The Quakers were very numerous in the neighbourhood of Stockport and Wilmslow, and George Fox the founder of their sect, or 'Society of Friends' as it was called, used often to visit them. Some cottages on Lindow Moss were once a Quaker chapel, and there is a Quaker burial-ground in a clump of trees near Mobberley. Many of the gravestones have seventeenth-century dates upon them. Often the Quakers were refused burial in the churchyards, and most out-of-the-way places were chosen for their last resting-place. There are some Quakers' graves in the woods at Burton in Wirral.
James the Second, who succeeded his brother Charles, did not try to hide the fact that he was a Papist. Many people would have preferred the Duke of Monmouth, a bastard son of Charles the Second, as king. He was known to be a Protestant, and the people of Cheshire, who were strongly Protestant, would have welcomed him as they had already welcomed him once in Charles the Second's reign.
Three years before James became king, the duke had visited Cheshire and raised the cry of 'No Popery!' He stayed at Mainwaring House in Bridge Street, Chester, and supped at the Plume of Feathers Inn. On the following day the little daughter of the mayor was christened, and the duke stood godfather, naming her Henrietta.
The duke then made a triumphal progress through the villages of Wirral. He stayed at Peel Hall, Bromborough, in order to attend the races at Wallasey, where he won a prize, which he sent to his little goddaughter at Chester. Several of the Wirral gentry met in a summer-house at Bidston, and talked of a rising in his favour. But the country people did not show so much readiness as had been expected, and all the duke's doings were secretly reported to the king by Sir Peter Shakerley, the governor of Chester Castle. Monmouth also stayed at Rock Savage and Dunham Massey, and witnessed the sports at Gawsworth. Shortly afterwards, however, he was captured by the king's men at Stafford, and the plot came to nothing. He was lucky not to lose his head. Charles was kinder to him than James was when the duke raised the West of England in 1685.
James was thoroughly hated by the bulk of the people, who grew tired of the mischievous rule of the Stuarts, and made up their minds to depose him. They were also determined that never again should a Catholic king reign over them. James fled to France, and Thomas Cartwright, the Bishop of Chester, who had made the citizens angry by bringing in again the old Catholic services of the Church, followed him into exile.
In the gardens of Gayton Hall are two ancient trees which have been called William and Mary. William of Orange was the new king who was invited by the English to succeed James. All who held office in Church or State were required to take the oath of allegiance to him. Some refused to do this. They were called non-jurors, and among them were several of the clergy of Cheshire who had to give up their churches. James made an effort to regain his lost kingdom, and sailed from France to Ireland, where he hoped to win many adherents. William assembled his forces in Wirral, staying at Gayton Hall, the home of William Clegg, whom he knighted after his visit.
The 'King's Gap', near Hoylake, reminds us of King William's presence in Cheshire. On the Lowlands, between Hoylake and Meols, his army lay encamped, and in the river Dee Sir Cloudesley Shovel, the brave sailor who rose from 'powder-monkey' to admiral, was waiting with the fleet to take the troops across to Ireland. Cloudesley Shovel is said to have received part of his education at the Grammar School of Stockport.
On the chancel wall of West Kirby Church is a tablet bearing the name of Baron Johannes Van Zoelen, who died here in 1690. The foreign-looking name is that of an officer of the Dutch troops of the Duke of Schomberg, for William employed Dutch and German soldiers to put down James's rising in Ireland. The soldiers embarked at Hoylake, and a few weeks later the farmers of Wirral, who had had to feed the army, and who, no doubt, were glad to see it depart, heard of William's great victory at the battle of the Boyne. James took refuge again in France.
Many Cheshire men took part in William's Irish campaign. A regiment was raised in Cheshire by Sir George Booth, the old Parliamentary leader who had, after the Civil War, become one of Charles the Second's most devoted followers and received the title of Lord Delamere for his services. The regiment was also accompanied by a troop of horse from Wilmslow and the neighbourhood.
William was never popular with his subjects. They disliked him because he was not English. He was cold and silent, and his manners ungracious; he spoke English with difficulty, and often he seemed anxious to get back to his own country. But he was devoted to duty and a great soldier, and he did much for England in checking the power of the French king who favoured the exiled Stuart.