A HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT PAROCHIAL

CHAPEL OF DIDSBURY.

HE township of Didsbury is situated about five Imiles and a half south of Manchester and three miles west of Stockport. It is bounded on the north by Withington; on the south by the river Mersey, which there divides the counties of Lancaster and Chester; on the east by Burnage and Heaton Norris ; and on the west by Chorlton-cum-Hardy and the Mersey, which again separates it from the adjacent county of Chester. It is the most southerly township in the parish of Manchester. Its area has been computed by Messrs. Johnson at 1516 acres; the Tithe Commissioners in the Census Returns of 1851 estimate it 1527 acres; the Ordnance Survey, 1552a. 2r. 21p.; and Rickman, in the Census Returns of 1831, 1560 acres. It lies on the north bank of the river, at a point where the stream is sufficiently shallow to admit of passengers crossing from Didsbury to Northenden; the river and the lands adjacent to the ford receiving anciently the name of Didisford- an appellation still to be traced after the lapse of nearly six hundred years in Ford Bank. Its orthography, like that of other proper names in early times, was very irregular and uncertain; and it is found variously written Dedisbur', Didesbur', Diddesbir', Diddes burie, Diddesberye, Dyddesbury, Dyddysburye, Dyddusburye, Duddesbury, Ditesbery, Dadsbury, Dizbury, &c., the latter syllable of the name signifying

B

a fortress, or fortified town, of which the Saxon warrior, whose name the earlier syllables express, was the proprietor or chief.

In the 33 Henry III. (1248) Matthew de Hathersage was found in possession of the manor of Hathersage in Derbyshire, and also of lands in Didsbury, Withington, &c., in the county of Lancaster. These lands were held by subinfeudation from Robert de Ferrars, Earl of Derby, who in 1260 did homage to the King and received the seizin of his estates, which amounted to £3000 per annum, including almost the entire lands of South Lancashire. The coheiresses of Hathersage married Goushill of Barlborough and Longford of Longford, both within the county of Derby, about the latter end of the reign of Henry III. By Deed dated the eve of St. John the Baptist, in the 44 Henry III. (1259), we find that a partition of lands was then made between Sir Nigel de Longford and Dame Maud Goushill, an apportionment, doubtless, of the Hathersage estates, which had now descended to the female line by the recent death of Matthew de Hathersage, the last heir male of the family.

In the succeeding reign, that of Edward I., we find John de Longeford claiming by inheritance free-warren &c. in the above recited lands, and producing in support of his claim a charter granted to his great grandfather, Matthew de Hathersage, by his then Majesty King Henry III. An oath being taken of the Commissioners appointed to investigate the claim, it was decided that the aforesaid John and his ancestors have been entitled to the privileges contended for from the date of the charter submitted for their inspection.3 After the disgrace of Robert de Ferrars

(1) Calendarium Rotulorum Chartarum, p. 66. (*) Foundations of Manchester, vol. iii. p. 125.

(3) Joh'es de Langeford p'fert cartam d'ni H. Reg' p'ris d'ni Reg' núc dat' anno regni sui t'cesimo t'cio [1248] que testa' q' d'ns H. Rex cōcessit cuidam Matheo de Hathershegg p'avo ip'ius Joh'is & h'edibus suis lib'am warennā in om'ib d'uicis t'ris suis man'ior' suor' de Hathershegg, Barleburgg, Kynwaldesmers' & Holan' in com' Derb' & man'ior' suor' de Witinton & Diddesbir' in com' Lanc' ita qa nullus intret t'ras illas ad fugand' in eis aut ad aliquod capiendū quod ad warennā p'tineat sine licencia & voluntate ip'ius Mathei & h'edū suor' sup' forisfact'am d'ni Reg' decem librar'.

and the confiscation of his estates, Didsbury, as a part of his Lancashire possessions, was granted to the family of Grelle, from whom it passed on the decease of the last Baron of that name in 1313 to the Wests, Lords De la Warre.

