MANY people are confused about the relation ship between Manchester and Salford, after all they are only the width of a river apart and not a very wide one at that.

Newton along with Kirkmanshulme represented the endowment of  the church as stated in the Domesday Book. Ardwick, Crumpsall, Gorton, Moston and Openshaw are all named as hamlets of Manchester in early surveys. There were also some sub manors at Ashton under Lyne, which became a parish in itself, Heaton Norris and Withington.

The boundaries of the ancient parish of Manchester reproduced from the Victoria County History of Lancashire by kind permission of the Executive Editor

Withington was in existence in the early 1300s before the barony of Manchester was formed and was governed by Salford. It was later gifted to Manchester with its hamlets of Didsbury, Chorlton cum Hardy, Burnage, Levenshulme, Rusholme, Moss Side, Denton and Haughton. Chorlton on Medlock or Chorlton Row as it was named was a manor in c1300. Failsworth dates back to c1200. Droylsden which included Clayton, was approximately the centre of manor, and Harpurhey were lands held by the Manor of Manchester by William Harpour in the early 1300s.

Although all of these places were part of the ancient parish, some of them had no other connection with Manchester, others which were within the manor or barony have, through the various changes in local government, separated from what was to become the city of Manchester. The remainder have, of course, eventually have formed part of Manchester. 

Manchester was incorporated as a City in 1838. Only six townships formed the city. In 1895 another 8 townships were incorporated. Between 1903 and 1913 expansion continued, in 1931 the area we now know of as Wythenshawe became part of the city. The last changes to the boundaries were made in 1972 when the civil parish of Ringway came into the city and Heaton Norris transferred to Stockport Metropolitan Council.

THE International Genealogy Index lists all events that took place in this church as being at Manchester Cathedral. It is understandable why this is so, but the church was not actually elevated to Cathedral status until 1847, when the Diocese of Manchester was created. Why do so many get married there...read on and you find the answer?

The Manchester (parish) church dates back to at least the year 700.This was proved by the finding of the Angel Stone which was embedded in the original South Porch of the church. In 1086 Manchester Parish church was mentioned in The Domesday Book as being at the corner of Exchange St and St Mary's Gate. At the time the church was dedicated to St Mary.

In 1421 Thomas la Warre, who was both lord of Manchester and rector of the parish, created a college of clergy in connection with the parish church of Manchester. He endowed it with money, land and properties, including his manor house. As it was close to the church it made a convenient place for a residence for the clergy of the newly formed collegiate church and a new building was erected on the site to house them. The foundation of the college signalled the start of alterations to the church and it was also rededicated. It was known as the Church of Our Lady, St George and St Denys (the patron saint of France).

When the college was founded the church was subject to Rome and a copy of the Papal Bill confirming the foundation of the college of priests is still preserved. Although the buildings of the college were monastic in style, it was created solely to provide a supply of clergy to the large parish of Manchester. The clergy took no special vows and did not belong to any order. When the Dissolution of Monasteries took place in the reign of Henry the Eighth, the college was left untouched. However his son Edward VI dissolved the college and confiscated the building in 1547. He granted it to the Earl of Derby. At this time, there were around thirty clergy at the college. They were granted pensions and Derby used the buildings as a residence. Later he rented them to subsequent Wardens of the college.

Mary re-founded the college in 1557, giving back some of its land, but it was snatched back again the following year. In 1578 Elizabeth restored the college under the new name of Christ's College but by now there was only a clergy of less than a dozen. In 1635 a new charter was granted, which apart from the Cromwell times, was in force until the Diocese of Manchester was created in 1847. The college was dissolved and its warden became the Dean of Manchester.

There had been only one church in the parish of Manchester right through until the early part of the seventeenth century, but by the middle of this century there were several other chapels within its boundaries. These were located at Blackley, Newton, Gorton, Denton, Birch, Didsbury, Chorlton and Salford. Over the years, especially from 1800, the population of the parish ballooned,  necessitating the building of many churches within the parish. As the mother church had the monopoly on fees for events such as weddings and burials, this lead to discontent amongst the wider clergy and parishioners of Manchester.

If for instance a couple chose to marry in their local chapel or church, a fee would be payable to the church and  to Manchester Parish Church, so most people just came straight the Collegiate Church. In the early part of the nineteenth century, on holidays such as Whit Monday, dozens and dozens of people got married. A chapter in the book The Manchester Man deals with this subject and tells of ten or twenty couples being married at the same time amongst scenes of utter chaos.

This monopoly of the fees was a major factor in the life of Joshua Brookes. He was the most  prolific hatcher, matcher and dispatcher in the country. In other words he performed more marriages, baptisms and burial services than any other cleric before or since. So marrying at the Collegiate Church or as it was later, the Cathedral was not any sign of high rank or wealth. In fact the opposite may have been true with many rich and affluent couples getting married at churches such as St Thomas's, Ardwick. More often that not they married by Licence which was more expensive than marrying after Banns, so the double fees were rather hefty.

Following a petition from the parishioners of Manchester, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1850 to reduced the size (and influence) of the Parish and to put an end to the practice of charging double fees. The rest of the parish was split into smaller parishes. As the then clerks were allowed to keep their incomes until they retired double fees carried on till 1878. This also marked the time when the Cathedral became less busy and saw the end of its period as the "event factory".

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mail@manchester-family-history-research.co.uk

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