Three 19th century Parish Priests of St. Clement’s Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy were buried in its churchyard.
Their memorial stones can still be seen.
Rev. Peter Hordern: -
Peter Hordern was born in 1897 in Shaw, Oldham, Lancashire to the minister of Shaw Chapel, Rev. Joseph Hordern and his wife, Ellen (née Allen) of Salford, Lancashire. He was baptised by his father in Shaw School on the 14th May, 1797.
He studied at Brasenose College, Oxford University (1) graduating with a B. A. degree on 14th January, 1820. On the 17th December, 1822 he was further awarded an M. A. degree.
Between his graduation and the award of his higher degree Peter had taken Holy Orders. He was ordained at Chester, first as a deacon on the 23rd December, 1821, then as a priest on the 29th September, 1822.
On the 6th October, 1824 he was appointed curate of the chapel and “keeper” of the library of Cheetham’s School, Manchester. He remained at Cheetham’s School until he was “nominated by the warden and fellows of the Collegiate Church to the vacant incumbency of Perpetual Curate of St. Clement’s, Chorlton-cum-Hardy"(2) on the 25th November, 1833.
Rev. Hordern married Frances Entwisle at Manchester Cathedral on the 14th January, 1834. During his very brief time at St. Clement’s, he baptised his two children there; Ellen Frances (3) on the 10th April, 1835 and Arthur on the 11th February, 1836. Sadly, Arthur died at just one day old. In a double tragedy for the family, Rev. Hordern, himself, died just over a month later on the 16th March, 1836.
Rev. John Morton D.D.: -
John Morton was born in Manchester on the 18th June, 1794 to James and Elizabeth Morton. He was baptised in the Collegiate Church, Manchester on the 13th July, 1794.
He was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
He was ordained a deacon by the Bishop of Chester, George Henry Law, on the 26th September, 1819 and appointed to St. Thomas’s Church, Pendleton, Lancashire. Just over a year later, on the 8th October, 1820 he was further ordained as a priest for the same parish.
Whilst at Pendleton, in 1826, he suffered the double blow of the death of his young 32-year-old wife, Anne, in childbirth, on the 8th February, followed by that of his infant son, Charles James, on the 30th November.
Rev. Morton combined his clerical duties with running day and boarding schools for boys. In 1828, his school was housed in Brunswick Lodge, Pendleton.
Following the death of Rev. Hordern, he was “nominated” to succeed to the “Perpetual Curacy” of St. Clements in April, 1836. Shortly after taking up his new duties he moved from his home in Seedley, Salford, Lancashire and purchased a house on Chester Road, Stretford where he continued his educational activities; opening a small, boys, day/boarding school on the 17th July, 1837.
The six years of his incumbency of St. Clements witnessed many changes in the parish both administrative and structural. Firstly, the church was refurbished and enlarged in 1837 (4) In 1839 St. Clement’s was upgraded to a fully-fledged parish status, and finally, in 1842, an organ was installed.
Rev. Morton died on the 27th December, 1842. And was buried on the 3rd January, 1843.
Three years before his death his Alma Mater had conferred on him its Doctorate of Divinity on the 10th October, 1839.
Rev. John Edmund Booth: -
John Edmund Booth was born on the 24th February, 1819 in Atherton, Nr. Leigh, Lancashire, (where his father was the curate). He was the son of Rev. Ebenezer Booth and his wife Elizabeth (née Armstrong) of Cartmel, Lancashire. He was baptised in Atherton Chapel on the 14th April, 1819.
John Edmund was also a “scholar and exhibitioner” at Brasenose College, Oxford University. He graduated with a B. A. in 1844 and an M. A. was conferred on 12th June, 1851.
He was ordained in August, 1843 and assigned to a curacy at St. George’s, Hulme, Manchester. In the October of the following year, he was promoted to the “Perpetual Curacy” of St. Stephen’s, Salford, Lancashire. This was the same parish his father had ministered to for more than a decade before moving on to Atherton in December, 1818. Rev. John Edmund Booth stayed at St. Stephen’s until the end of 1859 when he exchanged “livings” with Rev. William Birley who was the incumbent of St. Clement’s, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. He preached his first sermon in his new church on New Year’s Day, 1860.
Almost at once, on taking office, he realised that, with the rapidly expanding population in the parish, there was a need for a larger church building. His proposed solution, the construction of the “New” St. Clements, was not universally popular with local dignitaries Sir William Cunliffe Brooks, of Barlow Hall, and Samuel Mendel, of Manley Hall, in particular being against his plans. The dispute rumbled on throughout Rev Booth’s term of office and he was never to see (his) new church consecrated (5) before his sudden death on Monday, 26th December, 1892. He also had to contend with a Home Office enquiry in November, 1881 concerning the deteriorating state of the graveyard which resulted in its closure, with a few exceptions, to fresh burials
Rev. Booth married twice, with both of his wives dying young. He married, firstly Elizabeth Tunder, the only daughter of Frederick Samuel Tunder a Russian-born cotton merchant in Salford (6) during the early 1850’s. She died at her father’s home Yewbarrow Lodge, Grange, Lancashire on the 28th October, 1855. Rev Booths second marriage took place at St. Clement’s on the 16th July, 1862 when he wed Edith Elizabeth Law, the daughter of John Henry Law, an attorney and solicitor, of Urmston Lodge, Urmston, Lancashire.
With his second wife Rev. Booth had three children a son, Arthur Lockwood Trevor (born 8th August, 1869) and two daughters, Edith Aline (born 3rd July, 1864) and Ethel Marion (born 24th February, 1872). Edith Elizabeth died on the 24th February, 1872; just three days after the birth of her second daughter. She was buried in St. Clement’s churchyard on the 2nd March.
Strangely Rev. Booth delayed baptising Ethel Marion for more than three years until the 10th June, 1875.
Rev. Booth was interred next to his wife, Edith Elizabeth, on 30th December, 1892. His funeral, which was fully reported in the following day’s edition of The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, was a lavish, if sombre occasion attended by a multitude of local clergy including representatives from the non-conformist churches of the area.
Pictures; from the collection of Tony Goulding
Notes: -
1) Peter Hordern was the recipient of “Mr. Hulme’s exhibition”. This was provided by a charity set up by William Hulme, a lawyer and landowner of 17th century Manchester, to provide funding for local students to attend Brasenose College, Oxford University. This charity also provided the means to found William Hulme’s Grammar School in 1887.
2) This was the rather verbose way in which such church appointments were reported in the newspapers of the day.
3) Ellen Frances Hordern married Sir John Lubbock the Liberal politician banker and philanthropist in Rostherne, Cheshire on the 10th April, 1856. As a backbench M.P. he sponsored a Bill for the introduction of official Bank Holidays, in 1871, and another, in 1882, The Ancient Monument Act which paved the way for measures to protect the country’s heritage.
4) The refurbished church was reopened with two services on Sunday the 15th October, 1837.
5) The “New” St. Clement’s was finally consecrated by the Bishop of Manchester, James Moorhouse, on the 22nd April, 1896.
6) Rather oddly I could find no trace of this marriage in the civil records nor in any available parish ones.
I’d like to acknowledge the usefulness of both Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping's recent book on the churches of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and the “Township of Chorlton-cum-Hardy" 1972 by John M. Lloyd. Much of the detail was gleaned from the newspaper archives on Find My Past.
It opened as the Plaza Super Cinema and Variety Theatre in 1932 and for the next 30 or so years it showed all the great films of the day, including Stockport’s first 3D presentation in 1954 and in the following year the first Cinemascope show.
