works, comments, or annotations upon the Bible," or such other books as his executors should "think most proper for the edification of the common people." These were to be "chained up on desks, or to be fixed to the pillars, or in other convenient places, in the parish churches of Manchester and Bolton-in-the-Moors, and in the chapels of Turton, Walmsley, and Gorton." The bequest was duly executed, and it appears that at Turton "the books were at one time much read between the Sunday services, particularly during the summer months, and the usual place for reading them was the window-sill of the chapel." Neither books nor book-cases are extant at Manchester or Bolton, but according to a record written not very many years ago, more than two centuries after Humphrey Chetham's death, "the Gorton book-case is in good preservation, and still contains fifty-six volumes chained to an iron rail," a curious relic of the old Puritan times. Last, not least, came the bequest of one thousand pounds "towards a Library within the town of Manchester, for the use of scholars and others well affected;

the same books there"-in the College if possible --"to remain as a public library for ever," and "my mind and will is" the testator proceeded, "that care be taken that none of the said books be taken out of the said Library at any time; and further on that "the same books be fixed, or chained, as well as may be within the said Library for the better preservation thereof." Another hundred pounds was left to provide a place for the books, to the increase of which the residue of the testator's personalty was bequeathed. Thus arose the Chetham Hospital and the Chetham Library, the latter among the very earliest Free Libraries founded in England, long before the application of "local rates" to the establishment and support of such institutions was heard of or dreamt of in these realms.

Humphrey Chetham did his best according to his lights

to make his surplus wealth available for the benefit of the community to which he belonged, and some of his good works are active and fruitful in the Manchester of today. Well might worthy old Fuller, after sketching his character and career, speak of his realised munificence as "a Masterpiece of Bounty," and exclaim, in overflowing sincerity of heart, "God send us more such men !”

VI.

THE FIRST MEMBER FOR MANCHESTER.*

THE

'HE Worsleys of Platt near Manchester were an offshoot from the Worsleys of Worsley, by the marriage of an heiress of which manor Worsley itself was added to the possessions of the Egertons, and so in time became the cradle of the "great" Duke of Bridgewater's canal operations. Early in the seventeenth century Charles Worsley, a cadet of this ancient family, who had diverged into trade, was established in Manchester as a "haberdasher" or linendraper, wholesale no doubt however, if also, probably, retail. Prospering in business, this Charles purchased in 1614 "certain lands in Rusholme" from "Oswald Mosley of Manchester," and married a sister of Alice Clarke, wife of George Clarke, founder of the Manchester charity that bears his name. His son and successor, Ralph Worsley, was a still more thriving man, having, "for the period, extensive dealings with weavers residing in the villages around Manchester to whom he entrusted yarn "—Irish-linen yarn it would seem—“ for the purpose of having it woven into cloth, afterwards disposing of the same at his shop in Man

* Rev. John Booker's History of the Ancient Chapelry of Birch (Manchester, 1859), being vol. xlvii. of the Chetham Society's publications; Thurloe, State Papers (London, 1742), vols. iv. and v. Parliamentary History (London, 1806, &c.), vol. iii.; Dr Halley's Lancashire: its Puritanism and Nonconformity (Manchester, 1869); Sydney Papers, edited by R. W. Blencowe (London, 1825); Dean Stanley's Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, third edition (London, 1869); Carlyle's Cromwell, parts 8 and 9; Commons Journals, &c., &c.

chester." Out of the profits of this business he was able, in 1625, to add to the paternal purchase of lands in Rusholme the estate of Platt (then called "The Platt"), which had been in the possession of the family of the same name since the time of Edward I. There the successful trader established himself, and founded the family of Worsley of Platt. In the old lath-and-plaster manor-house of Platt, superseded more than a hundred years ago by the modern mansion,1 was born in 1622 to this Ralph a son and heir, Charles Worsley, the first member for Manchester and one of Oliver Cromwell's Major-Generals.

Ralph Worsley of Platt was a Puritan of the most "advanced" school. As things developed themselves, and when Laudism was trampled under foot, he tended strongly to Independency, which became to Presbyterianism much what Presbyterianism had been to Laudism. At the breaking out, however, of the Civil War, the split between Presbyterianism and Independency had not become conspicuous, and Puritanism in Manchester, as elsewhere, was united against the common foe. It was in the August of 1642 that King Charles raised his standard at Nottingham; a month afterwards came the unsuccessful assault on Manchester by the Earl of Derby. The fortifications of Manchester were strengthened; it was made the headquarters of the

1 The old mansion faced the turnpike road, and occupied in part the garden of the present one, which was built, or rebuilt, in 1764 at a cost of £10,000. Whereby hangs a tale. A certain Jonathan Lees, of Ashton, early in the last century, exchanged some humble occupation in that town for the "check trade" of Manchester, and succeeded in life. His son John married a Miss Worsley, who, in right of her brother, became mistress of Worsley. She adopted a son of her husband's by a former marriage, and he assumed the name of Worsley, inherited the estate, and built the present mansion, regardless of expense. From him descend the actual Worsleys of Platt, in whose veins, however, there is not a drop of Worsley blood.-(See Gentleman's Magazine for 1744, p. 434.)

G

parliament's army in Lancashire; and in 1643 the Solemn League and Covenant of our Presbyterian Scotch friends was accepted by its Puritan inhabitants. In the course of the following year, Charles Worsley, only twenty-two, a godly, and as his portrait at Platt testifies, a handsome youth, was a captain in the army of the Parliament. Two years later (1646) Presbyterianism was established in Lancashire, in that respect solitary, or almost solitary, among English counties.

Elsewhere the controversy between Presbyterians and Independents-the former strong for peace with the beaten King, the latter demanding "securities" which Charles would never honestly give-was coming to a head, and Lieutenant-General Cromwell, the victor of Naseby, was throwing his weight into the scale of Independency. In this same year of 1646, it is noticeable that—at the instance, no doubt, of Mr Ralph Worsley among others—there migrated as minister from Gorton to Birch, and the vicinity of "The Platt," a certain Rev. John Wigan, who begun to preach Independency in that neighbourhood, with what zeal may be imagined when it is added that he afterwards went into the army and fought for his creed with sword as well as tongue. The young Worsley much affected, we may be sure, the ministrations of this militant Reverend John, and when the conflict between Presbyterianism and Independency did arise he showed himself worthy of his spiritual pastor and master. He had married, was living in his father's house at Platt, and had been so zealous an officer as to have risen to the rank of lieutenant-colonel when the execution of Charles I. was followed by the flight of young Charles II. to Scotland, and his acceptance as their King by the deluded Presbyterian Scotch, little foreseeing the thumbscrews and Claverhouses of the Restoration. In the June of 1650 the Lord-General Cromwell was on the march once more, this time towards Scotland, and rein