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A HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 BLACKBURN PARISH. 
 
• • •• 
 
Mije f\0 M$hm 3dmt f J 
 
 .• ••• .'.•• 
 
 ■^* Cables anljt 
 
JPatisij of Blackburn, Counts of iancastet 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 BLACKBURN, 
 
 BY 
 
 WM. ALEXANDER ABRAM, 
 
 FELLOW OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE 
 HISTORIC SOCIETY OF LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE. 
 
 "Out of the old fieides, as men saithe, 
 Cometh al this new come fro yere to yere, 
 And out of old bookcs, in good faithe, 
 Cometh al this new science that men iere." 
 — Chaucer. 
 
 BLACKBURN : 
 
 J. G. & J. TOULMIN, 7'J/£ TIMES OFFICE, 
 
 CORPORATION STREET. 
 
 1877. 
 

 
 BLACKBURN: 
 ]. G. AND J. TOULMIN, I, CORPORATION STREET, 
 
TO THE LIVING 
 
 AUTHOR-ANTIQUARIES OF LANCASHIRE, 
 
 WHOSE COMBINED LABOURS 
 
 HAVE RECOVERED SO MUCH LOST TREASURE 
 
 FROM THE BURIED HOARDS OF TIME, — 
 
 AND TO THE CONSTANT 
 
 PATRONS OF COUNTY HISTORICAL LITERATURE, 
 
 WHOSE SUPPORT 
 
 HAS CONTRIBUTED TO MAKE ACCESSIBLE IN BOOKS 
 
 THE RICHES OF ANTIQUE LORE 
 
 WHICH LAY HID IN OBSCURE MUNIMENTS 
 
 AND REMOTE ARCHIVES, — 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 
 
 801818 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 while the price of the book has not been raised, I do not grudge in the 
 least, so long as I can indulge in the belief that the credit of thorough- 
 ness will be accorded me by discriminating readers, and by experienced 
 antiquaries who know what a Parish History ought to be and to comprehend. 
 
 I have bestowed much space and expended an unusual amount of 
 work upon the accounts of old native families of inferior social rank to 
 the Manorial Lords, namely, to the smaller Freeholders, lesser Gentry 
 and Yeomen, as well as to those of the Merchant class who have attained 
 to local repute within the last century or so. My reason for inserting 
 such sketches of families of our old yeomen and lesser gentry as can 
 be made out by parish registers and public records, in conjunction 
 with family papers and title-deeds, is the fact that the history of 
 families is the history of estates in the case of the smaller as of the 
 larger properties ; and to ignore the succession to the minor freeholds is 
 to leave the memorials of many a rural township practically unretrieved. 
 The total number of families and distinct branches of families genealo- 
 gically noticed in this History is nearly 300. Of necessity, some of the 
 more obscure descents have not been traced to the last survivor or in 
 much detail ; but even in the slightest outline of a family story, clues 
 may be afforded to readers, now or hereafter, who may have a personal 
 interest in pursuing the traces of ancestral alliance, estate, and domicile. 
 Ampler and more minute genealogies have been carefully worked out of 
 all the more important and long-standing territorial families, who are 
 both many and honourable in the history of this Parish. 
 
 My final and very conscious obligation is to acknowledge the in- 
 valuable help which I have received from some of the highest authorities 
 in archaeology, genealogy, and general antiquities, and to offer my grateful 
 thanks to those literary friends, generous as learned, who havethusgivenme 
 the benefitof their extensive knowledge and large experience inauthorship. 
 To William Langton, Esq., a veteran genealogist whose sheaved and 
 garnered harvests of research have enriched so many publications of the 
 Chetham Society, I am deeply beholden for the freest communication of 
 exclusive information respecting the intricate descents of the important 
 ancient families of Banastre, Langton, Hoghton, Cliderhou, Talbot, Os- 
 baldeston, Shuttleworth, Holland, Southworth, and otheis. Mr. Lang- 
 ton's name is the assurance of severe and scrupulous accuracy among 
 antiquaries, and I am fortunate to have enlisted his most kindly 
 interest in my work. From the Rev. Canon Raines, M.A., F.S.A. — 
 both in references to his published works and in private communications 
 of notes from his noble collection of Lancashire MSS. — I have derived 
 an unreckoned number of interesting and authentic items bearing upon 
 the ecclesiastical and civil annals of this parish. Mr. W. Angelo Wad- 
 
PREFACE. IK 
 
 dington, of Burnley, besides various other kindnesses, has made specially 
 for me a very pretty drawing of the old Manor-House of Martholme, 
 after which the engraving was executed which is inserted in the volume. 
 ^Vm. Haworth, Esq., of Fence-in-Pendle, has supplied a mass of interest- 
 ing particulars respecting the several families of Haworth seated in this 
 parish, and other allied families. To J. E. Bailey, Esq., F.S.A., of 
 Stretford ; J. P. Earwaker, Esq., F.S.A., of Withington ; Wm. Dobson, 
 Esq., F.S. A., of Fuhvood ; Lt.-Col. Fishwick, F.S.A., of Carr Hill, Roch- 
 dale ; and Wm. Gourlay, Esq., of Blackburn, I owe the gift of valuable 
 items scattered through the work. My friend, AVm. Thomas Ashton, 
 P^sq., of Ashdale, Darwen, has helped me heartily and liberally in the 
 preparation of my account of that important town and township. Froim 
 John Walmesley, Esq., of Totnes ; Edgar S. Holland, Esq., of i.iverpool ; 
 Rev. C. B. Norcliffe, of York ; Rev. M. Hedley, M.A., Vicar of Langho ; 
 Thomas Woodcock, F^sq., of Haslingden ; Robert Hubberstey, Esq., of 
 Samlesbury ; Mr. D. Geddes, Librarian of Blackburn Free Library ; and 
 Mr. H. Stevenson, junr., of Haslingden, I have had sundry communica- 
 tions which have been utilised in the accounts of families, churches, &c., 
 in the different townships, and hereby express my thanks for the same. 
 
 No small proportion of the original materials employed in the com- 
 ])osition of this history has been secured to me by the favour of the 
 Vicar of Blackburn, the Venerable Archdeacon Birch, who from the 
 first has given me the utmost facilities for repeated reference to the 
 Parish Registers, and for the transcription of a large number of docu- 
 ments relating to the history of the Parish Church of Blackburn with its 
 dependent Chapels, and of the Rectory and Vicarage of Blackburn. But 
 for this enlightened liberality of Archdeacon Birch, an indispensable 
 branch of Parish History must have been left comparatively imperfect, 
 which I have thereby been enabled to fill from those voluminous 
 sources — the Coucher Books at the Vicarage. In the annals of the 
 Blackburn Grammar School, I have in like manner been obliged by A. 
 L Robinson, Esq., Clerk to the Governors, with the free use of the 
 Manuscript Records of the Foundation, covering three centuries, 
 hitherto entirely unnoticed. 
 
 My learned neighbour, whom I esteem it a privilege to call my 
 firiend, the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart, LL.D., has with characteristic 
 generosity given me the use of his fine library of the old literature and 
 the benefit of his literary counsel and practical aid in the preparation of 
 my pages. 
 
 From William Harrison, Esq., F.S. A., of Samlesbury Hall, I have 
 received many valuable suggestions, and materials from the muniment- 
 chest of the Samlesbury manor-estate ; and have to thank that gentleman 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 also for the use of his papers concerning the Samlesbury Charities, and 
 of the engraved blocks of Samlesbury Church and Lower Hall, &c.; and 
 for his permission to copy by autot)rpe the beautiful plate of the exterior 
 of Samlesbury Hall prepared for the folio History of Samlesbury Hall 
 privately printed for Mr. Harrison. Jonathan Peel, Esq., of Knowlmere 
 Manor, has favoured me with notes from his extensive manuscript collec- 
 tions for the family history of the Peels which has just been printed 
 privately in a neat volume. Colonel Butler-Bowdon, of Pleasington 
 Hall, courteously lent me two large MS. volumes in his possession re- 
 lating to the descents of the families of Butler and Bowdon and to the 
 manor-estate of Pleasington. Alderman John Pickop, of Blackburn, 
 placed at my use a large and useful series of deeds of his family estate 
 in Livesey and Tockholes. Messrs. Edward and Joseph Dugdale kindly 
 allowed me to make extracts from the deeds of their estates of Oxen- 
 dale and Studlehurst in Osbaldeston. 
 
 I have cause to lament the decease, before my work had reached 
 its close, of several gentlemen who had manifested a friendly interest in 
 its progress. The late Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart., gave 
 me the kindest encouragement and assistance in various ways, and com- 
 mended my work in influential quarters. Sir Henry de Hoghton, Bart., 
 of Hoghton Tower, who died in December last, had honoured me by 
 the expression of his desire to see this History, in which the ancient 
 family of Hoghton occupies an eminent place, and of his confidence 
 that the work would be competently done. My familiar friend the late 
 Alderman T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., of Burnley, died soon after the 
 work of printing this volume had begun, the preparation of which he 
 had often urged me to undertake, and by his decease I am deprived of 
 the pleasure of placing the result of my toil in the hands of an able and 
 experienced Lancashire antiquary — a native of this Parish. 
 
 I cannot refrain from placing on record my indebtedness to George 
 Toulmin, Esq., proprietor of The Preston Guardian, whose friendly 
 promptings did much in the outset to stimulate my adventure upon the 
 somewhat formidable undertaking of producing this volume, and whose 
 buisness sagacity and technical knowledge have been brought to bear in 
 the printing of the work. Mr. Toulmin's sustained and liberal efforts to 
 promote the illustration of local history in the columns of The Guardian 
 have received due recognition by men of learning and research in Lanca- 
 shire. 
 
 In conclusion, whilst bespeaking, as I trust I may, a not ungenerous 
 reception of my book by those whose judgment will be held authorita- 
 tive, let me confess I cannot suppose that much of its subject-matter 
 will appear of great import to readers who have no personal nor family 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 association with this part of the country. He who writes local histor)- 
 is aware that on the wide field of a nation's historical literature his work 
 must occupy an obscure nook ; and that details which may give it a 
 special interest on the spot, will be passed by as paltry and tedious by 
 distant critics. Except, perhaps, in certain particulars of the archseolog)- 
 of the district ; in the narrative of local transactions of the great Civil 
 War, including important battles ; in memorials of men of public fame 
 sprung from the Parish ; and in illustrations of early domestic architec- 
 ture in several of our fine old halls and mansions, I do not claim a 
 more than provincial usefulness for the product of my labour. Albeit it 
 has been settled by a consensus of high literary authorities that full and 
 careful Parish Histories should be written, as tributary streams to the 
 main current of the national history. If, then, this volume should be 
 accepted as a fair type of the needful local record, my expectation will 
 be fully satisfied. 
 
 WM. ALEXANDER ABRAM. 
 Blackburn, August, 1877. 
 
CORRECTIONS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 44 line 2 : for "Narman" read "Norman." 
 158 line 19 : for "disotdered" read "disordered." 
 
 200 line 16 : the initials " W H M " stand for " William and Mary Harwootl. " 
 213 line 4 from bottom : for " 1698" read " 1693." 
 261 line 14 from bottom : add that Myles Aspinall, gent., who married in 1763, died, 
 
 aged 80, Sept. 11, 1799, and was father of John Aspinall, born in 1757, died 
 
 Feb. 27, 1833, whose son, Lawrence Aspinall, born in 1791, died May 11, 1840. 
 269 line 13 from bottom : for "Nov. 9, 1645," read "1615." 
 292 bottom line (note) : for " Little Harwood " read " Mellor. " 
 335 line 13 : for "Lang " read "Lacy." 
 
 349 line 5 ; for " 1791, ceased 1787" read " 1787, ceased 1791." 
 362 line 5 : for "June i8th " read "June 25th." 
 369 line 9 : for " 1865 " read " 1875." 
 
 374 line 12 from bottom : for "Feb. Sth, 1875 " read " 1874." 
 
 376 line 6 from bottom, col. 2 : for " John Dean, Esq.," read "T. H. Pickup, Esq." 
 382 line 21 : for " Markland " read " Martland." 
 392 line 15 from bottom : after " Rev. W. Higgin " add "D.D., afterwards Bishop 
 
 of Derry." 
 397 line 19 : Peter Haworth, second son of Thomas, had issue, Thomas, of London, 
 
 apothecary ; John, of Bristol ; Hugh ; and Richard of Chancery Lane, London, 
 
 apothecary. 
 
 403 line 4 : after "Richard " add "bapt. Dec. 29, 1767." 
 
 404 line 1 1 from bottom : Alice Sudell, who married Joseph Hankinson, was daughter 
 of John Sudell who died in 1733, not of the John who died in 1785. 
 
 406 Note: in this epitaph for "Pretate" read "Pietate," for "prascipise" read 
 
 "prascipue," and for "indentus" read "intentus. " 
 411 line 9 from bottom : for " 565-6" read " 365-6." 
 433 line 26 : for " died before 1570 " read " was buried Sept. 9, 1564." 
 433 line 33 : for "before 1586" read "Oct. 23, 1580." 
 
 447 line 8 from bottom : after " Cunliffe " add " He was buried Nov. 2, 1594." 
 469 line 18 : after " Ryvington " add " His son and heir, John Bradshaw, was aged 
 
 22 years. " 
 469 line 15 from bottom: after "rent" add "derived from his mother, Anne, 
 
 daughter and heir of John de Ardern, lord of Nether Darwen." 
 479 line 19 from bottom : for " Thomas" read "John." 
 482 line 12 from bottom: for "no" read "not." 
 510 line 12 : for " 1832 " read " 1852." 
 
 5 10 line 3 from bottom : for "died about the year 1627 " read " buried April 18, 1628. " 
 538 line 9 : for " the land meadow " read " the low meadow." 
 572 line II from bottom : for "All Soulue " read "All Soulne." 
 576 line 15 : for " 1693-4" read " 1694." 
 722 line 3 from bottom : for " with rental " read " with a rental." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Preface ----- -•.... vii-xi 
 
 List of Illustrations ------- xv-xvi 
 
 BOOK I.— GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 Chapter I. Roman and Saxon Periods . - - 1-43 
 
 II. Medi/Eval Period 44-59 
 
 III. Tudor Period 60-83 
 
 IV. Stuart Period 84-190 
 
 V. Modern Period - 191-244 
 
 BOOK II.— TOWNSHIP HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY. 
 
 Chapter I. Township and Town of Blackburn - - 245-412 
 
 11. Township of Balderstone - - - - 413-424 
 
 III. Township of Billington - - - - 425-456 
 
 IV. Township of Clayton-in-le-Dale - - 457-461 
 V. Township of Cuerdale - . . . 462-465 
 
 VI. Towi^sHip of Nether Darwen - -' - 466-487 
 
 VII. Township of Over Darwen - - - 488-528 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. YIII. Township of Great Harwood - - - 529-555 
 
 IX. Township of Little Harwood - - - 556-563 
 
 X. Township of Livesey ----- 564-586 
 
 XI. Townships of Mellor-cum-Eccleshbll - 587-599 
 
 XII. Township of Osbaldeston - - - - 600-611 
 
 XIII. Township of Pleasington - - - - 612-626 
 
 XIV. Township of Ramsgreave - - - - 627-630 
 XV. Township of Rishton ----- 631-643 
 
 XVI. Township of Salesbury . - . - 644-656 
 
 XVII. Township of Samlesbury - - - - 657-680 
 
 XVIII. Township of Tockholes - - - - 681-704 
 
 XIX. Township of Walton-in-le-Dale- - - 705-744 
 
 XX. Townships of Wilpshire-cum-Dinkley - 745-754 
 
 XXI. Township of Witton 755-760 
 
 XXII. Township of Yate-cum-Pickup-Bank - - 761-765 
 
 Appendix - 766-772 
 
 Indfjc ----------- 773-784 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portrait OF Rev. Robert Bolton, B.D., - - to face title-page 
 
 Engraved on steel by Mr. W. J. Alais from the old plate-portrait in the last Work of Bolton 
 (1632). (See the Memoir, page 265.) 
 
 Roman Sepulchral Sculptured Slab, found near 
 
 Ribchester ------- to face page ig 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from Photographs by Mr. John Geddes. 
 
 Romano-British Cinerary Urn and Incense-Cup, 
 
 found at Darwen ------ to face page 24 
 
 Saxon Ring and Armlets, found at Cuerdale - - to face page 40 
 
 Peel Fold, ancient seat of the Peel Family - - to face page 221 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Frankland. 
 
 Blackburn Old Parish Church - . . to face page 301 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Drawing by the late Rev. S. J. Allen. 
 
 Blackburn Town Hall - - . - to face page 377 
 
 Blackburn Corporation Park - - - - to face page 318 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Drawing by Mr. Langton. 
 
 Blackburn Free Library and Museum - - to face page 380 
 Hacking Hall, Billington ----- to face page 43J 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Frankland. 
 
 Ancient Sculptured Corbel at Elkar, Billington - to face page 446 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph taken for Rev. M. Medley, M.A., 
 Vicar of Langho. (The arms on the shield are those of Abbot John Paslew.) 
 
 Langho Parochial Chapel, Billington - - to face page 448 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Geddes. 
 
 Highercroft House, Lower Danven - - - to face page 473 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Frankland. 
 
 Paper Works of Messrs. Hilton at Darwen in 1843 to face page 4g2 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from an Engraving in " Bradshaw's Journal " (1842). 
 
Xn LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Belgrave Congregational Meeting-House, Danven to face page S^S 
 
 Engraving lent by Rev. James Macdougall. 
 
 Martholme, Manor-house of Great Harwood - to face page s 3^ 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Drawing made specially for this Work by Mr. 
 William Angelo Waddington. 
 
 Great Harwood Church ----- to face page 55 r 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph. 
 
 Sir Edward Osbaldeston, Knt. - - - - to face page 604 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from an Engra\-ing in Pennant's " Tour from Downing to 
 
 Alston Moor." 
 
 Inscribed Lintel at Osbaldeston Hall - - - - page 608 
 Pleasington Old Hall ----- to face page 621 
 
 Engraved by Mr Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Erankland. 
 
 Samlesbury Old Hall ----- to face page 664 
 
 Reduced by autotype from the Engraving in the " History of Saiwlesbury Hall" (folio). 
 
 Lower Hall, Samlesbury ----- to face page dyr 
 
 Engraving from the " History of Samlesbury Hall," lent by Wm. Harrison, Esq., F.S.A. 
 
 Samlesbury Parochial Chapel - - - - to face page 676 
 
 Engraving from the " History of Samlesbury Hall," lent by Wm. Harrison, Esq., F.S.A. 
 
 SouthWorth Arms and Crest in Samlesbury Cliapel to face page 676 
 
 Engraving from the " History of Samlesbury Hall," lent by Wm. Harrison,. E.'.q., F.S.A. 
 
 Old Nonconformist Meeting-House, Tockholes to face page 704 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Frankland. 
 
 Western Gateway, Hoghton Tower - - - to face page 723 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert Langton from a Photograph by Mr. John Geddes. 
 
 Dinkley Hall ------- to face page 746 
 
 Engraved by Mr. Robert La-ngton from a Photograph by Mr. John Gedde*. 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 
 
 To THE Large-paper Impression. 
 (Arranged Alphabeiically.) 
 
 Abraham, John, Esq., Grassendale Fark, 
 
 Liverpool. 
 Abram, George G., Esq. Wilpshire. 
 Abram, Masters Edmund William and 
 
 Gilbert Percy, Blackburn 
 Ainsworth, Thomas, Esq., Revidge Fold, 
 
 Blackburn (three copies) 
 Ainsworth, T. S., Esq., Showley Fold, 
 
 Clayton-in-le-Dale 
 Ainsworth, Thomas, Esq. , M. A. , Blackburn 
 
 Grammar School. 
 Ainsworth, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 Ainsworth, Wm., Esq., Blackburn 
 Akeroyd, James, Esq., Preston 
 Almond, James, Esq., Blackburn 
 Almond, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Almond, Wm., Esq., Blackburn 
 Amos, Francis, Esq. , Burnley 
 Armistead, James Fisher, Esq., J. P., Cob 
 
 Wall House, Blackburn 
 Arthur, James, E., Esq., Blackburn 
 Ashburn, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 Ashton, Wm. Thomas, Esq., Ashdale, Dar- 
 
 wen (three copies and three small paper) 
 Ashworth, Edmund, Esq., J. P., Egerton 
 
 Hall, near Bolton 
 Aspden, Richard, Esq., Blackburn 
 Aspden, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Backhouse, T. J., Esq., York Cliff, Billington 
 Bacup Co-operative Society's Library 
 Barker, H. H., Esq., Blackburn 
 Baron, Wm., Esq., Blackburn 
 Baron, Thomas, Esq. , Blackburn 
 Beads, James, Esq., Blackburn 
 Beardsell, Rev. George,_ Preston 
 Beardsworth, James, Esq. , Blackburn 
 Bertwistle, James, Esq. , Wilpshire 
 Birch, Ven. Edward, M.A., Archdeacon and 
 Vicar of Blackburn 
 
 Birch, Herbert, Esq., Blackburn 
 Birtwistle, Bradshaw, Esq., Accrington 
 Blackburn Free Public Library (two copies) 
 Bland, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Bleasdell, Rev. John, B.A., Ashton-under- 
 
 Lyne 
 Bolton, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Bone, J. W., Esq., B.A., F.S. A., London 
 Bowker, Henry S., Esq., Blackburn 
 Bowker, J., Esq., Preston 
 Boyle, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Brennand, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 Bretherick, J. W., Esq., Darwen 
 Bretherton, William, Esq., J.P., Runshaw 
 
 Hall, Leyland 
 Brierley, Joseph, Esq., C.E., Blackburn 
 Briggs, James, Esq., J. P., Beardwood 
 Briggs, Wm. Edward, Esq., M. P., Harrow 
 Brogden, James, Esq. , Blackburn 
 Buckley, R.B., Esq., Blackburn 
 Burton, Alfred, Esq., Manchester 
 Bury, A. S., Esq., J. P., Blackburn 
 Bury, Thomas, Esq., J. P., Blackburn (Mayor 
 
 of Blackburn, 1871-2) 
 Bury, John Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 Bury, Thomis, Esq., Blackburn 
 Butler- Bowdon, Lt.-Col., J. P., Pleasington 
 
 Hall 
 Butterfield, Wm., Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Campbell, David, Esq., Blackburn 
 Cartrtiell, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 Catterall, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Cavendish, Hon. Lord Edward, Devonshire 
 
 House, London 
 Chew, Thomas H., Esq., Manchester 
 Chew, W. L., Esq., Manchester 
 Clough, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 Clough, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Cocks, Rev. Horrocks, London 
 Coddington, William, Esq., J. P., Wycoller, 
 
 Blackburn (Mayor of Blackburn 1874-5) 
 
 (two copies) 
 
 Coddington, Richard Dudley, Esq., Black- 
 burn 
 
 Coddington, Albert, Esq., Blackburn 
 Coddington, Frank, Esq., Blackburn 
 CoUinson, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 Cornish, J. E., Esq., Manchester 
 Counsell, William, Esq., Borough Treasurer, 
 
 Blackburn 
 Crankshaw, Samuel, Esq., Manchester 
 Craven, Richard, Esq., Blackburn 
 Crossley, Richard, Esq,, Blackburn 
 
 Darley, Charles, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Darwen Free Library (per gift of Wm. Snape, 
 
 Esq., J. P.) 
 Denham, Robert, Esq., Blackburn 
 Derby, Rt. Hon. the Earl of, Knowsley 
 Dickinson, James, Esq., J. P., Blackburn 
 Dickinson, Aspin P., Esq., Blackburn 
 Ditchfield, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 Dobson, William, Esq., F.S.A., Fulwood 
 Dodgson, R. B. Esq., J. P., Beardwood 
 Downing, William, Esq., Birmingham 
 Duckworth, Nicholas, Esq., Accrington 
 Dugdale, Adam, Esq., J. P., Griffin Lodge, 
 
 Witton 
 
 Dugdale, Edward, Esq., J. P., Blackburn 
 Dugdale, Joseph, Esq., Blackburn 
 Dugdale, Richard S., Esq., Halifax 
 Dunbar, Robert, Esq., M.D., Blackburn 
 
 Earwaker, J. P., Esq., M. A., F.S.A., With- 
 
 ington 
 Eastwood, James, Esq., Blackburn 
 Eatough, Joseph, Esq., Blackburn 
 Eccles, J., Esq., B. A., Kensington, London 
 Eccles, James, Esq., Blackburn 
 Embley, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Evans, Howard, Esq., Barrow-in-Furness 
 Entwistle, R. S , Esq., Darwen 
 
 Falconer, His Honour the Judge, Usk, 
 
 Monmouthshire 
 Earn worth, R. D., Esq., Blackburn 
 Famworth, Wm., Esq., Blackburn 
 Fish, John, Esq., J. P., Livesey House, 
 
 Livesey 
 Fish, Miss Marian, Darwen 
 Fishwick, Lt.-CoI. H., J.P., F.S.A., Carr 
 
 Hill, Rochdale 
 
 Fletcher, Thomas, Esq., Preston 
 Foster, Joseph, Esq., London 
 Fowler, Messrs. E. and F., Blackburn 
 Frankland, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Eraser, Rt. Rev. James, D.D., Lord Bishop 
 of Manchester 
 
 Gaine, W. E. L., Esq., Town Clerk of 
 
 Blackburn 
 Geddes, David, Esq. , Blackburn Free Library 
 Gent, George, Esq., Blackburn 
 Gibson, J. Harris, Esq., Liverpool 
 Gourlay, William, Esq., Blackburn (and one 
 
 small paper) 
 Graham, H. G. Esq., Blackburn 
 Green, George, Esq., Blackburn 
 Greenhalgh, J. D., Esq., Bolton 
 Gregson, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 Gregson, William, Esq., Tockholes 
 Grime, Dr. H. A., J. P., Blackburn 
 Grosart, Rev. A. B. , LL. D. , Blackburn 
 
 Hamer, Edwin, Esq., Blackburn 
 Hand, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 Hargreaves, John, Esq., Rock Ferry, 
 
 Cheshire 
 Harrison, Joseph, Esq., J. P., Galligreaves 
 
 House, Blackburn 
 Harrison, William, Esq., J. P., F.S.A., 
 
 Samlesbury Hall 
 Harrison, Henry, Esq., Stanley House, 
 
 Blackburn 
 Harrison, James, Esq., Blackburn 
 Harrison, S. J., Esq., Blackburn 
 Hartington, Most Hon. the Marquis of, 
 
 M. P., Devonshire House, London 
 Harwood, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Hasler, John, Esq., Chorley 
 Hasler, Wm., Esq., Barrow-in-Fumess 
 Haworth, William, Esq., Fence-in-Pendle 
 
 (two copies) 
 Haworth, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Haydock, James, Esq., Blackburn 
 Hayhurst, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 Haythornethwaite, Wm., Esq., Cherry Tree, 
 
 Livesey 
 Hedley, Rev. M., M.A., the Vicarage, 
 
 Langho 
 Heginbotham, Henry, Esq., M,D., Millgate 
 
 House, Stockport 
 Hermon, Edward, Esq., M.P., Preston 
 Hey worth, Eli, Esq., J. P., Blackburn 
 Hick, John, Esq., M.P., Mitton Hall 
 Higham, Eli, Esq., Accrington 
 Higson, Thomas, Esq., J. P., Blackburn 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Hindle, Dr., Darwen 
 
 Hindle, F. J., Esq., Darwen 
 
 Hindle, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Hoghton, Sir Heniy De (the late), Bart., 
 
 Hoghton Tower {two copies) 
 Holland, Edgar S., Esq., Liverpool (and 
 
 live small paper copies) 
 Holt, James Maden, Esq., M.P., Stubby 
 
 Lee, Bacup 
 Holt, Robert, Esq., Manchester (two copies) 
 Hoole, William, Esq., J.P., HoUoway, 
 
 London (Mayor of Blackburn, 1855-6) 
 Hope, Mrs. J. C, Lower Broughton 
 Hopwood, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 Hornby, Wm. Henry, Esq., Junr., Mayor of 
 
 Blackburn, 1876-7 (three copies) 
 Hubberstey, Robert, Esq., Samlesbury 
 Hulton, VV. A., Esq., J. P., Hurst Grange, 
 
 Penwortham 
 Huntington, James, Esq., J. P., Astley Bank, 
 
 Darwen 
 Hutchinson, Robt. Hopwood, Esq., J. P., 
 
 Tenter House, Rochdale (Mayor of 
 
 Blackburn, 1861-2) 
 Ingham, John, Esq., Whalley 
 
 Jackson, R. Raynsford, Esq., J. P., The 
 
 Grange, Clayton-in-le-Dale 
 Jepson, Jabez, Esq., Darwen 
 Jepson, M. T., Esq., Darwen 
 Johnson, J. C, Esq., Blackburn 
 Johnston, Thomas, Esq. (the late), Houghton 
 
 near Carlisle 
 
 Kay, James, Esq. , Blackburn 
 Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir James P., Bart, (the 
 
 late), Barbon Manor 
 Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir Ughtred James, Bart., 
 
 Gawthorpe Hall 
 Kenyon, James, Esq., Blackburn 
 Kitcher, Henry, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Langton, William, Esq. , Docklands, Ingate- 
 
 stone, Essex (and one small paper) 
 Leaver, James, Esq., junior, Blackburn 
 Lewis, James, Esq., J. P., Blackburn 
 Lewis, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 Leyland, John, Esq., The Grange, Hindley 
 Liverpool Library, Lyceum 
 Liverpool Public Free Library 
 Livesey, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 Longworth, Solomon, Esq., Clerl^ Hill, 
 Whalley 
 
 Macdougall, Rev. James, Darwen 
 
 Manchester Public Free Library 
 Marton, Captain G.B., J. P., Capemwray 
 Meadows, Thomas, Esq., Mill Hill, Livesey 
 McCave, W. H., Esq., Blackburn 
 McOwen, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 Meller, W. C, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Monk, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Moore, James, Esq., Darwen 
 Neilson, Jonathan, Esq., Blackburn 
 Nichols, S. A., Esq., Darwen 
 
 Osbaldeston, John, Esq., Fam worth 
 
 Parkinson, J. R., Esq., Blackburn 
 Parkinson, Wm., Esq., Mill Hill, Livesey 
 Parkinson, P. R., Esq., Blackburn 
 Peel, Jonathan, Esq., J. P., Knowlmere 
 
 Manor 
 Pickop, John, Esq. , J. P. , Blackburn (Mayor 
 
 of Blackburn, 1873-4) 
 Pilkington, James, Esq., J. P., Swinithwaite 
 
 Hall, Bedale 
 Pilling, R. C, Esq., Blackburn 
 Platts, H. G., Esq., Blackburn 
 Pomfret, Thomas, Esq. , Blackburn 
 Porter, James, Esq., Blackburn 
 Purbrick, Rev. E., S.J., Stonyhurst College 
 
 Richards, John, Esq. , Blackburn 
 
 Rigby, John, Esq. , Kirkham 
 
 Riley, George, Esq., Magistrates' Clerk, 
 
 Blackburn 
 Roberts, William, Esq., Hey wood Hall 
 Robinson, Arthur Ingram, Esq., Blackburn 
 Rochdale Public Free Library 
 Rylands, J. Paul, Esq., F.S.A., Highfields, 
 
 Thelwall, near Warrington 
 Rylands, W. H., Esq., Highfields, Thelwall 
 
 Salford Public Free Library 
 Savage, Tobias, Esq., Blackburn 
 Scott, T. Livesey, Esq., Hey wood 
 Shackleton, Richard, Esq., J. P., Withnell 
 
 Hall 
 Sefton, James, Esq., Blackburn 
 Sharpies, Henry, Esq., Blackburn 
 Shaw, Henry, Esq., J. P., Buxton 
 Shorrock, Eccles, Esq., J. P., Low Hill 
 
 House, Darwen 
 Shorrock, Christopher, Esq. , Lower Darwen 
 Shott, Wm., Esq., Manchester (two copies) 
 Siddall, Samuel, Esq., Blackburn 
 Skaife, John, Esq., M.D., Blackburn 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Slater, Jesse, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Slater, Thomas, Esq., Mill Hill, Livesey 
 
 Smith, John, Esq., Bank House, Blackburn 
 
 (Mayor of Blackburn 1867-9) 
 Smith, J. Stores, Esq., Chesterfield 
 Snape, Wm. Esq., J. P., Lynwood, Lower 
 
 Darwen 
 Spedding, WilUiam, Esq., Chorley 
 Spenser, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Starkie, Major Le Gendre Nicholas, J. P., 
 
 Huntroyd 
 Stephen, James, Esq., Blackburn (and one 
 
 small paper) 
 Stephenson, Wm. H., Esq., M.D., Blackburn 
 Stirrup, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 Stott, Rev. J. McEwan, M.A., Blackburn 
 
 Tattersall, John, Esq., Billinge View, Black- 
 bum 
 Taylor, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 Thompson, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Thwaites, Daniel, Esq., M.P., Billinge Scar 
 Tiplady, W.C, Esq., Blackburn 
 Tomlinson, John, Esq. , Blackburn 
 Tomlinson, Thomas, Esq., Blackburn 
 Toulmin, George, Esq., The Colonade, 
 
 Preston 
 Toulmin, John, Esq., Bushell Place, Preston 
 Townend, John, Esq., Shadsworth Hall, 
 Blackburn (two copies) 
 
 Varley, W. S., Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Veevers, Richard, Esq., Preston 
 
 Waddington, Wm. Angelo, Esq., Burnley 
 
 Walker, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Walmsley, Captain, Hoghton 
 
 Walmsley, L. S., Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Walsh, Jabez, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Walsh, William, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Ward, Henry, Esq., The Oaks, Clayton-in- 
 
 le-Dale 
 Watson, Joseph, Esq., Blackburn 
 Weild, George, Esq., Lower Bank Academy, 
 
 Blackburn 
 Westall, Robert, Esq., Shadsworth, Black- 
 bum 
 Whalley, C. W., Esq., Blackburn 
 Whalley, John, Esq., Blackburn 
 Whalley, Richard, Esq., Cherry Tree, 
 
 Livesey 
 Whewell, J., Esq., Darwen 
 Whittaker, Robert, Esq., Blackburn 
 Wilding, Richard, Esq., Blackburn 
 Wilkinson, William, Esq., Dunnow, Slaid- 
 
 bum 
 Wolstenholme, R., Esq., Blackburn 
 Wood, Richard, Esq., Whalley Range, 
 
 Manchester 
 Woodcock, Thomas, Esq., Haslingden (two 
 
 copies) 
 Woodcock,' James, Esq., Blackburn 
 
 Yates, Thomas, Esq., Burnley 
 
HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 BOOK I.— GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— ROMAN AND SAXON PERIODS. 
 
 Name — Physical Features — Aboriginal Condition — Roman Conquest and Occupation — Roman Roads 
 and Stations— Ribchester—Walton-in-ie-Dale — Romano-British Tumulus at Whitehall, Over 
 Darwen — Withdrawal of Roman Garrisons— Advent of Saxons — Saxon Wars — Battle of Billan- 
 gahoh — Conflicts of Saxons and Danes — Battle of Brunanburh — Danish Treasure discovered at 
 Cuerdale — Saxon Settlements in the Parish, and local Nomenclature. 
 
 BLACKBURN is the name borne since Saxon times by one of the 
 chief territorial divisions of Lancashire, as well as by a parochial 
 subdivision of that division and by a town or township within the parish 
 so named. It has been matter for curious but fruitless speculation how 
 the descriptive designation of one of the smallest of the streams that 
 water this extensive tract^the Blake-bume — should have come to be 
 adopted originally as the appellation of a shire — i.e. Blakebumeshyre, — 
 afterwards of the Hundred, in addition to its appropriation as the name 
 of a large parish of many townships constituted within the Hundred, 
 and naturally as that of the particular township through which the stream 
 runs in its short course of two or three miles. Had the town of Black- 
 bum been anciently a central fortified place of Blackbumshire, — the 
 seat of the chief lord of the district, — the comprehensive use of the 
 name would be more explicable ; but this is not the case. Blackburn 
 was not primitively either the civil or ecclesiastical centre of the 
 Hundred ; it was not even a corporate town, as Clitheroe, the focus of 
 
 I 
 
2 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Norman authority in East-Lancashire, or Preston, the capital of Amoun- 
 demess ; and it was not until a very modem date and through the esta- 
 blishment of manufactures within it, that the town of Blackburn became 
 distinguished in the district by its populousness and commercial supre- 
 macy. 
 
 It is intended to limit the present historical survey to that portion 
 of Blackburn Hundred forming the ancient Parish of Blackburn. This 
 Parish, at an early period not exactly ascertained, was separated from 
 the older parish of Whalley, as is mentioned in an ancient document 
 hereafter to be referred to. 
 
 The Parish of Blackburn is estimated to contain 43,569 statute 
 acres. Its physical geography is comprised chiefly in the northern slopes 
 of two ranges of hills which trend N.E. and S.W. across this portion of 
 Lancashire, and the valley Ijdng between these ranges. The series of 
 hills occupying the mid-portion of the parish is that which commences 
 with the rock of Hoghton and continues in the successive ridges of 
 Billinge Hill, Revidge Heights, Wilpshire Moor, and Billington Moor. 
 Mellor Moor and Ramsgreave Heights form a spur of the range. South- 
 ward of the Parish, forming its bound and the water-shed of Mid- 
 Lancashire, extend lofty moorlands, the largest masses of which are 
 Tockholes Moor, Darwen Moor, and Cranberry Moss. Cartridge Hill, 
 the westerly summit of these moors, rises 1,316 feet above the sea-level. 
 Projecting northwards from this range are the hills of lower altitude 
 between the townships of Over Darwen, Livesey and Tockholes, and, 
 more to the east, a ridge descending gradually from Blacksnape Heights 
 through Hoddlesden to Lower Darvven and Blackburn. These hills 
 surround the upper portion of the valley of the Darwen. The Ribble is 
 the boundary of the Parish on the north side, from end to end ; and the 
 Calder, a main affluent of the Ribble, is with its tributary the Hyndburn 
 the parish limit on the east. The river Dar^ven may be said to belong 
 to the parish through its entire course. Its source is among the swampy 
 wastes of Cranberry Moss, on the line of the division between Salford 
 and Blackburn Hundreds. It descends rapidly through the town of 
 Over Darwen, is joined at Dob Meadows by the Sunnyhurst brook, 
 passes through Lower, Darwen township, and thus reaches the township 
 of Blackburn, of which it is the boundary to the west. At Feniscliffe 
 bridge, in Witton Park, the Darwen is replenished by the Blakewater, a 
 stream which descends from the hills of Oswaldtwistle, combines to the 
 east of Blackburn with the Little Harwood brook, and flows through the 
 midst of the townships of Blackburn and Witton until it merges into the 
 Darwen. Another subsidiary stream is the Roddlesworth, which springs 
 on the high ground above HoUinshead Hall, flows northward between 
 
ABORIGINAL CONDITION. 3 
 
 the townships of Tockholes and Wheelton, and, until it mingles with the 
 Darwen, divides the Hundreds of Blackburn and Leyland. Its point of 
 junction is the grounds of Feniscowles Hall. Flowing onwards through 
 the ravine beneath Hoghton Tower, the Darwen is the boundary of the 
 Parish until the line branches off to embrace the township of Walton- 
 le-Dale on the left bank of the Darwen, which discharges itself into the 
 Ribble near Walton bridge. 
 
 No historic account of this or any other part of Britain exists of an 
 older date than the first Roman invasion. Accordingly, obscurity rests 
 upon the movements and settlements of the native races prior to that 
 period. The Romans, on their advent, found the northern provinces of 
 the country peopled by various tribes of Celtic extraction ; and of these 
 the great tribe of the Brigantes was reputed to be the most powerful. 
 The realm of the Brigantes was then, and had probably been for some 
 centuries, the belt of territory now embraced in the counties of Lanca- 
 shire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmoreland and Durham. The Roman 
 historians, in chronicling the spread of the Roman power in Britain, 
 became also the earliest annalists of a land destined one day to eclipse 
 their own in all the elements of national greatness. 
 
 When the civilisation of Greece was passing into senility, and even 
 that of Rome had attained its zenith, our island was still the hunting-ground 
 of savages. The face of the land was for the most part covered with 
 morass and forest, through which wandered naked men, who abhorred the 
 settled habits of systematic husbandry. The personal aspect of the 
 Brigantes and the British tribes generally is described by Strabo and 
 Tacitus. The Teutonic and Scandinavian types were found in the natives 
 of Southern England and Eastern Scotland ; but in the North of England 
 the inhabitants had the swarthy visage and black curly hair of the 
 Celtic variety of mankind. In stature, Strabo says, the Britons were 
 taller than the Gauls, but their limbs hung loosely, and their bodies were 
 not so symmetrically formed. The stalwart Brigantes of Lancashire, and 
 the intrepid Silures and Ordovices of Wales, were among the best types 
 of the nomadic races which filled the borders of Britain at the epoch 
 when our country emerges from the Cimmerian shadow oi a. terra incognita, 
 and first begins to figure in the written story of human development. 
 
 Dwelling, as they did, in rude and temporary habitations, and 
 having no towns of any note, it is not strange that the aborigines of this 
 country should have left few enduring marks behind them. The sole 
 vestiges of that period of British antiquity that Time still spares are the 
 ranges of massive stones which constituted their temples, and the earth- 
 mounds of their burial places. 
 
 Very slight traces of the ancient language of Britain survive in this 
 
4 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 locality. The geographical nomenclature of East Lancashire is almost 
 wholly Saxon. In the names of two or three of our hills and streams 
 the Celtic element is, however, recognised, as in that of our highest moun- 
 tain, Pendle (formerly Penhull), in which the first syllable is Celtic. Ribble, 
 Calder, Darwen, Irwell, the appellations of our principal rivers, possibly 
 are of British origin. Rigodumim, the ancient name of Ribchester, is said 
 also to be British, — that being one of the few urban settlements or 
 permanent fortresses of the Brigantes before the Roman appropriation 
 which raised it to the celebrity of a chief Roman station and city. 
 
 The first invasion of England, by Julius Cssar, took place 55 years 
 before Christ; but it was not until A.D. 78, that the Lancashire 
 aborigines were made effectually to feel the force of martial Rome. In 
 that year Agricola, the ablest general that ever commanded the 
 Roman army of occupation in Britain, was despatched hither. Having 
 pacified Wales during the winter, Agricola, in the spring of the year 79, 
 made preparations to consummate the conquest of the country lying 
 beyond the Mersey and the Humber. He concentrated at Deva 
 (Chester) the largest Roman force that had ever operated in Britain, 
 numbering, it is said, about 30,000 foot and 6,000 cavalry. He made a 
 preliminary survey of the country he now proposed to occupy, and then, 
 passing the Mersey, marched his army across the plains and mountains 
 of South and East Lancashire, into Yorkshire. The native warriors 
 offered what resistance they might in their desultory mode of fighting, 
 but they could make no stand against the disciplined legionaries of 
 Agricola, who at the end of a single year was master of all the fastnesses 
 of the Brigantes. 
 
 ROMAN ROADS AND STATIONS. 
 
 The slender testimony of history regarding the victories of the 
 Romans and the acts of their generals, is to some extent supplemented 
 by the mute but honest evidence afforded by the remains of the 
 engineering works they undertook, and of the military camps and civil 
 colonies they established. The Roman Roads of Britain exist to this 
 day, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, as proofs of the thoroughness 
 of the Roman conquest of the island. Lancashire presents abundant 
 remains of these wonderful roads, and the Parish of Blackburn contains 
 many interesting vestiges. Three of the four principal roads constructed 
 by the Romans in Lancashire traversed some portion of the Parish : — 
 I. The lower road from the south to Carlisle, intersected the township 
 of Walton-in-le-Dale. 2. The road from Manchester to Overborough 
 crossed the Parish at its broadest part. 3. The road from the sea to the 
 interior, which formed the conmiunication between the " Sistuntian Port" 
 
ROMAN ROADS. 5 
 
 (on the Wyre) and Ribchester, Ilkley-in-Wharfedale, Aldborough and 
 York, enters Blackburn Parish at Ribchester, by a ford over the Ribble, 
 and after traversing the townships of Salesbury, Dinkley, and Billington, 
 crosses the Calder at Potter Ford, a Httle below Whalley Abbey. 
 Besides the broad and solid Romans roads forming the great military 
 routes, a number of vicinal or branch roads, of much simpler construc- 
 tion, were used for communication between stations situated on parallel 
 lines of main road. In Blackburn district some of these vicinal ways 
 have been traced out. One such by-road proceeded along the vale of 
 Calder by Whalley to Burnley, and through Cliviger over the mountains 
 to Cambodunum (Slack). The late Rev. E. Sibson, in a paper 
 on the Roman Roads of the Wigan district, speaks of a road of this 
 kind which branched off eastward from Blackrod, "Street-fold and 
 Water-street, near Rivington, and by White Hough, in Tockholes, 
 to the small Roman station at Blackburn, near the new road to Preston." 
 "This road is traced in the fields near Anglezark, and a tradition is still 
 preserved among the inhabitants of that district, that this was the old 
 road to Blackburn." ' 
 
 The Roman military roads — the few great lines first constructed in 
 a newly-entered territory, to quicken the march of the cohorts and the 
 transport of material — were the most massive of their works in road- 
 making. The plan of their construction was as follows : — Two deep 
 furrows were cut parallel to each other, about twenty-one feet apart, and 
 the subsoil between them was dug out until a solid surface was reached. 
 This hollow was filled up with layers of small stones and gravel, in some 
 instances mingled with lime, and hammered down to a state of great 
 hardness. Upon the surface the road was paved with large pebbles 
 brought from the beds of streams, or with squared flagstones carefully 
 adjusted. The same road at different places is paved either with pebbles 
 or flag-stones, whichever lay convenient. The public roads, built when 
 the military roads were no longer equal to the commercial requirements 
 of the Roman colonists, were usually about fourteen feet in width, and 
 unpaved. The broad military roads were constructed with rigid geome- 
 trical accuracy, being carried forward in straight lines, regardless of 
 obstacles in the shape of bog-lands, steep gradients, or rough water- 
 courses. No deviation from the line was permitted, except an angle 
 might be struck at the summit of a hill, in order to preserve the high 
 ground through the remainder of the route. In the inferior roads the 
 straight line is less strictly kept, and the low courses of valleys are some- 
 times followed. These characteristics enable us generally to determine 
 to which of the varieties of construction any Roman road belongs. 
 
 1 Hist. Lane, first edn., v. iii, p. 585. 
 
6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester which bisected 
 the Parish of Blackburn had apparently been a military road of the first 
 importance. It was solidly underlaid with gravel and carefully paved ; 
 it preserves the straight line throughout, and it keeps the high ground, 
 commanding the country on either hand. Some Lancashire antiquaries 
 insist that this was the veritable Tenth Iter of Antoninus ; others, 
 influenced by the fact that Ribchester (Rigodunum) is not specified as 
 upon that Iter, pronounce the road through Wigan and Walton to be 
 the Tenth Iter — a road, judged by its existing remains, of inferior 
 construction to the higher road. However this may be, the road which 
 went through Blackburn parish and town was certainly one of the most 
 useful of the military ways of the Romans in the North of England. 
 It directly connected the two most renowned Roman stations in Western 
 Brigantia, namely, Mamucium (Manchester) and Rigodunum (Ribchester). 
 It enabled the Roman generals to penetrate the interior of the country, 
 and to overawe the sullen barbarians who made the vast woods of East 
 Lancashire their covert. It might well be that the construction of this 
 indispensable road was one of the chief works of the indomitable 
 Agricola in his second campaign (a.d. 79) ; and that throughout the 
 summer thousands of hardy Roman warriors swarmed upon this moun- 
 tain-track, some keeping guard on its highest summits, while the rest 
 diligently laid the road under the direction of the imperial engineers. 
 
 This road left Manchester at or near the line of the modern street 
 called " Strangeways," and continued for some miles along the ground 
 now traversed by the New Bury-road.' In the neighbourhood of Man- 
 chester every trace of the ancient pavement has been obliterated, but its 
 tradition is preserved in the name of a back-street upon the line in 
 Higher Broughton. The route passes through the village of Prestwich, 
 crosses the Irwell near Radcliffe Bridge, and proceeds about two miles 
 to the west of Bury, where it abuts upon a lane which still bears the 
 name of " Blackburn-street." Afterwards it runs by Tottington, Turton, 
 and Edgeworth, over the highest part of a hill called Offiside, and enters 
 the Parish of Blackburn a short distance to the south of the village of 
 Blacksnape. The writer has at various times examined the line of the 
 road from Blacksnape to Ribchester. Standing on the top of Black- 
 snape Heights, where the weather-beaten cottages of the coal-miners 
 straggle over the bare hill, a long stretch of the Roman route is visible 
 both southwards and northwards. The present highway from Bury to 
 Blackburn keeps very near to the ancient road for some miles until it 
 approaches Blackburn. In the valleys the modern road breaks away 
 
 1 See .in account of the road, with sketch-map of route, by John Just, in Memoirs of Manch. Lit. 
 and Phil. Soc, v. vii (N.S). pp-1-21. 
 
ROMAN ROADS. y 
 
 here and there from the straight line, to ease the descent and ascent, but 
 rejoins the Roman work where it approaches the summit of a ridge. 
 Looking south from Blacksnape the road is seen running boldly over the 
 brow of Offiside ; and in the opposite direction it pursues the high 
 ground of Lower Darwen township, descends the Whinny Heights into 
 the valley of the Blakewater, and again strikes the line on the tops 
 of Revidge, of Ramsgreave, and of Longridge Fell in the far distance. 
 The ordnance surveyors found that this road never swerved from the 
 direct line, except by a slight angle at Blacksnape. The remains of the 
 road itself are not easy of detection for a great portion of the distance. 
 Wherever the modem road stands on the old military agger it is 
 impossible that after the wear and tear and repairs of so many centuries 
 any external traces of the original pavement should present themselves. 
 In the neighbourhood of large populations, also, the constant disturbances 
 of the surface have effaced such remains ; and, again, in parts of the 
 route where the land has been repeatedly ploughed and drained, the 
 pavements laid by Agricola's legionaries have been torn up and 
 carted away by the farmer, with whom the interests of archaeology are 
 naught to the effectual clearance of the land from stones. Accordingly, 
 as a rule, the only spots at which complete and continuous portions 
 of the Roman roads can now be distinguished are where their firm, rigid 
 tracks cross unfrequented moorlands, and now and then on the surface 
 of unbroken pasture-land, or where the old road has been utilised as an 
 occupation-road upon the farms. In its descent from Blacksnape in the 
 direction of Blackburn, the Roman line is identical with that of the 
 highway for about half-a-mile, when the modem road bears a little to the 
 left where it is intersected by the old bye-road from Hoddlesden to 
 Darwen. At this point, under the wall at the comer at which the Roman 
 road enters the field, are some signs of a hard pavement, but through the 
 fields beyond a close inspection failed to detect any certain indication 
 until the minous tenements at Harwood Fold are reached. There, at 
 the comer of the field, remains on the exact line of the agger are exposed. 
 On the descent of the hill towards the coal-pit the footway down the fields, 
 precisely on the Roman line, is paved for some distance with thick flag- 
 stones. The ground hereabouts, if carefully examined, could hardly fail 
 to disclose evidences of Roman work. Passing the coal-pit on the left, 
 the Roman road rejoins the present road, at the point known as the 
 " Flash, " and thence it proceeds on nearly the same line, crossing the 
 Eccleshill Brook a little to the right of the bridge, through the village of 
 Blackamoor ; beyond it the present road once more bends to the left for 
 its descent into Blackburn. The Roman road still kept its undeviating 
 way, its direction being indicated by a tree standing in the middle of a 
 
8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 field at Whinny Heights, a short distance to the west of the Union 
 Workhouse. Crossing the Belthom road at Brandy House Brow, the 
 Roman road drops over the scarp of the stone-quarry. No remains of 
 the road have been noted where it crosses the town of Blackburn, but 
 the direct course it took would lie over the hill of Lower Audley to Cicely 
 Bridge, past the east end of the Railway Station, over the site of 
 Button's Brewery, across the thoroughfares of Salford, Penny Street, and 
 James Street. Thence, through the Brookhouse Fields, it ascended the 
 hill, and rejoined the modem road at the Hole i'th' Wall Inn, Shire 
 Brow. The Roman road then runs through the meadow on the left of 
 the highway to Lane Ends, over the site of the School. Here the heights 
 of Ramsgreave come in view, and the line of the Roman road is 
 hit by a farm-house on the top of that hill. It crossed the intervening 
 valley a little to the left of the farm-house of Higher Waves. In these 
 fields the traces of the road are slight and unsatisfactory. But when 
 the summit of Ramsgreave is passed, an interesting section of the agger is 
 presented. A well-paved farm-road goes down from the farm-yard into 
 the fields. From the top of this road, standing strictly on the line of 
 the Roman way, the Ribble valley is seen spreading itself finely before 
 the spectator. A little to the west, on the summit of Mellor Moor, are 
 still to be seen the fosse and vallum of a small Roman camp of observa- 
 tion. Ribchester, once the centre of Roman power in these parts, is well 
 in view at the bottom of the extended valley, and lines of fences mark 
 out the track of the road from where we stand to the Ribble bank opposite 
 the station. As the background to Ribchester rises Longridge Fell, and 
 the plain appearance of a lighter strip running across the dark sward of 
 the Fell shows the continuation of this great road to the top of 
 Longridge. The lane to which we have referred ends in a footpath, 
 following which for about three hundred yards is come upon a palpable 
 specimen of Roman road. For several yards the pavement lies bare 
 and regular in the midst of the pasture, every stone lying where the 
 Roman road-maker set it in the first century of the Christian era. The 
 pebbles or boulders of which this pavement is composed are very 
 similar in size to those which were used for the streets of our English 
 towns before the general substitution of squared " setts." Beneath the 
 paved surface is a hard bed of gravel, the depth of which could only 
 be ascertained by hacking up a portion of the road. A little further on 
 in these fields, before reaching the cottages, a second portion of the 
 agger appears distinct above the ground. Again, near the gate at the 
 end of the occupation road which runs forward from Midge Hall, another 
 perfect example of the road is exposed to view. On reaching the 
 farm-house called Har^vood Fold (the second homestead of that 
 
kdMAN kOADS. 5 
 
 name which stands upon the road in this parish), once more appears 
 an obvious specimen of the pavement at the margin of the meadow, 
 just beyond the farm-yard. The vestiges here mentioned are but the 
 results of superficial examinations ; — if arrangements could be made to 
 cut across a segment of the road in the vicinity of these remains, useful 
 information as to the dimensions and substratum of the road might be 
 supplied. After leaving Harwood Fold, the agger crosses the Preston and 
 Whalley turnpike some hundreds of yards to the east of the Royal Oak 
 Inn, advances across the fields past Stubby-Lee House, and down 
 the occupation-road towards Ribchester. On reaching the high bank of 
 the Ribble, the road is for the first time diverted by a sharp angle and 
 carried down to the ford of the river below Ribchester Bridge. 
 
 The second road carried through a portion of the Parish by the 
 Romans during their occupancy of the island, is that which extends 
 from the Sistuntian Port to York. Near Ribchester this road crossed to 
 the south bank of Ribble, and passed a short distance above Salesbury 
 Hall. Mr. Just, who carefully surveyed the road, observes^ : — 
 
 Fine continuous remains hence mark the course of the road, and the investigator 
 can see the line before him now in bold elevations across the fields, or, still more 
 marked, near farm houses and outbuildings, and not unfrequently in occupation roads, 
 from such continuing along the Roman line for early and present advantage. 
 
 From Salesbury the road advances into Dinkley, and then crosses Dink- 
 ley Brook below Langho Chapel. It proceeds in a direct line behind 
 Brockhole to Hacking, where it runs in the rear of the Hall, and had its 
 ford over the Calder below the modem crossing-place at Potter's Ford. 
 What seems to be a section of the agger is a very evident rib crossing 
 the large field immediately to the south of Crow Wood, exactly on the 
 line of road as marked by the ordnance surveyors. Beyond the Calder 
 the route is through the Parish of Whalley to the Yorkshire border. 
 
 The other Roman road to the North, through Wigan, Preston, and 
 Lancaster, at Walton-in-le-Dale crosses an extremity of the Parish. Mr. 
 Hardwick, who has made diligent search for Roman remains in Walton 
 township, and was the first to demonstrate the existence there of a 
 considerable Roman station, asserts that a " broad agger is still trace- 
 able " southward from the Ribble through Walton village ; that " during 
 the erection of Mr. Calvert's shed, which crosses its line," the workmen 
 " came upon a compact mass of road material, so hard that a jjickaxe 
 could scarcely penetrate it ;" and that " near Brownedge Chapel there 
 appears still to exist a large fragment of the Roman highway, now used 
 as a private road, but marked on the ordnance map as 'Mainway gate."" 
 
 I Hist. Soc. Lane, and Ches. Papers, v. iii, p. 6. 2 lb. v. viii, p. 13B. 2 
 
lo HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Other traces of the causeway, both to the north of Ribble and to the 
 south of Walton, authenticate this hne of road, and prove that the 
 Romans possessed duphcate Hnes of road and stations throughout the 
 length of the county. Whether the two great parallel roads were 
 constructed simultaneously ; or, if not, which of the twain was first 
 undertaken, is unknown ; but it has been suggested that the difficulties 
 of the more elevated route over Blacksnape, Longridge, and 
 Croasdale caused it, as the country became pacified, to be neglected for 
 the level and less-exposed road through the plains of West Lancashire. 
 The cross-road from Ribchester to Preston would supply a roundabout 
 communication with Manchester, Lancaster, and the other Lancashire 
 stations. In summer the highland road would be practicable and even 
 pleasant, but during the gales and snows of winter even the inured 
 Roman soldiery might be fain to seek a more sheltered path. 
 
 It is not necessary here to extend the retrospect of the long period 
 of the Roman occupation of Britain. That occupation endured, so far 
 as this part of the island is concerned, for about 369 years, from the 
 advance of Agricola, a.d. 79, to the final withdrawal of the Roman 
 garrisons, about the year 448. The tranquillity of subjection established 
 by the considerate policy of Agricola lasted, with occasional interruptions, 
 for more than a century ; and the prosperity of the empire of Rome, in 
 which its British colonies shared, culminated in the reign of Antoninus 
 Pius, who acceded in the year 138. In the preceding reign the Emperor 
 Adrian conducted in person a series of military operations against the 
 tribes of North Britain, and built the celebrated wall which bears his 
 name from Solway to Wallsend on the Tyne. From the middle of the 
 second century the degeneracy of the Roman government and people 
 was rapid, and the anarchy of the home provinces influenced for ill the 
 condition of the distant dependencies of Rome. In the year 208 
 Britain received another imperial visitor, the Emperor Severus, who, 
 hearing that the colony was overrun by marauders out of Caledonia, 
 hastened hither to restore order and to reduce these northern tribes. 
 Severus established his court at Eboracum (York), where, in the year 
 211, he died. Again, a.d. 306, Constantine, who had been declared 
 Emperor of the western half of the partitioned empire, sojourned in 
 Britain, and also died at York, when his son, Constantine the Great, was 
 proclaimed emperor in that city. The garrisons of the Romans in 
 Britain consisted, for many generations after the conquest, of three legions 
 — the Second, spread over the southern provinces of the country ; the 
 Sixth, whose head quarters were at York ; and the Twentieth, which was 
 quartered at Chester, with detachments at various stations in the north- 
 western territory. 
 
Roman stations— ribchester. it 
 
 ROMAN RIBCHESTER. 
 
 Of the numerous stations occupied by the Romans in Lancashire, 
 those of Rigodunum (Ribchester), and Coccium (Walton), were situate in 
 the lower portion of the Vale of Ribble. Ribchester was a station of the 
 first importance. Rigodunum was the name by which it was kno^vn to 
 Ptolemy as a British post. The ancient name of its beautiful river was 
 Belisama. The Roman nomenclature of the place is not yet satisfactorily 
 settled. It stands as Coccium on the Tenth Iter of Antoninus, if we 
 accept for that Iter the great road from Manchester to Overborough ; 
 and a local antiquary made an ingenious attempt to find the etymology 
 of Coccium in Rigodunum. But subsequent researches in the perplexed 
 subject of the Roman topography of Lancashire have led to the fixing of 
 Coccium at Walton-in-le-Dale. 
 
 The position of Ribchester, lying in the centre of the Lancashire 
 portion of the valley of the Ribble, was, in a military point of view, at 
 once commanding and secure. Across Ribchester, the valley shows its 
 greatest expanse, and one of the few fords of the river is hard by. The 
 station stood, like the modem village, on the north side of the Ribble, 
 protected in front by the steepness of the other bank and by the deej) 
 pools of the river ; and having to the east a natural defence in the brook 
 which there descends into the Ribble. The western wall was washed by 
 a small canal connected with the river below Anchor Hill. In the rear 
 the ground is sufficiently open to permit of effectual precaution against 
 surprise. Moreover, the station occupied the intersection of two 
 principal roads of the Romans in the north-west of England, which 
 supplied the city with four grand routes, answering to the four points of 
 the compass, affording direct communication with every portion of the 
 British colony. The foundation of the Roman station here is supposed 
 to date from the latter years of the first century. The notion that 
 Ribchester was a Roman seaport, occasioned by the discovery there of 
 small anchors, mooring rings, and other nautical implements, has been 
 exploded. The Ribble could never have been a tidal and navigable 
 water up to Ribchester since the geologic epoch, incomputably remote, 
 when the marshy lands of West Lancashire emerged from the sea, for 
 those districts lie considerably below the level of Ribchester ; and as we 
 know that the Romans had both stations and roads in the Fylde 
 country, it is obvious that Roman shipping could at no time have been 
 floated on the tides of Ribble so far inland. The anchors and rings 
 seen at Ribchester must have belonged to barges employed to ferry men 
 and stores across the river opposite to " Anchor Hill." The area of the 
 Roman circumvallation at Ribchester is ascertained to have been about 
 
12 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 ten statute acres. The length of the rectangle of the fortifications was 
 300 yards, and its breadth from 130 to 140 yards. Over a considerable 
 portion of this area the current of the Ribble now flows. The river, 
 after running due west until it reaches Ribchester, bends quickly to 
 the south opposite the village, the situation of which, being at the 
 outer edge of the curve, is exposed to the inroads of the current. The 
 Ribble is subject to heavy floods after continued rains, being fed by 
 many streams coming down from the fells, and on these occasions large 
 portions of the north bank are frequently torn away by the impetuous 
 torrent, in spite of recent attempts to break its force by facing the bank 
 with massive stones. This process of encroachment, going on without 
 intermission for 1,800 years since the Roman ramparts were reared, has 
 shifted the bed of the river at this point to an extent more than equal to 
 the width of the stream ; and has submerged about one-third of the site 
 of the ancient station. The eastern angle of the Roman camp now lies 
 separated from the rest of the area on the south side of the Ribble, and 
 within the township of Clayton-in-le-Dale in Blackburn Parish. 
 
 The limited dimensions of the walled enclosure at Ribchester may 
 hardly be consonant with the conception of a populous and spacious 
 city ; but it should be considered that these lines only covered the camp 
 of the Roman garrison. According to the Roman castrametal system, 
 even such an area as that of Ribchester was capable of holding in an 
 emergency one entire legion with its auxiliaries, about 9,000 men. The 
 villas of the affluent and the huts of the indigent civilians of ancient 
 Ribchester might, at the period of its highest prosperity, surround for 
 some distance the military enclosure. The garrison of Ribchester con- 
 sisted, as appears from inscriptions found there, of detachments of the 
 Sixth Legion from Eboracum, of the Twentieth Legion from Deim, and 
 of wings of the Sarmatian horse and of the Astures — auxiliaries brought 
 from distant subject territories of the empire. The Sarmatians, who 
 were of the same race with the Cossack horsemen of the modern Russian 
 armies, are believed to have constituted the ordinary garrison of this 
 station. 
 
 A brief summary of the numerous discoveries of antiquities which 
 have been made at this famous spot may not be out of place in these 
 pages. The earliest note of the remains here is made by Leland, anti- 
 quary to Henry VIIL, who made his itineration of the kingdom 
 within the years 1544-50. He leaves of the Ribchester of his day this 
 short but expressive record : — " Ribchestre is a vii. miles above Preston, 
 on the farther Ripe of Ribyl as Prestun is. Ribchestre is now a 
 poore thing ; it hath been an aunciente towne. Great squarid stones, 
 voultes, and antique coynes be founde ther ; and ther is a place wher the 
 
ROMAN STATIONS— RIBCHESTER. 13 
 
 people fable that the Jues had a temple [the common folk attributed 
 Roman remains to the Jews]. Whaulley Abbay a 4 miles above Ribchestre 
 on the same Ripe. Sawley Abbay a — miles above that, but it stondith 
 ripa citeriori. There is no Bridge on Rible betwixt Prestun and the Se. 
 It flouith and ebbith in Ribyl most communely more then half way up 
 betwixt Prestun and Ribchestre, and at ragis of Spring Tydes farther.'" 
 
 Camden, who was at Ribchester twice, in 1582 and 1603, published 
 a description of the visible vestiges of the Roman city, and offered deci- 
 pherings of the inscriptions, some of which have been corrected by 
 subsequent writers. In the account of his first visit Camden writes : — 
 " Here the Ribell, presently turning west, gives its name to a village at 
 present called Riblechester, where so many remains of Roman antiquities, 
 statues, coins, columns, capitals, bases of columns, altars, marbles, and 
 inscriptions are continually dug up, that the inhabitants seem not much 
 mistaken in their lame rhyming proverb : — 
 
 It is written upon a wall in Rome, 
 
 Ribchester was as rich as any town in Christendom.^ 
 
 More than a century later (1725) an able antiquary. Dr. Stukeley, 
 examined the spot, and his observations are printed in the Jtinerarium 
 Curiosum." His narrative of the aspect of the place and the inroads of 
 the river is graphic, and well worthy of quotation : — 
 
 The River Ribble is very broad at this place, rapid and sonorous, running over 
 the pebbles, and, what is much to be lamented, over innumerable Roman antiquities ; 
 for in this long tract of time it has eaten away a third part of the city. I traced round 
 the old ground plot, and where the wall and ditch went round it, it lay in length east 
 and west along the north side of the river, upon its brink, eight hundred feet long and 
 five hundred feet broad. . . Originally, I apprehend, two streets ran along its 
 length, and three crossed them at its breadth. By symmetry I find the whole channel 
 of the river lies at present within the precinct of the old city, the original channel on 
 the other side being filled up with the city walls and rubbish, for it bends with a great 
 elbow towards the city. The eastern limit of the city, or that upward of the river, 
 lies against a brook, there falling in ; and the two streams playing against that angle, 
 have carried it away, and still threaten it. At the western end of the city, or down 
 the stream, a whole road, and some houses too, by a bam, are absorbed, and a great 
 quantity of ashler, the remains of the wall, has been carried off for building. Much 
 remains in the ground, and on the edge of the stream. Further up the land and all 
 along the west side of the church wall the ditch is perfect, and the rampart where the 
 wall stood pretty high, and the foundation of the wall a little apparent. They tell me 
 the ashler stone still lies its whole length. 
 
 Dr. Stukeley further describes that a subterraneous canal or sewer, 
 paved at the bottom, and high enough for a man to walk upright in it, 
 entered the river just below the Red Lion Inn. The current there 
 was so strong at times that " two or three bridges had in modem times 
 
 1 Hearne's Leland, v. iv, pp. 22-3. 2 Cough's Camden, v. iii, p. 378. 3 V. ii, pp. 36-38. 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 been swept away by floods." The hostelry referred to had been partially 
 built out of the Roman ruins ; its doorway was " the base of a pillar, 
 and a most noble shaft, seven feet long, handsomely turned, which was 
 fished up out of the river;" and "one corner of the house had a Roman 
 partition wall." As an example of the aggression of the river upon the 
 bank, Stukeley relates that "within memory a great many houses 
 (and among them the chief inn of the town) were washed away"; and 
 " further on do^vn the river a great part of an orchard fell down last 
 year (1724)." This writer enumerates a great quantity of minor relics 
 which had recently been picked up at the time of his visit, such as frag- 
 ments of pottery, two intaglios of Mercury, gold and brazen fingers 
 broken from images, &c. 
 
 John Horsley, who published in 1733 \\i^ Britannia Romaiia, 01; 
 Roman Antiquities of Britain, supplies additional particulars in regard 
 to the altars exhumed at Ribchester, with amended readings of their 
 inscriptions. He also gives representations of inscriptions found on 
 isolated stones about the place. Of one of these inscribed slabs, "lying 
 at the door of a dwelling house," he remarks that " it has probably been 
 an honorary monument to Severus and Caracalla, for the other inscrip- 
 tions to these Emperors begin much after the same manner. It has 
 been erected by a vexillation of one of the legions, but which of them 
 is not so certain. The place lies most in the way of the Twentieth 
 Legion, quartered at Chester." The inscription in question is rendered 
 thus : — " Imperatori Ccesari. Imperatori Ccesari. Vexillatio Legionis. 
 Sub. Sextis." Of a second fragmentary inscription noted by Horsley — 
 and deciphered as " Imperatori Ccesari. Marco Aurelio. Consul 
 Pontifici Maximo. Tribicnitia Fotestaie" — that author says : — " The 
 form of this looks somewhat like a miliary pillar. It was lying in a 
 garden at the west end of the town, and near the river. So much of 
 the inscription is quite effaced as makes it hard to guess at the meaning 
 of the whole."^ 
 
 A remarkable batch of relics of the Roman period was accidentally 
 turned up at Ribchester in the year 1796. In a hole which had been 
 made in some waste land near the bend of the Ribble, in front of the 
 village, a youth named Walton discovered, about nine feet below the 
 surface, a group of articles of Roman manufacture, which had 
 apparently been secreted at the spot, and surrounded by a quantity of 
 sand. The most striking of these objects was a beautiful bronze helmet, 
 richly ornamented with embossed figures. Along with this was a small 
 Sphinx of the same metal, which had probably fonned the crest of the 
 helmet ; also a bust of Minerva, three inches in diameter ; the remains 
 
 1 Brit. Rom., p. 302. 
 
ROMAN STATIONS— RIBCHESTER. 
 
 *S 
 
 of vases, a number of circular brazen plates with mouldings, a circular 
 plate with hinges for four buckles, carved and gilt ; a number of paterae ; 
 portions of a candelabrum ; and, besides some smaller articles, a circular 
 basin of earthenware, with the words inscribed upon it "Boriedi qfficina" 
 supposed to be the name of the maker. The material of most of these 
 remains was bronze. There were also found at the same time the tusk 
 of a boar, and fragments of wood implements. The whole collection 
 was purchased by Mr. Charles To^vnley, of Townley Hall, by whom a 
 description thereof was given in a letter to the Society of Antiquaries. 
 The helmet is now to be seen at the British Museum, and several 
 engravings of this fine work of Roman metallurgy have been published. 
 Describing the workmanship of this handsome relic Mr. Townley 
 writes : — 
 
 The helmet deserves the particular attention of the curious as the remains of 
 remote ages ; very few ancient ones, decorated with embossed figures, have as yet 
 appeared. The three or four which are preserved in the Museum at Portici are 
 esteemed to be the most richly ornamented, and the best as to state of workmanship ; 
 but when this helmet was in its proper state, it must have been equal, at least, to those 
 in point of decoration, and in respect to its having a visor imitating so exactly the 
 human features, I believe it to be the only ancient example of the kind that has yet 
 been discovered. This singularity may excite a doubt whether such a helmet was 
 destined for real combat, or only for the enrichment of occasional trophies which were 
 erected in the celebration of military festivals, or carried in procession amongst the 
 Greeks and Romans. Trophies of this sort are seen on various medals, with the 
 names of the people whose subjugation such trophies are meant to record inserted 
 upon them, as, for example, De .Sarmatis — De Germanis, on the medals of 
 Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. The superior style of workmanship of the mask to 
 the headpiece is also remarkable ; in the former, the beauty of the features, the 
 excellent work of the figures in relief, and more particularly the sharp edges and lines 
 with which the eyebrows, eyelids and lips are marked, after the manner of the Grecian 
 art preceding the Coesars, denote it to have been executed some ages before the head- 
 piece, the coarse and heavy work of which corresponds with that of the artists 
 employed in the reign of Septimus Severus, and particularly with the sculpture upon 
 the arch of that Emperor, situated near the Capitol Hill of Rome.' 
 
 Dr. T. D. Whitaker paid much attention to the Roman remains 
 at Ribchester, and brought his classic knowledge to bear upon their 
 elucidation. Whitaker revised the readings of partially-destroyed 
 inscriptions suggested by Camden, Leigh and Horsley. Amongst the 
 inscribed stones mentioned by Camden, Whitaker states that a votive 
 stone was in his time remaining in a garden wall in the village ; and 
 another stone with the inscription, "Legio XX. Valerian vidricis fecit," 
 which the doctor thinks had been the comer-stone of a building, was 
 still to be seen in an outhouse by the church. The latter stone, he says. 
 had then " two sides exposed, and on the second was a rude figure 
 
 1 Vetusta Monumenta, v. iv, pp. 1-12. 
 
l6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of a boar, the well-known cognisance of the Twentieth Legion." This 
 stone is stated to be now at the mansion of the Whitakers, The Holme. 
 Dr. Whitaker remarks, further, that " besides inscriptions, the smaller 
 antiquities discovered here are innumerable ; the coins, of which 
 many are found of the large brass, are generally so much corroded as to 
 be scarcely legible. Denarii of the upper empire are not uncommon. 
 A very pretty intaglio in a ruby is engraved by Leigh ; and I have a 
 gold ring, found here some years since, set with a cornelian of many 
 faces, with a dove in the centre, and round it the words ' Ave mea vita,' 
 the present, as it should seem, of a lover to his mistress. Tradition also 
 records a singular discovery at Ribchester, viz., the skull of an ox, 
 covered with some remains of leather, and studded with gold." Both 
 Camden and Horsley had noted certain stones of Roman character 
 built in the structure of Salesbury Hall, at a short distance from 
 Ribchester, and Whitaker was enabled to give a stricter description, 
 the stone being removed from the wall in his presence, in 1815 : — 
 
 I had long suspected that if ever the stone containing the sculpture of Apollo, 
 which stood as a comer-stone at Salesbury, were removed, one of the two concealed 
 sides would exhibit Camden's inscription ; and when, by the favour of Lord Bulkeley, 
 the stone had been detached from the situation it had occupied during two centuries, I 
 beheld the original, which had been so strangely misrepresented. The connection 
 between the sculpture and the inscription now became obvious. On the front side is a 
 basso-relievo of Apollo, reposing upon his lyre, better designed than any work of a 
 Romano-British artist I have ever seen. On the second are the figures of two pnests 
 in long robes holding the head of some horned animal between them ; on the third is 
 the inscription ; the fourth is rough — had been originally attached to a wall. It now 
 turns out to be a dedication to Apollo Aponus, or the indolent Apollo (or, as it may 
 be read, Apollo the Healer), the god of medicine, who restores health by relaxation 
 or repose, on behalf of an emperor who unfortunately is not mentioned. This accounts 
 for the reposing attitude of the principal figure.' 
 
 This altar became the property of Dr. Whitaker, and, with other 
 antiquities, was bequeathed by him to St. John's College, Cambridge. 
 A rude figure of Hercules is noticed by Whitaker as being, in like 
 manner, built into the wall of Osbaldeston Hall ; this, too, was sub- 
 sequently removed to Tabley Old Hall, in Cheshire. Other remains 
 were brought to light during the lifetime of this historian, and received 
 the benefit of his exhaustive commentary. In the year 181 1 were 
 exposed the foundations of an extensive Roman temple at Ribchester. 
 Some workmen were employed on the bank of the Ribble, opposite the 
 Church, to stop the encroachments of the current, when they came 
 upon the bases of two strong and well-cemented walls, standing nearly 
 north and south, and parallel with each other at the distance of about 
 
 I Hist. Whalley, new edn. . v. i, pp. 23-24. 
 
ROMArJ STATIONS— RlBCttESTER. tf 
 
 'j2 feet. Portions of the floor of the edifice were found within the 
 included space, and close to the southern end lay a large inscribed slab, 
 which unluckily was shattered by the workmen. On the fragments being 
 adjusted, however, the complete inscription was presented, which was 
 deciphered by Whitaker as follows : — " Dea MinervcB — Pro salute 
 Imperaioris Akxandri Augusti, et yulia, matris Domini Nostri, et 
 castrorum suorum, et Valerii, Crescentis Fulviani legaii, Provimim Fresidisj 
 proprcetore, Natalis legatus Frcepoienti et Regime iemplum a solo restituit et 
 dedicavit." (To the Goddess Minerva, — for the safety of the Emperor 
 Alexander Augustus, and of Julia, mother of our lord and of his camps, 
 and of Valerius Crescens Fulvianus his lieutenant, governor of the 
 province, the proprietor, Natalis the lieutenant, restored this temple and 
 dedicated it to the most powerful goddess and queen). The historic 
 value of this inscription is considerable ; it proves the existence of a 
 temple, formerly desolated and then restored, and dedicated to the 
 Goddess Minerva, to an image of whom the helmet to which we 
 have made reference may have belonged ; and it adds new names to the 
 previously-known list of Roman legates in Britain. The interest aroused 
 by this discovery was great, and two years afterwards, in the summer of 
 1813, renewed investigations were made on the spot, with successful 
 results, recorded fully in the History of Richmondshir^: — 
 
 Leave having been obtained to dig in the adjoining gardens, between the river 
 and the churchyard, the first appearances, at the depth of about three feet, were a 
 stratum of charcoal, evidently formed by the conflagration of the roof, and nearly in 
 the centre a cavity in the earth had been made, by the uniting of the ends of the 
 beams at their fall, large enough to contain a man sitting. Beneath this was a 
 confused mass of large amphorae, some almost entire at first, and many beautiful 
 remnants of paterae in the red Samian ware, mingled with which lay several human 
 skeletons, all of the largest size, in every direction. Every appearance about the 
 place indicated that it had been taken by storm, and that the defenders had been buried 
 in the ruins of the roof ; but the absence of tiles or slates seemed to prove that the 
 outer covering of the building had been previously stripped by the assailants. Herej 
 too, was found a very curious Roman statera or steelyard, very exactly graduated, and 
 a singular bodkin of polished stone. The progress of discovery was once more 
 suspended, till the sexton, digging a grave where no interment had taken place before, 
 on the left hand of the entrance of the churchyard, found the base of a column and an 
 anta or square moulded comer of the naoi itself, upright and in their original 
 situations. Measurements were now accurately made from the place where the inscrip- 
 tion was found (which must have been the front of the building) to the base of the 
 column. This gave the entire length, excepting one intercolumniation, for the whole 
 had evidently had a peristyle. The distance of the anta from the column, by the rules of 
 architecture, gave the distance also between column and column ; by which data, 
 with the help of a very conspicuous line of mortar about 45 feet westward in the 
 church.yard, the site of the west wall was ascertained ; a ground plan of the building 
 
 I v. ii. p. 464. 
 
 3 
 
l8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 was laid down ; after which, by the known proportions of Doric architecture, a 
 complete elevation was obtained. . . Let all these circumstances be laid together, 
 and it will scarcely be doubted that this was a temple of Minerva, restored by 
 command of Caracalla ; that the temple had been stormed and burned in some 
 eruption of the Caledonians, during the last period of Roman power in Britain ; and 
 that the precious object of worship itself had been carefully deposited in the earth, on 
 the approach of the threatened danger. Within a few yards of the east wall of the 
 temple was disclosed the statue of a lion, of tolerable workmanship, which, from the 
 roughness of one side, must have been an architectural ornament. 
 
 The dimensions of the temple, deduced by architectural rules 
 from the above data, were — length, 112 feet; breadth, about 72 feet; 
 with sixteen columns in the front. The last of Whitaker's discoveries 
 was that of the lower part of an altar among the stonework of a dilapi- 
 dated chimney in a house in Ribchester. The inscription upon it was 
 almost effaced. In the year 1819, the Rev. S. J. Allen, of Salesbury, 
 reported that another altar was found in the basement of the White Bull 
 Inn. In 1829, again, some Roman coins were dug up at Anchor Hill, 
 along with pieces of a Saxon cross and other Saxon relics. In 1833, 
 another notable discovery was recorded. This was a fine altar which 
 was taken out of the churchyard. This altar stood for years in the lobby 
 of the Vicarage, but it has recently been sold to the Marquis of Rothwell. 
 The altar is two feet six inches in height, one foot ten inches in breadth, 
 and one foot seven inches in depth. Its sides are ornamented with vine- 
 branches, and on its front is an inscription, very clearly chiselled, but 
 mutilated on the lower left-hand comer by the breaking of the altar 
 block. The legible lines read thus : — " Pro salute et vidorix invicti 
 Imperatoris Marci Aurelii Severi Antonini Fit, felicis Augusti, et Julice 
 AugustcB, mairi Domini et castrorum." (For the health and victory of 
 the unconquered Emperor Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius, 
 the fortunate Augustus, and Julia Augusta, mother of the Emperor and 
 of the camps.) The emperor in whose behalf this altar was reared, 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, reigned from a.d. 161 to 180, within which 
 period the work must have been executed and dedicated. When found 
 it bore marks of the action of fire, and with it were secured a fibula, or 
 brooch, a ring of brass, a bulla, inscribed with some illegible 
 characters, and three coins, one of Trajan, another of Valerian, the third 
 with its superscription obliterated. 
 
 Numberless small matters have been found at intervals during the 
 last forty years, both at Ribchester itself and at places adjacent. Many 
 coins of gold and silver have fallen into the hands of various persons 
 from time to time. In the year 1837, workmen digging in the garden of 
 the late Mr. Patchett, surgeon, reached the paved floor of what was 
 suggested to be a Roman bath, but might as probably be a Roman villa. 
 
1 « » * 
 

 SErui.cUKAi. Slab with Roman Sculi'TURk in relief, taki;n out 
 
 01' THE RlBBLE, OPPOSITE RlBCHESTER, Al'RIL 8Ti[, 1876. 
 
 .SV*- .tjifJi'U'ti.v. 
 
ROMAN STATIONS— RIBCHESTER. 19 
 
 The dimensions of the discovered apartment were ascertained to be 
 thirty feet by fifteen feet. The walls of it still stood four feet above the 
 floor, and were three feet thick. Some stone pillars, about a foot in 
 height, were taken out in the excavation. Many of the tiles of the floor 
 were removed, and underneath was found a layer of cement, upon a 
 course of boulder-pavement similar to that of the Roman causeways. 
 At Hanvood Fold, in the township of Clayton-le-Dale, by which passed 
 the Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester, there was found, in 
 1834, a perfect and finely-wrought fibula of bronze ; this passed into the 
 possession of Mr. John Eccles, of Leyland. The figure of a Roman 
 standard-bearer, at Standen Hall, near Clitheroe, may have been brought 
 from Ribchester. 
 
 The latest systematic scrutiny of the vestiges of Roman Ribchester 
 took place August 20th, 1850, on the occasion of the visit of the 
 Archaeological Association. For this Congress extensive excavations 
 were authorised, and numerous articles were found in the trenches dug, 
 both near the western wall and in the gardens at the eastern comer 
 of the station. A statement of the discoveries here was prepared for 
 the Association by the late Mr. Harland and Mr. Just. The excavations 
 of 1850 "laid bare the outer wall to its foundation on the western side. 
 It consists of loose stones without mortar, or the cement grouting 
 common to such foundations. On the opposide side, in the angle 
 between the river and the junction of the brook, a large quantity 
 of Roman pottery was found, consisting of numerous fragments of Samian 
 ware, chiefly of paterae, many marked with the potter's name ; one 
 ampulla, with both handles perfect, and others broken ; fragments 
 of glass, of common pottery, nails, bones of animals, in which were tusks 
 of boars and swine, five Roman coins, three of which are silver, but are 
 much corroded ; two of the coins appear to be coins of Vespasian and 
 Titus, the third of Vitelius; two of copper, much corroded, but 
 apparently of the same period.'" Similar specimens of pottery, of various 
 descriptions, including the Samian ware, are still continually turning up ; 
 the writer has himself found a number of interesting remains of this 
 character. 
 
 The coins recovered here embrace within their dates more than 
 three centuries of the epoch of the Roman occupation of Britain. They 
 begin with coins of Augustus, B.C. 29 to 14; and include coins of Titus 
 Vespasian, 79 to 81, a.d. ; of Nerva, 96 to 98 ; of Trajan, 98 to 117 ; 
 of Hadrian, 117 to 138 j of Commodus, 180 to 192; of Septimus 
 Severus, 193 to 211; of Caracalla, 211 to 217; of Dioclesian, the 
 persecutor of the Christians, 284 to 305 a.d. ; and one of a Christian 
 
 I Journal Brit. Archseol. Assn., v. vi, p. 249. 
 
20 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 emperor, bearing the cross and the motto of Constantino, " in hoc stgno 
 vinces}" 
 
 Could the whole of the objects of Roman work disinterred at 
 Ribchester be brought together, they would display a collection as varied 
 and as rich as have been procured from any single station of the Romans 
 in Britain. But they are now irrecoverably scattered, and are chiefly 
 hidden from public view in the cabinets of private collectors. The 
 resident student in Roman archaeology must therefore content himself 
 with such acquaintance with these remains as he can make through the 
 medium of written descriptions by those who had the good fortune 
 to inspect them on their discovery. 
 
 The recent extension of the churchyard at Ribchester on the west 
 side of the Roman site may lead to further disclosures of buried remains 
 in the course of time. In the excavation of graves in the new ground, 
 the Roman level is reached at a depth of three or four feet, defined by 
 charred portions of oaken beams, and a layer of charcoal in which are 
 contained fragments of Roman pottery, human bones, and other sugges- 
 tive relics. The most interesting object yet secured in the new cemetery 
 is a staiera (the Roman steelyard), found in the spring of 1874 by the 
 sexton when digging a grave. This instrument is perfect in its parts ; 
 the lever is of brass, with distinct graduation and numeral letters ; the 
 suspenders and hooks of brass ; and the two weights of lead, conical- 
 shaped. The steelyard lay embedded in the ashes of burnt timber. 
 
 THE ROMAN STATION AT WALTON. 
 
 The claim of a Roman foundation has been advanced on behalf of 
 Walton-in-le-dale in this parish. It is but recently that evidences of the 
 existence of a Roman station at Walton have been disclosed, although 
 the probability of such a station on the Ribble, in the neighbourhood 
 of Preston, had been previously recognised. This belief was the 
 sequence to the fact that a Roman military road traversed the west side 
 of the County, and crossed the Ribble in that vicinity. It was not to 
 be supposed that the Romans would leave so critical a point as the ford 
 of a large river unguarded by camp or fort, or permanent garrison. Mr. 
 Sibson, in a lengthy contribution on the Roman ways of West Lanca- 
 shire, about forty years ago remarked that at Walton " it was probable 
 there had been a fortified camp to protect the pass of the Ribble." 
 Some writers thought that the station might have stood a short distance 
 to the north of the river, to reconcile the distances from station to station 
 given in the Iter of Antoninus, if this route were accepted as the Tenth 
 Iter, and the station of Coccium were placed near the Ribble on this 
 
 1 T. Baines, Lane, and Ches., v. i, p. 277. 
 
ROMAN STATIONS-WALTON. ai 
 
 line of road. Proof that Walton was the site of a Roman camp was at 
 length produced by Mr. C. Hardwick. The circumstances that led to 
 the disclosure were accidental. Mr. Hardwick, in the year 1855, was in 
 quest of vestiges of the battle of Cromwell with the Scottish army in 
 1648, when the traces of Roman occupation manifested themselves. 
 The workmen of the Preston Corporation were then digging for stones 
 and gravel on the Walton bank of the Ribble, and among the excavated 
 material were some coins of brass, one of which was sufficiently legible 
 to be pronounced a Roman coin of the reign of Domitian. The spot 
 at which these remains appeared was the space on the left of the river, 
 between the bridge and the confluence of the Danven. The Ribble 
 makes a quick turn just before passing beneath the bridge, and proceeds 
 at a right angle to its former course until the Darwen joins it, and thus 
 the site is protected wholly on three of its sides by the two rivers. At 
 present the channel of the Darwen before its junction is nearly straight, 
 but it formerly made a great bend here, almost doubling upon itself, and 
 so covered the Roman site on the greater part of the fourth side. The 
 strength of the position as a military post, at least against such enemies 
 as the Romans had to contend with, is obvious. The supposed track 
 of the Roman road from Warrington to Lancaster crosses the parallelo- 
 gram near its eastern limit. Stimulated by the indications of Roman 
 tenure upon which he had stumbled, Mr. Hardwick prosecuted his inves- 
 tigation with diligence, and made such further discoveries as to leave no 
 wova for doubt that a Roman fort had occupied this ground. 
 
 The Roman antiquities dug up at Walton embrace the usual varieties 
 of pottery found at the imperial stations. There are some fragmentary 
 specimens of the Samian bowls, with their fine grain and durable glaze, 
 bright red colour, and beautiful embossed designs, which are figured by 
 Mr. Hardwick. Two portions of the large vases of the common red 
 clay, called amphorae, are mentioned, consisting of the neck and handle 
 of those vessels. A piece of the rough unglazed earthenware, marked 
 after turning with dots and figures by the hand of the potter, was also 
 got. A great number of pieces of the coarse blue-black pottery, 
 manufactured in urns and dishes for ordinary domestic use, have been 
 picked up in the station. All the above are similar in make to the 
 varieties of Roman pottery occasionally laid bare at Ribchester. In 
 coins, four or five brass ones, of the reigns of Titus Vespasian, Domitian, 
 and Antoninus, are all that have yet been secured at Walton. Of per- 
 sonal ornaments, a brass fibula (the Roman brooch) and the button 
 of another in bronze, are mentioned. The fibula, which is three and a 
 half inches long, " is of fine brass, ornamented in the centre with a 
 circular figure in bright red enamel, resembling the stone setting of a 
 
at HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 modem finger ring.'" A number of large iron nails, fragments of lead 
 and copper, and of vessels in pewter, were got during the search, along 
 with a large portion of the lower stone of a quern, or hand com mill ; 
 fragments of " riders," or upper quern stones ; a small wheel or spindle 
 head, about an inch and a half in diameter, formed of a fine bluish 
 stone ; portions of the jaw of a horse or ox, with other bones ; and 
 " the core of a hom of one of the extinct species of oxen, the Bos 
 longifromr Some additional fragments of pottery and a few coins have 
 since been found on the site. The above constitute the greater part 
 of the antiquities of the Roman period which have been revealed at 
 Walton. They are not very extensive in quantity, or remarkable in their 
 character ; but they suffice to attest the presence and prolonged occu- 
 pancy of the first subjugators of Britain. Probably this was a strictly 
 military post, without a civil settlement superadded. The space of the 
 plot is too restricted for erections on any great scale, and the situation too 
 low and damp to be chosen as a residence by a civilian population. Mr. 
 Hardwick is led by certain indications to the opinion that the native British 
 had a fort here anterior to the Roman advent } and it is hardly likely 
 they would neglect to occupy such a point for the command of the 
 passage of the river. The identification of Walton as a Roman station 
 sheds light upon the Roman system of fortified places in Lancashire, 
 if it does not altogether clear up the ambiguities of the old Itineraries. 
 
 The vestiges of an ancient fort on the summit of Mellor Moor, are 
 assumed to belong to a minor post in the chain of Roman military star 
 tions in Ribblesdale. This camp is a rectangular entrenchment, about 
 loo feet by 75 feet. The surrounding fosse has partially filled up, 
 but its depression is still marked. The position overlooks Ribchester, 
 some three miles off, northward, in the recess of the valley ; at the same 
 time that it commands the lower station at Walton, and the estuary of 
 Ribble from Preston to Lytham, at some point on which, probably near 
 Freckleton, was the Roman harbour. Mellor Moor was therefore well 
 chosen for a speculum or a signalling-station to Ribchester and other 
 stations seaward, that could communicate immediately by means of a 
 semaphore worked from this conspicuous outpost. To the south, also, 
 the sentinel on Mellor Moor covered with his observation the dozen 
 miles of Roman Road from Blacksnape to Longridge, excepting a short 
 length of it down in the Blackburn valley. 
 
 ROMANO-BRITISH REMAINS AT WHITE-HALL, DARWEN. 
 
 Before we quit the period of Roman dominion in Britain, it will be 
 needful to refer to sepulchral remains, attributed to that era, which have 
 
 i Hist, of Preston, p. 42* 
 
ROMANO-BRITISH TUMULUS AT DARWEN. 35 
 
 been disclosed in this parish. The presence here of the Romans, as the 
 governing race, for more than three centuries, influenced to a large extent 
 the manners of the subject aborigines. The Latin language, in corrupted 
 forms, was in use among the conquered peoples; the Roman toga 
 became the fashionable garment of the British youth, and the Roman 
 paganism supplanted the rites of native Druidism. Among domestic 
 arts, the Celtic-British acquired from the Romans the manufacture of 
 pottery, and in ruder forms reproduced the bowls, urns, and jars of the 
 Roman earthenware. About the reign of Sylla the Roman people began 
 generally to practice the burning of the dead, and the enclosure of the 
 ashes in the funeral urn for deposition in the tomb. Following the 
 example, the Celtic inhabitants of Britain partially abandoned their former 
 mode of burying the bodies of their dead entire for the method of 
 cremation. Within the century many tumuli, or burial mounds, have 
 been opened in this country which have been found to contain earthen- 
 ware urns and small cup-like vessels filled with the ashes of human bones, 
 a circumstance which marks a distinction between the sepulchral mounds 
 of the Romano-British epoch, and the barrows erected by Saxon and 
 Dane in a later age. In some districts of the country, however, the 
 system of cremation survived until Saxon times. The pottery found in 
 the Saxon graves is more finely moulded and artistically wrought than 
 the British cinerary urns. 
 
 An interesting discovery of Sepulchral remains, apparently of the 
 Roman-British period, was made in Blackburn Parish in the month 
 of October, 1864. Excavations were in progress to prepare the founda- 
 tions of a villa at White Hall, Over Darwen, on the estate of William 
 Shorrock Ashton, Esq., when the workmen fell in with extensive 
 relics of an ancient place of sepulture. The situation of these remains 
 was a mound upon the top of the knoll which rises to the right of the 
 road to Bolton, a short distance beyond the Bowling Green Mill, in 
 Darwen. Upon the spot now stands the villa of Ashleigh. The Roman 
 Road from Manchester to Ribchester passes over Blacksnape a mile or 
 so to the eastward. Upon the communication of this important discovery 
 to Mr. Ashton, that gentleman took steps to preserve the whole series 
 of remains. Subsequently, Mr. Ashton supplied particulars of these 
 to Mr. Llewellynn Jewett, F.S.A., who published a paper on the subject 
 in The Reliquary} Mr. Jewett describes the barrow and its contents as 
 follows : — 
 
 The barrow overlooked the Darwen valley on the east, but was sheltered by the 
 high hills which separate that river from the Roddlesworth on the west. It was 
 within the grounds of White Hall, and near to Low Hill House, the seat of Eccles 
 
 J V. vi, pp. 137-8. 
 
«4 rilStORY OF BLACKBURN; 
 
 Shorrock, Esq. It was formed on the summit of a natural mound, and is about thirtji' 
 yards in diameter ; its height from the natural surface of the hill varying from one to 
 ten or twelve feet. The centre of the barrow was, to the extent of about six feet in 
 diameter, sunk in its centre. Some half century ago the barrow was planted with 
 trees, and it is only recently that the site — a most charming one for a villa residence — 
 has been determined to be appropriated to building purposes. The trees were felled 
 in the autumn of 1864, and it was during the course of the excavations for the founda- 
 tions of the house that the real nature of the mound was discovered. A careful 
 examination of the place was made by Mr. Ashton, and the result was the bringing to 
 light of no less than ten distinct interments. One of these was simply a heap of burnt 
 bones without any cist or urn ; and others were enclosed in urns, only one of which was 
 found in an inverted position. On the top of each of the cinerary urns was a rough flat 
 stone, and they were each surrounded and covered by small stones carefully piled up. 
 Two of the cinerary urns were found in a tolerably perfect state ; the others were very 
 much broken. 
 
 Two small vessels, usually called "incense cups," were found within 
 the urns. The most perfect of the urns is twelve inches in height, 
 and ten inches in diameter at the top. It is circular in form ; the lower 
 portion somewhat resembles a common flower-pot, narrowing quickly to 
 its base ; at the central and widest part the sides of the vessel are vertical 
 for three or four inches; above is a deep rim or collar. The ornamentation 
 consists of a number of dotted indentations, produced by the point of a 
 stick while the clay was unbaked. This urn was found filled with 
 burnt bones, on the top of which lay the incense cup, also containing 
 human ashes. The dimensions of the minor vessel were one and three- 
 quarter inches in height, two and a half inches in diameter at the 
 mouth, and four inches in diameter at the middle. This vessel is void 
 of ornament. The second urn figured in the woodcut is considerably 
 smaller than the one already described, being but seven and a half inches 
 in height, and seven inches in diameter. The shape when complete 
 (it is materially mutilated) was substantially similar to the other. Instead 
 of the rows of indentations on the upper exterior of the larger urn, this 
 vessel, upon its middle part and collar, is " elaborately covered with a 
 reticulated ornament, produced in the usual manner by pressing a twisted 
 thong into the pliant clay." The contents of this urn, too, were charred 
 bone fragments and an incense cup of the same make with the former 
 smaller vessel. The other seven urns had been reduced to fragments. 
 Some were more ornamental in their reticulations than either of the 
 examples described. One fragment of the collar of an urn is of the 
 " herring-bone " pattern, produced with the twisted thong indented into 
 the soft clay. The vessels and other sepulchral relics collected on this' 
 discovery were presented by Mr. Ashton to the Museum of the Historic 
 Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, and are now exhibited in the Public 
 Free Museum at Liverpool. 
 

 CINERARY URN AND INCEXSE-CUF, FOUND AT 
 
 WHITE-HALL, OVER UARWEN. [Page 24. 
 
: ? 
 
THE ROMAN DEPARTURE. 25 
 
 The story of the Roman occupation in Britain closes upon a scene 
 of national helplessness and desolation. The conquest of the country 
 by the Roman generals was marked by many acts of ruthless repression ; 
 but the decay of the Roman power was a worse misfortune to the 
 British than the former triumph. Relying upon the amis of their martial 
 masters, the native people had long neglected the art of war ; and when 
 their protectors had gone they became the prey of fierce hordes, that 
 rushed into the gap left by the Romans from every adjacent territory. 
 Over the greater part of this northern region bands of Pictish robbers 
 prowled unchecked, preying upon the inhabitants of the Romano- 
 British towns from which the garrisons had departed, and obliterating with 
 barbarous avidity every remnant of civilisation. In the year 418 the 
 Romans " collected all the treasures that were in Britain, and some they 
 hid in the earth, so that no one has since been able to find them ; and 
 some they carried with them to Gaul.'" The ruins of Roman Ribchester 
 jeveal tokens that the city had been carried by sudden assault, its 
 temples and shrines consumed by fire, and its feeble defenders buried in 
 ruins. The fate of Ribchester was but the general doom of the fifty 
 beautiful walled towns the Romans left behind them in Britain on 
 their final migration. Three hundred years of contact with the foremost 
 race in the then-civilised world had given the Britons a glimpse of the 
 blessings of a cultured state of society ; — but now, for a melancholy 
 space, the land was to lapse into the miseries of a worse than the original 
 barbarism ; and the dark disc of Gothic Paganism was to eclipse the 
 genial orb of Christianity, newly risen upon Britain's horizon. 
 
 It is probable that before the relinquishment of the land by the 
 Romans, the Christian religion had made its way to our shores, and had 
 been embraced by no small proportion of the native populations. But 
 the appearance of the Saxons and Angles, pagans of the most ferocious 
 type, extinguished the nascent faith in those districts of the country over 
 which their power extended. In the time of King Edwin, a fresh move- 
 ment took place for the evangelization of Britain. Pope Gregory the 
 Great, on his accession, sent to England forty missionaries, under the 
 charge of Augustine. Edwin, king of Northumbria, having espoused 
 Edilberga, daughter of Ethelbert the Kentish king, a Christian princess, 
 embraced the same faith, and when his queen set out for the Northum- 
 brian court she was accompanied by Paulinus, a zealous missionary 
 of the Roman Church. A.D. 627 Paulinus was consecrated archbishop 
 of Northumbria, and Christianity became the State religion of the 
 northern Angles. The king, with all his nobles, was baptised at York 
 on Easter Sunday, 627, and the common people of the Anglian race, 
 
 1 Saxon Chron., Bohn's edn., p. 308. 
 
 4 
 
2-6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 following the royal example, adopted the Christian name in great 
 numbers. It is recorded that no fewer than 10,000 converts were 
 baptised at one time by Paulinus. The inhabitants of Lancashire 
 listened to the preaching of Paulinus, and accepted the new faith. 
 Churches were planted in various parts of our county. In the Hundred 
 of Blackburn, Paulinus prosecuted his propaganda with great success, 
 and the mother-church of the district was founded by him at Whalley, 
 about the year 625. In the churchyard at Whalley are seen interesting 
 monuments of the memorable event of the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity here, in the three antique crosses which are believed to have been 
 erected in the time of Paulinus, and probably by his direction. There 
 is a tradition that twelve Saxon castles were reared in the part of Lanca- 
 shire south of the Ribble during Edwin's reign. The sites of these 
 castles are placed at Whalley and Walton (in this district), at Childwall, 
 Winwick, Blackstone, Sephton, Standish, Penwortham, Wigan, Rochdale, 
 Middleton and Bury. Edwin, first Christian king of Northumbria, was 
 killed in battle, a.d. 633, and his kingdom spoiled. Paulinus died in 
 the year 644. 
 
 It would be tedious to pursue step by step the history of the Saxon 
 dominion in the North of England. It is the story of a succession 
 of civil wars and usurpations, of the rise and fall of petty dynasties, 
 undiversified by the record of local transactions of interest. Towards 
 the close of the eighth century, however, an event of national import- 
 ance transpired in the valley of the Ribble. At this period the nation 
 of the Northumbrian Angles was distressed by the quarrels of internal 
 factions. At Easter-tide, in the year 774, says the Saxon Chronicle, 
 " the Northumbrians drove their King Alcred from York, and took 
 Ethelred, the son of Moll, to be their lord ; he reigned four years." 
 In 778 the opposite party had its turn of triumph. "Ethelbald and 
 Herbert slew three high reeves, and then Athwold obtained the kingdom 
 [of Northumbria] and drove Ethelred out of the country ; and he 
 reigned ten years." A.D. 789 saw the downfall and death of Athwold, 
 who was slain by Siga in October, and Osred, the son of Alcred, then 
 succeeded. In the subsequent year Osred, too, was betrayed and 
 banished, and Ethelred regained the kingdom. These brief chronicles 
 show into what a state of confusion the regal succession had at this time 
 fallen in Northumbria. To increase its wretchedness, the kingdom was 
 afflicted by a severe famine in the year 793, and the Northmen had now 
 begun to harass the dwellers on its coasts. In the same year " dire 
 forewamings came over the land of the Northumbrians, and miserably 
 terrified the people ; there were excessive whirlwinds and lightnings ; 
 
BATTLE IN BILLINGTON. 
 
 27 
 
 and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air." Ethelred, like his 
 predecessors, was deposed and killed by his own people in May, 794, 
 and, after many months of anarchy, Eardulf succeeded to the perilous 
 and unstable dignity of the Northumbrian crown. 
 
 Three years after\vards a rival faction had gathered head, and was 
 prepared to contest with Eardulf the government of the kingdom. The 
 decisive battle between the King and the abettors of this revolt took 
 place at Langho, near Whalley, in this parish. In the year 798, Eardulf 
 was compelled to take the field against the leaders of a formidable revolt 
 in the western parts of Northumbria. The chiefs of the conspiracy 
 were Wada and with him Alric, both implicated in a former rebellion, that 
 had ended in the deposition and death of the previous king, Ethelred. 
 Eardulf encountered the insurgent army on the frontier of his kingdom 
 (for the country south of Ribble was then a part, not of the Saxon 
 kingdom of Northumbria, but of that of Mercia). Wada and his army 
 had probably been driven upon neutral territory before the decisive battle 
 took place. At all events, it was here that the rebellion of Wada was 
 crushed. The account of the battle, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 
 is rendered: — "a.d. 798. This year there was a great fight at 
 Whalley (Whaellsege), in the land of the Northumbrians, during Lent, 
 on the 4th before the Nones of April ; and there Alric, the son of Herbert, 
 was slain, and many with him." Another chronicler, Simeon of 
 Durham, not only mentions Whalley as near the place of conflict, but 
 more closely indicates the spot. His account is as follows: — "A con- 
 federacy was made by the murderers of King Ethelred ; Wada, chief in 
 that conspiracy, with his force went against Eardulf, in a place called by 
 the English Billangahoh, near Walalege, and on either side many were 
 slain ; Wada, the chief, with his men, was put to flight, and King 
 Eardulf regally achieved victory over the enemies." The name 
 Billangalioh, here assigned to the place of battle, may be taken to refer 
 to the line of low hills near to the Ribble bank, between Hacking and 
 Braddyll. The present name of Langho, given to the inner side of this 
 elevated ground, apparently is a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon 
 Billangahoh. The historian of Whalley endeavoured to elucidate the 
 position of the battle, the written record of which he found confirmed 
 by an oral tradition of some ancient battle on the lower ground 
 of Billington. On the right bank of the Ribble, opposite Hacking 
 Hall, are two large tumular mounds, rising from the level ground on the 
 inner side of the bend of the river at this point. The mounds are 
 plainly artificial in structure, and probably monumental in intent. The 
 tumulus nearest to the river is a prominent object, and bears the name 
 of the " Lowe." Into this mound Whitaker had some excavation 
 
j8 history of BLACKBURN. 
 
 made about the year 1815, but found the work heavy, and gave it up 
 without reaching the centre of the tumulus, where the reUcs of sepulture 
 should lie. Nearly forty years since, a discovery, apparently connected 
 with the battle of Billangahoh, was made on the Billington side of the 
 Ribble, in the flat ground called Brockhole Eses, near the river. 
 Raines has a note of this disclosure : — "In the year 1836, as Thomas 
 Hubbersty, the farmer at Brockhole, was removing a large mound 
 of earth in Brockhole Eases, about 500 yards from the bank of the 
 Ribble, on the left of the road leading from the house, he discovered a 
 Kist-vaen, formed of rude stones, containing some large human bones 
 and the rusty remains of some spear heads of iron. The whole 
 crumbled to dust on exposure to the air.'" The occupation-road from 
 Brockhole farm-house passes close by the site of the mound in the 
 direction of the river to the ford at this place, the only one across the 
 Ribble for some miles up and down the river. The tumulus was so 
 completely cleared away at the time of the finding of the central Kist- 
 vaen, that no trace of it remains ; but its position has been indicated 
 on the large ordnance map. This mound must have been smaller in 
 bulk than the great mounds across the river opposite Hacking, or the 
 farmer would not have undertaken to level it. If, therefore, the larger 
 mounds be also sepulchral, and date from the same event, they may be 
 supposed to contain more important relics than the Brockhole tumulus. 
 This battle, by which the fate of a kingdom was decided, and in which a 
 king was in command on one side, was no insignificant conflict ; the 
 combatants would probably number some thousands ; and the battle- 
 field might extend not only to Hacking but over the whole plain 
 of lower Billington on the west side of the Calder ; — may indeed have 
 begun on the Whalley side of that river ; have attained its deadliest 
 fierceness about Hacking ; and have closed on the slope between 
 Brockhole and Braddyll, where the fugitives of Wada's broken army 
 would be driven in hurried flight to the ford of the Ribble. The 
 memorial of this important battle, fought nearly eleven hundred years 
 ago, inscribes the names of Billington and Whalley for the first time 
 upon the page of written English history. King EardulPs victory here- 
 abouts did not prevent the formation of fresh combinations against 
 him, which brought about his overthrow and banishment eight years 
 afterwards, in a.d. 806. 
 
 Throughout the ninth and tenth centuries, a period marked by the 
 desperate conflict of the Saxons and Angles with the Danes and North- 
 men for possession of the soil of England, in which the Saxon King 
 Alfred appears as the most noble and heroic actor, no event of historic 
 
 1 Notit. Cestr., v. ii, pt. ii, p. 386. 
 
BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH. 29 
 
 significance is known to have had these eastern parts of Lancashire for 
 its theatre, unless the hypothesis of recent origin be accepted, which 
 places the site of the famed battle of Brunanburh (a.d. 937), upon the 
 hills near the border of the county about Burnley. The battle was the 
 decisive close of the campaign between the Anglo-Saxon army under the 
 command of King Athelstan, and the forces of a Dano-Scottish con- 
 federacy led by Anlaf the Dane, and Constantine King of the Scots, 
 wherein the latter were routed with great slaughter. Much difficulty has 
 been found in determining the spot on which this battle took place, and 
 several sites have been suggested by historians and antiquaries, on 
 trifling grounds, in Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and 
 Cheshire. Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., has, however, presented a 
 series of circumstances tending to his assumption that the veritable 
 battle-field of Brunanburh is in the vicinity of Burnley.' The main 
 grounds of this conclusion are, that the meaning of the Saxon name 
 Brunanburh is, in modem English, the fortified place by the Brun ; that 
 on the slopes of the hills on the right bank of the river Brun by Burnley 
 are found abundant traces of extensive military earthworks, attributed to 
 Saxon and Roman times ; that local tradition and the existing nomen- 
 clature of the neighbourhood indicate the occurrence of some ancient 
 battle there ; and that the probabilities point to the west rather than to 
 the east coast of the Northumbrian Saxon Kingdom as the scene 
 of the advance, defeat, and retreat of Anlaf s expedition, which was 
 organised in Ireland, and the remnants of which, according to the 
 Saxon chronicles, retired in their ships to Dublin after this signal 
 discomfiture. The proofs of Mr. Wilkinson, if not absolute, are strong 
 enough to demand attention, if not to justify the introduction of the 
 victory of Athelstan, in the year 937, as a prominent feature of the 
 archaeologic record of the district. 
 
 DISCOVERY OF A GREAT DANISH HOARD AT 
 CUERDALE. 
 
 A highly important disclosure bearing upon the Danish occupation 
 of England, reported upon about thirty-five years ago in this parish, 
 seems to require the association of some such transaction as the 
 Brunanburh battle for its explanation. I refer to the extraordinary 
 discovery of coins and other treasure of the Saxon and Danish period, 
 made in the township of Cuerdale, in Ribblesdale, at the western 
 comer of the Parish of Blackburn. If the army of Anlaf the Dane was 
 vanquished by Athelstan near Burnley, in the campaign decided at 
 Brunanburh, its best line of retreat to the sea-coast would be the valley 
 
 I Hist. Soc. L. and C, Trans, v. ix, pp. 21-42. 
 
30 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of the Calder to its confluence with the Ribble, and thence the valley 
 of the Ribble to the estuary, where the Danish ships might have been 
 anchored. It will be seen in the remarks which follow how the depo- 
 sition of the mass of Danish treasure on the Ribble bank at Cuerdale 
 appears to synchronise with and confirm the conception of the local 
 determination of a memorable tenth-century war. 
 
 The discovery of the celebrated collection of ancient coins and 
 valuables at Cuerdale happened on the isth of May, 1840. Floods 
 in the Ribble had inflicted damage upon its banks, displacing the earth 
 which supported a wall constructed to preserve the channel and to 
 prevent encroachments upon the land ; and workmen were employed in 
 carrying earth to repair the mischief. While delving for material they 
 lighted upon an enormous hoard of treasure, a little below the surface 
 of the ground, at a distance of about forty yards from the Ribble. The 
 hoard had originally been deposited in a leaden chest, enclosed in a 
 wooden one, but both of these receptacles had become much decom- 
 posed. The treasure consisted largely of silver coins, and also of a 
 number of ingots or lumps of silver, silver armlets, brooches, rings, 
 and other ornaments. The discovery is said to be the most remarkable 
 and extensive of the kind ever made in this country. The coins were 
 the most important portion of the collection ; their exact number, how- 
 ever, cannot be stated ; for although, on the discovery being made 
 known, the treasure was promptly claimed on behalf of the Crown, a 
 considerable number of the articles had been secreted or disposed 
 of by the finders before the claim was enforced, and fell into the hands 
 of private collectors. On the 22nd August following an inquisition 
 was held at Preston concerning the treasure, at which it was found that 
 the coins secured to the Crown numbered about 6,800, weighing 304 
 ounces troy; and that the silver ingots included sixteen large bars, 
 weighing 132 ounces. The bulk of the treasure which accrued to the 
 Crown was distributed to the British Museum and other public 
 collections, including the University Museums of Oxford, Cambridge, 
 and Glasgow. A selection of coins and ornaments was presented to 
 Mr. Assheton, lord of the manor of Cuerdale. Specimens were also 
 sent to the Bibliotheque de Roi, Paris, and to the Danish Museum at 
 Copenhagen. A discovery so extensive and unique drew the 
 attention of many distinguished archaeologists and numismatists, British 
 and foreign ; and, before the distribution of the treasure, opportunity 
 was afforded to competent authorities for a minute inspection of the 
 coins and ornaments. The late Mr. Edward Hawkins, of the British 
 Museum and the Numismatic Society, published the results of his 
 scrutiny in several elaborate papers, — those devoted to a description 
 
DANISH TREASURE FOUND AT CUERDALE. 31 
 
 of the coins appearing in the Numismatic Chronicle^ and the remarks 
 upon the ingots, armlets, and other ornaments in the Journal of the 
 Archceological I/istitute.* Mr. Lindsay, author of a work on the Coinage 
 of the Heptarchy, also gave a synopsis of these coins ; and the eminent 
 Danish archaeologist Worsaae, after careful investigations, reviewed the 
 collection in his work on The Danes and Norwegians in England} Dr. 
 Skaife, of Blackburn, an experienced numismatist, contributed a letter to 
 the journals upon the subject. A summary of the descriptions given 
 of the contents of the treasure chest is subjoined. 
 
 " The coins consisted of Anglo-Saxon pennies, pieces of the second 
 race of the French kings, a few oriental coins, and some which partially 
 resemble both the Saxon and French series, which certainly do not 
 belong to the dynasty of any country, but were probably struck by some 
 of those piratical northern chiefs who obtained at different times a 
 temporary authority both in England and France." The dates of the 
 various reigns of English and foreign princes whose coins are exampled, 
 extend from about the year 860 to 930. This latter date must therefore 
 indicate approximately the period at which the secretion of the treasure 
 took place. The date of the battle of Brunanburh being within seven 
 years of the date of the latest coinage found at Cuerdale, it is easy to 
 conjecture that the campaign of Anlaf, of which Brunanburh was the 
 catastrophe, was, if fought in Lancashire, the occasion of the deposit 
 of this immense collection of coins and bullion at Cuerdale. The 
 deposit was evidently made by the Danish party during their temporary 
 tenure of West Lancashire. It has been suggested that the hoard might 
 be a Saxon one ; but it is hard to understand why, if the Saxon authori- 
 ties had ever been under the necessity thus to secrete their military 
 chest, they should not have taken steps for its recovery after the district 
 had been cleared of its invaders. The wealth here forsaken was too 
 great to have been forgotten by its depositors, or intentionally suffered 
 to remain in the earth. But if the Danes after their defeat, unable to 
 carry off their chest, buried it at Cuerdale, they probably did not return 
 to the immediate neighbourhood at any future time, at least within the 
 same generation, and might thus have no chance of regaining the 
 treasure. Other Danish invasions did, indeed, afterwards occur, but 
 they took different directions. There are, moreover, intrinsic grounds 
 for the conviction that the secretion of the treasure was the act of the 
 Danes. The singular admixture in the hoard of Scandinavian, French, 
 and other continental coins, with a number of Anglo-Saxon coins, 
 strengthens this presumption. The roving chiefs of the Danes and 
 Northmen would gather quantities of the coinage of France and other 
 
 1 VoL V, p. 104 et seq. 2 Vol. iv, pp. 111-130. 3 Page 49 et seq. 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 European States which they overran about this time, and their military 
 treasury would be replenished from these sources. To the mixed 
 moneys of foreign mintage Anlaf and his allies brought with them on 
 their invasion of England would be added collections of Saxon coin 
 taken from the Saxon inhabitants of England during their occupation 
 of portions of the country ; and so we can account for the curious 
 conglomeration of native and foreign coins displayed in the Cuerdale 
 treasure. Had the hoard been the property of Saxon chiefs, one can 
 hardly suppose that it should have presented such a variety of coinage, 
 and the Saxon element would have predominated over the Scandinavian, 
 which it does not, there being, as Worsaae remarks, nearly three 
 thousand Scandinavian and one thousand French coins, with other 
 foreign examples, to two thousand seven hundred Anglo-Saxon coins in 
 that portion of the Cuerdale collection preserved for the Crown. The 
 following synopsis of the coins is supplied by Mr. Hawkins : — 
 Anglo-Saxon Coins. a.d. a.d. 
 
 2 Ethelred (East Anglia) about 860 
 
 23 Ethelstan 87010890 
 
 2 Ciolwlf (Mercia) 874 
 
 867 Alfred 872 901 
 
 45 Edward 90: 925 
 
 1770 St. Eadmund — — 
 
 1 Archbishop Ceolnoth 830 870 
 
 59 Archbishop Phlegmund 881 923 
 
 2 Sitric (? Danish) — — 
 
 French Coins. 
 
 34 Louis 81410929 
 
 727 Carolus 840 923 
 
 7 Carloman 879 884 
 
 197 Eudes, orOdo 888 898 
 
 II Lambert 894 898 
 
 13 Berengarius 883 924 
 
 Uncertain (? Scandinavian). 
 
 304 Sigfred. 
 
 486 Ebraice, or Evreux. 
 
 23 Quentovici, or Quanage. 
 
 1S60 Cunnetti. 
 
 I Avaldus. 
 
 315 Various. 
 
 Oriental Coins. — 27. 
 
 Mr. Hawkins's exhaustive series of papers elucidatory of these coins 
 fill the greater portion of one volume of the Numismatic Chronicle, and 
 are illustrated by 140 engraved examples of the coins. A few sentences 
 from his comments upon the principal types in the series of English 
 coins discovered, are all that can be cited here. The first of these, in 
 
DANISH TREASURE FOUND AT CUERDALE. 33 
 
 chronological order, are two coins of Ethdred. Hawkins remarks 
 thereon : " All that can be said with strong probability is, that the 
 Ethelred who struck these coins was a contemporary of Eadward, and 
 that he held dominion in East Anglia. The style of the coin and the 
 name of the moneyer on the Museum coin, form the grounds of this 
 opinion. The name of Headmod upon the Cuerdale coins does not 
 appear upon any piece at present known, and therefore contributes 
 nothing to shake or confirm this opinion." Coins of Ethelstan : — 
 " Twenty-three are of a king whom I suppose to be Ethelstan, though 
 upon most of them it is difficult to recognise the name ; it is, then, to 
 be considered to which of the kings so named these pieces belong — to 
 Athelstan, the sole monarch and the immediate successor of Eadward, 
 or to Ethelstan, King of the East Angles ; and there is not much 
 hesitation in assigning them to the latter of these personages. This king 
 was strictly contemporary with Alfred, by treaty with whom he was 
 established in his kingdom, and with whom he was in close alliance 
 during almost the whole of his reign, which terminated in 890, about 
 eleven years before that of Alfred. The types of these coins exactly 
 resemble those of Alfred, and of eleven moneyers named upon them, 
 six, probably seven, are those of Alfred." Coin of Ciolwlf: — "The only 
 Mercian coin found in this large collection." " This coin is in most 
 perfect preservation, and is one of the most interesting of the whole 
 Saxon series." " The type is very remarkable ; the diadem and dress 
 of the king are, like those of many other Saxon kings, copied from 
 those of the later Roman emperors." Coins of Alfred : — These 
 numbered 867 examples, and are "the first of those in general circula- 
 tion at the time of the deposit." " Amongst them are some types 
 hitherto unknown, and half-pence of which the existence was rather 
 surmised than ascertained." Among other coinages are twenty-three 
 specimens of coins with the London monogram ; twenty-four coins 
 of the Oxford type ; and about no pieces of the Canterbury type. The 
 Alfred half-pennies include one of Oxford mint ; three of the Canterbury 
 type, and seven of the ordinary type like the pennies. Coins of 
 Eadweard. — These are forty-five in number, " six only of the type which 
 bears his bust, and thirty-eight of his more common type, having his 
 name and title on the obverse as a legend, with a small cross in the 
 centre of the type." There is but one specimen of the half-pennies 
 of this reign. Coins of St. Eadmund. — These are by far the most 
 numerous of the Saxon collection found at Cuerdale, there being 1,770 
 specimens. " The type consists of the letter A on the obverse, with the 
 name of the sainted king as legend ; on the reverse is a small cross, 
 with the name of the moneyer." " It has generally been supposed that 
 
 5 
 
34 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the coins of St. Eadmund were struck at the mint of the abbots of St. 
 Edmundsbury, the earhest notice of which is a grant made to them by 
 Edward the Confessor, in 1066. The name of the place does not occur 
 upon the coins, but has been supposed to be intimated by the name 
 of the mint. If such be the case, it would appear that the privilege 
 of a mint must have been granted at the time of the canonisation of St. 
 Edmund, all the circumstances of which are involved in much obscurity, 
 but which it is now quite clear must have taken place very soon after his 
 murder, in 870. The discovery of about 1,800 coins, mixed with those 
 of a large number of Alfred, would be strong presumptive evidence that 
 they were contemporary, but the fact is proved by four coins which are 
 found in this hoard, bearing on one side the name of Alfred, and on 
 the other that of Eadmund, with his saintly title." " Eadmund was 
 murdered in 870 ; he was succeeded by Guthrum, the Dane, who subse- 
 quently acquired the friendship of Alfred, and was converted to Christi- 
 anity in 878 ; it is, therefore, somewhat probable that these coins, which 
 give the name of Saint to Eadmund, were struck about this period ; that 
 there is some connection between the conversion of Guthrum, the 
 canonisation of Eadmund, and the striking of the coins which commemo- 
 rate the event ; and that all the circumstances occurred under the 
 sanction of Alfred." Com of Ceolnoih. — " Of the coins struck by Arch- 
 bishops of Canterbury there is found here not one prior to Ceolnoth, 
 and of his only one." " Of his successor, Ethered, who occupied the 
 see from 871 to 891, not a piece was found ;" but there are fifty-nine 
 coins of his successor Phlegmund ; among them several varying in some 
 peculiarities from any previously known. 
 
 Mr. Hawkins attempts to determine the probable date, and to 
 guess at the possible occasion of the deposit. His first surmise is that 
 the collection may have " belonged to a worker or dealer in silver, who 
 had been suddenly interrupted by some alarm in the midst of his opera- 
 tions for reducing his stock into ingots, preparatory to the further 
 processes of his peculiar trade /' but later he concludes that the mass 
 of treasure must have been brought from a distance, by parties 
 of strangers ; and as the only parties of strangers likely to visit Lanca- 
 shire at this period were warlike parties, the opinion is a corroboration 
 of the view that the hoard was the military treasury of some invading 
 Danish leaders. This authority observes : — " It may be remarked that 
 these coins were probably collected within a limited district, for there is 
 but one coin of any Mercian King, not one of the usual Mercian type, 
 even of Alfred himself" " It must be observed that there is not 
 amongst these coins any of either an Archbishop of York, or a King 
 of Northumbria, which may be accounted for by the circumstance that 
 
DANISH TREASURE FOUND AT CUERDALE. 
 
 35 
 
 the treasure consisted entirely of silver, and that no coins of that metal 
 were current in Northumbria before the time of Regnald, who com- 
 menced his reign in 912." "There is every appearance of this treasure 
 having been collected in the South, and transferred in one mass to the 
 place of its deposit. It may be supposed, then, that the Cuerdale 
 treasure was deposited iinmediately upon the arrival in this neighbourhood 
 of tlie party or parties 7vho brought it from a distance." Now, if these 
 parties had been peaceable, coming in peaceable times, the hiding of the 
 treasure was needless ; but if the owners of it were invaders of the land, 
 its secretion, either just before a great battle or after a severe defeat, is 
 quite accountable. As to the question of date, Mr. Hawkins's opinion 
 is expressed as follows : — " Looking at the list of personages who may 
 be considered to have struck the coins comprising the English portion 
 of the Cuerdale treasure, it appears that the far greater number bear the 
 name of Alfred or St. Eadmund ; it is clear, therefore, that these were 
 strictly contemporary pieces, and that the deposit was made very soon 
 after the death of Alfred, before his coins had been displaced by those 
 of his successor. Archbishop Phlegmund occupied the see of Canterbury 
 for eleven years before the death of Alfred, and survived him twenty-three 
 years ; of his coins there are here fifty-nine specimens. He was the last 
 prelate of Canterbury who struck coins in his own name, and it is not 
 improbable that he may have discontinued the practice some years 
 before his death ; indeed, while the occurrence of the name ,of Alfred 
 upon one of Phlegmund's coins proves that some of his coins were struck 
 during that King's reign, there is not any evidence that he struck coins 
 after the King's death, and it is probable that all his coins here found 
 may have been struck during the life of Alfred. There are, however, 
 forty-five coins of Edward, the successor of Alfred ; he died in 924, 
 and this is the very latest year in which any of the coins here discovered 
 could have been struck. While, then, these coins prove that the inter- 
 ment must have taken place after the death of Alfred, the smallness 
 of the number — forty-five — leads to the presumption that it took place 
 very soon after his death, probably not later than the year 910." In 
 this supposition the writer may have affixed too early a date to the 
 deposit. It must be borne in mind that Hawkins wrote in ignorance 
 of the evidence which seems to connect Athelstan's defeat of Anlaf with 
 this part of Lancashire. While, too, the year 924 is the last date on 
 which any of the Saxon coins could have been minted, the year 928 is 
 given by Hawkins himself as the latest possible date of one of the 
 French types represented here ; and some of the Scandinavian series 
 were of the same period. As the treasure most probably belonged to 
 an army of the Danes, the coins would not be likely to include the 
 
36 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 last Saxon coins in circulation on their arrival in Lancashire. Thus the 
 treasure may as well have belonged to the chiefs who invaded England 
 in the years 934-7 as to predatory bands of the same race that might 
 have infested the Lancashire coasts some twenty years earlier. 
 
 The articles of Mr. Hawkins on this treasure were supplemented 
 by communications to the Numismatic Chronicle from Mr. Daniel H. 
 Haigh, an accomplished Manchester numismatist, and from M. Adrien 
 de Longperier, of Paris. Mr. J. Yonge Akerman comments upon 
 several of the English coins embraced in the foregoing enumeration 
 of the Cuerdale examples. The third sovereign here represented is 
 Ciolwlf, King of Mercia, of whose mint there are two coins. Akerman 
 says : " Of the pennies of Ciolwlf, who seized the kingdom on the 
 deposition of Burgred (a.d. 874), there are several varieties which are 
 rare. Some of them were struck at Canterbury, and have Dorobernia 
 Cibiias on the reverse.'" Of the coins of Alfred the same authority 
 remarks : " Many of the coins of Aelfred (Alfred) found with the large 
 hoard at Cuerdale, in Lancashire, a short time since, have the portrait 
 with a monogram on the reverse /" and he figures an example " which, 
 instead of the name Aelfred, as usual around that bust, has the word 
 Heribert." "There were half-pennies of Aelfred discovered at Cuerdale." 
 Two examples are given — "one bearing the name of the place of mintage, 
 Orsnaforda ; the other with an unintelligible inscription. Barbarous 
 imitations of pennies of the London type also occurred in the 
 Cuerdale find, and among them the examples engraved." " There was 
 also a type of Alfred, the florid ornaments of which seem to have been 
 suggested by the devices of one of the coins of Offa.'" It has been 
 noted that there are no fewer than 867 coins of King Alfred in the 
 Cuerdale list. Forty-five coins are counted of the succeeding prince, 
 Eadweard, on which Akerman WTites : " The pennies of Eadweard the 
 Elder are interesting, though of rude execution. There are many 
 varieties. Some have the representation of a building ; others, a flower 
 in a compartment of the reverse ; and the hand of Providence, a type 
 derived from the Byzantine artists, appears on a third variety. But two 
 specimens of his half-pennies are known.'" The coins of the next 
 Saxon monarch, the martyred and canonised St. Eadmund, King of the 
 East Angles, are 1770 in number, the most numerous of any English 
 mint represented in the Cuerdale hoard. Following these are a few 
 coins of the ecclesiastics, Archbishops Ceolnoth and Fhlegmund. 
 
 The observations of Worsaae, the Danish antiquary, upon the 
 Scandinavian, French, and other foreign coins, in the collection, are 
 learned and valuable : — 
 
 ] Anc. and Mod. Coins, p. 113. 2 lb. p. 117. 3 lb. p. 119. 4 lb. p. 119. 
 
DANISH TREASURE FOUND AT CUERDALE. 37 
 
 Among the coins, besides a single Byzantine piece, were found several Arabic or 
 Kufic, some of north Italy, about a thousand French, and two thousand eight hundred 
 Anglo-Saxon pieces, of which only eight hundred were of Alfred the Great. But the 
 chief mass, namely, three thousand pieces, consisted of peculiar coins, with the 
 inscriptions " Siefredus Rex," " Sievert Rex," "Cnut Rex," "AlfdenRex," and 
 "Sitric Comes" (jarl) ; and which, therefore, merely from their preponderating 
 number, may be supposed to be the most common coins at that time, and in that part 
 of north England where the treasure had been concealed. Cnut's coins were the most 
 numerous, as they amounted to about two thousand pieces, of different dies ; which 
 proves a considerable and long-continued coining. Not only are the names of Sitric 
 (Sigtryg), Alfden (Halvdan), Cnut (Knud), Sievert (Sivard), and Siefred (Sigfred) 
 visibly of Scandinavian origin, but they also appear in ancient chronicles as the names 
 of mighty Scandinavian chiefs, who in the ninth and tenth centuries ravaged the 
 western lands. Sitric Comes is certainly that Sitric Jarl, who fell in a battle in 
 England about the year 900. Alfden is undoubtedly the same King " Halfden" who 
 at the close of the ninth century so often harried South England — where he even 
 besieged London, till he fell in the battle of Wednesfield, in 910. Cnut, whose name 
 is found inscribed on the coins in such a manner that one letter stands on each of the 
 four arms of a cross, while the inscription REX (Rex) is enclosed between them, is 
 probably he whom the Danes called "Knud Daneast " (or Danes' Joy), a son of the 
 first Danish monarch, Gorm the Old ; as it is truly related of him that he perished in 
 Vesterviking (the Western lands). Sigfrid must either have been the celebrated viking, 
 for whose adventurous expedition France, and its capital, Paris, in particular, had to 
 pay dearly ; or that Sigefert, or Sigfred, who, in the year 897, ravaged the English 
 coasts with an army of Danes from Northumberland. The steady connection which 
 the vikings in England maintained with France, affords a material explanation why 
 their coins were imitations both of contemporary English, or Anglo-Saxon, and 
 of French coins. Thus on the reverse of Cnut's coins just mentioned, we sometimes 
 find the inscription " Elfred Rex," which is purely Anglo-Saxon ; and sometimes the 
 particular mark for Carolus, or Charles (Karl), which otherwise is only found on the 
 French Carlovingian coins. A very frequent inscription on the Scandinavian coins 
 here alluded to is " Ebraice Civita," or "The City of York," whose ancient name 
 " Eadhroig, " and in the barbarous Latin of the time "Eboracum," was converted 
 into "Ebraice." On other contemporary coins struck at York, namely, on some 
 of what is called St. Peter's money, York is also called ' ' Ebraice " and ' ' Ebraicit. " 
 For the Cuerdale coins, in order to express the name "Ebraice," coins of French 
 kings of the city of "Ebroicas," or Evreux, in Normandy, seem to have been 
 particularly chosen as patterns ; for, by a slight change of a few letters, this Ebroicas 
 could be converted into Ebraice, which was the easier process at a time when the art 
 of stamping coins was not much practised. An additional proof that these coins were 
 really minted by Scandinavian kings in Northumbria, and in the city of York, is, that 
 none such have been found in any other part of England ; whilst, on the contrary, 
 one of Canute's coins, which have been so frequently mentioned, was dug up, together 
 with English and French coins of the same kind as those found at Cuerdale, at 
 Harkirke, near Crosby, also in Lancashire ; and consequently at places whose names 
 ending in kirke (church), and by (town), bear witness no less than that of Cuerdale 
 (from dal, a valley), to the dominion of the Northmen in these parts. Should any 
 doubt still exist that, so early as the ninth century, Danish-Norwegian Kings and 
 Jarls minted a considerable number of coins in York, in imitation of contemporary 
 Anglo-Saxon and French coins, it is at all events certain that the Northumbrian 
 
40 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 A^ an exposition of the degree of skill attained in the manufacture 
 of jewelry and other silversmith's work at the period of the deposit, the 
 Cuerdale treasure is exceedingly useful. 
 
 The ornaments accompanying are of various kinds, but the silver 
 armlets and portions of armlets are the most numerous. They exhibit 
 many diversities of shape, workmanship, and embellishment. Upwards 
 of forty of these armlets and parts of armlets are engraved by Hawkins. 
 Some of them are almost beautiful in design ; others are little more than 
 thin bands of silver narrowing to the ends, where the circle is formed 
 by the twisting of the wires. The following may be taken as a type 
 of the ruder forms : — " A small armlet, probably not quite finished, 
 having been merely hammered into form, the edges and sides still rough 
 and sharp, and retaining traces of the hammer ; it is almost entirely 
 without ornament. It is perfectly flat, broad at the middle, becoming 
 gradually narrower towards the extremities, where it terminates in blunt 
 round ends. Armlets of this description vary in breadth at the middle 
 from )^ of an inch to i }{, and perhaps more ; it is probable that they 
 did not quite encircle the arm, the ends being, when worn, at some 
 distance from each other. Sometimes the ends were elongated, and 
 rounded into the form of a thick wire, and twisted together into various 
 forms." The ornamentation consists for the most part of parallel 
 indented lines, producing a ribbed appearance, zigzags or lozenges 
 punched into the metal ; in some examples the punches are mere dots 
 or small rings ; in others the form of the stamp is more artistic. " The 
 patterns are numerous, but the fomis of the punches are very few, the 
 variations being produced by combining the forms of more punches than 
 one, or by placing the same or differently formed punches at a greater 
 or less distance from each other, or by varying their direction. Patterns 
 of the period and localities to which these ornaments belong are scarcely 
 ever found finished by casting or chasing ; it would appear also that the 
 use of solder, to unite the various parts of objects, was either little 
 known or little practised, for the ends of these ornaments are tied 
 together, and upon other occasions, where union is necessary, rivets are 
 employed." The punches, besides the blunt chisel punch and the 
 zigzag, are annular, heart-shaped, egg-shaped, triangular, crescent, 
 quatrefoil, conical, &c., and although the tool is in all cases more os less 
 rude, the varieties of pattern produced by them on the outer surfaces 
 of these primitive jewels are very considerable. 
 
 SAXON SETTLEMENTS AND NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 During an occupancy of some five centuries as the dominant race, 
 from the period of their advent in the beginning of the si.xth century to 
 
SAXON SILVER KING AND ARMLETS, .FOUND AT 
 
 CUERDALE. [Page 40 
 
i ^ J • *♦ • i 
 
 
SAXON SETTLEMENTS AND NOMENCLATURE. 41 
 
 the Norman Conquest in the eleventh, the Anglo-Saxon colonists in 
 Lancashire had settled to the pursuit of husbandry upon the patches of 
 land they had reclaimed from the natural wilderness. Evidence of the 
 Saxon appropriation of lands in the district is supplied in the existing 
 nomenclature of townships and smaller territorial divisions, which is 
 essentially Anglo-Saxon. If, which must be supposed, the population of 
 the preceding Romano-British epoch had made some impression upon 
 the soil in the way of cultivation, and had established fixed dwellings 
 upon, and proprietory rights in, the restricted portions of the land then 
 cleared from the forest, the Saxons and Angles, when seizing upon these 
 lands as the victor's perquisite, not only dispossessed the British settler 
 but discarded or ignored the name given to the British settlement, and 
 substituted a new series of names of localities based upon the language 
 of the intruding races. Thus, with rare exceptions, the Roman and 
 British names of places in use for ages before the Saxon Conquest were 
 dropped and forgotten, and the fresh terms of topographical description 
 were invented, which in modified forms have survived to this day, and, 
 being stereotyped in popular use, must now endure to the end of England's 
 record. 
 
 Unless in the names of the two local rivers, Darwen and Calder, and 
 the range of hills to portions of which the name of Billinge is given, it 
 would be difficult to discover the most faint traces of the aboriginal 
 nomenclature in the modern names of places within this parish. Darwen 
 is thought to be derived from the British terms Dwr-giuyn, meaning, the 
 Clear Water ; and Calder from Col-dwr, Narrow Water. Billinge is also 
 imagined to be British, but the root of the word is not suggested. The 
 Saxons did not attempt to change the name of the river Darwen, but in 
 the Saxonised form of DernvetU retained it and applied it to two of their 
 settlements upon the banks of that stream, Over Derwent and Nether 
 Derwent. The other names of the ancient manors, or landed occu- 
 pancies, in Blackburn Parish have a Saxon root-meaning more or less 
 distinct. The central town of Blackburn is named from A.S. Blac-burne, 
 meaning Dark (or opaque) Brook — descriptive of its stream. In the 
 same township occurs Audley, apparently from the Saxon words ^Eld-ley, 
 Old Field (or place); Whitebirk, from Hwite-byrc, the White (or silver) 
 Birch ; Beardwood, probably from Beorh-wuda, the Wood on the Hill. 
 The Anglo-Saxon word Tun, a residence, or homestead, modernised to 
 Town, was frequently used in the naming of places, with some distinguish- 
 ing prefix ; and several of the townships in Blackburn Parish thus 
 obtained their nomenclature, namely, Billington, the town on Billinge ; 
 Osbaldeston, the settlement of Osbald or Oswald ; Balderstone, an altered 
 form of Osbaldeston ; Pleasington, the seat or homestead of Plesyng ; 
 
 6 
 
42 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Witton, the place of one Wyta, it may be ; Clayton, perhaps named from 
 the character of its subsoil, CliBg-tun, the clayey place ; and Walton, 
 which may have been composed of the two words, WeaH-iitn, the walled 
 settlement, indicating that it was held as a fortified post in the Saxon as 
 well as in the Roman colonisation. Rishton may be taken to have been 
 compound oi Rise, A.S. a rush, and tun, that is, the place of rushes, — a 
 description still accurate of the partially-recovered bog-land of Rishton 
 Moor. The Saxon termination of bury (byri, a city or burgh), implying 
 a settlement made strong for defence, is exampled locally in Salesbury 
 and Samlesbury, townships in the Ribble Valley. Harwood, the name 
 of two townships in the parish (Great and Little), is deducible from Hara- 
 wuda, the wood or covert of hares ; doubtless a part of that extensive 
 woodland which is recorded to have covered the hills in the centre of 
 the parish at the date of the Conquest. Ramsgreave, the next township 
 to the west of Little Harwood, receives its name, probably, from Romms, 
 a Saxon family name, and grcef, a grove, and implying, the grove or 
 greave of Romms or Romes. Wilpshire, a township on the hill south of 
 Billington, was anciently spelt Wilipscyre or Wilpshire, and may mean the 
 share of Wilip, from the Saxon Scyre, a shire or share. In the names of 
 Dinkley and Eccleshill townships appear the Saxon affixes ley, a field, and 
 hull, a hill, and the first part of both names may enshrine those of the 
 ancient settlers in these places. The derivation of the names of three 
 other townships in the parish, namely, those of Livesey, Tockholes, and 
 Mellor, is not so evident. Livesey and Tockholes sound like Saxon 
 words, but Mellor has a hint of Danish, and the heights of Mellor may at 
 one period have been held by the Danes of West Lancashire as an out- 
 post of their fortified places in Lower Ribblesdale.' The word dale is 
 Danish, the Saxon equivalent being deen, as in Hoddlesden, Haslingden, 
 and Baxenden more to the east ; and a reminiscence of Scandinavian 
 tenure on the west side of the parish is therefore found in the names of 
 Clayton-in-le-Dale, Oxendale, Cuerdale, and Walton-in-le-Dale ; as well 
 as in the name of the Ribbleside estate of Sunderland in Osbaldeston. 
 The mixed Saxon and Danish nomenclature of the valley of the Ribble 
 between Salesbury and Penwortham points to the inference that this was 
 for a period contested ground by the Saxons of the hill district of East 
 Lancashire and the Danes of the coastward plains of Leyland and 
 Amoundemess. 
 
 In the names of numerous places of early settlement within townships 
 the Saxon element is visible, ex. gr. : — Revidge, Royshaw, Oosebooth, 
 
 I Respecting the derivation of the names of Mellor and Harwood, Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, a good 
 authority in Lancashire etymology, suggests ; — " I should derive Mellor from the Keltic moel-ar the 
 place or speculum {ar) upon (moel) the round hill. Harwood might also come from hlgher-wooA, or 
 liar (gray) wood : as well as from the words given in the text." 
 
SAXON NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 43 
 
 and Peel in Blackburn township ; Langho, Cunliffe, Braddyll, Brockhole, 
 Hacking, Elcar, Nabbe, and Snodworth in Billington ; Showley, in Clay- 
 ton-le-Dale; Green Lowe, Astley, Tumcroft, and Sunnihurst in Over 
 Darwen ; Th'Hurcroft, Oakenhurst, and Feamhurst in Lower Darwen ; 
 Martholme, Overton, and Netherton in Great Harwood ; Bankhey in 
 Little Harwood ; Feniscliffe, Whithalgh, Moorgate, and Ewood (Hey- 
 wood), in Livesey ; Arleys and Stanley in Mellor ; Stidlehurst in Osbal- 
 deston ; Feniscowles in Pleasington ; Tottlevvorth, the Holt, Mickle Heys, 
 and Sidebight in Rishton ; Loveley, in Salesbury ; Huntley, and Sower- 
 butts, in Samlesbury ; Lowe, and Red Lee, in Tockholes ; Brownedge in 
 Walton ; Pyethome in Wilpshire ; and in the names of the united town- 
 ship of Yate and Pickop Bank. 
 
44 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 CHAPTER II.— MEDIEVAL PERIOD. 
 
 Lancashire in the time of Edward the Confessor — The Norman Invasion and Conquest — March of the 
 Norman Army across the County— The Domesday Survey — Lordship of De Lacy in Blackburn- 
 shire — Ancient Ecclesiastical record of the district — Landed tenures in the reign of Henry IL — 
 Foundation of Whalley Abbey — The Great De Lacy Inquisition — Tenants of the First Duke of 
 Lancaster — John of Gaunt's estate in Blackburnshire — Wars of the Roses — Capture of Henry VI. 
 near Clitheroe — Rewards to his captors — Fall of Richard III, at Bosworth Field. 
 
 \ T the commencement of the eleventh century the Lancashire terri- 
 /~\ tories were under the sway of two powerful nobles. The northern 
 half of the county, to the line of the Ribble, was portion of the Danish 
 earldom of Northumbria. The part to the south of the Ribble, des- 
 cribed as "Terra inter Ripam et Mershatn" (the land between Ribble 
 and Mersey), was attached to the earldom of Mercia or Chester. Wol- 
 fric. Earl of Chester, by his will, dated a.d. 1004, devised his lands 
 between the Ribble and the Mersey to his sons Elfhelme and Walfarge, 
 subject to a payment by each of 3,000 sceattas. But in the reign of 
 Edward the Confessor the territories between Ribble and Mersey had 
 passed into royal possession ; they had, in fact, been sequestrated by 
 Canute. The position of King Edward in relation to the bulk of these 
 lands was that of superior lord, but certain particular estates were in 
 immediate tenure of the Crown. In Blackburnshire this Saxon King 
 had several estates under his direct control, and of which he drew the 
 revenues. Ecclesiastically, the region of South Lancashire was a part 
 of the diocese of Lichfield, and remained so until the Reformation, when 
 the diocese of Chester was constituted. 
 
 In 1 05 1, William, Duke of Normandy, came to England on a state 
 visit to Edward, accompanied by a great array of Norman followers. 
 Edward received him with profuse honours and hospitalities. William 
 found the country swarming with Normans, occupying every post of 
 
THE NORMAN APPROPRIATION. 
 
 45 
 
 authority and trust, and everything apparently favourable to the usurpa- 
 tion he had then resolved upon. Edward had before this entered into 
 a secret engagement with William that the latter should succeed him 
 upon the throne of England. This compact was viewed with aversion 
 by many of his subjects, who rallied to the leadership of Harold, son of 
 Godwin, Saxon Earl of Wessex. Edward the Confessor died in Feb- 
 ruary, 1066, and the popular voice promptly declared Harold should be 
 King. On hearing of this, Duke William immediately began his prepa- 
 rations for the invasion of England. The army of invasion was consti- 
 tuted, not of Normans alone, but of " all the professional adventurers 
 and all the military vagabonds of Western Europe." The Norman 
 army of 60,000 men landed at Pevensey Bay, near Hastings, and on the 
 13th of October, 1066, the battle of Hastings was fought. By the 
 superior tactics of the Normans, the English were defeated. Harold 
 and his brothers fell in the thickest of the battle, and in the space of 
 one brief autumn day the domain of England passed into the hands of 
 a new race, to whom the native English were doomed to pay the duty 
 of perpetual servitude. William was crowned by his Nonnans King of 
 England in Westminster Abbey, on Christmas Day of that same year. 
 William and his barons now proceeded with the work of partitioning the 
 lands of the English amongst themselves. Royal Commissioners 
 traversed the country in every direction, and made careful inventories of 
 every kind of property. To enforce a sweeping sequestration, the 
 Conqueror's troops ravaged the kingdom with atrocious severity. 
 
 Lancashire was among the last of English territories to feel the 
 scourge of the Norman visitation. Many, indeed, of its bravest men must 
 have participated and perished in the final bitter conflict for national 
 existence ; but the western parts of Northumbria and Mercia were out 
 of the direct track of conquest. Not until the year 1070 was the 
 county entered by a Norman force. It was the followers of the banner 
 of De Lacy, to whom the earldom of Pontefract had fallen, that were 
 the first to penetrate our mountain barrier, and to seize upon some 
 portion of land in East Lancashire. " The great domain of Pontefract," 
 writes Thierry, " the spot where the Norman troops had forded the 
 river Aire, was the share of Gilbert de Lacy, who, following the example 
 of nearly all the other Norman captains, built a strong castle there. It 
 appears that this Gilbert was the first who with his troops passed the 
 mountains west of York and invaded the adjoining county of Lancaster, 
 which then formed part of Cheshire. He appropriated to himself in 
 this county an immense territory, the chief town of which was Black- 
 bum, and which extended south and east to the borders of Yorkshire. 
 To form this great domain, he expelled, according to an ancient tradition, 
 
46 HISTORY OF BLACKBURX. 
 
 all the English proprietors from Blackburn, Rochdale, Tottington and 
 the vicinity. Before the conquest, says the tradition, all these pro- 
 prietors were free, equal in rights, and independent of each other ; but 
 after the Norman invasion, there was in the whole county but one lord.'" 
 Soon aftenvards, William himself, having finished the work of subjugation 
 in the east of Northumbria, resolved upon the capture of Chester, the 
 sole remaining city of any note which had not yet received a Norman 
 garrison. As the King was preparing to start from York on this expedi- 
 tion, he learned that a feeling of strong repugnance to the enterprise 
 pervaded his soldiery. According to Ordericus Vitalis, the Norman 
 army had been alarmed by exaggerated accounts of the difficulties 
 of the country between York and Chester, and of the "terrible fierceness 
 of the enemy" in this region. Having overcome this opposition by 
 lavish promises of rewards in lands and other property to those who 
 assisted in this new conquest, William marched over the Pennine 
 mountains to the city on the Dee. It is natural to suppose that the 
 main body of the Norman army, following in the footsteps of De Lac/s 
 men, would take the route through Craven into Ribblesdale, the most 
 open of the passes through the hill ranges of the eastern border 
 of Lancashire ; and it is something more than a vague conjecture that 
 the great Conqueror himself rode, at the head of his martial array, 
 through the length of our Hundred while upon this journey. Ordericus 
 Vitalis writes that in this march the Norman leader made his way with 
 unwearied vigour "through roads never before travelled by horses, across 
 lofty mountains and deep valleys, rivers, and rapid streams, and danger- 
 ous quagmires in the hollows of the hills. Pursuing their track, they 
 were often distressed by torrents of rain, sometimes mingled with hail. 
 At times they were reduced to feed on the flesh of horses which perished 
 in the bogs. The King often led the way on foot with great agility, and 
 lent a ready hand to assist others in their difficulties." The result 
 of this laborious march was the immediate occupation of Chester and 
 of all the Mercian country on both sides of the river Mersey. 
 
 From the statement above it would appear that the first Norman 
 possessor of Blackbumshire was Gilbert, or Ilbert, de Lacy, whose 
 major acquisition was the lordship of Pontefract in Yorkshire. Other 
 early records, however, state that Blackburn Hundred, with the rest 
 of Lancashire, was in the first instance conferred upon the Norman Earl 
 Roger dfr Montgomery, better known in English annals as Roger de 
 Poictou. The grant is believed to have been made about the year 1068. 
 This Roger of Poictou was the third son of Roger, Viscount of Mont- 
 gomery. His services to the Conqueror were recompensed by the 
 
 1 Conq. of £ngl.. trans, by Hazlict. v, i, p. 229. 
 
; UOMESDAY SURVEY. 47 
 
 earldom of Lancashire, the superior lordship of almost the whole county, 
 and near 200 manors in other parts of the country. Apparently, Ilbert 
 de Lacy, although a baron in Yorkshire, held his estates in East 
 Lancashire, at the first, under Roger de Poictou as superior lord. This, 
 at least, is the simplest explanation that suggests itself of the discrepancy 
 noted. 
 
 The memorable survey of landed tenures in England, undertaken 
 by order of William the Conqueror, the record of which is contained in 
 Z'^/««(/(y .5(7,?/', was begun about the year 1080, and finished in 1086. 
 The passage relating to the Hundred of Blackburn is found in the survey 
 of lands between the Mersey and Ribble. The " King Edward" alluded 
 to is Edward the Confessor, the last Saxon King of England according 
 to the Normans, who refused to recognise the brief sovereignty of 
 Harold. The following is an English version of the entry relating to 
 the district : — 
 
 King Edward held Blachebunie. There are two hides and two carucates of land. 
 Of this land the church had two carucates of land ; and the Church of St. Mary in 
 Whalleij two c-irucates, both of them free of all customs. In the same manor there is 
 a woo<l one league long and the same broad, and there was an aery of hawks. To this 
 manor or hundred were attached twenty-eight freemen, holding five hides and a half 
 and forty carucates of land for twenty-eight manors. There is a wood there six leagues 
 long and four broad, and the manors were all subject to the above customs. In the 
 same hundretl King Edward had Ilimicot (Huncoat), two carucates of land, and Wale- 
 #Mnc(\Valton-in-le-Dale)two carucates, and rcHi7<«««(Pendleton)half ahide. Thewhole 
 manor, with the hundred, yielded the king a farm rent of thirty two pounds and two 
 shillings. Roger de Poictou gave all this land to Roger de Busli and Albert Greslet, and 
 there are so many men who have eleven carucates and a half ; to whom they have 
 granted freedom (from all customs) for three years, wherefore it is not now valued. 
 
 Unfortunately for the precision of our knowledge bf the topography 
 of the district in the eleventh century, the Norman surveyors made a 
 much less particular report on the Hundred of Blackburn than was usual 
 with them in describing other districts. Of twenty-eight manors in the 
 Hundred held by freemen at the Concjuest none are named in the survey. 
 Only the names of the four Royal manorial estates of Blackburn, Hun- 
 coat, Walton and Pendleton are sijecified. The names of the Saxon 
 freeholders under the last of the Saxon Kings are unrecorded, and the 
 territorial nomenclature of the period is left to be doubtfully gathered 
 from later historical references. In the Parish of Blackburn, Blackburn 
 and Walton-in-le-Dale are entered as Royal Manors under Saxon rule. 
 How many of the twenty-eight other manors of the Hundred were con- 
 tained within the Parish of Blackburn cannot be exactly made out ; but 
 we know from other sources that the larger townships of Billington, Sales- 
 bury, Clayton-in-le-Uale, Osbaldeston, Samlesbury and Pleasington, and 
 
48. HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 probably Harwood, Rishton and Livesey, have embraced manors in fee 
 under the chief lords of the Honor from the beginning of the Norman 
 appropriation, and it may be inferred that the Saxon manors within the 
 parish were generally identical with the Norman manorial tenures that 
 succeeded. 
 
 Some explanation of obsolete terms employed in Domesday Book 
 may be useful to the general reader. The hide of land was originally a 
 Saxon measure, and signified as much arable land as would suffice to 
 support one family. Obviously the extent of the hide must have varied 
 according to the quality and situation of the land, and thus it has been 
 found impossible to fix any measure as the uniform equivalent of the 
 Saxon hide. The cariicaie in South Lancashire was equal to the sixth 
 part of a hide, in other parts of England it was but one-twelfth. The 
 meaning of the term is, as much land as could be tilled by one plough, 
 from the Latin cariica, a plough. Dr. Whitaker says that in Blackburn 
 Hundred the manors averaged about one and a half carucates each ; 
 that the "oxgang" was sixteen acres, and the carucate 128 acres, or 
 eight oxgangs. This gives an average area of the twenty-eight private 
 manors of Blackburnshire of 192 acres each. 
 
 The tenure of the earldom of Lancaster, with its valuable appurte- 
 nances, was not long retained by Roger de Poictou. In the year 1074, 
 during the King's absence in Normandy, a conspiracy was formed to 
 dethrone him, and to separate England into three kingdoms — those of 
 Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. The three principal agents in this 
 sedition were Roger de Poictou, Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland (an 
 English noble who had made his peace with the Norman), and Adolphus, 
 Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk. Between these it was intended that the 
 country should be divided. William's prompt return to England discon- 
 certed the conspiracy, and the foiled plotters paid the penalty of their 
 ambition, Waltheof with his life, and Roger de Poictou by the forfeiture 
 of his English estates and banishment from the country. The Norman 
 monarch himself assumed the proprietorship of the Lancashire lands of 
 which his rebellious noble had been deprived, and they were kept as 
 royalties until the King's death in 1087. 
 
 The rise of the town and fortress of Clitheroe dates from the first 
 years of the Norman tenure of East Lancashire. It was then that 
 Clitheroe became the seat of local authority, and gave its designation to 
 the " Honor of Clitheroe," which embraced the older division of Black- 
 burnshire, along with portions of other Hundreds in Lancashire and 
 Yorkshire. The Norman fortress at Clitheroe was built either by Ilbert 
 de Lacy in the reign of William I., or by his son Robert in the reign of 
 William Rufus. The De Lacy family, whose representatives figure con- 
 
ORIGINAL CHURCH FOUNDATIONS. 45 
 
 spicuously in the local history of the next two centuries, came from the 
 Department of Calvadas, in Normandy ; and their name, originally spelt 
 De Lascy, was derived from a place called Lassi, in the French province. 
 The history of the Honor of Clitheroe, — which passed from the Lacies 
 by marriage of an heiress to Henry Earl of Lancaster, and remained an 
 appanage of the Earldom and Dukedom of Lancaster and of the Crown 
 on the addition of the duchy to the titular dignities of the Monarch, 
 until it was granted to General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, by Charles 
 the Second, — has been written circumstantially by the historian Whitaker, 
 and therefore need not be repeated in these pages. With the Honor 
 of Clitheroe was associated the judicatory rights of the Wapentake of 
 Blackburn, whose ancient court has but recently been abolished. 
 
 A Latin manuscript, supposed to have been written about the year 
 1347 by John Lyndelay, one of the Abbots of Whalley, contains a curious 
 account, compiled probably from local traditions extant at the time, of 
 the primitive circumstances of the district, both as respects its ecclesias- 
 tical and its civil settlements. This ancient document, which Whitaker 
 styles De Statu Blagborneshire — " Concerning the State of Blackburn- 
 shire" — was translated by the late Mr. Harland for the new edition of the 
 History of La7washire} All that need be recited here are passages refer- 
 ring to the first Christian foundations in the district and to the local 
 manors of the Saxon period : — 
 
 Be it remembered, that in. the time of Ethelbert, King of the English, who 
 began to reign A. D. 596, the blessed Augustine, the Apostle of the English, sent by 
 the blessed Pope Gregory, in the third year of his papacy, at the instance and request 
 of the said Kmg, preached in England, and taught the Christian faith. There was at 
 Whalley in Blackbomeshire a certain parish church built in honour of all saints, in the 
 cemetery of which church were certain stone crosses then erected and called by the 
 people the crosses of the blessed Augustine, which under the same name exist there to 
 this day ; and the above-named church was called, at that time, " The White Church 
 under the Legh. " Within the bounds and limits of the said parish church were com- 
 prised, at the time, all Blagborneshire and all Boland, and so it endured for many 
 years. After these things, the devotion of the faithful increasing, and the number of 
 believers in those parts being augmented, there were built other three churches in 
 Blagborneshire, — ramely, the Church of Blagbome, the Church of Chepen, and the 
 Church of Ribchester, — the parishes of these churches being distinct, and marked out 
 in certain limits on all sides, as they have continued to be to the present time, and are 
 well known to all in those parts. In those times, while the said churches had thus 
 been built, there was not, in Blackbomeshire, at Cliderhowe, or elsewhere, a castle 
 built, nor any chapel whatever besides the above-named churches, nor any lord who 
 had ever claimed the patronage of the said churches, or of any of them ; but each 
 rector held and possessed the land and vill in which his church was situated, as the 
 endowment of his church ; and governed his church, so endowed, as if it were his own 
 patrimony and inheritance ; and freely appointed his successor from among his sons or 
 
 I Vol. 2, pp. 1-3. 
 
so HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 friends, acceptance or institution by the Bishop of Lichfield then taking place ; and, 
 for a long time, the Rectors of Whalley and of Blagborne were for the most part mar- 
 ried men, and the lords of vills. And those of Whalley were called deans, not parsons 
 — the cause of which is thought likely to be, that at the time of the founding of this 
 church, and through times long subsequent, the people of those parts were so sparse, 
 and so untamed and wild, and moreover, there was such a multitude of foxes and hurt- 
 fill beasts, and the place also seemed so inaccessible to men, that alike the Bishops for 
 the time being, and their officials, left and continually committed the whole jurisdiction 
 (pertaining to the office of common deans) over the ordinaries of these parishes, to the 
 aforesaid rectors, on account of the inconvenience specified ; the more difficult and 
 weighty causes, indeed, being reserved for the Bishop. Who held this lordship of 
 Blagbomeshire before the time of the said King William is not stated with certainty in 
 the chronicles. Common opinion holds and asserts, that as many as were the vills or 
 mansions, or the manors of men, so many were the lords, not only in Blagbomeshire, 
 but also Rachdale, Tottington, and Boland, and all the adjacent neighbourhood, of 
 which none was held from another, but all in chief from the lord King himself. 
 
 In the reign of Henry II., and about a century after the Conquest, 
 the names of several townships in Blackburn Parish appear in existing 
 documents. For example, Gospatric, lord of Samlesbury, founded the 
 Chapel of Samlesbury about the year 1190. In the twelfth century, the 
 name of Rishton is found as the seat of a branch of the family of De 
 Blackbums, the members of which changed the family name on their 
 change of residence to De Rishton. The manor of Great Harwood is 
 mentioned early in the same century as the gift of Henry de Lacy to 
 Richard de Fitton, Justice of Chester. In the reign of Henry II., who 
 died in 1 1 89, the two Darewents (Upper and Nether Darwen), Melver 
 (Mellor), Heccleshall (Eccleshill), and Harawuda (Harwood), are given 
 in documents as members of the Knight's Fee of Walton, granted by 
 Henry II. to Robert Banastre, founder of the great house of Banastre of 
 Walton. Billington township is named so early as the reign of Stephen, 
 who died in 1 154. Osbaldeston is named in deeds of the reign of Henry 
 II. ; and the townships of Wilpshire, Dinkley, Cuerdale, Salesbury, Tock- 
 holes, Pleasington, and Witton not much later. So that the settled lands 
 of the Parish soon after the Norman occupation may be generally identi- 
 fied with the modem townships, and their anterior definition and appor- 
 tionment may be assumed, the silence of Domesday notwithstanding. 
 
 The following extracts from the Liber Feodorum (Book of Fees), 
 compiled by Ralph de Nevill in the reign of Henry III., have reference 
 to the landed tenures in this parish : — 
 
 FEES OF THE HEIR OF ROBERT BANASTRE. 
 
 The same heir holds in the lord's chief manor one knight's fee in Waleton and 
 Blakebumscire of the fe e of the Earl of Lincoln, and he in chief of the lord the king ; 
 the land hitherto is in custody and belongs to the dower of the Countess of Lincoln. 
 
FOUNDATION OF WHALLEY ABBEY. 
 
 5» 
 
 Pees of the heir of the earl of Lincoln in blakeburnscire. 
 
 Inquisitors of the Wapentake of Blakeburnscire : — Simon le Harris, Adam de 
 Blakebum, Adam Noel, Henry de Cleyton, Adam de Billinton, William de Calde- 
 cotes, John de Wynketley, and Richard de Katlauhe. 
 
 LiVESEY, Acton, and Merley. — Ralph de Mitton holds the fourth part of 
 a knight's fee in Acton, Merley, and Liveshey, of the demesne fee, and it belongs to 
 the dower of the Countess. 
 
 RiSHTON. — Gilbert, the son of Henry, holds the tenth part of a knight's fee in 
 Ruston of the demesne fee, and it belongs to the dower of the Countess. Adam de 
 Billinton holds half a knight's fee in the same of the demesne fee, and it belongs to 
 the dower of the Countess. The heir of Hugh de Alvetham holds the eighth part 
 of a knight's fee in the same of the demesne fee, and it belongs to the dower of the 
 Countess. 
 
 Harwood. — Hugh Fiton holds the fourth part of a knight's fee in Harwood 
 of the demesne fee. Henry de Cleyton holds the eighth part of a knight's fee in the 
 same of the demesne fee. 
 
 Under the head of Inquisition of the Earldom of Lancaster, I find 
 the following : — m 
 
 Roger de Laci holds five knight's fees of the fee of Cliderhow, which was in the 
 hand of the lord the King. 
 
 Under the head of Drengages are these entries : — 
 
 Harwood. — Roger de Samelisbury and Alexander [de Harwood] hold six 
 carucates in Harewood of the aforesaid [Robert Greslet's] knight's fee. . . . 
 Roger de Samelisburi and Alexander de Harewood hold one oxgang of land in 
 Chappels [Sharpies] by [a rent of] 8s., of Robert Gredle [Greslet]. 
 
 Edmund de Lacy, Lord of Clitheroe Honor, who died in 1258, 
 was found by escheat to have possessed, among his many estates in 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire, the manor and lands in Blackburn Parish 
 that follow: — Rishton manor, lands in Salesbuyre, Livysay, Samlesburye, 
 Osbaldeston, Clayton, Dinkedley and Wolipshire. 
 
 FOUNDATION OF WHALLEY ABBEY. 
 
 By much the most notable event in the local history during the 
 thirteenth century, was the foundation of the Monastery at Whalley 
 by the Fraternity of Cistercian Monks previously domiciled at Stanlaw, 
 in Cheshire. With the history of that Monastery, from its erection until 
 its dissolution, a period of about two centuries and a half, the ecclesias- 
 tical affairs of Blackburn Parish are intimately associated ; while the 
 endowments of Whalley Abbey included extensive territorial properties 
 and rights of lordship within the parish. Prior to the translation from 
 Stanlaw to Whalley, the Church of Blackburn and its dependent Chapels, 
 with ample glebe and other lands in Blackburn, had been bestowed 
 upon the Abbot and Monks of this fraternity by members of the De 
 Lacy family, founders and chief patrons of the Monastery. Particulars 
 
52 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of these endowments will be hereafter furnished in the accounts to be 
 inserted of the Parish Church and ancient dependent Chapels of the 
 parish. In the year 1283, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, finding that 
 the original house of the Fraternity at Stanlaw had suffered greatly by 
 its exposed situation on the estuary of the Mersey, and was threatened 
 with total destruction, resolved upon the removal of the foundation to 
 Whalley, and to facilitate the transfer, granted to the Monastery the 
 advowson of Whalley Church. In 1289, in answer to a petition 
 of the Abbot and Monks, Pope Nicholas IV. by his bull authorised 
 the proposed translation. Boniface VIIL, the succeeding Pope, first 
 revoked, but eventually confirmed the permission of his predecessor. 
 Before, however, the Abbot and Monks of Stanlaw could enter into 
 possession of the benefice and patronage of Whalley, the death of the 
 holder of the rectory, Peter de Cestria, had to take place. This event 
 occurred in the year 1294, and shortly after the Abbot of Stanlaw 
 removed his quarters to Whalley, bringing with him the majority of the 
 Monks. Stanlaw was retained as a cell to Whalley. On the site 
 selected for the new Abbey, on the right bank of the Calder immediately 
 to the west of the Parish Church of Whalley, Henry de Lacy laid the 
 foundation of the Abbey, June 12th, 1296. The first-completed 
 portions of the buildings were consecrated in 1306, but the process 
 of extension continued for two centuries, and until within a few years 
 of the dismantlement on the dissolution of Monasteries in the reign 
 of Henry VIIL Ample annals of this great Cistercian Abbey have 
 been published by Whitaker and others, and it is not within the design 
 of this history to describe the Abbey fabrics or to rehearse the history 
 of the Monastery. Such of its territorial possessions as were contained 
 in the townships of Blackburn Parish will be named in the several 
 township histories ; but it may be here stated that they included, besides 
 the Rectorial and Vicarial Glebes of Blackburn, the lordship of the 
 Manor of Billington with appurtenant estates, amounting to the greater 
 part of the area of that township ; and considerable lands, with bams, 
 mills and messuages in the townships of Pleasington, Mellor, Eccleshill, 
 Witton, Livesey, Walton-in-le-Dale, Samlesbury, Balderstone, Salesbury, 
 Over Darwen, Wilpshire, Little Harwood, and Ramsgreave. Thus, for 
 an extended period, the Abbots of Whalley were the largest landlords 
 in Blackburn Parish, and their domains in Whalley Parish and in other 
 parts of Lancashire were still more vast and valuable. 
 
 THE GREAT DE LACY INQUISITION. 
 
 On the 1 6th of February, 13 11, inquisition was taken, by order 
 of the Crown, of the situation, extent and value of the estates in 
 
THE DOMAIN OF HENRY DE LACY. 
 
 53 
 
 Lancashire, of which Henry de Lacy, Lord of Clitheroe, deceased a 
 year before (February 5th, 1310), had died possessed. Of this account 
 Whitaker says that " after the death of the last Earl of Lincoln (De 
 Lacy), leaving only a daughter, on whose demise without male issue the 
 vast estates were settled upon the Crown, it was thought necessary to 
 make a strict and accurate survey." The original Latin copy of this 
 Inquisition is not now extant, but an official copy of it, translated into 
 English, is contained in an ancient MS. volume among the records 
 of the Honor of Clitheroe in the custody of Mr. Dixon Robinson, 
 of Clitheroe Castle. The Inquisition has been printed from this copy, 
 edited by the late Mr. Harland, in the 74th volume of the Chetham 
 Society's series. I cite of this return only such portions as relate to 
 estates of De Lacy in the Parish of Blackburn, and to his superior 
 lordship over the parish as parcel of Clitheroe Honor. 
 The record is headed : — 
 
 Inquisition taken after the Render of Henry de Lacy, late Earl of 
 Lincoln, of Lands, Tenements, &c., held of the King, in the 
 County of Lancaster, the i6th February, 4TH Edward II. 
 
 The Jury say that Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, had no lands or tenements in 
 fee in chief of the King, but that he held all his lands and tenements in the County of 
 Lancaster, immediately of the King by the service of fourteen Knights' fees and 
 the third part of a Knight's fee, and by the rent of 1055. 8d., payable yearly to the 
 Castle Guard of Lancaster, and a certain fee called sak fee, and doing suit to the 
 Court held at Tom every six weeks. That King Edward I. granted to the said Earl 
 of Lincoln and the heirs of his body all the lands and tenements hereinafter mentioned, 
 remainder to Thomas, son of Edmond the King's brother, and to Alice his wife, and 
 the heirs of their bodies, remainder to the right heirs of the said Thomas. 
 
 Clitheroe. — That he was seised of the Castle of Clyderhowe with the moat and 
 ditches, nothing worth above the reprises. Also of an Orchard under the Castle, with 
 a Croft, the herbage of which is yearly worth 2d. There are also 20 acres of demean 
 lands demised to several tenants-at-will, each acre yearly worth 4d., — somm 6s. 8d. 
 Four and a half acres of Meadow, yearly worth 3s. A Watermill, yearly worth £6 
 1 3s. 4d. A Fair on St. Mary Magdalene's day, the toll and profits thereof are yearly 
 worth 6s. 8d. The Toll of Clyderhow, Blakebum, and Bowland, yearly worth £4 
 13s. 4d. 
 
 The subjoined paragraphs refer to townships in this parish : — 
 
 Rishton and Magna Harwood. — ^Johanna, late the wife of Edmund Talbot, 
 held two carucates of land in Risseton, by the fourth of a knight's fee, or the yearly rent 
 of IS. and suit of the Court of Clyderhou. William de Haskayth held two carucates 
 of land by the service of a knight's fee and the yearly rent of 2s. 6d. and suit of the 
 Court aforesaid. 
 
 Blackburn. — ^John Hilton held a carucate and a half in Blackburn freely by 
 homage. 
 
 Li VESEY. — Sir Henry de Bury held Levesay in thanage and paid yearly 29s. at 
 the Feast of St. Gyles, and did suit of the Court aforesaid. 
 
54 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 TOCKHOLES. — ^John de Plesyngton and Adam de Tockholes held Tockholes in 
 thanage, and did one suit to the aforesaid Court. 
 
 Over Darwen. — The heirs of Samlesbury and of Keuersdale held one carucate 
 in On Der^vent, by the service of the eighth of a knight's fee and suit of the Court 
 of Clyderhou.-f 
 
 Lower Darwen. — Sir Adam Banestre held two carucates of land in Nether 
 Derwent, and paid yearly 2s. lod. 
 
 Walton-in-le-Dale. — Sir John de Langeton held two carucates of land by the 
 service of 4s. a year at Midsummer and suit to the Court aforesaid. 
 
 CuERDALE. — Adam de Keuresdale held a carucate in Keuresdale by the service 
 of 9s. a year at the Feast of St. Gyles. 
 
 Samlesbury. — Lady Cecill de Evyhus and Lady Elizabeth de Holland held one 
 carucate in Samlesbury in thanage, and paid yearly 1 2s. 
 
 Mellor. — Nicholas de Evyas held half a carucate of land in Melore by the 
 service of the sixteenth of a knight's fee and paid yearly 8d. 
 
 Clayton-in-le-Dale and Billington. — Sir Adam de Huddelston held 
 Clayton and Billington by the service of los. yearly at the Feast of St. Gyles and 3d. 
 at Midsummer, and suit to the Court aforesaid. 
 
 WiTTON. — Richard, son of Geffery de Chaterton, held one carucate in Witton by 
 the service of the eighth of a knight's fee and the rent of 2s. per annum at Midsummer. 
 Adam de Haldeley held an assart and paid yearly id. and suit to the aforesaid Court. 
 
 Salesbury. — Hugh de [Clyderhow] held Salesbury and Little Penhilton in 
 thanage, and paid yearly 235. lod. at St. Gyles's Feast and suit of the Court aforesaid. 
 Richard de Tyndiheved held n acres in Salesbury, paying yearly id. Richard le 
 Sorris held freely a Watermill, paying yearly 6s. 8d. 
 
 DlNKLEY. — Roger de Clyderhow held an oxgang and a third of land in Dynkeley 
 in thanage, and paid 2s. and suit of Court. 
 
 Wilpshire. — Bernard de Hackyng held in Whelipshire half an oxgang of land 
 in thanage, and paid yearly iid. and suit of Court. Henry de Bradhill held half an 
 oxgang of land and a third there in thanage, by the rent of is. per armum and suit 
 of Court. Henry de Boulton held one oxgang in thanage by the rent of is. per 
 annum and suit of Court. John, son of Walter de Bradhill, held there two oxgangs 
 of land in thanage, and paid yearly Is. and suit of Court. 
 
 Fishery in the Ribble. — The said Earl had a separate Fishery in Ribblewater 
 in Samewell and Salewell [Sale Wheel] yearly worth 1 2d. Thomas Soroys paid 
 yearly to the Earl, by attachments of the Pool at Mitton Mill, 4s. 
 
 The following held their tenements as part of the Dower of the 
 Lady Alice de Lacy, but did suit to the three weeks' Court at Cliderhou, 
 viz : — 
 
 OsBALDESTON AND Balderstone. — Thomas de Osbaldestone for his tenements 
 in Osbaldestone and Balwestone. 
 
 To the above may be added the agistment and winter herbage 
 of Hoddlesden Forest and Ramsgreave Chase, reckoned together with 
 those of Trawden, Rossendale, and Pendle Forests, as worth yearly in 
 total 40s. 
 
 The particulars of the Inquisition are of use in the authentic state- 
 ment they embody of the territorial tenures of the parish at that period. 
 
TENANTS OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER. 55 
 
 with the names of the free tenants holding under the last of the De 
 Lacys as lords of manors by knight's fee and also in thanage. From 
 this time the tenure of most of the chief local landed estates may be 
 defined and their passage traced down to present possessors. 
 
 The Honor of Clitheroe or domain of Blackbumshire was the 
 possession, in the fourteenth century, of the Earls and Dukes of Lan- 
 caster in succession, beginning with Earl Thomas, husband of Alice de 
 Lacy, and Henry his brother, father of Henry, first Duke of Lancaster. 
 A manuscript printed by Gregson in the Fortfolio of Fragments^ supplies 
 a category of tenants of the Duchy of Lancaster in Blackbumshire at 
 the period of the tenure of Henry, the first Duke (created a.d. 1352), in 
 which the feudal tenants in Blackburn Parish are named as under : — 
 
 Walton-in-le-Dale. — Robert de Langton, knight, holds one knight's fee of 
 the Duke of Lancaster in Walton-in-le-Dale, in Blackbumshire, that Robert Banester 
 once held of the fee of the Earl Lacy of Lincoln. 
 
 AlGHTON, Mearley, AND LiVESEY. — ^John de Harington, Knight, Thomas de 
 Ardem, Adam de Hoghton, Richard de Nevill, and John Bayley hold the fourth part 
 of a knight's fee in Aghton, Merley, and Levissay, which Ralph de Mitton once held 
 of the fee. 
 
 RisHTON. — ^John de Radcliffe holds of the said duke the tenth part of a knight's . 
 fee in Rysheton, which Gilbert, son of Henry, once held. 
 
 BiLLlNGTON. — The Abbot of Whalley holds half a knight's fee in Billington, of 
 the demesne of the duke, which Adam de Billington once held. 
 
 Harwood. — William de Hesketh, knight, holds four parts of a knight's fee in 
 Harewood of the said duke, which Hugh Fyton once held. 
 
 Salesbury. — The heirs of Richard Clidrowe hold the manor of Salebury of the 
 Duke of Lancaster in socage [obligation to plough, &c., the lord's lands], and for the 
 service of 38s. 8d. per annum at the Feast of St. Gyles. 
 
 .Samlesbury. — William Lord Lovell, Burnell and de Holand and Richard Soth- 
 worth hold of the said duke the manor of Samlesbury in socage for the service of 12s. 
 per annum. 
 
 Tockholes, &c. — Richard, son of John de Radcliffe, holds the manor of Urde- 
 sale ; a hundred acres in a place called HoUinhed and in Tockholes ; forty acres in 
 Salford, &c., all held of the King in chief by knight service for 2s. [per annum.] 
 
 John of Gaunt (Ghent), fourth son of Edward IH., married Blanche, 
 second daughter of Henry Duke of Lancaster, who had no male heir ; 
 and on the death, in 1362, of Matilda, eldest daughter of Duke Henry 
 (who died in 1361), the whole of the estates attached to the Duchy of 
 Lancaster and Earldom of Leicester passed to the Lady Blanche, as sole 
 heiress of the deceased Duke. Thereupon, her Royal spouse, John of 
 Gaunt, was created Duke of Lancaster, and the title was thus perpetuated. 
 The wife of Duke John, the Lady Blanche, bore him a son, named 
 Henry of Bolingbroke, afterwards crowned as Henry IV., and founder 
 of the dynastic House of Lancaster. . Duke John of Gaunt had before 
 
 1 Edn. of 1824, App. pp. lix'lx. 
 
56 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 received, on his marriage with Blanche, daughter of Duke Henry, as her 
 marriage portion, with other estates, " the Wapentake of Clyderhow, 
 with the demesne lands there, the royal bailiwick of Blackburnshire, the 
 manors of Tottington and Rochdale, the lordship of Bowland, the vac- 
 cary of Bowland and Blackburnshire, the forest of Blackburnshire, and 
 park of Ightenhill, with the appurtenances in Blackburnshire.'" Blanche, 
 Duchess of Lancaster, died in the year 1369 ; Duke John of Gaunt, in 
 1398. 
 
 Henry of Bolingbroke, who succeeded to the Dukedom, was in 
 exile at the date of his sire's demise, having been banished by Richard 
 II., and his inheritance sequestrated. But returning to England, and 
 placing himself at the head of a powerful disaffected party, Henry easily 
 deposed the last of the Plantagenets, and was proclaimed King, with the 
 title of Henry IV., on September 29th, 1399. By this elevation, the 
 estates of the Duchy of Lancaster, among them the lordship of 
 Blackburnshire, became appurtenant to the English Monarchy. 
 
 In that vindictive and ensanguined civil conflict which arose out of 
 rival claims of the Dukes of York and of Lancaster — as representatives 
 of the elder and younger branches of the stock of Plantagenet — to the 
 Crown of England, the men of Lancashire, knights, gentry, and re- 
 tainers, strenuously bore their part on one side or the other, and profited or 
 suffered by the various events that alternately lifted and sunk the for- 
 tunes of the White and the Red Roses. But no significant military pas- 
 sage of that long intermittent war, which covered a period of about three 
 quarters of a century, had for its scene these hilly parts of North-East 
 Lancashire, nor demand, therefore, the notice of the local annalist. 
 The great battles of the Wars of the Roses were those of St. Albans (a.d. 
 1454), Blore Heath (1459), Northampton (1460), Wakefield (1460), 
 Mortimer's Cross (1461), Towton (1461), Hexham (1464), Bamet(i 471), 
 Tewkesbury (1471), and Bosworth Field (1485), some of which were 
 among the bloodiest ever fought on English ground. Before the battle 
 of Blore Heath, fought on the Staffordshire border in 1459, the Yorkist 
 army, which had been mustered by the Duke of York at Middleham 
 Castle in Yorkshire, was marched through Craven, and therefore 
 through Ribblesdale, traversing a portion of the Parish of Blackburn, 
 and passing on through West Lancashire into Cheshire and Shropshire. 
 The Yorkist nobles were joined in the campaign by Sir Thomas Har- 
 rington, of Hornby Castle, Sir Richard Molyneux, of Sefton, and other 
 Lancashire notables. In the course of these wars, several of the princi- 
 pal landowners in this parish, to be named hereafter, forfeited life or 
 lands by adherence to the losing interest. 
 
 X Hist, of Whalley, New Edn., v. i, p, 262. 
 
BETRAYAL OF HENRY THE SIXTH. ^f 
 
 One remarkable and melancholy incident in the career of the 
 unfortunate King, Henry the Sixth, is associated with Ribblesdale, and 
 with members of two local families, — I refer to the capture of Henry 
 near Clitheroe in the year 1464, by partizans of Edward IV., the Yorkist 
 Prince, who had then forcibly possessed the throne. After the loss of 
 the battle of Hexham, Henry was a fugitive, and sojourned for a time 
 in hiding and disguise with faithful supporters among the gentry of West 
 Yorkshire. Henry's first retreat was to Bolton Hall, in Craven, the 
 mansion of his friend, Sir Ralph Pudsay. There he dwelt in conceal- 
 ment for some months. He is said to have been a visitant at 
 Whalley Abbey during this period. Sir Ralph Pudsay, of Bolton Hall, 
 had married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Tunstall, who attended 
 Henry as his body esquire. At Bolton Hall Henry left memorials of his 
 sojourn, consisting of his boots, gloves, and a spoon ; these interesting 
 relics are still in preservation. In the garden of Bolton Hall is a well, 
 called King Henry's Well, of which it is a tradition that the spring 
 was discovered by Henry himself, and the well walled about during his 
 residence there. After his departure from Bolton Hall, Henry was 
 entertained a brief space at Waddington Hall, in the parish of Mitton, 
 then the residence of another gentleman who had supported the King's 
 interest — Sir John Tempest. Waddington Hall is situated a short 
 distance from the Ribble, on the Yorkshire side. It is a strongly-built, 
 moderate-sized house, most of the original features of which have 
 disappeared. It has yet a room which is known as the King's Chamber ; 
 and a field between the hall and the river bears the name of King 
 Henry's Meadow. Henry's presence in these parts was known to the 
 Harringtons and the Talbot.s, as well as to Tempest and Pudsay. 
 Induced by the promise of advantage from Edward the Fourth, these 
 parties, with the honourable exception of Sir Ralph Pudsay, entered 
 into a plot to take Henry captive for the purpose of handing him over 
 to his arch-enemy. The chief agents in this cruel act of treachery 
 were Sir James Harrington, of Hornby, and John Talbot, of Sales- 
 bury Hall. They set a watch upon the ex-King's movements at Wad- 
 dington, and when he was known to be within, they and their m)nrmidons 
 approached the house to seize Henry. Their victim is said to have 
 escaped by a back window, and fled in the direction of the Ribble. He 
 reached the ford of the river anciently known as Brungerley Hipping- 
 stones, close to the site of the modem bridge over the Ribble at Brun- 
 gerley ; crossed the river, and reached the Lancashire shore, where he 
 was overtaken and secured by his pursuers. This capture is recorded in 
 the Annals of England by John Stow, and in almost identical terms in 
 the Chronicle of Warkworth, as follows : — "Also, the same yere [1464], 
 
 8 
 
58 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Kynge Henry was takene bysyde a howse of religione [Whalley], in 
 Lancaschyre, by the mene of a blacke monke of Abyngtone, in a wode 
 called Cletherwode [Clitheroe Wood], besyde Bungerly hyppyng- 
 stones, by Thomas Talbott, sonne and heyre to Sere Edmunde Talbot, of 
 Basshalle, and Jhon Talbott, his cosyne, of Colebry [Salesbury], withe 
 other moo ; whiche disseyvide [him] beynge at his dynere at Wadyngtone 
 halle ; and [he was] caryed to Londone on horsebake, and his lege 
 bownd to the styrope, and so brought thrugh Londone to the Toure, 
 where he was kepte longe tyme.'" The black monk who was instrumental 
 in the betrayal was William Cantlow. At Waddington Hall Henry left 
 on his abduction a handsome leather penner ornamented with the 
 heraldic rose and crown, and other insignia, in relief 
 
 The betrayers of Henry were suitably rewarded by Edward IV. 
 Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall received a gift of ;^ioo, and Sir John 
 Tempest and Sir James Harrington the sum of loo marks each, from 
 the Royal exchequer ; while to Sir John Harrington King Edward made 
 a large territorial grant for his share in this transaction. Both the 
 Talbots who aided in the capture of the inoffensive King were consider- 
 able landlords in Blackburn Parish. Talbot of Bashall was lord of the 
 manor of Holt in Rishton township, and his relative, John Talbot, was 
 seated at Salesbury Hall and lord of Salesbury manor. In the accounts 
 of these two families of Talbots which will occur in the histories of 
 Rishton and Salesbury townships, some references to the members 
 implicated in this business will be found. John Livesey, of this parish, 
 a connexion of the Talbots of Holt and Bashall, assisted in the abduc- 
 tion of King Henry, for which he received a reward of ^^20 from 
 Edward IV. John Talbot of Salesbury received likewise from King 
 Edward the Fourth a grant of lands and houses to the value of twenty 
 marks per annum (^13 6s. 8d.) This grant was confirmed to his son 
 by a deed of Richard III., brother of Edward IV., in the year 1484, in 
 terms translated thus : — • 
 
 Richard by the grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of 
 Ireland, to al! to whom the present writing shall come, greeting. Whereas the Lord 
 Edward, late King of England, our brother, in consideration of the good and faithful 
 service of John Talbot, late of Salebury, Armiger, now deceased, in the capture of 
 his great adversary, Heniy, late in fact but not of right King of England, by his 
 letters patent granted to the same John a certain annuity or annual fee of twenty 
 marks, to have and to receive by the same John and his heirs so long as to him lands 
 and tenements to the value of the foresaid annuity might be awarded by the lord the 
 King or his heirs ; We, also, in consideration of the above-stated, and for the good 
 and faithful service that our well-beloved John Talbot, of Salebury, Kt., son and 
 heir of the aforesaid John, expends, and in time to come faithfully may expend, of our 
 special favour concede, and by these presents grant to the same John the annuity or 
 X Camden Soc. Series, v. x. p. 5.. 
 
FALL OF RICHARD IIL AT BOSWORTH. 59 
 
 annual fee of twenty marks, to have and to receive by the same John and his heirs, 
 so long as to him and his heirs lands and tenements of the annual value of the 
 foresaid annuity by us or by our heirs shall be bestowed ; receiving the same annuity 
 annually out of the issues and revenues of our County Palatine of Lancaster, by the 
 hand of our Receiver of the foresaid County Palatine of Lancaster for the time being. 
 In attestation of which thing we have caused to be executed these our letters patent. 
 Given under our seal of our Duchy of Lancaster, at the city of York, the 26th day of 
 June, in the second year of our reign ( 1484). 
 
 Edward IV. granted by letters patent to his younger brother- 
 Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in the year 1469, "the honour, castell, lord, 
 ship, manor, and hundred of Clytherough [Clitheroe] ; the forests of 
 Blackbumshire and Bowland ; the manors of Penwortham, Blaes, Wal- 
 ton, Padyngton, Colne, Penhulton, Werston, Chatburn, Acryngton, and 
 Haselyngdon, in our countie of Lancaster ; the manors of Skerton, 
 Overton, Sl)mes, Rygby and Wira, West Derby, Crosby ; the castell and 
 towne of Lytherpole ; forests of Quemmoor, Amoundemesse, West 
 Darbishire ; Blesdale, Wyresdale, Penhull, Rossendale and Myrescogh ; 
 Toxtath, and Croxtath, in our said countie ; the castell, manor, and 
 lordship of Hulton ; and the farmes of Runcorn, More, Wydnesse, 
 Whitlegh, Congleton, in the countie of Chester." 
 
 The complete overthrow and death of Richard the Third by Henry, 
 Earl of Richmond, at the battle of Bosworth, in 1485, ended the 
 domination of the House of York, and closed the disastrous epoch 
 of anarchy and confusion created by the conflicting pretensions to the 
 throne of the several descendants of Edward Plantagenet. Henry 
 Tudor, by his alliance with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., secured 
 the interest of York, and gave to his heirs a stronger title to the 
 sovereignty than he was able to exhibit in his own lineage. 
 
6q history of BLACKBURN. 
 
 CHAPTER III.— THE TUDOR PERIOD. 
 
 Sequestrations by Henry VII. — The Lancashire Contingent at Flodden — Subsidy Assessment in 1523 — 
 Ecclesiastical Valuation in 1534 — " Pilgrimage of Grace," and Suppression of Whalley Monastery 
 — Passage of the Abbey Estates — Military Levies in the Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth — ProsecU' 
 tion of Recusants — Loyal Declaration of Gentry — Free Tenants in 1600. 
 
 NOTHING of significance marks the record of this Parish in the 
 reign of the first Tudor, Henry VII., beyond the act of confiscation 
 which deprived the chief members of the vanquished party in Lancashire 
 of their territorial possessions, — the Harringtons and the Lord Lovel, who 
 owned manors in Blackburn Parish, being conspicuous sufferers by that 
 enactment. Henry VII. paid a state visit to Lancashire in the year 1494, 
 but did not proceed further northward in the county than Lathom, the 
 seat of the Stanley family. 
 
 A Subsidy for the King was assessed upon Lancashire in 1496, and 
 of the Commissioners appointed to collect the subsidy two were lords of 
 manors in the Parish, viz.. Sir John Talbot, Knt., lord of Salesbury, and 
 Thomas Hesketh, Esq., lord of Great Harwood. 
 
 Henry Tudor died, and was succeeded by his son, as Henry the 
 Eighth, in the year 1509. September 9th, 1513, the battle of Flodden 
 Field was fought, in which the invading army of James the IV. of Scot- 
 land was routed by the English host under the Earl of Surrey. In this 
 •battle, the left wing of the English army was composed of a strong con- 
 tingent of Lancashire men, marshalled by Sir Marmaduke Constable and 
 Sir Edward Stanley. All the towns and parishes of the County were 
 represented in this gallant array, and the steadiness and valour of the 
 Lancashire fighting-men are specially commemorated in a quaint con- 
 
SUBSIDY ASSESSMENTS IN THE PARISH. 
 
 6i 
 
 temporary ballad-description of the campaign. These lines, often cited 
 from the Ballad of Flodden, pourtray the characteristics of the bowmen 
 and billmen drawn from the hills and plains of East and North Lanca- 
 shire : — 
 
 From Waddecar to Waddington, 
 
 From Ribchester unto Rochdale, 
 
 From Poulton to Preston with pikes, 
 
 They with the Standley howte forth went. 
 
 From Pemberton and Pillin Dykes, 
 
 For Battell Bilmen bould were bent. 
 
 With fellows fearce and fresh for feight 
 
 Which Halton fields did turn in foores, 
 
 With lustie ladds, liver and light, r 
 
 From Blackbome and Bolton in the Moores. 
 
 From a Subsidy Roll in the Public Record Office I copy the parti- 
 culars of an assessment upon that portion of Blackburn Hundred con- 
 tained in Blackburn Parish, made in the years 1523-4. The MS. is 
 headed :— 
 
 Assessment of First Payment of Subsidy granted isth Henry viii. on 
 Inhabitants within the Hundred of Blackburn. 
 [In Blackburn Parish.] 
 Blakeborne — 
 
 Robert SharpuUs, in goodes 
 
 Roger Walley, in goodes 
 
 William Haworth, in goodes 
 
 Richard Haworth, in goodes 
 
 Henry Lyvesey, in goodes 
 
 Thomas Haspynhalgh, in goodes 
 
 James Catterall, in goodes 
 
 William Bolton, in goodes 
 
 Lawrence .Sharpulls, in goodes... 
 
 James Harwood, in goodes 
 
 John Karvart, in goodes 
 
 Henry Whythalgh, in goodes 
 
 Mellor-cum-Eckells[hill] — 
 
 James Whythalgh, in landes 
 
 John Ward, in landes 
 
 Uxor Christopher Walley, in goodes ... 
 
 George Sharpulls, in goodes 
 
 Derwynd Superior — 
 
 Rychard Crosse, in landes 
 
 William Eerre, in landes 
 
 Rauf Hey, in goodes 
 
 Derwynd Inferior — 
 
 James Lyvesey, in landes 
 
 William Mersden, in landes 
 
 Rauf Waddington, in goodes 
 
 Edmond Haworth, in goodes 
 
 Value 
 
 Levy 
 
 £^ 
 
 2S. 
 
 £^ 
 
 2S. 
 
 £i 
 
 2S. 
 
 £a 
 
 2S. 
 
 £a 
 
 2S. 
 
 £1, 
 
 2S. 
 
 £A: 
 
 2S. 
 
 £a 
 
 2S. 
 
 £a 
 
 2S. 
 
 £\ 
 
 2S. 
 
 £\ 
 
 2S. 
 
 £\ 
 
 2S. 
 
 £4 
 
 4s. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 40s. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 20s. 
 
 12d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s- 
 
 20s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 £4 
 
 2S, 
 
62 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Derwynd Inferior — 
 
 Peter Ha worth, in goodes 
 
 Edmond Harwood, in goodes 
 
 Richard Haworth, in goodes 
 
 Lyvesey-cum-Tockholes — 
 
 Geoi^e Esteley, in landes 
 
 Rauf Crycheley, in goodes 
 
 William Walmesley, in landes ... 
 
 William Holden, in landes 
 
 John Blaklach, in goodes 
 
 Thomas Lyvesey, in goodes 
 
 Hugh Marsden, in goodes 
 
 Marsden's Widdow, in goodes 
 
 Parva Harwod — 
 
 John Ryshton, in landes 
 
 Roger Bolton, in goodes 
 
 Plesyngton — 
 
 Lawrence Anysworth, in landes 
 
 William Issherwod, in landes ... 
 
 Richard Aspden, in landes 
 
 Myles Mersden, in goodes 
 
 Barthylmew SharpuUs, in goodes 
 
 Ryshton — 
 
 Uxor Nicholas Ryshton, in landes 
 
 Nicholas iTelden, in goodes 
 
 George Lyvesey, in goodes 
 George Abbot, in goodes 
 
 Xpofer Whalley, in goodes 
 
 Rychard ffelden, in goodes 
 
 William Hogeson, in goodes 
 
 Wytton — 
 
 George Cowbron, in landes 
 
 James Holdyn, in landes 
 
 John Hilliswyke, in landes 
 
 Magna Harwod — 
 
 Lynel ffole, in landes 
 
 Roger Cokshot, in landes 
 
 Robert Haytalgh, in goodes 
 
 Edmond Merser, in goodes 
 
 Hugh Stanworth, in goodes 
 
 Xpofer Butlyff, in goodes 
 
 Byllyngton — 
 
 John Deyne, in landes ... 
 
 John Braddyll, in landes 
 
 Hughtride Morley, in landes 
 
 Edward Braddyll, in goodes 
 
 Jamys fforster, in goodes 
 
 Uxor William Choo, in goodes 
 
 Jamys Broughton, in goodes 
 
 John Cedem, in goodes 
 
 Edmond Wod, in goodes 
 
 William Pollart, in goodes 
 
 Value 
 
 Levy 
 
 £a 
 
 2S. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 Ca, 
 
 2S. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 20s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 £^ 
 
 2S. 
 
 £A: 
 
 2S. 
 
 £4, 
 
 2S. 
 
 £a, 
 
 2S. 
 
 20s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 £S 
 
 Ss. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 40S. 
 
 2S. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 £i 
 
 3»- 
 
 £^ 
 
 2S. 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 £3 
 
 i8d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 20s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 40s. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 £3 
 
 i8d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 £3 
 
 i8d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 4DS. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
SUBSIDY ASSESSMENTS IN THE PARISH. 
 
 63 
 
 Wyllipshyre-cum-Dynkley— 
 
 Value 
 
 Le\7 
 
 Nycholas Talbot, in landes 
 
 ... 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 William Dewirst, in landes 
 
 ... 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 Olyver Dewirst, in goodes 
 
 ... 40s. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 Clayton-cum-Sholey— 
 
 
 
 Thomas Walmysley, in goodes 
 
 . ... £^ 
 
 2S. 
 
 Rychard Hawkyshey, in goodes 
 
 ■ - £3 
 
 i8d. 
 
 John Mores, in goodes 
 
 . . . 40s. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 OSBOLDESTON— 
 
 
 
 Robert Osboldeston, in landes 
 
 ... 20s. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 Walton-in-le-Dale — 
 
 
 
 George Banester, in landes 
 
 £i 
 
 3S- 
 
 Robert Hey ton, in goodes 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 Edmond Dansey, in goodes 
 
 £3 
 
 i8d. 
 
 Edmond Sergeant, in goodes 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 Edward Dansey, in goodes 
 
 £3 
 
 i8d. 
 
 John Brerys, in goodes ... 
 
 ... 40s. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 Rauf Sergeant, in goodes 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 Balderstone — 
 
 
 
 Roger Smalley, in landes 
 
 ... 20S. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 Thomas Clyflf, in goodes 
 
 i4 
 
 2S. 
 
 Barnard Bolton, in goodes * 
 
 £3 
 
 l8d. 
 
 Jamys Radclyff, in goodes 
 
 4DS. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 Salebery — 
 
 
 
 John Talbot, in landes 
 
 £^0 
 
 lOS. 
 
 John Bolton, in landes ... 
 
 ... 20s. 
 
 12d. 
 
 Xpofer Bolton, in landes 
 
 . . . 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 Samysbere— 
 
 
 
 Hugh Walshman, in goodes 
 
 £4 
 
 2S. 
 
 Richard Chemeley, in landes ... 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 Xpofer Sede, in goodes... 
 
 £5 
 
 2S. 6d. 
 
 Hugh Michell, in goodes 
 
 ... 40s. 
 
 I2d. 
 
 HODILSDEN — 
 
 
 
 William Yate, in goodes 
 
 . ... ;^3 
 
 iSd. 
 
 Robert Fyshe, in goodes 
 
 . . . 40s. 
 
 1 2d. 
 
 Robert Baron, in goodes 
 
 ... 40s. 
 
 12d. 
 
 At the foot of the Roll appear the autographs of the Subsidy Commissioners for 
 Blackburn Hundred, being the four principal personages in the Hundred : — "P. me 
 John Townley, Knyght; p. me Aleysander Osbalston, Knyght; p. meTHOM. 
 SoTHWORTHE, Knyght ; p. me Thomas Langton, Esquier." 
 
 The preceding Subsidy Roll furnishes a useful list of the resident 
 gentry and freeholders of the Parish at the beginning of the sixteenth 
 eentury. It exhibits the division of lands in the townships, show- 
 ing that Blackburn, Billington, Walton-in-le-Dale, Rishton, Livesey-cum- 
 Tockholes, Lower Darwen, Great Harwood, and Pleasington, then 
 contained the largest number of families of sufficient estate to be assessed 
 to the public taxation. Several of the lords of local manors, being resi- 
 dent elsewhere, are not named in the return ; ex. gr. Barton of Smithells, 
 
64 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 lord of Blackburn ; Radcliffe of Ordsall, lord of Tockholes ; Earl of 
 Derby, lord of a moiety of Samlesbury ; Hesketh of Rufford, lord of 
 Great Harwood ; Talbot of Bashall, lord of Rishton and Lower Dar- 
 wen ; and the Abbot of Whalley, lord of Billington. The names on the 
 Roll of the assessment for the second payment of the same Subsidy do 
 not vary from the list for the first payment. 
 
 THE VALOR ECCLESIASTICUS OF HENRY THE EIGHTH. 
 
 In the 26th year of Henry VIII. (a.d. 1534) an Act of Parliament 
 was passed authorising a survey and valuation of the ecclesiastical pro- 
 perty and of the benefices of the kingdom, and Royal Commissioners 
 were appointed to conduct the inquiry. The returns thus procured, 
 known as the Valor Ecdesiaslicus, or Ecclesiastical Survey, of England, 
 were made to a new state office, then instituted, called " His Majesty's 
 Court of First Fruits and Tenths." The King had resolved to direct 
 into his own exchequer the Decimce Dedmorum, or Tenths of the 
 Tenths, which had up to that time been the perquisite of the Roman 
 Pontiff, and it was necessary to ascertain what the tenths of these eccle- 
 siastical revenues amounted to. The reports of the Commission are pre- 
 served in a celebrated MS. record, called the Liber Regis, said to have 
 been transcribed by a monk of Westminster, for the Royal Library. I 
 have translated the portion of the Valor which relates to the Parish and 
 Deanery of Blackburn : — 
 
 DEANERY OF BLAKEBOURNE. 
 
 Worth of the Foresaid Deanery of Blakebourne in the hands of 
 William Knight, Archdeacon. — It is worth in proofs of Wills and other casual 
 farm-leases to Gilbert Haydock, clerk, per annum, 20s. Also in Pence annually 
 received from divers churches within the Deanery aforesaid, for Synodals and Procura- 
 tions, 66s. ; total £^ 6s. ; the tenth thereout, 8s. 7d. 
 
 Whalley Monastery. — Values, as well spiritual as temporal, belonging to the 
 Monastery of White Monks of Whalley, within the foresaid Deanery, — John Passe- 
 lewe, Abbot there. — Temporals belonging to the foresaid Monastery, in the coimty of 
 Lancaster : — Whalley — Rents of demesne lands in the hands of the said Abbot, 
 
 lying in the parish of Whalley, per annum ;,f20. WiswALL. — Rents of assize in 
 
 Wiswall, per annum, £6. Penhulton. — Rents of assize in Penhulton, per annum, 
 
 36s. 8d. Reade. — Rent of one parcel of land there, per aimum, 32s. 
 
 Clytherhowe. — Rents of assize of lands and tenements, per annum, ;^io. 
 
 Eddesforthe. — Rents of assize and tenements there, per annum, 40s. 
 
 Downham. — Rents of lands there, per annum, 15s. Chatborne. — Rents of 
 
 assize of two tenements there, per annum, 13s. 4d. WoRSTON. — Rent of one cot- 
 tage there, per annum, 2s. Parva M'ii ton. — Rents of divers tenements, called 
 
 Caldcotes, in the foresaid vill, per annum, £^ is. 4d. Burneley. — Rents of three 
 
 tenements there, per annum, 34s. 8d. Clyderhowe. — Rent of one tenement 
 
 within the lordship foresaid, called Baldwyn Hills, per annum, 26s. 8d. Rents of two 
 tenements near the foresaid vill, called Standen, per annum, ^4 13s. 4d. Bylung- 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL VALUATION IN 1534. 65 
 
 TON. — Rents of assize there, within the parish of Blackbome, per annum, ^30. 
 
 Harwood. — Rents of three tenements there, per annum, 68s. 8d. Wytton. — 
 
 Rents of two tenements there, per annum, 53s. 4d. Romesgreve. — Rents of cer- 
 tain tenements there, per annum, £(>. — —[Rents of lands and tenements in divers 
 townships in West and South Lancashire, of the collective value of ;f 132 13s. lod. 
 
 per annum.] Rybchester. — Rent of one parcel of land there, per annum 2s. 
 
 DuTTON. — Rents of free tenants there, per annum 4s. Rents of one tenement there, 
 
 per annum 13s. 4d. Preston. — Rent of one parcel of land there, per annum, 2s. 
 
 — Chaterton. — Rent of one parcel of land there, per annum, 6d. Rossendale. 
 
 — Rent of one mill, with a parcel of land there, 25s. Rent of one tenement there, 
 
 per annum, 2Is. Acryngton. — Rent of one parcel of land called Calfehey, 13s. 
 
 4d. Temporals belonging to the aforesaid Monastery in the County of Chester [in 
 
 the city of Chester and six townships, total value per annum ^45 3s. lod.] In 
 
 Waddington [Co. York.] — Rent of one parcel of land there, per annum, 2s. 
 
 Spirituals belonging to the aforesaid Monastery, in the said county of Lancaster : — 
 Whalley Rectory, appropriated to the foresaid Monastery ; it is worth, in Rents 
 of Land called Glebelande, per annum £^ ; in tithes of grain with hay, by estima- 
 tion, annually ;^44 13s. 4d. ; in tithe of lambs and wool, by estimation, annually /'17 ; 
 in oblations with secret tithes, and other privy tithes, with Easter Roll, per annum 
 
 ^22 13s. 4d. ; altogether .1^9 1 6s. 6d. Blakebourne Rectory is worth in Rents 
 
 of Glebe Lands per annum ^10 ; in tithes of grain with hay, annually, by estimation, 
 .jf 44 ; in tithes of lambs with wool, per annum £^ ; in oblations with other small 
 tithes, with Easter Roll, perannum.)f 16 6s. 8d. ; total .1^74 6s. 8d. [Eccles Rectory 
 — total value ;f57 2s. ; Rachedale Rectory — total value ^49 13s. 4d.] Sum total 
 of clear values of Spirituals and Temporals belonging to the foresaid Monastery — 
 ;^55i 4s. 6d. — whereof Reprises : — Repaid Rents — that is to say, in rents repaid to the 
 lord the King for lands in Edisworth, per annum 3s. ; to the same the lord the King 
 for lands in Romesgreve, per annum 66s. 8d. ; rents repaid to the foresaid lord the 
 King for lands in Baldwyn-hills, per annum 20s. 3d. ; to the same lord the King for 
 lands in Wythworth, per annum 12s. 8d. ; to the same lord the King for lands in the 
 lordship of Mawnton, per annum 6s. ; to the same for lands in Ludworth, per annum 
 3d. ; to the same for lands in Burnley, per annum 7s. 2^d. ; to the same for lands in 
 Spotlande, 14s. id. ; to the same for lands in Clyderhowe, per annum ^4; to the 
 same for lands in Downham, per annum 6s. 8d. ; to the same for lands in Chatboume, 
 3s. 4d. ; to the same for lands in Acryngton, 7s. 7d. ; to the same for a mill in Rossen- 
 dale, 26s. 8d. ; to the same for lands in Penhulton, 20s. ; to the lord of Worsley for 
 lands in Swynton, 7s. i id. ; to the lord of Barton for the foresaid lands in Swynton, 
 1 id. ; to Robert Holt, Esquire, for lands in Castleton, 3s. ; to the Prioress of HampuU 
 for lands in Whytworth, per annum I2s. ; to the Prioress of Chester, per annum los. ; 
 to the Abbot of Chester per annum, for lands in Staney, 9s. ; to the Castel of Lyver- 
 pole, per annum, 2s. ; to Thomas Langton, Kt., for lands in Harwood, 4s. — .Sum of 
 
 Repaid Rents, ^i6 3s. 2d. Pensions. — Pension annually paid to Robert Parryshe, 
 
 Vicar of Whalley, ;^I2 ; pension annually paid to Henry Salley, Vicar of Blake- 
 bourne, £\o 13s. 4d. ; pension annually paid to the Vicar of Eccles, by composition, 
 ;^lo 13s. 4d. ; pension annually paid to Gilbert Heydoke, Vicar of Rachdale, by com- 
 position, £% ; and in pension annually paid to the College of St. Bernard in Oxon, 
 43s. 4d. — Sum of pensions paid, ^^43 ids. — —Fees. — Fees of the Most Noble Ed- 
 ward Staneley, Earl of Derby, chief seneschall of the said Monastery, per annum io6s. 
 8d. ; fees of Alexander Nowell and Richard Cromboke, sub-seneschalls of the said 
 Monastery, per annum loos. ; fees of Lawrence Forest, receiver of the Rectory of 
 
 9 
 
66 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Whalley, per annum ;^ 6 6s. 8d. ; fees of Ralph Lynney, receiver of the Rectory of 
 Blakeboume, per annum loos. ; fees of Robert Parryshe, receiver of the Rectory of 
 Eccles, per annum £,^ ; fees of William Heydock, receiver of the Rectory of Rach- 
 dale, per annum 66s. 8d. ; fees of Lionel! FuUe, receiver of the lordship of Croynton, 
 Garston, and Akeberth, per annum 54s. 6d. ; fees of William Whithowe, bailiff of 
 Stanney, per annum 20s. ; fees of Hiinbabyn, bailiff of Acton, per annum 20s. ; fees 
 of Christopher Smyth, Bailiff of Aston, per annum 20s. ; fees of Robert FuUe, bailiff 
 of Byllington, per annum 40s. ; fees of Oto Holland, bailiff of Maunton, per annum, 
 and of Swynton 40s. ; fees of Robert Borman, bailiff of Wolden, per annum 20s. ; 
 fees of James Gartside, bailiff of Merland, Castleton and Spotlande, 60s. ; fees of 
 Ralph Holland, bailiff of the Grange of Whytworthe, per annum los. ; fees of John 
 Cromboke, bailiff of Roclyff and Brendwood, per annum 20s. ; fees of Giles Parker, 
 bailiff of Clyderowe, per annum 40s. ; fees of Ralph Morton, bailiff of the Grange of 
 
 Stanyngs, per annum 40s. Alms. — Alms annually distributed among the poor, viz., 
 
 at the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, in the price of 200 yards of woollen cloth, 
 on the said day annually distributed by the foundation, icxjs. ; alms annually distributed 
 to all the poor persons coming to the foresaid Monastery, according to the foundation 
 of John Lacy, on the day of the Lord's Supper, namely, in the price of 1,200 quar- 
 ters of corn made into bread, ^7 4s. ; of wheat, 12s. ; of eight quarters 
 brewed into ale, of the price per quarter 6s., — 48s. ; of six "maise" of red and 
 white allecar, of the price per "mais" 6s., — 36s. ; and annually distributed on the 
 said day to the poor and the clerks, after the washing of their feet, 20s. in pence ; and 
 also distributed to thirteen of the elder poor on the said day, to as many of them as 
 take it, 2d., and one pair of shoes price 8d., — los. 'lod. ; altogether, as appears by 
 the foundation of the said Monastery, when examined in the presence of the Com- 
 missioners of the lord the King, £,\2 i8s. lod. ; for Pence applied to the support of 
 twenty-four poor and infirm persons, annually supported within the said Monastery, 
 according to the ordination of the lord John Lacye, that is to say, to each poor person 
 weekly 8d., — 5^41 12s., as appears by the foresaid foundation, in the presence of the 
 said Commissioners exhibited and examined, and remaining in possession of the Abbot 
 and Convent there ; alms annually distributed to the poor coming to the said Monas- 
 tery in bread, namely, weekly two quarters of corn, price per quarter 12s., for the 
 souls of the founders, as appears by the foundation of the said Monastery — ^^62 8s. ; 
 total ;f 104. Sum of all Reprises £,22<) 15s. 4>^d. ; and there remains clear ^£'321 9s. 
 id. ; the tenth part thereof ^32 2s. ild. 
 
 Vicarage of Whalley. — In the hands of Robert Parryshe, monk, worth, in 
 annual pension received from the Abbot of Whalley, by composition, £\2,; thereout 
 in pension annually paid to the Bishop of Chester 40s. ; in pence paid to the Arch- 
 deacon of Chester for sinodals and procurations per annum 43s. ; alms annually distri- 
 buted on the death of Roger, formerly Bishop of Chester, 13s. 4d. ; in annual rent 
 paid to the wardens of the Church of Whalley per annum 20s. ; and there remains 
 clear, £6 3s. 4d., the tenth thereout 12s. 4d. 
 
 Chantry at Clyderowe. — In the hands of Thomas Sylkoke, clerk. It is 
 worth in rents and farms of certain lands and tenements lying there, per annum 77*-; 
 thence the tenth, 7s. S/^d. 
 
 Chantry at Padyham. — In the hands of Hugh Hargreve, clerk. Valued in 
 rents and farms of divers lands and tenements there, per annum £t^ 13s. 4d. ; the tenth 
 thereout, 9s. 4d. 
 
 Chantry at Harwood. — Of the foundation of Thomas Esketh, esquire. In 
 the hands of Richard Wood, chaplain. Worth, in rents and farms of divers lands and 
 
"PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE." 67 
 
 tenements in the same, per annum £4 Js. Sd. Thereout, in alms annually distributed 
 among the poor on the day of the death of the founder, 6s. 8d., and remains £4 Is.; 
 the tenth thereout, 8s. l>^d. 
 
 Chantry at Burnley. — In the hands of Peter Adlyngton, chaplain. Valued 
 
 in rents and farms of lands there per annum 66s. 8d. ; thence the tenth, 6s. 8d. 
 
 Chantry at Burnley Aforesaid. — In the hands of Gilbert Fayrbanke, chaplain. 
 Worth, in rents and farms of divers lands and tenements there, per annum 40s. ; the 
 tenth thereout 4s. 
 
 Chantry at Edisforde. — By the foundation of the Burgesses of Clyderowe. 
 In the hands of William Herde, chaplain. Valued in rents and farms of divers lands 
 and tenements there per annum, 26s. 8d. ; the tenth thereout, 2s. 8d. 
 
 Vicarage of Blakeborne. — In the hands of Henry Salley, monk. Worth in 
 a pension annually received of the Abbot of Whalley, ^10 13s. 4d. Thence, in pen- 
 sion p'aid to the Bishop of Chester per annum, 8s. led. ; in pence paid to the Arch- 
 deacon of Chester for sinodals and procurations per annum, 23s. ; annual pension or 
 rent of the Church of Blakeborne per annum, 20s. ; and there remains clear £S is. 
 
 6d.; the tenth thereout, i6s. 2d. Chantry at Blakeborne. — In the hands of 
 
 Thomas Burges, chaplain. It is worth in rents and farms of divers lands and tene- 
 ments there, per annum, 66s. 8d. ; the tenth thereout, 6s. 8d. Chantry at 
 
 Blakeborne aforesaid. — In the hands of William Rishton, chaplain. Value in 
 rents and farms of divers lands and tenements there per annum, 66s. 8d. ; the tenth 
 thereout, 6s. 8d. 
 
 "PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE" AND SUPPRESSION OF WHALLEY 
 MONASTERY. 
 
 In March, 1534, Henry VIII. proceeded, with the consent of his 
 Pariiament, to substitute the royal supremacy over the Church of 
 England for that of the Pope ; this act was followed by the appointment 
 of a Commission to make a Visitation of all the religious houses in the 
 kingdom, to report upon the pecuniary resources of these monastic 
 establishments, and upon the modes of life and moral character of 
 their inmates. This Visitation was made in the year 1535. The visitors 
 for Lancashire were Dr. Thomas Legh and Dr. Richard Layton. Upon 
 the report of the Commission, an Act was passed suppressing the lesser 
 monasteries, and providing for the reversion of their revenues to the 
 Crown. All the monastic foundations in the county of Lancaster, 
 with the exception of the three great abbeys of Whalley, Cockersand, 
 and Fumess, succumbed to this stroke of state. The measure led to the 
 rebellion characterised " The Pilgrimage of Grace," organised and led 
 by the abbots of the greater Northern Monasteries. John Paslew, 
 Abbot of Whalley, was implicated in the rising, but his participation in 
 the military operations was but slight. The " Pilgrimage of Grace " 
 was quelled with little difficulty by the king's forces. In Lancashire, 
 the Earl of Derby marshalled the loyal gentry and their men-at-arms at 
 Preston, and marched through Blackburn to Whalley Abbey. On the 
 
68 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 occasion, the king addressed autograph letters to sundry county knights, 
 among them to Sir Thomas Langton of Walton-in-le-Dale, acknowledging 
 their service. The letter to Sir Thomas Langton, knight, is found in 
 the public archives, and runs : — 
 
 By the King. — Trustie and welbeloved we grete you well. And forasmuche as 
 we have been credeably advertised howe that lyke a moste true and faythfull subject 
 you have assembled all your force and joyned the same with our right trustye and 
 right welbeloved cousyn the Erie of Derbye, for the repressyon of certayne Traytours 
 and Rebelles in those partes, lyke as we for the same gyve unto you our moste harty 
 thankes. So we thought as well convenient to require you to persist and contynue in 
 your faythfull towardnes in the company of our said cousyn till the said Traytours shall 
 be utterly subdued ; as to signifie unto you that we shall not onely consider yourcharge 
 therein, but lykwise so remembre your service in the same as you shall have cause to 
 saye you have well employed your labours, paynes, and travailles in that behalf. 
 Geven undre our signet at our Castell of Windesor the 28th day of Octobre, in the 
 28th yere of our Regne (1536). Indorsed — "To our trustie and welbeloved servant, 
 Sir Thomas Langton, Knyght.''^ 
 
 There is also in existence a despatch from the Earl of Derby to 
 the king, recounting the events that immediately preceded the Earl's 
 advance from Preston to Whalley with the force of the Shire. Abbot 
 Paslew and some of his monks were arrested shortly after the collapse 
 of the insurrection, and were sent to Lancaster to be tried for high 
 treason. The letter of instruction from the king's secretary, Thomas 
 Cromwell, to the Earl of Sussex, in command of the royal army, dated 
 March nth, 1537, makes mention of some local incidents of the 
 outbreak in the passage subjoined : — 
 
 Nevertheles, we thinke it necessary that you should not only duely examyn them 
 all [the Monks of Fumess] befor you shall dismisse any of that sorte that shall goo to 
 other houses, as well for that we thinke some of the houses mentioned in your bill 
 of their names be not well hable to receyve their nomber sett upon them as for that the 
 house of Gervayse is in some danger of suppression by like offence as hathe been 
 comytted at Whalley, but also that you shall retayne John Estgate [Monk of Whalley] 
 who wold goo to Methe [? Meath], tyl ye may perceyve the cause whye he should desire 
 to goo more to that place thenne to any other. . . Thirde, whereas you have sent 
 unto us the copie of the Lettre writen from our cousin of Norffolk to the Lord Darcye 
 after his first departure from Doncaster, whiche you found in the Vicar of Black Burne's 
 [Blackbume's] Chamber ; forasmoche as by the same it appereth that there hathe 
 been great intelligence amonges such personnes as were of that naughty inclination 
 entent and conspiracye, We desire and praye you as wel by the straite examynation 
 of the said Vicar as by all other meanes that you canne possibly devise, strongly to 
 enserche howe the said copie was conveyed thether, who was the messenger, who 
 was of counsel, and how many lettres or writinges of that sorte or any other 
 were in that tyme conveyed in to those parties, to whom, from whom, and of 
 what effect. For in the emest folowing of this matier you maye doo unto us as 
 highe and as acceptable service as canne be devised. Finally we desire and pray you 
 I Baines's Hist, of Lane, 1st Edn., v. i. p. 477. 
 
SUPPRESSION OF WHALLEY ABBEY. £9 
 
 to sende uppe in sauftie unto us Richard Estgate, late Monke of Salleye. Our servant 
 Sir Arthur Darcy hathe writen that he doubtethe not to declare suche matier against himf 
 at his repayr unto us as shall conveye some thinges to our knowleage whiche for our 
 affaires shall be very necessary to be knowen. Which things being once conduced 
 to some perfection we shall signifie our pleasure unto you touchinge the returne of our 
 cousin of Sussex to our presence. T. C. [Thomas Cromwell.] 
 
 The above missive informs us of the circumstance that on a search 
 being made in the house of the Vicar of Blackburn by the King's party, 
 for proofs, probably, of his treason and of the ramifications and plans 
 of the rebellion, the searchers lighted upon a manuscript in one of the 
 chambers of the Blackburn Vicarage which astounded them not a 
 little. It was the copy of a private despatch sent by the Duke of 
 Norfolk, the King's General-in-Chief, to Lord Darcy, after his departure 
 in custody from Doncaster. Manifestly the intelligence department of 
 the rebels had been served by means of the perfidy of some of the 
 Royal messengers, and the order of the King was that the mystery 
 should be fathomed to the bottom. The Vicar of Blackburn at that 
 time was Henry Salley, a monk of the monastery of Whalley, and 
 doubtless a willing agent of his patron Abbot Paslew in all the plottings 
 of this conspiracy. In the beginning of March, the Earl of Sussex held 
 Whalley Abbey for the King with a considerable garrison. William de 
 Trafford, Abbot of Salley, the Prior, and other monks of that abbey, 
 had been captured by Lord Shrewsbury along with Paslew and the 
 Whalley monks, and had been carried to Lancaster for trial. At length 
 the trial of the abbots took place, and on the 10th March, 1537, Abbot 
 John Paslew, Abbot William Trafford, the Prior of Salley, and the 
 monks Haydock and Eastgate of Whalley, were found guilty of capital 
 offences,' and sentenced to death. The Abbot Trafford and his Prior 
 were executed the same day at Lancaster. Paslew and his brethren 
 were conveyed to Whalley Abbey, under a guard of Lord Derby's men. 
 Thence the Abbot was conducted on the morning of the 12th March, 
 1537. to a spot on the Billington side of the Calder in Blackburn Parish, 
 called the Hole Houses, at the foot of Whalley Nab, where the gallows 
 had been reared upon the summit of a grassy knoll, and there the last 
 Abbot of Whalley, with his monk Eastgate, was himg. The record of 
 this melancholy transaction in the pages of Stow is this: — "The 10 of 
 March, John Paslew, bacheler of divinitie, then beeing the 25 Abbot 
 of the Abbey of Whalley, was executed at Lancaster [this is an error], 
 and the same day with him was hanged, drawne and quartered, John 
 Castegate [Eastgate], a monke of the same house, whose quarters were 
 set up at divers townes in that Shire.'" 
 
 I Annales of £ng.. pp. 969-70. 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The fiat of sequestration was pronounced upon Whalley Monastery 
 directly after the execution of its Abbot for treason, and some three 
 years before the general suppression of the greater monasteries of the 
 kingdom, which was not decreed until the year 1540. In the case of 
 Whalley there was no deed of formal surrender (as was made by the 
 Abbot of Fumess), and no resort on the King's part to parliamentary 
 sanction ; — the dissolution was the summary act of absolute kingly 
 power, exerted for the punishment of rebellion. Three months after 
 Pasle^v's fall, in June, 1537, a survey of the landed possessions and 
 ecclesiastical properties of the convent was made by the King's agents, 
 preliminary to the disposal of the same at the monarch's pleasure. The 
 particulars of such parts of this survey as relate to the Abbey estates in 
 Blackburn parish, will be found in the account of the several townships 
 in which such lands are contained, at a later stage of this work. The 
 territorial possessions of the Monastery were eventually sold by the 
 Crown to various purchasers. The extensive demesne lands in the town- 
 ships of Whalley and Billington, on both sides of the Calder, were on the 
 1 2th of April, 1539, placed under the bailiwick of John Braddyll, son 
 of Edward Braddyll of Brockhole, and in the year 1553 (6th Edward 
 6th) the Abbey fabric and the manorial estate in Whalley were sold to 
 John Braddyll and Richard Asheton. Braddyll also acquired rents in 
 Little Harwood, Clayton, and Witton, in this parish, that had pertained 
 to the Abbey, and many other properties in Lancashire and Yorkshire ; 
 and Thomas Holcroft, Esq., another great speculator in Abbey lands, 
 secured the manor of Billington with its appurtenances. The Rectory 
 of Blackburn became parcel of the rich estate of the See of Canterbury. 
 
 The suppression of the Chantries followed quickly upon the down- 
 fall of the Monasteries. The circumstances of the suppression of 
 Chantry Priests ayached to Chantry Chapels in the Parish Church of 
 Blackburn and to certain of its dependent Churches will be mentioned 
 in the historical narrative of these Church foundations. 
 
 MILITARY LEVIES AND TAXATION IN THE REIGNS OF 
 MARY AND ELIZABETH. 
 
 The reigns of both the Tudor Queens were agitated by frequent 
 intestine disturbances and by foreign wars or rumours of wars. To meet 
 these emergencies of the State, the levies of armed men made upon the 
 country were almost continuous, and in many instances large. Lancashire 
 furnished contingents proportional to its population to all these levies.' 
 
 The first Military taxation in Mary's reign is one made in the ist 
 Mary (1553). In that muster Blackburn Hundred was ordered to raise 
 
 z Lane Lieut., v. i, p. ^. 
 
MILITARY MUSTERS AND TAXATION. 71 
 
 400 armed men, and the following knights and gentlemen were their 
 commanders ; — Sir Richard Sherburne, Sir Thomas Langton, Sir Thomas 
 Talbot, Sir John Southworth ; John Townley, Thomas Catterall, John 
 Osbolston (Osbaldeston), and John Talbot, Esquires.' The quotas of 
 the townships in the Parish of Blackburn are added : — 
 
 PEROCH DE BLACKBOURNE. 
 
 
 Men 
 
 
 Blackboume 
 
 viii 
 
 Harwood Magna ... 
 
 Osbaldeston 
 
 ii 
 
 Billington 
 
 Balderstone ... 
 
 vi 
 
 Nether Darwen 
 
 Cuerdall 
 
 iii 
 
 Rishton 
 
 Harwood Parva 
 
 vi 
 
 Mellor and Eccleshill 
 
 Plesington 
 
 xii 
 
 Over Darwen 
 
 Ly vesey 
 
 viii 
 
 Claiton-in- the-Daile . . . 
 
 Walton-in-le-Dale 
 
 XV 
 
 Witton 
 
 Sailburye 
 
 ii 
 
 
 Men 
 
 V 
 V 
 
 ii 
 
 In the 2nd of Queen Elizabeth (1559) several calls were made 
 upon the county for soldiers. The first was a levy of 300 men to serve 
 the Queen's Majesty at Berwick, in her operations against the Scotch 
 and French troops under Mary of Guise. To this levy Blackburnshire 
 contributed 55 men, of whom 15 were archers. The whole Lancashire 
 contingent was placed " under the conduction of Sir John Southworth, 
 Knight," lord of Samlesbury. Next, a -levy of 200 soldiers and 267 
 pioneers, " to serve the Queen's Majesty at Leith, under the conduction 
 of Thomas Butler, Esq.," was made in Lancashire, whereof the Hundred 
 of Blackburn contributed 36 soldiers and 48 pioneers. A third and 
 more important levy of men was made in the same year, in which the 
 Hundred was required to muster 407 harnessed men, and 361 unhar- 
 nessed, a total number of 768 soldiers.* 
 
 Again, in 1574, was a general levy of arms, armour and horses in 
 Lancashire. The following is a list of the residents of Blackburn 
 Hundred who had to furnish arms, &c., with the description given of the 
 articles required of each : — Sir Richard Shirbume, Knight, to furnish : — 
 Dymylaunce i, light horsemen 2, corselettes 3, coates of plate 2, pykes3, 
 long boes, 3, sheffe of arrowes 3, Steele cappes 3, calivers 2, morrions 
 2. — John Towneley, Esq., to furnish : — Dymylaunce i, light horses 2, 
 corslettes 3, coates of plate 2, pykes 2, long boes 2, sheffe of arrowes 2, 
 Steele cappes 2, caliver i, morrion i. — Sir J. Sowthworth, Knight, to 
 furnish : — Light horses 2, corslettes 2, coates of plate 2, pykes 2, long 
 bowes 2, sheffe of arrowes 2, Steele cappes 2, caliver i, morrione i. — 
 John Osbaldeston, Esq., to furnish same as Sir John Sowthworth, saving 
 
 I Lane. Lieut., v. i, p. 4. 2 lb. v. i. pp. 18-21. 
 
12 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 he is chardged with almaine ryvettes of cottes of plate, and this is the 
 whoUe difference. — Thomas Caterall, Esq., to furnish : — Light horse i^ 
 harquebut i, long bovve i, sheffe of arrowes i, scull i. — Thomas Novvell, 
 Esq., to furnish the same as Mr. Caterall. — Richard Ashton, Esq., to fur- 
 nish : — Lighte horse r, corslettes 2, coates of plate 2, pykes 2, longe bowes 
 z, sheffe of arrowes 2, Steele cappes 2, caliver i, morrione i. — John Talbot, 
 Esq., to fumishe the same as Mr. Ashton, saving he is not chardged 
 with any Steele cappes. — Nicholas Banestar, Ar., to fumishe : — Light 
 horse. — John Rishworth, Ar., to furnish : — Light horse. — Richard 
 Grymeshawe, Ar., to furnish : — Coate of plate i, long bowe i, sheffe of 
 arrowes i, caliver i, scull i, bill i. — Thomas Walmysley, Ar., John 
 Braddill, Ar., Henrie Towneley, Thomas Aynsworth, Nicholas Parker, 
 to fumishe the same as Mr. Grymeshawe. — .\lex. Howghton, gent., to 
 fumishe : — ^Corslette i, coate of plate i, pyke i, long bowe i, sheffe of 
 arrowes r, Steele cappe i, caliver i, morrione i. — Roger Nowell, Esq., 
 to fumishe : — Coate of plate i, long bowe i, sheffe arrowes i, caliver i, 
 scull I, bill I. — William Barecroft, Henrie Banester, Thomas Watson, 
 Ilvan Heydocke, Edward Starkie, Robert Moreton, Olin Birtwisell, John 
 Greenacre, Nicholas Hancocke, to furnish the same as Mr. Nowell. — • 
 Thomas Astley to fumishe : — Coate of plate i, longe bow i, sheffe 
 arrowes i, Steele cappe 1, bill i. — ^Thomas Whittacre, George Shuttle- 
 worth, Frauncis Garsyde, to furnish same as Mr. Astley. — Robert Smithe 
 to fumishe : — Long bowe r, sheffe arrowes i, scull r, bill i. — John 
 Ashawe, Nicholas Robinson, George Seller, Nicholas Halstidd, Wm. 
 Langton, Bryan Parker, Lawrence Whitacre, John Ormerode, Rawffe 
 Haworth, Richard Cunlyffe, Richard Parker, Wm. Barker, Adam Bolton, 
 George Talbot, Thomas Lassell, Thomas Isherwoodde, Richard Haberiame, 
 Wm. Starkye, Rich. Harrison, Rich. Crounlowe, Tho. Houghim, Rich. 
 Shawe, Rich. Bawden, Alexander Lyvesaye, William Churchlowe, Rawffe 
 Talbotte, Edwarde Carter, Rich. Woodde, Tho. HoUiday, Roger Nowell, 
 Hughe Shuttleworth, Hughe Halsted, Henry Speake, Tho. Enot, 
 Henrie Shawe, Peter Ormerode, Thomas Walmysley, Thomas Dewhurst, 
 Olin Ormerode, John Nuttall, Gilberte Rishton, Nicholas Cunliff, 
 Henrie Barecroft, Laur. Blakey, John Hargreve, James Fieldes, James 
 Hartley, Thomas Ellys, Thurston Baron, Robert Craven, George Elston, 
 Bamarde Townley, Oliver Halsted, John Seller, John Pastlowe, John 
 Whittacre, John Aspinall, Roberte Cunliff, Richard Chameley, Geffrey 
 Ryshton, Roberte Seede, Thurstone Tompson, Richard Bawden, 
 Thomas Osbaldeston, John Holden, Gyles Whitacre, Richard Tattersall, 
 Roberte Smithe, Nicholas Duckesburie, William Merser, to fumishe in 
 everie respect lyke unto Robert Smithe. — Summary for the Hundred :—~ 
 Dimilaunces 2, light horses 13, corslettes 14, coates of plate or almaine 
 
MILITARY MUSTERS AND TAXATION. 
 
 73 
 
 ryvettes 34, pykes 14, long bowes 112, sheffe of arrowes 112, Steele 
 cappes 109, calivers 26, morrians 7, billes 90.' 
 
 A Certificate and Summary of the Muster of Men in the same year, 
 shows the subjoined numbers of men supplied by the " Hundred de 
 Blackebome : — Archers, beinge able men furnished by the Countrey 
 with bowes, arrowes, Steele cappes, sword and dagger, 126; Bill men, 
 beinge able men furnished by the Countrey with Jacke, sallet, bill, sword 
 and dagger, 251 ; Archers, beinge able men unfurnished, 20; Bill men, 
 beinge able men unfurnished, 402." The total number of Soldiers from 
 the Hundred was 799. 
 
 In 1577, came another " Taxation of the Hundrethes within the 
 Countie of Lancaster for the makeinge readie of 300 men within otu 
 hoivers waminge ;" this was made at Ormskirk, Jan. 30th, 1577, by 
 Henrie, Earl of Derby, John Fleetwoodd, Esq., Sheriff of the County, 
 Sir Richard Sherebume, and others. Of these three hundred conscripts, 
 Blackburn Hundred had to produce 57 men, including 24 pickmen, six 
 billmen, six archers, and 2 1 pioneers. The furniture of each Pickman 
 cost ^4 IIS. 2d. ; of every Billman ^£4 iis. 2d. ; of every Archer £4 
 4s. 6d., and of every Pioneer £2 5s. sd. The cost to the Hundred of 
 Blackburn of its quota in money would be ^209 15s. gd.^ 
 
 On the 1 8th of April, 1577, Commissioners appointed to raise and 
 train three hundred men of Lancashire as gunners, made the division of 
 the men to the various Hundreds of the County at Ormskirk. Of this 
 levy Blackburn Hundred had to provide 57 gunners, who were to be 
 trained by " Henrie Standley," along with a certain proportion of the 
 men raised in Salford and Amounderness Hundreds. 
 
 Again, on the i6th of March, 1580, Queen Elizabeth issued to 
 the leading gentry of Lancashire a Commission for a general muster 
 of fighting-men in the county, under the evident fear of attack by some 
 foreign Catholic State. Among the members of this important Commis- 
 sion were the following gentlemen connected with Blackburnshire : — Sir 
 Richard Shirbume, Knt. ; Sir Thomas Hesketh, Knt. ; Ralph Ashton ; 
 Richard Ashton of Whalley ; Robert Barton, of Smithells and Blackburn ; 
 Thomas Walmesley, jun. ; Richard Braddill, and Nicholas Banister. 
 
 In 1 581, an hundred men were demanded from the county, and the 
 " furniture" or arms for the men was apportioned to the Hundreds at 
 VVigan, by the Earl of Derby and others, on the 5th of April in that 
 year. Blackburn Hundred had to furnish 19 suits of armour, including 
 eight calivers, four bowes, three pickes, and four billes. 
 
 Several levies were made in 1584; among these, was a demand 
 upon the county gentry for light horsemen ; and appear in the list of 
 
 I Lane. Lieut., v. i, pp. 45-9. 2 lb. pp. 86-8. 
 
74 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 " names of such persons as are appointed to fynde leight horsemen," who 
 are " everie one to bee furnished with a good, large, and serviceable 
 horse or geldinge; a light horseman's staf or a jacke, a burhonett, 
 schlives of male, a case of pistoletts, and a cassock," — the following 
 gentry in this Hundred : — Sir John Southworth, of Samlesburie, i horse- 
 man ; John Talbott, of Salisburie, 2 horsemen. This year, too, a call 
 was made for 200 men for Ireland with their furniture and charges ; 
 whereof the Earl of Derby, Edmund Trafford, Sir John Radclyf, Sir 
 Richard Shireborne, Richard Shuttleworthe, Sergeant-at-law, Ralph 
 Barton, Esquire, and others, were the Commissioners ; who apportioned 
 the levy at Wigan, Sept. 2nd, and ordered the Hundred of Blackburn to 
 furnish — Calivers, 16 ; bowes, 8; billes, 7; pickes, 7; total, 38.^ 
 
 In the month of November, 1585, another levy was made upon the 
 county, of 600 gunners and pikemen, the rate of which, as fixed by Sir 
 John Byron, Knt., and Sir Richard Sherburne, Knt., was 57 men for 
 each 300, or 1 14 men altogether, out of Blackburn Hundred, placed 
 under the direction of Sir Richard Sherburne. These 114 men, at the 
 charge of ;^3 per man, cost the Hundred the sum of ;^342, equal to 
 six-fifteenths of the whole charge of the county.' 
 
 Under date 1587, is found, among the Shuttleworth MSS., " A note 
 of the proceedings taken at Preston, the 19th daie of October, 29th Eliz., 
 by Sir Richard Sherburne, Knt., one of the Deputie Lieutenants for this 
 Countie, and other the Justices of peace and gentlemen of worshipp 
 there present ;" that is to say : — " First, that the Justices of peace of 
 everie Hundreth, doe send for the Armor from the Croshall [Cross Hall, 
 Ormskirk] the daie hereafter specified : — Derbie [Hundred], Tuesdaie 
 the 24th of October. Layland, Wednesdaie the 25th of October. Sall- 
 forde, Thursdaie the 26th of October. Blackborne, Fridaie the 27th of 
 October. Amnender/iess, Mondaie the 30th of October. Lonesdalle, 
 Tuesdaie the last of October. Hem, the Justices of peace of everie 
 hundreth to provyde a convenient howse for the keepeinge of the saide 
 Armor and weapons at these townes hereafter specifyed : — Lonesdalle, at 
 Lancaster ; Amounderness, at Preston ; Layland, at Chorley ; Derbie, at 
 Ormiskirke : Sallforde, at Manchester ; Blackburtu, at Whalley. Item, it 
 is appointed that the souldiers of everie hundreth shal be mustered and 
 treyned at theis places. Item, the 600 souldiers are appointed to be 
 mustered at theis places the daies hereafter specifyed, viz. : — Mon- 
 daie, the 6th of November, at Lancaster. Wednesdaie, the 8th of 
 November, at Whalley. Mondaie, the 13th of November, at Manches- 
 ter, Wednesdaie, the 15th of November, at Ormiskirke. Fridaie, the 
 1 7th of November, at Chorley. — Item, the horsemen to bee mustered as 
 
 I Lane, Lieut, v. ii, pp. 144-5. 2 I^-, PP- 158-60. 
 
MILITARY MUSTERS AND TAXATION. 75 
 
 hereafter specified : — Lonesdalle, Amoundemess, and Blackbume, upon 
 Tuesdaie, the 21st of November, at Preston."' 
 
 The order concludes with " a note what everie Hundreth is to fur- 
 nish of the 600 souldiers all readie appointed, and what Armour they 
 are to receive for the same ;" the quota of Blackburn Hundred included 
 — Shott [or Musketry] 74 ; Corslettes, 32 ; Pickes [or Pikemen], 32 ; 
 total 138 ;—& larger number of men than was raised in the levy by any 
 other Hundred save that of Derby, whose muster was 180 men. This 
 call for men was made in preparation for the approaching invasion of the 
 country by the Spaniards. In the same year, a contribution of twenty- 
 five dimilances for the Queen's service was asked and obtained from the 
 gentry of the county, towards which the following in Blackburn district 
 were contributors : — Thomas Hoghton, Esq. ; Sir John Southworth, 
 Knt. ; Thomas Langton, Esq. ; Sir Thomas Hesketh, Knt. ; Thomas 
 Walmisley, Esq. ; Edward Osbaldeston, Esq. ; John Talbot, Esq. ; and 
 Thomas Barton, Esq. 
 
 Probably the last of the many military levies in Elizabeth's reign 
 was that of the year 1595, the particulars of which relating to the 
 Parish I copy from a MS. in the Harleian collection : — 
 
 The Number of able Men in the Hundreth of Blackbume, as well furnished with 
 ai-mor and weapon as unfurnished, and viewed att Whalley the Third of Novr. Ano. 
 P. Rne. Eliz. 37 (1595). 
 
 [Return for Townships in Parish of Blackburn. ] 
 
 Bills. Archers. Shott. Musketers. Pyke. Unfurnished. 
 
 — — 55 
 
 — — 14 
 
 2 — 5 
 
 — — 28 
 
 — — 7 
 
 — — 30 
 
 — — 22 
 
 — — 33 
 
 — — 22 
 
 — — 16 
 
 — — 9 
 
 — — 22 
 
 — — 23 
 
 — — 19 
 
 2 — 5 
 
 — 2 I 
 
 — — 2 
 
 — — 9 
 
 Blackbume 
 
 . 2 
 
 I 
 
 S 
 
 Clayton-in-le-Dale 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 
 Harwood Parva 
 
 . 2 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Harwood Magna 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Sailburye 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 Billington 
 
 ,. 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 Livesey and Tockholes . , 
 
 • 9 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 Rishton 
 
 . 16 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 Wilpshire-cum-Dinckley . . 
 
 • 5 
 
 5 
 
 — 
 
 Mellor-cum-Eccleshill 
 
 . 20 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Witton 
 
 — , 
 
 _!. 
 
 . 
 
 Samlesbury 
 
 • 14 
 
 10 
 
 — 
 
 Nether Darwen 
 
 . 2 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 Pleasington 
 
 ■ 9 
 
 6 
 
 — 
 
 Walton-in-le-Daile 
 
 • 4 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 Over Darwen 
 
 • 4 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 Osbaldeston 
 
 . 2 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 Cuerdall 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 - I 
 
 Balderstone 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 Total for Blackburn Parish 98 64 42 4 2 322 
 
 Total for Blackburn Hundred 204 173 139 42 21 1342 
 
 Armed 579 ; Unarmed 1342 ; Total 1921 Men. 
 1 Lane. Lieut, v. ii, pp. 180-5. 
 
76 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The same MS. contains the following memorandum of appoint- 
 ments for training of the Lancashire levies in the year succeeding the 
 above muster : — 
 
 Dayes appointed for trayninge of Soldiers sett down by the Commissioners at Wiggan 
 the 22d day of April, 1596. 
 
 The first time of 
 Captaines. particular trayning. 
 
 The second time of 
 particular trayning. 
 
 The general trayning 
 of the whole Bands be- 
 fore theyr Caplaine and 
 Lyvetenant Brillges. 
 
 [r. Osbaldeston Blackbume 
 
 ...7 of May. 
 
 The IS of May. 
 
 Blackbume, the 
 
 Bande Bumeley 
 
 ...4 of May. 
 
 The 17 of May. 
 
 26 of 
 
 May. 
 
 Whaley 
 
 ...5 of May. 
 
 The 19 0^ May. 
 
 
 
 Ribchester 
 
 ...7 of May. 
 
 The 22 of May. 
 
 
 
 1596. June. Dayes appointed for treyninge of 
 
 Souldiers. 
 
 
 Captains and their 
 Livetenants. 
 
 
 June. 
 
 June. 
 
 June. 
 
 John Osbaldeston. 
 
 Blackbume 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 »» 
 
 8 
 
 '4 , 
 
 22 
 
 Edward Osbaldeston. 
 
 Bumeley... 
 
 9 
 
 15 
 
 23 
 
 
 Whaley ... 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 24 
 
 
 Ribchester 
 
 II 
 
 17 
 
 25 
 
 PROSECUTION OF RELIGIOUS RECUSANTS— 1567 to 1592. 
 
 The reign of Queen Elizabeth was disturbed by numerous plots 
 against the Protestant succession, and, as a consequence, was marked 
 by constant informations and severe proceedings against those English 
 gentry whom events had not moved from their allegiance to the Roman 
 Catholic communion. In this county, particularly, the prosecution of 
 Recusants was exceedingly fierce, for in Lancashire the Catholic party 
 was exceptionally strong. In the Earl of Derby, however, who had 
 espoused the Protestant cause, the Government of Elizabeth found 
 powerful support in the county. It was about the year 1567 that the 
 first efforts were put forth to repress the movements of the disaffected 
 in Lancashire. Having been notified of the attitude of certain Catholics 
 and recusants in these parts. Queen Elizabeth wrote two letters, to the 
 spiritual and civil heads of the province, calling upon them to discover 
 and bring to punishment all such seditious persons. One missive was 
 addressed to William Downham, Bishop of Chester. The Bishop was 
 ordered to make a visitation in Lancashire, to satisfy the Government 
 that the churches were supplied with honest men and learned curates. 
 This letter was dated the 21st February, 1567-8; and simultaneously a 
 second mandate was sent by the monarch to Edward Holland, then 
 High Sheriff of Lancashire, requiring him to arrest and imprison certain 
 deprived clergy in the county. These names of marked mep were 
 vn-itten on the back of the letter to the Sheriff: — "Alen [afterwards 
 Cardinal Allen], who wrote the late booke of Purgatory ; Vause, ones 
 
PROSECUTION OF RELIGIOUS RECUSANTS. 77 
 
 warden of Winchester [Manchester] ; Murren, chaplain to Boner, late 
 Bishop of London ; Marshall, ones dean of Christ Church in Oxford ; 
 Hargrave, late vicar of Blackburne ; and one Norreys, tearniing himself 
 a physitian." The vicar of Blackburn here stigmatised was James Har- 
 greves, instituted to the vicarage, on the presentation of Philip and 
 Mary, in 1555, and deprived for " papistry" in 1563. 
 
 The Bishop of Chester made the tour of his diocese during the 
 succeeding summer ; the results of which he reported to Secretary Cecil, 
 November ist, 1568. The Bishop stated that all over the diocese, 120 
 miles in length, he hadfound the common people " very tractable, and 
 nowhere more than in the furthest Parts, bordering upon Scotland." 
 Enclosed with the report were certain documents, including : — A Decree 
 of Edward, Earl of Derby, William Downham, Bishop of Chester, and 
 others. Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in the case of certain persons of 
 Lancashire, charged with recusancy, issued from Lathom, 31st July, 
 1568; and among answers made by divers persons to the articles 
 objected against them by the Commissioners, those of John Talbot, 
 of Bashall ; and of Edward Osbaldeston, son of John Osbaldeston, of 
 Osbaldeston. Another enclosed document was the articles preferred 
 by the Commissioners against Sir John Southworth, of Samlesbury, Knt., 
 " for not rep.airing to Church, nor receiving the sacrament, and for speak- 
 ing against the Book of Common Prayer." Sir John Southworth was 
 especially obnoxious to the ruling powers ; and Bishop Downham, in his 
 report, cites a copy of a form of submission that had been presented 
 to Sir John, by order of the Privy Council, but which the Knight 
 refused to subscribe. The form of submission is appended : — 
 
 Whereas I, Sir John Southworth, Knt., forgetting my duty towards God and the 
 Queen's Majesty in not considering my due Obedience for the observation of the 
 Ecclesiastical Laws and Orders of this Realm, had received into my house and Com- 
 pany, and there relieved, certain Priests, who have not only refused the Ministry, but 
 also in my hearing have spoken against the present State of Religion, established by 
 her Majesty and the States of her Realm in Parliament, and have also otherwise mis- 
 behaved myself in not resorting to my Parish Church at Common Prayer, nor receiv- 
 ing the Holy Communion so often times as I ought to have done ; — I do now, by these 
 Presents, most humbly and unfeignedly submit myself to her Majesty, and am heartily 
 sorry for mine oflfence in this Behalf, both towards God and her Majesty. And do 
 further promise to her Majesty from henceforth, to obey all her Majesty's Authority in 
 all Matters of Religion and Orders Ecclesiastical ; and to behave myself therein as 
 becometh a good, humble, and obedient subject ; and shall not impugn any of the said 
 Laws and Ordinances by any open Speech or by Writing, or Act of mine own ; nor 
 willingly suffer any such in my Company to offend, whom I may reasonably let or 
 disallow. Nor shall assist, maintain, relieve, or comfort any Person living out of this 
 Realm, being known to be an Offender against the said Laws and Orders now 
 established for godly Religion, as is aforesaid. And in this doing, I firmly trust to 
 
78 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 have her Majesty my gracious and good Lady, as hitherto I, and all other her subjects, 
 have marvellously tasted of her Mercy and Goodness. 
 
 In the reign of Mary, Sir John Southworth had been highly 
 regarded by the Court, and he held the office of High Sheriff of the 
 County even after the accession of Elizabeth. In October, 1557, 
 Lord Eure and Lord Wharton had addressed a letter on the subject of 
 military affairs in the North to the Earl of Shrewsbury in which the 
 following reference to Sir John Southworth occurs : — " We named Sir 
 John Southworth his going away : hee hath made request that wee 
 would be a means to your lordship that hee might continue in service 
 here with his hundred men, and to have also putt to his leading another 
 hundred men. Hee sayes hee is a younge man and desirous to know 
 service in warr, and as we think him to bee commended therein, being 
 a toward and tall gentilman, wee require your lordship to favour this 
 his honest suit." But their knowledge of the state of feeling in these 
 parts which led to the Roman Catholic " Rebellion of the North," in 
 the autumn of 1569, rendered Elizabeth's counsellors more distrustful 
 than they had formerly been of any of the leading gentry known to be 
 devoted to the Roman interest. After the suppression of that revolt, 
 inquiries were made about persons in Lancashire who were believed to 
 be concerned in it. In February, 1575-6, the Bishop of Chester wrote 
 to the Privy Council, forwarding an account of all persons in the 
 diocese who had been known to " refuse to come to the church," 
 distinguishing those who had conformed on admonition from those who 
 still " remained in their wilfulness." From the " Blagbume Deanry " 
 the following names were rendered :— 
 
 Blagburne Deanry. — Obstinate. 
 John Sothworth Knight and ladie his wief. 
 Thomas Sothworth his sonne and heir. 
 John Sothworth, gent. , sonne to John Sothworth, Kt. 
 Anne Sothworth his daughter. Dorothie Sothworth [Rushton] his sister. 
 John Talbot, ar. John Townley, ar. and his wief. 
 Thomas Catherall, ar. and his wief. 
 * Henrie Lowe, junior. Margaret Lowe, Vid. 
 James Hargreves. Lucie Townlie. 
 
 John Yate, sonne to John Townley, ar. 
 Ellen Banester, Uxor Roberta Banester, gent 
 Anne Townley, Uxor Henrie Townley, gent. 
 Jenet Paslowe, Uxor Francis Paslowe, gent. 
 John Rishton, gent. John Rishton, husbandman. 
 Randle Ferrand. Richard Wodde. Richard Hinley. 
 
 Conformable. 
 William Rishton, gent, and his wief. Ellen Rishton, Vid. 
 Gilbert Rishton, gent, and his wief. I^u. Whittacre, gent 
 
PROSECUTION OF RELIGIOUS RECUSANTS. 
 
 79 
 
 Among the papers of Bishop Chaderton are found evidences of 
 the proceedings taken in Lancashire, about the years 1 581-4, for the 
 prosecution of priests and recusants. In 1581, Sir John Southworth, 
 Knt., had been arrested and committed to prison in the New Fleet at 
 Manchester, one of the charges against him being that of har- 
 bouring at Samlesbury Hall the Jesuit Edmund Campion. By a 
 missive dated June 22d, 1581, the Lords in Council wrote to the Earl 
 of Derby and the Bishop of Chester, stating that humble suit had 
 been made to the Council by Sir John Southworth, lately committed by 
 the Earl and Bishop to the New Fleet in Manchester for his obstinacy 
 in popery, to be suffered to abide at his own house upon bonds for his 
 forthcoming, or else to have a servant to attend upon him in the prison. 
 If (says the letter) Sir John will enter into bonds with sureties in good 
 sums to observe the conditions offered to such recusants as are set at 
 liberty, that he may be enlarged. If not, then to remain in prison, with 
 a servant to attend him, till he shall conform according to the laws. 
 In a postscript, the Council say they have yielded to Sir John's petition 
 for his children to have access to him in prison. On September 7th in 
 the same year, the Earl of Huntingdon, President of the North, wrote 
 to the Bishop of Chester to keep a watch for Campion, who, he was 
 sure, had been in different parts of Lancashire. He named Richard 
 Simpson, formerly a schoolmaster at Gisburne, Yorkshire, but now a 
 recusing priest, who was sometimes at Skillicorne's (of Frees, Kirkham), 
 sometimes at Tarbott's (Talbot's) of Salesbury, and at Westb/s. On 
 the 7th of December, the Lords in Counf'' wrote to the Earl and 
 Bishop, notifying their choice of Manchester " for bestowing the 
 recusants of the diocese," as being more convenient than Chester 
 Castle ; and remarked that if all the recusants were committed to one 
 place, their diet would be more easy to their keepers, for of the few at 
 Manchester, but one (probably Sir John Southworth) was able to bear 
 his own charges. In January, 1582, the Council write that they were 
 glad to find that the imprisoned recusants had been removed from Ches- 
 ter Castle to the New Fleet in Manchester ; and go on to commend the 
 Earl and Bishop for their care and diligence in the search of Talbofs 
 house in Salesbury, and bid them convey the thanks of the Queen and 
 Council to Lord Strange for his towardness, and to Messrs. Atherton and 
 Banister, who assisted him in that service ; the schoolmaster there (at 
 Salesbury) apprehended to be proceeded against by law, and search to 
 be made for the priest and others known to have been there at Christ- 
 mas. And seeing, by the family not going to church and the supersti- 
 tious stuff found in the house, they probably went further, that point 
 should be inquired after, and every of them proceeded against according 
 
8o HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 to law. In the course of the same letter the Lords in Council say, that 
 as some persons evil-minded to religion make great account of the abode 
 of Sir John Southvvorth in London (whither he had been temporarily 
 transported), as though he had received great favour, to the Papists' 
 encouragement and the defacing of the Ecclesiastical Commission and 
 their lordships' authority. Sir John is to repair to Manchester, to remain 
 there, and to be there ordered as the Earl and Bishop see cause. Febru- 
 ary 25th, 1582, the Council wrote to Henry Earl of Derby that Sir John 
 Southworth had been commanded to appear before him, and they had 
 caused bond to be taken of Sir John for his personal appearance before the 
 Earl on or before the 2 5th of March. If still obstinate, the recusant Knight 
 was to be recommitted to the prison at Manchester, with liberty only to 
 walk abroad at times, in the open air of the gardens or open places about 
 the college, in company of his keeper, and then not to confer with any 
 one. In another letter of the 4th September the Lords in Council 
 inform the Earl and Bishop that great suit having been made to them on 
 behalf of Sir John Southworth, in respect of his age and former good 
 services, the Council were content that he should receive as much favour 
 as lawfully might be, and their lordships are directed to examine into a 
 statement that this prisoner was surcharged in the fees of his diet and 
 lodging, above the rates set down and used in the London Fleet Prison. 
 In the year following (1583), on the 7th of February, the Council wrote 
 to Lord Derby and the Bishop of Chester, agreeing with their reasons 
 why Sir John Southworth should not have his liberty further than that of 
 walking with his keeper in Aldport Park and in the College Garden ; 
 but added that he might be allowed at all times to talk and confer with 
 others on his private affairs, in the presence of Mr. Worsley or such as 
 he shall appoint. Lord Burleigh, in a letter of the 20th November, 
 1583, wrote to the Earl and Bishop, that Sir John Southworth, prisoner 
 for matters of religion in the New Fleet at Manchester, had complained 
 of some extreme dealing by Mr. Worsley, the Warden ; this was denied 
 by Mr. Worsley, and the Earl and Bishop were wished to inquire into 
 the allegations of " abridging him of his ordinary walk, diet, and such like 
 matters." More letters passed between the authorities during the year 
 1584 on the subject of Sir John Southworth's imprisonment and treat- 
 ment. On February 23rd, the Council wrote to the Earl of Derby, the 
 Bishop, Sir John Byron, Mr. Edmund Trafford, &c., stating that Sir 
 John Southworth's son having besought for his father more liberty and 
 better usage, Mr. Worsley had shown that Sir John had been more 
 strictly confined for refusing to be present at grace before and after meals, 
 and at the reading of chapters out of the Old and New Testament, as at 
 first he was wont to do. Nevertheless, his son having undertaken that 
 
PROSECUTION OF RELIGIOUS RECUSANTS. 8i 
 
 Sir John should do this again, and behave himself in good and decent 
 manner in the prison, and Mr. Worsley being contented that he should 
 have such favour as theretofore, and only to take 13s. 4d. weekly for his 
 diet, and to allow him such liberty of walking as their lordships should 
 think meet, the Commissioners were instructed that they might suffer Sir 
 John to have at convenient times the liberty of walks, and Mr. Worsley 
 to take no more of him than he had promised to the Council. On the 
 2nd May, Sir Francis Walsingham wrote to the Bishop of Chester that 
 the Privy Council, having been informed that Sir John Southworth pro- 
 posed to disinherit his eldest son, only because he was not, like the 
 father, ill-affected, but well given in religion, and to dispose his lands to 
 his other children, the Bishop was bidden to learn what he could of Sir 
 John's proposal, so that in case the bad father had so ill a meaning 
 towards his eldest and best son, some order might be taken to stay his 
 purpose, and to preserve the inheritance for his right heir. In another 
 letter from the Council of the 24th May, it transpires that Sir John 
 Southworth had again complained against Mr. Worsley, his keeper, who 
 had answered the complaint, but the Council sent both complaint and 
 answer to the Bishop to be examined into, and directed him to take Sir 
 John's bond to the Queen for j^S°° fo'' h'^ repairing with all speed to 
 London to attend before the Council, but before he went he was to pay 
 Mr. Worsley all money due for his diet. Again, on the sth July, 1584, 
 the Lords in Council wrote to the Earl and Bishop, stating that both Sir 
 John Southworth and Mr. Townley having paid their fines according to 
 law, they cannot be longer imprisoned, for that would be a double 
 punishment for one offence ; still, as the Council thought them, at liberty, 
 more dangerous in Lancashire (where they were greatly allied and 
 friended), than in London, it was considered better to bind them to 
 remain in the metropolis ; besides, some of them had pretended diseases 
 and sickness, and demanded the best advice ; so that they could not 
 touch the honour or credit of the Earl and Bishop, or boast of favour or 
 friendship at Court ; but if their lordships thought it necessary for their 
 own credit's sake or in good policy, the Council would send them back 
 to Lancashire. Finally, on July 13th in the same year, the Council 
 wrote to the Earl and Bishop that Sir John Southworth's son having been 
 a suitor for his removal to London, the Council were willing he should 
 be allowed to come up, both from the son's good character, and to pro- 
 mote his father's good will to him. But if the Earl and Bishop were 
 against it, the Council had no more to say.' 
 
 The Harleian MSS. furnish documents containing the names of 
 all bishops, doctors and priests, prisoners in the Fleet for religion since 
 
 I Chaderton Corresp., in Peck's Desid. Curiosa. 
 
82 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the first year of Queen Elizabeth (1558). Among the persons who, on 
 the loth of September, 1586, were reported as "detected for receiptinge 
 priests, seminaries, &c., in the County of Lancaster," are mentioned 
 the cases given below of residents in the Parish of Blackburn : — 
 
 This appeareth by the presentment of Ralph Serjeant, Churchwarden of Walton- 
 in-le-Dale. — Jane Eyves, of Fish wick, widow, receipted [received] Sir Evan Banister, an 
 old priest, &c. 
 
 This appeareth by the presentment of Law. Procter, swome man of Brihilt. — One 
 Duckson, an old priest, continueth in Samlesburye by common report. 
 
 This appeareth by the presentment of the Vicar of Whalley. — ^John Lawe, a 
 seminary Priest, receipted in divers parts of Lancashire, as specially in the parishes of 
 Ormskirk, Preston, Blackburne, and Whalley. 
 
 This appeareth by the presentment of Tho. Sherples. — James Cowper, a seminary 
 Priest, receipted, relieved, and maintained at the Lodge of Sir John .Sowthworthe in 
 Samlesburie Park by Mr. Tho. Sowthworthe, one of the younger sons of the said Sir 
 John ; and at the house of John Warde dwellinge in Samlesburie Parke side ; and the 
 said Priest sayeth Mass at the said Lodge and at the said Warde's house. Whither 
 resorte, Mr. Sowthworthe, Mistress Ann Sowthworthe, John Walmesley, servante to 
 .Sir John Sowthworthe, Tho. Sowthworthe dwelling in the Park, John Gerrerde, ser- 
 vant to Sir John Sowthworthe, John Singleton, John Wrighte, James .Sherples, 
 junior, John Warde of Samlesburie, John Warde of Meller the elder, Henry Potter of 
 Meller, John Goulden of Winwick, Thomas Goulden of the same, Robt. Anderton 
 of Samlesburie and John Sherples of Stanleyhurst, in Samlesburie. . . This 
 also appearethe by the presentment of Tho. Sherples. — At the house of James Sherples 
 in Samlesburie was a Masse done on Candlemas Day by one Henry Dueson alias 
 Harry Duckesson. And these persons were at it, viz. — John Sherples of Stanleyhurst 
 in Samlesburie and his wife, and his son Thomas and his daughter Ann, and Rodger 
 Sherples and his wife, and Richard .Sherples, and the wife of Harry Sherples, and the 
 wife of Hugh Welchman, and Thomas Harrisson, and the wife of Thomas Welchman 
 the elder, the wife of John Chitome, Robt. Blackehay, Thomas Duckesson of Hough- 
 ton, James Duckesson, the wife of Harrie Bonne. . . At the Lodge in Samlesburie 
 Parke there be masses daily and Seminaries diverse resorte thither, as James Cowpe, 
 Harrisson, Bell, and such like ; the like unlawful meetings are made daily at the house 
 of John Warde, by the Park side of S-amlesburie, all whiche matters, masses, resorte 
 to Masses, receipting of .Seminaries, will be justified [substantiated] by Mr. Adam 
 Sowthworthe, Thomas Sherples, and John Osbaldston.^ 
 
 The last documentary evidence of the prosecution of the lord of 
 Samlesbury for his religion is found in the Egcrton Papers, and is 
 an " Inventorie of such superstitious thinges as were found in Sir John 
 Southworth his house at Samlesburie, by Richard Brereton, Esq., one 
 of her Majesties Justices of the peace, at a search made there, 21st 
 November, 1592," and is accompanied by the names of persons then 
 dwelling at Samlesbury Hall, about forty in number.'^ Sir John South- 
 worth died in 1595. 
 
