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of the fox and grape spirit) pass them over altogether, by referring the reader, in the first place, to Mr. Whatton's memoir on the family of Greslet, published in the Manchester Literary Transactions; and, in the second place, to Kuerden's more ancient account of the barony of Manchester, in his manuscript volume deposited in the Chetham Library; -which account, however inaccurate in some respects it may be deemed, has not hitherto been correctly quoted.

CHAPTER IV.

EVENTS DURING THE BARONIAL SWAY OF ALBERT

GRESLET [JUVENIS], THE FOURTH baron of
THAT NAME.-A.D. 1166?-1182?—Temp.

HENR. II.

While describing the local events of Manchester, it will occasionally be expedient to glance at the general position of the English church, as it varied at different periods.

In the time of Henry the Second, while many enormities of a preceding reign, attributable to an undue exercise of royal authority in ecclesiastical affairs, had been corrected, old disputes were revived regarding the nature and extent of the auThese were very thority claimed by the church. far from being satisfactorily terminated. The church claimed for the clergy an exemption from the lay jurisdiction of the secular courts, which, although recognised by the established usages of the country, had given rise to great abuses among the more licentious members of the church ;which abuses had grown with the growing turbulence of the times. The king, on the other hand, asserted the incompetence of the spiritual courts in cases of criminal jurisprudence, and, in order to exclude, under any circumstances, the ancient right of appeal to the decision of the pope, he not only forbade any clergyman to go beyond the sea without permission of his sovereign, but ordered all causes purely spiritual to be terminated in the court of the archbishop.

And even with this stretch of authority the king was not contented. He exempted the principal officers and tenants of the crown from any spiritual censures whatever of the church; and, lastly, he claimed the custody of all vacant benefices of royal foundation.

It was in the course of these contentions for the immunities of the clerical order that the unfortunate catastrophe occurred of Becket's death. With this view of the general state of the English church at the close of the twelfth century, we may now proceed with our local history.

The exact period when Albert [Juvenis] succeeded to his father, in the possession of his Lancashire estates, is unknown. In the 12th of Henry the Second, A.D. 1166, he confirmed whatever Robert de Gresley and Albert, his son [Albert Senex], had given to the church of Swineshed.

§ 1. THE PARISH OF MANCHESTER, AND CHURCHES

ADJACENT.

Regarding the state of the church of Manchester during the baronial sway of Albert Juvenis, nothing whatever is known.

Hollinworth has referred the chapel of Didsbury, contained within the parish of Manchester, to this period. "Didsbury Chappell, the first chappell that was builded in this parish, was (as is supposed) erected about this time."

In the adjoining parish of "Prestwich-cumOldham," it is imagined, from the architectural character of a font (which I have not seen), that the church of Oldham may be referred to this period.

Lastly, about this time Adam de Spotland either founded or endowed the church of Saint Cedde, in the contiguous parish of Rochdale.-[Baines' Lancashire, vol. ii, p. 624.]

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§ 2. HENRY THE SECOND CONFIRMS THE

MONASTERY OF LENTON, IN NOTTINGHAM-
SHIRE, THE HERMITAGE, OR CELL, OF KER-
SALL.

Henry the Second, who was a great friend to all religious orders, especially to the Cistercians, the monks of Clugni, the Knights Templars, and Carthusians, confirmed to the monastery of Lenton the hermitage, or cell, of Kershal, as is shewn in an inspeximus of King Edward the Second.

"Inspeximus etiam quandam aliam cartam quam idem progenitor noster fecit monachis dictæ ecclesiæ de Lenton in hæc verba:

"Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, &c. R. filio Bern. et omnibus ministris et forestariis suis de intra Ribbile et Merse, salutem. Sciatis nos dedisse et concessisse et hac mea carta confirmasse monachis de Lenton pro, salute mea et hæredum meorum, et pro anima regis H. avi mei et antecessorum meorum hermitagium de Kershala cum omnibus pertinentiis suis in liberam puram et perpetuam elemosinam. Quare volo, &c. T. B. episcopo apud Porcestre."

[From a diploma relating to the monastery of Lenton, given in Dugdale's Monasticon, entitled "Diploma Regis Edw. II, ipsam fundationis cartam necnon donationes diversorum recitans et confirmans."]

Tanner states that this charter of confirmation was granted before the year 1184, when Bartholomew, Bishop of Exeter, who was a witness to it, died. With respect, therefore, to the place which it finds in the annals of Manchester,-as Albert Greslet [Juvenis] was not living in the year 1182, it is a greater chance that the grant occurred during his baronial sway, than during the first two years of his successor.

