THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 AN ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ANCIENT TOWN OF FRODSHAM, 
 
 IN CHESHIRE. 
 
 All only for to publish plaine 
 Tyme past, tyme present, bothe, 
 
 That tyme to come may well retaine 
 Of each good tyme the truthe. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM BEAMONT. 
 
 WARRINGTON : 
 PERCIVAL PEARSE, 8, SANKEY STREET. 
 
 1881.
 
 IDA 
 
 TO THE 
 
 flctmtnb Dents firtitooob $logg, 
 
 VICAR OF FRODSHAM 
 (The ^snd in succession to that office), 
 
 WHO, WHILE FAITHFULLY DISCHARGING HIS 
 
 SPIRITUAL DUTIES, SUGGESTED, AND BY THE LIBERAL 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS OF HIS PARISHIONERS AND OTHERS, CARRIED 
 
 OUT THE DESIGN OF RESTORING THE ORIGINAL FEATURES WHICH HIS 
 
 VENERABLE PARISH CHURCH HAD RECEIVED FROM ITS FOUNDER 
 
 IN THE NINTH CENTURY, BUT WHICH TIME AND 
 
 INJUDICIOUS REPAIRS HAD GREATLY OBSCURED, 
 THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 
 
 Jts JUthor. 
 
 Orford Hall, 
 
 September iqt/i, 1881. 
 
 908656
 
 FRODSHAM: 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS HISTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 FRODSHAM, though a very ancient market town, with a weekly 
 market and two fairs yearly, and once an important pass 
 defending the entrance into Cheshire from the west, has lost, 
 or perhaps more properly may be said to have gained, by the 
 change to more peaceful times, some of its former importance. 
 It has now the appearance of a pleasant rural village, and 
 consists principally of one wide open street running nearly 
 straight for the distance of a mile from the bridge over the 
 Weaver on the east to Castle Park, standing on the site of its 
 once Norman castle at the other end on the west. But in its 
 position the place forms a great exception to the generality of 
 Cheshire villages, where, with great fertility of soil, the country 
 is for the most part champaign and flat, and, except in a few 
 places, but little diversified by the undulations of hill and 
 dale. In this respect, however, Frodsham is among the 
 exceptions to this prevailing character, and standing as it 
 does upon a ridge of the new red sandstone formation in an 
 angle where the Weaver pours its waters into the Mersey, and 
 commanding views of both those tidal rivers, and overlooking 
 the broad estuary into which they fall, the place has a highly 
 varied surface, and has some striking scenery to offer, amongst 
 which may be mentioned the picturesque seclusion of Dunner- 
 dale, the sylvan beauty of Aston in the Weaver valley, and 
 the bold crag of Helsby, where in my memory the ravens used 
 
 B
 
 2 Frodsham, 
 
 to build, and where nature has carved in stone the profile of a 
 human face, and thus immortalised one of the moderns in the 
 way in which an ancient sculptor would have preserved to 
 distant times the portrait of Alexander the Great when he 
 proposed to carve Mount Athos into his likeness. Seen from 
 the east, with its church placed high upon the hill side, yet 
 not on the summit, and backed with the sombre green of the 
 mass of fir woods on Overton Hill, Frodsham cannot fail to 
 arrest the attention and chain the eye ; while the geologist, as 
 he approaches the place, will not fail to notice the curious 
 stratification of its red rock, which inclines towards the east, 
 and, as some of the natives say, bows to pay homage to the 
 rising sun. The importance of Frodsham in old times as a 
 position to guard the neighbourhood is shown by its ancient 
 camp at Woodhouses, part of the ramparts of which still 
 remain; by its still more advanced camp at Helsby ; by a third 
 camp placed on the hill side at Bradley, which was meant to 
 arrest the passage of an enemy entering by that valley into 
 the interior of Cheshire ; and, last of all, by its strong 
 Norman castle, the work either of Hugh Lupus, the first 
 Norman Earl of Chester, or of some of his early successors, 
 which, planted at the foot of the hill, and on the edge of the 
 marshes, was well adapted, for the purpose for which it was 
 intended, to intercept an enemy approaching from the west. 
 But Frodsham is also remarkable for being in the midst of 
 several places recorded to have been founded near it in the 
 Saxon times. In the map prefixed to Bishop Gibson's edition 
 of the Saxon Chronicle, we see the direction which the 
 Saxon wave of population seems to have taken from the 
 south-east to the north-west corner of England ; for, while 
 the eastern and southern parts of the island are thickly 
 studded with names of cities, towns, and places known in 
 the Saxon annals, and many of which are still known, the 
 remote west, and still more remote north, appear almost 
 like a terra incognita. Accordingly, the county, of Chester 
 throughout its whole extent exhibits only the names of four 
 such places, and in the adjoining and far larger county of 
 Lancaster only three such names find their places upon the
 
 Frodsham. 3 
 
 map, while no ancient road is shown as approaching nearer to 
 the latter county than the city of Chester, which is touched by 
 one portion of the Roman Watling Street. One of the four 
 Cheshire places on the map which is distinguished by a name 
 is Eadesbyrig (Edisbury), which still gives name to one of 
 the hundreds of the county of Chester, being that in which 
 Frodsham is situated. In the Saxon Chronicle, under the 
 year 913, after an account has been given of certain works of 
 King Edward the Elder, we read as follows : " This year, by 
 the favour of heaven, Elfleda, the lady of Mercia, went with 
 all the Mercians to Tamworth, and there built the burgh in 
 the early part of the summer ; after this, and before Lammas, 
 she built that at Stafford ; and in the year (914) she built that 
 at Eadesbyrig in the beginning of the summer, and that at 
 Warwick towards the end of autumn ; and after Christmas, 
 the year following (915), she built the burgh of Cyricbyrig 
 (Chirbury, in Shropshire) ; and afterwards at Weardbyrig, 
 and again before Christmas the same year, that of Runcofan 
 (Runcorn). Elfleda, the noble lady who thus founded Edis- 
 bury, in the forest of Delamere, and made it a city, and built 
 also the neighbouring town and port of Runcorn, where she 
 built a strong castle, well calculated to resist a foe coming up 
 the Mersey to invade her territory by water, and who, after 
 her husband's death, ruled with consummate skill the great 
 province of Mercia, was the worthy daughter of an illustrious 
 sire, our own immortal Alfred." Elfleda, if she did not build, 
 as she was certainly entitled to be called " a restorer of the 
 paths to dwell in," probably renewed the three Frodsham 
 camps which have been mentioned ; but Frodsham itself was 
 not, as was once thought to be, the Cyric byrig (the Church 
 burgh), for, after long search, the antiquaries have placed that 
 place with absolute certainty at Chirbury, in the county of 
 Salop. 
 
 After the Saxon Chronicle ended there was an interval of 
 much unquiet in the kingdom. Until Edward the Confessor's 
 time there were wars between the English and the Danes ; 
 but history tells us nothing of the local history of this 
 neighbourhood until the coming in of the Normans. There is, 
 
 B2
 
 4 Frodsham. 
 
 however, a record in stone, which has lasted possibly from 
 Elfleda's time, of which we shall presently have much to say, 
 which tells us that, if Saxon pens were idle, Saxon hands 
 were not so, but, on the contrary, were busily engaged between 
 that noble lady's time and the actual arrival of the Normans. 
 Edward the Confessor having died in peaceable possession of 
 the throne, rumours were soon after heard of the intended 
 coming of the Normans, and no long time passed before they 
 had actually landed and defeated the English in the great 
 battle of Hastings, in which Harold, the English king, who 
 had opposed them, fell on the field. Harold had been a 
 landowner in Cheshire, and hither, after his death, Algitha, 
 his widowed queen, is said to have repaired to seek shelter 
 with her brother Edwin, the Governor of Mercia. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE CONQUEST. 
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR (who, according to Blackstone 
 and some other law writers, was not a conqueror of the nation 
 in the strict sense of the word, but only a conqueror in the 
 sense of being the first acquirer of the kingdom of his race) 
 found for a time that what he had won by the sword, by the 
 sword must be maintained. In the year 1086, however, when 
 he had begun to feel more secure in his seat on the throne, he 
 completed the great national survey called Domesday Book, 
 a work such as no other country can boast of possessing, and 
 which, though it is a badge of our conquest, is one of which 
 we Englishmen may be justly proud. This survey contains 
 the latest record before the curtain fell on the Saxon era of all 
 the landed property in England. In making it, the King's 
 commissioners made diligent inquiry into the names of the 
 several places, who the persons were who had held them in 
 the time of the Confessor, and who held them at the time of 
 the actual survey ; what hides of land there were in each
 
 Frodsham. 5 
 
 manor, and what carucates in the demesne ; what homagers, 
 villeins, cotarii, freemen, and socagers there were ; what was 
 the extent of the woods ; what was the quantity of meadow 
 and pasture there ; how many mills and fisheries there were ; 
 how much the whole had been worth in the Confessor's time, 
 and how much it was worth at the time of the survey. Of so 
 much of this survey as relates to Frodsham we shall give a 
 verbatim extract from the original Latin, and afterwards a 
 translation into English ; to which we shall add an explana- 
 tion, and a few such notices of the persons, terms, and 
 circumstances mentioned in it as may serve to render it more 
 intelligible. The extract from the survey is as follows : 
 
 "DOMESDAY SURVEY. 
 
 " In Roelau hd : Ipse com. ten. Frotesham. Eduin. com. 
 tenuit. Ibi. iii. hide gld. Tra. e. ix. car. In dnio. sunt. ii. 
 & un serv. & viii. villi & iii. bord. In Bocelau hd : Ipse 
 com. ten. Alretone Godric tenuit. Ibi. i. virg. tre geld cu. ii. 
 car. Tra. e. dimid. car. wasta fuit et est. Ibi pbr & eccl hnt. 
 i. virg. tre. & molinum hiemale & ii. piscarie & dimid. & 
 iii. ac. pti. & silva., i. leuva. Ig. & dimid. leuva. lat. & ibi. ii, 
 haie. & in Wich dimid salina. serviens aule. Tercius denaris. 
 de placitis istius. hund. ptineb. T.R.E. huic m. T. valb. viii. 
 lib. modo iiii. lib. Wasta fuit." 
 
 " TRANSLATION. 
 
 " In Roelau hundred : The Earl himself holds Frotesham. 
 Earl Edwin held it. There are three hides ratable to the 
 gelt. The land is nine qarucates. Two are in the demesne, 
 and there is one serf and eight villeins and three bordars with 
 two carucates. In Bocelau hundred : The Earl himself holds 
 Alretone (Overton) ; Godric held it. There is one virgate of 
 land rateable to the gelt. The land is half a carucate. It 
 was and is waste. The priest and the church there have one 
 virgate of land, and there is a winter mill and two fisheries 
 and a half and three acres of meadow, and a wood one league 
 long and half a league broad, and two hays, and in Wich half
 
 6 Frodsham. 
 
 a salt-house to supply the hall. The third penny from the 
 pleas of the hundred belonged in King Edward's time to this 
 manor. It was then worth eight pounds, now four pounds. 
 It was waste." (Domesday Book of Cheshire and Lancashire, 
 12, 13, 14, 15.) 
 
 It will be observed that, in the above description, Frodsham 
 is divided into two parts, one of which is said to be in Ruloe 
 hundred and the other in the hundred of Bucklow, and that 
 in the latter of these the church and the priest are said to be 
 in Alretone (Overton), although in the survey the two parts 
 immediately follow each other. There can be no doubt, 
 however, that both parts belong to the same place, and that 
 in calling the church Arletone instead of Overton, and in 
 placing it in a wrong hundred, both the clerk who wrote the 
 entries and he who reduced them into order clearly fell into 
 error and made a mistake. This mistake, which is proved to 
 have been by no means the only one of a similar kind 
 which occurs in the survey, only goes to shew that even 
 this invaluable national record is not entirely infallible. 
 (Domesday Survey of Lancashire and Cheshire, preface, xiv.) 
 Dr. Ormerod, the historian of Cheshire, whom this difficulty 
 did not escape, as we shall see from his description of the 
 church, which we shall give, was at first inclined to hesitate 
 whether to assign the two passages to the same place ; but we 
 believe that his doubt was ultimately removed by the full 
 accord between the Domesday description and the actual 
 condition of Frodsham. (Hist. Ches., i., 391.) Returning to 
 the description of Frodsham in the survey, we find that Hugh 
 Lupus, the Norman Earl of Chester, who had received a grant 
 of the county to hold as freely r^y the sword as the King 
 himself held his kingdom by the crown, the effect of which 
 was to make the county a palatinate and the Earl a palatine 
 ruler, had displaced Earl Edwin. But the fate of Edwin, its 
 former owner, was very different. He was the Earl of Mercia, 
 the grandson of Leofric, 
 
 The grim Earl who ruled o'er Coventry, 
 
 and of his more celebrated wife the Lady Godiva. He was
 
 Frodsham. 7 
 
 the owner, besides his Cheshire estates, of large possessions in 
 Yorkshire, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire, and was also a great 
 Saxon leader and commander. Though he opposed the 
 Normans, policy made the Conqueror spare him ; but it was 
 only to wait his own time to strip him, among the last of the 
 Saxons, when he was no longer to be feared. He was spared, 
 but not trusted ; and in 1070, when William visited Normandy, 
 he took Earl Edwin with him, where, naturally chafing under 
 his thraldom, he attempted to escape into Scotland, and was 
 slain, it is said, on the way. His freeman Godric at Frodsham, 
 who was probably a Dane, held with it a dozen or more 
 Cheshire townships, was evicted like the Earl, his master, 
 from them all, and we hear no more of him. The molinum 
 hiemale (the winter mill) might be the predecessor of some of 
 those mills now in Frodsham, unless, as is possible, the Norman 
 scribe, hearing a Cheshire peasant speak of a windy mill or* 
 windmill, mistook the words as they fell from a strange and 
 homely mouth, and understood it to be a winter mill. It is 
 well known that windmills were in use in England before the 
 time of the survey. A church and a mill are necessaries in 
 every place the latter to supply bodily food, and the former 
 that bread of life which cometh down from heaven. Of some 
 other circumstances, hear what Dr. Ormerod says : " The 
 fisheries would be the broad estuaries of the Weaver and the 
 Mersey, the large wood (of which that now remaining on 
 Overton Hill may be a small portion) would be a part of the 
 line of natural forests then stretching along this district, the 
 deer toils (haiae) would be the verge of the forests at Mara 
 lately formed by the Norman Earl, the salt work (at North- 
 wich) would be correspondent with the other salt work (at- 
 Nantwich) for Earl Edwin's other manor at Acton, and the 
 third penny (a perquisite of every earl at that time) would be 
 appropriately due to a manor held by Earl Edwin before the 
 Conquest, and constituting one of the free burghs of the 
 earldom after it." In Frodsham there were three hides of 
 land liable to pay the tax of Dane gelt (so called from its 
 being first imposed to repel the Danes) ; but as to how much 
 land the hide contained, antiquaries are not agreed. One
 
 Frodsham. 
 
 classic authority travels for an explanation of it to Carthage, 
 and would have us believe that, like that rival of ancient 
 Rome, it contained as much land as could be measured by an 
 oxhide cut into thongs- 
 Quantum taurino possent circumdare tergo, 
 
 and that it obtained its name from thence. Another authority, 
 less classical, but still clinging to verse, draws the meaning 
 out of the old saw 
 
 Five score of men, money, and pins, 
 Six score of all other things, 
 
 and would have us conclude that the measure of the hide was 
 one hundred and twenty acres ; and it is at any rate singular 
 that if the hide, sometimes called the pound land, was of the 
 -value of twenty shillings, or two hundred and forty pence, 
 that sum would make exactly twopence per acre as its value. 
 And I incline to think that the hide was a rough mode of 
 computing the extent of a vill, leaving out of the account the 
 uncultivated wastes and other lands within its boundaries. 
 In Frodsham there were only three hides, but there were 
 nine carucates of land. The carucate is supposed to mean a 
 ploughland, or as much land as a yoke of oxen could plough 
 in a year. In Lancashire, each hide contained six carucates ; 
 but in Cheshire, where from time immemorial the acre has 
 been larger, it is thought to have been only four. The demesne 
 was the land which the lord held in his own hands and for his 
 own use. The lenva (league) was a measure of length about 
 as long as one and a half of our present miles. The virgate, 
 or yard land, was two oxgangs, or about one-fourth of a 
 hide ; but it did not always contain the same number of 
 acres. (Domesday Book, relating to Cheshire and Lancashire, 
 preface, page xxvi. et seq.) 
 
 In the description given of Frodsham in the Domesday 
 Survey, we read that there was one serf, and it was happy 
 that there was only one such person there. This serf was one 
 of those unfortunate persons who served without wages, and 
 was probably employed about his master's house, and had no
 
 Frodsham. g 
 
 connection with the land. The business of such persons was 
 drudgery, and, like Caliban, 
 
 They were to fetch in firing 
 At requiring. 
 
 In France, before the first revolution, their condition was so 
 abject that, when an ignorant agent of one of the noblesse 
 had ordered all his master's cerfs that is, all his stags to be 
 killed, and by mistake had written the word serfs, the fury 
 of the populace was so inflamed that his master's life was 
 endangered by it until the mis-spelling was explained. The 
 villani, the villeins of Domesday, who were a numerous class, 
 and, as Spelman says, though very meanly descended, yet 
 came of a very ancient house, their long descent, however, 
 failed to make them of gentle blood. They sprang out of 
 that tenure in villenage which is so eloquently described by 
 Bracton, when he says " the tenant in villenage must do 
 whatever he is commanded, nor shall he know in the evening 
 what he is to do on the morrow, but shall always be at an 
 uncertainty." These villeins, who were bound to carry manure 
 on the lord's lands, to hedge and ditch his demesne, and do 
 other servile work, were of two kinds that is either regardant, 
 which is attached to the land (ascripti glebae) ; or else in gross, 
 that is to the person of their lord, whe was able to give, or 
 sell, or dispose of them at his sole will and pleasure. The 
 golden rule of Magna Charta, in the villein's case, was a dead 
 letter, for " nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur . . . 
 nisi per legale judicium parium suorum vel per legem terras " 
 (no free man may be taken or imprisoned but after judgment 
 by his fellows or by the law of the land), which, it will be 
 observed, applies only to the free, and the villein was not free. 
 The lord might beat or imprison the villein at his pleasure, 
 but for grievous bodily injury the villein of either sex might 
 have redress at law even against his lord. No wonder, after 
 the existence of such a state of things, that villein and vassal, 
 both of which are of feudal origin, have long begun to be 
 both of them terms of reproach. The bordars, who were of a 
 less servile class than either the serfs or the villeins, in lieu of
 
 TO Frodsham. 
 
 paying rents at a time when money was scarce, held their 
 cabins and some small portions of land upon the condition of 
 supplying poultry, eggs, and other small articles of food, of 
 which the few vegetables then in use would form a part, for 
 the supply of the lord's table or board, and hence they got 
 their name. We proceed now to the remaining part of 
 Frodsham, as described in the Domesday Survey, which tells 
 us that there was a church and a presbyter (or priest) there. 
 The priest, if not born a freeman at that period, might be the 
 son of a villein or a freedman ; for in 1367, in the neighbouring 
 lordship of Halton, Thomas, the son of Thomas of the Castle, 
 clerk, the lord's born villein, came and paid a fine of jd. for 
 a license to take holy orders ; and Thomas Archer, clerk, 
 another born villein, came and paid the like sum for the like 
 license. Both these persons are called " clerk " before they 
 obtained the license, which license, when orders were obtained, 
 transformed the slaves into freemen ; yet two other men, both 
 called "clerks," were both transferred like cattle. (Halton 
 Rolls, pages 14, 15 ; and Hist, of Richmondshire, II., 333.) If 
 the priest of the church, therefore, were a freeman, as he 
 probably was, he and Earl Edwin, and Godric his tenant, who 
 were the only freemen in Frodsham, would share one and the 
 same fate, and be all ousted and evicted, unless, for religion's 
 sake, the priest was spared, as we happily know that his church 
 was, which we shall now describe in Dr. Ormerod's words, but 
 not without at the same time acknowledging our obligations 
 to the Norman hands, who have thus preserved to us this 
 record of the work of their Saxon forerunners. " The church, 
 which is dedicated to St. Lawrence, is situated on very high 
 ground, overlooking the town, the marshes and the Mersey 
 under the craggy precipices of Overton Hill, and is in the 
 township of Frodsham, but immediately adjacent to the 
 village of Overton, in Frodsham lordship, of which the 
 churchyard wall forms the boundary. The fabric is built 
 with red stone, and consists of a nave, chancel, side aisles, 
 and a tower containing six bells. The nave is divided from 
 the side aisles by three arches, of which the two on each side 
 nearest the tower are semi-circular. Three of the pillars
 
 Frodsham. 1 1 
 
 supporting these arches are cylindrical, the fourth is octagonal, 
 the capitals square and decorated with sharp leaves, and an 
 imitation of volutes at the angles, in a style which, but for the 
 omission of the church in the Domesday Survey, might have 
 been referred without much hesitation to the Saxon period. 
 The other arches of the nave are very obtusely pointed." 
 (Hist, dies., ii., 91.) Again, in the preface to the same work, 
 the learned author says : " In Roelau hundred, Frodsham had 
 a church and a priest In Cheshire, the style in which the 
 circular arch appears is seen in the remains of St. John's 
 Church at Chester, and in parts of the abbey founded on the 
 site of the house of the secular canons, and in the churches at 
 Barthomley, Bebbington, Bromborough, and Frodsham. In 
 this last place the cylindrical columns with square capitals and 
 the rude imitation of the Ionic volute are widely distinguished 
 from the style of any other fabric in Cheshire that can have 
 any pretensions to being the work of a Saxon architect. 
 This may, therefore, be admitted as an exception ; but with 
 this exception, from the survey of the entire ecclesiastical 
 architecture of Cheshire, the specimens, when collated with 
 dates, undoubtedly lead to referring the existing specimens of 
 the circular arch to the taste of the Norman architects." 
 (Hist. Ches., preface, li., lii.) We reserve the remainder of 
 the Doctor's remarks on the church for a future opportunity. 
 But, besides the features of the church, which are mentioned 
 in Dr. Ormerod's description, there is or was one or more 
 windows of the clerestory those nearest the tower the 
 workmanship of which bears a great resemblance to Saxon 
 workmanship. The description of Frodsham in the Survey 
 concludes with a sad picture of the effects of the Conquest. 
 It tells us that while in the time of the Confessor the manor 
 was worth eight pounds a year, which would be a very large 
 sum compared with modern money, it had fallen to half that 
 amount at the time of the Survey. But even this is not so 
 sad as the sequel, in which we are told that the place was 
 waste that is, that the houses were destroyed, the inhabitants 
 turned out or driven away from their homes to seek shelter 
 elsewhere, and that the lands lay uncultivated. In few words,
 
 1 2 Frodsham. 
 
 it brings to mind the words of the old prophecy, " I will lay 
 it waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall 
 come up briars and thorns" (Isa., v. 6). Yet let us not forget 
 that to the Normans we still owe a debt for preserving to us 
 in the Survey the knowledge that the church was built, not 
 by them, but by our Saxon ancestors. It is true that by no 
 better right than the law of might the Normans had turned 
 out the lawful owners, and by so doing had enriched them- 
 selves, and caused to the vanquished an amouat of misery 
 which cannot be calculated, but will never be forgotten. 
 " Spargere subjectis " was not for a long time the rule 
 remembered by the Normans in their conquest. At the same 
 time, their coming was a means of enriching our language 
 and making it more copious by giving large additions to its 
 vocabulary. They brought in, too, from their own country, 
 where the manners were more polished, some usages which 
 improved our own manners. They helped, also, to give us a 
 local history by the great number of their grants, charters, 
 and records of the change of property which their coming 
 occasioned. Whilst we are in this neighbourhood, we may as 
 well notice another object, which, in its origin, is older even 
 than the church 
 
 There is a pleasant legend of a king 
 Who, ere the diadem enwreathed his brow, 
 Nay, ere the purple even tinged his dreams, 
 Was wont to seek a fountain that gushed forth, 
 In a lone grotto, by the lake of Nemi. 
 
 Such a fount there is at Frodsham, called " The Synagogue 
 Well," which sends forth waters as copious and as limpid as 
 that once frequented by Numa. It seems as if such a fount 
 was necessary near an ancient castle ; for as this fount rises 
 close to the site of Frodsham Castle, so at the foot of Beeston 
 Castle there is a similar spring. They both spring from the 
 living rock, and both have a large square stone basin to 
 receive the surplus water as it flows away. The basin of 
 that at Horsley is called a bath, and, as might be expected, 
 the Synagogue well was also called, for once there was a 
 curate at Frodsham who was an inveterate bather, and he
 
 , Frodsham. 1 3 
 
 resorted thither every morning and bathed in the well even 
 when it was frozen over, and he had to break the ice before he 
 could have his invigorating bath. But he was of a swimming 
 family, and his father, Sir Lancelot Shadwell, Master of the 
 Rolls, might often be seen leading his seven sons in a swim 
 down the Thames. The Horsley bath has this inscription 
 
 Sanitati sacrum 
 
 Obstructum reserat, durum terit, 
 Humida siccat, debile fortificat, 
 Si tamen arte bibis. 
 
 (This well, made sacred to the healing art, 
 To such as seek it virtues can impart, 
 To clear obstructions, nerve afresh the weak, 
 Yet none without advice its aid should seek. ) 
 
 The Synagogue well has neither an inscription nor a history, 
 nor is it even known how it acquired its name. Some have 
 suggested that Saint Agnes was its' patron, and that thence it 
 won its name ; but the learned President of the Chetham 
 Society tells us that the well is of great antiquity, and that, 
 before an attempt was made to improve it, the appearance 
 was most picturesque ; and then, in a copy of verses too long 
 to be given at length, and of which we must content ourselves 
 with inserting a part, he embodies what he considers the origin 
 of the tradition : 
 
 THE SYNAGOGUE WELL. 
 
 The Roman in his toilsome march 
 Disdainful view'd this humble spot, 
 And thought not of Egeria's fount 
 And Numa's grot. 
 
 No altar crowned the margin green, 
 No dedication marked the stone, 
 The warrior quaffed the living stream, 
 And hastened on. 
 
 Then was uprear'd the Norman keep, 
 Where from the vale the uplands swell, 
 But unobserved in crystal jets 
 The waters fell. 
 
 In conquering Edward's reign of pride 
 Gay streamed the flag from Frodsham tower, 
 But saw no step approach the wild 
 And sylvan bower.
 
 1 4 Frodsham. 
 
 And the poet then goes on to suppose that one of the Hebrew 
 race, having bathed his limbs in its waters, surrounded the 
 fountain with masonry, and prayed to heaven to protect it, as 
 follows : 
 
 Grant that, when yonder frowning walls 
 With tower and keep are crushed and gone, 
 The stones the Hebrew raised may last, 
 And from his well the strengthening spring 
 May still flow on ! 
 
 Cheshire Ballads and Legends, p. 309. 
 
 Having already given a short notice of Earl Edwin, the 
 Saxon possessor of Frodsham at the time of the Conquest, it 
 seems fitting to give a short sketch of the Norman earls who 
 followed him there, and held the manor after him. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 HUGH LUPUS, THE NORMAN EARL. 
 
 WE BEGIN, then, with HUGH LUPUS, the Conqueror's nephew, 
 who at different times appears to us under more names than 
 it would be creditable for any one who wishes to escape being 
 charged with using an alias to bear. If he were Hugh de 
 Auranges, which, as it would seem, was the original name of 
 the royal house of Orange, he would have done well to bear it 
 instead of that ugly name of Lupus, which one associates with 
 savagery, or that name of Dirgane the Fat, which he had 
 from the Welshmen, whose blood he had shed too freely. The 
 Earldom of Chester was first conferred upon him by the 
 Conqueror in 1070 by the sword, and by it he was to hold the 
 county as freely as the Conqueror held the kingdom by the 
 Crown. This was held to make the county a palatinate, and 
 entitled the owner to hold pleas in his county as being done 
 against the Earl's sword, just as the King alleged his plaints 
 to be committed against the Crown. It has been thought, 
 too, to have given the Earl the right to bear the sword of 
 King Edward the Confessor, which was called the curtein,
 
 Frodsham. 1 5 
 
 before the King at his coronation, and on other State occasions. 
 The Earl, who paid little regard to expense, was said to move 
 about attended rather by an army than by his family. For 
 some time the sword with which he had been girt had to be 
 used for other than State occasions, for what the sword had 
 won the same sword had to maintain. Hugh Lupus also 
 made certain of his great men to be barons, and to form with 
 certain bishops and abbots a little parliament for his palatinate, 
 and Hollar has given an imaginary portrait of them sitting in 
 session. The Earl was profuse in his expenditure, without 
 taking any account of it, and the result was that he became 
 so prodigal in spending, that in the end he was driven to be 
 alieni appetens. One of the first works he took in hand was to 
 repair and add to the walls of his capital at Chester, after 
 which it seems probable that he laid out the foundations and 
 began to build the Castle at Frodsham, a work which was 
 necessary to guard his territory. He chose for its site the 
 rising ground at the foot of the Overton Hill, where the 
 marshes came up to its base and form such a natural defence 
 on the north as made the place a sort of Thermopylae, where 
 a handful of brave men might repel a host. The Castle, a 
 strong and massive pile, built in the Norman style of that 
 age, and erected for defensive purposes, was, while gunpowder 
 was unknown, a place almost impregnable. Its strong semi- 
 circular arches and thick walls were compacted together with 
 mortar, which shortly became as hard as the stone of which 
 they were built. Though principally intended for defence, 
 the Castle, like the Edwardian structures of a later time, had 
 in it living rooms and apartments fit to receive the Earls of 
 Chester, who made it their occasional residence, and from it 
 from time to time some of the semi-regal charters which they 
 issued were dated. Of this Castle the ruined carcase was still 
 standing in the year 1727, when the Messrs. Buck made and 
 published a drawing of what they call a west view of it, of 
 which there is a copy in the Warrington Museum. But a few 
 years after that time the ruins were taken down by the 
 proprietor, and the foundations levelled with the ground, and 
 now nothing remains but the site, on which might be written,
 
 1 6 Frodsham. 
 
 " Hie Troja fuit." If Earl Hugh deserved the epithet of 
 Dirgane the Fat, which the Welsh bestowed on him, he must 
 have found his flesh a burden in his soldierly career ; and such 
 a habit gives countenance to the story told by the chroniclers, 
 that he was in the habit of indulging to excess in the 
 pleasures of the table. He married Ermentrude, the daughter 
 of Claremont, Earl of Beauvais. He gave, or rather he sold, 
 a place called Scipena, near Abingdon, to the monks of that 
 abbey, in return for " xxx pounds of pennies," which, as a 
 pound weight of silver and a pound sterling were then the 
 same thing, seems a very large price to be paid for the land, 
 more especially when, besides the money, the Earl bargained 
 to have the names of himself and his wife, and others of his 
 family, inscribed in the abbey bead roll, and to have continual 
 prayers offered up for them in the monastery as members of 
 the fraternity when any of them should die. To testify the 
 sincerity on his part in making this grant, the Earl laid his 
 dagger upon the altar, meaning, as I suppose, that between 
 him and the monastery such a weapon would be needed no 
 more. In the year 1093, acting under the advice of the 
 celebrated Anselm, who in or about that year became Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, the Earl and his Countess Ermentrude 
 placed in St. Werburgh's a convent of Benedictine monks, and 
 as in that age the law which obliged a man to pay tithes 
 somewhere had not forbidden arbitrary consecrations of tithes, 
 great men frequently gave their tithes to some religious house 
 of their own founding, where the religious were bound to 
 offer up special prayers for the health and safety of their 
 founders, which gave some countenance to the notion that 
 heaven was for the rich who could afford to buy it. The 
 monks of St. Werburgh's were to offer up constant prayers 
 for the Earl and his Countess, in return for which he gave to 
 their abbey the tithes of many of his great possessions, 
 amongst which were those of Frodsham. The words of his 
 grant, which, though very full, did not extend to give the 
 advowson or right of presenting to the church of Frodsham 
 when vacant, are these : " We grant the full tenth (rectam 
 decimam) not only of all grain, but also of all the
 
 Frodsham. 1 7 
 
 young of animals (pullis), calves (vitulis), and pigs (porcis), 
 and lambs, of butter and cheese, and of all other things 
 whereof tithe ought to be rendered in our manor of Frod- 
 sham ; and also the full tenth of the fishery there." (Hist. 
 Ches., I., 12.) The Earl also gave the prior of Whitby the 
 churches of Flemborough and St. Peter at York, and he gave 
 Atherstone to the abbey of Bek in Normandy, and he founded 
 also that of St. Severus in the same country, for all which he 
 expected to be repaid in no scant measure by the vicarious 
 prayers of the religious, to whom he had thus shown favour. 
 (Ib. 14.) He was one of the chief supporters of Henry I. in 
 his claim to the crown of England, and, after having ruled 
 the Earldom of Chester for thirty-one years, he expired in his 
 own monastery of St. Werburgh on the 27th July, 1106, 
 having two days before his death been shorn as a monk, and 
 received into the house as one of the brethren, in the vain and 
 blind belief that the cowl, like charity, would not only cover a 
 multitude of sins, but be a safe passport to heaven. He was 
 buried in the cemetery of the house, where his body remained 
 for a time. A charter of Alan Percy, between 1325 and 1350, 
 asks the prayers of the faithful for Earl Hugh. (Whitby 
 Surtees' So., p. 223.) His wife Ermentrude survived him ; and 
 he left an only child, a son, Richard, who succeeded him in the 
 earldom. The Domesday Survey was made in 1086, after 
 Earl Hugh had been in possession of the earldom sixteen 
 years, and the record this royal commission gives of Frodsham, 
 which it describes as lying waste, is a sad and striking comment 
 of what the Earl had not done, but should have done, in the 
 place. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EARLS RICHARD, MESCHINES, GERNONS, AND 
 CYLVELIOK. 
 
 RICHARD, EARL HUGH'S SON, who succeeded as the second 
 Norman Earl of Chester in 1106, could not have been more 
 than seven or eight years of age when he came to his
 
 1 8 Frodsham. 
 
 inheritance ; but children in that age were sooner accounted 
 men, and men were sooner called old than they are in our own 
 day. John of Gaunt, who died at 59, was familiarly called old 
 some years before his death ; and here as early as 1093 we 
 find this Earl Richard, who must then have been a child in 
 arms, set down as one of the witnesses to his father's grant to 
 St. Werburgh's of that date (Hist. Ches. I. 13); and in 1106, 
 not long after his father's decease, we find him already a 
 knight, and as if the accolade had conferred age, actually 
 joining his mother in a grant of lands in Wymundley to the 
 monastery of Abingdon, and previously joining her in another 
 grant confirming his father's grants to St. Werburgh's for the 
 repose of his father's soul. (Ib. p. 15.) He married before he 
 came of age Maude, the daughter of Stephen, Earl of Blois. 
 Richard lived in an age when prodigies, if only they were 
 connected with religion, obtained easy credence ; and Earl 
 Richard, when he was 18, became the subject of one of such 
 miraculous interventions by one of the saints on his behalf. 
 He had gone on a pilgrimage to St. Winifred's Well at Holy- 
 well, when he was suddenly set upon by a body of Welshmen 
 who had no pleasant recollections of his father's treatment of 
 them. In his dilemma he fled for safety to the Abbey of 
 Basingwerk, and, addressing himself in prayer to St. Werburgh 
 for her aid, she is said to have instantly divided the broad 
 waters of the Dee, so as to make a safe passage from the 
 opposite side for his constable, the Baron of Halton, and a 
 near neighbour to Frodsham, who was there to come to him, 
 which he immediately did, and rescued him, a circumstance 
 which ever after gave to those sands their name, which they 
 still bear, of the Constable's Sands. (Hist. Ches., II., 275.) In 
 the year 1119, Earl Richard and his Countess, having been 
 with Henry I. in Normandy, embarked with the King's two 
 sons, William and Richard, and a great number of other 
 nobles and great men, to return home ; but the sailors, who 
 had been too liberally treated by the two princes to some 
 wine, drank of it so immoderately as to be unable to govern 
 the ship, -and she went down in a rough sea with all on 
 board, and every one of them, except a butcher from Rouen,
 
 Frodsham, 1 9 
 
 who was taken up by a passing ship, were drowned in the sea. 
 (Hist. Ches., I., 16.) And thus sadly perished Earl Richard 
 and his Countess, after he had ruled the county eighteen 
 years, during the greater part of which time he was under 
 age, and, as he left no issue, the earldom descended to a 
 collateral relation. 
 
 RANDLE MESCHINES, the nephew of Hugh Lupus, who 
 next came to the earldom, and became, by the premature 
 death of Earl Richard without issue, the third Earl of Chester, 
 was installed in the earldom by King Henry L, of whom he 
 had well deserved such an honour ; for during a tumult in 
 Normandy, when the King was in great danger, and had been 
 deserted by many of his friends, Earl Randle held fast by his 
 allegiance, " and was faithful found among the faithless." He 
 was fortunate in having a double inheritance in England, 
 having succeeded to the lordship of Cumberland through his 
 father, and to the earldom of Chester through his mother. 
 Besides his English possessions, he was also Viscount of 
 Bayeux, in Normandy, and for some of his Norman lands 
 he owed his suzerain, besides the service of fifty-one knights, 
 this strange fraction of the service of another knight, namely, 
 a half, and a quarter and an eighth of such service of another 
 'knight. He confirmed the grants of Hugh Lupus to St. 
 Werburgh's, and added to them some lands of his own ; and 
 in his own grant he mentions having given his consent to the 
 removal of Earl Hugh's body from the cemetery for burial in 
 the chapter-house of St. Werburgh. Earl Randle gave the 
 churches of St. Michael at York, and the church of St. 
 Lawrence, in his Castle at Appleby, to the abbey of St. 
 Mary's, in the former place. He gave also the site of their 
 abbey to the monks of Calder. Gifts to the Church seem to 
 have distinguished the Earls of Chester, but there was some- 
 thing that looked personal and mercenary in their piety in 
 making these grants to religion. To his honour, he was 
 always more inclined to peace and civil government than to 
 warlike affairs. (Hist. Leek, p. 9.) Earl Randle married Lucy, 
 the widow of Roger de Romara, and sister of the unfortunate 
 Earl Edwin, and daughter of Algar the Saxon, so that in her 
 
 C2
 
 2O Frodsham. 
 
 person the old Saxon blood came back, and was restored to 
 Frodsham. Earl Randle died in 1128, after a short reign of 
 eight years. There was issue of the Earl and his Countess 
 two sons, Randle and William, and two daughters, Agnes 
 and Adeliza, of whom Randle the elder succeeded him. His 
 Countess Lucia survived him, and paid the King what seems 
 a strange fine of 500 marks not to be compelled to marry 
 again within five years. 
 
 RANDLE GERNONS, so called from his father's castle in 
 Normandy, where he was born, succeeded as fourth Earl of 
 Chester upon the death of his father, Meschines, in 1128. He 
 married Maude, the daughter of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, 
 and warmly espoused the cause of his wife's namesake, the 
 Empress Maude, against King Stephen, with whom he was at 
 strife all his life long. He was a brave and gallant soldier, 
 who was sometimes prisoner to the King, and the King was as 
 often prisoner to him. Before one of his battles against the 
 King, he harangued his soldiers much after the manner of an 
 old Greek or Roman commander, and the chroniclers have 
 been at the pains of handing down his speech to us, and 
 a it is not long, and worth repeating, we give it verbatim. 
 Addressing the Earl of Gloucester, he said : " I thank you, 
 most invincible general, and you, the rest of my fellow soldiers, 
 that you have so faithfully and courageously expressed your 
 affection to me, even at the hazard of your own lives. And 
 since I have been the cause of this your danger, it is but 
 reason that I should lead the way and give the first onset to 
 the army of the perfidious King, who hath broken the truce 
 he made, and only out of the confidence of your valour, and 
 the King's injustice, I doubt not to dissipate his forces, and 
 with my sword to make way through the rest of my enemies. 
 Methinks I see them run already." The Earl who made such 
 a speech had paid more attention to his teachers, who were 
 probably the monks of St. Werburgh, than was usual with the 
 nobles of that age. (Hist. Ches., I., 20.) Like his ancestors, 
 he made and confirmed some grants to the religious houses at 
 Chester. He founded a nunnery, and gave to St. Werburgh 
 a tenth of his Chester rents, and made other religious grants,
 
 Frodsham. 2 1 
 
 one of which, had his life not been too busy for the crusade, 
 might lead us to suppose that he had been at Jerusalem. 
 This grant, which was of part of his land at Frodsham, may 
 have been made at his castle there, where it is thought he 
 sometimes resided. The grant was made to the Knights 
 Hospitallers of the house of St. John of Jerusalem (Dugdale's 
 Monast, 548, and Hist. Ches., I., 26, in notis), that illustrious 
 body who long rolled back the advancing surges of Eastern 
 barbarism, sustained the fortunes of Godfrey a.nd the glories 
 of the Latin kingdom, and only retired from Asia when 
 resistance was no longer possible. After a reign of twenty-five 
 years, Earl Randle Gernons died miserably, in 1153, of poison, 
 administered to him by the wicked William Peverel at a time 
 when he was lying under the Church's sentence of excom- 
 munication. He was buried in St. Mary's Abbey at Coventry, 
 according to one of his son's charters, to whom he had given 
 St. Michael's Chapel there. His wife Maude survived him, 
 and he was succeeded in the earldom by his son Hugh 
 Cyveliok, who joined his mother in giving the town of 
 Styshall, near Coventry, to procure the deceased Earl's 
 absolution from the excommunication pronounced against 
 him by Walter Durdant, Bishop of Lichfield. 
 
 HUGH CYVELIOK, who succeeded his father, and became 
 the fifth Earl of Chester in 1153, had his surname from the 
 commote or hundred of that name in Montgomeryshire, where 
 he was born, and where his father was probably in temporary 
 retirement during some part of his stormy life. (Bridgeman's 
 Princes of South Wales, p. 41, in notis.) Cyveliok did not 
 allow his sword to rust, for, soon after his accession, he wrested 
 with it the Lordship of Bromfield from his Welsh neighbours, 
 who viewed the Norman strangers and new neighbours with no 
 friendly eyes. In or about the year 1170 he married Bertred, 
 the. daughter of Simon, Earl of Evereux, in Normandy, and 
 having a daughter, Amicia, then marriageable, he shortly after- 
 wards gave her in frank marriage to Ralph de Meinilwarin, 
 and made him the following charter, dated at Lee, which is 
 one of the many places of that name to be found in Cheshire, 
 but was probably no other than that of Darnhall : " Hugh,
 
 2 2 Frodsham. 
 
 Earl of Chester, to his constable, steward, and all his barons, 
 and to his bailiffs and men, both French and English, and as 
 well those present as those to come, greeting : Know ye that 
 we have given and granted, and by this my present charter 
 have confirmed, to Ralph de Meinilwarin in free marriage with 
 my daughter Amicia the service of Gilbert Fitz Roger, namely, 
 the services of three knights, he and his heir rendering to me 
 and my heirs the services of two knights ; wherefore it is my 
 will, and I firmly enjoin, that no person trouble him or his 
 heirs, or require more than the services of two knights in 
 respect of the tenement aforesaid. Witnesses : R. Abbot, 
 of Chester ; Bertred, Countess of Chester ; Simon Tuschet, 
 Roger de Livet, Gilbert Fitz Pigot, Robert his brother, Frumb. 
 de Ridford, William de Meinilwarin, Robert Fitz Ham, Bettr. 
 Cum, Robert de Meinilwarin, Ran. de Lee, Rad the Clerk, 
 Peter the Clerk who made this charter, and many others at 
 Lee." (Amicia Controversy, Chet. So., p. 7.) After his 
 warlike achievement of Bromfield, we do not hear of any 
 of his other engagements in war until the year 1172, and the 
 interval may possibly have been spent by him either in the 
 crusade or in devotion, for in those two the Norman earls 
 seem to have employed their time. In the year just named, 
 however, he joined the King of Scotland and Robert Earl of 
 Leycester in supporting the sons of King Henry II. in their 
 unnatural rebellion against him. But though his sons had 
 been undutiful, Henry remained serene amidst all his dangers ; 
 and when his enemies had almost won from- him the French 
 province of Little Britain, and seemed likely entirely to 
 overpower him, he put forth such energy, activity, and skill, 
 that he forced them back into the Castle of Dole, and then 
 compelled them to surrender at discretion. The Earl of 
 Chester, who was one of those thus compelled to surrender, 
 lay under the King's displeasure until the Parliament hoJden 
 at Northampton, in January, 1177, when he was pardoned for 
 his past offences and restored to his honours and estates. 
 (Henry's Hist. Eng., V., 164.) The Earl confirmed to the 
 abbey of St. Werburgh the grant which Richard de Rullos 
 had made to them of his lands at Grainsby, in Wirral. He
 
 Frodsham. 23 
 
 also granted with his body, for burial to St. Werburgh's 
 Abbey, the church at Prestbury, near Macclesfield, with its 
 appurtenances. This charter, of which his mother Maude 
 and his Countess Bertred were witnesses, and to which his 
 son Randle, though probably then an infant, was a consenting 
 party, was doubtless made at a time when that fine structure, 
 still to be seen in the churchyard at Prestbury, was the parish 
 church of the place. Of this church a drawing is given in the 
 "Ancient Parish of Prestbury," one of the Chetham volumes 
 (p. 25). By a charter dated at Chester, he also granted to the 
 house of Cistercian monks, lately founded by his constable at 
 Stanlaw, which might be seen from Frodsham, and which, 
 until it was translated to Whalley, in Lancashire, became the 
 last resting place of the barons of Halton, the right to be 
 exempt from the payment of any toll in his markets at 
 Chester, which shows that the constable's pious work was 
 approved by his master. He granted to the nuns of Bollington, 
 in Lincolnshire, his great pool at Donington, near their house ; 
 and, in an age when the Church so often prescribed a fish 
 diet, a fish pool was a substantial benefit. He granted to the 
 priory of Trentham the reversion of the church at Bettesford. 
 He gave to his sister Hawise the earldom of Lincoln, and, to 
 his homager Godfrey, duodecim num'atus terrae and two 
 assarts of his land at Coventry, which seems to be a grant of 
 twelve acres of woodland (nemoratae terras) and two cleared 
 assarts (that is land cleared of wood). He confirmed to St. 
 Mary's Abbey, in Coventry, his father's grant to them of St. 
 Michael's Chapel there. He also confirmed to the nuns of 
 Grenefelt the grant of lands which William FitzOther had 
 made them, and which Hugh's father had himself confirmed. 
 These repeated confirmations of solemn charters show very 
 clearly how unsettled the law then was. There remain some 
 legal loopholes still, but there must have been many more at 
 the time, when so many confirmations were needed to every 
 grant. The secretum of the Earl's seal, an ancient gem which 
 he used for some of his charters, is engraved in the " History 
 of Cheshire" (I., 32), and it has round it this singular rhyming 
 monkish inscription in Latin :
 
 24 Fvodskam. 
 
 Quis cui quid mandet, 
 
 Prsesens mea chartula pandet 
 (Whoso to any one commands a thing, 
 To him this charter will the meaning bring) ; 
 
 and also this still more puzzling inscription, in Lombardic 
 letters, which I suppose is meant to give us the name of its 
 former Welsh owner : 
 
 Pand't JANN ELLSEILL 
 
 PINE. GOK. LEIL.* 
 
 The Earl died at Leek in 1181, probably in the abbey of 
 Dieulacresse, a house whose original foundation at Pulton he 
 had confirmed in 1158 ; but his remains were taken for burial 
 to St. Werburgh's, in Chester. The inquisition taken after his 
 death found that Bertred, his widow, was then twenty-six 
 years of age. The grant in frank marriage to Ralph de 
 Meinilwarin with the Earl's daughter Amicia gave rise in the 
 seventeenth century to one of the most memorable genealogical 
 controversies on record. The combatants were the celebrated 
 Sir Peter Leycester, baronet, a name venerated by all Cheshire 
 antiquaries, who was of opinion that Amicia was born out of 
 wedlock ; and Sir Thomas Mainwaring, baronet, who main- 
 tained the opposite part. The controversy, which began in 
 1672 and ended in 1677, gave rise to a number of learned 
 pamphlets, the whole of which have been recently republished 
 by the Chetham Society, and form one of their volumes. The 
 controversy has made the name of Cyveliok more familiar to 
 readers than almost any of the other Norman earls of that 
 time. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EARL RANDLE BLUNDEVILLE, SIXTH, AND JOHN SCOT, 
 SEVENTH, AND LAST, NORMAN EARL. 
 
 RANDLE, who, when his father died in 1181, succeeded as 
 sixth Norman Earl of Chester, was not then more than ten 
 
 * Loof henne wen ho leith, 
 Looth wen ho clok seith. 
 
 Rithangtr's Chronicle, p. in.
 
 Frodsham. 25 
 
 years of age, having been born at Oswestry in 1171, and 
 taking his second name from that place, which was once 
 called Blundeville. Very soon after his accession, and while 
 he was still a minor, he was knighted by King Henry II., 
 who, in 1187, gave him to wife the widow of his son, young 
 Geoffrey that Constance whom our immortal bard introduces 
 in the drama of King John lamenting her woes : 
 
 My name is Constance ; I was Geffrey's wife, 
 Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost. 
 I am not mad : I would to heaven I were, 
 For then 'tis like I should forget myself. 
 
 (Hist. Ches., I., 33.) Randle himself is alluded to in " Piers 
 Plowman," where one of the characters is made to say : 
 
 Cannot perfitly my Pater noster as the priest sayeth I can rimes of Robinhod 
 and Randal of Chester. 
 
 From which we infer that the Earl in his day had earned a 
 great name. At one time or another he became lord of other 
 earldoms besides Chester, having Lincoln and Huntingdon in 
 his own right, and Bretagne and Richmond in right of his 
 wife. (Hist. Leek, 49.) In 1190, leaning like his ancesters to 
 works of piety, he granted certain privileges to the abbey 
 of Stanlaw, and dated his grant at Frodsham, where he was 
 then probably occupying the castle. (Hist. Ches., I., 33 ; and 
 II., 323.) He also confirmed to the abbey the grant which his 
 father had made to it. (Ib. 30.) In 1194, when usurping John 
 had thrown a strong garrison into Nottingham, and meant to 
 hold it in rebellion against his brother Richard (the absent 
 King), the Earl, holding fast by his allegiance, joined a party 
 of loyal nobles, and besieged the place. (Ib. 33.) In the 
 year 1200, a divorce, probably from political motives, was 
 brought about between him and Constance, and not long 
 afterwards he married dementia, the daughter of Ralph de 
 Feugeres, who brought him large possessions. (Hist. Leek, 
 50.) About the year 1189, Robert de Frodsham occurs (I 
 suppose, of Frodsham, for Tho. Fitz Payne, clerk of Frodsham, 
 occurs in the same charter). (Arley Charters, p. 2.) Elfleda, 
 in founding the burg of Edisbury, doubtless intended to
 
 26 Frodsham. 
 
 give it pre-eminence over the other vills of the neighbour- 
 hood, and so make it in some sort a head of the district. But 
 when the Normans came, a century and a half after, it lost its 
 pre-eminence for a time, and sank into and became no more 
 than a vill of Ruloe hundred, which had its name from the 
 small hamlet of Ruloe, which is within it. Frodsham, however, 
 where the Earl of Chester had his strong castle, and received 
 the usual Earl's third penny of the hundred, became the real, 
 as Ruloe was the nominal, head of the hundred. In a while, 
 however, Edisbury resumed its old place, which it still retains, 
 as the head of the hundred. But although Edisbury and the 
 other burgs founded by Elfleda were towns surrounded with 
 walls of turf or clods of earth or stone, or were otherwise 
 fortified, and had other privileges, they were in no sense 
 incorporated as boroughs are now, for that can only be effected 
 by a charter granted by some royal or noble person, or by 
 some feudal seignior, no single instance of which occurs in 
 England before the time of the Norman Conquest ; and we 
 are told by the historian Hume that even in France, "a 
 country which made more early advances in arts and civility 
 than England, the first corporation is sixty years posterior to 
 the conquest of England under Duke William of Normandy." 
 (Hume's Hist. England, II., 1 18.) At the time of the conquest, 
 however, Frodsham, the seat of Earl Edwin, though not known 
 as a burg, had probably become a larger and more populous 
 place than any of the vills or villages more immediately 
 surrounding it, or it had probably not been selected as the 
 site of a great Saxon church, or have been chosen by Hugh 
 Lupus as the fittest place in which to erect a strong castle to 
 overawe his new subjects and defend his territories against 
 an invading foe. But Randle Blundeville, who was now in 
 possession of Frodsham, and sometimes resided in its castle, 
 and was, moreover, a friend to liberty, determined to raise 
 the place to the dignity of a true borough, and for that purpose 
 he gave it, about the year 1209, the following charter, which 
 we give in an English translation : " Randle, Earl of Chester, 
 etc., greeting : Know ye that I have granted, and by this my 
 present charter have confirmed to my burgesses now being or
 
 Frodsham. 2 7 
 
 hereafter to be within the borough of Frodsham, that every 
 one of them may have a free burgage in the same borough 
 and one acre of land in its fields, yielding therefor twelve pence 
 for all services. Moreover, I grant to the same burgesses to 
 be quit of toll throughout all my territory, as well by land as 
 by water, salt toll only excepted, and that they shall not 
 be sued in any plea outside the borough except in pleas 
 pertaining to our sword ; and that in all other pleas they shall 
 have judgment within the borough itself before our provost. 
 And that if any one of them shall fall into our hands for any 
 offence adjudged against him, he shall be quit of that forfeiture 
 for twelve pence from the nones of Saturday until the first 
 hour of the Monday on which such forfeiture occurreth. I 
 have also granted to the before-named burgesses pasture for 
 their cattle in my forest and my marsh, and in all the places 
 in which my free men have pasture ; and that they may have 
 from my forest for building whatever they need by the over- 
 sight of my foresters. Wherefore I will and command you 
 that the aforesaid burgesses and their heirs shall have and 
 hold of me and my heirs the grants aforesaid freely, quietly, 
 fully, and peaceably, saving to me and my heirs my pannage 
 and the suit of my oven and mills. And I command all my 
 bailiffs and ministers that they help, protect, and maintain 
 my aforesaid burgesses in the liberty and free customs afore- 
 said, and that none of such ministers presume to vex or 
 disturb them therein, under the forfeiture of ten pounds. 
 These being witnesses : Philip de Orreby, Justice of Chester ; 
 Har. de Salignis ; Jo de Prately ; Thomas Paganel ; Richard 
 de Pierpunt, Sheriff of Cheshire (he was sheriff from 1209 
 to 1229); Thomas, Treasurer of Chester; Alexander Fitz 
 Radulff; Josceram de Hellesby ; and many others. At 
 Chester.' (Hist, dies., II., 361.) After the Earl's marriage, 
 says the chronicler, " Earl Randle, his grandfather, appeared 
 to him in a vision, and directed him to go to a certain place 
 near Leek, and to found there an order of white monks 
 (Cistercians), which should prove a source of great joy to him 
 and others, for there should be set up a ladder -by which 
 prayers should go up from earth to heaven, and men's vows
 
 28 Frodsham. 
 
 should also ascend and obtain favour from above, and the 
 name of the Lord should be invoked in constaat prayer. At 
 the same time, the vision announced to him that the kingdom 
 would be laid under an interdict, and all Christian offices 
 would be prohibited, and that, when this should happen, he, 
 the grandson, was to betake himself to the monks at Poulton, 
 near Chester, where he would be able to partake of the 
 sacrament, as that was a privileged foundation to which the 
 interdict would not extend ; and in the seventh year of the 
 interdict he was to remove those monks to the place that he 
 had then told him of." Upon the Earl relating this vision to 
 the Countess, and declaring his intention to build the abbey 
 as he was commanded, she exclaimed in her own language, 
 "Then let it be called Dieu la Cresse" (may God increase it); 
 and in 1214, when the Earl built it, that name was given to it 
 accordingly. (Hist. Leek, 36, 7 ; Hist. Ches., II., 364.) Early 
 in the year 1217, holding fast by his allegiance to his infant 
 sovereign Henry III., as he had before held fast by it to his 
 absent sovereign Richard I., he took the field against the 
 French troops of King Lewis, at the siege of Lincoln, where 
 the Count de Perche, in command for the Dauphin, had 
 spoken of him superciliously, upon hearing which he vowed 
 to overcome him in battle, and the next day he made good 
 his vow, slew the Count with his sword, and proclaimed the 
 infant, Henry III., King of England. A little later he took 
 his journey to the Holy Land, where he signally distinguished 
 himself in a fight against the Saracens. (Ib., p. 10, II.) In 
 1218 he served under the Duke of Austria (not the faithless 
 duke of that name, who made Richard I. his captive, but his 
 successor), and distinguished himself at the siege of Damietta. 
 As he was on his way home, however, the ship in which he 
 was sailing was in great danger of foundering in a storm ; but 
 the Earl, when the sailors implored him to help in righting 
 the ship, resolutely refused even when the ship was in the most 
 imminent danger, until the hour of midnight arrived, when he 
 said he was ready to help, for that then the prayers of a whole 
 army of monks would be going up to heaven for his safety, 
 and then he would both work and pray. (Hist. Leek, 32,
 
 Frodsham. 29 
 
 et sq.) When the Earl reached home he set himself earnestly 
 to work to build the Castles of Chartley and Beeston. The 
 latter, which was well placed on an almost impregnable site, 
 was intended to defend his territories from the Welsh, and its 
 walls are said to have been built on the model of those at 
 Constantinople ; but the architect, whoever he was, has left us 
 much to admire in Beeston, particularly in the grandeur, 
 beauty, and strength of its great entrance, which proves him 
 to have been a man of taste as well as skill. The builder of 
 the castle of Arques, near Dieppe, who has given it some of 
 the features of Beeston, has given it none of its grandeur. A 
 poet of the time of Edward VI. has told us the story of Beeston 
 in some Latin verses, of which the following is an extract, with 
 a translation : 
 
 Assyrio rediens victor Ranulphus ab orbe, 
 Hoc posuit castrum terrarum gentibus olim 
 Vicinis patriseque suse memorabile vallum, 
 Nunc licet indignus patiatur fracta ruinas 
 Tempus erit quando rursus caput exteret altum 
 Vatibus antiquis si fas sit mihi credere vati 
 Forsan et Edwardus pretium feret omne laboris. 
 
 (Hist. Chet., II., 14755.) 
 
 Returning victor from the holy strand, 
 
 Earl Randle built this castle to command, 
 
 And keep in check the Welsh, his wily foe. 
 
 These walls, though now some failing marks they show, 
 
 Shall yet again their former greatness know ; 
 
 And if old bards say true to me a bard, 
 
 Our sixth Edward shall have this just reward. 
 
 When Henry III., in 1224, confirmed Magna Charta, Earl 
 Randle was present on the solemn occasion, and, calling 
 himself Earl of Chester and Lincoln, was one of the witnesses 
 to it ; and on the nth February, 1225, 9 Henry III., when 
 the King granted the Charta de Foresta, the Earl was again 
 present to witness it. In 1229 he acquired, by purchase, from 
 Roger de Mersey, all the lands of the latter between the 
 Ribble and Mersey. (Hist. Ches., I., 36.) About the same 
 time he marched through Anjou to Little Britain, for which 
 the King made him one of the chief commanders of his
 
 3O Fro ds ham. 
 
 forces there. (Ib., 35.) In the same year he saved, by his 
 presence of mind, Hubert de Burgh, whom the King in a fit 
 of resentment would have slain. (Ib.) In the same year, 
 meaning perhaps to protest against the act of King John in 
 slavishly subjecting his kingdom to the see of Rome, the Earl 
 manfully resisted the Pope's claim to take tithes in the Cheshire 
 palatinate. (Ib.) In the year 1230, when the Earl, in one of 
 his many conflicts in Wales, was besieged by the Welsh at 
 Rudland, in Flintshire, he sent a hasty message to Roger 
 Lacy, his constable, to come to his relief, whereupon the latter 
 gathered a tumultuous company of fiddlers, players, and others, 
 who were then attending the fair at Chester, marched with 
 them to the place, and succeeded in relieving the Earl, for 
 which in return the Earl gave him power to license all 
 musicians, players, and the like, a power which the constable 
 delegated to one of his officers, and which he and his successors 
 retained until modern times. (Ib.) Richard, a former earl, 
 had been aided in a similar way by a former constable, so that 
 this officer justly ranked high in the Earl's favour. Though 
 the Earl had ever shown loyalty to the Crown, he also paid 
 due regard to his own order and its independence ; and in 
 1231, when the King wished the nobles to pay the debts he 
 had contracted in war, speaking for himself and his order, the 
 Earl told the King that they had also already done their part 
 by serving in the wars in person, and that it was not just that 
 they should pay in money also, and that they should decline 
 it. (Ib.) Randle, who had won the name of being the good 
 Earl of Chester, died at Wallingford, in 1232, in the sixty- 
 first year of his age. By his own desire, his heart was sent for 
 interment to Dieu la Cresse, and his body was interred in the 
 chapter-house of St. Werburgh's, at Chester. (Hist. Leek, 47.) 
 He ruled the palatinate for fifty-one years, a period far longer 
 than any of his predecessors. He was twice married first, to 
 Constance, -of Bretagne ; and, secondly, to dementia, the 
 latter of whom survived him, and had her dower assigned, but 
 he left no issue by either of his wives. He was very little and 
 low of stature, but he had courage and spirit enough for the 
 largest body, as the Count de Perche found to his cost, when,
 
 Frodsham. 3 1 
 
 at the siege of Lincoln, on seeing him, he exclaimed, "What! 
 are we to be frightened from our prey by a pigmy ? " and 
 heard him vow in return that before to-morrow he would seem 
 to the Count to be taller and greater than the adjoining 
 church steeple. (Hist. Leek, 47, 48.) A curious story is told 
 how Earl Randle put his heart into whatever he did, and how 
 he put his breast against the plough to make, the coulter go 
 deeper when he was marking out the bounds of the land in 
 Rudheath, which he had given to Dieu la Cresse. (Hist. 
 Leek, 219.) By a great mistake, some of the chroniclers 
 have given him the credit of being the author of " Glanvile de 
 Legibus," a mistake which originated in a mistake of name, 
 and is without foundation. 
 
 JOHN SCOT, the seventh and last Norman Earl of Chester, 
 who succeeded to the earldom on the death of Earl Randle 
 without issue, in 1232, was the son of David Scot, Earl of 
 Huntingdon, and he made title to the earldom of Chester 
 through his mother, Maude, the eldest sister and co-heir of 
 Earl Randle. He married in his uncle Earl Randle's lifetime, 
 and with his consent, Helena, the daughter of Llewellyn, 
 Prince of North Wales ; and the settlement which was made 
 on his marriage, and in which Earl Randle joined as a party 
 to it, is given at length (on page 507) of the " Amicia Tracts," 
 printed by the Chetham Society. In 1233, soon after his 
 accession, he confirmed to St. Werburgh's Abbey all the 
 grants which had been made to it by any of his ancestors, 
 and he also granted to it an acquittance of the strange 
 offerings which the abbey was bound at certain times to make 
 of three loaves of bread a day at the Castle of Chester, and he 
 also granted it an acquittance of the service of puture which 
 the Earl had a right to require in certain of the abbey vills. 
 (Hist. Ches., I., 47.) This puture was the right to exact food 
 and lodging for the lord's peace officers whenever they were 
 making an official circuit through the district. In' 1236, when 
 the King was married to Queen Eleanor, an occasion which 
 was marked by great pomp and solemnity, the Earl of Chester, 
 to whom of right it belonged to carry the sword of State 
 before the King, he was called upon to bear, and did bear, the
 
 3 2 Frodsham. 
 
 same sword in the marriage procession, according to his office. 
 (Ib.) But on the 7th June in the following year (1237), after 
 he had held the earldom only five years, the Earl was called 
 away by death at his manor house of Darnhall, not without 
 suspicion of having been poisoned by the contrivance of his 
 wife. Of the seven Norman earls who had now worn the 
 coronet of Chester, the fate of three had been sudden and 
 untimely. Richard, the second earl, had perished at sea, and 
 both Kyveliok and Scot had died of poison ; and with the 
 latter, who died without issue, the Norman earldom of Chester, 
 after having endured for 167 years, the average length of each 
 earl's reign being twenty-one years, came finally to an end. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 KING HENRY III. 
 
 KING HENRY III., who now took the earldom into his 
 own hands, laid it to the demesne of the Crown, being unwilling, 
 as he said, that so great an inheritance should go to be divided 
 by distaffs. The castle and lordship of Frodsham being in 
 his own hands, we meet with a charter of uncertain date, 
 entitled " Homines de Frodsham de tallagio" (Calendarium 
 Genealogicum, vol. I., p. 35), and, though this charter is 
 undated, we shall not perhaps be wrong if we ascribe it to the 
 twenty-ninth year of the King's reign (1245), when, his eldest 
 daughter being about to be married, the usual aid would 
 doubtless be levied upon his tenants, and to raise such aid 
 may have been the occasion that the men of Frodsham were 
 taxed. The writ, indeed, might be more necessary since the 
 great advance in wealth, population, and importance which 
 the place had made under the Earl Randle's rule. Shortly 
 after this namely, in 31 Henry III. (1247) the earldom and 
 its possessions were for ever annexed to the Crown. The 
 charter De Tallagio is the first mention of Frodsham which we 
 meet with after it had passed into the hands of the King. In
 
 Frodsham. 
 
 33 
 
 old times our kings were very jealous of allowing their subjects 
 to fortify and embattle their castles and other strong houses. 
 The saying that an Englishman's house is his castle was not 
 as true then as it is now, for men then " built less against the 
 elements than their next neighbours." In those days, before 
 men could fortify their strong places, they must obtain the 
 royal licence to do it. This being the case, some antiquaries, 
 not having found any licence to embattle, fortify, or crenellate 
 Frodsham Castle, have questioned whether it was the strong 
 and important place which it is described to have been. But 
 these questioners forget that Frodsham was a castle of the Earl 
 Palatine, who could not be required to commit the absurdity 
 of granting a licence to himself to embattle his own house ; 
 and the objection they raised, if good, would apply equally 
 to Chester and Beeston Castles, both which were places of 
 importance, and yet to neither of them has any licence to 
 embattle been discovered. Halton Castle was crenellated 
 from a very early period, for which there was good reason, 
 for from the first it had belonged to one of the Earl's barons, 
 and not, like Frodsham, to the Earl himself. (Hist. Ches., 
 L, 98.) But Dr. Ormerod, in quoting the Vale Royal, as he 
 does, omits to give the date when that castle had its earliest 
 licence, and it may be doubted whether it was crenellated at 
 a very early period. Between A.D. 1350 and 1360, however, 
 Henry Duke of Lancaster, Halton's then owner, in answer 
 to a royal quo warranto, pleaded his right to have his castle 
 crenellated. But, besides this castle, the places in Cheshire 
 for which their owners obtained licences to crenellate them 
 were but few. The abbot of St. Werburgh's had a licence 
 to embattle and fortify the abbey, and also his two granges 
 at Sutton and Saughall a licence which was renewed in 
 2 Henry IV. (Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages.) 
 John Delves had a licence to fortify with a wall of stone and 
 mortar the tower of his manor house at Dodynton, and to 
 crenellate and embattle the same ; and this licence, which 
 seems to have been originally granted in 38 Edward III., was 
 renewed on 23rd February, 4 Henry IV. (Patent Rolls of 
 Cheshire.) The house at Ince had also a similar licence. 
 
 D
 
 34 Frodsham. 
 
 (Hist. Ches., I., 215.) And on loth August, 2 Henry VIII., Sir 
 William Stanley had such a licence for his house at Hooton 
 enrolled in the Exchequer at Chester. (Ib., II., 238.) Edward 
 IV., in his grant to Lord Hastings, the victim of Richard's 
 cruelty, of a licence to fortify his house, gave him leave 
 " murellandi (walling up), tourellandi (making towers), keinel- 
 landi (pinnacling), embattellandi (embattling), machecolundi 
 (machicolating), tunellandi (making loopholes)." It appears, 
 from what has been said, that there were sufficient reasons why 
 no licence has been or could be found for fortifying the Cattle 
 at Frodsham, in its being the property of the Palatine Earls, 
 whose prerogative it was to grant such licences to others. To 
 every manor in England there belongs a court baron or a 
 court leet, or both ; and to every large lordship like Frodsham, 
 where, also, was held the court of the hundred of Roelau or 
 Edisbury, both the above courts always belonged. In old times 
 these courts were of great importance in settling numerous 
 local disputes and administering justice to the people at their 
 own doors. We need not wonder, therefore, that the names 
 of some of the presiding officers in these courts in remote 
 times have survived to our own ; and, accordingly, we find that 
 Peter de Frodsham was the bailiff from 1228, when Earl 
 Randle was the lord of Frodsham, until 1240, when King 
 Henry had become its lord, and that from 1249 to 1260 
 Henry and Robert de Frodsham were successively bailiffs, or 
 chamberlains of the court, under its royal master. Robert, 
 the last of them, would seem to have been a landowner in 
 Newton, a fourth part of which he gave in frank marriage to 
 Hugh de Pulford. (Cal. Genealog., I., 416.) The summons 
 to this court seems to have resembled that by which Roderic 
 Dhu, in the " Lady of the Lake," assembled his followers at 
 Lanrick Mead (canto in.), but without the fiery cross or the 
 imprecation which accompanied it 
 
 Burst be ear that does not heed, 
 Palsied the foot that does not speed. 
 
