Borough;
Derby : Printed by Sam. Drewry in the | Market PUue^ 1741*
\ Price Sixpetue.\
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HISTORY OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN DERBYSHIRE. 151
From this list we leam that the Drewrys were not enrolled
Burigesses, their names not appearing upon the roll. The following
names occur : Samuel Fox, San;iuel Trimer, Jeremiah Roe, and
John Sanders, booksellers, and John Wheeldon, printer. The
latter was probably a journeyman of Drewry's, as his name does
not occur on any printed matter yet inspected.
Samuel Drewry died in 1769. The event is thus recorded in
the Derby Mercury of August nth.
*' Early on Monday morning last died, much lamented by his friends, Mr.
Samuel Drewry, upwards of 38 years Printer of this Paper. The Business
will be carried on as usual at the same place by his nephew, Mr. John Drewry,
who has had the principal management of it for some years past.'*
Following the custom prevalent at that time, the new proprietor
prefixed his name to the heading of the journal thus — ** Drewry's
Derby Mercury ;" and his personal care in the compilation and
selection of news became instantly apparent The books we have
met with from his press are also distinguished for their accuracy
and beauty ; the " letter " is sharply cut and bold, the ornamenta-
tion tasteful, and the paper good. For examples we may take the
following : —
(1) POEMS I ON I Several Occasions | by | W. WOTY | Minumtur
aira \ Carmine \ Cura, Hor. | Derby : | Printed for the Author, by J.
Drewry, | m,dcc,lxxx, | Koyal Svo, pp. 174.
The title is within a border, and there are several head and
tail-pieces, composed of metal " flowers," combined in groups,
which display great taste and ingenuity.
[The first, or ** Kilmarnock," edition of Burns' Poems, pub-
lished six years later, in 1786, is so remarkably like the above
work in technical details, that I cannot help thinking the Derby
printer's work served as a model for John Wilson of Kilmarnock.]
(2) A View | of the | PRESENT STATE | of | DERBYSHIRE : |
WITH AN ACCOUNT | OF ITS MOST REMARKABLE | ANTIQUITIES |
ILLUSTRATED BY | AN ACCURATE MAP AND PLATES. | In two
volumes j By James Pilkington. | Derby: Printed and Sold by J.
Drewry : | Sold also by &c. | m,dcc,lxxxix. | 2 vols. Deihy 8w.
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152 HISTORY OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN DERBYSHIRE.
For this work the Author was adjudged a prize of 25 guineas
by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts ; it was re-issued
with a new title-page in 1803, and is still held in estimation.
The last work which he issued was —
(3) A I MISCELLANEOUS SELECTION | OF | RELIGIOUS AND MORAL |
QUOTATIONS | in Prose and Verse, | By SAMUEL DAVENPORT^
Minister of HoRSLEY | quot. | Derby : | Printed by J. Drewry, —
M,DCC,xciii. Demy 8wi>. pp. 146.
There is a list of subscribers to this work numbering nearly 350
names of the principal inhabitants of the town and county of
Derby, and the edition probably ran to 500 copies, yet my own is
the only one I ever recollect seeing.
This energetic printer died on Sept. 3otJi, 1794, in the 55th
year of his age, and was, in turn, succeeded by his nephew, who,
in the following issue of the Derby Mercury^ adopted for the first
time the title ** Editor," which, in our own day, serves to distinguish
conductors of newspapers and other compilations from the actual
proprietors and publishers.
•* Derby, October 9lh, 1794.
The Editor of this paper takes the earliest opportunity of respect-
fully informing the Public, that he has succeeded his late uncle (Mr. Drewry)
in the business of printing, bookselling, stationery, &c.
• • • « •
Signed, John Drewry.
The staple business carried on from this time^ in conjunction
with the newspaper, seems to have been the publication of chap-
books* and school-books, many of which are embellished with
comical cuts. Bewick engraved some of these; a mail-coach,
the Borough Arms in the heading of the Derby Mercury^ and some
other insignificant blocks used in thai newspaper were certainly
the work of this great artist.
