------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Many more books available from www.OurFavouriteBooks.com -- -- OUR FAVOURITE BOOKS - All of our favourite classics. -- -- Free to read online or download to PC, Kindle, iPhone etc. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ THE VALE ROYAL OF ENGLAND. This County Palatine of Chester, which in our com- mon speech is called Chester shire, and by corruption, more short, Cheshire, lyeth on the North West corner of the Countrey, which was sometime under the Govern- ment of the Kings of Marcia : Whose people were called by the Romans Devani, that is, bordering on the River Dee. The proportion thereof is almost three-cornered, or rather like to the Wing of an Eagle, being stretched forth at length. The longest length thereof, is from the Wood-Head in the East, where the River of Marsey (Mersey) springeth, unto the furthest part of Werall (Wirrall) in the West, (where the said River falleth into the Sea) which I find to be about 44 miles, following the course of the River. By Natural Scituation, it lyeth low, nevertheless very pleasant, and abounding in plenteousness of all things needful and necessary for man's use ; insomuch that it merited and had the Name of The Vale-Royal of Eng- land : Which Name, Edward I. gave unto the Abbey of Vale Royal, which he founded upon the River of Weever 10 (Weaver) in the midst of the same Shire. The ayr is very wholesome, insomuch that the people of the coun- trey are seldom infected with Diseases or Sicknesse, neither do they use the help of the Physicians, nothing so much, as in other countries : For when any of them are sick, they make him a posset, and tye a kerchieff on his head ; and if that will not amend him, then God be merciful to him ! The people there live till they he very old ; some are Grandfathers, their Fathers yet living ; and some are Grandfathers before they be married. The county, albeit in most places plat and even, yet hath certain Hills of Name, as Frodsham and Peckforton Hills, Congleton Edge, &c. It aboundeth also in Pasture, Meadow, and Wood-land, and Waters in great store, of which more hereafter. The Heaths or Mosses are common, out of which they dig turves in Summer, every man as shall serve his turn, to burn all the year. Moreover, in these Mosses are Fir- trees found under the ground (a thing marvellous,) iit some places Six foot deep, or more ; which trees are of a marvellous length, and straight, having branches, and roots at the end, like as they had been blown down with Weather ; and yet no man can tell that ever any such trees did grow there, nor yet how they should come thither. Some hold opinion that they have lain there ever since Noah's Flood. 11 The Pasture Ground is reserved, especially, for their Kine, from whose milk they make great store both of Butter and Cheese : In praise whereof, I need not to say much, it being well known that no Countrey in the Eealm may compare therewith, nor yet beyond the Seas; no, not even Holland. Their Oxen are very large, and big of bone, with fair and long horns ; so that a man shall find divers, whose horns at the tops are more than three foot asunder, one from another. Of Sheep, Horses, &c, they keep but so many as to serve their turn : There is also great plenty of Hares and Foxes, in hunting whereof, the Gentlemen do pass much of their time, especially in Winter. Wild Foul aboundeth there in such store, as in no other Countrey have I seen the like ; namely Wild Geese and Wild Ducks ; of which a man shall see some- times flying, near 200 in one flock. The Soyl of the Countrey is, in most places, Clay, with here and there veins of Sand : Likewise Rocks and Quarries of Stone. And to make an end, I must not forget the chiefest thing of all, and that is, the Salt- wells, or Brine-pits, out of the which they make yearly a great quantity of fine white Salt ; a singular commod- ity, no doubt, wherein this Shire excelleth all other Countries at home, as well as beyond the Seas ; one being at Nantwich, another at Northwich, and two at Middle- ivich ; of the which Towns, more hereafter. 12 The people of the Countrey are of nature very gentle and courteous, ready to help and further one another : In Religion very zealous, howbeit somewhat addicted to Superstition : Otherwise, they are of the stomach, stout, bold, and hardy ; withal impatient of wrong, and ready to resist the Enemy or Stranger that shall invade their Countrey : So have they been always true, faithful and obedient to their Superiors ; insomuch that it cannot be said that they have at any time stirred one spark of Re- bellion, either against the King's Majesty, or against their own peculiar Lord or Governour. Likewise be the women very friendly and loving, in all kind of Hous- wifery expert, fruitful in bearing of Children, after they be married, and sometimes before. To conclude : — Touching their Housekeeping, it is bountiful as any Shire in the Realm ; and I know divers men, which are but Farmers, that may compare therein with a Lord or Baron in some countreys beyond the Seas. HERE FOLLOWETH THE PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION. A Description of the City and County Palatine of Chester ; Compiled by Mr. Webb, M.A., and sometimes (1615) Under-Sheriff to Sir Richard Lee,* of Lee and Darnhall, in Cheshire. The County Palatine of Chester is one of those Shires once inhabited by the people called Cornavii. — albeit the 'Kuighted at Whitehall. Jan. 10th, 1010. 13 Name was antiently, by the Saxons, called Cestrescyre, vulgarly Cheshire. It is bounded on the North, partly, with a Creek, shooting in between Lancashire, and Wir- rall Hundred, a part of Cheshire ; which Creek is called Mersey ; and partly with the River of that name ; and upon the East is bounded by a River, whose name I find to be Erioin (Irwell) Brook ; the same bounds then de- clining to the South-East, between this and Staffordshire, till it comes to the South, on which side lie a part of Shropshire, and of Flintshire ; from which, turning South-West, lies a piece of Denby shire, parted from this by the River of Dee ; and directly West is bounded again by Flintshire, and by the Sea itself. The whole Shire is divided into Hundreds, of the which there are seven, viz : Broxton, Namptwich, Northwich, Maxfield (Macclesfield,) Bucklow, Eddis- bury, and Wirrall. I place the Hundred of Broxton to be first, because it borders upon the City of Chester; To which I hasten with all speed I can, which as it is the chief place, head, ornament, beauty, and dignity of the whole County Palatine is fit to have preeminence in our Description. Broxton Hundred, lying in a wedge-like form, is in length about 20 miles, and in its greatest breadth 8 or 9 miles. At one end thereof is Coughall, an antient De- mean of the M assies of Puddington, in Wirrall Hun- 1 ! -.'lied, and now Sir William Massie's, and scituate upon a lliver or Brook, which, dividing these Hundreds, falleth into Mersey : upon which Brook, from Coughall towards Chester, lies the Lop of Wervin, as also Picton, the Lands of John Hurlestone, Esq.-* next cometh Moston,\ with the Township of Upton also ; to which adjoineth, upon the Confines of the Liberties of the City of Chester, a sweet and pleasant demean, called the Baits, but more vulgarly the Bache,J which was once the Seat of the Chauntrells. And thus am I quickly arrived at the City of Chester itself. A DESCRIPTION OF CHESTER, THE NAMES AND FOUNDATION THEREOF. Although for my part, I see not any but very weak grounds for their conjectures, who would bring our City of Chester's foundation from beyond all possibility of Records ; yet I will not prejudicate any in their surmizes, * His descendant ; J. H. Leche, Esq. of Carden, is the pre- sent owner. f This manor now belongs to W. Massey, Esq. whose father purchased it in 1/90 from the representatives of II. Bennett, Esq. % This estate has lately passed into the hands of 13. Hill, Esq. 15 nor defraud them of the praises that any shall think good to bestow upon those who have laboured in Collections of that kind : and so, as follows : — The first Name, that I find this City is supposed to have born, was Neomagus ; and this they derive from Magus, the son of Samothes, the son of Japhet, which Magus was the first planter of Inhabitants in this Isle- after Noah's Floud, and first builded a City even in this place, or neer unto it, as it is supposed. This conjecture I find observed out of the learned Knight, Sir Thomas Elliott, who saith directly, in the First Vol. of his " Chronicles," that Neomagus stood where Chester now standeth. Ranulphus, a Monk of Chester, hath another founda- tion (in a rude fashion) from a Gyant, forsooth, called' Leon Gaure, the vanquisher of the Picts ; and saith that afterward Leir, King of Brittain, brought the City to a more pleasant fashion of building, and then named it Guer Leir.* Touching which foundation, I do by so- much less, give approbation, by how much me thinks that opinion of Mr. Camden most probable, drawn from- the antient Brittish Language, of whom it hath been called Caerlegion, Caerleon-vaur, &c. ; Which names are derived from that Legion of the Romans, called Vi- cessima Victrix, first placed here in the second Consul- * or Gaure Leon. 10 ship of Galba. Thus by whom, or howsoever the same City had her first Foundation, it is manifest enough, that it is exceedingly antient ; and even the doubtfulness thereof makes it of undoubted antiquity. The names thereof, indeed, have been variable, and diverse ; but I hold most authentical that, which the Saxons took from Castra, which in Latin signifieth Cas- tles or Camps ; from which many other cities and towns also derive a part of their name. But this our City, being the first City, made famous by that renowned Legion aforementioned, was more properly or especially called Cester, or Chester, being indeed an abbreviation of Lecje- cestria, the City of the Legion. The scituation of the City is so commendable, as to make Lucian, a Monk, that lived neer the time of the Normans' Conquest, to write thus : " Chester is built as a city, the sight whereof inviteth and allureth the eye ; and was, in times past, a place of receit to the Legions, and served sufficiently to keep the keys, as I may say, of Ireland, for the Romans to preserve the limits of their Empire." We find that the same City hath had many variable changes, sometimes in flourishing, and other whiles in depressed condition ; the truth whereof will be manifest- ed in the history of its Walls. These aforesaid Walls were first built by Marius, King of Brittain, who reigned 17 about A.D. 73. But Edelfieda, that Noble Mercian Lady, about the year 908, greatly repaired and enlarged this City, making the Walls thereof anew, and compass- ing in the Castle, which before that time stood without the Walls : All which that religious Monk, Henry Brad- shaiv, thus expresseth : " King Marius, a Brittain, raigning in prosperity "In the West part of this noble Region, "Amplified and walled strongly Chester City, " And mightily fortified the said foundation. — *** " The Year of Our Lord, Nine hundred and eight, " This Edelfieda, Dutchess, with mickle royalty " Reedified Chester, and fortified it full right ; " Also, she inlarged this old City " With new mighty Walls strong all about ; " Almost by proportion double in quantity, " To the further building brought without doubt, " She compassed in Castle — enemy to hold out, "Within the said Walls, to defend the Town "Against Dane and Welshmen, to drive them all down." To this, let me now add, from the Doomesday Book of William the Conquerour, that "The Earles of the Nor- man's Line fortified the City both with Walls and Castle." And afterwards, when the King himself, in person, came thither, " for the re-edification of the Wall and the 18 Bridge," an edict was issued, " That out of every Hide in the County, one man should come ; and look, whose man came not, his Lord and Master was fined 40s., to the King, and the Earl." In Hollinshead's Chronicle, it is recorded, that " the Irishmen did make their appearances, and did homage unto King Arthur at Caerlegion, now called Chester ;" ahout which time, saith Fox, this City was a place of great account ; and both Grammar and Philosophic, with the Tongues, were there taught. What we find in Mr. Harding's old Chronicle, is not to be omitted, concerning a Parliament, with Coronation of some kings, which set forth the dignity of this place ; the which take in his own words : " In the same year 603* of Christ's Incarnation "The Brittains all did set their Parliament "At Caerleon, by good information, " Caerlegio Chester hight, as some men meant " That Westchester is come of intent, "Where they did chuse Cadwan to be their King " To defend them from the foes warring. And afterwards, there is likewise mentioned the crowning, A.D. 626, of the famous Cadwal, (son of the said King Cadwan,) at this city, who raigned over the Brittains 61 •Or, which is more likely, A.D 613., Cadwan having reigned 13 years. 