1872
4th. January
Thursday
29th. January
Monday
The branch library for Cheetham and adjacent districts-the fifth of the
Manchester branches-was opened by the Mayor of Manchester, January 29.(7)
30th. January
Tuesday
Rev. Louis Henry Mordacque, M.A., incumbent of Haslingden, died January
30. He was the son of Mr. L. A. J. Mordacque, of Manchester, and was born
May 10, 1824. He was the translator of Salverte's History of Names,
1862-4, in 2 vols.(7)
6th. February
Tuesday
Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart, M.A., F.R.S., died February 6, at Cheltenham.
He was born at Cannon Street, Manchester, in 1792, and was the illegitimate son
of Mr. Thomas Phillips. He became a great book collector, and his mansion
at Middle Hill was famous for its valuable MSS. He set up a private press, at
which numerous tracts and fragments were printed. As he had no son the title
became extinct at his death. (Herald and Genealogist, vol. iii., p. 349.)(7)
8th. February
Thursday
Lieutenant-Colonel G. B. Brown-Westhead, of the 31st Regiment, died at
Malvern Wells, February 8, aged 42. He was the eldest son of Mr. J. P.
Brown-Westhead, M.P., and distinguished himself in the Crimea.(7)
22nd. February
Thursday
Mr. Martin Schunck died, February 22. He was the son of Herr Karl
Schunck, a major in the army of Heese, and was born at Schluchtern, November
11, 1789, but settled in Manchester in 1808, where he resided during the
remainder of his life, and was a successful merchant.(7)
22nd. February
Thursday
Rev. George John Piccope, M.A., died at Yarwell, Northamptonshire,
February 22. He was born at Manchester, 1818, where his father was rector of St.
Paul's Church; entered the Grammar School, 1832, and proceeded to Oxford, where
he graduated B.A. 1842 and M.A. 1845. From 1849 to 1864 he was curate of
Brindle; in that year he was preferred to the curacy of Yarwell, of which he had
sole charge until his death He was editor of three vols. of Lancashire and
Cheshire Wills and Inventories for Chetham Society He was a zealous
antiquary. His various MS. collections were presented to Chetham Society. (School
Register, vol. iii. p. 241.)(7)
26th. February
Monday
A special thanksgiving service for the recovery of the Prince of Wales
was held in the Cathedral, February 26. A sermon was preached by the Bishop
of Manchester; and the military forming the garrison, together with the
various regiments of volunteers, attended the service. Special thanksgiving
services were also held in several of the district churches throughout the city
and neighbourhood.(7)
27th. February
Tuesday
Mr. Charles Samuel Simms died, February 27, at Higher Broughton. He was
born at Bath, January 17, 1809, and educated at the Grammar School of that town.
Be began business at Wigan as a printer and bookseller, and the editions for
private circulation of the Lives of the Lindsays and other writings of
the late Earl of Crawford and Balcarres were printed by him. Mr. Simms
settled in Manchester, where he printed the publications of the Chetham and
Spenser Societies. He was the author of a Translation of the First Book of
Homer's Iliad (1866), and of a volume of verse entitled Footprints
(1861), both of which were printed for private circulation. A biographical
notice, written by Mr. James Crossley, appeared in the Manchester
Courier, March 2.(7)
10th. March Sunday
A serious fire occurred in Allen's Buildings, Victoria Street, March 10. Great
damage was done to property belonging to various parties carrying on business in
the premises, amounting in the aggregate to about £15,000.(7)
1st. April Monday
The Right Hon. B. Disraeli, accompanied by his wife, Viscountess
Beaconsfield, visited Manchester, April 1. On the following day a
demonstration upon an extensive scale took place at Pomona Gardens, where Mr.
