acquired experience in plenty . THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL . It was in 1565 that the first Rochdale Grammar School was com- pleted, at the instigation of Archbishop Parker, on the glebe land just outside the hawthorn fence of the churchyard and at the top of Church Street (now Church Lane) . The salaries of .f 15 and £2, for the master and under-master, were to be paid by the farmer of the rectory, Sir John Byron, but they were, in fact, only extracted from him after a long lawsuit bet- ween the Archbishop and himself . Boys were to be taught " true piety and the knowledge of the Latin Tongue," free of charge as long as there were not more than 150 or less than 50 scholars a day . The building, measuring 60 by 20 feet, was of stone, with a flagged roof and with a staircase leading to the master's actual " living-room ." The first master was Robert Radcliffe, son of Charles Radcliffe of Todmorden Hall, and husband of Katherine Ashton . Other succeeding masters were Robert Walkden, and Richard Holt of Spotland who died in 1605 leaving to James Holt a Greek lexicon, a Thomas' Latin dictionary and a Bible. (Since 1536 a copy of the English Bible had been, by order, placed in every church, but these were rare possessions : in 1574 Richard Entwisle of Foxholes left a little Bible which was to be lent during the week to his " porest kinsfolkes " who were not able to " by a Bible " for them- selves) . Before 1565 there could have been little formal education for the youth of Rochdale, except through the monasteries, through such schools as Shrewsbury and through the universities . In the 15th century there were only four grammar schools in the county . THE PARISH CHURCH . After the dissolution of Whalley Abbey the patronage of the Rochdale Parish Church and its chapels came to Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who in 1550 leased the rectorial rights and revenues to Sir John Byron for 21 years . (Except for a few years, they continued to be re-leased to the Byron family until the 18th century).

40 ROCHDALE RETROSPECT

The alternate Protestant and Roman Catholic reigns which follow- ed that of Henry VIII meant much suffering for the clergy . Cranmer himself was burnt at the stake in 1556 . In 1559 his friend Matthew Parker was made the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Elizabeth's long reign restored the Protestant religion but discouraged both the recusant Roman Catholics and the " Advanced Protestants " or Puritans . In such circumstances it is not surprising that of the 16th century Rochdale vicars who were inducted after Gilbert Haydock between 1554 and 1606, three were deprived of the living and one, Richard Midgeley, resigned in 1595 after 34 years as the vicar, probably because of his Puritanical views and his refusal to wear the surplice : a contemporary writer described him as : " discreet, sober, and very peaceable, the only first planter of sound religion in this corner of our country in her majesty's time . . and had at his monthly communions above 800 communi- cants . . . " . 17 At about the time of, or a little earlier than his induction, the church was partly rebuilt and the present clerestory added . St. Chad's registers began in 1582, with 137 christenings (including one entry of twins), 81 burials and 42 weddings in the first complete year from January to Dec- ember . Midgeley was a strong supporter of the Grammar School : probably at some time after 1594 he married Grace Ashton, sister-in-law of the first head-master . TUDOR LIFE AND CUSTOMS . Three documents will give a general idea of the various standards of living in Tudor Rochdale . The 1591 inventory of Charles Holt of Stubley includes 5 "stan- dinge beddes " and 6 truckle beds at Castleton, all with feather-beds, blankets, bolsters, pillows and linen, and one with " silcke " curtains, besides 6 more beds for " servanntes ." There were also cupboards, tables, chairs, " quishions," table cloths, silver plate, brass pots and pans, pewter vessels, cans, basins and ewers.'s It was a custom at this time for the well-to-do to leave a penny dole to every " pore bodie " who attended their funerals, and sometimes, also, a sum of money to be spent on " lynnen or wollen cloth " for the poor of the town . Gilbert Haydock's will, which fills two sheets of parchment over a fool square, similarly includes feather-beds, blankets and pillows, " 6 hygge pewter chargers," " 6 sylver spones :" " 4 quarters of beyffe " and "3 flyckes of bacon" were valued at 20s . and 9s . respectively. His 4 mares were worth 53s . 4d. with " one role " at 6s. 8d . The 1587 inventory of James Fielding of Walsden itemizes 10 cattle, I mare, 6 lambs, 20 sacks of " otes," with " arkes " (chests) and cheeses, bedding, pewter, brass and wooden vessels, a pair of looms, a pack-saddle, one " salet " (or light helmet), one bill (axe or halberd), and a sheaf of arrows, etc .' 9

