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REFORMATION RESPONSES IN TUDOR CHESHIRE c.1500-1577 Patricia Joan Cox A dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Warwick Department of History December 2013 ii Contents page List of Figures iv List of Tables v Acknowledgements vi Abstract viii Conventions ix Abbreviations x Epigraph xii 1 Introduction 1 The Development of Local Reformation Studies 2 Society and Topography 16 2 The Pre-Reformation Church in Cheshire 34 Ecclesiastical Organisation 34 Secular Clergy 51 Regular Clergy 66 The Laity 79 Conclusion 93 3 The Henrician Changes 95 The Legal Framework 96 The Dissolution of the First Two of the County’s Monasteries and the Pilgrimage of Grace 104 The Dissolution of the Last Religious Houses and the Foundation of the New Diocese 124 Some Lay Responses 133 Conclusion 152 4 The Reign of Edward VI 155 The Dissolution of the County’s Chantries 156 The Edwardian Clergy 176 The Laity in the Reign of Edward VI 195 Conclusion 220 5 The Marian Restoration 223 The Diocesan Hierarchy and Marian Visitations 224 The Parish Clergy 244 The Laity 262 Conclusion 282 iii 6 The Elizabethan Settlement 286 Diocesan Government 287 The Parish Clergy under William Downham 322 The Lay Response to the Elizabethan Settlement 345 Conclusion 368 7 Conclusion 370 Appendix 375 Bibliography 404 iv List of Figures page Figure 1 – Alabaster tomb effigy of Sir Randle Brereton in St Oswald’s church, Malpas. 19 Figure 2 – Christopher Saxton’s 1577 map of Cheshire. 28 Figure 3 – Dioceses of England and Wales in the early sixteenth century. 35 Figure 4 – The sixteenth-century parishes of Cheshire, map produced by Dr A. D. M. Phillips of Keele University. 41 Figure 5 – Examples of the wide variety of chapels in Cheshire. 45 Figure 6 – Effigy of Henry Trafford in Wilmslow parish church and roof bosses bearing his initials. 56 Figure 7 – One of the ‘weepers’ on the tomb of Sir Randle Brereton at Malpas may represent the first schoolmaster, John Lathom. 63 Figure 8 – The early sixteenth-century religious houses of Cheshire, map produced by Dr A. D. M. Phillips of Keele University. 67 Figure 9 – Nantwich misericords depicting rapacious friars. 77 Figure 10 – Map showing the extent of the new diocese of Chester. 129 Figure 11 – St James’s Chapel, Woodhead. 170 Figure 12 – Letter from Philip Moyle, curate of Malpas, written on 29 June [1550]. 193 Figure 13 – Cuthbert Scott oversees the burning of the bones of Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius. 231 Figure 14 – Stone altar at Great Budworth parish church, discovered buried under the floor during recent renovation work. 362 v List of Tables Table 1 – Early sixteenth-century parishes and chapelries of Cheshire. 47 Table 2 – Value of Cheshire livings according to the Valor Ecclesiasticus. 52 Table 3 – Employment by 1554 of priests named in the 1548 certificate. 168 Table 4 – Losses of assistant clergy between 1548 and 1554 by deanery. 183 Table 5 – Known Cheshire appointments of men ordained priest between 1542 and 1546. 185 Table 6 – Religious offences recorded in 32 Cheshire parishes and 10 chapelries by the royal visitors in 1559. 296 Table 7 – Graduate appointments during Downham’s episcopate 339 Table 8 – Marital status of 1578 incumbents. 341 Table 9 – Ages of 1578 incumbents. 378 vi Acknowledgements Firstly, chronologically, I would like to thank the nineteenth and early twentieth-century antiquarians of Cheshire and, in particular, William Fergusson Irvine. Some modern historians can be somewhat dismissive of ‘mere’ antiquarians, but without Irvine’s efforts over almost three-quarters of a century of sorting, collating, cataloguing and transcribing Cheshire’s records the work of modern historians of the county would be much more challenging and we owe him a great debt of gratitude. I am extremely fortunate to have been taught by Chris Haigh at Manchester, and I have to thank him for stimulating an abiding interest in Reformation studies. More recently, I am most grateful to Professor Peter Marshall for taking something of a risk in accepting a doctoral student who had been away from the academic world for over three decades. His encouragement and erudition while supervising my doctoral research have been much appreciated. Members of the Council of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire have also lent their support and I would particularly like to thank Dr Janet Hollinshead and Dr Colin Phillips for their assistance. Thanks are similarly due to the staff of various repositories, especially The Borthwick Institute for Archives in York and Cheshire Record Office. All the staff at Chester have been most helpful, and their unfailing patience