 About the year 1585, at a time when the Queen, the Privy Council, 
 
 I Baines's Histr of Lane. v. i, p. i8o. 2 Croston's Hist, of S.imlesb. Hail, p. 173. 
 
FREE TENANTS IN a.d. 1600. 
 
 83 
 
 i 
 
 Parliament, and the Country were not a little purturbed by the revelation 
 of a plot for the dethronemeut of Elizabeth, it was deemed meet that 
 the principal nobility and gentry of Lancashire who were loyally 
 disposed should unite in a public declaration of their allegiance to the 
 Queen and the national establishment of religion. Appended to the 
 declaration are eighty-three signatures, headed by the name of Henry, 
 Earl of Derby. The names of those signatories who resided or had 
 properties in the Parish of Blackburn, are, Thomas Hesketh, Thomas 
 Hoghton, Rychard Ashton, Edward Osbaldeston, Thomas Talbot, 
 Rauffe Ashton, Robert Langton, and Edward Braddell. 
 
 On the i8th day of June, 1588, Queen Elizabeth, from her Manor 
 of Greenwich, issued a proclamation to the Earl of Derby, Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire, calling for the supply of as 
 great a quantity of munitions of war as these counties could furnish, to 
 assist the Government in withstanding the Spanish invasion. Lanca- 
 shire responded loyally with men and arms to the Queen's appeal, and 
 sent a large contingent to the English army marshalled to repel the 
 expected attack by the Annada of Spain. A month after the royal 
 summons to Lancashire, on the 19th of July, 1588, the Spanish Fleet 
 arrived in the English Channel. The story of the repulse of this 
 invasion is universally familiar. 
 
 Harleian MS. No. 2042, in the British Museum Library, contains 
 lists of Free Tenants in all the Lancashire Hundreds, made out in the 
 year 1600 (43rd Eliz.). From the " Free Tenants within the Hundred 
 of Blackebume" I extract the names of such Freeholders as were 
 resident in the Parish of Blackburn : — 
 
 Thomas Southworth of Samlesbury, Esq. 
 Thomas Langton of Walton, Esq. 
 John Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston, Esq. 
 [John] Talbot of Salesbury, Esq. 
 Edward Walmisley of Banister Hall, Esq. 
 Edward Braddyll of Brockhole, Esq. 
 Thomas Astley of Astley [Stakes], gent. 
 William Walton of Walton, gent. 
 Jlenry Lussell of Osbaldeston, gent. 
 Ralph Holden of Ewood, gent 
 James Aspden of Arley, gent. 
 Richard Whithalgh of Livesey, gent. 
 Richard Livesey of Feamhurst, gent. 
 John Parker of Loveley, gent. 
 Robert Barker of Wheetley, gent. 
 Hugh Marsden of Tockholes, gent. 
 
 Edward Gillibrand of Ramesgreave, gent. 
 Robert Woodrufle of Walton, gent. 
 Henry Speake of Biilington, gent. 
 Thomas Ainsworth of Pleasington, gent. 
 Lawrence Du.xburie of Gt. Harwood, gent. 
 Robert Cunliffe of vSamlesbury, gent. 
 John Clayton of Little Hanvood, gent. 
 John Dawson of Walton, gent. 
 Henry Morley of Braddyll, gent. 
 [ ] Parker of Hole House, gent. 
 
 Chiistopher Marsden of Tockholes, gent. 
 Thomas Stanley of Mellor, gent. 
 Christopher Smith of Bankhead, gent. 
 Thomas Witton of Green Tockholes, gent. 
 [John] Livesey of Feniscolles, gent. 
 Nicholas Grimshaw of Okenhurst, gent. 
 
84 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— THE STUART PERIOD. 
 
 Accession of James I. — Loyal Address — Military Muster in i6oS — Subsidy Assessment in 1611 — Sam- 
 lesbury Witchcraft Trials in 1612 — James I. at Hoghton Tower — Ship-Money Levy in 1635 — Civil 
 War [1641-51], Local Transactions and Operations — Rupture between King and Parliament — 
 County Meeting at Preston— Royalist Preparations for War— Parliamentarian Organization in 
 Blackburn Hundred — Militia called out — Blackburn occupied by Sir Gilbert Hoghton — Retaken 
 by Colonel Shuttleworth — Second Royalist Attack on Blackburn repulsed^Ambush at Salesbury 
 Hall — Roundhead Assault upon Preston — Tragedy at Hoghton Tower — Preston recovered by the 
 Earl of Derby, and Blackburn occupied — Battle at Whalley and Retreat of Royalists — Further 
 Roundhead successes — Passage of Rupert's Army and Fight at Blackburn — Col. Nicholas Shuttle- 
 worth at Blackburn— Skirmish at Walton — Distress in Lancashire — Sequestration of Royalist 
 Estates — Presbytery Established in the County— Campaign of 164S— Battle at Preston and Walton 
 — Cromwell's Despatches — Colours taken in the Battle— Petition to Parliament from Blackburn 
 Hundred — Fight at Brindle and Walton in 1651 — Further Parliamentary Sequestrations — Restora- 
 tion of Monarchy — Act of Uniformity — Its local results — Nonconformist Congregations — Subsidy 
 Assessment in 1663 — Prosecution of Nonconformists — Revolution of 1688. 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH died March 24th, 1602-3, and with her 
 ended the Tudor line of English Sovereigns. James Stuart, 
 '"^^^ King of Scotland, was acknowledged as rightful successor to the 
 throne, and was proclaimed as James the First of England. On his 
 accession, seventy-nine Lancashire gentry presented a loyal address to 
 the new monarch. The following proprietors in the parish signed the 
 address : — Sir Richard Hoghton, Knt., lord of Hoghton and Walton-in- 
 le-Dale ; Randal Barton, Esq., lord of Blackburn and Smithells ; Thomas 
 Southworth, Esq., lord of Samlesbury ; John Osbaldeston, Esq., lord of 
 Osbaldeston ; William Farrington, Esq., of Worden and Audley in 
 Blackburn ; Sergeant Thomas Walmesley, of Dunkenhalgh and Hacking 
 in Billington, the Judge of Common Pleas ; John Braddyll, Esq., of 
 Portfield and Brockhole in Billington ; and Robert Hesketh, Esq., lord 
 of Great Harwood and Rufiford. King James's progress from Edin- 
 burgh to London occupied from the 6th of April, 1603, to the 7th of 
 May ; and during the journey he conferred the honour of knighthood 
 
MILITARY MUSTER [1608]— SUBSIDY ASSESSMENT [161 1]. 85 
 
 upon two hundred of the gentry. Among the knights created at this time 
 were Sir Thomas Walmesley and Sir Thomas Hesketh. 
 
 Considerable tracts of land were emparked on the estates of the chief 
 landholders in this part of Lancashire in the reign of the First James. 
 Speed's Map of Lancashire, drawn in the year 16 10, affords information as 
 to the principal park-lands at that time, which are indicated on the map by 
 a paled circle. Osbaldeston Hall is shown by Speed surrounded by a large 
 park, of which no traces now remain, and Samlesbury Hall likewise is 
 the centre of a paled ring, denoting a park enclosure. In a somewhat 
 older map than Speed's, made about the year 1598, by one William 
 Smith, there are but two of these paled circles in the Parish, those of 
 Martholme Park, on the Hyndbum and Calder, the seat of the Heskeths 
 of Martholme and Rufford ; and the Park around Samlesbury Hall, the 
 seat of the Southworths. Neither of these estates is now imparked to 
 any extent. 
 
 In the 6th James I (1608), there was ordered a general muster of 
 men-at-anns in Lancashire, the returns of which are preserved in the 
 Harleian collections. The return from Blackburn Hundred is headed : — 
 
 Blackebume Hundreth mustered by Sr. Edmund Trafford and Rychard Holland, Esq. , 
 
 att Blackebume, the 26 of September, i6o8. 
 
 {Particulars of Musters from Townships in Blackburn Parish.] 
 
 Muskettes. Caliverers. Bills. Archers. Corselettes. 
 
 Osbaldeston — I — 2 i 
 
 Balderstone .... - 2 I 14 2 — 
 
 Witton .......I — 4 I — 
 
 Walton I 2 10 S — 
 
 Pleasington - — I 7 ^ — 
 
 Tockholes-cum-Lyvesey . - — 7 28 3 2 
 
 Cuerdale ...... — 3 — — — 
 
 Upper Derwin ■■■■3 6 i 6 — 
 
 Billington I 3 16 13 — 
 
 Rishton .......— 8 20 8 5 
 
 Samlesburye ..... — 6 8 15 — 
 
 Clayton-in-le-Daile ... — — — — — 
 
 Blackbume — 5 21 II — 
 
 Lower Derwin — 22 17 3 16 
 
 Mellor-cum-Eccleshill .-- — 6 18 7 — 
 
 Wilpshire-cum-Dinkley - - — — S '° ' 
 
 Harwood Magna .... — 7 7 2 2 
 
 Harwood Parva .... — 6 9 2 3 
 
 Salesburye 3 ^^ 4 — — 
 
 At this muster a little army of 1453 men of various arms was 
 gathered out of the Hundred at Blackburn for review. 
 
 SUBSIDY ASSESSMENT ON THE PARISH, A.D. 1611. 
 
 I copy from the Subsidy Rolls the appended local assessments to a 
 Subsidy levied in 16 11. The parchment is headed: — "Amount of 
 
86 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Assessment upon each Inhabitant chargeable to the Second payment of 
 Subsidy granted 7 th James I. within the Hundred of Blackburne." 
 
 [In Blackburn Parish.] 
 Blagburne — 
 
 John Gelybrand, in goods 
 
 Thomas Haworth, in goods 
 
 John Livesey, in goods ... 
 
 William Sudall, in goods 
 
 William Haworthe, in goods 
 Samlesburye— 
 
 Thos. Sothworth, Esq. , in lands 
 
 Richard Blakey, in goods 
 
 William Alcar, in goods 
 
 John Dewhurst, in goods 
 
 Ilenrie Cowbume, in goods 
 Harwod Magna — 
 
 Lawrence Ducksburie, in lands... 
 
 William Hindle, in goods 
 
 John Harwood, in goods 
 
 George Cockshott, in goods 
 BiLLINGTON — 
 
 Antonio Bleuet, gent., in lands ... 
 . Henrie Speake, in lands ... . ... 
 
 Richard ffoole, in goods ... 
 
 Richard Chewe, in goods... 
 
 John Sclater, in goods 
 Pleasington — 
 
 Margaret Ainsworth, Widow, in lands ... 
 
 John Smith, in lands 
 
 James Astley, in lands 
 
 John Livesey, in lands ... 
 
 Richard Ainsworth, in goods 
 
 William Marsden, in goods 
 
 Oliver Whalley, in goods 
 Cuerdale — 
 
 Edward [ ] of Ellen [ ] 
 
 William Cowpe, in goods 
 
 William Sudall, in goods... 
 Mellor-cum-Eccleshill — 
 
 Edward Gelybrande, in lands ... 
 
 James Ward, in lands 
 
 Richard Walmsley, in goods 
 
 Richard Ireland, in goods 
 
 George Hey, in goods 
 
 Rauf ffishe, in goods 
 
 Thomas .Shorrocke, in goods ... 
 Walton-in-le-Daile — 
 
 Robert Woodruffe, gent., with William 
 Osbaldeston, in lands ... 
 
 William Walton, in lands ... 
 
 Thomas Leighe, in goods 
 
 Value 
 
 Levy 
 
 £(> 
 
 6s. 
 
 £S 
 
 5s. 
 
 £5 
 
 5s. 
 
 £5 
 
 5^- 
 
 £5 
 
 5s. 
 
 £2(> 13s. 6d. 37s. 8d. 
 
 ^3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £i 
 
 3s. 
 
 £z 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 4s. 
 
 £'^ 
 
 4s- 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3^- 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 8d. 
 
 30s. 
 
 2S. 
 
 £4 
 
 4S. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. ' 
 
 £3 
 
 4s. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2s. 8d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 £s 
 
 S.s. 
 
 £4 
 
 4s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 £4 
 
 4s. 
 
 £4 
 
 4s. 
 
 £4 
 
 4s. 
 
 £5 
 
 5s. 
 
 £5 
 
 Ss- 
 
 £3 
 
 4S. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
SUBSIDY ASSESSMENT IN A.D. 1611. 87 
 
 Walton-in-le-Daile — 
 
 Relict of Edward Jackson, in goods .. 
 
 Relict of Edward Bawden, in goods 
 
 Relict of James Woodcocke, in goods . . 
 
 Richard Woodcocke, in goods ... 
 
 Oliver Toogood, in goods 
 
 Nicholas Langton, in goods 
 
 George Hawkshead, in goods ... 
 
 Thomas Gorton, in goods 
 
 Ewan Catterill, in goods . . 
 
 Thomas Conwell, in goods 
 
 Relict of Henrie Banestre, in goods 
 LIVKSEY-CUM-TOCKHOLES — 
 
 James Livesey, gent. , in lands ... 
 
 Thomas Astley, gent., in lands ... 
 
 James Whithalghe, in lands 
 
 Myles Marsden, inlands... 
 
 Randal Holden, in goods... 
 
 Matthew Walkden, in goods 
 
 Hugh Marsden, in goods... 
 
 John Houghton, in goods 
 
 Alexander Waddington, in goods 
 WiLPSHIRE-CUM-DlNKLEY — 
 
 John Dewhurst, gent. , in lands ... 
 
 George Talbott, in lands... 
 
 William Smith, in goods... 
 
 Oliver ffeilden, in goods ... 
 
 James Ward, in goods ... 
 
 Richard Craven, in goods 
 Harwod Parva — 
 
 John Cleyton, inlands ... 
 
 Randall Rishton, in lands 
 
 William Rishton, in goods 
 
 Richard Paidge, in goods 
 Saleburie — 
 
 John Talbott, Esq., in lands 
 
 Richard Parker, gent., in lands 
 
 Robert Barker, in lands... 
 WlTTON — 
 
 Thomas Holden, in lands 
 
 Margaret Cowburne, in lands ... 
 Nether Darwin — 
 
 Lawrence Haworth, in goods ... 
 
 Henrie Crosse, in goods ... 
 
 Edward Hanvood, in goods 
 Ci.eyton-in-le-Daile — 
 
 Edward Lawe, in goods ... 
 
 John Calvard, in goods ... 
 
 Uxor of John Hesmenhalghe, in goods 
 
 Uxor of Richard Walmisley, in goods... 
 
 Value. 
 
 Levy. 
 
 £z 
 
 3s. 
 
 £z 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2s. 8d. 
 
 ^3 
 
 4s. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2s. 8d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2s. 8d. 
 
 £S 
 
 Ss. 
 
 £4 
 
 4S. 
 
 £4 
 
 4S. 
 
 £4 
 
 4s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3S- 
 
 40s. 
 
 2s. 8d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 £4 
 
 4s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3S. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. ' 
 
 40s. 
 
 2s. 8d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 £4 
 
 4s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £S 
 
 6s. 8d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 £5 
 
 5s. 
 
 £5 
 
 SS. 
 
 £4 
 
 4S. 
 
 l3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s- 
 
 £5 
 
 5.S. 
 
Value. 
 
 Levy, 
 
 £i 
 
 3s. 
 
 £i 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £5 
 
 3s- 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s. 
 
 £3 
 
 3s- 
 
 £3 
 
 3S' 
 
 20S. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 30S. 
 
 2S, 
 
 £4 
 
 4S. 
 
 £3 
 
 3S. 
 
 /i6 13s. 4d. 
 
 22s. 2^d 
 
 40s. 
 
 2S. 8d. 
 
 20s, 
 
 i6d. 
 
 20s. 
 
 i6d. 
 
 £S 
 
 Ss. 
 
 40s. 
 
 2s. 8d.. 
 
 20s. 
 
 I6d. 
 
 £7 
 
 7s. 
 
 gg HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 RiSHTON — 
 
 George Livesey, in goods 
 
 Thomas Livesey, in goods 
 
 James Whalley, in goods 
 
 Henrie Duckworthe, in goods ... 
 
 Uxor of Exhvard Rishton, in goods^ 
 
 Thomas Abbott, in goods 
 
 John Hindle of Tottleworth, in goods . . . 
 
 Thurstan ffeilden, in goods 
 Balderston — 
 
 Roger Smaley, in lands ... 
 
 John Osbaldeston, in lands 
 
 William Bolton, in goods 
 
 Robert Sykes, in goods ... 
 OSBALDESTON — 
 
 Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., in lands- ... 
 
 Richard Brookes, in lands 
 
 Henrie 1/UsseIls, in Jands 
 
 Lawrence Osbaldeston, in lands 
 
 Thomas Hackin, in goods 
 Upper Darwin — 
 
 Mr. John Crosse, in lands 
 
 The heires of John Baron, in lands ... 
 
 Henrie Livesey, in goods 
 
 TRIALS FOR ALLEGED WITCHCRAFT AT SAMLESBURY. 
 
 The year 161 2 was marked by the trial at Lancaster of a number 
 of persons charged with witchcraft. In the summer of that year, 
 nineteen persons were lying in Lancaster Castle awaiting trial on this, 
 at that time, capital charge. Ten of these belonged to the district of 
 Pendle Forest ; one resided at Gisburn, in Craven ; one at Windle, 
 near Prescot ; and eight others were from the township of Samlesbury, 
 in this parish. Most of the accused from Pendle Forest were convicted, 
 sentenced to death, and executed ; but the so-called witches of 
 Samlesbury were fortunate enough to be acquitted. A curious record 
 of their trial is preserved, from which the following particulars of the 
 Samlesbury cases are derived.' 
 
 The persons arrested and committed for trial from this township 
 were, Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, Jane Southworth, John Ramesden, 
 Elizabeth Astley, Alice Grey, Isabel! Sidegreaves, and Lawrence Haye. 
 Only three of them appear to have been arraigned at the assizes — Jennet 
 Bierley, Ellen Bierley, and Jane Southworth. The chronicler introduces 
 his report of their trial with a reference to them as " the famous^ 
 witches of Samlesbury, as the countrey called them, who, by such a 
 
 I Potts' Discov. of Witches in Co. Lane, Ed. by Crossley (Cheth. Soc. Publ.) 
 
SAMLESBURY WITCHCRAFT TRIALS. 89 
 
 subtill practice and conspiracie of a seminarie Priest, or as the best in 
 this honorable assembly thinke, a Jesuite, whereof this countie of 
 Lancaster hath good store," &c., " are now brought to the barre, to 
 receive their triall, and such a young witness prepared and instructed to 
 give evidence against them, that it must be the act of God that must be 
 the means to discover their practices and Murthers." Thus writes 
 perspicacious Master Potts, and then, with an apparent self-contradic- 
 tion, observes " how and in what sort Almighty God delivered them 
 from the stroake of death, when the Axe was laid to the Tree, and 
 made frustrate the practice of this bloudie Butcher ;" that is, of the 
 Jesuit priest, their accuser. 
 
 The three prisoners, Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, and Jane 
 Southworth, were placed at the bar together to stand their trial. The 
 indictment was that they had feloniously " practised, exercised, and 
 used diverse devillish and wicked arts, called Witchcraft, Inchauntments, 
 Charmes, and Soceries, in and upon one Grace Sowerbutts, so that by 
 means thereof her bodie wasted and consumed," &c. The prisoners 
 pleaded not guilty. 
 
 The first witness against them was Grace Sowerbutts herself, the 
 supposed subject of their sorceries. She is described as "the daughter 
 of Thomas Sowerbutts, about the age of fourteene yeares." Her lather 
 is mentioned in the record as "Thomas Sowerbutts, of Samlesbury, 
 in the countie of Lancaster, husbandman." The account Master Potts 
 gives of this girl's testimony is so curious in many points, and so 
 characteristic of the strange superstitions and dark imaginings of the 
 people in regard to witches and their practices and powers, that it is 
 worth while to insert the deposition in full. Grace Sowerbutts swore : — 
 
 That for the space of some years now last past shee hath beene haunted and vexed 
 with some women, who have used to come to her ; which women, shee sayth, were 
 Jennet Bierley, this Informer's Grandmother ; Ellen Bierley, wife to Henry Bierley ; 
 Jane Southworth, late the wife of John Southworth ; and one Old Doewife, all of 
 Samlesburie aforesaid. And shee saith, that now lately those foure women did vio- 
 lently draw her by the haire of the head, and layd her on the toppe of a Hay-mowe, in 
 the said Henry Bierleyes Bame. And she saith further, that not long after, the said 
 Jennet Bierley did meet (her) neare unto the place where shee dwelleth, and first 
 appeared in her owne likenesse, and after that in the likenesse of a black Dogge, and as 
 (witness) did goe over a style, shee picked [pitched or pushed] her off; howbeit shee 
 saith shee had no hurt then, but rose againe, and went to her Aunt's in Osbaldeston, 
 and returned back againe to her Father's house the same night, being fetched home by 
 her father. That in her way homewards she did then tell her father how shee had 
 beene dealt withall both then and at sundry times before that ; and before that time 
 shee never told any body thereof ; and being examined why she did not, shee sayth, 
 shee could not speake thereof, though she desired so to doe. And she further sayth, 
 that upon Saterday, being the fourth of this instant April, (witness) going towards 
 
 12 
 
90 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Salmesbury bote [boat] to meete her mother coming from Preston, shee saw the said 
 Jennet Bierley, who met (her) at a place called the Two Brigges, first in her owne shape, 
 and afterwards in the likenesse of a blacke Dogge, with two legges, which dogge went 
 close by the left side of (witness), till they came to a Pitte of Water, and then the said 
 Dogge spake, and persuaded this Examinate to drowne her selfe there, saying, it was 
 a faire and an easie death. Whereupon this Examinate thought there came one to her 
 in a white sheete, and carried her away from the said pitte, upon the coming whereof 
 the said blacke dogge departed away ; and shortly after the said white thing departed 
 also. And after (she) had gone further on her way, about the length of two or three 
 fields, the said black dogge did meete her againe, and going on her left side, as afore- 
 said, did carrie her into a bame of one Hugh Walshmans, neere thereby, and layed (her) 
 upon the bame floore, and covered (her) with straw on her bodie, and haye on her 
 head, and the dogge itselfe lay on the toppe of the said straw, but how long the said 
 dogge lay there, this examinate cannot tell, nor how long her selfe lay there, for she 
 sayth, that upon her lying downe there, as aforesaid, her speech and senses were taken 
 from her, and the first time shee knew where shee was, shee was layed upon a bedde 
 in the said Walshmans house, which (as shee hath since beene told) was upon the Mon- 
 day at night following ; and shee was also told, that shee was found and taken from 
 the place where shee first lay, by some of her friends, and carried into the said Walsh- 
 mans house, within a few hours after shee was layed in the barne, as aforesaid. And 
 shee further sayth, that upon the day following, being Tuesday, neere night of the same 
 day, shee was fetched by her father and mother from the said Walshmans house to her 
 father's house. And shee saith, that at the place before specified, called the Two 
 Brigges, the said Jennet Bierley and Ellen Bierley did appeare unto her in theire owne 
 shapes ; whereupon (witness) fell downe, and after that was not able to speake, or goe, 
 till the Friday following ; during which time, as she lay in her father's house, the said 
 Jennet Bierley and Ellen Bierley did once appear unto her in their owne shapes, but 
 they did nothing unto her there, neither did shee ever see them since. And shee fur- 
 ther sayth, that a good while before all this, (she) did goe with the said Jennet Bierley, 
 her grandmother, and the said Ellen Bierley her aunt, at the bidding of her said grand- 
 mother, to the house of one Thomas Walshman, in Salmesbury aforesaid. And coming 
 thither in the night, when all the household was a-bed, the doores being shut, the said 
 Jennet Bierley did open them, but this Examinate knoweth not how ; and being come 
 into the said house, (witness) and the said Ellen Bierley stayed there, and the said 
 Jennet Bierley went into the chamber where the said Walshman and his wife lay, and 
 from thence brought a little child, which this Examinate thinketh was in bed with its 
 father and mother ; and after the said Jennet Bierley had set her downe by the fire, 
 with the said childe, she did thrust a naile into the navell of the said child, and after- 
 wards did take a (quill) pen and put it in at the said place, and did suck there a good 
 space, and afterwards laid the child in bed againe ; and then the said Jennet and the 
 said Ellen returned to their owne houses, and (witness) with them. And shee thinks 
 that neither the said Thomas Walshman nor his wife knew that the said child was 
 taken out of the bed from them. And shee saith also, that the said child did not crie 
 when it was hurt, as aforesaid ; but shee saith, that shee thinketh that the said child 
 did thenceforth languish, and not long after dyed. And after the death of the said 
 child, the next night after the buriall thereof, the said Jennet Bierley and Ellen Bierley, 
 taking (witness) with them, went to Salmesburie Church, and there did take up the 
 said child, and the said Jennet did carrie it out of the church-yard in her armes, and 
 there did put it in her lap and carryed it home to her owne house, and having it there 
 did boile some thereof in a Pot, and some did broile on the coales, of both of which 
 
SAMLESBURY WITCHCRAFT TRIALS. 
 
 91 
 
 tlie said Jennet and Ellen did eate, and would have had this Examinate and one Grace 
 Bierley, daughter of the said Ellen, to have eaten with them, but they refused so to 
 doe ; and afterwards the said Jennet and Ellen did seethe the bones of the said child 
 in a pot, and with the fat that came out of the said bones they said they would arvnoint 
 themselves, that thereby they might sometimes change themselves into other shapes. 
 And after all this being done, they said they would lay the bones againe in the grave 
 the next night following, but whether they did so or not, this Examinate knoweth not ; 
 neither doth she know how they got it out of the grave at the first taking of it up. 
 And being further sworn and examined, she deposeth and saith, that about half a yeare 
 agoe, the said Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, Jane Southworth, and this (witness) [who 
 went by the appointment of the said Jennet her grandmother], did meete at a place 
 called Red banck, upon the North side of the water of Ribble, every Thursday and 
 Sunday at night by the space of a fortnight, and at the water side there came unto 
 them, as they went thither, four black things, going upright, and yet not like men in 
 the face ; which foure did carrie the said three women and (witness) over the Water, 
 and when they came to the said Red Banck they found something there which they did 
 eate. But (witness) saith she never saw such meate ; and therefore she durst not eate 
 thereof, although her said Grandmother did bidde her eate. And after they had eaten, 
 the said three Women and (witness) danced, every one of them with the blacke things 
 aforesaid. . . (Witness) further saith upon her oth, that about ten dayes after her 
 Examination taken at Blackbome, shee being then come to her Father's house againe, 
 after shee had been certaine dayes at her Unckles house in Houghton, Jane South- 
 worth, widow, did meet (witness) at her Fathers house dore and did carrie her into the 
 loft, and there did lay her upon the floore, where shee was shortly found by her Father 
 and brought downe, and laid in a bed, as afterwards shee was told ; for shee saith, that 
 from the first meeting of the said Jane Southworth, shee (witness) had her speech and 
 senses taken from her. But the next day, shee saith, she came somewhat to herselfe, 
 and then the said Widow Southworth came againe to (witness) to her bed-side, and 
 tooke her out of bed, and said to (her) that shee now would after doe to her, and 
 thereupon put her upon a hay-stack, standing some three or foure yards high from the 
 earth, where shee was found after great search made, by a neighbour's Wife near 
 dwelling, and then laid in her bedde againe, where shee remained speechlesse and 
 senselesse as before, by the space of two or three daies. And being recovered, within 
 a weeke after, shee saith, that the said Jane Southworth did come againe to (witness) at 
 her fathers house and did take her away, and laid her in a ditch neare to the house 
 upon her face, and left her there, where shee was found shortly after, and laid upon a 
 bedde, but had not her senses againe of a day and a night, or thereabouts. And shee 
 further saith. That upon Tuesday last before the taking of thi.s her Examination, the 
 said Jane Southworth came to (witness's) Fathers house, and finding (witness) without 
 the doore, tooke her and carried her into the Bame, and thrust her head amongst a 
 companie of boords that were there standing, where shee was shortly after found and 
 laid in a bedde, and remained in her old fit till the Thursday at night following. And 
 being further examined touching her being at Red-banck, shee saith. That the three 
 women, by her before named, were carried backe againe over Ribble by the same 
 blacke things that carried them thither ; and saith that at their said meeting in the 
 Red-banck, there did come also divers other women, and did meet them there, some 
 old, some young, which (witness) thinketh did dwell upon the North side of the 
 Ribble, because shee saw them not come over the water, but (she) knew none of them, 
 neither did shee see them eate or dance, or doe anything else that the rest did, saving 
 that they were there and looked on. 
 
92 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 . Such was the extraordinary yet circumstantial story of this girl, 
 upon the strength of which, mainly, the reputed Witches of Samlesbury 
 were incarcerated and arraigned. She was afterwards moved to confess 
 that the whole evidence was a cunning piece of perjury, fabricated by 
 a priest to bring certain parties whom he hated under the law. The 
 further evidence by which the allegations of Grace Sowerbutts were in 
 part sustained, included the statement of Thomas Walshman, the 
 father of the child supposed to have been bewitched to death by the 
 prisoners. Thomas Walshman, on being sworn, deposed that " hee 
 had a childe died about Lent twelvemonth, who had beene sicke by 
 the space of a fortnight or three weekes, and was afterwards buried in 
 Samlesburie Church ; which childe when it died was a yeare old ■ 
 but how it came to the death of it [witness] knoweth not. And he 
 further saith, that about the fifteenth of April last, or thereabouts, the 
 said Grace Sowerbutts was found in [his] father's barne, laid under a 
 little hay and straw, and from thence was carried into [his] house, and 
 there laid until the Monday at night following, during which time she 
 did not speake, but lay as if she had been dead." 
 
 Another witness was one John Singleton, yeoman, whose deposition 
 had been taken at Samlesbury, August 7th (a few days prior to the 
 assize), before Robert Houlden, Esq., Justice of the Peace (Holden of 
 Holden Hall, Haslingden). Singleton swore that he had "often 
 heard his old master. Sir John Southworth, Knight, now deceased, say, 
 touching the late wife of John Southworth, now in the gaole, for 
 suspition of Witchcraft, that the said wife was as he thought an evill 
 woman, and a Witch, and he said that he was sorry for her husband, 
 that was his kinsman, for he thought she would kill him." The witness 
 also said " that the said Sir John Southworth, in his coming or going 
 between his owne house at Samlesbury and the Towne of Preston, did 
 for the most part forbear to pass by the house where the said wife 
 dwelled, though it was his nearest and best way ; and rode another way, 
 only for feare of the said wife, as [witness] verily thinketh." A 
 subsequent deposition of one William Alker, of Samlesbury, yeoman, 
 taken before Mr. Justice Holden, corroborated the last witness's statement 
 as to the superstitious dread felt by Sir John Southworth of Mistress 
 Jane Southworth. William Alker swore " that he hath seene the said 
 Sir John Southworth shunne to meet the wife of John Southworth, now 
 Prisoner in the Gaole, when he came neere where she was ; and hath 
 heard the said Sir John Southworth say that he liked her not, and that 
 he doubted she would bewitch him." 
 
 These references to the family of Southworth, lords of Samlesbury, 
 will be rendered more intelligible by a few notes. The lady, Jane 
 
SAMLESBURY WITCHCRAFT TRIALS. 93 
 
 Southworth, who was put on trial for witchcraft, was the widow of John 
 Southworth, Esq., eldest son of Thomas Southworth, Esq., son and 
 heir to the Sir John Southworth whose imprisonment at Manchester 
 for " recusancy " is referred to in the preceding chapter. John 
 Southworth was therefore the grandson of Sir John, and the heir to the 
 entailed estates, but he died young, and in the lifetime of his father, 
 Thomas Southworth ; the exact date of his death is not apparent, but 
 it was about 1611 or 161 2, and only, at most, a few months before his 
 widow was arrested and thrown into prison as a witch. She was a 
 natural daughter of Sir Richard Sherburne of Stonyhurst, and married 
 John Southworth about 1598 probably, for their eldest son, Thomas 
 (eventual heir to his grandfather), was born in the 42nd Elizabeth (1599- 
 1600). The pair had other children, John, Richard, Gilbert, Christopher, 
 Mary, Anne, and Rosamond. John Southworth and his wife resided 
 at the Lower Hall, Samlesbury, and, after the husband's decease, Jane 
 Southworth, the widow, had that house as a jointure, and continued to 
 reside there. The seminary priest who was declared on the trial 
 to have incited the girl Grace Sowerbutts to make the charge 
 of witchcraft against Jane Southworth and the other females, 
 called himself by the name of Thompson, but he was asserted to be 
 Christopher, Southworth, fourth son of Sir John Southworth, Knt., and 
 therefore uncle to John Southworth, the husband of the accused Jane 
 Southworth. Christopher Southworth was a priest of the Roman Church, 
 and endured a term of imprisonment in the Castle of Wisbeach for 
 recusancy in Elizabeth's reign. The representation of the friends of the 
 accused on her trial seems to have been that Christopher Southworth 
 was inimical to John Southworth's family on account of their disposition 
 to forsake the former religion of the family, Jane Southworth having 
 recently entered the Protestant Church. The witness John Singleton 
 had been a servant, as he alleged, of old Sir John Southworth ; and in 
 Sir John's Will occurs the legacy : — " I doe give unto John Singleton, 
 my servant, one Annuitie or yearly rent of 40s. for tearme of his liffe." 
 The other witness, William Alker, was doubtless a son of Richard Alker, 
 another retainer of the Samlesbury Knight. These two men, as recorded, 
 both attested that old Sir John Southworth was in fear of Jane South- 
 worth, his grandson's wife, as a witch, and made a detour to avoid her 
 house when riding from Samlesbury Hall to Preston. Concerning this 
 evidence, a point occurs which was not noted by the Court. Sir John 
 Southworth died in 1595, seventeen years before the trial of Jane South- 
 worth for witchcraft. Now, as Thomas Southworth, son and heir of Sir 
 John, was born in 1561, it is not likely that he would have married 
 before 1580 or 1581 ; and if his eldest son, John, had been born in 
 
94 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 1581, he would have been but fourteen years old at the time of Sir 
 John's death in 1595. He could not have been married long before 
 1600, the year of birth of his heir, Thomas. The conclusion is that 
 Jane Sherburne was still in her young maidenhood in 1595, and did 
 not marry John Southworth, or come to reside at Samlesbury Lower 
 Hall, until three or four years after Sir John Southworth's decease. A 
 reference to Sir John Southworth's Will proves explicitly that his 
 grandson John Southworth was unmarried at that date. The Will is 
 dated September 17th, 1595, within six weeks of the testator's death, 
 which happened on November 3rd in the same year; and therein appears 
 this sentence: — "The said Thomas [Sir John's son] maye," &c., "give, 
 lymit, and dispose unto Rosimond now his wife," &c., " or to such 
 wife as John Southworth, sonne and heire apparent of the said Thomas, 
 shall marrie, a full third parte and no more of the said Mannors," &c. 
 Subsequent expressions in the Will confirm the fact that John, the 
 grandson, was yet unmarried, and as the testator was then lying on 
 his death-bed, it was simply impossible that the old knight could ever 
 have believed Jane Southworth to be a witch, or have shunned her 
 house in his rides to and from Preston. The audacious perjury of this 
 part of the testimony against Jane Southworth is thus demonstrated. 
 
 Beyond the evidence of these two men, John Singleton and 
 William Alker, with their figment about the terrors of their long- 
 deceased master, there was absolutely no evidence to corroborate the 
 extraordinary charge of Grace Sowerbutts, except the statement of 
 Thomas Walshman as to the death of his child, which amounted to 
 little, for infant life is of the frailest tenure. Our chronicler, Potts, adds 
 that Thomas Sowerbutts, father of Grace Sowerbutts, was at length called 
 before the Court. But he could depose to nothing save " the finding 
 of the wench upon the hay in her counterfeit fits." The presiding 
 Judge, after he had heard the whole of the evidence against the prisoners, 
 demanded of them what answer they had to make ; when the accused 
 " humbly upon their knees with weeping teares desired him for God's 
 cause to examine Grace Sowerbutts, wjio set her on, or by whose means 
 this accusation came against them." What followed is thus described : — 
 " Immediately the countenance of this Grace Sowerbutts changed. 
 The witnesses, being behind, began to quarrel and accuse one another. 
 In the end his Lordship exanrined the girle, who could not for her life 
 give any direct answer, but strangely amazed, told him shee was put to 
 a master to learne, but he told her nothing of this." The Court then 
 ordered the girl's father, Thomas Sowerbutts, to be re-examined, as to 
 " what master taught his daughter," but the man " in general termes 
 denyed all." Still the wench refused to disclose the conspiracy. But 
 
JAMES I. AT HOGHTON TOWER. 95 
 
 " in the end some of them that were present told his lordship the truth," 
 and the prisoners assured the Court that the lass " went to learn with 
 one Thompson, a Seminarie Priest, who had . instructed and taught her 
 this accusation against them, because they were once obstinate Papists, 
 and now came to church." This was the tenour of the assertion of the 
 three prisoners, Jennet Bierley, Jane Southworth, and Ellen Bierley. 
 The widow Southworth mentioned a meeting she had with the Priest 
 who had originated the charges : — 
 
 Jane Southworth saith she saw Master Thompson, alias Southworth, the Priest, 
 a month or six weeks before she was committed to the gaole ; and had conference 
 with him in a place called Barn-hey-lane, where and when shee challenged liim for 
 slandering her to be a Witch ; whereuntohe answered that what he had heard thereof, 
 he heard from her mother and her aunt ; yet she, this Exaniinate, thinketh in her 
 heart it was by his procurement, and is moved so to thinke, for that shee would not be 
 disswaded from the [Protestant] Church. ' 
 
 The issue of the case was that the girl, Grace Sowerbutts, was 
 taken out of her father's charge, by the Judge's order, and " committed 
 to M. Leigh, a very religious preacher, and M. Chisnall, two Justices 
 of the Peace, to be carefully examined." Being closely interrogated, 
 the wench at length confessed that all the strange statements she had 
 made of the witchcraft of the prisoners were utter falsehoods ; for that 
 " one Master Thompson, which she taketh to be Master Christopher 
 Southworth, to whom she was sent to leame her prayers, did persuade, 
 counsel! and advise her " to make these singular charges against her 
 grandmother, aunt, and widow Southworth. This was enough, and at 
 the close of the examination of the witness and the prisoners, the 
 Jury were directed to acquit the prisoners, and they were immediately 
 liberated. What was done to the chief agents in the conspiracy is 
 unrecorded. 
 
 KING JAMES THE FIRST AT HOGHTON TOWER. 
 
 In the month of August, 16 17, King James the First made his 
 return journey from Scotland to London, progressing through the length 
 of Lancashire. The monarch and his retinue were at Hornby Castle 
 on the nth, the guests of Lord Gerard; and on the 12th set out for 
 Myerscough Lodge, near Garstang, the seat of Edward Tyldesley, Esq. 
 At Myerscough the Court abode two days ; and during that interval 
 many of the Lancashire gentry reached Myerscough Lodge, and made 
 their obeisance to the King ; among them Sir Richard Hoghton, his 
 next entertainer. From Myerscough, on the 15th, the King and his 
 Court advanced to Preston, where a grand reception had been prepared. 
 After the civic banquet at Preston, which must have taken place early in 
 the day, — the 1 5th of August, — the Royal party sped to the next lodging- 
 
g6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 place, the mansion of Sir Richard Hoghton. Passing over the Ribble 
 at Walton Bridge, and along the old road to Blackburn, the party had in 
 full view, through the greater part of the route, the bold wooded hill of 
 Hoghton, with the castellated frontage of the Tower on its summit, the 
 high central tower, blown up in the Civil War, and the numerous chim- 
 ney stacks of the buildings forming the quadrangles. Arrived at the foot 
 of the hill upon which the Tower is built, the royal party alighted from 
 their equipages and advanced in state up the grand avenue. The tradition 
 is that the whole length of the avenue was laid with velvet cloth. In 
 front of the Tower were assembled the tenantry of the Hoghtons, 
 together with those of surrounding families, all wearing for the occasion 
 the Hoghton " livery cloaks," to express the homage of neighbouring 
 esquires and gentry to their King. Nicholas Assheton mentions that a 
 speech was made on the arrival of his Majesty at the Tower. After this 
 ceremony, although the day must have been considerably advanced, a 
 short hunt in the Hoghton Park was ordered before supper was served. 
 The " Journalist" closes the record of the day with the words: — "Hunted 
 and killed a stagg. We attend on the Lords' table.'" 
 
 The noblemen and gentlemen who attended King James at Hogh- 
 ton Tower composed a numerous and distinguished company, including 
 some of the most celebrated courtiers of the time. A list of the guests 
 of Sir Richard Hoghton during these days of the King's visit has been 
 preserved. Among the highest in rank were the powerful favourite of 
 the monarch, Villiers, Earl and afterwards Duke of Buckingham ; the 
 Earls of Richmond, Pembroke, Nottingham, and Bridgewater ; Lords 
 Zouch, Knollys, Mordaunt, Grey, Stanhope, and Compton ; the Bishop 
 of Chester, Dr. Moreton ; many Baronets and Knights ; and the follow- 
 ing Lancashire notables : — Sir Edward Mosley, Knt., M.P. for Preston 
 (1614-23); Sir Edmund Trafford, of Trafford, Knt., Sheriff of Lancashire 
 in that year ; Cecil Trafford, Esq., knighted by the King at Hoghton 
 Tower ; Richard Towneley, of Towneley, Esq. ; Ralph Assheton, of 
 Whalley, Esq. ; Richard Sherburne, of Stonyhurst, Esq. ; Richard 
 Shuttleworth, of Gawthorpe, Esq. ; Nicholas Girlington, of Thurland 
 Castle, Esq. ; William Anderton, of Anderton, Esq., and one hundred 
 other gentlemen of the county. 
 
 On the i6th of August, the second day of King James's sojourn at 
 Hoghton, the Royal party went out hunting in the morning ; and in the 
 afternoon paid a visit to the noted Alum Mines at Alum Scar, in the 
 township of Pleasington. The day was excessively sultry. The Down- 
 ham " Journalist" notes : — " Aug. 16, Houghton. The King hunting : a 
 great companie. Killed affore dinner a brace of staggs. Verie hott ; 
 
 1 Journal of Nich. Assheton (Clieth. Soc. Publ.), p. 38. 
 
JAMES I. AT HOGHTON TOWER. 97 
 
 soe hee [the King] went in to dinner. Wee attend the lords' table ; and 
 about 4 o'clock the King went downe to the Allome mynes, and was 
 ther an hower, and viewed them preciselie, and then went and shott at a 
 stagg, and missed. Then my Lord Compton had lodged two brace. 
 The King shott again, and brake the thigh-bone. A dogg long in 
 coming, and my Lord Compton shott again and killed him [the stag]. 
 Late in to supper.'" The Alum Mine visited by the King is about a mile 
 north from Hoghton Tower, on the Blackburn side of the Darwen river. 
 
 The 1 7th of August, the tliird day of James's presence at the Tower, 
 was the Sunday ; and the day was observed by the Bishop preaching in 
 the great hall before the King and Court in the morning ; while the after 
 part of the day was given up to amusements, including a rushbearing 
 after dinner, and a grand masque in the gardens at night. Nicholas 
 Assheton writes : — " Aug. 1 7, Hoghton. — Wee served the lords with 
 biskett, wyne, and jellie. The Bishopp of Chester, Dr. Morton, preached 
 before the King. To dinner. About four o'clock ther was a rushbearing, 
 and pipeing afore them, affore the King in the middle court ; then to 
 supp. Then, about ten or eleven o'clock, a maske of noblemen, knights, 
 gentlemen and courtiers, afore the King, in the middle round, in the 
 garden. Some speeches : of the rest, dancing the Huckler, Tom Bedlo, 
 and the Cowp Justice of Peace. '"* 
 
 The popular custom of the " rushbearing" was exhibited before the 
 monarch in the afternoon of this day, and after it, probably, was pre- 
 sented the memorial petition of the Lancashire peasantry and others, 
 complaining to the King of the restrictions by the Queen's Commission 
 in 1579, which prohibited the people from indulging in any kind of 
 out-door games or sports on the Sunday, after evening prayer, or upon 
 holidays. James received the petitioners graciously, and acknowledged 
 the justice of the remonstrance against the prohibition of the "lawful 
 recreations and honest exercises" of the " good people" of Lancashire. 
 This petition is regarded as the precursor of the celebrated " Book of , 
 Sports," published by royal authority, in May, 1618 ; by which "dancing, 
 archery, May-games, Whitsun-ales, and May-poles" were permitted to be 
 indulged in on a Sunday evening ; a liberty which, while it gratified the 
 commonalty, gave such offence to religious people in Lancashire and 
 elsewhere that the publication by King James, and the re-publication by 
 Charles his son, of the " Book of Sports" is reckoned one of the causes 
 of that revolutionary movement which hurled the Stuart monarchy from 
 its seat of rule in England. 
 
 This sportful Sunday of the Court's revel at Hoghton was wound 
 up with the grand Masque in the gardens, the name of which has not 
 
 I Journal of Nich. Assheton, p. 40. 2 lb. pp. 41-45. 
 
 13 
 
98 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 been ascertained ; but in which many of the nobles and gentlemen of 
 the King's retinue were actors. Nicholas Assheton also says that " some 
 speeches" were delivered on this night, and a number of curious dances 
 and popular farcical representations of the period enacted ; and it was 
 at some period of his stay at Hoghton that the following poetic address 
 was recited before King James, the text of which has been kept in the 
 archives of the Hoghton family.' 
 
 A Speeche made to Kinge James at his cominge to Hoghton Tower, by two con- 
 ceaved to be the Household Gods : the first attyr'd in a purple tafifata mantle, in one 
 iand a palm-tree branch, on his head a garland of the same, and in the other hand a 
 dogge: 
 
 This day, great Kinge for government admired ! 
 Which these thy subjects have so much desir'd. 
 Shall be kept holy in their hearts' best treasure 
 And vow'd to James as is this month to Caesar. 
 And now the Landlord of this ancient Tower 
 Thrice fortunate to see this happy hower 
 Whose trembleinge heart thy presence setts on fire 
 Unto this house (the heart of all the shire) 
 ' Does bid thee hearty welcome, and would speak it 
 
 In higher notes, but extreme joy doth breake it. 
 Hee makes his Guest most welcome, in whose eyes 
 Love-teares do sitt, not he that shouts and cryes. 
 And we the gods and guardians of the place, — 
 I of this house, he of the fruitfuU chace, — 
 [E'er] since the Hoghtons from this hill took name 
 Who with the stiffe, unbridled Saxons came 
 And soe have flurish't in this fairer clyme. 
 Successively from that to this our tyme. 
 Still offeringe upp to our Immortall Powers 
 Sweet incense, wyne, and odoriferous flowers ; 
 While sacred Vesta in her virgin tyre 
 With vowes and wishes tend the hallowed fyre. 
 Now seeing that thy Majestye we see 
 Greater than country gods, more good than wee ; 
 We render upp to thy more powerfull guard 
 This house ; this Knight is thine, he is thy Ward, 
 For by thy helpinge and auspicious hand 
 He and his home shall ever, ever stand 
 And flurish in despite of envious fate ; 
 And then live, like Augustus, fortunate. 
 And longe, longe mays't thou live ! to which both men, 
 Gods, saints and angells say, ' Amen, amen !' 
 [The Second Tutelar God begins :] 
 Thou greatest of mortalls ! [He's nonplust. 
 
 I 'rhis poetic address of welcome was probably the " speech" made, as Nicholas Assheton men- 
 tions, on the King's arrival at the Tower. 
 
JAMES I. AT HOGHTON TOWER. -^g 
 
 [The Second [First] God begins againe :] 
 Dread Lord ! the splendor and the glorious raye 
 Of thy high majestye hath strucken dumbe 
 His weaker god-head ; if t' himselfe he come 
 Unto thy service straight he will comend 
 These Foresters, and charge them to attend 
 Thy pleasure in this park, and shew such sport 
 To the Chief Huntsman, and thy princely court. 
 As the small circuit of this round affords. 
 And be more ready than he was in's words. 
 
 On Monday morning, August i8th, 1617, the King and his retinue 
 breakfasted at Hoghton, and then set forth, about noon, to Lathom 
 House. While at Lathom, James conferred the title of knight upon 
 John Talbot, of Salesbury, and other Lancashire gentry who had paid 
 their service to him during his progress. Nichols^ prints the bill of fare 
 at the royal table during the last day of James's stay at Hoghton Tower 
 from a family manuscript, headed : — " Notes of the Diet at Hoghton at 
 the King's cominge there" : — ■ , 
 
 Sunday's Dinner, the 17x11 of August (1617). — For the Lords' Table. 
 
 First Course. — Pullets, boiled capon, mutton boiled, boiled chickens, shoulder 
 of mutton roast, ducks boiled, loin of veal roast, pullets, haunch of venison roast, 
 burred capon, pasty of venison hot, roast turkey, veal burred, swan roast (one, and 
 one for to-morrow), chicken pye hot, goose roast, rabbits cold, jiggits of mutton 
 boiled, snipe pye, breast of veal boiled, capons roast, pullet, beef roast [Sirloin ?], 
 tongue pye cold, sprod boiled, herons roast cold, curlew pye cold, mince pye hot, 
 custards, pig roast. 
 
 Second Course. — Hot pheasant, one, and one for the King, quails, six for the 
 King, partridge, poults, artichoke pye, curlews roast, peas buttered, rabbits, ducks, 
 plovers, red deer pye, pig burred, hot herons roast, three of a dish, lamb roast, gam- 
 mon of bacon, pigeons roast, made dish, chicken burred, pear tart, pullets and grease, 
 dryed tongues, turkey pye, pheasant tart, hogs' cheeks dryed, turkey chicks cold. 
 Sunday Night's Supper. 
 
 First Course. — Pullet, boiled capon, cold mutton, shoulder of mutton roasted, 
 chicken boiled, cold capon, roast veal, rabbits boiled, turkey roast, pasty of venison 
 hot, shoulder of venison roast, herons cold, sliced beef, umble pye, duck boiled, 
 chickens baked, pullet, cold neat's tongue pye, neat's tongue roast, sprod boiled, curlews 
 baked cold, turkeys baked cold, neats' feet, boiled rabbits, neats' tongue, rabbits fried. 
 
 Second Course. — Quails, poults, herons, plovers, chickens, pear tart, rabbits, 
 peas buttered, made dish, ducks, gammon of bacon, red deer pye, pigeons, wild boat 
 pye, curlew, dry neats' tongue, neats' tongue tart, dryed hog's cheek, red deer pye. 
 Monday Morning's Breakfast, the i8th of August. 
 
 Pullets, boiled capon, shoulder of mutton, veal roast, boiled chickens, rabbits 
 roast, shoulder of mutton roast, chine of beef roast, pasty of venison, turkey roast, 
 pig roast, venison roast, ducks boiled, pullet, red deer pye cold, four capons roast, 
 poults roast, pheasant, herons, mutton boiled, wild boar pye, jiggits of mutton boiled, 
 jiggits of mutton burred, gammon of bacon, chicken pye, burred capon, dryed hog's 
 cheek, umble pye, tart, made dish. 
 
 « Progresses of James I., v. iii, pp^ 397-9. 
 
lOO HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Labourers [Servants] — For the pastries— John Greene, Richard BIythe, 
 William Aldersey, Alexander Cowper. For the ranges — ^John Colebume, Elias James, 
 John Rairke, Robert Dance. For boiling — John Murryer, William Parkes. For 
 pullets — John Gierke, John Bibby. — Chief Cooks — Mr. Morris ; Mr. Miller. 
 
 Many readers will have heard the local tradition that it was at 
 Hoghton Tower that King James, in a fit of humour, knighted a loin of 
 beef which was set before him at dinner, by which, as the story goes, 
 that particular joint of meat acquired the name of Sirloin. There is no 
 evidence except the folk-lore of the district that the eccentric monarch 
 actually perpetrated the practical joke of knighting a piece of beef that 
 pleased his palate, either at Hoghton or elsewhere ; and a similar story 
 being told of a later Stuart king (Charles II.), the two traditions tend to 
 invalidate each other. Some writers have suggested, indeed, that the 
 original etymology of the word was surloin, from the French sur, signi- 
 fying upon ; and the modern French name for the same joint the English 
 call sirloin is surlonge. The legend of the knighthood is therefore doubt- 
 ful. James the First was notoriously given to punning, and it is not 
 unlikely he may have remarked, as he partook of the savoury surloin at 
 Hoghton, that its merit was such that its name might appropriately be 
 altered from " surloin" to " Sir-Loin." 
 
 LEVY OF SHIP MONEY IN LANCASHIRE IN 1635. 
 
 Among the chief provocations to that disaffection of the English 
 people to the Stuart dynasty, which, gradually increasing and extending 
 .during the reign of Charles I., eventuated in the great Civil War, and 
 the dethronement and death of that King, was the action of the Crown 
 and Council in re-instituting, in a more oppressive form, the ancient levy 
 of " Ship-Money." This levy, which in former periods had been made 
 upon the coastland counties for the providing of armed ships to defend 
 the coasts from the incursions of pirates and sea-marauders, was now 
 exacted from the whole country for a purpose totally apart from its 
 nominal and ostensible one, namely, to furnish the Crown with means for 
 the payment of royal debts, and for government without the assistance 
 of a suspended Parliament. In the year 1634-5, when the impost called 
 ship-money was thus levied upon Lancashire, the High Sheriff of this 
 county, to whom the Orders in Council relating to the levy were 
 addressed, was Humphrey Chetham, Esq., of Turton Tower, the noted 
 Lancashire merchant, and the enlightened founder of the Chetham 
 Hospital and Library in Manchester. The family papers of the 
 Chethams' include several interesting documents concerning the levy 
 of ship-money in the county. From the^e papers one or two extracts, 
 
 I Foundations of Manchester (Appendix), v. iii, pp. 257-76. 
 
LEVY OF SHIP MONEY. loi 
 
 showing the proportions of the county-levy paid by the different Hun- 
 dreds and corporate towns of Lancashire, may be inserted here. First, 
 is a letter from the Lords of his Majesty's Council to the High Sheriff, 
 dated from Whitehall, August 12th, 1635, which directs the attention of 
 the Sheriff to the royal writ commanding the county to provide " one 
 Shipp of Three hundred and fifty Tunnes, to be furnished with men, 
 tackle, munition, victuall, and other necessaries." It is made known by 
 this mandate, that " upon a due and just calculation wee [the Lords in 
 Council] find that the charge of a ship of that burthen so manned and 
 furnished will be three thousand flive hundred pounds ;" and it is added : 
 — " To prevent difficulty in the dividing the Assessments uppon the 
 Corporate Townes, wee having informed ourselves the best we may of 
 the present condition of the Corporate TowTies, and what proportion of 
 that charge each of them is fitt to beare, doe conceive That the Towne 
 of Preston may well beare Fifty pounds, Lancaster Thirty pounds, Liver- 
 poole Twenty pounds, Wiggan Fifty pounds, Clitheroe flive pounds, 
 Newton flive pounds ; and the residue of the said three thousand and 
 five hundred pounds is to bee assessed upon the rest of the county." 
 
 In obedience to these orders, the Sheriff proceeded to assess the tax 
 upon the Hundreds and Corporate Towns. He issued his warrants to 
 the " Maior, Bailiffes, and Comonalties of the Towne of Lancaster, the 
 Maior and Bailiffs of the Towne of Liverpoole, the Maior and Burgesses 
 of the Towne of Preston in Amounderness, the Maior and Burgesses of 
 the Towne of Wiggan, the Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Towne of 
 Cliderow, and the Steward and Burgesses of the Towne of Newton ;" and 
 at a meeting of the foresaid Mayors, Burgesses, and ofliicers of the Towns, 
 assembled by the Sheriff, the sum-total of the levy upon the Towns was 
 accepted, but "some small alteration made in the dividing thereof" As 
 the central town of the county. Sheriff Chetham appointed Preston for 
 the place at which the sums required from the Hundreds and Towns 
 should be paid over by the local authorities. The tax was paid in Lan- 
 cashire with great reluctance, and collected with difficulty. The Sheriff 
 reported that on proceeding to Preston, where he had expected that 
 money should readily come to his hands, he " met with nothing for the , 
 first two days, but complaints and loud exclamations against unjust and 
 unequal taxations." The clergy especially complained of the distressing 
 pressure of the tax ; and the Sheriff ordered that they should be leniently 
 dealt with. Subjoined is a copy of the return sent up to London by 
 Sheriff Chetham of the proportions in which the sum of ;£'3,5oo for 
 ship-money was paid by the six Hundreds of the County, and the six 
 Corporate Towns. The return also shows the amount contributed by 
 the clergy in the several districts to the levy : — 
 
IQ2 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 The Hundreds op the Whereof the 
 
 County. Clergie paid 
 
 / s. d, ;£ s. d. 
 
 West Darbie Hundred, excepting the 
 burroughes of Wigan, Liverpoole, 
 
 and Newton in that Hundred - - - 757 10 o - - 23 19 2^ 
 
 Salford Hundred 490 00 - - 12 8 6 
 
 Leyland Hundred -------- 315 o o - - 3 11 o 
 
 Blackburne Hundred, excepting Cliderowe 622 10 o - - o 18 6 
 
 Amounderness Hundred, excepting Preston 625 00-- 184 
 
 Loynsdall Hundred, excepting Lancaster - 530 00-- 786 
 The Burroughes. 
 
 Lancaster Towne --- 30 00 - - 200 
 
 Preston in Amondemes 40 00 - - 080 
 
 Wiggan -- 50 00 - - 500 
 
 Liverpoole .-- .-- 25 00 - - Nil. 
 
 Cliderowe 7 10 o - - Nil. 
 
 Newton - - • 7 10 o - - Nil. 
 
 Suma totalis .£'3,500, of which the Clergie paid ^^57 2s. 
 
 These returns afford evidence as to the distribution of wealth in 
 Lancashire in the reign of Charles I. Wigan was then the richest town 
 in the County, and Preston came next. It is a significant illustration of 
 the extreme poverty of the Church endowments in Blackburn Hundred 
 at this time, that while the Hundred paid to the levy ^622 los., against 
 ;^757 los. by the Hundred of West Derby, the clergy of our Hundred 
 could only pay a paltry i8s. 6d. to the tax, as against ;^23 19s. contri- 
 buted by the relatively well-endowed clergy of West Derby division. 
 
 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR (1641-1651).— LOCAL TRANSACTIONS AND 
 
 OPERATIONS. 
 
 We have now arrived at that period of stirring events, the great 
 Civil War between King Charles and his Parliament. Lancashire bore 
 its share in the strife and suffering of that long conflict, and the men of 
 Blackburnshire were not behind the rest of their countymen in the 
 sturdiness with which they fought out the quarrel, under the leadership 
 of the gentry of the district. The record of the war in this work limits 
 itself to those military incidents of which Blackburn Parish was the 
 theatre, with such passing mention of outside occurrences as seems 
 needed to connect and explain local movements. 
 
 Early in the year 1640, King Charles, who had reigned as an 
 absolute monarch since 1629, found it indispensable to summon a Parlia- 
 ment. The House of Commons returned in April, 1640, was so little 
 disposed to second the Crown in its arbitrary policy that it was dissolved 
 after an existence of a few weeks. The next Parliament, summoned in 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— LOCAL TRANSACTIONS. 103 
 
 November of the same year, was longer-lived, and much more remark- 
 able. It was the Parliament known in history as the " Long Parliament." 
 To it were returned for the borough of Clitheroe, Ralph Assheton, Esq., 
 of Whalley, and Richard Shuttleworth, junr., gent., of Gawthorpe ; for 
 Preston, Richard Shuttleworth, Esq., of Gawthorpe, and Thomas 
 Standish, Esq. Of fourteen members returned to this Parliament from 
 the Lancashire boroughs and for the county, eight were for the Parlia- 
 ment, and six were Royalists, in the contest that ensued. 
 
 In the month of January, 164 1-2, the rupture between the King 
 and the other Estates of the realm being complete, both parties began to 
 prepare for the inevitable resort to arms. Charles withdrew from London, 
 and by the end of April, 1642, was at York, issuing his summons to the 
 trusted loyalist gentry of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and other counties to 
 meet him there with their forces. The first step of the Parliamentary 
 leaders to make their influence felt in Lancashire was the nomination to 
 the King, on February 12th, 1641-2, of Lord Wharton to be Lord 
 Lieutenant of the county, in the stead of Lord Strange. The King 
 rejected the nomination, and upon that the Parliament, on March 5th, 
 absolutely appointed Lord Wharton to the post. The new Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant at once nominated a fresh batch of deputy-lieutenants from among 
 the gentry favourable to the Parliament. Soon after this, a petition was 
 presented to the House of Commons, signed by "divers Knights, 
 Esquires, Ministers, Gentlemen and Freeholders " of the County, thank- 
 ing the House for the appointment of Lord Wharton to the Lieutenancy ; 
 acknowledging with gratitude " the fidelitie, patience, and unparalleled 
 industry of this Honorable House in the indevours to restore to order 
 the discomposed condition of this Church and State ; and to put the 
 same into a way to unitie, puretie and peace ;" and praying, with other 
 prayers, " that the number of preaching ministers be augmented in the 
 Countie ;" " that a Fleet of small ships may be appointed for the guard 
 of this Coast ;" that the Recusants of the County might be disarmed, 
 and the County Militia put in a position of defence ; and " that the 
 jjetition concerning the breach of privileges at the Election of Knights 
 for this county (unparalleled by any Election in this Kingdome as your 
 Petitioners beleeve), as also the other grievances of the Countie," &c., 
 " may receive examination and redresse."^ Another petition, evidently 
 from the same parties (the Puritan interest in Lancashire), was presented 
 to the King at York, May 2nd, 1642, beseeching his Majesty to return 
 to London, and to his " great Councell," i.e.. Parliament. These Lan- 
 cashire Puritans would seem to have had faith in the power of petition- 
 ing, for on the 27th of the same month they presented a second petition 
 
 I Civil War Tracts, pp. 2-5. 
 
I04 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 to the King at York, " subscribed by 64 Knights and Esquires, 55 
 Divines, 740 Gentlemen, and of Freeholders and others above 7000" — 
 a formidable array of signatures. The King was besought to carry out 
 his understood resolution "of ruling his people according to the 
 laws of the land ;" of defending the doctrine, liturgy, and government 
 of the Church ; of advancing learning, and encouraging " painfull ortho- 
 dox Preachers ;" and to condescend unto whatever Parliament should 
 offer to his royal view, conducive to the common good. To this latter 
 petition Charles vouchsafed an answer, dated June 6th, 1642, accepting 
 the loyal expressions of the petitioners, and assuring them of his zeal 
 for the " maintenance of the true Protestant profession," and his acquies- 
 cence in their " desire of a good understanding between His Majestie and 
 his two Houses of Parliament.'" 
 
 These pacific expressions amounted to little ; they could not close 
 up the wide breach between King and Parliament, and they were 
 quickly succeeded by hostile dispositions. On the nth of June, 1642, 
 Charles issued from York his commission of military array for Lanca- 
 shire. William, Earl of Derby, whose name stands first in the Royalist 
 Commission of Array, was an aged man at this time ; his death occurred 
 m September, 1642. His son and successor, James, Lord Strange, was 
 from the first the recognised chief of the King's party in the county. 
 His action, the moment he saw the war to be imminent, was bold and 
 jarompt. So early as the last week of May, there had been a muster of 
 Royalist Catholics in the vicinity of Lancaster, and a few days later. 
 Lord Strange, with a following of 700 armed men, appeared at Lancas- 
 ter, and pounced upon the Magazine there, from which he appropriated 
 the powder and the match. The great county meeting at Preston, con- 
 vened by Sir John Girlington, the High Sheriff, on the 20th of June, 
 1642, is, however, the first remarkable occurrence in the annals of the 
 Civil War in Lancashire. The rendezvous of Royalist partizans at 
 Preston, and the proceedings thereat, are recorded in a letter from a 
 gentleman in York to a friend in London ; and more in detail in a letter 
 from Alexander Rigby to the Speaker of the House of Commons. Both 
 these narratives were written by adherents of the Parliament, which will 
 explain the terms in which the King's friends and their doings are 
 characterised. The gentleman from York writes that Sir John Girling- 
 ton, the High Sheriff, on receipt of a letter from the King, proceeded 
 "to sum up all protestant subjects with all speed at Preston, to heare his 
 Majestie's two declarations and the Lancashire Petition to the King 
 and his Majestie's answer thereunto" ; at which meeting " some of the 
 Committee for Lancaster desired the forbearance of them to be read, 
 
 I civil War Tracts, pp. 8-12. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— LOCAL TRANSACTIONS. 105 
 
 but hee [the Sheriff], in contempt of their order from the Parliament, 
 departed with some of his friends, and cryed out, ' All that are for the 
 King go with us,' crying 'For the King, for the King !' and so about 
 400 persons, whereof the most part of them were Popish Recusants, 
 went with him and ridde up and downe the moore, and cryed, ' For the 
 King, for the King !' but far more in number stayed with the Committee, 
 and prayed for the uniting of the King and Parliament with a generall 
 acclamation, so that 'tis thought, since the Committees going there, it hath 
 wonderfully wrought upon the hearts of the people."^ A fuller account 
 (being by an eye-witness) of the incidents of the Preston demonstration 
 is contained in the letter of Mr. Alexander Rigby, who, with Mr. Richard 
 Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe, being sent into Lancashire to organise the 
 resistance of their friends to Lord Strange and the King's party, was 
 present at the assembly on Preston Moor.^ 
 
 This Preston meeting was the first rencontre between the opposing 
 parties in Lancashire ; and though the adherents of the King and of 
 the Parliament met on this occasion without blows, and parted without 
 bloodshed, it is manifest thai the partizan feeling already ran very high, 
 and that very little was needed to have brought on a collision. Messrs. 
 Rigby and Shuttleworth, as Members of the House of Commons and 
 the Commissioners of Parliament, displayed courage in confronting the 
 High Sheriff, the Lord Strange, and the other members of the King's _ 
 Commission of Array for Lancashire, and in challenging the legality 
 of their proceedings. The Royalists, on their part, made their 
 preparations for war with decision and celerity, as Rigby's account of 
 the removal of gunpowder stored at Preston, and of their collection 
 of "great store of horses for service," attests. The Parliament party 
 were somewhat less prompt in their measures, but they were by no 
 means asleep. The day after the Preston meeting Mr. Rigby and Mr. 
 Richard Shuttleworth were summoned to Manchester, to concert 
 with their fellow-commissioners plans for the defence of the county 
 against Royalist attacks. In Manchester there were at this juncture 
 " ten barrels of powder and some few bundles of match lodged in a 
 room of a house, belonging to Lord Strange ;" these the local Royalist 
 leaders sought to carry away, but were "prevented by Mr. Ash ton, 
 who with Mr. Thomas Stanley took it, and removed it into other places 
 in the town ;" while Lord Strange, who had seized upon thirty barrels 
 of powder and a great quantity of match in the county magazine at 
 Liverpool, " did, with many armed Forces, repair to a town called 
 Bury," whence his lordship made a demonstration against Manchester, 
 demanding the restoration of his powder and match, which was refused. 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, pp. 13-14. 2 lb. pp. 325-30. 
 
 14 
 
I06 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 At the beginning of the next month (July, 1642), there was a great 
 muster at Manchester of the Lancashire MiHtia, called out by the 
 Parliamentarian Lieutenancy, when 7000 or 8000 men, " well furnished 
 with muskets and pikes, and completely trained by the captains that 
 were there," we're reviewed, after which " there was a greate shoute for 
 halfe an houre — 'For the King and Parliament — For the King and 
 Parliament !' — and at night they were dismist."' 
 
 There is a contemporary story of the interception at Walton-in-le- 
 Dale, by Sir Gilbert Hoghton, of a letter written by Mr. Alexander 
 Rigby to the Manchester Committee. Mr. Rigb/s messenger was 
 " stayed at Walton by a watch which was set by Sir Gilbert Houghton, 
 before whom they brought him, and he delivered him Master Rigbie's 
 letter, and upon Sunday in the morning Sir Gilbert sent for Mr. Rigby 
 [probably to Walton Hall, where Sir Gilbert Hoghton, eldest son of 
 Sir Richard, sometime resided], and being come he told him he had a 
 commission from the king to break open all such letters ; Master Rigbie 
 asked him if he had taken the protestation, and he told him he had. 
 Then he demanded his letter from him in the name of all the Commons 
 of England : and further told him, if he broke it open, it might be he 
 might be the first man that should be made an example in Lancashire ; 
 and then he delivered him his letter unbroken up, and intreated him 
 ■ to stay and dine with him, which he did ; and when they were at dinner 
 one Mr. Dawton, a great recusant, and M. Tylsley, came in as familiarly 
 to Sir Gilbert as if they had been Haile fellow well met. And M. 
 Rigbie told [Sir] Gilbert and M. Tylsley he could like them well, if they 
 were not so familiar with Papists."" This incident occurred upon Sunday, 
 July 3rd, 1642. On the following day, Mr. Rigby was again at Man- 
 chester, present at a meeting of the Manchester Committee of Safety. 
 
 King Charles's anxiety to strengthen his party in Lancashire at 
 the beginning of the war, is illustrated by a letter under the Royal 
 sign manual, dated from York, July ist, 1642, addressed to William 
 Farrington Esq., of Worden, and his son William. These gentlemen 
 had been threatened with arrest and removal from the county by the 
 Parliament, on account of their activity in executing the King's 
 Commission of Array ; and the King, apprehensive that fear of personal 
 danger might lead the Farringtons, father and son, to withdraw privately 
 from Lancashire, wrote the missive which contains this peremptory 
 order : — ^" Wee straightly require you upon your allegiance, that you 
 depart not nor absent yourself out of that Our County Palatine of 
 Lancaster, neither suffer yourself to be engaged, detained, or kept from 
 giving your ready attendance accordingly, beinge thereto called or 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, p. 20. 2 lb. pp. 20-1. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— LOCAL TRANSACTIONS. 107 
 
 summoned by Us, or Our Command, whilst we shall continue here, 
 upon any pretence, order, warrant, or command whatsoever from either 
 or both Houses of Parliament."* Three days later, on July 4th, William 
 Farrington, Esq., with the other Royalist Commissioners of Array in 
 the county, were required by Sherift's Warrant " forthwith to convene 
 and summon all the severall Captaynes of their severall regiments to 
 appeare before theme, together with armes, to be viewed, trayned, and 
 exercised." What happened during the next two or three days among 
 the Royalists mustered at Walton and Preston, is narrated, with a 
 Puritan bias, by the writer of the " Perfect Diumall," a Parliamentarian, 
 who seems to have been a resident at Preston.^ This unnamed personage 
 writes, Wednesday, July 6th, to his friends in London, as follows : — 
 
 As I returned home from Manchester to Preston, in Walton, I overtooke M. 
 Kirbie, the Knight of our Shire, and there was in his companie one Chorley of Chorley 
 (a seducing Papist, a fit companion for so lukewarm a Protestant), and these were very 
 familiar together. A false messenger came this day to Sir Gilbert Houghton, and told 
 him that the Lord WhartOn was come to Manchester with 20,000 men, whereupon he 
 sent with all speede to all his tenants, and commanded them, that they should be 
 readie upon an bower's warning, and set a stronge watch about his house, but I think 
 there was no brags in our towne [Preston] for that day. [The false alarm from Manches- 
 ter had sobered the Preston Royalists for the nonce.] Then they let honest Protestants 
 go through the streets without scoffing at them, and calling them Roundheads, and 
 Tylsley posted up and downe in great feare ; it was well if he kept all cleane ; and how 
 should it be otherwise, seeing they oppose the King's Majesties Royal authority, in the 
 High Court of Parliament, the old and good government of England. 
 
 The next day, July 7th, the same purveyor of intelligence from 
 Preston and Walton writes : — " My Lord Strange this night is at Walton, 
 with Sir Gilbert Houghton and the High Sheriffe, and Tylsley is there, 
 and they have commanded all between 1 5 and 60 to be at Preston to- 
 morrow, with the best armes they have. My Lord intends to be there 
 himselfe, but what the event will be, I cannot yet tell." What came of 
 the mustering of men-at-arms at Preston the following day (Friday, July 
 8th, 1642), is also recounted, with gossip of the great personages at 
 Walton Hall and their doings ; — 
 
 M. Tylsley yesterday night said unto Luke Hodgkinson in Sir Gilbert's buttery 
 that he was told M. Major [the Mayor] of Preston had thought to have him cast in 
 Prison, which if he had he would this day have pulled downe the prison, and M. 
 Major's house should have been set on fire, if he would not have released him. Truly 
 it were well if the Parliament would send for this Tylsley, for he is a Captain, one of 
 the Commission of Array, and doth more harm than any man I know. Yesterday 
 night when the Lord Strange was at supper he received a packet of letters from York ; 
 what they were I cannot tell. This day in the morning I spoke with the Sergeant, 
 I Farington Papers, pp. 77-8. 2 C. W. Tracts, pp. 21-j. 
 
io8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 and he hath delivered that order from the House to the Lord Strange, and he first 
 told him he would return an answer by word of mouth by him, and afterwards he told 
 him he would send an answer himselfe to Parliament. Five men gave one Roger 
 Haddock of Chorley very sore strokes and broke his head to the very scull, because 
 he went with the Sergeant as a messenger to show him my Lord's house. The 
 soldiers are all marched out of the Towne to the number of 4,000, as I thinke, but 
 the post is in going, and what this day will bring forth I cannot tell, but they say they 
 shout ' For the King, and my Lord Strange, ' and the Sheriffe have set foure barrels of 
 beere abroache at the high Cross to make the soldiers drinke as they retumeback. The 
 Sergeant is here to arrest the Sheriffe, but it is to no purpose till the company be 
 gone. . I shall write you more of this dayes proceeding the next poste. My Lord is 
 with them over the Moore. Read this letter be sure to M.W., my brother W. ; pro- 
 vide for our safety : we are beset with Papists. I dare not go to the Moore, but 
 my . . . was there, and they told him he was a Roundhead, and swore they 
 would kill him. So he came from amongst them. I am in haste. Vale. 
 
 A week after the military promenade on Preston Moor, Lord 
 Strange was at Manchester, to be present at a banquet at the house of 
 one Mr. Greene. This audacious visit to the Puritan head-quarters led 
 to a rather serious colHsion between the rival parties. Sir Thomas 
 Stanley, and Captains Holcroft and Birch, were exercising the Militia in 
 another part of the town, when some of the Militiamen got to blows 
 with the body-guard of Lord Strange. Several mortal wounds were 
 received in the affray on both sides, and Lord Strange and his men 
 hastily retreated out of the town to Sir Alexander Radcliffe's house at 
 Ordsall.' This was the first bloodshed of the war, and the tidings of the 
 conflict were received throughout the country with trouble and dismay. 
 
 Nothing further of moment transpired in the county until the last 
 week in September, when Lord Strange returned to the neighbourhood 
 of Manchester with a formidable force, avowedly to reduce the place in the 
 King's interest. The Manchester Puritans had made the best use of the 
 interval since Lord Strange's former visit in throwing up mud walls and 
 other rude fortifications at the main entrances to the town ; and were 
 thus enabled to present a firm front to the Royalist array on their 
 appearance to besiege the town. It was on Saturday night, September 
 24th, 1642, that Lord Strange sat down before Manchester, with a force 
 of from 2,000 to 3,000 men. On the 26th, the defenders of Manches- 
 ter wrote to Richard Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe and John Starkie of 
 Huntroyd, as the leaders of the Parliamentarian interest in Blackburn 
 Hundred, asking for ammunition. 
 
 Lord Strange's assault upon Manchester was successfully repelled, 
 and his lordship raised the siege after a week's duration, having lost 
 about 200 of his men in an attempt' to storm the town." Among the 
 Royalist officers in the besieging force were two gentlemen from 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, pp. 30-34. 2 Palmer's Siege of Manch,, pp. 26-36. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— LOCAL TRANSACTIONS. 109 
 
 Blackburn Hundred — Master Towneley of Towneley, and Master 
 Nowell of Read. While Lord Strange lay at Manchester his father, 
 the Earl of Derby, died, September 25th, 1642, and Lord Strange 
 succeeded to the earldom. He is therefore spoken of henceforth as 
 the Earl of Derby. The march of the King's party to Manchester, 
 though it led to no serious result, aroused the friends of the Parliament 
 to greater activity than had hitherto been exhibited ; and very speedily 
 thereafter, as a Puritan chronicler relates, "wear raised up and put 
 into armes severall Companies under Captaines of the best ranke and 
 qualitie in all the Townes and County, as Captaine Birch, Captaine 
 Bradshawe, Captaine Venables, Captaine Ratcliffe, with others ; 
 Commissioners being granted by the Parliament to put the County into 
 a posture of War for its owne defence. And Collonels allso apointed 
 for every Hundred in the County. As Colonell Ashton of Middleton, 
 Colonell Holland of Heaton, for Salford Hundred ; Colonell Shuttle- 
 worth, elder, Colonell Starkie, for Blackbume Hundred ; Colonell Alex- 
 ander Rigbie for Leyland and Amoundernesse Hundreds ; Colonell More 
 and Colonell Egerton for Derby, and Colonell Dodding for Lones- 
 dale.'" 
 
 A proclamation ordered to be published by the House of Commons 
 on September 29th, 1642, announces the resolution of Parliament to 
 raise 1000 dragoons, to be sent down to Lancashire " for the suppressing 
 of the Malignant Party" in the county, and that Colonel Sir John Seaton, 
 an experienced Scottish soldier, was selected for this command.'' By the 
 middle of October, the men required for this service had been enlisted, 
 aud Sir John Seaton with his "1000 Dragooners" was marching to Man- 
 chester. On the other side, the Earl of Derby, on retreating from before 
 Manchester, marched to join the King's army in Warwickshire. 
 
 At this time. Colonel Richard Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe, a member 
 of the House of Commons, and a staunch supporter of the Parliament 
 interest, was taking measures to render the Hundred of Blackburn im- 
 pervious to Royalist attacks, and his neighbours John Starkie of 
 Huntroyd and John Braddyll of Portfield energetically seconded his 
 efforts. Mr. Alexander Rigby, the Parliamentarian leader in Amoun- 
 derness, was in London in the beginning of October, 1642, and seems 
 to have expressed some doubt as to the fulness of the intelligence of 
 Royalist movements in Lancashire sent up to town by his friend Colonel 
 Shuttleworth. The latter, in a letter dated Oct. 7th, 1642, remonstrates 
 with Colonel Rigby upon these unmerited suspicions, and vindicates his 
 conduct with dignity and spirit, reminding Rigby that he had something 
 at stake as well as his friend, having " a little estate in two Hundreds 
 
 I Discourse of Warr in Lane, pp. 9-10. 2 C. W. Tracts, pp. 40-1. 
 
no HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of the County," namely, Gawthorpe Hall in Blackburn and Barton 
 Lodge in Amoundemess, and asking if it was likely he would wish to 
 have them pillaged. Colonel Shuttleworth continues that he had not 
 yet asked for armed assistance from beyond the limits of the county 
 because he " never knew or heard of any force sent into any county 
 before any actuall violence broke out there." But he had done his 
 utmost to procure ammunition, and competent commanders to direct 
 the local resistance.' The truth was, albeit, that up to this time the 
 gentry of this part of Lancashire had been cherishing the vain hope 
 of being able to avert the miseries of war from their homes and 
 estates by a friendly understanding between the adherents of the two 
 parties. A correspondence was opened between Roger Nowell, of 
 Read, a Royalist, and Colonel Shuttleworth, on a proposal of Mr. 
 Nowell to invite a meeting of the neighbouring gentry of the opposite 
 interests, to attempt some arrangement for escaping the obligation of 
 fighting against each other. The project was that half a dozen 
 gentlemen of either party should meet at some appointed place, their 
 safe conduct being guaranteed, to negociate a sort of treaty of neutrality 
 in the war. It was about the 8th of October that the correspondence 
 commenced; and, on the nth, the subjoined letter was despatched to 
 Roger Nowell, from Richard Shuttleworth and others, enclosing the 
 response of the Manchester leaders. Colonels Holland and Egerton, 
 to the invitation to attend a proposed peace meeting at Blackburn, on 
 Thursday, the 13th of October: — 
 
 Cozen, — Wee according to your and our last conclusion, at our parting withoute 
 delaie sent unto Mr. Holland and some others within Salford Hundred, for the meet- 
 ing at Blackbume on Thursdaie next, from whom (even nowe) wee received this 
 enclosed answeare, which wee thought fit to send unto you to consider of ; which when 
 you have done, and that you then resolve to meete at Boulton ether Mondaie or Tues- 
 daie next (whether dale is left to your election) wee desire you to signifie unto us what 
 you conclude hereabouts, that we may speedilie (if occasion bee) acquaint Salford men 
 thereof and prepare ourselves to perfect (what is in our power) the intended, and wee 
 shall not cease to continue, Your verie lov: cozens, Ric. Shuttleworth, John 
 Braddyll, John Starkie. — In hast from Padihame this nth of October, 1642. — 
 To our verie lo: cozen, Roger Nowell, Esq., this. — Hast.' 
 
 The Manchester Parliamentarian Colonels, Richard Holland and 
 Peter Egerton, were unwilling to go out of their own Hundred to a 
 meeting, and it was at their suggestion that Bolton was substituted for 
 Blackburn as the proposed place of meeting. Receiving the above 
 letter, Roger Nowell wrote from Read, Oct. 12 th, to William Farrington, 
 Esq., inclosing the Padiham and Manchester missives, and proposing 
 Tuesday, October i8th, as the date of meeting. But he added that he 
 
 I Lane. Lieut., v. ii, pp. 274-7. 2 Farington Papers^ p. 81- 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— LOCAL TRANSACTIONS. m 
 
 could not himself be present at it, for he was ordered to set forward on 
 Friday, October 14th, to join Lord Derby's command ; so desired 
 William Farrington to name two other deputies from the Royalist side 
 instead of himself and his cousin Byron ; and he would speak to Mr. 
 Saville Radcliife to be there. On receipt, Mr. Farrington, with Messrs. 
 Rigby, of Burgh, and Fleetwood, of Penwortham, wrote to Sir Thomas 
 Barton, Knt., of Smithells, and Robert Holte, of Castleton, apprising 
 them of the proposed peace conference at Bolton, and informing them 
 that the six gentlemen appointed to represent the Parliament interest 
 were, Richard Holland, Peter Egerton, John Bradshaw, Esqrs. (from Sal- 
 ford Hundred), and Richard Shuttleworth, John Braddyll, and John 
 Starkie, Esqrs. (from Blackburn Hundred); while on the Royalist part, 
 the subscribers to the letter, Farrington, Rigby of Burgh, and John Fleet- 
 wood were named, with Saville Radcliffe, Esq., and it was desired that 
 Sir Thomas Barton and Robert Holt, Esq., should consent to make up 
 the six representatives of that interest. The same parties wrote from 
 Chorley the same night to Colonel Shuttleworth, concerning the arrange- 
 ments for the meeting, and suggesting that the hour of meeting should 
 be ten o'clock in the forenoon. But these overtures ended abortively. 
 The Houses of Parliament, having received intelligence of attempts to 
 preserve neutrality and to circumscribe the operations of the war, in 
 Lancashire, Yorkshire, Devon, and Cornwall, severely discountenanced 
 the projects ; and the correspondence is brought to an abrupt close by 
 a letter from Colonel Holland, at Manchester, to Messrs. Shuttleworth 
 and Starkie, dated Oct. isth, informing them that since their former 
 communication they had received in Manchester " commands both by 
 letter and declarations set fforth from Parliament, how much it is against 
 lyking to have any treaty," and on this ground declining to be parties 
 to the conference. Having this notification, Messrs. Shuttleworth and 
 Starkie wrote from Padiham, Oct. i6th, to Messrs. Farrington, Rigby, and 
 Fleetwood, inclosing Mr. Holland's lette^ and saying that the meeting 
 at Bolton " could not hold.'" Thus the friendly negotiation terminated, 
 and the parties to it met thereafter only as foes upon the battle-field. 
 
 After this, no further effort was made by the Parliamentarian and 
 Royalist gentry to avoid participation in the struggle that had now fairly 
 begun. Hostile ventures were now concerted by the Lancashire 
 adherents of King and of Parliament. It was the middle of October 
 when the proposal for a peace meeting broke down, and within a couple 
 of days of that date detachments of armed men in Blackburn Hundred 
 were pushing on to the attack of houses of gentry committed to the 
 King's interest. Charles Townley, Esq., of Townley Hall, was one of 
 
 1 Farington Papers, pp. 81-6. 
 
ri2 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the most influential of Charles the First's friends in these parts ; and he 
 was the first to encounter the hostility of the Parliamentarians of his dis- 
 trict. A few days before, he and other Roman Catholic gentlemen of 
 Lancashire had supplicated the King to relax the law affecting religious 
 Recusants, which forbade them to keep arms in their houses, asking that 
 the arms previously taken from them might be " redelivered in this tyme 
 of actuall War," and that by his Majesty's special direction they might 
 be enabled to furnish themselves with " a competencie of weapons" for 
 the security of the King's person, their country and families. To this 
 application the King returned a favourable answer. By an order of the 
 Court at Chester, Sept. 27th, 1642, these loyal " Recusants" were bidden 
 to provide sufficient arms for themselves, their servants, and their tenants, 
 to be used in defence of their own persons and property, and of the 
 royal interests.' The permission was not granted too soon, for almost 
 the first act of the enemy in the Hundred of Blackburn was to make a 
 raid upon the Townley estate, for the capture of Townley Hall. In the 
 beginning of October, the Parliament's Committee at Manchester, 
 " to keep their soldiers in exercise," sent some of their Captains " upon 
 designs advantagious unto them /' as, for instance, " Captaine Birch was 
 sent into Blackburne Hundred, to take in Townley Hall ; and others 
 were sent to fetch prizes from malignant cavaliers."^ 
 
 At the outset of the Civil War the Royalist party were so much the 
 stronger in the four westerly Hundreds of West Derby, Leyland, 
 Amoundemess, and Lonsdale, as to exercise complete sway, and to hold 
 with their garrisons every strong castle, embattled mansion, and fortified 
 town within those Hundreds. The Royalist leaders, with Lord Derby at 
 their head, included Sir John Girlington, Knt.; Sir Gilbert Hoghton, 
 Bart.; Sir Alexander Radcliffe, Knt; Thos. Tyldesley and Wm. Farring- 
 ton, Esqrs.; and other powerful gentlemen. The two Hundreds of 
 Blackburn and Salford remained as the strongholds of the Parliamentarian 
 interest. Manchester was their most defensible place, and their political 
 and military head-quarters. Bolton likewise was held for the Parliament, 
 and partially fortified. In Blackburn Hundred, the only place of arti- 
 ficial strength in possession of the Roundheads was Clitheroe Castle. 
 The town of Blackburn, though very much exposed to the enemy, had 
 no fortifications worthy of the name. Burnley, Colne, and Hasling- 
 den, the other market towns, were better protected by the badness of 
 the roads that led into the interior of the Hundred than by any temporary 
 rampart of mud that may have been hastily thrown up to strengthen 
 them. Though the friends of the Parliament in the district outnumbered 
 the partizans of the King, there were several local Royalists of note, 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, pp. 33-40. 2 Discourse of Warr, p. 10. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— LOCAL TRANSACTIONS. 
 
 "3 
 
 Some families were as good as neutral in the war : such was Richard 
 Sherburne of Stonyhurst, a poor ally, though he must be classed on the 
 King's side. The Southworths of Samlesbury make no appearance in 
 the field. Thomas Southworth, Esq., was just defunct (1641) with- 
 out heirs, and there was, therefore, no male scion to risk the estate by 
 committing himself to either of the contending parties. 
 
 It was chiefly the Roman Catholic families of the Hundred, — 
 Towneley of To^vneley, Sherburne of Stonyhurst, Talbot of Salesbury, 
 and Walmesleys of Dunkenhalgh and of Banister Hall, — that rallied to 
 King Charles's standard. Roger Nowell of Read was the only Protes- 
 tant churchman of any influence who sided with the King. The local 
 feeling being decisively for the Parliament, all that the Royalist gentry 
 could do was to get together as many as they might of their personal 
 dependants, and, leaving their properties to the mercy of the enemy, 
 march to join the Royalists at Preston and elsewhere, in the hope that 
 the tide of war would soon bear them back to their forsaken estates. 
 Sir John Talbot tarried a while in his strong house at Salesbury, profes- 
 sing neutrality, until, his treachery being discovered, he had to decamp. 
 Richard Walmesley had his house at Dunkenhalgh occupied and ran- 
 sacked by the Roundheads very early in the first campaign. RadclifFe 
 Assheton of Cuerdale became an active agent of the Royalist party in the 
 county. 
 
 While the Parliamentarian Committee were collecting their forces 
 and disposing them for the defence of Blackburn and Salford Hundreds, 
 the Royalists were straining every nerve to be ready for the onset in 
 West Lancashire. That the Royalists about Preston were at this time 
 equally fearful lest the Roundheads of Blackburn and Salford Hundreds 
 should swoop down upon them unawares and discomfit them, as the 
 Parliamentarian conclave at Padiham were lest the Royalists from 
 Preston should attack them while unprepared, is evident from the 
 Sheriffs letter to Wm. Farrington and others, dated the 23rd November, 
 in which allusion is made to the source of anticipated mischief to the 
 Royal cause : — " Fforasmuch as the rebellious Route under the conduct 
 of Richard Shuttleworth, Esq., and others within this County palatine 
 of Lancaster, doe daylie swell and increase in a greater rebellious body, 
 which committ severall outrages and notorious wicked acts and offences, 
 ffbr speedie redresse and suppression whereof I am required to raise 
 and have in readiness the power of the County." The Sheriff therefore 
 ordered all the Royalist gentry of Leyland district and their tenants to 
 be in readiness to take the field " upon fewer and twenty howres further 
 notice and warninge, on paine and forfeiture of their lives and estates."^ 
 
 I Farington Papers, pp. 89-9«. 
 
 IS 
 
 I 
 
114 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 ■ In obedience to these directions, Sir Gilbert Hoghton, Bart., of 
 Walton Hall, had, in conjunction with Wm. Farrington, Esq., of Worden, 
 been employed during the months of October and November in getting 
 their levies in fighting order for the King. Sir Gilbert's position at 
 Hoghton or Walton was a standing menace to the town of Blackburn. 
 The inhabitants of that town appear to have been from the beginning 
 ardent Parliamentarians, as were several of the neighbouring gentry. 
 But the place was small ; dominated on every hand by the hills sur- 
 rounding it ; and destitute of any kind of defences. It seemed to offer 
 an easy prey to an enterprising enemy. When, some time before, the 
 Roman Catholics in the Hundred had been disarmed by order of Par- 
 liament, the arms secured had been deposited at Whalley. Sir Gilbert 
 Hoghton determined to seize those arms, and to carry them to Black- 
 burn, making the latter town a Royalist advanced post. The first incur- 
 sion of Sir Gilbert into Blackburn Parish was with this object. It was 
 made towards the end of November ; the author of the Discourse of 
 the Warr fixes it about the middle of October, but it could not have 
 been so soon as that, for Messrs. Shuttleworth and Starkie had no men 
 in arms at that date, and could not have attacked Sir Gilbert Hoghton 
 as they did. Other narratives give the 27th of November as the 
 date of the first collision in the neighbourhood of Blackburn. An 
 undated letter from the Bailiff of Clitheroe' and others to Richard 
 Shuttleworth indicates the belief at Clitheroe to have been, on Sir 
 Gilbert Hoghton's appearance in the Ribble valley, that he meant to 
 capture Clitheroe Castle, the fact being that he had no such present 
 design, the deposit of arms at Whalley being the real object of his raid. 
 
 The stroke fell upon the Blackburn Roundheads at last, and was 
 replied to by an effectual counter-stroke. Sir Gilbert advanced at the 
 head of his troopers to Whalley, and seized the arms there ; then retired 
 upon Blackburn, which he had simultaneously occupied by a body 
 of foot. The affair and its ending a Puritan chronicler records as 
 follows : — 
 
 The Armes within Blackburn Hundred being laid up at Whalley, Sir Gilbert 
 Houghton, one of the Deputy Lieutenants for the Earle of Darbie afforesaid, no 
 doubt but by and with the counsell and direction of the Earle and to make their Partie 
 stronge, called up the Trained Band of Amounderness Hundred, and marched to 
 Whalley to fetch the said Armes from thence, and the 16 or 17 of October, 1642, 
 carried them to Blackburne and quartered there that night. And that same day ould 
 Colonell Shuttleworth (having received intelligence of his designe) had a Randavous 
 of the Clubmen of Blackburne Hundred upon Houley [Healey, near Burnley ?] 
 More, wher they held a consultation what course to take about those Armes, the 
 general vote being not to let them goe out of their Hundred, but eyther Reskowe 
 I Lane, Lieut, v. ii, pp. 3o5-6. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— BATTLE AT BLACKBURlsr. 
 
 US 
 
 them or adventure themselves to the hazard. Soe that at night, hearing that Sir 
 Gilbert with his Companie and the Armes had taken up their quarters at Blackburne, 
 they silently fell down upon Blackburne beating up their quarters, tooke many of Sir 
 Gilbert's soldiers prisoners, [and] seased upon the Armes. Sir Gilbert himselfe fled 
 out of the Towne, and the prisoners that were taken being brought before Colonell 
 Shuttleworth he released them, counselling them to be honest men and keep at home.'- 
 
 Other accounts, which may be compared with the above, of this 
 victory of the East Lancashire Roundheads over Sir Gilbert Hoghton's 
 array, are found in two curious Puritan records of the period. One, 
 the quaint, pietistic anonymous tract entitled Lancashire's Valley of Achor 
 is England' s Doore of Hope, ^\io\\^&A in London in 1643; the other, 
 a shorter tract, printed in London, Dec. 9th, 1642, purporting to be 
 A True and full Relation of the Troubles in Lancashire in the form of a 
 letter from one Thomas Jesland, of Atherton, a Lancashire Puritan, to 
 a " Reverend Divine in London." An engagement between Colonel 
 Shuttleworth's force and that of Sir Gilbert Hoghton is stated in one of 
 these accounts to have been fought on " Hinfield Moor," which I take 
 to mean Enfield Moor, a low hill to the north of Accrington, about mid- 
 way between Blackburn and Burnley, — a central eminence commanding 
 the valleys of the Calder and Hindbum. The other, and probably the 
 accurate version, agreeing as it does with that above quoted, is that 
 " Hinfield Moor" was but the place of the Parliamentarian rendezvous 
 and consultation, and Blackburn, the town occupied by the Royalist 
 leader, the scene of the conflict and defeat of Sir Gilbert's troops. The 
 passage from Lancashire' s Valley of Achor is given below : — 
 
 Blackburne Hundred. — When God had thus gloriously appeared in Salford 
 Hundred, the first and fonvardest Hundred, He went and displayed His banner in 
 Blackburne Hundred, that only other Hundred in this Countie that appeared in the 
 same cause. About November the seven and twentieth, the [Royalist] Array, with 
 some three hundred armed men (as is conceived) besides Clubmen, possessed them- 
 selves of Blackburne, whence they sent a party to disarme Whalley. This alarm 
 awaked the Militia to awake the people by precept. They being awaked, were soone 
 up and marched towards Blackburne about two hundred armed men, some companies 
 of Clubmen, and some Horsemen, but without arms. The want of skill in souldiers, 
 and skilful! captains to supply that want, caused a consultation on Hinfield-Moore, 
 which received Determination (not from the Discoverie of hidden skill but from the 
 resolute will of these stirring .Souldiers) to dispossesse those forcible Tenants. They 
 speed on with shouting, dividing themselves unto the conduct of two chosen captains, 
 and come within sight of the Town [of Blackburn] about eight of the clock, when the 
 Queen of the night, that had shined upon their March, did discover them to their 
 enemies, who soon let flie from the Steeple [of the Parish Church] ; which ordered 
 one Captain and his companie to the South side of the Town, and the other Captain 
 with his companie to the East end of the Town, where they found (though not so high, 
 yet) as hot entertainment out of the Town for the space of two houres. But God that 
 I Discourse of Warr, pp. 11-12. 
 
Il6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 varieth His providence according to His people's occasions, and had maintained the 
 passages of Manchester (that a rightful people should not be wronged), did now open 
 a difficult passage to let in his friends, from whom the Array [Royalists] hasted, having 
 disburdened themselves of their arms, and restored what they took from Whalley. 
 Now had God added an experience of favourable providence, in a new kinde, 
 formerly in a way of defence, now in a way of offence, declaring His all-sufficiencie 
 and compleatnesse for Warre, to those two united Hundreds, giving a Shield to 
 Manchester and a Sword to Blackbume.i 
 
 The narrative of Thomas Jesland, written four or five days after the 
 event, and from hearsay probably, is less correct in particulars. He 
 magnifies the Roundhead force to 8,000 men (a highly improbable 
 number), and places the action between the hostile forces at " Hinfield 
 Moor" instead of at Blackburn. Having described the simultaneous 
 defeat of the Earl of Derby at Chowbent, in which he was an actor, 
 Thomas Jesland writes : — 
 
 Now the men of Blackburn, Paduam, Bumeley, Clitheroe, and Colne, with those 
 sturdy churles in the two forests of Pendle and Rossendale, have raised their spirits, 
 and have resolved to fight it out rather than their Beefe and fatt Bacon shall be taken 
 from them. For the last Weeke Sir Gilbert Houghton set his Beacon on fire, which 
 stood upon the top of Houghton Tower and was the signal to the countrey for the 
 Papists and Malignants to arise in the Field [Fylde], and in Lealand Hundred ; where- 
 upon great multitudes accordingly resorted to him to Preston in Andemesse, and ran 
 to Blackbume, and so through the countrey, disarming jll and pillaging some ; which 
 Master Shuttleworth, a Parliament man, and Master Starkie hearing off, presently had 
 gotten together out of the places formerly mentioned about 8,000 men, met with Sir 
 Gilbert and his Catholique Malignants at Hinfield Moor, put them to flight, tdbke 
 away many of their armes, and pursued Sir Gilbert so hotly, that he quit his Horse, 
 leaped into a field, and by the comming on of the night escaped through fur [furzei 
 bushes and by-wayes to Preston, and there makes great defence by chaining up the 
 Ribble Bridge and getting what force he can into the Towne for its securitie, out of 
 which the countrie swears they will have him, by God's help, with all his adherents 
 either quicke or dead ; so that by the next post I hope I shall certifie of some good 
 posture that the countrey will be in. O that Parliament had but sent downe their 
 1,000 Dragoniers into the countrey — wee would not have left a Masse-monger nor 
 Malignant of note but we would have provided a lodging for him." 
 
 The motive-cause of the popular rising in these districts, to repel 
 the Royalist invasion, as assigned by this narrator, was not perhaps of 
 the most exalted kind. It was not so much that the peasantry of these 
 parts hated the absolutist proceedings of the monarch, or fell in with the 
 puritanic ideas of religion and morals favoured by the King's adver- 
 saries ; — it was simply to save " their Beefe and fatt Bacon" from the 
 clutches of an enemy credited, and not without reason, with the inten- 
 tion to appropriate them to his own use. But unromantic as the fact 
 may be, the phase the spirit of patriotism assumes in the minds of the 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, pp. 123-4. 2 lb. pp. 65-6. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— PARLIAMENTARIAN LEADERS. 1 1 7 
 
 majority of any race, in any age or country, is that of a sense of the 
 necessity to rise in arms in defence of home and family, crops and 
 property. The " sturdy churles" of Pendle and Rossendale Forests, in 
 mustering for the defence of their herds of cattle and swine, obeyed that 
 instinct of self-preservation which possesses all mankind, and is the most 
 powerful actuating motive of human conduct. These mountain boors 
 and forest churls of Blackburnshire were possibly not more selfish in the 
 impulses that moved them to fight than were the more distinguished 
 actors in the Civil War, from the King downward. 
 
 The chief supporters of the Parliament in Blackburn Hundred, the 
 families of Shuttleworth, Starkie, Braddyll, and Assheton, manifested 
 their devotion to the cause, not only by the active services of the heads 
 of those families, rendered during the course of the conflict both in the 
 field and in council, but likewise in the acceptance of military duty by 
 the sons of each of these leading Parliamentarians. Old Colonel 
 Shuttleworth sent no fewer than four of his sons to fight against kingly 
 usurpation. The eldest of these was Richard Shuttleworth, Esq., M.P. 
 for Clitheroe, who was a colonel in the Roundhead army, and, after a 
 successful service, died before the contest was quite concluded, in 1648. 
 Two other sons of the Gawthorpe veteran, Nicholas and Ughtred, 
 entered the army as captains, and became colonels both ; while William 
 Shuttleworth, the fourth son, was made a captain at the outset of the 
 war, and was slain at Lancaster early in the first campaign. Sir Ralph 
 Assheton, Bart., who died in 1644, gave an energetic soldier to the 
 conflict in the person of his son and successor, Ralph Assheton, Esq., 
 M.P. for Clitheroe. John Starkie, Esq., of Huntroyd, also lent his 
 heir, Nicholas Starkie, to the service of Parliament, and knew a father's 
 grief on the death of his son, by a disastrous accident, within a few 
 weeks of his commission to a captaincy. John Braddyll, Esq., of 
 Portfield, experienced a like bereavement in the loss in battle of his 
 son, Captain John Braddyll, who was mortally hurt at Thornton in 
 Craven, in July, 1643. There is a record of the appointment of these 
 gallant sons of gallant sires to commissions, in the following passage 
 from the Discourse of the Warr : — " After that the Armes were 
 recovered from Sir Gilbert Hoghton, Colonel Shuttleworth and Colonel 
 Starkie were very diligent and industrious to put their Hundred of 
 Blackburn in a position of warr, and therefore gave commissions to 
 several Captaines to raise Companies. Four of Colonel Shuttleworth's 
 sons were made Captaines, viz., Nicholas, William, Edward [?], and Hute 
 [Ughtred]. Colonell Starkie's sonne and heyre, and Mr. Bradell's sonne 
 and heyre, they were the first Captaines in the Parliament service in 
 that Hundred, and they raised companies which proved stout men, and 
 
Il8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 were of good repute for hardness and manhood everywhere they 
 came."^ 
 
 This was done about the beginning of December, 1642 ; and on 
 the loth of the same month another Royahst conclave took place at 
 Preston. The meeting was convened by James Earl of Derby, " Lord 
 General of the County," and Sir John Girlington, Knt., High Sheriff. 
 It was there resolved " that the soome of 8000 and 700 pounds shall 
 be ratably assessed upon the several Hundreds of the County;" and the 
 money thus obtained was to be " employed for the pay of 2000 foot and 
 400 horse, and also for provision of a Magazine and ammunition for the 
 said County."'^ Collectors of the Subsidy were appointed for the several 
 Hundreds, in which capacity were nominated for Blackburn Hundred, 
 Sir John Talbot, Knight, of Salesbury, and Radcliffe Assheton, Esq., of 
 Cuerdale. 
 
 On Christmas Eve> (December 24th), 1642, the town of Blackburn 
 was subjected to another hostile demonstration by the Royalists of Sir 
 Gilbert Hoghton. Since the first encounter there, four weeks before, 
 the few hundreds of Parliamentarian Militia left as a garrison in Black- 
 bum had made an effort to strengthen their position by casting up some 
 fortifications about the town— nothing more, probably, than rough earth- 
 works to guard the four entrances to the town ; at the top of Northgate, 
 on the Ribchester road ; beyond Astley-gate, perhaps at the bridge near 
 Whalley Banks, on the road to Preston ; about Darwen-street bridge, on 
 the road to Darwen ; and somewhere between Salford Bridge and 
 Bottomgate, to protect the entrance from Burnley side, which, however, 
 was in little danger from Royalist partisans. It was from the Revidge 
 side that Blackburn was threatened on that Christmas Eve. Sir Gilbert 
 Hoghton and his men got up to the vicinity of the town by the old lane 
 from Mellor and Samlesbury. Two interesting narrations of this so- 
 called Siege of Blackburn, which was really a very desultory and abortive 
 affair, remain. The first is that of the well-informed author of the 
 Discourse of the Warr in Lancashire, who writes somewhat circumstan- 
 tially. It is well to record the history of these times, as far as possible, 
 in the words of the chroniclers of the period, considering that the lan- 
 guage of these useful contemporary documents conveys a more vivid 
 picture of events than any modernised version of the facts could do. 
 The authority mentioned narrates the incidents of this attack on Black- 
 bum in the following passage : — 
 
 The Hundred of Blackbume being put into a Warlike posture, many Companies 
 of Resolut Souldiers being raised within it. The Colonells Oulde Shuttleworth and 
 Starkie, having a speciall eye to Blackbume towne, being soe neare unto Preston, as 
 I Disc, of Warr, p. 15. 2 C. W. Tracts, p. 67. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— SIR GILBERT HOGHTON'S RAID. 
 
 119 
 
 alsoe fearing inroads into the Hundred by the enimie besydes Plundering, laid some 
 Companies of Souldiers in it and caused some fortifications to be maid about it, in 
 some measure to secure it, and so till about Christmas 1642 it continued in a reasonable 
 quiet condition. But Blackbume lying within three miles of Hoghton Tower, the 
 principal house of Sir Gilbert Hoghton, a Deputie Lieutenant for the Earle of Darbie 
 and a Commissioner of Aray, He tooke it into consideration how unsafe it was for him 
 in respect of his person and estait about Hoghton, but especiallie how dishonourable it 
 might prove to his reputation with the King, if he suffered a Garrison of the Enimie 
 soe neare unto his howse and used no means to dissipate it, was moved about the latter 
 end of December 1642 to thinke upon the reducing that Garrison to the King's part. 
 And thereuppon resolved to set upon it, having the assistance of most of the Popish 
 affected Gentlemen in Amoundemess Hundred, with there Tenants in Armes, the 
 Trained Bands, and the Clubmen of the Field [Fylde] and other parts. He marched 
 forward from Preston the twenty fourth daye of December, being Christmas time, up 
 the way to Mellor loan head, soe upon the North syd of Blackbume ; set downe most 
 of his forces about and neare the house of . . a husbandman by a bye-name called 
 Duke of the Banke, and having a small piece of Ordnance plaid most of that night 
 and the day following against the Towne, the greatest execution that it did, as was 
 hard of, a bullet shot out of it entered into a house upon the South side of the Church 
 Yard and burst out the bottom of a fryen pan. There was noe nearer assault to the 
 Towne than a quarter of a Mile. They wear afraid of comming near one another. 
 The Souldiers within the Towne went out of it and dischardged there muskets towards 
 them at randome, for any thing was knowne there was not a man sleyne or hurt. Upon 
 Christmas Day at night Sir Gilbert withdrew his forces being weary of his Siege, and 
 his Soldiers and Clubmen were glad of it that they might eate their Christmas pyes at 
 home. But they did the good man about whose house they lay much harme not only 
 in eating his provision of Meale and Beefe and the like, as also in buminge his barne 
 doors with his Carts, wheels, and other husbandry stuff. This was all the expedition 
 of Sir Gilbert Hoghton against Blackbume. ^ 
 
 According to this account, the point at which the Royalist troops 
 were posted in this approach to Blackburn was the high bank just above 
 the junction of the modem Branch Road with Preston New Road. It 
 was close by the house of a farmer nicknamed "Duke of the Banke." 
 Bank-house, at Higher Bank, an old gabled house, and the only tene- 
 ment of any antiquity among the many villas that now cover the Bank, 
 was probably the place plundered and ransacked by Sir Gilbert 
 Hoghton's militia. The by-name of " Duke " borne by the occupant 
 suggests the name Duke's Brow, given to the old road leading up 
 to Higher Bank, and prolonged on the top of the hill in the disused 
 lane that in those days was the only road to Mellor. The other account 
 of this Royalist reconnaissance is in the tract, Lancashire's Valley of 
 Achor. The extract is subjoined : — 
 
 The like Christmas kept our forces at Blackburn ; the Militia having in the Town 
 four hundred armed men, and some clubmen, the array came against the Towne on 
 Christmas Eve with five thousand, and three field pieces ; very early in the morning, 
 I Discourse of Warr, pp. 21-2. 
 
I20 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 they shot off their pieces, with shouting, saying, "Take heed, you Roundheads." 
 God took heed for us, for we were not afraid of the noise, nor hurt once by the eight- 
 pound Bullet, though directed against us eight and twenty times. We called on them 
 (in vain) to come within musquet shot. About twelve a Clock they called a Parley ; 
 the pretence was if we would yielde the Towne and the Arms, and submit to tbe 
 Earl of Darby, they would mediate with him to supplicate the King to grant a 
 pardon. The intent was to carry their god (the greatest Field Piece), nearer the 
 Towne, he was too farre off to doe any harme. We (Scot-like) knew not the meaning 
 of a Pardon, professing ourselves to be for King and Parliament. When we would no 
 Pardon, they laboured to punish us, having set np their idoU nearer, by the counsell 
 (as they report) of four or five Priests and Jesuits, and other great Papists whom they 
 had at hand in a tythe Bam ; Till sun-setting both sides plaid fiercely, but then 
 taking advantage of the darkness, they fled in fear, and overrun their great pieces, 
 trusting more to the night for protection than to their own courage or strength. ' 
 
 Thus beleaguered and bombarded, after a desultory fashion, the 
 to\vnsfolk of Blackburn kept their Christmas in 1642, for the attack, 
 according to both accounts, took place on Christmas Day, Sir Gilbert 
 Hoghton having appeared before the town on Christmas Eve, and 
 planted his men and ordnance on the rising ground to the north-west 
 of the town, ready for the morrow's attack. At the period of the Civil 
 War, Blackburn was but a small to^vn, though it had then a weekly 
 market of some importance. Its population could not have been more 
 than two or three thousand souls. Its four or five hundred tenements 
 were clustered about the north, north-east, west, and south-west precincts 
 of the Parish Church, along the streets called Church-street, Salford, 
 Darwen-street, Astley-gate, and Northgate. No published map of Black- 
 bum older than the century is known, and any description of its street- 
 plan two centuries back must be largely conjectural, and based upon 
 knowledge of the ground on which the old tenements stood, most of 
 which have been demolished. In 1660 a great proportion of the houses 
 in the town were detached, standing in the midst of their own garden 
 plots. The six or seven hundred Roundhead soldiers garrisoning the 
 town when Sir Gilbert Hoghton came against it at Christmas, 1642, 
 would appropriate all the lodging accommodation of the town, and be 
 quartered in nearly every house. 
 
 It may be mentioned, as illustrative of the dislocating effects of the 
 political agitations which disturbed men's minds during the continuance 
 of this unhappy conflict, that the Blackburn Parish Registers exhibit a 
 gap for the twelve years between the latter part of 1637 and the begin- 
 ning of 1650. During that terrible interval, the people thought only of 
 war and its dread issues : parochial clergy and their clerks absconded or 
 forgot their functions ; children were bom and people died and were 
 
 I C. W, Tracts, p. 126. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— SIR JOHN TALBOT'S PLOT. 121 
 
 buried without a record ; and the whole social economy underwent utter 
 disarrangement. 
 
 No fresh descent was made upon Blackburn by the Royalists after 
 this repulse for three months, when the Earl of Derby came with his 
 troops and temporarily occupied the town. But throughout the winter 
 the people and garrison were excited by frequent alarms. An authority 
 .says : — " There was this winter also divers Allarums given to Blackburn 
 by the King's partie, but with no effecte."^ Episodes of conflict occur- 
 red, however, in the parish. At Salesbury Hall, within six miles of the 
 town, Sir John Talbot hatched a plot in the Royalist interest which 
 ended in his own discomfiture. Affecting neutrality, the Salesbury 
 Knight invited a party of leading Parliament men to his house, with the 
 design of treacherously making them his prisoners. One of the news- 
 sheets of the period, published on January 12th, 1642-3, relates this 
 story : — 
 
 It being also informed from Manchester that there was one Sir John Talbot, a 
 great Papist, but one that hath all this while stood as a neuter betwixt the King and 
 Parliament, who, living within two or three miles of Manchester [Blackburn ?], sent 
 thither in a very friendly manner, and invited some of the chiefe of them there to come 
 to his house, promisinge them very kinde usage and some other courtesies by way of 
 complyance with them. But they of Manchester, placing little confidence in his word, 
 sent out a small party of horse to the said Sir John Talbot's to discover the prepara- 
 tions he had made for their entertainment, and whether the same was not a treacherous 
 plot to betray them into his hands, as indeed upon enquiry it proved to be ; for the 
 said Sir John had secretly provided in his stables above an hundred horses fitted with 
 all accoutrements, theire riders being near at hand upon occasion to set upon the 
 Manchester men. But this being discovered, the Manchester forces being too few to 
 deal with them, retreated back to the towne [Blackburn ?], and about three hundred of 
 them went presently to the said Sir John Talbot's (who was then with all his horse 
 upon flight), pursued them and killed divers of them, took about twenty of his horses, 
 drove others into a river [the Ribble], where the riders were drowned, and their horses 
 taken, and have seized upon the said Sir John's House, where they found good 
 pillage. 1 
 
 This was the first, and, so far as appears, the last attempt the Knight 
 of Salesbury made to distinguish himself in the Royal service. He 
 became, after this rash design, a marked man by the Parliament, and it 
 was probably years after before he ventured to return to his seat on the 
 Ribble. In the subsequent campaigns of the war Sir John Talbot does 
 not occur in any military capacity. His estates were sequestered so soon 
 as the Roundhead party had acquired the ascendancy. The sequestration 
 was taken off on the payment, in 1647, of a very heavy fine. Sir John 
 was afterwards pardoned, and resumed possession of his lands at Sales- 
 bury. He died in December, 1659, a few months before the Stuart 
 Restoration. 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, p. 22. 2 C. W. Tracts, pp. 70-1. 
 
 16 
 
122 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 A letter, parts of which are cited below, was written by the local 
 Puritan commanders to Manchester soon after the attacks upon Black- 
 burn. The copy of the letter is unsigned and without date ; — > 
 
 Gents, — Wee had began to have given you a perticular of the passages att Blake- 
 born, but were presently taken off it by new alarums, and since could never have 
 opportunity to impart it, by reason of continued feares and business. Wee have now 
 sent you here incloased a warrant from the Sheriffe, under the seale of his office, 
 directed into this Hundred, and copie of his warrant into Loinsdale hundred, wherein 
 we hope you will take note of the difference of his expressions, and whereby wee doubt 
 not but you will evidently discerne the danger threatened against us, or you, or both. 
 . . It is evident by these warrants what their [the Royalists'] great preparations are, 
 and it is noe less probable that whenn they have their whole force assembled att Pres- 
 ton, their intentions are presently to march forward against this hundred. . . Howe 
 wee shall bee able to withstand them the Lord knoweth, beeing in want of armes and 
 having noe horse att all. And in this exigence, if you could bee upon the confynes of 
 your [Salford] Hundred, with what strength of horse and foote you can conveniently 
 spare, to bee ready to joyne, and assist us if occasion be, it might (through God's 
 blessing) prove advantageous to us, to you and to the cause. Wee give you hearty 
 thanks for the powder and match you sent us, and shall bee answerable to you in 
 payeing for it, and if nowe you could spare us twice as much as you did before, it were 
 a great ffavour, and for that purpose wee hope to send horses to you for it. ' 
 
 Encouraged by the success of their defensive disposition at Black- 
 bum, the Parliamentarian Committee for Salford and Blackburn Hundreds 
 decided to assume the aggressive, in the beginning of the next year 
 (1642-3). The arrival in Lancashire of an experienced officer of the 
 Parliament, Sir John Seaton, with his regiment of one thousand " dra- 
 goniers," appeared to warrant this bold resolution. Sir John Seaton 
 was a Scotsman by birth, who had served a long probation in the military 
 science in continental wars. When his regiment was added to the home 
 musters of militia and clubmen, a force of some 3000 men was available 
 for an offensive movement. The town of Preston was the first object 
 that invited the attention of the Roundheads. Preston had been chosen 
 as the Royalist rallying-point ; being by its situation the natural centre 
 of West Lancashire, and the majority of the inhabitants being warmly 
 attached to the King's interest. It was, moreover, a partially-fortified 
 place, and one that could be made strong by moderate additions to its 
 defences. The Royalist gentry who had been obliged to flee out of 
 Blackburn Hundred took refuge there. Sir Gilbert Hoghton, with the 
 levies of Leyland and Amoundemess, had his head-quarters there, and 
 so long as it remained in Royalist hands, Preston was a convenient base 
 for hostile operations against Blackburn and Ribblesdale. It was, there- 
 fore, imperative on the Roundhead leaders to attempt the capture 
 of Preston, and they did not shrink from the duty so soon as the 
 
 I Lane. Lieut., v. ii, pp. 312-14. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— CAPTURE OF PRESTON. 123 
 
 ■ military skill and force at their command seemed to promise a favourable 
 issue. 
 
 Several narratives remain of this first assault upon Preston. One 
 chronicler says that " Blackburn Hundred being well provided of Sol- 
 diers," having " many companies in it of resolute men, and Colonells 
 Shuttleworth and Starkie having received intelligence from divers the 
 friends to the Parliament in Preston of the state of the town and how 
 weakly it was kepte, and withall desired by them to help to free them of 
 that bondage they were under, — it was resolved and agreed that they 
 would try what they could doe to reduce Preston with all Amoundemess 
 Hundred to the obedience of the Parliament (but it was exceeding close 
 raised)." In pursuance of this intent, " in February their forces were 
 gathered up towards Blackbume ; together with some of Amounder- 
 ness Hundred, who were fled out of the country for fear of the King's 
 party ;" and Sir John Seaton and Major Sparrow came up from Manches- 
 ter, " to assist and give them theire counsell."^ Monday, February 6th, 
 1642-3, Sir John Seaton and his men marched in the direction of Black- 
 bum. He was "attended with Serjeant Major Birch ; with them three 
 or four companies, and as many from Boulton ; all these came to Black- 
 bum on Tuesday night [Feb. 7th] ; thence marched along with them 
 four or five foot companies of Blackburn Hundred, under the command 
 of Captain Nowell of [Little] Mearley, and other Captains, towards 
 Preston, together with two thousand clubmen, upon Wednesday night, 
 and betimes the next rooming." It was thus on Wednesday night, 
 Feb. 8th, that the march of the attacking force from Blackbum to Pres- 
 ton was made, and early on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 9th, that 
 Preston was assaulted and stormed. 
 
 The Walton suburb and Ribble Bridge were occupied at daybreak 
 by the Roundheads, and after two hours' severe fighting, Preston was in 
 the hands of Sir John Seaton.^ In the assault were killed, on the 
 Royalist side, Adam Morte, Mayor of Preston ; Captain Radcliff Hogh- 
 ton, younger brother of Sir Gilbert, and other officers. The prisoners 
 taken included Captain Farrington of Worden ; George Talbot, son of 
 Sir John of Salesbury ; Captain Anderton of Clayton ; two or three 
 cadets of the house of Hoghton ; Richard Fleetwood, Ralph Sharrock of 
 Walton, and many more. Three ladies of position, Lady Hoghton, Lady 
 Girlington, and Mrs. Townley, fell into the hands of the Parliamentarian 
 commander. ChaHes Townley escaped with difficulty. Sir Gilbert 
 Hoghton made good his escape to Wigan, where he was joined by the 
 Earl of Derby, and whence, some days after, he issued to make an 
 attack upon Bolton, which was repulsed. 
 
 Di«e. of Warr, p. 23. z C. W. Tracts, pp. 71-5 ; and p. 127. 
 
124 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The week succeeding the capture of Preston was spent, by Sir John 
 Seaton and his East Lancashire auxiliaries, in the construction of earth- 
 works and other additions to the former fortifications of the town. Hav- 
 ing done this, under the direction of Rosworm the engineer, the Parlia- 
 mentary general began to make excursions into the surrounding country. 
 On the 14th of February, 1642-3, a detachment of Blackbumshire men 
 was sent to make a demonstration at Hoghton Tower, it having been 
 ascertained that Sir Gilbert Hoghton had left the Tower very weakly 
 garrisoned. On the appearance of three companies of Roundheads 
 before the mansion it was at once surrendered. But the exultation of 
 the Parliament men over their easy conquest of a place of so much 
 natural and artificial strength was quickly turned into grief by a sad 
 catastrophe that occurred, by which many lives were sacrificed. An 
 explosion of gunpowder destroyed a portion of the Tower within a few 
 minutes of its surrender, and buried a company of soldiers in the ruins. 
 The details of this misfortune are given in documents of the period. 
 The writer of the Discourse of the Warr has this reference : — " They 
 [the commanders for the Parliament] also sent some companies of Soul- 
 diers to Hoghton Tower, who seased upon it and kepte garrison there. 
 But a fearfull accident befell them to their losse and greef, for through 
 want of heedfulnesse some Gunpowder was set on fyer, which blew upp 
 and threw downe some part of the House, and slew divers Souldiers, 
 amongst whome Captaine [Nicholas] Starkie the Colonell son was one, 
 which was greate sorrowe to his father."^ A tract dated February 14th, 
 1642-3, afibrds minuter information of the circumstances of this calamity. 
 It seems that young Captain Starkie, being a forward soldier, was the 
 first to enter the Tower with his company, and the explosion occurring 
 while they were housed in the upper apartments, killed the whole num- 
 ber of them almost instantaneously. 
 
 My intent is to proceed to relate of what hath happened since [the Preston affair] 
 in our parts, viz., That upon Tuesday, being the 14th of this instant, there was sent 
 from Preston three captains and their companies, to the number of about three hun- 
 dred, the most of Blackebome men, to take a castle called Houghton Tower (belonging 
 to Sir Gilbert Houghton) which lies between Preston and Blackebome, and was forti- 
 fied with three great pieces of ordnance, and some say with betwixt thirty and forty 
 musqueteers, and some say more. Our men approaching near the said Tower, first 
 shot against it to summon it, whereupon they in the Tower desired half an houres 
 time to consider what they should doe, which was granted to them accordingly, after 
 which the result of the parley was that they would deliver up the Tower to our men 
 upon quarter, which was by our men granted unto them as they desired. Whereupon 
 our men (thinking all had beene as was pretended by them) entered the Tower ; and 
 Captain Starkey of Blackebome [Huntroyd], a worthy gentleman, and his company, 
 was the first that entered into the said Tower, and in the same found good store of 
 I Discourse of Warr, p. 24. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— TRAGEDY AT HOGHTON TOWER. 125 
 
 armes and powder strewed upon the stairs ; wherefore he with his company going into 
 the upper rooms of the said Tower to search for more, were most treacherously and 
 perfidiously blown up by two of them to whom they had before given quarter, who 
 had a traine of powder laid, and when Captain Starkey and his men, to the number of 
 above one hundred, were above in the House, gave fire to the said traine, and blew 
 both him and all his men, with the top of the House up, threescore whereof were 
 afterwards found, some without armes and some without legges, and others fearfull 
 spectacles to looke upon. Six of them whom they had given quarter unto they had in 
 hold, the rest got away before ; but our men have the Tower and three pieces of great 
 ordnance that were cast besides divers armes. And thus ended this lamentable 
 Tragedy of these perfidious creatures whose religion will allow them to make no eon- 
 science of dealing treacherously with Protestants, as also to blow up whole states and 
 kingdoms at one blast, &c.^ 
 
 The above narrator assumes that the fatal explosion at Hoghton 
 Tower was an act of treachery. But proof is lacking that Sir Gilbert 
 Hoghton's men were guilty of the dishonourable conduct of killing by a 
 premeditated piece of unsoldierly revenge the enemies to whom they 
 had capitulated, and from whom they had obtained quarter. Probably 
 the accident arose out of the recklessness of the Roundhead soldiers 
 themselves in lighting their pipes in a place where gunpowder was lying 
 strewn about the floors and stairs. Indeed, the author of the tra.ct Lan- 
 cashire's Valley of Achor dismisses the suspicion that naturally arose on 
 the moment in Puritan circles that the Hoghton disaster was the result 
 of a plot to massacre their foes, laid by the " Papists," and confesses 
 with grief that it was a consequence of the baneful habit of tobacco- 
 smoking practiced among the Parliamentarian soldiery. His allusion 
 to the Hoghton Tower explosion is subjoined :■ — 
 
 Haughton Tower. — It was not long after that this glorious victory [at Pres- 
 ton] was clouded by a dark and terrible blow at Haughton Tower, where the miscar- 
 riages of great and small in the taking of Preston did us more mischief than all our 
 enemies from the entrance of our hostility to that time ; as sometimes Israel's sin 
 through Balaam's counsel prevailed to punish them more than Warre or Witchcraft. 
 Our men were going down to take the Tower, and finding it prepared for entrance, 
 possessed themselves of it, till being burdened with the weight of their swearing, 
 drunkennesse, plundering, and wilfuU waste at Preston, it dispossessed them by the 
 help of Powder to which their disorders laid a Train fired by their neglected Matches, 
 or by that great Soldier's IdoU, Tobacco. However it was, sure it is, that the place 
 so firmly united chose rather to be torn in pieces than to harbour the possessours. O 
 that this thundering alarm might ever sound in the eares of our Swearing, Cursing, 
 Drunken, Tobacco-abusing Commanders and Souldiers, unto unfaigned Repentance ! 
 For do they think that those upon whom the Tower- fell and slew them, were sinners 
 above the rest of the Army? Let Christ that asked a like question, Luke viii., 4-5, 
 give the answer : — " I tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," 
 &c. Though our Sinnes thus clouded our Sun in the cleare daye, yet was not the 
 praise of God's glorious goodnesse and power to be darkened." 
 I C. W. Tracts, pp. 79-80. 2 lb. pp. 127-8. 
 
126 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The portion of Hoghton Tower destroyed by the accident cannot 
 now be traced in the appearance of the fabric ; but Kuerden, who lived 
 hard by, and must have known the nature of the damage, states that it 
 was " a very tall tower or gate-house" between the inner square court 
 and the second or outward, that was blown up. In the original design 
 of the buildings, a tower of greater altitude than the existing outer gate- 
 way tower surmounted the gateway which gives admission into the inner 
 court. Th^ gateway itself remained uninjured, but the upper storeys 
 were shattered and the roof blown away. In the restoration this central 
 tower was dispensed with, and the structure of the block reduced to the 
 same elevation as those on the other sides of the upper quadrangle. 
 
 The Parliamentarian movements in the latter end of this month 
 (February) and the beginning of March embraced the occupation, with- 
 out opposition, of Lancaster Castle and town, by several companies 
 under the command of Captain William Shuttleworth, a cadet of the 
 Gawthorpe family ; and a reconnaissance from Preston against some 
 Royalists collected in the Fylde, conducted by Colonel Shuttleworth, 
 who considerately afforded to the Royalist gentry the chance of getting 
 safely away. 
 
 Thus far, the first campaign of the East Lancashire forces in 
 Amounderness and Lonsdale had been successful. But the licentious, 
 plundering disposition of the Parliamentarian levies had been painfully 
 manifest after the capture of Preston. These rough fellows out of Pendle 
 Forest and Rossendale, so soon as the exigence of battle ceased to 
 inspire their animal courage and force, betrayed a total absence of dis- 
 cipline, and, on the attempt of their commander. Sir John Seaton, to 
 enforce military rules, they broke out into open mutiny, and so menaced 
 his life that he was obliged to fly, first to Lancaster, then to Manchester.' 
 By this untoward procedure, the way was paved for ignominious defeat, 
 and the loss of all that had been gained by good generalship and sturdy 
 fighting. While the Roundheads were misbehaving themselves at Pres- 
 ton, the Earl of Derby crossed the Ribble with all the force he could 
 raise, and marched to Lancaster, which was reached on Friday, March 
 1 7th. In his attack upon the town, which was instantly made. Captain 
 William Shuttleworth, the brave son of Colonel Richard Shuttleworth, 
 of Gawthorpe, met his death. " Upon Friday, they [the Royalists] 
 entered the Towne of Lancaster several waies, their being very few sol- 
 diers, if any, to resist them save those that kept the Castle. Captaine 
 William Shuttleworth and some souldiers with him being not far from 
 the Castle, and not being wary of their entrance at soe several waies, 
 was sodenly surprised and slayne before he could recover it.'"* But the 
 
 I Seton's Letter in Chetham Miscellanies, v. iii, 2 Disc, of Warr, pp. 28-9. 
 
THE CIVIL WAR— LORD DERBY'S SUCCESSES. 127 
 
 small garrison of Parliamentarians held the Castle. A Royalist account 
 of the attack states that Lord Derby had under his command about 
 4,600 men ; that the Roundhead defenders numbered 600 musketeers ; 
 that the assailants, " after two hours' hot service, forced the mote, and 
 drave the Rebels into the Castle ;" and that Captain Shuttleworth, and 
 many of the townsmen, " were killed at the Castle Gate, the Maior and 
 divers of the townsmen, such as were most seditious, being taken 
 prisoners."^ 
 
 Tidings having reached the Manchester Committee that the Earl of 
 Derby was attacking Lancaster, Colonel Assheton of Middleton marched 
 from Manchester, on March i8th, with 2,000 men for its relief The 
 Colonel reached Preston the same day, and the bulk of the garrison 
 there was joined to his force. The Earl of Derby quickly heard of the 
 purpose of Colonel Assheton, and being unwilling to meet him in the 
 field, stood until he knew the road the enemy was taking ; then with- 
 drew from Lancaster, and marched on Preston by another route, design- 
 ing to capture the latter town while the Roundheads were away upon a 
 bootless errand on the Lune. This astute project was realised ; and 
 the night of Monday, March 20th, found the Earl's little army on Ful- 
 wood Moor, ready to surprise Preston before daylight. The town, 
 deprived of the major portion of its defenders, was stormed after a stiff 
 fight, in which the few hundreds of Parliamentarians in the place were 
 cut to pieces.'' 
 
 Colonel Assheton, commanding the main body of the Roundheads, 
 pushed on from Lancaster to relieve Preston, but too late to effect that 
 object ; and finding the way blocked in that direction, passed by way of 
 Chipping and Whalley into East Lancashire, where his disorganised sol- 
 diers, finding themselves among friends and kindred, might recover from 
 their consternation. The local chronicler writes : — " The Parliament 
 Partie was much dejected by these disasters. Nevertheless the Colonell 
 within a short space after his return home, calling up the Country about 
 him to Rochdall, made known unto them his condition, how he wanted 
 money to supply his souldiers withall, as allso for other . . which 
 the Countrey people furnished him with all speed. And he had a fur- 
 ther designe in his minde, and prosecuted it, as shall be shewed.'" The 
 tactics of both parties at this time seem to have been, not to seek out 
 the enemy with the purpose of fighting a pitched battle in the field, — 
 the troops on either side being yet too new to soldiering for such 
 decisive action to be risked, — but rather to pursue a system of sudden 
 attacks upon weakly-protected points of the enemy's lines. The Earl of 
 Derby had, indeed, expressed his determination to make a renewed 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, p. 85. 2 Disc, of Warr, pp. 29-30. 3 lb. pp. 30-1. 
 
128 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 attack upon Manchester after his Preston success, but found a good 
 excuse for abandoning that enterprise, and contented himself with a 
 second advance upon Bolton. His forces delivered this assault upon 
 Bolton on Thursday, March 28th, 1643.' He was again vigorously 
 received and repulsed. Colonel Assheton's design was an attack upon 
 the Royalist towns of Wigan and Warrington. Wigan was approached 
 by the Roundhead force on March 31st, and was captured on the ist of 
 April. The assault upon Warrington, April 5th, did not succeed. 
 
 In the beginning of April, while the Lancashire forces of the Par- 
 liament were making offensive movements in the south-west of the 
 county, the Earl of Derby suddenly re-appeared on the western border 
 of Blackburn Hundred. The Earl advanced as far as Blackburn during 
 this foray, and occupied that town apparently with little resistance. No 
 particulars are left on record of this second Royalist capture of Black- 
 bum. The only allusion to the event is found in the news-sheet entitled 
 the Perfect Diurnal, of the date of April 6th, 1643, and the sum of the 
 information is that the Royalists, shortly before that date, and after the 
 storming of Preston, had advanced eastward and taken Blackburn." 
 Possibly the forces of the Earl, after the repulse at Bolton, were divided, 
 one contingent being marched westward to check the Roundhead attacks 
 upon Wigan and Warrington, while the other was sent north through 
 Leyland Hundred to Preston ; and the latter detachment might be 
 turned aside as far as Blackburn, which had been left with few defenders, 
 and so became an easy spoil. The Perfect Diurnal adds, however, that 
 Blackburn was very speedily recovered by Sir John Seaton, who had 
 again been sent from Manchester with a considerable force to re-take 
 Preston, if possible, and to afford assistance to the native levies in this 
 part of the county in their attempts to withstand the attacks of Lord 
 Derby's men. Some ambiguity rests upon this occupation of Black- 
 bum, as to its place in the order of events ; whether it was on his way 
 from Preston to Bolton that the Earl of Derby fell upon Blackburn, or 
 whether he came thither after his defeat at Bolton on March 28th. The 
 writer of the Valley of Achor tract makes a passing reference to the 
 occurrence, after his narration of the operations on the Lune. How 
 " our forces" were " divided and diverted," writes this chronicler, 
 "walked and breathed to and fro, whilst the Earle fires Lancaster, 
 recovered Preston, and rifled Blackburne, I have no mind to inquire, but 
 doe sadly remember."* 
 
 Sometime during the Civil War, — either in the course of the Earl 
 of Derby's movements between Preston, Bolton, and Blackburn in the 
 Spring of 1643, or the year after during the passage of Prince Rupert's 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, pp. 133-4. 
 
 z lb. p. 96, 
 
 3 lb. p. 132, 
 
RELICS OF A FIGHT AT TOCKHOLES. 129 
 
 army, — severe fighting took place about the lower part of Tockholes, in 
 the vicinity of the church. This could not have been the scene of 
 either of the affairs near Blackburn between Colonel Shuttleworth and 
 Sir Gilbert Hoghton before described, for in both those cases the attack 
 came from other directions, and the fighting was confined to the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood of the town. About forty years ago various relics of 
 a battle were disclosed in a field on Mr. Parker's farm in Tockholes. 
 Baines notes the discovery :— " Forty horses' heads, bones, cannon-balls, 
 and clubs were, in 1826, dug out of a field in this township [Tockholes], 
 called ' Kill Field,' in which a battle is believed to have taken place in 
 1642.'" Of course the date given by Baines is quite conjectural, and 
 there is no account of any battle on this side of Blackburn in 1642. 
 Upon local inquiry I ascertained that it was in the year 1833 the remains 
 mentioned by Baines were discovered. The pit in which they were 
 found is situated at the upper end of a field that slopes towards the 
 dingle below Crowtrees farm. The spot is about a quarter of a mile to 
 the west of Tockholes Church. According to the statements of elderly 
 persons in the neighbourhood, who saw the remains that were brought 
 up in the cleansing of the pit, the exact number of skulls of horses 
 found in the muddy bottom was thirty-eight, and there were also several 
 horses' feet and leg-bones. One informant mentions that some large 
 metal buttons were turned up. The bones were removed to the farm- 
 yard by the farmer, and what became of any other relics is not remem- 
 bered. The field in which the pit lies is marked " Pit Field" on the 
 Ordnance map. At the time of the discovery, there was a similar pit in 
 another part of the same field, which it was conjectured might have been 
 made the receptacle of other bones ; but this pit was filled up without 
 being cleaned out. There is no mention of any battle implements having 
 been found with the bones, but several cannon-balls have been picked 
 up in other parts of the township within the last forty years. One of 
 these ancient missiles was found in a field called " The Green," just 
 above the Bethesda Chapel. Another was found on Cartridge-hill, a 
 lofty fell a mile or so further to the south. Some musket-bullets, also, 
 were once gathered in a small field behind the Old Independent Chapel, 
 a short distance from the pit where the bones were found. These are 
 all the traces of the fight in this vicinity of which information can now be 
 gleaned. They suffice to indicate a battle of some severity, in which both 
 troops of horse and musketeers were engaged, and at least one piece 
 of ordnance brought into use. A skirmish in which forty horses were 
 killed, not to consider what bones of dead horses may have been interred 
 in other pits, cannot have been of an insignificant character. The 
 
 I Hist, of Lane, new edn., v. ii, p. 81. 
 
 17 
 
130 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 battle-ground being so near the old Church of Tockholes, it may be suj>- 
 posed that the bodies of the soldiers killed in the action would after- 
 wards be removed for burial to the consecrated ground ; which would 
 account for the absence of human bones along with those of the horses. 
 
 For some days after the encounters of the hostile parties at 
 Bolton, Wigan, and Warrington, there was quiescence in both camps. 
 The time was spent in the concentration of troops and the collec- 
 tion of supplies. The Earl of Derby was too ardent and enterprising to 
 rest in inaction a day longer than the necessities of the situation required, 
 and so soon as he found his forces sufficiently recruited, he set forth on 
 another adventure. This was an expedition into the heart of Blackburn 
 Hundred, intended to effect the subjugation of the whole Hundred to 
 the King's authority. About the 19th of April, 1643, the Earl began 
 to move up the Valley of Ribble in prosecution of his aggressive design. 
 The time was well chosen, for not only were the Parliamentarian colonels 
 in the Hundred weak and unprepared for the encounter, but their sol- 
 diers were dispirited by recent defeats. Colonel Assheton was posted in 
 Salford Hundred, too far off to render immediate assistance to Colonel 
 Shuttleworth in his efforts to repel the enemy. A private letter relates 
 " that the Earl of Derby, the Lord Mollineaux, Sir Gilbert Hoghton, 
 Colonell Tildesley, with all the other great Papists in this County, issued 
 out of Preston, and on Wednesday noon [April 19th] came to Ribches- 
 ter with eleven troops of horse, 700 foot, and infinite of Clubmen, in all 
 conceived to be 5,000.'" Other estimates of the Earl's strength reckon 
 it at about two thousand soldiers of all arms. The mean of 3,000 to 
 4,000 men may be accepted as the correct statement. The Earl moved 
 with silent celerity, and got a good many miles up the valley before the 
 enemy became aware of his advance. From Ribchester he marched 
 " over Ribble at Salesbury Boat and by Salesbury Hall, and soe was well 
 neare gotten to Whaley before he was discovered ; his Clubmen accord- 
 ing to their practice plundering in most of the townes [townships] they 
 passed by or thorough."^ The Puritan party were evidently disconcerted 
 by the movement. A small body of Roundhead soldiers was at the 
 time posted at Dunkenhalgh on the HjTidburn, a tributary of the Calder ; 
 a few troops also were with Colonel Shuttleworth about Padiham. One 
 " E. F.," writing from Padiham, narrates : — " We lying at Dunkenhalgh 
 hall with our two Troops, hearing of his [the Earl's] great force retreated 
 to Padiham, having before sent to Colonell Shuttleworth to raise the 
 country, which he did ; all the firemen [musketeers] came in the next 
 morning (though they have had no pay this 5 weeks), and some few 
 clubmen ; I did compute us to be 60 horse, and some 400 foot, not 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, p. g6. 2 Disc, of Warr, p. 31. 
 
BATTLE AT WHALLEY. 131 
 
 above five hundred I am sure at the first."^ Another annahst says : — 
 "The Earle accompanied with 2,000 (as is judged) came to Ribchester 
 over night, to Whalley by eight of the clocke to a green not far from 
 Padiham. Our side had but two or three hundred Fire-men, and four- 
 score or a hundred Horse, so that in means there was no possibility of 
 safety.'"* Old Colonel Shuttleworth did all that man could do in the 
 emergency, and put a bold face upon the matter. The news of Lord 
 Derby's approach was brought " to Padiham and Galthrop to Colonell 
 Shuttleworth in the night tyme," Blackburn Hundred " being then in a 
 weak condition to rescist him, the souldiers at that tyme in no parte of 
 it in any bodie or companies, but dispersed and also wanting ammunition 
 and powder. Nevertheless the ould Colonell sent intelligence into the 
 Hundred before morning of tlie Earl's approach, summoning all to come 
 up to him in the morning with speed with their best weapons.'" Before 
 the Earl could reach Whalley the place had been visited by a Round- 
 head scouting party : — " We marched with our horse towards Whalley, 
 where we tooke a man and 2 geldings of Mr. Latham's the great Papist, 
 and retreated to Read Bank."* Of the skirmishes that ensued between 
 the hostile forces, by which a general action was brought on, against the 
 purpose of the Parliamentarian commander, the following particulars 
 are recorded in the two principal narratives of this fight : — 
 
 Betymes in the morning the Earl's armie were all drawne up and over that River 
 that runs by Whalley called Calder, and there they with the piece of ordnance were 
 set in a bodie as to receive an Enemie. The Earl with other of his commanders were 
 up at the Abbey, Sir Ralph Assheton's House, whilst Mr. Tildsley with others scoutted 
 up towards Padiam, yea, as far as Reed-head. Now the Colonells Shuttleworth and 
 Starkie being both come to Padiam with some of the Captaines were in a great per- 
 plexitie, knowing not what to doe, being (as was said) unprovyded. Yet some Cap- 
 taines were sent, some souldiers accompanying, to scout towards Whalley as /ar as 
 Read, Mr. Nowell's House, to hear whether my Lord advanced or no, and making a 
 stand there, consulting amongst themselves what was likeliest to be done upon the 
 exigent. The Captaines were all of one mind as that it was not safe to withstand the 
 Earle there. He was a strong partie and came on purpose provided, and they weake, 
 their companies away scattered. Therefore the safest way was to retreat and preserve 
 themselves out of their Enemies hand till their Companies could be gathered into a 
 bodie with some aid and withal furnished with Ammunition which now they wanted, 
 this being their resolution at Preston. This pleased not the Souldiers then by, that 
 they should turn their backs upon their enimies before they saw their faces. Therefore 
 a many of the Musketiers, being resolut men, replyed to the Captaines boldly, bidding 
 them take what course they pleased for their safeties, yet they would aventure them- 
 selves, see the enemie and have one bout with them if God will. And therefore 
 gathering themselves together mad themselves readie to receive the enemie. And 
 belyke eyther imagyning of themselves or having intelligence from others that the 
 enemie would pass that way, they planted themselves in fields on the highway sid, 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, p. 96. 2 lb. p. 135. 3 Disc, of Warr, pp. 31-2. 4 C. W. Tracts, p. {^6. 
 
13? HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 betwixt Whaley and Padiam, under the Stone walls with their muskets readie charged, 
 being hid, to give their enemie a volley of shot if they appeared. Long they lay not 
 before they espied some of the Earles Horse and Foot mounting out of a hollow dingle 
 betwixt Ashterley and Read-head. And Maister Tildsley was one of the foremost, and 
 having gotten the tope of the Hill he enquired of a woman that dwelt in a little house 
 by, where he was or how that place was calde. " Sir," said she, " you are at Read- 
 head above the house of Mr. Nowell of Read. " "I am the more sorrie, " said he ; "I 
 would not have his wyffe disquieted. " (Mr, Nowell was a strong malignant). Not 
 long after this Discourse the Musketiers under the walls waiting their opportunitie let 
 goe a volley of shot against them veiy hotly, which did put such a fear into them that 
 immediately without delay they turned againe, and downe towards Whaley with all the 
 speed they could make. And {as the report was) Mr. Tildsley was soe terrified and 
 amazed that forgetting his way for haste tooke into that lane that leads to Mr. Shuttle- 
 worth's house at Ashterlee, and then forced his horse to leape over a yate and passed 
 down by Portfield to Whaley. The Musketiers perceiving them flee soe fearfully 
 pursued them hotly and took divers Foot Clubmen. Presently, upon the Report of 
 the Muskets, many came unto them, and some carried the Prisoners to Padiam, and 
 the rest joyned with the Musketiers to pursue the enemie.' 
 
 The writer of the Padiham letter on the affair, with the initiate 
 " E. F.," tells the same story in brief, and was evidently an active partici- 
 pant in the fight ; indeed, he claims to have been the instrument of 
 leading the Royalist troopers into the trap that had been set for them :- - 
 
 Here [at Read-bank] we discovered about 150 horse to follow us, and when our 
 foot was come thither to us, our horse retreated more, our foot advanced close under a 
 wall, only myself stood and faced the enemy. I made as though I fled, they pursued 
 me ; when I knew they were in the command of our men, I advanced againe and shot 
 off my pistoll (being the signe for our foot) ; whereupon our men discharged with a 
 great shout ; the enemies' horse fled in great disorder, we wounded many, took forty 
 prisoners, some horse, and 60 musquets ; our firemen pursued them to Whalley. ^ 
 
 The scene of this ambuscade (so successful in its results that it was 
 the starting point of the Royalist defeat at Whalley by a far inferior 
 force) will be identified by the reader familiar with the country between 
 Whalley and Padiham, or by others on a reference to the six-inch Ord- 
 nance map. The present road from Whalley to Padiham is of modem 
 construction. It branches off from the Accrington and Whalley turn- 
 pike near Park Head, and at first follows closely the right bank of the 
 Calder, through the lower portion of Read Hall Park. The old road 
 between these towns ascended the hill to Portfield, thence descended 
 into the glen through which the Sabden Brook makes its way, crossed 
 the stream by Read Old Bridge, and abruptly ascended the other slope 
 to the summit of the eminence known as " Read Head," a short distance 
 above Read Hall to the north ; it then skirted the north side of Read 
 Park, keeping the high ground to the hamlet of Read, and so on to 
 Simonstone and Padiham. It was up this ancient road that the Royalist 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, pp. 32-3. 2 C. W. Tracts, p. 97. 
 
BATTLE AT WHALLEY— AMBUSH AT READ. 
 
 133 
 
 Colonel Tyldesley and his troopers spurred their horses on the Spring 
 morning in 1643, with the object of reconnoitring the Roundheads under 
 Shuttleworth and Starkie, who were expected to be somewhere on the 
 westward side of Huntroyd and Gawthorpe, guarding the mansions of 
 their leaders. On quitting the glen and reaching the hill-top above Read 
 Hall, Tyldesley, as related, made inquiries at a cottage as to his where- 
 abouts, and was told by the woman of the house that he was at Read 
 Head, hard by the house of Mr. Nowell, himself an ardent Royalist, 
 then absent on military service. With characteristic gallantry. Colonel 
 Tyldesley expressed his fear that the lady of Read, Mistress Nowell, 
 might be terrified by the sound of firing and other noises of warfare near 
 her mansion. From this point Tyldesley and his horsemen decided to 
 advance a little further along the hill-road, not suspecting the close 
 proximity of the enemy. But a few yards further on, concealed behind 
 the walls of the lane and in the thickets on either hand, were the two or 
 three hundred Roundhead musketeers, awaiting the signal of the 
 approach of the Royalist horse to fire their volley. No sooner had 
 Tyldesley and his over-venturesome troopers placed themselves between 
 the muzzles of their hidden foes, than a sudden volley of musket-shot 
 burst upon them. Saddles were emptied, horses and riders were struck 
 down, and those who were unhurt turned about and rode back towards 
 Whalley at their utmost speed. Tyldesley, the leader of the troop, lost 
 his way in the hastiness of his retreat. A little to the west of Read Old 
 Bridge, a by-lane connects with the road to Whalley on the left hand. 
 This by-road leads up to Easterley (called " Ashterlee" in the narrative), 
 on the estate of a family of Shuttleworths (an old, substantial house 
 situated on the crest of the high bank above the Sabden-brook), and 
 there terminates in the farm-yard. Colonel Tyldesley got into the by- 
 lane by mishap, and, when he emerged in the fold at Easterley, discovered 
 his error ; made his charger leap the gate, and rode across the couple of 
 fields which separate Easterley House from the ancient seat of the Brad- 
 dylls at Portfield. Here he recovered the right road, and mingling with 
 his flying horsemen rode down into Whalley. There the sight of the 
 retreating troopers, and the loud firing of the enemy's raatch-lock-men 
 in close pursuit, created a movement of panic among the Earl of Derby's 
 militiamen and clubmen, posted in the village and church. I now pro- 
 ceed to quote further particulars of the engagement which the skirmish 
 above-described rendered unavoidable, and which, through the conster- 
 nation produced by the Parliamentarian ambuscade at Read, resulted in 
 the rout, almost without an attempted stand, of the Earl of Derby's 
 army. After the episode at Read Head, the conflict proceeded as 
 follows : — 
 
134 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Amongst those that came in then to them [the Roundheads in pursuit of Tyldes- 
 ley's men], was . . Marsden, then a Lieutenant, after made a Captaine, a man of 
 courage and hardie spirit. He incoradged the souldiers much with manly words to 
 goe on, God would fight for them, and the like. So they pursuing with great shout- 
 ing, and the nearer that they came to Whaley the shouting was more and greater, the 
 hills and valleys giving the echoes, besids more comming and increasing. Whalley 
 standeth in a Vale, having the hills on every side on which was much people standing 
 and all shouted, putting amazement into the Earles Armie. The Earle being in the 
 Abbey and divers of his companie in the Church and Tower, upon that great noyse 
 made haste to get then The peice of ordenance was discharged twice or thrise at the 
 most towards the Tower ; but with noe execution that was hard of. A boy that was 
 upon a Steele in the field was shot about his knees, whether with a musket or the 
 Ordenance was not certaine whereof hee died immediately. He was all that was 
 slayne of the Parliament parte. Off the Earles companie an emenent captaine of much 
 respect with him (yet a great plunderer), his name was Conney, was shot in the one 
 of his eyes whereof he died afterwards and was carried away with them. The Earles 
 Clubb men, being in the reare of his army, hearing the great noyse of shoutting, 
 apprehending it fearfully, fled through the River [Calder] in much haste, he being most 
 happie that could get through it with most speed and run the fastest away. Noe com- 
 mand of the officers nor force of the horsemen could make them turne again or staye, 
 but gone they would be ; which wrought so upon the rest of the amiie that they lyke- 
 wise turned their backs and fledd soe disorderly and confusedly that (as relation was) 
 the Earle himself had much adoe to cause them to take their Ordenance with them, 
 he being of the last companie that was with it. Thus having turned their backes of 
 Whaley, the shouters increasing, they pursued them with a greater noyse. And dyvers 
 horsemen comming in followed with more speed taking some prisoners, and fynding 
 Armes of all sortes cast in the way, not leaving of till they came so far as Salesbury 
 Boat. The prisoners taken were most of them Clubmen of the fteild, about fortie 
 who weare kept at Padiham till they were released. ' 
 
 Other accounts of the Royalists' panic and retreat from Whalley 
 accord with the foregoing. The Padiham missive continues : — 
 
 The Earl of Derby and the rest were in the Abbey ; much ado we had to keep 
 our Souldiers back ; the enemy (who were ten for one of us) discharged his cannon 5 
 times, but hurt not a man of us (blessed be our good God), he drew into a body, we 
 being out of order ran under hedges, played upon them with our muskets, and routed 
 their foot, which fled over the Water, their horse still facing us ; our men still pursued 
 them to Lango-green where Captain Ashton and myselfe with much ado caused our 
 first men to stay till more came up, then our men shot ; their horse fled ; then all our 
 horse came up and pursued them through Salisbury [Salesbury] Park, and to Ribches- 
 ter ; and most of their great ones had some touch, or some narrow escape, as them- 
 selves report. And having thus driven them out of the Hundred, we retreated to 
 Padiham. « 
 
 Then comes the short, complacent chronicle of the victory by the 
 author of Lancashire s Valley of Achor, who tells gleefully how the hand- 
 ful of Shuttleworth's musketeers, by reason of the " resolution God gave 
 them, above and against all sense and reason," would needs let fly at the 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, pp. 33-4. 2 C. W. Tracts, p. 97. 
 
BATTLE AT WHALLEY— ROYALIST DEFEAT. 135 
 
 enemy, who were suddenly turned to flight; when "our encouraged 
 souldiers pursued them to Whalley, where their two or three shots of Pow- 
 der (all they had at first to accomplish so great a work) were well 
 increased by their enemies store ; from thence to the Sands [the ford of 
 Calder], thence to Lango Green, thence to Rible-side, called Salsbury 
 Boat ; the Horse and Foot took Rible, many of the Foot wading to the 
 chin. In all this chase, being about five miles in length, they [the 
 Royalists] often turned their faces, but as often ttimed their backs, and 
 hasted away, till they had quit the Hundred and no more infested it.'" 
 The pursuit thus commenced in the township of Read, and extended in 
 a westerly direction over the township of ^Vhalley, across the Calder, 
 through the townships of Billington, Dinkley, and Salesbury in Black- 
 bum parish, terminating across the Ribble at Ribchester. Pursued and 
 pursuers had to ford two considerable rivers, both ordinarily running 
 high in April, the month in which the battle took place, and one narra- 
 tive indeed states that where the Ribble was crossed near Salesbury Hall 
 the soldiers of both forces were immersed to the chin. 
 
 The reports that reached London of this Roundhead success are 
 summarised in the Parlianuniary Chronicle of the time in the passage 
 that follows : — 
 
 Much about the same time also, namely, the latter end of Aprill aforesaid, letters 
 out of Lancashire enformed for certain that the Earl of Darbie with 500 horse, 500 
 foot, and about 2000 clubmen went to Whaley, a Towne nere Blackburn, sodainly 
 seised on the towne and got into the Church and Steeple ; but the Inhabitants of that 
 Hundred presently armed 300 musketeers, 300 horse and 200 clubmen, and with this 
 small strength set upon them in the towne, beat the Earl and his men out and recovered 
 it again ; and being the same time provoked and challenged by the Earl to come out 
 into the field they did so, and set upon him there, slew 300 of his men, routed all his 
 armie, and chased them six miles at the least The truth whereof was firmly ratified 
 by divers letters from those parts.* 
 
 The same chronicler again alludes to " the victory nere Blackburn 
 in Lancashire " as one of several important engagements won by the 
 Parliamentarians in the Spring of 1643. 
 
 The Parliamentarians of Lancashire were unbounded in their 
 thankfulness for this unlooked-for victory ; and well they might, for it 
 completely changed the aspect of affairs in the county. Puritan perfer- 
 vidity of religious sentiment saw in this marvellous escape and triumph 
 a signal example of Divine interposition. Shuttleworth's victorious sol- 
 diers returned to Padiham, where, wearied as they must have been, "hav- 
 ing a good minister, some hours were spent in thanksgiving for the great 
 deliverance, and be assured it is to be taken (next the first great bout at 
 
 I C W. Tracts, pp. 136. 2 Pari. Chron., pt. i, p. 320. 
 
136 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Manchester) the greatest dehverance we have had. We had one day 
 last week, and on Friday next we are to observe a Thanksgiving both in 
 Salford Hundred and this, with praises to our God. The intent of the 
 enemy," concludes the writer, " was to overrun this Hundred, and so to 
 Bolton and Manchester (as upon examination appears by the prisoners) 
 and be assured if the Lord had suffered this part to fail, we had in al 
 probability bin totally undone. The enemy stole all horses and beasts 
 as far as they went ; I hope our Gentlemen in this county will consider 
 to joyn and clear the county. This part which before was dejected, is 
 now through God's mercy united and raised, and the common people 
 never more forward, and the souldiers more couragious, but the Lord 
 is our preserver.'" 
 
 The discomfiture of the Earl of Derby's levies at Whalley was 
 discouraging and damaging. But before impugning the Earl's military 
 capacity on account of this untoward affair, the circumstances of his 
 position must be considered. Lord Derby had been very scurvily used 
 by the King and his advisers from the commencement of the war. He 
 was the object of unjust suspicion at court, and had been systematically 
 weakened by drafts of his men to serve under other leaders in the 
 King's main army. The Earl's influence was so great in West Lanca- 
 shire that his ability to raise troops to fight for the Royal cause seemed 
 almost unlimited ; but once and again he had been required to send 
 his best-equipped and trained regiments away from the county to be 
 employed in distant operations, leaving himself almost destitute of men 
 and means. Yet this ill-usage, which would have driven most men to 
 the opposite camp in resentment, had no effect upon the high spirit of 
 honour and the disinterested loyalty of the Lord of Lathom, though 
 these frequent withdrawals of his ablest troops seriously prejudiced his 
 efforts to maintain the ascendency of the Crown in his native shire. The 
 force with which the Earl advanced from Preston into Ribblesdale, for 
 the subjugation of Blackburn Hundred, though considerable in numbers, 
 was chiefly composed of recent levies of tenantry and peasantry, with 
 but a small proportion of trained and steady troops. The groundless 
 fright which seized upon the Earl's forces on the appearance of the 
 enemy, speaks the inexperience and want of confidence of the general 
 body ; and the few skilled musketeers and horsemen in the force were 
 unable to arrest the stream of fugitives, when once the movement of 
 retreat had begun. In these campaigns, very little science was displayed 
 on either side, at least in the desultory operations in the various pro- 
 vinces of the country in which the combatants were principally the 
 newly-embodied local militia and trained bands, and the leaders the 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, pp. 97-8. 
 
PARLIAMENTARIAN SUCCESSES. 137 
 
 local gentry, to whom the rudiments of military practice were unknown 
 a few months previously. Adventitious, however, as had been the vic- 
 tory and the defeat at Whalley, its influence upon the issue of the strife 
 was great. A chronicler thus remarks the Earl's dejected condition, and 
 the recovery of hope among the Parliamentarians, after the Whalley 
 passage-of-arms : — 
 
 The Earle much dismayed and disconsolat with his Disasters made no stay till he 
 came to Mr. Fleetwood's house at Penerthom, where he lodged that night in a very 
 sad pensive condition, by reason of the dastardlines which appeared in his Army. 
 What became of it afterwards was not materiall, but truth it was he never headed 
 Army in Lancashire after till his last comming out of the Isle of Man, when he was 
 defeated near unto Wiggon not long before his Death. Their Defeate at Whaley 
 was strange and admirable, for to the judgment of Reason he had strength and power 
 sufficient (as the Hundred of Blackbume then was) to have subdued it to the King, if 
 not Salford Hundred to, for that Hundred, all but Manchester, was in a scattered con- 
 dition. Colonell Ashton newly returned from Lancaster, his Army soe dissipated and 
 discontented through want of pay that he could not gather them into a body till the 
 Country had supplied him, which then was not done.^ 
 
 The East-Lancashire Parliamentarian chiefs took full advantage of 
 the Earl of Derby's despondent state, and the demorahsation among his 
 men. At once on receipt of the news of the victory at Whalley and the 
 enemy's confused retreat, Colonel Assheton (of Middleton) marched west- 
 ward with the forces of Salford Hundred, horse and foot, reinforced by 
 some of the troops of Blackburn Hundred and " some volimteers of 
 Amoundemess, who being exyled from their dwellings by the enemies, 
 put themselves under the leading and command of Captaine Edward 
 Robinson."'-' With an army of about 2,200 men. Colonel Assheton's offen- 
 sive movement commenced on the 28th of April. His route into West 
 Derby Hundred was through Holland and Billinge. Colonel Tyldesley, 
 after the rout in Ribblesdale, had gone to Wigan, which he held for 
 Lord Derby with nine troops of horse and 700 foot. But the Royalists 
 had not yet recovered courage, and, on the appearance of Colonel Asshe- 
 ton, Tyldesley and his force decamped from Wigan. The Parliamen- 
 tarian commander occupied the town, and before he left it, he " demolisht 
 all the outworks and fortifications, burnt the new gates and posts that 
 had been set up," and " took an oath of the townsmen never to bear 
 arms against the King and Parliament." He then pursued the Royalist 
 army, retreating northwards, — Lord Molineux and Col. Tyldesley in 
 command. The enemy making no stand anywhere, Assheton "marched 
 by Knowsley, the Lord's House, not offering any the least evil towards 
 it."* The Earl of Derby, fearful of the sack and destruction of his 
 mansion by the victorious Roundheads, had written to Col. Assheton, 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, pp. 34-5. 2 lb. p. 37. 3 lb. p. 37. 
 
 i8 
 
138 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 praying him not to bum his seat at Lathom, and offering a sum of £^00 
 to purchase its immunity. But, says the record, " the noble Colonell 
 sent him word that he scorned his money or the firing of his house, and 
 desired nothing more of him than to meet with him, and to give him 
 battell.'" On reaching Ormskirk in his advance, Colonel Assheton learnt 
 that Molineux and Tyldesley with their forces had escaped him by crossing 
 the Ribble some distance below Preston. They were "marched over Rib- 
 ble Watter at Hesketh Bankes into the Fyld," and were then, it was re- 
 ported, quartered in Kirkham. The Earl of Derby had gone to Warrington 
 with the remnant of his force, but leaving his men there as a garrison, 
 the Earl secretly passed through the western parts of the county ; forded 
 the Ribble ; and while Lord Molineux's quarters were in Clifton and Col. 
 Tyldesley's at Kirkham, they were surprised by the apparition of the 
 fugitive Earl, who, " with a few horse, passed by Clifton with litle or no 
 speech of him, and soe into the North to White Haven, and taking 
 shipping there went into the Isle of Man, leaving his Countess and 
 children at Lathom."" So writes the author of the Discourse of the Warr, 
 but other records say that the Earl first betook himself to Hornby Castle, 
 thence to Skipton Castle, before he quitted the country for the Isle of 
 Man. A news-sheet issued in the early part of May, 1643, relates that 
 the Lancashire gentlemen, knowing from intercepted letters from Lathom 
 to the King what a quandary the Royalists were in, " immediately 
 advanced, have taken Preston, and fetched away the twenty peeces of 
 ordnance from Lancaster, and enforced the Earl of Derby to quit the 
 countrey, and fiye from Hornby Castle into Yorkshire, into Skipton 
 Castle in Craven.'" Whichever report be true, it is certain that the Earl 
 did not long remain in Lancashire after the Whalley disaster ; but went 
 to secure the Isle of Man, and left his strong-hearted Countess to defend 
 Lathom House. 
 
 The recapture of Preston, and movements in the Fylde and in 
 Lunesdale subsequently, are recounted in detail in the Discourse. Out 
 of the Fylde the King's force retired to Lancaster, Colonel Assheton in 
 brisk pursuit ; from Lancaster to Hornby, thence to Kirkby Lonsdale. 
 Although the Royalists under Molineux and Tyldesley did not make a 
 stand at Hornby, but continued their precipitate retreat up the valley of 
 the Lune, and so quitted the county, Hornby Castle was defended by a 
 party of cavaliers for a brief space. The Castle was very strong in 
 itself, and occupies an almost unassailable position on the summit of a 
 high knoll hard by the confluence of the Wenning and Lune. Col. 
 Assheton would probably have passed on without attempting to carry so 
 formidable a place, either by siege or assault ; but a few of his soldiers, 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, p. gg. 2. Disc, of Warr, p. 37. 3 C W. Tracts, p. 100. 
 
PARLIAMENTARIAN SUCCESSES. 139 
 
 without orders, audaciously took the Castle by escalade. The Parlia- 
 mentarian general, having driven the enemy out of Lancashire, com- 
 menced the return-march southward on the 9th of May ; and, passing 
 through Lancaster, took away from the Castle there some cannon which 
 had been taken out of a Spanish ship ashore at Rossall. Through the 
 inimical Fylde country the Roundhead soldiery plundered at discretion, 
 and when they got to Preston began to fall out among themselves about 
 the division of the captured cattle and other booty. 
 
 Some days before Midsummer, 1643, Alexander Rigby, Esq., M.P., 
 was sent down into Lancashire with a colonel's commission from Parlia- 
 ment, " to raise forces to put the Hundreds of Layland and Amounder- 
 ness into a posture of Warr." Colonel Rigby prosecuted his appointed 
 task with energy, and mustered a considerable array out of these Hun- 
 dreds. Captain Edward Robinson, who belonged to Kirkham, had pre- 
 viously raised a troop of horse in that part of Amounderness, with which 
 he had served under the command of Colonel Shuttleworth. This 
 officer and his troop were now detached from Colonel Shuttleworth's 
 force, and placed under the command of Colonel Rigby. Colonel 
 Rigby's first military enterprise, in which he displayed the soldierlike 
 qualities for which he was afterwards distinguished, was the reduction by 
 siege of Thurland Castle in Lunesdale. To Rigby's contingent, raised 
 in and about Preston, were united, for this undertaking, some " forces 
 from Salford and Blackburne Hundreds."^ Thurland Castle was invested 
 in the beginning of August. It was, however, not easy to get at. " It 
 was moated about so that it could not be come to." Rigby's small 
 ordnance " plaied oft against it with little execution. It was stronge. 
 Out of it they shot desperately when they spied occation. They killed 
 many that adventured too near it. Edward Breres [Breres of Walton], 
 a Captaine of the Volunteers of Preston, was killed by adventuring too 
 neare.'" But Rigby having defeated an attempt by Colonel Hudleston, 
 coming out of Cumberland, to relieve the castle, the garrison were so 
 disheartened that they surrendered the castle a few days after. Colonel 
 Rigby returned to Preston in good heart after his victory, and spent 
 some succeeding weeks in strengthening his regiments, and providing 
 them with suitable officers. 
 
 Meantime the Hundreds of Blackburn and Salford were menaced 
 from a new direction. At the beginning of July, 1643, the Earl of New- 
 castle, commanding one of the King's main armies, having won some 
 advantage in encounters with the Parliamentarian army under Lord 
 Fairfax in Yorkshire, appeared in force upon the eastern border of Lan- 
 cashire, and forwarded to Manchester a summons to submission, which 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, p. 41. 2 lb. p. 41. 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 was boldly rejected. The Parliamentarians in these parts were in some 
 alarm at the proximity of the Earl of Newcastle's army, and took imme- 
 diate measures of defence. They " placed a garrison of twelve hundred 
 men in Rochdale, and eight hundred more upon Blackstone Edge, to 
 guard the passage into their county out of Yorkshire."' Reports in the 
 news-sheets of the period (July — -August, 1643), refer to several attempts 
 of Lord Newcastle to penetrate the mountain passes between Yorkshire 
 and Lancashire, all of which were repulsed. First, it is related that the 
 Royalist general sent " 200 horse to break through the passage at Black- 
 stone Edge into their countrey, but with no successe, for their garrison 
 in that place slew and took some of them, and sent back the rest to tell 
 their fellows that they will hardly have passage that way, because it is 
 naturally so strong that 500 men can keep 1,000." Foiled at Blackstone 
 Edge, a portion of Lord Newcastle's force appears to have attempted a 
 passage over the hills in the neighbourhood of Colne and Clitheroe ; 
 for in the sheet of Certaiiie Informations, dated July 31st, it is stated 
 that " some of Newcastle's forces had been defeated in Lancashire, near 
 Colne ; some slain, and about forty taken ;" and further, on August 14th, 
 it is reported that accounts from travellers are to the effect that " Lanca- 
 shire is quiet since they [the Parliamentarians] beat the Newcastel- 
 lians from Colne, Clitheroe,. and Tlwrnton.""^ These scanty statements are 
 all the information to be had of the series of skirmishes the hostile forces 
 fought upon the county border, in which the defenders of Lancashire for 
 the Parliament were victorious. But by the local annalist of the war it 
 is stated that about this time, or perhaps a little later in the year, " most 
 if not all the companies [at Preston, under Col. Rigby] were called upon 
 receiving Order to march into Blackburne Hundred to Healey More to 
 a Randavow, and after that they had Order to March two myles further 
 to Colne, to a Generall Randevouse betwixt both Hundreds, in the most 
 remote part of the county, upon the borders of Yorkshire, to a place 
 called Emmot Loane head, to be a terror to the Yorkeshire Cavillers who 
 that Winter ranged up and downe.'" The concentration of both Round- 
 head and Royalist troops in this hilly country, the former on the Lanca- 
 shire, the latter on the Yorkshire side of the frontier-line, was continued 
 until the close of the year (1643). 
 
 Prior to the victories of the summer of 1643, which placed the whole 
 of Lancashire (with the solitary exception of Lathom House, held by 
 the Countess of Derby) at the mercy of the Parliamentary party, the 
 Houses of Parliament, in urgent need of means to carry on the arduous- 
 contest with the King, had passed an ordinance confiscating the estates 
 of " Delinquents and Papists," and appointing sequestrators for the 
 
 I C. W, Tracts, p. 146. 2 lb. p. 147. 3 Disc, of Warr, p. 43- 
 
SEQUESTRATIONS BY PARLIAMENT. 141 
 
 various counties. The Lancashire Sequestration Commission consisted 
 of twenty-three persons, seven of whom were connected with the Hun- 
 dred of Blackburn, viz. : — Assheton of Whalley, Assheton of Downham, 
 Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe, Nicholas Cunliffe of Hollings, Starkie of 
 Huntroyd, Robert Cunliffe of Sparth, and Nowell of Little Mearley. In 
 September, 1643, the deputy-lieutenants of the county were ordered by 
 Parliament to appoint auditors to keep accounts of monies and goods 
 taken by virtue of the sequestration ordinance, and the auditors chosen 
 under this order were Ralph Assheton, Richard Shuttleworth, John Moore, 
 and Alexander Rigby, Esqrs. Immediately upon the conclusion of these 
 appointments the arbitrary process of sequestration commenced. One 
 of the first to suffer was William Farrington, Esq., of Worden, a steady 
 Royalist. In the Farington Papers is preserved an inventory of Mr. 
 Farrington's household goods sequestrated on the 12th of September, 
 1643, ^nd other documents relating to the procedure. The master of 
 Worden was at this time absent from his estate, serving with the King's 
 forces in the field. His wife, Mistress Margaret Farrington, laid a peti- 
 tion before Sir Thomas Stanley, Bart., Ralph Assheton, Richard Shuttle- 
 worth, Richard Holland, Alexander Rigby, and John Moore, Esqrs., 
 Colonels of the Lancashire forces of Parliament, in which she shewed 
 that the agents of the Sequestrators, in their unwelcome visit to Worden, 
 had not only carried off her other household goods, but had also seques- 
 tered the family heir-looms, which the ancestors of Worden had given 
 and bequeathed " to the successive heires male of the house of Worden." 
 These heir-looms the gentle petitioner prayed might be suffered to 
 remain at Worden, seeing that her husband, whose fidelity to his King 
 had incurred this forfeiture of his property, had only a life-possession of 
 the heir-looms. To this petition, the Sequestrators appealed to returned 
 answer that " if Mrs. ffarington will speedily pay jQ2>'i° fo'' the goods of 
 her husband now sequestered, there will remaine sufficient proportion to 
 allow her and her children accordinge to the power committed to us by 
 the Parliament ; wherefore if shee pay this wee order that all the goods 
 may remaine with her at the hoi^se.'" The lady of Worden was unable 
 to find the required sum of redemption money, and accordingly her 
 household goods were impounded. But she was allowed " purparture 
 of the goods to the value of jQ\oo in lieu of her purparture of land ;" 
 and parts of the remainder were bought in her behalf by Messrs. Richard 
 Clayton and William Farington, yeomen, from Gates Holme and 
 Edward Cowper, agents to the Sequestrators, for the sum of ^83. The 
 total amounts of the Parliamentarian sequestration on this estate 
 are computed at ;£^64S in goods, cattle, and movable property ; ^263 
 
 I Farington Papers, p. 96. 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF -BLACKBURN. 
 
 in value of lands sequestered at different times ; and in rents ^^46 ; 
 altogether ;i£^954. In like manner, other prominent Royalists were 
 mulcted at this period of depression in their party's fortunes in the 
 county. 
 
 At the beginning of September, 1643, ^^^ county had been so 
 entirely cleared of the King's adherents (excepting the few companies 
 shut up in Lathom House) that it was reported in letters from Manches- 
 ter to London " that the whole county palatine of Lancaster enjoyeth 
 yet ease, quiet, and freedom both from internall and externall enemies." 
 Also that not only had the forces of Lord Newcastle been foiled in the 
 movement towards Lancashire through the passes of the hills between 
 the valleys of Aire and Ribble, but that the Roundheads were making 
 raids into the parts of Yorkshire beyond Colne and Clitheroe ; for the 
 Mercurius Britannicus of September 2nd reports that " the Lancashire 
 horse still make incursions into Craven, in Yorkshire, and get horses, 
 cattle, and sheep, from off the lands of those in arms against the Parlia- 
 ment."' While the men of Blackburn district were thus keeping the 
 eastern border of the county, those of Salford Hundred, commanded by 
 Colonel Assheton, were away in Wales and Cheshire, subduing the country 
 thereabouts to the Parliament, and with this work, in conjunction with the 
 Cheshire Roundheads under Sir William Brereton, proceeding almost 
 unopposed until the close of the year 1643. But in December, three 
 thousand Irish soldiers brought over in Charles's interest landed at 
 Wirral, and were joined by the Royalists under Lord Byron, who, 
 taking command of the united force of about 4,000 men, assumed the 
 offensive, and obliged Sir William Brereton to retire to Nantwich. Colonel 
 Assheton, while marching to Middlewich, was attacked suddenly by Lord 
 Byron, in the beginning of January, 1643-4, and completely beaten, 
 leaving a hundred prisoners in the enemy's hands. The reverse was 
 quickly retrieved. On the 19th of January, Lord Fairfax, who had 
 transported his army out of Yorkshire, marched on from Manchester to 
 relieve the Parliamentarians beleaguered at Nantwich ; his force con- 
 sisting of 2,500 foot and 28 troops of horse. In co-operation with 
 Brereton's and Assheton's forces, Fairfax, with an array of about 8,000 
 men, gave Lord Byron battle before Nantwich. The battle was stub- 
 bornly contested, but ended in the utter defeat and dispersion of the 
 Royalists ; of the Irish troops under Lord Byron many were slain, and 
 1,500 were taken prisoners. In this battle, Colonel Assheton's Lancashire 
 men exhibited great valour. 
 
 To Lathom House, that, like a sea-surrounded rock, still withstood 
 the wave of revolution that surged over the county, numbers of the 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, p. 148. 
 
FIRST SIEGE OF LATHOM HOUSE. 
 
 143 
 
 fugitive cavaliers of Lancashire had resorted as the sole place of refuge 
 after the defeats their party had suffered. Though the lord of the house 
 was not within its walls, deeming his presence even more essential in his 
 Island of Man, the spirited Countess of Derby was prepared to stand a 
 siege before surrendering Lathom. The place was strong; with its 
 massy embattled and moated towers it was well fitted to defy assault and 
 to resist the effects of a cannonade by such small ordnance as was then 
 in use. Among her garrison the Countess counted many gallant gentle- 
 men, who were ready to defend their admirable lady-leader to the death, 
 if need were. The house was, fortunately, well provisioned. On Satur- 
 day, February 24th, 1643-4, the Manchester Committee of Parliamen- 
 tarians, after frequent consultations, resolved " that Mr. Assheton, of 
 Middleton, Mr. Moore, of Banck hall, and Mr. Rigby, of Preston (three 
 Parliament colonels) should with all speed come against Lathom." The 
 Countess of Derby received vague information of this movement in the 
 morning of the next day, and at once took measures to meet the danger. 
 Marching by Bolton, Wigan, and Standish, the Parliamentarian army 
 appeared before Lathom on Tuesday, February 27th. Sir Thomas Fairfax 
 had joined the force, and on the 28th he sent an officer up to the House, 
 conveying to the Countess the ordinance of Parliament requiring her to 
 surrender Lathom and cast herself upon the mercy of the Parliament. 
 After some parleying. Colonels Assheton and Rigby were admitted into 
 the House on Saturday, March 2nd, and offered the Countess free exit 
 for herself and her troops, and permission to carry all their goods to 
 Chester, and that the Countess with her family should be permitted 
 either to dwell at Knowsley under protection, or follow her husband to 
 the Isle of Man. The Countess rejected these terms, and proposed 
 others of a temporising character, to which the enemy would not listen; 
 finally, to counter proposals of Sir Thomas Fairfax, the proud lady 
 returned an answer of point-blank defiance. The siege then com- 
 menced, and took the form of a blockade ; Fairfax, misled as to the 
 quantity of food in the place, thinking soon to starve the garrison 
 into capitulation. In this the besiegers were disappointed ; and before 
 Lathom fell the cause of the King in Lancashire was destined for a time 
 to be reanimated, and Lathom to be relieved, by a very formidable 
 diversion by the most dashing of the Royalist leaders — Prince Rupert. 
 
 When the siege of Lathom House had lasted some ten or eleven 
 weeks (from the last week in February to the first week in May, 1644), 
 with no effect, by the confession of a Roundhead annalist, " but the 
 losse of men's lives and spending of much treasure and victuals," a 
 rumour became current that occasioned as much disquietude to Colonel 
 Rigby and his Parliamentarians, as it awakened hope in the hearts of 
 
144 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Lady Derby and her garrison. The report, which proved to be authen- 
 tic, was that King Charles, influenced by the appeals of his hard-pressed 
 friends in Lancashire, had resolved to despatch Prince Rupert into the 
 county, at the head of a powerful army, first to relieve Lathom ; then 
 to strike at the King's enemies where he might bring them to bay, and 
 to storm the chief towns forming the Puritan quarters ; and thereafter 
 to march hence into Yorkshire for the relief of the city of York, held 
 for the King against the beleaguering armies of English and Scottish 
 "rebels." It was on the 8th or 9th of May that the news of Rupert's 
 approach was spread through the county. The Roundhead generals 
 before Lathom, on assuring themselves of Rupert's advance, held a 
 council of war, at which it was decided to raise the siege. Colonel 
 Rigby knew that his little army of two to three thousand men would 
 be utterly incompetent to cope with Prince Rupert's army in the field, 
 for the estimates of the Royalist general's force were from 10,000 to 
 15,000 men. Accordingly, on the 12th of May, Colonel Rigby with 
 part of the besieging force moved away on the Preston road as far as 
 Eccleston Green. Colonels Holland and Moore at the same time 
 marched off their regiments, the fornier to Manchester and the latter to 
 Liverpool, to aid the defence of those towns against the invader. For a 
 short space Colonel Rigby remained at Eccleston, in doubt as to which 
 way it would be safest for him to turn. Naturally, " the Colonell was in 
 great feare of his familie in Preston, giving them Order to pack up his 
 goods and flee up into Yorkshire, which was done."^ He was aware 
 that the eventual object of Prince Rupert, his task done in Lancashire, 
 would be to relieve York ; and " imagining," says one writer of the 
 period," that " the Prince would either march through Blackbume or 
 Lancaster for the releefe of Yorke," — the only passes through the Pen- 
 nine mountains practicable for a large army being by the valleys of the 
 Ribble and the Lune, and across Craven into the valleys of the Aire 
 and Wharfe, — Colonel Rigby came to the decision to leave both these 
 routes open to the Prince's march, to abandon the whole north and 
 north-east of the county, and to retire upon Bolton. As Rigby marched 
 into Bolton his force was augmented by " some other auxiliaries from 
 Coll. Shuttleworth to the number of 4 or 5,000 in all ;" and there he 
 awaited the progress of events. 
 
 Prince Rupert, having recruited his army in Shropshire and Wales, 
 appeared in Cheshire on the 19th, with an army of 10,000 men, chiefly 
 horse, and reached the border of Lancashire on the 25th of May. At 
 Stockport, after a brisk fight with the Roundheads posted there under 
 Cols. Duckenfield and Mainwaring, the Royalist general forced the pass. 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, p. 49. 
 
 2 C. W. Tracts, p. 183. 
 
BOLTON STORMED— RELIEF OF LATHOM HOUSE. 145 
 
 Deeming Manchester too strong to be carried by assault, Rupert avoided 
 that town, crossed the Mersey at Trafford, and advanced upon Bolton. 
 On the 28th of May the Royalist army was before Bolton ; and after a 
 desperate conflict, the Prince, whom the Earl of Derby had joined 
 before the attack, stormed the town, and put the greater part of its 
 defenders and inhabitants to the sword. This capture of Bolton by 
 Lord Derby and Prince Rupert is memorable as one of the most terrible 
 and sanguinary episodes of that war, and many piteous stories of the 
 assault and " massacre" have been preserved. Of the twelve or fifteen 
 hundred Parliamentarian soldiers said to have perished in that dreadful 
 carnage, many must have belonged to those Blackbumshire regiments 
 mustered by Messrs. Shuttleworth, Braddyll, and Starkie. 
 
 Colonel Rigby, commander of the garrison of Bolton, seeing the 
 day lost, contrived to escape in the melee. The Roundhead soldiers 
 who escaped the fury of a vindictive victorious enemy at Bolton made 
 the best of their way to Manchester and Blackburn, where they joined 
 the forces of the Parliament occupying those towns. 
 
 Lord Derby and Prince Rupert, after their triumphant exploit at 
 Bolton, proceeded first to Lathom, which flung open its long-sealed gates 
 in joyful welcome to the Earl and Prince and their relieving army. All 
 the colours taken from the enemy at Bolton were presented by the 
 Prince to Lady Derby. Two or three days of rest and festivity were 
 spent at Lathom ; and then, contrary to the anticipation of the enemy 
 that he would proceed forthwith into Yorkshire, Rupert turned south- 
 ward, resolved to reduce Liverpool before he quitted the county. In 
 the attempt to carry Liverpool by a coup de main Rupert was frustrated. 
 After two repulses, however, and a siege of about a fortnight, the 
 Royalist force prevailed by its vastly superior numbers, and entered the 
 town, which had previously been evacuated by the garrison. 
 
 Prince Rupert returned to Lathom for the purpose of directing the 
 extension of its defences in anticipation of the contingency of a second 
 siege. By his advice, the Countess of Derby, and family, left the place, 
 and repaired to the Isle of Man. From Lathom, about the 19th of 
 June, the Prince commenced his long march to York, for the relief of 
 the garrison there besieged. He selected the route through Blackburn, 
 Colne, and Skipton, into the valley of the Wharfe. 
 
 Rupert paid a hasty visit to Preston just before his departure from 
 Lancashire, to marshal the recruits gathered for the Royal service in these 
 parts. It is recorded : — "His [Rupert's] army was at its greatest when he 
 went from Preston. It increased not in his march to York, for what forces 
 Westmoreland and Cumberland afforded him came to him at Preston.'" 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, p. 54. 
 
 19 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN". 
 
 Colonel Shuttleworth was at this time lying at Blackburn, having' 
 under his command the remnant of the Blackburnshire men that had 
 not been sent to Bolton to share in that bloody defeat, with perhaps a 
 few fugitives who had escaped thence. At most, his force cannot have 
 exceeded from two to three thousand men ; and any serious attempt to 
 bar the passage of Rupert was out of the question. For the Royalist 
 army, in spite of its heavy losses at the storming of Bolton and Liver- 
 pool, had been so greatly recruited during the month's sojourn in Lan- 
 cashire, that the Prince was able to set out for York with a force estimated 
 variously at from 14,000 to 20,000 men. Nevertheless, Colonel Shuttle- 
 worth would not suffer the imposing host of the enemy to pass without 
 some resistance. The second day of Rupert's advance, the 20th of June, 
 brought him to the vicinity of Blackburn. Near Blackburn a sharp 
 encounter took place between Rupert's vanguard and the Roundheads of 
 the neighbourhood under Shuttleworth. This fight at Blackburn is 
 mentioned in several contemporary publications, but no details of the 
 action are supplied. The affair at Blackburn on Rupert's passage was 
 something more than a mere skirmish ; for Sir William Dugdale, 
 in his Short vieiv of the late Troubles in England^ while he omits all 
 notice of minor local occurrences of the war, names the action at Black- 
 bum and the defeat of the Roundheads : — " Colonell Shuttleworth 
 defeated (20 June) at Blackburn in Lancashire by Prince Rupert." Two 
 Parliamentarian chronicles mention the engagement ; one stating that 
 Prince Rupert skirmished with Colonel Shuttleworth near Blackburn ; 
 and the other referring to two combats, one at Blackburn on June 20th, 
 and the second near Colne, June 25. Sir Charles Lucas is said to have 
 commanded the Royalists in both, and Colonel Shuttleworth to have 
 been wounded in the second. 
 
 What have been supposed to be vestiges of some fight during the 
 campaigns of the Civil War were found about fifty years ago upon the lower 
 part of the Bank-hey pastures, in Little Harwood, which now form the 
 public Cemetery of Blackburn. The place is about a mile from the 
 centre of Blackburn, and lies on the left of the old road from Blackburn 
 to Whalley and Clitheroe. It is believed that Prince Rupert, on his 
 march through the parish in 164:4, divided his army at Blackburn, push- 
 ing on one division by way of Clitheroe, and the other by Burnley and 
 Colne, into Craven, thus facilitating the transit of his army, and extend- 
 ing the field of his foraging parties for its supply. Colonel Shuttleworth 
 may have endeavoured to block the progress of the division directed to 
 march through Ribblesdale, shortly after its detachment at Blackburn 
 from the force marched on the Burnley road, through Enfield and Padi- 
 
 I FoiiOi Oxfd., i68r, p. 195. 
 
RUPERTS MARCH THROUGH BLACKBURN PARISH. 147 
 
 ham. It is therefore not improbable that the traces of battle disclosed 
 on the Little Harwood and Wilpshire side of Blackburn may belong to 
 an encounter of the hostile forces at the spot on that occasion. I am 
 informed by an old inhabitant, whose father was hind upon the farm of 
 Bank-hey, of the existence of a local tradition of a battle fought on the 
 heights of Bank-hey. About the time, fifty years ago or more, that Mr. 
 Rodgett, of the firm of Rodgett and Sparrow, bought the estate, some 
 labourers employed on the improvement of the farm were engaged in 
 draining the slope now forming the south comer of the Cemetery, when 
 they came upon (in my informant's words) " a tremendous quantity of 
 bones." The land at the spot was black, boggy land, and the Little 
 Harwood brook flows at the foot of the declivity. When my infonnant 
 lived on the estate the site of the discovery of bones was called, and 
 I had been long antecedently, the " War Stables." During the construc- 
 tion of the Cemetery, a workman found a number of bullets in the 
 ground hereabouts while turning over the sod. 
 
 The division of the Prince's army taking the more northerly route 
 passed through Whalley and Clitheroe, crossing the ground where the 
 Earl of Derby had suffered defeat fourteen months before. At Clitheroe 
 the Castle had hitherto been held for the Parliament, but the Royalist 
 commander took it and left in it a small garrison. Captain William 
 Pateson, whose company had fonned part of Colonel Dodding's Round- 
 head garrison at Lancaster, at this juncture " marched downe the Trough 
 of Bowland and so into Blackburn Hundred to Clitherall [Clitheroe], 
 till Prince Rupert marched up to Yorke." Then, when Rupert had 
 passed on, this ofiicer followed in his rear, and " marched towards Leeds, 
 carrying some prisoners thither out of Blackburn Hundred from Colonell 
 Nicholas Shuttleworth ;" and Colonel Dodding, quitting Lancaster, 
 "within two daies after Captain Pateson, went away marching thorow the 
 dale countries of Yorkshire [Upper Ribblesdale and Wharfedale] up to 
 the Leaguer of York, and Captain Swarbreck with him ; they were in 
 the battle there, where Colonell Dodding lost many of his Regiment."' 
 
 The Blackbumshire Roundheads under Shuttleworth had a second 
 brush with Rupert's horse a little to the east of Burnley, which may 
 have been the action near Colne above-noticed, between Sir Charles 
 Lucas and Colonel Shuttleworth, in which the latter was reported 
 wounded. Mr. T. T. Wilkinson is led by an entry in the Burnley Parish 
 Register to fix upon the hamlet of Haggate, among the hills of Brier- 
 cliffe, on the old road from Burnley to Colne, as the scene of this engage- 
 ment. The Burnley Church Register records the burial of "Robert 
 Ecroyd, a souldier for Thomas Eastwood," on June 27th, 1644, and also 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, p. 50. 
 
148 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of " Nicholas Starkie," " James Gabbott, of Billington," " Peter Hitchin, 
 of Hackgate," and " Bernard Smith ;" all entered as " slayne at Hack- 
 gate.'" As the report of the affair near Colne was dated June 25th, it is 
 very likely to refer to the skirmish at Haggate, in which these soldiers 
 fell. But it is possible that a third conflict took place in the more 
 immediate vicinity of Colne. There is evidence of the predations of 
 Rupert's troopers on the estates around Burnley in the memorandum in 
 which Mr. John Halsted records that on the 24th of June, 1644, the 
 Royalists of Prince Rupert stole from his place at Swinden five beasts, 
 and a horse of his from Rowley. What Halsted suffered in loss of live- 
 stock during this visitation of the enemy was the common fate of every 
 " rebel" gentleman and yeoman in Blackburn Hundred. 
 
 The appended letters, found among the MSS. of the Earl of Denbigh 
 at Newnham Parrox, refer to the days during which Rupert was forcing 
 his way through Blackburn Hundred and across the Yorkshire border to 
 Skipton : — June 25th, 1644, Sir Thomas Middleton writes from Nant- 
 wich : — " Satt. night. Prince [Rupert] is still in Lancashire, and not 
 likely to get thence in any short tyme, soe that if wee can but be able to 
 get together into a bodye in some short tyme, wee may then bee in pos- 
 sibility to doe good service. Sir John [Meldrum] assures mee that the 
 Prynce is not above 6000 foote and 8000 horse." June 27th. Fer- 
 dinando Fairfax to Sir William Brcreton, at the rendezvous at Knuts- 
 ford : — " Haste, post haste. Prince Rupert is upon his march to 
 endeavour the raiseing of the seidge at Yorke, part of the forces being 
 allready advanced as farr as Skipton in Craven, and hee is expected very 
 shortly to follow with the mayne of his army." 
 
 Rupert, having reached York at the end of June, by a skillful flank 
 movement relieved the city and raised the siege, and then, accepting 
 the challenge of the Parliamentarian generals to a battle in the open 
 field, the great and decisive battle of Marston Moor was fought on the 
 2nd of July. In that memorable battle, the forces on either side num- 
 bered from 25,000 to 30,000 men, and included the finest regiments in 
 both services, commanded by the ablest generals the war had produced. 
 The Royalist army was under the command of Prince Rupert, with 
 whom was the Earl of Derby, and of the Marquis of Newcastle. The 
 army of the Parliament was commanded by the already famous General 
 Cromwell, Sir Thomas Fairfax and General Lambert. Rupert and 
 Cromwell, the two boldest warriors of the age, were opposed to each 
 other in this battle ; and the gallant Royalists of Lancashire found them- 
 selves confronted by Cromwell's invincible Ironsides. The struggle 
 between the right wing of the king's army under Rupert and the left 
 
 I Hist, of Paroch. Church of Burnley, p. 55. 
 
MARSTON MOOR BATTLE— RETREAT OF RUPERT. 149 
 
 wing of the enemy under Cromwell was deadly. Lord Derby and 
 Sir Thomas Tyldesley, at the head of the Lancashire regiments, per- 
 formed prodigies of courage ; the Earl is said to have rallied his soldiers 
 thrice when they recoiled before the onset of the Ironsides. But every 
 effort proved vain ; and the close of that sanguinary day saw the 
 Royalist host completely vanquished. Rupert fell back upon York with 
 the loss of his artillery train, and the next day commenced a disastrous 
 retreat, with the broken fragments of his army, through Richmondshire 
 into Lancashire. The 20,000 men with which he had marched to York 
 had been reduced by the heavy losses of battle to about 6,000, and 
 among the killed and taken many hundreds of Lancashire loyalists were 
 numbered. 
 
 No official roll has been found of the Lancashire officers and regi- 
 ments that participated in the battle of Marston Moor ; and I can only 
 mention with certainty a few of the principal Royalists of the county 
 who were in the battle besides the Earl of Derby and Sir Thomas 
 Tyldesley. Colonel Goring was present with the contingent out of 
 North Lancashire, which had been reviewed by Prince Rupert on Pres- 
 ton Marsh a fortnight before the battle. Probably William Farrington, 
 of Worden, also marched to York, between the two sieges of Lathom, 
 in both of which he played an honourable part. Colonel Edward Chisen- 
 hale, a member of the Chisenhales of Chorley, appears in this campaign. 
 Among those out of Lancashire who perished at Marston Moor were 
 Captain Christopher Anderton, probably of the Andertons of Lostock ; 
 Charles Townley, Esq., of Townley; and, according to Vicars's 
 Chronicle, " Colonel Houghton, son to Sir Gilbert Houghton."^ 
 
 Retreating rapidly by forced marches, Rupert distanced his pursuers 
 detached from the victorious enemy at York ; and, fearing that his way 
 through Blackburn Hundred might be blocked by forces from Manches- 
 ter uniting with those left in the Hundred, performed his backward 
 movement through Lunesdale. On July 8th, 1644, six days after Marston 
 Moor battle. Colonel Shuttleworth wrote from Padiham to the Committee 
 for Parliament at Manchester : — " I have this morning intelligence from 
 Captain Porter att Lancaster that Prince Rupert will bee this night at 
 Horneby, but how strong we know not, and intendeth for Liverpooll as 
 wee understand.'"* A week later, July isth. Sir George Booth wrote 
 from Dunham to the Commander-in-chief at Nantwich: — "I am informed 
 that Prince Rupert is come to Preston, or very neare it, with 6000 
 horse and some foot, and that Lieutenant Generall Cromwell lefte the 
 pursuit of him, and is returned to York to the Leaguer, so as the enemie 
 hath more scope and liberty to advance as he pleaseth. And, there- 
 
 J Pt. i, p. 2?i. 2 MSS. of E. of Denbigh. 
 
I50 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 fore, it will behove us of this countie [Cheshire] to stand well upon our 
 ward, and rally our fforces for the publique safetie.'" 
 
 There is no account of encounter with any force of the enemy 
 during Rupert's retreat through Lancashire. At the period of his transit 
 the county was almost denuded of Parliamentarian soldiers. On his 
 return march the Prince had not with him any portion of the Lancashire 
 contingent. It was left behind ; one detachment under Colonel Goring, 
 and a larger force under Colonel Tyldesley, that was wandering to and 
 fro in ^Vest Lancashire a month afterwards. The Royalist garrison 
 Prince Rupert had left at Clitheroe in his eastward advance, being under 
 an incapable captain, had lost little time in evacuating the post on 
 getting tidings of the great defeat at York. Says the local annalist of 
 the War : — " Clitherall Castle was committed to the trust of Captain 
 Cuthbert Bradkirk of Wray, a man of small account and of no good 
 caring. He caused it to be repaired about the Gate House where it 
 was ruined. He fetched out of the Country about great stores of good 
 provisions of all kinds — Meall, Mault, Beef, Bacon, Butter, Cheese, and 
 the like. [This officer was manifestly a smart forager, if a poor fighter.] 
 He kept it [the castle], much to the prejudice of the country, till the 
 Prince had lost the Battell at York. And when that was known to him, 
 no enemie coming to oppose nor anie visible thing appearing against 
 him, but out of the feare and guilt of his owne mind upon a sudden he 
 caused the Draw Well within to be filled with some of the provisions he 
 had plundered from the country, and without taking any leave he and 
 his company did run away and left it.'" Perhaps the Roundhead writer 
 is a little unjust in his stricture upon Captain Bradkirk ; for it is difficult 
 to see with what prudence this officer and his band could have tarried 
 longer at Clitheroe, when all the rest of the King's forces were being 
 driven in headlong flight out of the county, without any hope of return- 
 ing within a reasonable period. By his sudden withdrawal from Clitheroe 
 Castle on hearing of the lost battle, Captain Bradkirk, at the least, 
 saved his company from an inevitable surrender as prisoners of war a 
 few weeks later. However, the other Royalist garrison left in the Earl 
 of Derby's castle of Greenough, near Garstang, under the command of 
 Captain Anderton, of Lostock, did bravely keep its post, in the midst of 
 a district soon swarming with foes, and it was not until many months 
 after that the castle was reduced by Colonel Dodding. 
 
 On the 8th of August, it was decided by the Parliamentarian con- 
 clave that " the Lord Fairfax should take care of Yorkshire, and send 
 1,000 Horse into Lancashire to join with the forces of that Countie 
 against Liverpoole, as also Cheshire and Derbyshire, for the reducing the 
 
 I MSB. of E. of Denbigh. 2 Disc, of Warr, p. 53. 
 
FIGHT AT WALTON COP AND RIBBLE BRIDGE. 151 
 
 * 
 
 rest of Prince Rupert's broken forces.'" By the time the detachment sent 
 west by Fairfax reached Lancashire, some successes were scored by the 
 local forces. The Perfect Diurnall for Monday, August 12 th, 1644, 
 reported the receipt of letters to the effect that "Colonel Ashton (a valiant 
 active gentleman) had taken 200 of the Earl of Barbie's Horse neere to 
 Preston, and that Sir William Brereton, Major Generall of the Associa- 
 tion of Chester, had sent a party of about 1,500 foote to join with the 
 Lancasterians in beleaguering the town of Liverpool.'"' Other move- 
 ments, in the vicinity of Blackburn and Preston, in which Colonel 
 Nicholas Shuttleworth and Sir John Meldrum victoriously attacked the 
 rear-guard of the retreating Royalist army, the author of the Discourse 
 of the Warr describes with some minuteness. He states that Sir John 
 Meldrum, "about the loth of August, being designed to clear this 
 County and furnished with forces of Salford and Blackbume Hundreds 
 with the remainders of Amonderness and a Regiment of the Yorkshire 
 Horse,"—" set forward into Darby Hundred to seek them ; but they fled 
 over Ribble Watter into the Fylde, out of which upon a false Alarum 
 they had fled not above five days before." While Sir John Meldrum 
 was trying to find his enemy south of Ribble, who had doubled back 
 into the Fylde, " some scatterings of the Enemy aboad in or about 
 Preston." The narrative proceeds :— 
 
 Now Colonel Nicholas Shuttleworth lying at Blackbume with his Troop, upon 
 the 1 5th of August he with a part of his Troop and some Countrymen, being desirous 
 to go to Preston if possible (it being the Fair there), when they came to the Coppe 
 at Walton they meeting with some of the King's part scirmished with them and put 
 them 10 the flight. And in the pursuit they took a Scottish Lord called Ogles 
 [Ogleby] and with him one of the Huddlestones of Millam Castle. And after that 
 they met with more of that Companie about Ribble Bridge Hill and there had a sore 
 disput with them, killing one of them at the Bridge End, a brave, portly man ; what 
 his name was they could not learne, for they were so hard put to, that it was with 
 great difficulty that they came off with honour and safetie — yet did, and brought some 
 butties and their Prisoners to Blackbume that night, and went not to Preston [that is 
 to say, did not enter the town, as they had purposed, to see the Fair].' 
 
 A despatch of Colonel Nicholas Shuttleworth, concerning this fight, 
 is in existence, WTitten from Whalley : — 
 
 Riglit Honourable. — Upon Thursday last [Thursday, August 15th] marching 
 with three of my troops upon Blackbume towards Preston, where the Enemie lay, I 
 met 1 1 of their Colours at Ribble Bridge within a mile of Preston, whereupon after 
 a sharp fight we took the Lord Ogleby, a Scotch Lord, and Col. Ennis, one other 
 Col. slaine, one Major wounded, and divers ofiicers and souldiers to the number of 40 
 in all taken, besides 8 or 9 slaine, with the losse of 12 men taken prisoners, which 
 afterwards were released by Sir John Mildrum upon his coming to Preston the night 
 following, from whence the Enemie fled. — Your humble Servant, Nrc. Shuttle- 
 worth.* 
 
 1 C. W. Tracts, p. 203. 2 lb., p. 204, 3 Disc, of Warr, pp. 54-5. 
 
 4 Baines's Hist, of Lane, ii, p. 447. 
 
152 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 There is likewise a record of this affair in Vicars's Parliamentary 
 Chronicle : — • 
 
 August the two and twentieth, came credible information' by letters out of 
 Lancashire to London, that the Lord Ogleby, a Scotch incendiary, fell upon Colonel 
 Doddington, neer Preston in Lancashire, as hee was marching out of Yorkshire to 
 Sir John Meldrum, then in Lancashire. Colonell Doddington, the first, had the 
 worst, but young Colonell Shuttleworth, who indeed deserved to bee an elder brother 
 for his activity and gallant performances in the service, came in timely to the relief of 
 that valiant gentleman, Colonell Doddington, and put the enemy, consisting of foure 
 hundred horse, to totall rout, slew many on the place, and took many prisoners ; among 
 whom were the Lord Ogleby himself, Colonell Mynne, and Lievtenant Colonell 
 Huddlestone, a man of power and much reporte in Cumberland ; and divers other 
 persons of quality, Scottish commanders and gentlemen, were taken prisoners ; they 
 also took three score Horse with their riders, and a party of these also endeavouring to 
 get to Lathom House as a place of retreat, was surprised by our forces who lay before 
 Lathom House, and every man of them taken prisoners. ' 
 
 The flying visit of Colonel Nicholas Shuttleworth to Preston was 
 immediately succeeded by the permanent occupation of the town by the 
 Parliamentarian regiments under Sir John Meldrum, and the flight of 
 the Royalist partizans into the rural districts of Amoundemess. The 
 most circumstantial narrative of the war in this county says : — " At this 
 tyme little was known at Blackburn of Sir John Meldrum's March, and 
 yet the 1 6th day of August [the day after Shuttleworth's fight at Walton 
 Bridge], about ten or eleaven of the clock at night he entered Preston, 
 the Enemie flying from the towne downe into the Fylde ; for being far 
 in Darbie Hundred and hearing that those Enemies that were there fled 
 into the Fylde over Eibble Watter, he marched fast that day although 
 it was a sore wet day. He quartered his Army in Preston about Satur- 
 day and Sunday. Upon Saturday late at night came up to him a Regi- 
 ment carrying all Black Cullurs that came out of Cheshire.'"* This was 
 the regiment that Sir William Brereton detached from his Cheshire army 
 to aid the Lancastrian Roundheads in clearing the county of the 
 enemy. At the same time, also, " Colonell Dodding in his return from 
 York Battell, quartering some while in Blackbume Hundred recruiting 
 his Forces and furnishing them with Cullers and other necessaries, hear- 
 ing that Sir John was come up to Preston, came up to him with his 
 Regiment that night." Meldrum thus found himself in command of a 
 force of four or five thousand men, with which he gave active pursuit to 
 the elusive Royalists. 
 
 August 19th, 1644, Sir John Meldrum re-entered Preston, having 
 expelled the enemy from the Fylde country. On the 20th of August, 
 he moved southward to pursue the enemy retreating through North 
 Meols and the westerly townships of West Derby Hundred, with the 
 
 I Pt. iii, p. ; 
 
 2 Disc, of Warr, pp. 55-6. 
 
DISTRESS IN THE COUNTY. 153 
 
 object of gaining Liverpool. Sir John had previously despatched Bed- 
 ding's regiment to besiege Greenough Castle. Liverpool was surren- 
 dered by the Royalist garrison on Friday, November ist, 1644. 
 
 By an Ordinance of the 29th of August, 1644, the two Houses of 
 Parliament had appointed a Committee for Lancashire, for the seques- 
 tration of the estates of " Malignants" (as the Royalists were termed) ; 
 for the assessment of the tax called the "Soldier's Ley" upon the county ; 
 and the reduction of the forces. The committee were to hold general 
 monthly meetings at Preston. One instruction to this committee was 
 that no person unfit in the judgment of seven or more of the committee 
 " to be intrusted with arms, should reside or dwell within any of the 
 towns of Manchester, Warrington, Liverpool, Lancaster, Clitheroe, or 
 Preston," and every able-bodied inhabitant of these places was to be 
 required to bear arms, or to provide a substitute. Among the twenty- 
 eight members of this Lancashire Committee of Assessment are found 
 the following representatives of local families : — Sir Ralph Ashton, Bart. ; 
 Richard Hoghton, Esq.; Richard Shuttleworth, Esq.; John Starkey, 
 Esq.; Richard Ashton, Esq.; Nicholas Cunliffe, gent. ; and Robert 
 Cunliffe, gent.' 
 
 The famine of food and general distress in those parts of Lanca- 
 shire which had been the scene of Rupert's ravages and the military 
 operations of that memorable summer of 1644 had been so extreme, 
 that on the nth of September the matter was brought before Parliament, 
 and the subjoined Order was passed by the House of Commons : — 
 
 Whereas there hath been such Spoil, Rapine, and unheard-of Cruelties, lately 
 committed by the Enemy within the County of Lancaster, insomuch that in some 
 parts the people have hardly anything left them to cover their Nakedness, or their 
 Children Bread to eat ; which extreme Misery being represented unto thj Commons 
 assembled in Parliament : It is Ordered, That upon the Twelfth Day of this Instant 
 September, being appointed for a solemn Fast, the One-half of the public Collection 
 to be made in all the Churches within the Cities of London, Westminster, and within 
 the lines of Communication, shall be employed for the Relief of those poor distressed 
 People within the said County of Lancaster ; and the Money so gathered, being certi- 
 fied under the Hands of the Ministers and Churchwardens of every Church, to be 
 upon Tuesday following, being the Seventeenth Day of this Instant Month, paid unto 
 Mr. Herle and Mr. Case, Ministers, Members of the Assembly of Divines, at the 
 Deane's House at Westminster : Which Money is by them forthwith to be conveyed 
 and paid unto Mr. John Hartley of Manchester, and by him to be disbursed, accord- 
 ing to such Directions as he shall receive under the Hands of Mr. Herrick Warden of 
 Manchester, Mr. Harper Minister of Boulton, Mr. Ward Minister of Warrington, 
 Mr. Lathom Minister of Douglasse, Mr. Ambrose Minister of Preston, Mr. Shaw 
 Minister of Aldinham, and Mr. Hipworth Minister of Whaley [Whalley], or any 
 Four of them ; who have hereby authority to dispose and distribute the same ; the 
 several distributions being first seen and allowed by Three or more of the Deputy 
 Lieutenants of the same County.^ 
 
 I Journals of H. of Commons. 2 lb. 
 
 20 
 
1 54 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 During the winter Greenough Castle, by Garstang, was won for the 
 Parliament by the besieging force, mostly of Blackbumshire men, under 
 Colonel Dodding. This Castle, owned, as formerly stated, by the 
 Earl of Derby, was totally demolished. Lathom House, the last refuge 
 of broken Royalism in Lancashire, was surrendered December 2nd, 
 1645, after a second siege or blockade of sixteen months. Within three 
 years of the commencement of the conflict of the hostile parties in 
 Lancashire, not a solitary Royalist soldier remained in arms in any part 
 of the county. The men of Blackburn and Salford Hundreds, with the 
 minority of Puritan confederates in Amoundemess and from Liverpool, 
 had proved more than a taatch for the Royalists of the four western 
 Hundreds of Lancashire, joined by not a few friends of the King out 
 of East Lancashire, and led though they were by the most powerful 
 nobles and gentry in this province of the Kingdom. The result of the 
 strife was singular, and is but partially accounted for by the drain of 
 Lancashire loyalists to reinforce the King's chief armies, fighting in dis- 
 tant parts of the country. It was, however, a miserable and disastrous 
 contest to all involved, and hardly less to the adherents of the victorious, 
 than to those of the defeated, cause. 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1646, the Royalist interest in 
 Lancashire had been crushed out of existence ; and by midsummer of 
 that year, the victory of the Parliament all over the country was so com- 
 plete that it was confessed that "the Kinge hath no armye in the field to 
 the number of 1 00 men, nor any one garrison unbesieged. '" King Charles, 
 feeling the game was lost, had surrendered himself to the Scottish Army 
 at Newark, in May, 1646, and on the loth of June the captive monarch 
 issued his warrant to those few supporters who still held fortified places 
 (Sir Thomas Tyldesley was one), to evacuate them and to disband their 
 forces. 
 
 The Lancashire Committee of Sequestration were very active in 
 their proceedings about this time. It was not the great landowners 
 alone who were subjected to their penalties. The smaller gentry and 
 yeomen who had taken the losing side were fined in proportion to their 
 means. It was generally found convenient by the sequestrators to allow 
 the " delinquent " parties to compound for their estates by the payment 
 of an assessed sum in money. The gentry of the district driven to 
 compound at this time were : — Roger Nowell of Read, Esq., who paid 
 ^jf 736 4s. 6d. as the price of his retention of his estates ; John South- 
 worth of Samlesbury, Esq., paid ;^3S8 i8s. gd. ; Sir John Talbot of 
 Salesbury, Knt., paid ^^444 ; Edward Walmesley of Banister Hall, 
 gent., ^114 ; William Winckley of Billington, gent, ^26 ; William 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, p. 214. 
 
LANCASHIRE PRESBYTERY -BLACKBURN CLASSIS. 
 
 15s 
 
 Farrington of Worden, senior, Esq., £536 ; William Farrington, junior, 
 gent, £117. 
 
 In the autumn of 1646, the experiment was made of the establish- 
 ment of a Presbyterian form of church discipline as the legalised 
 ecclesiastical system in Lancashire. Presbyterian Classes were appointed 
 for each Hundred and all the churches were furnished with ministers 
 approved by the Lancashire Presbytery, and supported by stipends 
 supplied out of the funds of the County Sequestration Committee in 
 cases where there was no sufficient endowment attached to the benefice. 
 The Classis of Blackburn Hundred was constituted of the following 
 ministers and laymen : — 
 
 The Ministers fit to be of the Third Classis.— Mr. Adam Boulton 
 of Blackburne ; Mr. Robert Worthington of Harwood ; Mr. Richard Redman of Low 
 Church; Mr. William Walker of Whaley ; Mr. Henry Morrice of Bumeley; Mr. 
 John Briars of Padiham ; Mr. Wm. Ingham of Church ; Mr. John King of Chipping. 
 
 Others fit to be of the Third Ci.assis. — Sir Ralph Ashton, Baronet ; 
 Richard Shuttleworth, senior, Esquire ; John Parker, Esquire ; Richard Ashton of 
 Downham, Esquire ; John Livesay of Livesay, gentleman ; Thomas Barcroft of Bar- 
 croft, gentleman; Nicholas Cunliffe of Wycollar, gentleman; John Cunliffe of Hollins, 
 gentleman ; Robert Cunliffe of Sparth, gentleman ; Nicholas Rishton of Anteley, 
 gentleman ; Roger Gellibom of Beardwood, gentleman ; William Yates of Blackburne 
 gentleman ; John Howorth of Clayton, gentleman ; Thomas Whalley of Rishton, 
 gentleman ; Charles Gregory of Haslinden, gentleman. ' 
 
 The ordinance of Parliament creating the Lancashire Provincial 
 Presbytery of nine classes is dated Oct. 2nd, 1646; and on the 17th 
 of November following, the Assembly met for the first time at Preston 
 and framed a declaration of polity, published under the title of " The 
 Deliberate Resolution of the Ministers of the Gospel within the County 
 Palatine of Lancaster, with their grounds and cautions according to 
 which they put into execution the Presbyteriall Government upon the 
 present Ordinances of Parliament."'^ During its existence, the Provincial 
 Assembly held twenty-two half-yearly meetings, usually at Preston ; one 
 meeting only was held at Blackburn. The functions of the Lancashire 
 Presbytery were spontaneously suspended in 1659. 
 
 The year 1647 ^^'^s passed in tranquillity in Lancashire, and 
 throughout England. At the close of the year, it was resolved to effect 
 large reductions in the standing army, the support of which had severely 
 taxed the resources of Parliament. Accordingly, on the 23rd December, 
 1647, the House of Commons appointed a Committee to go down to 
 the army in the various counties, to disband the supernumeraries, pay the 
 troops, and take off free quarter. The gentlemen sent down into 
 Lancashire upon this duty were Colonel Assheton, Mr. Fell, Mr. Peter 
 Brook, and Mr. Shuttleworth, junior. 
 
 1 Journals of H. of Commons. 2 London : Printed for Luke Fawne, 1647. 
 
iS6 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 But this interval of calm was the prelude of another stormy out- 
 burst of strife. King Charles was in the hands of his enemies, but 
 among his friends in England and Scotland was cherished a determina- 
 .tion to put forth another effort to restore the fallen sovereignty. A plan 
 for the invasion of England was matured by the Stuart party in the 
 North, whilst, in concert with the projectors of that design, Sir 
 Marmaduke Langdale was employed to collect the fragments of the 
 Royalist forces in the northern English counties. In the Spring of 
 1648 the army raised by the Duke of Hamilton among the Scottish 
 nobility had grown to such proportions, that the prospect of an advance 
 southward of the Duke and Langdale began to create uneasiness in 
 Parliamentarian quarters, particularly among the Roundheads in Lanca- 
 shire, who were likely to bear the brunt of the new attack. By the 
 middle of May, rumours of the coming forward of the Royalist Scottish 
 army had become so positive that the House of Commons ordered 
 Colonel Assheton and other officers to repair to Lancashire to employ 
 means for the safety of the county. The mandate was promptly put 
 into execution by Colonel Assheton and his colleagues. There yet 
 remained embodied in Lancashire a force of several regiments, which 
 formed a nucleus for the Lancashire army Colonel (now Major-General) 
 Assheton was engaged to muster for the defence of the Parliamentarian 
 interest there. 
 
 Sir Ralph Assheton called up with speed the militia of Lancashire, 
 which had fought under him in former campaigns. June 12th, it was 
 reported that "The Committee of Lancashire have ordered four colonels 
 of foot and two of horse, with their regiments, now in readiness in the 
 northern part of this county, forthwith to join with Major-General 
 Lambert's forces in Yorkshire against the enemy in Westmoreland and 
 Cumberland ;" that " Colonel Ashton is Commander-in-chief, and under 
 him Lt.-Col. Rigby commandeth one regiment of horse, and Colonel 
 Nicholas Shuttleworth the other ; the colonels are Col. Dodding, Col. 
 Standish, commandeth his own and Lt.-Col. Rigby's foot, Col. Ashton 
 [Assheton of Downham], and Col. Oughtred Shuttleworth.'" 
 
 After some bootless delay on the Border, Duke Hamilton at last 
 moved onward into England in the last days of July, 1648. " Some 
 of his army was in the North about Appleby and those parts a good 
 space. And Colonell Lambert with the forces of Yorkshire and Lanca- 
 shire for the Parliament had some little bout with them, but not being 
 able to withstand them, they retreated downe into Yorkshire, there 
 expecting and looking for Generall Cromwell with his Forces to come 
 in to them to make head to resist the Duke. About the latter end 
 
 1 C. W. Tracts, p. 252. 
 
CAMPAIGN OF 1648— HAMILTON'S ADVANCE. 157 
 
 of July the Duke's Army was moving towards this country, and by the 
 beginning of August was entered it.'" 
 
 To General Cromwell it was that not only the advanced guard of 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire, but the country, looked for the discomfiture 
 of the combination of Hamilton's Presbyterians, and Langdale's 
 Prelatists and Roman Catholics, for the re-imposition of the Stuart 
 dynasty. Cromwell had some time been employed in military operations 
 terminating in the tedious Siege of Pembroke. It was thought Crom- 
 well would be compelled to raise that siege, by the more serious 
 distractions demanding his presence in the North. But he persisted in 
 the investment, closely calculating the time when the Welsh business 
 must close, and the campaign against Hamilton must open. On the 
 nth of July, Pembroke capitulated ; and Cromwell, released from that 
 duty, marched swiftly into England, in the direction of Yorkshire. His 
 route lay through Gloucester, Leicester and Nottingham ; and by the 
 27th of July, his horse regiments had effected the junction with Lambert 
 at Barnard Castle. Cromwell himself, at the head of his foot regiments, 
 did not join until about the 9th of August, when the combination was 
 effected at Wetherby. Thence the united army, under Cromwell's 
 command, marched to Knaresborough, and was at the latter town on the 
 nth of August. The design was then to enter Lancashire, which 
 Cromwell hoped to reach in time to intercept the invading army in its 
 passage through the county. 
 
 Hamilton, less regardful of the importance of time, both to himself 
 and the enemy, was more leisurely in his movements than Cromwell. 
 It took him nearly a fortnight to reach Preston after his entrance into 
 Lancashire at Burton-in-Kendal and Kirkby-Lonsdale. From Hornby 
 the Duke marched to Lancaster, which he did not stay to invest, and 
 lodged one night at Ashton Hall ; thence, with his vanguard, " his 
 Artillery and three Carriages, came to Preston on the 14th or 15th of 
 August."^ 
 
 BATTLE AT PRESTON AND WALTON. 
 
 Throughout the long conflict between Monarch and Parliament, no 
 more signal military transaction took place than the Battle at Preston 
 and Walton, between Cromwell and Duke Hamilton, in August, 1648. 
 Not Marston Moor battle, the turning point in the contest, when for the 
 first time the star of Cromwell rose in the ascendant, and that of Rupert 
 suffered occultation ; nor Naseby, the expiring effort of the English 
 Cavaliers to save the cause of Charles ; nor Worcester, where the heir 
 of the then beheaded King drank to the dregs the bitter cup of defeat 
 that had been ordained for the Stuarts in these wars ; was regarded at 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, p. 64. 2 lb., p. 65. 
 
158 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the time, by either section of a divided nation, as of more supreme 
 consequence than the collision of the opposing forces on the banks 
 of the Ribble and Darwen. The particularity with which the brief 
 campaign, which began and was determined by this battle, was dwelt 
 upon by those engaged in it ; the lengthy despatches of the victor, 
 Cromwell ; the vindicatory narrative of Langdale, the English general 
 on the vanquished side ; the proceedings in Parliament on the announce- 
 ment of the battle and its results; and the private histories of the event 
 by subordinate participants in the battle, all serve to betoken the 
 contemporary estimate of the magnitude of the issue here decided. 
 Measured, too, by the material gains to the conquerors, and by the 
 losses of life and liberty by the defeated, this battle gives place to none 
 fought in that war, nor, indeed, to any waged on English ground before 
 or since. 
 
 On Wednesday night, August i6th, 1648, the last of Duke Hamil- 
 ton's troops had arrived in the neighbourhood of Preston. The Duke's 
 army numbered in all about 12,000 foot and 5,000 horse; a total of 
 some 1 7,000 men. But this considerable army was very much scattered 
 and disotdered, On the morning of the 1 7th August, a large portion of 
 Hamilton's vanguard of cavalry was as far ahead as Wigan. Of his 
 infantry, some thousands were across the Ribble, and posted in the 
 village of Walton and on the rising ground beyond Darwen Bridge. 
 Other regiments were on the Preston side of Ribble Bridge and in the 
 town of Preston ; while a body of the Scottish horse was out foraging 
 in the Fylde. Sir Marmaduke Langdale, with the English contingent, 
 comprising some 3,000 foot and 600 horse, had just reached his quarters 
 on the Ribbleton side of Preston, on the termination of his march out 
 of Craven. The Royalist army was therefore spread over about twenty 
 or more miles of country, from north to south, and was utterly unready 
 for an attack upon any part of its extended line. Moreover, between 
 the Scots of Hamilton and the English of Langdale there existed 
 religious and political differences that rendered concerted action very 
 doubtful. Even had it been probable that Cromwell's attack would 
 come either from the north or the south, the position of Hamilton's 
 army was one of extreme weakness ; though had the blow been struck 
 either upon the heads of the Duke's columns at Wigan, or upon his 
 rear behind Preston, the assailed regiments might have retreated upon 
 the main body. But it was a necessity of the case that if Cromwell 
 attacked at all, at this stage in the invader's advance, it must be upon 
 his left flank, and consequently that any troops lying apart from the 
 main body would be entirely out of the fight. Only the conviction on 
 the part of Duke Hamilton and his council of war that Cromwell was 
 
BATTLE AT PRESTON AND WALTON. 155 
 
 not strong enough to attack, or could not come up in time to confront 
 the Duke on the Ribble, could explain, much less justify, the careless 
 disposition of the Scottish forces. Sir Marmaduke Langdale, indeed, 
 had his English regiments well in hand, and having come to Preston by 
 the same road that the enemy might be expected, his troops were 
 posted precisely where they would be wanted in the event of a sudden 
 flank attack. Langdale's position was at the edge of Ribbleton Moor, 
 a short distance east of the town of Preston. He knew that an hostile 
 force was within three miles of him ; and he communicated the fact to 
 Duke Hamilton, but the Duke could not credit that Cromwell was so 
 near, and supposing that the enemy was merely a small force of Lanca- 
 shire militia hovering on his flank, he made no preparation to meet a 
 formidable onslaught. 
 
 Lieut. -General Cromwell, meanwhile, had got across the frontier 
 passes into East Lancashire with great celerity. On the 13th of August 
 he was at Otley, in Wharfedale ; on the 14th he entered Skipton ; on 
 the I sth had reached the verge of Yorkshire, at Gisbum ; and on the 
 1 6th, having marched from Gisbum to Clitheroe, through Rimington 
 and Chatbum, and from Clitheroe over Edisford Bridge to Mitton, he 
 had arrived towards evening at the old bridge over the Hodder, the 
 ruins of which still remain, a few yards below the modem bridge. Here 
 Cromwell halted, and held a council with his officers, to consider if they 
 should tum to the left, taking the road to Whalley, and by that route 
 march to Blackburn and Bolton, and so strike the enemy somewhere in 
 South Lancashire or in Cheshire ; or should cross the Hodder, and, 
 following the right bank of the Ribble to Preston, try to catch the enemy 
 before he had quitted his quarters there and force him to a general 
 action. In favour of the latter move it could be urged that it was more 
 likely to permit of the suqirise of an unguarded adversary. Fortunately 
 for the issue, Cromwell resolved to cross the bridge, and by a forced 
 march to reach and beard the foe upon the Ribble. The Roundhead 
 army encamped that night in the fields about Stonyhurst. At daybreak 
 next morning it began the march of nine miles to Preston, the des- 
 tined battle-ground. The weather was wet, and the roads and fields 
 very heavy for marching of foot or horse. But after a toilsome march 
 by Hurst Green and Longridge, the Roundhead vanguard came in view 
 of the foe late in the afternoon, between Longridge and Ribbleton. 
 Cromwell's amiy was but small, not more than 8,500 men, including a 
 portion of the Lancashire regiments that had joined him near Clitheroe. 
 The odds against him were nearly three to one, for the united forces 
 of Hamilton and Langdale were variously reckoned at from 22,000 to 
 24,000 men. The day too was fast waning, and Hot more than four or 
 
i6o 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 five hours of daylight were left for a fight that seemed likely to be 
 stubborn. Nevertheless, Cromwell gave orders for an immediate attack. 
 The decision, though apparently rash, was really wise — the intuition 
 of a consummate general. Cromwell divined that the enemy's force 
 was squandered beyond all chance of concentration, should the attack 
 be at once delivered ; whereas by a few hours of delay some thousands 
 of outlying troops might have been called in by Hamilton to aid him in 
 withstanding the onset of the Parliamentarian general. Cromwell's 
 army, though overmatched in numbers, was highly disciplined and con- 
 fident in itself and its invincible general. 
 
 The battle commenced by an attack with foot and horse upon Sir 
 Marmaduke Langdale's force, " drawn out," says Cromwell, " upon a 
 moor betwixt us and the Town." Langdale's Englishmen fought very 
 stoutly, and although the assailants were very superior in strength at the 
 point struck, it took from three to four hours to dislodge the Royalists, 
 and to force the entrance to the town. Langdale, finding himself 
 worsted, judiciously moved his troops little by little to his right, in the 
 direction of Ribble Bridge at Walton, to bring him in closer communi- 
 cation with Hamilton's army, the major portion of which remained in 
 its quarters at Walton, and on both banks of the Ribble. Eventually, a 
 remnant of Langdale and Hamilton's troops was driven into, and 
 through, the streets of Preston, by four troops of Cromwell's own horse- 
 regiment, and completely detached from the main army. The rest 
 of Langdale's men debouched upon the Bridge at Walton, and in 
 conjunction with some Scots there posted, stiffly maintained the bridge 
 against the advance of Cromwell's regiments, of which the Lancashire 
 contingent here came to the front of the action. At last, the Lancashire 
 Roundheads stormed the bridge, and pursued the beaten enemy through 
 the village of Walton to Darvven Bridge. At this second bridge another 
 fierce conflict took place ; but again the Royalists had to yield ; the 
 troops of Cromwell carried the bridge over the Darwen, and occupied 
 the cluster of houses that stood near it. When darkness set in, Crom- 
 well was in possession of the town of Preston ; of the ground on both 
 banks of the Ribble ; of Ribble Bridge, Walton village, and Darwen 
 Bridge. Those regiments of the Royalist horse cut off from the main 
 army, and driven out of Preston on the north side, were hotly pursued 
 ten miles on the road to Lancaster, and many hundreds of the men and 
 horses captured. 
 
 The battle-ground traverses several miles of country ; commencing 
 upon a stretch of boggy waste known as Ribbleton Moor, having a slight 
 descent towards Preston burgh ; on the west skirt of the moor were 
 the enclosed lands of Fishwick and the crofts and gardens of the eastern 
 
BATTLE AT PRESTON AND WALTON. i6l 
 
 suburb of Preston. Where Ribbleton Lane ended in its junction with 
 the main street of the town, the road to Wigan and the South branched 
 to the left in the direction of the Ribble Bridge at Walton ; and on the 
 east side of this road the plateau of Fishwick terminates in a bluff, des- 
 cending to the low level holme expanding here on the north side 
 of the river. West of the Walton road, the Swillbrook ran at the bottom 
 of a dingle between Frenchwood and Preston, that deepens until the 
 brook reaches the Ribble below Avenham. A tradition exists, recorded 
 by Patten, writing in 1716, that in the hollow, where a way from the 
 town to Walton Bridge crossed the brook, Cromwell, when riding between 
 these points on the right wing of his army, was put in great peril of his 
 life by the sinking of his horse's feet in a quagmire, while the steep 
 ground in front was lined by the enemy's firemen or pikemen, and barely 
 saved himself by hastily dismounting. The old road made a quicker 
 descent near the bridge over Ribble than the modern road ; and when 
 once the musketeers of Cromwell had been suffered to occupy the high 
 banks flanking the road, the position of the Scots defending the bridge 
 could not long have been tenable. Forced to yield the bridge at length, 
 the Royalist foot fell into confusion, and in the contracted space were 
 unable to make another stand until the bridge over Darwen, a quarter of 
 a mile distant, was gained. Boldly advancing, Cromwell's disciplined 
 troops pushed the enemy through the village, and carried Darwen 
 Bridge ; after which, any bodies of Scots that had missed the second 
 bridge in the melee, or straggled upon Walton Flats, or been driven 
 along Darwen bank on the church side, would be cut off from 
 Hamilton's main body, and reduced to surrender at discretion. The 
 nature of the position of Walton village, all but surrounded by two 
 rivers too deep to ford in rainy seasons, renders it probable that the 
 greater part of the thousands of prisoners taken in the battle were 
 secured in the ad de sac between the two bridges, by the Lancashire 
 regiments of Cromwell, that, perfectly knowing the ground, first joined 
 in the victorious rush to seize Danven Bridge, and then surrounded and 
 made prisoners in batches the scattered detachments of the beaten 
 army. 
 
 The losses of the day on the part of the defeated armies of 
 Hamilton and Langdale were about a thousand killed, an indefinite 
 number wounded, and full four thousand taken prisoners. The victors, 
 according to the despatches of Cromwell, which have not been impugned, 
 had remarkably small losses in killed, but a considerable number 
 wounded and disabled. 
 
 The wreck of Langdale's forces, united with the confused massts 
 of Hamilton's troops, retired at nightfall to the eminence a little beyond 
 
l62 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the Danven Bridge to the south, on the east side of the road to Wigan, 
 between Walton and Bamber Bridge, and there made their bivouac. 
 During the night Hamilton's council of war decided that the only course 
 was to march on into South Lancashire ; a suicidal decision, but 
 Cromwell had barred every avenue of retreat towards Scotland, and left 
 his antagonist no alternative but a withdrawal further into the interior of 
 what was now a hostile country. Long before morning the Scottish 
 army had resumed the retreat in the direction of Wigan, leaving all its 
 artillery and baggage on the hill at Walton, to fall into the hands of 
 Cromwell, who ordered the pursuit immediately upon the flight of the 
 enemy becoming known at the Parliamentarian head-quarters.^ 
 
 The narrative of this battle by the Roundhead officer who wrote the 
 Discourse of the Warr in Lancashire is very interesting and useful. He 
 relates that Cromwell's army encamped in the Park at Stonyhurst the 
 night before the battle, after a council of war at which "it was concluded 
 to fight the Duke if he aboad ; " and the morning after " followed 
 in the rear of Sir Marmaduke Langden's army, who came out of the 
 north by Setle towne and so into Blackburn Hundred, and through Rib- 
 chester and downward to Preston ; but some of them staying about the 
 upper syd of Fulwood and Ribbleton, lodged there that night." The 
 account proceeds : — 
 
 Generall Cromwell made no stay, but in the morning marched towards Preston 
 after them, and when he was come as far as Ribbleton Mill, there he found them. 
 He set upon tltem very fearsly, beating them up all along the way to Preston (being 
 three miles). Many were killed, some being trodden into the dirt in the Lanes, with 
 the horses' feet, the wayes were soe deep [in mire]. Abundance were killed in the 
 feildes on the East syd of Preston, and so did drive them doune towards Ribble Bridge. 
 The Duke with his forces and carriages being passed over before, having Barricaded 
 up the bridge, stood at resistance. It was reported that when word came to the Duke 
 that Qenerall Cromwell was in the rear of Sir Marmaduke Langden's Army fighting 
 and killing them, his answer was, " Let them alone, — the English dogs are but killing 
 one another." So little regard had he of them. At the Bridge they had a great Dis- 
 pute for a long time, but at last Cromwell's Army did beat them off and they fled over 
 
 I It may occur to readers not familiar with the locality that the story of this memorable battle, 
 known in history as the Battle of Preston, hardly comes within the range of any parish history except 
 that of Preston. But when it is explained that the westerly extremity of Blackburn Parish forms the 
 south bank of the Ribble fronting Preston as far down as the lower railway viaduct ; that the second 
 and possibly the severest stage of the battle, in which the Scots army joined issue with the Lancashire 
 forces, began on Ribble Bridge and rolled on through Walton village in Blackburn Parish to Darwen 
 Bridge ; that both armies lay the night after the battle in Walton township: that Cromwell probably 
 wrote his first despatch from a Walton hostelry, where he spent a part of the night : and that the retreat 
 and pursuit next day began in the Parish ; it will be seen that the battle belongs as much to the history 
 of Blackburn Parish as to that of Preston. Add to these circumstances, as further justifying extended 
 reference to the battle in these pages, that the Lancashire troops that fought so well on the conquering 
 side had been chiefly raised in Blackburn and Salford Hundreds, and marched from their posts in 
 North- East Lancashire to the fight : and that the one natural object on the battle-field associated with the 
 conflict in Milton's martial-toned Sonnet to Cromwell is the river Darwen, — " Darwen stream with 
 blood of Scots imbrued," — a stream that both rises and debouches within Blackburn parish boundaries. 
 
BATTLE AT PRESTON AND WALTON. 163 
 
 Darwen Bridge and soe up that hill above Walton Toune. In the feilde upon the 
 east of the way they maid Cabbins and lodged there that night. [This sentence 
 exactly indicates the spot where the defeated army lay on the night after the battle.] 
 Where the Duke quartered I hard not. So night comming the Armies guarded 
 both Bridges ; and Generall Cromwell returned to Preston and there quartered, giving 
 orders to our Lancashire forces there to abide. . . Providence so ordered that 
 Generall Cromwell fell upon the Scotch army in the very flank thereof, for (as we said 
 before) the Duke, with the Infantrie, traine of Artillery and Carriages, came all to 
 Preston at once, with Langden's [Langdale's] forces, and upon these it was that the 
 Generall fell and defeated them. Now the great bodie of the Duke's Cavalrie and 
 Horse was a dales march behind him, and coming up when the Battel was at hand, 
 the Generall when he had well beaten them up gave Orders that a strong bodie of his 
 Horse should fall down to the lower side of Fulwood More near the way betwixt, Gar- 
 stang and Preston, to hinder, if possible, the Reare of the Duke's Army for comming 
 up ; upon the sight of those horse and hearing of the Musketts and Defeat given to 
 the Duke his Reare durst not come out. Great number of them turned not back by 
 the same way. They came, but tooke other waies and fled downward into the Fyld 
 Country and in great feare, as was thought, parted themselves into sundry roads or 
 waies. The Duke's Artillery and Carriages were all taken, standing upon Walton 
 Coppe. What number there was of them I never hard. ' 
 
 This writer gives an unfavourable account of the behaviour of 
 Hamilton's army and the depraved female camp-followers while about 
 Preston : — 
 
 The cariag of Duke Hamilton's Army in their march was very evill, for they 
 plundered extreamly ; yea, abundance of sutty vagabound women' that followed the 
 Duke's camp vexed the pore country sore ; yet in their retreat without doubt it was 
 well paied home into their bosoms, many getting by them, though against their wills. 
 The better sort of them were well stored with money, and when they saw themselves 
 defeated and that there was noe way for them to escape but to be taken prisoners, some 
 hid their money in the fields about Preston, and have, since the times were more quiet, 
 come and found their owne money, and enjoyed it. And it was thought that Preston 
 and the townes about it lost not, but gained much by their flight.^ 
 
 The next document is the vindicatory letter of Sir Marmaduke 
 Langdale, the English Royalist general. The copy is from the Fairfax 
 Correspondence^ : — 
 
 Sir,— This will give you a final account of my employment, which is now ended, 
 being a prisoner in Nottingham Castle, where I have civil usjge. You have heard the 
 condition I was in at Settle and Gigleswick, with about 3,000 foot and 600 horse, the 
 13th of August, where, hearing the Parliament forces were gathered together, and 
 marching towards me, I went to acquaint Duke Hamilton therewith to Hornby, when 
 he determined to march to Preston, where his army being numerous in foot, he might 
 have the greatest advantage upon his enemy in these inclosed countries. I marched 
 neare Clitherow, towards Preston ; in the march I met with the Lord Calender, and 
 divers of the Scottish officers quartered in my way, with whom it was resolved to march 
 to Preston ; but for the present the Intelligence was, that the Parliament Forces were 
 divided, some part whereof were marched to Colne, and so to Manchester, to relieve 
 I Disc, of Warr, pp. 65-7. 2 lb. p. 68. 3 Ed. by Bell, v. ii, pp. 60-2. 
 
l64 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 that Towne in case we should press upon it ; this made the Officers of Horse more 
 negligent in repairing to Preston, but quartering wide in the country. The same night 
 certain intelligence came that Lieutenant-General Cromwell, with all his Forces, was 
 within three miles of my quarters, which I immediately sent to the Duke, and told my 
 Lord Leviston to acquaint Lieutenant-General Middleton therewith, and drew my 
 forces together in a field, and so marched towards Preston betimes in the morning, 
 where I found the Duke and Lord Calender with the most part of the Scottish foot 
 drawn up. Their resolution was to march to Wigan, giving little credit to the Intelli- 
 gence that came the night before ; but suffered their horse to continue in their quarters 
 ten or twelve miles off. Within halfe an hour of our meeting, and by that time I was 
 drawn into the closes near Preston, the Enemy appeared with a small body of horse ; 
 the Scots continued their resolution for Wigan, for which end they drew their Foot over 
 the Bridge [Kibble Bridge at Walton]. The enemy coming the same way that I had 
 marched, fell upon my Quarters, where we continued skirmishing six hours, in all 
 which time the Scots sent me no relief ; they had very few horse come up, so as those 
 they sent me at last were but few, which were soon beaten ; but if they had sent me 
 l,ooo Foot to have flanked the Enemy, I doubt not the day had been ours. Yet I 
 kept my post with various success, many times gaining ground of the Enemy ; and as 
 the Scots acknowledge, they never saw any Foot fight better than mine did. The 
 Duke being incredulous that it was their whole army, sent Sir Lewis Dives to me to 
 whom I answered that it was impossible any forces that were inconsiderable would ad- 
 venture to press upon so great an Army as we had, therefore he might conclude it was 
 all the power they could make, with which they were resolved to put all to the hazard, 
 therefore desired that I might be seconded, and have more powder and ammunition, I 
 having spent nine Barrels of powder. The Scots continued their march over the river, 
 and did scour a lane near the Bridge, whereby the Parliament Forces came upon my 
 flank ; neither did the forces that were left for my supply come to my relief, but 
 continued in the rear of mine, nor did they ever face the Enemy, but in bringing up 
 the Rear. When most part of the Scots were drawn over the Bridge, the Parliament 
 Forces pressed hard upon me in the Van and Flanks, and so drove me into the Town, 
 where the Duke was in person, with some few horse ; but all being lost [the Duke] 
 retreated over a ford to his Foot. After my forces were beaten, the Parliament 
 Forces beat the Scots from the Bridge presently, and so came over into all the Lanes 
 that we could not join with the Foot, but were forced to Charlow [Chorley], where 
 we found Lt. -General Middleton ready to advance towards Preston to the Foot, 
 which he did, but not finding them there, retreated towards Wigan, where the Duke 
 was with his Foot ; mine totally lost ; there they took a resolution to go to my Lord 
 Byron, for which end they would march that night to Warrington, &c. 
 
 Sir James Turner, a Scotch Royalist in Duke Hamilton's army, sup- 
 plies particulars of the fighting between Ribble Bridge and the eminence 
 beyond Darwen Bridge in Walton, not found elsewhere : — 
 
 Beside Preston in Lancashire Cromwell falls on Sir Marmaduke's ■ flank. The 
 English [under Langdale] imagined it was one Colynel Ashton, a powerful Presbyte- 
 rian, who had got together 3,000 [Lancashire] men to oppose us, because we came out 
 of Scotland without the General Assembly's permission. Mark the quarrel. While 
 Sir Marmaduke disputes the matter, Baillie, by the Duke's order, marches to Ribble 
 Bridge, and passes it with all the foot except two brigades. This was two miles from 
 Preston. By my Lord Duke's Command, I had sent some ammunition and com- 
 
BATTLE AT PRESTON AND WALTON. 165 
 
 manded men to Sir Marmaduke's assistance ; but to no purpose ; for Cromwell pre- 
 vailed, — so tliat our English first retired, and then fled. It must be remembered that, 
 the night before this sad encounter, Earl Calendar and Middleton were gone to Wigan, 
 eight [seventeen] miles from thence, with a considerable part of the cavalry. Calendar 
 was come back, and was with the Duke, and so was I ; but upon the rout of Sir Mar- 
 maduke's people Calendar got away to the Ribble, where he arrived safely by a miracle, 
 •as I think ; for the Enemy was between the Bridge and us, and had killed or taken 
 most part of our two brigades of foot. The Duke with his guard of horse. Sir Mar- 
 maduke with many oflScers, among others myself, got into Preston town, with intention 
 to pass a ford below it, though at that time not rideable. At the entry of the Town, 
 the enemy pursued us hard. The Duke faced about, and put two troops of them to a 
 retreat ; but so soon as we turned from them, they again turned upon us. The Duke 
 facing the second time, charged them, which succeeded well. Being pursued the third 
 time, my Lord Duke cried : — " To charge once more for King Charles !" One trooper 
 refusing, he beat him with his sword. At that charge we put the enemy so far behind 
 us that he could not so soon overtake us again. Then Sir Marmaduke and I entreated 
 the Duke to hasten to his army : and truly here he showed as much personal valour as 
 .iny man could be capable of. We swam the Kiver Ribble ; and so got to the place. 
 Lieutenant-General Baillie had advantageously lodged the foot, on the top of a Hill, 
 among very fencible enclosures. After Calendar came to the infantry he had sent 600 
 musketeers to defend Ribble Bridge. Very unadvisedly ; for the way Cromwell had 
 to it was a descent from a hill that commanded all the champaign ; which was about 
 an English quarter of a mile in length between the Bridge and that Hill where our 
 foot were lodged. So that our musketeers, having no shelter, were forced to receive 
 all the musket-shot of Cromwell's infantry, which was secure within thick hedges ; and 
 after the loss of many men, were forced to run back on our foot. Here Claud Hamil- 
 ton, the Duke's Lieutenant-Colonel, had his arm broke with a musket bullet. The 
 Bridge of Ribble being lost, the Duke called all the colonels on horseback together to 
 advise what was next to be done. We hatl no choice but one of two : either stay, and 
 maintain our ground till Middleton {who was sent for) came back with his cavalry : or 
 else march away that night, and find him out. Calendar would needs speak first ; 
 whereas by the custom of war he should have told his opinion last, — and it was. To 
 march away that night so soon as it was dark. This was seconded by all the rest, ex- 
 cept by Lieutenant-General Baillie and myself. But all the arguments we used, — as, 
 the impossibility of a safe retreat from an enemy so powerful of horse ; in so very foul 
 weather, and extremely deep ways ; our soldiers exceedingly wet, weary, and hungry ; 
 the inevitable loss of all our ammunition, — could not move my Lord Duke by his 
 authority to contradict the shameful resolution taken by the major part of his ofScers. 
 After that dramless march was resolved upon, and but few horse appointed to stay in 
 rear of the foot, I inquired. What should become of our unfortunate ammunition, since 
 forward with us we could not get it ? It was not thought fit to blow it up that night, 
 lest thereby the Enemy should know of our retreat, or rather flight. I was of that 
 opinion too ; but for another reason ; for we could not have blown it up then without 
 a visible mischief to ourselves, being so near it. It was ordered it should be done three 
 hours after our departure, by a train : but that being neglected, Cromwell got it all. 
 Next morning we appeared at Wigan Moor ; half our number less than we were ; — 
 most of the faint and weary soldiers having lagged behind, whi)m we never saw again. ' 
 
 The confusion and dismay that pervaded the Royalist camp on 
 
 Memoirs of his own Life and Times, pp. 63 et seq. 
 
r66 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBUR?r. 
 
 " Walton Coppe " the night following the battle is nowhere so fully 
 exposed as in this letter of the Stuart partizan. The abandonment to 
 the enemy of the ammunition of Hamilton's army, which the Royalists 
 could not remove and dare not blow up for fear of the enemy, illustrates 
 the egregious mismanagement that marked the campaign on the Scottish 
 side. Captain Hodgson, a Yorkshire officer in Cromwell's army, well 
 sets forth the part sustained in the battle by the Lancashire troops .• — 
 
 I met Major-General Lambert, and coming to him I told him where his danger 
 lay, on his left wing, chiefly. He ordered me to fetch tip the Lancashire Regiment, 
 and God brought me off, both horse and myself. The bullets flew freely ; then was 
 the heat of the battle that day. I came down to the muir, where I met with Major 
 Jackson, that belonged to Ashton's Regiment, arid about three hundred men were come 
 up ; and I ordered hnn to march, but he said he woukl not till his men were come up. 
 A sergeant belonging to them asked me where they should march. I shewed him the 
 party he was to fight, and he like a true-bred Englishman marched, and I caused the 
 soldiers to follow him, which presently fell upon the enemy ; aixl losing that wing the 
 whole army gave ground and fled . , The Lancashire men were as stout men as were 
 in the world, and as brave firemen. I have often told them they were as good fighters, 
 and as great plunderers, as ever went to a field . '. Col. Bright's regiment. Col. Pride's, 
 and Col. Deane's kept the field ; the Lancashire Regiments and my Lord Cromwell's 
 Regiment of foot passed towards Ribbald [Ribble] Bridge, with most of our horse, 
 where the Scots had six regiments of horse and foot, that had been in no service [i.e., 
 that had not yet been engaged], besides their great army, with their waggons, near 
 Walton Hall, drawn up in readiness. There was a long dispute before the Bridge was 
 gained, and our horse and foot having routed that party, above Walton Hall they came 
 to their main body, and a matter of six or eight horsemen, commanded by Captain 
 Pockley, kept a gapstead of their whole army, while some of our troopers lighted, and 
 turned about Hamilton's waggons, and threw over that wherein was all his plate, as. 
 they brought it down the hill ; but the Scots having no mind to rescue it, suffered them 
 to carry the prize away in the face of their whole army, though nothing to fright them, 
 but a forlorn-hope of horse. . . That night our regiment was appointed quarters in 
 Preston.' 
 
 Each of the above accounts has its special items of information ; 
 still the most circumstantial and interesting description of this historic 
 battle is left in the Despatches of Lieutenant-General Cromwell, to whose 
 redoubtable courage and swift decision this signal triumph was even 
 more plainly due, than to the discipline and bravery of the army under 
 his orders. These Despatches are four in number: — (i) a brief letter, 
 written from Preston on the evening of the first day of the conflict 
 (August 1 7th) addressed to the Lancashire Committee at Manchester ; 
 (2) a fuller and lucid description of the battle and its results, in a Des- 
 patch intended to be read to the House of Commons, and addressed to 
 the Speaker, William Lenthall ; — this Despatch is dated from Warrington, 
 on the 20th of August, and reports the three days' operations down to 
 
 X Narrative, cited in C. W. Tracts, pp. 261-2^ 
 
BATTLE AT PRESTON AND WALTON. 167 
 
 the last Lancashire fight at Winwick ; (3) a letter to the Committee at 
 York ; and (4) a letter from Wigan, dated 23rd August, to the Com- 
 mittee at Derby House, respecting later circumstances and movements. 
 Cromwell's first report of the victory was as follows : — 
 
 For the Honourable Committee of Lancashire sitting at Manches- 
 ter ; — (I desire the Commander of the Forces there to open this letter, if it come not 
 to their [the Committee's] hands). — Gentlemen, — It hath pleased God this day to show 
 His great power by making the army successful against the common Enemy. We lay 
 last night at Mr. Sherburn's of Stonihurst, nine miles from Preston, which was within 
 three miles of the Scots quarters. We advanced betimes the ne.\t morning towards 
 Preston, with a desire to engage the Enemy ; and by that time our Forlorn had engaged 
 the Enemy, we were about four miles from Preston, and therefore we advanced with 
 the whole army ; and the Enemy being drawn out on a Moor betwixt us and the Town, 
 the armies on both sides engaged, and after a very sharp dispute, continuinge for three 
 or foure houres, it pleased God to enable us to give them a defeat, which I hope we 
 shall improve by God's assistance to their utter ruine ; and in this service your coiui- 
 trymen have not the least [i. e. a great] share. We cannot bee particular, having not 
 time to take accompt of the slaine and prisoners, but we can assure you we have many 
 prisoners, and many of those of quality, and many slain, and the Army so dissipated. 
 The principal part whereof, with Duke Hamilton, is on south side Ribble and Darwen 
 Bridges, and we lying with the greatest part of the army close to them, nothing hinder- 
 ing the ruine of that part of the Enemies Army but the night ; it will be our care that 
 they shall not pass over any ford beneath the Bridge, to goe northward, or to come 
 betwixt us and Whalley. We understand Colonel-General Ashton's are at Whalley ; 
 we have seven troops of horse or dragoons that we believe lie at Clitheroe. This night 
 I have sent orders to them expressly to march to Whalley, to joyne to those companies, 
 that soe we may endeavour the ruine of this Enemie. You perceive by this letter how 
 things stand ; by this means the Enemy is broken, and most of their Horse having 
 gone Northward, and we having sent a considerable party at the very heels of them, 
 and the Enemy having lost almost all his ammunition, and near four thousand armes, 
 so that the greatest part of the Foot are naked ; and therefore in order to perfecting 
 this worke, we desire you to raise your county, and to improve your forces to the total 
 ruine of that enemy, which way soever they go ; and [so] that you shall accordingly 
 do your part, doubt not of their total ruine. We thought fit to speed this to you, to 
 the end you may not be troubled if they shall march towards you, but improve your 
 interest as aforesaid, that you may give glory to God for this unspeakable Mercy. This 
 is all at present from your very humble servant, Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 Preston, 17th August, 1648. 
 
 The letter was received the next day by the Manchester Committee, 
 and by one of them was sent on to the House of Commons, with a letter 
 dated August 19th, signed with the initials "W. L.'" Cromwell's missive 
 was read in the House on the 21st of August. 
 
 This despatch was penned in Cromwell's head-quarters in Walton at 
 once upon the cessation of the battle, while yet it could not be known 
 what the discomfited Hamilton would essay to do with his broken army. 
 The Royalist army was then encamped on the rising ground in Walton 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, pp. 256-8. 
 
i68 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 township, Just beyond the bridge over the Darwen, and the mass of 
 Cromwell's army was posted in Walton village, between Ribble Bridge 
 and Danven Bridge, prepared to attack at the first glimmer of the sum- 
 mer dawn. Cromwell's solicitude was to prevent Hamilton and his 
 Scots escaping him, either by re-crossing the Ribble by the ford near 
 Penwortham, and retreating northwards, or else by getting into the valley 
 of Ribble, and retiring towards Scotland by the route Langdale's English 
 Royalists had advanced to join before the battle. To frustrate any such 
 designs, Cromwell had strongly guarded the Ribble at fordable places ; 
 and by holding Darwen Bridge and the east bank of the Danven effectu- 
 ally blocked the entrance to Ribblesdale. Duke Hamilton had thus no 
 chance of moving his shattered host Scotland-ward, but was driven to- 
 retreat further into England, where, as Cromwell knew, forces were 
 gathering from every hand to intercept the invader now turned fugitive. 
 He bade the Manchester Committee raise the county and face the enemy 
 boldly should he march in the direction of Manchester. All these dis- 
 positions reveal the soldierly skill and sagacity of Cromwell. Hamilton 
 commenced his retreat on the only route left open during the night — 
 Cromwell's troopers resistlessly pursuing to Chorley, Wigan, and War- 
 rington. Three days later, -writing from Warrington, the Republican 
 General had a more complete account to give of the enemy, by that time 
 wasted almost to annihilation. Cromwell's celebrated despatch to 
 Speaker Lenthall, announcing his victory to the House of Commons, is 
 inserted at length below : — 
 
 To the Hon. William Lenthall, Esq. , Speaker of the House of Commons : these. 
 — Sir, — I have sent up this gentleman to give you an account of the great and good 
 hand of God towards you, in the late victory obtained against the enemy in these parts. 
 After the conjunction of that party which I brought with me out of Wales with the 
 northern forces about Knaresborough and Wetherby, hearing that the enemy was 
 advanced with their army into Lancashire, we marched the next day, being the 1 3th of 
 this instant August, to Oatley [Otley], having cist off our train and sent it to Knares- 
 borough, because of the difficulty of the marching therewith through Craven ; and to 
 the end we might with more expedition attend the enemy's motion, and on the 14th 
 to Skipton, the 15th to Gisbom, the 16th to Hodder Bridge over Ribble, where we 
 had a Council of War, at which we had a consideration whether we should march to 
 Whalley that night, and so on to interpose between the Enemy and his further pro- 
 gress into Lancashire, and so southward, which we had some advertisement the 
 Enemy intended, and since confirmed that they intended for London itself; or 
 whether to march over the said Bridge, there being no other betwixt that and 
 Preston, and engage the Enemy there, who we did not believe would not stand his 
 ground, because we had information that the Irish forces under Munro lately come out 
 of Ireland, which consisted of twelve hundred Horse and fifteen hundred Foot, were 
 ©n their march towards Lancashire to joyn with them. It was thought that to ingage 
 the Enemy to fight was our business, and the reason aforesaid giving us hopes that our 
 ■lurching on the north side of the Ribble would effect it, it was resolved that we 
 
BATTLE AT PRESTON AND WALTON. 
 
 169 
 
 should march over the Bridge, which accordingly we did, and that night quartered the 
 whole army in the field by Stonihurst Hall, being Mr. Sherbum's house, a place nine 
 miles distant from Preston. Very early the next morning we marched towards 
 Preston, having intelligence that the Enemy was drawing together thereabouts 
 from all out-quarters. We drew out a Forlorn of about Two hundred Horse and 
 Four Hundred foot, the Horse commanded by Major Smithson, the foot by Major 
 Pownal. Our Forlorn of Horse marched within a mile where the Enemy was drawn 
 up in the inclosed grounds by Preston, on that side next us ; and there upon a moor, 
 about half a mile distant from the Enemies army, met with their scouts and out guard, 
 and did behave themselves with that valour and courage as made their Guards (which 
 consisted of both horse and foot) to quit their ground, and took divers prisoners, hold- 
 ing this dispute with them until our Forlorn of foot came up for their justification, and 
 by those we had opportunity to bring up our whole Army. So soon as our foot and 
 horse were come up, we resolved that night to engage them if we could, and therefore 
 advancing with our Forlorn, and putting the rest of our army into as good a posture 
 as the ground would bear (which was totally inconvenient for our horse, being all in- 
 cisure and miery ground) we pressed upon them. The Regiments of foot were 
 ordered as followeth. There being a lane very deep and ill, up to the enemies army, 
 and leading to the town, we commanded two Regiments of horse, the first whereof 
 was Col. Harrisons and next was my own, to charge up that lane, and on either side 
 of them advanced the Battel, — which were Lieut. Col. Reads, Col. Deans, and Col. 
 Prides on the right. Col. Brights and my Lord Generals on the left, and Col. Ashton 
 with the Lancashire Regiments in reserve. We ordered Col. Thomhaugh and Col. 
 Twisletons Regiments of horse on the right, and one regiment in reserve for the lane, 
 the remaining horse on the left ; so that at last we came to a hedge dispute, the greatest 
 of the impressions of the Enemy being upon our left Wing, and upon the battel on both 
 sides the lane, and upon our horse in the lane, in all which places the Enemy were 
 forced from their ground after 4 hours dispute, until we came to the town, into which 
 four troops of my regiment first entered, and being well seconded by Col. Harrisons 
 regiment, charged the Enemy in the Town, and cleared the streets. There came no 
 hands of your foot to fight that day but did it with incredible Valour and Resolution, 
 among which Col. Brights, my Lord Generals, Lieut. Col. Reads and Col. 
 Ashtons had the greatest work, they often coming to push of pike and close firing, 
 and always making the enemy to recoyl ; and indeed I must needs say, God was as 
 much seen in the valour of the Officers and Soldiers of these before-mentioned, as in 
 any action that hath been performed ; the Enemy making (though he was still worsted) 
 very stiff and sturdy resistance. Col. Deans and Col. Prides outwinging the enemy, 
 could not come to so much share of the action ; the Enemy shogging down towards 
 the Bridge, and keeping almost all in reserve, that so he might bring fresh hands often 
 to fight, which we not knowing, but lest we should be outwinged, placed those two 
 Regiments to enlarge our Right Wing, which was the cause they had not at that time 
 so great a share in the action. At the last the Enemy was put into disorder, many 
 men slain ; many prisoners taken ; the Duke with most of the Scots horse and foot 
 retreated over the Bridge, where, after a very hot dispute betwixt the Lancashire 
 Regiments, part of my Lord Generals and them being at push of I'ike, they [the 
 enemy] were beaten from the Bridge, and our horse and foot following them, killed 
 many, and took divers prisoners ; and we possessed the bridge over the Darwent and 
 a few houses there, the Enemy being driven up within musquet shot of us where we 
 lay that night, we not being able to attempt further upon the Enemy, the night pre- 
 venting us. In this position did the Enemy and we lie the most part of that night ; 
 
 22 
 
1 70 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 upon entering the town, many of the enemy's horse fled towards Lancaster, in the 
 chase of whom went divers of our horse, who pursued them near ten miles, and had 
 execution of them, and took about five hundred horse and many Prisoners. We pos- 
 sessed in the fight very much of the Enemy's Ammunition ; I believe they lost four 
 or five thousand arms. The number of the slain we judge to be about a thousand, 
 the prisoners we took were about four thousand. In the night the Duke was drawing 
 off his army towards Wiggon ; we were so wearied with the dispute that we did not 
 so well attend the Enemy's going off as might have been, by means whereof the 
 Enemy was gotten at least 3 miles with his rear, before ours got to them. I ordered 
 Collonel Thomhaugh to Command two or three Regiments of horse to follow the 
 Enemy if it were possible, to make him stand till we could bring up the army. The 
 Enemy marched away seven or eight thousand foot and about four thousand horse ; 
 wee followed him with about three thousand foot, and two thousand five hundred horse 
 and dragoons ; and in this prosecution that worthy gentleman Collonel Thomhaugh, 
 pressing too boldly, was slaine, being ran into the body, and thigh, and head, by the 
 Enemies Lancers ; and give me leave to say he was as faithfuU and gallant to your 
 service as any, and one who often heretofore lost blood in your quarrel, and now his 
 last. He hath left some behind him to inherit a father's honour, and a sad Widdow, 
 both now the interest of the Commonwealth. Our horse still prosecuted the Enemie, 
 killing and taking divers all the way. At last the Enemy drew up within three miles 
 of Wiggon ; and by that time our armie was come up, they drew off again, and re- 
 covered Wiggon before we could attempt anything upon them. We lay that night in 
 a field close by the enemy, being dirty and weary, and having marched twelve miles 
 of such ground as I never rode in all my life, the day being very wet. We had some 
 skirmishing that night with the Enemy near the town, where we took Generall Van 
 Druske and a Collonel, and killed some principal officers, and took about a hundred 
 prisoners ; where I also received a letter from Duke Hamilton, for civil usage towards 
 his kinsman Collonel Hamilton, whom he left wounded here. We also took Collonel 
 Harvey and Lt. -Col. Jones, sometime in your service. The next morning the Enemy 
 marched towards Warrington, and we at the heels of them. The town of Wiggon a 
 great and poore tc^wn, and very malignant, were plundered almost to their skins by 
 them. We could not engage the Enemy until we came within three miles of War- 
 rington, and there the Enemy made a stand at a passe near Winwicke. We had 
 them in some Dispute till our army came up, they maintaining the passe with great 
 resolution for many hours, ours and theirs coming to push of pike and very close 
 charges, and forced us to give ground, but our men, by the blessing of God, quickly 
 recovered it, and charging very home upon them, beat them from their standing, where 
 we killed about a thousand of them, and tooke (we believe) about two thousand pri- 
 soners ; and prosecuted them home to Warrington town, where they possessed the 
 bridge, which had a strong barricado and a work upon it, formerly made very 
 defensive. As soon as we came thither I received a message from Lieutenant-General 
 Baily, desiring some capitulation, to which I yielded, considering the strength of the 
 passe [over the Mersey], and that I could not go over the river within ten miles of 
 Warrington with the army ; I gave him these terms, that he should surrender himself 
 and all his officers and souldiers prisoners of War, with all his arms and ammunition 
 and horses to me, I giving quarter for life, and promising civill usage, which accord- 
 ingly is done, and the Commissioners deputed by me have received, and are receiving, 
 all the arms and ammunition, which will be, as they tell me, about four thousand 
 compleat arms, and as many prisoners, and thus you have their infantry totally ruined. 
 What colonells and officers are with Lieut. -General Baily, I have not received the 
 
BATTLE AT PRESTON AND WALTON. 171 
 
 list. The Duke is marched with his remaining horse, which are about three thousand) 
 towards Nantwich, where the gentlemen of the county have tal^en about five hundred 
 of them, of which they sent me word this day. The country will scarce suffer any of 
 my men to passe, except they have my hand [certificate], telling them they are Scots. 
 They bring in and kill divers of them as they light upon them. Most of the nobility 
 of Scotland are with the Duke. If I had a thousand horse that could but trot thirty 
 miles, I should not doubt but to give a very good account of them ; but truly we are 
 so harassed and hagled out in this business, that we are not able to doe more than 
 walke an easy pace after them. I have sent post to my Lord Grey, to Sir Henry 
 Cholmely, and Sir Edward Roads, to gather altogether with speed for their prosecu- 
 tion, as likewise to acquaint the Governor of Stafford therewith. I heare Munro is 
 about Cumberland with the horse that ran away [from Preston], and the Irish Horse 
 and Foot, which are a considerable body. I have left CoUonel Ashton's three regi» 
 ments of Foot, and seven troop of Horse, six of Lancashire and one of Cumberland, 
 at Preston, and ordered Collonel Scroop with five troops of Horse and one of Dragoons, 
 with two regiments of Foot, viz. Collonel Wastals, to embody with them, by which I 
 hope he will be able to make a resistance till we can come up to them, and have or- 
 dered them to put their prisoners to the sword, if the Scots shall presume to advance 
 upon them, because they cannot [in that case] bring them off with security. Thus you 
 have a narrative of the particulars of the successe which God has given you, which I 
 could hardly at this time have done, considering the multiplicity of businesse ; but 
 truly when I was ingaged in it, I could hardly tell how to say lesse, there being so 
 much of God, and I am not willing to say more, lest there should seem to be any of 
 man : only give me leave to adde one word, shewing the disparity of the forces on both 
 sides, so you may see and all the world acknowledge the great hand of God in this 
 businesse. The .Scots army could not be less than twelve thousand effective Foot, 
 well armed, and five thousand Horse ; Langdale not less than two thousand five 
 hundred foot and fifteen hundred Horse ; in all. Twenty-one thousand ; and truly very 
 few of their foot but were as well armed, if not better than yours, and at divers disputes 
 did fight two or three hours before they would quit their ground. Yours were about two 
 thousand five hundred Horse and Dragoons of your old Army ; about four thousand 
 Foot of your old Army; also about sixteen hundred of Lancashire Foot, and about 
 five hundred Lancashire Horse, in all about Eight thousand six hundred. You see by 
 computation about two thousand of the enemy slaine, betwixt eight and nine thousand 
 taken prisoners, besides what are lurking in hedges and private places, which the 
 country daily bring in or destroy. Where Langdale and his broken forces are I know 
 not, but they are exceedingly shattered. Surely, sir, this is nothing but the hand of 
 God ; and whenever anything in this world is exalted, or exalts itself, God will pull it 
 down, for this is the day wherein he alone will be exalted. It is not fit for me to give 
 advice, nor to say a word what use you should make of this ; more than to pray you, 
 and all that acknowledge God, that they will only exalt him, and not hate his people, 
 who are as the apple of his eye, and for whom even Kings shall be reproved, and that 
 you would take courage to doe the work of the Lord, in fulfilling the end of your 
 Magistracy, in seeking the peace and welfare of the people in this land, that all who 
 will live quietly and peaceably may have countenance from you ; and they that are 
 implacable and will not leave troubling the Land may speedily be destroyed out of the 
 Land ; and if you will take courage in this, God will blesse you, and good men will stand 
 by you, and God will have glory, and the land will have happiness by you in despite of 
 alt your enemies ; which shall be the prayer of your most humble and faithfull Servant, 
 20th August, 1648. Oliver Cromwell. 
 
