[1] The title was derived, not from Manchester in Lancashire, but
from Manchester (or Godmanchester) in Huntingdonshire, where the
Montagu family estates were.
MANCHESTER, a township of Hartford county, Connecticut, U.S.A., about 9
m. E. of Hartford. Pop.(1890), 8222; (1900), 10,601, of whom 3771 were
foreign-born; (1910 census) 13,641. Manchester is served by the New
York, New Haven & Hartford railway and by electric line connecting with
Hartford, Rockville and Stafford Springs. The township covers an area of
about 28 sq. m., and includes the villages of Manchester, South
Manchester, Buckland, Manchester Green and Highland Park. The Hockanum
River provides a good water power, and Manchester has various
manufactures. At South Manchester, an attractive industrial village, a
silk mill was built in 1838; the silk mills of one firm (Cheney
Brothers) here cover about 12 acres; the company has done much for its
employees, whose homes are almost all detached cottages in attractive
grounds. Manchester was originally a part of the township of Hartford,
and later a part of the township of East Hartford. The first settlement
within its present limits was made about 1672; the land was bought from
the Indians in 1676; and the township was separated from East Hartford
and incorporated in 1823.
See also Meakin's _Model Factories and Villages_ (1905).
MANCHESTER, a city and county of a city, municipal, county and
parliamentary borough of Lancashire, England, 189 m. N.W. by N. of
London, and 31 m. E. by N. of Liverpool. It stands for the most part on
a level plain, the rising ground being chiefly on the north side. The
rivers are the Irwell, the Medlock, the Irk, and the Tib, the last
entirely overarched and covered by streets and warehouses. The Irwell,
which separates Manchester from Salford, is crossed by a series of
bridges and discharges itself into the Mersey, which is about 10 m.
distant. The chief part of the district, before it was covered with the
superficial drift of sand, gravel and clay, consisted of upper New Red
Sandstone with slight portions of lower New Red Sandstone, magnesian
marls and upper red marls, hard sandstone and limestone rock, and cold
clays and shales of contiguous coal-fields. The city, as its thousands
of brick-built houses show, has been for the most part dug out of its
own clay-fields. The parliamentary and municipal boroughs of Manchester
are not conterminous. The city boundaries, which in 1841 enclosed 4293
acres, have been successively enlarged and now enclose 19,914 acres.
There are four large stations for the Lancashire & Yorkshire, London &
North-Western, the Midland, Cheshire lines, Great Northern, and Great
Central railways, and many subsidiary stations for local traffic.
Tramways, as well as railways, run from Manchester to Oldham, Ashton,
Eccles, Stockport, &c., with which places the city is connected by
continuous lines of street. The length of the streets in the city of
Manchester is 758 m. (exclusive of those in the district of Withington,
which joined the city in 1905). The tramway lines within the city
boundaries extend to 111 m., and in addition there are 58 m. leased to
the corporation by adjacent local authorities. As a matter of fact, the
whole of south-east Lancashire and some portions of Cheshire are linked
to Manchester by railways and tramways so as to form one great urban
area, and the traveller passes from one town to another by lines of
street which, for the most part, are continuous. Facility of
communication is essential to the commercial prosperity of Manchester,
and its need was recognized by the duke of Bridgewater, whose canal,
constructed in 1761, has now been absorbed by the Manchester Ship Canal
(q.v.). The making of this early waterway was an event only less
important than the opening of the Manchester & Liverpool railway in
1830.
The township of Manchester, which forms the nucleus of the city, is
comparatively small, and outlying hamlets having been added, its size
has increased without regularity of plan. Roughly speaking, the city
forms a square, with Market Street as its central thoroughfare. The
tendency of recent development is to reduce the irregularities so that
the other main streets may either run parallel to or intersect Market
Street. Deansgate, which formerly ended in a narrow tangle of buildings,
is now a broad road with many handsome buildings, and the same process
of widening, enlarging and rebuilding is going on, more or less, all
over Manchester. Market Street, which has not been widened since 1820,
has been termed, and with some reason, "the most congested street in
Europe"; but relief is anticipated from some of the other street
improvements. The centre of the city is occupied by business premises;
the factories and workshops are mainly on the eastern side. The most
important of the public buildings are in the centre and the south. The
latter is also the most favoured residential district, and at its
extremity is semi-rural in character. Large masses of the population
live beyond the city boundary and come to their daily avocations by
train and tram. Such a population is rarely homogeneous and Manchester
attracts citizens from every part of the globe; there are considerable
numbers of German, Armenian and Jewish residents. The houses are for the
most part of brick, the public buildings of stone, which is speedily
blackened by the smoky atmosphere. Many of the warehouses are of
considerable architectural merit, and in recent years the use of
terra-cotta has become more common. It is only in the suburbs that
gardens are possible; the air is laden with black dust, and the rivers,
in spite of all efforts, are in the central part of the city mere dirty
ditches. It is impossible to describe Manchester in general terms, for
within the city boundaries the conditions vary from the most squalid of
slums to suburban and almost rural beauty.