OF ALBERT GRESLET

§ 3. THE INFEFTMENTS [JUVENIS]. Little more is recorded of the period of Albert Juvenis. The requisitions of the crown for carrying on expensive wars induced this baron to make various subinfeudations of his estates, among which were two bovates of land in Anglezark to the Lathom family, three carucates in Rivington, Rumworth, and Lostock, to the Pierpoints, which, from them, came to the Haltons. He also gave to Alexander Fitz-Umoch two bovates of land in Parva Lofre (Little Lever), for half a mark and twelvepence, or in lieu one of the smaller breed of hawks named a "nisus;"-to Elias of Peunilbury, lands at Slivehall, for twelvepence, or one nisus, annually;—and to William Noreys two bovates in Heton, for rent of ten shillings.

§ 4. DEATH OF ALBERT GRESLET [JUVENIS]. The date of the death of Albert Juvenis is, perhaps, unknown. It would appear that he was not living in the year 1182.

He had married Elizabeth [or, perhaps, Isabel], daughter of Thomas Basset, and sister of William Basset, by whom he left one son, his heir.

CHAPTER V.

DURING THE BARONIAL SWAY OF Robert Greslet, THE FIFTH BARON OF THAT NAME.

At the time when Albert Juvenis died, his son, Robert Greslet, was of very tender years. But even under these circumstances, long before a minor could contract a personal engagement, the sovereign was accustomed to receive his homage as a sort of pledge that the child was the true inheritor of the fief of his father; and that the hereditary transmission of the fief was to be uninterruptedly perpetuated.

With regard to the right of tutelage, some recent provisions to this effect were made during the reign of Henry the Second. But, in the present instance, it would appear that the Norman law had been observed. In Normandy, the administration of a minor's fief was committed to the nearest heir,

while the care of his person was entrusted to such of his relatives as could not inherit from him. We accordingly find, that Robert Greslet was placed under the guardianship of his mother, Isabel, daughter of Thomas Bassett, who afterwards became the wife of Guy de Creoun, and of his uncle, Gilbert Bassett, neither of whom could inherit from their ward.

It is probable that the period of tutelage would be, in some degree, regulated by the Saxon laws, which made an individual legally responsible for his conduct at the age of twelve. That this rule extended to the present case of feudal heirship, can only be surmised from the record, that Robert Greslet, subsequent to the death of his father, was, in the 32nd of Henry the Second (1186), reported to be eleven years of age.

§1. THE SUBORDINATION OF THE PAROCHIAL

CHURCH OF MANCHESTER AT THIS PERIOD
TO AN ARCHPRIEST.

In the year 1188, when Henry the Second determined to undertake a crusade to the Holy Land, in conjunction with the King of France and the Earl of Flanders, he obtained leave from the pope to receive the tenth part of all spiritual promotions for a certain term of years; which tenths were named the "Decima Saladinidæ in subventionem terræ Ierosolymatanæ." This tribute, an early instance of paying tenths, was levied in each parish: "in singulis parochiis, præsente presbytero parochiæ, et archipresbytero, et aliis;" the penalty of default being excommunication.

This quotation is made for no other purpose than to illustrate the ecclesiastical system of ranks which prevailed at the close of the twelfth century in each parish of England, whereby an incumbent was made subordinate to an archipresbyter, or archpriest. It will be shewn hereafter, that the functions of the archpriest became gradually modelled into those of the dean rural. In the meantime, I shall avail myself of the very successful researches of Mr. Dansey, in his Horæ Decanicæ, as well as of the remarks of M. Guizot, in his "Histoire de la Civilisation en France," to explain the origin of the archipresbyteral functions, which, at the present day, are particularly interesting, as they have undergone, in Manchester, and other districts of the diocese of Chester, a recent revival.

It was in the large towns of western Europe, according to M. Guizot, that Christianity, when first taught, met with its earliest support under the presidency of a bishop, who was the primitive element of the order of priests, the commencement [point de départ] of the ecclesiastical congregation, and the inspector, or chief, of the religious assembly of

each town. Subsequently, a greater or less tract of country was formed round the town, or city, wherein the bishop presided, which became the proper diocese of the primitive episcopal see.

There might also be found in many tracts of land, sometimes diocesan, and sometimes independent of the jurisdiction of a town bishop, a number of parishes associated together under the name of "chapitre rural," at the head of which was an archpriest, who, in contradistinction to the bishop who resided in a town, was named the chorepiscopus, or country bishop, as well as episcopus vagus, or ambulatory bishop.

All bishops at first, as Mr. Dansey has remarked, were upon an equal footing; but, when the polity of the church began to conform to the state, the chorepiscopi were considered as vicarii episcoporum, bishops' deputies, or suffragan bishops; and, in the meantime, there was a subjection of the rural to the urban bishop, during which decline we trace the newer appellation given to the chorepiscopus of ARCHPRIEST, or protopresbyter, with the view of reducing him to the subordinate rank of presbyters.

