1650, it was ascertained that at "Ouldam" there was one "parish church" the tithes and rents of which were worth, yearly, £120, which would but slightly exceed in value the same amount in the present coinage. According to the report of the commissioners, who inquired into the revenues and patronage of the church in 1833-4, the net income of the incumbent of Oldham was then £191 per annum.

The first mention of a clergyman in connection with Oldham, is met with in a deed of gift on the part of William de Oldham, of the date of 1312, in which occurs the name of Nicholas le Clericus as one of the witnesses. It is probable this Nicholas, whose family name is not supplied, was then the minister of Oldham. I have searched in vain for any satisfactory records of the incumbents of Oldham, anterior and subsequent to, the time of the reformation. At the period of the civil wars, namely, 1640, the Rev. Robert Constantine was minister. Religious fury alone then nerved the arm of Papist and of Puritan, and Constantine being favourable to the doctrines of the latter party, a dispute ensued betwixt him and one of the principal members of his congregation, Edmund Ashton, Esq., magistrate, of Chadderton, patron of the rectory of Prestwich. On one occasion, the justice vigorously prosecuted him for not conforming to certain episcopal rites. In the course of two or three years, the Nonconformist pastor quitted Oldham, and accepted an invitation to become a minister at Birstall, in Yorkshire. The principles of Presbyterianism became so prevalent, that in 1645, Parliament enacted the immediate establishment of their form of church government. Hence, in 1646, the spiritual affairs of each congregation were managed by its own presbytery, and Lancashire had become divided into nine classical districts. In that year, Humphrey Barnet was minister of Oldham, and as such was a member of the Manchester classis, amongst the lay members of which was Edward Sandiforth, of Oldham,

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