Transcribed from the [1852] George Prichard edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org.  Transcribed from British Library scans.

A HISTORY
OF
CHESTER CATHEDRAL:

WITH

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE BISHOPS
AND DEANS.

BY
A Member of the Chester Archæological Society.

“On entering a Cathedral, I am filled with devotion and with awe; I am lost to the actualities that surround me, and my whole being expands into the infinite; earth and air, nature and art, all swell up into eternity, and the only sensible impression left is, that I am nothing.”—Coleridge.

CHESTER:
GEORGE PRICHARD, BRIDGE STREET ROW,
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

p. iiiTO THE

VERY REVEREND THE DEAN OF CHESTER,

THE FOLLOWING HISTORY OF THE

Cathedral Church

IS (BY HIS KIND PERMISSION) RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,

BY

HIS MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT,

THE PUBLISHER.

p. 1A VISIT TO THE CATHEDRAL.

When we reflect upon the momentous and happy results which have always followed the introduction of Christianity amongst a people;—how it has ever proved an up-lifting and progressive power; influencing man in the holiest affections and most inward laws of his moral being; extending its benign agency through all the relationships of social life, and acting in various methods as a living principle in the community;—we think that in ascribing to our religious history a deeper significance and importance than appertains to any other department of inquiry, we are only claiming for it a position which may be established by a wide induction of facts.

The condition of a nation, socially and politically, is to a great extent decided by the character of its religious teaching and worship.  The history of our own country, and that of every other in the world, affords many striking illustrations of the fact.  Many instances might be quoted where the connection is remarkably verified, and we venture to ascribe the p. 2proud position of England mainly to the operation of its Christian faith.

The churches of Britain were the outbirths of its religious life.  They were reared by the earnest piety of our forefathers.  Their history presents an inviting sphere of investigation, from the valuable aid they furnish, in tracing the successive incidents and onward development of Christianity; which soon after its first promulgation, diffused a welcome light over the Pagan darkness, which enveloped the primeval inhabitants of our country.

The subject of the first introduction of Christian truth into Britain, and who was the first herald employed by Providence in proclaiming it, is one of deep interest, and has long engaged the investigation of the learned.  The theories which have been offered are conflicting, as to the time, and by whom, this great boon was conferred upon our country.  But as all the varied traditions seem to point to the apostolic age, we may the more readily acquiesce, in not being able to fix upon the exact period and the actual instrument; especially when we remember, how many of the world’s benefactors have been unknown to those who are most indebted to them.  There is an unwritten biography of the great and the good; though their names and heroic deeds are not recorded by the pen of the historian or the chisel of the sculptor, they have not the less nobly fulfilled their mission to their age and posterity.  Their record, though not p. 3with men, is “on high.”  And as there is a law surrounding us, which permits no disinterested deed or true thought to perish, but immortalizes them, in their effects on the minds of men and the developments of life;—so certainly as that law governs human experience, have we reaped the advantage of many a noble life’s devotion, albeit unchronicled and unknown.  The results of their achievements are nevertheless with us still.

The foundation of the Church in Britain has been ascribed, by many eminent authorities, to St. Paul; and the learned Dr. Burgess, Bishop of St. David’s, goes so far as to say, that this interesting point is established by as much substantial evidence as any historical fact can require; and he proceeds to give the testimony of the first six centuries in support of the doctrine.  The first and most important testimony is that of Clemens Romanus, “the intimate friend and fellow-labourer of St. Paul,” who says, that in preaching the gospel the apostles went to the utmost bounds of the west, which seems to have been the usual designation of Britain.  Theoderet speaks of the inhabitants of Spain, Gaul, and Britain, as dwelling in the utmost bounds of the west.  In the second century, Irenœus speaks of Christianity as propagated to the utmost bounds of the earth by the apostles and their disciples; and Tertullian, at the beginning of the third century, gives a kindred testimony.  In the fourth century, (A.D. 270–340), p. 4Eusebius says, that some of the apostles passed over the ocean to the British Isles; and Jerome, in the same century, ascribes this province to St. Paul, and says, that after his imprisonment, having been in Spain, he went from ocean to ocean, and preached the gospel in the western parts.  Theodoret, in the fifth century, and Venantius Fortunatus in the sixth, are also quoted as witnesses to the same effect.

The learned bishop has conducted the argument with consummate ability; and in the judgment of many has demonstrated the point.

Gildas, a Briton, called the wise, very positively ascribes the first mission to Britain to St. Joseph of Arimathea, who, according to his account, evangelized Gaul.  This opinion is supported by Bede, William of Malmesbury, and many eminent divines of the Church.

Sammes, in his ‘Antiquities of Britain,’ inclines to the same idea, and gives an illustration of the first church supposed to be built by him; but it does not appear to be based upon sufficient evidence to entitle it to acceptance.

The conversion of Britain to the Christian faith has also been ascribed to St. Peter, St. James the Great, and to Simon Zelotes.  Bishop Taylor and Dr. Cox are disposed to award the honour to the latter.  Southey is of opinion that the Gospel was first introduced here by the family of Caractacus, who propagated it among the British tribes; and he is p. 5certainly upheld in this by many weighty considerations.

As there is existing such contrariety of belief among those master intellects, who have deeply studied the subject, we should certainly regard it as vain presumption, to record any dogmatic judgment.

Previous to the Roman conquests, the Britons were accustomed to celebrate the rites of Druidism; but as it was the custom of the Romans to carry into the lands they conquered, not only their civil polity but also their religion, the gods of their Pantheon became consequently the gods of our ancestors.  Near the existing memorials of Druidical superstition, there arose the majestic fanes of a more polished mythology.  At Bath there is said to have been a temple dedicated to Minerva, while on the site now occupied by the splendid cathedral of St. Paul there was a temple to Diana.  It appears from a passage in King’s Vale Royal, there was a tradition generally accepted in his day, that on the present site of Chester Cathedral, was a temple dedicated to Apollo, during the period that the city was inhabited by the Legionaries.

“I have heard it,” he says, “from a scholar, residing in the city, when I was there, anno 1653, that there was a temple dedicated to Apollo in old time, in a place adjoining to the Cathedral Church, by the constant tradition of the learned.”

We are not aware that the supposition is capable p. 6of being verified by any existing record, but when we take into consideration the policy generally pursued by the Romans in subjugating a country, it seems to be countenanced by strong probability.  With this form of Paganism, however, there came zealous men, of true apostolic stamp, whose earnest inculcation of vital principles, accelerated the progress of a better faith.  So conspicuous had that progress become early in the third century, that Tertullian, in his work written against the Jews, A.D. 209, states that “even those places in Britain, hitherto inaccessible to the Roman arms, have been subdued by the gospel of Christ.”

Early in the fourth century, Christianity had become so extensively diffused throughout the land, that Maximius and Galerius, themselves bigoted Pagans, recommended to the Emperor Diocletian the enforcement of extreme measures, in order to crush the growing religion; and the ever-memorable persecution under his reign was the result, when Christians were indiscriminately slaughtered, and churches wantonly destroyed.

Under the empire of his successor, Constantine Chlorus, persecution was extinguished; churches were re-built, the offices of religion generally resumed, and the people enjoyed a long tranquillity.

The recall of the Romans to the defence of the integral parts of their empire, in conjunction with the laborious teaching of the early Christians, led to p. 7the speedy decline of their mythology in Britain, where indeed it appears never to have taken any deep root.  The growing power of truth supplanted Pagan superstition, and the zeal of the Christian converts, speedily destroyed the statues and altars of its deities, which yet existed in this Island as memorials of its conquest by Roman arms.  “Here had been within the bounds of Britain, saith our stories, before the time of King Lucius, whose reign began about the year 179, flamines and arch-flamines, who were governors over others, the priests of that religion, which the people in their Paganism did profess, as idolatry hath ever made a counterfeit show of the true service of God; and when Lucius was converted to the Christian faith, to enlarge the power of Christian knowledge and settle a government in the Church of Christ, abolishing those seats of heathenish idolators, he took advantage of the temples and other conveniences, wickedly used by them, to turn them to the true service of God and Christ; and therefore ordained in England three Archbishops and twenty-eight Bishops; one of which Archbishops he placed at London, to whom was subject Cornwall, &c., &c., and the third was the Archbishop Caerleon, that is Chester.  Thus far I note only to show that when Lucius began the Christian religion, it may appear that both Chester had been a place for the Arch-flamines in the time of Paganism, and was also an Archbishop’s see at the first plantation of the truth.”

p. 8The ground on which the temple of Apollo once stood (if the tradition be trustworthy) was occupied early in the second century by a monastery dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, “which was the mother church and burial place to all Chester, and seven miles about Chester, and so continued for the space of 300 years and more.”  To this monastery (according to Bradshaw the monk) the relics of St. Werburgh, daughter of Wulphere, King of Mercia, were removed from Hanbury in 875, for fear of an incursion of the Danes, and here re-buried with great pomp; a ceremony usually called “the translation of the body.”  The same author informs us that the army of Griffin, King of Wales, was stricken with blindness for their sacrilegious boldness, in attempting to disturb these sainted remains.  This and other reputed miracles of St. Werburgh appear to have induced the celebrated Ethelfleda, Countess of Mercia, to translate the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, to the centre of the city, and to erect on its site a convent or monastery of secular nuns, dedicated to St. Werburgh and St. Oswald.  Earl Leofric was a great benefactor to this foundation, having repaired its decayed buildings at his own expense: and in 1093, when (says Rodolphus Glaber) “princes strove a vie that cathedral churches and minsters should be erected in a more decent and seemly form, and when Christendom roused as it were herself, and, casting away her old habiliments, did put on every where the bright and p. 9white robe of the churches,” Hugh Lupus expelled the canons secular, and laid the foundation of a magnificent building, the remains of which are still existing; it was established by him as an Abbey of Benedictine Monks from Bec in Normandy, to pray (as the foundation charter expresses it) “for the soul of William their King, and those of King William his most noble father, his mother Queen Maud, his brothers and sisters, King Edward the Confessor, themselves the founders, and those of their fathers, mothers, antecessors, heirs, parents and barons, and of all christians as well living as deceased.”  The confirmation charter by the second Ranulf (surnamed De Gernon or Gernons), Earl of Chester, in which the grant of Hugh Lupus is recapitulated, is in the possession of the Marquis of Westminster, by whose kindness, this most important and interesting instrument, has been lent for the use of the Archæological Association, and has just been published in the pages of their journal.  It is most beautifully written in columns or pages, for the facility of reading.  The charter occupies nine, and commences with the copy of the original grant of “Hugone Cestreasi comite, anno ab incarnatione Domini milesimo nonugesimo” to the Abbey of St. Werburgh, which was witnessed by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, followed by the grants of several of the other witnesses, and it concludes by the confirmation of them all by the second Ranulf: (“Ego secundus Ranulfus comes Cæstrie p. 10concedo et confirmo hos omnibus donationes quos mei antecessores vel barones eor’m dederunt,”) with additional grants from himself.  Anselm, Abbot of Bec, afterward Archbishop of Canterbury, regulated the new foundation and appointed Richard his chaplain the first abbot.

Hugh Lupus, following the example of most of his predecessors, lived a life of the wildest luxury and rapine.  At length, falling sick from the consequence of his excesses, and age and disease coming on, the old hardened soldier was struck with remorse; and—an expiation common enough in those days—the great Hugh Lupus took the cowl, retired in the last state of disease into the monastery, and in three days was no more.

The Abbey was so richly endowed by the founder and his successors, that at the dissolution, its revenues amounted to no less a sum than £1,073 17s. 7d. per annum.

Peter of Lichfield appears to have been the first Bishop who fixed his seat at Chester, having removed hither from Lichfield in 1075.  But his successor, Robert de Lindsey, removed the seat of the see to Coventry in 1095, from whence it was brought back to Lichfield in the reign of Henry 1st.  From this latter period until the dissolution, the Bishops of this diocese took their titles from Coventry, Lichfield, or Chester, according as they fixed their residences, those cities being then all included in the same bishoprick.  p. 11In the year 1540, in the reign of Henry 8th, monasteries were suppressed, and that of St. Werburgh shared the fate of the others.  An impartial examination into this eventful period of our history, gives a painful exhibition of the precipitate haste and questionable motive with which these measures were carried into execution, while at the same time we are fully alive to all the important advantages in which they resulted.  “It is painful to read, or to imagine, the ruthless violence and wanton waste with which the measures of the Reformation were carried into effect; and we must long mourn for what we lost on that occasion, while we rejoice in what we gained.  Recognizing to the largest extent the blessings of the Reformation, believing that it was the source of civil as well as of religious liberty, and that the present proud position of England arises from the effort then made by men to burst the bonds in which it had been held;—admitting all this, it is impossible to deny that the work of reformation was often urged forward by motives of a baser kind than the love of truth; and it is impossible not to regret the unsparing zeal and brutal violence with which it was carried on.”  Before proceeding to describe the important changes which transpired under the reign of Henry the 8th, it may not be unsuitable or without interest, to introduce a biographical list of the lordly abbots who presided over this ancient institution:—

Richard, 1st Abbot, had been monk of Bec, in p. 12Normandy, and chaplain to Anselm.  He died April 26, 1117, and was buried in the east angle of the south cloister.

William, 2nd abbot, is stated in the charlutary to be elected abbot in 1121, the government of the church having been perhaps intermediately confided to Robert the prior, who died in 1120.  He died 11th non. Oct. 1140, and was buried at the head of his predecessor.

Ralph, 3rd abbot, elected 11 cal. Feb. in the same year.  He died Nov. 16, 1157, and was buried at the head of abbot Richard, and at the left side of abbot William.

Robert Fitz-Nigel, 4th abbot, supposed to be of the family of the barons of Halton, elected 1157, received the bishop’s benediction at Lichfield on the day of St. Nicholas.  He died in 1174, and was buried in the east cloister under a marble stone to the right hand of the entrance to the chapter-house.