_Churches._--Manchester is the seat of an Anglican bishopric, and the
chief ecclesiastical building is the cathedral, which, however, was
built simply as a parish church, and, although a fine specimen of the
Perpendicular period, is by no means what might be expected as the
cathedral of an important and wealthy diocese. In the course of
restoration a piece of Saxon sculpture came to light. This "Angel stone"
represents a winged figure with a scroll inscribed _In manus tuas
Domine_ in characters of the 8th century. The bulk of the building
belongs to the early part of the 15th century. The first warden was John
Huntington, rector of Ashton, who built the choir. The building, which
was noticed for its hard stone by Leland when he visited the town, did
not stand time and weather well, and by 1845 some portions of it were
rapidly decaying. This led to its restoration by James P. Holden. By
1868 the tower was almost completely renovated in a more durable stone.
Further restoration was carried out by J. S. Crowther, and the addition
of a porch and vestries was executed by Basil Champneys. The total
length is 220 ft. and the breadth 112 ft. There are several
stained-glass windows, including one to the memory of "Chinese Gordon."
The recumbent statues of Bishop James Fraser and of Hugh Birley, M.P.,
should also be named. In the Ely chapel is the altar tomb of Bishop
James Stanley. In the stalls there are some curious _miserere_ carvings.
The tower is 139 ft. high, and contains a peal of ten bells, chiefly
from the foundry of the Rudhalls. There are two organs, one by Father
Smith, and a modern one in an oak case designed by Sir G. Scott. The
parish church was made collegiate in 1422, and when in 1847 the
bishopric of Manchester was created the warden and fellows became dean
and canons and the parish church became the cathedral. The first bishop
was James Prince Lee, who died in 1869; the second was James Fraser, who
died in 1885; the third was James Moorhouse, who resigned in 1903 and
was succeeded by Edmund Arbuthnott Knox. The church endowments are
considerable and have been the subject of a special act of parliament,
known as the Manchester Rectory Division Act of 1845, which provides
£1500 per annum for the dean and £600 to each of the four canons, and
divides the residue among the incumbents of the new churches formed out
of the old parish.
[Illustration: Map of Manchester and Environs.]
Of the Roman Catholic churches that of the Holy Name, which belongs to
the Jesuits, is remarkable for its costly decoration. The Greek Church
and most of the Nonconformist bodies have places of worship. There are
twelve Jewish synagogues. The meeting-house of the Society of Friends is
said to be the largest of the kind in the kingdom and will seat 1200
persons.
_Public Buildings._--The Royal Infirmary, founded in 1752, having become
inadequate for its purposes, a new building has been erected on the
south side of the city near the university, from designs by Edwin T.
Hall and John Brooke; it was opened in 1909 by king Edward VII. The
central site in Piccadilly thus became available for other purposes, and
the corporation gave instructions for plans to be made for a new library
and art gallery. The art gallery already existing in 1909 was founded as
the Royal Institution, but in 1882 passed under the control of the city
council. The building was designed by Sir Charles Barry. The collection
contains some fine paintings by Etty, Millais, Leighton and other
artists. The sculpture includes casts of the Elgin marbles and a statue
of Dr John Dalton by Chantrey. The most striking of the public buildings
is the town hall, probably the largest municipal building in the
country, but no longer entirely adequate to the increasing business of
the city council. It was completed in 1877 from designs by Alfred
Waterhouse, who selected as the style of architecture a form of Gothic,
but treated it very freely as purposes of utility required. The edifice
covers 8000 sq. yds., and includes more than two hundred and fifty
rooms. The building consists of continuous lines of corridors
surrounding a central courtyard and connected by bridges. The principal
tower is 286 ft. high to the top of the ball, and affords a view which
extends over a large part of south Lancashire and Cheshire and is
bounded only by the hills of Derbyshire. The tower contains a remarkable
peal of bells by Taylor of Loughborough, forming an almost perfect
chromatic scale of twenty-one bells; each bell has on it a line from
canto 105 of Tennyson's _In Memoriam_. The great hall is 100 ft. long
and 50 ft. wide, and contains a magnificent organ built by Cavaillé-Coll
of Paris. The twelve panels of this room are filled with paintings by
Ford Madox Brown, illustrating the history and progress of the city. The
royal exchange is a fine specimen of Italian architecture and was
erected in 1869; the great meeting-hall is one of the largest rooms in
England, the ceiling having a clear area, without supports, of 120 ft.
in width. The exchange is seen at its best on market days (Tuesday and
Friday). The assize courts were built in 1864 from designs by
Waterhouse. The style is a mixture of Early English and Decorative, and
a large amount of decorative art has been expended on the building. The
branch Bank of England is a Doric building designed by C. R. Cockerell.