 The Frodsham symbol which was sent to call the suitors to 
 the court, which Dr. Ormerod thought was a relic of Saxon 
 times, was a large perforated oaken ball slung on a leathern
 
 Frodsham. 3 5 
 
 thong, the ends of which were attached to an iron ball, which 
 the summoner carried and delivered to the head man of the 
 nearest hamlet, who in his turn gave it to the next, and so it 
 went from hamlet to hamlet, until at length it came back to 
 the head of the lordship, where it remained until the next 
 occasion arrived for it and its services. (Hist. Ches., II., 245.) 
 The symbol needed no such solemn imprecations as the fiery 
 cross of Roderic Dhu ; yet it was not without its own sanctions, 
 for all who saw it knew full well that fine or imprisonment in 
 Frodsham Castle awaited those who, without excuse, disre- 
 garded the summons. Prince Edward, the King's eldest son, 
 was certainly in possession of the earldom with the lordship 
 of Frodsham in the year 1261, for in that year he granted his 
 charter to the borough of Macclesfield, in which he expressly 
 calls Fulk de Orreby his justice and Thomas de Orneby his 
 escheator of Chester. (Hist. Ches., I., 45, and a copy of the 
 charter penes me.) But war was now raging between King 
 Henry and the Barons, led by Simon de Montfort, and in the 
 decisive battle of Lewes, fought on I2th May, 48 Henry III. 
 (1264), Simon, who was a great commander and a man of 
 consummate talents, led his troops to victory, the result of 
 which was that both the King and Prince Edward were 
 made prisoners in the battle, and the Prince immediately 
 surrendered and gave up to the conqueror the earldom of 
 Chester, which included the lordship of Frodsham, and then 
 peace was made. But Prince Edward possessed the military 
 talent which his father wanted, and it was not long before he, 
 at the head of a great army, met De Montfort's forces at 
 Evesham, when a great battle was fought on 4th August, 
 1265, in which victory declared for the King ; and De 
 Montfort, with a great number of his followers, was slain 
 on the field. He had deservedly won the favour of the 
 people, and was beloved by them, and they, in their fervour, 
 raised him to the rank of a saint, and called him Saint Simon 
 the Righteous. Miracles were pretended to be wrought at 
 his tomb in Evesham, and crowds of all ranks, amongst whom 
 were five or more persons from Warrington, one of them being 
 the rector's sister, resorted thither to be cured of their ailments. 
 
 D2
 
 36 Frodsham. 
 
 But De Montfort had a better title to be remembered than 
 this spurious saintship. He was the acknowledged friend of 
 freedom, and his virtues were commemorated in prose and 
 verse, and in Latin, French, and English, by a number of 
 writers. (Rishanger's Chronicle, Camden So.) We content 
 ourselves with this verse in old French from one of these 
 pieces, and a translation of it : 
 
 Ore est occys le fleur de pris 
 Que tant scavoit le guerre, 
 Le comte Montfort sa durement, 
 Moult en' plorra la terre. 
 
 (So fallen is the flower of price 
 Of war the guiding star, 
 Earl Montford falls a sacrifice, 
 The realm shall mourn him far !) 
 
 Amongst those who, as Earls of Chester, have been lords of 
 Frodsham, the name of the celebrated Simon de Montfort, 
 the founder of the English House of Commons, well deserves 
 to be remembered. 
 
 The death of De Montfort and the overthrow of his power 
 having restored the Earldom of Chester to the King, he lost 
 no time in disposing of it ; and, accordingly, on the 2/th 
 August, 49 Henry III., only twenty-three days after the 
 victory of Evesham, he reinvested his son, Prince Edward, 
 with the dignity, and reinstated him in all its possessions. 
 The Prince, a brave and gallant soldier, to whom the late 
 victory had been principally owing, well deserved his restored 
 honour, and had full right to wear his recovered coronet. The 
 King's party having now proved itself the strongest, and the 
 country being more pacified, the Prince, following the fashion 
 of the time when to go on the Crusade was a high form of 
 devotion, determined to assume the cross and go to the Holy 
 Land. And on the 2nd of August, 1270, as all the historians 
 tell us, he left England, accompanied by his noble consort, 
 Eleanor of Castile, and a number of nobles, knights, and others, 
 and took his voyage to the East. But if he really sailed, as 
 the historians say, on the above day, he must have been driven 
 back by the tempest, which is alluded to in his first charter
 
 Frodsham. 37 
 
 to Dernhall Abbey, which, as we shall see, bears date at 
 Winchester at a day a few months later that same year. By 
 this charter, dated on 2nd August, 54 Henry III. (1270), the 
 Prince confirmed to God and the Blessed Virgin, and to the 
 monastery of the same Glorious Virgin, of the Cistercian order, 
 at Dernhall, founded by him in discharge of the vow which he 
 had made, when he was once in danger of perishing at sea, 
 and granted to the abbot and monks serving there for ever, 
 all the site of their monastery, with the manors of Dern- 
 hall and Over, and the woodland and champaign land of 
 the Park, with all the men and things, and other rights to the 
 same belonging. And among others he gave them the 
 advowson of the Church of Frodsham, with the chapels and 
 other things belonging thereto. Hugh Lupus and Ermentrude, 
 as we have seen, gave the tithes of Frodsham to the abbey of 
 Saint Werburgh's ; but they did not give to that abbey the 
 advowson or right of presenting to the church of Frodsham, 
 which therefore remained still vested in the earldom, until the 
 King gave the advowson to his new monastery of Dernhall ; 
 and by an agreement under which St. Werburgh's Abbey was 
 to receive for ever four pounds a year from the tithes of 
 Frodsham, that abbey, at the King's request, released all the 
 remainder of such tithes to the King's new abbey for ever. 
 The chronicler of Vale Royal Abbey, not a very faithful and a 
 somewhat imaginary person, tells the story of its origin with 
 some variations. Prince Edward, as he was returning home 
 from the Holy Land, was overtaken by so dreadful a storm at 
 sea that the ship was in danger of sinking. But his pre- 
 decessors, the Norman earls, in similar extremities having 
 more than once escaped by an appeal to the saints, the Prince 
 followed their example, and, commending himself to the 
 Blessed Virgin, made a vow that if he escaped he would 
 build an abbey for a hundred monks of the Cistercian order ; 
 and the vow, says the chronicler, being accepted, the vessel 
 righted herself, and after being miraculously brought into port, 
 the sailors disembarked, the Prince being the last to quit her, 
 and then the fragments immediately vanished under the 
 waters. (Hist. Ches., II., 70.) When it was believed that
 
 38 Frodsham. 
 
 these personal appeals to Heaven were made and answered so 
 immediately in every extremity, Heaven, as a late writer says, 
 must have seemed nearer to our ancestors than to us. But 
 the future abbey was not only the fruit of a vow, but it was 
 the subject of prophecy also ; for the same chronicler affirms 
 that for ages before the building of the monastery on the 
 festivals of the Virgin, amidst the silence that reigned on its 
 future site, the shepherds there had heard music and celestial 
 voices pity that Milton had not then written, or he might 
 have added 
 
 Sole or responsive each to other's note, 
 
 With heavenly touch of instrumental sounds 
 
 and had also seen an occasional radiance which turned 
 darkness into day, nee defuit sonitus campanarum ; and as a 
 good story should have a good ending, he tells further that 
 old people who lived when the abbey was building and before 
 the fabric was complete, had seen the whole pile illuminated 
 with a radiance which was seen to a great distance a monkish 
 fable which, says Dr. Ormerod, strongly reminds us of the 
 stories told of Roslin chapel. (Ib.) When our Cheshire 
 prophet Nixon, whose works, if anywhere, are supposed to 
 be at Vale Royal, and who by an honoured local living poet 
 is thus addressed 
 
 Thou palatine prophet, whose name I revere, 
 Woe be to the bard who speaks ill of a seer ! 
 
 foretold that the Delamere oaks* and Dernhall Abbey should 
 meet at Acton Bridge, his prophecy was like that of Macbeth's 
 witches, when they said 
 
 Macbeth shall never vanquished be until 
 Great Birnam Wood to High Dunsinane hill 
 Shall come against him ! 
 
 And it received a like accomplishment when the abbey was 
 dismantled, and the stones were used with Delamere oaks 
 
 * There were gigantic oaks once in the forest, if Sir Peter Leycester's account 
 of one of them is correct : " Mr. Ireland, of Lydiate, told me that he saw an oak 
 that grew in the forest of Delamere, the bole of which is affirmed to be in 
 circumference 14 yards. Mr. Henry Stanley told me at the same instant that 
 the said oak was measured to be in circumference about the bole 14 yards I foot. 
 This they told me October 2, 1663."
 
 Frodsham. 39 
 
 in the structure of the bridge at Acton. The Prince's charter 
 of the foundation of Dernhall Abbey was followed by a letter 
 from the King himself, which we should hardly have expected 
 in that age. The letter, which is addressed to the abbots and 
 priors of all the convents in England, after alluding to the 
 Prince's foundation of the monastery at Dernhall, beseeches 
 the abbots, priors, and convents, as far as they can, and as they 
 valued the King's prayer, to aid the said monastery by con- 
 tributing to it theological works ; and the King prays them to 
 communicate by letters to his beloved and faithful Thomas 
 Boulton, and inform him what they were minded and willing 
 to give. The letter bears date at Winchester, on the loth 
 January, without the mention of any year, but we may 
 presume it was the next January after the foundation of 
 Dernhall. (Hist. Ches., II., 87.) When Dernhall was first 
 founded, the monks were temporarily housed, and in this 
 tabernacle, watching the growth and completion of their future 
 large and sumptuous home, they lived for some time. Church- 
 work is always a cripple to go up now, and it must have been 
 the same then, even with a royal patron at its back, for it took 
 seven years before it was sufficiently advanced for its royal 
 founder to lay the first stone of its high altar ; and then, on 2nd 
 August, 5 Edward I. (1277), the King himself laid the first stone 
 in the presence of the Queen and a great concourse of nobles 
 and others, of whom the Queen and others also laid foundation 
 stones, proving that the custom of laying more foundation 
 stones than one, as an invitation for offerings, which is some- 
 times used now, is not a new but an old custom revived. 
 (Hist. Ches., II., 70.) From this time Dernhall Abbey lost 
 its name, and was Dernhall no more, but was afterwards the 
 Abbey of Vale Royal, the lordly and sumptuous abode of the 
 mitred abbot of Vale Royal, the head of one hundred 
 Cistercian monks of that order, who have been called the 
 Jasons, who carried off the Golden Fleece of the monastic 
 orders, and whose character, according to Whitaker, was a 
 compound of real Christianity, superstition, and fanaticism. 
 (Annales Furnesienses, 15.)
 
 4O Frodsham. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 KING EDWARD I. 
 
 VERY shortly after he had founded Dernhall, PRINCE EDWARD 
 and ELEANOR HIS CONSORT, attended by a number of nobles 
 and others, took their voyage to the East, where the Prince 
 displayed such proofs of his valour and conduct against 
 the Saracens, that they engaged an assassin to take away 
 his life. The miscreant made the attempt, but he only 
 wounded the Prince with a poisoned weapon, which for a 
 while made his life despaired of; and it was after this wound 
 that his heroic wife is said to have shown her devotion by 
 sucking the poison from the wounded part to save his life at 
 the possible risk of her own. On the i6th November, 1272, 
 after a long reign of 56 years, the longest in our annals except 
 that of our third George, Henry III. breathed his last ; and 
 Prince Edward, as the first of his name since the Conquest, 
 was, without any opposition, acknowledged as his successor ; 
 but although he was much needed, he was in no hurry to come 
 home, and he and the Queen only landed at Dover on 2nd 
 August, 1274, and on the iQth of the same month they were 
 both crowned in Westminster Hall. In the following year, 
 when Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, had refused to pay the 
 homage which was due to him as King of England, the King 
 came to Chester, and sent messengers from thence to summon 
 the refractory Prince to come thither to do his homage. It 
 would seem to have been about this time that the King 
 heaped favours on David, Llewellyn's brother, by making him 
 a knight, appointing him keeper and seneschal of all his 
 castles in Wales, and bestowing on him the lordship of 
 Frodsham, with other lands, worth 1000 a year; to all 
 which favours Hollinshed (Chronicles, 279) adds that he 
 preferred him in marriage to a jollie widow, a daughter of 
 the Earl of Derby. These dealings between the King and 
 the Welsh Prince have a suspicious look, and may have been 
 intended to engage David in a triple treason against Wales, 
 his native country, against Llewellyn his brother, and against
 
 Frodsham. 4 1 
 
 his Welsh Sovereign. If these unworthy motives were in the 
 minds of the two parties, it was not likely that the friendship 
 between them would endure long ; and if the " jollie widow" 
 were the daughter of that Robert Ferrars, Earl of Derby, who 
 had joined De Montfort, and by it had been so ruined that the 
 chronicler who records it says of him that "of all the great 
 estates of his family nothing was left to him but the gout in 
 his hands and feet, which his father and grandfather had 
 before him," she would be more likely to remember her 
 father's losses than her husband's promises to King Edward. 
 In 1279, war having again broken out between England and 
 Wales, the temptation proved too strong for Prince David's 
 fidelity, and, espousing the part of Llewellyn, he mustered 
 forces and besieged the King's garrison, who were shut up in 
 Rhudlan Castle in the year 1281 ; but having succeeded, by 
 the death of Llewellyn, in the following year, to the Welsh 
 throne, he openly defied the King. Having failed in his 
 attempt to raise an army to support his claim, as his country- 
 men could not forget his former treason to the country, and 
 after having been chased for some time from place to place, 
 he was taken by his own people and carried in chains to 
 Shrewsbury. In the year 1283, after David's treason, but 
 before his trial, an extent of the manor and lordship of 
 Frodsham was taken, on the oaths of Roger Domville, 
 William de Venables, Roger de Baddelegh, William de 
 Bostock, William le Brun, Richard Lancelyn, Richard de 
 Hellesby, Randle de Molesworth, and Randle de Acton, by 
 virtue of a commission directed to Leo Fitz Leon, William 
 de Tykehull, and Walter Chetwynd ; and of this extent we 
 shall give the substance in Latin and English, with a few 
 explanatory remarks upon it : 
 
 I. Messuagium illud sup. quo fundat. manerium cum gardino val. p. ann. 
 vis. viiid. 
 
 II. Tres molendinre aquaticre cum unq stagno val. p. ann. xiili. 
 
 III. Pannagium cum sex porcis de consuetudine ejusdem manerii val. p. 
 ann. xls. 
 
 IV. Cx. burgag. in eodem manerio val. p. ann. cxs. 
 
 V. Redclit. assis ejusdem manerii val. p. ann. xili. xiijs. vid. 
 VI. Reddit. hominum ejusdem manerii val. p. ann. xxs.
 
 42 Frodsham. 
 
 VII. Firma cle consuetudine val. p. ann. xls. 
 
 VIII. Exitus tolneti proveniens de navibus arrivientibus ad portum ibid. val. 
 p. ann. xli. 
 
 IX. De exitu provenient. perquis. profic. cur. ejusd. manerii val. p. ann. ivli. 
 X. Advocatio ecclesise ejusdem manerii iijli. vis. viiid. 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 One messuage, that whereon the manor house stands, with the garden, worth 
 vis. viiid. year by year. 
 
 Three water-mills, with a pool, worth year by year xiili. 
 
 The pannage of six swine, according to the custom of the same manor, worth 
 iili. year by year. 
 
 One hundred and ten burgages in the same manor, worth yearly vli. xs. 
 
 Rents of assize in the same manor, worth yearly xli. xiiis. vid. 
 
 Rents of the men in the same manor, worth yearly xxs. 
 
 Customary farm rents, worth yearly iili. 
 
 Profits coming from the tolls (or customs) of ships arriving at the port of 
 Frodsham, xli. 
 
 Issues coming from the perquisites and profits of the courts of the same 
 manor, worth yearly iiijli. 
 
 The advowson of the same manor, worth yearly iijli. vjs. viid. (Vernon's 
 MSS. Harl. 20 and 4, 201.) 
 
 Some of the above items call for some explanation. 
 
 1. The rent of the manor house, which we must suppose 
 was in the Castle, was probably valued exclusive of the 
 demesne, the profits of which would be uncertain, being 
 farmed by some of the lord's officials. 
 
 2. The three water-mills, with their pool, seem to have 
 been a productive source of income. 
 
 3. The pannage, or the right of feeding the six swine on 
 the acorns and mast in the lord's woods, seems to have 
 produced but a small sum, if the number who used it was 
 not limited. If only one person used the privilege, the charge 
 would be too much. 
 
 4. The fact that there were 1 10 burgages in Frodsham 
 gives us the means of estimating the population, which could 
 not be less than 600, and might be much more, counting the 
 villeins and servants. 
 
 5. The rents of assize were rents always fixed or set at 
 the same rate, and which did not change from year to year. 
 
 6. What is meant by rents of the men I am at a loss to 
 know, unless they were payments made by the villeins on the
 
 Frodsham. 43 
 
 estate, as was the case in the adjoining lordship of Halton, 
 where we find that in 1378 6. 8s. lid. was received for rents 
 from bondage tenants, and i. i$s. was the tallage of the 
 bondmen received every third year. There was received, also, 
 \2d. each from three bondmen for leave to live out of the 
 lord's demesne during pleasure, and payments of the same 
 kind were also received from other bondmen. (Record of the 
 Manor of Halton, p. 17.) 
 
 7. By customary farm rents, we may understand sums 
 received from the farmers to whom the lands were let. 
 
 8. Profits arising from the tolls or customs levied on ships 
 arriving at the port near to where the bridge is now. These 
 were very nearly as much as the farm rents. 
 
 9. Issues from the perquisites and profits of the lord's 
 courts. 
 
 10. Profits from the advowson could only mean payments 
 made to the patron by the chaplains presented by him before 
 the church became appropriated to Vale Royal. 
 
 In the year 1283, Prince David, who, by the death of his 
 brother Llewellyn, had become a sovereign prince and the 
 head of the royal house of North Wales, was now a prisoner 
 in the hands of King Edward, who, regardless of his princely 
 rank, was determined to bring him to trial before the peers of 
 England, one of whom he could only consider him to be, as 
 being the baron of the lordship of Frodsham. The peers 
 assembled at Shrewsbury, and before this not very impartial 
 tribunal Prince David was very shortly brought to be tried. 
 The indictment charged him with the crime of high treason 
 against the King of England, and on this charge, having been 
 tried and found guilty, he was shortly afterwards executed, 
 when his remains were treated with all the barbarity usual in 
 that age, and of which we all must blush to read the account 
 given of it in history. Three of the previous lords of Frodsham, 
 as we have seen, had met with sudden and untimely deaths, 
 but it was reserved for this Welsh prince alone, the Lord of 
 Frodsham, to meet death by the headsman's axe. The fate 
 of David was, indeed, a sad one, and we may regret it the 
 more because, had he openly rejected instead of accepting
 
 44 Frodsham. 
 
 King Edward's insidious offers, and have chosen the patriot's 
 part, and acted in it openly and independently, then, instead 
 of suffering on the scaffold, he might have sat on the ancient 
 throne of North Wales, and ruled, like his ancestors, over 
 
 An old and haughty nation proud in arms. 
 
 And his death had not proved an easy stepping-stone for King 
 Edward to seat a new Welsh Prince in his place on a throne 
 as ancient as his own. The lordship of Frodsham once more, 
 after the death of David, reverted to the Crown, and the King 
 soon found 
 
 Who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe ; 
 
 for on the loth May, 16 Edward I., 1288, the King, as Earl of 
 Chester, though for a time that title was merged in the greater 
 title of King, issued a commission directed to the Lords 
 William Venables, Ralph de Vernon, Hugh de Vernon, John 
 de St. Pierre, Roger de Domville, and John de Orreby, knights ; 
 and to Alexander de Bamvyle, William de Breyne, John de 
 W T etenhale, William Gerard, Richard Throstel, William de 
 Bunbury, Robert de Bressy, and John de Moterum, directing 
 them to ascertain what services were due to the King from his 
 tenants in Cheshire whenever he should be engaged in war 
 with the Welsh ; and the inquiry took place at Chester, when 
 it was found that the borough of Frodsham was bound to send 
 to the field for the King's service in such war eight foot 
 soldiers ; that Robert de Netherton, in Frodsham, was bound 
 to send for such service one uncaparisoned horse ; and that 
 Philip and Robert de Pont, of the Bruggehouses, in Frodsham, 
 were also bound to send one uncaparisoned horse for the same 
 service. No borough in the county sent such a contingent 
 except the boroughs of Northwich and Middlewich, each of 
 which, in consequence of their being then the great emporiums 
 of the salt trade, furnished twelve footmen, to be sent for the 
 King's service. The great borough of Macclesfield furnished 
 only eight footmen, and the result shows the greater import- 
 ance to which Frodsham had then attained as a borough. 
 (Contemporary copy of the original inquisition in the writer's 
 possession.) In the same 16 Edward I. (1288) a commission
 
 Frodsham. 45 
 
 was issued from the Exchequer at Chester, directing certain 
 commissioners named in it to inquire whether any, and if any, 
 what encroachments or enclosures to the King's prejudice had 
 been made or suffered in the manor of Frodsham, and also 
 whether any mills or mill-races had been prostrated or pulled 
 down, to the damage and injury of the King's freehold in the 
 same manor. (Calendarium Genealogicum, I., 397.) The sole 
 object of this inquiry was, no doubt, to give the King's officers 
 information of such encroachments, enclosures, or damages 
 as might have been committed, in order that timely redress 
 might be sought, either by abating the injury or by seeking 
 damages from those who had done the wrong. In 1296, loud 
 complaints having been made in the adjoining county of 
 Lancaster, and possibly in Cheshire also, that certain " news- 
 mongers, or troveurs de novelles," as they were called, were 
 going about the country sowing discord among the people by 
 false news, and circulating among them stories calculated to 
 disturb the public peace and the good order and rule of the 
 realm, orders were thereupon given to the sheriffs to inquire 
 into the matter, and to apprehend and bring the offenders to 
 justice. (Hist. Lane., I., 268.) Newspapers did not see the 
 light in England until the struggle between Charles I. and 
 the Parliament more than three centuries after this time ; but 
 rumour with her thousand tongues was never still, and as in 
 Athens, as we know on the highest authority, the people 
 spent their time in telling or hearing some new thing, so there 
 has always and almost everywhere been a craving for news, 
 more especially in the troubled times of the Plantagenets ; 
 and as the demand for news was great and the supply of what 
 was genuine but small, and as the "troveurs de novelles" were 
 akin to the troubadours whose business was fiction, we need 
 not wonder that invention at times supplied the place of fact, 
 and false hopes and fears, which were its consequence, led to 
 great excitement and disturbance. At a later time, as we 
 shall find, the evil was rampant in Cheshire, and strong means 
 had to be resorted to in order to put it down. In 28 Edward I. 
 (1299), John de Hellesby, whose name bespeaks him of an 
 ancient family of the neighbourhood, occurs in the plea rolls
 
 46 Frodsham. 
 
 of the county as the serjeant of Frodsham, an officer who must 
 have been of some authority in the place. The editor of the 
 new edition of "The History of Cheshire" is of opinion that 
 it was the Serjeant's duty, either in person or by deputy, to 
 act as the serjeant of the peace. It does not appear, however, 
 how such an officer was created, for in the Earl's charter to 
 the borough no other officer is named but the prepositus, 
 which may mean either provost or bailiff. There was, however, 
 a house in Overton, and a small quantity of land attached to 
 it, which appears to have been from time to time the official 
 residence of the serjeant of the peace, whose duty it was to 
 carry into execution the orders of the provost or bailiff. (Hist. 
 Ches., III., Helsby's ed.) Having now brought down the 
 account of the lords of Frodsham to the end of the reign of 
 our English Justinian Edward I., I will now give some account 
 of Frodsham Bridge, across the river Weaver, and afterwards 
 resume the account of the lords of Frodsham. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 FRODSHAM BRIDGE. 
 
 ON the bridge over the Rhone at St. Maurice, where the 
 river, flowing through a country of wonderful grandeur, forms 
 the boundary between the two Swiss cantons of De Vaud and 
 the Valais, there is a gatehouse, the gate of which being 
 occasionally closed and locked caused the poet Rogers, in his 
 " Italy," to say, as he once passed it, " I entered where a key 
 unlocks a kingdom." To compare great things with small, the 
 bridge at Frodsham, at present our subject, is the key which 
 unlocks Frodsham on the east, as its strong castle was once 
 the lock which closed it, and locked out all entrance on the 
 west. Frodsham consists of two places of the same name, 
 which adjoin, and each of which is a separate township. The 
 first of these contains only Frodsham township ; and the 
 second, which is called Frodsham borough and lordship,
 
 Frodsham. 47 
 
 contains within it the four hamlets of Overton, Bradley, 
 Woodhouses, and Netherton. But whence did Frodsham, or, 
 as it is called in the Domesday Survey, Frotesham, derive its 
 name ? There are not wanting intelligent natives of the place 
 who think that the original approach to it was only by a ford 
 across the river Weaver, and that the place from that circum- 
 stance came to be called Ford's ham, or the hamlet of the ford, 
 which in time became corrupted into Frodsham. To support 
 this view they quote many not far-distant places in this and 
 the adjoining county whose names have been formed in this 
 way ; there are, for instance, several Traffords or Troughfords, 
 Hartford or the Hart's ford, Stanford or the Stony ford, Stret- 
 ford or the Street-ford, Crossford or the ford of the cross, 
 Salterford or the ford of the Salter, Winsford perhaps the ford 
 of Win its Saxon possessor, Lichford or the ford of the corpse 
 over the Irke at Blackley, and Latchford or the ford which 
 was shut in by a latch, and which was only opened to 
 passengers who paid the accustomed toll. I incline to think, 
 however, that Frodsham did not derive its name from a ford 
 there, but from some Saxon landowner, the lord of the place 
 in times before the conquest ; and Frotesham, its name in the 
 Domesday Survey, sounds very like the ham or hamlet of 
 some proprietor named Froti ; and I think Frodsham, the 
 name of a local family which was early settled there, may, by 
 an easy transition, have been corrupted from it. The founda- 
 tion of the first bridge at Frodsham doubtless goes back to a 
 remote period, but there are reasons for believing that before 
 it was built the river was crossed rather by a ferry than a ford. 
 The river on its eastern side is approached over a low-lying 
 flat, very subject to floods, which must often have made a ford 
 an uncertain mode of transit ; add to which that in the spring 
 tides the river flows up with great force, and with a head of 
 water more than three feet high, a circumstance which is not 
 to be overlooked in selecting a site for a ford. Fords to cross 
 tidal rivers are generally placed above the flow of the tide. At 
 Warrington, where the bridge is similarly approached over a 
 flat, and where to obviate the inconvenience of floods a cause- 
 way has been raised, it would appear, from an examination
 
 48 Frodsham. 
 
 made of this causeway when under repair, that it had been 
 raised from time to time, which seems to show that the bed of 
 the river had been slowly but gradually rising; and if the same 
 thing, which is probable, has happened also at Frodsham, that 
 again would increase the difficulty of crossing the river by a 
 ford. At Warrington, where a ferry supplanted the ford, and 
 was itself supplanted by a bridge as early as the time of 
 Edward I., the increase of population at Frodsham, and the 
 importance of the traffic on the great highway through that 
 place to many parts of the kingdom, had probably long before 
 that time made a bridge at Frodsham a matter of necessity as 
 a public concern. 
 
 From an early period down to the year 1720, when the 
 first Act for making the Weaver navigable was obtained by 
 the public-spirited men of Cheshire, the bridge at Frodsham 
 offered every day at tide time a pleasant prospect in its fleet 
 of coasters loading and unloading in its small but busy port. 
 It was probably at this place that in 1283 the ten pounds, 
 the lord's toll or custom on ships, was received as mentioned 
 in the extent of that year. Upon the inquisition of 16 Edward 
 I, (1288), to ascertain to what services the King was entitled 
 from his Cheshire tenants in his wars in Wales, it was found 
 that Philip and Robert de Pont (or of the Bridge, so in 
 English the family was called) held the brugge (or bridge) 
 houses in Frodsham, by finding an uncaparisoned horse (it 
 may be presumed, with its rider) for such service. Between 
 this family of the Bridges and their neighbours there seems to 
 have been bad blood for several generations. In the 5 and 6 
 Edward II. (1313), Hawise, the widow of Richard le Potter, 
 sued one of the Bridges for her dower of a tenement in 
 Frodsham ; and afterwards, in 33 Edward III., when she had 
 again become a widow, she appealed three of the Bridges 
 namely, Nicholas, Robert, and William for the murder of her 
 husband. It would be curious, could we know it, how this 
 singular trial ended, in which the widow's champions and the 
 three persons were to fight it out to the bitter end. (Hist. 
 Cheshire, under Frodsham, Helsby's ed.) In 12 Richard II. 
 (1388), an inquisition on the death of Richard de Pont found
 
 Frodsham. 49 
 
 that he held a moiety of the Bruggehouses, in Frodsham, in 
 capite of the Earl of Chester, by finding half an uncaparisoned 
 horse for the Earl in his wars in Wales. (Ches. Records.) 
 The hamlet of Bruggehouses, which gave the family their 
 name, must have existed from very ancient times, and must 
 have given its name to the family, and not they to it. Like 
 the bridges at Warrington and Preston, and most of the 
 early bridges in this part of England, Frodsham bridge was 
 constructed of wood, and, as we shall see, the Earls of Chester, 
 if not its founders, were from time to time its great helpers 
 and benefactors. But however or whenever founded, repaired, 
 or renewed, the bridge, which has been of the greatest service 
 to the country, has always stood where it does now. On 24th 
 August, 14 Richard II. (1390), Thomas Torfote, the attorney 
 of Desgarry Says, and Radagunda his wife, had the King's 
 authority to receive some wind-fallen timber from the forester 
 of Delamere for the repair of Frodsham bridge. (Ches. 
 Records.) On the 28th April, 4 Henry V. (1416), just six 
 months and three days after the great battle of Agincourt, a 
 precept issued from the Exchequer at Chester to John Done, 
 the forester of Delamere, ordering him to furnish an oak for 
 the repair of the bridge at Frodsham. (Ches. Records.) About 
 this time the church was wont to contribute towards the 
 building and repair of bridges, and some other public works, 
 by making them acts of piety, and issuing indulgences to 
 those who contributed to them. More than once by this 
 means the bridge at Warrington, after it had failed through 
 age or otherwise, had been enabled to rise again, and it is not 
 unlikely, were the records of the bishop's courts searched, that 
 the bridge at Frodsham may have received similar help. On 
 the nth July, 6 Henry V. (1418), and on the i6th July in the 
 same year, two warrants in the King's name were issued to 
 the forester of Delamere, ordering him to deliver " Maeremium 
 infra forestam de Mara pro reparatione Hospitalis Sancti 
 Leonardi de Frodsham" that is, to give wind-fallen timber 
 from the forest of Delamere for the repair of the hospital of 
 St. Leonard at Frodsham. (Ches. Records.) This hospital 
 of St. Leonard, I apprehend, was an oratory which stood on 
 
 E
 
 50 Frodsham. 
 
 Frodsham bridge ; for our religious ancestors, how much soever 
 they were in haste, thought and felt, as good George Herbert 
 afterwards wrote, that "prayers and provender hinder no 
 journeys." The bridge at Frodsham, like the bridges at 
 Preston and Warrington, had doubtless such an oratory, where 
 the wayfarer, departing from or returning home, might offer 
 up his orisons or his grateful thanksgivings; for in 1852, on 
 taking down the old to build the present bridge, fragments of 
 a small ecclesiastical structure, having Gothic tracery, were 
 found (me teste) among the materials of the bridge that was 
 taken down. On the i6th October, 14 Henry VI. (1435), 
 letters patent under the palatine seal were issued to the forester 
 of Delamere "de una quercu infra forestam de Mara liberand, 
 pro reparatione cursus cujusdam aquae apud Frodsham marsh" 
 that is, the forester was to deliver an oak for the repair of 
 a water-course on Frodsham marsh. (Ches. Patents.) This 
 water-course, when obstructed or out of repair, probably 
 increased the floods at the bridge, and its being repaired 
 might help to relieve the river of its surplus water during a 
 flood. On the i6th November, 7 Edward IV., John Done, the 
 master forester of Delamere, was ordered to deliver two oaks 
 from the forest "pro procuratoribus" that is, the contractors 
 or agents, for the repair of Frodsham bridge. (Ches. Patent 
 Rolls.) On the 3rd July, 26 Henry VIII. (1535), Henry 
 Standish, a Lancashire man from Standish, who then was 
 Bishop of St. Asaph, in making his will, which was afterwards 
 proved in the Prerogative Court in London, made the following 
 bequest : " Lego pro edificatione pontis de Frodsham, viginti 
 libras" that is to say, I bequeath twenty pounds towards the 
 building of the bridge at Frodsham. The bishop's legacy, 
 which was a very large one for that time, shows that he had a 
 love for his Lancashire home, and wished to keep the way to 
 it clear and open both for himself and others. Bishop Standish 
 is entitled to our respect, for he stood side by side with good 
 Bishop Fisher to support Queen Katharine on the divorce 
 question when other friends were absent. On the 22nd 
 October, 32 Henry VIII. (1540), Robert Arden, of Alvanley, 
 left by his will "six shillings and eightpence towards the
 
 Frodsham. 5 1 
 
 makyng of Frodsham brygge ;" and at the same time he left 
 " forty shillings to the chapel of St. Stephen at Alvanley," 
 showing in the two gifts his piety and his local patriotism. 
 (Cheshire Wills and Inventories, Chet. So., II., 140.) In 
 October, 36 Elizabeth (1594), an order was made in full court 
 by the Exchequer at Chester for the necessary reparation and 
 completion of the bridge at Frodsham, and of all the other 
 decayed bridges of the county, and that for doing the necessary 
 work the county should be taxed 1000 marks (,666. 13^. 4^.) 
 After this order the bridge seems to have no longer continued 
 a structure of timber, but to have been first built of brick, 
 and in Smith's account of the Vale Royal it is so described 
 to be, while King adds, in the same paper, that it was builded 
 for the most part of brick, and was the longest bridge in 
 Cheshire. (Hist. Ches., I., 3.) But if it were really the longest, 
 some of the dry arches leading to it must have been taken 
 into account, as well as those immediately over the river. 
 But the Queen's bridge could not have stood long, for in 
 1625, when Webb wrote his "Itinerary," the bridge was a 
 stone structure of four arches, and thus, after three trans- 
 mutations, each stronger than the last, the bridge became a 
 substantial structure of stone. In 1852, when the bridge of 
 1625 had become so insecure that it had to be taken down, it 
 appeared that the width had originally been only 13 ft. 4 in., a 
 width barely sufficient to allow of two carriages passing each 
 other upon it. To prevent the advance of Prince Charles 
 Edward by this route in 1745, the bridge had been dismantled 
 and in part taken down, and when by the royal order it was 
 restored, it was widened on the south side 7 ft. 6 in., and on 
 the north 8 ft. 6 in., thus making its whole width 29 ft. 4 in. 
 In two of the arches on the western side the alteration 
 was very apparent, but the second arch from the east 
 having been wholly taken down to render the bridge 
 impassable, the alteration could not be traced at that 
 end of the bridge. The present handsome bridge, which, 
 after an old design of Mr. Harrison, of Chester, was erected 
 in 1852, as it exceeds in its material and workmanship 
 any of its predecessors of wood, brick, or stone, so it bids 
 
 E2
 
 5 2 Frodsham. 
 
 fair to endure longer than any of them, and to prove, 
 as it is now, an ornament to the neighbourhood and an 
 advantage to the county. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 EDWARD II., EDWARD III., AND THE BLACK PRINCE. 
 
 IN one of the rooms of the great Castle of Carnarvon, but 
 certainly not in that which is ordinarily shown as the place, 
 since, as the fabric rolls show us, that appears not to have been 
 then built, was born Edward of Carnarvon, son of King 
 Edward I., on St. Mark's day, the 25th April, 1284. The 
 King, says the chroniclers, had promised the Welsh to give 
 them a prince of unquestionable manners, a Welshman by 
 birth, and one who could speak no other language, and on the 
 young prince's birth he presented him to the assembled Welsh 
 with the Welsh words " Eich Dyn," which means " this is the 
 Prince," and received their acclamations of joy. The words 
 of this presentation have been corrupted into the German 
 " Ich Dien," which are inapplicable, and have puzzled the 
 antiquaries not a little. Very soon after his birth, the Prince 
 having, by the death of Alphonso, become the King's eldest 
 son and heir-apparent to the Crown, was created Prince of 
 Wales and Earl of Chester, and under those titles, in 1303, he 
 was summoned to take his place in the Parliament then 
 holden. The King, after a busy reign, breathed his last at 
 Burgh-le-Sands on the Solway, on /th July, 1307, and on that 
 day the new Prince of Wales became King of England by the 
 title of Edward II. ; but according to Lord Campbell, in his 
 " Lives of the Chancellors," the news of the King's death did 
 not reach London for many days, and during that interval the 
 public business was carried on in the name of the late King, 
 whose great seal was used as if he were still living. In 5 
 Edward II. (1312), his eldest son, Edward of Windsor, was 
 born ; and on the 5th May, 9 Edward II. (1316), this precocious
 
 Frodsham. 53 
 
 young Prince issued letters patent from Chester, in which he 
 styles himself "Edwardus illustrissimi regis Angliae films comes 
 Cestriae" that is, Edward Earl of Chester, son of the most 
 illustrious King of England ; and by the same letters he 
 granted to Adam Gogh, of Worthenbury, in Flintshire, for 
 services which the said Adam had rendered to the King's 
 father in Scotland, a full pardon of and for any suit which he 
 (the Prince) might have against him for all or any manner of 
 felonies or transgressions against the peace of the said King 
 his father, either in the county of Chester or the county 
 of Flint. (From the original at Llannerch.) Perhaps Adam 
 needed this pardon for some offence committed by him before 
 going on the King's service to Scotland, and without it he 
 could not safely return home. In the year 1322, when the 
 young Earl of Chester was still but ten years old an early age 
 to become an hereditary legislator he was summoned as Earl 
 of Chester to attend the Parliament then about to assemble. 
 (Hist. Ches., I., 45.) The transactions respecting Frodsham 
 recorded to have occurred in this reign are but few ; we learn, 
 however, that in the years 1318 and 1319 John de Thornham 
 was the Earl's bailiff of the manor, and that in the years 1320, 
 1321, and 1326, John Fitz Walter de Frodsham held that 
 office. (Ches. Records.) And we know, also, that Walter Fitz 
 John de Hellesby held the office of serjeant of the peace and 
 constable of the castle or gaol of Frodsham, the same office 
 that the Torfotes afterwards held. (Hist. Ches., II., 51.) 
 Hellesby and his successors, the Torfotes, must have seen 
 many a curious scene in the lord's courts, where the suitors 
 assembled in such dresses as may be seen in Hollar's picture , 
 of the Earl's Parliament. In the later years of this King's 
 reign we also find that Peter de Thornton, William de Praers, 
 and Richard de Frodsham farmed the manor under the young 
 Earl, its owner, who, on his father's death, on 2 5th January, 
 1327, when he was but fifteen years of age, ascended the 
 throne, and became King of England as Edward III.* Upon 
 
 'Edward II. should have the credit of appointing that great man Richard de 
 Bury chamberlain of Chester, and afterwards bishop of Durham, and author of 
 " Philibiblion, " to be tutor to the young prince Edward, afterwards Edward III. 
 (Academy, March 2Oth, 1880, p. 214.)
 
 54 Frodsham. 
 
 the late King's death the earldom of Chester reverted once 
 more to the Crown, where it remained until the birth of the 
 new King's son, Edward of Woodstock, better known as the 
 Black Prince, who was born on the I2th June, 4 Edward III., 
 1330. Gilbert de Teddeslegh became that Prince's bailiff at 
 Frodsham, in the year 1334, or before Prince Edward of 
 Woodstock (the Black Prince) was created Earl of Chester, 
 and Frodsham is thus entitled to place upon the bead-roll of 
 her worthies the name of the hero of Cressy and Poictiers, 
 who was once the owner of the manor. In 1340 Hugh de 
 Tabelegh took from the Earl a lease of the manor of 
 Frodsham for sixteen years at no marks (between ^73 and 
 74) a year (Hist. Ches., II., 4, Helsby's ed.) ; and in 1346, 
 the Prince having achieved great honours at Cressy, where 
 he had received essential service from Sir Thomas D'Anyers, 
 of Bradley, in Appleton, who had there rescued the royal 
 standard and taken prisoner the Earl of Tancarville, was 
 desirous to show his sense of his valiant soldier's chivalry 
 by letters patent, dated soon after the battle, granted 
 him forty marks a year, to be paid out of the manor of 
 Frodsham until he should provide him with twenty pounds 
 a year in land in some convenient place to be held 
 by the said Sir Thomas, his heirs and assigns for ever. 
 (Hist, of the House of Lyme, pp. 16-17.) I n J 35 2 an ^ *353 
 Henry Torfote and Robert Fitz Robert de Frodsham were 
 the Earl's bailiffs at Frodsham. In 26 and 27 Edward III. 
 (1353 and 1354), Robert Twygg was seneschal of Frodsham, 
 and in 27 and 28 (1354 and 1355) Robert Twygg was 
 prepositus. In 1354 and 1355 the Earl granted the manor 
 in farm for a short term of years to Henry Torfote, and 
 appointed him his bailiff (Cheshire Records) ; and in 1357 
 and 1358 the bailiff was paid a sum of money to purchase 
 some two-year-old sheep. In 1357, not long after the 
 Earl's great victory at Poictiers, where, and in Gascony, 
 Thomas Fitz John de Frodsham had done good service, he 
 received from the Earl a pardon for all offences committed 
 in the county of Chester, except concerning the death 
 of the Prince's Ministers and of Bartholomew de Morden
 
 Frodsham. 5 5 
 
 and Edward Bechynton. (Hist. Ches. II., 47, Helsby's ed.)* 
 A pardon which left Thomas de Frodsham open to the charge 
 of murder on his return seems but a very ambiguous benefit. 
 In 32 Edward III. (1357) Thomas de Twenbrokes, another 
 soldier who had done good service as an archer in Gascony, 
 received from the Earl a grant of the right to have the 
 pasturage of six beasts in Rowmarsh, in Frodsham. (Ib.) 
 This archer may have known Froissart, the most amusing 
 chronicler of the deeds of our English bowmen, and Twen- 
 brokes, who was doubtless witness to many a wordy conflict 
 in the Earl's courts in Frodsham Castle afterwards, would 
 doubtless be able to tell his neighbours of the rougher conflicts 
 he had witnessed in Gascony. And in the same year (1357) 
 the Earl granted to Thomas de Frodsham, probably the same 
 who had received the grant of pardon, the lucrative office of 
 hayward of Frodsham marsh, a place then as now famous for 
 its heavy crops of grass and hay, which seems as if the half- 
 pardoned Thomas was now fully pardoned and restored to 
 favour. When the author of "Gaspacchio" was at Poictiers, 
 he asked the French waiter where the field of battle was, who 
 answered that he had never heard of it. The Frodsham 
 archers had better reason to remember it than this patriotic 
 Frenchman. In 1358 and 1359 Henry Torfote and Robert 
 de Frodsham were the farmers, under the Earl, either of the 
 whole or a part of the manor of Frodsham (Ches. Records) ; 
 and from 32 Edward III. (1360) to the end of the King's 
 reign, Henry Torfote was the bailiff of the same manor. On 
 3Oth September, 1361, the Earl of Chester appointed William 
 de Bostock to be his seneschal of Frodsham (Hist. Ches., 
 II., 50, 2nd ed.) ; and in 35, 36, 37 Edward II. (1361 and 
 1362), Ranulph le Roter was the bailiff of the Earl. In 1364 
 Thomas de Frodsham, the veteran of the French war, had a 
 grant from the Earl of some land in Frodsham, probably in 
 
 * This singular exception is found in a number of pardons, of which the 
 following is a list : Hugh de Pever, May 2ist, 1357 ; Richard de Crowther, 
 October 2nd, 1357; Nicholas de Downes, August nth, 1357; John Hamond ; 
 Hamon de Harthill, August 2Oth, 1357; and Adam de Mottram. In 1359 (2ist 
 December) the Black Prince granted Roger Simondesone, for his good services in 
 Gascony and Poictiers, licence to alien to Richard Stanley his lands in the forest 
 of Macclesfield.
 
 56 Frodsham. 
 
 lieu of the office of haywarden, which was now bestowed on 
 Hugh Fairchild, who had it confirmed to him in 1370. On 
 6th June, 50 Edward III. (1376), Edward of Woodstock, Earl 
 of Chester and the Black Prince of history, to the great grief 
 of the whole nation, was called away by death, and the 
 earldom again reverted to the Crown. The Prince was buried 
 in Canterbury Cathedral, and this inscription, in Norman 
 French, of which we give a free translation in English, which 
 may be seen repeated in some country churchyards, was placed 
 on his tomb : 
 
 Tiel come tu es tiel fu, 
 Tu seras come je su. 
 
 (Time was I stood where thou dost now, 
 
 And view'd the dead as thou dost me ; 
 Ere long thou 'It lie as low as I, 
 
 And others stand to look on thee.) 
 
 Very soon after his son's decease, the King granted the manor 
 of Frodsham to his son's widow, the Princess Joan, who before 
 her marriage had a sobriquet not dark like her husband's, 
 being known as the Fair Maid of Kent. King Edward III. 
 died on the 2ist June, 1377, after a long reign of fifty-one 
 years, a period of history full of incident, and well deserving 
 of attentive study. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 RICHARD OF BORDEAUX, when he succeeded his grandfather, 
 Edward III., in 1377, and became King of England as Richard 
 II., was not more than twelve years of age ; but even before 
 he ascended the throne, the earldom of Chester had been 
 conferred upon him by the King after the death of his son, the 
 Black Prince of history, subject to the grant which the King 
 had made of the manor of Frodsham to the Princess Joan for 
 her life, and subject, also, to the grant of forty marks a year 
 which the Black Prince had made to his valiant soldier, Sir 
 Thomas D' Anyers. When Richard became King, he confirmed
 
 Frodsham. 57 
 
 Henry Torfote in the office of bailiff of Frodsham, which he 
 had held under his father, and Torfote continued to hold the 
 office until his death, in 1379. Upon his death, Richard 
 Torfote, his executor, rendered to the Princess of Wales a 
 long account of his bailiwick, and continued to hold the office 
 of bailiff, as Henry's executor, until 1383. In 4 Richard II. 
 (1381) Hugh Fairchild was confirmed in the office of hayward 
 of Frodsham, to which, as we have seen, he had been 
 before appointed. In 7 and 8 Richard II. (1383) Joan, the 
 widowed Princess of Wales, the King's mother, died, and the 
 King, as if he had a fondness for his mother's name, granted 
 the manor of Frodsham to Joanna, Lady Mohun,* for life, she 
 keeping up and maintaining the houses, and paying a rent of 
 ten marks a year. She does not appear to have underlet the 
 manor, but she probably held it only for a short time. From 
 the 9 Richard II. (1386) John de Frodsham and Richard 
 Torfote farmed the manor under the King. On 8th August, 
 1386, Robert Torfote received a grant of protection on his 
 going, on the King's service, to Ireland, in the retinue of Sir 
 John Stanley, knight, deputy to the Marquis of Dublin. 
 (Hist. Ches., II., p. 52 n., Helsby's ed.) In or about the last- 
 mentioned year the King granted the manor of Frodsham to 
 Radagunda Becket, with 100 marks a year, and for all beyond 
 she was to answer yearly to the King. (Cheshire Records.) 
 This lady seems to have been fortunate in her name, for she had 
 her first name from the sainted Radagunda, Queen of France, 
 who died and was buried at Poictiers, lately made so famous 
 by the Black Prince's arms, and her surname from Becket, 
 the sainted archbishop ; and, as we shall find presently, 
 
 * In Vol. XXXVII. of the "Archaeological Journal," p. 75 et seq., many 
 particulars are given of Joan, Lady Mohun. She was the daughter of Sir 
 Bartholomew Burghcosh, and married Sir John de Mohun, of Dunster. It is said 
 of her that she obtained from her husband as much land for the poor of Dunster 
 as she could walk round, bare-footed, in a single day. By the will of her husband 
 she became possessed of Dunster, and she sold it for a sum now equal to 
 .3333. 6s. 8rf., and her receipt still remains at Dunster. In 1386 she obtained 
 from Richard II. a grant for life of the manor and hundred of Macclesfield, 
 which, about three years later, she exchanged for an annuity of 100 sterling. 
 She died on the 4th October, 1404, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, 
 where there is an effigy of her given in the above work, and also "The Ancient 
 Parish of Prestbury. " (Chet. So., p. 112.)
 
 58 Frodsham. 
 
 she became the widow of a Mortimer, a near kinsman of the 
 King, who had met his death in Ireland. Our sovereigns, for 
 several reigns after Becket's death, thought it politic to show 
 favour to his relations ; and Radagunda, who was evidently a 
 person of importance, and probably resided at the castle, may 
 have owed the King's grant in her favour of the manor of 
 Frodsham to her names of Becket and Mortimer. In 1386 
 she received another grant of the manor of Frodsham from 
 the King, which she was to hold on the same terms as his 
 mother (the late Princess of Wales) had held it ; and the King 
 thereupon issued letters to John de Frodsham and Richard 
 Torfote, the farmers and bailiffs of the manor, to deliver up 
 the same to her. On 6th June, 9 Richard II. (1386), the 
 King granted to Sir Desgarry Says, knight, his licence to 
 acquire lands to be held by him and his heirs, or otherwise, to 
 the value of 40 a year, in North Wales and the counties of 
 Chester and Flint, to be held immediately of the King. On 
 22nd July, i o Richard 1 1. (1386), the King granted to Radagunda 
 Becket, Lady de Mortymer, the manor of Frodsham, with all 
 its liberties, for her life, and without any condition. On 8th 
 August, 10 Richard II. (1386), the King granted protections 
 to William le Roter, Thomas del Donne, Henry del Halle, 
 Robert Torsot, Nicholas le Roter, and Robert de Bradbury, 
 going to Ireland with Sir John Stanley, as the lieutenant of 
 the Marquis of Dublin. (Ches. Records.) On 1 2th September, 
 II Richard II. (1387), the King ordered oaks from the forest 
 of Mara, to be delivered to John de Overton. (Ib.) It is not 
 said how many the oaks were to be, nor how they were to 
 be employed, but the church was probably the beneficiary 
 intended. Richard Torfote died in 1387, and in the same 
 year the writ directing the usual inquisition P.M. to be taken 
 was addressed to Radagunda Becket. It was found, upon this 
 inquisition, that Richard had died seised of the office of the 
 serjeanty of the peace, and of making attachments and 
 presentments in the out demesne, and of the custody of the 
 gaol and of the fees to the same belonging, and also that he 
 was seised of the bailiff's official residence, a messuage with 
 an oxgang of land in Overton, all of which he held from
 
 Frodsham. 59 
 
 Dame Radagunda Becket, as of the manor of Frodsham. The 
 residence belonged to the serjeant, and was held by the service 
 of paying twelve pence a year. Richard's heir was found to 
 be his son, Henry Torfote, then aged eighteen, and unmarried. 
 (Hist. Ches., II., 49, Helsby's ed.) On 2nd October, 12 
 Richard II. (1388), the King demised to Desgarry Says, knight, 
 and Howell ap Tudor ap Ithel, the manor of Moston for one 
 year. On 23rd March, in the same year, the same manor was 
 demised to the same persons for ten years ; and on the 
 same 28th March, the same two persons had a grant from 
 the King of the vill of Cayrus, with the pleas and per- 
 quisites of its courts, the tolls of its fairs and markets, and 
 all other profits, to hold for their life. On the i8th June, 
 13 Richard II. (1390), Ellen, the widow of Richard Torfote, 
 had a writ to recover her dower. (Ches. Records.) In 14 
 Richard II. (1390), Henry Torfote, who had succeeded his 
 father as bailiff of the manor of Frodsham, died, and an 
 inquisition then taken found that he died seised of the same 
 properties held of the manor that his father had held, and his 
 daughter Elizabeth, aged ten weeks, was his heir. (Ib.) In 
 1390, Radagunda Becket, on her own petition, had her grant 
 of the manor renewed, without any mention of rents, knights' 
 fees, or services. (Ib.) This grant was more full than any 
 former one. In the same year the King directed a warrant to 
 John Donne, his forester of Mara, to deliver to Sir Desgarry 
 Says, knight, and Radagunda his wife, to whom the Queen 
 had granted the mills of Frodsham for life, two oaks for the 
 repair of the mills, and a cartload of wood for cogges and 
 nogges for the same. (Ib.) The Says appear to have been 
 Welsh settlers, and to have had large possessions in Wales. 
 In the 10 and 14 Richard II. (1387 and 1390), Radagunda 
 Becket, by a strange slip of the scribe's pen, had changed her 
 sex as well as her name, being called, in two writs, Dominus 
 de Mortymer, or Lord de Mortymer. (Ches. Records.) Old 
 records are not always infallible. On 24th August, 1390, 
 Thomas Torfote, the attorney of Sir Desgarry Says and 
 Radagunda his wife, had authority to receive some wind-fallen 
 timber for the repair of Frodsham bridge. (Ib.) In 1390,
 
 60 Frodsham. 
 
 there seems to have been an apprehension of some disturb- 
 ance taking place at Frodsham, for, on the loth February, 
 Henry de Beston and others received the King's commission 
 to apprehend all offenders within the manor and lordship of 
 Frodsham. (Ib.) In 1390, Radagunda Becket, Dame de 
 Mortymer, lessee for life of the manor of Frodsham and 
 Cadogan, Says having granted lands in Flintshire, late of 
 Sir Desgarry de Says, to Robert de Mereston, chaplain, and 
 Henry Salisbury, had the King's pardon for having done so 
 without his licence. (Hist. Ches., II., 52 n., Helsby's ed.) On 
 the 2nd March, 1391, Radagunda Becket presented a petition 
 to have another charter " touchante les Franchises du Manoir 
 de Frodsham." (Ches. Records.) On the I4th March she 
 had such a grant of Frodsham for life, and on the 26th of 
 the same month, she sued out a writ "de non molendand. de 
 manerio de Frodsham." (Ib.) This writ, which was probably 
 a consequence of the new grant of franchises, was no doubt 
 meant to compel the tenants to grind their corn at the manor 
 mills, and not elsewhere. In 17 Richard II. (1393), the King's 
 escheator made an extent of the manor of Frodsham, when 
 he certified that its true value was as follows : 
 
 The freehold tenants paid yearly 4. 17 6 
 
 The burgesses, etc 17 6 6 
 
 The tenants of the orchard Yelecroft, Barncroft, and the site of 
 
 the manor there 0160 
 
 The tenants of Whatmere 0160 
 
 The tenants of certain pieces of land adjoining the burgages there 041 
 
 The pannage of swine in ordinary years '. 2 o o 
 
 The demesne lands, with the meadows 12 o o 
 
 A certain profit there called the Mower's Farm 300 
 
 The farm of a certain oven there 300 
 
 A fishery there 090 
 
 The profits of the port 080 
 
 Two water-mills 800 
 
 Pleas and profits of the Halmote and courts in Eyre o o o 
 
 The fees .. i 10 o 
 
 54 6 6 
 
 (Hist. Ches., Helsby's ed., II., 50 n.) On the i8th July, 18 
 Richard II. (1394), the King commanded his keeper of Shot- 
 wick Park to deliver to William Frodsham, Esquire, his
 
 Frodsham. 61 
 
 chamberlain of North Wales, twenty oaks for the repair of his 
 castles and mills in North Wales. (Ches. Records.) In 1394, 
 the Lady Radagunda Becket having granted a lease of the 
 manor of Frodsham for three years to William de Mainwaring, 
 Sir Robert le Grosvenor, Sir Richard de Wynyngton, and 
 John and Randle Mainwaring, they entered into a recognisance 
 to pay her 266. 13^. ^d. for the farm of the same. On 22nd 
 January, 19 Richard II. (1395), Richard del Bruggehouse, 
 brother and heir of Nicholas del Bruggehouse, did fealty for 
 the deceased's lands in Bruggehouses, Kingsley, Bradley, and 
 Frodsham. (Ches. Records.) The King, on 2Oth September, 
 19 Richard II. (1395), appointed Hugh Holes to be justice in 
 Eyre of Edisbury and the other hundreds. (Ibid.) In 1396, 
 Robert Torfote (the same who had had protection on going to 
 Ireland with Sir John Stanley), late bailiff of William de 
 Frodsham, farmer of the manor there, being indebted to the 
 said William in $?. 17 s. 7\d., prayed to be allowed in his 
 accounts for certain payments made to William Mainwaring 
 and Radagunda Becket, dame de Mortymer, and to the Abbot 
 of Basingwerk. In 21 Richard II. (1397), when William de 
 Frodsham the elder died, it was found that he held lands and 
 burgages in Frodsham under Radagunda Becket, to whom the 
 King had granted the manor for life. In 21 Richard II., 
 William de Frodsham, jun., had a grant from the King of the 
 bailiwick of Edisbury hundred, paying six marks a year. 
 This pension Henry IV., in the fifth year of his reign, 
 commuted into a pension of IOOT. a year for life. In 
 1397 hard times seemed to be threatening, and the King 
 busied himself in raising that bodyguard of 2000 Cheshire 
 archers which was afterwards made one of the grievous 
 charges against him at his deposition. The Frodsham men 
 showed no backwardness in enrolling themselves in this service, 
 and the following two lists contain their names, the first list 
 being the officers, whose pay was to be sixpence a day, and 
 the second being the rank and file, at fourpence a day : 
 First list : Hugh del Brugge, Robert del Brugge, Thomas 
 Torfote, Robert Torfote, Robert del Hethe, Thomas Fitz 
 Hugh de Frodsham, Richard Williamson, Richard le Roter,
 
 62 Frodsham. 
 
 esquire, William de Fairchild, William de Overton. Second 
 list : William de Frodsham, Richard de Manley, John Donne. 
 Frodsham evidently contributed its proper proportion of the 
 force, which were employed first at the assembling of the 
 Parliament, held at Westminster, in 1397, at which the Earl 
 of Arundel was condemned, and where all the nobles came 
 armed, the King's guard being his Cheshire archers. It was 
 probably on the raising of this force that a new herald, 
 called Chester herald, was created. William Brugge, who 
 was the first Chester herald, may have been a Frodsham 
 man, as his was a Frodsham name. In the same year 
 William de Frodsham, nephew of that William who had 
 lately held the office of bailiff of Edisbury, was appointed 
 by the King to succeed to his uncle's office, and to hold 
 it for life. In the times that were lowering, the office of 
 bailiff of Edisbury threatened to prove no sinecure. On the 
 7th March, 21 Richard II. (1398), Richard Gryon took to farm 
 for a year i burgage, 4 tofts, 14 acres of land, and a dove- 
 cote, in Frodsham, which Robert Parys and Roger de Brescy 
 had by the feoffment of William de Frodsham, late chamberlain 
 of North Wales, rendering IDS. rent. (Ches. Records.) On 
 the 4th April, in the same year, the escheator was commanded 
 to seize into the King's hands all the lands whereof William 
 de Frodsham the elder died seised, and which he held of the 
 King. (Ibid.) On the 8th August, 22 Richard II. (1398), the 
 King granted to his very dear uncle, John, Duke of Lancaster, 
 the office of constable of his principality of Chester, to hold 
 to him, the said duke, and the heirs male of his body issuing. 
 (Ibid.) On the 2Oth September, 22 Richard II. (1398), the 
 King granted to John Donne, esquire, a lease of two-third 
 parts of the lands, rents, and services in the county of Chester, 
 which were those of William Frodsham deceased, late 
 chamberlain of North Wales, and which had been seized into 
 the King's hands by reason of a sum of money surcharged in 
 the said William Frodsham's account as such chamberlain. 
 (Ibid.) On the 2Oth December, 22 Richard II. (1398), certain 
 men in Edisbury and the other Cheshire hundreds gave 
 receipts for 4000 marks, ordered to be given to the King's
 
 Frodsham. 63 
 
 lieges who had sustained losses at Radcote Bridge. (Ibid.) 
 On the 4th January, 1398, the King, to redeem his father's 
 promise to his valiant soldier, Sir Thomas Danyers, granted 
 to Margaret Legh, the daughter of Sir Thomas, and to her 
 husband, Sir Piers, the manor and estate of Lyme, which their 
 descendants still hold ; and thus the annuity of forty marks a 
 year, payable out of the manor of Frodsham, was cancelled 
 and satisfied. On the 5th June, 23 Richard II. (1399), the 
 King issued his royal protection to Thomas de Venables of 
 Frodsham and certain of his men, and also to one Thomas de 
 Plumpton, going upon the King's service. (Ches. Records.) 
 But the end was hastening on. When these protections were 
 issued, the King was about sailing, or had already sailed, for 
 Ireland, and the persons who received them were probably 
 about to follow him. On the I4th August, 1399, almost 
 one of the last acts of the King's sovereignty was to 
 issue a commission to Sir Richard Wynynton, knight, and 
 Richard Manley, esquire, to be keepers of the peace in and for 
 the hundred of Edisbury ; and on the 29th of the following 
 month Bolingbroke had dethroned him, and become him- 
 self King Henry IV., a piece of history which our immortal 
 dramatist has made the subject of one of his plays, and 
 which, more than any other, has relation to Cheshire and the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 When Bolingbroke invaded the country, he at first pro- 
 fessed that he came only to claim his own inheritance, part of 
 which was that bold castle at Halton, which, standing on a 
 hill, where it cannot be hid, strikes the eye from afar, and 
 which from Frodsham, which is so near, is very plainly to 
 be seen. The form in which Bolingbroke challenged his right, 
 as Shakspere tells it, was thus 
 
 It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster. 
 I am denied to sue my livery here, 
 And yet my letters patent give me leave. 
 What would you have me do ? I am a subject, 
 And challenge law ; attorneys are denied me ; 
 And, therefore, personally I lay my claim 
 To my inheritance of free descent.
 
 64 Frodsham. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 HENRY IV. AND HENRY V. 
 
 BUT a crown is too dazzling a prize to be rejected, and the 
 invader with an army at his back was not proof against its 
 attractions; and so, on the 29th September, 1399, King 
 Richard being set aside, Bolingbroke stepped into his place, 
 and became King as Henry IV. ; and for a short time but 
 only for a short time the earldom of Chester, with Frodsham 
 as part of it, reverted to the Crown ; for in the Parliament 
 then sitting, and which continued its sittings in the following 
 month, the new King divested himself of the earldom, and 
 bestowed it upon his son, Henry of Monmouth, born in 1388, 
 who was then eleven years of age. The new earl, as the lord 
 of Frodsham, appointed William de Frodsham, the nephew of 
 a former bailiff of Frodsham, of the same name, to succeed 
 to the office which his uncle had held, and confirmed to him 
 the pension of fourpence a day which the late King had given 
 him. (Ches. Records.) Scarcely, however, had the King 
 mounted the throne before the abbot and convent of Dieula- 
 cresse, of the foundation of Earl Randle Blundeville, a former 
 lord of Frodsham, thinking a new accession a good time to 
 ask favours, presented to the new King a long petition in 
 Norman French, and besought him " pour Dieu et en cceur de 
 charite," to hear them. In their petition they state that under 
 certain letters patent of Edward I. and of the King's grand- 
 father, Edward III., they had enclosed and approved (that is, 
 improved) 340 acres from the waste of Rudheath, in the manor 
 of Bylegh, in Cheshire, which they had held free and clear of 
 all secular services and demands until Edward of Woodstock, 
 Earl of Chester, the Black Prince, without any cause, seized 
 and took the lands into his own hands, and afterwards made a 
 grant to them of 187^. 2r. //., part of the same lands, subject 
 to the payment of sixpence an acre, payable yearly for the 
 same at the Exchequer of Chester, William Lichfield, the 
 predecessor of their present abbot, being then the head of the 
 house ; and they state further that the same earl and the late
 
 Frodsham. 65 
 
 King had ever since received such rent, which they prayed the 
 King would graciously forego and allow them to hold the land 
 free and acquitted of all rent and secular services as aforetime. 
 (From the original at Llannerch.) Neither Dugdale, in his 
 Monasticon, nor the historian of Leek, in his account of 
 Dieulacresse, mentions Abbot William Lichfield, with whom 
 the petition makes us for the first time acquainted. It may 
 have been in consequence of this petition that on the I2th 
 September, in the third year of the King's reign, a warrant 
 was issued from the Prince's Exchequer at Chester, for Roger 
 Brescy, clerk, to deliver to Richard, Abbot of the Monastery 
 of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of Dieulacresse, three charters, 
 under the seal of Randle, formerly Earl of Chester, which 
 charters were in the said Roger's custody, and had been made 
 by the said earl to the abbots and monks of the said monastery 
 and their successors. (Ches. Records.) A state of transition 
 is almost always an occasion of ferment and derangement, and 
 when the occasion is the transfer of a crown from one King to 
 another, not in the way of natural inheritance, commotion 
 and disturbance must often ensue. The new King, who had 
 obtained his place per saltum, soon found that something 
 stronger than moral force was necessary to retain it. He 
 might almost have taken up the words of Northumberland 
 
 Make friends with speed ; 
 Never so few, and never yet more need. 
 
 In 1401 he issued his warrant to the sheriff of Cheshire, 
 commanding him to raise 200 men-at-arms and 500 archers, 
 of which the hundred of Edisbury was to raise 15 archers, 
 who, no doubt, were to assemble at Frodsham, which was the 
 real, as Edisbury was the nominal, head of the hundred. 
 These men were to march to the north, to meet an expected 
 rising in Northumberland and to overawe the Scotch. In the 
 year when Edisbury was commanded to find these fifteen men 
 to serve against the Scots, the dramatist makes Falstaff present 
 at some similar muster, when he abused the King's press and 
 befooled the authorities. "Will you tell me, Master Shallow," 
 says he, " how to choose a man ? Care I for the limb, the 
 
 F
 
 66 Frodsham. 
 
 thews, the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man ? Give 
 me the spirit, Master Shallow. Here's Wart ! What a ragged 
 appearance it is ! He shall charge you and discharge you 
 with the motion of a pewterer's hammer, come off and on 
 swifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's buckets. And this 
 same half-faced fellow, Shadow give me this man ! He 
 presents no mark to the enemy ; the foeman may, with as 
 great aim, level at the edge of a penknife. And, for a retreat, 
 how swiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off! 
 Oh, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones!" 
 But, as war must not silence justice, the King, on the 
 1 3th April (i Henry IV., 1400) appointed Sir Hugh Holes 
 and Roger de Weston to be justices in eyre at Frodsham, 
 for one term only ; and on the ist August (2 Henry IV., 
 1401) he appointed Richard de Manley to be escheator 
 of Cheshire. (Ches. Records.) In 1403, when the King 
 fought the great battle of Shrewsbury, John Done and 
 Thomas Spark, two Frodsham men, who could not so soon 
 forget the late King Richard, their patron, fought against 
 King Henry, and incurred forfeitures of their estates for 
 their loyalty in adhering to their old allegiance. In 4 
 Henry IV. (1403) those mischief makers, the spreaders of 
 false news, were abroad, and were very busy in Edisbury 
 hundred ; and Sir Richard Wynyngton and others received 
 a commission to seek out and arrest all and every the persons 
 " per quos marisnusa fabulationes et populi commotiones factae 
 fuerunt " that is, all persons by whom false news, stories, and 
 disturbances of the people were made (Ches. Records) ; and 
 the commissioners no doubt to make known their com- 
 mission sent round through the hundred their dread symbol 
 of the ball and thong, as they, no doubt, did three years 
 afterwards, when, under a similar commission, the same com- 
 missioners made a great gathering of the men of Edisbury to 
 settle how many of the Edisbury men should be sent with the 
 force to put down the Welsh Rebellion. (Ib.) It is probable 
 that the number would be the same that were before sent to 
 the north, and that they would muster at Frodsham. In the 
 annals of Frodsham there have been many musters of soldiers
 
 Frodsham. 67 
 
 in modern as well as in ancient times. In 1288, as we have 
 seen, she was to send eight men and two horses whenever there 
 was a war in Wales. About the year 1404, Lady Mortymer 
 caused search to be made on her behalf at Chester for a 
 recognizance of debt which had been entered into by Sir 
 Robert Grosvenor and Sir Richard Wydrington, knights, and 
 William John and Hawken Maynwarying, touching the manor 
 of Frodsham, which manor the said William had had in his 
 possession for five years. (Arley Charters Box 25, No. 6.) 
 The first two of these names are worthy of remark. Sir 
 Robert Grosvenor, being a party in the celebrated Scrope and 
 Grosvenor cause of arms, and Sir Richard Wydrington, being 
 either the man or his namesake who figures so conspicuously 
 in the ballad of Chevy Chase, which that good man, Sir 
 Philip Sydney, strangely said always stirred him like the 
 sound of a trumpet, seeing that such a story now, though 
 curious as a ballad, makes the reader rather sad than either 
 full of spirit or merry. In the year 1405 Frodsham saw its 
 lord, the Prince, by his father's .command, march a force from 
 Wales through his own manor to a rendezvous of troops at 
 Warrington, who were to proceed thence into Yorkshire to 
 put down a party of discontented nobles. (Adlington Papers.) 
 A few years after the new King's accession, probably in 
 consequence of some encroachments of the waters of the 
 river Mersey on the marshes or wastes of the manor of 
 Frodsham, which it was thought was owing to some neglect 
 on the part of the lessee or farmer in not repairing the banks, 
 the manor was seized by the earl and taken into his own 
 hands ; but, on inquiry, it would seem that the charge 
 against the lessee could not be maintained ; for on 4th August, 
 7 Henry IV. (1406), a warrant of the earl ordered the manor 
 to be redelivered to Dame Radagunda Lady Mortymer, 
 subject to her ladyship finding surety in 200 marks for the 
 fulfilment of certain conditions entered into by her with the 
 earl ; and a few days afterwards Sir Peter Button and Sir 
 John Savage, knights, became her sureties, and then came the 
 following warrant of amoveas manus, dated i8th August, 7 
 Henry IV. (1406) : " De manerio de Frodsham liberand. 
 
 F2
 
 68 Frodsham. 
 
 Radagund. Becket dnae de Mortymer quae illud habuit ad 
 t'minum vitae suae ex dono Rici nup. Regis Angliae 2do. sed 
 quod in manum principis seisitum fuerat ratione certorum 
 vastorum et cretiniarum maris quae eid. manerio pro defectu 
 reparacoie ejusdem acciderant." (Ches. Patent Rolls.) Which 
 being translated is as follows : For delivery of the manor of 
 Frodsham to Radagunda Becket, Lady Mortymer, who had it 
 for her life by the gift of Richard II., late King of England, 
 but which had been seized into the Prince's hands by reason 
 of certain waste and breaches of the sea made on the said 
 manor through neglect of repairing the banks. On 14 Oct., 
 7 Henry IV., the Prince, as Earl of Chester, appointed 
 Richard Manley and Ralph de Dutton to arrest all persons 
 who supplied victuals or arms to the Welsh rebels in the 
 county of Chester. (Ches. Records.) About this time we 
 find in the Chamberlain's accounts this entry: "Paid to 
 Lady Mortymer, twenty pounds, out of moneys issuing from 
 the manor and lordship of Frodsham, and by him (the 
 chamberlain) received, while the Prince (the Earl of Chester) 
 had the same manor in his hands, and stood seised thereof, 
 and with which money he, the said chamberlain, had 
 been surcharged in his account of the sixth year of Henry 
 IV. (Ches. Records.) Radagunda Becket (Lady Mortymer), 
 who to her two saintly names added also, by her marriage, 
 the historic name of Mortymer, is supposed to have married 
 that Roger Mortymer, Earl of Marche, heir-presumptive 
 to the throne, " who, going on the King's service to Ireland 
 in 1398, was there slain, in an inroad of the rebels, by 
 O'Brien." She employed Roger Torfote as her bailiff. 
 This family occurs so constantly in the office of bailiff, 
 that of them, as of the King, it may almost be said they 
 never died. About the year 1408 Radagunda Becket (the 
 Lady Mortymer) died, and on her death the manor of 
 Frodsham, with the earldom of Chester, reverted to the 
 Prince as Earl of Chester, who continued Roger Torfote 
 in his office until the King's death. Henry IV. did not 
 long enjoy the office he had bought so dearly, for on 
 the loth March, 1413, after a short reign, he breathed his
 
 Frodsham. 69 
 
 last, and remembering, as his end drew near, how he 
 had come by the crown, he could say to the Prince, his 
 heir-apparent 
 
 Heaven knows, my son, 
 By what byepaths and indirect crooked ways 
 I met this crown, and I myself know well 
 How troublesome it sat upon my head. 
 To thee it will descend with better quiet, 
 Better opinion, better confirmation. 
 
