A LANCASHIRE CLERICAL FAMILY OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES BY R. CUNLIFFE SHAW, M.SC., F.R.C.S., F.S.A., F.R.HIST.S., F.S.A. SCOT. OLLINGWORTH said: "God gave good success to the H ministry of the Word . and preserved a faithful people in Lancashire, especially in and about Manchester and Bolton." 111 The system in the time of Edward VI of having six royal chaplains, four to be on preaching tour, led to the visit of John Bradford to Lancashire circa 1552-3. His farewell address to all who professed the true religion mentions the places where he had taught and preached, most of them in and around Manchester, including Bolton-le-Moors. The Reformation had by this time taken firm hold in Salford hundred, where trading relations brought the merchant class into contact with Genevan Calvinism, and thus spread to many of the territorial families, who also had mercantile connections. The western hundreds were, in the main, faithful to the old religion, whilst the district of Rivington and contiguous hamlets lay on the theological watershed. The Shaw family of Shaw Place, Heath Charnock, who held a moiety of Rivington manor, intermarried in 1519 with the Pilkingtons of Rivington Hall, establishing a connection which determined the religious bearings of their clerical sons in the sixteenth and subsequent centuries. Nearly all the county histories perpetuate erroneous statements about the ten or more clergy of this family; none reveals their correct geneal­ ogical linkage, none the milieu of their social relationships. I PETER SHAW, PREBEND OF DURHAM AND RECTOR OF BURY The outstanding sixteenth-century representative of the Shaw clerics was Peter, second son of John Shaw of Shaw Place by his wife Katherine, daughter of Richard Pilkington of Riving­ ton. He was born circa 1540, matriculated a pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, at Easter 1560, graduated B.A. in 1563-4, and was elected a Fellow in 1564; he was eighth in 111 V.C.H., Lanes., Vol. 2, p. 52. E 41 page) \ Blackrod, later) Richard opposite of Richard, 1553-68 (or B., (see T. Priest S. Grappenhall 1555-73 of Peter, Rector of 1722 ob. Stretford 1 1 Curate 1525 of Didsbury Peter, 1689-1700, May and Haydock, 8 mas 1468 possibly Blackrod, Curate b. ob. Thomas, Tho Crayke 1 1 1 i 1 Elizabeth, 1603 1 1460, of Paul Christopher James, ob. of circa Rector d. m. = Place Shaw, of Shaw John of of Heywood, Heywood d. Wigan of 1597 Dukenfield Mary Dillingham Gerard Cotesbach Hall, Dukenfield - Hall, = of May of of Win. Constance, Oseth 1 1690 Ince Pilkington, of Frances ob. James, Hindley, ob. 1624-5 Curate (2) (1) Rivington = = Radclife, Leonard, Rector ob. = 1519, of ' Place {Catherine the I 1660 1462, m. - of James, b. Shaw College, ob. Radcliffe, of 1 of Peter, Warden John S.P. Bury, 1594-5, Wigan Durham, 1 of Manchester Rector Vice b. of of Winwick 1608 Peter, John, 1688-9 Surrogate, ob. and ob. Rector Curate Prebend of School of church. Hospital, the Margaret Bradshaw Master 1645 Goosnargh. of - I Wrennall Dublin = Registrar Grammar of ob. quo of Dublin ab Vicar Kilmainham AnnWhalley of and Edmund, Cecily Curate Shaw = Bulhalgh Rivington and Nathaniel, Royal Bamber Robert Margaret of Trafford the 1475 High 1 Bulhalgh, Lawrence 1525 of circa Richard b. High May Haydock, Vicar 8 I 1674 Robinson ob. ob. of Tho. Elizabeth, George, Poulton-le-Fylde. 1460, of Vicar Christopher d. Michael's-on-Wyre of circa d. St. m. Mary, = 1 1468 =- Kirkham quo b. Thomas, of ab Place Shaw, of Shaw Fleetwood Bulhalgh Rossall Shaw John Bell, of Robert . High Mary . Huyton . of ofWm. of = d. Martha of Rector 1649 (D Esther, (2) Robert, Vicar ob. = Cockerham. of 1695 page) Vicar ob. Lawrence, 1 Prescot Cockerham, Goodall, James of opposite (see Edward Rector = Ann 44 A LANCASHIRE CLERICAL FAMILY order of seniority in 1563-4. Peter Shaw graduated M.A. in 1567 and proceeded B.D. in 1574. According to Cooper's Athenae Cantabrigienses (Vol. II, p. 493), he was admitted to the degree of D.D. in 1583. Shaw was ordained deacon at Ely on 21 December 1568, and was University preacher in 1570-1. m In 1569 the resignation of Dr. Philip Baker, the provost of King's College, led to confusion in the University, and a Mr. Shaw claimed to have been elected provost in Baker's place. It is possible that this claimant was Peter Shaw, who was one of those who opposed the introduction of new statutes in the University in May 1572, in which year, on 9 August, through the influence of his uncle Bishop Pilkington, he was collated to a prebendary of the sixth stall of Durham. Peter Shaw retained an affection for Trinity to which he presented about seventy- nine works. Peter Shaw's name occurs in the register of Durham in 1578 at the instalment