Data from the 'Collectio Rerum Ecclesiasticarum' from the year 1842.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

Data from the 'Collectio Rerum Ecclesiasticarum' from the year 1842.

The place: BARNSLEY.     Church dedication: ST. MARY.

Area, vide Silkstone. Staincross wapentake. - Population, 10,330, vide Silk stone *1; Chapel-room, 1,230 *2; Net value, £123. -Alan de Bretton gave all his land here to Monk Bretton Priory.

The town of Barnsley was given by the Lacys, about 1150, to the monks of St. John of Pontefract, who founded the Chapel, in which were three Chantries ; and on the 3rd October, 5th and 6th Philip and Mary, the Crown granted the advowson to the See of York, and the Archbishop is still the patron.

16th February 1787, faculty to rebuild organ loft.

29th September 1787, ditto to repair the Church.

19th August 1806, an additional burial-ground was consecrated.

In 1822, the old Church was taken down except the steeple, and a new Church built under an Act 59th Geo. III.

The architecture of the new Chapel is Gothic, with a small bell tower. Expense £5,918. 11s. 4d. First stone laid 23rd April 1821. Consecrated 23rd October 1822. Made a district Church under 58th Geo. III. cap. 45, sec. 21. Vide 11th Report, page 6.

In 1638, Sir Gervas Cutler left by will £100 to be settled in lands, towards a sermon once at least every Sabbath day.

Valued in 1707 at £18. 18s. per annum ; in the Parliamentary Survey, vol. xviii. page 406, it is stated to be " A fair large Chapel, three miles from Silkstone. A market town, containing about 260 families. The minister only £5 per annum ;" recommended to be severed from Silkstone, and made a parish church.

Augmented in 1718, with £200, to meet benefaction of lands worth £15 per annum from Mr. H. Wood and others ; in 1737, with £200 to meet benefaction of £200 from Mr. Francis Wood and Mr. Joseph Crofts; and in 1823, with £1,600 from the Parliamentary grant, by lot.

A decree in the Exchequer, in Easter Term, 5th Jac. I. is unreported.

An Inclosure Act was passed 17th Geo. III.

No glebe house.

The Register Books commence in 1568.

Charities:
The School. Founded 18th June 1660, by Thomas Keresforth *3, for the maintenance of a master for teaching and instructing all such children as should come to the school to be taught, that should be born within the towns and townships of Barnsley, Dodworth, and Keresforth Hill, whose parents should not be accounted to be worth the sum of £200 in lands, or debtless goods, not demanding any penny of them or their parents, until such children should be made fit for some University, or disposed of otherwise by their friends and parents; and that all persons within the towns and townships aforesaid, that should be accounted to be worth £200 in lands or debtless goods, or above, should have their children taught and instructed in the school, so long as they should think fit, for half of the rate usually paid for teaching scholars at other schools in that part of the country ; and that all the children of his kindred and blood should be freely taught wheresoever they should inhabit ; and that the trustees should have a care that the poorer sort of children should be as well taught as the richer sort. Income, £18. 17s. 7d. per annum fee farm rents, and use of the school premises, estimated at £50 a year. No scholars, at the time of the Report, had for many years been taught, or applied to be taught, gratuitously. There were then about 100 children of both sexes, who were instructed in English, reading, writing, and arithmetic, at the quarterly rate of 10s. for reading, 15s. for reading and writing, and 21s. for reading, writing, and accounts. An usher, and a female teacher for the girls, were employed by the master to assist him. The master professed his willingness to teach Latin to the scholars who might desire it, without additional charge.

The Shaw Land trust. Created by Thomas Keresforth, by deed, dated 3rd May, 10th Elizabeth, " for the commonwealth and profit of all the inhabitants and residents within the town and township, towards the making forth their common soldiers in carts there, for the service of their princes in their wars, paying of their common taxes, reparelling of their church or highways, making or amending of their butts, stocks, pinfold, and wells there, or in or about something pertaining to the whole common wealth of the said town or township." The income consists of the rents of 48a. 3r. 12p., and is applied towards repairing the church and the disbursements of the' churchwardens, in paying the stipenda of the organist and sexton, occasionally repairing the highways, and in buying coffins for poor people.

Edmund Brookhouse's charity, by will, dated 24th May 1493. Three tenements directed to be used as almshouses, and a rent-charge of £1. 13s. 4d. per annum, for the relief of the most needful poor. The tenements now form part of the poor-house, and the rent-charge was also, at the time of the Report, applied in aid of the poor assessment, -a measure disapproved of by the Commissioners.

Edmund Rogers's charity, by will, dated 11th January 1646. Rent of 62a. 0r. 8p. of land, towards the relief of the poor. Applied at the time of the Report in aid of the poor assessment.

Jonas Rhodes's or Roodes's dole, by will, in 1653. Rent-charge of 6s. 8d. per annum for the poor.

Ellis's charity, vide General Charities. £45 per annum towards the National School. A boy apprenticed yearly, and 20s. per annum to the Curate for catechising the children.

Samuel Allen's charity. £2 per annum amongst forty poor widows. Lost.

Ann Grantham's charity. Interest of £50 amongst the poor. Lost. -Vide 17th Report, page 764.

A post town.

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References:
Torre's MS.. page 1050. Abp. Sharp's MS., vol. i. page 272. Wood's Bodleian MS.. No. 5,078. Mon. Ang., vol. v. page 128. Burton's Monast. page 92. Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. ii. page 252.

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Notes:
*1 The Population of the town, in 1834, was estimated at 5.000.

*2 Of which 861 are free sittings. The old Chapel only contained 500 sittings.

*3 Mr. Hunter gives the pedigree of the Keresforths.