PART VII. CHAPTER I. There is a history in all men's lives, SHAKSPEARE. THOMAS WEST-LORD DE LA WARRE. One of the earliest of our men of note of whom there exists any available account was Thomas West, Lord de la Warre, who was a deseendant of the Grelleys, the ancient Lords of Manchester, and who (according to Hollingworth,) "was the last heire male of that familye." He was Rector of Manchester during the latter part of the fourteenth and the commencement of the fifteenth century, and claims notice principally on account of having been the founder of the Collegiate Church. To those who are fond of a reminder of the pages of Shakspeare, there may be something interesting in the fact, that Roger de la Warre, (the father of our present subject,) and the Duke of Lancaster, "Old John of Gaunt, time honoured Lancaster," had some rather serious altercation and differences relative to the right of tyrannizing over the poor inhabitants of Manchester, and that this same "warlike Gaunt" did order his bailiffs to collect monies from them to which he had no right, very much to the prejudice of our natural and liege lord, and for which a trial was held in Preston, A.D. 1359, when it was decided that Roger de la Warre, and he only, had authority to gather money of the townspeople. Restitution was, therefore, made; and the renowned sire of the "cankered Bolingbroke" was compelled to acknowledge, for once, that right conquered might. Often has it been matter of wonder to us, whether John of Gaunt might not possibly have the remembrance of this transaction upon his mind when he so earnestly desired to see King Richard previously to his death, sending a message in all haste by Bushey, one of the servants of the King "Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my Lord, And whether he might not, also, have some faint allusion to it when he said, "Oh, would the scandal vanish with my life, For although, perhaps, the context (Shakspeare is our historian) may not substantiate this hypothesis, we can readily imagine that, with so great a weight upon his conscience, such might in reality have been the old man's reflections. This is merely a passing observation-but if Hamlet could suffer "imagination to trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he found it stopping a bung hole," why may we not trace the thread of our own history, till it is found having reference to that which has so essentially the charm of poetry in its truth. Lord de la Warre was Rector of St. Mary's Church, which, in his time, was situated in the present St. Ann's-square; and so assiduously devoted was he to the interests of his charge, that he resided almost wholly in Manchester, that he might the more completely superintend the work of the Rectory. And this is no trifling praise; for in those times not only were the duties of a Rector arduous in themselves, but in the instance of the Parsonage of Manchester they were peculiarly so. "He was," says Whittaker, "common confessor to the clergy of the Deanery. He had a settled jurisdiction over all the clergy and laity, and was invested with a coercive authority over the goods and persons of offenders among the former. He visited the clergy statedly, his object being to examine their demeanor, and the conduct of the laity, and to promote the important interests of religion in both; also to inspect the state of the structure, and the condition of the furniture in the churches, and keep the ecclesiastical house in good repair." And this was not a mere nominal duty, which might be left unperformed at pleasure, or entrusted to a deputy to fulfil; it was required to be discharged to the letter, and circumstances rendered it, at this period, particularly obnoxious, because the increasing civilization of the times had introduced habits of luxury among the priesthood that had been formerly altogether undreamt of, that body of men whose motto had hitherto been mortification and humility, having now assumed ideas of ease and sensuality to which even the greatest of the Barons Men were almost, if not altogether, strangers. Whether this was owing to the multiplying revenues of the Church, which naturally gave an impulse to the growing pride of the Clergy, or to that somewhat effeminate spirit, disguised in the garb of refinement, which had kept advancing every year upon the rising orders of that body; or whether, in fact, it may not be attributed to the knowledge of the power which they possessed over the minds of the laity, which power they knew would be increased in proportion as they maintained their appearance of luxurious and intellectual superiority, it is difficult to determine. Certain it is, this spirit had crept in amongst the Clergy who were under the immediate cognizance of the Baron de la Warre; their ministerial duties were neglected; and, although the increasing population of the town required extra labour at their hands, they deserted their posts without a moment's consideration, pleading, in excuse, that the apartments and style of living at the Parsonage-house were inferior to that arrangement to which they were entitled. may smile in this day to learn that a class, whose minds they would imagine to have been so highly cultivated, and whose desires might be supposed to rise superior to the mere things of time and sense, should plead, as a ground of their exculpation from a charge of desertion of truth, anything so resembling the frail pretences of a truant schoolboy. But it was nevertheless the case, and it was partly on this account that Lord de la Warre was induced to attempt to found another church in Manchester. For this purpose he called a meeting of his parishioners;" at the sound of the bell they gathered themselves together-nobles, and knights, and squires, and working men in goodly array-and to them he laid down his plans and his purposes, how he meant to carry into effect the pious design which he had originated. And how meant he to effect this? Not by saying to Sir