Robert, 5th abbot, elected on St. Werburgh’s day, 3 non. Feb. 1174, received the benediction in the church of St. John, at Chester, on the day of St. Agatha the Virgin.  This abbot obtained a bull from Pope Clement, confirming the possessions of the abbey, and granting various privileges; and died 2 cal. Sep. 1184, on which the king took the abbey into his hands, and committed the custody of it to Thomas de Husseburne.

Robert de Hastings, 6th abbot, in 1186, was placed in this abbey by Henry II. and Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury.  He received the benediction at Canterbury, from the hands of Baldwin, whom he had the honour of entertaining as legate, at Chester, in the next year, from St. John’s-day to the following Sunday.  This appointment was opposed by earl Randal, and after much controversy before Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, Hastings was deposed, on the condition of Geoffry, who was elected in his room, p. 13paying him an annual pension of xx. marks.  This abbot was buried at the head of his predecessors, William and Ralph, in the south cloister.

Geoffrey 7th abbot, was confirmed on the deposition of Hastings in 1194.  The situation (from a document contained in the red book of the abbey) appears not to have been particularly enviable at this period.  The greater part of the church was in ruins, and the rebuilding had proceeded no further than the choir, from want of money.  The inroads of the Welsh had deprived the monks of a valuable rectory and two manors, and the inundations of the sea had been equally fatal in Wirral and Ince.  Abbot Geoffry died May 7, 1208, and was buried in the chapter-house, on the left hand of the entrance, near the door.

Hugh Grylle, 8th abbot, was elected 1208.  He occurs as a witness to the marriage covenant of John, Earl of Chester, with Helen, daughter of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales; and many grants to the monastery were made in his time.  The repairs of the church were probably completed, and their affairs in a more prosperous state generally, as Earl Randal grants to this abbot and his convent a permission to extend their buildings in the direction of the Northgate.  Grylle died April 21, 1226, and was buried in the Chapter-house, under the second arch from the door, on the left hand side of the feet of Geoffry.

William Marmion, 9th Abbot, succeeded in 1226, and died in 1228.  His place of interment is stated to be in the cloister, close to Robert Fitz-nigel, on the left hand side of him.  The name of this abbot occurs in a very curious document, relative to the office of hereditary cook of the abbey.

Walter Pincebech, 10th abbot, received the benediction in London, on Michaelmas-day, 1228.  This abbot is witness to the contract between Randal Blundeville and Roger de Maresey, respecting the lands between Ribble and Mersey, anno 1232.  He p. 14continued to hold the abbey till 1240, when he was interred in the Chapter-house, at the head of Hugh Grylle.  A short time before his death, he appropriated the rectory of Church Shotwick to support the increase of the kitchen expenses of the convent, occasioned by adding six monks to the previous number.

Robert Frind, 11th Abbot, was consecrated at Coventry, by Hugh de Pateshul, bishop of that see, on St. Matthew’s day, 1240.  He died 1249, and was buried in the Chapter-house, under the second arch, on the right hand of the door.  This abbot added the appropriation of the chapel of Wervin to the funds of the kitchen, in consequence of having increased the number of his monks to forty.

Thomas Capenhurst, 12th abbot, succeeded in 1249.  He was of the family of the mesne lords of Capenhurst, and had to struggle with a series of powerful enemies of the convent.  The first was Roger de Montalt, justiciary of Chester, who endeavoured by means of the additional power which he enjoyed by his office, to wrest from the abbey restitution of the manors of Lawton, and Goosetrey, and the churches of Bruera, Neston, and Coddington, which had been given by his ancestors to the abbey.  A portion of these possessions was occupied by an armed force, and the business was only compromised by severe sacrifices on the part of the monks.  The resignation of Bretton manor is the only one noticed in the chronicle of the abbey, but the chartulary mentions several other losses, to which may certainly be added, that of Lea, in Broxton hundred, of which the Montalts had afterwards possession.  The chronicle does not fail to notice the judgments of heaven on Roger de Montalt, that his eldest son died within fifteen days after the compromise, and that Roger himself died of want, his burial place remaining unknown unto the common people.  A similar attempt to recover Astbury, was made by Roger Venables in 1259, p. 15and according to the Chronicle, was attended with an equal interposition of Providence, the Baron of Kinderton dying the year after.  In 1263, another contest arose between the abbot and William la Zuche, justiciary, who occupied the abbey with an armed force, and proceeded to extremities of insult, which occasioned all the churches in Chester to be laid under an interdict.  In the next year the gardens and buildings of the abbey in “Baggelon” were destroyed to facilitate the strengthening of Chester against a siege, which was apprehended from the barons and the Welshmen.  Capenhurst survived this last grievance only one year, and dying 4 cal. May, 1265, was buried at the head of his predecessor, on the right hand of the entrance into the chapter-house.  It is observable that however violent the measures were, to which the laity resorted at this period, for the purpose of wresting back from the church the possessions which the liberality of their ancestors had bestowed on it, the regular clergy themselves were little more scrupulous; witness the circumstances noticed in the contest between the abbots of Basingwerk and Chester, for the rectory of West Kirby, in which Ralph de Montalt, presented by this abbot, is positively stated to have been put into possession of his rectory in war time, by absolute force of arms.

Simon de Albo Monasterio, or Whitchurch, who had previously been a monk of this abbey, succeeded as 13th abbot, and if we may judge from the frequent occurrence of his name in the abbey chartulary, was one of the most active heads this monastery ever enjoyed.  He was regularly elected by the entire convent xv. cal. May, 1265, in the 45th year of his age, and the 22nd after assuming the cowl, Simon de Montford being then usurper of the Earldom of Chester.  His admission was opposed by Lucas de Taney, Justiciary of Chester, who kept the abbey open for three weeks, and taking the revenues into his p. 16hands, wasted them by the most scandalous profligacy.  Simon de Montfort, however, much to his honour, on hearing the circumstances, admitted the abbot, and directed Lucas de Taney to make ample compensation to the abbey, after which Roger de Menland, then bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, confirmed his election at Tachebrook, on Whit-Monday, and Simon de Montford having invested him with the temporalities at Hereford the Monday following, the new abbot received the benediction from his before-mentioned diocesan at Tachebrooke, on Trinity Sunday.  On this same day the partizans of Prince Edward laid siege to Chester Castle, and a reverse of fortune speedily taking place, the election of the abbot was declared void by the lawful earl, as having been unratified by himself.  The abbot, however, made his peace with Prince Edward at Beeston, and compensation was made him at the instance of James de Audley, Justiciary, even to the replacing from the stores in the Castle, two casks of wine, which had been consumed by the Prince’s attendants, during his deposition.  The struggles between the laity and the clergy, which are particularly observable in the documents of Vale Royal and this monastery, about this period, and had so peculiarly disquieted the abbacy of Thomas de Capenhurst, were continued in that of his successor.  Philip Burnel, and his wife Isabella, baroness of Malpas, attempted to recover the manors of Saighton, Huntington, Cheveley, and Boughton, a domain as desirable to the abbey, from its richness as its contiguity to Chester.  After a protracted contest, the claimants released their right to abbot Simon in the king’s court at Westminster, in 1281, in the royal presence, but the monks purchased the compliance by a bond for the payment of £200 sterling.  The chartulary states that the influence of Robert Burnel, bishop of Bath and Wells, and uncle to the claimant, was corruptly used in obtaining this bond: payment p. 17was, however, never made, for the abbot had shortly afterwards the address to procure a release, on stipulating for the maintenance of two chaplains to pray for the soul of the said Philip Burnel for ever.  Among the following donations by the family of Burnel, was the grant of a fountain at Christleton, which was doubtless of high importance.  A cistern twenty feet square was made at Christleton, and another formed within the cloisters, and a communication established by pipes, which a patent from Edward I. enabled the monks to carry through all intervening lands, permitting even the city walls to be taken down for the purpose.  It is observable that a forester of Delamere, Randle de Mereton, whose estate was trespassed on in consequence of this order, ventured on cutting off the pipes which the abbots had laid, for which he was ordered to make reparation by a royal mandate, 13 Edward I.  This abbot departed this life April 24, 1289, aged 69, and was interred in the chapter house, on the south side, under a marble stone, within an arch supported by six marble pillars.  During this abbacy, the monastery, or a considerable portion thereof, was re-built, as appears by precepts directed to Reginald de Grey, 12 Edward I. to allow venison from the forests of Delamere and Wirral for the support of the monks then occupied “on the great work of the building of the church.”  Abbot Simon also appropriated a large share of the revenues of the abbey to the several uses of the infirmary, the kitchen, the refectory, and the distribution of alms, as specified in the chartulary.  After the death of Simon de Whitchurch, the king retained the abbey in his hands for two years.

Thomas de Byrche-Hylles, a chaplain of his predecessor, succeeded as 14th abbot, Jan. 30, 1291.  He died 1323, and was buried on the south side of the choir, above the bishop’s throne, nearly in the line of the pillars.  On his gravestone was a brass plate p. 18with his effigies, and in this spot his body was found in almost complete preservation, on opening a grave for the remains of dean Smith, in 1787.

William de Bebington, 15th abbot, previously prior of the monastery, was elected abbot Feb. 5, 1324.  In 1345, he obtained the mitre for himself and his successors, and in the year following, an exemption from the visitation.  He died Nov. 20, 1349, and was buried on the right side of his predecessor.

Richard Seynesbury, 16th abbot, was elected 1349.  In 1359, he stated the privileges of his abbey in plea to a writ of quo warranto.  In 1362, about the feast of the Annunciation, the abbot of St. Alban’s, provincial president of the Benedictines, the prior of Coventry, and the superior of St. Alban’s, visited Chester Abbey as commissioners, deputed by the abbot of Evesham.  In consequence of this visitation, Richard de Seynesbury, who (according to the chronicle) was fearful of a scrutiny into his offences and excessive dilapidations, resigned his abbey into the hands of the pope, as the abbey, being an exempt, was under the papal protection.  An inquiry into his conduct was instituted at Rome; and in the following year pope Urban admitted the abbot’s resignation, and conferred the office on his successor.  This abbot died in Lombardy.

Thomas de Newport, 17th abbot, received the benediction in the papal court on the feast of the Annunciation, and was installed at Chester on the day of St. Remigius following.  This abbot died at his manor house of Little Sutton, in Wirral, June 1, 1385, and was buried in the chapter-house, within the inner door, with his effigy in brass upon the stone.

William de Mershton, 18th abbot, formerly a monk of this convent, was elected abbot July 30, 1385.  He died on the 13th of January following, and was buried without the choir, on the right of William de Bebington, in the south aisle.

p. 19Henry de Sutton, 19th abbot.  He occurs as abbot in 1410, which was the 24th year of his presiding over this monastery, as appears by the pleas of the abbey, holden over the monastery gate, before Nicholas Fare, the abbot’s seneschal.  This abbot was for a time justice of Chester, and in 1399 had license to fortify his three manor-houses at Little Sutton, Saighton, and Ince.  He was buried in the broad aisle, close to the north side of the south pillar, next to the entrance into the choir, before a painting formerly called the piety of St. Mary.

Thomas Yerdesley, 20th abbot, occurs as abbot in several portmote pleadings 7 Henry V. and is mentioned also several times in the reign of Henry VI.  He was one of the justices in commission to hold assizes for the county, and dying 1434, was buried under a marble stone on the north side of the choir, above the shrine of St. Werburgh.

John Salghall, 21st abbot, suffered excommunication in 1440, for not appearing in convocation after being personally cited; but afterwards appearing and pleading exemption, he was absolved.  This abbot died in 1450, and was buried in St. Mary’s chapel, between two pillars on the south side, under an alabaster stone, which had his effigy in brass fixed upon it.  The site of his interment was formerly called the chapel of St. Erasmus.

Richard Oldham, 22nd abbot, 1452; about twenty years afterwards he was promoted to the bishopric of the Isle of Man, and dying Oct. 13, 1485, was buried at Chester abbey; a short time before which he was indicted in the portmote court, for removing the city boundaries about the Northgate, and at the same time (21 Edw. iv,) ‘divers wymen’ were indicted, who were the paramours ‘of the monks of Chester.’

Simon Ripley, 23rd abbot, rebuilt the nave, tower, and south transept of the abbey, and probably commenced the great plan of alterations and improvements p. 20which were interrupted by the reformation.  This abbot also rebuilt or considerably improved the great manor-house at Saighton, the embattled tower of which is still remaining.  He died at Warwick, August 30, 1492, and was buried in the collegiate church there.  On the north side of the north-east large pillar, supporting the central tower, was formerly painted the history of the transfiguration, in which was introduced a figure of this abbot under a canopy, with a book in one hand, the other lifted up in the act of blessing, and the ring upon the fourth finger.

John Birchenshaw was appointed 24th abbot by the Pope, Oct. 4, 1493.  He is supposed by Willis to have been a native of Wales, from his name appearing in an inscription on the great bell of Conway church.  His attention, like that of his predecessor, was turned to restoring the magnificence of the buildings of the abbey.  The beautiful western entrance is his work, and he doubtless intended to have added two western towers to this great entrance, of one of which he laid the foundations in 1508.  The half of Ince manor-house is apparently in the style of this abbot’s time; and for the further improvement of Saighton manor-house, which had already been sumptuously restored by his predecessor, he obtained, 6 Henry VIII. the royal licence to impark 1000 acres in Huntington, Cheveley, and Saighton.  At the same time he had charter of free warren granted in all his lands in Cheshire, not being parcel of the king’s forests.  In the year 1511, in the mayoralty of Thomas Smith, violent dissensions had arisen between the city and this abbot.  Thomas Hyphile, and Thomas Marshall, were successively appointed, and acted as abbots in his room.  After a contest, however, which lasted many years, Birchenshaw was restored about 1530, and is supposed to have enjoyed his abbacy to the time of his death, which happened about seven years afterwards.  In 1516, a commission was issued at p. 21Rome to Thomas, Cardinal of York, to hear and make award between Geoffry, Bishop of Lichfield, and this abbot, respecting the use of the mitre, crosier, and other pontificals, and the giving the blessing.