is truly commendable but I would like in particular to thank Liz Green and Nicola Steele who always reserved my favourite table. I would also like to thank Rev. John Mitchell for his assistance in the translation and interpretation of consistory court records. The maps of Cheshire at Figure 4 and Figure 8 were expertly drawn by Dr A. D. M. Phillips and his team at Keele, who have given their permission to reproduce them. vii I would also like to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to my family. My daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth, have been encouraging throughout. My sister, Elizabeth Marshall, has accommodated me in London on numerous archival visits, offered unfailing moral support and has read and commented on part of the draft of this dissertation. Finally my husband, Alan, has offered me all possible support including drawing the diocesan maps at Figure 3 and Figure 10 and helping me with photography. It has meant a great deal. viii Abstract The focus of this dissertation is the county of Cheshire during the momentous religious changes of the sixteenth century. It aims to show that it is unrealistic to expect a monolithic reaction to such change: as in any county a combination of factors came together resulting in a variety of responses. It also seeks to discredit a number of myths which continue to proliferate about local people and events of this time. The prominence given by both contemporaries and subsequent scholars to Catholic survivalism in the neighbouring county of Lancashire has tended to overshadow the position in Cheshire; indeed some studies have conflated the two. A central aim of this dissertation has been to demonstrate that the two counties responded differently, and to seek to explain why this might have been. A chronological approach has been adopted because it was felt that this would afford a cohesive structure. Within each time period certain continuities and recurring themes will become apparent, however. This is, in part, a function of the sources used, since many of these records derive from institutions or practices which continued fundamentally unaffected throughout the period. This was markedly also a time of radical change, and the abolition of some existing institutions and the introduction of new procedures produced new types of records which demonstrate the local impact of some of those changes. The focus of much Reformation scholarship has now moved away from regional studies towards a more thematic approach, representing one strand of post revisionism. One outcome of the local study in this dissertation has been to demonstrate how new regional studies can contribute to a variety of debates by offering fresh insights and conclusions from a re-consideration of familiar evidence and an examination of evidence which may not be widely known. ix Conventions Where quotations have been incorporated in the text, spelling and punctuation have not been modernised and contractions have been expanded silently. Where English words have been extended this has been done in accordance with how they are spelled if they appear in full elsewhere in the same text, otherwise the modern spelling has been used. Names often present difficulties and although spelling of names has not been modernised in quotations, the nearest modern equivalent has been used in the text as has the English equivalent of Latinised forenames. It must be noted, however, that a number of local surnames with the same pronunciation are spelled differently by different families and as far as possible the spelling adopted by individual families has been followed. Where quotations are in Latin, my translation into English either follows or is given in a footnote. Dating is Old Style, that is, in accordance with the Julian calendar, except that the year is taken to begin on 1 January. References to documents held at The National Archives are cited in accordance with guidance to be found at <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/citing- documents.htm> (accessed 16 April 2013). The area treated as comprising the county of Cheshire takes no note of the boundary changes consequent upon administrative reforms from 1974 onwards. x Abbreviations APC Acts of the Privy Council of England, ed. J. R. Dasent, new series, 32 vols (London: H.M.S.O., 1890-1907). BIY Borthwick Institute for Archives, York. BL British Library. CALS Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, Chester. This body is the successor to Cheshire Record Office (CRO) and City of Chester Records Office (CCRO), which became a joint service in April 2000. It was then briefly known as Chester and Cheshire Archives and Local Studies (CCALS).