There are separate town-halls for the townships of Ardwick, Chorlton,
Hulme, Cheetham, Broughton and Pendleton. The Free Trade hall is a fine
structure in the Lombardo-Venetian style, and its great hall will
accommodate about five thousand people. It is used for public meetings,
concerts, &c., and was built by Edward Walters. The Athenaeum, designed
by Barry, was founded by Richard Cobden and others associated with him
for "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge." The institution has,
perhaps, not developed exactly on the lines contemplated by its
promoters, but it has been very useful. The advantages enjoyed by
members of social clubs, with the addition of facilities for educational
classes and the use of an excellent news-room and a well-selected
library, are offered in return for a payment which does not amount to a
penny a day. The mechanics' institution has developed into the school of
Technology, which now forms a part of the university. The Portico is a
good specimen of the older proprietary libraries and newsrooms. It dates
from 1806, and has a library. The Memorial Hall was built to commemorate
the memory of the ejected ministers of 1662; it is used for meetings,
scientific, educational, musical and religious. The Whitworth Institute
is governed by a corporate body originating from the liberal bequests of
Sir Joseph Whitworth. The Institute contains a valuable collection of
works of art and stands in the centre of a woodland park. In the park,
which has been transferred to the corporation, is a sculpture group of
"Christ and the Children," executed by George Tinworth from the designs
of R. D. Darbishire, by whom it was presented. The assize courts, built
from designs by Waterhouse (1864), the post office (1887), and the
police courts (1871) should also be named. Many fine structures suffer
from being hemmed in by streets which prevent the proportions from being
seen to advantage.
_Monuments._--In Piccadilly are bronze statues of Wellington, Watt,
Dalton, Peel and Queen Victoria. Another statue of the Queen, by the
Princess Louise, is placed on the new porch of the cathedral. A bronze
statue of Cobden occupies a prominent position in St Ann's Square. There
also is the South African War Memorial of the Manchester Regiment. The
marble statue of the Prince Consort, covered by a Gothic canopy of
stone, is in front of the town hall, which dwarfs what would otherwise
be a striking monument. In Albert Square there are also statues of
Bishop Fraser, John Bright, Oliver Heywood and W. E. Gladstone. A statue
of J. P. Joule is in the town hall, which also contains memorials of
other worthies. The Queen's Park has a statue of Benjamin Brierley, a
well-known writer in the Lancashire dialect. The most picturesque is
Matthew Noble's bronze statue of Cromwell, placed on a huge block of
rough granite as pedestal. It stands at the junction of Deansgate and
Victoria Street, near the cathedral, and was presented to the town by
Mrs E. S. Heywood.
_Education._--There are many educational facilities. The oldest
institution is the grammar school, which was founded in 1519 by Hugh
Oldham, bishop of Exeter, a native of the town. The master and usher
appointed by the bishop were to teach freely every child and scholar
coming to the school, "without any money or reward taken"; and the
bishop forbade the appointment of any member of the religious orders as
head master. Some corn mills were devised for the maintenance of the
school, which was further endowed at both the universities by Sarah,
duchess of Somerset, in 1692. The school has now two hundred and fifty
free scholars, whilst other pupils are received on payment of fees.
Among those educated at the grammar school were Thomas De Quincey,
Harrison Ainsworth and Samuel Bamford the Radical. After the grammar
school the oldest educational foundation is that of Humphrey Chetham,
whose bluecoat school, founded in 1653, is housed in the building
formerly occupied by the college of clergy. This also contains the
public library founded by Chetham, and is the most interesting relic of
antiquity in the city. The educational charity of William Hulme
(1631-1691) is administered under a scheme drawn up in 1881. Its income
is nearly £10,000 a year, and it supports a grammar school and aids
education in other ways. There are three high schools for girls. The
Nicholls hospital was founded in 1881 for the education of orphan boys.
Manchester was one of the first places to adopt the powers given by
Forster's Act of 1870, and on the abolition of school boards the
educational supervision was transferred to a committee of the
corporation strengthened by co-opted members. In addition to the
elementary schools, the municipality provides a large and well-equipped
school of technology, and a school of art to which is attached an arts
and crafts museum. There are a pupil teachers' college, a school of
domestic economy, special schools for feeble-minded children, and a
Royal College of Music. The schools for the deaf and dumb are situated
at Old Trafford, in a contiguous building of the same Gothic design as
the blind asylum, to which Thomas Henshaw left a bequest of £20,000.
