page_title: Thomas Paget (Puritan minister)
section_title: Appointment and ministry
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Paget (Puritan minister) / Manchester / Appointment and ministry
caption_attribution_description: English: Misericord at Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, England.
context_page_description: Thomas Paget was an English Puritan clergyman, controversialist and theologian, committed to a Presbyterian church order. As a minister in Manchester, he was an early opponent of Laudian ceremonies in the Church of England. He served the English Reformed Church, Amsterdam, and later at Shrewsbury was a strong supporter of the regicide and of the republican Commonwealth of England. He spent his final year as rector of Stockport.
context_section_description: Paget's first post was probably at Blackley chapel, which was part of the parish of St Mary's Church, Manchester. This had been a collegiate church in the late Middle Ages, established in 1421 at the instance of Thomas la Warr, 5th Baron De La Warr, who became its first warden, by Henry V and Pope Martin V. Blackley chapel already existed at this time, and had been licensed for use by Roger de la Warr, Thomas's father, in 1360. There were a number of chapels in the parish, generally established initially to provide for the needs of local landowners and their dependents: the Byron family, who held Blackley of the de la Warrs and lived locally, had applied for licences for chapels across their Lancashire estates from the early 15th century. The college was dissolved at the beginning of Edward VI's reign, along with almost all other colleges and chantries in England, but, unlike most of the others, was refounded by Mary I. Whatever its institutional character, St Mary's church continued to hold the advowson of Blackley chapel. Blackley became associated with radical Protestantism in this period. The Marian martyr John Bradford was probably a Blackley man He was certainly strongly influenced by Father Traves or Travis, the minister of Blackley in the mid-16th century.
  Paget was described as curate of Blackley in the Liber cleri or canonical visitation report for 1620 and as lecturer two years later. However, he was appointed well before this, although clearly not as early as 1603, or even 1600, which some sources give, basing this on the earliest possible date attributable to a "platform" or plan of the chapel in which a Mr Paget is mentioned. Throughout the 16th century he chapel was probably regarded as the private oratory of the Byron family, who lived still locally. However, the Byrons moved away and began to sell off their property. On 16 May 1611 a group of interested parties, headed by Sir John Byron of Newstead Abbey, sold the chapel and its environs to three trustees, John Cudworth, James Chetham and Edmund Howarth, to provide a place of worship for local people. The deed provided that the purchasers and their heirs
  shall and will at all times for ever hereafter permit and suffer all and every the inhabitants, tenants or farmers of any messuage, lands, tenements, or other hereditaments in Blakeley aforesaid, their heirs and assigns, and every of them which have agreed, purchas'd, or hereafter shall agree and purchase any messuages, lands, tenements or other hereditaments in Blakeley aforesaid to have and enjoy the said chappel, chappel yard, chamber, and garden, and all other premises with the appurtenances, as well for the saying and hearing Divine Service as for any other necessary and convenient purposes at the wills and pleasures of such inhabitants, tenants or farmers, their heirs and assigns as aforesaid...
  The chapel was not the only property disposed of by the Byrons that day: a farm was sold for £70 to John Jackson, whose family name occurs on the chapel plan.
  1611 coincides with the period when the recently graduated and ordained Paget would have been seeking a post, and he seems to have been the first settled minister after the chapel became a fully public place of worship. He was recruited by William Bourne, a fellow of St Mary's, Manchester, who was particularly interested in ensuring a good supply of ministers at the outlying chapels. A permanent post allowed Paget to marry. He had family and social connections at Nantwich, where his brother John had served as rector and married before being forced to emigrate to the Dutch Republic. Thomas married Margery Gouldsmith at St Mary's Church, Nantwich on 6 April 1613. The first child of the marriage, Nathan, was baptised at Manchester on 31 March 1615.
  Paget's income was drawn from the pew rents and offerings of his congregation. The rent was due in quarterly instalments, as an episcopal confirmation of 1631 makes clear: the collection dates were Christmas (25 December), Annunciation (25 June), John the Baptist's Day (24 June) and Michaelmas (29 September). 
caption: Misericord at Manchester Cathedral, originally the Collegiate Church, which had numerous chapels in the surrounding region.
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