19 years after the death of Cadwan. And this Chronicle saith also, that King Ethelwalf was crowned at West- chester, in the year 839, in most royal manner, and raigned 19 years. In Polychronicon, as well as in almost all the Writers concerning the Dignity of Chester, the memory of King Edgar's pompous show he made at Chester, in the 12th year of his Raign,* is specially recorded, when, coming thither after his Conquest of North Wales, caused his Barge to be rowed by eight Kings upon the River Dee, himself sitting at the helm. Geraldus Cambrensis writeth, that Chester, about the time of the Conquest, was esteemed a place of great strength and refuge ; insomuch as, Harold the King, having received many wounds, and lost his left eye by stroke of an arrow, in the Battail with William the Conquerour, he fled from the field, and went to Chester, where some say he lived many years, after an holy life, as an Anchorite in the Cel of St. James, neer to St. John's Church, and there ended his dayes : And Poly- chronicon adds thereto, that when the death of King Harold was known to Edwin and Mercarius,-f- Earls of + A.D. 9/1. Ralph Higden adds, that Edgar was thus rowed by his subordinate princes, in proof of their fealty, from his palace on the Dee to St. John's Church. | Otherwise Morcar, who with Edwin, were brothers of Queeu Agatha, (or Algitha.) Mercia and Northumberland, they took Agatha, Harold's, wife, and sent her to Chester for her greater safety and security ; yet this History be indeed doubted by some other writers. Caxton in his Chronicle of the Raign of Henry I., relateth that Henry the IV., Emperour of Almaine, mar- ried Maud, the King's Daughter of England ; and that after a wilful exile, He and his Wife both died, and were buried at Chester : while Gerald in his Itinerario Wallce, saith, that having prisoned his carnal Father, and his spiritual Father, the Pope, with his Cardinals, he after- wards was reconciled, and wilfully exiled, leaving Maud his Wife, and lived a Hermit's life at Chester ten years ; and that afterwards at his death he confessed himself to be that same Henry, the Fourth Emperour of Almaine ; which Fame ran abroad, filling not only Chester, but the Countries also beyond the Seas. Many the like Notes to these do offer themselves, but these I will refer to be spoken of in their proper places, where opportunity may offer. And now I will describe the City itself, as it is at this day in our view : The City of Chester is inclosed with a fair stone wall, high and strong built, with fair Battlements on all the four sides, and with the four Gates, opening to the four Winds ; besides some posterns, and many seemly Towers in and upon the said Walls. The four Gates are, the l?w EASTGATE,CK£STE&,Takrn, down i/v]706. 21 East-gate, the North-gate, the Water-gate, and the Bridge-gate. Without the first two of these Gates, the City extendeth herself in her Suburbs, with very fine Streets, and the same adorned with goodly Buildings, both of Gentlemen's Houses, and fair Inns for entertain- ment of all resorts. And the Bridge-gate opening, on the South, into an antient part of the City, beyond the water, over the Bridge — a part which some suppose was once the City itself, now called Hand-bridge. And the Water-gate only leading forth to the side of the River Dee ; which River, even there, falls into the mouth of the Sea, having first as it were turned itself aside, to leave a fine spacious piece of ground of great pleasure and delight, called the Rood-Eye, a very delightfull Meadow used for a cow pasture in the summer, and all the year for a wholesome and pleasant walk by the side of the Dee; and for Recreations of Shooting, Bowling, and such other Exercises, as are performed at certain times by men ; and by running Horses, in presence and view of the Maior of the City, and his Brethren, with such other Lords, Knights, Ladies and Gentlemen, as please at those times to accompany them for that view. That which we may call the chiefest passage into that City, is the East-gate,* a goodly great Gate, of an *Tbis Gate, which is believed to have supplanted the original Koman archway during the reign of Edward III., was taken down 22 antient fair building, with a Tower upon it, containing many fair rooms within it : At which, we begin the circuit of the Wall, which from that Gate, Northward, extendeth to a Tower* upon the angle of the said Wall. The North-gate + is of a remarkable strong fair building, and used for the Prison of the City, in the charge and keeping of the Sheriffs successively from year to year, which Prison hath always one suffi- cient well-reputed Gaoler, to take charge of all such prisoners as shall be thither brought. From the North- gate, still Westward, the Wall extendeth to another Tower ; J and from thence to the turning of the Wall, Southwards, where standeth another fine Turret, called in 1767, when portions of the old Roman structure, consisting of two double circular arches, together with some rude remnants of sculpture were there discovered. The present Gate was erected in 1768, at the sole charge of Richard, first Marquis of Westminster. *The Phoenix, or as it was sometime called, Newton Tower ; from the roof of which, in 1645, just 30 years after the writing of this History, that truly unfortunate Monarch, Charles the First, was a sad spectator of the defeat of his forces on Rowton Heath. fThe structure here spoken of was removed in 1808, and the prisoners removed to a new Gaol, erected near the Water-gate. Upon its site, the present Gate was erected, by the aforesaid Marquis of Westminster. J The Goblin's Tower, now known as Pemberton's Parlour, partially taken down in 1702. 23 the New Tower, * and was pitcht within the channel of Dee Water, where was at one time the Key, whereunto Vessels of great burdens as well of merchandise as others, came close up. From the New Tower, the Wall goeth South to the Water-gatej-j- which Gate is less than any of the other three, serving only for the passage to the Roodeye, formerly mentioned ; and still South reacheth the Wall in a straight line, before it hath gotten beyond the Castle, and then turns itself towards the East. From that turning, is the Bridge-gate, J scituate at the North End of a very fine and strong stone bridge. This Bridge-gate being a fair strong building of itself, hath of late been more beautified by a seemly Waterwork of Stone, built steeplewise, by the ingenuous industry and charge of a late worthy member of the City, John Tyrer, Gent., and hath served ever since to great use, for the conveying of the River water from the cestern in *Now styled the Water Tower, an ancient maritime fortress, built in 1322, and still existing in much of its former glory ; it has been lately converted into the Museum of the Mechanics' Institution, and become a place of great resort to strangers. fThe Gate here mentioned, which was a narrow, inconvenient structure, gave way in 1788-9, to the present handsome archway, the murengers of the city providing the funds for its erection. J Taken down in 1781, and the present Gateway substituted the following year, at the City's cost. 24 the top of that work, to the Citizens' houses, in almost all parts of the City, in pipes of lead and wood, to their no small contentment and commodity, The Wall there continueth along the River side East- ward to another remainder of a Turret, and then turneth itself Northward ; and certain paces from thence, is a Postern, of old called Wool field- gate,* but of latter times named Newgate, which in A.D. 1600, was aug- mented and adorned with a fair building ; and from this gate, our Wall, having another Turret now unto it, called Wall Tower,-\- stretcheth still along, till it meeteth with the East-gate, at which it began. This Wall is so fairly built, with Battlements on the outward part, and with a footpace, or floor, a yard or more under the Notch of the Battlement, that with the help of some stairs, you may go round about the Walls, being a very delectable Walk, feeding the eye, on the one side, with the sweet Gardens, and fine Buildings of the City ; and on the other side, with a Prospect of many miles into the County of Chester, into Wales, and into the Sea.§ And this Wall, although it serveth not so much •In some records, called also Pepper-gnte, with which name several traditions are associated. f Now almost obliterated. §The rapacity of modern adventurers h;ith now almost banished the sea from the neighbourhood of the old City. 25 in these dayes, for defence and safety, against the Inva- sions of Enemies, and dangers of Siege, as in antient times it did ; yet have the Citizens here, by continual care, and no small charge, maintained the same in sound and good Reparations for the ornament, credit, and estimation of the City.* Upon the South-side of the City, neer unto the said water of Dee, and upon a high rock, is mounted a strong and stately Castle, round in form ; the Base Court like- wise enclosed with a circular wall, which to this day, retaineth one testimony of the Romans 1 magnificence, having therein a fair and antient square Tower, which, by the testimony of all the writers I have hitherto met withall, beareth the name of Julius Cesar's Tower ; + besides which there is a goodly Hall, J where the Court of Common Pleas, and also the Sheriffs of the County's Court, with other businesses for the County of Chester are constantly kept and holden, and is a place, for that purpose, of such state and comeliness, as is hardly •The value of this pious precaution was well developed, a few years afterwards, in the long and arduous Siege endured by the Citizens on behalf of their King, in 1545-6. f Still perfect ; the lower portion is now occupied as a Magazine, The upper chamber has a vaulted and groined stone roof, and was at one time a Chapel, as appears by the Tax Book of Henry VIII. X Usually styled Hugh Lupus's Hall. Taken down in 1790, together with the Exchequer Court (where the Earls held their 26 equalled by any Shire Hall, in any of the Shires in Eng- land. And next to the said Hall is another convenient Hall, where is holden the Princes Highness' most honor- able Court of Exchequer. Within the precincts of the Castle, is also the King's Prison for the County, with a deep Draw-well of water, in the middest of the Court ; besides much of the antient Building, for want of use, fallen to ruine and decay. And I find that the Castle, with the precincts thereof, were reserved out of the Charter of King Henry VII., by the which the City was made a County of itself; and accordingly, hath ever since been used for the King's Majesties' service of the County of Chester, and esteemed a part thereof, and not of the County of the City. And now to step from thence into the City itself. The Streets, for the most part, are very fair and beau- tiful, and the buildings on either side of seemly propor- tion ; and for a singular property or praise to this City, (whereof I know not the like of any other,) though there be towards the street fair rooms, for shops and dwelling houses, yet the principal dwelling houses and shops are mounted a story higher, and before the Doors a continued Kowe on either side the street, for people to pass to and fro all along the said houses, out of all annoyance of Parliaments) to make room for the present magnificent County Hall, Gaol, and Barracks. for liutrts Vale (Royalhy llujfhcs. 'ibu- &D(/nycrlli/d /.///nyn/p/u r,> I.cndon/. :\\;\{~ i;: ,,, :;: | :: ,, ;., ! , n , n ; "rr^i^Tnr li'i': 1 !;,,,' REFERENCES TO THE PLAN OF CHESTER DURING THE SIEGE. 1. Pemberton's Parlour. 27. The Justing Croft. 2. Abbey Gate, 28. Kaleyard Gate. 3. Bars Gate. 29. Morgan's Mount. 4. Bridge Gate. 30. Mount leading to Stone 5. Bridge Street. Bridge. 6. Bridget's Church. 31. St. Mary's Church. 7. Cathedral. 32. St. Michael's Church. 8. Castle. 33. St. Martin's Church. 9. Cow Lane. 34. Northgate. 10. Cow Lane Turnpike. 35. Newgate. 11. Eastgale. 36. New Tower. 12. Eastgate Street. 37. Northgate Street. 13. Foregate Street. 38. St. Olave's Church. 14. Flankers on the River. 39. Outworks on Little Rood- 15. Flankers atFlookersbrook eye. 1 6. Flankers at Upper North- 40. Phcenix Tower. gate Street. 41. Phoenix Mount. 17. Flankers at Stone Bridge. 42. Eeed's Mount. 18. Upper Nor thgate Street. 43. St. Peter's Church. 19. „ „ Turnpike. 44. Raised Platform on Walls. 20. Upper Abbey Gate. 45. Sadler's Tower. 21. Gunmount. 46. Trinity Church. 22. Horn Lane. 47. Dr. Walley's Mount. 23. Horn Lane Mount. 48. Water Tower. 24. „ Flanker. 49. Watergate. 25. St. John's Church. 50. Watergate Street. 26. „ Church Yard o. The Walls. Battery. REFERENCES TO THE PLAN OF CHESTER DURING THE SIEGE. 1. Pemberton's Parlour. 27. The Justing Croft. 2. Abbey Gate, 28. Kaleyard Gate. 3. Bars Gate. 29. Morgan's Mount. 4. Bridge Gate. 30. Mount leading to Stone 5. Bridge Street. Bridge. 6. Bridget's Church. 31. St. Mary's Church. 7. Cathedral. 32. St. Michael's Church. 8. Castle. 33. St. Martin's Church. 9. Cow Lane. 34. Northgate. 10. Cow Lane Turnpike. 35. Newgate. 11. Eastgale. 36. New Tower. 12. Eastgate Street. 37. Northgate Street. 13. Foregate Street. 38. St. Olave's Church. 14. Flankers on the River. 39. Outworks on Little Rood- 15. Flankers atFlookersbrook eye. 1 6. Flankers at Upper North- 40. Phoenix Tower. gate Street. 41. Phoenix Mount. 17. Flankers at Stone Bridge. 42. Reed's Mount. 18. Upper Northgate Street. 43. St. Peter's Church. 19. „ „ Turnpike. 44. Raised Platform on Walls. 20. Upper Abbey Gate. 45. Sadler's Tower. 21. Gunmount. 46- Trinity Church. 22. Horn Lane. 47. Dr. Walley's Mount. 23. Horn Lane Mount. 48. Water Tower. 24. „ Flanker. 49. Watergate. 25. St. John's Church. 50. Watergate Street. 26. „ Church Yard o. The Walls. Battery. 