There is also an adult deaf and dumb institution, containing a
news-room, lecture hall, chapel, &c., for the use of deaf mutes.
The Victoria University of Manchester has developed from the college
founded by John Owens, who in 1846 bequeathed nearly £100,000 to
trustees for an institution in which should be taught "such branches of
learning and science as were then or might be hereafter usually taught
in English universities." It was opened in 1851 in a house which had
formerly been the residence of Cobden. In 1872 a new college building
was erected on the south side of the town from designs by Waterhouse. In
1880 a university charter was granted, excluding the faculties of
theology and medicine, and providing for the incorporation of University
College, Liverpool, and the College of Science, Leeds. The federal
institution thus created lasted until 1903, when the desire of Liverpool
for a separate university of its own led to a reconstruction. Manchester
University consists of one college--Owens College--in its greatly
enlarged form. The buildings include the Whitworth Hall (the gift of the
legatees of Sir Joseph Whitworth), the Manchester Museum and the
Christie Library, which is a building for the university library given
by R. C. Christie, who also bequeathed his own collection. Dr Lee, the
first bishop of Manchester, left his library to Owens College, and the
legatees of Sir Joseph Whitworth bought and presented E. A. Freeman's
books. The library has received other important special collections. The
benefactions to the university of Thomas Ashton are estimated at
£80,000. There are in Manchester a number of denominational colleges,
Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, Unitarian, Baptist, &c., and many of the
students preparing for the ministry receive their arts training at the
university, the theological degrees of which are open to students
irrespective of creed.
_Libraries, Museums and Societies._--Manchester is well provided with
libraries. The Chetham library, already named, contains some rare
manuscripts, the gem of the collection being a copy of the historical
compilation of Matthew Paris, with corrections in the author's
handwriting. There is a large collection of matter relating to the
history and archaeology of Lancashire and Cheshire, including the
transcripts of Lancashire MSS. bequeathed by Canon F. R. Raines. The
collections of broadsides formed by Mr J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, and
the library of John Byrom, rich in mystics and shorthand writers,
should also be named. The Manchester Free Libraries were founded by
Sir John Potter in 1852. There is now a reference library containing
about 170,000 volumes, including an extensive series of English
historical works, a remarkable collection of books of political
economy and trade, and special collections relating to local history,
Dr Thomas Fuller, shorthand and the gipsies. The Henry Watson Music
Library, and the Thomas Greenwood Library for librarians were
presented to the reference library, and the Foreign Library was
purchased. Affiliated to the reference library there are nineteen
libraries, each of which includes a lending department and reading
rooms. The municipal libraries contain in the aggregate over 366,000
vols. There are also libraries in connexion with the Athenaeum, the
School of Technology, the Portico, and many other institutions. The
most remarkable of the Manchester libraries is that founded by Mrs
Enriqueta Rylands, and named the John Rylands Library in memory of her
husband. The beautiful building was designed by Basil Champneys; the
library includes the famous Althorp collection, which was bought from
Earl Spencer. Mrs Rylands died in 1908, and by her will increased the
endowment of the library so that it has an income of £13,000 yearly.
She also bequeathed her own library.
Manchester possesses numerous literary and scientific associations.
The oldest of these, the Literary and Philosophical Society, founded
in 1781, has a high reputation, and has numbered among its working
members John Dalton, Eaton Hodgkinson, William Fairbairn, J. P. Joule,
H. E. Roscoe and many other famous men of science. It has published a
series of memoirs and proceedings. The Manchester Statistical Society
was the first society of the kind established in the kingdom, and has
issued _Transactions_ containing many important papers. The Field
Naturalists' and Archaeologists' Society, the Microscopical Society,
the Botanists' Association, and the Geological Society may also be
named. Manchester is the headquarters of the Lancashire and Cheshire
Antiquarian Society and of several printing clubs, the Chetham, the
Record, the Lancashire Parish Registers societies. Seven daily papers
are published, and various weekly and other periodicals. The
journalism of Manchester takes high rank, the _Manchester Guardian_
(Liberal) being one of the best newspapers in the country, while the
_Manchester Courier_ (Unionist) has an important local influence. The
_Manchester Quarterly_ is issued by the Manchester Literary Club,
which was founded in 1862. The success of the Art Treasures Exhibition
in 1857 was repeated in the Jubilee Exhibition of 1887. The Manchester
Academy of Fine Arts is a society of artists, and holds an annual
exhibition in the city art gallery.
_Parks and Open Spaces._--There are fifty-three parks and open spaces.