of Hugh Broughton to a canonry of the tenth stall; others present were Dean Whittington, Leonard Pilkington (another uncle of Peter's, sometime master of St. John's, Cambridge, and regius professor of divinity), R. Swift, Francis Bunny, G. Cliff and R. Fawcett. Shaw's name last appears in the register in 1607 among those of the prebendaries who answered Bishop Matthew's citation in the chapter house of Durham. The religious policy which "brings good luck", so studiously adhered to by the earls of Derby, permitted the martyrdom of George Marsh, the Bolton reformer, during the Marian persecutions, in which Earl Edward played a principal role, and the equally relentless prosecution of the recusant gentry of western Lancashire by the same earl and his son under Elizabeth. The Lathom Stanleys quickly trimmed their religious sails to the current policy of the crown and privy council. In the decade 1570-80 this moved steadily towards favouring puritanism of the Genevan brand, which was that of Bishop Pilkington and his Rivington relations; hence Earl Edward presented the bishop's nephew, Peter Shaw, to the rectory of Bury, where he was instituted on 1 April 1570. The death of Downham, bishop of Chester, in 1579, stimulated the queen's decision to force puritanism still further on the recalcitrant North: a policy promptly supported by Henry, earl of Derby, and promoted by the elevation to the see of Chester of the regius professor of divinity at Cambridge, Chadderton, a Lancashire man of strong puritanical views. In Manchester the bishop inaugurated a "monthly exercise", in accordance with which all clergy and school-masters of the deanery had to attend a morning service 121 Venn, Alumni. Cantab., Vol. IV, p. 53. A LANCASHIRE CLERICAL FAMILY 45 in the collegiate church, and were privately examined and instructed in the afternoon by the moderators. This body consisted of five clerics specially selected as "grave, godly and learned men", who constituted a presbytery or council under the queen's sanction, with considerable powers in the regulation of the lower clergy. Peter Shaw was one of the moderators, along with Assheton of Middleton, Carter and Williamson of Manchester, and Langley of Prestwich. The principal "exercises" in the collegiate church of Manchester were attended by the bishop, the earl of Derby (who resided at Alport Lodge) the moderators in sombre apparel, all the clergy of the deanery and most of the laity. The decade 1580-90 witnessed increasing diversion of the reformed Anglican church from Genevan puritanism, and the puritanism of the Durham chapter occasioned increasing difficulties for Peter Shaw in his rectory of Bury. Nevertheless the bishop of Chester still maintained a good opinion of Peter's clerical conformity when the latter was appointed, on 1 Septem­ ber 1585, one of the moderators for the "exercise" to be held at Bury, along with Carter, Williamson and Langley, their mandate being to preach, expound texts, admonish, fine absentees and read prayers according to the Book of Common Prayer. The printing in Manchester of the Marprelate tracts (1588-9) heightened feeling against extreme puritanism and sharpened the religious dissension in the country between papal recusants and the Calvinists. The crucial year was 1590, when a commission appointed by John Piers, archbishop of York, held an enquiry on 31 May in the collegiate church of Manchester as to the conformity of the members of the refounded college. The commissioners were John Gibson, the vicar-general, William Goodwin, canon of York, Peter Shaw, prebend of Durham, and Alvery Acroyd; they were to summon before them all the clergy, masters of hospitals, school-masters, and wardens of churches and chapels of the Manchester deanery. Examination of Thomas Williamson, fellow of the college, revealed that the members did not wear the surplice in time of prayer and at the admini­ stration of the sacraments, contrary to her majesty's injunctions; they were ordered to procure surplices and wear them before Michaelmas next. 131 Peter Shaw had been associated with Williamson as moderator, which must have occasioned dis­ sension in the commission over the surplice issue. On 24 June 1590 new names appear on the commissioner's panel, which was again convened in the chapter house of 131 Chetham Society, Vol. XCVI, Miscell. V (1875). 46 A LANCASHIRE CLERICAL FAMILY Manchester. Peter Shaw's is missing; Anthony Higgin with James Cock sat with Dr. Gibson. Shaw and ten other clergy were admonished, by direction of the archbishop, before the vicar-general and Edmund Hopwood on 2 September 1590; they were ordered to conform to the church regulations con­ cerning the full use of the Book of Common Prayer and wearing the surplice.