172 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Postscript. — We have not in all lost a considerable officer but Collonel Thom- 
 haugh, and not many soldiers, considering the service, but many are wounded, and ou 
 horse much wearied. I humbly crave that some course be taken to dispose of the 
 prisoners ; the trouble and extreme charge of the Country where they lie, is more 
 than the danger of their escape. I think they would not go home if they might with- 
 out a convoy, they are so fearful! of the country from whom they have deserved so ill. 
 Ten men will keepe a thousand from running away. 
 
 Lieut.-General Cromwell did not continue the pursuit of the rem- 
 nant of Duke Hamilton's force beyond the Mersey. He left that to the 
 forces of the counties to the southward, which were mustering with 
 alacrity to surround the flying invaders. 
 
 The tidings of Cromwell's splendid series of victories in Lancashire 
 were received in the Capital with vast excitement, and by the adherents 
 of the Parliamentarian and Republican parties with exultation.^ It took 
 in those times three days for a military courier, riding at his utmost 
 speed, with relays of horses provided at intervals, to accomplish the dis- 
 tance of two hundred miles between Lancashire and London. To do 
 the journey even in that time must have been a considerable feat, for 
 an average of seventy miles per day upon the ill-kept roads of England 
 in 1648 required desperate exertions both by rider and horse. General 
 Cromwell's Despatch to the Speaker of the House of Commons, written 
 on August 20th, reached its destination within three days, and on the 
 Minutes of the House of Commons for August 23rd, 1648, the following 
 
 I The partizans of Royalty in London and the South were, as might be imagined, eagerly expecting 
 and awaiting tidings of successes by the forces of Hamilton and Langdale, and received the first 
 sinister rumours of disaster with real or pretended incredulity. What was thought and said in those 
 circles at this crisis is indicated by passages in the Royalist " Mercurius Pragmaticus," published in the 
 week succeeding the battle of Preston. This chronicler writes, about August 22nd : — "A letter also 
 was read in the House of Commons from the Committee of Lancashire sitting at Manchester, and 
 directed to Sir Ralph Ashton a Member, wherein was inclosed a pretended letter from Cromwell, the 
 contents whereof were to give the Committee an accompt at Manchester of a successe against the 
 Scots about Preston in Lancashire, where, this paper kite saies, they engaged the maineof the Scottish 
 armie early in the morning on Thursday, August 17th, and after 3 or 4 hours dispute worsted 
 them, took between 3 and 4,000 arms, killed and took many prisoners, whereof some of quality, but 
 that Duke Hamilton was fled with a party of horse." Upon this news the Royalist journalist casts 
 contemptuous discredit. But in his next issue he has dejectedly to record its full confirmation :— 
 " Tuesday, August 22, was a day of refreshing to the poor baited Faction. For the letter read before 
 the House, which was sent by the Lancashire Committee, &c., touching the rout of the Scottish army, 
 and which I then slighted in the close of the last week, because it came only from their own creatures, 
 the partes of it very rude and indigested, and had nothing to second it, till on Tuesday there came a 
 more probable relation under Cromwell's own fist ; wherein he gives accompt of the numbers of each 
 army before the Engagement, the manner of the fight, and the successe of both parties. He makes 
 the Scots and Langdale united to have been 21 thousand, now that they are beaten, tho' before they 
 were undervalued, and it was malignancy to reckon them above 10 or 12 thousand at most. As for 
 the manner of the fight, it was acted on severall stages : First it began at Preston, in Lancashire, where 
 the Duke being worsted he retreated to Wigan, and from thence to Warrington, where Lieut. -Generall 
 Baily, Lt.-Gen. of the Scotch Foot, yielded up himself with 4000 arms and 5000 prisoners, by which 
 means the infantry being quite ruined, the Duke himself fled with 4000 horse towards Namptwich, but 
 whither since you shall heare by and by. He [Cromwell] computed about 2000 of the enemy slain, 
 betwixt 8 and 9000 prisoners." 
 
BATTLE AT PRESTON AND WALTON. 
 
 173 
 
 record is entered of the reception of the despatch by the House, and of 
 its Resolutions thereupon : — 
 
 A Letter from Lieutenant General Cromwell, of 20 Augusti, 1648, relating the 
 Particulars of the wonderful great Victory, bestowed, by the great Mercy of God, 
 against the Scotts whole Army, on the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth 
 instant, in Lancashire, now this day read ; and ordered to be forthwith printed and 
 published. 
 
 Resolved, &c. That there be a Day of Solemn Thanksgiving, through the whole 
 Kingdom, unto Almighty God, for his wonderful great Mercy and Success, bestowed 
 upon the Parliament Forces under the Command of Lieutenant-General Cromwell, 
 against the whole Scotts Army under the Conduct and Command of Duke Hamilton, 
 on the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth of this present August, in Lancashire. 
 And that this Day be Thursday come Fortnight, being the Seventh Day of September 
 next, 1648. 
 
 Resolved, &c. That a Collection be made in all the Churches and Chapels 
 through the whole Kingdom, on Thursday come Fortnight, the Seventh of September, 
 the Day appointed for a General and Solemn Thanksgiving for the great Victory 
 against the Scotts : And that the Monies, bestowed and collected upon that Day, be 
 employed for the Relief and Supply of the wounded Soldiers in Lancashire ; and of 
 the poor and visited People and Places there. 
 
 It was at the same sitting further — 
 
 Ordered, That a Letter of suitable hearty Thanks, to be signed by Mr. Speaker, 
 be sent to Lieutenant General Cromwell, taking notice of his great Valour, Vigilancy, 
 and wise Conduct, in this great Service against the Scotts in Lancashire ; desiring him 
 to give the thanks of this House to all his Officers for their good Service ; and to let 
 them know, that his Desires by his Letter are taken into consideration. Mr. Lisle is 
 to prepare the Letter. 
 
 Ordered, That a Letter of Thanks, to be signed by Mr. Speaker, be sent to 
 Colonel Ashton, for his good service against the Scotts Forces. Sir Ralph Ashton to 
 prepare the Letter. 
 
 Ordered, That a Letter of Thanks, to be signed by Mr. Speaker, be sent to the 
 Committee of Lancashire, taking notice of their seasonable and ready assistance against 
 the Scotts Forces. Colonel Moore to prepare the Letter. 
 
 Some further references to the victory are found in the Commons 
 Journals of the 25th August. 
 
 Two days Cromwell remained about Warrington, and on August 
 23rd he began to retrace his steps, purposing to return into Yorkshire, 
 and from Wigan he wrote to the Parliamentarian Committee at York, 
 advising them to be prepared for the contingency of Hamilton's appear- 
 ance in their direction. 
 
 Another interesting letter of Cromwell has been brought to light.' 
 The story of the great battle would hardly be complete without this 
 letter, passages of which are subjoined. This letter is addressed to the 
 Committee of Lords and Commons at Derby House : — 
 
 Wigan, 23rd Aug., 1648.— My Lords and Gentlemen,— I did not (being straitened 
 I Printed in Appendix to Carlylc's Letters, &c., of Cromwell. 
 
174 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 with time) send you an account of the great blessing of God upon your Army ; — ^I trust 
 it is satisfactory to your lordships that the House had it so fully presented to them. 
 My Lords, it cannot be imagined that so great a business as this could be without some 
 loss ; — although I confess very little compared with the weightiness of the engagement ; 
 there being on our part not an Hundred Slain, yet many Wounded. And to our little 
 army it is a real weakening, for indeed we are but a handful. I submit to your Lprd- 
 ships, whether you will think fit or no to recruit our Loss ; we having but Five poor 
 Regiments of foot, and our horse so exceedingly battered as I never saw them in a'l 
 my life. . . I offer it to your Lordships that Money may be sent to pay the foot and 
 horse to some equality. Some of those that were here seventy days before I marched 
 from Windsor into Wales have not had any pay ; and amongst the horse my own 
 Regiment and some others are much behind. . . We have very much to do which 
 might be better done if we had the wherewithal. Our P'oot want clothes, shoes and 
 stockings ; these ways and weather have shattered them all to pieces : that which was 
 the great blow to our horse was (beside the weather and incessant marches) our March 
 ten miles to fight with the Enemy, and a Fight continuing four hours in as dirty a 
 place as ever I saw horse stand in ; and, upon the matter, the continuance of the Fight 
 two days more together in our following the Enemy, and lying close by him in the 
 mire. . . I have sent Major-General Lambert with above Two Thousand horse and 
 dragoons and about Fourteen Thousand [hundred] foot in prosecution of the Duke and 
 the Nobility of Scotland with him ; who will, I doubt not, have the blessing of God 
 with him in the business. But indeed his horse are exceedingly weak and weary. I 
 have sent to Yorkshire and to my Lord Grey to alarm all parts to a prosecution ; and 
 if they be not wanting to the work, I see not how many can escape. I am marched 
 [marching] myself back to Preston, — and so on towards Monro or otherwise, as God 
 shall direct. As things fall out I shall represent them to you ; and rest, my Lords 
 and Gentlemen, your most humble servant, Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 Two days after the date of this missive, on August 25th, 1648, Duke 
 Hamilton and the remains of his army, including many personages of 
 distinction, surrendered to the Parliamentarian forces at Uttoxeter in 
 Staffordshire. On this announcement, Major-General Lambert at once 
 turned his pursuing force about and hastened to rejoin his chief. Crom- 
 well, as he states at the close of the letter just given, proceeded to 
 Preston, there to decide upon his future course.' 
 
 From Preston, after resting his overwrought regiments two or three 
 
 I The Colours taken from the King's army by Cromwell in the Preston campaign were eighty-five in 
 number. Harleian MS. No. 1460, Codex 2, is a folio volume of illuminated representations of all the 
 colours captured in the battles of Preston and Dunbar, with the title engrossed : — "A Perfect Registry 
 of all the Collours (and Standards) taken from the Scots at Preston, Co. Lancaster, by the then Lord 
 General Cromwell, anno 1648, &c. (also Colours taken at Dunbar, anno 1650) ; and for the perpetuall 
 memoriall of those signal! Trophies of his Highnesse Victories and Valour to succeeding ages, carefully 
 attested and compiled by F.F. F.F. ( f. Fitz.-Paganum Fisherum, Fitz.-Pagani Filium), Historio- 
 grapher of his Highnesse Warres in Ireland and Scotland, &c." Of " the Ensigns taken at Preston, 
 1648," the first is a blue flag, inscribed with gold letters DATE CjESAR, surmounted by a crown gilt. 
 The second colour is a blue and white cross, with emerald wreath on the intersection of the cross, and 
 the legend distributed in the interspaces : — " For Religion, Covenant, King, and Kingdoms." This^ 
 with differences in the colours forming the crosses, and verbal variations in the mottos, is a type of a large 
 proportion of the standards captured at Preston. Full half the colours taken are represented as more 
 or less torn and fragmentary ; not a few are almost reduced to the bare staff, or a mere shred at the 
 staff-end, — a token of the fierceness of the struggle before their capture and surrender. 
 
CROMWELL'S RETURN -MARCH THROUGH LANCASHIRE. 175 
 
 days, Cromwell marched back by the same route he had advanced to open 
 the campaign, through Blackburn Hundred into West Yorkshire, with 
 the intent of pushing forward to Scotland by the eastern road through 
 Durham and Northumbeiland. The Lancashire annalist of the war, 
 describing the course of Cromwell's movements after his return from 
 pursuing Hamilton, writes : — " His [Cromwell's] purpose being to march 
 again into Yorkshire, he therefore sent order to all his forces that with 
 all haste they should follow him, being then gone to the Stonyhurst, 
 where he quartered the first night he came into the county.'" Cromwell 
 had thus proceeded, with his staff and a body-guard, perhaps, from Pres- 
 ton to Stonyhurst, and quartered at Mr. Sherburne's mansion on the 
 first night of his return-journey. Thence he went into Craven, leaving 
 orders that his regiments, scattered over the western parts of Lancashire, 
 should follow him immediately. Some of these troops were in Preston ; 
 others in the Fylde ; and others at points between Preston and W-igan. 
 The Preston troops, united with the detachments in the Fylde, would 
 take the road by Longridge to Clitheroe, in the direct track of their 
 General and the vanguard ; others, posted more to the south, would con- 
 centrate and march through Blackburn to Whalley or Burnley, and so 
 fall in with the other part of the army on the borders of the two counties. 
 
 Such is the story of the remarkable Lancashire campaign of 1648. 
 Its results were the destruction of the Stuart party in Scotland, to whose 
 succours the captive Monarch and his friends had confidently looked 
 when the resistance of the Cavaliers of England had been borne 
 down. The whole body of the Scottish nobility and gentry of the 
 Royalist party were either slain or captured in fight during these days of 
 successive disasters, or finally surrendered wiih their leader at Uttoxeter. 
 The victory of Cromwell at Preston was the real " Death Warrant " of 
 Charles the First, for there can be no doubt that from the hour when 
 Duke Hamilton commenced his flight with his broken and dispirited 
 host from the banks of the Darwen, on the morning of August i8th, 
 1 648, the doom of the imprisoned King was silently sealed in the minds 
 of Cromwell and his political associates. 
 
 Archdeacon Echard quotes a statement of Ludlow regarding the 
 reception by King Charles of the news of the Battle of Preston, in his 
 place of confinement at Carisbrooke Castle, to the effect "that when 
 the news of the loss came to the Isle of Wight, the King said to the 
 Governor, ' That it was the worst News that ever came to England ;' to 
 which he answered, his Majesty had no reason to be of that opinion, 
 since if Hamilton had beaten the English, he would have certainly 
 possessed himself of the throne of England and Scotland. The King 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, p. 67. 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 presently reply'd : — ' You are mistaken ; I could have commanded him 
 back with the motion of my Hand.' "' 
 
 The Lancashire troops, under the command of Col.-GeneralAssheton, 
 among which were the regiments of Blackburn Hundred, after the battle 
 were detached from Cromwell's army and left at Preston, with orders to 
 march north in pursuit of those Royalists who had retreated by the 
 northern roads. The remnants of Langdale's force, on reaching 
 the neighbourhood of Lancaster, united themselves with a body of 
 English troops under Sir Thomas Tyldesley, which had been engaged 
 in the siege of Lancaster Castle, but had desisted on report of the disaster 
 to the main army on the Ribble. Col.-General Assheton marched into 
 Lonsdale after Tyldesley, who retired into the mountains of Westmore- 
 land and Cumberland. The retreat and pursuit were continued for 
 several weeks without any important encounter between the hostile 
 forces ; but at length, in the first week of October, 1648, the Roundhead 
 commander brought Sir Thomas Tyldesley to bay. The Royalist force 
 would have retreated upon Carlisle, but was headed by Assheton, who had 
 relieved Cockermouth Castle, and forced the enemy to abandon the 
 hope of gaining Carlisle. Some of the Cavalier troops, seeing escape 
 cut off, broke up and dispersed over the country ; but the major portion 
 preserved their discipline, and retreated to Appleby Castle in Westmore- 
 land, then held by a small Royalist garrison. Tyldesley's men had no 
 sooner shut themselves up in this castle than Col.-General Assheton 
 approached, and invested the place. The Castle of Appleby was not 
 capable of standing a siege. Col.-General Assheton at once summoned 
 the garrison, and by Saturday, October 7 th, the conditions of surrender 
 had been agreed to. There were 1,000 horse-soldiers in the place, 
 besides the garrison, and 1,200 horses; but the horses were bought by 
 the Roundhead soldiers at small prices before the capitulation was 
 carried out. The conditions of surrender were that all inferior officers 
 and common soldiers must lay down their arms and return home in 
 quietness ; and that the chief officers. Sir Philip Musgrave, Sir Thomas 
 Tyldesley, and others, should retire beyond seas within six months, and 
 obey all orders of Parliament. The number of superior officers taken 
 prisoners at Appleby was remarkable. They included no fewer than 
 fifteen colonels, who had apparently lost their regiments, nine lieutenant- 
 colonels, six sergeant-majors, forty-six captains, &c. 
 
 This capture was the termination of hostilities on the western side 
 of the country ; and Cromwell, operating on the eastern side, before this 
 time was in Edinburgh, dictating terms to the enemy in his northern 
 strongholds. Colonel-General Assheton's Lancashire forces, numbering 
 
 Hist, of Engl., V. ii, p. 604. 
 
MUTINY OF THE LANCASHIRE MILITIA. 
 
 177 
 
 Some four thousand, after the victory at Appleby marched leisurely 
 down to their native places in East Lancashire. 
 
 On the 30th of January, 1648-9, the sternest and saddest act of that 
 conflict between King and People was accomplished in the execution of 
 King Charles at Whitehall. Necessary or unnecessary, Charles's death 
 did not end the strife of contending parties, nor settle the question of 
 the English form of government. 
 
 After the execution of Charles the First, the Houses of Parliament, 
 more at their ease than hitherto, began to effect the reduction of the 
 standing army that had been brought into existence by the war. This 
 was done by disbanding the county militia regiments and other provin- 
 cial levies. Some opposition was offered to thfe orders to disband in 
 Lancashire and elsewhere. The militia regiments were composed of 
 men who had become weaned from peaceful avocations and fond of the 
 adventurous, predatory occupation of soldiering ; and there was also a 
 religious feud between the army of Cromwell, that was kept intact, and the 
 local forces that were ordered to disband. The Lancashire troops deemed 
 themselves the mainstay of that Presbyterian Establishment to which the 
 Cromwellian soldiers were generally averse. In the beginning of 1649, 
 the order to disband was received by the commanders of the forces of 
 Blackburn, Salford, and Amounderness Hundreds. The first difficulty 
 that arose in carrying out the order was in the matter of pay ; and in the 
 House of Commons, on March 6th, 1648-9, Lieutenant-General Crom- 
 well reported from the Council of State, " That they think fit there 
 should be an addition of Money for disbanding the Forces under Colonel 
 Shuttleworth," — that is, the militia of Blackburn Hundred. About March 
 20th, letters received from Lancaster reported " that the forces of Col. 
 Ashton, about four thousand, refuse to disband, profess for the Covenant, 
 and are encouraged by the [Presbyterian] clergy ;" and further "that Major- 
 General Lambert is gone to disband them by force, if there is no other way." 
 The mutinous regiments shortly afterwards left Lancaster, marched over 
 the hills of Bowland to Clitheroe,and attempted to fortify themselves in the 
 Castle of Clitheroe. This revolt of the local Militia was quickly sup- 
 pressed. By March 27th intelligence reached the Government that 
 "the Lancashire forces had submitted to disband, and had quitted 
 Clitheroe Castle."' On that day, the House of Commons passed the 
 following orders : — "Ordered, That it be referred to the Council of State, 
 particularly to take into consideration the present demolishing of Bolsover 
 Castle and Clitheroe Castle, and also to take into consideration all such 
 other Inland Castles as they shall think fit, for the present demolishing 
 thereof. — Ordered, That Captain Carter's Troop in Lancashire be forth- 
 
 I C. W. Tracts, p. 277. 
 
 23 
 
lyS HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 with disbanded ; and that the Deputy Lieutenant of the said County be 
 required to take special care to see them speedily disbanded accordingly.'" 
 
 In accordance with the foregoing order, the Castle at Clitheroe was 
 afterwards razed, with the exception of the keep, which still stands the 
 solitary local memorial of the Norman age. A century ago, some frag- 
 ments of the fallen castle-walls were yet streuTi around the scarp. 
 Grose writes : — " The old gate and chapel were demolished in the Civil 
 War ; large pieces of the wall, strongly cemented, still lye on the side 
 and at the foot of the rock, probably disjointed and thrown thither by 
 the force of gunpowder." 
 
 At the beginning of April, 1649, a Petition was presented to Par- 
 liament from the Inhabitants of the Hundred of Blackburn, setting forth 
 the services of the signatories to the cause, and their desire that Parlia- 
 ment should consider what compensation might be due to them for their 
 sacrifices and losses in the war. A minute relating to the presentation 
 of this Petition on the 4th of April, 1649, is entered : — "The Petition 
 of the well-affected Inhabitants of the Hundred of Blackburne in the 
 County of Lancaster, was this day read. — Ordered, That Mr. Rigby do 
 return the Thanks of this House to the Petitioners, for their faithful 
 Service and good Affections to the Parliament and Commonwealth. — 
 Ordered, That the said Petition and the business therein, be referred to the 
 Consideration of the Council of State. "^ One of the matters about which 
 Parliament was app>ealed to was the considerable sums of money due to 
 the soldiers of the Lancashire regiments, now disbanded, for arrears of 
 pay ; and the two Houses discussed means for the immediate discharge 
 of this obligation. On April 9th, the House of Commons passed two 
 Orders, one providing for the prompt payment of the Lancashire forces, 
 and the other dealing with contingent cases of refusal to obey the order 
 to disband. The terms of the Orders were these : — 
 
 Ordered, That the Three Thousand One Hundred Fifty-five Pounds Fifteen 
 Shillings and Tenpence, late due to the Lord WiUoughby of Parham, out of the 
 Receipts of Goldsmiths' Hall, and assigned to be paid to the Lancashire Forces, by 
 Order of the House of Commons of the Twenty-fourth of October last, as is pre- 
 engaged to other uses, shall be discharged from any Engagement to the said Forces ; 
 And that the Treasurer of Goldsmiths' Hall do forthwith pay, out of their Receipts, 
 to Mr. James Wainewright, of the City of London, Haberdasher, for the use of the 
 said Forces of Lancashire, towards their Arrears, the Sum of Four Thousand Six 
 Hundred Pounds, out of the Second Moiety of the Fine imposed upon the Lord 
 Molineaux, for his Delinquency, notwithstanding any former engagements thereof to 
 the contrary : Which Monies, the said Mr. Wainewright is, without delay, to pay over 
 unto Mr. Wm. Cottom, of Preston, Alderman, who is to pay the same over in manner 
 following ; viz. : For such of the said Forces as marched under Command of Major- 
 General Ashton, in the late Expedition against the Scotts, the sum of Three Thousand 
 1 Journals of H. of Commons. 2 lb. 
 
CIVIL WAR— CAMPAIGN OF 1651. 179 
 
 Four hundred Pounds, according to such order and directions as he shall from time to 
 time receive from the said Major-General Ashton ; and the sum of Twelve hundred 
 Pounds unto the other Forces of that County, that were under the Command of Colonel 
 Nicholas Shuttleworth. 
 
 It is also Ordered, That if any of the Forces shall continue together, or at any 
 time hereafter gather together contrary to the Order for their Disbanding, that all and 
 every such person and persons, so continuing and gathering together, shall lose the 
 Benefit of this Order, and shall not have any part of the money aforesaid ; but all such 
 of the said Monies as otherwise should have been paid unto them, shall be paid to 
 Major-General Ashton, to be paid among the residue of the Forces, as he shall think 
 fit.i 
 
 The country now enjoyed peace for two years. But in the Spring 
 of 1651, another attempt was made to reinstate the Stuarts, which again 
 took the shape of an invasion of England from Scotland, the Er}glish 
 Royalists actively co-operating. Charles Stuart, eldest son of the late 
 King, reappeared in Scodand, in the eariy part of the year. An army 
 was raised to sustain him, and when it was found that Cromwell, occupy- 
 ing with the English army the fortified places on the east side of Scotland, 
 could not be dislodged, it was resolved to march the forces of Scottish 
 Royalists into England, on the westerly route, by which it would be, 
 impossible for Cromwell to come up with the invaders until they had 
 advanced into the heart of the country. Charles Stuart crossed the 
 Border, with an army of 16,000 men, in June, 1651. Cromwell, with 
 his army, was far in the interior of Scotland, in the neighbourhood of 
 Perth, when the enemy's movement southward commenced; but evidently 
 did not regard the advance as a serious danger to the Commonwealth, 
 for he made no haste to follow, but sent orders to General Lambert, 
 commanding a force.of horse, to place himself upon the left flank of the 
 Scottish army, and to offer resistance if favourable occasion should 
 present. 
 
 On Thursday, August 14th, 1651, Charles Stuart and his army 
 entered Preston. He did not lodge in the town, but rode on to Euxton 
 Hall to spend the night. A writer to Merciirius Politkus reported : — 
 " Upon Thursday his [Charles's] foot having the van over Ribble Bridge, 
 that night he lodged at Euxton-Burgh, six miles on this side of Preston, 
 being Mr. Hugh Anderton's house, who was prisoner at Lancaster, but 
 set at liberty by the Scots."^ The next night, the Stuart slept at Bryn 
 Hall, the seat of the Gerards. Thence Charles passed over Warrington 
 Bridge into Cheshire, Lambert hanging upon his flank, with an occasional 
 skirmish along the whole route. 
 
 At Northwich, in Cheshire, on Sunday, August 1 7th, the Earl of 
 Derby reached Charles and had a consultation with him. The Earl 
 had landed on the previous Friday, at Presall Sands, on the Wyre. In 
 
 1 Journals of H. of Commons. 2 C. W. Tracts, p. 288. 
 
i8o 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 seven vessels he brought over from the Isle of Man 300 Manx-men, and 
 the gentry who had taken refuge in the Island. The Earl and his 
 followers marched through the Fylde, being joined by several Roman 
 Catholic gentlemen of the district ; crossed the Ribble on Saturday, the 
 1 6th August, and reached Lathom House the same day. From Lathom 
 he posted after the Scottish army, and appeared at the Royal head- 
 quarters, as stated, on the 17th. At the interview with Charles, it was 
 arranged that the Earl should return to Lancashire, and endeavour to 
 raise the old adherents of the dynasty within the county. The nucleus 
 of the Earl's command was the Manx troops, about 60 horse and 2 50 
 foot. Lord Derby was at Warrington on the 20th August, and had 
 returned to Preston the day following. On the other side, a regiment 
 of horse and some companies of foot under Col. Lilbume were ordered 
 out of Cheshire to watch the Earl of Derby's movements in Lancashire 
 and to frustrate his intentions. 
 
 At Preston, Lord Derby was very active in sending out agents into 
 various parts of Lancashire to enroll men for the Royal service ; and for 
 a brief time the King's party in this district " put a great fear into the 
 country, as if they could have conquered all and had it at their will."* 
 But on Saturday, August 23 rd, Colonel Lilbume approached Preston, 
 and quartered his regiment of horse at Brindle, four miles south of 
 the town. A sharp skirmish occurred between the Earl's men and 
 Lilbume's somewhere between Brindle and the Ribble, probably in 
 Walton township, in which the Royalists were worsted. Lilbume's 
 troopers — 
 
 Had put their horses to grasse in those low meadows between [Brindle] Church 
 and Preston, the soldiers taking their ease, being laid down by their saddles in the 
 closes where their horses were feeding ; which, as the event proved, was made known 
 to some of the Earl's party in Preston by some secret enemy (they being all enemies 
 thereabouts) what a prize might be had of Lilbume's Soldiers' horses, the men being 
 all at rest. This being sodenly apprehended by a company of young striplings, Gen- 
 tlemen's Sons with other like to them, new fresh men, altogether ignorant of such 
 warlike exploits, to the number of twentie and twoo or thereabouts, — these, rashlie, 
 without orders or advice, adventured upon the desperate designe in the day tyme to 
 make a prize of the horses of some of Colonel Lilbume's Troopers. They were 
 directed through a secret private way in woody, close places into the Meadows where 
 the Horses were feeding, which gave see sudden alarm to the Soldiers halfe asleepe 
 that they were at a mighty stand, no{ knowing what to think, conceive, or doe in the 
 business ; for the guard that was set in the loane below, nearer to Preston, neyther 
 seeing nor hearing any thing of any enemie. Upon the allarum they cryed "Annes, 
 Armes, " which when they had done they disputed so vehementlie with the young men 
 that they were soundly payed home for their forwardness. None escaped but eyther 
 slayne or taken, save one called Newsham, who forsaking his horse fled into a thick 
 Oiler tree and there hid himself in the leaves thereof and at night went away. There 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, p. 73. 
 
CIVIL WAR— CAMPAIGN OF 165 1. 181 
 
 ■was slaine — Butler, the young heir of Racliffe ; — Hesketh, a second sonn of Mr. 
 Hesketh of Maynes, and a young lad of the North country called Knipe, with others 
 whose names I hard not. Richard Wilding servant to Mr. Stanley, of Eccleston, left 
 his service to be a soldier and to attend young Butler. He was not killed downright 
 in the skirmish, but sore wounded and cut, that being caryed to Preston he died 
 within ten daies. John Clifton, second son to Mr. Clifton of Lythom, was grievously 
 wounded and taken prisoner.^ 
 
 This affair took place in the afternoon of the day of Colonel 
 Lilburne's arrival at Brindle — Saturday, Aug. 23rd. The next day, 
 Sunday, Aug. 24th, Lilburne, who had retired a little, by way of pre- 
 caution, in the direction of Hoghton, was joined by the venerable 
 Puritan leader Colonel Richard Shuttleworth, who had mustered a body 
 of men in Blackburn Hundred to aid in the expulsion of Lord Derby 
 from the county. The chronicler narrates that on tlie Sunday above 
 dated, " ould Colonel Richard Shuttleworth and the country thereabouts 
 came to him [Lilburne] at Houghton Tower, and there stood in a bodie 
 the most of that day, making so great a show that they were discovered 
 to Preston."' Fearing the enemy's strength, the Earl of Derby's troops 
 " in the silence of the night secretly marched from Preston, making noe 
 stay before they came to Wiggon. . . It was eight or nyne of the 
 clocke the next morning [Monday, August 25th], before Colonel Lilburne 
 had any intelligence of their marching away and totall leaving of Pres- 
 ton, which when he was certaine of and which way they marched, with 
 as much convenient speed as possible he gathered his Regiment into a 
 bodie and made after them, and was come within a myle and a halfe of 
 Wiggon by one of the clocke, being resolved and disposed to give the 
 Earle battell if he stayed. And Providence had so ordered it that there 
 were come up to his assistance two Foot companies from Chester under 
 the leading of Captaine Robert Jollie and Captaine Samuel Smith, and 
 another Foot Companie of new raised men from Liverpoole. These 
 were quartered within Brindle, and kept guard in the Church of Brindle 
 the Saturday night after the defeat of the young men spoken of before. 
 These were all the Foot that Colonell Lilburne had marching with him 
 to Wiggon.'"' 
 
 The decisive conflict between Colonel Lilburne and the Earl oi 
 Derby was fought in the afternoon of the same day, August 25 th, at 
 Wigan Town End. The battle is known as that of " Wigan Lane." Its 
 result was a defeat for the Earl of Derby. Sir Thomas Tyldesley was 
 there slain, and the Earl himself was wounded, but was able to escape. 
 Four hundred Royalists, including many important officers, were cap- 
 tured. In one of Colonel Lilburne's despatches after the battle, the 
 Colonel refers to the movements about Preston and Brindle, immediately 
 
 I Disc, of Warr, pp. 73-4. 2 lb., pp. 74-5. 
 
1 82 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 precedent to the fight : — " The next day, in the aftemoone, I having no 
 foot with me, a party of the Enemies' Horse fell smartly amongst us 
 where our horses were grazing, and for some space put us pretty hard to 
 it ; but at last it pleased the Lord to strengthen us so as that we put 
 them to the flight, and pursued them to Ribble Bridge . . and kild 
 and took about 30 prisoners, most officers and gentlemen, with the loss 
 of two men that dyed next morning ; but severall wounded, and divers 
 of our good horses killed. That night came three regiments of Foot, 
 and the next morning hearing of your Excellencie's Regiment coming 
 towards Manchester, I only marched two miles to a more convenient 
 ground, thinking to have staied there till your Regiment could come, 
 which I expected this day, but their weariness frustrated that expecta- 
 tion, and this morning I had intelligence that the Enemy was upon their 
 march, which I thought was a running away from us, being that they 
 began at 1 1 in the night, and marched so fast and privately, but their 
 confidence was much otherwise raised, having increased their number at 
 Preston."^ Then follows the victor's description of the Wigan-Lane 
 battle. 
 
 The Earl of Derby, though hurt at Wigan, succeeded in reaching 
 the principal army of the Royalists, and shared in the battle and defeat 
 at Worcester, Sept. 3rd, i65r. Charles Stuart contrived to make his 
 escape, but the unfortunate Earl of Derby was shortly afterwards taken, 
 conducted to Chester, and thence to Bolton, where he was beheaded, 
 Oct. 15th, 165 1. With this tragedy, the story of the Civil War of 1 641 -51 
 dolefully closes. 
 
 FURTHER PARLIAMENTARY SEQUESTRATIONS IN 1652. 
 
 After the suppression of the last rising of the Stuart party in 1651, 
 Parliament addressed itself afresh to the work of sequestration of the 
 estates of those landowners who had joined with the dynastic house in 
 the struggle for supremacy between Monarch and Parliament. Many 
 who had escaped the former compositions in 1643 and 1646 were now 
 swept into the net as the proper prey of the ascendant party, and under 
 the "Additional Bill for the Sale of several Lands and Estates forfeited to 
 the Commonwealth for Treason," before the House of Commons in Octo- 
 ber, 1652, some hundreds of Lancashire Royalist gentry, the majority of 
 them being Roman Catholics, were subjected to legalised plunder. The 
 names of sufferers on this occasion connected with Blackburn parish are 
 not numerous, the parish containing fewer Royalist families than other 
 districts of the County, but the following are embraced in the categories 
 of this sequestration : — John Talbot of Dinckley, Esq. ; Alexander 
 
 I Lilbume's Letter to Cromwell, in C. W. Tracts, pp. 303-7. 
 
RESTORATION OF THE STUARTS. 183 
 
 Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston, Esq. ; Robert Osbaldeston of Oxen- 
 dale, gent. ; Edward Rishton of Mickle-heyes, gent. ; John Parker of 
 Loveley, gent. ; John Barker of Wheetley ; Robert Craven of Billington ; 
 Robert Fowle of Billington ; Laurence Park of Cuerdale ; and Thomas 
 Sowerbutts of Samlesbury. 
 
 RESTORATION OF MONARCHY IN 1660. 
 
 The month of May, 1660, was signalised by the return to the 
 palace of his ancestors of Charles Stuart, son of the monarch beheaded 
 eleven years before. The change in Government, from a Common- 
 wealth back to a monarchy, was not only effected without a fresh resort 
 to arms, but with general acquiescence ; for after the voluntary resigna- 
 tion of Richard Cromwell, son of the late Lord Protector, no man being 
 found capable of assuming the Protectorship, the recall of the represent- 
 ative of the old Royal House was a political necessity. Charles the 
 Second was crowned April 23rd, i66r. The restoration of the Stuarts 
 produced little change in the aspect of civil and social affairs in this 
 part of Lancashire. The survivors among the gentry of Blackburn 
 Hundred who had borne conspicuous parts against the dynasty in the 
 late war made their peace with the new Government, and retained their 
 properties by no greater sacrifice than their acknowledgment of the 
 King's supremacy. It was in matters ecclesiastical that the reinstate- 
 ment of the monarchy occasioned the most significant revulsion. The 
 Presbyterian Church-establishment in this county did not outlive the 
 political conditions that called it into being. While the return to an 
 Episcopal Church Establishment was greatly welcomed in England, 
 there existed among the Puritan party a strong dislike to some portions 
 of the Book of Common Prayer, on the ground that in its formulas were 
 vestiges of the errors and superstitions of the Church of Rome. The 
 King and his advisers were not favourable to a revision of the Prayer 
 Book in the direction of a more pronounced Protestantism, but insisted 
 upon the restoration of the Church's worship in its old forms, and this 
 many of the more determined Puritans could not brook. Hence the 
 passing of the Act of Uniformity, in May, 1662, resulted in the exclu- 
 sion of a number of clergymen from the cures they then held, and in the 
 refusal to conform of many Puritan lay-churchmen. The Uniformity Act, 
 and the ejections and prosecutions under its provisions, have the credit 
 of causing the first extensive development of Protestant Nonconformity 
 in England. Those who had declined to observe the Anglican ritual 
 and obey Episcopal government before this time were denominated 
 " Separatists," or " Sectaries " and " Schismatics," by their antagonists, 
 but not " Nonconformists." In some parts of England the party called 
 
1 84 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN". 
 
 " Independents," of whom the Baptists were a branch holding similaf 
 opinions as to Church government, but divergent views upon the rite of 
 Baptism, was rather numerous before the Commonwealth period ; but 
 not many avowing these principles were found in Lancashire, and in the 
 parish of Blackburn hardly a trace appears of this earlier Dissent 
 before the Civil War and gener|J overturn of ancient institutions in Church 
 and State set men cogitating upon new theories of government, civil and 
 ecclesiastical. 
 
 The Act of Uniformity enacted " that every parson, vicar, curate, 
 lecturer, or other ecclesiasticall person, neglecting or refusing, before the 
 Feast Day of St. Bartholomew, 1662, to declare openly before their 
 respective congregations, his assent and consent to all things contained 
 in the Book of Common Prayer established by the said Act, ipso facto 
 be deposed, and that every parson, vicar, curate, lecturer, or other eccle- 
 siasticall person, failing in his subscription to a declaration mentioned 
 in the said Act to be subscribed before the Feast Day of St. Bartholomew, 
 1662, shall be utterly disabled, and ipso facto deprived, and his place be 
 void, as if the person so failing were naturally dead." This Act was not 
 put into force until the lapse of a period of more than two years after the 
 fall of the Commonwealth, and the return of Charles II. to the throne. 
 In those two years, circumstances had compelled some of the "preach- 
 ing ministers " holding the poor benefices in this part of the country to 
 cease their ministrations, without waiting for the decree of ejection. The 
 endowments pertaining to the majority of the parochial chapels and 
 chapels of ease in Lancashire were so insignificant that many of them 
 had never possessed a regular resident ministry since the Reformation, 
 until the imposition of the Presbyterian Government in 1646. Under 
 that establishment, the miserable provision for ministerial maintenance 
 from the ancient endowments of most of these churches and chapels had 
 been supplemented by an annual grant towards a minister's stipend by a 
 County Committee, and afterwards by a body called the " Committee of 
 Plundered Ministers," administering a fund derived from the sequestra- 
 tion of the estates of Royalist " delinquents." These grants varied from 
 £>2)° to £i'i'^ P^r annum, and by their means competent ministers were 
 maintained in residence in the poorest benefices. But this provident 
 Committee and its fund must at once have ceased to exist when the 
 Stuarts had been brought back, and when those who had been fined and 
 punished as " delinquents " foiind themselves masters of the situation. 
 With the stoppage of their allowances, the ministers in those chapelries 
 where the former endowments were too small to support a curate would 
 be driven to suspend their services, and to seek S(;me other employment, 
 except in the cases where the parishioners were willing to subscribe sums. 
 
ACT OF UNIFORMITY— LOCAL EFFECTS. 185 
 
 adequate for their support. Such cases would not be numerous in those 
 unsettled times ; and it is certain that a number of the preachers by 
 appointment of the Presbytery had ceased their duties and withdrawn 
 from the cures of their own accord, months before the Act of Uniformity 
 came into force to compel their assent and consent to the Book of 
 Common Prayer. The fact is thus accounted for, that in this part of 
 the kingdom so few of the ministers who held appointments under 
 the Presbytery a few years before are mentioned either as having con- 
 formed or among the ejected in 1662. 
 
 In this parish the only benefice the endowment of which afforded a 
 sufficient stipend for a minister was the Parish Church of Blackburn, 
 the fixed value of which was £49 los. gd. per annum. The Vicar, 
 Mr. Leonard Clayton, has been instituted by the Presbytery on the 
 nomination of the parishioners in 1647; but there had been no expul- 
 sion of a prior incumbent of episcopal ordination and appointmeht, for 
 the former Vicar, Adam Bolton, had accepted the Presbytery in 1646, and 
 retained the living until his death in the following year. Vicar Clayton 
 reconciled himself to Anglican creeds and forms in 1660, and thus con- 
 tinued Vicar on the Act of Uniformity coming into force. None of the 
 dependent churches in the parish at this date possessed a maintenance for 
 a resident minister. The three ancient parochial chapels of Lawe(Walton), 
 Samlesbury, and Great Har^vood had each no more than ^£4 per 
 annum of a settled revenue, and the Act of Uniformity found Walton 
 and Samlesbury churches already destitute of curates and left them so. 
 At Great Harwood the minister under the Pi'esbytery, Mr. Sandford, had 
 remained after the failure of his allowance from the County Committee, 
 and declining to conform, was ejected in 1662. This was the only cleri- 
 cal ejection in Blackburn Parish. The chapels-of-ease at Langho, 
 Balderstone, Tockholes, and Over Darwen, had no endowment whatever 
 in 1650, and in 1662 had no ministers left in possession by the extinct 
 Presbytery to be subjected to the tests of an exacting statute. 
 
 A considerable number of the Puritan laity in the parish, however, 
 withheld conformity to the reconstituted national Church ; and, in the 
 years of religious persecution which followed, observed religious worship 
 according to their preference, casually, as occasion served, and fur- 
 tively, in secret meetings, for fear of legal penalties. These Nonconformist 
 congregations continued to meet in several private houses in the dis- 
 trict until the relaxation of the prohibitive laws permitted more public 
 assemblies in stated meeting-houses. The ejected pastors visited these 
 groups of Nonconformists and preached to them in turn, and eventually 
 settled as resident ministers of churches formed upon Congregational 
 and Presbyterian principles. 
 
 24 
 
i«6 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 SUBSIDY ASSESSMENT IN 1663. 
 
 To the four Subsidies granted to Charles II. in the year 1663 (the 
 last of such levies made in England) the return of the assessment upon 
 the Inhabitants of Blackburn Parish, for the third and fourth payments 
 of the Subsidies, is copied as below from the Subsidy Roll,' 15 Chas. II.: — 
 
 Balderstone — 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, gent. , in terris 
 
 Roger Berley, in terris ... 
 
 Richard Ratcliffe, in bonis 
 
 Richard Calvert, in bonis 
 
 BiLLINGTON— 
 
 William Chew, of Olgreave, in bonis... 
 
 William Holker, in bonis 
 
 William Wood, in bonis 
 Claytgn-in-le-Dale — 
 
 Richard Walmesley, gent., in terris ... 
 
 Richard Hawkesley, in bonis 
 
 John Talbot, in bonis 
 
 John Entwistle, in bonis 
 
 Robert Tattersall, in bonis 
 
 Darwen, Upper — ■ 
 
 John Cross, in terris ... 
 
 Robert Waddington, in bonis ... 
 
 John Crouchley, in bonis 
 
 William Yates, in bonis 
 Darwen, Lower — 
 
 Thomas Haworth, in terris 
 
 Peter Haworth, junr., in bonis 
 
 Robert Piccop, in bonis 
 
 John Aspinall, in bonis 
 Harwod Magna — 
 
 — ■ Boulton, in bonis ... 
 
 — Taylor, in bonis 
 
 Edmund Cockshutt, in terris ... 
 
 Robert ffeilden of Lower Town, in bonis 
 Harwod Parva — 
 
 John Clayton, gent. , in terris ... 
 
 Thomas Rishton, in terris 
 
 John Peele, in terris 
 
 Richard Dewhurst, in bonis ... 
 
 IJVESEY-CUM-TOCKHOLLS — 
 
 Ralph Livesey, Esq., in terris... 
 Thomas Astley, in terris 
 Richard Whitehalgh, in terris... 
 William Marsden, in terris 
 Lawrence Ainsworth, in bonis 
 James Piccop, in bonis... 
 William Walmsley, in bonis ... 
 
 Richard Aspden, in bonis 
 
 X Unaccountably, the township of Blackburn docs not appear upon the roll of this Subsidy. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Payment. 
 
 30s. 
 
 I2S. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8d. 
 
 ^3 los. 
 
 1 8s. 8d. 
 
 £3 los- 
 
 1 8s. 8d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2:s. 4d. 
 
 £i 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 i6s. 
 
 30s. 
 
 I2S. 
 
 ^5 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 £3 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 ;^3 los. 
 
 18s. 8d. 
 
 £3 'OS- 
 
 i8s. 8d. 
 
 £3 «Os. 
 
 1 8s. 8d. 
 
 £3 
 
 24s. 
 
 £5 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 £5 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 £4 
 
 21s. 4d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2 IS. 4d. 
 
 £3 
 
 I6s. 
 
 30s. 
 
 I2S. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 40s. 
 
 16s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 £s 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 £3 
 
 24s. 
 
 50s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 30s. 
 
 I2S. 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 los. 8d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2 IS. 4d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2ls. 6d. 
 
 £3 los- 
 
 18s. 8d. 
 
 £3 
 
 1 6s. 
 
SUBSIDY ASSESSMENT IN 1663. 
 
 187 
 
 Mellor-cum-Eccleshill — 
 
 Edward Houghton, gent. , in terris . . . 
 
 William Ward, in bonis 
 
 Peter Ireland, in bonis... 
 
 Richard Battersby, in bonis 
 
 William Shorrocke, in bonis 
 
 Thomas Haydocke, in bonis 
 
 OSBALDESTON — 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, Esq., in terris 
 
 Lawrence Osbaldeston, in terris 
 
 Robert Boulton, in bonis 
 
 John Sharpies, in bonis 
 
 Pleasington — 
 
 Thomas Aynesworth, in terris 
 
 Thomas Livesay, in terris 
 
 Gyles Astley, in terris 
 
 Richard Aynsworth, in bonis 
 
 Lawrence Abbat, in bonis 
 
 Thomas Whaley, in bonis 
 
 RiSHTON — 
 
 Thomas Whalley, in bonis 
 
 Thomas Talbott, in bonis 
 
 Christopher Hindle, in bonis 
 
 William Berry, in bonis 
 
 Christopher Duckworth, in bonis 
 
 Robert Dewhurst, in bonis 
 
 John Baron, in bonis 
 Salesbury — 
 
 John Parker, gent., in terris 
 
 Samlesbury — 
 
 John Southworth, Esq., in terris 
 
 William Walmesley, gent., in terris ... 
 
 James Livesay, in terris... 
 
 John Holmes, in bonis 
 
 George Hey, in bonis ... 
 
 Thomas Smith, in bonis 
 
 John Marsden, in bonis... 
 Walton-in-le-Dale — 
 
 Edward Walmesley, gent., in terris ... 
 
 Thomas Walton, gent., in terris 
 
 William Osbaldeston, in terris 
 
 John Jackson, in terris 
 
 John Woodcocke, junr. , in terris 
 
 John Woodcocke, senr., in terris 
 
 P'rancis Estham, in bonis 
 
 William Dandy, in bonis 
 
 Katharine Holland, in bonis 
 
 Thomas Woodcocke, junr., in bonis ... 
 
 Thomas Shaw, in bonis... 
 
 Alice Gerrard, Widow, in bonis 
 
 Value. 
 
 Payment. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 £4 
 
 2 IS. 4d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2is. 4d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2 IS. 4d. 
 
 £5 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 £s 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 £s 
 
 40s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 40s. 
 
 16s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 ^5 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 £4 
 
 2IS. 4d. 
 
 £3 
 
 i6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 £5 
 
 40s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 £5 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 £S 
 
 26s. 8d. 
 
 £4 los. 
 
 24s. 
 
 £4 5s- 
 
 22s. 8d. 
 
 40s. 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 30s. 
 
 I2S. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 £3 
 
 i6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 i6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 16s. 
 
 £3 
 
 i6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 1 6s. 
 
r88 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Payment, 
 
 £z 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 £z 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 £z 
 
 16s, 
 
 £z 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 £z 
 
 16s. 
 
 £2. 
 
 i6s. 
 
 £S 
 
 40s. 
 
 £3 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 I6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 £3 
 
 1 6s. 
 
 20s. 
 
 8s. 
 
 £3 
 
 l6s. 
 
 Walton-in-le-Dale— 
 
 Roger Breers, in bonis ... 
 
 James Waring, in bonis... 
 
 William Duddell, in bonis 
 
 Richard Tasker, in bonis 
 
 James Walton, in bonis... 
 
 Jane Estham, in bonis ... 
 WiLPSHIRE-CUM-DlNKLEY — 
 
 John Talbot, Esq., in terris 
 
 Robert CoUinson, in bonis 
 
 Thomas Blackburne, in bonis ... 
 
 Thomas Craven, in bonis 
 
 John Breeres, in bonis ... 
 WiTTON — 
 
 George Toulson, in terris 
 
 Christopher Marsden, in bonis... 
 
 MEASURES FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF NONCONFORMITY. 
 
 The Government of Charles the Second did not cease from design- 
 ing means for rendering the situation of persons dissenting from the 
 Church of the State intolerable, hoping thus to exterminate all "sectaries," 
 and to restore the national religion to at least external uniformity. The 
 Act of 1662 not appearing to be effectual, it was supplemented by an 
 "Act for Suppressing Conventicles," which came into force on the ist of 
 July, 1664, and enacted that any person present at a meeting for religious 
 exercises, " in other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy of the Church 
 of England, where shall be five or more persons than the household," 
 shall suffer three months' imprisonment, pr be fined ^^5, for the first 
 offence, six months, or ;^io fine, for a second offence, and seven years' 
 banishment to the American plantations, or jCioo fine, for a third 
 offence." Those who lent their houses or bams for use as conventicles 
 were mad.e liable to the same penalties. This Act was renewed, 
 amended in the direction of greater stringency, in 1670. Next succeeded 
 the "Five Mile Act," which obtained the Royal Assent Oct. 31st, 1665, 
 The chief clause of this Act provided that " Nonconformist ministers 
 shall not, after the sth of March, 1665-6, unless in passing the road, 
 come or be within five miles of any city, town-corporate, or borough ; or 
 within five miles of any parish, town or place wherein they have been 
 parson, vicar, or lecturer, — upon forfeiture, for every such offence, of the 
 sum of forty pounds, one-third to the King, another third to the poor, 
 and a third to him that shall sue for it." 
 
 In 167 1-2, matters assumed a somewhat more comfortable aspect for 
 Nonconformists, for on the 15th March, of that year, Charles II. pub- 
 lished a Declaration of Indulgence, in which, exercising his prerogative 
 as supreme head of the Church, the Monarch " declared his will and 
 
 4 
 
KING'S DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE, A.D. 1672. 189 
 
 pleasure to be, that the execution of all and all manner of penal laws in 
 matters ecclesiastical, against whatsoever sort of nonconformists, or 
 recusants, be immediately suspended." Upon the strength of this Royal 
 declaration, the Government issued licenses to applicants for Noncon- 
 formist preaching and meeting-houses. The registers of licenses granted 
 in 1672 have recently been discovered among the national archives, and 
 are now accessible in the Public Record Office. The following entries 
 relate to licenses applied for and granted for preaching places in this 
 district : — 
 Licenses to Preach (No. 185. Record Off. St. Papers Dom. Chas. II. 1672).' 
 License to John Harvie to be a Pr. [Presbyterian] Teacher in a meeting house in 
 Tockley [Tockholes] erected for that purpose, in the Parish of Blackburn, Lancaster. 
 
 1 May, '^2. 
 
 The meeting house in Tockley [Tockholes] in the parish of Blackburn in Lan- 
 cashire. Pr. [Presbyterian] Meeting. 8 May, '72. 
 
 The house of John Horwood [or Harwood] in the Hundred of Blackburn, Lan- 
 caster, licensed for a Congr. [Congregational] meeting place. 2 May, '72. 
 
 Thomas JoUie to be a Congr. [Congregational] Teacher in his house at Wymond- 
 houses in the Hundred of Blackburn, Lancaster. 2 May. 
 
 The house of Thomas JoUie at the Wymond-houses in the Hundred of Blackburn, 
 in Lancaster. Congr. meeting place. 2 May, '72. 
 
 The house of Robert Whitaker in the Hundred of Blackburn, Lancaster. Congr. 
 place. 2 May, '72. 
 
 The house of Richard Cottham in the Hundred of Blackburn, Lancaster. Congr. 
 place. 2 May, '72. 
 
 The house of Richard Sagar in the Hund. of Blackburn, Lane. Congr. place. 
 
 2 May, '72. 
 
 [Sept 20.] A new built house on Langoe Green in Blackburn, Lancaster. 
 
 [Dec. 9. ] An erected meeting house in Blackburn, in Lancash. Pr. [Presby- 
 terian. ] 
 
 Dec. 23, '72. A meeting place erected by the people adjoining to Langoe Greene 
 in ye P'ish of Blackbome in Lancash. Congr. 
 
 License to Charles Sagar Pr. [Presbyterian] Teacher of Blackbome, Lancashire. 
 Feb. 3. 
 
 The house of Thomas Anderton, at Samsbury. Pr. meeting place. 
 
 The house of William and Henry Berry in Upper Darwin to be a Pr. [Presbyte- 
 rian] meeting place. 
 
 The bam of John Pickop in Dedwinclough [in Newchurch-in-Rossendale] to be 
 an Indep. [Independent] meeting place. 
 
 The house of John Durden in Yatebanke to be a Pr. meeting place. 
 
 The house of John Harris in Withnell to be a Pr. meeting place. 
 
 *• Within a year, the King was constrained by the resistance of Par- 
 liament to the relaxation of statute law by the mere fiat of the Crown, to 
 
 I These excerpts of the official records of Licenses granted for Nonconformist preaching-houses 
 in the district in 1672, have been kindly communicated by Mr. J. E. Bailey, of Stretford, who has 
 extracted the whole of the license-entries relating to Lancashire. Annals of the permanent Noncon- 
 formist congregations afterwards established in the parish, and the meeting-houses built at Over 
 Darwen, Tockholes, Walton, &c., will be inserted later under the respective townships. 
 
igo 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 revoke his Declaration of Indulgence to Dissenters and Roman Catholics, 
 and to suspend the licenses for places of worship which had been granted ; 
 and measures of repression were passed by the authorities with more 
 severity than before. Still, in spite of all, conformity was by no means 
 universal. Local prosecutions of the Nonconforming ministers and 
 their supporters were instituted in 1675, '" 1677, in 1678, and in 1679, 
 in which the prime movers were Justices Nowell of Read and Ratcliffe 
 of Mearley, and the chief sufferers Thomas Jollie, the Independent 
 minister at Wymond-houses, near Clitheroe ; Charles Sagar of Blackburn, 
 ex-Master of the Grammar School ; Mr. John Parr, preacher at Walton 
 and Preston ; and several of their faithful communicants. The crisis of 
 this sharp conflict between the relentless force of civil authority and the 
 passive resistance of personal conviction equally inflexible and per- 
 sistent, was reached in 1684, when the notorious Jeffreys, — whom 
 history brands as the most unjust, venal, and cruel judge that ever sat 
 upon an English Bench, — taking the Northern Circuit, had several of 
 the Nonconformist preachers brought before him at Preston, and in- 
 dulged his animosity by inflicting upon them the heaviest penalties law 
 would permit. Less than five years after this visit to Lancashire, 
 Jeffreys died a miserable death in the Tower of London, at the age of 
 40, the object of universal contempt. 
 
 Charles the Second died Feb. 6th, 1684-5, '^nd his brother, with 
 the title of James II., succeeded. The rule of the second James was 
 not more enlightened than that of former monarchs of his race. The 
 term of the Stuart dynasty was now near its end. The nation, that had 
 hailed its return to authority in 1660 with delight, had after a second 
 probation of a quarter of a century become satiated with its caprice and 
 estranged by its perverseness. Religious persecution was rife during the 
 first two years of James the Second's reign ; but in April, 1687, the King (in 
 the interest of his Roman Catholic co-religionists) published a Declaration 
 of Liberty of Conscience to Nonconformists and Recusants. The relief 
 was welcome to many who had borne the pressure of an intolerant policy 
 for fourteen years since the cessation of the Indulgence of 1672, though 
 the mode of it was disliked as arbitrary and illegal, and its motive sus- 
 pected. 
 
 At length, in the last month of 1688, James the Second was driven 
 from the throne and into exile, and William of Orange, who had come 
 to England to place himself at the head of the Revolution, and his wife 
 Mary, daughter of the ex-king, were invested with joint sovereignty with 
 the titles of William III. and Mary I. 
 
PROSECUTION OF LANCASHIRE JACOBITES. 191 
 
 CHAPTER v.— MODERN PERIOD. 
 
 Jacobite Trials at Manchester in 1694 — Antiquaries Tlioresby and Stukeley in East-Lancashire — ■ 
 Distress in 1706 — Rebellion of 1715— Local Non-Jurors — Rebellion of 1745— Fate of Francis 
 Towneiey — Visits of John Wesley— Early Textile Manufactures — Blackburn " Checks " and 
 " Greys " — James Hargreaves of Stanhill— His invention of the Spinning-Frame— Popular 
 jealousy — His house attacked and machines destroyed by the mob— Quits Blackburn and settles 
 at Nottingham — His invention patented — Its specification — Other machines invented by Arkwright 
 and Crompton — Death of Hargreaves — Rise of the Calico-printing industry — Claytons of Bamber 
 Bridge— The Peel Family— Robert Peel of Hole-house— Peels of Peel Fold— Robert Peel of Peel 
 Fold— His connexion with the Haworth Family— Resides in Fish Lane, Blackburn — Commences 
 Calico-printing— Invents the parsley-leaf pattern — Partnership with William Yates — Brookside and 
 Altham Factories destroyed by rioters — Robert Peel's removal to Burton — Subsequent enterprise 
 of the Peels — Their local calico-printing concerns — Other print-works at Mosney in Walton, Mill 
 Hill, and Darwen — Growth of the Factory System and popular resistance — Modem commercial 
 development in the Parish— Road improvements, Canal, and Railroads. 
 
 JACOBITE confederacies in England (or the suspicion of them), and 
 a dynastic war in Ireland, disturbed the peace of the Kingdom 
 during several years after the accession of the House of Orange, 
 and chequered the general popular satisfaction with the constitutional 
 changes effected by the Revolution of 1688. In the trial at Manchester, 
 in 1694, of a number of influential Lancashire Jacobites indicted for 
 conspiracy against the Government, one of the accused was Bartholomew 
 Walmesley, Esq., of Dunkenhalgh Hall, lord of several manors within 
 this parish. The witnesses for the Crown swore that Mr. Walmesley 
 was sojourning at Dunkenhalgh in 1691-3, the date of the alleged con- 
 spiracy ; but in the defence several witnesses of standing were brought 
 to prove that Mr. Walmesley was then absent from the country. One 
 Oliver Pearson, in a deposition taken after the trial in 1695, deposed 
 that "about seven years ago he called at a house within a mile of Black- 
 bum, where some gentlemen were drinking in an inner room, and the 
 room door being open deponent enquired of some of the people of the 
 
192 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 house, who those gentlemen were, and answer was made that one of 
 them was Mr. VValmesIey, which said Walmesley deponent took particular 
 notice of, because there was then a great talk in the country of Mr. 
 Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh coming to his estate ; and about four years 
 ago deponent met the same Mr. Walmesley in Church-parish about 
 three quarters of a mile from his house called Dunkenhalgh, on horse- 
 back with two or three men of his company.'" But, on the other hand, 
 Thomas Braddyll, Esq., of Portfield, a Justice of the Peace, had testified 
 "that he lived within two or three miles from Dunkenhalgh, MnWalmesle/s 
 house, and never heard that Mr. Walmesley was there since he left 
 England in the year 1689, and verily believed that Mr. Walmesley and 
 so many gentlemen with him could not have met there but that he (Mr. 
 Braddyll), being so near a neighbour, should have heard something of it, 
 which he affirmed he never did.'" The trial ended in the acquittal of all 
 the accused gentlemen. 
 
 The half century between 1700 and 1750 was comparatively barren 
 of important local events. The commercial enterprise for which this 
 with other divisions of the county has in recent times been noted, 
 had hardly begun to develop before the first years of the second half of the 
 eighteenth century. What this part of Lancashire was when William of 
 Orange ascended the throne, that it remained in its social aspects 
 throughout the reigns of William and Mary, Anne, and the two first 
 Georges. It was a singularly unproductive era, in every department of 
 action, in constitutional change, in the useful arts and mechanical 
 sciences. Agriculture was unprogressive ; architecture was debased ; 
 wealth did not advance greatly nor labour improve its oppressive con- 
 dition ; the population did not increase, and the towns of Lancashire, as 
 of every other part of England, hardly grew from year to year amid the 
 general stagnation. The local annalist finds little to dwell upon in the 
 period I have mentioned ; and what few incidents present theriiselves 
 may be summarily noted. 
 
 THE ANTIQUARIES THORESBY AND STUKELEY IN EAST 
 LANCASHIRE. 
 
 In the autumn of 1702, Ralph Thoresby, the Leeds antiquary, 
 performed a journey through the Hundred of Blackburn with the object 
 of observing the antiquities of the district, and of visiting his learned 
 friends, Charles and Richard Towneley, Esqrs., of Towneley. It was 
 the Guild year at Preston, and one purpose of Thoresby's tour was to 
 witness the quaint pageantry of the Preston Guild. The antiquary 
 reached Towneley on Sept. ist. In his Diary he notes the numerous 
 
 1 Beamont's Jacobite Trials at Manchester (Chet. Soc. Series), p. 74. 2 lb. p. 100. 
 
VISITS OF THORESBY AND STUKELEY. 
 
 193 
 
 curious matters he saw at Towneley Hall, which included some valuable 
 philosophic appliances and scientific instruments ; " a chariot of Mr. 
 Towneley's own contrivance, to pass over these mountainous tracts of 
 stones ;" the collection of original letters of Christopher To^vneley, the 
 antiquary, Gascoigne, Crabtree, and Horrocks, the eminent mathemati- 
 cians of the previous century ; the " ancient manuscripts in the 
 library," and " curious modern prints ;" also " Mr. Towneley's own pedi- 
 gree upon skins of parchment, with the matches, &c., blazoned, and the 
 old short deeds inserted," which he speaks of as " most noble and curious, 
 and attested by the King-at-Anns, being drawn from original writings," 
 &c. From Towneley, Thoresby continued his journey through Burnley, 
 Padiham, and Blackburn, to Preston, his destination. He writes : — 
 
 We returned to Burnley, and thence, in our way to Padiam, or Padingham, we 
 had a distant prospect of Hapton Tower [now long levelled] which stands melancholy 
 upon the mountains on the left-hand, and Towneley Royal [Royle] on the right. We 
 stepped aside to see Lady Shuttleworth's turretted house at Gawthorp. Thence, by 
 Altham Church, to which only one house in view, though more afterwards at a dis- 
 tance, through Dunkenhalgh, which has nothing remarkable but the hall of Mr. 
 Walmesley, which seems considerable, but, like most seats of the gentry in these parts, 
 has so many outbuildings before it, as spoils the prospect. Thence to Blackburn, a 
 market-town, which gives name to the whole Hundred, the third of the six in Lan- 
 cashire ; here, while the dinner was preparing, we viewed the church and town, but 
 found nothing remarkable as to the modem state. Of old, William the Conqueror 
 gave Blackburnshire to the Ilbert de Lacy, grandfather of Henry Lacy, who built 
 Kirkstal Abbey, anno 1159. Thence by Hoghton Tower, which gave name and 
 habitation to an eminent and ancient family ; Sir Charles Hoghton is the present 
 possessor ; its situation is remarkable, being upon a very steep hill, almost a precipice 
 on three sides, and so high that it is seen at many miles distance. Then through 
 Walton, which seems to have been a Roman station, and where we are told the noted 
 Kelly [the alchemist] was bom, but it is now chiefly famous for the manufacture of 
 linen-cloth ; we saw vast quantities of yarn whiting [bleaching]. In the vale we saw 
 another good house [Walton Hall] that belongs to a younger branch of the family of 
 I loghton Tower. ' 
 
 A few years later, another antiquary visited the district. This was 
 Dr. Stukeley, author of the Itinerarium Curiosuni, who, in the summer of 
 1725, travelled the northern and western parts of England in company 
 with Roger Gale, the York antiquary. Besides the important Ribchester 
 references (previously cited), Stukeley has left some topographical 
 observations on the district generally. He describes Pendle Hill as "a 
 vast black mountain, which is the morning weather-glass of the country 
 people : upon it grows the cloudberry plant." He also speaks of Hoghton 
 Tower, visible in the distance ; Salesbury Hall, and the river scenery 
 thereabouts ; in the subjoined passages : — " Haughton Tower is within 
 view, a great castle upon a precipitous hill. . . Above the town [Rib- 
 
 1 Diary of Ralph Thoresby, v. i, pp. 386-9. 
 
 25 
 
194 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Chester] half a mile is a noble bridge of four very large arches, built 
 lately by the country [county] ; over this I went to Salesbury ; but all 
 the inscriptions are carried away, probably to Mr. Warren's other seat 
 near Stockport, in Cheshire. I found a large stone in the corner of the 
 house, which has been a Roman monumental stone, foolishly placed 
 there for the sake of the carving ; there are three large figures upon it, 
 sweetly performed, &c. [This was the stone removed from Salesbury 
 Hall by Dr. Whitaker, in 1814, and bequeathed by him to St. John's 
 College, Cambridge.] . . This [Salesbury Hall] has been a very 
 large seat, with a park. They told me there were some carved stones 
 at Dinkley, another seat of Mr. Warren's, a mile further ; but I found 
 they were all carried elsewhere, save two altars, both obliterated, but 
 well cut ; one stood in a grass-plot in the garden, covered over with 
 moss and weeds ; another used in the house as a cheese-press. This is 
 a romantic place, hanging over the river purling across the rocky falls, 
 and covered with wood. The late Mr. Warren was very careful of these 
 learned remnants."^ 
 
 A petition, forwarded, in 1706, by the inhabitants of Blackburn to 
 the House of Commons, and mentioned by Whittle, illustrates the im- 
 poverished condition of the country. The petitioners represented that 
 in Blackburn " people were seen walking their desolate streets, hanging 
 down their heads under disappointment, wormed out of all branches of 
 their trade, uncertain what hand to turn, and necessitated to become 
 apprentices to their unkind neighbours, and yet, after all, finding their 
 old trade so fortified by companies and secured by prescriptions, that 
 they despaired of any success therein."" The system of restriction by 
 which all trades were surrounded in those days could not receive a more 
 decisive condemnation than is contained in the foregoing statement. 
 
 THE JACOBITE REBELLIONS OF 1715 AND 1745. 
 
 The year 1 7 1 5 is memorable for the rebellious outbreak of the 
 Stuart or Jacobite party, after twenty-five years of uneasy submission to 
 the dynasty established on the throne by the Revolution of 1688. In 
 October of that year the army raised in Scotland by the Chevalier and 
 the Scottish nobility who supported his claims entered England, under 
 the command of the Earl of Derwentwater and General Eorster, the 
 latter an English Jacobite. The invaders entered Preston on the 9th 
 and loth of November, and on the 12th were attacked by the royal 
 anny under the command of General Wills. On Sunday, the 13th, the 
 force under General Carpenter, which had marched down Ribblesdale 
 out of Yorkshire, united in the attack, and on the 14th the rebels, being 
 
 1 Itin. Curios., V. ii, pp. 37-8. 2 Blackburn as it U, p. 217. 
 
JACOBITE REBELLION IN 17 15. 195 
 
 completely surrounded, surrendered. Thus the attempt to overthrow 
 the Brunswick dynasty was speedily suppressed. 
 
 At this crisis, the Protestant Nonconformists of Lancashire zealously 
 took up arms in defence of the House of Hanover, and a body of male 
 members of neighbouring Nonconformist congregations, armed with 
 muskets, pikes, and scythes, marched under the leadership of two of 
 their ministers, Mr. James Woods of Chowbent and Mr. Walker, to 
 Walton-in-le-Dale, some hours in advance of the regular army, and held 
 the Ribble Bridge and Walton village without being attacked by the 
 Rebels until the arrival of General Wills. For this bold service Mr. 
 Woods and Mr. Walker were both rewarded with grants or pensions 
 from the Government, on the recommendation of General Wills. 
 
 During the few days that the insurgents occupied Preston, before 
 their surrender, small detachments penetrated into Ribblesdale, in search 
 of forage. One party of Rebels appears to have crossed the southern 
 portion of Blackburn Parish, by Tockholes to Darwen ; for after the 
 restoration of peace the Nonconformist minister at Darwen claimed and 
 obtained compensation from the Government for damage suffered by the 
 depredation of the Rebels. The people of the town and parish ,of 
 Blackburn displayed hearty loyalty on the occasion ; and after it was 
 known at Blackburn that the Rebels had occupied Preston, the inhabi- 
 tants "prepared to defend themselves from the invaders with guns, 
 clubs, pikes, and scythes. They were headed by one Captain Aynesworth, 
 of Pleasington. The entrances to the town were barricaded ; and, to 
 stimulate their loyalty, the Rev. John Holme, the Vicar, assembled 
 the inhabitants in the Parish Church, addressed them, and offered up 
 prayers for the welfare of the Brunswick family." Whittle also notes 
 that " Captain Douglas made a sally out of Preston as far as Balderstone, 
 in search of arms and horses for the Rebel army, but could not obtain 
 any. He entered Blackburn as a [pretended] friend of the Brunswick 
 family, but was discovered at the Dun Horse Inn, and had to beat a 
 hasty retreat, but escaped. '"^ This Captain Robert Douglas was a notori- 
 ous Borderer, in command of a Northumbrian troop of Border freebooters. 
 He was previously celebrated for his Border forays. He was taken 
 prisoner in the Rebel surrender at Preston, but escaped from the gaol of 
 Liverpool or Chester, and returned to the North, much to the disgust of 
 the Border farmers who had suffered from his predations. 
 
 The many Scottish and English noblemen and gentlemen captured 
 on the surrender were lodged, pending trial, in all the prisons of the 
 county. The peers were impeached before the House of Lords for high 
 treason, and convicted. Two of them — the Earl of Derwentwater and 
 
 X Blackburn as it Is, p. loi. 
 
196 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Lord Kenmore — suffered decapitation on Tower-hill; the rest escaped the 
 capital penalty. The other generals and inferior officers, to the number 
 of forty-nine, were tried by courts-martial. Forty-seven were subsequently 
 executed, of whom sixteen were hanged at Preston, four at Garstang, 
 others at Manchester, Wigan, Liverpool, and Lancaster. In this insur- 
 rection several of the Roman Catholic gentry and other natives of Black- 
 burn Hundred had been led to participate. Richard Towneley, Esq., of 
 Towneley, and Mr. William Walmesley, of Showley in Clayton-in-le-Dale, 
 were the most noteworthy of the local Jacobites taken at Preston. Both 
 these gentlemen were put upon their trial on the capital charge, but 
 both, by an exceptional good fortune, were acquitted. The names also 
 appear in the record of Thomas Cowpe, of VValton-in-le-Dale, yeoman, 
 executed at Preston, Jan. 27th, 1715-16; William Harris, of Burnley, 
 Stephen Seager, of Burnley, and Joseph Porter, of Burnley, all of them 
 followers of Mr. Towneley, executed at Manchester, in February, 
 1715-16; also James Finch, of Walton-in-le-Dale, labourer, executed at 
 Wigan ; and William Whalley, of Walton-in-le-Dale, whitster, executed 
 at Wigan, Feb. loth. 
 
 As those Englishmen who had overtly taken part with the Scottish 
 lords and gentry in the rising of 1 7 1 5 were chiefly Roman Catholics, 
 one of the consequences of the suppression of the Rebellion was a dis- 
 position on the part of the Government to treat the Roman Catholic 
 portion of the nation with increased harshness, as persons dangerous to 
 the public security. With the object of enabling the Government to lay 
 its hands with more facility upon Roman Catholics and their possessions 
 in the event of a renewal of rebellious attempts, an order was issued 
 commanding all Catholic and Non-juring landowners to register state- 
 ments of the extent and value of their estates. Those were styled "Non- 
 Jurors" who had refused to take the oath of allegiance to his Majesty 
 King George the First. These returns were to be transmitted to the 
 " Commissioners for forfeited Estates in England and Wales ;" and they 
 were published, to assist in the discovery of seditious persons, during the 
 Rebellion of 1745. The registered Non-Jurors residing in Blackburn 
 Parish are extracted from the list as follows : — 
 
 The Names op Roman Catholics, Non-jurors, &c., 1715: — John Cowell, 
 of Walton, £6 5s. ; John Gerrard, of Walton, — ; Edward Eastham, Estate at 
 Walton, in possession of Richard Fielding, £,f) los. ; James Coupe, of Walton, — ; 
 Thomas Catterall, of Walton, — ; John Sherrington, of Walton, — ; John Cottam, 
 of Ribchester, £y\ 5s. 8d. ; Elizabeth Duckworth, Estate at Richton [Rishton], 
 in possession of George Haworth, £?> 12s. ; Thoma.s Bolton, Estate at Bil- 
 lington, in possession of Wm. Gabbot, £\2; Robert Brindle, of Samlesbury, £^ 17s. 
 James Turner, of Samlesbury, £(> los. ; Margaret Turner, of .Samlesbury, — ; Hugh 
 Walmesley of Samlesbury, — ; James Woodcock, of Walton, /^I2 ; William Orain, 
 
JACOBITE REBELLION IN 1745. 197 
 
 of Walton, — ; John Burscough, of Walton, ^20; Matthew Worthington, of Walton, 
 jj2 5s. 6d. ; William Gregson, of Samlesbury, £g; Thomas High, of Samlesbury, — ; 
 John Wilcock, of Balderston, ;f2i ; John Adkinson, of Walton, — ; William Moulden, 
 of Samlesbury, ;^5 i8s. ; Ann Cocker, of Samlesbury, jC$ ; Ann Blackbume, of Bil- 
 lington, — ; Richard Craven, of Billington, — ; Richard Wilson, of Osbaldeston, — ; 
 John Jackson, of Balderston, ;if ri los. ; John Bolton — Estate at Walton, in possession 
 of Thomas Billinge, £^0 5s. ; Robert Osbaldeston, of Billington, ;£'i4 ; Richard 
 Cunliffe, of Harwood Magna, — ; John Woodcock, of Walton, ^20 ; John Jackson, 
 of Walton-in-le-Dale, ;^So8s.; George Gregson, of Walton, ;^3; Hugh Heatley, of 
 Samlesbury, £4 5s. ; James Dilworth, of Samlesbury, £6 5s. ; Henry liarwen, of Bal- 
 derston, — ; Edward Osbaldeston, of Cuerdale, — ; Elizabeth Bolton — Estate at Sales- 
 bury, in possession of Richard Wood, £2^ 12s. 
 
 The last Jacobite Rebellion makes notable the year 1 745. Prince 
 Charles Edward Stuart entered Preston with his Highlanders on the 27th 
 of November. The clansmen, impressed by the fact that on two former 
 invasions, in 1648 and 1715, the Scottish army had been arrested and 
 conquered at Preston, deemed this the critical stage of their march, and 
 fancied the river Ribble was the fated limit of Scottish invasions. Sir 
 Walter Scott states that " to counteract the superstition. Lord George 
 [Murray] led a part of his troops across the Ribble-bridge, a mile 
 beyond Preston. The spell which arrested the progress of the Scottish 
 troops was thus supposed to be broken." From his quarters at Preston, 
 the young Pretender despatched letters to the English Jacobite gentry, 
 conjuring them to join his standard. The appeal evoked but a feeble 
 response. 
 
 In Lancashire, where the adherents of the Stuarts had once included 
 almost the whole of the nobility and many other old landed families, 
 the Jacobite fervour had so much subsided, and the acceptance of the 
 Hanoverian succession was so general, that excepting Francis Towneley, 
 a younger son of Charles Towneley, Esq., and two or three citizens of 
 Manchester, no significant accessions to the abettors of the insurrection 
 were made during the passage through this county. Edward, eleventh 
 Earl of Derby, was the most active of the county nobles in the promo- 
 tion of measures for resisting the Stuart invasion on this occasion. 
 About two months before the Rebel occupation of Preston, when it was 
 known that the Pretender's son would venture into England, the Earl of 
 Derby had called a County Meeting at the Town Hall of Preston, to 
 which the representatives of the best families of Lancashire came in 
 great numbers, when the Earl had proposed the formation of a Defen- 
 sive Association, to raise a force of 5,000 men ; and in accordance with 
 this resolution a large militia force had been mustered, which was dis- 
 posed in garrisons in the chief towns. Blackburn, and the other towns 
 in Blackburn Hundred, had armed a number of citizens in response 
 
198 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 to the call of the Government, and two companies of Blackburn militia 
 were marched to Lord Derby at Manchester to serve in defensive 
 operations. 
 
 Prince Charles Edward advanced to Manchester, where about three 
 hundred Lancashire recruits were embodied as the Manchester Regiment, 
 with Francis Towneley as colonel. Thence the forward march was 
 continued to Derby, and then it was found necessary to commence a 
 retreat. The Rebels were back in Manchester by December 9th ; and 
 on the 1 2th, at nine o'clock in the morning, after a night march, the 
 dejected clansmen of the Stuart's army arrived at Preston. There 
 was a very short pause in the retreat at Preston, for now the Duke 
 of Cumberland's troopers were but a few miles in the rear. Throughout 
 Friday, December 12th, the Rebels straggled through the town. It was 
 the design of General Oglethorpe, — who with a body of horse detached 
 from Marshal Wade's army, despite severe winter weather had performed 
 the distance from Doncaster to Preston in three days, traversing the 
 mountain roads from West Yorkshire into Blackburn Hundred,— to over- 
 take the Rebels on the Ribble ; but having failed by a few hours in the 
 attempt to intercept the insurgents at this point, Oglethorpe rested his 
 dragoons at Preston a short time, and the pursuit slackened somewhat. 
 Prince Charles, however, did not loiter. Within six days after leaving 
 Preston his troops had gained Carlisle on the morning of December 
 1 9th. The men of the Manchester Regiment had deserted in numbers 
 while marching past their homes in Lancashire, and on reaching Carlisle 
 it was found that Colonel Towneley's command had been reduced by 
 these desertions from 300 to 114 men. Towneley and his men, with 
 about 270 Scots, were left as a garrison in Carlisle, while the Prince 
 retreated into Scotland with the main body of Rebels. The Duke of 
 Cumberland presently arrived at Carlisle and invested the city. The 
 small Rebel garrison was soon forced to surrender. Its commander, 
 Colonel Towneley, was sent to London, and lay in Newgate until his trial 
 for high treason in July, 1 746. He was convicted, and executed with 
 others on Kennington Common, July 30th. 
 
 VISITS OF JOHN WESLEY TO THE PARISH. 
 
 The earliest visits of John Wesley, the Father and Founder of 
 Methodism, to this Parish and Hundred constitute noteworthy inci- 
 dents in the history of a generally dull and obscure period of the local 
 chronology. Wesley appears from his own record of his journeyings to 
 have made at least twenty distinct visits to North East Lancashire. 
 These visits extended over a period of about forty-three years, from 1 747 
 down to 1790, the year before Wesley's death, and to the following 
 
VISITS OF JOHN WESLEY. 199 
 
 tovTis and villages in the Hundred : — Blackburn, Lower Darvven, Over 
 Danven, Walton-in-le-Dale, Chipping, Ribchester, Burnley, Padiham, 
 Southfield (Marsden), Colne, Rough Lee in Pendle Forest, Bacup, New- 
 church, and Haslingden. In each of these places Methodist societies 
 were subsequently established. In 1747-8, the town of Colne and the 
 hamlet of Rough Lee in Pendle Forest were the scenes of Wesley's mis- 
 sionary labour and of his persecution by the mob. In April, 1751, 
 Wesley rode through Darwen and Blackburn on his way from Bolton 
 to Ribchester and Chipping, but did not tarry in either of those towns 
 to preach. Wesley made the same journey from Bolton to Chipping 
 through Blackburn parish in 1753. About five years later, John Nelson, 
 one of Wesley's most active travelling preachers, came to Lower Darwen, 
 in this parish, and set on foot the first Methodist Society hereabouts. 
 Ralph Haworth, yeoman, resident in Lower Darwen, and his sons were 
 among the earliest adherents. John Haworth, one of Ralph's sons, 
 heard Nelson preach, and became a convert to Methodism. His brothers 
 shortly followed his example. In the Methodist Magazine for 181 2, 
 appears a biographical notice of Mr. John Haworth, written by his son, 
 the Rev. William Haworth, who became a minister in the Connexion. 
 Mr. William Haworth writes : — " My late father was born near 
 Blackburn, in Lancashire, August 28th, 1730. His parents were per- 
 sons of some property. They were sober and steady, and regularly 
 attended the Established Church. . . In the year 1758 the Methodist 
 Preachers came, for the first time, into that part of the country where 
 he lived. The late Mr. John Nelson was the first Methodist preacher 
 he heard." One James Oddie formed a Methodist society or class in the 
 village of Lower Danven, which John Haworth, his father and three 
 brothers, joined. The class met in the outset at the house of the 
 Haworths, and numbered several persons from Blackburn. "At that 
 time," adds Mr. William Haworth, " the little society met with much 
 opposition. But they stood their ground ; they were closely united 
 together. . . When the society was first formed, my fathers brother- 
 in-law was the leader ; but, after some time, he removed to another 
 place, at a distance, and my father was appointed the leader in his 
 place ; and he continued in this important office till within a short time 
 of his death." 
 
 In 1759 the recently- formed society in Lower Darwen was stimu- 
 lated by a visit from Wesley hitnself, who travelled this road from 
 Bolton to Lancaster to look in upon his little band of adherents on the 
 outskirts of Blackburn. Wesley preached at Lower Darwen on this 
 occasion, but not at Blackburn — perhaps fearing to encounter violent 
 prejudices in the town. The journal entry of the visit is ;—" 1759. 
 
?oc? 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Wednesday, May 9. — I preached at Bolton, and on Friday, the nth, 
 about 9 [o'clock], at Lower Dai-ment, a small village near Blackburn." It 
 was not long before Wesley favoured the Methodists at Lower Darwen 
 by a second visit. Mr. Grimshaw, incumbent of Haworth, was with 
 Wesley in this journey, and both these great preachers preached at 
 Lower Darwen, Mr. Wesley in the evening of one day, and Mr. Grim- 
 shaw on the ensuing morning, having spent the night there. Wesley 
 writes: — "1761. Thursday, April 16th. — After preaching at noon [at 
 Bolton], I rode to Lower Danven, near Blackburn, where a large 
 congregation behaved with deep seriousness. Leaving honest Mr. 
 Grimshaw to preach in the morning, I set out early, and in the evening 
 reached a little quiet house a few miles beyond Kendal." 
 
 In the centre of the village of Lower Darwen is an old yeoman's 
 house, and on the opposite side of the road a barn of equal antiquity. 
 The lintel of a door in the barn bears the date, " 1691," and the initials 
 " W. H. M." In this old barn, according to tradition in the village, 
 John Wesley preached on one or other of his earlier visits to Lower 
 Darwen. 
 
 Although John Wesley rode through Blackburn on his way from 
 Lower Darwen to Lancaster, on Saturday, May loth, 1759, and again 
 on Friday, April 17th, 1761, he did not halt to preach in the town on 
 either of these occasions. It is likely that the Blackburn people were 
 rather influenced against Methodism up to this time. Between the 
 years 1778 and 1780, a small band of adherents in the town had formed 
 a society, and opened a temporary preaching-house. At length, affairs 
 being rendered propitious, the Founder of Methodism came to Black- 
 bum for the purpose of preaching to the people. The visit was an event 
 of great local interest. The repute of Wesley was now so high, that the 
 most respectable of the inhabitants of Blackburn were glad of the oppor- 
 tunity of seeing him, and hearing his exhortations. Wesley gives in his 
 Journal a note of the encouraging reception he had on this appearance 
 at Blackburn: — "May 27th, 1780. I preached in Todmorden Church 
 with great enlargement of heart. In the afternoon we went to Black- 
 burn. It seemed the whole town was moved. But the question was 
 where to put the congregation. We could not stand abroad because of 
 the sun, so as many as could squeezed into the preaching-house. All 
 the chief men of the town were there. It seemed as if the last will be 
 first." In the following year Wesley was again invited to Blackburn to 
 preach at the opening of the first Methodist Chapel erected in the town. 
 The subsequent annals of the Methodist denomination in Blackburn 
 and Darwen, and other places in the parish, will be inserted hereafter 
 in the separate accounts of townships. 
 
. ORIGIN OF THE LOCAL MANUFACTURES. 201 
 
 EARLY TEXTILE MANUFACTURES IN THE DISTRICT. 
 
 That great Cotton Trade, without which four-fifths of the people of 
 Lancashire could not subsist in their present dwelling-place, has a history 
 as interesting as any of the developments of human energy the world has 
 witnessed. But it is not within the limits of these pages to traverse all 
 the stages of that history, or to enter with minuteness into the details of 
 the changes and processes by which the manufacture has been brought 
 to its present perfection, and the commerce to its existing proportions. 
 The Cotton Trade has not lacked annalists, who have placed upon 
 record the facts of its origin and extension. The present writer has only 
 to narrate some of the circumstances by which the advance of inven- 
 tive art as applied to this large industry is associated with the careers of 
 inventors and pioneers in enterprise, the scene of whose work was the 
 town of Blackburn or its vicinity. 
 
 Blackburn, — or, rather, the district of which the town of Blackburn 
 is the centre, — has long been noted for the production of certain 
 specialities of textile manufacture. The old itineraries and gazetteers 
 do not fail to mention, with exact iteration, that Blackburn had a name 
 for the manufacture in succession of two particular kinds of cloths, — 
 first, the " Blackburn Checks," and, secondly, the " Blackburn Greys." 
 It is nowhere stated, however, at what date and in what manner the first 
 of these manufactures was introduced into the Blackburn district, and 
 became its chief important handicraft. Whether the art and mystery of 
 check-weaving was imported hither by foreign craftsmen in exile, or was 
 of local origin and invention, is left to speculation. So long ago as the 
 reign of Elizabeth, Blackburn, Colne, and other places in East Lanca- 
 shire, were the seats of a manufacture of textiles called "cottons," friezes, 
 &c., that were subject to the statutory regulations of alnage, and the town 
 of Blackburn was one of the places to which the Alnager, or Govern- 
 ment officer who had to measure, and by sealing to certify these fabrics, 
 periodically came to supervise the manufacture. These Elizabethan 
 " cottons," were not made of the cotton fibre, but of wool, as is proved 
 by the mention of their subjection to the milling and friezing processes, 
 applicable only to woollens. There was a considerable local manu- 
 facture of linen cloths in the reign of Charles L' The Blackburn 
 " check " manufacture is supposed to have first sprung up in the time 
 of the Commonwealth, between 1650 and 1660. The checked cloths 
 
 I A statement dated April, 1635, under the hands of three eminent local Justices, Sir Gilbert 
 Hoghton, and Thomas Walmesley and William Farrington, Esqrs., sets forth that flax was then an 
 article " so frequently used in the County of Lancaster, that if it be taken away all the poorer sort of 
 people who live by spinning and weaving of Linen Clothes [cloths] only all yeare long (except in the 
 time of harvest) will be forced to begge," &c. This proves the extent of cottage spinning and weaving 
 in the district, so early as the year 1635. 
 
 26 
 
202 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 made here consisted of a linen warp and a cotton woof, one or both of 
 which being dyed in the thread gave to the piece when woven a striped 
 or checked appearance. Fabrics of a small blue and white check 
 continued to be made in East Lancashire, and were extensively worn 
 by the working people as shirts and aprons, imtil recently. 
 
 The appended petition of clothiers in this parish, for redress and 
 protection against the violent seizure of their wares at Preston by agents 
 of the monopolist trading companies of that borough, indicates the 
 activity of the manufacture of cloth and the enterprise of the local chap- 
 men. The petition bears no date, but by the names inserted and the 
 caligraphy of the original is proved to belong to the period between 
 1660 and 1680. 
 
 To the Right Worshipful the Justices of Peace and Quonim in the County of Lancas- 
 ter. — The humble peticion of some of the inhabitants within Great Harwood, Billington, 
 Whalley, and Rishton, beeinge Clothiers, humbly sheweth : — That whereas your said 
 peticioners or some of them have come to Preston to the Market there with Cloath to 
 sell of their and their servants makeing for the space of fiffty yeares and upwards, 
 and had free liberty to sell theire said Cloath in the said Towne without any molesta- 
 cion or trouble by any of the Inhabitants thereof or any other person whatsoever, 
 untill within this two yeares and under. That some of your said peticioners being in 
 the said Towne and in open Markett had their Cloath taken from them in a forcible 
 manner by Thomas Loxam and John Cadman, both Inhabitants of the said Towne, 
 and kept by the said Loxam and Cadman from your said peticioners eight or tenn 
 weekes together, which putt some of your peticioners to great cost in comeing to the 
 Towne many times and makeing best friends they could before they gott their Cloath 
 againe, besids the benefitt of soe many Markett dayes as your said peticioners Cloath 
 laye out of their hands, which hath beene a hinderance to some of your peticioners 
 for makeing Cloath which make many poore people want worke which have been 
 accustomed to work and bee employed in such tradinge. And your peticioners or 
 some of them which have been thus troubled, being not able to try out the reason of 
 this theire trouble and greevance, doe humbly desire your Worshipps to take the 
 premisses into consideracion that such course may be taken that your said peti- 
 cioners may have free liberty and accesse to and in the said Towne and Markett. And 
 your peticioners as in duty bound shall ever praye, &c. 
 
 Lawrance Hindle Edward Baron 
 
 James Harwood Richard Dobson 
 
 WiLLM. Wigan Law. Robertshey 
 
 John Baron Robert Pollard 
 
 Matthias Taylor John Pollard 
 
 Myles Aspinall 
 John Hindle 
 Adam Hall 
 Robert ffeilden 
 
 At the beginning of the last century many of the inhabitants of 
 Blackburn town and parish gained a livelihood by plying the hand-loom, 
 in the weaving of linen, woollen, and mixed cloths. Thoresby, in a pas- 
 sage of his Diary already quoted, writing in 1702, speaks of Walton-in-le- 
 Dale (probably the Bamber Bridge end of the township) as then " famous 
 for the manufacture of linen cloth," and says he saw " vast quantities of 
 
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE HAND-LOOM. 203 
 
 yarn whiting," or bleaching, in the fields there. In the year 1 748, the 
 Vicar of Colne sought to incite popular enmity against the Methodist.s 
 by declaring the effect of the new religion would be to destroy the 
 " Manufactory in and about Colne." In the town of Blackburn tokens 
 of the manufacture are given in a list of tenants of the Vicar's Glebe, 
 about the year 1720, when upon that small estate of about 100 acres 
 were several tenants of houses with "yam crofts" adjoining. A more 
 definite indication of the prevalence of this industry is afforded by 
 entries in the Blackburn Parish Registers. From 1720 to 1750 a large 
 proportion of the names in these registers have the affixes of " webster," 
 and "weaver," and "fustian webster." For example, in the year 1723, 
 out of 149 entries of baptisms, 68 were children of weavers, and 81 of 
 parents of all other occupations ; and of 60 entries of burials, the 
 names of 34 heads of families have the employment of " weaver " assigned. 
 The trade must therefore have been widely diffused at that time. The yarns 
 used in the weaving of the Blackburn checks would need to be dyed 
 prior to being taken by the weavers ; and that the dyeing process, also, 
 was done upon the spot, is shown by the title of " dyer " appended to a 
 few names in the same Registers, 
 
 Before the middle of last century, the " checks " had to a great 
 extent given place to the " Blackburn Greys," as the leading textile 
 manufacture of the district. The " greys," like the " checks," were a 
 mixed fabric of linen and cotton ; the difference being that the " greys " 
 were woven, as the calico is now, without the yams being dyed previ- 
 ously. They were made to meet the demand of the public for printed 
 goods, and were sent to be finished to London, where the art of printing 
 the linen and cotton mixtures had been developed to a large extent. 
 
 The antecedents of the old Lancashire hand-loom are obscure. 
 Who brought it hither, and by what makers the early weavers had their 
 "shops" provided with this clumsy wooden machine, cannot be stated. 
 The hand-loom of 1 730 was even a ruder contrivance in some essential 
 respects than the old-fashioned structure still seen in the cottages of 
 Mellor and Blacksnape. A useful improvement was applied to the loom 
 by John Kay, of Bury, who in the year 1738 produced the "fly-shuttle" 
 instead of the method previously practised by the weaver of throwing 
 the shuttle from hand to hand. The " fly-shuttle " and " picking-peg " 
 improvement is said to have enabled the Lancashire weaver to double 
 his former production by the facility of its movement, as well as to weave 
 wider webs. This enhanced speed, however, led to a difficulty, for it 
 was found that the female spinster with her wheel and spindle could no 
 longer keep pace with the demand for yarn of the weaver. The " fly- 
 shuttle " was thus the parent of the " spinning-jenny," and that was the 
 
204 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN". 
 
 precursor of an unended series of improvements in spinning and weaving 
 machinery. 
 
 JAMES HARGREAVES OF STANHILL, THE INVENTOR. 
 
 It was to the ingenuity of an intelligent weaver Hving in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Blackburn that the conception of a machine for the spinning 
 of yam is attributed. James Hargreaves, about the year 1764, was 
 living in a cottage at the hamlet of Stanhill, situate on the hill-ridge 
 that bounds the township of Oswaldtwistle on the north. Stanhill is 
 about two miles to the eastward of Blackburn. James Hargreaves had 
 seen that Kay's improvement of the hand-loom deranged the economy 
 of the weaver's trade by leaving the spinster with her wheel behind-hand. 
 Mr. John Wyatt, of Birmingham, had shortly before patented a machine 
 for spinning by rollers ; but there is no evidence that this process was 
 known to the weavers of Lancashire, when Hargreaves directed his 
 attention to the means of increased expedition in the spinning depart- 
 ment. Another ingenious man, Thomas Highs, of Leigh, appears to 
 have been working at a design of his own for a new spinning frame, 
 simultaneously with the secret labours of Hargreaves in this direction. 
 
 Prior to his conception of the spinning frame, Hargreaves had 
 brought out an improvement in the stock cards, which displaced the 
 hand cards formerly used for cleaning and straightening-out the cotton- 
 fibres in the process preparatory for spinning it. The old hand-caid was 
 a sort of brush made of fine wires closely placed in a piece of leather. 
 Hargreaves's stock-card was in its turn improved upon in the cylinder 
 carder, which was introduced into Lancashire about the year 1760. It 
 is stated that Mr. Robert Peel, having heard of the carding cylinder, and 
 got a notion of its construction, obtained the assistance of his neighbour 
 Hargreaves in making a cylinder for use in his own spinning factory, 
 then recently established at Brookside, Oswaldtwistle. 
 
 A couple of years Hargreaves spent in working out his idea of a 
 more expeditious mechanical operation for the spinning of yam. 
 His first frame was put together secretly in his own house. The year 
 1767 was named by Richard Arkwright, a rival inventor, as the date of 
 the introduction of Hargreaves's machine to the public. There is 
 evidence, however, that the machine was completed, and had been 
 purchased by various parties, two years before that date. The first 
 spinning-frame Hargreaves made was kept for the use of his household, 
 and answered its purpose fully. Some months elapsed before he was 
 disposed to make other machines on the same model for sale. The 
 machine was christened the " Spinning Jenny," either by Hargreaves 
 and his family, or by the weavers of the neighbourhood who became 
 
DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST SPINNING MACHINES. 
 
 205 
 
 acquainted with its performances. The original machine is described 
 as a wooden frame, having at one end eight rovings placed in a row, 
 and in another part a row of eight spindles. The rovings when extended 
 to the spindles, passed between two horizontal bars of wood, forming a 
 clasp, which opened and shut somewhat like a parallel ruler ; when 
 pressed together this clasp held the threads fast. A certain portion of 
 roving being extended from the spindle to the wooden clasp, the clasp 
 was closed, and was then drawn along the horizontal frame to a 
 considerable distance from the spindles, by which the threads were 
 lengthened out, and reduced to the proper tenuity ; this was done with 
 the spinnefs left hand, and his right hand at the same time turned a 
 wheel, which caused the spindles to revolve rapidly, and thus the roving 
 was spun into yam. By returning the clasp to its first situation, and 
 letting down a presser wire, the yarn was wound upon the spindle. 
 
 Between the years 1764 and 1767, Hargreaves had made several of 
 his " jennies," and had privately sold some of them to his neighbours 
 who had enterprise enough to purchase such a machine. For a time the 
 "jennies" were in good request by such weavers as could afford to get 
 them, and did not excite jealousy on the part of others less thrifty. But 
 when it was seen that the new machines were likely to come into common 
 use, and to dispense with a good deal of female labour at the ordinarj' 
 spinning-wheel, the antagonism of the populace became roused. The 
 cottage spinsters began to look upon the invention as a mischievous 
 innovation. Mr. Peel's new spinning mill at Brookside had been supplied 
 with "jennies," and it was found that Capital, with its new-fangled appli- 
 ances, would drive unfurnished Labour out of the market. The resentful 
 spirit of the people against the inventor and his invention reached such 
 a pitch in the year 1 768, that it betrayed itself in acts of lawless violence. 
 On a fixed day in the Spring of that year, parties of weavers from Dar- 
 wen, Mellor, Tockholes, and Oswaldtwistle assembled in Blackburn, and 
 were joined by a body of Blackburn craftsmen, forming together a mob 
 of some hundreds of persons. In those days there were neither police 
 nor soldiery in Blackburn at hand to disperse rioters and to protect 
 obnoxious citizens. A tradition goes that the rioters, whose design was 
 to march to Oswaldtwistle, to sack the cottage of Hargreaves and to 
 demolish the factory of Peel, halted at the " Cross," in Blackburn (at 
 the junction of Church-street with Darwen-street), and obtained refresh- 
 ment at the inns that lay convenient. Having done this, the mob pro- 
 ceeded along the Burnley-road to Furthergate, and there turned off by a 
 bye-road, on the line of the present Accrington-road, to Knuzden, and 
 thence to Stanhill. Hargreaves and his family had doubtless heard of 
 the intended attack, and had quitted the homestead, else it is likely 
 
2o6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 that they would have been roughly handled. The rioters burst into the 
 cottage, found the "jenny" used by the family, and broke it up. The 
 inventor's looms shared the same fate, and the house itself, with what- 
 ever furniture it contained, was also demolished. From Stanhill the 
 machine-breakers went to Brookside, about half a mile distant, and did 
 not desist from their purpose until they had reduced to wreck the mill of 
 Mr. Peel, with all its machinery, including the "jennies" in use there, 
 and other mechanical appliances of which the proprietor.himself was the 
 inventor. 
 
 After this ill-usage, James Hargreaves disappeared from the neigh- 
 bourhood of Blackburn, and settled in the town of Nottingham. 
 It is stated that in the first months of his sojourn in Nottingham 
 Hargreaves was employed by a Mr. Shipley, to whom he communicated 
 his invention, and in whose house he made several "jennies" privately. 
 Another individual, Mr. Thomas James, then invited him to become 
 his partner in a spinning factory. Mr. James was to find the capital for 
 building the mill, which he borrowed on the mortgage of some freehold 
 property, and Hargreaves was to stock it with spinning machines. The 
 mill was built at a place called Hockley, and there the partners spun 
 yam for the hosiers of the district. Two houses were also built adjacent 
 to the mill, in one of which the family of Hargreaves was domiciled. 
 Hargreaves now considered it necessary to protect his invention by 
 letters patent, which he had not hitherto been in a position to do. The 
 patent for the "Spinning Jenny" was obtained in the year 1770. It had 
 then been in use by its inventor about five years. Hargreaves's Specifi- 
 cation of his patent is headed, " Machinery for Spinning, Drawing, and 
 Twisting Cotton." Its preamble is as follows : — 
 
 Whereas, I, James Hargraves (of the town of Nottingham) did, by my petition, 
 humbly represent to His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, that 
 I had after much application and many trials, attended with expense, at last invented 
 and brought to perfection " A Method of making a Wheel or Engine of an Entire New 
 Constraction (and never before made use of), in order for Spinning, Drawing, and Twist- 
 ing of Cotton, and to be managed by One Person only, and that the Wheel or Engine 
 will .Spin, Draw, and Twist Sixteen or more Threads at one time by a turn or motion 
 of One Hand, and a draw of the other ;" and that in regard I was the first and true 
 Inventor thereof, and that the same had not been made by any other person or persons 
 to my knowledge or belief, I therefore most humbly prayed His said Majesty that He 
 would be graciously pleased to grant unto me, my executors, &c.. His Royal Letters 
 Patent, &c., for the sole use and benefit of my said Invention within Great Britain, 
 &c., for the term of fourteen years, according to the Statute in that case made and 
 provided ; His said "Majesty being willing to give encouragement to all arts and inven- 
 tions which might be for the publick good, was graciously pleased to condescend to 
 my request, and therefore, by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, 
 the Twelfth day of June, in the Tenth year of His reign, &c., did give and grant unto 
 
HARGREAVES'S INVENTION PATENTED. 207 
 
 me, the said James Hargraves, &c. , license to make, use, exercise, and vend his said 
 invention. 
 
 Hargreaves describes the modus operandi of his invention, as 
 exhibited in the accompanying diagrams, in these terms : — 
 
 One person with his or her right hand turns the wheel in the plan marlted G, and 
 with the left hand takes hold of the clasps, in the plan marked I, and therewith draws 
 out the cotton from the slubbin box, in the plan marked P, and being twisted by the 
 turn of the wheel in the drawing out, then the piece of wood marked N in the plan is 
 lifted up by the toe, which lets down the presser wire in the plan marked A, so as to 
 press the threads so drawn and twisted, in order to wind or put the same regularly 
 upon the bobbins, which are placed on the spindles standing in the box in the plan 
 marked C. 
 
 The specification is signed and sealed by the patentee, on the 30th 
 of July, 1770, in presence of "Wm. James" and "Robert Evans," 
 witnesses. The invention was enrolled on the i8th of August in the 
 same year. 
 
 The drawing of the patented "jenny" shows a range of sixteen 
 spindles, being double the number inserted by Hargreaves in his first 
 experimental spinning-frame. It is stated in the description that the 
 frames might embrace a larger number of spindles if desired. When 
 Hargreaves had secured legal protection for his invention, he took 
 measures to prevent the use of imitations which had been made of the 
 machine since its first appearance. An unfortunate circumstance frus- 
 trated -the inventor's hope of making large profits out of his patent : — 
 " Finding that several of the large manufacturers were using the jenny, 
 Hargreaves gave notice of action against them ; the manufacturers met, 
 and sent a delegate to Nottingham, who offered Hargreaves ^^3,000 for 
 permission to use the machine ; but he at first demanded jQ-jjOoo, and 
 at last stood out for ^4,000. The negotiations being broken off, the 
 actions proceeded ; but before they came to trial, Hargreaves's attorney 
 (Mr. Evans) was informed that his client, before leaving Lancashire, had 
 sold some jennies to obtain clothing for his children (of whom he had 
 six or seven), and in consequence of this, which was true, the attorney 
 gave up the actions, in despair of obtaining a verdict."'^ In this way, 
 Hargreaves was disappointed in his reasonable expectation of obtaining 
 the adequate reward of his useful ingenuity. Lack of capital at the 
 outset was the cause of the commercial unsuccess of his patent. He 
 had been forced by poverty to postpone the application for legal protec- 
 tion, and the same exigency had obliged him to sell machines before the 
 invention was patented. 
 
 In spite of popular resistance, the spinning "jenny" had before the 
 
 I Baines's Hist of Cotton Manufacture. 
 
2o8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 year 1771 been adopted to a great extent by spinners in Lancashire. 
 Samuel Crompton, subsequently distinguished as the inventor of the 
 "Spinning Mule," was, in the year 1769, when but sixteen years of age, 
 supplied with one of Hargreaves's frames by his parents at Bolton, — a 
 machine of eight spindles on which he spun the coarse yarn he after- 
 wards wove into quilting ; and it was after working five years on this 
 jenny, and having become thoroughly familiar with its mechanism and 
 its capacity for doing the work required, that the younger inventor set 
 about the construction of an improved spinning machine for finer 
 spinning, which should combine with the successful features of Har- 
 greaves's "jenny" some new arrangements. 
 
 Richard Arkwright, the Preston barber, working at the idea of 
 spinning by rollers that had been already embodied in the machine 
 patented by Paul and others, produced, about the year 1767, his first 
 example of a spinning machine. Arkwright's machine was exhibited in 
 the Grammar School at Preston in that year, but on the outbreak of the 
 Blackburn weavers who destroyed Hargreaves's machines in 1768, 
 Ark-\vright, in fear that the machine might bring the mob to Preston, 
 packed up the machine, quitted the town, along with his partner 
 Smalley, and found his way to Nottingham, the town which had afforded 
 a retreat to Hargreaves. Arkwright was a man of greater energy than 
 the Blackburn inventor, and although the "jenny" had been in use two 
 or three years before his o\vn frame was completed, Arkwright got his 
 invention patented twelve months earlier than Hargreaves. The speci- 
 fication of Arkwright's patent is dated July 3rd, 1769. His machine 
 consisted of four strong upright pillars, bolted together with cross-pieces. 
 The motive power was a horse, that turned the driving drum. The 
 driving strap at once turned the rollers at the top and the spindles at the 
 bottom of the frame. The " cotton roving " was wound upon bobbins 
 running in a frame behind the rollers ; and from the bobbins passed 
 through a pair of wooden rollers, &c., and by one pair of rollers moving 
 quicker than the other, drew it finer for twisting, which was performed 
 by the spindles. 
 
 It is a coincidence in the record of British invention that the Steam 
 Engine was first patented by James Watt the same year that Arkwright 
 patented his spinning machine. The years 1769-70 will thus be 
 memorable as the date at which the significant inventions of Watt, 
 Arkwright and Hargreaves were presented to the world of industry. 
 
 Samuel Crompton's " Mule " Spinning Machine was the sequence 
 of the inventions of Hargreaves and Arkwright. The Bolton manu- 
 factures at that time included numerous finer textile fabrics, such as 
 muslins, the yam for which could not be spun by the somewhat simple 
 
DEATH OF HARGREAVES. 209 
 
 process of twisting performed by the "jenny." Crompton felt his ability 
 to add important improvements to the machines both of Hargreaves and 
 Arkwright. After five years of ingenious and unassisted work, Crompton 
 had perfected his new machine in 1779. It was from the first a success. 
 It was called, when it became popularly known, the "Muslin-Wheel," 
 but soon it acquired the suggestive name of " Spinning Mule" implying 
 its union of the best characteristics both of Hargreaves's jenny and the 
 machine of Arkwright. Crompton's machine had numerous good points, 
 but what proved its grand merit was its " spindle carriage," whereby the 
 strain was kept off the thread until it had been elongated to the required 
 tenuity. 
 
 James Hargreaves died at Nottingham in the Spring of 1778. The 
 register of his burial in the Parish Church of St. Mary, in that town, 
 reads: — " r 778, April 22, y'aw^j' Hargreaves." The statement printed 
 by some careless chronicler, and repeated by others, that the author of 
 the " Spinning Jenny " died in extreme poverty, and left his family in 
 want, has been entirely disproved. After taking out the patent in 1770, 
 Hargreaves remained in partnership with Mr. James in the spinning 
 mill they had built near Nottingham, and had prospered well enough to 
 uphold a respectable position, and to leave at his death, for the benefit 
 of his widow and children, property of the estimated value of ^4,000. 
 He died at his house near the mill at Hockley. After his death his 
 widow received from the surviving partner a sum of ;£'4oo, as the value 
 of her husband's share in the concern. Mrs. Hargreaves was otherwise 
 sufliciently provided for to permit her to save the ^£'400, and to 
 bequeath the sum to her children when she died. This, though not 
 much in the way of success for a man whose invention was so serviceable 
 to the staple trade of Lancashire, is at least more satisfactory than the 
 tradition of absolute indigence in his latter days. After the death of his 
 widow, some of the children of the inventor became very poor. A 
 writer in the year i860 says: — "Two of his daughters were living in 
 Manchester until within the last few years, when the late Mr. Brotherton 
 [M.P. for Salford], hearing of their condition, endeavoured to raise a 
 subscription on their behalf; but he had great difficulty in collecting 
 sufficient from the wealthy manufacturers of that town to preserve them 
 from destitution." 
 
 The year after Hargreaves's death (1779) occurred a second 
 violent outbreak of peasant-craftsmen in this district against the 
 "jenny" and kindred labour-saving machines. The riot in 1779, 
 which originated in a temporary dearth of employment for the weaver, 
 culminated in more extensive machine-breaking than that of 1 768. On 
 this occasion a mob of rude fellows " scoured the country for many miles 
 
 27 
 
Zio HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 round Blackburn, destroying all the jennies, carding engines, and every 
 machine driven by water or horses. Mr. Peel had his machinery at 
 Altham thrown into the Calder, and he himself with difficulty escaped 
 personal violence at the hands of the rioters. Many of the machine 
 spinners were driven from Blackburn to Manchester and other towns, 
 and years elapsed before machine spinning was resumed at the former 
 place. Even the upper and middle classes in those days entertained a 
 great dread of machinery, and they connived at, and actually joined in, 
 the opposition of the working classes to its extension. On some occa- 
 sions the magistrates, at the head of a body of soldiers, stood quietly by 
 watching the outrages, and they were afterwards found ready to screen 
 the rioters from punishment." Mr. French, in the Life of Crompton, 
 says that the mob spared those "jennies" that had fewer than twenty 
 spindles. Crompton had then just finished his more elaborate contri- 
 vances for finer spinning. He was so afraid of being attacked that he 
 took his machine to pieces, and hid the parts in the garret of his house 
 at Hall-i'th'-Wood, and it was not until the end of the year 1780 that 
 the Bolton inventor's beautiful machine was advanced to public notice. 
 
 It is not within my purpose to narrate the subsequent history of the 
 inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton. Crompton's " Spin- 
 ning Mule," being a great improvement on former machines, in time 
 superseded the frames modelled on the plan of the "Jenny " and the 
 machine of Arkwright. The adoption of the "Mule" was also facilitated 
 by the fact that Crompton did not get a patent for his invention, but 
 gave it to the trade in the expectation of adequate voluntary compensa-" 
 tion by the leading capitalists who made use of his machine — a hope 
 destined to be disappointed. According to a return obtained by Cromp- 
 ton himself in the year 1810, there were ascertained to be in use at that 
 date of Crompton's " Mule," machines with an aggregate of 4,600,000 
 spindles; while at the same time there were 310,516 spindles in use on 
 Arkwright's water-frames; and 155,880 spindles on Hargreaves' "Jenny" 
 machines. So far from being surprised at this prevalence of the latest- 
 invented machines, one is inclined to wonder that the simpler machines 
 of earlier invention had in many factories held their ground so long. 
 
 ORIGIN AND EXTENSION OF CALICO PRINTING IN THE PARISH. 
 
 Simultaneously with the spread in East Lancashire of the cotton 
 spinning trade from the beginning of the factory system, a considerable 
 calico printing industry was planted and flourished in the district. The 
 date at which the first calico pieces were printed in this neighbourhood 
 cannot be fixed. Baines refers the commencement of calico printing in 
 Lancashire to the Messrs. Clayton, of Bamber Bridge, in Walton town- 
 
PRINT-WORKS OF THE CLAYTONS. 211 
 
 ship, who " began the business on a small scale as early as the year 
 1 764." The Peels of Blackburn are stated to have speedily followed 
 the Cla)rtons in this trade. That calico printing was rapidly developed 
 in the town of Blackburn after its importation is proved by the record of 
 the antiquary Pennant's visit to Blackburn in the year 1773, when he 
 wrote concerning the local trade : — " The manufactures are cottons ; 
 considerable quantities are printed here ; others are sent to London. 
 The fields around are whitened with the materials which are bleached 
 for them. The thread, which must be ranked with them, is brought 
 from Ireland." The parish of Blackburn was the original seat of the 
 calico printing trade of Lancashire, and the town of Blackburn and its 
 vicinity continued for some years to be the principal emporium of the 
 calico printers. Information is scant concerning the calico-printing 
 establishment of the Claytons at Bamber Bridge. Mr. S. Potter states : — 
 "The trade was established in Lancashire in 1764 by Messrs. Clayton, 
 of Bamber Bridge, near Preston ; the cloth that was printed being made 
 with linen warp and cotton weft, and produced principally at Blackburn. 
 This was the reason of many printers settling near Blackburn, which was 
 for a long time the great seat of the print trade. The introduction of 
 power-loom cloth caused the migration of a considerable print trade to 
 Stockport, Hyde, Staleybridge, and North Derbyshire." 
 
 The Claytons who entered into this business were descendants of 
 the ancient family of Clayton of Clayton-in-the-Woods. Mr. Edward 
 Clayton, of Bamber Bridge, conducted the business of linen printer for 
 some time before his death in 1767, and it was his sons, John and 
 George Clayton, who developed the art of printing calico in their 
 works at this place. For a few years the Bamber Bridge printers of 
 linens and calicoes had no local competitors, and several Blackburn 
 makers of cotton fabrics for printing purposes sent their pieces to the 
 Messrs. Clayton to be ornamented with printed patterns. But soon the 
 original firm found energetic rivals in Blackburn, the first of whom were 
 the Peels, in conjunction with their family connexions, the Haworths and 
 Yateses. Another family of Blackburn merchants, the Liveseys, also 
 entered the trade, and prosecuted it on a large scale at Mosney, in 
 Walton township. 
 
 The old process of printing textiles by means of wooden blocks was 
 a slow and uncertain one, whose only merit, if merit it was, was that of 
 simplicity. It was evidently suggested, at first, by the process of letter- 
 press printing. The cloth to be imprinted was stretched upon a table 
 whose board was covered by a fine woollen blanket. The printer had a 
 boy to spread the colouring fluid, or mordant, by means of a brush over 
 the surface of a woollen cloth stretched in a frame. The printer took 
 
212 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the wooden block, on which the pattern had been cut in relief by the 
 block-cutter, pressed its face upon the colouring blanket by his side, 
 then adjusted it upon the cloth to be printed, and produced the impres- 
 sion by means of a stroke from a mallet. Where more than one colour 
 had to be used, a separate block was needed for each colour, and great 
 nicety of manipulation was needed to secure perfection in the production 
 of the design. This system of block printing was largely replaced by 
 cylinder printing from the year 1785, but it did not altogether disappear 
 from the print-shops for many years after that date. 
 
 THE PEEL FAMILY. 
 
 The Peel family, in the persons of several notable representatives, 
 wfire incomparably the most successful of the pioneers both of the cotton 
 manufacture and the calico-printing trade in the Blackburn district. As 
 diligent, ingenious, and bold projectors and commercial men the Peels 
 distanced all competition in the outset of these great branches of Lan- 
 cashire commerce. The Peels had been settled in or near Blackburn 
 for several generations, but are supposed to be originally a Yorkshire 
 family.' Sir Lawrence Peel,'' whose account of the early history of the 
 illustrious family to which he belongs is the most authentic published, 
 deduces the descent of Robert Peel, the great manufacturer, and his son 
 the Prime Minister, from a certain member of the Peels who removed 
 to Blackburn out of East Marton in Craven, about the year 1600, and 
 who settled on the farm of Hole House, in Blackburn. William Peele 
 was the name of the member who leased this farm, a portion of the 
 Blackburn Rectory Glebe. It is believed that the father of this William 
 Peel accompanied him to Blackburn, and was the " Robert Peele of 
 Hole House " who appears in the Blackburn Parish Register as having 
 been buried on the 27th of June, 1608. William Peele farmed this estate 
 until his decease in October, 1623 ; he was buried in the Parish Church 
 of Blackburn, Oct. nth, in that year. To him succeeded in the 
 tenancy a son and namesake, William Peele of Hole-house, who married, 
 in Blackburn, on the 24th of December, 1619, Margaret Livesey, by 
 
 I From Jonathan Peel, Esq., of Knowlmere Manor, I am favoured with a note upon the probable 
 original seat of the family of Peel. Mr. Peel writes :—" There is a vague tradition in the family that 
 the Peels came originally from Devonshire. The author of ' The Norman People,' published last 
 autumn, has kindly sent me a detailed account of a Norman family bearing the name, in addition to 
 that of a Norman lordship, and almost the identical arms, and possessed of extensive estates in Devon- 
 shire, from which he concludes we are descended. I have, however, quite lately found that a family 
 of Peels dwelt at 'The Peel' in Bolton-by-Bowland from the loth Ric. 11. (A.D.139S) to the 13th Jas. I. 
 (A.D. 1616), and that in the i6th Car. I. (A.D. 1641) Thomas Peele and Janette his wife sold lands 
 there. Since that date all connection of this family with Bolton appears to have ceased. The subject 
 however, is under investigatioD." 
 
 X Life of Sir Robert Peel, i860. 
 
THE PEELS OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 213 
 
 whom he had a son Robert, and other children. This William Peele 
 died March 9th, 165 1-2, and was buried at Blackburn on the 16th of the 
 same month. 
 
 About the next representative somewhat of interest has been pre- 
 served by tradition. Robert Peele of the Hole-house was, says Sir L. 
 Peel, " a manufacturer of woollen cloths at Blackburn. This was about 
 the year 1640. The cloth was stamped with patterns from wooden 
 blocks on which they were cut. Some of these blocks were seen by my 
 father, when a boy, lying neglected in a lumber-room in his grandfather's 
 house. He expressed his regret that they had not been preserved, and 
 described them as curious from their very rudeness. His grandfather 
 was the eldest son of Robert the manufacturer. Robert the woollen 
 manufacturer was the first prosperous man of the family. He was 
 reputed wealthy, and was so for the times ; to each of several daughters 
 he left by his Will, which was in the registry 6f the Archdeaconry of 
 Richmond, in Yorkshire, the sum of 'nine score pounds,' a sum 
 which, mean as it would now be considered, was not then an inconsider- 
 able portion for a daughter in families of the middle class." To this 
 Robert Peele, besides the daughters above-mentioned, two sons were 
 bom, the eldest Robert, the second Nicholas. Nicholas, the younger, 
 entered the Church and obtained the curacy of the Blackburn Parish 
 Church in the Vicariate of the Rev. Leonard Clayton. The Rev. 
 Nicholas Peele was the preacher of the funeral sermon for Vicar Clayton 
 in the year 1677; and a year after, on the 17th of March, 1678-9, is 
 registered the interment of " Rev. Mr. Nicholas Peele," curate of Black- 
 bum. 
 
 Robert Peele, son of Robert, had to wife Ann Warde, of Blackbum, 
 whom he married on the loth of October, i'68i. .She belonged 
 to a respectable family of yeomen in Blackbum, who have a tombstone 
 still existing in the Parish church-yard at Blackbum, inscribed with the 
 names of " Henry Ward," buried in " 17 10," father probably of Ann; 
 and of William Ward, of Blackbum, who died November 30th, 
 1734. By his wife, who died in June, 1721, Robert Peele had a 
 numerous progeny, of at least four sons and seven daughters. The sons 
 were — William, the eldest; Nicholas, baptized Oct. 26th, 1684; John, 
 baptized March isth, 1690; and Joseph, baptized Sept. 28th, 1701; 
 buried Feb. 4th, 1 718-19. The daughters were — Alice, bom in March, ' 
 1686, died in March, 1691-2 ; Margaret, bom in April, 1688 ; EHzabeth, 
 bom in Febmary, 1698; Ann, born December, 1695; Easter, bom 
 May, 1698; Mary, bom Feb., 1704-5, died May, 1712; and Susannah, 
 bom Jan., 1706-7, died May, 1709. The sire must have been a thrifty 
 man, for in spite of the large family he had he found means to purchase 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 a small freehold estate in the township of Oswaldtwistle. This was the 
 messuage anciently known as Oldham's Cross, with the land appertaining. 
 The estate had belonged to the Oldhams, a family of antiquity in Oswald- 
 twistle, which gave the name to the tenement. After its passage to the 
 Peels, its name was altered to that of " Peel Fold." Robert Peele 
 acquired the Oldham's Cross farm in the month of April, 1731, and he 
 lived at this place until his death in February, 1733-4. The Hole-house, 
 the older home of the Peels, has disappeared, and the farm has been 
 partially converted into building sites for factories and cottages. The 
 situation of the farm is near the Burnley Old-road, between Furthergate 
 and Whitebirk. 
 
 William Peele, Robert's eldest son, succeeded him in residence at 
 Peel Fold, and farmed the freehold, which he inherited by a deed of 
 settlement made by his father. William Peele had to wife Jane, daughter 
 of Lawrence Walmsley, gent., of Over Darwen, whom he married on 
 the 9th of August, 1713. The issue of the marriage were — Sons, 
 Robert; Lawrence; William, died in infancy in 1726; Nicholas, and 
 Joseph ; and daughters Ann, Elizabeth, Jane, and Margaret. All the 
 information given concerning this William Peele is that he was a man 
 "of very delicate constitution, who was prevented by continued ill-health 
 from exerting himself to improve or maintain the condition of the 
 family." A family tradition of the Peels was that there were usually 
 two working bees in the male succession, followed by a drone ; and the 
 above William Peele, though rather by the fault of nature than his own, 
 was not able to add anything to the family's acquisition of property. He 
 died in 1757 — the Register of Blackburn gives "William Peele of 
 Oswaldtwistle, yeoman," as buried on the 24th of July, 1757. His 
 widow survived him some fifteen years, dying' in March, 1772. 
 
 Now comes a member of this family of much greater note than any 
 of his progenitors, who was destined to start the race on the path to 
 distinction and opulence which one of his sons and his still greater 
 grandson pursued with great address and high honour. This was Robert 
 Peel, eldest son of William Peel, and the first of an unbroken succession 
 of Robert Peels, of whom the last is the present baronet, of Drayton 
 Manor. Robert Peel was bom at Peel Fold, in the year 1723 ; he is 
 believed to have been educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in 
 Blackburn. Having attained his majority, he married, on the 28th of 
 August, 1 744, Elizabeth, daughter of Edmund Haworth, of Walmsley Fold, 
 Lower Darwen, gent. It is stated that after his marriage Robert Peel 
 went to live at the Hole-house farm, in Blackburn, formerly referred to ; 
 his father, William Peel, of course, remaining in possession of Peel Fold 
 estate, in Oswaldtwistle, until his death in 1757. His first two sons, 
 
THE PEELS OF BLACKBURN. 215 
 
 William and Edmund, were both born at the Hole-house, the one in 
 June, 1745, and the other in January, 1747-8. About the year 1750, 
 Robert Peel had found another abode near the centre of the town of 
 Blackburn. This was the messuage in Fish-lane, off Astley-gate. This 
 old lane may have derived its name from a family of yeomen named 
 Fish, who lived in Blackburn, and not improbably at the farm house 
 tenanted by Robert Peel, a tenement of considerable age, judging by 
 its appearance before its demolition. At Fish-lane Robert Peel at first 
 engaged himself as a farmer on a small scale, and there, in the month 
 of April, 1750, was born his third son, Robert — the future baronet and 
 father of the great statesman. The infant was baptized at Blackburn 
 Church, April 23rd, 1750.' The house at Fish-lane has now been 
 taken down some years. The house stood near the top of Fish-lane, on 
 the north side. It was a low tenement, with muUioned windows and a 
 gabled porch near the midst of the south front ; the bam attached at the 
 end of the building. Twenty-five years ago the old house stood isolated 
 in the lane, which was then but a narrow foot-road at the lower end, 
 leading between walls and hedges from Astley-gate to Blakey Moor. 
 The situation is transformed by the modem streets that now cover the 
 ground. 
 
 Shortly after the time that this third son Robert first saw the light, 
 Robert Peel was led to join in a small calico-making and printing busi- 
 ness. The circumstances of his commencement in business are supplied 
 by the family biographer. Edmund Haworth, of Walmsley Fold, 
 father-in-law of Robert Peel, was engaged as a " chapman " or dealer in 
 woven fabrics, and he had sent one of his sons, Mr. Jonathan Haworth, 
 to London to acquire a knowledge of the art of printing calicoes, at 
 that time confined to a few print-works in the Metropolis. On the 
 return of young Mr. Haworth to Blackburn, proposals were made to his 
 brother-in-law Peel to become his partner in a factory to be started in 
 the vicinity of the town. Sir L. Peel writes : — " My maternal grandfather, 
 Mr. Haworth, was reputed in his family, and I believe with truth, to 
 have been the first calico-printer in Lancashire. He had learned the 
 business in London, where he resided several years when a young 
 man. . . On his return to Lancashire, he was bent upon introducing 
 the business of a calico printer into his own neighbourhood. He com- 
 municated his design to his brother-in-law, Mr. Robert Peel. They 
 
 I The tradition is positive in Blackburn that Robert Peel, the first baronet, was born at the Fish- 
 lane tenement in the town, and the house has several times been pictured in topographical works as 
 the birth-place of this eminent personage : but Jonathan Peel, Esq., informs me that he has repeatedly 
 heard this popular notion denied by old members of the family. Mr. Pee does not remember where it 
 was stated the birth really took place, whether at Hole House or Peel Fold ; but adds that Robert 
 Peel was attended at Fish-lane in early infancy by his relative Dr. Thomas Haworth, as appears from 
 the Doctor's account book, now in possession of Mr Jonathan Peel. 
 
2i6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 consulted together, and, after mature deliberation, resolved upon a trial 
 of the scheme. Mr. Peel raised money for the undertaking by the 
 mortgage of his small paternal property. Mr. Haworth had some 
 money, but their united means did not furnish capital enough, and they 
 therefore looked out for a partner with money. Mr. [William] Yates, or 
 his parents, had kept a small inn at Blackburn, called, I believe, the 
 Black Bull. In that line he, or they, had made and saved some money; 
 he was willing to embark it in a scheme which promised well, and the 
 three commenced -business together under the name, style, and firm of 
 Haworth, Peel, and Yates ; they manufactured and printed their own 
 cloth, and established a warehouse in Manchester for its sale." 
 
 It was while living at Fish-lane, sometime between 1755 and 1760, 
 that Mr. Robert Peel made his first experiments in block-printing. The 
 process was conducted with secresy in the first instance ; and the printed 
 pieces were ironed, instead of being put through a calender, by his wife. 
 On one occasion, 
 
 Mr. Peel was in the kitchen, making some experiments in printing on handker- 
 chiefs, and other small pieces, when his only daughter [Anne], then a girl, afterwards 
 Mrs. Willock, brought him in from their "garden of herbs " a sprig of parsley. . . 
 She pointed out and praised the beauty of the leaf, and said she thought it would make 
 a very pretty pattern. He took it out of her hand, looked at it attentively, praised it 
 for its beauty, and her for her taste, and said he would make a trial of it. She, pleased 
 not to be pooh-poohed as discoverers amongst juniors often are, lent her aid with all 
 the alacrity of fourteen. A pewter dinner plate, for such was then the common dinner 
 plate in families of that degree, was taken down from the shelf, and on it was sketched, 
 say rather scratched, a figure of the leaf, and from this impressions were taken. It 
 was called in the family Nancy's pattern, after his daughter. It became a favourite ; 
 in the trade it was known as the parsley-leaf pattern ; and apt alliteration, lending its 
 artful aid, gave its inventor the nickname of "Parsley Peel," which not having the 
 least mixture of ill-nature in it, no barb to make it stick, did not adhere. 
 
 Besides the three sons that have been named — William, Edmund, 
 Robert — Mr. Robert Peel had other sons :— Paul, died in infancy ; Jona- 
 than, afterwards of Accrington, baptized September 21st, 1752; Lawrence ; 
 Joseph, born in September, 1765; and Robert John. Sir Lawrence 
 Peel's statement that there was but one daughter Anne, or Nancy, is 
 not strictly accurate ; she was the only daughter who survived to woman- 
 hood ; but there was also two daughters that died in infancy — Betty, 
 baptized March sth, 1762, buried June 22nd, 1764 ; and Jenny, baptized 
 April ist, buried April loth, 1768. A statement is made by Whittle, 
 that two of Mr. Peel's sons, Robert and Jonathan, were apprenticed to 
 a calico-printer in Livesey, near Blackburn, named Mr. Thomas Yates. 
 There was a Thomas Yates in business as a dyer of calicoes at Moor- 
 gate Fold in Livesey before the year 1 748 ; and it might be this person 
 with whom the two sons of Robert Peel served their time. 
 
THE PEELS AND YATESES OF BLACKBURN. 217 
 
 Mr. William Yates, who about the year 1760 entered into a partner- 
 ship with Mr. Peel and Mr. Haworth as calico printers, at Brookside, 
 Oswaldtwistle, was a Blackburn man, whose father kept the Black Bull 
 Inn. The relations of William Yates with the Peels, both commercial 
 and domestic, were in the sequel very intimate. He was four times 
 married. By his first wife Mary he had a son Edmund, named hereafter; 
 then a daughter Ellen (" Ellen daughter of William and Mary Yates 
 of Blackburn, Chapman "), baptized April 2nd, 1766, afterwards famous 
 as the wife of the first Sir Robert Peel and mother of the celebrated 
 Minister; also sons Thomas, born in September 1767; and John, 
 baptized June nth, 1768. The mother died in childbed of this son, 
 and was buried the day of his baptism, June nth, 1768. Mr. Yates's 
 second wife, Nancy, bore a son Giles, bom in April and died in June, 
 1771 ; and daughters Jane and Ann, twins, baptized June 6th, 1773 ; 
 Jane, one of the twins, became the wife of Col. Peel of Ardwick. 
 Mr. Yates had other sons, Jonathan, afterivards General Yates; William, 
 who entered the Church, and became Rector of Eccleston, Chorley ; 
 John ; and Thomas Yates of Bury, calico printer. William Yates the 
 father died in 18 13, aged 73. 
 
 The partnership of Haworth, Yates, and Peel did not continue 
 many years. The two elder partners seceded, and subsequently com- 
 menced business at Bury ; Robert Peel remaining in sole possession at 
 Brookside. It has been mentioned that, in 1762, Robert Peel and 
 James Hargreaves conjointly constructed the carding cylinder and 
 introduced this greatly improved mode of carding into the factory at 
 Brookside. He also bought from Hargreaves several of his spinning 
 frames and stocked his rooms therewith. Thus Mr. Peel, at an early 
 date in his commercial career, combined in his works the branches of 
 cotton carding and spinning, and of calico weaving on the hand-loom, 
 with the subsidiary art of calico printing. The tradition is that his 
 machines at Brookside were destroyed by the gang of rioters that attacked 
 the house of Hargreaves and broke up his machines in the year 1768. 
 He refitted his factory when the fury of the populace had subsided, 
 and erected other works at Altham, to enable him to meet the increase 
 of orders for his printed pieces. Still the enterprising printer was not 
 permitted to develop his trade in East Lancashire in quietness. The 
 year 1779 found the Blackburn weavers suffering from temporary priva- 
 tions from the dearth of employment, which they attributed to the 
 multiplication of new machines and the progress of the factory system, 
 and Robert Peel, as the chief local agent in this industrial revolution, 
 was the object of popular hostility. Not only were his mills at Brook- 
 side and Altham demolished, and all the machinery broken up ; but it 
 
 28 
 
ai8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 is related that Mr. Peel was in danger of personal injury by 
 the mob. This second onslaught convinced Mr. Peel that he could 
 not continue to prosecute his businesses with any degree of security 
 in the Blackburn district ; and he resolved to sever his connexion 
 with his native town, to leave his wrecked factories behind, and to make 
 a new start in a more hospitable locality. He removed his family and 
 movable property to the vicinity of Burton-upon-Trent, in Stafford- 
 shire, where " he took a lease for three lives, from the Earl of Uxbridge, 
 of some land favourable to his purpose, part of which abutted on the 
 Trent. He built three mills there, to supply one of which with water 
 he cut a canal, at the cost of ^^9,000." It is not necessary here 
 to notice the future history of Mr. Peel with any particularity. His 
 business in Staffordshire was remarkably prosperous, and after conduct- 
 ing it in person for about a dozen years he retired, and left the mills at 
 Burton-on-Trent in the hands of some of his sons. Sir Lawrence Peel 
 says respecting his habits and personal aspect :— " Old Mr. Peel was 
 rather an absent man. When he walked the streets of Burton he used 
 to look downwards, and seemed ever to be calculating some stiff ques- 
 tion, and the common folks, shrewd enough commonly in their percep- 
 tion of eccentricities, dubbed him ' The Philosopher.' . . He stooped 
 a little in his latter days ; in his youth he had been remarkably erect. 
 He wore a bushy Johnsonian wig ; like that sage, he was dressed in 
 dark clothes of an ample cut, he leaned as he walked upon a tall gold- 
 headed cane, and as he was a very handsome man, he looked a figure 
 stately enough for a mediaeval burgomaster." The gold-headed cane 
 referred to, after Robert Peel's death, became the property of one of his 
 sons, Mr. Jonathan Peel, of Accrington House, and by him it was care- 
 fully preserved as a relic. On the death of Mr. Jonathan Peel, it was 
 presented to Sir Robert Peel, the Minister. The stick retained the 
 leathern string, well-worn, which used to encircle the wrist of the vener- 
 able founder of the fortunes of the Peels. A tradition of the personal 
 appearance of Robert Peel in his less stately days, when he lived as a 
 plain Blackburn farmer in Fish-lane, represents him as " a tall robust 
 man, whose ordinary garb included a woollen apron, a calf-skin waist- 
 coat, and wooden-soled clogs, and whose hair was grizzly, and of a 
 reddish colour." This was Robert Peel at forty years of age, when his 
 calico printing venture was in its humble beginnings ; the picture of Sir 
 Lawrence Peel is drawn at sixty to seventy, when his enterprise had 
 yielded its ample harvest. 
 
 On retiring from business, Mr. Peel went to reside in a house he 
 had bought at Ardwick, near Manchester. There he ended his life in 
 comfortable repose. Sir Lawrence Peel has a pleasant anecdote of a 
 
THE PEELS OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 219 
 
 conversation between old Mr. Robert Peel and his excellent wife, a 
 short time before the end of their long married life of fifty-one years : — 
 " One evening near the close of their lives, as they were seated by the 
 fireside, surrounded by some of their descendants, conversing with the 
 calmness of age upon death, the old lady said to her husband, ' Robert, 
 I hope that I may live a few months after thee.' A wish so opposite to 
 that which wives in story are made to express, surprised her hearers, but 
 not her husband, who calmly asked her 'Why?' as if guessing her 
 thought. 'Robert,' she replied, 'thou hast always been a kind, good 
 husband to me ; thou hast been a man well thought of, and I should 
 like to stay by thee to the last, and keep thee all right.'" The good 
 wife's considerate wish was fulfilled. Robert Peel died in September, 
 1795, aged 72 ; and his widow followed him to the grave within a few 
 months, in March, 1796, aged 73 years. The brief space of her widow- 
 hood Mrs. Peel spent chiefly at the house of her only surviving daughter, 
 Mrs. Willock, wife of the Rev. Borlace Willock, incumbent of Great 
 Harwood, and it was at the parsonage of Great Harwood that the old 
 lady died. Both Mr. and Mrs. Peel were interred in a family vault 
 built by Mr. Peel at St. John's Church, Manchester. The place of 
 sepulture of the ancestral Peels was in the middle aisle of Blackburn 
 Old Parish Church. When the old church was demolished in 1820, all 
 the graves of the chief local families within the church area, including 
 those of the Walmesleys, Liveseys, Ainsworths, Feildens, Sudells, Peels, 
 and others, were left unprotected, and it became the duty of the repre- 
 sentatives of these families then living, to cover the graves with suitable 
 tombs, which in most instances was done, and the group of closely- 
 placed monuments and railed memorial slabs above the vaults of these 
 families indicates the situation of the former fabric in the Churchyard, 
 and marks the relative positions of the burial places of the families in the 
 ancient Parish Church. The erection of a family tomb to the Peels was 
 undertaken jointly by the first Mr. Jonathan Peel of Accrington House, 
 fourth son of Mr. Robert Peel, and by Mrs. William Peel, "a lady," says 
 Sir Lawrence Peel, "the sorrows of whose life, in the early deaths of her 
 husband and of her only child, a son, distinguished at Oxford, . destined 
 for the Church, and promising a life of good, left unappropriated a never- 
 failing spring of love, which flowed thenceforward for the use of those 
 who mourn." The Peel tomb in the Parish Churchyard at Blackburn 
 is a plain square one of massive stone slabs, surrounded by a palisade. 
 The inscription it bears is simply the surname of this now historic 
 family — " Peel." Many years have passed since any member of the 
 Peel family was interred in the Blackburn Vault. 
 
 Robert Peel, third son of the above Mr. Robert Peel, takes an 
 
220 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 eminent position in the family history as the first Sir Robert, and 
 father of the illustrious statesman. From an early age, Robert Peel 
 displayed a peculiar energy and intellectual ability that led his friends 
 to anticipate his future distinction. Sir L. Peel says that when he had 
 reached the age of i8 (that would be in 1768), he remarked to his father 
 that he thought the members of the numerous family were " too thick 
 upon the ground," and proposed that he should receive ;^5oo from his 
 sire and go forth to make his own way in life. The father at the time 
 was not disposed to make this advance ; perhaps the drain upon his 
 capital in the working of his mill at Brookside forbade it. Two or three 
 years after, however, an opening for young Robert's business talents was 
 presented. His uncle, Mr. Haworth, and Mr. William Yates, decided, 
 about the year 1770, to commence new calico printing works at Bury ; 
 and on starting that business, Mr. Haworth manifested his confidence 
 in his nephew by selecting him for a junior partner. The Bury firm in 
 process of time became one of the most extensive in the trade. Robert 
 Peel was recognised as the soul of the business by his seniors, one of 
 whom (Mr. Haworth) soon retired from the partnership, and the other, 
 Mr. Yates, left the entire direction to young Peel. On his first settle- 
 ment in Bury, Robert Peel dwelt as a lodger with Mr. Yates, and dis- 
 played a strong affection for the little daughter of his host, Ellen Yates, 
 who was then but a child of five years or so. Robert Peel often nursed 
 this pretty wench, and used to ask her if she would wed him when she 
 arrived at womanhood, to which the child would artlessly answer in the 
 affirmative. The singular attachment did not pass away, although the 
 young man was sixteen years the senior of his child-sweetheart. Ellen 
 Yates grew up a beautiful and fascinating young lady, received a first- 
 class education, and when she reached the age of seventeen, and Robert 
 Peel that of thirty-three, the early pledge was redeemed. Robert Peel 
 married Ellen Yates on July 8th, 1783; and, after the birth of two 
 daughters, a son was bom to the pair on the 5th of February, 1788, who 
 was named after his sire and grandsire, " Robert Peel." This son 
 became, forty-six years after. Prime Minister of England, having previ- 
 ously taken a high political position in Parliament. The events in the 
 life of Sir Robert Peel, the statesman, are too well remembered to require 
 rehearsal. It should be a source of pride to the inhabitants of Blackburn 
 that this renowned politician and party-leader, whose name has become 
 historical, sprung of Blackburn parentage both on the father's and the 
 mother's side, for both Robert Peel, the first baronet, and Ellen Yates, 
 his first wife, mother of the statesman, drew their first breath in the then 
 dull old town. Thus it may be boasted that Blackburn energy, intelli- 
 gence, and thrift produced one of the most honourable and successful 
 
o ; 
 
 — o 
 
 
ENTERPRISES OF THE PEELS. 221 
 
 statesmen whose hands have guided the destinies of the Empire. The 
 first Sir Robert Peel was not less remarkable as a mercantile man than 
 his son was as a Parliamentary leader. In 1790, the elder Robert Peel 
 entered Parliament as Member for Tamworth, and continued to repre- 
 sent that borough for thirty years. In 1 800, at fifty years of age, he 
 received a baronetcy. In 1 803, his business operations were so large 
 that it was reckoned he employed 15,000 workpeople, chiefly at Bury and 
 Tamworth, and was paying excise duty of more than _;^4o,ooo per 
 annum on his prints. He had five sons besides the Minister, and several 
 daughters ; and so ^eat was his wealth at his decease, aged 80, on May 
 3rd, 1830, that it was found he had left personalty to the amount of 
 between one and two millions, and had bequeathed legacies of^i35,ooo 
 each to five younger sons ; ;^52,ooo each to three surviving daughters ; 
 and numerous liberal bequests to his connexions and to public objects. 
 All his landed estates in Staffordshire and Warwickshire descended to 
 his eldest son Robert with the title ; and the settlement of ;^9,ooo a 
 year which had been made on him at the age of 21, on his entrance into 
 Parliament, was a part of the inheritance of the second Sir Robert Peel 
 out of the princely fortune amassed by the first baronet. 
 
 Among the other businesses in East Lancashire in which the Peels 
 were principal partners, were the works at Church Bank, Church Kirk, 
 founded sometime before 1770 by Robert Peel, of Blackburn. With 
 these works, after the father's retirement from business life, William 
 Peel and Jonathan Peel, his eldest and fourth sons, were chiefly con- 
 nected. Mr. William Peel inherited the farm at Peel Fold, Oswald- 
 twistle, and lived at the old house there after his marriage until his 
 removal to a larger residence at Church Bank. This representative 
 married, in the year 1766, Mary, daughter of Thomas Haworth, doctor 
 of medicine, of Blackburn, and had issue sons, Thomas (afterwards of 
 Peel Fold and Sawley), Joseph, died young in 1781 ; Robert, of Taliaris, 
 Wales; Edmund, of Church Bank; William, of Burnley; Jonathan, and 
 John, of Burton ; with daughters Elizabeth and Anne. Mr. William 
 Peel, like his grandfather William Peel, had not the robust health 
 common among the Peels, and died comparatively young and before 
 his parents, in 1791; the Blackburn Parish Register shows "William 
 Peel, of Church Bank," as buried there April 2nd, 1791, aged 47 (an 
 error in the record — he was hardly 46). His widow died in March, 
 1794, aged 49, and was also sepultured at Blackburn, March 25th. 
 
 The Peel-fold estate still belongs to the elder line of the Peels, the 
 descendants of the above-named Mr. William Peel. The old house at 
 the Fold remains, and is occupied by the farmer of the estate. It is a 
 very fair example of a yeoman's house of the seventeenth century with 
 
224 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 implements used by the block printers of a past generation, removed 
 from the rooms preparatory to a restoration of such portions of the build- 
 ings as are to be applied to a new industry. Altogether the old Brook- 
 side Print Works look what they really are, the forsaken haunt of a trade 
 once of vast proportions and amazingly profitable, but now contracted 
 to humbler dimensions, and stripped of its former affluence. The 
 name of Brookside, however, will not soon be erased from the commercial 
 record of this county. 
 
 MOSNEY PRINT-WORKS— THE LIVESEY FAMILY. 
 
 Allusion has formerly been made to the extensive print works 
 established at Mosney, in Walton-in-le-Dale, by a family of Liveseys and 
 parties in partnership with them. The Liveseys, who took a notable part 
 in the development of calico printing in this district a century ago, were 
 collateral connexions of the ancient territorial family of Livesey of 
 Livesey. One of them was Thomas Livesey, Esq., of Blackburn, and 
 another, John Livesey, Esq., of the same place. The former, Mr. 
 Thomas Livesey, was the son of James Livesey, gentleman, who died in 
 1747, and a kinsman of Ralph Livesey, Esq., of Livesey Hall, who died 
 in 1766. "Thomas, son of James and Margaret Livesey of Blackburn, 
 gent.," was baptized in Blackburn Church, July 12th, 1734. There were 
 other children, including three sons named James, all of whom died in 
 infancy, and sons Robert and Richard ; with daughters Alice, bom in 
 1 741, and Ellen. Mr. Thomas Livesey was eventually heir to a 
 considerable estate, but he also engaged in the local manufacture, in the 
 first instance as a merchant in the Blackburn fabrics, and afterwards as 
 an extensive calico printer. His place of residence about 1760 was the 
 handsome stone-built house with classic frontage, which stands on the 
 north side of King-street in Blackburn, near the opening into Paradise- 
 lane. This, the most elegant of the old Blackburn residences, was 
 built in the early years of last century by a Mr. Falkner. I have it 
 on the statement of an old lady in Blackburn that when Mr. Thomas 
 Livesey dwelt in this mansion he used the basement floor for a ware- 
 house for the reception of the calico pieces in which he traded, and had 
 the whole of the flagged floor boarded over to make the place more 
 comfortable for his warehousemen. Mr. Thomas Livesey married, 
 first, Elizabeth Livesey, a daughter of a family of Liveseys in Man- 
 chester that also sprang from the old stock of Livesey of Livesey. 
 They were married May 6th, 1 766. The children of this marriage were, 
 James, bom in Febmary, 1767, and died in March, 1771 ; Margaret, 
 bom in 1768, died in April, 1775; Ellen, born in 1770, died in August, 
 1793; and Elizabeth, bom in March, 1771. Mrs. Livesey died in 
 
PRINT-WORKS AT MOSNEY IN WALTON. 225 
 
 child-bed of this daughter, and was buried March 21st, 1771. Mr. 
 Thomas Livesey, for his second wife, married, June 15th, 1775, 
 Lydia Bancroft, of Manchester, by whom he had a son Joseph ; and 
 a daughter, Maria, born in 1777. Miss Ahce Livesey, a sister of Mr. 
 Thomas Livesey, who hved with him in the house in King-street, Black- 
 bum, had married, in 1763, Henry Sudell, gent, and had by him a 
 son, Henry. Mr. Thomas Livesey's daughter by his second wife, Miss 
 Maria Livesey, was married to her cousin, Henry Sudell, junior, in the 
 year 1796. 
 
 The other member of the Liveseys connected with the rise of cotton 
 spinning and calico printing in Blackburn Parish was Mr. John Livesey, 
 of Blackburn, who by his wife Mary, daughter of Samuel Clowes, Esq., 
 of Manchester, whom he married in 1772, had sons, Robert, born in 
 February, 1774; John Pearson; and Thomas, bom in July, 1784; with 
 daughters Mary, Elizabeth, Frances, and Anne. 
 
 The works at Mosney, started about 1780, were the property of a 
 firm under the style of Livesey, Hargreaves, Anstie, Smith, and Hall. 
 The firm secured the services of a Mr. Thomas Bell, a Scotsman, who 
 brought to the business his practical talent as an engraver, and who 
 proved also a successful mechanical inventor. Indeed, the Walton 
 calico printing concern is now chiefly remembered from the circum- 
 stance that it was there that cylinder-machine printing of calico was 
 first introduced. Mr. Thomas Bell, of this estiblishment, was the 
 original inventor and patentee of the cylinder printing-process. The 
 specification of Mr. Bell's first patent bears date the 1 7th of November, 
 1783. In it the inventor "Thomas Bell, of Mosney, in the county of 
 Lancaster, copper-plate Printer," recites that by Royal Letters Patent 
 dated July 17th, 23rd Geo. III., he had granted to him power to make, 
 use, and vend his invention, described as "A new and peculiar art or 
 method of Printing with one colour or with various colours at the same 
 time, on Linnens, Lawns, and Cambricks, Cottons, Callicoes, and 
 Muslins, Woollen Cloths, Silks, Silk and Stuffs, Gauzes, and any other 
 species or kind of Linnen Cloth, or Manufactured Goods whatever." 
 The nature of the invention is then set forth, and the inventor's affidavit 
 is attested by " William Waterhouse, of Mosney, within the township of 
 Walton-in-le-Dale, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, Gentleman, and 
 John Emmett, of Preston, Cabinet Maker." The large sheet of drawings 
 accompanying the specification exhibits the parts of a six-colour cylinder- 
 printing machine, the mechanism of which is thus described : — The six 
 rollers are arranged round a large central bowl. The colour is supplied 
 to each roller by what is yet called the " box doctor." Springs and 
 screws are shown for pushing the box doctors up to the rollers, and 
 
 29 
 
226 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 cogged wheels to drive the rollers simultaneously. The m achine has 
 attached a winding-on frame, by which the unwinding of the cloth from 
 one roll, before printing, winds the printed cloth on another, with a 
 coupling-box to detach the roll when filled. Such was the first form of 
 the cylinder machine for calico printing, as brought out at Mosney 
 works by Mr. Thomas Bell, in 1783. In the following year Mr. Bell 
 patented an improved machine, of which one of the features is the 
 construction of the centres of the printing rollers of iron, covered with 
 copper or other metal, which can be taken off at pleasure, and other 
 patterns engraved on the movable copper plates fixed upon the rollers 
 as needed. The drawing of this specification shows a three-colour 
 cylinder machine. The inventor's affidavit is sworn at Mosney, August 
 4th, 1784, and the specification enrolled on the 8th of November. 
 
 The Mosney firm of calico printers extended their works, and for 
 some years prosecuted a flourishing business, and bore a high reputation 
 in the trade ; but a succession of pecuniary losses very much shook the 
 credit of the concern, and resulted at last in the suspension of business. 
 The bankruptcy of the firm was announced in the year 1788. The 
 works at Mosney were stopped, and do not appear to have ever been 
 re-started. After lying idle a few years, the buildings at Mosney were 
 demolished, and the machinery taken out of them. Mr. William 
 Assheton, of Cuerdale Hall, bought the site from the executors of 
 Thomas Livesey, in 1792, and sold it to Mr. Richard Calrow about 
 1797.' It is said that the mansion of the Calrows at Walton Lodge was 
 built partially of the bricks brought from the demolished Mosney works. 
 The only vestiges now to be seen of the once extensive arrangements 
 for calico-printing at this spot are a portion of an old wall, and remains 
 of the brick culvert constructed for turning the water used in the works 
 into the River Darwen. Mosney estate is still the property of the Calrow 
 family. An informant mentions that the Liveseys had bleach-works at 
 
 I Among the Piccope MSS. in the Chetham Library, Manchester, I find brief abstracts of deeds in 
 the possession of the Rev. J. S. Birley relating to the acquisition of part of the site of the Mosney Print 
 Works in Walton. By Indentures dated Jan. 13th and 14th, 1783, between John Atherton of Banister Hall, 
 of the first part, Joseph Atherton of the second part. Richard Atherton and John Hindle of the third 
 part, and John Livesey, John Hargreave.s, Peter Anstie, Joseph Smith, and Williiim Hall of the fourth 
 part, is conveyed a close called Barn fiatt to the parties of the fourth part, who were the firm of calico- 
 printers. On the i8th June, 1788, a joint Commission of Bankruptcy was awarded against the said 
 John Livesey and the other members of the firm. An indenture of the 24th Sept., 1789, between John, 
 Joseph, and John Atherton of the one part, and Thomas Livesey of the other part, recites the inden- 
 ture of Jan. 13th, 1783 ; and the Will of John Atherton, dated Oct. i8th, 1785. The said Thomas 
 Livesey died in March, 1790, Joseph Livesey, his son and heir, being then a minor ; and appointed 
 Lydia Livesey, his wife, her son Mathew Bancroft Lister, Esq., Henry Sudell of Blackburn, Esq., 
 Joseph Tipping of Manchester, Esq., and John Hysall of London, Esq., executors. Thomas Livesey's 
 Will was dated Feb. 21st, 1787. By indentures dated May 17th and i8th, 1792, Lydia Livesey, of 
 Burwell Park, Co. Lincoln, widow, Mathew Bancroft Lister, of Burwell Park, Esq., Henry Sudell 
 of Blackburn, Esq., and Thomas Tipping of Manchester, Esq., sell to William Assheton of Cuerdale, 
 Esq., the close of land called Bam Flatt, &c. 
 
PRINT-WORKS AT PRIMROSE AND MILL HILL. 
 
 227 
 
 Bamber Bridge, and also a cotton mill at Higher Walton, which was 
 purchased by Rodgett Brothers about 1859, and afterwards pulled down 
 and a new mill built. Mr. Thomas Livesey resided at Knott House, 
 and died there ; this house had previously been the residence of Mr. 
 Anstie, one of the masters of the Mosney print-works; Mr. Hall, 
 another partner, resided at Darwen Bank, now the property of Mr. 
 Rodgett. Knott House was since the mansion of Edmund Calvert, Esq. 
 
 PRINT-WORKS AT PRIMROSE AND MILL HILL. 
 
 Another local printing establishment of celebrity in its day was that 
 founded by Mr. James Thomson, at Primrose, near Clitheroe. Mr. 
 Thomson began business at Primrose about 181 1, in the first instance 
 in premises that had been previously used for cotton manufacturing 
 purposes. Mr. James Thomson was the son of a Scotch gentleman 
 who had migrated to Blackburn, and was engaged in the local trade 
 there. The son was born in the year 1779, and was educated at 
 Glasgow University. He commenced life as a chemist at the printing 
 works of Messrs. Peel, at Church-bank, and stayed there until he 
 had obtained a partnership in the business. On his commencement 
 of a new business at Primrose, he had for his partners Mr. John 
 Chippendale, the son of a Blackburn trader in cotton goods, and Mr. 
 James Burton. The firm was styled Thomson, Chippendale, Burton, and 
 Thomson. The Primrose Print-works quickly established a good position 
 in the trade ; and the concern was found so profitable that, a few years 
 after its commencement, Mr. Thomson was able to purchase the estate 
 upon which the works stood for ^28,000. The secret of Mr. Thomson's 
 eminence as a calico printer was his devotion to the scientific improve- 
 ment of printing processes. He took out patents for some of the most 
 important of his novelties in the application of colours. The first of his 
 specifications is one dated March 3rd, 1813, entitled "A new method of 
 producing patterns in cloth previously dyed Turkey Red, and made of 
 cotton, or linen, or both." In February, i8i5,the Primrose printer patented 
 certain " improvements in the process of printing cloth," consisting of 
 the art of printing earthy or metallic solutions, such as the sulphate, 
 acetate, or nitrate of alumina, iron, or copper, on cloth already dyed. 
 Mr. Thomson, finding some of his most original designs pirated by 
 unprincipled competitors, took a leading part in procuring the passage 
 of an Act of Parliament for the protection of the inventor of any pattern 
 within a period fixed by the Act. When the Primrose print-works 
 were at the height of their activity, near 500 operative printers were 
 employed on the premises, besides large numbers of men engaged in 
 bleaching and other departmental processes. The most skilful chemists 
 
228 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 were engaged in the laboratories of this firm, and able engravers in the 
 cutting of patterns. About the year 1840, Dr. Lyon Playfair, who now 
 sits in Parliament as Member for the Scottish Universities, accepted an 
 appointment as experimental chemist from Mr. Thomson, and gave the 
 Primrose print-works the benefit of his chemical knowledge for two or 
 three years. Mr. Thomson was a liberal patron of men eminent in 
 science, literature, and art, and among his personal friends was the poet 
 Campbell, who sometime sojourned at Primrose as the guest of Mr. 
 Thomson, and whose portrait was painted by an eminent artist, at 
 Primrose House, at the order of Mr. Thomson, who paid five hundred 
 guineas for the work. Mr. Thomson died, aged 72 years, on the 17th 
 of September, 1850, and four years afterwards the works at Primrose 
 were stopped. These extensive premises, once the seat of one of the 
 most celebrated industries in the county, have now for twenty years 
 been abandoned to decay. 
 
 A family that should be mentioned as having built up a large 
 business in calico printing in the vicinity of Blackburn is that of the 
 Turners, whose works at Mill Hill, in Livesey township, about a mile 
 south-west of Blackburn, were once of considerable note, but have now 
 been discontinued about thirty years. Mr. Robert Turner, a son of Mr. 
 Thomas Turner, of Martholme, in Great Harwood, settled in Black- 
 bum as a "chapman," or dealer in calico woven on the hand- 
 looms. It is probable that this gentleman commenced calico printing 
 at Mill Hill some years before his death (Oct. 17th, 181 1, aged 
 77) ; for Dr. Aikin notices, in 1794, that a mile from Blackburn on the 
 Preston Old Road was " a large printing-ground." The calico-printing 
 trade was prosecuted by Mr. Turner's sons, Thomas, John, Robert, and 
 William Turner, all of Mill Hill. The Mill Hill works of this family 
 extended along the bank of the Darwen river from Stakes, in Livesey, 
 to the site of an existing weaving shed below Mill Hill House. In 
 i822j the Turners appear to have had two separate businesses in calico- 
 printing. One was carried on at Mill Hill by the firm of Robert Turner, 
 junior, & Co., and the other by Mr. Thomas Turner, whose works 
 were situated at Stakes, in Livesey, and his house or warehouse at <)2, 
 Darwen Street, in Blackburn. Mr. Thomas and Mr. John Turner, 
 the first and third sons of Mr. Robert Turner, both died in the 
 year 1825. Mr. Robert Turner (the son), died in 1842. Mr. William 
 Turner, the youngest of the brothers, was one of the first Members 
 returned to Parliament for the borough of Blackburn on its enfranchise- 
 ment in 1832 ; and he sat as M.P. for Blackburn in three succeeding 
 Parliaments. He had acquired a landed estate in Cheshire, and had a 
 seat at Shrigley Hall in that county. He died at Mill Hill, July 1 7th, 
 
PROGRESS OF COTTON MANUFACTURING. 229 
 
 1842, aged 65. The Mill Hill print-works and estate were sold in 1843 
 to the late Mr. Joseph Eccles, of Mill Hill House, who demolished the 
 old print shops, and erected on their site the Mill Hill Mills, about the 
 year 1844. 
 
 Other former firms of printers in the Parish are those of Greenway, 
 Potter, and Co., of Over Darwen ; and C. Swainson and Co., Banister 
 Hall Print-works, in Walton. With the exception of the last-named firm, 
 th^t of Messrs. Swainson, which is yet in the business, the calico printing 
 branch of the cotton manufacture, once so valuable and so widely diffused 
 in this part of Lancashire, has at the present time hardly an existence 
 throughout the parish of Blackburn. 
 
 PROGRESS OF COTTON MANUFACTURING. 
 The start in the English cotton manufacture, strictly so called, 
 dates from the year 1774, when Parliament passed an Act reducing the 
 duty of sixpence per yard upon fabrics made wholly of cotton (which 
 amounted to a prohibition), to threepence per yard. The preamble of 
 this Act recites that " whereas a new manufacture of stuffs wholly made 
 of cotton wool hath been set up within this Kingdom," it is enacted 
 that " no higher duty than threepence for every yard in length reckoning 
 a yard wide shall be imposed ;" and that " it shall be lawful for any 
 person to wear any new manufacture made wholly of cotton." In 
 Blackburn it is a tradition that the first cotton piece woven was made 
 for Mr. Bertie Markland (a local merchant who built the house in King- 
 street in which Mr. Hornby afterwards resided), by a weaver at Copster 
 Green. But there is another claimant for the honour of having woven 
 the first piece of calico, according to the following entry in a family 
 Bible at Rishton : — " 1 5th of Sept., 1776. Thomas Duxbury, of Rishton 
 near Blackburn, sold to Messrs. Peels, Yates, and Co., Church Bank, 
 two common fine calico pieces for ^^5 9s. 8d. These were the first 
 calico pieces ever manufactured in the kingdom." John and Thomas 
 Duxbury built, it is said, at Rishton, the first hand-loom weaving shop 
 in the district ; and in 1779 a weaver at Duxbury's "shop" was paid 
 j£i 1 6s. for weaving a piece of calico, out of which he had to pay i8s. 
 6d. to his family or others for carding the cotton and spinning the weft. 
 
 In 1785, the Lancashire manufacturers and merchants became 
 affrighted at the prospect of competition by Irish traders, in whose 
 interest certain resolutions were presented to Parliament ; and petitions 
 were sent from Blackburn and other towns to the House of Commons, 
 praying for consideration. The Journals of the House record the 
 reception of the Blackburn petition as under : — 
 
 Resolved, " That this House will, this Day, resolve itself into a Committee of the 
 whole House, to consider further of so much of His Majesty's most gracious Speech 
 
230 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 to both Houses of Parliament, upon the 25th day of January last, as relates to the 
 adjustment of the Commercial Intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland. " In 
 Committee of the House, "a Petition of the Merchants, Cotton and Callico Manufac- 
 turers, and other Traders of the Town and Neighbourhood of Blackburn, in the County 
 Palatine of Lancaster, was presented to the House and read, setting forth, That the 
 Petitioners, with every consistent wish for the prosperity of their Fellow Subjects in 
 Ireland, are desirous that a lasting Plan may be adopted to put the Interest of the two 
 Kingdoms upon a just and equitable footing as to Commerce in general, but, from the 
 Resolutions lately brought before the House, respecting the Trade of Ireland, they 
 are fearful that they will tend to very great injury of the Manufactures throughout this 
 Kingdom, and of this part of Lancashire in particular : And therefore praying, That 
 the Merchants, Cotton and Callico Manufacturers, and other Traders of the Town and 
 Neighbourhood of Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster, may be heard in support of 
 this Petition, by themselves and Counsel, at the Bar of the House." It was thereupon 
 " Ordered, That the said Petition be referred to the consideration of the Committee of 
 the whole House," &c. 
 
 The category of merchants, warehousemen, sizers, and cotton 
 spinners who assisted in the estabHshment of the local trade between 
 1770 and 1830 includes the names of Sudell of Blackburn ; Markland of 
 Blackburn ; Fleming of Blackburn ; Feilden of Blackburn ; Birley of 
 Blackburn ; Cardwell of Blackburn ; Smalley of Over Darwen ; Eccles 
 of Lower Darwen ; and, somewhat later, the Hornbys, Pilkingtons, 
 Rodgetts, Liveseys, Hopwoods, and Eccles of Blackburn ; Shorrock of 
 Over Darwen, &c. Notices of these families will be given later on in this 
 history. The commercial descriptions applied to the local traders were, 
 in succession, those of "chapman," "merchant," "sizer," and "cotton 
 spinner and manufacturer," expressing the evolutions of the manu- 
 facture, from the time antecedent to the spinning machine, the steam 
 engine, and the power-loom, when the smaller gentry and yeomanry who 
 had accumulated a little capital employed it in putting-out material and 
 receiving the woven pieces from the handloom weavers, and did their 
 business in warehouses in which the goods were stored and packed for 
 the market, down to the present highly-elaborated mill system, in which 
 the master-capitalist and the perfected machinery leave to the operative 
 craftsman so comparatively secondary a part in the process of the 
 manufacture. 
 
 The absorption of this once scattered manufacture into the factories 
 involved a corresponding concentration of labour in the towns, and the 
 migration of the weaving peasantry from the rural upland townships 
 into the towns and villages of the valleys. The first buildings erected 
 in the town of Blackburn specifically for the reception of cotton spinning 
 machinery were those at Wensley Fold and at Spring Hill. The mill- 
 building on Spring Hill, afterwards called " Factory Hill," is the oldest 
 in Blackburn ; the place was built by a Mr. Anderton. Robert Hopwood, 
 
FIRST COTTON SPINNING FIRMS IN BLACKBURN. 231 
 
 the founder of the great firm of Hopwood and Sons in Blackburn, came 
 from the neighbourhood of Clitheroe to start the machinery in this mill, 
 and lived in one of four houses adjacent. Mr. Anderton cannot have 
 long continued in occupancy, for it is stated that in the year 1797 this 
 factory was being worked by Mr. Samuel Horrocks, brother of Mr. John 
 Horrocks, afterwards M.P. for Preston. Mr. Samuel Horrocks removed 
 to Preston, and the place was afterwards worked by Mr. Richard 
 Haworth. The building remains, and is a small brick structure, situated 
 upon the rising ground to the east of Station-road. 
 
 The old mill at Wensley-Fold, near the western boundary of the 
 town, demolished a few years ago, was built sometime before 1795. 
 Baines says the first spinning mill at Wensley Fold was erected before 
 the year 1 779, and was demolished in the disturbances of that year. In 
 1823 the Wensley Fold factory is named as one of the largest in Black- 
 bum, and as employing 320 hands. The Wensley Fold Mills afterwards 
 passed to the late Mr. William Eccles. 
 
 Several other spinning mills were built in Blackburn between 1800 
 and 1825. Mr. James Livesey, father of Mr. John Livesey, built the mill 
 on the banks of the Blakewater, below King-street Bridge, destroyed by 
 fire in May, 1840, and afterwards rebuilt. Mr. William Feilden, of 
 Feniscowles, who entered Parliament in 1832, and was created a Baronet, 
 commenced an extensive cotton-spinning business in the factory erected 
 in Harley-street, the original portion of the large mills now carried on by 
 Mr. R. R. Jackson. Mr. William Thorp built the mill called King- 
 street Mill ; and Mr. James Rodgett the old stone mill on the canal- 
 side near Eanam Bridge. These were all the considerable mills in 
 Blackburn in the year 1824. A little later, Messrs. Hornby and Birley, 
 who had for a number of years carried on business as calico manufac- 
 turers and merchants, at their warehouse in Clayton-street, erected the 
 first spinning mill at Brookhouse, where they had previously a size-house, 
 a small stone structure which has but lately been demolished to make 
 room for enlargement of this now very extensive range of mills. By the 
 improvements in machinery subsequently introduced by Mr. Kenworthy, 
 a partner with the Messrs. Hornby, the Brookhouse Mills became cele- 
 brated in the trade. 
 
 The late Mr. Eccles Shorrock, of Low Hill House, Over Darwen, 
 was the first cotton spinner on a large scale in that township. It was by 
 him that the Bowling-green Mill was built at the south end of Darwen 
 about forty years ago, and other mills subsequently, and he was the 
 original head of the firm which built the splendid India Mills in Darwen, 
 in 1 866^7. 
 
 The " Dandy " Factory in Blackburn, erected by Messrs. Bannister 
 
232 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Eccles and Co., about 1820, derived its popular appellation from the 
 circumstance of the introduction there of an improved hand-loom, in 
 which a light iron frame work was substituted for the heavy wooden 
 frame of the old loom, and which was christened the "dandy" loom on 
 account of its neatness and compactness. But it was, I believe, at the 
 same mill that the invention in weaving machinery so much dreaded 
 by the weavers of fifty years ago^the power-loom — was first started in 
 Blackburn. This was about the year 1825. The power-loom had then 
 been gradually appearing in the large weaving-shops of the Lancashire 
 manufacturers for some years, and had already been subjected to the 
 destructive attacks of the angered weavers in West Houghton and other 
 places. The master-manufacturers of the Blackburn district, remem- 
 bering the fury with which the hand-loom weavers had opposed the 
 spinning jennies on their introduction, were slower in the adoption 
 of the power-loom than the capitalists engaged in the textile trades in 
 other parts of England ; for, while it was computed that there were more 
 than 12,000 power-looms at work in England in 1820, there were not 
 probably a thousand power-looms in all the factories in Blackburn 
 Hundred at the close of the year 1825. The hand-looms at that time 
 numbered many thousands in the district. 
 
 It was an untoward coincidence that at the time the valuable inven- 
 tion of the power-loom was making its way in the Lancashire factories, 
 the trade and commerce of the country were in a state of utter stagna- 
 tion. Great numbers of the peasantry of the county, wholly dependent 
 upon the occupation of calico-weaving for subsistence, were deprived of 
 this employment ; and it was not strange that the half-starved hand-loom 
 weavers should regard with suspicion a new invention that threatened to 
 aggravate the already terrible hardship of their situation. At the outset 
 of the year 1826 the condition of the working-classes in Blackburn was 
 deplorable. In March, 1826, a computation was made that in the 
 townships of Blackburn, Witton, Lower Darwen, Rishton, Mellor, and 
 part of Oswaldtwistle, with a collective population of about 32,000 souls, 
 the number of persons depending for work upon the cotton manufacture 
 was 10,686, — a large proportion of the adult and adolescent papulation 
 of these townships; and that the state of emplojTnent about the 25th of 
 March, 1826, was as follows : — Employed, 2,807; half-employed, 1,467; 
 unemployed, 6,412. Thus about two-thirds of the workfolk in the Black- 
 bum district were in a state of absolute indigence. The results of this 
 industrial desolation were seen at first in aimless and desultory acts of 
 violence. On the night of March 24th, the residence of William Carr, 
 Esq., Clerk to the County Justices, at Shadsworth, Blackburn, was 
 assaulted by a mob ; and for this offence eight of the ringleaders were 
 
LOOM-fiREAKING RIOT IN 1826. 233 
 
 apprehended and sent to prison. Four days afterwards, the local 
 journals record, March 28th, 1826, that at Blackburn one of the market 
 coaches between Blackburn and Manchester was pelted with stones, by 
 an angry crowd of people in the street, and a similar incident occurred 
 on the 22nd of April. These demonstrations against the coaches were, 
 doubtless, directed against the local merchants and manufacturers 
 going to Manchester to market, whom the hungry people supposed 
 to be the authors of all their misfortunes. The distressed weavers held 
 assemblies, took counsel of their fears, and came to the resolution to 
 rise and destroy the power-looms in every factory in which they were 
 known to be working. 
 
 The following is a brief record of the incidents of the loom-breaking 
 disturbances: — On the forenoon of Monday, April 24th, 1826, amass 
 meeting of weavers was held on Enfield Moor, a convenient rendezvous, 
 being near the junction of roads from Blackburn, Burnley, Whalley and 
 Clitheroe, and Haslingden and Accrington. After listening to several 
 addresses, the crowd was detached into two or three parties, which set 
 forth on their task of destruction. Five hundred of the men who met 
 at Enfield were armed with rude pikes made with pieces of sharpened 
 iron attached to staves, scythes, sledge-hammers, with a few guns and 
 pistols. A body of the rioters proceeded first to Accrington, about 
 noon, broke into the newly-built mill of Messrs. Sykes ; and in less than 
 half an hour had broken up sixty power-looms, with the other machinery, 
 had destroyed the warps and cloth in the looms, and had injured the 
 spinning throstles and the steam engine. The shops of the provision 
 dealers in Accrington were plundered. The mob went on to Wood 
 Nook, and broke twenty looms at work there ; then to a factory of Mr. 
 Benjamin Walmsley's, at Rough Hey, and destroyed twenty looms ; next 
 the rioters marched to White Ash Mill, belonging to Mr. James Bury, 
 and found there 74 power looms, which were rapidly reduced to frag- 
 ments. From White Ash the mob, of some 6,000 men, marched in the 
 direction of Blackburn. On the road they encountered a troop of 
 eighteen dragoons of the Queen's Bays, who rode through the mass, but 
 did not arrest the progress of the insurgents. On reaching Blackburn, 
 by Eanam and Salford, the mob first looked about for refreshment. A 
 party took forcible possession of the Bay Horse Inn, and under compul- 
 sion the landlady served a large quantity of drink, and gave away all the 
 bread in the house. The work of devastation was resumed at the Dandy 
 Factory, off Dar^ven-street, belonging to Messrs. Bannister Eccles and 
 Co. Here 212 power looms were found and smashed. This was about 
 three o'clock in the afternoon. Immediately after the mob and the 
 military came into collision in Uarwen-street. 'l"he rioters began the 
 
 30 
 
234 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 fray by stoning the dragoons, and one soldier was seriously hurt. The 
 Riot Act was read at half-past three o'clock. While a number of the 
 rioters were still within the mill of Messrs. Eccles, completing the work 
 of breakage, the detachment of cavalry had managed to surround the 
 building, and some of the men inside the place, finding their exit barred 
 leaped out of a second storey window and escaped across the Blake- 
 water, where no soldiers were posted. The main body of the rioters 
 proceeded to the factory of Messrs. Feilden, Thorp, and Townley, in 
 King-street, which was built for the reception of power-looms, but none 
 of the new machines had yet been set up, and the building was left 
 untouched by the mob. Another body of the weavers went up to a small 
 mill of Mr. John Houghton's, in Grimshaw Park, and destroyed twenty- 
 five power-looms in that manufactory, in spite of the attempted interpo- 
 sition of the military. The warps and twist in the place were thrown 
 into the canal. Here there was bloodshed and loss of life, for the mob 
 having again stoned the soldiers, some of them fired off their carbines, 
 by which one rioter was shot dead, another was. severely wounded 
 in the back, and a third was shot through the ear, the ball passing out 
 at the mouth. There were other fatalities during the conflict. 
 
 In the evening of the day, ten thousand excited weavers triumphantly 
 paraded the streets of Blackburn, and were able to say that not a single 
 power-loom in the neighbourhood had been left unbroken. The Riot 
 Act was again read, and at eight o'clock the dragoons were bidden to 
 clear the streets, which was done by charging through the crowd and 
 striking the rioters with the flat edge of the soldiers' sabres. 
 
 On Wednesday, April 26th, the demolition of all the power-looms 
 at work in Rossendale was carried out by a similar mob. Altogether in 
 Rossendale 215 power-looms were broken up, and other damage inflicted. 
 The rioters also visited Darwen, and broke thirty-six looms in the factory 
 of Mr. James Garsden, and sixteen in that of Messrs. Carr. Throughout 
 the Hundred of Blackburn the total number of looms destroyed was 
 768, and the estimate of the damage committed, which was subsequently 
 recovered from the County authorities, was ^11,593 i6s. 11 d., besides 
 the sums of ;^4,458 for the 219 looms and other machinery destroyed 
 in Salford Hundred, and of ^^489 for 100 looms broken in the factory 
 of Mr. Sudell at Chorley in Leyland Hundred. Some of the losses 
 sustained were not included in the above category of claims at the 
 County Sessions, and it was computed that in all nearly 1,000 looms 
 were destroyed, and that the aggregate value of the property ruined 
 approached ;^3o,ooo. 
 
 For the offences committed in the course of these lawless proceed- 
 ings a number of the rioters were indicted at the Lancaster Assizes in 
 
• THE DISTRESS IN 1826. 235 
 
 the August succeeding the riots. Of the batches of Blackburn prisoners 
 several were acquitted, and the following were convicted and sentenced 
 to imprisonment : — James Chambers, Simeon Wright, Richard Entwistle, 
 William Winder, John Howard, James Riding, William Sutcliffe, Richard 
 Kay, James Latham, James Ormerod, and James Howard. The six 
 last-named were particularly charged with having taken part in breaking 
 the looms at the mill of Bannister Eccles and Co. The evidence of the 
 late Mr. Eccles Shorrock, one of the partners, describes what took place 
 at this manufactory during the riots :• — 
 
 Mr. Eccles Shorrock deposed : — I had a cotton mill in Blackburn, in April last, 
 for spinning and weaving by power looms. My partners were. Bannister Eccles, 
 Joseph Eccles, and John Eccles. On the 14th of April last, about three o'clock in 
 the afternoon, I saw a mob of persons coming towards my mill. The outer gates and 
 the doors of the lower rooms, containing 212 power looms, a lathe, and other machinery, 
 were locked. In the upper rooms there were dressing machines. The looms in the 
 lower rooms were fastened down to the stone floor by a hole drilled into the stone, and 
 a wooden peg driven into it. The power of motion is communicated to those looms 
 by a steam engine, which is on the premises. The mob consisted of several hundred 
 persons. After they broke open the gates, one party formed to the side of the mill. 
 That party, consisting of about thirty persons, were armed with pikes. There was an 
 equal number similarly armed on the other side of the mill. Others of the party broke 
 in the doors of the mill, which I entered in about thirty-five minutes afterwards. I 
 was in the warehouse, which overlooks, and I saw the people break into the mill, and 
 shortly afterwards they brought out the twist beams (part of the power-loom), and 
 several pieces of cloth which had been in the looms. The cloth was torn in the yard 
 in the presence of the mob. The doors appeared as if they had been broken by large 
 hammers. The looms in the lower rooms were all broken. The cast-iron wheels and 
 the drums of the engine were broken. It would require considerable force to break 
 them. The shafts were thrown down, but they being made of wrought iron, about an 
 inch and a quarter in diameter, could not be broken. The shafts were in cups or 
 gallowses, which must either have been broken or forced before the shafts could be 
 thrown down. 
 
 After these disturbances the commercial depression increased 
 rather than diminished, and the state of the working population in the 
 district was for many months most distressing. The poor rates were 
 enormously high, and the machinery of the Poor Law being unequal 
 to the necessity, a public subscription was inaugurated. The King 
 (George IV.) kindly forwarded, through the first Sir Robert Peel, a 
 donation of _;^i,ooo for the relief of the starving weavers of Blackburn 
 and the neighbourhood. The adult male indigent were employed 
 during the distress in cutting a road through the rock on the summit of 
 Revidge hill, and at this spot a memorial stone is inscribed : — " Mount 
 Pleasant, Revedge. — The Road at this Place was made by removing 
 the Rock during the Distress in 1826 & 7." 
 
 In the interval of half-a-century, from 1826 to the present time, the 
 
236 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 cotton manufacture, stimulated and facilitated by the continuous 
 improvements of steam-driven spinning and weaving machines, and by 
 the organisation of the factory system, has become the chief productive 
 industry and means of popular subsistence in this as in many other 
 Lancashire parishes. With the decline of calico printing, the district 
 has been rendered almost solely dependent upon cotton spinning and 
 manufacturing for its commercial prosperity and importance ; and albeit 
 the cotton trade has been liable to periodical panics and suspensions, 
 which while they lasted greatly afflicted all classes of the people,' the 
 substantial increase of local wealth by this commerce is everywhere 
 visible. Blackburn parish at this date contains, besides the chief seats 
 of the cotton trade in the large towns of Blackburn and Over Darwen, 
 the considerable manufacturing villages of Great Harwood, Rishton, 
 Lower Darwen, Hoddlesden, Cherrytree-in-Livesey, Bamber Bridge and 
 Moon's Mill in Walton township, and Walton village ; and there are also 
 a number of isolated cotton mills in the townships of Billington, Mellor, 
 Samlesbury, Eccleshill, and Tockholes. The only townships in the 
 parish exclusively given up to agriculture are those of Pleasington, 
 Yate-and-Pickup-Bank, Ramsgreave, Wilpshire, Dinkley, Salesbury, 
 Clayton-in-le-Dale, Osbaldeston, Balderstone, and Cuerdale, having 
 ^ a population of 3,281 only of the 132,744 in the whole parish at the 
 
 Census of 1871. At the same Census in the Registration District of 
 Blackburn (which takes in Oswaldtwistle without the parish (14,733) but 
 excludes Walton (9,057), representing an industrial district of which the 
 town of Blackburn is the centre, its total population being 143,810 
 persons of all ages), of 74,760 persons aged 20 and upwards, there were 
 entered : — of the Professional Class 1,065 > Domestic Class 20,829 > 
 Commercial Class 2,055 ; Agricultural Class 2,030; Industrial Class 
 45,629; Indefinite and non-productive Class 3,152. The Industrial 
 Class includes 3,804 males, 15 females, engaged in Mechanic produc- 
 tions; 16,799 males, '^jSS^ females, engaged in making textile fabrics 
 and dress ; 3,488 males, 1 7 females, working in minerals (coal mines 
 and stone quarries). The 35,351 adults working in textile fabrics are 
 nearly all engaged in the various occupations of the cotton manufacture, 
 and to them must be added about an equal number of juvenile workers, 
 
 1 There was great local distress by reason of the depression of the staple trade in 1847, ^^d again 
 in 1857. Through the terrible Cotton Famine of 1861-5, the Blackburn district suffered excessively : 
 and at the worst strait of the distress, towards the end of the year 1862, in the town of Blackburn alone 
 32.000 persons had become dependent upon charity. The Blackburn Relief Committee distributed 
 about j^ioo.ooo in relief during the famine : the Corporation paid ;i^i2.5oo for labour of factory workers: 
 and the Poor Law Guardians expended in relief in Blackburn nearly ^70,000. The charity of the 
 religious bodies, and of private individuals, over and above these general payments, was extensive. 
 Full and exact details of this period of abeyance in trade have been recorded by Mr. William Gourlay, 
 in his excellent " History of the Distress in Blackburn, 1861-5," 8vo., 1865. 
 
ANCIENT AND MODERN ROADS. ,,, 
 
 from 8 to 20 years of age, the services of young persons and children 
 being more largely used in the Blackburn district than elsewhere in this 
 trade, by reason of the weaving department being here the principal 
 branch pursued, and requiring more young workers than the spinning 
 branch. Within the strict limits of Blackburn parish in the year 1875, 
 not fewer than 55,000 persons of all ages were at work in the cotton 
 mills and subsidiary trades, of whom 36,000 were engaged in the factories 
 in the townships of Blackburn, Witton, Livesey, &c., forming constituents 
 of the town proper of Blackburn ; 9,000 in Over Darwen and Hoddlesden ; 
 and the remaining 10,000 in Great Harwood, Rishton, Lower Darwen, 
 and Walton townships, &c. The machinery for the production of cotton 
 cloths in the parish would be represented roundly by 2,000,000 
 spindles and 70,000 power looms ; driven by steam engines whose 
 collective power would amount probably to 15,000 horse-power. 
 
 ANCIENT ROADS AND MODERN ROAD IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Down to about a century ago, good public roads were a conveni- 
 ence almost unknown in Lancashire. No English county was more 
 notorious for the badness of its highways. The local road system as it 
 existed before the first of the new road trusts came into being is not 
 now easy to trace out. A few of the ancient lines of highway have been 
 followed by the new roads through their entire length, but these have 
 been transformed by widening, straightening, levelling, and paving. 
 Others of the original roads coalesce with the modem highways at some 
 points, and elsewhere are only to be discovered in isolated remains, 
 inclosed between high hedges, choked with bramble, and rarely trodden 
 by human foot. Other old lines of road have been abandoned entirely 
 for new routes of directer course and easier gradient. An observation 
 of some undisturbed stretch of forsaken upland road illustrates the 
 opposite principles of ancient and modern road structure. The old 
 roads, being generally intended merely for use by travellers on foot and 
 horseback, in hilly districts were frequently carried along the summit of 
 the ridges, so as to escape the necessity for building strong bridges to 
 cross the streams that augment on the lower ground. The roads were 
 apparently made by digging out the earth until the rock was reached, 
 where the substratum was rock, and by using the soil thus removed to 
 make a high copse on both sides of the road. The level of the road is 
 thus often several feet below that of the land on either side, and forming 
 an open channel for the drainage of the fields abutting, becomes more 
 like a mountain beck than a highway in the rainy season. These old 
 roads were very narrow, — not more than one-fourth the width of some 
 of the modem turnpikes ; and seem to have been seldom repaired, nor 
 
238 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 more scientifically than by the deposit of unbroken boulder stones in 
 the larger holes and ruts. 
 
 The most important ancient road in the district was the highway 
 from Preston to Blackburn, Burnley, and Colne, into West Yorkshire. 
 The road crossed the Ribble at Walton Bridge, and the Darwen over 
 Darwen Bridge, in the village of Walton, and branched from the Wigan 
 Road near Cuerden Green. The road then wound, as now, round the 
 southern side of Hoghton Tower Hill to Riley Green and Feniscowles, 
 through the townships of Livesey and Witton, to Blackburn. From 
 Blackburn the road proceeded by Whitebirk through the townships of 
 Rishton and Clayton-in-les-Moors, to Altham, and crossing the Calder at 
 Altham Bridge, passed through Padiham, and so on the skirts of the 
 Ightenhill demesne to Burnley. The present route from. Preston to 
 Blackburn, and from Blackburn to Burnley, follows generally the old 
 line of road, but these roads have been so greatly improved under the 
 provisions of road trusts that it is impossible to realise their former 
 condition. Traces of several wayside crosses betoken the antiquity of 
 this east and west route through the Hundred. 
 
 From Blackburn to Preston there was a second but indifferent 
 road by way of Ribblesdale. Some remains of this road are still visible, 
 though the old track was in several parts obliterated by the construction 
 of the new Preston turnpike in 1825. The old road left the town of 
 Blackburn at Little Peel, and ascended Duke's Brow to Revidge; 
 continued down the other slope to Beardwood ; near Beardwood are 
 still two hedge-bound portions of this disused road, from which a notion 
 may be formed of its pristine character. Forward, the road is covered 
 for some distance by the new one, but it reappears in the vicinity of 
 Mellor, and trends to the west through the township of Samlesbury by 
 Samlesbury Green. It reached the Ribble opposite Brockholes, which 
 was crossed by a ford or ferry. 
 
 The road from Blackburn in a south-westerly direction, through 
 Tockholes to Longworth and Sharpies, is one of considerable age, and 
 was anciently the only available road from Blackburn to Bolton. 
 
 The ancient road from Blackburn into the valley of the Irwell, 
 to Bury and Manchester (following closely the track of the Roman 
 road built by Agricola) rises out of the valley at Blackburn, and having 
 topped the ridge at Lower Darwen, maintains the summit level through 
 Eccleshill and Blacksnape, and enters the Hundred of Salford at Grime 
 Hills. This road is continued in the opposite direction from Black- 
 bum up Shire Brow, and there divides into two roads, one by Rams- 
 greave Heights to Showley and Ribchester, and the other by the hamlet 
 of Pleckgate in the direction of Salesbury. 
 
' ANCIENT AND MODERN ROADS. 239 
 
 The old road from Blackburn to Whalley and Clitlieroe proceeded 
 by Cob Wall, behind Little Harwood Hall, and past Bank Hey to the 
 top of Wilpshire Moor at Snodworth Cross, continuing along the ridge 
 of Billington Moor to the Nab (where it is now called the Old Nab-road), 
 and, bending to the north, descends the Nab very steeply to Calder 
 Bridge at the entrance to Whalley. From Whalley to Clitheroe the 
 road formerly deviated from the direct line of the existing highway, 
 passing by Standen Hall to the Four Lane Ends, where is the base of 
 an ancient wayside Cross, and then turning towards Clitheroe by the 
 Pendleton and Clitheroe road. 
 
 Another ancient road in the Parish that should be mentioned is 
 one which crosses the valley of the Darwen from east to west, beginning 
 at Pickup Bank heights and ending among the opposite hills of Tockholes 
 township. Tradition says it was once the only road across this part of 
 the country from Preston to Haslingden, and it is most likely a portion 
 of that old pack-horse road called the " Limersgate," which traversed 
 the northern side of the Forest of Rossendale, and is said to have been 
 at one time the principal means of communication between the west of 
 Lancashire and the eastern side of the kingdom.' The road descends 
 from Pickup Bank heights, and entering Long Hey Lane a little to the 
 south of the Independent School, crosses Pickup Bank Brook into the 
 township of Over Darwen, a short distance from the village of Hod- 
 dlesden. The track successively passes Meadowhead Farm and 
 Langshaw Head ; it then proceeds by Whitehall to Bury Fold, and past 
 Astley Bank to Radfield Fold. The road is continued from Radfield 
 along the slope of Darwen Moor to Sunnyhurst Clough, where it crosses 
 the glen and ascends Winter Hill into Tockholes township, which it 
 crosses in a westerly direction. There are some traces of the old road 
 from Blackburn to Darwen through Lower Darwen and Darwen Chapels. 
 
 Between the years 1770 and 1780 the first projects were started 
 for the reconstruction of the road system of this part of the country. 
 In the adjoining parts of Yorkshire, the celebrated blind road-maker, 
 John Metcalf, known popularly as "Blind Jack of Knaresborough," 
 had been employed in making some new public roads, one of the first 
 being the road between Harrogate and Boroughbridge, completed about 
 the year 1766. John Metcalf, though totally blind, had displayed 
 so much skill in this department of engineering during the construc- 
 tion of the Yorkshire roads that his fame extended into Lancashire, and 
 his success encouraged Lancashire capitalists, sorely in need of roads 
 for the conveyance of their merchandise, to promote schemes for the 
 accomplishment of this object. 
 
 I Old Roads, &c.. of Darwen, by W. T. Ashton, p. 6. 
 
340 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Several of the main roads in the Hundred east of Blackburn were 
 made under the plans of Metcalf, including the new roads from Black- 
 bum to Haslingden, from Bury to Haslingden, from Haslingden to 
 Accrington, and from Burnley to Colne. Metcalf's first undertaking in 
 the district was the road from Blackburn to Haslingden and Bury, 
 which surmounts the hills of Lower Darwen and Oswaldtwistle, passing 
 through Haslingden Grane into the valley of the Irwell. This road was 
 planned about the year 1789. Though traversing high ground, and 
 crossing a wild moorland, it is an excellent road, and not difficult for 
 cart traffic. This road was a portion of the undertaking of the Elton 
 and Blackburn Trust. The road between Haslingden and Accrington, 
 with a branch to Bury, is stated by Mr. Smiles to have been the last 
 line of road built by Metcalf, and it was also " one of the most difficult 
 he had undertaken." Among the ancient roads improved about the 
 same period was that of the Old Preston and Blackburn turnpike, 
 diverted, widened and re-bridged under the provisions of the Black- 
 bum and Walton Cop Trust ; and by another Trust the old road 
 from Blackburn to Burnley was entirely transformed. About the year 
 1798 an important new road from Blackburn to Bolton was carried 
 along the upper portion of the Darwen Valley, through the town of Over 
 Darwen, by the Bolton and Blackburn Road Tmst ; and more recently a 
 useful road was carried from Walton Bridge, through the southern town- 
 ships of Ribblesdale, to Whalley, in connection with which are branches 
 from Blackbum to Whalley and from Whalley to Clitheroe. Two 
 essential modem lines of road remain to be mentioned, both of which 
 were carried out some fifty years ago, viz., the new route from Black- 
 bum to Accrington by way of Knuzden and Church Kirk, and forward 
 from Accrington to Burnley by Huncoat and Habergham Eaves ; and 
 the new Blackbum and Preston road through Mellor and Samlesbury. 
 The first of these is a much shorter line from Blackbum to Burnley than 
 the older route by Rishton, Clayton-in-les-Moors, and Padiham. The 
 Preston New Road, constructed in 1825, brought the town of Blackburn 
 within eight miles and a half of Preston by the highway, instead of 
 eleven miles by the ancient road through Livesey, Hoghton, and Walton. 
 Twenty years after the latest of these excellent roads was opened, the 
 first Railroad through the district was completed, and thereby a 
 revolution in the system of inland conveyance was inaugurated. But in 
 spite of the celerity of transport offered by the Railway Companies, the 
 good roads which had been previously made in every part of the country 
 have not lost their utility. They are still well-travelled, and the tolls 
 usually suffice for the maintenance of the roads in repair. 
 
 The Journals of the House of Commons contain the following 
 
CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS AND CANAL. 241 
 
 notices of Petitions and Bills relating to some of the earlier schemes for 
 the construction or re-construction of local roads submitted to Parlia- 
 ment, and for which Acts were obtained : — 
 
 In the i6th Geo. III. (1776) a Bill was presented for "repairing and widening 
 the Road from the Market Cross in the Township of Clitheroe, to Salford Bridge in 
 the Town of Blackburn." — In the 2gth Geo. III. (1789), a petition was laid before 
 Parliament of Gentlemen, Clergy, Freeholders, and others, showing "that the Roads 
 from the Town of Bury to the Town of Haslingden, and from thence to the Town of 
 Blackburn, &c. , are in a ruinous state, narrow, and incommodious, and it would be 
 advantageous to the neighbourhood, and of public utility, if the same were properly 
 amended, widened, and kept in repair." A Bill was introduced the same year, "for 
 amending, widening, turning, varying, altering, and keeping in repair, the Road from 
 a certain Dwelling-house in Bury, now or late in the occupation of Wm. Walker, 
 Gentleman, to Haslingden, and from thence to the east end of Salford Bridge, in 
 Blackburn, and also the Road from Haslingden aforesaid to the east end of Cockshutt 
 Bridge, in the Town of Whalley, and also the Road from Haslingden aforesaid, 
 through Newchurch and Bacup, to Todmorden. " — In the 33rd Geo. III. (1793), Sir 
 Henry Hoghton presented a Bill, which was passed, "for more effectually repairing 
 the road from Blackburn to Burscough Bridge." — On the 14th Feb., 1797, a Petition 
 of Merchants, Landowners, Manufacturers of Cotton, &c. , living in Blackburn, Over 
 Darwen, and Bolton, was presented to the House, setting forth that the road leading 
 from Bolton through the village of Over Darwen to Blackburn was a high-road, about 
 fifteen miles in length, in which were several steep hills, some rising seven inches at 
 the yard ; that the same road was very indirect and circuitous, with many windings 
 and turnings, and ' ' in many places so narrow, bad, and founderous, that carts and 
 carriages loaded cannot pass to and from the said towns of Bolton and Blackburn 
 without much difficulty ;" that the said road might be diverted and shortened to twelve 
 miles, with gradients of not more than two inches in the yard ; but could not be 
 widened or amended by the laws in being, which was to the danger of passengers, to 
 the prejudice of trade in general, and especially of the Cotton Manufactures carried on 
 in Blackburn and Bolton and the villages between ; and praying that leave be given 
 to straighten, widen, divert, and amend the said road, and to erect turnpikes upon it. 
 A Bill was passed the same Session providing for the reconstruction of this important 
 road-communication. 
 
 In the Blackburn Mail for August, 1797, it was notified that on Friday, 
 August 25th, "at the house of John Haworth, the sign of the Golden Cup, in 
 Lower, Darwen," would be let "the forming, fencing, and making a Road from 
 the Golden Cup to the top of Fearnhurst Eyes, being about 90 perches ;" plans to be 
 seen at Mr. Pettinger's, surveyor, Bolton, and information to be had also from Mr. 
 Edward Haworth, of Turton, attomey-at-law, and Mr. Thomas Eccles, of Lower 
 Darwen. 
 
 PROJECTION AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE LEEDS AND LIVERPOOL 
 
 CANAL. 
 
 A bolder undertaking than road-making, in fact, the greatest public 
 work executed in Lancashire before the_ era of railroads, was the 
 construction of a navigable canal between Liverpool and Leeds, 
 
 31 
 
243 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 connecting the River Mersey flowing into the Irish Sea with the Aire, 
 which passes into the German Ocean. The most difficult engineering 
 works upon this Canal are over that section of it which traverses the 
 Hundred of Blackburn. 
 
 Haifa century elapsed between the adoption of the project of this 
 canal and its completion. Mr. Longbottom, of Halifax, the author of 
 the scheme, surveyed the country between Leeds and Liverpool, and 
 laid his plans before a number of capitalists in the two counties. A 
 committee of gentry eventually resolved to submit the question of the 
 practicability of the canal to Mr. Brindley, the ablest engineer of that 
 day. Brindley made an independent survey of the country to be 
 traversed by the proposed canal, and reported to meetings at Liverpool 
 and Bradford, in December, 1768. The eminent engineer pronounced 
 the scheme feasible, and gave as the estimate of its cost a sum of 
 .£259,777. The canal as planned was to be 103^ miles in length ; 
 with a width of 42 feet at the top, and a general depth of five feet. An 
 Act of Parliament was obtained for the work in the loth Geo. HI. 
 (1770). The canal as scheduled was to commence at Leeds Bridge, 
 and to continue along the Aire valley by Armley to Shipley, with a 
 branch thence to Bradford; onward by the same valley to Bingley, 
 Keighley, and Skipton ; from Skipton to near Barnoldswick on the 
 Lancashire border, where the canal attains its summit level of 411 feet 
 above the Aire at Leeds, distant 41 miles. Of that part of the canal 
 which j>asses through East Lancashire the course is indicated as 
 follows : — 
 
 The canal passes by Barnoldswick and Salterfbrd to Foulridge, where the great 
 tunnel commences, whose height is 18 feet, width 17 feet, and the length 1,640 yards. 
 The surface of the ground on the highest part over the tunnel is at an elevation of 60 
 feet above the water in the tunnel. Within a little distance of the tunnel are two 
 reservoirs, for the supply of the canal, which cover 104 acres of land, and will contain 
 1,200,000 cubic yards of water. From Foulridge the canal proceeds to near Barrow- 
 ford, where it locks down from the summit 70 feet towards Liverpool, crosses Colne 
 Water by an aqueduct, passes near Carr Hall (a seat of Colonel Clayton's) and 
 Dancer House, to the town of Burnley, which it circumscribes on three sides, and at 
 which place an embankment is carried for 1,256 yards in length, at above 60 feet high, 
 and aqueducts made over the Rivers Bnm and Calder, and a road aqueduct under 
 the canal ; thence the canal proceeds to near Gannah, where there is another tunnel 
 559 yards in length ; thence by Hapton, Altham, Clayton Hall, Enfield to Church 
 Valley, whence Messrs. Peel's short branch runs to their print works at Church ; now 
 crossing the river Hindburn by an aqueduct, the main line proceeds past Rishton and 
 White Birk to the town of Blackburn, sweeping on the south side of this town to a 
 place called Grimshaw Park, where by six locks there is a fall of 54 feet 3 inches ; 
 thence passing over the Derwent [Darwen] Water by an aqueduct it nms by Livesey 
 Hall, and passing Roddlesworth Water by another aqueduct, proceeds to near Chorley ; 
 
CONSTRUCTION OF CANAL AND RAILROADS. 243 
 
 thence to Copthurst Valley, and here locking down 64 feet 6 inches by seven locks into 
 the head level of the Lancaster Canal, at Johnson's Hillock, &c.i 
 
 This length of the Canal, from Foulridge near Colne to Roddies- 
 worth Water, which is the S.W. boundary of Blackburn Parish, thus 
 required two long tunnels, three supply reservoirs (at Foulridge and 
 Rishton) ; seven massive stone aqueducts ; two embankments (at 
 Burnley and below Blackburn) ; and series of locks at Barrowford and 
 Blackburn, by which the level of the canal is lowered 1 24 feet. 
 
 By the Act of loth Geo. III. (1770) the Leeds and Liverpool 
 Canal Company were empowered to raise a capital of ;^26o,ooo for the 
 construction of this work, with further power to raise an additional 
 ;^6o,ooo if necessary. In July, 1 770, the work was begun simultaneously 
 at the Leeds and Liverpool extremities, under the superintendence of 
 Mr. Longbottom, and by the year 1777 thirty-three miles of the canal, 
 from Leeds to Holmbridge near Gargrave, on the Yorkshire side, and 
 twenty-eight miles, from Liverpool to Newburgh, on the Lancashire side, 
 had been opened for navigation. The cost of these two sections had 
 been ;^3oo,ooo for the 6 1 miles ; and the capital of the Company being 
 all spent thereon, a new Act was got in the 30th Geo. III. (1790), giving 
 powers to raise a further sum of _;^20o,ooo to complete the canal. Mr. 
 Whitworth, the company's engineer, directed the works. In May, 1796, 
 the canal was opened from Burnley to Enfield Warehouse, a distance of 
 nine miles and 37 chains, and level. The 17^^ miles from Foulridge to 
 Enfield cost it is said, ;^i 20,000, of which ;^9,ooo are set down for the 
 Foulridge reservoirs, ^22,000 for the great embankment at Burnley, 
 and _;^io,ooo for the construction of the tunnel at Ridge, a little to the 
 west of Burnley. The remaining sections, from Enfield to Blackburn, 
 Chorley, and Wigan, consumed fifteen years more in their construction. 
 The eight-mile section between Enfield and Blackburn was opened for 
 boats in June, 1810 ; and the final stretch of the canal, from Blackburn 
 to Wigan, which included costly works in lockage, embankments, and 
 aqueducts near Blackburn across the; valleys of the Darwen and the 
 Roddlesworth, was opened in October, 1816. The navigation from 
 Leeds to Liverpool was then complete. With regard to the commercial 
 benefits secured to the districts through which the canal runs, Mr. 
 Priestley writes : — " This gigantic concern, which was no less than 46 
 years in executing, and which has cost ;^r, 200,000, has proved highly 
 beneficial to the country through which it passes, giving facility to the 
 transport of coal, limestone, lime for manure, and all agricultural produce, 
 connecting the trade of Leeds with Liverpool and with Manchester, 
 Wigan, Blackburn, Burnley, Colne, Skipton, Keighley, and Bradford."* 
 
 I Navig. Rivers, Canals, and Railways, by Priestley, pp. 420-1. 2 lb. p. 427. 
 
244 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 RAILWAYS IN EAST LANCASHIRE. 
 The origin and extension of the Railroad system of transit are still 
 too recent to require more than a short record of the chief events of 
 local railway enterprise. A company was formed in 1 843, later called the 
 East Lancashire Railway Company, which undertook the construction 
 of a railroad from Preston to Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley, and 
 Colne, and a connecting line from Accrington to Manchester, with a 
 branch for Rossendale. The works were commenced between Blackburn 
 and Preston in 1 844 ; this section was completed and opened for traffic 
 on Whitsun Monday, 1 846. The extension from Blackburn to Accrington 
 was opened on Monday, June 19th, 1848. Another local scheme was 
 inaugurated in September, 1 844, to construct a railroad from Blackburn 
 to Bolton, to be styled the Blackburn, Darwen, and Bolton Railway, 
 thirteen miles in length, and a company was formed with a capital of 
 _;^2 50,000. This company afterwards obtained further powers to continue 
 the line from Blackburn to Whalley, Clitheroe, and Chatbum, and was 
 then styled the Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe, and West Yorkshire 
 Railway Company. Mr. W. H. Hornby, of Blackburn, was chairman. 
 A portion of this railroad between Blackburn and Darwen was opened 
 for traffic in August, 1847, and, on the completion of the costly works 
 of the Sough tunnel, the section from Blackburn to Bolton was opened 
 on Monday, June 12th, 1848. The two companies by which these rail- 
 roads were projected and carried out were eventually amalgamated, and a 
 later amalgamation took place in 1854 with the Lancashire and York- 
 shire Railway Company, of whose system these lines form valuable 
 sections. A loop-line from Blackburn to Great Harwood and Padiham 
 is in course of construction. In r864 a company was formed to construct 
 a new line from Blackburn to Chorley, Wigan, and St. Helens, connecting 
 at Huyton with the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, opening 
 a new route between Liverpool and the towns named, and shortening 
 the distance by rail between Blackburn and the towns of South-west 
 Lancashire by many miles. The series of short lines to complete this 
 connection, about thirty miles in length, were completed at a cost of 
 ^£'900,000 in 1869, and the route was opened for traffic on Dec. 1st in 
 that year. The line is now used jointly by the London and North- 
 Western and Lancashire and Yorkshire Companies. 
 
THE TOWN OF BLACKBURN. 245 
 
 BOOK IL— TOWNSHIP HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY. 
 CHAPTER I.— THE TOWNSHIP AND TOWN OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Ancient obscurity of the Town— Its aspect temp. Elizabeth— Camden's Notice— Market and Fairs- 
 Descent of the Manor— De Blackburns, original lords— De Hulton and De Radcliffe— Barton— 
 Belasyse, lords Fauconberg — Enclosure of Waste Lands in 1618 — Ancient Freeholders, &c. — Abbot 
 —Aspinall—Barcroft— Bolton— Memoir of Revd. Robert Bolton, B.D.— Dewhurst— Edge— Lawe 
 — Mawdsley — Sharpies — Ward — Whalley — Parish Church of St. Marie— Foundation and Endow- 
 ment — Impropriation of the Rectory — Records of the Rectory — Lessees of Rectorial Estate — 
 Records of the Vicarage— Vicarial Glebe— List of Vicars— The Old Church Fabric— The Chantries 
 —Chapels— Demolition of the old and erection of the present Church— The Bells— Monuments, 
 &c. — The Parish Registers — Chantry Song School— Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth — Its 
 origin — Charter— Attempt to recover Chantry School Lands — Decree of 1585— The School Records 
 ^— Parish Contributions to augment Endowment— Original Statutes, A.D. 1597— Annals of School 
 and Elections of Governors from 1593 — List of Masters — Charities of the Town— Poor Stock- 
 Poor's Lands — Girls' Charity School— Minor Charities — Churches of the Establishment— Roman 
 Catholic Missions, Chapels, and Convent — Nonconformist Foundations and Churches, Congrega- 
 tional, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, &c.— Schools, public elementary, and private — Blackburn 
 School Board — Parliamentary Borough^Elections since 1832— Municipal Borough — Charter of 
 Incorporation— List of Mayors — Corporate Buildings and Institutions — Town Hall, Market 
 House and Market Place, Corporation Park, Public Library, Baths, &c. — Corporation Works — Gas 
 Works — Water Works — Poor Law Union — Workhouses— Burial Board and Cemetery — Blackburn 
 Dispensary, and Infirmary — Exchange — Clubs — County Court — County Police Court — Savings 
 Bank and other Institutions — Families of Blackburn Merchants and Modem Gentry — Ainsworth— 
 Ashbumer — Armistead — Baldwin — Baron — Birley — Briggs — Cardwell — Carr— Chippendale— Cun- 
 liffe — De la Pryme — Dugdale — Falkner — Fleming — Hargreaves — Haworth — Hmdie— Hopwood — 
 Hornby — Leyland — Livesey — Markland — Neville — Pilkington — Rodgett — Smalley-^Sudell — 
 Whalley— Wilkinson — Yates — Blackburn Inventors, Authors, &c. — Population of Township and 
 Town. 
 
 THE Town of Blackburn, though possessing antiquity equal to 
 many existing English towns, as a Colony of the Saxon era, 
 and from unrecorded time the most considerable urban settlement in the 
 shire or Hundred to which it gave a name, was not until almost within 
 the memory of living natives of advanced age, ever noteworthy or 
 eminent, whether on account of its populousness, its natural or artificial 
 features, its civic privileges, or as a military post or focus of baronial or 
 ecclesiastical authority. Other ancient towns in Blackburnshire enjoyed 
 precedence in one or other of these respects. Ribchester in the centre, 
 and Colne and Walton at the extremities of the Hundred, were military 
 
246 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 stations in the remote centuries of the Roman occupation. Clitheroe 
 was the seignorial fortress of the Norman period, and a chartered 
 burgh for ages subsequent. The extensive and strongly-built structure 
 on the crest of Ightenhill (by Burnley), now long razed, was a royal 
 manorial seat of the Plantagenets ; and the solitary Castle of Hapten 
 was the stronghold of the De La Leghs, Seneschals of Blackbumshire, 
 in the same period. Whalley was famed as the primitive church founda- 
 tion and parochial centre of the region, and later as the site of a vast 
 and stately Monastery, whose Abbots ruled as lords over all the ecclesi- 
 astical estates and over many secular estates in East Lancashire. 
 Through the centuries when other places surrounding were thus in 
 succession promoted each to its peculiar distinction, Blackburn remained 
 a common non-corporate town, without castle, abbey, or other structural 
 feature to dignify its aspect to the eye of the passing pilgrim. Its 
 Church of St. Marie, founded before the Conquest, was the single 
 object capable of attracting notice among the cluster of timber-framed 
 tenements that formed the town. The lords of the manor of Blackburn 
 had from an early date been non-resident, and there was no knightly 
 family of repute and power to reflect some of its lustre upon the place ; 
 no goodly manorial hall within the vill to lift its front boldly above the 
 level uniformity of the tenements of yeomen, husbandmen, and craftsmen. 
 
 The names of Great Peel and Little Peel, still maintained in the 
 nomenclature of spots a few yards apart on what was once the western 
 outskirt of the town, are supposed to indicate the sites of two of those 
 ancient square towers denominated "peels" that supplied a retreat and 
 a defence rather than a home to the lords of the land in the Norman 
 age. If this surmise be a right one, the situation of Great and Little 
 Peel might be the domicile of the De Blackbums some seven hundred 
 years ago, as the fortified manor-place of the western moiety of this 
 manor ; but the " peels " that may have stood here were abandoned and 
 destroyed so long ago that in the earliest documentary records of Black- 
 burn there is no mention of them. An old farm-house stood at Great 
 Peel until the land was appropriated as sites for mills and cottages. 
 
 To the north of the town, at the date of the Domesday survey, and 
 for some centuries after, extended a forest that covered most part of the 
 present townships of Ramsgreave, Great and Little Harwood, Wilpshire, 
 and Clayton, and reached from the ridge of Revidge nearly to the 
 Kibble. This great woodland was preserved in the time of Edward the 
 Confessor as a Royal Chace ; and remained a hunting-ground for the 
 Norman Barons to whom Blackbumshire was granted after the Conquest. 
 It is to be conjectured that most of the personages of rank who visited 
 the town of Blackburn from the tenth to the fifteenth century were 
 
ASPECT OF BLACKBURN TEMP. ELIZABETH. 247 
 
 brought hither by the contingencies of the chace, in quest of l-efreshment 
 from the hinds of this little settlement on the border of the wooded 
 wilderness. 
 
 Onward into the Tudor period, Blackburn was still a town obscure 
 and little known of strangers ; being quite out of the track of travellers 
 performing the journey between London and the South and the Northern 
 Counties and Scotland. Leland, the first English itinerant antiquary of 
 note, who was in Lancashire about 1540, does not seem to have looked 
 at Blackburn, and does not name the town, though he penetrated 
 Ribblesdale from Preston as far as Ribchester and VVhalley and Salley 
 Abbeys ; and crossed the Darwen and Kibble at Walton, on the way 
 from Chorley to Preston. James Pilkington, the zealous Bishop of 
 Durham, visited Blackburn in 1564, observing church affairs, and in a 
 letter to Archbishop Parker relates an incident of his brief sojourn : — 
 
 Among many other things that be amiss here in your great cures, ye shall under- 
 stand that in Blackburn there is a fantastical (and some think a lunatic) young man, 
 which says he has spoken with one of his neighbours that died four years since or more. 
 Divers times he says he has seen him and talked with him, and took with him the 
 Curate, the Schoolmaster, and other neighbours, which all affirm that they see him 
 [the apparition] too. These things be so common here, and none of authority that 
 will gainsay it, but rather believe and confinn it, that everyone believes it. It is too 
 lamentable to see and hear how negligently they say any service here, and how seldom.' 
 
 Of the moral condition of the town the good Bishop draws a 
 melancholy picture ; concerning its material aspect he remarks nothing. 
 The old church had been partially rebuilt a few years before, and looked 
 much the same edifice it was until taken down in 1820. In the church- 
 yard were the Vicarage and School-House, both dilapidated and calling 
 for replacement in 1564. The street plan of the town was an irregular 
 cross, the four arms being the thoroughfares of Northgate, Astley Gate 
 projected towards the modem King Street, Darwen Street, and Church 
 Street. Salford Bridge on the east, Dar^ven-street Bridge on the south, 
 would be the limits of the main streets in those directions ; the old town 
 Com Mill was near the stream at the end of a lane from Danven Street, 
 long known as Mill-lane. Great part of the houses and shops forming 
 the town temp. Elizabeth were grouped, gable-wise to the street, on both 
 sides of the four streets named, with a few detached houses in the angles 
 between those streets, and dotted over the Vicar's Glebe east of Salford 
 Bridge. The town-population would not exceed 2,000 people. At the 
 junction of Church-street with Darwen-street stood the chief Inn of the 
 ])lace, in close proximity to the Church. In the midst of the street here 
 was the Market Cross, re-edified shortly before his fall by Paslew, last 
 Abbot of AVhalley, in the form of a graceful floriated gothic shaft ; 
 
 I Corresp. of Abp. Parker (Parker Society), p. 222. 
 
248 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 beside it were the draw-well and the town-stocks. Other ancient wells 
 from which the folk of Blackburn drew their water-supplies were the 
 Hallows Spring on Spring Hill (reputed for medicinal or miraculous 
 curative properties), and the Folley Well, near the messuage of the 
 Brook-house upon the Rectory Glebe. Such was Blackburn, as nearly 
 as can now be realised, when Elizabeth ascended the throne ; and such 
 it stood with but slight change or increase until the beginning of the last 
 century. 
 
 Sir Thomas Talbot, Knight, lord of Bashall and Rishton, having 
 obtained a lease of the Rectory estate of Blackburn, sojourned frequently 
 at Audley Hall in Blackburn in the reign of Queen Mary (1553-8), and 
 being a soldier in command of a considerable force, raised for service in 
 the war on the Scottish border, the presence of Sir Thomas with bodies 
 of armed men must have given the town an aspect of unwonted stir and 
 animation. Sir Thomas died at Audley in 1558, and, with that event, 
 Blackburn life relapsed into its normal dulness. 
 
 Camden, who traversed Lancashire near the close of the reign of 
 Elizabeth, has this short reference to Blackburn : — " Below Preston the 
 Ribell receives the Darwen, a small river, which first waters Blackburn, 
 a noted market town (so called from a black water), which formerly 
 belonged to the Lacies, and gave to the tract adjacent the name of 
 Blackbumshire." It is, indeed, as Camden has it, solely as a market 
 town that Blackburn was " noted " down to the period of the rise of a 
 special textile manufacture there. In 1649 it was reported: — "In 
 Blackburn there is every Monday a Markett, and some fairs." Blome 
 says in 1673 that Blackburn had on the Monday a great weekly market 
 for cattle, com, and provisions. Its cattle market and fortnightly and 
 annual cattle fairs were of early importance. Some entries in the 
 Shuillavorih Accounts from 1583 to 1590 betoken the attendance of the 
 farm-bailiffs of the district gentry at the Blackburn cattle fair for the 
 purchase or sale of stock, ex. gr. : — 
 
 1583. Bought in Blackbume the firste Daye of Maye of Robert wyffe Whalleye 
 one cowe 26s. \oi. — 1584. Payed for haye in Blackboume for fiffe beastes which was 
 there all nighte and for dryvinge the same to Tingreave I2d.^ — 1586. May. Towe 
 oxen in Blackbume unto Thos. Whalleye £(> lis. 8d. — 1587. Boughte in Blackbume 
 of Mr. Vicar towe oxen £^ 6s. 8d. Wyllyam Jenkenson two styres ;^5 los. ; Thomas 
 Baley one oxe tynter 48s. 2d. &c. — 1590. Boughte in Blackbume one oxe 52s. 
 6d. ; towe oxen £,^. 
 
 The annual fair, for cattle and produce, in Blackburn was held in 
 1583 on the I St of May. In "Rider's Fairs, 1746," Blackburn Fair is 
 still fixed for May Day. Not many years after two additional fairs were 
 appointed in the year, on Easter Monday and at Michaelmas (Oct. 
 
DE BLACKBURN FAMILY. 249 
 
 17th). Monday's market was given up in 1774 in favour of bi-weekly- 
 markets on Wednesday and Saturday, and this is the present arrange- 
 ment. Blakey Moor, a patch of common land in the rear of Northgate 
 and Astley Gate, has for several hundred years been the place of the 
 cattle fairs and markets of Blackburn. 
 
 In the Shuitleiuorih Accounts it is mentioned that a house of correc- 
 tion was built in Blackburn in 161 1; this, perhaps, was the origin of the 
 small dingy structure, long used as a town " lock-up " or house of correc 
 tion, that stood on the south end of the Darwen-street bridge over the 
 Blakewater, and that was demolished on the removal of the old stone 
 bridge in 1872, when the roadway was widened and the present iron 
 bridge erected. In 162 1, the same Accounts record payments for 
 building of a bridge " on the south side of Blackburne," and of " another 
 bridge hard by Blackburne." 
 
 So late as 1760, the compact portion of the town, as shown upon a 
 plan of that date, covered an area of not more than ten acres ; in 
 contrast with which the town of 1875 is estimated to cover the better 
 part of 1,500 acres in the townships of Blackburn, Witton, and Livesey. 
 Very few are the vestiges of Old Blackburn remaining after the street- 
 improvements and reconstructions of the last thirty years. Several 
 antique houses stood on the west side of Northgate, at the bottom of 
 Church-street, and in Darwen-street, until recently ; but the last of them 
 has now disappeared. 
 
 DESCENT OF THE MANOR— THE DE BLACKBURN FAMILY. 
 
 The primitive lords of Blackburn, bearing the name of the vill, must 
 be referred to hereafter in the account of Blackburn Church as furnishing 
 the first known incumbents of Blackburn in an hereditary succession, 
 both the rectorial and manorial rights pertaining to the De Blackbums 
 for some generations. The descent of the race is partially recorded, 
 with differences, in ancient documents. According to an accepted 
 statement, the genealogy is traced from Gamaliel de Blackburn, about 
 the time of the Conquest, to Gilbert, from Gilbert to John, and from 
 John to Henry de Blackburn, living about 1160. Henry had sons 
 Richard and Adam. Richard de Blackburn, eldest son of Henry, had 
 a son and heir Adam ; and Adam de Blackburn had two daughters, co- 
 heiresses, who married brothers : Agnes marrying David de Hulton, and 
 had issue Richard de Hulton ; and Beatrice marrying William de Hulton, 
 but having no issue. Thus the manor of Blackburn passed to the De 
 Hultons, and the chief line of the De Blackbums finished in the male 
 descent. 
 
 Adam de Blackburn, younger son of Adam and brother of Richard, 
 
 32 
 
250 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 had a son Roger. About the same date, appear other members whose 
 connection is not easily defined. 
 
 BRANCHES OF DE BLACKBURN FAMILY. 
 
 Several branches of the De Blackburn stock should be remembered. One branch 
 settled in the next township of Rishton as chief territorial proprietors, and thenceforth 
 bore the style of De Rishton. The first of these was Gilbert de Rishton, son of 
 Henry de Blackburn. Under the name of De Rishton the descent of this branch 
 will be pursued in a later page of this work. 
 
 Another branch, owning lands in Walton-in-le-Dale and Cuerden, is traceable in 
 charters abstracted in one of the Harleian MSS. (No. 21 12). Richard, son of Adam 
 de Blackburn, and Alice his wife, are named in a dateless charter concerning an estate 
 in Cuerden. Richard de Blackburn granted to Henry de Walton a rent of 40s. of lands 
 in Wiswall. 
 
 Alice de Blackburn, widow, late wife of William son of Adam de Blackburn, 
 gave to Hugh son of Henry de WhithuU portion of her land in Whithull (Whittle). 
 William de Blackburn gave to William his son and heir all his lands in the vill of 
 Kerden (Cuerden). 
 
 Then, in the 9th Edward II. (1316), William son of William de Blackburn of 
 Kuerden conveyed to John, son of Richard son of Ralph de Magna Hole (Much 
 Hoole) all his lands in Kuerden. 
 
 In the 13th Edward II. (1320), Henry de Blackburn of Walton gave to Richard 
 de Billington and William his son, all his land which he had of the grant of Robert 
 Banester, lord of Walton. 
 
 The l6th Edward II. (1323), John son of Henry de Blackburn released the same 
 lands to Richard de Billington ; and in the 5th Edward HI. (1332), John son of Henry 
 de Blackburn of Walton demised to Richard de Billington his right in 6s. per annum 
 he had of his father's gift. 
 
 Richard, son of John de Blackburn, of Walton, in the 22nd Edward III. (1349), 
 gave to William son of John de Walton and his heirs, two messuages, &c., with 12 
 acres of land in Walton, which Roger, son of Adam de Blackburn, and Adam son of 
 Roger Dobson, formerly held. 
 
 The Robert son of Richard de Blackburn to whom, before the 40th Edward HI. 
 (1367), John de Alvetham had feoffeed the fourth part of the Bailiwick of Blackburn- 
 shire, possibly was a member of this branch of the Blackburn family. 
 
 There was a family of this name seated at Wiswall in Whalley Parish, contemporary 
 with, and doubtless derived from, the De Blackbums lords of Blackburn. In the 
 Testa de Nevill, Adam de Blackburn appears early in the thirteenth century as 
 holding with Roger de Archis the fourth part of a Knight's fee in Wisewall and Apton. 
 A record is entered in the Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey (to which Mr. Hulton, 
 the editor, adds a note) respecting the descent of the Blackbums of Wiswall, to the 
 effect that Sir John de Blackburn, Knt. (perhaps a son of the above Adam), lord of the 
 vill of Wysewall, had a son and heir Sir Adam Blackburn, Knt. ; he, by Alice his 
 wife, had a son and heir John de Blackburn, who married Margaret, sister of Sir 
 Robert de Holand, and had three daughters, Alice, Agnes, and Johanna, between 
 whom after the death of John their father the manor of Wysewall and his other lands, 
 &c. , were divided. Alice, the elder daughter, married Sir Robert de Sherburne, Knt ; 
 the second did not marry ; and Johanna, the youngest, was wife of Thomas de Ardem. 
 In 131 1, Sir Robert Sherburne and Thomas de Ardem were in joint tenure of Wiswall 
 
DESCENT OF BLACKBURN MANOR. 251 
 
 manor by virtue of their wives' inheritance therein; but the father, John de Blackburn, 
 last male scion of the Blackbums of Wiswall, occurs in title-deeds of Whalley after 
 this date, and as late as the year 1336. 
 
 DE HULTONS AND DE RADCLIFFES, LORDS OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The half of that moiety of Blackburn manor inherited by Agnes 
 de Blackburn, was conveyed to the De Hultons by her marriage 
 to David de Hulton, son and heir of Richard de Hulton, lord of Hulton. 
 David de Hulton by his wife Agnes had sons Richard, Adam, and John, 
 and a daughter Cecilia. William de Hulton, lord of Flixton, younger 
 brother of David, who married Beatrice de Blackburn, had with her the 
 other share of the estate ; but on his death without issue, his brother 
 David became his heir. David surrendered the estate to his brother's 
 widow, Beatrice, as her dower for life ; and after her death, Richard 
 de Hulton, eldest son of David, obtained the estate as heir of Beatrice 
 his aunt. This Richard de Hulton, of Hulton, living in 1304, h'ad by his 
 wife Margery, daughter of Robert de Radeclive, sons Richard, Adam, 
 John, and Roger. Richard the father gave the moiety of Blackburn 
 manor to John, his third son, for life. This John de Hulton, in 131 1, 
 was returned as holding a carucate and a half of land in Blackburn 
 freely by homage; he was still living in 1326. His elder brother, 
 Richard, died before John, but left a son and heir, Richard, who, after 
 the death of John de Hulton his uncle, sold the moiety of Blackburn 
 manor to Robert de Radcliff. 
 
 This Robert de RadclifF was second son of Richard de Radcliff, of 
 ■Radcliff Tower ; and it was in the 8th Edward IH. (1335) that Richard 
 de Hulton quit-claimed to him all his lands in Blackburn. Robert de 
 Radcliff was founder of the important line of Radcliffes of Smithells, 
 for nearly two centuries lords of Smithells and Blackburn. He had a son 
 and heir William Radcliff of Smithells, Esq., whose son and name, 
 sake, William Radcliffe of Smithells, had a son and heir Ralph, knighted 
 in the latter part of the fourteenth century. 
 
 Sir Ralph Radcliffe of Smithells, Knt., had a son Ralph, and died 
 before 1406 ; for on the i8th June in that year (7th Henry IV.), is dated 
 the precept issued to the Duchy Escheator to give to Ralph, son and 
 heir of Sir Ralph de Radclif, chevaler, deceased, livery of the moiety of 
 the manor of Blackburn* holden of the King in capite by knight service 
 and 4s. payable yearly for the ward of the Castle of Clithero and doing 
 suit at the Wapentake of Clithero, and of the moiety of the manor of 
 Flixton, and certain tenements in Harwood, &c., taking security of the 
 said heir for payment of his relief for the two moieties of the manors of 
 Blackburn and Flixton. Ralph the son received knighthood as well as 
 the father. 
 
252 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 k 
 
 The' second Sir Ralph Radcliffe of Smithells, Knt., entering in 
 1406, an doccurring again in 1409, had by Cicely his wife a son and 
 heir Ralph, the third Sir Ralph Radcliffe, Knt. ; and the latter had sons 
 Ralph, the heir, and Edward ; and a daughter Joan, who married, after 
 1450, Ralph Barton of Holme, Esq., and was mother of John Barton, 
 afterwards of Smithells. In the 20th Henry VH. (1505), John Barton 
 gave letters of attorney to Robert Rishton to receive possession of the 
 Manor of Blackburn from Joan Barton, widow. 
 
 Ralph Radcliffe of Smithells, Esq., son of Sir Ralph, married 
 Katherine, daughter of Sir Richard Molyneux, Knt., and had issue a 
 daughter and sole heiress, named Cicely, who became the wife of the 
 above-named John Barton, son of Ralph Barton of Holme. By these 
 two alliances of Ralph Burton and his son John with successive 
 heiresses of the Radcliffes, both Blackburn manor and Smithells passed 
 from the lineal house of Radcliffe to the Bartons, and were held by John 
 Barton of Smithells, Esq. 
 
 BARTONS OF SMITHELLS, LORDS OF BLACKBURN MANOR. 
 
 John Barton of Smithells, Esq. (son of Ralph), who married Cicely 
 Radcliffe, heiress of the manor, had issue by her, sons, Andrew ; Alex- 
 ander, a clerk ; Leonard, and Francis (the two latter died without issue). 
 John Barton died before the year 1516, and on the inquisition taken 
 8th Henry VHI., was found to have been seized of the manors of 
 Smithells and Tingreve, with landed estates there and in many town- 
 ships in South and West Lancashire, and also of messuages, lands, &c., 
 in Blackburn. Andrew Barton, son and heir, was then aged i8 years. 
 
 Andrew Barton, of Smithells, Esq., lord of Blackburn, had to wife 
 Ann, daughter of Sir William Stanley of Hooton, Co. Chester, Knt. 
 Issue, sons, Robert; Rauf; Henry, and Thurstan; daughters, Cicely, 
 wife of Robert Holt of Stubley, gent. ; Margaret, wife of John Westby 
 of Mowbreck, gent. ; Dorothy, wife of William Gerrard, Recorder of 
 Chester ; and Eleanor, wife of Edward Singleton, of the Tower. Andrew 
 Barton, Esq., died in 1548; by his Will, dated Feb. 7th, 3rd Edw. VI., 
 he directs " that my sone Robert Barton, or he that shall hapen to be 
 my heyre, shall have the one halfe of the lordshipe of Oswentwysyll 
 [Oswaldtwistle] wyche I lately purchased of the right honorabyll Henry 
 [Radclyffe, second earl of Sussex] bounden to my brother-in-law, 
 William Westby, esquier, in severall obligacyons to pay unto hym yet 
 beyng behynde fourscore marks for the maryage of Margaret my doughter 
 to John Westby, his sone and heyre apparent." Also testator wills that 
 Thurstan Tyldesley, Esq., and others, " shall take twentie pounds yerly 
 of my lands in Blakbume and Roumsgreve to pay my detts whiche I 
 
DESCENT OF BLACKBURN MANOR. 253 
 
 stond bounde to my frends by bylles," &c. The escheator's return 
 shows that Andrew Barton held the manor of Smithells, two messuages 
 in Smithells, of the King, as of the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, in 
 socage, by a rent of i2d., worth ^^14; the manor of Tingreve, in the 
 parish of Eccleston, in Leylandshire, and two messuages with appur- 
 tenances in Eccleston, of the King as lord, in socage, by a rent of 4s. 
 7d., worth 52s. 4d. ; the manor of Hole, with one watermill and 5s. iid. 
 issuing in rent, and lands in Hole, of Thomas Stanley, Knt., Lord 
 Monteagle, in socage, by a rent of 6d., worth £16. Also 12 messuages 
 in Queralton, of the King, as late of St. John of Jerusalem, in socage, 
 by a rent of 2s. 2d., worth ;£6. . Four messuages with appurtenances 
 in Lostock, of Thomas West, Lord de la Warre, in socage, by a rent of 
 7d., worth jQ^ 55. 4d. Half the manor of Blackburn, 30 messuages 
 there, with 3s. 4d. yearly rent issuing out of land there, of the King, in 
 socage, by a rent of 4s., worth ;^is. 2s. lod. Twelve messuages in 
 Romesgreve [Ramsgreave], of the King in chief, by one-twentieth of a 
 knight's fee, and 19s. 2^d., worth ^8 2s. gd. ; and other estates. 
 
 Robert Barton, Esq., succeeded, being 24 years of age. He 
 married Margery, second daughter of Sir Piers Legh, Knt., of Lyme, 
 Cheshire, who, after his death, married Richard Shuttleworth, of Gaw- 
 thorpe, Esq. By this lady Robert Barton had no male issue, and 
 ,at his death, in 1580, the landed possessions of the house passed to his 
 brother, Ralph Barton. An inquisition after his death, taken 22nd 
 Eliz., records that Robert Barton, Esq., held the manor of Smithells, three 
 messuages and one mill there, of the King ; the manor, with the capital 
 messuage of Tingreve, with two messuages there, of the King ; half the 
 manor of Hole, 26 messuages and one mill there, of Richard Sherbum, 
 Knt., in socage ; half the manor of Blackburn, 50 messuages, and a rent 
 of 4s. 6d. there ; lands in Ramsgreve, of the King ; half the manor of 
 Flixton and Horwich ; and the manor of Oswaldtwisel, 1 2 messuages 
 and a rent of los. id. there, of the King, by half a knight's fee and a 
 rent of 2s. 3d., worth ^18 ; with other lands in Lostock and Bradshaw. 
 Ralph Barton, brother and next heir, was aged 57 years. 
 
 Ralph Barton, Esq., of Grey's Inn, afterwards of Smithells, the next 
 successor in 1580, died in 1592. Escheat taken 42nd Eliz. (1599). 
 His estates in Blackburn district embraced, according to this return, the 
 manor of Oswaldtwistle, with 37 messuages, 37 gardens, one water mill, 
 1000 acres of land, 100 acres of meadow, and 200 acres of pasture; 
 12 messuages, 80 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, 80 acres of pasture, 
 50 acres of woodland, and 140 acres of moor and moss in Ramsgreave ; 
 and half the manor of Blackburn, with 50 messuages, 120 acres of 
 land, 40 acres of meadow, 200 acres of pasture, 100 acres of moor and 
 
254 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 turbary, and 4s. 46.. rent in Blackburn. Ralph Barton, his son and heir, 
 was aged 43 years and upwards. 
 
 Ralph Barton, Esq., lord of Blackburn and Smithells, married 
 Elizabeth, daughter of John Wood, of Turton, and had a son Thomas. 
 Ralph Barton was Sheriff of the County in 1605. He died before 1613, 
 seized of Oswaldtwistle and Blackburn manors, with lands pertaining ; 
 of lands in Ramsgreave and Witton in this parish, and of the other 
 estates named before as possessed by the family. 
 
 Sir Thomas Barton, of Smithells, Knt., son of Ralph, and the last 
 male representative of this race of Bartons, is found in possession of 
 Blackburn manor in 16 13. He was a governor of Blackburn Free 
 Grammar School. He was knighted before 162 1. This knight died 
 July 17th, 1659, and was buried the 19th August following, at Bolton. 
 His only daughter and heiress, Grace Barton, was married to Henry 
 Belasyse, Esq., M.P., eldest son of Thomas, first Viscount Fauconberg, 
 and conveyed Blackburn manorial estate, with the rest of the estates of 
 the Bartons, to that ennobled Yorkshire house. 
 
 BELASYSE, VISCOUNTS FAUCONBERG, LORDS OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Henry Belasyse, Esq., who by his marriage with Grace Barton 
 acquired for his family the manors of Blackburn, Smithells, Oswald- 
 twistle, &c., in this county, was son and heir of Thomas Belasyse, first 
 Viscount Fauconberg, of Newborough Abbey, Co. York. He served in 
 the Long Parliament as Knight of the Shire for the County of York. 
 By the Barton heiress he had sons, Thomas ; Henry, died unmarried ; 
 Rowland (see hereafter) ; daughters, Grace, married George, Viscount 
 Castleton ; Frances, married Sir Henry Jones, of Aston, Knt. ; Arabella, 
 married Sir William Frankland, Bart. ; and Barbara, married first, Walter 
 Strickland, Esq., of Sizergh, and, secondly. Sir Marmaduke Dalton. 
 Dying in his father's lifetime, Henry Belasyse, Esq., left his Lancashire 
 estates to his sons Thomas and Rowland, the first of whom succeeded 
 his grandfather in the title and patrimonial estates. 
 
 Thomas Belasyse, second Viscount Fauconberg, on his grandsire's 
 decease in 1652, married, first, Mildred, daughter of Nicholas, Viscount 
 Castleton, who died young, and left no issue. He married, secondly, 
 Nov. 1 8th, 1657, at Hampton Court, Mary, third daughter of Oliver 
 Cromwell, Lord Protector. The marriage was celebrated, says Clarendon, 
 "with all imaginable pomp and lustre." Burnet says of this daughter of 
 Cromwell : — " She was a wise and worthy woman, more likely to have 
 maintained the post [of Protector] than either of her brothers ; according 
 to a saying that went of her, that ' those who wore breeches deserved 
 petticoats better ; but if those in petticoats had been in breeches, they 
 
DESCENT OF BLACKBURN MANOR. 255 
 
 would have held faster.'" Andrew Marvel composed " Two Songs at the 
 Marriage of the Lord Fauconberg and the Lady Mary Cromwell."' By 
 this lady, however, Lord Fauconberg had no issue. April 9th, 1689, 
 on the accession of William IIL and Mary, he was created Earl Faucon- 
 berg by letters patent. He died December 31st, 1 700, and in default 
 of issue the earldom expired, and the other honours and the estates 
 reverted to a nephew, Thomas Belasyse, Esq., son of Sir Rowland 
 Belasyse, K.B. 
 
 Margaret, eldest sister of Thomas Earl Fauconberg, married Sir 
 Edward Osbom, of Kiveton, who after her death married, secondly, 
 Ann, daughter of Thomas Walmesley, of Dunkenhalgh, Esq. 
 
 Sir Rowland Belasyse, K.B., younger brother of the Earl, was lord 
 of the manors of Blackburn and Smithells, and is described as " of 
 Smithells" in 1688. By his wife Anne, daughter and heiress of J. 
 Davenport, Esq., of Sutton, Co. Chester, he had sons, Thomas, who 
 succeeded his uncle as third Viscount ; Henry ; John, and Rowland ; 
 and daughters, Grace, Frances, Arabella, and Barbara. Sir Rowland 
 died in 1699. 
 
 Thomas Belasyse, third Viscount, son of Sir Rowland, and nephew 
 of Earl Thomas, succeeded to the title and estates of his uncle in 1 700. 
 His wife was Bridget, daughter of Sir John Page, Bart., by whom he had 
 spns, Thomas and Rowland, and three daughters. This representative 
 died Nov. 20th, 17 18. 
 
 Thomas Belasyse, his son, succeeded as fourth Viscount. By him, 
 soon after his accession, the Lancashire estates held by the family were 
 disposed of. The Manor of Blackburn was sold by him, in 1721, for 
 ;^8,65o, to William Baldwin, Henry Feilden, and William Sudell, Esqrs.* 
 In 1722 Lord Fauconberg sold Oswaldtwistle Manor to James Whalley, 
 of Sparth, and Christopher Baron, of Oswaldtwistle, gents. ; and about 
 the same date Smithells Manor was sold to the Byroms of Manchester. 
 Thomas, fourth Viscount Fauconberg, died 4th Feb., 1774, and was 
 succeeded in the title and Yorkshire estates by his only son Henry (by 
 his wife Catherine, daughter of John Betham, Esq.) Henry Belasyse, 
 fifth Viscount, was created an Earl, and married twice, but had no male 
 issue, and on his death, in 1802, the Earldom lapsed. Rowland, son of 
 Anthony, son of Rowland, fourth son of Sir Rowland Belasyse, succeeded 
 as sixth Viscount, and dying without issue in 1810, was succeeded by 
 his brother. Rev. Charles Belasyse, D.D., of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, as seventh Viscount, at whose death, in 181 5, the barony and 
 Viscounty of Fauconberg became extinct. 
 
 1 Printed in Grosart's Complete Works of Marvell, v. i. (Verse), pp. 139-145. 
 3 The Baldwins, Feildens, and Sudells will be noticed hereafter. 
 
256. 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 ENCLOSURE OF THE COMMON AND WASTE LANDS IN 
 BLACKBURN, A.D. i6i8. 
 
 In the year 1616, upon a Petition of Sir William Fleetwood, Knt, 
 lessee of the Rectory Glebe, Thomas Barton, Esq., lord of the temporal 
 half of the manor, John Morres, Vicar, as holder of the Vicarial Glebe, 
 all the charterers and copyholders of the township, and the under- 
 tenants of the Glebe lands, praying for the enclosure and allotment of 
 waste and common lands, an inquisition was taken regarding the owner- 
 ship of the lands in Blackburn ; which was followed by an application 
 to the Court of the Duchy for a Commission to survey and adjust the 
 allotment of the said common and waste lands. The Commission was 
 granted by the Crown, and the Commissioners held an inquiry at Black- 
 bum on the 24th of April, 161 7. It then appeared that 680 acres of 
 land customary measure, equal to 1,266 acres or so, statute measure, 
 out of some 3,600 statute acres in the township, were still common 
 and waste. The Commissioners, having by their inquisition ascertained 
 the particulars of ownership, and the situation and extent of the commons 
 and wastes, and reported thereon, the Chancellor of the Duchy published 
 his Decree, dated the 20th June, 1618, by which the whole of the waste 
 lands were ordered to be enclosed, and to be allotted /ro rata among all 
 owners of land in Blackburn. An abstract of the decree is presented 
 below : — 
 
 Decree Made 20th June, 1618, ascertaining the rights of the Lords 
 OF the Manor of Blackburn, in the Commons or Wastes there, 
 AND the Vicar and several Freeholders and Copyholders in the 
 
 SAME. 
 
 [Abstract.] — This cause was "between the King and John Dewhurst and 
 Thurstan Mawdesley, Customary Tenants of the Crown within the Manor of Black- 
 bum, in the County of Lancaster, of the one part ; and George [Abbot], Lord Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, and Thomas Barton, Esq. , Lords of the Manor of Blackburn 
 aforesaid, and Edward Fleetwood, Knight, I'armer of the Rectory of Blackburn, 
 within the Duchy, and Thos. Holden, and other Freeholders within the same, of the 
 other part. " The preamble recites that, "by an Inquisition taken at Blackburn, 
 &c., upon the 20th day of September, 1 616, before Humfrey Davenport and John 
 Hart, Esqrs. " — upon the oaths "of John Rhodes, of Thomley, in the said county; 
 Henry Hammond, John Ward, Nicholas Crombleholme, John Rodes, of Thomley, 
 in the said county ; John Moore, Thomas Ryley, James Aspinall, John Middleton, 
 Richard Parker, Robert Parker, Edward Houghton, Henry Hurst, and John Cottom, 
 gentlemen, " — it was found ' ' that the now Archbishop of Canterbury is seised in his 
 demesne as of fee, of and in the Rectory and Parsonage of Blackburn, &c., and of and 
 in the moiety of the Manor of Blackburn aforesaid, belonging to the said Parsonage. 
 And that Thomas Barton, Esq. , is seized in his demesne as of fee, of and in the other 
 moiety of the said Manor. And that there are certain wastes lying near unto Black- 
 bum town, containing in all about 680 acres, after seven yards and a half to the perch, 
 whereof all (save 90 acres or thereabouts) do lye within the township of Blackburn. 
 
INCLOSURE OF WASTE LANDS. 
 
 257 
 
 And the said 90 acres were, at the time of the said Inquisition, in controversy between 
 the said Archbishop and the said Thomas Barton, on the one part, and the Lords, 
 charterers and others of the town of Nether Darwen, on the other part, whether the 
 said 90 acres did lye within the township of Blackburn, or within the township 6f 
 Nether Darwen. " It appeared by the same inquisition that the Archbishop, in right 
 of his Archbishopric, was seized in his demesne as of fee of the moiety of the soil of 
 the said Wastes within the township of Blackburn ; that Thomas Barton was seized 
 in his demesne as of fee of the other moiety of the soil of the said Wastes. It further 
 appeared that since the inquisition the parties interested had agreed to a partition of 
 the ninety acres of waste in question between the townships of Blackburn and Nether 
 Darwen, which gave 35 ac. 3 r. of the said 90 acres to Blackburn, and the residue to 
 Nether Darwen. Of the 35 a. 3 r. declared to be in Blackburn, the Archbishop and 
 Thomas Barton were severally seized, each of a moiety. And it appeared that all the 
 Wastes of the soil, whereof the Archbishop and Thomas Barton were respectively 
 seized in the township, were "three several Wastes, Moors, or Commons, the one 
 called Colepit Moor, alias Whinney Edge, the other called Revidge Moor, and the 
 third, which is a small moor, containing about three acres, called Blakey Moor. " It 
 further appeared that John Morris, Clerk, Vicar of Blackburn, in respect and right of 
 the said Vicarage ; and Thomas Holden, William Barcroft, Thomas Kenyon, Richard 
 Lawe, Miles Aspinall, and James Aspinall, in respect of divers lands and tenements 
 lying in the township of Blackburn, of which they had several estates of inheritance, 
 had and ought to have common in the said Wastes and Moors, and that Thurstan 
 Maudsley and John Dewhurst, copyholders of divers lands and tenements in the said 
 township belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster, had and ought likewise to have common 
 in the said Wastes and Moors, and the under-tenants of the Glebe, and the farmers of 
 Thomas Barton's lands, had in the right of their landlords common in the said wastes ; 
 and further that Sir William Fleetwood, Thomas Barton, John Morris, Thomas 
 Kenyon, Richard I,awe, James Aspinall, and Miles Aspinall, and the under-tenants of 
 the glebe, had divers times petitioned the Archbishop to consent to the "enclosing of 
 the said moors, wastes, and commons, as being a thing tending to the good of the 
 common wealth of the Kingdom, and to the private good of the said petitioners," who 
 desired upon the said enclosure to have their proportionate part of the said wastes, 
 &c., according to their several and respective inlands. And the Archbishop, after 
 inquiry, having found it to be true "that the said wastes or moors had, by reason of 
 non-culture, yielded very little profit" unto those who commoned in them, and if 
 enclosed would yield a far larger revenue and profit, did condescend to their petition, 
 and applied to the King's Highness to award a Commission out of the Court of the 
 Duchy, for the allotting, unto those who had right of common there, of convenient 
 portions of the said Moors and Wastes. The Commission was granted accordingly, 
 with orders to view and survey the said wastes, and to take evidence of the tenants, 
 and with full power and authority to apportion and allot to the interested parties 
 competent and convenient portions of such common lands, &c. The Commission had 
 held an inquiry at Blackburn on the 24th of April, 161 7, and had found that the only copy- 
 holders of the King in the said township were Thurstan Maudsley and John Dewhurst; 
 as to Maudsley's title, they found " by a copy of Court Roll, that there was a presentment 
 made the 23rd April, 35th Queen Elizabeth (1593), at a Court holden for the said Queen, 
 at the Castle of Clitheroe," that "one Edward Maudsley died a little before the Court 
 so holden, being, at the time of his death, seized in fee, according to the custom, of and 
 in one messuage and other buildings, and of and in 14 acres of land, called Ousbooth," 
 in Blackburn, and that his brother and heir, Henry Maudsley, prayed to be admitted 
 
 33 
 
258 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 and was admitted tenant of the said lands ; and that the said Thurstan Maudsley claimed 
 to hold the said copyhold lands, &c., as son and heir of the said Henry ;" as to 
 Dewhurst's title, a copy of Court Roll showed that at a Court holden at Clitheroe, 
 May 25th, 26th Eliz. (1584), came William Dewhurst, and John Dewhurst his son and 
 heir, and surrendered into the Queen's hands one messuage and certain buildings, and 
 34 acres, I rood and one eighth of a rood of land, in Blackburn, called Beardsworth 
 Green, to the use of one Robert Barcroft and their heirs, &c. ; and that the said John 
 Dewhurst claimed to hold the said copyhold lands and tenements. The Commis- 
 sioners had accordingly allotted to the said Thurstan Maudsley 7 acres of Waste and 
 Common land, after the measure used in the township ; and to the said John Dewhurst, 
 1 7 acres and the half and sixteenth of a rood of Waste and Common ; by which the 
 said Thurstan Maudsley and John Dewhurst were very well satisfied and contented." 
 Upon which Commission, certificate and return, the Chancellor and Counsel of the 
 Duchy ordered, on the 16th July, 161 7, " that all the tenants of Blackburn, and those 
 who we/e any ways interested in the said Commons and Wastes, should shew cause in 
 the Duchy Court, in Michaelmas Term the next following, why a decree should not 
 be entered by consent, for the establishing and confirming of the enclosing of the said 
 Wastes." By affidavit made in that Court, it appeared that "the said John Dewhurst 
 had his proportionable part of the said Waste, lying fitly, &c., set out and measured, 
 in and upon Revidge Moor, being one of the said Wastes ;" and ' ' the said Thurstan 
 Maudsley had his proportionable part of the said Wastes, lying fitly, &c., set out and 
 measured in and upon the said Moor called Revidge Moor ;" in full satisfaction of 
 such Common as they claimed. And it appeared, by affidavit and by the acknow- 
 ledgment of John Morris, Vicar of Blackburn, that unto the said Vicarage there 
 belonged "not above 50 acres of glebe at the most, lying and being within the said 
 township of Blackburn ;" that in right of the Vicarage he the said Vicar was to have 
 Common in the said Wastes ; and that " there was apportioned and set forth by certain 
 measures and bounds, for the use of him the said Vicar of Blackburn and his successors 
 for ever, in full satisfaction of his said Common in the said Wastes, divers parcels of 
 Land, lying in several places in the said Moors, called Revidge Moor, and Cole Pit 
 Moor, or otherwise called Whinney Edge Moor aforesaid, 23 acres, I rood, 13 falls of 
 Land, after the measure used in the said Township of Blackburn, with which said 
 portion and share of the said Wastes, he the said John Morris was well satisfied and 
 contented. " The Freeholders in the township were, first, Thomas Holden, who had 
 "about 26 acres of Inland being his inheritance in fee," of which said Inland of the 
 Holdens, John Bolton had an estate for life or lives ; and in satisfaction of his common 
 there was allotted, set forth, and measured unto the said Thomas Holden, &c., divers 
 parcels of Land of the said Commons, situate on Revidge Moor, containing 1 1 acres 
 2 roods or thereabouts, after the measure used in the said township, with which portion 
 of the said Wastes, "the greatest part whereof being of the best sort of ground in the 
 said Moor, he the said Thomas Holden was and is well satisfied and contented. " It 
 also appeared that William Barcroft had about 24 acres of Inland, his inheritance in 
 fee, in the township, which gave him right of Common in the said Wastes ; and in 
 lieu of that right " there was allotted, apportioned, measured, and set forth unto him 
 the said William Barcroft, a certain parcel of land in the said Wastes upon Cole Pit 
 Moor, alias Whinney Edge Moor," containing 11 acres or thereabouts, after the 
 measure used in the said township, wherewith he William Barcroft was well satisfied 
 and contented. Also, Thomas Kenyon, Richard Lawe, and Miles and James Aspinall, 
 had divers parcels of Inland, containing about 45 acres, being their inheritance in fee, 
 for which they had Common in the said Wastes, and in lieu of which these four Free- 
 
INCLOSURE OF WASTE LANDS. 259 
 
 holders received divers parcels of land on the Waste and Moor called Revidge, 
 containing 18 acres 2 roods or thereabouts, to be shared amongst them, according to 
 their several quantities of Inland, with which share they were all well satisfied, pleased, 
 and contented. After the disposal of these lesser claims, the bulk of the Waste 
 Lands enclosed remained to be divided between the lords of the two moieties of the 
 Manor, Thomas Barton and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Court found that 
 Thomas Barton had in Fee simple the Moiety of the Manor of Blackburn as aforesaid, 
 and divers parcels of Inlands, as parcel of the said moiety, amounting to 600 acres or 
 thereabouts, after the measure in the said township, in regard whereof he was lord of 
 one moiety of the said Waste Lands, and the Court in lieu of his and his tenants' 
 Common in the said Wastes, allotted, apportioned, measured, and set out unto the 
 said Thomas Barton, and his heirs, divers parcels of land on the Wastes and Moors 
 called Revidge Moor, and Cole Pit Moor, alias Whinney Edge Moor, containing 255 
 acres o}4 rood 9 falls, or thereabouts, according to the measure used in the township, 
 and with this allotment the said Thomas Barton was very well satisfied, contented, 
 and pleased. Lastly, it appeared that the Archbishop of Canterbury had, in right of 
 the said Archbishopric, the other Moiety of the Manor of Blackburn and divers parcels 
 of Inlands, being the Glebe of the said Parsonage of Blackburn, amounting to 500 
 acres or thereabouts, according to the measure used in the said township, in regard 
 whereof the Archbishop was lord of the moiety of the soil of the said Wastes, and his 
 Fanner of the Parsonage and Tenants of the Glebe had Common in the said Wastes ; 
 wherefore the Court in lieu of such common, allotted, measured, and set forth to the 
 said Archbishop and his successors, for ever, divers parcels of Land of the said Wastes 
 and Moors, lying on Revidge Moor, and Cole Pit Moor, or Whinney Edge Moor, 
 containing 231 acres, 3 roods, 16 falls or thereabouts, after the measure used in the 
 township, which is very near double so much after the statute acre ; and with this 
 share or portion the Archbishop and his Farmer of the Parsonage were well satisfied 
 and contented. But the Lords of the Manor, the Archbishop and Thomas Barton, 
 were to set out in Whinney Edge Moor two acres of land, and in Revidge Moor one 
 acre of land, of the customary measure of the township, "for the getting of stones" 
 for their farmers and tenants. The Court further ordered that the said Archbishop 
 and the said Thomas Barton should "set out of the said Moor or Waste, called 
 Cole Pit Moor or Whinney Edge Moor, a quantity of land, lying next unto Blackburn 
 Town's End, containing upon admeasurement thereof made, ten acres, according to 
 the said measure, used and employed for ever for the service of his Majesty, his Heirs 
 and Successors, for the mustering and training of people in that part, and for the 
 recreation of the Inhabitants of the said.Town, and for the good and profit of the said 
 Town and Poor thereof, as a gift given for ever, for the uses aforesaid, by them, the 
 said Archbishop and the said Thomas Barton, of the parts and portions of the said 
 Wastes and Moors now intended to be inclosed. " It was also made known unto the 
 Court that the Archbishop had caused his Lessee of the Rectory Lands, Sir William 
 Fleetwood, to promise to the under-tenants, that they should have amongst them, to 
 be divided as they should agree amongst themselves, 160 and odd acres, parcel of the 
 property of the Archbishopric, after the measure of the township, for the residue of the 
 tei-m of years that the said Sir William then had the Parsonage, which was about 
 twenty years, for the yearly rent of I2d. the acre, and for every small fine or income, 
 about 28s. the acre, one with another, to be paid to the said Sir William Fleetwood ; 
 and that the Archbishop " had caused the said Sir William Fleetwood, during his 
 term, to give and pay yearly unto the said Vicar, Churchwardens, and Sidesmen of 
 the said Parish of Blackburn, for the term," &c., "£s of lawful money of England, to 
 
26o HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 be paid yearly, at two Feasts in the year " (Michaelmas and Annunciation Day) ; the 
 same to be distributed yearly at Michaelmas, by the Vicar and Churchwardens, to the 
 Poor Tenants of the Glebe of the Parsonage ; and the Archbishop had further ordered 
 that all future Fanners or Possessors of the said Parsonage for the time being should 
 for ever pay a like sum of £5 to the Vicar and Wardens for the like charitable distri- 
 bution. It was therefore upon the above premises finally ordered, adjudged, and 
 decreed on the 29th of June, in the l6th of James the First's reign (1618), bySir 
 Humphrey Muir, Knt., Chancellor of the said Duchy of Lancaster, &c., with the King's 
 ' consent, and with the consent of all the parties, that the said Moors or Wastes, called 
 Revidge Moor and Cole Pit or Whinney Edge Moor (except the plots of ten acres and 
 of three acres before mentioned as to be excepted), should and might be with all 
 convenient speed taken in and enclosed, and for ever hereafter should be ; and that the 
 several and respective allotments above specified should be taken, held, and occupied 
 by all the parties before named, for ever ; and the Court also decreed that the afore- 
 said 10 acres adjoining to Blackburn Town End " should for ever lye, be, and continue 
 open, and not enclosed, and that the same shall be employed and used for ever, " &c. , 
 "for the mustering and training of Soldiers in these parts, when occasion shall require, 
 and to and for the recreation of the People of the said Town ; and the profits, 
 pasture, or herbage of the said ten acres should from henceforth for ever be received, 
 used, taken, and enjoyed, to and for the good and profit of the said Town, and of the 
 Poor thereof. " The Decree is given under the seal of the Duchy, nth July, i6th 
 James I. (i6i8). 
 
 ANCIENT FREEHOLDERS AND LESSER GENTRY. 
 
 Subjoined are some particulars respecting certain families of the 
 standing of lesser gentry, yeomen or freeholders, formerly seated in the 
 township and town of Blackburn. 
 
 ABBOT OF WHITEBIRK. 
 John Abbot of Blackburn became a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 
 
 1596- 
 
 George Abbot married, Feb. 4th, 1615, Margerie Duckworth. George Abbot of 
 Whytebirk occurs in 1622, when his wife was buried ; and was a warden of Blackburn 
 Church in 1636. 
 
 John Abbot of Whytebirk, named in 1636, was elected a Governor of the 
 Grammar School in 1646. 
 
 James Abbot, of Higher Whitebirk, died in December, 1659. 
 
 Thomas Abbot of Blackburn, yeoman, by his wife Ann, had a son John, bom in 
 1701, and other issue. 
 
 John Abbot of Whitebirk was buried Nov. i8th, 1721. 
 
 George Abbot of Blackburn married, Dec. 4th, 1 710, Elizabeth Gardner of Preston. 
 
 George Abbot of Blackburn, attomey-at-law, Governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School, was buried Oct. 24th, 1775. 
 
 George Abbot of Blackburn, gentleman, married Mary Shorrock, May 21st, 1758, 
 and had a son John, bora in December, 1761. George Abbot, gentleman, was buried 
 June 24th, 1790, aged 53. 
 
 ASPINALL OF ROYSHAW. 
 Thomas Haspynhalgh, of Blackburn, is assessed to the Subsidy of 1523. William 
 ■ Asmall, of Blackburn, is taxed to a Subsidy in 1570. 
 
FAMILIES OF LESSER GENTRY AND YEOMEN. 261 
 
 Myles Aspinall of Blackburn, a Governor of the Grammar School, died in 1595. 
 "George Asmolle," probably son of Myles, was elected a Governor of the School the 
 same year. In the appropriation and enclosure of waste lands and commons of Black- 
 bum township in 1618, Miles Aspinall and James Aspinall were awarded plots of 
 waste for their parcels of freehold land. 
 
 William Aspinall, of Royshaw, was buried at Blackburn, August loth, 1622. 
 JIary Aspinall, of Royshaw, was buried August 21st, the same year. Robert Aspinall, 
 townsman, was buried Oct. 19th, 1624. 
 
 Thomas Aspinall, of Royshaw, died in March, 1630-1. His widow was buried at 
 Blackburn, Nov. 22nd, 1632. • 
 
 Myles Aspinall, of Blackburn, married Jenet Bayley, and had sons Richard, bom 
 in 1619 ; Peter, bom 1625 ; and John, bom in 1627, married Sept., 1655, Isabel 
 Whitaker; also a daughter, Christabel. "Uxor Myles Aspinall" was buried in 
 August, 1635. 
 
 Myles Aspinall, called "Myles o' Gyles," was buried Jan. 19th, 1657-8.' 
 
 James Aspinall, of Royshaw, had a son George, who died young in 1622. A son, 
 Christopher, of James Aspinall, was baptized Sept. 28th, 1634. A daughter, Ann, 
 married, in 1656, Thomas Alston of Wiswall. James Aspinall, senior, was living in 
 1658. Isabel, wife of James Aspinall of Royshaw, died in June, 1658. 
 
 James Aspinall of Royshaw ("junior" in 1656-8), had several children : — ^John, 
 born in 1658; James, bom in 1669; Thomas, bom in 1671 ; a second John, bom in 
 1673 ; Joseph, bom in 1677 ; and a daughter Elizabeth, bom in 1656. 
 
 The following died in the years stated : — Thomas Asmoll, of Blackburn, 1674 ; 
 George Aspinall, of Blackburn, 1676; John Aspinall, of Blackburn, 1678. 
 
 Myles Aspinall, of Blackburn, occurs in 1679, when Ellen, his wife, was buried, 
 March 9th, 1679-80. He died in 1687. A daughter, Ann, of Myles Aspinall, of 
 Royshaw, died in 1659. 
 
 Myles Aspinall, of Royshaw, married Nov. 5th, 1678, Elizabeth Core, and had 
 issue between 1680 and 1690. 
 
 The particular relation of the above Aspinalls to each other cannot be proved by 
 the church registers alone ; but most of them appear to have belonged to the family 
 that had the Royshaw freehold. 
 
 Later, Myles Aspinall, of Blackbum, chapman, occurs in 1757, when he had a 
 son John bom, and when Elizabeth, his wife, deceased. 
 
 Myles Aspinall of Blackbum, gentleman, married, Sept. 25th, 1763, Mary 
 Dewhurst, widow. 
 
 BARCROFT, FREEHOLDERS IN BLACKBURN. 
 
 The freeholder named Barcroft who had an estate in Blackbum at the date of the 
 Survey of 1617, was a member of the Barcrofts of Barcroft, in Cliviger. Robert 
 Barcroft, of Barcroft, who died in April, 1612, was proved by inquisition for the escheat 
 to have been seized (besides lands in Cliviger) of the half of one messuage and a 
 cottage, with 40 acres of arable land, meadow, and pasture, in Blackbum, held of 
 Thomas Barton, Esq., in socage. 
 
 William Barcroft, son of Robert, had, by the Decree of 1618, eleven acres of 
 Waste in Blackbum allotted him, on account of his 24 customary acres of freehold 
 land there. He died in 1620, in possession of a messuage and lands in Blackbum, as 
 well as his lands in Cliviger, Worsthome, and Hurstwood. His eldest son and heii 
 was Thomas Barcroft 
 
s63 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 BOLTON OF BROOKHOUSE. 
 NOTICES OF REV. ADAM BOLTON, AND REV. ROBERT 
 BOLTON, B.D., THE PURITAN AUTHOR. 
 The Boltons were lessees of the estate of the Brookhouse, in Blackburn, a portion 
 of the Rectory Glebe, and may also have possessed at some period a small freehold in 
 the township. "■ William Bolton, of Blackburn, was assessed to the Subsidy in 1523. 
 Richard Bolton, livingat the Brookhouse in 1545, had sons Adam, Giles, and Robert. 
 Adam Bolton, tenant of the Brookhouse estate in 1570, a first Governor of 
 Blackburn Free Grammar School in 1567, died in 1593. By his wife Elizabeth, who 
 died in 1610, he had sons Adam, Giles, Thomas, James, John, and Robert — the 
 youngest being the distinguished Puritan divine. 
 
 Adam Bolton, eldest son of Adam, farmed the Brookhouse tenement from 1593 
 until his death in 1639. He had a daughter Elizabeth, bom in 1605. The Will of 
 Adam Bolton, of Brookhouse, yeoman, is dated Feb. 28th, 1639-40, and was proved 
 April 3rd, 1640. Testator desires to be buried in Blackburn Church; and bequeaths 
 to his daughter Elizabeth, whom he appoints his executrix, all his goods whatsoever. 
 
 Several of the younger brethren of Adam must be noted. Giles Bolton, who also 
 occupied Brookhouse, became a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1625. 
 He died in 1641. He had sons, Adam, died in 1616 ; Robert ; Thomas; John, "of 
 Brookhouse, gentleman," a Governor of the Grammar School (elected in 1662), and 
 Clerk of Blackburn Parish Church, died in 1688; and James. 
 