The Queen's Park, at Harpurhey, is pleasantly situated, though
surrounded by cottages and manufactories. Philips Park is also
attractive, in spite of its close proximity to some of the most
densely populated portions of the town. The Alexandra Park has very
good ornamental grounds and a fine cactus house with a remarkable
collection presented by Charles Darrah. Some of the open spaces are
small; Boggart Hole Clough, where great efforts have been made to
preserve the natural features, is 76 acres in extent, and was the
largest until 1902, when Heaton Park, containing 692 acres, was
purchased. It was formerly the seat of the earls of Wilton, and
includes Heaton House, one of Wyatt's structures. In the Queen's Park
there is a museum, and periodical exhibitions of works of art are
held. The total area of the city parks is 1146 acres. The corporation
are also responsible for four cemeteries, having a total area of 228
acres.
_Recreation._--There are nine theatres, mostly large, and eight music
halls. The Theatre Royal was established as a patent theatre. When the
bill for it was before the House of Lords in 1775 it was advocated as
an antidote to Methodism. The Bellevue Zoological Gardens is a
favourite holiday place for working people. The Ancoats Recreation
Committee have since 1882 had Sunday lectures, and occasional
exhibitions of pictures, window gardening, &c. The Ancoats Art Museum
was founded to carry out the educational influences of art and culture
generally. In addition to works of art, there are concerts, lectures,
reading circles, &c. The museum is worked in connexion with a
university settlement. The German element in the population has
largely influenced the taste for music by which Manchester is
distinguished, and the orchestral concerts (notably under Charles
Hallé) are famous.
_Population._--From a census taken in 1773 it appears that there were
then in the township of Manchester and its out-townships 36,267 persons.
The first decennial census, 1801, showed the population to be 75,275; in
1851 it was 303,382; in 1901, 606,824. It is not easy to make an exact
comparison between different periods, because there have been successive
enlargements of the boundaries. The population has overflowed into the
surrounding districts, and if all that belongs to the urban area, of
which it is the centre, were included, greater Manchester would probably
rival London in the number of its inhabitants.
_Manufactures and Commerce._--Manchester is the centre of the English
cotton industry (for details see COTTON and COTTON MANUFACTURE), but
owing to the enhanced value of land many mills and workshops have been
removed to the outskirts and to neighbouring villages and towns, so that
the centre of Manchester and an ever-widening circle around are now
chiefly devoted not so much to production as to the various offices of
distribution. It would be a mistake, however, to regard Manchester as
solely dependent upon the industries connected with cotton. There are
other important manufactures which in another community would be
described as gigantic. Wool and silk are manufactured on a considerable
scale, though the latter industry has for some years been on the
decline. The miscellaneous articles grouped under the designation of
small-wares occupy many hands. Machinery and tools are made in vast
quantities; the chemical industries of the city are also on a large
scale. In short, there are but few important manufactures that are
wholly unrepresented. The proximity of Manchester to the rich
coal-fields of Lancashire has had a marked influence upon its
prosperity; but for this, indeed, the rapid expansion of its industries
would have been impossible.
The Manchester Bankers' Clearing House returns show an almost unbroken
yearly increase. The amount in 1872 was £72,805,510; in 1907 it was
£320,296,332; by the severe depression of 1908 it was reduced to
£288,555,307. Another test of prosperity is the increase in rateable
value. In 1839 it was £669,994; in 1871, £1,703,627; in 1881,
£2,301,225; in 1891, £2,798,005; in 1901, £3,394,879; in 1907,
£4,191,039; in 1909, £4,234,129.
The commercial institutions of Manchester are too numerous for detailed
description; its chamber of commerce has for more than sixty years
exercised much influence on the trade of the district and of the nation.
Manchester is the headquarters of the Co-operative Wholesale Society,
and indeed of the cooperative movement generally.
The most important event in the modern history of the district is the
creation of the Manchester Ship Canal (q.v.), by which Manchester and
Salford have a direct communication with the sea at Eastham, near
Liverpool. The canal was opened for traffic in January 1894. The
official opening ceremony was on the 21st of May 1894, when Queen
Victoria visited Manchester. The total expenditure on capital account
has been £16,567,881. The original share capital of £8,000,000 and
£1,812,000, raised by debentures, having been exhausted, the corporation
of Manchester advanced on loan a further sum of £5,000,000.
_Municipality._--Manchester received a municipal charter in 1838,
received the title of city in 1853, and became a county borough in 1889.
The city is divided into 30 wards, and the corporation consists of 31
aldermen and 93 councillors. The mayor received the title of lord mayor
in 1893. Unlike some of the municipalities, that of Manchester makes no
pecuniary allowance to its lord mayor, and the office is a costly one.