 If the sick monarch, in that interval before death in which 
 the memory is said to call before a man in vivid review the 
 actions of his past life, could have also seen in gloomy 
 perspective the legacy he was leaving his country in the War 
 of the Roses, of which his usurpation was the prelude, and 
 during which England was divided into angry factions, and 
 the blood of her sons, from the prince to the peasant, flowed 
 forth in a mighty stream, how appalling must the retrospect of 
 the past and the vision of the future have been to the dying 
 monarch, who, when even in health, had said 
 
 Then, happy low, lie down ; 
 
 Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. 
 
 On the death of the King, his father, on the 2Oth March, 
 1413, Henry of Monmouth ascended the throne, and, becoming 
 King of England as Henry V., the Earldom of Chester and 
 the Lordship of Frodsham became once more merged in the 
 King's more exalted title. Notwithstanding some youthful 
 irregularities by which the Prince had offended his father, and 
 which, perhaps, the father's jealousy had somewhat contributed 
 to provoke, the Prince had lately given signs of amendment, 
 and his accession to the throne was hailed with satisfaction by 
 the nation, and the first steps which he took confirmed them 
 in their good opinion of him. If we take an archbishop's 
 word for it, 
 
 The breath no sooner left his father's body, 
 Yea, at that very moment, 
 Consideration like an angel came, 
 And whipp'd the offending Adam out of it.
 
 70 Frodsham. 
 
 And, reckoning up his qualification for the kingly office, hear 
 again how eloquent the archbishop is in his praise 
 
 Hear him but reason in divinity, 
 
 You would desire the King were made a prelate ; 
 
 Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, 
 
 You would say it hath been all in all his study ; 
 
 Let him discourse of war, and you shall hear 
 
 A fearful battle render'd you in music ; 
 
 Turn him to any course of policy, 
 
 The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, 
 
 Familiar as his garter. 
 
 But during the late King's reign justice had been administered 
 in Frodsham in the Prince's name, as is evident from these 
 commissions to hold iters or assizes there under his authority. 
 On the 1 3th April, I Henry IV. (1400), Sir Hugh Hulse and 
 Roger Horton were commissioned to hold an iter at Frodsham. 
 On the 3rd April, 4 Henry IV. (1402), Sir Hugh Hulse alone 
 was commissioned to hold an iter at the same place ; and on 
 the 23rd January, 9 Henry IV., Nicholas Fare was constituted 
 justice to hold an iter at the same place. (Hist. Ches. I, p. 58, 
 and Ches. Records.) For the first time in this History of 
 Frodsham and its affairs we are able to present our readers 
 with an account of the proceedings in the King's courts of his 
 manor and halmote of Frodsham for one year of the King's 
 reign, commencing from the Monday next before St. Denis's 
 Day in the first year of Henry V., 8th October, 1412. The 
 record of these proceedings, which is preserved in a roll kept 
 in the Public Record Office among the Cheshire Records, gives 
 us first the names of the officers of the manor, who were first 
 the bailiff or presiding officer, then the prepositi or constables 
 and the tassatores. These latter officers, whose title I have 
 never before seen, seem to have been haywards and harvesters, 
 whose duty was to oversee the conduct of the mowers and 
 harvesters in harvest time. During this year, which, as the 
 first of a new reign, may have been a year of grace, both the 
 constables and tassatores report that they have no miscon- 
 duct to report. The next officers are called satellites, a 
 name which, though familiar with very many court rolls,
 
 Frodsham. 7 1 
 
 both ancient and modern, I have never seen used in the 
 same sense before. In Pope's lines it occurs in his " Essay 
 on Man," where he says 
 
 Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made 
 Taller and stronger than the weeds they shade? 
 Or ask of yonder argent fields above, 
 Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove? 
 
 In the Frodsham roll the word "satellites" has a humbler 
 meaning, and evidently means sergeants, or the persons who 
 are to present certain offences ; for on one occasion in this roll 
 they are found presenting no less than thirteen brewers, of 
 whom two were women and two butchers, all of whom had 
 broken the assize of ale and beer or of butcher's meat. Ale- 
 drinking to excess is an offence older than Henry V.'s time, 
 and tippling houses seem to have been as numerous then even 
 as they are now. The only other officers named in the roll 
 were a very convenient class, called plegii or pledges, who are 
 found indifferently becoming sureties on both sides in every 
 cause ; and the causes which were tried were very numerous, 
 and the costs in every case against the losing party were 
 twopence, a sum which would startle a modern lawyer. The 
 civil actions tried were cases of debt or account, trespass or 
 detinue, or for the use and occupation of land, which were 
 tried indifferently either in the manor court or the halmote. 
 The offences presented and punished are fence-breaking, 
 trespassing on land, and spoiling the herbage, all of which are 
 punished by a fine. The roll of the court begins with the 
 King's writ, addressed to his bailiff of the manor of Frodsham, 
 commanding him to appear before the King's justice and the 
 King's chamberlain at the next county court, to be holden at 
 Chester on Tuesday next after St. Lucia's Day (ipth December, 
 1413), and there to give in his account of all debts, pleas, 
 issues, amerciaments, goods of felons and fugitives, forfeitures, 
 fines, and deodands accruing to the King since the Feast of 
 St. Denis in the preceding year. This is followed by the 
 bailiff's account of the moneys received on these various 
 accounts, consisting of sums varying from one shilling to six
 
 72 Frodsham. 
 
 shillings and eightpence, and amounting in the whole to 
 2. 4s. 8d., which is afterwards mentioned to have been duly 
 paid over to Gilbert Talbot, esquire, the King's justice at 
 Chester, on the I3th October, 2 Henry V. (1414.) A little 
 later on there occurs the entry of a fine of two shillings each, 
 imposed upon eighteen persons, of whom Sir Peter Button, 
 knight, was one, and six others are described as burgesses of 
 Frodsham, who had failed to appear before Gilbert Talbot, 
 esquire, the King's justice of Chester, when he lately held his 
 court at Frodsham, as the King's justice in eyre. The judge, 
 it is probable, held his court in Frodsham Castle. The people 
 of Frodsham in those days assuredly could not complain that 
 justice was not brought to their own door, for this ancient roll 
 contains evidence to show that there were no less than thirteen 
 halmote courts and twenty-three manor courts held at Frodsham 
 at which justice was administered in the course of one single 
 year. In this record the names of Torfote, Rutter, Rider, 
 Frodsham, Brugge, Bruggehouse, Spark, Warburton, Donne, 
 Bethel (Bedal), Ashton (Assheton), Beston, and some other 
 old Frodsham names, most of which have now gone out, very 
 frequently appear. On the I2th July, 3 Henry V. (1415), 
 proclamation was made at Chester that all knights and men- 
 at-arms of the county should appear in their best array at 
 Newcastle-under-Lyme. (Ches. Records.) The Cheshire men, 
 as we know, had been in great favour with Richard II., and 
 out of them he had raised the 2000 archers of his body guard. 
 Amongst those who had thus given proofs of their loyalty to 
 Richard were a number of the Frodsham men, and towards 
 these the new King cherished a generous leaning ; and entirely 
 forgetting their opposition to his father, the late King, he 
 remembered only the sturdy loyalty they had shown to King 
 Richard. None of the Frodsham men were displaced from 
 any offices they had held, and when the King, soon after the 
 commencement of his reign, was minded to advance his claim 
 to the throne of France, he found in his archers of the lordship 
 of Frodsham veterans ready made and willing to engage 
 themselves in his service, to which this entry in the Cheshire 
 Records evidently refers : " Philip Lache, chivaler Thomas
 
 Fr od sham. 73 
 
 Grosvenor, chivaler John Manley, Robert de Davienport, 
 William Cholmley, Peter de Legh, William Stanley, chivaler 
 John Done, William Stanley, junr., chivaler John Henford, 
 John Kingsley, John Savage, chivaler Ralph de Davenport, 
 and Robert de Legh received 48 1. 15^. gd., whereof 232. is. 
 was paid for the wages of 182 archers of the county of Chester, 
 who were with the King at Harfleur and in the battle of 
 Agincourt, and were assigned in different numbers to the 
 several persons above named." (Ches. Records, 5 Henry V.) 
 On the 3rd August, 5 Henry V. (1417), an outlawry issued 
 against Randle Torsote. (Ches. Records.) The King, as lord 
 of Frodsham, displaced none of the old servants there. In 
 his third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh years Roger Torfote 
 was the sergeant and bailiff who had the charge of the castle 
 and its gaol, and kept the suitors of the courts there in order. 
 In 7 Henry V. Roger Torfote died, and in that year we find 
 John Torfote filling the office of coroner of Frodsham lordship, 
 an office of which we had not heard of the existence there 
 before. (Hist. Ches., II., 49, Helsby's ed.) From 8 Henry V. 
 to the end of the King's reign John Torfote was the bailiff of 
 the manor of Frodsham. On the 2ist July, 6 Henry V. (1418), 
 in consequence of some repairs being needed to the King's 
 houses in Frodsham, a writ issued to the forester of Delamere 
 " de maeremio habili liberand. infra forestam de mara pro 
 reparatione diversarum domuum domini Regis in villa," to 
 deliver suitable wind-fallen timber for the repair of divers of 
 the King's houses in Frodsham. (Ches. Records.) It appeared 
 that in consequence of one William Rychton having slain one 
 John Hall at Frodsham, in 5 Henry IV., certain lands in 
 Frodsham had been seized into the King's hands ; but on the 
 26th September, 8 Henry V. (1420), a writ of amoveas manus 
 was issued, and on the 3Oth of the same month and year John 
 Tryket was appointed bailiff of Frodsham. Tryket was the 
 attorney of Sir Ralph Bostock when he went with the Duke 
 of Exeter to France, and he was also joint farmer of 
 Frodsham, with a sixth of the multure and the fishery there. 
 (Ches. Records, 5 Henry V.) The King, whose reign was 
 of short duration, died on the 3ist August, 1422, and his
 
 74 Frodsham. 
 
 inquisition post-mortem is among the Cheshire Records of 
 that year. The son of Henry V. never became Earl of Chester, 
 and the lordship of Frodsham consequently remained in the 
 King's hands until his death ; and thus the great conqueror at 
 Agincourt died in possession of it, and Frodsham may, there- 
 fore, with just pride claim amongst her lords Henry V., one of 
 those great names which English history will not let die. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 HENRY VI., EDWARD IV., AND RICHARD III. 
 
 WHEN Henry VI. ascended the throne which his father had 
 rilled so gloriously (on 3 1st March, 1422), he was an infant but 
 barely nine months old, which proved to be a great misfortune, 
 both to himself and the nation. He who afterwards often 
 moralized on his condition might have lamented, as Lord 
 Byron did in modern times, that he was 
 
 Left by his sire too young such loss to know 
 Lord of himself, that heritage of woe ! 
 
 There being now no Earl of Chester, the lordship of Frodsham 
 was in the King's hands, and was administered in his name. 
 In the King's first year John Torfote was its bailiff, but he 
 died in the next year, and by his inquisition post-mortem it 
 was found that he held in his demesne, as of fee, the office of 
 sergeant of the peace at Frodsham, with the right to make 
 presentments and attachments in the manor, and to have the 
 custody of the castle gaol and the fees appertaining thereto, 
 all which he held of the King as Earl of Chester in capite, 
 the value of which was found to be nil. It was also found 
 that Ralph Torfote, aged nine years, was his heir-at-law. 
 John seems to have died on the feast of St. Maron (Ma'cra ?), 
 for, on 2 Henry VI., Richard del Wodde became the bailiff, 
 and continued such bailiff until the nineteenth year of the
 
 Frodsham. 75 
 
 King's reign, when the King granted the manor to Thomas 
 Danyell, esquire, of Frodsham, for his life ; but on the I4th 
 May, 19 Henry VI., the King issued this supersedeas of his 
 former order : " Henri, &c. To John Troutbek, chamberlain 
 of Chester greting : How be it that now late we commaunded 
 you by oure Ires undre our prive seel to make undre our seel 
 of Chester being in your keping oure Ires patentes of graunte 
 to our Squier Thomas Daniell, son of our hexman (Exon ?), 
 for terme of his life of the manoir of Frodesham with the 
 appurtenaunces in the countee of Chestre, the which as we 
 were at that time enformed passed not in yerely value xx.li., 
 and moreover for to execute our lettres undre the signet of 
 the Egle and alsoe our Ires under our prive signet of our 
 armes, yet for asmoche as sith our said graunt we have bene 
 credibly enformed that the said manoir with the appurten' is 
 of much greater value than xx.li. we charged you therefore to 
 bring and deliver unto us and oure counsaill the said Ires of 
 our graunt the which ye have to doe, whereof and alsoe that 
 yf ye have not executed them after our first commaundements 
 by our said Ires we hold you fully excused, quitted, and 
 discharged agenst us for ever, and we charge you that by 
 vertue of the said Ires ye late ne thing passe our seid seel. 
 And for asmoche that we considre wel the good service that 
 the said Thomas hath doon unto us and shall doe in tyme to 
 come we have therefore of our grace speciale graunted unto 
 him xx.li. by yere to have it, and take it during his life of the 
 issues, prowfetes, and revenues comyng of the said manoir of 
 Frodesham with the appurten', by the hands of receivours, 
 fermours, baillifs, or occupyours of the said manoir for the 
 tyme being at the termes of Seint Michel and of Estre 
 by even portions. Wherefore we wol and charge you that 
 upon this oure graunt that ye doo make our Ires patentes undre 
 our seel of Chestre being in your kepeing in due fourme. 
 Yeven, &c. at Shene." On i8th May, 8 Henry VI. (1430), the 
 King appointed William Lancastre to be the mower of his 
 manor of Frodsham during pleasure, and to have with it 
 the accustomed fees and rewards. (Ches. Records.) On I5th 
 October, 14 Henry VI. (1435), the King let to farm, to John
 
 76 Frodsham. 
 
 Wilkinson, of Dunham, his fishery of Frodsham, called Le 
 Warthes, lately held by Thomason, of Ince, to hold for the 
 term of twelve years, at the rent of 13^. ^d. a year. (Ib.) In 
 
 18 Henry VI. (1440), Ralph Torfote, of Frodsham, a minor, 
 son and heir of John Torfote, and a ward of the King, died, 
 and by his inquisition post-mortem it was found that he died 
 seised of the same office of sergeant, warden of the gaol, and 
 of lands in Overton held by grand sergeanty that his father 
 had held, and that William Torfote, his cousin, aged thirty, 
 was his next heir. (Hist. Ches., II., 29 n., Helsby's ed.) It 
 is evident from these inquisitions that the Castle of Frodsham 
 was used as the gaol of the manor, and that the office of being 
 its constable was then hereditary. In 21 Henry VI. (1443), 
 John Danyell appears to have been bailiff of Frodsham. From 
 
 19 Henry VI. (1441)10 31 Henry VI. (1451), Thomas Danyell, 
 esquire, farmed the manor of Frodsham for his life, at the rent 
 of 30 a year. On loth April, 32 Henry VI. (1454), Thomas 
 Danyell being then dead, the King granted the manor to 
 his own uterine brother, Edmund of Hadham, Earl of Rich- 
 mond, father of that Earl of Richmond who displaced King 
 Richard III. from his throne, and whom that King hated so 
 very much that his very name excited his anger, as is shown 
 by many passages in the tragedy of " Richard III." : 
 
 Richmond aims 
 
 At young Elizabeth, my brother's daughter, 
 And by that knot looks proudly on the crown. 
 
 (Act iv., scene 3.) 
 
 Again 
 
 Richmond is on the seas, 
 There let him sink, and be the seas on him ; 
 White-livered runagate, what doth he there ? 
 
 (Act iv., scene 4.) 
 
 And again 
 
 Richmond ! when last I was at Exeter, 
 
 The mayor, in courtesy, showed me the castle, 
 
 And call'd it Rougemont, at which name I started ; 
 
 Because a bard of Ireland told me once 
 
 I should not live long after I saw Richmond. 
 
 (Act iv., scene 2.)
 
 Frodsham. 7 7 
 
 In 23 Henry VI., the court and halmote made an order to pay 
 the workmen for working at the ditch on Frodsham marsh, 
 and for repairing the mills. (Ches. Records.) In 35 Henry 
 VI. (1457), Edmund of Hadham died, and by his inquisition 
 post-mortem it was found that he died seised of the manor of 
 Frodsham in demesne as of fee held in capite of the prince as 
 Earl of Chester, by military service, at the rent of 16 a year. 
 (Ches. Records, Inquisitions Post-mortem.) During these years 
 the capital lordship continued vested in the earldom, and, 
 whilst Edmund of Hadham was in possession of the dependent 
 manor, this paramount royalty was enumerated among the 
 members of the earldom, which were granted with the 
 principality of Wales and Duchy of Cornwall to Richard 
 Duke of York on the pacification which took place between 
 him and Henry VI. in 1458. (Rot. Parl., v. p. 380.) In 38 
 Henry VI. (1459), John, son of Richard de Kingsley, was slain, 
 fighting for King Henry, at Blore. (Earwaker's E. Ches., II., 
 3.) On 1 3th October, 1454, 33 Henry VI., Edward, son of 
 Henry VI., who was born at Westminster on the following 
 I5th March, 35 Henry VI. (1455), was created in Parliament 
 Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and was murdered at 
 Tewkesbury on May 4th, 1471, as both history and Shakspere 
 inform us. In this reign there are among the Cheshire 
 Records rolls of the courts and halmotes of Frodsham in 
 the following years: 10 Henry VI., 21 Henry VI., 23 
 Henry VI., 29 Henry VI. Henry VI. died a few days 
 after the battle of Tewkesbury, which was fought on 4th 
 May, 1471. 
 
 Of the monarchs who have been the owners of Frodsham, 
 two, as we have seen, have been thrust from their thrones 
 irregularly and before their natural demise. Edward II. 
 had so completely given himself up to favourites that all 
 parties united in extorting from him a resignation of his 
 sceptre ; and as the step from the throne to the grave 
 is ever a short one, so the King's resignation was quickly 
 followed by 
 
 The shrieks of death through Berkeley's roofs that ring 
 Shrieks of an agonizing King !
 
 78 Frodsham. 
 
 Richard II., in Pontefract Castle, also only survived his 
 deposition a short time before he fell by Exton's axe, and his 
 murderer could say to Bolingbroke, who had set him on the 
 crime 
 
 Great King, within this coffin I present 
 Thy buried fear. Herein, all breathless lies 
 The mightiest of thy greatest enemies, 
 Richard of Bordeaux, by me hither brought. 
 
 But Henry VI. was put aside and his crown placed on his 
 successor's head in a different manner from either of the 
 foregoing sovereigns. After the battle of Towton supposed 
 to be one of the most bloody and fatal not only that occurred 
 in the Wars of the Roses, but that ever happened in any 
 domestic war Edward of York, on whose side victory declared 
 herself, marched to London, which he immediately entered 
 amidst the acclamations of the citizens. He was young and 
 handsome, and finding the way open, he now aimed to assume 
 the dignity of King ; but he rather preferred to have the 
 crown given to him by a sort of election such an election as 
 was sometimes seen in Rome, when an aspirant for the purple 
 had an army at his back. But as either a national consent or 
 the appearance of it seemed necessary, notwithstanding that 
 he was at the head of the House of York, on whose title the 
 House of Lancaster had usurped, and as there was no Parlia- 
 ment sitting, or that could without waste of time be assembled, 
 he took a new mode to attain his purpose. At his orders his 
 army assembled at St. John's Fields, near London, attended 
 by great numbers of the people, and having harangued this 
 great multitude, and set forth his own title and inveighed 
 against that of the rival house, he demanded of them whether 
 they would have Henry VI., whom he had vanquished, for 
 their King, or whether they would accept him who was the 
 eldest son of the Duke of York. The multitude unanimously 
 denounced the late King, and with loud acclamations declared 
 that they would take Edward for their King. A great number 
 of bishops, nobles, and others afterwards assembled at 
 Baynard's Castle, and they agreeing to the resolution which 
 the people had come to, the popular election was ratified ; and
 
 Frodsham. 79 
 
 on the next day, the 5th March, 1461, the new King was pro- 
 claimed in London by the title of Edward IV. But as the 
 late King's only son, Prince Edward, who had been created 
 Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on I4th March, 1455, 
 was living, in him, therefore, notwithstanding the transference 
 of the crown, the earldom of Chester and Frodsham, which 
 was part of it, continued to be vested, which may account for 
 our finding in the Cheshire Records less frequent notices of 
 Frodsham occurring in the early years of the reign of 
 Edward IV. We find, however, that from the first to the 
 twelfth year of Edward IV., Richard Carlisle was the farmer 
 of Frodsham under Edward Prince of Wales. (Cheshire 
 Records.) On the 4th May, 14/1, only just before this period 
 ended, this Prince met his death ; and we read how the 
 memory of it tortured his murderer, Clarence, in his 
 dream : 
 
 Then came wandering by 
 A shadow like an angel, with bright hair 
 Dabbled in blood ; and he squeak'd out aloud, 
 " Clarence is come ! false, perjur'd, fleeting Clarence, 
 That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury ! 
 Seize on him, furies ! take him to your torments ! " 
 
 In 14 Edward IV., Richard Carlisle died, and Blanche, his 
 widow, farmed the land for that year. On the 7th July (or, 
 according to the History of Cheshire, vol. I., p. 46, 26th July), 
 n Edward IV. (1471), the heir-apparent who was born on 
 the 4th November, 1470, and was consequently not one year 
 old was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and 
 the lordship of Frodsham, which was a portion of it, was 
 granted to him by his royal father, to whom it had reverted 
 on the death of the Prince of Wales, who had been slain at 
 Tewkesbury. (Ches. Records.) On 7th September, 14 Edward 
 IV. (1474), the infant Prince demised Frodsham to Thomas, 
 Lord Stanley, for the term of ten years, and from that time he 
 continued to hold it to 5 Henry VII. (Ibid.) In 16 Edward 
 IV. (1476), Thomas Beeston of Frodsham died, and his 
 inquisition post-mortem is among the Cheshire Records. In 
 1 8 Edward IV. (1478), Richard Torfote, whose name is now
 
 8o Frodsham. 
 
 transformed into Torsot, died, and his inquisition finds that 
 he held the office of bailiff of Frodsham, and that his son, 
 Arthur Torfote, aged thirty-eight, was his heir. (Ibid.) On 
 9th April, 1482, Edward IV. died, in the twenty-third year of 
 his reign. It has been said that, like some chess-players, he 
 was less fitted to prevent ills by wise precautions than to 
 remedy them after they took place. On his death the 
 earldom of Chester and the lordship of Frodsham once more 
 reverted to the crown, the young Prince of Wales, to whom 
 it was granted, having now become King as Edward V. In 
 the first year of the young King's reign an inquisition post- 
 mortem on John de Davenport is to be found in the Cheshire 
 Records, which, when we consider that the Crown never 
 actually descended on the young King's head, is to be 
 wondered at. While preparations were actually making to 
 crown Edward V., his unnatural uncle was meditating to 
 destroy him and to step into his place ; and soon Tyrrel, his 
 creature, who had found the means to put the young King 
 and his brother, the Duke of York, to death, was heard to 
 say 
 
 The tyrannous and bloody deed is done : 
 The most arch act of piteous massacre 
 That ever yet this land was guilty of. 
 
 That age was, indeed, a very sad one for princes. Edward 
 Prince of Wales, the son of Henry VI., was treacherously 
 slain at Tewkesbury ; and now Edward V., who had but lately 
 succeeded him as Prince of Wales, and his younger brother 
 Richard, Duke of York, had been as treacherously put to 
 death by their unnatural uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. The 
 wars of York and Lancaster, which had accustomed men to 
 scenes of blood, seemed to have made the great think but 
 little of great crimes when they stood in the way of their 
 ambition. 
 
 No two things could have been more unlike than the 
 manner in which Edward IV. and Richard III. ascended the 
 throne of England. In taking possession of the throne the 
 former was in the bloom of youth, remarkable for his hand- 
 some person, and had distinguished himself by his activity and
 
 Frodsham. 8 1 
 
 bravery, and though the best legal right to the throne was in 
 him, he did not claim it on that ground, but was content to 
 be carried to it and to be placed in it by the tumultuary and 
 simultaneous election of a nation in its enthusiasm. But 
 Richard, who succeeded him, was neither young nor hand- 
 some, nor had he the pretence of a legal right to the throne, 
 for his brother's two sons and several of his daughters were 
 living ; neither was he a popular favourite, nor was he carried 
 to the throne by the people's voice. He took the crown on 
 the cry of a crowd, whose voices his creatures had bought to 
 shout for him, and of whom, though he knew of their design, he 
 hypocritically professed to be afraid. Of his personal appear- 
 ance, take the description he gave of himself, as we have it 
 from our immortal dramatist : 
 
 I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion, 
 Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, 
 Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time 
 Into this breathing world scarce half made up, 
 . And that so lamely and unfashionable 
 
 That dogs bark at me as I halt by them 
 Why, I, in this weak, piping time of peace, 
 Have no delight to pass away the time. 
 
 (Richard III., act I, sc. i.) Having, however, been bold enough 
 to take the crown in this most irregular manner, on 22nd 
 June, 1483, Richard determined to maintain by force what he 
 had taken by fraud ; and to make himself secure against the 
 rightful claims of Edward's heirs, and, as it were, to strengthen 
 his own possession by extinguishing their right, he caused the 
 young Princes Edward V. and the Duke of York to be foully 
 put to death in the Tower by his creature Tyrrell. A throne 
 thus cemented was hardly likely to endure long. At this time, 
 however, there being no earldom of Chester, all its possessions, 
 and Frodsham amongst them, became vested in Richard as 
 King de facto, but they only remained so vested for a short 
 time; for on 24th August, 1483, the King's son, Edward, a boy 
 often years old, was then in the usual manner created Earl of 
 Chester ; but he was destined to enjoy that honour only for a 
 short season, for in March of the following year he was carried 
 
 G
 
 82 Frodsham. 
 
 off by death, and the earldom, with all its possessions, reverted 
 to the King, who was now childless. When the King took the 
 crown, Arthur Torfote was bailiff of the manor of Frodsham, 
 and no change took place in the office during the remainder 
 of the reign. On the loth April, i Richard III. (1484), the 
 office of bailiff of the hundred of Edisbury having become 
 vacant, the King appointed John Coke to fill that office for 
 his life, and to have all the issues and profits belonging to 
 it (Ches. Records) ; and on the same day he made Hugh 
 Grimesdiche surveyor and supervisor of all the works and 
 repairs to be done at the King's castles, lordships, and manors 
 within the counties of Chester and Flynt for the term of his 
 life, and gave him for his wages in that office fourpence a day. 
 (Ib.) This would give Hugh the oversight, amongst the rest, 
 of the castle at Frodsham. On the iQth June, i Richard III. 
 (1484), the escheator of Cheshire was commanded to deliver 
 to Thomas, the son of William Roter, deceased, the capital 
 messuage and lands in Kingsley, which his father had held on 
 the day on which he died. (Ib.) On the 5th September, 
 2 Richard III. (1484), the King granted Sir John Savage, one 
 of the valets of his body, an annuity of twenty marks for his 
 life to be issuing out of the profits of the forest of Maccles- 
 field, and to be paid to him by the bailiff of the same forest. 
 (Ib.) "Coming events cast their shadows before," and this 
 grant to Sir John Savage was intended to secure a powerful 
 man in his interest, and to bind him to it ; but we shall see 
 afterwards how far the device failed of its intended effect. 
 Thomas Lord Stanley, one of the few powerful nobles of 
 whom the King wished most to attach to his cause, had 
 farmed Frodsham under the crown since 15 Edward IV., and 
 he was continued as such farmer during all the remainder of 
 the present reign. Richard, in the hope of attaching him to 
 his interest, if not of making him his friend, had heaped favours 
 on his noble farmer at Frodsham ; but the noble, who was 
 cautious and wary, had seen how Richard had made an enemy 
 of Buckingham, who had been his greatest friend, and had 
 despatched Hastings, another friend, and had also seen a 
 distich which had been freely handed about, in which the
 
 Frodsham. 83 
 
 King was alluded to under his cognizance of the boar, and 
 some of his chief friends were pointed to as the rat, the cat, 
 and the dog, which my lord taking it to be a floating straw, 
 indicating that the King was not popular, put Lord Stanley 
 on his guard. This was the distich 
 
 The rat, the cat, and Level the dog 
 Rule all England under the hog. 
 
 On the pth December, 2 Richard III. (1484), the King issued 
 his mandate to Sir William Stanley, knight, the chamberlain 
 of Chester, directing him to make out and address his letters 
 to sufficient persons requiring them to take the musters of the 
 King's people in the counties of Chester and Flynt, and so to 
 order them as to be ready to wait upon the King and to do 
 him service in warre, upon one hour's warning. (Ib.) On the 
 1 5th December, 2 Richard III. (1484), Sir Thomas Manley, 
 knight, a near neighbour to Frodsham, with William Troutbeck 
 and Richard Winnington, esquires, received a command to 
 muster the men of the hundred of Edisbury before them in 
 their best array. (Ib.) These men were no doubt mustered 
 at Frodsham, as the chief place of the hundred, where the 
 muster, as portending something serious at hand, would make 
 the inhabitants there look grave. On the same day similar 
 commissions issued to other persons to muster the men of 
 the several other hundreds of the county in like manner. 
 (Ib.) In the autumn of I Richard III. (1483), the Duke of 
 Buckingham, whose machinations had secured to the King his 
 crown, had in so doing created a debt too great to be owing 
 from a King to a subject, which, as a consequence, lost him 
 the King's favour, and then, from being great friends, they 
 became the greater enemies. On the i8th October, 1483, 
 the duke set up his standard of revolt, but some great floods 
 and stormy tempests which happened proved to be a worse 
 power than all the King's arms, and, the duke's forces having 
 been dispersed by the elements, he was betrayed into the hands 
 of Richard, who immediately put him to death. But distrust 
 sat beside the King on his usurped throne, and Buckingham's 
 insurrection was scarcely over before the air was filled with 
 
 G2
 
 84 Frodsham. 
 
 rumours that Henry of Richmond, who was the son of that 
 Henry of Hadham who had lately held Frodsham for life, was 
 meditating a descent upon England, with a view of claiming 
 the crown. In his impatience under these rumours, we may 
 imagine the King taking up the language of the Earl of 
 Northumberland on another occasion 
 
 Get posts and letters, and make friends with speed, 
 Never so few and never yet such need. 
 
 The ink of the order given to Sir Thomas Manley was hardly 
 dry before it was followed, on the i8th of the same month of 
 December, by a commission to Sir Thomas Stanley, knight, 
 William Troutbeck, Hugh Donne, and Richard de Wynyngton, 
 esquires, commanding them also to muster before them the 
 men of the hundred of Edisbury "in their best array or 
 harness for warre." (Ib.) It was to resist this expected 
 enemy that the King gave orders for the muster of the 
 Cheshire men in general, and that of the men of Edisbury 
 in particular. He was the lord of Frodsham, and had a right 
 to expect the loyalty of the people there ; but the spirit of 
 loyalty did not extend far outside the borders, if we are to 
 believe what is said, that under the very walls of Halton 
 Castle, which is so near, Sir John Savage, whom the King, 
 to attach him to his cause, had lately pensioned, actually 
 mustered the troops which formed the left wing of the army 
 of the King's adversary and was to confront the King. 
 These December preparations were made none too soon, for 
 on the 6th January following, as the King was celebrating the 
 Epiphany in his royal robes, and wearing the crown which 
 had been twice placed upon his head for he had gone through 
 two coronations, one at Westminster and the other at York 
 news was brought him that the Earl of Richmond was about 
 to invade England. Not knowing where the earl would land, 
 the King stationed himself at Nottingham, and issued a 
 proclamation to all his subjects to aid him, and threatening 
 with death all such as should disobey it. Having landed 
 at Milford Haven, the Earl marched through Shropshire, and 
 the two armies met at Bosworth on 23rd August, 1485, and
 
 Frodsham. 85 
 
 there the King, after showing prodigies of valour, was struck 
 down, fatally, in the* moment that he was about to cross swords 
 with the Earl of Richmond. Of the King, the unworthy lord 
 of Frodsham, who thus fell, it might be said, as was said of 
 the rebel Cawdor 
 
 Nothing in his life 
 Became him like the leaving it. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 HENRY VII. 
 
 HENRY VII., who was saluted King of England upon the 
 field of Bosworth, was at once crowned there with the golden 
 circlet which was taken from the head of his dead adversary, 
 whose body was found buried under a heap of the slain. 
 Henry had but a small claim to the throne, as representing 
 the house of Lancaster, for his mother, Margaret, Countess 
 of Richmond, through whom he claimed, though the only 
 daughter and heir of the Duke of Somerset, who sprang 
 from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, came only of an 
 illegitimate alliance of the same duke, the issue of which, 
 though afterwards legitimized by an act of Parliament, was 
 not so legalized as to give them a right to succeed to the 
 Crown. To this insecure claim to the Crown as a prince of 
 the house of Lancaster, Henry could, however, add what was 
 more feasible that of conquest, of which his late victory was 
 a proof. But when he afterwards married the Princess 
 Elizabeth, the undoubted heiress of the house of York, he 
 obtained by matrimony a title to the throne, which was by far 
 the clearest of the three, though he was fond of ignoring this 
 his best title, while he was ever putting forward his own. On 
 the 1 8th January, 1486, his marriage with the Princess took 
 place, and his threefold title became complete. Ever since he
 
 86 Frodsham. 
 
 became King de facto there had been no Earl of Chester, and 
 the possessions of that earldom, and amongst them Frodsham, 
 became vested in the King. The county of Chester, upon 
 the accession of every new Earl of Chester, was in the habit 
 of presenting the owner of that earldom with a subsidy of 
 three thousand marks, which was raised in a mode peculiar to 
 the county, by a rate called a mise or mize. By this mize, 
 which was of very ancient date, every vill in the county was 
 estimated at a certain small sum, which was supposed to 
 represent its whole value in proportion to the whole value of 
 the county. The present land-tax, which was made perpetual 
 in the reign of William III., was not very dissimilar in its 
 origin, for every township in England had the same sum fixed 
 upon it then which it pays now, and all that the collector has 
 to do is to divide the sum ratably amongst the ratepayers of 
 his township. So the sum originally fixed on the vills by the 
 mize continued always the same, and when a subsidy of three 
 thousand marks had to be raised, it was at once known how 
 many mizes were required to raise it, and each collector of a 
 vill knew what he had to pay of the mize, which continued 
 to exist up to the present century. A few examples may be 
 given to show the sums which were originally imposed in 
 Frodsham and some of the other places in Edisbury hundred. 
 Thus in Frodsham the mize was i. i6s.; in Helsby, icw. ; in 
 Kingsley, 1 ; in Manley, IQJ.; and in Norley, IDS. The mode 
 of rating by the mize had this advantage in it, that when a rate 
 was laid every township knew how much it was required to 
 raise in order to make up the gross sum. But a plan which 
 did not take into account the constant alteration in the value 
 of the townships from time to time had more simplicity than 
 equity to recommend it, and accordingly in this century it has 
 been numbered among the things that have passed away. 
 But the custom of welcoming a successor to the earldom by 
 the grant of a subsidy on the occasion was little likely to be 
 overlooked by the new monarch, and accordingly, on the 
 25th March, i Henry VII. (1486), the freeholders and other 
 inhabitants of the county, having assembled, granted the King 
 as usual three thousand marks to be levied by way of mize,
 
 Frodsham. 87 
 
 and to be levied in three years ; and they at the same time 
 " desiret that they might have a confirmation of theire 
 franchises, customs, and liberties which the King granted 
 them as aforetime." (Ches. Records.) In 3 Henry VII. 
 (1487), Arthur Torfote, who had been for some time the 
 bailiff of Frodsham, died, and by the inquisition post-mortem 
 which was taken, it was found that his son and heir was 
 Ludowic Torfote, then an infant of the age of five years, 
 whose wardship devolved to the crown. (Ib.) Lambert 
 Simnel, a pretender to the crown, after being crowned in 
 Dublin by the Archbishop of Armagh, on 4th March, 1487, 
 with a crown taken from an image of the Virgin Mary, 
 invaded England. (Henry's Hist. Eng., XL, 15.) On the 6th 
 June, 1487, the King put down Simnel's insurrection, in the 
 battle of Stoke, when Simnel was made prisoner, and from 
 being a mock king was reduced to be a real scullion in the 
 King's kitchen. (Hume's Hist. Eng., III., 329.) On the loth 
 August, 2 Henry VII. (1487), the King, for a money consider- 
 ation, which never failed to move him, gave Sir William 
 Stanley of Hooton, the representative of the eldest branch of 
 the great family of Stanley, licence to make and build up the 
 stone tower which he had begun at his manor house at Hooton, 
 and to make in it machicollations, battlements, and all other 
 things necessary and belonging to such a defensive work. 
 (Ches. Records.) On the 23rd October, 3 Henry VII. (1487), 
 the King commissioned Richard Prestland and Ralph Daven- 
 port, of Calveley, to levy one thousand marks, being the 
 Edisbury portion of the subsidy of three thousand marks 
 which had been granted by the county to the King. (Ib.) On 
 the 23rd September, 4 Henry VII. (1488), William Tatton 
 and Richard Birkened, the King's justices in eyre, were 
 ordered to hold the little swaynmote courts in the forest of 
 Mara and Mondrem, from time to time, according to custom. 
 (Ib.) On the 24th September, 4 Henry VII. (1488), the 
 sheriff received a command to cause a fit person to be elected 
 coroner for the hundred of Edisbury. (Ib.) We have once 
 before heard of such an officer being appointed for Frodsham. 
 On the loth October, 4 Henry VII. (1488), John Bruyn,
 
 88 Frodsham* 
 
 Randle Litleover, and others were appointed to collect the 
 Edisbury portion of the subsidy granted by the county. (Ib.) 
 On the I4th January, 5 Henry VII. (1489), an urgent appeal 
 for help having come from Britanny, the King gave his 
 commands to Hugh Calveley and Thomas Manley, knights, 
 and Richard Wynyngton, esquire, to muster the King's 
 subjects and tenants in the hundred of Edisbury, and to select 
 out of them forty of the best and most defensible men, to 
 form part of an army of six thousand men, which was to go 
 to Bretoyne to the relief and succour of the same. (Ib.) In 
 Britanny the King himself had received honourable shelter in 
 his exile, when to give it exposed that little kingdom to 
 danger, and now when she was assailed by internal commotion, 
 and her independence was threatened by France, he was 
 bound by the double motive of gratitude and policy to support 
 and protect her. But although he sent the six thousand men, 
 his love of money loaded his help with so many conditions 
 that it proved useless, and at the end of nine months his army 
 returned home, having done no good and earned no laurels, 
 but thrown Britanny into the hands of France. Amongst the 
 forty Edisbury men there were, doubtless, some disappointed 
 Frodshamites. 
 
 Thomas Lord Stanley, who had done the King such service 
 at Bosworth, and had married Margaret, the good Countess of 
 Richmond, the King's mother, was advanced on the 2/th 
 October, about two months after the battle, to the dignity of 
 Earl of Derby. He had for some time held in farm the King's 
 manor or lordship of Frodsham ; but in this year, thinking 
 perhaps that the title of farmer did but ill accord with his 
 new dignity, he gave up such farm. (Ches. Records.) On the 
 2 ist September, 5 Henry VII. (1489), the King granted to 
 Thomas Barowe, esquire, the wardship of all and singular the 
 manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments late of Arthur 
 Torford, which he had held of the King in capite, and which, 
 by reason of his death and the minority of his own son and 
 heir, Ludowic Torford, had fallen into the King's hands, to 
 hold the same until the said Ludowic should attain his full 
 age, with the right of his marriage in the meantime. (Ib.)
 
 Frodsham. 89 
 
 This feudal practice of selling the wardship and marriage of 
 minors in the time of our ancestors, and which continued until 
 it was abolished in the time of Charles II., was a heavy 
 burden on landowners, for the wardship gave the guardian the 
 profit of their ward's estate, and the money to be obtained by 
 bestowing him in marriage. The charges to which land is 
 subjected under the Succession Duty Acts is a small matter in 
 comparison with this old grievance. On the 23rd October, 
 5 Henry VII. (1489), Thomas Frodsham (the old local name 
 had not quite disappeared), Thomas Roter, Thomas Starkey 
 of Oulton, and Thomas Hulse of Ayton, were appointed to 
 collect 1000 marks, being the Edisbury portion of the 3000 
 marks, the subsidy granted to the King by the county of 
 Chester. (Ib.) On the 3Oth November, 5 Henry VII. (1489), 
 Prince Arthur, the King's first-born son, an event which gave 
 the nation great satisfaction, was created Prince of Wales 
 and Earl of Chester, and the earldom and its possessions 
 (Frodsham being amongst them) became vested in the new 
 earl. (Hist. Ches., I., 46.) On the 2ist June, 1490, the new 
 earl appointed William Tatton and Richard Birkened, esquires, 
 his justices in eyre, to hold from time to time courts of little 
 swaynmote in the forest of Mara and Mondrem, according to 
 ancient custom. (Ib.) These justices of the swaynmote or 
 rustic courts were the verderers before whom, though they 
 were officers inferior to the judges of justice, certain offences 
 against the forest laws were to be tried three times in the year. 
 On the ist February, 1491, the same earl granted to "William 
 the Gladiator" (?), the Mayor of Chester, for the faithful 
 service he had rendered to the King's most dread father, an 
 annuity of i6s. jd., to be paid to him during his life. (Ib.) 
 The title of this annuitant calls for some explanation, which 
 the writer is unable to give. On the 2ist November, 7 Henry 
 VII. (1481), the Prince issued his commission to the Mayor of 
 Chester to search in every haven and creek within his jurisdic- 
 tion for all ships and boats ready to convey any persons, except 
 merchants and traders, out of the kingdom of England into 
 Ireland, or to any other place, and to put all such persons as 
 were attempting so to pass under arrest until they should find
 
 9O Frodsham. 
 
 sureties. (Ib.) This embargo was the result of a zeal, promoted 
 by the King, and which had sprung up amongst the nobles 
 and people to react on French soil the glories of Cressy and 
 Agincourt In the same year mention is made in the Chester 
 Records of the existence of a lodge in Edisbury, the object 
 of which was probably to protect the game. About 10 Henry 
 VII. (1494), the Earl again issued his commission to William 
 Tatton and Ralph Birkened to hold swaynmote courts according 
 to the custom in the forest of Mara and Mondrem (ib.) ; and 
 on the nth March, 10 Henry VII. (1495), he granted to Peter 
 Newton the office of steward or seneschal of his manor or 
 lordship of Frodsham, to hold during the Earl's pleasure, and 
 to receive the accustomed fees of such office. (Ib.) It was, of 
 course, the duty of the seneschal to preside at the frequent 
 manor courts, which at times were scenes of disorder requiring 
 tact or management to control them. In the year 1495, the 
 King and Queen meditated a journey to the north, to visit the 
 Earl of Derby and the Countess of Richmond, the King's 
 mother. He had two objects in this visit, one of which was 
 to soothe the wounded feelings of the earl, who had not 
 forgotten his brother Sir William Stanley's recent death at 
 the King's hands, and the other, which was more commendable, 
 was to show respect to the Countess, his honoured, mother. On 
 the I4th July in the same year, the King and Queen, who had 
 slept at Vale Royal, journeyed from thence to Warrington, 
 having on their way passed near, if not through, some part of 
 the parish of Frodsham. (Leland's Itinerary.) There is a well 
 authenticated story that Earl Randle Blundeville being besieged 
 by the Welsh in Rhudlan Castle, was rescued by his constable, 
 Roger Lacy, and a great band of strollers and musicians, 
 whom he had collected at Chester fair, which they were 
 attending, and having for this received from the earl the power 
 to grant licences to all minstrels and strollers within the 
 county for all time, that his son and successor transferred 
 this privilege to his seneschal, Hugh de Dutton, and his 
 heirs. The privilege continued to be exercised by Hugh's 
 successors down to our own times, and when Roger, one of 
 Hugh's successors, died, u Henry VII. (1496), the Earl of
 
 Frodsham. g i 
 
 Chester, on the 24th June in that year (calling himself Prince 
 of Wales and Earl of Chester), appointed Richard Warehall 
 the Mayor of Chester, and William Tatton and Hamon 
 Hassall, esquires, for that term only, to be his seneschals, to 
 hold a court in the city of Chester for licensing the minstrels 
 of the county, in consequence of the death of Roger Button, 
 to whom such court belonged, and to do thereat all and what- 
 soever was customary to be done therein. (Ches. Records.) 
 Ludowic Torfote, son and heir of Arthur Torfote, being still 
 under age, Ralph Birkened, in II Henry VII., seems to have 
 been acting as the bailiff, and to have continued so to act 
 during the remainder of the King's reign ; and on the 1st 
 January, 12 Henry VII. (1497), the earl granted him the 
 manor and lordship of Frodsham, with all the messuages, 
 lands, meadows, and tenements to the same manor belonging, 
 with all heriots, mills, ovens, perquisites of courts and fisheries, 
 and all other liberties in the vill, manor, and lordship aforesaid, 
 and to the same belonging, to hold the same for the term of 
 thirty years, at the yearly rent of forty-eight pounds. (Ib.) 
 
 In 1496, the kingdom being threatened with invasion by 
 the pretender Perkin Warbeck, whose cause had found some 
 favour in Scotland, King Henry took advantage of the occasion 
 to ask for and obtain a subsidy from Parliament ; but when 
 the tax came to be collected in 1497, the Cornish people rose 
 in rebellion, under one Flammoc, and refused to pay it. To 
 resist them forces must be raised, and on the loth April in 
 the same year, Prince Arthur, Earl of Chester, appointed 
 Sir Richard Pole and others to superintend the array of all 
 the defensible men of the hundred of Edisbury and the several 
 other hundreds of the county. (Ib.) But these Cheshire levies 
 probably never marched to meet the rebels, for they were 
 completely overthrown in the battle of Blackheath, on the 
 22nd June in the same year, by an army commanded by the 
 King in person. On the ist June in the same year, the Prince, 
 as Earl of Chester, appointed James Manley, esquire, and 
 others to collect in Edisbury hundred the sum of one thousand 
 marks, being its portion of the subsidy of three thousand 
 marks granted to the King to maintain his war against
 
 92 Frodsham. 
 
 his ancient enemy the King of Scots. (Ibid.) But 
 neither were these forces needed, for between England and 
 Scotland a truce was agreed to ; but the King nevertheless 
 kept the subsidy. On the Qth August in the same year, Philip 
 de Lea and two other Cheshire men, being confined in Chester 
 Castle, to which they had been committed for refusing to serve 
 the Prince and the King, his father, in their last expedition 
 to Scotland or the Scottish border, perhaps the Prince, as 
 Earl of Chester, gave his commands to Ralph Birkened, the 
 under-sheriff, and to the Constable of the Castle of Chester, 
 to set them at liberty, having first taken sureties from them. 
 (Ib.) On the i6th January, 13 Henry VII. (1498), the Prince, 
 as Earl of Chester, made a grant to William Molineux of all 
 issues of pleas in the hundred of Edisbury, and also of all fines, 
 amercements, forfeitures, and advantages of the bailiwick of 
 the same hundred for the term of ten years, at a certain rent 
 to be paid for the same. (Ib.) Ever since the Conquest 
 English money under several monarchs had been deteriorating 
 in value, for even when the denomination of the coins continued 
 the same, the quantity of silver was different. Originally the 
 pound of silver was coined into twenty shillings that is, of 
 the moneys of account of that name, for there was as yet no 
 English coin of that denomination until the time of Henry 
 VII. Edward III. reduced the penny, which had originally 
 contained 22^ grains, to 18 grains, and it was again reduced 
 by several of his successors, until the 43rd of Queen Elizabeth, 
 when she reduced it to 7f f. grains, at which it has ever since 
 remained ; the effect of which is, that the pound of silver, 
 instead of being coined into twenty shillings, is now coined 
 into sixty-five shillings and a fraction, at which it has ever 
 since continued. Henry VII., who was the first after our 
 third Henry to put numerals after his name upon any of his 
 coins, had such insatiable avarice to possess them, that it 
 betrayed him into the unkingly vice of causing light money 
 to be issued ; and this, with the quantity of clipped money in 
 circulation, raised great complaints among the people, to 
 silence which he procured it to be enacted by Parliament that 
 no person should refuse the King's coin on account of
 
 Frodsham. 93 
 
 thinness on pain of imprisonment or death. This complaint 
 of the coin, as was natural, reached Cheshire ; and about the 
 month of March, 14 Henry VII. (1499), Prince Arthur, as 
 Earl of Chester, commanded the mayor of his city of Chester 
 to make proclamation that no person in the said city should 
 refuse to take in payment such pennies as were good money 
 of the coin of our lord the King and had run in payment 
 before-time, were they never so little, except Irisshe spur money 
 with little mullets. (Ib.) On 3Oth September, 14 Henry VII. 
 (1499), the same Prince granted to Ralph Birkened the 
 office of forest rider of the forest of Mara and Mondrem for 
 his life, at the wages of threepence a day. (Ib.) On the ist 
 June, 1 6 Henry VII. (1501), the same Prince appointed James 
 Bruyn, esquire, of Stapleford, with others, to collect 1000 
 marks in Edisbury hundred, being its proportion of the subsidy 
 of 3000 marks granted by the county to the Prince as Earl of 
 Chester. (Ib.) This subsidy was no doubt a feudal aid, 
 intended to compliment Prince Arthur on his approaching 
 marriage with Katharine, the Infanta of Spain, the daughter 
 of Ferdinand and Isabella, the famous King and Queen of 
 Spain, the patrons of Columbus, the discoverer of the New 
 World. This marriage, which was considered auspicious, 
 took place on the I2th November, 1501 ; but in a few 
 months afterwards the Prince sickened, and he died at 
 Ludlow, on 2nd April, 1502. (Hume's Hist. Eng., III., 385-6.) 
 On the Prince's death the earldom of Chester again reverted 
 to the crown ; but notwithstanding the death of the Prince, 
 for whose benefit the subsidy had been granted, the King 
 could not forego receiving the money, and accordingly, on the 
 1 2th June, 17 Henry VII. (1502), barely two months after his 
 son Arthur's death, he commissioned Hugh Starkey, esquire, 
 of Oulton, and others to collect, in Edisbury hundred, its 
 portion of the subsidy which had been granted by the whole 
 county, although he for whom it was wanted was, alas ! no 
 more. (Ib.) On the i8th February, 1503, the King's second 
 and now only surviving son, Henry Duke of York, of the age 
 of eleven years, was created Earl of Chester, which occasioned 
 a new subsidy of 3000 marks to be called for from the county;
 
 94 Frodsham. 
 
 and on the I2th June, 18 Henry VII. (1503), Ralph Spurstow, 
 John Hokenhull, William Frodsham, and Thomas Roter, 
 esquires, were appointed to collect the Edisbury portion of it 
 within that hundred. (Ib.) On the 5th March, 19 Henry VII. 
 (1504), Ludowic Torsot, the son of Arthur Torsot, a former 
 bailiff of Frodsham, who held lands in capite under the King, 
 having attained twenty-one, proved his age before the proper 
 authority, and thereupon the escheator of Cheshire was 
 commanded to give him seisin of all the lands which his 
 father had held. (Ib.) On 3rd April, 19 Henry VII. (1504), 
 Henry, the new earl, appointed Sir Richard Pole, knight, to 
 be treasurer of the county of Chester during pleasure (ib.) ; 
 and on the I2th June, in the same year, he empowered James 
 Manley, esquire, Henry Bruyn of Tarvin, Richard Gerard of 
 Crewewood, and Randle Hokenhull to be collectors of the 
 Edisbury portion of the last subsidy of 3000 marks, which 
 the prelates, magnates, and other nobles, and the commonalty 
 of Chester had granted for the whole county to Arthur, late 
 Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and which had not been 
 collected in his lifetime. (Ib.) In 22 Henry VII. (1506), there 
 occurred a periodical shower of those writs of quo warranto 
 to which our sovereigns were wont to have recourse as a 
 favourite means of replenishing the* exchequer. The plan 
 was to issue these writs to the owners of such franchises as 
 fairs, markets, manors, and other royal privileges, calling upon 
 them to show their title by which they were held, when, if any 
 real fault were found in the title, the King would either seize 
 the unlawful franchise or confirm it for a consideration. In 
 the above year one of these writs reached the burgesses of 
 Frodsham, requiring them to show by what title they claimed 
 to be a borough, and they, in answer to it, produced their 
 ancient charter, which was allowed, but not without a few 
 drops of gold being made to fall into the royal treasury. 
 (Hist. Ches., II., 30.) In 23 Henry VII. (1508), there occurred 
 at Frodsham a curious robbery, of which the following account 
 is translated from the record given of it in the new edition 
 of the History of Cheshire. It charges that Christopher 
 Burtonwode, late of Chester, and brother of John Burtonwode,
 
 Frodsham. 
 
 95 
 
 prior of the house and church of the Blessed Mary of the 
 Order of Carmelites in that city, on Friday in the first week 
 of Lent, in 23 Henry VII., at Frodsham, did break into 
 and enter the parish church there, and take one copper 
 cross, gilt with gold, of the value of four marks, and a 
 certain small silver pix of the value of ten marks, of the 
 goods and chattels of the parish of Frodsham, in the keeping 
 of Henry Brownswert and Richard Hogh, then wardens of 
 the said church, and did feloniously take and carry away ; 
 and the said Christopher having been tried and found 
 guilty of the said offence, did plead the benefit of clergy, 
 whereupon, the book being delivered to the said Christopher 
 by the court, he read it as a clerk, and was then delivered to 
 Henry Sharman, chaplain and bachelor of laws, and Radulph 
 Byrkenhed, gentleman, the proctors for John Veyzez, doctor 
 of laws, the archdeacon, to whom it belongs to hear and 
 examine all such secular crimes whatsoever as were alleged 
 against the prisoner aforesaid. (Hist, of Ches., Helsby's ed., 
 II., 55, in notes.) Veyzez (or Voysy), the archdeacon, to whom 
 the accused was then delivered, was a distinguished clerical 
 and political writer. He was admitted to the archdeaconry 
 on 27th August, 1499, and in 1515 he was made Bishop of 
 Exeter. After the year 1502, the Cheshire Records give us 
 no further notice of the reign of King Henry VII., which 
 terminated by his death on 2ist April, 1509, at the age of 
 fifty-four, his Queen, Elizabeth, having died several years 
 before him. The King, whose ruling passion was for acquiring 
 money, for which he had the touch of Midas, made Empson and 
 Dudley, two of the mean creatures who had helped him in his 
 extortions, to be two commissioners under his will, by which 
 he directed that 2000 masses should be said for his soul within 
 a month after his decease. So avaricious and mercenary a 
 monarch as Henry VII., who has sometimes been called 
 Solomon, could only have been so called in irony ; but of 
 him, as of Louis XI. of France, who had no ministers, it 
 might be said that his horse was a strong one, for whenever 
 he mounted on his back it carried the King and his whole 
 council.
 
 96 Prods ham. 
 
 When our fourth Henry, with the crown lying on his 
 pillow, thinking death to be near him, addressed his son (the 
 Prince of Wales), he said 
 
 Heaven knows, my son, 
 By what byepaths and indirect crooked ways 
 I met this crown ; and I myself know well 
 How troublesome it sat upon my head. 
 To thee it shall descend with better quiet, 
 Better opinion, better confirmation ; 
 For all the soil of the achievement goes 
 With me into the earth. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 HENRY VIII. 
 
 WITH how much surer confidence of a happy succession 
 than this dying monarch entertained might Henry VII. have 
 transmitted the throne to his successor. Henry VIII., at the 
 age of seventeen, took the crown by an undoubted title. In 
 him the two roses of York and Lancaster were united. The 
 blood that had streamed so long in the war of the two houses 
 was staunched. He had great personal recommendations, and 
 excelled in all manly exercises, added to which the exchequer 
 was full to overflowing, which in the end proved rather a 
 disadvantage, by leading him to be lavish and profuse in his 
 expenditure on pomp and display. On the /th June, 1509, 
 the young King, who had been betrothed three years before, 
 was married on the 2Oth of the same month to the Princess 
 Katharine, his brother Arthur's widow, and the royal pair 
 were crowned at Westminster with great pomp and display. 
 On the ist January, 2 Henry VIII. (1510), the King, to whom, 
 there being no Earl of Chester or Lord of Frodsham, the 
 possessions of the earldom belonged, and all being merged in 
 the crown, granted to Robert Wodde all the issues and profits
 
 Frodsham. 9 7 
 
 belonging to the bailiwick and bedelry of the hundred of Edis- 
 bury, together with the pleas of the hundred court, and all fines, 
 amercements, forfeitures, and other advantages to the same 
 office belonging, to hold the same from the feast of St. Michael 
 last past to the full end and term of fourteen years. (Ches. 
 Records.) In 3 Henry VIII., an inquisition post-mortem 
 was taken on Richard Golborne, of Overton, but there is some 
 doubt to which of the Overtons the inquisition refers. (Ib.) 
 On the I5th July, 4 Henry VIII. (1512), as if the recent grant 
 made to Robert Wodde had not been sufficiently extensive, 
 he had another grant from the King of the office of bailiff of 
 the hundred of Edisbury, the same office which John Cohe 
 lately held, to hold to the aforesaid Robert during his life, and 
 to receive in the exercise of that office all such wages and fees 
 as the said John Coke aforetime had been accustomed to 
 receive. (Ib.) In or about the year 1514, Henry Gee, Mayor 
 of Chester, purchased the manor of Manley, and, by his will 
 of 2nd September in the above year, he devised the manor to 
 Ralph Button of Hatton, esquire, in fee. In his will he 
 mentions his effects at the Peel and at Manley. (Ches. Sheaf.) 
 In the year 1515 a violent contest arose, in which two persons, 
 both of whom have been mentioned before in our previous 
 pages, were concerned. These were Dr. Standish, afterwards 
 bishop of St. Asaph, and a benefactor to Frodsham bridge, 
 and Dr. Veysez or Voysy, the archdeacon of Chester (now 
 become dean of the King's Chapel). The point which gave 
 rise to the question was one that has occurred many a time 
 since, and has been in a sort revived in our own day 
 namely, whether or not the clergy should be exempt from 
 the jurisdiction of the secular courts of law. Dr. Standish, 
 who was a brave man, and always the friend of liberty and 
 order, was opposed to the exemption for which the clergy 
 contended, and so also was Dr. Voysy, to whom Burtonwode, 
 the clerk, convicted of sacrilege at Frodsham, was delivered, 
 after his trial at law. (Burnet's Reformation, I., 25 et seg.) In 
 February and March, 7 Henry VIII. (1516), the King, out of 
 his Cheshire revenues and resources, granted the following life 
 annuities, namely, to Sir Thomas Kynaston, knight, 40 ; to 
 
 H
 
 98 Frodsham. 
 
 William Davy, an attendant in his Ewery, 4 ; to Richard 
 Parker, an attendant in his pantry, 10 ; to William 
 Wynesbury, a valet of the guard, 10 ; to Thomas Sonde, 
 also a valet of the guard, the office of bailiff of Drakelowe, 
 with its fees and the wages of 3. los. ; and to William Pole 
 (a name which Reginald, the cardinal, afterwards made famous 
 in the King's daughter's reign) and to Edward ap John, the 
 former a valet of the guard and the latter an attendant in the 
 pantry, 9. 2s. 6d. for their lives and the life of the survivor. 
 (Ches. Records.) On the nth February in the same year, the 
 Queen had given birth to the Princess Mary, who, when 
 she in her turn became Queen, if the poet reports her truly, 
 could say 
 
 If we could burn out heresy, my Lord Paget, 
 We reck not tho' we lost this crown of England. 
 
 Tennyson's Queen Mary. 
 
 The annuities just mentioned were probably granted to the 
 King's servants to commemorate the birth of the Princess. 
 On the 1 5th January, 8'Henry VIII. (1516), the King appointed 
 Geoffrey, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, William Avedale 
 and Griffin Reas, knights, with others, to ask and require a 
 subsidy or gift from the tenants, commonalty, and inhabitants 
 of the county of Chester (Ches. Records) ; and on the 22nd 
 of the same month the prelates, abbots, knights, esquires, and 
 commonalty of the said county assembled in the King's 
 Exchequer at Chester, and granted the King a mize of three 
 thousand marks, to be levied, raised, and paid to him within 
 three years next coming. (Ib.) On the pth June, 8 Henry 
 VIII. (1516), the King appointed James Manley, esquire, and 
 Randle Davenport, esquire, of Calveley, with others, his 
 commissioners, to levy in the hundred of Edisbury the portion 
 of the above subsidy which belonged to that hundred. (Ib.) 
 In 9 Henry VIII. (1517), an inquisition being taken in the 
 neighbourhood after the death of one of the Beeston family, 
 it was found that his heir had the strange Christian name of 
 Tacherus. (Ib.) On the I9th April, 1 1 Henry VIII. (1519), 
 the Escheator of Cheshire received command to give seisin to
 
 Frodskam. 99 
 
 William Rutter, son and heir of Thomas Rutter, of the lands, 
 tenements, and hereditaments in Frodsham, Bradley, and other 
 places, of which the said Thomas had died possessed. (Ib.) 
 On the 1 2th June, n Henry VIII. (1519), John Beeston and 
 Thomas Trafford, esquires, with others, were commissioned to 
 levy and receive within the hundred of Edisbury all such part 
 and portion of the three thousand marks which had been 
 granted to the King by the magnates, nobles, and others of 
 the county of Chester, as was due and to be raised in the 
 hundred of Edisbury (ib.) ; and on the same day John ap 
 Robyn and John ap Nicholas were commissioned to receive a 
 subsidy which the county of Flint had granted to the King ; 
 and other commissioners were appointed at the same time to 
 receive the portions of the subsidy due from the other Cheshire 
 hundreds. (Ib.) 
 
 In June, 1520, the Kings of England and France, or, as 
 our immortal bard calls them, " those suns of glory, those two 
 lights of men," met near Calais, and held that triumphant 
 revel of twenty days, called the Field of the Cloth of Gold, 
 " 'twixt Guynes and Arde." Each monarch had a vast retinue 
 of knights, nobles, and others, who vied which should most 
 exceed the other in the lavish expenditure of money in pomp 
 and luxury, of which the consequences were long remembered 
 in England, where it was said of those present that many of 
 them " broke their backs by laying manors on them." If we 
 had a complete list of those who went with the King on this 
 occasion, which in its consequences resembled that to which it 
 was the very opposite a religious crusade, we should doubtless 
 find among them some names of the tenants of the King's 
 manor of Frodsham, and should perhaps find that some of 
 their lands found new owners afterwards, in consequence of 
 the expense they had incurred in this royal pageant. On the 
 I2th March, 12 Henry VIII. (1521), the King, in consideration 
 of the surrender by Robert Wodde, the bailiff of the hundred 
 of Edisbury, of certain letters patent which had been formerly 
 made to him, in order to their being cancelled, did give and 
 regrant to him the same office for his life ; and did also give 
 and grant to him all and every the rents, issues, and profits to 
 
 H2
 
 ioo Frodsham. 
 
 the same hundred of Edisbury belonging, without any account 
 thereof to be rendered of or for the same in anywise. (Ches. 
 Records.) 
 
 After this time the Cheshire Records, which have been so 
 valuable a mine of information, afford us very few notices of 
 the state of Frodsham or the neighbourhood, and they contain 
 only few inferential notices of the great events which marked 
 the King's reign and brought about the reformation of religion, 
 and overthrew those religious houses which the King's ancestors 
 had taken such pains to build up. In 29 Henry VIII. (1537), 
 Hugh Starkey, who was the farmer of Frodsham, and also the 
 seneschal or steward of Frodsham Court, signed and presented 
 the following petition in the Equity Court (the Exchequer) 
 of the county of Chester : " To the King's Chamberlain of 
 Chester. Sheweth unto your good mastership Hugh Starkey 
 of Oulton, esquire, and farmer of our Lord the King of the 
 manor and lordship of Frodsham, and steward of the same. 
 Whereas in the court of the said lordship, holden at Frodsham, 
 on Monday next after the feast of Saint Hugh the Bishop, in 
 the twenty-ninth year of the King's reign (iQth November, 
 1537), there was an action of debt commenced against one 
 John Witter, the younger, of Frodsham, which by process was 
 joined and put to twelve men, whereupon the bailiff received 
 an impanel, and then came the said John Witter and Richard 
 Witter of Frodsham, his brother, with him ; and when the 
 inquest appeared not, the said Richard Witter named divers 
 persons of known affinity to have been put in the said panel ; 
 and when Thomas Warburton, the keeper of the said court, 
 denied saying he could not put any into the panel but such as 
 the said bailiff should name, the said Richard Witter there- 
 upon said that the said Thomas was partial, and thereupon 
 the said John Witter put his cap upon his head and laid 
 his hand upon his dagger with divers and many great words 
 of menace and likelihood, and would have slain or wounded 
 the said Thomas if he had kept the said court any further, and 
 for dread thereof the said Thomas brake up the court, to the 
 King's loss and the great damage and hindrance of many of 
 his subjects. The petitioner then prayed the chamberlain to
 
 Frodsham. 101 
 
 send for the two Witters and commit them to ward, and to 
 assess fines upon them for their misdemeanour, and, further, 
 to bind them over for their good bearing to all the officers 
 and ministers of the lordship." (Hist. Ches., II., 49, in notes, 
 Helsby's ed.) This petition does not give a favourable view 
 of the order and decorum of the manor court in the time of 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 In the year 1541, the inhabitants of the county and city of 
 Chester, by a memorial, represented to the King's Majesty, 
 that although they were bound by the acts and statutes of the 
 High Court of Parliament, they had never had their knights 
 and burgesses within the said court, and had consequently 
 been oftentimes grieved by statutes derogatory to their ancient 
 privileges, and they concluded by petitioning that they might 
 have the privilege of electing two knights of the shire for 
 the said county, and two burgesses for the said city. (Hist. 
 Ches., I., 45.) 
 
 In 33 Henry VIII. (1541), the burgesses of Frodsham were 
 again required by a writ of quo warranlo to show by what 
 title they held their privileges, and they again pleaded and 
 produced their ancient charter, and had their privileges 
 allowed. (Ib., II., 46.) 
 
 In the same year the escheator was commanded to deliver 
 to John Beeston seisin of the lands in Helsby, of which his 
 father Tacherus (here called Tocherus) had died seised. (Ches. 
 Records.) 
 
 In 34 and 35 Henry VIII. (1544), the petition which the 
 inhabitants of the county and city of Chester had presented, 
 praying to be allowed to send representatives to Parliament, 
 was acceded to, and it was enacted that hereafter the county 
 should send two knights of the shire for the county, and the 
 city of Chester two burgesses, to represent them in Parlia- 
 ment. This Act was passed in the last year of the King's 
 reign ; but it was reserved for his son and successor to carry 
 it into effect, for the King died on the 28th January, 1547, 
 three days before the day appointed for the execution of the 
 Duke of Norfolk, whose life was thereby saved. Our first 
 Henry obtained the name of Beauclerk from his love of
 
 IO2 Frodsham. 
 
 learning ; but King Henry VIII., who wrote a book against 
 Luther, was the first of our monarchs who became an author. 
 The great wealth which his father had left him he had 
 squandered ; but the measures which he originated, and which 
 under Providence ended in our deliverance from Rome, were 
 a better legacy than any wealth. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 EDWARD VI. 
 