John le Byron and to Sir John de Ratcliffe, "Subscribe your thousand pounds, and present me, each, with a rood of land to help on my undertaking;"-not by soliciting of Edmund de Trafford, and John de Hulton, and Ralph de Prestwich, and Otho de Redditch, and James de Strangeways, and those "profusion of squires" by whom he was surrounded, five hundred pounds to assist in raising up the edifice;-not by asking of Geoffrey de Hopwood, and William de Birch, and Hugh de Highfield, and Lawrence de Barton, and the stout yeomen whose veneration for the church was only equalled by their determined zeal in giving it their defence, "Buy me each your pews and chapelries, that I may have the money wherewith to erect my pulpit.” All these, and more whose names are handed down, were present, yet he asked them not for money, but at his own charge, and in the benevolence of his own good heart, did he offer to erect the noble pile which has become the living monument of his piety, and which will enshrine his memory within its aisles so long as one stone of the Collegiate Church shall be left standing upon another. We can imagine our warlike ancestors met together within the ancient walls of St. Mary's on this peaceful and important occasion, their honest faces turned assentingly towards the noble priest and baron, who had sought their approval of an undertaking so void of the common selfishness of humanity-we can fancy ourselves present at this primitive "vestry meeting," and by a little stretch of the imagination can hear the spurs of the nobles and esquires clank along the pavement as they retire from the scene, and we can distinctly see the honest satisfaction of the yeomen as they form themselves in little groups to discuss the bounty of their Rector on their way homewards. But there were other motives than those of piety to which the enemies of Lord de la Warre attributed his munificence in founding the Collegiate Church. Nor can this be matter of any great surprise. In all ages and countries there are men, the malevolence of whose disposition is such that upon the mere principle of self-defence they must traduce the good intentions of the worthy and virtuous amongst them; because in the lives of such they read that which puts a condemnation upon their own evil practices. There were revilers upon the earth in those days-there was an outery even at that early period of its history against the institution of the church-but luckily, the cavillers were then to be found only amongst the narrow-minded and the noisiest of the populace. The motives which these men imputed to the Rector were, that being the last male of his house he grieved at the desolation which was come upon it, in the prospect of being with him extinct for ever, and that having a secret wish to perpetuate his line he covertly sought to obtain a dispensation from the Pope permitting him to marry, the price of which apostatizing (as it might be termed) was to be the foundation of a church and college in the parish over which he was Rector, with suitable accommodation for the residence of the clergy, and an endowment that should place them in possession, not only of plenty, but of affluence. This slanderous report was passed from one to another amongst the then railers ;— currency was given to it by repetition;-and in the pages of an old historian the fact is handed down to after times.. Not only, however, did Lord de la Warre remain unmarried, but the very extensiveness of his bounty proves that at least in so far it was voluntary. Be that as it may, to him Manchester is indebted for the magnificent pile which is designated the "Old Church," since, although it was not originally the immense structure which it is now seen, the design and the partial execution of it sprung from the mind of this most benevolent man. He, alas, lived not to see his plans completed,— being seized, in the year 1427, with an illness that speedily carried him to his grave. But he died "like a shock of corn fully ripe,”— he had spent his years upon earth not idly and unprofitably, for in a time when the knowledge of the Gospel was confined to a few, and the practice of its injunctions to a still smaller class, he made himself an ensample of the truth of that precept which says "it is good to be zealously affected in a good cause," and throughout the whole of his career whatever his hand found to do he did it with all his might. Of his private life little or nothing is known, for he had no Boswell to perpetuate his truisms. If, however, any estimate may be formed from that which is known, he was one of whom it might truly be said that, take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again. HUGH OLDHAM, BISHOP OF EXETER, Claims notice amongst the ancient worthies of Manchester by reason of his having been the founder of the Grammar School; but as he has already been mentioned in connexion with that institution, little more than an allusion will be made to him here. He is supposed to have been born either in Manchester or Oldham—and as two towns dispute the honor of his birth, so two Universities may claim that of his education, for he studied both at Oxford and Cambridge, but took his degree of D.D. at the latter. He was patronized by the Countess of Richmond, whose chaplain he was, and who appears to have felt greatly interested in him; for, after presenting him successively to several valuable livings, she ultimately obtained his advancement to the see of Exeter, in which he remained until his death on the 15th. June, 1519. He was a great patron of learning, and an extensive benefactor of Corpus Christi College. JOHN BRADFORD, One of those victims to religious rancour so numerous in the reign of Mary, was born in Manchester, during the early part of the reign of Henry the Eighth. He received a tolerably good education in his native town, and was considered so very clever in accounts that he obtained the situation of Secretary to Sir John Harrington, Treasurer and Pay |