 Thomas Bolton, third son of Adam, died in 1622. — James Bolton, fourth son, who 
 died in 1635, had sons James, Joseph, and Adam. The younger son, Adam, entered 
 the church, and was instituted to the Vicarage of his native parish in June, 1628, on 
 the appointment of Archbishop Abbot. Vicar Bolton married Ann, sister of William 
 Farrington, Esq., and died in 1646. His Will is dated Sept. 24th, 1646. In it 
 reference is made to Ann, wife of testator, a son Samuel, a daughter Hannah, two 
 brothers, James and Joseph, and several sisters. Ann, wife, and WilUam Farrington 
 and Henry Tomlinson, brothers-in-law of testator, executors. Samuel Bolton, son 
 of the Vicar, is supposed to have been the well-known Doctor of Divinity, Samuel 
 Bolton, but this is doubtful by the dates, and his biographers give us no hints of his 
 Blackburn parentage. Dr. Samuel Bolton was born in 1606, educated at Cambridge. 
 He was in succession Vicar of St. Martin's, in the City of London, St. Saviour's, South- 
 wark, and St. Andrew's, Holbom. Upon the death of Dr. Bainbrigge, he was chosen 
 Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, and held that office until his death. He died 
 October iSth, 1654, aged 48 years ; and was buried in St. Martin's Church, Ludgate- 
 street, London. Calamy, his friend, preached his funeral sermon. Dr. Samuel 
 Bolton's published writings include a sermon preached before the House of Commons 
 on Humiliation Day, March 25th, 1646 ; and numerous theological treatises. His 
 ■works were published between the years 1644 and 1657. A collected edition, issued 
 in 1657, has for frontispiece a portrait of the Doctor, engraved by Van Horn. 
 
 John Bolton, of Blackburn, another son of Adam, was lessee of Thomas Holden's 
 freehold estate in the township in 1617. 
 
 Robert Bolton, youngest of the sons of Adam Bolton of Brookhouse, was the 
 famous Greek scholar and preacher, who by his gifts and graces dignified the humble 
 yeoman stock from which he sprung. The original source of information concerning 
 him is the memoir composed by "E. B." (Edward Bagshawe, his intimate friend), 
 entitled " The Life and Death of Mr. Bolton," which is prefixed to the four editions of 
 
 1 See, for interesting particulars of this family, a " Genealogical Account of the Family of Bolton 
 in England and America," by Robert Bolton, A,M. New York, 1862. 
 
MEMOIR OF ROBERT BOLTON, B.D. 263 
 
 Mr. Bolton's last work "Of the Four Last Things," published in 1632, 1633, 1635, and 
 1639. Of his birth and birth-place Bagshawe writes : — " He was borne at Blackborne 
 a towne of good note in Lancashire (a country fruitfull of good wits, witness those two 
 great lights of learning, the unkle and nephew. Dean Nowell and Dr. [William] 
 Whitaker), on Whitsunday Anno Dom. 1572. His parents being not of any great 
 meanes, yet finding in him a great towardliness for learning, destinated him to bee a 
 scholler, and strugled with their estate to furnish him with necessaries in that kind, 
 apprehending the advantage of a singular School-master that was then in the towne 
 [Mr. Yates, Master of the Grammar School]. Hee plied his booke so well, that in 
 short time he became the best Scholler in the Schoole. He continued long at Schoole, 
 and came not to the University till about the twentieth yeare of his age. He was 
 placed at Oxford in Lincolne CoUedge, under the tuition of Mr. Randall, a man of no 
 great note then, but afterward became a learned divine and godly preacher at London. 
 In that Colledge he fell close to the studies of logicke and philosophic, and by reason 
 of that groundwork of learning he got at schoole, and maturity of yeares, he quickly 
 got the start of those of his owne time, and grew into fame in that house. In the 
 middest of these his studies his father died, and then his meanes failed, for all his 
 father's lands fell to his elder brother now living. " Anderton, another brilliant youth, 
 was Bolton's schoolfellow at Blackburn ; and the acquaintance was renewed at Oxford. 
 When the death of his father had left him almost in penury, Robert Bolton did not 
 succumb to the difficulties of his situation. No longer able to purchase books, he 
 borrowed from his tutor Randal, and copied lai^e portions of many works into manu- 
 script books, so as to have the contents available 'vvhen the borrowed volumes had 
 been returned. It was in the classic languages that Bolton displayed the greatest 
 proficiency, especially in Greek, in which Anthony Wood says he "was so expert that 
 he could write it and dispute in it with as much ease as in English or Latin. " After 
 a few years' residence at Lincoln College, Bolton transferred himself to Brazenose 
 College, with the view of striving for one of its fellowships. He proceeded Bachelor 
 of Arts in 1596. For six years, until the coveted fellowship was won, Robert Bolton 
 had to depend upon friends for assistance, and was much beholden to Dr. Brett, of 
 Lincoln College, for many acts of service. It was in 1602 that Bolton was elected a 
 Fellow of his college, and he took the degree of Master of Arts in July of the same year. 
 By this time his singular abilities becoming widely known, procured for him the posts 
 of Lecturer in Logic and in Moral and Natural Philosophy in Brazenose. On a visit 
 of King James the First to Oxford, Mr. Bolton was chosen as one of several to exhibit 
 their powers of disputation for the monarch's entertainment, and the royal pedant was 
 so impressed by Bolton's gifts that he afterwards spoke of him as the "brightest 
 ornament " of his college. At this period of his life it is recorded that Bolton had no 
 religious feeling, but was a swearer, a Sabbath-breaker, and had a fondness for cards, 
 plays, and similar recreations. His associate, Anderton, known for his eloquence as 
 "Golden-mouthed Anderton," a zealous adherent of the Roman Church, employed all 
 his persuasiveness to induce Bolton to join that Communion. He had exacted his promise 
 to go with him to the Continent, to enter one of the Catholic seminaries in Flanders, 
 tempting the poverty of Bolton with promises of abundant gold. An accident 
 frustrated this design of Anderton, and Bolton was restored to Oxford and the reformed 
 faith. "A day and place were appointed in Lancashire, where they should meet and 
 from thence take shipping and be gone. Mr. Bolton went at the day and place, but 
 Mr. Anderton came not, so hee escaped that snare. " After Anderton 's departure, 
 the character of Robert Bolton underwent a rapid transformation through the instruc- 
 tions of the excellent Mr. Thomas Peacock. On taking the degree of Bachelor of 
 
264 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Divinity in 1609, he resolved to enter upon the clerical office, and in 1610 was presented 
 • by Sir Augustine Nicolls to the rectory of Broughton in Northamptonshire. He was then 
 thirty-eight years old, and two years after, in 1612, Mr. Bolton married Anne, youngest 
 daughter of Vincent Boys, Esq., of Bakesbourne, Kent. Mr. Bolton remained at 
 Broughton more than twenty years, until his death in 1631. He was remarkably 
 assiduous alike in his parochial duties and his pulpit ministrations. Throughout his 
 ministry he preached thrice on the Sunday and catechised in the afternoon. All his 
 sermons and writings are marked by a great ardour of personal religion. Of his 
 domestic relations, his biographer writes that "for the better settling of himself in 
 housekeeping upon his parsonage, he resolved upon marriage, and took to wife Mrs. 
 Anne Boyse, a gentlewoman of an ancient house and worshipful! family in Kent, to 
 whose care he committed the ordering of his outward estate, hee himselfe onely minding 
 the studies and weighty affaires of his heavenly calling." Five children were bom to 
 him, the only son being named Samuel Bolton, afterwards an eminent churchman, a 
 D.D. of Oxford, Prebendary of Westminster, and Chaplain in Ordinary to King 
 Charles H., a man "of extraordinary ability and great integrity," who died nth 
 February, 1668, and was buried in the South transept of Westminster Abbey, where 
 his grave slab remains. The four daughters of the Rev. Robert Bolton were Hannah, 
 Mary, Elizabeth, and Sarah. 
 
 The ministry of this learned native of Blackburn was brought to a close by a 
 quartan ague, which seized him in the year 1631. His illness was long and painful, 
 but was endured with exemplary fortitude of spirit. Of the incidents of his death-bed, 
 his biographer mentions these : — A little before his departure, and expecting every 
 moment to be his last, being told that some of his best friends were about to take their 
 last farewell, he caused himself to be raised up, and bowing himself upon his bed's 
 head, after a few gaspings for breath, he spoke as follows : — "I am now drawing on 
 apace to my dissolution. Hold out, faith and patience, your work will speedily be at an 
 end." Then shaking them all by the hand, he said: — " Make sure of heaven, and keep 
 in mind what I have formerly delivered to you. The doctrine which I have preached to 
 you for the space of twenty years is the truth of God, as I shall answer at the tribunal 
 of Christ, before whom I must shortly appear." This he spake when the very pangs of 
 death were upon him. A dear friend, taking him by the hand, asked him whether he 
 felt much pain. " Truly no," said he, " the greatest pain I feel is your cold hand ;" and 
 presently expired. The date of his death was Saturday, December 17th, 1631. He 
 was then in the sixtieth year of his age. He was buried December 19th, in the chancel 
 of his own church, St. Andrew's, Broughton, North-hants. Against the chance! wall 
 is fixed the monument of Bolton, which is not unsimilar in design to the well-known 
 monument of Shakspere in the chancel of Stratford Church. Bolton's memorial 
 consists of an alcove containing the half-length figure of the rector, his hands placed in 
 the attitude of prayer, and his arms resting upon an open book ; the face and figure 
 are those of a somewhat robust man ; the forehead is high, the hair rather crisp, the 
 beard and lip unshaven, the general aspect reverend. Underneath the effigy is a I^atin 
 inscription, translated: — "Here lies, peaceably sleeping in the Lord, the body of 
 Robert Bolton, who died December the seventeenth, in the year 1631. He was. 
 one of the first and most learned of our Church ; his other excellencies all England 
 tnoweth, lamenting the day of his death. " 
 
 Mr. Bolton's fimeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Nicholas Estwick, 
 B.D., minister of Warkton, North-hants, and was published in 1635, entitled "A 
 Sacred and Godly Sermon preached on the 19 day of December, A. D. 1 63 1, at the 
 Fuuerall of Mr. Robert Bolton, Batchelour in Divinity," &c. 
 
MEMOIR OF ROBERT BOLTON, B.D. 265 
 
 A portrait of our Worthy, painted on wood, is in the Chetham Library, 
 Manchester. Another portrait on panel is said to be at the Holme, in Cliviger. 
 Bagshaw's edition of Bolton's last work, published in 1632, the year after his decease, 
 is enriched by a portrait on steel, engraved by John Payne ; with a Latin quartet 
 below, Englished on the title-page thus : — 
 
 Behold an Image onely : There is none 
 
 That Bolton's ghost can paint : To Heav'n it's gone. 
 
 More learn'd or good, I know not ; This is true, 
 
 Whom one day lost, scarce can an age renue 
 
 E. B. [Edward Bagshawe.1 
 The testimonies of Robert Bolton's contemporaries to his character, abilities, and 
 learning are of the highest kind. Wood, the historian of Oxford, speaks of him as "a 
 most religious and learned Puritan, a painful and constant preacher, a person of great 
 zeal for God, charitable and bountiful ; and so famous for relieving afflicted consciences, 
 that many foreigners resorted to him, as well as persons at home, and found relief. " 
 Fuller records : — "The same year [1631] died Robert Bolton, bom in Lancashire, 
 bred in Brazenose CoUedge, Oxford, beneficed at Broughton, North-hants. An 
 authoritative preacher, who majestically became the pulpit, and whose life is exactly 
 written at lai^e by my good friend Mr. Bagshaw. " A seventeenth-century diarist 
 (Revd. John Ward, Vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon), says of Bolton: — "What was 
 Nazianzen's commendation of Basil might bee Bolton's : hee thunderd in his life, and 
 lightend in his conversation." The biographer of Joseph AUeine (A.D. 1672), records 
 that "Reverend Mr. Bolton, while walking in the streets, was so much cloathed with 
 majesty, as by the notice of his coming in the words 'Here comes Mr. Bolton,' as it 
 were to charm them [the populace] into order, when vain or doing amiss. " 
 
 Another writer of the time remarks : — "It is observed of this holy and reverend 
 divine, that he was so highly esteemed in Northamptonshire, that the people, who 
 beheld his white locks of hair, could point at him and say, ' When that snow shall be 
 dissolved, there will be a great flood, ' and so it proved ; for there never was a minister 
 in that county who lived more beloved or died more lamented. Floods of tears were 
 shed over his grave." The Will of this illustrious native of Blackburn is dated 
 Broughton, November 12th, 1631, and was proved at Canterbury in June, 1632. 
 After a pious declaration, testator wills that Anne Bolton, his wife, shall have his 
 messuage and lands in Broughton, for so long as she shall continue unmarried, towards 
 her maintenance and the good education of testator's children ; if she marry, she shall 
 resort to her dower and thirds of the said messuage and lands. To Hannah Bolton, 
 testator's eldest daughter, ;^250 on the day of her marriage or of the death of her 
 mother ; to Mary, Elizabeth, and Sarah, younger daughters, certain parcels of land 
 in Broughton and £40 in money amongst them. All testator's other messuages, 
 tenements, &c., in Broughton, not otherwise devised, to descend and go to testator's 
 son and heir, Samuel Bolton. Anne Bolton, testator's wife, to have the use of all his 
 plate and household stuff while she lives. Three pounds given to be distributed to the 
 poor of Broughton. Anne Bolton, wife, made sole executrix. After the signature of 
 testator follow the words : — "O Lord, into thy hands I commend my Spiritt ! Thou 
 has redeemed it ! O Lord, God of Truth, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit !" 
 The following is a category of the published works of Mr. Bolton : — 
 
 1. A Discourse about the State of True Happinesse, Delivered in Certaine 
 Sermons in Oxford and at St. Pauls Crosse. (First edition, 161 1 ; seventh edition, 
 (Works) 1638.) 
 
 2. Some Generall Directions for a Comfortable Walking with God : Delivered 
 in the Lecture at Kettering, &c. (First edition, 1625 ; fifth edition (Works), 1638.) 
 
 34 
 
266 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 3. Meditations of the Life to Come. 1628. 
 
 4. Instructions for a Right Comforting Afflicted Consciences. (First edition, 
 1631 ; third edition (Works), 164a) 
 
 5. Helps to Humiliation. Oxford. 1631. 
 
 6. [Posthumous] Mr. Bolton's Last and Learned Worke of the Foure Last 
 Things, Death, Judgement, Hell, and Heaven. With his Assize Sermon and Notes 
 on Justice NicoUs his Funerall. (First edition, 1632 ; third edition (Works), 1641.) 
 
 7. Assize Sermons and other Sermons. 1632. 
 
 8. The Camall Professor ; or the Wofiil Slavery of Man Guided by the Flesh. 
 1634. 
 
 9. A Three-Fold Treatise : Containing the Saints Sure and Perpetuall Guide, 
 Selfe-enriching Examination, and Soule-fatting Fasting ; or Meditations concerning the 
 Word, the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, and Fasting. 1634. 
 
 10. The Saints Soule Exalting Humiliation. 1634. 
 
 11. A Short and Private Discourse with M. S. concerning Usury. 1637. 
 
 12. Devout Prayers upon Solemn Occasions. 1638. 
 
 13. A Cordiall for Christians in the Time of Affliction. 1640. 
 
 14. The Last Visitation, Conflict, and Death of Mr. Thomas Peacock, B.D. 
 &c., 1646. 
 
 The Workes of the Reverend, truly Pious, and Judiciously Learned Robert Bolton, 
 B.D., &c., as they vfere finished by him in his life time. (Include Life, by E.B. ; 
 Discourse of True Happiness; Comfortable Walking with God; Instructions, &c., 
 for Afflicted Consciences ; Four Last Things ; and his Funeral Sermon, by Estwick. ) 
 IX)ndon : Printed by George Miller, 164 1. (3 vols.) 
 
 BURY OF OUSEBOOTH. 
 
 John Bury, townsman, appears on the Blackburn Church Register in 1624, when 
 his wife was buried. 
 
 Myles Berrie married, August 6th, 1615, Aim Livesey. 
 
 Mr. Robert Bury, of Ousebooth, was a Governor of the Grammar School in 1681. 
 
 John Bury, of Blackburn, yeoman, was buried Feb., 1730-1. 
 
 Mr. Miles Berrie, of Ousebooth, was elected a Governor of the Grammar School, 
 Dec. 2ist, 1720. He was buried at Blackburn Church — "Miles Bury of Blackburn, 
 yeoman" — Jan. 20th, 1763. By his wife, Elizabeth, he had sons, Robert, bapt. 
 Aug. 7th, 1724, and John, bapt. Jan. 6th, 1729-30 ; also a daughter Alice, bom in 1726. 
 
 DEWHURST OF BEARDWOOD GREEN AND BILLINGE CARR. 
 
 The Dewhursts were copyholders in Blackburn township. William Dewhurst of 
 Beard wood Green, a first Governor of the Grammar School in 1567, by a copy of 
 Court Roll of Clitheroe, dated May 2Stb, 26th Eliz. (1583-4), was entitled to a messuage 
 and 34X acres of land in Blackburn. He had a son and heir, John ; and a younger 
 son Roger was bom in 1568, who had a son Thomas, bom in 1608, died in 1625. 
 
 John Dewhurst, of Blackburn, a copyholder in 1617, by the Decree for the 
 enclosure of Waste Lands in Blackburn was awarded for his 34^ acres customary 
 measure 17 acres of waste. He died in July, 1626. He had, I think, sons John ; 
 Henry, bom in 1600, died 1633; and William, a warden of the Church in 1635, died 
 in 1639. 
 
 Next comes John Dewhurst, of Billinge Carr, Blackbum, who by his wife, who 
 died Dec, 1623, had sons John and James, — the latter died in Oct., 1603. John 
 Dewhurst the father was a juror at the Parliamentary Survey of 1650. 
 
FAMILIES OF LESSER GENTRY AND YEOMEN. 267 
 
 John Dewhurst, Junior, was a juror also on that Survey. "John Dewhurst of 
 Blackburn, freeholder," is named in 1657. 
 
 Thomas Dewhurst, of Billinge Carr, buried Janet, his wife, April 24th, 1656. 
 
 Arthur Dewhurst of Blackburn (a son of William who died in 1639), was buried 
 March 8th, 1679. His son Roger died in Oct., 1675. 
 
 Thomas Dewhurst of Blackburn, had a son John, bom in 1675. Richard 
 Dewhurst of Blackburn, son of Thomas, had a son Daniel, bom in 1674. 
 
 James Dewhurst, of Blackburn, yeoman, was buried April 7th, 1763. John 
 Dewhurst of Blackburn, yeoman, died in March, 1765. 
 
 EDGE OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 William Edge, of Blackburn, gent., is found in a list of free tenants in 1621. 
 
 Ellis Edge, of Blackbum, married, in 1618, Ann Gerrard, and had a son Ellis, 
 who died in 1626, and another son christened Ellis, who survived him. 
 
 Peter Edge married Ellen Hodgson, Feb. 27th, 1602. Peter Edge of Blackbum, 
 yeoman, was a Governor of Blackbum Grammar School in 1628. 
 
 A younger Peter Edge was elected a Govemor of the same foundation, Jan. 12th, 
 1634-5- 
 
 Ellis Edge, a Govemor of the Grammar School in 1654, died in July, 1688. 
 
 In the petition for Vicar Clayton in 1660, John Edge, another John, and Giles 
 Edge are petitioners. 
 
 William Edge of Blackbum, yeoman, died in August, 1 753. 
 
 Henry Edge of Blackbum, yeoman, by his wife Elizabeth, had a son John, bom 
 in 1748. 
 
 LAWE OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The oldest giave-stone in Blackburn Parish Churchyard is supposed to be that of 
 one Christopher Lawe ; it has the initials " C L " with the date " 1510," filled in with 
 lead. 
 
 Eighty years later, according to Dugdale the herald, another Christopher Lawe of 
 Blackbum made his Will, dying about 1590. He had sons Richard; Thomas ; James 
 of London ; John ; and Miles — the three last-named living in 1590 ; and a daughter 
 Amie. 
 
 Richard Lawe, of Blackbum, son of Christopher, was a Govemor of the Grammar 
 School from before 1590 until after 1628. In the decree conceming the allotment of 
 Blackbum Waste Lands in 1617, Richard Lawe is named as a freeholder. He married 
 Katherine, daughter of John Bolton of Bank-hey, Little Harwood, and by her had 
 issue five sons and four daughters. The sons were — Christopher, bapt. March 14th, 
 1592; Miles, of Royshaw, Blackbum; John; Thomas; and Benjamin. The 
 daughters tvere — Ann, wife of William Sudell of Preston ; Katherine, wife of Richard 
 Agworth ; Mary, wife of Thomas Drinkall ; and Christabel, wife of Edward Snape. 
 It will be necessary to note separately the posterity of Richard Lawe by four of his 
 sons — Christopher, Miles, John, and Benjamin. 
 
 Christopher Lawe, first son, had two sons, John, whose son Christopher Lawe 
 was a "citizen and grocer of London;" and Geoi^e. The latter, George Lawe of 
 Blackbum, who died in December, 1692, had by Jennet, his wife (died in October, 
 1678), a son Richard, who died, probably, in 1733. 
 
 Miles Lawe of Royshaw, next brother of Christopher, was warden of Blackbum 
 Church in 1636. He married, June, 1619, Jenet Kenion, and had sons Richard, 
 Thomas, and John — the last bom in 1635 ; also a daughter Elizabeth, bom in 1 630. 
 His wife — "Uxor Myles Lawe de Royshaw," was buried March i8th, 1651-2. 
 
268 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 John Lawe, of Blackburn, third son of Richard, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter 
 of John Proctor of Lower Darwen, had a son John, of Preston, bom in 1632 (who 
 married Jane, daughter of Evan Wall of Preston, and had a son John and two 
 daughters prior to 1664). The father died about 1658. Whitaker's List of Seneschals 
 of Blackburnshire gives the names of Andrew Holden, gent. , and John Lawe, gent. , 
 as holding the office from 1656 to 1658, during the Protectorship of Cromwell. In 
 the Grammar School annals, printed in this history, it appears that in 1634 "John 
 Lawe the younger " (most likely the above John, who had an uncle John that might 
 then be living) was made a Governor of the School, and appointed to keep the school- 
 key, kept by his grandfather. 
 
 Benjamin Lawe, youngest son of Richard, is entered in 1664 by Dugdale as then 
 of Blackburn. "Benjamin Lawe, widower," married March 2nd, 1656-7, Margaret, 
 daughter of Alexander Baron, of Rishton, and had sons Richard, bom before 1664, 
 John, died 1674, Thomas, died 1675, and probably Robert. Benjamin Lawe, of 
 Blackburn, buried July 2nd, 1697, may refer to this representative. 
 
 Richard Lawe of Blackburn, yeoman, cannot be clearly distinguished among three 
 Richards — sons respectively of Miles, Benjamin, and George Lawe. He died in 
 September, 1729. He had issue sons John and Thomas, twins, bom and died April, 
 1688 ; another John, died 1692 ; and Samuel, bom 1694 ; and daughters Martha and 
 Mary, twins, bom May, 1696. 
 
 Robert Lawe of Blackburn, husbandman, I suppose to be a son of Benjamin by 
 his naming his son Benjamin, bapt. December 3rd, 1704; he had also a son Robert, 
 bom in 1709. 
 
 Christopher Lawe and Ellen Orrell, both of Blackburn, married February 12th, 
 1710-11. 
 
 MAUDSLEY OF OUSEBOOTH, &c. 
 
 Thurstan Maudsley, in the 1st Eliz. (1558) was lessee under Sir Thomas Talbot 
 of lands in Blackburn belonging to Blackburn Parsonage. In 1567 he was made a 
 first governor of Blackbum Grammar School. 
 
 Edward Maudsley of Ousebooth, a govemor of the Grammar School, died in 
 1 592, leaving no issue. Henry, his brother, was his heir. 
 
 Henry Maudsley, of Blackbum, was made a govemor of the Grammar School 
 in 1593. By copy of Court Roll of Clitheroe, dated April 23rd, 1593, it was recorded 
 that Edward Maudsley, then recently deceased, had held a messuage called Ousebooth 
 and 16 acres of land in copyhold, and Henry, his brother and heir, claimed to be 
 admitted into the tenement, and was admitted. He died about 1614, when his son 
 Thurstan entered into possession of the copyhold. 
 
 Thurstan Maudsley, of Ousebooth, gent., in 1617, had seven acres of waste land 
 allotted to him on account of his copyhold farm. He was made a govemor of the 
 Grammar School in 1616 ; in 1637 appears as a juror, and died about 1654. He had 
 sons, Thurstan; Henry, bom in 1632; and Thomas, bom in 1635; and daughters, 
 Elizabeth, bom in 1614, married John Cunliffe, of Hollins ; Katherine, bom in 1620, 
 died 1621 ; and Ann, bom in 1625, died in 1633. 
 
 Thurstan Maudsley, of Ousebooth, gent., son of Thurstan, became a govemor 
 of the Grammar School in 1654. He married in 1656 — " Thurstan, son of Thurstan 
 Maudsley deceased, and Alice, daughter of William Rishton, within the parish of 
 Deane, gentlewoman," banns "published at Blackbum Market Cross," in April, 
 1656. His eldest son, Thurstan, was bora December 3rd, 1657 ; and he had a 
 yovmger son, Henry. Thurstan Maudsley the father died in June, 1677. 
 
FAMILIES OF LESSER GENTRY AND YEOMEN. 
 
 269 
 
 His son, Thurstan Maudsley, gent., in the year 1684 gave a benefaction of £s to 
 the endowment of Darwen Chapel, and died in March, 1685-6. 
 
 Henry Maudsley of Ousebooth, gent., on the decease of his brother Thurstan 
 gave a sum of ;fio to the Poor of Blackburn. This Henry married, February 5th, 
 1686-7, "Mrs. Anne Haworth," and had issue sons Thurstan, bapt. October 19th, 
 1690; Henry, of Blackburn, yeoman, died in May, 1755 ; and Thomas; daughters, 
 Ann, bom in 1692; Mary, bom in 1694; and Elizabeth, bom in 1696. Mr. Henry 
 Maudsley was made a Governor of the Grammar School in i6S6 ; and he died in 
 1697-8, buried January 13th. 
 
 Thurstan Maudsley, son of the last Thurstan, died in October, 1752, having had 
 issue by his wife, Lettice, who died in 1756. 
 
 A later Thurstan Maudsley, whose parentage I have not noted, by his wife Grace 
 had sons John, bom in 1 761, Thomas, James, and William. 
 
 Thomas Maudsley of Ousebooth, gent., probably a son of the Henry Maudsley 
 who died in 1686, was a Governor of the Grammar School in 1711, and living in 
 1731- 
 
 Another Thomas Maudsley, of Ousebooth, gent. , by Catherine, his wife, had sons 
 Hilton, bom in 1732, and Thomas, bom in 1735. 
 
 Thomas Maudsley of Blackburn, apothecary, who died in August, 1757, was of 
 this family. He had married, July 12th, 1744, Elizabeth Hindle, of Blackburn. 
 
 SHARPLES OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 There was a family of Sharpies of some estate domiciled in Blackburn in the reign 
 of Henry VIIL, and to the Subsidy of 1523 both Robert Sharpulls, of Blackburn, and 
 Lawrence Sharpulls were assessed ; as well as one George Sharpulls in Mellor town- 
 ship. 
 
 Robert Sharpies, of Blackburn, in the reign of Elizabeth, married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Alexander Sharpies, of Sharpies, gent. ; a family from which Sharpies 
 of Blackbum not improbably was an offshoot. 
 
 Lawrence Sharpies, of Blackbum, died in 1606 ; his wife died in 1605. 
 
 Geoffrey Sharpies, of Blackbum, had a son Richard, bora in 1600. " Richard 
 Sharpies, oppidan," was buried at Blackburn Church, October 14th, 1623. Perhaps 
 this was the Richard Sharpies who had married, in October, 1622, Cicely Holden. 
 
 John Sharpies, of Blackbum, gent., appears as a townsman of position in the 
 reigns of the first Stuarts ; as a Governor of Blackbum Grammar School in 1634. He 
 married, November 13th, 1614, Jane Harwood, and had a son, Randal ; and a daughter 
 Hannah, married at Preston, January 26th, 1655-6, to William Shaw, of Shaw Hall, 
 Leyland, gent. ; and (I think) Anne, wife of William Yates of Blackbum, gent. 
 
 Randal (or Randolph) Sharpies, of Blackbum, gent., son of John, was baptized 
 November 9th, 1655. He married, at Church Kirk, Febraary nth, 1654, Anne, 
 daughter of William Rishton, of Dunnishop, gent. Issue included sons, John, bom 
 May, 1650 ; Elkanah, bora July, 1654 (" Mr. Elkaney Sharpies " buried at Blackbum 
 Church, March 6th, 1674-5) '• Joseph and Benjamin, twins, bom March 15th, 1657-8; 
 and daughters, Elizabeth, bora June, 1656 ; and Hannah, bom January, 1659-60. The 
 father, Mr. Randal Sharpies, was a remarkably active partizan of the Parliamentarian 
 interest in the Civil War of 1642-51. He was placed in the Commission of the Peace for 
 the county, and in his capacity as Justice officiated at most of the marriages by civil 
 process in Blackbum on the abolition of the clerical ceremony in 1653. These magis- 
 terial marriages were registered in the Parish Books according to this example : — 
 "Nicholas Rishton, of Oswaldtwistle, and Susan RatcUffe, of the same, were married 
 in the presence of Randle Sharpies, Justice of the Peace, July i ith, 1652." " Randell 
 Sharpies, of Blackbum, gent.," was buried May 27th, 1673. 
 
270 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Joseph Sharpies, of Blackburn, tenant of the Rectory estate, and John Sharpies 
 occur about 1663. John Sharpies, of Blackburn, died in May, 1684. 
 
 Joseph Sharpies, of Blackburn, gent., one of the twin sons of the above Randal, was 
 made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1679. He had a son Randal, who 
 died in infancy in 1681 ; and a son John, bom in 1684. In 1689, the heirs of Joseph 
 Sharpies, of Blackburn, for Okenhead Wood, provided a Greave of Rossendale. 
 
 In the Manchester Parish Register appears, April 20th, 1710, the death of " Mr. 
 John Sharpies, dyed at Manchester, buried at Blackbume." 
 
 There was another Randal Sharpies, contemporary with the Justice of that name, 
 who died in 1672, and had a son Randal; the latter, living in 1715, had a son John, 
 bom in 1715; died in 1718. He might be the "Randall Sharpies of the Parish of 
 Whalley," who married, in 1697, Isabel Cross, of this parish. 
 
 Other and later members, whose relation cannot be positively defined, are : — John 
 Sharpies, of Blackbum, living at the East Bridge in 1656, had a son John, bom that 
 year. " Mr. George Sharpies, of Blackbum, apothecary," had a son Edward, bom in 
 1700. Thomas Sharpies, of Blackbum, chapman, had a son John, bora in 1701. John 
 Sharpies, of Blackbum, yeoman, married, in I737> Anne Tarrant, of Livesey, and had 
 a son Thomas, bom in 1742 ; the father died in 1762. Henry Sharpies, of Blackbum, 
 bom in 1718, died in 1791, aged 73. 
 
 WARD OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Robert Warde was a first Govemor of the Grammar School in 1567. 
 
 WiUiam Warde married, December 19th, 1616, Mary Ainsworth. 
 
 William Ward, a juror, on the Parliamentary Survey of 1650, was living in 1660. 
 
 Henry Ward, of Blackbum, probably father of Ann Ward married to Robert 
 Peel in 1681, died in 1710, as his gravestone in the Parish Church-yard records : — 
 "Henry Ward, 1710." 
 
 William Ward, of Blackbum, chapman, son of Henry, died in 1734; his name is 
 on the same tombstone : — " William Ward, of Blackbum, who died Nov. 30th, 1734." 
 
 Among the Vicar's tenants in Blackbum, about the year 17 16, were Henry Ward, 
 occupying a house, bam, and garden, and Richard Ward, tenant of a house and 
 yam-croft. 
 
 A later WiUiam Ward, of Blackbum, chapman, had a son William, bom in 1740. 
 
 Hemy Ward, of Blackbum, yeoman, was buried January 3rd, 1784, aged 76 years. 
 
 Mr. Michael Ward, of Blackbum, surgeon, was made a Govemor of the Grammar 
 School in 1789. 
 
 WHALLEY OF TODHOLL. 
 
 Roger Whalley, of Todholl, Blackbum, married, December 28th, 1617, Jane 
 Sothworthe. He had issue, sons Thomas, Thurstan, and James ; also a daughter 
 Jane, married, Febraary 26th, 1655, to John Clayton, of Little Harwood, gent. 
 
 A later Roger Whalley, of Blackburn, yeoman, by Margaret, his wife, who died 
 in 1702, had a son Roger, buried Febraary 21st, 1700-1 ; and by a second wife, 
 Mary Bramley, whom he married August i8th, 1704, another son Roger, died 1724. 
 
 THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARIE. 
 
 Reference has previously been made to the traditionary memorial 
 of the foundation of the Church of Blackbum as centre of a parish 
 detached from Whalley at some undetermined period of the Saxon era, — 
 it may have been centuries anterior to the Norman Conquest ; also to the 
 first precise record of the existence and endowment of this Parish 
 Church in Domesday Book (1080-6), when two carucates of land in the 
 
THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARIE. 271 
 
 Parish were found on the survey attached to Blackburn Church ; and 
 two other carucates of land in Whalley Parish, free of all customs. It is 
 further written in an ancient MS. that the primitive rectors of Blackburn, 
 as of Whalley, were lords of the vill, who married and transmitted the 
 rectory to their heirs as inheritance along with the secular estate. 
 Gamaliel de Blackburn was Rector and Lord of the Manor about the 
 time of the Conquest ; his son Gilbert succeeded, and John de Black- 
 bum, son of Gilbert, was the next rector, whose son and heir Henry de 
 Blackburn was living in 1160. 
 
 About the middle of the 12th Century the Church of Blackburn is 
 found under the right as superior lord of that Henry de Lascy who, in 
 1 147, founded Bamoldswick Abbey (removed later to Kirkstall) ; and 
 by a Charter undated, but given soon after the year 1160, Henry de 
 Lascy granted to Henry, Clerk of Blackburn, the Church of Blackburn 
 in all its completeness, viz., with the Chapel of Walton with all its 
 liberty, in land and water, wood and plain ; likewise a certain benefice 
 in the Church of Whalley and in the chapels of that church, which 
 grantor's ancestors formerly assigned to Blackburn Church, as fully as 
 John or any other precedent person had held the same.' Peche, 
 Bishop of Coventry, confirmed the above presentation ; naming Gamaliel 
 and Gilbert as predecessors of Henry de Blackburn in the benefice. 
 
 Some years later, Robert de Lascy, son and successor of Henry de 
 Lascy, granted to Adam de Blackburn, his clerk, that mediety of the 
 Church of Blackburn which Richard, his ancestor, held ; and further 
 gave that benefice in Whalley Church that belonged to the Church of 
 Blackburn." Adam de Blackburn, clerk, was son of Richard, and 
 grandson of Henry de Blackburn, whom Henry de Lascy had presented 
 about 1 160. This Adam surrendered the dependent chapel of Walton 
 to John de Lascy. Another Adam, brother of Richard and son of 
 Henry de Blackburn, is mentioned below as holding one moiety of 
 Blackburn Church. 
 
 By grant referred to the year 1230, John de Lascy, Constable of 
 Chester, gave in spontaneous charity " to God and the Blessed Mary 
 and the Abbot and Monks of my Blessed Place of Stanlawe in pure and 
 perpetual alms the moiety of the Church of Blackburn which Adam, son 
 of Henry, holds, with Walton Chapel, and their appurtenances, as much 
 as belongs to the lay gift, for the health of my soul, and of my wife, 
 and for the health of the lord, my father and mother, and of my ancestors 
 and successors.'" The gift was confirmed by another charter in 1238; 
 and about the same time John de Lascy also bestowed upon the Abbot 
 and Monks of Stanlawe that other moiety of the Church of Blackburn 
 
 1 Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey, v. i., pp. 75-6. a lb. pp. 76-7. 3 lb. pp. 72-3. 
 
272 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 which Roger, son of Adam, son of Henry de Blackburn, held, with all 
 appurtenances within and without the bounds of the same parish, with 
 his body for sepulture."- The donor, John de Lascy, died A.D. 1240. 
 
 Edmund de Lascy, son of John, by charter " done at Ightenhull " 
 manor, A.D. 1251, confirmed to the Monks of Stanlawe that moiety of 
 the Church of Blackburn which Roger de Blackburn once held, with his 
 body for burial at Stanlawe, if he should happen to die in England." 
 The grant was sanctioned by Roger de Meuland, Bishop of Coventry and 
 Lichfield, by charter dated 1259. From this time the Parish Church of 
 Blackburn and its dependent chapels remained in the hands of the 
 Cistercian fraternity of Stanlawe — Whalley until the suppression of that 
 Monastery in 1537. 
 
 The endowment of the Vicarial benefice of Blackburn remains 
 substantially to this day as it was fixed six hundred years ago, by 
 ordination of Roger de Meuland, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, to 
 consist of a glebe of two oxgangs of lands, a parsonage-house, and a 
 pension or stipend of 40 marks per annum from the holders of the 
 Rectorial estate. Of course, the rental-revenue from the glebe has 
 increased enormously in the lengthened interval. The episcopal charter 
 conferring this endowment is dated from Heywood, the 14th kalend 
 of May, 1277, being the triple ordination of the Vicarages of Blackburn, 
 Rochdale, and Eccles. Bishop Roger de Meuland, having made diligent 
 inquiry concerning the income and wealth of these churches, upon the 
 design to augment their vicarages, appoints and ordains concerning 
 Blackburn that the vicarage of Blackburn consist of a suitable manse, to 
 the Vicar ministering in the said Church previously assigned, with two 
 oxgangs of land, and 40 marks annually to the Vicar for the time being 
 from the Abbot and Convent of Blessed Place of Stanlawe (afterwards of 
 Whalley) as impropriators of the Rectory of Blackburn. The Bishop, 
 or the Archdeacon of Chester, to have power on appeal to enforce 
 payment of the pension in case of neglect. The Vicars so endowed to 
 perform service personally in the church, unless prevented by the 
 diocesan, or otherwise legitimately hindered, and then to find other 
 proper ministers in their stead, and at all other times, at their own 
 charge, to cause service to be faithfully performed in the chapels 
 belonging to the Parish Church by proper ministers and clerks." The 
 first Vicar appointed after this ordination was probably John de 
 Habyngdon, who is named as " late Vica* of Blackburn " in a deed 
 dated 1289. William de Lench was instituted as Vicar in 1289, and by 
 the Bishop's direction gave an undertaking to the Abbot of Stanlawe not to 
 disturb the Conventual authorities respecting any augmentation of the 
 
 1 Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey, v. i., pp. 74-5. 2 lb. p. 77. 3 lb. pp. 85-6. 
 
ANNALS OF BLACKBURN RECTORY. 273 
 
 vicarage. Thereafter, for about two centuries and a half, the Abbot and 
 Monks of Whalley quietly received the Rectorial revenues, and nominated 
 on each vacancy monks of this foundation to the Vicarage of Blackburn. 
 The value of the Church of Blackburn is registered at several 
 periods during the tenure of the Abbots of Whalley. In the Valor of 
 Pope Nicholas (1288-92) the Church of Blackburn with chapel is 
 returned as worth ^^33 6s. 8d. In the Abbey Compotiis of 1478 the 
 receipt for the Church of Blackburn is entered as £,Z^ i6s. gd. ; and in 
 that of 1521, the value of Blackburn Church with chapels is given as 
 ^133 IS. Then, at the Valor Ecclesiasticus ol 1534 (cited before), the 
 Rectory of Blackburn is returned as worth ;£^74 6s. 8d. (including Rents 
 of Glebe ^10 ; tithes of grain with hay ^^44 ; tithes of lambs with wool 
 ^£■4 ; oblations, small tithes, and Easter Roll ;^i6 6s. 8d.). Finally, on 
 the Survey in 1538, after the suppression of the Monastery, the return of 
 revenue for Blackburn Rectory is: — "The Parsonage of Blackbume 
 with the Glebe Land and other tyeth belonging to the same by the year 
 ;^99 2s. lid." Whereout was paid the Vicar of Blackburn's pension, 
 ^26 8s. 4d. 
 
 ANNALS OF THE RECTORY SINCE THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The estate of the Rectory of Blackburn remained m possession of 
 the Crown about ten years after the Dissolution of Whalley Monastery 
 and its alienation therefrom ; and then, by a deed of exchange between 
 Edward VI. and Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, dated 
 June i2th, 1547 (ist Edw. VI.), were conveyed to the See of Canterbury 
 "all those our Rectories and Churches of Whalley, Blackburn, and 
 Rachdale, late to the Monastery or Abbey of Whalley lately dissolved 
 formerly belonging, and also all those our Chapels of Padiham, Clyder- 
 how. Coin, Brunley, Churche, Altham, Haslingden, Bowland, Penhull, 
 Trawden [Marsden], and Rossendale [Newchurch], and our Chapel 
 of Clyderhow, with all those our Chapels of Law, Samlesbury, Saddle- 
 worth, Butterworth, &c., and the advowson and right of patronage of the 
 aforesaid Churches of \Vhalley, Blackburn, and Rachdale, to the said 
 late Monastery formerly belonging." 
 
 Thenceforward, the Rectory Glebe, of 500 customary acres, was 
 farmed on leases from the Primates. The first lessees after 1547 were 
 John Comberford and Robert Billott, who sold the residue of their lease 
 to Sir Thomas Talbot, of the Holt and Bashall, Knt, before 1550. Sir 
 Thomas Talbot sub-leased portions of the estate. In the ist Eliz. 
 (1558), Oliver Livesey, claiming by a lease, had a suit with Thurstan 
 Maudsley, lessee of Sir Thomas Talbot, Knt., concerning a bam of three 
 bays in Blackburn, parcel of Blackburn Rectory. Sir Thomas Talbot 
 
 35 
 
2j^ HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 died at Haudley, the Rectory Parsonage, in 1558, and by his Will 
 bequeathed to his daughter Anne his " lease of the Parsonage of Blag- 
 borne." In the Inventory of this Knight's effects, prysed at Haudley in 
 July, 1559, Blackburn Parsonage is valued at ;£3oo. 
 
 Anne Talbot, daughter of Sir Thomas, to whom this lease was 
 devised, had married William ffarington of Worden, Esq., who executed 
 Sir Thomas's Will, and paid ^140 los. for his funeral expenses. 
 William ffarington was about this time rebuilding his ancestral house at 
 Worden, and abode ititerim at Audley Hall in Blackburn. In 1559, 
 Robert Barton and William Farrington were against Sir John South- 
 worth, Knt., and his tenants, in a suit as to pasture in Mellor, in right 
 of Blackburn Waste, as parcel of the Rectory of Blackburn parsonage. 
 Another action-at-law took place in the 7th Eliz. (1564), when William 
 Farrington, claiming the estate and interest in the Manor of Blackbume 
 of Sir Thomas Talbot, as lessee of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 confirmed by the Dean and Chapter, was against Nicholas Hayworth 
 and others, claiming as lessees of Sir Thomas Talbot, as to divers 
 specified lands, parcel of the Rectory and parsonage of Blackbume, for 
 alleged enclosures and encroachments by the defendants, by buildings 
 on Blakeley Moor, and particularly on the Marsh there. In the year 
 1569 (i ith Eliz.) an attempt was made to assert Royal rights in the manor 
 of Blackburn, as well over the Rectorial as the temporal moieties of the 
 manor. A suit was instituted in the Duchy Court, in which the Attorney 
 General of the Duchy, on behalf of the Queen, as seized of the Manor 
 of Blackbume in fee, and in right of the Duchy, was plaintiff", and 
 Robert Barton, claiming by descent in fee, and William Farrington, 
 claiming the interest of John Cumberford and Robert Billotte, lessees 
 of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop, and the Dean and Chapter of Canter- 
 bury, defendants, seeking to recover divers lands, tenements, waste 
 grounds, &c., in Blackbum Manor and Parsonage, and digging for coals 
 in Blackbum Moor. Canon Raines, in his memoir of William ffarington, 
 refers to this singular action, and notes its issue : — " Mr. Barton 
 and the See of Canterbury, after a hearing, established their joint claim, 
 and the Queen, without much grace, retired from the contest, foiled in 
 her rapacity.'" After this successful defence of their titles, Mr. ffarington 
 and Mr. Barton united with their tenants in framing by-laws for the 
 government of their estates in Blackbum. William ffarington, Esq., 
 dwelt at Audley occasionally throughout his life. In 1594, going to 
 London on legal business, Mr. ffarington records that he paid at Lambeth 
 Palace a sum of ;^79 iis. 6d., for rent, &c., due on the 3rd May, of 
 the Rectory of Blackbum. He died July 3rd, 1610. 
 
 1 Stanley Papers (Introdn.), Part II, p. xxxii. 
 
ANNALS OF BLACKBURN RECTORY. 275 
 
 This profitable lease was next acquired by the Fleetwoods, a branch 
 of the Fleetwoods of Heskeyn. Sir William Fleetwood, Knt., son of 
 Sir William, Recorder of the City of London, and brother of Sir Robert, 
 is found lessee of Blackburn Rectory lands before 1616. Onward for 
 about a century members of the Fleetwoods held the glebe by a 
 succession of leases from the Archbishops.' 
 
 Upon a Survey of the possessions of the Archbishopric of Canter- 
 bury in Lancashire, taken at Blackburn, September 20th, 1616, by virtue 
 of the King's Commission of Survey dated the 19th June, 14th James I., 
 before Roger Nowell, Humphrey Davenport, and John Hart, Com- 
 missioners, it was proved on the oaths of the Jurors, "that George 
 [Abbot], the Lord Bishop of Canterbury, was seized in his demesne as 
 of fee," &c., "of and in the appropriate Parsonages or Rectorys of 
 Blackbome, Whalley, and Rachdale, in the said County of Lancaster, 
 with all and every of their appurtenances, and of and in the patronage 
 of the Vicarages of Blackbome, Whalley, and Rachdale ; and yt first 
 concerning the Rectory of Blackbome, within the Parish of Blackbome, 
 there is the Mother Church of Blackbome and these churches and 
 chappells belonging to the said Mother Church, viz. : Law Church, 
 Samlesbury Church, Harwood Church, Langho Chappell, Darwen 
 Chappell, Tockholes Chappell, and Balderstone Chappell." 
 
 On the allotment of Blackbum Waste lands in 16 18, as already 
 recorded, 231 acres of waste and common were allotted to the Rectory 
 estate, which was thus augmented by enclosure to 731 customary or 
 about 1359 statute acres. 
 
 1 The descent of the branch of the Fleetwoods that for several generations enjoyed the valuable 
 tenancy on lease of Blackbum Rectory estate is indicated below : — William Fleetwood of Heskin, by 
 Helen his wife, daughter of Robert Standish, had issue John, of Penwortham ; Thomas, father of 
 Edward, the first of Rossall, and of Sir William Fleetwood (grandfather of Charles, who married a 
 daughter of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector) ; Robert ; Edward, a monk ; Agnes, and Jennet. 
 Robert Fleetwood, gent., third son of William, was father of Sir William, appointed Recorder of 
 London in 1569. He resided on an estate he had acquired at Misenden, Co. Bucks, where he died, 
 February 28^h, 1594. By his wife Marian, daughter of John Burleigh of Kingsley, Esq., he had sons, 
 William : Sir Robert. Attorney General to Prince Henry, son of James L : Sir Thomas : Edward : 
 James, and Francis ; daughters, Elizabeth and Cordelia. William Fleetwood, eldest son of Sir 
 William, also received Knighthood. The younger Sir William acquired the lease of Blackburn 
 Rectory lands soon after the death of William ffarington, Esq., in 1610. He married Ann, daughter 
 of Robert Barton of Smithells, Esq. , and had sons, John ; Francis : Thomas ; Edward, and William ; 
 daughters, Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Woodward, Knt. : Anne : Margaret ; Cordelia ; and Katherine. 
 Sir Edward Fleetwood, a younger son of Sir William, appears as next lessee. In 1650 "Mrs. Marriane 
 Fleetwood," (daughter of Sir William or widow of Sir Edward), held the Rectory estate on lease, to 
 expire in 1661, when it was renewed. To Cordelia Fleetwood (a daughter of Sir William was named 
 Cordelia), a lease of the Rectory of Blackburn was granted. December 24th, 1676, for a term of 21 
 years. In 1679, " Cordelia Fleetwood, of the Citty of London, Spinster," is named as holding an 
 estate in Samlesbury (the Fleetwood Hall estate, being glebe land of Blackburn Rectory). In 1695, 
 "John Fleetwood, Esq., Farmer of the Rectory of Blackburn," was elected a Governor of the 
 Grammar School. His widow, I suppose, was " Mrs. Sarah Fleetwood, widow," lessee of the Rectory 
 in 1706 ; Mr. Johnson being her steward. In 1714, Mrs. Mari.an Fleetwood was the occupant of Fleet- 
 wood Hall in Samlesbury : but in 1725, a Mr. Franks was assessed for the Fleetwood Hall tenement. 
 
276 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 In • 1649, during the Commonwealth period, the Commission 
 appointed by Parliament for the sale of Bishops' lands surveyed the 
 Rectory of Blackburn, and returned an account of the mill and glebe 
 lands belonging to the Rectory, and the tenants thereof; also reporting 
 that " nearly half the houses in the said town did belong to the late 
 Archbishop of Canterbury in right of his said bishopric," and that many 
 of the said houses in the town, and all the farmers' houses near the 
 town, had land belonging to them all enclosed, which said houses and 
 land were called glebe. 
 
 Quickly followed the Survey made June 2Sth, 1650, on the order 
 of Parliament for inquiring into all ecclesiastical estates in the countr)'. 
 The return for Blackburn Parish is abbreviated below : — 
 
 Blackburn Hundreth. — An Inquisition indented, taken at Blackbume, in 
 the Countye of Lancaster, the 25 Day of June, 1650, before Richard Shuttleworth, 
 John Starliie, Peeter Bould, Thomas Whittington, George Johnson, John Savvrey, 
 Jeremiah Aspinwell, Geoi^e Piggott, and William West, Esquires. By virtue of a 
 Commission under the Create Seale of England, dated the 29th of Marcli, 1650, to 
 them and others directed, for the inquiringe of and certifying the certain number and 
 true yearely value of all parsonages and vicaridges presentative, and of all and every 
 the spirittuall and Ecclesiastical liveinges and benefices and donatives within the said 
 County, by the oathes of John Harwood, William Chevi', Richard Osbaldeston, 
 William Walmisley, James Whalley, Ed ward Lowed, William Ward, John Aspden, 
 John Dewhurst, Robert Radclifife, Rich ard Dewhurst, John Dewhurst, junior, Richard 
 Ainsworth, Jeremy Wood, and Edward Boulton, good and lawfull men of the parishes 
 of Blackbume and Whalley, in the said Countye, whoe upon their oathes present and 
 saye that the Parishe of Blackbume, within the Hundred of Blackbume, doth containe 
 one parishe church, vizt. Blackbume, a vicaridge presentative by the late Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, the impropriator Mistress Marriane Fleetwood, famier of the tythes by 
 a demise on lease made by the said Bishopp yetf in beinge ; besides there is a demesne 
 called Haudly, yett in lease under the said Bishopp to the said Mrs. Fleetwood for the 
 terme of eight years or thereabouts, and by her demised att eighty pounds per ann., 
 and alsoe an ould rent of thirty-five poundes fourteene shillings per ann., besides fines 
 of tenements and one water come milne of the yearly value of [ ]. All which are 
 in lease under the said bishopp with the said Mrs. Fleetwood for the tenure aforesaid. 
 And the said Mrs. Fleetwood hath tyth within the chappellry of Lawe, in the parishe 
 aforesaid, worth per ann. £ll<); and £(,2 per ann. for glebe land; and in Nether 
 Darwen £2^ per ann. ; and in Plesington £1^ los. per ann. ; and in Whitton ;^8 
 per ann. ; and in Mellor-cum-Eccleshill pf 30 per ann. ; and in Harwood Parva ;^I0 
 per ann. ; and in Samlisbury ^^30 per ann. ; besyde three acres and a halfe of glebe 
 land att 7s. 3d. rent per ann. ; and in Clayton in le Dale, Salisbury, Wilpshire-cum- 
 Dinckley, and Billington, theire tythes worth ;^72perann. ; and in Tockholes ;f 13 
 6s. 8d. per ann.; and in Overdarwen ;^30 per ann.; and in Blackbume ^60 per ann.; 
 and in Harwood Magna £^0 per ann. ; and in Rishton £t,$ per ann. ; and in Cuerdale 
 /5 per ann.; and in Livesaye ;i£^20 per ann.; and in Osbaldeston and Balderston 
 £lT, 13s. per ann.; besyde Vatebank and Piccopbank, part of the forest of Rossendall, 
 but parcell of the rectorye of Blackbume, their tythes worth to the abovesaid farmer 
 £$ per ann. And the said Jurors likewise saye that there is belonginge to the said 
 
ANNALS OF BLACKBURN RECTORY. 277 
 
 [vicarage] a viccaridge house, and thirtye acres of land worth per ann. £20 to the 
 present minister at Blackbume; besydes there is other auntiente tenements which 
 prescribe to pay a rent of £,2 i6s. rod. per ann. to the said Viccar (all which the said 
 viccar receyveth for his sallary), besydes £,-2(> 13s. 4d. per ann. which he receaveth 
 from the said Mrs.' Fleetwood, and alsoe that hee hath an augmentation of ^^50 per 
 ann. from the Committee of Plundered Ministers, but as yett hath receaved noe benefitt 
 thereof. And the said Jurors further saye that the said parishe dothe contain within 
 itselfe nyneteene townshipps, which are distant from their parish church as is here 
 expressed, vizt. Blackbume, in which the parish is situated ; Nether Darwen, two 
 myles ; Over Darwen, four myles ; Livesey-cum-Tockholes, four myles ; Plesington, 
 three myles ; Witton, one myle and a halfe ; Samlisbury, six myles ; Osbaldeston, 
 five myles ; Balderston, five myles ; Walton in le Dale, nyne myles ; Cuerdale, eight 
 myles ; Mellor-cum-Eccleshill, four myles ; Whilpshire-cum-Dinckley, four myles ; 
 Clayton in le Dale, four myles ; Billington, five myles ; Harwood Magna, four myles ; 
 Harwood Parva, one myle and a quarter ; Rishton, three myles ; and Salisbury, four 
 myles. The jurors also saye that there are in the parish seven chapels : Law 
 [Walton] ; Samlisbury ; Langoe ; Tockholes ; Over Darwen ; Balderston ; and Harwood 
 [see Chapelries]. 
 
 On the restoration of Episcopacy in 1660, Dr. John Juxon was 
 made Primate ; and by deed dated February loth, 14th Charles II. 
 (1662), his Grace gave a sum of £^']q per annum out of the issues of 
 the Rectory for the increase of the Vicarial benefice of Blackburn. The 
 charge was added to the rental of the estate paid by the lessee on a 
 renewal of the lease in 1661 ; but the lessee, Mistress Mariane Fleet- 
 wood, did not fail to transfer this extra payment to her under-tenants, 
 in the shape of increased rents, whereat the latter made bitter complaint 
 to the Primate, in these terms : — 
 
 Upon the renewal of the Lease of the Rectory of Blackbume with Archbishop 
 Juxon, immediately after his Majestie's Restauration, his Grace was pleased to grant 
 an augmentation of ;f 70 per annum to the Vicar of Blackbume and his successors, to 
 be payd by the farmer of the Rectory, who not long after likewise renewed the Leases 
 to the under Tenants, advancing every one of them both in fine and rent over and 
 above their former payments, to their great impoverishment and severe usage, the 
 officers and agents of the farmer alleging (supposed to be by their master's directions) 
 that his Grace had imposed the annual payment of £10 to the Vicar over and above 
 the Reserved Rent formerly payd, without any consideration to the farmer, or defalca- 
 tion of fine in renewing his lease, and therefore were constrained to reimburse their 
 master by advanceing the Tenants' fines and Annuall Reserved Rents lo equal the 
 sayd summe o{£'jo augmentation to the Vicar. The agents and officers of the farmers, 
 from time to time have affirmed and reported the contents above-written for a certain 
 truth. The present agent, Mr. Ogle, still continuing to affirm the same, with the 
 greatest confidence imaginable, to the great grief of the under-tenants, and greater 
 dishonour of the present Archbishop and his predecessors. — (Signed) — Tenants: — 
 Joseph Sharpies, Thurstan Maudsley, Richard Hilton, Henry Maudsley, Adam Raby, 
 Richard Gelibrand, Ben. Lawe, Edward Smith, Robert Peele, John Yates, Thurstan 
 ffogge, James Cowper, William Yates, William Haworth. — We whose hands are 
 subscribed, not being tenants to the said farmer, do some of us know and others 
 believe the contents above-written to be true : — Thomas Clayton, Giles Clayton, 
 
278 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 George Rishton, Thomas Walmsley, Thomas Sharpies, Evan Wilkinson, James 
 Brindle, William Pickering, Ric. Haworth, James Crosse, Jacob Edge. 
 
 The Coucher Book of the Parish Church of Blackburn contains an 
 abstract of a lease obtained by Cordelia Fleetwood, in the year 1676. 
 The terms of this lease were, an annual rent of ^^139 2s. 2d. paid direct 
 to the Rector, and £^o on his account to the Vicar of Blackburn ; the 
 total rental of the Rectory Glebe was thus at that date ^^209 2s. 2d. 
 per annum : — 
 
 Memorandum of Lease of Rectory to Cordelia ffleetwood. — A Lease 
 granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Cordelia ffleetwood. Dated 24th Dec. , 
 1676, of all that the Rectory or Parsonage of Blackburn in Com. Lane, with the 
 Chappells of Law and Samlesbury to the same parsonage belonging, with all houses, 
 buildings, lands, tenements, Glebe Lands, Tythes of Com and Hay, Oblations, 
 Obventions, Privy Tythes, and all and every other tythes, profitts, comoditys, advan- 
 tages, emoluments, and appurtenances whatsoever, &c. To have for 21 years from the 
 makeing. Rent yearly £iy) 2s. 2d. att the Annunciation and Michaels by equall 
 portions. Rent also on the days aforesaid £^o to be paid by the said Archbishop and 
 his successors yearly to the Vicar for the tyme being, &c. , in pursuance of the King's 
 Majesty's directions for Augmentations, &c. And that the said Cordelia F., &c., 
 shall repaire, &c., the chancell of the Church of Blackburn, and also the Mansion 
 House called Haldley, in Blackburn, and all bams and other edifices thereunto 
 belonging. And the said Cordelia F., for herself, exors, &c., doth covenant, &c., by 
 and with the Vicar of the Parish Church of Blackburn for the tyme being, att all 
 tymes, &c., peaceably and quietly to receive, take and enjoy to his and their own use 
 and behoof all and every the church duties of marriages, christenings, and burialls, 
 without any account to be made or given for the same. 
 
 THE SANCROFT TRUST. 
 
 Some account may here be inserted of an important augmentation 
 made to the endowments of the parish chapelries through the bounty of 
 Archbishop Sancroft. William Sancroft was consecrated Primate in the 
 year 1678 as successor to Sheldon. Sancroft found that the livings of 
 the chapels-of-ease under this Parish Church were lamentably small. 
 Not one of the chapelries possessed the advantage of weekly Christian 
 worship. The zealous Primate therefore felt himself called upon to do 
 somewhat towards placing the affairs of the Church upon a better basis 
 in a parish from which he drew a certain yearly revenue as Rector. He 
 decided to make a substantial gift to each of the chapels. First, 
 however, the Archbishop required a correct statement of the nature and 
 extent of the existing endowments, the arrangements for serving the 
 chapels, and the disposition of the inhabitants to assist in the work of 
 augmenting the stipends of the curates. At the Rector's request, the 
 Vicar procured from the wardens of the several chapels the necessary 
 details upon these points, and for^varded them to Lambeth. There 
 
THE SANCROFT TRUST. 279 
 
 were seven chapels, of which Balderstone was in ruins, and out of use. 
 Of the six remaining chapels, three, Walton, Samlesbury, and Hanvood, 
 were esteemed to be parochial, and got a small allowance from the Vicar 
 of the parish. In the other four chapels none had been permitted to 
 administer the sacraments, marry, or bury. The curates had been 
 always maintained by the bounty of those that resorted thither, without 
 charge to the Rector or Vicar. It was further represented that " the 
 Vicar of Blackbume aforesaid allows to the curates of all the chapells 
 above-named all the church dues belonging to the said vicar, besides 
 the above-mentioned ;£8 to Law and Samlesbury, though none of the 
 aforesaid chapells do by the Records at Chester appear to be parochiall, 
 but chapels of ease." 
 
 The Rev. Francis Price was at this time Vicar of the Parish, and 
 in addition to the accounts he gave to the Rector which have been 
 mentioned, sometime in the earlier part of the year 1684, Vicar 
 Price wrote to the effect that : — " The Vicar of Blackburn will freely 
 oblige himselfe to pay p^4 yearly to Law Church and ^£4 to Samles- 
 bury ; to remitt the dues for marrying, &c., in the 4 chapells of ease, 
 about ;£s i°s. or sometymes ;£'4 per annum, and to permitt them to 
 sever themselves from the mother Church, and become parochiall." As 
 to the disposition of the parishioners to be united, Mr. Price said : — 
 " The Inhabitants of each Chapelry are not willing to be united to any 
 other, though they may better consider of it hereafter." As to Easter 
 Dues: — "Easter Dues are commonly one year with another ^25 or 
 ;^2 6 per annum. Piggs, geese, &c., as is already given in by Mr. 
 Halsted in the accounts." The under-tenants of the Rectory lands in 
 Blackburn were reported to the Archbishop by the Vicar as in a condition 
 of abject poverty : — "Most of the under-tenants are miserably poore, 
 and the houseing out of repaire, and are distinguished and taken notice 
 of to be Mrs. ffleetwood's tenants from other landlord's houses. If any 
 of her tenants now build, the new houses are often taken from them 
 upon the expiration of their leases, and some before. The last renewing 
 of their leases, the tenant was raised trible in his reserved rent, and 
 double in his fine, the ffarmer pretending that an augmentation of jf 70 
 was given to the Vicar, and no allowance made for it, and therefore 
 the tenants must advance that summe." Soon after the receipt of the 
 Vicar's missive, John Tillison, Esq., the Primate's Comptroller, was 
 sent down to Blackburn to advance the business. 
 
 Mr. Tillison found that down in the Parish of Blackburn the good 
 intent of his right reverend master was being " evil spoken of," and 
 having communicated the current slander to the Archbishojf, received 
 the following letter from Sancroft : — 
 
28o HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. ComtroUer, — To doe well and even for soe doinge to Be evill spoken of, is 
 many times in this world the portion of well-meaninge men. That a suit conceminge 
 Tyth Hay is commenced or threatened by my particular directions (or by any direction 
 at all from me) is a great and foule slander upon mee, whoever is the author (of which, 
 I pray, informe yourself particularly). But that I intend an augmentation of the 
 chapelries to be had out of the purses of the inhabitants is a most malliciouse and 
 unmannerly calumny. God Almighty knows (and better than any man, but my selfe, 
 you know) that what I should receive upon the renewinge of this lease I intended 
 should bee bestowed for the good (the spiritual good) and wellfaire of those inhabitants, 
 and when their heats are over, and their eyes a little cl ear'd to look upon things as 
 they are, I hope they will forgive me this wrong. They may consider, if they please, 
 that wise men will never throw away an opportunity of doeinge themselves good which 
 (for ought they know) will never retume. And sure I am they cannot bee certaine, 
 that the next Archbishop will frankly and unaskt throw a thousand marks into their 
 laps, to be expended entirely for the good of their souls. And that I am prepared and 
 resolved to doe this for them (if they be so jealous and ill-natured as not to believe my 
 words) they may, if they will, soone bring mee to a Reall test, and shame me, if I 
 faile in performance of what I here solemnly declare. But all this under the privitie 
 of my former and most express proviso, — that if they expect I should doe for them 
 what I am noe waies obliged to, they should doe something also for themselves, for 
 both God and man justly abandon those that will not helpe themselves when they may. 
 Had I design'd my owne worldly advantage, I might have spar'd myselfe and you a 
 great deal of care and trouble, and concluded the matter with my tenant without noise 
 and long since have taken the money into my Pockett. But (I thanke God) my 
 charitie to them showed me a more excellent way. And though I am not by them 
 handsomely rewarded for it, yet I know Who it is that accepts intentions and 
 endeavours (if they be reall and sincere) and writes them up in His booke of accompt 
 as actuall performances. But though I can thus satisfy and comfort myselfe, yet I am 
 infinitely unwilling to give over a design in which God may have some glory and men 
 some benefitt, because of a frowardnesse or peevishnesse of those I have to deal with 
 about it There are a sort of men to whom we must do good whether they will or 
 not, and therefore I will give them time to bethinke themselves by houldeinge to the 
 ressoUution I have constantly declared to the Lord Cheney never to Renew the Lease 
 unless it may bee to the advantage of those unendowed chappellries. As for my 
 unwillingness to interpose between my tenant and the under-tenants, which I perceive 
 hath further exposed me to the scourge of tongues, I think I had noe reason to doe it 
 till I was perfectly assured of the true state of the case, which was one occasion of your 
 journey, and accordingly given you in chaise by me ; and if before your retume I find 
 there is just cause of complaint, I conceive it not seasonable for mee to medle with it 
 till I and my tenant goe about the renewinge of the Lease in good earnest, which will 
 not be till the Chappells be in some measure provided for. God Almighty, who hath 
 put into our mind some good desires, so enable us, if it be His will, to bring the same 
 to good effect, the hearty daily prayer of — Your very ob. friend W. Cant. 
 
 Lamb. H., July 5th, 1684. — For my Lo. friend, Mr. John Tillison. — Leave this 
 at the Post House in Preston, Lancashire. 
 
 It is evident from the allusions in the letter that the cause of the 
 local distrust of the projected increase of the parochial chapel endow- 
 ments was the exacting treatment of their tenants by the lessees of the 
 Rectory glebe. After this the Primate proceeded with the necessary 
 
THE SANCROFT TRUST. 281 
 
 formalities for the execution of his intention, and in the Spring of 1685 
 notified Mr. Price, the Vicar, that he "had prepared a declaration of 
 trust for the receipt of one thousand marks [;^666 13s. 4d.] to be applied 
 towards the maintenance of the Chapels in Blackbumshire, according to 
 the directions of a settlement intended." 
 
 On the 24th of March, 1687-8, Sancroft communicated to Vicar 
 Price an outline of the legal arrangements his Grace had made for the 
 completion of the long-pending business. Appended is a copy of the 
 Archbishop's epistle : — 
 
 Sir, — It is more than time that we should finish what we have begun some while 
 since, and finally settle the little provision I have made towards the endowment of the 
 poor chappellries within your Vicarage. But whenever I have gone about it I have 
 found that I could not ftiUy satisfy myself in it, without advising with you about the 
 manner of the settlement, and the particular allotments and proportions in which 'tis 
 to be done, and such other circumstances, in which I would not willingly be mistaken ; 
 for the next Act I doe about it will be for perpetuity, and put it quite out of my hands. 
 A commerce by Letter for debate of these things would be slow and troublesome ; and 
 more might be done with you and I together one day, than in a Month's intercourse 
 the other way. This is therefore in the first place heartily to thank you for the great 
 care and diligence you have us'd hitherto in this Affair ; and in the next place earnestly 
 to desire you not to be weary of well-doing, but as soon as the approaching great 
 Festival is past, to come up hither to me. I have long had this in my mind, as having 
 a great desire to see you. But the Winter was not a proper season for so long a journey. 
 It will now be pleasant travelling ; and London, methinks, should be worth the seeing 
 (especially being so improved and beautified, as it is) once in 20 years. But whatever 
 other Invitations may draw you hither, you are to remember that you came about my 
 business, and therefore that I must, and will, defray the whole expense of your journey. 
 Wherefore taking it for granted, that you will come, I desire you to bring with you the 
 Names of 4 or 5 persons more, fitt to be joined with you in the Trust, for the lawyers 
 advise me, that if I settle it that way, it should not be fewer than seven, because of 
 death and frequent change. Bring also the best directions you can (both of your own, 
 and of your colleagues), in whom, and in what proportion it shall be placed, which 
 together with such particulars as I have received before, will guide me to a final Reso- 
 lution herein. But now that estate being in you 3, and you having by your Declaration 
 of Trust covenanted to convey it as I should direct ; I have caused a good Lawyer 
 here to draw such a Conveyance, which you are to get ingrost there, and seal'd, and 
 executed, and to bring it with you, in exchange for which you shall receive my last, 
 and final Settlement. I have written it [the accompanying Draft of Conveyance] in my . 
 close hand, and with such abbreviations as you will know easily how to decipher, and 
 transcribe, and so deliver it to be ingrost, for the ease and conveniency of carriage. 
 Till I see you, I think nothing else needful to be added, but to wish you a prosperous 
 journey ; and to desire you very kindly to salute Mr. Bradyl and Mr. Osbaldeston, my 
 good Friends, in the Name of, — Your very affectionate Friend, W. Cant. 
 
 Lambh. H., Mar. 24th, 1687. 
 
 The final proceedings in connection with the Sancroft Trust were 
 taken in the Spring of 1688. The following Agreement between Arch- 
 
 36 
 
282 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 bishop Sancroft and Vicar Price is the last of the original documents 
 concerning the donation among the Vicarial MSS. : — 
 
 By Indenture dated 26th May, 4th of James II. [1688], between Archbishop 
 William and Vicar Price. — Whereas the Curates of the several Chapelries of Law 
 Church, Samlesbury Church, Harwood Church, Langho Chapel, Darwen Chapel, 
 Tockholes Chapel, and Balderstone Chapel, have not sufficient maintenance for their 
 subsistence respectively, and whereas the said William, Archbishop, &c., with a pious 
 intent to provide and settle an augmentation of maintenance upon the said Curates 
 respectively, or some of them, in manner hereinafter expressed, hath purchased the 
 several messuages, lands, &c., and by good conveyances in law the same are conveyed 
 unto the said Archbishop and his successors for ever. And it is hereby declared and 
 agreed by the said parties, that the said purchase and conveyance are only upon trust, 
 that the said Archbishop and his successors should without fine demise and lease the 
 same unto the said Francis Price in the manner and fonn set forth. And further that 
 the said Archbishop and his successors for ever shall hold the freehold and inheritance 
 of the said premises in trust and confidence to lease and demise the same in manner 
 aforesaid, and accordingly leases the same unto the said Francis Price for the term of 
 21 years, if the said Francis Price so long continue true and lawful incumbent, upon 
 trust that he the said Francis Price shall from time to time manage, set, and let the 
 premises, and also receive the rents, issues, and profits of the said premises, and shall 
 pay the same, so received, unto and amongst the curates for the time being of the said 
 several Chapelries of Law Church, Samlesbury Church, Harwood Church, Langho 
 Chapel, Darwen Chapel, Tockholes Chapel and Balderstone Chapel, or some of 
 them, for the time being, annually or half-yearly upon the Feasts of the Nativity of 
 our Blessed Lord and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or one of them, 
 unto such of the said curates, and in such shares and proportions as the said Arch- 
 bishops of Canterbury shall from time to time direct and appoint, and for default of 
 such appointment then in such shares and proportions as to the said Francis Price and 
 his successors. Vicars of Blackburn, from time to time seem most just and expedient, 
 with regard as well to the merits as to the necessities of the said several curates 
 respectively. And it shall be lawful for the said Francis Price to deduct and defalk 
 cut of the yearly rents, yearly, the sum of 40s. to his own proper use in satisfaction 
 for his pains and trouble in the execution of the trust aforesaid, and also all other sums 
 of money by him necessarily expended for the charges of the said management, and 
 the said Francis Price shall upon the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord yearly during 
 the said term, and also within six months after the expiration thereof, make a full and 
 perfect account of all the receipts, payments, and transactions whatsoever relating to 
 the said trust, for each and every year, and deliver the said accounts unto the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury for the time being, without any falsity, omission, protraction, or 
 delay. In witness whereof the parties above-named have interchangeably set their 
 hands and seals, the day and year first above written. ' 
 
 I The Thomley estate, purchased by Archbishop Sancroft as a benefaction to the chapels of 
 Blackburn parish, consists of lands in the township of Thomley-cum-Wheatley, in the parish of Chip- 
 ping. These lands are leased by the Rector to the Vicar for the time being, who relets them to the 
 tenant farmers. The estate was originally in one farm-holding, but for more than a century has been 
 divided into two farms. The following list of successive leases will show the rental-value of these 
 lands at different periods. The Rhodes family have farmed part of this land for more tlian a century 
 and a half: — 1707. Lease granted by Vicar Holme to Wm. Rhodes — Rental .£32. 1726. Lease by 
 Vicar Holme to Wm. and James Rhodes, ;^35 per annum for nineteen years. 1746. Lease granted 
 by Vicar WoUin to Wm. and James Rhodes, ;^38 los. per annum. 1767. Leases from Vicar Wollin 
 
THE SANCROFT TRUST. 283 
 
 This Indenture bears date the 4th of May, 1688, and it is worthy 
 of remark that at the very time the negociation for the improvement of 
 the church Hvings in this remote Lancashire parish was being brought 
 to an issue, the prime mover therein, the venerable Sancroft, was engaged 
 in a memorable constitutional struggle with the Crown. On the 2 7th 
 of April, 1688, King James the Second had followed up his Declaration 
 of the previous year by a second Declaration of Indulgence to Roman 
 Catholics and Dissenters. This second Declaration, by an Order dated 
 May 4th, of the same year, was commanded to be read in all Churches 
 of England on two successive Sundays, and the Bishops were bidden to 
 disseminate the Declaration among their clergy for that purpose. Arch- 
 bishop Sancroft and six of the Bishops met and resolved to disobey the 
 Royal order. It was on the 12th of May, 1688, eight days after the 
 date of the Indenture completing Sancroft's benefaction to Blackburn 
 Parish, that the Bishops and others who opposed the arbitrary conduct 
 of James II. met at the Primate's palace at Lambeth. The sittings 
 were continued until the i8th of May, on which day a petition to the 
 King, written by Sancroft himself, declining to distribute the Declaration 
 of Indulgence, was adopted by the conclave, and was presented to the 
 King, who in a rage pronounced it to be " a standard of rebellion." 
 Nevertheless, the seven prelates persisted in their refusal, and were 
 sustained by many of the clergy of London. On the 8th of June, the 
 seven Bishops were cited before the King in Council, and on their 
 continued recalcitrancy were committed to the Tower. This procedure 
 by the King forced on the political crisis that had long been impending. 
 The question soon became a national one, and in a few weeks the 
 revolutionary movement in favour of the Prince of Orange was in full 
 sweep. Singularly, Archbishop Sancroft, though one of the foremost 
 actors in the events that led to the deposition of James II. and the 
 advent of William of Orange, was afterwards among the prelates known 
 as "non-jurors," on account of their refusal to take the oath of alle- 
 giance to William and Mary. For this, Sancroft (with five bishops) was 
 deprived in February, 1690, and ejected from Lambeth in 1691 ; Thomas 
 Tillotson being consecrated Archbishop on Whitsunday of that year. 
 His deprivation so embittered the mind of Sancroft that he became, in 
 his last days, a passionate assailant of the Church of England. He 
 
 to Robert Rhodes, at a rental of jf 29 los. 6d. per annum for 21 years ; and to John White, at a rental 
 of £ig 19s. 6d. per annum for 21 years. 1783. Leases from Vicar Starkie to Robert Rhodes, at a 
 rental of £38 ; and to John White, at a rental of ;C24 per annum ; total rental of the estates, ;C62. 
 1807. Leases from Vicar Starkie to Isaac Rhodes at a rental of £5^ per annum ; and to James White, 
 at a rental of £36 per annum ; — total rental ;^88. 1814. Leases from Vicar Starkie to Isaac Rhodes, 
 at a rental of jC&s P^^ annum ; and to William Woods, at a rental of £60 per annum ; total rental in 
 1814. £145. 
 
a84 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 lived some years after his ejection on his estate at Fressingfield, Co. 
 Suffolk. 
 
 A subsequent benefaction out of the Rectory property to the "poor 
 curates " of Blackburn Parish, amounting to the sum of ;;f 14 per annum, 
 was renewed by Archbishop Tenison in 1706. This was obtained 
 through the undertaking of Mrs. Sarah Fleetwood, on her receipt of a 
 lease of the Rectory Glebe, in 1689, to pay that additional sum of ;^i4 
 annually. Below is cited the legal instrument investing the Vicar for 
 the time being with power to receive, as trustee for the recipients, 
 the curates of the seven chapels : — 
 
 Know all men by these presents that we, Thomas, by Divine Providence Lord 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, have and do hereby constitute, nominate, and appoint our 
 well-beloved John Holme, Clark and Vicar of the Parish Church of Blackbome, in 
 the County of Lancaster, our true and lawfuU Attorney for Us and in our Name to ask, 
 demand, and receive the full and just sum of Fourteen Pounds per annum, on the 
 Feasts of St. Michaell the Archangell and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary, by even and equal portions, of and from our now Lessee, Mrs. Sarah Fleet- 
 woode, Widdow, being Farmeress by Lease from us of the Impropriate Rectory of 
 Blackbome aforesaid, and of her Executors and Assigns. Which said Fourteen 
 Pounds was a new augmentation made and confirmed in the year of our Lord 1688-9 
 by Mrs. Cordelia Fleetwoode, then the Farmeress of the Rectory aforesaid, and she 
 confirmed it by givin g a covenant in her said Lease in pure charity for the use and 
 benefitt of the poor curates of the severall chappells belonging to the said Vicarage of 
 Blackbome. And also giving and granting to my said Attorney upon the receipt of 
 the said sums, full power and authority to dispose of them to those curates in such 
 proportions as Mr. Francis Price, late Vicar of Blackbome, did pay the same. Or 
 according as he, my said Attorney, shall in his owne judgment think fitt and reason- 
 able, with regard to the deserts and merits of the said curates. Provided always that 
 my said Attorney shall at the end of every year give an account to us or oure successors 
 in writing how he has disposed of the said Fourteen Pounds, that he may receive from 
 us or them directions for the future payment of it to the said curates. — Given at our 
 Palace at Lambeth, the seventh day of May, A. D. 1 706, and in the Fifth Year of the 
 Reign of our Sovereign Lady Queen Anne, &c. — Tho. [Seal] Cantuar. — Signed 
 and sealed in the presence of Lem. Bradley, Will. Lovejoy. 
 
 The Feildens succeeded the Fleetwoods as lessees of the Rectory 
 Glebe, and in 1758 Joseph Feilden is named in one of the Vicar's 
 receipts as "one of the farmers of the Rectory of Blackburn." Successive 
 leases of these lands were granted to Henry Feilden, son of Joseph, 
 and to his son, the late Joseph Feilden, Esq. A large portion of the 
 Rectory Glebe was sold in the last century to Henry and Johil Feilden. 
 In 1853, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners assumed control of the 
 Rectorial estates. The lands in Blackburn vested in the Ecclesiastical 
 Commissioners comprised two separate estates, known as the Audley 
 and Brookhouse estates. In 1856 the Audley Estate consisted of the 
 following tenancies : — Audley Hall Farm, of 184 acres and 25 perches ; 
 
THE RECTORIAL GLEBE. 285 
 
 Audley Higher Bam, of 34 acres and 24 perches ; Fish Field and Five 
 Acres, of 18 acres, 2 roods, 39 perches; Great and Little Maudsley, of 
 
 15 acres, 2 roods, 3 perches; Long Meadow, i acre, 33 perches; New 
 Hey and Little Meadow, 3 acres, 3 roods, 30 perches; Nearer and 
 Further Dam Hey (Cicely Hole), 6 acres, 2 roods, 30 perches ; 
 Smalding's Farm, 24 acres, 2 roods, 35 perches ; Snape Fields and 
 Higher Walks, 7 acres i rood, rg perches; Three Lawnds, 16 acres, 
 2 roods, 9 perches ; Town Green, 3 acres, 2 roods, 28 perches ; 
 occupation road from Grimshaw Park to Smalding's Cottage, 2 roods, 
 
 16 perches. The total extent of Audley Estate, the remnant of the 
 ancient Rectorial demesne, is 317 acres, i rood, 11 perches. Since 
 1856, some plots of the estate have been sold; and the residue has 
 been laid out and leased for building purposes. Since its enfranchise- 
 ment, a new town has risen upon the estate, and its rental value has 
 increased incalculably. The Brookhouse Estate is situate on the north 
 side of the Blakewater at Brookhouse, and extends to the farm of 
 Lower Ousebooth in one direction and to the Hole i'th Wall, Shire 
 Brow, in another. It consisted, in 1856, of two tenancies, of a total 
 area of 78 acres, i rood, 23 perches. The estate has since been further 
 curtailed by the sale of considerable parcels to Mr. Hornby and Mr. 
 Ward. The aggregate annual revenue of all the Rectory property in 
 lands, leases, and ground rents must now amount to many thousands of 
 pounds. 
 
 The mansion of the Rectory was the Hall of Hauldley or Hawdley, 
 now spelled Audley, standing in a hollow near a srriall rivulet between 
 the hill of Higher Audley and Whinny Heights, on the south-east side 
 of the town. In 16 16, the old Hall at Audley is described as being 
 built of stone, timber, and brick ; situate half a mile from the town, 
 and surrounded by lands known as Haudley Demesne, containing by 
 measurement 143 acres and 10 perches. Before the appropriation of 
 the Rectory, and under the control of the Abbots of Whalley, a Sister- 
 hood of Benedictine Nuns is said by Whittle' to have been housed in 
 Audley Hall ; but I have met with no memorials of the existence of 
 such a sisterhood. Audley Hall is now, although partially inhabited 
 by the farmer, in a state of utter dilapidation. Most of the buildings 
 have fallen or been taken down, and in what still stands every feature 
 of architecture has been effaced. There are remains of large mullioned 
 and transomed windows in the north-western end of the building. The 
 external walls are of stone and brick intermixed. Anciently the house 
 is said to have been approached by an avenue of trees, but the land 
 about is now bare of timber. 
 
 1 Blackburn as it Is, p. 336. 
 
286 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 ANNALS OF THE VICARAGE. 
 
 The history of the Vicarial benefice of Blackburn during its subjec- 
 tion to Whalley Monastery is marked by few recorded events of moment. 
 In the Abbey Chartulary, the names of two or three Vicars of Blackburn 
 Church occur. John de Habyndon, Vicar before 1289, and William 
 de Lenche, his successor, have before been mentioned. To Adam de 
 Walboncke (Vicar next in order to William de Lenche), succeeded John 
 de Gristhwayth, before the year 1333, when he, as Vicar of Blackburn 
 Church, receives of William Russel of Magna Harwood his land situated 
 within Snodworth field in Billington. The same Vicar acquired other 
 lands in Billington in 1338; and, in 1340 Vicar Gristhwayth conveyed 
 these lands to the Abbot and Monks of Whalley. This Vicar again, in 
 1342, with John de Topclif, Vicar of Whalley, had possession of lands 
 in Burnley from John de Brunley, which the two Vicars jointly conveyed 
 to the Monastery in 1343. John de Gristhwayth occurs later as Vicar in 
 1356, and he probably died about 1362. 
 
 John de Lyndelay, instituted Vicar of Blackburn October 15th, 1362, 
 was the learned and industrious fifth Abbot of Whalley, who transcribed 
 into a Coucher Book all the title deeds of his Monastery. He died 
 about 1378 and was succeeded as Vicar of Blackburn by William de 
 Wetherby, whose vicariate probably extended from 1378 until 14 19. 
 
 Galfridus [Geoffrey] Banastre, the next Vicar known, instituted Jime 
 3rd, 6th Henry V. (1419), will again appear in this History as founder 
 of a Chantry in Blackburn Church, in the year 1453. He died in 1457, 
 and the next Vicar found is Robert Salley, a Monk of Whalley, who 
 occurs in 1480, and died in 1489, when another Monk of the same 
 family, Henry Salley, was instituted, December i6th, 1489. He had a 
 lengthened tenure of the benefice ; for he is returned as Vicar in the 
 Valor of 1534, forty-four years after his institution. If still alive in 1537, 
 Vicar Henry Salley would suffer dispossession in the suppression of the 
 Monastery to which he was attached in that year, the Vicar of Black- 
 bum being implicated in the rebellious rising of Abbot Paslew by 
 documents discovered in the Vicar's house. 
 
 Ralph Lynney, installed as Vicar about 1537, is before described 
 in 1534 as receiver of the Rectory of Blackburn. He was witness to 
 the Will of John Talbot of Salesbury in 1552, and resigned upon a 
 pension before 1554. His successor, James Hargreaves, presented 
 by Philip and Mary, instituted October 24th, 1555, was deprived soon 
 after the accession of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth for " papistry," 
 and was yet in the district and reported for an obstinate recusant 
 (Roman Catholic) in 1575. 
 
ANNALS OF BLACKBURN VICARAGE. . 287 
 
 John Hylton, presented to the Vicarage March 20th, 1561, may be 
 regarded as the first Protestant Vicar of Blackburn Church. Vicar 
 Hylton was in 1567 nominated a first Governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School by the Charter of Queen Elizabeth. By him the Vicarage House 
 was probably re-edified about 1579. This Vicar resigned in 1580, and 
 died in 1582. The Will of John Hulton, clerk, late Vicar of Blackburn, 
 is dated May 15th, 24th Eliz. (1582). Testator desires to be buried in 
 the churchyard of Blackburn. 
 
 Edward Welche was instituted to the Vicarage October ist, 1580, 
 and held the benefice until 1606, when he was deprived for his refusal 
 to wear the surplice, and retired to a small property called Walsh Fold, 
 in Over Darwen, where he died in 1627. He had a son Thomas Welche, 
 Parish Clerk of Blackburn, who had a son Edward, bom in 1625. 
 
 John Morres, instituted February 23rd, 1606, by the Primate, was 
 next Vicar. It was he to whom, as Vicar, in 161 8, a portion of Waste 
 land in the township was allotted on account of his Glebe. " Mr. John 
 Morres, Vicar," was buried at Blackburn Church, May 23rd, 1628. 
 
 Adam Bolton, instituted June 20th, 1628, was a native of Black- 
 bum, and has been noticed in the sketch of his family (Bolton of 
 Brookhouse). Vicar Bolton was regularly appointed by Archbishop 
 Abbot; but on the establishment of the Presbytery in 1646, he retained 
 the Vicarage and accepted nomination on the third classis of the 
 Lancashire Presbytery. He died towards the end of 1646. 
 
 Leonard Clayton was chosen Vicar by the process of popular elec- 
 tion in 1647, during the Civil War distraction. In the Parish Register 
 is entered : — "On Sunday, the 4th of July, 1647, Mr. Leonard Clayton, 
 Mr. of Artes of St. Mary Hall in Oxford, tooke possession of the 
 Vicaridge of Blackbume. The said Leo: Clayton is sone of Gyles 
 Clayton of Little Hanvoode." This Vicar has made also an entry in 
 the Register opposite the record of his o^vn baptism as follows : — 
 "Leonard sonne of Gyles Clayton," bapt. May 26th, 1616. [Added] — 
 " Of Little Harwood, now Vicar of this Church. The said Leonard 
 Clayton was inducted into the Vicaridge of Blackbume, in the year 1647, 
 and was allso presented and inducted into the Parsonage of Stockport, 
 in Cheshier, in the yeare 1674, and is yet possessor of both this present 
 yeare 1676." Upon an application for an increase to this benefice, 
 made to the Committee of Plundered Ministers in 1649, the order is 
 recorded upon the Minutes of that Committee in these terms : — "Black- 
 burn. Of large extent, and 4000 Communicants, and that in regard of the 
 greatness of the charge, the smallness of the means there, and the vicarage 
 thereof being worth but jT^io a year, no minister would accept thereof. 
 ;^5o a year to be paid to Mr. Leonard Clayton, present minister, to be 
 
288 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 taken out of the Rectory of Bolton."' The record mentions a sum of ;^75 
 6s. 8d. set apart by the late Bishop of Chester for this vicarage. The 
 Committee appointed by Parliament for Sale of Bishops' Lands surveyed 
 the Rectory and Vicarage of Blackburn the same year (1649), a^nd as to 
 the Vicarage the surveyors reported : — 
 
 Mr. Leonard Clayton, the present Vicar of Blackbome, is an able and paynefuU 
 Divine, approved of by the Assembly of Divines, and placed there by the Committee 
 of Plundered Ministers, who have ordered him an augmentation of Fifty Pounds per 
 annum out of the Rectory of Boulton in Lonsdale, in the County of Lancaster, 
 sequestered from Sir Henry Compton, Knight of the Bath, Lessee under the late 
 Bishop of Chester for three lives, and upon the said Sir Henry's composition the 
 Councill at Goldsmith's Hall bought his terme then to come in the said Rectory. The 
 Vicar's Glebe of antient enclosure in Blackbome lies near the Town, and is accompted 
 to be 50 acres, besides 20 acres of new enclosure at Blakenmore and Refidge Moor. 
 The antient enclosure hath two houses and a bam upon it in the field. The Vicar's 
 best old glebe, per annum, ;^20 ; the Vicar's antient rough ground by the demesne, 
 per annum, ;^io ; New enclosures of 20 acres, per annum, j£^. [Then follow the 
 allowance out of the Bishop's Rent Dues, &c. ] There are also certain houses that are 
 parcel of the Glebe belonging to the Vicaridge of Blackbome, in the occupation of 
 the several Tenants hereunder mentioned : —John Sharpies holdeth one house with 
 appurtenances, and payeth rent per annum 6s. 8d. ; but it is worth upon rack £4. 
 John Marsden holdeth two houses with appurtenances, and payeth rent 4s. ; is worth 
 upon rack £6 ; Thomas Welch, clerk, holdeth one house, and payeth rent 2s. , worth 
 upon rack ^2 ; Jane Morris holdeth one fair house by the School, and payeth rent 
 IS. 8d., worth upon rack £1 13s. 4d. ; George Shaw holdeth a good house by it, and 
 payeth rent is.; Alice Edge, widow, at Toalbridge End, holdeth one croft, and 
 payeth rent 2s. 6d. ; Richard Pomfret holdeth one house, and payeth rent 3d. ; Robert 
 Ashton holdeth one house, and payeth rent 5d.; George Simpson holdeth one 
 house, and payeth rent 4d. ; John Cowper holdeth one house, and payeth rent 2d. ; 
 Widow Cunliffe holdeth one house, and payeth rent 6d. ; Robert CoUinson holdeth 
 one house, and payeth rent 4d. ; Nathaniel Feilden holdeth one house, and payeth 
 rent 6d. ; Maria, wife of Peter Lodge, holdeth one house, and payeth is., worth 
 rack^i 13s. 4d.; Nathaniel Feilden holdeth one house, and payeth rent 4d.; William 
 Hayhurst holdeth one messuage, and payeth rent 6d. ; Thomas Verwi holdeth one 
 house, and payeth rent6d. ; John Jackson holdeth one house, and payeth rent Is.; 
 Thomas Astley holdeth one house, and payeth rent 5s. ; John Siddall holdeth one 
 house, and payeth rent 5s. ; Richard Siddall holdeth one house, and payeth rent 7s. ; 
 Christopher Duckworth holdeth one house, and payeth rent 5s. ; Lawrence Whalley 
 holdeth one house, and payeth rent 2s. ; John Astley holdeth one house, and payeth 
 rent 3s.; Edward Walmesley holdeth one house, and payeth rent 6d. Total of 
 present rent, £2 17s. lod. All the last mentioned houses belonging to the Vicar, 
 upon which we have set no improvement, we value every house to be worth per 
 annum los., in total ^^9 los. 
 
 A second order of the Committee of Plundered Ministers respecting 
 this Vicarage, dated February 14th, 1650, describes Blackburn as a 
 Parish containing a market town and ten villages, and a place of great 
 
 I Plund. Ministers, Bodl. MSS., p. 169 ; extracted for this history by Mr. J. E. Bailey. 
 
PETITION FOR VICAR CLAYTON. 289 
 
 resort, ^^o ordered for it from the "impropriate Rectory of Pulton in 
 the ffeild, sequestered from Sir Thos. Tilsley, Delinquent," and out of the 
 tithes of Melling " for the maintenance of a weekly lecture in the said 
 Church of Blackburn;" and it is further ordered that Mr. "Michael 
 Briscoe, a godly minister, be appointed to preach the said lecture."' 
 
 Vicar Clayton had no difficulty in adapting himself to altered 
 circumstances after the restoration of Prelacy in the Church of England. 
 In 1660, the Parishioners are found humbly but hopefully petitioning 
 the King to give the Vicar elected by the Parish in 1647 a legal title, 
 with an augmentation of the living. The Petitioners were careful to 
 profess penitence for past political errors, and to declare their revived 
 attachment to the Stuart dynasty, a change of sentiment they attributed 
 to the judicious preaching of their Vicar. The Petition is printed 
 below : — 
 
 To our dread soveraigne and mighty monarch Charles the Second, by the grace 
 of God 0/ England, Scotland, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c. 
 — The Petition of the Inhabitants of the Parishe of Blackbume, in the County of 
 Lancaster. (.Subscribed August the 24th, 1660.) Humbly sheweth : — i. That the 
 Inhabitants of the Parishe of Blackbume did, in the yeare of our Lord God one 
 thousand six hundred ffortie and seaven, unanimously without the opposition of one 
 man elect and chuse Mr. Leonard Clayton, Master of Arts of St. Marie Hall in 
 Oxford, to be oure Vicar, the place being vacant by the death of the former incum- 
 bent. 2. That the said Mr. Clayton, upon the signification of our election, procured 
 an order for the place, from the Committee of Plundered Ministers, bearinge date May 
 the 2lst, 1647, without which (as the tymes then were) he would not have staled with 
 us or enjoyed the proffits of the place. 3. That the said Mr. Clayton is a man of able 
 parts for the work of the ministerie, is verie industrious and paynfull in his callinge, 
 and pious in his conversation, as also one that is faithffull, and hath testified good 
 affection to your sacred Majestic, and hath contynewed to discharge his conscience, 
 and to speak the truth boldly, whereby many of the Inhabitants of our Parish have 
 been convinced of their former miscarriages in the late warres, for which they have 
 begged pardon of the most high God, and now begge the like of your most sacred 
 Majestic. 4. That the tythe and glebe of Blackbume Parishe is impropriate to the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, the Vicaridge endowed with some Glebe Lands to the 
 qaantitie of thirtie pounds per annum, as also 40 marks in money, due out of the 
 parsonage, out of which 40 marks our said Vicar payeth (as also did his predecessors) 
 the summe of eight pounds per annum to the ministers of two of our chappels in the 
 said Parishe, there being also in the same parishe 5 other chappells which have no 
 means at all appertaininge to them. 5. That the glebe and tythe of the impropriate 
 Rectorie of Blackbume was farmed and leased out by the Bishop of Canterbury to Miss 
 Mariana ffleetwood, which said lease expires in or about May next. — The premisses 
 considered, your petitioners and liege people of the said parish humbly beseech your 
 sacred Majestic to give our said minister, Mr. Clayton, a more legall title to the place, 
 and likewise to grant him and his successors such an augmentation of revenues out of 
 the proffitts of the Impropriate Rectorie as may make a competent and comfortable 
 
 I Bodl. MSS., Plund. Ministers. Mr. Michael Briscoe was later minister of Walmsley Chapel, 
 and a Nonconformist after 16612. 
 
 37 
 
290 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 subsistence, accordinge to his deserts and the greatness of the congregation. And this 
 wee are the more engaged to begge of your royal Majestie because the said Mr. Clayton 
 hath severall tymes had invitations to places of farr greater value, and yet hath refused 
 them, being more willing to stay with us. And your petitioners doe yet further 
 humbly desire that your Majestie, having settled a competency uppon our Parishe 
 Church (where there is a great congregation, the towne being a market towne, and 
 many villages adjacent verie populous, the inhabitants of all which resort to the same 
 church), you would be pleased alsoe to take order that something out of the profiitts 
 of the said Rectorie might be allowed to the severall chappells in the parishe, there 
 beinge seven of them in number. And that it would likewise please your sacred 
 Majestie to order that your said petitioners and faithfuU subjects, or some of the 
 cheiffe of them in behalf of the rest, may be farmers of the tythes of our Parish, that 
 soe they might not be leased out to strangers, wee beinge willinge to give for them a 
 valuable consideration to the right owner of them. And your petitioners will ever 
 pray, &c. [Signed by the following Inhabitants of the Parish.] 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, 
 John Clayton, 
 John Harwood, 
 Thurstan Maudsley, 
 Edward Boulton, 
 Richard Wilkinson, 
 John Abbott, 
 Lawrence Ainsworth, 
 Thomas Gerston, 
 Roger ffoster, 
 Randle Cooke, 
 William Browne, 
 Robert Holden, 
 William Haydock, 
 Thomas Aspinall, 
 James Whalley, 
 Thomas ffishe, 
 Edward Smalley, 
 George Ainsworth, 
 Ellis Edge, 
 John Crosse, 
 Thomas Whalley, 
 Lawrence Ainsworth, 
 Roger Gillibrand, 
 Robert Dewhurst, 
 
 Thomas Clayton, 
 Lawrence Walmsley, 
 John Gillibrand, 
 William Sudall, 
 Richard Lawe, 
 Thomas Harwood, 
 Henry Clayton, 
 Thomas Pickeringe, 
 John Peele, 
 William Marsden, 
 Walter Haworth, 
 William Duhurst, 
 William Ward, 
 Ralph Lyvesey, 
 James Walmesley, 
 William Marsden, 
 William Walmsley, 
 R. Harwood, 
 Michaell Harwood, 
 John Edge, 
 John Edge, 
 Robert Osbaldeston, 
 Thomas Abbott, 
 John Clayton, 
 Thomas Tomlinson, 
 
 William Shorrock, 
 John Sudall, 
 Thomas Clayton, 
 Myles Lawe, 
 Lawrence Whalley, 
 Richard Marsden, 
 James Cunliffe, 
 Richard Livesey, 
 John Sharpies, 
 James Whalley, 
 Thomas Aspinall, 
 Richard Dewhurst, 
 Matthew Walkden, 
 Thomas Cook, 
 Oliver Whalley, 
 Richard Ainsworth, 
 Richard Isherwood, 
 Thomas Cooke, 
 Gyles Edge, 
 William Pickeringe, 
 Richard Ainsworth, 
 John ffishe, 
 John Baron, 
 Edmund Calvert. 
 
 Vicar Clayton himself petitioned the Primate some weeks later, 
 as follows : — 
 
 To the Right Reverend Father in God John, by Divine providence Lord Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury his Grace. The humble petition of Leonard Clayton, Minister 
 of the Gospel], in Blackbume, in Lancashire, September 12th, 1660. Sheweth, — I. 
 That the Vicaridge of Blackbume was endowed with some Lands to the value of Thirty 
 Pounds, as also with forty markes in money due out of the Rectory of Blackbume, as 
 appears by ap order bearing date May the 14th, A.D. 1277. 2. That the said Leonard 
 Clayton was chosen by the inhabitants of the Parish of Blackbume to bee their minister, 
 
VICARAGE HOUSE AND GLEBE IN 1663. 291 
 
 and thereupon had an order for the place from the Committee of Plundered Ministers, 
 bearing date May the 21st, 1647. The place being vacant by the death of the former 
 Incumbent. 3. That the Rectory of Blackburne is impropriate to the See of Canter- 
 bury, and was leased out by the late Bishop of Canterbury to Mrs. Mariana ffleetwood, 
 which said lease expires in or about May next. 4. That the said Leonard Clayton 
 payeth to the minister of the parochiall chapell of Walton the yearly summe of 4 
 pounds, as allso the like summe to the minister of the parochiall chappell of Samles- 
 bury, both in the said Parish, and yet there are 5 other chappells in the same parish 
 which have no meanes at all appertaineing to them. The premisses considered. Your 
 petitioner humbly beseecheth your Grace to grant, and by law to settle uppon your 
 petitioner and his successors for ever, such a competent and comfortable subsistence out 
 of the profits of the said Rectory as may be an encouragement for able, orthodoxe, and 
 godly men to accept of the Vicaridge, the parish being very large, the Towne a Market 
 Towne, and the congregation very great. And that your Grace would likewise be 
 pleased to grant something out of the profits of the said Rectory to the severall 
 chappells therein, there being seven of them in number. And your petitioner will ever 
 pray, &c. 
 
 It was in response to these applications by Vicar and Parishioners 
 that Archbishop Juxon granted, in 1662, the augmentation of ^^70 a-year 
 to the Vicar's stipend out of the Rectory rents, as previously recorded. 
 
 Particulars of the Vicarage house and glebe appear in the following 
 copy of a Terrier remaining in the Registry at Chester, made in the year 
 1663 :— 
 
 There belongeth to the Vicaridge of Blackburn in Lancashire one large ancient 
 house consisting of eight bays of building. There is also two Barnes, the one consisting 
 of four large bays, the other consisting of four little bays. There also belongeth to 
 the Vicaridge of Blackburn aforesaid certain closes of ground, some of which are in 
 the possession of the Vicar yearly ; other some have ever been in the possession of 
 tenants. The grounds which are in the Vicar's possession lye in two Places ; — some 
 of this ground lyeth close to the Town, to witt, five Closes, one called Lower Alleys, 
 containing by estimation about two acres ; another called Upper Alleys, about two 
 acres ; another called Syke, about four acres and a halfe ; another called Larkehill, 
 about five acres ; and another called Clay Pitts, about four acres. All these bound 
 upon the easte and south upon the demesne belonging to the Rectorie, and north and 
 west to divers closes belonging to the tenants of the Lord Fawlkenbridge and some 
 cottage Croffts belonging to the glebe of the Rectorie. The other Grounds, which are 
 yearly in the Vicar's possession, lye half a mile distant from the town, commonly 
 called the Vicar's Heys, divided into five closes. Two of those called the Nearer 
 Heys, both are about eight acres. The other four called the Further Heys, being in 
 quantity about tenn acres. All these grounds last mentioned are bounded south, east, 
 and west upon the demesne belonging to the Rectorie, and upon the north upon the 
 highe Rode. There are dyvers Cottage Houses upon the Vicar's Glebe which have 
 noe ground belonging to them save backsydes and gardens, for the which the Vicar 
 hath a small accustomed Rent. There are also about thirty acres of Land in the 
 possession of dyvers tenants, for the which the Vicar hath an accustomed rent. — Oct. 
 13th, 1663, — We the Churchwardens of Blackburn whose names are subscribed doe 
 deliver in this Account by the Information of Mr. Leonard Clayton, Vicar of the same. 
 Thomas Lound, John Boulton, Churchwardens. 
 
292 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 After more than thirty years tenure of this benefice, Vicar Clayton 
 died in 1677. The Will of Leonard Clayton, Vicar of Blackburn, is 
 dated October 9th, 1677. Testator refers to an estate he had in Little 
 Harwood, and names his wife Mary, brother Thomas, and daughters 
 Elizabeth (then dead) and Katherine Warren.' Gives a sum to be 
 dispensed as a twopenny dole to the poor of the parish. The Blackburn 
 Burial Register records : — " Mr. Leonard Clayton, Vicker of Blackburne," 
 buried October 20th, 1677. The Revd. Nicholas Peele, then Curate of 
 Blackburn, preached the funeral sermon for his Vicar. 
 
 Revd. Francis Price, M.A., was instituted to the Vicarage of Black- 
 bum Dec. 5th, 1677. One of the first acts of the new Vicar was to 
 raise a fund for the re-edification of the Vicarage House, which had fallen 
 out of repair. The Vicarage then standing had been partially re-built 
 about a century before ; for on the removal of the house built in 1679, 
 in August, 1826, fragments of the older structure were found, among 
 them a stone that had formed a door-lintel, inscribed with the date 
 " 1579/' put 'n> rio doubt, at the time of the prior renovation. The site 
 of the manse of 1679, as of the older domicile, was in the churchyard, on 
 the south side of the Church. The subjoined certificate of the comple- 
 tion of the new House was sent to the Bishop in 1680 : — 
 
 New Vicarage House, 1680. — To the right reverend Father in God, John, by 
 divine permission Lord Bishop of Chester, — Wee whose names are subscribed, 
 Inhabitants of, and Neighbours to, the Parish of Blackburne, in the County of Lan- 
 caster and Diocese of Chester, due reverence and obedience. We humbly certifye 
 your Lordship that the late Vicarage House, since the institution of Francis Price, 
 Master of Arts, our present Vicar there, was soe ruinous, infirme, and decayed, in the 
 roofe, walls, ffloors, and other parts of it, that it was become uninhabitable, and very 
 dangerous to dwell in. That in the place thereof there is now erected a very goodly, 
 strong, and sufficient ffabrick of very durable stone, well built, of a capacity (as wee 
 conceive) very competent to the said Vicarage, and very commodiously contrived for 
 residence and keeping of house there. In witness whereof we have hereto subscribed 
 our Names, this — day of , anno domini 1680. Attested by 
 
 Jo. Warren, Esq. Ralph Livesay, Esq. Will. Yates, gentleman. 
 
 Joh. Braddyll, Esq. Will. Bury. Edw. Warren, Esq. 
 
 Stephen Gey, Vicar of Rich. Haworth. Alex. Nowell, Esq. 
 
 Whalley. George Rishton. Richard Astley, Esq. 
 
 Oswald Mosley, Esq. James Bolton, gentleman. Joseph Yates, Esq. 
 
 Henry Walmsley, Gierke. James Haworth. John Adshead. 
 
 Edward Osbaldeston, Esq. Edward Smaley. William Pickeringe. 
 
 Henry Banestre, Gierke. James Crosse. 
 Edward Calvert, Th. Broughton, Th. Craven, Robert Peele, Churchwardens. 
 John Oddy, schoolmaster. Tho. Walmsley, Usher. 
 
 The chief event in the vicariate of Mr. Price was the measures he 
 found it requisite to take, in the years 1687-8, for preventing the detach- 
 
 I Further notice of Vicar Clayton's family will be inserted under Little Harwood township. 
 
RENTAL OF THE VICAR'S TENANTS. 
 
 293 
 
 ment from the Parish Church of the Chapels-of-ease of Langho and Over 
 Danven, the first of which had been appropriated by Mr. Wahnesley, 
 lord of Billington manor, for use as a Roman CathoHc Chapel, and the 
 second had been used by the Nonconforming inhabitants of Over 
 Darwen for a place of worship, on James the Second's Declaration of 
 Indulgence. The Vicar of Blackburn succeeded in recovering both the 
 chapels to the Church of England, by proceedings which will be recorded 
 in the history of the chapelries. Vicar Price died in 1705-6 : — "Francis 
 Price, Revd. Vicar of Blackburn, departed this mortall life the 14 day 
 of March, and was buried the 19 of the same month." 
 
 The Revd. John Holme was presented to the Vicarage of Blackburn 
 in 1706; instituted April 30th. Dated 1706, is an "Account of Fences 
 belonging to the Vicar of Blackburn, as given to Vicar Holme, May 
 1 8th, 1706, by John Isherwood, servant to the late Vicar, in the presence 
 of Mr. Johnson, steward to Mrs. Fleetwood, who measured the same." 
 The glebe plots named in the paper are Lower Allows, Upper Allows, 
 Sike, Clay Pitts, Lower Larkhills, Upper Larkhills, Heys, Moss, and 
 Linna Field. Some ten years after the appointment of Vicar Holme, in 
 1706, the subjoined list of the Vicar's customary tenants in Blackburn, 
 who held tenements and gardens on his glebe at nominal rentals, was 
 drawn up :— 
 
 A RENTALL BELONGING TO THE VICARIDGE OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Yearly Rent. Yearly Value. 
 ^ s. d. C s. d. 
 
 Mr. John Sharpies, 2 houses, I bam, I stable, two gardens -072-800 
 Mrs. Emma Yates, i house, i stable - - -020-5°° 
 
 Matthew .Smith and Matthew Ainsworth, 2 houses, i bam -020-400 
 John Edge, i house, I garden - - - -020-2 JO o 
 
 Richard Whitehead, i house - - - -010-3 10 o 
 
 Nicholas Holker, i house - - - - -008-360 
 
 Mr. Robert Sharpies and Mary his wife, I house, I garden -004-100 
 Hugh Shorrock, 2 houses, i bam, and I garden - -026-5 10 o 
 
 Hen. Ward, i house bought of William Peel and another of 
 
 Lawyer Yates, I bam and i garden 
 Robert Ashton, I house and I garden 
 
 ,, ,, I house and I garden 
 
 ,, ,, I house - ' - 
 
 ,, ,, I house 
 
 ,, ,, I yarn croft - 
 
 John Ashton, l house and I garden - 
 »t ,» 1 bam . . - 
 
 Thomas Watson, i house and 1 croft 
 
 Jane Edge, i house and halfe of another house - -002 
 
 Mr. Peter Edge, halfe of one house and halfe of another house 002 
 
 006-200 
 o o 3 - o 10 o 
 003 - o 10 o 
 002-300 
 002 - o 10 o 
 006-050 
 007 - o 16 o 
 004-050 
 o o 7i - 3 10 o 
 
 4j 44 
 
294 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
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 Brought forward ..... 
 Mr. Peter Edge, 2 houses'and ground lying at Fura Gate 
 Richard Ward, I house ..... 
 
 „ ,, I yam croft - - - - . - 
 
 Roger Walmsley, I house, I yarn croft 
 
 Ralph Holme, I house and croft . . -• . 
 
 Richard Sharpies, i house . . . - - 
 
 Mr. James Burton, I house ..... 
 Thomas Massey, I house ..... 
 
 Jane Sagar, i house -....- 
 Henry Hayhurst, i house ..... 
 Grace Pollard (alias Bame), I house 6d., and 1 garden 3d. - 
 ThomasAbbott, I house, ibam, and some groundatLinneygate 
 Thomas Sudal, 12 acres of the last enclosed common - 
 John Tomlison, i house and 5 acres of the last enclosed common 
 Thomas Sharpies, 3 acres of the last enclosed common 
 Mr. Randal Feilden, 2 acres of the last enclosed common 
 Thomas Dale, i house 2d., and I house 6d. - 
 James Wittingham, junior, I house - - . - 
 
 Edward Osbaldeston and Henry his brother, 2 houses and garden o 
 James Cunliff, i house .... 
 
 Henry Penington, I house and I garden and a bam - 
 
 In all - - ;,£'2 18 o ;rf64 o o 
 
 Bishop Gastrell, when compiling his Notitia Cesiriensis, noted these 
 matters, inter alia, concerning Blackburn Vicarage, about the year 1 7 1 7 : — 
 The right of choosing the Parish Clerk adjudged to Alexander Osbaldeston, Esq., 
 according to ancient custom, anno 1662. The Vicar names the Curates of all the 
 Chappells. In Balderstone, the inhabitants pretend to pay a prescriptive rent in lieu 
 of all Tyths. [The Vicar's enclosed common lands, 22 acres] are now in possession 
 of 5 tenants, who pay only I2d. an acre per annum to the Vicar, which they call a 
 prescriptive rent ; but 'tis said they have alwayes paid small fines at the death of every 
 Vicar or tenant, and all of them paid the present Vicar fines at his coming in ; but the 
 person to whom 5 acres were leased in May last, refuses to pay any fine to the Vicar, 
 or to give him possession. All the dues the Vicar pretends to in Harwood, Lango, 
 Law, and Samlesbury, are Surplice Fees, and a half-penny for every Communicant, 
 which he allows the Curate to take. Four Wardens and four Assistants. One warden 
 chosen by Ralph Livesey, Esq. ; one by Alexander Osbaldeston, Esq. ; one by John 
 Warren of Dinckley, Esq. ; one by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. William 
 Baldwin, Mr. Henry Feilden, and Mr. William Sudell, gentlemen [lords of Blackburn 
 manor]. Families, 1800 in the whole Parish. Papists, 532, [in the Parish] 1024. 
 Papist Meeting, 3 ; Dissenting Meeting, 3 Presbyterian, Dissenters, 844, Presbyterian. ' 
 
 Vicar Holme married, December loth, 1706, Martha Greenfield of 
 Witton, and had issue, sons, Thomas, bapt. October 5th, 1707 ; John, 
 bapt. March 29th, 1709, buried August 9th, 1710; a second John, 
 bapt. November nth, 1711 ; and Heniy, bapt. April 18th, 1722 ; and 
 daughters, Martha, bapt. June 7th, 1715, married, March 2nd, 1741, 
 
 z Notit. Cestr. (Cheth. Socy. Pub.). Ed. by Raines, v. ii, pt. ii, pp. 274-7. 
 
CASE ON VICAR'S TITLE TO TENEMENTS. 295 
 
 Mr. Richard Cardwell ; Jenny, bapt. April 17th, 171 7, died in 1742 
 ("Miss Jenny Holme of Blackburn," buried November 23rd, 1742); 
 Elizabeth, bapt. May 19th, 1720; and Mary, bapt. March isth, 1723-4. 
 Vicar Holme's eldest surviving son, John, was a clergyman, and resident 
 in Blackburn at the date of his decease. The family tomb of this Vicar 
 in Blackburn churchyard is inscribed with these names :■ — " I. H. [John 
 Holme, infant son of Vicar Holme, died] 17 10. Here lyeth the body 
 of Revd. John Holme, late Vicar of this Church, who died April the 29, 
 1738, aged 63 years. Martha Holme [the Vicar's widow], died June 
 4th, 1757. Revd. John Holme [son], of Blackburn, died i6th of Jan. 
 1776, aged 65." "Henry Holme of Blackburn, gent," younger son of 
 this Vicar, was buried July 15th, 1745. The burial of "the Revd. Mr. 
 John Holme, Vicar of Blackburn," is registered May 5th, 1738. 
 
 The Revd. John Potter was instituted to this Vicarage by his 
 father, Thomas Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury, August 2Sth, 1738. 
 While holding this benefice he buried, Nov. 8th, 1 740, an infant son John, 
 and had another son John, bapt. May 5th, 1 742. Of this Vicar's personal 
 history the following is a short record : — Born 1713 ; entered at Christ 
 Church, Oxford, 1727, took M.A. in 1734; presented to Blackburn 
 Vicarage in 1738 ; to the sinecure living of Elme-cum-Enneth in 1739 ; 
 to the Deaconry of Oxford in 1741 ; later to the livings of Lydde, and 
 Wrotham, in Kent, and to a prebend of Canterbury; finally, was 
 made Dean of Canterbury in 1776. By marrying one of his servants, 
 he so offended his father the Primate, that he left his personal fortune, 
 some ^70,000, to his second son, Thomas, Recorder of Bath. Vicar 
 Potter resigned Blackburn Vicarage in 1742. 
 
 Previous Vicars having been troubled to recover possession of 
 cottages upon the Glebe from occupants who asserted a right to them 
 by prescription. Vicar Potter resolved to bring the question of title to an 
 issue by legal means, and, in 1741, submitted a case to counsel, upon 
 which the following opinion was returned : — 
 
 Upon the state of this case there is ground to apprehend that the Houses, Gardens, 
 and Lands which have all along been called the Vicar's, and for which Rents have 
 been paid to the Vicars of Blackboume for the time being, belong to the Vicar as parts 
 of his Glebe. And in such instances as the present Vicar can prove that fines or 
 acknowledgments have been paid to his predecessors upon the change of Tenants, or 
 that his predecessors have made leases or agreements with persons to hold during their 
 incumbencies, or have altered the tenants and given leave to build or improve, I 
 conceive the present Vicar may recover the possession-at-law in an action of trespass 
 and ejectment ; but if such proof cannot be made, I apprehend the proper method is 
 to exhibit one or more Bills in equity of some of the Tenants for the discovery of their 
 Title, and I think it advisable to begin with such only against whom the best proof 
 can be made, or who are likely to make the most material discoveries by their answers. 
 And I apprehend the fines levyed in this case and a non-claim by the Vicar for five 
 
296 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 years will not bar him if the Lands whereof they were seased appear to be parts of the 
 Glebe, and the tenants have continued to pay their rents after the fines. — Edw. 
 Chetham. — August 5th, 1 74 1. 
 
 Acting upon this advice, Mr. Potter proceeded to file declarations 
 of ejectment against tenants of glebe houses. The Vicar being evidently 
 in earnest, the tenants soon )rielded. In June, 1742, an Indenture was 
 made between John Potter, Vicar, and James Haworth, whitesmith, by 
 which the Vicar granted and let to James Haworth, a certain messuage^ 
 shop, &c., in Salford, Blackburn, in consideration of a rent of ten shil- 
 lings yearly. On May 20th, 1742, William Tomlinson and Henry 
 Tomlinson, two of the Vicar's tenants, surrendered the cottage, bam, 
 and five acres of land they occupied, as belonging of right to the Vicar, 
 who upon this acknowledgment gave the same parties a lease of the 
 premises. At the same time, other tenants acknowledged the Vicar's 
 proprietary right in their holdings. 
 
 John Wollin, M.A., previously Rector of Emley, Co. York, was 
 instituted to Blackburn Vicarage August i6th, 1742, and held this 
 benefice thirty years. By his wife Mary, he had a son John, bapt. at 
 Blackburn Church, October 25th, 1749. Vicar Wollin's receipt in 1758 
 for his stipend from the Rectory estate is copied below: — "Received 
 22nd April, 1758, of Frederick [Cornwallis], Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 by the hands of Mr. John Feilden, one of the Farmers of the Rectory 
 of Blackburn, &c., the sums of ^£'13 6s. 8d. and ^^35, being the first 
 moiety of the yearly augmentation of £to, allowed by the Arch- 
 bishop, &c., and also the sum of ^7, the moiety of the new augmentation 
 of ;^i4 given to the curates by Madame Cordelia Fleetwood, by 
 covenant in a lease granted to her by Dr. W. Sancroft," &c. This 
 Vicar gave before his death in 1772 a sum of ;^io, the interest to be 
 expended in books for the use of the poor of this parish. 
 
 John White, B.A., instituted August 7th, 1772, was, says Whitaker, 
 " brother to the elegant historian of Selbome, and himself an excellent 
 naturalist." He was the son of John White, Esq., of Selbome, Hamp- 
 shire. Vicar White corresponded with his brother Gilbert on matters 
 in natural history, and is named several times in the History of 
 Selborne. Writing of the early appearance of swallows, Gilbert White 
 states that "at Blackburn, in Lancashire, swifts were seen April the i8th," 
 (1774); and when writing on the severity of the winter of 1776, 
 mentions that in January of that year the thermometer " stood at nine- 
 teen at Lyndon, Rutland ; at Blackburn in Lancashire, at nineteen ; 
 and at Manchester, twenty-one, twenty, and eighteen." Gilbert White 
 also " transcribes a ' Natural History of Gibraltar,' written by the 
 Reverend John White, late Vicar of Blackburn, in Lancashire, but not 
 
ACT ON VICAR'S LEASES. 297 
 
 yet published." Mr. White was at Gibraltar in 1770, shortly before his 
 appointment to Blackburn, but in what capacity I am not informed. 
 He died Nov. 2 ist, 1 780, and was buried in Blackburn Church, Nov. 25th. 
 Thomas Starkie, M. A., presented to this benefice in r 780, was a mem- 
 ber of the family of Starkie of Twiston, and eldest son of James Starkie, 
 Esq. He was a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. His eldest 
 son, Thomas Starkie, Esq., Q.C., married Lucy, daughter of Dr. 
 T. D. Whitaker, the antiquary. In the time of Vicar Starkie, an 
 important change was effected with respect to the letting of Vicarial 
 Glebe Lands. Being heretofore precluded from leasing any part of the 
 glebe for lengthened terms, the Vicar had been unable to make the best 
 rental of the estate by parcelling it out as building sites ; and thus the 
 Vicar's land, although situate centrally in the township, remained in 
 pasturage. In 1796, however. Vicar Starkie obtained a special Act of 
 Parliament giving power to make long leases. The value of the Vicarage 
 as then returned was as follows : — 
 
 Glebe in Mr. Starkie's hand, 5 acres, ;if 20 ; Ditto let to Rt. Pickup, 14^ acres, 
 £6:i ; Ditto let to Rd. Veevers, 21 acres, £^j i6s. ; Surplice Fees and Easter Offer- 
 ings, £SS > Pension from the Rectory, ;f88 13s. 4d.; a building let for a warehouse, 
 £■/ 17s. 6d.; Glebe rents, £2 l8s.; Rents of Gardens, ^10; for receiving and distri- 
 buting Thomley Rents, £2 ; total ^(7287 4s. icxi. ; less taxes and repairs ;^I2; net 
 value ^^275 4s. lod. — The Duty so great as to require an Assistant. 
 
 An abstract of the Vicar's Act of 1 796, by which powers were given 
 to grant leases of Glebe lands, may be found useful for reference : — 
 
 Act on Vicar's Leases, 36 Geo. III., 1796. — An Act to enable the Vicar of 
 the Parish of Blackburn, Co. Lancaster, to grant Leases, with power of renewal, of 
 part of the Glebe Lands, belonging to the said Vicarage. Whereas the Reverend 
 Thomas Starkie, M. A. , Vicar of the Parish of Blackburn, in the Diocese of Chester, 
 in right of his said Vicarage, is seized of certain Glebe Lands, containing forty acres 
 and a half, customary measure of the country, part of which is very conveniently 
 situated for building upon, for the use of the Inhabitants of the said Parish, and 
 whereas great benefit would accrue to the Vicarage if power was given for the time 
 being to grant Leases of the said Glebe Lands, for a term of years sufficient to 
 encourage persons to build thereon, and to improve the same, it is enacted that 
 from and after the passing of this Act, it shall be lawful for the Vicar of the Parish 
 of Blackburn, &.C., for the time being, to demise or lease all or any part of the 
 said Glebe Lands (except such parts thereof as are hereinafter excepted) unto 
 any persons who shall be willing to build upon the same, in the manner by such leases 
 respectively to be specified, &c., for any term or number of years not exceeding 999 
 years ; so as in the said leases there be reserved the best and most improved ground 
 rents that can be had for the benefit of the said Vicar and his successors without taking 
 fine or foregift, and so as the Lessees enter into covenants to pay the rent thereby 
 reserved, and to build and keep in repair the messuages and buildings intended and 
 agreed to be built thereon, and to surrender the same at the expiration of the term of 
 such lease, and so as in every such lease there shall be contained a power for re-entry 
 for non-payment of the ground rent thereby to be reserved, and so as such leases be 
 
 38 
 
298 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 respectively approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Chester for 
 the time being, before the execution thereof, and so as in every such letting there shall 
 not be comprised in any one lot any greater quantity of the said glebe lands than 4,840 
 square yards, being one statute acre. It is further enacted that it shall be lawful for 
 the said Thomas Starkie to receive from the person to whom he shall grant building 
 leases as aforesaid, any sum of money, by way of fine or foregift, not exceeding in the 
 whole the sum of ;^300, and to apply the same to reimburse the said Thomas Starkie, 
 &c., such sums as he shall have expended in obtaining this Act. It is further enacted 
 that it shall be lawful to and for the said Thomas Starkie, and any of his successors, 
 Vicars of the said Vicarage, to accept from time to time a surrender of any such lease as 
 shall be made, and it shall be lawful for any Vicar to re-let any such tenements, unto 
 any other person, for any term of years not exceeding the then residue of the said term 
 of 999 years, and to take such fine or foregift upon the granting of which lease as shall 
 be necessary for the repairing of the tenements to be surrendered or revested, so as such 
 fine or foregift shall be immediately expended in repairing such tenements, and so as 
 every such new lease contains the same clauses, covenants, and agreements as are 
 hereinbefore directed to be inserted upon the granting of any original lease by virtue of 
 this Act. But nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to impower the 
 said Thomas Starkie or his successors. Vicars of the said Vicarage, to grant any lease 
 by virtue of this Act, of the Parsonage House belonging to the said Vicarage, or of 
 the gardens adjoining to the said house, or of any bams or stables now belonging to 
 the said Vicarage, or of the fields called The Lower Alleys, the Further Vicar Heys, 
 The Mosses, and The Linney Meadows, containing in the whole thirteen acres, three 
 roods, and twenty-five perches of the customary measure there used, being twenty-five 
 acres, three roods, and seventeen perches statute measure of land, or any part of them. 
 
 Immediately upon the passing of the Act, Vicar Starkie put in opera- 
 tion its provisions. A large portion of the glebe was leased in building 
 plots at ground rents from id. to 2d. per yard. Among the first lessees 
 were William Carr, Ralph Latus, Richard Cardwell, Christopher Hindle, 
 Robert Pickup, William Holme, Richard Veevers, Thomas Hart, Jonas 
 Bradley, John Smalley, William Eastham and others, and Robert 
 Bannister, all of whom had their leases made out the year after the 
 passing of the Act. Thirty-three building leases were issued by the 
 same Vicar between the year 1797 and the year 1808. The number of 
 leases now running under the Act is about 135. The appropriation of 
 glebe lands as building sites has greatly increased the revenue froYn this 
 anfcient endowment of the benefice. The fact that the estimate of the 
 value of the living has increased from ^^275 per annum in 1796 to 
 ^^1,250 at present, is sufficient proof of the advantage that has accrued 
 from the enfranchisement of these lands. The estate is now covered 
 with houses and manufactories. The main parcel of land forming 
 the Vicarial Glebe in the town of Blackburn, lies to the south of Penny- 
 street and the road to Whalley, between that road and the street and 
 road known as Salford and Eanam, extending eastward beyond Larkhill 
 and Primrose Bank in the direction of Daisyfield ; also on the south 
 side of Salford, between that street and Mount-street, near the present 
 
VICARIATE OF DR. WHITAKER. 299 
 
 line of the railway ; with a plot, abutting on the Rectory Glebe, on the 
 south side of Coppy Nook and Bottomgate. The existing streets named 
 Starkie-street, Vicar-street, Syke-street (which owes its name to a syke or 
 small rivulet that had its course through the midst of the Glebe), Cleaver- 
 street, Moor-street, Lark-hill-street, and a number of streets in the 
 vicinity of Holy Trinity Church, which also stands on Glebe land, as 
 well as the streets named High-street, Mount-street, Bow-street, Hallows- 
 street, &c., on the south side of Salford, occupy glebe land leased from 
 the Vicar. 
 
 On the 6th August, 1818, Vicar Starkie presided at a Vestry 
 meeting, at which it was resolved to apply for an Act of Parliament 
 giving power to take down and rebuild the Parish Church. The Vicar 
 died a few days after, August 26th, 1818, and was buried at Downham 
 Church. 
 
 Thomas Dunham Whitaker, D.D., L.L.D., F.S.A., the eminent 
 antiquary and historian, succeeded Mr. Starkie as Vicar of Blackburn, to 
 which he was presented November 7 th, 1818, by the then Primate, and 
 which he held (with his former benefice of Whalley) until his death, a 
 period of three years. The full memorials of Dr. T. D. Whitaker printed 
 elsewhere render superfluous any biographical notice of this Vicar in 
 the present work. It may be mentioned, however, that after his presenta- 
 tion to Blackburn Vicarage, " he resided in that town the greater part of 
 the year, and took his full share along with the curates in performing 
 three services every Sunday, in a large Church, and to a crowded congre- 
 gation." Dr. Whitaker's brief term as Vicar of this Parish was fittingly 
 signalised by the commencement of the erection of a new Parish Church, 
 the comer-stone of which was laid by him, September 2nd, 1820. 
 Several of Vicar Whitaker's Sermons preached in the Parish Church and 
 other Churches in the Parish were published. Dr. Whitaker died at the 
 old Vicarage house in Blackburn Churchyard, on Tuesday, December 
 i8th, 1821, aged 62 ; and was buried on the 26th December, at Holme 
 Chapel, Cliviger. 
 
 John William Whitaker, D.D., was instituted to the Vicarage, Feb. 
 1 6th, 1822. His Vicariate was marked by the energetic prosecution of 
 the work of Church extension in the Parish, which has been sustained 
 under the two succeeding Vicars. Dr. J. W. Whitaker was an excellent 
 scholar and an acute polemical writer ; and was the author of numerous 
 theological and controversial treatises. He died at Blackburn, August 
 23rd, 1854, aged 63. By his wife Mary Haughton, daughter of Sir 
 William Feilden, of Feniscowles, Bart., Dr. Whitaker had issue six sons 
 and four daughters ; the eldest daughter is the wife of R. Raynsford 
 Jackson, Esq., of Blackburn. 
 
300 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 John Rushton, D.D., instituted to this Vicarage August 9th, 1854, 
 was a son of James Rushton, yeoman, of Newchurch-in-Rossendale, 
 bom at Newchurch, May 5th, 1798. He obtained the Curacy of Langho 
 in this Parish, in 1822, and that of Newchurch-in-Pendle in 1825. He 
 was appointed Archdeacon of Manchester in 1843, ^^^ ii 1847 ^^s 
 presented to the Rectory of Prestwich. On his preferment to Black- 
 bum, Dr. Rushton resigned the Archdeaconry. In the fourteen years 
 of his vicariate, six new churches were provided in the parish, and to 
 four new parishes Vicar Rushton granted endowments of ;!f 50 per 
 annum each out of the Vicarial revenues. Dr. Rushton died February 
 2 1 St, 1868, and was buried February 27th, at Walton-in-le-Dale Church. 
 
 Edward Birch, M.A., the present Vicar, was instituted April 2nd, 
 1868. He matriculated at St. John's College, Cambridge, and in 1836 
 was presented to the vicarage of Chorlton-on-Medlock, which he held 
 until his preferment to the Vicarage of Blackburn. In 1866 he was 
 appointed honorary Canon of Manchester. Canon Birch, since his 
 acceptance of this benefice, has advanced greatly the educational institu- 
 tions of the Mother Church of this Parish by promoting the erection of 
 the new School-buildings in the Parish Churchyard. 
 
 LIST OF VICARS OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Adam de Blakebum 
 
 
 John Hylton, 
 
 1561-1580 
 
 John de Blakebum 
 
 
 Edward Welche, 
 
 1580-1606 
 
 Henry de Blakebum 
 
 A.D. 1160 
 
 John Morres, 
 
 I 606- I 628 
 
 Adam de Blakebum 
 
 
 Adam Bolton, 
 
 1 628- 1 646 
 
 Roger de Blakebum 
 
 
 Robert Worthington,^ 
 
 1647 
 
 John de Habyndon, before 
 
 1289 
 
 Leonard Clayton, - 
 
 1647-1677 
 
 William de Lenche, 
 
 1289-1313 
 
 Francis Price, 
 
 1677-1705 
 
 Adam de Walboncke, 
 
 1313-1333? 
 
 John Holme, - 
 
 1706-1738 
 
 John de Gristwayth, 
 
 1 333- 1 362 
 
 John Potter, - - - 
 
 1738-1742 
 
 John de Lyndelay, - 
 
 1362-1378 
 
 John WoUin, - 
 
 1742-1772 
 
 William de Wetherby, - 
 
 1378-1419? 
 
 John White, - 
 
 1772-1780 
 
 Geoffrey Banastre, 
 
 1419-1457 
 
 Thomas Starkie, 
 
 1780-1818 
 
 Robert Salley, 
 
 1457-1489? 
 
 Thomas Dunham Whitaker, 
 
 1818-1821 
 
 Henry Salley, 
 
 1489-1535 
 
 John William Whitaker, - 
 
 1822-1854 
 
 Ralph Lynney, 
 
 1537-1554 
 
 John Rushton, 
 
 1854-1868 
 
 James Hargreaves, - 
 
 1555-1561 
 
 Edward Birch, 
 
 1868- 
 
 1 Robert Worthington officiated as Vicar a short time (not longer than two months), between the 
 death of Vicar Bolton and the appointment of Vicar Clayton, as I find by a note kindly extracted by 
 Mr. J. E. Bailey from the records of the Plundered Ministers' Committee (Bodl. MSS. 324, p. 241), 
 dated March 20th. 1646-7 ; the minute runs : — " Whereas the Vicarage of the P'ishe Church of Black, 
 bume in the County of Lancaster is void by the death of Adam Bolton the late incumbent, and the 
 same is in the gift of the Archb'opp of Cant., it is therefore ordered that Robt. Worthington, a godly 
 and orthodox divine, doe forthwith officiate the cure of the said church as Vicar, and preach dili- 
 gently," &c. 
 

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RE-EDIFICATIONS OF BLACKBURN CHURCH. 
 
 301 
 
 THE OLD CHURCH FABRIC. 
 
 The statements published respecting successive re-edifications of the 
 Parish Church of Blackburn are conjectural and traditional ; at least, 
 the present writer is not aware of the existence of any documentary , 
 records indicating precisely the date and circumstances of restorations 
 carried out in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Saxon 
 church-structure found standing at the Domesday Survey may not have 
 been the original building, for the foundation was even then to be 
 reckoned by centuries, and the rude erections of wood that exhausted 
 the architectural skill of the primitive church builders in this part of the 
 kingdom could not have withstood long without sign of decay the in- 
 fluences of a humid climate like that of Lancashire. It is likely that 
 Blackburn Church would be rebuilt or restored by one of the De Lacys 
 after the conveyance of the church to that Norman baronial house in 
 the twelfth century, and previous to its transfer to the religious fraternity 
 under the patronage of De Lacys. Two more centuries of time had 
 reduced the Norman fane to a state of dilapidation, when, about the reign 
 of Edward the Third (1327-77), the first Gothic structure was reared. 
 Some of the materials of the older church were used in the erection, and 
 blocks of carved stone after Norman patterns, which could not be placed 
 visibly in the new Church of that date, were buried in the foundations ; 
 these fragments were brought to light on the digging out of the founda- 
 tions in 1820 ; they included portions of arcuated stones with dog-tooth 
 ornaments, the remains of a doorway, and sculptured Norman capitals. 
 
 The Church of Edward the Third's time had in its turn become 
 impaired with age, perhaps also by neglect, in the reign of Henry VIII., 
 when by the overturn of the Monastery to which it was attached it passed 
 under new authority; and shortly after that change, about the 
 year 1540, the upper portion of the church walls and the roof were 
 extensively renovated. The nave and chancel were covered with hand- 
 some roofs of timber, with transverse beams and panelled compartments ; 
 and the tracery and moulded heads of some of the windows were 
 replaced. With these new features, the main structure of the former 
 church was retained, and lasted until the final demolition of the ancient 
 fabric and the erection of the present Church upon another site in the 
 churchyard. The general character of the old Church as it was left after 
 the alterations of 1540 will better be understood by reference to the 
 drawing of it engraved for this work than by any verbal description. 
 This perspective view of the edifice, taken from the south-east angle of 
 the churchyard, exhibits the components of an early Lancashire Church, 
 as seen with variations in the oldest examples yet extant. A rather 
 
302 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 short nave, with small circular-headed clerestory lights in couplets ; 
 low-walled aisles, with roofs sloping up to the line of the clerestory 
 window-sills ; gabled porch at the west end of the south aisle, with 
 pointed-arched doorway ; chancel of equal length with the nave, having 
 also a clerestory, and an elaborately traceried east window of four lights ; 
 gothic crosses at the eastern apexes of nave and chancel roofs ; at the west 
 end, the strong embattled square tower of three storeys, surmounted 
 by a stunted spire ; flanking the chancel the two mortuary chapels of the 
 Osbaldestons (on the north side) and of the Walmesleys (on the south 
 side), the latter \vith embattled roof-line ; tower, aisles, chapels, and 
 chancel walls supported by deep graduated buttresses. The interior of 
 the Church was diversified by few enrichments beyond the carved bosses 
 of the Tudor roof and an interesting east window of painted glass in 
 heraldic devices ; the nave was divided from the aisles by pointed 
 arches resting upon cylindrical pillars with moulded capitals. Eight old 
 oak stalls, with grotesque carvings under the hinged seats, said to have 
 come from the dismantled Conventual Church at Whalley, were placed 
 in the choir, four on each side, as seats for the wardens ; these 
 stalls are retained in the fittings of the modern church. The eleva- 
 tion of the Church was disproportionately low to its length and breadth. 
 Beneath the floor, the ground was filled with the graves of the principal 
 inhabitants, who for many generations had claimed right of burial within 
 the area of the Church. It was at length found necessary to restrict 
 these interments inside the fabric, and a rule was made at a meeting of 
 the Vestry held on August 12th, 1789, "that no corpse shall be interred 
 in future within the Church unless the friends of the deceased do pay, 
 over and above the common dues to the Vicar, Clerk, and Sexton, 
 Three Guineas, to be laid out in the repairs and improvement of the 
 Church ;" and " if the interment is made in that space which extends 
 from the East Windpw to the centre Arch, the above sum of three 
 guineas is to be paid to the Lessees of the Rectory, in consideration of 
 their supporting the roof over that respective part ;" the regulation is 
 " not to extend to the two Chapels at the East end of the Church."^ The 
 site of the old Church was but a few paces in the rear of the houses on 
 the south side of Church-street. 
 
 THE CHANTRIES AND CHANTRY CHAPELS. 
 
 The earliest of the chantry services attached to the Church of 
 Blackburn was founded by the provision of John de Blackburn, son of 
 Henry, who by Charter in Norman-French, given at Blackburn, A.D. 1 32 1, 
 for the salvation of his soul and of the souls of his father and mother, 
 
 I There is a minute of this decision in the Church Register. 
 
CHANTRIES IN BLACKBURN CHURCH. 303 
 
 his ancestors and heirs, granted to God and to the Church of St. Marie of 
 Blackburn (leglise seint Marie de Blakeburn) an annual rent of four livres 
 to be paid yearly for ever at the Feast of St. Martin to the wardens of 
 the Church, to sustain two torches lighted at the high altar of that 
 Church. The deed of grant to remain in charge of the Vicar of Black- 
 bum and his successors. This Chantry had probably fallen into abeyance 
 after the lapse of more than 200 years, for it is not noticed in the returns 
 of the Chantry Commissioners of Henry VIII. that preceded the suppres- 
 sion of Chantry Priests by statutory enactment. 
 
 In the year 1453, Geoffrey Banastre, then Vicar of Blackburn, 
 founded a Chantry in this Church, and endowed it with the annual rent 
 of jQ\ 13s. 4d., secured by the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate 
 Church of St. Mary, of Leicester, on the rectorial tithes of Preston, in 
 Lancashire, in consideration of two hundred marks having been paid to 
 them by Mr. Geoffrey Banastre or by his executors. The record of the 
 Valor of 1534 names this Chantry as in the hands of William Rishton, 
 Chaplain, worth yearly in rents of lands and tenements 66s. 8d. In the 
 report of the Chantry Commission, A.D. 1546, "The Chantrye at the 
 High Altar within the Paroche Churche of Blakbome," is found served 
 by " Willyam Usherwoode, preiste, incumbent there of the foundation of 
 Galfrede Banastre, somtyme Vicar of the same Churche, to celebrate at 
 the high altar there for the sowles of his founders. The same is within 
 the Paroche Churche of Blakbome, and the saide preist doth celebrate 
 there accordinge to the statute of his foundation." The endowments of 
 the same are thus certified : — " The same Incumbent receiveth yearly for 
 his salary, at two terms in the year, an annual rent of £,/^ 13s. 4d., 
 going forth of the parsonage of Preston, which parsonage was given to 
 the same Chantry by Richard Androwe and his brethren, he then being 
 Dean of the New College of Leicester, for the sum of two hundred 
 marks to them paid, as appeareth by their grant to the said Chantry, 
 dated in the Chapter House under their common seal, the 26th day of 
 February, in the year of our Lord God 1453, due at the Feasts of Saint 
 Michael the Archangel and the Annunciation of our Lady equally— ;^4 
 13s. 4d. — Sum total of the rental ^^4 13s. 4d. Reprises none."^ In 
 1 548, William Risheton, aged 53, is retumed as Chantry Priest, and the 
 houseling people of the parish were 2,000. At the suppression of Chan- 
 tries William Risheton, priest here, was pensioned, and in 1553 was 
 living on his pension of jQt^ 6s. 8d. 
 
 A Chantry, dedicated to the B. V. Mary, was founded by Thomas, 
 second Earl of Derby, and the inhabitants of Blackbum, in the year 
 
 I History of Chantries of Lancashire, Edited by Canon Raines for Chetbam Society, v. i, 
 pp. 152-3. 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 1 5 14. The foundation deed is dated at Lathom, April 6th, 5th Henry 
 VIII. The following is a summary of the charter : — 
 
 The purpose of the founder was the maintenance of a Chantry Priest in the 
 Chapel of the Blessed Virgin on the south side of the Parish Church of Blackburn ; 
 and while the parishioners purchased certain freehold and copyhold lands in this 
 county and in the county of York, the Earl of Derby gave in trust to John Yorke, 
 George Cowbume, Raufe Waddyntone, Raufe Critchlawe, Henry Feilden, William 
 Ysherwood, Xpofer Bolton, and Richard Hawkeshaye the estate of Eggye-heye, in 
 Brunley, of the yearly value of iSs., to the use of the said Chantry as endowment. 
 The said Earl within twenty days was to make " Sir Edward Bolton Chantry Brest 
 of the said Chantre ;" after his decease or resignation the said Earl and his heirs for 
 ever should name "another able secular Prest, that is expert, and can sing both pricke 
 song and plane songe, and hath a sight in Descant, if such can be gotten, which shall 
 teach a fre Song Scol in Blackbume aforesaid, and also shall kepe the quere in the said 
 Parish Church, every holy-day through the yere, at the time of al devine service kept 
 there. " Also it is agreed by the said parties ' ' that at all such tyme as it shall happen 
 all the fefes of the said lands and tenements afor apointed for the sustentation and 
 mayntaining of the said Chantri, except four, or three at the least, to decease, that 
 then every of the said Chantri Prests then and there being, shall make deligent labour 
 to cause other 12 of the most honest men of the said parish to be named by the said 
 Church reves ther for the tyme being yf they can agree thereupon, to be fefes of the 
 premesses." The Priest of the said Chantry was not to take any other care or charge, 
 but should he say any trentals, or pray otherwise than according to the present founda- 
 tion, one half of the profit of the same should go towards the reparation or making of 
 ornaments for the said Chantry. The priest was to pray by vowe for the souls of 
 Thomas, Earl of Derby, late deceased, of my Lady his wife, and George Stanley, Lord 
 Strange, of my Lady Jane, his wife, and for their children's souls, and for the pros- 
 perous estate of the then Earl of Derby and of my Lady of Derby his wife, and for 
 their issue and posterity for ever ; and for the welfare of all the parishioners of Black- 
 hum, and of all who had been benefactors, helpers, and contributors to the purchasing 
 of lands, jewels, or ornaments for the said Chantry, quick or dead, and for all Christian 
 souls. The said Chantry priest, every Sunday and holiday in the year, after offering 
 mass, should turn to the people and exhort them to pray for all the said persons and 
 for their souls, and say the Psalm of De profundis, with a Pater Noster and an Ave 
 Marie, with special suffrage after, and Funeral Collect for the quick and dead, either 
 by themselves. The Priest also to sing or say mass of our Lady, to note every holiday 
 and every Saturday, and the priest and his scholars and others who may be gotten, 
 four times in the year for ever to sing a solemn dirge for the souls aforesaid, and also 
 on the morrow next after such dirge song the priest to sing a mass of requiem with 
 note, and on every Wednesday and Friday to say mass of Jesus, or of the five wounds 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the said Chantry Chapel ; and on all other days of the 
 week to say mass as he conveniently may. The priest to sing or say masses in the 
 same chapel about eight o'clock in the morning in summer-time, i.e., from Easter to 
 Michaelmas, and in the winter-time about ten o'clock in the forenoon. A penalty of 
 4d. to be paid to the churchwardens out of the lands for every default or negligence of 
 duty, without sufficient and lawful excuse. 
 
 In the Va/or of 1534, it was found concerning this Chantry that it 
 was in the hands of Thomas Burgess, chaplain, and worth in rents and 
 
CHANTRIES IN BLACKBURN CHURCH. 305 
 
 farms of lands and tenements 66s. 8d. per annum. The King's commis- 
 sion appointed 37tli Henry VIII. (1546) to ascertain the origin and 
 value of the Chantries returned the subjoined account of this Chantry : — 
 The Chauntrie at the Alter of our Lady within the said P'och- 
 Church [of Blackburn] : — Thomas Burges, preist, incumbent ther of the founda- 
 con of the ancestors of the Erie of Derbie, to celebrate ther for their sowles, and to 
 maneteyne the one side of the quere [choir] to the uttermost of his power everie holie 
 day, and also the incumbent herof to be sufFicientlie lerned in gramer and plane songe 
 to kepe a ffre skole contynuallie in Blakburne biforesaide. The same is at the alter 
 of our Lady within the said paroch church, and the said incumbent doth celebrate and 
 manetene the quere every holie day accordinglie, and also doth teache gramer and 
 plane songe in the said ffre skole accordinge to the statutes of his ffoundacon. 
 
 The Endowments are thus returned by the Commissioners : — 
 
 Willyam Smithson holdyth one tenemente with the appurtenances, lienge in 
 Slathbome, in the countie of York, by yere 13s. 4d. ; and Alice Parkinson holdyth 
 one tenemente there, 34s. ; in all by yere, 47s. 4d. Robert Smith holdyth one tene- 
 mente with the appurtenances in Bumeley, in the countie of Lancastre, rentinge 
 yerlie, &c., 14s. Nycholas Dogeson holdyth one tenemente with the appurtenances 
 lienge in Padiham, in the said countie, rentinge yerlie, 19s. Thomas Whitehalghe 
 and John Sudley holden one tenemente with the appurtenances lienge in Oughe Boughe 
 in the said countie, rentinge, &c., 17s. Richarde Haddoke and his fellowes holden 
 one tenemente with the appurtenances lienge in Leveshey, in the said countie, rentinge, 
 &c., 13s. 4d. Suma totall of the rentall iios. 8d., whereof payd to our sovereigne 
 Lorde, for a rent goinge furth of the landes by yere 2s. , and so remanyth io8s. 8d.' 
 
 The Chantry was soon afterwards dissolved with the rest ; its 
 chaplain, Thomas Burgess, aged 58, receiving a life pension ; and in 
 consideration that a free school had been taught by the Chantry Priest, 
 in obedience to the terms of the foundation, a pension of ;£4 7s. 4d. in 
 lieu of the Chantry lands escheated to the Crown was charged on the 
 revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster, payable to the Schoolmaster at 
 Blackburn. The Chapel of our Lady, on the south side of the choir of 
 Blackburn Church, in which the Chantry-priest officiated, had existed, 
 it would seem, before the foundation of the Chantry in 15 14, and was 
 held to have pertained anciently to the Rishtons, being a branch of the 
 ancient Rectorial family of De Blackburn, and was claimed as the 
 appanage of the lordship of Rishton by the Talbots of Holt after the 
 suppression of the Chantry; and later by the Walmesleys of Dunkenhalgh, 
 as purchasers of the Rishton estate, against John Talbot of Salesbury, 
 who asserted a claim to the Chapel. The dispute took the form of a 
 reference to the Bishop of Chester in 16 11, whose award was the division 
 of the Chapel between the contesting houses, the Talbots taking the 
 north half, and the Walmesleys the south half of the Chapel. The Chapel 
 was repaired subsequently to this decision as to ownership. 
 
 The Chapel on the north side of Blackburn Church does not prove 
 
 I Raines' Lancash. Chantries, v. i, pp. 154-6. 
 
 39 • 
 
3o6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 to have been endowed as a chantry for the family of Osbaldeston to 
 which it from early time belonged ; but was used as a private oratory and 
 mortuary chapel. The Wills of several members in succession of this 
 house appoint their sepulture in their chapel within Blackburn Church, 
 and here were several monuments of Osbaldestons, to be noted on 
 another page along with other monuments formerly fixed in the Church. 
 With this chapel was enjoyed by the same family the right of nominating 
 the Parish Clerk and one churchwarden. The last lineal member of the 
 Osbaldestons, in 1747, by Will granted to Thomas Clayton of Little 
 Harwood, Esq., his " chappells, seats, pews, burying-ground, and all his 
 right in Blackburn Church." Pennant noticed in the chapel a century 
 ago much miscellaneous painted glass collected by one of the Osbaldes- 
 tons, including four pieces of great beauty. Our Saviour, St. James the 
 Greater and Less, and St. Matthew. The east window of this chapel 
 was a traceried one of three lights. 
 
 THE NEW CHURCH FABRIC. 
 
 The last service was held in the old Parish Church on Sunday, 
 November loth, 1819, and the Church was demolished in the course of 
 the year following ;' its replacement by a new edifice having become 
 imperative both on account of its dilapidation and of its inadequacy for 
 the reception of the congregation of the Mother Church. A special 
 Act of Parliament, passed June 14th, 1819, empowered a body of trus- 
 tees* to raze the old fabric and to obtain a sum of ;^i 5,000 by a general 
 parish rate to defray the cost of a new Church. The corner-stone of the 
 new Church was laid by Vicar T. D. Whitaker, September 2nd, 1820. 
 Mr. John Palmer was appointed architect. The building had made 
 some progress by 1823, when the sum realized by the first special Church 
 rate being expended, a further rate was levied. A second Act of Parlia- 
 ment had to be obtained in 1824, giving the trustees power to raise an 
 additional ^^i 8,000 by means of a rate. The consecration of the 
 Church by the Bishop of Chester took place September 13th, 1826. The 
 cost of the fabric was ;^25,979 iis. gd. ; organ ;£'85o; expenses of Acts 
 of Parliament ^1,279; and the incidental expenditure in diverting 
 the river for extension of the church-yard, in purchasing lands and in 
 compensation for the grammar school, was upwards of ;^io,ooo. A 
 
 I The old Tower was left standing until the year 1870. 
 2 The trustees were: — Hon. Robt. Curzon, John Bailey, Thomas Ainsworth, Richard Cardwell 
 the elder, Richard Cardwell the younger, clerk, Abraham Chew, John Cunliffe, Robert Chadwick, 
 Wilham Carr, Thomas Carr, Robt. Dewhurst, John Emett, Thomas Edmundson, Joseph Feilden, 
 William Feilden, John Fleming, James Greenway the younger, Thomas Glover, James Glover, John 
 Hornby, John Fowden Hindle, John Hargreaves, John Harper, Christopher Hindle, William Maude, 
 James Nevill, George Petre, William Pickering, Proctor Ratcliffe, Dixon Robinson, Le Gendre 
 Starkie, Henry Sudell, James Taylor, William Townley, Thomas Turner, William Turner, William 
 Walker. 
 
BLACKBURN NEW PARISH CHURCH. 
 
 307 
 
 third rate was levied in 1827 to obtain the cost of lighting and warming 
 the church. On January 6th, 1831, during morning service, the roof of 
 the church took fire through some defect in the flue, and was entirely 
 destroyed, and other damage was done, repaired at a cost of ^2,500. 
 
 The present Parish Church is a large and handsome edifice, of the 
 14th century gothic in style; the plan consists of nave, chancel, north 
 and south aisles, western tower and porches, and north and south vestries 
 at the east end. The lateral aspect of the exterior presents aisles about 
 1 10 feet in length, upheld by graduated buttresses with pinnacles heading 
 each buttress, between which are six large windows of three lights, tran- 
 somed, with heads of elegant tracery, the alternate design of which is 
 borrowed from Roslyn Chapel ; the clerestory has twelve lights on each 
 side, placed in couplets, trefoil-headed ; the east end exhibits the entrance to 
 the vaults, beneath a large east window of five lights, elaborately traceried ; 
 above this, a circular window filled with tracery ; pinnacles rise from the 
 angle-buttresses of nave and aisles. At the west end, a very bold tower of 
 three storeys rises in the centre, and is flanked by porches with recessed 
 pointed arches. An effective feature of the tower front is the lofty recessed 
 arch which encloses the principal doorway and a traceried window above 
 it. Upon corbels in the west front are sculptured the royal arms in 
 duplicate, with those of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of 
 Chester ; and on the porches are the anns of the two vicars (T. D. 
 Whitaker and J. W. Whitaker) during whose vicariate the Church was 
 rebuilt. In the interior the nave arches, six in number, are sustained 
 by cylindrical columns surrounded by four semi-cylindrical shafts ; these 
 noble columns, with one or two exceptions, are monoliths. The bases 
 and capitals are plainly-moulded. The chancel is a continuation of 
 the nave, and is recessed by a series of nine arches, resting upon lofty 
 cylindrical columns, in close succession, and contracted eastward to the 
 east window, which is a fine painted window of five lights, filling the 
 space above the altar screen. The roofs of nave and aisles are 
 groined, with rich bosses floriated or faced with heraldic shields 
 displaying the arms of numerous native families. The organ loft and 
 gallery for the choir occupy the west end of the nave above the central 
 entrance, and rest upon pointed arches arranged in semi-octagonal form. 
 Side galleries are erected the entire length of the aisles, supported by 
 slender iron pillars behind the nave columns. During the last summer 
 (1875), the church-interior has been wholly renovated and re-benched; 
 and a new organ, — one of the finest Church organs in the county, — 
 has been presented to the Church by William Coddington, Esq., the 
 cost of which was ;!^2,5oo. The last measurement gives 1,450 sittings, 
 of which 700 are free. 
 
3o8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The internal dimensions are : — length of nave, 103 feet ; chancel, 
 II feet; breadth of nave, 28 feet; aisles, 19 feet each; tower, 15 feet 
 square; height of nave, 46 feet; aisles, 29 feet. The height of the 
 tower to the square is 86 feet ; to the top of the pinnacles, 112 feet. 
 
 THE CHURCH BELLS. 
 Blackburn Church had anciently a peal of six bells, inscribed 
 thus : — First bell : " Vivos voco, mortuos plango, fulgura frango ;" second 
 bell : "Laudo Deum, plebem voco, congrego clerum ; defunctos ploro, pestem 
 fugo,festa decoro ;" third bell : ^^Funera plango, fulgura frango, Sabbata 
 pango ;" fourth bell: "Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos ;" fifth 
 bell: "Nbmen Jesu Christe ; fu attetidas et defendas ;" sixth bell: "7>. 
 laudamus et rogamus ; nos a morte tristi." In 1690, the bells had been 
 reduced to five; and in 1737 the old peal of five bells were recast and 
 six new bells founded by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester. The tenor bell, 
 being cracked, was recast in 1747. The six bells are now ranged as 
 follows : — r, weight 6 cwt. ; motto, "When you do ring we will sweetly 
 sing ;" 2, 6 cwt. 3 qrs. ; " Peace and good neighbourhood ;" 3, 8 cwt. 
 3 qrs. 4 lbs. ; " May the Church of England for ever flourish ;" 4, 8 cwt. 
 3 qrs. 4 lbs. ; " We are all cast at Gloucester, by Abel Rudhall ;" 5, 
 10 cwt. 2 qrs. II lbs.; "The Rev. John Holme, Vicar;" 6, 14 cwt. 
 3 qrs. 13 lbs. ; " Thomas Martin, John Cross, Henry Drewitt, Robert 
 Whitacre, churchwardens, 1747." The bells remained in the old tower 
 until 1832, when they were hung in the new tower; and in 1851 four 
 new bells were added, making a good peal of ten bells. The founders 
 of three of the new bells were Messrs. Mears, of London. These three 
 bells weigh 4 cwt. 1 7 lbs., 4 cwt. i qr. 1 7 lbs., and 5 cwt. i qr. 1 1 lbs. 
 respectively. The fourth is a memorial bell, presented by the Hopwood 
 family, whose name it bears, with the inscription, "John Turner 
 Hopwood, Esq., Barrister-at-law, Rockcliffe House, Blackburn, March 
 2nd, 1849." The weight of this bell is 5 cwt. 3 qrs. i lb. 
 
 THE SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS. 
 It is ground for complaint by all who value the preservation in situ 
 of ancient sepulchral memorials of deceased citizens, that on the removal 
 of old churches such monuments attached to the walls are often destroyed 
 or disappear, or are tossed into vaults and lofts as worthless refuse, and 
 can no more be found by the interested searcher. This is what happened 
 on the demolition of the old Parish Church fabric of Blackburn. Of 
 numerous mural tablets formerly found within the walls of this Church 
 few are now visible or to be heard of I can only therefore note such 
 as received mention by visitants to the former Church at various dates, 
 and two or three that have been brought out of their hiding-place under 
 
THE SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS. 309 
 
 the Church stair as a result of my own inquiries. I am unable to indi- 
 cate the present whereabouts of any that have fallen into private hands. 
 One of the oldest monumental inscriptions in the Church was that 
 copied in the Dodsworth MSS., and stated to have been in the window 
 of Sir John Talbot's Chapel (i.e. the south Chapel in which the Chantry 
 Priest endowed by the Earl of Derby chanted his daily prayers). The 
 inscription ran : — 
 
 A.D. 1521. Pray for ye prosperous Estate of ye Rt. Hon. Thomas Erie of 
 Derby, Viscount Kynton, Lord Strange, Lord of Knokyn. 
 
 In the same Chapel was erected at a later date the costly monument 
 of Sir Thomas Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh, the Judge of Common Pleas, 
 who had made out his claim to a share in this Chapel shortly before his 
 death in 161 2. This stately monument, which must have filled a good 
 portion of the Chapel-area, consisted of a statue in alabaster lying on a 
 sarcophagus beneath a recessed arch, with an inscribed tablet behind, 
 and an heraldic shield in an upper compartment. The obituary inscrip- 
 tion and a poetic epitaph will be given in my sketch of the Walmesley 
 family. The monument was broken to fragments within thirty years of 
 its erection, during the Civil War of 1642-51, by the Parliamentarian 
 garrison or the inhabitants of Blackburn, as a proof of their enmity to 
 the Walmesleys, who were doubly obnoxious as both Royalist and 
 Roman Catholic. A small remnant of the monument, consisting of the 
 arms of Walmesley impaled with those of Shuttleworth of Hacking, 
 surmounted by the knightly helm and crest of the judge, is now fixed in 
 the wall of the south vestry of the present Parish Church. 
 
 In the Osbaldeston Chapel at the east end of the north aisle were 
 memorial tablets and windows to several members of the family owning 
 that Chapel. Elena Osbaldeston, second wife of Sir Alexander, by her 
 Will, dated 1560, directed that three stones with inscriptions on brass 
 should be fixed in her Chapel in Blackburn Church, over the remains of 
 herself, her husband, and her brother Sir Thomas Tyldesley ; and doubt- 
 less this was done as ordered ; but no trace or record of these brasses 
 survives. Other tablets in the Chapel, inscribed to later members of the 
 family, and the two painted windows of the Chapel, were observed by 
 Pennant^ in 1773 : — 
 
 Against the walls are two brasses ; one with the bald head of an old man with a 
 great beard, his body armed; inscribed: — "Here lyeth the body of Sir Edward 
 Osbaldiston, a charitable, courteous, and valiant Knight, qui obiit A.D. 1636, £et 63." 
 The epitaph is concise, but contains a character replete with all the requisites of 
 chivalry in its period of utmost purity. The other brass is in memory of another 
 Osbaldiston [Edward, son of Alexander], which acquaints us with nothing further than 
 that he died in 1689, aged 38. 
 
 I Tour from Downing lo Alston Moor, pp. 66-7. 
 
3IO 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 A local chronicler finds that a gravestone placed in 1521 near the 
 altar of Blackburn Church had upon it the sentiment : — " Our Fathers 
 find their graves in our shorte memories ; and sadly tell us howe we 
 shall be buryed in our survivors. Lett me be found in the regystre of 
 heaven, not in the recorde of man. A.D. MDXXI. Dom. J. Catherall."^ 
 
 Baines gives the inscription from another monumental tablet placed 
 in the wall of the south aisle of the old Church of Blackburn, as 
 follows : — 
 
 Before thou doe thy worke begine 
 Then of God crave pardon for thy sin : 
 And then thy worke shall prosper soe 
 As want shall never breed thee woe. 
 .) (. 1614 I. M. 
 
 George Ryley.'' 
 
 To an infant son of Vicar Potter is inscribed a small square tablet of 
 white marble : — 
 
 lo. Potter Natus Mortuus Sepultus Nov. 1740. 
 
 I also note an oval white marble tablet to the last direct representa- 
 tive of the Astley family, inscribed : — 
 
 To the memory of the Revd. George Astley, who departed this life the 7th of 
 July, 1777, aged 43, this Monument is erected. 
 
 Broken into four or five fragments I find the tablet to Vicar White, 
 a large oblong square, of white marble, inscribed : — 
 
 Under the Communion Table is interred the Revd. John White, B.A., Vicar of 
 this Parish, who departed this life Nov. 21st, 1780, aged 53 years. He was a sincere 
 Christian and conscientious pastor, an affectionate husband and good parent, a kind 
 and faithful friend, an ingenious and accurate naturalist. 
 
 A brass affixed to wood, lying also amongst lumber, is inscribed : — 
 
 Sacred to the Memory of Mr. George Cape, Merchant and Drysalter, Old Swan 
 Stairs, London, who died at this place, June 2nd, 1789, in the 38th year of his age. 
 
 In the Burial Register of the Church, " George Cape, a rider from 
 London," is entered as buried June 4th, 1789. 
 
 Several Memorial Windows are placed in the present Church. The 
 vaulted tombs in the churchyard on the site of the old Church, include 
 those of Walmesley and Petre of Dunkenhaigh ; Feilden of Witton ; 
 Hindle of Blackburn ; Sudell of Blackburn ; Peel of Blackburn ; Birley 
 of Blackburn ; Chippendall, Livesey, Lancaster, Yates, Forrest, &c. 
 
 The old Communion Plate of the Church was inscribed : — "Ex 
 doTw TTiom. Smith, i6jo," and "Ex dono Edwardi et Roberti Bolton, dat 
 Ecclesice Blackborne, A.D. i6jj."^ 
 
 I Whittle's Blackburn as it Is, p. 62. 2 Hist, of Lane, New £dn., v. ii. p. 66. 
 
 3 The " Statement of Facts relative to the taking down and rebuilding of the Parish Church of 
 Blackburn," printed in 1837, by Thomas Rogerson, Market Place (an ample and useful compilation of 
 
BLACKBURN PARISH CHURCH. 311 
 
 THE PARISH REGISTERS. 
 
 The Parish Registers begin connectedly about A.D. 1600, but I find 
 a few detached entries as far back as 1568. The first Register Book, on 
 parchment, has been seriously tampered with at some period, and the 
 leaves containing the entries between 1568 and 1600 may have been 
 destroyed during the Civil War of 1642-51, when the Registers exhibit 
 another gap between the years 1637 and 1651. The first volume is 
 bound in calf, about an inch in thickness. The entries are in English 
 from 1608, when James Hodgkinson became Parish Clerk. On the 
 resumption of the record in 1651 it is inscribed: — "Leonard Clayton, 
 Pastor. Here followeth a perfect Register of all Names of those who 
 have been baptized att our Parish Church of Blackburn, from the 20th 
 of Aprill, 165 1." Onward from this date the entries are continuous 
 until the present time. The second volume opens with this certificate 
 of the appointment of Parish Clerk in 1653 :• — 
 
 Richard Morres of Blackburn in Co. Lane, gent., being chosen by the inhabitants 
 and householders of the Parish of Blackburn to be their Parish Registr. , came beffore 
 US this 22th of September, 1653, and was by us approved on to bee the said Registr. 
 for the said Parish, to have the keepinge of this Booke, and was by us approved on 
 and swome accordinge to the Acte of Parliameii t of the 24th of August last in that 
 case made and provided. Ric: Shuttleworthe. 
 
 John Starkie. 
 
 The civil marriages during the Commonwealth were usually 
 performed in presence of Randal Sharpies, Esq., a local Justice devoted 
 to the party then in power. After the Restoration the old form of 
 registration of marriages is reverted to. The Parish Clerk was then 
 
 88 pages) mentions that the following relics of the old Church were preserved in the present struc- 
 ture : — " In the north vestry, several monumental tablets not yet re-erected ; in the south vestry, the 
 arms of Walmesley, impaling Shuttleworth of Hacking, part of the monument of Judge Walmesley, 
 formerly in the Dunkenhalgh Chapel ; in the window of the same vestry are fragments of painted 
 glass bearing the figures of the Blessed Virgin, and a Saint in the monastic habit of the Cistercians, 
 probably intended for St. Bernard the founder of that order, which was the one established at Whalley 
 Abbey; also, on glass of inferior antiquity and beauty, several busts of the Apostles; four herald - 
 badges, viz., the White Rose of York, the portcullis of the House of Tudor, the Peacock, and the 
 couchant Stag : and a full-length portrait of the celebrated Erasmus. Some fragments of painted glass 
 from the old church are also preserved in the windows of Hhe clerestory and side-aisles ; that in the 
 east window is modern, and was furnished by subscription. The stalls, at present occupied by the 
 churchwardens, were also part of the furniture of the ancient church, and exhibit in the grotesque 
 carvings on the under parts of the seats or misereres decided indications of a date anterior to the 
 Reformation. One of these contains a rude representation of the temptation of Eve, and the ejectment 
 of our first parents from Paradise ; three bear emblems usually attributed to the Evangelists, viz., the 
 Angel of St. Matthew, the winged Lion of St. Mark, and the winged Bull of Sl Luke ; two others 
 represent a Fox in a pulpit edifying a congregation of Geese, and a Huntsman with his huge horn 
 encouraging the hounds in pursuit of a family of apes, one of which has fallen into their clutches, 
 while the parent is endeavouring to escape with a young one at her back. The rest are of foliage " 
 (pp. 26-7). The Vicarage-house in the church-yard being taken down, the present house in King-street 
 was secured for the Vicars' residence. 
 
312 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 appointed by the Osbaldestons ; and I find these entries of such 
 appointments : — 
 
 John Bolton began as Parish Clerk of Blackburn, 9th July, 1676, presented by 
 Edward Osbaldeston, Esq. , and approved by Leo. Clayton, Clerk and Vicar there. 
 
 Adam Rabye began the office of Parish Clerk, April 5th, 1683, presented by 
 Edward Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston, Esq. 
 
 Thomas Nevil elected Clerk of Parish of Blackburn 28th May, 1708. 
 
 The Parish Registers are now kept in a strong room lately built 
 between the north vestry and the chancel. Previously they had been in 
 a wooden cabinet in the Vestry, and had suffered from the damp. 
 
 The appointment of Sexton was claimed by the same parties 
 who put in by prescription the Parish Clerk, but the claim has been 
 disputed by several vicars. An affidavit made in 1781 states that in 
 1734 one John Nevill was appointed Sexton on the de5,th of Robert 
 Lathom, former Sexton ; but the Vicar, Revd. John Holme, appointed 
 John Hindle to be Sexton. A week after, Mr. Feilden and Mr. 
 Ainsworth sent for John Osbaldeston (then living) to a public-house in 
 Blackburn, and desired him to bring John Nevill to them at that house. 
 They told Nevill they had appointed him Sexton, and desired John 
 Osbaldeston to go to John Hindle for the key, or, if he refused, to send 
 a constable. John Hindle thereupon gave up the key to John 
 Osbaldeston, who delivered it to Mr. Feilden and Mr. Ainsworth, and 
 they to their nominee John Nevill, who afterwards kept it and the office 
 of Sexton until his death in March, 1781. 
 
 THE FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 It has been shewn that the original Free School in Blackburn was 
 founded and endowed in conjunction with the Chantry of the B. V. Mary 
 in Blackburn Church, endowed by Thomas, Earl of Derby, in the year 
 1 5 14. The Chantry being suppressed, Edward VI. soon after (A.D. 
 1 551), granted in trust for the use of the Chantry Priest, Thomas 
 Burgess, for the term of his life, in lieu of the rents of certain chantry 
 lands, a sum equal to the ancient endowment of ^£4 7s. 4d., out of the 
 revenues of the Duchy, the said priest being required to continue the 
 duties of school-master of th^ said school. The school was thus nomi- 
 nally perpetuated, but inadequately sustained; and in A.D. 1567, upon a 
 petition from the inhabitants, Queen Elizabeth granted a Charter for 
 the new foundation of a Free Grammar School in Blackburn, of which a 
 translation' is subjoined : — 
 
 Elizabeth, by the grace of God, of England, France, and Ireland Queen, Defender 
 of the Faith, &c. To all to whom these present letters shall come, greeting. Know 
 ye that we, upon the humble Petition, as well of the Inhabitants of the vill and Parish 
 1 This translation was made by Mr. John Clough, of Blackburn. 
 
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL CHARTER. 313 
 
 of Blackburn, in our County of Lancaster, as of very many others, our subjects of the 
 whole country in the neighbourhood thereof, to us, for a Grammar School to be there 
 erected and established, for the institution and instruction of boys and young persons, 
 of our special grace, and our certain knowledge and mere motion, we will, grant, and 
 for us, our heirs and successors, ordain, that henceforth there be and shall be one 
 Grammar School in the said vill of Blackburn, which shall be called the Free Grammar 
 School of Queen Elizabeth, for the education, institution, and instruction of boys and 
 young persons in grammar, to be and remain for ever ; and we do by these presents 
 erect, create, ordain, and found that school to continue for ever, of one master, or 
 pedagogue, and one sub-pedagogue or under-master. And that this our aforesaid 
 intent may take the better effect, and that the lands, tenements, rents, revenues, and 
 other issues to be granted, assigned, and appointed for the support of the aforesaid 
 school, may be better governed for the continuance of the same, we will and ordain 
 that henceforth for ever there be and shall be in the vill and Parish of Blackburn afore- 
 said, fifty men of the more discreet and honest of the Inhabitants or Freeholders of the 
 aforesaid vill and Parish for the time being, who shall be and shall be called Governors, 
 of the possessions, fevenues, and goods of the said Free School, commonly called and 
 to be called the Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth in Blackburn, in the county 
 of Lancaster. And therefore know ye that we have assigned, chosen, named, and 
 appointed, and by these presents do assign, choose, name, and appoint, our beloved 
 Gilbert Gerrard, Esq., our Attorney-General ; also our beloved Sir Thomas Langton, 
 Knight; Sir John Southworth, Knight; Sir Thomas Hesketh, Knight; Sir William 
 Ratcliffe, Knight; John Osbaldiston, Esq.; Henry Talbot, Esq.; John Talbot, Esq.; 
 Robert Barton, Esq. ; William Farrington, Esq. ; Ralph Rissheton, Esq. ; John Braddell, 
 Esq. ; John Hylton, clerk. Vicar of Blackburn aforesaid ; also Richard Livesaye, 
 gentleman; Lawrence Ainsworth, gentleman; George Astley, gentleman; Robert 
 Morley, gentleman; William Clayton, gentleman; Robert Astley, gentleman; Thomas 
 Walmysley, gentleman ; Alexander Osbaldeston, gentleman ; John Isherwoode, James 
 Whithalgh, James Garstange, Thomas Holden, Evan Holden, Robert Bolton, Richard 
 Cunlyff, Thomas Gillibrand, Thurstan Maudesley, William Dewhurst, William 
 Barker, Christopher Mersden, Robert Warde, Robert Waddington, Richard Page, 
 William Page, John Cowbume, Henry Mersden, John Linnols, Richard Ducksburye, 
 Roger Gillibrand, Richard Heyworth, Thomas Whitehalgh, George Assheton, John 
 Hodgeson, Alexander Bolton, Richard Edleston, Adam Bolton, and Randal Feilden, 
 Inhabitants and Freeholders of the said vill and Parish of Blackburn, to be and remain 
 first and new Governors of the possessions, revenues and goods of the Free Grammar 
 School of Queen Elizabeth in Blackburn, &c., the same office well and truly to exer- 
 cise and occupy, from the date of these presents, during their lives, and the lives of the 
 longer livers of them. And that the same governors in deed, in fact and in name be 
 and shall be henceforth one body corporate and politic of themselves for ever, by the 
 name of the Governors of the possessions, revenues, and goods of the Free 
 Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth in Blackburn, incorporated and erected. And 
 by these presents we incorporate these governors of the possessions, revenues, and 
 goods of the Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth in Blackburn. And we really 
 and fully create, erect, ordain, make, and by these presents appoint, a body corporate 
 and politic to continue for ever by the same name. And we will and by these presents 
 do ordain and grant that the said Governors of the possessions, revenues, and goods of 
 the Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth in Blackburn, have perpetual succession, 
 and by the same name be and shall be persons able and in law capable to acquire, 
 receive, and take and hold demesnes, manors, lands, tenements, rents, reversions, 
 
 40 
 
314 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 tithes, possessions, revenues, hereditaments whatever, or of what kind, nature, or sort 
 soever they shall be, to themselves and their successors in fee and perpetuity ; and 
 likewise to give, grant, let and assign the same lands, tenements, and hereditaments, 
 and all and singular other acts and deeds to do and execute by the name aforesaid. 
 And that by the name of the Governors of the possessions, revenues, and goods of the 
 Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth in Blackburn, they have power and be able 
 to plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered, defend and be defended, in 
 whatsoever courts, places, and steads, and before whatsoever judges and justices, and 
 other persons, and any officers, in all and singular actions, suits, complaints, causes, 
 matters, and demands whatsoever, and of whatsoever kind, nature, and sort they may 
 be, by the same manner and form as other our lieges of this our kingdom of England, 
 persons fit and in law capable, have power and are able to plead and be impleaded, 
 answer and be answered, defend and be defended, and have, acquire, receive, possess, 
 • give, grant, and let. And that the aforesaid governors and their successors, henceforth 
 for ever have a common Seal, that shall serve for the transacting of whatever causes 
 and businesses of their own, and of their successors. And moreover we grant, ordain, 
 and by these presents decree, that whensoever it shall happen that one or more of the 
 said fifty Governors for the time being shall die, that then and so often it shall be lawful 
 for the said other Governors surviving, or the major part of the same at that time 
 residing and living in the said vill and parish of Blackburn, to elect and nominate 
 another fit person, or other fit persons, of the Inhabitants or Freeholders of the vill 
 and Parish of Blackburn aforesaid, into the places of him or them so dying, to succeed 
 in the said office of Governor, and this so often as the case shall happen. And iurther- 
 more, of our further grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, we have given and 
 granted, and by these presents do give and grant, to the aforesaid new Governors and 
 their successors, and to the major part of the same, full power and authority of naming 
 and appointing a Master and Under Master of the said School, so often as the same 
 shall be void of a master or under master ; and that the same Governors for the time 
 being from time to time make, and have power and authority to make, fit and whole- 
 some Statutes and Ordinances in writing, concerning and touching the preservation 
 and disposition of the rents and revenues appointed for the support of the said School, 
 which statutes and orders so to be made, we will, and grant, and by these presents 
 command inviolably to be observed from time to time for ever. And furthermore 
 know ye, that in consideration that the said Governors of the said Free Grammar 
 School of Queen Elizabeth in Blackburn, in the county of Lancaster, and their succes- 
 sors, may the better sustain and support the charge of the same school, and of the 
 master and under-master thereof, from time to time, of our special grace, certain know- 
 ledge and mere motion, we have given and granted, and by these presents do give and 
 grant unto the aforesaid new Governors of the possessions, revenues, and goods of the 
 said Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth, in Blackburn aforesaid, and their 
 successors, special and free license and lawful faculty, power, and authority of having, 
 receiving, and acquiring, to them and their successors for ever, as well of us, our heirs 
 and successors, as of any other person or persons whatsoever, whatever manors, 
 messuages, tenements, rectories, tithes, or other hereditaments whatsoever, within the 
 kingdom of England or in any other place within our dominions, which are not held of 
 us immediately in chief, provided that they do not exceed the clear annual value of 
 Thirty Pounds, to the aforesaid Governors and their successors as above related, as 
 being granted by us in form aforesaid, the statute of lands and tenements in Mortmain, 
 or any other statute, act, ordinance, or provision, &c., notwithstanding. And we will 
 and by these presents do grant to the aforesaid new Governors that they have and 
 
THE ORIGINAL SCHOOL LANDS. 315 
 
 shall have these our letters patent under our Great Seal of England duly executed and 
 sealed, without fine or fee, great or small, to be yielded, paid, or made to us in our 
 I lanaper Court, or in any other place, in any wise for our use ; so far, at least, as 
 ex])ress mention is made of the true yearly value or of any other value or certitude of 
 the premises, or any part thereof, or of any other gifts or grants made by us in these 
 presents, or by any of our progenitors, to the aforesaid new Governors of the posses- 
 sions, revenues, and goods of the said Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth, in 
 Blackburn aforesaid, and their predecessors before these times, any other statute, act, 
 ordinance, provision, proclamation or restriction, made, published, ordained, or 
 provided, &c., to the contrary notwithstanding. In witness whereof we have caused 
 these our letters to be made patent. Witness Our Seal at Gorhambury, the Eighth 
 day of August, in the Ninth year of our reign. By Writ under Privy Seal, and of the 
 date aforesaid, by authority of Parliament. (Signed) Buggyn. 
 
 Eighteen years after the date of this Charter, a cause was pleaded in 
 the Duchy Court for recovery of the copyhold lands originally granted for 
 the endowment of the Chantry and Free School, which had been appro- 
 priated by the Crown. This cause was heard in the Michaelmas term, 
 27th and 28th Elizabeth (1585). The plaintiffs were Richard Livesey 
 and others (the Governors of the School), Inhabitants of Blackburn, and 
 the defendants were Richard Goodshaw and Nicholas Halsted ; the 
 matter in contest being the right and interest in certain messuages and 
 lands, lying in Burnley, Padiham, and Blackburn, in Lancashire, and in 
 Slaidbum, in Yorkshire, being copyhold of the manors of Ightenhill and 
 Slaidburn. An indenture was produced, dated 5th Henry VIII., as well 
 as a Decree of the Duchy Court, of the 2nd Elizabeth (1560), to the 
 effect that "the said premises were given principally for the maintenance 
 of a chantry priest, to sing and say mass, and other superstitious services 
 in the Chapel of Our Lady, in the Church of Blackburn, which chantry 
 priest should teach a Grammar School and a Song School." It was 
 shown further that " by virtue of a commission granted by Edward VI., 
 in the fourth year of his reign, after the statute made for the dissolution 
 of the Chantries, to the stewards of the said manors, the said lands and 
 tenements had been devised by copy of court roll, to certain persons 
 and their heirs, to the use of Thomas Burgess, late chantry priest of 
 the said Chantry, for his life, and afterwards to their own use, and that 
 those persons had paid certain sums of money for the said premises, 
 and that the defendants and the copyholders of the said premises, or 
 their ancestors, had likewise paid sums of money for the same to the 
 first purchasers, and that the title of the said copyholders had been by 
 the said decree of the 2nd Elizabeth confirmed and allowed." The 
 following record of the pleas and answer in this cause is found in the 
 " Burleigh Papers " {Lansdowne MS. 46), in the British Museum 
 Library : — 
 
 [Endorsed] 10 Feb. 1585-6. The case touching the Free Schole of Blackbume 
 
3i6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 in Lancashire, with the objections answered. — The Quene's Ma'stie hathe incorporated 
 a ffree Grammer Schole in Blackbume in Lancaster, called the Free Grammer Schole 
 of Quene Elizabethe in Blackburne, and that they may purchase landes not exceedinge 
 a certaine valew. Before this corp'acon ther was a Scole ther not incorp'ate, and 
 certaine ffeoffees were seased of coppeholde landes p'cell of the Quenes Mannor to 
 them and their heires, to th' intente to fynde a Schole Master w'ch should be the 
 preyst and maynteyne the Quyeres and saye masses and diriges for the sowles of the 
 founders, fforasmuch as Coppyholde landes w'ch were in the handes of others then 
 the Chauntrye Preysts are excepted out the .Statute of Chauntries, these landes were 
 not taken from the feoffees by the statute, but theye by warrante from King Phillypp 
 and Quene Marie surrendered the same in I and 2 Phil, et Marie to certaine newe 
 feoffees and their heires to th'yntente to fynde a scholemaster at Blackburne and to 
 th'use of a Schole to be kepte at Blackburne. Accordinge to this warrante, the newe 
 feoffees were admitted to the use of the Schole. The newe feoffees of coppyeholde 
 landes p'cell of the Quenes Mannor, have exhibited theire peticion in the Duchie, and 
 have humblie prayed that they may have and enjoye the coppieholde landes to the use^ 
 of the Schole, as by lawe they oughte in righte to have the said landes. It ys objected 
 by Mr. Attorney of the Duchie, that however the righte of the ffeoffees be, yet they may 
 not have the landes, because they and diverse other copieholde landes in Lancaster were 
 solde in 4'° Ed. VI. by surrender in the Coppeholde Courte. And yf the feoffees 
 should have those landes, other feoffees wolde by lyke petycion take away all the 
 other copiholde landes which were solde, and hinder the Quenes Ma'stie. 
 
 To this firste parte it is answered, that her Ma'stes pleasure ys (as they thinke) 
 that her subjectes for her own Schole shoulde of her owne lawes have justiciam et 
 rectum, beinge claimed by them as theire inheritance and allowed by her Ma'ste and 
 all her noble progenytors. .Secondlye, the generall myschieffe of other cases (alleged) 
 dothe not extende to this case, because in this case there was a good use for a free 
 gramer Schole, w'ch was mente to be mayntayned by the Statute of Chauntries, 
 and not overthrowne, and in the other cases there be noe Scholes to be considered. 
 And in this case there ys a new admyttance of new feoffees, and to the use of a Gramer 
 Scole, and a decree accordinglye for the Scole, w'ch is not in other cases. 
 
 The Quenes Ma'stie shall have the olde rente of the feoffees of the schole yearlie 
 paide, and so noe loss to her Ma'stie, and for the ffyne due to her Ma'stie upon 
 surrenders or upon deathe, yt is but a yere's rente, and the feoffees did lett yt by 
 surrender to the tenantes, who paide ffynes and most part of all the copieholders 
 landes there are usuallie putt in ffeolfees hands, and order hath been taken that 
 notwythstandinge the Lorde shall be answered of her ffyne, w'ch order the feoffees will 
 performe. And these feoffees for the Scole are allreadie by speciall warrante of Kinge 
 I'hillippe and Quene Mary admitted and allowed, and so that exception is not to be 
 objected again to those feoffees. 
 
 Upon this case the report of the Attorney General of the Duchy, 
 dated February 22nd, 1585-6, is as follows : — 
 
 The estate of the Copiholde Landes claymed by the feoffees for the mayntenance 
 of the Scole of Blackbume. — It is trewe that her Ma'tie hath incorporated a free 
 Grammer Scole in Blackburne with lycense to purchase landes to a certen valew and 
 hath appointed the now Mr of the Rowles to be one of the Governors thereof And 
 longe before the incorporacon of the saide Scole c'ten feoffees were seased of copiholde 
 landes of her Ma'ties Mannor to th'intent to maynteyne a chaunterie preist in the 
 Churche of Blackbume, w'ch preist should teach a Grammer Scole and a Songe Scole 
 
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL DECREE OF 1585. 317 
 
 (if such a one could be had), if not, then a Songe Scole, and should saye Masse and 
 diriges for the soule of the founder of the said Chaunterie in the said Churche. So 
 as the landes were given for the mayntenance of a chaunterie preist, w'ch preist should 
 be qualited as aforesaide, if such a one could be gotten, and not otherwise geven for 
 the mayntenance of a scole. And there was not almost any Chaunterie Preist in a 
 manner but he was tied and bounde to doe some Godlie and lawfuU thinge. By the 
 Statute made in primo Ed. VI., all Chaunteres were dissolved, and the said Kinge in 
 the fourth year of his raigne did by his Comyssion comande that all such copiholde 
 landes holden of his highnes should be seased into his hande, blayminge his officers 
 w'ch had suffered the copiholde landes of his Manner to be surrendered to such uses 
 and such corporacions, whereby he was prejudiced in his fynes and inheritance, and 
 after seasure made to grante them out againe by copie to Si" Edwarde Warner, Knyghte, 
 Henrie Savile, and James Gardyner, for reasonable fynes, reservinge the auncient rent, 
 whereuppon seasure was made and the same graunted for tenne yeres fyne ; which 
 Copiholde landes amounted to the value of fyve hundreth poundes a yere and above, 
 and is now dispersed amongst almost a~ thowsand persons, who have bene at charge in 
 purchasinge of them and in buildinge uppon them. All wrde soe the M'te [?] of 
 whome such copiholde landes geven to such sup'stitious uses were holden after the 
 uses were inhibited did sease the said copiholde landes and did dispose them at ther 
 pleasure. There be sev'all decrees made in the Duchie that the nowe copiholders 
 should enjoye the saide copiholde landes as they have done sithence the saide seisure 
 made by the saide Kinge Edwarde and the graunte made as aforesaide. Sr Walter 
 Myldmay, Knt., and Mr. Kellewaye, by vertue of a commyssion in Kinge Edwarde's 
 tyme to them directed, for the contynewinge of Scoles and erectinge of Scoles, did 
 allowe £i, 7s. 4d. yerelie for the better maynetenance of the Scole in Blackbume, w'ch 
 was as muche or more then was employed in that respecte as it seemed. The laste 
 terme, by meanes of y'r Lo: lettres and some other of her Ma'tys most hon'able Privie 
 Counsell, Mr Chancellor of the Duchie, Sr Gilb'te Gerrarde, Knighte, John Clynche, 
 one of her Ma'tes Justice of Assisses within the Countie of Lancaster, where the saide 
 landes doe lie, Willm. ffletwoode, Sei^yant at the Lawe, and the rest of the Counsell 
 of the saide Duchie, assembled themselves, to the end the same schole might be in 
 reasonable manner maynteyned, and that her Ma'ties dere brother's grant should not 
 be called in question, noe such a number of people molested touchinge ther habitacon 
 [upon] copiholde landes by them p'chased as aforesaid ; noe yet her Ma'tie thought 
 in honour bounde to restore so greate a some, being levied by reason of the seasure 
 and grauntinge of the said copiholde landes beinge fower thousande poundes or ther- 
 abouts ; noe yett fermor decrees touchinge the said landes re-examyned ; did order and 
 decree that ther shoulde be yerelie paied towardes the mayntenance of the saide scole 
 the yerelie rent of ^^4 7s. 4d. allowed as aforesaid, and that the some of j^ioo or 
 therabouts should be paied and delivered to the Mr of the Rowles to be imployed in 
 the purchasinge of landes to the use of the said scole for the better mayntenance 
 thereof. 
 
 The Decree of the Duchy Court upon this suit, bearing date Feb. 
 22nd, 1585-6, I cQi^y in extenso ixam. the original writing in the School 
 Chest : — 
 
 Elizabeth dei gra Anglie ffraunce et Hib'nie Regina fidei defensor Omnibus 
 ad quos p'ntes Ire nre p'venerint saltm. Inspeximus tenor cuiusdem decret sive Record 
 in camera ducat nro Lancaster apud Westm inter Record eiusdm ducat ibm remanen' 
 et exlsten' in hec verba: Termio M'chis Annis regni Regine Elizabeth &c. xxviimo 
 
3i8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 et xxviiimo die ven'is viz. xxvito Novembris 1585. Inter Ricm. Livesey et al' 
 Inhabitant' de Blackebume quer' et Ricm. Goodshawe et Nichol' Halsted defend'. — 
 Wherkas matter of variance is dependinge in this honourable Courte betwene the said 
 p'ties for and concemynge the right interest and title of in and to certen mesuages 
 landes ten'tes and hereditamentes with th' appurtenances sett lyinge and beinge in 
 Burnley, Padiham and Blackburne in the countie of Lancaster and in Sladbume in the 
 countie of Yorke beinge copieholde landes and ten'tes holden of her Ma'tie accordinge 
 to the customes of the manners of Ightenhill and Sladbume and the Wapentage of 
 Cliderowe p'cell of the possessions of the duchie of Lancaster claymed by the said 
 compl'ts to be given and assured in the fifte yere of the Reigne of the late Kinge Henry 
 the eight to and for the mayntenn'ce of a free gramer schoole in the Towne of Black- 
 burne aforesaide, and alledged by the deffend'ts to have bene given and assured for the 
 maintenn'ce of a Chauntrye in the Churche of Blackburne aforesaid which said cause 
 hath bene at sev'all dales in this p'nte terme of St. Michaell herde and debated in open 
 courte before the Chauncellor and Councell of this Courte by the Coimsell lerned of 
 both the saide p'ties and now this p'nte fridaie beinge the xxvith of November above- 
 saide the said cause hath eftsones bene herde and debated before the said Chauncellor 
 Sr. Gilb'te Gerrard Knight master of the RoUes John Clenche one of the Justices of 
 her Highnes Benche Will'm fBetewoode Sergent at lawe and John Brogreve esquier 
 Attorney gen'all of this courte and by them fuUie understoode and considered of and 
 for asmuche as uppon the hearinge thereof yt appeared as well by an Indenture dated 
 the thirde dale of April in the fifte yere of the reign of the said late Kinge Henrie the 
 eight showed furthe by the said compl'tes as also by a decree made in this courte in the 
 terme of St. Hillarye in the seconde yere of the quenes Ma'tes reigne that nowe ys, that 
 the said landes ten'tes and other the pr'misses were given especiallie and principallie 
 to the use and mainten'nce of a chauntrie priest to singe and sale masse and other 
 .sup'stitious service in the chappell of our ladie in the churche of Blackburne affbresaide 
 w'ch chauntrie priest should teache a gramer scole and a songe scole if suche a one 
 cold be hadd, and if not then a songe scole and for that the said pr'misses are and at 
 the tyme of the dissolucon of chauntries were copieholde landes holden of her Majestic 
 and her progenitors according to the customes of the said mannors of Ightenhill and 
 Sladbume and the wapentage of Clitherowe. And for asmuche as it appeared that the 
 late Kinge Edward the Sixte did directe a comission under the seale of this Courte after 
 the Statute made for the dissolucon of Chauntries, that is to weete in the fourthe yere 
 of his reigne emongest other to the Stewardes, under-stewardes, surveyour, and receyvours 
 of the said Lordshippes sookes lib'ties and ffrauncheses aforesaid, rehersinge that for 
 somuche as by the sufferaunce and negligence uf them and their predicessors officers of 
 the said Lordshippes mannors sookes lib'ties and frauncheses divers and sundry p'celles 
 of landes ten'tes and rentes holden by copie of courte rolle of the said severall lord- 
 shippes and mannors contrary to the poUitique lawes and statutes of this realme and 
 againste the custome of the said lordshippes and mannors to his disherison with the 
 losse of his fines customes and s'vices were surrendered and given up to feoffees and 
 otherwise to th'use of chauntrie priestes and stipendarye priestes and other incorpora- 
 cons intentes and purposes mencoued in the statute whereby colledges and chauntries 
 were geven to his possession, yet nev'thelesse althoughe he might as well for the causes 
 aforesaid as for divers forfeitures and other considetacons enter into the same immedi- 
 atelie, his heighnes was contented and pleased that eny such p'son and priestes and 
 other spirituall and eccl'iasticall p'sons as had the proflittes of the same at the tyme of 
 the makeinge of the said statute should have and enjoye the profTittes thereof duringe 
 their naturall lives according to the statute aforesaid and to th'intente to reduce the 
 
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL DECREE OF 1585. 319 
 
 said premisses into their former estate so that afterwardes the said Kinge his heires 
 and successors might justlie and dulie have all suche fines, relifes, rentes customes and 
 s'vices as he at any tyme before or any his noble progenitors had of the premisses 
 accordinge to the severall customes of his said lordshippes and marmors, his heighnes 
 therefore by the advice of his Chauncellor and Councell of this courte for the tyme 
 beinge did will and comaunde the said officers that immediatly uppon the sight thereof 
 they and any of them sev'allie within their offices by vertue of the said comission at the 
 courtes to be holden within the said lordshippes and mannors shoulde with all spede 
 graunt demise and lett by copie of courte roUe unto Sr Edwarde Warner, Knight, 
 Henry Savile Esquier and James Gardiner their heires and assignes, or to such other 
 p'son and p'sons as they shoulde name and appointe, and to theire heires and assignes, 
 all those landes ten'tes and hereditamentes holden of the said severall lordshippes and 
 mannors by copie of courte rolle and then in the sev'all tenures and occupacons of the 
 said priestes or of any other p'son or p'sons to the use of the said priestes or other 
 intentes and purposes menconed in the said statute, To have and to holde accordinge 
 to the customes of the said sev'all lordshippes and mannors to the uses of everie of the 
 said priestes duringe their lives and after their sev'all deathes to remayne to the said 
 Sr Edward Warner Henry Savell and James Gardiner and to their heires and assignes 
 or to such other p'son or p'sons as they should name and appoint, and to their heires 
 and assignes for ever according to the custome of the said sev'all lordshippes and 
 mannors with a proviso for the takinge of the accustomed fyne uppon every of the said 
 grauntes and reservinge thereuppon to the said late Kinge his heires and successors 
 th'olde and accustomed rentes and s'vices of and for the premisses to be paide when the 
 said p'sons should be in possession of the said premisses and not afore. And with 
 another proviso that the said premisses should not conclude the title of any stranger 
 other than the priestes and feoffees seased to their uses, and for asmuche as it appeared 
 that the said premisses nowe in varyance by force and vertue of the said commission 
 were by the said stewardes demised and letten by coppie of courte rolle accordinge to 
 the sev'all customes aforesaid to certen p'sons sev'allie and their sev'all heires named 
 and appointed by the said Sir Edward Warner Henry Savile and James Gardiner to 
 th'use of one 7'homas Burgesse, clerke, late chauntrie prieste of the said chauntrie 
 duringe his lifTe and afterwardes to their owne uses accordinge to the purporte of the 
 said comission. And for that it appeared that the said purchasers paide div'rs somes 
 of money for the said p'misses as well to the said late Kinge Edwarde the Sixte as to 
 the said Sr Edward Warner Knight Henry Savile and James Gardiner, and that the 
 said def 'tes and ether the nowe ten'ntes and coppieholders of the said p'misses or their 
 auncestors have likwise paide greate somes of money for the said p'misses to the said 
 first purchasers or others from whom they clayme and derive their title. And for that 
 the said Thomas Burgesse, clerke, received and toke the issues and p'fittes of the said 
 p'misses during his naturall life by vertue of the said commission and admission, and 
 for asmuche as sithence the deathe of the said priest the title of the said defend'tes and 
 other purchasers and copieholders of the said p'misses was by the said decree made in 
 this courte in the said seconde yere of the quenes Ma'tes reigne confirmed and allowed 
 of and an injunction awarded to the underten'ntes of pr'misses to paie the arrerages 
 of the rentes to the then def 'tes and other copieholders and from thenceforth to p'mitt 
 them to occupie and enjoie the said p'misses and a commission thereuppon awarded to 
 the said stewardes to putt the said then defies and other copieholders into possession 
 of the same p'misses and from tyme to tyme to mayneteine and p'serve them in the 
 same. And for that it appered by decree or decrees made in this courte that the titles of 
 the said newe copieholders have bene from tyme to tyme allowed of by the courte and 
 
320 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 that the accustomed rentes and services of the said p'mises have bene trulie answered 
 and paied to her Ma'tie and her progenitors. And for asmuche as the dismission made 
 in this Courte in the fourth and fifth yeres of the late Kinge Phillippe and Quene 
 Marie shewed by the said compl'tes semed to be obteined upon a surmise that the said 
 p'misses were geven onelie or cheeflie for the use of the said free scole w'ch appeareth 
 otherwise by the said Indenture, It ys therefore this 26th daie of November in the 
 eight and twentith yere of the reign of our sov'eigne ladie Elizabeth by the grace of 
 God Quene, &c., ordered and decreed by the Chauncellor and Councell of this Courte 
 that the said defend'tes and other copieholders havinge estates from the said purchasers 
 and their heires and assignes w'th in the said manners and wapentage of Ightenhill 
 Sladbume Cliderowe and Blackbume shall from henceforth for ever sev'allie have 
 holde occupie and enjoye the said sev'all messuages landes ten'tes and other the p'misses 
 w'th th'appurten'nces by them sev'allie claymed w'thout lett troble sute vexacon eviccon 
 disturbance denyall or interupcon of the said compl'tes and inhabitantes of Blackbume 
 aforesaide or any of them or any of their heires or assignes or of any other p'son or 
 p'sons havinge or clayminge any estate or title in or to the said p'misses or any p'te 
 thereof by from or under the said compl'tes and inhabitantes their heires, &c. , or by 
 theire or any of theire assente consente or procurement or by from or to the use of the 
 said scole of Blackbume in any wise. And it ys ffurther ordered and decreed by the 
 said Chauncellor and Councell of this Courte that the said Richard Lyvesey, one of the 
 said compl'tes and such other p'sons as have or clayme to have any estate or interest 
 in or to the said premisses or any of them by force of a Surrender in the tyme of the 
 late Kinge Phillippe and Quene Marye by reason of a warrante from the saide late 
 Kinge and Quene or otherwise to or for the use and maynten'nce of the said Scole 
 shall after the feast of Saint Michell th' archanngell next and before the feast of the 
 birthe of our Lord God next ensuinge in the open Courtes of the said sev'all mannors 
 and wapentage lawfuUie and accordinge to the sev'all customes thereof at the coste and 
 chardge in the lawe of the said defies surrender release and extinguishe all their and 
 every of their estate and estates right title interest and demaunde of in and to the said 
 Mess'es landes and ten'tes to the said nowe copieholders thereof and to their sev'all 
 heires and assignes. And that the said compl'tes their heires or assignes shall also 
 before the said fieaste deliver or cause to be deliv'ed to the said Nicholas Hasted one 
 of the said def 'tes all the copies of courte rowles w'ch they have for the mainten'nce of 
 the said p'tended title for the use of the said Scole so as the said nowe copieholders 
 maye from hereafter quietlie have and enjoye the said p'misses without any further 
 troble sute or vexacon. And in consideracon of and for asmuche as it appeared by 
 the said Indenture that the said chauntrie preist sholde be sufficientlie lemed in 
 grammer yf any such could be gotten that shoulde kepe continuallie a free grammer 
 scole whereby it semeth that the founders of the said chauntrye had some respecte to 
 the said scole, and for asmuche also as the said late Kinge Edwarde the VI after 
 the dissolucon of chauntries did directe his commission unto Sr Walter Mildemay 
 Knight and Rob'te Kellewaye Esquier and others authorisinge them (amongest other 
 thinges) to appointe what scoles within the said countie of Lancaster were necessary to 
 be mainteined and kept and to lymit and appointe what stipend shoulde be allowed for 
 the same by force whereof the said Commission'rs thought it convenient that the said 
 ffree scole of Blackbume shoulde be contynewed and appointed the some of ffoure 
 poundes seaven shillinges and fower pence for and towardes the stipend thereof as by 
 the certificate of the said comission remayninge of recorde in this Courte appeareth 
 w'ch said stipend hathe not bene before this tyme demanded or paide. And for that 
 the right honourable Sr Willm Cicill Knight Lorde Burleighe and Lorde Threasorer 
 
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL DECREE OF 1585. 321 
 
 of Englande and some other of her Ma'tes most honourable privie Councell have 
 directed their I'res in favour of the mainten'nce and contynuance of a free gramer scole 
 there. It ys therefore ordered and decreed by the said Chauncellor w'th the full 
 consent of the said Sr Gilbert Gerrard Knight John Clinche Willm. ffleetwoode and the 
 reste of the Councell of this Courte that the said some of 4li 7s. 4d. shalbe from hence- 
 fprthe yerlie allowed and paied by her Ma'tie her heires and successors out of the 
 Revenewes of the said duchie of Lancaster by the Receivour of the same county of 
 Lancaster for the tyme beinge in or at her Ma'tes Castell of Cletherowe in the said 
 Countie of Lancaster att and uppon the first daye of Maye accordinge to the direction 
 and appointement in effecte of Sr Walter Myldmay Knight and Rob't Kellewaye by 
 vertue of the comission to them directed as aforesaid to and for the better maynten'nce 
 of the said ffree grammer scole in Blackbume aforesaid w'ch is nowe incorporated by 
 her Ma'tie and commonly called her Ma'ties ffree scole. And this decree shalbe a 
 sufficiente warrante to the receiver for the tyme being to make paiement thereof and 
 the Auditor in those p'tes to give allowance for the same. And it is thought good 
 by the said Chauncellor Sr Gilberte Gerrard Knight John Clinche Willm. ffleetewood 
 and to the Councell of this Courte that in respecte of the arrerages of the said some or 
 stipend allowed by the said Comissioners as is aforesaid w'ch amounteth to the some 
 of 13111 15s. 8d. or thereaboutes and w'ch hath not bene heretofore required or paied as 
 is foresaid that ther be allowed out of the Revenewes of the said duchie the some of 
 Threescore Poundes to be paied unto the handes of the said Sr Gilberte Gerrarde one 
 of the Gov'nors of the said Scole before the feast of the Nativitie of St. John Baptist 
 next cominge to the use of the said scole in Blackbume aforesaid. And that every of 
 the p'chasors and p'prietors of the said landes shall also paie towardes the said arrerages 
 for every acre of the said copieholde landes to be measured accordinge to the sev'all 
 customes of the said Mannors where the said landes doe lye tenne shillinges or else the 
 some of ffiftie and fyve poundes of lawfuU mony of Englande at the choise and election 
 of the nowe copieholders at the great Courte to be holden at the sev'all mannors after 
 the saide ffeast of St Michael the archangell next and before the saide Birthe of our 
 Lorde God next foilowinge to be imployed and bestowed by and w'th the good and 
 grave advice of the said Sr Gilbt. Gerrarde Knight for the better maynten'nce of the 
 said ff^ree gramer scoole to have contynuance for ever. Provided alwaies that non 
 of the p'sons that are nowe in possession of any p'te or p'cell of the p'misses shalbe 
 displaced or removed from his possession duringe the naturall lief of the now possessor 
 or occupier w'thout the privitie or consent of the Chauncellor and Councell of the duchie 
 of Lancaster for the tyme being. Nos autem tenor decret sive record pred ad 
 instancia pred Nicholam Halsted et als & duximus exemplificand p p'ntes IN cuius 
 REI TESTIMONIUM has I'ras n'ras fieri fecimus patentes DAT apud palac'm n'r'm 
 Westm sub sigillo ducat n'ri Lancaster pred vicessimo secundo die ffebruarii anno 
 regni n'ri vicessimo octavo. 
 
 The moneys received for arrearages under the above Decree 
 accumulated for several years, until they amounted to above ^100, 
 when, by a subscription of the parishioners, a sum of ;^2 5o was added 
 thereto, and the whole invested in the purchase of an annual rent charge 
 of ^20. This was done in 1590, by an indenture dated the 30th of 
 September in that year (32nd Eliz.) This deed is a covenant between 
 Edward Eltoftes, of Fearnhill, Co. York, of the one part, and the Governors 
 of the possessions of the Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth, in 
 
 41 
 
322 - HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Blackburn, Sir John Southworth, Knt., Thomas Talbot, John Osbaldes- 
 ton, and William Farington, Esquires; Edward Walmsley and Robert 
 Walmsley, gentlemen, of the other part; by which the said Edward 
 Eltoftes, in consideration of ;^36o paid by the said Governors, covenanted 
 that he and Thomas Eltoftes, his son and heir, would levy a fine to the 
 said Edward Walmsley and Robert Walmsley, of the messuage called 
 Feamhill Poole, in Feamhill, Yorkshire, and the lands thereto belonging, 
 and of all the other messuages and lands of the said Edward in Feam- 
 hill ; and Edward Walmsley and Robert Walmsley agreed, by the same 
 fine, to grant to the said Sir John Southworth, Thomas Talbot, John 
 Osbaldeston, William Farington, and the heirs of the said Sir John, an 
 annual rent-charge of £,20, issuing out of the said messuages and lands, 
 of which the said Edward Walmsley and Robert Walmsley should stand 
 seized. In the same year, a fine was levied in pursuance of this 
 covenant, and in the following year, the said Sir John Southworth and 
 others conveyed the said rent-charge of £^20 to the Governors and their 
 successors. 
 
 I give below, copied from the School Records, an interesting cate- 
 gory of contributors to the Parish Subscription for augmentation of the 
 School endowment, made sometime between the years 1585 and 1590: — 
 
 Tile names of such p'sons as of theire Godlye and charitable dispositions bestowed 
 anye benevolence towardes the purchasinge of a yearlye rent of twentye poundes for 
 the use of the ffree gramer schole of Quene Elizabeth in Blackebume, and the severall 
 somes bestowed by everie suche person. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Gylbert Gerrard Knight by his tenantes of ShoUey, Mellor, Balderston, 
 
 and , the some of - 
 
 Thomas Walmysley one of her Majestes Justices of the Benche, of his 
 
 owne gyfte the some of a htindrethe markes - - - 66 13 4 
 
 Sr John Sothwoorthe Knighte his tenantes and followers the some of 
 
 twentie seven poundes - - - - - - 27 o o 
 
 John Osbaldeston Esquire his tenantes and followers the some of thurtie 
 
 poundes - - - - - - - -30 00 
 
 Willm. flTarrington Esquire of his owne gyfte the some of tenn poundes 10 o o 
 Thomas Talbot Esquire of his owne gyfte the some of fyve poundes - 500 
 Edwarde Braddill Esquire of his owne gyfte the some of fyve markes - 368 
 Thomas Sothwoorthe Esquire of his owne gyfte the some of fyve markes 368 
 Rauffe Barton Esquire of his owne gyfte the some of ffoure poundes - 400 
 Thomas Langton Esquire Baron of Newton his tenants and followers 
 
 the some of - - . - - - -500 
 
 The ladye Anne Ratclyffe of her owne gyfte the some of - - 
 
 Willm. IIar%voode clerke otherwyse called P'son Harwoode of his owne 
 
 gyfte three poundes - - - - - -300 
 
 Thomas Holcrofte Esquire of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -100 
 
 Rauffe Assheton Esquire of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -100 
 
PARISH CONTRIBUTIONS FOR SCHOOL ENDOWMENT. 323 
 
 £ s. d. 
 Edwarde Walche Vicar of Blackeburne of his owne gyfte the some of 
 
 twentye shillinges - - - • - - -100 
 
 Edwarde Walmysley gen. of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -loo 
 
 Roberte Walmysleye gen. of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -100 
 
 Roger Nowell Esquire of his owne gyfte the some of thirtie three 
 
 shillinges foure pence - - - - - -1134 
 
 John Braddill sonne and heire apparent of Edward Braddill of his owne 
 
 gyfte the some of thirteen shillinges foure pence - - - o 13 4 
 
 Raynolde Burscoughe servant to Sr Edwarde Anderton Knight, L. 
 
 Cheiff Justice of the Comon Please of his owne gyfte the some of - 500 
 Roberte Morley gen. of his owne gyfte the some of twentye shillinges - 100 
 Geoi^e Talbot of the Carre gen. of his owne gyfte the some of ffbrtie 
 
 shillinges whereof twentie shillinges for the Carr and twentie 
 
 shillinges for Wytton - - - - - -200 
 
 Richard Walmysley gen. of his owne gyfte the some of twentie 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -100 
 
 Lawrence Aynsworth of Lyvesay of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -100 
 
 Thomas Gelibrande of Ramesgrave of his owne gyfte the some of 
 
 twentye shillinges - - - - - - .100 
 
 Lawrence Haworthe of Nether Darwyn of his owne gyfte the some of 
 
 twentye shillinges - - - - - - -100 
 
 Lawrence Duckesburye of Moche Har\voode of his own gyfte the some 
 
 of twentye shillinges - - - - - -100 
 
 Richarde Parker of Loveley gen. of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -lOO 
 
 Gylbart Risheton of Doneshoppe of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -100 
 
 John Gelibrande of Beard wood of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -100 
 
 John Talbot of Whalley gen. of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -100 
 
 William Dewhurst of Wylpshire of his owne gyfte the some of twentye 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -100 
 
 Nycholas Ryshton of Antley of his owne gyfte the some of tenn 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - - o 10 o 
 
 William Ryshton servant to Mr. Justice Walmysley of his owne gyfte 
 
 the some of tenn shillinges - - - - -0100 
 
 Randle Lyvesay the archar of his owne gyfte the some of tenn shillinges o 10 o 
 Isabel! Cunlyffe laite wyffe of Robt. Cunlyffe of the Sparthe of her 
 
 owne gyfte - - - - - - - -0100 
 
 John Cowbrand of Ediholes of his owne gyfte the some of syxe shillinges 
 
 eighte pence - - - - - - -068 
 
 George Bolton by his laste Will the some of syxe shillinges eight pence 068 
 Robert Catterall of monye for fyftenes w'che remayned in his handes 
 
 thirtie eight shillinges syxe pence - - - - - I 18 6 
 
 The Inhabitants of the towne of Ryshton the some of seven poundes 
 
 nynetene shillinges twoe pence - - - - .7 19 2 
 
324 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 £ s d. 
 The Inhabitants of the towne of Wytton the some of ffbrtie shillinges - 200 
 The ffreeholders and tenants of Mr. Justice Shuttleworthe and Rauffe 
 
 Barton Esquire in Blackburne the some of thirteen poundes twoe 
 
 shillinges - - - - - - - -1320 
 
 The ffreeholders and tenants of Willm. ffarrington Esquire fermar of 
 
 the Rectorie of Blackburne the some of eleven poundes - - 1 1 o o 
 
 The Inhabitants of the towne of Lytle Harwoode the some of syxe 
 
 poundes tenn shillinges - - - - - - 6 10 o 
 
 The Inhabitants of the towne of Nether Darwyn besydes some that 
 
 remayneth yet unpayde the some of foure poundes nyneteen 
 
 shillinges twoe pence - - - - - - 4 19 2 
 
 Mr. Holcroftes tenants in Billington, and foure of Mr. Ashtons tenants 
 
 there the some of fyftie shillinges and twoe pence - - - 2 12 2 
 
 The Inhabitants of the Over-towne of Harwoode the some of fyftie 
 
 shillinges - - - - - • - - 2 lo o 
 
 The Inhabitants of the Lower towne of Harwoode the some of twelve 
 
 shillinges syxe pence - - - • - - o 12 6 
 
 The Inhabitants of Accrington, Oswaldtwysle, Claiton, and Churche, 
 
 as p'te of theire benevolence collected by Gilbt. Rishton and 
 
 Thomas Ryley the some of thirtie fyve shillinges and eleven pence i 15 11 
 The Inhabitants of Walton-in-the-Dale the some of - 
 The Inhabitants of Tockeholes the some of - 
 George Yates of Yate-bancke by his last Will - - - -068 
 
 Willm. Holden the some of - - - - - -100 
 
 Thomas Holden of Eyivood by his last Will, payed by Randell Holden 
 
 his executor - - - - - - -100 
 
 Thomas Aynesworthe Esquire and the Inhabitants of the towne of 
 
 Pleasington, whereof Mr. Ainsworthe paled for himselfe 40s. - 517 %% 
 
 [List of Governors, circa 1586.] — Gylberte Gerrarde, Knighte, 
 Mr of the Relies ; Thomas Walmysley, one of her Ma'tes Justices of the 
 Benche ; Sr John Soothworth, Knighte ; Sr Richarde Shuttleworthe, 
 Knighte ; Robert Heskethe, Esquire ; John Osbaldeston, Esquire ; 
 Thomas Langton, Baron of Newton ; Thomas Holcrofte, Esquire (modo 
 Miles); Thomas Talbot, Esquire (mart, prima Mail 1598J; Rauffe 
 Barton, Esquire (mortuus 1S92J; Rauffe Ashton, Esquire; Willm. 
 ffarrington, Esquire; Edwarde Braddill, Esquire; John Talbot of 
 Salburie, Esquire ; Roger Nowell, Esquire ; Edwarde Walmysleye, gen. ; 
 Thomas Aynesworthe, gen. ; Rycharde Lyvesey, gen. (mortuus 1 590J ; 
 James Ryssheton of Mycklehey; Edwarde Walshe, Vycar of Blacke- 
 bume; Thomas Astley, gen.; Richard Parkgr, gen. (morttius 1592^; 
 George Talbott, gen. ; Alexander Osbaldeston, gen. (mortuus 1 598J ; 
 Robert Morley, gen. (mortuus 1592^; Richarde Walmysley, gen. ; Hugh 
 Dyconson of Tockeholes (mortuus 1599^; John Cowbome of Ediholls; 
 Thomas Gelibrande (mortuus 1595^; Lawrence Aynesworthe ; Willm. 
 Houlden (mortuus 1593^); James Garsden (mortuus 1595^; Willm. 
 Boulton (mortuus 1594^); Willm. Crosse (mortuus 1599J; Lawrence 
 
EVIDENCES OF SCHOOL ESTATE. 325 
 
 Haworthe; Lawrence Duckesburye; George Lyvesaye of Sydebighte 
 
 ('iSQZ mortuus est); Richarde Page (obiit 23 die 'jFanuarii \^()o) ; Thomas 
 
 Whithalghe (obiit 1592^ ; Roger Smalley ; John Claiton ; Xpofer Marsden 
 
 of ffeniscoles (obiit 1590J; Edwarde Mawdisley (obiit 1592J; John 
 
 Gelibronde ; Myles Aspmall (mortuus i'595y) ; Nycholas Haworthe 
 
 (mortuus 18 of December 1597^; Richard Lawe; John Hodgson (mart. 
 
 ISP?/*; George Ashton (mortuus 1599^; Adam Bolton (obiit 1593J; 
 
 Lawrence Aspmall ; John Baron ; Myles Marsden ; Robt. Walmysley ; 
 
 Roger Gelybume; (John Hulton elected 17 Sept. 1600 in the place of 
 
 Roger Gelibronde). . 
 
 Evidences Concerning the Schole of Blackburn, A.D. 1591. 
 
 1. — Imprimis a lycence of mortmayne from the Queene, being the foundacion of the 
 same socle. 
 
 2. — Itm. a Decree of the Courte of the Duchie touchinge the ancient landes of the scole 
 of Blackeburne. 
 
 3. — Itm. a I'tre of attorney made by the governors of the scole of Blakbume to Tho. 
 Clayton. 
 
 4. — Itm. one Indenture of covenante for th' assuringe of the yearlye rente of twentie 
 poundes to be issuynge oute of the capital! messuage or mancion house called 
 Famehill peele in ffamehill in the countye of Yorke, and all lands known by the 
 name of the demaynes of ifarnehill, &c. , made between Edwarde Eltoftes, Esquire, 
 on the one partie, and the Governors of the same Schoole, Sir John Southworthe, 
 Knighte, Thomas Talbot, John Osbaldeston and William ffarrington, Esquires, 
 Edward Walmysley and Robert Walmysley gen. on the other partie bearing date 
 the last day of September, 32 Eliz. ( 1 59o). 
 
 5. — Itm. one obligacon bean.-.gi date the saide laste of September [32 Eliz.] maide by 
 the said Edward Eltoftes and Thomas Eltoftes Sonne, &c., to the said Governors, 
 wherein the same Edwarde and Thomas stande bonde in the some of seven 
 hundrethe poundes w'the condicon for p'formance of the covenante in the same 
 indenture conteyned. 
 
 6. — Itm. one p'te of a cyrographe of a fyne layd [32 Eliz.] betwene Edward Walmysley 
 and Robert Walmysley gen. and the same Edw'ard Eltoftes, Thomas Eltoftes son, 
 &c. , Sr John Sootheworthe, Knighte, Thomas Talbot, Esquire, John Osbaldeston, 
 Esquire, and Willm. ffarrington. Esquire, deforciantes of tenn messuages, tenn 
 gardaynes, fourtie acres of land, a hundrethe acres of meadowe, fyve hundrethe 
 acres of pasture, and fourtie acres of wood w'th th' appurtenance in ffamhill, withe 
 a Render. 
 
 7. — Itm. the copie of dyv's offices of the Eltoftes landes. 
 
 8. — Itm. the copie of an ancient piece of evidence of Mr. Eltoftes landes, of a yearlye 
 rente of twentie poundes w'the a clause of distresse for the same, and a now 
 penc issueinge oute of the same landes to the said Sr John, Thomas, John, and 
 Willm. and the heire of the said Sr John. 
 
 9. — Itm. a Recoverie termino hillarii Anno 33 Eliz. by Willm. Risshton and Thomas 
 Claiton demandantes againste Edwarde Walmysley and Robert Walmysley 
 tenantes of tenn messuages, tenn gardeyns, ffourtie acres of lande w'the th' appur- 
 ten'nces in ffamehill w'th double coucher exemplyfied under the Scale of this 
 Courte of the benche at Westminster w'che was hadd to cutt off the fformer estate 
 tayle of the same landes. 
 
326 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 10. — Itm. the Quene's I'res patente of the ffoundacion of the said scoole. Md. that 
 the evidences above specified weare delivered the l6th of Aprill [33 Eliz.] by Mr. 
 Justice Walmysley to the use of the Governors, and put in a large boxe, w'che 
 boxe is novi'e remaining in a greate cheste in the Churche of Blackbume. [Signed] 
 John Sotheworthe Knight, John Osbaldeston, Wm. ffarington, John Clayton, 
 Edward Welshe, Nicholas Haworthe, Hugo Dycconson, Thomas Astley, John 
 Gelibrond, George Boltone, Ric. Lawe, Thomas Gelybrond, Wylliam Bolton, 
 Myles Marsden. 
 
 Writings of the Foundation, A.D. 1594. 
 
 I. — Itm. there is an exemplificacon under the scale of the Comon Plase of a ffyne 
 levyed by Edward Eltoftes esquire Thomas Eltoftes his sonne and heire apparente 
 and othres w'ch fifyne is before mencioned and a Recov'ye also before mencioned. 
 
 2. — Itm. an Indenture of Bargaine and sale made by Sr John Sowthworth Knight 
 John Osbaldeston Thomas Talbot and Willm. ffarrington Esquires, unto the 
 Governors of the said scoole of a Rente Charge of £20 dated the seacond of Aprill 
 Ao xxxiiio Eliz. M'ie and enrowled in the Comon Plase Termino Pasche Ac xxxiii 
 Eliz. Rotulo xiio. 
 
 3. — Itm. an Indenture made betwixte the said p'ties of the same Rente dated iio die 
 Aprillis Ao M'ie Eliz. xxxvi'o and enrowled in the Comon Plase Termino Pasche 
 Ao xxxvito Eliz. Rotulo secundo. 
 
 4. — Itm. one obligacon made by Willm. Bolton and others to the said Governors for 
 the paym'nt of ;£ 20 in moneye alredie to hym and others deliv'd to the use of the 
 usher. 
 
 5. — Itm. an Indenture and feoffament of landes in Lyvesaie made by Thomas Duckes- 
 burie to James Whithalghe and others dated Ao xiio H viiivo. 
 
 6. — Itm. an old p'chm't conteininge the ffirst foundacon of the Scole unsealed and a 
 copie also of the same in paper. 
 
 7. — Itm. the copies of a Bill Answeare Replicacon and Rejoinder towching the said 
 Scoole. 
 
 8. — Itm. a copie of a Case concerning the said Scoole. 
 
 9.— Itm. a copie of an Order taken in the Duchie Termino Michalis Ao xxvii et 
 viiio Eliz. Regno towching the said Scoole. 
 
 10. — Itm. an olde Booke of orderes notes charges and paym'tes in paper towching the 
 said Scoole. 
 
 II. — Itm. the Comon Scale of the said Scoole. 
 
 Md. that the evideiKes and writinges last before menconed were putt in a blacke 
 
 square boxe to the use of the said Scoole the xxviith of September 1594 et Anno M'ie 
 
 Eliz. xxxvito in the p'sence of Tho. Walmysley, Wm. ffarington, Thomas 
 
 Astley, Edward Walshe, John Clayton, John Gelibrond, Wylliam 
 
 Bolton, George Bolton, Myles Marsden, Ric. Lawe. 
 
 THE SCHOOL STATUTES, A.D. 1597. 
 I insert next a draft of the original Statutes of the foundation : — 
 
 Certayne Statutes and orders to be kepte in the free gramer Schoole of Queene 
 Elizabeth in Blackbume, agreed upon by the Governors of the same Schoole 
 December 21th, 1597, and afterwarde consented unto the 17th of September, 1600. 
 After the ringinge or towlinge of a bell, if that can be had, soone after six of 
 
 clocke in the morninge, the Schoole Mr and usher with theire Schollars in as dutifull 
 
 manner as conveniently may bee, shall dayly come to the Schoole and there shall have 
 
 prayers such as the Governors shall from tyme to tyme apointe. 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL STATUTES. 327 
 
 After prayers they shall begine to teach att or before seven of the clocke, and 
 shall continue until xi. And in the aftemoone they shall begine to teach at or before 
 one of the clocke, continewinge till after ffyve of the clocke, and shall then also have 
 and use prayers. 
 
 After Mychalmas day the Schoole shalbe taught from the Monday next after 
 Mychelles Day, until Thursday in the whole weeke next Iwfore St. Thomas Day. 
 
 After Christemas, upon Monday or Tuesday next after the feast of the Epiphane, 
 until Saturday next before the 6th .Sunday in lente. 
 
 After Easter from the Monday next after Easter weeke, until 1 Thursday next 
 before Whitsuntide. 
 
 After Whitsuntide, the Monday next after Trinitie Sunday untill the Saturday 
 next before the Eve of St. Mychelles. 
 
 All Sundays and holidayes in the year excepted. Shrove Monday and Tuesday, 
 all Thursdayes and Saturdayes after noones. 
 
 Licence to play shall not bee granted to scollars at theire dep'tinge from the 
 Schole, nor to any other p'sons, than to p'sons of honour, or worshipp, or to M'rs of 
 Arte, or other p'sons of equivolente accounte, and by concente of some of the Governors 
 in after nones onely and once at the most in 
 
 Petties [small boys] shall bee taught by the Gramarians onely, at the appointe- 
 mente of the .Schoole Mr or Usher, who shall see that they bee diligently instructed. 
 
 Uppon dayes and tymes excepted from teachinge, the schollars may bee caused by 
 the Schoole Mr and the usher to lame to write, cipher, cast accounts, singe or such 
 licke, and allsoe upon holidayes and other convenient tymes. 
 
 Noe Scrivinor shall teach writinge schole termes without urgente cause oftener 
 than once in the yeare for the space of one moneth : onely in the moneth of September 
 if conveniently it may bee, but not at all betweene Monday next after St. Mychalles 
 day and the first Monday in lent. 
 
 Sith discontinuance is the greatest hinderence to p'seedinge in larninge, parentes 
 and ffrendes are not to discontinew schollars from the Scholes, which if they doe, the 
 discontinuers are to bee signified to the Governors for reformacion thereof. 
 
 Noe .Schollars are to bee admitted to the Schole under the age of flyve yeares, 
 and such onely as shall be in fittinge soarte, fitt to conceave larninge, &c. 
 
 The Schollars shall diligently apply there bookes, dutifully and decently beehave 
 themselves in all thinges, in all places, and at all tymes, and to all p'sons, espeLially to 
 the Governors, and shall frequente divine sei-vice upon Sundayes and holidayes, for 
 which purpose there parentes and frendes shall apparell them decently, that all excuses 
 of absence may bee removed. 
 
 The formes or sieges may be Seaven if the capabilities and proceedinge of the 
 Schollars so require. 
 
 The authors in lattin for any Introducktion may bee the gramar, Cato de Moribus, 
 .supitiis, verulamis, de moribus in mensa, Esopes fables, &c. In poetrie Terence, 
 Ovide, Vergill, Horrace, Juvenall and Persius. In histories, Salust, Cecars Com- 
 mentaries and TuUus Liuius Decades. In Cicerowes workes, his familiar Epistelles, 
 officiis, tusculans, questionis, his Retoricke and Oracions ; for epistelles Macropidius, 
 for Themes, Apthonius ; for the principles of Religion, some chathachisme allowed by 
 the ordinarie, the spalter and such licke. 
 
 The authors in greeke may bee Cambdens or Cleniades gramar, Basilles Epistelles, 
 Isocrates Oracions, Hesiod, Homer, Theocritus, Pindarus, Olinthrace, Demostenes 
 oracions, and the Greeke Testament. 
 
 In Hebrue if any bee willinge and fitt thereunto, some Hebrue Gramar or spalter. 
 
328 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The principles of arithmetick, geotnetrie, and cosmographie with some Introduck- 
 tion into tlie Sphere, are p'fittable. 
 
 The exercises may bee EngUshe speak inge, lattin variacions, duble translacions, 
 disputacions, verses, epistelles, themes, and declamacions in lattin and greeke. 
 
 Once yeerly at some convenient tyme, espetially in September, the Schollars shall 
 exercise themselves in verses or other exercises generally in praising God who of his 
 fatherly providence hath moved the Governors and benefactors of this schole to prepare 
 the same, for the bringinge upp of youth and proffitt of his church, prainge God that 
 others by there example may be sterred upp to beestowe there goodes upon such licke 
 godly uses. 
 
 ANNALS OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 
 The following Annals of the School, from 1593 onward, are compiled 
 from the Record Books of the foundation : — 
 
 An eleccion of Governors at Blackbume the 9th day October, 1593, made by the 
 more p'te of the Governors then lyvynge, being then and theare p'sonally p'sent, so 
 whosle names so elected are as foUoweth. 
 
 fferdinande Earle of Derby 
 Sr Thomas Gerrarde junior 
 Randle Barton Esquier 
 Thomas Soothworthe Esquier 
 John Parker of Loveley gen. 
 Henry Mawdysley 
 James Astley of Plessington 
 
 20s. [mortuus est 1 594] 
 20s. 
 20s. 
 20s. 
 
 20s. (6s. 8d. pd.) 
 20s. 
 20s. 
 William Boulton and Geoi^e Astley are appointed by all the Governors to collecte 
 and gather the severall Somes above sett down. 
 
 1595. April 17. — James Aynesworthe, Henrye Feilden, George Boulton, and 
 Lawrence Cotton were elected Governors. 
 
 1596. Dec. 20. — The Governors met and elected to fill vacancies: — ^John 
 Abbott of Blackburn, Giles Aynesworthe, Edwarde Jelybronde, and George AsmoUe, 
 three of them giving los. and the other 5s. to the School as donation. 
 
 1597. Dec. 21. — "At an assemblye of the Governors of the free 
 Scole of Blackbome, by one comon assente Mr. Rycharde Rusheton 
 Sonne of Ranofe Rusheton esquyre disseased was ellected to be usher 
 of the sayd scolle and appointed to rec. all sutch stypend, fees, and 
 wadges as is or shalbe yerlye due or app'tayning to the usher of the sayd 
 schole from tyme to tyme." 
 
 "W'ch daye Mr. Thomas Walmesley, eldeste sonne of Mr. Justyse Walmesley, 
 was elected a Governor of the said free scolle in the place of Nycolas Haworth gen., 
 latelye deade ; and hath geven towards the stocke of the s'd scolle 20s." 
 
 " Itm. the same daye Mr. Justyce Walmesley dydde bring in the 
 some of twentye shillings as a legacie bequethed by one Bamarde Smythe 
 late scollem'r [schoolmaster] of Blackbume by his last testam't, and w'ch 
 sayd some of 20s. was delyvered over unto the sayd Mr. Ric. Rusheton 
 then usher of the sayd scolle by comon consente." 
 
 1598. April 21. — At an assembly of Governors "Jhon Sotheworthe being sonne 
 and hayre apparante of Tho. Sotheworthe, of Samlesbury, Esquyre, and Edwarde 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNALS. 329 
 
 Osbaldeston heire apparant of John Osbaldeston Esquy re, by one comon assente were 
 elected to be Governors of the sayd gramer scoUe in place of John Talbot and of John 
 Hodson, being then latelye dep'ted oute of this worlde, and hath geven 20s. " — Sept. 
 30. — ^John Talbot of Bashall, Esq., was elected a governor in place of Thomas 
 Talbott Esq. " his late brother now disseased," and gave 20s. on his election. 
 
 1599. Aug. 21. — Sr. Richard Houghton Knight is chosen Governor in place of 
 Alexandr. Osbaldeston. Willm. ffleetwood likewyse chosen Governor in place of 
 George Ashton. James Ly vesaye of Ly vesaye gen. , likewise chosen Governor in place 
 of Willm. Crosse. — Dec. 21. — Among other proceedings, the Governors elected John 
 Crosse, of Over Darwen, gent , a Governor, who gave a benevolence of 20s. 
 
 1600. Sept. 21. — In presence of Mr. Justice Walmesley and other 
 Governors, it was " ordered that all such as have any of the Scheie 
 money in their hands and have not entered into bonde for the payment 
 of the same againe, shall now from Michelmes next enter into bonde 
 with two sufficient sureties for the payment of the same. And Mr. 
 Lyvesay, Mr. Astley, John Clayton, Henry Maudisley, John Gelebrond, 
 Rychard Lawe, and Henry ffelden are desired to see the said bonds 
 taken in the names of the Governors." 
 
 1602. — It is recorded that on the 29th Sept., 1602, George Ayns- 
 worth, as executor to George Waddington, had paid a legacy of 20s. 
 bestowed by the latter; and that Richard Houghton had paid 15s. 4d. 
 interest on money in his hands, to Mr. Richard Risheton, usher of the 
 School. 
 
 1606. — Md. That the some of ffortie poundes p'cell of a greater 
 some given to the use of the said ffree gramer scoole by the last Will 
 and testament of Mr. John Astley is the 23 daie of Aprill i6«6 deliv'd 
 into the handes of Willm. Rishton of Moche Harwood gen. and George 
 Lyvesaye of Rishton yeoman to be repaide upon theire bondes to the 
 said scoole, &c. 
 
 1607. — The whole sum of money belonging to the School is ;£'iio 
 in the hands of the following persons ; — Thomas Asteley, gent., ;^20 ; 
 Ric. Mollyneux, gent, £,20; X'pofer Shorrocke, yeoman, ;^io; Ric. 
 Rysheton, gent., the usher, ;^si 17s. lod. ; Ric. Walmysley and 
 Lawrehce Haydoke, ^^5 2s. 2d. ; Tho. Forrest, jQi- 
 
 1608. Aug. I. — Md. that this p'nt daye there is delivered unto 
 the handes of the Governors of the Schoole by John Clayton gent, the 
 some of fortie shillinges w'ch was geven to the use of the said schoole 
 by Thomas Clayton deceased brother of the said John Clayton. — Md. 
 that this daye is delivered unto the handes of the Governors of the Schoole 
 by Robte. Kenyon clerk p'son of Harpley in the countye of Norfifolk 
 the some oi £,2,0 17s. 6d., beinge the Residue of a legacie of ;^8o 17s. 
 6d. geven to the said Schoole by Mr. John Astley deceased, w'ch said 
 some of j[,T,o 1 7s. 6d. and the aforesayd some of 40s. geven by Mr. 
 
 42 
 
330 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Clayton is delivered to the handes of Mr. Rysheton the usher to bee by 
 hym employed for the use of the schoole and securetye to bee taken for 
 the same, according to the former rule therein, viz. by the pryvytye and 
 consent of some of the gov'nors neare adjoynynge." The same day, at 
 the assembly of Governors, " Mr. Edward Browne, now schoolmaster at 
 Whalley, was elected to bee Mayster of the said schoole and appointed 
 to receive all such stipend, fees and wages as is or shalbee due or apper- 
 teyninge to the Schoolmayster of the said schoole from tyme to tyme." 
 [The School Stock, Sept. 29th, 1608, is returned at ^142 17s. 6d.] 
 
 161 1. — Mr. Rusheton, usher, showed the bonds taken for the school 
 money in the hands of divers persons. 
 
 " Md. that Sr Gylbert Houghtop Knight beinge moved by the apiwintment of 
 the Governors to bee a Governor of the said schoole, hath this day certyfyed the said 
 Governors that hee is pleased to take upon him the said place, whereupon the said Sr 
 Gylbert Houghton is this day nominated and elected by the said Governors to bee a 
 Governor of the said schoole in place and stead of Wm. ffarrington Esqr. deceased, 
 and the said Sr Gylbert Houghton is pleased to liestowe one tree or twoe towards the 
 reparacions of the said schoole, and the same day Rauffe Rysheton gent, is elected 
 Governor instead of Mr. Richard Walmysley and hath paid in this day of his free gyft 
 los." 
 
 1612. Sept. 29. — Mr. Browne; Schoolmaster, was then lately 
 deceased, and — " Md. that Mr. Browne late Scholem'r dyd gyve 40s. 
 for a legacie to the Schoole which is this day paid in by John Bolton his 
 e.x'or." Mr. Collinson was appointed Schoolmaster. 
 
 1613. Dec. 21. — "Md. that it is this day certyfyed unto the 
 Governors of the Schoole that the right worshipfull Sr Thomas 
 Walmysley Knight nowe deceased dyd gyve and bestowe upon the 
 Schoole at Blackbume 53s. 4d. for a legacie," &c. l"he same day "Mr. 
 Robt. Osbaldeston bachelour in artes" was elected usher. 
 
 1614. Sept. 29. — The followir^ were elected Governors, and each gave los. 
 towards the increase of the School Stock: — ^John Smyth, gent., Thomas Lussell, gent., 
 Thomas Whalley, gent., Thurstan Maudesley, senr., gent., and Seth Clayton, gent. 
 
 1616. Oct. 15. — Robert Osbaldeston, usher, dismissed. 
 
 These new Governors elected and gave the respective bounty mentioned; — Raphe 
 Asheton, Esquire, gave 20s. ; John Braddyll, Esq. , los. ; Richard Osbaldeston, gent. , 
 los. ; Thomas Walmysley, sonne and heire of Thomas Walmysley, Esq., 20s., Tho. 
 Sothwcrth, Sonne and heire of John Sothworth, Esq., deceased, los. ; Jo. Osbaldeston, 
 Sonne and heire of Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., los. ; Sr. Richard .MoUineux, junr., 
 Knight, 22s.; Sir Tho. Gerrard, junr., Knight, 22s.; Mr. Ric. Walmysley, of Show- 
 ley, los. 
 
 1 6 r 9. Oct. 4. — Mr. Bradley appointed usher. — Dec. 2 1 . Amount of 
 School Stock ;^i8o ; Interest thereon £,\^ 7s. 7d., added to principal. 
 
 162 1. Sept. 29. — Stock put forth in several hands, the sum of 
 ;i^207 1 6s. 2d. 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNALS. 331 
 
 1623. Dec. 21. — The Governors elected "John Hargreaves, 
 master of artes, to serve flTor the Scholem'r of the ffree schole of Blakebum 
 so long as the Governors shall like well of" 
 
 " Younge Mr. Sherburne and Mr. Walmesley of Couldcottes " elected Governors, 
 and gave together 22s. 
 
 1624-5. Jan. 8. — Mr. Richard Halsted, M.A. appointed Schoolmaster. 
 
 1625. Aug. 22. — Wm. Seller, Gyles Bolton, John Brocke, Henrie ffeilden, Ric. 
 Harwood and George Holden the younger elected Governors, and gave los. each. 
 Mr. John Clayton elected at the same time, gave 20s. 
 
 1628. Dec. 21. — ^John Talbot, Esq., Richard Shuttlevcorth, Esq., "Mr. Bolton, 
 
 Vicar of Blackbume," Adam Morte and John Talbot [of Carr], gent, elected Governors. 
 
 1630. Dec. 21. — "Adam Boulton, servant to Sr Thomas Walmys- 
 
 ley, Knight," appointed School Accountant, and to be allowed 13s. 4d. 
 
 yearly for making the account. 
 
 Sir Alexander Ratcliffe, John Ainsworth, Esq., Mr. Raphe Livesey, Mr. Edward 
 Rishton of Mickelheyes, Mr. Thomas Astley, and Mr. Roger Gillibrand of Beardwood, 
 elected Governors. 
 
 1634. Jan. 12. — These Governors were elected: — Geoi^e Tomlinson, Henry 
 Walmesley of Mellor, Edmond Cockshoote of Hirwoode, Thurston Maudisley, John 
 Sharpies, Peeter Edge, William Marsden of Tockholes, Christopher Hill of Black- 
 burne, Thomas Haworth of Darwen, and Thomas Fish of Eccleshill. Mr. Thomas 
 Ha worth gave 20s., and the other Governors elect los. each to the school. The same 
 day a legacy of 20s. bequeathed by "James Warde laite of Mellor," was received. 
 
 1637. Dee. 31. — "John Ward, Doctor of Phisicke, comiter of the bodie and 
 landes of Edward Osbaldeston Esq., his Majesties ward," was elected a Governor. 
 
 1641. Aug. 9. — At an assembly of the Governors " they did electe 
 John Swinlehurst gent. Scholem'r of the said ffree Schole (the said 
 Schole being then voyd of a Mr)" 
 
 John Lawe the younger was elected a Governor, and paid los., and "it was then 
 ordered that the said John Lawe should have the keeping of the key of the schole 
 chest being late in his grandfather's keepinge. " 
 
 1 64 1. Dec. 21. — At an assembly of the Governors, "Richard 
 Bradley, usher, by reason of his recusancie," was "displaced for 
 continuinge usher any longer in the said Schole." 
 
 1642. April 18. — Richard Morres elected usher "uppon tryall of 
 his beha\ior, for w'ch he hath geven bonde." 
 
 Elected Governors: — "Richarde Walmysley of Dunkenhalgh, Esq., his Ma'tie's 
 warde," and paid 20s.; Mr. Henry Walmesley of Church, gent.; Henry White, servant 
 to Mrs. Mariana ffleetwoode; and Mr. Edward Hoghton, who each gave los. 
 
 — Dec. 21. — It was ordered, " by reason that the Mr [Schoolmaster] 
 could not receive his wages the tymes beinge soe distracted, that there 
 should j£5 be lent him till a full assembly of the Governors may bee 
 assembled.'" 
 
 I This was at the outset of hostiHties in Lancashire in the Civil War between Charles Land 
 Parliament. Only six Governors were present at this yearly meeting and signed the record ; their 
 names are : — GvLEs Bolton, Thukstan Maudeslev. Peter Haworth, Thomas Haworth, 
 Peter Edge, John Sharplks. 
 
332 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 1643. Dec. 21. — At an assembly of Governors, "it was ordered 
 that Mr. Swinlehurst the Scholem'r beinge at wante of money, beinge 
 three Rentes behind [i.e. of the school lands], by reason of the distracted 
 tymes, that hee shall have ten poundes out of the stocke money, till 
 the rentes due to the said schole come in, and then to be added to the 
 ■Stocke againe." 
 
 1644. Dec. 21. — In the accounts presented to the Governors 
 appear the following significant items : — ■" Item, given the glasiers 
 January the 17th, 1643, for 32 foote of newe glase and leadinge, 19 foote 
 of ould glase, the schoole windowes beinge in ill frame, beinge broken by 
 the Souldiers, and soe new glased, which coste 15s. gd." — "And three 
 yeares Rentes all readie due for the Schoole Landes in Mellor being 
 now withoute a tenante." [What follows is a pitiful example of the 
 ravage and individual ruin inflicted by Civil War.] " Two yeares rentes 
 of the said three owinge by Mr. Hoghton, deade, nothinge worth. The 
 therde yeres rente owinge by Jenkine Gillibrande, who was takene 
 by Mr. Hoghton appointm't, with all his cattell, in tyme of war, his 
 beastes loste, he paid his Ransome to the Armie, Returned home and 
 died ; soe I looked for noe rente." 
 
 1644-5. J^n- 7- — ■'^t an assembly of Governors "it is ordered that 
 Mr. Swinlehurste the Schoole Mr beinge at wante of money, beinge 
 fyve rentes beehinde by reason of the distracted tymes, that hee shall 
 have twentie ffyve poundes out of the Stocke money, till the rentes due to 
 the said Schoole come in, and then to bee added to the Stocke againe." 
 
 1645. Dec. 21. — Among the accounts presented at the yearly 
 meeting of Governors appear the items : — " Geven souldiers for strain- 
 inge at Famhill, theire meate and drinke that day ; and drivinge the cattell 
 strayned to Paitnowle, the some of 19s. 6d." — "Item for fechinge them 
 at Paitnowle after the seidge was raysed 2s. 6d." — " Item for breakinge 
 open the Cheste where the Schoole Evidences lye 4d." 
 
 1646-7. Jan. 4. — At an assembly of Governors the persons following were elected 
 Governors: — "Alexander Osbakleston of Osbaldeston, Esq., Tho. Greenfeilde, John 
 Lawe, John Abbot, Thomas Whaley of Ichill, Thurstan ffogg, and Willm. Walmsleye, 
 and every of them paid los. a peice. " 
 
 1647. Dec. 21. — At an assembly of Governors "Mr. Clayton, now Vicar of 
 Blackbume, Coll. Nicholas .Shuttleworthe, Robt. Redding, gent., Richard Hoghton, 
 gent., and Lawrence Haworth of Preston, Inkeeper, were chosen Governors, and paid 
 each los." 
 
 1649. Dec. 21. — In the accounts: — "Item, given Mr. Willm. 
 Yaites in full of a noate under his handes, for eighteen bookes boughte 
 at London and carridge downe, beinge nominated what bookes should 
 be boughte by Mr. Claiton, Vicker," the sum of ^6 4s. 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNALS. 333 
 
 1652. Dec. 21. — The Governors assembled "did electa Adam Bolton to be a 
 Gov'nor of the schole of Blakeburne in regard of the great panes taken about the 
 schole busines. " 
 
 1654. Feb. 16. — The Governors at an assembly elected "Randle Sharpies, Esq., 
 and Thurstan Maudesley, gent." Governors, who each gave los. to the School. — 
 Dec. 21. — At an assembly of Governors, William Yates, John Talbott, Ellis Edge, 
 and James Whalley elected Governors. Stock of School Money was ;if 104 7s. 4d. 
 
 1655-6. Jan. 21. — "Md. that the daye and yeare above written 
 the Gov'nors have elected and chosen Charles Segar gent to serve for 
 the Schole Master of Blackebume so longe as the Governors shall like 
 well off." — It was ordered " that Mr. Morres the usher shall have /^$ 
 for his panes taken in teaching of the schole since the death of the late 
 Mr." This record is signed by these Governors : — John Talbott, 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, John Talbott, Nic; Shuttleworthe, 
 Leo: Clayton, Peter Haworth, and Ralph Livesave. 
 
 1657. Sept. 14. — At an assembly of Governors it was ordered: — 
 " That Sr. John Talbott Knight and Ric. Haworth Esq. should be willed 
 and required to convey and assure a Messuage and Tenement within 
 Mellor with th'app'tenn'ces to the said Governors and their successors to 
 the use of the free schole of Blackburne for ever, which said p'misses 
 heretofore (in consideracion of a certaine some of money paid by the 
 said Governors) were conveyed and assured by James Whithalghe, gent. 
 deceased, and Rauf Walkeden, to the said Sr John and Richard 
 Haworth, and others who are dead, and they the said Sr John Talbott 
 and Ric. Haworth surviving." 
 
 l66o. Dec. 21. — The Governors elected Launcelot Bolton, the school accountant, 
 and Mr. John Clayton of Little Harwood, gent., to be Governors. 
 
 1660-1. Jan. 21. — The Governors elected Thomas Walmisley, gent., 
 to be usher, and ordered that the old usher's widow should have ;£^ 
 out of the School Stock. They at the same time elected Thomas 
 Braddill, Esq., John Law, gent., and James Walmisley, gent., to be 
 Governors ; and " the key of the schole cheste, which was in the keeping 
 of Mr. Law, was delivered to Mr. Thurstan Maudisley to be kept in the 
 schole." 
 
 1662-3. J^"* '2. — At a Meeting the Governors elected the following to be 
 Governors, who paid los. apiece: — Law. Haworth of Blackburne, gent., James 
 Whalley of Blackburne, gent., John Entwistle of Clayton-in-le-Dale, gent., John 
 Boulton of Brockhouse, gent., and Richard Livesey of Baron-mylne, gent. 
 
 1666. Dec. 2 1. — In the accounts appear the items: — " Pd. Mr. 
 Sager late Schoolemaster 23 Male last in full of his wage before his 
 goeinge out of his place the some of ;^3 6s. 8d. Pd. Mr. Sherburne 
 the present Schoolem'r 23 Male last his p'porcionable p'te of the 
 augmentacion money 33s. 4d." — At a Meeting of the Governors on that 
 day, Mr. Richard Duckworth was appointed usher. 
 
334 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 1667. Oct. 7. — At a Meeting of the Governors it was ordered 
 that "Mr. Thomas Wyld shall bee Schoolmaster."- — Dec. 21. In the 
 accounts : — "Payde Mr. Sager the late Schoolmaster May i, 1667, the 
 some of ^5." 
 
 George Talbott of Salesbury, gent., and Thos. Talbott of Cowell, gent., elected 
 Governors. 
 
 1667-8. Jan. 20. — "Mr. John Wareinge of Brindley" appointed 
 Usher. — March 9. Mr. Oliver Halliwell appointed Schoolmaster. 
 
 1668-9. Jan. 18. — At a General Meeting of Governors "there was ellected 
 Governors of the said Schoole, Sr Richard Houghton Bart and paid 20s.; also 
 Charles Houghton son and heire to the said Sr. Ric. Houghton Bart, and also pd. 20s." 
 
 1669. Dec. 2 1 . — In the account of disbursements occur : — " Pd. Mr. 
 Sager the master att the same tyme the some of £$•" " P^- ^^- Sager 
 more the some of ;^3 15s." — Amount of the School Stock ^^124 i8s. 
 
 1670. Dec. 21. — In the accounts appears: — "Pd. Mr. Oddy the 
 Schoolmaster the some of ^5." 
 
 At this date, of the School Stock of ;^i26 4s. id., the sumof;^io5 
 was lent out to interest as follows : — 
 
 Lent John Ingham of Ridge the principal some of ^25 
 Lent Willm. Crosse of Upper Darwen ,, £^5 
 
 Lent John Clarkson of Aughton ,, ;£'20 
 
 Lent John Hoyle of Haslingden ,, ^20 
 
 Lent Thomas ffelden of Rishton ,, jfio 
 
 Lent Joshua Dineley of Church ,, ;^lo 
 
 Lent Arthur Ashton of Blackbume ,, ^5 
 
 1672. Dec. 21. — Thomas Whalley of Black-lane-head, junior, was elected a 
 Governor. 
 
 1673. Dec. 21. — "Memorandum that at a general Meeting of 
 Governors, they, in consideration of a yearly rent hereafter reserved to 
 be paid, have demised and granted, &c., to Leonard Clayton, Vicar of 
 Blackbume, and Willm. Yates of Blackbume, gent., two of the Govemors, 
 &c., all that Barne and the lands thereunto belonginge, situate, &c., in 
 Mellor, belonging to the^said ffree schoole," to hold from the second 
 day of Febmary now next ensuing, for the term of 2 1 years, yielding and 
 paying unto the Govemors the yearly rent of ten pounds. 
 
 1675. Dec. 21. — At the audit of the accounts by the Govemors "Mr. Raph 
 Livesey son of Raph Livesey, Esq., and Mr. John Clayton sonne of Mr. Leonard 
 Clayton Vicar of Blackbume" were elected Governors; as also were "Mr. Tho. 
 Haworth of Thurcroft, Mr. James Whalley of Itchill, Mr. Raph Walmsley of the 
 Hill in Tockholes, Mr. Richard Astley of the Stakes, Mr. Tho. Cockshutt, Mr. 
 James Ainsworth, and Mr. Evan Wilkinson." 
 
 1676. Dec. 21. — At the General Meeting Edward Southworth, Esq., Thomas 
 Ainsworth of Pleasington, Esq., Richard Haworth of Beardsworth, gent., and Thomas 
 Abbot of Mellor, gent., were elected Governors, 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNALS. 
 
 335 
 
 1678. July I. — At a Meeting of Governors " Mr. Hugh Wareinge 
 present usher " was " absolutely discharged from henceforth of beinge 
 usher /' and " Mr. Tho. Walmsley of Blackbume " was elected usher. 
 
 Mr. Francis Price, Vicar of Blackbume, Thomas Abbot of Mellor gent, and 
 Henry Walmsley of the same, gent., were elected to be Governors. — Dec. 21. At a 
 meeting of Governors, Edward Warren, Esq., Richard Walmsley the younger of 
 Dunkenhalgh Esq. , and Mr. Joseph Yates of Blackbume, were elected Governors. 
 
 1679. Dec. 22. — " Reed, from the worshipful! Madam Walmsley of Dunkenhalgh 
 as a gratuity from Richard Walmsley, Esq., her sonne for increase of the Schoole 
 Stocke the sunie of £2. " — The following were elected Governors : — " Sr Raph Ashton 
 of Whalley, Bart., Richard Ashton of Cuerdall, Esq., Edward Rishton of Antley, 
 Esq., Joseph Sharpies of Blackburn, gent., Willm. Shuttleworth of Asterleigh, gent., 
 Thomas Lang of Winckley, Esq., Thomas Walmsley of Showley, gent., Edward 
 Chew of Potterford, gent. , and Thomas Ainsworth of Knusden, gent. " 
 
 1680. Dec. 22. — In the Receipts: — "Reed, of Mr. Tho. Greenfeild and Mr. 
 Stephen Woodgate being elected Govemors £,\." 
 
 i68l. Dec. 21. — The following are named in the accounts as having paid gratui- 
 ties on being elected Governors: — "Mr. Nicholas Townley of Clifton, Mr. John 
 Harwood of Showley, Mr. James Marsden of Tockholes, Mr. Robert Bury of 
 Ousbooth, Mr. Willm. Chrichlowe of Tockholes and Mr. James Bolton of Blackbume.'' 
 
 1682. Dec. 21. — At the Governors' yearly Meeting there were elected Gover- 
 nors:— "Mr. John Braddill sonne and heire apparent of Thomas Braddill of 
 Portfield, Esq.," Mr. John Clayton of Little Harwood and Mr. Theophilus Ainsworth 
 of Pleasington. 
 
 1683. Dec. 21. — At a meeting of Governors were elected Govemors : — Bartho- 
 lomew Walmsley of Dunkenhall Esq., Alexander Nowell of Morton Esq., and Sr 
 Edmund Ashton of Whalley Bart. 
 
 1684. Dec. 22. — " Received from Sr Edmund Ashton Bart, the sum of ffive 
 pounds upon his being elected as a Governor, " &c. Elected Governors : — The 
 Worshipfull Sr Richard Shuttleworth, Knt., Henry Currer, Esq., Thomas Hesketh 
 of Rufforth, Esq., and John Warren, Esq., Justice of the Welsh Circuit. 
 
 1685. April 2. — Mr. James Abbot of Mellor appointed usher. 
 The jQi, 1 8s. 8d. due to Mr. Thos. Walmsley, late usher, paid unto Mrs. 
 Anne Walmsley his widow. — Dec. 21. Thanks of the Governors returned 
 to Sir Edmund Asheton Bart., for a further "seasonable gratuity of ffive 
 pounds " bestowed to the increase of the Stock of the School. 
 
 1686. Dec. 21. — Mr. Henry Maudsley of Ousbooth elected a Governor. 
 
 1687. Dec. 21. — Received of Sir Edmund Ashton Bart, the further 
 sum of ^10, "as a signal demonstracion of his kindness and great 
 bounty for the augmentation of the Stocke" of the School. — " Mr. Law- 
 rence Osbaldeston son of the high Constable for the Hundred of 
 Blackbume and Mr. Thomas Ainsworth sonne and heire of Mr. Richard 
 Ainsworth " elected Govemors. — Mr. Oliver Shaw appointed usher. 
 
 1688. Dec. 21. — Roger Lacy of Hackinge gent., Willm. Hayhurst of Preston 
 gent., and Thomas Whalley of Itchill, elected Governors. — Thanks of the Govemors 
 returned to Sir Edmund Ashton Bart, for a further gift of £\o, " as a great example 
 
336 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 to others, a good incouragement to leaminge, and a perpetiiall testimony of his generous 
 disposition to pious and charitable uses." 
 
 1689. Dec. 21. — Governors elected: — Revd. Dr. Willm. Skippon, and Alex- 
 ander Osbaldeston, Esq. , son and heir of Edward Osbaldeston, Esq. — Received from 
 Sir Edmund Ashton Bart, a further gift of ^10, "for which the thanks of this 
 assembly and all succeeding Governors and Schoolmasters is to be acknowledged and 
 had in perpetuall remembrance. " 
 
 1690. Dec. 21. — The Governors elected "Edward Sherdley, gent., Curate of 
 the Parish Church of Blackburn, Mr. Abraham Townley of Dutton, Mr. William 
 Yates and Mr. John Sudell of Blackbume, and Mr. Tho. Ogle," Governors. 
 
 1692. Oct. 17. — It was ordered "that James Burton of Salisbury 
 in the County of Lancaster, gent, shall execute the office of usher" 
 during the pleasure of the Governors. 
 
 — Dec. 21. — Mr. George Entwistle of Clayton-in-the-Dale elected a Governor. 
 
 1694. Dec. 21. — Elected Governors : — Robt. Hesketh of Rufford Esq., John 
 Southworth Esq., Benjamin Hoghton Esq., Edward Sharpies of Ramsgreave gent., 
 and Randle ffeilden of Blackburne gent. — "Reed, then as a further gratuity from 
 the right worshipful! Sr Edmund Ashton Bart, the some of tenne poundes which with 
 what sums he hath already given exceeds all particular gifts given by any p'son or 
 p'sons whatsoever since the foundacion of this Schoole. " Sir Edmund Ashton of 
 Whalley had now given ;^lo annually to the School for eight years, and ^^5 yearly 
 for two previous years, making a total donation of £go to the foundation — a munifi- 
 cent benefaction for the period. 
 
 1695. Dec. 21. — It was ordered that Joseph Yates, Esq., and John 
 Clayton of the Green, gent., both Governors, should have a lease of the 
 Barn and Lands in Mellor belonging to the school, containing twenty- 
 nine acres of land, rneadow, and pasture, for 21 years, at the yearly 
 rent of ^10. — "John ffleetwood Esq., farmer of the Rectory of Black- 
 bume," elected a Governor. 
 
 1698. May 2. — Benjamin Hoghton, Esq., elected a Governor. — "Reed, of the 
 aforesaid Mr. Benjamin Hoghton, one of the Exors. or trustees of the worshipful! 
 Henry Houghton, Esq., his uncle, deceased, the some of fifty shillinges as a ffree 
 gift of the said Mr. Henry Hoghton," &c. — Dec. 21. Thos. Hesketh of Rufford, 
 Esq., and Samuel Crooke, Esq., elected Governors. 
 
 1698-9. Feb. 13. — Barton Shuttleworth of Blackburn, gent., and William 
 Rishton of Livesey, gent., elected Governors. 
 
 1701. Dec. 21. — Henry Hodgkinson Esq. {of Preston), and the right hon'ble 
 Thomas Lord ffauconberg, elected Governors. 
 
 1702-3. Jan. II. — Roger NoweU, Esq. , elected a Governor. — 1703. Oct. 11. — 
 Ordered that Mr. Burton, usher, "shall receive the salleiy due to Mr. Oddy, late head 
 Master," from the 4th of Aug. last "untill another schoolmaster bee elected and 
 resident instead of Mr. Oddy." — Thomas Ainsworth, Esq., of Pleasington, elected a 
 Governor. 
 
 1704. July 3. — At a general meeting of the Governors, "Mr. 
 Robt. ffoster, Batchellor of Arts of Jesus Colledge in the University of 
 Cambridge," elected "head Schoole Master of the said ffree Gramer 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNALS. 
 
 337 
 
 School," and to " take the rents and sallery belonging to the place for 
 and duringe the pleasure of the Governors." — Oct. 2. James Livesey 
 of Over Darwen, gent., elected Usher, "after the death of Mr. James 
 Burton, late usher." — Jan. 29. Ordered that Mrs. Burton, widow of the 
 late Mr. James Burton, usher, should receive certain sums due to the 
 deceased for salary. 
 
 1705. Aug. 20. — Mr. George Smith of Burnley, B.A., of Brazenose 
 College, Oxford, appointed Head Master instead of Mr. Robert Foster, 
 deceased. 
 
 1706. May 13. — "The Reverend John Holme, Vicar of Blackbume," elected a 
 Governor. — Dec. 21. Mr. Thomas Cockshutt of Great Harwood, gent., and Mr. 
 William Wilkinson of Royshey, gent., were elected Governors. 
 
 1708. Dec. 21. — Mr. Richard Walmsley of Shovvley and Mr. C'rofer Baron of 
 Knuzden, elected Governors. 
 
 1711. Dec. 21. — "The hon'ble Sr Henry Hoghton, Barrt., and the wor'pp'U 
 John Warren, Esq.," elected Governors; also, "Tho. Maudsley of Ousbooth, gent., 
 and Thomas Whalley, M. D., and John Ainsworth of Pleasington, gent." 
 
 1 71 2-3. Feb. 23. — Ordered that George Smith, the headmaster, 
 shall collect and receive all monies appertaining to the school ; shall 
 yearly deposit the same before the Governors, and shall keep the accounts 
 of the School in regular and due order. 
 
 The Hon'ble Lord Petre, Sir Ralph Asheton of Whalley, Richard Shuttleworth, 
 Esq., John Fleetwood, Esq., Mr. Hamerton Astley, Mr. Dickson, Curate of Black- 
 bume, and Mr. John Whalley, elected Governors. — Mar. 23. Willm. Hesketh of 
 Maines, Esq., Mr. Clayton of Adiington, Mr. Joseph Yates of Manchester, and Mr. 
 John Wildman of Billington, gentlemen, elected Governors. 
 
 1713. Dec. 21. — "The .School-Stock is as follows, vizt. : — Mr. Alex. Osbaldes- . 
 ton £20; John Forrest i,20; Thomas Tipping ^^5; Miles Aspinall £6; John Kemp 
 £(>; Thomas Osbaldeston £ifi; Thomas Dineley £\o; Adam Livesey ;£^20; Lawrence 
 Walmesley ;^io; Mr. Wildman £li\ Thurstan ffishwick £i, 17s. 6d. Total ;^I53 
 17s. 6d." Interest ;f 9 i6s. 6d. 
 
 1714. Dec. 21. — Elected Governors : — Captain Porter Livesey, Mr. James 
 Bolton, Mr. Johnson, Mr. John Hopkinson, Mr. James Dewhurst, Mr. Hugh 
 Pickering, Mr. Will. Sudell, and Mr. Peter Haworth of Thurcroft. 
 
 1715. Dec. 21. — Mr. Willm. Baldwin of Blackbume, and Mr. Thos. Haworth 
 of Lower Darwen, elected Governors. 
 
 1715-6. Feb. 20. — The Governors elected "in the room of Mr. 
 James Livesey late deceased, Mr. Thomas Moon, of Wesham in the 
 Parish of Kirkham, to be Usher." 
 
 1716. Sept. 28. — Ralph Asheton of Cuerdale, Esq., and Mr. Willm. Walbank of 
 Pleasington, elected Governors. — Dec. 21. In the accounts: — "Reed, of Richd. 
 Shuttleworth, of Gawthorpe, Esq., Governor elect, £'i." 
 
 1717. Dec. 21. — Elected Governors: — Hon. Ld. Petre of Dunkenhalgh, Mr. 
 John Winckley of Preston, Thomas Hesketh of Martholme, Esq., Mr. Henry Feilden, 
 of Blackbume, and Roger Nowell of Read, junior, Esq. 
 
 1720. Dec, 21. — "At a publick meeting of the Gent. Governors they were 
 
 43 
 
338 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 pleased to elect Haworth Currer of Kildwick, Esq., Dr. Thos. Clayton of Manchester, 
 Mr. Miles Berrie of Ousbooth, Mr. Ralph Whalley of Blackburne, and Mr. Henry 
 Haworth, apothecary in Blackburne, to be Governors of the School.'' 
 
 1722. Dec. 21. — Mr. John Stokoe and Mr. Robt. Feilden of Manchester elected 
 Governors. 
 
 1724. Dec. 21. — Mr. William Livesey, of Livesey, elected a Governor. 
 
 1725. Dec. 21. — Banister Parker, Esq., Mr. Thos. Whalley of Blackburne, and 
 Mr. Henry Sudell of Blackburne, elected Governors. 
 
 1726. Dec. 21. — In the receipts: — "Reed, of Mr. Henry Sudell 
 and Mr. Joseph Hankinson, Execrs. to Mr. Willm. Sudell of Blackburne, 
 ye some of 20 pounds left to ye Free-School of Blackburne by the said 
 Mr. Willm. Sudell." " Reed, of Mr. Jno. Whalley, senr., of Blackburne, 
 ye some of Ten pounds towards ye augmentac'on of ye Stock of ye Free- 
 School of Blackburne." 
 
