Think outside the box, man!

Courtenay Crocker III's Thursday crossword puzzle was fiendishly well crafted. Moreover, the theme was out of this world.

City is England - 'chester'
Old musket carrier - 'militia'
Treat Roughly - 'handle'
Architect's aide - 'drafts'
Maid's counterpart - 'servant'
Armed gang member - 'trigger'
Project Mercury objective (and a hint to the above) - 'maninouterspace'

Anyways, even though I completed the puzzle very slowly and all confused because all the main clue were not really related, and some of them really didn't make sense. A stretch for some of them. As I was filling out the puzzle, I suspected it may be the case where more than 1 letter is put in each square, but quickly dismissed that idea because the clues don't fit. However, what Crocker did was even more ingenious! He uses the space outside of the grid! In order for the
clues to work, you have to put the word 'man' in the outer square, which is either before or after some of the clues. Super ingenious!

Anyways, not only did the theme whoop me, but also many of the clues. It's puzzles like these that don't make me think I'm getting any better at this game.

Things to know:
Former Rep. Abzug - Bella
Capital originally called the City of Kings - Lima, Peru

Things I should know by now:
Anatomical Mouths - ora
Yma Sumac - Peruvian singer
Minsk's home - Belarus

(Previously, I might have refered to Courtenay as a she. This is a trememndous error on my part. Official apologies.)