[264c] Ormerod’s Cheshire, vol. iii. p. 311.
[264d] Although Ormerod (in vol. i. xxxii. note y, and vol. iii. p. 311,) mentions the date on the tomb as 1460, I found it impossible to ascertain whether that had ever been the case, because the two last letters of that part of the brass which contained the date, are missing. The date of the battle is given in 5 Rot. Parl. 38th Henry VI. p. 348 (a very high authority), as Sunday next after the Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, in the 38th year of Henry VI., which was in 1459. In Holinshed’s Chronicles it is stated to have been fought on the day of St. Tecla, 23rd September, 1459; and in Hall’s and in Grafton’s Chronicles, St. Tecla’s day is also mentioned to have been the day of the battle; and in Baker’s Chronicles and Stow’s Annals, though the month and day are not named, 1459 is given as the year in which it was fought; Carte, the historian, also gives the date as Sunday, the 23rd September, 1459.
[265a] Ormerod states (vol. iii. p. 311, note y), that the inscription possesses considerable interest, as being the memorial of the first Cheshire male ancestor of the Booths, and of the heiress of Dunham Massey and the Bollin; and that it is the only inscription now remaining in the county, relating to any of the warriors who fell at Blore Heath.
[265b] A rubbing from the brass of Sir Robert Booth’s monument, which I exhibited to the meeting, was kindly lent to me for the purpose, by the rector, the Rev. William Brownlow, to whom I am much obliged, for several valuable suggestions and information relative to the church; amongst which I may mention, that it appears, from the churchwardens’ accounts, that, during the civil war, the pipes of the organ of the church were broken up by the Parliamentarian troops, to make bullets.
[266] Poem of the Borough, p. 21.
[267a] The paper upon Handford Hall and Cheadle Church, was read by the author in person, before a meeting of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, on the 3rd of January, 1850; and the thanks of the meeting were voted for it to him.
[268a] Cheetham Papers, vol. i. p. 122.
[268b] Ibid., p. 161.
[268c] He afterwards spells it “Handford”: vol. i. p. 189.
[268d] Lysons’ Mag. Brit., Cheshire, p. 555; Ormerod’s Cheshire, vol. iii. pp. 326, 327.