fore placed on the south side of the pile of buildings, protected from the prevailing winds by the higher ranges which formed the north and west sides. The north side of the quadrangle was occupied by a building of two stories, marked A on the opposite diagram: the upper story was the dormitory, it is now a flower garden; the lower apartment, a crypt, is vaulted with stone arches, sprung from corbells in the walls, and from a row of octagonal piers. The hall, B, and the priors apartment, C, occupied the west side of the court, and extend about twenty-seven yards, the hall being twenty yards by ten; this was lighted by two elegant pointed windows on the west side, in the style of the fourteenth century. Four doors opened to the hall; one at the north end, and another on the west side, formed the approaches from without; the others opened to the offices and a small passage, F, communicated with the quadrangle and with the abbot's apartments. The passage, which is now partially blocked up, is supposed by Grose, to have been used for a confessional. The abbot's apartments, which were enriched specimens of the Decorated English style, were of two stories; the fire-places yet remain. A small spiral staircase in the angle of the building led to the priory church, which formed the south side of the quadrangle. Of this building, the west end of the north aisle may yet be traced, from which and from a very ancient drawing, it appears to have been lighted by narrow lancet shaped windows, of which there are now no remains. The arches are destroyed, but the places they occupied (marked E) are indicated by fainter shading on the plan, and a part of one of the shafts from which the arches sprung is yet attached to the fragment of the walls. The eastern, and last remaining side, consisted chiefly of a simple stone wall, from which projects, at right angles, a Norman structure, which being altogether at variance with the rules of conventual establishments, it is difficult to assign to any other purpose than that of a chapter house. This building, marked D, is sixteen yards long by eight broad, and of two stories. The lower, vaulted with stone, is by far the most ancient part of the Priory. It has a remarkably fine Norman stone-groined roof, with plain ribs. The arches of the vaulting are semicircular, * The diagram of the ground plan, and a part of the description, is derived from Mr. Ormerod, who had personal opportunities of examining the ruins before the erection of the present Church and adjacent houses. His measurements have been examined, and some material errors in the architectural description rectified by Mr. Lewis Hornblower, of Birkenhead, Architect. The smaller sketch of the ruins, as they appeared about the year 1620, is copied from an engraving by King in his Vale Royall. The larger one is from a drawing by John P. Halton of Liverpool, Esq., in 1820. Some remarks by the late Mr. Rickman, who designed the present church, are embodied in the above description of the ancient priory. and a huge horse shoe stretches in the centre from side to side; the stones of which it is formed, plain, square, and massive, rest on solid piers, with early Norman capitals. In the walls are the grooves for the screen, by which it was once divided. The western division, or anti-room, communicated with the church through an archway, now filled up, and with the quadrangle by a doorway, yet remaining, between the two windows. The inner, or chapter room is lighted by three windows, two in the style of the fifteenth century, but the third is coeval with the rest of this part of the monastery, being short, narrow, round headed, and in every respect strictly indicative of its Norman origin. After the dissolution this building was used as a private chapel, there being no place of worship nearer than the parish churches of Bidston, Brombrorough, and Wallasey. Since the erection of the adjacent church, it has been used as a Sunday school-house, and occasionally for religious or charitable meetings. The ruins have invariably commanded the admiration of all lovers of ancient architecture, and it is greatly to be desired that measures may be adopted to prevent their falling into utter and oblivious decay. They are the only remains in this neighbourhood of any importance, nor are there any of equal antiquity, on the opposite coast of Lancashire; their character is attested by every writer on the subject. The mouldings at the principal entrance of the Refectory "being singularly varied and extremely beautiful specimens of the Decorated style," have been adopted as a study by Rickman, and other most talented authors on Ecclesiastical Architecture. For nearly two centuries nothing is known of the convent or its superiors, except what may be gathered from the inquisitions taken at the death of several of the priors; but even the roll of these is defective, and there is no register or consecutive record which can supply the names of its once lordly rulers. The following list, though it is deficient in several names and dates, will be found the most complete that has yet appeared. Oliver: witness to a deed temp. John, died 1328.-Leycester, 241. 1328, Robert Millenton.-Ormerod, i. 397. 1338, Robert de Betchinton. 1339, a monk elected in room of Betchinton.-See Lichfield Registers. Hugh de Aston, second son of Sir Richard Aston, temp. Edwards II. and III.-Leycester, 211, and Burke's Ext. and Dormt. Baronetage. 