Joseph Partridge (historian)

Despite the lack of a university education, he was ordained in his forties and subsequently wrote the first history of the Cheshire town of Nantwich, published in 1774.

It accepted boys from the sons of gentlemen and yeomen to the parish's poor, charging fees that depended on the class of the pupil.

The school building, demolished in the late 19th century, stood in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, Acton.

Boys were taught grammar, Latin, Greek and religion, and one of the earliest masters had held a degree from the University of Oxford.

In 1768, he was lampooned as "Ye Cassocked Waggoner, drole Tale" in the anonymous verse, "Nantwich Notables", published in the Cheshire Sheaf; his wife was described as "Modern extravagance.

"[1] In August 1772, Partridge took over as schoolmaster of the Blue Cap Charity School in Nantwich from Joseph Hilditch, who died later that year.

No dedicated schoolhouse was ever built, and teaching took place in rented rooms in a house in Pepper Street, since demolished.

[12] According to Victorian historian James Hall, a subsequent history by John Weld Platt of 1818 also drew substantially from Partridge.

[12] Although largely now superseded by Hall's history of 1883, Partridge's work remains a valuable account of the town and its industries in the 1770s.