21 Rain, or other foul weather ; with stairs fairly built, to step down out of those Rowes into the open streets ; and the said Rowes built over the head, with such of the chambers and rooms, for the most part, as are the best rooms in every of these said houses. The City is also adorned with many fine and decent Churches ; there being within the Walls eight Parishes, and Parish Churches : St. Oswald's (ox Werburg,) St. Peter's, Trinity, St. Martin's, St. Marie's, St. Olave's, St. Michael's, and St. Bridget's ; and in the Suburbs without the Walls St. John the Baptist, and Little St. John's. All which Churches, as they are of a very antient, so are they of a very comely building, and are so well maintained, that they are so many beautiful ornaments to the City. But here I thus pass by them, and come again to describe the principal streets by name. The East-gate Street is the fair street, where the City opens itself to your eye, as soon as you enter within the East-gate, and reacheth in a straight line, beautified with Rowes, and very fine buildings on both sides, to the High Crosse* at St. Peter's Church. The North-gate Street beginneth neer the upper end of East-gate Street, turning where the Milke market is kept Northward ; which after it hath led you to the Common * Levelled and defaced by the fanatic zeal of the Parliament- arians, on their obtaining possession of the City in 1546. 28 Hall of Pleas, it then spaciously opens itself to a goodly Corn marketplace, scituate before the fair Gates of the antient and famous Abbey, and now used for the Palace of the Lord Bishop, and fine dwellings of the reverend Dean and Prebend of that Foundation ; from thence nar- rows itself to the North-gate, on the one side, with fair houses, and on the other with the wall * of the Abbey. The Bridge-gate Street begins at the Bridge-gate, and ascendeth leisurely from South to North, even up to the High Crosse aforementioned, being in the upper end thereof, for the beauty and scituation, a special part of the comely splendour of the City, and boasteth itself with the shew of four or five of the Churches, Cross-conduit, and greatest Traded Shops, very seemly to all beholders. The Water-gate Street beginneth at the "Water-gate, and so in the like straight line, well furnished with build- ings, both antient and new, up to the said High Crosse. The Fore-gate Street reacheth, from the East-gate, directly East, in a fair continued street, to another Gate of stone, called the Bars,-\ without which the liberties •This wall has of late years heen replaced by a row of houses and shops, the Abbey Gate and another, about 80 yards further Northward, alone remaining to denote its former position. f Condemned as unsafe, and totally removed in 1/70. This Gate, with the outworks, became a prey to the Parliamentarians, in a night surprise, on the 19th September, 1645, and was so held until the City capitulated the following year. 29 of the City disperse themselves into the several waves, that give passages into many countries. The Street without North-gate, is likewise a fair street, giving passage Northward towards the Sea coast. Pepur (Pepper) Street goeth out of the Bridge street by the side of St. Michael's Church, and butteth on the Fishmonger's Lane, to Newgate ; which sometime had a hollow grate, with a Bridge for horse and man ; and it butteth upon Sowter's Load, and St. John's Street. And this Gate was, in times past, closed up, and shut, because a young man stole away a Maior of Chester's daughter, through the same Gate, as she was playing at Ball with other Maids, in the Summer time, in Pepur Street.* St. Nicholas Street, an antient neighbour to the Seats of those Friars, black, white, and gray Nuns, is a seemly passage from the Water-gate Street to St. Martin's Church, and so on, by the Nunne's wall to the Castle Lane. Fleshmonger's Lane (Newgate Street) meets with the East end of Pepur Street, and thence goeth straight up to the East-gate Street ; and meet over against it, lyeth another Lane, called St. Werburg Lane, the passage out of the same street to the Minster. Our antient surveyes describe two other Lanes on the same side of East-gate Street, towards the Minster, one •With this legend originated the old Chester proverb "When the daughter is flown, shut the Pepurgate J" 30 called Peen Lane, and the other Godst all's Lane ;* hut the places where they were, ar.e now the soyl of other tenements. A little without the East-gate, on the South side, turneth down a fair street, called St. John's Street ; of the which I find, in an old written parchment book, called Sancta Prisca, being an Evidence belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Chester, there is mention made of a street called Iremonger Street, in these words : " Inter terram, quce fuit A 'doe % de Paris, et terram Hospitii Hospitalis Sancti Johannis," tyc. ; and that from that, at the corner of the Mansion-place of the Petty Canons (of St. John's) there is a Lane after the Wall o-f the Churchyard, named the VicJcar's Lane, and it butteth upon Barker's and Love Lane ; and at the end of this street, there goeth a Way down to water of Dee, which way is called the Soivter's Load." By this we may see what alterations the times have made both in Streets and Lanes. The Water-gate Street hath on the North-side, near unto St. Peter's Church, a Lane called Goslane ; and a little further West Gerrard's Lane (Crook Street;) and beneath, just at the end of Trinity Church, lyeth Trinity Lane. An old Lane, sometime called Berward's Street * Said to have been the retreat of Henry Emperour of Almaine. $ JEdes is possibly here intended. 31 (Linen Hall Street), lyeth at the lower end of Parson's Lane, and out of it in antient time went a Lane to St. Chadd's Church, now ruined and gone, and thence to the Walls. As you descend from the High Crosse down the Bridge Street, upon the West side lyes a Lane, antiently called Norman's Lane, and many yet call it Common Hall Lane, because it had a great Hall, where the Pleas of the City, and meetings of the Maior and his brethren were there holden. Over against St. Olave's, lyeth the Castle Lane, that goeth to St. Marie's Church. And lower down, also towards this Church, lyes another way, which an- tiently was the way to Shippegate,* which was then a fair Gate in the Wall, belonging to the Ferry, at which, before the building of the bridge over Dee, both horse and man had passage into the City. Having thus gone through most of the Streets and Lanes, I suppose it will be objected, I should set down somewhat of the Churches, how antiently their founda- tions are, and how they have continued in these days. It appeareth from our best Antiquary, Bradshaw, Monk of this City, that the Christian Faith and Bap- tisme came into Chester in King Lucius' time, a King * Of Roman construction, standing originally 20 feet high. It was some years since removed from its ancient position, and is now the property of J. Finchett Maddock, Esq., late M.P. for Chester, 32 of the Brittains, which is within lesse then 140 years of the sufferings of our Saviour Christ ; and that then a Church was here builded, and at that time entituled by the name of St. Peter and St. Paul. But then after, as appeareth in the same Authour, Elfleda, that noble Lady, wife to Ethelred, King of the Mercians, altered its name to Trinity and St. Osivald ; and that no losse should be to the memory of those Patrons, another Church was soon builded in the roiddest of the City, called by the same name of Peter and Paul, which now is called St. Peter's only. A DISCOURSE OF THE FOUNDATION AND ENDOWMENT OF THE ABBIE OF St. WERBURG'S IN CHESTER. Touching the Original Foundation of a Monastery in this place, I do by circumstance conclude that Wul- pherus, King of the Mercians, who flourished about A.D. GGO, perceiving his Daughter Werburge much dis- posed to a religious life, caused her to be veiled, and first built it for her, and such other pious ladies, who resolved to dedicate their lives to the service of God therein ; for William of Malmcsbury says " That she was buried at Chester, in the Monastery there." Neither doth the 33 Charter of King Edgar import less, then that the Abbey here was of great antiquity ; for it appears that he, for the health of his soul, as also for the souls of King Edmund his Father, King Athelstan his Uncle, and other his Ancestors, gave to the Ahbey of St. Werburg 17 houses scituate in the Town of Hodesnid (Hodnet), 'Ceosaule (Kelshall), Huntingdon, Huxton, Eston (As- ton), and Borne (Barnskaw), whose Charter bears date in the year 868. After which, viz. : in the time of Edward the Confessor, the famous Leofric, Earl of Mercia, not onely enricht it with the Graunt thereto of fair Possessions, but repaired the buildings thereof which inclined to decay. How long it continued a Monastery of Nuns, I cannot say ; but do conclude that it was so till towards the Norman Conquest ; and then it seems that Canons Secular were placed in their stead, till that Hugh, Earl of Chester (who, being a near Kinsman to King William the First, and advanced to this Earldom about the fourth year of his Reign, when he grew in years, disposed him- self to several works of Piety, as his munificence to the Monasteries of Bee, and St. Severus (both in Normandy) ■do well witness) began the Foundation of a new one for Monks of St. Benet's Order in this place, having pro- cured Anselm, Abbot of Bee, to come over into this Realm, chiefly for the ordering of that great work ; 34 which being accordingly performed, one Richard, a Monk of Bee, and Chaplain to the said Anselm, was by him first instituted Abbot here. How large and plentiful an Endowment it had by the munificence of this Earl, and Ermentrude his Countess, I shall here briefly observe from his Original Charter, viz. : the Mannours of Ynes (Ince), Salthone (Saighton), Sutton, Cheveley, Hunt- ingdon, Bocthon (Boughton), Weversham, Croxton, Troc- ford (Trafford), Clifton, Eston, Wisdleth (Willaston) Hodslei (Huxley), Weapre, and half of Rabbi (Raby), and the third parts of Weston, Solchale (Saughall), Stannic, Burwardeslie, and Soteivic (Shotwick) ; the half of Leche (Lache), and one Carucate of the Land in Pnlford. In the City of Chester, of his own Demesne, he gave thereunto all the street from the North-gate to the Church, and a Mill at the Bridge. In Anylesie likewise two Mannours ; one in Ros, and one in Wirrall, called Erberie (Ireby). In Lindsey, ten oxgangs, and Weston in Derbyshire ; the Church of Aston, and the Tithes of Elthon, Frodesham, Weversham, Lech, Roces- ter, JIaurdine (Hawarden), Coleshul, Bissopestred, Up- petune (Upton), Campden, Eastham, and of his Mills in Deneford. And to this Charter was the said Anselm, (now Archbishop of Canterbury) a Witnesse, together with Hervey (Bishop of Bangor) and divers eminent persons. 35 William Malbanc (one of his Barons) gave the lord- ship of Witteby (Whitby), the third of Weprc, the Church and Tythes of Tatenhalle, a Salthouse in Wich (Nantwich), and two Oxgangs of Land. Likewise gave his other Barons portions of their estates, for the Endow- ment of the Monastery. And lastly, the said Earl gave unto them the Toll and all the profits of the Fair at the Feast of St. Werburge, for three dayes, appointing that for all forfeitures in the Fair, Triall should be in the Court of St. Werburge, for the benefit of the Monks. To the honor of which Saint, he likewise granted, that whatsoever Thief or Malefactor came to the Solemnity, should not be attached, while he continued in the said Fair, except he committed any new offence there. Which special Priviledge, as in tract of time it drew an extraordinary confluence of loose peo- ple thither at that Season, so happened it to be of singu- lar advantage to one of the succeeding Earles. For being at Rodelent (Rhuddlan) Castle in Wales, and there besieged by a power of the Welsh ; at such a time, he was relieved rather by their numbers than strength, under the conduct of Robert de Lacy, Constable of Ches- ter, who with Pipers, and other sorts of Minstrels, drew them forth, and marching towards the Castle, put the Welsh to such terrour, that they presently fled ; in memory of which notable exploit, that famous meeting :;<; of such Minstrels hath been July continued at every Midsummer Fair. But I return to Earl Hugh, the pious Founder of tins great Monastery, whose affection thereto was such, and devotion so great towards his latter end, that three dayes before his death he caused himself to be shorn a Monk therein ; and so departing the world 6th August, Anno, 1101, left issue Richard', who, succeeding him in the Earldom, not only confirmed his Father's Grant to this Abbey, but added amongst other gifts, certain lands with- out the North-gate, whereof he gave possession to the Monks ; first, by an Ear of Wheat offered upon the Altar ; and afterwards by a Knife ; further adding the Tenth Salmon taken at the Bridge, with the place for a Mill below the bridge, and other matters ; which Charter bears date at Gratram, in the year 1119. Earl Ranulph Meschines, when he translated the body of his Uncle, Earl Hugh, out of the Church Yard into the Chapter House, gave the Lordship of Upton, for the health of his own, and the said Earl's soul. Also gave succeeding Earls various Mannours and other properties ; wherewith being so plentifully enricht, about the Reign of King Edward III., they rebuilt their Church, as the form of its Architecture plainly discovereth. And thus in great glory, as the greatest ornament of that City, stood this opulent Monastery, till the 30th of 37 King Henry VIII. , his Reign, that all the great Houses went to wrack, and that by a public Instrument the then' Abbot, and his Convent surrendred it to the King ; who> thereupon, of the six new Bishopricks then made, consti- tuted one in this place ; designing the buildings of the' Abbey for the Bishop's Palace, and the Conventuall Church for his Cathedrall, wherein were instituted a Dean and secular Canons.