§ 6 bis. THE FIRST RECORDED DEAN RURAL OF

MANCHESTER.

There is a vice which pervades the whole of the remarks of Mr. Whittaker, on the rural deanery of Manchester. This truly erudite, yet fanciful author, having set out with the proofless assertion that a rural dean existed in Manchester in Saxon times, the whole of his reasoning has been made to bend to a vain system of theorizing. The consequence is, that while many important facts have been glanced over, if not suppressed, trivial circumstances have been made to acquire a most undue prominence. For instance, the constant residence of a rural dean in Manchester has been inferred from the name of a street, the Denesgate of ancient charters [not Deansgate], which Whittaker supposes to have led from Aldport on the south, and from the Baron's Hull on the north, to the intermediate mansion of the rector or dean, whence the origin of the name Denesgate, improperly spelled Deansgate."-[Whittaker's Manchester, 4to., vol. ii, p. 408.] This sanguine author has even subjected to graphic description a half timbered building of no Saxon date whatever, supposed by him to have been the house of the deanery, which my old friend, the late Mr. Aston, in his "Guide," has afforded us the means of examining for ourselves, by referring us for the site thereof to "Number 94, Deansgate."

66

In a later view, however, which I have taken of the etymology of Denesgate, the supposition is wholly untenable. The remarks which I have to offer on this etymology, in addition to others which will suggest themselves, when I describe the naturally fortified site of ground selected for the newer residence of the baron of Manchester,-are as follows:

According to Dr. Bosworth, the Saxon name "dene," signifies "a valley."

But Mr. Chadwick, in a genealogical history of his family [Corry's Lancashire, vol. ii, p. 606], limits the word dene to a particular kind of valley, "convallis, a narrow valley or dale, enclosed on both sides with hills, and often exhibiting woods and streams of water convenient for feeding cattle." I believe that this restricted meaning is strikingly exemplified on the northern suburbs of Edinburgh, at the place where the valley through which the water of Leith flows takes the name of "Dene." Another Scottish dene, in the same vicinity, is the well known Hawthorn Dene, or Hawthornden. In Lancashire we have many of these denes, as North Dene, near Manchester, and Saint Mary's Dene, near Bolton, where a church dedicated to the virgin was built; it is now simply named "Dene." We have also Spodden, or Spawdene, subsequently

named Healey Deane, or the Holy Dene, near Rochdale. But as it is needless to multiply examples of this kind, the only remark demanded on this occasion is, that a dene, or valley, of this precise kind, under the name subsequently given to it of "The Hanging-ditch," insulated the fortified site of the Baron's Hull. Hence, as the Roman road which led from Aldport conducted to this dene, where a rivulet was required to be crossed, the said road was simply named "the Dene's-gate."

This is no fanciful etymology. There is a Denesgate in the populous town of Bolton-leMoors, where certainly no rural dean is ever recorded to have sojourned; while there is not far from the town a valley, or dene, to which the Denesgate of Bolton leads.

In short, while Mr. Whittaker has attached to the title of "Dean of Manchester" a date of origin many centuries earlier than can be confirmed by written evidence (which I was the first to point out in a former edition of this work), the error was still farther complicated by the functions of the dean and rector being necessarily united in one and the same person, whence the conclusion, that the constant residence of the dean must be sought for in the parsonage land of the Denesgate.

We have, in fact, no evidence whatever of the existence of a dean of Manchester prior to the present period of our history, namely, the reign of Richard the First. In a confirmation made by Hugo, Bishop of Coventry, of a mediety of the church of Eccles with all its appurtenances, at the presentation of Editha de Barton, and by the consent of Robert Grelley,-which grant is dated at Wynewhik, in the month of April, 1192, "in the second year after the king had set out for Jerusalem," the deed is witnessed, among other persons, by "J. Decanus de Mamecestr."-[Coucher Book, or Chartulary of Whalley Abbey, edited by W. A. Hulton, Esq., for the Chetham Society, vol. i, p. 39-40.]

The occurrence of the name of a rural dean of Manchester at this particular period, so soon after the year 1188 [see pages 22 and 23], is a point of no little historical importance, as bearing upon two questions, first, whether the dean rural was, or was not necessarily located in Manchester,-and, secondly, whether the functions of the dean rural and rector of Manchester were, or were not united in the same individual.

These questions, answered with great temerity by Whittaker, will be discussed when I have to speak of Albert de Neville, the first usually recorded rector of Manchester, whose name has transpired. But of this, there may be a doubt.

§ 7. RANULPHUS DE WELLING, RECTOR OF MAN

CHESTER.-TEMP. RICHARD I.