John Clarke, 25th and last abbot (omitting Hyphile and Marshall), was elected about the year 1537.  He had the good fortune to comply with the wishes of his sovereign at the dissolution, and accordingly was suffered to retain the government of the dissolved abbey of St. Werburgh, under the character of dean of the new cathedral, which King Henry established within its walls.  At the dissolution, the clear yearly value of the abbey was £889 18s. [21]  The monks had also the patronage of several rich unappropriated rectories.  Their lands extended over various parts of Cheshire and other counties, but in Wirral created an overwhelming influence, and extended in almost an unbroken ring round the city of Chester.  Many considerable families held lands by the tenure of various offices in the abbey.  The manorial lord of Burwardsley was their champion; and a valuable rectory (Ince) was appropriated to the uses of the almoner.  The Earl of Derby was seneschal at the time of the dissolution.  By a charter of one of the earls of the name of Randal, the abbots were directed at any period to have their mansion-houses fitted up in a state fit to receive the abbot’s retinue and to be the seats of the courts; and by licence from the bishops of Lichfield, oratories were also established in these manor-houses.  Irby, Bromborough, Sutton, and Saighton, appear to have been the principal ones at an early period.  The three first were the original seats of the courts held for the Wirral manor, and Saighton occurs in a licence for fortifying by Edward I. noticed in the chartulary.  By a subsequent licence for fortifying, 19 Richard II. it appears that Sutton, Saighton, and Ince, had then p. 22become the principal manorial residences, and these continued such to the dissolution.

On the general dissolution of the monasteries, Chester was erected into an independent bishoprick, and St. Werburgh’s was converted into a Cathedral Church, which it has ever since remained.  It was dedicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary; and a dean and six prebendaries installed in it, Thomas Clarke, the last abbot, being appointed the first dean.

By charter of endowment, dated 5th August, 1541, Henry VIII. granted to the Bishop of Chester and his successors the Archdeaconries of Chester and Richmond, with all their appurtenances, rights, &c.; the Manors of Abbots Cotton in the county of Chester; lands in the parishes of St. Mary, St. Martin, St. Michael, St. Werburgh, and Trinity in the city of Chester; city lands in Mancot, Harden, Christleton, Nantwich, Northwich, Middlewich, Over, Wollaston, Neston, Heswell, Bidston, Sandbach, Thornton, Eccleston, Rosthern and Davenham; parcel of the late Monastery of St. Werburgh; the advowson of Over Rectory; pensions issuing out of Handley Rectory, Budworth Chapel, and Bidston Rectory; parcel of Birkenhead Abbey; the advowsons of Tattenhall and Waverton; rectories of Clapham, Esingwold, Thornton, Stuart, Bolton-in-Lonsdale, Bolton-le-Moors, and prebend of Bolton-le-Moors in Lichfield Cathedral; and the Manor of Weston in the county of Derby.

But the See of Chester did not long remain in possession p. 23of these rich endowments, for in 1546 the arbitrary and avaricious Henry despoiled the Bishopric of the manors and real estates narrated in the above charter of endowment, and in lieu thereof compelled the Bishop to accept of the rectories and advowsons of Cottingham in Yorkshire, Kirby, Ravensworth, Pabrick, Brompton, Wirklington, Ribchester, Chipping Mottram, and Bradley in Staffordshire, Castleton in Derbyshire, and Wallasey, Weverham, Backford, and Boden in Cheshire, paying as a chief rent £15 19s. 9d.

The endowments made by Henry VIII. to the Deanery of Chester, consisted of manors and lands to the yearly value of £563 3s. 8d., besides spiritualities to the value of £358 10s. 2d.  But these splendid gifts were not destined to remain long in possession of the Dean and Chapter.  In 1550 Sir Robert Cotton, Comptroller of the Household to Edward VI., having procured the imprisonment of the Dean and two Prebendaries, obtained from them a deed of surrender of the Deanery estates in his own favour.  The estates so obtained were disposed of by Cotton in fee farm to certain gentlemen in Cheshire at very low prices.  But the Chapter having discovered some years afterwards that the original grant of Henry VIII. was null through the omission of the word “Cestriæ” in the description of the grantees, they petitioned the Queen to re-grant to them the estates illegally obtained by Cotton as before mentioned; and their petition was twice argued in the Court of Exchequer.  p. 24But the gentlemen to whom Cotton had sold the lands, apprehensive of the issue, bestowed a bribe of six years’ rent upon Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the then all-powerful favourite of Queen Elizabeth, who, thus stimulated, prevailed with the Queen to put a stop to the proceedings in the Exchequer, and grant a commission to him and certain other Privy Councillors to hear and determine the matters at issue between the parties.  The result was, that in 1580 the charter of Henry VIII. was recalled, and the estates confirmed to the fee farmers, on payment of certain rents, with which, and a few impropriations, the Queen by advice of the Earl and his coadjutors, re-endowed the Chapter.

The following is a list of the Bishops, with the date of their consecration, from the foundation of the see in 1541, to the present time, for which we are mainly indebted to the valuable foot notes appended to Gastrell’s Notitia.

John Bird, D.D. descended from an ancient family in Cheshire, educated as a Carmelite Friar at Oxford, and distinguished there by his learning and zeal.  In 1516 he became provincial of the order of Carmelites throughout England, which office Godwin erroneously states he held at the dissolution of the monasteries.  Bird did not advocate the king’s supremacy, until he found that the pope’s power was waning, when Henry 8th appointed him one of his chaplains, and thus confirmed his hitherto wavering opinions.  He was soon after consecrated Bishop of Ossery, from which he was translated in 1539 to Bangor, and p. 25thence to Chester in 1541.  On Queen Mary’s accession, he accommodated himself to the changes which were introduced, but could not preserve his see, of which he was deprived in 1553, in consequence of his being married.  Wood states that the Bishop, after his deprivation, lived in obscurity at Chester, and, dying there in 1556, was buried in the Cathedral.  Bishop Bird was a learned man, and published several short discourses in Latin and English.  Posterity, however, would have thought more favourably of him, had he not alienated some of the revenues of his see, and made leases injurious to his successors.

George Coates was B.A. in 1522, when he was elected Probationer Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.  He afterwards became a Fellow of Magdalene College in the same university; M.A. 1526, Proctor 1531, and elected Master of Balliol in 1539.  He was also Rector of Cotgrove, near Nottingham, and became Prebendary of Chester in 1544; and on the 1st of April, 1554, was consecrated Bishop of Chester.  He did not long survive his last appointment, as he died at Chester in the year 1555, very shortly after he had condemned George Marsh to the fires of martyrdom at Boughton.  This intrepid martyr regarded his faith as being too precious to be sacrificed, even to save his life.  He held his principles with unflinching steadfastness; they were the ripened convictions of his judgment—the pabulum of his inward life—and he nobly maintained them, even to the death.

p. 26The following account is given by Foxe of the life and persecutions of this faithful and holy man:—

George Marsh was born in the parish of Dean, in the county of Lancaster, and, having received a good education, his parents brought him up in the habits of trade and industry.  About the 25th year of his age, he married a young woman of the country; with whom he continued living upon a farm, having several children.  His wife dying, he having formed a proper establishment for his children, went into the university of Cambridge, where he studied, and much increased in learning, and was a minister of God’s holy word and sacraments, and was for awhile curate to the Rev. Laurence Saunders.  In this situation he continued for a time, earnestly setting forth the true religion, to the weakening of false doctrine, by his godly readings and sermons, as well there and in the parish of Dean, as elsewhere in Lancashire.  But such a zealous protestant could hardly be safe.  At length he was apprehended, and kept close prisoner in Chester, by the bishop of that see, about the space of four months, not being permitted to have the relief and comfort of his friends; but charge being given unto the porter, to mark who they were that asked for him, and to signify their names to the bishop.

He was afterwards sent to Lancaster castle; and being brought with other prisoners to the sessions, he was made to hold up his hand with the malefactors; when the Earl of Derby had the following conversation with him, which is given to us partly in his own expressive and unaffected language.

“I told his lordship, that I had not dwelt in the country these three or four years past, and came home but lately to visit my mother, children, and other friends, and that I meant to have departed out of the country before Easter, and to have gone out of the realm.  Wherefore I trusted, seeing nothing could be laid against me, wherein I had offended against the laws, that his lordship would not with captious questions examine me, to bring my body into danger of death, to the great discomfort of my mother.  On the earl asking me into what land I would have gone?  I answered, I would have gone either into Germany, or else into Denmark.  He said to his council, that in Denmark they used such heresy as they have done in England: but as for Germany the emperor had destroyed it.

“I then said that I trusted, as his lordship had been of the honourable council of the late king Edward, consenting and agreeing to acts concerning faith towards God and religion, under great pain, would not so soon after consent to put poor men to shameful deaths for believing what he had then professed.  p. 27To this he answered that he, with the lord Windsor, lord Dacres, and others, did not consent to those acts, and that their refusal would be seen as long as the parliament-house stood.  He then rehearsed the misfortune of the dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk, with others, because they favoured not the true religion; and again the prosperity of the queen’s highness, because she favoured the true religion; thereby gathering the one to be good, and of God, and the other to be wicked, and of the devil; and said that the duke of Northumberland confessed so plainly.”

And thus have you heard the whole trouble which George Marsh sustained both at Latham and also at Lancaster.  While at Latham it was falsely reported that he had consented, and agreed in all things with the earl and his council; and while at Lancaster, many came to talk with him, giving him such counsel as Peter gave Christ: but he answered that he could not follow their counsel, but that by God’s grace he would live and die with a pure conscience, and as hitherto he had believed and professed.

Within a few days after, the said Marsh was removed from Lancaster; and coming to Chester, was sent for by Dr. Cotes, then bishop, to appear before him in his hall, nobody being present but they twain.  Then he asked him certain questions concerning the sacrament, and Marsh made such answers as seemed to content the bishop, saving that he utterly denied transubstantiation, and allowed not the abuse of the mass, nor that the lay people should receive under one kind only, contrary to Christ’s institution: in which points the bishop went about to persuade him, howbeit, (God be thanked,) all in vain.  Much other talk he had with him, to move him to submit himself to the universal church of Rome; and when he could not prevail he sent him to prison again.  And after, being there, came to him divers times, one Massie, a fatherly old man, one Wrench the schoolmaster, one Hensham the bishop’s chaplain, and the archdeacon, with many more; who, with much philosophy, worldly wisdom, and deceitful vanity, after the tradition of men, but not after Christ, endeavoured to persuade him to submit himself to the church of Rome, to acknowledge the pope as its head, and to interpret the Scripture no otherwise than that church did.

To these Mr. Marsh answered, that he did acknowledge and believe one only catholic and apostolic church, without which there is no salvation; and that this church is but one, because it ever hath confessed and shall confess and believe one only God, and one only Messiah, and in him only trust for salvation: which church also is ruled and led by one Spirit, one p. 28word, and one faith; and that this church is universal and catholic, because it ever hath been since the world’s beginning, is, and shall endure to the world’s end, and comprehending within it all nations, kindreds, and languages, degrees, states, and conditions of men: and that this church is built only upon the foundations of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, and not upon the Romish laws and decrees, whose head the bishop of Rome was.  And where they said the church did stand in ordinary succession of bishops, being ruled by general councils, holy fathers, and the laws of the holy church, and so had continued for the space of fifteen hundred years and more; he replied that the holy church, which is the body of Christ, and therefore most worthy to be called holy, was before any succession of bishops, general councils, or Romish decrees: neither was it bound to any time or place, ordinary succession, or traditions of fathers; nor had it any supremacy over empires and kingdoms; but it was a poor simple flock, dispersed abroad, as sheep without a shepherd in the midst of wolves; or as a family of orphans and fatherless children: and that this church was led and ruled by the word of Christ, he being the supreme head of this church, and assisting, succouring, and defending it from all assaults, errors and persecutions, wherewith it is ever encompassed about.

After the bishop of Chester had taken pleasure in punishing his prisoner, and often reviling him, giving taunts and odious names of heretic, &c., he caused him to be brought forth into a chapel in the cathedral church, called Our Lady Chapel, before him the said bishop, at two o’clock in the afternoon; when were also present the mayor of the city, Dr. Wall and other priests assisting him, George Wensloe, chancellor, and one John Chetham, registrar.  Then they caused George Marsh to take an oath to answer truly unto such articles as should be objected against him.  Upon which oath taken, the chancellor laid unto his charge, that he had preached and openly published most heretically and blasphemously, within the parishes of Dean, Eccles, Bolton, Bury, and many other parishes within the bishop’s diocese, in the months of January and February last preceding, directly against the pope’s authority, and catholic church of Rome, the blessed mass, the sacrament of the altar, and many other articles.  Unto all which in sum he answered, that he neither heretically nor blasphemously preached or spake against any of the said articles; but simply and truly, as occasion served, and as it were thereunto forced in conscience, maintained the truth respecting the same articles, as he said all now present did likewise acknowledge in the time of King Edward VI.

p. 29Then they examined him severally of every article, and bade him answer Yes, or No, without equivocation; for they were come to examine, and not to dispute at that present.  He accordingly answered them every article very modestly, agreeably to the doctrine by public authority received and taught in this realm at the death of King Edward; which answers were every one written by the registrar, to the uttermost that could make against him.  This ended, he was returned to his prison again.

Within three weeks after this, in the said chapel, and in like sort as before, the bishop and others before named, there being assembled, he was again brought before them.  Then the chancellor, by way of an oration, declared unto the people present, that the bishop had done what he could in showing his charitable disposition towards Marsh, but that all that he could do would not help; so that he was now determined, if Marsh would not relent and abjure, to pronounce sentence definitive against him.  Wherefore he bade George Marsh to be now well advised what he would do, for it stood upon his life; and if he would not at that present forsake his heretical opinions, it would, (after the sentence given) be too late, though he might never so gladly desire it.