There also arose two kinds of archipresbyters, namely, the cathedral or urban archpriest, who had authority in some city or cathedral church; and the rural archpriest, who was vested with a superintendence over the parish priests of the district in which he was localised.

The rural archpriest, to whom our attention is confined, inspected churches which lay so remote from the city, that they could not be overseen by the bishop in his own person. In the twelfth century, he became an important agent, appointed probably by the pope himself, after the manner of other countries of Europe, to superintend the secular concerns of the groupe of churches assigned to his superintendence. He was appointed, for instance, collector of the decimæ Saladinidæ. He also levied the Rome scot, variously named Peter pence, first imposed by Ina in support of an English school at Rome, the half of which, however, went to the personal support of the pontiff. And whenever the kings of England obtained leave of the Roman see to receive the tenth part of spiritual promotions for a certain term of years, the aid, named "the tenths," became collected by the archpriest, or archipresbyter.

It is probable, also, that the archpriest was placed as a check over the morals of the parochial clergy among whom he was localised;-for it has been properly remarked by a modern writer, in reference to the assertion of William of Newburgh, that the peace was frequently broken by the thefts, rapines, and homicides of clergymen, who, pleading their privilege as clerks, eluded all penalty,-that the prac

tice of ordaining clerks beyond the demand of the country, together with their exemption from civil jurisdiction, had greatly contributed to their degeneracy. [Dr. Vaughan's Wycliffe, vol. i, p. 173.]

Hence arose a system of vigilance, or police, which the times imperiously demanded. But it was not complete without the more enlarged control of a præfectus episcopi, or archdeacon, to whom, in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, the archpriest owed his appointment.

§ 2. THE ARCHDEACONRY OF CHESTER, WITHIN

WHICH MANCHESTER WAS COMPREHENDed.

Manchester was very early included within the archdeaconry of Chester, which formed one of the divisions of the diocese of Lichfield.

This diocese, which, at intervals, underwent a variety of names, as of "Lichfield," "Chester," or "Lichfield and Coventry," which latter designation it eventually retained,-admitted, from a very early period, two archdeaconries, namely, of Chester and of Richmond, in the former of which Manchester was included.

So ancient was the office of archdeacon in the church, that the fact of his having been originally chosen from the order of deacons, whence his name, mounts up to the third century. He is now, as it is well known, selected from the order of priests. His functions, at a later period, bore some faint resemblance to those of the Laodicean periodeutæ, who were "quasi procuratores et episcoporum vicarii." The periodeutes was a sort of circumcursator within a rural circle of churches, appointed by an urban bishop, though, with this provision, that he should unite the office of a parochial incumbent with that of a visiter, which the archdeacon did not, who, in this respect, ranked above the periodeutes.

We hear very little of archdeacons in England until after the Conquest. The clergy appear to have been represented by archdeacons in convocation, to whom they gave letters of proxy to act in their behalf;—an incident which no doubt prevailed in the diocese of Lichfield, where the clergy of Cheshire and Lancashire were represented by an archdeacon, stated of Chester, while those of other contiguous localities were represented by an archdeacon of Richmond. The first account which is transmitted to us of archdeacons being summoned in convocation, was in the 22nd of Henry the First,

1122.

It is supposed that, even in Saxon times, the archdeacon was appointed by the bishop, and that he was the præfectus episcopi in the time of Edgar. In the Norman period, he certainly appears to have owed his appointment, within the vast diocese of

Lichfield, to the necessity which subsisted for alleviating the duties and responsibilities of the diocesan, as well as for generally improving the discipline of the church. The archdeacon was close attendant on the bishop in the episcopal city, and he was sent as a commissary, or mandatory, in the country, though more on secular than on spiritual affairs.

But, although a large district was assigned to the superintendence of an archdeacon, it has been remarked, that about this period the bishops of Lichfield and Coventry still used Chester in their title, on the ground that one or two of their predecessors had there sate.

§ 3. RICHARD THE FIRST Ascends the throne. In the year 1189, Richard the First ascended the throne of England. We find few ecclesiastical events, connected with our local history, which occurred during this reign. The monarch professed a favourable inclination towards the English church, which he would not suffer to be deprived of any of her disputed rights.

In the first year of his reign, the Honour of Lancaster was possessed by the crown. In the fifth year, Richard gave it to his brother John [Lackland], the fourth son of Henry the Second, who had married Alice, daughter and one of the heirs of Herbert, Earl of Mortaigne, in whose right his father had transferred to him this title. Some of the lands formerly belonging to Roger de Poictou were conceded to him, which, at first, did not possess jura regalia. Along with these possessions, John, Earl of Mortaigne (afterwards King John), is said to have been created the first Earl of Lan

caster.