From the time of Edward the Confessor, when the church of Manchester is recorded to have been endowed with a carucate of land, down to the reign of Richard the First, at the close of the twelfth century, there has not been hitherto the name of a single rector of Manchester known, until, in the reign of John, we meet with an Albert de Neville disputing with the prior of Lenton regarding a parochial right of sepulture infringed upon by the monks of Kershal.

A friend, however, upon whose accurate information I place the greatest reliance, informs me, that in a deed of the 6th of Richard the First (A. D. 1194-5), relating to the contiguous parish of Prestwich, he saw the name recorded, as a witness, of RANULPHUS DE WELLING, RECTOR OF MANCHESTER.

It would appear, then, that we have evidence of a dean rural of Manchester living in the year 1188, and, in the present instance, of a rector of Manchester existing about six years afterwards. But, as the intervention of even this short period renders the evidence imperfect whether the functions of the dean rural and rector were, or were not united in the same individual, the question will be postponed until we have to speak of Albert de Neville.

As I am unable to give any account of Ranulphus de Welling, Rector of Manchester, I shall merely describe the arms of the family of Wellings as given by Mr. Burke in his general armoury of England, Scotland, and Ireland, published in 1842. Ar. a bend, per bend, az and gu. six mullets of the third.

§8. KING JOHN CONFIRMS THE GRANT OF THE

CELL, OR HERMITAGE, AT KERSALL, TO THE
MONASTERY OF LEnton.

In the year 1189, John [Lackland], who possessed the Honour of Lancaster, succeeded to the throne of England.

About this time, Elias Fitz-Robert held the wapentake of Salford, by sergeanty.-[Baines's Lancashire, vol. ii, p. 144.]

In the new edition of the Monasticon Anglicanum of Dugdale, King John's confirmation to the monastery of Lenton, in Nottinghamshire, of the Cluniac hermitage of Kersal, said to have been founded by Henry the Second, has a date assigned to it of the 6th of April, in the first year of the reign of John, A.D. 1199.

Since this account was printed, I discovered in the "Rotuli Chartarum," the charter to which this

statement refers:-and, it is worthy of remark, that the document appears to be the same which Hollinworth assigns to the date of Edward the Second. His statement is as follows:

"Edward the 2nd" [he should have said King John] "gave and graunted, or rather confirmed the Hermitage of Kershall (which had bin given and graunted by his predecessor), to the monkes of Lenton in Nottinghamshire, to have and to hould it in puram et perpetuam eleemosynam, as freely, peaceably, quietly, and honorably as Hugo de Burun (who gave certain lands to that monastery and became a monke) had held the same."

This account, furnished by Hollinworth, inaccurate in point of date, will be illustrated by an extract from the Rotuli Chartarum, vol. i, part 1, p. 56.

Anno primo Johannis. Johannes Dei gracia Rex Anglie &c.-Sciatis nos concessisse &c.-ecclesie Sancte Trinitatis de Lenton et monachis ibidem Deo servientibus * Concessimus et

hac carta nostra confirmavimus eisdem monachis

de Lenton pro salute nostra et [progenitorum] predictorum nostrorum et pro animabus Henrici Regis patris nostri et Henrici Regis avi patris nostri et antecessorum nostrorum hermitagium de Kershal cum omnibus pertinenciis suis in liberam puram et perpetuam elemosinam Quare volumus et firmiter precipimus ut predicti monachi nostri libere et quiete in pace et honorifice teneant predictum hermitagium sic[ut] Hugo de Burun monachus eorum liberius et quietius tenuit.

We also learn from the foregoing document that the Hugo de Burun, who, as I have recorded, gave various lands at Cotegrave, in Derbyshire, and elsewhere to the priory of Lenton, assumed the cowl, and retired, as a Čluniac monk, to the hermitage of Kersall, of which he became the first monk. This recluse was the grandfather of Robert de Burun, who, in the 1st of John, married Cecilia, daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Clayton, whence sprang the Lancashire families of the Byrons of Clayton, and Barons of Rochdale.[Baines's Lancashire, vol. ii, p. 617.]

But to return to the hermitage of Kelsall. It would appear that some of the land contiguous to the cell of Kersall, had been in possession of the Hulton family, and it is not improbable that, with the view of adding to the land of the hermitage at Kersall, Jornocchio [or Jorwerth] de Hulton was allowed, in the same year, to surrender certain possessions, namely, the woods of Barton and the wood of Kereshall, in excambion for the crown lands of Pendleton villa, in the parish of Eccles.