TUDOR ROCHDALE : 1485-1603 41

In 1513, " lusty lads " from Rochdale and other towns, led by " lusty Stanley " (the Earl of Derby), had turned the tide against the Scots at Flodden, armed with pikes and bills . 220 At the end of the cen- tury the moorland farmers still had their weapons handy : at the butts in the town the " lusty lads " kept up their archery, and, indeed, were for- bidden to neglect it by playing at dice, cards or bowls . Dicing and gaming were disapprovingly mentioned at the beginning of the Tudor period, in the 1487 foundation deed of the Parish Church's Trinity Chapel. It was a Tudor custom to settle arguments in a Christian manner by paying money at the altar of a church . In 1516 Robert Holt (a Justice of the Peace) and others awarded that Henry Sale and Thomas Chadwick should pay 1 3s. 4d. to William Rode (or Rhodes) upon the altar of St . Katherine's Chapel in the Parish Church .21 The custom of perambulating the boundaries of the Parish does not seem to have been observed before the 17th century-partly, perhaps, because of its size : Camden had remarked that the Lancashire parishes " farre exceed the greatest parishes elsewhere " : Midgeley appears to have objected on religious grounds to making such a procession . The 1566 Manor Court rolls give examples of " unlawful gam- mynge " in public houses, also of the " sleting " (or baiting) of cattle by dogs. The unsettled state of religion and the need for few shepherds rather than many field labourers had contributed to the " vacabonds " and " valiant hedgers " mentioned in these rolls, and a penalty of 20s . was made for giving them lodgings . The Vagrant Act of 1547 authorised the branding of persistent and able-bodied beggars, who might, at the discretion of two magistrates, be kept in slavery by anyone who wanted them ; a 1572 Act established Overseers of the Poor as collectors of alms and as supervisors of the labours of rogues and vagabonds . In 1601 church-wardens and two to four householders were to be annually nom- inated as Overseers by the Justices of the Peace . In 1584-5 James Belfield (the Bear-ward of the Parish), and Robert Butterworth were charged by two Church-Reeves with keeping " twoe typlynge innes" frequented on Sundays and holy-days .22 According to Raines, in about 1583 Vicar Midgeley reproved a visitor to the town for " playing at Bowls on a Saturday . . . amongst Papists and vain gentlemen,"-the Puritans considered that Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, was the Lord's Day.2i A report of about 1590, signed by Midgeley, amongst others of the Lancashire clergy, shows that " Wackes, Ales, Greenes, Maigames, Rushbearinges, Bearebaites, Doveales, Bonfiers . . . Gaming, Pipinge and Daunsing " etc., were general at this time .24 Doves and fishponds were not merely ornamental but helped to eke out the family larder . There were various " ales " : almost any excuse would prove " an excuse for the glass," though, of course, pewter pint-pots would be most commonly used . Rushes were strewn on floors and were annually renewed on the P

42 ROCHDALE RETROSPECT

Patron Saint's Day of each church, with much merry-making : in 1576, on the 24th August, St . Bartholomew's Day, and so probably at the Whitworth Chapel Wakes or Rushbearing, a race was run between Henry Orrell of Cheshire and a John Brigges . Each was backed for 20 nobles (£6 I3s. 4d .), John Buckley holding Brigges' money and Ralph Holt holding Orrell's . Although Orrell was said to have out-run Brigges the stake-holders refused to pay him and he had to sue through the Duchy Court for his money .25 In 1601, at the Manchester Quarter Sessions, Rochdale men were tried for chasing hares . Richard Marcroft, tailor, " at Spotland with some curs killed a hare in the snow ." Richard Chadwick, yeoman, and Charles Whittacre, labourer, had a greyhound which killed a hare, also at Spotland . It was illegal to trace a hare in the snow and kill it, and for poorer people to keep greyhounds . (At the same January Sessions, Ralph Holt of Gristlehursi was recorded as having been outlawed for debt and ordered to be taken by bailiffs, but he was " rescued " at Roch- dale in September, 1600) . 2627 Towards the end of the cen- tury increasing traffic led to fre- quent lawsuits about rights of way . Fishwick quotes examples : Rich- ard Crossley of Scaitcliffe versus Sir Henry Radcliffe, 1592 : James Redferne v . the Wolstenholme family, 1597 ; the Vicar of Roch- dale and others v . Thomas Healey, 1598, and also versusCharles Stott . In 1595 yeomen from Rochdale, Burnley, Clitheroe, Colne and Halifax, etc ., complained that James Crahtree and Richard Crossley had stopped the way and taken the gates from land near Lydgate and Scaitcliffe, thus de- barring trading with Rochdale .27 Under a Road Act of 1555 Parish officers were made esponsible for seeing that roads were kept in re- pair ; the parishioners themselves had to work on the roads for four days a year . In 1563 this was al- tered to six days and the unpaid P . Pmd. (From the Bodleian Library) . Justices of the Peace were obliged Sir John Byron, later Ist Baron Byron of to report defaults to the General Rochdale . Sessions or to forfeit £5 . Roads now became a liability to land-owners and parishioners, but the local travelling salesmen were intent in pressing home their new and very necessary advantage .