* The said St. Werburg, of whom this Minster had the name, was a virgin and a great Princesse, daughter of Wulpherus, King of Mercia ; and was so vertuously disposed, that she cared for no worldly honours, but gave herself to godly and holy contemplations, and had com- mand in her lifetime over four Monasteries, namely Weedon, Trentham, Repton, and Hambury. In her tender age she was professed under Audria,-\ her aunt, at Elie ; she lived much at Weedon, deceased at Tren- tham in 708, and was first buried at Hambury ; thence translated, after remaining there above 100 years, in 875, to Chester, for fear of the spoyles and outrages of the Danes, her Shrine being placed in the mother Church of St. Peter and Paul, now the Church of St. Werburg onely. + The deposed Abbot, Thomas Clarke, was appointed the firs* Dean. f Otherwise Ethddrida, Abbess of Ely. 38 The whole body of the Minster, as now we find it, makes the form of a Crosse, the steeple being in the middle juncture, as likewise we see in the great Church of St. Paul's in London. In the furthest end of the same Eastward, it is enlarged into a fine square Chappell, called by the name Our Ladle's Chappell, adorned with a fair Window of very curious workmanship in glasse, being the story of the blessed Virgin her discent from the Loines of Jesse,* though now, through injury of Time and Weather, the same is much blemished. The Chap- pell itself long since converted into the Consistory Court of the Lord Bishop ; which that it was so in the dayes of Queen Mary, the proof is yet in the memories of some, because in that place Doctor George Coates, then Bishop of Chester, gave sentence of condemnation against George Marsh, a blessed Martyr and Sufferer for Christ's truth, and burned to ashes -j- in Chester, A.D. 1555. The Quire itself is most finely beautified, with a very deep and tuneable Organ ; and on either side with very fine Seats or Stalls, for the Reverend Dean, Prebends, Queristers, and others, and adorned with fair and curious carved work, and of as excellent proportion as almost is possible to be made by the hands of workmen. * An elegant stained window, erected in 1844, now occupies the place of the one here mentioned, of which all trace had long before disappeared. f At a place called the Spilal, in Boughton. 39 Many have been the Monuments of Burials within the said Quiery, whereof time hath devoured the memory. There now only remains the Shrine of St. Werburg, the which now serves to be a supporter to a fair Pue for the Lord Bishop. Also one fair stone in the middest of the Church, where was buried one worthy Bishop of the same Diocesse, called Bishop Downham, and dated Dec. 3rd 1577. Near unto that lyes another Stone, being the burial place of the Lord Bishop Lloyd, of late years. In the South He of the said Quire, in the wall thereof, divers antient burialls have their Tombs artificially made within the Wall, arched over in the same, but without inscriptions ; and upon the other side of that He is a fair square Tomb of Alabaster without inscriptions also, but believed to be that Emperour's Tomb, Henry the Fourth, of whom we made mention before. The Body of the Church, toward the West end, is a very spacious and stately Edifice, distinguished into a broad middle He, and two lesser lies on either side; the Pillars of the He recording the memory of a famous Abbot of that Abby, Simon Ripley, who died about 1492. a great Benefactor of that House, and a bountiful Re- pairer of that Church, as by the letters of his name on those Pillars is yet manifest. At the upper end of the Body of the Minster, is the entrance into the place now used, and so named, by the 40 name of the Chapter House, and specially serves for the meetings and businesses of the Dean and Chapter. And this piece of building, of all others, sheweth the most venerable face of antiquity, both for the most antient fashion of vaulting over head, and of open walls with partitions within side. It is most cer- tain, it is as old a fashion for building with stone, as I think can be showed in any place that hath stood in its own native form, without alteration or re- paration. It is supposed, and indeed most likely, that many of those famous and renowned Earles of Chester have been buried in this place, though there appear no proof thereof by Monuments : onely there are some Gravestones in the floor thereof, and one of them of a very antient manner of making, with an Inscription about the border of it, defaced. On the same side of the Church likewise, are several Entrances into the Cloysters, that lead into the several parts of the Abbey, now disparted to several uses and employments ; such as, a Paliace for the Lord Bishop, another for the Deane ; and in like manner for all the Prebends, Canons, the Free School, the servants of the House, and other uses. The South end of the Minster hath been either the Fabric itself, or else the place of the Church, first dedi- cated to the memory of the Apostles Peter and Paul; and 41 afterwards altered to the blessed Trinity and St. Oswald, King and Martyr ; and after that again, to St. Oswald and St. Werburg ; and after all that, the rest of the Minster joined to the North end of that, this Church still retaining her dedication to St. Osivald, from the which, the whole Parish had its name. But the Abbot and the Convent, wishing to retain their whole Minster to them- selves, afterward erected for the Parishioners a fair Chap- pell at the South West end of the Minster, intituled St. Nicholas Chappell ; whereunto the said Parishioners repaired, as their Parish Church ; which so continued unto the time, that the Parishioners, with the Maior of the City, obtained again for their Service the Church of St. Oswald's, compounding with Simon Ripley, Abbot of Chester, about the year 1488, as by an Instrument yet remaining upon record, doth appear. The Cbappel of St. Nicholas then serving to little use, the Citizens purchased it to themselves, and dividing the same by a floor in the middle thereof, the lower Room was appointed for the stowage of Wool and other com- modities, to be vented and sold at allowable times. And the upper room for a stately Senate house,* for the Assemblies, Elections, Courts of Maior, and Aldermen, the Pentice Court, and others, as the law appoints. * Now converted iuto a Theatre, to the great honor and credi of the City. iJ The Church of St. Marie's, usually called super montem, standeth upon the brow of a bank that riseth not far from the Bridge-gate. It carryeth the same shew of Antiquity with the rest of the Churches, being in all likelihood erected in that place for speciall use of the Earles, when they held their residence in the Castle. Upon the South side of the Chancel standeth a fair Chappel,* reported to be there erected by the ancestors of a great and worshipful race of the Troutbeclcs, of great reputation in this County of Chester, and of whose lands many of the gentlemen of the Shire have now no small portion ; in which Chappel the bodies of some of them, and by all likelihood the Founders of the Chappel, lye in a fair vault in the middest thereof; and others of that progenie in other parts of the Church. Almost in the middle of the Water-gate Street, on its North side, standeth the Church dedicated to the blessed Trinity, which both for the high Spire steeple, -J- and for the workmanship, seemeth to be of little less an- tiquity than the others. The Church of St. John's, without the Walls of the City, an author affirms to have been founded in A.D. G89, in these plain words : • The Roof of this Chapel fell in in ]C60, and the present South aisle was erected on its site in 1690. f This steeple has been for many years without a spire. *:; " The Year of Grace six hundred fourscore nine " As saith my author, a Brittain, Geraldus, " King Ethelr-ed minding most the blisse of heaven, " Edilied a Colledge Church notable and famous " In the suburbs of Chester pleasant and beautious, " In the honor of God and the Baptist St. John " With the help of Bishop Wulfrice and good exhortation." I will not suppresse that which they further write of this foundation, which being either true, or a thing supposed, shall, for me, speak of itself. " King Ethelred minding to build a Church was told, That where he should see a White Hinde, there he should build a Church ; which Hinde he saw in the place where St. John's Church now standeth ; and in remem- brance whereof, his Picture was placed in the Wall of the said Church, which yet standeth on the side of the Steeple towards the West, having a White Hinde in his hand." It remaineth that we speak somewhat of the River Dee, to which water no man can now express how much this antient City hath been beholden. Even there, where the Sea hath determined that Creek, which shoots in between Flintshire, and the West part of Werall Hun- dred, was founded this beautiful City, and made the Receptacle of merchandize from all Kingdoms and Na- tions, who traded into the Brittain, or Irish Ocean. 4 + The mouth or opening of this River into the Sea lies very bleak upon the North Eastern and Western winds, and the ground or bottome of the Creek is altogether of a loose, light, skittering Sand, which upon any powerful drift of Wind or Water, will give place like drifts of Snow. And these mighty heaps of sand, having been brought by fierce and strong winds up into the narrow- nesse of the Creek, the Haven, which in time past received Ships of great burthen up to the City skirts, scarce now hath sea room for small Barques, which onely at higher waters do bring in their unladings of Great Vessels from the Keyes which can receive them, 9 or 10 miles off. And hence it is, that even within this few years there hath been such losses and gainings between the shores of Cheshire and Flintshire as will scarcely be believed of such as do not behold that with their eyes. Proceeding now with the rest of Broxton Hundred, which we made but an entrance into, we will take occa- sion to leave Handbridge, that antient part of the City, lying close to the Bridge, and take view of that part of the Hundred, which lyes on that side of the said River of Bee, and between it and Flintshire. The first is the lordship of Lache, in times past partly the lands of the Earles of Oxenford ; and the chief house * in the Town- * Lache Hall, garrisoned for the Parliament, during the Siege of Chester, by Sir William Brereton. 45 ship is now the holding of George Manly, Gent., and no small portion was the Lands that belonged to the Nunnery of St. Mary in Chester, and now belonging to the Breretons of Handford. More then a mile Eastward standeth Eccleston Church, by the Town so called, whereof the chief lordship is the lands of the Venables, Baron of Kinderton, while down lower towards the South, lyes Dodleston, a goodly lordship of the Earle of Bridge- water, and the Church there is the burying place of that most wise and worthy Lord Ellesmere, Viscount Brack- ley, Lord Chancellor of England, whose body, by his own appointment, his course being finished, was brought down to rest in the Church of Dodleston. This said lordship adjoineth to Kinarton, and next to that lyes Burton. Turning now to the South East, you come to Pulford, a great lordship * of the Warburtons of Arley, standing upon the Eiver Alen, which coming from the middest of Cheshire leads you on full East unto Poulton, sometimes the antient seat of the Manleys, now belonging to the house of Eaton, at Eaton boat,\ the Mansion of the worthy family of the Grosvenors ; the heir of which house, Sir Richard Grosvenor, Knight and Baronet, * Belongs now to the noble House of Westminster, f Eaton Hall, now a princely edifice, erected in 1807, by the Father of the present Marquis of Westminster. 4G enjoys the Seat, and shewes his own worthiness, better than I were able, if I would attempt, to do it. Returning then to Chester, our way is to pass over the Bridge, and along the Wall Eastward, to Fore-gate Street; which being done, you presently go to Spittle Boughton,* so called of an antient Hospitall there sci- tuate. Neer unto which lyes Boughton itself, by the River of Dee, where is now that fair new Waterwork, even now in finishing, to bring the Water of a fine spring neer it, unto the middest of the City, to a Cestern, sci- tuate by the High Cross, at St. Peter's Church, a thing pleasant and commodious. By the River side, a mile further Southward, lies Huntington lordship ; from whence we soon come to Churchen Heath, where stands a Chap- pel belonging to the Parish of St. Werburg of Chester, and next to it lies a rich demeane, and a fair antient Timber mansion house -j- of the great family of the Cal- velies, which house had, in times past, one addition of honour, when the owner thereof Sir Hugh Calvely was Captain of Calleys% (Calais) and married the late Queen "Here was, until the present century, the common place of Execution, where also George Marsh suffered martyrdom for his Religion, in 1554. f Lea Hall, now a farm house. The Calvely family, extinct in the male line, is now represented in the female line, by Viscount Combermere, of Combermere Abbey. J Under Edward III., in 1374. His marriage with Queen Mar- garet is, doubtless, a myth. 47 of Aragon, and another of the late presence of our gra- cious Soveraign King James, Anno 1G 17, who came thither from Chester, and advanced there the said Sir George Calvely to the degree of Knighthood. Beneath this demean we must step over a stone bridge to Aldford,* and on past an antient inheritance of the Flttons of Gawsworth, to Churton, where is scituate two gentlemen's habitations of the Barnstons and the I'os- tocks ; and so leaving Aldersey on our left hand, a place that gave beginning to Gentlemen of that name there, some famous Citizens of London, and Aldermen of Ches- ter, and whose posterity do there still flourish. We come now to Farndon, where is a fair new Church, + with the town itself reaching down to an ex- ceeding fair stone bridge, built, no doubt, together with that old substantial Castle in the Holt, the bridge being the onely partition between the two Towns. Pursuing the course of our River, northward of the town of Barton upon the Hill, we come still Easterly to Crewe,\ and Carden^ whereof both have given names * Since 1729, Aldford has belonged, by purchase, to the Grosve- nor family. f This Church was garrisoned during the Civil War, and was burnt at the siege of Holt Castle in 1645. \ Now the seat of Roger Harry Barnston, Esq., a descendant of the Barnstons of Churton. § J. Hurleston Leche, Esq., the present proprietor derives in. 48 to geutlemen's families, the latter being now the mansion of John Leche, Gentleman, a man of good descent ; and extended: to Calcot (Caldecote) a fine seat ; near which is also another antient seat, once of the Yerdlcys, but since purchased by Lady Cholmley. Next we come unto Tilston, which standeth by a fair demean, heretofore the inheritance of the Massies, of Grafton,* but lately purchased and new builded by Sir Peter Warburton, one of his Majestie's Justices of Com- mon Pleas, who left his onely daughter and heir, the now Lady Grosvenor, who by her former husband was Lady Stanley of Alderley. Upon our left hand, lyeth adjoining Horton, antiently a seat of the Golborns ; and Overton, another Lordship : and passing thence by the Hamlet of Chorleton, we come presently to the two Lordships of Shoclach ; one is called Church Shoclach, having a little Church in it, but as for the Castle f which Mr. Camden saith hath been here, I can say but little. The goodly seat here, of late years the Mansion of Sir Randle Brereton, is now brought unto the possession of a most worthy Knight, Sir Richard the female line from William de Carden, with whom the original name became extinct. * Grafton has passed, by descent, to the present Lord Stanley, of A'derley. f Of this Castle no remains exist, beyond the moat which sur- rounded it. 4/„ i . ;.