The lands of Pendleton, thus acquired by the Hulton family, were described, at first, as "Penes

Hulton," whence the subsequent corruptions of Penhulton, Pennelton, Penelton, Penyelton, and, lastly, Pendleton.

$9. ROBERT GRESLET RESISTS THE TYRANNY OF

KING JOHN.

In 1215, during the quarrel of the king with his barons, in which England became tributary to the Roman see, Innocent the Third excommunicated all such as were employed in invading John's dominions, or otherwise rendering aid to his enemies at home or abroad. Among many barons thus placed under the censure of the church, was "Robert de Gressei," or Greslet.

Two years afterwards, in the 17th of John, we find Robert de Greslet present when Magna Charta was signed. His name was appended to a deed dated on the 20th of June.

In the course of the year following he appeared in Rutland and in Leicestershire, where he was in arms against the king, upon which, Adam de Yealand was ordered to seize, for the use of the crown, the castle of Manchester, as is shewn in John's epistle to the sheriff of Lancaster, dated on the 7th of February, in the seventeenth year of his reign.

"The king to the sheriff of Lancaster, health. Know, that we have committed to our beloved and faithful Adam de Yeland the castle of Robert Greslet of Maincestr, with all appurtenances, and all the land of the same Robert which he had within the Lyme [infra Lymam] to be held so long as it shall please us. Wherefore

we also command, that you may direct full saisine to be made to the same Adam of the aforesaid castle, with appurtenances, and of the said land within the Lyme."-[From the Rotuli Litterarum Pat., vol. i, part 1, p. 165.]

There is no question but that by this castle old Mancastle was implied, which, notwithstanding a subsequent removal of the baronial residence from Alport to a newer site near the confluence of the Irk and the Irwell, would still be kept up for purposes of defence, as a garrison to the town. This seems, however, to have been the last occasion when old Mancastle was recorded in history. It is stated that while this order for the seizure of Manchester continued in force, Ranulph de Blundeville, the sixth Earl of Chester, who had then the custody of the Honour of Lancaster, executed the office of sheriff by his deputies; and, as Robert Greslet had taken part with the rebellious lords, his earldom was forfeited and seized.

The king, however, was desirous to give the baron of Manchester the opportunity of renewing his adherence to the crown, and sent letters of safeguard, dated from the day of Circumcision, in

the seventeenth year of his reign, A.D., 1216, to last three weeks. He also granted to William Maresa, the younger, and to Hugo de Vivian, all the land which was Robert Greslet's, in order that wherewithal they might be enabled to better support the royal cause-which cause, however, was far too tottering for orders such as these to be executed.-[Rot. Litt. Patent., vol. i, part 1, p. 162 and 169; and Rot. Litt. Claus., p. 311 and 313.

During the continuance of the reign of John, spiritual dominion, or the influence of the clergy, waxed still stronger, while the temporal power fell into a nullity. This progress, however, of the church towards domination, was not made without great efforts of resistance by the temporal authorities. The barons having been excommunicated, and Magna Charta having been adjudged by the pope to be degrading to his vassal the king of England, the nobles in revenge offered the kingdom to the French, which offer was the signal of a bloody war. But, in the mean time, the reign of John was drawing to a close. During his military progress from Lynn to Sleaford, while crossing the Lincolnshire marshes, after having lost the whole of his baggage and narrowly escaped with his life, he rested at the monastery of Swineshead (founded by the ancestors of Robert Greslet), where, from fatigue and anxiety, he died.

After this event a new state of things ensued, and Robert Greslet found himself in quiet possession of his estates in Lancashire and other counties.

§ 10. ALBERT DE NEVILLE, RECTOR OF MAN

CHESTER.

In the Rotuli Curiæ regis, vol. ii, p. 161 and 184, we find the name mentioned of an Albert de Neville, who, like many other succeeding rectors of Manchester, seems to have been as much, or nearly so, employed in the secular concerns of his patron, as in the spiritual affairs of his incumbency. Robert Greslet, during the troubles of the reign of John, had been called to account for having broken his surety, or pledge, in detaining and assaulting Hugo Scott, a deputy lieutenant of Rutland, in the course of his duty. Accordingly, in the law plea which ensued to determine the extent of the injury, Robert Grelle is said to have nominated in his place Albert de Neville, that is, made him his attorney, while Hugo Scott appointed on his side Robert the Clerk.