1379, Roger: witness to a stipulation on the part of the prior of Warrington to found a chauntry for Sir Thos. Dutton, and his descendants, 3 Rich. II. Eleven years afterwards, he was bondsman for £20, due to Nicholas de Audley of Hely.-See Harl. MSS. 2038, 18, and Leycester, 253. 1428, Robert: who did service at Dunham, 6 Henry VI.—Williamson's Evidences. 1459, Hugh Boner, occurs 37 Henry VI.—Harl. MSS. 2158. John Sharp: expelled at the dissolution. The three whose names are inserted in italics, do not appear in other lists, although they are mentioned in Mr. Ormerod's work under other townships. Millenton is interred in Bowdon church, where a monumental slab contains the arms of Millington of Millington, with an ecclesiastic kneeling, and holding in the left hand a cup; at the base is inscribed, Orate p' bono statu Robert Middleton, a'no D'ni MCCCXXVII. In the same Church is a stained glass window of great beauty, with an inscription: "Orate pro bono statu Johannis Sharpe, priore de Birkenhead, qui istam fenestram fieri fecit, A'no D'ni MCCCCCXXX." Among other ornaments in the window, are the ancient Arms of the Priory, which are those of the founder,-quarterly gules and or, in the first quarter a lion passant argent, surmounted with a croisier in pale head turned sinisterways, argent.† * In the year 1818 an ancient grave-stone, with the subjoined inscription around the margin, was dug up within the ruins. Three skeletons, in a very perfect state, were found buried underneath the stone; the teeth in particular were in a high state of preservation. The stone is now inserted in the wall, on the north side of the entrance to the chapel or school. It resembles red granite, and has been much dilapidated by time. The characters of the inscription are of the sort usually denominated church text, but the letters and words included in brackets are effaced. mo Hie jacet Thomas Rayneford, quo[ond] am bono vicar hui® [p]o[rato] qui obiit b. [die] maii, anno Domini M.C[CCC]LXXI. cuv anime ppiciet. Deg. mo Which may be translated "Here lieth Thomas Rayneford, formerly the good Vicar of this house, who died the 20th of May, in the year of our Lord 1473: on whose soul may God have mercy." Having been inducted into the priory in 1460, he held it only thirteen years. †These arms, it is presumed, were intended to have been adopted by the Commissioners of Birkenhead, but for some inexplicable reason, they have altered the tinctures, on their police appointments, by substituting purpure for gules; thus manufacturing a Coat unknown in the Heraldry of the County. For several years after the dissolution, Birkenhead and its dependant properties remained in possession of the crown. Henry, in 1545, conveyed that portion of estate of the priory which was situated in Cheshire to Ralph Worsley, the third son of William Worsley of Worsley, in Lancashire, whose numerous offices, and death are recorded on a monument in the church of St. Mary at Chester.* The grant was made subject to an annual payment, which has been alienated by the Crown, and is now payable to the Rev. Mr. Poyntz: the following is an abstract:"The King doth give and grant to the aforesaid Ralph Worsley, all the house and site of the late priory of Birkenhead, and all the church, belfry, and church yard of the same, and also all the house, edifices, mills, barns, stables, within or without or near or nigh to the site (sept ambet) circuit and precinct of the same. AND that messuage and tenement, with the appurtenances, now in possession of Robert Molyneux, and one dove-house, one mill, and all the fish yards, and two acres of meadow, and seventy-eight acres of arable land, and one parcel of land where flax used to grow, and all the ferry, and the ferry-house, and the Boat called the Feribot, and the profit of the same, and all their appurtenances, situated and being in Byrkenhedde and Bideston and Kirkeby Walley, otherwise Wallasey, in the county of Chester, to the late prior belonging, and being in the proper hands, culture, and occupation, of the priory of the same. AND all those the lordships or manors of Claughton and Woolton, with their rights, &c., late being parcel of the possessions of the said prior. AND all the messuages, lands, tenements, &c. situated in Claughton, Wolton, Bydeston, and Kyrkbye in Walley, otherwise Kirkby Wallasey, and certain yearly rents, amountiug together to 26s. 8d. of the manor of Walton. AND certain yearly rents and services in Tranmere: And all the messuages, &c. in Tranmere held by Robert Holme, and the same in Wallasey held by John Hill. AND also the wood and lands called the Hagge Coppice, containing, by estimation, eighty-s eighty-seven acres in Bidston and Kirkby aforesaid: And also all and singular the messuages, granges, mills, tofts, cottages, &c. fisheries, passages, &c. with the appurtenances in the townships, parishes, or * “Hic subtus humatur corpus Radulphi Worsley, armig. qui fuit filius tertius Gulielmi Worsley, de Worsley Meyne in Comitatu Lancastriæ, arm. ac quondam serviens, scilicet, pagettus garderoba robarum, ac unus dapiferorum cameræ invictiss, principis Henrici Octavi, Dei gratia Angliæ, Franc, et Hiber, nuper regis. Cui idem rex ob bonam et fideli servitum circum regiam suam personam impensum, ex regia sua magnificentia ad terminum vitæ donaverat officia satellitis coronæ, custodiam leonum, leonarum et leopardorum intra Turrim Londinensem; portatoris magnæ garderobæ, contrarotulator in Com. Cest, et Flint, clerici coronæ Lanc. et esceator. Com. Palat. Lancast, et alisquam remunerationes." |