* Some of these were coarsely humorous, and the printer does not seem to
have been proud of them, the imprint running " London : Printed for the
Booksellers, * although, comparison with others known to have emanated from
Drewry*s press, satisfies me that they were printed at Derby. I have several
copies o{ Jack Homer, which have never been in circulation, finom which the
name of the printer has been designedly cut away.
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HISTORY OF THfe PRINTING PRESS IN DERBYSHIRE. I S3
Our associate, Mr. Cooling, jun. (whose courtesy in ransacking
for me his unique collection of Derbyshire books I gratefully
acknowledge) has a large Bible, the title of which runs thus : —
An I ILLUSTRATION | oF the | ^(1^%^ ]SSlSSr<0 |
Containing | the Sacred Texts | of the | Old Testament and | THE
NEW ; I Together with | The Apocrypha | Derby : | Printed by Thomas
Paget Trimer | m.dcc^lxxxvi.
This copy has only a frontispiece, . but Mr. Cooling has
collected several loose plates, *• Engraved for Trimer's Family
Bible." There are separate titles and leaves of "Order of the
Books, &c.*' to the three books; the text begins with Numb, i,
on signature B, and ends with Numb. 132, signature M in the
1 2th alphabet; the notes are at the foot, and on blank spaces
at the end of four books of the Old Testament, a fairly executed
block of the Arms of the Borough of Derby, in a floriated shield,
is impressed ; and the block may have been used by the printer
for the purpose of giving a local " colour " to the production. But
Mr. William Bemrose has referred me to —
Political Attempts | consisting of | An Allegorical Poem in blank
Verse | entitled | the j SCIENCES | an | ODE to PLEASURE | and | some
other Pieces. | Derby : | Printed for the Author by T. Trimmer, 1783, |
and sold by J. Wallis, No. 16, Ludgate St | London : and all other Book-
sellers in Town and Country | (Price Two Shillings.) | 4to 18 leaves.
I suppose this printer must be identical with Thomas Paget
Trimer, but of this my readers must judge for themselves. In
1784, I findT. P. Trimer's shop in the Irongate, Derby; he
seems to have been chiefly a dealer in music and musical instru>
ments, and his advertisement makes no reference whatever to
printing. In 1785, however, this advertisement occurs in the
Derby Mercury: —
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154 HISTORY OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN DERBYSHIRE.
TRIMERS FAMILY BIBLE.
THE Publisher of the above Work wishes to
express his most grateful Acknowledgements
to his Subscribers for their Encouragement and Sup-
port, and informs them that the Whole of the remaining
Numbers will be published by the 20th instant :
he will therefore consider it an additional Obligation
if they will complete their Books as early as possible.
A list of agents in various towns follows. The illustrations
had previously appeared in an edition of the Bible bearing the
following imprint : —
BIRMINGHAM:
Printed by JOHN BASKERVILLE,
MDCCLXIX.
The floriated Gothic letters on the title-page are the same as in
Baskerville's Bible. I have compared Mr. Cooling's copy with the
Family Bible of my maternal great-grandfather, John Campion,
(a ** Baskerville," of 1769), and am quite certain that the much-
canvassed ** Derby Bible " had a Birmingham origin, the copper-
plate being perfectly unmistakable.
In the second town of Derbyshire, the Borough of Chesterfield,
I have found no earlier printed publication than the following : —
A I PARAPHRASE | or the | 38th CHAPTER of
JOB. I pauh majora canamus. |
ViRG. I
Chesterfield : — Printed by J. Bradley, 1778. |
8 leaves, quarto (Signatures A to D, in twos, pp. 16, including title).
This, I think, is rare, Dr. Cotton only mentions one copy.
