BIOGRAPHY OF THE REV. JOHN MIDDLETON.

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building with nothing but a ground-floor, containing a sitting-room, and one or two furnished bed-rooms, attended by an old woman to wait upon him occasionally, he, like Diogenes in his tub, but with none of the vanity or asperity of the Cynic, seemed to care little for the things of life beyond. The income of his private property, and his three livings being considerable, it will be naturally asked how (with such economical habits,) it was expended? To this it may be replied, that his negligence in looking after his rents occasioned him very considerable losses, and that the profusion of his grand-children, (the sons of his only daughter Ellen, who married the Reverend Jonathan Clews, sometime curate of Norton,) was a perpetual drain upon his liberality. Mr. Middleton married early in life, Lydia, the daughter of Mr. Joshua Heath, and had by her an accession of property; she died many years before her husband, leaving two sons, both of whom entered into Holy Orders: Thomas, the eldest, officiated as his father's curate at Hanley and Stone, and was for some time chaplain of a man-of-war, the Fortitude; he died without issue. John, the younger son, by some misconduct, incurred the displeasure of his father early in life, and settled in Yorkshire. He left issue, but they were excluded from the patrimony of both their parents, which, after the old gentleman's death, devolved to the widow of his eldest son, who by his will disposed of his expectancy. Mr. Middleton was matriculated of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, the 10th October, 1732, being at that time 18 years of age, and proceeded to the degree of Bachelor of Arts July 7, 1738; but never took his master's degree. He possessed considerable classical attainments, and in the early part of his life was Greek Secretary to Archbishop Potter, the learned editor of the Archæologia, (so we are informed, on what we deem undoubted authority.) His age at his death, in 1802, must, according to the record of his College, have been about 88 years.

The present church of Hanley, (of which an engraving is given at the head of this page,) was erected under the powers of an Act of Parliament passed in 1787, and is a handsome and stately structure of brick-work, with the door and window casings, and the battlements and pinnacles of the tower of stone; the latter rises to the height of 100 feet. The interior is extremely neat; it has galleries on the north and south sides and west end. The pews and gallery fronts are of good oak wainscot, the pulpit and reading-desk of fine Spanish mahogany. The cost of the erection exceeded £6000, besides the bells and organ. The bells are a fine-toned peal of eight, and cost £500; the organ about the same sum. The funds for the whole were chiefly raised by the voluntary contributions

of the inhabitants of Hanley and Shelton, and the neighbouring land-owners and gentry, but in part by the sale of additional pews provided in the new church. The pews are all private property with the exception of 80 free sittings, and accommodation for about 300 children in the aisles and end galleries. There are at present only two monuments in the Church, both of them handsome mural tablets of marble, erected to the memory of two worthy individuals whose characters are highly eulogized, and we believe with more truth and justice than are always found in monumental legends.*

The right of nominating the curate is by the act of Parliament, under which the church was built, vested in 26 trustees, of whom the survivors fill up by election all vacancies. The church is repaired by annual levies on the pews; the church-yard, including the site of the edifice, contains only an acre of land, although enlarged about one half when the present church was built. The right of sepulture belongs to the inhabitants of Hanley and Shelton generally, as do the rites of marriage and baptism. The registers of Hanley commence in the year 1754, and present the following results, taken periodically; but, as a considerable number of baptisms, marriages, and burials have always taken place at the Mother-Church of Stoke, and many are now performed at the new church of Shelton, the registers of Hanley can be only considered as auxiliary to those of the parish at large. We may hereafter offer some obser

* One of these monuments (at the chancel end,) is inscribed to "EPHRAIM CHATTERLY, of Shelton, who died 7th May, 1811, aged "66 years."

The other (against the south wall)

"In memory of WILLIAM YATES, Esq., of Shelton," who died April 28th, 1825, aged 57 years.

The inscription on the latter is much too long and laboured, however just.

vations upon the peculiarities apparent in the following table :

Table of Marriages, Baptisms, and Burials at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Hanley, from the commencement of the Registers.

The present incumbent of the church, Robert Ellis Aitkens, M. A., was elected to succeed the Patriarch Middleton, in 1802. In the year following, the curacy was again augmented with £200 from Queen Anne's Bounty, and £300 presented in the name of one of the trustees, (being surplus monies arising from the sale of pews which the act of Parliament authorised to be so laid out.) With this £500 a purchase was made of twelve acres of land in Shelton, and within a few years afterwards, by means of liberal subscriptions on the part of the inhabitants, aided by a further grant from the Bountyboard, a donation of £100 by the Prince-Regent, out of the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster, and a considerable sum raised by the incumbent, on mortgage of the living, at his own expense; a suitable house in Hanley was purchased for the minister's residence. He has no cure of souls, nor is any Ecclesiastical district assigned to his church, but by a provision introduced in The

Stoke Rectory Act, passed in 1827, such a district is contemplated, and a further augmentation of the benefice of £500, in furtherance of that object, is authorised to be taken from the Rectory funds, if so much can be raised by sale of the Easter-dues; and a recent act of Parliament having authorized a surrender of church patronage to the Bishop, &c., Hanley church may in time become, (as it is desirable it should,) a parochial chapel, with cure of souls. The net income of this perpetual curacy, according to the returns made to Parliament in 1835, is £220 per annum.

We proceed to give some account of the Market of Hanley, which, like that of Burslem, arose gradually with the rising population,† and was at length established by act of Parliament. In the year 1791, a lease was granted by John Bagnall, Esq., Lord of the Manor, to eleven principal inhabitants of Hanley and Shelton of a plot of land, part of Hanley Lower Green, on which they and others had, by means of subscriptions and contributions, then recently erected a building for the purpose of a Market-house and Town-hall. This lease was granted for a term of 200 years, at a merely nominal rent, and the business of the rising market was managed by these Trustees, until the year 1812, when the surviving Trustees entered into a negociation with the Right Hon. Sir William Scott, and the Hon. Thomas Windsor, the then Lords of the Manor, for surrendering the original lease, and taking a renewed lease to 21 Trustees in the whole of the premises comprised in the former lease, with the open spaces, streets, and lanes adjacent, for the purpose of holding markets thereon for a term of 21 years, at the yearly rent of £10, with a covenant for its perpetual renewal on payment of a fine of £50 before the end of every 18 years. Hereupon, in the Session of 1813, the Trustees applied to Parliament, and obtained "An Act for

* 1 and 2 Vict., c. 107, sec. 15.

+ See

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