Thomas Aynscough, M.A., who obtained the aid which, with a school exhibition, enabled him to proceed to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A.
In the following year he became curate of Chorlton Chapel, and in December 1790 was appointed chaplain of the collegiate church of Manchester, a position which he retained until his death on 11 November 1821.
He was an excellent scholar, and one of his pupils, Dr. Joseph Allen, bishop of Ely, acknowledged, "If it had not been for Joshua Brookes, I should never have been a fellow of Trinity" - which proved the stepping-stone to the episcopal bench.
A caricature appeared in which he is represented as reading the burial service at a grave and saying, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying - knock that black imp off the wall !".
In appearance he was diminutive and corpulent; he had bushy, meeting brows (Parr styled him "the gentleman with the straw-coloured eyebrows"), a shrill voice, and rapid utterance.
[1] His friend Joseph Aston wrote a tribute to him in the Manchester Exchange Herald which mentioned his undeviating love of truth and spirit of forgiveness, though "deficient in some of those qualities which are too often the apologies for the absence of more substantial virtues".