 1727. Julys.— "Mr. Thomas Wright of St. John's Coll., Cam- 
 bridge," elected Usher. 
 
 1728. Dec. 21. — Mr. Clayton of Adlington, Mr. John Whalley, junr., of Black- 
 burne, and Mr. John Entwistle of Madghill-bank, elected Governors. 
 
 1729. Dec. 22. — Edward Warren, Esq., Mr. Willm. Kippex of Blackburne, 
 Mr. Thos. Livesey of Wensley ffold, Mr. Roger Walsh of Darwen, Mr. Hugh Baldwin 
 of Blackburne, and Mr. James Osbaldeston of London, elected Governors. 
 
 1731. June 23. — " Mr. Thomas Holme of Brasenose CoUedge in 
 Oxford, elected Head Master instead of Mr. Geo. Smith resigned." Mr. 
 Thos. Walmsley of Showley elected a Governor. — Ordered : — " That 
 noe Girles shall be taught in the chamber over the School." 
 
 — Dec. 21. — Mr. Thos. Johnson of Bolton, Mr. James Horridge and Mr. James 
 Mareden, both of Upper Darwen, and Mr. Ralph Pollard of Blackburn, elected 
 Govemoi-s. 
 
 1731-2. March 23. — Mr. Peter Livesey of Pleasington appointed 
 Usher. 
 
 1733. Dec. 31. — Mr. Heniy Baron of Knuzden and Mr. Joseph Whalley of 
 Blackburne elected Governors ; also Charles Stourton Walmsley, Esquire, elected a 
 Governor at the same time. 
 
 1 734. Dec. 21. — Money and securities belonging to the School ; — 
 Mr. Stanley Werder's Bond ^40 ; Richard Walche's ditto ^^30 ; Thomas 
 Dineley's ditto ^10; Henry Griffith's ditto ^50; Wm. Baldwin's ditto 
 ^£63 ; total ;£i 93. Interest £,g 13s. — James Whalley of Blackburn, 
 Esq., elected a Governor. 
 
 1735. Dec. 21. — Elected Governors: — Richard Clayton of Adlington, Esq., 
 Mr. Thomas Clayton of London, and Mr. James Livesey of Blackburne. 
 
 1736. Nov. I. — Mr. Henry ffeilden, a Governor, chosen Trea- 
 surer. — " Mr. Daniel Markland of Middlewatch, Batchellor of Arts of 
 Brasenose Colledge in Oxford," elected Head Master, in place of "Rev. 
 Thomas Holme late head-master and treasurer," resigned. 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNALS. 
 
 339 
 
 1736. Dec. 21. — The Governors elected Doddyn Braddyll, Esq., a Govemor.i 
 
 1737. Aug. 2. — The Governor elected, "instead of Mr. Daniel 
 
 Markland late deceased," " Mr. Thomas Hunter, of Queen's Colledge 
 
 in Oxford," Head Master.— Dec. 21. Alexr. Nowell and Allen Harri- 
 
 son, Esqrs., and Mr. Thos. Johnson junr., elected Governors. 
 
 1738. Dec. 2l.^Rev, John Potter, A.M., Vicar of Blackburn, elected a 
 Governor. 
 
 1739. Dec. 2 1. — Among the receipts appears: — "A Legacy left 
 by the late John Sudell laid out in a Mortgage on Pollard Grild at £4 
 I OS. per cent, interest — ;^3o." 
 
 "The Rev. Mr. Thos. Holme, Mr. Robert Whalley, Mr. Richard Haworth, 
 and Mr. Richd. Falkner" elected "trustees," i.e. Governors. 
 
 1740. Dec. 21. — The Governors elected Mr. Robt Garthside, of Manchester, 
 and Mr. Thos. Haworth, Apothecary, of Blackburn, to be trustees. 
 
 1 740-1. Jan. 20, — "John Ainsworth of Pleasington, Esq., Mr. 
 Henry ffeilden of Blackburn, and Mr. John Whalley to erect a new 
 Building on the lands in Mellor, and do all other things with respect to 
 repairs about the School as to them shall seem most meet." 
 
 1742. Dec. 21. — "Rev. Mr. WooUin, Vicar of Blackburn, James Shuttleworth, 
 Esq., of Gawthorpe, Ralph Asheton, Esq., of Cuerdale," elected to be trustees. 
 
 1742-3. Feb. 25. — "Mdm. It is this day agreed to that the 
 Cock-pennys, which have formerly been divided betwixt the Master and 
 Usher equally, shall for the future be paid to each Master separately 
 from the Boys under his particular care, provided the Boys under the 
 Master's care be admitted by him six months before the usual time of 
 Cock-pennys, or the Boys admitted within the aforesaid six months, to 
 
 I Under date Dec. 21, 1736, is entered the following " Rental of Lands and Rents belonging to 
 
 the Free Grammer Schoole of Blackburne.' 
 
 A clear yearly Rent of Twenty Pounds 
 issuing out of the Capital Messuage 
 or Mfencion House called Famhill 
 Peele in Famhill, Co. York. pd. by 
 the Hon'ble Geo. Fox Esq. at 
 Whit, and Martinmas - - - 20 
 
 Itm. One Messuage and Tenement in 
 Mellor called Whitalgh House, 
 cont. by estimation Twenty-nine 
 acres of land and also one Barne 
 one Close called Sedyhole wherein 
 the said Barne now stands, at the 
 yearly Rent of Twelve Pounds 
 payable at Michelmas and Candle- 
 mas - - - - - -12 
 
 Itm. Outof theRevenuesof theDuchie 
 Manor, is to be pd. by the then 
 Receiver the sum of four Pounds 
 seven Shillings and four pence on 
 every ist of May at the Castle of 
 Clitherow - .... ^ 
 
 At the same date the School Stock stood at ;^22i. 
 The Twenty Pounds from Famhill 
 Lands has been customarily allow'd 
 the Master as P*te of his Sallary - : 
 
 The Twelve Pounds from Mellor Lands 
 has been customarily allow'd and 
 divided betwixt the Master and 
 Usher of this Schoole - - -12 
 
 The Duchie Rent has been customarily 
 pd. the Usher of this Schoole 
 
 Also a Salary of four Pounds eighteen 
 Shillings and eight Pence every 2nd 
 day of Febr., out of the Interest 
 money belonging to the School. 
 
340 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 pay their cock-pennys to the Usher." — Mr. Robt. Sutton, junr., of 
 Skipton in Yorkshire, appointed Usher. 
 
 1743. Dec. 21. — Mr. Richard Marsden of Pleasington, Mr. William Leyland 
 and Mr. John Bolton of Blackburn, and Mr. Edmund Winder of Lovley, elected 
 Governors. — Ordered, " that the Gentlemen to be elected Governors hereafter shall 
 within twelve months after their election pay at least one Guinea to the publick Stock 
 of the School, otherwise his or their election to be declared void." — "Whereas the 
 rents of the Mellor Estate have hitherto been equally divided betwixt the Master and 
 Usher, but a new Building being raised upon the said estate, whereby the School 
 Stock, from the Interest of which the Usher's Salary has been raised, is diminished, 
 and not sufficient for the payment of the said Salary, it is therefore agreed that two 
 Pounds fifteen shillings and sixpence shall be paid to the Usher over and above his 
 equal share of the remaining Rent of the said estate, being the Interest of jCS5 los. 
 laid out upon a House in the Sagar Field." 
 
 1744. Dec. 21. — "Mr. Edward Ainsworth of Pleasington, the Reverend Mr. 
 Bolton of Rochdale, Mr. James Bolton of Preston, Mr. John Whalley, junior, B.A., 
 and Mr. Sam. Smith," elected trustees. The following townships had made free 
 gifts towards repairing the Free School of Blackburn: — Blackburn £2 los. 5d.; 
 Over Darwen £1 15s.; Lower Darwen £1 5s. lod. ; Tockholes l8s. 1%A.; Little 
 Harwood 17s. 6d. ; Osbaldeston us. 8d. ; Wilpshire-with-Dinkley £1 ; Salesbury 
 15s.; Pleasington £1 7s. 6d.; Witton l6s. 3d. — 1745. Mellor-cum-Eccleshill £1 
 los.; part of Rishton 9s. id. — 1746. Livesey ;,fl 6s. lo^d.; Balderstone 15s. 
 
 1746. Dec. 22. — "Mr. John Whalley at the Mill in Blackburn," appointed 
 Treasurer. "John ffeilden gentleman," elected a Governor. 
 
 1747. Sept. 22. — The Governors agreed to purchase from George 
 Ward of Mellor, weaver, the Messuage and Tenement of Pianot Nest at 
 Brookfoot in Mellor, for the sum of ^113. — Dec. 21. Ordered: — 
 "That the original Charter of the free Gramar School in Blackburn be 
 translated into English and read publickly in the said School every 
 Saint Thos. Day yearly." — Ralph Livesey of Livesey, Esq., and John 
 Shorrock of Little Harwood, elected Trustees. 
 
 1748. Dec. 21. — William Ainsworth of Pleasington, Esq., and John Walmsley 
 of Goodshawe, within the Parish of Rochdale, elected Governors. 
 
 - 1749. Aug. 15. — Mr. Nicholas Parker of Garstang Churchtown, 
 elected Usher. 
 
 1749. Dec. 21. — Mr. John Clayton of Little Harwood, and Nathaniel Haworth 
 of Blackburn, chapman, elected Governors. 
 
 1750. Aug. 29. — The Governors appointed Rev. Robert Smith, 
 B.A., of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford, Head Master, in place of Rev. Mr. 
 Hunter, resigned. 
 
 — Dec. 21. — Robt. Parker of Cuerden, Esq., Mr. John Sudell and Mr. Ralph 
 Whalley, elected Governors. — Pianot Nest tenement in Mellor leased to George 
 Ward, at a rental of £$ per annum. 
 
 1751. Dec. 21. — Mr. Thos. Walmsley of Micklehey in the township of Rishton, 
 elected a Governor in place of Mr. Ralph Whalley, of Liverpool, withdrawn. 
 
 1752. Dec. 21. — Thos. Cross of Shaw Hill, Esq., and Mr. Wm. Roberts of 
 Blackburn, chapman, elected Governors. 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNALS. 341 
 
 1753. Dec. 21. — Nicholas Winckley of Preston, Esq., and Mr. John Styth of 
 Blackburn, elected Governors. 
 
 1754. Dec. 21.^ — The Governors elected the following to be Governors : — 
 Alexander Nowell, of Read, Esq. , in the room of William Hesketh, late of Mains, 
 Esq., deceased; Thomas Walmsley the younger of Showley, Esq., in the room of 
 Thomas Livesey late of Blackburn, yeoman, deceased ; and James Chew of Billington, 
 gentleman, in the room of the Rev. Thos. Holme, D.D., deceased. 
 
 1755. Sept. 6. — Mr. Richard Guest of Wigan appointed Head 
 Master, in place of the Rev. Mr. Smith, resigned. 
 
 1755. Sept. 30. — The Governors agreed "that the Master shall take the Boys 
 out of the Usher's end in the Cordery or sooner if he shall see it proper and convenient, 
 and that the Usher shall take in such Boys as can read in the Testament agreeable to 
 the Master or Usher after having examined them." — Dec. 21. Mr. Thos. Livesey of 
 Blackburn elected a Governor in the room of Mr. Walmsley of Showley, deceased. 
 
 1756. Dec. 21. — Mr. Joseph Sigston of Blackburn, and Mr. Wm. Fox of 
 Clayton-in-le-Dale, elected Governors in the room of Mr. Wm. Roberts and Mr. Saml. 
 Smith, deceased. 
 
 1757. Dec. 21. — George Warren, Esq., of Dinkley, and Thos. Braddyll, Esq., of 
 Portfield, elected Governors in room of Mr. R. Haworth and Mr. Nath. Haworth, 
 deceased. 
 
 1759. Dec. 21. — Piers Starkie, Esq., of Huntroyd, Asheton Curzon, Esq., and Mr. 
 Henry Sudell, junior, elected Governors in the room of Ralph Asheton, Esq., Dr. 
 Clayton, and Mr. Winder, deceased. 
 
 1760. Dec. 21. — Mr. Robert Livesey and Mr. Joseph Feilden elected Governors 
 in the room of Piers Starkie, Esq., and Mr. John Whalley, deceased. 
 
 1761. Dec. 21. — Mr. John Hankinson and Mr. Thos. Bolton elected Governors 
 in the room of Mr. John Shorrock and Mr. Edwd. Bolton, deceased. 
 
 1762. Dec. 21. — Mr. Henry Feilden of Manchester elected Governor in the 
 room of Mr. John Styth, deceased. 
 
 1763. Dec. 21. — Christr. Baron, Esq., Edmund Starkie, Esq., of Huntroyd, 
 Mr. John Hindle and Mr. Jonathan Haworth, elected Governors in room of Mr. Miles 
 Berry, Hamerton Astley, Esq., Mr. Thos. Johnson, junr., and Mr. Robt. Livesey, 
 deceased. — On complaint of Mr. Guest and Mr. Parker, the Master and Usher, that 
 certain Scholars had insulted them "in open defiance of all power and authority," the 
 Governors ordered : — "That every schoUar offending as aforesaid, after due correction 
 given him by the Master or Usher for the time being, shall be expelled the school and 
 for ever exempted the benefit thereby as a schoUar." 
 
 1764. Dec. 21. — Mr. James Sudell, Mr. Hugh Hesketh, and Mr. Robt. 
 Haworth of Clitheroe, elected Governors in the room of Mr. Thomas Johnson, Mr. 
 Henry Sudell, and Mr. William Leyland, deceased. 
 
 1765. Dec. 21. — George Wilson, Esq., of Osbaldeston, elected Governor in the 
 room of Mr. Thos. Walmsley, deceased. 
 
 1766. Dec. 21. — Mr. Thomas Roberts and Mr. Thomas Baron, both of Black- 
 burn, and Mr. Edward Bolton of Preston, elected Governors in the room of Mr. 
 Christopher Baron of Blackburn, Mr. James Bolton of Preston, and Ralph Livesey, 
 Esq., of Livesey, all deceased. 
 
 1767. Dec. 21. — Sir Peter Leicester of Tabley, Co. Chester, Baronet, Peter 
 Legh, Esq., of Lyme in the same County, Mr. Thomas Yates of Livesey, and Mr. 
 Richd. Bleasdale of Blackburn, elected Governors in the room of Mr. John Whalley, 
 
342 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. Jos. Whalley, Mr. Henry Baron of Blackburn, and Mr. John Walmsley of Roch- 
 dale, all deceased. 
 
 1 768. Dec. 2 1 . — George Abbott of Blackburn, gentleman, and Edward Brewer 
 of Blackburn, gentleman, elected Governors in the room of Sir Henry Hoghton, Bart., 
 and James Chew of Billington, gent., deceased. 
 
 1769. Dec. 21. — Mr. John Calvert of Preston, and Mr. Henry Heaton of Black- 
 burn, elected Governors in the room of Dr. Robt. Whalley and Mr. James Sudell, 
 both deceased. 
 
 — Aug. 28. John Wilson, of Tockholes, clerk, appointed Head 
 Master in the stead of Mr. Richard Guest, deceased. 
 
 1770. Dec. 22. — Mr. John Livesey of Blackburn, Mr. William Sudell of Lan- 
 caster, Mr. John Smalley of Billington, Mr. Abraham Chew of the same place, Mr. 
 Ralph Eccles of Upper Darwen, and Mr. Thos. Johnson of Manchester, elected 
 Governors in the room of Mr. Hugh Hesketh, Mr. Henry Sudell, Lawyer Clayton, 
 .Sir Peter Leicester, the Rev. Dr. John Potter, and Mr. Johnson, late of Bolton, 
 gent., all deceased. — On complaint by the Head Master that the lower part of the 
 School had become "crowded by petty boys," the Governors ordered that no boy 
 should be in future admitted under the Usher " to be instructed in the reading of English, 
 unless the sum of five shillings at the least shall be paid by way of entrance to the 
 Usher by the Parents or Guardians. " 
 
 1771. Dec. 21. — ^John Parker of Millhouse in Cheshire, Clerk, Charles Ford of 
 Manchester, merchant, Joseph Tipping of Manchester, merchant, and William Yates 
 of Blackburn, chapman, elected Governors in the room of Mr. James Horridge, Mr. 
 Richard Marsden, Mr. John Feilden, and Mr. Richard Bleasdale, gentlemen, all deceased. 
 
 1772. Dec. 21. — Rev. John White, clerk. Vicar of Blackburn, Mr. Bertie 
 Markland, Mr. John Yates, and Mr. Edmund Peele, all of BlacTibum, elected gover- 
 nors in the room of the Rev. Mr. Wollin, Alexr. Nowell, Esq., and Mr. Joseph 
 Sigston, deceased, and Mr. Thomas Johnson, who had refused to act. — Ordered : 
 ' ' That no days of playing usually called Remedys shall for the future be allowed. " 
 
 1773. Dec. 21. — Robt. Shuttleworth of Gawthorp, Esq., Le Gendre Starkie of 
 Huntroyd, Esq. , Mr. Geo. Hargreaves of Hoddlesden, and Mr. John Talbott and Mr. 
 Benjamin Walmsley of Blackburn, elected Governors in the room of John Entwistle, 
 James Shuttleworth, Joseph Yates, Esqrs., Mr. Thos. Roberts and Mr. Ralph Eccles, 
 all deceased. 
 
 1774. Dec. 21. — Mr. Samuel Cable, of Blackburn, surgeon and apothecary, and 
 Mr. Benjamin Bulcock of Rishton, elected Governors in room of John Hankinson, 
 gentleman, and John Talbot, gentleman, both deceased. ' 
 
 I The list of Governors about a century ago may be of interest : — "A list of the present Governors 
 of the ffree Gramar School of Blackburn, Dec. 21, 1774 :—i, James WhaJIey, Esq.; 2, Mr Richard 
 Falkner : 3, Mr. Robert Gartside : 4, Mr. Thomas Haworth ; 5, Mr. John Bolton : 6, Edward Ains- 
 worth, Esq.; 7, John Clayton. Esq.; 8. Robert Parker, Esq.; 9, Mr. John Sudell ; 10, Thomas Evans, 
 Esq. (non residt); 11, Nicholas Winckley, Esq.; 12, Thomas Walmsley, Esq.; 13, Mr. Thomas 
 Livesey; 14, Mr. William Fox; 15, Sir George Warren; 16, Thomas Braddyll, Esq.; 17, Ashton 
 Curzon, Esq.; 18, Mr Joseph Feilden ; 19, Mr. Henry Feilden; 20, Mr. Thomas Bolton; 21, Mr. John 
 Hindle ; 22, Mr. Jonathan Haworth ; 23, Mr. Robert Haworth ; 24, George Wilson, Esq. ; 25, Mr. 
 Thomas Baron ; 26, Mr. Edward Bolton ; 27, Peter Legh, Esq. ; 28, Mr. Thomas Yates ; 29, Mr. 
 George Abbott ; 30, Mr. Edward Brewer ; 31, Mr. John Calvert ; 32, Mr. Henry Heaton ; 33, Mr. 
 John Livesey; 34, Mr. William Sudell; 35, Mr. John Smalley; 36, Mr. Abraham Chew; 37, The 
 Rev. Mr. John Parker ; 38, Mr. Charles Ford ; 39, Mr. Joseph Tipping ; 40, Mr. William Yates ; 
 41, The Rev. Mr. John White ; 42, Mr. Bertie Markland ; 43, Mr. John Yates ; 44, Mr. Edmund 
 Peel; 45, Robert Shuttleworth, Esq.; 46, Le Gendre Starkie, Esq.; 47, George Hargreaves, Esq.: 
 48, Mr. Benjamin Walmsley ; 49, Mr. Benjamin Boocock ; 50, Mr. Samuel Cable," 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNALS. 343 
 
 1775. Dec. 21. — Mr. Richd. Birley, Mr. Walter Freckleton, Mr. John Haworth 
 of Blackburn, and Rev. Daniel Wilson of Lancaster, elected Governors in room of 
 Thos. Walmesley, Esq., Mr. Thos. Yates, Mr. George Abbott, and Mr. Edmund 
 Peel, deceased. 
 
 1776. Dec. 21. — "Memorandum. — The Estate of Farnhill Peel, 
 which is charged with an Annuity of ^20 payable to the Schoolmaster 
 of Blackburn, is now in the possession of Sr. John Goodricke, of Bram- 
 ham Park, Yorkshire." 
 
 Mr. Wm. Peel, Mr. Thos. Clayton of Little Harwood, Mr. John Hargreaves, 
 Mr. Thos. Chippindale, and Mr. Wm. Haworth, elected Governors in place of Geo. 
 Wilson, Esq., Mr. Thos. Haworth, Thos. Braddyll, Esq., and Mr. John Hindle, 
 deceased, and Mr. Richd. Birley, who declined acting. 
 
 1777. Dee. 22. — Rev. Mr. Armistead of Mitton, and Mr. Calvert of Preston, 
 elected Governors in place of Mr. Robt. Gartside and Mr. John Calvert, deceased. 
 
 1778. Dec. 21. — Mr. Christopher Marsden and Mr. John Hindle elected Gover- 
 nors in place of Mr. John Bolton and Mr. Benjamin Walmsley, deceased. 
 
 1779. Dec. 21. — Mr. Edmund Haworth and Mr. James De la Prime elected 
 Governors in room of Edward Ainsworth, Esq. , and Robert Parker, Esq. , deceased. 
 
 1780. Dec. 21. — Rev. Thos. Starkie, A.M., Vicar of Blackburn, and James 
 Whalley, Esq., of Clerk-hill, elected Governors in room of Rev. John White, A.M., 
 Vicar of Blackburn, and Thomas Whalley, Esq., of Clerk-hill, deceased. 
 
 1781. Dec. 21. — Mr. Thos. Bulcock, Mr. Wm. Carr, Mr. Wm. Charnley, and Mr. 
 Peter Ellingthorpe, elected Governors in the room of Mr. Edmund Haworth (refused 
 the trust), and of Mr. Winckley, Mr. John Yates, and Mr. Wm. Haworth, deceased. 
 
 1783. July 3. — Ordered that the School forthwith receive neces- 
 sary repairs. 
 
 — Mr. John Thornton and Mr. Thomas Bancroft, both of Blackburn, elected Go- 
 vernors in place of Mr. Chr. Marsden, deceased, and of Mr. Thos. Bulcock, declined 
 the trust. — Ordered that "the Master and Usher do equally divide betwixt themselves 
 the Entrance Money, Cock-pennies, and the rent of the Governors' Room or writing 
 chamber, and every other perquisite arising from the School or Scholars except their 
 respective salaries, and that this regulation do take place from the 21st December, 1782." 
 
 1784. July I. — Mr. Robt. Turner and Mr. Robt. Ashburner, both of Blackburn, 
 elected Governors. 
 
 1785. July 7. — Mr. Henry Sudell, Mr. John Hornby, Mr. Wm. Chippindale, 
 and Mr. John Fisher, surgeon, elected Governors in room of Mr. John Sudell, Rev. 
 Mr. Wilson, Mr. Henry Heaton, and Mr. John Haworth, all deceased. 
 
 1786. July 6. — Mr. Edmund Haworth of Mill Hill, and Mr. Henry Feilden of 
 Blackburn, elected Governors in the room of Mr. Jonathan Haworth and Mr. Robt. 
 Haworth, both deceased. 
 
 1787. Jan. 5. — -The Governors appointed Mr. Samuel Dean, of 
 Manchester, Upper Master of the School, the place being vacant by the 
 resignation of Rev. John Wilson, clerk. — Oct. 10, 1787. Mr. James 
 Radcliffe of Mosney, appointed writing-master and accountant. 
 
 1789. July 2. — Mr. Isaac Glover, Mr. John Hall, surgeon, and Mr. Michael 
 Ward, surgeon, all of Blackburn, elected Governors in room of Mr. Henry Feilden, 
 senr., Mr. Charles Ford and Mr. Walter Freckleton, all deceased. 
 
 1790. Aug. 3.— Rev. Jno. Langton Leach and Mr. Thos. Wahnsley Bulcock 
 
344 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 elected Governors in room of Mr. Thos. Livesey, deceased, and Mr. Michael Ward, 
 declined. 
 
 1791. — In the accounts: — "By Mr. Cardwell as a Benefactor ;^s 
 5s." — April 27. Rev. Thomas Jackson of Bentham elected Usher, in 
 place of Rev. Mr. Exton, resigned. — Ordered, that all Scholars learning 
 the Latin language shall be taught by the Upper Master. 
 
 1792. Aug. 17.— Rev. Saml. Dean, Upper Master, resigned.—- 
 Sep. 20. The Governors elected Rev. Thomas Jackson Upper Master. 
 — Mr. John Feilden elected a Governor. — Oct. 18. Mr. Christopher 
 Inman of Burnsall, near Skipton, elected Usher. 
 
 1793. May 9. — The Governors agreed to a proposal by Mr. Sudell 
 for an exchange of certain lands in Mellor belonging to the School, 
 known by the name of the Lower Great Meadow and a small comer of 
 the Bam Meadow, for certain other lands in Mellor belonging to Mr. 
 Sudell, being the Nearer Green Meadow, Further Green Field, Shorrock 
 Green Croft, and part of the Meadow Field ; Mr. Sudell to give the sum 
 of ;^i5 in consideration. 
 
 1794. July 2. — Mr. Wm. Feilden and Mr. Samuel Bowen elected Governors in 
 the room of Joseph Feilden, Esq., and Mr. Thos. Chippendale, deceased. 
 
 — July 3. — Mr. Edward Chippendale, Mr. JohnNevill, and Mr. R. Latus elected 
 Governors in room of Peter Legh, Esq. , Legendre Starkie, Esq. and Mr. Wm. Peel, deceased. 
 
 1797. July 6. — Mr. William Aspinall of Blackburn, elected Governor in the 
 room of Mr. Chamley, deceased. 
 
 1798. July 5. — ^James Chew, M.D., Mr. Jonathan Wood and Mr. John Birley, 
 King-street, elected Governors in the room of Mr. G. Har^eaves, Mr. J. Hargreaves, 
 and Mr. Ashbumer, deceased. 
 
 1799. April 2.- — Rev. Wm. Lutener, of Blackburn, elected Usher 
 in the place of Mr. Inman, resigned. 
 
 1800. July 3. — Mr. Carr, Mr. Richard Cardwell, senr., Mr. John Birley, junr., 
 and Mr. Alexander Butler, elected Governors in room of Mr. Carr, Mr. A. Chew, 
 Mr. J. Tipping, and Mr. W. Bulcock, all deceased. 
 
 1801. June 2. — The Govemors agreed to sell to Henry Sudell, 
 Esq., three Messuages, Farms, or Tenements in Mellor, known as the 
 Higher School Lands, the Lower School Lands, and the Middle School 
 Lands, now in the occupation of Mrs. Ashbumer or her under-tenants, 
 for the sum of ^^2, 600. "The estates contracted to be sold contain 31 
 acres and 7 perches, and the clear profits to the Master and Usher are 
 ;^2o lis. 8d." — The Govemors resolved that all interest accming from 
 the said sum of ;^2,6oo, and all rents thereof should thereafter accrue 
 from lands purchased and conveyed in exchange for lands sold, subject 
 to deductions by the Governors for repairs of the School and the improve- 
 ment of lands and buildings belonging thereto, should be divided half 
 yearly between the Master and Usher in the proportion of five to three. 
 
 — July 2. — Mr. Hugh Hornby Birley elected a Governor in the room of Edw. 
 Brewer, deceased. 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNALS. 345 
 
 l8o2. July I. — Mr. A. Chew, Mr. Thos. Carr, Mr. Richd. Ellingthorpe, and 
 Mr. Wm. Maude elected Governors in the room of Sir Geo. Warren, Mr. Wm. Fox, 
 Mr. Thos. Baron, and Mr. Thos. Bolton, all deceased.' 
 
 1803. June 3o.^The Governors appointed Mr. James Holme, of 
 Ealing, Middlesex, to be Upper Master in the place of the Rev. Thomas 
 Jackson, deceased. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Stephenson, Messrs. John Cardwell, Abm. Pryme, Jos. Birley, Warren 
 Maude, and D. Blissett elected Governors in room of John Clayton, Thos. Cross, and 
 Edw. Bolton, Esqrs., Mr. Robinson Shuttleworth and Mr. Hugh Birley, deceased. 
 
 1804. Aug. 2. — Mr. Robt. Cross and Mr. Thos. Beardsworth elected Governors 
 in room of Mr. John Smalley and Mr. Benjamin Bulcock, deceased. 
 
 It is not necessary to continue in detail the annals of the School 
 during the present century, so far as they relate to the election of 
 Governors to fill vacancies and to current business of the foundation. 
 The present Clerk to the Governors, Arthur I. Robinson, Esq., kindly 
 supplies from the Minute Books the following notes of appointments of 
 Masters since 1806 : — " Mr. Holme, the Upper Master, resigned Dec. 
 2ist, 1807. — Rev. Wm. Boardman elected Head Master, 26th Sept., 
 1808. — Mr. Thomas Atkinson elected Head Master 23 Dec, i8ig, 
 vice Boardman, resigned. — Rev. John Bidgood Bennett, M.A., elected 
 Head Master i8 Dec, 1845, vice Atkinson, resigned. — Mr. Thomas 
 Ainsworth, M.A., elected Head Master 23 Nov., 1855, vice Bennett, 
 resigned. — Rev. Ralph Leeming appointed Usher 4 Oct., 181 2, vice 
 Lutener, resigned. — Rev. Richard Gamett appointed Usher 10 Nov., 
 1814, vice Leeming, resigned. — Mr. Gamett resigned in Oct., 1819, and 
 Mr. Boardman, Head Master, resigning about the same time, the 
 Governors decided to combine the offices owing to the income of the 
 School Estate being insufficient to pay two salaries.'" 
 
 1 Rent Roll [1802].— Nov. nth, due from Mr. Sudell, ^65 ; May 13th, due from Mr. Sudell, 
 £fis '• at Whitsuntide and Martinmas, due from Mr. Wilkinson of Winterburn near Skipton from an 
 estate in Yorkshire called Famhill Peel. /^lo half yearly, /20 : at Candlemas and 2nd Feby., due from 
 Thos. Ward of Melior, £,1 los. half yearly, £,S '• July or Aug., Dutchy Rents due from the Dutchy 
 Court, ^4 7s. 4d. ; Rent of the Pew from E. Chippindall, £\ los. 6d. ; at May Day, Rent of the Wri- 
 ting Master's Room, £3 2s.: total, £164 os. lod.; Deduct from the Duchy Rents, los.: £163 los. rod.; 
 of the above, five-eighths due to the Master, £102 4s. 3d. ; of the above, three-eighths to the Usher, 
 £61 6s. 7d. ; £163 Tos. rod. 
 
 2 The present (1875) List of Governors of Blackburn Grammar School is as follows : — Wm. Henry 
 Hornby, Esq.; Wm. Thos. Carr, Esq.; Montague Joseph Feilden, Esq. (Lt.-Col.): Robert Lund, 
 Esq. : Henry Master Feilden, Esq. ; Thos. Ainsworth, Esq. ; John Livesey, Esq. ; Sir W. H. Feilden, 
 Bart.; Rev. Chas. Greenway ; John Turner Hopwood, Esq.; Robt. Raynsford Jackson, Esq. (Col.); 
 Rev. Henry John Marlen ; Danl. Thwaites, Esq.; Robt. Hopwood Hutchinson, Esq.; Wm. Leyland 
 Feilden, Esq.; Richd. Barton Dodgson, Esq.: Hy. Unsworth Hargreaves, Esq.; Thos. Lund, Esq.; 
 Rev. Geo. Alexr. Hamilton Ashe ; Rev. Chas. Wright Woodhouse (Canon of Manchester) ; James 
 Cunningham, Esq.; Joseph Harrison, Esq.; Wm. Dickinson, Esq.; Rev. Robt. Atherton Rawstome ; 
 Rev. Philip Graham ; Arthur Ingram Robinson, Esq.; Thomas Ratcliffe, Esq. ; William Harrison, 
 Esq.; Wm. Henry Hornby, junr., Esq. ; James Thompson, Esq. ; Wm. Coddington, Esq. ; Rev. Edwd. 
 Birch (Hon. Canon of Manchester) ; Thos. Hartley Pickup, Esq.; Thos. Clough, Esq.; John Thwaites, 
 Esq.; John Bolton, Esq.; Thos. Lewis, Esq.; Adam Dugdale, Esq.; Thomas Bury, Esq., Robert 
 Parkinson, Esq.; John Tattersall , Esq. ; Robt. Duckworth, Esq.; John Pickop, Esq.; Thos. Hutton 
 Baynei,£sq. ; Robt. Carr Radcliife,£sq.;Wm.G.Cort, Esq.; Henry John Robinson, Esq.; Jas. l^wis. Esq. 
 
 44 
 
346 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The purchase money (;£'2,6oo) of the School lands in Mellor sold 
 to Mr. Henry Sudell in 1801, remained in Mr. Sudell's hand at interest 
 until 181 2, when an estate was purchased therewith in Dilworth, called 
 "Clayton's," contains 31 acres i rood 25 perches of land, customary 
 measure (about 58 statute acres), and at the time of this transfer was 
 leased to Thomas Clayton at a rent of ;^iio. In 1816 the farm was 
 relet at a rental of ^80 ; in 1823 was relet at ^60; and in 1826 was 
 leased to another tenant at ;^8o annual rental, which is about the present 
 revenue of the School from this source. The Pianot Nest tenement in 
 Mellor, purchased in 1749, yielded in 1825 a rental of ^16 yearly; the 
 rent charge of ^20 on Farnhill estate, and the sum of ^4 7s. 4d. from 
 the Duchy (less 9s. rod. deducted for fees), making a total endowment 
 of ;£'ii9 7s. 6d. About ten years ago the annual income of the School 
 from endowments was reported to be ;£^ii8 7s. 8d. gross, and ;£^ii3 net. 
 
 The old School House in the Parish Churchyard was disused and 
 taken down in 1820, on the conveyance of the site, for a sum of ;^85o, 
 to the trustees for rebuilding the Parish Church. The same year, the 
 Governors secured a new site called the " Bull Meadow" on the Rectorial 
 Glebe from the lessee of the Primate, for ^£141 2s. 5d. ; the plot contains 
 4,610 square yards, and upon a part of it the present School and Master's 
 House were erected in 1825. The rest of the land is enclosed for a 
 playground. The school-room is not large, and but poorly meets the 
 necessities of the 100 scholars now usually receiving education upon this 
 foundation. 
 
 A project for rebuilding the school on a pleasanter site in the 
 suburb near the Corporation Park, and for augmenting the endowment 
 by means of a public subscription, has been mooted recently, but has 
 not yet proceeded. At present (July, 1875) the Commissioners under 
 the Endowed Schools Act of 1874, are making local inquiries preliminary 
 to the drawing-up of a Scheme for the reconstruction of the government 
 of the foundation. Should the scheme when published be generally 
 approved by the inhabitants, the proposal to build a larger School on 
 another site and to increase the endowment may be expected to assume 
 practical shape. 
 
 LIST OF HEAD MASTERS OF BLACKBURN GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 
 
 Of some of the earliest Masters of the School from the Queen's 
 foundation in r567 there is no definite record. The first met with is — 
 Mr. — Yates, circa 1580 to 1592. 
 
 He was instructor of Robert Bolcon, whose biographer speaks of him as a singular 
 (good) Schoolmaster that was then in the town. Bolton left the School about A.D. 
 IJ92. 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL MASTERS. 
 
 347 
 
 Barnard Smith, died before 1597. 
 
 A legacy of 20s. left to the School by this Master was paid Dec. 21st, 1597. 
 Edward Browne, appointed Aug. ist, 1608, died in 161 2. 
 He was before sometime Master of Whalley School ; and he bequeathed 40s. to 
 Blackburn School, which was paid by his executor Sept. 29th, 1612. 
 
 Thurstan Collinson, appointed Sept. 29th, 16 12, ceased before 
 1623. 
 
 John Hargreaves, M.A., appointed Dec. 21st, 1623, ceased 1624. 
 
 Richard Halstead, M.A., appointed Jan. 8th, 1624-5, ceased 1640. 
 
 John Swinlehurst, appointed Aug. 9th, 1641, died Nov., 1655. 
 
 Charles Sagar, appointed Jan. 21st, 1655-6, resigned in 1666. 
 
 Some account of this Master, who afterwards taught a private school in Black- 
 bum and was a Nonconformist Minister, will be inserted hereafter in the sketch of the 
 I-ower Chapel, Over Darwen, of which Mr. Sagar became Pastor. 
 
 Mr. — Sherburne, appointed 1666, ceased 1667. 
 Thomas Wyld, appointed Oct. 7th, 1667, ceased 1667. 
 Oliver Halliwell, appointed March 9th, 1667-8, ceased before 
 1669. 
 
 Mr. Sagar seems to have temporarily resumed as Master in 1669, during a vacancy. 
 
 John Oddie, appointed 1670, died 1703. 
 
 Mr. Oddie was an antiquary, a friend of Dr. Charles Leigh, who inserts in his 
 "Natural History of Lancashire," &c., a letter on the supposed Roman port at Rib- 
 chester "from the ingenious and learned Mr. Oddy, School-master at Blackburn." 
 In Blackburn Parish Register I find the burial, Sept. 2nd, 1703, of "John Oddy of 
 Blackburn, yeoman, schoolmaster of the Free School of Blackburn, buried three yards 
 deep. " Mr. Oddie was of a family seated at Grindleton. 
 
 Richard Warde, appointed 1 703, died June, 1 704. 
 
 Robert Foster, B.A., appointed July 3rd, 1704, died 1705. 
 
 George Smith, B.A., appointed Aug. 20th, 1705, resigned 1731. 
 
 Thomas Holme, appointed June 23rd, 1731, resigned 1736. 
 
 Rev. Thomas Holme was eldest son of Rev. John Holme, Vicar of Blackburn. 
 He was bom in 1 706, educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, Master of this School 
 from 1731 to 1736, elected a Governor in 1739, received the title of D.D., and died 
 in 1754. 
 
 Daniel Markland, B.A., appointed Nov. ist, 1736, died 1737. 
 Thomas Hunter, appointed Aug. 2nd, 1737, resigned 1750. 
 
 Rev. Thomas Hunter, of a Cumberland family, bom about 1710, of Queen's 
 College, Oxford, was Master of this School thirteen years, and is spoken of by a pupil 
 (Dr. Edward Harwood, to be noticed hereafter) as having " the best school at Black- 
 burn of any gentleman in the County." While here, Mr. Hunter published, in 1744, 
 
 "A Letter to Col. John , in Flanders, on the Subject of Religion ;" and married, 
 
 Feb. 28th, 1738, Mrs., Mary Baldwin, widow of Hugh Baldwin, gent., by whom he had 
 sons Thomas and Joseph (both died in infancy in 1745), William, bom 1741, and a 
 second Thomas, born 1748. In 1750 Mr. Hunter resigned the Mastership of the 
 School on his appointment, June 1st, 1750, as Vicar of Garstang. He was next 
 preferred, April l8th, 1755, to the Vicarage of Weaverham, Co. Chester, which he 
 
348 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 held until his death, Sept. 1st, 1777, aged 67 ; and was succeeded as Vicar there by 
 his son Thomas. His widow died March loth, 1782, aged 71. A monumental tablet 
 to Mr. Hunter and his wife is fixed in the chancel of Weaverham Church. Mr. Hunter 
 was author of several printed books, including: — "Observations on Tacitus," 1752; 
 "Funeral Sermon on Dr. Stratford," 1754 ; "Character of Lord Bolingbroke, " 1770 
 (this work procured him the title of M. A. by diploma) ; " Moral Discourses on Provi- 
 dence," 2 v., 1774; "Reflections on the Letters of the late Earl of Chesterfield,'' 
 1776; "Letter to a Priest, &c., on Image Worship;" "A Fast Sermon," &c. He 
 is said to have been afflicted with blindness in his later years, when several of the above 
 works were composed. 
 
 Robert Smith, B.A., appointed Aug. 29th, 1750, resigned 1755. 
 
 Richard Guest, appointed Sept. 6th, 1755, died 1769. 
 
 John Wilson, M.A., appointed Aug. 28th, 1769, resigned 1786. 
 
 Mr. Wilson was sometime Curate of Tockholes in this parish, and also Vicar of 
 Milnthorpe, Westmoreland. 
 
 Samuel Dean, appointed Jan. 5th, 1787, resigned 1792. 
 Rev. Samuel Dean was author of a volume of Sermons, printed at Blackburn 
 in 1795. He was Minister of St. Paul's Church after 1792. 
 
 Thomas Jackson, appointed Aug. 17th, 1792, died 1803. 
 James Holme, appointed June 30th, 1803, resigned 1807. 
 William Boardman, appointed Sept. 26th, 1808, resigned 1819. 
 Thomas Atkinson, appointed Dec. 23rd, 1819, resigned 1845. 
 
 Mr. Atkinson was a successful Master during his term, and on his death, some 
 years after his retirement, a tributary column was placed at the angle of the School 
 ground in St. Peter-street, on two sides of the pedestal of which is the inscription : — ■ 
 " To Thomas Atkinson, Head Master for 20 years of Queen Elizabeth's Free Gram- 
 mar School, Blackburn, — Erected by his Pupils in grateful remembrance of his faithful 
 and zealous services. A.D. 1855." 
 
 John B. Bennett, M.A., appointed Dec. i8th, 1845, resigned 
 
 (having greariy reduced the School by neglect) 1855. 
 
 Thomas Ainsworth, M.A., appointed Nov. 22nd, i85'5 ; present 
 
 Head Master. 
 
 LIST OF USHERS. 
 
 Richard Risheton, appointed Dec, 1597, ceased 1613. 
 Robert Osbaldeston, B.A., appointed Dec, 1613, dismissed 1616. 
 Richard Bradley, appointed Oct, 1619, dismissed 1642. 
 Richard Morres, appointed April, 1642, died 1660. 
 Thomas Walmesley, appointed Jan., 1660-1, ceased 1666. 
 Richard Duckworth, appointed Dec, 1666, ceased 1667. 
 Hugh Wareing, appointed Jan., 1667-8, dismissed July, 1678. 
 Thomas Walmsley, appointed July, 1678, died Jan., 1684-5. 
 James Abbot, appointed April, 1685, ceased 1687. 
 Oliver Shaw, appointed Dec, 1687, ceased 1692. 
 James Burton, appointed Oct, 1692, died 1704. 
 James Livesey, appointed Oct., 1704, died 1715. 
 Thomas Moon, appointed Feb., 1715-6, ceased 1727. 
 
CHARITIES OF BLACKBURN. 3^9 
 
 Thomas Wright, appointed July, 1727, ceased 1731. 
 Peter Livesey, appointed March, 1731-2, died Jan., 1742-3. 
 Robert Sutton, appointed Feb., 1742-3, ceased 1749. 
 Nicholas Parker, appointed Aug., 1749, ceased 1782. 
 Thomas Exton, appointed Dec, 1791, ceased 1787. 
 
 Thomas Jackson, appointed April, 1791, made Head Master, August, 1792. 
 Christopher Inman, appo.nted Oct., 1792, resigned 1799. 
 William Lutener, appointed April, 1799, resigned 1812. 
 Ralph Leeming, appointed Oct., 1812, resigned 1814. 
 Richard Garnett, appointed Nov., 1814, resigned Oct., 1819. 
 The office of usher was abolished in 1819. 
 
 CHARITIES OF BLACKBURN TOWNSHIP. 
 poors' stock and poors' lands. 
 
 An ancient gift of;^2o to the Poor of the Parish, " by a person 
 unknown," is recorded by Bishop Gastrell, as returned by Vicar Holme 
 and his Wardens in 1 7 1 8. 
 
 A.D. 1685. Mr. Henry Maudsley of Ousebooth, at the funeral of 
 his brother Thurstan (1685-6), gave ;^io to the Poor of Blackburn; 
 increased by interest to ;!^i3 in 17 16, when the amount was in the 
 hands of Mr. John Sudell. 
 
 A.D. 1694. Mr. William Yates gave by Will dated 1694, ;^2o to be 
 set out by the Vicar, one Warden, and one of the most honest Mercers or 
 Fustian Men of Blackburn, the interest to be disposed annually among 
 the Poor of Blackburn. 
 
 A.D. 1696. Joseph Yates, Esq., and his Sisters Mrs. Mary Moseley 
 and Mrs. Abigail Drake, at the funeral of their Mother, gave ;^2o for 
 the Poor of Blackburn. 
 
 Before 1703. Ralph Clayton, of London, Qrocer, gave ;^3o; and 
 Mr. Edward Clayton, Master of Manchester Free School, by Will, gave 
 ;£6 13s. d8., half of which was lost before 1718. 
 
 A.D. 1704. Mr. Joseph Yates by Will dated June 21st, 1704, gave 
 to the Churchwardens and Overseers of Blackburn township, ;^io to 
 be bestowed yearly to poor persons on St. James' Day. 
 
 A.D. 1 706. Mrs. Elizabeth Wilkinson, at the funeral of her Brother, 
 Rev. Francis Price, Vipar, gave ;^2o, the interest to be given to the 
 Poor of Blackburn by the Vicar and two Inhabitants. 
 
 A.D. 1 7 10. Mr. Joseph Yates by Will gave ;!f 100 to be lent out 
 at Interest by the Vicar and Curate and one substantial Tradesman ; 
 interest yearly to the Poor of Blackburn. 
 
 A.D. 1 71 1. Mr. William Yates of Blackburn, by Will dated May 
 7th, 17 II, gave to Mr. Holme, Vicar, William Dickson, Curate, and 
 John Sudell, jCioo to be given to poor persons not receiving parish 
 relief; and interest of ;^5 to be spent by Trustees at yearly meeting. 
 
350 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 With accumulated Poor Stock was purchased for ;^205 2S. in 1 744, 
 a copyhold estate in Yate Bank, of 13 acres of land, messuage, bam, 
 &c., which was then let to the trustees of William Kenyon at a yearly 
 rent of ;£'ii los. 
 
 A.D. 1737. Mr. John Sudell by Will dated Feb. 9th, 1737, 
 directed a sum of ;^7o after his decease to be put out at interest or laid 
 out in land by Vicar Holme, Henry Sudell, testator's son, and his sons- 
 in-law Henry Feilden and John Whalley ; out qf yearly interest to be 
 bought two new Bibles to be given to two poor children of Blackburn ; 
 the residue to be distributed by way of Dole amongst poor persons not 
 receiving parish relief 
 
 A.D. 1762. By Deed dated Feb. i6th, 1762, John Sudell and 
 John Feilden purchased for^^aio, from Richard Dewhurst and Eliza- 
 beth his wife, an estate of land in Mellor called Southworth tenement, 
 and closes called Little Meadow, Higher Croft, Lower Mill Field, Well 
 Field, Witch Croft, a new inclosure called Whitehill on Mellor Moor, 
 and Wall Field, containing 13 acres. July i6th, 1762, John Sudell and 
 John Feilden conveyed the same tenement to Vicar Wollin, Henry 
 Sudell, and John Whalley, their heirs, in trust to let the same and distri- 
 bute the rents annually among the industrious Poor of Blackburn. It is 
 declared therein that of the sum of ^^210 paid for the estate, were j^i^ 
 given by a Mr. Maudsley, ^70 by Mr. John Sudell, deceased, and a 
 donation oi £12^ by Mr. Henry Sudell. The Trustees of this charity 
 in 1825 were Vicar Whitaker, Henry Sudell, Esq., and Joseph Feilden, 
 Esq. 
 
 A.D. 1825. Blackburn Poors' Lands, as reported to the Charity 
 Commission, were : — i. Copyhold estate of Lang House in Yate Bank ; 
 a house and loa. ir. 24p. land customary measure in the occupation of 
 Henry Sharpies at a rental of ^^36. 2. Estate in Mellor called South- 
 worth Green Farm, containing loa. 2r. lop. customary measure, in 
 occupation of Roger Haydock, rent ;^2 8. — At the distribution on Jan. 
 ist, 1825, was given in money to 203 poor persons jQi^ ; 90 pairs of 
 blankets £,^() 15s.; Church rates and allowance to tenants 15s. 6d. ; 
 balance ;£% 7s. lod. ; total income ^f^ i8s. 4d. 
 
 GIRLS' CHARITY SCHOOL. 
 
 Founded A.D. 1763, by William Leyland, Esq., who by Will dated 
 1 8th July, 1763, gave ;!£^2oo to Richard Cardwell, John Shepherd, and 
 Joseph Feilden, in trust to establish in Blackburn a Charity School after 
 the pattern of that in Kirkham, &c. To the above legacy was added by 
 subscriptions of other persons the same year jQ2(m ios. Subsequently 
 these further gifts have been made to the Charity: — In 1764 — Joseph 
 
CHURCHES OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. 351 
 
 Whalley ^^50; John Whalley ^50; John Shepherd ;^5o. 1796 — 
 Part of residuary property of Mrs. Mary Smalley, received from Rev. 
 Richard Penryn ^100. 1807 — Mrs. Feilden of Halsnead ;^ioo. 
 181 1 — Richard Birley ^.{^loo; Mr. Yates of Bury ^50. The School 
 in Thunder Alley, Blackburn, was built and opened in 1764. A house 
 for the Mistress adjoins the School. In 1765, Richard Cardwell, John 
 Shepherd, and Joseph Feilden nominated John Fielding and John 
 Thurston to be trustees with them. In 1825, the trustees were : — Rev. 
 J. W. Whitaker, Vicar ; Messrs. John Hornby, Joseph Feilden, William 
 Maude, and John Hargreaves. The School Stock at the same date was 
 ;^2,4i6 13s. 4d. in the hands of Messrs. Birley and Hornby. Ninety 
 girls were then attending the School. Salary of Schoolmistress ^^30 
 and ;^4 for firing. Expenditure in 1824, ;£i55 2s. 4d. The trustees 
 met twice a year to choose girls, children of poor people in the township 
 of Blackburn. 
 
 MINOR CHARITIES OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Wollin's Charity. — The Rev. John Wollin, Vicar of Blackburn, 1742-72, 
 gave ;^io, the interest to be expended in books for the poor of the parish. 
 
 Duckworth's Charity. — Mrs. Duckworth, widow, bequeathed 40s., the 
 interest to be laid out in bread for communicants of the parish. 
 
 The Ladies' Society, established in 1808, affords relief to poor married women 
 in child-bed. 
 
 The Strangers' Friend Society, established in 1808, provides for visiting and 
 relieving Sick and Distressed Persons. The fund, dispensed by visitors under 
 direction of a committee, is derived from donations and annual subscriptions, and 
 a chief item of income is a yearly gift of i^ioo by Wm. Henry Hornby, Esq. 
 
 The Turner Almshouses, Bank Top, (according to an inscription upon the 
 front of the houses) "were erected and endowed by William and Jane Turner, Mill 
 Hill, A.D. 1833." They comprise six small one-storied dwellings, for the reception 
 of that number of indigent aged women, who have each allowed along with the house 
 a sum of 3s. weekly for maintenance. 
 
 CHURCHES OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. 
 The churches in the township besides the Old Parish Church are 
 the following : — - 
 
 St. John's. — This was the first new Church founded in Blackburn Parish in the 
 modem period. It was built by subscription in 1788, as a proprietary Chapel of Ease 
 to the Parish Church, and of the cost, ;^8,ooo, the moiety was given by Henry Sudell, 
 Esq. , who also gave for the endowment of the living an estate called Becket Fold in 
 Yate-cum-Pickup Bank, to meet a grant from Queen Anne's Bounty. The Church 
 was consecrated July 31st, 1789. The architecture is classic, and the external walls 
 are of dressed freestone. The body of the Church is a parallelogram about 70ft. by 
 60ft. The entrances are in the west front ; the central doorway is under a tower ter- 
 minating in an octagon with domed roof and lantern. The organ chamber is above the 
 vestry on the east side of the structure. The interior has galleries on three sides. 
 There is a good organ, reconstructed in 1868. Sittings ("Calendar" return) 1,166. 
 
352 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 A large grave-yard surrounds the Church. St. John's was constituted a Parish Church 
 in 1847. Patron : The Vicar of Blackburn. Value of Living .^^357. Rev. J. Baker 
 is present Vicar. Former Incumbents: — Rev. John Langton Leach, M. A. (1789- 
 1810) ; Rev. James Dodgson, B.A. (1811-26); Rev. Jackson Porter (1826-41); 
 Rev. R. T. Wheeler, M.A. (1842-51); Rev. H. J. Marlen (1851-60); Rev. John 
 Smith (1860-66). 
 
 St. Paul's. — This Church was built by subscription in 1791, but the then Vicar 
 of Blackburn refusing to certify for consecration, the trustees of the Church placed it 
 under the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, and it was served by a minister of 
 that Connexion until 1829, when the Church was consecrated, Dec. 20th, and the 
 minister (Rev. John Price) admitted to Priest's orders in the Church of England 
 fn 1830. The Church is a very plain structure, consisting of a nave, low tower, and a 
 chancel added in 1867. The interior is galleried on three sides, the organ standing in 
 the west gallery. The Church has recently been much improved internally. Sittings 
 926. Patron : The Vicar of Blackburn. Value of Living ^300. Present Vicar, 
 Rev. W. Thompson, M.A. Former Incumbents: — Rev. Samuel Dean (1792-99); 
 Rev. John Price (1799-1841); Rev. A. G. Edouart (1841-50); Rev. H. W. Mary- 
 church (1850-70) ; Rev. W. Mayor. 
 
 St. Peter's. — This spacious Church was built in 1819-21, at a cost of ;^i3,ooo, 
 provided by grant from Parliament aided by private subscription. Its style is decorated 
 gothic, designed by the architect of the Parish Church (Mr. Palmer). Consecrated 
 Sept. nth, 1821. The edifice is composed of nave without clerestory, north and south 
 aisles ; a short chancel ; vestries ; and western tower. The roofs of nave and aisles 
 are vaulted internally. The length of the nave is 96ft. , and the width across nave and 
 aisles 67ft. There are commodious side galleries ; and a noble organ (opened Feb. 
 27th, 1865, and enlarged in 1874) fills the upper space at the west end, with a gallery 
 for the choir in front of the organ. The great east window of the chancel is a painted 
 Memorial window given by the late Richard Cardwell, Esq. The clustered columns 
 supporting the nave arches are massive, with moulded capitals. Sittings, 1,432. 
 Patron : The Vicar of Blackburn. Value of the Living £3°°- Present Vicar, Rev. 
 H. G. Youard, M.A. Former Incumbents : — Rev. T. H. Backhouse, M.A. (1821-28); 
 Rev. Chas. A. Hunt, B.A. (1828-39); Rev. T. Sharpies, M.A. (1839-58); Rev. 
 C. W. Woodhouse, M.A. (1858-74). 
 
 Holy Trinity. — This Church was projected in 1836, to be built by subscription, 
 and the first stone was laid in January of that year, but the work was delayed, and it 
 was not until January, 1846, that the Church was completed and opened. It was 
 consecrated July 12th, 1846. The architecture is transitional gothic and the design 
 included nave, north and south aisles, north and south transepts, chancel, and western 
 tower and spire. The tower was left incomplete until 1855 ; and the spire yet remains 
 to bg added. The site is a conspicuous one on the crest of an eminence. The interior 
 is lofty and effective. Galleries surround the nave and are extended into the transepts. 
 Sittings, 1,474. Patron : Vicar of Blackburn. Value of Living £i$o. Present 
 Vicar, Rev. W. R. .Stephens, M.A. Former Incumbents: — Rev.E.C.Montriou,M.A.; 
 Rev. Edward Parker (1846-50) ; Rev. Christopher Robinson, LL.D. (1850-69). 
 
 St. Michael's. — A Chapel erected by the Wesleyans was purchased in 1839 and 
 opened as a Mission of the Church of England by license from the Bishop Sept. 29th, 
 1839. This building was consecrated in 1844. A new Church, the comer-stone of 
 which was laid by W. H. Hornby, Esq., Jan. 6th, 1866, was finished in 1869; conse- 
 crated Jan. 28th. The new Church is a gothic structure, designed to have when 
 completed a tower and spire 146ft. high rising above the entrance on the south-east 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN BLACKBURN. 
 
 353 
 
 side of the Church. The plan includes a nave and side aisles, 72ft. by 51ft.; chancel ; 
 and oi^an aisle. Cost of the Church ;^S>°°0- ^i^ organ was placed in the Church in 
 1875. Sittings 827. Patron : Vicar of Blackburn. Value of Living £yxi. Vicar, 
 Rev. J. W. PengeUy (1846-75). 
 
 Christ Church. — The erection of this Church was commenced in 1857 ; and it 
 was consecrated Sept. 2nd, 1859. Cost ;^6,ooo. The late Robert Hopwood, Esq., was 
 chief donor to the Church, and provided also an endowment. The Church is of gothic 
 architecture, and consists of nave and side aisles (90ft. by 53ft. ) ; south porch ; 
 chancel ; and tower and spire at the east end (148ft. high). There is a gallery at the 
 west end of the nave. Sittings, 930. Patrons : — Bishop and Trustees alternately. 
 Value of Living ;rf3CX3. Vicar, Rev. R. Moss, D.D. (1860-75.) 
 
 St. Thomas's. — This Church was built in 1864-5 ! consecrated Oct. 30th, 1865. 
 The edifice comprises a nave with aisles, 95ft. by 50ft. , a chancel apse at the north end, 
 and western porch. Cost ;^4,ooo. Sittings, 920. Patron : — The Bishop. Value of 
 Living ;^330. Vicar, Rev. H. Wescoe (1865-75). 
 
 All Saints'. — This Church was erected by subscription in 1870-2, as a Memorial 
 Church to the late Archdeacon Rushton, D.D., Vicar of Blackburn. Consecrated 
 April 25th, 1872. The architecture is geometric gothic ; the plan includes nave, 
 chancel, north aisle and north chancel aisle ; and organ transept. At the south end is 
 a bell-turret. The old organ of the Parish Church, restored, was put in this Church in 
 1875. Cost ;^5,ooo. Sittings, 800. Patrons : — Vicar of Blackburn and Trustees 
 jointly. Value of Living ;^IOO. Vicar, Rev. W. T. Vale. 
 
 St. James's. — The site of this Church, given by W. T. Carr, Esq., is on the hill 
 at the top of Shear Brow. The edifice was built to supersede a school-church at 
 Pleckgate, in 1873-4. Consecrated June 8th, 1874. It is a plain gothic structure, 
 with nave, aisles, octagonal chancel, organ chamber, and north porch, above which a 
 tower and spire are intended to rise to finish the design. Cost ;f4,200. An oi^an 
 was purchased for the Church in 1875. Sittings, 644. Patron : — Vicar of St. John's 
 for life ; then Bishop. Vicar, Rev. G. Whalley. 
 
 St. Luke's. — For this ecclesiastical district, detached from St. Peter's parish, 
 service is celebrated in St. Luke's School. Sittings, 350. A subscription has been 
 started for a new Church. Curate, Rev. J. Noble. 
 
 St. Silas's. — This new district, severed from St. Paul's, has services conducted 
 in Billinge School. Sittings, 350. A site at Billinge End is secured for a new 
 Church, to be dedicated to St. Silas ; and the foundations have been prepared. The 
 new Church will contain 600 sittings ; the style will be early English, and the design 
 includes nave, side aisles, chancel, organ chamber, and tower with spire 150ft. high. 
 Cost, about ;f5,ooo. Curate, Rev. Wilson Stones. 
 
 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN BLACKBURN TOWN AND 
 
 PARISH. 
 
 No systematic narrative has yet been attempted by any member of 
 the (Roman) Catholic Communion who has access to the records of the 
 missions of that Church in the Northern District of England, of the 
 history of its organisation, congregations, and priesthood in Lancashire 
 during the more than two centuries of statutory proscription of English 
 Catholicism that was suffered before the passage of the Catholic Relief 
 Act in 1 79 1. The incidental information we have suffices to show an 
 uninterrupted maintenance of religious worship by the members of the 
 
 45 
 
3S4 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Roman Church in Lancashire throughout that trying interval. But it 
 was a necessity of the case that the service of the Catholic priests in 
 those penal days should be more or less private and surreptitious. For 
 long no public Chapels of that communion were allowed to be erected. It 
 devolved upon the Catholic gentry and richer families to provide for the 
 worship of their tenants and poor neighbours of the same faith in 
 Chapels connected with private mansions. In this parish, ever since 
 the Reformation, the presence of several powerful old families of Catholic 
 landlords afforded in the worst times a degree of protection to the 
 adherents of the Church of Rome, and an asylum and subsistence to its 
 missionary priests. In former pages I have noticed the prosecutions of 
 some chief local families of the parish for " recusancy," — ex. gr. the 
 Southworths of Samlesbury and Talbots of Salesbury — in Elizabeth's reign; 
 the severe sequestrations endured by loyalist Catholics in the Civil War of 
 1641-51; the accusation of one neighbouring Catholic esquire of compli- 
 city in a Jacobite Plot in 1 694 ; and the compulsory registration of Catholic 
 freeholders in 1 7 1 5. Traces are frequent of the existence of a respectable 
 minority of Roman Catholics in this district throughout the 300 years of 
 Protestant ascendancy, and it is a question if in some parts of Ribbles- 
 dale, under the countenance of landlords of that faith, the Catholic 
 section of the population was not at times in the majority. 
 
 Among the English Missionary Priests of the Church of Rome who 
 suffered death for their faith, Chaloner names William Thompson, bom 
 in the Parish of Blackburn, and who sometimes passed by the name of 
 William Blackburn. He was a student in the English Catholic College 
 at Rheims, and being sent to England as a missionary was soon appre- 
 hended, tried, and convicted of being a priest of Rome contrary to the 
 statute, and executed at Tyburn in 1586, as Stow thus records: — 
 "William Thompson, alias Blackburn, made priest at Rheims, and 
 Richard Lee, &c., removing here [into England] contrary to the statute, 
 were both condemned, and on the 20th of April, 1586, drawn to Tyburn, 
 and there hanged, bowelled and quartered." Another victim of the law 
 was Edward Osbaldeston of the Osbaldeston family in Blackburn parish, 
 also educated at Rheims, made a priest in 1585 ; sent upon the English 
 mission April 27th, 1589; arrested Sept. 30th, 1594, at Towlerton in 
 Yorkshire ; incarcerated in York Castle ; tried and condemned to die as 
 a priest of Rome, and executed accordingly at York, Nov. i6th, 1594. 
 
 The local Roman Catholic owners of the soil included the South- 
 worths of Samlesbury, Talbots of Salesbury, Osbaldestons of Osbaldes- 
 ton, of Sunderland, and of Cuerdale ; Warrens of Dinkley and Salesbury ; 
 Walmesleys of Dunkenhalgh, lords of Billington, Rishton, and Lower 
 Darwen; Walmesleys of Lower Hall, Samlesbury; Walmesleys of Showley 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN BLACKBURN. 355 
 
 in Clayton-in-le-Dale ; and Sherbumes of Stonyhurst. In these old 
 mansions the Chapel was a principal feature, and the family priest a 
 constant inmate, and thither, on Smidays and feast days, the Catholic 
 tenantry and peasantry regularly resorted to attend mass. In the records 
 of the Parish Church of Blackburn is found a note, dating about 1690, 
 of priests reported as being in the parish, as follows : — " The Names of 
 some Persons who are reported Priests within the Parish of Blackburn : 
 Mr. Kennet, of Walton-in-le-Dale ; Mr. Hardin, of Samlesbury; Mr. 
 Brookhouse, of Sunderland [in Balderstone] ; Mr. MuUins, of Orbeston 
 [Osbaldeston] ; Mr. Hutchinson, of Brindle." Brindle is out of the 
 parish, but the priest there had very likely some relation with Catholics 
 on the south-west border of Blackburn parish. 
 
 A letter written in the year 1 709 by the Rev. John Holme, Vicar 
 of Blackburn, to the Primate (and lately copied by Mr. Lee from the 
 original MS. in the Lambeth Palace Library), betokens the strength of 
 the Roman Catholic party in Lower Ribblesdale at that time. The 
 letter is subjoined : — 
 
 Blackbume, Nov. 3, 1709. — May it please your Grace, — According to your 
 Lordship's Directions, I have made the best inquiry I could to find out the particular 
 circumstances of the Popish Bishop's Visitation within my parish, and the Discoveries 
 1 have made are as follows : — The first week in July (which was the next week after 
 my Lord of Chester held his Visitation here) Bishop Smith [Roman Catholic] came to 
 Mr. Walmsley's, of Lower Hall, in Samlesbury, within my Parish, and confirmed there 
 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, vizt., the 8th, 9th, and loth of July. I cannot find 
 that any Persons of Note were there, or any Protestants, except one or two of Mr. 
 Walmsley's Servants, who dare make no Discoveries of these matters. The number 
 of the Papists that were there was very great ; Mr. Hull, my Curate at Samlesbury 
 Chappell, tells me that he saw multitudes goe that way past his house, some on foot, 
 some on horse-back, most of them with little children in their arms. But the greatest 
 concourse of people was on Sunday, because the Bishop was to preach that day. The 
 neighbouring Protestants seemed to take little Notice of the matter, it being no novelty 
 with them, the same Bishop having been there upon the same occasion about 5 years 
 ago. I think the Papists have been a little more reserved this, that they were the last 
 time the Bishop was in this Neighbourhood. For then they made great Boasts of their 
 vast Numbers, but now I have heard nothing from any of them of this matter. If this 
 account be not so perfect as your Grace could wish, I desire you will not impute it to 
 my negligence, but to the unwillingness of people in this country to intermeddle 
 against Papists, which if it should come to any of their Ears they would study to 
 requite them with the greatest mischiefe they could think of. And indeed 'tis danger- 
 ous meddling with them here, where they bear down all before them with their Power 
 and Interest. I do not know that my Lord of Chester has any Notice of this matter, 
 but if your Grace think fitt I shall communicate it to him. I am, my Lord, Your 
 Grace's most obliged and obedient Son and Servant, Jo. Holme. 
 
 I derive from the Brindle Catholic Chapel Register mention of 
 other Roman Catholic episcopal Visitations to the district in 1749, 
 1755, 1760, and 1766, when considerable numbers of the youth of 
 
356 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Catholic families in Samlesbury and Walton were presented for confirma- 
 tion. Eight or nine years after the date of Vicar Holme's letter, 
 Gastrell, Bishop of Chester, in his diocesan Notitia, enters his informa- 
 tion that in the townships of which Blackburn was the parochial centre 
 (not including Walton and Samlesbury) there were then in existence 
 three " Papist Meetings ;" and 532 professed " Papists ;" or, in the whole 
 parish, 1,023 avowed " Papists " out of a total of 1,800 families ; that 
 some of the inhabitants of Billington and Dinkley " are said to goe to 
 Mass to Sir Nich. Shirburne's at Stonihurst ;" that Walton and Cuerdale 
 possessed four or five " Papist Meetings ;" Samlesbury one ; and Balder- 
 stone one. These neighbouring missions will be found referred to later 
 under their respective townships. 
 
 In the town of Blackburn there was found in the hardest times of the 
 penal laws against "Popery," a small colony of staunch Roman 
 Catholics; and in 1641 one of their number, Mr. Richard Bradley, who 
 had been appointed Usher of Blackburn Free Grammar School in 1619, 
 was dismissed from his office "by reason of his recusancie." The 
 Blackburn Catholics may have found it unsafe to have their place of 
 worship in the town, for I find no trace of any public chapel of that 
 communion in Blackburn until about a century ago. It is stated that 
 the Catholic Chapel in an area between King Street and , Chapel Street 
 was built in 1773. This was a plain structure of brick, concealed by 
 houses surrounding, and this Chapel sufficed for the needs of the Roman 
 Catholics about fifty years, until the erection of St. Alban's in 1824, 
 when the old Chapel in Chapel Street was sold. The walls are yet 
 standing, but since its disuse for Christian worship it has been used as 
 a workshop. About seven years after this Chapel was built, the Rev. 
 William Dunn was appointed priest of the Blackburn mission. This 
 useful priest died suddenly at the altar when offering mass, on Sunday, 
 Oct. 27th, 1805. A memorial of Dr. William Dunn was fixed in St. 
 Alban's Chapel in 1 844, consisting of a marble mural tablet surmounted 
 by the religious emblems of Bible, Cross, Chalice, and Dove, and bear- 
 ing the inscription : — " D. O. M. Here lie the remains of the Rev. 
 William Dunn, D.D., twenty-four years pastor of this congregation. He 
 was bom in the year 1 749, and closed an edifying life whilst offering up 
 the Sacred Mysteries, on Sunday, Oct. 27th, 1805. R. I. P." A 
 succeeding priest of this "mission" was the Rev. R. Abbott, who occurs 
 in 1 81 9, when a return was made of the Catholic Congregation in Black- 
 bum, numbering 1,200 persons. Father Abbott was still priest in 
 Blackburn in 1824. Below is a brief record of Roman Catholic Chapels 
 in the town founded subsequently to the first Chapel in Chapel Street. 
 
 St. Alban's. — This Chapel was built for the use of the original congregation in 
 
NONCONFORMITY IN BLACKBURN. 357 
 
 1824-6, upon a site at Lark-hill (now called St. Alban's Place) which also embraced a 
 spacious burial-ground and site for priest's house. The exterior walls are of brick, 
 with stone quoins at the angles. The entrance is by a porch at the north-west end, 
 supported by Ionic pillars. On the west side, a recent addition, is an elegant gothic 
 mortuary Chapel. The chief enrichment of the interior is expended upon the altars, 
 above which the roof is domed, and the walls enclosing are adorned with fresco paint- 
 ings. There is a gallery at the north end, in which are the organ (placed in 1835) and 
 choir. The Chapel has sittings for 750 persons. The Rev. James Sharpies, D.D., 
 was priest of St. Alban's from about the time of the removal of the congregation of the 
 older Chapel thither until 1842, when he was consecrated Bishop of Samaria. He 
 was succeeded by the Rev. Peter Kaye, who died August 6th, 1856 ; and was followed 
 bythe Rev. Canon Irving. Rev. R. Parker is present Rector. Assistant, Rev. W. S. Berry. 
 
 St. Anne's. — A second mission was established by the members of the Church 
 of Rome in Blackburn in August, 1849. A house and ground in France street had 
 previously been purchased for a priest's house and home for a Sisterhood, and for a 
 site for a Chapel. The latter, dedicated to St. Ann, was opened on May 4th, 1851. 
 It is a brick and stone structure, externally without any striking feature, and enclosed 
 on each side by houses. The Chapel has since been enlarged, and its plan now consists 
 of nave, western aisle, east transept and porch, and sanctuaries. A gallery at the 
 south end contains the organ. Sittings, 800. Rev. Joseph V. Meaney was priest in 
 charge of the Mission from 1849 until his death in 1875. 
 
 St. Mary's. — This third Roman Catholic mission in Blackburn was commenced 
 in 1864. The comer stone of St. Mary's Catholic Chapel was laid by the Bishop of 
 Salford on Whit-Monday, 1864. The edifice was opened on May 4th, 1865. It is a 
 gothic Church, the plan including nave, side aisles and chancel-apse. On the west 
 front a bold turret rises from the south-west angle. A presbytery adjoins the Chapel 
 on the south side. At the west end of the nave is a gallery for organ and choir. Cost 
 with organ and reredos subsequently added, about ;^5)*^'*^* Sittings, 600. Priest in 
 charge (1864-75), Rev- Richard Dunderdale. 
 
 St. Joseph's. — A fourth mission of this Church was founded about 1870, served 
 by the priests of .St. Alban's. In 1874 a distinct cure was constituted and the Rev. Fr. 
 Maglione appointed priest. The mission room temporarily used as a Chapel is about 
 to be displaced by a new Church, dedicated to St. Joseph, on a site in Higher Audley, 
 given by Mr. R. Shakeshaft, the corner-stone of which was laid on Whit-Monday 
 (May 17th), 1875. The edifice will be the largest Roman Catholic Church in the 
 town. Its architecture is Italian ; the plans will include schools in the basement ; 
 above which will be the church, with nave area, 105ft. by 66ft.; two transepts ; and 
 apsidal chancel and sanctuary. A tower at the south end of the Church will be 82ft. 
 in height. Cost ;^9,ooo. Sittings, between 900 and 1,000. 
 
 Convent of Notre Dame. — The house of the late Edward Kenworthy, Esq., 
 called Brookhouse Lodge, was purchased in February, 1859, and converted into a 
 Convent for the reception of a company of the Sisters of Notre Dame, by whom a 
 seminary for young ladies is conducted. The private Chapel of the Convent is served 
 by the priests of St. Alban's. 
 
 PROTESTANT NONCONFORMIST CONGREGATIONS IN BLACKBURN. 
 
 It does not appear that on the enforcement of the Act of Uniformity 
 in 1662 any regular Nonconformist Ministry or Meeting was set up in 
 the town of Blackburn. Some of the inhabitants, indeed, declined to 
 
358 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 conform to the re-established Episcopal Church ; and these for some 
 years frequented the occasional assemblages of local Nonconformists in 
 secluded places to hear the preaching of several of the ejected Ministers 
 who sojourned in the district or found a place of protection at Hoghton 
 Tower. The Act for Suppressing Conventicles in 1664, and the Five 
 Mile Act in 1665, made it impossible for the nonconforming preachers 
 to appear in or near parish churches or market-towns. In 1666, Mr. 
 Charles Sagar withdrew from the Mastership of the Grammar School of 
 Blackburn, and still residing in Blackburn preached at times on the 
 moors or in private houses to small meetings of Nonconformists of 
 Blackburn and of the townships around, until in 1687 he became stated 
 pastor of an Independent Church in Over Darwen. Under Charles the 
 Second's Indulgence, as formerly noted, a license was granted, Dec. 9th, 
 1672, for "an erected Presbyterian Meeting House in Blackburn in 
 Lancashire." I think the term " erected " did not signify that the 
 building used had been specially built for a Chapel. It had probably 
 been altered from some dwelling-house in the town, and was disused as 
 a place of meeting when the King's licenses were withdrawn, as they 
 were in 1675. After this, until 1687, the Government's repression of 
 conventicles was so rigorous, that neither in Blackburn nor any populous 
 place could meetings for worship be held without great peril to personal 
 liberty and estate. Everywhere, for a time. Nonconformity lay crushed 
 and terror-stricken, and the few laymen that stood out shared with the 
 ejected ministers many losses and hardships. 
 
 The Revolution of 1688 ended these troubles, and under the 
 Toleration Act religious societies on a mixed Presbyterian-Independent 
 basis were organised out of the remnants of local Nonconformists in 
 Tockholes, Over Darwen, and at Hoghton Tower. It is not apparent 
 whether or not a meeting-house was opened in the town of Blackburn 
 also in 1688. If there was, it was not long continued, for on a return 
 of Meeting-houses furnished in 171 5 no congregation at Blackburn is 
 mentioned. Yet the fact that a Ministers' Meeting of Lancashire Pres- 
 byterian and Independent Ministers is on written record as having been 
 held at Blackburn in 1693, and that several lesser meetings of Ministers 
 took place at Blackburn after a general meeting at Manchester in 
 1696, suggests the presence in the town at those dates of some resident 
 Nonconformists. 
 
 A Nonconformist minister under the Act of Uniformity was the Rev. John Bailey, 
 afterwards one of the most eminent Congregationalist Pastors in New England.' He 
 was born (according to the statement of the Rev. Increase Mather who preached his 
 funeral sermon) near Blackburn in Lancashire, Feb. 24th, 1643-4. The American 
 biographer does not name his father, but he would be Thomas Bailey, a member of 
 ( ^Ir. J. E. Bailey of Stretford gives me an original note on this namesake of his. 
 
NONCONFORMITY IN BLACKBURN. 359 
 
 Rev. Thomas Jolly's church at Altham and later at Wymond-houses. Thomas Bailey 
 died in 1673, and Mr. Jolly preached his funeral sermon. He had once been a 
 " notorious evil liver," but his wife, mother of the minister, was a pious woman. It is 
 recorded in the Church-Book of Mr. Jolly's church that John Bailey, at the age of 12, 
 was a " wonderful child " for religion, and had been "the occasion of good to his father 
 and a schoolfellow." He was educated under Mr. Charles Sagar, "an eminent school- 
 master, " at the Blackburn Free Grammar School, and was afterwards placed under 
 the tuition of Dr. Thomas Harrison, minister at Chester. He began to preach at the 
 age of twenty-two, but was not ordained until the year 1670, when he would be in his 
 27th year. After having been imprisoned in Lancaster Jail for nonconformity, he 
 removed to Dublin, about the year 1670, and soon after married his first wife, Lydia, 
 who died in America, April 12th, 1690. The Duke of Ormond offered Mr. Bailey a 
 chaplaincy, a Deanery, and a Bishopric on the first vacancy, if he would conform, but 
 he would not. He was fourteen years Pastor of an Independent Church in Limerick. 
 But being again persecuted and incarcerated, he resolved to quit the country for 
 America ; which he did in 1683, and after his arrival. May 8th, 1684, writes to his 
 "clearly beloved Christian friends in and about Limerick." Mr. Bailey was appointed 
 assistant to Rev. Samuel Willard at Old South Church, Boston ; and about three 
 years later, Oct. 6th, i686, he succeeded Rev. John Sherman as Pastor at Watertowh. 
 In 1688 he wrote to Mr. Jolly and his friends in this locality, as to how matters were 
 in New England. A younger brother, Thomas Bailey, who had accompanied him to 
 America, died there Jan. 21st, 1689, leaving issue ; he had another brother Henry, 
 living at Manchester in 1688 ; his mother was then still living in Lancashire. Mr. 
 Bailey wrote a treatise, "Man's Chief End," edited by "J. M.," and published in 
 duodecimo at Boston in 1689. He had no children by his first wife. His second 
 wife, Susannah, married after his death Rev. Peter Thatcher. Mr. Bailey became 
 assistant Pastor at First Church, Boston, July 17th, 1693. He died in 1697. Two of 
 his great-grand-children were living in 1771. A painted portrait of Rev. John Bailey, 
 representing the minister with pensive, somewhat feminine face and long flowing hair, 
 is now in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
 
 I notice in the Parish Church Register of Blackburn a separate 
 list of " the Names of such Children that were borne, but not baptized 
 after the ceremonies of the Church of England," between the years 
 1 69 7-1 705. These would be chiefly the children of Protestant Noncon- 
 formists, and of, perhaps, two or three Roman Catholic families. 
 Among the family names in this category are those of Bridge, Entwistle, 
 Bury, Whewell, Bolton, Ratcliffe, Fish, and Grime, all of Over Darwen ; 
 Fish of Blackburn ; Boardman of Livesey ; Fish of Eccleshill ; Kenion, 
 Shorrock, and Harwood of Lower Darwen ; Holden and Yates of Yate 
 Bank ; Aspinall of Pickup Bank ; Baron, Haydock, Haworth, Wadding- 
 ton, Eatough, Marsden, and Walmsley of Tockholes ; and Ellison of 
 Wilpshire. The descriptions of "yeoman" and "chapman" given to 
 the heads of these families, with two or three exceptions, denote the 
 social standing of the early Nonconformists of this district. The 
 Cravens of Billington and Osbaldestons of Oxendale, Roman Catholic 
 families, occur in the same special registration. 
 
 One " Mr. Thomas Whalley, of Blackburne, a Dissenting Minister," 
 
360 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 is entered as buried at Blackburn Church, Oct. 25th, 1705. Thia 
 minister was no doubt a native of Blackburn, and would be dwelling 
 in the town just before his decease, but whether he was officiating as a 
 Dissenting Minister in Blackburn or not cannot be affirmed. 
 
 The settlement in Blackburn, before the middle of last century, of 
 a number of Scotsmen, drawn hither to trade as " chapmen " in the 
 local textiles, strengthened the Dissenting party in this parish, for most 
 of them were Scottish Presbyterians of the Secession Church (now 
 United Presbyterian) and easily adapted themselves to the connexion 
 with Lancashire Independency with a Presbjterian tinge. There being 
 then no Meeting-House in Blackburn, some of these Scotsmen, together 
 with the English Dissenters in the town and in Lower Darwen and 
 Livesey, attended worship in the Lower Chapel Meeting, Over Darwen, 
 and the rest either went to the Tockholes Meeting or to the Hoghtons' 
 private Chapel at the Tower. 
 
 In 1777, the Blackburn Independents deemed themselves able to 
 ' support a minister and a place of worship, and having induced the Rev. 
 James McQuhae, for six years previously pastor of the Independent 
 Church at Tockholes, to join them in founding a Meeting-House in the 
 town under his ministry, a Church-society was constituted in 1778, 
 consisting of the Blackburn portion of the Tockholes congregation, 
 of members of about twenty Blackburn families that had attended the 
 Lower Chapel at Danven, and of two or three families that had 
 formerly attended the private Chapel in Hoghton Tower. Mr. 
 McQuhae removed to Blackburn about the same time, and diiring 
 the year 1778 the Chapel built for the new congregation in Chapel- 
 street was completed and opened.' Mr. McQuhae continued minister 
 of the Inde{>endent Church in Blackburn until his death. He died 
 suddenly, April 29th, 1804, aged 63. He was buried in the 
 graveyard of the Chapel, May 5th. His funeral sermon, preached 
 in the Blackburn Independent Chajjel, May 20th, 1 804, by Rev. Edward 
 Parsons, was afterwards published. His wife, Mrs. Lydia McQuhae, 
 died at Blackburn, Nov., 1802. 
 
 An attempt at a religious census of the parish was made, at Epis- 
 copal request, by the Vicar in 1804, when it was returned that in the 
 
 I. Th« &rst tntst^kcd of dM Onpel t&<fcued May *mL 1376* »mi ncitcs an iiwii lu i e of kaae 
 •ad wl « M« li«t«««a Joha SaideU of WacthniB. UetdaH. of Ae im fmn, aad tkelraaees Joka 
 ftilt«r> WUia« Koajo^ Thnmi Slalfcy. Kdaid Saralcy. Ailtm Saadnsaa, al at BtacUna, 
 chip— iw Rkkaid Saadtwoa. of Cb«»>«r.c hni w aa i, aad AlM M adci Kay. Hobert RA», Jo>« CWna. 
 JaJMt Joidaa, Cbarks Wai«fc. Gcoirc* Sudcnoi^ WaSaa IStOt, TlMaas WMijk, JaiHS trmg, 
 aad Wni»»S»aM^.aU of BlaAl»a«.rht|<»«a.wh.w>yJo>»iS»»delt«««»ada|ilo««fl»ad. tared 
 •f adoatcalltdManstKxccioft.adiaaaiactktBiiil Maadoar, coauaMic >4«»9q«ai* jaids. ™bt».t 
 «eay««rtywatef it6taadl>»ebaadiaKlMi>y Mictad»lwnn>a.ia«rm«» laBi Ifci aid! 
 owd far a Mw i iag W in wi far a ^arol t m tS u tj or 1 iia ti m iiia ef P > n >iii lai I 
 JaoMs McQiihia «a» pwUt. 
 
CHAPEL STREET INDEPENDENT CHURCH. 361 
 
 part of Blackburn parish including the town and the contiguous to^vn- 
 ships of Little Harwood, Ramsgreave, Mellor, Witton, Pleasington, Lower 
 Danven, and parts of Livesey and Rishton (but excluding the Chapelries 
 of Dar^ven, Tockholes, Great Har^vood, Langho, Salesbury, Balderstone, 
 Samlesbury, and Walton), there were found " 1,490 Presbyterians, 396 
 Independents, -]! Anabaptists, 13 Quakers, 765 Methodists, and 745 
 Papists." There was then no Presbyterian Chapel in this part of the 
 Parish, so that the 1,490 persons entered as Presbyterians must have 
 been the Scottish section- of the Independent Congregation in Black- 
 bum. 
 
 The second minister of the Independent congregation was the Rev. 
 Joseph Fletcher, appointed in August, 1806. The Church-society then 
 numbered 69 communicants. In May, 1808, the Chapel was taken 
 down for enlargement, and the enlarged Chapel was re-opened on Nov. 
 6th, 1808. Mr. Fletcher resigned his ministry in Blackburn in July, 
 1822, on taking the pastorate of the Independent congregation at Stepney 
 Meeting in London. He died in 1845. Dr. Fletcher married, while 
 in this town, at Blackburn Parish Church, Dec. 20th, 1808, Mary, 
 second daughter of Mr. John France, of King-street, Blackburn, and 
 had issue Robert, bom Sept. 26th, 1810; William Wolfe, bom Dec. 
 8th, 1 81 3; Joseph, bom Jan. 7th, 1816; Elizabeth, bom Feb. 5th, 
 1818; and Henry, bom July 8th, 1819. Mr. Fletcher had graduated 
 M.A. at Glasgow University, and in 1830 the Senate of that University 
 conferred on him the degree of D.D. A memoir of Dr. Fletcher and 
 selections from his Works were published in three volumes in 1846, 
 edited by his son. Rev. Joseph Fletcher. His printed works included, 
 besides special discourses, and Posthumous Sermons, " Lectures on the 
 Principles of the Roman Catholic Religion," &c. (delivered in Blackburn 
 in 1816) ; " Poems," by Dr. Fletcher and his sister Mary Fletcher ; "Six 
 Views on Infidelity ;" and several theological treatises. Dr. Fletcher 
 was a son of Mr. Robert Fletcher, goldsmith and citizen of Chester, 
 where the son was bom Dec. 3rd, 1 784. Succeeding ministers of this 
 Church were the Rev. Luke Forster (1825-32); Rev. Thomas Parry 
 (1834-39) ; Rev. Alexander Fraser, M.A. (appointed Oct., 1841, resigned 
 July 30th, 1863, died at Blackburn Jan. 17th, 1869, aged 62) ; Rev. J. 
 McEwen Stott, present minister, appointed Oct., 1866. 
 
 The old Independent Chapel in Chapel-street was a square structure of brick, 
 with a two-storey addition at the west end, the lower floor being a school-room, and 
 the upper, opening by a broad arch into the Chapel, was used as gallery for organ 
 and choir. The other three sides of the Chapel were galleried. A porch stood at the 
 east end on the exterior view The fabric had no architectural merit. It seated about 
 900 persons. A fire which broke out in the organ chamber, Jan. loth, 1872, destroyed 
 the organ and consumed the roof-timbers It was therefore resolved by the congre- 
 
 46 
 
362 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 gation to demolish the Chapel, and to erect a new Church on the same site, 
 extended towards the west by the removal of several houses in Chapel-street and 
 Cross-street. The present imposing and capacious Church was begun in the Spring 
 of 1873 (corner-stone laid on Good Friday, April nth, 1873), and was opened for 
 worship on Thursday, June 1 8th, 1874. The style of the Church is Early Decorated 
 Gothic. The plan consists of nave, side aisles, double transepts, semi-octagonal 
 apse ; organ chamber adjoining the north transept ; and two vestries at the east end of 
 the south transept ; an arcade at the west end forming the principal entrance ; 
 and a tower at the south-west angle. The only galleries are in the transepts. 
 The interior walls are lined with bath-stone with bands of blue bath-stone. The 
 three end bays of the apse are lighted by two-light traceried windows (the centre 
 one a painted memorial window to the late Henry Shaw, Esq. ) ; the space 
 between floor and window sills is filled in with handsome traceried panelling, 
 surmounted by a moulded and enriched cornice. The moulded nave arches 
 spring from massive moulded and polished granite columns with carved capitals 
 and moulded bases. The total internal length of the nave and apse is 132ft. 
 3in.; width across aisles 54ft. 4in.; across the transepts 75ft. 4in ; width cf transepts 
 42ft. The roof is open timbered and panelled, with moulded circular ribs, springing 
 from stone columns. The height to ceiling of nave is 42ft. 6in.; to apex of roof 56ft. 
 6in. On the exterior, the main front, in Cross-street, consists of lofty centre gable 
 pierced by a five-light tracery-headed window, with attached columns on jambs and 
 mullions. The entrance lobbies extend along the front, with three lar^e doorways 
 opening into them, and a side door from the tower entrance. The tympanum of the 
 gable over the central doorway is filled with tracery panels and carving. The tower 
 and spire rise to the height of 187ft. The tower is in three stages, the lower being an 
 entrance to the Church, the second a floor for ringers, and the third, which has eight 
 two-light windows with traceried heads and carved and crocketed canopies, is designed 
 for a belfry. The angle buttresses of the tower are graduated, and carried up 25ft. 
 above the tower cornices in form of pinnacles. The spire is octagonal, relieved by 
 bands of carved diaper, and on four faces by handsome spire windows, with canopied 
 heads. The side elevations of the Church, towards Chapel-street and St. Peter-street, 
 show ranges of three-light traceried windows in the aisles and clerestories. Two 
 ranges of windows light the transepts, the lower in groups of three single lights, and 
 above them four-light traceried windows with attached columns on the jambs. The 
 transept fronts show double gables with moulded and perforated finials. The roofs of 
 vestries and organ chamber are carried up in pointed octagonal form. The walls are 
 supported by bold buttresses ; and a deep moulded plinth runs round the structure. 
 Architects, Messrs. Tarring and Son, of London. The organ, a fine one built by Mr. 
 Willis, at the cost of ;^ 1,000, was opened simultaneously with the Church. The 
 entire cost of this stately Church, including purchase of property for extension of site 
 £l,iSSt organ, building contract with extras, boundary walls, heating, lighting, and 
 furnishing, architect's commission, &c., was ;i 18,000. Sittings, 1,330. 
 
 The other Independent congregations formed at intervals by 
 detachments from the Chapel-street society during its something less than 
 a century of existence (besides one at Mill Hill in the township of 
 Livesey), are the following in Blackburn township : — 
 
 James Street Chapel. — In accordance with a resolution passed at a meeting 
 of Chapel-street Church, held April 3rd, 1837, declaring it expedient that another 
 place of worship of the Congregational order be erected in the town, a subscription 
 
BLACKBURN IXDEPENDEXT ACADEMY. 363 
 
 was opened by die membas of the oot^regatkn, and a site was soon afterwaids 
 s ec ui ed in James-stieet (fonneriy caUed Oiippendale-laiie) for the projected new 
 Chapel. The Chapel was not awimmred imtfl the year 1841, and it was opened on 
 Thnisday. June 27th, 1842, with sermons by Rers. Dr. Raffles and Dr. Fletcher. 
 Twenty-nine membcis of the old Church withdrew with their &mi]ies to form the 
 second cot^regatkn. The cost of the Chapel was aboot ;f4,ooo. James-street 
 Chapd is a large and lofty stmctnre of brick with Italian potch supported by stone 
 cofamuK. The interior is galleried 00 three sides ; and in 1873 an organ apse was 
 added at the sonth-cnd, wiA vestries and dass-tooms, and a new oigan porchased, 
 built by Willis. The organ and ardditions cost jfl.Soa Under the Chapel is a 
 spadons school-room. The Chapd contains I,oco sittii^s. The fiist minister of this 
 Chapd was the Rer. Edward Jukes, appointed Jan. I2tfa, 1843, res^ned in 1853. 
 Succeeding ministeis :— Rer. E. W. ShaMeis, M.A.; Rct. J. B. Lister (1859-69) ; 
 Rer. J<Jm Byles, present minister. 
 
 Pakk Ro.U) Cbukch. — A mission-service was commenced in 1851 by the late 
 Rev. Alexander Eraser, of Chapd-street Chapel, in the schoob then newly-erected in 
 Park Rood, Grimshaw Park, by Messrs. James and William Pilkingtcxi and Edward 
 Ecdes. A separate colligation and Church were formed, by whom a new Church 
 was projected about 1856. The comer-stone of this [dace of worship, called Park 
 Coi^r^atiottal Chmdi, was laid on Good Friday (.-Vpiil loth), 1857, and the Church 
 was opened Fd>. 24th, 1858. It is a neat gothic diurch of the decorated period, 
 consisting of nave^ side ai<l*^, north and south transepts ; vestnes, lecture room, and 
 gallery far oigan and dioir at the cast end ; and a tower and spire, 138ft. h^i, at 
 the sooth-wcst ang^ The interior has side and end galleries. Cost, with organ added 
 in 1868, and boondary walk, £6,000. Sittii^s, 850. Architect, Mr. Oliver, of Xew- 
 castle. First minister. Rev. D. Williams ; sncceedii^ ministers. Rev. M. Macfie ; 
 Rev. A. B. Patoo; Rev. A. S. Maclean; Rev. Wm. Parkes ; Rev A. Foster, M.A, 
 present ministeT. 
 
 MoxTAGUE Stkeet Chapel. — ^This Chapd, with sdiool in the rear, was built 
 in 1864. It is a l»ick edifice with stone dressings. The interior has no gaOenes. 
 Cost, ;f2,loo. Sittings, 400. Minister, Rev. John Morjpn. 
 
 FfETHERGATE School-Chapel. — This mission was started about 1873 as a 
 Inandi of James Street Church, worship beii^ coodncted temporarily in the sdiool 
 erected in 1850-1. Sittii^s, 300. A project to erect a Church is progresing, and 
 a iimd has been subscribed. Minister, Rev. W. E. CoIIer. 
 
 BukCKBCEN IXDEPE>CDEVr ACADEMY. — This collegiate institution, for the 
 education of students for the Iitdependcnt Ministry, was founded in 181^ and was 
 the trriEinfll "f «»«» T »~..di;r R TiwJpyiiMipiit Cnllfgpv Whalley Range, near M an rhr s t e r . 
 The principal hy patrons of the Bhckbam Academy in the ontset were Roger 
 Conlifie, Esq. (of Blackbom), Dr. Garrdd, Robert Kay, Esq., Geo^e Hatfidd, Esq., 
 John Potter, Esq^ Samnd Fletcher, Esq., &c ; and its ministerial projectois and 
 directors inchided Rev. W. Roby, Rev. Thos. Ra£ks, Rer. Joseph Fktdier, Rev. 
 Joseph Fiance, and others. The Rev. Joseph Fktdier was 6tst TbetJogical Tatar 
 and President ; Rev. Wm. Hope, first Classical Tutor, sncceeded by Mi". William 
 Aoofe in 1819, who res^ped in 1821 ; and the Rev. Gilbert Wardlaw, M..A, then 
 became fTa*""! tutor, who afterwards was appointed Theological tutor. The college 
 picsiBes were situate in Ainsworth-stieet. On Dec 20th, 1838, the supporters of the 
 Acaidemy reserved that it be removed to Manchester, and a subscription for the erectian 
 of college boildings there, to the amount of ;f 15,000^ was raised before 18401. 9f 
 Hjutui^ the Academy from Bhckbam Ihe Coamittec had to sacrifice a haihnr 
 
364 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 bequest left by the late Roger Cunliffe conditional upon the institution being maintained 
 at Blackburn, but the widow of that patron was a liberal donor to the Manchester 
 scheme. While the Academy was at Blackbumi fifty-five Ministers were trained 
 therein, some of whom have taken eminent positions in the denomination. The new 
 College was built in 184 1-2 (opened April 26th, 1843) on a site of seven acres obtained 
 from the late Samuel Brooks, Esq., of Whalley House, near Manchester. The Lan- 
 cashire Independent College (the offspring of Blackburn Academy), has now an 
 income of ;^4,ooo per annum, and an average of forty-four students in residence. 
 
 BAPTIST CONGREGATIONS IN BLACKBURN. 
 
 The first Baptist preaching in or near Blackburn is stated to have 
 been about the year 1726, by Mr. David Crossley, the Baptist minister 
 at Bacup, who made preaching visits to Blackburn district and usually 
 preached at Shorrock Green. No regular service was established here 
 by Mr. Crossley, but about the year 1757 one Mr. Adam Holden, a 
 preacher among the Baptists, a native of Rossendale, came to live in 
 Blackburn, and in 1759 married Mrs. Boardman of Feniscliffe in 
 Livesey, about a mile from Blackburn. The house at Feniscliffe soon 
 after was used as a Particular Baptist place of worship. A church- 
 society of local Baptists was formed in 1760. Mr. Holden preached 
 there ; but finding the house too small for a chapel, he commenced the 
 building of a chapel in Blackburn in 1764. Mr. Holden died in the 
 midst of this project, Sept. 9th, 1764, but left a legacy of ;^8o to the 
 fund for completing this chapel, which was also largely assisted by his 
 widow. This new Baptist Chapel was built on a site in Islington Croft, 
 on the edge of the Town's Moor, for which Mr. Holden paid ^10. The 
 meeting-house was opened on May 29th, 1765, the preachers being Rev. 
 Mr. Johnson, of Liverpool, and Rev. Joseph Piccop, of Bacup. It was 
 the first structure erected specially for Nonconformist worship in Black- 
 bum. The original trust deed of the Chapel, dated 1765, names as 
 trustees, Edward Holden, James Holden, John Holden, Henry Holden, 
 James Turner, Joseph Pickup, John Johnston, James Hartley, Henry 
 Butterworth, John Miller and John Milner, who held the fabric in trust 
 to permit " the said edifice to be used and employed for and as a place 
 of meeting or assembling of a particular congregation of Protestant 
 Dissenters from the Church of England, commonly known or distin- 
 guished by the name of Baptists," for the public exercise of their religious 
 worship. A second trust was made in 1790, and a third in 1823. After 
 Mr. Adam Holden's death, Mr. James Miller, a member of the Churchy 
 succeeded as minister, and held the oflice more than forty years. In 
 1803, three cottages near the Chapel were purchased for ;^22o, chiefly 
 subscribed by the Boardman, Miller, and Clayton families, which were 
 put in trust, the rents to be paid to the minister for the time being. In 
 
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 365 
 
 1808, galleries were erected in the Chapel to increase the sittings. Mr. 
 Miller resigned the pastorate about 1809, and died Oct. 31st, 1810. He 
 was succeeded in August, 1809, by the Rev. William Dyer; resigned 
 1816. Succeeding ministers : — ^Revs. Charles Grey, John Worral, 
 Michael Horbury ; J. Archer, present minister. A minister's house, 
 attached to the Chapel, was given to the foundation by Mr. Robert 
 Boardman of Cherry Tree House ; and school-rooms were annexed in 
 1832, when the Chapel itself was restored and re-roofed. Later bequests 
 to the Chapel are : — ;£ioo left in 1833 by Mrs. Howson, interest to 
 poor members and minister ; ;£ioo left by Will of Mr. James Boardman 
 in 1842, interest as part salary to Schoolmaster; ;i£^ioo towards main- 
 tenance of minister, and ;^2oo towards day school endowment, 
 bequeathed by the late Miss Boardman. This oldest Baptist Chapel 
 in Blackburn is a small square stone structure of plain exterior. 
 Sittings, 300. 
 
 Branch Road Chapel. — This Chapel was built in 1843 for a congregation of 
 General Baptists. Its architecture is Early English. The Chapel was renovated 
 internally, re-benched, and galleries placed in three sides, and a school erected in the 
 rear, in 1871. The organ is in a recess at the east end. Sittings, 600. Present 
 minister, Rev. J. Douglas, A.M.; Former ministers, Revs. W. Barker; Robert 
 Cameron ; Thomas Crabtree. 
 
 UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES IN BLACKBURN. 
 
 About the year 1810, a party of seceders from the Chapel-street 
 Independent Congregation established a church-society in the town on 
 Presbyterian principles, in connection with the Burgher Seceders from 
 the Church of Scotland. For the congregation thus formed, a Chapel 
 was built in Mount-street in 1810, and the Rev. Joseph Sowden was 
 appointed minister. The congregation afterwards became connected 
 with the Lancashire Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church, and 
 the Chapel was improved in 1829; in 1836 a portico was added at 
 the west end, and a school building, forming wings at right angles to 
 the Chapel, was erected at the east end. Rev. Francis Skinner, M.A., 
 became pastor of this congregation in 1830, and continued minister for 
 thirty-six years. Mr. Skinner was author of several published books, 
 chiefly controversial letters and theological pamphlets. He married, 
 at Blackburn Parish Church, March 29th, 1837, Martha, eldest daughter 
 of Mr. John Eccles, of Lower Darwen, and sister of Bannister Eccles, 
 Esq. (who died, aged 39, April i6th, 1838), and, secondly, Dec. 5th, 
 1844, Catherine, eldest daughter of William Martin, Esq., of Bolton, 
 who survives. He received from the Glasgow University the degree of 
 D.D. in 1864. The Mount-street Chapel was become too small for the 
 congregation in 1865, and on March 4th in that year, Dr. Skinner laid 
 
366 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the comer-stone of a new Church in Preston New Road. Dr. Skinner 
 died before the completion of the Church, Dec. 29th, 1866, aged 67. 
 He was succeeded by the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart, previously of 
 Liverpool. The Mount Street Chaj)el was continued in use by a section 
 of the congregation after the new Church was opened, and the Rev. 
 Arthur McArthur, present pastor, was appointed to minister in the old 
 Chaj)el. This Chapel is a stone structure with semi-circular-headed 
 windows, having a small burial-ground in front The interior is galleried 
 on three sides, and behind the pulpit is an opening for the choir- 
 gallery. Sittings, 600. 
 
 St. George's Church, Preston New Road, the second Church built in 1865-8 
 for the use of the major portion of the original United Presbjrterian congregation, was 
 opened June 18th, 1868. It is a spacious and handsome edibce on a prominent site, 
 with a three-storied school building at the south end of the Church. The Church is in 
 the early decorated style of gothic architecture. The front has a central and two side 
 entrances with recessed moulded arches ; and over the central doorway is a large 
 three-light window, with tracery heads, the centre-light divided by a mullion. One of 
 the side entrances is in the tower, at the north west comer, fix>m which rises an octagonal 
 belfty, surmounted by a spire ; the height of tower and spire is 126ft. The sides of 
 the Church are divided into six bays by buttresses capped by gablets ; the walls are 
 finished by a parapet In each bay is a window of two lights. The roof is surmounted 
 by three lofty ventilating turrets. The interior, reached by a spacious vestibule, is a 
 parallel(^;ram, about 90ft. in length above from north window to school partition-wall, 
 and soft. wide. The roof, open to the collar-beam, divided into six bays by arched 
 principals, is carried on iron columns mth ornamental caps. The columns are in two 
 tiers, the first supporting the galleries, which occupy three sides of the Church. The 
 pulpit is a large square one of artistic structure, the back, somewhat recessed in the 
 wall, is panelled, and finished with cornice, cut-cresting, and finial. Behind the 
 Church are vestries for minister and elders, four large class rooms, lecture room 60ft. 
 by 30ft., and other rooms, occupying three floors. Cost £g, 100. Sittings in Church, 
 1,000. The present pastor, Rev. A. B. Grosart, is an eminent writer and literary 
 antiquary, author and editor of the " Fuller Worthies Library," "Chertsey Library," 
 Prose Works of William Wordsworth, and many other published volumes. 
 
 WESLEYAN METHODIST SOCIETIES IN BLACKBURN. 
 
 In the general historical narrative I have mentioned the local intro- 
 duction of Wesleyan Methodism in Lower Darwen about the year 1758, 
 and the earliest visit of John Wesley to Blackburn for the purpose of 
 preaching in 1 780. Wesley was again at Blackburn in 1 781. His Jirurna/ 
 records : — "1781, Wednesday, June 23rd. Having apjwinted to preach 
 at Blackburn, I was desired to take Kabb in my way (from Bolton). In 
 the evening I preached in the new House at Blackburn." The " new 
 house " referred to, opened by Wesley either on this or on the \-isit in 
 1 780, was the original Methodist Chapel in the town, known as the Old 
 Calendar House from its previous use, and purchased and adapted for a 
 Chapel by the newly-formed Society of Methodists about the year 1 780. 
 
 I 
 
WESLEY AN METHODIST SOCIETIES. 367 
 
 This building still exists, but has been many years used as shops and 
 workshop. It stands on the N.E. side of Old Chapel Street. It is a 
 brick structure, hardly to be distinguished from the other premises 
 on either side. Its interior must have been small and incommodious. 
 Wesley preached here on a third visit in 1784, as he narrates: — "1784, 
 April 1 7th. In the evening I preached at Blackburn, where the Society 
 is lively and constantly increasing. Sunday, i8th. I preached at five 
 [a.m.] to a numerous congregation, but not one well-dressed person 
 among them, either morning or evening. Poor Blackburn !" If the 
 first Methodists in the town included (ew of the " quality," they soon 
 grew in numbers until the Old Calendar House could not hold them, 
 and, in the Spring of 1785, a project to erect a larger Chapel was afoot, 
 of which the main promoters were Mr. William Banning and Mr. Ceorge 
 Walkden. A site was got in Clayton-street, now near the midst of the 
 town, but then an open suburb, surrounded by gardens and several 
 respectable houses of tradesmen. The first Chapel in Clayton-street 
 was opened in 1786. Wesley again came to preach, but the Chapel 
 would not hold the large concourse of people. Wesley records in the 
 Journal: — "1786, Monday, April 17th. I went on to Blackburn, which 
 was sufficiently crowded, it being fair-day. No house would contain the 
 people, so I stood abroad and expounded that awful scripture, ' I saw the 
 dead small and great stand before God.' All was still as night, unless 
 when they sung, — then their voices were as the sound of many waters." 
 
 The trust deed of the Chapel of 1 786 names as trustees : — Mr. 
 William Sagar, Colne (Southfield, in Marsden) ; John Wood, Padiham ; 
 Roger Crane, Michael Emmett, and William Bramwell, Preston ; John 
 Crossley, Hoghton ; John Walmsley, Walton ; William Banning, John 
 Haworth, Nicholas Aspinall, and George Walkden, Blackburn. Messrs. 
 Banning and Walkden were the Blackburn leaders of Methodi.sm in its 
 infancy. Mr. Banning was a tradesman in Astley-gate, at who.se house 
 Wesley lodged on several of his visits. Mr. George Walkden, a "yeo- 
 man," as described in the trust-deed, was a laborious local preacher in 
 the district. 
 
 Wesley's next journey through the parish was in 1788. The 
 Wesleyan Conference had shortly before made Blackburn a circuit, 
 severed from the older Colne circuit. In Wesley's Journal appears the 
 entry : — "1788, Monday, May 21st. I went on through miserable roads 
 to Blackburn, where, nothwithstanding continued rain, the new preaching- 
 house was thoroughly filled with serious and well-behaved people." 
 Wesley's journal of his last year's tour in 1790 is destroyed, but it is on 
 record that he had fixed to be in Blackburn on the 13th of April, 1790, 
 and he was certainly in Lancashire about that time. Wesley died in 1 79 1 . 
 
368 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Blackburn Circuit returned 878 members in 1788, the year after its 
 formation ; and by 1794, 1,180 members were enrolled. A feud in the 
 Connexion in 1795 caused a numerical decrease in this as in other 
 Circuits. The first ministers appointed to Blackburn Circuit were Rev. 
 Francis Wrigley and Rev. Edward Burbeck. Mr. Burbeck died before 
 entering upon his ministry here, and was succeeded by Rev. William 
 Bramwell, a native of Elswick in the Fylde. Other preachers of note in 
 turn served this Circuit. In 1798-9, Rev. T. Wood was second minister 
 of Blackburn Circuit ; he was the author of "A Defence of the late 
 National Fast," " Essays on Civil Government," and " Christianity 
 Established by Reason and Revelation," treatises printed in Blackburn 
 and published during the author's residence in the town. A leading 
 Methodist layman in Blackburn at this period was Dr. Nathaniel Aspden, 
 a surgeon of position in the town. He was a son of Mr. William Aspden, 
 of Cliff, Great Harwood, born Jan. 21st, 1766, educated under the 
 eminent Rev. Thomas Wilson at Clitheroe Grammar School, and 
 married, in 1788, Miss Edmondson of Barnoldswick. He died, aged 32, 
 in 1798. His epitaph at Clayton-street Chapel is inscribed: — "In 
 memory of Nathaniel Aspden, surgeon, who departed this life Sept. 24th, 
 1798, aged 32 years." The circuit minister published an account of Dr. 
 Aspden's life in the Methodist Magazine iox 1799, and also "A Sermon 
 preached on the Death of Mr. N. Aspden, in the Methodist Chapel, 
 Blackburn, on Sunday, Sept. 30th, 1798, by T.Wood. Blackburn: 
 Hemingway and Nuttall." 
 
 In 1799, the Societies of Preston and its district were separated 
 from Blackburn Methodist Circuit. In 1809, Blackburn Circuit con- 
 tained 527 members in societies at: — Blackburn ig8 members; Lower 
 Darwen (reckoned with Blackburn) ; Over Darwen 70 members ; Mellor 
 98 members ; Hoghton 96 members; Tockholes 16 members; Bank- 
 foot 6 members ; Rishton 6 members ; Great Harwood 1 2 members ; 
 Stanhill 28 members.' 
 
 The Clayton-street Chapel in Blackburn was enlarged and almost 
 rebuilt in 1816. Externally, the Chapel remains as it stood after this 
 renovation. It is a square brick and stone fabric, with pointed windows, 
 and two doonvays, flanked by pillasters, on the north front. The 
 interior measures about 65ft. by 55ft. Galleries are on the north, east, 
 and west sides, and organ and choir are in a recess at the south end. 
 The Chapel has been twice or thrice restored internally since 1816; the 
 last improvements were made in 1857-8 at the charge of the late Miss 
 Newsham. Sittings, 950. 
 
 I Some of the above facts are derived from an interesting account of the rise of " Wesleyan 
 Methodism in the Blackburn Circuit," by Rev. John Ward, Wesleyan Minister, published in 1871. 
 
PRIMITIVE AND FREE METHODIST CHAPELS. 369 
 
 Particulars of other Wesleyan places of worship in the township 
 are appended : — 
 
 A Chapel built at Daisyfield in 1826 was after a few years disposed of to the 
 Vicar of the Parish and converted into a Chapel of the Establishment. 
 
 Harwood Street Chapel. — In the year 1864 a School Chapel for the Wesleyan 
 Methodists was erected in Harwood Street, Furthergate, costing about ;£'l,ooo. By 
 the congregation worshipping there a new Chapel has since been erected, the comer- 
 stone of which was laid on Good Friday (April 3rd), 1874, and which was opened in 
 July, 1865. This Chapel is in the Italian style, and consists of a parallelogram 66ft. 
 by 49ft. The interior has gallerieson three sides. The cost (with site) was £'i, 300. 
 Sittings 650. The original structure adjacent is now used solely for school purposes. 
 
 Wrangling Mission. — A building in Stout-street, Wrangling, was altered and 
 fitted as a ragged school and preaching place in the year 1870. Sittings 140. 
 
 Kendal Street School-Chapel. — The first stone of a Wesleyan School- 
 Chapel was laid in Kendal-street, Brookhouse Fields, on Feb. 21st, 1874. The 
 Chapel was opened for worship the same year. Cost (with site) ;f 1,600. Sittings 400. 
 
 PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPELS IN BLACKBURN. 
 
 The Primitive Methodist Connexion, soon after its origin, had a 
 meeting-room in Eanam, in this town, and a society was formed about 
 the year 1820. About sixteen years later, the Chapel in Montague- 
 street was built ; opened in 1837. The chapel is a plain brick structure ; 
 the interior is galleried. School-rooms were attached in the rear in 
 1871 ; and larger schools were built contiguous to the Chapel, at a cost 
 of ;^3,ooo, in 1875. Sittings 500. Subsequent Chapels of this Connexion 
 have been founded in the township, as under : — 
 
 Oxford Street Chapel, Higher Audley. — In 1867, the Primitive Methodists 
 erected a School-Chapel in Mawdsley-street, Higher Audley, seating about 450 
 persons. On the 1 8th Sept., 1873, the corner-stone of a more spacious edifice, in the 
 classic style, for the use of this congregation, was laid by Mr. John Hindle. This 
 Chapel adjoins the former building, now used as a school, but fronts to Oxford-street. 
 The interior of the Chapel measures 6oft. by 42ft. , and is galleried round. A second 
 school-building of brick is attached to the east end of the Chapel. Cost ;^4,ooo. 
 Sittings 600. 
 
 Infirmary Street Chapel. — This Chapel was built in 1872, and is used both 
 for preaching and Sunday School purposes. Cost ;f6oo. Sittings 250. 
 
 CHAPELS OF THE UNITED METHODIST FREE CHURCH. 
 The Wesleyan Association, founded in 1835 by a separation from 
 the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion, formed a congregation in Blackburn 
 in that year, which built, in 1836, a Chapel in Paradise-street. A later 
 secession from the Wesleyan body in 1849, called " Wesleyan Reformers," 
 set on foot a society also in Blackburn, the members of which built, in 
 1853, a Chapel in Barton-street. After the junction of the Methodist 
 seceders of 1835 and 1849, assuming the name of United Methodist 
 Free Churches, it was found expedient to unite the two congregations 
 above mentioned, the Chapels being but a few yards apart. This was 
 
 47 
 
370 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 effected in the year 1870; and the Barton-street Chapel was converted 
 into Schools. In 1871, the Paradise Chapel was taken down, and on 
 the site was built the present large and handsome Chapel, with frontage 
 to Feilden-street. The architecture of this Chapel is classic, and the 
 interior is galleried round. Cost ^^4,800. Sittings 1,000. There are 
 two other Chapels of this Connexion in the township, viz. : — 
 
 Knuzden School-Chapel. — A School-Chapel was built on the border of the 
 township at Knuzden in 1863. Cost ;^l,ooo. Sittings 325. 
 
 Daisyfield School-Chapel. — The comer-stone of a School-Chapel for the 
 United Methodist Free Church Connexion was laid in Derby-street, Daisyfield, July 
 26th, 1875. Cost ^1,000. Sittings 300. 
 
 OTHER PLACES OF WORSHIP. 
 
 The Friends' Meeting House, Paradise-terrace, off King-street, was built in 
 iSlS. It is surrounded by a walled grave-yard. Sittings 226. 
 
 The New Jerusalem Church, Brookhouse-fields, was built in 1854. The 
 interior was restored and rebenched in 1873, and an organ added in 1874. Sittings 
 214. Minister, Rev. Wm. Bates. 
 
 The Methodist New Connexion opened a mission-room in Bolton-road in 
 1S65 ; removed to an adapted room in Lower Audley ; and later to the Rechabites' 
 Hall, Cable-street. 
 
 The Christian Brethren's Meeting House, Russell-street, built in 1872, 
 contains about 150 sittings. 
 
 Th? Catholic Apostolic Church have recently fitted up a preaching place, 
 with about 200 sittings, in Town Hall-street, in the building formerly used for the Free 
 Library. 
 
 Small meetings of Baptists and of Old Scotch Independents are held respectively 
 in Exchange-street, and in Cobden-rooms, Corporation-street. 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BLACKBURN. 
 
 The first Sunday School in Blackburn owed its establishment, about 
 the year 1786, to the Rev. Thomas Starkie, Vicar of the Parish; this 
 School was superintended by the Vicar, and soon after its foimdation 
 numbered 300 children. Other Sunday Schools were opened somewhat 
 later by the Wesleyan and Independent Congregations in the town ; and, 
 in 1824, it is recorded that the Church of England Sunday Schools in 
 the town had 1,100 children in attendance; Chapel Street Independent 
 School 600 ; Clayton-street Wesleyan Methodist School 500 ; Mount- 
 street Presbyterian School 120; Roman Catholic School 100; and 
 Unitarian School 56 ; a total of 2,476 children attending the various 
 Sunday Schools. After the lapse of about 50 years since this return, 
 and of ninety years since the first of these Schools was founded, it may 
 be estimated roundly that in 1875 there were connected with Sunday 
 Schools in that part of the town of Blackburn within the township about 
 21,000 children and young persons, whereof some 9,500 belong to 
 
BLACKBURN SCHOOL BOARD AND DAY SCHOOLS. 371 
 
 Church of England Schools, 8,000 to Protestant Nonconformist Schools, 
 and 3,500 to Roman Catholic Schools. 
 
 DAY SCHOOLS IN THE TOWNSHIP— BLACKBURN SCHOOL BOARD. 
 
 In the last generation, a National School in Thunder Alley and 
 two or three small private schools connected with the larger factories 
 were all the provision for the education of children of the labouring 
 class in Blackburn ; but during the interval of thirty years great progress 
 has been made in the provision of school buildings for Day and Sunday 
 School purposes, and many large and good Day Schools under Govern- 
 ment inspection have been established and maintained by the religious 
 bodies. Among the first important schools erected were those at Brook- 
 house, built by Mr. Wm. Henry Hornby in 1839-40 ; St. John's Schools, 
 built in 1844 ; Holy Trinity Schools, built in 1845 ; Park Schools, Grim- 
 shaw Park Road, built by Messrs. James and William Pilkington and 
 Edward Eccles in 1850; the Hopwood Schools, Grimshaw Park, built 
 by the Hopwood family in 1850, replaced by Christ Church Schools in 
 1858; St. Paul's Schools, in 1858; Chapel-street Independent Schools, 
 in 1859 ; and the Wesleyan Schools, St. Peter-street, in 1861. 
 
 A School Board was established by the spontaneous action of the 
 burgesses in 1870. The first Board was elected without a contest on 
 the 27th of December, 1870. Mr. Wm. Ditchfield was appointed Clerk.^ 
 
 A census of children of school age and attending school was taken by order of the 
 School Board conjointly with the general Census, April 3rd, 1875. It was found that 
 the Municipal Borough and Township of Blackburn then contained 1 7,453 children of 
 school-going age (between 3 and 13 years). Of these, 13,073 were returned as in 
 attendance at some school, and 4,380 not in attendance at any school. To Church of 
 England Schools, 6,901 children were returned as attached ; to Roman Catholic 
 Schools, 2,317 children ; to Nonconformist and British Schools, 2,743 children; to 
 private schools, middle class and elementary, 925 children ; and to schools out of the 
 borough, 217 children. An inquiry was at the same time made respecting School 
 provision. The accommodation in existing schools was found to be for 16,908 
 children ; and in other school buildings about to be provided, 2,025 > total of prospec- 
 tive accommodation for 18,933 children. The provision in the principal schools then 
 in use or projected was as follows : — Parish Church .Schools, 1,040 children ; St. John's 
 Schools, 1,138; St. Paul's, 503; St. Peter's (new), 604; Holy Trinity, 687; St. 
 Michael's (with Infant School), 755 ; Christ Church, 1,115 ; St. Thomas's (new), 856 ; 
 St Luke's, 525 ; Pleckgate, 183 ; Billinge, 261 ; Wensley Fold, 228. [All Saints' 
 Church School since built, for 300 children.] St. Alban's Roman Catholic Schools, 
 775; St. Anne's, 868; St. Mary's, 661 ; St. Patrick's, 217; St. Joseph's, 266 [New 
 Schools under Church now building to provide for about 700 children]. Chapel Street 
 
 I The School Board was composed as follows : — Mr. W. H. Hornby, junr. (chairman) ; Mr. Mark 
 Knowles (vice-chairman) ; Revs. R. Dunderdale and W. S. Berry ; Messrs. W. A. Abram, T. 
 Bertwistle, A. S. Bury, W. Crossley, James Eccles, W. Orreil, Giles Parkinson, Isaac Ward, and 
 J. A. Watson. — To the second Board, elected in 1874, the Vicar, Rev. Canon Birch, was returned in 
 place of Mr. Knowles, and appointed vice-chairman ; and Messrs. Launcelot Porter, H. Shuttleworth, 
 and John Thompson were returned in the stead of Messrs. Eccles, Orreil, and Bertwistle. 
 
372 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Congregational Schools, 1,174 children; Park ^oad Schools, 1,019; Nova Scotia, 
 406 ; Bank Top, 406 ; Furthergate, 369 ; Mawdsley-street, 552 ; Montague-street, 
 384 ; St. Peter Street Wesleyan School, 363 ; Barton Street United Methodist Free 
 Church School, 637 ; Town's Moor Baptist, 103 ; Mount Street British, 231 ; Paradise 
 Street Science School, H2; Girls' Charity School, 135. The following Dissenting 
 School buildings were not in use as Day Schools : — St. George's United Presbyterian, 
 provision for 508 children ; Primitive Methodist, Branch Road, 202 (new schools now 
 building) ; Montague Street Baptist, 340 ; James Street Independent, 459. The Four 
 Lanes End (Independent) School, providing for 311 children, has since been opened 
 as a Board School. 
 
 Under the action of the compulsory clause of the Education Act adopted by the 
 School Board, the number of children in attendance at inspected public elementary 
 schools had been increased at the end of the year 1874 to 14,846, and the average 
 attendance to 9,609. (In 1871 the number attending inspected Schools was 10,532, 
 average 7,023.) There are also still from 500 to 1,000 children frequenting indifferent 
 private adventure schools of the lower class. 
 
 The middle-class population in the town furnishes from 600 to 700 children 
 attending the superior class of schools. These include the Free Grammar School ; the 
 Lower Bank Academy, founded by Mr. Edmundson in 1826, and of which Mr. George 
 Weild is now principal, a well-conducted commercial school with an average of about 
 90 pupils ; one or two boarding schools for boys in the vicinity of the town ; and 
 several seminaries in private houses for the daughters of middle-class families. 
 
 THE PARLIAMENTARY BOROUGH. 
 
 Blackburn was first constituted a Parliamentary Borough, returning 
 two Members, by the Reform Act of 1832. The town had then a popu- 
 lation of 27,091 ; and 627 electors. The first election took place after 
 the dissolution of Parliament in December of that year. Four candidates 
 were in the field for the two seats, viz., Mr. William Feilden of Feniscowles 
 (afterwards Sir William), a Conservative ; Mr. John Fowden Hindle of 
 Woodfold Park, Conservative ; John Bowring, LL.D., of London (after- 
 wards Sir John), a Reformer ; and Mr. William Turner of Mill Hill, near 
 Blackburn, a Whig. Mr. Feilden and Mr. Bowring were the favourite 
 candidates, and it was expected they would be returned together, but 
 Mr. Turner brought local influences to bear that secured his election 
 against Dr. Bowring. The nomination took place on Tuesday, Dec. 
 nth, 1832. Returning officer, John Fleming, Esq. The hustings were 
 erected in the " Bull Meadow," on the site of the present Reform Club, 
 Market Place. Mr. Feilden was nominated by his uncle, Mr. Joseph 
 Feilden, and by Mr. James Cunliffe, banker. Mr. Hindle was nominated 
 by Dr. James Barlow and Mr. Wm. Henry Hornby. Dr. Bowring was 
 nominated by Mr. James Pilkington and Mr. Joseph Eccles. Mr. Turner 
 was nominated by Mr. John Hargreaves (Coroner) and Mr. Thomas 
 Dugdale. On the eve of the poll Mr. Hindle retired. The first day's 
 polling resulted — Feilden 346 ; Bowring 324 ; Turner 314. The second 
 day's poll ended Feilden 376 ; Turner 347 ; Bowring 334. The defeat 
 
THE PARLIAMENTARY BOROUGH. 373 
 
 of Dr. Bowring, the popular candidate, led to some disturbances in the 
 streets. 
 
 At the next General Election in 1835, James Pickup, Esq., was returning officer 
 for the borough, and the candidates nominated were the retiring Members, Mr. William 
 Feilden and Mr. William Turner ; and Dr. Bowring. The polling took place on June 
 6th and 7th, 1835. At the end of the first day, Mr. Turner and Dr. Bowring had the 
 majority of votes ; but at the close of the poll on the second day the numbers were — 
 Turner 432 ; Feilden 316 ; Bowring 303. Dr. Bowring was, however, in the mean- 
 time, elected Member for Kilmarnock, in Scotland. Rioting supervened on the result 
 of the election being known in Blackburn. A procession of many thousands of the 
 working classes met Dr. Bowring on his passage through Blackburn on his way to 
 London from his Scottish constituency. 
 
 At the dissolution in July, 1837, on the death of William IV., the borough was 
 not seriously contested. Mr. Feilden and Mr. Turner were again nominated, and also 
 Mr. J. B. Smith, of Manchester, but the latter retired before the poll was taken, which 
 resulted — Turner 515 ; Feilden 416; Smith 9. 
 
 At the General Election on July ist, 1841, the nominated candidates were — Mr. 
 William Feilden and Mr. John Hornby, Conservatives ; and Mr. William Turner, 
 Whig. The polling issued in the return of the two former : — Feilden 441 ; Hornby 
 427 ; Turner 426. The military had to be fetched to stop the rioting on this occasion. 
 Mr. Turner being defeated by a single vote, petitioned for a scrutiny, which commenced 
 on Wednesday, April 20th, and lasted seven days. At the close, Mr. Hornby was 
 decided to have sustained his election. Mr. Turner died within three months of the 
 failure of the petition. 
 
 The next Election occurred on the dissolution in July, 1847. Sir William Feilden 
 retired from parliamentary life, and the candidates nominated were : — Mr. John 
 Hornby, Conservative ; Mr. James Pilkington, Liberal Free Trader ; Mr. William 
 Hargreaves, of the Grange, Milnthorpe, Whig ; and Mr. W. P. Roberts, Chartist. 
 The contest resulted in the return of Mr. Hornby and Mr. Pilkington ; the polling 
 being — Hornby 649 ; Pilkington 602 ; Hargreaves 392 ; Roberts 68. 
 
 Parliament was again dissolved July 1st, 1852. In Blackburn the candidates at 
 this Election were the retiring Members, Mr. Hornby and Mr. Pilkington ; and Mr. 
 William Eccles, as a Liberal-Conservative. Parties were in some degree confused in 
 this contest. The result of the poll was — Pilkington 846 ; Eccles 580 ; Hornby 509. 
 Mr. Hornby's supporters petitioned against the return of Mr. Eccles on the ground of 
 bribery and corruption, and the House of Commons Committee declared the charges 
 proved and the election void. Mr. Eccles, unseated in March, 1854, died on June 
 17th following, aged 59. 
 
 The extraordinary Election occasioned by this vacancy took place in March, 1852. 
 The candidates were : — Mr. William Henry Hornby, brother of the former Member, 
 Conservative ; and Mr. Montague Joseph Feilden, a younger son of the late Sir 
 William Feilden, Liberal. The contest was fierce, and resulted — Feilden 631 ; 
 Hornby 574. 
 
 At the General Election in March, 1857, the borough was not contested ; as Mr. 
 Jonathan Peel of Knowlmere, who had made overtures to the constituency, did not 
 persevere in his candidature. The other candidates were Mr. Pilkington, the retiring 
 Member, and Mr. William Henry Hornby, whose claims were now so generally 
 admitted that he secured the seat, along with Mr. Pilkington, without a poll. 
 
 At the General Election of 1859 three candidates were presented to the constitu- 
 
374 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 ency : — Mr. Pilkington, Liberal, and Mr. Hornby, Conservative, the retiring Members ; 
 and Mr. John Patrick Murrough of London, as an advanced Liberal. The poll, taken 
 April 30th, resulted : — Hornby 832 ; Pilkington 750 ; Murrough 567. 
 
 The next Election was on the dissolution in July, 1865. The retiring Members, 
 Mr. Hornby and Mr. Pilkington, were candidates, and it was the disposition of 
 influential persons of both parties to re-elect these gentlemen. But a section of the 
 Liberal party opposed the arrangement, and nominated Mr. John Gerald Potter, of 
 Mytton Hall. The Conservative Committee upon that nominated Mr. Joseph Feilden 
 of Witton House, as its second candidate. The poll closed with the following result: — 
 Hornby 1,053; Feilden 938; Pilkington 771 ; Potter 576. Two Conservatives were 
 thus returned, and Mr. Pilkington, who had sat in Parliament eighteen years, was 
 defeated. The constituency at this election, the last under the old £ 10 franchise, 
 numbered 1,845 electors. 
 
 Consequent upon the Reform Act of 1867, the dissolution of Parliament in Novem- 
 ber, 1868, occurred. By the Boundary Act of 1868, the boundaries of the Parlia- 
 mentary Borough of Blackburn, originally coincident with those of the township, were 
 extended to include the suburban parts of Witton township lying between the Blake- 
 watar and the Darwen, and of Livesey as far south as the hamlets of Waterloo and 
 Moorgate. The new franchise and this extension of limits combined, increased the 
 number of electors to 9, 708. The candidates nominated were the retiring Members, 
 Mr. Wm. Henry Hornby and Mr. Joseph Feilden, Conservative, and Mr. John Gerald 
 Potter and Mr. Montague Joseph Feilden, Liberal. The poll was taken on Tuesday, 
 November 15th, 1868, and resulted in the re-election of the former Members. The 
 numbers were — Hornby 4,907 ; J. Feilden 4,829 ; Potter 4,399 ; M. J. Feilden 4,164. 
 A petition against the return was heard at the Town Hall, Blackburn, by Mr. Justice 
 Willes, March 13-16, 1869, by whom the election was pronounced void on account of 
 intimidation of voters by expulsion from several factories by partizan workmen. 
 
 At the extraordinary Election which followed upon the judgment, the Conservative 
 Candidates were Mr. Edward Kenworthy Hornby and Mr. Henry Master Feilden, 
 both sons of the former Members. The Liberal Candidates were Mr. John Gerald 
 Potter and Mr. John Morley (editor of the "Fortnightly Review," and a native of 
 Blackburn). The result of the polling, March 30th, was as follows : — Hornby 4, 738 ; 
 Feilden 4,697 ; Potter 3,964; Morley 3,804. 
 
 The last General Election transpired in January, 1874. The candidates in this 
 borough were Mr. H. M. Feilden, Conservative (Mr. E. K. Hornby retiring) ; Mr. 
 Daniel Thwaites, an independent candidate ultimately adopted by the Conservative 
 Committee ; Mr. William Edward Briggs and Mr. Richard Shackleton, Liberals. The 
 polling, on Thursday, February 5th, 1875, resulted in the return of Mr. Feilden and Mr. 
 Briggs — the numbers being declared : — Feilden 5,532 ; Briggs 5,338 ; Thwaites 5)323; 
 Shackleton 4,852. This was the first election in which the voting was taken by Ballot 
 under the provisions of the Ballot Act of 1873. 
 
 Mr. H. M. Feilden, the senior Member, died September 5th, 1875, and for the 
 vacancy thus caused in the representation, Mr. Daniel Thwaites again presented him- 
 self as a candidate. Mr. William Coddington (Mayor 1874-5), who appeared as a 
 second Conservative Candidate, retired. Mr. John Tomlinson Hibbert (formerly 
 Member for Oldham) was induced to contest the seat with Mr. Thwaites in the Liberal 
 interest. The election took place on September 30th, 1875, and the numbers declared 
 were : —Thwaites 5, 792 ; Hibbert 4,832. Mr. Thwaites was thus returned. Number 
 of Electors on the Roll, 11,709. 
 
INCORPORATION OF THE BOROUGH. 375 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL BOROUGH. 
 The town of Blackburn possessed no local governing authority 
 (beyond the town constable) prior to the appointment by statute, in 
 1803, of a body of twelve Police Commissioners, who were invested 
 with the duty of paving, lighting, watching, and cleansing the town. 
 These Commissioners had the power of selecting persons to fill vacancies 
 on the Commission. The powers of the Police Commissioners were 
 merged in those of the Blackburn Improvement Commissioners, appointed 
 under a local Act of Parliament passed in 1847 ; and Mr. John Har- 
 greaves, Clerk to the former, became Clerk to the latter body of Com- 
 missioners. William Hoole, Esq., was Chairman of the Improvement 
 Commissioners. The Commissioners laid out the new Market Place, 
 built the Market House, and published a code of Bye-Laws for the 
 regulation of the town in sanitary respects. In 1854, the borough 
 having been some time incorporated, the functions of the Improvement 
 Commissioners were transferred to the Town Council, and the Com- 
 mission was wound up. 
 
 By Petition dated Nov. 28th, 1850, the inhabitant landholders and 
 ratepayers of the Parliamentary borough of Blackburn petitioned the 
 Queen in Council for a Charter of Incorporation for the borough, setting 
 forth that the " important, populous and increasing borough of Black- 
 bum is without any efficient or responsible local government adequate 
 to its necessities," and that the petitioners desired " the control of the 
 municipal affairs of the said borough should be vested in a responsible 
 local government." Compliant with the prayer of this Petition, the 
 Queen in Council, by writ of Privy Seal, granted a Charter of Incorpora- 
 tion to the borough, which bears date the 28th August, isthVictoria(i8si) 
 The Charter, reciting the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Acts and the 
 consideration of the Inhabitants' Petition, grants that the inhabitants of the said 
 borough of Blackburn shall be for ever hereafter one body politic and corporate in 
 deed, fact and name, to be called " The Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the 
 Borough of Blackburn." The said body corporate to have, exercise, &c., all the acts, 
 powers, authorities, immunities, and privileges held, enjoyed, &c., by the boroughs 
 named in the schedules to the Act for regulating Municipal Corporations in England 
 and Wales ; that the said Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses shall have a Common Seal 
 and shall assume armorial bearings and devices ; that the said Mayor, Aldermen and 
 Burgesses shall be able to purchase, take, and acquire lands, tenements, &c., to any 
 value, situate within the borough, and other lands, tenements, &c., out of the borough 
 not exceeding the sum of ;f 5, 000 by the year, to have and hold to them, their succes- 
 sors, for ever ; that the Council of the said Borough shall consist of a Mayor, twelve 
 Aldermen, and thirty-six Councillors, the first election of Couni-illors to be holden on 
 Nov. 1st, 1851, and the first Aldermen with the first Mayor, to be elected on Nov. 
 10th ; and the first election of auditors and assessors to be held on March 1st, 1852 ; 
 that the said Borough be divided into six Wards, to be respectively called St. Mary's, 
 St. John's, Trinity, Park, St. Peter's, and St. Paul's Wards, the boundaries whereof 
 
376 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 are described ; that each of the six Wards shall return and have six Councillors ; that 
 Thomas Crooke Ainsworth, Esq., make out, on the 15th Sept., 1851, a Burgess Roll, 
 to be completed on or before the 24th October ; and that William Hoole, Esq., act as 
 returning officer at the first election of Councillors, Aldermen, Mayor, Auditors and 
 Assessors. 
 
 The Seal of the Municipal Borough of Blackburn bears the arms of the borough, 
 with the words " Seal of the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of 
 Blackburn, 1851." The Borough Arms, enrolled in the Herald's College in the same 
 year, are : — "Argent : a fesse wavy sable, between three bees volant, proper ; on a 
 chief, vert, a bugle horn stringed, argent, between two fusils, or." Crest: — "On a 
 wreath of the colours, a shuttle, or ; thereon a dove, wings elevated, argent, and holding 
 in its beak the thread of the shuttle, reflexed over the back, and an olive branch, 
 proper." Motto : — "Arte et labore." 
 
 The first election of Councillors for the several wards of the newly-incorporated 
 borough took place on the first of November, 1851. The Councillors elected were : — 
 St Mary's Ward : — ^John Folding, Oliver Roylance, Leonard Wilkinson, James Boyle, 
 Christopher Parkinson, Henry Briggs. St. John's Ward : — Thomas Hart, Benjamin 
 Brierley, Thomas Button, William H. Cartwright, John Thwailes, Doctor W. Forrest. 
 Trinity Ward : — Daniel Thwaites, William Kenworthy, James Forrest, William Yates, 
 Richard Backhouse, John Rutherford. Park Ward : — William Pilkington, Robert 
 Hopwood, junior, Henry Shaw, Thomas Dugdale, John Baynes, Thomas Bolton. 
 St. Peter's Ward : — William Dickinson, Charles Boardman, Joseph Harrison, William 
 Peel, John Ratcliflfe, George Stones. St. Paul's Ward : — James Cunningham, John 
 Railton, Robert Raynsford Jackson, James Pemberton, Miles Baron, George Dewhurst 
 
 At the first meeting of the first Council, Nov. lOth, 1851, the Aldermen were 
 elected : — To serve five years : — William Henry Hornby, Richard Martland, John 
 Livesey, William Hoole, William Eccles, Thomas Thwaites, Esqrs. To serve two 
 years : — James Pickup, Robert Hopwood, senr., William Sames, James Hartley, 
 William Mosley Perfect, George Jackson, Esqrs. 
 
 William Henry Hornby, Esq. , was chosen first Mayor of the Borough at the same 
 meeting of the Council; and on Thursday, March 25th, 1852, a rich and costly gold 
 chain and civic badge was presented to Mr. Hornby as Mayor, bearing the inscrip- 
 tion : — "Presented to William Henry Hornby, Esq., J. P., by a number of the Bur- 
 gesses and other Inhabitants of Blackburn, as a memento of their esteem for him as a 
 fellow-townsman, and especially to mark their gratification at his having been chosen 
 to serve as Mayor by the first Municipal Council for the Borough, to which he was 
 elected on the loth November, 1851." 
 
 MAYORS OF BLACKBURN 1851-1875. 
 
 William Henry Hornby, Esq. 
 Robert Hopwood, junior, Esq. 
 
 Thomas Dugdale, Esq. 
 
 William Hoole, Esq. 
 
 William Pilkington, Esq. 
 
 John Baynes, Esq. 
 1859-60. James Cunningham, Esq. 
 1 860- 1. Thomas Thwaites, Esq. 
 1861-2. RobeitHopwoodHutchinson.Esq. 
 1862-3. James Barlow S. Sturdy, Esq. 
 
 1851-2. 
 1852-3. 
 1853-4. ] 
 1854-5. > 
 1855-6. 
 1856-7. 1 
 1857-8. ) 
 1858-9. 
 
 Thomas Lund, Esq. 
 William Stones, Esq. 
 James Thompson, Esq. 
 John Dean, Esq. 
 
 1863-4. 
 1864-5. 
 1865-6. 
 1866-7. 
 1867-8. ^ 
 
 1868-9. i J°^" ^""*' ^"^" 
 
 1869-70. John Dean, Esq. 
 
 1870-1. Thomas Hartley Pickup, Esq. 
 
 1871-2. Thomas Bury, Esq. 
 
 1872-3. John Thompson, Esq. 
 
 1873-4. John Pickop, Esq. 
 
 1874-5. William Coddington, Esq. 
 
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CORPORATION ESTABLISHMENTS. 377 
 
 The Town Council of Blackburn for 1874-5 was composed as follows : — William 
 Coddington, Esq., Mayor. Aldermen : — ^John Pickop, R. H. Hutchinson, John 
 Thompson, William Dickinson, John Ratcliffe, Roger Haworth, Thos. H. Pickup, 
 Thomas Lewis, John Robinson, Thomas Bury, Robert Duckworth, Henry Duckworth. 
 Councillors : — William Chambers, J. C. Fisher, W. H. Hornby, junior, Richard 
 Shakeshaft, James Beads, Edward Dugdale ; James Briggs, John Ingham, A. S. Bury, 
 R. D. Coddington, Robert Parkinson, Joseph Eatough ; Thos. Higson, T. Fletcher, John 
 J. Thompson, Denis Towers, James Dickinson, George Duerden ; Isaac Ward, R. H. 
 Pemberton, W. Stuart, John Stones, Robert Parker, John Lund ; Eli Heyworth, W. 
 Dixon, William Coddington, R. Alker, Wm. E. Briggs, Robert Whitaker; William 
 Taylor, William Kay, C. H. Brindle, William Arthur, Henry Shaw, Thomas Brooks. 
 
 Town Clerks: — John Hargreaves, Esq. (1851-4); Thomas Ainsworth, Esq. 
 (1854-9) ; Henry Saward, Esq. (1859-65) ; C. G. H. Beck, Esq. (1865-75); W. E. L. 
 Gaine, Esq. (1875). 
 
 CORPORATION BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 The Town Hall occupies a site of 3,832 square yards on the north side of the 
 New Market Place. The comer-stone was laid Oct. 28th, 1852, by Joseph Feilden, 
 Esq., lord of the manor, and the Hall was completed and opened Oct. 30th, 1856, by 
 William Hoole, Esq., then Mayor. It is a large and handsome fabric in the classic 
 style. The west front, 120ft. wide, with an elevation of 62ft., presents the main 
 entrance in the centre, by three massive arched doorways. The front is emboldened 
 by Corinthian columns resting upon a rusticated basement ; upholding a broad entab- 
 lature surmounted by a perforated parapet. On the south front is a doric porch in the 
 centre ; and at the east end are the entrances to the Police Offices and Court yard of 
 the prison of eighteen cells. The interior of the Hall comprises a noble Assembly 
 Room, 1 14ft. by 50ft. , with orchestra at north end, occupying the entire upper storey of 
 the west frontage, above the vestibule and offices ; on the south side on the same level 
 a handsome Council Chamber and ante-room; two rooms of corresponding dimensions 
 on the second storey of the south wing ; offices and ante-rooms in the upper floors of 
 the north wing ; and, on the ground floor, the Borough Court, a second Court Room, 
 Mayor's Parlour, offices for Town Clerk, Borough Treasurer, Borough Surveyor, and 
 Collectors. At the rear are the Police Offices and Chief Constable's House. The cost 
 of the Town Hall, inclusive of later additions and decoration, has exceeded ^^35,000. 
 Architect, Mr. James Paterson ; Contractors, Messrs. Richard Hacking and William 
 Stones. 
 
 The Market House and Market Place were planned by the Improvement 
 Commissioners in 1845 ; and the Market House was opened Jan. 28th, 1848, by the 
 Chairman of the Commissioners, William Hoole, Esq. The building is in the early 
 Italian style, and presents a frontage of three gables, with a campanile seventy-two 
 feet high rising in the centre at the west end, and forming a main entrance. There 
 are other entrances on each of the four frontages. The upper compartment of the 
 tower contains a large illuminated clock. The interior is 186ft. 6in. long by 109ft. 
 6in. wide. The roof, in three spans, is supported intermediately by two rows of iron 
 columns. Architect, Mr. T. Flanagan. Cost ;^8,ooo. Since the property was 
 conveyed from the Improvement Commissioners to the Corporation in 1852, great 
 enlargements have been made of the area of the Market Place by the removal of 
 property on the south side that formed the Old Square, and a .second Market House, 
 at first designed for a Fish Market was built in 1870-2 at a cost of about ;f8,ooo. 
 Altogether probably ^{^^40,000 have been expended in providing market accommodation 
 
 48 - 
 
378 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 for the borough. The Blackburn Market for produce is now one of the best in 
 Lancashire, and the market tolls now yield an annual revenue to the Corporation, paid 
 by a lessee, of ;^4,5cx3. Wednesday and Saturday are the Market Days, but the 
 Market Houses are open daily. 
 
 The Corporation Park is situate on the north-western side of the town, and 
 extends from Preston New Road to the crest of Revidge Hill. The estate forming 
 the Park was purchased by the Corporation from the lord of the manor, Joseph 
 Feilden, Esq., in January, 1855 ; its extent is 50a. or. l8p., and the purchase-money, 
 at the rate of ^65 per acre, was £s,2^y 6s. 3d.; in addition to which the Corporation 
 were required to construct public roads on the east and west sides of the estate, which 
 was done at an expenditure of ^4,480 17s. id. Towards the outlay in procuring the 
 land for the Park, a sum of ;£^4,70I 19s. 7d. in the hands of the Overseers was applicable; 
 this sum accrued from the sale, about the year 1845, of the remnant of the public 
 recreation ground on the Town's Moor (set apart on the enclosure of Waste Lands in 
 1618), to the East Lancashire and Blackburn Railway Companies, with accumulated 
 interest during the interval. The entire cost of the Park at the date of opening had 
 been £l4,'joi 19s. id., so that the balance of money borrowed on that account on 
 security of the rates was ^£'10,000. The Park was opened, with a public ceremony, by 
 William Pilkington, Esq., Mayor, on October 22nd, 1857. The whole population of 
 the borough, as well as some thousands of visitors, took part in the demonstration. 
 The natural picturesqueness of the wooded dingle and rugged hill slope forming the 
 site of the Park has been greatly enhanced by artificial means, such as the planting of 
 shrubberies and groves of young trees, the introduction in the hollows of fountains of 
 elegant design, the conversion of the former reservoirs into ornamental lakes, the 
 construction of terraces, and the erection of a battery for cannon (trophies of the 
 Crimean War) on the top of the hill. The floral features of the Park have been made 
 very attractive. The principal entrance to the Park from Preston New Road is under 
 a handsome arcuated gateway, having a large central archway for carriages, and 
 smaller side arches for the footways, flanked by lodges ; above the entablature on both 
 faces the borough arms appear sculptured in stone, with crest surmounting. In the 
 gateway are inserted two tablets, recording that : — "This Park was publicly opened 
 on the 22nd day of October, 1857, during the mayoralty of William Pilkington, Esq., 
 by whose munificence the four ornamental Fountains were presented to the Borough ;" 
 and that " The adjoining 50 acres of land were purchased for a Public Park, and the 
 erection of these gates and porter's lodge was commenced during the mayoralty of 
 Thomas Dugdale, Esq., in the year 1854-5." Two other entrance-gates to the Park, 
 with porters' lodges, are erected at the upper sides to give access from the boundary 
 roads. During the Cotton Famine, in 1863-4, some hundreds of operatives were found 
 employment in the improvement of the scarped slope of the hill within the Park and 
 the construction of a carriage-drive to the summit. About the year 1867 the Red 
 Rake Farm on Revidge, of 12 statute acres, was purchased by the Corporation for 
 ;^I,200 with the intent of adding this land at some future date to the enclosure of the 
 Corporation Park. 
 
 THE PUBLIC FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM. 
 
 The Blackburn Public Free Library and Museum were established under the ' 
 provisions of the Public Free Libraries Act of 1850. They originated in a vote of the 
 Blackburn Town Council, on the motion of Councillor Thomas Clough, August nth, 
 1853, followed by an almost unanimous resolution of the Burgesses assembled in public 
 meeting, Sept. 13th, 1853, to adopt the Act. After a period of abeyance, the Town 
 Council took the first steps in the formation of a Free Library in 1859, during the 
 
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FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM. 
 
 379 
 
 mayoralty of John Baynes, Esq. A Free Library Committee was appointed by the 
 Council March ist, l86o, by whom Mr. W. A. Abram was appointed Librarian 
 (resigned 1867). A Town's Meeting to inaugurate a public subscription towards a fund 
 for the purchase of books was held in the Town Hall, August 23rd, i86o, presided 
 over by the Mayor, James Cunningham, Esq. The principal donors of money and 
 books were the two Mayors above-named (Mr. Baynes and Mr. Cunningham) ; James 
 Pilkington, Esq. , then M. P. for the borough ; Joseph Feilden, Esq. ; John Tattersall, 
 Esq.; James Heywood, Esq., F.R.S. The working-classes subscribed, in a separate 
 fund, a sum of ^400. On the 17th of February, 1862, the Library was opened, in 
 the large rooms in the second storey of the south wingof the Town Hall, with a collection 
 of 6,817 volumes, and a printed Catalogue was at the same time issued. The issues of 
 books in the first year numbered 38,464 volumes. In March, 1862, a rate of one 
 halfpenny in the pound upon the assessment of the township was voted by the Town 
 Council for the maintenance of the Library. In 187 1, the rate was increased to one 
 of a penny in the pound. The Library was removed from the Town Hall to premises 
 in Town Hall street in 1864. In December, 1870, the Library Committee resolved, 
 with the sanction of the Council, to proceed in the provision of a permanent building 
 for the Library and Museum ; and in 1871, a site was purchased on Richmond Terrace, 
 for ;ifi,i20, subject to an annual ground rent charge of £12 i8s. A competition of 
 architects for a design for the proposed fabric was invited, and 38 designs were 
 exhibited. The Committee, aided by an eminent architect, selected for adoption thg 
 design of Messrs. Woodzell and Collcutt, of London. The corner-stone of the Library 
 building was laid on the 1 8th of July, 1872, by Thomas Bury, Esq., Mayor, and the edifice 
 was opened on the nth of June, 1874, by the Mayor, John Pickop, Esq., who at the 
 same time opened an Exhibition of Works of Art and Industry. The Exhibition 
 remained open about three months, and resulted in a balance of £i,Qf>(> to be expended 
 on the purchase of books and objects for the Library and Museum. The cost of the 
 building for the Library, including fixtures, was about ^10,000. The Library now 
 (187s) contains more than 20,000 volumes, in distinct Reference and Lending 
 Libraries ; and the Museum contains interesting collections in natural history and a 
 valuable series of fossils and mineral specimens collected and presented by James 
 Eccles, Esq. Mr. D. Geddes is present Librarian. A second cat,ilogue of the Library 
 was printed in 1872. The income of the Library from the rate is now about ^1,000. 
 
 The new Library and Museum Building is a fine edifice in the early decorated 
 gothic style, with imposing frontages to Frances street and Richmond Terrace. The 
 main entrance in the centre of the Frances street front is a recessed arch protected 
 above by a corbelled-out canopy decorated with carvings and the Borough arms 
 flanked by the arms of the ancient manorial lords (De Blackburn), and of the present 
 lord (Feilden of Witton). On each side of the entrance is one single and one double- 
 light window. On the first floor are five triple-light windows, three of them with 
 pointed and pierced quatrefoil heads. On the Richmond Terrace front are in each 
 storey six windows corresponding to those on the other front. At each comer of the 
 building is a gable set at some distance inside the parapets, and having open tracery 
 for ventilation. The external walls are of Bradford pierre-points with Longridge 
 stone dressings ; and with three tiers of carved string courses in Warwick stone. 
 Under seven of the first-floor windows on the two chief fronts are panels, each ten 
 feet long and four feet high, finished with sculpture by Mr. Seale of London. Of the 
 three panels on the west front, the centre group of sculpture, representing "Literature," 
 was charged in the building contract; the left group, representing "Art, " was given 
 by James Thompson, Esq., chairman of the Free Library Committee ; and the right 
 
380 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 group, "Science," by members of the Committee. On the Richmond Terrace front 
 the first panel of sculpture, "Agriculture," was given by the late H. M. Feilden, Esq., 
 M. P., lord of the Manor; the second, "Iron Manufactures,"givenbyW. E. Briggs, Esq., 
 M.P. for Blackburn ; the third, "Cotton Manufactures," given by John Fish, Esq., 
 Cotton Spinner, of Waterfall Mills, Livesey; and the fourth, "Commerce," given 
 by John, Edward, and Joseph Dugdale, Esqrs., Machinists and Cotton Spinners, 
 of Blackburn. In the interior of the building, a spacious vestibule leads to the hall 
 and staircase, lighted from the top by a large lantern light ; on the right of the entrance 
 hall is the Lending Library, and on the left is the Reference Library, for 80 readers, 
 having an arcade of columns, with carved caps, the whole length of the room ; two 
 students' reading rooms are at the west end of the Reference Library ; and on the 
 right of the entrance is a ladies' reading room. The librarian's room is placed opposite 
 the entrance to the hall, which it commands, and communicates with both libraries. 
 By a staircase of stone the first floor is reached, which contains three spacious rooms, 
 the whole of which will be devoted to museum or picture gallery. The Libraries are 
 designed to hold 60,000 volumes. Contractors, Messrs. Marshall and Dent. 
 
 The Library and Museum are managed by a Committee, a proportion of the 
 members of which are not members of the Town Council. In 1875, the Committee 
 was constituted thus : — Chairman, James Thompson, Esq. ; the Mayor, William 
 Coddington, Esq. ; Aldermen Lewis, John Pickop, Thompson, Ratclifife ; Councillors 
 Lund, Ward, James Briggs, W. E. Briggs, Arthur, Parker, Bury, Ingham, Whittaker, 
 Heyworth, Chambers ; Rev. A. B. Grosart ; Dr. Skaife ; Messrs. Thomas Clough, 
 William Gourlay, Joseph Brierley, W. A. Abram, W. L. Constantine, John Brand- 
 wood, and R. C. Pilling. 
 
 The Public Baths, on a site adjoining St. Peter's Churchyard, were provided by 
 the Corporation, at the expenditure of ;£'3,S00, and were opened July nth, 1868, 
 during the mayoralty of Mr. John Smith. The building is of brick with stone dres- 
 sings ; the internal arrangement includes a large swimming bath, 60ft. by 33ft. , and 
 40 private baths for both sexes, for the use of which a small fee is paid. 
 
 CORPORATION WORKS, &c. 
 
 The Sewage Works of the borough have been carried out at a vast expenditure 
 of money, and are still incomplete. The system of public sewers, which consists of 
 main sewers more than 30 miles in length collectively, was constructed at a cost of 
 about ;^90,ooo. On the bank of the Blakewater at Wensley Fold, on the south-west 
 border of the town, the sewage-outlet works consist of five tanks for settlement of 
 sewerage, store shed, &c., and cost ;ii 10,000. Under the obligation to keep the 
 discharge of the sewer out of the river, the Corporation proceeded to construct a 
 culvert three miles long from the outlet, through portions of Witton, Livesey, and 
 Pleasington, to Hoghton Bottoms, where lands have been leased from Sir Henry de 
 Hoghton for sewage-irrigation, and a sewage farm has been laid out and cultivated. 
 More land being needed for irrigation purposes, the Corporation obtained powers to 
 acquire a portion of the estate in Samlesbury of Edward Petre, Esq., and the price of 
 an estate of 374 acres was fixed by arbitration in 1875 at ;f44,8oo. Other parcels of 
 the same estate have been purchased at public sale ; and it is intended to construct an 
 extension of the culvert conveying the sewage from Hoghton to Samlesbury. The 
 Corporation's outlay in the necessary works for the disposal of the town's sewage has 
 already exceeded ;^loo,ooo, beyond the cost of main sewers and original outlet works. 
 
 Other Corporate Properties are the Fire Engine Station in Clayton-street, built 
 to accommodate six engines with house for Superintendent of Fire Brigade ; the 
 
FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BLACKBURN. [Page 380 
 
BLACKBURN DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY. 381 
 
 Islington store yard, covering 10,000 square yards of ground, with store, sheds, 
 stables, and offices, and other store yards at Daisyfield and Canal Dock. 
 
 The Blackburn Gas Works, established in 1819, are still the property of a 
 private company. The original works are in Darwen-street, with branches near 
 Wensley-fcld and in Grimshaw Park Road. 
 
 Blackburn Water Works. — The first public supply of water to the town, 
 beyond the ancient wells, was from two small reservoirs in Pemberton Clough, now 
 converted into ornamental lakes in the Corporation Park. The Blackburn Water 
 Works Company was formed in 1S44; obtained its first Act in 1845, and in 1848 
 began to supply water to the town. The Company has obtained other Acts, extending 
 its borrowing powers and enabling it to acquire fresh water-rights, in 1861 and 1875. 
 The original series of reservoirs situate on the hills on the south side of the town, 
 between Whinney Heights and Pickup Bank, were constructed to hold 100,000,000 
 gallons of water. A larger reservoir, to hold 360,000,000 gallons, at Fish-moor in 
 Lower Darwen, was completed in 1866. The expended capital of the Company 
 amounted to ;^i8o,ooo in the middle of 1875, when the Works were conveyed to the 
 Blackburn Corporation on the terms of a guaranteed dividend to the shareholders of 9 
 per cent for five years, and after of 9^ per cent, per annum in perpetuity. The 
 average rainfall at Blackburn is about 39 to 40 inches. 
 
 POOR LAW UNION AND BURIAL BOARD. 
 
 The Blackburn Poor Law Union was formed in 1836, and the Board of 
 Guardians for the Union met for the first time on Jan. 21st, 1837. John Lister, Esq., 
 was elected Chairman. Mr. Peter EUingthorpe was appointed Clerk, and held that 
 office until his death in 1875. The old Workhouse, on the skirt of the Town's Moor, 
 dated from 1764. In 1841, the Overseers of the township obtained power from Parlia- 
 ment to let the public land of the Town's Moor for building-sites. The New Union 
 Workhouse, erected on the summit of the ridge on the south-east border of the town, 
 at a cost of ;^30,cioo, was commenced in 1861, and opened April 2nd, 1864. It is an 
 extensive group of structures, built of stone, and is designed to accommodate 700 
 inmates. The site, of 30 acres, was purchased for £()(> 13s. 4d. per acre from Mr. 
 Feilden. Richard Eccles, Esq., present Chairman of the Board of Guardians, has 
 filled that office since the year 1 844. Thomas Clough, Esq. , is Vice-Chairman. This 
 Poor Law Union embraces all the townships in Blackburn Parish excepting those 
 of Samlesbury, Cuerdale, and Walton-in-le-Dale at the western extremity, and, as well, 
 the townships of Clayton-le-Moors, Church-Kirk, and Oswaldtwistle in the parish of 
 Whalley. The offices of the Board and Overseers for Blackburn are in King street (the 
 house formerly the residence of the Cardwell family), to which a new wing was added 
 in 1874. Mr. Thomas Brennand is now Clerk to the Board. Assistant Overseer for 
 the township, Mr. John Clough. 
 
 The Blackburn Burial Board was formed in 1854, and purchased portion of 
 the estate of Bank Hey, in Little Harwood, abutting on the Whalley Road, north of 
 the town, consisting of 1 19 acres of land, and of which 74a. 2r. 6JS^p. were sold by the 
 Board, leaving about 45 acres to be appropriated for a public Cemetery. The cost of 
 the land, with enclosing walls, three mortuary chapels, and of laying out as a cemetery, 
 was ;^i9,ooo. This sum, borrowed on mortgage of the Poor's Rate, has been nearly 
 liquidated by a sinking fund. The Cemetery was opened July 1st, 1857. The annual 
 revenue of the Burial Board from Burial Fees is more than ;^l,6oo, and the number 
 of interments annually has reached about 2,500. Thomas Ainsworth, Esq., is Clerk 
 to the Burial Board. 
 
382 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 BLACKBURN DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY. 
 
 In the year 1823, on the occurrence of a vacancy in the office of 
 surgeon of the old Parochial Infirmary, a project was mooted to found a 
 public Dispensary to combine, with medical service to the pauper class, 
 relief to the indigent not being paupers in time of sickness. A meeting 
 of promoters was held at the Sessions Room, Dec. 19th, 1823, when a 
 Committee was appointed to draw up rules, collect subscriptions, and 
 propose terms to the select vestry for attendance upon sick paupers. The 
 Committee consisted of the Vicar (Rev. J. W. Whitaker), and Mr. John 
 Hornby, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. J. F. Hindle, Mr. John Cunliffe, Mr. Dixon 
 Robinson, and Mr. Silvester Fraser. The Committee proposed to the 
 Overseers and Select Vestry to perform the duties of the Parochial Dis- 
 pensary for one year for ^250, but at a General Town's Meeting, held 
 Dec. 26th, 1823, it was decided to allow ;^225 for this service. This 
 offer was accepted by the Committee. On the ist of January, 1824, the 
 first meeting of Governors was held; donors of ten guineas with an 
 annual subscription of one guinea, and yearly subscribers of two guineas, 
 being entitled governors. At a second meeting on January 22nd, Mr. 
 John Fleming reported that he had treated as ordered for a building at 
 No. 56, King-street, for which he had agreed to pay a yearly rental of 
 jC^S. At the same meeting Dr. Markland was appointed superintendent 
 physician, Messrs. James Bailey and John Cook superintendent surgeons, 
 and Mr. John Skaife surgeon apothecary to the Dispensary with hou se 
 attached, at a salary of ;^i2o per annum. These gentlemen were 
 appointed trustees : — Rev. J. W. Whitaker ; Messrs. John Hornby, John 
 Hargreaves, Dixon Robinson, and John Cunliffe. Auditors : — Messrs. 
 William Hoole and John Foster. Treasurer, Mr. James Cunliffe. 
 
 The Dispensary was opened on Feb. Ist, 1824. The patients treated during the 
 first year numbered 1,513. At the first annual meeting, Jan. 3rd, 1825, a fund for the 
 erection of a permanent building was advanced to £6$o ; Messrs. John Hornby, 
 Joseph Feilden, William Feilden, John Lister, and Richard Cardwell were among 
 the best contributors. An address to the public, issued by the Governors, urges the 
 need for the erection in the town of a General Infirmary for the Hundred of Blackburn. 
 At the next annual meeting, Jan. 5th, 1826, the subject of an Infirmary was again put 
 forward, and a committee was named to obtain subscriptions for that object. Nine 
 gentlemen promised an aggregate sum of £2, 150 to the Infirmary fund, as follows : — 
 Joseph Feilden, Esq., ^5CX); John Hornby, Esq., ^^300; William Feilden, Esq., 
 ;£'30o; Henry Sudell, Esq., ;^300; Adam Cottam, Esq., ;i20o; John Lister, Esq., 
 jfi5o; John Turner, Esq., ^150; John Fleming, Esq., ;fl50; James Cunliffe, Esq., 
 £100. But the depression in trade and popular distress in that year (1826) arrested 
 the project ; and in 1827 and 1828 the design was still in suspension. In 1829 the 
 Governors' address to the public recalled the purpose cherished from the first of 
 eventually founding a general Infirmary, and it was reported that the permanent fund 
 amounted to ;f 1,250 ; that £2, 150 had been subscribed to be paid whenever required 
 for the erection of an Infirmary ; and that this aggregate of ;^3,400 was sufficient to 
 
BLACKBURN INFIRMARY. 383 
 
 warrant a prompt commencement to erect a building for the accommodation of 52 
 patients, at an estimated cost of ;£'4,22i 13s. Still, however, the scheme flagged, and 
 from this date the public interest in the proposal declined, while even the subscriptions 
 to the current fund of the Dispensary suffered decrease. Again in 1834, when the 
 permanent fund had reached ^1,723 4s. iid., a committee was appointed to obtain 
 donations towards a new building, but once more the effort failed. At length, in 1838, 
 on the passing of the Poor Law, the grant by the Overseers to the Dispensary being 
 withdrawn, and the subscriptions having fallen low, the Governors resolved to close 
 the Dispensary, after a useful existence of fifteen years. The permanent fund, about 
 ;fi,5oo, was invested by the trustees, and twenty years later, when the Infirmary 
 Scheme was at length revived and successfully launched, this Dispensary fund had 
 increased by accumulated interest to about ;£'3,ooo, which were paid over by the 
 surviving trustees, Mr. Dixon Robinson and Mr. John Hargreaves, to the endowment 
 fund of the Infirmary. 
 
 The revival of the project of a local Infirmary was due to William 
 Pilkington, Esq., of Wilpshire Grange, an Alderman of the borough, 
 who, on his election as Mayor on Nov. loth, 1856, offered ;^2,ooo 
 towards a fund for the erection of an Infirmary, and ;^ioo per annum 
 to an endowment fund. In support of the proposal, a public Meeting 
 was held in the Town Hall on the 30th of December following, at which 
 further donations to the sum of ^^3,000 were promised, and ;^ioo to the 
 endowment. A Committee nominated for the purpose selected after 
 much inquiry a site on the HoUin Bank estate belonging to Joseph 
 Feilden, Esq., lord of the manor. The site, eight acres in extent, was 
 conveyed in October, 1857, and of the purchase money, Mr. Feilden, 
 the vendor, returned the moiety (^1,600) as a donation in addition to 
 a first donation of ^^500, and ;^2o annually to the endowment. Plans 
 for an Infirmary building were meantime obtained, the selected design, 
 out of 73 exhibited in competition, being that of Mr. James Turnbull of 
 Manchester. The comer-stone of the structure was laid by Mr. William 
 Pilkington (who had been re-elected Mayor in November, 1857), on 
 Whit-Monday (May 24th, 1858), when a Public Procession to the site 
 heralded the ceremony. The stone was laid with Masonic formalities. 
 Afterwards there was a balloon ascent and other festivities. At the date 
 of these proceedings the building fund amounted to ^^14,000, including 
 ^9,241 in donations, ;^ 1,127 from a working-class subscription, and 
 ;^i,4i9, half the proceeds of a bazaar. The endowment fund then 
 stood at about ;^S,ooo, which included ;^3,ooo from the Dispensary 
 Trust, and _;^i,4i9 from the bazaar proceeds. The Infirmary fabric was 
 completed and partially used during the Cotton Famine. The entire 
 cost of building and site was about ^^2 5,000. A fresh subscription to 
 reduce a debt on the building, in 1866, was headed by Mr. William 
 Pilkington with ;£'i,ooo. The institution, which is styled the " Black- 
 bum and East Lancashire Infirmary," is now (1875) entirely free from 
 
384 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 debt; and the report for 1874 returns 620 in-patients and 1,258 out- 
 patients treated within the year ; and an average of 43 patients housed 
 in the Infirmary. The investments for endowment amount to ;^i 7,800. 
 The revenue for 1874 was _;^4,i62, and the chief items were, subscrip- 
 tions ;^78o ; donations ^805 ; church and chapel collections ;^485 ; 
 Collections at Mills and Workshops ^^1,695 > and ;^ 7 84 from invested 
 funds. Besides Mr. William Pilkington and Mr. Joseph Feilden, the 
 Infirmary has been handsomely aided by most of the chief gentry and 
 merchants of the district. 
 
 The Infirmary stands upon an eminent site in the south suburb of the town, and 
 is surrounded by extensive gardens and shrubberies, In plan the building consists of 
 separate blocks, two floors in height, placed alternately, at intervals of 20 feet, on 
 opposite sides of a principal corridor. Thus a series of quadrangles is obtained, each 
 quadrangle 60ft. wide. The blocks extend 47 feet at right angles to the main corridor, 
 and contain on each floor a ward of eight beds, with five windows on each external 
 side wall. Above the windows are placed permanent ventilating openings. Opposite 
 the wards, projecting 14ft. on the other side of the corridor, are dining and sitting rooms 
 for convalescents. The centre block of the building, 32ft. wide, contains in the base- 
 ment the general kitchens, &c. On the ground floor is the principal entrance hall ; 
 in the projecting wings, right and left, are the board room, secretary's room, house 
 surgeon's and matron's rooms, &c. Behind the entrance hall are the waiting room, 
 dispensary, consulting room, accident room, &c. On the first floor of the range in 
 front is the chapel, and on each side a balcony 20ft. long, for the use of patients able 
 to take exercise in the open air. Other rooms on the upper storey include the opera- 
 ting room, lighted from the roof, and various chambers. The front of the middle 
 block is elevated an additional storey, containing the servants' domitories. 
 
 Blackburn Exchange. — A considerable trade in cotton yarn has existed about 
 forty years between Blackburn, as a centre of the weaving branch of the calico manu- 
 facture, and Manchester and other towns in South Lancashire in which spinning is the 
 larger industry. A weekly yarn market to facilitate this local trade was established, 
 which is held on the Wednesday afternoon. The place of meeting formerly was the 
 Old Bull Inn. About the year 1851, a project for a public Exchange was published ; 
 it was then proposed to build an Exchange at the OI4 Market Cross, now the site of 
 the new bank of Messrs. Cunliffe, Brooks and Co., and a design for the edifice was 
 prepared. This scheme subsided ; but on the opening of the Town Hall the Wednes- 
 day 'Change was held in the vestibule of the Hall, and rooms allotted for an Exchange 
 News Room in the south wing. In i860, a Company was foniied to provide the 
 necessary capital for building an Exchange. Plans for the proposed structure were 
 displayed in competition in 1862, and the design of Mr. Brakspear, a Manchester 
 architect, was selected for adoption. The comer-stone of the Exchange was laid on 
 March loth, 1863 (the marriage-day of the Prince of Wales), and the edifice was 
 opened in April, 1865. It was designed to consist of two separate blocks, one fronting 
 the Town Hall and the other in King William-street, connected by a tower at the 
 angle of the frontage ; but one wing only has yet been erected. The architecture is 
 Gothic of the fourteenth century. The completed portion comprises a large hall, with 
 ante-rooms ; a range of offices on the basement floor ; and two storeys of an octagonal 
 tower, forming the principal entrance, having two external doorways consisting of 
 pointed arches, recessed and gabled, with tracery heads, approached by flights of steps. 
 
CLUBS OF BLACKBURN. 385 
 
 The interior of the tower is a handsome octagonal hall, opening into the Assembly 
 Room and the News Room, with groined roof, and large traceried windows of three 
 lights above the porches. The upper storey and the domed roof of the design for the 
 tower have not been added. The exterior of the main structure presents a series of 
 projecting bays, the dividing walls buttressed ; and the front is lighted with large 
 mullioned, transomed, and tracery-headed windows. The parapet is embattled, and 
 above the buttresses rise bold pinnacles. A private entrance at the west end of the front 
 is under a neat recessed arched doorway. The west wall is pierced for a beautiful 
 wheel window of stained glass. The interior of the Exchange Room, 140ft. by 53ft., 
 is separated into nave and aisles by arches supported by fluted columns of iron ; the 
 nave has an elaborate open timber roof of good design ; the aisle roofs are panelled in 
 pitch pine, with carved bosses. A fixed platform at the west end is provided for use 
 at public meetings and as an orchestra for concerts. The cost of the parts of the 
 Exchange buildings yet erected was about jf 9,000. 'Change hours are from 3 to 5 p.m. 
 on Wednesdays. 
 
 CLUBS OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Blackburn Subscription Bowling Club existed so long ago as 1734, and 
 most of the Blackburn genti-y from that date onward have been members. The old 
 Bowling Green of the Club was at the foot of the slope at Cicely Hole, and was 
 removed about 1844, when that land was taken as part of the site of the railway- 
 station. The Green near the Grammar School was then formed ; and again in 1869 
 the Club removed to a new Green constructed for its use in Shear Bank Road. The 
 number of members in 1734 was 18, and is now limited to 100. 
 
 The Union Club is an association of gentlemen formed about 1849. Its news- 
 room, billiard-room, and other rooms occupy the central part of a large house in 
 Church-street, originally built for a town residence by Henry Sudell, Esq. , about eighty 
 years ago, but recently altered, refronted, and the side portions converted into shops. 
 
 The Reform Club was set on foot about 1861, and in May, 1864, the erection 
 was commenced of the present Club House in Victoria-street, New Market-place. It is 
 a stone edifice with a lofty Italian front. The cost of the club-house and shops on the 
 wings included in the design exceeded ;^5,ooo. The ground floor and basement of the 
 building are used as business premises ; the entrance to the club-rooms is by a hand- 
 some hall and staircase. On the first floor is the news-room, and on the upper storey 
 a spacious and lofty billiard room ; in the rear are minor rooms and offices. The Club 
 is composed of gentlemen of Liberal politics. 
 
 The Conservative Club was organised in the year 1864, and in June of the 
 same year the premises in King William-street, which had been leased and adapted as 
 a commodious Club-house, were opened. The Club-rooms include a news-room, 
 billiard-room, and several other rooms for various uses connected with the accommo- 
 dation and recreation of the members. The club is frequented by a large number of 
 members of the Conservative party in the borough. 
 
 The County Club is an association of gentlemen recently formed. Its Club- 
 rooms are in New Market -street. 
 
 The Literary Club, started in 1863, occupies a suite of rooms built for Club 
 purposes in Cort-street. 
 
 The Catholic Club, Astley Gate, was established several years ago. 
 
 The County Court is held in a substantial building of brick and stone, erected 
 in 1861-2 for Court Room and Registrar's Offices. Cost ;^3,ooo. The Court Day is 
 Monday in each week. The jurisdiction of the Court covers the townships included in 
 
 49 
 
386 
 
 nrSTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the Blackburn Poor Law Union. W. A. Hulton, Esq., is the presiding Judge. 
 About S,cxx> plaints are heard annually in this Court. John Bolton, Esq., is Registrar 
 of the Court. 
 
 The County Police Court was held in the smaller Court Room of the Town 
 Hall until August, 1873, when the new Court-house and Offices for the County Con- 
 stabulary were completed and opened. The building is situate in King-street ; it has 
 an effective frontage with entrance-archway in the centre; the style is Venetian Gothic; 
 the walls are of red brick with stone dressings. The internal planning includes a 
 Court-room 48ft. by 40ft., magistrates' room, charge room, store room, weights and 
 measures' office, police waiting rooms, lock-up cells, &c. Mr. W. S. Varley was the 
 architect. The cost of the fabric was about ;^4,ooo. 
 
 Blackburn Savings Bank was established in 1831. The present building for 
 this Bank, situate opposite Corporation-street, was erected about ten years ago. The 
 accounts of the Savings Bank for 1874 exhibit the sum of ;^226,204 los. 7d. due to 
 6,501 depositors; and the Bank's assets are stated to be £i'},o, 169 2s. id. 
 
 Blackburn Philanthropic Burial Society, formed in 1839, has about 
 140,000 contributing members, in Blackburn, Darwen, Accrington, and the inter- 
 mediate villages. Its yearly income reaches about ;^I4,000. 
 
 FAMILIES OF MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 
 
 Brief sketches are given below of a number of families whose 
 
 members have been foremost in the affairs of the town, or in the 
 
 development of the local trade, during the last and the present century ; 
 
 or have attained to social or political eminence within the same period. 
 
 AINSWORTH OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 John Ainsworth, gent., a member of the Feniscowles branch of the territorial 
 family of Ainsworth of Pleasington Hall and Feniscowles, built the house in King- 
 street, Blackburn, now the King's Head Inn. He married Miss Ellen Ainsworth, by 
 whom he had issue a son Thomas. 
 
 Thomas Ainsworth, Esq. , of Blackburn, attorney-at-law, married Jennett, daughter 
 of Thomas Haworth of Revidge Fold, Blackburn, yeoman, and had issue, sons, John ; 
 Thomas; William-Haworth, died in infancy; and a second William; also daughters, 
 Susannah, Ellen, and Anne. Mr. Ainsworth died, aged 77, January 8th, 1846. 
 
 John Ainsworth, Esq., eldest son, died unmarried, June 2nd, 1830, aged 26 years. 
 
 Thomas Ainsworth, Esq., of King-street and Revidge Fold, Blackburn, attorney- 
 at-law, bom May 2nd, 1808, is the living chief representative of this branch of Ains- 
 worths. He is unmarried. Mr. Ainsworth holds the public appointments of Clerk to 
 the County Magistrates for the Lower Division of the Hundred of Blackburn and the 
 Accrington Petty Session Division, and of Clerk to the Blackburn Burial Board. He 
 was second Town Clerk of the Borough, from 1854 to 1859, when he resigned that 
 office ; and was Law Clerk to the Blackburn Water Works Company to the time these 
 works were disposed of to the Corporation of Blackburn, and for many years Law 
 Clerk and Treasurer to the Governors of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Black- 
 burn ; and during the period above named was, and still is, a Governor of that 
 institution. He also took a very active parf in the formation and completion of the 
 Blackburn Infirmary, and was legal adviser to the Committee for, building and raising 
 subscriptions for that institution. 
 
 William Ainsworth, Esq., brother of the above, died January 4th, 1848, aged 38. 
 By his wife, Helena Dalrymple, daughter of John Pickup, Esq., of Galligreaves, 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 
 
 387 
 
 Blackburn, he had sons, John Pickup; and Thomas William, of Hoghton Bank; and 
 daughters Helena Dalrymple and Jessie Jennett. 
 
 ARMISTEAD OF COB WALL HOUSE. 
 
 Mr. Fisher Armistead, cotton manufacturer, of Blackburn, died unmarried August 
 17th, 1841, aged 39. His brother — 
 
 Mr. Thomas Armistead, of Blackburn, born in 1799, died April 7th, 1833, aged 
 34 years. He married Betsy, daughter of Mr. John Fish, and had issue, sons, James 
 Fisher Armistead; and Walter, who died, aged 3, April 7th, 1833. 
 
 James Fisher Armistead, Esq., J. P., of Cob Wall House, Blackburn, bora in 
 1827, married, in 1851, Miss Emily Wingfield, and has issue five daughters, Florence 
 Alice; Lucy Maud Mary (married, September 9th, 1875, Mr. James BuUough, eldest 
 son of Adam Bullough, Esq. , of Blackburn) ; Blanche, Kate, and Theresa. 
 
 ASHBURNER OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 An elaborate pedigree of the Lancashire Ashbumers, compiled and privately 
 printed by Mr. T. Helsby, supplies particulars of those members settled at Blackburn. 
 Several generations of the family held an estate near Dalton in Furness. Robert 
 Ashbumer, son of Francis Ashbumer, of Paddock Hall, near Dalton, gent., had 
 property at Lindal, near Dalton. He was a Sea Captain, and was lost at sea and 
 buried at Dalton. He had sons, Robert, and John, the latter lived at Ulverston. 
 
 Robert Ashbumer, of Blackburn, gent. , who practised as an attorney-at-Iaw, was 
 son of Robert of Lindal, born in 1754. By his wife Peggy, daughter of Rev. Mr. 
 Wilson, vicar of Milnthorp and incumbent of Tockholes, he had sons, John, born Nov. 
 27th, 1786, and died abroad without issue; Robert, heir to Lindal estate, whicli he 
 sold, and died unmarried in 1832 ; William, noticed below ; James, also again noticed 
 below; and Francis, died in 1813, aged 30, without issue; and two daughters Ann, 
 the first dying in 1803 ; the second, an infant, in 1813. Mr. Helsby states concerning 
 the father: — "This Robert succeeded to a good estate in Lindal ; he left property 
 valued from pf 150.000 to ;i'200,ooo, but two of his sons ran through the most of it, one 
 curious habit being the occasional lighting of their cigars with ;^ 10 and ;^20 notes. " 
 Robert Ashburner died at Blackburn in 1798. His widow died in 1803. 
 
 William Ashbumer of Blackbum, gent., died in Blackburn, about 1818, aged 27, 
 and was buried at St. John's Church. By his wife Nancy, daughter of Mr. John Hall, 
 of Blackbum (she died in 1836), he left an only daughter and heiress, Margaret 
 Ashbumer, who married, in 1834, John Morrell Ffrance, of Yorkshire, gent., and has 
 issue. 
 
 James Ashbumer of Blackbum, gent, brother of William, died unmarried in 
 1824, aged 29, leaving his estate to Mr. Walmesley Stanley, of Liverpool, in trust for 
 his niece. Miss Margaret Ashbumer. 
 
 BALDWIN OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. William Baldwin, living at Blackbum in 1706, was elected a Govemorof the 
 Grammar School in 1715. By Mary, his wife, he had sons, Hugh, baptized Feb. 6th, 
 1706-7; and John, baptized April 6th, 1709; with a daughter Esther, married, Dec. 
 l8th, 1722, to Mr. William Whalley, of Liverpool. "Mrs. Mary Baldwin of Black- 
 bum" was buried Jan. 23rd, 1709-10. "William Baldwin of Blackbum, gent.," died 
 in May, 1750. Mr. William Baldwin was joint purchaser with Mr. Henry Feilden 
 and Mr. William Sudell, in the year 1 721, of the Manor of Blackbum, which eventually 
 was entirely vested by purchase in the Feilden family. 
 
388 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Hugh Baldwin of Blackburn, gent. , eldest son of William, was elected Governor 
 of Blackburn Grammar School in 1729. He married, at Walton Church, Oct. 28th, 
 1729, Mary Herbert of Eccleston. Mr. Hugh Baldwin died in January, 1736-7. His 
 widow, Mary Baldwin, married, secondly, Rev. Thomas Hunter, clerk (Feb. 28th, 
 1738), and died March loth, 1782, aged 71. 
 
 "William Baldwin, gent.," of Blackburn (maybe a brother of Hugh), married, 
 Jan. 7th, 1 738-9, Rose Kenyon of Blackburn. 
 
 BARON OF KNUZDEN AND LARKHILL. 
 
 James Baron of Stanhill occurs in 1636 ; Ralph Baron of Knuzden in 1644 ; and 
 John Baron of Duckworth in 1644, when William, his son, was baptized. 
 
 William Baron of Roegreave, Oswaldtwistle, had issue sons, Christopher, born 
 about 1660, and George, died in 1687. William Baron the father died Feb., 1704-5. 
 
 Christopher Baron, gent., purchased the manor of Oswaldtwistle in 1722; he was 
 then seated at Knuzden Hall. "Mr. Christopher Baron of Knuzden" was elected a 
 Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1708. He died in 1733, aged 72, and was 
 buried at Church-Kirk. He had married, at Church-Kirk, July 25th, 171 1, Ann 
 Bayley, of Darwen (who died, aged 68, Nov., 1754), and had issue, sons, William, 
 born in 1712, died in April, 1723, aged li; Henry, bapt. July ist, 1713; Christopher, 
 bapt. Sept. nth, 1714; and,George, bapt. Sept. 27th, 1717; and daughters, Ann, 
 bom 1715, died 1716; Alice, born 1720, died 1758; Margery, born 1721, died 1723; 
 a second Ann, bom 1723, died 1767, aged 44; and Ellen, born 1725. 
 
 Henry Baron of Knuzden Hall and Blackburn, Esq., eldest surviving son and heir 
 of Christopher, married Ellen, daughter of Thomas Whitaker, of Symonstone, Esq. 
 (she died Jan. 6th, 1784, aged 68), and had issue, sons, Christopher, bom in 1737; 
 Thomas, born in 1 741 ; and Henry, died in infancy in 1748. Henry Baron, Esq., 
 was made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1733; and died, aged 54, 
 March 26th, 1767. In 1757 Mr. Henry Baron had acquired the Highercroft estate 
 and other lands in Lower Darwen as legatee of Richard Haworth, of Th'urcroft, gent. 
 
 The second son of Henry Baron, Esq., was Thomas Baron, Esq., of Knuzden 
 Hal! and Blackbum, who by Catherine his wife (she died Aug. 15th, 1802, aged 49), 
 had issue four daughters, Ellen, died at Brighton, April 19th, 1862, aged 83 ; Eliza, 
 married, Feb. 21st, 181 1, Lieut. John Parsons Hoey, had issue a son Henry, and died 
 at Brighton, Feb. 1 6th, 1866, aged 82; Alice, died, aged 20, in 1803; and Mary, died 
 at Lisbon, Sept. loth, 1819. Thomas Baron, Esq., died Nov. 28th, 1801, aged 60, and 
 was buried in Church-Kirk Church. 
 
 Christopher Baron, Esq., elder brother of Thomas and son and heir of Henry, was 
 sometime Officer of Excise in Blackbum ; he built, in 1762, the mansion called Lark- 
 hill House in the town, ona wall of which are the initials "C B A,"and date "1762." 
 Mr. Christopher Baron was a Governor of the Grammar School. He married, first. 
 May 23rd, 1759, Miss Sarah ffolds, and had a son Christopher, born 1761, died young. 
 By his second wife Anne (she died Sept., 1765), he had issue a son Roger, bapt. Jan. 
 6th, 1762 ; and a daughter Ellen, bom in 1764. Christopher Baron, Esq., died, aged 
 29, in 1766, buried at Church-Kirk, April 27th. In July, 1766, were publicly sold 
 part of the estates of the deceased gentleman, including the following: — Larkhill, 
 Blackbum, houses and 4^ acres of land ; Oakenhurst farm in Lower Darwen, 30 
 acres; Aspden's farm. Lower Darwen, 12 acres; Pomfret's farm. Lower Darwen, 8 
 acres; Arcroft (Highercroft) estate, Lower Darwen, 56^ acres; Pole Farm, Over 
 Darwen, 6 acres ; Ellison Fold farm. Over Darwen, 67 acres. The Oswaldtwistle 
 estate passed to his son Roger. 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 389 
 
 Roger Baron, Esq., of Blackburn and Cabin End, surviving son and heir of 
 
 Christopher, married Nov. 3rd, 1783, Ellen, daughter of Mr. Thomas Smalley, of 
 
 Blackburn (she died in 1784), and by her had issue a son Henry, died young in 1791 ; 
 
 and daughters, Ellen and Anne. The first, Ellen, married, Oct. 2nd, 181 1, Mr. 
 
 William Haydock, of Blackburn (had issue daughters, Mary, married, first, Mr. Hugh 
 
 Clitheroe ; secondly, Mr. Knowles ; thirdly, Mr. John Clayton, and had issue a 
 
 daughter by each of the first marriages and a son by the third ; and Anne Ellen, 
 
 married, Feb. 8th, 1844, Richard Greenwood, son of Mr. W. H. Greenwood, and 
 
 left issue). Roger Baron, Esq., died Feb. i8th, 1820, aged 60, and was buried at 
 
 Church-Kirk. 
 
 BIRLEY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The Birley family belong originally to Kirkham. John Birley, of Skippool, Poulton 
 Parish, whose Will is dated 1732, and who died in 1733, had issue an only son John. 
 
 John Birley, of Kirkham, West Indian Merchant, son of the above, married, first, 
 Ellen Harrison, by whom he had four children, all of whom died without issue. He 
 married, secondly. May 6th, 1741, Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Thomas Shepherd, and 
 by her had issue sons, Thomas, of Kirkham, bom 1741 ; Richard, of Blackburn, bom 
 Dec. 4th, 1743 ; John, bom Nov. 27th, 1747 ; and William, born April 24th, 1750, 
 died unmarried in 1792 ; and four daughters. Mr. John Birley died May 12th, 1767. 
 His widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Birley, died June 27th, 1780. 
 
 Richard Birley, of Blackburn, Merchant, was second son of Mr. John Birley, of 
 Kirkham. He married, Dec. iSth, 1772, Alice, daughter of Hugh Hornby, Esq., of 
 Kirkham (she died April 19th, 1812, aged 61). Issue, sons, John, bom August 30th, 
 1775, bapt. at Blackburn Church, Sept. 2lst; Hugh Hornby Birley, bom loth, bapt. 
 25th March, 1778; Joseph, bom 31st May, bapt. July 3rd, 1782; and daughters, 
 Margaret, bapt. Oct. 13th, 1773, died in infancy; Elizabeth, bapt. Sept. 25th, 1780, 
 married John Card well, Esq., and was mother of the present Lord Card well; a second 
 Margaret, died in 1844; Jane, bapt. June 28th, 1787, died 1823 ; and Mary, wife of 
 Joseph Baxendale, Esq., of Woodside, Co. Middlesex. Mr. Richard Birley was 
 elected a Govemor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1775, but declined to serve. He 
 died Jan. nth, 1812, aged 69. 
 
 "Mr. John Birley of King-street, Blackbum," became a Govemor of Blackburn 
 Grammar School in 1798. He was, I assume, the next brother of Richard; and must 
 thus have been sometime resident in Blackbum, though named as of Kirkham in Burke. 
 John Birley, Esq., died in May, 1831. His wife was Margaret, daughter of John 
 Yate, Esq., of Liverpool ; and he had sons, William, of Kirkham ; Thomas, of Mill- 
 bank (who married Ann, daughter and co-heir of John Langton, Esq., of Kirkham, 
 and was father of the late Thomas Langton Birley, Esq., J. P.); Edward, of Kirkham 
 (whose only daughter, Margaret Susannah, married William Hemy Hornby, Esq., of 
 Blackbum) ; Charles ; a second Charles ; and Yate Birley, of Ramsay, Isle of Man ; 
 and three daughters. William Birley, Esq., eldest son of John of Kirkham, by his 
 wife Mary, daughter of John Swainson, Esq., was father of Rev. John Shepherd 
 Birley, J. P., of Moss Hall; William Birley, Esq., of Preston, and Edmund Birley, 
 Esq., J. P., of Clifton Hall. 
 
 John Birley of Blackburn, Esq., eldest son of Richard of Blackbum, was a 
 merchant and cotton spinner in Blackbum and Manchester. He became a Govemor 
 of Blackbum Grammar School in 1800. His wife was Margaret, daughter of Daniel 
 Backhouse, Esq., of Liverpool. Issue, Richard, born March 15th, 1801 ; Daniel, 
 bom, 1807, died 1839; Homby, bom 1811; William, in holy orders, born 1813 ; 
 John ; George ; Elizabeth, Alice, Margaret, and Frances— the latter wife of .the late 
 
39° 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Daniel Hornby, Esq., of Raikes Hall. Mr. John Birley resided in Manchester in the 
 later years of his life, and died there, Dec. 25th, 1833. 
 
 His eldest son, Richard Birley, Esq., who died in Canada in 1845, by his wife 
 Mary Ann, daughter of John Hardman, Esq., left issue, sons, John James, Charles, 
 and Richard William, and four daughters. 
 
 BRIGGS OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. James Briggs of Blackburn, cotton manufacturer, was buried April 6th, 1840. 
 By Lettice his wife he had issue, sons, Edward ; George, of Blackburn, died in July, 
 1854; and William, bom Dec. 24th, 1820; and daughters, Ann, bom July 29th, 181 1, 
 married Mr. Henry Shaw, of Blackburn; Jane, bom in 1813, married Mr. William 
 Dickson; Elizabeth, bom in 1815, married Mr. Samuels; Sarah, born in 1818, 
 married Rev. J. Dewsnap; Mary, bora in 1823, died unmarried in 1870; Ellen, bom 
 in 1826; Alice, born in 1828, married Rev. Robt. Bruce; and Emma, born July 12th, 
 1831, unmarried. 
 
 Mr. Edward Briggs, of Blackburn and Wilpshire Grange, cotton spinner, eldest 
 son of James, was bom Jan. 22nd, 1809 ; married Ann, daughter of Thomas Slagg, 
 Esq., of Manchester (she died Jan. 7th, 1853), and had issue, sons, James, and William 
 Edward ; and a daughter Margaret Ann, born in 1841. Mr. Edward Briggs died June 
 loth, 1857, and was buried at Chapel-street Chapel. 
 
 James Briggs, Esq. , of Beardwood, Blackburn, eldest son of Edward, married, 
 April 27th, 1867, Eliza, daughter of Mr. Thomas Slagg, of Lytham, and has issue. 
 
 William Edward Briggs, Esq. , of Beardwood, second son of Edward, was elected 
 M.P. for Blackburn at the general election in February, 1874. He was bom in 1848, 
 and educated at Rugby and Worcester College, Oxford. 
 
 BROOKS OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 William Brooks of Whalley and Sunnyside, banker, who died Oct. 3rd, 1846, 
 aged 83, by his first wife Sarah was father of William Brooks of Standish ; Richard, 
 of Blackburn ; Samuel, of Blackburn ; James, and Thomas, of Sunnyside, Calico 
 Printers ; and of daughters Elizabeth and Nancy. 
 
 Richard Brooks of Blackburn, surgeon, son of William, died March 17th, 1822, 
 aged 32. He married, July 20th, 1815, Sarah, daughter of Thomas Aspden, of Rishton. 
 
 Samuel Brooks of Blackburn, later of Manchester, banker, son of William, died 
 June 2nd, 1864, aged 70. His wife was Margaret, daughter of Mr. T. Hall, of 
 Blackburn, by whom he had sons, William Cunliffe ; and John Brooks, B.A. ; and 
 daughters Sarah, Mary Margaret, Alice, and Ellen. 
 
 William CunliUe Brooks, Esq. , of Manchester, M. P. for East Cheshire, son of 
 Samuel, was bom at Blackburn, Sept. 30th, 1819, baptized at Chapel-street Inde- 
 pendent Chapel, Nov. 7th. He married, in 1842, Jane Elizabeth, daughter of Ralph 
 Orrell, Esq. (she died in 1865), and had issue, daughters. Amy, married, July 14th, 
 1869, Charles, eleventh Marquis of Huntley ; and Edith. 
 
 CARDWELL OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The Cardwell family was anciently of Barton, Parish of Preston. Richard 
 Cardwell of Barton, yeoman, had a son William. William Cardwell of Barton also 
 had a son William ; and he had a son Richard. 
 
 Richard Cardwell of Barton, by Sarah his wife, had sons William and Richard. 
 
 William Cardwell, eldest son of Richard, bapt. May 17th, 1692, married 
 Elizabeth, daughter of William Walmsley, of Tockholes, yeoman, and had a son 
 Richard and other issue. He was progenitor of a senior line of Cardwells not 
 connected with this parish. He died July 14th, 1773, aged 81. 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 
 
 391 
 
 Richard Card well, younger son of Richard, bapt. April 22nd, 1706, settled in 
 Blackburn as a trader in local textiles when a young man. He married, first, March 
 2nd, 1741, Martha, eldest daughter of Rev. John Holme, Vicar of Blackburn. Issue, 
 one still-bom child, buried Dec. 4th, 1742. "Martha, wife of Richard Cardwell, 
 gentleman," was buried at Blackburn, July 19th, 1743. Mr. Richard Cardwell 
 married, secondly. Miss Elizabeth Stott, of Manchester, and their first and only living 
 issue was a son, bapt. June 14th, 1749. Mrs. Elizabeth Cardwell died March 31st, 
 1763, aged 55, buried at Blackburn Church, April 3rd. Mr. Richard Cardwell died 
 March loth, 1785, aged 79, and was interred in a family tomb in Blackburn Churchyard. 
 Richard Cardwell of Blackburn, Merchant and Esq., only son of Richard, resided 
 in the large brick house in King-street, now the offices of the Blackburn Poor Law 
 Union, and made a fortune in the Blackburn trade. By his first wife, who died early, 
 he had no issue. His second wife was Jane, sister of John Hodson, Esq., of EUer- 
 beck, M.P. for Wigan in 1820, from whom she heired the EUerbeck estates; married 
 Feb. 26th, 1777. ■ Issue, five sons, viz., Richard, bapt. Jan. 9th, 1778; James, bapt. 
 May 26th, 1779; John, bapt. Sept. 5th, 1781, died in London, May, 1831 ; Thomas 
 Hodson, bom in 1 785 ; and Edward, bom in 1 787. 
 
 Richard Cardwell, eldest son of Richard, entered the Church, and became Rector 
 of St. Paul's, Liverpool. " Richard Cardwell the younger, clerk," was with his father 
 a trastee for rebuilding Blackburn Parish Church in 1819. He died unmarried, in 1839, 
 aged 62, and the family estates passed to his next brother James Cardwell, Esq., of 
 EUerbeck Hall, Duxbury, near Chorley, who died, aged 76, May 31st, 1855. 
 
 Edward Cardwell, youngest son of Mr. Richard Cardwell of Blackbum, was the 
 eminent Dr. Edward Cardwell, Principal of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford. He was bom 
 at Blackbum, and married Cecilia, youngest daughter of Henry Feilden, Esq., of 
 Witton Park. He entered at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1806, and became a 
 Fellow in 1809 ; in 1814 was appointed a University Examiner, and in 1831 was 
 appointed Principal of St. Alban's Hall. He was also sometime Private Secretary to 
 successive Chancellors of Oxford. He died at Oxford May 23rd, 1861, aged 73. He 
 was a learned classic, and an able Church historian. His published works are too 
 many to be enumerated here.' 
 
 John Cardwell, Esq., third son of Mr. Richard Cardwell of Blackbum, and 
 brother of Dr. Edward, married Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Richard Birley of 
 Blackbum. He was later a merchant in Liverpool along with his brother Mr. Thos. 
 H. Cardwell. John Cardwell had several sons, of whom the eldest and most note- 
 worthy is the statesman, Rt. Hon. Edward Cardwell, now in the peerage. 
 
 Rt. Hon. Edward Cardwell, Viscount Cardwell of EUerbeck, was bom in 1813; 
 married, in 1838, Annie, daughter of Charles Stuart Parker, Esq., of Fairlie, Ayrshire. 
 He was educated at Winchester and Balliol Coll., Oxford (B.A. 1835, M.A. 1838, 
 D.C.L. 1863) ; called to the Bar at Inner Temple, 1838, and practised a short time ; 
 M.P. for Clitheroe, 1842-7; for Liverpool, 1847-52; for Oxford, 1853-74; Secretary 
 of the Treasury, 1845-6 ; President of Board of Trade, 1853-55 > Chief Secretary for 
 Ireland, 1859-61 ; Chancellor of Duchy of Lancaster, 1861-4; Secretary of State for 
 Colonies, 1864-6 ; Secretary of State for War, 1868-74. He was raised to the 
 Peerage in 1874. Lord Cardwell's Lancashire seat is Nightingale House, Heath 
 Charaock, near Chorley. 
 
 I The most important of his Works are, "A History of Conferences, &c., connected with the 
 Revision of the Book of Common Prayer, from 1568 to 1690 ;" " Documentary Annals of the Reformed 
 Church of England :" and " A Collection of Articles of Religion, Canons, &c., from 1547 to 1717. 
 with Notes." 
 
392 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 CARR OF SHADSWORTH, &c. 
 
 Mr. William Carr, of Blackburn, elected a Governor of the Grammar School in 
 1781, died, iiged 51, May 26th, iScxj (tablet in St. John's Church). By Grace, his 
 wife (who died, aged 67, July 25th, 181 7), he had sons, William, bom in 1773 ; and 
 Thomas, bom in 1776 ; also a daughter Ann, bom 1778, died unmarried, aged 86, 
 February gth, 1865. His eldest son was — 
 
 William Carr of Blackburn, Esq., attomey-at-law, appointed a Governor of the 
 Grammar School in 1800. He held the office of Steward for the Honor of Clitheroe, 
 and resided some time at Clitheroe Castle, but also possessed the freehold messuage of 
 Shadsworth House, Blackburn. He was Clerk to the Magistrates for the Black- 
 bum division of the County, and as such was an object of popular hostility in the 
 loom-breaking riots of 1826, when an attack was made upon his residence at Shads- 
 worth. He married a Miss Roberts. He had a son, William; and several 
 daughters; of whom Alice, third daughter, married, in 1845, Rev. John Hopwood, 
 Incumbent of Accrington; and Grace, youngest daughter, married, in 1844, Rev. 
 W. H. Strong, B.A. William Carr, Esq., died at Shadsworth, Feb. 3rd, 1833, aged 
 59 ; his wife died in September of the year preceding. 
 
 William Carr, Esq., son of the above, was appointed Town Clerk of Clitheroe in 
 Febraary, 1833, and died in December, 1837. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Catr, of Blackburn and Clitheroe Castle, son of Williain Carr who 
 died in 1800, died Jan. 14th, 1837, aged 60. He was a trustee for rebuilding Black- 
 bum Parish Church in 1819. By his wife Alice, daughter of Dr. A. Chew, of Billing- 
 ton (she died at Whalley, aged 79, Jan. 9th, 1859), he had sons, William, died young; 
 William Thomas; and daughters, Jane, died, aged 16, in 1827; and Grace Alice, 
 married, in 1840, to Thomas Ashton, Esq., of Bashall Lodge. 
 
 William Thomas Carr, Esq., of the Temple, late of Bastwell, Blackbum, son of 
 Mr. Thomas Carr, now resides in London. 
 
 CHIPPINDALL OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Robert Chippindall of Blackbum, by Hannah Maria, his wife, had sons Thomas, 
 bapt. Nov. 23rd, 1753 ; Edward, and Robert; and other issue. 
 
 Mr. Thoinas Chippindall of Blackbum, chapman, bom about I7S3> ^^^ elected a 
 Govemor of the Grammar School in 1777, and died Ma:rch 12th, 1794, aged 40 years. 
 By Sarah his wife (who died Nov. 6th, 1808, aged 49), he had issue a son Edward, died, 
 aged 14, in 1805 ; and daughters Elizabeth, bom 1778; Sarah, bom 1785, died, aged 
 23, April 2lst, 1809 ; and Mary, wife of Rev. Wm. Higgin. 
 
 Mr. Edward Chippindall, brother of Thomas, was elected a Govemor of the 
 Grammar School in 1794, and was living at Blackbum in 1817. 
 
 Mr. William Chippindall of Blackbum, cotton manufacturer, died, aged 74, Dec. , 
 
 1833- 
 
 Mr. Robert Chippindall, banker, of Skipton, of this family, died, aged 64, Aug. 
 
 7th, 1834. 
 
 CUNLIFFE OF GREAT HARWOOD AND BLACKBURN. 
 
 Thomas Cunliffe married, at Great Harwood Church, May 20th, 1577, Elizabeth 
 ffeilden. 
 
 Richard Cunliffe married, Aug. loth, 1600, Isabel Dean; and Isabel, late wife of 
 Richard Cunliffe, was buried at Great Harwood, Nov. 24th, 1613. 
 
 Richard Cunliffe of Banks, Great Harwood, had a son Robert, bom in 1647. 
 
 John Cunliffe of Banks died in March, 1691. Isabel Cunliffe, widow, of 
 Harwood Banks, died in June, 1 708. 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 393 
 
 Robert Cunliffe of Harwood Banks, was buried Feb. 17th, 1716-7. 
 
 Robert Cunliffe of Harwood, woollen webster, married Aug. 22nd, 1706, 
 Margaret Horrobin of Whalley (who died Oct. , 1738). 
 
 John Cunliffe of Sparth, linen webster and husbandman, married, Jan. 14th, 1722, 
 Mary Jackson, and had issue, sons, William, bapt. Sep. 12th, 1725; Thomas, bapt. 
 March 28th, 1731; Henry, born 1732; Edward, born 1733-4; ^nd John, died 1746. 
 John Cunliffe the father, "of Deans" in 1768, was buried June 1 8th in that year. 
 Mary, his widow, died in May, 1770. 
 
 Thomas Cunliffe of Deans, Great Harwood, linen webster, had three sons, Henry ; 
 Roger ; and John ; each noted below ; and daughters, Hannah, bom 1 769 ; Ann ; a 
 second Ann; and Jane, born 1777. 
 
 Mr. Henry Cunliffe, of Blackburn, son of Thomas, was bom in 1764, and died 
 June 29th, 1825. He was father of Mr. James Cunliffe. 
 
 James Cunliffe, Esq., of Blackbum, banker, married May 14th, 1823, Mary, 
 daughter of John Ostley, Esq., of North Shields, and had issue, sons, Roger, bom 
 April 4th, 1824; John, bom Sept. 12th, 1825; Henry, bom April 17th, 1827; and 
 daughters Mary, bom 1828; and Ann, bom 1832. 
 
 Roger Cunliffe, Esq., of Blackburn, banker, second son of Thomas, bapt. at 
 Great Harwood, Oct. 18th, 1767; died at Blackburn, in 1822, aged 55, buried at 
 Chapel-street Chapel, Aug. 20th, 1822. By Sarah his wife, married before 1804, he 
 left no issue. 
 
 John Cunliffe, Esq. , of Blackbum, banker, brother of James and Roger, bapt. 
 Aug. 2nd, 1772; died May 13th, 1836. By Margaret, his wife, who died, aged 70, 
 April 30th, 1 843, he had no issue, but an adopted daughter, Margaret Cunliffe, became 
 wife of Mr. Henry Hargreaves, of Beardwood. 
 
 DE LA PRYME OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 James de la Pryme, of Blackbum, Merchant, by his wife Jane, had issue, Abraham ; 
 Francis, born 1785; Charles, bom May 28th, 1787; Elizabeth, bom August 6th, 
 1788; and Mary, bora Oct. 7th, 1789. 
 
 Mr. Abraham de la Pryme of Blackbum, elected a Governor of the Grammar 
 School in 1803, manufacturer and merchant in 1818, subsequently carried on business 
 in Liverpool. 
 
 DUGDALE OF GREAT HARWOOD, BLACKBURN, &c. 
 
 John Dugdale, of Great Harwood, married Dec. 26th, 1 721, Mary Mercer, of 
 Great Harwood. 
 
 Edmund Dugdale, of Great Harwood, bom in 1693, married, Dec. 26th, 1 72 1, 
 Ann Dawson ; had a son John. 
 
 John Dugdale, of Great Harwood, who died in 1791, had sons, Nathaniel ; 
 Thomas, of Great Harwood, who died August loth, 1833, aged 67; and Adam. 
 
 The youngest son of John was Adam Dugdale, of Dovecot House, near Liverpool, 
 Esq., who married, Dec. 25th, 1800, MSry, eldest daughter of Mr. John Hargreaves, 
 of Wheatley, and died April 8th, 1838, having bequeathed ;^IOO to the Poor of Great 
 Harwood. 
 
 Nathaniel Dugdale, of Great Harwood, married, March 27th, 1785, Ellen, 
 daughter of Mr. John Smalley, and had issue, sons, John, of Dovecot ; James, of Ivy 
 Bank ; and Thomas, of Blackbum ; and a daughter Mary, married to Thomas Clegg, 
 Esq., of Whittlefield. Mr. Nathaniel Dugdale died Aug. 23rd, 1816. 
 
 John Dugdale, of Dovecot, Esq., married Mary Marshall; his eldest son was 
 James Dugdale, of Dovecot, Co. Lane. , and Wroxall Abbey, Co. Warwick, Esq., bora in 
 
 50 
 
394 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 1813, and married Mary Louisa, daughter of John Plummer, Esq., by whom he has 
 numerous issue. 
 
 James Dugdale of Ivy Bank, Co. Lane, and Craythome, Co. York, Esq., 
 second son of Nathaniel, born in 1 792, died 1 868, had issue, sons, James Tertius Dugdale, 
 Esq. (married, in 1868, Alice, daughter of John Brooks, Esq.) ; Arthur Gustav, died 
 in 1865, a^ed 24 ; daughters, Ellen Ann, wife of Henry White, Esq. ; Maria, married, 
 in 1850, Richard Shaw, Esq., now M.P. for Burnley; Charlotte, wife of H. L. 
 Browning, Esq. ; Mary Emma Margaret, wife of Captain Edward Waugh. 
 
 Thomas Dugdale, Esq., of Griffin Lodge, Witton, youngest son of Mr. Nathaniel 
 Dugdale, born in 1797, married, in 1824, Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Thomas 
 Walmsley, of Blackburn, and had issue, sons, Thomas, bom in 1831, married Ellen, 
 daughter of Joshua Appleyard, Esq., and died in 1874; Adam, now of Griffin Lodge ; 
 and James Boardman ; also, daughters, Mary, wife of Mr. Miles Rodgett, of Wareham; 
 Elizabeth, relict of Mr. R. B. Rodgett, of Walton-in-le-Dale ; and Anne, wife of Rev. 
 W. T. Vale, Vicar of All Saint's Church, Blackburn. Thomas Dugdale, Esq., was 
 Chairman of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, of the Manchester and 
 County Bank, and of the Blackburn Waterworks Company. He was Mayor of 
 Blackburn in 1853-5. He died March 17th, 1875, in his 78th year. 
 
 ECCLES OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. William Eccles, of Blackburn, by Betty, his wife (who died in 1 794, buried 
 Feb. 4th), had issue a son William. Mr. William Eccles, the father, died, aged 82, 
 May 20th, 1831. 
 
 Mr. William Eccles, of Spring Mount, Blackburn, attorney and cotton spinner, 
 married, in 1822, Janet, daughter of Mr. Robert Copeland, and had issue, sons, 
 William, bom Sept. 1st, 1824; Thomas; Henry; John; and Samuel; a daughter, 
 Janet, bora 1829, died 1830; a second Janet, bom in 1836. Mr. William Eccles was 
 elected M.P. for Blackburn, in July, 1852, but was unseated on petition. He died, 
 aged 59, June 17th, 1853, and was buried at Chapel-street Chapel. His widow, and 
 eldest son William, both died in Dec, 1863. 
 
 FALKNER OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. Richard Falkner of Blackburn, merchant, built, early in the last century, the 
 handsome stone mansion in King-street, subsequently occupied by the Sudells and 
 Liveseys. Richard Falkner married Dorothy, daughter and heiress of John Moss, of 
 Little Hoole. No issue of this union can be traced. "Dorothy, wife of Richard 
 Falkner, of Blackburn, gent.," was buried Oct. 27th, 1753. Mr. Richard Falkner 
 was elected a Governor of the Grammar School in 1 739, and continued a Govemor until 
 1782, when he resigned. He was then in advanced age. He does not seem to have 
 died at Blackburn. 
 
 FLEMING OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. John Fleming of Blackburn, bom in 1778, was one of the most enterprising 
 merchants of the town half a century ago. He was a trastee for the rebuilding of the 
 Parish Church in 1819, and having purchased the materials of the old Church, he used 
 them in the erection of the blocks of building forming the square called "Fleming 
 Square," built in 1824, once a busy mart, but now comparatively forsaken. Mr. 
 Fleming was a foremost man in town's affairs before the Improvement Commission 
 had been appointed. He died Oct. 3rd, 1842, aged 64 years. His tomb is in the 
 Parish Churchyard. He married Miss Aim Walker; and she died May 7th, 1815, 
 aged 35. Mr. Fleming had no children. 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 395 
 
 GLOVER OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. Isaac Glover, of King-street, partner in the firm of Pryme and Glover, who 
 built the large house afterwards purchased by Mr. William Hoole, was elected a 
 Governor of the Grammar School in 1789. By his wife Mary, he had two sons, 
 Thomas, bom May 23rd, 1795; and James; and also daughters, Elizabeth, Ann, and 
 Mary. Mr. Isaac Glover died at Blackburn, April 17th, 1812, aged 51. Mary 
 Glover, his widow, died July 3rd, 1816, aged 59 years. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Glover, in 1819 a ti-ustee for the rebuilding of the Parish Church, 
 was eldest son of Isaac. His brother, Mr. James Glover, of Blackburn in 1819, after- 
 wards resided near Exeter. 
 
 HARGREAVES OF NEWCHURCH AND BLACKBURN. 
 
 George Hargreaves was father of John Haigreaves of Balladen, who died in 1706, 
 and who, by Margaret his wife, daughter of Ralph Nuttall, of Coupe (she died in 
 1716), had issue sons, John, bom in 1668; and Henry, bom in 1673; also daughters, 
 Elizabeth, Mary, and Ann. 
 
 John Hargreaves of Newchurch, gent., eldest son of John, married Elizabeth 
 Nuttall, and died without issue, aged 72, Oct. nth, 1740. 
 
 Henry Hargreaves of Balladen, brother of the last John, married Susan, daughter 
 of Richard Whitaker of Rawtenstall, and had issue, sons, John, bom July 8th, 1709; 
 George, a clergyman; Richard; Henry, of Lancaster; James; and daughters, Ann, 
 wife of Rev. Streynsham Master, Rector of Croston ; and Margaret, wife of Mr. 
 John Lonsdale of Haslingden. Mr. Henry Hargreaves died, aged 62, Feb. nth, 1735. 
 
 John Hargreaves of Newchurch, gent., was eldest son of Henry. He married 
 Susannah, daughter of James Hargreaves of Goodshaw Fold (she died in 1777, aged 
 54), and had one son, Henry, bora Dec. 13th, 1741 ; and daughters, Elizabeth (married, 
 first, Mr. John Woodhead Blakey; secondly, Mr. William Yates of Bury); Margaret, 
 Nancy, and Mary. Mr. John Hargreaves died June 7th, 1796, aged 87 years. 
 
 Henry Hargreaves, gent., of Newchurch, married Susan, daughter of John 
 Lonsdale of Haslingden, gent, (she died, aged 86, May 24th, 1841). Issue, sons, 
 John, of Blackburn; Henry, of Beardwood, Blackburn; George, of Newchurch J. P. ; 
 and Richard; daughters, Susannah, wife of Mr. George Ormerod, of Greensnook; 
 Margaret; Mary, wife of Dr. James Crabtree of Newchurch; Elizabeth Ann, wife of 
 Mr. Harry Bolton of Colne, solicitor (father of Mr. John Bolton, County Court 
 Registrar, of Blackbum) ; and Alice Martha, wife of Dr. John Crabtree of Newchurch. 
 Henry Hargreaves, Esq., died Dec. 22nd, 1829, aged 88. 
 
 John Hargreaves, Esq., of Larkhill-house, Blackbum, was eldest son of Henry, 
 bom Oct. I2th, 1783. Admitted as an attorney in 1806, and commenced practice at 
 Colne; appointed Coroner for Blackburn Hundred in 1810, and held that office until 
 January, 1865. He served as Captain in the Blackburn Local Militia in 1803-4. In 
 Blackbum he commenced legal practice as partner with the late Mr. William Can. 
 He held in succession the offices of Clerk to the Police Commissioners; to the 
 Improvement Commissioners (1847); and of Town Clerk of Blackburn (1851-4). Mr. 
 John Hargreaves married, Oct. 12th, 1812, Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Robert 
 Hargreave, of Bury (she died, aged 79, Jan. 22nd, 1862); and had issue, one son, 
 Henry Unsworth; and daughters, Susannah, Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Henrietta 
 Alice; Ann Jane, married Rev. Wm. Brewster, M.A. ; and Isabella, married Dr. 
 A. C. Pope. John Hargreaves, Esq., died at Larkhill, Blackburn, in his 91st year, 
 Dec. 2ist, 1873. 
 
396 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. Henry Unsworth Hargreaves succeeded his father as Coroner for the 
 Blackburn district in 1865. 
 
 Henry Hargreaves of Beardwood, Esq., brother of John Hargreaves, Esq., 
 married, Jan. 25th, 1830, Margaret, adopted daughter of the late John Cunliffe, Esq., 
 banker, and had issue. Mr. Henry Hargreaves died, aged 82, July 31st, 1872. 
 
 HAWORTH OF SHEARBANK, &c. 
 
 William Haworth, and Richard Haworth, both of Blackburn, were taxed to the 
 Subsidy in 1523. 
 
 George Haworth of Blackburn, and Nicholas Haworth, of the same, were assessed 
 to a Subsidy in 157°. 
 
 Thomas Haworth of Blackburn, and William Haworth, of the same, paid the 
 Subsidy levied in 1610. In the records of the Chancery Court of Lancaster is found 
 the petition, dated 1608, of Thomas Haworth, clerke, executor of the Will of Thomas 
 Talbot of Bashall, Esq. , which sets forth that the executors nominated were Thomas 
 Hesketh and Ralph Ashton, Esqrs., and complainant, Thomas Haworth, but that the 
 two first refused to intermeddle. 
 
 "William Haworthe of Shearebanke," Blackburn, was buried July 2nd, 1627. 
 
 Ralph Haworthe of Shearbank, died Sept., 1636. Ralph Haworth, a warden of 
 Blackburn Church, December, 1636, was probably a son of this Ralph. 
 
 William Haworth, of Blackburn, yeoman, married, November 25th, 1694, Ann 
 Hopkinson. Thomas Haworth, of Blackburn, married Ann Dobson, of Whalley, 
 June 30th, 1695. 
 
 HAWORTH OF FACTORY HILL, &c. 
 
 John Haworth of Blackburn, yeoman, married, in 1729, Martha Hall, and had issue. 
 
 William Haworth of Blackburn, yeoman, by Elizabeth his wife, had sons, 
 John, bapt. Aug. 5th, 1733; Thomas, bapt. Aug. 7th, 1737; William, of Blackburn, 
 died in 1781; and other issue. William Haworth, the father, died in Sept., 1758. 
 His wife Elizabeth died in May of the same year. 
 
 Thomas Haworth, of Revidge Fold, Blackburn, yeoman, second son of William, 
 married, in 1763, Susan, daughter of Mr. Robert Lonsdale of Dinkley, and had issue, 
 William, bom 1764, died 1767 ; John, born 1766, died 1772 ; a second William, bom 
 1771 ; Elizabeth, bom 1768; and Jennet, wife of Mr. Thomas Ainsworth. He was 
 a Governor of the Grammar School, and died in 1777. 
 
 John Haworth, of Blackburn, yeoman, eldest son of William, married, August 
 14th, 1766, Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Ellingthorpe, gent, (she died May, 1804, 
 aged 73), and had issue, sons, William, died in infancy, June 23rd, 1775; Richard, 
 bapt. Jan. nth, 1774, died June 21st, 1775; William Ellingthorpe, bapt. May 27th, 
 1778, died unmarried, March 24th, 1805, aged 26; a second Richard, bapt. Nov. 24th, 
 1780; John, bora Oct. 2nd, 1783, buried April 19th, 1802; Wilkinson; and Hatherton; 
 and daughters, Dorothy, bom 1771, died 1775; Elizabeth; and a second Dorothy. 
 John Haworth, yeoman, died, aged 55, and was buried at Blackburn, Jan. 29th, 1789. 
 
 Richard Haworth of Northgate, Blackbum, draper, after of Factory Hill, cotton 
 manufacturer, was fourth son of John. He married Elizabeth Pomfret (who died Aug. 
 l6th, 1848, aged 72), and had issue, sons, John, bom May 15th, 1S03, died May 21st, 
 1807; a second John, bom Dec. 8th, 1812, went to India, and has not been heard of 
 since 1834; and William, born in 1816, died unmarried in 1840; and daughters, Ann, 
 bom 1802, died 1807; Elizabeth, born in 1805, married Mr. William Hart, and was 
 mother of Mr. Thomas Hart, Richard Haworth Hart, and William Hart; a second 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 397 
 
 Ann, bom 1807; Mary, bom 1808, died unmarried, 1853; Margaret, bom 1810, died 
 unmarried, 1836; Jane, bom 1814, died unmarried; Alice, bom 1817, married Mr. 
 McMyn; and Dorothy, bom 1821, married Rev. \Vm. Ellison. Mr. Richard 
 Haworth, in 1826, by an accident, shot his relative, Mr. Richard Ellingthorpe. He 
 died, aged 60, April 5th, 1842. 
 
 HAWORTH OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Peter Haworth of Lower Darwen (son of Thomas), who died in 1677, by Grace his 
 wife (she died a widow, in Dec, 1698), was father of— 
 
 Richard Haworth of Blackburn, apothecary, died in 1694, buried Oct. 5th. By 
 his first wife he had sons Thomas and John. He married, secondly, Feb. 22nd, 1681, 
 Jennet Bentley, and had issue, Peter, bom 1682; Henry, bom i68g; Richard, 
 bom 1691; and Grace, bom 1685. Oct. 29th, 1694, letters of tuition and curation were 
 granted to Randle Feilden of Blackburn, chapman, and Robert Feilden of Great 
 Harwood, mercer, of the persons and estate of Peter Haworth, aged 12 years; Grace, 
 aged 9 ; Henry, aged 5 ; and Richard, aged 3 ; children of Richard Haworth of 
 Blackburn, apothecary, deceased. 
 
 Thomas Haworth of Blackburn, gent., eldest son of Richard, died in 1699. 
 He married Margaret Livesey . Letters of Administration were granted to his widow, 
 Jan. 6th, 1 700. He had sons, John, Peter, and Thomas (ancestor of the Haworths of 
 Dunscar and Boltou-le-Moors). 
 
 Mr. Henry Haworth, of Blackbum, apothecary (second son of Richard), by 
 Martha his wife, had issue, sons, Thomas, bapt. Feb. 5th, 1715; Robert, bom and died 
 1719; Henry, bapt. April 7th, 1723; Robert, born 1725; and John, born 1727; 
 daughters, Mary, born and died 1717 ; a second Mary, bora 1720 ; and Ann, bom 1723. 
 Mr. Henry Haworth became a Governor of Blackbum Grammar School in 1720. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Haworth of Blackbum, surgeon and apothecary, by his wife Sarah 
 (who died in April, 1746), had a son Heniy, bapt. Sept. 21st, 1743; and daughters, 
 Mary, married Jan. 1st, 1767, Mr. Wm. Peel, of Church-bank, brother to the first Sir 
 Robert Peel, Bart. ; and Sarah, wife of the Rev. Thomas Armitstead, Vicar 
 of Mitton. Mr. Thomas Haworth was elected a Governor of Blackbum Grammar 
 School in 1740. He died in 1776. Letters of Administration were granted at Chester 
 to his daughters, Mary (Mrs. Peel), and Sarah (Mrs. Ai-mitstead). 
 
 Robert Haworth, a younger brother of Thomas, occurs in 1774 as "Robert 
 Haworth, surgeon, of Clitheroe." He was elected a Govemor of Blackbum Grammar 
 School in 1764. He died in 1786. 
 
 HINDLE OF BLACKBURN, WOODFOLD PARK, &c. 
 
 John Hindle of Blackbum, Merchant, was buried March 22nd, 1754. Mary, wife 
 of John Hindle of Blackbum, quartermaster, died Oct., 1762. 
 
 John Hindle of Blackbum, chapman, elected a Governor of the Grammar School 
 in 1763; married, first, Feb. 14th, 1749, Miss Ann Glover of Blackbum, who died in 
 June, 1751, leaving a daughter Nancy Glover Hindle, bapt. Jan. 5th, 1750-1, married 
 Mr. Bertie Marlvland. By his second wifa, Elizabeth (died Jan. 2nd, 1798), he had 
 sons, James, who died in 1759; and John Fowden, bapt. Feb. 9th, 1757. Mr. John 
 Hindle, of Blackbum, died Sept. 12th, was buried Sept. 15th, 1776. 
 
 John Fowden Hindle, Esq., D.L., of Blackburn, afterwards of Gillibrand Hall, 
 was educated at Manchester Grammar School, entered in 1769. He was a Govemor 
 of Blackbum Grammar School (elected in 1778). He had by Mary, his wife, sons, 
 John Fowden; William Fowden ; Henry Peter, died Dec. 25th, 1798; Fowden, bora 
 1791, died 1795; and Henry James, died Oct. 31st, 1822, aged 23; and daughters, 
 Elizabeth, married Oct. i8th, 1826, Captain Hay, of the Carbineers, and died March 
 14th, 1858; Ann Murray, bora 1794, died 1802; a second Ann Murray, married, in 
 July, 1838, Rev. — Green, of Blackpool; and Maria, married, Feb. 6th, 1833, to 
 
3^8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Robert Inman, Esq., of Lancaster. The father, John Fowden Hindle, Esq., purchased 
 the Woodfold Park estate, in Mellor, in 1831 ; and died at Walton Parsonage, July 
 5th, 1831, aged 74. "Mary, relict of John Fowden Hindle, Esq.," died at her house in 
 Walton-in-le-Dale, July isth, 1844. 
 
 John Fowden Hindle, Esq. (son of the last-named), of Woodfold Park, Mellor 
 (his father having bought that estate on the sacrifice of it by Mr Henry Sudell), served 
 the office of High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1844. He died at Dublin, Feb. 7th, 1849. 
 
 William Fowden Hindle, Esq., of Thelwall, and of Percy Lodge, Warrington, 
 sometime Captain in the 6th Dragoon Guards, brother of John Fowden, had daughters, 
 Mary Jane; and Maria, the latter died in infancy in 1832. Mary Jane, his eldest 
 daughter, married, March 8th, 1839, George Frederick Gregory, Esq. Wm. Fowden 
 Hindle, Esq., died April 1st, 1853. 
 
 HOPWOOD OF ROCKCLIFFE, BLACKBURN, AND BRACEWELL. 
 
 Mr. Robert Hopwood, a native of Clitheroe, came to Blackburn in 1810 to engage 
 in the cotton manufacture. He was founder of the extensive Nova Scotia Mills in 
 Blackburn, and died one of the wealthiest of the local trade magnates. In 1851 he 
 was elected one of the first aldermen of the borough. He died July 15, 1853, in his 
 80th year. He had issue a son Robert, born at Clitheroe, March 25th, i8oo; and 
 daughters Helen (married Richard Hutchinson, Esq., of Minton House, near Man- 
 chester, — younger son of Mr. John Hutchinson, of Darwen Chapels, who died, aged 64, 
 Jan. 14th, 1828, by Susan his wife, — and was mother of Robert Hopwood Hutchinson, 
 Esq., Mayor of Blackburn, 1861-2); Elizabeth, born 1806 (married Jan. 12th 1828, 
 William Dudley Coddington, Esq., of Manchester, afterwards of Blackburn, who died, 
 aged 68, June 15th, 1867, and was mother of Robert Hopwood Coddington, Esq., of 
 Liverpool; William Coddington, Esq., of WycoUar, Blackburn, Mayor of Blackburn, 
 1874-5; Charles Coddington, Esq., of Scuthport ; Richard Dudley Coddington, Esq., 
 Frank Coddington, Esq., and Albert Coddington, Esq., of Blackburn); Caroline, 
 youngest daughter, married June 26th, 1839, Thomas Gomersall, Esq. , of Cleckheaton; 
 and Miss Hopwood, of Highfield, Blackburn, died unmarried, August 28th, i860. 
 
 Robert Hopwood, Esq., of Rockcliffe, Blackburn, and Bracewell. son of Robert, 
 second Mayor of Blackburn (1852-3), married April 3rd, 1828, Elizabeth, daughter of 
 John Turner, Esq., of Copley House, near Huddersfield (she died in 1874), and had 
 issue a son, John Turner; and daughters, Mary Jane, died, aged 5, in 1836; and 
 Emily, wife of Rev. H. J. Marlen, M.A. , incumbent of St. John's Church Blackburn, 
 now of Ambleside. Robert Hopwood, Esq., died February 19th, i860, and was 
 buried at Bracewell Church. He was lord of the manor of Bracewell by purchase of 
 the manorial estate. 
 
 John Turner Hopwood, Esq., of Bracewell, only son of the last-named, was M.P. 
 for Clitheroe from 1857 to 1865. He married, April 7th, 1858, Mary Augusta 
 Henrietta, third daughter of the Hon. Henry and Mrs. Coventry, and has issue a son 
 and heir, born Oct 12th, 1859. 
 
 HORNBY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Hugh Hornby, of Kirkham, gent. , third son of Robert Hornby (who was son of 
 William and grandson of Richard Hornby, of Newton), was born in 1719; married 
 Margaret, daughter and heiress of Mr. Joseph Hankinson, of Kirkham, by his wife 
 Alice, daughter of John Sudell, gent., of Blackburn. Issue, sons, Rev. Hugh Hornby; 
 John, of Blackburn ; William, and Thomas, both of Kirkham; Robert; and Joseph, 
 of Ribby Hall; daughters, Alice, wife of Mr. Richard Birley, of Blackburn; and 
 Elizabeth. Mr. Hugh Hornby died in Feb., 1781. 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 
 
 399 
 
 John Hornby, of Blackburn and Raikes Hall. Esq., bom July 2nd, 1763, married 
 Alice Kendall, daughter of Daniel Backhouse. Esq. (she died Dec. 8th. 1827) ; and 
 had issue, sons, John, died, aged 12, in 1809; Daniel; Robert; William Henry; and a 
 second John. Mr. John Hornby the father settled in Blackburn as a merchant; and 
 was head of the firm of Hornby and Birley, that founded the Brookhouse cotton mills. 
 He was a trustee for rebuilding the Parish Church in 1819. His Blackburn residence 
 was the house in King-street, built by Mr. Markland. Mr. John Hornby died, aged 
 77, Jan. 29th, 1841; a handsome monument to his memory stands in the churchyard 
 of St. John's Church. 
 
 Daniel Hornby, Esq., of Raikes Hall, eldest surviving son, born June 23rd, 1800, 
 married Frances, daughter of Mr. John Birley, and had issue. He died Oct. 23rd, 1863. 
 
 Rev. Robert Hornby, Vicar of Walton-in-le-Dale, was next brother, born in 1804. 
 He married Maria Leyland, daughter of Sir William Feilden, Bart., and had issue four 
 sons and seven daughters. 
 
 William Henry Hornby, Esq., of Brookhouse Lodge, Blackburn, and of Poole 
 Hall, Co. Chester, third son of Mr. John Hornby, was born July 2nd, 1805. He 
 married, May 19th. 1831, Margaret Susannah, daughter and sole heir of Edward 
 Birley, Esq., of Kirkham. Issue sons, John, born Dec. 2nd, 1832; Edward Kenworthy 
 Hornby born June l6th. 1839 (M.P. for Blackburn, 1869-74); Henry -Sudell, bom 
 July 4th, 1840, died in infancy; William Henry Hornby, junior, bom August 29th, 
 1841 (first Chairman of Blackbum School Board, 1871-6); Cecil Lumsden, born July 
 25th, 1843; and Albert Neilson (the noted cricketer), bom Feb. loth, 1847; also 
 daughters, Elizabeth Henrietta, Frances Mary, Augusta Margaret, Caroline Louisa. 
 Wm. Henry Hornby, Esq., is a Govemor of Blackburn Grammar School. He was 
 first Mayor of Blackbum in 185 1 -2 (see p. 376); was returned to Parliament as 
 Member for Blackbum in March, 1857, and sat for the borough in four successive 
 Parliaments, until March, 1869, when he was succeeded by his son Edward. Mr. 
 Hornby is in the Commission of the Peace for Lancashire and also for Cheshire. 
 
 John Hornby, Esq., fourth son of John Hornby. Esq., of Blackburn, bom Aug. 
 19th, 1810, married Margaret, daughter of Rev. Chr. Bird, and had issue a son John 
 Frederick, born in 1846. He was elected M.P. for Blackburn in July, 1841, re-elected 
 in July, 1847, and held the seat until 1852. 
 
 LEYLAND OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 It was from a family of Leylands settled at Kirkham (of which Col. Fishwick 
 gives the descent in the "History of Kirkham," p. 196), that the Leylands of 
 Blackbum were derived. Christopher Leyland, of Kirkham, who died in 1716, by 
 Margaret his wife, had a son John. 
 
 John Leyland. of Kellamergh, later of Blackbum, by Elizabeth, his wife, had sons, 
 Christopher Leyland, of Kellamergh ; Thomas, a clergyman ; Joseph, Ralph, John ; and 
 William, of Blackburn. John Leyland was buried at Blackburn, Jan. 2nd, 1744-5. 
 Elizabeth, his wife, died Oct. 12th, 1734, aged 74. 
 
 William Leyland, of Blackburn, merchant andgentleman, a townsman of good 
 standing a century ago, married Cicily. daughter of Thomas Shepherd Birley. gent., 
 and then widow of Edward Rigby of Freckleton (by whom she had a daughter Mary, 
 described in 1767 as "Mary Rigby of Blackburn, spinster"). About 1740, Mr. 
 William Leyland built for his residence the large brick house in King-street, Black- 
 burn (now occupied as offices by Messrs. Dixon Robinson and Sons), and which bears 
 on its front the initials " W L C" (William and Cicely Leyland). and the date "1741." 
 By Cicely his wife he had no male issue, but the following daughters :— Jane, married, 
 
400 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 in 1753. Thomas Langton of Kirkham, merchant; Elizabeth, buried Feb. 29th, 1735-6 ; 
 Margery, baptized Sep. 27th, 1734, buried Dec. 6th, 1735. Elizabeth — Margaret, 
 twins, baptized May l6th, 1737; one of the twins, Elizabeth, was buried Nov. 27th 
 in the same year; the other, Margaret, married Sep. 25th, 1762, Joseph Feilden, Esq., 
 of Blackburn, and died, aged 89, in 1826. Mr. William Leyland was elected a 
 Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1743. Cicely, his wife, died April 26th, 
 1753, aged 57, and was buried at Blackburn Church, April 28th. By his Will, dated 
 July 1 8th, 1763, Mr. William Leyland bequeathed ^^200 in trust for the foundation of 
 the Girls' Charity School in Blackburn, which was established the following year, and 
 a school building erected in Thunder Alley. William Leyland, Esq., died Nov. 12th, 
 1764. 
 
 LIVESEY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Richard Livesey of Manchester, living in 1782, was brother of — 
 
 Robert Livesey of Manchester and Blackburn, gent., elected a Governor of 
 
 Blackburn Grammar School in 1760, and died at Blackburn, 1763, buried July loth. 
 
 He had a son John; and a daughter Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Livesey, Esq., of 
 
 Blackburn (see ante, pp. 224-6). 
 
 John Livesey of Blackburn, "chapman" and "Esq.," son of Robert, married, 
 
 Jan. 23rd, 1772, Mary, daughter of Samuel Clowes, Esq., of Manchester, and had 
 
 issue, sons, Robert, bapt. Feb. 27th, 1774 ; Thomas, born June 27th, 1784 ; and John 
 
 Pearson; also daughters, Mary, born 1772; Elizabeth, born 1778; Frances, bom 
 
 1781 ; and Anne. 
 
 LIVESEY OF BRINDLE, BLACKBURN, &c. 
 
 John Livesey of Hoghton, yeoman, married a Miss Nickson, and had, with other 
 issue, sons, Thomas, James, and John. Mr. John Livesey died, aged 81, April 3rd, 1820. 
 
 Thomas Livesey, Esq., of Crabtree House, Brindle, and of Blackburn, cotton 
 spinner, son of John, by Dorothy his wife (she died Sept. 8th, 1843, aged 73), had 
 sons, James ; John ; and Richard Nickson ; and several daughters. 
 
 James Livesey, Esq., of Blackburn, after of Beach Hill, Fairfield, near Liverpool, 
 eldest son of Thomas, married Ann, eldest daughter of R. Edleston, Esq., solicitor, of 
 Blackburn (she died Feb. 2nd, 1865), and has issue, sons, Thomas Livesey, Esq., 
 married Miss C. S. Bates, of Croydon; and Richard Edleston; and daughters, Anne, 
 married Rev. Charles Wright Woodhouse, M.A. (Vicar of St. Peter's, Blackburn, 
 from 1858 to 1874; and now Canon of Manchester, appointed in 1874, and Rector of 
 St. Andrew's, Ancoats, Manchester) ; Dora, married F. D. Lowndes, Esq. , of Liver- 
 pool; Ellen, married C. E. Proctor, Esq., of Macclesfield ; Mary; and Elizabeth. 
 
 John Livesey, Esq. , of Blackburn, now of Manchester, brother of James, married, 
 April 4th, 1843, Elizabeth, second daughter of Thomas Cardwell, Esq., of the 
 Demesne, Lytham, and has issue two sons, Thomas John, and James; and one 
 daughter, Dora. 
 
 Richard Nickson Livesey, Esq., of Blackburn, youngest son of Thomas, married, 
 Jan. 31st, 1846, Mary daughter of John Lodge, Esq. (she died July 5th, 1847), and 
 died March 30th, 1857. 
 
 MARKLAND OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 John Markland, by his wife Ellen, granddaughter of John Entwistle, Esq., of 
 Foxholes, had a son John. 
 
 John Markland, of Manchester, tradesman (Constable of Manchester in 1 749), by 
 his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Robert Wilson of Manchester, had sons, John, 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 401 
 
 bom 1740 (who succeeded as heir to his grandmother to the estates of Entwistle of 
 Foxholes, and took the name of Entwistle in 1787); Robert, Edward, Bertie, Ralph, 
 and Samuel. 
 
 Mr. Bertie Markland, of Blackburn, was the fourth son of the above Mr. John 
 Markland, bom Oct. i8th, 1750. He commenced business in Blackbum as a merchant 
 and calico manufacturer; became a Governor of Blackbum Grammar School in 1774; 
 built, in 1778, the mansion on the south side of King Street, Blackburn, after^vards the 
 property and residence of the Hombys ; and resided later at Cuerden Hall. He died 
 at Cheadle Rectory, May 20th, 181 7. An obituary notice of him, written probably by 
 Dr. T. D. Whitaker,»appears in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1817. His wife 
 was Anne, daughter of Mr. John Hindle, of Blackbum; she died Oct. 29th, 1816. 
 NEVILL OF LIVESEY AND BLACKBURN. 
 
 Oliver Nevell of Livesey, who died in April, 1623 (his wife died in 1621), had a 
 son John, who died before his father in Sept., 1619, leaving sons, John, of Livesey 
 (first of a Livesey branch of Nevills), and Thomas ; and a daughter Margaret. 
 
 Thomas Nevill, son of John, married, in 1614, Eliz. Kinge, and had a son George, 
 bom in 1622, and a daughter Alice. 
 
 George Nevill had sons, John Nevill, who married, in 1665, Ann Southworth, and 
 had four daughters ; and Charles. 
 
 Charles Nevill married, in 1670, Jane Benson, and by her, who died in 1710, had 
 sons, Thomas, and John, born 1679, ob. inft. ; and a daughter Jane. Charles Nevill 
 died in 1720. His son — 
 
 Thomas Nevill of Blackburn, yeoman, appointed Parish Clerk May, 1708, was 
 buried Aug. 14th, 1732. He married Ann Lund, and had sons, John, baptized Oct. 
 2nd, 1702; and Thomas, baptized Oct. 15th, 1710. His second son was Thomas 
 Nevill, of Blackbum, attomey-at-law, who died in April, 1770, leaving issue. 
 
 John Nevill, eldest son of Thomas, held the office of Parish Clerk after his father. 
 By his wife Alice Brooks (died April, 1 761), John Nevill had sons, Thomas, died July, 
 1746; James, bom 1729; John, born 1731; and Peter, bora 1736. The father was 
 buried March i6th, 1781. Peter Nevill, younger son, succeeded to the Parish Clerk- 
 ship, and by Catherine Cunliffe, his wife, had sons, John, bora 1768; William, born 
 1770; and Peter; daughters, Betty; Alice, married Mr. Wm. Barlow, attoraey; Sarah, 
 and Jane. Mr. Peter Nevill, Parish Clerk, was buried Jan. 12th, 1790, aged 53 years. 
 
 James Nevill of Blackburn, eldest son of John, by Martha Slater, his wife (she 
 died July, 1775), had sons, John, and Thomas; and daughters, Alice, born 1748; 
 Mary, born 1749; Catherine, bora 1 751; Ann, Martha, and Betty. James Nevill 
 died in May, 1783. 
 
 John Nevill, of Blackbum, attorney-at-law, son of James, married Nov. 17th, 
 
 1783, Miss Ann Ainsworth, and had issue a son James; with daughters, Ann, born 
 
 1784, died 1786; Elizabeth, bora 1789, died March 13th, 1859; Mary, bom Dec, 
 1790, died Feb. 1st, 1868; and Ann, born Aug., 1793, died Sep. 4th, 1857. Mr. 
 John Nevill died in Aug., 1806. 
 
 His son, James Nevill, Esq., of Beardwood, Blackbum, attomey-at-law, bom 
 Jan. 4th, 1787; married Aug. 30th, 1823, Helen, daughter of Mr. Thomas Hargreaves, 
 of Oak Hill, and had issue a son John Hargreaves, bora Oct., 1828, died May 15th, 
 1829; also the following daughters: — Margaret, bora Oct., 1824, married Sep. nth, 
 1845, Henry Brock-HoUinshead, Esq. (died Mar. 19th, 1858); Catherine, born Jan. 
 6th, 1826, married Oct. 24th, 1850, Rev. Edward Parker (Parker of Browsholme), 
 Vicar of Waddington, Co. York; Helen, bom Aug., 1830, married Dec. 17th, 1863, 
 Rev. C. G. Harvey; and Frances Mary, bom Aug., 1832, married, in i860, John 
 
 51 
 
402 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Bolton, Esq., of Blackburn (Registrar of County Court), and died Aug. loth, 1866. 
 Mr. James Nevill died at Beardwood, June loth, 1848, aged 61. 
 PILKINGTON OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 James Pilkington, of Blackburn, merchant, by Mary his wife, had issue, sons, 
 John, died Nov. 14th, 1800, aged n days; a second John, died April 14th, 1805, 
 aged 2; James, bom Aug. 29th, bapt. Oct. 7th, 1804; William, born Dec. 17th, 
 1807; a third John, born in 1816, died Jan. 19th, 1828, aged ii; Thomas, died in 
 May, 1814; and daughters, Elizabeth, died unmarried, June 1st, 1864, aged 65 ; Mary, 
 married, in 1837, Mr. Edward Eccles, of Liverpool; and Ann, died in infancy, March 
 7th, 1814. James Pilkington, Esq., the father, died Nov. 30th, 1837, aged 65. Mrs. 
 Mary Pilkington, his widow, died Dec. 4th, 1844, aged 66. 
 
 James Pilkington, Esq., J. P., D.L., of Park Place House, Blackburn, and of 
 Swinethwaite Hall, Bedale, Co. York, M.P. for Blackburn from 1847 to 1865, is 
 eldest surviving son of the above. He married (May 21st, 1831), Mary Jane, sister of 
 John Skaife, Esq., M.D., by whom, who died Dec. 1st, 1865, aged 59, Mr. Pilkington 
 has had issue, sons, James Bowring, died Nov. 3rd, 1836, aged I year; John William, 
 died April 7th, 1846, aged 8; James, died March 3rd, 1843, aged 3; and Edward, 
 bom Oct. 7th, 1842; also daughters, Ann Jane, born April 26th, 1832, died June 4th, 
 1875; and Mary Elizabeth, bom May 2nd, 1844. 
 
 William Pilkington, Esq., J. P., of the Grange, Wilpshire, near Blackbum, 
 brother of James Pilkington, Esq., filled the office of Mayor of Blackbum in 1856-7-8, 
 and in 1857 founded and endowed the Blackbum and East Lancashire Infirmary. Mr. 
 Wm. Pilkington married, May 19th, 1853, Martha, eldest daughter of the late Henry 
 Shaw, Esq. He has no issue. 
 
 RODGETT OF BLACKBURN AND BRINDLE. 
 
 James Rodgett, of Blackbum, cotton manufacturer in 1818, died March 4th, 1826, 
 aged 50, and was buried at St. Alban's Chapel. 
 
 William Rodgett, Esq., of the firm of Livesey and Rodgett, of Blackbum, died 
 Sept. 14th, 1849, aged 68. He had sons, Joseph Rodgett, Esq., died in 1856, aged 
 42 ; William ; Edward ; and James. 
 
 William Rodgett of Brindle, Esq., died May nth, 1862, aged 33, by Ellen Jane, 
 his wife, who died, aged 37, July 3rd, 1864, had a son Thomas Livesey Rodgett, died 
 in infancy in 1858, and other issue. 
 
 James Rodgett, Esq., of Blackbum, married, March 30th, 1 85 1, Isabella, daughter 
 of James Bury, Esq., of White Ash, Oswaldtwistle. 
 
 SMALLEY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Thomas Smalley of Blackbum, mercer, was buried Feb. 2nd, 1705-6. 
 
 Mr. John Smalley of Blackburn, chapman, by his wife Anne, had sons, Thomas, 
 bapt. Jan. 8th, 1719-20; Richard, bapt. Jan. 24th, 1723-4; John, bapt. May 12th, 
 1728; and Edmund, buried May 30th, 1732; also daughters, Alice, bora 1 7 16; 
 Katherine, bom 1717; and Elizabeth, bom 1721. Anne Smalley, wife of John, died 
 May 24th, 1732, in childbed of the son Edmund. 
 
 Richard Smalley of Blackbum, "gent.," died in Sept., 17S6. He had issue sons 
 and daughters who predeceased him. 
 
 The second son of John Smalley, of Blackbum, chapman, bom in 1728, and 
 named John, I believe to be the Mr. John Smalley, of Preston, in 1770, wine 
 merchant, who is deserving of note as having assisted with money the inventor 
 Richard Arkwright, and as his partner in a cotton spinning business at Holywell, in 
 Derbyshire. He died at Holywell, Jan. 28th, 1782, aged 53. 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 403 
 
 SMALLEY OF LARKHILL. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Smalley of Blackburn, chapman, son of Mr. Richard Smalley of 
 Over Darwen, married Oct. 24th, 1749, Miss Ann Sagar of Southfield, Marsden, and 
 had issue a son Richard; and daughters, Ellen, married, Nov. 3rd, 1783, Mr. Roger 
 Baron of Knuzden; Ann, married Jan. 17th, 1800, Dr. Abraham Chew, of Blackburn; 
 a daughter who married Mr. Walton Freckleton of Blackburn; Catherine, died 
 unmarried; and I^ucy, married Mr. — Jepson of Blackburn. Mr. Thomas Smalley 
 was buried at Chapel Street Chapel, Feb. 14th, 1785, aged 58. His widow, "old 
 Mrs. Smalley from Larkhill," was buried March 1st, 1810. 
 
 Richard Smalley, of Larkhill, gentleman, son of Thomas, acquired the mansion 
 and estate at Larkhill in succession to the Barons of Knuzden and Larkhill. He did 
 not marry, and died at Larkhill in 1835, buried at Chapel Street Chapel, Oct. 5th, 
 aged about 80. Will dated Nov. 21st, 18 19. 
 
 Miss Catherine Smalley of Larkhill, sister and heiress of Mr. Richard Smalley, 
 died in 1841, buried February 19th, and left her estate to the heirs of her sister Mrs. 
 Ellen Baron. 
 
 SUDELL OF BLACKBURN AND WOODFOLD PARK, MELLOR. 
 
 The Sudell family, that in its later members held an eminent position in the 
 commerce of Blackburn, as well as among the landed families of the parish, can be 
 traced in connexion with Blackburn for longer than three centuries. John Sudley, a 
 tenant of Chantry lands at Ousebooth in Blackburn in 1548, was an early member of 
 the family. William Sudell, living at Blackburn temp. Elizabeth, had a son William, 
 bapt. Sep. 13th, 1601. James Sudell, of Blackburn, who died in 1629, had sons, John, 
 bom in 1603, and William, died Sept., 1608. 
 
 John Sudell of Ousebooth, who died Oct., 1622, had sons, William, born in 1602, 
 and James, bom in 1604. The wife of John Sudell was buried in April, 1632. 
 
 A later John Sudell of Ousebooth, who died before 1670, refers in his Will to his 
 wife Margaret, and nephews Thomas and Ralph. 
 
 William Sudell, of Blackburn, had a son John, born in 1631. "Uxor William 
 Sudell" was buried Oct. 15th, 1633. William Sudell, of Blackburn, was buried July 
 25th, 1664. 
 
 The relation of the above persons to each other is obscure. The descent of the 
 Sudells of subsequent note is traceable from Henry Sudell, townsman of Blackbum, who, 
 by Alice his wife (she died in Oct., 1654), had sons, William, bom in 1636; George, 
 died in 1654; and Henry, bom in 1651, with other issue. "Henry Sudell of 
 Blackbum " was buried April 24th, 1680. 
 
 William Sudell, apparently eldest son of Henry, married, 26th Feb., 1654-5 — 
 "William, son of Henery Sudell of Blackburn, and Jenet, daughter of John Whaley 
 of the same." William Sudell had sons, Henry, bom Jan. 17th, 1658; John, born in 
 1662; and James, bom Jan., 1662-3. Of Henry, the elder son, nothing beyond his 
 birth has been noted. 
 
 John Sudell, of Blackburn, son of William, described as "yeoman" and 
 "chapman," married, Jan. 5th, 1685-6, Ann Ashe. He had issue the following: — 
 William, bapt. Nov. 2lst, 1686; Henry; John, bapt. Feb. 15th, 1690-1; Thomas, 
 bapt. Feb. 5th, 1693-4; Joseph, bapt. Aug. 5th, 1706; Alice, bapt. April 7th, 1689; 
 Ann, bom 1697, married Rev. Wm. Vaudrey; Jennet, bapt. Sept. 24th, 1699; Eliza- 
 beth, bapt. March 5th, 1701-2, married, in 1721, Henry Feilden, of Blackbum, gent.; 
 and Jane, bapt. Oct. 28th, 1704, married John Whalley, gent. The father, "Mr. John 
 Sudell of Blackburn, senr.," was buried April 22nd, 1739. His wife — "Ann, wife of 
 
404 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 John Sudell of Blackburn, gent.," — was buried Jan. 1st, 1733-4. Mr. John Sudell had 
 been elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1690. 
 
 William Sudell, of Blackburn, Merchant, was eldest son of Mr. John Sudell ; he 
 married, Aug. 24th, 1714, Mrs. Jane Wagstaffe of Manchester. His only son, John, 
 bapt. Feb. 5th, 1718-9, was buried April 28th, 1832, at the age of 13 years. Mr. 
 William Sudell had also two daughters, Ann, bapt. Sept. 15th, 1 71 7; and Lydia, 
 bapt. March 5th, 1720-1. In 1721, Mr. William Sudell was joint purchaser, with 
 Henry Feilden and William Baldwin, of the Manor of Blackburn, but afterwards his 
 share of the estate was conveyed to the Feildens. Concerning his two daughters and 
 their alliances. Canon Raines notes, that, after the death of their father, they became 
 co-heiresses of their grandfather, Mr. John Sudell. "Ann Sudell, the elder daughter, 
 married, Dec. 31st, 1736, Thomas Johnson of Tyldesley, Esq., Sheriif of Lancashire 
 in 1752 (being his first wife), and dying in childbed Nov. 20th, 1739," left issue 
 "a sole child, Anne Johnson, bom in 1739, ob. 1825, and who married Charles 
 Forde, of Claremont, Esq. " Lydia, the other sister and co-heiress, married Robert 
 Gartside of Manchester, Esq., and also dying in childbed, left an only daughter, 
 Jane Gartside, co-heiress to her grandfather William Sudell, Esq., married to the Rev. 
 John Parker of Brightmet. Mr. William Sudell was elected Governor of Blackburn 
 Grammar School in 17 14, and must have died about 1725, for his executors, Mr. 
 Henry Sudell and Mr. Joseph Hankinson, paid a legacy of ;^20 to the Grammar 
 School in December, 1726. 
 
 Henry Sudell of Blackburn, gent , second son of John and brother of Mr. William 
 Sudell, married, April 25th, 1727, "Mrs. Alice Yates of Eccleshill;" by whom he 
 had numerous children. The first issue were twin sons, John, and William, bapt. 
 Dec. loth, 1729. A pin-cushion, pricked on this occasion with the initials "I AS" 
 — ^John (first-bom of the twins) and Alice Sudell (the mother) — with the year "1729,'' 
 is preserved. The other sons were, Henry; James, bom 1737, died 1740; a second 
 James, bapt Nov. 27th, 1741, buried April 22nd, 1769. The daughters — Ann, bapt 
 Nov. 17th, 1731; Alice, bapt Feb. I2th, 1734-5; and Nancy, died Dec, 1750. Mr. 
 Henry Sudell, the father, was elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 
 1725; and on Sept 12th, 1740, "Henry Sudell, of Blackburn, gent," was admitted 
 an in-burgess of Preston. He died in 1770, and was buried at Blackburn Church, 
 June 12th. His widow was buried Sept. 20th, 1777. 
 
 Both of the elder twin-sons of Henry Sudell, John and William, bom in 1729, 
 died in the same year, 1785. " William Sudell, of Lancaster," one brother, was made 
 a Governor of the Grammar School in 1770; and "William Sudell of Homby, gent," 
 was buried at Blackburn, March 14th, 1785, aged 55. John Sudell of Blackburn, 
 gent., died May 29th, 1785, aged 55 years; — his name is the first inscribed upon the 
 Sudell tomb in Blackburn Churchyard. Mr. John Sudell married, and had a daughter 
 Alice, who married Mr. Joseph Hankinson, of Kirkham, and had a daughter and 
 heiress Margaret Hankinson, who became the wife of Mr. Hugh Homby of Kirkham. 
 Henry Sudell, gent. , third son of Henry, and next brother of John and William, 
 married. May 1st, 1763, "Alice, daughter of James and Margaret Livesey, of 
 Blackburn, gent ; " witnesses of the marriage : Thomas Livesey and John Sudell. He 
 died about seven months after his marriage, and before the son was born who became 
 his heir. "Henry Sudell of Blackbum, chapman," was buried Dec. 27th, 1763. His 
 wife Alice, a widow in her 23rd year (she was bom Jan. 15th, 1741-2), survived in 
 widowhood nearly 60 years, and died of cancer, in 1823. Her only son, Henry, was 
 bom in 1764, bapt. May 4th. Her epitaph upon the family tomb is: — "Alice Sudell, 
 Mother of Henry Sudell, who died July i8th, 1823, aged 81 years." 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 405 
 
 Henry Sudell, posthumous heir of Henry Sudell, gent., and bom, as stated, in 
 1764, was the great Blackburn Merchant and landowner. On the death of his uncles 
 John and William in 1785, Heniy Sudell, Esq., became chief representative of the 
 Blackburn Sudells, attaining his majority the same year. He married, at Burwell, 
 June 13th, 1796, Maria, daughter of Thomas Livesey, Esq. (she was bom in 1777). 
 The house in Church-street (now the Union Club) was built by Mr. Henry Sudell 
 for his town residence on his marriage in 1 796. Having purchased large estates of 
 land in Mellor and Samlesbury, Mr. Sudell enclosed the Woodfold Park about the 
 year 1799; and built Woodfold Hall, Mellor, an extensive mansion with a handsome 
 classic portico. In his day, Mr. Henry Sudell was the most princely of local traders, 
 and at the height of his affluence about 1820 was reputed to be a millionaire. His 
 downfall was the result of losing speculations on a large scale as a merchant in the 
 German and American markets. Mr. Sudell's suspension was announced in July, 
 1827, on which he quitted Woodfold Park with his family, and never returned to the 
 neighbourhood of Blackburn. The major portion of his estate in Mellor, including 
 Woodfold Hall and part of the Park, was settled upon his family, and was sold about 
 the year 1831 to J. Fowden Hindle, Esq. The residue of Mr. Sudell's estates, in 
 Pleasington, Mellor, and Samlesbury townships, by order of his assignees were publicly 
 sold, in September, 1828; they comprised about 842 acres of land, and their appraised 
 value was near ;f 60,000. Mr. Henry Sudell afterwards resided at Ashley House, Box, 
 near Chippenham, Co. Wilts. Mrs. Maria Sudell died at Box, April 1st, 1848, aged 70. 
 Mr, Sudell's family were : — Henry, eldest son, bom in 1 798, died unmarried at Ashley 
 House, Aug. 2ist, 1851, aged 52; Thomas, born Aug. 7th, 1802, sometime merchant 
 in Liverpool, died at Ashley House, Chippenham, June 27th, 1857 (he was last 
 surviving male representative of the Sudells of Blackburn) ; John Joseph, bom Nov. 
 20th, 1804, died Dec. 13th, 1808; a younger son, bom in 1808; daughters, Maria, 
 died at Cheltenham, Jan. 2ist, 1823, aged 23; Lydia, died at Versailles, July 4th, 
 1825; Alice, died, aged 59, Jan. 2nd, 1858; and Elizabeth, wife of Rev. Dr. Horlock, 
 Vicar of Bath, died, aged 49, Jan. 3rd, 1858. Henry Sudell, Esq., died at Ashley 
 House, near Bath, Jan. 30th, 1856, at the advanced age of 92. 
 
 WHALLEY OF RISHTON, BLACKBURN, SPARTH, AND CLERK-HILL. 
 
 The family of Whalley, of note in the last century as possessors of considerable 
 estate in this parish and as connected by marriage with the Gardiner family, appears 
 to have sprang from an old yeoman stock seated in Rishton township. Of this family 
 was James Whalley, of Rishton, assessed to the Subsidy in 1610. In 1614, Thomas 
 Whalley, gent, gave los. to increase the stock of Blackburn Grammar School. After 
 him comes Thomas Whalley of IchiU in Rishton, a Governor of Blackbum Grammar 
 School in 1647. 
 
 James Whalley of Sidebight in Rishton, was buried at Blackbum, July 30th, 1687. 
 Sidebight is close to the west boundary of Rishton adjoining Blackbum, and the last- 
 named may be one with the "James Whalley of Blackbum, gent.," made a Governor 
 of the Grammar School in 1654. 
 
 Next occurs Thomas Whalley, gent., of Rishton, assessed to the Subsidy of 1663, 
 whom I suppose to be the Thomas Whalley of Blackbum, attomey for Thomas 
 Walmesley, Esq., at the Visitation of Dugdale in 1664; and also the "Thomas 
 Whalley of Eachill," a Governor of the Grammar School of Blackburn in 1688. He 
 is named Thomas Whalley of Sparth, gent. , in a deed of 1 679 ; and is stated to have 
 purchased the Clerk-hill estate in Whalley from the Crombocks in 1699. Thomas 
 Whalley of Sparth, in Clayton-les-Moors, gent, had, I think, these sonsi^ames, his 
 
4o6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 heir, baptized June Z3rd, 1672; Thomas, bom in 1673; John; Robert, buried Nov, 
 27th, 1689; William, buried in 1683; and Jonathan, born in 1679; also a daughter 
 Isabel, buried Sept. 12th, 1683. A letter from Mr. Whalley of Sparth, on the affairs 
 of Great Harwood Church, dated 1684, was by the above Thomas Whalley, gent. 
 Thomas Whalley, senior, of Sparth, was buried at Great Harwood Church, Nov. 14th, 
 1712. Ellen Whalley, widow, of Sparth, was buried Oct. 13th, 1713. 
 
 James Whalley of Sparth, gent., son of Thonias, in 1722 purchased (in conjunction 
 with Christopher Baron, gent.) the Manor of Oswaldtwistle. He was made an 
 in-burgess of Preston in 1702. Mr. James Whalley of Sparth was buried at Great 
 Harwood Church, Sept. 13th, 1734. 
 
 Thomas Whalley of Sparth, M. D. , brother of James, was made a Governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School in 1711, and died in 1724, aged 51. He was buried at 
 Great Harwood Church, Dec. loth, 1724.1 
 
 John Whalley of Blackburn, gent. , another brother, continues in his posterity the 
 family descent. He was elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1 712; 
 and died in 1734; buried at Blackburn, April 4th. He had a large family, including 
 sons, Thomas, bom in 1698; John, bapt. Nov. 17th, 1700; James; Joseph, bom 
 1705; and Robert, bapt. July 13th, 1713; and daughters, Esther, bora 1701, died 
 1703; Ann, died 1709; Ellen, bom 1 7 1 1 ; Mary, bom 1 7 15, died 1726; Elizabeth, 
 born in 1718, married, in 1741, Thomas Pickop; and a second Esther, born in 1720, 
 married John Starky, Esq. , of Heyvvood Hall. 
 
 Thomas Whalley of Blackbum, gent., son and heir of John, was elected a Governor 
 of the Grammar School in 1 725. He had sons John and Thomas. The father occurs 
 as "Thomas Whalley of Blackburn, Esq.," in the Guild Rolls of Preston, of which 
 borough he and his sons and brothers were in-burgesses. He was buried at 
 Blackbum, March 5th, 1747-8. 
 
 The next brother of Thomas was John Whalley, of Blackbum, gent., elected a 
 Governor of the Grammar .School in 1728. He married, Oct. 8th, 1725, Jane, 
 daughter of John Sudell of Blackbum, gent., by whom (she died in 1765, buried April 
 6th) he had issue, sons, John, bom 1739, died 1740; Thomas, bom and died in 1 741; 
 and daughters, Mary, bom in 1729; Elizabeth, born in 1735, baptized July 1 6th; 
 Ann, bom 1 738, died 1 740 ; a second Ann, bom in 1 743 ; and Esther, bom and died 
 in 1 744. John Whalley, Esq. , died in 1767. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the last-named John Whalley, gent. , had no male issue 
 that survived ; and several daughters also died in infancy. One daughter, Elizabeth, 
 married Feb. 1 6th, 1764, Rev. Robert Master, D. D., rector of Croston, and had a 
 daughter Jane, who will again appear in the genealogy of this family. 
 
 In 1762, James Whalley, Esq., Councillor-at-Law, brother of Thomas and John, 
 is described as "of Clerkhill. " Before the Preston Guild of 1762, were enrolled as 
 in-burgesses — "JohnWhalley of Blackbum, Esq. ; James, hisbrother, Councillor-at-Law, 
 of Clerkhill ; Joseph, his brother, of Blackburn, gent. ; Robert, his brother, of St. Gyles, 
 Oxford, M. D. ; John, his [Robert's] son ; Robert, his [John's] brother ; James, his brother ; 
 Thomas, his brother. " James Whalley, of the Middle Temple, Esq., appears as a 
 
 I Fixed in the head of a pillar, on the south side of Great Harwood churchyard, is a brass 
 inscribed with a Latin epitaph on "Thomas Whalley de Sparth in agro Lancastrensi, M.D. and 
 Collegii Oriel apud Oxoniensis nuper socius baud ignobilis, Theologia fuit sapiens, Phylosophia 
 prudens, Botanices sciens, Medicinas speculatlvse simul et Therapeuticse peritus, Prelate, Probitate, 
 Candore, et Modestia clarus, in egenos eroganda pecunia dives, Inopi ferens opem et concilium, quern 
 capellas de Downham et Altham et Harwood pra;cipiae munificum, loquuntur ultra vires studiis indentus 
 et assidua sedulitatse fractus carnis exuvias tibi consumptas deposuit sexto die Decembris Anno D'ni 
 1724 aetat. 51, in cujus memoriam fratres Johannes et Jacobus H. P. M." 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 407 
 
 Governor of Blackburn Grammar School from 1734 until his death in 1780. In 1762 
 four members of this family were at one time on the governing body of the Grammar 
 School, viz. : — Mr. John Whalley ; Mr. Joseph Whalley ; James Whalley, Esq. ; and 
 Dr. Robert Whalley. 
 
 Joseph Whalley of Blackburn, gent. , another brother of John and James, was a 
 Governor of the Grammar School from 1733 until his decease in Jan., 1767. 
 
 The junior brother was Robert Whalley, Esq., M.D., of Oriel College, Oxford. 
 Dr. Robert Whalley married Grace, only daughter of Bernard Gardiner, D. D. , and 
 heiress apparent of her cousin, Sir William Gardiner of Roche Court, Bart. By this 
 lady he had issue sons, John, born May 26th, 1 743 ; James ; Robert ; and Thomas. 
 Dr. Robert Whalley of Clerk-hill was a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School from 
 1739 until his death in 1769. 
 