Then the chancellor read all his answers that he made at his former examination; and at every one he asked, whether he would stick to the same, or no?  To which he answered again, “Yea, yea.”  Here also others took occasion to ask him (for that he denied the bishop of Rome’s authority in England) whether Linus, Anacletus, and Clement, that were bishops of Rome, were not good men, and he answered, “Yes, and divers others.  But,” said he, “they claimed no more authority in England than the bishop of Canterbury doth at Rome; and I strive not with the place, neither speak I against the person or the bishop, but against his doctrine; which in most points is repugnant to the doctrine of Christ.”  “Thou art an arrogant fellow indeed, then,” said the bishop.  “In what article is the doctrine of the church of Rome repugnant to the doctrine of Christ?”

To whom George Marsh said, “O my lord, I pray you judge not so of me; I stand now upon the point of life and death: and a man in my case hath no cause to be arrogant, neither am I, God is my record.  And as concerning the disagreement of the doctrine, among many other things, the church of Rome erreth in the sacrament.  For Christ, in the institution thereof, did as well deliver the cup as the bread, saying, ‘Drink ye all of this,’ and St. Mark reporteth that they did drink of it.  In like manner St. Paul delivered it unto the Corinthians.  In the same sort also it was used in the p. 30primitive church for the space of many hundred years.  Now the church of Rome doth take away one part of the sacrament from the laity.  Wherefore if I could be persuaded in my conscience by God’s word that it were well done, I could gladly yield in this point.”  “Then,” said the bishop, “there is no disputing with a heretic.”  Therefore, when all his answers were ready, he asked him whether he would stand to the same, or else forsake them, and come unto the catholic church? to which Mr. Marsh answered, that “he held no heretical opinion, but utterly abhorred all kinds of heresy, although they did so slander him.  And he desired all to bear him witness, that in all articles of religion he held no other opinion than was by law established, and publicly taught in England at the death of Edward VI.; and in the same pure religion and doctrine he would, by God’s grace, stand, live, and die.”

The bishop of Chester then took a writing out of his bosom, and began to read the sentence of condemnation; but when he had proceeded half through it, the chancellor called him, and said, “Good my lord, stay, stay! for if you read any further, it will be too late to call it again.”  The bishop accordingly stopped, when several priests, and many of the ignorant people, called upon Mr. Marsh, with many earnest words, to recant.  They bade him kneel down and pray, and they would pray for him: so they kneeled down, and he desired them to pray for him, and he would pray for them.  When this was over, the bishop again asked him, whether he would not have the queen’s mercy in time? he answered, “he gladly desired the same, and loved her grace as faithfully as any of them: but yet he durst not deny his Saviour Christ, lest he lose his mercy everlasting, and so win everlasting death.”

The bishop then proceeded with the sentence for about five or six lines, when again the chancellor, with flattering words and smiling countenance, stopped him, and said, “Yet good my lord, once again stay, for if that word be spoken, all is past, no relenting will then serve.”  Then turning to Mr. Marsh, he asked, “How sayest thou? wilt thou recant?”  Many of the priests and people again exhorted him to recant, and save his life.  To whom he answered, “I would as fain live as you, if in so doing I should not deny my master Christ; but then he would deny me before his Father in heaven.”

The bishop then read his sentence unto the end, and afterwards said unto him, “Now, I will no more pray for thee than I will for a dog.”  Mr. Marsh answered, that notwithstanding, he would pray for his lordship.  He was then delivered to the sheriffs of the city; when his late keeper, p. 31finding he should lose him, said with tears, “Farewell, good George;” which caused the officers to carry him to a prison at the north gate, where he was very strictly kept until he went to his death, during which time he had little comfort or relief of any creature.  For being in the dungeon, or dark prison, none that would do him good could speak with him, or at least durst attempt it, for fear of accusation; and some of the citizens who loved him for the gospel’s sake, although they were never acquainted with him, would sometimes in the evening call to him, and ask him how he did.  He would answer them most cheerfully, that he did well, and thanked God highly that he would vouchsafe of his mercy to appoint him to be a witness of his truth, and to suffer for the same, wherein he did most rejoice; beseeching that he would give him grace not to faint under the cross, but patiently bear the same to his glory, and to the comfort of his church.

The day of his martyrdom being come, the sheriffs of the city, with their officers, went to the Northgate, and thence brought him forth, with a lock upon his feet.  As he came on the way towards the place of execution, some proffered him money, and looked that he should have gone with a little purse in his hand, in order to gather money to give unto a priest to say masses for him after his death; but Mr. Marsh said, he would not be troubled to receive money, but desired some good man to take it if the people were disposed to give any, and give it to the prisoners or the poor.  He went all the way reading intently, and many said, “This man goeth not unto his death as a thief, or as one that deserveth to die.”  On coming to the place of execution without the city, a deputy chamberlain of Chester showed Mr. Marsh a writing under a great seal, saying, that it was a pardon for him if he would recant.  He answered, forasmuch as it tended to pluck him from God, he would not receive it upon that condition.

He now began to address the people, showing the cause of his death, and would have exhorted them to be faithful unto Christ, but one of the sheriffs told him there must be no sermoning now.  He then kneeling down, prayed earnestly, and was then chained to the post, having a number of fagots under him, and a barrel with pitch and tar in it over his head.  The fire being unskilfully made, and the wind driving it to and fro, he suffered great extremity in his death, which notwithstanding he bore very patiently.  When the spectators supposed he had been dead, suddenly he spread abroad his arms, saying, “Father of heaven, have mercy upon me,” and so yielded his spirit into the hands of the Lord.  Upon this, many of the people said he was a martyr, and died marvellously patient; p. 32which caused the bishop shortly after to make a sermon in the cathedral church, and therein to affirm, that the said Marsh was a heretic, burnt as such, and was then a fire-brand in hell.

He was succeeded by Cuthbert Scott, S.T.P.  He was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and was appointed Master of the College in 1553; became Vice-Chancellor of the University in 1555, and had the temporalities of the see of Chester delivered to him in 1556.  He was an active and zealous Romanist, and was implicated in the burning of Bucer’s bones at Cambridge.  He was concerned in most of the political movements of his day, and being disaffected towards Queen Elizabeth, and opposed to the reformed religion, was imprisoned in the Fleet in London, from which he escaped, and died at Louvain about the year 1560.

William Downham, D.D., was born in Norfolk, elected Fellow of Magdalene College, Oxford, in 1544, and appointed chaplain to the Lady Elizabeth, who, when queen, nominated him to a Canonry in Westminster in 1560; and on the 4th May, 1561, he was consecrated Bishop of Chester.  He died in November, 1577, aged 72, and was buried in the Cathedral of Chester, with a monumental inscription, preserved by Webb, but the monument itself has long since perished.

His sons were eminent theologians, and had the merit suitably rewarded.  George Downham became Bishop of Derry, and John Downham, B.D., a learned writer, had various preferments.

p. 33William Chadderton, D.D., was born at Nuthurst, near Manchester.  He was educated at the Grammar School of Manchester, and afterwards became Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.  In 1567 he was appointed Regius and Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity, and the following year President of Queen’s College.  Shortly afterwards he became a Canon of Westminster, and was fortunate in being appointed chaplain to the royal favourite, Dudley, Earl of Leicester, to whom he was chiefly indebted for his subsequent promotion.  In 1568 he became Archdeacon of York, and held the dignity for ten years.  In 1579 he was nominated to the see of Chester, which had been for some time vacant, and in the same year he accepted the Wardenship of Manchester, where he chiefly resided.  He was a member of the Ecclesiastical Commission for the North; and it must be admitted that he used considerable severity towards the Papists, fines and imprisonments being amongst the strongest arguments he employed to induce that body to acknowledge the queen’s supremacy.  One of the priests executed at Lancaster, in 1584, as a traitor and rebel, complained of Chadderton as “a Calvinist, and a false and cruel Bishop,” charges which lose much of their severity when proceeding from the friend of Campian and Parsons.  Antony á Wood says, that “the Bishop showed more respect to a cloak than a cassock,” and there is no doubt that he was a successful preacher, and a p. 34zealous puritan; although by a reference to the Act Books of the Bishop of Chester it will be found that he was strict in enforcing the use of clerical vestments, and both suspended and deprived some of his clergy for their disregard of the Rubric.  On the 5th April, 1595, he was translated to Lincoln, when he resigned the Wardenship of Manchester.  He died at Southoe, in Huntingdonshire, April 11th, 1608.

Hugh Bellot, D.D., second son of Thomas Bellot, Esq., of Moreton Hall, in the county of Chester.  Le Neve says he was brought up in Queen’s College, Cambridge, though Leycester gives him to St. John’s.  He was Proctor in 1570, and afterwards Rector of Tydd, near Wisbeach, and Vicar of Gresford, both in episcopal patronage.  He was consecrated Bishop of Bangor in the year 1585, and translated to Chester June 25th, 1595.  He was Bishop of Chester about seven months, and was buried at Wrexham, in Denbighshire, in 1596, aged 54, where a monument was erected to his memory by his brother, Cuthbert Bellot, Prebendary of Chester.

Richard Vaughan, D.D., a native of Caernarvonshire, educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and one of the queen’s chaplains.  He was B.D. in Oct., 1588, when he was collated by Bishop Aylmer to the Archdeaconry of Middlesex.  He was also a Canon of Wells.  He succeeded Bellot in the see of Bangor, and was also his successor at Chester, being translated thither, according to Lee, May 16th, 1596, which is p. 35probably the correct date, although the generality of his biographers state that he did not become Bishop of Chester until 1597, which might be the date of his consecration.  He was translated to London in 1604, and, dying of apoplexy on the 30th March, 1607, was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Wood says he was accounted an excellent preacher and pious liver.  It appears from the Bishop’s registers that, like some of his predecessors, he was much concerned to repress the spirit of insubordination and impatience of episcopal restraint which he found existing among his clergy.  Failing in his attempts to act as the spiritual adviser and comforter of his clerical brethren, and to uproot their antipathy to certain ancient and decent ecclesiastical forms, he frequently cited them to appear before him in the parish church of Aldford, in which village he then resided, and publicly vindicated in their presence the polity of the church.  The bishop did not succeed, however, in removing the scruples of these good men, who regarded their superior as one who sought to fetter their independence and destroy their liberty.  On the 3rd of Oct. 1604, a large body of Lancashire dissentients appeared before the bishop at Aldford.  They appear to have been men of holy character, laborious in the discharge of their ministerial functions in populous parishes, and apparently received kind and impartial treatment.  They were all publicly admonished by the bishop, and required to conform to the liturgy p. 36and ceremonies of the church, and also to subscribe, ex animo, to the three articles in the 36th canon.  They were cited to appear again at the same place on the 28th of November following, but only one complied with the order.  In those days, when roads were proverbially bad, and public conveyances unknown, a journey to Aldford must have been attended with serious inconveniences, especially on a gloomy and boisterous November day.  Burnet says, in reference to these dissentients, that “they were very factious and insolent.”  During the Episcopate of Bishop Vaughan, the cathedral was much repaired; he caused the bells to be re-cast and hung in the great tower; the west roof he had new leaded, and the timber work repaired.  On his translation to London—

George Lloyd, D.D., rector of Halsall, near Ormskirk, and bishop of Sodor and Man in 1509, was translated to Chester January 14th, 1604–5.  He died at Thornton-in-the-Moors, near Chester, of which parish he was Rector, on the 1st of August, 1615, aged 55 years, and was privately buried in the choir of the Cathedral of Chester.

Gerard Massie, B.D., was nominated to the bishopric on the death of Lloyd; but died before consecration.

Thomas Moreton, S.T.P., son of Richard Moreton, of York, Mercer, born in that city, March 20th, 1564, and educated there and at Halifax.  He distinguished himself by his extensive classical and p. 37theological attainments at Cambridge, and was elected a Fellow of St. John’s College.  He became B.D. in 1598, and was presented to the rectory of Long Marston, near Tadcaster.  In 1602 he rendered himself conspicuous by his fearless attendance on the sick during the prevalence of the plague in York; and becoming chaplain to Lord Evers, accompanied that nobleman, in 1603, in his embassy to the Emperor of Germany.  On his return he was appointed domestic chaplain to the Earl of Rutland, and wrote the first part of the Apologia Catholica, in consequence of the merit of which Archbishop Matthews collated him to a prependal stall at York.  In 1608 he graduated D.D., and was appointed chaplain to James I., from whom he received the deanery of Gloucester; and in the following year succeeded to the deanery of Winchester.  He was a great benefactor to Winchester Cathedral.  He was elected Bishop of Chester May 22nd, 1616, and was consecrated at Lambeth July 7th.  With this see he held the rectory of Stockport, and diligently applied himself to reconcile popish recusants and scrupulous non-conformists to the church; and his success was noticed in the royal declaration in 1618.  He was translated to Lichfield and Coventry March 6th, 1618, and advanced to Durham June 29th, 1632.  He died at the house of Sir Henry Yelverton, Bart., at Easton Mauduit, Northamptonshire, September 23rd, 1659, aged 95 years, unmarried, and was buried in the parish church p. 38there, with a long epitaph recounting his preferments and sufferings.  He endured, with much resignation, hardships, confiscation, and imprisonment.  Clarendon mentions Bishop Moreton as being one of the “less formal and more popular prelates.”

