WINWICK : ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES.
By WILLIAM BEAMONT. Second Edition, 1878
CONTENTS.
Part 1. Etymology of Winwick.
Part 2. Oswald, King of Northumbria.
Part 3. The Domesday Survey.
Part 4. The Church.
Part 5a. The Rectors of Winwick. 1192 – 1520
Part 5b. The Rectors of Winwick. 1520 – 1610
Part 5c. The Rectors of Winwick. 1610 – 1659
Part 5d. The Rectors of Winwick. 1659 – 1764
Part 5e. The Rectors of Winwick. 1764 – 1866
Part 6. The Winwick Chantries.
Part 7. The Grammar School.
Part 8. Some Winwick Antiquities.
Part 9. Some Winwick Names and Notabilities.
Part 10. Some Funeral Inscriptions in the Church and Churchyard.
Part 11. Bibliography
SOME FUNERAL INSCRIPTIONS IN THE CHURCH AND CHURCHYARD.
Over the entrance to the Gerard Chapel there is a grotesque carving of the crest and initials of Sir Thomas and Dame Elizabeth Gerard, with the date MCCCCLXXI, and within the chapel is a handsome brass, upon which is this inscription :—
Here lieth Piers Gerard esquire son and heire of Thomas Gerard knyghte of the Bryne who married Margaret daughter of William Stanley of Hoton knyghte and one of the heires of John Bromley knyghte which died the xix day of June in the yere of our Lord MCCCCLXXXV., on whose soule God have mercy. Amen.
But in the Legh Chapel there is a brass which, with one exception, a stone effigy to be seen at Connington in Cambridgeshire, is quite unique. It is a peculiarity of this brass that Sir Peter, who was first a knight and after the death of his wife became a priest, is represented as wearing his spurs of knighthood and the tonsure and dress of a priest while his wife’s effigy lies beside his.
The subjoined inscription, which is placed at the foot, informs us that dame Ellen, Sir Peter’s wife, died and was buried at Bewgenett, a place which until lately has puzzled all antiquaries to discover its whereabouts. Very lately, however, it has been ascertained to be a hamlet in Sussex, about nine miles from Petworth. Thomas Savage, the brother of Ellen, who after being successively Bishop of Rochester and London, became Archbishop of York, was in the south climbing the ladder of preferment at the time of Ellen’s death, and she and Sir Peter may have been visiting him when she was taken ill and died. The inscription is :—
Orate pro animabus probi viri domini Petri Legh militis hie tumulati et dominas Elene ux. ejus filise Johannis Savage militis, cujus quidem Elene corpus sepelitr. apud Bewgenett 17 die mensis maii Anno Domini Millesimo cccclxxxxi. Idemq Petrus post ipius Elene mortem i. sacerdotem canonice consecratus obiit apud Lyme i. Hanley xi die Augusti ao di mo vc xxvii.
On a flat stone in the churchyard, fronting the west door of the church, is the following inscription:—
Here Lyeth the Bodyes of Richa rd: Baxter and Jane : his: wife Buryed July: the 9 : 1656 : and Oct ober: the 14 1657(197)
This epitaph is on a gravestone in the churchyard:—
Elizabeth the wife of John Wid
dows Kenion Hall put of ye cloaths
of her Mortality the 25 of June
1690 Aged 64 & 2 months
What is praife worthy to compleat a wife
woman here lyes a patern For thy life
Whos Vertuous actions ever must
Smell Sweet & Blossom to his earthly duft
Upon a partition wall on the south side of the church there is a shield of arms cut in stone, which has recently been restored by the care of Mr. Worsley. Upon the shield are these arms :—
Quarterly ist and 4th argent, an eagle (or perhaps a raven), sable preying upon an infant proper, swaddled, gules banded or. 2nd and 3rd argent, a griffin segreant sable, crowned or the crest a naked blackamoor, holding in his dexter hand a spear proper, and in his sinister hand a shield or and wearing on his head a cap gules. These, which are the arms of the ancient family of Culcheth, commemorate either John Culcheth, who died 17 July, 1640, or Thomas Culcheth, his son, who was buried at Winwick, 20th Dec, 1683, but most probably the former of these two persons. On the arms in the first and third of these quarters, which are those of Lathom, some important remarks have been made by the late Dr. Ormerod.(198)
In the churchyard there is the following epitaph on one of the royalists who, after the Restoration, seems to have followed Rector Sherlock to Winwick. The stone which is still quite fresh has ‘evidently been reverently tended by the hands of some " Old Mortality;" and the inscription is as follows :—
HERE LYETH THE BODY OF JOHN PITT, LATE OF HOLME, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE AP. 19, 1694 ANNO, AETATIS 76. HE WAS A NATIVE OF KIDDERMINSTER. A LOYAL SUBJECT AND A SOULDIER TO KING CHARLES THE MARTYR. A FREQUENTER OF THE COMMON PRAYER AND OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT, A CORDIALL LOVER OF HIS FRIENDS, TO WHOM HIS USUAL FAREWELL WAS GOD’S HOLY ANGELL GOE ALONG WITH YOU !
