Nicholas Stritch: A mayor of Limerick in 1472 whose later descendants, especially in South Africa, use the spelling Stretch.

Peter Stretch 1670-1746: Peter was born in Leek, Staffordshire the son of blacksmith, John Stretch and his wife Ellen Furnival.   Peter'€™s father, father-in-law and grandfather were imprisoned for being Quakers which may have been the reason Peter emigrated in 1702.   He, his wife Margery Hall and four children went to Philadelphia, USA, where he set up as a clockmaker.   A Peter Stretch Long Case Clock set a new world record when it was bought in 2004 for $1,688,000 by the trustees of the du Pont antiques collection at Winterthur in Delaware, USA.   'It is recognized as one of the most important and remarkably preserved Philadelphia tall clocks ever to come to market.   Peter'€™s brother James is ancestor to Bishop John F. Stretch and Archdeacon Theodore C.B. Stretch.

Theodore Carlos Benoni Stretch 1817-1899: Theodore C.B. Stretch was of a Quaker family.   His father was John Cliffe Stretch and his mother Elizabeth Long.   Born in Worcester, England, he obtained his B.A. from Worcester College, Oxford, and was ordained in 1842.   He left England with his wife Martha Butler and five children and arrived in Geelong, Victoria in 1852.   In 1854 he became Archdeacon of Geelong and founded the See of Ballarat.   Archdeacon Stretch founded Geelong Grammar School, his sons being the first pupils. He died in Melbourne.   He was uncle to Bishop John Francis Stretch and is descended from James, a brother of Peter Stretch, clockmaker.

John Francis Stretch 1855-1919: Bishop Stretch was born in Malden, Victoria, Australia the son of the Rev. John C.T. Stretch, a native of Worcester, England and Frances Heath from Kent, England.   He was educated at Geelong Grammar School, and enrolled in 1872 as the first student of Trinity College, Melbourne.   John Francis was said to have given up law in favour of the priesthood in response to the dying wish of his mother.   Ordained in 1879 he was Dean of Ballarat, Victoria in 1894, Bishop of Brisbane in 1895 and Bishop of Newcastle, New South Wales in 1900 until his death there in 1919.   He was granted an honorary D.D. from Oxford in 1897.   He married Amelia Weekes and they had five sons and two daughters.   His uncle was Archdeacon Theodore C.B. Stretch.

Samuel Alphonsus Stritch 1857-1958: Cardinal Stritch was the seventh of the eight children of Garrett Stritch a native of County Kerry, Ireland, and Katherine Malley. Born in Nashville Tennessee, he graduated from High School aged fourteen.   He attended St. Gregory'€™s Minor Seminary in Cincinnati, the American College in Rome and the Urban College of Propaganda where he was awarded his D.Phil. in 1906 and D.D. in 1910.   He was ordained in Rome, returned to the USA in 1921 and later became Bishop of Toledo.   In 1939 he was Bishop of Chicago, the most populous diocese in the U.S.A..   Pius XII named him as cardinal and bestowed the red hat on him in 1946.   At his request St. Agnes Outside the Walls was designated his titular church.   In 1958 he was asked by Pius XII to accept the office of pro-prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Roman Curia, only the third non-Italian named to the Propaganda since its founding in 1662.   Reluctantly he accepted but, while en route to Rome, an occlusion of the major artery of his right arm necessitated amputation on his arrival.   He suffered a stroke and died within a week. After obsequies in Rome his body was flown back to Chicago and interred on 3 June 1958 at Mount Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois.

Elaine Stritch: Actress and singer.   She was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1926 the daughter of George Joseph Stritch and Mildred Jobe, who was Welsh with a touch of French.  

Gary Stretch: Boxer, model and actor born in 1958 in St. Helens, Lancashire