Disraeli received addresses from 124 of the Lancashire Conservative,
Constitutional, and Orange Associations. It was estimated that the number in the
great hall was between 25,000 and 30,000, and there was another large crowd in
the open air numbering probably 10,000 or 15,000 more. On the Wednesday evening
a monster meeting was held in the Free Trade Hall, upon which occasion the right
hon. gentleman delivered an address. There were upon the platform the Earls
of Derby and Ellesmere and 28 members of Parliament, besides a large
number of local gentlemen. On the following day Mr. Disraeli received a
deputation of factory operatives at the residence of Mr. W. R. Callender,
Ashbourne House, Victoria Park, whose guest he was. Mr. Disraeli then visited
the Conservative Club, St. James's Square, where be lunched with about 100 of
the members, and subsequently received two deputations. He afterwards visited
Peel Park and some of the manufactories of the town. On April 5 he took his
departure for London.(7)
13th. April
Saturday
Mr. Samuel Bamford, the Reformer, and author of the famous Passages
from the Life of a Radical, died April 13, aged 84. Samuel Bamford was born
at Middleton, February 28, 1788. He learned weaving when a youth, passed a short
time as sailor on board a coaster voyaging between London and Shields, was a
warehouseman in Manchester, and a weaver again in Middleton. He played a
prominent part in the agitation for Parliamentary Reform between 1815 and 1819;
was present as the leader of the Middleton contingent of Reformers at Peterloo;
was tried at York, along with "Orator Hunt" and others, on a charge of
"conspiracy to alter the legal frame of government and constitution of these
realms, and with meeting tumultuously at Manchester ;" was condemned to twelve
months' imprisonment in Lincoln Castle; was afterwards a newspaper reporter for
London and district journals; was seven years (1851-58) a clerk in the Board of
Inland Revenue Office at Somerset House; and, finally, when seventy years old,
settled down at Moston, where he spent the last fourteen years of his life. In
addition to his prose writings, Bamford was the author of a small volume of
poems, which he modestly entitled Homely Rhymes. He is buried at
Middleton Church, where there is a monument to his memory.(7)
20th. May Monday
The annual procession of children attending the various Church of England Sunday
schools in Manchester numbered 15,443. May 20.(7)
24th. May Friday
Mr. William Romaine Callender, J.P., died at his residence, The Elms,
Didsbury, May 24, aged 78 years. Mr. Callender was intimately associated with
the public affairs of Manchester at the commencement of its history as a
municipality. He began life as a draper's assistant, in which capacity he came
to Manchester from Birmingham about 1815. After serving two houses as salesman,
he was made, in 1822, a partner in one of them. He was subsequently the founder
and senior partner of the firm of Callender, Bickham, and Company, in Mosley
Street, and afterwards he took Mr. Dodgshon, and his two sons (Mr. W.
Romaine Callender, jun., and Mr. Pope Callender) into partnership,
and carried on business in Charlotte Street. Under the firm of Callender and
Sons he afterwards entered into a large spinning business, and purchased the
mills of the late Mr. Robert Barnes, in Jackson Street, London Road, and
also the mills of Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) Bazley, M.P.,
near Bolton. Mr. Callender took an active part in local politics and municipal
affairs. He was for some years a member of the City Council for St. James's
Ward, and was elected as alderman, but resigned that office after holding it for
a few years. In politics he was a Whig or Moderate Liberal, and he was a member
of the election committee of Mr. C. Poulett Thomson, who was returned to
Parliament in 1832 with Mr. Mark Philips, in the contest against Mr.
Loyd, Mr. Hope, and Mr. Cobbett. Subsequently Mr. Callender
was identified with the late Mr. Alderman Neild, Mr. Cobden, and
Mr. Alexander Kay in the struggle for the incorporation of Manchester,
and he was also a member of the committee of the Manchester Reform Association
for many years, until it was determined in 1846-47 to bring forward Mr.
Bright as candidate for Manchester. Mr. Callender, not approving of Mr.
Bright's nomination, left the association, and took no very active part in
politics afterwards. He was a liberal subscriber to the principal charities and
public institutions of the town, and was a trustee of the Royal Infirmary and
the Manchester Grammar School. He was a Congregationalist.(7)
26th. May Sunday
A destructive fire broke out at the cotton warehouse of Mr. E. Butterworth,
Union Street, Ancoats, May 26. The damage was estimated at £15,000.(7)
28th. May Tuesday
Rev. John James Tayler died at London, May 28. He was born at Newington
Butts, Aug. 15, 1797, was a minister of the Unitarian Chapel, Upper Brook
Street, and professor in Manchester New College. He wrote a Retrospect of
Religious Life in England, 1845, and other works. (Letters of J. J.
