The fascinating glimpses of our history found in a churchyard
THERE is a marble wall plaque in St Michael’s Church, Aughton, dedicated to Lady Stanley, relict of Sir William Stanley of Hooton.
The plaque identifies Lady Catherine Stanley as the daughter of Sir Rowland Eyre Hassop Esq of Derbyshire; she died on April 18, 1765 aged 78. Her husband had died in 1740.
Sir William Stanley of Hooton 3rd Baronet was the 19th of the line, son of Sir Rowland Stanley of Hooton and the family lineage is traced back to Henry Stanley de Stoneley, Staffordshire, several decades before the Conquest.
Sir William’s family can be traced back just a few generations on the direct paternal line to Sir William Stanley, who married Ann Harrington and their second son, Peter, married the daughter of James Scarisbrick of Moor Hall, Aughton, and this perhaps suggests a reason that Lady Catherine Stanley was in Aughton at the time of her death rather than at Hooton.
Catherine’s parents had both died in Preston in 1729 however, not in Hassop, Derbyshire.
Sir William’s family also traces back to Sir John Stanley who as a Captain in the army of Edward, The Black Prince, fought at Poitiers in France, after which he began a tour of most of the royal courts of Europe and became the most famous combatant of the age.
He returned to England to marry Isobel de Lathom, securing the Lathom estates for future generations including the Earls of Derby.
Lady Catherine Stanley’s son, Sir Rowland Stanley of Hooton 4th Baronet, died just six years after his mother and her grandson, William, became the 5th Baronet, but on his death without issue in 1792, Lady Catherine’s younger son, Sir John Stanley, became the Baronet.
He then added the surname Massey under the terms of his maternal ancestor’s will.
Another plaque in the church, this one positioned beneath the second window from the altar, is dedicated to Edward, the nine-year-old son of Hugh Dicconson of Wrightington.
Edward died in 1661; his father, Hugh, lived at Wrightington Hall and inherited the Wrightington estates from his father, Sir Edward Dicconson, in 1658.
Two of Hugh’s sons, William and Roger, became Roman Catholics and were implicated in a plot to overthrow the government of the day under William and Mary and bring back the exiled King James II.
William, along with several other Catholic Lancastrians, was put on trial in Manchester for treason in 1694.
They were acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence to convict them.
However, immediately afterwards, William fled to France to join James II in exile, where he was appointed “governor” (tutor) to Bonnie Prince Charlie, and his wife became Maid of Honour to the exiled Queen.
Wrightington Hall, previously a traditional Tudor manor house was rebuilt in 1748.
After some 19th century extensions it was bought by Lancashire County Council in 1918 and became Wrightington Hospital, a tuberculosis hospital in 1933.
The Wrightington estate passed to Thomas Eccleston, nephew of Edward Dicconson.
Thomas had married Sybella Georgiana Farrington, née WilbrahamBootle, granddaughter of Richard and Mary Wilbraham-Bootle of Lathom House.
Also buried in the churchyard at St Michaels is Leonard Winder, for many years the headmaster of the Aughton Street Boys School, also known as the Boys Parochial School.
He had married local teacher Minnie Aldred at the church in 1894 when he was 31 and she was 23.
Minnie died on the June 20, 1902, 15 days after the birth of their third child, George Aldred Winder, who also died, just 17 days after his mother.
Leonard remained the headmaster of the school throughout WWI.
The first wife of Adolf Jonathan Gnosspelius is also buried in the churchyard.
Eliza Gnosspelius, née Heron, married Swedish born Adolf in 1838 in Eccles. The family moved to Brookfield House, Lydiate some time in the 1860s and Eliza died there in November 1871.
Adolf married again in 1875 and had son, Oscar Theodore Gnosspelius, in 1878.
Oscar was baptised at St Michaels and he married world famous sculptor Barbara Christal Collingwood,
sister of the author and painter WG Collingwood, in 1925.
Oscar Gnosspelius himself became world famous as a seaplane designer and builder, developing the Gnosspelius Gull after WWI.
In another part of the churchyard is the grave of Manchester born Mary Ann Stewart, who died in 1905, aged 54.
Mary had been the Chief Matron of the Railway Servants Orphanage in Derby for 24 years by the time of her death.
Founded in 1874, the orphanage was established to care for the orphan children of railway servants after it was decided that so many of the children were ending up in the workhouse after fathers were killed in service to the railway and mothers were not coping.
Among the many graves and memorials in the churchyard these are just a small number which people may find of interest, anyone wishing to research these people further please do and make contact to see what you can discover.