 LORD COKE somewhere likens our English law of inheritance 
 to the principle of gravitation, by which bodies always descend. 
 But there is this great difference between the descent of an 
 estate and gravitation, that while this is steady and inflexible, 
 that is subject to constant disturbances and interruptions, as 
 may be seen from the instances we have given of the succession 
 to the English crown and to Frodsham, which, as part of its 
 possessions, belonged to the earldom of Chester. Foreseeing 
 what was soon to be his fate, Richard II., addressing 
 Bolingbroke, could say to him 
 
 Cousin, I am too young to be your father, 
 Though you are old enough to be my heir ; 
 
 and the interval which intervened was short before Bolingbroke 
 broke the line of descent by thrusting him from his throne 
 and seating himself in his place. Again, our sixth Henry, 
 after a long struggle, was driven from the royal chair by 
 Edward IV., and the descent was once more broken. Richard 
 III. interrupted the succession by putting aside his nephew, 
 the rightful heir, by a foul and most unnatural murder, and 
 the best title of Henry VII., who next swayed the sceptre, 
 was his marriage with Elizabeth of York. Henry VIII., who 
 sat on the throne by an undoubted title as the lawful heir by 
 descent, might in the same manner have transmitted it to his
 
 Frodsham. 103 
 
 son, Edward VI., but having obtained an Act of Parliament 
 enabling him to dispose of it by will, he chose to exercise that 
 power and to devise the crown to his heir, who thus took it by 
 will and not by a regular descent. Edward had never been 
 Earl of Chester, and so Frodsham and the other possessions 
 of that earldom came to him with the crown. In his first 
 Parliament, held in I Edward VI., Cheshire for the first time 
 exercised her privilege of sending two knights of the shire to 
 represent her. The choice fell upon Sir Thomas Holcroft, of 
 Vale Royal, and Sir Thomas Venables, of Kinderton, both 
 knights, but the two were very different men. The former, 
 who sprang from an old Lancashire house, had climbed to a 
 higher level than his original rank, not without soiling himself 
 in the climb ; while the latter was the Baron of Kinderton, a 
 title which he had inherited, without stain, from the palatine 
 peer of that name, created by Hugh Lupus at the Conquest. 
 The King, who had not succeeded to an overflowing treasury, 
 could not overlook or forego the accustomed subsidy with 
 which the county was always wont to welcome the accession 
 of every new owner of the earldom ; and accordingly, on the 
 8th of October, 1547, he nominated the Right Reverend 
 Christopher, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, the Right 
 Reverend Robert, Bishop of Saint Asaph, Henry, Earl of 
 Worcester, Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrars, and others, his 
 commissioners, to ask and require the allowance of the subsidy 
 due to him from the chief tenants and inhabitants of the 
 county palatine, according to the ancient custom and under 
 the King's prerogative ; and afterwards, on the 29th of the 
 same month, very many of the knights, esquires, and others, 
 being assembled in the Common Hall of Pleas of the said 
 county of Chester, did unanimously grant the King a subsidy 
 of three thousand marks, to be paid within a period of three 
 years. (Ches. Records.) And the same records afterwards 
 contain a certificate of the subsidy having been duly granted. 
 On the roth April, 3 Edward VI. (1549), the King issued his 
 commands to the sheriffs of the city of Chester, warning them 
 to make ready for his Council, who were about to come to the 
 Castle of Chester to do justice and to put in force certain
 
 IO4 Frodsham. 
 
 statutes for the common good of the county of Chester and of 
 the city of the same ; and for the said Council the said sheriffs 
 were to find six good beds (lectos honestos) necessary for 
 their lodging (perhendinatione), and also money to bear their 
 reasonable expenses on this behalf. (Ib.) It does not appear 
 what was the exact occasion of this visit ; but it may have 
 been caused by the insurrections which historians mention to 
 have arisen out of the attempt to enforce the changes made 
 in the reformation of religion. (Hume's Hist. Eng., IV., 329.) 
 It does not appear whether the proposed visit took effect, 
 or whether, if it did, anything resulted from it. When 
 the storm which afterwards in the King's father's time over- 
 took the religious houses was gathering in the sky, some of 
 their heads determined to prepare for it, and to save some- 
 thing from the impending ruin of their possessions. To make, 
 as it were, friends against the evil day, an enrolment in 
 the county records, under the date of 3Oth April, 3 Edward 
 VI., shows us that John, abbot of Dieulacresse, and his 
 convent, before the storm burst, in consideration of twenty-five 
 pounds, granted to Henry Manley, son of Nicholas Manley, a 
 parishioner of Frodsham, for the term of sixty-one years, 
 all the manor of Pulton (the site of the original house of 
 Dieulacresse), with its appurtenances, and also eight oxen and 
 all the lands which the abbot and convent had beyond the 
 forest of Delamere, together with the chapel of Pulton, and 
 all its oblations. (Ib.) On the 24th June, 3 Edward VI., at 
 the instance of Robert Nuthall, an exemplification was granted 
 at Chester of a record in a certain plea in the King's court 
 there, enrolled in 13 Henry IV., between the same King and 
 Nicholas GryfTyn, son and heir of Robert Gryffyn, deceased, 
 concerning the vill of Cattenhall (in Frodsham parish), in the 
 county of Chester, parcel of the fee of Kingsley, upon the 
 traverse of a certain inquisition taken in the 14 Richard II., 
 by which it appeared that Richard de Kingsley aliened to the 
 abbot and convent of the holy house of St. Werburgh's in 
 Chester, in frank almoign, the aforesaid vill of Cattenhall, 
 which was held of the King by knight's service, upon trust, 
 to find two chaplains to celebrate divine service for ever,
 
 Frodsham. 105 
 
 and that afterwards the said abbot and convent aliened the 
 same vill to one William Gerard the elder, in fee ; and after- 
 wards Peter Gerard, knight, aliened the same vill to the said 
 Robert Gryffyn and his heirs. (Ib.) The religious houses 
 were, unfortunately, but too often guilty of the sacrilege of 
 turning to secular purposes what was given for pious uses. 
 This diversion of Cattenhall from its original use, when it 
 might have served the parish church of Frodsham to some 
 good purpose, is but a specimen of what the abbots and 
 convents were often guilty of. The record does not tell us 
 whether the King's interference rescued the gift of its pious 
 and original owner from an abuse ; but, for the benefit of the 
 parish, we may hope that it did so. On 2/th October, 3 
 Edward VI. (1549), a question arose in Frodsham about a 
 right of way leading from the town to certain lands of 
 Richard Witter, lying in a place called the Town Fields. It 
 seemed of so much importance to have it decisively settled, 
 that an inquisition was held in order to that end. (Ib.) In 
 6 Edward VI. (1552), inquisitions were taken in most parts of 
 England by certain commissioners to ascertain what goods in 
 valuables, vessels, and other property there were which had 
 belonged to the several parish churches and chantry chapels 
 and had become forfeit to the crown, and such an inquisition 
 was doubtless taken at Frodsham ; the particulars of which, 
 though curious, are not given in the Cheshire Records, but 
 may be found either in the Augmentation Office or in the 
 Public Record Office in London. Among his latest acts was 
 the King's grant of I3th June, 1553, to Sir Robert Cotton, of 
 the prisage of all wine, fuel, and sea-coal imported into any 
 Cheshire port, and the customs thereon, for twenty-one years. 
 Prisage was the right to take a portion of these articles at a 
 fixed price. Frodsham was probably one of the ports of 
 prisage. After this period no further local notices of Frodsham 
 during the rest of the King's reign are to be met with in its 
 county records. The King, whose reign at the commencement 
 had given promise of a happy future, proved, alas ! only too 
 short, for he was cut off by death on the 6th July, 1553, at the 
 early age of sixteen.
 
 1 06 Frodsham. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 PHILIP AND MARY. 
 
 ON the death of Edward VI., his sister Mary, by virtue of her 
 father's will, ascended the throne, and became the first Queen 
 who, since the Conquest, sat as Queen Regnant on the throne 
 of England. The Cheshire Records are not very full in 
 her reign ; but one of the earliest notices of her which 
 occurs is the appointment to the office of sheriff of Cheshire, 
 on the i /th November, 1553, of Sir Peter Legh, knight, a 
 lineal descendant from Margaret, the daughter of that Sir 
 Thomas Danyers to whom the Black Prince granted an 
 annuity of forty marks, payable out of his manor of Frodsham, 
 for Sir Thomas's good services at the battle of Crescy. Sir 
 Peter, in 1550, had served the late King in the same office of 
 high sheriff of Lancashire ; and on the Queen's accession, a 
 general muster of soldiers being ordered, he was appointed 
 to command a force of 430 men in West Derby hundred, being 
 a part of the Lancashire contingent. (Hist. Lane., I., 504.) 
 On the 28th August, I and 2 Philip and Mary (1554) the 
 record calls the year I and 2 Mary only (which is a mistake, 
 since the Queen's marriage with Philip took place on the 24th 
 July in her second year) the Queen appointed Richard Hassall 
 to the office of one of her serjeants-at-law for the counties of 
 Chester and Flint, and to have the yearly salary 'of 66s. %d. 
 (Ches. Records.) The next record we have throws light upon 
 a tragic occurrence at Frodsham, of which we have no 
 particulars except that it resulted in the death of one of its 
 inhabitants. In I and 2 Philip and Mary (1554), a writ of 
 certiorari issued to bring in certain proceedings concerning 
 the death of one Thomas Grange, who was killed by one 
 Evan Rees, late of Frodsham, in self-defence (Ches. Records), 
 which was followed on the 7th October in the same year by 
 the pardon of the said Evan Rees. (Ib.) It appears that 
 Rees had been tried at the Session of Pleas at Chester, and 
 had been acquitted of the crime. On the 29th September,
 
 Frodsham. 107 
 
 i and 2 Philip and Mary, Sir John Savage, knight, and others 
 were commissioned to inquire for the King and Queen 
 concerning concealed lands in Frodsham ; and in March of 
 the same year, Sir John Donne, knight, was commanded to 
 show by what title he held the hermitage called Le Spytal, in 
 Frodsham, in the county of Chester. (Jones's Index to the 
 Exchequer Records.) On the loth May, 3 and 4 Philip and 
 Mary (1557), the depositions of Philip Egerton, William 
 Brereton, and Thomas Venables, knights, and William Mayre, 
 esquire, were taken at Chester, before Sir Richard Maunsell, 
 knight chamberlain of Chester, touching the lands and 
 tenements which William Legh, lately attainted of high 
 treason, had in Werford and Marthall. (Ches. Records.) It 
 does not appear of what family this W T illiam Legh was, nor in 
 what the offence of high treason for which he was attainted 
 consisted, for the law in that troublous time was strained to 
 include many crimes besides that of conspiring against the life 
 of the Sovereign. In October the county was called upon to 
 elect a coroner, upon which they elected one Randal Venables, 
 who on examination was found not to be possessed of sufficient 
 lands and tenements in the county to qualify him for the office, 
 and thereupon Richard Wilbraham, the high sheriff, was 
 ordered to proceed to a new election ; and on the pth October, 
 3 and 4 Philip and Mary (1557), he returned that Richard 
 Henshawe had been duly elected to the office. (Ib.) On the 
 6th March, 4 and 5 Philip and Mary (1558), the King and 
 Queen granted to Henry Bolton, son of William Bolton, the 
 office which the family had enjoyed for many generations of 
 master carpenter of all their carpenters in Cheshire, in which 
 situation he would have, amongst other royal places, to take 
 the oversight of Frodsham Castle ; in this office he was to 
 have the wages of sixpence a day and a new coat, of the 
 value of ten shillings, every year at Christmas. (Ib.) On the 
 loth November, 4 and 5 Philip and Mary (1558), on the 
 appointment of a new sheriff of the county, more than 
 ordinary precautions seem to have been taken, as if to guard 
 against taking a man whose religious opinions were of a 
 doubtful character, about which the Queen and the nation
 
 io8 Frodsham. 
 
 were then so much divided. In ordinary cases the sheriff had 
 been nominated and had taken the oath of office ; but now a 
 warrant was first directed to the chamberlain to make out 
 letters patent appointing Sir Philip Egerton, knight, and 
 requiring him to take an oath to serve the office faithfully and 
 well, and also to see that he found sufficient sureties. On the 
 ist December, Sir Thomas Venables became the sheriffs 
 surety, and entered into the required bond, whereupon Sir 
 John Donne was required to administer the oath to him in the 
 exact form which is given. (Ib.) It is singular that this was 
 an unnecessary precaution, for before the entry of it on the 
 roll the Queen was no more ; for, after a short reign of five 
 years four months and eleven days, she died on the I7th of 
 November, 1558. Her reign, which gave but little pleasure to 
 herself, gave great pain to her subjects, whom she treated more 
 after a Spanish than an English fashion. In her anxiety to assist 
 Philip, the troops which should have protected Calais left the 
 place open to a sudden attack, when it was taken by the Duke of 
 Guise, and once for all lost to England, after having been ours 
 for two hundred years. So great was the loss of this place that 
 the Queen said if her heart was opened after death "Calais" 
 would be found written upon it. One of the Spanish and utterly 
 un-English modes to which the Queen resorted to keep down 
 insurrection was to cast suspected persons into the Tower ; 
 and in order that the work might be done more secretly it 
 took place in the night time, and the victims were hoodwinked 
 and muffled by the guards who conducted them there. There 
 was little real grief at her death; and Cecil, one of the 
 courtiers, spoke truly when he said 
 
 I needs must say 
 
 That never English monarch dying left 
 England so little.
 
 Frodsham. 1 09 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 UPON the death of Queen Mary, by the will which the Parlia- 
 ment had enabled King Henry to make, the crown descended 
 upon her sister, Queen Elizabeth, whose advent to it was 
 hailed with unfeigned joy by the great majority of the nation, 
 which, with reason, felt that under the new sovereign they might 
 breathe more freely than the cruel persecutions of her sister's 
 latter years had allowed them to do. If our great bard's 
 comparison holds true that 
 
 As in a theatre the eyes of men, 
 After a well-graced actor leaves the stage, 
 Are idly bent on him that enters next, 
 Thinking his prattle to be tedious, 
 
 so does the converse hold in real life when a sovereign, whose 
 part has been ill played, quits the scene, and is succeeded by 
 one of whom better hopes are justly entertained, bells and the 
 people's voices join lustily in their congratulations on the 
 occasion. The late Queen had seemed resolved to yoke 
 England again to the Papal car; but an incident which 
 happened soon after her death showed that the new Queen's 
 bias was very different. When Dr. Sampson, the dean of her 
 chapel, had placed pictures of the saints and martyrs in the 
 Queen's Prayer Book, and put it on the cushion for her use, 
 she called for the verger and desired him to bring back her 
 old book. After the sermon she called for the dean, and 
 spoke to him thus : " Mr. Dean, how came it to pass that a 
 new service book has been placed on my cushion ?" when 
 this colloquy ensued : 
 
 The Dean : May it please your Majesty, I caused it to be placed there. 
 The Queen : Wherefore did you so ? 
 
 The Dean : To present your Majesty with a New Year's gift. 
 The Queen : You could never present me with a worse. 
 The Dean : Why so, madam ? 
 
 The Queen : You know I have an aversion to idolatry, to images, and pictures 
 of this kind.
 
 i to Frodsham. 
 
 The Dean : Where is the idolatry, may it please your Majesty ? 
 
 The Queen : In the cuts representing angels and saints ; nay, grosser 
 absurdities pictures resembling the blessed Trinity. 
 
 The Dean : I meant no harm, nor did I think it would offend your Majesty, 
 when I intended it for a New Year's gift. 
 
 The Queen : You must needs be ignorant, then. Have you forgotten our 
 proclamation against images, pictures, and Roman relics in the churches ? Was it 
 not read in your deanery ? 
 
 The Dean : It was read. But be your Majesty assured I meant no harm 
 when I caused the cuts to be bound with the service book. 
 
 The Queen : You must needs be very ignorant to do this after our prohibition 
 of them. 
 
 The Dean : It being my ignorance, your Majesty may the better pardon me. 
 
 The Queen : I am sorry for it, but glad to hear that it was your ignorance 
 rather than your opinion. 
 
 The Dean : Be your Majesty assured, it was my ignorance. 
 
 The Queen : If so, Mr. Dean, God grant you His Spirit and more wisdom 
 for the future. 
 
 The Dean : Amen ! I pray God. 
 
 The Queen : I pray, Mr. Dean, how came you by these pictures ? Who 
 engraved them ? 
 
 The Dean : I know not who engraved them ; I bought them. 
 
 The Queen : From whom bought you them ? 
 
 The Dean : From a German. 
 
 The Queen : It is well it is from a stranger. Had it been any of our subjects 
 we should have questioned the matter. Pray let no more mistakes of this kind be 
 committed within the churches of this realm in future. 
 
 The Dean : There shall not. 
 
 (Strype's Memorials during the first twelve years of Queen 
 Elizabeth, p. 238.) During the last three reigns there had 
 been no Prince of Wales or Earl of Chester, and therefore we 
 find fewer notices of Frodsham in the county records, which 
 have been hitherto our repository of facts, and we shall 
 hereafter find the same comparative scarcity of local notices 
 during the reign which is now beginning. Very probably 
 John Starkey, esquire, who had been the farmer of the manor 
 of Frodsham since the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII., 
 continued to be such farmer during the intervening reigns 
 until the reign of Elizabeth. On the ipth March, I Elizabeth 
 (1559), the death of that Thomas Grange who had been killed 
 at Frodsham, as has been already twice mentioned before, 
 came again before the Court of Session at Chester, when a 
 record was made out of it, possibly to satisfy Evan Rees, the
 
 Frodsham. 
 
 i ii 
 
 accused, who had been tried for it, that the jury had found a 
 verdict acquitting him of the charge. On the i/th May, 
 I Elizabeth (1559), by a deed of 2 and 3 Philip and Mary, 
 which was enrolled at Chester, it appeared that Ralph High- 
 field had demised certain tithes to John Burgess, for which 
 he was to pay not only the accustomed rent, but was also to 
 find Ralph Highfield with meat, drink, and other necessaries 
 during the term. On the roth October, i Elizabeth (1559), 
 the Queen appointed William Arderne, one of the valets of 
 the chamber, to the office of gauger of all vessels, as well 
 within the city of Chester, its port and suburbs, as in all the 
 creeks and passages to the same belonging. (Ches. Records.) 
 By a writ of I5th April, 21 Edward IV. (1481), directed to the 
 Mayor and Aldermen of Dublin, they were directed to make 
 proclamation within their liberties that every merchant ship of 
 Ireland charged with goods and meant to sail either for the 
 port of Runcorn or any other place in the county of Chester, 
 should be first reported at the port of the city of Chester, and 
 should there discharge and recharge their cargoes, or else 
 should be put under arrest. (Ches. Recog. Rolls.) From this 
 it would appear that the port of Frodsham was within the 
 port of Chester, and that the royal gauger would have to ply 
 his business at Frodsham Bridge also. On the ijth November, 
 
 1 Elizabeth (1559), Sir John Savage of Clifton, knight, a near 
 neighbour to Frodsham, being named as sheriff of the county, 
 the chamberlain of Chester was commanded to require him 
 to find the usual mainpernors, and these being found, Sir John 
 Donne, knight, was directed to swear him into the office. (Ches. 
 Records.) On the ist December, 2 Elizabeth (1559), the 
 Queen issued her commission to the chamberlain to tax and 
 assess the mizes of the county of Cheshire, which, according 
 to custom, became due to the Queen after the death of Mary, 
 the late Queen, and to collect and levy all and all manner of 
 sums thereon due to her Majesty. (Ib.) On the 4th January, 
 
 2 Elizabeth (1560), very many of the knights, esquires, and 
 other inhabitants of the county of Chester, of their unanimous 
 consent, granted to her Majesty the Queen a certain gift of 
 3000 marks, to be paid within the next three years (ib.) ; and
 
 ii2 Frodskam. 
 
 on the same day Sir Philip Egerton, knight, and others 
 were commissioned to collect the Edisbury portion of the 
 above subsidy, and certain other knights and gentlemen 
 were appointed to collect the portions of the rate due 
 in other hundreds of the county. (Ibid.) On the 5th 
 of December, 3 Elizabeth (1560), the Queen granted her 
 pardon to Roger Barowe for having slain William Bretherton, 
 at Great Trafford, in self-defence (ib.) ; and in the same year 
 she reversed the outlawry which had been pronounced against 
 Robert Fletcher, esquire, of Ince, in 5 and 6 Philip and Mary, 
 under which, since the 3rd of May last, the manor of Ince had 
 been in the Queen's hands, but she now ordered it to be 
 restored. (Ib.) Robert Fletcher's life and estate both had 
 probably been saved by the opportune demise of the late 
 Queen, against whom his offence had been most probably 
 some heterodoxy in the matter of religion. On the 22nd 
 of January, 4 Elizabeth (1562), Ralph Donne, the forester, 
 suffered a recovery of his very large estates, amongst which 
 were his lands in Norley, Kingsley, Newton, Frodsham, Helsby, 
 Alvanley, and Manley. (Ib.) 
 
 In the reign of "good Queen Bess," as the old song calls 
 Queen Elizabeth, people must very often have carried arms 
 about with them, if we are to judge by the constant recurrence 
 of deaths recorded every year in the Cheshire rolls as having 
 occurred by misadventure or by murder, and for which the 
 royal pardon was very often sought and obtained. The 
 weapons worn at that time were not either the modern 
 revolver or any other firearms ; but the dagger, the short sword, 
 the bow, and the crossbow were not then out of use, and any 
 change of national weapons, as has been sometimes observed, 
 takes place but slowly. The artillery used at Crescy in 1 346 
 had no share in the victory at Agincourt in 1415, which was 
 achieved by the English long bow ; and still later, Latimer, 
 in one of his sermons, tells us how diligently his father taught 
 him the use of the same weapon, which had not gone wholly 
 out of use in 1643, when the King, on the ist October, 
 authorized John Knightley, esquire, of Oxford, to raise 
 and arm a corps of 1200 bowmen for his Majesty's service
 
 Frodsham. \ \ 3 
 
 in the University. (Archaeological Journal, 1851, p. 868.) 
 But though the crossbow had been in use in war even 
 long before the battle of Crescy, it did not with the 
 English supplant the long bow and its cloth yard shaft. 
 Strange to say, too, that at the siege of Newcastle, in 1644, 
 that old-fashioned weapon the mace, or morning star, was one 
 of the arms in use. (Somers' Tracts, Scott's ed., V., 289.) In 
 old times archery must have been diligently cultivated at 
 Frodsham, as the name of " Robin Hood's Butts," a place at 
 the foot of the beacon hill, where the name still lingers, plainly 
 tells us. (Aikin's Country Round Manchester, p. 414.) There 
 the Frodsham bowmen practised their art under the training, 
 perhaps, of some Thomas de Twembrokes, who shewed 
 them how many gallant fields had been won by the bow 
 on the plains of Gascony or of Poictou. On the 9th of 
 August, 1565, we have a notice of one of these accidents in 
 shooting which ended fatally; for we read that on that day 
 the Queen pardoned Christopher Walker for his offence in 
 killing John Eaton, while shooting with an arrow, at the 
 shooting butts at Little Budworth. (Ches. Records.) On 
 the 27th May, 11 Elizabeth (1569), an inquisition was taken 
 on Roger Sparke, gentleman, one of the inhabitants of Frod- 
 sham. (Ib.) On the I5th February, 15 Elizabeth (1572), the 
 Queen granted to Richard Spencer the office of surveyor of 
 all her houses and buildings in the counties of Chester and 
 Flint, in the place of Laurence, deceased. (Ib.) The new 
 officer, amongst other places, would have the oversight of 
 Frodsham Castle on his hands. On the I2th April, 17 
 Elizabeth (1575), William Brereton, of Brereton, esquire, had 
 a writ to the escheator, after the death of his ancestor, to give 
 him seisin of his great possessions, a part of which was 
 situated in Frodsham. (Ib.) In 18 Elizabeth (1595), an 
 inquisition was taken after the death of William Rutter, of 
 Frodsham. (Ib.) In 22 Elizabeth (1579), there was another 
 inquisition after the death of Thomas Rutter of Kingsley, 
 gentleman, the brother of the above William, who had lands 
 in Frodsham, which inquisition found Thomas Rutter to be 
 his son and heir. (Ib.) There seems at this time to have
 
 H4 Frodsham. 
 
 been unusual mortality amongst the Rutters. The Rutters are 
 thought to have been lineal descendants from the barons of 
 Malpas, and some persons have suggested that Witter is a 
 corruption from Rutter, an arbitrary change which it is difficult 
 to account for. In 21 Elizabeth (1578), another quo warranto 
 issued, requiring the burgesses of Frodsham to show by what 
 right they held their burgages ; whereupon, as they had done 
 on several previous occasions, they showed their ancient charter 
 and had their privileges allowed. (Hist. Ches., II., 30.) On 
 the 3Oth October, 23 Elizabeth (1581), the escheator was 
 commanded to deliver seisin to William Bennett of the lands 
 in Tranmere, Frodsham, and other places, which were late the 
 lands of George Bennett, his father (Ches. Records) ; and on 
 the same day the same escheator received a similar command 
 to deliver seisin to John Assheton of the lands (in Frodsham) 
 which were late those of his father, Richard Assheton. (Ib.) 
 In 1581 there had been a great difference between Mr. Glasier, 
 the deputy chamberlain of Cheshire, and some of the officers 
 employed under him in the Exchequer at Chester ; and the 
 difference at last assumed such dimensions that Lord Burleigh's 
 intervention was invoked to settle it ; and his letter on the i6th 
 December, 24 Elizabeth, finds a place in the County Records. 
 On the 26th December, 24 Elizabeth (1581), an inquisition 
 post-mortem was taken after the death of William Rutter, 
 gentleman (ib.) ; and on the i6th of May, 25 Elizabeth (1583), 
 an order of the Court of Wards and Liveries was made in 
 favour of Ralph Rutter, brother of William Rutter, gentleman, 
 deceased, to prosecute his writ of Oustre le Mayne out of the 
 Queen's hands of the lands and tenements of the said William 
 Rutter in Netherton, Woodhouses, and Rushton, in the said 
 county. (Ib.) This proceeding seems to have been necessary, 
 since William, some time before his death, had been found by 
 inquisition to be a lunatic. There must have been great 
 laxity in keeping the gaols in old times ; and prisoners who 
 should have been in arctd custodia were very often found at 
 large at Chester. The complaints of breaking prison must 
 have been chronic, as this entry on the records shows us. On 
 the 29th June, 25 Elizabeth (1583), an order was made
 
 Frodsham. 1 1 5 
 
 annulling the patent which had been granted to John Paston, 
 deceased, and Richard Hurleston, of the office of constable of 
 Chester Castle, in consequence of the said Richard having 
 allowed certain prisoners committed to his custody in the 
 castle to goat large without authority. (Ib.) On the I5th 
 April, 26 Elizabeth (1584), a warrant was issued by the too 
 well-known Earl of Leicester, then Chamberlain of Chester, to 
 restore Alexander Cotes to his office of deputy baron in the 
 Exchequer at Chester, from which he had been displaced for 
 malpractices. (Ib.) 
 
 On the 8th April, 27 Elizabeth (1585), there appears on 
 the Cheshire rolls an exemplification of a deed of partition 
 in the time of Richard II. of the manor of Helsby between 
 Thomas de Beston, son and heir of Matilda, daughter of Sir 
 Peter de Thornton, knight, and William, son and heir of Joan, 
 daughter of Elizabeth, Sir Peter's other daughter. (Ches. 
 Records.) On the 6th March, 28 Elizabeth (1586), an inquisi- 
 tion taken 1 3th April, 21 Elizabeth, but not enrolled until the 
 former day, found that Thomas Venables, gentleman, deceased, 
 had (inter alia) lands in Frodsham and Helsby, and that Peter 
 Venables, then aged 44, was his son and heir. (Ib.) In the 
 year 1586 a discovery of a great conspiracy took place, the 
 object of which was to dethrone Queen Elizabeth and to 
 establish the Queen of Scots in her place. It was called 
 Babington's Conspiracy, from the name of its principal actor, 
 whose family, according to the History of Cheshire, owned 
 some part of Dunham-on-the-Hill. The discovery of the 
 conspiracy was made in August of the above year, and in the 
 list of Babington's accessories, who were tried with him, we 
 find Chedlach, Tichbourne, Robert Barnewall, John Savage, 
 Henry Donne, and John Ballard (two of which names have a 
 Cheshire sound). (State Trials.) Sir William Stanley, the 
 infamous betrayer of Daventry, was believed to be one of 
 Babington's abettors, but he escaped justice. (Hist. Ches., II., 
 232.) Thomas Salisbury, who had been one of the principal 
 conspirators, was an esquire of a good Welsh family settled at 
 Lleweny. His mother, through Henry VII., was a Tudor, and 
 was thus connected in blood with Queen Elizabeth, and had 
 
 12
 
 1 1 6 Frodsham. 
 
 been brought up in the Queen's court. Her son had been a 
 page in the Queen's household, and had served under Thomas 
 Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, who is supposed to have 
 formed a project of marrying the Queen of Scots. Young 
 Salisbury became a Papist, and by it he was mixed up with 
 the affairs of the Queen of Scots, and he was thus dragged 
 into Babington's Conspiracy, and became acquainted with the 
 intention to murder Queen Elizabeth. When the plot was 
 discovered he fled first into Derbyshire, and from thence into 
 Cheshire, where he first endeavoured to conceal himself in the 
 recesses of Delamere Forest ; but being discovered in his 
 retreat, and being pursued by Mr. Poole, of Poole, he is said 
 to have swum the river Weaver on horseback ; but the feat 
 proved to be in vain, for though he reached Frodsham, he was 
 there taken and delivered up to justice. (Cheshire Sheaf, and 
 Stanley Papers, Chet. Soc., part II., 60.) When on the 
 scaffold he said, " Since it hath pleased God to appoint this 
 place for my end, I thank His infinite goodness for the same. 
 I confess that I have deserved death, and that I have offended 
 Her Majesty, whom to forgive me I heartily beseech, with all 
 others whom I have in any manner offended. I desire all true 
 Catholics to pray for me ; and I desire them, as I beseech God 
 they may, to endure with patience whatsoever shall be laid 
 upon them, and never to enter into any violence for remedy." 
 The reader who desires it may find the whole story of 
 Babington's Conspiracy, with the trial and its ending, in 
 Froude's History of England, vol. II., p. 252 et seq. In 31 
 Elizabeth (1588), by an inquisition taken after the death of 
 Ralph Rutter, of Frodsham, it was found that his son, Thomas 
 Rutter, gentleman, was his heir. (Ches. Records.) On the 
 3rd April, 33 Elizabeth (1591), William Cashe, who in shooting 
 with a long-bow had killed Roger Cashe by misadventure 
 with an arrow, received the Queen's pardon for it. (Ib.) On 
 the 1 3th January, 34 Elizabeth (1592), the Queen appointed 
 Mile Mather, servant to Henry, Earl of Derby, to be master 
 carpenter of all her works in the counties of Chester and 
 Flint, at the wages of 6d. a day and the usual fees, in the place 
 of Henry Bolton, who had resigned the office. (Ib.) On the
 
 Frodsham. 117 
 
 1st October, 36 Elizabeth (1594), an order was made for the 
 repair and finishing of the bridge at Frodsham, and of other 
 decayed bridges, and that the sum of 1000 marks should be 
 at once raised for that purpose. (Ib.) On the 2ist July, 
 37 Elizabeth (1595), Hugh Cholmondeley and others were 
 commanded to inquire and report as to some infamous libels 
 directed against certain ministers of God's Word and others 
 at Nantwich. (Ib.) These libels were doubtless the way in 
 which the murmurings against the recent great change which 
 had taken place in religion found utterance. On one of the 
 hills above Frodsham, which has its name from the circum- 
 stance, there formerly stood a fire -beacon, one of those 
 precursors of the semaphores and telegraphs of later times. 
 Not long before this time this beacon had done good service, 
 by its fiery signal, in warning the country in seasons when an 
 invasion was apprehended. We do not know, however, that 
 the beacon at Frodsham blazed forth its fiery torch when the 
 Spanish Armada was off the coast, like Clifton Down and 
 many another headland, or it might have found a place in 
 Macaulay's spirited ballad on the occasion. But when the 
 danger of the Armada was over, and the enemy's proud 
 vaunts had proved an idle boast, and the hand of Providence 
 was gratefully acknowledged throughout the country, and even 
 some of the Queen's coins, inscribed "Afflavit Deus et 
 dissipantur inimici," had recognized it, the Queen, on the 9th 
 November, 1595, gave orders that the beacons that at 
 Frodsham among the rest should be taken down. (Frodsham 
 Church Books.) But in the year 1613, in consequence of some 
 alarm which prevailed in the country, the origin of which does 
 not appear, the Frodsham beacon, under orders given by Sir 
 John Savage, was re-erected in its former place. On the i8th 
 September, 38 Elizabeth (1596), Peter Warburton, the Queen's 
 serjeant-at-law, received the Royal command to inquire into 
 and report what whales, sturgeons, and other royal fish were 
 taken either on the sea-coasts of Cheshire or in the creeks 
 and rivers of the same an office which seems an odd one to 
 be entrusted to a learned lawyer. (Ib.) Peter Warburton, no 
 doubt, was expected to ascertain whether there were any and
 
 1 1 8 Frodsham. 
 
 what profits in these fish, and what profits were coming to the 
 Crown from this source, and to see that they were obtained. 
 We do not wonder at the whale being at that time reckoned 
 among fishes, for natural history had not then assigned to this 
 largest of all known animals its proper place in creation ; but 
 we may well wonder at the strange reason our ancestors gave 
 for assigning the tail of the whale to the Queen, because in it, 
 as they thought, was the whalebone, which is so much used in 
 a lady's attire, while they gave the head, which really contains 
 the whalebone, and the rest of the animal's body to the King. 
 A whale which has mistaken its way is occasionally captured 
 in the Mersey or the Weaver even now ; and a sturgeon is 
 still not unfrequently taken in one or other of those two rivers, 
 and both these belong to the Oown whenever the right to 
 them has not been granted away ; and as the right had never 
 been separated from the manor at Frodsham, all such royal 
 fish as were taken there would, of course, belong to Her 
 Majesty, as Lady of the Manor of Frodsham. Sir John 
 Savage died in 1599, and after his death, the usual inquisition 
 being taken, it was found (inter alia) that he had held of the 
 Queen the bailiwick of Frodsham, by the service of collecting 
 the rents of that manor, and that he also held the office of 
 serjeant (of the peace) there, with the right of making all 
 attachments and presentments of the courts there, and that 
 he was also the constable and keeper of the Queen's gaol of 
 her manor aforesaid. (Ib.) On the I4th November, 43 
 Elizabeth (1601), the Queen granted to Henry Fletcher the 
 office of master carpenter of all her works in the county of 
 Chester, with the usual wages and fees. (Ib.) All work at 
 the castle and gaol under his appointment would be done 
 under the oversight of the bailiff, Sir John Savage, the son 
 and successor of the late Sir John, of the same name. On 
 the 4th January, 44 Elizabeth (1602), Sir John Savage, knight, 
 and others were commanded to inquire and ascertain what 
 persons, and who they were, who had offended by hunting and 
 killing the Queen's deer in Delamere Forest or its purlieus, 
 and what crossbows had been kept, and by whom, since the 
 Queen granted a general pardon on the 2Oth September
 
 Frodsham. 119 
 
 preceding. (Ib.) The forest was then very different from 
 what a late Lancashire poet feigns it : 
 
 Where Delamere far shoots its sylvan wilds, 
 Bowmen were seen with rattling quivers, full 
 Of feathered shafts. 
 
 Fetchett's Alfred. 
 
 On the 9th November, 44 Elizabeth (1602), the Queen granted 
 to John Nicholson the office of master mason of all her 
 buildings and works in Cheshire and Flintshire, with the fees 
 and wages to the same belonging. (Ib.) The Queen's long 
 reign was now coming to an end. The historian tells us that 
 few sovereigns in England succeeded to the throne in more 
 difficult circumstances, and none ever conducted the govern- 
 ment with such uniform success and felicity. (Hume's Hist. 
 England, V., 448.) Elizabeth died at Richmond, on the 24th 
 March, 1603, at three o'clock in the morning; and Sir Robert 
 Carey, between nine and ten of the same morning, took horse 
 in London, and arrived at Doncaster, a distance of 155 miles, 
 the same evening ; the next day he rode to Morpeth, a 
 further distance of 137 miles; and on the following day he 
 reached Edinburgh, a distance of 105 miles. When he 
 arrived King James was in bed ; but the bearer of such news 
 was not to be kept waiting, and he was at once admitted into 
 the King's chamber, where he immediately saluted James as 
 " King of England, France, and Ireland." 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 JAMES I. 
 
 THE throne of England, to which, as we have seen, Sir Robert 
 Carey had announced to King James his accession, the historian 
 tells us, had never been transmitted from father to son with 
 greater tranquillity than it passed from the family of Tudor 
 to that of Stuart ; and it is said that when the King was on
 
 1 20 Frodsham. 
 
 his progress towards London shortly afterwards to take 
 possession of his new crown, he became more than ever 
 sensible of the beauty of the country which was now his, and 
 he expressed his gratification and surprise as he saw the rich 
 prospect spread before him as he rode by the hill of Mainforth, 
 in the county of Durham. Upon the death of Sir John 
 Savage, in 41 Elizabeth, he was succeeded by his son, another 
 Sir John, in the offices he had held at Frodsham, and under 
 the new King he continued to hold them. Indeed, he seems 
 to have had his grant renewed in the first year of the King's 
 reign. (Jones's Index to the Exchequer Records, tempore 
 Jac. I.) His family had held these offices so long that they 
 almost seemed to be his by inheritance. As there had been 
 neither a Prince of Wales nor an Earl of Chester during any 
 of the last four reigns, the castle and manor of Frodsham 
 were held at the beginning of this reign immediately of the 
 Crown ; and this circumstance has occasioned a less frequent 
 mention to be made of Frodsham on the county rolls. On the 
 3Oth September, 6 Jac. I. (1608), however, we find on them a 
 notice of the royal pardon being granted to Robert Goodyer 
 for the death of Thomas Walker, by him slain in self-defence ; 
 and on the same day Edward Stubbs received the like pardon 
 for slaying Mathew Smalwode in self-defence. On the 28th 
 April, 7 Jac. I. (1609), William Croxton had the like pardon 
 for slaying Robert Thomason in self-defence ; and on the loth 
 July, 7 Jac. I. (1609), Lawrence Haryson had the like pardon 
 for slaying William Collyer in self-defence. (Ches. Records.) 
 These frequent pardons show that weapons were still too 
 frequently borne as they were in old time at Frodsham, of 
 which in the new edition of Ormerod's Cheshire we have so 
 vivid an account, when the eyre at which the justices itinerant 
 sat was held at Frodsham. In 4 Henry V. (1416), when the 
 justices, Sir John de Stanley, Sir John Savage, Henry Birtheles, 
 William Chauntrel, and Reginald Downes, were sitting at 
 Frodsham to hold a general gaol delivery, Thomas Hickokson, 
 of Helsby ; William Jackson, of the same place ; Oliver de 
 Trafibrd, of Ancotes ; Robert de Hilton, of Manchester ; 
 Alexander de Pedley, of Cheetham ; Christopher Hopwode,
 
 Frodsham. 1 2 1 
 
 of Manchester ; John de Bedford, of the same place ; 
 Christopher le Vernon, of Trafford ; Geoffrey de Walton, of 
 the same place ; John de Crowther, of Newton, in Lancashire ; 
 William de Bexwick, of Trafford ; William le Hunt, of Man- 
 chester ; Robert del Birches, of Trafford ; and Ralph Brad- 
 schagh, of Manchester, were severally indicted to answer to 
 the King for divers transgressions, or, as the record has it, 
 " tustles," which consisted of a very free use of the bow, the 
 sword, and the dagger. The possession (says the editor of the 
 above work) of a moiety of the manor of Helsby about this 
 time may account for some of the interest which the Lanca- 
 shire Traffords took in this neighbourhood. But the occurrence 
 of such a scene so soon after the victory at Agincourt inclines 
 the writer of this paper to think that some of the rufflers of 
 the camp there, and who had shared in that victory, thought 
 themselves invincible at home as well as abroad. We do not 
 know what punishment was inflicted on the offenders ; but, 
 whatever it was, five years seem to have effaced it ; for at an 
 eyre held at Frodsham, on Monday next after the Epiphany, 
 in 9 Henry V., Geoffrey de Trafford, of Chetvvode, gentleman ; 
 Robert de Trafford, of Ancotes, gentleman ; and a number of 
 men of Manchester, among whom were some of the old 
 offenders, were again indicted for having, with swords, bows, 
 and other weapons, invaded and broken into certain closes of 
 land in Frodsham and Helsby ; and a number of others were 
 at the same time indicted for a similar offence. (Hist. Ches., 
 Helsby's ed., vol. II., p. 60, in notes.) On the 4th June, 
 8 Jac. I. (1610), Henry Stuart, the King's eldest son, was 
 created Earl of Chester by the King in Parliament, other titles 
 at the same time being conferred upon him. On the I4th 
 December, 8 Jac. I. (1610), the escheator had command to 
 deliver to Thomas Rutter, gentleman, son and heir of Ralph 
 Rutter, of Frodsham, seisin of his late father's lands. (Ches. 
 Records.) On the nth January, 8 Jac. I. (1611), Robert 
 Venables, esquire, a very extensive landowner, conveyed the 
 estates he had in very many townships, Helsby and Frodsham 
 being amongst them, to Roger Wilcox and George Simcocke, 
 gentlemen, and their heirs in order to a family settlement.
 
 122 Frodsham. 
 
 (Ib.) On the 5th April, 9 Jac. I. (1611), there was enrolled a 
 deed made on the 3rd April, between Sir Thomas Holcroft, of 
 Vale Royal, knight ; Sir Hugh Beston, of Beston, knight ; 
 Jervis Rogers and Robert Brooke, gentlemen, servants unto 
 the said Sir Thomas, of the one part ; and Richard Gerrard, 
 of Crewood, gentleman, of the other part, whereby the said 
 Sir Hugh Beston, Jervis Rogers, and Robert Brooke, in con- 
 sideration of .200 paid by the said Richard Gerrard to the 
 said Sir Thomas Holcroft, did grant and sell to the said 
 Richard Gerrard two messuages or tenements and lands in the 
 parish of Frodsham, to hold to the said Richard Gerrard, his 
 heirs and assigns, for ever. (Ib.) It is worthy of remark 
 that though both Rogers and Brooke, two of the parties to 
 this deed, are styled gentlemen, they are yet described as 
 servants to Sir Thomas Holcroft! On the 2Oth June, 1611, 
 we have evidence that the commission on royal fish, lately 
 issued to Peter Warburton, her late Majesty's serjeant-at-law, 
 had not been without its results ; for Arthur Davenport, of 
 Calveley, esquire, then gave information that a royal fish 
 called a sturgeon had been taken in the river Dee, off Heswall. 
 (Ib.) On the 6th November, 1612, the young Prince Henry, 
 who, to the great satisfaction of the nation, had so recently 
 been created Earl of Chester, was carried off by death ; and 
 the nation, which had justly formed high hopes of his future, 
 mourned over his sudden removal. With this amiable Prince 
 died the last Earl of Chester who was owner of the castle at 
 Frodsham. On his death Frodsham Castle, with the other 
 possessions, reverted to the Crown. It appears, though the 
 fact is not recorded on the rolls, that the subsidy which the 
 county usually voted on the accession of a new Earl of 
 Chester had not been intermitted on the late Prince's creation 
 as such Earl; for on the 6th May, n Jac. I. (1613), by a 
 warrant of the King's Council, directed to William, Earl of 
 Derby, chamberlain of Chester, and others, they were required 
 to issue a commission for levying and collecting 1000, being 
 the arrear of 2000 (equivalent to 3000 marks), which had 
 been granted to the late Earl by the inhabitants of the county 
 palatine of Chester. (Ib.) On the i/th April, 11 Jac. I.
 
 Frodsham. 123 
 
 (1613), by an indenture of the i$th April, enrolled between 
 John Done, of Ulkington, esquire, of the one part, and Sir 
 Thomas Holcroft, of Vale Royal, knight, and Thomas 
 Holcroft, esquire, his son, of the other part, Sir John Done, in 
 consideration of 100, granted to the said Sir Thomas and 
 Thomas, his son, and their heirs, all those his lands called the 
 Bryn or Brandes in Kingsley, Cuddington, Norley, Newton- 
 juxta-Frodsham, and Weaverham, to hold to the said Sir 
 Thomas Holcroft and Thomas, his son, their heirs and assigns, 
 for ever. (Ib.) On the 26th July, 12 Jac. I. (1614), John 
 Taylor and John Hancocke reported that a sturgeon had been 
 taken in the King's channel below Saughall ; and on the I4th 
 March, 12 Jac. I. (1615), John Dene, a fisherman, reported his 
 having taken a sturgeon two yards and three quarters long in 
 the river Dee below Saughall. (Ib.) On the I4th July, 1615, 
 Sir John Savage, the farmer of Frodsham, who in 1611, by 
 the King's favour, had been created one of the new order of 
 baronets, was carried off by a sudden attack of sickness, and 
 his estate and honours descended upon his son, Sir Thomas 
 Savage, baronet. In 13 Jac. I. (161 6), very shortly after his 
 father's death, Sir Thomas Savage obtained a renewal of the 
 farm of Frodsham ; and it would seem that very soon after- 
 wards he purchased from the King the absolute fee-simple 
 and inheritance of the castle and manor of Frodsham ; and 
 thus that which for more than five hundred years had descended 
 through the Norman earls palatine of Chester to the sovereigns 
 of England ceased to be any longer a royal possession. To 
 make his acquisition still more complete, Sir Thomas acquired 
 from the King a grant of the right to hold a weekly market 
 at Frodsham, and also the right of holding a court leet there. 
 (Jones's Index to the Exchequer Records, vol. L, temp. Jac. I.) 
 On the 3rd November, 14 Jac. I. (1616), the King's second 
 and then eldest surviving son, Charles Stuart, was created 
 Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester ; but events have shown 
 that he was no longer the lord of Frodsham. On the 25th 
 September, 17 Jac. I. (1619), we find on the Cheshire rolls the 
 first application of an Act of the last reign against persons 
 exercising certain trades without having previously served a
 
 1 24 Frodsham, 
 
 seven years' apprenticeship to them ; for John Jeffreys, esquire, 
 the King's attorney, then laid an information against Robert 
 Jenkyns for unlawfully carrying on the trade of a shoemaker 
 without having first served such an apprenticeship to it. And 
 this was followed on the i6th July, 21 Jac. I. (1621), and in 
 1623, by two other informations for similar offences against 
 the same statute, one of the offenders being a butcher and the 
 other a baker in Overton. (Ches. Records.) King James 
 must be put down as the second, as Henry VIII' was the first, 
 of our English monarchs who distinguished themselves in the 
 literary arena ; for though our first Henry was called Beauclerc, 
 he is not known to have written a book ; and though King 
 James's learning was tinctured with pedantry, the reader of 
 his Basilicon Doron and some of his other works will not deny 
 that he possessed some genius. In the Gunpowder Plot, it 
 was his sagacity that first penetrated the mystery. The King 
 has had but scant justice done him as a legislator ; for it was 
 he who was at the pains to abolish many monopolies, to put 
 an end to some of the foolish sumptuary laws respecting 
 dress, and, if the nation would have allowed him, he would 
 have done away with much of the feudal law of tenures in 
 capite, which survived until the reign of his grandson, 
 Charles II. Many of the King's witty sayings, which still 
 linger amongst us, show that he had some of that humour 
 which Dean Ramsay took so much pains to show that his 
 countrymen did not want. The King expired on the 2/th 
 March, 1625, in the 59th year of his age. His reign, says 
 the historian, though not illustrious, was unspotted and 
 unblemished. The manor and castle of Frodsham having, 
 since the King disposed of them to Sir Thomas Savage, 
 baronet, ceased to be an appanage of the Crown, our future 
 contributions will be confined more especially to local events, 
 notices of the church, its vicars and registers, and some account 
 of the Savage and other families of the neighbourhood.
 
 Frodsham. 125 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 ON the 20th April, 1625, not a month after the late King's 
 demise, attention having been drawn to the bad state of repair 
 of Warrington bridge and its approaches situated on the main 
 road which connected Lancashire and Cheshire, and led directly 
 to Frodsham, the matter was brought before the justices of 
 the court of session at Chester, who, after hearing the case, 
 made an order that 150 should be immediately levied within 
 the county and laid out upon the repair of the Cheshire half 
 of Warrington bridge, and in making a causeway from such 
 bridge to the bridge at Wilderspool; and that after the making 
 of such causeway the inhabitants of the hundred of Bucklow, 
 in the county of Chester, should for ever repair the said 
 causeway and the Cheshire half of Warrington bridge as often 
 as the judges of assize should think the same necessary. 
 (Ches. Records.) After the Savages had become the owners 
 of Frodsham Castle they seem to have made it one of their 
 chief places of residence. Indeed, even before this time they 
 had occasionally resided in this historic stronghold, thinking it 
 perhaps safer as well as stronger than their old seat of Rock 
 Savage ; for we read that " the virtuous Lady Elizabeth 
 Savage died at Frodsham, on 6th August, 1570." This lady, 
 the daughter of Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland, was the 
 first wife of Sir John Savage, who rebuilt the stately family 
 house of Rock Savage in 1565. The remains of his lady were 
 taken from Frodsham for interment in the family vault at 
 Macclesfield. After the death of Valentine Carey, Bishop of 
 Exeter, in 1626, there was some excitement as to who should 
 be appointed to succeed him, and in this excitement Sir 
 Thomas Savage bore a part, as we learn from an unsigned 
 letter in the Cosin's Correspondence, dated in August, 1626, 
 in which the writer informs John Cosin, then Archdeacon of 
 York, that Sir Thomas Savage, if need be, will join all his 
 forces, and his kinsman my lord 'of Rutland's, to induce the
 
 126 Frodsham. 
 
 Duke (of Buckingham) to support some one whom the writer 
 does not name as Carey's successor. (Cosin's Correspondence, 
 Surtees Society, p. 103.) Joseph Hall, afterwards the cele- 
 brated Bishop of Norwich, was appointed to the see in 1627 ; 
 but it does not appear whether he was the candidate whom 
 Sir Thomas supported. At this time Sir Thomas Savage, 
 baronet, the descendant of a long line of knightly Savages, 
 comes before us under the title of Viscount Savage. The 
 heralds and the genealogists are not quite agreed as to the 
 time or the way in which he came to the title. Collins in his 
 Peerage has it that, on the creation of Thomas Darcy to be 
 Earl Rivers, there was a limitation in the patent of the title of 
 Viscount Rock Savage to Sir Thomas Savage, who had 
 married Elizabeth Darcy, the earl's daughter and co-heir. 
 (Collins' Peerage, IX., 400.) But this does not seem so 
 probable as the account given of it by that exact and most 
 accurate Cheshire antiquary, Sir Peter Leycester, who tells us 
 that Sir Thomas Savage was created Viscount Savage on the 
 6th November, 1626. (Hist. Ches., I., 530.) In 9 Car. I. 
 (1633), by an inquisition after the death of John Ireland, 
 esquire, of Hale, in Lancashire, it was found that, besides 
 other extensive lands in Lancashire, he died seised of lands 
 in these Cheshire townships namely, Frodsham, Crowton, 
 Cuddington, Norley, Kingsley, Brynne, and Weaverham. 
 (Calendar Due. Lane., vol. II., p. 10.) While Thomas Viscount 
 Savage was in London, where he was most probably attending 
 on his duties as the Queen's Chancellor, he was seized with a 
 sudden illness, which on the i6th December, 1635, caused his 
 death, when he was succeeded in his honours and estate by 
 his son John, Viscount Savage, the young heir whom Henry, 
 the lamented Prince of Wales, had honoured by holding him 
 as his sponsor at the font. On the 5th August, 13 Car. I. 
 (1636), an indenture of the preceding 23rd July was enrolled 
 between Richard Pyke of the one part, and John Viscount 
 Savage of the other part, by which the said Richard Pyke 
 granted to the said John Viscount Savage, his heirs and 
 assigns, a messuage called Hockenhulls, in Frodsham, with 
 seven closes in the town field and one close in the marsh, for
 
 Frodsham. 127 
 
 ;i2O. (Ches. Records.) John Viscount Savage very shortly 
 afterwards gained another step in the peerage, having by the 
 death of his grandfather succeeded to the title of Earl Rivers. 
 On or about 2ist May, 14 Car. I. (1638), the King's eldest son, 
 Charles, became Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester ; but in 
 the latter character, however, he had now no longer any special 
 interest in Frodsham. On 3rd November (1640) the Long 
 Parliament assembled, and then, as an historian observes, 
 began that eventful chapter of English history from which the 
 great lessons of constitutional government are to be learned 
 where the Prince was taught how fatal it was to exceed the 
 limits of prerogative, and the people learned how dangerous 
 it was to usurp the privilege of sovereign power. 
 
 In 1640, when an estrangement had grown up between the 
 King and his Parliament, the country began to be split into 
 two parties, and men had fears to what it might lead. The 
 sceptre in the hand of the King's statue in the hall of Sir 
 Thomas Trenchard fell from it on the floor on the day before 
 the meeting of the Long Parliament, when no one was near to 
 disturb it, and the incident was thought to be of evil omen. It 
 was a time 
 
 When hard words, jealousies, and fears 
 Set folk together by the ears. 
 
 Earl Rivers, of Frodsham Castle, was the seneschal of the 
 King's Castle at Halton, and had besides received honours 
 and other marks of the royal favour, and his loyalty and 
 gratitude alike inclined him to the King's side ; but he was a 
 lover of peace, and had not shown himself a warm partisan 
 of either party ; yet he was known to be loyal, and was also a 
 Roman Catholic. He was selected as one of the first Cheshire 
 men to be arraigned in libels ; and in one of the pamphlets 
 of the time, which appeared in a Parliamentary paper, it was 
 said of him that " he gave out many scandalous speeches 
 against the Parliament party, and tried by all the means he 
 could to set the whole county of Chester against them." 
 (Palmer's Hist. Siege of Manchester, p. n.) Other stories 
 weie told which pointed at the Earl's co-religionists, one of
 
 128 Frodsham. 
 
 which was that the Lancashire Roman Catholics had resolved 
 to raise 15,000 men, which it was insinuated were to be used 
 for no lawful purpose ; but there was no foundation either for 
 the charge or its insinuation, yet four members of the House 
 of Commons reported it to the House of Lords. But Cheshire 
 was to have a similar story, and a tract was issued called a 
 Bloody Conspiracy by the Papists of Cheshire intended for 
 the destruction of the whole county, invented by the 
 treacherous Lord Choomes and his steward Henry Starkey, 
 also a relation of a bloody skirmish between the trained bands 
 of Cheshire and the conspirators and the number of those 
 slain, likewise the confession of the said Henry Starkey. This 
 story, in which the scribe, if he meant by Lord Choomes the 
 Lord Cholmondeley, showed his ingenuity in converting a 
 name of four syllables into a monosyllable only, proved like 
 the other to have no foundation. On the other side Sir Thomas 
 Aston, baronet, of Aston, which is near Frodsham, petitioned 
 the House of Lords for some punishment to be inflicted on 
 Henry Walker and others, who had printed and circulated "a 
 false and pretended petition which they professed to have 
 come from the county of Chester against episcopacy and the 
 use of the liturgy, which they alleged to be unchristian and 
 unlawful," no such petition having been heard of in the 
 county. (Nalson, I., p. 795.) Before the outbreak of the war 
 forty noblemen and others, of whom Earl Rivers was one, 
 concurred in signing a declaration of their full belief that His 
 Majesty the King had no design to make war on the Parlia- 
 ment, and their belief that his Majesty would constantly use 
 his endeavours towards the settlement of the true Protestant 
 religion, the just privileges of Parliament, the liberty of the 
 subject and the law, peace, and prosperity of the kingdom, 
 which last words found an echo in the motto, "Relig. Prot. 
 Leg. Angl. Liber. Par.," which appeared afterwards on the 
 royal coins, and has sometimes served to puzzle the numis- 
 matic antiquary. (Clarendon, Hist. Rebel, v., 233.) Although 
 Earl Rivers joined in this declaration, his name does not 
 appear among those peers who were afterwards reported to 
 have absented themselves from Parliament and to have joined
 
 Frodsham. 1 29 
 
 the King's party. (Peacock's Cavaliers and Roundheads.) 
 But when the House of Commons usurped one of the royal 
 prerogatives, and on their own authority appointed Lord 
 Wharton to the office of lord-lieutenant of Lancashire (Civil 
 War Tracts, Chet. Soc.), he still did his best to avert a 
 rupture ; and he concurred in the convention agreed to at 
 Bunbury, by which the county of Chester resolved to remain 
 neuter in the threatened quarrel. But unquiet spirits would not 
 cease from fanning the flame of strife; and on 4th July, 1642, 
 a story went forth that Lord Strange, having summoned Man- 
 chester to give up its arms and ammunition, and the town 
 having refused to obey the summons, a skirmish ensued, in 
 which twenty-seven of his men and eleven of the townsmen 
 were killed. There was no foundation whatever for this story ; 
 but it was announced to the House of Commons in this 
 alarming form : " The beginning of the Civil War in England, 
 or troublesome news from the North." (Manchester Recorder, 
 p. 1 8.) The Frodsham register of May, 1642, records the burial 
 of a soldier from Kent ; and the Warrington register, about the 
 same time, records the burial of a soldier slain at Sankey. Sea- 
 birds make for the shore when the storm threatens ; but it is 
 the very opposite with soldiers, for they gather together to 
 meet the storm of war. On the 2/th May, 1642, when the 
 King issued his commission of array for mustering soldiers in 
 Cheshire, Earl Rivers was joined in it with Lord Strange ; but 
 the Earl found that he could be of little use, as his co- 
 religionists had been already disarmed. In some parts of the 
 country the royal commissions of array were not circulated 
 without difficulty ; and it is said that one loyal lady succeeded 
 in distributing many of them from place to place as curl papers 
 in her hair. Before the end of the year 1642 the darkness of 
 the political horizon grew so great as to be the sure portent 
 of a coming storm, and there was for a short time the hushed 
 stillness which precedes the thunder-peal. The country, now 
 divided into two great parties, apparently nearly balanced, 
 bristled everywhere with arms. There was " war in procinct," 
 of which no man dared to say he could see the end. When a 
 number of noblemen and others saw that war was inevitable, 
 
 K
 
 130 Frodsham. 
 
 they put down their names to subscribe various sums to 
 provide troops for the King, and amongst them Earl Rivers, 
 of Frodsham, put down his name as a subscriber for ^30. 
 This offer probably led to his being specially excepted from 
 the power afterwards given to the Earl of Essex to pardon 
 certain delinquents and others. Still bent on peace, however, 
 the Earl was one of those who at a later period appealed to 
 the Lords of the Privy Council in Scotland to stay the intended 
 invasion of England. (Clarendon's Hist. Rebel., vol. V., pp. 
 353-55; vol. VII., p. 440.) A local poet, who has described 
 the final struggle between the Saxons and the Danes, has 
 imagined their mustering in this neighbourhood to decide the 
 quarrel between nation and nation, and the same description 
 may apply to their mustering in a quarrel which was embittered 
 by its being that of neighbour against neighbour : 
 
 Champions commingle, gathered where along 
 
 Frodsham its marsh and level champaign spreads, 
 
 Fam'd for the dairy as for fertile fruits, 
 
 And Island Ince, and lands that boast the guard 
 
 Of Helsby's ridgy hills and Signal Tor ; 
 
 Nor wanting fame in legendary lore. 
 
 Majestic in their prowess blended those, 
 
 The knightly troop who their proud fastness hold, 
 
 Where on the craggy brow Rock Savage frowns, 
 
 Shielding the promontory at whose feet 
 
 Weaver and Mersey join their subject floods. 
 
 Fitchett's Alfred. 
 
 Towards the beginning of 1643, Sir William Brereton, a 
 Cheshire gentleman, and the general of the Parliament, having 
 annulled the Bunbury Convention, mustered the men of Edis- 
 bury hundred to serve in the Parliament cause, and ordered 
 all those whom he enrolled to muster at Frodsham, the capital 
 of the hundred, where similar musters for a foreign war had 
 often been made in the times of the Edwards and the Henries. 
 A little later in the same year a meeting of the King's friends 
 was called at Warrington, which was attended, amongst others, 
 by the Earl of Derby, one of the oldest peers, and by Earl 
 Rivers, who, if not the youngest, was very nearly the youngest 
 created peer. It was resolved at this meeting to call out the
 
 Frodsham. 131 
 
 trained bands, the freehold bands, and the horse of the counties 
 of Chester and Lancaster, to fix their places where they should 
 rendezvous, and the pay of the troops. Every soldier was to 
 have \2d. a day, and the captains and other officers, besides 
 their pay, were to have an allowance made them for powder, 
 bullet, and match ; and it was resolved, if possible, to bring 
 about an association with the counties of Flint, Denbigh, 
 Cumberland, and Westmoreland. The Earl of Derby and 
 twenty-four other noblemen, knights and gentlemen, of 
 whom Earl Rivers was probably one, signed the resolutions of 
 the meeting. (Appendix to 5th Report on Historical MSS., 
 p. 547.) There is never a lack of soldiers in a time of danger. 
 They are always to be found. They spring up like the fabled 
 dragons' teeth of old ; and at Frodsham there were men now 
 found on both sides, with officers ready to take the command. 
 On the Parliament side were arrayed Colonel Witter, Colonel 
 Gerard of Crewood, though his name does not appear in the 
 list of the Parliament officers, and he was afterwards fined as 
 a delinquent ; Captain Edward Frodsham, who in time came 
 to have the command of 200 pioneers ; and Henry Frodsham, 
 who became sergeant-major in Sir William Constable's regi- 
 ment. (Peacock's Cavaliers and Roundheads.) On the side 
 of the King there came forward Colonel Sir Thomas Aston 
 of Aston, Colonel Marrow of Crowton, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Thomas Savage of the I4th Regiment, and Captain (afterwards 
 Colonel) Walter Primrose. The King seems to have been 
 very unfortunate in his officers, among whom there was scarcely 
 a single commander who could have had Felix written after 
 his name. Like the race of Douglas, scarcely one ever gained 
 a battle. The Parliament party having taunted their opponents 
 with having enrolled none but foreigners in their ranks, the 
 latter retorted upon them that if they had none but foreigners, 
 their opponents had none but foreign or Hebrew names taken 
 from Holy Writ on their muster-roll. Colonel John Moore of 
 Liverpool, a violent politician of his time, of whose extrava- 
 gances Adam Martindale gives a vivid and distressing account, 
 having been guilty of using language which was constructive 
 treason, was indicted for it on the loth February, 1643, at the 
 
 K2
 
 T 3 2 Frodsham. 
 
 Chester assizes. The colonel's offence was charged to have 
 been committed by him at Weston on the 23rd January 
 preceding. (Moore Rental, Chet. Soc., XIV.) Early in the 
 same month of February a party of Royalists attacked 
 Norton Priory, a house very near to Earl Rivers' seat at 
 Rock Savage ; but Colonel Brooke, the owner of the priory, 
 though he had only a small number of his own people in 
 the house, defended it so gallantly that the assailants were 
 successfully repulsed. (Hist. Ches., vol. I., Pref. XXXII.) The 
 war had now begun in earnest, and on the 26th of the same 
 month Sir William Brereton, at the head of a body of 500 
 horse and foot, after having reconnoitred all the country 
 between Nantwich and Knutsford, had come to Northwich, 
 and having there learned that the royal troops were beating up 
 the country between Frodsham and Warrington, he proceeded 
 to the former place, and gave orders that Norton Priory should 
 be further fortified. (Civil War Tracts, Chet. Soc., 62.) On the 
 24th June, 1643, Earl Rivers, the King's seneschal of Halton, 
 who had charge of the castle and garrison there, appointed 
 Captain Walter Prymrose to be governor of the castle for 
 the King. (Mercurius Aulicus of 25th June, 1643.) If this 
 announcement was correct, the editor of the new edition of 
 the History of Cheshire, in thinking that Captain (afterwards 
 Colonel) Walter Prymrose was probably of the Parliament 
 party, was mistaken. This officer was a native of Frodsham, 
 and his baptism is recorded in the Frodsham register in 1607. 
 Captain Walter Prymrose, however, when he took charge of 
 Halton, took it at a time when great danger was impending. 
 The siege of Warrington, which had ended on the 28th of 
 May, had set its captors at liberty for further action, and they 
 proceeded at once to invest the castle at Halton. Captain 
 Prymrose and his garrison made a gallant defence, during 
 which the chapel and some other parts of the castle were 
 completely destroyed ; but on the 22nd July, 1643, when the 
 garrison were much straitened for want of provisions, the 
 governor listened to terms of parley, and the castle was given 
 up on honourable conditions to Sir William Brereton, who, 
 on taking possession, appointed Colonel Fenwick to be its
 
 Frodsham. 133 
 
 governor. (Civil War Tracts, Chet Soc., p." 147.) The 
 disturbed state of the country now made travelling difficult 
 to non-belligerents and to those who were taking no part in 
 the quarrel. A lady with her three young children, on 28th 
 August, 1643, who had occasion to journey from Chester 
 a city which, though then in the King's possession, was 
 beleaguered by his enemies to Warrington, which was then 
 in the hands of the Parliament, and so had to pass through 
 the two opposing lines, found her progress so impeded that 
 she only reached Warrington, tired and weary, at ten o'clock 
 at night, notwithstanding that the captain of the King's forces 
 showed her much civility ; and Colonel Shuttleworth, on the 
 other side, also gave her a pass. But, tired and weary as she 
 was, sleep was denied her at Warrington, for during the night 
 there were continual alarms, which it was pretended came 
 from Chester, but were really only concerted to keep the 
 troops on the alert, for both the besiegers and the besieged 
 at Chester had enough on their hands. (Life of Mrs. Thornton, 
 Surtees Soc., 347.) On the i8th January, 1644, Colonel Sir 
 Thomas Aston attempted to relieve Nantwich, which was 
 besieged ; but he had too lately buckled on his armour to 
 know how much caution it was necessary for a commander 
 to observe in war, and, instead of success, he met with a 
 disheartening repulse. (Hist. Ches., I., 36.) On the 26th of 
 the same month, when an attempt was again made by General 
 Lord Byron and Sir Thomas Aston (who was serving under 
 him) to relieve Nantwich, the attempt was not only again 
 unsuccessful, but Sir Thomas Aston was made prisoner, along 
 with Colonel George Monk (afterwards Duke of Albemarle) 
 and the celebrated divine, Thomas Fuller. (Hume's Hist, of 
 England, 308.) General Lord Byron, writing to Prince Rupert 
 from Chester on the 7th April, 1644, amongst other military 
 news writes to his highness as follows : " Yesterday I sent 
 my own regiment of foot to Frodsham with an intention to 
 have kept that bridge, but the enemye appeared there so 
 strong that after a little skirmish, wherein some men were 
 lost on both sides, we were forced to quit that town and to 
 quarter two miles on this (the Chester) side of the bridge, the
 
 1 34 Frodskam. 
 
 rebels having cast up a work on the other side of the bridge, 
 which we were not strong enough to beat them out of." 
 (From a copy of the original letter in the Chester Sheaf.) 
 One does not at this day think it would be easy to cross the 
 wide river Mersey either on foot or horseback between Weston 
 Point in Cheshire and the opposite Hale Point in Lancashire ; 
 but it appears from the records of the court at Hale that in 
 old times the ford there, called Haleford, was very commonly 
 passed both on foot and on horseback ; and there is an undated 
 letter of General Goring's to Prince Rupert, written about 
 1 5th June, 1644, in which he says "the rebels have this 
 evening attempted the passage at Haleford." There is also 
 a letter of Sir William Devenant, the Parliament officer, dated 
 at that ford ; and Prince Rupert himself, returning from 
 Marston Moor, is said to have passed this way into Cheshire. 
 (Memoirs of Rupert and the Cavaliers and Civil War Tracts, 
 Chet. Soc., 203.) 
 
 In a letter of General Goring's to Prince Rupert from 
 Wigan, on the nth August, 1644, he writes as follows : " The 
 rebels have this evening attempted the passing of Haleford, 
 and by Colonel Marrow charging them in the rear, and two of 
 my regiments under Blakiston passing over the ford, they were 
 beaten, most of their foot were killed or taken, and their horse 
 were chased above three miles." (From a copy of the letter 
 in the Cheshire Sheaf.) On the i8th of the same month, 
 when a party of Sir William Brereton's horse, having taken 
 possession of Crovvton house, and fortified it, and were 
 holding it as a garrison, Colonel Marrow, flushed with his 
 recent success at Haleford, came suddenly upon them and 
 attacked them with such vigour that he put them to a complete 
 rout ; but this second success, alas ! emboldened him too much, 
 and, forgetting that a good commander should neither overrate 
 his own powers nor underrate his enemy's, he fell into the 
 mistake of measuring himself with Sir William Brereton, a 
 man of far more experience in war, and, meeting Sir William 
 as he was returning from Chester, he attempted to turn the 
 front of his force, when he was not only worsted, but himself 
 received so severe a wound that he died of it soon after, and
 
 Frodsham. 135 
 
 in him the King lost a loyal Cheshire soldier who'm he could 
 ill spare. (Ib.) In or about the same month General Goring, 
 again writing to Prince Rupert from Wigan, informs him that 
 Colonel Fenwick's quarters at Halton had been beaten up by 
 a party from Warrington ; but the general must have been 
 mistaken in assigning the party that attacked and alarmed 
 Colonel Fenwick to Warrington, for the Royalists do not 
 appear to have had any force there after the surrender of the 
 town at the end of May, 1643. After their recent successes 
 the trial of the Parliament party was so nearly complete that 
 thoughtful men began to fear they could now foresee the end. 
 Earl Rivers, the castellan constable and seneschal of Halton 
 Castle, had lost his office, his castle was about to be dismantled, 
 and his house at Rock Savage, the ancient seat of his family 
 and name, being roofless, he was without a home, and he 
 therefore retired to Frodsham Castle, which was no longer a 
 stronghold, intending in quiet seclusion to wait there for better 
 days if any such might be in store for him, though of this his 
 hopes were but faint, for time and anxiety had already made 
 him prematurely old. Sir Thomas Aston, who had been made 
 prisoner at Nantwich, after some fruitless attempts had been 
 made to exchange him for a prisoner of equal rank on the 
 other side, was taken to Stafford, and there kept in close 
 confinement. Chafing under this treatment, however, he 
 attempted to make his escape, and being seen by a sentinel, 
 who was perhaps over-precipitate in the use of his arms, he 
 was shot dead, and his remains were brought to the family 
 burial-place at Aston, where it is recorded in this entry of the 
 register : " Sir Thomas Aston, of Aston, in the county of 
 Chester, baronet, died at Stafford, on Tuesday, the 24th March, 
 1645, and was buried on Thursday, the 2nd April, 1646." But, 
 notwithstanding the two different years mentioned in the 
 register, his death and burial were only eight days apart, for 
 the first was the ecclesiastical or church year, and the second 
 the civil year. In Sir Thomas the King lost another gallant 
 officer, and an epitaph to him in the chapel adds that Sir 
 Thomas having distinguished himself by his learning and 
 courage in defence of Church and State, says that he died in
 
 136 Frodsham. 
 
 the service of his King. Sir Thomas wrote and published a 
 remonstrance against the Presbytery, with other works. (See 
 Watts' Bibliotheca.) By order of the Parliament on the 1st 
 October, 1646, the names of John Earl Rivers and Thomas 
 Savage were struck out of the Commission of the Peace for 
 Cheshire, an indignity which their enemies might have spared 
 them. (Hist. Ches., I., 209.) The cavaliers were now made 
 to feel the iron heel of conquest. They had suffered in their 
 persons, and they were now made to suffer in their estates and 
 in their purse. A series of questions had been freely circulated 
 for the purpose of ascertaining the degree of each man's 
 delinquency. The answers had been obtained, and now, as a 
 consequence, 
 
 Nobles and knights, so proud of late, 
 
 Must fine for freedom and estate. 
 
 Fines were now enacted according to the measure of each 
 man's malignancy, and the money was employed either in 
 furthering the triumphant cause or in rewarding its friends. 
 As might be expected, Earl Rivers and his family suffered 
 heavily in this way. The Earl was fined .1,180, and his 
 mother, the dowager Countess, ; 100. Thomas Savage, esquire, 
 of Emling Castle, was fined 1,487, and Thomas Savage, of 
 Barrow, gentleman, 70. But Earl Rivers, although his 
 personal share in the various actions of the war had been very 
 small and had resulted in no benefit to his Majesty, was by the 
 rancour of his enemies classed as a delinquent, a recusant, and 
 a malignant, which led to an increase in the fines which he had 
 from time to time to pay ; and in May, 1648, Colonel Gerrard, 
 apparently once a Parliamentary officer, though his name is 
 not found in either of the army lists, is set down as a delinquent. 
 In August, 1648, when the Duke of Hamilton, intending to 
 assist the King, who was now in the hands of the Parliament, 
 had invaded England and was attacked and beaten by 
 Cromwell between Preston and Warrington, he fled at first 
 into this neighbourhood ; for Cromwell, in his letter of 2Oth 
 August, in which he describes the total rout of the Duke, 
 goes on to say that he has fled with some of his horse into 
 Delamere Forest, having with him neither horse nor dragooners.
 
