in that year. He names his wife Margaret, his daughter Joan, his brother Henry, and his grandson Henry.

Three years later we find Robert Goodier a plaintiff in the same Court against Rowland Mosley Esq., the point at issue between the two being an alleged intrusion on lands in Moss Green in Withington manor.

On the 27th of September 1604 Robert Goodyeare, described as of Manchester gent. complainant, exhibited his bill in Chancery against Thomas Sorocold, &c.: That whereas one Ralph Sorocold was possessed of goods &c. in the county of Lancaster, by his last Will dated September, 35 Elizabeth (1592), he bequeathed the same to his children, ten in number, and appointed his wife Katharine and Thomas Sorocold his son and heir executors, the said children being under age except Thomas, who proved the Will. About six years after, she married one Thomas Goodyere the complainant's father, after which, the said Thomas her son took the government of the said children. The said Thomas Sorocold agreed to renounce his executorship to the said Thomas Godyere, who made an Indenture dated 16th August, 39 Elizabeth (1596), between the said Thomas Goodyere and Katharine his then wife of the first part; John Sorocold, one of the children of the said Ralph Sorocold the said testator, and John Bradshaw and Margaret his wife, daughter of the said Ralph, and Ellen Sorocold, daughter of the said Ralph, of the second part; and the said Thomas Sorocold the said other executor, and Katharine Sorocold, Ann, William, Mary, Ralph, Elizabeth and Sarah, younger children of the said Ralph, and Edmund Prestwich Esq., Robert Hide of Denton, Richard Midgeley, Richard ffoxe and William Wood, friends and guardians of the said younger children during their minority, of the third part. Katharine Goodyere died and then her husband Thomas Goodyere.

On the 13th of February 1605-6 their son Robert Goodyere and Elizabeth his wife appeared before the Consistory Court at Chester, and confessed that they were present at the clandestine marriage of Biron Culcheth with Ellen Goodierc.

In 1578 Sir Edmund Trafford Knt. prosecuted Ralph Woods and Hugh Gynney at Lancaster for trespass on Didsbury Moor; it does not however appear that the Traffords possessed any greater interest in Didsbury than that of participating in the rights, advantages and profits of the waste lands in the township. Of the family of Gynney or Yannes, long resident in the township, many scattered and incidental allusions have reached us. In 1673 one Mr. Yannes, minister of some adjacent cure, preached at Didsbury Chapel, as appears from the Churchwardens' accounts of that period; and eight years after, Samuel Yannis of Didsbury gent. marries Margaret Mainwaring of Warford. An early Inquisition p.m. of Ingelramus de Gyues, dated in the reign of Edward II., assigns to him lands &c. in Whitington, Asheton and Lancaster; from the similarity in name he is presumed to be of the same family.

From the Inquisition p.m. of Sir Robert Lovell Knt., in the 44 Elizabeth (1601), we find him seized at his death of lands in Diddesburie, Chorleton, Withington and Streitford. Sir Robert Lovell was the eldest son of Gregory Lovell of Merton in the county of Surrey Esq., Cofferer to the Queen's Household, by his second wife Dorothy, daughter of Nicholas Green.

The family of Twyford occupied at an early period a degree of prominency in the township in the ranks of substantial yeomen. John Twyford of Didsbury, who describes himself as a yeoman, makes his Will in January 1622. He names his wife Alice, his sons John, Robert, Edward, Richard and Daniel, and his daughters Anne and Ellen. He appoints his wife and his son John to execute his Will, and "would intreate my worll Mris Anne Mosley to be supervisor of the same." He held two other tenements in the township on lease, besides that whereon he resided. The Inventory of his goods and chattels taken at his death amounted to £171 16s. 8d.

In 1646 Richard Twyford of Didsbury yeoman, an adherent to the royalist cause, compounded for his estate by the payment of

£44, as also did Robert Twyford gent., whose estate was charged with the payment of £45 15s. 4d. Margaret, wife of Robert Twyford of Didsbury gent., was sister of John Radcliffe of Manchester gent., whose Will was proved at Chester in 1647. The Rev. Robert Twyford, curate of Didsbury in 1726, and his son and successor, who died in 1795, were doubtless members of the same family.

