BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF HUMPHREY CHETHAM, FOUNDER OF CHETHAM COLLEGE, OR HOSPITAL, MANCHESTER,

OUR last number was employed in the work of celebrating the memory of Dean Colet, and of Edward VI., the founders respectively of St. Paul's School, and of Christ's Hospital, London. Numerous other benefactors, who have founded and endowed similar institutions, may usefully be brought under the notice of the present generation; for, in consequence of the increase of population, the institutions which were originated by the munificence of our ancestors, are no longer sufficient to meet the wants of society. Numerous additional Schools have, indeed, been recently established for the higher ranks, and still more for the education of the poor. Still, however, there are large openings for the establishment of schools of a middle character, the necessity of which, for the better education of those just above the poorer classes, is beginning to be more extensively felt; and we may hope that many a Chetham will be found among our merchants, who, either from his individual means, or in conjunction with others, will supply what is yet wanting in our apparatus for the universal education of our countrymen in every attainment, which may prepare them to do their duty in that state of life, to which it shall please God to call them.

Humphrey Chetham, third son of Henry Chetham, of Crumpsal, near Manchester, was baptized at the Collegiate Church, Manchester, July 10th, 1580; and is said by Fuller to have been descended from Sir Jeffery Chetham, of Chetham, whose fortunes were seriously injured in troublesome times. James, the eldest, succeeded to the Crumpsal estate, while George, Humphrey, and Ralph, embarked in the Manchester trade, and became principal purchasers of the fustians, which were much in use at the time, and manufactured in the neighbourhood of Manchester, especially about Bolton. The Chethams, as merchants, supplied the London market with the article, and acquired considerable opulence. It is even stated, that Humphrey was one of those richer subjects, on whom Charles I. imposed the necessity, either of purchasing a Baronetcy, or of paying a large fine to be excused therefrom; which latter alternative he preferred. He principally resided at Clayton Hall, near Manchester; and in 1634, was appointed High Sheriff of the county. He had the arduous duty of levying the shipmoney imposed by Charles upon the county of Lancaster; and he had the

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invidious task of apportioning to each district its share of the money required for furnishing a ship "in all points." He had the same duty the following year; and so ably did he discharge it, that, notwithstanding his protest against it, he was made treasurer of the county. On the 12th of October, 1653, he died at Clayton Hall, and was buried in St. Mary's Chapel, adjoining the chancel of the Collegiate Church.

Fuller justly records him among "the worthies of England," and states, that he was a "diligent reader of the Scriptures, and of the works of sound divines, a respecter of such ministers as he accounted truly godly, upright, sober, sincere."

The institution finally provided for by his will, was the completion of one which he had begun long before. During his lifetime, he had taken up and maintained 14 poor boys of the town of Manchester; six of the town of Salford, and two of Droylsden. Having never married, he thus expended his substance on the children of adversity; in a manner at once charitable to them, and beneficial to society. That he did not neglect other calls upon his bounty we may infer from his will, in which, while he gave permanence and enlargement to his former charity, he also made bequests to the poor of Manchester, Salford, Droylsden, Turton, and Bolton, and towards the maintenance of a Protestant minister at Crumpsal, Gorton, and other places. He devised 7,000l. for the purchase of estates to be applied to the support of his projected hospital or school, enlarging the number of boys to 40; and committing the care of it to feoffees, who, and their successors, have so well managed its resources, that the number of boys has since be n doubled. The feoffees are a body corporate, by charter from Charles II., Nov. 20. 1665. The founder directed the number of boys to be chosen from each place, (probably those places with which he was commercially connected), provided for their maintenance and instruction from six to fourteen years of age, and their apprenticeship at that time. He also wisely ordered, like Dean Colet, that when his orders and directions should be found defective, or insufficient for managing the pupils and affairs of the hospital, they should be "supplied, altered, or amended by the discretion of the feoffees."

The building is a very ancient one, said to be on the site of the Roman Pretorium, and long occupied by the Lords of the Manor, and called the "Baron's Hall," but afterwards occupied by the clergy of the Collegiate Church, on the north side of which it stands. It formed part of the original en lowment of the church, founded by one of the barons; but when the original collegiate foundation was dissolved in 1547, it was purchased by the Earl of Derby, and afterwards, in 1654, was purchased by Chetham's feoffees from the celebrated Charlotte, the heroic defender of Lathom House, and widow of the Earl, who was beheaded at Bolton in 1651. The edifice retains much of its ancient Collegiate character, both as to its general outward appearance, and especially, because of its hall, used as the dining-room for the boys, and a small square court adjoining the hall, in the style of our baronial mansions and colleges.

The boys-28 from Manchester, 12 from Salford, 6 from Droylsden, 20 from Bolton, 4 from Crumpsall, and 10 from Turton-are instructed in the ordinary branches of secular and religious knowledge, and clothed, lodged, and maintained in the college. Their dress is a blue frock, with yellow under-coat, a blue cap and stockings. The election of boys is at Easter; on leaving the school they receive 47. as an apprentice fee, two

suits of clothes, and a bible and prayer-book. They attend the Collegiate Church, and are seated in a west gallery.

