Macclesfield
MACCLESFIELD, a market town and municipal borough in the Macclesfield parliamentary division of Cheshire, England, 166 m. N.W. by N. of London, on the London & North- Western, North Staffordshire and Great Central railways. Pop. (1901), 34,624. It lies on and above the small river Bollin, the valley of which is flanked by high ground to east and west, the eastern hills rising sharply to heights above 1000 ft. The bleak upland country retains its ancient name of Macclesfield Forest. The church of St Michael, standing high, was founded by Eleanor, queen of Edward I., in 1278, and in 1740 was partly rebuilt and greatly enlarged. The lofty steeple by which its massive tower was formerly surmounted was battered down by the Parliamentary forces during the Civil War. Connected with the church there are two chapels, one of which, Rivers Chapel, belonged to a college of secular priests founded in 1501 by Thomas Savage, afterwards archbishop of York. Both the church and chapels contain several ancient monuments. The free grammar school, originally founded in 1502 by Sir John Percival, was refounded in 1552 by Edward VI., and a commercial school was erected in 1840 out of its funds. The county lunatic asylum is situated here. The town-hall is a handsome modern building with a Grecian frontage on two sides. Originally the trade of Macclesfield was principally in twist and silk buttons, but this has developed into the manufacture of all kinds of silk. Besides this staple trade, there are various textile manufactures and extensive breweries; while stone and slate quarries, as well as coal-mines, are worked in the neighbourhood. Recreation grounds include Victoria Park and Peel Park, in which are preserved the old market cross and stocks. Water communication is provided by the Macclesfield canal. The borough is under a mayor, 12 aldermen and 36 councillors. Area, 3214 acres. The populous suburb of SUTTON, extending S.S.E. of the town, is partly included in the borough.
Previous to the Conquest, Macclesfield (Makesfeld, Mackerfeld, Macclesfeld, Meulefeld, Maxfield) was held by Edwin, earl of Mercia, and at the time of the Domesday Survey it formed a part of the lands of the earl of Chester. The entry speaks of seven hedged enclosures, and there is evidence of fortification in the 13th century, to which the names Jordangate, Chestergate and Wallgate still bear witness. In the 15th century Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, had a fortified manor-house here, traces of which remain. There is a tradition, supported by a reference on a plea roll, that Randle, earl of Chester (1181-1232) made Macclesfield a free borough, but the earliest charter extant is that granted by Edward, prince of Wales and earl of Chester, in 1261, constituting Macclesfield a free borough with a merchant gild, and according certain privileges in the royal forest of Macclesfield to the burgesses. This charter was confirmed by Edward III. in 1334, by Richard II. in 1389, by Edward IV. in 1466 and by Elizabeth in 1564. In 1595 Elizabeth issued a new charter to the town, confirmed by James I. in 1605 and Charles II. in 1666, laying down a formal borough constitution under a mayor, 2 aldermen, 24 capital burgesses and a high steward. In 1684 Charles II. issued a new charter, under which the borough was governed until the Municipal Reform Act 1835. The earliest mention of a market is in a grant by James I. to Charles, prince of Wales and earl of Chester, in 1617. In the charter of 1666 a M'CLINTOCK, SIR F. L. M'CLURE market is included among the privileges confirmed to the borough as those which had been granted in 1605, or by any previous kings and queens of England. The charter of Elizabeth in 1 595 granted an annual fair in June, and this was supplemented by Charles II. in 1684 by a grant of fairs in April and September. Except during the three winter months fairs are now held monthly, the chief being " Barnaby " in June, when the town keeps a week's holiday. Macclesfield borough sent two members to parliament in 1832 for the first time. In 1880 it was disfranchised for bribery, and in 1885 the borough was merged in the county division of Macclesfield. The manufacture of silkcovered buttons began in the 16th century, and flourished until the early i8th. The first silk mill was erected about 1755, and silk manufacture on a large scale was introduced about 1790. The manufacture of cotton began in Macclesfield about 1785. See J. Corry, History of Macclesfield (1817).
