As manye, more pyttie! sacred orders doe take, Yt ys great grace yf such one doe prove well; Where fancye of freinds shall choose for the partye. December 5th, 1500, James Stanley was admitted archdeacon of Richmond, (Willis, Vol. I. p. 131,) and, five years afterwards, made precentor of Salisbury, having been also prebendary of the churches of Southwell and Rippon. A. D. 1505, care was taken of the reparation of the chapel standing on Salford Bridge, built by Thomas de Booth in the reign of Edward the Third. During this wardenship great additions were made to the structure of the Collegiate Church "Who contributed most to the building," says Hollingworth, "is not certainly known; but the names and arms of the Stanleys, Wests, Radcliffes of Radcliffe, (of whom some remains of alabaster monuments are said to have been visible formerly,) Byrons, Radcliffes of Ordsall, and others, in the windows, before they were destroyed, witnessed their assistance in it." Richard Bexwicke is also recorded to have done "many works of piety and charity towards the master and fellows, and for the decent and honourable reparation of the choir, and body of the church; and other parishioners, doubtless, did freely contribute thereto;" as, for instance, a private individual of the name of Bibby built the porch of the church.-Hollingworth's Mancuniensis. The family of Bexwicke erected the superb stalls and wood-work on the north side of the choir. Those of the south are attributable to the munificence of Warden Stanley. It is supposed that the chapter-house was raised by the members of the college, assisted by contributions from other individuals. This is indicated by the remains of sundry coats of arms near the ceiling. The erection of a chapel on the east of ▾ The accounts vary much with regard to the respective share which the warden and the family of Bexwicke had in the building of the choir. In one MS. it is stated that Richard Bexwicke erected the walls and wood-work, not of the north, but of the south side of the choir; but the merchant's mark of this individual on the north side of the choir, and the arms of Warden Stanley on the south, fix to each their proper portion of expence and bounty. The north side of the choir is again attributed, not to Richard Berwicke, but to Richard Beck, who married Isabel, the daughter of Richard Bexwicke. It is in vain to attempt the reconciliation of all these various statements. the choir, which was dedicated to OUR LADY THE VIRGIN MARY," is attributed to the Lord de la Warre. * "Anno 1506, James Stanley, master or keeper of the College, Sir John Bamford, William Bradford, John Lording, Rich. Massy, Ralph Mody, Henry Syddall, and John Bexwicke, priests, fellows, parsons, or rectors, and proprietors, of the church, granted certain privileges to JESUS CHAPPELL, on the south, built by the said Richard, (son of Roger) Bexwicke, of Manchester, and the chaplaines of the guild, (the first or chiefe of which was Sir Oliver Thornelly,) that they should not only officiate there, but also should receive all gifts, oblations, and obventions given to the service of Jesus Christ, and in the honour of the name of Jesus."-Hollingworth's Mancuniensis. A chapel, next to Jesus Chapel, was built by Thomas de Booth, Knight. The saint to whom it was dedicated was ST NICHOLAS, whose name a chauntry belonging to the same family had borne in the old church of St Mary. William Galley, merchant of Manchester, Elizabeth, his wife, and Nicholas, his brother and executor, erected, at their own cost, the lowest chapel on the south side of the church. William Galley lies buried in the middle of this chauntry, under a stone which recorded its foundation.' The chapel was dedicated to ST GEORGE, where morning services were wont to be preached, and where the statue of Saint George on horseback was hanged up.-Hollingworth's Mancuniensis. The statues of the Virgin Mary, and of St Dyonysius, the two other patron saints, were upon the two highest pillars next to the choir. Unto them usually did men bow at their coming into the church.-Hollingworth's Mancuniensis. ST JAMES'S CHAPEL is said to have been founded by Hulton of Ordshall, afterwards Hulton of Hulton Park, whose arms were to be seen on the south side of the chapel in stone.-Ainscough's MS. "In it," says Hollingworth, " is a pardon, under the picture of the resurrection of Christ from the sepulchre. The pardon for V Paternosters, V Aves, and a Credo, is xxvi thousand and xxvi days of pardon." w This information is collected from a MS. pen. the late Rev. J. Brookes. Another account, (probably an erroneous one,) states that the chapel was dedicated to St Michael. * This structure is usually ascribed to a successive warden, George West, third son of Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Warre, but doubtfully. In the ancient MS. (pen. the Rev. J. Brookes,) it is said, "but some are of opinion that the warden was not the founder, but his brother the Lord de la Warre, his arms being found there, without any distinction of a younger brother. ▾ William Galley died A. D. 1508. James Stanley, warden, and his natural son, John Stanley, undertook to build the large chapel on the north side of the church in honour of JESUS CHRIST AND JOHN THE Baptist. Hollingworth describes the windows as having been all richly painted in his time they were more entire. The following is an account of some of them: "The east window of the south aisle had Michael and his angels; the nine orders of angels fighting with the dragon and his angels. The east window of the north aisle had St Austin and St Ambrose singing Te Deum Laudamus;' and the other window some canonical or ecclesiastical story. In the middle stanchion of every window, especially in the twenty-four uppermost windows, was the picture of the Virgin Mary; but at the uppermost end of the outmost north alley, near to Strangeway's chapel, was a very rich window, whereby was described our Saviour's arraignment and crucifixion, with some pictures of the Trinity, with these verses: God that is of mighty most, Fadur, and Son, and Holy Gost; Gyff [grace to them that shal doe well,] And keep thayr soulis out of Hell, That made thys wyndowe, as ye may see, In worshippe of the Trenity. 