THE FAMILY OF MODY, or MOODY, OF STANDISH.

A local family, from whom came two or perhaps three Rectors of Standish, cannot fail to be of interest, and I append a few notes thereon. They are first met with in the Standish Charters in the middle of the fifteenth century:

In 1463 Gilbert and Robert Mody, sons of John Mody, are mentioned in the Standish Charters; also in 1508, Margaret, daughter of Robert Mody, and relict of William Strickland; Margaret Strickland afterwards married Christopher Walton.

1512. Robert Mody son and heir of Rauff Mody, settled upon Matthew Standish a close called Urchinsnape in Shevington, which Robert had by gift of Margery Strickland. At this date Ralph Mody sells houses and lands in Standish to Matthew Standish.

1515. An acquittance from Robert Mody to Matthew Standish for £8 and other obligations.

1516. A quitclaim from Robert, son and heir of Rauff Mody, to Matthew Standish, of a close in Shevington called Urchensnape, and for the purchase money of same.

1524. Richard Mody sells all his estates in Standish to Matthew Standish.

1524-5. A quitclaim from Robert Mody, Rector of Standish, of all his rights to certain lands in Standish to Matthew Standish.

1 Churchwardens. The long list of names given is to be accounted for by the fact that each township had the privilege of electing a sidesman.

1546. John Mody, Rector of Eccleston.

1558-9. Richard Mody, Rector of Standish.

1627. Will of John Moodye of Standish proved at Chester. 1631. Marjory Moodye buried at Standish 10th September. 1662. William Moodie married at Standish on 22nd October to Elizabeth Sephton.

1672. 16th March, William, son of William Moodie of Standish, baptized at Standish.

1682. William Moody of Standish buried at Standish.

1683. William Moody of Standish christened.

1696. April 9th, Mary Moody of Standish buried.

1730. Will of Edward Moody of Atherton, gentleman, proved at Chester.

At Standish the family name is still perpetuated in " Moody Croft" and "Moody House"; the latter is an old dilapidated brick building. In the west gable there is a decorative stone panel bearing the initials EM and date 1700. A drawing of this panel may be found in a little volume by the writer Inscribed and Dated Stones on some Old Lancashire Houses, p. 45). Moody House is situated about one hundred yards to the south of Standish Church.

CONCLUSION.

Standish Church was rebuilt at a period when it may be said that church building in England had come to a stand-still. During the reign of Elizabeth and James I. the existing churches were probably sufficient for the population, and the money which one hundred years before would have been spent in building and endowing new churches and chantries, was now devoted to sumptuous monuments of marble and alabaster. The Gothic tradition was preserved in masonry long after it had died out in the other building trades. St. John's Church, Leeds, is a rare and interesting example of an entirely new church of this period, all the details of the masonry being late Gothic.

It was built 1632-3, and the Pointed arches and mouldings of the aisle arcades and the arch labels are, remarkably similar to those of Standish. In Elizabeth's reign the architect, as we understand him, "had not yet detached himself in England from the general body of craftsmen."

Such buildings as Standish Church are the result of the work of many generations of simpleminded men, and bear the impress less of a single personality than of a collective body of experienced craftsmen, with the accumulated results of years of labour along familiar paths. As a result we find in them the happy unconsciousness, the excellent fitness of buildings which have grown to their purpose. We have seen how the Church of Standish was rebuilt by the unaided exertions of its parishioners-country bumpkins, if you will, but men who, when they set to work, produced a work of art, and it gave them pleasure to make it. Witness Robert Charnock, Esq., country gentleman, who took upon himself the "setting up and rebuilding" of the Church; of Lawrence Jolly, who came of an old Standish family, and to whom the mason's work was entrusted; of William Wigan, another local man, who describes himself a "charpintar" (if he couldn't spell, he could carve); of his mates, W. Charnock and Richard Southworth, who were responsible for the roof; and those no less able craftsmen of Standish parish, Alexander Prescott and Alexander Holt, citizens and goldsmiths of London, who with laudable local patriotism presented to their old parish church those beautiful specimens of silversmiths' art. Such are the men who built our old parish churches, and they have left us a goodly heritage.

More than two hundred and fifty years have elapsed since the little band of "Pilgrim Fathers," with Captain Myles Standish as their military

leader, left the shores of Old England to found thẻ New England across the seas; and it seems strange that of the hundreds of those kinsmen (to whom the history of the Fatherland has such a charm, and who reach these shores at a port within an hour's journey of Standish), so few should visit the old Parish Church where the forefathers of Myles Standish worshipped seven hundred years ago.

I tender my thanks to the Rector of Standish for permitting me to examine the original rolls now in his possession relating to the rebuilding of the Church in 1582; also to Dr. Ellis of Liverpool for his kindness in preparing a negative from the old pencil drawing of the interior, and to Mr. Waite for the loan of negatives for the illustration of this paper.

WARRINGTON IN 1580

THE EASTER ROLL OF MONEYS DUE TO THE
RECTOR OF WARRINGTON IN THE TWENTY-

SECOND YEAR OF THE REIGN OF QUEEN
ELIZABETH

Communicated by J. Paul Rylands, F.S.A.

THE

HE Easter Roll, printed in full in the following pages, was recently found among the deeds and manuscripts at Aston Hall, near Runcorn. It is now preserved in the British Museum.

The manuscript is well written on nineteen pages of strong foolscap paper, and is quite perfect. It is not in the same handwriting throughout, a new scribe having begun on page 8 at "Bridge Street and having finished the writing of the names only to the end, the original scribe subsequently filling in the "e' obt," &c., in a different ink. The numbers in front of each name in the Roll have been added for convenience of reference, and explanatory words and letters are inserted within brackets.

66

The Easter Dues were small sums of money paid to the parochial clergy by the parishioners at Easter as a compensation for personal tithes, or the tithe for personal labour. These were regulated by the Act 13 Edw. VI. cap. 13, from which it appears that, in most cases, the customary payments for the previous forty years were to be maintained.

The persons named in the present roll were to pay to the Rector of Warrington, according to