M'CLINTOCK, SIR FRANCIS LEOPOLD (1819-1907), British naval officer and Arctic explorer, was born at Dundalk, Ireland, on the 8th of July 1819, of a family of Scottish origin. In 1831 he entered the royal navy, joining the " Samarang " frigate, Captain Charles Paget. In 1843 he passed his examination for lieutenancy and joined the " Gorgon " steamship, Captain Charles Hotham, which was driven ashore at Montevideo and salved, a feat of seamanship on the part of her captain and officers which attracted much attention. Hitherto, and until 1847, M'Clintock's service was almost wholly on the American coasts, but in 1848 he joined the Arctic expedition under Sir James Ross in search of Sir John Franklin's ships, as second lieutenant of the " Enterprise." In the second search expedition (1850) he was first lieutenant of the " Assistance," and in the third (1854) he commanded the " Intrepid." On all these expeditions M'Clintock carried out brilliant sleigh journeys, and gained recognition as one of the highest authorities on Arctic travel. The direction which the search should follow had at last been learnt from the Eskimo, and M'Clintock accepted the command of the expedition on board the " Fox," fitted out by Lady Franklin in 1857, which succeeded in its object in 1859 (see FRANKLIN, SIR JOHN). For this expedition M'Clintock had obtained leave of absence, but the time occupied was afterwards counted in his service. He was knighted and received many other honours on his return. Active service now occupied him in various tasks, including the important one of sounding in the north Atlantic, in connexion with a scheme for a north Atlantic cable route, until 1868. In that year he became naval aide- decamp to Queen Victoria. In 1865 he had been elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He unsuccessfully contested a seat in parliament for the borough of Drogheda, where he made the acquaintance of Annette Elizabeth, daughter of R. F. Dunlop of Monasterboice; he married her in 1870. He became viceadmiral in 1877, and commander-in-chief on the West Indian and North American station in 1879. In 1882 he was elected an Elder Brother of Trinity House, and served actively in that capacity. In 1891 he was created K.C.B. He was one of the principal advisers in the preparations for the Antarctic voyage of the " Discovery " under Captain Scott. His book, The Voyage of the " Fox " in the Arctic Seas, was first published in 1859, and passed through several editions. He died on the 17th of November 1907.
See Sir C. R. Markham, Life of Admiral Sir Leopold M'Clintock (1909).
McCLINTOCK, JOHN (1814-1870), American Methodist Episcopal theologian and educationalist, was born in Philadelphia on the 27th of October 1814. He graduated at the university of Pennsylvania in 1835, and was assistant professor of mathematics (1836-1837), professor of mathematics (1837- 1840), and professor of Latin and Greek (1840-1848) in Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He opposed the Mexican War and slavery, and in 1847 was arrested on the charge of instigating a riot, which resulted in the rescue of several fugitive slaves; his trial, in which he was acquitted, attracted wide attention. In 1848-1856 he edited The Methodist Quarterly Ranew (after 1885 The Methodist Review); from 1857 to 1860 he was pastor of St Paul's (Methodist Episcopal) Church, New York City; and in 1860-1864 he had charge of the American chapel in Paris, and there and in London did much to turn public opinion in favour of the Northern States. In 1865-1866 he was chairman of the central committee for the celebration of the centenary of American Methodism. He retired from the regular ministry in 1865, but preached in New Brunswick, New Jersey, until the spring of 1867, and in that year, at the wish of its founder, Daniel Drew, became president of the newly established Drew theological seminary at Madison, New Jersey, where he died on the 4th of March 1870. A great preacher, orator and teacher, and a remarkably versatile scholar, McClintock by his editorial and educational work probably did more than any other man to raise the intellectual tone of American Methodism, and, particularly, of the American Methodist clergy. He introduced to his denomination the scholarly methods of the new German theology of the day not alone by his translation with Charles E. Blumenthal of Neander's Life of Christ (1847), and of Bungener's History of the Council of Trent (1855), but by his great project, McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature (10 vols., 1867-1881; Supplement, 2 vols., 1885-1887), in the editing of which he was associated with Dr James Strong (1822-1894), professor of exegetical theology in the Drew Theological Seminary from 1868 to 1893, and the sole editor of the last six volumes of the Cyclopaedia and of the supplement. With George Richard Crooks (1822-1897), his colleague at Dickinson College and in 1880-1897 professor of historical theology at Drew Seminary, McClintock edited several elementary textbooks in Latin and Greek (of which some were republished in Spanish), based on the pedagogical principle of " imitation and constant repetition." Among McClintock's other publications are: Sketches of Eminent Methodist Ministers (1863); an edition of Richard Watson's Theological Institutes (1851); and The Life and Letters of Rev. Stephen Olin (1854).
