There can be no wonder that at the late inquiry the sexton said he "could find three skulls to one man," and that bones were "often dug up," when it is remembered that there has been a parish church standing on the same spot for more than 350 years, and when we find the churchyard contains only three or four graves bearing date no earlier than the close of the last century. All the other graves contain the remains of persons who have died during the present century. Where are all the graves of persons who died in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries ? The churchyard of Chorlton-cum-Hardy has for a long time been a popular burial place with Manchester people, and is now full of them.

One of the most interesting graves in the yard to a Manchester man is that of Thomas Walker, in the southern portion of it. He was a leading man amongst the Liberals of the day, at the close of the last century, and held the office of boroughreeve. His house and warehouse were once attacked by a mob, and in 1794 he was tried for treason ¹, and defended by Erskine ², in one of his greatest speeches. He afterwards resided at Longford Hall, now the residence of Mr. John Rylands. He died in 1817, at the age of sixty-eight years. The grave also contains the remains of his daughters Amelia, Margaret, Louisa, and his wife, who died about in 1821 at the age of seventy-four; and also Charles James Stanley Walker, who died about ten years ago, aged eighty-seven years. He once told me that he remembered when a little boy that his father lived in the last house of South Parade, when the house was attacked by a furious mob, and that he was taken out of harm's way by being carried out at the back of the garden, which extended a long way towards the river. He had a brother Thomas, who was a barrister and a metropolitan police magistrate, and the author of a well known work,'The Original'. He does not appear to have been buried in the family grave.

The yard also contains the remains of the Rev. Dr. Morton, who was the incumbent of the parish at the time of his death in 1842. The remains of the wife of the present rector, the Rev. J.E.Booth, are also to be found buried here. She died in 1872 at the age of thirty-two. A reredos ³ has been erected to her memory by her husband in the new church at Chorlton.

Here also are the remains of Mr. George Greaves, the well-known surgeon, who, during an operation, had the misfortune to prick his hand, and died of blood poisoning in 1860, at the age of sixty-three; and of George Bryson Clarke, and his brother Charles, the latter of whom was a well-known cotton spinner, and a magistrate residing at Oakleigh, now the residence of J.C.Needham. He married the daughter of the Rev. William Birley, a former rector of the parish, and he died in 1870 aged forty-six.

J.T.Slugg, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 5 May 1886

¹ Thomas Walker and five others were tried for conspiracy to overthrow the constitution and government and to aid and assist the French in case they should invade. The evidence proved to be totally false and the witness against him was committed for perjury. See 'Historical Sketches & Personal Recollections of Manchester' by Archibald Prentice (published 1851, republished by Frank Cass & Co Ltd 1970. Out of print but available in the Central Reference Library, Manchester )

² Thomas Erskine was the leading barrister of his day and was later made Lord Chancellor. He defended Thomas Paine for seditious libel for writing the famous politcal work The Rights of Man.

³ a reredos is a screen behind the altar in a church and this one was constructed in marble and stone.