 Frodsham. 1 3 7 
 
 (Cromwell's Letters, by Carlyle, vol. I., 380.) But the last 
 scene of a painful drama was now drawing to a close. On the 
 22nd December, 1625, when the King's reign had but just 
 begun, he granted to one Thomas Radford, a prisoner confined 
 in the gaol of the Northgate, Chester, his royal pardon for the 
 murder of Thomas Taylor, whom he appeared to have slain in 
 self-defence (Ches. Records), and these three entries on the 
 Cheshire rolls of his reign show that by him, or in his name, 
 the royal prerogative of mercy was exercised until " the long 
 divorce of steel" fell on himself. On the I3th July, 24 Car. I. 
 (1648), William Sutton received the royal pardon for his offence 
 in having killed John Sutton in self-defence. On the 28th 
 September, 24 Car. I. (1648), John Sweane, yeoman, received 
 the like pardon for having slain John Passe in self-defence ; 
 and on 25th January, 1649, Peter Deane, the elder, yeoman, 
 received the like pardon for his offence in slaying Thomas 
 Heald in self-defence, and not of malice aforethought. (Ches. 
 Records.) There is a melancholy significance in the monarch's 
 reign, thus beginning and ending with acts of mercy, the last 
 of these acts being only five days before his own sad fate, in 
 which he wanted the mercy which he had shown. In Macaulay's 
 imaginary conversation between Milton and the poet Cowley, 
 the former is made to say : " For the execution of King Charles 
 I will not undertake to defend it. Death is inflicted, not 
 that the culprit may die, but that the State may be thereby 
 advantaged. And, from all that I know, I think that the 
 death of King Charles hath more hindered than advanced the 
 liberties of England." And so also thought honest Andrew 
 Marvel, who, after witnessing the King's death, wrote upon it 
 thus 
 
 While around the armed bands 
 Did clap their bloody hands, 
 He nothing common did or mean 
 Upon that memorable scene, 
 
 But with his keener eye 
 
 The axe's edge did try ; 
 Nor called the gods, with vulgar spite, 
 To vindicate his helpless right, 
 
 But bowed his comely head 
 
 Down, as upon a bed.
 
 138 Frodsham. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 THE INTERREGNUM. 
 
 AFTER the said tragedy, which had been enacted at Whitehall, 
 the Parliament, which, by the exclusion of all its members but 
 those of the extremest views, had been reduced to an incon- 
 siderable number, nominated a council of thirty-eight, a most 
 unwieldy executive, by which all the affairs of government were 
 to be administered under the name of a commonwealth, to which 
 the nation was likely enough to submit so long as it remained 
 stunned by a sense of terror, which was so strong that eminent 
 presbyterians in their diaries hardly dared to write any notice 
 of the late event except with the barest or no comment upon 
 it. Good Philip Henry of Broad Oak, in his manuscript diary, 
 simply records that on 3Oth January King Charles was 
 beheaded. But Henry Newcome, another good man, who in 
 his diary of the same date writes a little more at length, says : 
 "The news came to me when I was at Goosetree, and a 
 general sadness it put upon us all. It dejected me much, the 
 horridness of the fact, and much indisposed me for the service 
 of the Sabbath next after the news came. " (Nonconformity 
 in Cheshire, 205.) But the event seems to have put the scribe 
 of Frodsham to an entire year's silence ; for in the series of 
 books which exist at Frodsham, recording local events from 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century, and which are written 
 up year by year for a long period with great regularity, not a 
 single entry is made of any event during the year 1649. In 
 the previous year it is recorded that the church bells were 
 rung on the fifth of November, which was no doubt in memory 
 of the discovery of the gunpowder plot ; and it is also recorded 
 that there was also a peal rung on the seventh of September 
 of the same year. No mention, however, is made of the 
 occasion of this peal, but it was probably to commemorate some 
 victory, either that over the Duke of Hamilton or some other. 
 But if the local records are silent during 1649, the county 
 records shew us that the commonwealth then undertook one of 
 the royal prerogatives, the gracious act of pardoning an
 
 Frodsham. 1 39 
 
 offender whose life was forfeited ; for on the I4th September, 
 1649, Peter Price and Christopher Williams received a pardon 
 for having slain a person. In 1649 the Parliament also took 
 upon it to dispose of public offices which had before been at 
 the disposal of the crown ; and on the 23rd of March, 1649, 
 there is an entry on the Cheshire records to the effect that 
 Edward Earl of Manchester, the son of a loyal friend and 
 faithful subject of the late King, but who had now transferred 
 his service to the Parliament ; and William Lenthall, Speaker 
 of the House of Commons, granted to Henry Trigge, of 
 Dorking, and John Wynne, of Chesham, gentlemen, the office 
 of bailiff itinerant of the Court of Exchequer at Chester, in 
 reversion after the death of the then occupant. The grant of 
 the office to these gentlemen, both abbsentees and non-resident 
 at Chester, seems like the creation of a comfortable sinecure, a 
 practice which was but too common at that time, and which is 
 not yet wholly extinct. At this time and for many years before, 
 to their great disgrace, the civilized nations of Europe had 
 submitted to have the seas swept by the Turkish pirates of 
 Tunis and Algiers, known both in history and fiction as the 
 Sallee rovers. These sea robbers preyed upon ships and 
 merchandise, and made slaves of their crews and the people on 
 board, whom they would not give up but on payment of 
 ransom. In 1605 the excellent St. Vincent de Paul was 
 carried to Tunis in this way and kept prisoner until his captors 
 were paid a ransom. So frequent were these captures, that the 
 chapel in the Isle de Be'huard in the Loire was actually hung 
 round with the chains of the captives who had been rescued or 
 ransomed from the Algerines, and according to Montalembert 
 the Augustinian canons had an order of Merci especially insti- 
 tuted for the redemption of Christian captives. There are records 
 of payments on this account in almost every church book of the 
 age. At Frodsham there occurs an entry in 1628 of two 
 shillings collected by a brief for twenty (of these) captives in 
 Turkey. (Frodsham Books.) In 1634 an entry in the registry of 
 Cheddar records that a gift was made by the parish authorities to 
 a soldier who had been redeemed from the Turks. In the year 
 1636 the late King had fitted out and sent a squadron against
 
 1 40 Frodsham. 
 
 Sallee, which, with some assistance rendered to it by the Emperor 
 of Morocco, made a clear sweep and destruction of that nest of 
 pirates which had afflicted English commerce and had even 
 invaded her coasts. (Hume's Hist. Eng. VI., 306). But the 
 hydra proving to have been only scotched, and not killed, the 
 English Parliament, in 1640, imposed a tax on all ships and 
 merchandise for the purpose of raising a fund for putting a 
 final end to this discreditable scourge ; but this proved of little 
 or no avail, for in 1652 Eliza Honeywood (aFrodsham person, 
 as we suppose), whose husband had been surprised and made 
 captive by the Turks, in the Island of Ipike, received one 
 shilling from the Frodsham authorities. (Frodsham Books.) 
 Three years later, in 1655, the English .Admiral Blake 
 administered the severest chastisement the Beys of Tunis and 
 Algiers, the supporters of these pirates, had ever yet received, 
 and which for a time filled them with a wholesome terror. 
 (Clarendon's Hist. Rebell. XV. 12.) From entries in the later 
 Frodsham Books, however, we shall see that this disgrace to 
 civilization continued ; and we know from history that it 
 survived in our own times, and was then for ever put down by 
 England and France. After this glance at the subject of 
 Christian slavery under the Turkish pirates, which occurs so 
 often in the Frodsham Books, we return to the state in which 
 the country found itself at the beginning of the Commonwealth ; 
 violent changes in a government such as those which had lately 
 occurred in England almost always call out some man of 
 talent who can take advantage of them ; and in the present 
 distracted state of the country Cromwell found his opportunity, 
 and was ready to use it. He first took means to obtain the 
 office of Lieutenant of Ireland, and after having achieved a 
 great success there, he was, when Fairfax had been prevailed 
 on to resign, made general of all the forces in England in his 
 place. This opened the way for him to carry the war into 
 Scotland, where he fought and gained the great battle of 
 Dunbar, which virtually laid Scotland at the feet of England, 
 and made Cromwell its greatest man ; and there soon occurred 
 another occasion to show still more his extraordinary military 
 talents. In the month of August, 165 1, Charles, the young King
 
 Frodsham. 141 
 
 of Scots (afterwards Charles II.), marched through the kingdom 
 from Scotland to Worcester, where he was met and attacked by 
 Cromwell on the 3rd September of the same year, when his 
 arms were again successful, and the royal forces were put to a 
 complete rout, and their horse fled with such rapidity that in 
 less than three days they were taken at Frodsham and some 
 other Cheshire towns, a distance of more than seventy miles 
 from Worcester. At Frodsham the prisoners were put into 
 the church, and the Frodsham Books show that it had to be 
 purified by burning in it pitch and rosin, and that a shilling 
 was paid for these materials to " take away the ill savour after 
 the prisoners lying in the same." (Frodsham Books.) For 
 this victory there was a day of public thanksgiving appointed, 
 and one shilling and fourpence was paid to the ringers of 
 Frodsham for ringing the bells on the occasion. (Ib.) Mr. 
 Newcome tells us in his diary, under /th September, 1651, 
 " I preached this day at Sandbach. The poor Scots were so 
 miserably used in the country, and so many of them were 
 put into the church, that I could not preach in it." 
 
 The Commonwealth continued to exercise the royal func- 
 tion of pardoning offenders who had been tried and convicted 
 of homicide, manslaughter, or the high crime of murder ; and, 
 on the 3Oth April, 1650, they issued a pardon to John Done, 
 whose name bespeaks his Frodsham origin, for having slain 
 one Robert Williamson by misadventure. (Ches. Records.) 
 The Post-office, one of our institutions of most general use, 
 had been growing in importance as a national office since the 
 time of Elizabeth. James I. and Charles I. had both improved 
 it, and so also had the Long Parliament. Thomas Witherings 
 had been appointed postmaster in 1640. He was succeeded 
 by Philip Burlamaquy, and he again, in 1644, by Edmund 
 Prideaux, whose name, like his predecessor's, has a foreign 
 sound. But after the latter officer, John Manley, seemingly a 
 Cheshire man, in June, 1651, took the national Post-office to 
 farm, at the sum of .8,250. los. \\\d. a year. Manley is not 
 mentioned in the report which the Postmaster-General made 
 to Parliament in 1856; but he is expressly mentioned in Mrs. 
 Everett Greene's Calendars of the Council Books. After the
 
 142 Frodsham. 
 
 Restoration, Charles II. let the Post-office to Sergeant-Major 
 O'Neil, one of that house of which the Irish say, " It is better 
 to be an O'Neil than an emperor." Among the manuscripts 
 in the Harlein Collection there is a folio book given by W. C. 
 to Henry Frodsham with verses by W. C. (Cat., v. I., 455 ar., 
 847.) Henry was a common name among the Frodshams of 
 Elton during the interregnum, and one of that name was 
 sergeant-major to Sir William Constable's regiment ; and there 
 is another Henry in the pedigree who is also called captain. 
 Was Sir William the donor of the book to his Frodsham officer 
 who had served under him in arms ? In 1652 there seems to 
 have been a Mrs. Alice Pearson, who, having become distracted 
 and lost her wits, gave the authorities of Frodsham much 
 concern, and caused them to employ persons to look after and 
 spend money in her maintenance. But, if we read the entry 
 right, they did more, for it runs thus: "Spent, in 1652, at 
 Mrs. Button's, upon a day of the humiliation about Mrs. Alice." 
 (Frodsham Books.) In Old Cairo lunatics are sometimes 
 brought into an old church dedicated to St. George, where 
 prayers are said for them, in the hope of removing their 
 distraction. But the public humiliation and prayer used for 
 Mrs. Alice Pearson, not usually resorted to, had no supersti- 
 tion in it. Though war in the field might now be said to be 
 over, some military seem to have been still kept at Frodsham, 
 and among them was a Captain Fyke, whose name does 
 not appear in the Parliamentary muster roll. In 1652 
 he was of use in assisting the authorities, and we read 
 that he accompanied them to the sessions at Middlewich 
 to transact some business there ; and a sum was spent 
 for him in his and their expenses on the occasion. (Ib.) 
 Like Ancient Pistol's, Captain Pyke's name has a military 
 sound. Captain Silk and Captain Cotton, once being taunted 
 with having unsoldierly names, replied that theirs were better 
 names for a soldier than any other, inasmuch as they could 
 never be worsted ! On the 22nd April, 1653, the Common- 
 wealth pardoned Richard Gallimore, of Sandbach, for having 
 killed one John Gallimore in his own defence (Ches. Records) ; 
 and on the 8th July, 1653, they appointed Francis Leach,
 
 Frodsham. 143 
 
 gentleman, to the office of state serjeant-at-law for the county 
 of Chester, in the room of John Tilston, the late serjeant. 
 (Ib.) Cromwell being now Protector, prosecutions for treason 
 became rife, and some new kinds of treason were invented and 
 added to the old. In 1654 several persons were executed, and 
 amongst them was Colonel John Gerard, of whom there were 
 so many persons of the same family name, who were engaged 
 on one side or the other in the civil war, that it is not easy to 
 say of which of the Gerard families he was a member. The 
 Colonel, being charged with the offence of treason in conspiring 
 against the Protector, the indictment stated that being at Paris 
 he had spoken with the King. The accused admitted that, 
 having been at Paris on business of his own, he desired, before 
 his return to England, that his kinsman Lord Gerard would 
 present him to the King that he might kiss his hand. That 
 he was so presented in a large room where many persons were 
 present, and that he ask'd his Majesty whether he would com- 
 mand him in any service in England, when his Majesty 
 bade him to commend him to his friends in England, 
 and engage them to be quiet and to enter into no plots. 
 However, evidence was offered which the court thought 
 sufficient to establish constructive treason, but which the 
 prisoner, a man of unblemished honour, denied, and he 
 was by the High Court of Justice condemned to die, 
 and on the ist July, 1654, he was beheaded on Tower 
 Hill. An interesting and affecting account of his behaviour 
 on the scaffold has come down to us, as also his dying 
 speech, full of charity, in which he says, " Though I am 
 a soldier, I am able to profess that I am a Christian 
 soldier, and a true son of the Church of England." 
 (England's Black Tribunal, p. 256 et seq.) As usual at that 
 time, the parish officers of Frodsham in 1654 had a meeting 
 to settle the public accounts, when there was a gathering of 
 the officers, and the meeting had a social aspect, for the entry 
 of it reads thus : " Paid eight shillings, which was expended 
 upon ourselves and others the day of our accounts, viz., upon 
 the dinners, &c., of divers parishioners who came to us with 
 their several bills for travelling charges touching the Quakers
 
 144 Frodsham. 
 
 who had disturbed our assembly." (Frodsham Books.) The 
 followers of Fox above alluded to were very active at this 
 time. One of them, Thomas Briggs, being in the steeple 
 house (so he called the church) at Warrington, and speaking 
 a few words after the preacher, was violently assaulted by a 
 man, who plucked a handful of hair from his head, which 
 Briggs taking up without any reproaches meekly observed, 
 " Not a hair of my head shall fall without my Father's per- 
 mission." (Sewell's Hist, of the Quakers, I., 116.) It is 
 possible that Briggs or some of his co-religionists might 
 have ventured into Frodsham church and disturbed the 
 congregation. Burton's Cromwellian Diary abounds with 
 instances of the persecutions to which the followers of 
 George Fox were subjected. Earl Rivers, who had retired 
 when the day was lost, had not found his retirement 
 to Frodsham either restore his strength or prolong his 
 years ; for on the loth October, 1654, he was called to 
 his rest in the prime of life. He died in Frodsham 
 Castle ; and the same night, by a coincidence which was 
 not thought to be accidental, the castle was destroyed by fire. 
 If the fire was the work of an incendiary whose acrimony had 
 survived the earl's life, he probably intended to make the 
 castle the earl's funeral pile ; but, if so, he was disappointed in 
 his object, for the body, unharmed by the fire, was found the 
 next day, and conveyed, after a short interval of two days, to 
 the family burial place at Macclesfield. 
 
 Early in the year 1655, in outrageous violation of the 
 law of nations, a great crime was committed at Madrid by 
 the murder of Mr. Ascham, Cromwell's envoy or ambassador, 
 and his secretary or interpreter at that Court. Cromwell, 
 who, with just reason, was most indignant at this outrage, took 
 all the means he could to find out and punish its perpetrators. 
 There seems at this time to have been living at Frodsham 
 a Colonel Robert Werden, who had been one of the late King's 
 loyal servants, and there may have been some suspicion that 
 the perpetrators were connected either with Edward Halsall, 
 once the supposed author of 'the History of the Siege of 
 Latham, or with some one else at Frodsham. Accordingly,
 
 Frodsham. 145 
 
 in March of the above year, the Protector commissioned Colonel 
 Gilbert Ireland (afterwards Sir Gilbert) and Mr. Aspinwall to 
 proceed to Frodsham, and there to examine Colonel Werden 
 and others as to their knowledge of the murderers of the envoy 
 and his secretary. It does not appear that their visit to 
 Frodsham produced any evidence of the guilty persons, but 
 they acquitted Halsall of having written the History of the 
 Siege of Latham House, and of having any concern in the 
 murder, and in the end no person suffered for it except 
 one Prodgers, who was found guilty and executed in Spain. 
 (Moore Rental, Chet. Soc., 139; Hist. Lane, IV., 25, in notis.) 
 Cromwell is thought to have had the circumstances of 
 Ascham's murder in his mind when, in his long speech of the 
 i/th September, 1656, he said : " It is the pleasure of the Pope 
 at any time to tell you that though the man is murdered, yet 
 his murderer has got into sanctuary ; and equally true it is and 
 has been found by common consent and experience that peace 
 is but to be kept so long as the Pope saith amen to it." 
 (Carlyle's Cromwell's Letters, vol. III., 200.) In 1655, after 
 Cromwell had been long enough in power to make him desire 
 to keep it, he felt himself obliged to listen to the tyrants' plea 
 and obey the stern law of necessity. Penruddock's insurrection 
 having been put down, and such of its leaders as were not 
 punished capitally, having been sold for slaves and transported 
 to Barbadoes, he resolved no longer to keep terms with his 
 enemies, and least of all with the Royalists, who, though they 
 were not those from whom he had most to fear, were yet those 
 whom he could most safely oppress. Without regard, therefore, 
 to any former compositions, he obliged them to redeem them- 
 selves by great sums of money. Whoever was known to be 
 disaffected was exposed to new exactions, which obtained 
 the sad name of decimation ; and he instituted twelve major- 
 generals, amongst whom he divided the whole kingdom into 
 so many military jurisdictions. These men had the power to 
 subject whom they pleased to decimation, and to imprison any 
 person who should be exposed to their jealousy or suspicion. 
 (Hume's Hist. England, VII., 2$3, 4, 5.) It was the creation 
 of these unheard-of despotisms, at a time when the Habeas 
 
 L
 
 1 46 Frodsham. 
 
 Corpus Act was unknown, which shocked the blindest admirer 
 of Cromwell, and made him qualify his character of him when 
 he wrote 
 
 I freely declare that 
 
 I am for old Noll, 
 
 Tho' his rule did a tyrant's resemble 
 
 For he made England great and her enemies tremble. 
 
 Among these major-generals was Charles Worsley, the best of 
 them, who had charge of Cheshire, Lancashire, and Stafford- 
 shire, and who in the course of his duties must often have 
 visited Frodsham. To the great joy of constitutional England, 
 however, these major-generals were withdrawn about the end 
 of 1656, and as Major-general Worsley in all his extremities 
 had been the Protector's firmest friend from the time when by 
 his orders he removed that which the Protector contemptuously 
 called "that bauble," the Speaker's mace, had been summoned 
 to London before their withdrawal was decided on, he was 
 probably one of those who advised it, though he did not live 
 to see it accomplished ; for having received orders to repair to 
 London, he wrote Secretary Thurloe the following letter, which 
 from what followed sounds like a knell : 
 
 Right honble, Your's bearing date the loth instant I received yesternight ; 
 but as to his highness' letter I have herd [sic] nothing of it as yet. I have been 
 now nere upon one mounth rideinge abroad in the three countyes and Chester 
 cittie, and had appointed a meetinge to-morrow at Bury : and indeede, Sir, I am 
 not well. My intent was to have taken a little rest at my cominge home and some 
 phisick. But seeing I have received this command I intend (if the Lord will) to 
 be with you with all speed ; but if not att the very day, it shal be because I am 
 not able, but I shall take post and observe your commands as neare as possible. 
 That's all from your honour's faithful servant, 
 
 (Signed) CHA. WORSLEY. 
 
 Warrington, the I3th May, 1656. 
 
 According to his promise, the writer followed his letter as 
 quickly as he could ; but he had scarcely arrived in London 
 before he was overtaken by the stroke of death, and to the 
 great grief of Cromwell he died on the I2th June, 1656, and 
 was honoured by being interred in Westminster Abbey. 
 (Stanley's Westminster Abbey, p. 244, n.) Upcn his grave
 
 Frodsham. 147 
 
 some one wrote these words : " Where never worse lay." 
 They were written by no admirer of the deceased's politics ; 
 but Cromwell, who was angry, took pains without success to 
 discover who it was that had thus libelled the dead. In 1656 
 the Frodsham Books have an entry of the payment of a small 
 sum to a soldier who was on his march towards his colours. 
 The times were not yet sufficiently peaceful to dispense with 
 the military. In 1657 tne same Books contain these three 
 entries. First : " Given to six travellers who had letters pattens, 
 one shilling." What kind of letters patent these were does not 
 appear, but a gift of twopence to each man does not show that 
 any great respect was paid to them. Secondly : " Paid for a 
 book which enjoins the observation of the Lord's Day, one 
 shilling." And thirdly : " Spent in bringing a Quaker before a 
 magistrate, one shilling and sixpence ;" which shows that after 
 fighting for liberty the nation had not yet learnt toleration. 
 On the 28th April, 1657, the Protector granted his pardon to 
 Ralph Piers, who, through the casual going off of a gun, had by 
 misfortune killed one Samuel Nield. (Ches. Records.) On 
 the 1 9th September, 1653, an ordinance of Parliament had 
 passed ordering that all marriages should take place before a 
 justice of the peace ; and this ordinance, except where the justice 
 consented to be present at a marriage in the church, effectually 
 put an end to the marriage ceremony being performed there. 
 One reason for this change may have been that which is 
 alluded to by Butler in Hudibras, who says 
 
 Others were for abolishing 
 That tool of matrimony a ring, 
 Whereby th' unsanctified bridegroom 
 Was married only to a thumb. 
 
 The new mode, however, came to an end in 1657, after which 
 time the Frodsham brides and bridegrooms resorted to the 
 parish church as before. In 1658 we read in the Frodsham 
 Books that the authorities paid one shilling to an Irish- 
 woman whose husband had been killed in the rebellion. The 
 arbitrary power of the major-generals having been withdrawn 
 in 1656, history informs us that the government of England 
 
 L2
 
 1 48 Frodsham. 
 
 never occupied a higher position in the eyes of foreign States 
 than she did in 1658, after the arbitrary authority of the major- 
 generals had been withdrawn and nothing substituted in its 
 place. (Oldmixon's Hist, of England, II., 422.) 
 
 The quiet that reigned in England at the beginning of 
 1658 was but the calm which precedes the storm, and was soon 
 to be broken ; for in the autumn of the same year, by the 
 death of Cromwell, which happened on the 3rd of September, 
 the anniversary of his birth and of the day on which he had 
 gained all his greatest victories, the political horizon became 
 gloomy and dark. The sceptre which he had grasped with so 
 firm a hand fell when he died into the feeble hands of Richard, 
 his amiable but unambitious son, for whom his gentleness 
 gained him sometimes the pseudonym of Queen Richard. 
 His accession to power became the immediate signal for the 
 Cavaliers and other malcontents to conceive fresh plans for 
 overthrowing the Government ; and the former made no secret 
 of their intention to endeavour, if possible, to restore the King. 
 Meantime, says an historian, the family of Cromwell " fell sud- 
 denly from an enormous height, but by a rare fortune without 
 hurt or injury to anyone." On the ist of May, 1659, the new 
 Protector formally resigned his power, and from being a quasi 
 king descended into the rank of a private gentleman, a position 
 in which he enjoyed more true happiness than it is in the power 
 of kings to bestow. He continued to fill the new character 
 which he had chosen until his death, which happened in the 
 reign of Queen Anne, when having gained the respect of all 
 who knew him, and having escaped the anxieties which wait 
 upon power, he was followed to the grave by many a true 
 mourner. But no sooner had Richard laid down the sceptre, 
 than several different competitors aspired to gain the supreme 
 power, the most powerful of whom were the Cavaliers who 
 had coalesced with the Presbyterians, and had the strongest 
 hopes to obtain it. The time was come when 
 
 They rallied in parades of woods 
 And unfrequented solitudes, 
 Convened at midnight in outhouses, 
 To appoint new rising rendezvouses.
 
 Frodsham. 149 
 
 Two short months had scarcely elapsed after the new Protector's 
 resignation before Sir George Booth, of Dunham, baronet, a 
 man of influence, who had sat for Cheshire in the Long 
 Parliament, but had been excluded, became anxious to see the 
 country delivered from the existing House of Commons, and 
 to see a free Parliament properly elected in its stead. He and 
 his party were no doubt of opinion that no true peace 
 for the nation could be arrived at until the King should be 
 restored and " have his own again." Early in July, Sir George 
 had attended a conference of the Cavaliers and Presbyterians 
 at Manchester, at which it was resolved that a general rising 
 of the party should take place on the ensuing ist of August. 
 (Newcome's Diary, Chet. Soc., pref. xxv.) This meeting being 
 over, Colonel Roger Whitley, of Peel Hall, a place not far 
 from Frodsham, was despatched to find the King at Brussels 
 or Calais, or wherever he might be, and to inform his Majesty 
 of what had been resolved. He returned on the 29th July, 
 bringing with him the King's gracious acknowledgments, and 
 a commission, under the royal signet and sign-manual, 
 appointing Sir George Booth to be commander of all the 
 forces to be raised for his Majesty in Cheshire, Lancashire, and 
 North Wales. Sir George having ascertained that he might 
 expect the support of Colonel Gilbert Ireland, of Bewsey ; 
 Colonel Holland, of Heaton ; Colonel Henry Brooke, of 
 Norton ; Colonel Peter Brooke, of Mere ; the Earl of Derby, 
 Lord Kilmorey, Major-General Egerton, Sir Thomas Middle- 
 ton, and Major-General Venables (the majority of whom were 
 Cheshire men), and having also ascertained that he might 
 expect the support of a large number of others who were ready 
 to join him and support him, fixed that a general rising should 
 take place on the ist of August, 1659. Accordingly, upon 
 that day Sir George and his party came to Chester, and having 
 taken possession of the city, appointed Colonel John Booth to 
 be its governor. They were unable, however, to take the 
 castle, which Colonel Croxton, the governor appointed by the 
 Parliament, insisted on not giving up to them. But, weary of 
 the disturbed state of the country, a number of volunteers 
 came forward to aid Sir George Booth, who, besides Chester,
 
 1 50 Frodsham. 
 
 had possessed himself of the towns of Manchester and War- 
 rington. His force now amounted to 3000 men, who mustered 
 first at Rowton Heath, a place with a name of evil omen, since 
 it was there that, on the 25th September, 1645, the Royalist 
 forces had been defeated, and their gallant leader, the Earl of 
 Lichfield, slain, without the other side sustaining the loss of a 
 single gentleman or nobleman ; for, as the Royalist chronicler, 
 with a sarcasm, records it, they had none such in their ranks 
 to lose. On the 9th August Sir George, in an address from 
 the knights and gentlemen of Cheshire to the city and citizens 
 of London, set out the deplorable condition of the country and 
 his reasons for rising to remedy it, to which he added that 
 from the men who handled the stern at Westminster there 
 could be no great expectation of any settlement of peace or 
 freedom from oppression. This plain, outspoken address was 
 meant for those who called themselves the Parliament, and 
 who, under that name, usurped the whole power of Govern- 
 ment. Having determined to lead his little army, which had 
 now risen to 4000 men (of whom 1700 consisted of mounted 
 gentlemen), into the centre of the county, Sir George advanced 
 with them to Northwich ; and at Winnington, near that place, 
 on the ipth of August, 1659, he was met by Lambert, the 
 Parliamentary general, at the head of a far superior force, who 
 attacked Sir George's force, which, after a gallant defence, was 
 routed and put to flight, when 700 of them, principally horse, 
 found their way to Frodsham, which place, having seen Sir 
 William Brereton muster his force for the Parliament there at 
 the beginning of the civil war, now saw the Royalists flying 
 from the last battle fought in the same war. On the 26th 
 April, 1660, before the King's actual return, whom the major 
 part of the people now expected to see soon restored, one 
 Thomas Cotton, esquire, who was confined in prison for having 
 caused the death of William Wilkinson in self-defence, received 
 the Parliament's pardon for having committed the offence. 
 (Ches. Records.) The coming event was thus anticipated by 
 the Parliament showing a gracious act of mercy. On the 
 2Qth May, 1660, the King entered London with every mark of 
 joy, and was restored to the throne under the title of Charles II.,
 
 Frodsham. 1 5 1 
 
 an event which was celebrated at Frodsham, as elsewhere, by 
 the ringing of the church-bells and by bonfires and rejoicings ; 
 but the event was celebrated also by another event worthy to 
 be mentioned the founding of the Frodsham Grammar School, 
 which has since made some scholars, and continues its good 
 work to this day. It was built in 1660, and originally occupied 
 a site in the corner of the churchyard ; but in 1824, when the 
 schoolhouse had begun to feel the effects of old age, it was 
 taken down and rebuilt in a better style, and on the present 
 more convenient site. Thomas, Earl Rivers, the successor of 
 him who had been the last nobleman to inhabit Frodsham 
 Castle, and whose family had suffered much for their adherence 
 to the late King, received from the new King, in 1660, a grant 
 of the agistment of the herbage, hog pannage, pasturage, 
 turbary, and bark within the forest of Mara and Mondrem. 
 (Ches. Records.) And the Frodsham Books inform us that in 
 the same year one shilling was given to a company of Irish 
 people who brought a pass " signed by my Lord General 
 Monk." This entry, though it is not dated, must have been 
 made between the 2Qth May and the 7th July, 1660 ; for on 
 the latter day General Monk was no longer a commoner, but 
 had become Duke of Albemarle. On the ist February, 13 
 Car. II. (1661), the sheriff was commanded to inquire whether 
 the King or any other person would receive damage if his 
 Majesty should grant to Thomas, Earl Rivers, and his heirs 
 the right to have a weekly market at Frodsham on every 
 Thursday, and to hold two fairs yearly on every 4th day of 
 May and i oth day of August. (Ches. Records.) This franchise, 
 which after the writ of ad quod damnum was no doubt granted 
 to the earl, was amongst the latest instances of such grants of 
 fairs and markets. 
 
 In the latter years of the Protectorate the Frodsham 
 chronicler, or town scribe, became sparing in his notes ; but 
 on the return of the King his pen grew more active. One of 
 his first entries tells us that the church-bells had again become 
 loyal, and that the ringers were paid for ringing them on the 
 coronation day ; but as the King was never actually crowned 
 in England, though he was crowned in Scotland in 1651, the
 
 152 Frodsham. 
 
 ringing must have been either on the 8th or the 2pth of May, 
 the former being the day on which he was publicly proclaimed 
 King of England by the Lords and Commons at Whitehall, 
 and the latter that on which he made his public entry into 
 London amid the acclamations of the people. It is certain, 
 however, that the former was the day meant, for the next 
 entry records another ringing of the bells on the King's 
 birthday, which certainly was the 2Qth May. Then follows an 
 entry of the scribe's journey to Manchester, at a cost of six 
 shillings, to agree with Mr. Rowe, a limner, to draw the King's 
 arms, which is followed by the payment to him of eight pounds 
 ten shillings for his work, and of a small payment to two 
 persons who carried the arms up to the church, and also of 
 another sum paid to those who assisted to put up the painting 
 of the arms. On the 3rd of January, 1644, the Long Parlia- 
 ment had passed an ordinance, which, after reciting " that they 
 had taken into their serious consideration the manifold incon- 
 veniences that had arisen in the superstitious and idolatrous 
 observance of Christmas and other festivals, vulgarly called 
 holy days, for which there was no warrant in the word of 
 God," ordained that the said festivals should not thereafter be 
 continued. From the above day, therefore, this ordinance put 
 an end to the observance of Christmas Day and the other 
 festivals of the Church ; but the King having now come back, 
 the restriction was no longer regarded, and accordingly on the 
 next Christmas Day the Frodsham bells rang out merrily as 
 of yore in honour of the festive season. By much ringing, 
 however, the bells seem to have been put out of order ; and 
 something being required to restore their popular music, one 
 John Bote, as the Frodsham Books tell us, was called in "to 
 maintain the Vawdricks." These articles, which were also 
 called Bawdricks, were the strong whyte or whitleather thongs 
 by which the clappers were held suspended, and without which 
 there could be no bell-music. (Notes and Queries, September 
 3rd, 1865, p. 139.) By the next entry in the Frodsham Books, 
 under December 3Oth, 1661, we find that Thomas Joynson, 
 the blacksmith at Trafford, was employed to make a new 
 clock for the parish use, and that he was paid 5. los. for it.
 
 Frodsham. 153 
 
 The sum was not a large one, and if his work is the same 
 which still sounds the hour in the church-steeple it was very 
 cheaply done ; but a village smith uniting the art of clock- 
 making with his anvil seems such an incongruous mixture of 
 callings as almost to recall the story of a Turkish wife, who 
 sued a doctor for killing her husband by giving him bad 
 physic ; she had proved her case, and was expecting a verdict, 
 when the cadi asked what kind of a doctor it was, to which 
 she answered a horse doctor. " Oh, then," said the judge, " I 
 must dismiss the case, for your husband must have been an 
 ass, or he never would have gone to a horse doctor to be 
 cured." Nothing seems to escape the Frodsham scribe's 
 attention. There was then no union doctor or public infirmary, 
 and accidents came, therefore, under the chronicler's notice. 
 The sexton breaks his leg, and two persons, neither of them a 
 surgeon, are called in to set it and to cure his wound ; they 
 paid i8s. ^id. for salve, which from the price paid might have 
 been golden ointment. In 1662, 2s. io</. was spent by the 
 chronicler in going from house to house through the parish to 
 collect money for the trade of fishing, and a further sum of 
 is, 6d. in going to Chester with the money. This collection, 
 which was general throughout the kingdom, was called the 
 Royal fishing, and was to re-establish the home fishery which 
 had begun in 1623, but had been interrupted by the late 
 public troubles. The parish seems to have added another 
 bell to their peal in 1663, for Mr. Stringer, a chorister, was then 
 paid for giving his opinion on its tuneableness with the rest, 
 and some workmen were paid for chipping it. Southey, in 
 his travels in England, under the assumed name of Don 
 Manuel Espriella, says, very truly, that sounds are a very 
 expensive luxury in England. On the 2Oth December, 16 
 Car. II. (1664), the King appointed Rundle Holme, of 
 Chester, one of the celebrated family of heralds, to the place 
 of sewer of the chamber extraordinary to his Majesty. This, 
 we suppose, made him a kind of server or carver at the royal 
 banquets. (Ches. Records.) But now, and for a considerable 
 period before this time, Frodsham and the neighbourhood 
 had felt the scarcity of money of a smaller value than the
 
 154 Frodsham. 
 
 silver coin, and this had given rise to a circulation of tokens, 
 which, though a convenience, was of a questionable character ; 
 and some account of these, and of their ultimate extinction 
 in 1665, the period at which these annals have now arrived, 
 may properly be given here. Our English coinage, from the 
 Norman Conquest until the reign of Henry III., who first 
 introduced gold into our money, consisted wholly of silver, 
 of which the penny, nominally, but not really the 24Oth 
 part of a pound troy of silver, was the smallest coined piece ; 
 and as articles in that age were very frequently of less value 
 than a penny, this coin was occasionally broken up into 
 halves and quarters, and the pieces, when necessary, were paid 
 away as halfpence and farthings ; but it will readily be con- 
 ceived that these small and thin fragments of irregular shape 
 were not only inconvenient, but very likely to be lost, and the 
 inconvenience was, at last, felt to be so great, that in the time 
 of King Henry VIII., as we learn from Erasmus, leaden tokens 
 of low value came into use, and were continued also in the 
 time of his successor, although it does not appear, at the 
 same time, that they ever received the sanction of the 
 Government. In Elizabeth's time, however, similar tokens, 
 called also pledges, were issued as halfpennies and farthings, 
 which yet, though they had no direct sanction of the Govern- 
 ment, were found to be a great convenience to grocers, vintners, 
 and others of like trades, who had felt the great inconveni- 
 ence of the want of small change. (The Coins of England, 
 by Noel Humphreys, 1846, pp. 94, 95.) The Queen, who 
 must have noticed this want, designed to issue a three- 
 farthing piece of silver, which, to distinguish it from the silver 
 penny, than which it was but a little smaller, had a rose at the 
 back of the Queen's head ; and this piece it was which gave 
 point to Shakspere's allusion when he made the bastard, 
 Faulconbridge, say, in remarking on his brother's leanness 
 
 I would not own a face so thin 
 
 That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose, 
 
 Lest men should say, " Look where three farthings goes." 
 
 On taking the matter of pledges or tokens into further con- 
 sideration, however, the Queen decided that thenceforward they
 
 Frodsham. J 55 
 
 should only be made by her authority, and that they should be 
 of pure copper, the farthing of the weight of seven grains, and 
 the halfpenny of twice that weight, and patterns of these coins 
 still exist in the Royal Mint; but there is some doubt whether 
 the coins themselves were ever issued. It was probably the 
 failure or abandonment of this design that led her Majesty, 
 soon after, to grant to the city of Bristol the privilege to coin 
 copper or brass tokens to circulate in that city, and within ten 
 miles round it. But James I. nominally abolished the issue of 
 all leaden tokens by private traders, and issued from his own 
 mint a small quantity of copper farthings, but there was no 
 second issue ; and his Majesty afterwards granted to Lord 
 Harrington power to issue copper or brass farthings ; but few, 
 if any, of these have come down to our own times, and the 
 patent for them expired when the King died. During the 
 reign of Charles I., however, so very large, promiscuous, and 
 unauthorized an issue of these traders' tokens took place, many 
 of them manufactured fraudulently, that this county and the 
 neighbourhood, Frodsham with the rest, became deluged with 
 them, insomuch that the city of Chester made an urgent 
 appeal to have them put a stop to. In their appeal, which bore 
 date the 3rd of February, 1633, the mayor, aldermen, and 
 justices alleged that very large quantities of farthing tokens 
 had been brought into the city by such as had bought them at 
 a reduced rate far below their nominal value, who had then 
 vended them again for profit, while others had been passed off 
 by pedlars and chapmen ; and that the effect of all this had 
 been to enhance all articles before sold for a silver penny to 
 the price of twopence in farthings. They added, also, that 
 they had apprehended one James Scarre, a stranger, from 
 Rawden, in Yorkshire, who had brought to the city a quantity 
 of farthings of the nominal value of twenty pounds, which he 
 confessed to have bought at Masham, Yorkshire, and paid only 
 five pounds for in commodities of that value ; that the greater 
 part of these tokens were believed to be base and counterfeit ; 
 wherefore they prayed the Council to find some remedy for 
 the evil complained of. It was felt, however, that nothing 
 would supply the want of small change money but a national
 
 156 Frodsham. 
 
 coinage, which Cromwell, a great improver of our coinage, 
 once designed to issue ; and, for that purpose, Simon, the 
 celebrated engraver, by his orders, prepared for him a design 
 of copper farthings, which, like his other works, was excellent. 
 But no money was struck from this design except only a few 
 which remain as patterns in the mint. Cromwell, after this, 
 granted to Sir Thomas Armstrong a patent to coin copper 
 farthings for twenty-one years, for which he was to pay every 
 year 16. 13^. 4^., and was to issue 2is. in farthings for every 
 2os. in silver, and was to take them back at the same rate. 
 The fate of the patentee was sad, for at a later period he was 
 tried and executed for taking part in Monmouth's conspiracy. 
 (Hume's Hist. Eng., vol. VIII., 189, 199.) Still the want of a 
 sufficiency of small change remained unredressed, and, in 
 spite of its being unauthorized, almost every principal shop- 
 keeper and tradesman in all the principal towns of the kingdom 
 issued his farthing and halfpenny tokens of copper or brass, 
 which were made payable to the bearer at the issuer's place of 
 business. Warrington had fourteen different kinds of these 
 tokens, Chester more than twice that number, while the list 
 of those in London fills a large volume ; and it can hardly be 
 doubted that some such tokens were issued in Frodsham, but 
 none are known to have been discovered there. These local 
 tokens held their ground until they were supplanted after the 
 Restoration, when King Charles II., in virtue of his royal pre- 
 rogative, in 1665, issued copper farthings and halfpence from 
 the royal mint, bearing his Majesty's head, with the legend 
 Carolus a Carolo on the obverse, and on the reverse the figure 
 of Britannia, modelled after his beautiful kinswoman, Frances 
 Stuart, and the legend quatuor Maria vindico, and ever since 
 that time a regular copper coinage has continued to be issued 
 by royal authority.
 
 Frodsham. 1 5 7 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 OVERTON CHURCH. 
 
 HAVING in a previous chapter given a slight account of the 
 older parts of the church at Frodsham, which we have sup- 
 posed to be of pre-Norman origin, we propose now to give 
 some particulars of the rest of the structure as it existed before 
 the commencement of the restoration so lately begun a restor- 
 ation which bids fair to make the old church renew its youth 
 after an age far exceeding the eagle's, and once more to 
 put on its face of pristine grandeur. Since the idea of the 
 restoration was first entertained, some intelligent local observer, 
 who had examined the church minutely, has discovered many 
 features in it which were before unnoticed. His observations 
 it is our intention to incorporate with our own, in the hope of 
 making the whole more complete. It may happen that we 
 shall be betrayed into some repetition, and it will scarcely be 
 possible to comprise the whole description of the church 
 within very narrow limits. The fabric of this very ancient 
 church is built of the red sandstone of the neighbourhood, 
 whose qualities in the old part of the building show how well, 
 in an elevated and exposed situation, it has defied for centuries 
 the tooth of time and the stormy blasts which during that time 
 have assailed it from sea and land. The church consists of a 
 nave, two side aisles, a chancel, two chantry chapels, and a tower 
 containing six bells. The tower, four square and solid, which, 
 according to a Frodsham tradition, was built about the year 1350, 
 a date which agrees with the style of its architecture, has upon its 
 eastern face just under the battlements, in ancient characters, 
 some letters which are either R.H.O. or B.H.O., and which 
 were probably put there to commemorate him who was the 
 Vicar of Frodsham when the tower was built. Dr. Whittaker 
 mentions a similar inscription on one of the church-towers in 
 Whalley or Craven, put up, as he suggests, for the same or a 
 similar purpose. Originally there was an ornamental pinnacle 
 at each corner of the tower, but these not being sufficiently
 
 158 Frodsham. 
 
 solid or substantial have all fallen down ; the last, which 
 remained until sixty years ago, was then blown down by a 
 violent gale of wind. Round the steeple, now somewhat 
 defaced by time, are a series of projecting stone spouts, or 
 gurgoyles, which have been carved into the figures of imps 
 and evil spirits, placed there by the monkish architect to 
 symbolize that such beings were to be kept out of the church, 
 where nothing impure or unholy was fit to enter. The same 
 idea must have been present to the mind of the Egyptian 
 priests when they placed the ugly figure of their Typhon 
 outside the portal of their temples. The nave of the church 
 is divided from the side aisles by three arches, of which the 
 two on each side nearest the tower are semi-circular. Of the 
 pillars supporting these arches, three are cylindrical and the 
 fourth is octagonal. They have square capitals decorated 
 with sharp leaves, and an imitation of volutes at the angles. 
 The other arches of the nave are obtusely pointed. The 
 chancel, which is in a perpendicular style of architecture, was 
 originally separated from the nave by a screen or rood loft, 
 which was doubtless richly carved and ornamented. The 
 screen, however, was removed a long time ago, but the marks 
 of it remain on the pillars on each side to which it was 
 attached. The chancel is divided from the side aisles by two 
 obtuse arches on either side, of unequal height, over which is 
 a row of flat-headed clerestory windows. It has a great east 
 window of good perpendicular work, doubtless designed and 
 made by some monk of Vale Royal Abbey, the former patrons 
 of the church; but some hand of less taste than his, and perhaps 
 even before the eye had been reopened to see the beauty of 
 Gothic architecture, had mutilated the window by breaking off 
 nearly all its cusps and ornaments ; and some other hand, 
 equally wanting in taste, had, about the time of Queen Anne, 
 disfigured and hid the fair proportions of the window by 
 placing before it an oak screen in the Tuscan style of art, 
 which hides the lower part of the window. Whoever put up 
 the screen, we may suppose, would have gilt refined gold, for 
 he has covered the screen of English oak, beautiful as 
 mahogany, with a vile coating of paint. On the south side
 
 Frodsham. 159 
 
 of the altar there is a single stall or sedile, meant for the seat 
 of the officiating priest, under a Gothic arch, with a trefoil 
 head and a canopy between two pillars terminating in crockets. 
 The general style of this, like the rest of the chancel, is 
 fifteenth century work. Adjoining the sedile there is an 
 arched recess or piscina, supported by a bracket representing 
 an ecclesiastic's head, the portrait, probably, of the Vicar of 
 Frodsham at the time it was erected. At the east end of the 
 south aisle is a chantry called the Kingsley chapel, which is 
 said to have been once a very beautiful building, having its 
 windows filled with elaborately-coloured glass, which glowed 
 with the richly-emblazoned arms of the Kingsleys, Rutters, 
 Holcrofts, and other allied families of the neighbourhood.* 
 In 1715, however, the original of this chapel having been 
 singularly destroyed by the bursting of a water-spout above 
 it, Mr. Rutter, the proprietor of Kingsley Hall and owner 
 of the chapel, rebuilt it in the style of architecture then 
 prevailing, which wanted both the flowing lines of the Gothic 
 and the more subdued forms of classic architecture, and was 
 built of a stone more friable than the original chapel. On a 
 former occasion, in the year 1599, as the parish registers inform 
 us, when the church was "greatly" ruined, though the registers 
 neither inform us of the particulars of the ruin nor what caused 
 it, George Rutter, of Kingsley Hall, gentleman, out of his 
 pious regard for the venerable building, repaired and rein- 
 stated it at his own expense ; but in 1/24, when the church 
 had again fallen into disrepair, a church brief, then a usual 
 mode of collecting money for such a purpose, was obtained. 
 When this brief " for rebuilding the parish church of Frod- 
 sham, Cheshire, a large and very ancient fabric situated near 
 the sea, was read at St. John the Baptist's, at Mayall, in 
 Kent, the sum collected was no more than 2s. gd" (Helsby's 
 Ormerod, vol. II., 64, in notis.) But there must have been a 
 considerable sum raised by the brief in the whole, for all the 
 
 * In the Harl. Collns., 2129, is the following fine specimen of Lingua 
 Macaronica : " In eccle frodisham Com. Cestr., La Reigne, St. John Savaige, 
 et vndr. them Mr. Holcrofte de Vale Ryoll, par bien atendre, Ruttar G. 3 
 garbes or, on a cheffe b, a lion passt. Ar for Ruttar de Kenesley,"
 
 1 60 Frodsham. 
 
 south side of the church, with its porch, was then rebuilt in a 
 style of architecture without any distinct character to recom- 
 mend it, and in a stone more friable than the original church, 
 whose builders showed both more taste in their style of 
 building and more care in selecting the best materials. The 
 north wall of the church, with its clerestory windows, is 
 probably ante-Norman workmanship ; but its north doorway, 
 built much later than any other part of the north wall, except 
 perhaps the lower part of the tower, which may be Norman, 
 is in the decorated style, and was probably built when the 
 upper part of the tower and those two arches in it one on 
 the north and the other on its south side were made. These 
 arches, which are now blocked up, have proved a puzzle to the 
 antiquaries, who have tried to discover their use ; but why, we 
 may ask, may they not have been the entrances to two rooms 
 or chapels one to form the vestry, and the other to serve as a 
 place of meeting of the chapter of the rural deanery of 
 Frodsham, an ancient institution, of which that place was the 
 head, and at whose meetings in that age much important 
 business had to be transacted ? Perhaps some foundation 
 walls might be discovered outside the north and south sides 
 of the tower, and these, if found, would show whether this 
 conjecture is well founded. If it should be confirmed, it would 
 leave the present vestry to be used as a baptistry, and not be 
 applied to the profane use of storing the parish hearse, as in 
 times past it is known to have been. The Helsby chantry or 
 chapel at the east end of the north aisle was rebuilt on an old 
 foundation in the fifteenth century in a debased perpendicular 
 style, of which its windows and details afford sufficient proof. 
 In 1707 a new roof was put upon it, but in other respects it 
 has remained unaltered since it was rebuilt. On the authority 
 of an old manuscript Mr. Helsby, in his edition of Ormerod's 
 Cheshire, informs us that the windows of this chapel were 
 formerly enriched with painted glass, and another manuscript 
 also informs us that the windows not only of the two chantry 
 chapels of Frodsham, but of the church itself, also were filled 
 with painted glass. (Harl. Cat, II., 518, 2129, ar. 66.) For 
 many of the details which follow, the writer of this book
 
 Frodsham. 161 
 
 desires to acknowledge his obligations to the accurate local 
 observer to whom he has referred. The whole of the church 
 and chancel, except the Helsby Chapel, was covered with a 
 flat plaster ceiling. In all his works, how elaborate soever they 
 may be, the true artist endeavours to keep the appearance of 
 his art subdued ; but he who spread this wide ceiling overhead 
 in Frodsham Church, which sometimes inspired those below 
 with a feeling that it might fall, was conscious that there was 
 no beauty in it to hide, and must have been equally indifferent 
 as to what he hid with it, for above it there are still traces of 
 a work more worthy to be seen than his. In 1724, when this 
 ceiling was probably erected, there were exposed great beams 
 of oak so massive that they must have been placed there at 
 the time 
 
 When no lack of timber then was felt 
 Or feared in Britain's happy isle ! 
 
 These beams, which had been elaborately moulded, held 
 together a beautifully carved and panelled ceiling of solid 
 oak, which had evidently been wrought in pre-Reformation 
 times. This ceiling extended over both the nave and the 
 chancel, but over the chancel it was more ornamented. 
 Probably the work was originally done for two different 
 paymasters the chancel by Vale Royal Abbey, which was 
 rich, and the church by the parish, which was not so rich. 
 The ceiling joists of the chancel looked fresher than those of 
 the church, and it may have been that the former were a little 
 later work. That the carvings were fresher is proved by some 
 of them being fit to be used as " butter prints," to which some 
 of the older inhabitants remembered them being applied by 
 the farmers, who bought them for that purpose about sixty 
 years ago. The principal rafters, both of the nave and the 
 chancel, are as old as the walls of the original chancel, but the 
 oak spars of the nave have been used as ceiling joists, and 
 their places have been supplied by others of pitch pine, a step 
 to which the old builders, who thought nothing too good for 
 the church, would never have resorted. Both the nave and 
 the chancel have had on them an earlier roof than the present 
 one. The first nave roof appears to have been much lower 
 
 M
 
 1 62 Frodsham. 
 
 and to have had a flatter pitch than the present roof; but 
 
 the second, while it had its line of eaves the same, was 
 
 more acute, and reached part way up the east belfry window ; 
 
 from which it appears that the present roof, some three hundred 
 
 years old, occupies an intermediate position. The earlier, 
 
 perhaps the first, roof of the chancel was low, springing from a 
 
 point a few feet above the arches, and abutting against the 
 
 great chancel arch. On the erection of its perpendicular 
 
 clerestory windows, however, this roof was removed and the 
 
 present existing roof raised higher. No vestiges now remain 
 
 of the rood screen which formerly separated the chancel from 
 
 the nave, nor are there any remains of the Gothic reredos which 
 
 is stated to have been in the chancel before the erection of the 
 
 present out-of-place classic screen. In 1652 the Frodsham 
 
 Books show that a sum of money was paid for repairing the 
 
 lich, the gate through which the dead are borne into the 
 
 churchyard for burial, the only topographical word in favour 
 
 of which Dr. Johnson, who was a native of Lichfield, has made 
 
 an exception by admitting it into his dictionary. The 
 
 Frodsham lichgate outside the church, like the screen and 
 
 reredos within, has disappeared, and left no traces to be seen. 
 
 The church, no doubt, would sustain some injury by its being 
 
 converted into a prison-house for the prisoners taken in the 
 
 flight from Worcester after the battle of 1651 ; but the injury, 
 
 which was but temporary, would soon be repaired. All the 
 
 galleries now in the church, except the west gallery, which was 
 
 set up in 1691, were probably standing there in 1651, to 
 
 darken and deform the church as now; but their doom is fixed, 
 
 and they will soon be things of the past. In the stately and 
 
 well-proportioned tower a peal of six good bells is suspended, 
 
 which, from their high place and the site where the steeple 
 
 stands on a commanding hill, are heard to advantage in the 
 
 country round to a great distance, while the streams of the 
 
 Mersey and the Weaver flowing on two sides below contribute 
 
 to make the voices in the steeple more mellow and mellifluous. 
 
 A happy suggestion has been made in order that their voices 
 
 may be oftener heard, which is that it might be well to have a 
 
 guild of amateur ringers ; and this suggestion, if adopted,
 
 Frodsham. 163 
 
 would be but a revival of what took place in the same direction 
 in the time of Charles I., when a society of bellringers in many 
 a parish was the fashion among the gentry of the place. In 
 one of those societies Anthony a Wood, the well-known 
 Oxford scholar, and the great and good Mathew, afterwards the 
 celebrated Sir Mathew Hale, were experts in the art of bell- 
 ringing. Church-bells can generally tell their own agej and 
 give some advice and good wishes by the inscriptions recorded 
 upon them, and in this respect those of Frodsham are not 
 wanting, as upon them we read the following inscriptipns : 
 
 1. Peace and good neighbourhood. A. R., 1743. 
 
 2. Prosperity to the Church of England. A. R., 1781. 
 
 3. Prosperity to the parish. A. R., 1734. 
 
 4. We were all cast at Gloucester by A. Rudhall, 1734. 
 
 5. Wm. Knowles and Th. Lancaster, churchwardens, 1734. 
 
 6. I to church the living call, and to the grave do summon all. 1734. 
 
 Some lines, forming an acrostic of rules to be observed by 
 those who ring the bells, are suspended in the ringers' loft, 
 and are as follows : 
 
 From faults observe, you ringers well, 
 Ring well and don't o'erturn your bell. 
 On each default by him that's made, 
 Down sixpence shall be paid. 
 
 Swear not in this most sacred place, 
 Here come not but with awful grace ; 
 And whoe'er rings with spur or hat, 
 Must pay sixpence or forfeit that. 
 
 Moss | Wardens 1776 
 
 BUERCHWOOD \ " raenS ' I77 ' 
 
 The spur which is here interdicted, and is proscribed in 
 many similar rules of the ringing loft, has no doubt descended 
 from the time when bell-ringing was a fashionable amusement 
 with gentlemen and amateur ringers, who alone were likely to 
 appear in spurs. 
 
 M2
 
 164 Frodsham. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 OUR last notice of the Frodsham annals was in the year 
 1665, when the first national copper coinage took place, 
 and supplanted those local tokens of small change which 
 the tradesmen had issued in every place, and with which the 
 country was inundated. In the same year an entry in the 
 Frodsham Books tells of a sad calamity which was then 
 afflicting the country, the great plague. By royal authority 
 there had been issued a book of prayers to be used in all 
 churches, that it might please Heaven to remove the affliction ; 
 and the purchase of this book is recorded at Frodsham. The 
 plague, like some other diseases which had from time to time 
 arisen in the East and swept over Europe like a sirocco, broke 
 out in London, whence it had spread to some other places, and 
 in 1665 it raged with the greatest seventy. Such a visitation 
 was enough to create the greatest alarm, and to make all faces 
 gather blackness ; for in the month of August, in London 
 alone, no less than 20,046 persons died of it, and in the follow- 
 ing month the deaths amounted to 26,230 ; and some accounts 
 make the total number of deaths 80,000 before the plague 
 entirely ceased. The distress was so great and the alarm so 
 general, that the Parliament, which was in Session, had to 
 remove its sittings from Westminster to Oxford. But there 
 is truth in the trite proverb that " misfortunes come not single 
 spies, but in battalions," for scarcely had the plague abated 
 before the great fire of London broke out, which in four days 
 destroyed eighty-nine churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral, 
 the City Gates, the Royal Exchange, the Custom House, the 
 Guildhall, Sion College, and many other public buildings, 
 besides thirteen thousand two hundred houses, and laying 
 waste four hundred streets. The origin of this calamity being 
 supposed to be not wholly accidental, it excited such an 
 alarm throughout the country, that the Earl of Derby, the 
 Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire and Lancashire, wrote to his
 
 Frodsham. 165 
 
 Deputy Lieutenants of the two counties the following 
 letter: "Knowsley, loth September, 1666. Gentlemen, 
 The late sad and most dismal fire of the most famous city of 
 the Christian world cannot but have so great influence every- 
 where that it concerns us all to look about us, especially 
 considering it very probable that it comes not immediately 
 from the hand of God, but the attempts of wicked and 
 merciless enemies of the King and his dominions. This 
 consideration moves me to require your company that upon 
 what may occur of intelligence to any of us between this and 
 our meeting (which I appoint to take place on Monday, at 
 Ormskirk, being the 2Oth of this instant September, by four 
 o'clock in the afternoon) some result may be taken conducting 
 to the King's service and the peace of the country ; the 
 occasion being very extraordinary and which cannot happen 
 again in our days, I do expect a full meeting, which will be 
 very acceptable and obliging to, gentlemen, your affectionate 
 friend and servant, Derby." (From a MS. book of Proceedings 
 of the Lieutenancy.) The Cheshire Deputy Lieutenants from 
 the neighbourhood of Frodsham, doubtless attended this 
 considerate summons, and continued for some time afterwards 
 watchful of events. Our ancestors, like ourselves, sometimes 
 sinned against the lower animals under mistaken notions. 
 They thought the urchin, or hedgehog, was a trespasser, and 
 that it robbed the cows of their milk by climbing to their 
 udder, or elder, and sucking them dry ; and under this 
 impression the Frodsham authorities offered a reward to 
 whosoever brought them a dead hedgehog ; but they seem 
 not to have known rightly how to call it, for in their book 
 they call it a porcupine ; and thus, like many another offender, 
 the creature was punished under an alias, and was moreover 
 punished under it for an offence which the hedgehog, an 
 insectivorous and useful animal, physiology shows, could not 
 possibly commit. Although the temporary law which required 
 all marriages to take place before a justice of the peace 
 came to an end in 1657, the Frodsham authorities seem to 
 have been remiss in providing a proper book in which the 
 banns of marriages were to be recorded ; and the defect
 
 1 66 Frodskam. 
 
 was not supplied until 1665. In 1667, while the Reverend 
 John Davies was the Vicar of Frodsham, a sum of 15^. 6d. 
 was spent by the authorities in the " materials and making 
 of a master of arts gown for the parish use." On a 
 former occasion we find them " paying a sum of money to 
 Richard Heath, who by consent of the parish was sent to 
 Oxford." The parish must have been in a liberal mood both 
 in sending the scholar to Oxford and providing the master of 
 arts hood either for the vicar or some other minister's use. On 
 the 4th February, 1670, the King, by his letters patent, 
 appointed Robert Ffoulkes, of Chester, gentleman, to the 
 office of baron and clerk of the Court of Exchequer at Chester, 
 during the absence of William Slater, the deputy ; of John 
 Werden, esquire, the baron and clerk of the same court. 
 (Cheshire Records.) John We'rdon, esquire, the baron, was 
 of the same family as that Colonel Werden whom Sir Gilbert 
 Ireland came to Frodsham to examine touching the murder 
 of Ascham, Cromwell's ambassador at Madrid. The urchin 
 was not the only quadruped on whose head a price was set at 
 Frodsham, and as for one of these the wild cat there was 
 perhaps more reason to put it away. Of another of these 
 proscribed animals, the fox, the fate has been very different 
 at different times. Until about the year 1760 the head of a 
 male fox was worth a shilling, and the head of a vixen twice 
 that sum, to whoever brought it to the authorities ; but instead 
 of continuing to be prohibited, it has since become protected, 
 and is now never to be killed without having a chance for his 
 life. But there was a sentence of proscription against the birds 
 of the air also, and of them the poet had not then sung that 
 
 The robin and the bluebird piping loud, 
 
 Filled all the blossoming orchards with their glee ; 
 The sparrows chirped as if they still were proud 
 
 Their race in holy writ should mentioned be ; 
 And hungry crows, assembled in a crowd, 
 
 Clamoured their piteous prayer incessantly, 
 Knowing who hears the raven's cry, and said, 
 
 " Give us this day, O Lord, our daily bread." 
 
 Dead sparrows were purchased by wholesale, no less than
 
 Frodsham. 167 
 
 1 1 6 dozen being paid for at one time at Frodsham. One 
 almost wonders that any were left alive ; but nature loves life, 
 and her vigilance outdid man's activity, and at last the blood- 
 money was given up. But the crows were made a special 
 subject of legislation as early as the 24th year of the reign of 
 Henry VIII., when an Act was passed by which every 
 township was to have a crow-net with everything necessary to 
 it to destroy choughs, crows, and rooks, and by other Acts of 
 the 8th, I4th, and 3Oth years of Queen Elizabeth, a price being 
 set upon the heads of these and other birds, a regular crusade 
 was commenced against them. The bringer of every three 
 heads of old crows, choughs, pies, or rooks, was to have a 
 penny, and for every six young birds of the same, he was also 
 to have a penny. At every lord of the manor's court the crow- 
 net was one of the subjects specially reported upon ; generally 
 it was said to be in good repair, sometimes it was reported to 
 be rotten, and that a knitter had been engaged to knit a new 
 one ; sometimes it was stated not only that the net was in 
 repair, but that a man had been appointed to use it occasionally; 
 when the net was reported to be done it was stated that the 
 crows' nests had been destroyed. Happily we have now a 
 Wild Birds' Protection Act, and in it we have a proof that we 
 are in this respect more humane than our fathers. 
 
 Having already expressed our satisfaction upon the humane 
 feeling which prompted " the Wild Birds' Protection Act," we 
 may perhaps be excused now in saying a few more words 
 on the subject. For the original movement in this direction 
 it is believed that we are indebted to our French neighbours, 
 who, in addition to the wanton destruction of many of the 
 smaller birds, which in no sense could be called game, made 
 wasteful slaughter of them for culinary purposes ; for we are 
 told that they were in the habit of baking blackbirds and 
 bullfinches, toasting thrushes and tomtits, stewing sparrows 
 and nightingales, and roasting rooks and robin redbreasts. 
 But to all these practices the Emperor Napoleon III. put an 
 end, and at the same time introduced many provisions into the 
 French law for the protection of the feathered race, admitting 
 with many their great use in creation. Long before this, however,
 
 1 68 Frodsham. 
 
 Stanley, the kind-hearted Bishop of Norwich (a Protestant 
 St. Francis of Assisi), in his most interesting History of Birds, 
 had put in a plea for a more kindly treatment of the insecti- 
 vorous bird creation ; and though for a long time his warnings 
 and advice were unheeded, they proved at last not to be with- 
 out their weight, and attention was turned to his words. But 
 at Frodsham there was, until an increasing population destroyed 
 " his ancient solitary reign," one bird, the raven, having his 
 home on Helsby Crag, which had no strong claim to protection, 
 and of whose instinct and cleverness the good Bishop has more 
 to say than of any amiable qualities he had. Dickens and Poe 
 have each given their ravens an individual character ; but to 
 others, except to Lady Macbeth, who loved to hear him " croak 
 the entrance of Duncan under her husband's battlements," his 
 voice is ever hoarse and ominous. In the Faroe Islands, 
 where he is still to be seen, he sometimes enters the burrows of 
 the puffins to steal their eggs or their young, when the puffin 
 is seen to seize him by the neck as, he emerges, upon which a 
 scuffle ensues, in which the raven endeavours to rise into the 
 air and the puffin as strenuously strives to drag him down into 
 the water, in which, if she succeeds, he meets his death ; for 
 he cannot rise on his wings with his feathers soaked in wet. 
 But among the fishermen of the same islands the bird's 
 character is so bad that in order to exterminate him the same 
 mode as that which was used by Edgar to destroy the wolves 
 is adopted ; and so every man who follows fishing is obliged 
 to deliver the bill of at least one raven, or of two crows, or to 
 pay instead a sum of money. The raven's bill is therefore 
 what King Edgar's was, a "caput lupinum." (Stanley's Birds, 
 184.) Another and very different bird, the crane, which 
 formerly visited our shores, but is now rarely if ever seen 
 among us, has been driven away probably by the pains taken 
 to obtain his feathers for sale. But there is another handsome 
 bird, the heron, which though not very common still remains 
 with us, and has a favourite haunt in Becket's Wood at Aston, 
 just as far from Frodsham on the east as the Raven's Walk 
 on Helsby Crag is upon the west. This bird, instead of being 
 hated by the fishermen, is their ally ; and there is something
 
 Frodsham. 1 69 
 
 about him so attractive to fish that no Faroe fisherman ever 
 goes to follow his craft without carrying about him a heron's 
 foot as an amulet and a sure token of his fishing with success ; 
 for through some oiliness about his foot the bird, standing still 
 on one leg in the water, has the faculty of attracting eels and 
 other fish about him, and is enabled to take them without 
 much trouble. (Ib., 316.) There are at present only five 
 heronries in Cheshire ; namely, those at Aston, Eaton Park, 
 Burton Hall on the Dee, Hooton on the Mersey, and Tabley 
 Park. But twenty years ago we are told that there were four 
 others at Arley, Combermere, Dunham Massey, and Oulton 
 Park. (Cheshire Sheaf.) It appears, therefore, that these birds 
 are decreasing in number, owing probably to their solitudes 
 being invaded ; and that if they are to be preserved they 
 require some protection, which is the more necessary from the 
 long flight they sometimes make, and when by their size and 
 strange appearance they attract the attention of irregular 
 sportsmen, whose numbers are largely increased since the gun 
 licences began. Having said so much on this subject of bird 
 protection, a matter which was formerly much needed at 
 Frodsham, we return to the township annals, which since our 
 last notice of them are but few and far between. In the year 
 1721, the ruined castle at Frodsham was sold by Lord 
 Barrymore's trustees, who had succeeded to it by inheritance 
 from the Savages, being purchased from them by John Daniel, 
 Esquire, of Daresbury, a descendant from him of that name 
 who had formerly held it as lessee under the Crown. (Helsby's 
 Ormerod, II., 52.) As the Castle had now passed away from 
 the Savages, who had held it so long, we may in this place 
 give some account of the family who had owned the Castle 
 and been connected with Frodsham so long. This great 
 family, we are told, were originally seated at Scarcliffe, in the 
 county of Derby ; and Sir Peter Leycester gives a charter 
 of John Savage of that place in 3 Ed., II., though it is not 
 improbable that Robert le Savage, who in the reign of Henry 
 III. was the bailiff of all the King's lands between the Kibble 
 and Mersey, was one of them.
 
 1 70 Frodsham, 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 THE SAVAGE FAMILY. 
 
 IN the 1 4th century, however, and most probably in or about 
 : 375 (!) Sir JOHN SAVAGE, knight, one of the family, took 
 to wife Margaret, the young and childless widow of Sir John 
 Ratcliffe, knight, and the daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas 
 Danyers, the warrior who has been before mentioned as having 
 rescued the standard at Crescy, and having been rewarded for 
 it by the Black Prince with the grant of an annuity of forty 
 marks a year, issuing from his manor of Frodsham, to continue 
 until he should provide him with an estate in land of the value 
 of twenty pounds a year, to enure to him and his heirs for ever. 
 With his wife Margaret, Sir John Savage acquired the manor 
 and estate of Clifton, which is within sight of Frodsham, and 
 which, having been granted by John, baron of Halton, to 
 Geoffrey, a younger son of Hugh de Button, in whose family, 
 after it had remained for several generations, it came by in- 
 heritance to Margaret, and on her marriage became the family 
 seat of the Savages, who lived there in great splendour for 
 many generations, exercising a generous hospitality and 
 cultivating friendly relations with their neighbours and with 
 the city of Chester, which was near. Sir John died in the loth 
 year of Richard II. (1386), leaving a son of his own name, who 
 was still a minor, to succeed him. Margaret, his wife, outlived 
 him, and married to her third husband, Piers Legh, and died 
 in the 6th year of Henry VI. 
 
