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Articles
The Chetham Arms
by J F Horridge
Displayed on the front gates of Turton Tower is the Shield of Arms of Humphrey Chetham, the son of a prosperous merchant, Henry Chetham from Crumpsall Hall in the suburbs of Manchester. Humphrey was born in 1580 and at the age of seventeen was apprenticed to a linen draper. He later went into partnership as textile merchants with his brother George.
By the 1620s the partnership had prospered and the brothers bought Clayton Hall from the Byrom family. In 1628 Humphrey purchased the Manor or Lordship of Turton for £4000 from the insolvent Orrell familly who had been established at Turton Tower since the early 1500s and added several stone and half timbered extensions to the building. The Orrells continued living at the Tower until 1648 and some descendants of the family still reside in Turton.
The estate of Turton Manor included the manor house, demesne lands and 700 acres with rents etc, the water corn mill and a private chapel or aisle appurtenant to Turton in Bolton Church. The Chethams were never resident at the Tower which was generally occupied by tenant farmers. The manorial Court dealing with estate matters was held twice a year for about five centuries and records exist from 1735 to 1859.
Being a very modest and retiring man, Humphrey always shunned prominence and honours and when offered the Order of Knighthood by Charles 1st in 1632, he refused and was duly fined £50 for ΄disobedience to a royal summons`. It must be remembered that these were very violent times and any conflict with the authorities or monarchy quite often brought retribution to the offender. Thus in 1634, Humphrey reluctantly accepted the appointment of High Sheriff of the County Palatine of Lancashire and for this office it was considered necessary to assume arms.
On his first official function at the Lancaster Assizes he misguidedly displayed the arms of the Trafford family which were only slightly different from those of the Chethams of Nuthurst and
the Court of the Earl Marshall promptly pointed out his violation of the rules of chivalry. After six months of investigation by Sir Henry St George, the Norroy Kinge of Armes, the arms were eventually granted but with a modified crest. The shield can be described in non-heraldic terms:
Quartered shield: first and fourth quarters silver with red griffins in a black border, second quarter silver with red chevron between three knives and third quarter red with a gold cross with bars.
The spelling of the family name was also settled by the Kinge of Armes as ΄Chetham with two h`s and one e` .Thereafter Humphrey adhered to this ruling, having spelt his surname five different ways before 1635. For the heraldic services he was charged a fee of ΄ten pieces` which he considered to be excessive and wrote to Sir Henry; ΄they (the coat of arms) are not depicted in soe good Metall as those Armes wee gave for them, but the Heralde will double the gayne when he meets with a Novice`.
When Humphrey died at Clayton in 1653 he left funds to establish a `hospital` (then a charitable institution for the education of children) and a library for scholars located adjacent to Manchester Cathedral. His descendants founded the first day school of Turton in the early 1700s which eventually became the Turton National School.
Turton Tower was sold by the Chetham descendants in 1835 to the Kay family and it later passed to the Appleton sisters who owned Horrobin Mill. In 1903, Sir Lees Knowles acquired the estate and, after his death in 1929, his widow presented the property to Turton UDC, the drawing room becoming the Council Chamber and Committee Room. About this time Turton adopted the Chetham Coat of Arms but with a different crest. On the local government re-organisation in 1974, North Turton became part of the Borough of Blackburn and the ΄redundant` shield of arms has been used by Turton Local History Society on the cover of its thirty publications since that date. (Books obtainable from Mrs J Gerrard. Tel [01204] 308322)