See G. R. Crooks, Life and Letters of the Rev. Dr John McClintock (New York, 1876).
McCLOSKEY, JOHN (1810-1885), American cardinal, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on the 20th of March 1810. He graduated at Mt St Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, in 1827, studied theology there, was ordained a priest in 1834, and in 1837, after two years in the college of the Propaganda at Rome, became rector of St Joseph's, New York City, a charge to which he returned in 1842 after one year's presidency of St John's College (afterwards Fordham University), Fordham, New York, then just opened. In 1844 he was .consecrated bishop of Axieren in partibus, and was made coadjutor to Bishop Hughes of New York with the right of succession; in 1847 he became bishop of the newly created see of Albany; and in 1864 he succeeded to the archdiocese of New York, then including New York, New Jersey, and New England. In April 1875 he was invested as a cardinal, with the title of Sancta Maria supra Minervam, being the first American citizen to receive this dignity. He attended the conclave of 1878, but was too late to vote for the new pope. In May 1879 he dedicated St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, whose corner-stone had been laid by Archbishop Hughes in 1858. Archbishop Corrigan became his coadjutor in 1880 because of the failure of McCloskey's always delicate health. The fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood was celebrated in 1884. He died in New York City on the roth of October 1885. He was a scholar, a preacher, and a man of affairs, temperamentally quiet and dignified; and his administration* differed radically from that of Archbishop Hughes; he was conciliatory rather than polemic and controversial, and not only built up the Roman Catholic Church materially, but greatly changed the tone of public opinion in his diocese toward the Church.
M'CLURE, SIR ROBERT JOHN LE MESURIER (1807-1873), English Arctic explorer, born at Wexford, in Ireland, on the 28th of January 1807, was the posthumous son of one of Abercrombie's captains and spent his childhood under the care of his godfather, General Le Mesurier, governor of Alderney, by MAcCOLL MAcCORMAC whom he was educated for the army. He entered the navy, however, in 1824, and twelve years later gained his first experience of Arctic exploration as mate of the " Terror " in the expedition (1836-1837) commanded by Captain (afterwards Sir) George Back. On his return he obtained his commission as lieutenant, and from 1838 to 1839 served on the Canadian lakes, being subsequently attached to the North American and West Indian naval stations, where he remained till 1846. Two years later he joined the Franklin search expedition (1848-1849) under Sir J. C. Ross as first lieutenant of the " Enterprise," and on the return of this expedition was given the command of the " Investigator " in the new search expedition (1850-1854) which was sent out by way of Bering Strait to co-operate with another from the north-west. In the course of this voyage he achieved the distinction of completing (1850) the work connected with the disco very of a North- West Passage (see POLAR REGIONS) . On his return to England, M'Clure was awarded gold medals by the English and French geographical societies, was knighted and promoted to post-rank, his commission being dated back four years in recognition of his special services. From 1856 to 1 86 1 he served in Eastern waters, commanding the division of the naval brigade before Canton in 1858, for which he received a C.B.in the following year. His latter years were spent in a quiet country life; he attained the rank of rear-admiral in 1867, and of vice-admiral in 1873.
See Admiral Sherard Osborn, The Discovery of a North-West Passage (1856).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