 (II.) Sir JOHN SAVAGE, son of the first Sir John Savage, of 
 Clifton, and Margaret, his wife, the daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Danyers, succeeded to his father's estate upon his death. In 
 1403 he was made one of the Commissioners of Array in 
 Macclesfield hundred. (Earwaker's E. Cheshire, I., 465.) He 
 was then but very young, but when he came of age the King 
 found him early employment in connection with the royal 
 manor and forest of Macclesfield, where we find him filling the 
 office either of parkkeeper of the park or bailiff of the forest, 
 or both those offices together, from 10 Henry IV. to 10
 
 Frodsham. 171 
 
 Henry VI. (1431), and again 15 Henry VI. and 16 Henry 
 IV. (1437) ; and he served in one or other of those offices even 
 occasionally afterwards. (Ancient Parish of Prestbury, Chet. 
 Soc., p. 206, et seq.} Soon after the accession of Henry V, 
 when it was rumoured that the young King was meditating to 
 invade France and to claim the throne of that kingdom, the 
 young chivalry of England, recalling the story of the successes 
 achieved there by their ancestors under Edward III., were 
 forward in desiring to join in the King's enterprise ; and Sir 
 John's mother, Margaret, a soldier's daughter, knowing that 
 every knight and gentleman would be required to appear in 
 his bravery and in his proper coat armour on the I4th July, 
 1415, when active preparations for the voyage were on foot, 
 conveyed to her son, Sir John, the estate of Clifton as a means 
 to support his rank, and on the same day made him a grant in 
 Norman-French of the right to bear his grandfather's arms, 
 argent, a pale fusilee sable, and, as such grants are rare, 
 we give here a copy of it in extenso : A tous ceux qu' 
 cest Itres. verront ou orront Marguerite qu' feut femme de 
 John Savage, file et here a Thomas Danyers chevr. salut en 
 Dieu. Sachez moi avoir done et graunte* et par c'este ma 
 present charte confirm a John Savage mon fils aisne et a ses 
 heres a tous jours mes armes entierres qu' a moy descend' 
 apres le mort le dit Thomas mon pere comme a sa file et here 
 au tenir et porter les dites armes avec tous leurs appurtenants 
 et tout chose qu' au dits armes appartient en chescun man 'et 
 lieu a leur plaisir quietement de moi et mes heres a dit John 
 mon fils et ses heres. En temoignage de quelles choses a cest 
 ma present chart j'ai mys mon seal. Don le dismanche 
 prochaine apres la feste de 1'translation de St. Thomas le 
 Martir 1'an du regne le roy Henri quint apres le conquest 
 tierce. (Ancient Par. of Prestbury, Chet. Soc., 114.) The 
 seal to the deed is parti per pale, on the dexter side the cross 
 engrailed for Lyme, and on the sinister side the pale fusily for 
 Danyers. Margaret's crest, which is not given in the seal, 
 was a unicorn's head couped argent. Sir John sailed 
 with the King to France, bearing on his shield the 
 emblazoned arms which his mother had granted him, and
 
 i 7 2 Frodsham. 
 
 on which he brought new honour ; for when he bore 
 it on the following 25th October in the field at 
 Agincourt he emerged from the battle a banneret ; and the 
 Cheshire Records show that he and his Cheshire companions, 
 on their return home, received a considerable sum for their 
 pay. On the 4th August, 1416, he and Sir Peter Leigh were 
 commanded to arrest all persons detected in the county of 
 Chester of clipping or washing the King's gold or silver coin. 
 The command coming so soon after the French voyage, leads 
 to the belief that this new crime may have been imported 
 from France by the rufflers of the camp, who followed the 
 army. (Cheshire Records.) In 1432 Sir John, as seneschal of 
 Halton, was commanded to receive from Randle Brereton, the 
 sheriff, the bodies of Richard de Whelsik and George de 
 Wevre, and to keep them safely until they should be discharged 
 by due course of law ;' and the Earl of Stafford being justice 
 of Chester that year, Sir John was his deputy (Hist, of 
 Halton, 94) ; and according to Sir Peter Leycester (Liber. 
 D., 174-7), in 5 Henry VI., 1427, " Johes. le Varney and others 
 dederunt Johi. Savage militi et Elense uxori ejus Manerium 
 de Picton et Shipbrok at advocatiorem prefatis Johanni Savage 
 et Elenae et heredibus dicti Johannis in perpetuum, and Sir 
 Peter, concludes that Ellen, daughter and heir of Ralph 
 Vernon, was the second wife of Sir John. It appears from 
 the inquisition post-mortem of James Vernon, of Haslington, 
 son and heir of Robert Vernon, of Lostock, in 17 Henry VI. 
 (1438), that the said James had been made prisoner by Sir 
 John Savage and conveyed by him to Chester Castle ; but it 
 is not said for what offence he was made prisoner, though it 
 seems probable that he was arrested by royal command. (Ches. 
 Records.) Sir John Savage married Maude, the daughter of 
 Sir Robert Swinnerton, of Great Barrow, knight, and having 
 lived many years to enjoy the honours he had achieved at 
 Agincourt, and having perhaps seen further service in France, 
 he died in a good old age on ist August, 1450, and was 
 succeeded by his son of both his names. 
 
 (III.) JOHN SAVAGE, of Clifton, esquire, son of Sir John 
 and Dame Margaret, his wife, succeeded to the family estates
 
 Frodsham. 1 73 
 
 on the death of his father, although we do not hear that he 
 took any part in the wars of those times, though, like most of 
 the youths of that time, he may have borne arms in France. 
 He was not, however, without employment at home. He held 
 the office of collector of the King's rents at Macclesfield, and 
 keeper of the King's gaol there, which offices he had inherited 
 from his grandfather, who in the year 1330 had purchased 
 these offices from the Mottrams, to whom they had come by 
 the marriage of one of them with Ellen, the daughter of John 
 le Gaoler. (East Cheshire, II., 6.) This name of John, taken 
 from his office, reminds us of the way in which the noble 
 family of the Marquis of Bath acquired their name of Thynne, 
 from an ancestor who, having gained celebrity while studying 
 the law at one of the Inns of Court, was called John 
 o'th' Inn, which from frequent use supplanted his original 
 name of Boteville. From 1432 to 1445 John Savage was 
 bailiff of the King's forest of Macclesfield. In 1435, 1437, 
 and 1438 he was farmer of the herbage of Macclesfield Park, 
 and from 1440 to his death he was both bailiff of the forest 
 and farmer of the herbage of the park. (Ancient Parish of 
 Prestbury, Chet. Soc., p. 206.) He married Eleanor, the 
 daughter of Sir William Brereton, and died 29th June, 1463, 
 leaving issue a son of his own name and two daughters 
 (ist) Margery, the wife of Edmund Legh, of Baguley, and 
 secondly, Thomas Leycester, of Tabley ; (2nd) Margaret, 
 the wife of John Macclesfield ; secondly, Randle Main- 
 waring, of Carincham ; and thirdly, Randle Mainwaring, of 
 Peover. 
 
 (IV.) Sir JOHN SAVAGE, of Clifton, knight, and a knight 
 of the body to King Henry VL, who was called Sir John 
 Savage, senior, succeeded to the estates on the death of John 
 Savage, esquire, who had married Eleanor Brereton. He was 
 a man of ability and popular manners, and the city of Chester 
 elected him to be their mayor and chief magistrate, and he 
 held during his whole life one or more offices connected with 
 the King's manor and forest of Macclesfield, with the constable- 
 ship or custody of the gaol there. In 1472 he was farmer for 
 the King of the office of Chamberlain of the hundred of
 
 1 74 Frodsham. 
 
 Middlewich. (Cheshire Records.) In 1491, when King 
 Henry VII. was about to go abroad, he gave proof of his 
 estimation of Sir John Savage by making him one of the 
 feoffees of his duchy of Lancaster, a part of their possessions 
 which the Lancastrian princes were always careful to keep 
 distinct from the Crown. (Statutes at Large, 7 Henry VII. 
 1491.) Sir John married Catherine, daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Stanley (afterwards Lord Stanley) and sister of the first Earl 
 of Derby. Sir John Savage departed this life on the 22nd of 
 November, 1495, and a fine monument was erected to him and 
 Dame Katherine, his wife, in Macclesfield Church, which is 
 figured in a good engraving in Earwaker's East Cheshire, vol. II., 
 opposite p. 493. Sir John in his effigy has a collar of suns and 
 roses, a Yorkist emblem. On the monument are the recumbent 
 figures of the knight and his lady, with the letters I.H.S. 
 frequently repeated, and eight coats of arms either are or were 
 painted at the sides, as preserved in the Harleian MSS. The 
 issue of Sir John and Dame Katherine Savage were (i) John, 
 the eldest, of whom hereafter ; (2) Thomas, a churchman, who 
 in 1492 was consecrated Bishop of Rochester, in 1497 was 
 translated to London, and in 1501 was raised to the Archi- 
 peiscopal see of York. He founded the fine mortuary chapel 
 of the family in St. Michael's Church at Macclesfield, where 
 many of the family were afterwards buried. In the chapel 
 are two rooms intended to accommodate a resident priest who 
 was to offer masses for the repose of those buried in the chapel 
 and many others. The founder died in 1 508, and his heart 
 was buried in the chapel. (3) William, (4) George, (5) Sir 
 Humphrey Savage, knight ; (6) Sir Edmund Savage, who was 
 knighted by the Earl of Hertford after the taking of Edinburgh 
 and Leith, in 1544, and in 1513 served as Mayor of Macclesfield. 
 In his honour a window with his own and other arms and 
 this inscription was put up in the family mortuary : " Orate 
 pro bono statu Edmundi Savage, knight, qui in eversione 
 Edinburie et Leith miles constitutus, fuit anno R.R. Henrici 
 Octavi vicesimo septimo necnon de villa de Macclesfield 
 suffectus major anno Edwardi sexti primo et uxoris Mariae et 
 antea nuptse Rogeri Legh armigeri."
 
 Frodsham. 175 
 
 (V.) Sir JOHN SAVAGE, junior, Knight of the Most 
 Honourable Order of the Garter, was the eldest son and heir- 
 apparent of Sir John Savage, senior, and Dame Katherine, his 
 wife ; but as he died before his father, ,he never came into 
 possession of the family estate. He was born about the year 
 1442, and during his early manhood the War of the Roses 
 was raging, in which, on one side or the other, most men of his 
 rank were obliged to take a part ; and if, as is believed, his 
 leanings were to the House of Lancaster, he showed when the 
 opportunity occurred more steadiness in their cause than the 
 Stanleys, to whom he was allied, had always shown. In 
 the year 1471 Sir John Savage, junior, and his father, Sir John 
 Savage, senior, took a lease of the Halton fishery, at 4^. a year ; 
 and in 2 Edward IV. (1472), he and his father were farmers 
 under a Lancastrian grant of the herbage of Macclesfield Park, 
 and he himself in the same year farmed the agistment and 
 pannage of the royal forest of Mara and Mondrem. (Ches. 
 Records.) In the year 1473 he or his father presented Edward 
 Savage, clerk, to the church of Barrow, a living which the 
 family had acquired by a marriage with a former owner, one 
 of the Swinnertons. In 1484, when Sir John Savage, senior, 
 was elected Mayor of Chester, there occurred a circumstance 
 such as had never occurred in the city annals before, and 
 probably has never occurred since that of a father presenting 
 nine of his sons to be admitted freemen of Chester at the same 
 time, namely : Sir John Savage, junior, James, Laurence, 
 Edmund (afterwards Sir Edmund), Christopher (afterwards 
 the valiant Mayor of Macclesfield who met his death at 
 Flodden), William, George, Richard, and Humphrey. A 
 person of his name probably this Humphrey joined Perkin 
 Warbeck (Statutes at Large), and all his sons, except Thomas, 
 the churchman, of whom mention has been made before. Sir 
 John Savage, junior, gave a glad ear to the rumour that Henry 
 of Richmond was meditating a descent upon England, as 
 promising to give him the opportunity he desired of indulging 
 his Lancastrian proclivities, which had gained strength and 
 not been weakened by the conduct of the usurper Richard III. 
 He lost no time in^ raising a body of forces, which he is
 
 T 76 Frodskam. 
 
 supposed to have mustered under the walls of the Lancastrian 
 Castle of Halton, and in marching with them to support the 
 cause of Henry of Richmond. At Bosworth, where die battle 
 took place, on the 22nd August, 1485, Sir John Savage led the 
 left wing of the army opposed to Richard, and by his valour 
 and conduct contributed much to the victory of the Lancastrian 
 party. Richard the usurper was overthrown and slain, and 
 after the battle Sir John Savage was mainly instrumental in 
 placing the crown on the head of the victor as Henry VII. 
 With one exception the fight at Stoke Field, where the King 
 had an easy victory Bosworth may be said to be that battle 
 of the Roses which staunched the blood that had flowed so 
 long, and so ended the internecine war. The services of Sir 
 John Savage were not forgotten by the victor, who at once 
 created him a knight of the most honourable order of the 
 garter ; and when the spoils of the war were distributed he 
 made him a grant of the castles of Gresley and Kimbley, in 
 the county of Nottingham, with the coal-mines of Eccleston, 
 in Derbyshire, which had been forfeited by Lord Zouche, and 
 also a grant of various other manors in the counties of Salop 
 and Derby, late the property of Lord Lovel. There was a 
 bad custom at that time of sometimes revoking grants like 
 these, on the ground that they had been made improvidently ; 
 but these grants, as we shall afterwards see, escaped this fate. 
 In the year 1488, when either he or his father again presented 
 his clerk, William Savage, to the living of Barrow, the reason 
 given for the vacancy is so strange that we give it in extenso in 
 the Latin, with an English translation subjoined. This is the 
 reason stated to have occasioned the avoidance : " Per resig- 
 nationem Edwardi Savage, proper acceptionem dominae 
 Agnesae Hastings, in uxorem that is, the living was void by 
 the resignation of Edward Savage, who had taken to 
 wife the Lady Agnes Hastings. (History of Cheshire, 
 under Barrow.) A priest marrying openly at that time 
 must have been as rare an occurrence as it would be in our 
 own times, though one such instance did occur in Lancashire 
 in the present century. In 1492 the victor of Bosworth pro- 
 fessed his intention to go to war with France, with a view to
 
 Frodsham. 177 
 
 re-conquer that kingdom ; but avarice was the monarch's 
 besetting sin, and his object was rather thought to have 
 been to obtain the subsidy which the Parliament made 
 him, than any serious intention which he entertained of 
 re-conquering France. However, he assembled a body of 
 troops, and placed his valiant and tried soldier, Sir John 
 Savage, to proceed with them and himself to France, where 
 they invested and laid siege to Boulogne. But the expedition 
 did not deserve to succeed, and the siege was very soon raised, 
 but not before Sir John Savage was hit by a shot from the 
 battlements, which proved fatal. When the forces were with- 
 drawn and the King returned home, he was unable to say, as 
 another monarch did, after the loss of a campaign "he had 
 lost all but honour ; " for Henry could not say he had saved 
 even that at Boulogne. It was not to celebrate this repulse 
 at Boulogne, but another successful visit to the place by the 
 King's successor, who took it by storm, that the sign of the 
 Bull and Mouth was set up by tavern-keepers as a popular 
 sign to commemorate the taking of Boulogne. It is probable 
 that Sir John's body was brought home for burial, for there is 
 a fine recumbent figure of him in plate-mail in Macclesfield 
 church, of which there is an engraving in Earwaker's History 
 of East Cheshire, II., 487. It is not stated whom Sir John 
 Savage married. His inquisition post-mortem has not been 
 found, and neither Sir Peter Leycester nor any other historian, 
 though careful to mention the other Savage alliances, has 
 given us the name of Sir John's wife ; but the arms of the 
 Vernons, in their place on his father's tomb, incline us to 
 think she was a Vernon. (East Cheshire, II., 494.) We 
 know, however, that he was married, for a son of his 
 own name, upon the death of his grandfather, succeeded 
 to the family estates. From the house of Clifton, through 
 Sir John Savage, who fell at Boulogne, there came, with 
 a double bar in his escutcheon, a man more widely than 
 well or favourably known. Bishop Bonner, who was the 
 son of George Savage, parson of Davenham, by Elizabeth 
 Frodsham, descended from another house of worship of her 
 
 name. 
 
 N
 
 1 78 Frodsham. 
 
 (VI.) Sir JOHN SAVAGE, knight, who, on the death of his 
 grandfather in 1496, succeeded to the Clifton estate, married 
 Ann, the daughter and heiress of Ralph Bostock, esquire, of 
 Bostock. In recognition of his father's valiant conduct at the 
 siege of Boulogne, which cost him his life, the King granted 
 him the Earl of Warwick's lands and possessions in 
 Worcestershire, amongst which was the hereditary shrievalty 
 of that county, an office which Sir John filled for 24 years. 
 He held the office of farmer of the park and keeper of the 
 forest of Macclesfield, and also the office of keeper or constable 
 of the King's gaol at that place. And when an act of resump- 
 tion was passed for making void all grants which had been 
 improvidently made by the King, a special exception was 
 made of the grant of Lord Zouche's forfeited estates, which 
 had been made to Sir John's valiant father. The warlike 
 spirit of the Savages seldom slept, and when the trumpet- 
 sound called to Flodden, Sir John Savage was ready to answer 
 it. His name is not given in the Chetham volume of the 
 " Scottish Field " amongst those who mustered at Flodden ; 
 and the passage in the ballad of Lady Bessy, in the Percy 
 Reliques, where he, who there addresses the Earl of Derby, 
 must have used a large poetic licence; for Sir John's following, 
 if he was there at all, could not have been of such dimen- 
 sions. He says 
 
 Sir John Savage, thy sister's sonne, 
 
 He is thy sister's sonne of bloode so nye, 
 He may make fifteen hundred fighting menne, 
 
 And all his menne white hoods to buye. 
 
 The mind of the writer of the ballad must have been confused 
 when he could thus address Sir John, who was not son but 
 grandson of the earl's sister, through her son, who died more 
 than twenty years before the battle of Flodden. In the 
 Chetham Society's volume of the Scottish Field, Christopher 
 Savage, the Mayor of Macclesfield, who met his death at 
 Flodden, is commemorated. The career of the Savages had 
 been hitherto "like the eagle's flight, bold and ferth on." 
 Now, however, it was destined to meet a severe and unhappy
 
 Frodshaw. 1 79 
 
 check. In the year 1520 Sir John Savage, and his son of the 
 same name, then a very young man, having quarrelled with a 
 gentleman of the name of Pauncefote the T' is a Hereford- 
 shire one the quarrel rose to such a hei this at a time 
 when gentlemen often carried swords, thi ,a the course of it 
 Pauncefote received a wound, of which he soon after died, and 
 Sir John and his son were both committed to the Tower, his 
 son as a principal and himself as an accessory in the murder. 
 Both of them were soon after arraigned at the bar of the 
 King's bench, when they both pleaded guilty to the charges 
 brought against them, and they would thereupon have been 
 executed had not most powerful interest and influence been 
 brought to bear in their favour. Cardinal Wolsey exerted his 
 influence, and so also did Charles, Earl of Worcester, whose 
 daughter Sir John Savage, the son, had married, and their 
 joint and powerful influence proved effectual. The two 
 offenders were pardoned upon condition that they paid the 
 King four thousand marks, and entered into solemn covenants 
 with the King never during the remainder of their lives to 
 enter either the county of Chester or the county of Worcester 
 without the King's licence under the great or privy seal or 
 the King's signet, all of which was carried out by a formal 
 deed, made on the 24th November, 1520, between the two 
 knights and the King ; but the stringency of the sentence was 
 somewhat relaxed by another deed of the I2th June, 1524, by 
 which the King granted Sir John Savage the younger licence 
 to go, ride, or dwell in any place either in Worcestershire or 
 Cheshire. (Sir Peter Leycester, liber D, 172 y.) Sir John 
 Savage the elder died on the 2nd March, 1527, and is com- 
 memorated by an effigy in Macclesfield church, of which there 
 is an engraving in Earwaker's East Cheshire, vol. II., 491. The 
 inquisition taken after Sir John's death "in festo Sanctae Ceddae 
 ulteriore parte " has a date which, curiously enough, makes 
 Saint Chad to be a female saint, and tells us that the inquisition 
 was made in the latter part of the day ; states, also, that Sir 
 John's son and heir was of the age of 34 years and more. 
 
 (VII.) Sir JOHN SAVAGE, knight, called Sir John Savage 
 the younger, who succeeded his father in the year 1527, and 
 
 N2
 
 1 80 Frodsham. 
 
 married Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Somerset, Earl of 
 Worcester, like most of his ancestors, was a man of war. 
 Early in the year 1513, when King Henry VIII., more with a 
 view to winning some military renown than to acquire any 
 accession of territory, invaded France, Europe witnessed with 
 some surprise the strange sight of an Emperor of Germany 
 serving in the King's army, and receiving his pay at the rate 
 of a hundred crowns a day. In this expedition, as we learn 
 from his monumental inscription, Sir John Savage took part. 
 He was at the siege and taking of Terouenne, on the borders 
 of Picardy, and he was probably also at the battle of Guine- 
 gate, as he was certainly at the siege and taking of Tournay, 
 where, it is said, King Henry received the first news of the 
 victory of Flodden, which was fought on the pth September 
 in that same year. In 1520 he was involved with his father 
 in the unhappy quarrel which ended in the death of Mr. 
 Pauncefote, and their both being tried and punished for his 
 murder. Sir John Savage, the son, who was born about the 
 year 1490, was but a young man when the unhappy event 
 occurred for which he and his father were tried ; and we have 
 now no means of knowing what were the extenuating circum- 
 stances of the case, if any such were there. It would seem, 
 however, that the death of Mr. Pauncefote weighed upon the 
 minds of both the father and the son, and might be one reason 
 why the King compassionated the son, and relaxed the 
 stringency of his punishment. It availed, however, but little, 
 for the father did not long survive his sentence, and the son, 
 who died at Ruthyn, an exile from Cheshire under the 
 sentence, survived his father only a very few months, and then 
 died, being still a young man. The Lady Elizabeth, Sir 
 John's wife, survived her husband, and afterwards married 
 William Brereton, who was beheaded for matters touching 
 Queen Ann Boleyn. In 1522 Sir John built a chapel at 
 Cheadle, on which, as will be seen, he put this odd date : 
 "Orate pro animabus Johis Savage militis et Elizabethse 
 uxoris ejus suorum filiorum et suarum filiarum qui istam 
 capellam fieri fecerunt, anno a virginis partu milesimo 
 quingentesimo XXII.;" and in the window of the chapel was
 
 Frodsham. 1 8 1 
 
 this inscription: "Orate pro aibus Johis Savage militis et 
 Elizabethae uxoris suae qui has fenestras fieri fecerunt anno dni 
 MCCCCCXXVIII." (Earwaker's E. Ches, I., 207, 208.) At 
 the death of Sir John, his son, who afterwards became Sir 
 John Savage, was but three years and nine months old. Sir 
 John and Lady Elizabeth, his wife, are commemorated by a 
 handsome tomb in Macclesfield church, in which Sir John 
 wears a collar of S.S., and the tomb has this inscription : 
 " Here lieth Sr. John Savage, wch. was made knight in the 
 warres of and of Tyrwin and Tournay, wch. died the 
 
 xxvj. day of July, in the year of our Lord MCCCCCxxviij 
 and of the Ladie Elizabeth his wife, daughter unto Charles 
 Somerset, late Earl of Worcester, and chiefe chamberlaine of 
 England, the wch. ladie Elizabeth died the . . . day of . . 
 Ano Dni MCCCCCXXX." (Earwaker's East Ches. II., 495.) 
 (VIII.) Sir JOHN SAVAGE, of Clifton, knight, who 
 succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father, on 
 the 28th of July, 1528, was then an infant of only three years 
 and nine months old ; and though it has been said that it is a 
 misfortune for a king to ascend the throne when an infant, it 
 will be seen in the sequel that it was well for Sir John, the 
 first of his race who had come to his possessions so early, that 
 he came to them as he did ; for before he could write himself 
 man the first convulsive throes of the Reformation were over, 
 and so he escaped many dangers which in that interval lay in 
 the way of all who occupied a prominent station. Sir John's 
 ancestors, almost without an exception, having served the King 
 in arms, might be truly styled a warlike race ; but when Sir 
 John came to manhood war was for the most part over for a 
 time ; and conforming like a wise man to the times, Sir John 
 seems to have resolved to devote himself to the discharge of 
 civil employments and the promotion of the arts of peace'; 
 and in such offices he showed as much conduct afterwards as 
 any of his ancestors had displayed in arms at Agincourt, 
 Bosworth, or Boulogne, at Flodden, Tournay, or Guinegate 
 (supposing this last to be the place to fill the lacuna on his 
 father's tomb, and to be the place between Guynes and Arde, 
 where, when the great meeting took place between Henry VIII.
 
 1 82 Frodsham. 
 
 and Francis I., our immortal bard tells us that our English 
 nobles broke their backs "by laying manors on them"). Sir 
 John Savage was little more than of age, in 3 Edward VI., 
 when we find him appointed to fill the important office of high 
 sheriff of the county of Chester, which is a proof of the very 
 high estimate formed of him when so young a man was chosen 
 to fill so important a trust at a time when, owing to the recent 
 changes in worship, the balance was still trembling between 
 the Reformers and Rome. Scarcely had he entered upon the 
 management of his own affairs before his neighbour, Hugh 
 Starkey, of Oulton, esquire, in making his will on the 6th of 
 August, 1555, selected him to be the supervisor of it, and to 
 see its provisions properly fulfilled. From the testator came 
 Oliver Starkie, that Cheshire gentleman who, having become 
 a Knight of Malta, rose to such eminence amongst his brother 
 knights that he became prior of the whole order. (Lane, and 
 Ches. Wills., Chet. Soc., part II., p. 192.) In the years 1554 
 and 1555, and in 1557 and 1558, he was made by Philip and 
 Mary seneschal of the honour and castle of Halton, in which 
 office he acquitted himself so satisfactorily that on 2Oth 
 of September, 1560, Queen Elizabeth, the new queen, appointed 
 him to fill the same office again. (Hist, of Halton, p. 93). It 
 is a proof of his discretion that he satisfied two sovereigns so 
 unlike each other as Mary and her sister Elizabeth, the former 
 of whom could say 
 
 Heaven hath sent me here 
 To take such order with the heretics, 
 That it shall be before I die as though 
 My father and my brother had not lived. 
 
 And the latter of whom could say 
 
 I am of sovereign nature, that I know, 
 
 Not to be quelled ; and I have felt within me 
 
 Stirrings of some great doom when God's just hour 
 
 Peals. Tennyson's Queen Mary. 
 
 In 1558 Sir John, as lord of the manor of Clifton, was judicator 
 or judger of the honour of Halton, and we find that he sat 
 once a fortnight in person to dispose of all such causes and
 
 Frodskam. 183 
 
 complaints as were brought for decision before him. (Halton 
 Records, 20.) In 1565 Sir John was appointed high sheriff of 
 Cheshire for the second time. He might, if he had so pleased, 
 have declined the office this time on the plea that he had so 
 recently served it before ; but his sense of duty prevailed over 
 his inclinations, and he therefore took charge of the whole 
 county palatine again. He might also have excused himself on 
 another ground from serving the office at this time, for he had 
 quitted the venerable old hall at Clifton, where his family had 
 dwelt so long, and was building for himself a new mansion near 
 the old one, but more suited to the state which the Savages 
 had now attained. Sir John showed taste in selecting a good 
 architect for the work, which, when it was finished, had the 
 appearance of a French chateau, of which an example may be 
 seen in the hall at Brereton, built afterwards by the same 
 architect. A view of the house as it appeared in the last 
 century may be seen in an engraving which is given in the 
 History of Halton (p. 107). There is an old tradition that 
 Queen Elizabeth, when Sir John was in great favour, honoured 
 him by laying the first stone of his sumptuous new house, and 
 that she also afterwards visited him there ; but there seems to 
 be no foundation for either story, as the Queen's progresses 
 never extended so far north as Cheshire. It is not improbable, 
 however, that Her Majesty gave her consent to her subject 
 calling his house Rock Savage, after his own name, which 
 from that time became the name of the township of Clifton. 
 Thinking, very justly, that his family had achieved a name 
 equal to that of his Danyers ancestors, Sir John now ceased 
 to use the arms which Margaret Danyers had granted to his 
 ancestors, and resumed the ancient arms of his house namely, 
 argent six lioncels sable with the crest a lion's paw erect, sable, 
 which were conceived in the true spirit of heraldry, the whelps 
 and the paw of the king of beasts being appropriate to the 
 Savage name. When the new house was finished the high 
 sheriff, with a large retinue under his new banners, would set 
 out from Rock Savage in much state to meet the judges and 
 escort them to the ancient city of Chester to hold the assizes. 
 In 1567 Sir John was high sheriff again, this being the third
 
 184 Frodsham. 
 
 time he had served the office. This frequent service by Sir 
 John in the sheriff's office must have made its duties easy to 
 him. Happily there were no great political troubles then to 
 make the office especially more difficult than usual. On the 
 28th of October, 1568, Sir John became a trustee in the 
 settlement made on the marriage of Richard Grosvenor and 
 Christian the daughter of Sir Richard Brooke, Sir John's near 
 neighbour at Norton Priory. (Eaton Charters.) It was in this 
 same year, according to Camden, that the Puritans first became 
 a considerable party in England. In 1569 Sir John had the 
 honour to be elected Mayor of Chester, an office in which 
 some of his ancestors had served the city once, or oftener, 
 before with credit and advantage to the city. It seemed as if 
 no official burden was too great for his shoulders, for he again 
 served the office of high sheriff of Cheshire three times, in 
 1570, 1573, and 1574, and in the last of these years he was 
 again also Mayor of Chester. The castle of Halton, once the 
 proud seat of the constables of the Cheshire palatinate, and 
 from which John of Gaunt, one of its owners, had reached the 
 throne of Castille and Leon, and from which a greater owner, 
 his son Henry of Hereford, had mounted the throne of England 
 as Henry IV., had in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, or before, 
 sadly declined from its pristine glory, having from a palace 
 become a prison for malefactors. In the year 1579, how- 
 ever, when Sir John Savage was its constable, governor, 
 and seneschal, it became transformed into a prison for recu- 
 sants those persons who, from attachment to the Romish 
 Church, or some other cause, would not attend worship in 
 their parish churches, but who, though criminals after a sort, 
 were to be under the care of some godly person in order, if 
 possible, to bring them to conformity. Among those who thus 
 refused and became recusants was Sir John Southworth, the 
 knightly representative of a long line of chivalrous Lancashire 
 ancestors. Sir John, the recusant, was sent to Halton Castle 
 in the above year to be under the care of Sir John Savage, 
 who, we are told, courteously received and treated his brother 
 knight while he was thus detained a prisoner for conscience' 
 sake. It was doubtless a great relief to the seneschal when,
 
 Frodsham. 185 
 
 in obedience to the Queen's commands, he handed his prisoner 
 over on 22nd of July, 1581, to the keeper of the new Fleet 
 prison at Manchester. (Hist. Halton, pp. 101-2.) To the 
 prisoner, however, his removal from the airy heights of Halton 
 to the level flat in which the new Fleet prison was situated, 
 must have proved a very dismal exchange. 
 
 Sir John Savage, in 1579, being once more called upon to 
 serve the office of high sheriff of the county, entered upon it 
 and discharged its duties with the same alacrity as before, but 
 not on this occasion with the same ease as in former years, 
 for the Queen was now meditating the sending of some troops 
 to the Low Countries, to aid them in their struggles for free- 
 dom against the King of Spain ; and so sure as there was 
 war, so sure were the sinews of war likely to be wanted, and these 
 would be raised with more difficulty than the men. Scarcely 
 was one office over but Sir John was waited on by another ; 
 and in 1585 and 1588 he was elected and sat as one of the 
 two members for Cheshire, and in that interval two important 
 events occurred. One of these was Babbington's plot to murder 
 the Queen and place Mary Queen of Scots on her throne, which, 
 being discovered, brought the leader and his companions, one 
 of whom was apprehended at Frodsham, to the scaffold, their 
 well-deserved fate ; the other event was the arrival and dis- 
 persion off the coast of the invincible Spanish Armada, an 
 event of the time which called forth first the alarm and 
 then the gratitude of the nation for their deliverance. On the 
 latter occasion the bale fires of Frodsham beacon may have 
 blazed its note of warning when Humphrey Brooke, the 
 Liverpool merchant, announced that he had seen this for- 
 midable armament actually on the wave. Sir John Savage, 
 whom work seems never to have wearied, would never have 
 adopted Falstaff 's querulous complaint that " he was scoured 
 to death with perpetual motion." In 1591 he was in harness 
 again for the seventh time as high sheriff of Cheshire. His 
 serving the office so many times was a distinction which had 
 no parallel since those ancient times when a sheriff occasionally 
 held his office for a series of years. In the same year the 
 Queen was sending troops to France to support the cause of
 
 1 86 Frodsham. 
 
 King Henry IV. of that kingdom, and it is likely that money 
 would again be wanted, and would have to be raised by a loan, 
 which was called a benevolence, but was never intended to be 
 repaid ; and if so, the sheriff would have to help the Queen 
 with his purse as well as in his person. In the next year, when 
 Sir John was seneschal of Halton, which involved the oversight 
 of Wydnes, a part of the Duchy of Lancaster on the other 
 side of the Mersey, he had also under his charge the ancient 
 borough of Congleton, situated in a distant part of Cheshire 
 on the south east. When the mayor and officials of this place 
 came occasionally to Halton to pay their accustomed tribute, 
 they were regaled with what was called from its strength and 
 excellent qualities "the brave ale of Halton," whose virtues 
 were celebrated in verse before the Earl of Derby at Chester. 
 When the seneschal visited Congleton the Corporation de- 
 servedly paid him attention as the adviser in their difficulties, 
 and showed him hospitality. A new honour fell upon Sir 
 John in his being elected by the mayor and corporation of 
 Macclesfield to fill the office of high steward of their borough, 
 an office which was not to terminate with the year, but was 
 to endure for his life. The duties of the high steward are to 
 assist the corporation with his advice in case of necessity, and 
 the same office is found in other boroughs, as in Cambridge, 
 where the Duke of Devonshire is the high steward at the 
 present time. (Earwaker's East Ches., II., 467.) Although 
 Sir John had now passed more than his three score years and 
 ten, the allotted life of man, still, like old Adam in Shakspere's 
 As You Like If, 
 
 His age was as a lusty winter, 
 Frosty but kindly. 
 
 And so when the corporation, in 1 597, again elected him for 
 the third time as their mayor, he accepted the office and 
 entered upon its duties ; but, alas ! before the year was over, 
 he was called to his rest, on the 5th of December, in the 74th 
 year of his age. A life more filled up with the discharge of 
 his active and useful public employments in Cheshire than Sir 
 John Savage's can hardly be imagined ; and yet, if we are to 
 credit his epitaph, we must believe that in Hampshire, where
 
 Frodsham. 187 
 
 for more than twenty years he had possessions through his 
 second marriage, he added to his public services in Cheshire by 
 others which he had in that county also. For seven times he 
 filled the office of high sheriff of Cheshire, and held the highest 
 authority in the county. Twice he was a knight of the shire 
 for the county in Parliament, representing it and maintaining 
 its interests at Westminster. Three times he was elected 
 mayor of Chester, the metropolis and, as it were, the centre of 
 the county. Two years he was high steward of Macclesfield, 
 near the south-eastern boundary of Cheshire ; and in Con- 
 gleton, near the same boundary, he was almost continuously 
 in the same office as adviser of the borough. For long years 
 he held the seneschalship of the Queen's Honour of Halton ; 
 and he held the place of constable of the Queen's prisons at 
 Macclesfield, Halton, and Frodsham, of which last, as the 
 inquisition taken after his death tells us, he was also bailiff, 
 holding it by the service of collecting the Queen's rents of her 
 manor of Frodsham, and making attachments and present- 
 ments. Of such a man we may trust his epitaph in believing 
 that his death was lamented, not only by his family and 
 kindred, but by all good men. Sir John Savage married first 
 Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland, 
 an ancestor of that marquis who was Marquis of Granby, a 
 famous soldier in the last century, whose death gave birth to 
 the epigram 
 
 O how shall Britain make her boast, 
 
 Or where display her banners, 
 Since now in Granby she has lost 
 
 True valour and good Manners. 
 
 His wife, Lady Elizabeth, died at Frodsham on the 8th of 
 August, 1570, ; and if this entry in the register be correct 
 (which it would seem not to be, for the burial is entered also at 
 Macclesfield), she was buried there. "Buried the virtuous 
 Lady Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Savage, who died at Frod- 
 sham, 8th August, 1570." On Sir John's death, a son of his 
 own name, the issue of Lady Elizabeth, succeeded to the 
 Clifton estate. Sir John Savage, in the year 1572, married 
 for his second wife Eleanor, the daughter of John Cotgreave,
 
 1 88 Frodsham. 
 
 esquire, the widow of Richard Pexsall, of Beaurepair, in 
 Sherborne St. John, near Basingstoke, who survived him. Sir 
 Edward Savage, of Beaurepair, was the eldest son of Sir 
 John and dame Eleanor. On the 2ist January, 1598, Sir John 
 Savage's remains were borne from his house at Clifton to the 
 family burial-place at Macclesfield, with the pomp and state 
 usual in an age when heraldry was much accounted of. The 
 hearse and horses' trappings bore the arms of his family and 
 alliances in their gorgeous blazonry, and a herald attended to 
 proclaim the honours of the deceased at the open tomb. An 
 account of the funeral at length may be seen in the Harl. 
 MSS., No. 2129. (Earwaker's E. Ches., I., 190, in notis^) His 
 Latin epitaph and a translation are subjoined : " Memoriae 
 sacrum viri clarissimi prudentissimi piisimique domini Joannis 
 Savagi, equitis aurati, antiqua Savagorum gente oriundi de 
 tota republica Cestriensi et Hampton iensi, optime meriti 5 
 Decembr., anno 1597, aetat 74, in dolorem consanguineorum 
 et bonorum omnium vita functi. Thomas Savage, miles et 
 baronetus, majore filio nepos in uxorem duxit Elizabethum 
 fillam Thomae baronis Darcie de Chick primam et per earn 
 favore principis indulgentiore existens sorte thalami et affinitati 
 cineri in successione proximus isti honori, pictatis ergo 
 singularis hoc posuit monumentum." " Sacred to the memory 
 of the very famous, prudent, and pious Sir John Savage, 
 knight (of the golden spur), sprung of the ancient house of 
 the Savages, who deserved well of both the communities of 
 Cheshire and Hampshire, and who died on the $th of Decem- 
 ber, 1 597, in the 74th year of his age. Sir Thomas Savage, 
 knight and baronet, grandson of Sir John, through his eldest 
 son and husband of Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Thomas 
 Baron Darcie de Chick, and through her by the indulgent 
 favour of the King, and by this marriage and his affinity next 
 in succession to that honour, out of pious regard for his 
 ancestor, has erected this monument."
 
 Frodsham. 189 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE SAVAGE FAMILY. 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 (IX.) SIR JOHN SAVAGE, knight, who succeeded to the estates 
 on the death of his father in 1597, was the ninth of his family 
 of both his names who in unbroken succession had taken Clifton 
 by inheritance, a circumstance for which in any other family it 
 would be difficult to find a parallel. A good man leaves an 
 inheritance to his children's children ; and it was Sir John's good 
 fortune with the estate to inherit his father's name, of which 
 he found the value when the burgesses of Macclesfield elected 
 him their high steward immediately after his father's death. 
 Sir John, in 1575, while his father was living, married Maria, 
 the daughter of Richard Allington, esquire, by whom he had 
 a family of four sons and two daughters, of whom Thomas, 
 who succeeded him, was the eldest son. At his father's death 
 Sir John stepped at once into his father's place of seneschal of 
 the castle and honour of Halton ; and when in the year 1600 he 
 paid an official visit to Congleton, which was within the honour, 
 the mayor of the borough and his fellows gave an entertain- 
 ment in his honour, of which a cockfight (which lasted two 
 days or more) formed a part. Sir John was satisfied with wit- 
 nessing this cruel and now forbidden sport only on the first 
 day, during which he and the other visitors partook of wine 
 and sugar, the latter article being used, as it was by Falstafif, 
 to qualify the wine. (Hist, of Halton, p. 103.) When Sir 
 John, with Mr. Egerton, the Lord Keeper's son, attended 
 another meeting at Congleton, shortly after the former, they 
 were regaled with "wine, cakes, and sugar." (Ib., 104.) In 
 1602 a great bear bait an amusement for which the borough 
 was traditionally famous took place at Congleton, to which 
 Sir John was, no doubt, invited. We do not find, however, 
 that he was present, but his friends who were there were treated 
 to "wine, sack, spice, figs, and almond beer." (Ib.) The cock- 
 fight and the bear bait, both of them common amusements,
 
 igo Frodskam. 
 
 were not calculated to refine our ancestors, and we owe it to 
 her present gracious Majesty that both these sports are now 
 extinct. It is to the credit of Sir John Savage that he avoided 
 the bear bait. Remembering how often and how well Sir 
 John's father had served them in the office of high sheriff, 
 the county of Chester, in 1607, appointed Sir John to fill the 
 same office for that year, and, influenced by the same feeling, 
 the city of Chester at the same time called on him, as they had 
 often called upon his father before, to fill their civic chair as 
 mayor of the city for that year. In 5 Jac. I. (1608), Sir 
 John being required, as seneschal of Halton, to make a report 
 to the Duchy of Lancaster, of which Halton was a part, made 
 a report that the honour of Halton and its dependent manors 
 were held of His Majesty by copy of court roll, and that these 
 were in his possession as seneschal rolls and records, copies of 
 conveyances, and other documents belonging to the honour 
 beginning in the time of King Edward III., and coming down 
 from thence to the time of making his report. (Records of 
 Halton, p. 3.) In one of the minute-books formerly amongst 
 the Halton records there was this piece of advice from the pen 
 of Sir John, or his deputy : 
 
 Spare not, nor spend too much, 
 
 Be this thy care ; 
 Spare but to spend, 
 
 And only spend to spare. 
 Who spends too much may want, 
 
 And so complain ; 
 And he spends best 
 
 Who spares to spend again. 
 
 In the next year there occurred a most melancholy event 
 in Sir John's house. For some cause, over which time has 
 drawn a veil, Hugh Bathurst, apparently a man of some rank 
 and property, had taken offence at Sir John Savage's second 
 son John, and his hatred was not satisfied until he had murdered 
 him. For this heinous offence Bathurst was apprehended and 
 brought to trial; but when he was arraigned and stood at the 
 bar he remained obstinately mute, and refused to plead either 
 guilty or innocent to the charge. This was an offence which, as
 
 Frodsham. 191 
 
 the law then stood, subjected a prisoner under a capital charge to 
 the punishment of the peine forte et dure ; and the court ordered 
 such a prisoner to be taken back to the place from whence he 
 came, and there to be placed in a low dark chamber, where he 
 was to be laid naked on the floor upon his back, and upon him 
 there was to be heaped the greatest weight of iron which his 
 body would bear. No sustenance was to be given him save 
 only on the first day three morsels of the worst bread, and on 
 the second day three draughts of standing water that should 
 be found nearest to the prison door, and this was to be his 
 daily diet until he died, or, as the sentence ran, "until he 
 answered." He who died under the peine forte et dure was 
 held not to have been convicted of felony, and so consequently 
 incurred neither forfeiture of his goods nor escheat of any land 
 he might possess, both of which consequences would have fol- 
 lowed had he been convicted. Savage as this punishment was, 
 Hugh Bathurst submitted to it, and on the i$th July, 1609, was 
 pressed to death rather than submit that his lands and goods 
 should be forfeited to the crown and not pass to his family. 
 Many other instances occur of persons submitting to the cruel 
 punishment by which Bathurst died ; but a humane law, which 
 has since abolished the peine forte et dure, has enacted that a 
 prisoner standing mute when arraigned should be held to have 
 pleaded " not guilty," and be tried accordingly. In the fol- 
 lowing year, when the Congleton officials met Sir John, as the 
 seneschal of Halton at Warrington, to pay their accustomed 
 homage and transact official business with him, one part of 
 which was the election of their mayor, their books record the 
 visit thus : " Spent by Mr. Mayor and the jury at Warrington, 
 and on their return, and at the audit to deliver their verdict 
 and rental before Sir John Savage and Mr. Auditor, in wine 
 and horse hire, i. 2s. 8d." This would now be thought a 
 small charge for a journey of twenty-four miles and the enter- 
 tainment of a jury of more than twelve persons in going, 
 staying, and returning. In the year 1611, the King, having 
 conceived the. very desirable object of pacifying the province 
 of Ulster, then in as unsettled a state as some other parts of 
 Ireland are just now, thought that the best way to accomplish
 
 1 92 Frodsham. 
 
 his object would be to colonize the province very extensively 
 from England, for which a large sum of money would be re- 
 quired, decided to raise the necessary funds by creating a new 
 order of knighthood, which should be hereditary, and the 
 members of which should be called baronets. The first of this 
 new order was Sir Nicholas Bacon, who was called the premier 
 baronet. Sir Nicholas' creation dates from the 22nd of May, 
 1611, and his lineal male descendant is still called the premier 
 baronet. It was a condition of admission into the new order 
 that every member should pay into the exchequer as much 
 money as would maintain thirty soldiers for three years, each 
 at eightpence per day, in the province of Ulster, in Ireland. But 
 although the order was thus venal, it was required that the candi- 
 date should be a gentleman ; and 100 knights, of whom Sir John 
 Savage was one, soon came forward, and ,100,000 was raised 
 for the colonization of Ulster. Sir John Savage's title of knight 
 became henceforth merged in the higher title of baronet. For 
 some reason which does not appear Sir John Savage, in the 
 year 1613, re-erected the old beacon upon Overton Hill. If 
 the usual purpose of a beacon was not meant to spread alarm, 
 we might, perhaps, suppose that Sir John's object in restoring 
 that at Overton was either that its light might flame out to 
 celebrate the marriage of the King's daughter, the Princess 
 Elizabeth, with Frederick, the Elector Palatine a match which 
 in the sequel proved unhappy or that it might commemorate 
 Sir John's acquisition from the crown of the whole manor and 
 castle of Frodsham in fee, and his obtaining, also, the lease of 
 the honour and castle of Halton for a long term of years, which 
 his successors still continue to enjoy. In 1615 Sir John Savage 
 paid another visit to Congleton, which the borough books thus 
 record: "Pay'd for claret wine bestowed on Sir John Savage 
 ijs. iod., and ordered a bushel of malt to be brewed against 
 his next coming." (Hist, of Halton.) In connection with the 
 event which followed so soon after it, this entry excites a 
 melancholy reflection on the shortness and uncertainty of 
 human life. The malt was brewed, the feast prepared, and 
 the welcome ready, when, instead of the guest whom the mayor 
 and his fellows expected, came the news that he was no more.
 
 Frodsham. 193 
 
 On the 2Oth of June, 1615, when Sir John made his will, he 
 was labouring under the sickness of which he died shortly after; 
 for on the following I4th of July he was borne to the family 
 vault at Macclesfield, and buried there "in the night-time," 
 without any pomp or heraldic display, a great contrast to that 
 with which his father was entombed. Sir John, besides his 
 great mansion of Rock Savage, had kept up a house in Chester 
 and another in Holborn, London, and his estate had perhaps 
 suffered from the rate at which he had lived ; yet, by his will, 
 he gave, " in testimony of his love," a pair of flagons, silver gilt, 
 of the value of 20, or thereabouts, to the city of Chester, there 
 to remain and continue to the city's use, where, let us hope, 
 they still are kept to preserve the memory of their former 
 mayor. Dame Mary Savage, Sir John's wife, who survived 
 him many years, also made a will and codicil, written with her 
 own hand, which was not usual at that time. She must have 
 died in 1635, for her burial took place at Macclesfield on the 
 1 6th of December of that year, the same day on which the 
 body of her son, Sir Thomas Savage, was committed to the 
 tomb. (Stanley Papers, Chet. Soc., part II., 170- 1; Lancashire 
 and Cheshire Wills, Chet. Soc., part III., 185; Hist. Cheshire, 
 I., 129; and Earwaker's East Ches., II., 481, in notis^) 
 
 (X.) Sir THOMAS SAVAGE, baronet (afterwards, in Nov., 
 1626, created Viscount Savage), was the first member of his 
 very ancient and knightly family who entered the ranks of 
 the Peerage. On the death of his father, in 1615, he succeeded 
 to his honours, and entered upon the family estates, including 
 the hereditary seneschalship of Halton and the other hereditary 
 offices held by his father. The Corporation of Macclesfield 
 also elected him to the honourable office of high steward of 
 their borough, which he held for his life, as his father and 
 grandfather had held it before him. Jane, the widow of 
 Richard Allington and Sir Thomas's grandmother on the 
 maternal side, having inherited from her brother (Sir Richard 
 Cordell, Master of the Rolls) the manor of Long Melford, in 
 Suffolk, and other estates in that county, by her will of the 
 1 5th July, 1602, devised the whole of them to Sir Thomas, 
 which proved a welcome addition to the family estates. (Hist. 
 
 O
 
 1 94 Frodsham. 
 
 Cheshire, I., 529.) Sir Thomas married Elizabeth, eldest 
 daughter and heiress of Thomas Lord Darcey (who was after- 
 wards created Earl Rivers). Sir Thomas and his father both 
 stood so high in the favour of King James I., that when Sir 
 Thomas was about to christen his eldest son, the King's son, 
 the young and estimable Henry Prince of Wales, then of the 
 age of twelve years, honoured Sir Thomas by presenting his 
 son at the font and becoming his sponsor, and not willing it 
 to be an empty honour, he presented Sir Thomas with a 
 handsome service of silver plate, a present of far more value 
 and real use than the gift of a set of apostles' spoons, commonly 
 offered on such occasions. In the year 1617, as the King was 
 returning from Scotland, towards London, he took his way 
 through Lancashire and Cheshire. At Hoghton Tower, where 
 he halted in the former county, he was received and very 
 sumptuously entertained by his loyal subject, the owner, Sir 
 Richard Hoghton, baronet, who, to do greater honour to his 
 royal guest, had assembled to meet him the knights and 
 gentlemen of his neighbourhood, who, on that occasion, put on 
 and wore their host's livery. His reception proved so gratifying 
 to His Majesty that he lengthened his [stay, and gave way to 
 unusual hilarity. At one of the banquets, when an ox's carcase, 
 roasted whole and called a baron of beef, was brought in, His 
 Majesty seeing near it a fine loin of beef, insisted on knighting 
 it and calling it a Sir-Loin, saying, as he did it, that as a 
 knight had usually a squire to attend him, so it was but fit 
 that a baron should have his attendant knight. Leaving 
 Hoghton Tower on the 2Oth August, 1617, the King came 
 next to Bewsey Hall, the seat of Thomas Ireland, esquire, 
 the serjeant-bailiff of Halton and vice-chamberlain of Chester, 
 where he was entertained, and received a loyal welcome from 
 his host and the gentry who came to meet him. He slept at 
 Bewsey for the night, and, before leaving the next morning, 
 he made his host, Sir Thomas Ireland, a knight. On the 2ist 
 August the King and his suite arrived at Rock Savage, where 
 Sir Thomas Savage, baronet, its grateful owner, with a troop 
 of friends, was waiting to receive him. After partaking of a 
 goodly repast which had been prepared for him, His Majesty,
 
 Frodskam. 195 
 
 
 
 with his suite, and attended by Sir Thomas and his friends, 
 hunted and killed a fat buck in Halton Park, and afterwards 
 proceeded on his journey. It has been already mentioned 
 that a correspondence about the appointment of a successor to 
 Bishop Carey, of Exeter, had taken place, and that Sir Thomas 
 took a part in it. The correspondence, which probably bore 
 date early in 1626, shows that Sir Thomas Savage was then 
 thought to have some influence in court appointments. On 
 the 6th November, in the same year, Sir Thomas was created 
 Viscount Savage of Rock Savage. The 5th of November, at 
 this time, was unusually observed as a thanksgiving festival, 
 in remembrance of the King's escape from the Gunpowder 
 Plot; but this year the " fifth" falling upon a Sunday, the new 
 title of Sir Thomas was deferred until the following day. After 
 his Lordship's elevation, the Corporation of Congleton, who 
 rejoiced to hail their old acquaintance under his new name, 
 resolved upon, what seems to us, a strange way of showing 
 their regard and esteem for their now noble patron ; they 
 " resolved that at his first coming among them, his Lordship 
 should be presented with a fat cow," and the offering was 
 made accordingly, and, as we suppose, accepted by him. It is 
 just possible that the Corporation had a banquet in view to 
 honour his Lordship, and that the cow was to be slaughtered 
 for it. After the accession of Charles I., his Queen, Henrietta 
 Maria, had a Court of Pleas of her own, probably the 
 Marshalsea at Westminster, and of this Court she appointed 
 Viscount Savage to be chancellor, an office which obliged him 
 to be much about the Court in London. A daughter being 
 born to him while there, she was baptized, probably with the 
 Queen's consent and in her honour, Henrietta Maria. In 1635, 
 while the viscount was attending on his duties in London, he 
 was seized with a serious illness, of which he shortly after- 
 wards died in London at an early age. The issue of Viscount 
 and Lady Elizabeth Savage were six sons and an equal 
 number of daughters. John, his eldest son, succeeded him, 
 and Jane, one of his daughters, married John Poulet, Marquis 
 of Winchester, the nobleman- who was honoured by an epitaph 
 
 from the pen of Dryden, while his wife Jane had the still higher 
 
 O2
 
 1 96 Frodsham. 
 
 
 
 honour of an epitaph written by Milton, from which we give 
 these lines of its commencement, the whole inscription, which 
 is all beautiful, being too long to be inserted here : 
 
 This rich marble doth inter 
 
 The honour'd wife of Winchester, 
 
 A viscount's daughter, an earl's heir, 
 
 Besides what her virtues fair 
 
 Added to her noble birth, 
 
 More than she could own from earth. 
 
 Summers three times eight save one 
 
 She had told ; alas ! too soon 
 
 After so short time of breath 
 
 To house with darkness and with death. 
 
 Yet had the number of her days 
 
 Been as complete as was her praise, 
 
 Nature and fate had had no strife 
 
 In giving limit to her life. 
 
 Viscount Savage, being the first of his family to enter the 
 Peerage, seems to have thought it his duty to raise a stately 
 tomb to his grandfather, Sir John Savage, knight, whose 
 works and active life deserved to be commemorated. The 
 body of Viscount Savage was brought from London for inter- 
 ment in the mortuary chapel at Macclesfield, where so many 
 of his ancestors had been laid. On its way through Congleton 
 the funeral procession met with every mark of respect. Rood 
 Lane, along which the corpse was to be conveyed, was 
 purposely repaired before its arrival. Links were prepared to 
 light it, and refreshments on an extensive scale were prepared 
 for the mourners and attendants (Hist. Halton., p. 112); and 
 this short entry in the register marks the end of all this 
 greatness : " The right hon. Lord Viscount Savage, of Rock 
 Savage, buried December 16, 1635." (Earwaker's East Ches., 
 II., 481, in notis^} 
 
 (XL) JOHN LORD VISCOUNT SAVAGE, who, on the death 
 of his father, the late Viscount, in 1635, succeeded him at Rock 
 Savage, and in the rest of the family estates and hereditary 
 honours, was elected in the following year to the honourable 
 office of high steward of Macclesfield, which his father and 
 grandfather had held before him. In 1639, he obtained 
 another step in the Peerage, having either been created Earl
 
 Frddsham. 197 
 
 Rivers or having succeeded to that title through his mother, 
 the daughter of Darcey, the earl of that name, in whose patent 
 there was a limitation in her favour. It was on this occasion 
 that the new Earl adopted for his family motto the short 
 Latin sentence "a te pro te," meaning by it, as we suppose, 
 that owing his advancement to the King's favour, the 
 King's cause should be his, a principle to which his career 
 showed that he adhered. The Earl married first Catherine, 
 the daughter of William Parker Lord Morley and Mont- 
 eagle, of Hornby Castle, in the county of Lancaster, an 
 alliance which was every way suitable to his rank. It 
 was the same Lord Morley to whom the ominous and 
 mysterious letter was addressed to which the King owed 
 his escape from the terrible gunpowder plot. By his wife, 
 Lady Catherine, the earl had a family of three sons and five 
 daughters. Lady Catherine having died before him, his lord- 
 ship married Mary Ogle, by whom he had one only child, 
 Peter Savage, who survived him. In 1638 the corporation of 
 Congleton, with whom as seneschal of Halton he had the 
 same relations as his family had had, entertained his lordship 
 at a banquet, the charge of which is duly entered in their 
 borough books ; nothing, however, is said in it of his having 
 attended any of the sports of the borough which one or more 
 of his ancestors were known to have attended, and which both 
 law and public opinion now unite to condemn as cruelty to 
 animals, and as calculated rather to lower than elevate those 
 who take part in them. Earl Rivers, when an infant, had 
 been honoured by being held at the font by Henry Prince of 
 Wales when he received his baptismal name. His life hitherto 
 had been fortunate, but he had now to sustain a reverse, for 
 the political horizon, which had been lowering for some time, 
 at length grew so very dark, that in 1642 Earl Rivers found 
 
 That he had fallen on evil days 
 And evil tongues. 
 
 He was libelled, and had hard things said of him. He was 
 called a recusant, a malignant, and a delinquent, and he could 
 not avoid taking part in the war and the other public troubles
 
 198 Frodsham. 
 
 which broke out between the King and the Parliament ; but 
 what he did and suffered in those times has been already 
 told in the account which has been given of the trans- 
 actions which at that time took place at Frodsham and the 
 leighbourhood. Compelled, probably, by these troubles, he 
 sold the manor of Long Melford and the other estates in 
 Suffolk which had been so unexpectedly devised to his father. 
 (Hist. Ches., I., 529.) Among the sequestered estates in 
 Macclesfield hundred in 1645, John Earl Rivers, a recusant 
 and a delinquent, is returned as having no estate there except 
 burgages, most or all of which are in lease and the rents 
 sequestered. (Earwaker's E. Ches., I., 26.) After a siege 
 Halton Castle had been lost and dismantled, his house at 
 Rock Savage had been unroofed and rendered untenantable, 
 and of his three houses only Frodsham Castle remained 
 untouched, and thither in search of quiet he retired, and there, 
 at the age of forty-eight, as if ill fortune still pursued him, he 
 died on the loth October, 1654, just a century from the birth 
 of his grandfather, the first baronet of his family ; and on the 
 same night, and while his dead body lay in it, the Castle was 
 destroyed by fire, but the body being saved from the flames 
 was shortly afterwards, attended by his sorrowing friends, 
 conveyed to Macclesfield, and there privately and unostenta- 
 tiously interred in the family vault of their mortuary chapel. 
 
 (XII.) THOMAS LORD VISCOUNT SAVAGE, afterwards 
 Earl Rivers, succeeded on his father's death to the family 
 estates and honours. In 1642, when troops were mustering 
 for the coming contest between the King and the Parliament, 
 Thomas Savage is mentioned as being lieutenant-colonel in 
 Colonel Osborne's regiment, which was raised for the King 
 (Peacock's Army List of 1642, pp. 8-17) ; and Thomas Savage, 
 of Emling Castle, was afterwards heavily fined by the Parlia- 
 mentary sequestrators. One or both of these persons may be 
 meant for Viscount Savage, but he was certainly the same 
 person who was afterwards struck out of the commission of 
 the peace by the Parliamentary commissioner at the same 
 time as his father. In May, 1654, it had been discovered that 
 a plot had been laid to take away the life of the Protector,
 
 Frodsham. 199 
 
 and a great number of persons were arrested on suspicion of 
 being implicated in it. Amongst the persons so apprehended 
 Lord Viscount Savage was one ; but the charge against him 
 proved false, and he was soon set at liberty as innocent. 
 (Cromwelliana, p. 143). In October of the same year his 
 father died, and, though the political storm had burst and 
 spent its greatest violence, there was still that uneasy swelling 
 and heaving of the waters which usually succeed a storm, 
 and no one could foresee what was to follow. Six anxious 
 years of expectation passed before the Royalists, on the 29th 
 May, 1660, heard the welcome sound of the bells of Frodsham 
 ringing out their welcome on the King's restoration to the 
 throne. His Majesty's case was at first better than the earl's, 
 for he had a palace to receive him ; but the earl, though his 
 estates were now set free from the sequestration, had no longer 
 a Cheshire home Halton, Rock Savage, and Frodsham Castle 
 all lay in ruins. For the present the earl took up his abode 
 in London, and he did not therefore hear the bells of Frodsham 
 ringing out their joy. He took care, however, to appoint a 
 gaoler to keep the prison at Halton, and a steward or 
 seneschal to hold the courts as aforetime, with a bailiff 
 to attend the courts and look after his affairs as before. 
 But his lordship, who was no bigct either in his religion or his 
 politics, was open to conviction when he saw reason, and had 
 the courage to change his opinions. In 1680, when the Duke 
 of York, heir-presumptive of the crown, had, by his open and 
 avowed adherence to Popery, given rise to a cry throughout 
 the kingdom that he should be excluded from succeeding to 
 the crown, and at length when the struggle between the court 
 and the people rose so high that liberty herself seemed to be in 
 danger, Earl Rivers cast in his lot with the people ; and in 
 1682, when the Duke of Monmouth made a progress through 
 Cheshire to aid the cause of the Exclusionists, Earl Rivers 
 and his eldest son (Lord Colchester), though they were not 
 implicated in any of the rival plots hatched by the spawn of 
 those unquiet times, joined the duke and received him at 
 Rock Savage, which had now been repaired and restored. 
 For taking part in this proceeding, Lord Colchester, on I7th
 
 2OO Frodsham. 
 
 September, 1683, was presented by the grand jury at Chester 
 assizes and ordered to find sureties of the peace. (Hist, of 
 Ches., I.) In June, 1684, at the instance of the Duke of York, 
 the Secretary of State ordered his lord-lieutenants to seize all 
 guns and muskets that might be found in the possession of 
 persons not qualified by law to hold them an order which, we 
 may be sure, was rigidly enforced at Halton and Rock Savage, 
 where the Duke of York was known not to be in favour. But 
 neither the earl nor Lord Colchester was discouraged by this 
 proceeding ; and accordingly, in 1688, when the Prince of 
 Orange arrived at Exeter, Lord Colchester, then a lieutenant 
 in Lord Dover's troop of guards, was the first nobleman who 
 waited on him with an offer of his service. (Macaulay's 
 Hist., II., 495.) About the year 1693 Earl Rivers sustained a 
 severe loss in the death of his eldest son, Lord Colchester, a 
 young nobleman of great promise, who had married Lady 
 Charlotte Maria, daughter of Charles Earl of Derby, by whom 
 he left issue an only child, a daughter. On the I4th September, 
 in the next year, Earl Rivers, whose death was probably 
 accelerated by the loss of his son, Lord Colchester, was himself 
 carried off by sickness at the age of sixty-seven. His lordship 
 married first Arabella, the daughter of Robert, third Earl of 
 Lindsey, who died before him without leaving issue. He 
 married, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Emanuel Lord 
 Scrope of Bolton and Earl of Sunderland, by whom he had 
 issue Thomas, that Viscount Colchester, his eldest son, who 
 died before him ; Richard Savage, his second son, who suc- 
 ceeded him ; and two daughters, Elizabeth and Arabella. 
 Earl Rivers, like his ancestors, was buried in the family burial- 
 place at Macclesfield, where his tomb a few years ago was still 
 standing, when the following account of it was given by the 
 Rosicrucian Society who then visited the place : It is a large 
 mural monument. Above a large altar tomb is a recumbent 
 figure in a flowing robe, and a large wig under a canopy 
 supported by four marble Corinthian pillars, over which are 
 the arms and crest of Savage, with the supporters, a falcon 
 belled or and a unicorn argent. Over the pillars, also, are the 
 earl's arms impaled with those of his wives, and over the figure
 
 Frodsham. 20 1 
 
 is inscribed : " Here lyeth the body of the right honourable 
 Thomas Earl Rivers, Viscount Colchester, and Savage of Rock 
 Savage, Baron Darcey of Chick, who -died the I4th day of 
 September, 1694, at his house in Great Queen Street, within 
 ye parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, in the county of Middlesex, 
 and was interr'd the I4th day of October following, in the 
 6/th year of his age." 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE SAVAGE FAMILY. 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 (XIII.) RICHARD VISCOUNT SAVAGE, on the death of his 
 father, in 1694, became Earl Rivers, and succeeded to his 
 honours and estates. He married Penelope, the daughter and 
 heiress of Roger Downes, of Wardley, esquire, a member of a 
 well-known Lancashire family. Earl Rivers, like his late 
 lamented'brother, Lord Colchester, chose to follow the profes- 
 sion of arms, but he distinguished himself by his talents 
 in whatever he undertook. He obtained in due time the 
 command of the army in the field, and his success showed his 
 fitness for the profession he had chosen. But he was much 
 employed in the conduct of affairs of State, in which he 
 displayed no less ability than in the affairs of war. He had 
 the happiness to be the friend of a celebrated statesman who 
 had the rare distinction of winning the praise of two poets, 
 Pope and Thomson, the former of whom speaks of this friend 
 as 
 
 Argyll the state's whole thunder born to wield, 
 And shake alike the senate and the field. 
 
 While the latter says that 
 
 From his rich tongue 
 Persuasion flows and wins the high debate. 
 
 Argyll, the duke whom these two poets thus extol as both a 
 great commander and an able statesman, appears also to great
 
 2O2 Frodsham. 
 
 advantage in Sir Walter Scott's tale, The Heart of Midlothian. 
 It was he, also, who had a principal share in bringing about the 
 union of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, and 
 when, to mark her approval of his services on that great 
 occasion, the Queen decided to bestow on him an English 
 peerage, he could find no better friend than Earl Rivers to 
 fulfil the pleasant office of introducing him to the House of 
 Lords, an office which Earl Rivers undertook when the Duke, 
 on the 3rd December, 1705, first entered the House as Lord 
 Chatham and Earl of Greenwich. (Collin's Peerage, VII., 445.) 
 In the year 1707, when the nation had determined to support 
 the claims of the House of Austria to the throne of Spain, in 
 opposition to the House of Bourbon, and an army of 13,500 
 men was despatched to Spain, the Queen appointed Earl 
 Rivers to command it. He accordingly sailed with the forces, 
 and, on or about the 8th of February, safely disembarked the 
 troops at Alicant ; but some conflict having been there dis- 
 covered between his lordship's commission and that of Lord 
 Galway, as to which of them was to command in chief, the 
 two generals, in order to prevent detriment to the service, 
 came to a timely agreement, and Earl Rivers generously gave 
 up the chief command to Lord Galway, and by this concession 
 escaped the discredit of being present at the disastrous battle 
 and defeat which the allies shortly afterwards sustained at 
 Almanza. (Oldnixon's Hist. Eng., III., 389.) Earl Rivers, 
 who stood high in the Royal favour, in 1709 was sworn on the 
 Privy Council ; and in the next year the Queen sent him as 
 her minister and plenipotentiary to Hanover, with instructions 
 to satisfy the Court there that the Protestant succession was 
 of all things the first object which the Court of England had 
 most at heart a task which, in face of the hundred addresses 
 presented against it, all of which had been most graciously 
 received, was one of considerable difficulty, requiring great 
 adroitness and skill. (Ib., 155, and Smollet's Hist, I., 54.) In 
 the month of January, 1712, Earl Rivers was appointed master- 
 general of the Ordnance, an office for which he was well 
 qualified, and to the discharge of which he brought a large 
 amount of the skill and experience which he had acquired by
 
 Prods ham. 203 
 
 his long and active service in the field. Earl Rivers was the 
 father and Ann Countess of Macclesfield was the mother of 
 Richard Savage, the poet. Savage was born on the loth of 
 January, 1698, and soon afterwards, the countess having been 
 divorced from her husband, the Earl of Macclesfield, by Act 
 of Parliament, was married to Colonel Brett. Earl Rivers, 
 anxious to make the best reparation in his power for the 
 stigma which rested on Savage's birth, acknowledged him as 
 his son, and stood sponsor for him at the font, giving him the 
 same name as his own. A few years after, while the son was 
 still young, the earl, lying on a sick bed and being minded 
 and desirous, if he could, to make his unfortunate son any 
 further reparation still in his power, sent anxiously to the 
 countess to find him out; and when she falsely assured the 
 earl that he was dead, he left to another person the legacy of 
 .6000 which he had intended for him ; and thus the heartless 
 mother robbed her child of what would have made him 
 independent; but, alas! this was only one of the many acts of 
 cruelty which she inflicted upon him when he was too young 
 to have deserved them, and with such treatment justly in after 
 life did Savage, in his poem addressed to her, complain that 
 
 No mother's care 
 
 Shielded my infant innocence with prayer. 
 
 The fate of Savage was indeed hard. " Born," says his 
 biographer, " with a legal claim to honour and affluence, he 
 was in two months (by an ex post facto law) illegitimated by 
 Act of Parliament, and disowned by his mother, doomed to 
 poverty and obscurity, and launched upon the ocean of life 
 only that he might be swallowed up by its quicksands or 
 dashed upon its rocks." (Johnson's Life of Savage.) In 1714 
 the earl's busy career drew to a close, and on the I4th 
 December in that year he breathed his last, leaving by his 
 wife Penelope an only child, a daughter of her own name. 
 By a deed inter vivos made some time before his decease, 
 his lordship conveyed the manor of Frodsham, with all his 
 other very large estates in Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, 
 and Essex, to Charles Duke of Shrewsbury and Robert Earl 
 of Oxford, as trustees to the use of himself for life, with
 
 2O4 Frodsham. 
 
 remainder to his cousin John Savage, heir-presumptive of the 
 earldom, with remainder to his issue, with a further remainder 
 to the Countess of Rochford, and with the ultimate remainder 
 to the earl's own right heirs. But this attempted disposition 
 of Frodsham and the other properties being afterwards called 
 in question, an Act of Parliament was obtained which declared 
 that the whole of the estates should be vested in James Earl 
 of Barrymore to the use of John Earl Rivers, cousin of the late 
 earl, for life, with remainder to Lady Penelope Barry, daughter 
 of Earl James, and the Lady Penelope his wife. By the sub- 
 sequent marriage of Lady Penelope Barry with the Honourable 
 James Cholmondeley, Frodsham and the other estates passed 
 into the hands of the noble family of Cholmondeley, who now 
 possess them. John Earl Rivers having taken orders in the 
 Church of Rome, and acting under a deep sense of his obliga- 
 tions to his sacred calling, for which he is to be honoured, and 
 also secretly leaning to the fallen fortunes of his master, 
 James II., and being too honest to own a divided allegiance to 
 the new Government, declined to assume the title which had 
 fallen to him, remained in a private station until his death, in 
 1728, when he died without issue, and the title of Earl Rivers 
 became extinct. These family annals being now concluded, 
 it will be seen in them that for thirteen generations, and for 
 a period of nearly four centuries, while the Savages were 
 connected with Frodsham they were not an idle race, but that, 
 on the contrary, they were ever ready to serve their country 
 either with the sword in the field, or with their wisdom and 
 experience in the councils of the State. At Agincourt, at 
 Bosworth, at Boulogne, at Flodden, and at Tournay, and in the 
 Low Countries, their names were heard of, while they aided 
 the King with their councils both in Church and State, one of 
 them becoming an archbishop ; and when not thus publicly 
 employed, they spent their lives at home, and, living amongst 
 their neighbours, discharged the duties of country gentlemen 
 so as to win the respect of their contemporaries and the 
 grateful remembrance of posterity. 
 
