ROBERT LECHE, d. 1587

Qualifications: of Christ Church, Oxford, 1550; Bachelor of Arts; Master of Arts 30 May 1555, proctor 1560 and 1566; Bachelor of Civil Law 5 February 1561, Doctor of Civil Law 14 July 1567.

CCEd person ID 84631

Career: commissary to the archbishop of York during his visitation 1561-2;  chancellor and vicar general in spirituals of the diocese of Chester and official principal of the Chester consistory court 1562-1587; rural dean of Chester, Malpas and Wirral 1563; keeper of spiritualties of the diocese of Chester 1577 sede vacante

 Further notes: Robert Leche was from a Chester family, his oldest brother was a merchant in the city and he married Anne Webster, daughter of a Chester alderman

The signature of Robert Leche from EDA 12/2, f. 108v.

Sources

F. C. Beazley, ‘Wirral records of the 17th century’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 77 (1925), pp. 137-140.

Christopher Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975), p. 228.

George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, (second edition, revised and enlarged by T. Helsby, 3 vols, London, 1882), vol i, p. 113, vol ii, p. 617.

Frank Simpson, ‘Leche House, Chester’, Journal of the Chester and North Wales, Archaeological & Historic Society, new series, 21 (1915), p. 8.

 Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd series, xliii, p. 41; 3rd series, xlix, p. 31.

‘Labdon-Ledsam’, Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (1891), pp. 868-892. British History Online:  http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=119367

JOHN HANSON (HANSOM/HAMPSON), d. by 1588

Qualifications: Master of Arts (Oxford) by 1556

CCEd person ID 36769

Career: fellow of Magdalen, Oxford, from 1538 to 1547; held a number of ecclesiastical offices, including archdeacon of Richmond from 1554 to 1559 (deprived); vicar of Bowdon, Cheshire, from 1556 to 1561 (deprived); vicar of Rochdale, Lancashire, from 1557 to 1561. Deputy to George Wilmesley, the diocesan chancellor, from 1554; later official principal of the Chester consistory court as commissary of the archbishop of York during the sede vacante period following the death of George Cotes late in 1555 and the appointment of Cuthbert Scott the following year. Chaplain to Scott.

Further notes: fled overseas shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I and died in exile.

Sources:

Joyce M Horn, David M Smith and Patrick Mussett, ‘Archdeacons: Richmond’, in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857: Volume 11, Carlisle, Chester, Durham, Manchester, Ripon, and Sodor and Man Dioceses (London, 2004), pp. 47-49. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1541-1847/vol11/pp47-49 

F.R. Raines, The Vicars of Rochdale, vol. i, ed. Henry H. Howarth (Chetham Society, new series, 1, 1883)

J. B. Wainewright, ‘Archdeacons Deprived under Queen Elizabeth’, Ampleforth Journal, 17:1 (1911), p. 41

GEORGE WILMESLEY (WILMSLEY, WILMYSLEY, WILMSLOW), c. 1502-1561

Chancellor of the diocese of Chester (being both official principal and vicar-general); commissary general; registrar

Qualifications: Bachelor of Civil Law 1526-28; Bachelor of Canon Law 1528 (Oxford)

Career: university lawyer at Oxford 1527-1535 then held a number of ecclesiastical preferments including (probably) prebendary of Beckingham (Southwell) following his father’s death in about 1536; vicar-general to the bishop of Rochester 1535-1539? According to Christopher Haigh he was probably not beneficed while Chancellor of the diocese of Chester.

Further notes: Illegitimate son of George Savage, rector of Davenham; his grandmother was Katherine, sister of the first earl of Derby. One of his half-brothers, also illegitimate, was Edmund Bonner, bishop of London.

It was possibly while he was vicar-general to John Hilsey, bishop of Rochester, that Wilmesley met John Bird, Hilsey’s chaplain, and subsequently his patron as bishop of Chester.

Sources:

Christopher Haigh, ‘A Mid-Tudor Ecclesiastical Official: the Curious Career of George Wilmesley’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 122 (1970), pp. 1-24.

Rev. G. J. Piccope (ed.), Lancashire and Cheshire Wills and Inventories from the Ecclesiastical Court, Chester, Chetham Society, old series, 33 (1857).