Lea Wilson's {Editions of the Bible or Farts Thereof 1852, 8vo.
p. loi). The author is not known to me. Of the printer I
gather from the Nottingham Journal of November 29th, 1790,
that about that time " Mr. Bradley, Printer at Chesterfield, in
Derbyshire, who is appointed Post-Master of that place, has taken
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HISTORY OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN DERBYSHIRE. 155
the Oaths and entered upon the Office." He was also an alder-
man of the Corporation of Chesterfield, and died in February,
1798.
The following tract, although not printed in Chesterfield, is too
curious to be overlooked.
"Strange and Terrible News from Chesterfield in Darbyshire: Being A
foil and true Relation of a horrible and terrible Ghost that was visibly seen on
Sunday the 24th of Jan. 1674. First in the Shape of a Dog, then a Woman,
and afterwards a Man. Together with the Discovery of some Money that was
hidden by Him in his Life time.
{Richard Hobbs, Constable.
James Knit, Constable.
Joseph Wilson, Church- Warden.
Mr. Down, Gentleman.
London : Printed in the Year, 1675. 4to., 4 leaves."
I have records of the following extinct newspapers printed in
Chesterfield : — The Chesterfield Gazette and Scarsdaie and High
Peak Advertiser^ a high-class journal which was first published
on January 6th, 1828, by J. Roberts, of the Post Office. In the
following year its title was altered to The Derbyshire Courier.
(2) The Derbyshire Patriot^ or Repository of Politics, News^
Literature, 6-^., th^ first number of which appeared on the 4th
May, 1833, with the imprint of Thomas Ford, Irongate. It con-
tained twenty pages, 4to, was unstamped, and sold for sixpence.
Informations under the Stamp Act having been laid against the
publisher, the paper was discontinued after two numbers only had
been issued.
The Belper press does not appear to have been established
until the beginning of the present century. In 1811, S. Mason
printed A New Vieiv of Derbyshire, 8vo., for David Peter Davies,
a Unitarian Minister, living at Makeney. The typography is bad
and the paper worse ; Lowndes says there were copies on " fine
paper.'* I have seen copies divided into two volumes, with
separate title-pages, but have never noticed any variation in the
size or quality of the paper. On July 9th, 1813, appeared the
first number of The Derbyshire Chronicle^ and Universal Weekly
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I
156 aiSTORT OF THE PRINTING PRESS IN DERBYSHIRE^
Advertiser, edited by the said Mr. Davies, and printed in Belper
by Mason. It only existed a few months.
A press is said to have been at work in Castleton in 1760, but
I have no evidence of this.
The History of Derbyshire Printing in the eighteenth centuiy
is here concluded ; to cany it further would be an encroach-
ment upon the space allotted to me ; but I hope at some future
time, and in another form, to complete this imperfect sketch.
{All rifkts rwserved.)
>
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157
Sottw a«ottnt of tfit iFawag of Hotoe, of
SltrtriDaslfs antr I9(ti$s, in tl^e Counts
of litth^, anlr el»etof>ere*
By Major A, E. Lawson Lowe, F.S.A.
|HE Lowes of Alderwasley and the
Lowes of Denby, on<ie two of
the leading families in Derby-
shire, were of Cheshire origin, and are
stated to have sprung from two brothers,
both of whom married Derbyshire heir-
esses in the latter part of the fifteenth
century.
A number of charters recently * brought to light have done
much to elucidate the earlier descents of the family, and have
sufficiently proved that portion of the pedigree which has
hitherto been looked upon as obscure if not altoge^er
fallacious.t
L
* For much of the information contained in the first portion of this paper
the writer is indebted to J. P. Earwaker, Esq., F.S.A., the historian of ** East
Cheshire,** by whom many of the above-mentioned charters were first brought
to his notice.
t An old emblazoned pedigree in the possession of the Hurt family, entitled
" Slenunata et propagationes antic^use familiae dignissimi viri Edwardi Lowe
de Alderwasley in Comitatu Darbise, Armigeri,*' commences with Thomas,
who died in 141 5, and was the father of Geoffrey, whose son married the
eldest co-heiress of Fawne, and settled at Alderwasley. The authority for
this was evidently unknown to Adam Wolley, the Derbyshire antiquary, who
added the following note to his copy of the pedigree : ** These two first
descents are not proved by any evidences in Mr. Hurt's possession ; ** and it
is quite clear that no such proof was forthcoming at the time of the Visitations,
for the pedigrees of the Lowes of Alderwasley, given by the heralds, are not
carried back beyond Thomas Lowe, who married the co*heiress of Fawne.