 When Brindley, a self-taught genius of a former age, became 
 the constructor of canals, and when Stephenson, a similar genius
 
 Frodsham. 205 
 
 .of our own, invented iron roads, they were, in different ways, 
 two great pioneers of increased traffic ; the former by his trans- 
 ferring most of the heavy weights from land ways to water ways, 
 and the latter, immeasurably the greater inventor, by making 
 his steam-horse fly along a level road of iron with weights that 
 might almost sink a navy at his back, and which makes that 
 possible that seemed almost impossible. When Brindley was 
 asked by the House of Commons what he thought navigable 
 rivers were made for, his characteristic reply was that they were 
 made to feed navigable canals ; but even before the former of 
 these two great men began his work, our ancestors had awakened 
 to the desirableness and necessity of improving our tidal rivers, 
 and making them take off from the roads some of the weights 
 which at times almost destroyed them. The plan of thus 
 utilizing our rivers had for some time attracted public attention 
 before 1720. In that year, however, a general movement took 
 place in that direction, and Acts were obtained for making more 
 navigable the rivers Mersey and Weaver by artificial means. 
 The act for the Weaver was expressly to make it navigable 
 from Frodsham Bridge to Winsford, where the salt works were 
 a great work of almost national concern. The men of Cheshire, 
 to whom the work was entrusted by the Act, accomplished it 
 by subscribing what was necessary for the purpose, receiving 
 no benefit whatever in the undertaking except the repayment 
 of the money they had advanced, with interest in the meantime. 
 The proceeding showed their foresight, and the means by which 
 the work was accomplished reflects great credit on their public 
 spirit. One of the directions in the Act was that part of the 
 earnings of the navigation should go towards keeping the roads 
 near the river in repair, which looks like an acknowledgment 
 of long former neglect. The contemporary work undertaken 
 on the Mersey was accomplished by the undertakers becoming 
 shareholders in the work, to whom the profits, if any, were to 
 devolve, and these profits proved so remunerative that, before 
 the railways were made, a hundred pounds' share was sold for 
 more than 1200. If the improvement of the Mersey was 
 thought to be a more remunerative work, the undertakers had 
 either less foresight or had less public spirit than the patrons
 
 206 Frodsham. 
 
 of the Weaver. But without reflecting on either way of carry- 
 ing out the improvement of the two rivers, nothing is more 
 certain than that the improvement of both of them, but 
 more especially the Weaver, has been an immense advantage 
 to Frodsham, as well as to Cheshire and the country in general. 
 A year after the river was thus improved on the east side of 
 Frodsham, an important change took place also in the old 
 castle, the buttress of Frodsham on its west side, which now 
 passed from its former owners, who, since its injury by the fire 
 which took place while Earl Rivers lay dead in it, had ceased 
 to regard the place with favour, and it passed into the hands 
 of the Daniels of Daresbury, an ancient family which this his- 
 tory has shown us had been at various times connected with 
 it before. The new owners do not seem to have resided in the 
 Castle, and in the year 1747, when the Messrs. Buck published 
 and printed a west view of the Castle, they dedicated it to 
 Edward Daniel, esquire, the then owner, with an engraving of 
 his arms quartered with those of the Savages at the foot. In 
 1750, however, the castle again changed hands, being sold 
 under an Act obtained by the Daniels, and purchased by Francis 
 Ashley, esquire, who uprooted the old castle from its founda- 
 tions, and built upon its site the good house now called Castle 
 Park, the handsome mansion of E. A. Wright, esquire. In 
 disturbing the foundations there were found an ancient lamp, 
 several coffins, a curious plate, and a cannon ball. At a later 
 period an ancient English coin was found by the late Joseph 
 Stubs, esquire, the then owner of the house. In 1745 Prince 
 Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, as he has been called, 
 and "who meant to be the third" Charles, having entered 
 England at the head of a rebel army, had reached Wigan, 
 some alarm was felt lest he should decide to march into North 
 Wales, where he had many friends ; but if he had entertained 
 such an idea he was diverted from it by learning that the 
 bridges in his route, and amongst them the bridge at Frod- 
 sham, had been broken up and made impassable. Be this as 
 it may, instead of turning towards the west he marched from 
 Wigan to Manchester. Of this, the latest invasion of Eng- 
 land let us fervently hope it may ever remain the last an
 
 Frodskam. 207 
 
 elegant scholar at the beginning of this century has left us an 
 account in Latin ; and as his book is rare, and it is even more 
 rare to find a modern history written in a dead language, we 
 shall give an extract from his work, followed by a translation. 
 The invaders have arrived at Manchester. "Haec inter, Man- 
 cunium usque perduellionis in Anglia fomitem, perventum est. 
 Eo confluunt e pontificiis ac nonjuratis generosi quidam, prole- 
 tarii vero ad CCC, quorum e numero cohors integra conflata cui 
 nomen, honoris causa Mancuniensi inditum. Huic praefectus 
 est Franciscus Towneleius antiquissima apud Lancastrenses 
 familia et fide erga Stuartos per damna atque caedes judum 
 perspecta, oriundus. Mancunii paucis diebus quieti datis, Der- 
 ventionem recta contendunt. Id oppidum in ipso Angliae 
 umbilico positum, vesanae expeditioni finem terminumque 
 constituit. Namque ibi, concilio habito, Moravius, cui Perthio 
 Luguvallum sponte cedente, sub auspiciis Caroli imperium 
 cesserat summopere hortari, Ocissime, versis signis, Scotiam 
 repeterent, earn rem hodie integram, postera fortasse luce irri- 
 tum fore. Quaecunque animis praeceperant ea omnia secus 
 accidisse: Per Angliam nihil novatum; a Gallia nusquam ex- 
 censionem factam. Ingentibus regiorum copiis circumdatos 
 indies magis magisque coarctari. Reputarent profecto ab atavis 
 infeliciter apud Anglos gesta, in iisque, Hamiltonii ducis ad 
 Uriconium, Caroli secundi ad Vigorniam clades: et si vetera, 
 perque aures demissa, obsoleverant exemplar et in mentem 
 revocarent qui ante annum xxxum rei gerendae interfuissent 
 (aderant enim nonulli), Prestonae deditionem quaeque ab 
 infenso principe sequebantur proscriptiones et patibula." 
 (Whitaker De Motu per Britanniam Civico, p. 60.) Meanwhile 
 the force that was to kindle the flame of rebellion in England 
 had reached Manchester. There it was joined by certain 
 Roman Catholic gentlemen and nonjurors and by 300 other 
 people, out of whom an entire regiment was formed, which, in 
 honour of Manchester, was called the Manchester regiment. 
 Of this body Francis Towneley, a member of a very ancient 
 Lancashire family, whose fidelity to the Stuarts had been 
 lately tried by losses and slaughter, was made the colonel. 
 After a few days' rest at Manchester the body marched direct
 
 208 Frodsham. 
 
 to Derby. That town, situated in the very centre of England, 
 proved the final end of their mad expedition ; for, after holding 
 a council there, Murray, to whom the Earl of Perth at Carlisle, 
 of his own free will and with Prince Charles' consent, had 
 given up the command, earnestly exhorted them that turning 
 their standards, they should as quickly as possible repair 
 back to Scotland, which to-day was possible, but to-morrow 
 might be impossible ; that every thing had fallen out contrary 
 to their expectations. In England they had made no change. 
 From France no show of help had come. Meanwhile they 
 were surrounded by a large force of the Royal troops, who 
 were day by day drawing more closely around them, let 
 them reflect how unhappily their ancestors had fared in 
 England under the Duke of Hamilton at Uttoxeter (where he 
 was made prisoner) and at Worcester, and the slaughter there 
 under Charles II. ; and if old examples of which they had 
 heard should have faded from their minds, yet some amongst 
 them, who thirty years before had been present at the surrender 
 of Preston, would remember with what proscriptions and 
 deaths on the scaffold the offenders were punished by the 
 offended Prince. In the account of Frodsham bridge, which 
 has already been given, it has been shown how effectually it 
 was repaired and improved after this rebellion, so that some 
 good resulted from its compulsory destruction. 
 
 In the year 1779 there was drawn up, as it would appear 
 directly from the parish registers, a valuable paper containing 
 an account of all the baptisms and burials in Frodsham in 
 each year of three periods of twenty years each, between 1688 
 to 1779, both inclusive. The account is divided into three 
 periods of twenty years each. The baptisms and burials, 
 which of course included the whole parish, for the first 
 twenty years, were: Baptisms, 1300; burials, 1040. In the 
 second period they were respectively 1461 and 1194; and in 
 the third period, 2461 and 1201. There must have been an 
 unusual mortality in the years 1699 and 1700, for in those 
 years the burials exceeded the baptisms. But the great value 
 of the paper is in some particulars which it gives of Frodsham 
 town and Frodsham lordship. In the former we are told that
 
 Frodsham. 209 
 
 there were in 17/9, 218 houses, 233 families, and 1034 souls 
 (sic} ; and in the lordship consisting of the four hamlets there 
 were as follows : Overton, 43 houses, 60 families, 297 souls ; 
 Netherton, 24 houses, 30 families, 153 souls; Woodhouses, 
 14 houses, 17 families, 88 souls ; Bradley, 10 houses, 14 families, 
 69 souls ^making the population of the lordship to be 607 
 persons. The paper was evidently drawn up in consequence 
 of a balloting for the militia in 1779, when soldiers were wanted 
 for the war then raging between England and her colonies, and 
 Frodsham town, with Button and Clotton, was required to find 
 four men ; and the lordship, with Mouldsworth and Marton 
 townships, was to find three. (From the original MS.) On 
 the 8th September, 1785, the city of Chester witnessed a sight 
 not seen either there or very rarely anywhere else in England 
 before the ascent into the air of a large balloon inflated, as 
 the account tells us, by steam (which really means gas). The 
 aeronaut, Thomas Baldwin, Esq., M.A., who was enthusiastic 
 about the future of the balloon, and wrote a book called 
 " Aeropaidia," in which he describes his observations during 
 his aerial voyage from Chester, came down safely from it twice, 
 the first time near Frodsham, an event not to be overlooked 
 in the annals of the place. Mr. Baldwin must have been one 
 of the earliest aeronauts, for until 1782, when Montgolfier 
 made an imperfect attempt to ascend in a balloon inflated by 
 hot air, an ascent by means of a balloon was unknown ; and 
 it was not until Lunardi perfected such a machine, and made 
 his first ascent in it from London in 1785, that a balloon 
 ascent had been witnessed in England. So that Mr. Baldwin's 
 ascent in his so-called steam-inflated balloon followed almost 
 immediately after that of Mr. Lunardi. As the balloon was 
 seen by many persons in its flight over Frodsham, we give 
 some particulars of the aeronaut's journey. He ascended at 
 1-40, and at 2-28 he had passed over Delamere Forest and 
 Helsby Crag of which he gives a picture, though he states 
 that from the balloon it looked like a flat plane. He passed 
 over Manley, and saw the Kingsley Wood ; and his book 
 gives a striking view of the balloon as it was seen over Helsby 
 Crag, when so great was its elevation that it seemed to be no
 
 2io Frodsham. 
 
 bigger than a bladder. On reconnoitring the scattered town 
 of Frodsham, which, like Chester, appeared of a light blue, 
 the aeronaut saw the town of Warrington, the plan of which, 
 he says, was small, neat, and of a darker blue. Near to 
 Frodsham the balloon neared the ground, and two farmers 
 with their servants, who were working there, took alarm at the 
 noise made by the balloon, which they took to be thunder or 
 a whirlwind, whereupon they all took shelter under an oak. 
 Whilst they were there they first perceived the swift descent 
 of the balloon. One of the servants asked the aeronaut 
 whether he intended to alight, and he answered not for any 
 time. The car first landed at 3-28 in a field belonging to a 
 farm called Bellair, in Kingsley. At half-past three the 
 balloon again ascended from Bellair, and was soon over Aston 
 Hall, which appeared a beautiful but minute object. The 
 cascade (the weir on the River Weaver, we suppose) was 
 become a white line, and the fine bridge below a yellow straw 
 crossing the broad red streak. It now soared above the 
 clouds, and soon attained its greatest elevation. At seven 
 minutes to four the balloon alighted for the second and last 
 time on Rixton Moss ; and the aeronaut, who seems to have 
 been a man of science who thoroughly understood aerial 
 navigation, was safely conveyed back to Chester. In 1793 an 
 unusually high tide in the Mersey and the Weaver broke down 
 the embankments raised to protect the marshes, and the water 
 overflowed them, and rose to within less than 100 yards 
 from the centre of the town ; and a stone to mark its height 
 was placed by Mr. Ashley in his garden. In the year 1803, 
 when England was threatened with invasion, and an immense 
 army was gathered on the opposite coast, under the command 
 of General Napoleon Buonaparte, the spirit of the country was 
 roused, and volunteers were everywhere raised to defend the 
 country ; 
 
 And none were for a party, 
 But all were for the State. 
 
 Frodsham was not behind the rest of the country in raising a 
 regiment of her own, and we are fortunately able to give a 
 list of the officers.
 
 Frodsham, 
 
 211 
 
 THE FRODSHAM VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 Major-Commandant: Daniel Ashley. 2Oth August, 1803. 
 
 Captains : John Nuttall, George Whitley, William Ashley, 
 Joseph Pickering. 2Oth August, 1803. 
 
 Lieutenants : William Hayes, John Wright, John Mauley, 
 Joseph Jones. 2oth August, 1803. 
 
 Ensigns : John Lewis, John Milner, John Reddish, George 
 Pugh. 20th August, 1803. 
 
 Adjutant : [Left blank.] 
 
 Quarter-Master : John Grice. [No date.] 
 
 Surgeon : Richard Wilkinson. [No date.] 
 
 [Infantry : Four companies, 300 men.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 THE PARISH BOOKS AND REGISTERS. 
 
 CROMWELL, the minister of King Henry VIIL, who had the 
 wisdom to see how utterly the inquisitions taken after the 
 death of persons of landed estates failed to supply the means 
 of preserving the date of the births, marriages, and deaths of 
 the other members of the community, and how necessary it 
 was to have such information, was the first to devise the plan 
 of church registers, with a view to finding a remedy for the 
 defect. His ordinance that such a register should be kept in 
 every parish throughout England was first issued in 1536; 
 and there are some few parishes in which the order was very 
 promptly obeyed. We have not found any exactly coinciding 
 with that year, but in St. Michael's parish, in Cambridge, the 
 birth of one Elizabeth Archer, on 26th December, 1538, occurs 
 as the first entry in the register ; and the register of the parish 
 of Burton, in Wirral, Cheshire, begins in the same year. (Hist. 
 Ches., II., 307.) The register of Little Ilford, in Essex, begins 
 in J 539; an d that of St. Andrew's, Tawton, in North Devon, 
 dates from 1540. That of Middleton, near Manchester, in 
 
 P2
 
 2 1 2 Frodsham. 
 
 Lancashire, commences in 1541. But at Frodsham the register 
 does not begin until 1558, the first year of the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth, from which time (except from 1642 to 1661, when 
 there occurs an hiatus) it has ever since been continued with 
 tolerable regularity ; and some entries which it contains prove 
 the salubrity of the place by the extraordinary instances of 
 longevity which it records. Thus, on the I3th March, 1592, 
 the vicar has recorded with his own hand, and in words at full 
 length in Latin, that he then buried Thomas Hough of the great 
 age of 141 years ; and the very next entry to this on the next 
 day records the burial of Randle Wall, another centenarian, of 
 the age of 103 years. Leland, the royal antiquary, in his 
 visit to Cheshire, records that at another forest town of the 
 county, of which Frodsham was one, a woman lived to attain 
 the age of 140 years. She and Thomas Hough might have 
 claimed kindred with the old lady at Mentz, who lived to see 
 the sixth generation of her descendants, and who, being asked 
 why she had lived so long, replied that she did so in order 
 that " she might tell her daughter to tell her daughter that her 
 daughter's daughter was crying ;" or, as the story is told in 
 Latin 
 
 (l) Mater ait (2) natse die (3) natse (4) natam 
 Ut moneat (5) natae plangere (6) filiolam. 
 
 On this subject, also, Dr. Ormerod, the historian of Cheshire, 
 mentions a circumstance which gives countenance to what 
 Leland and the Frodsham register tell us of the longevity of the 
 neighbourhood. One of the Vernons, a baron of Kinderton, he 
 says, attained so great an age that he had the sobriquet of "old 
 Ralph Vernon;" and he is said to have lived to the age of 150 
 years, which is rather confirmed than contradicted by his inqui- 
 sition post-mortem, by which it was found that he had outlived 
 his grandson's grandson, and that his estate had passed to an 
 equally remote collateral relation. To this list of Frodsham 
 centenarians Lysons has added these 1695, Mary Knowles, 
 of Helsby, 107 ; 1791, Thomas Blease, of Helsby, 102. There 
 is, or was, in the Frodsham vestry a very old chest, in which 
 the parish books and papers were formerly kept, and in this 
 there is said to have once been an original valuation of the
 
 Frodsham. 213 
 
 parish, made several centuries ago. This valuation, however, 
 has perished or become illegible through old age ; but the 
 registers and parish books have fared better, and are still 
 preserved and well kept with care. From these books, in a 
 former part of these annals, we have given some extracts, but 
 their contents have not been exhausted. In the registers, as in 
 other registers, there are entries of other collections besides 
 those for redeeming Christian slaves from Barbary ; and some 
 of these entries are very curious. In the registry at Northen- 
 den, in 1661, there is an entry of a collection for blessing 
 Dublin, which has an odd look ; but in the Cheadle register of 
 the next year the mystery is explained, for there we read that 
 the collection was made " for Thomas Welsby's losses in the 
 Blessing of Dublin " (a ship of that name and port which had 
 been lost at sea). In referring to the subject of ransoming 
 Christian captives, to which we have before adverted, we 
 expressed our wonder and surprise that Europe should have 
 suffered the Turkish power, in direct violation of the law of 
 nations, and even after the Moslem crescent had begun to 
 wane, to carry on her piracy and make captives of the men 
 she took, and should have continued her unlawful traffic to our 
 own times, when, after being suffered too long, it was swept 
 away by the vengeance of civilized nations. The subscrip- 
 tions which from time to time were made in our churches 
 did but feebly express the sympathy for the sufferers 
 by Turkish piracy. In 1671 Cosin, Bishop of Durham, by 
 his will left a sum of five hundred pounds towards pro- 
 curing the redemption of Christian slaves in Algiers ; and 
 in 1670, Lady Mico, the widow of Sir Samuel Mico, of 
 London, knight, gave to trustees for a like purpose the sum 
 of one thousand pounds, which in 1686 they laid out in the 
 purchase of lands, by which in 1827 the value of the gift had 
 so increased that an information was then filed in a case of 
 the " Attorney-General against Gibson and others " (Beavan's 
 Reports, II., 317), when it was found that the rental of 
 the purchased land was something like ^3000 a year, and 
 that the trustees had also accumulated a further sum of 
 115,000 in Consols. The information, as was usual in that
 
 214 Frodsham. 
 
 day, lingered on for several years ; but in 1834 new trustees 
 of both the land and the money were appointed, and the 
 whole income was ordered to be employed in educating the 
 emancipated slaves in our colonies. (Hist, of Birch Chapel, 
 Chet. Soc., p. i, 17; Notes and Queries, II., 12.) We can hardly 
 conceive a more noble or fitter purpose for what was given to 
 purchase freedom for the slave than employing it to fit him for 
 freedom. 
 
 From a very early period Frodsham was the head of a 
 rural deanery, and the chapters of such deanery were regularly 
 held there. The chaplains, clerks, parsons, rectors, or vicars 
 and other clergy of Frodsham Church must have been at first 
 appointed by the Norman earls ; for Hugh Lupus, when he 
 gave the tithes of Frodsham to his Abbey of Saint Wer- 
 burgh's, expressly reserved to himself and his successors the 
 advowson or right of presentation to the living ; and the tithes 
 and the advowson never met in the same hand until the founda- 
 tion of Vale Royal Abbey by King Edward I., when by agree- 
 ment the right to both became vested in that abbey. Doubt- 
 less, the Norman earl when he reserved the advowson reserved 
 also the right to give his nominee some portion of the tithes ; 
 but what that was, or how his nominee was called, though it was 
 probably " persona " (parson), we do not know. We proceed 
 now to give an account of all the clergy of the parish whose 
 names we have met with, either in the two editions of 
 Ormerod's "Cheshire" or elsewhere, and to subjoin such notices 
 of the clerical persons and events historical, biographical, or 
 topographical as have occurred relating to the parish. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 THE VICARS ^ND CLERGY OF FRODSHAM. 
 
 (I.) A.D. 1 134. THOMAS FITZ PAGAN, the clerk of Frod- 
 sham, occurs as a witness to a charter made about this time. 
 (Calendar of Arley Charters, pp. 2, 3, 1 1 .) The same or another 
 Thomas Fitz Pagan is witness to the charter of William Fitz
 
 Frodsham. 215 
 
 Nigel, Baron of Halton, about 1130. (Hist. Cheshire, I., 507.) 
 Pagan (Paganus) was a Christian name in very early use by 
 the Vilars family ; and Thomas, the son of Paganus Vilars, 
 who occurs in their history about this very time, may have been 
 Thomas, the clerk of Frodsham. (Annals of the Lords of 
 Warrington, Chet Soc., pp. 16, 17.) 
 
 (II.) A.D. 1 1 59. RANDLE, the clerk of Frodsham, who is 
 sometimes called " Brother Randle," which may, perhaps, mean 
 that he was a monk of Saint Werburgh's, was a witness with 
 Henry, the prior of Norton, 1 159 to 1 180. (Calendar of Arley 
 Charters, p. 24.) It was probably in this Randle's time that 
 Radulf Fitz Roger, before the year 1200 (for after the date of 
 Pope Innocent IH.'s letter at that time no arbitrary consecra- 
 tion of tithes could be made), gave two bovates of land with 
 their tithes to Saint Chad and Saint Werburgh, upon condition 
 that the parson of Frodsham should find a resident chaplain 
 to perform Divine service in honour of God and Saint Wer- 
 burgh. This chantry fell into disuse at a very early period, 
 for the monks who, instead of being the best, were undoubtedly 
 the very worst trustees, passed the lands with which the chantry 
 was endowed to Vale Royal Abbey, at the same time as the 
 tithes of Frodsham, as appears by the Leger Book of Saint 
 Werburgh's (p. 4), and that of Vale Royal (p. 237) ; and the 
 abbot and convent of Vale Royal afterwards granted the two 
 bovates of land which had been so given to the rectors of 
 Frodsham to found a chantry in that church for the souls of 
 the lords of Frodsham, and the new owners intermitted the 
 service on which the lands were held. Many particulars of this 
 or some similar chantry are given in the History of Halton 
 Castle and Norton Priory (p. 177), which show how difficult it 
 was to keep the religious houses to their duty in old times. 
 Radulf Fitz Roger, the giver of the two bovates, was a cotem- 
 porary of Adam de Button, who lived from 1170 to 1216. By 
 an inquisition taken in 14 Richard II. it appears that Richard 
 de Kingsley aliened to the abbot and convent of the Holy 
 House of Saint Werburgh in frank almoign the vill of Catten- 
 hall, which was held of the King by knight's service, upon trust 
 to find two chaplains to celebrate Divine service for ever, and
 
 2 1 6 Frodsham. 
 
 that the same abbot and convent aliened the same vill to one 
 William Gerard the elder in fee ; and that afterwards Sir Peter 
 Gerard, knight, aliened the same vill to Robert Gryffyn and 
 his heirs. That in 13 Henry IV. the King sued Nicholas, 
 the son and heir of the said Robert Gryffyn, and on the 24th 
 of June, 3 Edward VI., at the instance of Robert Nuthall, 
 the original grant and the subsequent suit upon it were exem- 
 plified upon the records of the county of Chester. From all 
 which it is evident that Cattenhall was aliened illegally at an 
 early period, while the abbot and convent of Saint Werburgh 
 were still owners of the tithes of Frodsham. 
 
 Some mention should be made here of the ancient chapel 
 of Alvanley, which was built about four hundred years ago, and 
 was demolished in 1859, to make way for the present handsome 
 and commodious church at the same place. The original chapel 
 at Alvanley appears to have been from a very early period a 
 chapel of ease to Frodsham, though there is some doubt 
 whether it was not originally a domestic chapel in the hall of 
 the Alvanleys. 
 
 (III.) A.D. 1209 to 121 1. RANULPHUS DE FRODSHAM, 
 Clericus de Frodsham. This Randle was a witness to William 
 de Boydell's confirmation of a moiety or one-half of Warburton 
 to the chapel of Saint Werburgh at that place. This confirma- 
 tion, of which there is a copy among the Arley Charters (see 
 the Calendar, p. 33), must have been made about the same time 
 that the confused and mistaken tradition says that the Frod- 
 shams forfeited their possessions in that place. 
 
 (IV.) A.D. 1276 to I3OO. ROBERTUS DE FRODSHAM, 
 
 Clericus de Frodsham. On the 2nd of August, 1270, Vale 
 Royal Abbey was founded, and the abbot and convent became 
 from that time the owners both of the tithes and advowson of 
 Frodsham parish and church ; and Robert de Frodsham, pro- 
 bably a monk of the new abbey, was the first clerk presented 
 by the new owners of the same church and tithes. If 
 Robert was indeed a brother of the house, his stipend would 
 only be hermit's fare, for the abbey would take all they could 
 to support the parent house. There was an inquisition post- 
 mortem in 22 Edward III. (1349) on a Robert de Frodsham,
 
 Frodsham. 217 
 
 son of another of that name, but unless Robert the father had 
 married and became a widower before he took orders, the in- 
 quisition could hardly have been on his son. (Ormerod's Ches., 
 Helsby's edition, II., p. 48.) 
 
 (V.) A.D. 1307, 3 Kal. February (2Oth January). BENE- 
 DICTUS DE WOODFORD, capellanus de Frodsham, was presented 
 by the abbot and convent of Vale Royal, of which house his 
 name leads us to think he must have been one of the monks, 
 Woodford being near Vale Royal. 
 
 (VI.) A.D. 1320, Id. August (i3th August). RiCARDUS 
 DE WYTTON, or Wotton, presbyter, was presented by the abbot 
 and convent of Vale Royal, after the resignation of Benedict, 
 on the 1 3th of February, 1320. Wytton had been rector of 
 Covesgrave in the diocese of Lincoln, and the letters testimonial 
 of Bishop Rogers, dated at Tachebrok, on Wytton's institution 
 to Frodsham, show that he had then absolutely resigned 
 Covesgrave. (Hist. Ches., II., p. 57, Helsby's Ed., notes.) 
 
 (VII.) A.D. 1349, 12 Kal. July. ROBERT WERMYNCHAM, 
 whose name bespeaks him a native of Cheshire, was presented 
 by the abbot and convent of Vale Royal on the 2Oth of June, 
 1 349, after the death of Richard de Wytton, and he was still 
 vicar in 1357. (Ormerod's Ches., II., Helsby's Ed.) Frodsham 
 tradition has it that the church-tower was built in 1350, and 
 the building is certainly either of that age or a little later. In 
 29 Edward III. (1356) a certain lord of Kingsley was found 
 to have granted land called Cattenhall to the abbot of Chester 
 to find two chaplains to celebrate Divine service daily for the 
 souls of all the- faithful for ever, and that for three years the 
 services of one chaplain had been withdrawn. The account 
 which is given by Lysons (Hist, of Ches., 661) of this founda- 
 tion, which is somewhat different, is as follows : " Cattenhall, 
 a manor in Kingsley in ancient times, was the property of Ralph 
 Vernon or the Hunter (Ralph was Radulf Fitz Roger), who 
 gave it to God and Saint Mary and one Sir Ivel, the priest, and 
 his successors, by which it seems that he established a kind of 
 hermitage which afterwards became vested in the abbot and 
 convent of Chester, who conveyed it to William Gerard, of 
 Kingsley, and his heirs, subject to the payment of 30^. a year
 
 2 1 8 Frodsham. 
 
 and to the obligation of providing two chaplains in the chapel 
 of Cattenhall to pray for the souls of Sir Richard de Kingsley 
 and his successors, lords of Kingsley. Cattenhall was pur- 
 chased of the Gerards in the reign of Edward III. by the Griffins, 
 from whom it passed by a female heir to the Nuttals, and they, 
 in the reign of Charles I., sold it to some persons who, in the 
 next reign, sold it to Robert Hyde, esquire, from whose family 
 it passed by marriage to the Cliffords of Chillingham." It 
 seems very evident from this that the chantry on the south-east 
 end of Frodsham church sprang out of this Cattenhall founda- 
 tion, and was the Kingsley chapel and dedicated to Saint Mary, 
 and cannot have been the hermitage dedicated to Saint Leonard. 
 It appears from Lyson's " Cheshire" (66 1) that there was another 
 chapel in Kingsley, and that Sir Laurence Button, in the reign 
 of Edward III., obtained the Earl of Chester's licence to carry 
 away the chapel which was within the Forest of Delamere, 
 and belonged to Sir Peter Thornton, whose daughter Sir 
 Laurence had married. It was also found that a certain lord 
 of Alvandelegh in ancient time had granted to a certain parson 
 of Frodsham a messuage and lands worth 13^. 4^. a year to 
 find a chaplain to celebrate Divine service there three days in 
 every week, which service had also been withdrawn for four 
 years then last past. In 28 Edward III. it was found that 
 Robert de Wermyncham, the Vicar of Frodsham, and Thomas 
 de Venables had a messuage and lands with the appurte- 
 nance's belonging to the chapel of Alvandley. These charitable 
 gifts made even to men of religion evidently required to be 
 strictly watched. This vicar seems to have died on or about 
 the 1 8th of October, 1361. 
 
 (VIII.) A.D. 1361, 8 Id. Nov. WILLIAM FITZ ROGER DE 
 KlRKHAM, priest, was presented by the abbot and convent of 
 Vale Royal on the loth of November, 1361, to the vicarage, 
 which had been vacant since Friday before Saint Luke's day 
 then last past. Mr. Helsby, in his edition of Ormerod's 
 History of Cheshire (vol. II., p. 54, in notis), gives the following 
 presentation, to which it is not easy to assign the proper date. 
 Saint Andrew's was evidently the dedication of the Helsby 
 chapel, situate at the east end of the north aisle : " In the
 
 Frodsham. 219 
 
 time of Edward III. Richard Frodsham, priest, was presented 
 to Saint Andrew's chapel in Frodsham church by Sir Richard 
 de Helsby, the patron." 
 
 (IX.) A.D. 1374. RICHARD DE SWANLOW, though only 
 a deacon (minor orders being then no disqualification), was 
 presented by the abbot and convent of Vale Royal to the 
 vicarage of Frodsham, upon the death of William Fitz Roger 
 de Kirkham. This vicar evidently took his name from the 
 village or hamlet of Swanlow, which is near to the parish church 
 of Over, in Cheshire, to which same living he was presented 
 in the year 1387, when he resigned the vicarage of Frodsham. 
 
 (X.) A.D. 1387, 23rd of April. RANULPHUS DE HOCKEN- 
 HULL, priest, was presented by the abbot and convent of Vale 
 Royal to the vicarage of Frodsham, on the 23rd of April, 
 1387, on the resignation of Richard de Swanlow. High up 
 on the east front of Frodsham church-tower, just below the 
 upper window, there is an inscription in antiquated letters, of 
 which the subjoined copy, taken from a rubbing, is a rude 
 representation : 
 
 Unless these letters are R H O, and meant as a memorial of 
 the vicar, Randle Hockenhull, and meant to tell us that he 
 had had some share either in the building or repairing of the 
 steeple, it is difficult to say what they do mean. At Kirkby 
 Malghdale, in Craven, where the letters G.H.N. occur on the 
 north side of the steeple, Dr. Whittaker, the learned historian 
 of Craven, suggests that they may be the cipher of some vicar 
 of the church, between 1485 and 1490. If the letters at 
 Frodsham are not a vicar's cipher, the mystery how to read 
 them will remain for some future enquirer to solve. In 
 14 Richard II. (1391), John Nicholson, of Frodsham, 
 aliened a moiety or half part of a burgage there in pure alms 
 to support a certain chantry in the chapel of Saint Laurence, 
 in Frodsham. We know that the Helsby chapel, at the east 
 end of the north side of Frodsham church, was dedicated to 
 Saint Andrew ; but unless the suggestions we have made, 
 that the cha , on the south east end of the church was
 
 2 2 o Frodsham. 
 
 dedicated to Saint Mary, the chapel of Saint Laurence 
 might be that which stood on Frodsham bridge ; it could 
 hardly be meant for the parish church, which was dedicated 
 to that saint. In 16 and 17 Richard II. (1394), the 
 parson of Frodsham stood seised of lands in Alvanley, which 
 Hugh de Arden and Richard de Swanlow, late vicar of 
 Frodsham, had given to the said Randle and his successors, to 
 find a chaplain on every Sunday, and festival in Alvanley 
 chapel. Had we the same account written of the Cheshire 
 chantries, as we have given us in the Chetham publications of 
 those in Lancashire, some of our present difficulties respecting 
 those at Frodsham would be removed. On the i8th of 
 January, 20 Richard III., Richard Runcorn, prior of the 
 Friars, preachers at Chester, made Randle Wylot and others, 
 his attorneys, to gain or lose in a plea of land, and in all 
 other pleas ; and on the 4th of January, ipth Richard II., the 
 forester of Delamere was ordered by a warrant to deliver an 
 oak, from the forest of Mara, to Richard de Clayton, hermit, of 
 Saint Agatha, the virgin, at Tarvin ; and overseer of the works, 
 for repairing and making the way called Holmestrete, under 
 the park of Tarvin, and of the bridge called Stanford bridge, 
 in Cheshire. (Ches. Records.) On the 29th of September, 
 20 Richard II. (1397), the King granted to Thomas le 
 Venables de Frodsham 13 acres of land in Alvanley, which 
 John de Arden, the lord of that vill, had given in mort-main, 
 without first obtaining the King's licence, rendering for the 
 same one rose yearly. (Ib.) In u Henry IV. (1409) 
 Randle de Buddeworth, chaplain, and John de Warrewyke, 
 citizen of Chester, made Henry Torsot, chaplain, their attorney 
 to receive in their name from Randle de Hockenhull, vicar of 
 Frodesham, full and peaceable possession of a messuage and 
 one bovate of land in the vill of Kelsall, and a moiety or half 
 part of a field, called Hob field, with its appurtenances in 
 Huxley and four shillings of yearly rent, with the appurte- 
 nances in the vill of Tarvyn, according to the tenor and effect 
 of a certain charter of the said Randle de Hokenhull, to the 
 aforesaid Randle de Buddeworth and John de Warrewyk, 
 thereupon made. (Ches. Records.)
 
 Frodsham. 221 
 
 (XL) AD. 1413. JOHN DE (Ewode probably), locum 
 tenens vicarii de Frodsham. In the roll of the Frodsham 
 Court, in I and 2 Henry V. (1413-1414), there occurs the 
 following entry : " De Johne de . . . (locum te) nente 
 vicar, ecclie de Frodsham p consili p plm Rici Baker iijs. 
 iiijd.," which means that John, the locum tenens of the vicar, 
 being brought into court at the suit of Richard Baker, 
 for a trespass, was ordered to pay 3-y. 4^. damages. In the 
 same roll, under 1414, John de Ewode capellanus, was 
 presented at the same court for not making good his fence at 
 the "cross yard." Was this cross a place frequented by 
 pilgrims to pay their devotions, and the fence of it that which 
 it was the vicar's duty to repair ? This John was probably the 
 same person whose surname has faded from the roll, through 
 age or neglect. It is plain, from the next presentation, that he 
 was merely a locum tenens. On the i6th July, 5 Henry V. 
 (1417), the King issued his warrant to the forester of Delamere 
 to deliver windfallen timber (maeremium) from the forest, for 
 the repair of Saint Leonard's Hospital, at Frodsham. (Ches. 
 Records.) If there is any place called " Spital " at Frodsham, 
 it probably still indicates the whereabouts of the above 
 hospital. The place under the name Spital is again mentioned 
 under vicar George Hogh, postea. Saint Leonard, who died 
 about 540, was the friend of prisoners and captives ; and as 
 there is nothing new under the sun, so Saint Leonard, like 
 Howard many centuries afterwards, was in the habit of visiting 
 prisons, to improve their condition, and mitigate the sufferings 
 of the inmates. He is represented holding fetters in his hands. 
 
 (XII.) A.D. 1435, Dec. 5. RANULPHUS DE TYLDESLEY, 
 a Lancashire man, who was the next vicar, was presented by 
 the abbot and convent of Vale Royal, and he is expressly said 
 to have been presented on the death of Ranulphus de Hoken- 
 hull, which shows that his predecessor, John de (Ewode), was 
 but the locum tenens of Hockenhull, who must have held the 
 living 48 years, and very probably lived to a good old age. 
 During Tyldesley's incumbency, probably about 1449, 
 Katherine Arden had a licence for an oratory, in her house at 
 Alvanley. (Ormerod's Miscel. Pal., 188.)
 
 222 Frodsham. 
 
 (XIII.) A.D. 1455, June 4. DoMiNUS WILLIELMUS 
 BRETHERTON, capellanus, the next vicar, came in on the 
 presentation, " nobilis viri Thomas Stanley," on the resignation 
 of Ranulphus de Tyldesley. Sir Thomas Stanley, who made 
 this presentation, had probably purchased it from the abbot 
 and convent of Vale Royal. Sir Thomas Stanley, K.G., was 
 summoned to the House of Lords in 1456, and became the 
 first Lord Stanley. In 19 Henry VII. (1503-4), the vicar of 
 Frodsham was present at Bewsey when Matthew de Sale did 
 homage to Sir Thomas Boteler. 
 
 (XIV.) A.D. 1505, June 30. DOMINUS WILLIELMUS 
 BLAGGE, capellanus, was presented by the abbot and convent 
 of Vale Royal, after the death of William Bretherton, another 
 long-lived vicar, who held the living 50 years. Blagge, the 
 name of the vicar, occurs in the History of Cheshire as 
 well as in general history. In 29 Henry VI. (1450), and 
 other years, an official of the borough of Macclesfield had 
 that name, as appears from the History of the Ancient 
 Parish of Prestbury. (Chet. Soc. p. 213.) Sir George 
 Blagge, another of the name, occurs in the Athenae Cantabri- 
 gienses (I., 54 and 104), where a long and somewhat scurrilous 
 notice is given of him. King Henry VIII., who called him 
 his pig, and with whom he was a great favourite, when he 
 was in prison and under sentence to be burnt, sent for him and 
 pardoned him. When after this he called to thank the King, 
 and gratefully fell at his Majesty's feet, the King told him that 
 he rejoiced to see his pig in safety, upon which he rejoined 
 that if the King had not stood his friend, the bishop would 
 have roasted him ! A colonel, Thomas Blagge, another of the 
 name, gallantly defended for the King the castle of Walling- 
 ford when it was besieged by the Parliamentarians. He 
 remained loyal to the crown to the end of his life, and after 
 his death, on the I4th November, 1660, he was honoured with 
 a burial in Westminster Abbey. (Stanley's Westminster 
 Abbey, 261, notes. Chester's Abbey Registers, 152 in notis?) 
 
 (XV.) A.D. 511, April 20. JOHANNES WOLLEY, capel- 
 lanus, vicar, was presented by the abbot and convent upon the 
 death of the late vicar Blagge.
 
 Frodsham. 223 
 
 (XVI.) A.D. 1514, February 6th. MAGISTER RICARDUS 
 EGERTON, canon of Lichfield, the next vicar of Frodsham, 
 was presented by the abbot and convent of Vale Royal, after 
 the death of the late vicar Wolley. Canon Egerton was 
 admitted prebendary of Lichfield, the 2nd of January, 1486- 
 87, and quitted it for Wreford prebendary (Le Neve's Fasti, 
 !> 599)- He was also rector of the parish churches of Stoke 
 and Endsfield. (Hist. Ches., II., Helsby's Ed., 57, notes.) The 
 following presentation was made in 1517 while Egerton was 
 vicar : Dns. Ranulphus Hellesby was admitted to Saint 
 Andrew's chantry in Frodsham church, on the death of John 
 Acton, the late chaplain, on the presentation of Beston, 
 esquire, the patron. (Hist. Ches., II., Helsby's Ed., p. 54, in 
 notis.} Canon Egerton was vicar in 1530, and probably until 
 1538. 
 
 (XVII.) A.D. 1538, July 24th. MAGISTER EDMUNDUS 
 STRETEHAY, LL.B., the next vicar, came in on the presenta- 
 tion "venerabilis viri magistri Thomae Legh patroni pro hac 
 vice Abbatis et conventus de valle Regali." This venerable 
 Thomas Legh was probably one of the royal visitors of 
 monasteries before the dissolution ; and if so, this presentation 
 given to him of Frodsham may have been a corrupt offering 
 to blind his eyes and conciliate his favour. This vicar was 
 admitted prebendary of Lichfield 2ist of June, 1530. (Le 
 Neve's Fasti, I., 641.) 
 
 (XVIII.) A.D. 1547, Aug. 6th. -JOHN MARTIN, M.A., 
 the next vicar, was presented by the very reverend Richard 
 Cox, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford (the greatness and power 
 of the abbot and convent of Vale Royal having passed away, 
 to be succeeded by another and a better power in the patron- 
 age of the abbey livings, of which Frodsham was one. Dean 
 Cox, the new dean, was a man of learning. He had been one 
 of the three tutors of the young Prince Edward, afterwards 
 Edward VI. He was a man of many preferments, having at 
 different times been Canon of Windsor, Dean of Westminster, 
 and finally Bishop of Ely. He was one of the twelve divines 
 associated with Cranmer in compiling the first liturgy. Hav- 
 ing been deprived by Queen Mary of all his appointments, in
 
 224 Frodsham. 
 
 1553, he fled to Frankfort to avoid worse consequences. 
 Happily, however, he lived to see better times, and was after- 
 wards associated with Archbishop Parker in the revision of 
 Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book. (Wheatley on the Common 
 Prayer, 46.) He is honoured by having his portrait hung in 
 the library of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and this quaint epitaph, 
 written by himself, is upon his tomb : 
 
 Vita caduca, vale ; salveto vita perennis, 
 Corpus terra tegit, spiritus alta petit, 
 In terra Christi gallus Christum resonabam, 
 Da Christe, in coelis, te sine fine sonem. 
 
 Frail life, farewell ; hail life which never ends ; 
 Earth hides my corpse, my soul to heaven ascends, 
 Christ's cock on earth, I loved to sound his name ; 
 May I in heaven for ever do the same. 
 
 Sunday at Home, April, 1876. 
 
 Martin, the vicar, may have been either that Dr. Martin who 
 was busy in the prosecution of Archbishop Cranmer, or that other 
 John Martin scolaris, who, on the loth of November, 1574, was 
 collated to a prebend in Lincoln Cathedral, and died in 1626. 
 (Le Neve's Fasti, II., no.) The probability is against his 
 being this latter person, and of his being the Doctor Martin, 
 who would be very likely to retire from Frodsham after Queen 
 Mary's death. It is observable that his death is not mentioned 
 in the new presentation. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE VICARS. 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 (XIX.) A.D. 1554, Aug. i;th. DOMINUS GEORGIUS HOUGH, 
 who, though called incumbent, was really the next vicar, came 
 in on the presentation of George Vavasor, gentleman. Martin, 
 the late vicar, on Queen Mary's accession, may have either 
 retired or been put away to make way for one whose views
 
 Frodsham. 225 
 
 were more in accordance with her own. Some of the Vavasors, 
 and particularly a Dr. Vavasor, M.D., seem to have been the 
 Queen's strenuous supporters. In i and 2 Philip and Mary, 
 these two entries are found in Jones's Index to the Exchequer 
 Records. (Rot. 6 and rot. 55.) (i) "Frodesham De J[ohanne] 
 S[avage] milite et aliis assignatis, ad inquirendum pro rege et 
 regina de terris concelatis in Frodesham in com. Cestr. 
 Michaelis Commissionis." (2) "Frodsham, De Johanne 
 Downe milite occasionata ad ostendum quo titule tenet 
 hermitagium vocatum Le Spytel in Frodsham in com. 
 Cestriae Hilarii Recorda." The first of these entries refers to 
 a commission issued to Sir John Savage, knight, and others, 
 to inquire for the King and Queen what lands there were 
 concealed in Frodsham (that is, to find out, if they could, 
 whether any and what lands forfeited under the late statutes 
 affecting changes in religion had been kept back from the 
 King and Queen). The second entry shows that Sir John 
 Done, knight, was called upon to show by what title he held 
 the hermitage called Le Spytel, in Frodsham. Of this place 
 we may say at present with the good but quaint Thomas 
 Fuller 
 
 Nomen patet. 
 Locus latet. 
 
 We think, however, that this house can be no other than that 
 now called the Hermitage, near the shepherds' houses on 
 Frodsham Hill. 
 
 (XX.) A.D. 1557, Oct. ist RICARDUS SMITH, S.T.P., 
 the next vicar, a doctor of divinity, the letters after his 
 name meaning the same thing, was presented by Eliscus 
 Hartoppe, gentleman, patron pro hace vice post mortem 
 Georgii Hogh. It would almost seem that Queen Mary had, 
 at this time, usurped the dean and chapter's rights to present 
 the last as well as the present vicar to the living. It does not 
 appear who Hartoppe the " hac vice " patron was, but he was 
 probably one of the Hartopps of Rotherley, in Leicestershire. 
 Ever since the time of Ben Hadad, and before the Smiths 
 have been a numerous family, and, very oddly, at this time 
 there were two Richard Smiths, both ecclesiastics, and for a 
 
 Q
 
 226 Frodsham. 
 
 great part of their lives contemporaries, but directly opposite to 
 each other in their religious opinions. One of these was 
 Richard Smith, fellow of Trinity Hall, in Cambridge, who 
 commenced doctor of Canon law in 1528. "He was one of 
 those who adhered to the doctrines of the Reformation, 
 and used to assemble at the White House. It would seem 
 that he was at some time in prison on a charge of heresy. 
 By his will, made on the last day of February, 1528-9, he 
 desired to be buried in Saint Edward's Church, Cambridge, 
 and he gave to William May, his executor, fellow of Trinity 
 Hall, and subsequently archbishop elect of York, the hangings 
 of his chamber and his gold ring, to Dr. Thirlby, his scarlet 
 cope. He gave 8 to the college, and the Decrees to Mr. 
 Burchenshaw, fellow of Trinity Hall." (Athenae Cantab- 
 rigienses, I., 39.) The date of his death does not appear, but 
 it followed close upon the making of his will, which in that 
 age was very like the knell of a testator or the passing bell at 
 his funeral. The other Doctor Richard Smith had a public 
 disputation with Peter Martyr on the corporal presence. 
 (Burnet's Hist. Reformation, II., 168.) This Richard, who was 
 doubtless of Oxford, we are told in Watt's Bibliotheca under 
 his proper name, was a,. D.D., and a learned Popish divine. 
 He was born in Worcestershire in 1500, and died (as it would 
 seem) a few years after 1568. He wrote, among other works, 
 A Defence of the Sacrifice of the Mass, London, 1546. 
 Retractation, made at Saint Paul's Cross, of certain errors 
 committed in some of his books, 1547. A brief treatyse 
 settinge forthe divers truthes necessarye to be believed of 
 Christian people also, which are not expressed in scripture, 
 but left to the churche by the apostles' tradition, 1547. A 
 playne declaration made at Oxforde the 24th daye of Julye, 
 upon the retractation, &c., 1547. Defensio celibatus sacer- 
 dotum contra Petrum Martyrum, Paris, 1550. Diatriba de 
 Hominis justificatione contra Petrum Martyrum, Lov., 1550. 
 De missae sacrificio succincta quaedam ennaratio contra 
 Melancthonum. Calvinum et alios, Paris, 1562 ; Lov., 1562. 
 But Dr. Richard Smith preached at Ridley and Latimer's 
 appearance at the fatal stake, and the account given of it in
 
 Frodsham. 227 
 
 Oldmixon's History of England, which substantially agrees 
 with that given by Foxe (II., 540) is as follows: "The man 
 picked out by the Oxford Doctors to insult these Godly 
 Martyrs with a sermon before fire was put to them was 
 Richard Smith, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity ; the 
 same who in the reign of King Edward recanted Popery and 
 preached warmly against it at Saint Paul's Cross ; though A. 
 Wood tells us he was the greatest pillar for the Roman 
 Catholic cause in his time. See what stuff the pillars of it 
 were made of by his performance before the murder of these 
 two Christian Bishops ! His text was, ' If you give the body 
 to be buried, and have not charity, it profiteth nothing.' In 
 proof of this he insisted on the examples of Judas and of a 
 woman in Oxford that of late hanged herself, for that they 
 then might be adjudged righteous who desperately made away 
 with themselves as well as these divines now about to be made 
 away with by their enemies. This is the reasoner who, the 
 same Oxford writer assures us, baffled Peter Martyr, in defence 
 of Papistry against the religion of the Gospel. Then applying 
 his harangue to the two pious bishops in the hands of their 
 butchers, he bade the people beware of them, for they were 
 hereticks, and dy'd out of the Church ; he inveighed against 
 the Reformers for their diversity of opinions, as Lutherans, 
 ^colampadians, Zwinglians ; of which last sect, said Smith, 
 these men are, and that is the worst. In which few words 
 were but two lyes ; the one that the Zwinglians were the 
 worst sect, the other that Bishop Ridley was a Zwinglian. 
 The old Church of Christ, quoth Smith, and the Catholick 
 Faith believed far otherwise. At these words the two bishops 
 lifted their eyes and hands to heaven, calling God to witness 
 to the truth ; the same they did in other parts of this impious 
 discourse." (Oldmixon's Hist, of England, I., 259.) Cranmer 
 from the top of his prison saw a melancholy spectacle, Dr. 
 Smith, his former chaplain, preaching before the two martyr 
 bishops. (Hook's Lives of the Archbishops.) If Richard 
 Smith, the vicar of Frodsham, were the writer of the above 
 and other controversial works, he was the first vicar who was 
 entitled to be styled Beauclerc. The presumption is very 
 
 Q2
 
 228 Frodsham. 
 
 strong that he was the same person, as the vicar, remembering 
 who sat on the throne when he was appointed, and that he had 
 been much before the public, had not been very consistent, and 
 that his last two books were printed respectively at Paris and 
 Louvain, whither, after Elizabeth's accession, he would pro- 
 bably think it prudent to retire. , There was a Richard 
 Smith, S.T.B., who succeeded to the sixth stall at Rochester 
 about 1575. (Le Neve's Fasti, I., 550) ; but he could not have 
 been the vicar of Frodsham. Two entries of burial in the 
 register during this vicar's time call for remark. The first is 
 the burial of John of the Castell, on February 3rd, 1558. 
 The second is the burial of " Edward Stanley, Lord Strandg, 
 on the 4th of February, 1559." If this Edward were the 
 eldest son of Edward, Earl of Derby, at whose death, Camden 
 says, the pattern of true English hospitality died out, we find 
 however no mention of him in the family pedigree, which is 
 wrong, if the register is right. 
 
 (XXI.) A.D. 1567. THOMAS BERNARD, D.D., the next 
 vicar, was presented in the ordinary course by the dean and 
 chapter of Christ Church, whose right to present had for some 
 reason which does not appear, unless it was the Queen's deter- 
 mination to uphold and, if possible, restore Popery, been inter- 
 rupted by the presentation of the last two vicars. Bernard is 
 not said to be presented on the death of Smith, who had pro- 
 bably become an absentee. Dr. Smith, who was the last vicar 
 of Frodsham, and was the first who had written books, does 
 not seem to have been as consistent as he was industrious ; and 
 his zeal, which exploded in publishing the opinions he had last 
 adopted, only served to swell the crowds of books which are 
 written and forgotten. Thomas Bernard, his successor, who 
 was a man of very different views, was born at Castle Morton, 
 in the county of Worcester, and was elected from Eton to 
 King's College, Cambridge, in 1524. He proceeded B.A. in 
 1529-30, and commenced M.A. in 1533. It has been said, 
 perhaps erroneously, that he was subsequently employed by 
 the Dean of Saint Paul's in the capacity of his steward. But 
 by the charter of foundation of Christ Church, Oxford, he was 
 certainly appointed on the 4th of November, 1546, to be one
 
 Frodsham. 229 
 
 of the canons, and he also obtained the vicarage of Pirton, in 
 Oxfordshire, with a grant of the rectory of the same from the 
 Dean and Chapter of Christ Church. In 1547 he occurs as 
 one of the chaplains of Archbishop Cranmer, and in March, 
 1550, had a licence to preach. He was deprived of his prefer- 
 ments and suffered much in the reign of Mary for being a 
 Protestant and a married clerk ; but after the accession of 
 Elizabeth he obtained, on the 22nd of March, 1556-7, restitution 
 of all he had lost, and he died on the 3Oth of November, 1582, 
 and was buried in the churchyard at Pirton. He edited a 
 Latin translation on Tranquillity of Mind, written by his brother, 
 John Bernard, some time Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge. 
 (Athense Cantabrigienses, I., 459, where the writer gives many 
 references to his authorities.) Dr. Bernard, like many others 
 of the clergy, was a pluralist, a bad habit which had survived 
 the Reformation. 
 
 (XXII.) A.D. 1582, Jan. 30. DANIEL BERNARD, D.D., 
 the son of the last vicar, was presented by the dean and 
 chapter on the death of his father. He appears in the first 
 list of Christ Church, which bears date 2Oth February, 1564-5. 
 The list gives merely the names of the officers and students of 
 the college without any particulars. According to Anthony 
 Wood, Daniel Bernard became B.A. 25th June, 1566, and D.D. 
 in 1585. In 1577 he became a canon of Christ Church, as his 
 father had been, and in 1586 he became also Vice-Chancellor 
 of the University. He did not hold the vicarage of Frodsham 
 very long, for he died about the month of September, 1588, 
 and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral. (Information 
 kindly furnished by Colonel Chester and Athenae Cantabrig- 
 ienses, I., 459.) 
 
 (XXIII.) A.D. 1587, June 11. THOMAS DUTTON, the 
 next vicar of Frodsham, came in on the nomination of Randle 
 Dutton and Ralph Dutton, both of them being described as 
 of Overton, yeomen. -Dutton is so evidently a Cheshire 
 name that the new vicar was probably a Frodsham man, for 
 whom his friends had purchased the presentation. The only 
 Thomas Dutton at Oxford at this period matriculated from 
 Alban Hall on the 2Oth of November, 1577, aged 34 [or 24
 
 230 Frodsham. 
 
 the figures are uncertain], as son of a minister of the county of 
 Chester. Anthony Wood does not give his degrees or mention 
 him at all. (Information kindly furnished by Colonel Chester.) 
 Some of the former vicars have come from this neighbourhood, 
 but Vicar Button was distinctly a Frodsham man. The parish 
 registers record at this time that " the church of Frodsham was 
 greatly injured shortly before the year 1589, and that it was 
 then repaired by George Rutter, of Kingsley Hall, gentleman," 
 whose family, it is said, were lineal descendants from the barons 
 of Malpas and the Thorntons of Thornton-le-Moors. It must 
 have been this vicar who committed to the earth, on the I3th 
 of March, 1592, the remains of Thomas Hough, the venerable 
 patriarch of 141 years ; and also buried on the following day 
 the body of Randle Wall, aged 103. On the 26th of June, 
 1 594, Chaderton, Bishop of Chester, gave a charge to the rural 
 deans, in which he enjoined them, within a month after Easter, 
 to give in an account of all wills proved and administrations 
 granted, of all sentences on offenders, and of all complaints 
 against the clergy, curates, and schoolmasters of any neglect of 
 duty. On 2Oth July, 1594, Richard Eaton, clerk, rural dean of 
 Frodsham, appeared before the bishop, and was admonished to 
 perform the above orders ; and because it appeared that the 
 said Richard Eaton had disobeyed the above orders he was 
 suspended from his office. (Horae Dec. Rur., II., 376.) This 
 Richard Eaton was the vicar of Great Budworth, another Christ 
 Church living, and the immediate predecessor of John Ley, who 
 so justly made complaint of the rural deans. On the 6th of 
 July, 1614, Vicar Button resigned the living. 
 
 (XXIV.) A.B. 1614, July 9. THOMAS BICKERTON, the 
 next vicar, who, from his name, would seem to have been a 
 Cheshire man, was appointed by the Bean and Chapter of 
 Christ Church as usual. Buring this vicar's time the Noncon- 
 formist ministers held a monthly spiritual exercise at several 
 Cheshire places, one of which was at Frodsham. (Non- 
 conformity in Cheshire, Pref., p. xi.) Thomas Bickerton 
 matriculated from Brasenose College on the 1 5th of Becember, 
 1592, aged 17, as of the county of Chester, paying the fees of a 
 plebeian's son, but no other particulars are given at this period.
 
 Frodsham. 
 
 231 
 
 (Information of Colonel Chester ; Anthony Wood does not 
 mention him.) 
 
 (XXV.) A.D. 1632. ROWLAND HEYWOOD, D.D., who 
 occurs in the parish register as the next vicar, we presume, 
 came in as usual by the presentation of the Dean and Chapter 
 of Christ Church, Oxford. He matriculated from Christ 
 Church on the I9th of May, 1615, aged 17, as of the county of 
 Worcester, paying the fees of a plebeian's son. (Information 
 of Colonel Chester ; Anthony Wood does not mention him.) 
 He was active in looking after and establishing the parish 
 charities, and he presented a petition, in which he was joined 
 by others, to the Commissioners for Pious Uses, in which he 
 showed that several legacies, amounting to four score pounds 
 and upwards, had been bequeathed to the parish for pious uses, 
 but that the money could not be employed accordingly, because 
 those who held it would neither pay the stock nor any interest. 
 A list of the several legacies was made out and an inquisition 
 was taken thereon on the 3ist of March, 1640. (Harl. MSS., 
 II., 572, 1994.) Soon after this, according to Walker (in his 
 Sufferings of the Clergy), he began to be much harassed by 
 the opponents of his ministry ; and in 1645 their opposition 
 proved so strong, and the public ferment was so great, that he 
 was compelled to retire from the living, when a new minister 
 was irregularly intruded into it. He continued vicar, how- 
 ever, until the King's return, and in 1661 he resigned the 
 living. 
 
 (XXVI.) A.D. 1645, 1646, 1647, 1648. SAMUEL BOWDEN, 
 who first intruded upon Dr. Heywood, and thus leaped, as it 
 were, into the fold, was a Presbyterian minister, and he became 
 in the first of these years quasi Vicar of Frodsham. While he 
 was minister 25 a year from the great tithes of Frodsham, ol 
 which Earl Rivers was the lessee under Christ Church College, 
 was sequestered, and was ordered to be paid to the minister 
 of Whitegate. In January, 1647, it was further ordered that 
 40 per annum out of the surplus of the same great tithes 
 should be paid to increase the maintenance of the minister to 
 be appointed to the church of Baddiley, near Nantwich. (Order 
 book for payment to plundered ministers quoted in " Noncon-
 
 232 Frodsham. 
 
 formity in Cheshire," p. 476.) Neither of the above payments 
 affected the small tithes, which, it is presumed, went towards 
 the maintenance of Mr. Bowden. Between 1644 and 1648 
 Henry Newcome, a man well worthy of remembrance, came 
 for many weeks to Frodsham every Saturday to teach and 
 preach there on the following day. (Nonconformity in Cheshire, 
 205.) Samuel Bowden signed the attestation of the Cheshire 
 ministry, which was called the Harmonious Consent, in 1648, 
 but he refused to sign the engagement, and in consequence was 
 compelled to retire. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE VICARS. 
 
 (Continued). 
 
 (XXVII.) A.D. 1649-1651. JAMES COCKAYNE, the next 
 minister who came in, was an Anabaptist, and he succeeded to 
 the vicarage as irregularly as his Presbyterian predecessor had 
 done. He came in by reason of Mr. Bowden's refusing to 
 take the engagement, which was a sort of oath to be 
 faithful to the Commonwealth, as then established, without 
 either a King or a House of Lords, by which it was 
 meant to exclude both Presbyterians and Royalists. Mr. 
 Cockayne held the living until the Restoration, but it is a 
 mistake to say that he was ejected under the Bartholomew 
 Act. For Dr. Heywood, who had thus been twice intruded 
 upon, continued to be the vicar until 1661, when he resigned, 
 and the Dean and Chapter made a new appointment. In 
 1649, Henry Newcome, in his diary, under 3Oth of January, 
 writes thus : " The news of the King's death came to me 
 when I was at Goosetree, and it put a general sadness upon 
 us all. It dejected me, much the horridness of the fact, and 
 much indisposed me for the service of the Sabbath next after 
 the news came." (Ib.) A " J. Cockayne," doubtless the above
 
 Frodsham. 233 
 
 James, wrote " England's Troubles Anatomized. London, 
 1644." (Watt's Bibliotheca, sub voce.) In 1656, there was a 
 great and very excited meeting at Blackfriars, of ministers and 
 Fifth Monarchy men, of whom Harrison, in Scott's " Wood- 
 stock," was a type, and of others, all of whom were dissatisfied 
 with the government. Mr. Cockayne, a minister, would have 
 spoken, but he was held back and prevented. (Congregational 
 History, 554.) And at another meeting, held in 1682, Mr. 
 Cockayne would again have spoken, but he was again pre- 
 vented. (Ib. 6 1 6.) It seems probable that both these entries 
 refer to Mr. Cockayne, the intruded vicar of Frodsham, who 
 was a contentious man with very advanced opinions. During 
 Mr. Cockayne's stay at Frodsham, the Society of Friends 
 numbered a few members of their society in the place. 
 
 (XXVIII.) A.D. 1661, May soth THEOPHILUS COOKE, 
 M.A., was presented by the Dean and Chapter of Christ 
 Church, in the regular way upon the resignation of Dr. 
 Heywood, the former vicar, whose office had been success- 
 ively intruded upon, first by Bowden the Presbyterian, and 
 then by Cockayne, the Anabaptist minister. Theophilus 
 Cooke, who was the son of Thomas Cooke, of Codridge, in 
 Worcestershire, matriculated from New College, on the nth 
 of December, 1640, aged 15, paying the fees of a plebeian's son. 
 (Information of Colonel Chester ; Wood does not mention 
 him.) Theophilus Cooke, in 1666, held the prebend of With- 
 ington Parva, in Hereford Cathedral, he was collated to 
 the prebend of Basham, in the same Cathedral, on the 28th of 
 January, 1679, and he died in 1684. (Le Neve's Fasti, I., 
 496.) 
 
 (XXIX.) A.D., 1663, August 3rd. JOHN DAVIS, A.M., 
 whose name occurs in the parish register, it is presumed, was 
 presented by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, as usual. 
 Davis was a common name at Oxford at this time, but the 
 vicar was probably a John Davis, who entered Christ Church 
 as a servitor, on ist of April, 1666, and was B.A., on the 28th of 
 October, 1659 ; the register gives no further particulars of him. 
 (Information kindly furnished by Colonel Chester.) On 
 February 8th, 1665, Edward Tippynges agreed with John
 
 234 Frodsham. 
 
 " Davy " (sic) vicar of Frodsham, to pay him xvs. in lieu of all 
 tithes for the tenement in his occupation. (Harl. MSS., II., 
 2128, 20.) On June ist, 18 Car. II. (1656), there was a suit in 
 the Exchequer at Chester, between Richard Nangreave, com- 
 plainant, and John Davis, Vicar of Frodsham, concerning the 
 tithes of a messuage and lands called Woodhouses, within the 
 limits of the parish of Frodsham. (Cheshire Records, Patents, 
 Charles II.) Suits about tithes, once so prevalent but now 
 happily obsolete, were beginning to be rife in the time of Vicar 
 Davis. But besides suits there were troubles such as those 
 which the poet Cowper describes as occurring at Stock, in 
 Essex, when, speaking of the vicar, he says 
 
 This priest he merry is and blithe 
 
 Three quarters of a year ; 
 But oh ! it cuts him like a scythe, 
 
 When tithing time draws near. 
 
 He then is full of fright and fears, 
 
 As one at point to die ; 
 And long before the day appears, 
 
 He heaves up many a sigh. 
 
 And then, speaking of the tithe-payers, he says 
 
 One talks of milddew and of frost, 
 
 And one of storms of hail, 
 And one of pigs that he has lost 
 
 By maggots at the tail. 
 
 But during Vicar Davis's time also another dispute took place, 
 in which the vicar could hardly help taking part, and of which 
 the following account is extracted from the Cheshire Sheaf: 
 " The country parish of Frodsham had its ups and downs of 
 religious controversy in the i/th century, like its more stirring 
 and populous neighbours ; but there it would appear that the 
 old church pulpit was the bone of contention between the two 
 great factions. The High Churchmen of Charles the First's 
 days had lovingly placed their rostrum on the north side of the 
 church. The Puritans, when they got possession, apparently 
 for mere perverseness' sake, shifted it to the south side ; and 
 thus, when the ball rolled round once more, and ' the King 
 had got his own again,' the loyalty of the Frodshamers came
 
 Frodsham. 235 
 
 hotly to the front, and the result, as recorded in the Bishop's 
 Registrar's Books at Chester, was 'An Order for the removeing 
 of ye Pulpit in ffrodsham church, which appears to be the 
 North Pillar. To the Vicar and Churchwardens of ffrodsham 
 in the County and Diocese of Chester, George, L'd Bishop 
 of Chester, sendeth Greetinge. Wheras the Pulpit of the 
 Parish Church of ffrodsham aforesaid was, in time of the late 
 Rebellion, without any lawfull Authority remooved from its 
 ancient place, where 'twas sett by order, vnto another place 
 never allowed nor approved of by the Ordinary. Therefore I 
 the said Bishop doe require you, the said Vicar and Church- 
 wardens, forthwith to remoove, or cause to be removed, the 
 sayd Pulpit from the Place where now it standeth without 
 order, to the Place where it formerly stood by order, which 
 appears to be the North Pillar. As you will answer the contrary. 
 Given under my Hand and Scale, this I2th day of November, in 
 the yeare of our Lord God, 1664. Geo: Cestriens.' And there 
 is this certificate 'vpon ye removal of ye Pulpit abovesaid.' 
 ' Wee, the Vicar and Churchwardens of the Parish Church of 
 ffrodsham, Whose names are subscribed, In obedience to the 
 order of the Lord Bishop of Chester, abouewritten, Caused 
 the Pulpit to be removed from the South Pillar of the Church 
 to the Place where it formerly stood fixed, at a Pillar on the 
 North side of the middle Alley in the body of the said 
 church, where anciently by order it stood. Witness our hands 
 the fifth day of November, 1665. J. Davie, Vic. Thomas 
 Guest Edward Johnson, Gard.' " And it appears from the 
 following entry, which the editor of the new edition of 
 Ormerod's History of Cheshire has furnished, that the pulpit 
 was removed to its old place : " Spent uppon the joyners 
 and other workmen when they removed and sett upp againe 
 
 the pulpitt oo : 01 : 04." Edward Savage, of 
 
 Frodsham, and Mr. John Button, sen., of Kingsley, gent, 
 being then wardens. Before we leave Vicar Davis we may 
 draw attention to the notice of a house in the parish which 
 during his time was frequently visited by a great divine and 
 scripture commentator : " At Mickledale, near Frodsham/ 
 where that good man and great divine, Matthew Henry, was in
 
 236 Frodsham. 
 
 the habit of visiting, there may still be read over the door of a 
 part of the building where he preached (now, alas ! desecrated 
 and turned into a cowhouse) the following inscription in 
 ancient but legible characters : 
 
 * ED : WARD f BUS : HELL * 
 xix6x x 8x 5x. 
 
 This vicar must have buried Margaret Knowles, of Helsby, 
 another parish centenarian, who died, as the register informs 
 us, in 1695, and was buried at the age of 107 years. John 
 Davis, A.M., was collated to the prebend of Vaynol by the 
 Bishop of Saint Asaph, on 29th May, 1697, v ^ ce Maurice, 
 resigned. (Le Neve's Fasti, I., 86.) The time of this date 
 seems to accord very well with the long-lived Vicar of Frod- 
 sham. A few of the monuments in the church which were 
 put up in his time are subjoined. Formerly inscribed on a 
 brass was this : 
 
 Hie Jacet 
 
 Ricardus Heath 
 
 Oui obiit i6 mo Martii, 1665. 
 
 ^Etatis suse 54. 
 
 (Helsby 's Ormerod, II., 55.) Formerly on a brass : 
 Here lyeth the body of 
 
 Henry Ardern, 
 
 A son of Rafe Ardern of Harden, in the 
 
 County of Chester, Esq., who married Frances, 
 
 Dau. to Lennox Beverley of Huntington, 
 
 Esq. ; he died 2 May, 1672, leaving issue 
 
 A son John and a dau. Elizabeth. 
 
 Arms, three cross crosslets fitche" a chief. (Helsby's Ormerod, 
 II., 55.) On a brass : 
 
 Hie jacet 
 
 Randolph Helsby 
 
 De Kingsley gentn, 
 
 Obt. 25 Sept., Anno Dni. 
 
 1696. ^Etat 78. 
 
 Arms, a saltire, impaling a chevron between three garbs.
 
 Frodsham. 237 
 
 Crest, a demi-lion, double cued. In the dexter paw a cross of 
 Saint George. In the sinister paw a cross of Saint Andrew. 
 The saltire and the Saint Andrew's cross seem allusive to 
 Saint Andrew, to whom the Helsby chantry was dedicated. 
 (Helsby's Ormerod, II., 55.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE VICARS. 
 
 ( Continued.) 
 
 (XXX.) A.D. 1708, July 7. MOSES HUGHES, A.M., was 
 presented by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church on the 
 death of Davis. He matriculated from Christ Church 4th 
 May, 1688, being then eighteen, as the son of Henry Hughes, 
 of Shrewsbury, paying the fees of a plebeian's son. He was 
 B.A. 2nd of April, 1690. Matthew Henry, the commentator, 
 in his diary under August 9, 1709, says as follows : "Went to 
 Frodsham ; preached on Ecclesiastes, ix., 10 ; an encouraging 
 auditory ; dined at Mrs. Banner's. March 14, 1710, preached 
 the lecture at Frodsham, Ps. iv., I. September 12, preached 
 the lecture at Frodsham, on Ps. iv., 2 ; expounded Matthew, 
 xii. ; called on Samuel Bennet not well ; complaints of Mr. 
 John Wood, their minister. August 14, 1711, went to Frod- 
 sham ; preached on Ps. iv., 5 ; met with Mr. Dutton. October 
 9, went to Frodsham ; expounded John, iv. ; preached on Ps. 
 iv., 6, 7." These entries indicate the existence of a Noncon- 
 formist congregation in Frodsham, with a stated minister. 
 (Nonconformity in Cheshire, 45 1, 2.) 
 