 John Whalley, Esq. , of Clerk -hill, first son of Robert, heired through his mother 
 the estates of the Gardiners ; assumed in succession the additional names of Gardiner 
 and Smythe, and was created a baronet in 1 782, the baronetcy of the Gardiners of 
 Roche Court having become extinct three years before. Sir John Whalley Smythe- 
 Gardiner died in 1797, having no issue by his wife, Martha, daughter of Dr. Newcome, 
 Dean of Rochester, and his estates passed to his brother James. 
 
 James Whalley, Esq., of Clerk Hill, also in turn assumed the names of Smythe- 
 Gardiner, and in his person the baronetcy was continued. He was born in 1748, was 
 M. A. of Magdalen College, Oxford ; and married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Richard 
 Assheton, D.D., Rector of Middleton, who died in childbed of her first-bom, Sept. 8th, 
 1785, aged 23; her monument in Whalley Church bears the pathetic poetic elegy by 
 Cooper which has often been printed. The infant child left at her death was a son, 
 James. Sir James Whalley Smythe-Gardiner, Bart., married for his second wife his 
 kinswoman Jane, eldest daughter of Robert Master, D. D., by Elizabeth, daughter of 
 John Whalley, Esq. ; the date of this marriage was Dec. 3rd, 1 789 ; and the issue, 
 four sons, Robert ; John Master; William; and Thomas (who died in infancy); and 
 four daughters, Elizabeth- Jane ; Barbara-Smythe; Grace; and Caroline-Margaret. 
 Sir James, prior to his succession to the title, was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1783. 
 He died August 21st, 1805 ; his widow died at Clerk Hill in 1843. 
 
 James Whalley Smythe-Gardiner, eldest son of Sir James, succeeded to the 
 baronetcy, and to the estates of the Smythe-Gardiner families. 
 
 Robert Whalley, Esq., first son of Sir James by his second wife, inherited Clerk- 
 hill ; and added to the estate by the purchase of Wiswell Manor from the Welds in 
 1830. Robert Whalley, Esq., dying unmarried, the heir was the next son of Sir James, 
 Rev. John Master Whalley, Rector of Slaidbum, who married Hannah, daughter of 
 Joseph Nightingale, of Radholme, but died issueless, Oct. 17th, 1861, aged 68. 
 
 William Whalley, Esq. , younger brother of the above, died at Whalley, March 
 loth, i860, aged 63. 
 
 Elizabeth Jane, eldest daughter of Sir James, widow of Samuel Jellicoe, Esq., of 
 Uplands, Co. Hants., on the death of her brother John claimed the Clerk-hill estate 
 under her father's Will, and took possession ; but after much litigation the estate was 
 awarded to Sir John Brocus Whalley Smythe-Gardiner, Bart., son of Sir James. 
 WILKINSON OF ROYSHAW. 
 
 Richard Wilkinson, of Blackburn, occurs in 1660; he married Mary, daughter 
 of Edward Gillibrand of Ramsgreave, gent. 
 
 Mr. Evan Wilkinson, of Blackburn, became a Governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School in 1675. Evan Wilkinson of Royshaw, yeoman, was buried Sept. 7th, 1706. 
 He had a son William. 
 
4o8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 William Wilkinson, of Royshaw, gent., elected a Governor of the Grammar 
 School in 1706, died in June, 1744. His wife, Anne Wilkinson, died in June, 1737. 
 
 Mr. Evan Wilkinson was the son of Mr. William Wilkinson, bapt. July 24th, 1715. 
 
 Lawrence Wilkinson of Blackburn, gent., a "foreign burgess" of Preston at the 
 Guild of 1682, had sons John and Richard. 
 
 WRAITH OF BLACKBURN, &c. 
 
 Mr. James Wraith, bom at Mirfield, Co. York, was father of — 
 
 Rev. James Wraith, bom at EUand, Co. York, May 28th, 1734, became 
 minister of the Independent Church, Bolton, in 1772; in 1782 removed to Wolver- 
 hampton; in 1792 removed to Chorley in this county, and was aftenvards Independent 
 minister at Hampstead, Ca Middlesex. He died May 1st, 1815, in his 8lst year. He 
 had sons, James; and Benjamin, died at Liverpool, aged 81 ; daughters, Mary, Betty, 
 and Priscilla. 
 
 Mr. James Wraith, eldest son of the Rev. James Wraith, settled at Blackburn, 
 and died here, in 1806 (buried at Leyland Church). He married Betty Tassiker of 
 Clayton Hall, Leyland, and had issue, sons, Hargreave ; Thomas, bora 1 789, died in 
 1824 at Baltimore, U.S. ; James, bom 1791, died 1806; and Charles James Fox, died 
 in infancy; also daughters, Mary, married George Weale; Betsy, married Benj. 
 Haslam; Priscilla, bom Aug. 27th, 1793, married Rev. John Alexander, Minister of 
 Norwich Independent Meeting-House ; Ellen, Agnes, Dorothy, Frances, and Margaret 
 
 Mr. Hargreave Wraith of Blackbum, chemist, eldest son of James, was bom in 
 1787; married Phoebe, daughter of Mr. Adam Hope of Blackbum, and had issue, 
 sons, John Hope Wraith, bom Feb., 1814, died 1862, leaving issue ; and Samuel 
 Hope Wraith (of Darwen), bom May, 181 7, married and had issue; and daughters, 
 Elitabeth, bora 1819, married Mr. WUliam Dickson; Lydia, bom 1821, married Mr. 
 F. Sharp, of Norwich. Mr. Hargreave Wraith died Dec. 2nd, 1855, in his 69th year. 
 
 YATES OF BLACKBURN, STANLEY HOUSE, MELLOR, &c. 
 
 James Yates of Blackbum, living in the first half of the seventeenth century, and 
 descended, probably, from the older stock of Yate of Yate Bank, had two sons, James 
 and William. James Yates, eldest son of James, died without issue. 
 
 John Yates and William Yates occur about 1663 as tenants of the Rectory in 
 Blackbum. 
 
 William Yates, of Blackbum, gent, second son of James, and heir to his brother 
 James, is first noted in 1646, when he was appointed a lay member of the third classis 
 of the Lancashire Presbytery. He married, before 1651, Ann, daughter and heiress 
 of [John?] Sharpies of Blackbum, by whom he had sons, James, died Dea, 1652; 
 William; John, bom March, 1651-2; and Joseph, bom Oct 9th, 1655; daughters, 
 Mary, bom Nov., 1652, married Mr. Moseley, of Manchester; Haimah, bom 1656; 
 and Abigail, bora Oct, 1660, married June 3rd, 1680, William Drake, Esq., of 
 Bamoldswick, Co. York. Mr. William Yates was elected a Governor of Blackbum 
 Grammar School in 1649; and in 1660 is styled "William Yates of Blackbum, 
 mercer. " He had some estate in Mellor, and in 1 673 leased certain lands of Blackbum 
 Grammar School contiguous to his own there. William Yates was buried at Blackbum, 
 March 1 8th, 1683-4. His relict, "Mrs. Ann Y^tes of Manchester, widow," was buried 
 April 2nd, 1696. 
 
 William Yates, of Blackbum, Esq., eldest surviving son of the above William, by 
 his wife Evangeline (who died in 1713), had sons, William, buried March 25th, 1689 ; 
 and Joseph, bapt Dec. Iith, 1687, and other issue. He was, I opine, though the 
 descent is not clearly ascertained, progenitor of the family of Yates of Blackbum 
 
MERCHANTS AND MODERN GENTRY. 409 
 
 associated in business and by marriage with the Peels, two or three generations later. 
 This William Yates, Esq., was made a Governor of the Grammar School in 1690, and 
 died about 171 1. His Will is dated May yth, 1711. 
 
 John Yates, of Blackburn, next brother of William, died in Oct, l6gi. He had 
 a son Thomas, bom in 1674. 
 
 Joseph Yates, gent, brother of William and John, and younger son of William 
 Yates, senior, resided at Stanley House, Mellor; afterwards in Manchester. He was 
 made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1678; and in 1695, Joseph Yates, 
 Esq., and John Clayton of the Green, gent., both Governors, had a 21 years' lease 
 granted of 29 acres of School land in Mellor. Mr. Joseph Yates married at Manchester 
 Collegiate Church, Dec. 21st, 1682, Margaret Booth, of Manchester, and had issue, 
 sons, Edward, bapt. Oct 8th, 1688; Joseph, bapt. April 13th, 1690; Thomas, bom 
 1691, died 1692; asecond Thomas, bom in 1692; Richard, bom 1693, died 1720; John, 
 died 1695; and Oswald, bom 1704; daughters, Ann, bapt. Aug. 20th, 1685, married 
 Mr. Henry Cottam, of Liverpool; Mai^aret, bom and died Dec, i686; Mary, bora 
 1695; Abigail, bora 1699; and Margaret, bom in 1700. By his Will, dated June 
 2ist, 1704, Joseph Yates of Manchester, Esq., gave ;i£^io to the Poor Stock of 
 Blackburn. He died in 1705, and was buried at the Collegiate Church, Manchester, 
 April 18th. His widow died SepL 3rd, 1727. 
 
 Joseph Yates, Esq., the second son of Joseph last-named, of Manchester, 
 afterwards of Peel Hall, by Ellen his wife, daughter of William Maghull of Maghull, 
 Esq. (she died in 1753), had sons, "Maile" (or Maghull), bapt. Nov. 1st, 1714-5; 
 Edward, born in 1717; and Joseph, bapt. July 17th, 1722. "Mr. Joseph Yates, of 
 Manchester," was made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in Feb., 1 712; 
 and was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1728. He died at Preston, in Nov., 1773, and 
 was buried at Peel Hall Chapel, Dec 1st, 
 
 Maghull (or Maile) Yates, Esq. (eldest son of Joseph), of Stanley House, Mellor, 
 and Maghull, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Humphrey Trafford of Trafford, 
 Esq., had issue two daughters, co-heiresses. Maria, his second daughter and co-heir, 
 married, Oct. 20th, 1764, John Aspinall, Esq., of Standen. 
 
 Joseph Yates, of Manchester, yoimger son of Joseph, entered the legal profession, 
 and was appointed Judge of the King's Bench and knighted in 1763. Sir Joseph 
 Yates was advanced to a judgeship of the Common Pleas in Feb., 1770, and died at 
 Cheame, in Surrey, June 7th, in the same year. His only son, Joseph Yates, Esq., 
 married Charlotte, daughter of Baron St. John of Bletsoe. 
 
 YATES OF BLACKBURN AND BURY, &c. 
 John Yates of Blackbura, yeoman and innkeeper (of the Old Bull Inn), elected a 
 Governor of the Granmiar School in 1772, and died in May, 1781, was father of 
 William Yates. His widow, Mrs. Yates, died at Bury, aged 84, in June, 1797. 
 
 William Yates of Blackbura, chapman, bora about 1 739, elected a Governor of 
 the Grammar School in 1771 ; afterwards was the celebrated calico printer, of Bury 
 (see ante, p. 217). He married, first, in 1764, Mary Bentley, and by her (who died 
 in 1768) had sons, Thomas; and John, died young; and a daughter Ellen, wife of the 
 first Sir Robert Peel, Bart. He had three other wives ; by his second, Ann, daughter 
 of Edmund Haworth of Walmsley Fold, he had sons, Edmund, Giles, Jonathan, William, 
 John, and Thomas ; and daughters Jane and Ann. His third wife was Elizabeth Blakey, 
 widow, daughter of John Haigreaves of Newchurch, gent His fourth wife, Ursula 
 Robinson, died, aged 92, Dec. 9th, 1852. Mr. Yates died Jan. 17th, 1813, aged 73. 
 
 Edmund Yates, Esq., of Fairlawn, Co. Kent, eldest surviving son of William, 
 married, first, Mary, daughter of Mr. Jonathan Haworth of Highercroft, by whom 
 
 52 
 
4IO 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 he had issue, sons, Edmund, died young in 1802; and Jonathan; and a daughter 
 Elizabeth. He married secondly, in 1809, Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Peel, 
 Esq., by whom (she died in 1825) he had no issue. Edmund Yates, Esq., died, aged 
 66, April 24th, 1835. Mr. Jonathan Yates, his son and heir, died before him, aged 
 26, in March, 1829. 
 
 BLACKBURN INVENTORS. 
 
 BuLLOUGH, James, a native of West-houghton, settled in Blackburn 
 in 1829, and while engaged with the firm of Hornby and Kenworthy 
 patented several useful improvements in the power-loom, such as the 
 roller temple, weft fork, loose reed, &c. He also, in 1855, patented a 
 self-acting warping mill. Mr. Bullough afterwards was a cotton spinner 
 at Baxenden. He died July 31st, 1868. 
 
 Hargraves, James, of Stanhill, near Blackburn, inventor of the 
 "Spinning Jenny," &c. (See ante, pp. 204-9). 
 
 Hargraves, John, bom in Nova Scotia, Blackburn, is remembered 
 as the inventor and maker of a spinning frame, a carding engine, and. a 
 bobbin engine. On a popular rising against machinery, the mob attacked 
 his workshop and destroyed his machines. He had to withdraw from 
 the town, but returned, and died in Blackburn, towards the close of the 
 last century. Mr. John Hargraves Scott, Mayor of Burnley in 187 1-2, 
 and Mr. William Dickson, of Blackburn, are grandsons of this inventor. 
 
 Kenworthy, William, of JBrookhouse Lodge, Blackburn, sometime 
 partner with Mr. Wm. Henry Hornby in the Brookhouse Mills, was joint 
 ])atentee with Mr. Bullough in several improvements of the power-loom, 
 sizing machines, &c. Mr. Kenworthy died, aged 53, Oct. 14th, 1856. 
 A handsome monument to Mr. Kenworthy was placed in Blackburn 
 Parish Churchyard in September, 1858. 
 
 OsEALDESTON, John, bom at Snig Brook, Blackburn, about the year 
 1777, patented, in 1842, an improved power-loom, and claimed to be the 
 inventor of a number of important improvements in machinery for 
 spinning and weaving cotton. He derived no pecuniary benefits from 
 his ingenuity, however, and died in Blackburn Workhouse, Feb. i8th, 
 1862, aged 84 years; he was buried at Tockholes Church. 
 
 Railton, Robert, senior, of Blackburn, was known as the inventor 
 of improvements in machines for winding, warping, including the "twist 
 cop winding machine," the "hank warping mill," &c. 
 
 BLACKBURN AUTHORS. 
 
 Bailey, Rev. John, Nonconformist Divine, a native of Blackburn ; 
 author of "Man's Chief End." Boston, U.S., 1680 (see ante pp. 358-9). 
 
 Barlow, James, an eminent Blackburn surgeon, author of "Essays 
 on Surgery and Midwifery." Blackburn: Printed by T. Rogerson, 1822. 
 8vo. pp. 418. Mr. Barlow died at Blackburn, aged 72, Aug. 20th, 1839. 
 
BLACKBURN AUTHORS. 
 
 411 
 
 Baynes, Alderman John (Mayor of Blackburn 1858-9), author of 
 "Two Lectures on the Cotton Trade" (historical, statistical, &c). 
 Blackburn: J. N. Haworth, 1857. 8vo.pp. 112. He died Oct. 2nd, 1873. 
 
 BiLLiNGTON, William, a native of Blackburn; author of "Sheen and 
 Shade: Lyrical Poems." Blackburn: J. N. Haworth, 1861. 8vo.pp. 160. 
 
 Bolton, Rev. Robert, the Puritan Divine, a native of Blackburn ; 
 author of various works (see pp. 262-6). 
 
 Cardwell, Edward, LL.D., a native of Blackburn; author of 
 numerous works in ecclesiastical history (see p. 391). 
 
 Durham, William, a native of Blackburn, died in 1868 ; author of 
 "Chronological Notes on Blackburn." Blackburn: C. Tiplady, 1866. 
 8vo. pp. 66. 
 
 Fletcher, Rev. Joseph, D.D., Minister at Blackburn, 1806-22; 
 author of several published works (see ante, p. 361). 
 
 Gourlay, William, of Blackburn, author of " History of the Distress 
 in Blackburn, 1861-5." Blackburn: J. N. Haworth, 1865. 8vo. pp. 180. 
 
 Grosart, Rev. Alexander B., of Blackburn, author and editor of 
 "Fuller Worthies' Library" (printed partially at Blackburn, by Chas. 
 Tiplady and Son), and many other works (see ante, p. 366). 
 
 Hunter, Rev. Thomas, M.'A., Master of Blackburn Grammar 
 School, 1737-50; author of several works (see ante, pp. 347-8). 
 
 MoRLEY, John, of London, a native of Blackburn, son of the late 
 Dr. Morley; Editor of the "Fortnightly Review," and author of several 
 published works, on French literature, &c. 
 
 Price, Rev. John, Minister of St. Paul's (C.H.) Church, Blackburn, 
 1 799-1841; author of "The Hearer's Memorial" (a volume of Sermons 
 preached in St. Paul's Church); Blackburn, printed by Wilcockson, 
 1 816; and of a Selection of Hymns for use in that church. 
 
 RoBifJSON, Rev. Christopher, D.D., Vicar of Holy Trinity Church," 
 Blackburn, 1850-69; author of several works on Biblical Interpretation, 
 &c. He died in 1869. 
 
 Skinner, Rev. Francis, D.D., United Presbyterian Minister in 
 Blackburn, 1830-66; author of several theological and controversial 
 pamphlets. He died in 1866 (see ante, pp. 565-6). 
 
 Starkie, Thomas, Esq., M.A., Q.C., eldest son of Rev. Thomas 
 Starkie, Vicar of Blackburn, bom at Blackburn, April 12th, 1782, was 
 author of treatises on the Law of Slander, Libel, &c. (1813), and on 
 Criminal Pleadings (2 vols., 8vo., 1814), with other legal works. He 
 married Lucy, daughter of Rev. T. D. Whitaker, LL.D., and died in 1849. 
 Walcot, James, M.A., author of "History of a Pious Indian 
 Convert; or, the New Pilgrim's Progress." Blackburn: Printed by J. 
 Waterworth, 1792. 8vo. pp. 268. 
 
4-12 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Ward, Rev. John (Wesleyan Minister at Blackburn 1868-70), 
 author of "Rise and Progress of Wesleyan Methodism in Blackburn," 
 &c. Blackburn: 1871. 8vo. pp. 80. 
 
 Whitaker, Dr. T. D., Vicar of Blackburn, 1818-21, author of the 
 "History of Whalley" and several other well-known topographical works. 
 
 Whitaker, Rev. J. W., D.D., Vicar of Blackburn, 1822-54, author 
 of several theological and controversial works. 
 
 Whittle, Peter, of Preston, author of "Blackburn as It Is;" 1852. 
 
 BLACKBURN NEWSPAPERS. 
 
 Blackburn Mail, started May 29th, 1793; ceased, 1832. 
 Blackburn Journal, started in 1832 ; ceased shortly after. 
 Blackburn Gazette, started in 1832 ; ceased, 1843. 
 Blackburn Mercury, started June, 1843 ; ceased about 1847. 
 Blackburn Standard, started in 1835; {Patriot, in i860). 
 Blackburn Times, started June, 1855. 
 BLACKBURN ASSOCIATION OF VOLUNTEERS, A.D. 1798-1804. 
 
 In the year 1798, a corps of 250 men was raised to aid in the 
 national defence, and was called " Blackburn Loyal Local Association 
 of Volunteers." The corps was officered by members of the Sudell, 
 Birley, Cardwell, Feilden, and Hornby families. The daily muster for 
 drill was at 5 a.m. A pair of colours presented to the corps by Mrs- 
 Sudell, on June 4th, 1800, were hung in the Parish Church after the 
 association was disbanded, about 1804, and later were placed in the 
 Council Chamber, Town Hall. 
 
 In the recent Volunteer movement two strong corps, one of 
 Artillerymen and the other of Rifles, have been raised and maintained 
 in Blackburn. For both corps permanent buildings for depots, and 
 arill grounds, have been provided. 
 
 POPULATION OF BLACKBURN— A.D. 1801-1875. 
 
 1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 
 
 Township of 11,980 ... 15,082 ... 21,940 ... 27,091 
 
 Blackburn. 1841- 1851- 1861. 1871. 
 
 36,629 ... 46,536 ■•• 63,126 ... 76,339 
 Census of 1871 — Municipal Borough, boundaries coincident ) ,6 ,, 
 
 with Township : J 
 
 Do. Parliamentary Borough, embracing portions ) g „ 
 
 of Witton and Livesey / 
 
 Estimated population, end of 1875 — Municipal Borough, circa 83,000 
 Do. do. Parliamentary Borough, circa 90,000 
 
BALDERSTONE TOWNSHIP AND FAMILY. 413 
 
 CHAPTER II.— THE TOWNSHIP OF BALDERSTONE. 
 
 Situation of the Township, Acreage, Population, &c. — Ancient Lords — De Balderstone — Harrington — 
 Stanley — Dudley — Radcliffe, Gerard, and Braddyll — Osbaldeston — Sunderland Grange and De 
 Sunderland Family — Osbaldeston of Sunderland — Modem Proprietors — Feilden, Starkie, &c. — 
 Parochial Chapel of St Leonard — Balderstone Charities, &c. 
 
 BALDERSTONE is situate in the Vale of Ribble, on the northern 
 side of Blackburn Parish, and extends a mile or so along the 
 left bank of the Ribble, betwixt Osbaldeston and Samlesbury. Balder- 
 stone is a manor, and (along with Osbaldeston and part of Mellor) an 
 ancient parochial chapelry. The area of the township is 1,710 statute 
 acres. Being purely agricultural, the population of the township, which 
 was 615 in 1801, had decreased to 475 inhabitants in 1871. Two 
 centuries ago the chapelry contained eighty families, about the present 
 population of the township. 
 
 I proceed to give some account of the early manorial landlords in 
 Balderstone, beginning with the family that bore the territorial name. 
 
 BALDERSTONE OF BALDERSTONE. 
 
 The descent deduced of the De Balderstone family makes it a 
 branch of that of De Osbaldeston, varying the name with the place of 
 settlement. One of the sons of Eilfi de Osbaldeston was William de 
 Balderstone. He was brother of Hugh de Osbaldeston ; and was seated 
 in Balderstone as owner of lands there in the year 1223. He had sons 
 Richard, Henry, Adam, Alan, and Robert. 
 
 Richard de Balderstone, heir of William (living in 1266), had a son 
 and heir named William de Balderstone, whose successor was Richard 
 de Balderstone, named in charters from 1314 to 1325. 
 
 Several junior connexions of the proprietary family in Balderstone 
 are mentioned in the Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey; ex. gr. Adam de 
 Balderstone; Roger, son of Adam; Hugh de Balderstone (a.d. 1290); 
 John, son of Hugh. Simon de Balderstone was Seneschal of Blackburn- 
 shire in 1303. 
 
414 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 In the chief lineage, Richard son of William de Balderstone had 
 issue, by Alice, his wife, daughter of Alexander de Keuerdale, a son and 
 heir William ; and a daughter Katherine, wife of Gilbert de la Legh. 
 
 William de Balderstone, who lived in the reigns of the Second and 
 Third Edwards, and died before 1330, by Johanna his wife had sons, 
 Richard, who succeeded; and Thomas, of Bretherton; also a daughter 
 Margaret, married Geoffrey de Osbaldeston. 
 
 Richard de Balderstone married Agnes, relict of William Molineux, 
 and had issue, sons, William, and Richard. Richard, the sire, died in 
 1383, when the writ oi diem clausit extremiim upon the death of Richard 
 de Balderstone was issued. 
 
 William de Balderstone, following Richard, married Constancia, 
 daughter of Edward Banastre, and had issue Richard, his heir; and 
 Thomas de Balderstone; the latter, living in 1441, had a daughter 
 Constancia, married, in 1448, to James Leigh. William de Balderstone 
 died in the 7th Henry IV. (1406), and on Dec. loth, in that year, the 
 writ of diem clausit extremum was addressed to the County Escheator 
 after the death of William de Balderstone, who held by Knight service, of 
 the inheritance of his late wife Constance. 
 
 Richard his son succeeded, and on the i8th March, 1421-2, the 
 escheator received the precept to give to Richard, son and heir of 
 William de Balderstone, full seizin of his lands, he having sufficiently 
 proved his age before the escheator. This scion was knighted. By 
 Johanna his wife, he had sons, William, and Richard; daughters, 
 Elizabeth, (Flower gives Anne), married to John Osbaldeston, Esq., in 
 the year 1461 ; Ellen, married Sir Thomas Radcliff, Knt.,of Wynmarleigh ; 
 and Isabella, wife of Sir William Atherton, Kt., whose monumental slab 
 is in Samlesbury Church. These daughters were co-heirs with their 
 brother William, and each of them carried to her husband the fourth 
 part of the estates of the family. Sir Richard Balderstone, Knt., died 
 Dec. 20th, 1456. Inq. post mort. dated Sept. 25th, 1457. 
 
 William Balderstone, lord of Balderstone, son of Richard, married, 
 first, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Gerard ; secondly, Margaret, daughter 
 of William Stanley, Esq. ; by the latter wife he had issue two daughters, 
 co-heiresses, viz., Joan, or Jane,' (married, first. Sir Ralph Langton, 
 Kt, and, secondly. Sir John Pilkington); and Isabel, married in 1472, 
 Robert Harrington, Esq., of Hornby Castle. 
 
 I By her Will dated Jan. 2nd, 1497, Dame Jane Pilkington, widow, bequeaths her body to be 
 buried in the " Nunnes Quier at Monckton," in her habit, &c. ; and *' whereas Syr Henry Huntington, 
 Preste, and Roger Radcliffe, gent. , stande seised and be feoffees for and in all my moyety of the Manor 
 of Balderstone and of all other messuages, landes, &c., which were William Balderstone 's my father, in 
 the townes and hamlettes of Balderstone, Mellor, Thornton, Holme, Singleton, Little Estake, Hamleton, 
 &c. in Co. Lancaster, and Rogerthorpe, Co. York, to me descended by inheritance:" testator wills 
 that the feoffees suffer her to receive the rents and profits of the said lands during her life, and after 
 
DESCENT OF BALDERSTONE MANOR. 415 
 
 HARRINGTON, LORDS OF BALDERSTONE. 
 
 Sir Robert Harrington, Knt., by his wife Isabel Balderstone, 
 heiress of a moiety of Balderstone manor, had issue a son James; and a 
 daughter Jane, wife of Thomas Talbot of Bashall, Esq. He was attainted, 
 and his estates were confiscated by Henry VII. on account of his 
 attachment to the party of Richard III., after Bosworth battle; and given 
 to Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby. Sir Robert died about 1497. 
 
 James Harrington, son of Sir Robert, took holy orders and 
 became Dean of York. After the death of his father and mother, he in 
 the year 1503 petitioned the King and Council for the restoration of the 
 forfeited estates inherited from his mother, describing himself as "James 
 Haryngton, Prest, son and heir of bloode to Dame Isabel, late the wyfe 
 of Syr Robert Haryngton, Knt.," and supplicates that he may have all 
 the lands he ought to have inherited from his mother, Balderstone manor 
 being chief thereof, "saving that this acte be not prejudicial! to Thomas 
 Erie of Derby, or Sir Edward Stanley, and their respective heirs." This 
 appeal was granted by the Crown, and the lands were given to James 
 Harrington for his life. In the escheat of Edmund Dudley, in 15 10, it 
 is mentioned that at that date James Harrington held in fee half the 
 manor of Balderstone. He died in 15 12. The estates then reverted 
 to the Earl of Derby. 
 
 STANLEY, EARLS OF DERBY, LORDS OF BALDERSTONE, &c. 
 
 Thomas Stanley, created first Earl of Derby, in 1485, received from 
 Henry VII., in reward for his great service at Bosworth-field, the forfeited 
 estates of Sir Robert Harrington of Hornby, lord of Balderstone; of 
 Francis, Viscount Lovel, lord of a moiety of Samlesbury Manor; of Sir 
 Thomas Pilkington; and of other great proprietors in this county. The 
 Earl died in 1504. 
 
 Thomas Stanley, second Earl of Derby (son of George Stanley Lord 
 Strange, and grandson of Thomas, first Earl), died May 23rd, 1521, and 
 by the Inq. post, mart., taken in the 13th Henry VIIL, was found to 
 have been seized of Balderstone manor, with lands appurtenant; of 
 Samlesbury manor; and of lands in Walton and Eccleshill in Blackburn 
 parish. 
 
 The Earls of Derby appear later, in the reign of Elizabeth, as lords 
 of a portion of Balderstone manor. 
 
 her decease they shall stand seased thereof "to the use of Syr James Harrington, Knyghte, my 
 sister's son, for terme of hys lyfe ;" after his decease, &c. , " to the use of Thomas Talbot of Bashall, 
 son and heyre of Edmund Talbot, Esq., and Jane his wife, daughter and one of the co-heires to Sir 
 Robt. Harrington of Hornby Castle, Knt., and the lady Isabell his wyfe my Sister," and the heirs of 
 the said Thomas for ever, and ' ' of Richard Radcliffe and Ellen his wyfe, which Ellen was Aunt to me 
 the said Jane, and Sister to William Balderstone my father ; and to the use of Richard Osbaldiston, 
 son and heyre of John Osbaldiston and Elizabeth his wyfe, another sister of William Balderstone my 
 father, and their heyres for ever.". 
 
4i6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 SIR EDMUND DUDLEY, LORD OF A MOIETY OF BALDERSTONE. 
 
 Sir Edmund Dudley (son of John Dudley, Esq.), a commissioner 
 of forfeiture to Henry VII., obtained a moiety of Balderstone manor, 
 sequestered from the Harringtons, by the King's grant, and held the 
 estate until his attainder and execution for treason, August 17th, 
 1 5 10. This with other estates Dudley had acquired by nefarious means 
 was then escheated to the Crown ; and on the Inq. post mort. taken at 
 Wigan, ist Henry VIII., it was proved that Edmund Dudley had held 
 half the manor of Balderstone (of which James Harrington was seized 
 in fee), with 200 messuages, 2000 acres of land, 500 acres meadow, 
 1800 acres pasture, 40 acres woodland, 3000 acres of moor, moss, &c., 
 and IOCS, rents in Balderstone, Mellor, Preston, Ribbleton, Broughton, 
 and some twenty other townships in Lancashire. 
 
 RADCLIFFE OF WYNMARLEIGH, LORDS OF BALDERSTONE. 
 
 Sir Thomas Radcliffe of Wynmarleigh, Knt., by his marriage with 
 Ellen, daughter and co-heir of Richard Balderstone, acquired for the 
 Radclififes lands in Balderstone. He had a son and heir, Richard. 
 
 Richard Radcliffe, Esq., had a son Thomas. The father died about 
 A.D. 1500, and was found possessed at death of lands in Showley-in- 
 Clayton, Mellor, and Parva Harwoode in this parish. 
 
 Thomas Radcliffe, of Wynmarleigh, Esq., aged 1 7 years at the date 
 of his father's death, had by his wife Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Gerard of the Bryn, a son and heir, Thomas; and a daughter Cicelia, 
 married first, Thomas Farington, gent.; secondly, Edward Radcliffe of 
 Todmorden, gent. The father died about the year 1521, and was found 
 seized of estates in Balderstone, Showley, Mellor, and Parva Harwood, 
 within Blackburn Parish. 
 
 Thomas Radcliffe the son had by his first wife, — Redman, a son 
 William ; and by his second, Isabel Butler, a daughter Ann. He died 
 about A.D. 1538; and his extensive possessions included messuages and 
 lands in Balderstone, Mellor, Showley, and Pleasington, in this parish. 
 
 William Radcliffe, Esq., son of Thomas, had no issue by his wife 
 Ann, daughter of Sir John Holcroft, Knt. ; and he died in 1 560, being 
 then lord of Wynmarleigh, Astley, and Cliderowe manors; also of 
 Showley in Clayton-in-le-Dale, held of Thomas Hoghton, Esq., in 
 socage; of the fourth part of the manor of Balderstone, held of John 
 Osbaldeston, Esq., in socage; and of 300 messuages, two water mills 
 and one windmill, 2000 acres of land, 300 acres meadow, 2000 acres 
 pasture, 100 acres woodland, 300 acres moor, moss and turbary in the 
 above demesnes and in Mellor, Pleasington, Little Harwood, and 28 
 other townships in Lancashire. 
 
SUNDERLAND GRANGE AND DE SUNDERLAND FAMILY. 
 
 417 
 
 On the death of Wilham Radcliffe without heir of his body, portions 
 of the estates were heired by Joan Radchffe, daughter of Edward Radcliffe 
 of Todmorden by his wife Cicely, daughter of Thomas and aunt of 
 William Radcliffe of W3Timarleigh, she being then aged 14 years; and by 
 John, son of William Singleton of Staining by his wife Alice, daughter of 
 Cicely Radcliffe by her first husband Thomas ffarington, gent. 
 
 The manors of Wynmarleigh, Astley, and Clitheroe, and the mesne 
 lands in Balderstone and Clayton-in-leDale, had been settled by William 
 Radcliffe, Esq., before his decease upon the issue of his sister Anne, wife 
 of Gilbert Gerard, Esq., afterwards Sir Gilbert Gerard, Knt., Master of 
 the Rolls, who died in 1592, seized of manorial lands in Wynmarleigh, 
 Astley, Cliderowe, Balderstone, Showley, and estates in Mellor, Parva 
 Hanvood, Pleasington, and many other places. 
 
 Sir Thomas Gerard, Knt., son and heir of Sir Gilbert, would seem 
 to have conveyed his Balderstone estate to John Braddyll, Esq., of 
 Portfield, soon after his succession to his inheritance; for in the 40th 
 Eliz. (1598), John Braddyll, "as lord of Balderstone Manor," sought to 
 recover from George Wright, Hugh Pilkington, Thomas Wright, and 
 Margery Talbott, the customary rents and services for mesne lands in 
 Balderstone held by them under leases from Sir Thomas Gerard, Knt., 
 formerly lord of that manor; and the same year, John Braddyll, lord of 
 the manor, prosecuted James Snape for intrusion on a parcel of ground 
 called Blyndhurst in Balderstone Manor. At his death in 1616, John 
 Braddyll was seized, among other estates, of lands in Balderstone. 
 
 LORDSHIP OF THE OSBALDESTON FAMILY. 
 In the 1 6th century, the Osbaldestons of Osbaldeston appear as 
 exercising manorial rights in Balderstone. In the 35th Henry VIII. 
 (1543), Sir Alexander Osbaldeston at his death reckoned among his 
 manors the manor of Balderstone, according to the escheat. In 1560, 
 we have seen, the lands of the Radcliffes in Balderstone were held in 
 socage tenure of John Osbaldeston, Esq. ; and in the i8th Eliz. (1576), 
 the same John Osbaldeston died seized of Balderstone manor, with 
 lands and messuages appurtenant. In the 32nd Eliz. (1590), Edward 
 Osbaldeston, Esq., was found in possession of Balderstone and Osbal- 
 deston manors, &c. These rights in Balderstone were probably retained 
 by the Osbaldestons until the alienation of the other contiguous demesnes 
 by the last direct representative of that family in the last century. 
 
 SUNDERLAND GRANGE AND DE SUNDERLAND FAMILY. 
 
 Sunderland in Balderstone was from ancient time a Grange of the neighbouring 
 
 Monastery of Salley, and numerous deeds in the Chartulary of Salley Abbey relate to 
 
 the conveyance of this estate by members of the T>i Sunderland family, primitive 
 
 owners, who were probably of the stock of the De Balderstones, lords of Balderstone. 
 
 53 
 
4i8 . HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Ailsi de Sunderland gave to the Abbot and Monks of Salley her lands of Sunder- 
 land, with common of wood in Osbaldeston and Balderstone, pannage for swine, &c. 
 
 Ailsius son of Hugh gave to God and the Monks of St. Marie of Salley, Sunder- 
 landesholme, between the torrent of Sunderland and the Kibble, as far as Chippendes- 
 clogh, and thence by the wood beyond Langhirst to the rivulet of Smalelie, and so 
 by the west boundary of Smalelie to Sandiford. The same donor gave to Salley lands 
 with wood upon Sunderlandesholme. Hugh son of Ailsius confirmed his father's 
 grant. 
 
 William son of Ailsius, with consent of his brothers, Robert, Alexander, John, and 
 Adam, and by the will of his mother Wimara, confirms to the Abbey all his father's 
 gift. Peter de Archis also confirmed this grant. 
 
 Adam de Winkedelai, for the salvation of his soul and of his late wife Christiana, 
 gave to the Monks of Salley all the land of Sunderlandesholme, with woods pertaining 
 to the same manor. 
 
 Adam de Sunderland gave to Adam son of Henry de Turton in free marriage 
 with Agnes his daughter a certain parcel of his land in Sunderlande. Agnes de 
 Sunderland exchanged this land in Sunderland with the Abbot of Salley for a piece of 
 land in Preston ; and Robert Cementarii, son of Agnes de Sunderland, quit-claimed to 
 Salley Monastery his right in the land which was Adam de Sunderland his uncle's, 
 son of Adam de Winkedelai, in all the Grange called Sunderlande. 
 
 The above deeds are all without date, but belong to the first part of the 13th century. 
 Later, Adam de Osbaldeston quit-claimed to Salley his right in that place of wood 
 and pasture called le Mikelfal in Sunderland Wood ; and Robert son of Thomas de 
 Osbaldeston gave also his deed of quit-claim of the same place of land. 
 
 John son of Robert de Osbaldeston gave to the Abbot and Monks of Salley his 
 right in the Common of Sunderlande, in land, meadow, and wood. William de 
 Studelehurst, Henry de Brune, and William son of Henry de Osbaldeston, also gave to 
 the Monastery their rights of Common in Sunderlande. William son of Richard de 
 Balderstone gave quit-claim of Wood in Sunderland. 
 
 In the year 1 271, the Abbot and Convent of Salley remit to Richard de Balder- 
 ■stone all their enclosures then made, with 10 acres of waste and los. 8d. of annual 
 rent, and the said Richard, on his part, quit-claimed the tenements of Lebbelay and le 
 Menefel and all his closes there made or to be made. 
 
 William, son and heir of Richard de Balderstone, quit-claimed to the Convent his 
 right of Common in the woods, closes, and pastures of Sunderlande. Galfridus son of 
 Hugh de Balderstone quit-claimed his right of Common in the enclosures made upon 
 the Grange of Sunderland by the Abbot and Monks, by deed dated June 17th, 1292. 
 John son of Hugh quit-claimed his right of Common in the Mikelfal in Sunderland 
 Wood ; and Thomas son of Adam de Birley, John his brother, Adam de Balderstone, 
 Alexander de Keuerdale, Henry de Balderstone, John son of Hugh de Balderstone, 
 and Richard son of John de Westewod, quit-claimed to the Convent their several 
 rights of Common in the Mikelfal. 
 
 About A.D. 1320, a composition was made concerning Sunderlande between the 
 House of Salley and the Church of Blackburn, by Stephen Abbot of Salley, and Roger 
 and Adam, then Rectors of Blackburn, whereby the Abbots of Salley and Whalley 
 agreed to submit their dispute as to tithes of Sunderland Grange to the Abbots of 
 Fountains and Fumess. 
 
 August 2nd, 1333, it was agreed at Whalley, between the two Houses, by media- 
 tion of the Abbots of Dora and Tyntema, that Salley should have the tithes of the 
 Grange, except Lebbelay, during the agreement Henry de Tunstall then had in the 
 
OSBALDESTON OF SUNDERLAND. 419 
 
 Grange, for 4lbs. of wax yearly ; after the Grange reverted to the Convent of Salley, 
 the Abbot and Convent of Salley to be free from tithe for the aforesaid wax, but to 
 pay tithes to Whalley Abbey except for those lands they assarted after the old compo- 
 sition was made, viz., ^% acres called Dobberuydyng, 7^ acres in le Monkeflattes, 
 2% acres in Rammesholme, i acre in le PughuU, I acre in le Facebystubbyng, and % 
 acre in le Blakewelholme. 
 
 William son of Richard de Sunderland quit-claimed to Salley his right in lands 
 and tenements the Abbot and Monks held in Sunderlande, Balderstone, and Osbal- 
 deston, by deed dated April 2nd, 1325. 
 
 In the " Liber Locus Benedictus" of Whalley it is noted that Ailsius lord of Osbal- 
 deston was seized of Osbaldeston and of Sunderland, and gave Sunderland to the Abbot 
 and Convent of Salley within metes and bounds as contained in their charter. The 
 said Abbot and Convent gave it in exchange to Adam de Sunderland for four bovates 
 of land in Craven near Pathorn ; afterwards the said Adam gave to Robert his son a 
 certain place of land called Lebbelay with Sunderland, and the said Robert sold the 
 same place to the Church of Blackburn. Afterwards, by common consent of Adam 
 and Robert de Sunderland, the said place was sold to Adam de Balderstone, and the 
 said Abbot and Convent of Salley acquired all that residue called Sunderland of the 
 said Adam, so as before they had it, except the said place called Lebbelay. 
 
 OSBALDESTON OF SUNDERLAND. 
 
 Richard Osbaldeston, gent., son of Sir Alexander Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston, 
 Knt., by his second wife Ellen, daughter of Thomas Tyldesley, Esq., settled at 
 Sunderland in Balderstone upon an estate that was then lately acquired by the 
 Osbaldestons. Richard Osbaldeston, by Eleanor his wife (who after his death 
 married, secondly, Richard Rodgate), had sons, Alexander; William; Thomas; 
 Cuthbert (who had sons Thomas and Richard); and Edward; and a daughter Alice. 
 The youngest son, Edward Osbaldeston, gent., marrying eligibly Mary, daughter of 
 John Molyneux, Esq., of Sefton, was father of Sir Richard Osbaldeston, Knt., 
 Bencher of Gray's Inn, appointed Attorney General for Ireland by privy seal dated 
 August 7th, 1636, who died in 1643, leaving by his wife (Anne Westrope), a son 
 William Osbaldeston, Esq., and a daughter Frances. Richard Osbaldeston of 
 Sunderland, gent., died April 8th, 1556, seized of lands in Balderstone, Osbaldeston, 
 and Sunderland ; Alexander, his son and heir, being then aged 10 years and 10 
 months. His Will is dated April 1st, 1556. Testator gives to Alice his daughter his 
 part of his goods ; makes Elizabeth his wife and Henry his brother executors, and 
 gives 6s. 8d. to reparation of the chapel where his " father doth lye, " and 6s. 8d. to 
 be distributed amongst the poor. Some eight years after this testator's decease, in the 
 6th Eliz. (1564), Henry Osbaldeston, executor of Richard, deceased, and administrator 
 of his goods, had a suit-at-law with Richard Rodgate and Eleanor his wife, late wife 
 of Richard Osbaldeston, respecting possession of certain messuages and lands whereof 
 Richard Osbaldeston, deceased, was seized in fee, in Sunderland and Cuerdall, and 
 which he granted and assured to certain persons, to the use of himself and Eleanor his 
 wife, as a jointure for the life of the longest liver of them, with divers remainders over, 
 and also of the goods and chattels of the said Richard. 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston of Sunderland, gent. , son of the above, married Rosamond, 
 
 daughter of Bradley of Bradley, Esq. , and had a son and heir John. Alexander 
 
 Osbaldeston rebuilt Sunderland Hall in 1596; and died Nov. 15th, 1598, aged 53. An 
 inquisition of the escheator, taken at Ribchester, Mar. 13th, 41st Eliz., showed that he 
 had been seized at death of one messuage or grange called Sunderlande, late part of 
 
420 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the possessions of the late monastery of Salley, with 40 acres of land, 40 acres of 
 meadow, 40 acres of pasture, 40 acres of woodland, and 20 acres of rushland and 
 heath. John Osbaldeston, son and heir, was then aged 7 years. 
 
 John Osbaldeston, gent. , married Katherine, daughter of George Rogerley of Park 
 Hall in Blackrod, and by her had two sons, Alexander; and John Osbaldeston, of the 
 City of London; also a daughter Margaret. John Osbaldeston died April 26th, 1629, 
 and on inquisition at Blackburn, July 26th, 5th Charles I., was found to have held the 
 messuage called Sunderland in Balderstone, with one cottage, 3 gardens, 3 orchards, 
 and 130 acres of land, meadow, pasture and woodLand in Sunderland, Balderstone, and 
 Osbaldeston. Alexander, son and heir, was aged 19 years. 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, gent., married Holcroft, daughter of Robert Hesketh of 
 Rufford, Esq., and had issue one son, John; and seven daughters, Katherine, married, 
 in 1657, to Thomas Sutton, gent., of Mawdsley; Jane, Margaret, Elizabeth, Anne, 
 Dorothy, and Mary. The father, Alexander Osbaldeston, died, aged 72, in April, 
 1681, buried at Walton Church, April 21st. 
 
 John Osbaldeston, of Sunderland, gent., born in 1634, had to wife Anne, daughter 
 of Richard Blakeburne of Goosnai^h (she died in 1690), by whom he had issue, sons, 
 Alexander ; Richard, and John : daughters, Anne, and Margaret. John Osbaldeston 
 died Nov., 1684. 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston of Sunderland, gent., son of John, born in 1661, by his 
 first wife Isabel (who died in 1704) had sons, Alexander, and Gabriel (died in 1729); 
 also a daughter Ellen, died March, 1691-2. He married again, June 13th, 1706, 
 Lettice Ainsworth of Pleasington, widow, by whom he had a daughter Mary. Among 
 the estates of Roman Catholics ordered by Parliament to be registered in 17 16, appears 
 the return of his estate by "Alexander Osbaldeston of Sunderland, gent.," who re- 
 ported that he had in Blackburn parish a messuage and 24 acres let to Ralph Waddicar, 
 at the rent of^ii los., " whereof Lettice my wife is tenant for life, and I am seized 
 in her right." His other lands were subject to the payment of;^3ii of his debts, and 
 ;{^ 1000 for his daughter Mary's portion ; and were conveyed to Alexander Osbaldeston 
 and John Aynesworth, Esqrs., in trust for the payment of the said debts and portion. 
 In the Preston Guild Roll of 1722 occur "Alexander Osbaldeston of Sunderland, ar., 
 Alexander Osbaldeston his son, and Alexander his son. " The above Alexander died 
 in Sept., 1729. 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston of Sunderland, eldest son of Alexander, had sons, 
 Alexander, Thomas, Westby, William, and Francis, all of whom, with the father, 
 were enrolled upon the Guild Roll of Preston in 1722. Alexander the father was dead 
 before 1742. 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, son of Alexander, was, I think, the last of Sunderland. 
 At the Preston Guild of 1742 "Alexander Osbaldeston, of Sunderland, Esq.," was 
 enrolled as an out-burgess for himself alone. This gentleman died in 1750. He had 
 probably daughters living in 1747 if no sons, for "Mr. Osbaldeston of Sunderland, his 
 wife and children," are mentioned in that year in the Will of Alexander Osbaldeston, 
 Esq. , of Osbaldeston. 
 
 Sunderland Hall, the residence of this family, was taken down and rebuilt some 
 years ago ; but in the wall of the new farm-house is inserted an inscribed, stone, a relic 
 of the old hall, which displays the arms of Osbaldeston of this branch — "argent, a 
 mascle, sable, between three pellets, a canton gules " — and the initials of Alexander 
 Osbaldeston and Rosamond his wife, "A OR" with the date of edification " 1596." 
 The site of the hall is on the left bank of the Ribble. 
 
LANDED ESTATES IN BALDERSTONE. 421 
 
 MODERN LANDED PROPRIETORS IN BALDERSTONE. 
 There is difficulty in tracing down the descent of each of the 
 divisions of Balderstone manor from the seventeenth century to the 
 present time.' An estate in the township to which manorial rights are 
 attached was sometime held by a family of Cross, and was sold, about 
 1 82 1, to Joseph Feilden, Esq., of Witton Park. This estate comprises 
 about 389 statute acres. Balderstone Hall and an estate of 183 acres, 
 no doubt also a portion of the ancient demesne, have been for several 
 generations in possession of the family of Winckley of Preston, and 
 now belongs to the female representative. Dowager Lady Shelley. 
 Balderstone Hall as it now stands is a simple old farm house standing 
 beside the Ribble, at the foot of a steep descent. The hall has not 
 been a proprietary abode for centuries. The Sunderland Hall estate, 
 comprising 260 acres of land and woodland, passed from the Osbal- 
 destons to Starkie of Huntroyd, and is now the property of Col. 
 Le Gendre N. Starkie. An extensive freehold estate of 355 acres in 
 this township has long been held by the Calvert family, whose living 
 representative is C. T. Calvert, Esq.* Other estates are those of Rev. 
 R. A. Rawstome, Vicar of Balderstone (163 acres) ; of Mr. Robert 
 RadclifTe (94 acres) ; of the Exors. of John Greaves (104 acres) ; of Mr. 
 Richard Carr (60 acres) ; and one of 77 acres part of the endowment 
 of Bolton Charity School. 
 
 SMALLEY OF BALDERSTONE. 
 
 A family of Smalleys formerly had a freehold in the township. In the 8th 
 Henry VIII. (1516) Robert Smalley, of Balderstone, and others, were prosecuted by 
 Thomas Clyff on a charge of rape and abduction of plaintiff's daughter. 
 
 Roger Smalley was assessed on lands in Balderstone to a Subsidy in 1523. Ann 
 Smalley, widow, in 1546, prosecuted Edward Osbaldeston and others for forcible 
 entry on a messuage and lands in Balderstone, and for trespass of cattle on pasture. 
 
 Roger Smalley, gent., holding lands in Balderstone, is on the Subsidy Roll of 
 1570, and occurs as a freeholder in 1584 and in 1600. Roger Smalley, a Governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School, occurs about 1586. 
 
 Probably a son, Roger Smalley, was taxed on his lands in Balderstone to the 
 Subsidy in 1610; and "Roger Smalley, of Balderstone, gent." occurs as a juror 
 in 1614. 
 
 1 Respecting this manor, Mr. William Langton notes it is mentioned in " Memorials of the 
 Garter" that "the heirs general of the Banastres, whose heiress married Balderstone, were the Earis 
 of Derby, as representing Ellen Radcliflfe, and the heirs of Alexander Osbaldeston, who died 9th Feb- 
 ruary, 1670." This note indicates the lordship about the end of the 17th century. In 1684, Mr. 
 Osbaldeston is named as lord of the manor. 
 
 2 I have noted the followmg members of the Calverts of Balderstone : — Richard Calvert, of Bal- 
 derstone, yeoman, paid the King's Subsidy in 1663. Another Richard Calvert, of Balderstone, 
 married, in 1696, Janet Duclcson, of Brindle. A succeeding Richard Calvert, of Balderstone, gentle- 
 man, was burled at Blackburn, October 12th, 1766. Mr. John Calvert, of Preston, a governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School, 1768-77, was of this family ; as was also his son, Mr. — Calvert, elected 
 
 Governor in 1777. Rev. Thomas (Jackson) Calvert, Warden of Manchester College, 1823-40, was, I 
 understand, heir of the Balderstone Calverts. 
 
422 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 THE CHAPEL OF ST. LEONARD. 
 
 This Chapel, originally founded as a Chapel of Ease to the Parish 
 Church of Blackburn, dates probably from temp. Henry VII. ; but no 
 record of its foundation or early history is discoverable. A chapel at 
 Balderstone is mentioned as existing in the 2nd Eliz. (1559). In the 
 next reign (James I.), the chapel was reported in a decayed condition, 
 and so it seems to have remained long afterwards. It had not been 
 regularly served by a curate before 1646, having no endowment at all. 
 But on the setting-up of the Lancashire Presbytery a minister was found, 
 and a stipend granted. On the 25th Sept., 1646, a sum of £,i,o was 
 allowed, by order of the County Committee, for a Minister at Balder- 
 stone ; one Mr. James Shaw having been approved as minister here by 
 the Committee of Divines at Bolton, July 7th, 1646 ; and the minute 
 of the classis states: — "He is paid upp till the 8th of Oct., 1647, by 
 Charles Gregory." Mr. Shaw evidently had quitted the place before the 
 date of the Parliamentary Commission that surveyed this Parish in 1650, 
 by which it was returned that Balderstone Chapel, four miles distant 
 from the Parish Church, was then without endowment and minister, 
 although eighty families should resort to it. 
 
 In 1683, the Registrar of Chester reported to the Primate that one 
 of the Blackburn Chapels, viz., Balderstone, was in ruins; and, in 1684, 
 ' the Vicar of Blackburn, answering the inquiries of Archbishop Sancroft, 
 reported : — 
 
 Balderstone Chapel, four miles from Blackburn Church, a mile and a half from 
 any other chapell. The chapell almost ruined. No Curate, no maintenance. 
 Adjacent to it Balderstone and Osbaldeston, the latter belonging to the mother church. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 Endowment : — Mrs. ffleetwood promiseth yearly - - - 200 
 The inhabitants will give yearly while they live 10 o o 
 The inhabitants will now build their chapel (which is not repayreable), and will 
 give yearly during life (being tenants only for life) 33-fifteenes, which is a great sum 
 among so few tenants, viz., i^2a. Mr. O.sbaldeston is lord of the Manner, but will 
 not be persuaded to do any more than what his Tenants promise. The Donative of 
 Stedd lyes within a mile and ^ or 2 att the most of Balderstone Chapel, and has but 
 6 Familys to the whole parish. Some of the Inhabitants of Balderstone resort to the 
 Parish of Ribchester (which i& about a mile and halfe from their Chapel) ; others to 
 the Chapel of Samlesbury (which is about a mile and ^ from their Chapel), to divine 
 service, to christen their children, and sometymes to bury their dead. But the 
 generality of them resort to their Mother Church, to receive the sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper, to marry and to bury ; and some of them come to their Mother Church 
 every Sunday to divine service and sermon, and they dwell 4 miles from thence. 
 Balderstone is a small township of itselfe. 
 
 Matters had not much improved at this chapel in 1689, when the 
 following note was made by Mr. James Bolton, of Blackburn, by authority 
 of Vicar Price : — "Balderstone, another chapell in the said Parish, but 
 
THE CHAPEL OF ST. LEONARD. 
 
 423 
 
 very ruinous, and long time discontinued from exercise of any holy offices ; 
 noe maintenance at all belonging to it, the chappell itselfe overgrowne 
 with briers and thorns, and requires a rebuilding, before it can be fitt 
 for divine worshipp." The bounty of Archbishop Bancroft, who about 
 this time made his gift in trust for the augmentation of the poor chapels 
 in the Parish, does not seem at first to have been participated in by 
 Balderstone, owing to some difficulty with the inhabitants ; for so late 
 as the year 17x4 is a record that there was still at Balderstone no 
 endo\vment, " because they pretend to pay only a prescriptive rent in 
 lieu of tithes. There is a popish meeting said to be within this chapelry." 
 Four or five years later, Bishop Gastrell makes this entry in his Notitia : — 
 
 Balderstone, certified that no endowment belongs to it. Anno 1705, certified 
 that jCj belonged to it, viz. , £$ from Thomly, and /^2 from the Rector, which was 
 divided among the curates of the other chapels, who supply this chapel in their turns, 
 only the first Sunday in every month, at which time there is no service in their own 
 chapels. The six other chapels in this parish are supplied by three curates ; those two 
 which lie nearest to one another being annext by Archbishop Sancroft's order, viz., 
 Darwen and Tockholes, Harwood and Langho, Law and Samlesbury. The lands 
 given to these chapels were bought by Archbishop Sancroft in Thornly-cum-Wheatly. 
 [Balderstone is] four miles from the Parish Church, and two miles from any other 
 chapel. The inhabitants of Balderstone, Osbaldeston, and part of Mellor resort to it. 
 Circumference about seven miles. No wardens. 
 
 In 1742 the first important augmentation to the endowment of the 
 chapel was made. A benefaction of ;62oo by Rev. John Potter, then 
 Vicar of Blackburn, by deed dated 19th June, 1742, procured a sum of 
 ;^20o from the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty. A second similar 
 augmentation was received in 1755-6, when the payment of ;^2oo by 
 the executors of Dr. Stratford, on March 2Sth, 1755, was met by agrant 
 of ;^20o from the Royal Bounty. In 1835 the value of the living was 
 _;^i2 5 per annum. The amount now given to Balderstone out of the 
 revenues of the Sancroft Trust is about ^£^14 per annum. The present 
 value of the benefice is returned as ;^i5o. The Vicar of Blackburn is 
 patron. 
 
 The fabric of the Chapel was repaired and enlarged by faculty in 
 1752 ; but was again dilapidated in 1818, and the further repairs in that 
 year could not have been material ; for in 1852 the chapel was reported 
 both to be incommodious and in decayed condition. It was then 
 resolved to erect a new Church. The comer-stone of the present edifice 
 was laid on July 22nd, 1852, by Joseph Feilden, Esq., lord of the manor. 
 The site was the gift of Charles Thomas Calvert, Esq., of London. 
 The church stands in a secluded situation in the midst of the township. 
 Its style is decorated English; the plan includes nave, 57ft. by 36ft.; 
 chancel, and north porch. A belfry rises above the west gable. The cost of 
 
424 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the fabric, exclusive of the stone given by Mr. Slater of Osbaldeston, was 
 about ;^i,ooo, provided by subscription. Of 450 sittings, 70 are free. 
 
 The following curates have served the Chapelry of Balderstone since the increased 
 endowment permitted the appointment of a stated minister: — 1741. Rev. Thomas 
 Hunter (Master of Blackburn Grammar School, 1737-50); 1756. Rev. Thomas 
 Cooper; occurs in 1792; 1813. ext. Rev. Wm. Lutener, Perp. Cur., died, aged 46, 
 Dec. 5th, 1815; 1816. Rev. Thomas Exton (occurs as incumbent in 1824); (Stip. 
 curates — Josh. R. Jameson, 1817-9; G. Wilkins; Stephen Birkett, 1823); 1827. 
 Rev. William Hartley, stip. curate and perp. curate from 1839 to 1859, when he 
 resigned; 1859. Rev. Robert Atherton Rawstome, M.A., present Vicar. 
 
 CHARITIES OF BALDERSTONE. 
 
 About A.D. 1686. Margaret Radclifife gave two cottages and half 
 an acre of land in Balderstone, for poor house-keepers ; at the last report 
 of the Charity Commission, the land produced £,2 12s. per ann., and 
 the two cottages with gardens ^14 4s. per ann. 
 
 A.D. 1 716. Michael Waterhouse, by hjs Will dated July 20th, 
 1 716 (proved at Chester in 17 19), directed that his messuages and tene- 
 ment with closes in Balderstone containing 15a. 3r. i5p. should be 
 charged with los. per annum, to the Poor of Balderstone, to be distri- 
 buted yearly by Alexander Osbaldeston, John Gregson, William Radcliife, 
 Thomas Turner, and his Nephew Michael Waterhouse [Michael Water- 
 house of Blackburn, gent, buried March 28th, 1732], and his heirs for 
 ever. — In 1786, the annuity, paid by Mr. Calvert, was received by the 
 overseer from the tenant of an estate called Waterhouse, late the 
 property of Mr. Calvert deceased ; in 1825, the property of Rev. Thos. 
 Jackson. 
 
 John Livesey of Balderstone gave ;^i5 to the Poor of Balderstone, 
 which, in 17 18, was in the hands of Mr. Osbaldeston of Sunderland, and 
 the interest distributed on St. Thomas's Day by John Jackson of Preston, 
 the Trustee. 
 
DESCENT OF BILLINGTON MANOR. 
 
 425 
 
 CHAPTER III.— THE TOWNSHIP OF BILLINGTON. 
 
 Topography of the Township, &c. — Descent of the Manor— De Bilyngton Family— De Hudleston — 
 Abbots of Whalley as lords — Holcroft — Asheton — Hacking of Hacking — Shuttleworth — Walmes- 
 ley and Petre as lords — Hacking Hall — Braddyll of Braddyll and Brockhole — Barker — Chew of 
 Potter Ford, &c. — Cunliffe — Deane — Slater — Smalley — Speake — Talbot — Chapel of St. Leonard, 
 Langho — Roman Catholic Chapel — Billington Charities — Commons Enclosure, &c. 
 
 BILLINGTON is a large township, having an area of 2960 statute 
 acres, occupying the ground which falls northward from the ridge 
 of moorland whose heights bear the names of Billington Moor and 
 Whalley Nab, to the Rivers Calder and Ribble, which are confluent on 
 the border of the township. Billington is a manor under Clitheroe 
 Castle ; and constitutes, with Wilpshire and Dinkley on the south-west 
 side, the parochial chapelry of Langho. With the exception of three 
 small cotton manufactories, the township is still given up to agriculture. 
 The land is all in pasturage or woodland ; and the soil on the levels 
 near the two'rivers is alluvial and good. The population of Billington 
 in 1 80 1 was 844 ; and in 1871 was 1204. The chapelry was reported 
 to the Commission of 1650 to contain 300 families, or about 1500 
 persons ; but probably this was a mis-statement, for nearly seventy years 
 later (about 1718) a return gave but 100 families for the chapelry, or 
 some 500 souls. It was on the lower ground of Billington that the 
 battle of Billangahoh was fought in Saxon times, A.D. 798 (see ante 
 pp. 27-8). 
 
 DESCENT OF THE MANOR— DE BILYNGTON FAMILY. 
 
 One of the De Lascys, Norman lords of Clitheroe Honor, granted 
 the fee of Billington to Hugh, son of Leofwyne, a Saxon ; and William, 
 son of Hugh, conveyed his rights in this manor to Ralph, son of Geoffrey 
 de Bilyngton. 
 
 After Ralph, appears Adam de Bilyngton, who occurs in 121 1; and 
 next comes Elias de Bilyngton, who had a son Adam. 
 
 Adam de Bilyngton, living temp. Henry HI., had a daughter and 
 
 54 
 
426 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 heiress Avicia, who married, first, Geoffrey de Whalley, and secondly, 
 Henry del' Cho, by whom she had sons Richard and Thomas. To 
 Henry del' Cho, Adam de Bilyngton granted land in Billington called 
 the Halgh. 
 
 Geoffrey de Whalley, first husband of Avicia de Bilyngton, settling 
 on this estate, acquired the surname De Bilyngton. To Geoffrey de 
 Bilyngton, who occurs before 1250, his wife Avicia bore sons, Adam, 
 Roger, Richard, Robert, Ralph, William, and Henry. Avicia de 
 Bilyngton is named as in widowhood about A.D. 1270. Of the younger 
 sons of Geoffrey and Avicia, Roger had to wife Agnes, who survived 
 him ; Richard, by his wife Cicilia, had a son Geoffrey, who had a son 
 Richard ; Robert had lands at Langale, in Billington ; Ralph had a son 
 Richard, who had a daughter Mabile, wife of Roger Ingol of Elston ; 
 William had six acres in Billington of his mother's gift ; and Henry had 
 lands in this township conveyed by him to Richard Pountchardon. 
 
 Adam de Bilyngton, son and heir of Geoffrey, had a son Adam. 
 But the father conveyed his estate, being a moiety of Billington vill, to 
 Adam de Hudleston, Knt., A.D. 1288, and so terminated the record of 
 the family as manorial owners in the township. 
 
 DE HUDLESTON, LORDS OF BILLINGTON. 
 
 Sir Adam de Hudleston, Knt., who obtained the moiety of this 
 manor from Adam de Bilyngton, secured for term of his life the 
 other moiety by the gift of Henry de Lascy, Earl of Lincoln, by undated 
 deed of grant, probably about 1304, when Sir Adam de Hudleston had 
 from Edw. I. grant of free warren in Billington. Sir Adam, by his two 
 wives, Joan and Isabel, had no issue, and his nephew Richard was his 
 heir. At the De Lascy Inquisition in 131 1, " Sir Adam de Hudelston 
 held Clayton and Bilyngton by the service of los. yearly at the feast of 
 St. Giles, and 3d. at Midsummer, and suit of the Court of Clyderhou." 
 He died about the year 132 1. Inq. post mart, was taken at Billington, 
 before Thomas de Burgh, King's Escheator, the 15th Edward II. (1322), 
 upon the oaths of William de Heriis, Philip de Clayton, Henry de 
 Henthorne, John de Holt, Thomas del Grenegore, Ralph de Revede, 
 William de Wyswalle, Henry de Alvetham, John de Bradhil, Henry 
 de Bradhil, John del' Riddinge, and Richard de Rischeton, to 
 inquire what lands and what tenements Adam de Hodleston held of the 
 Lord the King in capiie the day in which he died. "Who say upon their 
 oaths that he was seised in his lordship as of fee the day he died of the 
 mediety of the Manor of Bilyngton, with a certain tenement in the same 
 manor called Le Scho, and that he held of the King one carucate of 
 land that was Henry de Lascy's, once Earl of Lincoln, by service, 
 homage and fidelity, and by the 20th part of a Knight's fee and suit to 
 
BILLINGTON MANOR— ABBOTS OF WHALLEY. 427 
 
 the King's Court of Cliderhou. Also that the same Adam held of others 
 no other tenements in the County of Lancaster the day he died, and 
 that the foresaid tenements are worth per annum iocs.; and that Richard 
 son of John de Hodleston is kinsman and next heir to Adam de 
 Hodleston, and is of the age of 40 years." 
 
 Sir Richard de Hudleston, Knt., sold, in the year 1323, to Thomas, 
 son of Geoffrey le Scrop, Knt., the half of Billington manor he inherited, 
 described as the "manor of Choo with its appurtenances, and half the 
 vill of Bilyngton, with its appurtenances." 
 
 ABBOTS OF WHALLEY, LORDS OF BILLINGTON. 
 
 Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, by charter dated May 3rd, i ith Edw. II. 
 (1317), granted to the Abbot and Monks of Whalley the reversion of 
 the moiety of the manor of Billington which Adam de Hodleston, Knt., 
 then held for term of his life. The next year Sir Adam attorned 
 himself by the Earl's order to the Abbot and Convent ; and received from 
 the latter the sum of 23 marks and los.; receipt dated from " The Cho, 
 Vigil of St. Mary Magdalene," a.d. 13 18. 
 
 The other moiety the Abbey acquired by grant of Sir Geoffrey le 
 Scrop, Justice of the King's Bench, second son of Sir William le Scrop, 
 of Bolton, and heir to Thomas le Scrop, who had the moiety of this 
 manor of Sir Richard de Hudleston, Knt. Sir Geoffrey's deed of gift to 
 the Abbey, dated the 6th Edw. III. (1332), describes the estate as the 
 manor of Cho, and the mediety of the vill of Bilyngton, with their 
 appurtenances, and with homages and services of all the free tenants 
 there. 
 
 Besides the manorial estates, the Abbot and Monks of Whalley acquired many 
 parcels of freehold land in Billington from successive benefactors. In the Abbey 
 "Coucher Book," 144 title deeds relate to lands in this township. The following 
 gifts may be noted. A.D. 1259, Countess Margaret de Lascy gave the Abbot and 
 Monks a site in Billington for a building to lay up their com into. William de 
 Dynkedley gave half an acre for a site for a bam. Adam de Hudleston, Knt., by 
 deed dated 1318, gave to the Monastery right of pasturage upon Billington Common 
 for eight beasts, also to dig turf, and to open a quarry for stone upon his land in 
 Billington. Thomas de Pont gave parcels of land called Menefeld and Grenecroft. 
 John de Gristwayth, Vicar of Blackburn, gave his land in the field called Snodde- 
 worth ; and other lands in the township. Richard de Bilyngton granted seven acres of 
 his land called Longale, four acres called Betham, and other parcels of land. Adam 
 de Standen, Richard del Heye, and Richard de Chaderton, severally gave parcels of 
 land to the Monastery. 
 
 In the Abbey " Coucher Book," begun by Abbot Lyndelay in 1347^ 
 
 a record is made of the free tenants of Billington about the date of the 
 
 acquisition by the Monastery of the manorial rights, which I translate :— 
 
 Memorandum, that of the same first part of Bilyngton the freeholders hold the 
 
 underwritten, namely : — Henry de Bolton, whose charter is written in the same 
 
428 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 preceding title, and pays by the year for his land 25s. 4d. Item, the place which is 
 called the Hakkyng, and pays by the year 55. 4d. Item, the mill of Hakkyng, and 
 pays by the year 13s. 4d. Item, Robert de Cundeclif, two acres, pays by the year 8d. 
 Item, John, son of J. Watson, holds the land which is called Bradhul, but that he 
 has a deed of the same or not is doubted, and pays .by the year 3s. 5d. Item, the 
 land of Walbruk pays by the year 2s. Item, William de Bradhull holds a tenement 
 for which he pays by the year 6d. Item, Alexander del Den [Dean] holds land 
 within certain bounds and divisions, but has no deed, and pays by the year 4s. — Sum 
 of the rents of the hereditary tenants 54s. 7d. ; out of which we pay annually to the 
 heirs of Hakkyng for the site of a certain tythe-barn, 6d. , as in a certain charter con- 
 cerning the foresaid bam to us made, in the title of Blackebum, is fully contained. 
 
 At the Survey of Abbey estates in 1538, after the dissolution, the 
 freeholders of Billington under the Abbey were these : — John Deane, 
 holding Hodghouse tenement, 22 acres, paying 2s. yearly ; also holding 
 half a messuage called Townworth, paying is. 4d. ; and a messuage 
 called Deynehill, paying 4s. ; Robert Cuneliffe, holding freely and 
 paying ;^i 5s. ; Robert Shuttleworth and Robert Blackbome, holding 
 freely, paying 6s. 4d. ; Nicholas Talbot, holding freely lands called 
 Snodworth, paying is. ; Robert Morley, holding freely lands called 
 Braddill, paying iis. 7d. ; the heirs of William Barker, holding freely 
 lands called Whetley, paying yearly a broad arrow and suit in the court ; 
 the heirs of Becking, holding freely Beckinsay field, paying yearly one 
 pair of gloves and suit, &c. ; Edward Braddell, holding lands freely ; 
 and Richard Showe, holding freely a close of six acres called Benson 
 field, and paying yearly los. Total of services ^3 4s. id. ; rents from 
 tenants-at-will ^£'44 13s. 4d. 
 
 The following memoranda close the survey of Billington : — 
 
 To bring in all the wast grounds which is in the Lords' hands unlete, and what 
 name of such lands is. — The Maner Place is clearly decayed and mencioned wheire 
 the maner stoode is now called Chete yard, containing by estimation 2 acres. — There 
 is a Common called Billington Common, which containeth about 2 miles and halfe, 
 the tenants doth intercommon with the townshipps of Great Harwood and Wilpsheld 
 [Wilpshire]. There is a wood called Elker-well, replenished with oke timber and 
 few young trees and much underwoode, which is hasell and eller, containing about by 
 estimation 60 acres, which cannot be sold, for it is little enough for the reparations of 
 the tenants in the milnes, but only the underwood. Theire is another wood called the 
 Nabe, replenished with oke timber and many faier ash trees, and but small underwood, 
 and containing by estimation 40 acres. — The tenants of the same lordshippe houldeth 
 there lands in the will of the lord, and payeth every alienation for their fine and 
 incoming as they can agree with the lord or with his officers their for the time being. — 
 There is kept vrithin the same Lordshipp 2 Courts in the year at such time as it shall 
 please the officer. — Under that Sir Thomas Southworth, knight, is appointed to have 
 the ordering and ruling of the tenants their, with the gathering of the tyeth within 
 the parish of Blackbome, untill the feaste and Nativitie of our Lord God next ensuing, 
 yealding accompt theirof to the King's use, for that their is no officer their. 
 
BILLINGTON MANOR— HOLCROFT AND ASHETON. 429 
 
 HOLCROFT, LORDS OF BILLINGTON. 
 
 Shortly after the sequestration, Henry VIII. granted Billington 
 manor to Thomas Holcroft, Esq. (second son of John Holcroft, Esq., 
 and brother of Sir John Holcroft, Knt., of Holcroft) ; and the same 
 court favourite secured extensive estates that had belonged to the Abbey 
 of Vale Royal and the Friaries of Warrington and Preston. His wife 
 was Juliana, daughter of Nicholas Jennings, a London alderman ; by her 
 he had a son Thomas. Thomas Holcroft, the father, for his service in 
 the war in Scotland in 1 544 was made a Knight-banneret. Sir Thomas 
 Holcroft, Knt., died in 1558; and the Iim. post mart., taken at Wigan, 
 5th and 6th Phil, and Mary, proved he had been seized of " Byllington 
 manor " and several other Lancashire manors. 
 
 Thomas Holcroft, Esq., his son, was proved his heir. Thomas 
 Holcroft held this manor until the close of his life. In 1597, "Thomas 
 Holcroft, son of Sir Thomas Holcroft, Knt., lord of Billington Manor," 
 brought a suit in the Duchy Court of Lancaster against Henry Morley, 
 for alleged wrongful possession of lands in Braddill Fields in Billington, 
 parcel of the possessions of the dissolved Monastery of Whalley. He 
 died about 1598. 
 
 About the beginning of the 17 th century, Sir Thomas Walmesley, 
 Knt., purchased the manor of Billington of the representative of Holcrofts 
 of Vale Royal. The new lord of the manor had before attached to his 
 house the freehold of Hacking in Billington by his marriage with the 
 heiress of that estate. 
 
 FREEHOLD ESTATE OF ASHETON OF GREAT LEVER. 
 The Ashetons of Great Lever owned lands in Billington, which 
 had been portion of the estate of Whalley Abbey. Richard Asheton, 
 Esq., died temp. Eliz., seized of Whalley manor and monastery, Downham 
 manor, and certain messuages and lands in Blackburn and Billington. 
 Ralph Asheton, Esq., lord of Great Lever, died on the 12th Jan., 30th 
 Eliz. (1587-8) ; and by escheat was found to have held at death, among 
 other estates, Downham manor; with six messuages, six cottages, one 
 water mill, too acres of land, 40 acres of meadow, 100 acres of pasture, 
 10 acres of wood, and 200 acres of moor and turbary in Whalley and 
 Billington, and six messuages, 40 acres of land, 8 acres of meadow, 40 
 acres of pasture, 2 acres of wood, and 100 acres of moor and turbary in 
 Billington alone. The next Ralph Asheton, who died Jan. 17th, 162 1-2, 
 was seized at his death of Great Lever manor, &c. ; " the manor or house 
 and site of the late Monastery of Whalley;" and of 16 messuages, 14 
 cottages, I water corn-mill, 100 acres of arable land, 40 acres of meadow, 
 100 acres of pasture, 10 acres of woodland, and 200 acres of moor and 
 
430 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 turbary, in \Vhalley, Pendleton, and in the parish of Blackburn ; also of 
 lands in various townships in Co. Ebor ; of 8 messuages, 40 acres of 
 arable land, 8 acres of meadow, 40 acres of pasture, lo acres of wood 
 and underwood, and 100 acres of moor and turbary in Billington, in tlie 
 parish of Blackburn ; and of i messuage, 2 gardens, and 40 acres of land 
 in Oswaldtwistle ; and the " foresaid manors, lands, tenements, and other 
 premises, and appurtenances, in Whalley, Billington, Pendleton," &c., 
 were held of the King in capiie by knight -service of the 40th part of a 
 knight's fee; and were worth yearly ^15. The Asheton's estate in 
 Billington passed to the Curzons, and was eventually sold, by a member 
 of the latter family, early in the present century, to Mr. Petre, lord of 
 the manor. 
 
 HACKING OF HACKING. 
 
 The freehold estate of Hacking (anciently Hakkyng) occupies the 
 north-eastern angle of Billington, at the confluence of the rivers Calder 
 and Ribble. It was possessed for several generations before A.D. 1330 
 by a family known as Del' Hakkyng. To Bernard del' Hakkyng, living 
 in 1240, Richard de Billington made a deed of quit-claim. 
 
 William del' Hakkyng succeeds, to whom, about A.D. 1283, Henry 
 de Lascy, Earl of Lincoln, grants the Mill of Billington, erected by him 
 upon the water of Ribble, to hold of him (the Earl) for himself, his heirs, 
 &c. He had a son Bernard. 
 
 Bernard del' Hakkynge, son of William, occurs in 1292, in 1298, 
 and in 13 13. To him, by deed dated 1292, Ralph de Kirkehame 
 demises all his right in that land in the vill of Billington which his 
 mother had by the demision of William del' Hakkyng. In 13 11, it was 
 found that Bernard del' Hakkyng held in Whilpshire half an oxgang of 
 land in thanage, paying yearly i id. and suit to the Court of Clitheroe. 
 Bernard's son and heir was William. 
 
 William del' Hackinge, son of Bernard, succeeded. By deed dated 
 2nd Edw. III. (1328-9), Bernard del' Hackinge gives to William his son 
 and heir all his lands and tenements in the vills of Aghton, Billington, 
 and Dinkedley, to have, &c., to himself and his heirs. This William del' 
 Hackinge had an only daughter and heiress Agnes, who married Henry 
 de Shuttleworth. Her sire, the last representative male of the Del' 
 Hackinge family, was living A.D. 1332. 
 
 SHUTTLEWORTH OF SHUTTLEWORTH AND HACKING. 
 
 Henry de Shotilworth occurs in the and Henry III. (1214), as 
 then holding lands in the hamlet of Shuttleworth in Hapton. His son 
 was Henry. 
 
 Henry de Shotilworth, son of Henry, lived temp. Henry III. and 
 
SHUTTLEWORTH OF HACKING. 431 
 
 Edward I. His wife was Emma. He was probably father of John, 
 named below. 
 
 John de Shotlesworth was found at the De Lascy Inquisition in 13 1 1 
 holding of the Earl Henry de Lascy freely 10 acres of land in Huncote, 
 paying yearly at the Feast of St. Gyles 20s. and 2s. at Midsummer for 
 Castle Guard at Cliderhou. 
 
 Henry de Shuttleworth, the next member, died before the year 1326. 
 The Inq. post mort. taken at Clitheroe, July 22nd, 1326, showed that 
 the said Henry had held at his death certain lands and a tenement in 
 Shuttleworth (in Hapton), of John Talbot (who was under age and in the 
 King's wardship), son and heir of Edmund Talbot, by fidelity and service 
 of 4s. and 6 barbed arrows; of the lands 16 acres were arable, worth 
 5s. 4d. yearly; 4 acres meadow, worth i6d. ; and 24 acres waste, worth 
 4s. yearly; also a cottage and 10 acres of land in Symondstone, by 
 thanage, worth 3s. 4d. yearly. John, brother of the said Henry, was 
 heir, and aged 22 years.^ 
 
 John de Shuttleworth is named in the Lansdowne Feodary as 
 holding lands in Huncot; and in the 49th Edw. IH. (1375), "John de 
 Schotelworth the elder" enfeoffed John de Pilkington, Parson of Bury 
 Church, Henry de Shotelworth, and others, of all his lands and tenements 
 in Shuttleworth in the vill of Hapton, and in the vill of Huncote, to 
 have and hold, &c., with the condition that after the decease of the said 
 John and Henry, remainder be limited to William, son of Henry, and his 
 heirs male ; remainder to his brothers, Robert, Thomas, and Ughtrede. 
 
 Henry de Shuttleworth, the first of Hacking (brother or kinsman of 
 the above John), married, before 1330, Agnes, only daughter and heiress 
 of William de Hakkyng, and had issue, sons, John; Thomas; Ughtrede; 
 Robert; and William. By a deed dated 42nd Edw. HI. (1369), John 
 de Bridestwisel, chaplain, grants to Richard de Radcliffe for his life all 
 his messuages, lands, &c., in the vill of Billington, with one mill, and 
 also in the vill of Aghton, which he had of the feoffment of Henry de 
 Shottolworth and Agnes his wife; after decease of the said Richard 
 Radcliffe, remainder to Henry and Agnes de Shuttleworth for their lives ; 
 remainder to John, son of Henry, and his heirs ; remainder to Yhomas, 
 Ughtred, and Robert, brothers of John, sons of Henry de Shuttleworth. 
 
 Ughtred Shuttleworth, son of Henry, is named as first of Gawthorpe. 
 John Shuttleworth, of Hacking, son and heir of Henry, possessed 
 the lands in Hapton; and by deed dated 22nd Ric. H. (1398), John son 
 of Henry de Shottilesworth quit-claims to John del Heye of Hapton all 
 his right in ten acres of land lying near Shuttleworth in the vill of Hapton. 
 The widow of this John, named "Magota," was living in 1422. 
 
 I Lane. Inquisitions, Ed. by Wm. Langton (Cheth. Socy.), p. 152. 
 
432 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Henry Shuttleworth, of Hackinge, was son and heir of John, and by . 
 a deed dated ist Henry VI. (1422), Magota, once wife of John de 
 Shuttelworth, binds herself to pay to her son Henry, at the feast of the 
 Nativity next ensuing, a sum of ^^40 sterling. Henry's son and successor 
 was Robert. 
 
 Robert Shuttleworth, of Hackinge, held the estate in the middle 
 part of the fifteenth century. He is first party to a deed (cited below), 
 made in the year 1463. He had a son and heir, Henry. 
 
 Henry Shuttleworth, of Hacking, living in 146 1 and in 1490, had 
 to wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Winkeley (owner of Winkeley 
 estate near Hacking on the other bank of Ribble). Indenture dated 2nd 
 Edw. IV. (1463) between Robert Shotelworth, of the one part, and 
 Thomas Winkeley, of the other part, witnesses that forasmuch as Henry 
 Shotelworth, son and heir of Robert, has wedded Elizabeth, daughter of 
 I'homas Winkeley, the said Robert father of Henry grants to Thomas 
 Winkeley that he shall enfeoff two or three persons nominated by the 
 said Thomas, in certain rents, lands and tenements. Henry Shuttleworth's 
 son and heir was Robert. Henry Shuttleworth and Robert his son are 
 parties to an agreement, dated 6th Hen. VII., that the said Henry shall 
 enter peaceably into a place in Simonstone, &c. 
 
 Robert Shuttleworth, of Hacking, gent., living in 1490 and in 
 
 1 509, is party to a deed of bond to Ralph Katerall, of Parva Mitton, m 
 a sum of ;^ioo, dated Sept. 30th, 23rd Henry VII. (1508-9), the condi- 
 tion of the obligation being that if the said Robert truly perform 
 covenants contained in a pair of indentures made between the said 
 Robert and Raufe Katerall concerning the marriage of Henry Shuttle- 
 worth the younger, son and heir of Robert, and Katherine, daughter of 
 the said Raufe, bearing date Dec. 26th, 1508, the obligation to be void, 
 &c. The son here named, Henry Shuttleworth, died before his father, 
 before 1513, leaving by Katherine his wife a son Robert, bom about 
 
 1 5 10. Robert Shuttleworth the father died on the 9th September, 
 5th Henry VIII. (15 13), and by escheat inquisition taken at Wigan, 
 in the 7th Henry VIII., it was returned that Robert Shotilworth, 
 late of Hakkynge in the vill of Billington, had died seized of one 
 messuage, 4 acres of arable land, 4 acres of meadow, and 4 acres of 
 wood, in Billington, held of the Abbot of Whalley, in socage, by a rent 
 of 6s., worth 22s. 8d. ; other lands in Billington, of the Abbot, worth 20s.; 
 lands in Billington, of the heir of John Talbot, in socage, by a rent of 
 2d., worth 2S. ; a messuage, 30 acres of land, 4 acres of pasture, 6 acres 
 of wood, in Aghton, held of Hugh Sherburne in socage, by ij^d. rent, 
 worth 40s.; a messuage, 24 acres of land, 8 acres meadow, 20 acres 
 pasture, in Simonstone, held of the King in socage, by 2s. rent, worth 
 
WALMESLEY, LORDS OF BILLINGTON. 433 
 
 26s. 8d. ; also a certain chantry in the Parish Church of Blackburn. 
 Robert Shuttleworth, son of Henry, son of Robert deceased, was found 
 next heir, aged 5 years and upwards. 
 
 Robert Shuttleworth of Hacking, gent., grandson and heir of Robert, 
 married Isabel, daughter of John Hoghton of Pendleton, gent, (this lady 
 survived him and subsequently married Robert Morley of Dinkley, gent. ; 
 she was living in 1568), and had issue a son Robert; I think a son 
 Charles; also a daughter Grace, wife of Ralph Parkinson of Falsnape. 
 This Robert Shuttleworth, on the survey of Whalley Abbey Lands in 
 1538, was found holding freely lands in Billington for which he paid 
 6s. 4d. to the Abbey yearly. By a deed dated 34 Henry VIH. (1543), 
 Robert Shutilworth of Hackinge, gent., enfeoffed Richard Townley the 
 elder, Esq., Alexander Hoghton, Richard Greenacres, and John Braddill, 
 gentlemen, of all his lands and tenements, including the "manor of 
 Hacking," in trust to the use of Robert Shuttleworth for his life, &c. He 
 died soon after this deed was executed. 
 
 Robert Shuttleworth of Hacking, gent., son of Robert, married Jane,- 
 daughter of Evan Browne, and sister and co-heir of Richard Browne, of 
 Ribbleton, and by her (who died before 1558) had one daughter and 
 sole heir, who married Thomas Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh, Esq., 
 and conveyed the Hacking estate to the Walmesleys after her sire's 
 decease. She was bom before 1550, married before 1570, and died, in 
 extreme age, in 1635. Robert Shuttleworth, "in right of Jane, his late 
 wife," is party to a deed of partition of the estate of Richard Browne, 
 gent., deceased, among the representatives of his six sisters and co-heirs, 
 dated ist Eliz. (1558). Robert Shuttleworth, gent, died before 1570. 
 
 WALMESLEY, AND PETRE, OF DUNKENHALGH, LORDS OF 
 BILLINGTON. 
 
 Thomas Walmesley, Esq., eldest son of Thomas Walmesley of 
 Showley, gent, (see posf, under Clayton-in-le-Dale), married, before 1570, 
 Anne, daughter and sole heiress of Robert Shuttleworth, gent, and thus 
 secured the estate of Hacking to his line of Walmesleys. This notable 
 lawyer was born in 1537; was a sergeant-at-law before 1586 ; a Queen's 
 Commissioner for the Military Levy in 1580; on May loth, 1589, was 
 appointed Justice of the Common Pleas; and was knighted by James I. 
 in 1603. Amassing wealth by his legal practice. Sir Thomas Walmesley 
 acquired by purchase in rapid succession, between 1570 and 16 10, 
 manorial and other estates in Lancashire and Yorkshire ; among them 
 the manor of Clayton-les-Moors and demesne of Dunkenhalgh, which he 
 made his family seat ; the manor of Rishton; lands in Church ; half the 
 manor of Samlesbury ; the manor of Nether Darwen ; and the 
 manor of Billington, purchased from Holcroft ; as well as freehold 
 
 55 
 
434 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 lands of the Cunliffes and others in this township. For possession 
 of the " capital messuage called the Hackinge," with lands in 
 Billington and Aghton, Thomas Walmesley and Anne his wife 
 Iiad several suits in the Duchy Court with one Charles Shuttle- 
 worth, a kinsman, perhaps, of Mistress Walmesley, about the year 
 1570. Sir Thomas Walmesley, Knt, rebuilt the halls of Dunken- 
 halgh and Hacking — the latter in 1607. Sir Thomas died, aged 75, on 
 the 26th Nov., 1612, and was buried in the south chapel of Blackburn 
 Church, where an elaborate monument in alabaster was erected to him, 
 destroyed during the Civil War, about 1642-4,^ He had settled his estates 
 by deed of trust dated March 20th, 1606-7.^ The Ifiq. post mori.y taken 
 in the nth jas. I., returned that he had been seized at death of Rishton 
 manor, held of the King as of the Duchy of Lancaster, for the fourth 
 part of a Knight's fee, worth yearly ^£6 13s. 4d.; half the manor of 
 Claiton-super-Mores, held of the King, for the 8th part of a Knight's 
 fee, worth yearly 40s.; half the manor of Billington, held of the King, for 
 the 40th part of a Knight's fee, worth yearly ^10 ; the messuage called 
 CunlifTe House, and lands and tenements in Billington ; half the manor 
 of Nether Darwyn, of the King, for the 8th part of a Knight's fee, worth 
 yearly jQ^ ; lands and tenements in Church, of the King as of his 
 manor of Clitherowe, in socage, worth yearly 4s. ; lands and tenements in 
 
 1 Lansdowne MS. 973, in the British Museum Library, contains a copy of Judge Walmesley's 
 epitaph from this monument, which records that he was a Judge of the Common Pleas from the 31st 
 Eliz., a space of 25 years, " during which time he went all the circuits of England, except that of 
 Norfolk and Suffolk." The tomb also had inscribed upon it the elegy, the first and last lines of which 
 are subjoined : — 
 
 Tombs have their periods, monuments decay, 
 
 And age and rust wear epitaphs away ; 
 
 But neither rust, nor age, nor time shall wear 
 
 Judge Walmesley's name, that lies entombed here. 
 
 Who never did, for favour or for awe 
 
 Of great men's frowns, quit or forsake the law. 
 
 For when as old age, creeping on apace. 
 Made him unable to supply his place. 
 Yet he continued, by the King's permission, 
 A judge until his death, still in commission ; 
 And still received, by his special grace, 
 His fee, as full as when he served the place. 
 
 2 By this deed, the parties to which are Sir Thomas Walmesley, Knt., of the 1st part ; Thomas, 
 his son and heir, of the 2nd part ; Rt. Hon. Henry Lord Danvers, George Talbot, gent., and William 
 Rishton, Thomas Clayton, and John Barker (servants of Sir Thomas), of the 3rd part, it is witnessed 
 that Sir Thomas Walmesley the father, for the continuance of his manors and lands in his own name 
 and blood, grants to the parties of the 3rd part, the manors and lordships of Rishton, Billington, and 
 Nether Dar wen, and half the manor of Clayton-les-Moors, Co. Lancaster; manor of Paythorne, &c., 
 Co. York : and all estates in the above townships and in Whalley, Dinckley, Blackburn, Over Dar- 
 wen, Pleasington, Church, Clitheroe, Ribchester, Ribbleton, &c. ; with lands, tythes, &c., parcel of 
 the possessions of the late Monastery of Selby ; and lands had by purchase from Edmund Talbot, 
 Ksq. ; to have and hold in trust to the use of the said Sir Thomas Walmesley and the heirs male of his 
 body ; with remainders in default of issue of Sir Thomas, or of Thomas Walmesley the son, &c. 
 
WALMESLEY, LORDS OF BIIXINGTON. 435 
 
 Dinckley, of the King, as of his manor of Clitherowe, in socage, worth 
 yearly 5s. ; lands and tenements in Clitherowe, in free burgage of the 
 Duchy of Lancaster, worth 20s., &c. The heiress of Hacking, Sir 
 Thomas's widow, — " Ladie Walmsley, gen., de Dunkinhalge," — was 
 buried in Blackburn Church, April 19th, 1635 ; she died at a great age. 
 
 Thomas Walmesley, of Dunkenhalgh, Esq., lord of Billington, son 
 and heir of the Judge, bom before 1575, married, first, Elinor, daughter 
 of Sir John Danvers of Dantsey, Co. Wilts., by whom he had issue, sons, 
 John, died young in April, 1600; and Thomas, eventual heir; and 
 daughters, Elizabeth, wife of Richard Sherburne of Stony hurst, Esq.; and 
 Anne, wife of Sir Edward Osborne of Kineton, Co. York. H is second 
 wife was Mary, a sister of Sir Richard Hoghton, Bart., by whom (she died 
 in July, 1632) he had issue a son Charles, born in 1608, of Stanger 
 Hall, near Selby, Co. York. Thomas Walmesley, Esq., died March 
 i2th, 1641-2; buried at Blackburn Church, March i6th; his son and 
 heir, named below, being then deceased. 
 
 Thomas Walmesley, son of Thomas, was knighted by King James at 
 Hoghton Tower, August i6th, 1617. He had married, early in the same 
 year, Juliana, sixth daughter of Sir Richard Molyneux, Knt., lord of 
 Sefton. He brought home his wife to Dunkenhalgh on July 14th, 1617, 
 as recorded by Nicholas Asheton, the Downham Journalist : — " July 14. 
 I to Dunkenhalgh. To Blackburn, to meete old Sir Ric. Molyneux, 
 etc.; then we went past the Bund, and met Sir Tho. Gerrard and his 
 lady ; Sir Ric. Molyneux, junr. ; his lady and hee came presently after, 
 with young Mr. Walmsley, whose wyfe, Sir Ric. Molyneux's daughter, 
 was her first tyme of coming to Dunkenhalgh.'" By this lady he had 
 issue, sons, Richard ; Thomas, and John, both died young ; and William, 
 of the Lower Hall, Samlesbury, married thrice, but died without issue ; 
 and daughters, Hellen, wife of Sir Godfrey Copley, Bart. ; Anne, died 
 unmarried ; and Juliana, wife of Francis lord Carington. The father. 
 Sir Thomas Walmesley, Knt, died in July, 1636 ; buried at Blackburn, 
 July 13th. His estates at his death, by inquisition taken at Blackburn, 
 Sept. 21st, 13th Chas. I., included (in Lancashire) the manors of 
 Billington, Nether Darwyn, and Rishton ; half the manor of Clayton- 
 super-Mores ; lands and messuages in Church, Dinkley, Ribchester, &c.; 
 and, besides the manorial estate in Billington, is named the freehold 
 messuage of CunlifTe-house, with garden, 30 acres of land, 10 acres of 
 meadow, and 20 acres of pasture appurtenant to Cunliffe-house in 
 Billington and Wilpshire. 
 
 Richard Walmesley, Esq., son and heir of Thomas, next lord of this 
 manor, born in 1630, married Mary, daughter of Earthol. Fromund, Esq., 
 
 I Asheton's Journal, ed. by Raines (Cheth. Socy.), pp. 25-6. 
 
^6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of Cheame, Co. Surrey, and had issue, sons, Thomas, bom in 1658; 
 Richard; Charles; and Bartholomew. Thomas, first son, died unmarried, 
 at Paris, in 1677 ; Richard, second son, died in Rome, in 1680,' shortly 
 after his father's decease, also unmarried ; and the third son, Charles, 
 also dying issueless, the youngest son, Bartholomew, became heir. There 
 were two daughiers, Anne, and Eleanor. Richard Walmesley, Esq., was 
 on the Kings's side in the Civil War, and his mansion at Dunkenhalgh 
 was taken and ransacked by a detachment of Parliamentarian soldiers. 
 He died April 26th, 1679, aged 49, and was buried in Blackburn Church, 
 April 30th. 
 
 Bartholomew Walmesley, Richard's youngest but last surviving son, 
 inherited the estates. He was a minor some years after his succession. 
 His wife was Dorothy, daughter of John Smith, Esq., of Crabbet, Co. 
 Sussex, by whom he had one son, Francis, born Oct. i3Lh, 1696; daugh- 
 ters, Julian, born 1695, died Oct., 1702 ; Catherine, born Jan. 6th, 1697-8; 
 Mary, died young, Nov., 1702. Bartholomew Walmesley, Esq., was tried 
 at Manchester, in 1694, for complicity in analleged treasonable Jacobite 
 plot, but was acquitted. He died in January, 170T-2. 
 
 Francis Walmesley, Esq., only son, was five years old on his succes- 
 sion. He died unmarried,, aged 14 years, in April. 1711, and was burled 
 at Blackburn, May 2nd. 
 
 Catherine Walmesley, in 1711 sole surviving child of Bartholomew 
 Walmesley and heiress of the family estates, married, at the age of 1 5, 
 March ist, 1712-13, Robert, seventh Baron Petre, ofWrittle, Co. Essex, 
 who died of small pox early in the following year. His widow. Lady 
 Catherine Pe^re, gave birth to a son, June 3rd, 17 13, christened Robert 
 James, who duly succeeded to the title. Lady Petre married, secondly, 
 in i733> Charles Lord Stourton. She died, the last of the Walmesleys of 
 this branch, in 1785, aged 88. 
 
 Her son, Robert James, 8th Baron Petre, married, in 1732, Lady 
 Anne Radcliffe, daughter of James, Earl of Derwentwater, and had issue 
 a son and heir Robert Edward ; and three daughters. His lordship died 
 in 1 742. Robert Edward, ninth Lord Petre, married Anne, daughter 
 and co-heir of Philip Howard, Esq., and had issue, sons, Robert Edward, 
 tenth baron ; and George William, who heired the Lancashire estates. 
 Lord Robert Edward Petre died in 1801 ; Will dated July 25th, 1795, 
 proved July 14th, i8oi. 
 
 George William Petre, of Dunkenhalgh, Esq., younger son of the 
 
 1 His epitaph, in one of the churches of Rome, is as follows : — "D.O.M. Richardo Walmesley, 
 secundo genito et ex morte primi fratris heredi, Richardi Walmesley nobilis armigeri de Dunkenhall, 
 comitatus Lancastrensis, et Marise Fromounds de Cheame, nobihs itemarmigen comitatus 
 Surriensis, qui aet. an. xx urbem ingressus, decimo quarto post die, non tarn celeri quam felici morte 
 abreptus, in ea piisime quievit, secundo Dec. an. MDCLXXX. Charis tilii cineribus Mater 
 illacrymans posuit." 
 

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HACKING HALL, BILLINGTON. 437 
 
 ninth baron Petre, bom in 1766, died in 1797, leaving, by Maria his wife, 
 a son and heir, Henry William Petre, Esq., of Dunkenhalgh ; born in 1 79 1, 
 married, first, Elizabeth Jane, daughter of Edward Glyn, Esq., and had 
 issue, sons, Henry, and George Glyn; and three daughters. His second 
 wife was Adeliza Maria, daughter of Henry Howard, Esq., whom he 
 married in 1830, and who died Sept. 9th, 1833, leaving issue, sons, 
 Edward Henry, born Feb. 21st, 1831; and Oswald. Mr. Petre married, 
 thirdly, in 1834, Martha Agatha HofTnell ; and he died Nov. 26th, 1852. 
 His eldest son, Henry Petre, Esq., now of Dunkenhalgh, inherited the 
 Billington, Clayton, and Rishton manorial estates. He was born Aug. 
 27th, 1 821; married, Aug. 13th, 1846, Miss Power, and has issue. 
 
 The extent of the manorial and other estates of Mr. Petre in 
 Billington amounts altogether to nearly 2000 statute acres. 
 
 Hacking Hall, rebuilt by Judge Walmesley, temp. James I., stands 
 close to the left bank of the Ribble. The frontage presents projecting 
 wings at the flanks, within which on either hand are narrower bays 
 somewhat withdrawn, with a central division further recessed. There 
 are three storeys in elevation, and the roof-line is vandyked with five 
 gables surmounting the wings and middle bays. The front entrance is 
 by a doorway in the centre recess, having a slightly arched head under 
 a heavy square lintel. The windows on this front, fourteen in number 
 on the three floors, are muUioned (the larger and lower ones transomed), 
 square-headed, with moulded dripstones. At each end of the building 
 massive chimneys project exteriorly, and there is another bold chimney 
 projection at the back of the house. The farm offices extend from the 
 main building at its west end. The back of the hall has four gables, 
 and both ends are double-gabled. The exterior is in good preservation. 
 An inscribed stone fixed in the upper part of the chimney at the east 
 end bears the date "1607," and the initials "TL" which must be 
 those of Thomas Livesey, father of Sir Thomas Walmesley's mother. In 
 the interior, the kitchen has the arch of the original open fire-place, 
 which is 13 feet wide to the outside of the splayed jambs, and above six 
 feet in height. The middle of the building on the ground floor is 
 occupied by a large hall, about 30 feet by 20 feet, with diamond-flagged 
 floor, and its wall at the west end panelled in square panels. The arch 
 of the old fire-place is here also. At the east end of the house a spiral 
 oaken staircase leads to the first floor, and a smaller stair, of similar 
 construction, ascends from the opposite end ; the steps of both are of 
 thick oak. The principal chamber on the first floor is in the east wing ; 
 it had a polished oak floor, and was panelled in richly carved oak, one 
 compartment of which bore the arms of the builder. Judge Walmesley. 
 
438 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The carved oak work was stripped off the walls some years ago, and 
 conveyed to Dunkenhalgh. On the upper floor of the hall the centre is 
 open the whole length of the building, and has the appearance of a long 
 arched gallery. The oak timbers supporting the roof are framed so as 
 to form a succession of pointed arches, with the gable lights opening 
 between them. The masonry of Hacking Hall is of durable gritstone, 
 solidly built. 
 
 BRADDYLL OF BRADDYLL AND BROCKHOLE. 
 
 At Braddyll and the contiguous tenement of Brockhole or Brock- 
 hall, on the bank of Ribble, in this township, was seated of yore a 
 family which took its name from the former of these residences- — De 
 Braddyll. 
 
 The early orthography of the name is Bradhull. Thomas de 
 Bradhull occurs temp. John and Henry IK. He had sons, Henry, the 
 heir ; Robert, who had lands in Salesbury ; and Roger, who had a son 
 Geoffrey, married to his cousin Alice, daughter of Henry de Bradhull. 
 
 Henry de Bradhull, son of Thomas, held lands in Billington, 
 and had sons, Walter, the heir ; John, and Henry ; and a daughter Alice, 
 married Geoffrey her cousin. Walter de Bradhull had to wife Alice de 
 Dinkley, by whom he had sons, Roger and John. Roger de Bradhull 
 had two sons, Henry and John, and a daughter Alice. 
 
 Henry de Bradhull, son of Roger, is probably the Henry who, at the 
 De Lascy Inquisition of 13 ii, held in Wilpshire, the next township to 
 Billington, half an oxgang and a third in thanage, and paid is. 3d. and' 
 suit of Clithero Court. Henry de Bradhull appears as witness to a deed 
 of 7th Edw. n. (1313), and others of about the same date. 
 
 His son and heir, John de Bradhull, occurs in title-deeds of Whalley 
 Abbey, in 1331-3-7. By deed of 7th Edw. HI., "Joannes filiusHenrici 
 de Bradhull" quit-claims to the abbot and monks all his right and claim 
 in certain lands in Billington. John de Bradhull, by his wife Margaret, 
 daughter of Robert de Symonston, had a son Henry de Bradhull. The 
 latter had a son John, whose son and heir was Edward Bradhull, and he 
 had a son Richard. 
 
 Richard Braddyll, Edward's heir, was in possession of Braddyll and 
 Brockhole temp. Henry VI. and Edward IV. His wife was Margaret, 
 daughter of Sir Wm. Harrington, of Hornby Castle. His sons were, 
 John; and William, a clerk. 
 
 The next member, John Braddyll, gent, by his wife Emota, daugh- 
 ter of Wm. Pollard of Billington, gent., had issue, sons, Edward, William, 
 Henry, Richard, and Barnard, all living a.d. 1544. 
 
 Edward Braddyll, gent., eldest son of John, by his wife Jennet, 
 
BRADDYLL OF BRADDYLL. 
 
 439 
 
 daughter of Robert Crombroke of Clerk Hill, gent., had issue, sons, 
 John, Richard, and William; and a daughter Margery, wife of John 
 Chatborne, gent. Edward Braddyll died in 1553. 
 
 John Braddyll, of Braddyll and Brockhole, gent., Edward's son, 
 married, in 1533, Jennet, daughter of John Fosterof Whalley, gent., and 
 by her had sons, Edward, the heir ; and Richard, who married Dorothy, 
 daughter of Thomas Catterall, Esq., and relict of Robert Sherburne of 
 Mytton ; and daughters, Jennet, wife of Uchtred Morley of Braddyll, 
 gent.; Ann, wife of John Chew of Parkhead ; and Cecilia, wife of Bernard 
 Blakey, gent. John Braddyll followed the profession of law, and 
 traded largely in lands of the suppressed monasteries. He was made 
 bailiff of Whalley Abbey demesne, soon after its forfeiture, and, in 1541, 
 purchased, jointly with Richard Asheton, the Whalley estate from the 
 Crown, for ^2,132 3s. gd. John Braddyll, Esq., died in November, 
 1578. His Will is dated May 31st, 1575, and in it testator charges 
 Edward his son, and John his grandson, son of Edward, as to their 
 manner of spending the estate after his decease, seeing that "the most 
 part of the lands which I leave unto them came upto me by special 
 gift and suffrance of Almighty God, etc., by reason of buying and selling 
 of lands that I bought of King Henry the Eighte," etc. To his son 
 Edward testator gives specified chattels in his houses, bams, etc., at 
 Brockehall and Whalley.' The /n^. post mort. was taken at Whalley, 
 June 8th, 21st Eliz. (1579). Deceased was found to have been seized 
 of Symondston Manor, with 12 messuages, and 30 acres of land, rents, 
 etc. Also of 12 messuages, 6 cottages, 100 acres of arable land, 30 
 acres of meadow, 100 acres of pasture, and 8 acres of wood in Whalley, 
 held of the queen in capite by knight service ; and one capital messuage 
 in Whalley. Also of one capital messuage called Brockhole in Billivgton, 
 with 80 acres of arable land, 16 acres of meadow, 70 acres of pasture, 8 
 acres of wood, and 100 acres of moor and turbary in Billinglon, held in 
 free socage of Thomas Holcroft, Esq. Also of ten messuages and two 
 cottages, four messuages and one cottage, 40 acres of land, and one acre 
 of wood in Dinckley. Also of three messuages in Wiswall, with 40 acres 
 of land, and 60 acres of moor, etc. Also of three messuages in Parva 
 Harwood, 40 acres of land and 5 acres of turbary, etc.; with other estates. 
 Edward Braddyll was son and next heir. 
 
 Edward Braddyll, Esq., married, first, Aug. sth, 1554, Ann, daughter 
 of Ralph Asheton of Great Lever, Esq., and had issue, sons, John, 
 Richard, Edward (a priest), Ralph, Cuthbert, Gilbert, Thomas, and 
 Bernard; and daughters, Anne, wife of Thomas Southworth, gent.; 
 Dorothy, wife of John Talbot of Carr ; Lettice, wife of John Nowell, 
 
 1 Lane, and Chesh. Wills (Chcth. Socy.), v. ii, pp. 106-13. 
 
440 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 gent.; and Jennet, wife of Thomas Brockholes of Claughton. Dame 
 Ann Braddyll died in Dec, 1586. Edward Braddyll's second wife was 
 Ellen, daughter of Henry Starkey of Aughton, Esq.; by whom he had a 
 son John ; and a daughter Katherine, wife of Gilbert Lawe, of Whalley. 
 He married thirdly, Dec. i6th, 1594, Elizabeth Pollard ; and died Oct. 
 6th, 1607; and by Inq. post mart, was found seized of one capital 
 messuage called Portfield, etc., in Whalley ; two messuages in Billington 
 called Brockhole, with ten other messuages, two cottages, 80 acres of 
 arable land, 16 acres of meadow, 60 acres of pasture, 8 acres of woodland, 
 and 100 acres of moor and moss, in Billington ; two messuages, one 
 cottage, 40 acres of land, meadow and pasture, and one acre of wood- 
 land in Dinckley ; and of four messuages, lands and tenements in Parva 
 Harwood. John Braddyll, son and heir, was aged 50 years. 
 
 John Braddyll, Esq., son of Edward, made his residence at Port- 
 field, on the Whalley estate. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas 
 Brockholes, of Claughton. Issue, sons, Edward, John, and Thomas; 
 the first and the last dying unmarried in their father's lifetime, and the 
 second, John, falling heir; and daughters, Anne, died unmarried; Joan; 
 Alice, married, first, Richard Towneley of Barnside, and, secondly, 
 Christopher Towneley of Carr (the antiquary); and Dorothy, wife of 
 Thomas Vavasour. John Braddyll, Esq., died Jan. 7th, 1615-6. 
 
 John Braddyll, son, was of age in 1620, and had livery of his estate 
 May 24th of that year. His first wife, Milicent, daughter of John Talbot 
 of Bashall, died in May, 1620, leaving a son and heir, John, bapt. March 
 22nd, 16 18; and a daughter, Ann, bom 161 5, died 161 6. The son of 
 this marriage, John Braddyll, gent., died in his father's lifetime. 
 Engaged in the Civil War, he was mortally wounded at Thornton Hall 
 in Craven in 1643; buried at Whalley, July 27th. John Braddyll, the 
 father, married, secondly, Margaret, daughter of John Crombocke, of 
 Wiswall. Issue, sons, Thomas; Edward (married Margaret, daughter of 
 George Halsted, of Bank-house, Burnley; and died at Dr. Halsted's, 
 Manchester, Aug., 1684) ; Roger (bom in 1634, of London in 1714); and 
 John, buried Aug. 3rd, 1643. Daughters, Elizabeth (wife of John 
 Brockholes, Esq.); Dorothy; Milicent (wife of Tempest Slinger, of 
 Dunnow, Co. Ebor, gent.); Lettice (wife of Thomas Greenfield, gent.); 
 and Alice. John Braddyll died in March, 1655; buried at Whalley, 
 April 5th. He was an active soldier on the side of Parliament through- 
 out the Civil War of 1642-51. 
 
 Thomas Braddyll, Esq., after the death in fight of his brother John, 
 became heir and succeeded his father, in 1655, at the age of 24. He 
 married, in March, 1655, Jane, daughter and coheir of William Rishton 
 of Donishop, gent., and by her (she died in 1698) had issue, sons, John, 
 
BARKER OF WHETLEY. 441 
 
 the heir, bom Sept i8th, 1659; and Thomas, bom 1663, died 1672; 
 daughters, Anne, bom 1655, died unmarried in 1732; Grace, wife of 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, Esq.; Margaret, and Alice. Thomas Braddyll 
 purchased of Edward Southworth the hall and manor of Samlesbury in 
 1679. He died in May, 1706. 
 
 John Braddyll, Esq., of Portfield, married Sarah, daughter and sole 
 heir of Myles Dodding, of Conishead Priory, Esq. Issue, sons, Dodding, 
 died young; a second Dodding, bom June, 1689; Thomas, died young; 
 a second Thomas, bom 1691, died, unmarried, in 1747; John, bom 
 1695, died in 1753 (leaving sons, John, died unmarried in 1705, and 
 Dodding, died issueless); William, bom 1700, died s. p.; Roger, died, 
 aged 13, in 1686; daughters, Jane, died unmarried; Margaret, married 
 Christopher Wilson, of Bardsey Hall, Esq.; Sarah, died unmarried; 
 Agne.s, and Anne. John Braddyll, Esq., died March 3rd, 1727-8, buried 
 at Ulverston. 
 
 Dodding Braddyll, Esq., his heir, by his wife Mary, daughter of 
 Samuel Hyde, Esq., of London, had sons, Roger, died, aged 7, in 1726-7; 
 Roger, died young; and Thomas. The father died Dec. 31st., 1748. 
 
 Thomas Braddyll, Esq., third son, was eventually heir to the estates. 
 He was bom May 6th, 1730, and died unmarried July 25th, 1776; 
 having willed his estates to his cousin, Wilson Gale, Esq., (grandson of 
 Margaret, daughter of John Braddyll, and wife of Christr. Wilson, Esq.,) 
 who assumed the surname of Braddyll by royal warrant in 1776, and 
 whose son, Thomas Richmond Gale Braddyll, before his death was 
 forced to sell the family estates in Billington, Samlesbury, Whalley, and 
 Fumess, having ruined himself by foolish extravagance. 
 
 The Braddyll-with-Brockhole estate and other lands in Billington, 
 were bought, about the close of last century, by James Taylor, Esq., of 
 Moreton Hall. They comprise 740 acres of land, of which 173 acres 
 are woodland. At Braddyll there is now only a small ruined tenement 
 on the site of the old messuage. At Brockhole the hall has been 
 modernised for a farm-house. 
 
 BARKER OF WHETLEY, &c. 
 
 William Barker held Whetley, in Billington, in freehold, in the reign of 
 Henry VIII. At the time of the survey of Abbey lands in this township, in 1538, it 
 was returned that " the heirs of William Barker holdeth freely certain lands called 
 Whetley, and payeth yearly a brode arrow and suit in the court. " 
 
 The Barkers also held land in the township of Salesbury. Robert Barker died 
 before the 4th Phillip and Mary (1556), when Jane Barker, widow of Robert, was 
 against William Barker in a suit as to title to lands called Fayrehurst, in Salesburj-. 
 
 William Barker was taxed for lands in Salesbury to a Subsidy in 1570, and was 
 assessed to furnish arms in the military levy of 1574. " William Barker, gent.," was 
 a juror at John Braddyll's escheat in 1579. 
 
 56 
 
442 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Robert Barker, of Whetley, gent., is in a libt of local freehoUiers in tlie year 
 l6cc. The same occurs as a juror in 1612, 1613, and 1616. Roberc Barl<er is 
 assessed upon lands in Salesbuiy to the Subsidy of 161 1. 
 
 Bartholomew Barker, gent., who died about 1641, owned lands in several town- 
 ships in Blackbura Parish. His escheat was taken at Blackburn, April 28th, ijth 
 Charles I. The jurors said that the deceased Bartholomew Barker had been seized o f 
 th^se estates ; — Two messuages, two gardens, 16 acres of laud, 10 acres of meadow, 
 10 acres of pasture, and 2 acres of woodland, in Salesbury, held of John Talbot, Knt., 
 ■n oocage ; one messuage, one garden, and 8 acres of land, m-^adow aiid pasture, in 
 DuUon, of the K'ng in socage ; 20 acres of land, meadow and pasture, in BiUington, 
 h'jld of Thomas Walmesley, Esq., by fidelity ; 20 acres of land, meadow and pasture, 
 in W'lpshire, held of John Talbot, Knt., in socage ; and common of turbary on the 
 was'e called Browne Hill, in Little Harwood, of John Clayton, Esq. 
 
 John Barker, aged 35, in 1641 was found son and hc'r of Bartholomew. John 
 Barke', of Salesbury, died in 1678. 
 
 CHEW OF CHEW BANK, POTTER FORD, CHEW HOUSE, &c., 
 BILLINGTON, AND OF BURY AND MANCHESTER. 
 
 The Chew family was an ancient freeholding family in that portion of liillington 
 vil! described in charters as the " Manor of Cho," and was allied by marriage to the 
 De Bilyngtons, lords of the manor. By undated deed of the thirteenth century, Adam 
 de Bilyngton gave to " Henry, son of Hugh del' Cho, and Avicia his wife " (daughter 
 of the grantor), a portion of land in BilUngton which Henry del' Cho and Hugh his 
 f.-ther and their ancestors had held of grantor, his father, and his ancestors. The 
 es'ate is deSned in the deed as lying between the land of Bernard de Dynkedlegh and 
 the way called Mungate, and a portion called the Halgh, and a part called the Cho, 
 between Busceburn and Calder. This ar?a of land between the Bushburn rivulet and 
 the Calder was, I believe, the manor-place of BiUington in -Saxon times. It is still 
 called the "Castle Holme," and in the midst are traces of a square mound, conjec- 
 tured to be the site of a Saxon tower demolished before the earliest local record. The 
 mound rises aboat four feet above the level of the field, but has no vestige of masomy 
 now. Henry del' Cho (modem Chew), by his wife Avicia, relict of Geoffrey de 
 Bilyngton, was father of Richard del' Cho, who, about the year 1240, granted to 
 Beatrice de Blackburn certain land in his place called Cho. Richard del' Cho is 
 named a little later as seated at Cho-bonk (Chew-bank). He had a brother Thomas, 
 to whom his father Henry gave his land called the Halgh, in BiUington. These 
 brothers were doubtless ancestors of the Chews named below. 
 
 William Choo, of BiUington, lived in the last part of the fifteenth and first part 
 of the sixteenth centuries. He died before 1523, for in that year "Uxor William 
 Choo " was taxed to a King's Subsidy. This would refer to his widow. 
 
 Several tenants of Whalley Abbey, in BiUington, of this name, occur in the Sur- 
 vey of 1538. Richard Chew held freely Benson's field, also Olgreave, with lands, and 
 a frilling mill. Robert Chowe, Edmund Chowe, and Adam Chowe appear in the 
 same Survey. Richard Chew, of Olgreave, in 1538, might be father of Richard 
 Chew, senr., of BiUington, taxed to a Subsidy in 1570 ; and who had a son, Richard 
 Chew, assess^^d to a Subsidy in 1610. A later member of that branch, William Chew, 
 of Olgreave, appears in the Sub.;'dy Roll of 1663. 
 
 The Chews of Potter Ford were direct progenitors of membei's of the family now 
 living. Robert Chowe, of Potter Ford (the ford over Calder a little lower down than 
 Whalley Abbey), rebuilt the house there in 1562, as attested by a stone at Potter 
 
CHEW OF BILLINGTON. 
 
 443 
 
 Ford, dated *' 1562," aiul inscribed with his initials and his wife's: — *' R A C' In 
 the Will of John Braddyll, Esq., dated 1575, is a bequest to " Robert Chowe, of the 
 Potter Forth;" and another, of £10 and a gelding, to testator's "servant John Chowe, 
 in consideration of his honest and true service," &c. ; perhaps this latter was Johi 
 Chew, of Parkhead, Whalley, whose wife was Anne, third daughter of John Braddyll. 
 
 Edward Chewe, the next of Potter Ford, would be a son of Robert. On the 
 lintel of a fire-place at Potter Ford are cut the initials of this Edward and his wife: — 
 " E A C " and the dale " 1610." He had a son Robert, born in 1600. 
 
 Robert Chew, of Potter Ford, gent., son of Edward, married. May 25th, 
 1618, Mary Crombleholme, and had sons, Richard, bom in 1619, who settled at 
 Elkar, in this township, and was progenitor of that branch ; and Edward, of Potter 
 Ford. Robert Chew, of Potter Ford, was a freeman of Preston, and was enrolled at 
 the Guilds of 1642 and 1662, with his sons Richard and Edward. The father died 
 sometime after 1662. 
 
 Edward Chew, of Potter Ford, gent., son of Robert, married, first, in 1656, 
 Ellen, daughter of William Chew, of Billington ; and, secondly, before 1665, Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of James Moore, gent., of Lower Harrop, Co. Ebor, by whom he 
 had issue, sons, Edward, bapt. at Great Harwood Church, Jan. 28th, 1674 ; an! 
 James. The father, Edward Chew, gent., was made a Governor of Blackburn 
 Grammar School in 1679, and was living in 1687, when he was a deponent in the 
 case before the Lord Chancellor concerning Langho Chapel. 
 
 His younger son was "James Chew, of Poultdn, gent.," so described in Preston 
 Guild Roll of 1702 ; he died before 1722 ; leaving sons, Edward Chew, attoiney-at-law, 
 living in 1742 ; Thomas, James, and Christopher. 
 
 Edward Chew, of Billington, gent., was eldest son of Edward. He was a free- 
 man of Preston, enrolled at the Guilds of 1682, 1702, 1722, and 1742. He died in 
 1743, buried at Blackburn Parish Church, April I51h. He built on his estate, in 
 1702, Chew House, now called "the Asylum;'' on the lintel of the front entrance 
 are his initials and his wife's, " E A C " and the date " 1702." He had issue, sons, 
 Edward, boin in 1703; Abraham, bapt. Jan. 18th, 1707-8; Richard, born in 1710; 
 and James, born in 1713 ; and a daughter Elizabeth, born in 1712. 
 
 Ed>»'ard Chew, eldest son, was of Preston, and is enrolled at Guilds in 1742 and 
 1762. He married Catherine Crooke, widow (daughter of Alex. Rigby, Esq., by his 
 wife Ann, daughter and co-heir of John Townley, of Clitheroe, gent.), and was 
 father of Townley Chew, "of Preston, attorney-at-law," in 1762, and "ofLondon" 
 in 17S2. 
 
 Abraham Chew, of Billington, gent., next brother of Edward, was described as 
 " of Oxfordshire, " in 1742. He died unmarried, at Billington, aged 60, and was 
 buried at Langho Chapel, April 17th, 1767. 
 
 The brother of the two last-named was James Chew, of Billington, surgeon and 
 gent. He was a governor of Blackburn Grammar School from 1754 until his death in 
 1768. He married Miss Ann FothergiU (she died Dec. 1759), and had issue, sons, 
 Joseph, born in 1745, died young ; Abraham, born Sept. 13th, 1747 ; Edward, born 
 about 1749; Thomas, born 1752; James, born Aug. 22nd, 1758; and Richard, bom 
 1759, died young ; and daughters, Grace, bom 1741 ; Mary, born 1742; Ann, born 
 1744 ; Janet, bom 1746 ; Elizabeth, bom 1754 ; and Sarah, born 1755. The father. 
 Dr. James Chew, died, aged 54, in 1768 ; buried at Langho Chapel, July 5th. 
 
 Abraham Chew, of Billington, surgeon, eldest surviving son of Jamts, was 
 elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar -Schcol in 1770, and died, aged 52, in 
 1800; buried at Langho, July 2nd. liy Jane his wife (who died, aged 67, in 1807) he 
 
444 HISTORY OF BLACKBUkN. 
 
 had issue, sons, James, born in 177 1 ; and Abraham, born in 1773 (he was the 
 Abraham Chew, M.D., of Blackburn ; married, in 1800, Ann, daughter of Mr. 
 Thomas Smalley, ofLarkhill, Blackburn; had no issue, and died, aged 45, April 2nd, 
 1819 ; a bust and tablet in St. John's Church, Blackburn, were erected to his memory 
 by subscription); and daughters, Ann, wife of Rev. William Barton, incumbent of 
 Langho, &c. ; Jane, wife of Wm. Hesmondhalgh, died at Chew House, aged 90, 
 April 7th, 1865; and Alice, bom Jan. 27th, 1779; married Mr. Thomas Carr, of 
 Blackburn, and died at Whalley Abbey, aged 80, Jan. 9th, 1859. 
 
 James Chew, of Blackburn, surgeon, younger son of James, married Margaret, 
 daughter of Major Clayton, of Little Harwood Hall, but had no issue. 
 
 Edward Chew, second surviving son of James, and brother of the two last-named, 
 was an attomey-at-law, of Haslingden, and later of Bury. He married, first, April 
 2Sth, 1773, Miss Elizabeth Christopher, of .Salford, who died young, without issue ; 
 secondly, at Haslingden Church, Jan. 7th, 1777, Ann, daughter of John Grime, of 
 Baxenden, gent., and by her (she died Sept. nth, 1793) had issue, sons, John Grime 
 Chew, died young, in July, 1782 ; James ; Edward ; Abraham, bapt. July i6th, 1786 ; 
 and William Christopher, bom Oct. 26th, 1 788 ; and a daughter, Jane, born about 
 1781. Mr. Edward Chew's third wife was Alice, daughter of George Hargreave, 
 Esq., of Haslingden, married May 22nd, 1794. Mr. Edward Chew died, aged 71, 
 about the year 1820. James Chew, his son, had a son William, now living at Blacksnape. 
 
 Edward Chew, of Manchester, attomey-at-law, son of Edward, had sons William 
 and George; and died after 1832. His son is William Chew, Esq., of Norman 
 Lodge, Shirley, near Northampton. 
 
 William Christopher Chew, a younger son of Edward, sometime of Blackburn 
 and London, eventually of Manchester, established in that city a successful practice as 
 an attorney-at-law and solicitor, and was in practice more than 55 years. He married, 
 July 2nd, 181 1, Hannah, daughter of Mr. Thomas Heath, of Nantwich, and had issue 
 five sons and seven daughters. His only surviving daughter is Mrs. Hannah Arm- 
 strong, wife of John Armstrong, surgeon, of Harpurhey. W. C. Chew, Esq., died, 
 in his 80th year, Nov. 29th, 1867. His wife died, aged 70, at Lytham, Jan. 27th, 
 1861. His only surviving son is — 
 
 Thomas Heath Chew, Esq., attomey-at-law, of Manchester, bom Aug. 23rd, 
 1816, educated at Manchester Grammar School ; married Oct. ist, 1841, Jane, 
 daughter of Lawrence Hall, Esq., of Openshaw, and has had issue, sons, Francis, died 
 young ; and William Lawrence Chew, solicitor, in partnership with his father ; and a 
 daughter, Jane Eleanor, died young. 
 
 Of the Elkar branch of Chews I add the following sketch descent : — Richard 
 Chew, of Elkar, son of Robert, of Potter Ford, died about 1664. His son, Richard 
 Chew, of Elkar, bom in 1654, died in Nov., 1721, buried at Whalley. His son, 
 Richard Chew, of Whitwams, died in 1726. He had married, in 1701, Christiana 
 Kendall, by whom he had sons, Kendall, bom in 1703 ; John, bom in 1705 ; Richard 
 born in 1708; and Thomas, born 1713; and daughters, EHzabeth, Dorothy, and 
 Jennet. Christiana Chew, widow, died in April, 1763. Kendall Chew, of Elkar, 
 gent., Richard's eldest son, married. May 13th, 1736, Ann Stones, of Haslingden, and 
 had a son, Richard ; and daughters, Elizabeth, Ellen, Ann, and Betty. Mr. Kendall 
 Chew died in July, 1764. His son, Richard Chew, of Billington, yeoman, married, 
 Jan. 5th, 1763, Sarah, daughter of Edward Ainsworth, of Pleasington, Esq. (she died 
 July 6th, i8o2), and had issue, Kendall, bapt. Aug. 27th, 1766 ; Ainsworth, bapt. 
 Jan. 23rd, 1770; Theophilus, bapt. Dec. l6th, 1771 ; Ann, bom in 1768; and 
 Ellen. Richard Chew died in 1782. His first son was Kendall Chew, of Billington. 
 
FAMILIES OF CUNLIFFE AND DEANE. 
 
 445 
 
 CUNLIFFE OF CUNLIFFE HOUSE. 
 
 A family of Cunliffes possessed a small freehold estate called Cunliffe, in Billing- 
 ton, deriving thence the family surname. No complete descent can be given of them. 
 Robert de Cundelive occurs A. D. 1250, and another Robert de Cundeclif is a witness 
 to charters temp. Edw. I. A third Robert de Cundeclif lived temp. Edward III., and 
 about 1347 paid rent to Whalley Monastery for a plot of land he held. Roger 
 de Cundcliff, of the same period, had a daughter Margaret, wife of Adam de Lever. 
 Later, a Robert de Cundecliff occurs in 1396. 
 
 In 1478, the Abbey of Whalley received 40s. yearly "de terris R. CundeclyfT, 
 viz., Brodmede et Grenehey." 
 
 Robert Cunliffe, of Billington, died before 1515. He is described in the escheat, 
 dated 7th Henry VIII., as late of Wilpshire, gent., outlawed for felony upon Mar- 
 garet Wood, late wife of Elie Wood. His estate was found to consist of one mes- 
 suage, 30 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, to acres of pasture, 4 acres of woodland, 
 and 30 acres of moor and turbary, in Billington, held of the Abbot of Whalley, value 
 10s.; and of one messuage, 30 acres of land, 12 acres of meadow, 20 acres of pasture, 
 one acre of woodland, and 40 acres of moor and turbary, in Wilpshire, held of the 
 King in socage, value 40s. 
 
 A. D. 1521, Whalley Monastery received 4s. 8d. by the year " pro terris Roberti 
 Cundcliff," then representing this family ; and who, again, in 1538, was found hold- 
 ing freely lands in Billington, paying therefor to the Abbey I, i 5s. yearly. 
 
 Richard Cunliffe, for his lands in Billington, was assessed to a Subsidy in \^^o. 
 Both Robert Cunliffe and Richard Cunliffe were taxed to the Military Levy in 1574- 
 
 The Cunliffe-house estate passed to Sir Thomas Walmesley, Knt., and was 
 found in his possession at his death. It was leased to John Talbot, gent., of Whalley, 
 who, by his Will, dated 1594, assigns to Elizabeth his wife the farming houses and 
 grounds he had "by lease of Mr. Justice Walmysley in Billington and Wilpshire, laite 
 the inheritance of one Richard Cunliffe;" also, " his lease of the tythe corn of Cun- 
 liffe." It remains with the lord of Billington Manor. The Cunliffes migrated to 
 HoUins, in Accrington ; thence, later, to WycoUer, in Trawden. The pedigree of 
 Cunliffe, of HoUins and Wycoller, commences with " Robert Cunliffe, a younger son 
 of Cunliffe, of CunUffe Hall," in Billington. 
 
 DEANE, OF DEANE HILL, TOWNWORTH, &c. 
 
 The Deanes had a freehold tenancy in Billington from an ancient period. In 
 1340, Adam del' Dene's land in this township is mentioned ; and some years later, 
 Alexander del' Dene was in possession of an estate for which he paid 4s. yearly to the 
 Abbot of Whalley, as lord of the manor. 
 
 John Deyne of Townworth and Downham, living temp. Edw. IV., had to wife 
 Agnes, daughter of Richard Worsley of Mearley and Twiston. 
 
 About half a century onward, John Deyne was assessed to the Subsidy of 
 1523 for his lands in Billington. At the survey of Whalley Abbey estates, in 1538, is 
 entered, under Billington : — "John Deane holdeth freely a tenement called Hodghouse, 
 with 22 acres of land, meadow, and pasture, and payeth yearly 2s. ; the same holdeth 
 freely half a messuage called Townworth, and payeth by the year for the same, is. 4d. ; 
 the same holdeth a messuage called Deyne Hill, and payeth 4s." This John Deane 
 then possessed three separate freeholds in the township — Hodghouse, Townworth, and 
 Deane Hill. 
 
 In the Lansdowne MSS. (No. 205), I find a note of five descents of certain 
 Deanes of Townworth, which appears to belong to this family, and furnishes two 
 
446 . HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 generations precedent to the above John Deane, viz : — William Deane, of Townworth, 
 who by Agnes his wife, daughter and heir of — Wrightington, had a son and heir, 
 Henry Ueane. Henry Deane, marrying Maud, daughter of WiUiam Ambrose, had a 
 son John, who seems to synclironise wllh the John above who is found in possession 
 in 1523 and in 1538. The same MS. gives William as son and heir of this John, and 
 marrying a Nowell, according with information from other sources, as follows : — 
 
 John Deane, who held the estate at the time of the Survey of 1538 already noted, 
 died November 24th, 33rd Henry VHI. (1541-2) ; the escheat was taken 35th Henry 
 VHI., whereby he was found to have been seized of six messuages in Bi'lington, with 
 100 acres of land, 100 acres of pasture, 50 acres of meadow, 40 acres of woodland, and 
 3CX) acres of moor and turbury ; also of ten acres of land in Wilpshire, and lands in 
 Mellor, Downham, and Twiston. 
 
 William Deane was son and heir of John. The manuscript in the Lansdowne col- 
 lection states that this WiUiam married Maud, daughter to John Nowell, Esq., and the 
 item is confirmed by the pedigree of Nowell, of Read, which gives as John Nowell's 
 second daughter : — "Maude, married to William Deane, of Townworth, gent." He 
 had a son John, married, nms ihe manuscript, to — Holtoffe [Holcroft?J. 
 
 John Deane was in possession in the year 1555 (3rd I'hillip and Mary), when he 
 disputed with Sir Thomas Holcroft, lord of the manor of Billington, a claim to rent, 
 set vice, and free rent for a messuage and lands call 2d Townworth, and a tenement called 
 Deane Hill. John Deane, of Billington, was assessed to a Subsidy in 1570. 
 
 A succeeding "John Deane, of Townworth, gent." is in a list of Freeholders 
 dated 1585 ; and in 1587, the steward at Gawthorp " paid John Dane, of Townworth, 
 by appointment of Mr. Sergeant Shuttleworth, £4." 
 
 James Deane, of Billington, %as assessed in 161 1 to the Subsidy levied in that 
 year. (Accidentally omitted from the return of Ihe Subsidy printed in this work.) 
 
 Edmond Deane, of Billington, had a son Richard, bapt. May 6th, 1589. 
 
 Soon after the last dale the Deanes ceased to be represented among the land- 
 holders of Billington, and no further account of the fam'ly descent can be afforded. 
 
 SLATER OF ELKER. 
 I 
 The Slaters were tenan's of Whalley Abbey, both in BiUinglon and Whalley, at 
 
 the date of the survey on the suppression of the Convent. John Slater then (1538) held 
 
 18 acres in Billington, and a pasiure in Whalley called Roger-ashes. Robert Slater 
 
 held 2/4 acres in Whalley. 
 
 John Sclater, of Billington. married, in 1581, Alice Hindle ; and he was assessed 
 to the Subsidy of l6n. 
 
 John Slater, of Billington, who died in 1641, had a daughter Margaret, married 
 to Francis Paslew, of Wiswall, gent. 
 
 In 1684, John Slater, of Billington, gave a donation to the endowment ofLangho 
 Chapel ; and in 1688 appropriated a pew there, which yet bears his name. 
 
 "John Slater, Bayliff of Billington," so stated on his gravestone in Whalley 
 Churchyard, died May 23th, 1761, aged 84. His wife, Janet, died Nov. 28th, 1758, 
 aged 72. 
 
 Andrew Slater, grandson of John, lived in Billington ; his wife, Alice, died Jan, 
 loth, i8lo, aged 77. 
 
 SMALLEY OF COLIARS AND GREENSNOOK. 
 
 Henry Smalley, of Billington, yeoman, was buried May gth, 1694. 
 
 John .Smalley, of Billington, had sons, Henry, born 1697 ; Edward, born 1705 ; 
 »nd other issue. 
 
CARVED CORfiEL FROM WHALLEY ABBEY, 
 In the Gable of an olu House at Elkar, Billington. [Page 446 
 
 MWJi * i- " J 
 
CHAPEL OF ST. LEONARD, LANGHO. 447 
 
 Rev. Henry Smalley, curate of Blackburn in 1727, appears to have been of 
 this family. In 1749, Rev. Mr. .Smalley gave three guineas to the augmentation 
 fund of Langho curacy. 
 
 John Smalley, of Collars, whose wife, Jennet, died in 1732, rebuilt the house in 
 1712, over the door of which an insciibed stone bears this date, " 1712," and the 
 initials "II S," which stand for John and Jennet Smalley. John Smalley, of Bil- 
 lington, was buried at Blackburn, Jan. 20th, 1753. 
 
 John Smalley and Ellen Birtwislle, both of Billington, married, Nov. i6th, 1721 ; 
 and had issue. 
 
 John Smalley, of Billington, yeoman, by his first wife, had a daughter Jane, born 
 in 1760. He married, secondly, Ann, daughter of Kendall Chew, July 25th, 1765, 
 and had issue a son John, boin in 1766; younger .sons, Henry, born in 1768; and 
 Kendall, born in 1770. "Mr. John Smalley, of Billington," was elected a Govuinor 
 ofBlackbuin Grammar School in 1770. On (he award of waste lands in Billington in 
 1791, John Smalley, of Collars, and John .Smalley, of Greensnook, are both named as 
 freeholders in the township, being the above John Smalley and his eldest son. John 
 Smalley, the father, died in 1804. 
 
 SPEAKE OF BILLINGTON. 
 
 Robert Speake is named as holding land in Billington .so early as the 34th 
 Edward I. (1305-6). 
 
 Heniy Speake, in 1538, was tenant of lands in Billington under Whalley Abbey. 
 
 A succeeding Henry Speake, of Billington, was assessed to the Sub.sidy in 1570, 
 and was taxed to the Military levy of 1574. 
 
 Henry Speake, of Billington, gent., is on a list of freeholders dated 1600 ; and in 
 the Subsidy of 161 1 is asses-ed on lands in the town.ship. Henry Speake, gent., is 
 met with as a juror in i6i2. Heniy .Speake died on the 30th of April, 1625, and the 
 escheat return, taken at Blackburn, Oct. 30ih, 5th Charts I. (1629), showed deceased 
 to have owned one messuage, with 60 acres of land, meadow, and pasiure, in Billing- 
 ton, held of the King, by the loolh part of a knight's fee, worth los. per annum. John 
 .Speake was son and heir, aged 40 years and upwards. This son was bapl. at Great 
 Harwood Church, Sept. Sth, 1585. 
 
 TALBOT OF CUNLIFFE IN BILLINGTON AND OF WHALLEY. 
 
 John Talbot, gent., ofWhalley, natural son of Sir Thomas Talbot, of (he Holt 
 and Bashall, had a leaie from Mr. Justice Walmeriey of the "farming houses and 
 grounds " in Billington and Wilpshire, " late the inhetitance of one Richard Cunliffe. " 
 By his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robeic Parker, of E.xtwislle, gent., he had a 
 daughter Anne, wife of James Asheton, of Chadde'lon, Esq. By his Will, dated 
 April 30th, 1594, John Talbot, gent., bequea'.hs to his wife his lease of the lands in 
 Billington and Wilpshire, and al'O his " lease of the tylhe coin of Cunliffe." 
 
 THE CHAPEL OF ST. LEONARD, LANGHO. 
 
 The parochial chapel of St. Leonard, with its graveyard, o< cupy a 
 portion of Langho Green, near the western side of the township. The 
 chapel is a simple nave, 62ft. by zgu., and the^e is no chance' The 
 entrance is rnder an avched porch on the south side. At the west end 
 of the roof-ridge is a wooden belcot for one bell. Local tiadition, 
 asserting that the chapel was built of stones from the dismantled Abbey 
 
448 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of Whalley, is supported by the appearance of the walls externally ; 
 which consist of dressed stones of large size for a building so small. 
 Several of the stones are sculptured with figures, heraldic shields, and 
 other devices. Above the east window are three such carved stones, 
 the centre one appears like the ogee head of a decorated arch, and the 
 other two bear heads of saints, now much battered and disfigured. 
 Let into the south wall are other stones with emblematic sculpture upon 
 them. On one of these is a deeply-relieved heraldic shield ; and upon 
 another, a shield beneath tracery in low relief. Another stone, with 
 embossed shield and tracery, is seen in the west wall. The windows, of 
 perpendicular tracery, generally resemble some yet remaining in situ at 
 Whalley Abbey. In the heads of several of the windows are fragmen- 
 tary portions of old coloured glass, also, perhaps, from the Abbey. The 
 west window is of the same style as the side windows, but larger, of four 
 lights. The window at the east end is a plain mullioned one of three 
 lights, the centre circular-headed ; and on the north side is a similar 
 window, without tracery. 
 
 The interior of the chapel is plain. The roof is ceiled, and sup- 
 ported by moulded beams, the ends resting on wooden corbels. The 
 pulpit stands against the north wall. A single aisle traverses the centre 
 longitudinally, joining the entrance-passage from the south porch. In 
 the wall near the S.E. corner, remains the piscina, beneath a recessed 
 and moulded pointed arch, trefoiled. The font is modern. The chapel 
 was repewed in 1688, and most of the pews of that date remain, with the 
 initials of their then occupants. 
 
 Langho Chapel appears to have been built by Sir Thomas Holcroft, 
 Knt., purchaser of the manor of Billington after the extinction of 
 Whalley Abbey. The date of erection would be about 1557. Sir 
 Thomas Holcroft, the presumed founder, died in 1558. Braddyll and 
 Asheton, who at the same time acquired the Whalley demesne with the 
 site and buildings of the Abbey, may have joined with Holcroft in, the 
 erection, being likewise owTiers of estates in Billington. Langho Chapel 
 is first named in a bequest by John Braddyll, Esq. He, by his Will, 
 dated May, 1575, gave: — 
 
 To the reparation of Langall Chapell ten shillings every year, to be paid out of 
 one lease of the tithe com of Brockhole, which lease I do give, &c., to Edward B., 
 my son, and John B., my godson, upon this condition, that they pay out the said los. 
 yearly at Christmas only, and see it bestowed yearly during the year in the said lease, 
 if the .said chapell so long do continue and have divine service in the same, and if it 
 do not so continue, then the said Edward and John shall bestow the said ten 
 shillings yearly upon mending of the highways in Billington, between the Chowe 
 Milne and the said chapell. 
 
 The Chapel was built as a chapel-of-ease for the use of the inhabi- 
 
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 a 
 
 < I 
 o s 
 
 — a; 
 
 -J ^ 
 
 < 5 
 
 
CHAPEL OF ST. LEONARD, LANGHO. 449 
 
 tants of this part of Blackburn Parish. The service of the Chapel was 
 long precarious. There was no endowment for a curate's maintenance ; 
 but the vicars of Blackburn, or some curate of the mother church, 
 periodically ministered here. To the Parliamentary Commission of 
 1650 it was reported concerning Langho Church that there was no 
 endowment, but that Mr. Churchlowe, the minister, had an allowance 
 of ^40 from the County Committee ; that the Church was six miles dis- 
 tant from the Parish Church ; and that the chapelry contained three 
 hundred families, who desired to be made a separate parish, and to have 
 a fixed salary for their minister. Mr. James Critchley had been approved 
 for Langho Chapel at a meeting of the second classis of the Lancashire 
 Presbytery, held at Whalley, July loth, 1649. 
 
 On the restoration of Episcopacy, the service of this chapel again 
 became only casual. In 1684, Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 impropriate rector of Blackburn, intending to augment their endow- 
 ments, asked for information as to the state of the chapels, and it was 
 returned : — 
 
 Langho Chapell, 4 miles from Blackburn Church, 2 miles from any other 
 chapell. No curate, because no maintenance. Onely one Mr. Braddell gave ;^io, 
 the interest whereof repairs that ffabrick. Adjacent to it Billington and Wilpshire. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Endowment — Interest of Mr. Braddell's ^lo o 10 o 
 
 Mrs. Fleetwood (lessee of the rectory lands in 
 
 Blackburn) promiseth yearly 200 
 
 Billington promiseth to settle about 5 10 o 
 
 and hope for as much from Wilpshire and Dinkley when Mr. Warren (lord of Sales- 
 bury, Wilpshire, and Dinkley) retumeth from Cheshire. 
 
 The same year (1684) the following further account of the chapel 
 was furnished to Primate Sancroft : — 
 
 Langho Chapell. — Billington has subscribed a certaine sum for perpetuity. (See 
 the list under their hands.) Mr. Warren, the lord of Wilpshire, &c., will not yet pro- 
 mise anythinge, nor his tenants neither, until Mr. Warren give leave. (Mem. Dr. 
 Stephen, Rector of Stopford, to be desired to intercede with Mr. Warren, the Father, 
 or with the Grandfather, both of the same place, to perswade Mr. Warren, the sonn, 
 of Dinckley, to give something to the chappel, and suffer his tenants to do the like.) 
 There is some former animosity or difference between Justice Bradyll and Mr. Warren, 
 which occasions Mr. Warren's averseness ; besides, Mr. Warren's wife is a violent 
 ferme Papist. The generality of the Inhabitants of Billington in Lango resort to the 
 Parish Church of Whalley (which is about a mile and Y^ from Lango Chappel), to 
 divine service and sermon, to christen and bury ; for other offices they come to the 
 Mother Church. 
 
 A Subscription was entered into by the inhabitants in 1684, and a 
 sum of ;^5S 155. 4d. was given, to which Sir Edmund Assheton gave 
 ^20 ; Thos. Braddyll, Esq., ;^io ; Mistress Pollard, £i, ; Lawr. Osbal- 
 deston, £/^ ; Edward Chew, £2 ; &c. 
 
 57 
 
45° 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Bartholomew Walmesley, Esq., of Dunkenhalgh, succeeded to the 
 lordship of the manor in 1679. Being a Roman Catholic, finding that 
 Langho Chapel was without a curate, and assuming that the fabric of the 
 chapel, having been built by a former lord, was an appanage of the 
 manor, he obtained the custody of the keys, took possession of the chapel, 
 and, in the year 1687, had the seats, communion table, &c., removed, 
 and the altar, and other fittings necessary to adapt it for the Roman 
 Catholic ritual, substituted. For a brief period after this seizure, mass 
 was celebrated in the chapel. The Vicar of Blackburn, Rev. Francis 
 Price, promptly took measures to procure the restoration of the chapel 
 to the Church of England. Failing to obtain a settlement of the dispute 
 by private overture. Vicar Price petitioned the Crown for a mandamus 
 for the restoration of the chapel. The petition was fonvarded in May, 
 1688. I copy it below : — 
 
 To the Kings most Excellent Majestic. — The humble Petition of Francis Price, 
 Vicar of the Parish Church of Blackburn in the County of Lancaster — Sheweth — That 
 the Chappel of Lango in the said Parish of Blackbume hath time out of mind been a 
 Chappel of Ease belonging to the Mother Church of Blackbume, wherein Prayers, 
 Preaching, Sacraments, and other Ecclesiastical Rites have been celebrated by the 
 Vicars and Curates of the said Parish, as appears by many affidavits taken before a 
 Master extraordinary in your Majesties High Court of Chancery. That the said 
 Chappel hath from time to time been repaired, both walls and Roofe, and the seats 
 and Pews uniformly placed, and the Bell thereof bought at the only costs and charges 
 of the adjacent and neighbouring Townes : And also Communion Plate and some 
 other Endowments and Salaries given to it, according to the abilities of the neighbour- 
 hood, and particular Seats in it assigned to ancient ffamilies and Estates. — Now so it 
 is (may it please your sacred Majestic) That a Neighbouring Gentleman, one Mr. Bar- 
 tholomew Walmsley, hath lately seized on the said Chappel of Lango, and so (pre- 
 tending a right to it) hath dispossessed your Petitioner of his just and undoubted Right 
 in and to the said Chapell, which he is ready to make appear by and from Ancient 
 Records. — May it therefore please your most sacred Majesty, out of your Princely In- 
 clination to Justice, and accustomed Compassion, either to Order Mr. Bartholomew 
 Walmsley to make Restitution of the said Chappel, taken so unjustly from the Mother 
 Church, or else to referr the leaving of the whole matter to any person whom your 
 Majestic shall think most fit to Report the merits of the cause to your sacred Majestic. 
 — And your Petitioner shall ever pray, &c. 
 
 This Petition was supported by a series of affidavits, taken pre- 
 viously before a Master in Chancery. Besides the affidavits, eighteen 
 in number, the records of the case include copies of allegations made by 
 the defendant, and of the answers thereto by the petitioner. Subjoined 
 is the draft of Mr. Bartholomew Walmesley's allegations respecting the 
 chapel : — 
 
 [Endorsed] — Mr. Walmesley's Aligations against Lango Chapell. — About ye 
 4th year of ye Reigne of Queen Mary (1556-7), Sr Thomas Holcroft became Lord of 
 ye Marmor of Billington, and soon after began to erect a Chappell on Lango Greene, 
 within his Manner, which hee Intended for the ease of yt neighbourhood, that they 
 
CHAPEL OF ST. LEONARD, LANGHO. 451 
 
 might hear Masse there. But it appears that the people never resorted to it, for wee 
 find that the very Chappell yard was immediately let in lease to one Wood, then 
 assigned to Osbaldeston, then to Chew, all along under the Rent of 3s. 4d. constantly 
 pd. to Sr Thomas and his Assigns ever since. It is very probable yt ye change of 
 Religion happening before the Chappell was finished might prevent Sr Thomas his 
 intention of getting it Consecrated ; the house itselfe has alwaies been imployed as a 
 Court house, except by chance some seldome times a sermon was preached by one of 
 ye predecessors of ye novif Vicar of Blackbume without any obligation. There is noe 
 chappelry knowne by bounds and limits as in cases of other chappells, soe yt it seems 
 to be a chappell only in Reputation. And it is plaine the people of Billington have 
 time out of Mind repaired to other places to hear Sermons, &c., and never subscribed 
 to ye Maintenance of a Curate, nor ever was there a curate in this place. 
 
 The replies of the Vicar to these allegations are the next docu- 
 ments : — 
 
 Several Allegations, made by Bartholomew Walmsley, Esq. , and his agents, against 
 
 Francis Price, Vicar of Blackburne's title to the Chappel of Lango answered. 
 
 Allegation i.— That the said Chappel of Lango is erected on a common or wast 
 called Lango-green in Billington, where the said Mr. Walmsley is Lord of a manour. 
 — To which the said Vicar replies. That though the said Chappel of Lango be erected 
 on a common or wast, yet there are certaine charterers, viz., Sir Edmund Ashton, 
 Baronet, Thomas Braddyll, Esq., and others, who are lawful and proportionable 
 sharers in the said common or wast, and therefore the said chappel cannot solely belong 
 to the said Mr. Walmsley. 
 
 Allegation 2. — That the said Chappel of Lango was never consecrated. — To 
 which the Vicar replies. That the consecration of many chappels, and also churches, 
 are not (or very difficultly) to be proved by Records or evidences thereof, any other 
 way, but by long performance of Divine Service, and ministration of Sacraments and 
 Sacramentalls there. 
 
 Allegation 3.— That Sacraments and Sacramentalls have seldom or never been 
 performed in the said Chappel of Lango.— To which the said Vicar replies. That 
 before the late unhappy times of confusion, — viz.: about 60 years since, — there was a 
 constant hired curate there, who did read the prayers, preach, marry, christen, and 
 administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper there ; and that the predecessors of the 
 present Vicar, namely, Mr. Morres, Mr. Bolton, and Mr. Clayton, have several times 
 officiated at that chapel. And that the reason why the present Vicar did not imitate 
 them in that panicular was (ist) because he thought himself bound to preach con- 
 stantly at the Mother Church of Blackbume, whither some hundreds of his Parishioners 
 do constantly resort on the Lord's Day ; and (zndly) because he thought it sufficient to 
 send a Curate to officiate at that Chappel of Ease, so often as anything could be pro- 
 cured to pay the said curate for his paines. To the foresaid allegation the said Vicar 
 further replies. That tho' of late years there has been no constant settled Curate there 
 for want of maintenance, yet henceforward there is like to be no complaints of that 
 nature, there being ;i50 a year lately given by two charitable Persons, and other 
 annual Pensions promised by others, for the Augmentation of the Salaries of the 
 several Curates of that and other chappels in the said Parish of Blackburn, as Mr. 
 Snowe of Lambeth can testify. 
 
 Allegation 4. — That a Rent of 3s. 4d. per annum has for many years together 
 been paid by Mr. Chew, and others, to Mr. Walmsley and his ancestors. — To which 
 the said Vicar replies, That the Business in controversy is, whether the Chappel of 
 
452 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Lango be an appendant to the Mother Church of Blackburn, and not whether the ad- 
 jacent yard belongeth to Mr. Walmsley. The said Vicar being indifferent to whom 
 the right to the said yard belongeth, provided that those who resort to the said chappel 
 may have free passage through the said yard according to ancient custome. 
 
 Allegation 5. — That the Ancestors of Mr. Walmsley have kept Courts in the said 
 Chappel of Lango for many years together. — To which the said Vicar replies, That the 
 Vicars of Blackburn, or their curates, have more times a year for 80 years by past per- 
 formed Divine Offices in that Chappel without the least control from any person 
 whatsoever. And besides it's too notorious that severall other lords of manours in 
 Lancashire do keep their courts in other chappels (so little regard have some of them 
 to those sacred Places). Yet none of them, besides Mr. Walmsley, do draw argu- 
 ment from thence, that the said Chappels are their owne, no more than the Right 
 worshipful the Chancellor of Chester does, that the Mother Church of Blackbume is 
 his, because he keeps his Court of Visitation in it twice a year. 
 
 Allegation 6. — That the keys of the said Chappel of Lango, in the year 1684 (or 
 thereabouts) were taken by Madam Walmsley from one Burton, a Schoolmaster, who 
 taught scholars in that chappel. — To which the said Vicar replies, That those keys 
 were taken from the said Schoolmaster without the consent or pre-knowledge of the 
 Vicar of Blackbume, or of any of his curates, and were redelivered in lesse than 7 
 days time, upon complaint made to Mr. Braddyll, one of his late Majesties Justices of 
 the peace, and that, excepting these few days, the said keys were never before 
 October last in possession of Mr. Walmsley or any of his ancestors, but were con- 
 stantly kept (if report say true) either by the Curate, or Schoolmaster of Lango, or 
 else by some of the Inhabitants of the Chapelrie of Lango, for whose use and benefit 
 the said chappel was erected. 
 
 Allegation 7. (Designed for the great prejudice of the Vicar of Blackbume). — 
 Is an affidavit of one Blore of Billington, who affirms that he invited the said Vicar to 
 preach at Lango Chappel, and received this answer : — That he the said Vicar was not 
 bound by any Law to supply that place and therefore refused to do it (or to that 
 effect). — To which the said Vicar replies, That the Deponent Blore does not fairly 
 state the case, for thus in truth it was : — In September last (or thereabouts) the said 
 Deponent Blore came to the Vicar of Blackbume at his house in Blackbume, and 
 desired him to permit one Mr. Ellis to preach at the chappel of Lango, and to admit 
 him to be Curate there. The Vicar replied, that he had heard a very ill character of 
 Mr. Ellis, and therefore could not consent to admit him to be Curate there, 'till he 
 the said Vicar was fully satisfyed that the said Mr. Ellis was a man of good Principles 
 and conversation. Whereupon the said Deponent Blore fell into a Passion, and said 
 to the Vicar : — "If you will not permit Mr. Ellis to supply that chappel, will you 
 come and supply it yourself?" This was all the Invitation he gave the said Vicar. To 
 which the Vicar replied. That he knew no law that obliged him to leave the mother 
 church, to officiate at a Chappel of Ease ; yet did offer that whensoever the Inhabi- 
 tants of the Chappelry of Lango did recommend any worthy clergyman to be Curate 
 there, he the said Vicar would freely consent to his admission, and would use his 
 endeavours to procure the approbation of the Lord Bishop of the Diocese. Which 
 answer to Blore's affidavit the said Vicar asserts with as great seriousness as if he were 
 under the obligation of an oath ; and does most humbly submit both this and all the 
 rest of his Answers to the forementioned Allegations to the great wisdome of the 
 Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor of England, to whom the case between 
 Bartholomew Walmsley, Esq., and the said Vicar is referred by the King's most 
 Excellent Majesty ; on whom God Almighty multiply his Blessings. 
 
CHAPEL OF ST. LEONARD, LANGHO. 45^ 
 
 The next document is a copy of the Royal notification of reference 
 of the cause to the Lord Chancellor. The Vicar's Petition was returned, 
 with the King's reference written on the margin, as follows : — 
 
 At the Court at Whitehall, May 29th, 1688. — His Majestic is graciously pleased 
 to referre this Petition to the right honble. the Lord Chancellor of England, to heare 
 all partys concerned and to report the State of the case with his Lordships opinion 
 what his Majesty may fitly do in the matter, whereupon his Majesty will declare his 
 further pleasure. (Signed) Sunderland Ld, 
 
 A manuscript, which appears to be a draft of the Brief of the Case 
 submitted to Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, is given below. It is endorsed : — 
 " Price V. Walmsley. Upon a petition before the Lord Chancellor, on 
 Tuesday, 12th June, 3 of the clock": — 
 
 Ffranciscus Price, Viccar of Blackburn, against Bartholomew Walmesley, Esqr. 
 — That within ye Parish of Blackburne are severall ChappellsofEase, and particularly 
 Lango Chappell, where time out of minde Divine Service hath beene read, Ministra- 
 tion of Sacraments and other ceremoniall Rites performed by ye Viccars of Black- 
 burne or their Curats, and ye sd. Chappel was fitted with conveniences and ornaments 
 for Divine Service, Communion Table, plate, pulpitt, seats, and a Bell, at ye charge 
 of ye Inhabitants of Billington and places adjacent 
 
 That in ye yeare 1616, upon a Survey and by a Jury touching ye possessions be- 
 longing to ye ArchB'pprick of Canterbury, ye sd. Lango Chappell was found to bee a 
 Chappell of Ease belonging to Blackburn. 
 
 That ye Townshipps of Wilpshire-cum-Dinckley, Salbury, & Billington have time 
 out of minde beene reported to bee within ye Chappelry of Lango, and ye Inhabitants 
 thereof generally resorted thither, & yt ye sd. Chappell of Lango hath beene reputed a 
 Chappell of Ease within ye Parish and subject to ye Mother Church of Blackburne. 
 
 To prove all which read ye Affidavits of : — Wm. Sager, aged 75 yeares ; Tho. 
 Calvert, aged 88 yeares ; Tho. Braddyll, aged 57 yeares ; Nich. Holker, aged 82 
 yeares; Robert Craven, aged 71 yeares; Isabell Craven, aged 74 yeares; Anne 
 Whalley, aged 68 yeares ; Tho. Wilkinson, aged 80 yeares ; Edwd. Houghton, aged 
 85 yeares ; John Parker, aged 80 yeares ; Tho. Clayton, aged 68 yeares ; Wm. Cal- 
 vert, aged 76 yeares ; Edwd. Chew, aged 50 yeares ; William Colton, Clerk ; 
 Theo. Aynsworth, aged 52 yeares ; Edwd. Craven, aged 70 yeares; Eliz. Craven, 
 aged 80 yeares ; Richd. Slater, aged 74 yeares. 
 
 Note. — That ye Defendant pleading yt ye sd. Chappell of Lango is built upon a 
 Common in Billington, & yt he is Lord of ye Mannor, & makinge some please of 
 clayme to it, though in truth hee hath noe manner of right soe to doe, hath notwith- 
 standing ye truth of ye case aforesd. dispossessed Mr. Price of ye same, & turned ye 
 same into a place to read Masse in, upon which Mr. Price hath petitioned his Majesty, 
 who hath referred ye same to ye Lord Chancellor to make his report herein. 
 
 Having heard the Petition, and the evidence by either party, the Lord 
 Chancellor issued his decree, dated June i6th, 1688 ; the original copy 
 of which, with the autograph of Jeffreys, is endorsed upon the back of 
 the Petition itself. The terms of the decree were these : — 
 
 [Decree] — All parties concerned attended me this day, with the Counsel Upon 
 hearing what could be alledged on the other side, we do hereby order, by and with 
 
454 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the consent of all parties concerned, that possession of the said Chapel be forthwith 
 delivered to the Petitioner Francis Price. And whereas the said Mr. Bartholomew 
 Walmsley hath laid out several sums of money upon the repairs of said Chapel, I do 
 by the like consent, order them to be referred to the Right Rev. Father in God the 
 Lord Bishop of Chester, to order what sum of money shall be paid by the said Mr. 
 Price and his Parish to Mr. Walmsley for the same. (Signed) Jeffreys C. 
 
 On Vicar Price's recovery of Langho chapel, its interior was refitted 
 with pulpit, communion-table, and pews for Protestant worship ; and the 
 Vicar made provision for a more regular performance of divine service. 
 The sum assigned to Langho under the Bancroft Trust was ^5 per 
 annum, now increased to about ^14. In March, 1689, it is recorded 
 that " Harwood and Langho, two Chappells, were supplied by Mr. 
 Sherdley, a conformable minister ; his maintenance from both about 
 _;^35 per annum or upward." By uniting the cure of the two neighbour- 
 ing chapelries of Great Harwood and Langho, a stipend was obtained 
 that, if small, sufficed then to procure the service of a competent curate. 
 The Vicar signed an agreement, dated October 15th, 1690, with John 
 Barlow, then curate of Church-kirk, by which the latter was admitted 
 into " the curateship of Harwood Magna and Lango." 
 
 The chapelry records include the following note concerning the 
 affairs of Langho Church in the year 17 14 : — "In Lango Chapel the 
 offices of the Church were at that time performed only every other Sun- 
 day, by reason of the smallness of the salary. There are a great many 
 Roman Catholics within this chapelry, who, 'tis reported, go to Mass at 
 Nicholas Sherburn's at Stonyhurst." The endowments then were .• — 
 " Out of the Archbishop's Lands at Thornley (Sancroft Trust), j£s > o"'^ 
 of the Rectory of Blackburn, /^2 6s. 8d.; total, /^^ 6s. 8d." 
 
 The maintenance for a curate at Langho was still small. But in 
 1746, a grant was made of jC'^°°! by lot, out of the Royal Bounty ; and 
 in 1749 a second sum of ;^2oo was offered from the same fund to meet 
 a local subscription to augment the endowment. Dated July 3rd, 1 749, 
 is a record of " Subscriptions towards raising the Bounty for the 
 Chappell of Langoe, as collected by Robert Hayhurst and Dr. Chew, 
 and paid to the Rev. Mr. Wollin, Vicar of Blackburn." The total then 
 raised, including sums left by the late William Hayhurst (^20), by Mr. 
 Braddyll {£10), and money formerly collected (;^24 los. 6d.) was 
 j£i2j 3s. The next year (1750) a further sum of;^9i los. 6d. was 
 subscribed, making up the total towards augmentation to jQ^zS 12s. 
 By these local benefactions the grant of ;!^20o from Queen Anne's 
 Bounty was secured, and a substantial addition made to the living. In 
 1806 a further grant of ;^2oo was made to Langho from Queen Anne's 
 Bounty; and in 1813, a sum of ;!^6oo to improve the benefice was 
 acquired by Parliamentary Grant. 
 
CHARITIES OF BILLINGTON. 
 
 455 
 
 The annals of Langho Chapelry, for the succeeding 120 years, have 
 been as uneventful as those of most of our rural churches. On July 
 19th, 1823, a statement of the value of the curacy was rendered : — 
 
 Tithes ofWithnell, £6^ ; Interest of ;f20O Royal Bounty, £^ ; Interest of ;£'6oo 
 Parity. Grant, £24; From the Estates in Thornley, ;f 14 ; Surplice Fees, 12s. 
 
 I add a list of incumbents of Langho, so far as known 
 
 Name. 
 
 Name. 
 
 
 — Decoy . . . 
 
 . circ 
 
 — Johnson . . . 
 
 ,, 
 
 Richard Bullock . 
 
 
 — Woods . . . 
 
 
 — Whitaker . . 
 
 
 — Midghall . . . 
 
 
 James Critchlow 
 
 
 William Colton . 
 
 . circ. 
 
 Edward Sherdley . 
 
 . ext 
 
 Date. 
 1620-1625 
 1630 
 
 1631-1632 
 1640-1645 
 
 1649 
 
 1682-1684 
 
 1689 
 
 (Mr. Edward .Sherdley, curate of 
 Blackburn, buried Dec. 24, 1693.) 
 
 John Barlow .... 1690- 1707 
 
 Arthur Tempest, curate of 
 
 Langho and Harwood, 1706-1717 
 
 Christr. Whitewell . . circ. 1 736 
 
 Date. 
 
 Robert Smith 1751 
 
 Joseph Thompson .... 1754 
 
 Thomas EUeray 1756-1780 
 
 William Barton 1795-1902 
 
 George Wareing .... 1803-1813 
 Thos. Hy. Backhouse. . . 1814-1822 
 
 John Rushton 1822-1825 
 
 Robert N. Whitaker . . . 1828-1840 
 Chas. Arnold Chew . . . 1840 
 
 Thomas Dent 1841-1844 
 
 Jonathan Beilby .... 1845 
 J. F. Coates (killed, 1859) . 1845-1859 
 Dudley Hart, M.A. . . . 1859-1868 
 Matthew Hedley, M.A. . . i868 
 (Present Vicar.) 
 
 CHAPEL OF ST. MARIE (R.C.). 
 A short distance south of Langho Chapel, stands the Roman 
 Catholic Chapel of St. Marie, built about 1836. It is a small stone 
 fabric in the Norman style, having a porch on the east side, an 
 octagonal tower terminating in a conical spirelet at the north end, and 
 narrow circular-headed windows. The dimensions of the chapel are 
 about 65ft. by 30ft. Sittings, 250. The chapel is served by priests from 
 Stonyhurst College, who cross the Ribble at Hacking Ferry to reach 
 the mission. A small school-building is attached on the west side. 
 
 CHARITIES OF BILLINGTON. 
 BiLLiNGTON Poor's Lands. — A record, commencing in 1671, 
 shews that Richard Waddington had before then bequeathed to the Poor 
 of Billington ;£'2o, in the hands of four honest men as trustees, towards 
 a Stock for the impotent poor of the said town for ever ; interest to be 
 distributed every St. Thomas's Day.— To the Stock these donations 
 were added: — A.D. 1672, Thomas Braddyll, ;^2 los.; Ellen Blackburn, 
 j^2 ; 1676, Ann Chew, ;^io; 1681-7, Sir Edmund Assheton, Bart., 
 JC52 ; 1682, William Chatbume, ^i ; 1683, William Wood, ^3 ; 
 1684, Ellen Pollard, ;^io. — In 1715, the Trustees laid out the Stock, 
 with interest, in the purchase, for ;^iio, of land at Dinkley Moorgate. 
 (Title deeds are missing.)^-In 1779, John Smalley gave to Poor Stock 
 £1 2, laid out towards the building of house and barn on charity estate, 
 which consists of house, bam, and about 9 acres (customary) of land ; 
 let, in 1824, for ;^24 yearly rent. There were three trustees, self- 
 
4S6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 elective, besides the Minister of Langho pro. tern, accounted a trustee. 
 The trustees distribute the amount of the rent annually on St. Thomas's 
 Day, in sums from 8s. to 15 s., to poor persons not receiving parish relief. 
 
 BiLLiNGTON School. — Some time before 1743, Mrs. Mary Night- 
 ingale gave ;^io ; interest to be paid for teaching to read poor children 
 of Billington township in the Protestant religion ; and Robert Hayhurst, 
 a trustee, had appointed Dr. Chew and another co-trustee, and had 
 placed ;^io out with money of his own. This sum, with additions 
 made by the Braddyll and Assheton families, was laid out in purchase of 
 the reversion of fields in Great Harwood. The School Lands called 
 Cunliffe Fields, were let, in 1824, by the Schoolmaster and a trustee to 
 a yearly tenant, at a rental of jQ"] iis. — By indenture dated Jan. 31st, 
 181 1, George Petre, Esq., lord of the manor, granted to Rev. George 
 Wearing, incumbent of Langho Chapel, James Taylor, and John Har- 
 per, a plot of ground in Billington, of 144 square yards, and a house 
 lately erected thereon, in trust to pay the clear rents to the Master of 
 the School at Langho ; the premises were occupied rent free by the 
 Master. — In 1796, ;£^ioo, part of residue of the personal estate of Mrs. 
 Mary Smalley, bequeathed by her to Rev. Richard Penyn for 
 charitable purposes, was appropriated by him for the benefit of this 
 school, and laid out in purchase of ;^ 184 three per cent, consols, vested 
 in the names of Abraham Chew, Adam Cottam, and John Smalley. A 
 commodious new School was built in 1875. 
 
 ENCLOSURE OF BILLINGTON WASTE LANDS, A.D. 1788-91. 
 
 The Waste and Common lands in Billington with Wilpshire and 
 Dinkley comprised some 900 acres, when, in the year 1788, a petition 
 to Parliament of Sir George Warren, K.B., John Calvert, Esq., and 
 others, owners of lands in the lordships of Billington and Wilpshire- 
 cum-Dinckley, set forth that within those manors were " divers parcels 
 of Common or Waste Ground, containing about 900 acres," then lying 
 unenclosed, which, if divided and enclosed, would be of very great 
 advantage, and praying for leave to bring in a Bill to have the said lands 
 enclosed and divided amongst the petitioners. An Act was passed for 
 the enclosure and allotment of these lands the same session ; and the 
 Commissioners under the Act, John Harper, Daniel Whittle, and Adam 
 Cottam, gents., met to receive the claims of the several proprietors and 
 to ride the boundaries on Monday, August 26th, 1788. The award of 
 allotments was completed in April, 1791. The lands were allotted to 
 Lord Petre, W. G. Braddyll, Pen Asheton Curzon, Le Gendre Starkie, 
 John Smalley of Collars, John Smalley of Greensnook, Thomas Porter, 
 and Thomas Lund. 
 
 t 
 
DESCENT OF CLAYTON MANOR. 457 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— THE TOWNSHIP OF CLAYTON-IN-LE-DALE. 
 
 Situation, acreage, &c. — Descent of the Manor — Talbot and Warren as lords — Walmesley of Showley 
 — Clayton of Clayton Hey— Cowper of Showley Fold — Talbot — Harwood Fold — Mier, &c. 
 
 THE township of Clayton-in-le-Dale is situate on the left bank 
 of the Ribble opposite to Ribchester, between Salesbury and 
 Osbaldeston ; and extends south to the slope of Ramsgreave Heights. 
 The area of the township is 950 statute acres. It is an ancient manor 
 in the Fee of Clitheroe. The population in 1801 was 419; in 1871 
 was reduced to 275. The land is parcelled out into small pasture- 
 farms ; and there is considerable woodland on the high banks and 
 dingles near the river. The township contains no place of worship, 
 but is embraced in the chapelry of Salesbury. 
 
 DESCENT OF THE MANOR. 
 
 In the lordship of Earl Henry de Lascy, who died in 13 10, 
 Clayton-in-le-Dale was united with Billington as one fee belonging to the 
 Castle of Clyderow, with two carucates of land appurtenant ; and on the 
 great De Lascy Inquisition in 13 11, it was recorded that Sir Adam de 
 Huddleston held Clayton and Billington of the Earl, by the service of 
 IDS. yearly at the feast of St. Gyles and 3d. at Midsummer, and suit to 
 the Court of Clyderow. 
 
 At a later period the Talbots, lords of Salesbury, acquired manorial 
 rights with lands in this township. I conjecture the manor may have 
 passed in marriage with Sybil, daughter of Richard de Hudleston, to 
 Robert Clyderow, lord of Salesbury, and from the Clyderows, with 
 the heiress that married John Talbot, to the Talbots. This was in the 
 early part of the fifteenth century. A century onward, in 1515, another 
 John Talbot, lord of Salesbury, died seized of the manor of Clayton-in- 
 le-Dale. In a deed of trust, dated the 6th Henry VIII. (1514), this 
 John Talbot disposes of an estate in Clayton called Clayton Hey, in the 
 holding of Hugh and John Clayton, and of another tenement in Clayton 
 in the holding of Thomas Bolton. The John Talbot who died in 1589 
 was seized of the estates in Clayton at his death; and in the year 1609, 
 
 S8 
 
458 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 John Parker occurs as holding lands in Clayton of another John Talbot, 
 Esq., as lord, in socage. 
 
 In succession by marriage to the Talbots, the Warrens held this 
 with the other estates in Ribblesdale ; and in the year 1800 Sir George 
 Warren occurs as lord of the manor of Clayton-in-le-Dale. It was sold, 
 with the manors of Salesbury, Dinkley, and Osbaldeston, by Lord de 
 Tabley to Henry Ward, Esq., of Blackburn, in the year 1866. The 
 extent of the estate now owned by the lord of the manor is 657 statute 
 acres. 
 
 WALMESLEY OF SHOWLEY. 
 
 Thomas Walmesley of Showley, living 22nd Henry VII. (1506-7), 
 is the first on record of this family ; his antecedents are unknown. His 
 wife was Elizabeth, daughter of William Travers, of Neatby, Esq., and 
 he had a son Thomas. Thomas Walmysley, of Clayton-cum-Sholley, 
 was assessed to a Subsidy in 15th Hen. VIII. (1523-4). 
 
 Thomas Walmesley, of Showley, gent., married, about 1536, Mar- 
 garet, daughter of Thomas Livesey of Rishton, and sister of James 
 Livesey of Rishton, yeoman ; and by her had issue, sons, Thomas 
 (afterwards Sir Thomas Walmesley, Knt., of Dunkenhalgh, Judge of 
 Common Pleas); Richard; Robert (first of the Walmesleys of Cold- 
 cotes) ; Edward (of Bannister Hall, Walton-in-le-Dale) ; William (of 
 Lower Darwen, who died in 1622); Nicholas, of London; Henry, a 
 clerk ; and John, a barrister of Gray's Inn ; and daughters, Elizabeth, 
 wife of Christopher Nowell, of Little Mearley, Esq. ; and Alice, wife of 
 Richard Hothersall, of Hothersall, gent. The father, Thomas Walmes- 
 ley, was reported as a recusant, or " obstinate " Catholic, in 1575. He 
 died April 17th, 26th Eliz. (1584), found seized, by inquisition taken at 
 Blackburn in Sept. following, of lands, &c., in Cundcliffe in Rishton, 
 Button, Showley-in-Clayton, Cliderowe, Ribchester, Nether Darwyn, 
 and other places in the county. 
 
 Richard Walmesley, gent, Thomas's second son and successor at 
 Showley, was aged 46 years in 1584. His wife was Margaret, daughter 
 of Mr. William Walmesley of Fishwick, and he had issue, sons, Richard; 
 and Thomas (who died unmarried). Richard Walmesley, the father, 
 died Oct. 24th, 1609. Inq. post mart, taken at Preston, Jan. 4th, 7th 
 Jas. I., returns Richard Walmesley, gent., had died seized of a capital 
 messuage,- 100 acres of land, meadow, pasture, and woodland in Showley 
 in Clayton-in-le-Dale, worth 20s. ; and of 13 messuages, 4 cottages, 160 
 acres of land, meadow, and pasture, in Ribchester and Button, worth 
 30S. ; and 9 acres of land, meadow, and pasture in Fishwick. Inden- 
 ture dated Oct. loth, 6th James I., is cited between Richard Walmesley 
 of Showley and William Gerrard of Radboume in Brindle, gent., being 
 
WALMESLEY OF SHOWLEY. 459 
 
 a covenant that a marriage shall be solemnised before the next Easter, 
 between Richard Walmesley, son and heir apparent of Richard, and 
 Ellen Gerrard, daughter of William ; and that a sum of money by way 
 of dower should be paid by William Gerrard to Richard Walmesley, 
 the father, &c. Richard Walmesley conveys the house of Showley in trust. 
 Richard Walmesley, son and heir, was aged 11 years in 1609. 
 
 Richard Walmesley, of Showley, bom in 1598 (a governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School in 161 6), married Hellen, daughter of Mr. 
 William Gerrard of Radboume, and had issue, sons, Richard, bapt. 
 Nov. 25th, 161 7 ; Gerrard, bapt. Sept. 9th, 1619 ; Thomas, bapt. April 
 2nd, 1621 ; William, bom in 1622, died young; and John (of Buckshaw, 
 ancestor of the Walmesleys of Westwood, near Wigan, who married 
 Anne, daughter of Lawrence Breres of Buckshaw). The daughters of 
 Richard Walmesley were, Margaret, bom in 161 5 ; and Janet, bom in 
 1623, married John Sherburne, gent. Richard Walmesley, Esq., was 
 buried at Blackburn, March 17th, 1678-9, aged 80. 
 
 Richard Walmesley, gent., eldest son, died in his father's lifetime, 
 having had issue by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas South- 
 worth of Samlesbury, Esq., a daughter, Elizabeth, wife, first, of Mr. 
 Thomas Cottam of Dilworth, and, secondly, of Mr. John Nowell of 
 Mearley. 
 
 The next son, Gerrard, dying young, the succession was vested in 
 Thomas Walmesley, third son of Richard. 
 
 Thomas Walmesley, Esq., of Showley, married Elizabeth, sister 
 and heir of Henry Mossock, of Cunscough, gent., and had sons, 
 Richard, bom in 1656 ; and Henry, died young, in 1660 ; and a 
 daughter Anne, bom in 1656, who became a nun, and died at Aix in 
 Flanders. Thomas Walmesley, of Showley, gent., was made a governor 
 of Blackbum Grammar School in 1679. 
 
 Richard Walmesley, Esq., of Showley, had to wife Jane, sister to 
 William Houghton, Esq., of Park Hall, in Chamock Richard. The 
 issue of the marriage were ten sons and six daughters. The sons were, 
 Thomas, William, John, Edward, Richard, Robert, Charles, Henry, 
 James, and Francis ; the daughters were, Elizabeth, Juliana, Ann, Mar- 
 garet, and two Dorothys, the first dying young. Mistress Walmesley, 
 mother of the above, died in Oct., 1722. Mr. Richard Walmesley, of 
 Showley, became a governor of Blackbum Grammar School in 1 708. 
 He died before 1 730. 
 
 William, second son of Richard, described in the record as 
 " William Walmsley of Sholey near Preston," was tried at Liverpool, 
 Jan. nth, 1715-6, on a charge of complicity in the Jacobite Rebellion 
 of 1715, but was acquitted. 
 
46cj HISTORY OK BLACKBURN. 
 
 Thomas Walmesley, the eldest son, bom Oct. 21st, 1685, succeeded 
 to the estate. He had to wife Mary, daughter of William Colgreave, 
 Esq., and had sons, Richard, Thomas, Joseph and Francis ; and a 
 daughter, Mary. Thomas Walmesley, Esq., died April 20th, 1755. 
 He was a governor of Blackburn Grammar School from 1731. 
 
 The eldest son, Richard, having become a priest (as did also the 
 third son, Francis), the patrimony went to the second son, Thomas 
 Colgreave Walmesley, Esq., born August 28th, 17 13; married, April 
 loth, 1758, Elizabeth, daughter of John Turner, Esq., of London, 
 and had issue, Richard Joseph, bom Aug. 22nd, 1764; Thomas William, 
 bom September loth, 1767, died June 5th, 1825; Robert, a monk of 
 La Trappe, born Feb. 12th, 1770; Catharine, bom in 1758; Elizabeth- 
 Marie-Magdalen, died in 1787; Marie, bom 1761, died 1807; Anne, 
 bom 1763, died 1814; Francis, bom 1772; and Ellen Monica. Mr. 
 Thomas Colgreave Walmesley died May 12th, 1776. He was a 
 governor of Blackbum Grammar School, elected in 1754. 
 
 Richard Joseph Walmesley, Esq., of Showley, married, August 25th, 
 
 1794, Miss Catharine Manby, and died May 26th, 1803. He left as 
 his heir Thomas George Walmesley; and had other sons, Richard, 
 Henry, and Michael ; also a daughter Frances. 
 
 Thomas George Walmesley, Esq., of Showley, born Aug. i6th, 
 
 1795, married May 4th, 1824, Susan Elizabeth Trusler, of Shindon, 
 Sussex; by whom he has issue, sons, Anthony, bom Nov. 25th, 1826; 
 and John, bom January 26th, 1830. Thomas George Walmesley, Esq., 
 disposed of Showley Hall and estate, in February, 1870, to the late Mr. 
 James Eden. 
 
 Showley Hall stands on the skirt of the plantation that covers the 
 bluffs and ravines on the south bank of the Ribble. It formerly 
 consisted of three blocks at right angles, enclosing a court. All but 
 the centre block at the south end has been demolished, and this portion 
 was rebuilt in 1870 for a residence by Mr. Eden. In the grounds, a little 
 to the north of the hall, the foundations of the ancient private chapel of 
 the Walmesleys have recently been removed, and in the process, some 
 antique coins are stated to have been tumed up.' 
 
 CLAYTON OF CLAYTON HEY AND COPTHURST. 
 John Clayton and Hugh Clayton, both of Clayton Hey, in this township, are 
 named in a deed of trust made by John Talbot of Salesbury, Esq., in 1515. Henry 
 Clayton, in 1565, held lands formerly belonging to Burnley Chantry in Clayton, 
 Ribchester, &c. John Clayton of Clayton Hey, who died before 1626, when his 
 widow was bmied, had a son Thomas, bora in 1617; and daughters, Arm, and 
 
 > Francis Petre, Roman Catholic Bishop of Amoria, vicar Apostolic of the Northern District of 
 Kngland, resided at Showley Hall many years ; he died in 1775, and his tomb is at Stydd Chapel, 
 Ribchester. 
 
TALBOT OF CLAYTON, &c. 461 
 
 Jennet, wife of John Talbot, gent. Richard Clayton of Clayton Hey died in June, 
 1652. Roger Clayton of Copthurst died in March, 1627-8; and George Clayton of 
 Copthurst, died in April, 1647. 
 
 COWPER OF SHOWLEY. 
 
 Richard Cowper of Showley Foulde, was buried at Blackburn, July 21st, 16261 
 Another Richard Cowper, of Clayton, buried Ann, his wife, Dec. 30th, 1655. 
 
 Henry Cowper of Showley, occurs in 1655, when Richard, his son, married 
 Ellen daughter of Christopher Marsden of Witton. 
 
 Richard Cowp' [Cowper] of Showley, had sons, Thomas, died in 1689; James, bom 
 in 1663; and Edward, bom 1666; also, I think, an elder son Richard, and a daughter, 
 Alice. Ellen, his wife, was buried at Blackburn, Feb. 25th, 1682-3. 
 
 Richard Cowper, of Showley, also named "of Clayton-in-le-Dale, yeoman, " 
 married Ann Read, Jan. 28th, 1698, and had a son Robert, bom in 1698, and a 
 daughter Mary, bom in 1 703. 
 
 TALBOT OF CLAYTON. 
 
 John Talbot of Clayton-in-le-Dale, gent., was father of Ralph, John, and William 
 Talbot. 
 
 Ralph Talbot of Clayton-in-le-Dale, gent., died in 1554; his Will was proved 
 Sept. 1 8th in that year. Testator desires to be buried in the chancel of Ribchester 
 Church; names John Talbot his brother; "my master John Talbot of Salesbury, 
 Esq. ;" Jane, wife of testator. Gives to Richard Talbot, his son, all his lands in the 
 township of Ribchester; if son Richard dies, all said lands to revert to the child of 
 which testator's wife is with child, if it be a boy ; reversion to daughters. Jane 
 Talbot, wife, Richard, son, William Talbot, brother, and Richard Norres, executors. 
 John Talbot, Esq. , supervisor. 
 
 John Talbot of Clayton, was assessed to a Subsidy in 1663. Thomas Talbot, of 
 Clayton-in-le-Daile, was buried at Blackbum, Dec. 22nd, 1675. 
 
 Robert Talbot of Clayton, son of John Talbot, deceased, was an out-burgess of 
 Preston at the Guild of 1682 ; as was also his brothers, John Talbot, Thomas Talbot, 
 and Samuel Talbot John Talbot of Clayton, married, in 1685, Ann Whalley. 
 
 John Talbot of Clayton, yeoman, died in 1762. His wife, Margaret, died in 
 1772. Another John Talbot of Clayton, yeoman, died in 1778. 
 
 At Showley Fold, in this township, is a freehold estate and messuage, 
 the property and residence of T. S. Ainsworth, Esq. (see post, Ains- 
 worth of Feniscowles). Harwood Fold is the messuage of another 
 freehold farm, formerly the property of a yeoman family of Harwoods. 
 " Mr. John Harwood, of Showley," was made a governor of Blackbum 
 Grammar School in 1681. His son William Harwood held the freehold 
 in 1728, and restored the house, on a stone in which are his initials and 
 his wife's "WE H," and the date " 1728." The Mier estate is an old 
 freehold, parcel of which, of 93 acres, was sold in 1832. The major 
 portion of the Mier estate, consisting of 118 statute acres, was purchased, 
 ya. 1874, by Messrs. John, Edward, and Joseph Dugdale, of Blackbum. 
 
^62 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 CHAPTER v.— THE TOWNSHIP OF CUERDALE. 
 
 ft . 
 
 Topography, Acreage, and Population — Descent of the Manor — De Keuerdale Family — Molmeux — 
 Osbaldeston— Assheton — Cuerdale Hall. 
 
 CUERDALE is a small township on the south bank of the Ribble, 
 adjoining Walton-in-le-Dale at the western end of Blackburn 
 Parish. Its demesne consists of fertile river-side meadow and pasture. 
 The area of the township is 500 statute acres ; and it contains only ten 
 inhabited houses. The population, which in 1801 numbered 170 per- 
 sons, in 187 1 was diminished to 60 persons. Cuerdale forms part of 
 the ancient Chapelry of Lowchurch (Walton). It was in this township, 
 in a field near the Ribble, a few paces lower down than Cuerdale Hall, 
 that the remarkable hoard of Saxo-Danish treasure was discovered in 
 1840 (see ante, pp. 29-40). 
 
 DESCENT OF THE MANOR.— DE KEUERDALE FAMILY. 
 
 Henry de Keuerdale, living in the 13th century, was chief pro- 
 prietor in Cuerdale. He had a son Richard. 
 
 Richard, son of Henry de Keuerdale, by undated deed gave to the 
 Abbot and Convent of Stanlaw (removed to Whalley in 1294) a rent of 
 1 2d. yearly, for the welfare of his soul, &c. Alexander and Roger de 
 Keuerdale, both witnesses to this charter, would be either sons or 
 brothers of Richard. 
 
 Alexander de Keuerdale, after Richard, held Cuerdale Manor 
 temp. Edw. I. and II. He occurs as witness to a deed of 1 2th Edw. I. 
 (1284). He had a daughter Alice, wife of Richard de Balderstone. 
 The lords of Cuerdale also held an estate in Over Darwen in socage ; 
 and in a deed of gift to Stanlaw Abbey- of a bam " in Superiore Der- 
 went," by Roger de Whalley, is mentioned " the way on the west which 
 leads to the house of Alexander de Keuerdale." In 1311, by inquisition 
 it appeared that " Adam (Alexander ?) de Keuresdale held a carucate 
 in Keuresdale by the service of 9s. yearly at the feast of St. Giles." 
 
 Geoffrey de Keuerdale occurs after Alexander, and he had a son 
 Robert de Keuerdale, who, A.D. 1349, held three carucates of land in 
 
MOLINEUX OF CUERDALE. 463 
 
 Keuersdale in fee of the Duke of Lancaster and service. Also, on 
 John de Keuerdale is witness to a charter dated 12th Edw. III. (1339). 
 Robert de Keuerdale had a daughter and heiress Jane de Keuerdale, 
 who married Thomas Molineux. 
 
 MOLINEUX OF CUERDALE. 
 
 Thomas Molineux, who had to wife the heiress Jane de 
 Keuerdale, was a younger son of Richard Molineux of Sefton, and 
 brother of William of Sefton. He settled in Cuerdale after his marriage, 
 and in 41 Ed. III. (1368) I find "Thomas Molyneux de Keuerdale" 
 giving deed of quit-claim to John de Gerston of his right in the hamlet 
 of Tockholes within Livesey vill. Richard Molineux (presumably 
 his father) gave to Thomas Molineux lands in Sefton, Thornton, and 
 Litherland ; remainder to Richard, his heirs, &c. He held, in 1377, 
 in right of his wife, Kuerdale manor, the moiety of Over Derwent, and 
 half the manor of Eccleshill. He had a son Thomas ; and a daughter 
 Katherine, married, first, to Alexander Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston ; 
 secondly, to Thomas Banastre of Osbaldeston ; and, thirdly, to Robert 
 Radcliffe. Thomas Molyneux, the father, was slain at Radcott Bridge 
 in 1387. 
 
 Thomas Molyneux, the son, died Dec. 20th, 1387, leaving no 
 male heir by his wife Katherine. Inq. post mort. was taken at Preston, 
 Feb. 17th, 1388, when it was found that the lands the deceased Thomas 
 Molyneux had held in Sefton, &c., were to descend to William, son and 
 heir of Richard Molyneux ; from William to his son and heir Richard ; 
 from Richard to William his son and heir ; from William to his son and 
 heir Sir William Molyneux, Knt.; and from him to his son Richard, 
 living, under age, in ward to John of Gaunt, at date of the escheat 
 (1388).' Of other estates of deceased, Katherine, wife of Thomas 
 Banastre of Osbaldeston, daughter of Thomas Molyneux the father, and 
 sister of Thomas then defunct, was heiress, and aged 40 years. 
 
 By marriage of Katherine Molyneux, heiress of her brother Thomas, 
 to Alexander Osbaldeston, the lords of Osbaldeston acquired manorial 
 estate in Cuerdale, and Richard Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston, who died 
 in 1507, was found to have held, among his possessions, " Kuerdall 
 Manor, of Richard Langton, in socage, worth 20 marks." His son, Sir 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, died in 1543, seized of Cuerdale Manor. 
 Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., who died in 1 590, kept a second mansion 
 at Cuerdale Hall, for in his Will, dated 1588, he bequeaths a year's 
 wages to " all my howsehold servants at Osbaldeston and Cewerdall." 
 Some years after this the estate was sold to Radcliffe Assheton, gent. 
 
 I Lane. Inquisitions, ed. by Mr. Langton forCheth, Socy., pp.28-30. 
 
464 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 ASSHETON OF CUERDALE. 
 
 The first Assheton who resided at Cuerdale was Radcliffe Asshe- 
 ton, Esq., second son of Ralph Assheton of Lever. He was born in 
 1582, and had to wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Hide, a citizen of 
 London. Issue : — James, died young ; John, eventual heir ; Ralph, a 
 citizen of London ; Richard, died unmarried ; Ellen, married, Sept., 
 1627, Edward Rawsthome, of New Hall, Esq.; Joane, wife of 
 Ughtred, third son of Richard Shuttleworth, of Gawthorpe, Esq. ; Alice, 
 wife of John Bancroft, citizen of London ; Elizabeth, wife of Richard 
 Greene of Poulton ; Julian, wife of John Legh ; Jane, wife of Richard 
 Holt ; Margaret, wife of Thomas Parker of Browsholme ; and Dorothy, 
 died young. Radcliffe Assheton purchased the manor of Cuerdale and 
 settled there, the entailed estates of the family going to his elder 
 brother Ralph. He joined the Royalist party at the commencement of 
 the Civil War, and at a meeting at Preston, Dec. loth, 1642, was 
 appointed collector for the Hundred of Blackburn of the King's assess- 
 ment of ^8,700 upon the County. Radcliffe Assheton, Esq., died Jan. 
 19th, 1644-5. In his Will, dated Jan. i8th, 1644-5, testator names 
 Elizabeth, his wife ; sons, John, deceased (who had a son Richard); 
 Ralph ; and Richard ; and his daughters, Joan, Alice, Elizabeth, Julian, 
 Jane, and Margaret. 
 
 John Assheton, gent., eldest son of Radcliffe, married Anne, 
 youngest daughter of Richard Shuttleworth, Esq., of Gawthorpe, and 
 had a son Richard, bom in 1643. He joined the King's party in the 
 Civil War; was a soldier in the Royal army, and was raised to a 
 colonelcy. He died in active service at Bristol, in 1643, the year before 
 his father's death. His widow married Richard Towneley of Bamside 
 and Carr, who was killed by a bull, baited at Gisbum, in 1655. 
 
 Richard Assheton, of Cuerdale, Esq., son of John, married Mary, 
 daughter of George Pigot, Esq., of Preston. Issue : — Ralph, bapt. at 
 Walton Church, Nov. i6th, 1666; Radcliffe, bapt. Feb. 23rd, 1668-9; 
 John, bapt. Oct. 25th, 1670, buried March 4th, 1670-1 ; Elizabeth, 
 bapt. Nov. 9th, 1673; Ann, bapt. Jan. 31st, 1675-6, buried Sept. 28th, 
 1676 ; Mary, bapt. Aug. 6th, 1677, married, Dec. 12th, 1706, Alexander 
 Nowell, gent; Lucy, bapt. Sept. 15th, 1679; Richard, bapt. Jan. 21st, 
 1 68 1-2 ; Edmund, bapt. May 26th, 1684 (Edmund Assheton of Preston, 
 mercer. Mayor in 17 14), buried April 6th, 1746 ; John, bapt. Sept. i6th, 
 1690. This Richard Assheton, in 1679, by the settlement of his 
 relative. Sir Ralph Assheton of Whalley, became heir of the estates at 
 Downham and Whalley. This acquisition caused the removal of the 
 head of the family from Cuerdale to Downham, but junior members of 
 the family still occupied the hall of Cuerdale. Richard Assheton, Esq., 
 
ASSHETON OF CUERDALE. 465 
 
 died in 1709, buried Feb. 15th, 1709-10; his Will bears date Oct. 27th, 
 1707. His widow died in December, 1717. 
 
 Ralph Assheton, Esq., eldest son of Richard, married, Dec. 19th, 
 1695, Mrs. Sarah Bruen, of Hoghton ; and had issue, Ralph, bapt. Dec. 
 28th, 1696 ; and Richard, who died without issue. 
 
 Ralph Assheton, Esq., married Mary, daughter of Thomas Lister, 
 Esq., of Arnoldsbiggin, and had issue : — Ralph, born Jan. 25th, 1719-20; 
 Richard, born Aug. 15th, 1727 (he was Rev. Richard Assheton, D.D., 
 Rector of Middleton, who died in 1800); Elizabeth, born Feb. 12th, 
 1716-7, married Richard Assheton, Esq. ; Sarah, born May, died June, 
 I7i8;and Mary, bapt. Nov. 7th, 1721, married, first, Rev. John 
 Witton ; and secondly, Peregrine Wentworth, Esq. 
 
 Ralph Assheton, Esq., of Downham, inherited the estates, and 
 married Rebecca, daughter of William Hulls, Esq., of London. He had 
 issue, sons, Ralph, bom May 2nd, 1753, buried May 3rd; a second 
 Ralph, born April 5th, 1754, died young; William, born in 1758 ; and 
 four daughters, Annie, born May 28th, 1755, married, April 23rd, 1782, 
 Rev. Wm. Cleaver, Rector of Foscot, Co. Bucks., aftenvards Bishop of 
 Bangor; Rebecca, Mary, and Elizabeth. He died Jan. 3rd, 1759. 
 
 William Assheton, Esq., of Downham and Cuerdale, in 1786 
 married Letitia, second daughter of Sir Richard Brooke, of Norton 
 Priory, Co. Chester, Bart. Issue : — William, bom March i6th, 1788; 
 Thomas, died Sept., 1794; Robert, died Jan., 1797; Frances, died 
 Oct., 1795 ; and Mary, wife of John Armytage, Esq. 
 
 William Assheton, Esq., the son, married, in 181 6, Frances Arabella, 
 daughter and co-heiress of the Hon. Wm. Cockayne. By her (she died 
 in 1835) he had issue two sons, Ralph; and Richard Orme, born July 
 i2th, 1835. William Assheton, Esq., was a deputy-lieutenant and a 
 county magistrate of Lancashire. He died August 12th, 1858, aged 70. 
 
 Ralph Assheton, Esq., the present lord of Downham and Cuerdale, 
 was born Dec. 20th, 1830. He was elected M.P. for Clitheroe in July, 
 1868, and re-elected in Nov., 1868, and in Feb., 1874. He married, 
 in 1854, Emily Augusta, fourth daughter of Joseph Feilden, Esq., of 
 Witton Park, by whom he has issue. 
 
 Cuerdale Hall, long a mansion of the Asshetons, was partially 
 rebuilt, in 1 700, by Wm. Assheton, Esq. The hall stands on the south 
 bank of the Ribble, about a mile above Walton Church. The later 
 portion of the hall, facing the river, is a rectangular stmcture, of brick, 
 with stone ornamentation. In the rear, some parts of the older hall 
 remain. Since the hall ceased to be the residence of the Asshetons, 
 the gardens and grounds have fallen into neglect. The farmer of the 
 demesne now occupies Cuerdale Hall. 
 
 59 
 
466 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 CHAPTER VI— THE TOWNSHIP OF NETHER DARWEN. 
 
 Topography — Descent of the Manor — Banastre — Langton— Ardem — Bradshaw — Talbot — Walmesley — 
 Manor-place of Fernehurst — Haworth of Th'urcroft, and branches — Aspinall — Bailey — Eccles — 
 Grymshaw — Harwood — Haworth, of Walmsley Fold, Preston, and Newfield — Hindle — Livesey— 
 ■ Lomas — Marsden — Sanderson — Waddington — Walmesley — Yates — St. James's Church— Dissent- 
 ing Chapels — Commons' Enclosure. 
 
 NETHER DARWEN (in modem style, Lower Danven) is a 
 township of considerable extent occupying the portion of the 
 valley of the river Darwen between Over Darwen and Blackburn town- 
 ships, and extending over the moorland heights that enclose the valley 
 eastward and westward. These moors formed the ancient waste and 
 common land of the township, but within the century have been 
 enclosed and cultivated as pasturage. The area of the township is 
 2,490 statute acres. Its population in i8oi was 1646 persons; but by 
 the introduction of cotton factories into the township, the population in 
 1871 had increased to 3,876 persons. The manufacturing population 
 is chiefly collected in Lower Darwen village near the centre of the 
 township, and in the village of Ewood (anciently Ewode), on the 
 border of Blackburn, from which it is separated by the river Darwen. 
 The oldest cotton mill in the village of Lower Darwen, a small square 
 structure now disused, was built by Mr. Thomas Eccles, yeoman and 
 manufacturer (see Eccles family, post), about the year 1 7 74. 
 
 The principal storage reservoirs of the Blackburn Waterworks cover 
 several acres of ground upon the acclivity on the east side of the township. 
 
 DESCENT OF THE MANOR— BANASTRE, AND LANGTON, AS LORDS. 
 
 In the Norman period. Nether Derwent is found as an appur- 
 tenance of the feodal estate of Walton-in-le-Dale ; and about A.D. 1130, 
 Henry de Lascy, lord of the Honor of Clitheroe, granted " the two 
 Derwents " (Upper and Nether), along with Walton as its members, to 
 Robert Banastre, for the service of one Knight's fee. The Banastres, 
 lords of Newton, held Nether Darwen from the above date nearly two 
 centuries; and in the De Lascy Inquisition of 13 11, it is returned that 
 
ARDERN OF NETHER DARWEN. 467 
 
 " Sir Adam Banastre held two carucates of land in Nether Derwent, and 
 paid yearly 2S. lod. and suit to Clitheroe Court." 
 
 Sir John de Langton, by his marriage with Alice, daughter and 
 heir of James Banastre, acquired the lordships of Newton and Walton 
 with their dependencies; and died about A.D. 1334. His son. Sir 
 Robert de Langton, in 1349 was found in possession of " two carucates 
 of land in Nether Derwent." After the lapse of 220 years, the lords of 
 Walton still retained manorial rights in Nether Darwen at the death of 
 Sir Thomas Langton, Knt, in 1569, who in his Will names "Nether 
 Danvyne " among his manors, and messuages and lands he held there. 
 But it is probable that before this the bulk of the demesne lands in 
 Nether Darwen had somehow been acquired by other families, named 
 hereafter. The manor had, I think, been divided about the fourteenth 
 century; for then and later the Ardems and Bradshaws held one 
 portion in fee ; and Talbots of Holt and Bashall another portion. 
 
 ARDERN— LORDS OF PARCEL OF LOWER DARWEN MANOR. 
 
 Sir Thomas de Ardern, Knt., living in 1391, by Alice his wife, had 
 a son and heir, John. John de Ardern, in the second half of the 
 fourteenth century, held a large estate in Nether Darwen of John of 
 Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in fee. This estate remained with the 
 Ardems until the beginning of the reign of Henry VL In the Chancery 
 Rolls of the Duchy are found documents relating to the possessions of 
 this family. April 27th, 2nd Henry VL (1424), a mandamus wa.s 
 issued to the escheator to inquire what lands and tenements John de 
 Ardern, Esq., held of John, Duke of Lancaster, the King's great-grand- 
 father, in capite. It was found on inquisition that John de Ardern had 
 died on the Eve of Pentecost, 15th Richard II. (r392), seized in his 
 demesne as of fee of 16 messuages, one mill, 200 acres of land, 200 
 acres of meadow, 1,000 acres of pasture, and 20 acres of wood, parcel 
 of the manor of Nether Derwynd ; and that Joan, wife of Nicholas de 
 Aynesworth, Margaret, wife of Hugh de Bradshagh, Agnes, wife of 
 Edward de Chemok, and Alianora, wife of John de Bradshagh, were 
 the daughters and next heirs of the aforesaid John de Ardern. April 
 30th, 2nd Henry VI. (1424), precept was issued to the escheator to 
 seize the above estate into the King's hand. It was found also by 
 inquisition that Alice, widow of Sir Thomas Ardern, Knt., now deceased, 
 after the death of the said John de Ardern, intruded upon the lands 
 aforesaid and enjoyed the issues and profits thereof for her life. 
 
 May 5th, 1424, a precept was issued to the escheator to give to Nicholas de 
 Aynesworth and Joan his wife, one of the daughters and heirs of John de Ardern, 
 livery of her portion of her father's lands, taking security for payment of the relief. 
 
468 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 This Joan in her father's lifetime had married William de Lever, but being afterwards 
 divorced, she had married Nicholas de Aynesworth. 
 
 A like precept, at the same time, was issued for livery of lands to Edward de 
 Chemok and Agnes his wife, another of the daughters and heirs of John de Ardern. 
 This Agnes had first married John de Chorley, then dead, and, secondly, Edward de 
 Chemok. 
 
 A like precept was issued for livery of lands to Hugh de Bradshagh and Margaret 
 his wife, another of John de Ardem's daughters and heirs. She had married, first, 
 Hugh de Dokesbury, and after his death, Hugh de Bradshagh. 
 
 A like precept was issued for livery of lands to John de Bradshagh and Alianora 
 his wife, another of John de Ardem's daughters and heirs. 
 
 BRADSHAW OF NETHER DARWEN. 
 
 From one or other of the two Bradshaws who married sisters and 
 heiresses of John de Ardern — Hugh and John de Bradshaw — descended 
 a family that possessed freehold estate in Lx)wer Darwen in the 
 sixteenth century, the following particulars of which are drawn from the 
 Duchy Escheats and from Harleian MS. 1987. 
 
 William Bradshaa died Oct. loth, 3rd Henry VIII. (1511). After 
 his death, on Inq. post mart, taken at Wigan, before John Worseley, 
 Esq., escheator, April 4th, 5th Henry VIII., it was returned that he had 
 possessed 30 messuages, with the ninth part of a Knight's fee, in the 
 vill of Nether Derwyn, with 500 acres of land, 100 acres of meadow, 
 200 acres of pasture, and 1,000 acres of moor and moss there. Alto- 
 gether, an estate of 1,800 acres, amounting to about three-fourths of the 
 entire acreage of the township. Thomas Bradshaa, son and heir, was 
 then aged 34 years. In the 9th Henry VIII. (1517), in the matter 
 of a writ of amoveas manus Regis, inquisitions taken at Lancaster and 
 Wigan, and the return thereto of the lands and possessions of William 
 Bradshaa, in the Manor of Nether Darwyn, were recited. 
 
 Thomas Bradeshagh, son of William, died Oct. 20th, 7th Henry 
 VIII. (1515). His escheat was taken at Lancaster, Jan. nth, 1516. 
 It was found that Lawrence Bradeshagh, brother of deceased, was his 
 heir, aged 30 years and upwards. 
 
 Lawrence Bradshagh held the above estate in Nether Derwyn until 
 his death, September 20th, 1522, when by inquisition it was found that 
 Richard Bradshagh was his son and heir, aged 5 years and upwards. 
 
 Concerning this infant heir, Richard Bradshaw, there is no record. 
 John Bradshagh, perhaps brother of Thomas and Lawrence, is found in 
 possession of the estate about r 540, when there occurred actions in the 
 Duchy Court in which John Bradshaw was a defendant. John Bradshaw 
 died Jan. 19th, 1542, seized, according to inquisition taken in the 3Sth 
 Henry VIII., of twelve messuages, the 4th part of one fulling-mill, 67 
 acres of land, 67 acres of meadow, 330 acres of pasture, and 6 acres of 
 
LORDS OF NETHER BARWEN. 469 
 
 woodland, in Nether Denvynt, parcel of the Manor of Nether Derwynt, 
 &c. John Bradshaw, aged 40 in 1543, was son and heir. 
 
 John Bradshaw, last-named, died about 1 548 (2nd Edward VI.), 
 seized of 1 2 messuages, the 3rd part of a fulling-mill, 66 acres of land, 
 67 acres of meadow, 336 acres of pasture, and 6 acres of woodland in 
 Nether Darwyn, parcel of the Manor of Nether Daxwyn; also of Bradshaw 
 Manor, and other estates. This item connects the Bradshaws of Lower 
 Darwen with Bradshaws of Bradshaw, near Bolton. 
 
 Another John Bradshaw succeeded the last-named John in this 
 possession. In the 5th Elizabeth (1562), John Bradshawe had a suit 
 in the Court of the Duchy with Henry Talbott and Ralph Lommas, 
 respecting certain messuages, lands, tenements, hereditaments, and right 
 of common in Nether Derwent and Derwent Common. John Brad- 
 shaw died about 1574, and the escheat of the 17th Elizabeth returned 
 his estate as twelve messuages, the third part of a fulling-mill, 66 acres 
 of land, 67 acres of meadow, 336 acres of pasture, and 6 acres of wood- 
 land, parcel of Nether Darwyn manor ; with the estate of Bradshaw 
 within Harsvodd Manor, and lands in Sharpies, Bolton, and Ryvington. 
 
 In a deed dated 1588, John Bradshaw, of Bradshaw, Esq., and 
 Nicholas Bradshaw of London, are named as having some time thereto- 
 fore sold to Richard Marsden certain lands in Nether Darwen. 
 
 The Nether Darwen estate afterwards was conveyed to Sir Thomas 
 Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh, Knt., and remains the possession of the 
 Petre family, lineal descendants of the Walmesleys. 
 
 TALBOT, LORDS OF NETHER DARWEN. 
 
 Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall, Knt, who died in 1499, held at his 
 death " Nether Derw)Tid Manor, by 2s. 6d. rent." His son, Edmund 
 Talbot, Esq., held Nether Darwyn manor until his death in 1519. His 
 widow, Ann Talbot, held this manor after Edmund Talbot's decease. 
 Sir Thomas Talbot, Knt, died in 1558, seized of Nether Darwen 
 manor. In certain depositions respecting the south chapel in Blackburn 
 Church, made in 161 2, it was deposed that the Talbots had for several 
 generations held this lordship, and "the capital messuage of Feme- 
 hurst" in Nether Darwen, of which certain Liveseys were tenants ; that 
 Gilbert Talbot, uncle of Sir Thomas, "had the house of Fernehurst 
 during his life, and died there," about 64 years before (1547) — "he was 
 simple;" and that, before 1598, Thomas Talbot and his brother and 
 heir, John Talbot, sold to the late Sir Thomas Walmesley, Knt., the 
 lordships of Rishton and Nether Danven, the messuages of Holt and 
 Fernehurst, and all the lands and tenements there. 
 
 In the 20th Henry VIII. (1528), a plaint was heard in the Duchy 
 
47° 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Court touching a contention as to right of tenancy of the manor place 
 of Femehurst in Nether Darwen. An abstract of this plaint, from the 
 records of the Chancery Court of Lancaster, is subjoined : — 
 
 To the most hon. Sir Thomas More, Knt., Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; 
 the plaint of William Clayton, clerk, and Alexander Clayton, sets forth that Ann Talbot, 
 late wife to Edmund Talbot, deceased, in her widowhood demysed to William Comp- 
 ton, Knt. , the manor of Fernehurst, in the lordship of Nether Darwen, Co. Lane. , to 
 have and hold the said manor for term of his life; by virtue whereof the said William 
 Compton was seized in his demesne as freehold of the premises, and so devised, &c., 
 and to farm let the same to said orators for term of certain years yet to come, by virtue 
 whereof said orators entered into possession; that one James Lyvesey, Thomas Lyvesey, 
 Richard Walkeden, Xpofer Walmysley, and other ryotous persons unknown, to the 
 number of twenty-one persons, the 20th day of April last ryotously and in forcible 
 manner entered into the said manor, and the same ensyns [since] have kept and yet do 
 kepe in ryotous manner and in no wise will suffer the said orators to come and enjoy 
 the same according to their said right and title, which said ryotous persons daily kepe 
 within the said manor long bowes, bylles, and other unlawful weapons as if it were an 
 house of warr, to the entent to keep said orators unlawfully from possession of the 
 premises, which said ryotous persons, at such time as the said Alexander, son of said 
 orator, came to have entered into their premises, had their long bowes ready to shote, 
 and would have shotte at the said Alexander if he had not perceived their ungracious 
 intent and sodenly in eschewinge the danger and peril thereof departed from the pre- 
 mises; which said ryotous demeanor of said persons contynuinge by so long season is 
 the perilous example of all other the King's subjects in those partes abydyng if so 
 reformation in the said premises be not had and provyded. 
 
 HAWORTH OF TH'URCROFT (HIGHERCROFT). 
 
 This family, a branch of the ancient Lancashire stock of Haworth 
 of Haworth, was settled in Lower Darwen and Blackburn nearly four 
 centuries ago. In the Subsidy Roll of 1523 (see ante, pp. 61-3), appear 
 the names of three Haworths, heads of families, in Lower Darwen. viz., 
 Edmond Haworth, Peter Haworth, and Richard Haworth, assessed to 
 that Subsidy ; and also of William Haworth and Richard Haworth in 
 Blackburn township. Richard Heyworth was an original Governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School in 1567. 
 
 A descent of this family is entered in Dugdale's Visitation of Lan- 
 cashire (1664). It commences with Lawrence Haworth, said to be a 
 son of Haworth of Haworth. About 1585, " Lawrence Haworthe of 
 Nether Darwyn," gave to the Parish Subscription to augment the 
 Grammar School Endowment 20s. Two Haworths were at that date 
 Governors of the School, Lawrence, and " Nycholas Haworthe " (died 
 Dec. 1 8th, 1597). By his wife, a daughter of — Dewhurst, Lawrence 
 Haworth had known issue, son.s, Peares (or Peter), and Richard. 
 
 Peares Haworth, of Th'urcroft in Lower Darwen, son of Lawrence, 
 married Jennet, daughter of John Livesey of Sidebight in Rishton, and 
 
HAWORTH OF TH'URCROFT. 
 
 471 
 
 had issue, sons, Lawrence, his heir; and Richard and Thomas, who both 
 died without issue. Peter Haworth of Nether Darwyn was taxed to a 
 Subsidy in 1570. 
 
 Lawrence Haworth of Th'urcroft, gent., married Ahce, daughter of 
 Robert Holden of Pickup Bank (son of Ralph Holden, of Holden, 
 gent.), and had issue, sons, Peter ; Thomas ; and Richard ; also 
 daughters, Elizabeth, bom in 1601; and Jenita, born in 1603. Lawrence 
 Haworth died March 2nd, 1618, and by Inquisition taken for the 
 escheat, at Blackburn, April 14th, i6th James I., was found to have 
 died seized of one messuage called Hurcroft, in Nether Darwen, held of 
 the King in capite, with 20 acres of land, 6 of meadow, and 20 of 
 pasture in Nether Darwen ; also of one other messuage in the occupa- 
 tion of Edward Pomfret, with 6 acres of land, 4 of meadow, and 10 of 
 pasture in Nether Darwen. 
 
 Peter Haworth, of Th'urcroft, gent., son and heir of Lawrence, was 
 said to be over 26 years of age at his father's decease, so must have 
 been born about 1592, but Dugdale has it that he was aged 77 in 
 1664. He married Grace, daughter and co-heir of Henry Crosse of 
 Okenhead in Lower Darwen (by Alice, daughter and co-heir of John 
 Lomas), and by this marriage a moiety of the Okenhead estate accrued 
 to the Haworths. Issue, sons, Lawrence, bapt. Oct. 12th, 1623 ; 
 Thomas, and Richard, both died young ; and daughters, Alice, born in 
 1616, wife of John Moore of Greenhead in Pendle ; Elizabeth, wife of 
 Richard Webster of Hargreave ; Ann, wife of Roger son and heir of 
 Roger Winckley, of Winckley, Esq., after of Hugh Currer of Kildwick, 
 Co. York, Esq.; and Jennet, wife of Thomas Astley of Stakes in 
 Livesey, gent. Peter Haworth, gent., rebuilt the house at Highercroft 
 in 1634, and a stone over the porch bears his initials and that of his 
 wife Grace — " P H G" with the date " 1634." He died in 1675, ^ged 
 83, and was buried at Blackburn Church, July 23rd. 
 
 Thomas Haworth of Okenhead in Lower Darwen, second son of 
 Lawrence, married his brother Peter's wife's sister, Elizabeth, daughter 
 and co-heir of Henry Crosse of Lower Darwen (she died childless), and 
 "Mr. Thomas Haworth of Okenhead " was buried Sept. 22nd, 1684, 
 dying at an advanced age. In his Will, dated Aug. 30th, 1684, Thomas 
 Haworth, of Lower Darwen, gent., names his (second) wife, Jennet 
 (daughter of Wm. Walmsley, of Tockholes; she subsequently married 
 Jas. Grundy, M.B., of Great Lever), to whom he leaves >^2oo where- 
 with to treat for a moiety of the messuage and tenement of Okenhead 
 from his sister-in-law, Grace Haworth ; and charges his tenement in 
 Eccleshill, in tenancy of John Fish, with ;i^ioo for the benefit of his 
 niece, Mrs. Alice Oldfield, &c. 
 
472 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The third son of Lawrence, and younger brother of Peter and 
 Thomas, was Richard Haworth of Parkhead near Whalley, Esq., a 
 Bencher at Gray's Inn. He was bom about 1598, and married, first, 
 Elizabeth, daughter of George Tipping, gent., of Manchester, who bore 
 him two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, both dying young. He married, 
 secondly, Jane, daughter of Roger Kenion, Esq., of Parkhead {vide Kenion 
 of Dinkley), rehct of John Stonehewer, and had by her one daughter 
 Alice, bom in 1657. Richard Haworth resided at Parkhead after his 
 second marriage, and later chiefly in Manchester. He was made 
 Recorder of Chester in 1651, and resigned in 1656. He was a County 
 Commissioner for preserving the peace during the Protectorship of 
 Cromwell. He died at Manchester, Nov. 24th, 1671, and was buried 
 at the Collegiate Church, where a monument was erected to his 
 memory with a lengthy epitaph in Latin. By his Will, dated July 3rd, 
 1663, Richard Haworth of Manchester, Esq., devised all his landed 
 estates to his daughter Alice Haworth (afterwards wife of Leftwich 
 Oldfield, Esq., of Leftwich Hall, Co. Chester) ; a third of his personal 
 estate to his wife Jane; another third to his daughter Ahce ; and the 
 other third to be divided among his brothers Peter and Thomas and his 
 nephews Lawrence and Thomas Haworth. 
 
 Reverting to the elder succession of this family, Lawrence 
 Haworth of Th'urcroft, eldest son of Peter, married Grace, sole daughter 
 and heir of Roger Gillibrand, gent., of Beardwood, Blackburn (OT'AGilli- 
 brandof Ramsgreave and Beardwood), and had issue, sons, Thomas, bom 
 in 1 652, died same year; Richard, bom Dec. 8th, 1656; a second Thomas, 
 bom Jan. 27th, 1657 ; Peter, died young; and Roger, bom in 1664; also 
 daughters, Anne, died an infant in 1651 ; Elizabeth, born in 1654, Hester, 
 born in 1655, Mary, and Eleanor, all died young; Alice, born in 1660; 
 and a second Mary, died in 1674. " Lawrence Haworth of Beardwood " 
 (so described after his marriage with the heiress of that estate), died in 
 1675, buried at Blackburn, July 20th, aged 52. Mrs. Grace Haworth, 
 of Blackbum, widow, died in 1698, buried Dec. 6th. In her Will, dated 
 July 9th, 1698 (proved May and, 1699), Grace Haworth, of Beardwood, 
 widow, names her son, Thomas, daughter Anne Maudsley, and grandson 
 Peter; mentions her real estates at Mellor, Balderstone, and Butterworth; 
 appoints Theophilus Ainsworth of Pleasington, gent., John Marsden of 
 Witton, and Richard Edmondson, of Mellor, executors. 
 
 Richard Haworth of Highercroft, Esq., son and heir of Lawrence, 
 married Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Thomas Haworth of Lower Darwen, 
 and by her had sons, Peter, died in 1678; a second Peter, bom Dec. 29th, 
 1689; and Richard, born in 1691, died Oct., 1716; and a daughter 
 Grace, died in 1688. Richard Haworth died in 1694, buried July 28th. 
 
< 
 
 c 
 
 o 
 
HAWORTH OF TH'URCROFT. 473 
 
 Peter Haworth, of Highercroft, Esq., married Lydia Bailey of 
 Lower Darwen (she was living in 1718), and had issue one son, 
 Richard ; and one daughter, Elizabeth, living in 1718. Peter Haworth 
 died in 1 7 18, buried April i6th, and his Will was proved Oct. 27th, 1718. 
 In it testator names his wife Lydia, and her sister Grace Haworth ; son, 
 Richard ; daughter, Elizabeth ; mother, Elizabeth Haworth ; mentions 
 Ellison's tenement in Lower Darwen, and Th'urcroft. Christr. Baron, 
 gent., and John Bailey, of Lower Darwen, executors. 
 
 Richard Haworth of Highercroft, Esq., son and heir of Peter, died 
 unmarried in 1757 ("Richard Haworth of Oswaldtwistle, gent." buried 
 at Blackburn Church, June 7th, 1757); and by his Will, dated May 
 13th, 1757 (proved Nov. 7th, 1758) devised all his estates to his 
 kinsman, Henry Baron of Knuzden Hall, gent. ; they included Higher- 
 croft, mansion and 56^ acres of land; " Pomfrets," messuage and 8 
 acres; Okenhurst, messuage and 30 acres; and "Aspdens," messuage 
 and 1 2 acres, all in Lower Darwen, with other properties. 
 
 Highercroft House, the ancient seat of this family, is a pleasant- 
 looking old mansion, situate beside a wooded hollow on the rise of the 
 hill in this township, about a mile from the south suburb of Blackburn. 
 The house was rebuilt by Peter Haworth in 1 634, as attested by the 
 initials and date inscribed above the porch. It has been modernised in 
 the windows, but the other parts of the exterior are little altered. The 
 accompanying engraving of the frontage will answer instead of verbal 
 description. 
 
 HAWORTH OF LOWER DARWEN, TURTON, &c. 
 
 Richard Haworth of Lower Darwen, gent, (brother of Piers Haworth of Higher- 
 croft, who died in 1600), died in 1603. His Will, dated June 28th, 1602, was proved 
 June 1 8th, 1603. Testator had already given freehold and copyhold lands to his sons 
 James and Peter. Richard Haworth had sons, Lawrence, of Lower Darwen, who died 
 before 1598, leaving daughters Lettice and Jennet ; William, died s. p. in 1598 ; 
 Thomas; James; and Peter; and daughters, Anne, and Jennet, both married before 
 1602 ; and had each received three-score pounds for their marriage portions. 
 
 Thomas Haworth of Lower Darwen, third son of Richard, died in 1637 ; he 
 names in his Will two sons, Peter, and Thomas, by Dorothy his wife. 
 
 Peter Haworth of Lower Darwen, son of Thomas, died in 1677. By his wife, 
 Grace, he had four sons, Thomas, of Lower Darwen ; Richard ; James ; and John ; and 
 a daughter Mary. The Will of Peter Haworth, dated April 13th, 1677, confirms a 
 settlement made upon his wife of one half of his entailed lands in Lower Darwen; the 
 other half to his eldest son, Richard ; remainder to the children equally. 
 
 Richard Haworth of Blackburn, apothecary, was second son of the above Peter, 
 and besides other issue (see ante, Haworth of Blackburn), had a son Thomas. Richard 
 Haworth died in 1694; buried Oct. 5th. 
 
 Thomas Haworth, of Lower Darwen, eldest son of Richard, died in 1699. He 
 married, July nth, 1683, Margaret Livesey, and had issue, John, bom in 1685; Peter 
 
 60 
 
474 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 (who had sons, Thomas, of London, apothecary; John, of Bristol; Hugh; and Richard, 
 of Chancery Lane, London, apothecary) ; Thomas, bapL Oct. 1 6th, 1696 ; and a 
 daughter Ellen. 
 
 Thomas Haworth of Lower Darwen and Blackburn, younger son of Thomas, 
 died in 1773. He married Ann Riley, and had issue, sons, John, bapt. Oct. 23rd, 
 1718; Peter, bapt. July 24th, 1720, died in London without issue; and Thomas, bapt. 
 March 3rd, 1722. 
 
 John Haworth of Blackburn, eldest son of Thomas, married, Dec. 31st, 1745, 
 Catherine, daughter of Edmund Marsh, of Blackburn, and had issue, sons, Thomas, 
 bapt. Jan. loth, 1747-8, died without issue; Edmund, bapt. Sept. 24lh, 1749; Peter, 
 bapt. Nov. i8th, 1753, ob. s.p. ; Peter, bapt. Jan. 2nd, 1757, ob. s.p. ; William, 
 bapt. July 5th, 1758; John, bapt. Nov. 7th, 1760; and James, bapt. Jan. i6th, 1762, 
 died young. 
 
 Edmund Haworth, of Turton, solicitor, eldest surviving son of John, married, 
 first, Margaret, daughter of Thomas Haydock of Mellor (she died Dec. 2nd, 
 ' 779)1 ^nd had a son John, and two daughters. His second wife was Alice, 
 daughter of John Knowles, of Entwistle (by his wife Hannah, only daughter of 
 Mr. Adam Lomax, of Dunscar, near Bolton), and by her (who died in 1822), had 
 seven sons, of whom five survived infancy, viz., Adam Lomax Haworth, solicitor, 
 bom, July 4th, 1789; Edmund Haworth, solicitor, born March 30th, 1801, died un- 
 married in 1855; Thomas Haworth, M.D., bom Aug. 26th, 1804, died Aug. Sth, 
 1859, leaving a son Edgar; Rev. William Haworth, M. A., of St. John's Coll., 
 Cambridge, Vicar of Fence-in-Pendle, bom Nov. 27th, 1806, married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Henry Roberts, Esq., of Fence, and has five sons and one daughter; and 
 Rev. James Haworth, M.A., bom Jan. 25th, 1809; also daughters, Hannah, born in 
 1787, married Rev. Robert Dobson, incumbent of Great Harwood, and died Jan. 
 I2th, 1867, in her 80th year; Margaret, born 1791, died 1863; Elizabeth, born 1795, 
 died 1872; and Ahce, bom 1797, married, Oct. ist, 1833, William Houghton, Esq., 
 of Liverpool (see post, Hoghton of Tockholes). Mr. Edmund Haworth died Dec. 
 30th, 1810. The Will of Edmund Haworth of Turton, gent., dated Jan. 28th, 1810, 
 mentions landed property in Edgeworth, Tottington, Accrington Manor, Bolton-le- 
 Moors, &c. Personalty ^35,000. Will proved at Chester, June 23rd, 1812. 
 
 John Haworth of Turton, solicitor, first son of Edmund, born May i6th, 1778, 
 married, in 1812, Mary, daughter of James Heywood, Esq., of Little Lever, and had 
 three sons and four daughters. He died in 1837. His surviving son is John Bailey 
 Haworth, Esq., bom in 1824, who married Susanna, daughter of Adam Lomax 
 Haworth, Esq., of Dunscar, and has three sons, the Rev. Thos. William Haworth, 
 Charles Herbert Haworth, and Reginald Edmund Haworth. 
 
 HAWORTH OF LOWER DARWEN. 
 
 Thomas Haworth of Lower Darwen, yeoman (eldest son of Peter Haworth who 
 died in 1677), died in 1693. His Will, dated Oct. 24th, 1693 (proved at Chester, 
 Dec. 6th) mentions his wife Elizabeth ; son Peter ; daughters, Elizabeth, wife of 
 Richard Haworth (of Th'urcroft, who died in 1694), and Hannah, wife of Thomas 
 Critchley of Livesey ; to the latter he gives ;f too, which with ;ri^2CO already given was 
 equal to the sum testator had paid with his daughter Elizabeth Haworth. 
 
 Peter Haworth of Lower Darwen, only son of Thomas, died in 1699. His Will, 
 dated Oct. 28th, 1698 (proved June Sth, 1699), names his sons, Thomas, and John 
 (bapt. Dec. 31st, 1697) ; and daughter Elizabeth ; appoints his brothers-in-law, 
 Thomas Ainsworth and Thos. Critchley, Executors ; had estates in Lower Darwen, 
 
ASPINALL— BAILEY— ECCLES. 475 
 
 Witton, Mellor, and Pickup-Bank ; charges his lands with ;^20O for his daughter 
 Elizabeth. This Elizabeth, only daughter of Peter Havvorth of Lower Darwen, bapt. 
 Dec. 2ist, 1694, married, Sept. 30th, 1720, Robert Feilden, second son of Randal 
 Feilden of Blackburn, yeoman. 
 
 ASPINALL OF NETHER DARWEN. 
 
 The Aspinalls held a small freehold in Lower Danven, and probably resided at 
 the Messuage still named Aspinall Fold, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 Thomas Aspinall, of this township, was assessed to a Subsidy in 1570. Lawrence 
 Aspinall, of Lower Darsven, died before 1600 ; and a second Lawrence died before 
 1618, who by an escheat of the i6th James I. was found to have held three messuages 
 and 36 acres of land in Nether Darwen. Robert Aspinall was his son and heir. 
 
 John Aspinall, perhaps a brother of Lawrence, died March 31st, 1620, and in 
 the record of an Inquisition taken at Blackburn, September 14th, iSthJamesL, is 
 named John Aspinall of Nether Darwen, yeoman, found seized of one messuage, five 
 acres of land, two of meadow, one of wood, and the fifth part of a More or Waste in 
 Nether Darwen, held of the King, by 4s. rent. Thomas Aspinall was his son and 
 heir, aged 40 years at the time of his father's death. 
 
 Thomas Aspinall appears as a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1628. 
 He died March 31st, 8th Chas. I. (1633), and in the escheat, taken November 8th, 
 I2th Charles I. (1636-7), is returned as possessed of one messuage, 5 acres of land, 2 of 
 meadow, i of wood, and the fifth part of one Moor or Waste in Nether Darwen, held 
 of the King. By his wife Anne, living a widow in 1638, he had sons, John, and 
 Thomas ; a daughter Mary, wife of Thomas Witton of Green Tockholes, yeoman, 
 and other issue. 
 
 John Aspinall, son and heir of Thomas, was aged 30 years at his father's decease. 
 In the .Subsidy of 1663-4, John Aspinall of Lower Darwen was assessed in goods 
 value £4, and paid a tax of 21s. 4d. Either he, or a son of the same name, was 
 buried at Blackburn, April nth, 1678. 
 
 BAILEY OF THE COAL PITS. 
 
 John Bailey of Darwen, living in 1718, had sons, John ; William, born in 1707; 
 and daughters, Lydia, wife of Peter Havvorth of Highercroft, gent. ; Christabel, born 
 in 1691 ; Ann, born in 1693, wife of Christopher Baron of Knuzden, gent. ; she died 
 in 1754; Alice, born in 1702; Hannah, bom in 1704. 
 
 John Bailey, the son, of Lower Darwen, married, April 27th, 1709, Ann 
 Holden of Livesey. He built the house and barn at " Top o'th Coal Pits," where he 
 resided. The house has a stone over the doorway, bearing the initials "IB A" 
 (John and Ann Bailey), and the date "1722." On the bam is another stone, 
 inscribed "I B" and the date "1720." "John Bailey of the Coal Pits in Lower 
 Darwen," is named as testator's " uncle " (mother's brother) in the Will of Richard 
 Haworth of Highercroft, gent., dated May 13th, 1757. He had a son Henry, bom in 
 171 1, and other issue. 
 
 ECCLES OF LOWER DARWEN, BLACKBURN, &c. 
 
 The Eccles family is stated to have had an estate at Eccles Fold, Garsden Fold, 
 and Shorrock Fold in Pickup Bank for about two centuries. Edmund Eccles of 
 Pickup Bank, yeoman, died in March, 1734. Joseph Eccles, of Lower Darwen, 
 Webster, married, Aug. 24th, 1702, Ann Cowburae, of Blackburn. 
 
470 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Thomas Eccles and Elizabeth Shorrock, both of Pickup Bank, married, Oct. 8th, 
 1717, and had issue a son Thomas ; a daughter Elizabeth, born in 1726, &c. 
 
 Thomas Eccles, yeoman, of Pickup Bank and Eccleshill, resided at Mill Barn 
 farm, his freehold, where the house has initials upon its chimney-piece "T E" 
 (Thomas Eccles), with the date "1737." He married, Oct. 31st, 1739, Martha 
 Haworth, of Pickup Bank, who died July 17th, 1777, by whom Thomas Eccles 
 had sons, Edward, Thomas, and John ; also twin daughters Martha and Mary, bapt. 
 at Over Danven Chapel, April 28th, 1740. "Thom.is Eccles of Pickup Bank, 
 yeoman," was buried at Blackburn, Sept. iSth, 1769. 
 
 Mr. Edward Eccles, son of Thomas, was steward to the first Sir Robert Peel 
 for his local estates. 
 
 Thomas Eccles, the other son of Thomas, of Pickup Bank in 1771, subsequently 
 settled in Lower Darwen. He engaged in the manufacture of " Blackburn Checks," 
 and he built, about 1774, the "Old Mill" in Lower Darwen for a cotton spinning 
 mill. Mr. Thomas Eccles was also steward to the Sudells of Blackburn. By his 
 wife Mary (who died April 23rd, 1799, aged 58), he had sons, Joseph ; Ichabod, died 
 June 6th, 1803, aged 23; William; Thomas, who died in 1791, and whose sons, 
 Edward and Richard, died in infancy ; and John ; his daughters were, Martha, born 
 in 1778, married to Mr. Robert Boardman, of Blackburn ; and Jane, married to Mr. 
 Ralph Shorrock, of Lower Darwen. The father, Mr. Thomas Eccles, died Sept. 
 nth, 1818, aged 75. 
 
 Joseph Eccles, Esq. , of Lower Darwen, cotton spinner (eldest son of Thomas), 
 married Mary Livesey, of Darwen, and had issue, sons, Thomas, bom in May, 1806 ; 
 Richard, bom in 1807 ; Joseph, of Liverpool ; William Eccles, of Blackburn ; and 
 Edward Eccles, who died July 2nd, 1872, aged 47, within a week of his marriage ; 
 and daughters, Mary, bom in 1805, and was killed by a fall at Matlock, May l8th, 
 1835 ; and Ellen, married Aug. i8th, 1831, Christopher Shorrock, Esq. 
 
 The two eldest sons of Mr. Joseph Eccles, Thomas Eccles and Richard Eccles, 
 Esqrs. , are the living chief representatives of this old local family; and are com- 
 mercially connected in the firm of Messrs. T. and R. Eccles, cotton spinners, of 
 Lower Dariven and Bamber Bridge. Thomas Eccles, Esq., who resides at Torquay, 
 married Miss Mitchell, by whom he has had issue, sons, Alexander Eccles, of Liverpool ; 
 Thomas Mitchell Eccles, of Blackburn ; Richard Eccles, junior, of Lower Darwen, 
 died, aged 38, in 1875 ! Eccles Shorrock Eccles, Esq., of Liverpool; and several 
 daughters. His brother, Richard Eccles, Esq., of Highercroft House, has long filled 
 the office of Chairman of the Guardians of the Blackburn Union. 
 
 Wm. Eccles, Esq., son of Thomas who died in 1818, had sons, Edward Eccles, 
 Esq., of Liverpool (who married. May 18th, 1837, Mary, second daughter of the late 
 James Pilkington, Esq., of Blackburn, and died in 1875, and whose eldest son is 
 James Eccles, Esq., of London, late of Blackburn); John Eccles, Esq., of Leyland, 
 who married, Aug. 12th, 1824, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Ainsworth, Esq., of 
 Preston, and died in 1868 ; William Eccles, of Bamber Bridge, cotton spinner ; and 
 Joseph, who died young. 
 
 John Eccles, of Lower Darwen, yeoman (brother of Thomas and William), who 
 had to wife a daughter of Mr. Bannister Pickop, of Tockholes, was father of Bannister 
 Eccles, Esq., of Blackbum, and Joseph Eccles, Esq., of Mill Hill, Livesey. Mr. 
 John Eccles also had two daughters ; Martha, the eldest, married Rev. Francis 
 Skinner, M.A., of Blackburn, March 29th, 1837, and died April i6th, 1838, aged 39 ; 
 tlie other daughter married Rey. Mr. Smith, a missionary. 
 
GRYMSHAW AND HARWOOD FAMILIES. 477 
 
 Bannister Eccles, Esq., of Blackburn, cotton spinner, &c., eldest son of Mr. 
 John Eccles, married, Oct. 13th, 1825, Mary Jane, only daughter of Mr. William 
 Eccles, of Blackburn (she died Dec. 3rd, 1859, aged 61); and had issue, daughters, 
 Sophia, bom 1S31, died 1832 ; Elizabeth, born 1833, died at Golden Hill, Leyland, 
 Aug. 2nd, 1852 ; and Harriet Maria, born Oct. 30th, 1838, died in London, aged 
 34, May nth, 1873. Bannister Eccles, Esq., died April 17th, 1849, in his 49th year. 
 
 Joseph Eccles, Esq., of Blackburn and Mill Hill, Livesey, brother of Bannister, 
 married April 12th, 1831, Frances Coates Parsons, third daughter of Rev. Edward 
 Parsons, and had issue, a son Joseph, bom June, died Aug., 1841 ; and daughters, 
 Catherine, bom June, died Dec, 1836; Frances Parsons, married, in 1854, 
 Captain W. B. Elgee, and died Feb. 28th, 1858, aged 24 ; and Margaret, married 
 Rev. J. D. Kelly, Vicar of Christ Church, Ashton. Joseph Eccles, Esq., purchased 
 the Mill Hill estate in Livesey, in 1844 ; and died aged 60, May 3rd, 1861. 
 
 I add some particulars of a branch of this family settled in Over Darvven : — John 
 Eccles, of Pole Lane, Over Darwen (a son of Thomas Eccles of Pickup Bank, who 
 died in 1769), married, first, a Miss Walsh, and by her had issue, sons, Thomas and 
 Matthew ; and, secondly. Miss Haworth, by whom he had five children. His eldest 
 son, Thomas Eccles, of Princes, Over Darvven, hand-loom manufacturer, bom in 1766, 
 died in November, 1824, aged 58 years. By Alice his wife he had issue, sons, John, 
 who died, aged 68, May loth, 1859 ; William, of Low Hill House, Over Darwen, 
 died in Dec, 1829 ; Joseph ; George, died, aged 71, in 1872 ; and Thomas, died at 
 Edenfield, aged 69, Oct. 9th, 1875. The third son, Mr. Joseph Eccles, of Princes, 
 died, in his 24th year, Dec. 21st, 1822; his wife was Mary Eccles, of Pole, and he 
 was father of Mr. Thomas Eccles, of HoUins, Lower Darwen ; and of Mr. Joseph 
 Eccles, of High Lawn, Over Darwen, cotton spinner in Darwen and Preston. 
 
 GRYMSHAWE OF OKENHURST. 
 
 Nicholas Grymshawe, gent., of this township, a younger son of Richard 
 Grymshaw, of Clayton, Esq., occurs as a juror, temp. Elizabeth (1578-85). Nicholas 
 Grymshawe, of Okenhurst, gent., is named as a freeholder in the year 1600. 
 
 Nicholas Grymshawe, a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1628, I 
 suppose was husband of Maria Grymshawe, widow, who died before 1642, when 
 an Inquisition was taken, Sept. i6th, 17th Charles I., returning that the deceased 
 Maria Grymshawe, widow, had held of the King, as of his Duchy of Lancaster, one 
 messuage, one garden, 6 acres of arable land, six of pasture, and 6 of moor in Nether 
 Darwyne, of the yearly value of 6s. 8d. 
 
 Ralph Grimshawe, son and heir of the above, was defunct in his mother's lifetime, 
 and the jurors at the escheat found that Nicholas Grymshawe, son of Ralph, was next 
 heir to his grand-dame, and then (1642) of the age of 24 years. 
 
 This Nicholas Grymshawe was living in 1660, when his wife Ann was buried, and 
 I conjecture he was progenitor of John Grimshaw, of Blackburn, architect, living in 
 1728, and of Nicholas Grimshaw, of Blackburn, tradesman, who married, Feb. 24th, 
 1738, Susan Brierclifife, of Cliviger, and had a son John, born in 1749. 
 
 The suburb of Blackbum contiguous to Lower Darwen derives its name of Grim- 
 shaw Park from these Grimshaws, who had a residence on this side of the town. 
 
 HARWOOD OF LOWER DARWEN. 
 
 Edmond Hanvood of Nether Darwyn was assessed to the Subsidy in 1523. 
 A later Edmond Harwood, of Nether Darwyn, was taxed to the Subsidy of 
 1610-11; hedied on the 24th July, i6l6, and by escheat taken Oct. 4th, 14th James I., 
 
478 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 was found to have possessed a freehold in this township, held of the King as Duke of 
 Lancaster. Margaret Harwood, widow of Edmond, was living when the inquisition 
 was taken. 
 
 Richard Harwood was son and heir, aged 24 years in 1616. He was made a 
 governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1625, and was still a governor in 1647. 
 
 Henry Harwood married, Nov., 1627, Ann Holden. Michael Harwood married, 
 April 25th, 1628, Jane Feilden. Thomas Harwood, John Harwood, Richard Har- 
 wood, and Michael Harwood, signed the petition for Vicar Clayton in 1660; some if 
 not all of them belonged to the Lower Darwen family. 
 
 Lawrence Harwood of Lower Darwen, had a son John, born in 1685. He was 
 afterwards of Upper Darwen, and died in July, 1707. John Harwood of Upper 
 Darwen, yeoman, had a son William, born in 1699. 
 
 William Harwood of Lower Darwen, yeoman, a trustee of the Lower Chapel, 
 Darwen, in 1718, died in June, 1741. By his wife Mary, who died in 1718, he had a 
 son Edmund; and daughters, Mary, born in 1700, married, Oct. 27th, 1735, John 
 Piccop of Livesey ; Margaret, died in 1 703 ; and a second Margaret, bom in 1 705. 
 
 Edmund Harwood of Lower Darwen, yeoman, son of William, was bom in 171 1, 
 bapl. June 1st, and was buried at Blackburn, Sep. 24th, 1764. 
 
 Edward Harwood, D.D., a Nonconformist divine and author, was of this family — 
 I suppose a son of the last-named Edmund Harwood, yeoman. He was born at 
 Lower Darwen, in 1728. The following autobiographic letter, written by this 
 eminent scholar shortly before his decease, supplies the most authentic account of his 
 history. I have abridged the letter somewhat : — 
 
 " I was first put by my good father under the care of Mr. Belsborrow of Darwen, 
 one of the scholars of the famous Clarke of Hull. I learned Lilly's grammar ; [and] 
 I was reading Ovid's Metamorphosis with him in the year 1744, when Pope died. In 
 the year 1745, when the Northern Counties were greatly terrified and alarmed with the 
 invasion of the Scotch Rebels, I was put under the care of the Rev. Mr. Thos. Hunter, 
 some time afterwards Vicar of Weaverham, Cheshire, who had the best school, at 
 Blackburn, Lancashire, of any gentleman in the county. This most worthy Preceptor 
 began and concluded every day in his school with some select parts of the Liturgy. 
 This most learned and worthy clergyman, in the year 1 748, wished to place meat 
 Queen's College, Oxford, to which he belonged; but my father, who was a stilf Presby- 
 terian, I believe would have died if he had seen me in a surplice. I was then 
 removed to one of Coward's Academies, where I continued five years, the only blank 
 in my life; for what systems of ethics and divinity I learned, I afterwards took pains 
 to unleam them all. In the year 1750 I taught a boarding school at Peckham; 
 and preached occasionally for Dr. Benson at his Meeting in Crutched-Friars. In the 
 year 1 754 I removed to Congleton in Cheshire, where I taught a Grammar-school, 
 delivered up to me by one of the most ingenious and learned men I have ever known, 
 the Rev. Mr. William Turner, with whom I lived in friendship and harmony for seven 
 years, preaching alternate Sundays to two small societies, Whitelock in Cheshire and 
 Leek in Staffordshire. In 1765 I was invited to take the charge of a very small church 
 in Bristol ; but upon publishing a second edition of ' The Supremacy of the Father, ' 
 written by one Williams, I was constantly calumniated in the Bristol paper, as an 
 Arian, a Socinian, a Deist, and worse than a Deist. On account of this public abuse, 
 my salary diminished every year; and the last year, though I had a numerous family, 
 it fell considerably. In Bristol, in the course of five years, I read carefully the Greek 
 Fathers of the first three centuries ; the Greek language, after many years' study, being 
 as familiar to me as the French is to any English gentleman ; having had no occasion 
 
HAWORTII OF WALMSLEY FOLD. ^■jg 
 
 to consult a lexicon for twenty years. At the desire of some friends, I came to London, 
 and applied for a place then vacant in the British Museum; and it was happy that I was 
 too late in my application, for a month afterwards I was in a situation more profitable. 
 Since the year 1772 I have lived, on the whole, extremely happy among my old friends 
 in London, by literary industry providing a sufficient maintenance for myself and 
 family. I have written more books than any other person now living, except Dr. 
 Priestley; having never spoken evil of dignities, but have lived on the best of terms 
 with the established clergy, who ever respected me as a scholar. After expending a 
 great deal of time in discussing the subject, I am neither an Athanasian, Arian, or a 
 Socinian ; but die fully confirmed in the great doctrines of the New Testament, a 
 resurrection, and a future state of eternal blessedness for all sincere penitents and good 
 Christians. I am your obliged old friend, in. much affliction from the palsy, 
 E. Harwood."! 
 
 The above letter was addressed from Hyde Street, Bloomsbury, Nov. 8th, 1793. 
 Dr Harwood had then suffered from the palsy about twelve years. He died in 
 London, Jan. 14th, 1794. Dr. Harwood married a daughter of Dr. S. Chandler, and 
 by her had numerous issue. His eldest son, Edward Harwood, was many years a 
 surgeon in the Royal Navy; and it was he who furnished the following Latin epitaph 
 for his father and mother: — 
 
 "H. S. E. Edwardus Harivood, D.D., Vir summo ingenio pr^ditus, qui literas 
 sacras, Eeque ac humanas, mira felicitate coluit, et omavit. Ob. 14 Jan., anno 1794, 
 cetatis suae 65. Reliquiae ejus uxoris, filire minoris natu S. Chandler, D.D., juxtahunc 
 tumulum sitae sunt; oh. 21 Mali, anno 1791, vet. suae 58. E. H. Fil. pos." 
 
 Among many printed works of which Dr. Harwood was author or editor, the most 
 important are : — "An Introduction to the Study of the New Testament," 1767 ; "Trans- 
 lation of the New Testament into Modem English," &c., 2 vols., 1768; and "A View 
 of the various editions of the Greek and Roman Classicks," 1 775, which went through 
 several editions. His degree of D. D. was granted by the University of Edinburgh in 
 1768. 
 
 HAWORTH OF WALMSLEY FOLD. 
 
 Thomas Haworth of Lower Darwen, yeoman, living in 1 700, was father of — 
 
 Edmund Haworth, of Walmsley Fold, yeoman and chapman ; he married, first, 
 Catherine Pickering (Jan. 6th, 1713), and had issue, sons, Edmund, died in infancy in 
 1727; a second Edmund, bapt. Oct. 24th, 1727; Lawrence, died in 1731; Giles, 
 bapt Aug. 3rd, 1730; and Jonathan, bapt. Feb. 4th, 1732. Edmund Haworth had 
 also daughters, Elizabeth, married, Aug. 28th, 1744, Mr. Robert Peel (grandfather of 
 the statesman) ; Jane, wife of Dr. Browne, of Nevis ; Ann, wife of Mr. William Yates, 
 ofSpringside; and Alice. Mr. Edmund Haworth was buried at Blackburn Church, 
 Oct 31st, 1759. 
 
 Edmund Haworth of Blackburn, tradesman, eldest son of the above, by his wife 
 Mary had a son William, bapt. Dec. 27th, 1751, and other issue. He was buried at 
 Blackburn Church, August 5th, 1759, aged 32. His son, William Haworth, of 
 Blackburn, chapman, died in May, 1781. 
 
 Giles Haworth, next brother of Edmund, buried August 23rd, 1759, left by Betty 
 his wife a daughter Betty, but no male issue. 
 
 Jonathan Haworth, third brother, purchased and sometime resided at Highercroft 
 in Lower Darwen, the old seat of the Haworths. He married, Sept. 26th, 1762, 
 Mary, eldest daughter of John Pilling of Sissclough in Rossendale (she died at Bur)-, 
 I Nichols' Literary Ancedotes, v. ix, pp. 577-81. 
 
48o HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Jan. 5th, 1819, aged 78), and had issue, Edmund, bom Sept. 14th, 1764; John, bom 
 Aug. 8th, 1 765, married Dorothy Tarbotom, and had issue, John, Jonathan, Edmund, 
 Sarah, and Mary Dorothea; Jonathan, born in 1770, married Susannah daughter of 
 Edmund Peel, Esq. ; Alice, wife of Lawrence Peel, Esq., of Ardwick; Ann, wife of 
 Joseph Peel, Esq. , of Bowes House, and mother of Sir Lawrence Peel, Chief Justice 
 of Calcutta; Mary, wife of Edmund Yates, Esq., of Tring Park; Elizabeth, wife of 
 John Nuttall, Esq., of Bury; Sarah, wife of Jonathan Patten, Esq., of London; Jane, 
 Harriet, and Charlotte. Mr. Jonathan Haworth was a merchant in Manchester, and 
 partner in the noted firm of Haworth, Peel, and Yates, to which he brought most part 
 of the original capital. The deed of partnership is dated 1770. Jonathan Haworth, 
 Esq., was elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1762. He died Jan. 
 30th, 1786; buried at St. John's Church, Manchester. 
 
 Edmund Haworth, Esq., of Mill Hill, Co. Lane, Sale Lodge, Co. Chester, &c., 
 eldest son of the last-named, married, Nov. ist, 1786, Elizabeth Peel, and died (aged 
 91 years) in 1855, having had issue, sons, Jonathan, died unmarried in 1825 ; Edmund, 
 bom in 1797; Robert; and daughters, Mary, wife of Dr. Goodlad, of Manchester; 
 Susannah, wife of Rev. Frederick Peel, Rector of Wellingboum and Canon of 
 Lincoln; Elizabeth; Charlotte; and Alice, wife of Canon Sergeant. 
 
 Edmund Haworth, Esq., now of Churchdale House, Co. Derby, J. P. (the eldest 
 surviving son of the above), married, first, Eliza, daughter of Captain Wallace, and 
 had an only son Edmund, who died young. He married, secondly, Feb. 20th, 1868, 
 Harriett Dorothea (widow of Rev. John Chamock, and sister to Sir Comwallis 
 Ricketts, Bart. ), but has no issue. 
 
 HAWORTH OF PRESTON, &c. 
 
 Lawrence Haworth of Preston, innkeeper, there is reason to believe was of the 
 Haworths of Lower Dar%ven or Blackburn. He may have been the "Lawrence, son 
 of Reginald Haworth," bapt. at Blackburn, Nov. 14th, 1604. He settled in Preston, 
 and was enrolled a freeman of that borough before the Guild of 1642. He married 
 Jennet, second daughter of Thomas Banaster of Preston, gent., and had a son 
 William, bom at Preston about 1633 or 1634, and enrolled with his father on the 
 Preston Guild Roll in 1642. "Lawrence Haworth of Preston, Innkeeper," was 
 elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School, Dec. 21st, 1647; — this would 
 suffice to indicate his Blackburn connexion. He was deceased before the Guild of 1662. 
 
 William Haworth, son of Lawrence, a native of Preston, was a Puritan minister 
 during the Commonwealth, and was among the clergy ejected for nonconformity in 
 1662. He was educated at Sedbergh Grammar School, and was entered at St. John's 
 College, Cambridge, in 1652, as the following entry from the College Admission 
 Books records : — 
 
 Gulielmus Haworth, filius Lawrentii Haworth de Preston in A'ndemess in Comit. 
 Lane, ubi etiam natus, litteris gramat' institut' [instructus?] in Schola public' de 
 Sedbergh, sub M'ro Jackson, p' annos viiii, et subsequente admissus est subsizator pro 
 D'e Grandarge, tutore et fidejussore ejus, Aug. 24, 1652. 
 
 William Haworth on leaving college was appointed curate or lecturer at St. 
 Peter's Church, St. Alban's, where his wife Mary was buried (Sept. 6th, i66i). By 
 her he had issue two sons, Samuel, and John. Among the ' ' foreign burgesses " of 
 Preston on the Guild Roll of 1662 are these names: — "William Haworth de civitat' 
 Lpnd. cler. ; Samuel, fil. ejus; John, frater ejus" (William Haworth of the City of 
 London, clerk ; .Samuel, his son; John his (Samuel's) brother. )" It was about this date 
 that Mr. Haworth was ejected from his church under the Act of Uniformity, and he 
 
HAWORTH OF NEWFIELD, &c 481 
 
 probably retired temporarily to London. The editor of the "Nonconformist 
 Memorial" gives a short notice of Mr. Haworth's life, stating that he was "well 
 skilled in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages;" and that, after his ejectment at 
 St. Alban's, "he was desired on occasion of the death of some friend to preach a 
 funeral sermon," ajid "had assembled a congregation for the purpose at some place in 
 the town, but was hiadered by certain malicious persons who obliged the people to 
 disperse. Upon this, they went to the cloisters of the Abbey, where Mr. Haworth 
 had resolved to perform the service. While he was in his sermon, a party of soldiers 
 came to apprehend him when one of the hearers interposing to prevent it, was shot 
 dead on the spot. Mr. Haworth was taken up, and on account of the affair was tried 
 at the assizes, when he was discharged, but heavily fined, while the soldier who 
 committed the murder escaped with impunity." In 1673, Mr. Haworth became pastor 
 of Cowbridge Congregational Chapel, Hertford, and died there in January, 1703. 
 
 Samuel Haworth, eldest son of the minister, was born in 1660, educated in a 
 private school at Chelsea, and at the age of 17, "Samuel Haworth fil' Gulielmi 
 Haworth, presbyter," was admitted sizar at Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge, April 
 24th, 1677. This Samuel Haworth, an M.B. of Cambridge, and M.D. of Paris, 
 passed his examination in the Royal College of Physicians, OcL 12th, 1680. Dr. 
 Samuel Haworth was living in Arundel-street, Strand, London, in April, 1683; and 
 was sometime physician to the Duke of York (aftenvards James II). He is believed 
 to have been nearly connected with a Samuel Haworth who bought the Wear estate, 
 Bacup, Co. Lane, in 1716. The latter may have been a son of Dr. S. Haworth. 
 He was direct ancestor of the Rev. John Haworth, of Penistone, Sheffield, whose only 
 surviving daughter, Anne, is wife of James Maden Holt, Esq., of Stubby Lee House, 
 Bacup, M. P. for North-East Lancashire. The title-deeds of the Wear estate are still 
 in possession of this family of Haworths, and they have always had a family tradition 
 of their descent from Dr. .Samuel Haworth. 
 
 HAWORTH OF NEWFIELD, &c 
 
 Edmond Haworth, of this branch, was assessed to the Subsidy in 1523. Giles 
 Haworth, who had a small freehold estate in Lower Darwen, occurs temp. Elizabeth. On 
 the 19th November, 1588, this Gyles Haworth writes from "Newfielde" to William 
 ffarrington, Esq., at Worden, saying that the writer and his daughter will meet Mr. 
 ffarrington at Preston on the next Saturday according to his appointment, upon some 
 matter of recusancy. Giles Haworth died Dec. 7th, 1590; his Will is dated Nov. 2nd, 
 32nd Eliz ; and by inquisition taken some years after he was found to have been seized 
 of one messuage, one garden, 6 acres of land, 4 acres of meadow, and 6 acres of pasture 
 in Nether Darwen. Ralph Haworth was his son and heir, aged 21 years and upwards. 
 
 Ralph Haworth, son of Giles, may have died without heir and left a brother Giles 
 in possession. Giles Haworth, yeoman, of Lower Darwen, was agent in a horrible 
 murder committed in this township in the beginning of James the First's reign, the 
 curious discovery of which has been recorded by Dr. Webster, and other annalists. 
 In the ' ' Chronicle " of Sir Richard Baker, published in 1670, this murder is noted. ' Dr. 
 I " In the second year of his [James's] reign a strange accident happened, to the terrour of all bloody 
 Murtherers, which was this : — One Anne Waters, enticed by a lover of hers, consented to have her 
 husband strangled, and then buried him secretly under the dung-hill in a Cow-house: whereupon the 
 man being missing by his Neighbours, and the Wife making shew of a wondering what was become of 
 him : It pleased God, that one of the Inhabitants of the Town dreamed one night that his neighbour 
 Waters was strangled, and buried under a dung-hill in a Cow-house : and upon declaring his dream, 
 search being made by the Constable, the dead body was found as he had dreamed : and thereupon the 
 wife was apprehended, and, upon examination, confessing the fact, was burned. And now what hope 
 can murtherers have of being concealed, when they are subjected to be discovered by a man's dream?" 
 
 61 
 
482 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Webster, a native of Clitheroe, in a work printed in folio in 1677, entitled 
 "Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft," gives a fuller account, and states that the place 
 of the tragedy was Lower Darwen. Webster's story of the murder was taken, 
 on the 7th of April, 1663, *'from the mouths of Thomas Haworth's wife, her 
 husband being the dreamer and discoverer, and from his son, together with many 
 more, who both remember and can affirm every particular thereof."^ 
 
 Giles Haworth being outlawed, on the 27th March, 161 1, the King's Eschealor 
 took inquisition of his estate, when it appeared that Giles Haworth, attainted for 
 murder, at the time of his attainder was seized of two messuages, 10 acres of land, 6 
 acres of meadow, and 10 acres of pasture and common of pasture in Nether Darwen, 
 held in free and common socage and not in capite. His wife — *' Uxor Giles Haworth" 
 — was buried at Blackburn Church, June 30th, 1608. 
 
 Edmund Haworth was brother or son of Giles, and on the 23rd May, 161 1, a 
 grant was issued to Edmund Haworth of messuages and lands in Nether Darwen, 
 lately belonging to Giles Haworth, attainted for murder. Edmund Haworth occurs as 
 a warden of Blackburn Church in 1634. 
 
 At Newfield are two old houses with gabled porches, and on the door-lintel of a 
 smaller house close by are the initials " E H C" and date " 1725." 
 
 HINDLE OF HIGHERCROFT, &c. 
 
 John Hindle, tanner, of Hindle Fold, Great Harwood, who died in August, 1760, 
 was father of Christopher Hindle, tanner, of Higher Fold, Great Harwood, born in 
 1710, whose eldest son was named Christopher. "Christopher Hindle of Harwood" 
 died, aged 80, and was buried at Great Harwood Church, Oct. 2nd, 1789. 
 
 "Mr. Christopher Hindle of Bradley Hall," Great Harwood (so-named in 1777), 
 son of the above Christopher, was bapt. at Great Harwood, Jan. 31st, 1747-8. This 
 
 I Webster relates : — "Inthe year 1604 John Waters, of Lower Darwen, in the county of Lancaster, 
 gardiner, by reason of his calhng was much absent from his family, in which his absence, his wife (not 
 without cause) was suspected of incontinency with one Gyles Haworth, of the same town ; this Gyles 
 Haworth and Waters' wife conspired and contrived the death of Waters in this manner. As soon as 
 Waters came home and went to his bed, Gyles Haworth and Waters' wife conducted the hired execu- 
 tioner to the said Waters. Who seeing him so innocently laid betwixt his two small children in bed, 
 repented of his enterprise, and totally refused to kill him. Gyles Haworth, displeased with the faint- 
 heartedness of Ribchester, takes the Axe into his hand, and dashed out his brains ; the murderers 
 buried him in a cowhouse. Waters being long missing, the neighbours asked his wife for him ; she 
 dented that she knew where he was. Thereupon public search was made for him in all pits round 
 about, lest he should casually have fallen into any of them. One Thomas Haworth, of the said town, 
 yeoman, was for many nights much troubled with broken sleep and dreams of the murder ; he revealed 
 his dreams to his wife, but she laboured the concealment of them a long time. This Thomas Haworth 
 had occasion to pass by the house every day where the murder was done, and did call and inquire for 
 Waters, as often as he went near the house. One day he went into the house to ask for him, and there 
 was a neighbour, who said to Thomas Haworth, It's said that Waters lies under this stone (pointing to 
 the hearth-stone), to which Thomas Haworth replied. And I have dreamed that he is under a stone no 
 far distant. The constable of the said town being accidentally in the said house (his name Myles 
 Aspinall), urged Thomas Haworth to make known more at large what he had dreamed, which he 
 relateth thus. 1 have (quoth he) many a time within these eight weeks (for so long it was since the 
 murder) dreamed very restlessly, that Waters was murdered and buried under a stone in the cow- 
 house ; I have told my troubled dreams to my wife alone, but she refuses to let me make it known ; 
 but I am not able to conceal my dreams any longer, my sleep departs from me, I am pressed and 
 troubled with fearful dreams, which I cannot bear any longer, and they increase upon me. The con- 
 stable hearing this made search immediately upon it, and found, as he had dreamed, the murdered body 
 eight weeks buried under a flat stone in the cow-house. Ribchester and Gyles Haworth fled and never 
 came again. Anne Waters (for so was Waters' wife's name), being apprehended, confessed the 
 murder, and was burned." 
 
LIVESEY OF FERNEHURST. 483 
 
 Christopher HincUe purchased, towards the end of last century, the Highercroft estate 
 and mansion in Lower Darwen, and afterwards resided at Highercroft. By Elizabeth 
 his wife, he had issue, sons, Christopher, born at Bradley Hall in 1777, bapL at Great 
 Harwood Church, Jan. 23rd; John, born in 1779; William, bom in 1783; Thomas, 
 born in 1790; Robert, born in 1793; and Joseph, bapt. Nov. 1st, 1795. Mr. 
 Christopher Hindle of Highercroft died, in his 71st year, Sept. 5th, 1818, and was 
 buried at Great Harwood, where the Hindles' tomb is in the churchyard. Elizabeth 
 Hindle, his relict, died, aged 74, August i8th, 1835. Two younger sons of 
 Christopher Hindle died early, viz., Thomas Hindle, fourth son, died, aged 30, in Jan., 
 1821, leaving a daughter Elizabeth, who died in 1846; and Robert Hindle, fifth son, 
 died, aged 23, in November, 1816. 
 
 The eldest of Christopher's sons was Christopher Hindle of Highercroft, many 
 years Chief Constable of the Lower Division of Blackburn Hundred; he died 
 unmarried, at Higham, Kent, Feb. 20th, 1847, in his 71st year. 
 
 William Hindle of Newtield House, Lower Darwen, a younger brother of 
 Christopher, died unmarried, aged 60, May 2nd, 1843. 
 
 Mr. John Hindle, second son of Christopher Hindle, senr., who succeeded his 
 brother Christopher as owner of Highercroft estate, resided at Highercroft, and died 
 unmarried, in his 75th year, March 26th, 1854. 
 
 Rev. Joseph Hindle, B. D., sixth son of Christopher, and heir of his brother John 
 Hindle, became possessed of the I^wer Darwen estate in 1854. He was 45 years 
 vicar of Higham, Co. Kent, and died at the Knowle, Higham, in his 80th year, Dec. 
 23rd, 1874. His Will was proved in Jan. 1875; personalty under ;f45, 000. He left 
 issue, sons. Major John Wm. Hindle, now owner of tlighercroft; Joseph Hindle; and 
 David Bourn Hindle; and two daughters. The estate of the late Rev. Joseph 
 Hindle in Lancashire was returned in 1873 as about 294 acres, with a rental of ;^1090 
 per annum. 
 
 LIVESEY OF FERNEHURST. 
 
 A branch of the Livesey family held in the l6th century the demesne estate of 
 Fernehurst under the Talbots, manorial lords. James Lyvesey was assessed on lands 
 in Nether Darwen to the Subsidy in 1523. In 1529, William and Alexander Clayton 
 accused James Lyvesey and others of forcible entry and tortious possession of lands in 
 Fernehurst manor; and in the 27th Hen. VIII. (1536), James Lyvesey, lessee of 
 John (Paslew) Abbot of Whalley, had a suit with Richard Wamborseley and others 
 respecting a disputed title to tythe corn and other tythes of Blackburn parsonage and 
 Whalley Abbey in Livesey, Tockholes, and Fernehurst. James Livesey died before, 
 1564, when "Ann Levesey, widow, late wife of James Livesey of Blackburn " appears 
 as party to a suit in the Duchy Court. 
 
 Richard Lyvesaye, probably son of James, was taxed for lands in Nether Darwen 
 on a Subsidy in 1570. In the 26th Eliz. (1584), Thomas Talbot had a suit with 
 Richard I^ivesey respecting the messuages and lands called Fernehurst and Livesey 
 Bradshay, with a corn mill in Nether Darwent. "Richard Livesay de Fernyhurst, 
 gent.," appears on a list of freeholders in 1584, and again in 1600. Richard Livesey 
 of Fernehurst, gent., on the marriage of his daughter Mary to Thomas Astley of 
 Ewode, gent., in 1574, conveyed in trust to Thomas Holden of Ewode, and William 
 Crosse of Over Darwine, gents., a tenement in Livesey called Oxelande, to the use of 
 Thomas Astley and Mary his wife for term of their lives and of the longer liver of 
 them, afterwards to the right heirs of Richard Livesey. (Deed in Toivneley MS.S., 
 dated I Jan., 17 Eliz.) 
 
^g^ HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Henry Livesey, a deponent in 1611, then aged 80, and Thomas Livesey of Netfief 
 Darwen, living in 1628, were of this branch. 
 