The water supply is controlled by the corporation. The works at
Longdendale, begun in 1848, were completed, with extensions in 1884, at
a cost of £3,147,893. The area supplied by Manchester waterworks was
about 85 square miles, inhabited by a million people. The increase of
trade and population led to the obtaining of a further supply from Lake
Thirlmere, at the foot of Helvellyn and 96 miles from Manchester. The
watershed is about 11,000 acres. The daily consumption is over 38
million gallons. Manchester supplies in bulk to many local authorities
in the district between Thirlmere and the city. The corporation have
also established works for the supply of hydraulic and electric power.
The gas lighting of Manchester has been in the hands of the corporation
for many years, as also the supply of electricity both for lighting and
energy. When the works are complete the electricity committee will
supply an area of 45 sq. m.
_Sanitary Condition._--Dr John Tatham constructed a Manchester
life-table based on the vital statistics of the decennium 1881-1890,
from which it appeared that, while in England and Wales of 1000 men
aged 25 nearly 800 survived to be 45 and of 1000 aged 45, 569 survived
to be 65, in Manchester the survivors were only 732 and 414
respectively. The expectation of life, at 25, was, for England and
Wales 36.12 years, and for Manchester 30.69 years. But the death-rate
has since rapidly decreased; in 1891 it was 26.0 per thousand living;
in 1901 it was 21.6; in 1906 it was 19.0; in 1907 it was 17.9. The
deaths of infants under one year old amounted to 169 per 1000. The
reports of the medical officer show that whilst the density of the
population, the impurity of the atmosphere, and the pollution of the
streams are difficult elements in the sanitary problem, great efforts
have been made towards improving the health of the people. The
birth-rate in 1907 was 28.4, but the population is augmented by
immigration as well as by natural increase. The number of persons to
the acre is 33.
_Administration of Justice._--The city has a stipendiary magistrate
who, in conjunction with lay magistrates, tries cases of summary
jurisdiction in the police courts. There are also quarter sessions,
presided over by a recorder. Separate sessions are held for the
Salford hundred. Certain sittings of the Court of Chancery for the
duchy of Lancaster are held in Manchester. In addition to the county
court, there is an ancient civil court known as the Salford Hundred
Court of Record. Assizes have been held since 1866.
_Parliamentary Representation._--By the first Reform Bill Manchester
received in 1832 two representatives. In 1868 this was increased to
three, but each voter had only two votes. In 1885 the city was divided
into six divisions, each returning one member. Owing to the extension
of the city boundaries there are Manchester voters in the Stretford,
Prestwich and Gorton parliamentary divisions.
_History._--Very little is known with certainty of the early history of
Manchester.[1] A Roman station of some importance existed at
Castlefield, and a fragment of the wall still exists. Another, perhaps
earlier, was at Hunt's Bank. In the 18th century considerable evidences
of Roman occupation were still visible; and from time to time, in the
course of excavation (especially during the making of the Bridgewater
Canal), Roman remains have been found. The coins were chiefly those of
Vespasian, Antoninus Pius, Trajan, Hadrian, Nero, Domitian, Vitellius
and Constantine. Investigations by the Lancashire and Cheshire
Antiquarian Society and the Classical Association have brought to light
many relics, chiefly of pottery. The period succeeding the Roman
occupation is for some time legendary. As late as the 17th century there
was a tradition that Tarquin, an enemy of King Arthur, kept the castle
of Manchester, and was killed by Lancelot of the Lake. The references to
the town in authentic annals are very few. It was probably one of the
scenes of the missionary preaching of Paulinus; and it is said (though
by a chronicler of comparatively late date) to have been the residence
of Ina, king of Wessex, and his queen Ethelberga, after he had defeated
Ivor, somewhere about the year 689. Almost the only point of certainty
in its history before the Conquest is that it suffered greatly from the
devastations of the Danes, and that in 923 Edward, who was then at
Thelwall, near Warrington, sent a number of his Mercian troops to repair
and garrison it. In Domesday Book Manchester, Salford, Rochdale and
Radcliffe are the only places named in south-east Lancashire, a district
now covered by populous towns. Large portions of it were then forest,
wood and waste lands. Twenty-one thanes held the manor or hundred of
Salford among them. The church of St Mary and the church of St Michael
in Manchester are both named in Domesday, and some difficulty has arisen
as to their proper identification. Some antiquaries consider that the
passage refers to the town only, whilst others think it relates to the
parish, and that, while St Mary's is the present cathedral, St Michael's
would be the present parish church of Ashton-under-Lyne. In 1301
Manchester received a charter of manorial liberties and privileges from
its baron, Thomas Gresley, a descendant of one to whom the manor had
been given by Roger of Poictou, who was created by William the Conqueror
lord of all the land between the rivers Mersey and Ribble. The Gresleys
were succeeded by the De la Warrs, the last of whom was educated for the
priesthood, and became rector of the town. To avoid the evil of a