\'.'.7.>;v/-,i:<' (il antient seat of the Griffins, of long continuance, received* into the bosom thereof one stout Water that they call Betley water. Let us step a little Easterly towards the head of this water, and take view of Wybunbury, a Church town, and a Parish Church * to a great precinct, and on every side so garnished and adorned with the seats of Baronets, Knights and Gentlemen, as is scarce to he found the like in any country Parish ; the Vicarage is in the gift of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Neer unto the same Church is scituate a fine lordship and Town, with a decayed house and demean of Sir Thomas Smith, called the Hough ; and next adjoining unto it, the Lee, being an antient seat of Knights and Esquires of that name, and now Sir Richard Lee, a Knight of worthy account, to whom I stand particularly bounden. But let us look a little more to the West, where stands the lordship of Blaikenfall (Blakenhall) ; and next to that Hunsterton,-\ both the lands of Sir Thomas Delves, and so come to Bartomley,\ a Parish and a Church ; in which Township we see an antient handsome house and * We are indebted to John Twemlow, Esq., of Hatherton, for the accompanying engraving of Wybunbury Old Church, taken down in 1790. f This and the three previously named lordships now belong to the Broughton family. % During the Civil War, Barthomley Church was attacked by 62 demean, the lands of the Lawtons of Lawton ; and from a lake hereabout runneth Wolwern brook, by Weston, a lordship with an antient seat and demean, belonging to Sir Thomas Delves, of Doddington, running along by Basford, a sightly habitation,* sometime the lands of the Bromlees, but now of Sir Robert Cholmondeleigh ; and so crossing the Lee brook again, we may first take notice of Shavington, an antient seat of the Woodnoths, the present 'owner thereof, John Woodnoth, Esq.,-j~ a great antiquary, and learned in the laws ; and on the other hand Ro, and belongs, with War- button, Great Budworth, SfC, to Rowland E. E. Warburton, Esq. f Now possessed by James H. Smith Barry, Esq., who resides Ht Mai bun/ Hall. 105 Passing hence by Powsey Chappel, and Neivborough, the seat of George Holford, Esq., and so through a cer- tain Park belonging also to Button, we come to Aston Grange, a Township of Sir Richard Brooke's, and so, by Weever side, to Aston, the seat of a worshipful race of Astons, the Heir now, Thomas Aston, Esq.,* who hath to his said house, a fair Park, and a Chappel neer the house, of great use ; and next adjoining to it is Sutton Lordship, and in it an antient Mannour house and demean of Mr. Warburton of Arley. And thus we go along the Weever side, till it brings us to a very stately stone Bridge, called Frodsham Bridge, built upon four fair arches, where we finish our view of Bucklow Hundred, and passe over this Bridge into EDDISBURY HUNDRED. Our view of this Hundred shall begin from Frodsham Bridge, whence we go to Frodsham Town, a fair conti- nued street with handsome buildings, and at the Westend of it a fair House or Castle, Frodsham Castle, a relying seat of pleasure to the honourable owner thereof, Sir Tho- mas Savage.f The Church is fair and pleasantly scitu- * Afterwards Sir Thomas Aston, created a Baronet by Charles I., in 1628, from whom the estate has descended to the present owner, Sir Arthur Ingram Aston, Bart., of Aston Hall. f Frodsham passed from the Savagesjo the noble house of Ili- 10G ated on the Hill over the Town ; and over them all, a high towring Hill, with a Beacon upon it ; and between these and Merzey, a fair and fruitful Marsh of large extent, all belonging to Sir Thomas Savage, and next unto it another Lordship called Helsby, on the high road to Chester. Let us here, if you please, take with us a sight of the Parish of Ince,* a goodly lordship of the Cholmleys ; and of Thornton, another of Sir George Booth's, extend- ing her limits to the Towns on this Side Hapsford, where Edward Greg, Gent., of the Exchequer Court at Chester, hath a fair seat ; and Dunham on the Hill, where Robert Whitby, Alderman of Chester, hath a pleasant house, seen far off. And unto this, adde that third of Elton, where hath been a long descent of the Frodshams. But let us go on, and being come to the Beeston water, we see on our left Manley, where is an antient seat of the Birkenheads, now Adam Birkenhead, Esq. ; and of Little and Great Mouldsworth, where is the goodly an- tient seat of Peele,\ the habitation of the Hardwares, vers, from them to the Earl of Barrymore, and is now vested iu the Marquis of Cholmondeley. * Incc formerly belonged, as recited in a previous portiou of this work, to the Abbot arid Canons of St. Werburgh, but are now held by the trustees of the late E. Yates, Esq. f King William Til., on his passage into Ireland, was enter- 107 but belonging to Sir Robert Chohnley ; and so we leave Ashton Township behind us ; and turning to look upon Bridge Trafford, in which a long continued race of that name have a seemly seat, the owner now Mr. Trafford,* we see Barrow, a lordship and mansion of John Savage, Esq. Alderman and Magistrate of the City of Chester. "We passe on to Kelshall, very high in the skirt of the Forest, a lordship of Sir John Bone's, Kt. ; beneath which taking with us an antient house of the Trevices, called Horton, we come to the Town and Parish of Tar- vin, in which, besides the fair Church and Vicaridge, we see an antient ruined seat of the Bruines, of long con- tinuance, but this house and demean is come to the heir of a late famous lawyer, William Brock, a younger house of the Brocks of Upton ; and a little way from the Town, a large sweet Farm, called Holmstreet. The Lordship of Tarvin belongs to Sir Thomas Savage. Not half a mile distant we see Hockenhull, a comely house, giving name to gentlemen of long continuance, the now owner John Hockenhull, Esq. ; on one side of which lyes Hockenhull Plot, on our great London roadway to tained at Peek Hall, by Col. Roger Whitley, who was a zealous royalist, and had followed the fortuues of King Charles II., into «xile. * Capt. Trafford was killed at the Battle of Naseby, and the estate shortly afterwards passed lo the Barnsions of Churton. 108 Chester. Our River leads us by another fair and fruit- ful demean and lordship, called Stapleford, for an antient continuance the seat of the Bruines, the owner now John Bruine, Esq. And now we turn Eastward to Burton, wherein is a house belonging to John Werden, Gent. ; next which lyes Duddon, where Mr. Done has a seat; and more towards the Forest a house called Pricehall ; and a little further the Township of Clotton, and Idenshaiv, the man- sion of John Hurlestone, Esq., and neer unto it How- field. Towards the River side we come to Tiverton Lordship, where is a house and demean of the Brassies, which have been a great race of gentlemen. And so we cannot but stay to look up at the stately house and demean of Bees- ton, the name also of that famous and far seen Castle,* built there by the last Ranulph, Earl of Chester, mounted on the top of a steep Hill of stone, the chief tower whereof, in the summity of it, had a draw well of water of incredi- ble depth. To the which place I wish all good, and to the name of Beeston, the demean being now in the pos- * This ancient fortress, of the ruins of which we here present our readers with an illustration, was several times takeu and re- taken during the Civil War ; on the conclusion of which it was dismantled by the Puritans, and has since sunk into the imposing ruin it now exhibits. 109 session of an antient Knight, Sir Hugh Beeston, without issue male. We come next to Spurstow, a fair house and demain of George Spurstow, Esq., one of an antient continued race; John Alder sey, Gent., termed also of Spurstow, hath a fine antient demean, the birthplace of that most worthy Aldersey, Alderman of London. Eastward lies Haughton, of the Haughtons, and another seat of the Buckleys ; and on the West, Ridley, the possession of that honourable discent of the Egertons ; and upon the North-west lies the lordship of Peckforton, sometimes belonging to the great name of the Corbetts, but now to Sir Hugh Beeston.* And herein is a fine antient seat of the Calveleys. Now we see the Mother Church of all these Townships, Bunbury, a fair Church, with, on the South side of the Chancel, Chappel and a burial place of the Egertons of Rid- ley. Not far from the Church, we see the ruines of the Colledge, founded there for six priests by that famous Hugh Calveley. But now, farther East, is the Lordship of War die, where hath been a Seat and demean of the antient family of the Prestlands,-\ of long continuance, and the Heirs male now failed. * On Peckforton Hill has lately been erected (1842-51) a mag- nificent Norman baronial Castle, of great beauty, now the resi- dence of the worthy owner, John Tollemache, Esq., M.P., who is also the possessor of Beeston Castle, and other Cheshire manors. f The Preslandu oSWallfordjSalop, are descendants of this family. 110 Neer the West end of this is the Cleys, a fair house of the Davenports ; and upon the North side stands the Township of Calveley* whence that great name had first their denomination. The principal seat therein remains yet, and hath heen long the hahitation of one race of the Davenports, the owner thereof now Arthur Davenport, Esq. ; and neer unto it another fair house of the Main- warings. More Northward lies Wettenhall, with an an- tient seat of the Breretons of Wettenhall. Hence, Westward, is Alpraham, where was antiently a Seat of the Pages, now wholly extinct. And here the lofty pile, the Hall of Tilstone Feamal, shews itself. Neer unto this, we see the mines of the House of Flax- yard, the antient seat of the Dones of Flaxyard, after- wards united by marriage with the Dones of Uthinton, neer hereunto, the owner now Sir John Done, Kt., who by his well pleasing service to His Majesty, who took His pleasure and repast in His Forest of Delamere, A.D. 1617, of which he was chief forester, ordered so wisely His Highnesse's sports, that He freely honored him with Knighthood, and graced his house of Uthinton with His royal presence. But let us take with us the view of Tarporley Church and Town, on the great Roadway to Chester, a Lordship * At Calveley, that celebrated warrior, Sir Hugh Calveley, Go- vernor of Calais in the reign of King Edward III., wai born. Ill ,of the said Sir John Done ; from whence we go by Eaton and Rushton, to Barley, a fair seat and demean of the Startles, now Henry Starkey, Esq. ; near which is the great seat and house of another worthy race, called the Egertons of Oulton* whereof have succeeded for some descents Knights of note, and the owner now Sir Rowland Egerton, Bart. In the edge of the Forest lies the little Church and Town of Little Budworth, in which Parish is a Mere ; a Brook from which leads us to Darnall Grange, once a famous place, the residence of some of the Earls of Chester, of whom the seventh and last, John Scot, dyed there. It is now a fine seat, with a sweet house of brick lately erected, and now the possession of Henry Lee, Esq., heir to Sir Richard Lee, before-mentioned. Along the Park side of Darnall, lyes Swanlow, and therein many good Farms. By the water of Weever, we soon come to that famous seat of the Stanleys of Weever, f now the mansion house of Thomas Stanley of Alderley, Esq. And so we come to Over Church, scituate half a mile from the Town itself, which, being the main possession of the Abbot and * The Egertons of Oulton, ever held to be one of the first fa- milies in Cheshire, are now represented by Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart , M.P., of Oulton. f Early in the l?th century Weever became, by purchase, the property of the Wilbrahams of Delamere. 