Gee Cross and Werneth

The following is an extract from "Annals of Hyde" by Thomas Middleton and may be of interest to people researching the Gee family name and it's origins.

The Township of Werneth and Gee Cross

This township is written Warnet in the Doomsday survey, and is thus described:- "The Earl (Chester) himself holds"-other manors and-"Warnet as one virgate of land. All is rateable to the gelt. Eight free men held these lands as manors. It was and is all waste." Some time after Doomsday the township passed into the possession of the Stokeport family, who granted lands to the Davenports of Henbury. The Ardens also held lands here at an early period, as did the Booths of Dunham, but the manorial rights appear to have been in the hands of the Davenports. Sergeant Bretland, of Thorncliffe Hall, at one time purchased portions of the township, and in 1768 Wm Tatton, of Wythenshaw, became owner of lands here. These were subsequently sold to Mr. Andrew, of Compstall.

Werneth township was divided some years ago, and a portion of it --the northern-- now forms part of the Borough of Hyde. The village of Gee Cross, which is partly situated in this section of the township, is said to have derived its name from the circumstance of a stone cross having been erected here at an early period, by an ancient and well-to-do family named Gee. Some authorities claim that there never was a cross built here, but that the name owed its origin to an old custom of calling a place "Cross" wherever several roads crossed each other. Hence "Gerrard's Cross," and other like names of places. J. Aitkin in 1795 refers to the village as "Hyde Chapel or Gee Cross, as it is now generally called," seeming to imply that the latter name was of modern origin. In this he was probably mistaken, as the name Gee Cross was in existence at least one hundred years before the chapel was built. The following entries in the Stockport parish registers prove this :-

1589. March 26. George Gee, of Gee Cross; buried.
1589. April 6. Reinolde de Ashton, of Gee Cross; buried.

Both the above are names of families for long holding important positions in the neighbourhood. The wide influence of the Ashtons is elsewhere dealt with, but concerning the family of Gee the following excerpt from the Stockport Advertiser of February 12tb, 1829, will perhaps be of interest.

On Saturday last a legacy amounting to near £100 left by Miss Elizabeth Gee, the last descendant of the late Benjamin Gee, of Kingsland, Middlesex, and a descendant of the ancient Gee family, of Gee Cross, was distributed by the Rev. Mr. Brooks and Miss Boag, to about 30 aged and industrious poor of the township of Gee Cross.

The village of Gee Cross has played an important part in local history. Among the most important local events of the earlier decades of the century, were the Gee Cross Fairs, which were attended by operatives from far and near. There was an old ballad popular once, which set forth how-