 LOMAS OF NETHER DARWEN. 
 
 Ralph Lommas, in 1562, was in tenure of messuages .and lands in this township. 
 
 Thomas Lonias, temp. Charles I., gave a bequest to Darwen Chapel. 
 
 John Lomas, who dieil abonl lOul, held, according to an escheat return, three 
 messuages, three ga«Jer», 24 acres of land, 10 of meadow, aixl 20 of pasture and moor 
 in Nether Darwen. He had no son; and three dai^Jiteis, Alice, Elizabeth, and Maria, 
 were found to be his heirs. 
 
 Alice, daughter and co-heir of John Lomas, was wife of Henry Cross of Oken- 
 head in this township, whose two daughter* and co-heirs, Grace and Elizabeth, 
 married, respectively, Peter Haworth of Th'tircroft, ge»t., and his brother Thomaj* 
 I laworth, of Okenhead {see Haworth of Ttfurcroft). 
 
 MARSDEN OF OKENHURST, &c. 
 
 William Mersden is assessed on lands in Lower Darwen to the Subsidy of 1523. 
 Henry Mersden is named as a first Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1567, 
 Christopher Mersden was assessed for lands in Lower Darwen to a Subsidy in 1570. 
 
 Henry MarSden, who died April 12th, 1 61 9, possessed, as shown by inquisition 
 taken Sept. 14th, 162O (at Blackburn), half a messuage, 10 acres of larxJ, 2 of meadow, 
 10 of pasture, 5 of wood, and 40 of moor and moss in Lower Darwen. Alice, widow 
 of the same, was living in 1620. Christopher Marsden, bis son and heir, was then 
 aged 40 years and upwards. 
 
 Christopher Marsden succeeded, and dying June nth, 1631, the Inq. post mort. 
 was taken at Blackburn, April 25th, 9th Charles L, when it was found that he had 
 held of the King as of the Duchy of Lancaster, by a yearly payment of 5s., one 
 Messuage, and 16 acres of land, raeado^v, and pttsture in Lower Darwen. Henry 
 Marsden was his son and heir, then aged 25 years. 
 
 Henry Marsden of Okenhurst, yeoiT>an, occurs as a trustee of James Piccop in 1657. 
 
 Ralph Marsden of Okenhurst, was father of James Mai-sden of Lower Darwen, 
 yeoman, who died April 14th, 163O; and on inquisition taken Sept. 7th, 163O, his 
 estate was found to consist of one Messuage, one garden, 8 acres of land, 4 of meadow, 
 and 6 of pasture in Lower Darwen. William Marsden, son of James, being dead 
 before his father, James Marsden, the latter had conveyed the estate to William 
 Marsden, of Tockholes, yeoman, and Christopher Marsden 0/ Okenhurst, yeoman, iq, 
 trust to the use of himself and his heirs. James Marsden, son of the late William, son 
 of James, was found next heir, aged 15 years. 
 
 James Mai^den, yeoman, gmndswn of the aboTe James, held the property several 
 years. He was dead before 1637. June 23rd, 13th Charles I., an inquisition taken 
 at Bolton returned that James Marsden had been seized of one Messuage called 
 Okenhurst in Lower Darwen, with one garden, 8 acres of land, 2 of meadow, and 8 
 of pasture appurtenant to the said Messuage of Okenhurst. William Marsden was son 
 and heir, aged 9 months and 7 days. 
 
 Concerning this infant heir I have no particulars. The following names occur 
 later: — ^John Marsden, of Lower Darwen, yeoman, died in 1698. Henry Marsden, 
 yeoman, of this township, buried Elizabeth, his wife, in 1699. Another Henry 
 Marsden, yeoman, njiarried, April 13th, 1701, Ann Ainsworth of Blackburn. Nicholas 
 Marsden of Lower Darwen, yeoman, who died in 1756, had sons Thomas and John, 
 with other issue, by his wife Hannah. 
 
SANDfiRSON-WADDINGtON— WALMESLEY— YATfiS. 485 
 
 SANDERSON OF FEARNHURST. 
 
 Adam Sanderson of Lower Darwen, chapman, was buried May 20th, 1706. He 
 had sons, Richard, and William — the latter occurs as Schoolmaster at Tockholes in 1 7 1 8> 
 
 Richard Sanderson, of Feamhurst, chapman and yeoman, was son of Adam, 
 The Sandersons were Nonconformists, members of the congregation at Darwen ; and 
 in the " Diary of Peter Walkden," edited by Mr. Wm. Dobson, several visits of the 
 Diarist to the Sandersons at Feamhurst, from 1725 to 1729, are recorded. Richard 
 Sanderson died August 27th, 1729. His sons were — William, Adam, Thomas, and 
 George. The first two are again named below. The third, Thomas Sanderson of 
 I^ivesey, bapt. Oct. 13th, 1710, was buried May gth, 1791, aged 80. The fourth son, 
 George Sanderson of Livesey, chapman, died Sept. 3rd, 1749; he had sons, William 
 and George; the latter, George Sanderson of Blackburn, chapman, was living in 1778. 
 
 William Sanderson, eldest son of Richard, born in 1704, is styled, late in life, 
 "Mr. Wm. Sanderson of Feamhurst, tradesman." He died in 1780, and was buried 
 April 2nd. By Martha his wife he had sons, Richard, bom in 1 732 ; and Gyles, born in 
 t734, died in 1738; also daughters, Eliiabeth, born and died in 1736; and Hannah, 
 died in 1740. Richard Sanderson "of Chorley, chapman," in 1778, was the eldest 
 son of William. 
 
 Adam Sanderson, brother of William, baptized June loth, 1707, died July 3rd, 
 1757. ^S^<^ S°- At the Lower Chapel, Over DarWen, a memorial marble tablet 
 affixed to the chapel-wall is inscribed to this "Mr. Adam Sanderson," and also to his 
 second son, Adam Sanderson, who died Sept. 30th, 1786, aged 48. The elder Adam 
 had another son, Richard; and a daughter Catherine, who married, July 6th, 1767, 
 Mr. Archibald Stewart, of Church Parish, Calico Printer. 
 
 Richard Sanderson, of Ewood, gent., son of Adam, was bom in January, 1731; 
 and died in May, 1774. By his wife, Mary, he had sons, Thomas Bromily William 
 .Sanderson, born Dec, 1762, bapt. Feb. ist, 1763, died Sept., 1767; and a second 
 Thomas Bromily William, bapt. Oct. 21st, 1768. 
 
 WADDINGTON OF NETHER DARWEN. 
 
 Rauf Waddington, of Nether Darwen, was taxed to a King's Subsidy in 1523. 
 Robert Waddington, of Nether Danven, paid the Subsidy in 1570. 
 
 Ralph Waddington, of this township, died Oct. 14th, 39th Eliz. (1597), seized of 
 one messuage, 6 acres of land, 6 acres of meadow, and 10 acres of pasture in Nether 
 Darwen, held of the Queen in capite. Anna, Elizabeth, Mary, and Grace, his 
 daughters, were co-heiresses. 
 
 Robert Waddington, of Upper Darwen, paid the Subsidy tax in 1663. Thomas 
 Waddington married. May 20th, 1662, Jennet Haworth. Thomas Waddington, of 
 Nether Darwen, married. May l8th, 1708, Elizabeth Haworth, of the same. 
 
 WALMESLEY OF WALMESLEY FOLD, &c. 
 William Walmesley, sixth son of Thomas Walmesley of Showley, Esq., settled 
 at Walmesley Fold in this township, on a small freehold. William Walmesley, of 
 Nether Darwen, died April 5th, 1622, and on inquisition taken at Blackburn, the 26th 
 Feb., 1622-3, it was found that he had been seized of one messuage, one garden, one 
 orchard, and 24 acres of meadow and pasture in Nether Darwen, held of the King in 
 socage. Christopher Walmesley, son and heir of William, was aged 54 years in 1622. 
 
 YATES OF LOWER DARWEN. 
 Lawrence Yates of Nether Darwen, who died Sept. 24th, i6o6, was by inquisi- 
 
486 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 tion taken Dec. 20th following found to have held parts of a messuage, and 24 acres of 
 land, meadow and pasture in Nether Darwen, held of the King as of the Duchy of 
 Lancaster. William Yates, son and heir, was aged 4 years, 7 months, 18 days. 
 
 William Yates, of Lower Darwen, yeoman, died November 23rd, 1637, and was 
 found by inquisition taken Jan. 23rd, 13th Chas. 1., to have been seized of one 
 messuage, 8 acres of land, 4 acres of meadow, and 6 acres of pasture in Lower 
 Darwen. His son and heir was Lawrence Yates, aged 7 years, II months, and 20 
 days. Deceased William Yates had enfeoffed his estate to Thurstan Mawdsley and 
 Peter Edge, in trust to the use of his family. Elizabeth Yates, wife of William, John 
 Yates, his second son, Samuel Yates, third son, &c., are named in the deed of trust. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 Lower Darwen was made a district chapelry in 1829, and in that 
 year a Church was built at the cost of ^5,491 2s. 6d., obtained by a 
 Parliamentary Grant. The Church, dedicated to St. James, is situate 
 upon the hill near Newfield. It is a handsome edifice, of decorated 
 gothic architecture. Its plan includes nave, side aisles, and pentagonal 
 apse for chancel, and the elevation displays a slender hexagonal 
 embattled tower at the centre of the west gable. The windows of the 
 aisles, clerestory, and apse are of double lights, with heads of graceful 
 cuvilinear tracery. The church contains 668 sittings, of which 410 are 
 free. The value of the living (which has been augmented recently by 
 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners) is ^£^300 per annum ; and the Vicar 
 of Blackburn is patron. Rev. J. K. Glazebooke, M.A., admitted in 
 1 84 1, is present Vicar. 
 
 The National Schools, adjoining the Church, built in 1838, were 
 rebuilt and much enlarged in 1873, ^t ^ "^ost of ^^850, and now provide 
 accommodation for 400 children. 
 
 Other Church of England Schools at Guide and "Golden Cup" in 
 this township, have been licensed for divine service. 
 
 DISSENTING CHAPELS. 
 
 Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, New Row. — It has already been mentioned 
 (see ante pp. 199-200) that a Methodist .Society was founded in Lower Darwen by 
 Wesley himself, who preached in the village in 1759 and in 1761. An early preaching 
 place of this Society was in a farm-house at " Top-o'th-Coal-Pits ;" and another was 
 at New Row, a hamlet on the border of Lower Darwen and Livesey, by the road 
 from Blackburn to Tockholes. At New Row a chapel was built in 1828, which is 
 yet in use, and was rendered more commodious by the addition of galleries about 
 twenty years ago. The chapel is served from Blackburn, and contains about 400 
 sittings. 
 
 Wesleyan Association (now Primitive Methodist) Chapel. — A chapel 
 was built in Lower Darwen village by the Wesleyan Association (which had before a 
 preaching-place in the township), which, after being used by the United Methodist 
 Free Church, was taken by the Primitive Methodist Connexion in 1873. It contains 
 about 300 sittings. 
 
NETHER DARWEN COMMONS ENCLOSURE. 487 
 
 United Free Methodist Chapel. — This handsome Gothic chapel in the 
 village of Lower Darwen was erected in 1872-3 ; opened June 19th, 1873. The north 
 front contains the main entrance, flanked by buttresses finished with crocketted 
 pinnacles ; and over the doorway is a five-light traceried window. The front is 
 finished with gablets and finials. The side windows are pointed, each of two lights. 
 Tlie chapel is designed to provide 550 sittings; the interior is galleried. Cost ;^2,030. 
 
 Congregational School Mission-room. — In the room built by the Messrs. 
 Eccles near their works in the village for a Day and Sunday School, the Congrega- 
 tionalists conduct a religious service on the Sunday. Sittings, 200. 
 
 Roman Catholic School-Chapel. — In 1872 a school-chapel, dedicated to 
 St. Edward, was built for the Roman Catholics in this township, near the Blackburn 
 and Darwen road at the south extremity of Lower Darwen. Sittings, about 250. 
 
 NETHER DARWEN COMMONS ENCLOSED, A.D. 1779. 
 
 The waste and common lands of Nether Darwen amounted to 600 
 statute acres a century since, and on the ist of February, 1779, a 
 Petition to Parliament of the Rt. honourable Catherine Lady Stourton, 
 lady of the Manor of Nether Darwen, and of other persons interested 
 in the Commons, was presented to the House of Commons and read ; 
 ' setting forth, that within the said Manor or Lordship, and the Vill, 
 Hamlet, or Township of Nether Darwen there is a large Common or 
 tract of ^Vaste Land, called Lower Darwen Moor, containing 600 acres 
 or thereabouts, statute measure, which the petitioners apprehended 
 might be greatly improved, if the same were enclosed, and divided into 
 specific allotments amongst the said Lady Stourton, as lady of the Manor, 
 and the other parties interested therein, and praying for leave to Sir 
 Thomas Egerton and Major Stanley to bring in a Bill pursuant to the 
 prayer of the Petition. The Nether Darwen Commons Enclosure Act 
 received the Royal Assent, May i8th, 1779, and by virtue thereof the 
 Commons were soon after allotted and enclosed. 
 
488 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— THE TOWNSHIP OF OVER DARVVEN. 
 
 Topography — Name — Ancient Forests — Coal Mines — Manufactures — Calico Printing — Bleach Works 
 — Paper Works — Cotton Spinning and Weaving — Growth and aspect of the Town— Population — 
 Local Government and Public Works — Free Library — Flood of 1848, &c. — Descent of the Manor 
 — Banastre, and Langton, chief Lords — Osbaldeston. and Southworth — Plaint respecting Darwen 
 Waste in 1556 — Later Manorial Lords — Hoghton, Trafford, Duckworth — Families of Ancient and 
 Modern Gentry and Yeomen — Ashton — Astley — Baron — Barton — Berry — Brandwood — Cooper — 
 Crosse — Dewhurst — Fish — Greenway — Hargreave — Hilton — Hindle — Holden — Marsden — Mauds- 
 ley — Pickup — -Shorrock — Smalley — Walsh — Watson — Church of St. James— History of the 
 Chapelry — Other Churches — Nonconformist Meeting Houses — " Lower Chapel "— Other Chapels 
 — Wesleyan Methodism in Darwen — First and present Chapels — Other Dissenting Chapels — 
 Roman Catholic Chapel — Schools — Charities of the Town. 
 
 OVER DARWEN occupies the northern slopes and spurs of the 
 range of elevated moors which separate the Hundred and Parish 
 of Blackburn from the Hundred of Salford and Parish of Bolton. These 
 hills, which enclose the township on every side except the north, are of 
 varying altitudes from looo to 1300 feet; their summits are almost flat, 
 and present dreary expanses of swampy moss and heath ; but the 
 acclivities are found to repay tillage as rough pasture and meadow-land. 
 Darwen Moor, a bold, abrupt fell which hems in the town on the west 
 and south-west, reaches a height at its loftiest part of 13 16 feet above 
 the sea-level, and appropriates several hundred acres of unreclaimed 
 waste land included within the bounds of the township. Cranberry 
 Moss and Hoddlesden Moss are the names of the somewhat lower moor- 
 lands to the south-east, the summits of which are traversed by the 
 township and parish boundary. The River Darwen has its source on 
 Bull Hill, and in its rapid passage into the narrow valley in which 
 the town of Over Darwen stands, it receives several considerable streams 
 whose channels are the doughs on the flanks of Darwen Moor. From 
 a mere mountain beck the Darwen is thus increased to a river of some 
 volume (especially in wet seasons) before it passes on into the subjacent 
 township of Lower Darwen at Hollins. 
 
 The name of the township has undergone in the course of time 
 numerous mutations. It is spelled "Derewenta" in the latin charter, 
 
TOWNSHIP OF OVER DARWEN. 489 
 
 about the year 1130, of grant of its lands to the Norman Banastre, lord 
 of Newton. This, I think, is the first mention of the name in written 
 record. In a later latin deed, made about A.D. 1280, the township is 
 named "Superior Derwent;" this is a charter by which Roger, son of 
 Henry de Whalley, gave to the Abbot and convent of Stanlaw (after of 
 Whalley) "three perches of my land in Superior Derwent in length from 
 the messuage on the east that John son of Bibby held of Richard de 
 Alffton, unto the road on the west that leads to the house of Alexander 
 de Keuerdale, and two perches in breadth, for the site of one barn, with 
 the house on that land built for their tenth sheaf (tithe) of the said vill." 
 In a return for escheat dated 13 1 1, the township is called " On Derwent." 
 In documents of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the name is given 
 variously as Derwynd Superior, Darwyni, Derwyn, &c. It is named 
 Upper Darwin on the Subsidy Roll of 161 1 ; and from that date until 
 about a century ago, the name is usually found as Upper Darwen; it has 
 since been fi.x;ed in its present style, as " Over Darwen." The native 
 folk-speech supplies, however, another variation, that of " Heigher 
 (higher) Darren." 
 
 In the Saxon period, the upper reaches of the valley of the Darwen 
 were covered probably with native forest, which for ages before then had 
 occupied these rugged denes or doughs. Existing 'local names of Saxon 
 etymology indicate the presence of woods when the names were bestowed: 
 ex. gr. Sunnyhurst, Oakshaw, Beech-hill, Woodhead, Greenhurst, Oaken- 
 hurst, Femehurst, &c. A local tradition lingers that in old time a great 
 wood extended from Wood-head in Darwen to Wood-head in Pickup-Bank, 
 beyond Hoddlesden on the east side of the township. Even within 
 memory groups of large oaks, beeches, and sycamores were to be seen 
 in the valley. Two or three years ago a discovery was made on the 
 northern flank of Darwen Moor above Sunnyhurst Hey, during the 
 construction of a reservoir for the town's Waterworks, of the prostrate 
 trunks of a primeval forest buried under the heather. Beneath the 
 peat, which lies here about two feet in depth, appeared the roots, 
 trunks, and branches of trees, chiefly oaks and birch, which were 
 counted by hundreds in the limited space exposed. This part of the 
 moor is now totally bare of timber. 
 
 In territorial area, Over Darwen is the largest township in Black- 
 burn parish, containing 5134 statute acres. But the lands within the 
 township sufficiently sheltered and fertile to be capable of the best 
 agriculture are limited in acreage, and are isolated patches in situations 
 near the river in the lower parts of the valley. A large quantity of 
 inferior land is devoted to grass-farms, and fortunately much of the 
 rocky and sterile ground has become valuable as building-sites with the 
 
 62 
 
49° 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 rapid growth of a town, and important manufactories, during the present 
 century. The average rental of land in the township is rather more 
 than 2 OS. per acre. 
 
 It is only into this portion of the Parish of Blackburn that the 
 coal field of South Lancashire extends ; the outcrop of the seam is 
 found along the centre of the township of Blackburn. Coal has been got 
 in Over Danven, Eccleshill, Tockholes, and Lower Danven at least three 
 centuries, very probably for a longer period, and the presence of this 
 mineral fuel has during the interval compensated the inhabitants of 
 these townships for the barrenness of most of the soil of the district. 
 Traces of old abandoned pits and workings are found in many places 
 upon the hill-sides. In the reign of James I., and during the Common- 
 wealth, coal-pits were worked on this side of the parish ; and in the reign 
 of Anne (1702-17 14) a number of inhabitants of Darwen are described 
 in parish registers as "coaler," and "coal-getter." At the beginning of 
 the last century, and onward until the opening of the canal navigation 
 between Blackburn and Wigan in 181 6, the coal mines of Darwen 
 and Eccleshill exclusively supplied house fuel for Blackburn and to 
 distant places north of Blackburn. In 1729, Peter Walkden, Noncon- 
 formist minister in Chipping, enters in his Diary: "Dec. 17. Son John 
 went to Eccleshill coal-pit for 2 loads of coals." The distance from 
 Chipping to Eccleshill and back is about 30 miles, and there being no 
 road fit for carts in 1729, the coals were carried in sacks slung on 
 horseback. The coal measures in this township are shallow, and vary from 
 20 to 130 yards below the surface; the coal is not of the best quality, 
 being mingled with shale. The Darwen pits have most of them been 
 to a great extent worked out. So late as i860, however, the annual 
 value of the mines in Over Darwen was assessed to property tax at 
 _;^6,o82. The annual yield of the five collieries working in 1867 was 
 estimated at 101,920 tons, and the value of the same at ^42,588. The 
 number of persons employed in these collieries was 477. 
 
 The weaving of checked-cloths and calicos on the hand-loom 
 became in the seventeenth century an important industry subsidiary to 
 husbandry for the inhabitants of Over Darwen. This primitive textile 
 manufacture enabled the tenant farmers to employ their families at home 
 in spinning and weaving, and to secure thereby a more comfortable 
 subsistence than the profits of a small dairy farm could then afford. As 
 long since as the years 1 700-1 720, a large proportion of the natives of 
 Darwen are denominated "webster" in the parish registers. About 
 half-a-dozen resident "chapmen," who were also chiefly yeomen or 
 freeholders of land in the township, then supplied the material to the 
 cottage-weavers, received the fabrics when made, paying the workers 
 
CALICO PRINTING, &c., IN DARWEN. 491 
 
 the price of their labour, and found a market for the cotton-pieces in 
 Manchester, Preston, or more distant towns. I note these names among 
 the capitalist dealers in textile fabrics of local production earlier than 
 1720 : — Ralph EUison of Upper Danven, chapman; John Fish of Upper 
 Darwen, chapman; Richard Smalley of Upper Darwen, chapman; 
 Richard Sanderson of Lower Darwen, chapman; Thomas Watson of 
 Over Darwen, chapman; Edmund Haworth of Lower Darwen, chapman; 
 and, some years later, members of the native families of Eccles, Barton, 
 Ainsworth, and Shorrock, appear as "chapmen" or, as afterwards 
 described, "hand-loom manufacturers." This trade in hand-loom-woven 
 cottons progressed until the invention of spinning-machines and power- 
 looms and the erection of factories superseded the old system by one 
 incalculably more scientific and more productive. The hand-loom 
 weaving industry was at its height about a century ago. It has since 
 been steadily reduced and displaced, and is now insignificant in this and 
 neighbouring townships. 
 
 During the prosperous time of calico-printing in Lancashire, 
 towards the end of the i8th century, several print-works were erected 
 in Over Darwen; the best known and most permanently successful of 
 which were the works established by Mr. James Greenway, grandfather 
 of Rev. C. Greenway, of Darwen Bank (see post, Greenway family). 
 It was about the year 1776 (just a century ago) that Mr. James 
 Greenway commenced calico-printing at Livesey Fold. He had 
 prosecuted the business there above tlyrty years when he built the 
 larger print-works at Dob Meadows, in the year 1808. He took as 
 partners Mr. Charles Potter and Mr. Maude, and subsequently retiring, 
 the firm was continued as Potter, Maude and Co., until about 1830. 
 This firm also built the now disused print-shop on the Bury Fold Brook. 
 In 1832, the Dob Meadows works were leased by Mr. James Greenway, 
 junr., to the firm of C. Potter and Wm. Ross; in 1841 Mr. Potter 
 withdrew, and Mr. Ross continued the business until 1847, when he 
 transferred it to Messrs. Heron, Baron, and Eddleston. Mr. Eddleston 
 died in 1872, and the works are still carried on by Messrs. Heron and 
 Baron. Mr. W. Henreys, manager of the Dob-Meadows works for the 
 Greenways, who died in August, 1823, is stated to have been dis- 
 tinguished by his scientific knowledge, which he applied to the 
 improvement of the art of calico printing, and thus greatly assisted the 
 success of the concern. 
 
 Some extensive calico-bleaching works were established in Over 
 Darwen, none of which now exist. The celebrated inventor of the 
 spinning mule, Samuel Crompton, on obtaining the Parliamentary grant 
 of ;£^5ooo, came from Bolton to Over Darwen, in June, 181 2, and 
 
492 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 commenced the bleaching business in premises known as Hilton's 
 Higher Works, now called Spring Vale Works, having as partners his 
 sons George and James. Mr. Samuel Crompton built the older central 
 part of Low Hill House, in which he resided several years. Partly 
 owing to the sinking of coal pits near the works, which diverted the 
 supply of spring water and led to a costly law-suit, but chiefly through 
 the indifference of his sons, Mr. Crompton's Darwen business did not 
 prosper, and it was given up about the year 1818. His eldest son, 
 George Crompton, started a separate bleaching business at Hoddlesden, 
 which also failed. Mr. George Crompton resided later in Blackburn, 
 where he was some years cashier in the works of Messrs. Yates, 
 engineers, and he died at Blackburn, aged 77, June i6th, 1858. 
 Another bleaching business had been commenced in Over Darwen 
 before the year 1800 by Mr. Richard Hilton, a native of Blackburn, 
 son of Samuel Hilton (see post, Hilton family). One of his bleaching 
 works it was that Mr. Crompton rented in 1812; but the Hiltons were 
 still engaged in bleaching in 1818, when Christopher Hilton (son of 
 Richard) is named as "bleacher" at Darwen. Sometime after this date, 
 the Hiltons gave up bleaching to embark in the business of paper making. 
 The paper works erected in Over Darwen by Mr. Richard Hilton, 
 about forty years ago, were of great extent, and when completed were 
 reputed to be the largest in the kingdom. They stood near the river, 
 surrounded by a series of reservoirs, on the site of the present paper 
 mills of Messrs. Dimmock and Co. For some years Mr. Hilton and his 
 sons prospered in the trade of paper making, and were the principal 
 employers of labour in the town. But the magnitude of the concern 
 eventually involved the firm in difficulties that led to its suspension, 
 about the year 1843. Mr. Richard Hilton had died in 1836, and Mr. 
 Henry Hilton, his second son, was head of the firm at the time of its 
 failure and the stoppage of the works. These mills were temporarily 
 worked by other parties, but were at length demolished. Paper-making 
 has, however, since become one of the staple trades of the town; and, 
 in 1867, four paper-mills in Darwen were returned as employing 440 
 workmen, and producing paper of the annual value of ;£'i 70,000. The 
 firm of Potter and Co., founded by Charles and Harold Potter in 1841, 
 engaged in the combined businesses of paper-making and paper-staining, 
 at the HoUins and Belgrave mills in Ovei Darwen. The paper-staining 
 business of this house, of which Mr. James Huntington is resident 
 director and partner, is one of great celebrity, and has been for many 
 years highly profitable and largely productive. The two paper-staining 
 works in Darwen employed 350 workmen in 1867, and produced 
 figured paper for house decoration of the annual value of ;£'i 30,000. 
 
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COTTON TRADE OF OVER DARWEN. 493 
 
 The spinning of cotton on the factory system was not introduced 
 into Over Danven before the beginning of this century. Mr. William 
 Eccles, of Low Hill House, son of Mr. Thomas Eccles, of Princes, 
 hand-loom manufacturer, built the oldest portion of the Bowling Green 
 Mill about the year 1820. This mill was worked afterwards by Messrs. 
 Carr, Hatton and Co., cotton-spinners, until the year 1830. The first 
 power-looms had been set up in Over Darwen shortly before the loom- 
 breaking riots in April, 1826, when the rioters came from Blackburn to 
 Darwen, and broke thirty-six power-looms in a factory belonging to Mr. 
 James Grime, and sixteen looms at the factory of Carr & Co. In 
 1830, Mr. Eccles Shorrock, who had been partner in a cotton-spinning 
 and manufacturing firm in Blackburn, settled in Over Darwen, having 
 purchased Bowling Green Mill and the adjacent property of Mr. Carr. 
 Mr. Shorrock enlarged that mill, and carried on the manufacture there 
 and at the New Mill, which he built in 1835. A few years before his 
 death, in 1853, Mr. Shorrock purchased Brookside Mill and the Darwen 
 Paper Works, erected by the Hiltons; demolished portions of the 
 latter works and on the site erected the large factory called Darwen 
 Mill. Near the same spot the present firm of Shorrock Brothers & Co. 
 erected in 1867 the immense stone-built India Mills, which, with their 
 massive Italian campanile chimney-shaft, 300 ft. high, form a striking 
 architectural feature of the town. Within forty years other large cotton 
 mills have been built in the township by important firms ; and recently 
 several extensive and well-appointed spinning mills have been erected 
 by companies chiefly formed of the working-people. In 1867, thirty- 
 six cotton-spinning and weaving mills were found in this township, 
 employing 7,750 persons, and producing yam and cloths valued at 
 ;^2,54i,ooo annually. Since that return several new mills have been 
 built and started, and the number of persons now employed in the 
 cotton trade in Over Darwen can hardly be fewer than 9,000. A return 
 made in February, 1876, gives the number of spindles in cotton mills in 
 Over and Lower Darwen at 355,912, and of power-looms as 15,136. 
 
 The rise of the town of Over Darwen has been concurrent with the 
 extension of the staple manufactures above-mentioned. A century ago 
 there was no more than a mere village in the centre of the valley in 
 which the town has spread out ; besides which were three or four 
 detached hamlets in the township at Chapels (surrounding the old 
 Parochial Chapel and Nonconformist Meeting House), at Sough, Black- 
 snape, and Hoddlesden. Prior to the construction of the present public 
 road between Blackburn and Bolton, in the year 1797, the communica- 
 tion of Over Darwen northward and southward with these towns and 
 with Manchester was by a narrow, circuitous, and ill-conditioned old 
 
494 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 bye-road, passable only by pack-horses and pedestrians. The new road 
 was a means of encouragement to external trading ; and the construc- 
 tion of a railroad from Blackburn through Danven to Bolton and 
 Manchester in 1845-8, gave an additional importance to local manufac- 
 tures. The Blackburn and Bolton road forms the main street of the 
 town, and is flanked with buildings a distance of about two miles. 
 The cotton factories and paper works are chiefly on the banks of the 
 river Darwen ; the streets of private houses and cottages ascend the 
 hills on either side of the principal thoroughfare. Chiefly on the south- 
 west side of the town, the mansions and villas of the gentry of Darwen 
 occupy admirable situations on the knolls and slopes overlooking the 
 glades and dingles at the base of the Darwen Moor, which form 
 beautiful secluded shrubberies and plantations enlivened by natural 
 cascades. The town contains no public edifice of much architectural 
 character excepting the places of worship, some of which are large and 
 stately. The Co-operative Hall, the Market House and Liberal Club 
 Rooms, and the Temperance Hall in course of erection, are the most 
 important public structures for secular purposes. 
 
 The population of Over Darwen appears to have been not more 
 than 500 or 600 souls in 1720. But the increase of population had 
 begun to be material before the year 1795, when Dr. Aikin wrote of the 
 place : — " This was formerly a small village, but is now a populous 
 district, manufacturing a large quantity of cotton goods. It contains 
 two printing works, and there are a proportional number of mechanics 
 and shopkeepers." The subsequent progressive increase of inhabitants 
 is shown in the returns of the Census from iSoi to 187 r : — 
 
 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 
 Population - 3587 4411 67U 6972 9348 11,702 16,492 21,278 
 
 The rate of increase has been maintained since 1871, and in 1876 
 the population of Over Darwen may be computed at about 25,000. 
 
 The town is regulated by a Local Board of Health, which was 
 constituted May 24th, 1854, and consists of eighteen members. The 
 Board also acts as a Burial Board. The Public Cemetery, situate on 
 the slope of the hill south of White Hall, was constructed in 1861 ; it 
 has three mortuary chapels. The Gas Works were founded in the year 
 1839, at a cost of ;!^8ooo, by a private company; but have been 
 purchased on behalf oi the town by the Local Board. The Water- 
 works, also originally constructed by a company, and since purchased 
 for the town, have storage and service reservoirs in the valley below 
 Darwen moor on the west side of the township, holding about 
 150,000,000 gallons of water. Public Baths, called "Peel Baths," 
 were erected in 1854. 
 
DARWEN FREE LIBRARY, &c. 495 
 
 Over Danven is the centre of a petty-sessional division of Blackburn 
 Hundred, which also includes the surrounding townships of Tockholes, 
 Lower Danven, Eccleshill, and Yate-and-Pickup Bank. The County 
 Magistrates acting for the division are R. S. Ashton, Joshua Baron, J. 
 Dimmock, Richard Eccles, Jas. Huntington, J. G. Potter, W. B. 
 Ranken, and Eccles Shorrock, Esquires ; and Revs. P. Graham and 
 Chas. Greenway, M.A. 
 
 THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 
 
 The Over Danven Free Public I^ibrary was established in 1871, in 
 succession to a Mechanics' Institution, which was founded in 1839, and, 
 after a successful existence of thirty-two years, was closed soon after 
 the adoption of the Free Libraries Act by the ratepayers. The library 
 of the Institution, consisting of 4000 volumes, was presented to the 
 town, and formed a nucleus of the new Free Library. The Library is 
 directed by a body of Eight Commissioners, half of whom are chosen 
 annually at a ratepayers' meeting. A Library rate of id. in the pound 
 upon the assessment of the township is levied yearly, and produces a 
 sum of about £2;^^, which covers the expenses of working. In 1876, 
 after five years' operation, the Library contained 6000 volumes, and the 
 annual number of volumes issued was about 20,000, to more than 2000 
 borrowers. The Free Library is housed in suitable rooms at the offices 
 of the Local Board of Health. Wm. Snape, Esq., is Chairman of the 
 Library Commissioners; and Mr. F. G. Hindle is Clerk. 
 
 A catastrophe memorable in the annals of Over Darwen happened 
 on Wednesday, August 23rd, 1848, when by the bursting of the embank- 
 ment of the reservoir below Radfield Fold, after a great storm, of rain 
 on the moors above, the lower parts of the town were overwhelmed by 
 the suddenly liberated waters. Twelve persons were drowned in the 
 flood, and the damage to property along its course was immense. 
 
 An extensive Art Exhibition, projected by Rev. James Macdougall, 
 and very successfully carried out by a committee of local gentlemen, 
 was opened in the India Mills by Lord Hartington, on May 7th, 1868, 
 and was continued during the summer months of that year ; the net 
 proceeds, a sum of ^1112, were added to a fund for the erection of the 
 Bolton Road Congregational Schools. 
 
 DESCEND OF THE MANOR. 
 
 I have stated before that immediately after the Norman settlement 
 the two upland tracts of Upper and Nether Derwent were not reckoned 
 distinct manors, but were subordinate parts with Walton-in-le-Dale of 
 one extensive knight's fee, which also embraced Mellor, Eccleshill, ancT 
 
496 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Harwood in this parish. This fee was held by the De Lascys, lords of 
 Clitheroe, until, early on in the 12th century, Henry de Lascy by his 
 charter granted Walton with its members, including the two Derwents, 
 to Robert Banastre, who also held the lordship of Newton in Makerfield. 
 The Banastres held Darwen with Walton until, near the close of the 13th 
 century, the descent ended with an heiress, by marriage with whom, 
 John Langton, son of Robert of Langton, Co. Leicester, brought this 
 domain to the Langtons ; who held Walton until its conveyance, in 
 the 1 6th century, to Hoghton, of Hoghton. But Upper Darwen, as a 
 detached dependency of Walton manor, had been granted away, on an 
 inferior tenure, in two parts to the Hollands, lords of Samlesbuiy, and 
 De Keuerdales, lords of Cuerdale, before the year 13 11, when, on the 
 inquisition concerning the estates subject to Earl de Lascy of Clitheroe 
 Castle, it was returned : — 
 
 The heirs of Samlesbury and of Keuersdale hold one carucate in On Derwent, by 
 the eighth part of a knight's fee and suit of the Court of Clyderhow. 
 
 The heir of Samlesbury was then Sir Robert de Holland, Knt. ; 
 and on the death of a succeeding Sir Robert de Holland in 1372, it was 
 found that he owned, among his large estates, the fourth part of the 
 manor of Over Derwent, held of Ralph de Langeton by homage and 
 fealty, worth yearly 6s. 8d. This parcel of Over Darwen manor 
 remained with successive lords of Samlesbury, and in the 15th century 
 the Southworths of Samlesbury Hall appear as possessing the share 
 formerly pertaining to the Hollands. 
 
 The heir of Cuerdale in 1 3 1 1 was Adam de Keuerdale ; his portion 
 of demesne in Over Darwen descended to the heiress Jane de Keuer- 
 dale, who married Thomas Molineux. Thomas Molineux, in 1377, was 
 holding, in right of his wife, a moiety of Over Derwent. His grand- 
 daughter Katherine was heiress of Cuerdale and the part of this manor, 
 which by marriage with Alexander Osbaldeston she carried to the house 
 of Osbaldeston. 
 
 Between the Osbaldestons of Osbaldeston, and the Southworths of 
 Samlesbury, each claiming rights in the reputed manor of Over Darwen, 
 a feud subsisted long, and more than once proceeded to physical strife 
 leading to litigation. There was a suit between the families respecting 
 their rights to the common and waste land of the township temp. Henry 
 VL, when Geoffrey Osbaldeston, Esq., was against Richard Southworth, 
 Esq. About a century later (in 1556) the contest again waxed hot, and 
 the parties had recourse to the Duchy Court for a judgment. The 
 account of those proceedings respecting Over Darwen Waste in the 3rd 
 and 4th Philip and Mary (1556) I summarise from the records of the 
 Chancery Court of Lancaster : — 
 
PLAINT RESPECTING DARWEN WASTE, a.d. 1556. 497 
 
 Petition of complainant to Rt. Hon. Robert Rochester, Knt., Comptroller and 
 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, sheweth, that John Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston, 
 Esq., Orator, was son of Sir Alexander Osbaldeston, Knt., deceased, who was seized 
 of the Manor or Lordship of Over Darwynd, which said Manor descended to said 
 Orator as son and heir, who entered into possession and is seized of the same, Sec. ; but 
 that divers deeds, evidences, &c., of the estate had come into possession of Sir John 
 Southworth, Knt., who by colour thereof, &c., about the 20th May, 1st and 2nd 
 Philip and Mary (1554), wrongfully entered into a parcel of waste ground called 
 Darwynd Moore, containing by estimation 6,000 acres, and the gresse [grass] of 
 Orator there growing had eaten by his beasts and cattle, and also digged turves upon 
 the said moor or waste to the amount of 1, 000 lodes and above, and the same with 
 force had carried away. And although said Orator had often required Sir John 
 Southworth to deliver the said evidences, &c. , and to pay for the said wrongs, the 
 said Sir John did yet deny to do so ; so that Orator cannot occupy nor enjoy the said 
 moor or waste ground, to his great hurt and damage ; and said Orator knoweth not 
 the contents of the said evidences, nor wherein they be contained ; he is therefore 
 without remedy by common law for the recovery thereof Royal letters of commission 
 to sundry gentlemen had been issued, authorising them to call Sir John Southworth, 
 and to take his answer on hij oath ; to examine witnesses, and thereupon to make an 
 end thereof 
 
 Sir John .Southworth made answer to the said Bill that Sir Thomas Southworth, 
 Knt., his father deceased, was lawfully seized in his demesne as of fee or fee payle 
 with the Rt. Hon. Edward Earl of Derby by lawful conveyance in the law of the 4th 
 part of the said Manor or Moor called Darwyn Moore, &c. 
 
 Depositions were taken at Preston, June 6th, 3rd and 4th Phil, and Mary (1556) 
 before Thomas Langton, Knt., and others. Commissioners of the King and Queen 
 concerning the matter in variance between John Osbaldeston, complainant, and John 
 Southworth, Knt., defendant. 
 
 The depositions on the part of John Osbaldeston, plaintiff, were those of 
 Christopher Horrocks of Turton ; Lawrence Pycop, of Lower Darwynd, tenant to 
 Richard Levesey, gent., of the age of 72 years ; Christopher Walmsley, ofLevesey, 
 freeholder to Richard Levesey, gent., of the age of 70 years; John Crosse of Over 
 Darwynd; Henry Hyndyll, priest, of the age of 65 years; John Pyllyn, of Over 
 Darwen, tenant of John Osbaldeston, aged 63 years ; and of Edmonde Barton of Over 
 Darwynd, freeholder to complainant, of the age of 43 years (who, among other 
 matters, deposed that the said Manor and demesne were of the yearly value of ;if 20 to 
 complainant, and the lands there of defendant were of the yearly value of 30s. or 
 thereabouts). The deposition of Mr. John Crosse contains the chief facts deposed for 
 the complainant. 
 
 John Crosse of Over Darwynd, of the age of 66 years, &c. , saith that he knoweth 
 the lordship of the Manor of Over Darwynd, and the Waste Ground now in variance, 
 called Dar\vynd Moss. That Sir Alexander Osbaldeston, father to complainant, and 
 his ancestors have been taken, reputed, and known as the only owners of the said 
 Manor and Waste, and the said Sir Alexander was owner of the same at the time of 
 his death. That the said Manor or lordship after the death of Sir Alexander came to 
 John Osbaldeston as his son and heir; that John Osbaldeston did keep six years pasta 
 Court at Over Darwen aforesaid in his own name, without stop or let ; that deponent 
 hath heard his father say that the ancestors of John Osbaldeston kept Court in like 
 manner; that Sir John Southworth was called to appear at the Court kept by John 
 Osbaldeston, and that Lawrence Gorton, Rauff Baron and Henry Duckesbury, 
 
 63 
 
498 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN- 
 
 tenants-at-will to Sir John Southworth, appeared at the said Court, &c, ; that John 
 Osbaldeston and his ancestors have always used to appoint the Constables in the said 
 lordship of Over Darwynd as only lords, &c.; that John Osbaldeston hath enclosed 
 parcel of the said Waste without any let of defendant, and that Sir Alexander his 
 father likewise enclosed other parcels of the said Waste, and the tenants do 
 occupy the same at the liberty of the said John Osbaldeston; that complainant 
 and his ancestors have used to cause the said Waste to be driven, and the beasts and 
 cattle of strangers, dwelling out of the said lordship, to be pynden or folden there in a 
 pynfold belonging to the said John Osbaldeston ; that divers persons out of the said 
 lordship have asked leave of Sir Alexander Osbaldeston to get turves and sclate in the 
 said Moss, and that Sir Alexander had caused such got without his leave to be cut and 
 broken ; that Sir Thomas Southworth, father of defendant, did cause certain turves 
 gotten on the said More by tenants of one Thomas Grymeshaw to be cut and destroyed, 
 and that deponent was present when one Henry Mawdesley, servant to the said Sir 
 Thomas, did aske the leave of the said Sir Alexander so to do, because of divers dis- 
 pleasures the said Grymeshaw had done to the said Sir Thomas ; that at such time as 
 any contention or bargain heretofore hath been, concerning the knowledge of the meres 
 and bounds of the said Moss or Waste, between the said lordship and other lordships 
 adjoining, the said John Osbaldeston and his ancestors have only taken on them in 
 their own name and right to defend the said Manor as lords thereof; that deponent's 
 father and other men of the said lordship report and say that such variance as was in 
 times past between one Richard Southworth, ancestor to said defendant, and one 
 Geffraye Osbaldeston, ancestor to said complainant, was for and about the said More 
 and Waste now in variance ; that during his remembrance the said John Osbaldeston 
 and his ancestors have always used and occupied the chief house and Mansion Place 
 of Over Darwynd and the demesne belonging thereto commonly called Darwynd Hall 
 in severalty as sole tenants thereof. 
 
 Depositions on the part of Sir John Southworth, the defendant, were made by 
 William Yate of Eccleshill, aged 70, tenant to Rauf Holden, Esq. (who " hath done 
 service to Sir John Southworth and his father before him because of his libertie upon 
 the Waste and Moor in varyance ") ; also by William Shorrocke, of Eccleshill, aged 
 66; Edward Baron of Eccleshill, tenant to Richard Grimshaw, gent., aged 50; Roger 
 Walmesley of Samlesbury, tenant to Sir John Southworth, aged 70 ; William Fysshe 
 of Lower Darwynd, tenant to Sir Thomas Talbot, Knt., aged 72 ; George Aspeden 
 of Lower Darwynd, tenant to Sir Thomas Talbot, Knt., aged 76; and George 
 Southworth of Edgeworth, tenant to Edward Tyldesley, Esq., aged 56 years. 
 
 The award in this case does not appear ; but in the category of the 
 estates of Sir John Southworth, who died in 1595, I find no mention of 
 manorial estate in Over Darwen, from which it may be inferred that the 
 Southworths had before then ceased to exercise manorial rights in the 
 township. The Osbaldestons were recognised as lords of the manor at 
 the escheat on the death of John Osbaldeston, Esq., in 1575, and again 
 at the death of Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., in 1590. The latter, 
 Edward Osbaldeston, in his Will dated June 1 8th, 1588, bequeaths 
 " unto my miller and shepperde in Darwin, which shall be at the time 
 of my decease," one year's wages ; an indication that the then lord 
 of the manor had a mill in Over Darwen, and that the hills sur- 
 
DESCENT OF OVER DARWEN MANOR. 499 
 
 rounding were then a sheep-run, and the lord's flock thereon was 
 tended by his own shepherd. About A.D. 1593, Sir Richard Shuttle- 
 worth of Gawthorp purchased of John Osbaldeston, Esq., lands in 
 Darwen and Eccleshill ; and an entry in the Shuttleworth Household 
 Books relates to payment for the same: — "March, 1593. Payed Mr. 
 Osbaldeston in parte pamente for certen lands in Eccleshill and Derwen 
 to the yerelye rent of ;^3 6s., the somme of ;£i5, and remenethe more 
 to be payed for the said landes the somme of ;!^i7o, besides the 
 redeminge of the annuitie with the arreriges of the same, which is 
 valued to the somme of ;i^i2o, so that good assurance is to be made 
 of the said landes." By an indenture in the Darwen Free Library, 
 dated 1602, it is witnessed that John Osbaldeston, Esq., by deed of 
 lease dated July 7th, 1595, had leased to William Witton a messuage 
 and lands in Over Darwen, with common of pasture and turbary upon 
 the moors and commons there. Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., of Osbal- 
 deston Hall, occurs as reputed lord of Over Darwen in 161 1 and 1619, 
 when John Baron and John his son held at death lands there " of 
 Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., in socage." At Sir Edward Osbaldeston's 
 death, in 1636, he was found seized of Over Dar^ven manor, with " six 
 acres lately improved from the Waste in Over Darvven." 
 
 It would seem that the Hoghtons of Hoghton Tower, as lords of 
 Walton-in-le-Dale in succession to the Langtons, exercised certain rights 
 of lordship in Over Dar^ven in the 17 th century; for William Fishe, 
 who died in 16 16, held his estate of "Richard Hoghton, knt. and 
 bart., in free socage,-" and John Crosse, gent., who died in 1641, held 
 " of Gilbert Hoghton, knt. and bart., as of Walton manor, in socage." 
 " White Hall," an old mansion which has in one of its walls a stone 
 inscribed "R H," and the date " 1614," may occupy the site of the 
 ancient messuage pertaining to the lordship of Langtons and Hoghtons. 
 
 I cannot give the date at which this manor was alienated from the 
 Osbaldestons, but think it was about the middle of last century, after 
 the' death of Alexander Osbaldeston in 1747. The Manor of Over 
 Darwen was offered for sale in 1766, as appears by the following 
 advertisement, copied from the Manchester Mercury for July 22nd, 
 1766 : — 
 
 To be sold, the Manor or Lordship of Over Darwen in the County of Lancaster 
 and Parish of Blackburn, on the 28th day of August next, at the House of Mr. John 
 Yates, the sign of the Black Bull in Blackburn, with reversions to the value of ;^300 
 per annum or thereabouts. The Lordship is well stocked with Game. Under most 
 of the Estate there is Coal, and the purchaser will be entitled to the Common Right 
 of about 300 acres, under which there is coal also. 
 
 The manor of Over Danven was acquired upon this transfer by 
 John Trafford, Esq., of the family of Trafford of Croston and Trafford. 
 
500 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr. Trafford sometime resided upon this estate, and in the absence of 
 an ancient manor-house, he erected a house upon the easterly edge of 
 Darwen Moor, overlooking the valley of the Darwen. The house is 
 known as " Lord's Hall ;" but it had not long been the abode of Mr. 
 Trafford before he left the township and re-sold the estate to George 
 Duckworth, Esq., about the year 1810. " Lord's Hall" is now reduced 
 to the purpose of a keeper's lodge. Its situation is very bleak and 
 dreary, being at an elevation of 1200 feet above the sea-level. The 
 estate of the lord of the manor is stated in the new " Domesday Book " 
 to comprise 1032 statute acres, with a rental of ;£^i,48s, but there are 
 about 300 acres of waste appurtenant to the estate. 
 
 DUCKWORTH, LORDS OF OVER DARWEN MANOR. 
 
 George Duckworth, Esq., who purchased this manorial estate, was of the family 
 of Duckworth of Musbury, in Rossendale Forest, who trace a descent from Richard 
 Duckworth, who had granted an estate there in the 30th Henry VIIL (1538). Thomas 
 Duckworth was Greave of Rossendale Forest in 1572. Later, John Duckworth was 
 Greave of the Forest in 1707; and another John Duckworth of Park House, Greave in 
 1735. Lawrence Duckworth of Musbury, was Greave of the Forest in 1775. 
 
 George Duckworth, Esq., died Nov. 2lst, 1815. He had sons, Samuel, and 
 William ; and daughters, Eliza ; and Anna, wife of Sir Thomas Coltman, Judge of the 
 Common Pleas. 
 
 Samuel Duckworth, Esq. , a barrister-at-law, and sometime M. P. for Leicester, 
 and a master in Chancery, died unmarried, Dec. 3rd, 1847. 
 
 William Duckworth, Esq., J. P., of Beechwood Forest, Co. Hants., lord of Over 
 Darwen Manor, bom April 6th, 1795 ; married, first, Oct. 3rd, 1825, Hester-Emily, 
 daughter of Robert Philips, Esq., of the Park, Prestwich (she died in 1835), by whom 
 he had sons, George, born July 29th, 1826, captain 5th Dragoon Guards, died at 
 Varna Bay, Aug. 24th, 1854; William-Arthur, bom March 17th, 1829; Russell, born 
 in 1830; and Herbert, born in 1833; also a daughter, Sarah Emily. Mr. Duckworth 
 married, secondly, Margaret Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Yate Benyon, Esq. ,K. C. , 
 Vice-Chancellor Co. Palatine of Lancashire. 
 
 FAMILIES OF GENTRY AND YEOMEN. 
 
 I add some account of a number of ancient and modem residen- 
 tial families of gentry and freeholders in the township :^ 
 
 ASHTON OF BLACKBURN AND OVER DARWEN. 
 
 Richard Ashton of Blackburn, married, Aug. 1st, 1665, Ann Haworth ; he pro- 
 bably was father of John Ashton, of Blackburn, who had a son Richard, bapt. at 
 Blackburn Church, Feb. 22nd, 1694-5, and other issue. 
 
 Richard Ashton of Blackbum, son of John, by his wife Elizabeth had issue, John, 
 bapt. April 21st, 1722 ; Richard, bapt. Nov. 23rd, 1729 ; and several other children. 
 
 Richard Ashton of Blackburn, second son of Richard, by Betty his wife had 
 (with other issue) a son Richard, bapt. Oct. lOth, 1762. 
 
 Richard Ashton, of Blackburn, son of the last-named, married Ann Livesey, and 
 had two sons, William, born Oct. 4th, 1790; and Thomas, bora Feb. 13th, 1798, 
 bapt. at Chapel-street Chapel, Blackbum, Feb. 28th ; with other issue. 
 
FAMILIES OF GENTRY AND YEOMEN. 501 
 
 William Ashton of Blackburn, cotton manufacturer, eldest son of Richard, 
 married, in May, 1823, Susannah, youngest daughter of Joseph Barker of Beardwood 
 Fold, Blackburn (by his wife Catherine, daughter of Mr. John Hindle of Oswald- 
 twistle), and had sons, Richard, died, aged 4, in April, 1821 ; Joseph ; and William 
 Thomas, bom in 1832 ; and several daughters. Mr. William Ashton died in his 43rd 
 year, September 9th, 1835. His widow, Mrs. Ashton, died in 1871. 
 
 Mr. William Thomas Ashton, of Ashdale, Over Darwen, son of Mr. William 
 Ashton, married, in i860, Lydia Grace, eldest daughter of Mr. Henry Deakin, of 
 Soulton Hall, Wem,Shropshire, and has issue, sons, Henry Deakin, Sidney Antrobus, 
 William ; and several daughters. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Ashton of Darwen Lodge, third son of Richard Ashton of Blackburn, 
 married, first, Mary, daughter of Mr. Ralph Shorrock, and sister of Eccles Shorrock, 
 Esq., of Over Darwen, and by her (who died in 1829, buried at Chapel-street Chapel, 
 Blackburn, March 4th) had issue, sons, Eccles Shorrock Ashton, and Ralph Shorrock 
 Ashton ; and a daughter Alice. Mr. Thomas Ashton married, secondly, Miss 
 Hannah Shorrock, and had issue, sons, William Shorrock Ashton, James Christopher 
 Ashton ; and several daughters. Thomas Ashton, Esq., died in 1864, aged 65. 
 
 Eccles Shorrock, eldest son of Thomas, on the death of his uncle, dropped the 
 paternal surname of Ashton, taking Shorrock for surname. Eccles Shorrock, Esq. , 
 J.P., of Low Hill House, Over Darwen, married, in 1851, Sarah Anne, daughter of 
 Timothy Dimmock, Esq., of Hanley, Staffordshire, and has issue, sons, Eccles, 
 Lionel, and Howard ; and several daughters. 
 
 Ralph Shorrock Ashton, Esq., J. P., of Woodlands, Over Darwen, second son of 
 Thomas, married, Sept. 22nd, 1852, Betsy, eldest daughter of James Shorrock, Esq., 
 of Astley Bank, and has isuue sons, Percy, Hubert, and other children. 
 
 William Shorrock Ashton, Esq. , of Ashleigh, Over Darwen, third son of Thomas, 
 married, Aug. loth, 1859, Sophia Elizabeth, daughter of John Whalley, Esq., of Old 
 TrafiTord, and has, with other issue, sons, Frank, Thomas-Rudolph, and Gerald- 
 Whalley. 
 
 The landed estates of Eccles Shorrock, Esq., at present include, in Over Darwen, 
 400 statute acres ; in Lower Darwen, 290 acres ; and in Tockholes, the manorial 
 estate of 890 acres. Ralph Shorrock Ashton, Esq., has a landed estate of 80 statute 
 acres in this township. 
 
 ASTLEY OF OVER DARWEN. 
 
 Ralph Astley, of this township, died before 1642, when inquisition was taken at 
 Blackburn, Aug. 31st, 17th Charles I., as to the estate of Ralph Astley and Margery 
 his wife. It was proved to consist of a messuage, garden, and 24 acres of land, meadow, 
 pasture, moor and moss in Over Darwen, held of Sir Gilbert Hoghton, Knt. and Bart., 
 in socage. Thomas Astley, Ralph's son and heir, was aged 24 years and 5 months. 
 
 BARON OF OVER DARWEN AND ECCLESHILL. 
 
 Of this family, a Richard Baron occurs in 1562, and a William Baron in 1565, 
 but there is no account of the nature of their property. 
 
 Edmund Baron was assessed on lands in Over Darwen to a Subsidy in 1570. 
 
 John Baron of Over Derwent, yeoman, died .September 6th, 161 1, and an inquisi- 
 tion after his death, taken at Preston, April 4th, 9th James I. (1612), showed that 
 the deceased held in Over Derwent, of Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., in socage, two 
 messuages and an estate called "Baron's Ouldlande," comprising 30 acres of land, 
 10 of meadow, 10 of pasture and 3 of moor and moss ; as well as 4 messuages, 20 
 acres of land, 6 of meadow, and 6 of pasture, also in Over Derwent, and now belong- 
 
502 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 ing to Edward Osbaldeston, Esq. ; and in Eccleshill, held of the king as of the 
 Duchy of Lancaster, 12 acres of land, meadow and pasture. 
 
 James Baron was son and heir of the above John, aged 14 years and 10 months 
 at his father's death. In the Subsidy of 161 1, "the heirs of John Baron" of Over 
 Darwen, are assessed at 20s. in lands. This James Baron died on the 26th January, 
 1619-20, at the early age of twenty-three. His escheat was returned at Blackburn, 
 April 6th, 17th James I., before Edward Rigby, Esq., Escheator, and it appeared 
 that deceased had held in Over Darwen, of Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., in socage, 
 5 messuages, 10 gardens, 20 acres of land, 12 of meadow, 12 of pasture, and 10 
 of moss and heath ; and in Eccleshill, of Nicholas Grymshaw, Esq. , in socage, 10 
 acres of land, 16 of meadow, and 6 of pasture. James Baron had no male heir, and 
 it was proved that Alice Baron and Elizabeth Baron were his daughters and co-heirs, 
 ^ged Zyi years, and four months, respectively. 
 
 BARTON OF BARTON HOUSE, &c. 
 
 Samuel Barton of Over Darwen, gent., fifth son of Mr. George Barton, of 
 Torkington (of the Bartons of Dean Water and Stapleton), had issue, sons, Benjamin, 
 bom in 1746; and Thomas, the latter died in Febniary, 1761 ; and a daughter, Sarah, 
 married, July 26th, 1759, Rev. George Astley, of Preston, and Stakes Hall, Livesey. 
 Samuel Barton, gent. , was buried Sept. 29th, 1 768. 
 
 Benjamin Barton, of " Brick House," Over Darwen, "chapman" and "gent." 
 by his wife Margaret, who died Dec. 1 8th, 1818, aged 68, had issue, a son Samuel, 
 and daughters, Elizabeth, died young ; Amelia, married in 1816, Mr. James Cromp- 
 ton ; Ann, died Feb. 1785, aged 3; Mary, died June, 1788, aged one year; and 
 Sarah, married Mr. Alexander McGhie, and died Feb. 16th, 1848, aged 68. Mr. 
 Benjamin Barton died April 28th, 1821, aged 74. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Barton, of Manchester, surgeon and oculist, was the son of Mr. 
 Benjamin Barton. He was for fifty years surgeon of the Eye Institution, and died, 
 aged 81, in April, 187 1. He had sons, Benjamin Barton, Esq., merchant in the city 
 of Mexico ; Samuel Milner Barton, of Manchester, solicitor, assistant clerk to the Man- 
 chester Justices ; and Rev. James Barton, now Vicar of Hedley, Co. Salop. 
 BRANDWOOD OF TURNCROFT. 
 
 William Brandwood, of Entwistle, married Jane, daughter of Richard Orrell, of 
 Entwistle. He had sons, John, born in 1784, and James, born in 1793. 
 
 Mr. John Brandwood, who settled in Over Darwen, purchased the Tumcroft 
 estate of Mr. Sudell, of Blackburn. By Ann his wife (she died Aug. 27th, 1822, 
 sgcd 33)> Mr. John Brandwood had issue, sons, William, born in 1813, died, aged 43, 
 April 23rd, 1857 ; Thomas, bom in 1816, died in 1819 ; and a second James, bom in 
 1821, died, aged 27, March 12th, 1849 ; and daughters, Ann, bom in 1820, died in 
 1821 ; and Jane, born in 1815, married, first, Eccles Shorrock, Esq., secondly, Rev. 
 Philip Graham, and died without issue, at Tumcroft, aged 52, April 17th, 1867. John 
 Brandwood, Esq., died at Tumcroft, Nov. 12th, 1857, aged 73 years. 
 
 James Brandwood, Esq., J. P., of Tumcroft, brother of John, died unmarried, 
 aged 62, Dec. 13th, 1855. 
 
 The Tumcroft estate now consists of 256 statute acres, with a rental of ;^I3I7. 
 BURY OF BURY FOLD, &c. 
 
 William Berre was assessed on his lands in Darwyn Superior to a Subsidy in 
 1523. A succeeding William Berye was taxed to a Subsidy in 1570. Another 
 William Berye of this township, married, in 1625, Alice Yates, widow, and had issue. 
 Andrew Burye, of Over Darwen, had a son Henry, bora in 1 653. 
 
FAMILIES OF GENTRY AND YEOMEN. 
 
 503 
 
 William Berry, of this township, and Henry Berry, being Nonconformists, had 
 their houses licensed for preaching places in 1672. 
 
 Andrew Berry, of Over Darwen, yeoman, died in 1705. Mary, his wife, died in 
 1700. Another Andrew Berry, yeoman, died in 1727. 
 
 A succeeding Andrew Berry, yeoman, married, June nth, 1701, Jennet Yates, of 
 Eccleshill, widow. He had issue, sons, Andrew ; William, born in 1 703, died, aged 
 59, Aug. 23rd, 1762; Richard, bom in 1708; Edmund, died in 1719; and Thomas, 
 died in 1725; and a daughter Ann, born in 1706. This Andrew Berry, yeoman, a 
 trustee of the Lower Chapel, Over Darwen, in 1718, died July 30th, 1753, in his 82nd 
 year. Jennet Berry, his widow, died May 6th, 1755, in her 84th year. 
 
 Andrew Berry, of Berry Fold, son of Andrew, married Jane Townshend, and died 
 in 1749. He had sons, Andrew, bom in 1721; John; and Edmund, died in 1755. 
 
 John Berry, yeoman, a younger son of the last-named Andrew, married, in 1753, 
 Ann Folds, and had sons, Andrew, bom in 1754; John Berry (of Holly Bank, who 
 died, aged 82, in 1845); James; and Thomas. John Berry the father died in 1783. 
 Andrew Berry, of Over Darwen, his eldest son, died, aged 82, in 1836. 
 
 Andrew Berry, yeoman, of Berry Fold and Catshaw, died Dec. 25th, 1801. 
 He had married, in 1 744, Ann Buckley, of Livesey, by whom (she died a widow, aged 
 78, in 1802), he had sons, John, bom in 1752; Andrew, born in 1755; Edmund, bom 
 in 1760; Benjamin, bora in 1762; and Lawrence, born in 1764. 
 
 Andrew Bury, of Bury Fold, yeoman, was second son of the last-named Andrew. 
 He died Jan. 8th, 1819, aged 63. By Nanny, his wife, who died in March, 1 808, he 
 had sons, Walmsley, bom in 1778, died in 1821; Andrew, bora in 1779 ; Hugh, bom 
 in 1781, died in April, 1808. 
 
 Lawrence Bury, of Bury Fold, son of Andrew, married Eleanor Bury, and had 
 sons, Lawrence, and Edmund. Lawrence Bury, died, aged 62, about the year 1829. 
 
 Lawrence Bury, of Bury Fold, son of Lawrence, died some years ago. His 
 brother, Edmund Bury, of Bury Fold, died, aged 54, Nov. 28th, 1854. He married 
 Jane Shorrock, who is now living a widow at Bury Fold, and farms the remnant of 
 the old family freehold, containing about 36 statute acres. 
 
 COOPER OF OVER DARWEN. 
 
 Roger Cooper, of Over Darwen, yeoman, occurs in a deed dated 1602. Richard 
 Cooper of Darwen, was a warden of Blackburn Church in 1687. 
 
 John Cooper of Over Darwen, yeoman, died July 2nd, buried at Darwen Chapel, 
 July 5th, 1736, aged 59; by his wife Ann (died June 30th, buried July 3rd, 1736, 
 aged 40), he had issue, Thomas, Elizabeth, Mary, and Sarah. 
 
 Thomas Cooper of Over Darwen, yeoman, by Alice his wife had sons, Singleton, 
 bapt. Feb. 17th, 1736-7 ; and Benjamin, bapt. March lOth, 1740-1. Thomas 
 Cooper died, aged 36, Feb. 2nd, 1745. 
 
 CROSSE OF TURNCROFT. 
 
 Richard Crosse, a trustee of the Earl of Derby's Chantry in Blackbum Church, 
 founded in 1514, is the earliest member of this family noted. Richard Crosse of Upper 
 Darwen was assessed on lands there to the Subsidy of 1523. 
 
 John Crosse, of Upper Darwen, was a deponent in the suit conceming Darwen 
 Manor in 1556, when he was aged 66 years, so must have been born in 1490. William 
 Crosse, of Over Darvven, was assessed for lands to a Subsidy in 1570. Probably this 
 was the William Cross, a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School, who died in 1599. 
 By Katherine his wife, daughter of (William?) Astley of Stakes, gent,, he had a son 
 and heir, John, 
 
504 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 John Crosse, of Turncroft, gent, married Elizabeth (or Isabel), daughter of 
 (Ralph?) Holden of Holden, gent., and had a son and heir Richard ; also, I think, a 
 son John. John Crosse was taxed to the .Subsidy in 1611, and appears as a juror in 
 1612. He was elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1599. He 
 died in April, 1641, buried at Blackburn April loth. He gave by Will ;^io for the 
 minister of Darwen Chapel. His escheat was taken at Blackburn, Aug. 31st, 17th 
 Chas. I. The Jurors returned that John Crosse had held of Sir Gilbert Hoghton 
 Knt. and Bart., as of Walton Manor, in socage, value 40s., one capital messuage 
 called Tumecroft in Over Darwen, with two gardens, one orchard, 30 acres of land, 
 10 acres of meadow, 10 acres of pasture, and 4 acres of more and moss, in Over 
 Darwen; also, another estate in the township of ten messuages, five cottages, 20 
 gardens, 100 acres of land, 40 acres of meadow, 60 acres of pasture, and 40 acres of 
 moss and turbary. Isabell Cross, his widow, was then living at Darwen. 
 
 Richard Cross, of Over Darwen, gent., son and heir of John, aged 40 in 1642, 
 married Mary Ramsden, of Halifax, and had a son John, with other issue. William 
 Cross, of Over Darwen, who died Aug. 7th, 1658, would be a kinsman of this Richard. 
 
 John Cross, of Over Darwen, gent, son of Richard, was assessed to the Sub- 
 sidy of 1663. He married, first, Millicent, daughter of Thomas Astley, of Stakes, 
 gent (she died in July, 1652), and by her had a son William, and daughters, Mary, 
 Margaret, and Millicent. His second wife was Margaret Whitham (named otherwise 
 Margaret Hargreave of Goodshaw), whom he married in April, 1656. At the time of 
 this marriage, the civil marriages before the magistrate were in vogue, and the banns 
 were published at the Market Cross ; thus recorded, ex.gr., in the Parish Registers : — 
 " Called at the Markett Crosse in Blackburne (last time), April 21, 1656, John, son 
 of Richard Crosse of Upper Darwen, gentleman, and Margaret Whittham of the 
 same." By this wife, Mr. John Cross had sons, Thomas, born July 3rd, bapt. at 
 his own house, July 14th, 1657 ; Geoi^e, and John. 
 
 William Cross, of Upper Darwen, gent., eldest son of John, married, first, Ann 
 Rogers, widow, daughter of — Bold of Carnarvon ; the marriage was at Leyland, 
 Aug. 28th, 1666. He had by her sons, John, bapt. at Leyland, July loth, 1667 ; 
 William, born in 1669; and Thomas ; with daughters, Jane, bom June, 1 668 ; Grace ; 
 Gaynor, died in 1687 ; and Millicent " Anne wife of William Cross, of Upper 
 Darwen," was buried Dec. 5th, 1674. A second wife, "Margaret wife of William 
 Cross of Over Darwen, Esq.," was buried Oct 31st, 1692. It was this Mr. William 
 Cross who, in the year 1687, took the leading part in the contest with the Vicar of 
 Blackburn, for the possession of the chapel of St. James, Over Darwen, claimed by 
 Nonconformist parishioners. He was buried at Blackburn, March 8th, 1697-8. 
 
 John Cross of Over Darwen, Esq., son of William, married Ann, daughter of 
 Ralph Egerton, of Turton, Esq.; the marriage license is dated April 27th, 1689. 
 Issue : — sons, Bold Cross, bom in i6go ; Egerton, bom in 1691 ; Mainwaring, 
 bom in 1700; and Thomas, bom in 1702; daughters, Gaynor, born in 1693; 
 Elizabeth, bom in 1697 '> ^"d Mary Herbert, bom in 1699, married Mr. Abel Flitchcroft 
 — her Will is dated Feb. 29th, 176S. John Cross, Esq., died in 1706; his Will is dated 
 April 27th, 1706, and was proved in that year. Testator names all the children above 
 enumerated as then living. 
 
 Mr. Egerton Cross, second son of John, was father of Egerton Cross, Esq., of 
 Kersley Hall, major in the Royal Lancashire Militia, who was heir to his aunt Mrs. 
 Flitchcroft in 1768, and died, aged 70, in Nov., 1803. His sister, Ann Cross, died, 
 aged 82, Jan 29th, 1814. 
 
FAMILIES OF GENTRY AND YEOMEN. 505 
 
 DEWHURST OF OVER DARWEN. 
 
 William Dewhurst of this townsliip, yeoman, died June loth, 1634. Escheat 
 inquisition taken Aug. 25th, i6th Chas. I., proved him seized at death of one 
 messuage, two gardens, 16 acres of arable land, 4 acres of pasture in Over Darwen. 
 John Dewhurst, his son and heir, was aged 22 years at the date of his father's death. 
 
 FISH OF CHAPELS, &c. 
 
 Three centuries back I trace tenants or freeholders of the name of Fish in Over 
 Darwen. One of the earliest is Ralph ffishe, who is named in the Will of Edward 
 Osbaldeston, made in 1588, as holding under the Osbaldestons, lords of Darwen 
 Manor, "one parcell of grounde lyinge betweene Soughe and Coubron tenement in 
 Over Darwin." 
 
 About the same date lived John ffishe, whose wife died in 1604, and Lawrence 
 ffishe, buried Aug. 8th, 1603. 
 
 William Fishe, of Over Darwen, is the first who appears as a landowner in the 
 township. He died June 21st, 1616, and at an Inquisition as to his estate, taken at 
 Chorley, the 9th Jan., 14 James I., it was attested that the deceased William Fishe 
 had held of Richard Hoghton, Knt. and Bart., in free socage, one messuage, one 
 garden, and 20 acres of land, meadow and pasture, in Over Darwen. Ellen Fishe, 
 widow of William, was then living at Over Darwen ; and James Fishe, aged one 
 year, two months, and nineteen days, was William's son and heir. 
 
 James Fishe of Upper Darwen, who died Dec. 1689, may perhaps have been the 
 same with the infant heir, James Fishe, of 1616. 
 
 But there were others of the name, distinct from William Fishe's family, resident 
 in Darwen in the reigns of the first two Stuarts. Ralph Fish, possibly a son of the 
 Ralph of 1588, had an estate in the township up till his death, which happened about 
 1623. The after-death Inquisition, taken at Blackburn, 8th April, 21st James I., 
 shewed that Ralph Fish, deceased, possessed in Over Darwen one messuage, one 
 garden, 10 acres of land, 5 acres of meadow, 5 acres of pasture, and 4 acres of moss. 
 He left no male heir, but two daughters, co-heiresses, viz., Augusta, the wife of James 
 Cunliffe and Margery Fish. 
 
 Next I note Thomas Fishe, of Over Darwen, also a small freeholder. He died 
 June 2nd, 7th Charles I (1631); his wife — " Uxor Thom^ ffyshe de Upper Darwen," 
 had been buried at Blackburn, Nov. i6th, 1623. The escheat, taken at Blackburn, 
 April 24th, 9th Charles I., returned that Thomas Fishe had died seized of one barn, 
 with 12 acres of land, meadow and pasture in Over Darwen, and 6 acres of land, 
 meadow and pasture in Livesey, late improved from the waste of Livesey. 
 
 Thomas Fishe, aged 30 years and above in 1633, was son and heir of the above 
 Thomas. He had a son John, born in 1634. The names of both Thomas Fish and 
 John Fish are affixed to the petition on behalf of Vicar Clayton in 1660. The follow- 
 ing notes of subsequent members are the sum of my information respecting the fami- 
 lies of Fish in Darwen : — John Fish married Agnes Walsh, Aug. 21, 1632. William 
 Fish of Upper Darwen was living in 1676. John Fish of Upper Darwen, yeoman 
 and chapman, conveyed, in 1718, a plot of land to be the site for a new Nonconfor- 
 mist Meeting House, in Clarke's Field, on his estate. At Chapels, in Darwen, stands 
 an old messuage, no doubt once the residence of this John Fish ; a stone in the wall 
 having the initials " I F E " (John and Ellen or Elizabeth Fish) and the date "1725." 
 John Fish of Upper Darwen, chapman, had a son John, bapt. May isth, 1702. This 
 son was John Fish of Upper Darwen, chapman, who, by Jane his wife, had a son 
 John, born in 1 726. I also meet with a Ralph Fish of Upper Darwen, afterwards of 
 
 64 
 
5o6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Blackburn, chapman, who married, Feb. 9th, 1697-8, Mary Wilkinson, of Blackburn, 
 and had sons, Richard, born in 1699, and Ralph, bom in 1701. Thomas Fish of 
 Upper Darwen, chapman, was living in 1704* Ralph Fish, of Over Darwen, 
 whose wife Nanny died in March, 1790, was buried Feb. i6th, 1796, aged 62. 
 
 GREENWAY OF LIVESEY FOLD. DARWEN BANK, &c. 
 
 Mr. James Greenway of Livesey Fold, in this township, calico-printer, who died, 
 aged 82, May i8th, 1821, had sons, James and Charles. 
 
 Mr. James Greenway built the house at Darwen Bank for his residence. He 
 was born Feb. 21st, 1777 ; married Oct. 7th, 1822, Miss Esther Edge, of Rusholme 
 (she died in 1859), and died without issue, aged 89, July 8th, 1866, leaving his estate 
 to his nephew. Rev. Charles Greenway. 
 
 Charles Greenway, Esq. , of Ard wick and Darwen, brother of James, married, 
 first, Ann, daughter of John Grimshaw, Esq., of Preston (she died, aged 39, in 1827), 
 and had a son Charles, and several daughters ; and, secondly, July 23rd, 1828, Mary 
 Eliza, daughter of John Poole, Esq., of Manchester. His youngest daughter, Louisa 
 Dorothea, married, in 1845, Rev. John Congreve, B.A. 
 
 Rev. Charles Greenway, M.A., of Darwen Bank, son of Charles, and heir to 
 his uncle, James Greenway, Esq., is a Justice of the Peace for the county. Mr. 
 Greenway was incumbent of St. James's Church, from 1851 to 1868. His estates in 
 Over Darwen comprise 245 statute acres ; and in Lower Darwen and Eccleshill 45 
 and 25 acres respectively. 
 
 HARGREAVE OF HODDLESDEN, &c. 
 
 George Hargreave of Haslingden, mercer, born in 1690, died Nov. 20th, 1725, 
 was father of — 
 
 George Hargreave of Haslingden, gent. , who married Mary, daughter and co-heir 
 of James Marsden of Hoddlesden, gent, (she died Jan. 6th, 1796, aged 75), and had 
 issue, sons, George; Marsden bapt. Feb. 14th, 1749; James bapt. July 7th, 1752; 
 Oliver, bom in 1754 ; John (of Manchester), bom in 1755, died in 1797 ; and Plenry, 
 bom in 1756, died at Haslingden, in 1828, having married Jenny, daughter of Mr. 
 James Holt of Bridge-end ; and daughters, Mary, wife of Mr. Wm. Douglas, banker, 
 of Old Hall, Pendleton; Elizabeth, died in infancy; and Alice, born in 1757, 
 married, in 1794, Edward Chew, Esq. Mr. George Hargreave died, aged 42, Oct. 
 14th, 1758. George Hargreave of Hoddlesden, gent., eldest son of George, bapt. 
 Nov. 1 8th, 1747, married, in 1783, Mary, second daughter and co-heir of Wm. Hart 
 of Ulverstone, gent.; and had issue, sons, George, born in 1787, died aged 11, in 
 1798; and Oliver, bom Oct. l6th, 1788; and daughters, Maria, born in 1785, died in 
 179s ; Eleanor, bom Feb. 13th, 1790, married April 17th, 1832, Rev. Stephen Reay, 
 sometime incumbent of Haslingden, sub-librarian of the Bodleian, Oxford, and died 
 (as did her husband) in Jan., 1861 ; and Eliza, born in 1791, died, aged 81, in 1872. 
 Mr. George Hargreave .was made a governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1773, 
 and died at Bolton, aged 49, Nov. 27th, 1796. His widow died Aug. 13th, 1835. 
 
 Oliver Hargreave, Esq., M.A., of Trin. Coll., Cambridge, of Hoddlesden and of 
 Abbots' Langley, Co. Herts., married, first, Elizabeth Rattray, who died in 1841 ; 
 secondly, in 1842, Elizabeth, daughter of Wm. Bayne, Esq., widow of Geoi^e 
 Ranken, of Tavistock, Esq., and dying without issue by either marriage, Oct. 17th, 
 1858, aged 70, the Hoddlesden estate passed to the son of his second wife by her first 
 husband, Wm. Bayne Ranken, Esq., J. P., of Hoddlesden and London, whose estate 
 in this part of I^ncasbire is returned at 667 statute acres. 
 
FAMILIES OP GENTRY AND YEOMEN. 507 
 
 HILTON OF BLACKBURN, DARWEN LODGE, &c. 
 
 Samuel Hilton, of Blackburn, by Ann his wife, had sons, Samuel, Richard, William. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Hilton, of Blackburn, married, at Manchester, Oct. 30th, 1787, Mrs. 
 Jane Sale, and had issue, sons, Edward, bom in 1792; James, born in 1793; and 
 Robert, born in 1796 ; and daughters, Margaret, bom in 1788 ; and Jane, born in 1794. 
 Mr. Samuel Hilton was buried at Chapel Street Chapel, Blackburn, July 31st, 1819. 
 His widow died in 1823. 
 
 Richard Hilton, of Blackburn and of Darwen Lodge, Over Darwen, a noted 
 calico-bleacher and paper manufacturer, &c. (brother of Samuel), by Ellen his wife 
 had issue, sons, Christopher, bom in 1794; Henry; and Edward; and daughters, 
 Ann, died in 1808, aged 19 ; Margaret, died in 1814, aged 16 ; a second Ann, married, 
 in 1838, James Imray, Esq., of Brixton; and Maria, of Streatham, Co. Surrey. 
 Richard Hilton, Esq., died before 1836 ; his widow died Dec. 31st, 1843, aged 72. 
 
 Mr. Christopher Hilton, of Darwen, bleacher and paper manufacturer, eldest 
 son of Richard, died, aged 39, Oct. 17th, 1 833. 
 
 Mr. Henry Hilton, of Darwen Lodge, Richard's second son, married, Sept. 5th, 
 1836, Mary Lawrie, daughter of Thos. Ainsworth, Esq., of Preston. His only 
 daughter, Lydia, married Mr. Vicars. Mr. Henry Hilton left Darwen for Port Natal, 
 S. Africa, and died shortly after his arrival there. May 4th, 1850. 
 
 Another brother, Edward Hilton, Esq., of Darwen and Manor Park, Streatham, 
 married, first, April 30th, 1835, Louisa, daughter of Thos. Cartwright of Heaton 
 Norris; secondly, in 1S39, Eliz. Susan, daughter of Sir John Key, bart.; and thirdly, 
 in i860, Eliz. Ann, daughter of Joseph Leech, Esq., and had issue. 
 
 Mr. Wm. Hilton, younger brother of Samuel and Richard, died at Chorlton-upon- 
 Medlock, aged 64, July 3rd, 1834. His widow, Mrs. Esther Hilton, died at Mottrami 
 aged 80, Feb. 25th, 1858. 
 
 The estate of the trustees of the late Richard Hilton in this township comprises 
 81 acres, with a rental of ;^832 per annum. 
 
 .HINDLE OF HOLKER HOUSE, HODDLESDEN. 
 
 Christopher Hindle of Cowbarrows and Holker House, yeoman, by Alice his 
 wife had sons, John; Christopher, bom in 1751 ; Thomas, born in 1758; and 
 daughters Jane and Ann. 
 
 John Hindle of Holker House, yeoman, born in 174S, died, aged 71, May 23rd, 
 1816. By Mary his wife (who died, aged 65, Dec. 9th, 181 1), he had, with other 
 issue, a son, William Hindle, died, aged 30, May 21st, 1817. 
 
 Christopher Hindle of Holker House, son of Christopher, married Hannah Mars- 
 den, and had issue, sons, Ralph, who entered the army ; and James ; and a daughter 
 Nancy, born Nov. 2nd, 1778, wife of Mr. James Shorrock of Princes. 
 
 Mr. James Hindle, who now owns a small estate of land and other property in 
 Over Darwen, is of this family. 
 
 Holker House is an old messuage standing at the upper end of the hamlet of 
 Hoddlesden. having a gabled porch, over which is a stone with the initials " R E I " 
 and the date " 1591." I conjecture that a junior branch of the family of Entwistle of 
 Entwistle anciently possessed this freehold. 
 
 HOLDEN OF HODDLESDEN. 
 
 Thomas Holden of Hoddlesden, yeoman, in his Will, dated Oct. 9th, 1647, 
 names Alice, his wife ; sons William and Robert ; and daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, 
 Isabel, and Ann Yate, then a widow. 
 
5o8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 MARSDEN OF OVER DARWEN. 
 
 Henry Marsden, of Over Darwen, a freeholder, died in 1637. Escheat inquisition 
 taken Nov. 8th in that year showed that he died seized of 5 messuages, 5 gardens, ;o 
 acres of land, meadow, and pasture in Chorley ; and two messuages, 3 gardens, 60 
 acres of land, meadow and pasture in Over Darwen, the latter held of Sir Gilbert 
 Hoghton, Knt. and Bart., as of Walton manor in socage, worth 40s. yearly. Ralph 
 Marsden, his son, was then aged 16 years. 
 
 James Marsden married, in 16S2, Alice Rothwell of Haslingden Chapelry. Mr. 
 James Marsden, of Upper Darwen, buried sons George and James, March 3rd, 1717. 
 
 Mr. James Marsden, of Over Darwen, elected governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School in 1731, would be the James Marsden of Hoddlesden, yeoman, born Jan. 8th, 
 l686, who died May 8th, 1733, in his 47th year, leaving by Mary his wife, daughters 
 Ann and Mary. Mary Marsden, his widow, died Nov. i6th, 1771, in her 82nd year. 
 Mary, the daughter, married George Hargreave, Esq., of Haslingden, and died, aged 
 75, in 1796. 
 
 MAWDSLEY OF OVER DARWEN. 
 
 Henry Mawdsley, who died before 1607, was found seized at death of two 
 messuages, 26 acres of land, two acres of meadow, 10 acres of pasture in Over Darwen, 
 held of Richard Hoghton, Knt., in socage ; also, of 13 acres of land, meadow, and 
 pasture, in Clitheroe. Elizabeth Mawdsley, widow, died before the escheat was 
 returned. Thurston Mawdsley was son and heir, aged 13 years. 
 
 PICKUP OF MARCH HOUSE, &c. 
 
 John Pickup of Sunnyhurst and Hey Fold, by his wife Hannah, daughter of 
 Thomas Eccles, yeoman, of Pickup bank, had sons, William, bapt. June '19th, 1756 ; 
 James Pickup of Sough ; and John. 
 
 William Pickup of Hey Fold and March House, son of John, married Sarah, 
 daughter of George Briggs, of Ellison Fold, and had sons, John ; George Pickup of 
 the Hattons (who married Jane Cooke, and had a son William and other issue) ; and 
 William Pickup of Higher March House, who died unmarried. William Pickup the 
 father died before 1820. 
 
 John Pickup of March House, eldest son of William, died a few- years ago. He 
 married Katherine Smalley, and was father of Mr. William Pickup, now of March 
 House, and of Sarah Pickup, married to Mr. Robert Smalley Entwistle. 
 
 According to the recent Parliamentary Return of Landowners, the estate in this 
 township of the exors. of the late John Pickup amounts to 279 acres ; that of Mr. 
 William Pickup, to 185 acres ; a small estate of 36 acres also belongs to Jane Pickup; 
 and I am informed that the exors. and family of the late Mr. George Pickup of Hattons 
 own 164 statute acres in Over Darwen and 130 acres in Lower Darwen. 
 
 SHORROCK OF ECCLESHILL, LOWER DARWEN, AND OVER 
 DARWEN. 
 
 William Shorrock, of Eccleshill in 1651, was assessed to a subsidy in 1663. He 
 had sons Thomas and James. Thomas Shorrock, of Eccleshill, yeoman, died in 
 1728. He had sons, Robert, and William. William Shorrock, of Eccleshill, bom in 
 1690, died, aged 73, in May, 1764. Thomas Shorrock of Eccleshill married, in 
 1 741, Ann Thompson of Lower Darwen. 
 
 William Shorrock, of Lower Danven, had a son James, bom in 1701. I think 
 James Shorrock was father of the next-named Ralph Shorrock and of James Shorrock. 
 
 Ralph Shorrock of Lower Hill, Lower Darwen, yeoman, by Nancy his wife 
 
FAMILIES OF GENTRY AND YEOMEN. 509 
 
 (she died April 17th, 18:7, aged 74) had sons, Ralph ; James, bom in 1771 ; John, 
 bora in 1775 ; and William, bom in 1781, died, aged 62, Aug. 22nd, 1843; daughters, 
 Jane, Mary, Nancy and Sally. Ralph Shorrock died, in his 87th year, Sept. 28th, 1818. 
 
 Ralph Shorrock of Lower Darwen, yeoman, son of Ralph, married Jane, daughter 
 of Mr. Thomas Eccles of Lower Darwen, and by her (who died Nov. 1838) had 
 issue, sons, Ralph, born in 1798, died unmarried, aged 18, May 8th, 1817 ; Thomas, 
 died unmarried in 1832 ; George, born in 1801, died in 1802 ; and Eccles, bom in 
 1804 ; and a daughter Mary, wife of Mr. Thomas Ashton. 
 
 Eccles Shorrock, Esq., a younger son of Ralph, was the eminent merchant and 
 cotton-spinner of Blackburn and Over Darwen. Mr. Eccles Shorrock acquired a 
 landed estate in Over Darwen, and resided at Low Hill House. He also purchased 
 the HoUinshead Hall and manorial estate in Tockholes. His first wife was Eliza, 
 daughter of Mr. James Bailey of Witton (she died, aged 46, Oct. loth, 1850). 
 Eccles Shorrock, Esq. , married, secondly, Jane daughter of John Brand wood, Esq. , 
 of Turacroft, by whom he had no issue. He died, aged 49, July 17th, 1853, having 
 made his nephew, Eccles .Shorrock, eldest son of Thomas Ashton, Esq., his heir. 
 
 Another branch of the Shorrocks descends from James Shorrock of Lower 
 Darwen, brother of the first Ralph Shorrock named above. James Shorrock had 
 sons, Ralph ; James ; and William Shorrock of Sough (who by his wife, a daughter 
 of Pickup of Sough had a son William Shorrock, of Sough) ; and a daughter, wife of 
 James Pickup of Sough. 
 
 James Shorrock of Chapels, son of James, married Betty Pickup, and by her had 
 sons, James, bom in 1776 ; and Ralph ; and daughters, Sarah, and Ann. Mr. James 
 Shorrock died in November, 1819. 
 
 Mr. James Shorrock of Princes was eldest son of the last-named James. He 
 married, in 1797, Nancy, daughter of Mr. Christopher Hindle, and by her (who died, 
 aged 71, Dec. 5th, 1849), had issue, sons, Christopher, bom Sept. 6th, 1804 ; James, 
 born April 7th, 1806 ; and George, bom in 1822, died in 1859 ; and daughters, Betsy, 
 Sarah, Nancy, Mary Ann, and Jane. Mr. James Shorrock died Dec. 28th, 1861. 
 
 Christopher Shorrock, Esq. , of Manchester, eldest son of James, married, in 
 1831, Helen, daughter of Joseph Eccles, Esq., of Lower Darwen, and by her (she 
 died in 1837) had sons, Eccles, bom in 1832 ; James bom in 1833 (James Shorrock, 
 Esq., of the Beeches, Bowden, Cheshire, who married Miss Good, of Bowden, but has 
 no issue); and Joseph Shorrock, born in 1834; married Nancy, daughter of Mr. 
 James Shorrock of Astley Bank ; has no issue. Christopher Shorrock, Esq., died 
 March 28th, 1862. His next brother — 
 
 James Shorrock, Esq., J.P., of Astley Bank, married, in 1831, Miss Rachel 
 Henrey, and by her (who is yet living) had issue, sons, Christopher; William Henry; 
 Peter, James, Peter ; and daughters, Betsy ; Nancy ; Sarah Maria, wife of Edward 
 Elworthy, Esq.; and Rachel Henrey. James Shorrock, Esq., died April nth, 1869. 
 
 Christopher Shorrock, Esq. , of the Moss, Lower Darwen, eldest son of James, 
 married, in 1863, Jane, daughter of James Chetham, Esq. , of Chadderton, and has issue. 
 
 SMALLEY OF HEY FOLD, ASTLEY BANK, &c. 
 
 A small estate at Hey Fold, near Darwen Chapels, was the early freehold of this 
 family. Richard Smalley, of Upper Darwen, died in 1709, and another Richard 
 Smalley died in 17 15. 
 
 Richard Smalley, of Upper Darwen, chapman, married, first. Oct. 22nd, 171 7 
 Jane Marsden of Clayton, and had issue Richard, bapt. Feb. i8th, 17 18-19. J^n^i 
 wife of Richard Smalley, was buried Jan. 10th, 1720-1. By his second wife, Mary, 
 
5IO 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN- 
 
 Richard Smalley had sons, Thomas (see Smalley of Blackburn, ante), bom in I726 ; 
 and Robert, bapt. May 25th, 1729. 
 
 Richard Smalley of Eccleshill and Blackburn, chapman, first son of Richard, 
 died in August, 1773. By Margaret his wife he had sons, Richard, William, Robert, 
 and Thomas ; and a daughter, Margaret. His brother — 
 
 Robert Smalley, of Princes, younger son of Richard, was minister of the Lower 
 (Independent) Chapel in Darwen, from 1751 to 1791. Rev. Robert Smalley died 
 Jan 26th, 1791, aged 61 ; and was buried in the burial ground of the Lower Chapel. 
 He married Miss Ann Yates, and had sons, Richard, born Jan. 9th, 1 760 ; Robert 
 Yates, bapt. June 14th, 1763 ; and Lawrence, bapt. June 29th, 1768. 
 
 Robert Yates Smalley of Hey Fold, yeoman, second son of Rev. Robert Smalley, 
 married Miss Nanny Yates, and had issue by her (who died Feb. 14th, 1832, aged 
 87), sons, Robert, bapt. Oct. iSth, 1789; Yates, died young in 1798; Lawrence 
 Yates Smalley (of the New Inn, Darwen) ; Richard of Hey Fold j and Thomas, of 
 Hey Fold, died unmarried; and daughters, Nanny, and Ann, died young; Betty 
 (wife of William Entwistle, and mother of Mr. Robert Smalley Entwistle) ; Kitty 
 (wife of Mr. Pickup of March House) ; and Mary. The father, Mr. Robert Smalley, 
 died aged 54, May 14th, 1824. 
 
 Rev. Richard Smalley, eldest son of Rev. Robt. Smalley, and for a short time 
 minister of the Lower Chapel, died June 20th, i8cx3, aged 40. His wife was Ann, 
 daughter of Richard and Ann Kershaw of Astley Bank, by whom he had sons 
 Richard Kershaw, born Dec. 29th, 1795 ; and Robert Kershaw, bom July 22nd, 
 1797 ; and a daughter Ann, born in 1794, died in 1795. 
 
 Richard Kershaw Smalley, Esq., son of Richard, built Astley Bank House, and 
 died about 1840. He married his cousin, Ann, daughter of Mr. John Walker of 
 Patricroft, and by her (who died at Battersea, aged 69, in 1861) had issue, sons, 
 Robert Kershaw Smalley, now living in Australia ; and John, died, aged 17, Aug. 
 22nd, 1848 ; and daughters, Ann Walker, bom in 1819 ; Jane ; Katherine ; and Maria. 
 
 Robert Kershaw Smalley, surgeon, second son of Rev. Richard Smalley, married, 
 in 1830, Maria, daughter of Mr. Wm. Henrey, and had a son Mr. Richard Henry 
 Smalley, now of Over Darwen. 
 
 WALSH OF WALSH FOLD. 
 
 At Walsh Fold in this township sometime was domiciled a family of Walshe 
 descended from Edward Welshe, a Puritan Vicar, of Blackburn, suspended in 1606 
 for nonconformity. In 1590, he being then Vicar, Mr. Edward Welshe was one of 
 17 Lancashire Preachers who signed an Address upon " The manifolde enormities of 
 the Ecclesiasticall State in the most partes of the Countie of Lancaster," printed by 
 the Chetham Society in 1875, from the original MS. in the Bodleian Library. Canon 
 Raines, in a note to the Address, gives some facts about this Vicar of Blackburn, of 
 which I cull the following: — Sept. 26th, 1596, he "appeared personally before the 
 Commissioners at Chester, and said that he neither did nor would refuse to wear the 
 surplice if the same was fit and tendered to him in good sort. He was enjoyned to 
 wear it hereafter." Eight years later, Oct. 3rd, 1604, he "was cited to appear before 
 the bishop and was required to subscribe to the three Articles in the 36th Canon of 
 1603." He was deprived of his benefice about two years after, and retired to his 
 little farm at Walsh Fold, Over Darwen. By Mary, his wife, he had a son Thomas, 
 and other issue. The deprived minister died at Walsh Fold about the year 1627. 
 
 Thomas Walshe, son of Edward, occurs as Parish Clerk of Blackburn in 1627, 
 He had a son Edward, born in 1625, whose baptismal register runs : — 1625-6. Feb, 
 
CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, OVER DARWEN. 511 
 
 12. " Edwarde, sonne of Thomas Walshe, filii vicarii. " He had also sons, Thomas ; 
 and John. Thomas Walsh of Upper Darwen was buried Dec. 2nd, 1657. John 
 Walsh, son of Thomas, married, July i8th, 1656, Mary daughter of William Ellison 
 of Upper Darwen. 
 
 Thomas Walsh of Upper Darwen, son of Thomas, had sons, Ralph, bom in 
 1657 ; Richard, bapt. April 6th, 1662 ; John, bapt. Aug. 23rd; 1664 ; and Roger ; 
 and a daughter Ann born in 1667. 
 
 Ralph Walsh of Upper Darwen, yeoman, eldest son of Thomas, died in 1703. 
 
 John Walsh of Upper Darwen, chapman, another son, died Jan. nth, 1732. 
 His brother, Roger Walsh of Upper Darwen, chapman (made a governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School in 1729), died, aged 65, Jan. 28th, 1739; his wife 
 Elizabeth died, aged 71, Oct. 1 6th, 1740. 
 
 WATSON OF OVER DARWEN. 
 
 "Thomas Watson of Over Darwen, gent," was buried Dec. 31st, 1732. His 
 epitaph, inscribed on a tablet affixed to the wall in St. James's Church, Over Darwen, 
 is as follows : — " Here lyeth the body of Thomas Watson of this town, chapman, 
 son of Edmund Watson of Hague Hall in the County of York, gentleman, who 
 departed this life the nineteenth day of December, 1732. And gave for the congrega- 
 tion of this Chappel. the summ of three hundred eighty-five pounds. Deus Amat 
 LiBTUM DOTOREM." 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 No chapel existed in Over Darwen before the Reformation in the 
 middle of the 1 6th century. The date of this foundation cannot be 
 fixed ; but it was probably in the first years of Elizabeth's reign that the 
 inhabitants built a small fabric for a chapel-of-ease to Blackburn Parish 
 Church. Harrison the itinerant names the chapel in 1577, in his 
 reference to the course of the Darwen river : — " The Darwent divideth 
 Lelandshire from Anderness [a mistake for Blackburnshire], and it 
 riseth by east above Darwent Chappell." On the survey of Blackburn 
 Rectory in 1616, " Darwen Chappell " is named as one of the chapels 
 belonging to the mother Church. The chapel had, it would appear, no 
 endowment whatever until one William Haydock gave £^\o to be a 
 stock at Over Darwen Chapel, to the use of a minister there. A curate 
 from the mother church would now and then minister in the chapel, but 
 no resident curate at Darwen occurs before the establishment of the 
 Presbytery by Parliament in 1 646. The Presbytery appointed, about the 
 year 1647, Mr. Joshua Bernard to be minister at Over Darwen. Upon 
 the minutes of the Blackburn Classis it is recorded : — " Mr. Joshua 
 Bernard, Minr. at Over Darwin Chap. By an Order of the Com. at 
 Manchester, of the — of Jan., 1648, there is ;^40 per an. allowed to 
 Mr. Bernard, Minr. at Over Darwin, together with the arrears due unto 
 him." " By a certificate of the Inhabitants of the Chappelrie of Over 
 Darwin, it appears that Mr. Bernard was in arreare for two yeares and a 
 qr. ending the 3rd of Deer. 1 649. Mr. Bernard was ordained the 4th 
 
512 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of Deer., 1649, at the chappel of Over Darwin, by the Classis of Black- 
 borne Hundred." To the Commissioners appointed by Parliament in 1650 
 to survey the parish churches and chapels it was reported respecting Over 
 Darwen Chapel that it was four miles distant from the Parish Church, 
 and was used by a population, including part of Rossendale, of 400 
 families, who desired that the chapel might be made parochial. It had 
 no endowment, but the Committee of Plundered Ministers allowed Mr. 
 Joshua Barnard, " an able and godly divine," ;^40 per annum. 
 
 Mr. Barnard had quitted Darwen before the restoration of Anglican 
 forms of worship under the Act of Uniformity in 1662. From this time 
 for some years there was monthly service only in the chapel, when a 
 curate sent by the Vicar of Blackburn officiated. In 1683 the Vicar 
 (Price) reported to the Primate : — 
 
 " Darwen Chapell, 4 miles from Blackbom Church, 4 miles from any 
 other Chapell. N. N. officiates there once a month. Adjacent, Upper 
 Darwen, Eccleshill, Yate Bank, and Piccop Bank. Endowment : — 
 Interest of several small sums of money given by well-disposed persons, 
 jf 4 ; Mrs. ffleetwood [Lessee of Rectory estate] promiseth £,2 ; In- 
 habitants will give at least ;^io, if Mrs. ffleetwood raiseth not her 40s. 
 from the Tith Hay." 
 
 The Chapel at Danven being little used at this period, and many 
 of the inhabitants being nonconformists, the latter, on their procuring 
 the King's warrant for a meeting-house in 1687, construed it to give 
 them liberty to use the old chapel, and proceeded to hold their worship 
 therein. This appropriation of the fabric was stoutly resisted by Mr. 
 Price, the Vicar of the Parish, who wrote an account of the transaction 
 to the Bishop of Chester and appealed for aid from the Bishop in 
 excluding the intruders and in reserving the fabric as a chapel-of-ease 
 to the Parish Church. The Vicar's letter is printed below : — 
 
 To the Right Reverend Father in God, Thomas, Lord Bishop of Chester, my 
 honoured diocesan. — May it please your Lordship. — The regard your Lordship has 
 for your clergie's concerns, arid the justice you administer upon all occasions with so 
 much integrity, have brought me to prostrate myself at your feete, to represent to 
 your clemency in few words an affair which ought to be treated at large. Upon the 
 eighth day of this instant August, 1687, one Mr. William Crosse, of Upper Darwen, 
 in the Parish of Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster, demanded of me (the present 
 Vicar of Blackburne), the keys of the Chappel of Darwen, to which, as Vicar of 
 Blackbume, I hold an indubitable right and title, pretending that our sovereigne Lord 
 the King had assigned that ancient and sacred fabrick for such of the inhabitants as 
 did not conform to the Church of England. But because in the license which he 
 showed me I did not find the word " Chappel " once mentioned, nor anything sound- 
 ing like it, excepting one expression contained in this sentence : — " We have allowed, 
 and do hereby allow of a meeting-place erected in Darwen, in the Parish of Blackburn," 
 — I could not consent to the delivery of the said keys, till I was fully satisfyed that 
 
CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, OVER DARWEN. 513 
 
 by those words his Majesty did meane the Chappel of Darwen ; yet freely did I offer 
 to deliver up the said keys in case that three of the Justices of the Peace did 
 apprehend that those words in the License were to be interpreted, viz., of the 
 Chappel of Darwen, and not of another edifice in Darwen, which some of the 
 Dissenters had before signifyed and made known to the Justices of the Peace they had 
 set apart to assemble in. This reasonable motion was rejected, and since then the 
 doors of the said Chappel have been broken open, and the Curate of that Chappel 
 not permitted to perform his ministerial offices, which with agitation of grief and 
 sorrow, I most humbly desire your Lordship to make knowne unto the King's most 
 excellent Majesty, and to beseech his Majesty to certify your Lordship whether or no 
 his Majesty did mean the Chappel of Darwen in those words : — " We have allowed 
 and do hereby allow a meeting-place erected in Darwen." If your Lordship do finde 
 that by those words his Majesty did not mean the Chappel of Darwen, I humbly beg 
 that your Lordship would issue out an order to be affixed to the Doore of Darwen 
 Chappel, that no minister whatsoever presume to preach in that Chappel, but such as 
 are duly licensed by your Lordship. But if on the other side your Lordship do finde 
 that by the foresaid words is meant the Chappel of Darwen, and that his Majesty 
 thinks fit, from causes best knowne to himself, to waive my title and to determine 
 against my curate's re-admission, we shall not immediately refuse, nor uncharitably 
 censure, much less undutifully disobey, but in all becoming silence sit downe in 
 submission to his Majesty's good will and pleasure ; in which desire I will here rest, 
 humbly beseeching the Almighty God to multiply his blessings upon the King's most 
 excellent Majesty ; and your Lordship to pardon my great boldness, who am, your 
 Lordship's in all duty, Francis Price, Vicar of Blackburne, in Lancashire. 
 
 The Bishop (Cartwright) referred the matter in contention to the 
 decision of the King (James II.), by whom a warrant was issued, Oct. 
 20th, 1687, commanding the restoration of the chapel to the Vicar's 
 custody, and also cancelling the license granted to the parties who had 
 occupied the chapel for a meeting-place. The original warrant, bearing 
 the royal seal and sign-manual, is among the Parish Records at Black- 
 bum Vicarage. By the favour of Canon Birch, I print the text of 
 this interesting document : — 
 
 James the Second, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, 
 and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. — To all to whom these presents shall come, 
 greeting. Whereas by our Warrant under the Signett and Signe Manual bearing date 
 the 25th day of July last past. We allowed of an erected meeting-place in Upper 
 Darwen, in the Parish of Blackbume, in Our County of Lancaster, to be a Place for 
 the use of such as do not conforme to the Church of England, who are of the per- 
 suasion commonly called Congregationall, to meet and assemble in, in order to their 
 Publick Worship and Devotion. And whereas it hath been since humbly represented 
 unto Us, that the Place claymed by virtue of Our said Warrant, is a Chappel belonging 
 by an unquestionable title to the Vicar of Blackbome aforesaid, and that the Vicar 
 thereof for the time being, hath constantly, time out of mind, nominated and the 
 Bishop of Chester licensed Curats to officiate in the said Chappel; We have therefore 
 thought fit to revoke and annull Our said Warrant, and We do accordingly by these 
 Presents revoke and annull the same, and all and singular the clauses therein contained. 
 And our Will and Pleasure is, that the Vicar of Blackbome aforesaid, now and for the 
 time being, or his Curate duly constituted and licensed, have and enjoy the quiet and 
 
 65 
 
su 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 full possession of the said Chappel, there to perform divine Service in such manner a» 
 heretofore hath been accustomed, without any hindrance or molestation, anything in 
 Our said Warrant to the contrary thereof notwithstanding : Whereof all and singular 
 our Officers and Ministers Ecclesiastical Civill and Military, and other persons whom it 
 may conceme, are to take notice, and to yield due obedience to Our pleasure herein 
 declared. Given at our Court at Whitehall the 20th day of October, 1687, in the 
 third yeare of our reigne. By his Majesty's command, Sunderland, Ld. 
 
 The wardens of the Parish Church soon after certified as under the 
 restoration of Darwen Chapel to the Vicar by three Justices of the 
 Peace : — 
 
 We, whose names are subscribed, being Churchwardens for the Parish Church of 
 Blackbume, do hereby testify that Thomas Braddyll, Esq., Edward Osbaldeston, 
 Esq., and Ralph Livesey, Esq., three of his Majestie's Justices of Peace for the county 
 of Lancaster, did give restitution of possession of the Chappel of Darwen, in the 
 county of Lancaster, unto Francis Price, Vicar of Blackbume aforesaid, and William 
 Colton, curate of Darwen aforesaid, upon the 23rd day of November, 1687. In 
 witness whereof we have subscribed our names this 5th day of December, 1687. 
 (Signed) Gyles Walmsley, William Chatburne, Richard Cooper (his mark), 
 churchwardens. 
 
 In the year following these transactions, the inhabitants were 
 invited to repair the chapel, which was in serious dilapidation ; and 
 some of them undertook, by writing dated Sept. 20th, 1688, "to put the 
 chappel of Darwen into some fitting repairation before the nth of 
 November next ensuing." At the same time, the parishioners proposed 
 to meet Primate Bancroft's gift to the chapel by paying " to the curate of 
 Darwen, by way of benevolence, yearly, the sum of 5 Pounds at least, 
 upon condition that the said curate will preach and read prayers at the 
 said chappel twice every other Lord's Day from Candlemas to Michael- 
 mas, and at least once every other Lord's Day from Martinmas to Can- 
 dlemas." The Vicar (Price) of Blackburn now made an agreement with 
 Mr. William Stones, curate of Blackrod, whereby the latter was admitted 
 to the united curacy of Darwen and Tockholes ; Mr. Stones agreeing 
 to reside constantly within one of the two chapelries, and to preach and 
 read prayers every other Sunday at each chapel, twice in the day from 
 March ist to Nov. nth, and once in the day during the other winter 
 months. 
 
 The continued failure of the inhabitants of Darwen adhering to the 
 Church to proceed with the restoration of the fabric, drove Vicar Price 
 to issue his notification of a compulsory rate upon the chapelry to 
 provide the sum needed for the repairs, which was " published at Black- 
 bum and Darwen, September 12th, 1692." The notice runs : — 
 
 Dearly Beloved, — You perceive by this order of the Lord Bishop of Chester how 
 zealously he is concerned for the repairii^ of the Chappel of Darwen ; and to that 
 end, how earnestly in the first place he recommends the carrying on of that pious 
 
CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, OVER DARWEN. 515 
 
 •works to the care of the Inhabitants of that chappelry ; and upon their neglect, how 
 he enjoynes the Churchwardens of Blackburne (after publick notice given) to proceed 
 to make such assessment or lay within the said chappelry, as shall be proportionable 
 and sufficient to the said Chappel of Darwen. Now, in pursuance of that order, I do 
 in the name, and by the directions of the said churchwardens, give publick notice that 
 in regard the time allowed for the repairing of the said chappel is almost expired, and 
 the work still undone, the said churchwardens (God willing) do intend to meet at the 
 said chappel of Darwen upon Thursday next, at one o'clock in the afternoon, to make 
 an assessment or lay for the foresaid purpose. Desiring and hoping that the said 
 inhabitants will vouchsafe them their company, concurrence, and assistance at the 
 time and place aforesaid ; or at least (in respect to religion and their own good) they 
 will not show any dislike to so publick, so useful, and so unavoidable an undertaking ; 
 and in so doing they will oblige the churchwardens, who remain their and the Parish 
 most humble servants. 
 
 The chapel appears to have been rebuilt soon after the datp above, 
 partially, perhaps, by means of voluntary gifts ; for in the books of the 
 parish is a list, without date, of about seventy-five persons who had 
 together promised a sum of ^^4 i8s. "towards the rebuilding of 
 Darwen Chappel." Canon Raines notes that " a Brief was obtained, 
 and IS. 6d. collected at Milnrow, for Upper Darwen Chapel in the 
 County of Lancaster, September 22nd, 1722." 
 
 Respecting the sources of endowment of this curacy, information 
 is afforded by a MS. in the Vicar's records, headed " A true Account of 
 all the Monie that hath been given to Danven Chappel, to be and 
 remaine as Stocke there," which was taken by Thomas Ellison for the 
 Vicar of Blackburn, on Jan. 26th, 1692. These items are contained: — 
 Jan. 20th, 1638, William Haydock, of Overlock Shaw, in Livesey, left 
 ;^io to be "a Stock at Over Darwen Chappel, and the interest thereof 
 to be and remaine to such a minister as shall be there resident from time 
 to time." March 28th, 1642, John Crosse, of Over Darwen, gent., gave 
 ;^ 10 in trust for the same use. Nov. 15th, 1641, Thomas Lomas, of 
 Over Darwen, gave ;^io in trust, the interest to be " used and disposed 
 of for the manta)rning of God's Word and his servis at the said chappel." 
 The trustee of these gifts had at such times as no minister was resident 
 kept the interest until it amounted to .;^io, which was added to the 
 Stock, and made it ;^4o. May 30th, 1673, Thomas Longworth, of 
 Over Darwen, husbandman, gave ^10 to be added to the Chapel Stock; 
 interest thereof " to such a gospell minister as shall teach there." Nov. 
 27th, 1684, Thurston Maudsley, of Ousebooth in Blackburn, gent, gave 
 ;^'S " towards the maintenance of an orthodox minister at the chapell at 
 Over Darwen, which shall be conformable to the Church of England." 
 Wm. Bury added 17s. interest to the Stock, amounting, in 1692, to ;^6o. 
 
 Later, by a benefaction of ;£^220 made to the chapel on Dec. 25th, 
 1 718, by Mr. Edmund Eccles and others, a grant was secured of ^£^200 
 
5i6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 from the Royal Bounty in 17 19. With this united sum of ;£^420, and 
 some additions, was purchased, for;^45o, an estate at Yate Bank, of 35 
 acres, from Henry Eatough of Yate Bank and Christopher Brandwood 
 of Inglewhite, by agreement dated Nov. loth, 17 19. Two other grants, 
 each of ;£^2oo, from Queen Anne's Bounty, were obtained in 1733, to 
 meet two benefactions of similar amounts, the one dated Sept. 10th, 
 1 733> by Rev. John Holme, Vicar of Blackburn, and Rev. John Folds, 
 minister of Over Darwen ; the other dated Sept. 20th, 1733, by Henry 
 Feilden, Thomas Whalley, and J. Cooper, gents. This sum of ;£8oo 
 was laid out in the purchase of lands in the neighbourhood of the 
 chapel. The two estates purchased by these means in 1719 and 1733 
 form the chief endo\vment of this benefice. A schedule of the extent 
 and rental of the estates, made in 1823, gives the total acreage as 54a. 
 i3p.; the lands were then in occupation of ten tenants, and the total 
 yearly rental was ^200 15s. The receipt from the Bancroft Trust at 
 that date was .;^io 15s.; and from Surplice Fees ;^3 55. per year. In 
 the new return of landowners the Church of St. James's, Over Darwen, 
 is stated to possess lands to the extent of 49 acres, yielding a rental of 
 ;^53. The value of the living is now returned at ^300 per annum. 
 The Vicar of Blackburn is patron. 
 
 From the date of the re-edification about the end of the 1 7th cen- 
 tury, the fabric of this church was not again much altered until the year 
 1852. In consequence of the excavation of coal beneath the site, the 
 foundations had sunk, and caused serious fissures in the walls. The use 
 of the church being pronounced unsafe by an architect, it was closed in 
 Sept., 185 1, and divine service was conducted in the School-house at 
 Holden Fold. In 1852-3 the church was substantially restored; the 
 walls were made sound, and the roof entirely renewed. The interior was 
 repewed with open benches ; new galleries were erected ; and the organ 
 was enlarged. The Church was re-opened on Sept. nth, 1853. 
 
 The Church of St. James stands upon the hill on the east suburb of 
 the town. The edifice is not large (about 60ft. by 40ft.), and is of low 
 elevation. Its plan is a parallelogram, with a semi-circular apse at the 
 east end. The style is mixed ; the windows have the gothic pointed 
 arch and traceried heads; but between them in the side walls are 
 inserted flat pillasters, supporting an entablature ; and the doorway, on 
 the south side, is square-headed with a massive lintel. There are three 
 windows on the south side, and four on the north side, each of three 
 lights, trefoil-headed. The apse has two windows of three lights. At 
 the west end, which has no doorway, the external masonry is relieved by 
 semi-circular doric pillasters, with the entablature above ; and in the 
 gable are three small mullioned windows. A belfry surmoimts the west 
 
ESTABLISHED CHURCHES IN OVER DARWEN. 
 
 517 
 
 gable. The interior has no peculiar features. There are 522 sittings ; 
 76 are free-seats. The grave-yard was extended in 1853. 
 
 The following list of incumbents extends back to the first regular clerical service 
 of the chapel : — Mr. Joshua Barnard, 1647-50 ; Mr. William Colton, curate (certif. 
 1687); Wm. Stones, curate of Darwen and Tockholes, from 1688 till his death in 
 1720. John Folds, curate of Darwen, from 1720 till his death in 1772. (In the 
 church is a mural tablet inscribed : — "John Folds, clerk, A.B., curate of this chapel 
 upwards of 52 years, interred 15th February, 1772, aged 75 years; Ann, his wife, 
 interred 31st August, 1781, aged 8l years"). Henry White, 1772-1783; Jeremiah 
 Gilpin, 1783-1792 ; Thomas Exton, 1792-1815 (Usher of Blackburn Grammar School, 
 1787-91 ; also curate of Balderstone ; he was drowned in the river at Lower Darwen) ; 
 Matthew Yatman Starkie (instituted in 1815 ; he was non-resident, and the resident 
 curate was Henry Dunderdale, vacated in 1851); Charles Greenway, M.A., instituted 
 in 1851, resigned in 1868; W. H. Blamire, present Vicar, instituted Dec. 17th, 1868. 
 
 OTHER CHURCHES OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. 
 
 Holy Trinity. — This church was built in 1828-9, by means of a Parliamentary 
 Grant of ;^6799 ; and was consecrated Sept. 13th, 1829. It is a large edifice 
 of gothic architecture, built of reddish stone ; in plan consisting of nave, side aisles, 
 pentagonal chancel, south porch, and massive tower at the west end with eight crock- 
 etted pinnacles. The tower contains a peal of six bells. Its situation is a high bank 
 overlooking the river near the centre of the town. The interior is fitted with galleries at 
 the sides and west end. The organ is in the west gallery. Sittings 1310, of which 985 
 are free. Value of the living ;f 300. Patron : the Vicar of Blackburn. Vicars in suc- 
 cession:— Rev. G. Park; Rev. E. C. Montriou, M.A. ; Rev. R. Mayall (present Vicar). 
 
 St. Paul's, Hoddlesden. — This church is within the township, but is a mile 
 from the town of Over Darwen, and was built for the service of the manufacturing 
 village of Hoddlesden, in the year 1863 ; opened June 24th. The cost was ;if5050, 
 of which ;i'30OO were given by W. B. Ranken, Esq. , owner of the Hoddlesden estate. 
 The style is geometric gothic ; and the plan consists of nave, side aisles, chancel, and 
 tower at the north end, which has not yet been completed. Sittings 550, of which 
 209 are free. Value of the living ;if 140. Patron : the Bishop. Vicars : — Rev. G. 
 W. Reynolds, 1863-7 ; Rev. W. B. Berry, 1867 (present Vicar). 
 
 St. John's, Turncroft. — The Church of St. John the Evangelist, built on the 
 Tumcroft estate at the south-east side of the town, the gift of the late Mrs. Graham 
 (daughter of John Brandwood, Esq.), and Rev. Philip Graham, was consecrated July 
 7th, 1864. Cost, with endowment, ^11,500. The church is a chaste example of 
 gothic architecture, having a nave, with clerestory, side aisles, a spacious chancel, north 
 and south transepts, and a tower and spire at the west end. The interior, which is not 
 galleried, contains 701 sittings, 240 of which are free. A good organ by Willis was 
 placed in the church in 1867. Value of the living ^£■300. Patron : the Bishop. Vicars: — 
 Rev. P. Graham, 1864-9; Rev. H. H. Moore, M.A., 1869 (present Vicar). St. 
 John's Schools, contiguous to the church, are large stone buildings, erected at the cost 
 of Rev. P. Graham, and opened in August, 1866. 
 
 St. Cuthbert's. — This new church fronts to the Blackburn road, at the north 
 end of Over Darwen. The comer-stone was laid on August i6th, 1875. The plan of 
 the church is cruciform ; and the style is gothic. The cost is about ^4,000, defrayed 
 by subscriptions. Rev. Charles Greenway gave the site, and is principal donor to the 
 building fund. Sittings 500. The church is still (1876) in process of erection. 
 Vicar designate, Rev. W. G. Procter 
 
5i8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 THE NONCONFORMIST FOUNDATION— THE "LOWER CHAPEL." 
 The Act of Uniformity in 1662 created a numerous secession from 
 the Established Church in this part of Blackburn Parish. The first 
 Nonconformists in Darwen had no regular meeting-house during the ten 
 years of statutory repression that followed ; but tradition says that they 
 met as occasion served in certain secluded places upon the moors, to 
 receive one or other of several ejected ministers in this part of the county. 
 Mr. Charles Sagar, of Blackburn, was one of these Nonconformist 
 preachers, and he may be said to be the founder of the first Noncon- 
 formist Church in Darwen, of which he eventually became the regular 
 pastor. Mr. Charles Sagar was born at Burnley, in 1636 ; his baptismal 
 record in the Burnley Church Register is : — " Charles fil. John Sagar, 
 de Parke" bapt. Oct., 1636. His father, John Sagar, was a Warden of 
 Burnley Church in 1638. Charles Sagar was educated at Burnley 
 Grammar School and at St. John's College, Cambridge, and on leaving 
 the University, with a fair repute for learning, was appointed Master of 
 Blackburn Grammar School. The minute of appointment in the School 
 Record reads : — Jan. 21, 1655-6. " Md. that the daye and yeare above 
 written the Gov'nors have elected and chosen Charles Segar, gent, to 
 serve for the Schole Master of Blackbume so long as the Governors 
 shall like well of." Mr. Sagar held this mastership nearly eleven years ; 
 and resigned when an Act was passed inhibiting schoolmasters who did 
 not conform to the Church of England, to continue in their places. It 
 has been said that he had been dismissed from the Blackburn School 
 for nonconformity ; but the books of the foundation show that the 
 Governors took no action in the matter. On Dec. 21, 1666, appears 
 in the School accounts : — " Pd. Mr. Sagar, late Schoolemaster 28 Male 
 last in full of his wage before his going out from his place ^T) ^s. 8d." 
 It would seem that Mr. Sagar temporarily served the Blackburn School 
 again after the first withdrawal. The accounts give, in Dec, 1667 : — 
 " Payde Mr. Sagar, the late Schoolmaster, May i, 1667, the some of 
 ^5 ;" and two years later, in Dec. 1669 : — " Pd. Mr. Sagar the master 
 att the same tyme the some of £^ f " Pd. Mr. Sagar more the some 
 of jQ:^ 15s." Mr. Oddy succeeds as Master in 1670. On quitting the 
 Grammar School, Mr. Charles Sagar commenced to teach a private 
 School in Blackburn, which was well favoured by some of the local 
 gentry and tradesmen, and was continued with success about twenty 
 years. He had married, Nov. nth, 1663, Isabell, daughter of Mr. 
 Henry Astley, of Blackburn, who was about ten years his senior, and 
 he had a son, bom in 1662, whose baptism is entered: — "Joshua 
 filius Caroli Sager, Blackburniensis Ludi Magister natus vicessimo nono 
 Aprilis de dominico anno 1666." In the year 1672, when Royal 
 
NONCONFORMITY IN OVER DARWEN. 519 
 
 licenses for Dissenting preaching-places were granted, is dated a "License 
 to Charles Sagar, Pr. Teacher of Blackborne, Lancashire, Feb. 3," 
 1672-3 ; and at the same time: — "The house of William and Henry 
 Berry in Upper Darwen to be a Pr. [Presbyterian] meeting place." Mr. 
 Sagar thus preached at Blackburn and also, maybe, at Darwen during 
 this brief toleration, which ended in 1675. In 1683 the measures 
 of the authorities against Nonconformists were most severe ; and Major 
 Nowell, of Read, a Justice, arrested Mr. Sagar, charged with unlawful 
 preachmg, and had him sent to Lancaster Castle, where he was confined 
 six months. In prison, Mr. Sagar preached weekly on the Sunday to 
 the prisoners in the Castle, and to inhabitants of Lancaster who 
 frequented the meeting. On his release, he returned to Blackburn, and 
 continued to reside in that town after he became pastor of the 
 Nonconformist Church at Darwen. 
 
 Under the " Indulgence " of Charles II., Mr. John Parr preached a 
 short time to the Nonconformists of Darwen about the years 1672-3, 
 but does not seem to have been fixed minister here ; he settled at 
 Preston, as minister of congregations at Preston and Walton. That the 
 Nonconformist parishioners under the license of King Charles were 
 suffered temporarily to conduct their service in the old Chapel of Ease 
 is stated in documents of that date ; and although, on the withdrawal of 
 these licenses in 1675, the practice of public meeting in that chapel was 
 suspended, yet when, in 1687, James the Second's "Declaration" for 
 religious liberty was promulgated, the Nonconformist party again took 
 possession of the chapel, and constituted it their meeting-place until, in 
 November of that year, the Vicar of Blackburn recovered possession on 
 the order of the Justices. The license granted by James the Second, 
 dated 2Sth July, 1687, was worded : — "We have allowed and do hereby 
 allow of a Meeting-place erected in Upper Darwen in the Parish of 
 Blackburn, in our County of Lancaster, to be a place for the use of such 
 as do not conforme to the Church of England, who are of the persuasion 
 commonly called Congregationall, to meet and assemble in, in order to 
 their publick Worship and Devotion." After the deprival, the Noncon- 
 formists petitioned James II. in the following terms : — 
 
 The humble petition of your Majesty's subjects in and about Darwen humbly 
 sheweth — That whereas we formerly have had an erected meeting-house in Upper 
 Darwen aforesaid, to worship God in after our own way, which your Majestie's subjects 
 enjoy'd with a great deal of freedome in pursuance of a license formerly granted to us 
 of the said place by your Majestie's late brother of ever blessed memory, and untill 
 such time as the same was cancelled, and wee your Majestie's subjects put under new 
 difficulties, though we behaved ourselves peaceably and loyally towards the Govern- 
 ment ; and further, that the said place was never visited by any Bishopp as farr as 
 your Majestie's subjects can heare or understand, and since your Majestie's gratious 
 
520 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 declaration the keys of the said house were taken away by the Vicar of the Parish or 
 his order, on purpose to exclude your Majestie's subjects from the same ; — Wherefore 
 your Petitioners doe humbly pray your Majestie that you would be gratiously pleased 
 to restore to your Majestie's subjects the use of the same house, it being out of repaire 
 and ready to drop downe ; and we are willing to repaire the same, and your Petitioners 
 as in duty bound will ever pray for your Majestie's health and happiness, &c. 
 
 Failing to secure access to the Chapel of Ease, the Nonconformists 
 soon after provided a meeting-house for themselves, and applied to Mr. 
 Charles Sagar to become their regular minister. Mr. Sagar was ordained 
 in 1687 ; and became the first stated pastor of the Nonconformist 
 Meeting in Over Darwen. Under the Act of Toleration, in 1688, a 
 license for a meeting-house in this township was obtained. Mr. Sagar 
 was residing at Blackburn in 1691, when his friend, Hev. Henry Newcome 
 of Manchester, records in his diary a visit to Blackburn : — 
 
 Oct. 20th. From Bolton Lecture I went to Blackburn. Strangers, and in the 
 night. The way was perilous, but the Lord brought us in safety. Mr. Green came 
 in late at night. In the interim I had the company of my old hearty friend, Mr. 
 Sagar. The next day we went to Ribchester, when we visited and attempted to order 
 the Charity School there, and despatched, so as I came to Hoghton Tower in good 
 time. Mr. Sagar came to me, and there I stayed the next day in much content and 
 freedom and hearty welcome with our old friend Sir Charles Hoghton. 
 
 In 1693, Mr. Sagar was fulfilling the office of "Scribe" or 
 Secretary to the association then formed of Lancashire Nonconformist 
 Ministers called the " United Brethren." Sept. 20th of the same year, 
 Mr. Sagars son, Mr. Joshua Sagar, who had been educated for a preacher 
 at Rathmell, was ordained according to the Congregational form at his 
 father's house at Blackburn ; the ministers taking part were, Mr. Sagar 
 the father, Mr. Thomas Jollie, Mr. Waddington, and Mr. John Walker. 
 Young Mr. Sagar had then just accepted an appointment as minister of 
 an Independent Church at Alverthorpe near Wakefield, where he 
 preached some years, and died there in 17 10. Rev. Charles Sagar 
 died after more than a year's illness from a stroke of paralysis, aged 61, 
 Feb. 13th, 1697-8, when he had been ten years pastor, and about thirty 
 years a Nonconformist preacher in this district. His burial is registered 
 in the Blackburn Parish register : — " Mr. Charles Sagar of Blackbume," 
 buried Feb. 17th, 1697-8. Calamy says of Mr. Sagar : — "He was a good 
 scholar, very affable, blameless in conversation, and generally beloved." 
 
 The successor to Mr. Sagar was Mr. Griflith Griffith, who was 
 ordained on the 24th June, 1699. He was minister here more than 
 twenty years. In 1714, during Mr. Griffith's pastorate, it was returned to 
 the Bishop of Chester respecting Darwen Chapelry that " A great many 
 of the inhabitants frequent a Presbyterian Meeting-house there is within 
 the chapelry, those Sundays they have no service in their own chapel." 
 
LOWER CHAPEL, OVER DARWEN. 521 
 
 Mr. Griffith married in 1711, at Manchester Collegiate Church — "Sept. 
 4, Griffith Griffith of Blackburne and Elizabeth Coulburne, of Leyland, 
 per license," — so the marriage is registered, and had, with other issue, 
 a son Nathaniel, bapt. April 22nd, 17 14. 
 
 In 1 7 15, a return of Nonconformist Chapels names the Lower 
 Chapel, Darwen, having then a congregation of 648 persons, of whom 
 25 were freeholding electors for the county. 
 
 It was during Mr. Griffith's ministry that the congregation erected 
 a permanent Meeting-house to supersede the adapted building in which 
 they had worshipped about thirty years (and which stood where the path 
 from the minister's house joins the old road from Lower Darwen to 
 "Chapels"). A site was conveyed to trustees by indentures of lease and 
 release, dated respectively ist and 2nd Jan., 1718-19. 
 
 The release is made between John Fish, of the one part, and William Yates, 
 Richard Sanderson, John Bailey, William Harwood, James Halliwell, Thomas 
 Entwistle, jun., John Walmsley, Thomas Kirkham, Henry Paulding, Andrew Berry, 
 Ralph Cratchley, jun.. Miles Eccles, William Eccles, Thomas Foole, Thomas Whalley, 
 and Thomas Haydock, of the other part ; and for the pecuniary consideration therein 
 mentioned, all that plot or parcel of land lying on the north-east side of a certain close 
 of land in Over Darwen, &c., called the Clark's Field, as the same was then marked, 
 measured and staked forth, containing about 30 yards in length and 26 yards in 
 breadth, was released and conveyed by the said John Fish to the use of the persons 
 parties to the said Indenture of the second part ; and by a deed poll bearing date the 
 1st and 2nd of January, 17 18, declared that the plot was conveyed to them upon trust 
 to permit an Edifice, Building or Meeting-house to be erected thereon, and from and 
 immediately after the erection thereof upon trust to let, manage and improve the same 
 to the best yearly profit and advantage that might be, and as they the said Trustees and 
 the survivors of them, should in their discretions think fit, and convert, employ, and 
 dispose of the clear yearly rents, issues, and profits of the said Edifice, Oratory or 
 Meeting-place, parcel of land and premises either for the binding and placing forth 
 9 poor children apprentices, bom and resident within Over Darwen, Lower Darwen, 
 Eccleshill, and Yate Bank, to callings or trades, or to or for the purchasing of Linen 
 and Woollen Cloth to be distributed yearly about Martinmas to such poor children as 
 they the said Trustees should think most fit. Provided always, that so long as the 
 Laws of this Realm should allow any preaching or teaching minister, such as are called 
 Protestant Dissenting Minister, to preach and teach God's Word in any Chapel or place 
 within England, they the said Trustees should permit and suffer Griffith Griffith, the 
 then present Minister there, and such Dissenting Minister as should from time to time 
 be elected and chosen by the trustees for the time being or the major part of them, 
 and the communicants or such as did usually partake of the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper in the said Meeting-place, and the constant contributors to the maintenance of 
 the Ministers there or the major part of them, to preach and teach God's word, and to 
 administer the Sacrament of the Lord's .Supper there, and to exercise all offices be- 
 longing to that sacred function in the said Edifice. The said other trusts to be sus- 
 pended while such preaching was allowed by law, and to be revived and take effect in 
 the event of such preaching being legally prohibited. And it was further declared and 
 agreed that, so long as the laws would permit, there should be yearly two Anniversary Ser- 
 
 66 
 
52Z 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 mons preached in the said Edifice, Oratory, or Meeting-house, by the Minister, the one 
 uponWhitson-Tuesday and the other upon the Fifth of November, for recommending the 
 works of charity and for the furtherance of the knowledge and practice of the Christian 
 religion. The Trustees to meet for business of the trust twice a year also (m Whitson- 
 Tuesday and Nov. 5th. Provisions follow for the election of Trustees to fill vacancies, 
 and for renewal of the trust on reduction by death or incompetency of the trustees. 
 
 The chapel was built upon this site during the year 17 19. The 
 work of building was chiefly done without charge by members of the 
 congregation, and the building-materials also were given by other mem- 
 bers, so that the pecuniar)' expenditure was not very large, and was 
 subscribed before th% chapel was opened. The edifice of 17 19, great 
 portion of which remains, was spacious, the dimensions being about 
 70ft. by 40ft., and the walls, though of small stones in irregular courses, 
 were rendered strong by their thickness. The chapel was lighted by 
 ordinary mullioned windows, and the only feature indicating its purpose 
 was a heavy stone belfry. The meeting-house took the name of "Lower 
 Chapel " from its site being rather lower on the hill than the older 
 chapel-of-ease (St. James's Church) ; but its position is some 200 to 300 
 feet higher than the central part of the modem town of Darwen. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Griffith died minister here in 1722, and was buried at 
 the foot of the pulpit-stairs, where a portion of the grave-slab was 
 recently to be seen. He was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Burgess, appointed 
 about the year 1723, and resigned about 1733. The next minister was 
 Rev. Benjamin Mather, who was appointed in 1736, and died, after 
 twelve years' service, Jan. 23rd, 1748-9. He was buried in the grave- 
 yard of the chapel.^ There had been some division of the society on 
 Mr. Mather's appointment ; and a seceding section chose for their 
 minister Mr. Robert Yates, of the family of Yates of Pickup Bank, who 
 had been educated for the Nonconformist ministry at Glasgow. For 
 Mr. Yates a chapel was built by his adherents a few yards to the south 
 of the "Lower Chapel." It was known as "Yates's chapel," and is 
 still standing, converted into dwelling-houses. Mr. Yates preached in 
 this chapel until his death in 1748. The minister who followed Mr. 
 Mather at the "Lower Chapel" was Mr. Robert Smalley, who married 
 a member of Mr. Yates's family, and the matrimonial event was the 
 means of reuniting the two congregations at the old meeting-house 
 under Mr. Smalley's pastorate ; when the Yates' chapel was disused as 
 a place of public worship. Mr. Robert Smalley was bom at Over Darwen 
 
 I This minister's tombstone in the ground on the south side of the chapel has the following 
 epitaph: — "In hoc tumulo mortalitatis suae Exuviae spe lactae Resurrectionis deposuit Benjaminus 
 Matheriis, S. T. P., hujus Ecclesiae per annos duodecim fidelis Pastor et inter omnes Pietatis et Ami- 
 citiaeassiduoscultor. Eadem qui vixit aequanimitate sine ulto nisi cordis ad Christum suspirio animum 
 expiravit 2^ Januarii anno 1748-9, aetatis 60. Amantissimi conjugis, optimi Patris, Theologi vere 
 Xtiani clarum reliquit posterio exemplum. Exuvise Edwardi Matheriis hujus Ecclesiae Pastoris Filii, 
 nsiti Decembris 31, 1727, denati 19, Decembris 13, 1746." 
 
LOWER CHAPEL, OVER DARWEN. 523 
 
 m 1 729 (see Smalley family of Hey Fold, p. 509) ; and was educated 
 first by Dr. Doddridge, and subsequently studied for the ministry in 
 Dr. Jennings' academy. In 1 749, Mr. Smalley was invited to become 
 pastor of the Independent Church in his native town, and accepted the 
 appointment, but did not enter upon the duties until the completion of 
 his college term in 1750. Mr. Smalley was ordained Aug. 14th, 1751 ; 
 Dr. Jennings, his tutor, preached the ordination sermon, and Mr. 
 Guyse delivered the charge. The chapel was found too small for the 
 re-united Nonconformists of Darwen, and it was made more commodious 
 by the erection of a gallery in 1753, when the fabric was otherwise 
 improved and restored. 
 
 A. ■^a.-ptr \r\ the. Fhilosophical Transactions iox 1775, on "Duration 
 of Life in Towns and Country Parishes and Villages," contains vital 
 statistics from several places in Lancashire obtained by Dr. Percival, 
 who reports a return from Rev. Mr. Smalley of his congregation at 
 Darwen : — " The Rev. Mr. Smalley's congregation at Darwent consists 
 of 1850 individuals, viz., 900 males, 950 females, 640 married persons, 
 30 widowers, 48 widows, 737 persons under the age of 15, and 218 
 above 50. During the last seven years the births have amounted to 
 508, the deaths to 233." The congregation was then (a century ago) 
 one of the largest Dissenting communities in Lancashire. 
 
 Rev. Robert Smalley died, aged 62, Jan. 26th, 1791. He had 
 been 40 years pastor of this church. Mr. Smalley was a man of literary 
 taste and attainments, and an associate of some of the first men of letters 
 and science of his time. After his death, an indirect attempt to 
 introduce his son, Mr. Richard Smalley (who had been educated for a 
 minister but whose habits were not such as became the function), as 
 successor to the pastorate led to trouble and the detachment of a 
 section of the congregation, who formed a second society, and built a 
 small chapel at Pole Lane. Mr. Richard Smalley had to resign his 
 appointment as minister of the " Lower Chapel " after about a year's 
 probation. The next minister, Mr. Barratt, appointed in 1792, resigned 
 in 1795. In 1795 the present minister's house was built. Rev. Richard 
 Bowden was appointed minister in 1796. He married, in 1797, a Darwen 
 lady. Miss Nancy Catlow, who was subsequently dro^vned, Nov. 20th, 
 1804, when crossing a ford in the Darwen stream on horseback during 
 a flood. Mr. Bowden resigned this pastorate in 1813 and removed to 
 London, where he died Jan. 20th, 1830. Succeeding ministers of the 
 "Lower Chapel" have been: — Robert Blake, from Feb., 1814 to Aug., 
 1819; Robert Littler, from 1822 to May, 1828; Samuel Nichols, from 
 May, 1829, to April, 1848 ; R. P. Clarke, from 1848 to 1859. In 1852, 
 it was reported that the chapel was unsafe from the sinking of its founda- 
 
524 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 tions, occasioned by coal mining underground ; and a majority of the 
 congregation resolved to erect a new chapel in the heart of the town. 
 This was done, and the minister, Rev. R. P. Clarke, continued to preach in 
 the edifice then built. A considerable number of the congregation, tradi- 
 tionally attached to the old meeting-house, refused to leave it, and 
 undertook to restore its stability. The members who remained took 
 down the walls of the chapel, and, after the foundations had been 
 consolidated, rebuilt it chiefly with the old materials ; but the east front 
 was constructed of new stone. After restoration, the " Lower Chapel " 
 was re-opened July loth, 1853. Rev. George Berry became minister 
 of the remnant of the congregation in April, 1854, and is the present 
 pastor. 
 
 The site of the " Lower Chapel " and its extensive graveyard is 
 on the slope of the hill ridge, which extends along the east side 
 of the Darwen valley. The Meeting-house is a parallelogram, with 
 vestry and lecture rooms at the north and west sides, and a belfry 
 surmounting the west gable, formed by ionic pillars, and resting upon a 
 turret-like projection. The main entrances are at the east end ; and in 
 the upper portion of the east wall are three stone panels inscribed with 
 the dates of the original erection and of the two restorations : — "1719;" 
 " 1753 j" "1853." In the re-edification of 1853, the mullioned windows 
 were somewhat enlarged and increased in number, and the walls were 
 carried a little higher. Interiorly, the pulpit is placed in the middle of 
 the north wall ; to the right of the pulpit is the organ apse. Before the 
 rebenching of the area, in 1875, the pews were of the old-fashioned high 
 and straight-backed formation. One square pew, said to have been 
 brought from the first chapel at " Bottoms " built for Mr. Sagar, 
 had inscribed upon a panel the initials — "L W I" and date "1704." 
 In accordance with an old custom, several ministers and members of 
 the church were formerly buried under the communion pew and other 
 parts of the area, and the floor is partly composed of inscribed grave- 
 stones. The ceiling is new and substantially panelled in wood. A 
 school-house was built on the north side of the chapel yard in 1855. 
 
 THE POLE LANE, EBENEZER, AND BELGRAVE CHAPELS. 
 The members that seceded from the Lower Chapel on the appointment of Mr. 
 Richard Smalley to be minister in 1792, built soon after a chapel in Pole Lane, on the 
 road from Darwen to Hoddlesden. The Pole Lane Chapel was opened May 6th, 
 1793. Rev. Henry Townsend, from Cockermouth, was chosen as minister. In 
 August, 1806, Mr. Townsend retired from that pastorate and, assisted by his friends, 
 built a chapel in the Bolton-road, known as "Townsend's Chapel," or " The Refuge." 
 It was a small square structure, without galleries, and was opened in 1808. Mr. 
 Townsend some years afterwards betook himself to secular pursuits. The congregation 
 at Pole Lane Chapel appointed Mr. William Hacking their minister, and he held the 
 


 BELGRAVE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, DARWEN. [Page 52$ 
 
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES IN OVER DARWEN. 525 
 
 , post until 1822. In that year, the two congregations at Pole Lane Chapel' and "The 
 Refuge" coalesced, and the latter chapel being most eligible in situation, it was 
 selected for use, re-edified and enlarged, and re-named " Ebenezer Chapel." Rev. 
 Richard Fletcher became minister there in 1823, and resigned in 1831, on his removal 
 to Manchester. Rev. Joseph Hague succeeded, in Oct., 1831, and died in August, 
 1835. Rev. S. T. Porter followed, in 1836, and quitted Darwen for a pastorate in 
 Glasgow in 1848. During Mr. Porter's ministry the "Ebenezer Chapel" became too 
 small, and the stately chapel in Belgrave Square was built, at a cost of more than 
 ;f8ooo. " Belgrave Meeting House" was opened Oct. 21st, 1847 ; when Dr. Raffles 
 preached. Rev. G. B. Johnson succeeded Mr. Porter in 1848, and resigned in 1858. 
 Rev. D. Herbert, appointed pastor in 1859, resigned in 1865. Rev. James McDougall, 
 the present pastor, was appointed in 1866. The old " Ebenezer Chapel " occupied 
 ground adjacent to the present chapel, a portion of which was taken for the site of 
 the Belgrave Schools, erected at a cost of ^£2,300. Other spacious schools were 
 erected by this congregation in Bolton Road, at the north end of the town, in 1868, 
 which cost about ;f2Cxx). A school at Blacksnape, attached to Belgrave Church, 
 was built in 1823. The Belgrave Chapel is a large and commodious edifice in the 
 transitional style of gothic architecture. Its plan comprises nave, side aisles, east 
 transept, and chancel apse (disposed as vestries and organ chamber) at the south end. 
 The salient features of the exterior are, a lofty porch at the north end of the nave and 
 of equal elevation, gabled to the front, and opening on three sides beneath high 
 pointed arches, flanked by massive buttresses. From the roof-line between porch and 
 nave springs a rich arcaded screen, finished with three gablets, and flanked by 
 conical turrets resting upon graduated buttresses. A second porch on the east side 
 opens into the transept, by a pointed arched doorway, under coupled lancet-windows. 
 The windows of the aisles are lancet-lights. The interior is surrounded by galleries. 
 Sittings iioo. Large extensions of the Belgrave Schools are at present (1876) in pro- 
 gress, and the project includes a new organ for the chapel and other alterations, esti- 
 mated to cost about ;f 6000. 
 
 DUCKWORTH STREET CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
 This church was built in 1852-3 for the major section of the congregation of the 
 old foundation of Lower Chapel, and was opened by Rev. Thos. Raffles, L.L.D., on 
 June 23rd, 1853. The first cost was about ;^40OO ; but the use of bath stone for the 
 exterior dressings and carving, which was speedily destroyed by the humidity and 
 smoke of the locality, rendered it needful that extensive restorations should be made 
 in 1868, when the decayed stone was replaced with Longridge stone, vestries added, 
 the church entirely re-roofed, and a large organ placed in the chancel-recess. The 
 restorations involved an additional expenditure of ;f 2000. Schools had previously been 
 built on a site at the north side of the Church, at a cost of pf 2000, and a manse, costing 
 ;^I200, had also been provided. The church is an elegant gothic design ; consisting on 
 plan of nave with side aisles enclosed beneath the same roof ; the bays of the aisles 
 terminating in gablets on the roof-line ; north and south transepts ; and organ chamber 
 flanked by vestries at the east end. The entrances are at the west front under an 
 arcade of three pointed arches. Lai^e traceried windows pierce the walls of the west 
 end of the nave and the transepts. The side windows also have traceried heads. 
 
 I The Pole Lane Chapel has been demolished, but its burial-ground is kept enclosed by a high 
 wall, and contains gravestones of the Walmsley, Green, Hindle, Leach, and Fish families. The foun- 
 dations of the chapel at the north-east angle of the enclosure, show the ground-plan of a building 
 about 35ft. long by 21ft. wide. 
 
526 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 There is no tower, but the gable of the nave is high-pitched, and finished with a 
 lofty pinnacle. The interior is galleried on three sides ; behind the pulpit the organ 
 chamber is separated from the church by an arcade of two pointed arches. Sittings 
 1300. Rev. Thomas Davies, the present minister, accepted this pastorate in i860, 
 succeeding Rev. R. P. Clarke, removed to Uxbridge in 1859. 
 
 WESLEYAN METHODIST SOCIETY IN OVER DARWEN. 
 
 The original Wesleyan Methodist Society in Over Darwen was formed 
 about the year 1785. John Wesley passed through the township several 
 times on his way from Bolton to Blackburn, and is said to have sojourned 
 at the house of Mr. Entwistle at Sough, but it is not known that Wesley 
 ever preached in the village. Mr. William Banning, the Blackburn Metho- 
 dist, came periodically to Darwen between 1785 and 1 788, and preached 
 in the open air upon " The Green." Among the first resident Methodists 
 here were William Greenwood, John Entwistle, Richard Cross of 
 Scholes Fold (father of the late Robert Cross, town's missionary), James 
 Whittaker, William Crook, and Burgoin Fish. The first preaching-place 
 was a room over a blacksmith's shop in Wellington Fold. A large 
 room at the bottom of Water-street was fitted up as a place of worship 
 and Sunday school, and opened in 1788. Next, a chapel was built upon 
 a site in Back Lane, which Wesley visited when in course of erection, 
 accompanied by Mr. Banning. This first permanent meeting-house of 
 the Danven Methodists was opened in 1791. It was a plain structure 
 about 42ft. square, with vestries in the rear, and a small belfry on the 
 roof The chapel was taken down in 1838 to make room for the 
 "Centenary Chapel," built in 1839 upon an extended site, fronting to 
 Belgrave-square. This chapel on the north side of the square cost 
 ;^2,5oo. It has a rather elegant classic frontage, and contained, when 
 in use as a chapel, 600 sittings. The school-room was in the basement. 
 In 1863, a site for a new chapel was obtained in Station Road, the 
 comer-stone of which was laid on the ist of January, 1864, by John 
 Holgate, Esq. The new chapel, called " Wesley Chapel," was opened 
 on Good Friday (March 30th), 1866, by Rev. John Farrer and Rev. 
 Wm. Shaw (President of the Conference). The chapel is a large edifice 
 of classic architecture, built of freestone ; and has a striking frontage 
 ' emboldened by an architrave resting upon massive corinthian columns. 
 The internal dimensions are 92ft. by 62ft., and there are spacious 
 galleries. Cost;^7,7oo; sittings 1250. On the removal of the con- 
 gregation from the " Centenary Chapel" to Wesley Chapel in 1866, the 
 former was reconstructed internally for use as Day and Sunday Schools, 
 at a cost of ;^i,ooo. 
 
DISSENTING CHAPELS IN OVER DARWEN. 527 
 
 AsTley-Street School-Chapel. — Astley-street school, formerly used by the 
 Independents, was taken by the Wesleyan Methodists in 1870, and is used by them 
 as a mission-room for worship and for Sunday Schools. Sittings 250. 
 
 MissioN-R-ooM, Old Workhouse. — In the building which was formerly the 
 town's workhouse, the Wesleyan Society now conduct a Sunday School, and religious 
 worship. The preaching room will contain about 200 persons. 
 
 PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPELS. 
 
 Red Earth Road Chapel. — A Primitive Methodist Society was formed in 
 Over Darwen about the year 1825. Its place of worship was a temporary one in 
 Winter-street until the year 1 832, when the original chapel in Red Earth Road was 
 built. This chapel, with some enlargement and addition of school building served 
 the congregation until the year 1875, when it was found requisite to build a more 
 spacious chapel. The comer-stone of the new edifice, on a site adjacent to the old 
 one, was laid by John Walmsley, Esq., April loth, 1875. It will be a plain gothic 
 chapel, consisting of nave with wings at the end ; and vestries and galleiy for 
 orchestra behind the pulpit. The school-premises are in the basement floor. Inte- 
 riorly, there is a gallery over the vestibule. Cost .^3500 ; sittings 700. Rev. James 
 Crompton is present minister. 
 
 School-Chapel, Sandhill. — A school-chapel in Sandhill, designed for a 
 preaching place and Sunday School for the Primitive Methodists, was built in 1869. 
 Cost ;^300 ; sittings 200. 
 
 School-Chapel, Sough. — A mission chapel was built for the Primitive 
 Methodists at Sough, in this township, in 1874. Cost ^£^350 ; sittings 200. 
 
 OTHER DISSENTING CHAPELS. 
 
 Baptist Chapel, Bolton Road. — A Baptist Church was formed in Over 
 Darwen in 1858; for which a permanent chapel was built in Bolton road, in 1862. 
 It is a neat square edifice, in the classic style, with frontage relieved over the 
 central doorways by pillasters with carved capitals. The interior of the chapel is 
 fitted with galleries ; and behind the pulpit at the east end is the organ chamber. 
 The schools are in the basement storey. Cost .^^^3000 ; sittings 550. 
 
 United Free Methodist Chapel, Duckworth Street. — The Wesleyan 
 Association built in Over Darwen a chapel in 1838, at a cost of ^2,200, which subse- 
 quently became the property of the United Methodist Free Church. This chapel was 
 made much larger by an extension at the rear in 1861, costing .^2400. The interior 
 is fitted with galleries, and an organ. Sittings 700. 
 
 United Methodist School-Chapel, Hollins. — The United Free Methodists 
 erected, in 1870, school buildings at Hollins, bordering this township, which are used 
 both as Day and Sunday Schools and for public worship. The school-chapel was 
 opened Dec. ist, 1870. Cost;f300; sittings 300. 
 
 St. William's Roman Catholic Chapel. — A structure for use as chapel 
 and school was built and opened for Roman Catholic worship on June 29th, 1856. 
 Subsequently another attached building has been provided for school-purposes and the 
 original fabric is nowused exclusively as a chapel. Sittings 250. The cost of the premises 
 has been about ;^I500. Rev. D. Vanderweighe is the priest in charge of this mission. 
 
 DAY AND SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 The Day Schools of Darwen are numerous and generally efficient, and conducted 
 in excellent school buildings, erected by the religious denominations by which the 
 
Average 
 
 Annual Grant. 
 
 .ttenciance. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. d. 
 
 95 
 
 78 
 
 10 
 
 279 
 
 190 
 
 19 
 
 210 
 
 164 
 
 8 3 
 
 168 
 
 125 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 54 
 
 15 
 
 97 
 
 78 
 
 I 8 
 
 2lg 
 
 - 163 
 
 10 
 
 196 
 
 139 
 
 8 2 
 
 178 
 
 118 
 
 
 
 ■ 42 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 272 
 
 204 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 39 
 
 IS 6 
 
 109 
 
 89 
 
 12 II 
 
 528 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 schools are sustained. In the Report of the Committee of Council on Education (or 
 1874-S, the Schools in Darwen under Government inspection are the following : — 
 Church op England (National) i 
 
 St. James's ... 
 
 Holy Trinity 
 
 St. John's ... 
 
 Culvert ... 
 
 Hoddlesden 
 
 St. Cuthbert's 
 Nonconformist (British) : — 
 
 Wesleyan 
 
 Belgrave Congregational 
 
 Bolton Road „ 
 
 Blacksnape , , 
 
 Duckworth Street „ 
 
 Lower Chapel ,, 
 
 HoUins U. Free Methodist - 
 Roman Catholic : — 
 
 St. William's - - - 133 - 116 6 3 
 
 The total of average attendance at these schools is 2131 ; but the number of 
 children enrolled on the school-books exceeds 3500 ; and the total school accommodation 
 in the schools named will not be less than for 5000 children. Towards the building 
 of the schools, public grants have been made to St. James's School, of £y2 ; Holy 
 Trinity School ^992 8s.; and Hoddlesden, ;ii7i. 
 
 . The Sunday Schools attached to every place of worship in Over Darwen include 
 an aggregate of more than 6000 Sunday Scholars. 
 
 MARY SMALLEY'S CHARITY. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Smalley, by her Will dated i6th Sept., 1794, gave ta 
 the churchwardens of Over Darwen for the time being a yearly rent of 
 ^i los., payable to testatrix and her heirs for 999 years from Feb. 2nd, 
 1 791, by virtue of a deed made in consideration of a demise of part of a 
 tenement in Over Darwen called White Hall, to be laid out in lineri 
 cloth annually for distribution amongst the Poor of that place. This 
 donation was made void by the Act 9 Geo. II. c. 36 ; but a sum of 
 ^i los. has usually (but not regularly every year) been paid to the 
 churchwarden of St. James's, and distributed by him amongst Poor 
 parishioners. 
 
GREAT HARWOOD TOWNSHIP. 
 
 529 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— THE TOWNSHIP OF GREAT HARWOOD. 
 
 Topography- — Name — Early industries — Population- — Cotton Factories — Local Government — 
 Descent of the Manor— Fytton, original Lords— Hesketh of Martholme— Martholme Hall — 
 Nowell — Lomax, present Lord — Minor Families — Cockshutt — Duxbury — Mercer — Robertshaw 
 — Turner — Church of St. Bartholomew — Annals of the Chapelry — Church Fabric — List of 
 Vicars— Roman Catholic Church — Independent and Methodist Chapels — Chanties — Sir Edmund 
 Assheton's Dole — The School Trust— Elementary Schools- 
 
 GREAT HARWOOD township, anciently designated Harewode 
 Magna, or Moche Harwode, occupies the easterly side of the 
 parish of Blackburn betwixt Billington on the north and Rishton on th6 
 south. The extent of the township is given as 2510 statute acres. On 
 the north-west side of Great Harwood extends a moor which culminates 
 in the conical hill of Bowlee and the heights above Allsprings Park, which 
 command a noble landscape across the deep gorge of the Calder near 
 Moreton, and up the ravine of Sabden with Pendle-hill for background. 
 The fertile demesne of Martholme, an ancient seat of the Heskeths, 
 comprises the low lands of the township along the left bank of the 
 Calder river. The modern manufacturing village or town of Harwood 
 extends down the southern slope of the moor in the direction of the 
 Hyndbum, a tributary of the Calder, which here divides the township 
 from Clayton-in-les-Moors in Whalley parish. United with a portion of 
 Rishton township Great Harwood is an old parochial chapelry. 
 
 The name given in Saxon times to the vill, of Harewode, implies 
 that its primitive condition was chiefly that of woodland. Yet its ripa- 
 rian levels must have invited agriculture at an early period, and doubt- 
 less formed the first clearing of land which soon after the Norman 
 Conquest is found treated by the superior lord as a mesne manor. But 
 as late as the sixteenth century, a great proportion of the soil of Great 
 Harwood was still unreclaimed in moor and common, or covered with 
 timber and underwood. 
 
 Although the population of this township was chiefly agricultural 
 until a recent period, the weaving of rough linen cloths and of checks 
 or plaids was an industry of some importance in Great Harwood at least 
 
 67 
 
530 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 250 years since; and the Harwood chapmen or dealers in these native 
 wares were noted for their pushing habits as traders in the Common- 
 wealth time. The native yeoman families of Hindle, Taylor, Mercer, 
 Robertshaw, Dobson, Cunliffe, Dugdale, Turner, and Feilden, had long 
 furnished energetic salesmen of the textile fabrics made in the district. 
 Sixty years ago there was a busy cottage industry in weaving hand-loom 
 calico ; and then the factory system came in to give its great impetus to 
 trade and to population. A number of the people were also profitably 
 employed at the large printworks just beyond the bottom of the village 
 at Oakenshaw. The first cotton mill was started in Great Harwood 
 by Mr. Lawrence Catterall, about the year 1846; and in spite of the 
 want of railroad connexion with the Manchester and Liverpool markets 
 (a deficiency now about to be supplied by a branch railway from Black- 
 bum through the township), a considerable town has risen on the site 
 of the old village of Harwood, made up of manufactories and cottages 
 for the workpeople, with a good supply of shops, and an adequate 
 provision of places of religious worship and schools. 
 
 The population of the township in 17 18 was not more than 
 700 souls. At the census of 1801 the population was 1659; and its 
 progress since has been as follows: — In 181 1, 1676 persons; 1821, 
 2104; 1831, 2436; 1841, 2273; 1851, 2548; 1861, 4070; 1871, 
 4907; 1876 (estimate), 5500. 
 
 The cotton manufacture of Great Harwood is carried on in four 
 spinning mills (including a second mill of the " Butts Spinning Company" 
 in process of erection) with an aggregate of 83,000 spindles, and nine 
 weaving mills (including one mill of 612 power looms at present 
 standing), having a total of 4390 power looms. The other trading 
 industries of the town are the Great Harwood Co»l Company, which 
 works two coal pits, one at Martholme, and the other at the top of 
 Water Street in Lowertown ; and the Clayton Street Iron Foundry. 
 
 The town is under the government of a Local Board of Health, 
 composed of twelve members. The formation of the Board was 
 gazetted Sept. 25th, 1863 ; and the first election of members took place 
 Oct 22nd, 1863. John Mercer, Esq., J. P., was appointed Chairman at 
 the Board's first meeting on Nov. 4th, in the same year. Thomas 
 Clough, Esq., first Clerk to the Board, resigned in Nov. 1866, when Mr. 
 Richard Chippendale, the present Clerk, was appointed. Mr. Joseph 
 Haydock, present Chairman, has held the office since Nov., 1867. The 
 Local Board have carried out, at a cost of about ^12,000, a complete 
 system of drainage, whereby the sanitary state of the town has been 
 greatly improved, and serious outbreaks of typhoid fever, which before 
 the existence of the Board had been frequent, have been prevented. 
 
DESCENT OF GREAT HARWOOD MANOR. 531 
 
 Great Harwood is supplied with gas by the Accrington Gas 
 Company ; and with water by the Accrington Water Works Company, 
 who are constructing new reservoirs at the Dean in this township for the 
 supply of water to Great Harwood, Clayton, Rishton, and Church-Kirk. 
 
 DESCENT OF THE MANOR. 
 After the Norman settlement, this manor remained in the hands 
 of De Lascys, lords of Blackburnshire, until Henry de Lascy granted 
 it to Richard de ffytton, who was Justice of Chester, a.d. 1233. The 
 grant was confirmed by Robert de Lascy, son of Henry. 
 
 The ancient boundaries of the township are thus defined in Robert de Lascy's 
 charter : — Beginning at the head of the Redbrok, following the Redbrok eastwards 
 unto the Denecrage, and so on the west side of the same ascending northwards on the 
 west unto the Stoneral<e in the way there, so following unto the foot of the Rissheham 
 on the north side of the said way, and so from the foot of the Rissheham unto the lay 
 below Sixcliff, following thence unto the Nabbnoke, following downwards unto the 
 little rivulet, following the rivulet below the Fallingstone unto the water of Caldre, 
 following the said water upwards unto the foot of the water of Hyndburne, and so up 
 the watercourse of Hyndburne unto the foot of Northdene, following upwards the 
 water of Northdene westward unto a certain rivulet crossing Dungecar, following the 
 said rivulet up below Taggetstone, following the said rivulet as long as it continues, 
 and thence straight to the head of Redbrok, the first boundary. 
 
 FYTTON, LORDS OF GREAT HARWOOD. 
 
 Richard de ffytton, who obtained the grant of this manor, was 
 eldest son of Richard de ffytton of Bolyn, Co. Chester,' who had a 
 second son John (named hereafter). Richard de ffytton died in 1246. 
 His son and heir was Hugh. 
 
 Hugh ffytton, eldest son of Richard, had a grant from his sire of 
 " all the manor of Harwode in Blackburnshire," with homage of 
 Richard Phitun, grantor's uncle, and John, his brother. In the Testa 
 de Nevill, Hugh Fiton appears, holding the fourth part of a knight's fee 
 in Harwode of the Earl of Lincoln. He had a son Edmund. 
 
 Edmund ffytton, son of Hugh, had a son John, from whom des- 
 cended the ffyttons of Bolyn and Gawsworth. But this Edmund ffytton 
 had granted, before the birth of a son, to his kinsman, Richard ffytton, 
 all his land of Harewode. Edmund ffytton died in 24 Edw. L (1296). 
 
 Richard Fytton, grantee of Harwood Manor from Edmund last- 
 named, was the son of John Fytton, brother of Richard first-named 
 above. He had a son William, and three daughters, Maude, Amabil, 
 and Elizabeth. William, Richard's son, died without issue, probably 
 in his father's lifetime, and thus his three sisters, Richard's daughters, 
 became co-heirs of this manorial estate. An indenture in Norman- 
 
 I The descent of Fyttons in the Hesketh Pedigree Roll is wrong. Mr. W. A. Hulton's account 
 (Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey, pp. 845-6) agrees with known evidences, and is followed above. 
 
M2 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 French inserted by St. George in the Ilesketh record relates to a 
 dispute which was between John de Hesketh and Adam Nowell 
 concerning tenements in Great Harwood which, after the death of 
 William Fitton, were partitioned between his three sisters and heirs 
 and their lords, viz., between William de Heskaith and Maude hi» 
 wife, Fdmond de Legh and Amabilia his wife, and Roger Nowell and 
 Elizabeth his wife. This was in the reign of Edward II. By this 
 division the Heskeths of Rufford, Nowells of Great Mearley, and De 
 Leghs of Hapton, became joint lords of the manor ; but presently 
 one of the Heskeths purchased the portion of De Legh, and thereafter 
 held two third-parts of the estate and manorial rights. 
 
 HESKETH OF HESKETH, RUFFORD, AND MARTHOLME. 
 
 Richard de Hesketh, the first known member of this ancient house, 
 had a son and heir, William, who succeeded him. WiUiam de Hesketh 
 married Anabel, daughter and heir of Richard de Stafford, and had 
 a son Robert. Robert Hesketh of Hesketh was father of William. 
 
 William Hesketh had to wife Elbora, daughter and sole heiress of 
 Richard and .Isabel de Tottleworth (in Rishton township), and had issue 
 a son William ; and younger sons, John, and Adam. 
 
 TTiis son was " Sir William Hesketh, Knt., lord of Heskaith and 
 Beconsawe," who married, in 1276, Maude, daughter and co-heir of 
 Richard Fytton, lord of Great Harwood. Sir William Hesketh is found 
 holding, in 13 11, two carucates of land in the township by knight service 
 and rent of 2s. 6d. to Clyderhou court. Sir William had sons, Thomas, 
 the heir, and Adam, who had issue William. 
 
 Thomas Hesketh of Rijiford, lord of Great Harwood, married 
 Alice, daughter of Waring de Bispham, lord of Bispham, and had issues 
 Robert, died without issue ; John ; William ; and Richard (who had a 
 son Stephen) ; also a daughter Margaret, wife of Roger Nowell, Esq. 
 
 Robert, first son of Thomas, being dead without heir, the estates 
 passed to the second son, John. Sir John Hesketh, Knt., married 
 Alice, sole daughter and heir of Edmund Fytton, lord of half Rufford, 
 and had issue, a son William, and a daughter Matilda. 
 
 Sir William Hesketh, Knt, son and heir of Sir John, was living in 
 the 29th Edward III. (1355). Sir William had to wife Marcilla, daughter 
 and co-heir of Twenge, of Kendal, and had sons, Thomas, and William. 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, Esq., by his wife, Margaret, daughter of Thomas 
 Banestre,' had sons, Robert, who died in 1399 without issue; Nicholas, 
 next heir; and Gilbert. In 1377 Thomas Hesketh was returned as 
 
 I Of the branch of Banastres seated in Leyland Hundred. The Hesketh pedigrees all err in 
 Myling this Thomas Banastre lord of Newton and Walton. Mr, Wni. Langton points out that n& 
 Thomas Banastre ever held those lordships. 
 
HESKETH OF MARTHOLME. 533 
 
 holding the fourth part of a Knight's fee in Harwood Magna of the 
 Duke of Lancaster, and paying 5s. to the Court at CHderhou. 
 
 Nicholas Hesketh, Esq., succeeding Thomas his father, married 
 Margaret, daughter of — Minshull (she died in 141 7, her husband 
 being before deceased ; for in April, 141 7, the escheator received precept 
 to assign to Margaret, widow of Nicholas de Hesketh, her reasonable 
 dower out of her husband's lands). Nicholas de Hesketh died Aug. loth, 
 1416. By inquisition taken at Ormskirk, Jan. 28th, 141 7, it was found 
 that Nicholas de Hesketh died seized in his lordship as of fee of the 
 manor of Harwood, held of the king in chief as of his duchy of 
 Lancaster by knight service, worth yearly £10 ; also of Roghford 
 (Rufford) manor, held of the abbot and convent of Chester in socage 
 by the rent of 40s. yearly, worth ;^2 2 ; also of one messuage in the vill 
 of Risshton held of the heir of Edmond Talbot in socage, by the rent 
 of 6s. 8d. yearly, worth 4 marks. 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, son and heir, was aged 10 years in r4i 7.' March 
 9th, 6th Henry VI. (1427), a writ de cetate probanda was addressed to 
 the escheator of Lancashire for Thomas de Hesketh, son and heir of 
 Nicholas, being in the wardship of Sir Robert Lawrence, Knt.; and a 
 few days later, the escheator received a precept to give to Thomas de 
 Hesketh, son and heir of Nicholas, livery of the lands of his inheritance. 
 Thomas Hesketh married, about 141 7, Sibill, daughter and co-heir 
 of Sir Robert Lawrence, Knt., and had issue, sons, Hugh, died with- 
 out issue; Thomas, eventual heir; and Nicholas. Thomas Hesketh, 
 Esq., died Dec. 18th, 1458,'' being seized of Great Hanvood and Rufford 
 manors, and of a messuage in Rishton. 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, Esq., lord of Rufford and Martholme, &c., 
 succeeded Sir Thomas his sire, and died Oct. 8th, 1463. His wife was 
 Margaret, daughter of Hamon (or Hamnet) Mascye of Rixton, Esq., by 
 whom he had a numerous progeny : — sons, Robert, the heir ; William 
 Hesketh, chaplain; Thomas; John, a priest; Hugh; William (father 
 of Bartholomew, first of Aughton) ; Geoffrey ; Richard ; Henry ; and 
 Nicholas, a priest ; also one daughter, Margaret. 
 
 i Inquisition taken March 5th, 1428, showed that Thomas de Hesketh was then of the age of 21 
 years and upwards, and that his father Nicholas de Hesketh said that Thomas de Hesketh was born 
 at Laholmes 7th Henry IV. (1406), and was baptized at the church of Croston. (Lane. Inquis., ed. 
 by Mr. Langton.) 
 
 2 The Inquisition for the escheat, taken May 9th, 1460, returns that Robert Hesketh, son of 
 Thomas, was his next heir, aged 31 years ; but the family Pedigree Roll differs here in placing another 
 Thomas Hesketh as son and successor of Thomas who died in 1458, and Robert Hesketh as son and 
 heir of the later Thomas. The printed pedigree of the family has been followed in the text, but it 
 cannot be reconciled with the evidence of two inquisitions abstracted by Christopher Towneley, which 
 clearly show Nicholas, dying in 1416, father of Thomas, died in 1458, father of Robert, aged 31 in 
 1460. For copies of these inquisitions I have to thank Wm. Langton, Esq. 
 
S34 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Robert Hesketh, Esq., son of Thomas, died Jan. ist, 1489-90. His 
 wife was Alice, daughter of Sir Robert Booth, Knt., of Dunham Mascye, 
 Co. Chester. Issue, sons, Thomas the heir ; Robert ; William ; John ; 
 Hugh (Hugh Hesketh, clerk, ordained in 1500. chantry priest at Rufford 
 in 1506, nominated Bishop of Man by Thomas Earl of Derby, in 1522); 
 a second William; Geoffrey; Richard (Richard Hesketh, Attorney General 
 to Henry VHL, died Aug. 17th, 1520); Henry, and Nicholas; and 
 daughters, Margaret, wife of Henry Kighley, Esq.; Dowse, first wife of 
 John Nowell of Read, Esq. ; and Alice, wife of Sir Richard Aughton, 
 Knt. The escheat inquisition was taken ten years after the death of 
 Robert Hesketh, Esq., in the 14th Henry VII., when it was found that 
 he had enfeoffed Robert Boothe and others in his estates, including 
 Markithholme Manor in Magna Harwood, held of the King by knight 
 service ; lands in Nether Harwood and Totleworth, &c. Thomas 
 Hesketh was his son and heir. After the death of Robert Hesketh, 
 Esq., his widow, Alice, professed chastity, took the order of the Mantle 
 and the Ring, and founded a chantry at the altar of St. Mary in Rufford 
 chapel. Her sepulchral memorial is a Latin epitaph : — " Hie jacet Alicia 
 Hesketh, vidua, quondam uxor Rob'ti Hesketh, armig., qufe obiit 17 die 
 Sep. An. Dom. 1498 (14 Henry VII). Cujus anime propitietur Deus." 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, Esq., next lord of Great Harwood, married, 
 first, Elizabeth, daughter of William Fleming, Baron of Wath and lord 
 of Croston. From her he was divorced, on her declaration that she 
 had another husband, in the year 1497.' Thomas Hesketh had a son 
 Robert, not bom in matrimony, by Alice daughter of Christopher 
 Haworth, styled his second wife in the Visitation of 1567; and had 
 another bastard son, Charles, and a daughter Helen. He afterwards 
 married Grace, daughter of Sir John Towneley, Knt. (she died June 29th, 
 1510). Thomas Hesketh, Esq., died Aug. 14th, 1523 ;" and the escheat, 
 
 1 documents in Harleian MS. 2077, relating to the process of this divorce, set forth that Thomas 
 Hesketh married Elizabeth Fleming, both being under age, and either of them being entitled to 
 fourscore marks yearly, and long after the marriage it fortuned the said Elizabeth to be with child, 
 and she confessed before the birth of that child that it was another man's and another husband's ; 
 also, that Elizabeth Fleming before the divorce had given to Thomas Hesketh that was her husband 
 and his heirs part of her lands, worth yearly betwixt the value of ,^20 and 40 marks ; and that after 
 the divorce she had a son Edward Fleming, married Thurston Hall, and had by him four or five 
 children, &c. 
 
 2 An indenture dated the 6th Aug.. 14 Henry VIII. (1522), witnesses .that Thomas Hesketh, Esq., 
 had delivered unto John, Abbot of Whalley, and to the Convent there, *' threttene peaces of evidences 
 safely and surely to be kepid in ye said Monastrie to ye use of ye said Thomas for terme of his liff," 
 and after his decease " to be kepid in ye said Monastrie to ye use of Robert Hesketh sone of ye said 
 Thomas and of ye heirs male of ye said Robert," &c. No. 8 of these evidences is the exemplification 
 of a recovery had by William Molyneux. E.sq. and others, against Thomas Hesketh, Esq., of all his 
 manors, mesnes, lands, &c., in the county of Lancaster, for the use of the said Thomas and his heirs 
 in fee simple. Done at the Lancaster sessions, 3 Henry VIII. (1511). No. 12 is a Will made by 
 Thom.as Hesketh, Esq., of the .same, dated 2nd July, 14 Henry VIII. (1522), for the " more plaine 
 declaration of certen articles specyfied in ye said former Will," &c. (Towneley MSS.) 
 
HESKETH OF MARTHOLME. 535 
 
 of the rgth Henry VIII., returned him as having been seized 
 of Rufford Manor and Chantry ; Hoghwick manor ; in Magna 
 Harwode, of the manor of Martholme ; and of messuages, lands, 
 woodlands, and rents in Totihvorthe, Oswaldtwisell, Wiswall, Dynkley, 
 Aghton, Walton-in-le-Dale, Witton, Mellor, and in about 57 other town- 
 ships and hamlets in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Westmoreland. 
 Robert Hesketh his natural son was then a minor, and was made by his 
 father's Will successor to the hereditary estates. 
 
 Sir Robert Hesketh, Knt. (son of Thomas) is recorded to have 
 " served King Henry VIII. in Fraunce, and for his valoure, forwardnes, 
 actyvytie and good service theare was knighted by the King's own hand 
 with great countenance and many good woordes." This Knight married 
 Grace, daughter of Sir John Towneley of Towneley, Knt, and by her had 
 issue, Thomas ; Robert ; Ellen, wife of Richard Barton of Barton Row, 
 Esq.; and Jane, wife of Richard Asheton of Croston, Esq. Sir Robert 
 Hesketh died in 1539. The Hesketh tomb at Rufford church formerly 
 bore the epitaph : — " Here lyeth under Sir Robert Hesketh, Knt., and 
 Dame Grace his wife, which said Robert dyed the 8th day of February, 
 A.D. 1539, and the foresaid. Grace dyed the 28th of May, A.D. 1543." 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, lord of Rufford, Martholme, Harwode, knighted 
 Oct. 2nd, 1553, was Sheriff of Lancashire in 1563. He is stated to 
 have " served his sovraigne (Elizabeth) in Scotland at the seige of 
 Leethe (Leith), and theare was sore hurte in divers places, and had his 
 ensigne strooken downe, which he recovered againe, with great commen- 
 dacions for his fonvardnes and good service, and was in his latter dayes 
 a noteable good housekeeper, and benefactor to all men singuler in eny 
 science,' and greatlie repaired the house at Martholme and Holmes Wood, 
 and the Chappell at Rufford." His wife was Alice, daughter of Sir 
 John Holcroft, of Holcroft, Knt., and he had sons, Robert, bapt. at 
 Whalley, Jan. 20th, 1560; Thomas, bapt. at Great Harwood, May 15th, 
 1561 ; and Richard, bapt. at Great Har^vood, July 28th, 1562 ; and 
 daughters, Grace, bapt. at Whalley, Nov. 9th, 1554; Dorothy, wife of 
 Henry Squier; and Margery, bapt. at Whalley, Nov. isth, 1557, married 
 Nicholas Skillicome, Esq., of the Fylde, and died May loth, buried at 
 Great Harwood Church, May i6th, 1606. Sir Thomas Hesketh, Knt., 
 died in 1588. The wardens of Har^vood have recorded: — "Thomas 
 Hesketh knyghte dyed 20 dale of June in ye 30 yere of Quene Elizabeth, 
 ano. dom. 1 588, and was buryed in ye chappell." His Will is dated June 
 
 I John Gerarde, in his " Herbal " (1597), names the Lancashire asphodel as growing in moist 
 places "near unto Mawdesley and Martom [Martholme]. where it was found by a worshipful and 
 learned gentleman, a diligent searcher of simples and fervent lover of plants, Master Thomas Hes- 
 keth, who brought the plants thereof unto me for the inci-ease of my garden," 
 
536 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 20th, 1588. His widow, dame Alice Hesketh, died at Perikith, March 
 25th, 1604-5, and was buried in Great Harwood Chapel. 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, second son of Thomas, dwelt at Martholnie 
 sometime with his widowed mother. He was a Roman Catholic ; and 
 the church-book of Harwood records : — " 1 593. Thomas Hesketh, 
 Esquyer, a Recusante, dyd notifye his cominge to the Martholme to 
 dwell with his mother, to me W. Harris, Curat of the Chapel of Mocli 
 Hanvood, the fourth daie of October ao. regni regine Eliz. 36." 
 
 Robert Hesketh, Esq., lord of Rufford, Martholme, &c., married, 
 first, Marie, daughter of Sir George Stanley, Knt., of the Crosshall, and had 
 sons, Thomas ; Robert; Henry; George, married Jane Sherburne, and had 
 a son Robert ; John, married Mary Haydock, and had a son Robert. 
 The daughters were, Holcroft, wife, first, of Lawrence Rawsthorne, of 
 New-hall, and secondly, of Roger Dodsworth, gent., the antiquary ; 
 Jane, bapt. at Whalley, Nov. 14th, 1576, wife of William Rey- 
 nolds ; and Mary, wife, first, of Richard Barton, Esq., secondly of 
 Thomas Stanley, of Eccleston, Esq. " Marie, wife of Robert Hesketh, 
 Esq.," was buried at Great Hanvood Church, July 21st, 1586. Robert 
 Hesketh's second wife was Blanche, daughter of Henry Twyford, Esq.; 
 she had no issue. His third wife was Jane, daughter of Thomas Spencer 
 of Rufford (who afterwards wedded Sir Richard Hoghton of Hoghton 
 Tower, Knt. and Bart.), by whom Robert Hesketh, Esq., had sons, 
 Robert (bom before marriage), and Cuthbert Hesketh, of Kenwick, Co. 
 Salop. Robert Hesketh died in 1620. 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, Esq., next scion, married thrice, but had no issue 
 by any marriage. His wives were : i, Susan Powes; 2, Jane Edmonson; 
 3, Catherine, daughter of Alexander Briers of Lathom. Thomas Hesketh 
 died in November, 1646. 
 
 Robert Hesketh, next brother, succeeded to the estates on Thomas's 
 death without heirs. He had to wife Margaret, daughter of Alexander 
 Standish of Standish, Esq., and by her had sons, Robert; and Hugh, died 
 in July, 1622. The elder Robert Hesketh died in January, 1653. 
 
 Robert Hesketh the son died in his father's lifetime, in Sept., 1651 ; 
 but left issue by his wife, Lucy, daughter of Alexander Rigby, of Middle- 
 ton, Esq., a son Thomas, born in 1647 ; he had also a son Alexander, 
 died young ; and daughters, Margaret, died unmarried, aged 20 ; and 
 Lucy, died young. 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, a child of six on succeeding his grandsire, married 
 Sidney, daughter of Sir Richard Grosvenor of Eaton, knt. ; had issue, 
 Robert ; Thomas ; Richard, Sidney, Lettice, and Margaret (these four 
 died young) ; Ann, wife of Hugh Warren of Poynton, Esq. ; and Jane, 
 wife of Henry Brooke, Esq. 
 
THE HESKETH FAMILY. 537 
 
 Robert Hesketh, Esq., heir of Thomas, by his wife Elizabeth, 
 daughter of WiOiam Spencer of Ashton, Esq., had an only child, a 
 daughter Elizabeth, who married Sir Edward Stanley of Bickerstaff, 
 Bart., afterwards Earl of Derby. Robert Hesketh, Esq., is named by 
 Leigh as being afflicted with the black jaundice in 1696.' 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, next brother of Robert, became lord of Rufford, 
 Martholme, &c., on his brother's death without male heir. He married 
 Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Graham, Bart., and had issue, a son, 
 Thomas ; and a daughter Jane, died young. 
 
 The next Thomas Hesketh, Esq., was M. P. for Preston from 1722 to 
 1728. By his wife Martha, daughter of James St. Amand, of London, 
 Esq., he had issue, sons, Thomas, and Robert, both died young; a second 
 Thomas, born Jan. 21st, 1727-8 ; and Robert, born in 1729. 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, Esq., son of the last Thomas, was created a 
 baronet in 1761, with remainder in favour of his brother Robert. He 
 had married Harriet, daughter of Ashley Cooper, Esq., but was without 
 issue. Sir Thomas Hesketh, Bart., died March 4th, 1778. 
 
 Robert, his brother, succeeded to the estates and title. Sir Robert's 
 wife was Sarah, daughter of William Plumbe, Esq. (she died in 1792). 
 Issue, Thomas ; Robert, a volunteer in the American war, killed at 
 Bunker's Hill, unmarried; and Anne, wife of Henry Byne, Esq. Sir 
 Robert Hesketh took the name of Juxon in 1792, and died in 1796. 
 
 Thomas Hesketh, Esq., son of Sir Robert, born in 1748, died in 
 his father's lifetime in 1781. By his wife Jacinthia, daughter of Hugh 
 Dalrymple, Esq., he had issue, Thomas, born 1772, died young ; Thomas 
 Dalrymple, born at New York, Jan. 13th, 1777 ; and daughters, Harriet 
 Ann ; Dorothea ; Jacinthia Catherine; Charlotte Margaret; and Lucy, all 
 of whom married {vide Burke). 
 
 The next baronet, Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, by his wife 
 Sophia, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Hinde, Vicar of Shifnall, Co. 
 Salop, had sons, Thomas Henry, born Feb. nth, 1798; and William 
 Juxon, died young ; daughters, Harriet ; Sophia Elizabeth ; Charlotte ; 
 and Maria Catherine. Sir T. D. Hesketh died July 27th, 1842. 
 
 Sir Thomas Henry Hesketh, Bart., died Feb. loth, 1843, having 
 held the estates and title only a few months. He had issue, by his wife 
 Annette Maria, daughter of Robert Bamford, Esq., an only son, 
 Thomas George; and a daughter Maria Harriet, wife of Sir Lawrence 
 Palk, Bart. 
 
 Sir Thomas George Fermor-Hesketh, Bart., married, March loth, 
 1846, the Lady Anna Maria Arabella Fermor, eldest daughter of the 
 fourth Earl of Pomfret, and a co-heir of her brother the last Earl. Issue, 
 
 1 Nat. Hist. Lane, and Chesh., p. 96. 
 
 68 
 
538 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Thomas Heniy, bom Jan. 9th, 1847 ; Thomas George, bom May 9th, 
 1849; Hugh Robert, bom 1850; Edith Elizabeth ; Constance Maria; 
 and Augusta Sophia. Sir T. G. Fermor-Hesketh sat in Pariiament 
 as M.P. for Preston from 1865 until his decease in 1873. 
 
 Sir Thomas Henry Fermor-Hesketh, the next baronet, died without 
 issue, May 25th, 1876, in his 30th year, when the estates and title were 
 taken by his next brother, Capt. T. G. Fermor-Hesketh. 
 
 Of the long-deserted manorial mansion of Martholme, standing 
 . amidst the land meadow and pasture lands of its demesne near the left 
 bank of the Calder, the fragmentary and contracted portions remaining 
 serve but to suggest the general plan and character of its structure. 
 Martholme Hall must have been built and rebuilt twice or thrice during 
 several centuries that it was a seat of the Fyttons and Heskeths in 
 succession. The last substantial restoration was carried out by Thomas 
 Hesketh, Esq., early in the reign of Elizabeth, as attested in the record 
 of him I have cited, that he " greatly repaired the house at Martholme." 
 The house is reached by a by-road branching off to the east from the 
 Accrington and Whalley highway. The approach is under a picturesque 
 gateway, having a wide semi-circular arch in the centre, over the key- 
 stone of which is a shield emblazoned on stone, displaying the arms of 
 Fytton, flanked by the initials " R H " and the date " 1607." The wall 
 on either side is carried over the gateway by a series of steps, and the 
 centre-stone is surmounted by a columnar finial. The gateway opens 
 into an outer court-yard, which leads to a second circular-arched gate- 
 way in the midst of a two-storied structure, which is also pierced on 
 each side of the arch and in the upper storey by moulded mullioned 
 windows of three lights. This archway is roughly moulded ; and in a 
 large stone panel above the arch is a sculptured shield, with mantlings, 
 helmet, and crest, displaying the armorial insignia of the Heskeths. 
 Above the shield are the initials " T H " (Thomas Hesketh), and the 
 date " 1561," indicating the period of this addition to the mansion. 
 Within the gateway is an oaken door in a low pointed arch, under a 
 square moulded head ; and in the spandrils of the arch are two carved 
 heraldic shields, one bearing a cross flory, the other, a garb, or. I'he 
 inner view of the gatehouse presents a massive splayed circular arch ; 
 with a mullioned and transomed window above. There is a square 
 chimney at one end of the roof-ridge, and the sculptured stem of a cross 
 on the other. The house itself, at the north end of the inner court- 
 yard, has suffered demolition of its whole west wing, and now shows on 
 the south view a projecting east wing, gabled, lighted with mullioned 
 windows ; a recessed centre, gabled, with three ranges of window-lights ; 
 a pointed arched doorway in the westerly termination of the remaining 
 
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NOWELLS' ESTATE IN GREAT HARWOOD. 539 
 
 wall, with remains of a muUioned and transomed window over it. This 
 arch being in a direct line from the gateway has evidently been the main 
 central entrance to the quadrangular block of the mansion as originally 
 planned. It opens into a long passage having a pointed arch recessed 
 under a circular one at the other extremity ; and in the east wall of the 
 passage are two narrow pointed-arched doorways leading into the dining 
 room. In the south wall, between the second and upper windows, is a 
 stone panel with sculptured frame, enclosing "an eagle displayed with 
 two heads proper " having a garb on its breast ; in the upper comers of 
 the panel are the figures " 15 — 77" (the date 1577), and in the lower 
 corners the initials " T H " (Thomas Hesketh). In the interior of the 
 portion of the house yet intact, the parlour has its broad low-arched 
 fire-place, the arch being about iift. wide by 6ft. deep and 6ft. high, and 
 splayed on its outer edge. A similar arch encloses the kitchen fire- 
 place. In the rear wall of the house are two small window lights of 
 evident age, with trefoil heads, and one with head of rude tracery. In 
 a field to the west of the buildings are traces of one side of the trench of 
 the moat, running north and south. The tenant informed me that in 
 the meadow west of the hall a very large ash tree formerly stood ; and a 
 little further on, out of a sluice or gutter an old oak chest was taken 
 nearly forty years ago. A table made of the wood is now at Clayton 
 Hall. 
 
 ESTATE IN GREAT HARWOOD OF NOWELL OF GREAT MEARLEY 
 
 AND READ. 
 
 Roger Nowell of Great Mearley, it has been stated above, married 
 Elizabeth, third daughter and co-heiress of Richard Fytton, who brought 
 to the Nowells the third part of the manor of Harwood Magna, that 
 portion, namely, anciently called Netherton, now, Lowertown. By this 
 heiress Roger Nowell had a son Adam, party to the dispute with John 
 Hesketh concerning lands in Great Harwood {vide Hesketh); this 
 Adam Nowell received from Edward I., in the 12th of his reign (1284), 
 " for his good service expended for us in certain parts of Scotland," a 
 grant that he, Adam Nowell, and his heirs for ever, should have " a 
 market weekly on the Thursday at their manor of Netherton in Magna 
 Harwode." Adam Nowell's son, Richard Nowell (living in 13 51), by 
 Johanna his wife had a son Lawrence Nowell, the first seated at Read ; 
 whose son and heir was John, seized of the manor of Read and portion 
 of the manor of Magna Harwode in 1398. It was this John Nowell 
 who, in the r3th Richard II. (1389), came to the chapel of Harwode 
 and there, acknowledging that he held certain tenements in Harwode, 
 of Thomas de Hesketh in chief by knight service, swore to the said 
 Thomas Hesketh that he John Nowell would to him bear fealty for the 
 
540 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 free tenements he held of him in Harwode, and would loyally perform 
 all customs and services. John Nowell's son and heir Nicholas Nowell 
 was father of Alexander Nowell, whose wardship, with custody of the 
 manor of Read and half the manor of Great Harwood, was granted to 
 Richard Towneley, Esq., in 12th Henry VI. (1434). Roger Nowell, 
 next scion, married a daughter of Thomas Hesketh, Esq., lord of Great 
 Harwood, but was divorced from her ; and his son John Nowell, Esq. 
 dying in 1526, was found seized, among other estates, of a third part of 
 Magna Harwode manor. His son, Roger Nowell, Esq., died in 1566, 
 seized of a third part of this manor, held of Thomas Hesketh, Knt., 
 by knight service. His son Roger, dying in 1591, held the same estate; 
 and his son, Roger Nowell, Esq.,' dying in 1623, by an inquisition taken 
 at Preston, April 8th, 22nd James I., was found to have held at death 
 Reade Manor ; the third part of the manor of Magna Harwood, with 20 
 messuages, 100 acres of land, 50 of meadow, 10 of pasture, 40 of wood- 
 land and underwood, 200 of moor and 100 of turbary (a total of 
 500 acres of land) in Magna Harwood ; also, two messuages, 1 5 acres 
 of land, 10 of meadow, 16 of pasture in Dinckley in Blackburn Parish. 
 The above notes show the continuance of the manorial estate in this 
 township in the Nowells from the middle of the thirteenth to the seven- 
 teenth century. It remained with them onward until Alexander Nowell, 
 Esq., seventeenth in descent from Roger Nowell who had the estate 
 with the heiress of Fytton, alienated the Great Harwood property some- 
 time prior to his death in 1772. 
 
 LOMAX, PRESENT LORD OF GREAT HARWOOD. 
 
 Richard Lomax, Esq., of Pilsworth, by his marriage with Rebecca 
 Heywood (granddaughter of John Grimshaw, Esq., and sole heiress of the 
 manorial estate of Clayton-in-les-Moors, long held by the Grimshaws) had 
 issue a son and heir, James Lomax. The latter, after his succession, 
 rebuilt Clayton Hall, and purchased from Alexander Nowell, Esq., 
 sometime before 1772, that portion of Great Harwood manor and 
 appurtenant estate which had belonged to the Nowells of Read during 
 several centuries. James Lomax, Esq., died, aged 75, Jan. 6th, 1792. 
 He married Elizabeth Lord (she died, aged 78, Sept. 8th, 1805), by 
 whom he had sons, Richard Grimshaw ; James (Captain in the Royal 
 
 1 In 36 Eliz. (1594), Roger Nowell as seized in fee, was against Robert Hesketh, as occupier of 
 two-thirds of the Manor of Much Harwood, in a suit in the Chancery Court of the Duchy involving 
 a third part of lands and tenements there with right of common and turbary, stone, gorse and rush, 
 on Harwood Moor and Bowlas Hill, as formerly the inheritance of William Fitton, and homage and 
 fealty. Seven years subsequently (1601), Robert Hesketh, as son and heir of Sir Thomas Hesketh, 
 Knt., laid a plaint against Roger Nowell, Christopher Cunliffe, and Henry Hamond, claiming 
 homage, fealty, escuage, and rent of messuages, lands, and hereditaments, called the Lower Town 
 and High Town of Harwoode, in Great Harwood manor. (Cal. to Plead., iii, p. 309, and p. 461.) 
 
MINOR FAMILIES OF GREAT HARWOOD. 541 
 
 Lancashire Volunteers, died, aged 40, April 15th, 1805); and John, died 
 young; and a daughter Elizabeth, married to M. F. Trappes, Esq., of 
 Nidd Hall, Yorkshire. Richard Grimshaw Lomax, Esq., acquired by 
 purchase, early in the present century, the major portion of Great 
 Harwood manor and the Martholme demesne from the Hesketh family, 
 and thus this manor, which had been severed in the 13th century, was 
 at length united under one proprietor. Richard Grimshaw Lomax, Esq., 
 married, in 1797, Catherine, daughter of Thomas Greaves, Esq., of 
 Preston, and had sons, James (died, aged 4, in 1802); Richard (died 
 unmarried, aged 22, March i6th, 1822); John; a second James; William, 
 Walter, and Charles, all in holy orders of the Church of Rome; Edmund; 
 and Thomas ; and daughters, Elizabeth, Mary, and a second Mar}-. 
 The father died, aged 74, Jan. 20th, 1837. John Lomax, Esq., eldest 
 son and heir, married Helen, second daughter of John Aspinall, Esq., of 
 Standen Hall, but died without issue July 1 5th, 1 849, and was succeeded 
 by his brother James. James Lomax, Esq., lord of Great Harwood and 
 Clayton, married, in 1845, Frances Cecilia, eldest daughter of Charles 
 Walmesley, Esq., of Westwood, but has no issue. James Lomax, Esq., 
 built, in 1839 (prior to his succession to his elder brother), the handsome 
 mansion of Allsprings, in a very picturesque situation upon the Great 
 Harwood estate. The extent of the Lancashire estates of the Lomax 
 family (chiefly in Great Harwood and Clayton-in-les-Moors), is stated in 
 the recent Parliamentary Return of Landowners at 2988 statute acres, 
 with a gross rental of ;^629i. Some 2300 acres of the total are in the 
 township of Great Harwood. 
 
 Subjoined are notices of several families of lesser gentry and 
 yeomen of the township : — ■ 
 
 COCKSHUTT OF GREAT HARWOOD. 
 
 Roger Cockshot was assessed on his lands in Magna Harwood to a Subsidy in 
 1523. In 1584, John Cockshot, gent, occurs as a juror. Thomas Cockshot was 
 buried at Great Harwood Church, July 8th, 1608. 
 
 George Cockshot, taxed to the Subsidy in 1610, had twin daughters, Lettice and 
 Elizabeth, bapt. Jan. 19th, 1609, and probably was father of Edmund, bapt. Jan. 
 20th, 1599 ; John, bom in 1602 ; and Thomas, born in 1604. A George Cockshot 
 died in 1653. 
 
 Edmund Cockshutt of Harwood, gent., married Alice, second daughter of Geof- 
 frey Rishton of Antley, gent. Edmund Cockshutt was made a Governor of Blackburn 
 Grammar School in 1634. He had sons, Edmund (" Edmund Cockshutt, lieutenant," 
 buried Jan. 29th, 1683); George, bapt. Sept. i8th, 1628; Thomas, bapt. Nov. loth, 
 1630 ; John, born in 1635 ; and a daughter Alice, bom in 1639, married, April 1st, 
 1661, Mr. John Kenyon. Edmund Cockshutt died in Oct., 1674; and his wife Alice 
 died in Nov., 1678. 
 
 Thomas Cockshutt, gent., a son of Edmund, was elected a Governor of Black- 
 burn Grammar School in 1675 ; and in 1680 was a trustee of the town's Poor Stock. 
 
542 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 He married, Dec. 9th, 1658, Marie, daughter of Edward Rawsthome of Higham 
 (she died in 1670), and had issue, sons, George, born Jan. 12th, 1 660-1 ; Edmund, 
 bom Feb. 14th, 1662-3 5 Thomas, born June 14th, 1665 ; and John, bom Oct. 12th, 
 1667. "Thomas Cockshutt de Harwood, gent." appears on the Guild Rolls of 
 Preston as a foreign burgess in 1662 and 1682. He was buried at Great Harwood 
 Church, Nov. 26th, 1684. 
 
 George Cockshutt, of Lowertown, gent., eldest son of Thomas, signs the Petition 
 of Inhabitants of the chapelry in 1688. By Ann, his wife, he had sons, Thomas, 
 bom July loth, 1687 ; Josias, bom in 1688 ; John bom and died in 1690; Edmund, 
 bom in 1692 ; also daughters, Margaret, and Mary. George Cockshutt died in 1694, 
 and a posthumous son George was bapt. June 3rd, 1694. "Mrs. Ann Cockshutt, 
 widow, gentlewoman, " was buried April 6th, 1 705. 
 
 Thomas Cockshutt, of Lowertown, gent., brother or son of the last-named 
 George, married, Dec. 12th, 1714, Kalherine Lonsdale, of High Riley, and by her 
 (who died in March, 1716) had a son George, bom Feb. 5th, buried May 12th, 1715. 
 By his second wife Elizabeth (who died in Feb., 1722), Mr. Thomas Cockshutt had 
 a son Thomas, who died in 1736. Thomas Cockshutt, gent., was a Governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School from 1706 till his death in 1737 ; he was buried at 
 Harwood Church, Nov. 15th in that year. 
 
 Edmund Cockshutt of Harwood, gent., a brother of Thomas, died at Newhall- 
 hey, a mansion of his mother's family the Rawsthomes, and was buried at Haslingden 
 Church, Aug. 17th, 1716. 
 
 Josiah Cockshutt, Esq. (a son of George who died in 1694), is named as paying 
 jC^o to Harwood Church Fund, left by one of his ancestors. 
 
 DUXBURY OF GREAT HARWOOD, TOTTLEWORTH, &c. 
 
 Robert Duckesburie was buried at Harwood Church, Jan. 8th, 1563. Thurstan 
 Duckesburie died in 1 584 ; and John Duckesburie died in 1595, whose relict, Ellen 
 Duckesburie, died in 1599. 
 
 Nicholas Duckesburie, buried Sept. 27th, 1569, was father of Lawrence ; also, 
 probably, of Alexander Duckesburie, married, in 1569, Grace Hindle, and died in 
 1584 ; and Thomas Duckesburie, married, in 1562, Elizabeth Baron, and died in 1597. 
 
 Lawrence Duckesburie, gent., assessed for lands in Harwood Magna to a Subsidy 
 in 1570, by his first wife, Agnes (who died in May, 1594), had sons, Nicholas, bapt. 
 Aug. 19th, 1579 ; Alexander, bapt. Feb. l6th, 1582 ; and Lawrence, who died in 
 1621. In 1576, Lawrence Duckesburie the father was engaged in a law-suit with 
 Thomas Walmesley, Esq.; and about A.D. 1593, Lawrence Duckesburie, gent., gave 
 20s. to Blackburn Grammar School Stock. He occurs again as a freeholder in 1600, 
 and was taxed for his lands to a Subsidy in 1610. He had some estate in Clayton-le- 
 Moors as well as in Great Harwood, for in his plaint in the Duchy Court in 1609, 
 "Lawrence Duxburie of Much Harwood" is said to be possessed of messuages, 
 cottages, and lands in Claiton. He died in 1619 ; buried Sept. loth. His second 
 wife Elizabeth had died in 1597. 
 
 Nicholas Duxburie, gent., eldest son of Lawrence, occurs as a free tenant in 
 1621. He married, Aug. 30th, 1601, Ellen Miller, and had a son Thomas, bapt. 
 Nov. nth, 1602 ; and daughters, Margaret, Jane, and Anne. 
 
 Thomas Duxburie, of Tottleworth, married, Dec. 15th, 1628, Elizabeth Feilden, 
 and had sons, Henry, bapt. Oct. l6th, 1629 , and Thomas, bom in 1635. Thomas 
 Duxburie was buried May 20th, 1670. Elizabeth, his wife, died in July, 1666. 
 
MERCER OF OVERTOWN, &c. 543 
 
 Alexander Duxburie, of Tottleworth, brother of Nicholas above, died in 1619. A 
 later Alexander Duxburie, of Altham and Deans, died in 1692. He had a son William, 
 bom in 1659. 
 
 MERCER OF HARWOOD MAGNA. 
 
 Edmond Mercer, of Harwood Magna, was assessed to a subsidy in 1523. John 
 Mercer, of Great Harwood, died, aged fourscore and seventeen years, in 1589, buried 
 Feb. 14th ; he must thus have been born about 1493. William Mercer, of this town- 
 ship, was taxed to a subsidy in 1570, and to a military levy in 1574. Edmond Mercer 
 had a younger son Edmond, buried March nth, 1571, and Janet, his wife, was buried 
 Feb. 25th, 1571. Edmond Mercer died in Dec. 1587. Thomas Mercer married, Jan. 
 23rd, 1580, Margaret Heyworth, and had issue. John Mercer married, Nov. 14th, 
 1581, Grace Osbaldeston (she died Nov. 1604), and had a son William, bapt. Dec. 
 13th, 1591. 
 
 Edmond Mercer married, May l8th, 1582, Alice Hesketh (she died Oct. 12th, 
 1587), and had a daughter Grace, bapt. Sept. 9th, 1587. Edmond Mercer married, 
 secondly, Jan. 27th, 1588, Isabel Osbaldeston (she died July 14th, 1596). Edmond 
 Mercer ("a recusant ") was buried Jan. 26th, 16 10. 
 
 William Mercer, tanner, of Harwood, had sons, Edward, bapt. July nth, 1605 ; 
 and Thomas, bapt. Aug. 19th, 1608. Elizabeth wife of William Mercer died Sep'. 
 29th, 1613, and William Mercer died Oct. loth following. 
 
 MERCER OF OVERTOWN, TAN-HOUSE, &c. 
 
 Alexander Mercer of Harwood, married Jan. 26th, 1560, Grace Mercer. He 
 died April i6th, 1606. She died Aug. 26th, 1613. 
 
 Alexander Mercer, of Upper Town, bapt. Dec. l6th, 1597, had sons, Thomas, 
 bapt. April 3rd, 1622; Christopher, bom 1625, died 1656; and John, bom 1636; 
 and daughters, Aim, bom 1626 ; Grace, bom 1628 ; Ellen, bora 1632, and Alice, 
 born 1634. 
 
 Thomas Mercer of Overtown, son of Alexander, married, Oct. 5th, 1648, Joane 
 Warburton, and had issue, sons, Alexander, bapt. Nov. nth, 1649; Thomas, bapt. 
 Dec. nth, 1651 ; William, born 1654 ; John, born and died 1660 ; and Christopher, 
 born 1662. The father probably was Thomas Mercer, warden of Great Harwood 
 Church in 1663, and he died in Feb. i663.'4. His younger sons, "Thomas Mercer of 
 Tan-house," and "William Mercer of Tan-house," died, respectively, in 1691 and 1687. 
 
 Alexander Mercer of Tan-house, had sons, Alexander, born in 1682 ; William, 
 born and died in 1694 ; and other issue. This Alexander Mercer was a warden of 
 Harwood Church in 1708 ; and was living in 1712. 
 
 Alexander Mercer of Tan-house, "junior" in 1712, had sons, Alexander, born in 
 1 712; Leonard, born in 1715; Thomas, bapt. Feb. 19th, 1717; other sons, and several 
 daughters. He rebuilt the "Tan-house" fai-m-house in 1734, and in the front wall of 
 the house is a stone with the initials "A ME" and the date "1734." He died in 1756. 
 
 "Alexander Mercer of Blackbum," chapman, eldest son of Alexander, occurs 
 in 1766 as a trustee of Harwood Poor Stock. He died in 1767. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Mercer, of Tan-house, brother of the last-named Alexander, born 
 in 1717, was a trustee of Great Harwood Poor Stock at the time of his death, in 
 1793, aged 76. He was buried at Harwood Church, July 26th, 1793. By Jane his 
 wife (died aged 72, buried Jan. 1st, 1799), he had sons, Alexander, bapt. Jan. 23rd, 
 1759 ; William, born in 1760 ; Thomas, born in 1766 ; and daughters, Ellen, bom in 
 1 754 ; Nancy, Catherine, and Jane. 
 
544 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Mr Alexander Mercer, Thomas's eldest son and appointed his successor in the 
 local charitable trust in 1793, died about 1808. His brother — 
 
 Mr. Thomas Mercer, of Tan-house, a trustee of Harwood Poor Stock from 1814 
 to 1839, died July 12th, 1839, in his 73rd year. 
 
 MERCER OF SQUIRE'S. 
 Thomas Mercer, of Squire's, was buried in June, 1700. Edmund Mercer of 
 Squire's, gent., by his Will, dated April i6th, 1726, gave ^^50 to the Public School 
 ot Harwood. He died Sept. 14th, 1726; buried Sept. l6th. He had a son, Edmund 
 Mercer of Squire's, born in 1 704, who had sons, Edmund, bom in 1 740 ; and John. 
 Later, John Mercer of Squire's, son of Edmund, had sons, Edmund, bapt. June 1 7th, 
 1765 ; Thomas, bom in 1777, and other issue. 
 
 MERCER OF LOWER-TOWN. 
 
 Robert Mercer of Lowertown, died in March, 1669. Jane, his wife, died the 
 same year. He had a son John. 
 
 John Mercer, of Lowertown, was buried May 2nd, 1687. He had sons, William, 
 bapt. April 26th, 1648 ; and Robert, bapt. June 30th, 1655. 
 
 Robert Mercer, clerk, of Great Harwood, by Catherine his wife, whom he 
 married Aug. 5th, 1680, and who died Nov. 1720, had issue a son John, bapt. 
 Sept. 22nd, 1681. A second wife, "Dorothy, wife of Robert Mercer, clerk," died 
 in 1723. 
 
 John Mercer of Lowertown, son of Robert, the clerk, had sons, Robert, bapt. 
 Feb. 24th, 1705-6 ; John, bom 1707 ; and William, bom and died 1712. 
 
 William Mercer, surgeon, of Harwood, who died Aug., 1785, perhaps would 
 be the younger son of the above John. 
 
 ROBERTSHAW OF LOWER-TOWN. 
 
 Edmund Robertshaw, yeoman, married, Feb. 1st, 1624-5, Margaret Hindle, and 
 by her (who died in Jan. 1663) had a son Lawrence, bapt. April 5th, 1639. 
 
 Lawrence Robertshaw, yeoman and "chapman," of Lowertown, a local trader 
 who signed a petition (printed ante, p. 202) about 1660, had sons, Edmund, bapt. Nov. 
 15th, 1663, died in April, 1666; a second Edmund, died in March, 1676; Lawrence; 
 and John, bapt. Feb. 23rd, 1672 ; and a daughter Ellen, bom in 1665, died in 
 August, 1 702. He died in 1 7 1 5, buried Sept. 5th. 
 
 Lawrence Robertshaw, I think a son of Lawrence, died in June, 1712. 
 
 TURNER OF MARTHOLME AND BLACKBURN. 
 
 Robert Turner, of Martholme in 1687, had a son Thomas, and other issue. He 
 was buried at Great Harwood Church, Dec. 2nd, 1727. 
 
 Thomas Tumer of Martholme, a trustee of township charities in 1 743 and 1759, 
 had sons, William, born in 1727 ; Thcmas, bora in 1732 ; and Robert, bom in 1734, 
 who settled at Blackburn (see ante, p. 228); also a daughter Jennet, died in 1738. 
 
 Thomas Tumer of Altham, second son of Thomas, died, aged 80, April loth, 
 1812. By Ellen his wife he had sons, Thomas, James, William; and Robert Turner 
 of Shuttleworth Hall, Hapton, who died, aged 53, in 1843, having had issue by his 
 wife Sarah, daughter of Roger Green of Whalley Abbey, sons, Thomas, Roger, 
 Robert (of Shuttleworth Hall), James ; and several daughters. 
 
 William Turner of Martholme, yeoman (eldest son of the first-named Thomas), 
 married, in 1753, Jane Mitchell, by whom (she died, aged 66, in 1798), he had issue, 
 sons, Thomas, died, aged 26, in 1781 ; Robinson, died, aged 11, in 1768 ; John, bom 
 in 1761; William ; James (of Carter Place, Haslingden, first of the branch of 
 
GREAT HARWOOD CHURCH. 545 
 
 Turners of Helmshore, bom in 1759, married Mary, daughter of Ralph Ellison of 
 Accrington, gent., and died May 30th, 1832); Robert, born in 1764, died in 1782; 
 Edward (of Woodlands, Manchester, born in 1766, died May 26th, 1833); Doctor 
 Robinson, bom in 1767, died in 1768 ; and a second Robinson Turner, bom in 1769, 
 died in London, Nov. 14th, 1814 ; also, daugliters, Jennet, bora in 1769 (married 
 Mr. James Clegg of Hallfoot House, Clitheroe, and died June 1st, 181 1); and Jane 
 (born in 1772, married her cousin, William Tumer, Esq., of Mill Hill House, Livesey, 
 sometime M. P. for Blackburn). William Turner of Martholme, the father, died, 
 aged 55, May 22nd, 1782. 
 
 William Tumer of Martholme, a son of the last-named William, died, aged 38, 
 in Feb., 1796 ; and after his death, his brother-in-law, Mr. James Clegg, became 
 tenant at Martholme, and, in 1798, was appointed a trustee of the township charity, 
 as the only representative of the Turner family of Martholme then living in the town- 
 ship. Mr. Clegg removed from Martholme in 1816. He had a son James, who died at 
 Martholme, aged 3, in 1798. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
 The parochial Church of Great Harvvood has existed at least five 
 centuries ; and owed its sole ancient endowment and service to the 
 foundation of a chantry annexed to this chapel-of-ease, in the fourteenth 
 century, by the lord of the manor, Thomas Hesketh of Martholme. 
 The earliest mention of the chapel that has been noted is in the year 
 1389, when John Nowell of Mearley, who held the third part of the 
 manorial estate, called Netherton, did homage to the chief lord, Thomas 
 Hesketh, Esq., " in the chapel of Har^vood Magna." During nearly 
 200 years the priest who served the chantry also acted as incumbent of 
 the chapel, celebrating the Sunday masses, and performing other clerical 
 functions, and his pay for all services was the net issues of lands given 
 to the chatitry by the founder, and received by the Abbot and Convent 
 of Whalley, to whom the chapel pertained. Priests from that monastery 
 were nominated in succession to serve this chantry and chapel. From 
 1389 I find no reference to this chapel or its chantry-priests until, in 
 the Valor of 1 534, it is returned, concerning the chantry at Harwood : — 
 " Of the foundation of Thomas Esketh, esquire. In the hands of 
 Richard Wood, chaplain. Worth, in rents and farms of divers lands 
 and tenements in the same, per annum j£i^ 7s. 8d. Thereout in alms 
 annually distributed amongst the poor on the day of the death of the 
 Founder, 6s. 8d., and remains £,4 is. ; the tenth thereout, 8s. i}4d." 
 In 1535, the Subsidy Commissioners for Blackburn Deanery assessed 
 the "Cantart'a apud Harwode ex fundatione Thome Hesketh, arm." at 
 8s. ij^d. for tenths; and 7s. 3^d. for the subsidy. The Chantry 
 Commissioners of Henry VIII. in 1546 reported of the " The Chauntre 
 in the Chapell of Harwoode " in the following terms : — 
 
 Richard Wood p'st incumbent ther of the ffoundac'on of the antecessors of Thomas 
 Hesket esquier ther to celebrate for ther sowles and the same chapell haith license to 
 
 69 
 
546 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 crysten weclde and burieand tomynystresacramentes to the Inh'itantes nigh adjoinynge. 
 The same is within the p'och of Blakborne and distant from the p'och church 4 myles 
 and the same preist doth mynystre and celebrate ther accordinglie and ther is of the Inh'i- 
 tantes nigh adjoinynge reparyng to the same chapell the nombre of 400 houselinge 
 people. (Plate) First one chales of silver weinge by est. 8 onz. Item one vestmenle 
 of Tawny Chamlet. Item one vestment of black chamlet. (Endowment, tenants, 
 and rental.) Christopher Duxforth holdvth one ten'te with th' app't'ances lienge in 
 Oswaldetwissel in the countie of Lancastre rentinge yerlie at the feastes of W'hitsonday 
 and Martynmes equallie 26s. 8d. John .Smythe hoklylh one ten'te lienge in Croston 
 in the said countie by yere 4s. Thomas Woode hoklyth one cotage ther, 4s. , and 
 Willyam Walton holdyth one cotage ther 3s. ; in all dewe, etc., equallie us. Willyam 
 Fryth holdyth one ten'te with th' app't'ances lieng in Wigan in the said countie 19s., 
 and James Sherington holdyth one ten'te ther 12s., in all by yere dewe at the said 
 termes equallie 31s. Thomas Lathnate holdyth one ten'te with th' app't'ances lienge 
 in Asheton in Makerfeilde in the said countie renting yerlie, etc., equallie 26s. Suma 
 totallof the rentall;if4 13s. 8d. Reprisesnone. (Lane. Chantries, ed. by Raines, pp. 145-7. ) 
 
 On the dissolution of chantries and of monasteries these lands were 
 escheated to the Crown ; but the amount of the chaplain's fee in the 
 chapel of Harwood was charged on the revenues of the Duchy of Lan- 
 caster. In 1548, Richard Wood, incumbent of Harwood, was yet living, 
 and aged 80 years. Queen Mary's Commissioners in 1553 found be- 
 longing to the chapel of Harwood two bells weigliing 5 hundredweight 
 and a half, and reckoned worth, at 15s. the hundred, ;^4 2s. 6d. 
 
 In 1559 (2nd Elizabeth), the rood loft of the chapel was repaired, 
 and other restorations of the fabric were made upon the advent of the 
 Protestant Queen. In 1560 the registers of baptisms, burials, and mar- 
 riages commence, and are a perfect register onward from that date to 
 the present time. "Sir Richard Dean," perhaps the first Protestant 
 curate of Great Harwood Church, died in T578 ; buried Sept. ist ; his 
 successor was William Herris, who appears as a witness of the marriage 
 of Roger Nowell, Esq., in 1581 ; occurs again in 1593, and in 1608; 
 and died, after some 40 years' service of the cure, in 1620 (buried in the 
 church, March 4th, 1620-1). His wife, "Alice Herris wife of William 
 Herris, clerk," was buried Dec. 9th, 1608. John Nowell is named as 
 minister in 1627 ; and after him comes Richard Hargreaves, who was 
 curate in 163 r, and about that date was suspended by the bishop for 
 drunkenness and other misdemeanours. Harleian MS. 2103 contains 
 the following record of proceedings before John Bridgeman, Bishop of 
 Chester, concerning this incumbent and his abettors : — 
 
 Articles objected against William Hindle and Richard Mercer, of the chappellry 
 of Harwood, within the parishe of Blackburn and dioces of Chester, before the Right 
 Reverend ffather in God John Lo. B'pp of Chester and other his Majestie's highe 
 Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical within the province of Yorke and the dioces 
 of Chester, att the promoc'on of Richard Tompson and Rob'te Dewhurste. 
 
GREAT HARWOOD CHURCH. 
 
 547 
 
 I. Imprimis it is articled and objected that Mr. Richard Hargreaves, Curatt att 
 your chappell of Harwood, was and is excommunicate, and see hath stood for the 
 space of 9 or lo daies and this you knowe toe be true for you saw the Excommunica- 
 con sent forth under the seale of the office of the Ecclesiastical Judge before whom 
 hee should for many of his Misdemeanoures have been convented and censured accord- 
 ing to the lawes and ordinances of the Church of Englande. 2. Item, that you the 
 aforesaid William Kindle are and were at the tyme of his Excommunicacon aforesaide, 
 church or chappell Warden of the chappell of Harwood aforesaid, and unto you the 
 Excommunicacon under seal aforesaid was broughte to take notice of yt, and you were 
 sundry tymes or at least once warned to take notice of it and not to suffer the said 
 Hargreaves to preache there untill such tyme as he should be absolved and restored to 
 the Church and Sacraments again, butt you notwithstanding, in manifest contempt of 
 Ecclesiastical authorities, answered you would take noe notice of it, and that it should 
 not concern you, or words to that effect, and for all that you did allow, permitt, and 
 suffer the said Mr. Hai^reaves to preache and read prayers in the Chappel the Sundaie 
 next following. 3. Item, that you the aforesaid Richard Mercer, knowinge the pre- 
 misses to bee true, and knowinge the said Mr. Hargreaves to bee excommunicate, 
 and seeinge the Excommunicacon against him aforesaid, you did take a staffe into 
 the chappell or chancell of Harwood aforesaid, and sate downe in the seate where the 
 minister should reade and pluckte the chancel dore after you and said openlie in th«, 
 chancell that the Excommunicacon notwithstanding Mr. Hargreaves should preache, 
 and you would bear him out. And this you did in manifest contempt of Ecclesiastical 
 authoritie aforesaid. 4. Item, that you the aforesaid William Hindle and Richard 
 Mercer, during the time of your several churchwardenshippes have known or at least 
 crediblie hard and bene informed that the said Mr. Hargreaves hath made dyvers 
 clandestine marriages both between parishioners and strangers, and that he hath bene 
 of tymes drunke and that he is a comon alehouse haunter and doth usuallie or at least 
 sometymes sitt in an alehouse. 
 
 Mr. William Kippax, minister of this chapel, occurs in 1638, and 
 perhaps was appointed soon after the suspension of Hargreaves. In 
 1646, on the institution of the Lancashire Presbytery, Mr. Richard 
 Worthington, minister of Harwood, is found a member of the third or 
 Blackburn Classis ; but he had quitted the place before the survey of 
 Lancashire parishes in 1650, when it was reported of this chapel to the 
 Commissioners : — 
 
 "Harwood, a parochial chappel, distant from the parishe church four myles, hath 
 att present noe minister nor mayntenance, save only four pounds per annum paid out 
 of the Duchy lands. They consist of about 200 families, with the inhabitants of 
 Totleworth and Rishton towne, who desire to bee annexed to the said church, and to 
 bee made a parishe, and competent mayntenance allowed for a minister. " 
 
 One Mr. Sandford is named by Calamy as ejected from Harwood 
 under the Act of Uniformity in 1662 ; but I have obtained no evidence 
 of the service of this church by a minister of that name. After the 
 restoration, Mr. Thomas Bentley was some time minister of Harsvood. 
 He died here in 1674 (buried Aug. 5th), and had a son Daniel, bapt. 
 Oct 8th, 1672, who died at Harwood, aged 87, in 1759. Rev. William 
 Colton, B.A., succeeded Mr. Thomas Bentley. Mr. Colton was a 
 
548 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN- 
 
 Curate at the Blackburn Parish Church, in 1682, and he served Har- 
 wood and Darwen Chapelries some years prior to i688, when he ceased 
 on obtaining the joint curacy of Law Church and Samlesbury. (Mr. 
 Colton had a son John, bom in 1684, and daughters, Isabel, born in 
 1682 ; and Jane, born in 1686). In 1684, in answer to inquiry by 
 Primate Sancroft, who proposed to augment the small endowments of 
 the chapels in Blackburn Parish, the Vicar of Blackburn sent to Lambeth 
 the subjoined statement respecting Harwood Chapelry : — 
 
 Harwood Chappell or Church, 3 miles and % from Blackbume Church, 2 miles 
 from any other chappell. They of Harwood Magna, Tottleworth, and east end of 
 Rishton resort to it. The sacraments and all offices are here administered, and the 
 curate hath the dues. Endowment — Paid yearly out of the Exchequer £n 6s. 8d. ; 
 Given by the ancestors of Thos. Cockshot £2 2s. od. ; Dues for marrying, churching, 
 burying, &c. £2. — 30 acres of common set out, if the Parish would be at charge to 
 enclose it; but it came to nothing; they now refuse. — Mrs. ffleetwood promiseth 
 yearly £2 ; The Inhabitants promise yearly (6-15) £\o ; and hope for ;^20 per annum 
 from Mr. Hesketh, of Rufford. 
 
 In July of the same year, the subjoined additional facts were 
 communicated to Archbishop Sancroft : — 
 
 Harwood Magna — The Inhabitants of Harwood Magna have nothing to show for 
 the £^ 6s. 8d. paid out of the Exchequer by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- 
 caster, and given by Queen Elizabeth to that chapel, being hitherto paid, but with 
 much charge and trouble. Nor can they produce any settlement of 42s. given by the 
 ancestors of Mr. Thomas Cockshot, and if tymely care be not taken to secure the 
 principal, it will be in great danger to be lost, being uncertain in whose hands it lies. 
 The 30 acres of common cannot be granted, because there is no writt of partition sued 
 out between their common and other commons belonging to other neighbouring towns ; 
 but they will answer his Grace's expectation another way. There has been common 
 in the said [ground] within the few years last past notwithstanding this excuse. They 
 continue their promise of 6-l5th's, viz., ^10 per annum dureing life, and the several 
 lords of townships will oblige themselves and heyres, that upon the death or remove of 
 any tenant or subscriber, his successor shall be obliged to continue the subscription of 
 his predecessor. But this does amount to no more than a bare discourse. 
 
 The following is a letter from Mr. Bridge, agent to Mr. Hesketh, 
 of Rufford, addressed to Mr. Whalley of Sparth, in reference to the 
 20s. given to Harwood Chapel by his master. 
 
 Mr. Wholey, — I have acquainted my Master with the result of our business 
 yesterday, at Blackborne, as also of your answer, that is to be returned to the Arch 
 Bishopp's Gentlemen upon Tuesday next. And he saith that as to the six-fiRfteenes 
 he is content they be paid in case his Lordshipp's allowance will be considerable, and 
 that there may be noe new Innovations brought up about the Tyth-hay, but as to the 
 20s. that he hath paid for some time yearly to Mr. Colten, the minister, he will not 
 be tyed to pay it if the 6-ffifteenes be paid, for that was given upon the 
 account of his tenants heretofore, and he must pay part of the ffifteenes 
 himself for his demeasne though he hath as little reason to give as any 
 man, but that he is a true lover of the church, for he finds by antient deeds. 
 
GRfiAt flARWOOD CHURCH, 54^ 
 
 (liat there was a very good quantity of land given by his ancestors to the Church of 
 Harwood, which at the dissolution of Abeys and Chantreys was seized into the King's 
 hands, which I believe was the reason of that allowance out of the Dutchy by Edward 
 the 6th, and likewise land in Harwood was given by his ancestors to the Abott of 
 Wholey, in lieu of the Tyth of Martholme demeasne, which land belongs to the Abey 
 to this day ; but my Master, notwithstanding as ill dealt with for his Tythes as any in 
 the Rectoiy, I only hint these things to you to lett you know in some measure how 
 things stand, and desire you to make use of as you see occasion, but not to part with 
 it out of your hands, which is all at present from your humble Servant, 
 
 Rufforth, July the 3rd, 1684. Edw. Bridge. 
 
 Mr. Wholey, — I desire that if it should happen that I be prevented of meeting 
 the gentlemen at Black Leane Head upon Wednesday sennight, being the i6th instant, 
 about considering how to defend themselves about Tylh-hay, that you will doe what 
 you thinke good upon my Master's account and what the gentlemen conclude on my 
 Master will joyne with them. 
 
 About the same date (1684 or 1685), the Inhabitants of Great 
 Harwood addressed the Primate in the following Petition : — 
 
 To the most Reverend ffather in God Willm. Lord Arch-Bp. of Canterbury 
 Primate and Metropolitan of all England. — The humble petition of several of the 
 Inhabitants of the parochiall Chappellry of Great Harwood in the County of Lancaster, 
 — Humbly Sheweth, That within the said chappellry there are above 200 considerable 
 families and that for several years last past they have made coUec'ons amongst them- 
 selves for the maintenance of a Minister att the Chappell of Harwood being within 
 the parish of Blackburn in the afores'd county of Lanc'r, there being no stipend 
 belonginge to the said chappell but onely thirteene nobles a yeare a gift bestowed upon 
 the same (out of the Revenues of the Crowne in Lancashire) by the late gracious 
 Queene Elizabeth, w'th w'ch and your petitioners' contributions they have frequently 
 kept a Minister, your petitioners being above 5 myles distant from their parish church 
 of Blackbume and all other churches and chappells belonging to the same. And the 
 tithes yearly collected within the said chappellry beinge of the yearely value of pf6o 
 p. annum and upwards and nothinge allowed out of the same towards the maintenance 
 of a Minister. And the inhabitants of the said chappellry beinge very much of late 
 years decayed in their estates, and the chappell at present being very well supplied 
 by one Mr. Willm. Coulton Batchelor of Arts, your petitioners cannot continue him 
 long amongst them without an additionall Maintenance which in respect of their 
 poverty they are not able to contribute unless your Grace would please to take the 
 premisses into consideracon and dispose of some allowance towards his maintenance 
 out of the tithes of the said chappellry, otherwise several! families are like to be 
 deprived of the meanes of God's word preached, beinge soe far distant from other 
 places, and the chappell will become voide and fall into ruine. All which your 
 petitioners doe humbly recommend to your pious consideracon and humbly pray that 
 your Grace willbe pleased to conferr some allowance upon the same, for the main- 
 tenance of Religion and the instructinge of soe many poore Soules as otherwise may 
 suffer for want of the ordinance. And your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever 
 pray, &c. 
 
 Thos. Hesketh. Henry ffeilden. Thos. Marser. | Ch : 
 
 Roger Nowell. Will. Duckworth. John Ffletcher. j Wardens^ 
 
 Alex. Nowell. James ffeilden. William Horrabin. 
 
 Edmtmd Cockshutt W. Clayton. 
 
55° 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The Sancroft gift to the chapelries afforded to Great Harivood at 
 first a sum of £6 yearly towards the curate's stipend, now increased to 
 about jQi"] per annum from this Trust. Mr. Edward Sherdley was 
 curate of Harwood and Langho from 1688 to 1690; and in March, 
 1689, it is recorded : — "Harwood and Langho, two chapels, supplyed 
 by Mr. Sherdley, a conformable minister ; his maintenance from both 
 about ;^35 per annum or upwards." Oct. isth, 1690, the Vicar of 
 Blackburn (Price), signed an agreement with John Barlow, curate of 
 Church-kirk, by which the latter was admitted to the curateship of 
 Harwood Magna and Langho, and covenanted to reside within one or 
 other of the two chapelries, and to "read prayers and preach at the 
 chappel of Hanvood every Sunday in the forenoon, and likewise such 
 Sundays in the afternoon as he did not officiate at Langho;" but by 
 reason of the shortness of the days and badness of the ways in winter 
 between the two chapels, it was agreed that the curate might leave 
 Harwood chapel unsupplied one Sunday in the month during the 
 winter season. The curate was to " receive of the inhabitants of 
 Harwood Magna such surplice fees as by right do belong to the curate 
 of that place;" and was to "testify his subjection to the Mother Church 
 of Blackburn by preaching at it once a year if he be required." Mr. Barlow 
 held this curacy until 1 706, when Mr. Arthur Tempest succeeded him. 
 
 On the 1 8th June, 17 14, it was reported respecting this church to 
 the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty : — " In Harwood Chapel divine 
 service is performed only every other Sunday, by reason of the smallness 
 of the salary. Endowment : — Out of the Duchy Exchequer ;£^ 6s. 8d.; 
 gift of Cockshutt's ancestors £,^0, interest ^2 2s.; out of lands at 
 Thomley £6 ; out of the Rectory of Blackburn, £2 6s. 8d.; total 
 jQi^ 15s. 6d." A few years later. Bishop, Gastrell notes that here "the 
 curate has surplice fees, and a half-penny for every communicant. A 
 caveat was entered by the Vicar against granting a license to Harwood 
 and Langho, anno 1690. Harwood Magna, Tottleworth, and the east 
 end of Rishton resort to [this chapel]. The same curate serves 
 Harwood and Langho. Two wardens, chosen by the Minister and 
 principal inhabitants." A benefaction of ;^2oo by James Whalley, 
 gent., to this church, made on 27th Sept., 1735, procured from the 
 Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty a grant of ;^2oo ; and the united 
 sum of £a°° was invested for the increase of the living. A second 
 similar grant of ;^2oo from the Royal Bounty was made in 1772 to 
 meet a local benefaction of ;^ioo by Richard Cottam and Wm. Aspden, 
 and a gift of ^100 by Mrs. Pyncombe's trustees. 
 
 Rev. John Smith, minister of Harwood about 54 years from June 
 14th, 1719 to 1773, was buried at this church Jan. 26th, 1773. (His 
 
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GREAT HARWOOD CHURCH. 
 
 551 
 
 wife, Mary, was buried Aug. 25th, 1 759). A few days before the death of 
 this curate, a petition abstracted below was addressed to the Vicar : — 
 
 Petition of Wardens and principal inhabitants of Harwood Chapelry, dated Jan. 
 13th, 1773, to Revd. Vicar of Blackburn, praying that as the Revd. Mr. Smith, their 
 Curate, is at the point of death, the Vicar will appoint to the curacy Mr. EUeray, 
 Curate of Langho, a curate in the parish upwards of thirty years. .Signed by William 
 Aspden and Christopher Kindle, Chapel Wardens, and the following Inhabitants : — 
 William Duckworth, Robert Duckworth, Joshua Duckworth, F. N. Williams, Edward 
 Pickles, Thomas Taylor, Thomas Mercer, James Mercer, Wm. Peacop, John Hindle, 
 Peter Brennand, Cuthbert Gibson, Henry Taylor, John Mercer, John Hoyle, Launce- 
 lot Pearson, Jonathan Calvert, John Dugdale, Thos. Royston, Thos. Hindle, 
 Wm. Wilkinson, John Calvert, Roger Feilden, John Feilden, John Clayton, Thos. 
 Pickles, Joseph Noble, Thos. Duckworth, John Duckworth. 
 
 A terrier of sources of minister's income, drawn out in 1779, in- 
 cludes : — Churchyard 44 perches (enlarged in 1814 by 20 perches cus- 
 tomary measure, and again in 1858) ; estate called Nook, in Walton, 
 i6a. 3r. i3p. of 7 yards to the perch (exchanged for estate at Goosnargh 
 called Rig, 67a. ir. 29P. statute measure); messuage and tenement in 
 Great Harwood, called Mercer's, purchased out of Queen Anne's Bounty, 
 loa. ir. 29p.; ^1 3s. per ann. from School Lands; ;^3 i6s. 2d. Duchy 
 Rent ; ;^3 interest of Cockshutt's money ; ^4 9s. 2d. half-yearly by 
 Vicar of Blackburn. 
 
 In 1822, a Parliamentary Grant of ;^4oo accrued by lot to this 
 benefice ; and on Oct. 6th, 1841, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners made 
 an annual grant of ;^2i to Great Har\vood Church. 
 
 The sources of income of this benefice I find stated as under in May, 1859 : — 
 Glebe land and farm-house, ;if40; a cottage in Great Harwood, let with the Glebe 
 Farm, £^ 5s.; A pasture field in Great Harwood, £4 los.; School-land, Great Har- 
 wood, ;£'3 ; Cockshutt's Benefaction, paid by Mrs. Waterworth, Shaw House, Slaid- 
 burn, £2 los. ; Duchy rent, payable at Preston in November, £4 6s. 8d. ; Sancroft 
 and Fleetwood Trust, ;^i6 ; Rig Farm, Goosnargh, £41 ; Queen Anne's Bounty on 
 ^^495 7s. I id., at 3 %, ;^I4 17s. 2d.; Ecclesiastical Commissioners, £21 ; Rent of 
 Church Yard, £1 los. ; Dues and Fees (this year), ;^35 ; total, ;^i86 i8s. lod. The 
 present value of the living is ^£^300 per annum. 
 
 The Church of St. Bartholomew in Great Harwood stands on a 
 prominent site on the hill slope, above the north end of the modem 
 town. It is surrounded by a large graveyard which overlooks the yale 
 of Calder northward ; and is shaded with old trees. The fabric of the 
 church is unpretentious, consisting of nave, with clerestory, north and 
 south aisles, porch in the south aisle, vestry on the north side, and the 
 stout square tower, buttressed and embattled, common to the old- 
 churches of North-East Lancashire. I'here is no chancel ; the east 
 window of the nave is a simple mullioned one of three lights ; this and 
 the smaller three-light windows of nave and aisles have semi-circular 
 
552 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 heads without tracery. An old traceried window is above the doorway 
 on the west aspect of the tower. The tower contains one bell. The in- 
 terior has no gallery ; the communion is separated from the nave by an 
 altar-rail. In the south aisle at the east end, where stood the Hesketh 
 chantry-chapel, the piscina is recessed in the wall. What remains of an 
 ancient font is fixed in the porch ; the font now used is an octagonal 
 one of gritstone, initialed "I E" with the date "1662". Arcades of 
 moulded arches springing from octagonal columns separate nave from 
 aisles. The organ-chamber is at the east end of the north aisle. In the 
 east window of the south aisle are pieces of antique stained glass, bear- 
 ing the arms of Hesketh. The church is supposed to have been rebuilt 
 early in the Tudor period ; and again restored in 1559. Later alterations 
 were made in the seventeenth century. The recent Parliamentary 
 Return of Church-building records that this church was re-benched and 
 re-roofed in 1864, cost ^413; heating apparatus fixed in 1871, cost 
 ;^95 ; new organ, 1872, cost ;if 120 ; these sums were raised by volun- 
 tary subscriptions. Sittings 367, of which 70 are free. 
 
 The following is a list of incumbents of Great Harwood, so far as I have been 
 able to trace their succession : — Richard Wood, chantry priest, occurs 1534 and 1548 ; 
 Robert Elder, chantiy priest of Harwood Parva (? Magna) occurs 1553 ; Sir Richard 
 Dean, 1551-1578; William Herris, 1580-1620; John Nowell, occurs 1627; Richard 
 Hargreaves, occurs circa 1630 ; William Kippax, occurs 1638 ; Richard Worthington, 
 Presbyterian minister, occurs 1646; Thomas Bentley occurs 1672, died 1674 ; William 
 Colton, B.A., occurs 1682, resigned 1688; Edward Sherdley, 1689- 1690; John 
 Barlow, 1690-1705; Arthur Tempest, 1 706- 1 7 1 7 ; George Brown, 1717-1719 ; John 
 Smith, 1719-1773 ; Thomas Elleray, 1773-1780; William Greenwood, 1780-1789; 
 Borlase Willock, 1789-1802 ; William Barton, 1803-1818 ; Robert Dobson, 1819- 
 1861 ; Rev. Wm. Maude Haslewood, B.A., present Vicar, instituted, April, i86l. 
 
 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OF OUR LADY AND 
 ST. HUBERT. 
 This beautiful Gothic Church was built by James Lomax, Esq., lord of the manor, 
 for the use of the Roman Catholic inhabitants, together with the adjoining Presbytery 
 and Schools, at a charge of ^f 7000. The church was consecrated in September, 1859, 
 and is dedicated to " Our Lady and St. Hubert." The design was by Mr. E. W. 
 Pugin, and the style is decorated gothic. The plan of the church includes nave. Soft, 
 by 30ft. ; transeptal aisles ; chantry chapel I2^ft. square; and octagonal chancel, 
 25ft. by 25ft. A handsome tower rises near the middle of the nave on the south side, 
 and with spire has an altitude of 127ft. The belfry contains one bell weighing 13 cwt., 
 cast by Warner and Sons. The windows of nave, transepts, and chancel are large, 
 richly traceried, and filled with stained glass. The altar is a rich and artistic design. 
 The site of the church is on an eminence at the east end of the Lowertown. It con- 
 tains 700 sittings. The schools are of stone, well-built, and are used for Day Schools. 
 Rev. Wm. Dunderdale is the rector. 
 
 Independent Chapel, Queen Street. — In the year 1812, Roger Cunliffe, 
 Esq. , a native of this township, fitted up a room in Great Harwood for public worship 
 
DISSENTING CHAPELS IN GREAT HARWOOD. 
 
 553 
 
 and for a Sunday School, and founded this congregation of Independents. Students 
 from the Blackburn Independent College were the ordinary preachers at this mission 
 for about thirty years, until the removal of the College to Manchester in 1842. No 
 permanent place of worship was provided until the year 1837, when the present chapel 
 in Queen Street was erected, costing about ;f400. In 1839, the Great Harwood con- 
 gregation was returned as consisting of 1 50 persons, and the Sunday School then con- 
 tained 200 scholars. The chapel was improved by the erection of galleries in 1 850, 
 costing £2cx>. The school-building in the rear of the chapel was added in 1854, and 
 cost ^500; and class-rooms were added later, costing ;f 100. The minister's house 
 was built in 1 869, at an expenditure of ;^45o. The Sunday and Day Schools are 
 efficient and flourishing. The chapel, a plain structure, contains 350 sittings. Rev. 
 J. Preston is the present minister. 
 
 Wesleyan Chapel. — Great Harwood is named as a Methodist preaching-place 
 in Blackburn Circuit in 1787. A local tradition exists that Wesley preached on two 
 occasions in Harwood, once in a cottage in Church-lane, when he was stoned by the 
 rabble, and a second time at the house of a Mr. Frank Clayton, at the back of Bowlee 
 Hill. Mr. Clayton's house was the first Methodist meeting-place ; later their worship 
 was conducted in a room at Cross Gates, and then a school-room at the Cliff was used 
 for preaching. In 1822, a small chapel was built at Butts, which was the Wesleyan 
 place of worship until 1849, when the reform party of seceders took possession of the 
 chapel. The Wesleyan Society built the present chapel in Chapel-street in 1853. It 
 was enlarged in 1857, and schools have been annexed. The chapel, a plain square 
 building, contains 270 sittings. 
 
 United Free Methodist Chapel. — A section of the Wesleyan Society in 
 Great Harwood that separated in 1849, used the old Methodist Chapel at Butts some 
 years, and then built the present chapel and schools in Cattle-street, opened in 1864. 
 The chapel is a neat edifice, and contains about 400 sittings. The old chapel at Butts 
 has since been disused for religious purposes. 
 
 Primitive Methodist Chapel. — A chapel was built by the Primitive Metho- 
 dists in Great Harwood in the year i860, which is called the "Jubilee Chapel." It 
 is situate in Mercer-street, and contains about 300 sittings. 
 
 CHARITIES OF GREAT HARWOOD. 
 
 Sir Edmund Assheton's Dole, or Poor Stock. — January, 1680, 
 Sir Edmund Assheton of Whalley, Bart., gave £,^ as a common Stock 
 for the Poor. Interest to be distributed every St. Thomas's Day at the 
 discretion of the Curate, Churchwardens and Overseers, and the two 
 Trustees, Thomas Cockshutt and John Mercer. The following record 
 is contained in the Trustees' Book of Accounts : — " 1690, Dec. 20. 
 Memorandum that the day and yeare abovesaide the Right Worshipfull 
 Sr. Edmund Ashton of Whalley Baronet hath formerly been pleased to 
 give and bestowe the sume of Thirty Pounds as a Common Stock to bee 
 soe lodged, placed, and disposed of as may bee for the most advantage 
 of the Poore within Great Harwood, and the Interest of the same to bee 
 annually distributed upon every Saint Thomas Day before Christmas 
 respectively among the most indigent poore within Great Harwood 
 aforesaid at the discretion of John Barlow, clerke, George Cockshutt. 
 
 70 
 
554 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 gent., Robert Feilden, chapman, and John Mercer of Heyes, yeoman, 
 trustees for that purpose appointed for the time being. We the saide 
 Trustees have distributed the due interest hereof as followeth, the day 
 and yeare abovesaid. As witness our hands, John Barlow, Geo, 
 CocKSHUTT, RoBT. Feilden, John Mercer." Subsequent gifts had 
 increased the yearly value of the Dole in 1741 to ;^4 9s. 4d.j among 
 them a sum of ^10 given by Will of Edward Mercer of Squires, in 
 1726, whose executors, Mr. Whittaker and Mr. James Nowell, paid the 
 first year's interest of los. on Sept. 13th, 1727. Thomas Cockshutt, 
 gent, gave ;^5o to the Stock in 1737. In 1742, Mrs. Mary Nightingale 
 gave ^173, the interest to be spent in bread for distribution amongst the 
 poor. The capital of this gift was invested along with the former poor- 
 stock in the purchase of an estate of 14 customary acres of land at 
 Roughlee, in Pendle Forest, now called Dole House estate, in 1743, 
 for the sum of ;^222 6s. The Dole House was repaired in 1749. 
 Other benefactions accrued to the Charity in 1756, when Mr. Alexander 
 Mercer gave ^^20, and Rev. Thomas Feilden ;^io. In 1765, the 
 receipts of the trust were: — Dole House rent ^8 5s.; Interest from 
 John Slayter 15s.; Interest from James and Robert Cross 13s. 3d.; 
 Interest from Thomas Taylor los. ; total ;^io 2s. 3d. To Mr. Peacop 
 for loaves j£6 is. 4d. Balance to distribute in money ^4 os. iid. 
 The interest from Thomas Taylor was on ^10 left by the Will of Richard 
 Walmsley of Great Harwood. The dole of bread Mrs. Nightingale the 
 donor " ordered and appointed to be distributed at Harwood Chapel 
 every Sabbath day, fourteen two-penny wheaten loaves to poor people 
 belonging to the said township not having a weekly or other allowance 
 for them, and not to any one else except they were not well or old and 
 impotent and could not come there." 
 
 1770. The Rev. Mr. John Smith, Curate of Harwood, gave for the 
 use of the poor of the said township five pounds ; the interest thereof 
 annually arising to be distributed every St. Thomas' Day amongst the 
 most indigent Poor within Great Harwood at the discretion of Thomas 
 Mercer, William Aspden, and Thomas Turner, nominated trustees. 
 
 The School Trust. — Col. Roger Nowell of Read Hall built a 
 school on his estate in the Netherton, in this township, in the year 1696; 
 but he did not endow it, and more than twenty years after the school 
 was erected it was found that there was no teaching in it, for the master 
 could not get a maintenance. Mr. Edward Mercer, of Squires, by Will 
 dated April i6th, 1726, bequeathed ^^50 to Thomas Hesketh and 
 Roger Nowell, Esqrs., and their heirs, and to the churchwardens and 
 overseers of Great Harwood, in trust to place the same out, and pay 
 the interest thereof to such Schoolmaster as should teach in the School- 
 
GREAT HARWOOD CHARITIES. 555 
 
 house erected by Col. Nowell, for the teaching so many poor children of 
 the township of Great Harwood as to the trustees should seem con- 
 venient. Another benefaction was that of Mrs. Mary Nightingale, in 
 1 742, who gave a sum to be " placed out at Interest by the discretion of 
 her trustees hereafter named, and the interest arising yearly therefrom to 
 be paid out and applied to the Schoolmaster in Harwood aforesaid, pro- 
 vided the said Schoolmaster teaches and instructs two such poor chil- 
 dren of the said township as the said trustees shall think fit to put and 
 place in the said school from time to time," and appointed the "Rev. Mr. 
 John Smith, Curate of Harwood, Alexander Mercer, Thomas Mercer, 
 and Thomas Swain, gentlemen, trustees in her place and stead to distri- 
 bute the said charity and to place in the said school two poor children 
 of the said township, and for them the said trustees or a major part of 
 them to elect and appoint others when and as often as they shall think 
 fit and so on to futurity." William Hindle, by Will dated Feb. 22nd, 1820, 
 bequeathed to the minister of Great Harwood Church, R.G. Lomax, Esq., 
 and others, £150 on trust, the interest to be applied for the sole benefit 
 of the master of the School in Great Harwood, late the property of 
 Alexander Nowell, Esq., upon condition that the inhabitants of the 
 town should within one year raise and apportion the further sum of 
 ;^i5o upon the same trusts. The inhabitants thereupon subscribed 
 ^171 19s. 6d.; and thereout ^150, added to- the legacy of Mr. Hindle, 
 made a sum of ^306, which was placed at interest, and in 1825 was 
 yielding ^12 15s. per annum. In 1766, sums of ^^40 los. belonging 
 to the Poor, ^64 belonging to the School, and ^^29 belonging to the 
 Minister of Great Harwood Church, were laid out in the purchase of 
 lands in Great Harwood called Moor Fields, and now called " The 
 School Lands." The proportions of the rent of these lands paid in 
 1825 were: — To the School, ^2 17s. 6d.; Poor, ^i i6s. 6d.; Minister, 
 ;£i 6s. The trustees of the School were, recently. Rev. W. M. Haslewood, 
 Vicar of Great Harwood, and the Vicars of Blackburn and Whalley. 
 
 The present National School hi Queen Street, Built in 1837, superseded the old 
 school built by Col. Nowell, which was converted into cottages, and the rents paid to 
 the School Fund. Towards the erection, and enlargement a few years ago, of the 
 new school, two grants of ;£i23 and ^^139 13s. 4d. were obtained from Government. 
 The master is appointed by the trustees of the endowment, and in respect of that 
 income teaches 12 poor children as free scholars. 
 
 The three Day Schools in Great Harwood under Government inspection appear 
 SIS follows in the Report of the Education Department for 1874-5: — 
 
 Average Annual Grant. 
 
 Attendance. £ s. d. 
 
 National School - - - 294 - 228 3 i 
 
 Independent (British) School - 197 - 147 15 o 
 
 St Hubert's Roman Catholic School 143 - 11180 
 
5s6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN- 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— THE TOWNSHIP OF LITTLE HARWOOD. 
 
 Name — Topography and Population — Descent of the Manor — Clayton of Little Harwood Hall — 
 Hoyle — Little Harwood Hall — Minor Freeholders — Bolton of Bank Hey — Clayton of Ciinliffe — 
 Foster, and Peel, of Bank Hey— Rishton of Hartstonley— Commons' Enclosure. 
 
 LITTLE HARWOOD, anciently named Harewode Parva, is a small 
 township of 730 statute acres, contiguous to Blackburn on the 
 north-east, and occupying the slopes of a hill which extends towards 
 Great Harwood eastward. The population is agricultural, excepting that 
 portion which occupies a number of cottages recently built for workpeople 
 at the mills within the township of Blackburn. The population since the 
 Census of 1801 has varied as follows : — 1801, 104 persons ; 181 1, 126 ; 
 1821, 210; i83r, 341 ; 1841, 322 ; 1851, 316; 1861, 270; 1871, 311. 
 The Public Cemetery of Blackburn is within Little Harwood, on the 
 west border of the township. Little Harwood contains no place of 
 worship, or Day or Sunday School ; the inhabitants avail themselves 
 of the church and school provision of Blackburn near at hand. The old 
 road from Blackburn to Whalley and Clitheroe traverses the township. 
 DESCENT OF THE MANOR. 
 Harwood Parva on the Norman settlement was attached to Walton- 
 in-le-Dale as one of its outlying members, and as such was granted by 
 Henry de Lascy to Robert Banastre, lord of Newton, temp. Henry II. 
 It remained thus feudally subject to the lords of Walton — -Banastres, 
 Langtons, and Hoghtons in succession — until the seventeenth century. 
 But the manor lands of Harwood Parva were granted in the thirteenth 
 century by one of the lords of the fee of Walton to one of the De 
 Clayton family, lords of Clayton-in-les-Moors. The Langtons and 
 Hoghtons, subsequently, received service and a rent from the Claytons 
 on account of their estate in Little Harwood. The Will of Sir Thomas 
 Langton, dated 1569, names testator's rights in "Little Harwodde " as 
 a dependency of Walton; and half a century onward (1625), John Clayton 
 was found to hold the reputed " manor of Parva Harwood " of " Sir 
 
CLAYTON OF LITTLE HARWOOD HALL. 557 
 
 Gilbert Hoghton, Knt., as of his Manor of Walton, in free socage," by 
 4s. per annum acknowledgment. 
 
 CLAYTON, LORDS OF HARWOOD PARVA. 
 There is difficulty in tracing the early descent of that branch of the 
 Claytons of Clayton-in-les-Moors which settled upon the Little Harwood 
 estate. These names occur : — Ralph de Clayton, living in 1251, was 
 father of Henry de Clayton, seneschal of Blackbumshire in 1266 or 
 1277 ; he, I suppose, was the Henry de Clayton who, by the Testa de 
 Nevill, held the 8th part of a Knight's fee in Harwode temp. Henry 
 HI. A later "Henry de Clayton de Harwood" was a juror at the 
 inquisition respecting Henry de Shuttleworth's estate in 1326 ; and his 
 son, Ralph de Clayton, son of Henry de Parva Harwood, occurs in 
 1349, as grantor of the corn mill of Button, by a deed dated 22nd 
 Edw. III. This Ralph had a son, Henry de Clayton, who occurs in 
 1373, and held manorial estate in Button. He died before 1391, when 
 John de Baylegh was found holding land in Button " of the heir of 
 Henry de Clayton." 
 
 The genealogy of these Claytons is a blank during the next 
 century, and the connected descent begins with Geoffrey Clayton, living 
 temp. Henry VIL He, in the iglh Henry VH. (1504), vested the Manor 
 of Harwood Parva in trust, during the nonage of the next male heir, in 
 Sir Edward Stanley, after lord Monteagle, and died shortly after that 
 settlement. He had two sons, John, and George. John Clayton married 
 and had issue two daughters, Ellen and Rose, and died before 15 16. 
 
 George Clayton, second son of Geoffrey, had a son and heir, Robert 
 Clayton, to whom, as next male heir, Edward Stanley, Lord Monteagle, 
 Geoffrey's trustee, released the estate in Little Harwood, a.d. 1516. 
 
 Robert Clayton, lord of Harvvood Parva, had issue, sons, William, 
 Lawrence, a clerk ; Robert ; and George. Robert Clayton the father 
 died before 1540. 
 
 William Clayton, of Little Harwood, son of Robert, was in 
 possession in the 31st Henry VHI., when he sued George Lyvesey and 
 others for distress and rescue of cattle trespassing on his lands in Little 
 Harwoode and Rishton. He had another litigation in 1556 with his 
 brother, Lawrence Clayton, parson of Eythrop-roding, in Essex, in a 
 dispute as to title to lands called Churchholde in Little Harwood and 
 Blackburn. The dispute was renewed in the reign of Elizabeth. "William 
 Clayton, gent." was named a first Governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School in 1567. By his wife, a daughter of — Livesey, he had sons, John; 
 Thomas (of Church-house, near Bunkenhalgh); Edward ; and Ralph. 
 
 John Clayton succeeded his father before 1570, when he was 
 assessed to a Subsidy for his lands in Little Harwood. John Clayton is 
 
558 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 named in a list of "gentlemen of best calling" in the county in 1588 ; 
 and, in 1600, "John Clayton of Little Harwood, gent." appears on a 
 list of local freeholders. His brother, Thomas Clayton of Church- 
 house, Parish of Whalley, gent., dying in 1608, gave 40s. to Blackburn 
 Grammar School, which John Clayton paid to the trust, Aug. 1st, 1608. 
 John Clayton died in January, 1624-5, ^"^ was buried at Blackburn 
 Jan. 27th. His wife had died in 162 1. The Inq. post morl. was taken 
 at Preston, Oct. ist, ist Charles I. (1625). It was found that he had 
 died seized of the Manor of Parva Harwood, held of Sir Gilbert Hoghton, 
 Knt., as of his manor of Walton in free socage, by 4s. per annum, with 
 six messuages, one water-mill, 200 acres of land, meadow and pasture in 
 Parva Harwood ; also of 8 acres of land, meadow, and pasture in Black- 
 bum, held of the Archbishop of Canterbury as of the manor [Rectorial 
 moiety] of Blackburn, in free socage ; and 6 messuages, one water-mill, 
 250 acres of land, meadow, and pasture in Upper Wiersdale. John 
 Clayton, son of Thomas Clayton, brother of the aforesaid John Clayton, 
 was next heir, aged 19 years, 5 months, and 10 days. In the Escheat 
 record the Will of the then deceased John Clayton is cited, which is 
 dated Jan. 24th, 1624, in which testator, being seized to himself and his 
 heirs in fee simple of and in one capital messuage with lands in Upper 
 Wiersdale, called Lentworth, devises the said messuage and all lands 
 appurtenant unto Thomas Clayton his nephew, younger son of Thomas 
 Clayton his late brother deceased, for life, remainder to his heirs male ; 
 in default to John Clayton, elder brother of the said Thomas, his heirs 
 male ; remainder to Edward Clayton of Manchester, gent., testator's 
 brother, and his heirs male; remainder to Ralph Clayton, another brother, 
 and his heirs male, &c. 
 
 Thomas Clayton, of Church-house, brother of the testator, who had 
 died, as stated, in 1608, had by Bridget his wife, daughter of Robert 
 Tunstall of Aldcliffe, the two sons above-named as heirs to their uncle, 
 John, inheriting Little Hanvood manor ; and Thomas, inheriting Lent- 
 worth in Upper Wyresdale ; also a daughter Margaret, wife of Thomas 
 Birtwistle of Huncoat, Esq. Thomas Clayton of Lentworth, gent., 
 married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Talbot of Salesbury, Knight, 
 and had a son Thomas. Thomas the father died in 1658. Thomas 
 Clayton the second of Lentworth, bom m 1631, married Grace, daughter 
 of James Moore of Harrock, Co. York, and had sons, Thomas, aged 5 
 years in 1664 ; John, and James ; and daughters Catherine and Margaret. 
 
 John Clayton of Little Harwood, gent., eldest son of Thomas and 
 heir to John his uncle in 1625, was elected a govemor of Blackbum 
 Grammar School the same year. He married, first, Alice, daughter of 
 George Coxe [ ? Cockshutt ] of Great Harwood, gent., by whom he had 
 
CLAYTON OF LITTLE HARWOOD HALL. 559 
 
 issue, sons, Thomas, bapt. May 7th, 1628; John, bom in 1629; and William, 
 died young ; daughters, Bridget, married Robert Cowdrey, of Halifax ; 
 Alice, bom June, 1632 ; and Margaret, bapt. Oct. 8th, 1637, married 
 Bartholomew Shuttleworth, younger son of Richard Shuttleworth, of 
 Gawthorpe, Esq. John Clayton married, secondly, Feb. 26th, 1654-5, 
 1655. John Clayton, gent, died in i66o, and was buried at Blackburn, 
 Oct. 25th. " Mary Clayton, of Little Harwood, widow," was buried May 
 Mary Shaw of Blackburn, and had by her a son Thomas, born Aug., 
 5th, 1679. 
 
 Thomas Clayton, gent., eldest son of John, died before his father 
 in 1648. By his wife Dorothy, daughter of George Murray, parson of 
 Bury, he had sons, John, and George, both of whom died in infancy, the 
 last in April, 1654, so that on the death of John Clayton, gent., father 
 of Thomas, in r66o, the estates descended to his second son John, and 
 his heirs. 
 
 John Clayton, of Little Harwood, gent., entered at the Visitation 
 of 1664, then aged 35, married, first, Feb. 26th, 1655-6, Jane, daughter 
 of Roger Whalley of Toad Hole [Todd Hall], Blackburn, who had 
 issue a son Thomas, bom Jan. 3rd, 1657, died May, 1658 ; and a 
 daughter Alice, bom Oct. 7th, 1656, married, Jan. 8th, 1676-7, Albin 
 Davenport of Bramhall, Co. Chester, Esq. John Clayton's wife Jane died 
 in July, 1658. His second wife, whom he married June 21st, 1660, was 
 Susan, daughter of Nicholas Rishton, of Antley, gent.; she died in 1668 
 (buried March 4th), leaving issue, John, bapt. April 8th, 1661 ; Susan, died 
 young in 1666; Lydia; Ruth, bom Feb., 1665-6; and Elizabeth, died 
 July, 1677. John Clayton, gent, was buried at Blackbum, Feb. 19th, 
 1667-8, dying at the early age of 38. His infant son John, being the 
 eldest surviving, was heir to the estate. 
 
 John Clayton, gent, married, first, Sept 9th, 1684, Ellen Wilkinson, 
 who died in childbed of a daughter, and was buried Aug. 9th, 1685 ; 
 this child, Ellen, bapt. Aug. 7th, died in infancy. Mr. Clayton's second 
 wife was daughter of Mr. Thomas Crook, of Abram Hall. Issue, sons, 
 John, bapt. Jan. 8th, 1687, buried April 17th, 1688; Thomas, bapt May 
 5th, 1688; William, bom 1697 ; Christopher, bom 1699; Edward, bom 
 i7or ; Nicholas ; Samuel, bom 1705 ; John, bom 1707 ; and Stephen, 
 bom 1711 ; also daughters, Susannah, bom 1690; Mary, bom 1693; 
 and Alice, born 1695. John Clayton, gent, was elected a Governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School in 1682. He died in May, 1721 (buried 
 at Blackbum, May loth), aged 60 years. 
 
 Thomas Clayton, Esq., who succeeded his father, was a Doctor of 
 Medicine, and in 1 720, when elected a Governor of Blackbum Grammar 
 School, is described as " Dr. Thomas Clayton, of Manchester." He 
 
56o HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 married Abigail, daughter of Mr. — Derbyshire, about the year 
 1728. Issue, sons, John, bapt. Jan. 8th, 1728-29; William, bapt. June 
 18th, 1731 ; Thomas, bapt. April ist, buried Oct. 7th, 1736 ; a second 
 Thomas, bapt. Sept. 2 sth, 1737; and Edward, bom Sept. 2nd, 1741. 
 Thomas Clayton, Esq., M.D., died in May, 1759. In 1747 he had been 
 made by the Will of Alexander Osbaldeston a trustee of his estate, and 
 had conveyed to him and his heirs for ever the chapels, pews, and burial- 
 ground of the Osbaldestons in Blackburn Church, with the right of 
 nomination of parish clerk and one churchwarden. In 1760, "Abigail 
 Clayton, of Larkhill, Blackburn, widow and executrix of Thomas Clay- 
 ton," as surviving feoffee of Alexander Osbaldeston, nominated an 
 incumbent to Lytham Church. 
 
 John Clayton, Esq., son of Thomas, married, in 1754, Margaret, 
 daughter and sole heir of Richard Townley of Carr, Esq., and had issue, 
 sons, Thomas, bom May i6th, 1755; and Richard Townley, died an 
 infant in June, 1756; and daughters, Martha, born in 1760, died un- 
 married, aged 74, Oct. 28th, 1834 ; and Margaret, married to Dr. James 
 Chew. The mother, Mrs. Clayton, died in 1779. John Clayton, Esq., 
 was a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School, elected in 1 749 ; a Jus- 
 tice of the Peace for Lancashire ; and Major in the Royal Lancashire 
 Volunteers. He died at Little Harwood Hall, aged 74, April 17th, 1803. 
 
 Thomas Clayton, Esq., son of John, was Colonel of the Royal 
 Lancashire Volunteers ; fifty-eight years a magistrate for the county ; and 
 high sheriff of the county in 1808. Towards the close of his life. Col. 
 Clayton sold the Little Harwood estate in lots to several parties, and 
 afterwards resided on the estate inherited from his mother at Carr Hall, 
 where he died, aged 79, Feb. 12th, 1835. He had married, Dec. nth, 
 1788, Susan, daughter of Robert Nuttall of Bury (she died Dec. 23rd, 
 1789), but had no issue by her. He had a natural daughter Elizabeth, 
 whom he adopted as his heiress, and she married (two days before Col. 
 Clayton's death), Feb. loth, 1835, Edward Every (second son of Sir 
 Henry Every, Bart.), who took the surname of Clayton. Edward Every 
 Clayton, Esq., by his first wife, the heiress of Carr, had issue Thomas 
 Every Clayton, and several younger sons and daughters. His second 
 wife was Eliza Mary Holgate, grand-daughter and eventual heiress of 
 Nicholas Halsted of Rowley, gent. 
 
 John Hoyle, gent., of Haslingden, who purchased of Col. Clayton, 
 in r8i5. Little Harwood Hall and that portion of the estate called the 
 hall-farm, resided afterwards at the Hall, and died there, aged 60, in 
 June, 1834. By his wife Mary, daughter of Roger Brandwood, gent, 
 (whom he married in 1801, and who died March 5th, 1824), John 
 Hoyle, Esq., had issue four sons and six daughters. His son, Mr. 
 
LANDOWNERS OF LITTLE HARWOOD. 561 
 
 Henry Hoyle, succeeded to the Little Harwood property. He was a 
 solicitor, and for twenty years was Clerk to the Blackburn Borough 
 Magistrates. He died at Little Harwood Hall, in Dec, 1872, leaving 
 issue two sons and two daughters. In June, 1873, was advertised for 
 sale the remnant of the manorial estate attached to Little Harwood 
 Hall, consisting of the hall and about 64 acres of land in Little Harwood, 
 a piece of land in Blackburn called Church-hill, and several chief rents. 
 Henry Robinson, Esq., bought the estate, and now resides at the Hall. 
 
 Little Harwood Hall, ancient seat of the Claytons, was rebuilt in 
 the 1 7th century, and the south front of the hall yet exhibits the usual 
 features of Lancashire halls of that date, gabled wings projecting from a 
 central block, and numerous small mullioned windows. The north side 
 was rebuilt about 1731, in the semi-classic style then in vogue for do- 
 mestic structures, and has a plain red brick frontage, with pedimented 
 doorway, and square windows. The situation of the hall, gardens, and 
 plantations is an angle of ground bounded on two sides by the Little 
 Harwood brook, which divides Little Hanvood from Blackburn. 
 
 Other landowners in the township are Mr. William Carr, who has 
 400 statute acres in Little Harwood and Blackburn ; Mr. John Clarke, 
 Higher Cunliffe, 147 acres; Blackburn Burial Board, 45 acres. 
 
 BOLTON OF BANK-HEY. 
 
 About the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII., a family of Bolton appears in 
 tenure of a small freehold estate at Bank-hey, in Little Harwood. In the Subsidy of 
 1523 Roger Boulton of Parva Harwood is assessed at 40s. in goods. It was probably 
 the same Roger Boulton who, at the survey of the estates of Whalley Abbey, in 1537, 
 held a house, garden, and 36 acres of land in Parva Harwood, paying 38s. lid. rent. 
 
 William Boulton of Bancke-hey, a descendant, if not son, of the above Roger, 
 held this freehold, and died in 1594. An Inventory dated the 12th March, 1594-S, 
 " of all the Goods and Catties which were latly Will Boultown of Banncke hey in 
 Lyttl Harwood," makes the total value of effects ;^236 12s., including £s^ 9^- 4^. in 
 " oxen, kyne, younge beasts, and horses ;" ^f 20 in " oats and barley ;" ;^io in sheep, 
 ;^io in "bedding and bedcloathes, " and ^14 l6s. 2d. in "money in his chyste and all 
 debts ;" ^3 13s. 4d. in "hay turves and coles ;" and ^3 13s. 4d. in "brass and pewdar. " 
 
 George Bolton of Bank-hey, in the year 1600, gave 6s. 8d. to the Free Grammar 
 School of Blackburn. He died Jan. 13th, 1617-18, his wife having died before him, 
 Nov. 26, 1617. The escheat, taken at Blackburn, March 5th, 1617-18, shows that he 
 held lands in Little Harwood of the King in socage, and cites the Will of the deceased, 
 dated Jan. 2nd, 1617-18, in which testator, George Boulton of Banke-hey, desires to 
 be buried near his father in Blackburn Church ; directs that his eldest son, William 
 Bolton, shall have the half of all his lands, and that the other half, then in the hands 
 of his mother and brethren, shall be divided amongst his five younger sons and one 
 daughter. Testator's loving friends, Thomas Barton of Smithells, Esq., Richard 
 Rishton of Sparth, gent., and Seath Bushell of Preston, gent., to be supervisors of 
 the Will. William Bolton, son and heir, was aged 20 years, 10 months and i day at 
 his father's death. George Bolton's mother, Maria Bolton, was living at Blackburn at 
 
 71 
 
562 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the date of the inquisition. Thomas Bolton, a younger son of George Bolton of 
 Bank-hey, was bapt. Feb. 5th, 1601 ; George, another son, was bapt. Aug. 15th, 1605. 
 
 William Bolton of Bank-hey, died about two years after his father, March 7th, 
 1619, seized of half a messuage, garden, 20 acres of land, 4 acres meadow, 10 acres 
 pasture, 6 acres woodland in Little Harvvood. His Will is dated March tst, 1618-19. 
 Richard Bolton, his brother, was next heir ; and Mary Bolton, widow of William, 
 was living at Blackburn in 1619. John Bolton, of Bank-hey, a brother of William, 
 occurs in a list of Free tenants in 1621. He died in 1625, and was buried Aug. 15th. 
 
 Richard Bolton of Bank-hey, heir to his brother William Bolton, held the tene- 
 ment from the year 1619 until his death in 1685. He had sons William and George, 
 and a daughter Ann. In 1650, Richard Boulton appears as a freeholding tenant in 
 Blackburn Wapentake, paying i id. yearly to Clitheroe Castle. 
 
 George Bolton of Little Harwood, died in 1669. His Will, dated Jan. 4th; 
 1669-70, names his children and nieces (not distinguished), George Bolton, Robert, 
 Katherine, Ellis, Ann, and Elizabeth Bolton ; Ann Hoffman ; and a brother Richard. 
 Testator appoints his eldest son, George Bolton, sole executor, who proved the Will 
 at Chester, Feb. 3rd, 1669. 
 
