CHETHAM'S HOSPITAL AND LIBRARY.
As we stand on the north side of the cathedral and look to the north, our eyes rest upon a wide gravelled courtyard beyond a low wall, backed up by a range of mediaeval-looking buildings. These were the domestic buildings of the College, and are now used partly for Chetham's Free Library, partly for the school known as Chetham's Hospital. The endowment and other sources of income provide for the board and education of a hundred boys. They receive a sound elementary education, and are instructed in technical and manual work. The school is carried on under the Board of Education, and is typical of this education at its best. The religious instruction is in accordance with the tenets of the Established Church, and much care is taken to train the boys not only in intellectual and manual pursuits, but in morals and manners. A boy once placed on the foundation of Humphrey Chetham has a successful career assured to him, unless he forfeits his chances by subsequent folly on his own part. The boys who show the greatest intellectual power can be passed on to the Manchester Grammar School, and thence to Owens College, while the feoffees of the hospital have no difficulty in finding good places in the business houses of Manchester for the rest. To have been educated at Chetham's Hospital is a great recommendation to any boy. The boys still wear the picturesque costume of the sixteenth century—caps, bands, long-skirted dark blue coats, knee-breeches, stockings, and shoes adorned with buckles. The visitor to the Hospital will probably be greeted by one of these boys, who will ask if he wishes to see the buildings. The boy will, if the answer is in the affirmative, take the visitor to the library, where, on payment of sixpence, a ticket will be handed to him, franking him for the day, and the boy will conduct him over the whole of the buildings, pointing out the past and present uses to which each part of them was or is put.
Before we proceed to describe the building a few words must be said about its history.
Its site was once occupied by the "summer camp" of Roman legionaries, and when the Romans passed away from the island, it is highly probable that the English occupants of the country used it as a place of abode. The first authentic notice of its occupation by any person whose name has come down to us, dates from 1182, when Robert, the fifth Baron Greslet, kept court here. Thomas, the eighth baron, granted the citizens of Manchester their first charter in 1301, signing and sealing the charter here. He was the last male in the direct line of descent, and on his death the property passed to John De la Warre, who was a descendant of the Greslets or Gresleys in the female line. One of his descendants, Thomas, as has been already mentioned, became rector of Manchester, who before his death applied to King Henry V. for a charter to enable him to collegiate the church. He bestowed on it lands to increase the endowment, and gave his baronial hall to the newly founded college of priests to be used as their residence. All this may be read in the grant made in the first year of Henry VI. Certain alterations were made in the buildings, to fit them for the new use to which they were to be put, and from 1422 to 1549 they were occupied by warden after warden, who, assisted by the Fellows, performed the services in the adjoining church, looked after the sick and poor, and ministered generally to the inhabitants of the parish of Manchester. For some reason the College was not suppressed in the reign of Henry VIII., when the revenues of monasteries, small and great, were seized by the king; but in the first year of Edward VI. it was disendowed, and in the third year of the reign it was granted to Edward Stanley, third Earl of Derby. He used it as a town house. Henry Stanley, the next earl, in the reign of Elizabeth obtained a charter from the Queen, re-endowing the College, and it once more became the abode of the wardens, now priests of the reformed Church. During the civil wars the warden was expelled (1646), and the buildings seized by the Parliament. They were let to a certain Joseph Werden, who sublet the refectory to the Presbyterians, to be used by them as a meeting-house. The Independents made use of a barn in the enclosure for a similar purpose.
Lieut.-Col. the Rev. John Wigan applied for the reversion of this property, "part of ye estate of the late Earl of Derby, and part of ye jointure of ye Countess Dowager already sequestrated."
Humphrey Chetham also had his eye upon this property, wishing to obtain it so that he might carry out a project formed long before to found a school and home for boys. The survey of the property made at this time describes it as consisting of "Ye large building called ye College in Manchester, consisting of many rooms, with two barnes, one gate house, verie much decay'd, one parcell of ground formerly an orchard, and one garden, now in ye possession of Joseph Werden gent., who pays for ye same, for ye use of the Common wealth, ten pounds yearly. There is likewise one other room in ye said College reserved and made use of for publique meetings of X'sian conscientious people."
Humphrey Chetham did not live to see the school founded; but in his will, made three years before his death, which took place in 1653, he appointed trustees to carry out his purpose. They, in accordance with his instructions, bought "ye great house with buildings, court, gardens, and appurtenances, called ye Colledge or the Colledge House," obtaining it for the sum of £500.
On August 5, 1658, the building was formally dedicated to its new use, and Hallworth, chief assistant to Heyrick, the expelled warden, who, as stated in Chapter IV., was afterwards reinstated, in his speech on this occasion, told the history of the building, and concluded by saying, "Henceforth the said house could fitly and justly be named by no other name than by the name of Mr. Chetham's Hospital," and by that name it is known at the present day.