2 "In the corner, under this window, it is probable that there stood an altar, and that it was a place of much devotion. It was said it was for the country." In 1506, James Stanley was promoted to the see of Ely by the pope's bull of provision, bearing date 17th July. The temporalities were restored, November 5th following, by the king, who also, by a grant dated the 13th of the same month, gave him the whole profits of the see, during the vacancy, to the amount of nearly L. 2500. On this occasion he resigned the wardenship of Manchester.* z In copy another of Mr Hollingworth's Mancuniensis, a fragment of other lines is added: ....................gode ending. "Shu*.... .........ys wy-do goff any thynge." The arms of Bishop Stanley, as given in the Anglia Sacra, are entirely wrong, and bear no resemblance to his real ones, which are thus blazoned: Quarterly of 4 pieces. 1st quarter, quarterly, 1st and 4th Argent on a bend Azure, 3 bucks heads caboshed, Or, for Stanley; 2d and 3d, Or, on a chief indented Azure, 3 plates for Lathom; 2d and 3d Gules, 3 human legs conjoined at the thighs and armed, in triangle, Argent, spurs, Or, for the Isle of Man; 4th, as the first. These arms are ascertained from an ornament belonging to the old episcopal palace at Somersham or Downham. King Harrye the VIIth., a prynce noble and sage, He builded Sommersome, the byshoppes' chief manner, For byshoppes that then was, this was no dispraise. Metrical History of the House of Stanley. CHAPTER VI. ANNALS OF THE WARDENSHIP OF ROBERT CLIFF, AND OF HIS SUCCESSOR, From various sources. THE Bishop of Ely having resigned the wardenship in 1509, was succeeded by Robert Cliff, the sixth warden, who is variously stiled B.D. and D.D. After the late warden, James Stanley, had been promoted to the Bishopric of Ely, his usual residence in summer was at Somersham, near St Ives, in Huntingdonshire. The winter he generally spent with his brother in Derbyshire, as the Hundred of Derby was then called, making at the same time frequent visits to Manchester, where he also sojourned; his place of abode being at Alport, near which a street still retains the name of the Bishop's Gate. Fuller, in adverting to these places of residence, has observed, that he blamed not the prelate for passing the summer with his brother, the Earl of Derby, in Lancashire, but " for living all the winter at Somersham with one who was not his sister, and who wanted nothing to make her his wife save marriage." b During the wardenship of Robert Cliff, Hugh Oldham, D.D. and Bishop of Exeter, founded the Grammar School of Manchester, which was subjected to the visitation of the warden and fellows of the college. We have no information how long Cliff held his wardenship; but in the course b Dr Ormrod has supposed that this lady was the mother of the Bishop's natural son, Sir John Stanley of Hondford. of four or five years after he had entered upon the duties of his office he was succeeded by Master Alday." In 1513, when Sir Edward Stanley led the forces of Lancashire and Cheshire into Flodden Field, the Bishop of Ely sent his own retainers to the expedition, under the command of his natural son, "yonge John Stanlye," who, for the distinguished bravery he displayed on this occasion, won his golden spurs." The Bishop of Ely continued to feel the deepest interest in the prosperity of the church of Manchester, to which he had so liberally contributed. In the year 1513, the spacious and elegant chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist appears to have been finished. The joint contributors were, as has been stated, Bishop Stanley and Sir John Stanley, who held the manor of Hondford, in right of his wife Margaret, then a minor. Over the door of the chancel of St John the Baptist < Mr Whatton was the first to enumerate among the list of wardens the name of Alday; of this warden we know nothing.-Robert Cliff, after he left Manchester, became rector of Northwold and Outwell, in the county of Norfolk. d Next with Sir John Stanley there yede The Bishop of Ely's servants bold. The identity of the bishop's illegitimate son with Sir John Stanley, mentioned in the ancient ballad of Flodden Field, has been rendered more than probable in an elegant dissertation on " the Earls of Derby, and the verse writers and poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries," written (for private circulation) by Thomas Heywood, Esq. F. A. S. The following account of Sir John Stanley is collected by Dr Ormrod in his History of Cheshire. "He founded a chauntry in Manchester Collegiate Church, where the bones of his father yet lie under an altar tomb, graced with his effigy. The south chancel of Cheadle bears in its windows the arms of this Sir John in the place usually assigned to the insignia of a founder; and for some other benefaction now unknown, John, abbot of Westminster, grants to this Sir John Stanley and Dame Margaret, his wife, and to John Stanley, their heir, and Anne Stanley, his sister, that they shall be prayed for in that monastery in vitâ pariter et in morte,' and in all other places in their order through England, and that their names shall be enrolled in their martyrology post obitum. The grant is dated Jan. 5, 1527, under the common seal of the abbey. For the sequel of Sir John Stanley's life, see Lord Herbert's History of Henry the Eighth. Among the articles preferred against Cardinal Wolsey, the thirty-eighth article states, That the said Cardinal did call before him Sir John Stanley, Knight, which had taken a farm by convent seal of the abbot and convent of Chester, and afterwards by his power and might, contrary to right, committed the said Sir John Stanley to the prison of fleet, by the space of one year, until such time as he compelled the said Sir John to release his convent seal to one Leghe of Adlington, which married one Lark's daughter, which woman the said Lord Cardinal kept, and had with her |