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158 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF LOWE.
The name is obviously one of local origin. HUtw, hlaw^ or
low is the Anglo-Saxon word for a small hill, of the use of
which not a few examples are to be found in Derbyshire and
elsewhere, .\boiit two miles from Congleton there is an ancient
timbered mansion standing upon a gentle eminence called The
Lowe,* which is traditionally recognised as occupying the site
of the original residence of the family, and as the place from
whence the surname was derived. There is, however, no
documentary evidence to connect the family with that place,
and so early as the latter half of the fourteenth century, the
Lowes are found to have resided in the neighboiurhood of
Macclesfield.
The first of the family of whom we have any specific record
are William del Lowe and Thomas del Lowe, both of Macclesfield,
and presumably brothers. William del Lowe, who is assumed
to have been the elder, was living in 1392, when a tenement
of his in Jordan's Gate in Macclesfield is referred to in the
statement of a boundary. He was dead in 1398, when his
widow, Elena del Lowe, of BoUington (a neighbouring village),
free from all claims of matrimony, quit-claimed land in
**le Walle gate'* in Macclesfield, which was formerly held by
Roger le Mulner, her uncle, and which she herself held by the
gift of Thomas, son of the said Roger. In 1402, Thomas
del Lowe, son of William del Lowe, of Macclesfield, conceded
to John de Macclesfield, the elder, clerk, all the lands in
Macclesfield which he had by the gift of Thomas, son of Roger
le Mulner. Five years later, this same Thomas del Lowe,
and Matilda his wife granted certain rents to the said John
de Macclesfield ; and in July, 1407, they together surrendered
lands in the Portmote Court of Macclesfield. In 1426, at a
court of the Mayor of Macclesfield, held there before John de
Legh, Mayor of that town, on the Friday next before the feast
* Adam Wolley, speaks of La Lowe, in the chapelry of Witton, as the
ancient seat of the family, and the statement has been copied by several
subsequent writers. But there does not appear to have ever been any such
place, and the family did not settle in that part of Cheshire until aArr the
middle of the fifteenth century.
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SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF LOWE. ,159
of St. Chad the Bishop, Thomas del Lowe came into the full
Court, and there before the said Mayor, John de Button,
Reginald del Downes, Stephen del Rowe, Stephen Blagge,
John del Lowe, Richard Phelipp, William de Clayton, servant
of the said Mayor, Vivian Starkey, clerk, and many others who
were present; and the said Thomas del Lowe, being duly
sworn upon the Holy Evangelists, declared that he stood in
full possession of all the lands, tenements, rents, and services
in Macclesfield and elsewhere, which had descended to him
upon thje death of William del Lowe, his father, without any
alienation whatever, excepting the annual rent of two shillings
from the half burgage lying between the tenement of John de
Rossyndale on the one side and that of Geoffrey del lx)we on
the other, which rent the said Thomas del Lowe and Matilda
his wife had granted to the said Geoffrey del Lowe, as by
their charter more fully appeared. In 1436, Thomas del Lowe,
who is obviously identical with the one in question, was
examined at Macclesfield in the " proof of age " of Peter de
Legh, of Lyme, and is then described as being sixty years of
age. This would give 1376 as the date of his birth. This
same Thomas del I^we occurs as Mayor of Macclesfield.