Pitt, who by his will gave £5 to the poor of Winwick, may have been of the same family as that Christopher Pitt who was sent to Newgate and kept prisoner until the Restoration on a charge of conspiring with others to restore the King.(199)
Pitt’s epitaph is not so terse as that on’ Thomas Knyvet, a fellow soldier in the same cause, who wrote thus of himself—
Here lyes loyal Knyvet, who hated anarchy, Liv’d a true Protestant, and dyed with monarchy.
Nor so pious as this on Daniel Blacford, who died in 1681, ast. 50, and is buried in Oxhill Church, Warwickshire—
When I was young J ventured life and blood, Both for my King and for my country’s good; In elder years my care was chief to be Soldier for Him who shed His Blood for me.
Another inscription which records the burial of a former member for the borough of Newton is as follows:—
Here lieth the body of Thomas Brotherton, Esquire, who departed this life Jan. nth, 1701, in the 45th year of his age. He married Margaret, eldest daughter, and one of the co-he’rs of Thomas Gunter, of the county of Berks, Esquire, by whom he had issue three sons, Gunter, Thomas, and William, and three daughters, Margaret, Mary, and Gunter, He died very much lamented, having served his country with great fidelity in three successive Parliaments in the reign of King William III.
In 1694 there was a great contest for the borough of Liverpool; and Mr. Brotherton and Mr. Jasper Maudit were the rival candidates; and though Mr. Maudit received four hundred votes, and Mr. Brotherton only 15, the Mayor returned the latter as having been duly elected, for which he was imprisoned, and afterwards made to beg pardon on his knees at the bar of the House of Commons. The Brothertons entered a pedigree in the Lancashire visitation in 1664,(200) and their arms on the above monument were ist and 4th argent a cross flory raguly sable, 2nd and 3rd argent three harrows sable, on an escucheon of pretence sable three sinister gauntlets argent (Gunter); motto, " Assid-uitate vicimus."
In the churchyard is this Birom epitaph on a stone fast crumbling away :—
Hie deposits sunt reliquiae Johan : Birom de Birom Anno astatis suas) 37 Salutis reparatas) 1698 Perquam expectat hie Resurrectionem felicem Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit,
Quod amicus fuit amicissimus Spectabile posteris exemplar justiciar Cor sine fuco Jecur felle carens Ecclesias Anglicans cordatus assertor Nam usurpationes schismaticorun Sacrilegus propriis impensis Diu et strenue oppugnavit
Communis amor olim Communis proh dolor jam. Quisquis es moriture Lector bene vivendo disce mori Posuit hoc illi nuestissima conjux.
On a brass in the church there was formerly this inscription :—
MONUMENTO. HUIC CONCREDIT/E. SUPERSUNT EXUVIAE.
JOHANNIS. RISLEY. DE. RISLEY. ARMIGERL ADOLESCENTIS. SI. QUI. ALIUS. LONGIORIS. V1TM. STAMINE. DIGNISSIMI. EA. QUIPPE. FUIT. MORUM. EJUS. PROBITAS. INTEGRA FIDES. NUDA. VERITAS. ERGA DEUM. SANCTITAS. PARENTES..PIETAS. PROXIMOS CHARITAS. OMNES. COMITAS. DEO. AUTEM. NON. INDIGNI. QUOD. UNICUM. IMMATURE. EJUS. MORTIS. EST. SOLAMEN.
PATRLE. CUI. INSERVIRE. POTUISSET. MATRISQ. LACRYMIS. QUIBUS. INDULGENDUM. EST. OBIIT. SUPREMUS. GENTIS. RISLEYANiE. DECOR.
