HISTORY, DIRECTORY, & GAZETTEER, of the COUNTY PALATINE of LANCASTER in TWO VOLUMES |
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The other places of religious worship in Oldham, are the Methodist Chapel, in Manchester street, built in 1789, and opened by the Rev. John Wesley, on Good Friday, in the year 1790, which superseded a small chapel erected in this place for the same religious community in 1775; the Baptist Chapel, situated at the top of Manchester street, built in the year 1805, by the followers of Mr. Alexander Kilham, the founder of the Methodist New Connexion, but sold by them in 1816 to the Baptists, by whom it was opened on the 6th of September in that year; the Unitarian Chapel, in Lord-street, opened on the 4th of Jan. 1816; the Independent Chapel, in Queen street, built in 1822; the Independent Methodist Meeting-house, in George-street, built by a sect of seceders from the Methodists; and the Primitive Methodist Chapel, in Grosvenor-street. There is also a Meeting-house for the Society of Friends, at Twif·lane, Royton, which community has existed here ever since the foundation of Quakerism. To all the principal places of religious worship, in Oldham, Sunday schools are attached, and the inhabitants are laudably emulous to afford instruction to the rising generation. The new chapel and schools at Salem, built in the year 1824, by John Lees, Esq. of Lower Clarksfield, are dedicated to the use of the church of the United Brethren, (Moravians.) Clarksfield has been the residence of the family of Lees, ever since the reign of James I. In the year 1625, this estate was purchased by Mr. John Lees, from Sir George Booth, of Dunham park, and was devised to the late John Lees, Esq. of Ashton, in 1766, who resided there in the early part of his life, and at his death, in 1815, the property descended to John Lees, Esq. of Fairfield, the present owner. Under his direction the ancient mansion has been greatly improved and beautified, and in addition to an extensive view of the vale of the Medlock, the situation commands a prospect of the Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire hills, as well as of the mountain scenery of Greenfield and Stanedge. The Free Grammar School of Oldham, situate in School croft, was founded by James Assheton, Esq. of Chadderton-hall, in 1611, and endowed with about a statute acre of land in the centre of the town. This land is now built upon, and the rents of the premises yield a salary both to the head master, the Rev. William Winter, and to his usher. The trust deed bears date the 15th of May, 1607, and the original trustees were the principal inhabitants of the chapelry, with Lawrence Chadderton, Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge, at their head. According to the provisions of this deed, the children were "to be freely instructed in the English, Greek, and Latin tongues, and withall in good manners." In addition to these branches of learning, the education is partly commercial, and writing and arithmetic are taught, for which the usual quarterage is paid. An inquisition, sans date, quoted in the Kuerden MS. orders,* "that the feefees being dead, a new deed shall be executed." The commissioners further report, that "James Ashton, of Chadderton, dec: did by deed made to Law Chaderton and other feefees grant a real charge of 40s. for eur to the schoole of Oldham out of a .............................................................................................................................................
* Fo. 619
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