1430-1, 1438-9, 1439-40, i443-4» (?)» and 1448-9. Whether
he left issue is doubtful. William del Lowe, his father, had
another son, John del Lowe, whose name occurs as a witness
to several charters, and who has already been referred to as
one of those persons present at the Manorial Court of the
Mayor of Macclesfield, in 1426. It appears from the Chester
Ministers' Accounts that John del Lowe, the son of William
del Lowe, was Chamberlain of Middlewich in the first and
second years of the reign of King Henry IV., and again in
the two following years. John del Lowe was likewise deputy
clerk and approver of mills on the river Dee, in 1406, as
appears from the Cheshire Recognizance Rolls.*
* He is perhaps likewise identical with John de Lowe, who ¥ras com-
missioned by Henry, Prince of Wales, as one of the justices of gaol deliveiv
for the castle of Chester, on the ist of August, 1406, and again on the 28th
of September that same year.
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l6o SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF LOWE.
Thomas del Lowe, the elder, from whom the Derbyshire
families of Lowe derived their descent,* and whom we have
conjectured to have been the younger brother of William del
Lowe, occurs as a witness to a charter in 1407, and was the
father of that Geoffrey del Lowe referred to in the proceedings
of the Manorial Court of Macclesfield in 1426, already quoted.
According to an old pedigree, a copy of which is to be found
amongst the WoUey MSS. in the British Museuni,t this Thomas
del Lowe died at Macclesfield at eleven o'clock at night, on
the loth of February, 141 5. Geofiftey del Lowe, his son and
heir, is stated on the same authority to have married Margaret,
daughter of [Sir Peter?] Legh, of Lyme, in the County of
Chester. This marriage is not given in any of the various
pedigrees of that family, but there is no particular reason for
doubting the accuracy of the statement.^ By a charter, dated
at Macclesfield the Saturday next after the feast of St Kenelm,
King and Martyr, in the seventeenth year of the reign of
King Henry VI. (this would be in July, 1439), John Rossyndale,
the elder, and John Rossyndale the younger, his son and
heir, remitted and quit-claimed for ever to Geoffrey del Lowe,
of Macclesfield, and his heirs, all their claims and title to
certain lands and tenements of the said Geoffrey del Lowe,
situated in " le Dedestrete " in the town of Macclesfield. The
witnesses to this charter were Thomas del Lowe, then Mayor
of Macclesfield, Stephen del Rowe, Alderman, Roger de
Falybrorae, Thomas Davy, Provost of the said town, Lawrence
Blagg, and many others. Geoffrey del Lowe is stated to have
died at Macclesfield on the Monday in the third week of
Lent, 1451, between the hours of six and seven in the morn-
ing. His widow survived him for about three years, dying on
* A pedigree of the Lowes of Alderwasley and Denby, compiled by the
writer, may be found in "The Reliquary/' vol. 12, plate 34. One or two
corrections are requisite in the first three generations.
t Add. MSS. 6666, p. 137.
t She may not improbably have been the daughter of that Sir Peter Legh,
of Lyme, who fought at Agincourt, where he was created a Knight-Banneret,
and whose arms are carved upon the tower of Macclesfield Churdi. If so she
had been previously married to Nicholas Blundell.
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SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF LOWE. l6l
the Sunday before the feast of the Annunciation, 1454. They
appear to have had issue five (if not six) sons, all of whom are
named in contemporary charters.