1 1: Convent of Vale Boy all, obtained by their means to be made a Maior Town, which government they hold to this day. Neer unto which is a fine seat, called Knight's Grange, and not far from this, a very pleasant house of Thomas Mainwaring of Marton, Gent. A little further, we passe by Whitegate, and so come to that famous Vale Boyall. Methinks it probable that King Edward the First, who founded here the Abbey, to which place the Abbey of Darnhall was translated, gave this name to the goodly tract of grounds, betwixt the Forest and the River Wee- ver, by his hunting, or other princely sports ; as, on the late occasion of our gracious Soveraign, his making the house here four days his Royal Court, while on his return out of Scotland, he solaced himself by his disports in the Forest, he confirmed it indeed to be a Royal Vale. This Vale Boyall was the seat of the Holcrofts for two discents, but of late is come by purchase to the Lady Mary Cholmley* a Lady of great possessions, and who for her * Her son Thomas was the immediate ancestor of the Right Hon. Thomas Cholmondeley, the present noble owner of Vale Royal, who was raised to the peerage in 182), by the title of B i- ron Delamere. The original MSS., purporting to be the Prophe- cies of Robert Nixon, the Cheshire Prophet, are here deposited- Nixon is alleged to have been born at Bridge-end House, in the Paii>h of Over, in the reign o' Edward IV,, or James J. 113 wisdom, virtue and great hospitality, deserveth worthy remembrance. We see beyond this Sandy way, and Hartford, and so we look as far as this Hundred reacheth to Winnington, where is a bridge over the Weever ; which going first by Wallerscote, an antient seat of the Littlers, it hastens to Weaversham, a pretty Church Town, with a Court and Prison, the Lordship now of Thomas Marbury, Esq. ; in which I must not omit one antient seat of the Warburtons called Helperstone Grange. From hence Weever shall part with us at Acton bridge ; Westward of which is Ac- ton Township, where is an antient seat of the Farrars, and so we take with us Crowton, where Sir Gilbert Ire- land, Knight, hath a house and demean. Next lyes Kingsley Lordship, and therein an antient seat of the Rutters, of long continuance ; and not far off, a fair brick house of the Gerards of Crownwood (Crewood). Passing thence to Newton, and Alvanley, a pretty Township, we passe by Norley, and Cuddington, and fall into the spatious Forrest of Delamere itself; which For- rest maintaineth a convenient being and preservation for His Majesty's Deer, both Red and Fallow, whereof there is no small store. Upon the highest hill of all, and about the middest of the Forrest, is seen the very delicate house of the chief forester, called the Chamber in the Forrest. 114 1 might wade mto a long discourse of those two Cities, Eadsbury and Finborow, which writers, antient and rao- derri, do make report of ; which I will leave untouched, because I suppose my long journey in this little Hundred liath well nigh tired my Reader already. WERALL HUNDRED. That this was in old time a Forrest, I think cannot be doubted ; but when it was disafforested I will not contend, only that it is now one of the most fertile parts in the whole County. We will set in at the Stone Bridge, almost at Chester, and follow the water dividing this from Broxton Hundred ; which will bring us, a little behind Upton, to Chorlton, and then to the Lea, a fair house and demean, for some discents of the Glaseours, Esqrs., of special note ; and next unto it lyes Backford Town and Church, and hard by it the Seat of our worthy Prothonotary Henry Birkenhead,* Esq. ; from whence, as we see on the West * The Birkenheads of Backford became extinct in the male line in 1724, and are now represented by E. H. Glegg, Esq., who has been for some time engaged in rebuilding Backford Hall for his future residence. The manor of Chorlton, as well as Backford, arfe now the properly of Mr. Glegg. 115 of us Capenhurst Lordship, belonging to the houses of Cholmley and Poole, * and in the same, a gentleman's Seat. By our Brook lyes Crouyhton,-\ a member of the Lordship of John Hurlestone, Esq. ; and from thence we come to Stoke, a little Parish adjoining that fair demean and antient seat of the Bunbury' 1 s, called Stanney Hall, the worthy present owner Sir Henry Bunbury, Kt.,J of special good estimation. We turn us now towards our journey more Westward, passing by Whitby, from whence it may seem the Whitby's of Chester derived their name. Then holding on our course, we go by Great Sutton, a goodly Lordship, and where hath been a famous Seat, called Sutton Court, the inheritance now of Sir Robert Cholmondley ; and upon our other hand, Pool, a fair an- tient Seat, with a Park, of which the long continued race of the Pools have borne that name, and it is very probable have been the ancestors of some very great families of that name in other Counties, the present owner there, John * Capenhurst is now the property of the Rev. Richard Richard- son, whose ancestor purchased it from the Clwlmondeleys in 1770. f Croughton has been purchased this year (1852) from /. Hurlestone Leche, Esq., of Carden, by Robert Ashton, Esq., of Hyde. \ His descendant, Sir E. Bunbury, Bart,, is the present pos= sessor of this estate. 116 Poole, Esq,* Neer unto which, we see also Stanlow, now a Farm of the said Mr. Pool's ; here was also a Mo- nastery founded hy the famous Lacy, Constable of Ches- ter, about A.D. 1173; but from the unrulynesse of Merzey water, they misliked their seat there, and trans- lated themselves to Wholly in Lancashire. Next come we to Hooton f a goodly antient Mannour and fair Park, which ever since the reign of King Richard the Second, hath been the seat of the Stanleys of Hooton, gentlemen of great dignity and worth ; where have con- tinued the same Stanleys in a direct succession, and was late possessed by Sir Rowland Stanley, Kt., who lived there to the age of well neer a hundred years, where his fourth generation, his Son's Son's Son was, at the time of his decease. Neer unto this lyes Easthani, the Parish Church and Lordship. Next beyond it, we leave on our left hand Brimstaxje ; and so come to Poulton ; and the next to that is Brom- borovyh, a pretty Town, with a Chappel ; and therein * The Pooles afterwards removed into Sussex, and oecame ex- tinct in the direct male line a few years since, by the death of the Rev. Sir Henry Poole. The manor now belongs to the Marquis of Westminster. f The "goodly antient mannour of Hooton," which for five centuries had b^en uninterruptedly the scat and possession of the Stanley family, passed by purchase in 184'J, with Eastham, to R. C. Nayhr, Esq. 117 Daniel Bavand, Esq., liath a fair house and demean ; next which lyes Nether and Over Bebbington ; the one, a Church Town, with a fine Church and Parsonage ; the other, where John Minshull, Esq., of Minshull, hath great store of fair possessions. Upon our left, we leave Stourton Lordship, and so go by Prenton, where one race of the Hockenhulls have a fine house and demean ; beyond which lyeth Landican Township, the lands of Sir Richard Wilbraham. Bart., and from thence we go to Woodchurch, a Parish Church, with a neat Parsonage ; beneath which, looking towards Merzey, lyes a goodly Vale, in which we see Upton Lordship, wherein stands the house and demean of the Boulds of Bonld, in Lancashire, now Peter Bould, Esq.; and next unto this, Oxton. And then more neer to Mer- zey, is the Township of Tranmere ; and neer it, a fine seat of that worthy gentleman, John Minshull, Esq., of Minshull, called Derby House. Thence on our left hand, we see Claughton, where Mr. Thomas Powell hath fair lands ; and then, leaving the Ferry leading over unto Liverpool, we step into Birhet Wood (Birkenhead),* where hath been a famous Priory, * Birkenhead, in the days of old King, and for 15) years after- wards, merely a little hamlet, has now risen, as if by magic, to be the second town in the County, containing upwards of 20,000 in- habitants. William Jackson, Esq., M.P., is one of the principal land owners. lift but now a very goodly demean, and which lias come, by discent from the Worsleys, to a gentleman of much worth. Thomas Powell, Esq.,* the heir of that antient seat of Horsley, in the County of Flint. Beyond which we have onely Poulton cum Seacombe, till we come to the North-western shore, where is scituate the Township of Kerby in Wallasey, where lye those fair Lands, which for the fitnesse for such a purpose, allure the gentlemen and others oft to appoint great Matches, and venture no small sums, in trying the Swiftnesse of their horses. And so we come to Bidston, a goodly house, demean and park of the Earl of Derby, which for the pleasant scituation and the variety of noble delights appendant to it, his lordship seems much to affect the same, and en- largeth the convenience therein for his pleasure and abode many ways. Following the circuit of the Shire, we come next to Great Meolse, which gives name and seat to an antient family of Meolse ; whence we go by Moreton, and Saug- hall Massie ; and leaving Overchurch on our left hand, we passe by Newton and Greasby ; where we hold on nearer the shore, and take with us West Kirby. Here, divided from the land, lyes that little barren Island, * This gentleman was created a Bironet in 1629, but the title became extinct in the early part of the 18th century. 119 called Hilbree, in which it is said there was sometime a Cell of Monks. From whence, we come next to the Grange, which I would rather think to he the seat where those Monks eat their Beef and their Brewis, and which is now possessed by William Glegge, Esq. ;* upon the East side of this lyes Frankly, and so we come to the Townships of Great and Little Caldey. Neer unto which lyes the Station or Landing place, called the Red Bank ; and neer unto this lyes Irby, wherein the Balls have a good seat. And we come thence to Thurstaston, the antient seat of the Whit- mores, of which race have been many Maiors of the City of Chester. On the East side lyes Barnston ; and upon the shore side, we come next to Oldfield, where is the narrowest place of the Hundred. Our next remove is to Heswall, a Town with a Parish Church and Parsonage, extending to Thornton Mayo, and Raby. But neer the sea side, we come to Gayton, the seat of that antient race of the Gleggs of Gayton ;\ * The Gleggs continued iu possession until the death ot Wil- liam Glegg, Esq., in 1785 : shortly after which it was purchased by John Leigh, Esq., of Liverpool, whose son, John Shaw Leigh, Esq., is the present proprietor. f J. B. Glegg, Esq., of Thurstaston, is the present lord of Gayton, King William III., on his passage to Ireland, lodged at Gayton Hall, then the residence of William Glegg, Esq., who was thereupon honoured with Knighthood. 120 aud next lyes Leighton, wherein is a very antient house and demean of the Whitmores, of a very great descent, and next neighbour is the well known Town and Parish Church of Great Neston, where our passengers into Ire- land so often lye waiting the leisure of the winds ; and here is the station of the ships, called, the New Key, where they imbark and disimbark, on the back of this Neston. To the East lyes a Township, in a large Tract of heath and common, called Childer Thornton. Keeping still our shore, we have Nesse, and next to that, more landwards, Willaston. And then we have Burton,* a pretty Town, and a landing place, called Burton Head; and next to this, we come to that lofty seat of Puddington, over- looking the sea, and the mouth of the Dee, wherein have con- tinued the race of the Massles, derived, with many branches, from that Hamon Massey, one of the Earls' Barons, the owner now, Sir William Massey, Kt. A great spatious Common, vulgarly called Motherlesse Heath, lyes a great way further Eastward ; at one side whereof we see Led- sham ; and so come to Shotwick, and neer unto it an an- tient house of the Hoclcenhiitts ; and so we come to Shot- ivick Park, where yet remain the mines of a fair Castle, on the brink of the Dee, in the holding, under the King, * In this Township, Dr. Wilson, Bhhop of Sodar aud Man, in 1742, was born. Richaid Congreve, Esq., is the present owner, his father hawng purchased the manor from the Massies in 1715- 121 of Sir Richard Wibraham, often before mentioned ; from whence we come to Great and Little Saughall Township ; and along by these lyes a place called antiently Kingswood. And next to this, lyes a goodly antient seat upon the browe of Dee Banks, called Blacon Hall, and Lordship,* the lands of Sir William Norris, K.C.B., whose chief residence is in Lancashire ; and then adjoineth Crabhall, the demean and most delicate fine house of William Ga- mv.ll, a prime Alderman of the City of Chester. Round about it we have nothing left, but on our right hand the two Mollingtons, a fair Lordship, whereof much of the lands have belonged to the Mordaunts, of Ocley in Bedford- shire, but now to several purchasers in those parts. And thus we arrive at the tip of the toe in our description, being come home presently to our famous City again. * The manorial right* of Blacon are enjoyed by Lord Crewe. Crabwall and Blacon Halls are now both occupied as farm houses. THE ExVRLS OF CHESTER. Many Authors have written of some noble persons, to whom they have given the Title of the Earls of Chester, before the coming of William the Norman, called the Conqueror ; but our late and more judicious writers give little credit to such reports. We therefore here fitly fall upon the rehearsal of those noble Earls of Chester, of whom no man need doubt either their persons or their successions, which began with the gift of William the Conqueror to his Sister's Son. This was Hugh, named Lupus, or as the Normans sound it, Loup ; whether so called, because he bare the Wolf's head in his coat ar- mour, or because his name was so, we cannot determine. 