 (XXXI.) A.D. 1711, Oct. 16. BENJAMIN WOODROOFE, 
 A.M., was presented by the Dean and Chapter of Christ 
 Church after the death of Moses Hughes, the late vicar, who 
 had only held the living of Frodsham three years. The 
 vicar matriculated from Gloucester Hall, now Worcester 
 College, Oxford, on I4th February, 1693-4, aged ten (sic),
 
 238 Frodsham. 
 
 son of Benjamin Woodroofe, of Gresham College, London, 
 paying the fees of a doctor's son. He was B.A. I7th of 
 December, 1697, and M.A. 2nd of July, 1700. The name is 
 not a common one, but the vicar's father was probably the 
 doctor of the same name who was a D.D., canon of Christ 
 Church, and principal of Gloucester Hall. (Information of 
 Colonel Chester.) Benjamin Woodroofe, the father, was pre- 
 bendary of Oxford in 1672 ; and on the 8th December, 1688, 
 he was nominated by the King Dean of Christ Church, but he 
 does not appear ever to have been installed. He died in 171 1, 
 and was buried in Saint Bartholomew's Church, London. (Le 
 Neve's Fasti, II., 513.) He was a very voluminous writer of 
 books from 1659 to 1706, of which the following list is given 
 in Watt's Bibliotheca. But there is some doubt whether the 
 vicar was not the author of a few of the later works. (Watt's 
 Bibliotheca, sub nomine.) His first work was a Treatise on 
 Simeon's Song, published by T. Woodroofe, London, 1659. 
 In 1679 he wrote a sermon on Ps. xi., 3. In 1683 a sermon 
 on Job, iii., 8. At Oxford, in 1685, he was joint editor with 
 R. Abendana, a Jew, in a translation of the English Common 
 Prayer into Portuguese. At Oxford, in 1700, he published a 
 defence of the Reformation and the Reformers against the 
 calumnies "Contra Calumnias Franc. Foris Okokocci," in the 
 book which he calls An Examination of the Reform made by 
 Luther and his companion since 1517. In the same year he 
 published at Oxford a sermon on Tim., vi., 17-19. In 1702 he 
 published a letter from a member of the House of Commons to 
 a member of the University. In the same year, at Oxford, he 
 published a work on the seventy weeks of Daniel, ix., 24-27. 
 In 1703 he published at Oxford a thanksgiving sermon on 
 Ps. iii., i. In 1704 he published at Oxford, in Greek, two 
 dialogues avrapm scripturarum. In 1706 he published at 
 Oxford a sermon on Ps. xviii. About the same time he 
 published the case of Gloucester Hall, rectifying the false 
 state thereof; and the case of Worcester College as it was 
 represented to the House of Commons. It must have been in 
 this vicar's time that the Parish Church of Frodsham stood in 
 great need of repair, and was extensively repaired in the
 
 Frodskam. 239 
 
 course of the i8th century ; for in the book of briefs there is 
 one " for building the Parish Church of Frodsham, in Cheshire, 
 a very large and ancient fabric near the sea ;" and when 
 this brief was read in the church of Saint John the Baptist at 
 Mayatt, in Kent, on the 26th of July, 1724, the sum collected 
 was only 2s. yd. (Hist. Ches., Helsby's ed., II., 64, in notis.) 
 The following monuments were put up in the church in this 
 vicar's time. Against the second pillar, on the south side 
 from the altar, was a marble monument inscribed 
 
 M.S. 
 Underneath lies interred the body of 
 
 Robert Hyde, 
 Of Cattenhall, Esquire. 
 
 He married Eleanor, 
 
 The daughter of John Mather of Chester, gent., 
 
 By whom he had one son and five daughters, 
 
 Who all survived him, except 
 
 The youngest daughter. 
 
 He was a loving husband, 
 
 An indulgent father, 
 
 A faithful friend, an honest man, 
 
 A true son of the Church of England. 
 
 He lived well beloved, 
 
 And died much lamented, 
 
 Feb. 24, A.D. 1715. 
 
 Of his age 36. 
 
 Arms : Azure a chevron between three lozenges or for Hyde 
 impaling party per fesse argent, seme'e of trefoils slipped sable, 
 and ermine on a fesse wavy, azure between three lions rampant 
 or a bough of a tree ragule vert for Mather. The Cattenhall 
 here mentioned is the place often spoken of in previous parts 
 of this work. 
 
 (XXXII.) A.D. 1725, Aug. 14. THOMAS ROBERTS, A.M., 
 was the next vicar of Frodsham presented by the Dean and 
 Chapter of Christ Church after the death of Woodroofe, the late 
 vicar. He was the son of Thomas Roberts, gentleman, of 
 Crowell, Oxon, and matriculated from Christ Church on the
 
 240 Frodsham. 
 
 1 7th of June, 1707, aged 19. He was B.A. 23rd of April, 1711, 
 and M.A. I7th of March, 1713. (Information of Colonel 
 Chester.) In his time the church-bells were recast, but his 
 name does not occur upon them, though the bell-founder and 
 the churchwardens are there, which they took care not to omit, 
 and thus to commend them to posterity. 
 
 (XXXIII). A.D. 1740, July 22. FRANCIS GASTRELL, 
 A.M., was presented by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church 
 on the death of Thomas Roberts, the late vicar. He was the 
 son of Peregrine Gastrell, of Slapton, in the county of North- 
 ampton, esquire. He matriculated from Christ Church on the 
 I4th of December, 1721, aged 14. He was B.A. loth of July, 
 1725, and M.A. i6th of May, 1728. (Information of Colonel 
 Chester.) The vicar bore the same names as the eminent 
 prelate who compiled the Notitia Cestriensis, the most valuable 
 record of his diocese, and died Bishop of Chester in 1726. 
 There seems to have been also a Peregrine Gastrell, one of the 
 rural deans of the county, but not the rural dean of Frodsham, 
 who wrote a work on spme parts of the ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion. (Horse Decanicae Rurales, II., 38.) When Vicar Gastrell 
 took the living, the vicarage house, which stood then, as it had 
 stood for ages and stands now, a good bow shot from the 
 church, being but a mean building and in need of restoration, 
 was enlarged, amended, and improved by the new vicar. 
 While he was vicar, Mr. Gastrell bought New Place, a house 
 of Shakspere's at Stratford-upon-Avon. In its garden there 
 grew the famous mulberry tree which the poet's hand had 
 planted, and which crowds of pilgrims visited with reverence ; 
 but Mr. Gastrell, be it said with pity, neither sympathized with 
 the worshipping pilgrims nor had the patience to tolerate their 
 worship, and he wantonly and ruthlessly pulled down the poet's 
 house and cut down the honoured tree, and by it left a stain 
 upon the Gastrell name. (Gents. Mag., 61, p. 1159.) The 
 vicar married at Aston chapel, on the 2ist of May, 1752, Jane, 
 the daughter of Sir Thomas Aston, baronet. It was in Vicar 
 Gastrell's time that the Banner epitaph was put up in Frodsham 
 church, which, but for that which follows it and which we give 
 from another place, might have been thought unique :
 
 Frodsham. 241 
 
 Near this place lies the body of Peter Banner, car- 
 penter, who died of a dropsy, Oct. 21, 1749, aged 50. 
 In 33 months he was tapped 58 times, and had 1032 
 quarts of water taken from him. 
 
 There is in Bunhill Fields an epitaph which resembles this : 
 
 Here lies dame Mary Page, relict of Sir Gregory Page, 
 bart. She departed this life on Mar. 4, 1728, in the 56 
 year of her age. In 67 months she was tapped 66 times, 
 and had taken away 240 gallons of water, without ever 
 repining at her case or ever fearing its operation. 
 
 The vicar and his wife both died at Frodsham, and we give the 
 inscriptions placed over them. Mrs. Gastrell left a benefaction 
 of ;io a year to the Warrington Clergy Charity : 
 
 Near this place 
 Lies the body of 
 Francis Gastrell, 
 Late vicar of Frodsham, 
 Who departed this life 
 
 5th April, 1772. 
 
 And the body of Jane his wife, 
 
 Who departed this life 
 
 The 30th Oct., 1791, 
 
 In the 8 ist year of her age. 
 
 (XXXIV.) A.D. 1753. WILLIAM JONES, styled the 
 Reverend William Jones, late fellow of Wadham College, 
 Oxford, was officiating at Frodsham at this time, but it would 
 seem from the appointment of the next yicar, that he could 
 only have been Mr. Gastrell's locum tenens. Amongst the 
 numerous writers of his name, the following, which is given in 
 Watt's Bibliotheca, would seem from the dates to be from the 
 pen of the above locum tenens at Frodsham : " William 
 Jones, F.R.S., a venerable and pious divine of the Church of 
 England, was born in Northumberland in 1726, and died in 
 
 R
 
 242 Frodsham. 
 
 1800. In 1753 he wrote an answer to Bishop Clayton's essay 
 on the Spirit. In 1756 he wrote The Catholic Doctrine of 
 the Trinity, proved by above a hundred short and clear 
 arguments, expressed in the terms of Holy Scripture, compared 
 after a manner entirely new ; to which is prefixed an address 
 to the reader on the necessity of faith in the true God ; to 
 which is added a letter to the common people in answer to 
 some popular arguments against the Trinity. In 1762 he 
 wrote an essay on the first principles of Natural Philosophy. 
 Besides the above, he was the author of numerous other works 
 down to the year 1792, of which a complete list will be found 
 in Watt's Bibliotheca." In Lyson's "Cheshire" (p. 381), it is 
 said the ancient family of the Frodshams, after a continuance of 
 more than twenty generations, became extinct by the death of 
 Peter Frodsham, esquire, in 1760. 
 
 (XXXV.) A.D. 1722, July 14. GEORGE VILLIERS, A.M., 
 was presented by the Dean and Chapter of Oxford, on the 
 death of Francis Gastrell, the late vicar. The vicar's two 
 names are very common in the two noble families of Claren- 
 don and Jersey ; but if he were connected with either of them 
 it must have been remotely, for he was the son of the Rev. 
 George Villiers, of Chalgrove (the field where Hampden met 
 his death), in Oxfordshire. The vicar matriculated from 
 Christ Church the 2nd of July, 1742, aged 17. He was B.A. 
 the 22nd of April, 1746, and M.A. the 5th of June, 1749. 
 (Information of Colonel Chester.) This vicar having died 
 a young man, held the living but a very short time, as 
 this monumental inscription on a blue stone near the altar 
 shows : 
 
 M. S. 
 
 Of George Villiers, A.M., 
 
 kate Vicar of Frodsham, 
 
 Obt. June 24, A.S. 1774, 
 
 jEtatis 30. (Qy. 50.) 
 
 Some memorials of the Ashley family, which begin about this 
 time, are inserted here from Mr. Helsby's Ormerod, on a 
 tombstone at the west end of the south aisle :
 
 Frodsham. 243 
 
 Infra requiescunt 
 
 Cineres Danielis Ashley, Gent., 
 
 Qui obiit I2mo. kal. Augti., A.S. 1764, 
 
 ALtatis suae 60. 
 
 De illius vitae morum ratione, 
 
 Dicat Fama Superstes, 
 
 Robertus films, 
 
 Hoc qualecunque monumentum 
 
 Suae in parentem pietatis posuit 
 
 Juxta parentis cineres requiescunt reliquiae, 
 
 Margaritas, 
 
 Ejusdem Danielis Ashley filiae dilectae, 
 
 Quse mortem obiit vi. kal. Oct., 
 
 A.S. MDCCLXXIV., 
 
 ALtatis xvii. 
 
 Infra quoque jacet 
 
 MARGARITA, 
 
 Conjux ejus amantissima, 
 
 Animam efflavit x. kal. Feb., 
 
 A.S. MDCCLXXXV. 
 
 Franciscus Ashley, 
 
 Filius ejusdem hie etiam requiescit, 
 
 Qui supremum vitae reddidit spiritum, 
 
 v. kal. Feb. 
 A.S. MDCCCXIX. jEtat LXVI. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE VICARS. 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 (XXXVI.) A.D. 1774, Oct. 19. JOHN CLEAVER, A.M., 
 the next vicar, was appointed by the Dean and Chapter of 
 Christ Church, after the death of the late Vicar Villiers. John 
 Cleaver was the son of the Reverend William Cleaver, of 
 
 R2
 
 244 Frodsham. 
 
 Banbury, in Oxfordshire. He matriculated from Christ 
 Church, on the nth of June, 1754, aged 17. He became B.A, 
 on the I3th of April, 1758, and M.A. on the 4th of June, 1761. 
 (Information of Colonel Chester.) In the I7th century, there 
 was a William Cleaver, a schoolmaster, and a John Cleaver, a 
 clergyman, both of them authors, and from one or both of 
 them, John Cleaver, the vicar of Frodsham, and William 
 Cleaver, who, in 1787, became bishop of Chester, were probably 
 descended. John Cleaver, the vicar of Frodsham, on the 25th 
 of April, 1775, was elected prebendary of Chester, vice Roger 
 Mostyn, deceased. (Le Neve's Fasti, III., 272.) The succes- 
 sion of vicars of Frodsham at this time seems to have been 
 unaccountably rapid. The late vicar Villiers only held the 
 living two years, and before another two years had expired, 
 vicar Cleaver was no more. 
 
 (XXXVII.) A.D. 1776. WILLIAM EMANUEL PAGE, 
 A.M., was presented by the dean and chapter on the death 
 of the late Vicar Cleaver. William Page (whose second name 
 seems to have been adopted subsequently) was the son of 
 John Page, of Oporto, in Portugal, esquire. He matriculated 
 from Christ Church (elected from St. Peter's College, West- 
 minster) 29th May, 1755, aged 18, was B.A. 1759, and M.A. 
 23rd March, 1762. (Information of Colonel Chester.) On 
 2Oth December, 1796, he was appointed Prebendary of Chester, 
 vice Richard Jackson. (Le Neve's Fasti, III., 272.) The 
 vicar is believed to have been descended from Hugo le Page, 
 who was owner of the manor of Eardshaw, in the county of 
 Chester, and a descendant of one of the family who was 
 bailiff of Drakelow in the reign of Edward III. John Page, 
 esquire, sold the manor of Eardshaw to Sir Henry Delves. 
 (Lyson's Hist. Ches., 77.) It is to be regretted that the monu- 
 mental tablet which formerly commemorated this vicar is now 
 too much obliterated to be read. In Vicar Page's time there 
 is a notice in the register of an earthquake which then 
 occurred, and of which it is desirable to give some particulars. 
 The parish register, which records of it .that it occurred on the 
 1 4th September, 1777, says: "There was an earthquake at 
 Wigan, Warrington, Northwich, Aston Chapel, and several
 
 Frodsham. 245 
 
 other places, but not perceived at Frodsham. It happened on 
 Sunday, in the forenoon, at eleven o'clock, which caused many 
 people to crowd out of the churches in great surprise, doing 
 damage in several places. A noise like the running of a 
 coach was heard shortly before the shock." This earthquake 
 was also felt at Chorley (co. Lane.), and so alarmed the 
 congregation that they fled out of the church, forgetting that 
 no place could be more fit in which to meet a calamity that 
 threatened the district. (Hist. Lane.) On the i8th March, 
 1843, after an interval of about 66 years, the shock of another 
 earthquake was felt in this neighbourhood. Do these pheno- 
 mena observe cycles and occur at regular intervals, like 
 comets and some other variations of nature ? We give some 
 further particulars of what occurred in 1777, which have been 
 lately communicated by Mr. J. E. Bailey to the Cheshire 
 Sheaf. Bishop Porteus is the author of the following scarce 
 tract : " A letter to the Inhabitants of Manchester, Maccles- 
 field, and the Adjacent Parts, on occasion of the late Earth- 
 quake in those Places. By the Right Reverend the Lord 
 Bishop of Chester. Chester : Printed by J. Poole, Foregate- 
 street." 8vo, pp. 24. Dated October 10, 1777, and signed 
 " B. Chester." He alludes to the recent date of his relation of 
 diocesan to the neighbourhood. This earthquake occurred 
 on Sunday, September 14, 1777, at eleven o'clock in the fore- 
 noon. Two or three shocks were felt, which particularly 
 threw the congregations of the churches and chapels of Man- 
 chester into the greatest confusion. The Manchester Mercury 
 describes the area affected by the phenomenon : " We have 
 received intelligence from the country round about, and find 
 that the villages in this neighbourhood were affected in much 
 the same manner, and that at Preston, Warrington, Wigan, 
 Chapel-le-frith, Macclesfield, Stockport, Chatesworth, Mot- 
 tram, Staley-Bridge, Knutsford, Middleton, and Ashton-under- 
 Lyne the shocks were as violent and attended with nearly the 
 same effect as here." The earthquake is also described in a 
 MS. diary of a local farmer named Poole, a document now in 
 the Free Library, Manchester. He writes under the datejof 
 September 14 : "Fair and very fine, wind east, but very mild
 
 246 Frodsham. % 
 
 and hot. At a few minutes before eleven I was attending 
 Divine service in Middleton Church, just as the Rev. Mr. 
 Ashton was making prayer in the pulpit prior to the text, 
 when a most sudden and violent trembling of the floor, which 
 encreasing shooke the whole fabrick in a terrible manner, so 
 that the church was expected to fall into the churchyard. It 
 lasted about ten seconds in all." The subject also gave rise 
 to the publication of the following anonymous tract: "Obser- 
 vations and Reflections on the late Earthquake, or more 
 properly called an Airquake, which happened in this town and 
 neighbourhood on Sunday, the I4th September, 1777, and an 
 attempt to investigate the causes of these dreaded harbingers 
 of Divine vengeance to mankind, by a gentleman of the town." 
 There is an old and true proverb that the glory of children 
 are their fathers ; but the Vicar Page occupied a place between 
 the right to boast both of his ancestry and his descendants, 
 and his right to the latter will appear from the following 
 portion of the pedigree of his descendants, contained in 
 Colonel Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers (page 91), 
 which show that some of those born at Frodsham rose to 
 honour: 1 80 1, July 5, Mary Harriett, daughter of the Rev. 
 William Page and Mary his wife, born June ist. The father, 
 the eldest son of the Rev. William Emanuel Page, rector of 
 Frodsham, county of Chester, by Jane Bell, his wife, was 
 born at Frodsham i8th February, 1778. He matriculated at 
 Oxford from Christ Church (elected from St. Peter's College, 
 Westminster), 3rd June, 1795, and was B.A. nth April, 1799, 
 M.A. 4th February, 1802, B.D. 2Oth May, 1809, D.D. I2th May, 
 1815. He was vicar of Willan, Bucks, from 25th February, 1806, 
 until his death. In 1812 he became Vicar of Steventon, Berks, 
 and rector of Nunburnholme, co. York, but he resigned both in 
 1817, and took the rectory of Quainton, Berks. He was also 
 sub-almoner to the Archbishop of York. He became second 
 master of Westminster School in 1802, and head master in 
 1814. He died at Oxford, 2Oth September, 1819, and was 
 buried on the 25th, in Christ Church Cathedral. The mother, 
 who was the daughter of Thomas Davies, of Bicester, county 
 of Oxford, surgeon, by Hannah Turner, his wife, was born
 
 Frodsham. 247 
 
 25th August, 1780. She was married at. St. Margaret's, 
 Westminster, I2th August, 1803. She died I2th May, 1820, 
 and was buried at Steeple Aston, county of Oxford. This 
 daughter, their eldest child, was married at St. Margaret's, 
 Westminster, 2Oth May, 1828, to the Right Rev. Christopher 
 Lipscombe, Bishop of Jamaica, to whom she was second 
 wife. He died 4th April, 1843, an ^ was buried in Jamaica. 
 She died at Brighton, I4th February, 1860, and was buried 
 at Hove, near that place. See the baptisms of her brothers 
 and sisters 9 Oct., 1805; I2 Feb., 1807; 10 May, 1808; 
 21 Sept., 1809 ; i April, 1811 ; 9 July, 1812 ; 10 Feb., 1814; 
 13 April, 1816; 10 March, 1818; and the burials of her 
 brothers and sisters 15 Nov., 1817; 14 Feb., 1823 ; 15 Dec., 
 1850. The Vicar of Frodsham, in 1791, must have buried, as 
 the register informs us, Thomas Blean, of Norley, a cente- 
 narian aged 1 02. 
 
 (XXXVIII.) A.D. 1801. CHARLES SAWKINS, M.A., 
 the next vicar, was presented by the dean and chapter on 
 the death of Mr. Page, the late vicar. He was the son of 
 James Sawkins, gentleman, of Lyminge, in the county of 
 Kent. He matriculated from Christ Church I5th October, 
 1774, aged 16. He was B.A. 4th July, 1778, and M.A. 
 loth July, 1781. (Information of Colonel Chester.) On 4th 
 March, 1801, he was appointed Prebendary of Chester, vice 
 Page deceased. (Le Neve's Fasti, III., 272.) Vicar Sawkins had 
 made botany his study from his early years, and as early as 
 the year 1775 he wrote a beautiful Latin poem called "Ars 
 Botanica," in praise of his favourite pursuit, and in the same 
 year his poem was recited in the Oxford Schools, and the 
 Chancellor's prize was awarded to him for it. When Mr. 
 Sawkins came to Frodsham no noxious gases had polluted 
 the air or affected the beautiful flora which adorned the 
 neighbourhood, and he had a good opportunity, of which he 
 did not fail to avail himself, of enriching his hortns siccus and 
 enlarging his knowledge of this branch of nature's beautiful 
 creation. This helped him in two ways : it made him a con- 
 stant resident on his living and brought him into frequent 
 contact with his parishioners in every part of the parish. He
 
 248 Frodsham. 
 
 made many personal friends, some of whose descendants still 
 compliment his memory by bearing his second name as one 
 of their Christian names. He lies buried at Frodsham, with 
 this modest inscription on a blue stone facing the altar : 
 
 Sacred 
 To the memory of the Reverend 
 
 Charles Sawkins, M.A., 
 
 Prebendary of Chester, and 
 
 For seventeen years the learned 
 
 And faithful vicar of this 
 
 Parish. He died on the 6th of 
 
 April, 1818, in the 59th year 
 
 Of his age. 
 
 (Helsby's Ormerod, II., 55.) 
 
 (XXXIX.) A.D. 1818. JOHN FANSHAWE, M.A., the 
 next vicar, was presented by the Dean and Chapter of Christ 
 Church upon the death of the late vicar, Mr. Sawkins. The 
 new vicar, who was the son of John Fanshawe, gentleman, of 
 the city of Westminster, matriculated from Christ Church on 
 the 2 1st of December, 1790, aged 17; became B.A. 23rd of 
 February, 1795, and M.A. 7th of December, 1797. (Informa- 
 tion of Colonel Chester.) Only two authors of this name 
 appear in Watt's Bibliotheca. One of these was Sir Thomas 
 Fanshawe, a lawyer, who in 1658, during the interregnum, 
 wrote a work on the Practice of the Court of Exchequer 
 (Athene Cantabrigienses, II., 295) and some other ephemeral 
 works on the law, which have long since floated down the 
 stream of time and left no mark behind them. The other 
 author of the name was the Right Honourable Sir Richard 
 Fanshawe, knight, a statesman and a poet, who was born in 
 Hereford in 1608, and died in 1666. He translated Guarini's 
 Pastor Fido and Camoens' Lusiad, and also wrote a number of 
 additional poems. Besides these authors there was also a John 
 Fanshawe, D.D., who in December, 1735, was appointed Greek 
 professor at Oxford, and on the 2Oth of October, 1741, was also 
 appointed Regius Professor of Divinity in the same University, 
 and died in 1762. (Le Neve's Fasti, III., 510.) The Greek
 
 Frodsham. 249 
 
 and divinity professor appears to have left behind him no 
 trace of authorship ; and although we have not been able to 
 trace the new vicar's relationship to any of those we have 
 mentioned, yet the name is not a common one, and he 
 probably might have claimed his descent from some of these 
 Fanshawes. The new vicar, who seems to have resided princi- 
 pally at Dagenham, at or near which place perhaps he held 
 another benefice, was very seldom at Frodsham, where the 
 parish duty however was well supplied by his curates, of whom 
 he had in succession several good men among whom were Mr. 
 Shakespear, Mr. Turner (afterwards Vicar of Lancaster), Mr. 
 M'lver (afterwards rector of Lymm), and the Rev. Richard 
 Greenall (afterwards Archdeacon of Chester). But although 
 the wants of the parish were thus attended to, such a circum- 
 stance as the vicar's continued absence was an evil which 
 would not be allowed to occur now. Before Mr. Fanshawe 
 became vicar Mr. and Mrs. Allen, the father and mother of 
 the Right Reverend Joseph Allen, Lord Bishop of Ely, had 
 come to reside at the Castle Park in Frodsham, where both 
 of them died (Mrs. Allen having died during the vicar's incum- 
 bency). In testimony of his affection, and as a tribute to the 
 memory of his parents, the bishop placed in the chancel of the 
 church the tablet of white statuary marble, the work of 
 Chantry, which in taste and beauty puts into shade the other 
 monuments in the church. The design represents an altar 
 surmounted by drapery partially drawn aside, with medallion 
 busts in bas relief of Mr. and Mrs. Allen, with this inscription 
 underneath 
 
 William Allen, formerly of 
 
 Davy Hulme, but late of Frodsham, 
 
 died 30 October, 1792, in his 5/th 
 
 year. Ellen his wife died 
 10 October, 1825, in her 82nd year. 
 
 (Helsby's Ormerod, II., 56.) 
 
 The following sepulchral memorials of the Lowtons of Manley 
 fitly find a place here. On a white slab over the Hyde monu- 
 ments is the following :
 
 250 Frodsham. 
 
 To the memory of 
 
 Elizabeth, 
 
 Wife of Thomas Lowton, Esquire, 
 Of Manley, in this county, and of the Inner Temple, 
 
 London, 
 
 Fourth daughter of Thomas Kevill, 
 
 Of Trevenson, in the county of Cornwall, Esquire, 
 
 Who died February the 2Oth, MDCCCXX., aged 45 years, 
 
 And lies buried under the middle aisle 
 
 Of this church. 
 Also to the memory of 
 
 The above-named Thomas Lowton, Esquire. 
 Who died on the 6th day of June, 1830. 
 
 Arms : on a fesse (qy. engr.), sable with plain cotices, gules 
 between three cross crosslets fitche, sable (qy. az.) as many 
 escallops (qy. cinque foils) or impaling sable a chevron 
 erminois on a chief indented three mullets gules, crest a 
 demigriphon per fesse indented erminois and erm. wings 
 elevated sable. In the dexter claw a cross crosslet fitche ar. 
 (qy. sable). (Helsby's Ormerod, II., 56.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 THE VICARS. 
 
 (Continued). 
 
 \ 
 
 (XL.) A.D. 1844. JOHN ROBERT HALL, A.M., the next vicar 
 presented by the dean and chapter after the death of the late 
 Vicar Fanshawe, was the eldest son of the Reverend John 
 Robert Hall, of Battesford, in the county of Gloucester. He 
 matriculated from Christ Church, on the I3th of May, 1826, 
 at the age of 17 ; became B.A. on the 2ist of January, 1830,
 
 Frodsham. 251 
 
 and A.M. on the 26th of October, 1832. (Information of 
 Colonel Chester.) The late vicar having been but rarely seen 
 in Frodsham during his incumbency, the parish, as soon as it 
 was understood that the new vicar meant to occupy the vicarage, 
 and to be a constant resident, heard the intelligence with 
 satisfaction, and prepared to give him a hearty reception when 
 he arrived. It was a recommendation to the new vicar coming 
 into a country parish that he brought with him some acquaint- 
 ance with agriculture, a love for country pursuits, and above 
 all a fondness for parochial and pastoral work. No sooner 
 had he entered into possession of his living than he found 
 himself in possession of two flocks, one being his parish, 
 which was the larger of the two, and the other being a small 
 and woolly flock which fed upon the hills above Frodsham, 
 and in the management of the one flock as well as the 
 other he showed himself a good shepherd, and was able 
 to make the smaller flock of some use to the larger. 
 Sedulous in the discharge of his pastoral and parochial 
 duties during the week, the vicar rarely omitted the per- 
 formance of his church and pulpit engagements on the 
 Sundays. With a clear and distinct voice he read and 
 preached so as to deliver his own conscience, while his sermons 
 were calculated to reach the conscience of his hearers. Finding 
 upon his first coming to the living that the national schools 
 could not accommodate all the children, he set himself at 
 once to enlarge them ; and this work, by the goodwill of the 
 parish, and a subscription, to which Mr. Hayes and his family 
 liberally contributed, was quickly accomplished, when, besides 
 obtaining more room for all, the girls' school was remodelled, 
 and an infants' school and playground were also added. In 
 the schools there was established a Sunday school, in 
 which the vicar was aided by Mrs. Hall, who was his fit 
 helpmate in every good work. The vicar, while in Oxford, had 
 taken part in printing a work for such schools, which proved 
 of use there. In another department of his work he secured 
 helpers in his several curates. One of these was the Reverend 
 Arthur Thomas Whitmore Shadwell, son of Sir Lancelot 
 Shadwell, Vice-Chancellor of England. Mr. Shadwell, who
 
 252 Frodsham. 
 
 has been mentioned in a former part of this work, was an 
 energetic worker, and he is now the Vicar of Little Ilford, 
 in Essex. Another of these curates (who did full justice to 
 the training he had had from his excellent father, the venerable 
 Archdeacon Jones, of Liverpool,) was the Reverend William 
 Henry Jones. A third curate was the Reverend Francis 
 Raikes, nephew of Chancellor Raikes, and now rector of 
 Figheldean, Wilts ; and a fourth was the late Reverend E. 
 Wolfenden, who died Vicar of Alvanley. In this, as in every 
 other parish, there was always plenty of work to employ both 
 him who held the helm and those who served under him, and 
 they were mutual helps to each other. But it was the vicar's 
 good fortune to have another valuable supporter in the late 
 lamented Archdeacon Greenall, who, having once been curate 
 in the parish, entertained an affection for it which ended only 
 with his life. When the vicar first came to Frodsham there 
 was neither a church nor any national school either at 
 Kingsley or Helsby, two outlying portions of the parish ; but 
 by the able support of the archdeacon both these places were 
 at first supplied with national schools, where Divine service was 
 held on Sundays, and day schools were carried on in the rest 
 of the week. But in Kingsley, aided also by the same able sup- 
 port, the vicar had the happiness to see a beautiful new church 
 built, after the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott, at the cost of "4301, 
 which was consecrated by the Bishop of Chester on the 
 /th of January, 1851, more than half the whole cost, out of his 
 zeal for souls and his love of the former scene of his labours, 
 being defrayed by the archdeacon, who also contributed libe- 
 rally to the erection of the school at Helsby. During the 
 vicar's incumbency that important and very useful work the 
 commutation of the parish tithes took place ; and this, which 
 in many parishes proved to be a work of some difficulty, at 
 Frodsham, by the exercise of much mutual forbearance, was 
 accomplished with scarcely any trouble. The parishioners 
 appointed their apportioners and agreed as to the principle 
 of apportionment, so that most of the tithe-payers knew 
 almost from the first what proportion each had to pay. Through 
 the remissness of the apportioners, however, the award remained
 
 Frodsham. 253 
 
 more than two years unsigned, and during that time the vicar 
 remained without an income from his tithes ; but on being 
 appealed to, the parishioners, struck with the vicar's forbear- 
 ance, and recognizing that the labourer was worthy of his hire, 
 agreed to pay, and did pay, what was in arrear, without waiting 
 for the formal confirmation of the apportionment At Frod- 
 sham the vicar sustained a severe loss in the death of his wife, 
 who in every good work had been his untiring helpmate. After 
 a lingering illness, borne with Christian resignation, she was 
 called to her rest in the full assurance of faith. This loss, 
 which greatly distressed the vicar, somewhat loosened the ties 
 which had bound him to Frodsham, and in 1857 his uncle, Dr. 
 Longley, the Bishop of Durham, whose examining chaplain 
 he had been, an office which is without pay, having offered him 
 the rectory of Boldon, in that county, he accepted it, and resigned 
 the vicarage of Frodsham, to be near the bishop when he should 
 require his services. In 1863, when the bishop had become 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and again desired to have Mr. Hall 
 (his examining chaplain) near him, he gave him the rectory of 
 Coulsdon, near Croydon, in Surrey, and in 1866 he gave him, 
 instead of Coulsdon, the rectory of Hunton, near Maidstone, 
 where he is now living, and where he is also rural dean, with 
 an honorary canonry at Canterbury. Mr. Hall's retirement 
 from Frodsham was followed by the regret of his people 
 of all classes, who had learned to regard him with respect, 
 esteem, and affection. The following inscriptions, though not 
 both of them put up in the church in Mr. Hall's incumbency, 
 on a marble slab, may fitly find a place here : 
 
 To the memory of 
 
 The Reverend John Collins, 
 
 Late incumbent of Norley, in this parish, 
 
 And formerly assistant curate of 
 This church, who, in the midst of zealous 
 
 And faithful services'to the cause 
 
 Of his Divine Master, was very suddenly 
 
 Removed to a happier world on the 
 
 nth September, 1844.
 
 254 Frodsham. 
 
 Also of 
 
 Elizabeth, wife of the said 
 
 John Collins, who was called equally suddenly 
 
 Into the presence of her God, to whom she had 
 
 Long devoted herself, on the 2ist March, 1841. 
 
 This tablet is erected by their affectionate children, who are 
 eager to express, though faintly and inadequately, the grateful 
 feelings of their hearts. (Helsby's Ormerod, II., 55.) 
 
 (XLI.) A.D. 1857. WILLIAM CHARLES COTTON, A.M., 
 who was presented by the Dean and Chapter of Christ 
 Church to the vicarage of Frodsham, on the resignation of Mr. 
 Hall, the late vicar, -came of an ancient stock, the Cottons of 
 Shropshire, who had been settled there in a village of their own 
 name almost from the Norman conquest ; but the race was as 
 good as it was ancient, for his father, William Cotton, esquire, 
 of Welwood House, near Leytonstone, Essex, where the vicar 
 was born, represented a branch of the original house, which, 
 since the seventeenth century, had been identified with the 
 learned professions and with the commerce of the city of 
 London. The vicar's father married Mary, the daughter of 
 Thomas Laws, esquire, of the Grange, Leyton, and while he 
 resided in the neighbourhood and discharged the duties of a 
 country gentleman and a magistrate, he also served the office of 
 high sheriff of the county of Essex. He was at the same time 
 an eminent merchant in the city of London, where also he 
 was for some time Governor of the Bank of England. At the 
 proper age his son, the future vicar, was sent to the College at 
 Eton, where, in the year 1832, he won, after a strong competi- 
 tion, the Newcastle shcholarship, the blue riband of the College. 
 From Eton he proceeded to Oxford, where he gained by ex- 
 amination a studentship at Christ Church, which proved that the 
 prestige which preceded him was justified, for at Michaelmas, 
 1835, when he graduated A.B., he was placed in the honour 
 lists in the first class of Literis Humanioribus. In 1836 he 
 proceeded A.M., and he was soon afterwards ordained by the 
 Bishop of Oxford. In 1837 and 1838 he served successively 
 as deacon and priest in the churches of Saint Edward the
 
 Frodsham. 255 
 
 Confessor at Renford and of Saint John at Windsor. In 1841, 
 when the lamented Selwyn, who in 1830, only two years before 
 him, had gained the Newcastle scholarship, was appointed the 
 first Bishop of New Zealand, he made Mr. Cotton his chaplain, 
 and he sailed with him to his distant see. In New Zealand 
 he proved himself the bishop's willing and able helper. He 
 speedily acquired the Maori tongue, and won the hearts of the 
 natives by conversing with them in it so freely. He retained 
 ever after his fondness for the Maori, a trace of which he has 
 left in the welcome to his friends inscribed in it on the front 
 door-step of the vicarage. He remained actively engaged in 
 his work at New Zealand until the year 1854, when he had the 
 misfortune to sustain what so frequently happens to strangers 
 and takes away from the charm of a New Zealand climate, a 
 sun-stroke, which compelled him to return home. He did not, 
 however, leave the effects of the sun-stroke behind him, for it 
 unfortunately proved an intermittent which visited him from 
 time to time during the remainder of his life. But as soon 
 after his return to England as he was able to resume work he 
 took the curacy of the historic church of Saint Mary Redcliff, 
 at Bristol. In 1857, upon the vicarage of Frodsham becoming 
 vacant by the resignation of Mr. Hall, the Dean and Chapter 
 of Christ Church, remembering his brilliant university career, 
 presented him to the living. The new vicar entered warmly 
 and at Once upon his important and responsible office. The 
 number of school children at Frodsham had grown faster than 
 the room for them. Her Majesty's Inspector required the 
 school accommodation to be enlarged, and Mr. Cotton hit 
 upon the happy expedient of raising the necessary funds for 
 its enlargement by a voluntary assessment upon the land- 
 owners, after the manner of a parish rate, by which means a 
 small sum from each would raise what was necessary. The 
 vicar's suggestion was agreed to, and the schools were soon 
 enlarged. By the premature death of the venerable Arch- 
 deacon Greenall, who had so successfully promoted the building 
 of the new church at Kingsley, a small part of the endowment, 
 and also some part of the schools there, had been left incom- 
 plete, but both these defects were immediately made good by
 
 256 Frodsham. 
 
 the vicar. With the aid of a liberal layman, whose help the 
 vicar had invoked, at some sacrifice on his own part, he 
 was able to begin a mission work in Manley, a remote part of 
 the parish, by holding a weekly service there on Sundays, which 
 was conducted either by himself or by one of his curates, and this 
 work has so commended itself to his successor that, by the help 
 of the same layman, it has been enlarged and extended, to the 
 great advantage of Manley. At Helsby, where another church 
 to which Archdeacon Greenall had liberally contributed had 
 been built, some of the work had been left incomplete at his 
 death ; but this, also, the vicar, aided by the liberality of another 
 layman, was able to supply, and finally the new church became 
 the head of a new parochial district, the patronage of which 
 became vested in the same layman who had endowed it. But 
 in his attention to these outworks he did not neglect Frodsham, 
 the heart, centre, and fortress of the parish. Having observed 
 that some of the aged in his flock found it difficult to climb 
 the steep hill to the parish church on Sundays or other days, 
 and that in bad weather, or with a wind blowing, the climb tried 
 the lungs even of those who were not aged, and made them 
 pause for breath, nay, it is not unlikely that from the good vicar 
 himself, whose figure was not slight, nor his weight light, there 
 may have escaped many a Sic itur ad astra (thus we toil to 
 heaven). But whether it were either the old or any others who 
 found it hard to reach the church at times, the vicar met the evil 
 by erecting in the very centre of the town itself an iron church, 
 where, as in the old one, Divine service should be celebrated twice 
 every Sunday. Into these and all other ministerial appliances 
 for the benefit of the parish the vicar threw himself so heartily 
 that it was impossible not to see how deeply he was in 
 earnest to win his flock and lead them to the fold, by 
 that narrow way which has the promise both of this life and 
 of that which is to come. Except when prevented by sick- 
 ness or the return of his New Zealand malady, the vicar, who 
 had always one or more curates, never spared himself, but 
 always took his share of the duty, whether in the desk or in 
 the pulpit. He saw and was fully alive to the alterations 
 with which the bad taste of a former age had deformed the
 
 Frodsham. 257 
 
 parish church, and he desired to see its venerable features 
 restored. With some hopes that this might be effected, he 
 drew out and forwarded to the Dean and Chapter of Christ 
 Church, their lessee of the great tithes, and a few other persons, 
 a plan for restoring the church. But the necessity which now 
 arose of reinstating the vicarage, a great part of which he 
 rebuilt, caused the church plans to be laid aside, and then he 
 was obliged to leave the parish for a short time, in conse- 
 quence of the return of his old illness. A scholar himself, 
 the vicar could not fail to feel an interest in the success of the 
 Frodsham Grammar School, which he thought at one time 
 might be enlarged and improved. 
 
 In the meantime, Mr. Cotton kept his eye on the deserving 
 pupils of the school, and through some of his literary help 
 and advice two of them proceeded to the University, 
 where, after doing themselves credit, they took holy orders, 
 and are now doing good service in the Church. Self- 
 sacrifice and good feeling were parts of the vicar's character, 
 which made him at all times ready to lend a helping 
 hand to the deserving poor; to the young he was kind 
 and gentle, and while he loved to see them learn, he would 
 at proper times relax and not only promote their games, but 
 play with them himself. But he had other objects besides his 
 flock to share his kindness, and these were the four-footed and 
 winged creatures. He was never without a plurality of dogs, and 
 one of these, named Gip, became the pseudo author of a number 
 of clever papers contributed to the Field and other journals, 
 descriptive of a tour which the dog and his master had made 
 together ; and whoever reads this journal will hardly fail to 
 feel surprised at the natural thoughts and feelings ascribed in 
 it to its pseudo author. The dog and his master seem to 
 have been on good terms, and to have perfectly understood 
 each other, and sometimes Gip indulges in a joke at his 
 master's expence. The papers, when collected, formed a 
 small and amusing volume. Another of the vicar's pets, and 
 also his fellow traveller, was Papagay, a Portuguese parrot, 
 which could join the vicar in singing " God save the Queen" as 
 a duet, and once when they had the honour of singing it 
 
 s
 
 258 Frodsham. 
 
 before the Prince and Princess of Wales, Gip gives way to a 
 fit of jealousy on the occasion. In Gip's story, the reader 
 will see how fully the vicar could enter, at proper seasons, into 
 the enjoyment of Horace's feeling, when he said, " Dulce 
 est desipere in loco," for it proves on every page that 
 the vicar possessed a vein of innocent humour. But the 
 vicar, besides these pets, had others more numerous, and which 
 in numbers far exceeded the population of his whole parish, 
 and these were his hive bees, of which he was very fond. For 
 fifty years or more he had made the community of working 
 bees his attentive study, and so completely had he made himself 
 master of their instincts and habits that he became their his- 
 torian in his book called " The Bee-Keeper," in which he has 
 pointed out how they may be best housed and treated, and 
 how they may be deprived of their honey without injuring or 
 destroying themselves. This book, which gives an abundance 
 of instructive facts, ranks high among the works of bee 
 literature ; and any one who, like the writer, has seen 
 the vicar wholly unprotected turn a full hive of bees upside 
 down, handle the inmates at his pleasure, select the queen 
 from the rest, hold her up to the admiration of her subjects, 
 and then restore her to them, without sustaining a hurt or a 
 sting, would almost have believed that they knew their his- 
 torian, and would not injure him. Was it the love so com- 
 mended by Coleridge that shielded him, when he thus entered 
 unarmed into a camp where every inmate was armed with a 
 sting ? 
 
 He prayeth best who loveth best 
 
 All things both great and small, 
 For the dear God that loveth us 
 
 He made and loveth all ! 
 
 But " The Bee-Keeper " was not his only book on bees, for 
 passing, as he tells us, through Cologne in 1870, he picked up 
 at a bookstall f " Schnurrdiburr," or the Bees, the first name, as 
 pronounced by a German tongue, being meant to be an 
 onomatopeia on the buzzing sound which bees make over 
 their work. The book was copiously illustrated by numerous 
 woodcuts, which were so humorous that the vicar republished
 
 Frodsha m. 259 
 
 the book with its illustrations, adding to each a copy of verses 
 describing the dangers which those encounter who heedlessly 
 intermeddle with a bee-hive, and superadding some useful 
 notes on bee-culture, which he had gained since he published 
 his former work. But his fondness for animals and bees left 
 him some love to spare for flowers, a beautiful branch of crea- 
 tion ; and every year when his roses and tulips were in full 
 blow, it was announced that they would be "at home" on 
 the afternoon of a day named, and on these occasions the 
 visitors partook of an al fresco tea, in the vicarage garden. 
 The vicar never forgot his early scholarship, but always 
 retained it in his memory to the last. Whole pages of his 
 favourite classics lay in his memory like the meshes of a 
 folded net, and they could be drawn up and repeated by him 
 at pleasure. He had a genial and pleasant manner, and a 
 look such as Chaucer commended in his parish priest when he 
 says 
 
 He had in his aspect nothing of severe, 
 And such a face as promised him sincere. 
 
 His constitution, naturally strong, had suffered from the New 
 Zealand sun-stroke, but the effects of its occasional return 
 told more especially on his mind. One of these relapses, 
 which occurred early in the year 1878, and proved more 
 severe than any previous attack, affected him so seriously 
 as to unfit him for work and compel him to leave Frodsham, 
 and seek what the physicians find it difficult to supply 
 a cure for the mind. Early in June of the following year, he 
 had so far recovered, that he wrote cheerfully to his friends, 
 announcing that he should very shortly return to his vicarage. 
 Some of the Easterns, who are very humane to people 
 suffering under mental aberration, have a saying that such 
 persons' minds are in heaven, and only their bodies on earth ; 
 and so, we think, Sir James Macintosh must have thought, 
 when in writing delicately to Robert Hall, , the celebrated 
 preacher, after his recovery from such an aberration of mind, 
 he could say to him 
 
 Yet the light which led astray 
 Was light from Heaven ! 
 
 S2
 
 260 Frodsham. 
 
 The same consolation might have been offered to Mr. Cotton ; 
 but, alas ! his recovery was but the flickering of a lamp before 
 it goes out ; for on Saturday, the 2Oth June of the year 1879, 
 he had a sudden relapse, of which he died the next day, at 
 the age of 67. On the following Friday his remains were 
 buried at Leytonstone, a place where his family were honoured 
 as benefactors. Though no tablet should preserve his name 
 at Frodsham, he will not soon be forgotten there. On the 
 day of his burial, a commemorative service was held at Frod- 
 sham, at the hour appointed for his distant funeral, which was 
 attended by a number of the neighbouring clergy, and many 
 others desirous to mark the solemn occasion, and to show 
 their respect for him, who had been a true son of the 
 Church of England, holding fast by her articles, formularies, 
 and liturgy. His voice was good, and he could ascend to 
 deliver his discourses, without that pulpit crutch a written 
 sermon ; and his favourite line of preaching was that of 
 Chaucer's good parson, as given in Dryden's paraphrase 
 
 He loved the Gospel rather than the Law, 
 And forced himself to drive, but loved to draw. 
 
 (XLII). A.D. 1879. The Reverend HENRY BIRDWOOD 
 BLOGG, M.A., the present worthy vicar (quern Deus conservet), 
 was presented by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, on 
 the death of tUe late vicar, W. C. Cotton. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 HAVING brought the account of Frodsham down to the present 
 time, and having in the course of it shown that Frodsham and 
 its neighbourhood have supplied their full share of those " chief 
 of men " of which Cheshire makes her boast, we shall conclude 
 with notices of two men both claiming kinship with the 
 neighbourhood, and both of whom rose to eminence, the 
 one in Saxon times and the other in the present century, who
 
 Frodsham. 261 
 
 may be cited as a proof that the Cheshire stock has not 
 degenerated since the earlier times. The latter of these 
 celebrities won a coronet and assumed his title of honour from 
 a village in Frodsham parish ; while the former, who lived so 
 long before him, chose for his home a solitary place which until 
 then was without a name, but from which he emerged to obtain 
 an archbishop's mitre. We prefer, however, to take first the 
 later of these worthies, though he was not first in order of 
 time. This was a member of the Arden family, who for many 
 generations have held the village of Alvanley. From an early 
 period of our history the Ardens seem to have had a leaning 
 for the profession of the law. In 1236, and again in 49 
 Henry III. (1260), Sir Walkelyn de Arden was the Earl of 
 Chester's justiciary of Chester. (Ormerod's Miscellanea 
 Palatina, pp. 14, 15, 22.) And no less than four others of the 
 same family were the King's Justices Itinerant in the reigns 
 of Richard I., King John, King Henry VI., and King Edward 
 IV. (Foss' Lives of the Judges, VIII., 22.) In the reign of 
 George III., this old strain broke out again in Richard Pepper 
 Arden. In 1752 he was sent when very young to the Man- 
 chester Grammar School, which was then, as it is now, a very- 
 celebrated seminary. His schoolboy days were long, but he 
 turned them to good account ; and in 1763, when they ended, 
 and he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, he carried 
 with him a mind richly stored with classical and other 
 learning ; and having thus early resolved to follow the family 
 instinct and go to the bar, he had seen the value of good 
 elocution, and he therefore made himself master of it ; and in 
 the following copy of verses which he recited on some public 
 occasion at the Manchester school he sets out its rules : 
 
 It has been often and too truly said, 
 
 That men trained up in schools and deeply read, 
 
 When summon 'cl out to tread the world's great stage, 
 
 And in the scenes of public life engage, 
 
 Unskill'd and awkward, scarce are ever brought 
 
 Justly to speak what they so well have thought, 
 
 But with ungraceful gesture, abject fear, 
 
 Or tone offensive to the nicer ear, 
 
 Disgrace the subject which they should adorn, 
 
 And 'stead of praise are only heard with scorn.
 
 262 Frodskam. 
 
 To shun the rock on which so many split, 
 Which renders learning dull and tasteless wit, 
 We thus presume to tread the buskin 'd stage, 
 And risk attempts so far beyond our age ; 
 The motive sure is good- excuse is then ; 
 If boys, who hope in time to act like men, 
 Leave for a while their Latin and their Greek, 
 And their own native English learn to speak 
 Learn to speak well what well they hope to write, 
 And manly eloquence with truth unite, 
 With accent just each nicest stroke to hit, 
 Give dignity to sense and grace to wit 
 Steal to the heart through the delighted ear, 
 And make an audience feel as well as hear. 
 If you approve we hope by arts like these, 
 In real life as well as feign 'd to please ; 
 And when maturer sense and riper years 
 Shall call us forth to move in higher spheres, 
 Each act his part in his respective place, 
 With just decorum and becoming grace 
 Teach with success fair virtue's sacred laws, 
 Speak at the bar with honour and applause, 
 And in the senate plead our country's cause. 
 
 In 1766, a year remarkable for the number of young men of 
 promise who went in for University honours at Cambridge, 
 Mr. Arden won his spurs, being well placed in the list of 
 wranglers. In 1769, when he took his A.M. degree, he was 
 elected fellow of Trinity College and entered himself of the 
 Middle Temple with a view of being called to the 
 bar. One of the two temples of law has over its door the 
 Muses' horse Pegasus for its crest, that seems not very 
 appropriate over a home of the law, which, of all the profes- 
 sions has the least to do with poetry, for even those lawyers who 
 have at first wooed the Muses have bade them farewell when 
 they put on the wig and gown. Mr. Arden, who, as we have 
 seen, had once a taste for verse, perhaps indulged it for the 
 last time when he addressed the following lines to a lady 
 asking her aid for the invalids at Buxton : 
 
 Gentle lady, pray be kind 
 To the halt, the lame, aad blind, 
 Who come to Buxton from a distance, 
 And cannot, without your assistance,
 
 Frodsham. 263 
 
 Afford so long to bathe and drink, 
 As they and the physicians think 
 Would be of service to their bodies 
 Then don't refuse, O lovely goddess ! 
 To give a little boon I beg, 
 That he who has a wooden leg 
 May get such strength into the other 
 That it may scarcely want its brother ; 
 And she who has a single eye 
 May keep it open till she die ; 
 So he that ne'er can hope to dance, 
 May here at least be made to prance ; 
 And she who cannot kill her man, 
 May see the eyes of you who can. 
 
 Although he had entered himself of the Middle Temple, Mr. 
 Arden chose to live in Lincoln's Inn, that he might be near 
 his friend Mr. Pitt, the future Prime Minister. He did not 
 enter Parliament until 1782, when he was elected M.P. for the 
 small borough of Newton, in Lancashire. His friend Mr. Pitt 
 had long preceded him there, having entered Parliament when 
 he was scarcely of age, and having become Prime Minister at 
 25, pre-eminent talent having in his case supplied the lack of 
 years. In the House of Commons, where lawyers as a rule do 
 not shine as speakers, Mr. Arden's speeches evinced spirit with 
 ready wit and intelligence. The lower end of the ladder of 
 legal eminence rests in the House of Commons; and Mr. Arden 
 soon found his way to climb it, even against the opposition of 
 Lord Thurlow, who then kept even the law itself in awe. In 
 1783 he became Solicitor- General, and the next year he was 
 made Attorney-General, and became Chief Justice of Chester. 
 In 1788, on Lord Kenyon quitting the Rolls to be made Chief 
 Justice of the King's bench, Mr. Arden succeeded him at the 
 Rolls, and being then knighted became Sir Richard Pepper 
 Arden. His judgments in this court did him great credit as a 
 lawyer, and met with the approbation of the profession. It was 
 before this time that his name betrayed a witty Frenchman 
 into calling him Monsieur Poivre Ardent. In 1801 a still 
 higher honour awaited him, for then Lord Eldon, the great 
 Lord Dubitans, who justified the old charge of the law's delay, 
 being made Lord Chancellor, Sir Richard Arden was made
 
 264 Frodsham. 
 
 Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. On attaining this 
 distinguished position he was created a Privy Councillor, and 
 raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Alvanley, which he 
 took from the ancient estate of his family in the parish of 
 Frodsham. In his new court, where he was supreme, his 
 judgments gave satisfaction, and established his reputa- 
 tion as a great lawyer, fit to fill any, even the highest 
 appointment. But in the very zenith of his fame his lordship 
 was overtaken by a sudden and very severe attack of illness, 
 under which, to the great regret of a very numerous circle of 
 friends who knew and appreciated his character, he succumbed 
 on the iQth March, 1804, and was shortly afterwards interred 
 in the Rolls Chapel, the lawyers' Campo Santo, where many of 
 the sages of the law have been laid at rest near the scene of 
 their former labours. (Manchester School Register, Chet. Soc.) 
 Turning now to that other and earlier celebrity to whom 
 reference has been made, who preceded by nearly two 
 centuries the first mention of Frodsham met with in history, 
 and lived when England was still bleeding from the inroads 
 and devastations of the Danes, and when the great Alfred was 
 struggling to repel the invaders. The troubles of that time 
 and some reverses which he had sustained had compelled the 
 King to lay aside his crown for a time and to withdraw into 
 the solitude of Athelney, where, amid the surrounding morasses, 
 he might remain secure from any sudden assault by the enemy. 
 So unsettled was the state of the country at this time that 
 many of the King's loyal subjects, men of peace as well as 
 men of war, found it necessary to follow the King's example, 
 and seek similar means of safety. One of those who acted 
 thus was a Mercian hermit of this neighbourhood, who made 
 an islet in the marshes between Frodsham and Chester the 
 place of his retreat, where he might wait in safety for the 
 return of better times. Paul, Antony, and the other hermits 
 of Egypt, when that country was disturbed, had found 
 safety in the recesses of the desert ; and so our swampy 
 marshes, of a nature very opposite to the sandy waste, 
 proved to the hermit as effectual a shelter from danger. In 
 the islet to which he fled he built himself a cabin, probably
 
 Frodsham. 265 
 
 of wattled twigs, and from it, whenever he could trust him- 
 self to go abroad, he drew people around him and preached 
 to them the word of life. Being well versed in the Scriptures, 
 and known to be a holy man, who loved his fellow-creatures 
 and desired their highest welfare for his Master's sake, he soon 
 became extensively known, and wherever he was known he 
 was honoured and beloved. Numbers at last resorted to him, 
 and gave his name to the place of his retreat, which had none 
 before, calling it Plegmund's Stall, or the place of Plegmund, 
 which the vulgar tongue, which is ever shy of syllables, has since 
 contracted into Plimstow, the name which it still continues to 
 bear. Until the victories of Etandun and Wilton, between the 
 years 870 and 875, in which Alfred effectually brought the 
 invaders to submission, it was not safe for him to leave the 
 Island of Athelney ; but even while he remained in that seclu- 
 sion he would, no doubt, hear from some of his devoted fol- 
 lowers, or that bird of the air which is a proverbial newscarrier, 
 of all that was going on in his kingdom, what preparations 
 were making to repel the invaders, and which of his good sub- 
 jects were doing their best to promote the country's progress 
 and welfare. He would hear, too, how affectionately his return 
 to power was desired on every hand ; but no news would be 
 more welcome to the monarch than the tidings he heard of the 
 doings of his good subject Plegmund, and the success of his 
 labours among the people. A scholar himself, the King loved 
 learning in others. He had known Plegmund as a man of 
 great learning and holy life, but when he found that under 
 such adverse circumstances his light had shone out so brightly, 
 he determined to bring him to his court ; and in 890, when 
 " the King had his own again," he summoned the islet hermit 
 to his side, and made him his counseller and most trusted 
 friend. The King, who had greatly lamented the decay of 
 learning amongst the clergy, desiring to repair this defect, 
 determined, as he told his councillors, to make Plegmund "his 
 archbishop," the title by which he affectionately called him. 
 Accordingly, Plegmund having been named for the primacy, 
 was soon afterwards sent by the King to Rome, where in due 
 time he was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope
 
 266 Frodsham. 
 
 Formosus, whose case is a strange comment on the doctrine 
 of infallibility ; for he was himself degraded from his office, and 
 all his acts declared illegal, which entailed upon Plegmund the 
 necessity of a second journey to Rome to be re-consecrated 
 archbishop by Pope Stephen VI. To no one more fitted for 
 the task of raising the character of the clergy could that office 
 have been better entrusted than to Plegmund, who was not only 
 learned, but was also, like Apollos, mighty in the Scriptures. 
 To the archbishop's literary tastes we owe also a considerable 
 portion of that invaluable monument of his time, the Saxon 
 Chronicle, and of the copy of that work which is preserved in 
 the library of Corpus College, Cambridge, and called by his 
 name, a considerable part is said to be in his handwriting. 
 The archbishop retained the primacy for twenty-four years, 
 and maintained to the last his high character for piety and 
 learning. He died in the year 914, and was probably buried 
 in Saint Martin's Church, the oldest ecclesiastical foundation in 
 Canterbury. He has deservedly found a place in Dr. Hook's 
 Biography of the Archbishops of Canterbury, where the author 
 observes that his name links the ninth century with the nine- 
 teenth. The venerable church of Frodsham, which was not 
 founded so early as the former century, is now being worthily 
 restored in our nineteenth century. Felix faustumque sit opus ; 
 and here we may well write on this history of the place 
 
 FINIS.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A PAGE. 
 
 Alvanley Chapel .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 51 
 
 Alvanley, Lord ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 261 
 
 Arden, Lords of 51 
 
 Apprentices' Act ... ... ... ... .... ... * ... ... 124 
 
 Arthur, Prince of Wales 81 
 
 Ascham's murder ... ... ... ... 144, 14$ 
 
 Aston, Sir Thomas 135 
 
 B 
 
 Ball and Thong Summons 66 
 
 Bathurst, Hugh, murders John Savage, and dies by the peine forte 
 
 et dure 191 
 
 Beacon ... 117 
 
 Beckett, Radagunda ... ... 57 
 
 Bernard, Daniel, Vicar ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 229 
 
 Bernard, Thomas, Vicar 228 
 
 Bickerton, Thomas, Vicar 230 
 
 Blackheath Battle 9* 
 
 Blagge, William, Vicar 222 
 
 c 
 
 Calais lost 108 
 
 Calveley, Hugh, mus"ters troops 88 
 
 Cattenhall, Record of ... 104 
 
 Cary, Sir Robert's ride to Scotland 119 
 
 Chantry Commissioners 105 
 
 Charles (I.), Prince of Wales ... 123 
 
 Charles I. ... ... ... 125 
 
 Charles I., his death ... 137 
 
 Charles II. at Worcester H* 
 
 Charles II. is restored IS 1 
 
 Cheshire Memorializes Henry VIII 101 
 
 Chester Herald 6 4 
 
 Chester, Mayor of, searches havens 89 
 
 Christmas to be observed *5 2 
 
 Cleaver, John, Vicar 22 3 
 
 Civil War... - - I2 9 '31 
 
 Clergy, their claims to power 97
 
 268 Index, 
 
 PAGE. 
 Cloth of the Field of Gold 99 
 
 Cockayne, James, intruded into the Vicarage 232 
 
 Coins and Tokens ... 154, 155 
 
 Cooke, Theophilus, Vicar 223 
 
 Cope, John, bailiff 82, 97 
 
 Cotton, Charles William, Vicar ... ... .. 254 
 
 Cornish Men rebel 91 
 
 Coroner elected ... ... ... ... 87 
 
 Cromwell's rise ... ... 140 
 
 Cromwell's speech ... 145 
 
 Cromwell's Major-Generals ... 146 
 
 Cromwell, Richard ... 147 
 
 Cyveliok, Hugh, Earl ... ... ... ... ... 21 
 
 D 
 
 David, The Welsh Prince 43 
 
 Davies, John, Vicar ... ... ... ... ... 223 
 
 Decimation of the disaffected ... 105 
 
 Derby, The King's visit to the Earl of... ... ... 90 
 
 Dieulacresse Abbey ... ... ... ... 64, 104 
 
 Done, Ralph 112 
 
 Dutton, licenser of minstrels ... 90 
 
 Dutton, Thomas, Vicar 229 
 
 E 
 
 Earthquake, account of ... ... ... ... 245 
 
 Edesbury man mentioned ... ... ... ... ... ... 62 
 
 Edisbury, the lodge there ...- ... 90 
 
 Edward 1 35,36,41,44 
 
 Edward II. ... ... 52 
 
 Edward, the Black Prince 54. 66 
 
 Edward IV 73, 80 
 
 Edward V. 80 
 
 Edward, Prince of Wales, slain at Tewkesbury ... 79 
 
 Edward VI. ... 102, 103, 104 
 
 Egerton, Sir Philip, sheriff 105 
 
 Egerton, Richard, Vicar... ... .. 223 
 
 Edwin, Earl, account of 5, 6, 7 
 
 Elfleda, account of ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen 109, in, 182 
 
 Evesham battle ... ... 25 
 
 Ewode, John, Vicar ... ... 221 
 
 F 
 
 FalstafTs levy of men ... ... .. 65 
 
 Fanshawe, John, Vicar 248
 
 Index. 269 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fletcher, Robert's, life saved by the Queen's death 112 
 
 Floddon battle 178 
 
 Fire of London ... 164 
 
 Frodsham Castle 125,169 
 
 Frodsham men in Gascony ... ... 54, 60 
 
 Frodsham men at Agincourt ... ... ... ... 73 
 
 Frodsham Bridge... 46, 49, 51, 59, 117 
 
 Frodsham Market 120, 123 
 
 Frodsham Court ... 34, 136 
 
 Frodsham Parish Books and Registers 138,153 
 
 Frodsham Church 152, 156 
 
 Frodsham, Ranulphus de, Vicar 216 
 
 Frodsham, Robert de, Vicar 216 
 
 G 
 
 Gaols ill kept 114 
 
 Gastrell, Francis, Vicar 240 
 
 Gee, John, Mayor of Chester 97 
 
 Gerard, Colonel John ... 143 
 
 Gernons, Earl Randle ... 20 
 
 Gladiator, William, Mayor of Chester 89 
 
 Golberne of Overton ... ... ... ... ... 97 
 
 Grange, Thomas, pardoned ... 106, no 
 
 Grimesdiche, Hugh " 82 
 
 H 
 
 Hadham, Henry, of .'. .. ... 77 
 
 Hall, John Robert, Vicar 250 
 
 Hamilton, Duke of, routed 136 
 
 Helsby Manor ... 114 
 
 Henry III. 32 
 
 Henry IV 64,65,69 
 
 Henry V 67,69,70,74 
 
 Henry VI 78 
 
 Henry VII 85,86,95 
 
 Henry VIII 96,97 
 
 Henry Prince of Wales 121,122 
 
 Henry, Philip, a minister ... 138 
 
 Heywood, Rowland, Vicar ... 231 
 
 Hockenhull, Randle, Vicar 219 
 
 Holme, Rundle, sewer 153 
 
 Hough, George, Vicar 224 
 
 Hugh, Lupus, Earl of Chester 12 
 
 Hughes, Moses, Vicar... 237
 
 270 Index. 
 
 J PAGE. 
 
 James I., King ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 119, 124 
 
 Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent .. ... ... ... 57 
 
 Jones, William, Vicar ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 241 
 
 Justices in Eyre ... ... ... ... 119, 120 
 
 K 
 
 Kingsley, John, slain at Blore ... ... ... ... ... ... 77 
 
 Kirkham, William, Fitz Roger Robert de, Vicar ... ... ... 218 
 
 L 
 
 Lancastre, William, mower ... ... ... ... ... ... 75 
 
 Leonard's, Saint, Hospital ... ... 49 
 
 Lewes, Battle of ... ... ... ... 35 
 
 Libels and false reports ... ... ... ... 117, 123 
 
 Licecnes to embattle ... ... ... ... ... ... 10, 33 
 
 Lichfield, Abbot of Dieulacresse ... ... ... ... ... 65 
 
 Littleover, and others ... ... ... ... ... ... 88, 95 
 
 Lunatics, Treatment of ... ... ... ... ... ... 142 
 
 M 
 
 Mace, or Morning Star, a weapon ... ... ... 113 
 
 Manley, James ... 91, 98 
 
 Manley, Richard ... ... ... ... 63,66,68 
 
 Manley, Sir Thomas ... ... ... ... 83 
 
 Margaret of Richmond ... /. ... 88 
 
 Marisnusa, Spreaders of ... ... ... ... 66 
 
 Marriages before Justices ... ... 147 
 
 Mather, Milo ... ... ... ... ... ... 116 
 
 Mary, Queen ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 182 
 
 Meschines, Earl Randle .. ... ... 19 
 
 Montfort, Simon de 35, 36 
 
 Mortymer, Lady (see Radagunda Becket) ... ... ... 58, 87 
 
 N 
 
 Newcome, Henry, Preacher ... ... ... ... 138 
 
 Newton, Peter, Steward of Frodsham ... ... ... ... 98 
 
 Norman Conquest ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4 
 
 Norman Survey ... ... ... ... ... ... 5, 8 
 
 o 
 
 Overt on Church (see Frodsham) ... 157 
 
 P 
 
 Pagon, Thomas Fitz, Vicar ... ... ... 214 
 
 Page, William Emanuel, Vicar ... 244 
 
 Pauncefote slain ... 179 
 
 Peine forte et dure, John Bathurst dies by it ... ... ... ... 191
 
 Index. 271 
 
 PAGE. 
 Penruddock's rising 143 
 
 Philip and Mary, King and Queen ... ... ... 106 
 
 Plague, The, in 1666 164 
 
 Plegmund, Archbishop ... ... 264 
 
 Pole, Sir Richard, musters men ... ... ... 91 
 
 Post Office, some account of ... ... ... ... ... ... 141 
 
 Q 
 
 Quakers at Frodsham ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 144 
 
 Quiet which reigned in 1658 ... ... ... ... ... ... 147 
 
 Quo Warrantees issued 114, 121 
 
 R 
 
 Randle the Clerk, Vicar 215 
 
 Rebellion in 1745 217 
 
 Register, some particulars taken from it in 1779 ... ... ... 208 
 
 Richard, second Norman Earl ... ... ... ... 17 
 
 Richard II., King 56 
 
 Richard III., Lord of Frodsham ... ... ... 8l 
 
 Richard III. hates Richmond ... ... ^f> 
 
 Richard III. slain at Bos worth ... ... 85 
 
 Roberts, Thomas, Vicar ... ... 229 
 
 Rock Savage built 183 
 
 Royal Fish, inquiry after ... ... ... ... ... 117,122 
 
 Roter, Thomas 82, 89 
 
 Rutter, William 79 
 
 Rutter, a lunatic ... ... ... ... 114 
 
 Rutter, others mentioned ... ... ... ... 113 
 
 s 
 
 Salisbury Thomas, engaged in Babington's Conspiracy 115 
 
 Sallee Rover's account of ... ... ... ... 139, 140,213,214 
 
 Savage, Sir John, receives a pension 82, 83 
 
 Savage, Sir John, inquires as to the Hermitage 107 
 
 Savage, Sir John, inquires as to the Forest ... ... 117 
 
 Savage, Christopher, Mayor of Macclesfield, fell at Flodden ... 178 
 
 Savage Family, succinct account of ... ... 170, 204 
 
 Savage, Viscount ... ... ... ... 193 
 
 Savage, Earl Rivers, his losses in the Civil War ... ... 196, 199 
 
 Savage, Richard, the Poet 203 
 
 Sawkins, Charles, Vicar 247 
 
 Scot. John, the Norman Earl 31 
 
 Says, Sir Desgarry ... ... 58 
 
 Simnel, Lambert, crowned 87 
 
 Smith, Richard, Vicar 225 
 
 Spencer, Richard, Queen's Surveyor 113
 
 272 Index. 
 
 PAGE. 
 Spurstow, Ralph, and others collect a subsidy ... ... ... 84 
 
 Standish, Bishop ... ... ... ... ... ... 50 
 
 Stanley, Sir William 83, 87 
 
 Stanley, Lord Thomas, farmer of Frodsham ... ... ... 82, 88 
 
 Starkey, Hugh 100 
 
 Stephenson, Engineer .. ... ... ... ... 205 
 
 Stretehay, Edmund, Vicar ... ... ... ... ... ... 223 
 
 Swanlow, Richard, Vicar ... ... ... ... ... ... 217 
 
 Swaynmote, Justices of ... ... ... 89 
 
 Synagogue Well ... ... ... ... 12 
 
 T 
 
 Tatton, William, and another Justice in Eyre ... ... 87, 90 
 
 Thornham, John, and others, Bailiffs of the Manor 53 
 
 Thornton, Mrs., her Diary 133 
 
 Tomb, singular date upon 179 
 
 Torfote, Arthur, Bailiff of the Manor 82,87,88 
 
 Torfote, Ludowic, a minor and the King's ward ... ... 88, 91 
 
 Torfote, others of the family mentioned ... ... ... ... 53 
 
 Troutbeck, John, warrant to ... ... ... ... 75 
 
 Troutbeck, William, musters the Edisbury men ... 84 
 
 Tyldesley, Ranulphus de, Vicar 221 
 
 V 
 
 Vale Royal Abbey founded 37 
 
 Villiers, George, Vicar ... ... ... ... ... 242 
 
 Voysey, Archdeacon 95 
 
 W 
 
 Warbeck, Perkin, invades England 91 
 
 Warrington Bridge 49, 125 
 
 Warmyncham, Robert, Vicar 217 
 
 Weapons in common use ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 20 
 
 Werden, Colonel, is visited at Frodsham by Colonel Ireland ... 145 
 
 Wild Birds' Protection Act 166 
 
 Wolley, John, Vicar ... ... 222 
 
 Woodford, Benedict de, Vicar 217 
 
 Woodroofe, Benjamin, Vicar ... 237 
 
 Worsley, General, his letter ... ... ... ... 146 
 
 Wydringt on, Sir Richard ... ... ... ... ... ... 67 
 
 Wynnyngton, Richard ... ... ... ... 63 
 
 Wytton or Wotton, Richard de, Vicar... ... ... ... ... 217 
 
 Printed by PERCIVAL PEARSE, 8, Sankey Street, Warrington.
 
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