tory, by perusing the list of volumes in his possession, relative to the events of Manchester during the Great Rebellion, all of which he generously allowed me to consult. (See the Addenda to the present volume, page 415.) Nothing now remains for me except to say a few words upon the general nature of the information submitted to the reader. The ecclesiastical information, much of which is collected from very rare and almost inaccessible documents, will, I believe, be found to be for the first time published; nor can it be perused by the most hasty reader without his conviction, that the College of Manchester gave the impulse to all the important ecclesiastical events which took place in Lancashire from the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth, down to the commotions of the year 1745. Many facts are also narrated, particularly during the great civil wars of England, which not only reflect a new light upon the general history of Lancashire, but are calculated to explain many obscure points in the ecclesiastical annals of the kingdom at large. These I have assiduously collected, and have endeavoured to record with impartiality and fidelity. EDINBURGH, June 24th, 1830. S. HIBBERT. HISTORY OF THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH. INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE PARSONAGE AND DEANERY OF MANCHESTER, CONCLUDING WITH THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH :-WITH MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE MORE GENERAL ANNALS OF THE TOWN. a Written for this work by SAMUEL HIBBERT, M. D. F. R. S. E. &c. " MANCHESTER was originally situated on the northern banks of the river Medlock, upon the site of ground known at the present day by the name of the Castle Field. The learned Whittaker, the historian of Manchester, has supposed, that, as a place of defence, it owed its origin to the Sistuntii, the earliest possessors of the south of Lancashire, by whom the settlement was named Mancenion," a When studying, some years ago, the very erudite researches of the Reverend J. Whittaker, my attention was attracted to the more early Ecclesiastical History of Manchester. Finding, therefore, on the present occasion, that the late Mr Greswell's collections on this particular subject were comparatively few, I have drawn up the present memoir from my own resources. "The dimensions of Mancenion," says Mr Whittaker, " are still very discernible. It filled the whole area of the present Castle Field, except the low swampy part of it on the west, and was twelve acres, three roods, and ten perches in extent. Terminated by the windings of the Medlock on the south, south-east, and south-west, it was bounded on the east by a fosse, on the west by the present very lofty bank, and on the north by a broad ditch."-" And all along the A |