Tayler, embracing his Life, by J. H. Thom, 1872. 2 vols.)(7)
14th. June Friday
Mr. Charles Allen Duval died, June 14, at Alderley. He was born about
1808, and was a portrait painter, and also contributed to the North of
England Magazine, and wrote pamphlets on the American War.(7)
17th. June Monday
Rev. Elijah Hoole died in London, June 17. He was born at Manchester,
February 3, 1798, and was educated at the Grammar School. He went to India as a
missionary, and translated the Bible into the Tamil language, and wrote a
Personal Narrative of Missions, and other works. (Manchester School
Register, vol. iii., pp. 44, 290.)(7)
27th. June
Thursday
35 and 36 Victoria. Act for enabling the mayor, aldermen, and citizens of the
city of Manchester. to make new streets, with a bridge over the river Irwell,
and to acquire additional lands for cemetery and other purposes, and for making
further provision respecting the borrowing of money by them, and for other
purposes. June 27.(7)
13th. July
Saturday
The most disastrous flood which ever visited Manchester and neighbourhood
occurred July 13. The flood of 1866 along the banks of the Irwell inflicted
probably as great a loss within the limits of its ravages, but on this occasion
the inundation was more widely extended, and laid a vastly larger tract of
country under water. The rainfall of the previous week was enormous, and an
ordinary month's rain fell on the 12th and 13th alone. The Irwell, which is an
unusually rapid river, rose many yards above its ordinary level. Portions of
Peel Park were flooded, and the racecourse, near Throstle Nest, was also
inundated, but no serious injury was done. Far different was the state of
affairs along the course of the Medlock, and it was on the banks of this river
that the effects of the rainstorm were felt most disastrously. The water began
to rise about eleven o'clock, but it was past twelve before it attained the
dimensions of an irresistible flood, and then it bore all before it. At Medlock
Vale, some three miles beyond Bradford-cum-Beswick, the fields were covered on
either side, and two bridges were washed away. At Messrs. Taylor and Boyd's
calico printworks, Clayton Bridge, the river rose twelve feet above its ordinary
level, and one of the lodge embankments gave way. A weir at Lord's Brook, at the
end of Green's Lane, was washed down, and persons going along the lane were
obliged to get over into the field, the ordinary road being quite impassable.
Several tons of earth were washed on the line of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway, near Clayton Bridge Station, and for some hours the traffic had to be
carried on by means of one line of rails only. Beyond the bridge, near Messrs.
Wood and Wright's Clayton Vale printworks, the river burst its banks, and the
destruction caused at the works was terrific. Two bridges were destroyed, a weir
partially washed away, the walls of the white-room, in which 20,000 pieces of
calico were stored, fell, and the goods and machinery were carried into the
water. Machinery was damaged, dyes destroyed, the boiler fires extinguished, and
the whole place devastated. By the time the flood had reached the Manchester
City Cemetery, near the Philips Park, Bradford, it had grown in volume and
power. About noon it broke through a wall of stone which bounds the cemetery on
one side, and rushed with tremendous force across the Roman Catholic portion of
the graveyard. The result was indescribably distressing and ghastly. Coffins
were washed out of the earth and dashed to pieces against the weir of the
adjoining printworks, and the corpses were then swept down the stream. The
number of bodies thus disturbed has not been accurately ascertained, but more
than fifty were recovered. From Philips Park to Fairfield Street the ravages of
the flood continued, and at this latter point the inundation, besides injuring
the works along the banks, penetrated the houses of the poorer people. Near Holt
Town Bridge a row of cottages was undermined, and the tenants had to fly to save
their lives. In Ancoats, near Palmerston Street, where the river winds through a
densely-populated district, the water rose to the bedrooms, and rafts had to be
used to rescue the inmates. Similar scenes were witnessed in Ardwick, and in the
street in which the Mayfield Baths are situated. Great injury was inflicted upon
the works in this neighbourhood. Along the entire course of the river through
the city the damage done to machinery and other property was very considerable,
and the scenes witnessed amongst the poor working classes residing on its banks
were of a most distressing nature, many of the unfortunate denizens of the
low-lying districts having to be rescued through their bedroom windows. In some
of the manufactories the water rose to the height of fifteen feet. At the
junction of the Medlock with the Irwell, at Knot Mill, the water accumulated in
large volumes. Much of it passed over to the Bridgewater Canal, and so flooded
the wharves that two barges laden with coal were lifted from the canal, and,
when the water subsided, were deposited on the wharf near one of the goods
warehouses. Only one life was, however, lost, but many hairbreadth escapes were
encountered.(7)
13th. July
Saturday
The Right Rev. William Turner, D.D., Bishop of Salford, died July 13. He
was born at Whittingham, near Preston, in 1799, where his father was a
solicitor. After studying at Ushaw he went to the English College at Rome, and
on his return was present at the opening of St. Augustine's Church in Granby
Row. In 1826 he was ordained and laboured in various parts of Lancashire. In
1832 he volunteered to take the post of the priests who died, in the visitation
at Leeds, of cholera. When the Roman Catholic hierarchy was re-established Dr.
Turner was the first appointed Bishop of Salford, and was consecrated in St.