That an Albert Neville was rector of Manchester is proved from a document discovered by the late Mr. Palmer, architect, of Manchester, among records collected by Keurden, and deposited with the College of Arms. It is the copy of a deed, in which Albert de Neville conveys land in Newton

to a member of the Byron family,--which family had about this time acquired, by marriage, some estates in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Thus we read of a Robert de Byron, who having married Cecilia, daughter and heiress of the lord of Clayton, became possessed of the manor of Rochdale; but, it is added, that Failesworth and Droylsden were afterwards added to the estates of the family. In the present deed (which I fear is rather imperfectly transcribed), we meet with a John de Buran [or Byron].

Nouerint presentes q'd Albertus de Neuille rector ecclesiæ beatæ Mariæ de Manchester de' [dedit]. Joh'i de Buran pro hom'gio suo qu'ndam ptem terræ meæ in Newton infra [intra?] has divisas vid't incipiendo à Medelac p Shitefaldclogh [the abruptly shelving clough? A. S.] ascend' usque ad Blacklash et p Blacklash ascend' usque ad caput de Kirksagh et sic usque in rivulum de Faylsworth et descend' usque ad Medalach descend' usque ad Shitfaldclogh Hab' de me redd' 3, 4 [3 solid' et 4 denar'?] [et?] 2 cerios 11be ad Ass. B'. Mariæ. Test' H. de Neuille Walt de.........Roberto de Astuton [Ashton?] Rico de Bureen Rob'to de Bureen Rog' de Midleton Alex' de Pilkington Jordano Noreues H de Trafford Rad de Moston

Rico Clerico.

It would thus appear that Albert de Neville conveys to John de Byron certain lands in Newton (the boundaries of which are carefully particularised), in consideration of a rent of three shillings and fourpence annually, and two wax candles of a pound weight, to be paid at the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary.

§ 11. WAS ALBERT NEVILLE A DEAN RURAL AS WELL AS RECTOR OF MANCHESTER?

As the first recorded name of the rectors of Manchester is that of "Albert Neville," the question before us is suggested by the assertion of Mr. Whittaker, in his history of Manchester, that, from the seventh century, the persona ecclesiæ of Manchester was a rural dean. But with whatever success the inquiry may have been treated by the historian of Manchester, a far more important light has been thrown upon the character of the rural deans of England by the elaborate researches of ir. Dansey. In expressing, therefore, my very great obligations to the reverend and erudite author of the Hora Decanica Rurales, for the assistance which he has rendered me in the course of this inquiry, I shall refer in a general manner to his work for most of the information on the subject of rural deans, which will appear in the subsequent pages of this work. [Hora Decanica Rurales, &c. By William Dansey, A.M., &c., 2 vols., 1835.]

L

It has been already shewn, that upon the abolition of rural bishops (chorepiscopi or periodeutes) presiding over regions surrounding the chief city of the urban bishop, it was common to appoint for each district a parochial visiter, named an archipresbyter, or archpriest ;-" presbyterorum primus præfectus." In some districts, however, ten parishes, ten churches, or ten priests were variously assigned to the superintendence of the archpriest, when he became a decanus, or dean; while, at the same time, a decanatus, or deanery, expressed a tract of country in which were ten parishes, or, otherwise, ten churches. It would likewise appear that many bishops divided their respective dioceses into decennaries, deaneries, or tithings, each of which was the district of an archpriest, now named a rural dean, who exercised his functions under the title of decanus episcopi. The date in which such a distribution occurred is assigned to the close of the eighth, or the beginning of the ninth century. But there is no evidence to shew that the modelling of archipresbyrates into rural deaneries was universal in England. It is merely urged that when such a modification did actually occur, the archpriest previously existing in an ecclesiastical district, acquired the new title of rural dean."Archipresbyteri qui et decani rurales appellantur."

The origin of this very early and systematic aggregation of ten persons, or localities, over which a decanus was the president, is lost in the mists of antiquity. In the civil constitution of the Saxons, the decenna was the compass of mutual responsibility, within which each man was pledged; it included ten householders, who were severally bound for the peaceable behaviour of each other. In the ecclesiastical institutes, not only of the Saxons, but of certain other nations of Christendom, the decanus, or dean, like the decennarius, or chief person of ten householders, was the president of ten persons, or places, or of both together: for instance, in monasteries, he was the president over ten monks;-decanos vocant eò quòd sint denis præpositi;-in metropolitan towns, or cathedrals, over ten prebendaries; and in a group of rural churches, over ten clerks, &c.