non-resident clergy, he made considerable additions to the lands of the
church, in order that it might be endowed as a collegiate institution. A
college of clergy was thus formed, whose fellows were bound to perform
the necessary services at the parish church, and to whom the old
baronial hall was granted as a place of residence. The manorial rights
passed to Sir Reginald West, a descendant of Joan Gresley, who was
summoned to parliament as Baron de la Warre. The West family, in 1579,
sold the manorial rights for £3000 to John Lacy, who, in 1596, resold
them to Sir Nicholas Mosley, whose descendants enjoyed the emoluments
derived from them until 1845, when they were purchased by the
municipality of Manchester for a sum of £200,000. The lord of the manor
had the right to tax and toll all articles brought for sale into the
market of the town. But, though the inhabitants were thus to a large
extent taxed for the benefit of one individual, they had a far greater
amount of local self-government than might have been supposed, and the
court leet, which was then the governing body of the town, had, though
in a rudimentary form, nearly all the powers now possessed by municipal
corporations. This court had not only control over the watching and
warding of the town, the regulation of the water supply, and the
cleaning of the streets, but also had power, which at times was used
freely, of interfering with the private liberty of their
fellow-citizens. Thus, no single woman was allowed to be a householder;
no person might employ other than the town musicians; and the amount to
be spent at wedding feasts and other festivities was carefully settled.
Under the protection of the barons the town appears to have steadily
increased in prosperity, and it early became an important seat of the
textile manufactures. Fulling mills were at work in the district in the
13th century; and documentary evidence exists to show that woollen
manufactures were carried on in Ancoats at that period. In 1538 Leland
described it as "the fairest, best-builded, quickest, and most populous
town in Lancashire." The right of sanctuary granted to the town in 1540
was found so detrimental to its industrial pursuits that after very
brief experience the privilege was taken away. The college of Manchester
was dissolved in 1547, but was refounded in Mary's reign. Under her
successor the town became the headquarters of the commission for
establishing the Reformed religion. In 1641 we hear of the Manchester
people purchasing linen yarn from the Irish, weaving it, and returning
it for sale in a finished state. They also brought cotton wool from
Smyrna to work into fustians and dimities. An act passed in the reign of
Edward VI. regulates the length of cottons called Manchester, Lancashire
and Cheshire cottons. These, notwithstanding their name, were probably
all woollen textures. It is thought that some of the Flemish weavers who
were introduced into England by Queen Philippa of Hainault were settled
at Manchester; and Fuller has given an exceedingly quaint and
picturesque description of the manner in which these artisans were
welcomed by the inhabitants of the country they were about to enrich
with a new industry. The Flemish weavers were in all probability
reinforced by religious refugees from the Low Countries.
In the civil wars, the town was besieged by the Royalists under Lord
Strange (better known as earl of Derby--"the great Stanley"); but was
successfully defended by the inhabitants under the command of a German
soldier of fortune, Colonel Rosworm, who complained with some bitterness
of their ingratitude to him. An earlier affray between the Puritans and
some of Lord Strange's followers is said to have occasioned the shedding
of the first blood in the struggle between the king and parliament. The
year 1694 witnessed the trial of those concerned in the so-called
Lancashire plot, which ended in the triumphant acquittal of the supposed
Jacobites. That the district really contained many ardent sympathizers
with the Stuarts was, however, shown in the rising of 1715, when the
clergy ranged themselves to a large extent on the side of the Pretender;
and was still more clearly shown in the rebellion of 1745, when the town
was occupied by Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and a regiment, known
afterwards as the Manchester regiment, was formed and placed under the
command of Colonel Francis Townley. In the fatal retreat of the Stuart
troops the Manchester contingent was left to garrison Carlisle, and
surrendered to the duke of Cumberland. The officers were taken to
London, where they were tried for high treason and beheaded on
Kennington Common.
The variations of political action in Manchester had been exceedingly
marked. In the 16th century, although it produced both Roman Catholic
and Protestant martyrs, it was earnestly in favour of the Reformed
faith, and in the succeeding century it became indeed a stronghold of
Puritanism. Yet the successors of the Roundheads who defeated the army
of Charles I. were Jacobite in their sympathies, and by the latter half
of the 18th century had become imbued with the aggressive form of
patriotic sentiment known as anti-Jacobinism, which showed itself
chiefly in dislike of reform and reformers of every description. A
change, however, was imminent. The distress caused by war and taxation,
towards the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, led
to bitter discontent, and the anomalies existing in the parliamentary
system of representation afforded only too fair an object of attack.