By a charter dated in 1453, certain lands in Pexall (a small
township about three miles from Macclesfield), were granted by
John Hough, of Pexall, and Nicholas Hough, of the City of
Oxford, to Laurence del Lowe, son of Geoffrey del Lowe, of
Macclesfield, who reconveyed the same to George del Lowe, his
younger brother. This George, who was living in 1472, as
appears from a charter of Thomas del Lowe, his brother, which
will subsequently be referred to, had no male issue, and Margaret,
his only daughter and heiress, became the wife of William
Swetenham, of Somerford Booths, in or about the year 1479, and
canied certain lands in Pexall, Bollington, and Macclesfield, into
the Swetenham family. According to a fine old emblazoned
pedigree in Somerford Booths Hall, wherein the arms of Sweten-
ham appear, impaling Gules^ two wolves passant argent — the
ancient arms of Lowe — this Margaret Swetenham was living a
widow in 1491. Previous to 1473, t^e Lowes had quitted
Macclesfield and were seated in the neighbourhood of Northwich,
as is seen from a charter, dated September the ist, in that year,
whereby William Coton, of the town of Derby, Peter del Lowe,
of Northwyche, John Halyn, ** preste " of Wytton, Thomas del
Lowe, William del Lowe, and Laurence del Lowe, all of the same
place, testified that they were witnesses to a certain charter
whereby Thomas Whytington, of Belper, in the County of Derby,
and Margery, his wife, granted a messuage and seven acres of
land in that place to John Whytington, their eldest son. As will
subsequently be shown, the Thomas del Lowe of this charter
became the ancestor of the Lowes of Alderwasley ; Laurence del
Lowe was ancestor of the Lowes of Denby ; and either from
Peter or William del Lowe sprang what, so far as can be ascer-
tained, is now the sole existing branch of the family.*
• A branch of the family who were descended either from Peter del Lowe
or his brother William (more probably the latter), continued for some genera-
tions at Hartford, a township in the immediate vicinity of Northwich. This
12
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l62
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF LOWE.
Assuming that William del Lowe and Thomas del Lowe, the
elder, were brothers (and the supposition is really immaterial) the
earlier descents of the family would be as follows : —
,.del Lowe=
William del Lowe, = Elena, niece of
of Macclesfield ;
living 1392 ; dead
in 1398.
Roger le Mulner ;
a widow in 1398.
Thomas del Lowe, =
of Macclesfield ;
died in 141 5.
I I
Thomas del Lowe, = Matilda. John del Lowe ;
an Aldennan of living in 1407.
Macclesfield ; born
in 1376 ; living in
1448-9.
Geoffrey del Lowe, = Margaret,
dau. of
Sir Peter
Legh, of
Lyme.
of Macclesfield ;
died in 145 1.
11 II I
Peter. Thomas, ancestor William. Lawrence, ancestor George,
of the Lmves of of the Lowes of ob, s. p. m,
AlderuMsley, Detiby and Locko.
The above-named Thomas Lowe (for it should be remarked
that from about this time the family wrote their name simply Lowe
without the prefix), acquired a considerable estate through his
marriage with Joane, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Thomas
Fawne, of Alderwasley, which, according to the old pedigree
previously quoted, was solemnised on the 23rd of November,
147 1. By their charter, dated on the Monday next after the Feast
of the Purification, in the eleventh year of King Edward the IV.
(February, 1472), Thomas Lowe and Joane his wife together
granted and confirmed to Lawrence Lowe and George Lowe,
brothers of the said Thomas, and to Humphrey Lowe, Ottiwell
township is situated in the ancient chapel ry of Witton, and wiihin the last
three centuries at least twenty-five members of this branch of the family have
been interred in Witton Church, as appears from the registers. Unfortunately,
that church was re-paved some years since, and not a single inscription to the
Lowes, or, indeed, any other family, escaped destruction. Robert Lowe, a
younger son of John Lowe, of Hartford, purchased the impropriate rectory and
perpetual advowson of Middlewjch from Lord Brereton in 1663, and settled at
Newton Hall, near that place, which is still in the possession of his descendants
in ihe female line ; whilst from John Lowe, his younger brother, are descended
the Lowes, of Highfield, in Nottinghamshire, now represented by Edward
Joseph Lowe, Esq.. J. P., and D.L., of Highfield, and of Shirenewton Hall>
in the County of Monmouth. Vide Ormerod's ** History of Cheshire^^"^ 2nd
edit., vol. iii , p. 182 ; and Burke's ** Landed Gentry^'^ 6th edit , vol. ii , p. 991.
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SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF LOWE. 1 63
Lowe, and Brian Lowe, sons of the said Lawrence, to Roger
Hulme, rector of Astbury in Cheshire, and to Geoffrey Davy,
rector of Swetenham in the same county, to Richard Newton and