TUM. AUTEM. LECTOR. TUJE, SENIOR. SEU. JUNIOR, MORTIS ABI MEMOR. OBIIT. NOV. I. SEPULTUS. EST. NOV. 13. ANNO. DOMINI. 1702. iETATIS. SUiE 27.
Below the inscription were these arms of Risley, quarterly 1 st and 4th an eagle (or a raven) with wings elevated standing upon an infant swaddled; 2nd and 3rd three ancient drinking horns with legs, crest an oak tree eradicated thereon, a raven perched with the motto "Fato prudentia major."
The following inscriptions are in the church :—
In memory of James Fitchett, late of Liverpool, wine merchant, who died 29 January, 1785, aged 39 years. Hisj life was short but active and industrious, and he left the character of an honest man. He had many friends, by whom his early loss was much regretted. This tablet was erected as a memorial of his worth and of his own affection, by his son, John Fitchett, of Warrington, March, 1822.
Near this is another tablet, with the following inscription :—
Sacred to the memory of John Fitchett, late of Warrington, Esq., who departed this life the 28th day of October, 1838, aged 62 years, and whose remains are interred near this spot.
ossa quiescant.
These tablets were removed from the south to the west side of the church to make room for the organ.
The following inscriptions are on a tomb in the churchyard. On its south side
In memory of John Blackburne, of Orford, Esq., who died December 20th, 1786, in the 93rd year of his age; also of Catherine, his wife (daughter of William Ashton, S.T.B., rector of Prestwich), who died June .27th, 1740, aged 39 years.
On its north side :—
Here lie the remains of Ann Blackburne, daughter of John Blackburne, Esq., of Orford, who died December 29th, 1793, aged 67.
On a marble slab in the south aisle is the following epitaph :—
Sacred to the memory of Hester Hornby, wife of the Rev. James John Hornby, rector of the parish of Winwick, and third daughter of Robert Vernon Atherton, Esq., of Atherton, in the county of Lancaster. She was born June 7th, 1776, and died June 23rd, 1830.
Her characteristics were a sound piety, a humble and self-distrusting conscientiousness, strong sense, solid judgment, deep feeling, steady affection, •sensitive purity, warm generosity, plain truth, uncompromising integrity; her virtues were the virtues of principle. She was careful of appearances, but more studious to be than to be seen, regarding not the opinion of men she sought approval from God. Rooted and grounded in love, she was trained in the discipline of Christian grace. Poor in spirit, a mourner, meek, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Merciful, pure in heart, a peace-maker, enduring wrong for righteousness sake. She lived in the blessedness of God’s chastened children, and died in the single and calm trust of those who, being children, are heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
God is in the midst of her Therefore shall she not be removed; God shall help her, And that right early.
In the windows of the church there were formerly the following arms, as appears by an account taken about 1620.(201)
Argent on a chevron between 3 mascles gules as many cinquefoils or. (supposed to be Ashton, of Penketh.)
In another window there were formerly these arms of Sir Peter Legh, knight:—
Quarterly of 9.
1. Gules across engrailed argent ; on an escocheon of pretence sable an arm embowed in armour holding a forked flag, within an orb of estoiles all argent /Legh).
2. Azure a chevron between 3 crowns or (Corona).
3. Azure on a chevron, between three covered cups or, as many mullets sable (Butler of Merton).
4. Argent a pale fusilee sable (Danyers).
5. Vert a cross patonce or (Boydell).
6. Argent a cross and in the dexter chief a fleur de lys sable (Haydock).
7. Vert a chevron between 3 crosses patonce or (Boydell).
8. Argent a pierced mullet sable (Ashton).
9. Lozengy argent and sable (Croft of Dalton).
Crest. Out of a ducal coronet or, a ram’s head argent, armed [of the first, holding in his mouth a sprig of elm proper.
In another window were these arms:—
Hoi croft or Culcheth and Horton impaling paly of 6 argent and vert, on the second pallet an escallop shell of the first (Hopwood).
(197) The only stone in the churchyard which is older than this is dated 1652, and has only initials upon it.
(198) Miscell. Pal. 69-0.
(199) Black Tribunal, 389.
(200) Chet. S. 506.
(201) Harl. MS., 2129-656.
Transcribed by Steven Dowd from the original book which he owns, Originally publication is from 1878, this text version and layout, edits and errors is © 2008 Steven Dowd, for use at the Newton-le-willows website