Just a little information for all of you to confirm that prior to a certain date two fees were due if you married at another church within the parish of M/c cath.
this is from the archivist at Manchester;
The
ancient Parish of Manchester was very large, covering all the outlying
townships. The Collegiate Church - later the Cathedral - owned the rights to
fees for all marriages within the Parish. If people chose to marry in their
local church, then a fee would be payable both to the church and to the
Collegiate Church, hence most people cut out the middle-man and came direct to
the Collegiate Church, from miles around. This is how Joshua Brookes came to be
the most prolific baptiser, marrier, and burier in the Country.
This caused great unrest, as you can imagine, and by 1850, a Rectory Division
Bill was passed through Parliament following a large petition from the
Parishioners of Manchester. This ordered the dividing of the ancient parish
into smaller parishes, leaving the Cathedral with the Residual Parish - being
just the area around it. Double fees were still payable until 1878, however, as
the 1850 Bill allowed for the current holders of the Clerkships to retire before
removing their income.There are numerous pamphlets and small books published around 1850 arguing forand against the Rectory Division Bill, eg. Mr Turner's letters to the Bishop,
published in 1850 by James Ridgway, Piccadilly, London, and Simms & Dinham in
Manchester. There is a later one, however, published around 1886, looking back
on the arguments which were still continuing. This booklet publishes the Bill
in full, with notes saying how the Bill was being abused by the Cathedral. I
was reading this only the other day at Chetham's Library, and I will email you
again tomorrow with a reference for it.
Yours sincerely,
Christopher Hunwick