123 The first Earl then, after the Conquest, was Hugh Lupus, Sister's Son, and so Nephew to King Wil- liam the Conqueror. This young Nobleman came into England with his Uncle William, and was so high in grace and favour with the said Conqueror, that it pleased him to create this his kinsman, Earl Palatine of Chester ; and Sword bearer of England ; granting unto him and that Province, most ample privileges, even as large and great as could reasonably be required. This Earl was of most excellent parts for Kule and Go- vernment, both in war and peace ; he erected many Ba- rons, whom he placed in several parts of his jurisdiction, giving unto them great possessions, and special privileges ; which Barons were of near employment about him in matters of Councils, and attendance for all services. This Hugh Lupus lived in great honour and renown all the days of William the Conquerour, his uncle, and of William Rufus, his second Son, and some years of Henry I., the third son; for he dyed not till the year 1102. He performed great services for the Conqueror all the time of his raign, being imployed both at home and abroad ; and in Rufus' time, he was sent to subdue An- glesea, and to suppresse the high and haughty stomachs of the Welshmen, which he did with great valour. He altered part of the foundation of St. Werburg's Church in Chester, about 1093, and turned the same into anAb- hoy. He governed the Earldome of Chester 40 years, and dyed about Anno 1107, the 8th year of King Henry I, on the 27th July, the 9th year after the foundation of the Abbey of Chester. The Second Earl was Richard, Son and Heir of the said Hugh, at his Father's death, an infant seven years of age, and married to Matilda, Daughter to Stephen, Earl of Blois, and Niece to King Henry I. ; by reason whereof, the King took into his tuition and custody the young Earl ; from whence, they say, this of a Custome grew to be a Law, that young heirs in their nonage, be- came pupils, or wards unto the King. The King sent him, with his own children into Normaudy, to be edu- cated ; but, growing towards man's estate, it fell out so, that King Henry having had successe in his Wars in France, came home to England to solace himself; and 125 for the furtherance of his joy, sent into Normandy for his children William and Robert, and Mary their Sister, together with this noble young Earl Richard, and Ma- tilda his Wife, and Ottewel his Brother, who with the Archdeacon of Hereford, and attendants, took ship at Harflew ; where it pleased God, little heed being taken in the carriages of the Marriners and Saylors, they fell into such disorder, that putting out to sea, they split the ship upon a rock, and so cast away all this princely company ; not one of them escaping, excepting one butcher, that catching hold upon a broken mast, swam unto the land. Thus, Anno 1120, perished this hopeful young Earl Ri- chard, and his Brother Ottewel, leaving his Brother Ro- bert, made Abbot of Edmonbury, and so incapable of this princely Earldom ; the same was therefore transferred to the sonne of Margaret his Aunt, the sister of William Lupus, having married John Bohune ; and thus the Earldom fell to the Cousin German of this Richard, who also, in his very infancie, escaped a great perill ; for, before going into Normandy, they led him a pilgrimage to Winifred 's Well in Wales, where he was beset by a rebellious rout of Welshmen-, but by a valiant rescue of William, then Constable of Chester, he was recovered out of their holds, and brought back safe again to Chester, and lived Earl of Chester, from the 8th of Henry I., to A.D. 1120, about 14 years, and was in that year drowned, as aforesaid. 126 The Third Earl was then Ranulph, sorme of John Bohune, a nobleman of Normandy, to whom the Con- queror had given the Town of Carlisle, and made him Earl of Cumberland. This Ranulph, sirnamed Mes- • chines, inclined rather to peace and civill government, than to warlike affairs, and great enterprises; and I read of few great occurrences within the time of his government, which also was not of any long continuance. He married Matilda, or Maud, daughter to Aubrey Vere, Earl of Oxford, and great Chamberlain of England, by whom he had issue Ranulph, sirnamed Germoyse (Gernons) from the place of his birth, who succeeded him in the Earldom. And for his second Wife, he married Lucia, sister to Ed- win, Earl of March, and had by her William Earl of Lin- coln, who dyed without issue. He began to govern A.D. 1120, continued Earl about 10 years, and dyed, A.D. 1130. 127 The Fourth Earl, Ranulph, son of the former Ranulph, was the great Commander iu that War, wherein he with Robert Earl of Gloucester, did with nohle prowesse de- fend the cause of Matilda the Empress against King Stephen the Usurper, fighting with his army against the King at the Siege of Lincoln, A.D. 1146, when he gave the King, and the Earl of Flanders, and others, a notahle overthrow, and brought the King a Prisoner, and the Castle of Lincoln, to the Empress. But after the King was delivered in exchange for Robert, Earl of Gloucester (taken by the King's party) this Earl Ranulph coming peaceably to the King, under pretence of a Parliament to be held at Northampton, was put in prison, and con- strained to deliver up the Castle of Lincoln, and other strong holds, which he had kept for the use of the Em- presse, and Henry her son. And about this time the Welshmen, in his absence, made horrible destruction in 128 the Earldom of Chester, yet at length were vanquished in a battel near Wich Malbanc (Nantwich). The Earl still defended the cause of the Empresse and her son, resolv- ing upon that purpose of his heart, never to serve other King than Duke Henry, saying often, " The Earl of Ches- ter thinks scorn to serve the Earl of Blois," from which resolution he could never be moved. He married Alicia, daughter of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, by whom he had issue Hugh Kevelioc, that succeeded him, and Beatrix, married to Ralph, Baron of Malpas, and dyed, or ac- cording to Hollinshed, was, through P ever ell, Earl of Nottingham, poysoned, in the 17th year of King Stephen, A.D. 1152, when he had been Earl years. The Fifth Earl was Hugh, sirnamed Bohun, son of the last named Ranidph. When Henry, the young Prince, took up arms against his Father, Henry II, and in Nor- 129 mandy and Brittain, animated by the young Louis King of France, and William, King of Scots, he allured unto him this Earl Hugh, and other English nobles, who were in the end overcome by King Henry, led captives into Normandy, and kept prisoners in Falois : but after a year's imprisonment, the Father and Son were reconciled, and the King of Scots and this Earl of Chester were put to their ransome, which the said Hugh paid, and got him home, A.D. 1174, being taught by his folly to be more wise afterwards, and lived peaceably the rest of his dayes. He married Beatrice, daughter of Richard Lancy, Chief Justice of England, and by her had one son Randulph, and four daughters. He continued Earl until A.D. 1180, about 28 years, und then deceased, his burial place be- ing the Town of Leek, in Staffordshire. The Sixth Earl, and most famous of all before him, 130 was Ranulph the good, sirnamed Blondevitte, or Album Monasterum, of that place in Powis, where he was horn (which some say is Oswestry.) In his youth he waged many hattles with Llewellyn Prince of Wales, against whose forces he once hazarded himself so venturously, that he was in danger, and glad to retire into the Castle of Ruthland (Ehuddhm), where Llewellyn heseiged him. Then it was that Roger Lacey, Constable of Chester, hearing of his perill, called his friends hastily together, and amongst them Ranulph Dutton, his son in law, a brave youthful gentleman ; who gathered together a great company of Musicians and others in, and about Chester, and gave onset upon the Earl's enemies, raising the seige, and delivering the Earl out of that great distresse ; the reward of which was, to have the command of such people and their profession ; which right hath continued in the heirs of Dutton unto this day. When King Richard I., was warring in Asia against the Infidels, his Brother Jchn was at home, seeking means to deprive his Brother Richard of his Crown and Kingdom ; but this valiant Earl loyally withstood Earl John, and with others maintained war against him, winning from him the Castle of Notting- ham, and other strong holds. King Richard deceasing afterwards without issue, John became now the lawful Soveraign, and the Earl then, with magnanimous valour, took part with the King against his seditious subjects, 131 and their ally, Louis the French King. And when the said King John departed this life, leaving his son Henry, a child ten years old, to be King ; yet did not this noble Earl Ranulph shew less loyalty to his Soveraign ; and being assisted by the brave Earl of Pembroke, and others, encountered the said Louis in the memorable Battle of Lincoln, where he slew and put to flight the French and English Rebels, and sent Louis packing out of this land. This worthy Earl, then created Earl of Lincoln, was down by his heroicall disposition to the "Wars in Egypt and Syria, against the Saracens and Infidels, which he also managed with the like successe ; and after his many vic- tories returned home to his Earldom of Chester ; and when the affairs of war gave him leisure, he founded the Gray Friars in Coventry ; the Abbey of Delacross neer Leek, in Staffordshire ; the Castle of Beeston, in Che- shire ; and of Chartley, Staffordshire. He left no mean glory behind him, in the excellent parts of wisdom that was in him, having compiled a Book of the Laws of the Realm, with good judgement. He held five Earldoms together, viz. : Chester, Lincoln, Huntingdon, Brittain and Richmond; he was Earl of Chester about 51 years, and dyed without issue, in A.D. 1532, at Wallingford in Berkshire, but lyes buried in the Chapter House of Chester. 132 The Seventh Earl was John, (sirnamed Scot, being a Scot born) who inherited in right of his Mother, eldest daughter of Earl Hugh. This said Earl John had a great revenue, the possession of his said Grandfather ; and for a time did worthily maintain war against Llewellyn, the Prince of Wales ; yet, at length grew into peace with him, which fell out his utter overthrow ; for, having mar- ried Jane, Llwellyn's daughter, she instead of cherishing and comforting him, did devilishly plot his destruction, and by poyson brought his life to an end, at Darnhall from whence his body was brought to Chester, and in- terred in the Chapter House, by the grave of his Uncle Ranulph, leaving, after him, no issue to inherit. John Scot, the last of the Earls of Chester, governed, as Earl, about five years, and dyed at Darnhall, A.D. 1237. The Earldom then reverted to the Crown. L[ST OF HUGH LUPUS' BARONS. 1 . Nigel, Baron of Halton. 2. Robert, Baron of Montalt. 3. William, Baron of Wicli Malbanc (Nantwich). 4. Richard Vernon, Baron of Shipbrook. 5. Robert Fitzhugh, Baron of Malpas. 6. Hamon de Massey, Baron of Dunham Massey. 7. Gilbert Venables, Baron of Kinderton. 8. Nicholas, Baron of Stockport. ROYAL EARLS OF CHESTER. 1. King Henry HI, on the decease of John Scot, without male issue, bestowed the Princedom of Wales, and Earldom of Chester, (in 1254), upon Prince Edward his Son, afterwards Edward I; after which it fell out that the King's Eldest Son was still created Earl of Chester, 134 and Prince of Wales ; the said King, to maintain still the honour of the County Palatine, continued their antient rights, and Palatine Jurisdictions and Privileges. 2. Prince Edward heing afterwards King, his son Edward, (sirnamed Carnarvon, from the place of his birth) was by his said Father created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, in 1303, and became afterwards King Edivard II. 3. King Edward II., gave the Earldom of Chester to Edward of Windsor, his Son, then scarce 10 years old ; whom he summoned unto the Parliament, in 1322, by the titles of Earl of Chester and of Flint. 4. King Edward III created his Son, Edivard of Woodstock (called the Black Prince) Earl of Chester in 1333, which worthy Prince dyed during his Father's life time, leaving a Son. 5. Richard, born at Bordeaux, created by his Grand- father Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Nov. 20, 1376, he being then about 11 years old. On the said Richard becoming King, he also styled himself Prince of Chester, but this title did not long endure. 6. King Hennj IV., created his eldest Son, Henry of Monmouth, Earl of Chester, &c, Oct. 15th, 1399. King Henry V., left his Son, an Infant about half a year old, King, so that there was no creation to him of this Earl- dom. In the 13th year of his Reign, he created 135 7. Edward, his Son Earl of Chester, on March 15th, 1452 ; which Prince, in the civil war between the houses of York and Lancaster, together with his Father, left their honours and lives to Edward IV., who obtained the victory. 8. King Edward IV., created Edward of Westminster, his Son, Earl of Chester, in 1471, who by the treacherous Usurpation of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was deprived of Crown, Realm, Life and all. 9. The Usurper Richard being now King, he made his Son Edward Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester ; but by the revenging hand of God, Henry VII, by a happy War* brought a blessed Peace to this then miserable and dis- tracted kingdom. 10. He created Arthur his eldest Son, Earl of Chester, Nov. 30th, 1489. 