People: Snape, Henry

Surname

Snape

Forename

Henry

Sex

Male

Approx Year of Birth

1498

Marital Status

Unknown

Occupation Status

Clerk; curate of St Oswald's, Chester and later of St Mary's, Chester

Remarks

CCEd person ID 31663

Career: in 1548 he was aged about 50, so was born in about 1498. In 1548 he had been a curate at St Oswald’s for about five years.

Further notes: At the time of the Royal Visitation of 1559, as curate of St Mary’s on the Hill, he was said to be ‘a commen haunter of alehouses and besides verye necgligente in readinge of the sarvice’. In 1562 he was again in trouble for frequenting ‘Alehouses and Tavernes inordinatly’ and was also required to read a declaration for his ‘shaven Crowne’; it seems that after the Elizabethan Settlement of religion he continued to be tonsured as Catholic priests would have been.

However, in 1563 he signed the Three Articles with other Cheshire clergy.

Sources:

C. J. Kitching (ed.), ‘The Royal Visitation of 1559; Act Book for the Northern Province’, Surtees Society, 197 (1975 for 1972), p. 85

Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd Series, i, p. 34

CALS EDC 2/4, f. 23
CALS EDA 12/2, f. 81 (Ecclesiastical Commission)

Causes

EDC 5/13/6 – witness to the sentence, although the witness is not described as curate at St Oswald’s it has been assumed that this is who he was

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People: Segar, John

Surname

Segar (Sygar)

Forename

John

Sex

Male

Parish

Bunbury

Marital Status

Married

Spouse Name

Katherine

Occupation Status

Gentleman

Causes

EDC 5/13/6  – plaintiff

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People: Sherley, Richard

Surname

Sherley (Shirley/ Sherdley)

Forename

Richard

Sex

Male

Marital Status

Unknown

Causes

EDC 5/12/2 – Thomas Cuverden contra Richard Sherley

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People: Sherween, Nicholas

Surname

Sherween (Sherwen)

Forename

Nicholas

Sex

Male

Parish

Irton

Marital Status

Unknown

Remarks

The Sherwen family were long established in the area of Irton, although belonging to Gosforth and Wasdale rather than Irton according to Rev. C. Moor, ‘The Old Statesman Families of Irton, Cumberland’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, series 2, vol. 10 (1910), p. 187.

Causes

EDC 5/10/2 – defendant

 

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People: Sherween, John

Surname

Sherween (Sherwen)

Forename

John

Sex

Male

Parish

Irton

Marital Status

Unknown

Remarks

The Sherwen family were long established in the area of Irton, although belonging to Gosforth and Wasdale rather than Irton according to Rev. C. Moor, ‘The Old Statesman Families of Irton, Cumberland’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, series 2, vol. 10 (1910), p. 187.

Causes

EDC 5/10/2 – defendant

 

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People: Shae, Elizabeth

Surname

Shae

Forename

Elizabeth

Sex

Female

Parish

Alderley

Marital Status

Unknown

Remarks

Was found to have committed adultery with Thomas Stapultun, the father of her child.

Causes

EDC 5/9/2 – committed adultery with the defendant

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People: Stapultun, Thomas

Surname

Stapultun

Forename

Thomas

Sex

Male

Parish

Alderley

Marital Status

Married

Spouse Name

Elizabeth Stapultun

Remarks

Was found to have committed adultery with Elizabeth Shae, by whom he had a child.

Causes

EDC 5/9/2 – defendant

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People: Stapultun, Elizabeth

Surname

Stapultun

Forename

Elizabeth

Sex

Female

Parish

Alderley

Marital Status

Married

Spouse Name

Thomas Stapultun

Causes

EDC 5/9/2 – plaintiff

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People: Smyth, Richard (rector of Bury)

Surname

Smyth (Smythe/Smith)

Forename

Richard

Sex

Male

Parish

Bury

Marital Status

Unknown

Occupation Status

Clerk; rector of Bury

Remarks

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- 1554/5; 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 Bury, valued at £29 11s 4d (Cooper). He was presented to both these livings by Thomas Stanley, earl of Derby.

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.

(Also listed in the Directory under ‘Officials’.)

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

Henry Fishwick (ed.), Pleadings and Depositions in the Duchy Court of Lancaster time of Henry VIII, (The Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 32, 1896), pp. 151-152

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

‘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  [accessed 31 December 2024]

 

Causes

EDC 5/8/1 – plaintiff

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People: Scariot, Alice

Surname

Scariot (Scaryot)

Forename

Alice

Sex

Female

Parish

Formerly of Warmingham

Marital Status

Unknown

Causes

EDC 5/1/6 – defendant

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