John Bridgeman, D.D., the successor of Moreton, was educated at Cambridge, and elected Fellow of Magdalen College, of which he was afterwards chosen master, and appointed chaplain to James I.  He was also prebendary of Lichfield and Peterborough.  He was consecrated Bishop of Chester 9th May, 1619, at Lambeth, the revenues of the sees amounting at that time to £420 per annum.  In 1621 he became rector of Bangor-Iscoed, in Flintshire.  He held his see until episcopacy was suspended under the commonwealth; and on the 15th December, 1650, his palace, with all the furniture, was sold by the republicans for £1059.  He died at his son’s house at Moreton, and was buried at Kinnersley church, in Shropshire, about the year 1658.  Bishop Bridgeman maintained annually at his own expense, hopeful young men at the University, and preferred some to ecclesiastical honours, who afterwards assisted to deprive him of his mitre.  He was father of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, created Baronet June 7th, 1660, who was successively Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.  He was also the direct ancestor of the present Earl of Bradford.

p. 39Brian Walton, D.D., a native of Cleveland, in the north riding of Yorkshire, born in the year 1600, admitted of Magdalen College, Cambridge, as a sizer, and removed thence to St. Peter’s College in 1616.  He graduated M.A. in 1623, and D.D. in 1639, being then a prebendary of St. Paul’s, and chaplain to Charles I.  His persecutions and losses during the great rebellion having driven him into retirement, he projected his great work, the Polyglot Bible, an imperishable monument of his learning and industry, which was first printed at London in six folio volumes in 1657.  On presenting this work to Charles II. at the restoration, he was made chaplain to the king, and consecrated Bishop of Chester in Westminster Abbey, on the 2nd December, 1660.  A. á Wood gives a minute and graphic description of the enthusiastic reception which the bishop met with when he went to take possession of this long desecrated see.  The joy of the people on the national resuscitation of episcopacy was unbounded, and evinced itself by the most public and decided manifestations.—Wood’s Athenæ, Vol. 2, p. 731.  He enjoyed his dignity for a short time only, and dying at his house in Aldersgate-street, London, on the 29th November, 1661, aged 62, was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Henry Ferne, D.D. was born at York, in 1642, he was chaplain to Charles I.; he was one of the king’s commissioners, along with Sheldon, Hammond, and others, to treat at Uxbridge, in matters relating to the p. 40Church.  He was a personal favourite of the king, and suffered much for the royal cause; but at the Restoration, a succession of dignities and rewards were conferred upon him.  He was consecrated Bishop of Chester, February 9th, 1661–2, and died five weeks afterwards, on March 16th, and was buried with great honour March 25th, 1662, aged 59 years, having never been at Chester.  In 1642, he published his “Case of Conscience touching Rebellion,” being the first printed vindication of the royal cause.

George Hall, D.D. son of the pious and learned Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, was entered of Exeter College, Oxford, in 1628, being then aged 16 years, elected Fellow of his college in 1632, collated to a Prebend in Exeter Cathedral, in 1639, and installed Archdeacon of Cornwall, October 8th, 1641.  He was presented by his college to the vicarage of Menherriot, near Liskeard, but was deprived of his benefice, and prevented keeping a school for his subsistence, during the usurpation.  At the Restoration, he became chaplain to the king, was appointed Canon of Windsor, and collated by Archbishop Juxon to the Archdeaconry of Canterbury in 1660, which latter dignity he held in commendam with the see of Chester, of which he was consecrated bishop May 11th, 1662.  About the same time he was presented to the rectory of Wigan, by Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Chief Justice of the Common p. 41Pleas.  His death was occasioned by a wound he received from a knife which happened to be in his pocket, as he accidentally fell from a terrace in the rectory gardens at Wigan, on the 23rd August, 1668, aged 55 years.  He was buried in the rector’s chancel, within Wigan church, where a marble monument was erected to his memory, on which he is styled “Ecclesiæ Dei servus inutilis, sed cordatus.”  He published several sermons, and a treatise against popery, with the singular title of “The Triumphs of Romans over Despised Protestancy.  London, 1655.”

John Wilkins, D.D., was born in 1614; and in 1627 was entered of New Inn, Oxford, but removed to Magdalen Hall, where he graduated.  On the breaking out of the rebellion he took the covenant; and in 1648 was created B.D., and made warden of Wadham College by the Presbyterian Committee for the Reformation of the University.  He afterwards subscribed to the engagement, and complied with the various changes of the times, though apparently steadily attached to the monarchy.  About 1656, he married Robina, sister of Oliver Cromwell, by whom he had no issue; and in 1659 he was appointed master of Trinity College, Cambridge.  On the restoration he took the required oaths, and was appointed Dean of Ripon, afterwards Dean of Exeter; and also preached to the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn.  Through the influence of George, Duke of Buckingham, he obtained the Bishopric of Chester, and was consecrated p. 42November 15th, 1668, holding with it the rectory of Wigan.  He died at the house of Dr. Tillotson, who had married his daughter-in-law, on November 19th, 1672, and was buried in the church of St. Lawrence, Jewry, London.  He was one of the founders of the Royal Society, to which he bequeathed £400, and a pious, learned, and scientific man.  Calamy says “many ministers were brought in by Bishop Wilkins’ soft interpretation of the terms of conformity.”  “He was no great read man,” says Aubrey, “but one of much and deepe thinkeing, and of a working head, and a prudent man as well as ingeniose.  He was a lustie, strong growne, well sett, broad shouldered person; cheerful and hospitable.  He was extremely well beloved in his diocese.”  Bishop Wilkins wrote several curious and learned works, which are now scarce and of considerable value.

John Pearson, D.D., F.R.S., born at Snoring (or Creake), in Norfolk, February 12th, 1612, educated at Eton, admitted of King’s College, Cambridge, B.A. 1635, M.A. 1639, and shortly afterwards Prebendary of Sarum.  During the civil war he was chaplain to Lord Goring, and afterwards in the same capacity in the family of Sir Robert Cook in London.  In 1650, he was minister of St. Clement’s, Eastcheap, London, at which Church, he preached his incomparable lectures on the Creed, and afterwards published them, as he p. 43states in the dedication to his parishioners, at their request.  At the Restoration, he was nominated one of the king’s chaplains, installed Prebendary of Ely, September 22nd, 1660, and on the 26th of the same month and year, appointed Archdeacon of Surrey, and admitted Master of Trinity College, on the 14th April, 1662.  Elected F.R.S. 1667.

This great and learned man was consecrated Bishop of Chester, February 9th, 1672–3.  He died July 16th, 1686, and was buried in his own Cathedral without any memorial.  Burnet says he was in all respects the greatest divine of the age; a man of great learning, strong reason, and a clear judgment.  He was a judicious and grave preacher, more instructive than affective, and a man of a spotless life, and of an excellent temper.  He was not active in his diocese, but too remiss and easy in his episcopal functions, and was a much better divine than a Bishop.  He was a speaking instance of what a great man may fall to, for his memory went from him so entirely that he became a child some years before he died.—Hist. Own Times, Vol. 3, p. 109–10.

Bishop Pearson has achieved for himself a splendid fame by his able work on the Creed, which will long perpetuate his memory.

Thomas Cartwright, D.D. son of a schoolmaster of the same name, was born at Southampton, 1st Sept. 1634, and was educated by presbyterian parents.  He was admitted of Magdalen college, Oxford, but removed p. 44to Queen’s college by the parliamentary visitors in 1649; he afterwards became chaplain of his college and vicar of Walthamstow, in Essex, and in 1659, preacher at St. Mary Magdelene’s, in Fish-street, and an active promoter of the popular faction.  At the Restoration, he turned round and distinguished himself by his extravagant zeal for the royal cause.  He had many valuable preferments bestowed upon him, and was created D.D. although not standing for it.  In 1672, being chaplain to the king, he was installed Prebendary of Durham, and in 1675, nominated Dean of Ripon, and was consecrated, October 17th, 1686, Bishop of Chester, “not by constraint but willingly.”  James the Second found him a ready and expert agent, and appointed him one of the three commissioners to eject the President and Fellows of Magdelen college, Oxford, for nobly resisting the king’s arbitrary attempts to restore popery.  Cartwright being an unpopular man, found it necessary to leave the kingdom on the arrival of the Prince of Orange in 1688.  He escaped in disguise, and joined James II. at St. Germains, whom he shortly afterwards accompanied to Ireland, where, being seized with a dysentery, he died on the 15th April, 1689, aged 54, and was buried the next night by the Bishop of Meath, in the choir of Christ Church, Dublin.  He died in communion with the Church of England, although attempts were made by the Romanists, in his last moments, to shake his creed, which his previous p. 45inconsistency and constant intercourse with the agents of the Church of Rome had rendered questionable.  His diary, from August 1686, to October 1687, has been edited for the Camden Society by Mr. Hunter, and will increase the unfavourable estimate which posterity has formed of the vacillating principles of this unhappy prelate; although there still appears to be insufficient evidence to conclude with Ormerod that the bishop, on his death-bed, expressed his faith in equivocal terms, leaving it doubtful whether he died in communion of the protestant or popish churches; for even Burnet, who says he was “one of the worst of men,” adds, “bad as he was, he never made that step, even in the most desperate state of his affairs;” and Antony á Wood rescues him from a similar charge.

Nicholas Stratford, D.D., was consecrated Bishop of Chester at Fulham, on 15th September, 1689.  He was a firm supporter of the polity and principles of the English Church, and was esteemed a learned and primitive ecclesiastic.  It is recorded of him that he never admonished or reproved others, but in the spirit of meekness and conciliation, a testimony which appears sufficiently confirmed by the christian tone which pervades his “Dissuasion against Revenge,” which he addressed to the conflicting parties in Manchester on leaving that parish.  He was appointed one of the governors of the bounty of the Queen Anne in the first charter.  He died February 12th, 1706–7, aged p. 4674, and was buried in his own cathedral, his whole diocese witnessing that in simplicity and godly sincerity he had had his conversation in the world; he was charitable and benevolent, humble and devout.  Chester Blue Coat Hospital was founded by this excellent bishop, and the Infirmary was founded by his son, who bequeathed £300 to the charity.

Sir William Dawes, Bart., D.D., was appointed Dean of Bocking by Dr. Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury, and about 1697 was nominated chaplain to King William III., whose favour he secured by a sermon he preached on the 5th November.  Being disappointed of the Bishopric of Lincoln in 1705, the queen nominated him without application to that of Chester, and on the 8th February 1707, he was consecrated.  He was very bountiful to the poor clergy of the diocese, and augmented several small livings.  In 1714 he was translated to York; Archbishop Sharpe, who died at Bath February 2nd, 1713–14, having obtained a promise from Queen Anne that Sir William Dawes should be his successor, because his grace thought that he would be diligent in executing the duties of his laborious office.

Francis Gastrell, D.D., was consecrated Bishop of Chester in 1714, a learned and pious man, who laboured with untiring energy, and whose episcopate was characterized by great benevolence, prudence, and wisdom.  He compiled a most valuable MSS. concerning the benefices of the diocese, entitled “Notitia p. 47Cestriensis,” which is considered “the noblest document extant on the subject of the ecclesiastical antiquities of the diocese.”  He is also the author of a very useful work, entitled “The Christian Institutes.”  He died November 24th, 1725.

Samuel Peploe, S.T.P., was appointed to the see of Chester April 12th, 1726.  He died February 21st, 1752, was buried in the cathedral near the altar, where a monument was erected to his memory.

Dr. Edmund Keene, master of St. Peter’s, Cambridge, and rector of Stanhope, succeeded Peploe, and held the rectory of Stanhope in commendam.  He was consecrated March 22nd, 1752.  The present episcopal palace was re-built by him out of his own fortune, at an expense of £2,200.  On his installation to the see of Ely in 1771—

William Markham, LL.D., Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, was elected Bishop January 26th.  Shortly afterwards he was appointed preceptor to the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York.  From this See in 1776, he was translated to the Archbishopric of York.  He died in his 89th year, universally beloved, and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.

Beilby Porteus, D.D., was born at York, May 8th, 1731, of American parents, and was the youngest but one of nineteen children.  He received his early education at York and Ripon, and was afterwards admitted a sizer of Christ’s College, Cambridge, in p. 48which University his merits and abilities soon became distinguished, and were made more generally known by his excellent poem on “Death,” which received the Seatonian Prize.  In 1769, he was made chaplain to His Majesty, and December 31st, 1776, was promoted to the Bishopric of Chester, from whence he was translated to London in 1787, on the demise of Dr. Louth, and died on the 14th May, 1808, in the 78th year of his age.  In 1772, he joined with some other clergymen in an unsuccessful endeavour to obtain an amendment of some portions of the Prayer Book.  In 1769, he gave his support to a measure for enlarging the liberties of protestant dissenters, and in 1781 opposed an effort “to lay such restrictions on the catholics as would prevent their increase.”  He felt a deep interest in the cause of the slave, and made strenuous efforts to improve the condition of the negroes of the West Indies.  Among other charitable benefactions, he transferred in his lifetime nearly £7000 stock to the Archdeaconries of the diocese of London, as a permanent fund for the relief of the poorer clergy of that diocese; and he also established three annual gold medals at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and by his will bequeathed his library to his successors in the See of London, with a liberal sum towards erecting a building for its reception in the episcopal palace at Fulham.  This learned and pious prelate wrote several works, which are highly esteemed.  At his own request, the inscription p. 49on his tomb simply records the dates of his birth and death. [49]  He was succeeded by—

William Cleaver, D.D., who was advanced to the See of Chester through the interest of his former pupil, the Marquis of Buckingham, whom he had attended as chaplain when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.  He was consecrated Bishop, January 20th, 1788, and was translated to Bangor in 1799, and from thence, on the death of Bishop Horsley in 1806, to the diocese of St. Asaph, over which he continued to preside until his death, which took place May 15th, 1815.

Henry William Majendie, D.D., canon of St. Paul’s, was nominated in the place of Bishop Cleaver, May 24th, and consecrated June 14th, 1800, translated in 1810, to the See of Bangor.

Bowyer Edward Sparke, D.D., Dean of Bristol, was consecrated January 21st, 1810, and translated to the See of Ely in 1812.

George Henry Law, Prebendary of Carlisle, was consecrated Bishop of Chester, July 5th, 1812, and translated to the See of Bath and Wells in the year 1824.  Bishop Law was a fine scholar, and a most able divine.

Charles James Blomfield, D.D., the present learned Bishop of London, was consecrated to the See of Chester in 1824.  He was Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in which University his great talents and lofty erudition secured for him high academical honours.  p. 50Upon his translation to the See of London in 1828 [50a] he was succeeded by—

John Bird Sumner, D.D., who has been as labouring in the use of his pen, as he was faithful and assiduous in the fulfilment of his episcopal duties.  His voluminous writings have achieved for him great fame as an able and eloquent divine.  His prize essay, entitled “The Records of Creation,” is a wonderful display of learning and reasoning power, and will doubtless long perpetuate his brilliant reputation.  His piety, earnest zeal, and affable bearing, during the period he held the Episcopate of Chester, secured the affection of all classes.  He was universally beloved.  After having occupied the See of Chester for twenty years, he was in 1848 appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.