11. This Prince deceasing in his Father's lifetime, King Henry's onely remaining Son, Henry, became Earl of Chester, Feb. 18th, 1502, and was afterwards King, by the name of King Henry VIII. 12. There was after this no special creation of Earl of Chester until His present Majesty {James 1st) in 1610, created Henry, his eldest Son, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, which most hopeful young Prince, upon the 9th of Nov. 1612, it pleased God to take to an immortal crown of glory in Heaven, 136 13. The next in succession at his decease was that il- lustrious Charles, His Majestie's second Son, created, in 1612, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester ; for whose health, happiness, and long continuance in the possession of all his just Titles and privileges, never had a people more cause to pray unto God than we have. [Our Author closes his list of the Royal Earls of Chester with Prince Charles, afterwards the unfortunate monarch King Charles I. In grateful remembrance however of the Royal favour and patronage bestowed upon the present edition, the List has been continued down to our own time.] 14. Charles II, born May 29, 1630, though declared, was never actually created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. He died Feb. 6th, 1685. 15. George II, born October 30, 1683, created Earl of Chester on his father's accession to the Throne in Sep. 1714, and died Oct. 25th, 1752. 16. Frederick Lewis, son of George II, born Jan. 20th, 1707, created Earl of Chester in December, 1728, and died, in the lifetime of his Father, on March 20th, 1751. 17. George HI, Eldest Son of Prince Frederick and Grandson of George II, born May 24th, 1738, created Prince of Wales, and Earl of Chester, April 20th, 1751, and died Jan. 29, 1820. 18. George IV, Son of the last named, and Uncle of 137 Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, born August 12th, 1762, and created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, August 17, in the same year. He died June 26th, 1830. 19. Albert Edward, Eldest Son of Her present Ma- jesty, born November 9th, 1841, and created Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester, fyc., De- cember 9th, 1851, whom may Almighty God long pre- serve to this Kingdom and Nation. ■*T>A*v LIST OF THE MAIORS OE CHESTER. The first certainty of a Maior's government in the City, by the name of Maior, is the 25th Henry 3rd, A.D. 1242. Anno.} Maiors. 1242"} to ^Sir Walter Lynuet. 1248> 1249 1 to \ Richard Clarke. 1256 S 1259 The same. 1265 The same. 1268 "I to j-Sir John Aruway. 1278 } Anno Maiobs. 1279 Randle de Daresbury 1280 The same. 1281 Robert le Mercer. 1282 The same. 1283 Alexander Hurell. 1284 Robert le Mercer. 1285 The same. 1286 Robert de Tarvin. SEAL OF THE MAYOR AND CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF CHESTER. 140 Ann o. Maiors. Anno. Maiors. 1287 1 The same. William Doncaster 1288 succeeded him. 1289 1290 1291 1292 Hugh de Meoles. Robert de Tarvin. Robert Mercer. The same. 1318 1319 1320 William Doncaster. William, son of Peter Brickhill. John Brickhill. 1293 1294 1296 1297 1298 to Hugh de Brickhill. Robert Mercenai (or Mercer) Hugh de Brickhill. The same. [ Alexander Hurell. 1321 1322 1323 1324 1325 1326 1327 The same. William Clark. William Brickhill. Richard Russell. Richard le Bruin. The same. Richard Gerves. 1300 1328 The same. 1301 Hugh de Brickhill. 1329 William Brickhill. 1302 Alexander Hurell. 1330 The same. 1303 Hugh de Brickhill. 1331 Roger le Blond. 1304 The same. 1332 The same. 1305 Richard Le Genour. 1333 Richard de Wheatley. 1306 to 1309 • Hugh de Brickhill. 1334 1335 Roger le Blond. Hugh, sou of John le 1310 1311 1312 1313 Benedict Stanton. Hugh de Brickhill. The same. Benedict Stanton. 1336 1337 , to 1339 ! Blond. Soger le Blond. John Blond. 1314 John Blond. 1340 Roger de Ledsham. 1315 The same. 1341 Richard Capenhur.st. 1316 William Doncaster. 1342 The same. 1317 John Blond, who dying ■1343 John Blond. 141 Anno. Maiors. 1344 Richard Capenhurst. 1345 The same. 1346 Henry Terrand. 1347 John Blond. 1348 The same. 1349 Burtram Northern.who being slain by Rich- ard Datton, Richard Bruin suc- ceeded. 1350 . to J John Blond. 1352 ' 1353 Richard Le Bruin. 1355 . to > John Blond. 1S58 > 1359 . to [ Alan de Wheatley. 1362 ' 1363 Roger Ledsham. 1364 The same. 1365 John Dalby. 1366 The. same. 1367 Richard Le Bruin. 1368 The same. 1369 , to f John Whitmore, Jun. 1372 ' 1373 Alexander Belleter. 1374 Richard Bruin, Jun. 1375 Richard Dounfould. Anno. Maiors. 1376 The same. 1377 Thomas Bradford. 1378 The same. 1379 John le Chamberlain. 1380 . to [ David de Ewlowe. 1383 S 1384 John le Chamberlain. 1385 The same. 1386. to [■John Armerer. 1388 ' 1389 Robert de Marshull. 1390 John Armerer. 1391 Gilbert Trussell. 1392 The same. 1393 John Armerer. 1394 The same. 1395 to ( John Capenhurst. 1399 * 1400 John Bebbington. 1401 The same, who dying, John Marshall suc- ceeded. 1402 Roger Potter. 1403 Ralph Hatton. 1404 John Preston. 1405 , to i John Ewlowe. 1403 S 1410 Roger Potter. 142 Anno. Maiors. 1411 John Walsh. 1412 » John Whitmore. to 1414' 1415 John Walsh. 1416 William de Hawarden 1417 John Overton. 1418 William Hawarden. 1419 } to [ John Hope. 1421 > 1422 John Walsh. 1423 John Hatton. 1424 ." to > John Hope. 1427 > 1428 John de Bradeley. 1429 John Walsh. 1430 Robert Hope. 1431 Richard Massie. 1432 The same. 1433 Thomas Wotton. 1434 Adam Wotton. 1435 John Walsh. 1436 William Stamner. 1437 Richard Massie. 1438 Richard Weston. 1439 Nicholas Daniel. 1440 John Pilkinton. 1441 Hugh Maddock. 1442 John Flint. Anno. Maiors. 1443 . to J Nicholas Daniel. 1445 > 1446 Edward Skinner 1447 The same, who dying, William Rogerson suc- ceeded. 1448 William Rogerson. 1449 William Massy. 1450 W lliam Whitmore. 1451 John Dutton. 1452 William Skinner. 1453 Nicholas Daniel. 1454 The same. 1455 Jenkin Cottingham. 1456 The same. 1457 Nicholas Daniel. 1458 The same. 1459 John Southworth. 1460 The same. 1461 David Ferrer. 1462 Robert Brine. 1463 Robert Rogerson. 1464 Roger Ledsham. 1465 Richard Rainford. 1466 William Lilly. 1467 John Southworth. 1468 John Dedwood. 1469 Thomas Kent. 1470 Thomas Cottingham. 143 Anno Maiors. Anno Maiors. 1471 Robert Rogerson. 1501 Ralph Davenport. 1472 John Spencer. 1502 Richard Wright. 1473 John Whitmore. 1503 Richard Goodman. 1474 John Southworth. 1504 Thomas Smith. 1475 Hugh Massey. 1505 Thomas Thornton. 1476 John Southworth. 1506 Thomas Barrow. 1477 The same. 1507 Richard Wirrall. 1478 Robert Notterville. 1508 Richard Wright. 1479 William Sneyd. 1509 Thomas Hawarden. 1480 John Southworth. 1510 William Rogerson. 1481 Roger Hurleston e. 1511 Thomas Smith. 1482 The same. 1512 Pierce Dutton. 1483 John Dedvvood. 1513 Sir Pierce Dutton. 1484 Sir John Savage. 1514 The same, deposed 1485 The same. John Rathbone suc- 1486 Henry Port. ceeded. 1487 Hugh Hurleston. 1515 Sir Thomas Smith. 1488 George Bulkely. 1516 William Sneyd. 1489 Ralph Davenport. 1517 William Davison. 1490 John Barrow. 1518 Thomas Barrow. 1491 Randal Sparrow. 1519 John Rathboae. 1492 Roger Hurleston. 1520 Thomas Smith. 1493 Ralph Davenport. 1521 The same. 1494 George Bulkely. 1522 William Davison. 1495 Richard WirralL 1523 David Mtddleton. 1496 Thomas Barrow. 1524 Robert Goulbourn. 1497 Thomas Farrar. 1525 Robert Aldersey. 1498 Richard^Goodman. 1526 Robert Barrow. 499 John Cliffe. 1527 Thomas Smith. 1500 Thomas Farrar. 1528 Hugh Aldersey. ' 144 Annc Maiors. Anno Maiors. 1529 Henry Bradford. 1554 Foulk Dutton. 1530 Thomas Smith. 1555 John Smith. 1531 William Sneyd. 1556 John Webster. 1532 William Goodman. 1557 William Bird. 1533 Henry Gee. 1558 Laurence Smith. 1534 Ralph Rogerson. 1559 Henry Hardware. 1535 Sir Thomas Smith. 1560 William Aldersey. 1536 William Goodman. 1561 John Cowper. 1537 Foulk Dutton. 1562 Randle Bamvile.™ 1538 David Middleton. 1563 Sir Lawrence Smith. 1539 Henry Gee. 1564 Richard Pool. 1540 Lawrence Smith. 1565 Thomas Green. 1541 Hngh Aldersey. 1566 William Sneyd. 1542' William Beswick. 1567 Richard Dutton. 1543 William Sneyd. 1568 William Ball. 1544, Robert Barton. 1569 Sir John Savage. 1545 William Holeroft. 1570 Sir Lawrence Smith. 1546 Hugh Aldersey, who 1571 John Hankey. dying, 1572 Roger Lea. John Smith succeeded. 1573 Richard Dutton. 1547 Ralph Goodman. 1574 Sir John Savage. 1548 Foulk Dutton. 1575 Henry Hardware. 1549 Thomas Aldersey. 1576 John Harvey. 1550 Edmund Gee, who 1577 Thomas Bellin. dying, 1578 William Jewett. William Goodman 1579 William Goodman, succeeded. who dying, g 1551 William Glaseour. Hugh Rogerson suc- 1552 Thomas Smith. ceede '. 1553 John Offley. 1580, William Bird. 145 Anno Maiors. Anno Maiors. f 1581 Richard Bavand. 1602 Hugh Glaseour. 1582 William Stiles. 1603 John Aldersey. 1583 Robert Brerewood. 1604 Edward^Dutton. 1584 Valentine Broughton. 1605 John Littler. 1585 Edmund GamulL 1606 Philip Phillips. 1586 William Wall 1607 Sir John Savage. 1587 Robert Brerewood. 1608 William Gamull. 1588 Robert Brock, who 1609 William Leycester. dying, 1610 Thomas Harvey. William Hamnet suc- 1611 John Ratcliffe. ceeded. 1612 Robert Whitby. 1589 William Cotgreve. 1613 William Aldersey, Jun. 1590 William Massy. 1614 William Aldersey, Sen 1591 Thomas Lineall. 1615 Thomas Throp. 1592 John Fitton. 1616 Edward Button. 1593 David Lloyd. 1617 Charles Fitton. 1594 Foulk Aldersey. 1618 Sir Randal Mainwar- 1595 William Aldersey. ing. 1596 Thomas Smith. 1619 Hugh Williamson. 1597. J Sir John Savage, 'who 1620 William Gamull. dying, 1621 Robert Whitehead. Thomas Fletcher suc- 1622 Sir Thomas Smith. ceeded. 1623 John Brereton. 1598 Richard Rathbone.' j 1624 Peter Drinkwater. 1599 Henry Hardware. 1625 Sir Randal Mainwar- 1600 Robert Brerewood, ing. who dying, 1626 Nicholas Ince. Richard Bavand suc- 1627 Richard Dutton. ( -;- ceeded. 1628 John Ratcliffe. 1601 John Ratcliffe. 1629 Christopher B lease. 146 Anno Maiors. Anno Maiors. 1630 Charles.Walley. 1643 Randle Holme. ] 1631 William Allen, who 1644 Charles Walley. flying, 1645 The same. Thomas Bird suc- 1646 William Edwards. ceeded. 1647 Robert Wright. 1632 William Spark. 1648 Richard Bradshaw. 1633 Randle Holme. 1649 William Crompton. 1634 Francis Gamul. 16.50 Richard Leicester. 1635 Thomas Knowles. 1651 Owen Hughes, who 1636 William Edwards. dying, 1637 Thomas Throp. John Johnson suc- 1638 Robert Sproston. ceeded. 1639 Robert Harvey. 1652 William Bennett. 1640 Thomas Ooper. 1653 Edward Bradshaw. 1641 Thomas Cooper. 1654 Richard Bird. 1642 William Ince. 1655 William Wright. SHERIFFS OF CHESHIRE. Temp. Sheriffs of Cheshire. Gilbert Pipard. Richard de Pierpont. Lidulphus (dc Twemlow). Richard de Burham. Richard de Sonbach. Richard de Wrenbury (or Wybunbury). Jordan de Peulesdon. Hugh de Hatton. Patrick de Heselwall. William de Spurstow. Richard de Wilbraham. William de Praers. Robert de Bressey. Philip de Egerton. David de Egerton. William de Mobberley. Richard Foulshurst. John de Wrenbury. Adam de Parker. Richard de Oulston. Sir James Audley. Thomas Danyers (Dainell). Thomas le Young. 30th, H. II. 35th, do. John do. 15th, H. III. 23rd, do. 52nd, do. 56th, do. 4th, : E. I. 9th, do. 15th, do. 26th, do. 33rd, do. 2nd, E. II. 5th, do. 13th, do. 16 th, do. 1st, E. III. 10th, do. 19th, do. 22nd, do. 24th, do. 33rd, do. Temp. 41st, ? E. III. 44th, do. ist, : EL II. 8th, do. 9th, do. 11th, do. 12th, do. 17th, do. ist, : H. IV. 3rd, do. 10th, do. 3rd, H. V. 10th, do. 5th, H. VI. 8th, do. 16th, do. 17th, do. 22nd , do. 2nd, E. IV. 10th, H. VII. 21st, do. 16th, H. VIII. 17th, do. 18th, do. 21st, do. 23rd, do. 33rd ; , do. ist, : Mary. 2nd, do. 3rd, do. 148 Sheriffs of Cheshire. John Scolehall. Sir Lawrence Dutton. Hugh Venables (of Kinderton). Thomas del Wood. Hugh, Earl of Stafford. Sir John Massey (of Tatton). Sir Robert Grosvenor (of Hulme). Sir Robert Leigh (t.f Adlington). John Massey (of Puddington). Henry de Raveuscroft. Sir William Brereton, of Brereton. Thos. (or John) Legh (of Booths). Hugh Dutton (of Hatton). Richard Warburton. Sir Ranulph Breton. John Troutbeck. Sir Robert Booth (of Dunham Massy). Sir Robert Booth (his son). William Stanley (Sen., of Hooton). John Warburton (of Arley). Ralph Birkenhead (under-Sheriff). Sir George Holford (of Holford). Sir William Stanley (of Hooton). William Venables (of Kinderton). John Dore (of Utkinton). Edward Fitton (of Gawsworth). John Holford (of Holford). Sir William Brereton (of Brereton). Sir Peter Legh (of Lyme). Sir Hugh Cholmley (of Cholmley). 149 Temp. Sheriffs of Cheshire. 4th, Mary. Richard Wilbraham (of Woodhey). 1 5th, do. Sir Thomas Venables (of Kinderton). 6th, do. Sir Philip Egerton (of Egerton)- 1st, Eliz. William Cholmley (of Cholinley). 2nd, do. Sir John Savage (of Rock Savage). 3rd, do. Sir Ralph Egerton (of Wrinehill). 4th, do. Sir John Warburton (of Arley). 5th, do. Richard Brooke (of Norton). 6th, do. William Massey. 7th, do. Sir John Savage (of Rock Savage). 8tb, do. Sir Hugh Cholmley (of Cholmley). 9th, do. Lawrence Smith (of Hatherton). 10th, do. Ralph Done (of Flaxyards). 11th, do. George Calveley (of Lea). 12th, do. Sir John Savage (of Rock Savage). 13th, do. Sir William Booth (of Dunham Massy.) 14th, do. Thomas Stanley (of Alderley). 15th, do. Sir John Savage (of Rock Savage). 16th, do. The same. 17th, do. Henry Mainwaring (of Carineham). 18th, do. Sir Rowland Stanley (of Hooton). 19th, do. John Warren (of Poynton). 20th, do. Thomas Brooke (of Norton). 21st, do. Sir John Savage (of Rock Savage;. 22nd, do. Sir Ralph Egerton (of Wrinehill). 23rd, do. Sir George Calveley (of Lea). 24th, do. Sir William Brereton (of Brereton). 25th, do. Peter Warburton (of Arley). 26th, do. William Liversage (of Wheelock). 27th, do. Thomas Wilbraham (of Woodhey). Temp. 28th , Eliz. 29th ,do. SOth ,do. 31st, do. 32nd, do. 33rd, do. 34th , do. 35th, do. 3