For all the time of your being schoolmaster of the Grammar school of Goostry, or at least for 16 or 17 years last past you have received of the profits and interest coming and accruing from the 200£ abovementioned, yet you have not only shamefully neglected to perform your duty according to the above recited clauses of the 79th canon but in some one or more of the said months and years [March 1690 - September 1705], you Mathew Holford have so scandalously neglected and been careless of your school and the instruction of those scholars committed to your care and charge as well in the matters in the next precedent article mentioned as in the English and Latin tongue, that the school is brought to disreputation and decay... You, Mathew Holford are so illiterate and ignorant in the Latin tongue that you are thereby rendered unfit and incapable of teaching the grammar school of Goostry... For about 1 or two years last past, you Mathew Holford have sold ale, or kept a tippling house, within the chapelry of Goostry and have entertained persons drinking and tippling in your house upon Sundays in time of divine service, and at other unseasonable times thereby profaning the Lord's day, to the scandal of your function and evil example of all good Christians... In the years and months particular... you Mathew Holford have been a frequenter of alehouses and much addicted to excessive drinking of strong drink within the chapelry of Goostry and other places adjacent and have been often scandalously overtaken therewith to the danger of your own soul and evil example of all good men.
Depositions & Examinations
EDC 5/1705/5 (unfol.) Office c Holford
CRO
Immorality
1705
1705
Goostrey, Cheshire, England
Plaintiff
Office [Not specified]
[Not specified]
Defendant
Matthew Holford
male
Schoolmaster
Alcohol Retailer: Alehouse-keeper
Event
Keeping ale and entertaining on Sundays and unseasonable times
1703 ('about 1 or two years last past')
1705
Components
Profaning the Sabbath
Drunkenness and excessive consumption
Dereliction of professional duty
Inferred
Unlicensed alehouse-keeping
Inferred
Company and drinking groups
Alcohol | Ale
Statement
circa 1 October 1705
Office [Not specified]