Freemasonry In The Seventeenth Century: Warrington, 1646.

The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on July 2 , 1644 , and on 15 th May , 1645 , Chester was relieved by the King ; on the 14 th of June following the King was defeated b y Fairfax , at the Battle of Naseby . Chester surrendered to the Parliament , 3 Feb ., 1646 . Of Col . Mainwaring there is little more to relate . In 1662 he came to Manchesterfor IMewcome records in his diary 1662 " MundayAugust 4 thCol

, , , , , . Manw : came in & ivas w ' ' me a little ivhile . " His family , as owners of Barnshaw , had certain small yearly payments reserved to them , which passed in the middle of the last century to the MainAvarings , of Peover , when they purchased that Lordship . Fee farm-rents were paid in 1656 , 1660 , 1662 , 1676 , * & c , to Colonel Henry Mainwaring , of Kerminchamand in 1685 to Roger MainwaringEsq .

Avhom-, , , we see , from the will , was his grandson . It is clear , from the will of Colonel Mainwaring , printed in abstract in the Appendix , that for some reason , in the year 1672 , perhaps finding himself becoming advanced in years , he had given up Kermincham , and made it over to his grandson aud heir apparent , Roger Mainwaring . He then retired to live on one of his smaller estates at Blackden , near Goostrey , co . Chester .

In "Newcome ' s Autobiography" ! under the year 1684 , it is recorded : — I heard of the death of old Col . Manwareing : and of gratitude to him for kindnesses in the former part of my life . I resolved to go to . his funeral , and so did on December 2 nd . " Thus he died , at a ripe old age , having lived through troublous times , and had he survived but a few months would have lived to see King Charles II . pass away . Whatever the inion of the side

op he took in the jjolitics of his time , it is some satisfaction to ns to know that one who played so important a part in the histoiy of his native county , and of England , was also one of the " Fellowship of Free-Masons . " We are not informed by Ashmole who occupied the place of Master on the 16 th of October , 1646 , at the Lodge in Warrington , but Mr . Richard Penket was Warden .

My friend Mr . Beaniont , of Warrington , was kind enough to place at my disposal his papers on the Penkeths of Penketh , £ of which family there is no doubt the Warden of the Lodge at Warrington was a member . I was not a little pleased to find that Mr . Beamont had made the same identification with regard to Richard Penketh as myself . From the Heralds' visitation of Lancashire , made by St . George in 1613 , it

appears that Richard Penkethg of Penketh , who died circa 1570 , married Margaret , daughter of Thomas Sonkey , of Sonkey [ gent . ] , and had a son , Thomas Penketh , of _ Penketh , county Lancaster , who married Cecilye , daughter of Roger Charnock , of Wellenborough , county Northampton , Esq ., whose son Richard ( dead in 1652 ) , married Jane , daughter of Thomas Patrick , of Bisphani , in the county of Lancaster . This no doubt was the Richard Penketh who was a

Freemason at Warrington in 1646 . Mr . Beaniont is of opinion that he was tAvice married . This is probably the case , for in the parish register at Warrington there is the following entry : — " 1591 , June 11 th . —Richard Pemkethe , Gent ., and Mary Etoughe . " By his [ second ] wife , Jane , || he left an eldest son and heir , Thomas Penketh , then living , aged three years , and three daughters . In an interesting account of the Early History of the Roman Catholic Mission in Leigh , Lancashire , ' ! ' it is stated that the earliest Missionary Priest of Leigh Avas Father John Penketh , alias