The era of Richard the First was a stirring one in military movements. By a law passed in the preceding reign, whoever held a knight's fee was required to have a coat of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a lance; and every knight was to have as many coats of mail, helmets, shields, and lances as he possessed of knights' fees. Every layman who owned goods, or rents, to the value of sixteen marks, was to have a coat of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a lance; while every free layman who had, in goods, ten marks, was to have an iron gorget, an iron cap, and a lance.

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dition of feudalism, the relation of the vassal to the sovereign obeyed the same law. Each time that the vassal died, the social link was required to be renewed; and hence the ceremonies of homage, the oath of fidelity, and institution. We are accordingly informed, that the homage of Robert Greslet having been accepted, there followed the oath of fidelity, as well as the actual investiture.

Shortly after coming of age, Robert Greslet married a daughter of Henry, brother of William de Longchamp, chancellor to King Richard, with whom he had the lordships of Maslingham and Weston, in the county of Norfolk.

§ 5. ROBERT GRESLET ASSISTS RICHARD THE

FIRST IN HIS EXPEDITION TO NORMANDY. About the time when Robert Greslet came of age, Richard was setting out upon his expedition to Normandy, with the view of commencing immediate hostilities against the French king, and, as the baron of Manchester was summoned to attend his sovereign, we find indications of the efforts which he made in the royal cause, not only in the scutage which he received from his Lancashire tenants, but in the numerous sub-infeftments which ensued. Many of the grants recorded of him were, no doubt, in recompense for the personal services of the adventurous free tenants who followed in the baronial suite. For instance, we find about this time grants of land made to the Latham family in Childwall, Parbold, and Wrightington, severally members of the barony of Manchester. The Pierpoints had sub-infeftments of land in Rumworth;the Samelsbury and Harewode families in Harwode and Sharples, which last gifts were increased by a transfer of lands in Aspul, Turton, and Brockholes, previously in the possession of the Hollands. Robert de Buri had thirteen [or fourteen] bovates of land given him from the lordship of Manchester, in consideration of half a knight's service, while Radulphus [alias Robert] de Emecot had two bovates granted to him, in consideration of six shillings and eightpence annually. The Pilkingtons had also their possessions increased, most probably in return for, or in expectation of, services in the field.

It is reasonable to suppose that corresponding exertions were made by lesser proprietors, such as those who held their estates by thanage, or by drengage, to support the cause of Richard the First. Among the original Saxon stocks were the families of Hulme, of Worthington, of Prestwich, of Withington, of Chorleton, of Chetham, of Middleton, of Hest in Middleton, of Hulton, of Pennelbury, of Clifton, of Notton [or Newton], and of Failesworth. Of these old Lancashire houses various transfers or confirmations of land are recorded.

In fact, the era of Richard the First, while it abounded with feudal confirmations or gifts, was, otherwise, an epoch in the history of landed property; inasmuch as it formed the time of legal prescription. No lands, tenements, rights, or liberties which had been enjoyed in the previous reign of Henry the Second, were required to be proved by any charter or document in writing whatever.

§ 6. THE CRUSADING SPIRIT OF THIS TIME.

There is little more at this period to record of the lordship of Manchester, except that it partook, with every other part of the kingdom, in that religious excitement, which, having been cherished by a lingering after barbaric freedom, stimulated the feudal proprietor to exchange hours of idleness in the country for the perils of an errant life. The spirit of crusade having extended to Manchester, some few heroes of the Paynim fight are still remembered in the oral records of the vicinity. Of these, was Elias, or Elizeus, the giant of Worsleigh, founder of this family, who held the manor of Workeslegh, or Workedlegh, near Manchester. He was, says the tradition, reputed a giant, who fought many duels and combats for the love of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and obtained many victories;-who died at Rhodes, and there lies buried.

The son and heir of Elias the Giant [Elias Gigas as he is named in the feudal entries,] was Richard Workedly, who is said to have gifted lands in Penultsbury and North Dene, as well as pastures in Swinton, to Adam de Penultsbury.

In the year 1821, there was discovered to the south of the Roman station of Castle-field, in Manchester, a sculptured fragment of stone, which, most probably, had existed in the old church of Saint Michael, in Aldport. It represents a figure cross-legged, somewhat after the manner of a knight-templar, the elbow of whose left arm, while resting upon his trusty battle-axe, gives support to the head.

A very unsatisfactory representation of the relic has been published in Baines's History of Lancashire. The height of the stone fragment is one foot ten inches, and its breadth one foot eleven inches and a half. It is deposited in the Natural History Museum of Manchester.

The figure would appear to be arrayed in a shirt of mail [or chain armour]; the cap, of a singular fashion, indicates the same material. The battleaxe, upon the blade of which the warrior reposes, has the opposite end of the shaft planted firmly on the ground. The exact form of this ancient

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