John Graham, D.D., was consecrated Bishop of this Diocese in 1848, and is at present, with pious earnestness and diligence, fulfilling the duties of his high office.

When Henry the Eighth dissolved the monastery of St. Werburgh and erected it into a Cathedral Church, he founded a Deanery, two Archdeaconries, and six Prebendaries.  Under this new regime, John Clarke, the last Abbot of the monastery, was appointed first Dean.  His successor was Henry Mann, who was, in 1546, consecrated Bishop of the Isle of Man.  He was succeeded by William Cliff, L.L.D. in 1547; Richard Walker in 1558; John Peers in 1567; Richd. Langworth in 1571; Robert Dorset in 1579; Thomas p. 51Modesley in 1580; John Rutter in 1589; William Barlow in 1602; Henry Parry in 1605, who was afterwards made Bishop of Rochester, from which he was successively translated to Gloucester and Worcester; he was succeeded by Thomas Mallory in 1606, who held his appointment 38 years; he died at Chester, April 3rd, 1644, and was buried in the choir of the Cathedral.

William Nicols, installed April 12th, 1644.  His successor, after a vacancy of about 2 years, was Henry Bridgman, presented July 13th, 1660, he was consecrated Bishop of the Isle of Man, with leave to hold the Deanery, in commendam.  He died in Chester, May 15th, 1682, and was buried in the Cathedral, without any memorial.  Leycester says, “he hath beautified and repaired the Deans’ house in the Abbey court very much.”

He was succeeded by James Arderne in 1682; he died August 18th, 1691, and was buried in the choir of the Cathedral, with the following memorial on one of the pillars:—“Near this place lies the body of Dr. James Arderne, of this County, a while Dean of this Church, who though he bore more than a common affection to his private relations, yet gave the substance of his bequeathable estate to this Cathedral, which gift, his will was, should be mentioned, that clergymen may consider whether it be not a sort of sacrilege to sweep all away from the church and charity, into the possession of their lay kindred, who p. 52are not needy.  Dat. Oct. 27th, 1688.  This plain monument with the above inscription, upon this cheap stone, is according to the express words of Dean Arderne’s will.”  His successor was Lawrence Fogg, in 1691.  His first preferment was the Rectory of Hawarden, in Flintshire, from which he was ejected for non-conformity.  Subsequently, conforming, he was presented to the vicarage of St. Oswald’s, by the Dean and Chapter, in 1672: he was buried in the chapel of the Cathedral, and a monument was erected to his memory.  Walter Offley was installed in 1718.  Thomas Allen in 1721.  Thomas Brooke in 1733.  William Smith in 1758.  This learned divine was presented by the Earl of Derby to the Rectory of Trinity, Chester, in 1735.  In 1753 he was nominated one of the Ministers of St. George’s Church, Liverpool, by the corporation.  In 1766, he was instituted to the Rectory of Handley, Cheshire, by the Chapter of the Cathedral, and in the following year he resigned the Chaplainship of St. George’s Church, on which occasion the corporation of Liverpool presented him with 150 guineas, “for his eminent and good services in the said church.”  He died January 8th, 1787, in the 76th year of his age, and was buried on the south side of the communion table in the cathedral.  An elegant monument was erected to his memory by his widow, with an inscription, reciting his merits as a christian, a scholar, and a preacher.

Dr. Smith was worthily distinguished for his p. 53learning.  He was an eminent scholar, a sound divine, and a good poet.  His elegant translations of the Greek classics were held in great repute, and have been several times reprinted.  He was succeeded by George Cotton, who was installed February 10th, 1787.  Hugh Cholmondley was appointed in 1806.

In this worthy Dean the poor had a generous benefactor, while the active interest he took in every object which proposed the good of the city, rendered him beloved by all.  He was most laborious in his attention to the duties of his office, and many important restorations were effected in the cathedral by him.  He was succeeded by Robert Hodgson, D.D., in 1816.  Dr. Vaughan was appointed as his successor in 1820, who was succeeded by Edward Coppleston, D.D., afterwards promoted to the Bishopric of Llandaff, who erected the screen which separates the church of St. Oswald, from the south side of the cathedral, at an expense of £600.  Henry Philpotts, D.D., was appointed Dean in 1828, and on his promotion to the Bishopric of Exeter, in 1831, was succeeded by Dr. Davys, the well known author of “Village Conversations on the Liturgy,” “History of England for Children,” &c.

On his promotion to the See of Peterborough in 1839, the Rev. F. Anson, D.D., was appointed Dean of Chester, to whose unremitting zeal, directed by sound judgment and refined taste, we are indebted for the important improvements which have been effected p. 54in the cathedral since his appointment.  Through his indefatigable energy, the noble edifice has been greatly beautified; and many essential alterations have been introduced in the choral service and architectural arrangements, which have added very much to its decoration and general effect.

During the siege of Chester by the republican army, the cathedral was very much damaged by those heroic but unscrupulous men.  Notwithstanding that one of the articles of surrender was to the effect that “no church within the city, or evidence or writings, belonging to the same shall be defaced,” in the face of this solemn engagement, they wantonly defaced the cathedral choir, injured the organ, broke nearly all the painted glass, and removed the fonts from the churches.  Although the parliamentary forces were cemented by their renowned leader, chiefly by religious enthusiasm, and all their extraordinary movements directed and sustained mainly by that feeling; it nevertheless did not restrain them from committing violent outrages on the churches of the land.  Religious impulse banded them together, and impressed a singular unity on all their movements.  The memorable counsel of Cromwell to his men will be remembered,—“put your trust in the Lord, and keep your powder dry;”—to them the counsel was opportune, and met with a deep response; but they respected but little the dictates of conscience and the christian associations of others, whose religious p. 55views and modes of worship differed from their own.  Whatever judgment may be entertained respecting their political course, and the issues in which it resulted, we apprehend that the acts of violence they perpetrated on the sacred edifices which others frequented and revered, as the places of their holy service, cannot be justified on any principle.

In 1683 the cathedral was again wantonly damaged by a reckless mob, instigated by the ambitious Duke of Monmouth.  The Cowper MSS. gives us the following detail of the disgraceful outrages which unhappily they succeeded in perpetrating.

“In the middle of August, James, Duke of Monmouth, came to Chester, greatly affecting popularity, and giving countenance to riotous assemblies and tumultuous mobs, whose violence was such as to pelt with stones the windows of several gentlemen’s houses in the city, and otherwise to damage the same.  They likewise furiously forced the doors of the cathedral church and destroyed most of the painted glass, burst open the little vestries and cupboards, wherein were the surplices and hoods belonging to the clergy, which they rent to rags, and carried away; they beat to pieces the baptismal font, pulled down some monuments, attempted to demolish the organ, and committed other enormous outrages.”

It now remains for us to give a description of this venerable religious edifice.  Although in its general external appearance, it may not present the prepossessing p. 56attractions which appertain to some other cathedral churches, it nevertheless has a history of peculiar interest; and in its architectural delineations is well worthy of the study of the ecclesiologist and the antiquary.  From whatever side the cathedral is viewed, it presents the appearance of a massive pile, and exhibits a pleasing variety of styles in accordance with the taste of different ages; some parts decorated with elaborate workmanship, while others are perfectly simple and unadorned.  The principal parts now standing are not, perhaps, older than the 14th and 15th century, when the richly ornamented style of Gothic architecture was at its zenith in this country.  Its general character may be termed the perpendicular.  It has been generally supposed that there are some remaining specimens of the Saxon, and Lysons favours the theory; but Mr. Asphitel, in an interesting and able lecture, delivered before the Archæological Society, stated that he could not, from the most minute research, discover any portions of the Saxon church.  He considered it probable there might be some portions in the foundations, but none, in his opinion, were visible.

The west front is said to have been the work of Abbot Ripley, who was appointed to the abbacy in 1485.  It is now in an unfinished state, and it would seem that there was an intention to form two western towers.  The foundation of them was laid with much ceremony by Abbot Birchenshaw, in 1508, the Mayor p. 57being then present: but the project was most likely abandoned for want of funds.  “Had the original design been executed,” says Winkle, “it would not have been very imposing.  The effect of it, as it now appears, is much injured by a building which is connected with it, and shuts out one of the turrets which flank on either side the west wall of the nave.  The original intention seems to have been the usual one, viz., a square tower on each side of the west end of the nave.  The foundations of that on the north side still exist, the site of that on the south is now occupied by a building called the consistory court, once perhaps a chapel, in the west wall of which is a pointed window of four lights, with perpendicular tracery, and flowing crocketted canopy with rich finial; above the window is a belt of pannelled tracery, and on each side of it is a niche with overhanging canopies, adorned with pendants and pinnacles, and resting on good brackets.  The statues are gone.  The parapet of this building is quite plain.  The west entrance is a singular and beautiful composition.  The door itself is a Tudor arch, inclosed within a square head, the spandrils are filled with rich and elegant foliations, the hollow moulding along the top is deep and broad, and filled with a row of angels half-lengths; all this is deeply recessed within another Tudor arch, under another square head, with plain spandrils of ordinary panelling.  On each side of the door are four niches, with their usual accompaniments p. 58of crocketted canopies, pinnacles, and pendants, and instead of brackets, the statues stood on pedestals with good bases and capitals.  Above this entrance is the great west window of the nave, deeply and richly recessed; it is of eight lights, with elaborate tracery, of some breadth just below the spring of the arch, and above this some simple tracery of the kind most common to the latest age of the pointed style.  The arch of the window is much depressed, and has above it a flowing crocketted canopy, the gable has no parapet, but is finished off with a simple coping.  The flanking turrets before-mentioned are octagonal, and have belts of panelled tracery and embattled parapets.

“Leaving the west front, and turning to the south, a rich and deep porch presents itself behind the consistory court.  The south face of that court is very similar, in all respects, to the west, already described.  The porch is flanked by buttresses which once had pinnacles.  The entrance is under a Tudor arch, within a square head, the spandrils richly panelled, over the square head is a broad belt of quatrefoil panelling, above that a hollow moulding adorned with the Tudor flower.  Above this are two flat-headed windows, of two lights each, with a deep niche between them, resting on a projecting bracket, the statue of course is gone, but the projecting and richly decorated canopy remains, on both sides of which the wall above is adorned with two rows of panelling, the open embattled parapet which once p. 59crowned the whole has disappeared.  The south side of the nave and its aisle is plain, but not without dignity; the windows are all pointed and of perpendicular character; those of the aisle have straight canopies, with projecting buttresses between, which still have niches, and once had both pinnacles and statues.  The aisle has no parapet.  The windows of the clerestory are unusually large and lofty, and their canopies are flowing in form, but perfectly plain, and without finials, they have no buttresses between them, and the parapet is very shallow and quite plain.

“The next feature of this cathedral, which is now to be described in due order, is a very singular one, and indeed unique, viz., the south wing of the transept.  It is no uncommon case to find the two portions of the transept unlike each other in some respects; but in no other instance are they so perfectly dissimilar as at Chester.  Here, the south wing is nearly as long as the nave, and of equal length with the choir, and considerably broader than either, having, like them, aisles on both sides; while the north, which probably stands upon the original foundations, has no aisles, is very short, and only just the breadth of one side of the central tower.  The east and west faces of this south portion of the transept are nearly similar.  The aisles have no parapet; the windows are pointed, of four lights each, with late decorated tracery and small intervening buttresses.  The p. 60clerestory has a parapet similar to that of the nave; the windows are pointed, large, and lofty, with perpendicular tracery, and two transoms.  The south front of this transept, flat at top, is flanked with square embattled turrets and buttresses, and has a large window of the perpendicular age filling up nearly all the space between them.  The south face of the aisles on each side have pointed windows, similar to those already described, and sloping tops without parapet, but flanked by double buttresses at the external angles, without pinnacles.

“The south face of the choir, with its aisle, is in nearly all respects similar to the south portion of the transept; but the aisle is lengthened out beyond the choir, and becomes the side aisle of the Lady Chapel, and has an octangular turret near the east end, with embattled parapet, and beyond it a plain heavy clumsy buttress: the sloping parapet of the east face of this aisle meets at the top the flat plain parapet of the most eastern compartment of the Lady Chapel which projects beyond the aisle, to that extent.  The windows of the Lady Chapel are all pointed, and of good perpendicular character; the projecting portion has double buttresses at the external angles, and the eastern face has a low gable point.  This chapel is very little higher than the side aisles of the choir, the east face of which is seen over it, with a large lofty pointed window, with perpendicular tracery and several transoms, flanked with octagonal turrets, engaged, and p. 61terminated with something like domes of Elizabethan architecture.  The parapet of this east face of the choir is flat.  The north side of Lady Chapel is similar to the south; the choir and its aisles exhibit features of early English character on this side, but the chapter-room conceals a considerable portion of it, which is a small building of an oblong form, and also of early English architecture.  Over its vestibule and the arched passage leading into the east walk of the cloister, is seen the large window in the north front of the transept; the arch is much depressed, the tracery very common and plain, and it has two transoms; the walls of this wing of the transept are very plain, flat at top, and no parapet.  The whole north side of the nave can be seen only from the cloister-yard.  The south walk of the cloister is gone, and in the wall of the aisle, below the windows, are still seen several enriched semicircular arches resting on short cylindrical columns, evidently belonging to the original church of Hugh Lupus.  The windows of the aisle are Tudor arched, with the ordinary tracery of this period; but, owing to the cloister once existing beneath, are necessarily curtailed of half their due length: there is a thin flat buttress between each; the aisle has no parapet.  The clerestory is lofty, and the windows pointed, and not so much depressed as those in the aisle beneath: they are not so lofty as those in the south side, nor have they any canopies.  There is a thin buttress between each, without pinnacles, p. 62and the parapet is quite plain, but not so shallow as that on the south side.

“The central tower is perhaps the best external feature of this cathedral, it is indeed only of one story above the roof ridge, but it is loftier than such towers usually are; in each face of it are two pointed windows, divided down the middle with a single mullion, with a quatrefoil at the top, and all of them have flowing crocketted canopies with finials.  At each of the four angles of the tower is an octagonal turret engaged, all of which like the tower itself, are terminated with an embattled parapet.”

