Parishes

"Ancient Parishes" of Chester are the group of parishes that existed roughly within the period of 1200–1800. Initially, the ancient parishes had only an ecclesiastical function, but reforms initiated by King Henry VIII, developed by Queen Elizabeth I and expanded by later legislation led them to acquire various secular functions that eventually led to a split between the ecclesiastical parishes and the purely civil parishes that exist today.

Administration
Each such ecclesiastical parish was administered by a parish priest, specifically Rector, Vicar or Perpetual Curate depending on if the original set up of the rectory had become lay or disappropriated meaning its medieval rectorial property rights sold or bestowed on another body such as an abbey. In the Church of England, the legal right to appoint or recommend a parish priest is called an advowson, and its possessor is known as a patron. Each such right in each parish was mainly first held by the lord of the principal manor. The creation of an advowson was a secondary development arising from the process of creating parishes across England in the 11th and 12th centuries, with their associated parish churches. A major impetus to this development was the legal exaction of agricultural tithes specific to the support of churches and their clergy; landowners needed to establish parish churches on their lands in order to retain tithe income within their estates, and to this purpose sought to raise former field churches to parish church status. This was generally performed by a lord of a manor by rebuilding a church within the boundary of his manor, or within that of a newly subinfeudated manor, and then transferring proprietary rights of certain individual named fields, mills or messuages (i.e. houses on the manor which earned rents) to establish a glebe.

The lord of the manor, having incurred a very great expense in building the church and parsonage and having suffered a loss of income due to his donation of property to the glebe, quite reasonably insisted on the right to select the individual who would act as parish priest, from which office he could not be ejected by the lord until the priest's death. The bishop, without whose consecration the new church would have no religious and spiritual stature, in turn demanded the right of confirmation of the appointment. Thus from the earliest time the advowson was "appurtenant to" the manor, that is to say it appertained to the manor and was exercisable by the lord. The advowson, being real property could be "alienated" (i.e. disposed of) by sale or gift of the patron, but with special licence from the overlord as was required for the alienation of the manor itself. In the Reformation in the 16th century, the Dissolution of the Monasteries led to the transfer of much monastic property to laymen, and with the properties passed the advowsons which the monasteries had held: thus creating a large group of lay patrons (impropriators) who were thus entitled to tithes. In 1603, there were an estimated 3849 livings in the hands of lay impropriators out of a total of 9284. Termed ecclesiastical pluralism some parish priests held more than one parish living (benefice), traditionally placing a curate in charge of those where they did not reside.

In the pre-Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization. The term is similar to rector and was in contrast to a vicar, a cleric whose revenue is usually, at least partially, appropriated by a larger organisation (such as an abbey) to whom the vicar functioned as a "vicarious" assistant and representative. Thus, the tithes of a parish were the legal property of the person who held the office of rector. They were not the property of his vicar, who is not an office-holder but an employee, remunerated by a stipend, i.e. a salary, payable by his employer the rector. Historically, parish priests in the Church of England consisted of rectors, vicars, and perpetual curates. Parish churches and their incumbent clergy were supported by tithes, a form of local tax levied on the personal as well as agricultural output of the parish. A rector received direct payment of both the greater and lesser tithes of his parish, whilst a vicar received only the lesser tithes (the greater tithes going to the lay holder, or impropriator, of the living). A perpetual curate held the Cure of souls in an area which had not yet been formally or legally constituted as a parish, and received neither greater nor lesser tithes, but only a small stipend in return for his duties. Perpetual curates (the title was abolished in 1968) tended to have a lower social status, and were often quite poorly remunerated. The traditional titles of rector and vicar continue in English use today, although the roles and the conditions of employment of the two titles are now essentially the same. Which of the titles is held by the parish priest is largely historical, some parishes having a rector and others a vicar. Owing to the origins of the terms, parishes with a rector are often of more notable historical importance or prominence than parishes with a vicar.

Chester Parishes
For the City of Chester, and some detached portions the nine ancient parishes were: Holy Trinity (inc. the Blacon part of Blacon cum Crabwall), St Bridget, St John, St Martin, St Mary on the Hill (inc Claverton, Little Mollington, Marlston cum Lache, Moston, Gloverstone and greater part of Upton.), St Michael, St Olave, St Oswald (inc. Bache, Croughton, Great Boughton, Iddinshall, Newton by Chester, Wervin, the Crabwall part of Blacon cum Crabwall, part of Upton, and the islands of Hilbre and Little Eye in the Dee Estuary) and St Peter. St John had no townships which were dependent upon this parish, but it did contain 16 fields that were part of Hoole. St Oswald had a chapelry of Bruera which included Churton Heath, Huntington, Lea Newbold and Saighton. Chester Castle was extra-parochial, as was Little St John which in 1778 contained Bluecoat Hospital, Northgate Gaol, and six almshouses. Other places not in an ancient parish included Spital Boughton and the Cathedral precincts.