RICHARD SMYTH (SMYTHE/SMITH), official of the archdeacon of Chester, d. 1554

Qualifications: Bachelor of Law; Bachelor of Canon Law (no university attendance has been traced.)

CCEd person ID 37371

Career: Rector of Holy Trinity, Chester 1505 -1507; rector of Bury 1507- 1554; probably rector of Wigan 1551 -1554; probably vicar of Sandbach 1548-1554.

He resigned the living of Holy Trinity, valued at £8 15s 6d, and on the same day in October 1507 was admitted to the rectory of Bury, valued at £29 11s 4d (Cooper). He was presented to both livings by Thomas Stanley, earl of Derby.

Commissary of the short-lived additional consistory court of Bury set up by Adam Beconsall; official of the archdeacon of Chester (see EDC 5/1/7), appointed c 1524 until at least 1542; it was reported that while he held this position he regularly took bribes from the laity to cover up moral offences.

Further notes: He was unpopular with his parishioners at Bury and in 1526 he appointed a parish clerk who was unacceptable to certain parishioners who attacked him and the clerk during a service in the church. He claimed that this violence had caused the church to be put under an interdict. Smyth claimed that such violence had been inflicted upon him that he was afraid to go out or to enter the church.

He built a chapel attached to Bury church which he may have intended as a chantry for himself.

He was plaintiff in a tithe cause which may be found at EDC 5/8/1.

Sources:

George T. O. Bridgeman, The History of the Church and Manor of Wigan in the County of Lancaster, part I (Chetham Society, new series, 15, 1888), pp. 121-128

Tim Cooper, The Last Generation of English Catholic Clergy: Parish Priests in the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield in the Early Sixteenth Century (Woodbridge, 1999)’ p. 61

J. P. Earwaker, The History of the Ancient Parish of Sandbach (No place of publication, 1890), p. 46

Christopher Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 3-4, 57

Douglas Jones, The Church in Chester 1300-1540 (Chetham Society 3rd series, 7, 1957), p. 172

‘Henry VIII: April 1535, 1-10’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 8, January-July 1535, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1885), pp. 188-202. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol8/pp188-202  (495)

‘The parish of Bury’, in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5, ed. William Farrer and J Brownbill (London, 1911), pp. 122-128. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol5/pp122-128

ADAM BECONSALL (BEKENSALL/ BECANSAW)

Qualifications: Bachelor of Canon Law 1518-19; Doctor of Canon Law 1529-30 (Cambridge)

Career: appointed by William Knight, archdeacon of Chester, as his chancellor or ‘official’ in 1522 until he resigned, probably in 1535, 1535 to become one of the commissioners for the visitation of religious houses of Wales. Appointed to an unnamed Welsh prebend by 1535. While official of the archdeacon of Chester he carried out visitations and also aimed to enforce attendance at the consistory court by holding sessions in south Lancashire, as well as in Chester. To this end he established a second court at Bury, but this did not last for long. In 1535 he reported to Thomas Cromwell on his efforts to reform behaviour in the diocese of Chester, describing the lawlessness and immorality which he had observed, particularly among the clergy and laity of Cheshire. He also noted that the diocesan officials took bribes.

 Further notes: Adam Beconsall was probably a son of Edward Beconsall of Beconsall in Lancashire.

 Possibly also rector of Brington with Bythorn and Old Weston (diocese of Lincoln) CCEd person ID 74790

 Sources:

Henry Fishwick (ed.), Pleadings and Depositions in the Duchy Court of Lancaster time of Henry VIII, part 2 (The Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 35, 1897), pp. 138-146

‘Henry VIII: April 1535, 1-10’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 8, January-July 1535, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1885), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol8/pp188-202 (vol. 8 nos 495, 496 (1 and 2))

Christopher Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 2-4

‘Prebendaries: Unidentified’, in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300-1541: Volume 11, the Welsh Dioceses (Bangor, Llandaff, St Asaph, St Davids), ed. B Jones (London, 1965), pp. 46-48. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1300-1541/vol11/pp46-48

Anthony N. Shaw,  The Compendium Compertorum and the Making of the Suppression Act of 1536’ (PhD thesis, University of Warwick, 2003), pp. 156-165

John Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part I, volume 1 (London, 1922), p. 121