On entering the interior (says the same authority) through the west doorway, into the nave, some disappointment and regret cannot but be felt.  Here is no vaulted roof, but a flat ceiling of wood, resting on brackets of the same material, slightly arched, which gives the nave the appearance of having less elevation than it really possesses; for the naves of many much more magnificent cathedrals are not so lofty as this by several feet, but by being vaulted, their apparent height is increased.  The stone vaulting appears to have been actually commenced, and it is to be regretted that the desirable work was not completed, as it would certainly have given to the nave a much more imposing effect.  The north wall of the nave, to the height of the windows, is Norman work, and contains, on the side of the cloisters, six tombs, where, as it appears from an old MS. written p. 63on the back of an old charter, now in the British Museum, the early Norman Abbots are interred.  Under a wide arch, sunk in the south wall, which from the ornaments attached to the pillar near it, appears part of the original building, is a coffin-shaped stone, with a cross fleury on the lid, over the remains of some Abbot.  Nearly opposite to this, is an altar-tomb, the sides of which are ornamented with Gothic niches, with trefoil heads, and with quatrefoils set alternately, the quatrefoils being also alternately filled with roses and leopards’ heads; the lid slides, and discloses the lead coffin, a part of which has been cut away; on the lid is a plain coffin-shaped stone.  It is highly probable that this tomb contains the remains of one of the later Abbots.  The pillars of the nave are clustered, and have rich bases and foliated capitals, and the arches are pointed.  In this part of the Cathedral and the north transept, are several monuments worthy the attention of visitors.  A pyramidical monument by Nollekins, representing a female figure resting on a rock, against which is placed a broken anchor, erected by Capt. John Matthews, R.N. to the memory of his wife.  One, in white marble, by Banks, representing the genius of history weeping over an urn, having three vols., inscribed “Longinus,” “Thucydides,” “Xenophon,” placed by it; erected to the memory of Dean Smith, the learned translator of those works.  One to the memory of Mrs. Barbara Dod, erected by the minor canons.  One to Capt. John William p. 64Buchanan, of the 16th light dragoons slain at the battle of Waterloo.  One of Cavalier Sir Willm. Mainwaring, killed at Chester during the great civil war, 1644.  Against the north wall, a handsome monument, enclosing a bust of Sir John Grey Egerton, Bart., erected by subscriptions of the citizens of Chester, in memory of their honourable and independent representative.  One in memory of Major Thomas Hilton, who died at Montmeir, in the Burmese empire, 2nd February, 1829.  One to Augusta, the wife of the Rev. James Slade, canon of the Cathedral, and daughter of Bishop Law.  One of Capt. John Moor Napier, who died of asiatic cholera, in Scinde, July 7th, 1846, aged 28 years: this monument was executed by Westmacott, the inscription was written by his uncle, the gallant Sir Charles Napier, and is as follows:—

The tomb is no record of high lineage;
His may be traced by his name.
His race was one of soldiers:
Among soldiers he lived—among them he died.
A soldier, falling where numbers fell with him
In a barbarous land.
Yet there died none more generous,
More daring, more gifted, more religious.
On his early grave
Fell the tears of stern and hardy men,
As his had fallen on the grave of others.

To the memory of their comrade, the officers of the General Staff in Scinde erect this cenotaph.—[The above was executed by Westmacott.]

In the north transept is a piece of exceedingly fine tapestry, executed after one of the cartoons of p. 65Raphael, representing the history of Elymas the Sorcerer.  Wright, in his travels through France and Italy, after describing the tapestry he saw in the Vatican at Rome, says “We have an altar-piece in the choir of Chester, after one of the same cartoons (it is that of Elymas the Sorcerer), which, in my mind, is much superior to any of these.”  There is also a well-executed stone monument to Roger Barnston, Esq., and a tablet in memory of good Chancellor Peploe.

The choir well merits the attention of every visitor of taste.  From the organ loft to the Bishop’s throne, the sides are ornamented with rich spiral tabernacle work, underneath which are massive and highly ornamented stalls.  The choir is separated from the nave and broad aisle by a Gothic stone screen; there are five pointed arches on each side; above them, is an arcade of pointed arches, resting on slender shafts, and above it are the clerestory windows.  The pavement of the choir is of black and white marble.  At the west end of it, are four stalls on each side of the entrance, and there are twenty others on each side of the choir; over these are rich canopies, with pinnacles and pendants in great profusion.  Above the stalls on the right hand, opposite the pulpit, is the Bishop’s throne, which formerly stood at the east end in St. Mary’s Chapel, and is said to have been the shrine of St. Werburgh, or as suggested by Pennant, the pedestal on which originally stood the real shrine p. 66which contained the sacred reliques.  At the Reformation it was removed to its present position, and converted into a throne for the Bishop.  It is a rich specimen of Gothic architecture, decorated with carved work, and embellished with a range of thirty curious small statues, variously habited, holding scrolls in their hands, and originally inscribed with their names, but now defaced.  Dr. Cowper published in 1799, an elaborate history of these figures, and was of opinion that they represented kings and saints of the royal Mercian line, ancestors or relations of St. Werburgh.  Very great improvements have recently been effected within the choir.  The restoration of the bishop’s throne was effected by the munificence of the Rev. Canon Slade, as an obituary testimonial to his late father-in-law, Bishop Law, in memory of whom, the following inscription, engraven upon a brass plate, is affixed to the throne:—

In gloriam Dei hanc cathedram reficiendam curabit A.D. MDCCCXLVI. Jacobus Slade, A.M. hujus ecciesiæ Canonicus.  Necuen in piam memoriam Georgii Henrici Law, S.T.P. per xii. annes Episcopi Cestriensis. dein Bathoniensis.

At the back of the throne is a magnificent stone screen, the gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury, corresponding in style with that on the opposite side behind the pulpit, which was erected by the Dean and Chapter.  The altar screen was presented by the Rev. Peploe Hamilton, of Hoole, near Chester; the larger chair within the rails of the communion p. 67table is the liberal gift of the Dean, and the small one was presented by the Rev. Canon Blomfield; the new lectern, of carved oak in the form of an eagle, by the Rev. Chancellor Raikes, executed by Mr. Harris, of Chester; the new stone pulpit, from a beautiful design by Mr. Hussey, is the liberal gift of Sir Edward S. Walker, of this city.  The seats of the choir have been provided with new crimson cushions, the stalls have been re-painted, and the canopies gilded by Mr. John Morris, through the liberality of the Dean.  Towards the restoration of the cathedral, Her Majesty the Queen also contributed a donation of £105 in the name of the Prince of Wales as Earl of Chester.

The execution of the alterations were entrusted to Messrs. Furness and Kilpin, of Liverpool, and it is gratifying to add that Chester artificers have been chiefly employed in carrying them out.  Mr. Haswell built the organ screen, the throne, the pulpit, the stone work of the new east window in the choir, and re-laid the marble pavement.

Mr. Harrison constructed the reredos at the back of the altar; and the oak seats, screens and altar rails are the work of Mr. J. Evans.

Under the east window is an arch opening to the Lady Chapel, which consists of a middle and two side aisles, the stone vaulting of which is adorned with richly carved key-stones.  The side aisles are divided from the middle portion of two arches, sprung p. 68from a massy pier on each side, apparently part of the original building, cut down and crusted over with clusters of light pillars, terminated in elegant pointed arches, with quatrefoils inserted in the mouldings.  On the north side of the chancel, which extends beyond the side aisles, are two elegant pointed arches; one contains two piscinas; the other was apparently a seat for the officiating priest: another pointed arch appears also on the opposite side.

The cloisters are on the north side of the church, and form a quadrangle of about 110 feet square; originally, there were four walks, but the south walk is destroyed.  The general style of the cloisters is that of the fifteenth century, with carved key-stones at the intersections of the vaulting, the arches of the windows are depressed; a lavatory projects from the west walk of the cloisters, and did extend along the south walk; over the east walk was a dormitory, which was sometime ago destroyed, much to the injury of the appearance of these conventual ruins.  It is obvious that the present cloisters are only a restoration of an earlier one.  In the east walk of the cloisters is the entrance into the Chapter House, or rather its singular vestibule, 30 feet 4 inches long, and 27 feet 4 inches wide.  The vaulted roof of this apartment is supported by four columns without capitals, surrounded by eight slender shafts.  The Chapter room itself is an elegant building, 35 feet high, 50 feet long, and 26 broad.  The stone vaulting p. 69rests on clusters of slender shafts, with foliated capitals; all the windows are in the latest style, those at the east and west ends consist of five lights each.  A gallery goes round three sides of the room, and where it passes the windows is carried between the mullions, and a corresponding series of light shafts connected with them, which have elegant sculptured capitals, and support the mouldings of the lancet arches above.  Notwithstanding the soft nature of the stone, the carving is all in an excellent state of preservation.

Pennant has ascribed the erection of this beautiful building to Randle Meschines, on the ground of his having removed the body of Hugh Lupus, “de cœmiterio in capitulum,” as mentioned in his charter to the Abbey; and he is, most probably, right in supposing that the same respect would have been paid at the time of his death, if a Chapter House had then existed.  This argument, however, merely tends to prove that the Chapter House was built by Handle Meschines, but as far as can be inferred from the architecture, it may be reasonably doubted whether any part of the present Chapter House was built long before the extinction of the local earldom.  The learned Dr. Ormerod is of opinion that this is about the date of its erection, and he is supported by several other competent authorities, who concur with him on the point.

In the Chapter House are preserved some interesting local relics, among which is a red sand stone, 24 p. 70inches by 8 inches, found on the site of the Deanery, bearing this inscription:—

Mr. Roach Smith, an eminent authority in such matters, says that this inscription is to be ascribed to the century of Ocratius Maximus, of the first Cohort of the 20th Legion; it has evidently been a facing stone, probably in the city wall; it resembles in character the centurial commemorations on the stones in the great northern wall, and like them, apparently refers to the completion of a certain quantity of building.

There is also the head part of a stone coffin, found by persons employed in digging in the Chapter House in 1723.  The scull and bones were entire, and lay in their proper position, enveloped in an ox-hide.  On the breast was a piece of cloth, the texture of which could not be ascertained.  It has been supposed by Pennant and others, that these remains were those of Hugh Lupus, which were removed hither from the churchyard, by his nephew Randle, Earl of Chester.  Ormerod seems to be of opinion that this relic designated the place of sepulchre of Abbot Simon Ripley.  p. 71It is now generally admitted by those most competent to form a judgment on the subject, that Ormerod has given a true interpretation of this interesting relic.  The initials, he says, are clearly S. R., and the wolf’s head corresponds in style of carving with a similar one introduced by Simon Ripley on the tower of Saighton Manor House.  There are also two shot-torn banners of the 22nd Cheshire regiment of Infantry, which were received from India, after that gallant corps had been presented with new colours, and were presented by the government to the then Dean of Chester (Dr. Davys) for preservation in the Cathedral.

The appearance of this noble room would certainly be much improved by the removal of the unsightly bookcases, which are not in the slightest unison with the beautiful architecture they so much obstruct.  Mr. Ashpitel says, “he considers the Chapter House, with its singularly tasteful vestibule, to be the finest in the kingdom of its form;” and has animadverted, with deserving severity, upon the tastelessness of a professed architectural critic, who could pass over the building with the disparaging criticism, “poor enough?”  He (Mr. Ashpitel) had been told the same story, but he found beauties which grew upon him more and more at every visit.  The Norman remains, he says, are extremely fine—there is work of all kinds of great beauty; and there are the most curious and instructive transitions from style to style p. 72that perhaps were ever contained in one building.

The north walk of the cloister contained the chief entrance into the refectory of the convent, which still remains a magnificent apartment, now divided by a modern passage, the eastern and greater portion being used as the King’s School.  It was seventy-eight feet long, and thirty-four feet high, with a roof of oak resting on brackets, which was removed some years ago.  Six pointed windows with intervening buttresses lighted the north side, and four the south.  At the east end were three lancet-shaped windows, with slender detached shafts, all included within one greater arch.  In the south east angle of this once noble room, is a flight of steps within the wall, with a projection at the upper end like a stone pulpit; these steps led to the ancient dormitory, and opens into the refectory by an elegant range of pointed arches, trefoiled within, whose spandrils are pierced with a series of quatrefoils.

