FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN OF CHESHIRE
Throughout the Middle Ages, until the end of the Wars of the Roses, war
was the chief, almost the only occupation of the leading men of
Cheshire. A few entered the Church, Richard de Vernon, for instance, who
was Rector of 'Stokeport' early in the fourteenth century (his tomb is
in the chancel of Stockport), and William de Montalt, Rector of Neston.
One of the Bebingtons, William de Bebyngton, even became Abbot of S.
Werburgh's Abbey.
The descendants of the barons who settled in Cheshire in the days of the
Conqueror followed the Norman and Plantagenet kings to the Crusades or
the French wars. Few of them stayed at home for any length of time, and
when they returned, they generally found that some score had to be
settled with the Welshmen, who had been making havoc of their lands
during their absence. So that whether at home or abroad, fighting was
always their chief business.
Cheshire has been called the 'seed-plot of gentility'. The Cheshire
gentry prided themselves on marrying within their own county. A Cheshire
proverb says: ''Tis better to wed over the mixen than over the moor,'
meaning the moorland that separates Cheshire from her neighbours. The
result of this intermarriage was that the number of great Cheshire names
did not greatly increase, and soon there became
As many Masseys as asses,
Leghs as fleas,
And Davenports as dogs' tails;
to quote another Cheshire saying.
One of the oldest Cheshire families is that of the Wooley-Dods of Edge
Hill, who trace their descent from the Saxon Dot, who was a great man in
Cheshire before the Normans came. The Grosvenors, whose ancestors came
over with the Conqueror, live at Eaton Hall, and own vast estates in
Western Cheshire. The present head of the family is the Duke of
Westminster. The Mainwarings, whose forefathers fought in the Crusades,
are at Peover, and the crest of the felon's head of the Davenports still
survives at Capesthorne, though the Davenports of Marton and Bramhall
are no more.
Many old families of Cheshire have long since died out. The last of the
Masseys of Puddington (they had lived there since the days of Rufus)
died in the Stuart rising of 1715. There are no Pooles at Poole Hall nor
Venables at Kinderton. The last of the Savages of Rock Savage, whose
tomb is in the Rivers Chapel at Macclesfield, died in the seventeenth
century.
Dutton village and Dutton Hall bear the name of a famous family that was
allied by marriage with most of the great families of Cheshire. Duttons
live no longer at the Hall, for the last male heir died in the reign of
James the First. They were descended from a squire of Robert Lacy,
Constable of Chester. When Earl Randal was besieged in Rhuddlan Castle
by the Welsh, the Constable and Dutton, his henchman, hastily gathered
together a motley rabble of fiddlers and mountebanks from Chester Fair
and went to his assistance. The Earl was rescued, and from that time
forward to the Duttons was given the charge of all minstrels and
fiddlers in the county. There are Duttons in Chester now; one was a
mayor of the city quite recently.
Neighbours and kinsmen of the Duttons were the Dones or Donnes of
Utkinton, hereditary foresters of the Forest of Delamere. Many of them
are buried at Tarporley. The name of the last Lady Done is still called
to mind in the neighbourhood where they lived. The Cheshire proverb is
the highest praise that can be given to a young Cheshire housewife, and
'Lady Done' is a pet name for modest and thrifty girls, as 'Little Lord
Derby' is for brave and honourable boys.
Lancashire claims the Earls of Derby now, but they are descended from
the Stanleys, perhaps the most famous of all Cheshire families, by the
marriage of Sir John Stanley and Isabella, heiress of the Lancashire
Lathoms. The Stanleys settled at Storeton in Wirral in the fourteenth
century. Many men of mark, churchmen and scholars, statesmen and
soldiers, belonged to this family. A Stanley helped to win the battle of
Bosworth for Henry Tudor, and a Stanley led the Cheshire troops in the
famous charge at Flodden Field,
When shivered was fair Scotland's spear
And broken was her shield.
One branch of the family settled at Hooton, but the last of this line
lost his estates by gambling and extravagance. The Stanleys of Alderley
received knighthood from James the First; they are Barons of Alderley
now. This family has given a bishop to Norwich and a still more famous
dean to Westminster. The bishop was educated at the Grammar School of
Macclesfield.
The Egertons are descended from the standard-bearer of Henry the Eighth,
who made him a knight after the 'Battle of the Spurs'. One of them rose
to be Lord Chancellor in the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First,
and was made Baron Ellesmere. The first Earl Egerton of Tatton was made
a peer by Queen Victoria largely for the help he gave in the making of
the Ship Canal.
The Jodrells, buried in Taxal Church, were descended from an archer who
served under the Black Prince. Perhaps he cut his bow from the very yew
tree that still stands in the churchyard. One of them fought in the
Peninsular War, but the name has disappeared from this part of Cheshire
now.