Mr. Whittaker, without the shadow even of a proof, has placed a dean rural in Manchester so early as the seventh century. But Mr. Dansey conceives that it was not until the eleventh century that, with the view of bringing multiplied parochial cures within the pale of discipline, a certain number of incumbencies, or presbyteries, were thrown together, so as to constitute an archipresbyrate (districtus archipresbyteri ruralis), over which the elder priest (the archipresbyter) presided. In 1052, such an archpriest is recorded in

England under the title of decanus episcopi. He took cognizance of any violation of the peace within his deanery, and, conjointly with the earl and the king, received a share of the amendation, or fine, of eight pounds awarded upon it;—the king's share being one hundred shillings, the earl's fifty, while the dean received the remaining ten shillings, the number of which was symbolic of his office of decanus, or decennarius:-"Decanus autem episcopi in cujus decanatu pax fracta fuerit reliquos decem."

After an archipresbyrate had been thus modelled into a decanate, it is supposed, by Mr. Dansey, that the office became somewhat secularised, and that the decanus episcopi was converted into a sort of country magistrate, and was empowered to have the sole inspection of the group of clergy and laity among whom he dwelt; that he was less a mere diocesan mandatory, than a local incumbent, invested with a capacity to visit and correct defaults within the sphere of his jurisdiction. Nor was it an office much coveted:" Ruralis archipresbyter non dignitas est, sed simpliciter ad episcopi voluntatem revocabile officium."

It is thus shewn, that instead of a dean rural having existed in Manchester so early as the seventh century, according to the proofless assertion of Whittaker, there is no evidence of his identification in England previous to the eleventh century. During the twelfth century, the name of dean rural becomes much more familiar to us. In the sister kingdom of Ireland there existed the "Corb" (deduced by a barbarous contraction from chorepiscopus), who, in 1152, was succeeded by the dean rural. The churches which had been the seats of prelacies were made the capitals of deaneries; and, in lieu of the chorepiscopi, there was instituted in them archpriests, or rural deans. In 1175, a rural dean is recorded in Norfolk; and, in 1186, a dean of Craven was, according to Whittaker (the historian of Whalley), rector of Arncliffe, in Yorkshire.

The rural dean having been thus traced from the eleventh to the close of the twelfth century, we naturally arrive at the question,-If, at the close of the reign of John, or during the commencement of that of Henry the Third, a dean rural was to be found in Manchester?

It is certain, that the absence of any such a title in the designation of Albert de Neville, who merely styles himself "Rector of the Church of the Blessed Mary of Manchester," discountenances any assumption of the kind, and even tends to the direct invalidation of what Whittaker has advanced. At the same time there is no ground for the disbelief that Manchester did not, in the twelfth century, form a central parish within a group of ten similar

districts, such as can be proved to have subsisted a century later. But it must be kept in view, that any one of the personæ ecclesiæ, to be found in such an aggregate of parishes, might have been created by the bishop a superintendent over the whole, in the quality of a dean rural.

The proper inquiry then is,-Which of the incumbents contained within the rural deanery of Manchester held, at the close of the twelfth century, the office of rural dean? Was it the incumbent of Manchester, Eccles, Prestwich, Bury, Middleton, Rochdale, Ashton, Flixton, Blackburn, or even Whalley?

The question cannot be answered by any known existing records. Nor is there any reason for supposing that the rector of Manchester was also of necessity the rural dean. On the contrary, we are assured that the decanus ruralis non est perpetuus

sed est amotivus ab officio ad nutum superioris, cujus est minister.-[Decan. Rur., vol. i, p. 144.] § 12. THE REVERENCE WITH WHICH THE CLUNIAC

MONKS OF KERSALL WERE HELD.

The fame of the Cluniac order had at this time attained so great a height of celebrity, that there was scarcely any place in Europe where the order was not known. By the supreme dignitary, or abbot, of Clugni, Christendom was divided into ten provinces, generally containing more or fewer establishments of their order, of which England and Scotland formed one united province. Within the priory of Lenton, in Nottinghamshire, the establishment of the order was supported with no little cost. There was a great prior, deans, a cloister-prior, chanters, masters for the boys, a prechanter, a cupboard keeper, who kept the books in use for the church, chamberlains, who took care of the clothing, a treasurer, a cellarer [a master of the guests], an almoner, and an infirmary keeper.

Some curious incidents are recorded of the Cluniac rule, from which it will be inferred, that the monks introduced to the cell of Kershall were devout, abstemious, charitable to the indigent (among whom they distributed what was left in their refectory), hospitable to poor travellers, promoters of the cultivation of music, and assiduous in the labour of public education. To their object in fixing their cell, or cells, near the dangerous fords of the Irwell, sufficient explanation has been already given.

These estimable qualities form prominent traits in recommendation of their discipline, which otherwise might appear trifling, and even fastidious.

Thus, among various observances, they were remarkable for the extraordinary care with which they solemnized the sacrifice of the mass. In prepar