In a Survey of the extent of the manor of Manchester made in 1322 Didsbury is included in the lower bailiwick of the barony, and is required to contribute towards the maintenance of the lord's bailiff and his subordinates when occupied in the discharge of their duties in the oversight of the manor; allusion is also made therein to a fishery in the Mersey to the middle of the river from Grimesbotham up to Ditesbery Moor, worth 6d. per annum. From a Rental of Thomas West, Lord De la Warre, May 1st 1473, it appears that Nicholas Langforth Knt. holds the demesne of Whithington and Diddesbury by the service of one knight's fee of the said lord, a yearly rent of 9s.; and for castle-ward (a tax upon those residing within a certain distance of any castle towards the maintenance of such as watch and ward the castle) 10s.

This relation between the superior lord and his tenant was found to continue uninterrupted throughout the brief seignory of John Lacy, who in 1578, after a seventeen years' possession of the manor of Manchester, transferred it to Sir Nicholas Mosley, citizen and alderman of London, a member of a family long located in the neighbourhood, who thus added to his influence in Didsbury as a landed proprietor by becoming also lord of the manor, of which Didsbury was a member.

In a Deed executed sometime between the years 1260 and Precepit eciam d'nus Rex p' se & h'edibus suis qd p'd'cus Matheus & h'edes sui in p'petuu h'eant lib'am warennā in om'ib d'nicis t'ris suis man'ior' p'dicor' ita qa null's intret illas ad fugandū in eis aut ad aliquod capiend' qa ad warennam p'tineat sine licencia & voluntate ip'ius Mathei et h'edum suor' sup' forisfact'am d'ni Reg' decem libr' sic' p'dictum est. Et dic qd Oliverus p' & an'cessor suus obiit in seis de p'dicta warenna. Et dicit q' ip'e eundē statum continuavit &c. set inq'rat' quo modo usus est &c. Jur' d'nt sup' sacr'm suū qd p'dictus Joh'es et an'cessores sui a temp'e confecc'onis p'dicte carte debito modo usi sunt warenna sua in p'dictis man’iis Jō ip'e ad p'sens inde sine die &c. - Placita de Quo Warranto Rot., p. 377.

1280, relating to the Slade Hall estate in Rusholme, we have a conveyance on the part of Thomas son of Geoffrey, son of Luke of Manchester, of lands in Diddisford in this township; the conveyance is to Jordan his brother, and the lands are described as given to him by Geoffrey his father.

Meanwhile, by gradual subdivision, the lands of the township passed into the possession of numerous smaller proprietors.

In the 4 Edward VI. (1550) John Kempe and Winifred his wife prefer a claim which is resisted by William Penkythe clerk, parson of Manchester, to a parcel of land called Arnewayestottham, and the house thereon and two burgages, the whole situated in Wythynton, Dyddesburye and Stockport.

From the Inquisition p.m. of Sir Edward Warren, eight years later, it appears that he died seized of the manor of Woodplumpton &c., and of lands &c. in Didesbur'. He was son and heir of Laurence Warren Esq. and Margaret his wife, daughter of Sir Piers Legh of Lyme Knt., and was knighted at Leith in 1544. He married Dorothy, daughter of Sir William Booth Knt.

In the 33 Elizabeth (1590) Alexander Barlow Esq., the representative of an ancient family in the adjacent township of Chorlton, contested with Sir Ralph Longford Knt. certain privileges connected with the digging of marl and peat on the moors of Barlow and Didsbury. He was also lessee in 1566 of the tithes of the township, which he held from the rapacious Warden Herle. Other proprietors about this time were John Pickering and Thomas Lockwood, who in 1582 held lands in Didsbury as grantees of Nicholas Longford; William Bassett, who in 1588 pleaded in establishment of his claim to a messuage and lands in Withington manor against Dennis Lache, John Cooper and others, and in resistance of their encroachment on Dyddesbury Moor; Lawrence Goodier, who appeared in 1596 in the Duchy Court as defendant in an action brought against him as the wrongful possessor of a messuage and lands in the township, and for intrusion on certain land called Sandland and other specified lands in Didsbury; he died in 1608. His Will was proved at Chester July 4th