While single individuals in some portions of the country had the power
to return members of parliament for their pocket boroughs, great towns
like Manchester were entirely without representation. The popular
discontent was met by a policy of repression, culminating in the affair
of Peterloo, which may be regarded as the starting-point of the modern
reform agitation. This was in 1819, when an immense crowd assembled on
St Peter's Fields (now covered by the Free Trade Hall and warehouses) to
petition parliament for a redress of their grievances. The Riot Act was
read by a clerical magistrate; but in such a manner as to be quite
unheard by the mass of the people; and drunken yeomanry cavalry were
then turned loose upon the unresisting mass of spectators. The yeomanry
appear to have used their sabres freely; several people killed and many
more injured; and, although the magistrates received the thanks of the
prince regent and the ministry, their conduct excited the deepest
indignation throughout the entire country. Those who had organized the
meeting, including "Orator" Hunt with Samuel Bamford and other working
men, were imprisoned.
Naturally enough, the Manchester politicians took an important part in
the Reform agitation; when the Act of 1832 was passed, the town sent as
its representatives the Right Hon. C. P. Thomson, vice-president of the
board of trade, and Mark Philips. With one notable exception, this was
the first time that Manchester had been represented in parliament since
its barons had seats in the House of Peers in the earlier centuries. In
1654 Charles Worsley and R. Radcliffe were nominated to represent it in
Cromwell's parliament. Worsley was a man of great ability, and has a
place in history as the man who carried out the injunction of the
Protector to "remove that bauble," the mace of the House of Commons. The
agitation for the repeal of the corn laws had its headquarters at
Manchester, and the success which attended it, not less than the active
interest taken by its inhabitants in public questions, has made the city
the home of other projects of reform. The "United Kingdom Alliance for
the Suppression of the Liquor Traffic" was founded there in 1853, and
during the continuance of the American War the adherents both of the
North and of the South deemed it desirable to have organizations in
Manchester to influence public opinion in favour of their respective
causes. A charter of incorporation was granted in 1838; a bishop was
appointed in 1847; and the town became a city in 1853. The Lancashire
cotton famine, caused by the Civil War in America, produced much
distress in the Manchester district, and led to a national movement to
help the starving operatives. The more recent annals of Manchester are a
record of industrial and commercial developments, and of increase in
educational opportunities of all kinds. Politically Manchester was
Liberal, of one or other shade, under the first Reform Act; a
Conservative member was first elected in 1868, and in 1874 two. Under
household suffrage in 1885 that party secured five out of six members;
in 1886 and 1892, three out of six. In 1895 and 1900 five Unionists were
elected, but in 1906 six Liberals were returned, one of whom (Mr Winston
Churchill) was defeated at a by-election in 1908. In 1910 three
Liberals, two Labour members and one Conservative were elected.
AUTHORITIES.--Although several excellent books have been written on
subjects connected with the town, there is no adequate modern history.
The _History of Manchester_, by the Rev. John Whitaker, appeared in
1771; it is a mere fragment, and, though containing much important
matter, requires to be very discreetly used. The following may be
recommended: John Reilly, _History of Manchester_, (1861); R. W.
Procter, _Manchester in Holiday Dress_ (1866), _Memorials of
Manchester Streets_ (1874), _Memorials of Byegone Manchester_ (1880);
Richard Buxton, _Botanical Guide to Manchester, &c._ (2nd ed., 1859);
Leo Grindon, _Manchester Flora_ (1859); Edward Baines, _History of
Lancashire_, edited by Croston (1886-1893), 5 vols.; W. A. Shaw,
_Manchester, Old and New_ (1894); W. E. A. Axon, _Annals of
Manchester_ (1885), _Cobden as a Citizen_ (1906); Harry Rawson,
_Historical Record of some Recent Enterprises of the Corporation of
Manchester_ (1894); _Official Manual of Manchester and Salford_
(1909); J. P. Earwaker, _Court Leet Records of Manchester, 1552-1686,
1731-1846_ (1884-1890), 12 vols.; _Constable's Accounts, 1612-1647,
1743-1776_ (1891-1892), 3 vols.; _Manchester Municipal Code_
(1894-1899), 5 vols.; George Saintsbury, _Manchester_ (1887); Thomas
Swindells, _Manchester Streets and Manchester Men_ (1906-1907), 3
vols.; James Tait, _Medieval Manchester_ (1904); Charles Roeder,
_Roman Manchester_ (1900); Sir Bosdin Leech, _History of the
Manchester Ship Canal_ (1907), 2 vols. (W. E. A. A.)