We now direct the visitor’s attention to a portion of the Norman edifice, which has of late excited very deep interest, the Promptuarium, lately excavated:

“the chamber is a sort of gallery or cloister on the ground floor, about ninety feet long by forty feet wide, traversed in the centre by a row of pillars (with one exception cylindrical), which divide it into six double bays, from which pillars, and four corresponding ones at each side, spring the intersecting arches by which the building is vaulted.  The side p. 73pillars are as entirely Norman in their character as the centre ones, being simply the square pier, on each face of which is the pilaster attached; the groining of the roof is without the finish of ribs at the joints, a finish characteristic of a later period.  The chamber, which has at present only a borrowed light from the cloisters on the east, was originally lighted from the west side, by a window in each bay, except the second bay from the south end, in which was a principal entrance.  This doorway and the windows are now all choked up by the adjoining garden.  On the same side, and at the north end, is a very large chimney and fire-place.  A glance at the groining and arches at the north end, informing us that the chamber did formerly end here, I was induced to think, by this situation of the fire-place, that its length was originally very much greater.  I have since found the termination of the chamber in the cellars of the present Registry, where the groining is supported by corbels, which shew that the vaults extended there, but no further.  One double bay, therefore, added to the present remains, gives us the entire length of the building,—about one hundred and five feet.  In this last bay, on the east side, is a principal doorway (four inches wider than the one on the west side), leading towards the refectory.  On the east side also, and near the north end, is a postern from the cloisters and a spiral staircase, partly constructed in the thickness of the wall, p. 74leading to the chamber above, of which there are now no remains.  Two small archways at opposite sides of the chamber, precisely similar in form and size, and rising from beneath the level of the floor, seemed to indicate a subterranean passage connecting them.  An excavation round each has, however, discovered no channel between them.  In considering the character and situation of this vaulted chamber it should be borne in mind that though now apparently subterranean, it is only so with reference to the west side, the level of the floor being four feet above the level of the nave of the cathedral.  The ground which now rises above it on the west side is all made ground of late date, belonging to the Palace, the original level of which is identical with this chamber, as shewn by the area round the present Palace kitchens, and by those apartments belonging to the Abbot’s residence, which yet remain.” [74]

Mr. Ashpitel, in his interesting lecture on Chester Cathedral, bestowed the name of Promptuarium on this Norman cloister, he says, “these are vaulted apartments of early Norman work, and are described in the charter of Henry VIII., by which he divides the properties between the bishop and dean, promptuaria et pannaria, the former derived from a word denoting a butler or steward, probably a buttery; and the latter, from pannus, a cloth, probably the place for clothing.”

p. 75Mr. Ayrton, in an able paper on the Norman remains of the cathedral, read before the Chester Archæological Association, entered into an elaborate inquiry on the subject, stating his reasons for concluding that this is not a Promptuarium, but, in his opinion, a spacious hall, where the splendid hospitality of the Abbots was displayed to strangers, friends, and dependents.  His arguments are marshalled with great ingenuity and force; and as every contribution which tends to throw light on the use, to which this remain of the ancient monastery was devoted, possesses much importance and interest; we will here insert his observations upon it:—

“Let us see how far we have any authority for considering this building a ‘Promptuarium,’ that is, a store-room or buttery.  All that Ormerod says of it is, that ‘it is a kind of crypt, consisting of a double row of circular arches, springing, with one exception, from short cylindrical columns.  This building was probably used as a depository for the imported stores of the abbey, of which we may form no mean idea from a charter from the King of the Isles to the Abbot of St. Werburgh, granting ingress and egress to the vessels of the Monks of the Abbey of St. Werburgh, with sale and purchase of goods, toll free, and right of fishing upon his coasts.’  (Vol. I. page 218.)  But he gives us no authority for the use ascribed to it; only his own unsupported supposition hazarded when the building was not so far p. 76cleared or intelligible as at present.  The name “Promptuarium” was bestowed on it by Mr. Ashpitel when it was cleared out and restored to its present condition at the expense of the British Archæological Association, under the direction of the Local Committee, preparatory to the Congress of 1849.  He derives the name from a sentence in Henry the VIII’s. charter (dividing the properties between the Bishop and the Dean and Chapter,) and speaks of this building in the plural, which agrees with his reading of the charter, but does not agree with the fact.  He says, in his lecture on Chester Cathedral, ‘These are vaulted apartments of early Norman work, and are described in the charter of Henry VIII., by which he divides the properties between the Bishop and the Dean as Promptuaria et Pannaria, the former derived from a word denoting a butler or steward, probably a buttery, and the latter from pannus, a cloth, probably the place for clothing.’  The sentence to which Mr. Ashpitel alludes, and which he applies to this building, is the one describing the chamber which was called the “secunda aula”—“nec non secundam aulam, seu interiorem cum suis pannariis, promptuariis, et ceteris ejusdem membris.”

“No doubt the hall, which was of great importance, had its Promptuaria and pannaria, with its other appropriate offices; but I see no ground for applying these plural designations to a single chamber of such extent and character.  We find the same terms used p. 77elsewhere in the charter with reference to other parts of the building, where there is no such chamber on which to bestow them.  I must also suggest that we do not elsewhere find in remains of this date, buildings of such unbroken extent, magnitude, and continuous design, for such a purpose.  Store-houses and offices there were attached to every conventual building of like importance, but we shall find them, I apprehend, always more equally quadrangular, more confined, and with a regard to convenience which predominates over the attention paid to style and effect.  Here we have a chamber of vast extent (we have now ascertained its original length to have been 105 feet), in which the design has been kept carefully unbroken by the details or partitions necessary to offices such as the word ‘Promptuarium’ describes.  We see throughout the whole extent great attention paid to the arrangements, the regularity, and the ornamentation of the building; and we find the pillars, the capitals, shafts, and bases, unbroken and uninjured save by the hand of time, and, notwithstanding the friable nature of the stone, for the most part as sharp and well defined as they were left by the chisel of the mason.  It appears to me impossible to reconcile all these particulars with the purposes assigned to the building by Ormerod, or by Mr. Ashpitel.

“I may now perhaps be asked, ‘If this chamber was neither a store-room nor a Promptuarium, what was it?’  It is not without hesitation that I attempt p. 78to answer that question.  From its length, its double bay of arches, and its situation between the church, the refectory, and the Abbot’s apartments, I should have deemed it a cloister; probably the Norman cloister, when the ground occupied by the present cloisters was differently appropriated; but, unlike a cloister, it is closed on every side, and the existence of the fire-place does not agree with that assumption; added to which the original windows are all on the side belonging to the Abbot’s apartments, the side to the church having been entirely closed with the exception of the postern.  My belief is, that it was no other than the “Secunda Aula” itself, mentioned in Henry the Eighth’s charter; a sort of spacious hall for the accommodation of the Abbot’s friends and dependents, for the reception of strangers, and the exercise of that large hospitality which was dealt out so freely and bountifully in the eleventh and succeeding centuries in all important monastic establishments.  That its claim to the title of the “Secunda Aula” has hitherto been overlooked, may arise from its having been erroneously considered (as by Ormerod) a sort of crypt, or subterranean building; whereas a little consideration of its level, and the ground around it, will shew us that it has only assumed that character since the sixteenth century.” [78]

p. 79There is a vaulted passage at the south end of the “Promptuarium,” or “Secunda Aula,” leading from the Abbot’s apartments to the Cathedral.  It is groined in exactly the same proportions as the bays of the Norman chamber, and the arches are circular, springing from pillars precisely similar, but the groining is ribbed, and not with cylindrical, but eliptical mouldings.  These mouldings stamp a semi-Norman character on the work, being almost a transition to the early English style.

Two beautiful Norman doorways gave ingress and egress from this passage, and still remain, though the one which opened to the present west cloister is closed, and sadly disfigured by the alterations of the sixteenth century.  The other doorway to the west, is perfect, excepting the shafts of the pillars, which are gone.  The capitals supporting one side of the architrave are foliated and of late character for Norman work.

p. 80At the south end of the east cloister, and forming the present entrance from that cloister to the cathedral, is a Norman doorway, of about the same date as the arcade adjoining it.  The architrave is very ornate, bearing the billet ornament, accompanied by a bead which runs between the mouldings.  Unfortunately the stone has perished more in this doorway from exposure than in those of the vaulted passage; but still more has been lost from the unmerciful treatment it has received at the hands of the plasterer.  It is quite choked up with plaster and colouring, which might, with a little care and trouble, be all removed, and the door restored to something more like its original effect.  The capitals of the pilasters are foliated, and identical with those already noticed in the Norman doorway of the vaulted passage.

In 1843, a liberal subscription for the purchase of two painted windows having been made, the Dean and Chapter made an appeal for an additional fund, for the praiseworthy purpose of restoring some portion of the ancient beauties of the cathedral.  The appeal was most liberally responded to by the subscription of the munificent sum of £4000.  A new organ has been erected at a cost of £1000., built by Messrs. Gray and Davidson, of London; it is a large and splendid instrument, of great power and richness of tone; the top of which is carved with tabernacle work, in unison with that of the choir.  The instrument contains the following stops:—

p. 81The Great Organ, extending from CC to F, contains Double Diapason, sixteen feet—Open Diapason, eight feet—Open Diapason, eight feet—Stopped Diapason and Clarabella, eight feet—Fifth, six feet—Principal, four feet—Flute, four feet—Twelfth, three feet—Fifteenth, two feet—Sesquialtra, three ranks—Furniture, two ranks—Mixture, two ranks—Trumpet, eight feet—Clarion, four feet.

Swell Organ, from FF to F, contains:—Double Diapason, sixteen feet—Open Diapason, eight feet—Stopped Diapason, eight feet—Principal, four feet—Fifteenth, two feet—Sesquialtra, three ranks—Hautboy, eight feet—Cornopean, eight feet—Clarion, four feet.

Choir Organ from GG to F, contains:—Open Diapason, eight feet—Dulciana, eight feet—Stopped Diapason, eight feet—Principal, four feet—Flute, four feet—Fifteenth, two feet—Clarionet, eight feet.

Pedal Organ, from CCC to D, two octaves and two notes, contains:—Open Diapason (wood), sixteen feet—Stopped Diapason, sixteen feet—Principal, eight feet—Fifteenth, four feet—Tierce, three and a quarter feet—Sesquialtra, two ranks.

Couplæ:—Swell to Great Manual—Swell to Choir Manual—Choir to Great Manual—Great Manual to Pedals—Choir Manual to Pedals.

There are four Composition Pedalsr for changing the Stops in the Great Organ.

The old pews, which were sadly out of keeping with p. 82the rich Gothic woodwork of the stalls, have been removed, and the choir has been new seated in the Gothic style.

The whole of the choir has been vaulted, which has greatly contributed to its improved appearance.  The walls of the choir, aisles, and Lady Chapel, have been repaired, cleaned, and coloured.  Three beautiful stained glass windows have been placed at the east end of the choir and in the Lady Chapel, which have given a much more solemn and impressive aspect to the interior.  The clerestory window of the choir has five figures, representing our Saviour and the four Evangelists, surrounded with their various emblems; over which are five scenes from the life of Christ, viz., the Agony in the Garden; Bearing the Cross; the Crucifixion; the Resurrection; and the Ascension.  This window was executed by Mr. Wailes, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, at the cost of £200.  The window of the Lady Chapel represents, in its lower divisions, the following important transactions in the history of the Redeemer’s sojourn upon earth:—The Annunciation to the Shepherds—the Nativity—the Offerings of the Wise Men of the East—the Presentation in the Temple—Christ Disputing with the Doctors—the Baptism—the Miracle of turning the Water into Wine—Healing the Lame—Walking on the Sea—Feeding the Multitude—the Transfiguration—the Raising of Lazarus—the Entry into Jerusalem—Washing the Disciples’ Feet—and p. 83the Last Supper.  The upper division of the window contains figures of the twelve Apostles; ranged in the order in which their names are given in Sacred Writ.  This window was also executed by Mr. Wailes, at the cost of £360, and of the outer guards £60.

A magnificent window by the same artist, has also been placed in the south aisle of the choir, by the Very Rev. the Dean, in memory of three deceased members of his family.  The inscription is as follows:—

“Sancta Catherina—‘The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God.’—Catherine Louisa Anson, died and buried at Southwell, March 28, 1832, aged 18, third daughter.”

“Sanctus Thomas—‘Thy brother shall rise again’—Thomas Anson, Lieut. R.N., died and buried at Sudbury, March 17, 1845, aged 24, fourth son.”

“Sancta Maria—‘The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.’—Mary Blomfield, wife of the Rev. G. B. Blomfield, Canon of Chester, died and buried at Stevenage, August 6, 1848, aged 38, 2nd daughter of the Rev. Frederick Anson, D.D. Dean of Chester, by whom this memorial is placed.”

Another obituary window has more recently been erected; placed next to the latter.  It is in memory of George Edward Anson, Esq., son of the Dean of Chester.  The inscription is as follows:—In memory of George Edwd. Anson, Esq. C.B., Keeper of H.M. Privy Purse; Treasurer of H.R.H. Prince p. 84Albert, and to the Prince of Wales.  Suddenly called away from the faithful but unostentatious discharge of high official duties to his rest in Christ, on the 9th day of October, 1849, aged 37.  He was the 2nd son of the Rev. Frederick Anson, D.D., Dean of this Cathedral, with whose bereavement the inhabitants of this city and neighbourhood record their sympathy, and commemorate his zeal in the restoration of the Cathedral Church, by erecting this memorial window.  Mr. Hardman of Birmingham was the artist; and the cost of the window £180.  The events represented are the Raising of Jairus’ Daughter—Raising of Lazarus—Raising the Widow’s Son—Entombment and Resurrection of our Lord—and, Our Lord appearing to Mary.

The service of the cathedral is performed with great solemnity and fine taste; and the talented organist, Mr. Gunton, merits great praise for the admirable manner in which he fulfils his important duties.

The hours of Service are:—Week-day: morning, 7 10; afternoon, 3.  Sunday:—morning, 11; afternoon, 4 o’clock.  During the winter months the service begins at 4 in the afternoon.  There is an anthem every day in the afternoon service.

The following is a list of the dignitaries of the cathedral:—

DEAN.

F. Anson, D.D.

p. 85CANONS.

HONORARY CANONS.

MINOR CANONS.

In concluding this record of the venerable Cathedral of Chester, we think it will have appeared, that while it has a history of deep interest and significance, it has also many architectural beauties, well deserving of a minute and careful study.

“Amid the imposing growth of material wealth and pride, it is not unseasonable to remember that temple architecture is the oldest in the world; and to ask, after so impressive a vindication of its longevity, whether having been the earliest, it may not prove the latest term of human civilization.  I am persuaded that so it will be; for there is in the soul of man ‘a temple not made with hands,’ which demands and shapes forth the visible structure as its shell of life; which is ever fresh amid the change and wreck of ages, and can build again the ruins of the past; indeed, the hidden cloister of whose worship will remain still open, and thrill with higher strains, when time and its structures shall be no more.”

p. 86G. PRICHARD, BRIDGE STREET ROW, CHESTER.

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FOOTNOTES.

[21]  The Lysons give the income at £1003 5s. 11d.

[49]  The book is badly faded and “inscription” and “birth” are both guesses.—DP.

[50a]  The is badly faded and “London in 1828” is a guess.—DP.

[74]  Mr. W. Ayrton on the Norman remains of the Cathedral.

[78]  Since the above remarks were delivered, a chamber has been discovered at Furness Abbey of almost identical character, and with a similar row of columns running down the centre, by Mr. Sharpe, who gives it the title of the Hospitium, and assigns to it purposes almost the same as I assume for the Secunda Aula.