Several Cheshire noblemen sit in the House of Lords to-day, their family
name disguised under the more showy title of a peerage. A Booth became
Lord Delamere at the Restoration, and the Viscounts of Combermere are
the descendants of the Cottons, who helped Henry the Eighth to plunder
the Cheshire monasteries. The Ardernes are represented by the Earl of
Haddington; Lord Newton lives at Lyme Park, the ancient home of the
Leghs, and the Earl of Crewe at Crewe Hall. Lord Ashton of Hyde has only
recently taken a seat in the House of Lords. He was made a baron at the
coronation of King George the Fifth.
When great industries took root in Cheshire new names appeared, and some
of the most honoured families in Cheshire now are those that have been
closely associated with the workers of the county. We hear a great deal
nowadays of 'the dignity of labour', and we think it no disgrace to rise
to position and power by a life of toil. The Gregs of Styal and the
Brunners of Northwich, the Levers of Wirral, and many others, have
endeared themselves to the people of Cheshire by the example of their
own labours and the pains they have taken to make the lives of those who
live about them and work for them brighter and happier.
A simple cross in the graveyard of the Unitarian Chapel at Knutsford
bears the name of Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. The people of Knutsford
have a warm corner in their hearts for her, for in a way she has made
their town famous for all time. One of the books she wrote--_Cranford_
she called it--speaks of the people of Knutsford as she knew them in the
earlier days of Queen Victoria. The book tells you much of the quiet
life of a country town before the coming of the railways and the busy
hubbub of the later nineteenth century, and all Cheshire children should
read it. Mrs. Gaskell wrote several other books, all of which show her
sweet sympathy and kindliness towards those whose lives are cast in
lowly surroundings.
If you have not heard of _Cranford_ you have probably read a book whose
title you know better than the name of the writer. _Alice in Wonderland_
was written by a man who spent much of his early life in Cheshire.
'Lewis Carroll', though that is not his real name, is the name under
which he wrote the humorous stories that have delighted young people and
old alike.
John Critchley Prince, the workman poet of Hyde, lived in the days when
the poorly-paid workers of Cheshire were struggling for a better
existence. While working in a factory at Hyde he found time to write
poems which speak of the charms of home, the brotherhood of all mankind,
and the hopes and ambitions of his fellow men. Prince was thriftless and
intemperate, and much of his life was spent in misery, but his talents
were great, and the people of Hyde have done him honour. He is buried in
Hyde churchyard.
In the chancel of Stockport Parish Church is a tablet to the memory of
John Wainwright, the organist who composed the tune for 'Christians,
awake', the beautiful Christmas hymn 'whose sound is gone out into all
lands where the praise of our Lord is sung', as the inscription runs.
The words of the hymn were written by Byrom, a Manchester man.
Cheshire produced a famous hymn-writer in Bishop Heber. Reginald Heber
was born in the rectory of Malpas in 1783. He gave himself up to
missionary work in foreign lands, and was made Bishop of Calcutta. 'From
Greenland's icy mountains' and 'Brightest and best of the sons of the
morning' are two of the hymns that came from his pen.
Charles Kingsley must have loved Cheshire. Though he was not a Cheshire
man by birth, he claimed descent from the Kingsleys of Vale Royal. He
was a great lover of nature, and, while he was Canon of Chester, founded
the Natural History Society in Chester, whose home is in the Grosvenor
Museum, and encouraged the people of Cheshire to take an interest in the
story of their county, and to study the ways of plants and of the wild
creatures of the fields and the forests. His pathetic ballad of the
Sands of Dee, 'O Mary, go and call the cattle home,' will always be a
favourite with the village people of Wirral.
Tabley Hall was the home of another celebrated naturalist. Here lived
Lord de Tabley, one of the greatest students of Cheshire flowers, and a
lover of all wild living things. His grave is in the churchyard of
Little Peover, and over it trails a bramble, which was his favourite
plant and one of which he made a special study. In the gardens of Tabley
Hall is a bramble-bed, still tended carefully, which he laid out from
the choicest briars he could find.
Lord de Tabley was a poet as well as a lover of flowers and birds.
Perhaps you will some day read his poems, and be charmed by his
descriptive pictures of the ways of his feathered friends, the
'starlings mustering on their evening tree', the 'swallows beating low
before a hint of rain', the 'plaintive plovers', and the 'wide-winged
screaming swift'.
Lord de Tabley's example is one which all Cheshire boys and girls should
learn to copy. Those who are proud of their county will not do anything
to make it less beautiful. Like him, they will cherish and protect the
plants and birds and all the wild creatures that have been put into
their keeping; for such things are the common heritage of the people of
Cheshire, and, once destroyed, can never be replaced.