Didsbury seems to have warmly espoused the cause of Charles I. in striking contrast to most of the other townships in Manchester parish, influenced probably by the counsels and example of Sir Edward Mosley of the Hough, at whose house in Alport the royalist general, Lord Strange, was lodged and entertained during the memorable siege of Manchester in 1642. In the following year, on the retreat of the royalist party from Wigan after their surrender of that town, we learn that a slight skirmish ensued at Didsbury, partaking more of the character of a personal encounter. It is thus spoken of in a contemporary narrative: "A certain tall young gentleman was constrained to force his way at Didsbury near Manchester, when accompanying the retreat, through the midst of forty clubmen, who laid at him with their clubs and yet could not bring him to the dust." This young man has never been satisfactorily identified; a rumour prevailed at the time that it was Charles II., but this was speedily dissipated.1

In addition to the Twyfords the name of Robert Trevillian of Didsbury yeoman also occurs in the annals of the township as having paid in 1646 the sum of £50 for the redemption of his estate; and earlier, in 1642, while yet the contest between the King and the Parliament was undecided, we find the grave yard of the Chapel selected as the burial place of several royalist officers who had lost their lives in the siege. In 1745 too, in further evidence of the like sympathy, the adherents of the proscribed Stuarts met near Didsbury, and in the Register Book of the Chapel, under the date: December 10th 1745, the following entry

(') Civil War Tracts, Chetham series, p. 309.

occurs: "A poor man buried at Didsbury, found dead in Heaton when y rebels past."

In the 13 Elizabeth (1570) one Thomas Rudd entered an action at Lancaster against Nicholas Longford and Adam Blomeley in relation to a messuage and appurtenances in Didsbury, called the "Broad Oke,” at that time in his occupation, but whether as owner or lessee does not appear. In 1655 John Rudd resided at the Broad Oak, and was a ratepayer in the township; and it is worthy of remark that there has been a continuous occupation of the same premises by the Rudd family for upwards of three hundred years, the present tenant Mr. John Rudd now holding it under the Rev. Robert Mosley Fielden.

About the commencement of the last century a family named Broome first settled in the township as stewards or law agents to Sir John Bland; they stood also in a like relation to the Barlows of Barlow in Chorlton, and for several generations practised as attorneys in Manchester, purchasing from time to time such lands in Didsbury and the neighbourhood as the improvidence of the two successive baronets, the Blands, compelled them to dispose of. William Broome of Didsbury gent. married sometime before March 24th 1749 Elizabeth, youngest sister of Captain James Dawson, the hero of Shenstone's ballad of "Jemmy Dawson;" their eldest son and heir was William Broome of Didsbury Esq., a Justice of the Peace for the county of Lancaster, who died without issue in 1810.1 The heiress married into the Fielden family, and the estates are now vested in the Rev. Robert Mosley Fielden.

Didsbury not only derived its name from one of its former inhabitants, but it also lent its name to a family long resident within its limits and perhaps not yet extinct. William de Didsbury witnesses the transfer of Birch Hall and its demesne from the Hathersage family to Matthew de Birch about the middle of the thirteenth century, and the name again occurs in a Deed of the same period relating to the conveyance of certain lands in

(1) Cheshire and Lancashire Historical Collector, vol. ii. p. 29.

that part of the township anciently known as Diddisford. John Didsburie makes his Will August 28th 1623, desiring to be buried "in the churche or chappell yord at Didsburie." He leaves his house and premises to his wife and eldest son, "she to have all the romes on the north end of the house and my son the rest upon the south end, and to be both of them at one fyre and to fynd the fyre betwixt them." At a later period one John Didsbury was Chapelwarden of Didsbury in 1701, and the name of James Didsbury appears in the list in 1746.

Towards the east of the township and lying north-east of the village of Didsbury is the White Hall estate, in the reign of Elizabeth held on lease by Sir Nicholas Mosley Knt., who by his Will devised the same to his eldest son Rowland, subject however to an annual payment of £20 to Anthony Mosley testator's second son, and the further sum of £6 13s. 4d. to Margaret, only child of the said Anthony Mosley. The name of the then owner is not given. It is now the property of Lloyd Hesketh Bamford Hesketh Esq.

Parr in this township, or, as it has been designated by modern tautology, Parr's Wood, was known by this name before the year 1587. Its signification is a high or hilly place, a grove or wood, a hill covered with wood, from the Anglo-Saxon bearo; other etymologists connect it with the verb beran (to bear, to bear fruit), and take it to mean specially a wood that supplied mast for fattening swine.

At the east of the township, where the Mersey forms the boundary-line, is a tract of low land called, from its position, "Didsbury Eea;" the word ea in Anglo-Saxon signifying water. The same designation is used in the neighbouring township of Chorlton to indicate the low level of certain land bordering on the river, the name Chorlton in that instance being substituted for Didsbury.

In 1845 the number of landowners in the township was fiftytwo, of whom the following were the chief:

C