John's Cathedral, July 25, 1851, by Cardinal Wiseman. Dr. Turner was
buried at Salford Cemetery, and the funeral sermon was preached by Archbishop
Manning. His successor to the see of Salford was the Right Rev. Herbert
Vaughan, D.D.(7)
3rd. August
Saturday
A railway collision occurred on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway near
Agecroft, August 3. Four lives were lost, and several persons seriously injured.(7)
17th. August
Saturday
Captain Thomas Henry Mitchell, governor of the Salford Hundred County
Gaol, in Strangeways, died suddenly, Aug. 17, aged 72 years. He held the office
of governor for twenty-four years. He was a strict disciplinarian, and
discharged the duties of his office to the entire satisfaction of the visiting
justices, Captain Mitchell entered the army as a private in the Grenadier Guards
at the age of sixteen, and was promoted to the post of sergeant in that division
of the service. Then he was transferred as ensign to the 60th Rifles, in which
corps he ultimately became a captain. He was interred at the Salford Cemetery.(7)
27th. August
Tuesday
Mr. Francis Taylor died August 27. He was born at Beverley, in 1818, but
at an early age entered the warehouse of Messrs. Potter and Norris, in which he
ultimately became a partner. As chairman of the Home Trade Association he urged
upon the Government the introduction of a parcel post-many years, of course,
before its adoption. He was instrumental in the assembling of the Educational
Conference of 1867, and was consulted by Mr. W. E. Forster in the
preparation of the Education Act of 1867.(7)
28th. August
Wednesday
Mr. Robert Rumney died at Springfield, Whalley Range, August 28. He was
born at Kirkby Lonsdale in 1811, came to Manchester, and after some years became
a partner with Mr. Hadfield in his chemical works, the firm becoming
Hadfield and Rumney. In 1856 Mr. Rumney was elected councillor for Ardwick Ward,
and, with the exception of a brief interval, he held that position till he
became an alderman in 1866. He was also a member of the first School Board, and
a J.P. for Manchester. In politics he was a Liberal, and was for a time opposed
to the National Education Bill, but was afterwards converted.(7)
20th. September
Friday
Arthur Orton, the claimant to the Tichborne title and estates, visited
Manchester, September 20. This chief of modern impostors, together with a number
of his abettors and supporters addressed a multitude of his admirers in the Free
Trade Hall who paid prices for their admission varying from sixpence to
half-a-crown.(7)
1st. October
Tuesday
Mr. Jesse Percy Stokes, journalist, died at Manchester, October 1. He was
born in 1808, and was the author of Two Christmas Papers, Manchester,
1858.(7)
4th. October
Friday
The Japanese Ambassadors arrived in Manchester, October 4, and visited various
manufactories in the city, also the Royal and Prince's Theatres, the Assize
Courts, and City Gaol.(7)
18th. October
Friday
Mr. Elijah Ridings died October 18. He was born at Failsworth, November
27, 1802, and was the tenth of his parents' fifteen children. He had a hard
struggle with poverty all his life, was present at Peterloo, and took an active
part in the reform agitation. He was the author of The Village Muse and
Streams from an Old Fountain.(7)
29th. October
Tuesday
The Rev. Herbert Vaughan, D.D., was consecrated Roman Catholic Bishop of
Salford, October 29, at St. John's Cathedral, Salford.(7)
20th. November
Wednesday
A dreadful case of murder and suicide occurred in School Street, Lower
Broughton, November 20. A man named Robert Tebbutt, whilst visiting an
acquaintance of the name of William Garstang, was shot by the latter.
Garstang then put the pistol to his own mouth and shot himself. Death in both
cases was instantaneous.(7)
24th. December
Tuesday
Rev. Robert Lamb, M.A., died at Haycarr, near Lancaster, December 24. He
took his degree of M.A. at Oxford in 1840. After serving two curacies he was
presented to the living of St Paul's Turner Street, in 1849, and remained there
till 1871. He was a constant contributor to Fraser's Magazine, under the
pseudonym of "A Manchester Man." He was author of Sermons on Passing Seasons
and Events; Free Thoughts, being Selections from Articles contributed to
Fraser's Magazine, 2 vols.; and two volumes of sermons entitled The
Crisis of Youth.(7)
27th. December
Friday
Rev George Hull Bowers D.D., died at Leamington, December 27. He was born
in 1794, and educated at Clare College, Cambridge. He was the originator of
Marlborough School and of Haileybury College. He held the deanery of Manchester
from 1847 until his resignation, September 26, 1871. His works are Sermons
preached before the University of Cambridge, 1830; A Scheme for the
Foundation of Schools for the Sons of Clergymen and others, 1842; Sermons
preached at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, 1849; Open Churches, with
Endowments, preferable to Pew Rents, Manchester, 1855. On his retirement
from the office of Dean of Manchester he retired to Leamington, where he died.
He was twice married. One of his daughters, Georgiana Bowers, has
distinguished herself by successful pictures of hunting and country life in
Punch. Some of these have been issued in book form. He bequeathed £300 for
the support of special Sunday evening services at the Manchester Cathedral.
There is a window and a brass to his memory in that cathedral, and a portrait,
by Charles Mercier, is at Rossall College.(7)
30th. December
Monday
Michael Kennedy executed at the Salford Hundred County Prison,
Strangeways, for the murder of his wife, Ann Kennedy, December 30.(7)