1653
27th February
Sunday
Mr. Thomas Smith was buried at the Collegiate Church, February 27. In
January, 1637-38, Thomas Smith, who is described as a “buckbinder,” had a
daughter baptised at the Collegiate Church. This Thomas Smith had been a
bookseller in Barnstaple for four or five years, but not finding sufficient
trade there, he came to Manchester, “where there had beene a bookseller
formerly, but by his misdemeanour ran himselfe so deeply into men’s debts that
he was forced to depart.” There he claimed that he had so behaved himself and
furnished the place with “all sorts of Latin and English bookes allowed by
authority to be sold, that he hath gayned ye custome both of town and countrey.”
His shop is named on the title-pages of Lancashire’s Valley
of Achor, 1643, and other Civil War tracts. (Dredge’s Devon
Booksellers and Printers, Plymouth, 1885.)(7)
29th June
Wednesday
The Council of State ordered, 29th June, on
a petition from the inhabitants, that the gathering of the tithes should be
forborne till further order.(7)
12th October
Wednesday
Humphrey Chetham, founder of the
hospital and library which bears his name, died October 12, in his 74th year,
and was buried in the Chetham chapel of the Collegiate Church. He was born at
Crumpsall, and baptized at the Collegiate Church, July 10, 1580, and is said to
have received his education at the Free Grammar School. His wealth was chiefly
derived by supplying the London markets with fustians. He thus acquired
opulence; whilst his strict integrity, his piety, and works of charity secured
him the respect and esteem of those around him. "He was," says Fuller, "a
diligent reader of the Scriptures, and of the works of sound divines; a
respecter of such ministers as he accounted truly godly, upright, sober,
discreet, and sincere. He was High Sheriff of the County of Lancaster, anno
1635, discharging that office with great honor, insomuch that every good
gentleman of birth and estate did wear his cloth at the assize, to testify their
unfeigned affection for him." But some of them complained of his assumption of a
coat of arms which brought him into trouble with the Heralds' College. During
his life he had "taken up and maintained fourteen boys of the town of
Manchester, six of the town of Salford, and two of the town of Droylsden, in all
twenty-two." By his will, bearing date December 16, 1651, he directed that the
number of boys should be increased to forty; bequeathing the sum £7,000 for the
purchase of an estate the profits of which were to be applied to the support of
this establishment. The operations of this benevolent institution have been
since greatly extended by judicious management, and due attention have been to
the views of the founder. In 1845 the number of boys was augmented to one
hundred, namely, Manchester 35, Salford 15, Droylsden 8, Crumpsall 5, Bolton 25,
Turton 12. The "Hospital" is under the direction of twenty-four feoffees, and a
resident governor.He also bequeathed £1,000 for the purchase of books, and £100
for a building as the foundation of a public library, for the augmentation of
which he devised the residue of his personal estate. The property left by
Chetham, for the use and augmentation of the library, and for the board, &c., of
the librarian, amounts to about £700 per annum. Donations have been made from
time to time (the first of which was in 1694, by the Rev. John Prestwich,
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, of books to the amount of £50), so that the
collection now amounts to upwards of 30,000 volumes. Any person who chooses,
whether resident or not, on going to the Chetham library, is at liberty to read
in a room provided for that purpose. Chetham further left two hundred pounds "to
purchase godly English books to be chained upon desks in the churches of
Manchester, Bolton, Turton, Gorton, and Walmersley." His principal residences
were at Clayton Hall, near Manchester, and Turton Tower, near Bolton.(7)
1653. Outwood-Unsworth-Whitefield-Prestwich
Humphrey Chetham left legacies to the poor of Outwood, Unsworth,
Whitefield, and Prestwich.(9)
1653
William Crabtree, the
astronomer, is believed to have died in 1652 or 1653. (See under date 1639.)(7)