But the institution especially deserves the name of a college as well as an hospital, because of its library, which forms, with the librarian's lodgin the upper story of the little west court, except where occupied by the dining hall. Mr. Chetham left 1,000l. for the purchase of books; besides 100%., and the residue of his personal estate, 2,000l., for the purchase of a building. The same building serves for all the purposes of the institution; and it is stated that the feoffees invested certain funds in the purchase of farms at Slaidburn, producing now a rental of 500l. a year, for the purposes of the library. It contains upwards of 20,000 volumes, and is not so well known as it deserves to be. It is one of the most valuable in the kingdom, after those of the British Museum, and our universities; and contains a complete collection of the Fathers, Ecclesiastical History, our best Theology, Topography, Travels, &c., &c. A spacious reading-room is attached, and pens, ink, and paper, supplied for making extracts; but no books are allowed to go out. Many days has the writer of this memoir profitably spent in that noble library, where he had access to works which otherwise he could not have consulted. It has been said that recourse has been had to this library by residents in Ireland, during the Romish controversy at Dublin between Pope and Maguire, because of the completeness of the collection there to be found; and we doubt not that many more persons may be glad to avail themselves of the stores found in the Chetham library, who are made aware of its existence, and remember the easy access which can now be had to Manchester. We possess a classed catalogue, which was published in 1794, in two volumes, octavo, to which a third volume has since been added, with. án alphabetical index to the whole. A large collection of the best works is continually added to the Library.

How large and lasting a benefit is conferred upon society by such benefactors as Humphrey Chetham, and by those who administer such munificence as judiciously as the feoffees of his college!

THE LATE REV. T. WHYTEHEAD, M.A., FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLL. CAMBRIDGE, and CHAPLAIN TO BISHOP SELWYN, OF NEW ZEALAND.*

The Church has recently sustained a loss which few are aware of, and which still fewer can appreciate; for, if in the world, still more so in the Church, are the noblest minds often those who have made the least display on the giddy scene of human fame. This makes it still more incumbent on those who knew and who loved "that high-souled young priest beyond the sea," to do what they may, now he is asleep, to crown him with that honour which his deep humility has as yet avoided, and show to the world that the Church of St. Cuthbert and St. Boniface has in these late days furnished

We have long purposed copying from the pages of the English Churchman this affectionate memorial of one so greatly beloved, and so soon removed from that useful labour in the Church below, to which his friends looked forward. We have only to add, that we have seen it stated that after Mr. Whytehead was prevented from exercising his clerical functions, by the calamity which soon produced his death, he" did what he could," by devoting his remaining strength to superintend and aid the studies of those who were preparing for holy orders.-ED.

recruits to the bright legion of confessors, humble and pure and holy and self-denying men, that bore the cross to rough and distant lands, when they might have sat down in ease and honour at home.

Thomas Whytehead was born at Beverley, in 1816, his father having been in holy orders. He was never at any public school; but, in the October term of 1833, began residence at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he soon made proof of his attainments by gaining, in the following spring, the first Bell scholarship (two scholarships annually given, from a donation of Dr. Bell, to clergymen's sons in their first year, after an examination in both classical and mathematical acquirements.) The next year he gained the Hulsean prize, for the best English essay on a given theological subject, a most honourable achievement for an undergraduate, as Bachelors of Arts may contend for that distinction. The subject of his Essay was the Resemblance between Moses and our Blessed Lord. The same year he gained the Chancellor's medal for an English poem, the subject being the Death of his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester. He was successful in the same competition the following year with a poem on the Empire of the Sea; on that occasion heflikewise carried off the Browne Medal for the best Greek and Latin Epigrams. In January 1837, he took his degree of B. A., acquiring a respectable place among the "Senior Optimes.' In Classics he may be reckoned equal as first man of his year, having been second in the first class of the Classical Tripos, and first Chancellor's Medallist, vanquishing the Senior in the Tripos. He was immediately elected a fellow of his college. There he continued in residence till 1840, being in the interval admitted to the diaconate, when he accepted the curacy of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, receiving the priesthood from the Lord Bishop of Winchester. Here, however, he was not long permitted to remain buried in obscurity, as, on the election of the Duke of Northumberland to the Chancellorship of the University of Cambridge, he was appointed to write his Installation Ode. As our readers know, the installation was postponed till 1842, when the Ode was performed at the Senate House while the author was far away earning his confessor's crown in another hemisphere. But we are forestalling. In 1840 he took his degree of M.A., and in the following year resigned his curacy, and returned to residence-but for a few days, as, in the autumn of the same year, he accepted the invitation of the highminded Bishop of New Zealand, to sail with him as his chaplain. On the voyage, when already near Sydney, he broke a blood-vessel-illness ensued -he was obliged to tarry behind at Sydney; at last he sailed again and reached New Zealand, where for a few months he lingered, till, in the beginning of the year 1843, his pure life ended. In the spring of 1842, after he had left his native land, appeared a beautiful volume of poems, the legacy to England and England's Church of her noble son.

Such to the outward world appeared Whytehead, and most honourably; but those who knew him merely as the successful candidate for University honours, and the poet, knew but little of the man. In him were truly fulfilled the beatitudes, for he was meek and merciful, and poor in spirit, and pure of heart, and a peacemaker, and withal stern and resolute in doing whatsoever he thought right. As a friend and a companion he was most delightful-gentle and quiet, ignorant of puritanic pride and moroseness, learned and modest. His conversation flowed on in a mild and melodious stream, enlightened with an ever playful and poetical imagination, and hallowed by a deep and unobtrusive iety. After a residence of several years