 George Bolton of Little Harwood, yeoman, died on the 24th April, 1 731, and was 
 buried on the 26th at Blackburn. The burial register is authority for the statement 
 that he had reached the great age of " 1 13 years. " 
 
 CLAYTON OF CUNLIFFE. 
 
 William Clayton of Cundclyffe, in Little Harwood, gent., was second son of 
 William Clayton of the Old Crook and Fulwood, gent., and by his marriage with 
 Hannah, daughter of John Clayton of Little Harwood, Esq., acquired, it may be, the 
 Cunlifte property in which he resided. He had issue, sons, Thomas, born in i6i8 ; 
 John, bapt. Oct. 2nd, 1626 ; Alice, bapt. Feb. 20th, 1624 ; and Hannah. The father, 
 William Clayton, died in Jan., 1659-60, and was buried at Blackburn. Oct. nth, 
 1660, letters of administration of the estate of William Clayton, " late of Cunliffe, in 
 Little Harwood, gent.," were granted to his son, Thomas Clayton of Cunliffe, clerk. 
 
 Thomas Clayton, clerk, son and heir of William, was sometime minister of 
 Chapel-in-le-Frith, Co. Derby; in the register of which is recorded, under date 1660: — 
 " Mr. Thomas Clayton of Cunliffe in Little Harwood in the Parish of Blackbume, 
 &c., clarke, sometime Minister of Chapel in ye frith, married Mrs. Elizabeth Bag- 
 shawe, daughter of Mr. Thomas Bagshawe of Ridge Hall. " 
 
 FOSTER OF BANK-HEY. 
 
 The Fosters of Little Harwood appear to have come of the Fosters of Billington. 
 James ffoster of Billington was taxed to the Subsidy of 1523. In 1537, at the Abbey 
 estates survey, Robert ffoster was tenant of a farm of 22^ acres in Billington, and 
 the wife of John ffoster held Great Nabbe farm and Little Nabbe pasture. 
 
 John Foster of Little Harwood, gent. , is named in a list of free tenants dated 
 1621. John Foster of Little Harwood, gent., died Sept. 1st, 14 Charles I. (1638), 
 and at the inquisition concerning his estate, taken at Blackburn, Sept. 27th, 14 Charles 
 I., it was shewn that he had held of the King in capite one messuage, 8 acres of land, 
 3 acres of meadow, and 7 acres of pasture in Little Harwood called Le Bank Hey. 
 
 Roger Foster was found son and heir of John, aged 52 years. He had a son 
 Roger. Roger Foster of Bank-hey, whose wife Elizabeth died Sept, 1658, is named 
 in 1660 ; and was buried at Blackburn, Nov. 4th, 1672. I note no issue save a 
 daughter Elizabeth, buried June 20th, 1671. 
 
LITTLE HARWOOD COMMONS INCLOSURE. 563 
 
 PEEL OF BANK-HEY. 
 
 Certain members of a family of Peel from Craven in Yorkshire acquired land on 
 this side of Blackburn parish about 450 years ago. In the Sth Henry VL (1427), 
 Thomas de Pele and William de Pele of Craven granted to Roger Walmsley, chap- 
 lain, and John Walmsley lands in Salesbury and Wilpshire. 
 
 In 1538, John Peele held in Little Hanvood under the Abbey of Whalley a house, 
 6 acres of arable land, 7 acres of pasture, and 4 acres of meadow, paying yearly 38s. i id. 
 
 Thomas Peele, of Bank-hey, Little Harwood, yeoman, died in 1590. Inventory 
 of his goods, amounting in value to ^^97 6s. 8d., is dated July 29th, in that year. 
 Administration of his estate was granted, Sept. 3rd, 1590, to Anne Peele, his widow. 
 He had sons, Edward, and John; and a daughter Elizabeth, wife of William Cleyton. 
 
 John Peele, son of the above, was, in 1594, one of four appraisers of the goods 
 and chattels of his neighbour, William Bolton of Bank-hey, yeoman. 
 
 John Peele, of Bank-hey, a freeholder, died in 1641^ Inquisition taken at 
 Blackburn, April 28th, 1 7th Charles I. , proves him to have died seized of one mes- 
 suage with garden, 15 acres of land, 4 acres of meadow, 12 acres of pasture, and 4 
 acres of woodland in Parva Harwood, held of the King as of the Duchy of Lancaster, 
 Worth 30s. yearly ; John Peele, his son and heir, was then aged 34 years. 
 
 John Peele, of Bank-hey, yeoman, son of* John, had sons, Edward, born in 165 1; 
 Joseph, bom in 1656, and other issue. To the Subsidy of 1663 John Peele is assessed 
 for lands in Little Harwood. He died in April, 1687 ; buried April 25th. 
 
 The above John, or a son John succeeding him, rebuilt the family residence at 
 Bank-hey, which has a stone over the doorway, inscribed "IP A" (John and Anne 
 or Alice Peel), and the date " 1687." The old house at Bank-hey (with the farm) is 
 now the property of Mr. Carr, and has recently been partially rebuilt. The doorway 
 With the inscription above it is in the east wing. 
 
 RISHTON OF HARSTONLEY. 
 Geffereye Rishton was assessed on his lands in Little Harwood to a Subsidy in 
 1570. Randal Rishton and William Rishton, both of this township were assessed to a 
 Subsidy in 1610. Randal Rishton of Harstonley died May, 1634; his wife died in 
 1629. Another Randal Rishton who had land in this township occurs in a rental of 
 Blackburn Wapentake in 1650. Jeffrey Rishton of Harstonley occurs in 1656. He 
 had a son Jeffrey, and daughters Mary and Rosamond. Thomas Rishton of Little 
 Harwood was taxed to a Subsidy for his lands in 1663. Jeffrey Rishton of this town- 
 ship married, Dec. 12th, 1676, Jane Shearburne, of the Parish of Whalley. 
 
 LITTLE HARWOOD COMMON-LANDS INCLOSURE. 
 A Petition of persons interested in the Commons of Little Harwood 
 was presented in the House of Commons, Feb. Sth, 1776, setting forth 
 that within the vill, hamlet, or township of Little Harwood were certain 
 commons or tracts of Waste Ground, called Brownhill, containing 70 
 acres or thereabouts, customary measure, which the Petitioners appre- 
 hended might be greatly improved if the same were enclosed and 
 divided into specific allotments amongst the parties interested therein, 
 and praying that leave might be given to bring in a Bill for those pur- 
 poses. Leave was given, and an Enclosure Bill, brought in by Lord 
 Stanley and Mr. Lister, was passed March i8th, 1776. 
 
564 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 CHAPTER X.— THE TOWNSHIP OF LIVESEY. 
 
 Topography — Acreage — Print Works and Cotton Mills — Population — The Manor — Ancient Land- 
 owners — Livesey of Livesey — Livesey Hall — Astley of Stakes — Dr. Richard Astley — Stakes Hall 
 and estate — Present Landowners — Ancient Families of Freeholders— Astley — Boardman — Har- 
 wood— Holden — Livesey of Whithalgh — Pickop — Walkden — Witton — Feniscowles Church— 
 St. Andrew's, Moorgate— Mill Hill Chapel — Waterfall Chapel— Day Schools — Charities. 
 
 LIVESEY Township comprises lands abutting upon the River 
 . Darwen on the south, separated by the river from the townships 
 of Blackburn, Witton and Pleasington. On the west, the stream of 
 Roddlesworth, which divides Livesey from Wheelton township in 
 Leyland Parish, discharges into the Darwen at Feniscowles Bridge. 
 The uplands of Tockholes, which formerly was nominally united with 
 Livesey by the title of Livesey-cum-Tockholes, bound the township to 
 the south-west, and Lower Darwen is the next township on the south- 
 east. The land of Livesey is distributed over the slopes and summit of 
 a considerable hill, which at " Bunker's Hill " is some 700 feet above the 
 sea-level. The acreage of Livesey is 1890 statute acres. The 
 agriculture is grass-farming solely ; and the soil of the river-side pasture 
 and meadow lands produces good crops. Coal was anciently got in the 
 township, and many traces of the adits of old coal mines are found 
 upon Bunker's Hill. 
 
 The lower parts of the township next to Blackburn have shared the 
 manufacturing industries of that town during more than a century. 
 Mr. Thomas Yates has been named in a former chapter (p. 216), as a 
 dyer of calico at Moorgate in 1 748. Later, the Haworth family, who 
 were connected with the Peels in the development of calico-printing, 
 had their print-works at Stakes Hall, which were transferred near the 
 close of last century to the Turners (see ante, p. 228). By the firm of 
 Turner these print-works were extended along the river-bank from 
 Stakes to Mill Hill and Primrose ; and the business of calico-printing 
 was carried on by the Turners until the death of Mr. William Turner 
 (sometime M.P. for Blackburn), the youngest of the brothers, in 1842. 
 
ANCIENT LANDOWNERS IN LIVESEY. 565 
 
 The works and estate were sold to the late Mr. Joseph Eccles in 1843. 
 The Mill Hill cotton mills were erected in 1844 on the site of some of the 
 former buildings demolished. Within thirty years, more than a dozen 
 mills for spinning and weaving cotton have been built in Livesey, the 
 largest being the " Mill Hill Mills," now under the firm of Hodgkinson, 
 Swain & Co.; the works of Mr. John Fish, called "Waterfall Mills ;" of 
 the late Mr. Thomas Dugdale ; of the late Mr. George Whiteley, 
 called " Albion Mills ;" and the " Cherry Tree Mills " of Messrs. John, 
 Edward, and Joseph Dugdale. It is computed that the cotton factories 
 in Livesey employ from 5000 to 6000 workpeople. The local extension 
 of this manufacture has had a marked effect upon the growth of 
 population in the township. From 1801 the figures have ranged as 
 follows : — 1801, population 1184 persons ; 1811, 1126 persons ; 1821, 
 1664 persons; 1831, 1787 persons ; 1841, 1996 persons ; 1851,2649 
 persons; 1861, 3581 persons; 1871, 4035 persons. In 1876, the 
 population of Livesey approaches 4500. 
 
 The Boundary Commissioners, in 1868, in consideration of the 
 extension of the town of Blackburn into this township and Witton, 
 extended the boundary of the Parliamentary borough of Blackburn to 
 embrace suburban portions of Livesey and Witton, containing now 
 together a population of nearly 8000 persons, and adding about ii 00 
 electors to the constituency of Blackburn. 
 
 THE MANOR OF LIVESEY— ANCIENT LANDOWNERS. 
 
 Consecutive particulars of the early passages of the lands in Livesey 
 cannot be fufnished. These items occur : — In the Liber Feodorum, com- 
 piled about the middle of the 13th century, it is entered that Ralph de 
 Mytton held the 4th part of a knight's fee in Acton, Merlay, and Live- 
 shey, of the demesne fee of the Earl of Lincoln. Adam de Buri, in the 
 same century, had lands in Livesey, of which he gave to Adam, son of . 
 Philip, presbiter, all his land of Astley land and Ewod between the water 
 of Derwent and fallingslih and eslerletillecale and fernihirst. A generation 
 later, before 131 1, Sir Henry de Bury held Livesey in thanage under 
 Earl de Lascy, and paid yearly 29s. and suit at Clyderhou Court. The 
 hamlet of Ewode, now Ewood, on the east border of Livesey, gave its 
 name to a family of proprietors of whom three or four generations are 
 apparent. Nicholas de Wynkeley, chaplain, gave to Margaret de Ewode 
 for life all messuages and lands in Livesey he had. by the gift of the said 
 Margaret. Richard de Ewode had a son Adam, who had lands conveyed 
 to him by William de Livesey ; and Adam had a son Adam de Ewode, 
 living in the latter years of the 13th century, who bought lands of 
 Richard de Livesey. This last-named Adam de Ewode might be father 
 
566 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of Richard de Ewode, who occurs in 1333. In 1346, one William de 
 Ewode, by his felony, forfeited his estate in Livesey to the Crown, nomi- 
 nally 1 2 acres of land. 
 
 LIVESEY OF LIVESEY. 
 
 The earliest member of this family I have noted was one Galfrid de 
 Levesaye, who by deed in latin dated at Livesey 4th Henry III. (a.d. 
 1220) gave to Hughe, his son, one messuage and certain crofts called the 
 Estcroft and Westcroft at Grene-toccholes in the vill of Levesaye. One 
 of the witnesses is Henry de Levesaye. 
 
 Henry de Levesaye, living temp. Edw. I., gave to the Abbey of 
 Stanlaw one perch of his land in Livesey lying in Whitacre near the 
 highway. Witnesses (with others), Adam, clerk, of Livesay, Galfred and 
 Adam, brothers of Henry de Livesay. He had a son William. 
 
 William de Levesay, son of Henry, lived temp. John, and quit-claimed 
 to the Abbot and Convent of Stanlaw a rent of 4d. from certain lands. 
 The same William de Levesay gave to Adam son of Richard de Ewode 
 parcel of his land in Levesay. He had sons, Richard, Henry, and Gal- 
 frid ; and " William son of Henry de Levesay " gave to Richard son of 
 William de Levesay portion of his land in Livesay called Le Mers. Wit- 
 nesses : Henry de Plesyngton, Robert his brother, Galfred de Levesay. 
 These deeds are without date, but belong to the latter part of the thir- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Richard de Levesey, son of William, gave to Adam, son of Adam 
 de Hewode, for 4 marks sterling, parcel of land in the vill of Levesey 
 called the Mers. Witnesses, Adam de Osbaldeston, Adam de Levesey, 
 Richard de Rishton, and others. 
 
 Adam de Levesey had a daughter Matilda, who was wife of Henry 
 de Whithkill, and by deed dated nth Ed. II. (13 13) granted to Thomas 
 Talbot all her lands in Bashall and Wetelay which her father Adam de 
 Levesey gave her. 
 
 John de Levesey, contemporary with Adam, had a son Robert. 
 
 Robert de Levesey, son of John, granted to Henry, son of Robert 
 de Levesey, certain lands by deed dated 4th Edw. II. (1306). 
 
 Henry de Levesey, son of Robert, occurs in 2nd Edw. HI. (1328), 
 and had by Magota his wife a son Henry. Henry de Levesey the father 
 was dead before the 17th Edw. III. (1344), when "Magota, who was 
 wife of Henry son of Robert de Levesey " appears as party to a deed of 
 that date. 
 
 Henry de Levesey, son of Henry, married Cecilia, daughter of 
 Thomas de Sutton, and held the manor of Livesey temp. Edw. III. 
 
 John de Livesey, lord of Livesey, follows Henry, and was dead 
 before 1389, his son and heir, John, being then a minor. 
 
LIVESEY OF LIVESEY. 367 
 
 John de Livesey was heir to the manor of Livesey on his father's 
 death, and the King's ward ; and on March 24th, 1389, the King and 
 Duke committed to Richard de Hoghton, Knt., and Richard de Whalley, 
 custody of the lands and heir of John de Livesay of Livesay, deceased, 
 to have until the full age of the said heir, with his marriage, &c. In 
 1395 it is recorded, in the inquisition of John de Ardern, that John son 
 and heir of John de Livesey held the manor of Livesey of the Duke of 
 Lancaster by knight service, and was then under age and in custody of 
 the lord Duke. This John de Livesey occurs as a juror in 1408, 141 5, 
 and 1422. He probably was father of Geoffrey de Livesey; and kinsman 
 also of Robert de Livesey (who occurs 1419), William de Livesey (who 
 occurs 1435), Thomas and James de Livesey (both occur in 1440). 
 
 Galfred (or Geoffrey) de Livesey, who appears as witness to a deed 
 of the 20th Henry VI. (1442), and other deeds, was, I think, lord of 
 Livesey at that date. 
 
 Succeeding comes John de Livesey, lord of Livesey, who had to 
 wife Ann, daughter of Gyles Talbot of Slaidbum (a branch of Talbot of 
 Bashall), and had issue, sons, Gyles, and William. John Livesey died 
 in the 19th Henry VII. (1504). 
 
 Gyles Livesey, son and heir of John, aged 1 5 years at the time of 
 his father's death, had to wife Alice, daughter of John Talbot, of Sales- 
 bury, Esq., and had issue, sons, James ; Henry, of Blackburn ; and 
 Thomas, of Livesey ; and daughters, Elizabeth, wife of Robert, son of 
 Christopher Bolton ; and Anne, wife of Roger Rishton of Ponthalgh. A 
 bill of receipt dated nth June, 5th Henry VIII. (1513), witnesses that 
 Giles Lyvesay of Lyvesay, gent, had received of Jenet, wife of William 
 Asteley of Livesey, in the name of the release of George Asteley son 
 and heir of the said William, 4s. to him due for all lands which the said 
 George held of him in Livesey. Gyles Livesey died before 1520, when 
 the escheat record shows that he had conveyed his estate in trust. He 
 was found seized of Livesey manor, with messuages, mills, and lands, 
 
 James Livesey, son and heir of Gyles, was aged 16 at date of his 
 succession. His wife was Alice, daughter of Ralph Rishton of Pont- 
 halgh, and he had issue, sons, Richard, born about 1525; Alexander 
 Livesey ; and John Livesey, first of Sidebight in Rishton (vide post, 
 Livesey of Sidebight). James Livesey, gent., was assessed on lands in 
 Lower Darwen to the Subsidy in 1523. He died Aug. i8th, 1548, and 
 by escheat dated Oct. loth, 2nd Edw. VI., it was found that James 
 Levesay had died seized of Livesey manor, with 10 messuages, 200 acres 
 of arable land, 40 acres of meadow, 100 acres of pasture, and 200 
 acres of moor and turbary in Livesey ; and 24s. of annual rents of lands 
 and tenements there. A deed is attached to the return, whereby it is 
 
568 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 covenanted that Richard Levesay, son and heir of James Levesey and 
 Alice his wife, shall marry Ellen Lister, daughter of Christopher Lister of 
 Midhope, Co. York. By a settlement cited, the estate and annuity of 
 Alice Livesey, wife of James, were to go to one Alice Shuttleworth for 
 life, remainder to James Livese/s son Richard and his heirs. 
 
 Richard Livesey, son and heir, was then aged 23 years. He 
 married, at Whalley Church, April 26th, 1543, Ellena Lister, and had 
 issue a son, John ; and a daughter Mary, wife of Thomas Astley 
 of Stakes, gent. He had also a natural son Tliomas, of Skelbank. 
 Richard Livese/s second wife, Isabel, survived him and married John 
 Singleton of Chingle-hall. Richard Livesey, gent., was a Governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School in 1567 ; occurs as a juror in 1584, and as a 
 "gentleman of best calling" in Lancashire in 1588. He died in 1590, 
 aged about 65 years. Inq. post »?^r/. taken 33rd Eliz., shows that he 
 was seized of Lyvesey manor, with messuages, lands, mills, &c. 
 
 John Livesey, son of Richard, had died in his father's lifetime, in 
 the year 1 57 1. He had been twice married, first to Jennet, daughter 
 and co-heir of John Ishenvood, by whom he had no issue ; secondly, 
 to Margery, daughter of Henry Talbot of Bashall, by whom he had 
 issue, sons, James, and John ; and a daughter Mary, wife of Thomas 
 Parker of Loveley, gent. 
 
 James Livesey, eldest son of John, thus was next heir to the estate 
 on the death of his grandsire in 1590. He married Alice, daughter of 
 James Bradshaw of Darcy Lever, Esq., but had no issue. James Livesey, 
 Esq., rebuilt Livesey Hall in 1608. In his Will, dated 1609, he names 
 his wife Alice, brother John, and sister Mary. He was a Governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School, and gave 20s. to the School Stock on his 
 election in 1599. Being without issue, he constituted his nephew Ralph, 
 son of his brother John, his heir by a deed of settlement dated Sept. 30th, 
 161 7. He died in April, 1619. In a letter from one Leonard Smedley 
 to St. George the herald, dated 1622, it is mentioned that "Mr. Levesey 
 of Levese, gent., dyed in April, 1619, sance issue, and was Buried with 
 escutcheons, whoe made his wyfe Alis sole executrix both of goods and 
 lands for his lyfe, of whom I did demand the fees, the first day of May 
 this month, having made divers Jurnes thether and could not speak with 
 her before, whose answer was that at hir retume from London whither she 
 was then going, she would either pay me or give me answer to the 
 contrarie, which should be before midsumer next."^ By Inq. post mart. 
 taken at Blackburn, Jan. 8th, 19th Jas. I., before John Haworth, gent., 
 deputy feodary, it is returned that James Livesey had died seized of 
 Livesey manor with appurtenances, including 10 messuages, 6 cottages, 
 
 I Chetham Miscellanies, vol. v. 
 
LIVESEY OF LIVESEY. 569 
 
 one fulling mill, 100 acres of land, 40 of meadow, 100 of pasture, 10 of 
 woodland, 100 of rushland and heath, 40 of moor, moss and turbary, 
 and 55. rent in Livesey and Tockholes ; also, of one messuage, 30 acres 
 of land, 20 of meadow, and 30 of pasture in Pleasington. 
 
 John Livesey, gent., brother of James, by his wife Elizabeth, 
 daughter of William Cartwright of Ossington, Co. Notts., had issue, sons, 
 Ralph, born April 30th, 16 10; John (John Livesey, of Blackburn, gent, 
 married, first, Alice, daughter of Thomas Banastre of Walton, and 
 secondly, the widow of — Rawstorne of Haslingden); William Livesey, 
 of Staple Inn, London; Roger Livesey, living in Ireland in 1664; and 
 daughters, Elizabeth, born in 1623, wife of George Sim, citizen of 
 London; and Dorothy, born in 1626, who died " of the small pockes," 
 in November, 1654. 
 
 Ralph Livesey, Esq., son of John, and successor of his uncle James 
 in the estate, married, first, at Manchester Collegiate Church, Dec . 8th, 
 1632, Mary, daughter of William Radcliffe, of Manchester, and had by her 
 a son James, who died young ; and, secondly, Anne, daughter of Thomas 
 Clayton of Fulwood, Esq., by whom he had sons, John, died young in 
 1654; James, born and died in 1654; and Ralph, bapt. April i6th, 
 1657 ; and daughters, Dorothy, bom in 1651, died in 1655 ; Elizabeth ; 
 Martha, bom in 1656, died in 1670 ; and Sarah. Ralph Livesey, Esq., 
 built a new wing to Livesey Hall in_ 1666 ; and dying in 1694, aged 84, 
 was buried in Blackbum Church, March 12 th, 1694-5. He was a 
 Governor of Blackburn Grammar School from Dec, 1630, until his death. 
 Anne, his wife, was buried Jan. 31st, 1693-4. 
 
 Ralph Livesey, Esq., of Livesey Hall, only surviving son of Ralph, 
 heired the Livesey estate in 1695, at the age of 37. By Ann his wife 
 he had issue, sons. Porter, bapt. Oct. 4th, 1683 ; William, bapt. Feb. 
 14th, 1687-8 ; and Ralph, born in Nov., 1693, died in July, 1694; and 
 daughters, Ann, bapt. at Livesey Hall, July sth, 1685, died in August, 
 1693 ; Elizabeth, born in Sept., i686 ; Margaret, bom and died in 
 1690; and Dorothy, bom in 1691. Ralph Livesey, Esq., was made a 
 Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1675 > he was a juror at 
 the trial at Manchester of the Jacobite gentry accused of treason in 
 1694; and is named in 1720 as entitled to appoint one Warden of 
 Blackburn Church. He died in 1725, and was buried in Blackburn 
 Church, April 27th. 
 
 Porter Livesey, Esq., lord of Livesey manor in 1725, son of Ralph, 
 appears not to have married. " Captain Porter Livesey " was elected a 
 Governor of Blackbum Grammar School in 17 14. He died about the 
 year 1747, and his heir was Ralph, son of his brother William. 
 
 William Livesey, gent., brother of Porter Livesey, had, by his wife 
 
 72 
 
57° 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Elizabeth, a son, Ralph, bapt. June 5th, 1728 ; and a daughter, Eh'za- 
 beth, bapt. Sept. loth, 1729, wife of Daniel Wilson, Esq. Mr. William 
 Livesey was elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1724. 
 He died in 1729, and was buried in Blackburn Church, March 30th. 
 His widow, " Elizabeth Livesey of Preston, gentlewoman," was buried at 
 Blackburn, May 21st, 1755. 
 
 Ralph Livesey, only son of William, succeeded to the manorial and 
 other family estates on the death of Porter Livesey, Esq., his uncle, in 
 1747. He was made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School ii» 
 1747. Ralph Livesey, Esq., married, on 26th Nov., 1754, Mary Bell, 
 daughter of Ralph Bell of Thirsk, Esq. (she was born in 1729), and had 
 issue an only daughter, Mary, born in 1755. Ralph Livesey, Esq., was 
 buried in Blackburn Church, Oct. 9th, 1766, aged 38. , His only 
 daughter, Mary, died in 1774, at the age of eighteen, unmarried — " Miss 
 Mary Livesey of Livesey, spinster, dyed at York," buried at Blackburn, 
 March 2nd, 1774. In the Hall at Thirsk are portraits of Ralph Livesey, 
 Esq., his wife, and daughter, by Van Loe. 
 
 Elizabeth, only sister of Ralph Livesey, Esq., married Daniel 
 Wilson, Esq., of Dallam Tower, Lancaster, and died, aged 72, in 1801. 
 Her obituary in the Manchester Mercury of Nov. loth, 1801, reads : — 
 " On Wednesday last (Nov. 4th), Mrs. Wilson, relict of the late Daniel 
 Wilson, Esq., of Lancaster, and daughter of the late William Livesey, 
 Esq., of Livesey Hall, Blackburn. In her the poor have lost a friend 
 whose purse was always open to relieve their wants." 
 
 The Livesey estates were settled in 1 760 by deed of demise of Ralph Livesey, 
 Esq. , in trust for Robert Bell Livesey. In July, 1 769, shortly after Ralph Livesey 's death, 
 were advertised "to be let, the estates of the late Ralph Livesey, Esq., in the manor of 
 Livesey and townships of Pleasington, Studlehurst and Balderstone. " From an abstract 
 of title of the owner of the Studlehurst estate I find information as to the nature ol the 
 conveyance of the Livesey properties by Ralph Livesey. An indenture, dated 1829, 
 recites that by certain indentures of lease and release, dated Sept. 1st and 2nd, 1806, 
 the latter between Robert Bell Livesey, Esq. , of the first part, John Bell, Esq. , of the 
 second part, Robert Hubberstey of the third part, and Thomas Hubberstey of the 
 fourth part, it is witnessed that a term of 1000 years of and in the hereditaments 
 named was created by indenture of demise dated 30th June, 1760, made between Ralph 
 Livesey, Esq. , of the first part, Edward Dawson, currier, of the second part, and 
 Roger Gale, gent., of the third part, arKl was by divers mesne assignments then vested 
 in the said John Bell, his exors., &c., in trust for the said Robert Bell Livesey, his 
 heirs and assigns, and to attend the inheritance of the same hereditaments. 
 
 Robert Bell, second son of Ralph Bell, of Thirsk, heir in reversion 
 to Livesey Manor and other estates of his uncle, Ralph Livesey, Esq., 
 on succeeding thereto assumed the additio^nal surname of Livesey. He 
 married Jane, daughter of Rev. John Cleaver, D.D., of Malton, and had 
 issue a daughter and heiress, Marianne Livesey, married, in 1822, to 
 
LIVESEY HALL.— ASTLEY OF STAKES. 
 
 571 
 
 Edmund Turton, Esq., of Upsall, Co. York. Robert Bell Livesey, Esq., 
 sold Livesey manor, in 1805, to Henry and William Feilden, Esqrs. 
 
 Livesey Hall, the former seat of the Liveseys, lords of the manor, 
 stands in a low situation, sheltered by trees, on the north-west border of 
 the township. The hall is a long building with wings gabled to the south 
 front, and massive chimney projections at the rear. Over the doorway 
 in the central porch the arms of the Liveseys appear in a stone panel ; 
 and on a stone in the wall above is inscribed the motto, " Deo soli 
 Gloria" with the initials " I L A L " of James Livesey and Alice his 
 wife, and the date " 1608" of the restoration of this portion of the man- 
 sion. The north-east wing, added by Ralph Livesey, Esq., has on its 
 front a lettered stone with the motto, " Virtus est vera nobilitas," the 
 initials "R L A L" (Ralph and Anne Livesey), and the date " 1666." 
 Another inscribed stone over the doorway in the opposite wing, which is 
 evidently the most modern structure, has on it the initials "R L" "A L" 
 and " P L " standing for Ralph and Ann and their son Porter Livesey, 
 and the .date " 1689." The interior of the older end of the house, now 
 in a state of decay, shows the wide arched fire-place in the kitchen ; 
 carved oak panels over the fire-place in the dining room ; other panelled 
 rooms, and a wide oaken staircase. A few years after the sale of the 
 estate to William and Henry Feilden, Esqrs., in the early part of this 
 century, the house was divided with the estate into two parts, and the 
 yard and garden were divided by a wall. The portion of the hall that 
 fell to the share of Mr. Feilden of Witton Park has been suffered to be- 
 come ruinous ; while the portion allotted to Sir Wm. Feilden, of Fenis- 
 cowles, has been repaired and made the farm-house to the farm adjoin- 
 ing. Under a clump of trees on the east side of the hall garden is an 
 artificial mound, beneath which is a strongly-built vault of brickwork, 
 having deep arched recesses in three sides, and entered by an arched 
 opening in the angle. The purpose of this chamber I cannot confi- 
 dently assign. 
 
 ASTLEY OF STAKES, &c. 
 
 The Astley family, seated nearly three centuries at Ewood and Stakes 
 Hall in this township, claim descent from the ancient house of Astley of 
 Astley. The circumstances under which the family acquired estate in 
 this parish are not apparent. 
 
 William Astley of Livesey, living in 15 13, by Jenet his wife had a 
 son and heir George. 
 
 George Astley, son of William, would be the " George Esteley," 
 assessed for lands in Livesey to the Subsidy in 1523. " George Asteley 
 of Blackbome, gent.," married Alice, daughter of Richard Langtree, 
 of Langtree, Esq. In the i6th Henry VIH. (1524), George Astley is 
 
572 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 named in a record that William Holden, son and heir of Thomas Holden 
 de Ewode, held of George Astley all the land called Ewode in socage. 
 
 William Astley of Stakes, gent., the first named by the herald (Visi- 
 tation of 1 6 13), probably son of the above George, by his wife Eliza, 
 daughter of — Wrightington, had a son and heir George. 
 
 George Astley, gent., son of William, married Jane, daughter of Sir 
 James Stanley, Knt., of Cross Hall, and had issue, sons, Thomas, the 
 heir ; William ; Gilbert ; and Richard (see below) ; also daughters, Eliza- 
 beth ; Rosamond ; and Ann, wife of Richard Molineux of Hawkley, Esq. 
 ("Ann, daughter of George Astley of Ewood, now of Stakes," so styled 
 in the Molineux pedigree). George Astley, gent., and Robert Astley, gent., 
 of this family, were named Governors of Blackburn Grammar School in 
 its Charter (1567). In 1570, George Astley was taxed to the Subsidyfor 
 his lands in Livesey. The Will of George Astley of Heywood (Ewood 
 in Livesey) is dated Aug. 24th, 1573. Testator's wife is left his house 
 in Witton, and his son Thomas the " Manor-house [s/c] of Livesey." 
 
 Before continuing the main descent, I must give some account of a younger son of 
 the above George Astley, gent. , who may be esteemed the most eminent personage in 
 the genealogy. This was Richard Astley, D. D. , Warden of All Souls College, 
 Oxford. He was, as stated above, third son of George Astley of Ewood, near Black- 
 bum, gent. He was bom about the year 1560 ; and being a near kinsman of Judge 
 Walmesley, who had well served All Souls' College, Oxford, in a long suit against 
 Lord Cromwell, ' ' he was very earnestly recommended by the Judge to that College, " 
 and Archbishop Whitgift joining in Sir Thomas Walmesley's recommendation, "he 
 was elected into the College in 1595." He took his degree in divinity, and was re- 
 tumed with Dr. Twisden to the Archbishop for the office of Warden of his College, to 
 which he was appointed July 23rd, 1618. Richard Astley, D. D., was sometime 
 chaplain to George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury. He held the rectory of Chid- 
 dington in Kent, which he exchanged for the rectory of Oddington within Oxford ; he 
 was also rector of Chadwell. He died in his college Feb. 25th, 1635-6, and was buried 
 in the ante-Chapel of the College. Dr. Richard Astley's portrait some yeare since was 
 in the possession of S. Crompton, Esq., of Manchester; and it was inscribed " Richard 
 Astley, Doctor of Divinitie, Warden of All Soules College, Oxon. Deo Imago luceat 
 in Prototypo meo," in large yellow letters on the background. His Will, dated Nov. 
 27th, 163s, is an interesting document, but too lengthy to be printed in full. I ab- 
 stract its more material items. Testator, " Richard Astley, Dr. in divinitie and 
 Warden of All Soulue College in Oxon.," commends his body to be interred " within 
 the quire of our Colledge Chapel of All Soulne ;" and after his physicians' and apothe- 
 caries' and funeral expenses are discharged, bequeaths "to the poore of Blackebome 
 towne and parish in Lane," £^0 in manner following, ^f 10 "unto my coozen Thomas 
 Astley's poore tenants in Livesey neere Blackborne," and the £40 remaining unto such 
 impotent and distressed poor of Blackburn town, township and parish " as Mr. Walms- 
 ley, Mr. Vicar of Blackborne, my coozen Thomas Astley and Mr. Roger Gillibrand 
 of Beardwood shall think to be most necessitous and most worthie, " &c. Bequests 
 follow to the poor of Oddington, Chiddington, Oxford, Hytone in Lancashire, and 
 others, to the sum of ;^II ; also, bequests to divers almsmen, &c. To All Souls' Col- 
 legetestator gives ' ' all my studie bookes ;" divinity books to the fellows and chap- 
 
ASTLEY OF STAKES. 573 
 
 lains ; "4ohumanitie bookes to Andrew Lathom," and half-a-dozen "tending to 
 physicke " to Henry Elstone ; residue of humanity books to John Mitchell, William 
 Harwoode, Law. Kinge, and Samuel Jones. " To my nephewe Thomas Astley of the 
 Stakes neere Blackborne my fayrest and wydest duble guilte boule with the cover, to 
 remaine at the Stakes with him and the heirs of his name after him so long as it shall 
 please God to continue them ;" to him likewise and to his " six natural sisters and his 
 unckle Randall and to his ante Millicente Banester, and alsoe to my brother Gilberte 
 Astley's 2 daughters, Margaret and Marie (if shee be alive, or otherwyse to Marie's 
 child), and to my coozen Mollinex his widowe," to each of them, twelve in number, 
 £^ 6s. 8d. a-piece. To the wife of " my kindsman William Astley, late Butler of our 
 CoUedge," £2 for the benefit of her children, with furniture and goods of testator at 
 College and at Oddington ; and unto her eldest son Richard ' ' my parcell guilte 
 beaker," " scarlet hoode, habite, cap and tipet. " To " my Brother William Astley's 3 
 children, George, William, and Jane ; Sister Mollinex 7 children, James, John, Roger 
 (if hee bee alive, otherwise to his two sisters unmarried), Elizabeth, Catharan, Ann, 
 and Marie ; Sister Ockleshay's 4 children, Henry (if he bee alive), Richard, Theodore, 
 and Margaret ; Sister Hatton's 2 children, Douratie fiord, Margaret Page " — sixteen in 
 all, £i 6s. 8d. a-piece. To Theodore Ockleshay, 2s. To George Astley (son of 
 William) "my duble guilte boule and cover, whereon is the picture of an apostle," 
 and " my ringe with deathes head ingraven." To his brother William "my pipkin" 
 and "my ringe with my scale of annes ;" to his sister Jane "my lesser can." 
 " Henry Ockleshay my large silver can ;" to " Catharan Barford my duble guilte can 
 and £$ ;" to " Douratie (ford and her sister Margaret Page " each half-a-dozen silver 
 spoons. To Randle Astley, named above, ' ' my duble guilte silver spoone, " and to 
 his sister Millisent Banester "my least duble guilte bowle and cover." To "my 
 coozen Alls Astley now at Dovcot, Mr. Tipping's house, my duble guilte salte," and 
 sundry articles of study and chamber furniture. " To my brother-in-lawe, Mr. Richard 
 Mollinex of Hawkeley neere Wigan " ;if3 6s. 8d. and one ''duble guilte bowle with 
 cover, "to " remaine at Hawkeley with him and the heirs of his name after him. " To 
 " my coozen Roger Brires of Walton in Lane, a wrought purse." Numerous bequests 
 follow to College Fellows, probationers, chaplains, and others. "To my coozen 
 Thomas Astley my owne picture in a table in the corner chamber study, and los. unto 
 him that shall safely convey it unto him." To Anne Astley, Widow Astley's daughter, 
 "my ruffle bands," &c., and los., and "2 domaicke table-carpetts in my ambularie and 
 my dormicke carpett uppon ye table in ye great parlour. " Further bequests of house- 
 hold things. "To the preacher of my funeral sermon £6 or a gowne at his choyce. " 
 Bequests to testator's servants, clerks, &c. After payment of all legacies and funeral 
 expenses, all other his goods undisposed of testator gives wholly and clearly to " our Col- 
 ledge of All Soulne, where God blessed me with the best livelihood of all my days." 
 Testator constitutes " Dr. Martin Ayleworth, Dr. in the civell lawe, and fellow of our 
 Colledge," his sole executor, and gives to him a wrought cup and bowl, and;ifi3 6s. 8d. ; 
 and nominates "Dr. Sheldon, Dr. in divinitie and late fellow of our Colledge," one 
 overseer of this his last Will, and " Mr. William Banester, Bachelour of lawe, and fel- 
 lowe of our Colledge, my other overseer, for the better satisfaction of my Lancashire 
 ffriends, consideringe hee is well knowen amongst them." Gives to Dr. Sheldon ";^2 
 13s. 4d. for a ringe, and a paire of velvet mittins, and allsoe our (founder's picture in 
 glasse ;" and unto Mr. Banester " my least white silver bowle." Sealed and subscribed 
 (Nov. 27th, 1635) " by me the Testatour, Richard Astley, in the presence of ffrancis 
 Gerard, William Page, John Watkins, William Bannester, Andrew Lathome. Rich. 
 Astley, L.S." The Will was proved April 27th, 1636. 
 
574 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Thomas Astley, of Stakes, gent., elder brother of Dr. Richard 
 Astley, married, in the year 1574, Mary, daughter of Richard Livesey, 
 of Femehurst, gent, (she died in July, 1623), and had a son Thomas 
 and other issue named below. Thomas Astley, gent., occurs as a free- 
 holder in 1600, and is taxed to the Subsidy of 1610-11. He died in 
 161 7; buried at Blackburn, Sept. 3rd. In the Will of Thomas Astley 
 late of the Stakes in Livesey, gent, dated Aug. 29th, 161 7, are named 
 sons, William, Randle, Richard, and Edward ; daughter Milicent ; 
 grandson Thomas, son and heir of testator's son Thomas; granddaughters, 
 Ann, daughter of son Thomas ; and Alice, daughter of Randle. Tes- 
 tator appoints sons Randle and Edward executors. Will proved at 
 Chester, Oct. 9th, 1617. The daughter Milicent was wife of William 
 Banester, Bachelor of Law, Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford. 
 
 Randle Astley, second son of Thomas as above, was " of Eccles- 
 hill, yeoman." In his Will, dated Feb. 9th, 1640, Randle Astley names 
 his late wife Margery (she died Nov. 1 6 1 8) ; son Thomas ; daughters, 
 Elizabeth, Alice, Margaret and Millicent ; niece Ann, daughter of Ed- 
 ward Astley. Daughters Alice, Margaret, and Millicent, executrixes. 
 He died in Feb., 1640-1 ; buried Feb. 13th. Will proved April 21st, 1641. 
 He had other sons, George Astley, of Witton ; and James Astley, of 
 Mellon 
 
 Edward Astley, of Livesey, fourth son of Thomas, was born in 1568, 
 and died unmarried, in Feb. 1624-5 ; his Will, dated Feb. 25th, names 
 brother Randle ; nephew Thomas, son of Thomas ; and base daughter 
 Ann, alias Duckworth. ("Anne, base daughter of Edward Astley, 
 gent.," bapt. Dec. 23rd., 1618). 
 
 Thomas Astley of Stakes, gent., eldest son of Thomas, by his wife 
 Ellen, daughter of Thomas Osbaldeston, gent, (she died July, 1623), 
 had one son Thomas ; and these daughters : — Mary, born in 1 60 1 ; 
 Margaret, bapt. May 20th, 161 1 ; Elizabeth, wife of — White, of All 
 Souls' College, Oxford ; Alice, wife of Thomas Snape of Balderstone ; 
 Hellen, wife of John Marsden, of Blackburn ; Jane, wife of Roger Dew- 
 hurst of Livesey ; and Ann, wife of John Helme of Ribchester. Thomas 
 Astley, gent., died in 1623 ; buried at Blackburn, June 20th. Escheat, 
 taken 21st James I., shewed that he had held the Hall of Stakes, in 
 Livesey, with 20 acres of land, 8 acres of meadow, and 12 acres of pas- 
 ture appurtenant ; other six messuages, and 20 acres of land, meadow, 
 and pasture in Livesey ; also, 20 acres improved from the Waste of 
 Livesey; 4 messuages, 30 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, and 12 
 acres of pasture in Witton ; 34 acres of heath, lately improved from the 
 Waste of Witton ; and one messuage, 10 acres of land, 4 acres of 
 meadow, and 10 acres of pasture in Mellor; altogether 190 acres. 
 
ASTLEV OF STAKES, 575 
 
 Thomas Astley, gent., next in descent, married Elizabeth, daughter 
 of WilliamPreston of Preston, gent., and had issue, sons, Thomas ; WilHam, 
 of Preston, bom in 1631, died Aug., 1663; Christopher, bapt. at Preston, 
 Aug. r4th, 1633, died unmarried; Richard, died unmarried; John, 
 bapt. at Preston, Dec. 2nd, 1635, settled at Leeds; Edward, bapt. at 
 Blackburn, Nov. 13th, r636, died unmarried ; George, settled at Leeds ; 
 and Randle, died unmarried ; daughters, Elizabeth, died unmarried ; 
 Mary, wife of Wrightington Taylor, of Ireland ; Anne, died unmarried ; 
 and Hellen. After his marriage with the Preston heiress, Thomas 
 Astley resided alternately at Preston and at Stakes Hall, He died, says 
 Dugdale, about the year 1643. 
 
 His son was Thomas Astley of Stakes and of Preston, gent., bapt. 
 at Preston, 13th March, 1630. His wife was Jennet, daughter of Peter 
 Haworth of Highercroft, Lower Darwen, gent. Issue, Thomas, bapt- 
 at Blackburn, Aug. 21st, 1653, died Jan., 1662 ; Richard, bapt. Jan. 27th, 
 1655-6 ; John, born in 1657, died in 1685 ; George, bapt. March 29th, 
 1660 (named again below); Thomas, of Fishwick and Ribbleton (also 
 named below); and William, bom in i666 ; and daughters, Elizabeth, 
 born in i66r ; and Martha, died in 1666. The father, Thomas Astley, 
 gent., is assessed in 1663 to a Subsidy for lands in Livesey. He was 
 buried at Blackburn Church, Feb. 7th, 1666-7, 
 
 Thomas Astley of Fishwick (fifth son of Thomas of Stakes Hall), 
 is first of a branch of the family seated at Fishwick-hall, of which I have 
 particulars, but can only insert here a brief notice. Thomas Astley of 
 Fishwick, gent, had sons, John, born in 1684 (died young); John, 
 born in 1686, by his wife Elizabeth Hedley, married at Manchester in 
 1717, had a daughter Elizabeth, born in 1721, married, in 1750, Mr. 
 William Jordan of Manchester, and died in 1784; 1'homas, bom in 
 April, 1689 ; and Luke, bom in 1697 (Luke Astley of Ribbleton). The 
 descent is continued in the issue of Thomas, second son of Thomas 
 Astley of Fishwick, gent. The younger Thomas, by Elizabeth his wife, 
 had sons, Thomas and John. He died at Fishwick Hall, in 1759 ; he 
 was the donor of the Communion Plate to Preston Parish Church. His 
 sons were both in business in Preston. Luke Astley of Ribbleton, 
 brother of Thomas, married, in 1727, Ellen Lorrimer, and had a son 
 James, named as a legatee in his uncle Thomas Astley's Will in 1759. 
 
 Coming back to the senior representatives of Astley of Stakes, after 
 the death of Thomas Astley, gent., in 1666, his eldest son Thomas 
 being dead, the estates in Livesey were heired by Richard, second son. 
 Richard Astley of Stakes Hall, gent., married, Feb. 24th, 1678-9, Mary 
 Banister of Little Harwood. Issue, sons, Thomas, bapt. June 9th, 
 1681 ; John, died in Oct., 1695 ; Nicholas, born in 1684, died in July, 
 
576 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 1698; Banister, bapt. May 17th, buried June 4th, 1687 ; William, bom 
 in Nov., died in Dec, 1690 ; Ann, bom in 1680; Elizabeth, bom in 
 1682, died in 1699; and Millicent, bom in 1684, died in July, 1698. 
 " Richard Astley of Stakes within Livesey, Esq.," was buried at Black- 
 bum Church, Oct. 22nd, 1729. His funeral sermon was preached the 
 same day by Vicar Holme. He was aged 73. His widow, " Mrs. Mary 
 Astley of Livesey, widow," was buried Dec. 21st, 1735. 
 
 Apparently the male issue of Richard Astley, Esq., were all dead 
 at the date of his death, upon which event the estates fell to the heir of 
 his younger brother, George Astley of Blackburn, apothecary, who had 
 died in Dec, 1700. George Astley married, Jan. 20th, 1691, Alice 
 Woodes (by whom he had before marriage a son George, bapt. March 
 28th, 1691, who bore the name of Astley, and was an apothecary in 
 Blackburn), and had issue, sons, Hamerton, bapt. Jan. sth, 1692-3 ; 
 John, bapt. June nth, 1693-4; William, bapt. March 29th, 1696; 
 Philip, bom in 1698; and Edward, bom and died in 1700; also a 
 daughter Eleanor. 
 
 Hamerton Astley, of Stakes, Esq., later of Preston, heir to his 
 uncle Richard in 1729, married Mary, daughter of Richard Walmesley, 
 of Coldcoates, Esq., and had issue three sons, George, bapt. at Preston, 
 Dec. 22nd, 1733 ; Richard, bapt. Sept. 7th, 1735 ; and Thomas, bapt. 
 June 15th, 1736. Mrs. Astley died in childbed of the last son, 
 and was buried at Blackburn, May 13th, 1736. Mr. Hamerton 
 Astley became a Govemor of Blackburn Grammar School in 17 13. 
 He died in 1763 — "Hamerton Astley, Esq., of Preston," buried at 
 Blackburn Church, April 24th, in that year. 
 
 George Astley, first son of Hamerton, took orders in the Church, 
 and was sometime curate of Handforth near Cheadle, but after his 
 father's death resided in Preston, at the family mansion there. By his 
 wife Sarah, daughter of Samuel Barton, Esq., of Over Darwen (married 
 July 26th, 1759), he had an only daughter Sarah, bapt. at Preston, Oct. 
 13th, 1770, buried at Blackburn in July, 1771. Rev. George Astley 
 was buried at Blackburn, in July, 1777. In the old Church a mural tablet 
 was placed : — " To the Memory of the Revd. George Astley, who de- 
 parted this life the 7th of July, 1777, aged 43, this Monument is erected." 
 Dying without son, and his only daughter being dead, Mr. George 
 Astley was the last representative of the family of Astley of Stakes Hall 
 in the senior descent. Some items respecting him are extracted from a 
 letter by a relative, Samuel Crompton, Esq., of Manchester, who writes : — 
 
 " My aunt, Miss Elizabeth Barton (who was much with her aunt, wife and widow 
 of Rev. George Astley) told me that Mr. George Astley was the only son of Mr. 
 Astley of Preston ; he spent ;^6oo per annum at college ; his library, consisting prin- 
 
LANDOWNERS IN LIVESEY. 
 
 577 
 
 cipally of a fine collection of classics, is in possession of my uncle ; his name is in all 
 his books, and there are copious marginal notes, in his beautiful handwriting, besides 
 common-place books. . . He was a great spendthrift. I believe it was he who 
 sold the Stakes estate. He bequeathed, however, property to his widow ; amongst 
 other things, a quantity of old silver plate and many portraits. His own portrait is in 
 our family ; we have also others which we cannot identify [and the portrait of Dr. 
 Richard Astley, mentioned above]. I think I shewed you old Mr. Astley's hatch- 
 ment. My aunt remembered it over his door at Preston. Mr. Astley visited with the 
 Earl of Derby ; his house at Preston was opposite the Earl of Derby's. " 
 
 The old Hall at Stakes, long the seat of the Astley family, was 
 demolished many years ago ; but the name of " Stakes Hall " is still 
 popularly given to the locality of its site, near the left bank of the 
 Darwen river, the north boundary of Livesey township. At Overlock- 
 shay, a short distance to the south-west of Stakes, is a seventeenth cen- 
 tury house which was built, apparently, for a residence of a branch of 
 the Astleys ; for over the porch is a stone bearing the initials " T A " 
 and " R A " (perhaps Thomas and Richard Astley), and tlie date 
 " 1691." The Stakes Hall estate passed by sale to the firm of Turner, 
 Calico Printers, who built upon it their print works and two residential 
 houses at Mill Hill. The late Joseph Eccles, Esq., bought the estate in 
 1843 > ^i^d the unsold residue of the estate now in the possession of the 
 heirs of the late Joseph Eccles is returned as containing about 78 statute 
 acres (chiefly building sites), with a rental of ^tS4 per annum. 
 
 The present chief landowners in Livesey are : — Col. Feilden of 
 Witton Park, 922 statute acres ; Sir W. H. Feilden, Bart., of Feniscowles, 
 366 acres. Other owners are, Mr. Adam Dugdale, 70 acres ; Mr. James 
 Boardman Dugdale, 10 acres; heirs of the late Joseph Eccles, 78 
 acres ; Mr. John Pickop, 60 acres ; Exors. of William Whalley, 40 
 acres ; Exors. of Geo. Whiteley, 5 7 acres ; Mr. R. W. B. Sanderson, 46 
 acres ; Exors. of T. T. Mercer, 33 acres. 
 
 ASTLEY OF WITTON, LIVESEY, &c. 
 
 This was a branch of the Astleys of Stakes, whose members owned lands in 
 Witton and Blackburn. George Astley of Witton Old Hall, a son of Randle Astley, 
 of Eccleshill, and grandson of Thomas Astley of Stakes, gent., was baptized March 
 20th, 1609, and by Ellen his wife had sons, Henry, bapt. Nov. 8th, 163;^; and John, 
 born in 1636. 
 
 Henry Astley of Livesey, gent., son of George, married at Walton Church, June 
 nth, 1679, Lettice Balshaw, and had a son James, bapt. April 4th, 1680. Henry 
 Astley died in 1686; was buried at Blackburn, Jan. 4th ; and letters of administration 
 of his goods and chattels were granted, Aug. 25th, 1686, to Lettice Astley, widow, 
 relict of Henry Astley, deceased. 
 
 James Astley of Witton, yeoman, son of Henry, and popularly called " Old 
 Duke," married, at Tockholes, Sept. 26th, 1701, Mary daughter of Thomas Critchley 
 of Holebottom near Brindle ; and had issue, sons, Thomas, bapt. March i st, 1 709 ; 
 
 73 
 
578 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Richard, bom in lyii ; Henry Astley, bapt. June 1st, 1716, died, in Ms 90(h year, 
 Nov. 3rd, 1805 ; James Astley, born in 1718 (married, in Sept., 1746, Mary Ains- 
 worth of Blackburn, and had sons, Richard and Thomas, and three daughters) ; and 
 William, bom in J 720, died an infant ; and daughters, Hannah, Elizabeth, Ellen, 
 Lettice, and Mary. James Astley the father, becoming impoverished, sold his estate 
 in Witton with the Old Hall ; and he is said to have walked without sleep from Black' 
 burn to London. He died intestate (buried Dec. 17th, 1747), and letters of adminis- 
 tration of his effects were granted to three of his sons, Thomas, Henry, and James, 
 His relict, Mary Astley of Witton, widow, died in April, 1758. 
 
 Thomas Astley of Redlara, Witton, eldest son of James, married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Thomas Sharpies of Tockholes, and had issue (besides a daughter Ann), 
 two sons, James, bapt. Feb. 15th, 1737 ; and Thomas Astley, born in 1743, who was 
 overseer of Blackbum ; organist at St. James's Chapel, Over Darwen, for forty years ; 
 and died, aged 69, Nov. 4th, 1812; he was buried in St. John's Churchyard, Blackburn. 
 
 James Astley of Witton, the elder brother, married, Feb. 26th, 1759, Mary, 
 daughter of James Whal ley of Livesey, and had sons, Thomas, bapt. Aug. 19th, 
 1759 ; and John, bom in 1767 ; and daughters, Betty, wife of James Hardman ; Alice, 
 wife of Jeremy Grime; Ellen, wife of JohnPeroberton; Jennet, wife of Frank Nelson ; 
 Mary ; and Hannah, wife of William Kenyon. John Astley, second son of James, 
 by his wife Jane, had sons, James (who had a son Richard); John, born in 1784, had 
 sons John and William ; and Thomas. James Astley of Witton died March 30th, 
 1819, aged 82. 
 
 Thomas Astley, his son, married, in 1780, Betty, daughter of Benjamin Holden 
 of Blackburn, and had sons, James, bapt. Nov. nth, 1782; and John, who died un- 
 married ; also a daughter Mary. Thomas Astley died, aged 65, April i6th, 1825. 
 
 James Astley, his son, married, in 1808, Peggy, daughter of George Jackson, and 
 died, Feb. 5th, i8ii, leaving an only son, John Astley, born April 2nd, 1809, who is 
 now living at Salford, and has married, first, Ann Taylor, and secondly, in Aug. , 
 1834, Nancy Ashton of Blackbum. 
 
 BOARDMAN OF CHERRY TREE HOUSE, &c. 
 
 Robert Boardman of Livesey, yeoman, was made a trustee of the Old Independent 
 Chapel, Tockholes, in I7r5. He and his family were Nonconformists. Edward Board- 
 man, of Witton, very likely Robert's brother, was placed in the same trust at the same 
 time. This Edward died in Dec. 1734. Martha Boardman of Witton died in 1744.. 
 Mr. Robert Boardman of Livesey, by Jane his wife, had sons, William ; Edward, born 
 in 1698; and John Boardman of Livesey, tanner, bom in 1700, died in 1740. The 
 father, Robert Boardman, yeoman, was buried at Blackbum, Jan. 28th, 1737-8. His 
 relict, "Jane Boardman of Livesey, widow," was buried Oct. 19th, 1741. 
 
 One Robert Boardman, of Livesey, married, Sept. 27th, 1726, Esther Pickering 
 of Lower DaVwen ; she died in Oct., 1765. 
 
 William Boardman of Livesey, yeoman, son of Robert, died in 1759, and was 
 buried Jan. 8th. He had sons, Robert; and William, buried Feb. 5th, 1761 ; also 
 daughters, Margaret, died in infancy ; and Mary, who married, Dec. 20th, 1 767, Mr. 
 James Miller of Penwortham. William Boardman's wife survived him. "Mrs. Board- 
 man, of Feniscliffe, widow," married, secondly, in 1759, Mr. Adam Holden. 
 
 Robert Boardman, gent. , of Cherry Tree House, Livesey, by Elizabeth his wife 
 (she died Dec. 6th, 1S22, aged 73), had sons, James, and Robert; and died about 1824. 
 
 Mr. James Boardman, of Cherry Tree House, son of Robert, bapt. Jan. 9th, 
 1772, died in 1842, leaving female issue. 
 
ANCIENT FREEHOLDERS IN LIVESEY. 579 
 
 Mr. Robert Boardman of Coohill, Pleasington, and of King Street, Blackburn, 
 married Martha, daughter of Mr. Thomas Eccles, of Lower Darwen (she died June 
 25th, 1845, aged 67), and had an only daughter, Mary Elizabeth, who married, first, 
 June 7th, 1820, Mr. \Vm. Towers of Blackburn {by whom she had issue a daughter 
 Elizabeth Ann Towers, died unmarried, Sept. 26th, 1866, aged 45); and, secondly, the 
 Rev. Robert Cameron, Baptist Minister in Blackburn ; she died May 28th, i860. Mr. 
 Robert Boardman died in Sept., 1836, aged 58. The tombstone of the Boardmans 
 is in the graveyard of Chapel Street Congregational Church, Blackburn. 
 
 HARWOOD OF LIVESEY. 
 
 George Harwood of Livesey, a freeholder, died on the 29th of August, 29th Eliz. 
 (1586-7). The escheat, taken at Wigan, Aug. 17th, 36th Eliz. (1593-4), returned that 
 George Harwood had been seized of a messuage and garden, with 10 acres of land, 
 5 acres of meadow, and 9 acres of pasture in Lyvesaye, held of Richard Livesay, 
 gent., in free socage, paying i8d. yearly at the Feast of St. Martin the Bishop. Mary, 
 late wife of George Harwood, was then wife of Richard Whithalgh, and held the 
 estate. She sued her son, John Harwood of Livesey, gent., for £41 lent money in 1610, 
 
 John Harwood, gent., was son and heir of George. Another son, probably, 
 was George Harwood, who died before 1609, seized of 8 acres of land lately 
 improved from the Waste of Livesey, held of the King as Duke of Lancaster. John 
 Harwood of Livesey, gent., appears in 1 62 1 in a category of freeholders. 
 
 Robert Harwood, gent., of Feniscliffe, in Livesey, acted as juror in the year 160S, 
 and again in 161 3. Robert Harwood of Livesey, yeoman, a party to a covenant made 
 by Thomas Witton, yeoman, June 23rd, 1638, was probably the Robert Harwood who 
 married, July 3rd, 1621, Rosamond Aspinall. 
 
 Robert Harwood of Livesey, fustian webster, fanned Potter Tenement on lease 
 from Thomas Cross for a term of seven years from 1711, renewed in 1718 for nine 
 years, at a yearly rent of £4 2s. By deed dated Sept. 28th, 1723, George Harwood 
 of Oswaldtwistle, fustian weaver, assigns to Robert Harwood of Livesey, yeoman, his 
 estate and interest in a tenement at Green Tockholes in Livesey, leased for his life by 
 George Harwood from Jeremiah Walkden of Livesey, yeoman. 
 
 HOLDEN OF EWOOD. 
 
 These Holdens had a freehold at Ewood in Livesey for several generations. 
 Thomas Holden de Ewode, living temp. Henry VIII., had a son and heir William. 
 William Holden of Livesey had lands in 1523 taxed to the Subsidy. In the yeari524, 
 William Holden, son and heir of Thomas, was holding lands at Ewode of George 
 Astley in socage. 
 
 Thomas Holden of Livesey was assessed to a Subsidy in 1 5 70. Thomas Holden 
 of Ewood, gent., had, by Margaret his wife, sons, William, Ralph, Richard, and Law- 
 rence. His Will is dated July, 1588. Testator desired to be buried in the Parish 
 Church of Blackburn ; and had given 20s. to Blackburn Grammar Scho'ol. Randall 
 Holden was his executor. 
 
 William Holden of Ewood, gent., a free tenant in 1585, died June 4th, 1593 ; 
 after which an inquisition was taken at Preston, Jan. l8th, 1595, showing that William 
 Holden held of James Livesey, Esq. , in socage, one messuage called Ewode in Ly ve- 
 say, with 20 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, and 20 acres of pasture, inherited from 
 his predecessor Thomas Holden and his antecessors ; also two acres of moss and six 
 acres of land of the new appropriation of the Waste in Livesey. In the escheat recoid 
 it is mentioned that Thomas Holden, father of William, had feoffeed Robert Holden, 
 John Aynesworth, Thomas Astley, and Robert Harwood, in the above estate to hold 
 
58o HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 to the use of William Holden his son and his heirs male. The jurors said that Ralph, 
 Richard, and Lawrence Holden, sons of Thomas, were then living at Ewood, and that 
 Mary, daughter of William Holden, aged 5^ years, was next heir. In the year 1607 
 a plaint was entered in the Chancery Court of Lancashire, by Randal Holden of Eywood, 
 gent. , setting forth that William Catterall of Livesey was theretofore interested in the 
 wardship of Mary Houlden, daughter and heir of William Houlden deceased, and the 
 said William Catterall had, about the 37th Eliz. (159S), conveyed the same wardship 
 to suppliant, Randal Holden, &c. 
 
 Ralph Holden of Ewood, brother of William, occurs as a freeholder in 1600 ; 
 and is named as Randal Holden in the Subsidy of 161 1. He died in 1623. Ralph 
 Holden of Eawood, gent., and William Holden his son and heir, are parties to a deed 
 dated March 23rd, 1614, conveying unto Lawrence Ainsworth of Tockholes, gent., 
 and Christopher Marsden of Okenhurste, yeoman, for the benefit of William Marsden 
 and Maria his wife, "all the parcel of the capital messuage and tenement called the 
 Eawood," lying in Livesey, in tenure of Ralph Holden, comprising "the great daire, 
 the shole, the butterey, the milkehouse, the kitchin, and the chambers above and 
 beneath in the north end of the house," also tliat room between the said house and 
 the " turffe house, " three bays of a shippon at the lower end of the great barn, &c. , 
 half the dovehouse, half the garden, stack-yard, and orchard, &c., and "all those 
 landes from the Eawood Foulde to the more yate and to the little hey," with that por- 
 tion of the moor lying next unto the house, with free liberty " to wash or fetch water 
 and water cattell at the stream and broad water;" also the moiety of lands in Livesey 
 in tenure of William Catterall, to have and hold for term of 100 years, if Ralph 
 Holden and Lawrence his brother, and the first son of Lawrence, so long live. 
 
 Richard Holden of Ewood, I conjecture another brother of Ralph and William, 
 occurs as a juror in 1613. Lawrence Holden, brother of Ralph, is named in the 
 above-cited deed. Lawrence Holden of the Moorgate, had a son Thomas, born in 1629. 
 
 William Holden of Ewood comes after Ralph his father. He married, July 5th, 
 1616, Alice Marsden, and died before 1630, when, by inquisition taken at Blackburn, 
 Aug. 3rd, 6th Chas. I. , it appeared that William Holden, late of Ewode and Livesey, 
 had held of the King as of the Duchy of Lancaster, by a yearly rent charge of 1 2d. , 
 one messuage called Le Ewode in Livesey, with 10 acres of land, 3 of meadow, and 3 
 of pasture ; also the third part of four messuages and six acres of land in Livesey, and 
 four acres of land late improved from the Waste of Livesey. Alice Holden, widow of 
 William, was then living at Blackburn ; and Thomas Holden, son and heir, was aged 
 three years on the 21st January before the inquisition. 
 
 Thomas Holden of Ewood, yeoman, in his Will, dated Nov. 26th, 1662, names 
 Anne, his wife ; a son Thomas, and daughters Alice, Anne, Elizabeth, and Jane. 
 
 " Mr. Thomas Holden, of Ewood," occurs in 1664 ; he had a son William, bom 
 Jan. 8th, 1655-6. 
 
 William Holden, of Ewood, had a son William, bapt. Feb. 2nd, 1674-5 ; and 
 other issue. 
 
 The following names occur later : — James Holden of Livesey, yeoman, died in 
 Sept., 1707 ; his wife Elizabeth died in July, 1703. Thomas Holden of Livesey, yeo- 
 man, married, in 1683, Elizabeth Blakey of Leyland ; and died in Nov., 1723. John 
 Holden of Livesey died in 1731 ; Margaret Holden, widow, died in 1732 ; Thomas, 
 son of John, was born in 1720. Lawrence Holden of Livesey had a son Lawrence, born 
 Jan. iSth, 1673-4- Lawrence Holden of Livesey, chapman, and yeoman, who died 
 inNov., 1769, by his wife Elizabeth (died in 1742), had sons, John, born in 1730; and 
 James, born in 1731 ; — the last-named, James Holden of Livesey, buried at Blackburn, 
 
ANCIENT FREEHOLDERS IN LIVESEY. 581 
 
 Aug. 17th, 1789, aged 57. "Henry Holden of Livesey, found dead on the highway," 
 was buried at Blackburn, Jan. 6th, 1670-1. 
 
 LIVESEY OF WHITHALGH. 
 
 A branch of Liveseys had a freehold at Whithaigh in Livesey. The house there 
 has over the porch a stone inscribed with the date " 1616," and the initials " T. L." 
 and " G. M R. R ;" the first standing for Thomas Livesey ; the other initials to some 
 unknown connexion of the builder of the house. 
 
 James Livesey of Whithaigh died in May, 1658. He had a son Richard. 
 
 Richard Livesey of Whithaigh, had a son James, baptized at Whithaigh, Sept. 
 14th, 1659 ; also a son Thomas ; and a daughter Christabel, died in 16S9. 
 
 Thomas Livesey of Whithaigh, living in 1694, had a son Lawrence, baptized 
 April 27ih, in that year. 
 
 PICKOP OF GREEN-TOCKHOLES AND LIVESEY. 
 
 From early in the seventeeth century the Pickops, prior to that date of Lower 
 Darwen, have held a freehold estate, on the border of Livesey and Tockholes, 
 anciently called Green- Tockholes. 
 
 James Piccopp of Lower Darwen, yeoman, married, Oct., 20th, 1634, MaryEccIes, 
 and had a son and heir James. James Piccopp, the father, purchased of Thomas 
 Witton, gent., in 1641, the messuage and eight customary acres of land in Green-Tock- 
 holes, for the sum of £^0, and by deed of lease, dated April, 1642, leased to Thomas 
 Witton, of Green-Tockholes, gent., for a term of l8 years, at a yearly rent of 20d., 
 two closes of land in Tockholes called Further Greenheys, of 5 acres. 
 
 James Piccopp the younger, son of James, of Meadow Head in Lower Darwen, 
 married Jane Yate ; and by indenture dated Feb. 5th, 1657, it is witnessed that 
 whereas a marriage is to be had between James Piccopp, son and heir of James 
 Piccopp, and Jane Yate, daughter of Richard Yate of Graine in Haslingden, yeoman, 
 before the ist day of May next, James Piccopp the father, in consideration of £1 10 to 
 be paid to him and his son as a marriage portion of Jane Yate, covenants with Richard 
 Yate that he will, before March Ist next, convey unto Henry Marsden of Okenhurst 
 and James Duckworth the younger of Musburie, yeomen, the messuage and parcel of 
 land called Greene-Tockholes in Livesey, to stand seized in trust to the use of James 
 Piccopp the elder during his life, after of James Piccopp the son and Jane his intended 
 wife, during their lives, after of their issue. This covenant James Piccopp the father 
 fulfils by deed of trust dated Feb. nth, 1657. James Piccopp the son, of Livesey-cum- 
 Tockholes, was assessed to a Subsidy in 1663. He had a son and heir, John; and a 
 younger son James, bapt. May 29th, 1663. 
 
 Robert Piccop of Lower Darwen and Tockholes (probably a younger son of James 
 Piccopp the elder, and brother of the above James), assessed to a Subsidy in 1 663, 
 married Mary, daughter of Thomas Crompton of Bolton (niece of Rev. Oliver Hey- 
 wood), and by her, who died in 1672, had issue one child. 
 
 John Piccop of Green-Tockholes, yeoman, by indenture dated July 15th, 1690, 
 sold for ;f 100 to his brother James Piccop of Livesey, husbandman, the moiety of 
 his messuage and lands at Greene-Tockholes, to have for a term of 500 years, paying 
 the yearly rent of one peppercorn. John Piccop married Margaret Bannister, and 
 had issue, sons, James, died in his minority, in 1703, without issue ; Bannister ; and 
 William, of Livesey, yeoman. John Pickop died about the year 169 1 ; his widow, 
 Margaret Piccop, married, secondly, Thomas Holden, and died in 1731. 
 
 Bannister Piccop of Livesey, yeoman, born about 1686, married, Dec. 8th, 1708, 
 Alice Abbot of Livesey (who died in Dec. , 1738), and had issue, sons, John ; James 
 
jga HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Pickop, of Pickop Brow, Livesey, yeoman (born in 1 718, buried May 4th, 1S07, aged 
 88 ; and by Ann his wife had issue) ; and Bannister, bom in 1723 ; also daughters, 
 Margaret, bom in 1709; Rosamond; Elizabeth, wifeofThomas Darbyshire; and Grace, 
 bornin 1731. Bannister Piccop was living in 1739, when he had a lease from Lawrence 
 Tomson of Livesey, for 87 years, at a rental of ^23, of the messuage in Livesey called 
 Horden, with 36 acres of land, which the lessor had by deed dated Jan. 12th, 1729, 
 for 99 years, from Lawrence Ainsworth of Barr-house Fold in Livesey, yeoman. 
 
 John Pickop of Livesey, eldest son of Bannister, married, in 1735, Mary, daughter 
 of William Harvvood of Lower Darwen, but appears to have died without issue. 
 
 Bannister Pickop of Livesey, younger son of Bannister, by Catherine his wife (she 
 died Aug. 23rd, 1772), had a son John, born July 5th, 1764 ; and daughters, Margaret, 
 born in 1766 ; Alice ; and Mary. Mr. Bannister Pickop died, aged 80, Dec. 4, 1803. 
 
 His son, John Pickop of Livesey, by Lucy his wife (she died Aug. 29th, 1814), 
 had issue, sons. Bannister, bom June 6th, 1803 ; William, born Feb. 1 8th, 1807; and 
 James, born July 7th, 1810 ; anda daughter Ann, bom in 1813, married, in 1835, Rev. 
 John Fisher, incumbent of Heapey. Mr. John Pickop died June 8th, 1823. 
 
 Mr. Bannister Pickop, of Livesey, married Miss Catherine Hoghton, ofTockhoIes, 
 and by her (who died Nov. i8th, 1827), had daughters, Elizabeth, wife of Mr. Thos. 
 Ward, of Bolton ; and Catherine, bornin 1S27, died in 1828. By Esther, his second 
 wife (who died July 30th, 1865), Mr. Bannister Pickop had one son, John; and a 
 daughter Lucy Ann , born June loth, 1831, died Dec. 30th, 1867. Mr. Bannister 
 Pickop died in his 32nd year, Dec. 13th, 1834. 
 
 John Pickop, Esq., J. P., of Winster, Blackburn, only son of Bannister, is the 
 living representative of this family and owner of the freehold estate in Livesey. Mr. 
 John Pickop was born Nov. loth, 1832, and is unmarried. He was Mayor of Black- 
 bum in 1873-4, and is now an Alderman of the borough. Mr. Pickop has recently 
 retired from a successful practice in the law. 
 
 WALKDEN OF LIVESEY. 
 
 Matthew Walkden was one of several yeomen who, in the year 1 600, claimed the 
 right of common in Livesey township. 
 
 Ralph Walkden of Livesey, yeoman, living in 1642, had sons, Matthew, Peter, 
 and John. Peter Walkden of Livesey, younger son of Ralph, had sons, Matthew 
 (who had sons Peter and William), Ralph, and John, and was deceased in 1662. 
 
 Matthew Walkden of Livesey, yeoman, enrolled with his father on Preston 
 Guild Roll in 1642, and dead before 1682, had a son Ralph. 
 
 Ralph Walkden of Livesey, yeoman, living in 1682, had sons John and Matthew. 
 
 John Walkden of Livesey, son of Ralph, died before 1 702, leaving issue, sons, 
 John Walkden (of Hoghton), living in 1722; Matthew Walkden, of Hoghton in 
 1 742 ; and Richard Walkden, of Withnell. 
 
 WITTON OF GREEN-TOCKHOLES IN LIVESEY, &a 
 
 Members of the Witton family are first met with in tenure of lands in Tockholes 
 and Darwen towards the close of Elizabeth's reign. William Witton, of Green-Tock- 
 holes, husbandman, obtained, in 1595, from John Osbaldeston, Esq., lord of Over 
 Darwen Manor, a lease of a messuage and tenement in Over Darwen, occupied by 
 Roger Cooper, yeoman, for a term of three lives, those, namely, of William Witton, 
 Grace his wife, and John Witton, second son of Thomas Witton of Slaidbum, Co. 
 York, yeoman. Hence I infer that William Witton would be son or brother of 
 Thomas Witton of Slaidbum. The moiety of this tenement in Darwen, then occupied 
 by his brother James Witton, William Witton released, by deed dated June 3rd, 1602, 
 
ANCIENT FREEHOLDERS IN LIVESEY. ^ 583 
 
 to John Wigglesworth, of Hayhead in Bolton-by-BowIand. William Witton had a son 
 William, bapt. Jan. 30th, 1601-2, with other issue. 
 
 At the same time I note "Thomas Witton of Green-Tockholes, gent.," in a list 
 of freeholders dated 1600, no doubt a near kinsman of William Witton above. 
 Thomas Witton was buried at Blackburn, March 3rd, 1603-4. He was probably 
 father of " Thomas Witton of Green-Tockholes, gent.," a freeholder in 1621 ; and of 
 Nicholas Witton, of whom I have some further particulars. 
 
 Nicholas Witton, of Green-Tockholes, gent., by his wife Alice, had a son and 
 heir Thomas ; other sons, Ambrose, bom in 1615 ; and William ; and daughters, 
 Ellen, bapt. Aug. 23rd, 1618; and Elizabeth, married to George Morris of Livesey. 
 The title-deeds of the Green-Tockholes freehold, in possession of Alderman John 
 Pickop, of Blackburn, help to elucidate the family affairs of the Wittons in the seven- 
 teenth century. An indenture made the 3rd March, 3rd Charles I» (1627), between 
 Nicholas Witton of Green-Tockholes, yeoman, on the first part, Thomas Witton, son 
 and heir apparent of Nicholas, on the second part, and Rauphe Walmsley and William 
 Marsden of Tockholes in the said county, yeomen, on the third part, witnesseth that 
 Nicholas and Thomas Witton (that a competent jointure may be had for Alice 
 Witton wife of Nicholas), covenant with Rauphe Walmsley and William Marsden, 
 that they, Nicholas and Thomas, with George Aynsworth of Knuzden, yeoman, John 
 Cundliffe of the Woodheade in Accrington, gentleman, and William Critchlowe of 
 Tockholes, yeoman, will before the ist April next coming, by their deed of feoffment 
 Convey unto Ralph Walmsley and William Marsden all the mesuage and tenement 
 called Greene-Tockholes, in Livesay, in the occupation of Nicholas Witton, and all 
 other the messuages, lands, &c., of them the said Nicholas and Thomas Witton, 
 George Aynsworth, John CundlifiFe, and William Critchlowe, situate in Livesay ; all 
 reversions ; all rents, &c. , upon any lease thereof formerly made, &c. ; one messuage 
 lately erected in Livesay, with two closes of land adjoining, containing 4% acres lately 
 taken in and improved from the commons and wastes of Livesaye, in the occupation 
 of George Potter, the inheritance of George Aynsworth only excepted ; to stand 
 seized thereof to the intent that they Ralph Walmsley and William Marsden shall be 
 perfect tenants of the freehold until a common recovery may be executed of the same 
 premises against them, by John Cundliffe and William Critchlowe, or others nominated 
 by Nicholas and Thomas Witton ; the said Rauphe Walmsley and William Marsden 
 to stand seized of the premises for 21 years, to the use of Nicholas Witton, then to 
 the use of Nicholas Witton and Alls his wife for their lives ; and after their decease 
 to the sole use of the said Thomas Witton, his heirs, &c. Another indenture, dated 
 March 21st, 1636, between Nicholas Witton of Greene-Tockholes, yeoman, and 
 Thomas Witton his son, on the one part, and Ralph Morris and William Morris of 
 Winwick, fustian weavers, on the other part, witnesseth that Nicholas and Thomas 
 Witton, for the sum of £2$, have let to Ralph and William Morris the bam standing 
 in the hedgerow between Witton Croft and the Heefield, commonly called the Lower 
 Barn, with the Heefield close, situate in Tockholes, containing three acres of land, for 
 the term of 33 years, paying to Thomas Witton the yearly rent of I2d. Nicholas 
 Witton, gent., died March 5th, 15th Chas. I (1640). The escheat record taken at 
 Blackburn, April 28th, 17th Charles I., informs that Nicholas Witton had died seized 
 of one messuage, two cottages, three gardens, 20 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, 
 and 10 acres of pasture in Green-Tockholes in Livesey, held of Ralph Livesey, Esq. , 
 in free socage, subject to a payment of I2d. yearly; worth 15s. The widow of 
 Nicholas Witton was buried Jan. 14th, 1654-5. 
 
 Thomas Witton, son and heir of Nicholas, was aged over 34 years at the date of 
 
584 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 this record. Thomas Witton, gent, married, before 1636, Mary, daughter of Thomas 
 Aspiiiall, of Lower Darwen, as is shown by the next abstract of an Indenture made the 
 23rd June, 14th Chas. I (1638), between Thomas Witton, son and heir apparent of 
 Nicholas Witton, of Greene-Tockholes in Livesey, yeoman, on the one part, and 
 Robert Harwood of Livesey, yeoman, on the other part, attesting that Thomas Witton, 
 in consideration of a marriage already had between himself and Mary now his wife, 
 one of the daughters of Thomas Aspinall late of Lower Darwen, yeoman, deceased, 
 and of the sum of ;^I20 to him beforehand paid by Anne Aspinall, of Lower Darwen, 
 widow of Thomas and mother of Mary, being the marriage portion of the said Mary, 
 and that a competent jointure may be had for the said Mary, and for the natural love 
 the said Thomas Witton hath towards the issue female of his said wife, covenants with 
 the said Robert Harwood that he will presently convey unto William Walmsley, son 
 of Ralph of Tockholes, yeoman, and Thomas his brother, all that messuage and tene- 
 ment called Greene-Tockholes, in joint occupation of Nicholas Witton and his son the 
 said Thomas, with the closes of land, &c., to stand seized of the said premises to the 
 use of Thomas Witton and Mary his wife, for term of their lives ; and to the use of 
 Nicholas Witton and Alis his wife during their lives ; subject to the expiry of certain 
 leases, &c. ; and after the decease of Nicholas and Alis Witton, to the use of Thomas 
 Witton for his life, and a third part of the premises to the use of Mary, wife of Thomas 
 Witton, for her life, in the name of her jointure and dower, and after to the use of the 
 daughter or daughters of the said Thomas and Mary Witton, until such time as the 
 lawful heir of Thomas Witton shall pay to the said daughters the sum of ;£^I20, to be 
 divided equally amongst the said daughters ; after such payment to the use of the right 
 heirs of the said Thomas Witton. Another deed, in latin, is dated June 29th, 1638, by 
 which Thomas Witton, son and heir apparent to Nicholas Witton, of Greene-Tocke- 
 holes within Livesey, yeoman, in part performance of an indenture of agreement 
 between Thomas Witton and Robert Harwood of Livesey, yeomen, concerning the 
 marriage of Thomas Witton with Mary now. his wife and a daughter of Thomas As- 
 pinall, late of Darwen, deceased, gives, concedes, and confirms unto William Walms- 
 ley, son and heir apparent of Raulph Walmsley of Tockeholes, yeoman, John Aspi- 
 nall of Darwen, yeoman, and Thomas Aspinall brother of John Aspinall, and Mary 
 wife of Thomas Witton, all that capital messuage with appurtenances, called Greene- 
 Tockholes, in the tenure of Nicholas Witton, father of Thomas, with lands, &c., to 
 have and hold to the said William Walmsley, and the others, to the uses in the said 
 indenture specified. 
 
 In 1636, the above Thomas Witton is named as of Nether Darwen. He had, I 
 think, no male issue. A daughter, named Rosamond Witton, was baptized July 3rd, 
 1636. Thomas Witton was living in 1647. 
 
 PLACES OF WORSHIP. 
 
 IMMANUEL Church, Feniscowles. — An elegant little church, of decorated 
 gothic architecture, was built thirty years ago, at the charge of the family of Feilden 
 of Feniscowles ; and endowed by the same patrons. The corner-stone was laid by 
 William Feilden, Esq., on Feb. 5th, 1835; and the church was consecrated Oct. loth, 
 1836. The situation is a charming spot on the rising bank of the Darwen, on the 
 Livesey side of the river, near Feniscowles Bridge. The fabric is built of grey grit- 
 stone, and consists of a nave, lighted by windows of graceful tracery, and a neat tower 
 with crocketted pinnacles, finished with a spire. Three painted windows, the gift of 
 John Tattersall, Esq. , were placed at the east end of the church, and on either side of 
 the communion, in Nov., i86l. The value of the living, previously ;^2I5, has re- 
 
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS IN LIVESEY. 585 
 
 cently been augmented to £yxi per annum by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Sit- 
 tings 473. Patron, the Vicar of Blackburn. Incumbents in succession : — Rev. Geo. 
 Edmundson ; Rev. J. Beilby ; Rev. A. Gallagher, M. A., present minister. 
 
 St. Andrew's Chdrch, Moorgate. — The National School at Livesey had 
 Tieen licensed for divine service more than twenty years before a church could be pro- 
 vided. The comer-stone of the church, dedicated to St. Andrew, was laid on Dec 
 24th, 1866. The style is early English. The plan comprises a nave, 85ft. long; north 
 and south transepts, 64ft. across ; chancel, 35 ft. by 24ft. 8in., with octagonal termi- 
 nation ; chancel transepts, divided on the north into vestry and north porch, and on the 
 south into organ chamber and south porch ; the tower, which rises from the south side 
 of the chancel, is in three stages, and with a spire (not yet built) will rise to a height of 
 of 1 60ft. The principal porch is at the south-west end of the church. In the interior the 
 nave is divided from the chancel by a bold moulded arch ; and the tower from the nave by 
 massive arches. The nave is lighted on the north and south sides by two-light lancet 
 ■windows, and at the west end by two large windows with geometrical tracery. The 
 transepts have handsome traceried rose windows. Mr. E. G. Paley was the architect. 
 The church contains 644 sittings, and cost ;£'5ooo. It has not yet been consecrated. 
 
 Mill Hill Congregational CHURCH.^An Independent Sunday School was 
 opened about the year 1844 in the farm-house at Stakes Hall, and public worship was 
 casually conducted in the same room. In the year 1847, the late Joseph Eccles, Esq., 
 of Mill Hill House, erected a building on his estate for a school and chapel, at a cost 
 of ;f 1300. The chapel on the upper floor of this building had become too small for 
 the congregation, and on the 26th of February, 1859, the corner-stone of a new 
 church, designed by Messrs. Hibbert and Rainford, was laid by Mrs. Eccles. The 
 edifice, called Mill Hill Congregational Church, was opened Sept. 19th, i860. The 
 style of the architecture is Italian ; and the body of the church is a parallelogram, 
 72ft. by 50ft. At the north end is the entrance, comprising a portico of square stone 
 pillars, and vestibules, above which a square clock-tower and spire of curved outline 
 rise to the height of 135ft. The interior has galleries on three sides. The materials 
 of the external walls are red bricks, with ornamental mouldings in white brick. The 
 cost, inclusive of subsequent alterations, site, and organ, has been about ;f 6000. Sit- 
 tings, 95a Ministers in succession : — Rev. H. H. ScuUard ; Rev. W. H. Mann ; Rev, 
 E. Heath ; Rev. Isaac Davies, present minister. The former chapel is now devoted 
 to Day and Sunday School uses, and new class-rooms were attached in 1876. 
 
 United Methodist Free Church, Waterfall. — At Waterfall, near the 
 north boundary of Livesey, a school-chapel of the United Free Methodists was built 
 in 1861, and has since been extended. It is a plain oblong building, containing 270 
 sittings ; and has cost about ;f 1200. It is served from Blackburn. 
 
 DAY SCHOOLS IN THE TOWNSHIP. 
 
 At the date of a return to the Education Department, published in February, 
 1873, the day-school provision in Livesey was as follows : — Iramanuel National 
 School, Cherry Tree, for 234 children ; Waterloo Church of England School, Moor- 
 gate, for 266 children ; Independent School, Mill Hill, for 486 children ; total pro- 
 vision for 986 children. Mill Hill Independent School has since been enlarged by new 
 class rooms. In 1875, the inspection of these schools gave the following results in 
 average attendance of scholars and Government grant earned : — 
 
 Mill Hill Independent School— Average attendance 205, Govt, grant ;i'l 50/1 5/4 
 Waterloo Church of England School— „ 172 „ ;ii3o/i5/3 
 
 Cherry Tree National School— „ 73 .. jCS3/h/o 
 
 74 
 
586 HISTORY OF BLACKBUR^f. 
 
 CHARITIES OF LIVESEY TOWNSHIP. 
 
 Livesey's Charity. — Sarah Livesey, by her Will (the date whereof 
 is not known), bequeathed to the Vicar and Churchwardens of Blackburn 
 ^loo upon trust to use the interest towards putting out as apprentice to 
 some trade, occupation, or craft, some such child or children of neces- 
 sitous inhabitants of Blackburn, Livesey, and Pleasington townships, as 
 the Vicar and Wardens and the owner of Livesey Hall for the time 
 being should select, in the course following ; first, one of the township of 
 Livesey; secondly, of Blackburn, thirdly of Livesey, and fourthly of 
 Pleasington ; and so on by turns for ever. The Charity Commission of 
 1825 found no account of the application of the interest prior to the 
 death of Vicar Starkie in 181 8 (who had been the acting trustee). Since 
 that date the wardens had received interest on the ;£^ioo of Sarah Live- 
 sey's bequest for seven years, of which they had applied ^£5 in 1820 
 in apprenticing a poor child of Blackburn;' and paid ;^5 to the 
 overseers of Livesey in 182 1, and ^^5 to the overseers of Pleasington in 
 1823, for the same purpose. The principal was then in the hands of 
 Messrs. Birley and Hornby, who paid the interest to the wardens. 
 
 Charities of Blore and others. — George Blore, by his Will,. 
 dated March ist, 1730, directed that ;!^33 which was Mrs. Hothersall's 
 should lie there till it was £40, and then the interest to go to the poor 
 of Livesey, the heads of the town to have care of it. In 1 786 it was re- 
 turned to Parliament that ;^4o given by George Blore, and ^10 given 
 by Ralph Livesey, were then vested in Mrs. Wilson (sister of Ralph Live- 
 sey, Esq.). Down to the sale of the estate in 1805 to Messrs. H. and 
 W. Feilden, the interest of the same had been paid regularly on behalf 
 of Mrs. Wilson and Robert Bell Livesey, owners of Livesey Hall estate; 
 but after that time the charge was disallowed. George Blore also left;^4o, 
 the interest to be divided betwixt the townships of Livesey and Tock- 
 holes, for distribution to poor persons, in the proportions of three-fifths 
 to Livesey and two-fifths to Tockholes. The ;^24 belonging to Live- 
 sey, with ^6 given by Edward Boardman, ^£5 by Daniel Hall, 
 and £$ by Thomas Sharpies, making a sum of ;^38, were lent out on 
 personal security, at the interest of ;£i 15s. yearly, until 1824, when a 
 workhouse was built fbr the township, at a cost of ^^900, and the inha- 
 bitants agreed to apply the ;^38 towards the erection of the building, on 
 condition that interest to the same amount as before was received should 
 be paid out of the rates. Messrs. John Pickop and Robert Boardman 
 distributed this fund to poor persons for many years prior to 1824. It 
 appears from an inquiry made by the Charity Commissioners in January, 
 1868, that the parochial authorities in whom the principal was vested 
 had long ceased to pay the interest upon the stock agreed upon in 1 824. 
 
THE TOWNSHIP OF MELLOR. 587 
 
 CHAPTER XI.— THE TOWNSHIPS OF MELLOR-CUM- 
 ECCLESHILL. 
 
 Mellor Township— Topography— Population — De Meluer Family — Descent of the Manor — Present 
 Landowners — Ancient Freeholders — Abbot — Aspden — Astley — Clayton— Haydock— Hoghton — 
 Osbaldeston— Walmsley— Ward— WTiithaIgh— St. Mary's Church— Methodist Chapels— Ecdes- 
 hill Township — Ancient Proprietors — Recent Conveyances of the Manor — Other Estates and Free- 
 holders— Eccles — Fish — Pickop — ^orrock. 
 
 FROM the 1 2th century to the end of the 17th, the hamlets of 
 Mellor and Eccleshill always appear in conjunction in local 
 records, as forming together one township ; although the two places are 
 separated by a distance of three miles or more, the whole breadth 
 of the townships of Blackburn and Lower Darwen lying between. In 
 modem parochial definition, Mellor and Eccleshill are reckoned distinct 
 townships. 
 
 Mellor township extends over the north and south slopes of 
 two hills, the last of the range, between the defile of the Calder 
 at UTialley and that of the Darwen, which is the natural bound 
 of Ribblesdale on the south. The highest of the hills within Mellor is 
 Mellor Moor (735ft. above the sea level), and the other rises behind 
 AVoodfold Hall. The modem road from Blackbum to Preston tra- 
 verses the hollow between these eminences. The area of Mellor is 
 1830 statute acres. The land is all in pasturage, and the occupations 
 of the inhabitants are those of farming and hand-loom weaving. There 
 is one cotton factory at Mellor Brook. In the early period of the cen- 
 tur}', a large manufacture of cotton cloths on the hand-loom was localized 
 here, and caused an influx of cottage weavers into the to^^-nship ; but this 
 trade has been much reduced in dimensions by the competition of the 
 power-loom. Since 1 831, many hundreds of the weavers from Mellor 
 have been drafted into the mills of Blackbum, with the effect upon the 
 population of Mellor shown in the following figures. In 1 801, the popu- 
 lation of this township was 1439 ; in 1811, 1548; in 1821, 1981 ; in 
 1831, 2071 ; in 1841, 1844; in 1851, 1688; in 1861, 1398; and in 
 1871, 1178. 
 
58g HISTO-RY OF BLACKKURN, 
 
 DE MELUER FAMILY. 
 
 Members of a proprietary family named after the township occur I'r! 
 the 13th century. WiUiam de Meluer (who with his brother Henry 
 occurs about 1241) had a son Robert ; and he (Robert de Meluer), by 
 his charter, undated, gave to the Abbot and Convent of Stanlaw one 
 perch of land in the territory of Meleur, contained in a croft called 
 Linbottie, for a site of a barn, with free common of housbote and hay- 
 bote in the wood of Meluer. Robert's eldest son, John de Meluer, 
 gave to the same monastery half an acre of land in the vill of Meleur,. 
 lying on the upper side of Thornecroft next the land of Henry Faber, 
 on which the monks might build a grange for their tithes. John de 
 Meluer and his brother Henry de Meluer both witness a deed dated 
 1292, and John de Meluer attests an undated deed of Diana de 
 Plesyngton. Adam de Meluer, chaplain at Clitheroe in 1343, may be 
 named as of this family. There is nothing to connect these De Meluers^ 
 with the manorial lordship of Mellor. 
 
 DESCENT OF MELLOR MANOR. 
 
 Melver with Heccleshall were detached appurtenances of the fee of 
 Walton, held by Robert Banaster in the 12th century. But the uplands 
 of Mellor were early severed from Walton and accounted a distinct 
 manor, held by the lords of Samlesbury. In 131 1, Nicholas de Evyas 
 (of a family then holding Samlesbury) had half a carucate in Melore by 
 the service of the 1 6th part of a knight's fee, paying yearly 8d. to the 
 Clyderhou Court. Sixty years or so later, in a survey of Blackburnshire 
 in 1377, the return was that Gilbert de Southworth, Adam Turton, and 
 Agnes del Leghe held the 4th part of a knight's fee in Mellor, Eccleshall, 
 and Nether Derwend, by 26d. per annum of rent; and that Richard de 
 Hoghton held one knight's fee in Walton, Mellor, and Eccleshall. The 
 Southworths of Samlesbury long time held the so-called manor of Mellor 
 by socage tenure of the crown ; and at the death of Sir John South- 
 worth, in 1595, his Mellor estate consisted of 30 messuages, as many 
 gardens and orchards, and 300 acres of land, 100 acres meadow, 200 
 acres pasture, 200 acres moor and moss, 100 acres gorse and heath, 40 
 acres of wood, and 50s. of rents ; total acreage (besides gardens and 
 orchards) 940 acres. The returned yearly value of the estate was ^^50, 
 and the service payment to the crown was i6d. per annum. On the 
 death, in 1642, of Thomas Southworth, Esq., who owned the manorial 
 estate in Mellor, it consisted still of 30 messuages with gardens, 900 
 acres of land (200 acres being moor and moss), and 20s. of rents. This 
 Thomas Southworth dying unmarried, the next heirs to the estate were 
 his two sisters, Elizabeth, wife of Richard Walmesley of Showley; and 
 
Present landowners in mEllOR. 589 
 
 Jane, wife of Timothy Sumpner of Chorley. The manor and lands in 
 Mellor subsequently were partitioned and passed by mortgage and sale 
 into several hands in succession. Towards the close of the last century, 
 Mr. Henry Sudell, of Blackburn, purchased several freehold estates in 
 Mellor, some of which had been originally manor-lands, and imparked 
 a portion of them, with contiguous lands in Pleasington and Samles- 
 bury, to form the extensive Woodfold Park, in the midst of which stands 
 Woodfold Hall, the modern manor-house of Mellor, erected by Mr. 
 Sudell about eighty years since. The hall is a large stone-built mansion, 
 having a handsome south frontage, with central portico, supported by 
 four Corinthian columns. A stone wall four miles in circuit, and nine 
 feet high, encloses Woodfold Park. Henry Sudell, Esq., held his court 
 leet for the manor of Mellor until the year 1827, when (as stated in an 
 account of the Sudell family, pp. 403-405), his commercial losses caused 
 him to leave Woodfold Hall, and necessitated the sale of parts of the 
 estate. The portion of Woodfold Park situate within Mellor, and the 
 residue of the manorial estate, had been settled upon Mr. Sudell's family. 
 These were sold to Mr. J. F. Hindle in 1831. The present owner, and 
 lord of the manor, is George Frederick Gregory, Esq., who married the 
 only surviving daughter and heiress of William Fowden Hindle, Esq. 
 Mr. Gregory resides in London ; and the extent of his estate in this part 
 of Lancashire is stated in the recent Return to Parliament at 836 
 statute acres, with an estimated re'ntal of ;/f 1673. " Stanley House," an 
 old mansion now in ruins, situate on an eminence to the north of Wood- 
 fold Park, is said to have been anciently the manor-house of Mellor. 
 In the second half of the 1 7th century and beginning of the last century 
 a branch of the Yates family (later of Manchester), resided at Stanley 
 House and held the freehold attached to it (see ante, p. 409). Subse- 
 quently, Mr. Rarasbottom of Chorley acquired the estate and lived at 
 Stanley House. A Mr. J. Bolton Was next possessor, from whom Mr. 
 Sudell bought this portion of the manor-lands of Mellor. 
 
 Other present landowners in Mellor are : — Mr. Henry Hargreaves, 
 who has 184 statute acres ; Nancy Hargreaves has 163 j4 acres ; Alice 
 Hargreaves, 33 acres; and Mr. James Shorrock, who has in Mellor and 
 Ramsgreave 179 acres. 
 
 Below are notes upon several old yeoman families in the township, 
 
 ABBOT OF ABBOT HOUSE. 
 
 Thomas Abbot of Mellor, was buried at Blackburn, Feb. 5th, 1624. George 
 Abbot of Mellor, had sons, Thomas, born in 1620, and George, born in 1624. 
 
 Thomas Abbot of Mellor, clerk, son of George, elected a Governor of Blackburn 
 Grammar School, Dec. 2ist, 1676, is then styled " Mr. Thomas Abbot of Mellor, 
 gent." Mr. Thomas Abbot of Mellor was curate of Walton and Samlesbury chapela 
 
jgo HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 between 1675 and 1688. He lived at Abbot House, where a room is known as the 
 "Minister's Room." The Blackburn Burial Registers record: — "Thomas Abbot, 
 of Mellor, clerk, buried in linnen," June 19th, 1688. He had sons, George and James. 
 
 George Abbot of Mellor, son of George and brother of Thomas, by his wife Alice 
 (who died in June, 1663), had issue ; he died in Nov., 1680. His widow, Mrs. Alice 
 Abbot, died in 1723. 
 
 George Abbot of Mellor, yeoman, son of the minister, named in the Grammar 
 School books in 1689, had sons, Thomas, living in 1722; John; George ; and James, 
 born in 1703 ; and daughters, Elizabeth, bom in 1798 ; Alice, Mary, and Jane. 
 
 John Abbot of Mellor, yeoman, son of George, died in April, 1 738. James 
 Abbot of Mellor, yeoman, younger son of George, who died in May, 1767, had a son 
 George, buried in 1744; and John. He was enrolled a freeman of Preston at the 
 Guild in 1742, and died in 1767. 
 
 John Abbot, of Abbot House, Mellor, son of James, being reduced in means, 
 sold the estate to Mr. SudSl of Blackburn, and died about seventy years ago. Late 
 in life he learnt to weave on the hand-loom, and so made a meagre subsistence. 
 
 ASPDEN OF ARLEYS. 
 
 Arleys in Mellor was in the reigns of the Tudor sovereigns the estate of a family 
 named Aspden, which also had a small freehold in Pleasington adjacent. In 1523, 
 Richard Aspden was assessed to a Subsidy for lands in Pleasington. In the 27th 
 Henry VIII. (1535), Robert Aspden disputed with Peter Stanley the title to lands in 
 Mellour. 
 
 Robert Aspeden, in the 6th Edward VI. (1552-3), prosecuted Giles Walmesley 
 and others for obstruction of right of way to a messuage called Arley, and lands and 
 tenements called Oxleys in Mellor. This person also, in the 4th and 5th Phil, and 
 Mary (1557), had a suit in the Duchy Court, against Oliver and Christopher Wlialley, 
 and Roger Isherwoode, respecting a disputed right of way from a messuage in Pleas- 
 ington called Bencoks, over Fulshawe Meadow, and the Hill Close, unto several in- 
 closures of Hesketh, and a way from a messuage called Arley, otherwise Erley, in 
 Mellor, to the Common of Plesington. A year earlier, the same Robert Aspeden, 
 claiming by right of inheritance, disputed with the same defendants a claim to turlrary 
 and pasture on Plesington More, in right of messuages called Bencocks and Arley. 
 
 Robert Aspden was assessed on lands in Mellor to a Subsidy in 1570. 
 
 "James Aspden of Areleys, gent.," appears in a list of free tenants in 1584, and 
 again in 1600. 
 
 ASTLEY OF MELLOR, &c. 
 
 This yeoman family was a branch of the Astleys of Stakes, whose descent is 
 sketched in another part of this work. James Astley, the first settled in Mellor, was 
 third son of Randal Astley of Eccleshill, gent., thircf son of Thomas Astley of Stakes, 
 gent James, son of Randal and Margery Astley, was baptized Aug. 27th, 1615. 
 James Astley died about 1636, and an escheat taken at Blackburn, July 8th, nth 
 Chas. I. , showed that James Astley had died seized of one messuage, two gardens, 
 one orchard, and 16 acres of land, meadow, and pasture in Pleasington, and of 3 acres 
 of land in Mellor. Giles Astley was his son and heir, aged 50 years. He was father of — 
 
 James Astley of Witton and Mellor, yeoman, married, Feb. 25th, 1682, Katherine 
 Walmsley, but she would be a second wife, for James Astley had twins, son and 
 daughter (James and Ann), baptized Dec. 19th, 1655. By his wife Katherine he had 
 a daughter Ellen, bom in 1690, and a son Henry, born in Nov., 1692. James Astley 
 died in June, 1709 ; in his Will, dated May l6th, 1709, he names his wife Katherine 
 
CLAYTON Of SHORROCK GREEN. 
 
 S9t 
 
 and his son James. The will of Catherine Astley of Mellor, no doubt the widow of 
 James, is dated 1720. 
 
 James Astley of Mellor, yeoman, son of the last James, had sons, James, bapt. 
 April 24th, 1698, and Henry, bapt. March 13th, 1705-6; daughters, Elizabeth, 
 married to William Clayton ; and Ellen, wife of Lawrence Walmsley. In his Will, 
 dated Dec. 15th, 1719, James Astley names his sons James and Henry, and his 
 daughters Ellen Walmsley and Elizabeth Clayton. James Astley of Mellor was buried 
 at lilackbum, March 9th, 1719-20. 
 
 James Astley of Mellor and of Bencock Hall, Pleasington, yeoman, married Eliza- 
 beth Bury, of Blackburn (who died in 1736), and had a son James. The Will of 
 James Astley of Bencock Hall, Pleasington, is dated 1741. He died in May, 1752. 
 
 James Astley of Mellor, married, Nov. 3rd, 1737, Mary Hesmondhaigh of Wilp- 
 shire, who died in childbed in 1740, leaving a daughter Mary, bapt. April 23rd, 1740, 
 By Elizabeth his wife he had a son Henry, bapt. Aug. 12th, 1750. The Will of James 
 Astley of Mellor is dated 1760. Mrs. Forrest, of Blackburn, aged 80 in 1853, said 
 her father paid rent to James Astley of Mellor, who lived at Bencock Hall, Pleasington. 
 
 CLAYTON OF BLACKBURN, AND SHORROCK GREEN, MELLOR. 
 
 Giles Clayton of Little Harwood, yeoman and chapman (related very likely to 
 the Claytons lords of Little Harwood Manor), married Catherine Edge of Blackburn, 
 and was living in 1653. He had sons, Leonard, bapt. May 26th, 1616; Thomas; 
 and Henry (Henry Clayton of Little Harwood, died in Nov., 1660); and daughters, 
 Anne, bom in 1622 ; and Katherine, bom in 1628. 
 
 The eldest son of Giles Clayton was Rev. Leonard Clayton, M. A., Vicar of 
 Blackburn from 1647 to 1677 (see ante, under Vicars of Blackburn, pp. 287-292). 
 Before he obtained the vicarage of Blackburn, Mr. Clayton was minister at Heyford, 
 Co. York, where his first child was born in 1645. By Mary his wife (who survived 
 him and died at Mellor in Jan. 1686-7), ^^ f^^d issue a son John, born Tuesday, Feb. 
 19th, 1650; and daughters, Elizabeth, bapt. Dec. 1st, 1645, died unmarried before 
 1677; and Katherine, bom at Blackburn, Nov. 3rd, 1647, who married, first, in 
 1669, Rev. Henry Warren, Rector of Stockport, who died in 1674 ; and secondly, 
 Jan. 2nd, 1678-9, Robert Holden of Holden, Esq., and died a widow in March, 1685. 
 Vicar Clayton died in Oct., 1677, aged 61. 
 
 Thomas Clayton of Blackburn, chapman, brother of the Vicar and second son of 
 Giles Clayton, bom about 1620, married, Feb. 6th, 1653, " in presence of Randal 
 Sharpies, Justice of the Peace," Jane Hindley ; and had a son William ; and also, I 
 think, a son Giles — "Giles Clayton of Blackburn," who had sons, William, born in 
 1683; Leonard, bom in 1684; and Giles, bora in 1686. "Thomas Clayton of 
 Blackbum, chapman," aged then 68, was a deponent in the case respecting Langho 
 Chapel in 1688 ; and stated that " whilst deponent's brother was Vicar of Blackbum, 
 which was about 30 years together, he (deponent) did usually one or twice every year 
 go with his said brother to Langho Chapell, and heard him preach and pray there in 
 the service and liturgy of the Church of England, " and was present at Langho Chapel 
 when his brother. Vicar Clayton, "did marry one Oliver Whalley to his now wife, 
 who being deponent's relation he did there give her in marriage to the said Oliver 
 Whalley." Thomas Clayton died in 1694 (his gravestone is in Blackburn Parish 
 Churchyard), and his son, William Clayton of Blackbum (who died in 1725) had by 
 his wife Elizabeth, daughter of James Astley of Mellor, yeoman, a son, Thomas Clay- 
 ton, yeoman, who died in 1759 ; and his son, William Clayton, died in 1762. 
 
 John Clayton of Shorrock Green, Mellor, gent., was the only son of Rev. 
 
592 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Leonard Clayton. He married, ^ in 1672, "Mrs. Davenport" (who had a marriage 
 portion of ;^5oo); and had issue, sons, William, bapt. Sept. 9th, 1673, died unmar- 
 ried ; Thomas Clayton (described as " of London, gent. " on the Guild Roll of Preston 
 in 1722, and ** Mr. Thomas Clayton of London " was made a Governor of Blackburn 
 Grammar School in 1735); Leonard, died young in 1679; John, born and died in 
 1684; Davenport, bom and died in 1686; a second Leonard, bapt. Nov. 26th, 1688, 
 of Mellor in 1717, when he married Ann Cowell, of Samlesbury, and was living 
 in 1722 ; a second Davenport, bapt. Nov. 26th, 1689 ; a second John, bom in 
 1693 ; and daughters, Anna, bom in 1675 ; Mary, bom in 1676 ; Katherine, born in 
 1678 ; and Margaret, bom in 1683. 
 
 Davenport Clayton, son of John, a burgess of Preston in 1722, had sons, John, 
 and Thomas, both enrolled with their father at the Guild of 1722. Thomas Clayton, 
 the second son, had sons John and Thomas. 
 
 HAYDOCK OF MELLOR. 
 I have made out no connected descent of this family of yeomen. The subjoined 
 names occur. George Haydock of Mellor died in June, 1670. Thomas Haydock of 
 Mellor was taxed to a Subsidy in 1663. John Haydock of Mellor had a son Law- 
 rence, born in 1690. Lawrence Haydock of Mellor, yeoman, had sons, Lawrence, 
 bom in 1701 ; and John, bom in 1705. George Haydock of Mellor, yeoman, had by 
 Ann his wife a son Lawrence, bom in 1 729, and other issue. John Haydock of 
 Mellor, yeoman, died in 1753; and another John Haydock, yeoman, died in May, 
 1760. James Haydock of Mellor married, by license, Sept, 21st, 1734, Jane Loftus 
 of Mellor. Lawrence Haydock of Blackburn, probably the son of Lawrence, of 
 Mellor, born in 1701, married, by license, Feb. loth, 1740-1, Mary Bracewell of 
 Goosnargh. Mr. Thomas Haydock of Mellor had a daughter who married Mr. Ed- 
 mund Haworth of Lower Darwen. 
 
 HOGHTON OF MELLOR. 
 
 Thomas Hoghton, of Mellor, was assessed for his lands to a Subsidy in 1570. A 
 later Thomas Hoghton, gent., of Mellor, married Matilda, daughter of Robert 
 Hoghton of Extwistle. This Thomas Hoghton paid Blackbum Grammar School 
 Trustees, in 1641, ;£'io rent for lands in Mellor ; and Thomas Hoghton of Mellor held 
 a freehold in Blackbum Wapentake in 1650, and paid 6d. to Clitheroe Court. 
 
 OSBALDESTON OF MELLOR. 
 
 Thomas Osbaldeston of Mellor, yeoman, appears as a juror in 1611-12-13-17 ; 
 
 I From the MSS. of the late Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq. , I have the following: — Oct. ist, 1672, 
 Rev. Leonard Clayton, being seized in fee of Shorrock Green tenement, did, previous to the marriage 
 of his .son John with Mrs. Davenport, and in order to it, covenant to convey the said estate within 
 twelve months after the marriage to the use of himself for life, remainder to the son in fee. By the 
 same articles it is covenanted that Mrs. Davenport's portion, jCs°°t shall be laid out on land, and that 
 such new purchased land shall be assured to the use ot the son and his intended wife for their lives, 
 and the life of the survivor of them, remainder to their heirs male, &c., remainder to the husband in 
 taile male, remainder to his right heirs. John Clayton and Mrs. Davenport intermarried : and on May 
 30th, 1673, Leonard Clayton by demise reciting the articles grants the premises for 80 years in trust to 
 permit Leonard and his assigns to enjoy the same during such part of the term as he should live. 
 After the death of Rev. Leonard Clayton and his wife, John Clayton his son granted the premises in 
 fee to Thomas Winckley in mortgage by lease and release and covenants that he with his wife should 
 levy a fine thereof to him ; which was done. July 9th, 1695, Thomas Winckley and John Clayton 
 granted Shorrock Green tenement to Benjamin Hoghton in fee, who granted it in fee to Robert Shar- 
 pies, who regranted it by way of mortgage to Mr. Hoghton in fee. John Clayton and his wife were 
 both dead before Dec, 1706, leaving issue male then living. 
 
STANLEY AND WALMSLEY OF MELLOR. 
 
 593 
 
 and this, or a younger Thomas Osbaldeston of Mellor, occurs as a juror in 1637. Thomas 
 Osbakleston of Mellor died in Feb., 1672-3. Ellen Osbaldeston of Mellor, widow, 
 died in June, 1687. Another Thomas Osbaldeston ot Mellor had sons, Thomas, born 
 in 1683, and Joshua, bom in 1687 ; also a daughter, Abigail, bom in 1685. Other of 
 the Mellor Osbaldestons were : — Robert, died in Oct., 1683 ; Margery Osbaldeston, 
 widow, died in Oct., 1689. Christopher Osbaldeston died in 1681. Robert Osbal- 
 deston, yeoman, of Mellor, died in July, 1732; and Edward Osbaldeston, of Mellor, 
 married, in 1742, Alice Hague of Blackburn. John Osbaldeston of Mellor and 
 Eccleshill, husbandman, married, March 3rd, 1700- 1, Esther Moulding, widow. 
 
 STANLEY OF MELLOR. 
 
 Peter Stanley of Mellor occurs in 1532 (24th Henry VTII. ), when he disputed with 
 Robert Aspeden and others, servants of Sir Thomas Southworthe, Knt. , the title to a 
 messuage, lands, woodlands, &c., in Mellor. Three years later Peter Stanley was 
 against Robert Aspden and Geoffrey Cowper in a suit concerning a disputed title to 
 lands in Mellor. Again, in the 3rd Edw. VI. (1549), Peter Stanley was plaintiff, 
 William Wodcock and others defendants, in a cause as to a disputed title to a messuage, 
 lands, &c. , and right of way over a certain parcel of land called Barker's Lane to 
 Mellor Moor, and to common of p,asture and turbary there. 
 
 In the reign of Elizabeth, Thomas Stanleye of Mellor was fined at the manor 
 court of Samlesbury, for ** pulinge one saplinge spyre in the Grenehurst the which his 
 man caryed awaye upon his necke. " ** Thomas Stanley de Melore, gent," occurs as a 
 freeholder in 1600, and as a juror in 1617 ; again in a list of freeholders in 1621. 
 
 WALMSLEY OF MELLOR. 
 
 The Mellor Walmsleys are described both as of Whitecroft and the Reaps ; their 
 status was that of yeomen or lesser gentry. Richard Walmisley of Mellor was taxed 
 to the Subsidy of 1610-H. James Walmesley, senior, of Mellor, died in June, 1614. 
 
 James Walmesley of Mellor, yeoman, died July 26th, 1616, and on inquisition at 
 Blackburn, the 3rd Oct. following, it appeared that he had held lands in Mellor of 
 Thomas Southworth in free socage. 
 
 Henry Walmesley of Mellor, gent., son and heir of James, aged 30 in 1616, 
 appears as a juror in 1617, and as witness to a deed dated 1620. He, or a younger 
 Henry Walmsley, of this township, was elected a governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School in 1634, and was living in 1656. 
 
 James Walmsley of Mellor, of the same generation with Henry, occurs in 1620 ; 
 he had a son Christopher born in 1626, and was a governor of Blackburn Gramm.ir 
 School in 1660. James Walmsley of Whitecroft died in June, 1671. 
 
 Henry Walmsley of Mellor, attorney, was a governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School in 1647. His wife, Ellen, died in Dec, 1672. 
 
 One Henry Walmsley, of Mellor, described as ' ' clericus, " married Margaret 
 Aspden, May 5th, 1677, and had issue — James, bom and died in 1681 ; Jeffrey, bora 
 in 1686 ; Henry, born in 1688 ; a second James, bora in 1695 ; Edward ; and Peter ; 
 Sarah, bom Sept. 17th, 1684, Elizabeth, born in 1689; and Alice, bom in 1691. 
 Henry Walmsley of Mellor, gent., was elected a governor of Blackbum Grammar 
 School, July 1st, 1678. He died in 1708. 
 
 The branch seated at Reaps, in Mellor, included : — ^James Walmesley, of the 
 Reaps, who by his wife Ann (she died, a widow, in Dec, 1684), had Giles, bom in 
 1658. Giles Walmsley of Reaps, yeoman, died in Sept., 171 1. He had issue; — 
 Joyce, bom in i68i ; James, born in 1685 ; Henry, died in 1701 ; Thomas, bom in 
 
 75 
 
594 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 1691 ; Michael and Richard, twins, born in 1697 (Michael died in 1699) ; a second 
 Henry, born in 1702; Martha, born in 1687, died in 1700; and Jane, born in 1700. 
 James Walmsley, ofMellor, who died in 1734, was, I conjecture, the son of Giles. 
 Later members are indistinguishable. 
 
 WARD OF MELLOR. 
 
 John Ward, of Mellor, was assessed on lands to the Subsidy of 1523. Robert 
 Ward was taxed on his lands in Mellor to a Subsidy in 1570. "John Ward of Meller, 
 the elder," was reported as a "recusant " in 1586. 
 
 John Ward ofMellor, who died on Nov. 3rd, 34th Elizabeth (1591), was found 
 by inquisition taken April 4th, 1594, to have owned three messuages, one cottage, &c., 
 20 acres of land, 14 acres of meadow, 30 acres of pasture, and 4 acres of woodland 
 in Mellor, Button, and Oswaldtwistle. The lands in Mellor were held of John South- 
 worth, Knt. ; those in Dutton of Henry Townley, gent.; and those in Oswaldtwistle of 
 Robert Barton, Esq. , and his heirs. James Ward was son and heir of John, aged, at 
 the escheat, 13 years, II months, and 10 days. 
 
 James Ward of Mellor, by Jane his wife, had a son Richard, and daughters Janet 
 and Thomasine. James Ward was assessed for lands in Mellor to the Subsidy of 1611. 
 
 Richard Ward, of Mellor, succeeds James. The inquisition after his death was taken 
 at Preston, April 26th, 20th James I (1622). It was returned that Richard Ward was 
 expectant possessor in rendition, after the death of Jane Ingham, the wife of Robert 
 Ingham, and late wife of James Ward, late father of Richard Ward, of one messuage 
 with appurtenances in Mellor, with 16 acres of land, 6 of meadow, and 14 of pasture, 
 &c.; that Richard' Ward had died at Mellor, March 17th, i8th James I. (1620-1); that 
 Janet Cowborne, late wife of Thomas Cowborne, and Thomasine Ward were sisters 
 and co-heirs of Richard Ward ; and that the said Janet had died on the 20th Decem- 
 ber, 1621, leaving issue, by Thomas Cowburne, Richard Cowburne, son and heir, 
 aged 6 years, 10 months, and 15 days; and Thomasine Ward, living at Mellor, was 
 next heir of Richard Ward, &c. 
 
 These succeeding members occur : — James Ward of Mellor, left a bequest, 
 paid in 1634, to the Grammar School of Blackburn. John Ward, Doctor of 
 Physic, was made a Governor of the CJrammar School in 1637. William Ward of 
 Mellor, assessed to a Subsidy in 1663, was buried March 20th, 1671. By Mary his 
 wife (she died in 1677) he had sons, George, born in 1636 ; William (died in 1696, by 
 his wife Elizabeth had a son Richard, &c. ); and other issue. George Ward of 
 Mellor married in 1686, Alice Morris, and had sons, Thomas, bom in 1687, died in 
 infancy; John, born in 1689, died young ; and other issue. George Ward of Mellor 
 married, Dec. 31st, 1739, Ellen Piccop of Baldorstone (buried, aged 76, May 5th, 1788), 
 and had sons, John, bapt. Nov. 22nd, 1747 ; George, born in 1749 ; William, born in 
 1753 ; and other issue. George Ward of Mellor, conveyed, in 1747, for £ 1 13, his free- 
 hold estate in Mellor to the Governors of Blackburn Grammar School, and in Dec, 
 1749, had a lease of School lands in Mellor for 99 years, or lives of himself and son. 
 
 WHITHALGH OF LIVESEY AND MELLOR. 
 
 The family of Whithalgh had freeholds in Livesey and Mellor in the sixteenth 
 century, James Whythalgh was taxed on lands in Mellor to the Subsidy of 1523. 
 
 James Whithalgh was named a first Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 
 its charter (1567), and dying about 1569, was by escheat of the 12th Elizabeth found 
 to have held messuages, lands, and woodlands in Lyvesay, Mellor, Cuerden, and Os- 
 waldtwistle. His widow — " Uxor James Whithalgh," was assessed on lands in Livf- 
 sey to a Subsidy in 1570. 
 
PLACES OF WORSHIP IN MELLOR. 
 
 595 
 
 Richard Whithalgh, gent., succeeded, and in 1595 held lands in Mellor under Sir 
 John Southworth ; he is found on a list of freeholders dated 1600. He died the 5th 
 May, 1601, his eldest son being under age, having conveyed his estates in trust, 
 as is stated in 5he record of the Duchy escheat, taken the 5th July, 44th Eliz., before 
 Edward Leigh, Esq., Escheator. It was then found that " Richard Whitehalgh, late 
 of Mellor, " was seized at death of 10 messuages, :o gardens, 60 acres of land, 20 
 acres of meadow, 60 acres of pasture, and 2 acres of woodland in Mellor, held of 
 Thomks Southworth in free socage ; also of estates in Oswaldtwistle, held of Robert 
 Barton by knight service ; in Livesey, held of John Livesey in free socage ; and in 
 Cuerden. 
 
 James Whithalgh, of Whithalgh, gent. , was found son and heir of Richard, aged 
 29 years, II months, and 12 days. James Whithalghe was assessed on lands in Live- 
 sey to a Subsidy in 1610-11. I find him serving as a juror in 1608, 1615, and 1617 ; 
 and witness to a deed in 1620. He was a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 
 1628. He appears to have had sons, Richard; Henry, born in 1608 ; James, born and 
 died in 1614; John, died in 1624; Uriah and Thomas; daughters, Mary, born in 1616; 
 and Ann, died in 1632. His wife — " Uxor James Whithalgh, gent." — was buried at 
 Blackburn, Feb. 25th, 1635-6. "Ann Whitehalgh, de Livesey," buried in 1652, 
 may have been a sister of James. In the year 1625 (ist Chas. I.), James Whithalgh 
 conveyed an estate in Mellor to trustees to the use of Blackburn Grammar School. 
 The estate is described in a deed, dated 1687, as " the Messuage and tenement with 
 appurtenances situate in Mellor, known by the name of Whithalgh House, or Whit- 
 halgh tenement, with several closes containing 29 acres of land, meadow and pasture, 
 heretofore in possession of Richard Whithalgh, gent., deceased ; and also the new 
 barne and close called Sedge Hole, lately improved and inclosed from the common or 
 waste of Mellor, heretofore in tenure of James Whithalgh, gent., deceased." The 
 vendors in 1625 were James Whithalgh, gent., and Ralph Walkden, of Livesey, 
 yeoman. 
 
 Richard Whithalgh, I think a son of James, was made a trustee, in 1649, of 
 Ralph Walmsley's gift to Tockholes Church. In 1663, Richard Whithalgh was taxed 
 to the Subsidy on lands in Livesey. 
 
 Henry Whithalgh, a younger son of James, is witness to a deed of the Grammar 
 School trustees in 1657. " Henry Whithalgh of Livesey, gent.," appears on the 
 Guild Roll of Preston in 1642, as do also his brothers, Lawrence, Uriah, and Thomas. 
 
 PLACES OF WORSHIP. 
 
 Church of St. Mary. — The church was built and consecrated in 1829. The 
 cost was ;£'5584, defrayed by a grant of that sum from the Parliamentary Commis- 
 sioners, dated July 9th, 1830. The church is a spacious fabric in the early English 
 style, consisting of nave, chancel apse, vestry, and western tower, beneath which is 
 the chief entrance. The interior has a gallery at the west end in which the organ is 
 placed. Sittings, 772. Henry Sudell, Esq., lord of the Manor, gave the site for the 
 church ; and was a benefactor to the endowment. The value of the living, originally 
 £l\, has been twice augmented by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners ; lirst, in 1850, 
 to £\<p, and recently to £'}po per annum. The Vicar of Blackburn is patron. In- 
 cumbents in succession :— Rev. Francis Kirkpatrick ; Rev. — Gregory ; Rev. H. 
 Stowe, B.A. ; Rev. G. R. G. Pughe. The plain square tower and dwarf spire of the 
 church form, from its elevated situation at the western edge of Mellor Moor, a con- 
 spicuous feature of the landscape in Lower Ribblesdale. 
 
 Wesley AN Chapel, Mellor Moor. — A tradition exists among the Methodists 
 
596 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 of Mellor that Wesley preached there in one of his journeys across the parish. A 
 society of Wesleyans was formed in Mellor about a century ago, and their meeting' 
 place for some years was a room at Abbot House. Then they found a singular place for 
 their service in the old windmill on Mellor Moor, now a ruin ; this was fitted with 
 benches and a gallery. The Mellor society occurs in 1 790 on the books of Blackburn 
 Circuit as a contributor to the Circuit Fund. In 1802, a small chapel was built on the 
 north side of the road which crosses the Moor. In 1809, the society reckoned 98 
 members. The chapel has been twice enlarged and several times- improved since the 
 first erection on the site 74 years ago. It now appears a convenient fabric of simple 
 design, surrounded by a grave-yard. The inferior is fitted with galleries ; and a new 
 organ, costing ;^300, was recently placed in the chapel. The sittings are about 400. 
 
 Mellor Brook Wesleyan Chapel. — A second Methodist society was formed 
 in the township in 1843. The preaching-place was for some years a room in Messrs. 
 Eccles' mill at Mellor Brook. In 1852, a chapel was built at Mellor Brook for the 
 use of inhabitants of this part of Mellor, Balderstone, and Osbaldeston. The site 
 was given by Mrs. Brierley and Mr. Thomas Counsell. The chapel is a small brick 
 structure, and contains 210 sittings. 
 
 ECCLESHILL TOWNSHIP— ANCIENT LANDOWNERS. 
 
 The township of Eccleshill extends over the acclivities of the hill 
 (alluded to in the name itself) to the south of Lower Darwen, from 
 which it is separated by the Eccleshill Brook ; the Darwen river being 
 the natural boundary on the west. The area of the township is 792 statute 
 acres. The population at each decade from 1801 to 187 1 has been : — 
 In 1801, 346; 1811, 374; 1821, 456 ; 1831, 715; 1841, 5io;i85i, 
 598 ; 1861, 543 ; 1871, 633. The soil is poor and the situation bleak. 
 The local coal measures extend underneath the land, and the Eccleshill 
 coal mines have been worked at least three centuries. Extensive iron- 
 smelting works have been erected recently in the township. A branch 
 railway for mineral transit from Hoddlesden to the junction with the 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire line from Bolton to Blackburn traverses the 
 hill-side in Eccleshill. 
 
 From the early period when EcdeshuH was, as I have before stated, 
 an appurtenance of the lords of Walton, to the present date, its lands 
 have been possessed by sundry proprietors. The first resident owners 
 of the soil bore the township's name for a surname. They were bene- 
 factors to Stanlaw Abbey about the date 1250-1270. Robert de Eccles- 
 hull gave to the monks of that convent one perch of land " in his vill 
 of EccleshuU " for the site of a barn, lying on the " west side of the 
 Bruderudyng between Hoddisdenebrok [Hoddlesden Brook] and the 
 Mill of EccleshuU." A little later, after this donor's death, Matilda, 
 relict of Robert de EccleshuU, quit-claimed to the Abbey of Stanlaw her 
 right in the land he gave in the vill of EccleshuU. Henry de Eccles- 
 huU, who occurs in 12 14, perhaps was father of the above Robert. I 
 conjecture that the De EccleshuU family were akin to the Grimshaws, 
 
THE MANOR OP ECCLESHILL. 
 
 557 
 
 who succeed them in this possession. In 1276 or 1277, Richard de 
 Grymeshagh gave to the monks of Stanlaw half an acre of land in the 
 vill of Eccleshull, contained in a croft called Bymmecroft, with easement 
 and liberty to take timber there in his (donor's) lordship. Grymeshaw 
 was a tenement in Eccleshill beside the stream below Hoddlesden, and 
 the family that named itself from this place of settlement became, temp. 
 Edward III., lords of half the manor of Clayton-les-Moors by marriage 
 of Adam de Grymeshaw with Cecilia, daughter and heir of John de 
 Clayton. Thereafter, the Grimshaws dwelt at Clayton Hall, but they 
 retained the estate in Eccleshill for many generations. It was found 
 part of the inheritance of the heir of Thomas Grimeshawe, after his 
 death, in 1540; and John Grymshaw, who died in 1587, also was found 
 on the Inq. post tnort. to have held these ancestral lands in Eccleshill. 
 I have not found when the estate passed from this family. They had it 
 still in 1650, when, in a Rental of Blackburn Wapentake, it was found 
 that " Grimshall Hall " in Eccleshill paid 6d. yearly to that court, and 
 "Mr. Grimshaws tennants " there is. yearly. 
 
 The modem succession of owners of the manor lands of Eccleshill 
 include Clajrtons of Adlington, who sold them to Wilsons of Preston Old 
 Bank ; and on the sale of the estates of Wilson in 1848, the purchaser 
 of Eccleshill manor was the late James Hodgson of Liverpool, in whose 
 trustees it ie now vested, and consists of the tenements of Brocklehead, 
 Grimshaw, Bent, Eccleshill Fold, Shaw Fold, Holden Fold, and Lower 
 Eccleshill, having a total acreage of about 436 acres. 
 
 The Manor of Eccleshill was notified for public sale on the 27th of July, 1848, 
 and was then described as " all that manor or lordship, or reputed manor or lordship 
 of Eccleshill," and the messuages, lands, quarries of freestone, mines of coal, &c. The 
 estate consisted of the farms of Lower Eccleshill, containing 6la. 3r. 3p. statute 
 measure ; of Eccleshill Fold, consisting of three farms, together 125 acres, with an Inn, 
 wheelwright's shop, and several houses and cottages ; of another farm containing 63 
 acres ; of a public-house, dwelling-house, cottages, and a farm of 29^ acres ; of Shaw 
 Fold fann, 29}^ acres ; Harwood P'old, 46 >^ acres, with several houses, gardens, &c. ; 
 Brockle-Head, 97 acres, with several houses and cottages ; altogether about 452 
 statute acres ; also, a commuted rent-charge in lieu of tithes issuing out of lands in 
 Eccleshill, being £2.t, i6s. 9j^d. yearly ; the ground-rents of several houses in Eccles- 
 hill, ;flo I2S. 3d. yearly; the mines of coal under part of the said estates called the 
 " New Mine north of Eccleshill," and the remaining coal to be got in the Great and 
 Little Coal of the Old Mines, then in lease to Messrs. Johnson and Brandwood ; also 
 the valuable and extensive Mines of Coal called the " Deep Mine," under part of the 
 said estates, of which no part had been got ; the whole of the estates being tithe free. 
 
 The Osbaldestons, lords of Osbaldeston, from a remote date 
 asserted some proprietary right in Eccleshill; but their estate in the 
 township was limited, I imagine, to the one tenement called David 
 Field House ; and this was sold by John Osbaldeston to Sir Richard 
 
598 • HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Shuttleworth in 1592. This estate still belongs to the Shuttleworths of 
 Gawthorpe ; and the lands of Sir James P. Kay-Shuttleworth in Eccles- 
 hill now comprise the Davy Field farm, of 42^ acres, and Whinsey 
 tenement of 6 acres. 
 
 Other present landowners in Eccleshill are, Mr. Adam Bullough of 
 Waterside, 54 acres ; Mr, Wm. Pickup, 44 acres ; Bolton Grammar 
 School, 36^ acres J Rev. Charles Greenway, 19 acres; Mrs. Nevill, 
 Lower Grimshaw, 29)^ acres; Mr. James Hope, 223^ acres; and Mr. 
 Blake Jepson, 5 acres. 
 
 An estate in Eccleshill, which belongs to the Free Grammar School 
 of Bolton, was purchased by the Governors for the sum of £,?i<)o ; and 
 conveyed to them by indentures of lease and release, dated the i6th and 
 17th May, 1796, between Thomas Eccles and Joseph Peel, of the first 
 part; Benjamin Rawson and John Ridgway of the second part ; and the 
 Governors of the Free Grammar School of Bolton of the third part. 
 The estate consists of two dwelling houses and lands containing 36 
 statute acres, called Waterside ; with a chief rent of 20 ^d. and two 
 barbed arrows, payable out of lands then belonging to Sir Richard Clay- 
 ton, Bart., later the property of the late Mr. Wilson. The Bolton School 
 Governors also possess a farm called Bell Coney in Upper Darwen, pur- 
 chased in 1818 from George Yates for £^x(> ; containing 10^ statute 
 acres. At Waterside the old farm-house on the estate is reputed to be 
 the ancient manor-house of Eccleshill. 
 
 Subjoined are short notes of several of the old freeholding families 
 of Eccleshill. 
 
 ECCLES OF ECCLESHILL. 
 
 The old yeoman family of Eccles had lands in Eccleshill (from the name of 
 which the family surname probably was derived), as well as in the adjoining townships 
 of Pickup Bank and Lower Darwen. (An account of several branches of the family 
 has been inserted under Lower Darwen township, pp. 475-7.) Mr. Thomas Eccles, 
 of Pickup Bank and Lower Darwen, sold his freehold in Eccleshill to the Governors 
 of Bolton Grammar School in 1796. 
 
 FISH OF ECCLESHILL. 
 
 Rauf Fish of Eccleshill was taxed to a King's Subsidy in 1610. After him occurs 
 Thomas Fish, of Eccleshill, who was elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School in 1635. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Hoghton, gent., of Red- 
 lee, Tockholes, and was named an executor under the Will of his brother-in-law, 
 Gilbert Hoghton, gent., in 1639 (see Hoghton of Tockholes). Thomas Fish, gent., 
 lived in the old house at Eccleshill Fold which is now accounted the manor-house of 
 Eccleshill, and upon the lintel of the doorway of the older portion of the house are cut 
 the initials "T E F" (Thomas and Elizabeth Fish), with the date "1641." He 
 probably was father of John Fish of Eccleshill, who occurs in 1684 ; after whom 
 comes Mr. John Fish of Eccleshill, yeoman and chapman, who married, May 14th, 
 
SHORROCK OF WATERSIDE. 599 
 
 1700, Ellen Walmsley of Lower Darwen, and had issue, sons, John, born in 1704 ; 
 Joseph, bom in 1706 ; William, born in 1709 ; David, born in 1714 ; Lawrence, bom 
 in 1 7 15, died in 1717 ; Thomas, born in 1 716; and James born in 1719; and 
 daughters, Martha, bom in 1701 ; and Elizabeth, bora in 1712. 
 
 PICCOP OF ECCLESHILL, &c. 
 
 The Piccops of Lower Darwen and Eccleshill I think were related. In 1560 
 Edward Pycoppe was a tenant of the Talbots in Lower Darwen. Robert Piccope, 
 yeoman, died March 26th, 1603. The escheat was not taken until Sept. 14th, 
 i8th James I. (1620), when it was proved that Robert Piccope had been in possession 
 of the fourth part of a messuage, 3 acres of land, one acre of meadow, I acre of 
 woodland, and 6 acres of moor or waste in Nether Darwyn, held of the King, by a 
 yearly payment of 2s. 8d. James Piccope, son and heir, was aged 35 years at the 
 date of Robert's decease. James Piccop died in Oct., 1623. 
 
 A gravestone in Blackburn Parish Churchyard gives data for the following descent 
 of the Piccops of Eccleshill : — ^John Piccoppe of Eccleshill, died 1623 (buried Feb. 
 3rd, 1623-4) ; Henry Piccop of Eccleshill, died 1650 ; William Piccop of Eccleshill, 
 died 1675 (his wife Jane died the same year) ; Henry Piccop of Beardwood, Blackburn, 
 died April 2nd, 1744. Before the last Henry I think should be inserted John Piccop 
 of Beardwood, who had a son John, born 1712, and may have been father or brother 
 of Henry. Edmund Piccop and Ann Threlfall, both of Eccleshill, married. May 17th, 
 1718, and had a son, John, bapt. Nov 20th, 1720. John Piccop of Eccleshill, married, 
 Sept. 29th, 1737, Ellen Taylor of Yate Bank. 
 
 SHORROCK OF WATERSIDE. 
 
 William Shorrock of Eccleshill was assessed to a Queen's Subsidy in 1570 ; and 
 Thomas Shorrock, succeeding, was taxed to a Subsidy in 1610. Then, William 
 Shorrock, of Eccleshill, who paid a Subsidy-tax in 1663, had sons, Thomas, bapt. 
 Sept. 28th, 1651 ; and James, bom in 1656. Thomas Shorrock of Eccleshill, yeoman, 
 son of William, by Ann his wife (who died in June, 1707), had sons, William, bapt. 
 July 12, 1691 ; and Robert, died young in 1706. The father, Thomas Shorrock, died 
 in 1738, and was buried at Blackburn, Aug. 12th, of that year. William Shorrock of 
 Eccleshill, yeoman, son of Thomas, died, aged 73, in 1764. His son Thomas 
 Shorrock of Waterside, Eccleshill, married, Jan. 27th, 1 740-1, Ann Thompson of 
 Lower Darwen, and had issue, including sons Thomas, and John. A brother, John 
 Shorrock of Waterside, had a son William, bora in 1 762. 
 
6oo HISTORY OF BLACKBURK. 
 
 CHAPTER XII.— THE TOWNSHIP OF OSBALDESTON. 
 
 Name — Topography and Population — Descent of the Manor— De Osbaldeston Family — Recent pas- 
 sages of the Manorial Estate — Osbaldeston Hall — Present Landowners in the Township — Former 
 Freeholders — Lussell of Studlehurst — Osbaldeston and Fox of Oxendale — Oxendale Hall — 
 Roman Catholic Chapel. 
 
 OSBALDESTON is a rural township rising from the south bank of 
 the Ribble towards the heights of Mellor on the south. Its 
 name, which has undergone Httle variation in its orthography since the 
 Conquest, signifies the tun or place of Osbald, its Saxon proprietor at 
 some period unfixed. The area of the township is 980 statute acres. 
 Its population, which slightly increased from 1801 to 1831, has been 
 declining subsequently. The decennial census returns are subjoined: — ■ 
 1801, 252 persons; 1811, 278; 1821, srg; 1831, 349; 1841, 289; 
 1851, 250; 1861, 238; 1871, 224 persons. 
 
 From the earliest record the manor-estate of Osbaldeston is found 
 in possession of a family bearing the name of the vill for surname. It 
 was portion of the great fee of Cliderhou, and in 13 11 is named as 
 appendant to the dower of the Countess of Lincoln, widow of Earl 
 Henry de Lascy. 
 
 OSBALDESTON OF OSBALDESTON. 
 
 The first member of this ancient proprietory family in Osbaldeston 
 of whom we have any account was Hugo de Osbaldeston, living about 
 the beginning of the 13th century. He had a son Ailsius or Eilfi de 
 Osbaldeston. Ailsius de Osbaldeston gave lands in Balderstone to 
 Salley Monastery. By Wimara his wife he had sons, Hugh, the heir, 
 William (de Balderstone), Barnard, John, Robert, Alexander, and Adam. 
 
 Hugh de Osbaldeston, son of Ailsius, living 30th Henry III. (1245), 
 confirmed his father's grant to Salley Abbey, and occurs as witness to a 
 charter of Stanlaw Monastery. He had sons, Thomas, and Roger. 
 
 " Thomas de Osbaldeston, son of Hugh," occurs in a deed of ^ 
 Stanlaw Abbey, and was living 45th Henry III (1260). He had sons, 
 Adam, and Robert. 
 
 \ 
 
OSBALDESTON OF OSBALDESTON. 6oi 
 
 Adam de Osbaldeston, next scion, quit-claimed to Sawley Abbey 
 his right to woodland in Sunderland Grange in Balderstone. He had 
 sons, Thomas, and John (occurs in 1336). Adam de Osbaldeston is 
 witness to a deed dated June 17th, 1292. 
 
 Thomas de Osbaldeston was found at the De Lascy Inquisition of 
 131 1 holding lands in Osbaldeston and Balderstone, and paying suit to 
 Cliderhou Castle. This Thomas witnesses deeds in Whalley Abbey 
 Coucher Book dated 1332 and 1333. He married Amabilla Ethelstone. 
 
 Alexander de Osbaldeston, next member, living about 1350, married 
 Katherine, daughter of Thomas Molineux de Keuerdale ; she survived 
 him, and married, secondly, Thomas Banastre, and thirdly, Robert Rad- 
 cliffe, and was living, aged 40, in 1387. It was by this marriage that 
 the Osbaldestons acquired manorial estates in Cuerdale and Over Dar- 
 wen ; for, as noted in Flower's Visitation, " Tomlyn Molyneux " (second 
 son of Sir Richard, of Sefton), whose " daughter and sole heire " this 
 scion married, had to wife Jane, daughter and sole heir of Alexander de 
 Keuerdale, who had married the daughter and heir of Darwyn of Dar- 
 wyn, armiger. 
 
 Geoffrey de Osbaldeston, Esq., son of Alexander, had to wife Mar- 
 garet, daughter of William de Balderstone, and had issue, sons, John ; 
 and Thomas (the latter married Isabella, daughter of Henry Langton, 
 Baron of Newton, who died in 1445). Thomas de Osbaldeston pro- 
 bably was father of Geoffrey who succeeds, but some descents make the 
 latter son of John. 
 
 Geoffrey de Osbaldeston, lord of this manor, was living about 
 1440-1450, and had a dispute respecting his rights in Over Darwen 
 Manor with Richard Southworth of Samlesbury. He had sons, John ; 
 Geoffrey, William, Richard ; and a daughter Cicilia, wife of Peter Stan- 
 dish, son of James, of Duxbury. 
 
 John Osbaldeston, lord of Osbaldeston, married, in 146 1, Elizabeth, 
 daughter and one of the heirs of Sir Richard Balderstone, Knt. (see 
 ante, pp. 414-15), and had a son Richard; and daughters, Margaret, and 
 Isabel. 
 
 John's son and heir, Richard Osbaldeston, married Grace, daughter 
 of William Singleton of the Tower, Esq., and had two sons, Alexander, 
 and Gilbert ; and one daughter, Agnes, wife of Thomas Latham, of Par- 
 bould, Co. Lane, Esq. Richard Osbaldeston, Esq., died the 22nd 
 July, 23rd Henry VII. (1507), and on Inq. post mart., taken the next 
 year, he was found to have held Osbaldeston manor of the King in chief, 
 worth ^20 ; Keuerdale manor, of Richard Langton in socage, worth 
 20 marks ; and Over Derwynd manor, of Richard Langton in socage, 
 worth 20 marks. 
 
 76 
 
6o2 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, his son and heir, was then aged 2-6 years. 
 I cite the record of the Visitation of 1533, concerning him and his 
 family: — " Syr Alexander Osbaldeston, knight, had to his furst wyfTe Anne, 
 dowghter to Sr. Xp'ver Sudworthe [Christr. Southworth], knyght, and 
 they hadd yssue, John, whyche maryed Marget, dowghter to the Lord 
 Strange. The sayd Syr Alexander had to hys second wyffe Ellyne, 
 dowghter to Thomas Tyllysley of Wardley, and they hadd yssue 
 Richard [Richard Osbaldeston, first of Sunderland, see ante, p. 419], 
 Harry, Thomas, Wyllm, Thorston, Anne, Elizabeth, Siscelye, Alyce, 
 Isabell, Elnor, and Jane. Anne is maryed to Edward Langton, sonne 
 and heyer to Thomas Langton, Baron of Nyewton; Elizabeth ys maryed 
 to Harry Kyghleys, sonne and heyer to Harry Kyghley." After this 
 record, other daughters married : Alice, to John Talbot of Salesbury ; 
 Eleanor, to Thomas Clifton of Westby ; Jane, to William Gerard of the 
 Ince. Sir Alexander Osbaldeston was Sheriff of Lancashire in 1527. 
 He died Jan. 17th, 35th Henry VHI. (1543) ; the Inq.post mort., taken 
 at Preston, March 31st, 1544, attests that the deceased knight had held 
 Osbaldeston, Cuerdall, Over Derwynt, and Balderstone manors, with 
 appurtenances ; and the fourth part of seven messuages, 200 acres of 
 land, 100 acres of meadow, 300 acres of pasture, 60 acres of woodland, 
 300 acres of moor, and 300 acres of rushland and heath, in Balderstone, 
 Walton, and 24 other Lancashire townships ; also, a fishery in Ribble. 
 An inventory of the goods of this member is printed by the Chetham 
 Society, and contains some curious items. His widow, Ellena Osbal- 
 deston, by her Will, dated 1560, directed that three stones, with in- 
 scribed brasses, should be placed in the Osbaldeston Chapel in Blackburn 
 Church, over the remains of herself, her husband, and her brother. Sir 
 Thomas Tyldesley. These memorials have long since vanished. She 
 also gave to her step-son, John, certain objects pertaining to the altar of 
 the family chapel in Osbaldeston Hall " to remayne as erlomes." 
 
 John Osbaldeston, Esq., aged 36 years at his father's death, married, 
 first, Margaret, daughter of George Stanley Lord Strange, by whom he 
 had issue, sons, Edward, Alexander, and Thomas, and a daughter Mar- 
 garet. By his second wife, Jane, daughter of Thomas Stanley, Esq. 
 (and widow of Sir Thomas Halsall, Knt.), he had no issue. In 1557, 
 John Osbaldeston was nominated captain in the army of Lord Shrews- 
 bury, serving in Scotland. He died about 1575. The escheator proved 
 that he held manorial lands in Osbaldeston, Balderstone, Kuerdale, 
 Over Derwynd, and Edge, and other lands in Grene Tockholls juxta 
 Lyvesey, Eccleshill, Walton-in-le-dale, and other places. His daughter, 
 Margaret, married Robert, son of John Aspden, gent. 
 
 Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., succeeded his father, and held the 
 
OSBALDESTON OF OSBALDESTON. 
 
 603 
 
 estates some 15 years. His wife was Maude, daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Halsall, Knt. (marriage covenant dated loth April, 1548). He had five 
 ■sons, John, Thomas, Geoffrey, Leonard, and Hamlet ; and one daughter, 
 Cicely, married — Singleton. A letter of Edward Osbaldeston, dated 
 Jan. ist, 1584, addressed to William Farington, Esq., asking for a loan 
 of ;!£'4o, is preserved among the Worden MSS. He died on Sept. 7th, 
 1590; and the inquisition, taken at Preston, before Thomas Hesketh, 
 Esq., eScheator, in 1591, names the son, John, aged 35 years; the widow, 
 Maud ; and shows that the estates then consisted of Osbaldeston and 
 Balderstone manors, held of the Queen, with suit to Clitheroe Court ; 
 and of 60 messuages, one water-mill, one fulling mill, 200 acres of land, 
 100 acres of meadow, 300 acres of pasture, 60 acres of woodland, 40 
 Seres of moor, and 200 acres of rushland and heath in Over Darwyn and 
 the other townships already named. Edward Osbaldeston had made his 
 Will, June i8th, 1588, by which he desires to be buried in Blackburn 
 Church ; and divides his goods into three parts, the first to his wife 
 Maude; the second to his younger sons, Geoffrey and Hamlet ; the third 
 to his son and heir, John; subject to payment of 100 marks to testator's 
 daughter. Cicely Singleton ; 40 marks to his sister Margaret ; 40 marks 
 to his brother Thomas ; and other bequests. The Will was proved 25th 
 Sept., 1590. An inventory of the goods of deceased, to the value of 
 ;^474 IS. 8d., is dated Sept. 9th, 1590. Maud Osbaldeston, widow, 
 ■died in 1592 ; inventory of her goods is dated Sept. i6th, 1592. 
 
 Thomas Osbaldeston, brother of Edward, had sons, Edward, and 
 Thomas ; and daughters, Margaret, Ellen, and Dorothy — all named in 
 their uncle's Will, in 1588. 
 
 Geoffrey Osbaldeston, a younger son of Edward, attained eminence 
 in the law, was made Justice of the Common Pleas, and was knighted 
 by Queen Elizabeth. He died in 1590. 
 
 John Osbaldeston, Esq., eldest son and heir, married Ellen, 
 daughter and co-heir of John Bradley of Bradley Hall, near Chipping, 
 Esq., and had issue, sons, Edward, bom in 1573 ; Thomas; Sebastian ; 
 John ; and Richard, who married Margaret Walmsley of Fishwick ; and 
 daughters, Mary, wife of — Eccleston ; Anne, wife, first of — Scaris- 
 brick, after, of — Chamock ; and Elizabeth, married to Edward Welsh, 
 who was slain by her brother Thomas." John Osbaldeston died in 1603, 
 
 I In the 4th Jas. I. (1606), Thomas Osbaldeston was convicted at Lancaster Assizes of the murder 
 of Edward Walsh (his sister's husband); and on July gth, 9th Jas. I., an inquisition was taken as to 
 what lands, rents, annuities, goods, and chattels Thomas Osbaldeston, late of Cuerdale, gent., pos- 
 sessed at the time of his committal of the felony and murder named in the King's warrant. The jurors 
 said that Thomas Osbaldeston, at the time of his felony, &c. , was seized of one annuity or yearly rent 
 charge of ;C2o for life, going out of the messuage called Bradley Hall in Thornley and the demesne 
 lands belonging thereto, and of other lands in divers townships, late the inheritance of John Bradley of 
 Betham, Esq., deceased, and late in the tenure of John Osbaldeston, Esq., deceased; since in the 
 
6o4 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 and was buried at Blackburn Church ; the register records " Jolin 
 Osbaldeston, armiger," buried 30th Nov., 1603. 
 
 Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., son of John, was next lord of this 
 manor. His wife was Mary, daughter and sole heir of Francis Faring- 
 ton, of Hutton Grange, Esq., and his issue were, sons, John, born in 
 1599; Alexander, born in 1602; Francis (in holy orders); Cuthbert, 
 died unmarried ; and Robert (who by his wife, Jane Singleton, had sons' 
 Edward and Alexander); and daughters, Anne, wife of Thomas Blen- 
 kensop ; Maud, wife of Thomas Osbaldeston of Walton ; and Elizabeth, 
 died in 1632. Edward Osbaldeston was knighted temp. James I. His 
 dame died in 1623 — "Madame Osbaldestonn ux. Edwardi Osbaldestonn 
 de O., Militis," buried at Blackburn, Dec. 6th, 1623. Sir Edward Os- 
 baldeston was a noble example of chivalry, high-breeding and scholar- 
 ship for a Lancashire knight of his day. Whatton states that he was 
 " skilled in mathematics," in which he found " great entertainment " for 
 his leisure ; that his learning was acquired in France, whither he waS' 
 sent in his youth. " In fencing and riding he excelled any one in the 
 county ; in natural philosophy he was a bright ornament, and many ex- 
 periments were made by him" in science. He died in 163 6; was buried 
 at Blackburn Church, Feb. 6th, 1636-7 ; and over his tomb was placed 
 a brass engraved with his effigy and inscribed : — " Here lyeth the body 
 of Sir Edward Osbaldeston, a charitable, courteous, and valiant knight, 
 qui obiit K.T). 1636, art. 63." This monumental brass is lost, but on the 
 Opposite page is an engraving of the effigy, copied from an old plate. 
 Jnq. post mart, was taken April 19th, 1637, when Sir Edward was found 
 to have been seized at his death of Osbaldeston and Over Darwen 
 manors, held of the King in socage ; with 20 messuages, one dovecote, 
 one water-mill, 100 acres of land, 20 of meadow, 200 of pasture, 60 of 
 wood, 100 of moor in Osbaldeston; with six acres lately improved from 
 the waste of Over Darwen; and lands in Eccleshill and other townships. 
 Edward, son of John, late son of Sir Edward deceased, was next heir, 
 aged 9 years, 10 months, 1 7 days. Frances Osbaldeston, widow of John, 
 and Alexander and Robert, his brethren, were then living at Osbaldeston 
 Hall. 
 
 The heir of Sir Edward was John Osbaldeston, who died before his 
 father. He married, first, Jane, daughter of Anthony Mounson, by 
 whom he had a daughter Mary, who died unmarried; secondly, Frances, 
 daughter of Sir Richard Tempest of Bracewell, and by her had sons, 
 Edward ; and Alexander, who died young. "A child of John Osbaldes- 
 
 tenure of Ellen Osbaldeston, widow of John ; then in the tenure of Richard Eccleston, Esq. Thomas- 
 Osbaldeston, gent., the homicide, had to wife Margery, daughter of Thomas Southworth, Esq. This- 
 family tragedy has given rise to a legend of a murder at Osbaldeston Hall, and of a ghost that haunt» 
 the old mansion. 
 
SIR EDWARD OSBALDESTON, KNIGHT, 
 
 FROM A LOST MONUMKNTAI. BRASS IN BLACKBURN CHURCH. [PaiIK 604 
 

 4 « -'a 
 
osbaldeston of OSBALDESTON. 60S 
 
 tone, Esq.," was buried at Blackburn Church, 1623-4. John Osbaldeston 
 died in 1634 ; and the escheat was taken Sept. 8th, 1635, which shows 
 he was seized of Osbaldeston manor^ held of the King, with the mesne 
 or capital messuage of Osbaldeston Hall ; 16 messuages, 16 tofts, one 
 Water corn-mill, 300 acres of land, 100 of meadow, loo of pasture, 100 
 of woodland, 50 of rushland, 300 of moor, and 2s. rent in Osbaldeston; 
 also, a free fishery in Ribble ; and one messuage called the Boathouse, 
 with one acre called Boathouse Field in Ribchester, in occupation of 
 Robert Mitchell. 
 
 Edward Osbaldeston, son and heir, aged eight years at the date of 
 his father's death, and not quite ten years old when he became heir to 
 his grandfather, in 1636, died in 1642, at the age of fifteen. 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, uncle of Edward and second son of Sir 
 Edward, was next heif. He married a near neighbour, Anne, daughter 
 of Sir John Talbot of Salesbury Hall, and had sons, John, died young ; 
 Edward, bapt. June 4th, 1650 ; Alexander, bapt. June 3rd, 1652, died 
 unmarried; Michael, bapt. Dec. 19th, 1656 (whose descendants are 
 noticed hereafter); and James ; and daughters, Mary, bapt. June 22nd, 
 1646; Katherine, bapt. April 27th, 1649; Margaret, bapt. Nov. 9th, 
 1653 ; Anne, bapt. May 9th, 1655 ; and Joane. Alexander Osbaldeston 
 entered his family before Sir William Dugdale the herald, at Blackburn, 
 Sept. 13th, 1664. He died Feb. 9th, 1670-1, and was buried in the north 
 chapel of Blackburn Church, Feb. nth. His widow, dame Anne, was 
 buried in the same place of sepulture, March 19th, 1673. 
 
 Edward Osbaldeston, Esq., aged 20 at his sire's decease, married 
 Grace, daughter of Thomas Braddyll, of Portfield, Esq., and had issue, 
 sons, Alexander, bapt. at Blackburn, May 22nd, 1677 ; Thomas, bapt. 
 April Sth, i68i, buried Feb. 7th, 1701-2 ; Edward, bom in 1684; and 
 John, born in 1686, died young; and daughters, Jane, born in 1679 ; 
 and Anne, born in 1682, died in 1683. Edward Osbaldeston died in 
 1689, and was buried at Blackburn, June 4th. Pennant saw, in 1773, a 
 brass in Blackburn Church to the memory of this scion. He died intes- 
 tate, and on August 13th, 1689, administration of his estate was granted 
 to his widow. 
 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, Esq., succeeding his father, was in the 
 same year (1689) made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School. He 
 resided chiefly at Preston, and married, in 1706, Lettice Ainsworth, 
 widow, but died without issue in 1747. His Will, executed two or three 
 days before his death, is printed below :— 
 
 " I, Alexander Osbaldeston, of Preston, Esq., give all my messuages, &e., to 
 Thomas Clayton, of Little Harwood, Esq., and Henry ffarington, of Preston, upon 
 trust, to pay my debts and the following legacies, namely : — To my kinswoman, Mr*- 
 
6o6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Catherine Shuttleworth, ;£'5oo, with all my plate (except my silver cup), in recom- 
 pense for her care of my mother, when she lived servant with her. To Mrs. Mary 
 Osbaldeston, of Preston, .£'150, in trust, to pay the same to Mr. Osbaldeston of 
 Sunderland, or his wife or his children, as she shall think fit. To Mr. Thos. Bleas- 
 dale £10 los. To my servant Thomas ;if 5°o ^"^ ^V silver cup, horses, furniture of 
 my rooms and effects in my outhousing (save my books and ready cash). To my 
 friends, Mr. Thomas Starkie, Mr. James Rawsthome, and Mr. Gilbert Woosey, all my 
 legacys left by the Will of Mrs. Ann Braddyll to my sister Jane. To the said Thomas 
 Clayton and Henry ffarrington, ^300, to lay out as an annuity for Mr. Hugh Wads- 
 worth. To the said Thomas Clayton, his heirs, &c. , for ever, my chappies, seats, 
 pews, burying ground, and all my right, &c. , in Blackburn Church, with my right 
 of nominating a parish clerk and churchwarden there. To my acquaintance, Mr. Tom 
 Stanley at Culcheth, £$0. To Mr. Nicholas Starkie, of Riddlesden, in Yorkshire, 
 ;i"20 20s. To Mr. Nicholas, son of Mr. William Starkie, of Manchester, £^i los. 
 The residue, &c., to such housekeepers of the better rank as my executors shall think 
 stand in need thereof. The said Thomas Clayton and Henry ffarrington, my 
 executors. Dated 28th March, 1747." 
 
 A short time before the death of Alexander Osbaldeston, a mort- 
 gage of his landed estate to Allan Harrison, gent., son of John Harrison, 
 Esq., of Little Mearley Hall, had been effected. By his Will, dated 
 April 25th, 1752, Allan Harrison, of Lancaster, Esq., demised to Roger 
 Hesketh of Rossall, Esq., and Richard Emmott of London, Esq., the 
 Manor of Great Mearley, with lands, &c., in Great Mearley ; also the 
 Manor and Lordship of Osbaldeston, with messuages, lands, &c., in 
 Osbaldeston and Ribchester, in trust for testator's wife, Mary Sybille, 
 to receive the rents, &c., during her life, and to pay to her daughter Ann 
 Sybille Harrison the yearly sum of ^100 so long as she continued un- 
 married ; with contingent reversions, &c. Ann Sybille Harrison, daughter 
 and sole heiress of Allan Harrison, Esq., became the wife of George 
 Wilson, Esq.; and the trustees sold the manorial estate to Sir George 
 Warren. In August, 1774, a Fine was levied between Sir George 
 Warren, K.B., and George Wilson, Esq., and Anne Sybille his wife, of 
 the manor of Osbaldeston, with 14 messuages, as many gardens and 
 orchards, 210 acres of land, 60 of meadow, 210 of pasture, 100 of wood- 
 land, 100 of furze and heath, 60 of land covered with water, and 20 of 
 marsh, and 4s. rent ; with common of pasture for cattle, common of tur- 
 bary, free fishery in Ribble, &c., in Osbaldeston, Ribchester, and Balder- 
 stone ; and Osbaldeston Ferry over Ribble.^ From Sir George Warren 
 the estate descended to the present Lord de Tabley, who sold the 
 
 I The Ferry across the Ribble by Osbaldeston Hall has existed more than 500 years, and was 
 long an appurtenance of the manor. In 1563, a cause was heard in the Duchy Court, between 
 Robert Mychell, claiming by inheritance from his ancestors for 250 years, plaintiff, and John and 
 Thomas Oebaldeston, Henry Bussel, and others, defendants, respecting a " claim to the Ferry Boat 
 upon the Water of RIble, called Osbaldeston Boat, for passengers and travellers from the North Bank 
 to the South Bank of the River Rible ; also, to a house and land, and certain fees and maintenance 
 called Boat Hire from divers parishes." 
 
OSBALDESTON HALL. 607 
 
 manor, manor-house, and estate in Osbaldeston, consisting of 659 acres 
 of land, in the year 1866, to Henry Ward, Esq., of Blackburn. 
 
 Descendants of this ancient family are still living. Michael Osbaldeston, born in 
 1656 (third son of Alexander Osbaldeston, Esq., grandsire of the last-named Alexan- 
 der), married and had issue, sons, John, and George. John Osbaldeston, of Preston, 
 the eldest son, seems to have inherited the entailed estates on the death of Alexander 
 Osbaldeston, Esq. , in 1 747. He is said to have surrendered his rights in the estates 
 to Sir George Warren, for jf 5000, and an annuity of ;if40O. John Osbaldeston died 
 without issue. His brother George Osbaldeston, living in Friargate, in Preston, in 
 1719, by his first wife, Ellen, had sons, George, and William (of Preston in 1742 and 
 1762, who had issue); and by his second wife had sons, John Stanley (of Preston, 
 husbandman), and Joseph (who is described in the Guild Roll of Preston, in 1722, as 
 " a soldier in Cornwallis' regiment "). George Osbaldeston, son of George, a thread- 
 weaver at Knutsford in Cheshire, laid claim, about a century ago, to the Osbaldeston 
 estates as next heir. The extract which follows is from a diary kept by this claimant : — 
 "I, George Osbaldeston, went down to the family estate called Osbaldeston. to make 
 claim to it, being heir at law, August 12th, 1778. And also I claimed it in the year 
 17S2, August 14th. And also claimed it by turning over soil and putting a chair in 
 the hall and turning out the tenants of it, March 6th and 7th, 1783. Also cutt down 
 timber and offered it to sell. May 3rd and 4th, 1783. Mr. William HoUings, attorney, 
 was with me there, and he said he would see and get me ^^50 per year to sine [sign] it 
 away, May 7th, 1 783. I also claimed it and turned over soil October 30th, 1 783. I 
 also cut down timber and offered it to sell December 26th, 1 783. I had a bed and 
 slept in Osbaldeston Hall April 21st, 1 784. I gave J. Sharrock and W. Heskin notes 
 to pay me rent, August 12th, and October 31st, 1784. Also I served the tenants in 
 the manor of Osbaldeston with ejectments from ye Court of King's Bench, May 19th 
 1785. Also maid claim to the manors of Balderstone and Breidley [Bradley] by 
 turning over soil, the nth August, 1785. Also I filed a Bill in the High Court of 
 Chancery against Sir George Warren for a discovery of his title under which he holds 
 the family estate of the Osbaldestons, July 3rd, 1786. Also served him with an office 
 copy of it, July 5th, 1786. A copy of the Bill out of Chancery on stamps, February 
 20th, 1787. As Sir George Warren hath not answered the Bill filed in equity, then 
 moved the Court of Chancery for an Order to sequester his estate if not answered 
 speedily, March 24th, 1787. Sir George Warren's plea was filed in Chancery, July 
 15th, 1787. Sir George Warren will not stand trial. Mr. Lyon delivered papers, 
 Oct. 20th, 1787. Served ejectment on the Hall at Osbaldeston, May 19th, 1787." 
 This persistent estate-hunter further records that " in searching after the estate to 
 recover it he walked 1,832 miles and rode on horse or in coach 1,612 miles." His 
 efforts were unavailing, however. John Stanley Osbaldeston, of Preston, brother of 
 George the claimant, had a son George Osbaldeston ; and the latter was father of 
 Mr. John Osbaldeston, now residing at Farnworth, aged about 62 years. 
 
 Osbaldeston Hall, long time the seat of the Osbaldeston family, is 
 situate on the left bank of the Ribble, about a mile west of Ribchester. 
 The remains of the moat by which the hall was intrenched still exist 
 behind the south and south-west walls of the garden. At the south 
 approach a bridge crosses the ditch, leading to a gateway flanked by old 
 yews. The Hall is reduced by demolitions to a mere fragment of what 
 
6o8 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 has been a large mansion. The existing building, occupied by the 
 farmer, consists of a block parallel with the river behind it, with a central 
 projection to the south, constructed of brick with stone dressing, in the 
 gable of which are large windows, mullioned and transomed. Above 
 the upper window in this gable is attached to the wall a tablet, the em- 
 blazonment upon which is almost effaced. In the interior there is an 
 interesting chamber in the upper storey of the building projecting to the 
 south. This room is handsomely panelled in oak, in geometric designs. 
 The mantle-piece is antique, and, with the chimney-breast above it, 
 about twelve feet in width, is covered with elaborate scroll-carving. 
 Above the family arms, carved in wood, which are placed in a panel in 
 the centre of the ornamentation, appear the initials "E O" and " M O", 
 and again, above these, the initials " E O " are repeated. These 
 initials represent either the names of Edward Osbaldeston and his wife 
 Maud, who held the estates from 1575 to 1590 ; or of Sir Edward Os- 
 baldeston, Knt., who died in 1636. The wife of Sir Edward was named 
 Mary. Probably these carvings and panels were prepared in Sir Edward's 
 time and under his direction. No other curious feature is left at Osbal- 
 deston Hall. On the north side of the house most of the windows are 
 blocked up, and the general aspect of the building is unsightly. Anciently, 
 the arms which follow were fixed in the dining-hall, as recorded in an old 
 MS.: — " In the dyning roome att Osbaldston : — Osbaldston, paled with 
 Reynacres : — Ar. 3 tygers' heads erased b. langued gu.; Halsall — ar. 2 
 barrs b. a border engld. sa.; Bold — ar. a griphon segreont, sa.; Stanley — 
 ar. on a bend b. 3 staggs' heads caboshed, or.; Harrington — sa, a fretty, or; 
 Gerard — ar, a cross, gu." On the lintel of the stable door in the old 
 bam, but now inserted in the wall of the new barn, is an inscription, re- 
 presented in the cut below :— 
 
 The shield is charged with the arras of Osbaldeston, impaled with those 
 of Bradley. The date, 1593, points to the period of John Osbaldeston's 
 tenure, and the inner initials " I " and " E " refer to this personage 
 and his wife Ellen. The last initials are enigmatical, and perhaps refer 
 to one of the Bradleys, John Osbaldeston having married the daughter of 
 John Bradley of Bradley, Esq. "T B " would stand for Thomas Brad- 
 ley, father of John ; and " T O " for Thomas Osbaldeston, brother of 
 John Osbaldeston. 
 
FREEHOLDERS IN OSBALDESTON. 609 
 
 LUSSELL OF STUDLEHURST. 
 
 In the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, Thomas Lussell, gent, possessed a small 
 estate at Studlehurst in Osbakleston under the lord of the manor. At the levy for a 
 Subsidy in 1570 he paid tax for this freehold. At the military levy of 1574, Thomas 
 Lussell had to furnish " one long bow, one sheaf of arrows, one scull, and one bill." 
 
 Henry Lussell, gent., successor of Thomas, occurs as a juror in 1582; as a 
 freeholder in 1584 and in 1600 ; and in the Subsidy of 1611, "Henry Lussell" is 
 assessed on lands at 20s. He died in Jan., 1618 ; his widow in July, 1623. 
 
 Thomas Lussell, gent. , is the next member. He was a Governor of Blackburn 
 Free Grammar School in 1614. He married, Feb. i6th, 1611-12, Alice Yates; and 
 died in early manhood in l6l6, leaving a son Edward and a daughter Grace, bapt. 
 June loth, 1616. An Inquisition taken at Blackburn, April 9th, 15th James I. (1617), 
 before Edward Rigby, Escheator, returned that Thomas Lussell had died seized of a 
 messuage and lands in Osbakleston, held of Edward Osbaldeston, Esq. , in socage ; his 
 death had taken place on the 26th September previous (he was buried at Blackburn 
 Church, Sept. 28th), and his son and heir was Edward Lussell, aged four years. 
 
 Edward Lussell of Osbaldeston, gent., died on the 3rd June, 1637. The Escheat 
 was taken at Blackburn, Sept. 21st, 13th Charles I., and it appeared that Edward 
 Lussell had died in tenure of one messuage, one garden, 20 acres of land, 4 of meadow, 
 and 10 of pasture in Osbaldeston, called Studlehurst ; also of one messuage or house 
 and croft in Preston, and one other burgage in Preston, &c. He had left no issue, 
 and it was found that Grace Lussell was his sister and heir, aged 2 1 years and 3 months. 
 
 The Studlehurst freehold passed later into possession of the Liveseys of Livesey 
 Hall, and was part of the inheritance of Robert Bell Livesey, Esq. , who conveyed the 
 estate, with other premises, in the year 1806, to Robert Hubberstey, yeoman, for 
 ;^I400, for a term of 1000 years. Robert Hubberstey granted to Richard Hubberstey, 
 for ;£'loc)0, the lease of the Studlehurst farm, of 18^ customary acres ; and on the 
 27th July, 1874, the trustees of the late Richard Hubberstey (who had died in Nov., 
 1873), conveyed the estate to Messrs John, Edward, and Joseph Dugdale, of Blackburn, 
 for .1^2560 ; when it was stated to comprise 30^ statute acres. 
 OSBALDESTON OF OXENDALE. 
 
 The Oxendale or Oxenden freehold estate apparently was detached from the 
 manorial estate of Osbaldeston, and given to a younger son of the Osbaldeston family. 
 This must have been nearly four centuries ago. In the title deeds of the Oxendale 
 estate (reference to which has been kindly afforded me by the present owners of the 
 property, Messrs J., E., and J. Dugdale), the oldest parchment is a latin deed, dated 
 the 4th February, 23rd Henry VII. (1508), by which William Osbaldeston conveys to 
 Robert Osbaldeston, his son and heir apparent, certain messuages, lands, tenements, 
 rents, &c., in the vill of Osbaldeston, to have and hold to the said Robert for term 
 of life of the foresaid William, paying for the same to William Osbaldeston 4s. yearly. 
 Witnesses : Hugh Shyrburn, armiger, William Haryington, Robert Wadyngton, 
 Thomas Colcebiy, Knt., Robert Assye, and others. By the date, the above William 
 Osbaldeston might have been a younger brother of Richard Osbaldeston, Esq., of the 
 senior line. Robert Osbaldeston, of the above deed, son of William, was in tenure of 
 an estate in 1523, for which he was assessed to the Subsidy. 
 
 Henry Osbaldeston, of this branch, was taxed to a Subsidy in 1570 ; and Robert 
 Osbaldeston, gent., appears in a list of Freeholders dated 1584. Lawrence Osbaldeston, 
 gent., of this family, was t.axed to a Subsidy in 1610-11. " Robert Osbaldeston de 
 Oxenden" was buried at BLackbum, June 26th, 1624; Wm. Osbaldeston of Oxenden 
 died in Sept., 1623, and his wife the same year. 
 
 77 
 
6io HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 " Lawrence Osbaldeston de Oxendale " was buried Jan. 9th, 1630-1. He had 
 married, Nov. 13th, 1604, Maria Cowborn. She died in Nov., 1637. 
 
 Robert Osbaldeston, gent., had sons, Lawrence; John, died in 1653; and probably 
 Robert ; also a daughter Elizabeth. His wife died in July, 1637. 
 
 Lawrence Osbaldeston of Oxendale, gent., rebuilt Oxendale Hall in 1656 ; the 
 inscription over the doorway "L R O" stands for Lawrence and his wife Rosamond 
 Osbaldeston. His wife was Rosamond Critchley, whom he married Nov. 30th, 1630. 
 " Rosimon, wife of Lawrence Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston," was buried at Blackburn, 
 Oct. 7th, 1675. He had a son Lawrence ; and daughters, Rosamond, bapt. Sept., 
 buried Dec, 165S ; and Isabel, boi'n in 1657. The father died in June, 1683. 
 
 Lawrence Osbaldeston of Oxendale, yeoman, succeeded Lawrence his father. He 
 was elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in Dec, 1687, and is described 
 in the record as " Mr. Lawrence Osbaldeston, one of the High Constables for the 
 Hundred of Blackburn." In the year 1700, "Mr. Lawrence Osbaldeston of Oxen- 
 dale" held a sum of School money of the Grammar School. By Margaret his wife he 
 had a son and heir, Thomas ; a younger son James ; and daughters, Margaret, 
 Elizabeth, Grace, Mary, and Anne, the last born in 1 704. It was this member who 
 alienated the estate. An indenture made the 2nd March, 1714, between William 
 Gradwell of Preston, eldest son and executor of the Will of Thomas Gradvvell late of 
 Preston, grocer, deceased, on the first part ; Richard Hayhurst of Ribchester, mercer, 
 on the second part ; Lawrence Osbaldeston of Oxenden within Osbaldeston, yeoman, 
 and Margaret his wife, and Thomas Osbaldeston, yeoman, eldest son of Lawrence, on 
 the third part ; William Ffox of Goosnargh, yeoman, on the fourth part ; and Geoffrey 
 Prescott and John Richardson, both of Preston, gentlemen, on the fifth part ; recites 
 that whereas the said Lawrence and Thomas Osbaldeston, by their indentures of lease 
 and release dated respectively the 21st and 22nd August, 1711, for considerations 
 therein mentioned, did grant and convey to Thomas Gradwell, &c. , the capital 
 Messuage, &c., called Oxenden, with all lands thereto belonging, containing 48 acres, 
 to his own proper use forever, by which indenture of release it was agreed that a 
 common recovery then lately suffered should be and inure, and that the Recoverers 
 should stand seized of the premises to the use of Thomas Gradwell, subject to a 
 condition for making void the same on payment of ;^20O with interest on August 21st 
 next ensuing ; and whereas also the said Lawrence and Thomas Osbaldeston, by their 
 deed dated Nov. loth, 1713, did make the said mortgaged premises liable to the 
 payment of a further sum of ^70 to Richard Hayhurst ; and whereas default was made 
 in payment as well of ;if 200 and interest as of £jo and interest, at the times limited 
 for payment, whereby the said mortgage became forfeited, and the estate did on the 
 death of Thomas Gradwell become and is now legally vested in William Gradwell his 
 son and heir ; and whereas William Ffox hath lately agreed with Lawrence and 
 Thomas Osbaldeston for the absolute purchase of the said mortgaged premises and 
 equity and right of redemption thereof, p.aying for the same the sum of ;^520, — now 
 the indenture witnesseth that for the sum of ;^2I2 los. paid to William Gradwell, and 
 ;^8o paid to Richard Hayhurst by William Ffox, the said William Gradwell and 
 Richard Hayhurst have, by direction of Lawrence, Margaret, and Thomas Osbaldeston, 
 bargained, released, &c, by these presents, to William Ffox all the premises aforesaid, 
 to have and hold to William Ffox, his heirs, &c., for ever. Endorsed, Receipt of 
 balance of purchase money, ;^228, by Lawrence Osbaldeston. 
 
 FOX OF GOOSNARGH AND OXENDALE. 
 
 William ffox of Goosnargh, yeoman, who purchased the Oxendale estate in 1714, 
 had a son John, who inherited the estate in Osbaldeston. 
 
OXENDALE HALL ESTATE. 6ll 
 
 John Fox of Osbaldeston, yeoman, by Ellen his wife, had issue, sons, William, 
 bapL May 9th, 1720 ; and Christopher, bapt. Sept. 28th, 1724 ; and daughters, 
 Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Alston of Ribchester; and Alice, wife of Robert Slater of 
 Whittingham. John Fax resided at Oxendale Hall, and died there in 1753; was buried 
 at Blackburn, Aug. 29th. By his Will, dated Aug. 25th, 1753, John Fox of Osbaldeston, 
 yeoman, gives to Ellen his wife certain household goods, and whereas he is entitled to 
 a moiety of a tenement he and John Shorrock leased under Alexander Osbaldeston, 
 lord of the manor, known by the name of Parkes, gives his part to his wife Ellen for 
 life, if lives in lease so long live ; gives all his freehold estate in Osbaldeston called 
 Oxenden to his son William Fox, his heirs, for ever, charged with £8 a year to 
 Ellen, testator's wife, for life ; ;^ioo to son Christopher ; ;^ioo to daughter Elizabeth, 
 wife of Thomas Alston of Ribchester; ;£'ioo to daughter Ails, wife of Robert Skter 
 of Whittingham ; to grandson John Alston testator's set of silver coat buttons. Ellen, 
 wife, and William, son, executors. Will proved at Chester, Dec. 31st, 1753. 
 
 William Fox, of Oxendale Hall, yeoman, son of John, whose initials "W F" 
 and the date " 1763" are upon the house, died in 1802. The Will of William Fox of 
 Ribchester, gent., is dated July 3rd, 1801. Testator gives to William Carr of 
 Blackburn, gent., and Henry Seed of Ribchester, schoolmaster, his freehold estate of 
 Oxendale, and a farm in Clayton-le-dale called Catteralls, on lease under Sir George 
 Warren, and other properties in Button, &c., upon trust to receive the profits, &c., 
 during the minority of such grandchildren of testator as attain the age of 21 years ; to 
 the use of his daughter Betty, wife of Christopher Wilkinson of Ribchester, apothecary, 
 and in case her eldest son William Fox Wilkinson, or any other son, shall arrive at the 
 age of 21, then upon further trust that the feoffees convey the same freehold and 
 leasehold premises, subject to an annuity of i^6o to testator's daughter for Ufe, to the 
 use of said grandson, William Fox Wilkinson; remainder to other children of 
 daughter in default. Will proved May 26th, 1802. 
 
 The Oxendale Hall estate was conveyed by Thomas Howard, Esq., and others, 
 mortgagees, by deed dated 27th Febr., 1846, to John Addison, Esq., of Preston, for a 
 sum of ;if34CO; and lastly, by deed dated 19th Nov., 1874, was conveyed by Lt.-Gen. 
 J. F. Crofton, of London, and Anne Agnes his wife, daughter and heir of the late 
 John Addison, to Messrs. John, Edward, and Joseph Dugdale, for ^£■5139. This estate 
 contains 76 statute acres of land, of which 17 acres are woodland. 
 
 Oxendale Hall is a quaint-looking old house of the 17th century, with a wide 
 frontage, with four gables on the roof line, and a gabled porch in the centre bay. Over 
 a low-arched doorway the Hntel is inscribed with the date "1656 "and initials 
 " L R O " (Lawrence and Rosamund Osbaldeston). On the leaden easing pipe at 
 the side of the porch are the letters " W F " (William Fox) and the date " 1763." 
 
 Roman Catholic Chapel.— A mission of the Church of Rome was established 
 in Osbaldeston about the year 1836 ; and a chapel, dedicated to St. Marie, was 
 opened on Oct. 25th, 1838. The site of the chapel is on the border of this township 
 next to Mellor, near the turnpike from Whalley to Preston. Annexed to the chapel, 
 which is a neat and well-kept structure, is the priest's house. The chapel contains 250 
 sittings ; and is furnished with an organ. The priests who have served this mission 
 include the Rev. Dr. Rooker (afterwards of St. Augustine's, Granby Row, London, 
 who died, aged 66, in May, 1857); Rev. Thomas Irving (afterwards Canon Irving of 
 Blackburn); and Rev. Thomas Smith, the present priest, who has been incumbent 
 here about twenty years. 
 
6l3 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— THE TOWNSHIP OF PLEASINGTON. 
 
 Topography — Acreage and Population — Descent of the Manor — De Plesyngton Family — Ainsworth — 
 Henry Ainsworth the Commentator — Sale of the Manor— Butler and Butler-Bowdon — Pleasington 
 Old Hall — Feilden of Feniscowles — Present Landowners — Former Freeholders — Ainsworth of 
 Feniscowles — Cunliffe — Ellingthorpe — Livesey of Feniscowles — NoweU— The Old Alum Mine — 
 Roman Catholic Chapel— Pleasington Free School. 
 
 PLEASINGTON Toiraship lies on the west side of Blackburn 
 Parish. The lands of the township rise from the banks of the 
 Darwen to an elevation of 700 feet on the ridge of Pleasington Moor ; 
 and on the north side are separated from Mellor by the stream which 
 traverses the glen below "Alum Scar " to its confluence with the Darwen. 
 Witton is the next township to the east, and Livesey adjoins on the 
 south. Most of the land in Pleasington is within the park enclosures of 
 Pleasington Hall (the Manor House), Feniscowles Hall, and Woodfold 
 Park ; and is well-timbered and in high cultivation. The Sewage Farm 
 of Blackburn Corporation now extends over the sandy knolls overlooking 
 the river near Hoghton Bottoms, on the estate of Sir Henry de 
 Hoghton. There are no manufactories in the township. Its area is 
 1600 statute acres. The population has varied since 1801 as follows: — 
 1801, 614 persons ; 1811, 599; 1821, 625; 1831, 633; 1841,517; 
 1851, 428; 1861, 422; 1871, 336 persons. 
 
 DE PLESYNGTON FAMILY. 
 
 The earliest known members of this family of ancient lords of 
 Pleasington are named in charters of Stanlaw, Whalley, and Kirkstall 
 Abbeys. Henry de Plesyngton, living temp. Henry III., by Diana his 
 wife, had sons, Robert, Roger, Elia, and Adam ; and a daughter Mar- 
 gery, wife of John de Stodleigh. He had also brothers Robert and 
 Richard. By a deed undated, Henry de Plesyngton gave to the monks 
 of Stanlaw half an acre in Plesyngton ; with two oaks from his wood of 
 Plesyngton for timber to repair their houses in Blackburn ; dead 
 wood for burning, and alder wood for fences ; and pannage for 20 swine 
 in Plesj-ngton Wood. After his death, Diana, relict of Henry de Pie- 
 
 \ 
 
DE PLESYNGTON FAMILY. 613 
 
 syngton, quit-claimed her right in the same to the Abbey. To a deed 
 dated 26th Henry III. (1242), Elias de Plesyngton (a son of Henry) is 
 a party ; and by another charter Helias (or Ely) de Plesyngton and 
 Adam his brother quit-claimed to the abbot and convent of Kirkstall all 
 his pasture between " le Kirkisic and Acrinton." 
 
 Robert de Plesyngton, eldest son of Henry, was living in 1284, and 
 had sons, John de Plesyngton, and Robert, of Alsworth. 
 
 John de Plesyngton (Robert's son and heir), by Mabel his wife, had 
 a son Robert. In 28th Edw. I. (1300), John de Holme conveyed to 
 John de Plesyngton, son of Robert, lands and buildings in Plesyngton, 
 which Adam, his father, had of the gift of Henry de Plesyngton. In 
 13 1 5, Mabile, relict of John de Plesyngton, remits to Sir William de 
 Holand, Knt, all her right of dower to lands her son Robert had 
 granted in Plesyngton and Holme. 
 
 Robert de Plesyngton, son of John, in the 8th Edw. II. (1315), 
 gave to Sir William de Holand, Knt., and Lady Johanna his wife, a 
 piece of land and meadow in Plesyngton called Wodcokhull. In 1330, 
 Robert de Plesyngton was acting as Abbot's attorney in a cause heard 
 in the King's Court at Minister, respecting a claim of the Convent of 
 Whalley to certain lands in the to\vnship of Read. 
 
 Here the evidences of the De Plesyngton descent fail. Possibly 
 for another generation after the above Robert the family survived in the 
 direct male lineage; but about the middle of the century (14th), a 
 daughter and heir of Plesyngton of Plesyngton had married Adam de 
 Wynckley, who held the manor until his death ; and having a daughter 
 Agnes for his heir, by her marriage with John de Ainsworth she carried 
 the estate to him, who was in tenure before the year 1396. 
 
 It is conjectured that Robert de Plesyngton, appointed Chief Baron 
 of the Exchequer, in 1380, was of this family. He died in 1393, and by 
 his wife, Agnes, had a son and heir, Robert de Plesyngton. Of the 
 latter Robert, Henry de Plesyngton was son and heir. From him, it is 
 supposed, descended the branch of Plesington of Dimples, which con- 
 tinued to hold that estate until 1715, when it was forfeited by the treason 
 of John Plesington of Dimples, a Jacobite. A Chancery Roll of the 
 Duchy of Lancaster, contains a precept to the escheator, dated i6th 
 August, 5th Henry IV. (1404), to surcease levying the issues of the third 
 part of the manor of Ellale, and divers other lands in the County 
 of Lancaster seized into the King's hands byreason of the alleged idiotcy 
 of Robert, son and heir of Sir Robert de Plesington, Knt., until the 
 next sessions, the said Robert having found security to appear in the 
 Chancery Court at Lancaster, personally to be examined if he be an 
 idiot or not. 
 
6 14 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 AINSWORTH OF PLEASINGTON HALL. 
 
 John de Aynesworth (a younger son of John de Ainsworth who 
 had lands in Ainsworth township) married Agnes, daughter and heir of 
 Adam de Wynckley, lord of Pleasington, who brought to this branch of 
 the Ainsworth family the manor lands of Pleasington. This John de 
 Aynesworth occurs in deeds dated 1396-7, and 1398. He had a son 
 Elia or Elice. 
 
 Elia Aynesworth of Pleasington was living in 1429 and in 1442. 
 His son and heir was Lawrence. In the 20th Hen. VI. (1442), Elia 
 de Aynesworth and Lawrence his son gave to Thomas Seed sufficient 
 turbary in the vill of Plesyngton. 
 
 Lawrence Aynesworth, lord of Pleasington, married, before 1441, 
 Margaret, daughter of John Talbot of Salesbury, Knt. In the 20th 
 Henry VI., John Banastre de Walton released to Lawrence Aynesworth 
 of Pleasington and Margaret his wife a field called Whitney feld, &c. 
 Lawrence Aynsworth was living in 1453. He had sons, Henry, and 
 John ; and a daughter Jenet, wife of George Banastre of Darwyn Hall 
 in Walton. 
 
 Henry Aynsworth de Pleasington, son of Lawrence, married a 
 daughter of Thomas Radcliffe of Wynmerleigh, knt., and had a son 
 Lawrence. 
 
 Lawrence Ainsworth, son of Henry, was, I conceive, father of a 
 second Lawrence. At the Subsidy levy of 1523 the elder Lawrence 
 Aynsworth was taxed on his lands in Pleasington valued at ^5 per 
 annum. 
 
 Lawrence Ainsworth, in possession half a century later than the 
 above Lawrence, married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Grymshaw of 
 Clayton, Esq. (who died in 1550), and had issue, sons, Thomas, born 
 before 1550; Henry; Richard, died in 1628; and George; and daughters, 
 Elizabeth, Anne, Margaret, and Dorathe. He had also a sister Margaret, 
 wife of Richard Critchley of Livesey. In 1538, Lawrence Ainsworth, 
 chief lord of Pleasington, had a suit in the Chancery Court of the 
 Duchy with Robert Aspden and others, concerning rights of common 
 and turbary on Pleasington Common and Moss, Tykyll Moss, and the 
 Tonghyll in Pleasington Manor, &c. In 1539, he had another dispute 
 with Ralph Cunclif and Richard Merseden, tenants of Sir Thomas 
 Southworth, as to right of common on Pleasington More. Lawrence 
 Ainsworth, gent., died in 1573. In his Will, dated March 26th, 1573, 
 testator desires to be buried in Blackburn Church ; mentions his capital 
 messuage called Pleasington Hall ; names his wife Dorothy ; sons, Henry 
 and Richard; daughters Anne and Dorothy; appoints Richard and 
 Nicholas Grimshaw, gents., supervisors. 
 
HENRY AlNS WORTH THE COMMENTATOR. 615 
 
 A distinguished Nonconformist divine and hebraist of the 17th century was of 
 this family. Henry Ainsworth, second son of Lawrence Ainsworth, of Pleasington, 
 was born about the year 1 560. Probably he acquired the elements of learning at the 
 Blackburn Grammar School founded in 1567, his father being a first governor. He 
 was an orphan at the age of 13. He entered at the University of Cambridge. 
 After leaving the University his strong Puritan opinions led him to join the sect of 
 the Independents, or "Brownists" as they were then named by their opponents. 
 These sectaries were rigorously prosecuted by Elizabeth's government, and ' their 
 leaders were driven into exile in Holland. About A.D. 1593, Henry Ainsworth was 
 forced to quit his native country on account of his peculiar tenets, and he betook 
 himself to Amsterdam ; where he first took service with a bookseller, who was 
 prompt to recognise his proficiency in the Hebrew language. In conjunction with 
 Mr. Francis Johnson, he formed an Independent Church in Amsterdam ; and he 
 published, in 1602, the "Confession of Faith of the People called Brownists.'' 
 This was his first essay in print. Ainsworth's scheme of church-government differed 
 somewhat from that of his coadjutor Johnson, and the result was a division of the 
 church into two sections, one of which withdrew with Ainsworth and formed a 
 distinct society. On the testimony of John Robinson, the pastor at Leyden, Henry 
 Ainsworth displayed much moderation in this dispute, in contrast with the conduct of 
 Johnson. Ainsworth's second church was founded in December, 1610. Mr. 
 Ainsworth continued about twelve years to serve this church as its minister ; and 
 during those years he diligently plied the pen of a ready writer in the production of 
 many controversial treatises and books of biblical exegesis. Some of his polemical 
 pieces now afford curious illustrations of the religious contentions of his age. In the 
 tract entitled "The Trying out of the Truth," &c. (1615), the editor, "E. P." 
 notifies the "christian reader" that "having had some interest in the conveyance of 
 the passages following, " and ' ' whereas the controverters were so different in 
 judgment, and yet both of them for conscience sake suffer afflictions, being separated 
 from the Church of England, the one [John Ainsworth] to the practice of a Roman 
 Catholick, the other [Henry Ainsworth] to a way thereunto most opposite, and both 
 of them being leaders and men of note in their so much different religions," he has 
 "without prejudice put forth these things," &c. It further appears that Mr. John 
 Ainsworth, a Roman Catholic, whilst a prisoner in London, put forth a challenge to 
 debate in writing religious questions, and invited his "namesake Mr. Henry Ains- 
 worth" to note it. Henry Ainsworth, in his first letter from Amsterdam, dated Sept. 
 4th, 1609, refers to John Ainsworth as "in nation and in name (and I know not 
 whether also for nearer alliance) being meet." Four letters were written by each 
 disputant ; and Henry Ainsworth concludes with a short answer. Mr. Henry 
 Ainsworth's last extended letter in this controversy is dated from Amsterdam, Nov. 
 7th, 1613. Shortly before his death, Henry Ainsworth visited Ireland, but returned 
 to Amsterdam, where he died in 1623, " leaving an exemplary character for humility, 
 sobriety, discretion, and unblameable virtue. " " Hisdeath," writes Neal, "was sudden 
 and not without suspicion of violence ; for it is reported, that having found a diamond 
 of very great value in the streets of Amsterdam, he advertised it in print, and when the 
 owner, who was a Jew, came to demand it, he offered him any acknowledgment he 
 would desirt ; but Ainsworth, though poor, would accept of nothing but a conference 
 with some of his Rabbins upon the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the 
 prophecies of the Messias, which the other promised ; but not having interest enough 
 to obtain it, and Ainsworth being resolute, it is thought he was poisoned." Another 
 Tersion is that Ainsworth procured the conference with the Rabbins, and so 
 
6i6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 confounded them, that out of pique they contrived to put an end to his life. There 
 is now no possibility of testing the truth of this singular story. Concerning the 
 quality of Henry Ainsworth's writings, and the value of his commentaries. Dr. 
 Worthington, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, wrote in i66o, in the follow- 
 ing terms : — " There is another author whose remains are most worthy to be 
 retrieved : I mean Mr. Ainsworth, whose excellent annotations upon the Pentateuch, 
 &c., sufficiently discover his great learning, and his most exact observation of the 
 proper idioms of the Holy Text ; with every iota and tittle of which he seems to be 
 as much acquainted as any of the Masoreths of Tiberias. I am told that there are 
 these MSS. of his, viz.: — His 'Comment upon Hosea,' 'Notes upon St. Matthew,' 
 and ' Notes upon the Epistle to the Hebrews,' which latter he was the more prepared 
 for, by reason of his former labours upon the Pentateuch, the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 being Moses unveiled. Mr. Cole (a bookseller at the printing press in Comhill) told 
 me that he had once these MSS. in his keeping, and thought to have printed them ; 
 but a kinsman (or a son, I do not well remember) of Mr. Ainsworth's, at Amsterdam, 
 and John Caw, could not well agree, either about the right of disposing of the copy, 
 or the price of the MSS. I have heard that Mr. Nye or Mr. Jessey knew something 
 of these MSS. If they could be recovered, as they be like the other printed works of 
 the author, it would be a good work indeed, and might be of singular use. Nay, if 
 they be not throughout so compleated as the author intended, yet the whole is too good 
 to be lost or embessill'd. " The writer suggests that the matter should be inquired of 
 at Amsterdam, and adds that " if the MSS. can be found, and can be purchased at a 
 fit rate, there is no fear of being a loser. His other works have always sold well, and 
 at a good price, and were bought by men of different persuasion from him, who did 
 esteem him for his modesty and singular learning, and were much obliged to him for 
 his skill in Jewish Antiquities, lighting their candle by his." A short time after. Dr. 
 Worthington, having learnt something of Ainsworth's son at Amsterdam, wrote, in 
 August, 1661 : — " If Mr. Drury be so well acquainted with young Mr. Ainsworth, he 
 might (it may be) borrow those MSS. of his father's which relate to the explication of 
 some parts of Scripture, and, by viewing them, he might judge of what moment they 
 
 are. 
 
 "1 
 
 I The following is a category of titles of the published works of Ainsworth in the original editions : — 
 
 1. A Confession of Faith of the People called Brownists. Amst. 1602. 
 
 2. Apology or Defence of such true Christians as are commonly but unjustly called Brownists. 
 Amst. 1604. 
 
 3. An tpistle sent unto two daughters of Warwick from H. N. [Henry Nicholas] the oldest 
 Father of the Familie of Love. With a refutation of the errors that are therein. By H. A [Henry 
 Ainsworth]. Imprinted at Amsterdam by Giles Thorp. 1608. 
 
 * 4. Counterpoyson. Considerations touching the points in difference between the godly Ministers 
 and people of the Church of England, and the Seduced Brethren of the Separation. Mr. Bernard's 
 book intituled The Separatists Schism. Mr. Crashawe's Questions propounded in his Sermon 
 preached at the Crosse. Examined and Answered by H. A. 1608. [Republished in 1612 and 1642.] 
 
 5. Annotations upon the Booke of Psalmes. Lond. :i6i2. [Republished in 1626.] 
 
 6. Annotations upon the Five Bookes of Moses [published separately in 1619, 1621, and 1626], 
 the Booke of the Psalmes, and the Song of Songs, or Canticles. London : Printed for John Bellamie, 
 and are to be sold at his Shop in Cornehill, at the signe of the three Golden Lions neere the Royall 
 Exchange. 1627. [Republished in 1639 : translated into Dutch in 1690, and into German in 1692.] 
 
 7. An Animadversion to Mr. Richard Clyfton's Advertisement, who under pretense of answering 
 Chr. Laurie's book, hath published an other man's private Letter, with Mr. Francis Johnson's answer 
 thereto refuted ; and the true causes of the lamentable breach that hath lately fallen out in the English 
 exiled Church at Amsterdam, manifested. Imprinted at Amsterdam, by Giles Thorp. 1613. 
 
 8. The Communion of Saincts. A treatise of the fellowship that the faithful have with God, and 
 his Angels, and one with another, in the present life. Gathered out of the Holy Scriptures, by H. A. 
 Reprinted in the year 1615. [Again reprinted in 1628 and 1640.] 
 
AINSWORTH OF PLEASINGTON. 617 
 
 Thomas Ainsworth, Esq., first son of Lawrence, was lord of 
 Pleasington from 1573 to his death, after the year 1600, when he 
 appears in a Hst of freeholding gentry of Blackburn Hundred. He was 
 dead before 16 10, when Margaret Ainsworth his widow (her maiden 
 name was Chamley), was assessed to a Subsidy for her lands in 
 Pleasington. 
 
 John Ainsworth a son of Thomas, married Anne, daughter of — 
 Bradley of Betham ; and died Dec. 31st, 1608, By Ifiq, post Mort.^ 
 taken at Blackburn, before Wm. Bromley, Esq., escheator, April ist, 
 1609, it was found that John Ainsworth, Esq., died seized of three 
 messuages, three gardens, 40 acres of land, 10 of meadow, 20 of pasture, 
 and 10 of moor in Oswaldtwistle, held of Ralph Barton, Esq., in free 
 socage ; of a small parcel of land in Pleasington, held of the heirs of 
 Wm. Radcliff of Wynmerleigh ; and of lands in Livesey, held of James 
 Livesey, gent., in socage. George Ainsworth, his son and heir, was 
 aged 10 years. He was first of a branch of Ainsworths of Knuzden 
 and High Stanhill, in Oswaldtwistle. Anne Ainsworth, widow of John, 
 died in 161 8. 
 
 Thomas Ainsworth, placed in the Visitation of 16 13 as son of John, 
 was, I think, his elder brother, and heir of Thomas named above. This 
 second Thomas married Dorothy, daughter of John Halsted of 
 Rowley, gent., and had sons, John ; Richard Ainsworth of Witton, 
 gent., who married Elizabeth, daughter of Lawrence Ainsworth of 
 Tockholes ; and Robert, who died in 1608. Thomas Ainsworth, Esq., 
 
 9. The Trying out of the Tnith, begunn and proseqwted in certayn Letters or Passages between 
 lohn Aynsworth and Henry Aynsworth, the one pleading for, the other against, the present religion of 
 the Church of Rome, Published for the good of others, by E. P., in the yeare 1615. 
 
 10. A reply to a pretended Christian Plea for the Antichristian Church of Rome, published by 
 Mr. Francis Johnson, a.d. 1617. Wherein the weakness of the sayd Plea is manifested, and argu- 
 ments alleged for the Church of Rome, and Baptisme therein, are refuted. Anno 1618. Printed in 
 the year 1620. 
 
 11. Certain notes of Mr. Henry Aynsworth his last sermon. Taken by pen in the publique 
 delivery by one of his flock, a little before his death. Anno 1622. Published now at last by the said 
 writer, as a love token of remembrance to his brethren, to inkindle their affections to prayer, that 
 scandalls (of manie years continuance) may be removed, that are barrs to keep back manie godly wise 
 and judicious from us, whereby we might grow to further perfection again. Imprinted 1630. [Title 
 and preface signed *' Sabine Staresmore ;" sermon on i Peter ii, 4.] 
 
 12. Advertisement touching some objections made against the Sinserily of the Hebrew Text, and 
 the allegations of the Rabbins. London, 1639. 
 
 13. An arrow against Idolatrie ; taken out of the Quiver of the Lord of Hosts, by H. A. Printed 
 in the yeere 1640. [Another edition — " Nova Belgia, Printed 1640."] 
 
 14. The old orthodox Foundation of Religion, Left for a Patteme to a New Reformation. 
 Collected long since in Amsterdam, by Mr. Henry Ainsworth, that judicious and learned man, for the 
 benefit of his private Company : And now republished for the profit and information of Presbyterians. 
 Independents, Papists, Anabaptists, Arminians, Antimoravians, Ranters, Quakers, Seekers, and all that 
 desire to know Christ Jesus and him crucified, by S. W. [First edition 1641.] London, Printed by 
 E. Cotes, and are to be sold by Michael Spark at the Blue Bible in Green Arbour, 1653. 
 
 15. A Seasonable Discourse, or, a Censure upon a Dialogue of the Anabaptists, intituled, A 
 Description of what God hath predestinated concerning man, &c. London, Printed by W, Jones, 
 1642. [Other editions in 1643, 1645, 1651.] 
 
 78 
 
6i8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 died in the year 1613. The escheat was taken at Blackburn, Oct. 26th, 
 nth James I. Thomas Ainsworth held at death one messuage, 10 
 cottages, 80 acres of arable land, meadow, pasture, wood and underwood 
 in Pleasington, held of John Winckley in socage; also 13 messuages, 13 
 gardens, 200 acres of arable land, meadow and pasture, and 200 acres 
 of moorland in the same township ; three messuages, one cottage, and 
 70 acres of land, in Livesey, held of James Livesey in socage; and one 
 messuage and 6 acres of land in Witton. John Ainsworth was his son 
 and heir, aged 4 years ; and Dorothy Ainsworth, his widow, was then 
 living at Pleasington. 
 
 John Ainsworth, Esq., next in the succession, married, first, 
 Claudia, second daughter of Rev. Wm. Leigh, B.D., rector of Standish 
 (she died in 1631, and was buried Oct 25th), and by her had two sons, 
 Thomas, bom in 1629; and William, bapt Jan. 26th, 1630-1. His 
 second wife was Jane, daughter of Leonard Ashawe, by whom he had 
 sons, John, bapt. Dec. 12th, 1632 ; Theophilus ; and Henry, born and 
 died in 1647; and daughters, Mary, wife of Robert Dickinson of 
 Chorley; Ellen; and Dorothy, bom in 1636, wife of — Wrightington. 
 Mr. John Ainsworth died in 1667, aged 58, and was buried at Blackburn 
 Church, March 26th. 
 
 John Ainsworth, gent., second son of John, married Sarah Nether- 
 wood of Leeds; was living at Pleasington in 1671, and died in January 
 1692-3, aged 60. Theophilus Ainsworth of Pleasington, gent., a 
 younger brother, was living in 1687, aged 52. 
 
 Thomas Ainsworth, Esq., of Pleasington Hall, eldest son of John, 
 married, first, Mary Robinson, and had a son William, born and died 
 in 1652 ; and a daughter Hellen, bom in 1664. His first wife died in 
 1669 (was buried Aug. 4th) ; and by Jenet, his second wife (who died 
 in Oct., 1686), he had sons, Thomas; and James; and a daughter 
 Margaret, bom in 1672, and died young. Thomas Ainsworth, Esq., 
 was buried at Blackburn Church, Sept. 6th, 1672, aged 43. 
 
 Thomas Ainsworth, of Pleasington Hall, first surviving son of 
 Thomas, by Mary his wife, had a son John. This Thomas Ainsworth 
 died at an early age ; he was killed by falling down the cellar-steps at 
 Pleasington Hall, and was buried at Blackburn, Feb. 7th, 170 1-2. 
 Administration of his estate was granted, in 17 10, to his widow, Mary 
 Ainsworth, then of Manchester, he having died eight years before, 
 leaving " no property, and great debts." 
 
 James Ainsworth, "of Pleasington, Esq.," I think a brother of 
 Thomas, married, at Church-Kirk, in 1 700, Ellen Hindle, and had issue. 
 
 John Ainsworth of Pleasington, Esq., son of Thomas, made, it is 
 stated, "an entail of his estates." He occurs in 1724, as a Commisioner 
 
BUTLER OF PLEASINGTON HALL. 619 
 
 concerning Tockholes Church ; and in 1 744 was made a governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School. By his first wife, Sarah, he had a son 
 Edward, bapt. Nov. 25th, 1725 ; and a daughter Sarah, bapt. Oct. 8th, 
 1723. His second wife was Ann Stokoe, of Blackburn, by whom he 
 had sons, William; Theophilus, born in 1729; John, born in 1731, 
 died in 1734; Thomas, afterwards M.D., of Colne, who entered the 
 navy; and daughters, Ann, born in 1727, married Thomas Law, and 
 had a son Robert ; and Margaret, bom in 1 733, married, first, James 
 Anglezark, secondly, Henry Longworth. John Ainsworth had a third 
 wife — " Elizabeth, wife of John Ainsworth of Pleasington, Esq.," buried 
 July 13th, 1 743. He died in August, 1 746, and was buried at Blackburn 
 Church, Aug. 25th. 
 
 Theophilus Ainsworth, " of Blackburn, schoolmaster," a younger 
 son of John, died in September, 1772, aged 43. 
 
 Edward Ainsworth, of Pleasington Hall, Esq., the last direct male 
 representative of this family, married, at Haslingden Church, July 14th, 
 
 1 743, Ann, daughter of Henry Hargreaves, gent., of Heap Clough (she 
 died in childbed, in June, 1751), and had issue, a son John, bapt. July 
 28th, buried Sept. nth, 1751 ; and daughters, Anne, bapt. Nov. i6th, 
 
 1744, buried Nov. 7th, 1745; Sarah, bapt. Sept. 5th, 1745, married, 
 Jan. 5th, 1763, Mr. Richard Chew of Billington (he died in 1782), and 
 died July 6th, 1802, leaving issue ; a second Ann, bom in 1746, married, 
 in 1769, Mr. Joseph Ramsbottom of Brindle, and was mother of Mr. 
 Edward Ramsbottom, bom in 1770, and other children; Alice, born in 
 1747; and Mary, bom in 1749. Edward Ainsworth having no surviving 
 male issue, and having previously mortgaged the estate, on the 17th of 
 March, 1777, "the Manor of Pleasington and its fine demesne," 
 consisting of 397 customary acres, or 738 statute acres, along with two 
 pews in Blackburn Parish Church and a vault in the graveyard, were 
 publicly sold, subject to the life of Edward Ainsworth, Esq., the 
 purchaser being Richard Butler, Esq. Edward Ainsworth, Esq., died 
 soon after this alienation of the ancestral lands, in 1779, and was buried 
 at Blackburn, Oct. 27th. 
 
 BUTLER OF PRESTON AND PLEASINGTON HALL. 
 
 Henry Butler, Esq., second son of Henry Butler of Rawcliffe, Esq., 
 by his first wife, Jane, daughter of Thomas Stanley of Eccleston, Esq., 
 had sons, Charles, born in 1652 ; Philip ; and Thomas; and daughters, 
 Mary, Catherine, Bridget, and Fleetwood. 
 
 Charles Butler, Esq., son of Henry, by Elizabeth his wife, had issue, 
 Launcelot; Fleetwood (living in 1759, died unmarried); and Jane. 
 Charles Butler died in 1715 ; and his Will is dated in that year. 
 
620 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Launcelot Butler, Esq., son of Charles, married Alice, daughter and 
 heir of Nicholas Taylor of Eccleston, gent., and had sons, Richard ; 
 Nicholas, who died without issue ; Thomas (who was Rev. Thomas 
 Butler, Catholic Priest at Hornby; he died in Oct., 1795, having de- 
 mised the farm at Tonge Hill, Pleasington, to his nephew, J. F. Butler ; 
 his portrait is at Pleasington Hall); and Charles, died issueless ; and 
 daughters, Mary, wife of John Hodgson, gent.; Elizabeth, born in 1725 ; 
 Ann, Teresa, and Margaret, all three nuns in Belgium ; and Fleetwood, 
 
 Richard Butler, Esq., eldest son of Launcelot, married, first, in 
 1757, Anne, second daughter of William Bryer, of Lancaster, Esq., who 
 died Oct. 21st, 1763, having had issue, Charles, William, and Anne, who 
 all died in infancy at Preston. Richard Butler married, secondly, Char- 
 lotte, daughter of John Bowdon, Esq., of Baighton Fields, Co. Derby, 
 and by her (who died at Femyhaugh, aged 59, Aug. 20th, 1807), had one 
 son, John Francis ; and two daughters, Mary, and Anne. Richard 
 Butler, Esq., purchased, in 1777, the hall and manor of Pleasington, 
 and died at Preston in 1779. 
 
 John Francis Butler, of Pleasington Hall, Esq., only surviving son 
 of Richard, was bom at Preston, Jan. 19th, 1774. He built the New 
 Hall of Pleasington in 1805-7, and the Catholic Church called Pleasing- 
 ton Priory in 1818-19. He married, in 1821, Miss Julia Rush, of Man- 
 chester, by whom he had no issue ; and died the same year, aged 47, 
 
 Miss Mary Butler, elder sister of the last named, born June i sth, 
 1777, died unmarried March 9th, 1840, leaving the Pleasington estate 
 to her cousin, John Butler-Bowdon, Esq., now of Pleasington Hall. 
 
 Anne Butler, second sister, born at Preston, Feb. 21st, 1778, 
 married, July i8th, 1804, James Blanchard of Preston, gent., and had 
 issue, sons, George, bom in 1805, died in 1806; Edward, bom and died 
 in 1 806 ; and John Blanchard, gent., bom Sept. 22nd, 1807, died near 
 Aleppo, July i6th, 1835. 
 
 BUTLER-BOWDON OF PLEASINGTON HALL. 
 
 Henry Bowdon of Southgate House, Co. Derby, married Mary, 
 only daughter and heir of Joseph Enderwick, Esq., of Hartley, and had 
 a son, John Peter Bruno Bowdon. 
 
 John Peter Bmno Bowdon of Southgate House, J. P., High Sheriff 
 for Derbyshire in 1841, died Dec. 17th, 1850. By his wife Mary Martha, 
 eldest daughter of Edward Ferrers, Esq., of Baddesley Clinton, he had 
 sons, John ; and Henry (of Southgate House, &c.). 
 
 John Bowdon, Esq., bom Sept. 14th, 1815, succeeded to the ma- 
 norial estate of Pleasington, by the Will of his cousin. Miss Mary Butler, 
 in 1840, and by sign manual dated Jan. 28th, 1841, assumed the sumame 
 
(•Wit tj 
 
 <■ ft 
 

PLEASINGTON OLD HALL. 62 1 
 
 of Butler (with the arms) as a prefix to that of Bowdon. John Butler- 
 Bowdon, Esq., J. P., D.L., of Pleasington Hall, married Amelia 
 Catherine Frances, eldest daughter of G. T. Whitgreave, Esq., of 
 Mosely Court, Co. Stafford (she died Nov. 24th, 1874), and has had 
 issue, sons, John Enderwick, born Feb. i6th, 1850 ; Launcelot George, 
 bom March 28th, 1851 ; Jermyn Thomas, born in 1853 ; and Bruno 
 Aloysius, bom in 1858; and a daughter, Mary Frances, died in 1859. 
 
 John Enderwick Butler-Bowdon, the eldest son, is a Justice of the 
 Peace for the County, and Captain in the 3rd Lane. Militia. 
 
 The old manor-house of Pleasington (which has been superseded as 
 a residential mansion by the New Hall, built by the late J. F. Butler, 
 Esq , and lately enlarged by J. Butler-Bowdon, Esq.), stands in a sheltered 
 spot in the demesne, fronting south. It consists of a central block with 
 gabled wings. The east wing retains its original features in mullioned 
 windows and the projecting chimney at the end of the hall ; the middle 
 portion and the west wing have been partially modernised. The interior 
 contains nothing worthy of note ; and the only curious object on the ex- 
 terior is the lintel of the doorway, which is divided into five panels, con- 
 taining carved initials and insignia as follows : — First and fifth panels, 
 the initials "R H" (for Richard Hoghton), and the date "1587;" 
 second, the initials " T H " (Thomas Hoghton), and the Hoghton 
 crest, a " bull's head couped ;" third, the arms (or crest) of Ainsworth, 
 " three battle axes," with traces of effaced initials, perhaps of Lawrence 
 Ainsworth ; and fourth, the initials "I S " (for John Southworth), and 
 the Southworth crest, a " bull's head erased." The reason for placing 
 these several heraldic devices upon the manor-house was that the Ains- 
 worths, Hoghtons of Hoghton Tower, and Southworths of Samlesbury, 
 were the chief owners of lands in Pleasington when this Hall was rebuilt 
 in 1587. An engraved view of the Hall is presented. 
 
 FEILDEN OF FENISCOWLES. 
 
 William Feilden, Esq., third son of Joseph Feilden of Witton, Esq., 
 was founder of the branch of the family seated at Feniscowles. He was 
 bom in 1772 ; and married, on March 30th, 1797, Mary Haughton, 
 eldest daughter of Edmund Jackson, Esq., of Woodlands, Jamaica. 
 Issue, sons, William Henry ; Montague Joseph ; and John Leyland ; 
 daughters, Mary Haughton, wife of Rev. J. W. Whitaker, D.D., Vicar 
 of Blackburn ; Catherine Margaret, wife of James Hozier, Esq.; Geor- 
 gina Amelia, wife of Daniel Mills, Esq.; Frances Eliza, wife of Andrew 
 Hamilton, Esq.; Maria Leyland, wife of Rev. Robert Hornby ; and 
 Catherine Reid. William Feilden, Esq., was sometime engaged in the 
 cotton trade, in Blackburn, in conjunction with his brothers Henry and 
 
62 2 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 John. In 1 798, he purchased the Feniscowles estate, and built the new 
 Feniscowles Hall upon that property in 1808, having shortly before 
 acquired the moiety of Livesey manorial estate contiguous to Fenis- 
 cowles, a portion of which he converted into preserves and a deer-park. 
 In 1832, Mr. Feilden was elected as one of the first Members of Parlia- 
 ment for Blackburn ; and after being re-elected in 1835, 1837, and 1841, 
 retired from Parliament in 1847, at the age of 75. He received a baro- 
 netcy 26th July, 1846. Sir William Feilden, bart, died, aged 78, May 
 17th, 1850, and was buried in the vault beneath Blackburn Parish 
 Church. His widow, dowager Lady Feilden, died at Streatham, in her 
 90th year, Jan. 9th, 1867. 
 
 Sir William Henry Feilden, bart., successor to the estates and title 
 married Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the late Col. Wemyss ; and has had 
 issue, sons, William Leyland, bom in Nov., 1835 ; and Henry Wemyss 
 Feilden, Capt. R.N., Naturalist to the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6 ; and 
 several daughters. 
 
 William Leyland Feilden, Esq., J.P., eldest son, married, Feb, i6th, 
 i860, Catherine Jane, daughter of Edward Pedder, Esq., and has issue. 
 
 Feniscowles (New) Hall stands at the foot of a steep bank near 
 Feniscowles Bridge, at the confluence of the Roddlesworth stream with 
 the Darwen. It is an ordinary modern mansion ; and contains a varied 
 collection of objects in natural history, made by the present baronet, 
 and a gallery of valuable paintings acquired by the first baronet. 
 
 The present chief lando^vners in Pleasington are, John Butler- 
 Bowdon, Esq., the manor-estate, 620 acres ; Sir W. H. Feilden, Bart., 
 Feniscowles estate (in Pleasington and Livesey), 1 1 2 1 J4 acres ; Exors. 
 of the late Peter Ellingthorpe, Shorrock Hey estate, 131 acres; Ellen 
 Higham, 63 acres ; J. Higham, 11^ acres ; Mrs. Harriet Openshaw, 
 Feniscowles Old Hall, 4 7^4 acres; Rev. John Peduzzi, R. C. Presby- 
 tery, ii}i acres. 
 
 AINSWORTH OF FENISCOWLES. 
 
 This branch of Ainsworths of Pleasington starts with Theophilus Ainsworth, 
 gent. , a younger son of John Ainsworth, Esq. By Sarah, his wife, whom he married 
 about 1671, Theophilus Ainsworth had a son Thomas. Theophilus Ainsworth was 
 elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1682, and he died April 24th, 1 702. 
 
 Thomas Ainsworth of Feniscowles, gent., son of the last named, married, Jan. 
 17th, 1697-8, Ellen Piccop of Lower Darwen. He had sons, John; and Richard ; 
 also a daughter Sarah. 
 
 John Ainsworth, son of Thomas, married Dorothy, daughter of John Livesey of 
 Feniscowles, gent (married at Brindle, Oct. 2gth, 1728). He had a son John, bom 
 in 1734, died young; also Thomas and John, twin sons, bom in 1738 (John died in 
 '759); ^"<1 3 daughter Ellen, married to Mr. George Anderson of Annan, Scotland. 
 John Ainsworth of Feniscowles died in Oct., 1756. Dorothy Ainsworth, his widow, 
 died in May, 1776. 
 
FREEHOLDERS OF PLEASINGTON. 623 
 
 Thomas Ainsworth of Feniscowles, gent. , son of John, was High Constable of 
 the Lower Division of Blackburn Hundred. He married Jane Ramsbottom, of 
 Brindle, and had sons, John, bom about 1 767 ; and Thomas ; and three daughters, 
 one of whom, Sarah, married William Eccles of Blackburn, and died in 1839, aged 
 61. Mr. Thomas Ainsworth sold Feniscowles estate to William Feilden, Esq., in 
 1798 ; and died in 1804. 
 
 John Ainsworth of Preston, Esq., son of Thomas, married Catherine Crooke, of 
 Preston, and had issue a son, Thomas Crooke, and two daughters. Mr. John Ains- 
 worth died at Leyland, in 1815, aged 48. His widow died at Bangor, in 1852, aged 82. 
 
 Thomas Crooke Ainsworth, Esq., of Blackburn, attorney-at-law (bom in 1802, 
 and died in 1872), married Hannah Mary Somner of Chorley. His eldest son is 
 Thomas Somner Ainsworth, Esq., now of Showley Fold, Clayton-in-le-dale. 
 
 CUNLIFFE OF TONGE HILL. 
 
 Thomas Cunliffe, of Pleasington, yeoman, lived in the reign of James I., and died 
 before i6i 2; for the after-death inquisition was taken at Blackburn, April 8th, 20th 
 James I., and proves that the deceased had held one messuage, with three acres of 
 land and pasture in Pleasington ; and a messuage and five acres of land, meadow, and 
 pasture in Mellor. He had died on May 1st, in the year preceding ; and James Cun- 
 liffe was his son and heir, aged 29 years. James Cunliffe of Pleasington, gent. , is 
 found in a list of freeholders dated 1621. He had sons, Giles, born in 1619, and 
 James, born in 1626. Giles Cunliffe, of Tonge Hill, who died in Nov., 1675, had 
 sons, Thomas, died young in 1654 ; WiUiam, born in 1655 ; and Giles, bom in 1666. 
 William Cunliffe of Pleasington had a son Giles, bom in 1677. 
 
 ELLINGTHORPE OF SHORROCK HEY. 
 
 Richard Ellingthorpe of Pleasington, yeoman (of a Yorkshire family), died in Nov., 
 1782. He married Dorothy Ward, and had sons, Peter, bapt. April 22nd, 1750; and 
 Richard, bapt. Oct. i6th, 1757, died in April, 1762 ; and daughters, Elizabeth, bora 
 in 1731, married Aug. 14th, 1766, John Haworth, of Blackburn, yeoman (see 
 Haworth of Factory Hill), and died in May, 1804 ; Jane, born in 1743, died in 1744 ; 
 a second Jane, born in 1745, died in 1751 ; and a third Jane, born in 1755, married, 
 Oct. i8th, 1787, Mr. Henry Slater (he died Sept. 6th, 1788), and had a daughter 
 Jane, born in Oct., 1788. 
 
 Peter Ellingthorpe, of Blackburn, chapman and yeoman, died Jan. l6th, 1809. 
 Hemarried Mary Rixon (she died, aged 71, April 26th, 1827), and had a son Richard, 
 bom June 28th, 1779 ; and a daughter Ann, born in May, died in Sept., 1781. 
 
 Richard Ellingthorpe, of Shorrock Hey, Pleasington, gent., son of Peter, mar- 
 ried. May 14th, 1809, Mary Edmundson (she died, aged 70, Feb. 13th, 1849), and 
 had issue, sons, Peter, born Aug. 25th, 1809 ; and Rixon, born July 21st, 1818 ; also 
 daughters, Jane, bom in 1810, died unmamed, April 17th, 1859 ; Ann, born in 1812, 
 died unmarried, Nov. i8th, 1832 ; Elizabeth, born in 1814, died in 1818 ; and Doro- 
 thy, bora in 1815, died unmarried, June 17th, 1836. Richard Ellingthorpe, gent., 
 died, aged 46, April 22nd, 1836. 
 
 Peter Ellingthorpe of Shorrock Hey, gent., eldest son of Richard, was appointed, 
 in 1837, Clerk to the Blackburn Poor Law Union, and held the office until his death, 
 unmarried, April Sth, 1874, aged 67. 
 
 Mr. Rixon Ellingthorpe, brother of Peter, married, Dec. 30th, 1856, Elizabeth, 
 daughter of John Parker (fourth son of Thomas Parker, Esq., of Alkincoats), and died 
 without issue, April 6th, 1865, aged 46. His widow died June 20th, 1S70. 
 
624 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 LIVESEY OF FENISCOWLES. 
 
 This family of lesser gentry or yeomen, seated at Feniscowles Old Hall, Pleas- 
 ington, was a branch of Livesey, lords of Livesey ; but must have held this freehold 
 during a long period, for so early as A.D. 1404, Thomas de Livesey de Fenischales 
 occurs, of whose estate William de Wetherby, Vicar of Blackburn, was a trustee. 
 
 Two centuries later, John Livesey of Fenyscholes was assessed for his lands to a 
 King's Subsidy in 1610, and died in July, 1626. Thomas Livesey of Fenischoles, 
 assessed for lands to the Subsidy of 1663, died in 1686, buried Nov. 8th. He had sons, 
 Christopher, born in 1656; Henry, Ralph, and John. John Livesey of Pleasington, 
 married, March 6th, 1670-1, Dorothy Cunliffe. He was, I think, father of — 
 
 John Livesey of Feniscowles, gent. , who by Mary his wife had issue, sons, 
 Thomas, bom in 1700; and John, bom and died in Jan., 1 700- 1 ; and daughters, 
 Mary, bom in 1702, died in infancy; and Dorothy, bapt. Nov. 12th, 1704, married 
 John Ainsworth, gent. John Livesey, gent., was buried at Blackburn, Dec. 24, 1729. 
 
 Thomas Livesey of Pleasington, yeoman, son of John, by Alice his wife had sons, 
 John, bapt. Dec. 30th, 1726; and Thomas, bapt. Feb. 3rd, 1730-1. Thomas Livesey 
 the father rebuilt the house at Feniscowles about 1726. He died in May, 1 75 1 . 
 
 Feniscowles Old Hall is a house of some antiquity situate upon a high bank near 
 the river Darwen. It fronts to the south, and has a gabled porch, and retains some 
 of the original features. In a passage near the kitchen are the initials (within a 
 scroll): — "T A L" and date " 1726 ;" showing that the house was restored at that 
 time by Thomas Livesey. In the wall of the barn are two sculptured stones, one 
 bearing the letters "T L + A L" (Thomas and Alice Livesey), and the date 
 " 1732 ;" the other has the letters "I L " (for John Livesey). 
 
 NOWELL OF PLEASINGTON. 
 
 Alexander Nowell, gent., (of Pleasington in 1714-37), was fourth son of Alexan- 
 der Nowell of Read, Esq. He was bom in 1682 ; married, at Walton Church, Dec. 
 I2th, 1706, "Mistress Mary Ashton of Cuerdale," daughter of Richard Assheton, 
 Esq. He had issue, Alexander; Richard, baptized at Walton, Nov. 18th, 1712; 
 (while he resided at Pleasington, and baptized at Blackburn Church) — Roger, bapt. 
 May 4th, 1715; Thomas, bapt. May 4th, 1 716; James, bapt. April 15th, 1718; 
 Ralph, bapt. April 27th, 1719; Rebecca, bapt. June 4th, 1714; Elizabeth, bapt. 
 March 2 1 St, 1 716-17; afterwards — Edmund, baptized and buried at Samlesbury in 
 1722; Eleanor; and Lucy, buried at Samlesbury, Nov. 12th, 1721. Mr. Alexander 
 Nowell of Pleasington was made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School, Dec. 
 2lst, 1737. He died at Gawthorpe, in March, 1747, and was buried at Burnley, 
 March 16th, where his wife had been buried May 3rd, 1746. 
 
 Alexander Nowell, gent. , eldest son, living in 1 736, had sons Charles and Richard 
 
 Richard Nowell, brother of Alexander, who held an office in the Court of Chan 
 
 eery, was living, unmarried, in 1 783. 
 
 Roger Nowell, of Altham Hall, gent. , was the third son of Alexander the elder, 
 Ralph Nowell, Esq. , of Gawthorpe Hall, sixth son of Alexander, later of Eccles 
 ton, by his wife Sarah, daughter of Thomas Whitaker, Esq. , of Holme, was father of 
 Thomas Michael Nowell, Esq. , and of Alexander Nowell, Esq. , of Underley, M. P. 
 for Westmoreland, who died in 1842. 
 
 THE OLD ALUM MINE AT "ALUM SCAR." 
 
 Near the western border of this township, bounding the deep wooded glen below 
 Woodfold Park, is a lofty cliff, known as " Alum Scar," composed of a thick stratum 
 
THE ALUM MINE IN PLEASINOTON. 625 
 
 of aluminous shale. This was an ancient alum mine of some celebrity, opened 
 originally by Sir Richard Hoghton, the land on this side of the Darwen being a por- 
 tion of the Hoghton Park estate. Webster, in a " History of Metals" ( 1671) writes :^ 
 "Sir Richard Hoghton set up a very profitable mine of Alum nigh unto Hoghton 
 Tower, in the Hundred of Blacl<burn, within this few years, where store of very good 
 alum was made and sold." When James the First visited Hoghton Tower in 1617, 
 he was brought hither to look at the mine, as is mentioned in the Journal of Nicholas 
 Assheton : — " Aug. 16. About 4 o'clock the King went downe to the AUome mynes, 
 and was there an houer, and viewed them preciselie." The Crown had a royalty upon 
 the mine, and on Oct. 22nd, 1617, the same diarist records : — " My brother Anderton 
 was at Houghton upon a Commission from the Kynge to view the Allome mynes." 
 Fuller, in the "Worthies of England" (1662), describing the natural commodities of 
 Lancashire, has this allusion to the Pleasington Alum Mine: — "Allume. — I am 
 informed that Allume is found at Houghton in this County, within the Inheritance of 
 Sir Richard Houghton, and that enough for the use of this and the neighbouring 
 Shires, though not for transportation. But because far greater plenty is afforded in 
 Yorkshire, the larger mention of this mineral is referred to that place." Fuller says 
 that much alum was then "daily employed by clothiers, glovers, dyers," &c. Canon 
 Raines observes that later these alum works were held on a joint lease from the Duchy 
 by Mr. Ramsay and Lady Sarah Hoghton, and that Lady Hoghton entered into 
 articles of agreement with one Captain James Benson, in the year 1658, to work her 
 ladyship's portion of the mines. Benson's speculation proved a ruinous one, and the 
 lessee had his works seized by his creditors, and was himself imprisoned. This was 
 in the year 1659, when Benson published a small tract of twenty pages, entitled " A 
 Relation of James Benson's undertaking the making of Alum at the Alum Works in 
 Lancashire, truely opened, and the instrumental causes of his present condition set 
 forth." Herein the writer refers to the kindly consideration of a cousin of his, Mr. 
 Justice Sharpies of Blackburn, and of a Major John Wiggin ; reproaching Dr. Fyfe, 
 Major Ashhurst, and Mr. Thomas Wilson, who " had been great contrivers and assist- 
 ants to my lady" [Hoghton], and from "professed friends became secret and sure 
 enemies." He appeals to Lady Hoghton for some allowance in consideration of his 
 losses, and offers to refer the matters between himself and her ladyship to the arbitra- 
 tion of two or four godly divines, naming Mr. Tyldesley and Mr. Eaton; but Lady 
 Hoghton refused to compensate him or to accept his proffer of arbitration, and upon 
 this Benson declares that he had "received the hardest measure that ever poor man 
 received from any person professing truly to fear God," and vowed he "would never 
 have any more to do with any business that concerned her ladyship's honour." This 
 Captain Benson was Bailiff of Preston, and a Parliamentarian partizan during the Civil 
 War. The working of the alum mine ceased after his failure, but the mine was 
 re-opened some time after by Sir E. Colebrooke, whose venture turned out no better 
 than that of the former lessee. Evidence that the Alum works in Pleasington were 
 carried on until towards the end of the last century is found in the Blackburn Parish 
 Burial Register, which shows that one " Alexander Macknellin, of Pleasington, allum- 
 worker," was buried in May, 1769 ; an<l "John Kitchin, Pleasington, allum-striker." 
 was buried in April, 1771. A tenement near the " Scar" is called " The Alum House." 
 
 Roman Catholic Chapel. — This fme edifice was erected during the years 
 1816-1819, at the charge of the late J. F. Butler, Esq., who also, and his sister. 
 Miss Mary Butler, endowed the mission. The chapel, which is usually called the 
 " Priory," was opened on the 24th August, 1S19. It is a large and lofty fabric, in 
 
 79 
 
626 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the early decorated style of Gothic architecture, and in plan comprises nave with 
 clerestory, side-aisles, and octagonal chancel-apse. The external walls are of dressed 
 freestone. The west front displays the gable of the nave, flanked by turrets finished 
 with pinnacles, and having a latin cross springing from its apex. The entrance is 
 by a central doorway in the west end, whose pointed recessed and decorated arch is 
 enclosed within a lofty false arch ; the space between the lesser and greater arch is 
 relieved by three statues supported on corbels. Figures of kneeling monks enrich the 
 front on either side of the doorway. Above the main arch is inserted an elaborate 
 catheriue-wheel window, 15ft. in diameter. The windows of the aisles and chancel 
 are large ones of three lights, the heads filled with very elegant tracery ; and the 
 clerestory is lighted with lancet windows in triplets. The total external length of 
 the chapel is 119ft., and the width 60ft. The height of the two turrets springing 
 from the western gable is 86ft. In the interior, the aisles are divided from the nave 
 by arcades of pointed arches springing from moulded capitals ; and the nave from the 
 chancel by a bold pointed arch. Mr. John Palmer was architect of the chapel ; and 
 inscribed upon the wall to the right of the west doorway appears this record : — 
 "Johannes Palmer, architectus ; Thos. Owen, sculptor. Deo Omnipo- 
 
 TENTE IN HONOREM BEATE MARIA SEMPER ViRG. ET SCT. JOHANNIS BAPTISTI 
 DEDICATUM." The cost of the chapel was ;^20,ooo. The Butler family gave a glebe 
 of 10|^ acres adjoining the " Priory," including a site for the priest's house. A well- 
 filled grave-yard surrounds the chapel. Rev. Father Kenyon was the priest in 
 charge in 1819, and in that year returned a congregation of 200 persons. Rev. Father 
 Peduzzi has been priest here many years. 
 
 Pleasington School. — Tradition refers back the origin of this school two cen- 
 turies or more, but there is neither record of foundation nor trace of endowment earlier 
 than the first half of the last century. William Wallbanck of Pleasington, gent, (who 
 was a Governor of Blackburn Grammar .School from 1716, and died in Nov., 1744), 
 by Will gave ;£^loo towards the support of a school in Pleasington. The sum was 
 left in the custody of Edward Ainsworth, Esq., of Pleasington Hall, kinsman of the 
 donor, who paid the interest to the schoolmaster, and the succeeding owners of the 
 manor-estate, J. F. Butler, and J. Butler- Bowdon, Esqrs., have held the principal 
 and paid interest thereon. Another item of the endowment consists of three cottages 
 at Great Peel, in Blackburn, the rents of which produced about ;^8 per annum. These 
 tenements were purchased for ;f 160, raised by a township subscription, by indenture 
 dated 12th June, 1787. The purchasing trustees were J. F. Butler, Esq., Henry 
 Sudell, Esq., Messrs. P. EUingthorpe, Jas. Astley, Edw. Heaton, Robt. Lowe, and 
 Thomas Ainsworth ; and the premises were described as a plot of ground on the south 
 side of a close called Great Peel, upon which had been erected three messuages, sub- 
 ject to a yearly ground-rent ot ;£^2 I2S. A further sum of ;ii^loo, raised by Dowager 
 Lady Feilden some years ago, is placed in the bank at 4 per cent, interest per annum. 
 These items make a total of about ;^l6 los. yearly paid to the schoolmaster, to which 
 is added the free use of a house built in 1796 by subscription of landowners and rate- 
 payers. The school, which is a small low building of primitive rudeness, and the 
 house, stand upon a plot of half an acre called "School Green," on the edge of the 
 hill above Pleasington Hall. The master is required to teach children resident in 
 Pleasington reading, writing, and accounts, without other payment than a small yearly 
 cockpenny. Recent masters have been — John Seed, who occurs in 1754 , John Mit- 
 chell, senior (a noted mathematician); John Mitchell, junior; James Bond ; and John 
 Ward, present master, elected in 1836, and who is now (1876) in his 78th year. 
 
ROYAL CHACE OF RAMSGREAVE. 627 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— THE TOWNSHIP OF RAMSGREAVE. 
 
 Topography — Population — An Ancient Royal Chase — Estate and Tenants of Whalley Monastery in 
 Ramsgreave- Estate of Bartons — Ramsgreave Hall Estate — Modern Landowners — Former Free- 
 holders — Gillibrand of Ramsgreave and Beardwood — Hoghton — Sharpies— Independent Chapel. 
 
 RAMSGREAVE lies adjacent to Blackburn township on the north, 
 and occupies both slopes of the hill-ridge east of Mellor. Its 
 area is 757 statute acres. Population : — In 1801, 298; 1811, 484 ; 1821, 
 534; 1831.515; 1841,453; 1851,438; 1861,320; 1871,263. 
 
 Ramsgreave (anciently Romesgreve), was parcel of the chace 
 attached to the King's manor of Blackburn, temp. Edward the Confessor, 
 and doubtless was the situation of a portion of the " wood, one league 
 long and the same broad " found in Blackburn manor at the survey of 
 Domesday. This remained a hunting-ground of De Lascys and the 
 Dukes of Lancaster until past the middle of the 14th century. In 1311, 
 the rental of Earl de Lascy included ^3 9s. 8d. from the winter and 
 summer agistment and herbage of the Forests or chaces of Trawden, 
 Penhull, Rossendall, Hoddesdene, and Homesgreve, with a sum of 9s. 4d. 
 from the profits of " old wood, charcoal, &c." from these woodlands 
 sold for the use of iron-forges. Fifty years after this, Henry Planta- 
 genet, Duke of Lancaster, by charter dated Jan. 2nd, 1361, gave to the 
 Monks of Whalley two cottages, 7 acres of land, 183 acres of pasture, 
 and 200 acres of wood called Romesgreve, all lying in Blackburn Chase. 
 Of the same date is an indenture of agreement, found in the Rolls of 
 the Duchy, " concerning tenements in Romsgreave, and the towns of 
 Penhulton and Cliderhou," between the Duke and the Abbot and Con- 
 vent of Whalley. The acreages named in the Duke's charter, being 
 customary measure, would cover the whole area of Ramsgreave, and 
 show that rather more than half the land, or 200 customary acres, were 
 still in woodland nearly 300 years after the Domesday return. From 
 1361 to 1537, a period of 176 years, this estate was held by the Cister- 
 cian fraternity of Whalley ; and in a compolus of the Abbey's revenue 
 in 1478, the sum from Romesgreve per annum was ;^4. The rental of 
 
628 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Romesgreve was the same in 1521 ; and in 1534, by the Valor Ecde- 
 siasticus, the Monastery derived from Romesgreve, in " rents of certain 
 tenements there, per annum, ^6." On the dissolution of the Abbey, 
 this estate with the rest was sequestrated to the Crown ; and the survey 
 made in 1538 returned the abbey lands in Remesgreve, held by tenants- 
 at-will, as under : — 
 
 John Hey holdeth a house and garden, l^^ acre of arable land, 10^ acres of 
 meadow and pasture called the Brodehead, and payeth 13s. 4d. The wife of WilHam 
 Calvard houldeth a house, a garden, and 2 acres of arable land, 8 acres of pasture, 
 meadow, and wood ground, called Ramesgreen, by the year 7s. 4d. James Boulton, 
 Wm., Edward and Robert Boulton holdeth the moyety of a tenement and a garden and 
 20 acres of arable land, pasture, and meadow called the Ramesgreen, and payeth by 
 the year 7s. 4d. Richard Boulton holdeth a house, a garden, 4 acres of arable land, 
 2 acres of meadow, 7 of pasture, and payeth yearly 15s. Robert Boulton and William 
 Boulton his brother houldeth 2^ acres of meadow called Newfield [with pasturage of 
 two beasts on Worple Hills], by the year 5s. Edward Gelbourne holdeth a house, a 
 garden, 6 acres of arable land, 20 acres of pasture and wast ground, 5 acres of meadow, 
 and payeth yearly £2 5s. Jefifery Rusheton houldeth a house, a garden, 4 acres of 
 arable land, 23 of pasture and wast ground, and payeth yearly £\ 3s. 4d. James 
 Woode houldeth I acre of pasture, 9 acres of meadow, and payeth yearly 6s. 8d. Sir 
 Thos. Southworth, Knt., houldeth 6 acres of mosse ground parcill of Worple hills, and 
 payeth id. Sir Alexr. Osbaldstone houldeth a house, 7 acres of moss ground parcill 
 of Brodehead, and payeth £2 6s. 8d. 
 
 Besides the above, there were five tenants who held portions of 
 waste ground upon Worple Hills, viz.: — James Boulton, Richard Walms- 
 ley, Richard Ireland, Henry Walmsley, and Gyles Whalley, and paid 
 each 5s. The total rental of Ramsgreave was then £,() los. 3d. But 
 a large part of the township was yet in woodland, the remains of the 
 " forest primeval ;" and the surveyors note : — 
 
 " Memorandum, their is a wood called Romesgreen wood, which is wood well 
 replenished with ould okes and fair timber, containing by estimation one myle and 
 half. Item, their is within the same wood a fair spring [plantation] of 3 years, grow- 
 ing, containing by estimation 2 acres." 
 
 On the sale of the Abbey lands of Whalley by the Crown, the Bar- 
 tons of Smithells, lords of Blackburn manor, appear to have purchased 
 the lands in Ramsgreave; for, as I have formerly stated (p. 253), 
 Andrew Barton, Esq., died in 1548, seized of twelve messuages in 
 Romesgreve, held of the king in chief by the 20th of a knight's fee, 
 worth £,'& 2S. 9d., for which he paid yearly 19s. 2^d. Robert Barton, 
 Esq., who died in 1580, had the same estate; and in the escheat of 
 Ralph Barton, Esq., who died in 1590, I find the acreage of the Rams- 
 greave lands of this family, being 12 messuages, 80 acres arable, 10 acres 
 meadow, 80 acres pasture, 50 acres woodland, and 140 acres moor and 
 moss ; total 360 customary acres, equal to about 600 statute acres, the 
 entire area of Ramsgreave being 757 statute acres. Lady Margaret 
 
 J 
 
RAMSGREAVE HALL ESTATE. 629 
 
 Shuttleworth, wife of Sir Richard, as widow of Robert Barton, held the 
 Ramsgreave property until her death in 1592 ; and Ralph Barton, who 
 died before 1613, in his time was possessor of the estate. 
 
 The Ramsgreave Hall estate is the largest of the old freeholds in 
 the township ; and probably was that which formerly belonged to the 
 lords of Blackburn manor. The estate has passed in later times through 
 several hands. It was notified for sale by auction, on July 5th, 1797, 
 and then was described to be " the fee simple and inheritance of Rams- 
 greave Hall, three miles from Blackburn, with 179a. 3r. 24p. of arable, 
 meadow, and pasture land thereto belonging, after 8 yards to the rood 
 or pole," in three farms, and io}A acres being in lease for life to Henry 
 Whalley of Ramsgreave, aged 59 years. The estate became the pro- 
 perty of Messrs. Benjamin and James Wilson, of Baxenden, both of 
 whom died unmarried, when the property went to four nephews, sons of 
 Mr. Edward Wilson, the last survivor of whom, Mr. John Rawsthome 
 Wilson of Lytham, died in 1865. The estate of the Exors. of the late 
 J. R. Wilson is now returned as comprising 245 J4 statute acres, with a 
 rental of £28j. Ramsgreave Hall is situate on the hill near the centre 
 of the township, and has been converted into two ordinary farm- 
 houses. 
 
 Other lando^vners in Ramsgreave are : — Mr. James Shorrock, of 
 
 Mellor, who has 179 acres of land ; Mr. John Harrison, of Bank Farm, 
 
 57j^ acres ; Exors. of J. Ainsworth, 60 acres ; Mr. Christopher Charn- 
 
 ley, 22 acres; Mr. John Walmsley, 29 acres; Mr. John Pemberton, 
 
 iT/4 acres. 
 
 GILLTBRAND OF BEARDWOOD. 
 
 The above family branched from Gillibrand of Chorley. Roger Gyllybrand of 
 Chorley, by his wife Anne, daughter of William Chorley of Chorley, had a son John, 
 the first of Beardwood in Blackburn. John Gelebrande of Beardwood is named in the 
 Grammar School Records as a Governor, before 1590, and as giving, in the year 1592, 
 20s. to the School Stock. He was taxed to the Subsidy of 161 1 ; and was witness to 
 a Will in 1620. "John Gelibrand de Berdwood " was buried at Blackburn, Oct. 31st, 
 1630. " Uxor John Gelibrond, gent.," was buried Aug. 7th, 1623. 
 
 Roger Gillibrand of Beardwood, son of John, was elected a Governor of the Gram- 
 mar School in 1630. Dr. Richard Astley, in his Will, dated 1635, names Mr. Roger 
 Gellibrand of Beardwood a trustee of his bequest to the Poor of Blackburn. Roger 
 Gillibrand was living in 1658, but died before 1660. By Ann his wife, Roger Gilli- 
 brand had an only daughter and heir, Grace Gillibrand, who became wife of Lawrence, 
 son and heir of Peter Haworth of Highercroft, gent., and conveyed to him the Beard- 
 wood estate. This heiress, and last representative of the Gillibrands of this branch, 
 died in i686. Her mother, " Ann Gillibrand of Beardwood, widow," was buried 
 Aug. 27th, 1683. 
 
 GILLIBRAND OF RAMSGREAVE. 
 
 In 1537, Edward Gelbourne held a house and 31 acres of land in Ramsgreave 
 under the Abbot of Whalley. 
 
630 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Roger Gillibrand, of Ramsgreave, was a first Governor of Blackburn Granimar 
 School in 1567. 
 
 Thomas Gelibrande, and his mother, were assessed for their lands to a Subsidy in 
 1570. This Thomas, a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1567, gave ;il to 
 the School Stock in 1593, and died in 1595. 
 
 Thomas Gillibrand of Ramsgreave, the first named by Dugdale the herald, died in 
 1610. By his wife, a daughter of Haversham of Haversham (she died in June, 1608), 
 he had two sons, Edward, the heir, and William. 
 
 Edward Gillibrand of Ramsgreave, gent. , occurs as a freeholder in lists dated 
 1600 and 1621 ; and as a juror in 1613-15-17. He was a Governor of the Grammar 
 .School in 1628. He died about 1640. By his first wife, a daughter of Roger Catterall 
 of Crooke, he had one son, Thomas ; and daughters, Anne, married to Edward 
 Houghton of Redleigh, gent.; and Mary, bom in 1602, married, Feb. i6th, 1628-9, 
 Richard Wilkinson of Blackburn. His second wife, daughter of — Pilkington, died 
 without issue. 
 
 Thomas Gillibrand, only son of Edward, a Governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School, died before his father, without issue, and was buried July 25th, 1636. 
 
 William Gillibrand, brother of Edward, took holy orders, and was Rector of 
 Warrington from 1607 until his death before 1621. He was father of Jonathan Gilli- 
 brand, Vicar of Leigh (1662-85), who by his wife Mary had sons, Jonathan, bom in 
 1648 ; Andrew, and Edward ; and daughters, Judith, Frances, and Martha. 
 HOGHTON OF RAMSGREAVE. 
 
 Edward Hoghton of Redleigh, Tockholes, gent, son of Richard, born in 1605, 
 after his marriage with Ann, daughter and co-heir of Edward Gillibrand, resided at 
 Ramsgreave on his wife's estate ; and in 1687, Edward Hoghton of Ramsgreave, gent., 
 made affidavit in the case of Langho Chapel (see ante, p. 453). He was a Governor 
 of Blackburn Grammar School from 1642 until his decease. He had only female 
 issue, one of whom, Alice Hoghton, married George Sharpies of Freckleton, and had 
 a daughter Anne. He died in 1693-4. 
 
 SHARPLES OF RAMSGREAVE. 
 George Sharpies of Freckleton, who had to his second wife Alice Hoghton of 
 Ramsgreave ; had by his first wife, Dorothy Veale, sons, John, and Geoi^e. John 
 Sharpies of Freckleton, the elder son, had a son Edward, who seems to have heired 
 part of the estate of Mr. Edward Hoghton of Ramsgreave after his death. Edward 
 Sharpies of Ramsgreave, gent., was made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School 
 in 1694; and "Edward Sharpies of Ramsgreave, son of John of Freckleton deceased," 
 was on the Guild Roll of Preston as an out-burgess in 1 702. He had issue, George, 
 and Margaret, twins, bom in 1694, died young; also, Edward, bom in 1701 ; and 
 Mary, bom in 1707. Perhaps the following also were sons of Edward Sharpies : — 
 John Sharpies of Ramsgreave, yeoman, who died in 1747, having had issue by Eliza- 
 beth his wife ; and Thomas Sharpies of Ramsgreave, who married, in 1732, Ann, 
 daughter of William Haworth, of Blackburn, yeoman (she was living, a widow, in 
 March, 1758). 
 
 Independent Chapel. — The only place of worship iti Ramsgreave township 
 is a small school-chapel at Ramsgreave Heights, built in 1855, by the Congrega- 
 tionalists of Blackburn. In it are conducted divine worship and a Sunday school. 
 Sittings 120. 
 
RISHTON TOWNSHIP AND LORDSHIP. 63 1 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— THE TOWNSHIP OF RISHTON. 
 
 Topography— Population— Ancient lords of the Manor— De Rishton Family— Talbot of Bashall and 
 Holt — Manor-house of Holt — Former Freeholders — Feilden of Holt, &c. — Hindle of Cowhill— 
 Livesey of Sidebight— Rishton of Miclcle-Hey — Talbot of Cowhill— St. Peter's Church— Dis- 
 senting Chapels — Day Schools. 
 
 RISHTON township extends over a tract of low moor-land on 
 the easterly border of Blackburn parish. Its area is 2760 
 statute acres. Its population, which diminished with the failure of 
 cottage-weaving on hand-looms between the years 1821 and 1851, has 
 since increased apace, by the upgrowth of a considerable manufacturing 
 village not far from the railway which traverses the township. The census 
 returns from 1801 to 1871 supply these figures respecting the population 
 of Rishton: — In 1801, 1051 persons; 1811, 1084; 1821, 1170; 1831, 
 919; 1841,917; 1851,800; 1861, 1198; 1871, 2577 — having more 
 than doubled in the last decade. The numbers in 1876 would reach 
 
 3.500- 
 
 DE RISHTON, ANCIENT LORDS OF RISHTON. 
 
 Robert Praers, living /^w/. Henry III. (1216-72) was seized of the 
 manor of Ryssheton, near Harewode, in his demesne as of fee ; who 
 conveyed the -same, by name of the whole town of Rustone, being two 
 carucates of land, to Gilbert son of Henry de Blackburn (a younger son 
 of Adam de Blackburn) in free marriage with Margery his (Robert 
 Praers,) sister. This was in the 30th Henry HI. (1245.) 
 
 This Gilbert, after settling upon the estate thus acquired, styled 
 himself Gilbert de Ryssheton. In the Liber Feodorufn it is written that 
 Gilbert son of Henry held the tenth part of a knight's fee in Ruston of 
 the demesne fee that belonged to the dower of the Countess of Lincoln. 
 Gilbert de Rissheton, by Margery his wife, had issue Henry, his heir. 
 
 Henry de Rissheton's son and heir was Gilbert, issue of his wife 
 Margaret, daughter of Clayton of Clayton-in-les-Moors. 
 
 Gilbert de Rissheton, whose son and heir was Robert, died in the 
 i8th Edw. I (1290). 
 
632 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Robert de Rissheton succeeded, and had a son Gilbert. Gilbert 
 de Rissheton, son of Robert, occurs in the Plea Rolls of the Duchy 
 Court as petitioner for the manor of Rissheton against John, son of 
 Richard de Radecliff, and Johanna his wife, and John their son, when 
 he displayed his descent and heirship from Henry de Blakeburn, through 
 Gilbert, Henry, Gilbert, and Robert, his father. His son and heir also 
 was named Gilbert. 
 
 Gilbert de Rissheton, next in succession, had a son Robert, living 
 in 1358. Robert de Rissheton's son and heir was Ralph. 
 
 Ralph de Rissheton, by Cecilia his wife, had sons, Richard and 
 Roger. Ralph de Rissheton died in 14x75 and by Inquisition taken at 
 Rishton, 2nd Sept., 141 7, by the oaths of Richard Risshton of Risshton, 
 Richard Rishton of Clayton, and others, it was proved that Ralph de 
 Rishton was not seized of any lands within the County of Lancaster ; 
 and that his son Richard was his heir, aged 22 years. 
 
 Richard de Rissheton had, in December, 141 7, livery of the manor 
 of Ryssheton, near Harewode, with appurtenances, which had been 
 seized into the King's hands by reason of the forfeiture of Thomas Tal- 
 bot, outlawed for treason. Richard de Rissheton had no issue ; and he 
 died, aged about 30, in 1425. By Inquisition taken Sept. i8th, 1425, 
 Richard de Ryssheton was found to have been seized of Rissheton 
 manor, held of the King in capite as of his Duchy of Lancaster, and of 
 one messuage, 1 8 acres of land, and two acres of meadow in the town of 
 Rysshton, held of the King in socage ; of the manor of Ponthalgh in 
 the town of Chirche, held in socage ; of one messuage, 30 acres of land, 
 20 acres of meadow, and 8 acres of wood in Oswaldestwysell, held of 
 Richard de Radclyffe, Esq.; and of one messuage, 24 acres of land, and 
 4 acres of meadow in Cliderhowe, held of the King in socage ; and 
 having died without heir of his body, his brother Roger (second son 
 of Ralph), was his next heir, aged 30 years. 
 
 Roger de Rissheton, son of Ralph and heir of his brother Richard, 
 received livery of his lands in Sept., 1426. He had a son and heir 
 Richard ; and a younger son Roger (first of the Ponthalgh branch, living 
 in 1474, whose son was Richard, father of Ralph Rishton of Ponthalgh, 
 who, by his wife Anne, daughter of Roger Nowell, Esq., had a son 
 Roger, of Ponthalgh, whose eldest son, Ralph Rishton of Ponthalgh, 
 died in 1566). 
 
 Richard Rishton of Rishton, son of Roger, by Margaret his wife, 
 had sons, Henry, and Peter (a chaplain); and a daughter Alice. 
 
 Henry Rishton, of Dunkenhalgh, Esq., appears as son and heir of 
 Richard in 1470. His wife was Agnes, daughter of Richard Sherburne 
 ofStonyhurst, Esq. His son and heir was Nicholas; and the father 
 
RISHTON OF RISHTON. 633 
 
 covenanted with John Radcliffe, of the Tower, Esq., that his son 
 Nicholas should marry Margaret, daughter of John Radcliffe ; and that 
 he or his feoffees should make a lawful estate by deed in Rissheton and 
 Clayton-upon-les-Mores, to the yearly value of 10 marks, for term of his 
 life, to the said Nicholas and his heirs ; for the which the said John 
 Radcliffe agreed to pay to the said Henry Rissheton 40s. 
 
 Nicholas Rishton " of Dunkenhalgh, gent.," by his wife, Margaret 
 Radclyff, had sons, Richard ; Henry ; and Nicholas ; and daughters, 
 Agnes (married thrice, to Holcroft, Worthington, and Robt. Boulton); 
 Isabel, wife of — ■ Hothersall, gent.; and Elizabeth, first wife of Roger 
 Nowell of Read, from whom she was divorced in 1524. Nicholas Rish- 
 ton died the 3rd May, 23rd Henry VH. (1508); and the escheat shows 
 that his father, Henry Rishton, had been seized of " the Manor of Rish- 
 ton, called Rishton Hall," with lands, tenements, rents, &c.; and that 
 Nicholas Rishton died seized of Risheton Manor, Stodeley Manor, Co. 
 Warwick, and of messuages, lands, woodlands, &c., in Dokenside [Dun- 
 kenhalgh], Cowhill [in Rishton], Clayton-super-Moras, Parva Caterall, 
 Church, Reved [Read], and Haworth. His widow, "uxor Nicholas 
 Ryshton," was taxed on her lands in Rishton, worth jQ;^ yearly, to a 
 Subsidy levied in 1523, and she died July 6th, 1528. 
 
 Richard Rishton, son and heir of Nicholas, aged 46 in 1 509, mar- 
 ried Anne, daughter of Sir John Talbot of Salesbury. Issue — sons, 
 Henry, John, Nicholas, Robert, William, George, and Ralph (several of 
 these younger sons died without issue); and Alexander Rishton, youngest 
 son (of Sparth in 1567, who married, at Harwood Church, Nov." 6th, 
 1560, Ellen, daughter of Edward Mercer of Harwood, and had issue a 
 son, Richard Rishton of Sparth, gent., who, by Ellen his wife, daughter 
 of John Greenhalgh, Esq., had daughters, Ellen, bapt. April 2nd, 1601; 
 Ann, bapt. April 28th, 1603 ; Elizabeth, bapt. Feb. 26th, 1606 ; Alice, 
 bapt. June 27th, 1609; and Mary, born in 161 1). Richard Rishton, 
 father of Henry and Alexander, died April 30th, 1530, seized of 
 Rishton Manor and the other family estates before specified. His 
 widow, Ann Rishton, in 1539, disputed with Henry Rishton and others 
 he title to lands called Cokasyd in Rishton and Cunliffe. 
 
 Henry Rishton, son and heir of Richard, married, about 1527 
 Elianor, daughter of John Butler of Rawcliffe, Esq. The husband is 
 styled in the record of this marriage in the Butler descent : — " Harry 
 Rusheton of Donkynsall." He had sons, John; and Geoffrey; daughters, 
 Ann, Dorothy, Jane, Grace (wife of Roger Rishton of Ponthalgh), 
 Elizabeth, Alice, and Benet. In 1536, Henry Rishton charged Roger 
 Rishton in the Duchy Court with disturbance of divine service at 
 Churchekyrke, and dilapidation and interruption of way at Dunkyn- 
 
 80 
 
634 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 haughe Bridge, on his manor. He died about 1549, seized of 30 acres 
 of land in Rishton, and other lands in several contiguous townships. ' 
 
 John Rishton, gent., son and heir of Henry, occurs in a return of 
 "recusant" (Roman Catholic) gentry in Lancashire in i575- He mar- 
 ried, in 1542, Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Southworth of Samlesbury, 
 Knt, and had issue, sons, Nicholas ; and Geffrey ; and a daughter Anne. 
 Mr. Wm. Langton mentions, in his valuable notes to the Visitation of 
 1533, that this John Rishton had been mixed up with a scandalous 
 transaction in his early manhood. His kinsman, Ralph Rishton of Pont- 
 halgh, having formed an improper connexion with Ann Stanley, daughter 
 of Dame Ann Stanley of the Holt in Rishton, widow of Sir James Stan- 
 ley of Cross Hall, Knt, the mother carried her daughter by night to 
 Great Harwood Church (she being then three months gone with child), 
 and forced her to go through the ceremony of marriage with John Rish- 
 ton of Dunkenhalgh. A divorce eventually terminated this involuntary 
 alliance. 
 
 Nicholas Rishton, son and heir of John, before 1582 had sold Dun- 
 kenhalgh and his estate in Rishton to Thomas Walmesley, Esq. He is 
 afterivards described as " of Oswaldtwistle," and died about the year 
 1596, in possession only of a small estate in Oswaldtwistle. 
 
 TALBOT OF BASHALL, HOLT, &c. 
 
 The once-potent family of Talbot of Bashall, in Craven, Co. York, 
 was during a long interval of time intimately connected with the Parish 
 of Blackburn, being lords of Rishton and Lower Darwen Manors, and 
 also lessees of the extensive Rectory lands in the township of Blackburn. 
 It is therefore needful to give some account of the Talbots of that line 
 in the present work. The Talbots had seats at the Manor House of 
 Holt, in Rishton, and at the Rectorial mansion of Audley in Blackburn. 
 
 A charter of the Duchy evidences that between the years 1257 and 
 1 3 10, Henry de Lascy, Earl of Lincoln, granted to Sir Edmund Talbot 
 and Joan his wife, the manor of Rishton in tail male special, to hold as 
 fully as Adam de Rishton, a bastard, held the same, and the reversion 
 of the third part of the said manor after the death of Alice, widow of 
 the said Adam. This, doubtless, was the origin of the Talbots' pro- 
 prietorship in Rishton. In the De Lascy Inquisition of 131 1, it was 
 found that Johanna, late wife of Edmund Talbot, held two carucates of 
 land in Risseton, by the fourth part of a knight's fee, a yearly rent of is., 
 and suit to the Court of Clyderhou. 
 
 In the 3rd Henry V. (1415), the manor of Rishton is found to 
 have been taken into the King's hands by reason of an outlawry for 
 debt against Sir Thomas Talbot, Knt. 
 
TALBOT OF HOLT. 635 
 
 Canon Raines writes that " the Talbots had a seat at the Holt at an 
 early period," and that in the 34th Henry VI. (1455), a licence was 
 granted to " Edmund Talbot, Knt., to have an oratory within his manor 
 of Holt, Pa. Blackburne." This private chantry chapel at Holt in 
 Rishton is again named in 1516. 
 
 Sir Edmund Talbot of Bashall and Holt had issue a son and heir 
 Thomas ; a second son John, described, in the 14th Edw. IV. (1474), as 
 John Talbot of Holt ; a third son William Talbot, Rector of Ribchester ; 
 and daughters, Elizabeth ; and Ann, wife of Hugh Sherburne of Stony- 
 hurst, &c. 
 
 Sir Thomas Talbot, Knt. (eldest son of Sir Edmund), died on the 
 1 6th Feb., 1499. He had enfeoffed Thomas Tempest and others in 
 tenements of Rishton lordship, held by the tenth part of a knight's fee 
 and 9d. rent; and Nether Derwynd manor, by 2s. 6d. rent. Tlje 
 escheat, taken isth Henry VII., returned Edmund Talbot as son and 
 heir of Sir Thomas, aged 30 years. 
 
 Edmund Talbot, Esq., son of Sir Thomas, married Ann, sister of 
 Sir Percival Hart, Knt., and had a son and heir Thomas. Edmund 
 Talbot died about the age of 49, on the 13th Feb. 1519, and, on the 
 escheat taken at Wigan, nth Henry VIII., was returned to have been 
 seized of the Manors of Ryssheton and Nether Darwen, held of the 
 King as Duke of Lancaster, with thirty messuages, 100 acres of land, 
 20 acres of meadow, 100 acres of pasture, and 200 acres of moor and 
 turbary in those townships. Thomas Talbot, son and heir, was aged 
 three years and above. After Edmund Talbot's death, his widow, Mrs. 
 Ann Talbot, wedded, secondly, Sir James Stanley of Cross Hall, son of 
 Sir George, and younger brother of Thomas Stanley Lord Strange, to 
 whom she bore sons. Sir George Stanley, and Henry ; and daughters, 
 Ann, wife of Ralph Rishton of Dunkenhalgh, Esq. ; Margaret, and 
 Eleanor. Subsequently to the decease of her second husband. Sir James 
 Stanley, Dame Ann Stanley dwelt at the hall of Holt, having Rishton 
 manor for her dower as wife of Edmund Talbot; she died at Holt, 
 about 1566, and was buried in Blackburn Church. 
 
 Thomas, infant son and heir of Edmund Talbot in 1520, was 
 Sir Thomas Talbot of Bashall, Knt, a soldier of repute in the reigns of 
 Henry VIII. and his successor. This Sir Thomas Talbot obtained the 
 lease of Blackburn Rectorial estates after their alienation from Whalley 
 Abbey, and had his frequent abode at Haudley (Audley) Hall in Black- 
 bum. In the 4th Edward VI. (1550), Sir Thomas Talbot prosecuted 
 Alice Livesey and others for setting fire to the bam of the parsonage at 
 Audley. The prosecutor's plaint in the action is cited below : — 
 
 To the most Honorable Sir William Paggett, Knight of the most honorable 
 
636 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Order, comptroller of the Kinges most honorable Householde of his grate Duchie of 
 I,ancaster. — In moste humble maner and wise shewithe and complaynethe unto your 
 honorable Mastershipp your Supplyant and Oratorr Sr. Thomas Talbott of Bashall, 
 within the Co. Palatyne of Lancaster, Knyght, That forasmoche as whereas that the 
 said Oratorr ys lawfuUie seasyd and possessed of and in the Parsonage of Blackborne 
 within the said countie and of the mansyon howse belonging to the same called Hawd- 
 ley, with all and singular the appurtynances, for dyvers yeres not yett expired, by sufiy- 
 cient conveyance in the lawe, and so being possessed did buylde upon the same a barne, 
 to the charge of your said Oratorr at the least fortie powndes. So it is that the fourthe 
 daie of October last past one Edmonde Dewhurst of Lyvesley within the said Countie, 
 husbandman, by the commandyment, assent, abbettment and procurement of Alys 
 Lyvesley of Lyvesley, &c. , Wydowe, Thomas Whalley of Plesyington, carpenter, and 
 James Lyvesley of Brinhall, husbandman, did in the nyght time, betwixt X and XII 
 of the clocke of the same daie, in most ungodlie maner and wise sett fyre of a barne 
 of your said Oratorr, within wiche haie for the provision of your Oratorrs cattell, 
 horses, and other beastes, by the occayson of setting afyre the said barne and the haie 
 therein was utterlie spilte and bumyd, to the hurte and damage of your said Oratorr 
 at the least threescore powndes and by the occasyon of the said fyre your said Oratorr 
 and all his familye and servantes being in theire beddes had lykelie to have been brentt 
 and all the houses there being, but that speadye remedye was hadde theirein by the In- 
 habitants of the said Towne of Blacbourne. And further the said Edmonde, by lyke 
 comandyment, assent, &c., of the above-named persons, and lykewyse at the tyme 
 aforesaid, putt a turve kindled with fyre in the yeasing and thatche of the said barne 
 buyllded by the said Oratorr as aforesaid, intending therebye to bume the same in lyke 
 maner, wherein was the come of your said Oratorr, haie, bestes, and cattelles in 
 severall devysyons within the same, but by the prevision of the thing was prevented by 
 the espying of the smoke thereof before that it toke fyre, the whiche, if so hadd not 
 chancyd, the said barne hadd lykewyse been bumyd and all the goodes and cattelles 
 of your said Oratorr. The wiche severall actes is not only to the greate inquyeting 
 of your said Oratorr and to his great hurte, damage, and detryment, but also contrarie 
 to all lawes, right, equyte and consciens, and to the evill example of lyke malicious 
 persons to attempt the lyke onlesse that espedie reformacion be herein hadde. In most 
 tender consyderacion that it may please your honorable mastershipp, the premysses 
 consydered, to award the Kinges Writt of privey seale unto the said persons, comandyng 
 them under a playne personallacion to appere before your Mastershipp in the Duchie 
 Chamber at Westminster, the morrowe after the purificacion of our Ladie, then and 
 there to answear to the premysses, and thereupon to take such order and dyrection as 
 may stande with righte, equyte, and consciens, etc. (Signed) Stanley. 
 
 Sir Thomas Talbot died the ist August, 1558, and had sepulture 
 in Blackburn Church. The will of Sir Thomas Talbot, " of the Holt 
 and Bashall, Knt.," is dated Sept. 27th, 4 and 5 Phil, and Mary (1557) ; 
 wherein the testator, " being appointed to repaire to the Queen's 
 Majesties most noble affaires and warres towards Scotland," bequeaths 
 to his daughter Anne Talbot his lease of the Manor of Bashall ; also, 
 his lease of the Parsonage of Blackbume, which he did lately buy of 
 John Comberford and Robert Billot, gents., with all his interest and 
 title in the same ; also to Anne his daughter his great chain of gold, and 
 all his silver plate ; also all his household stuff at Audley. Testator 
 
MANOR-HOUSE OF HOLT IN RISHTON. 637 
 
 gives to John Talbot his bastard son his leases from Sir Ralph Assheton, 
 &c. The inventory of Sir Thomas Talbot's goods is dated July 31st, 
 1559. The Inqiiisitio post tnortem on Sir Thomas's estate was taken at 
 Wigan, Oct. 9th, ist Eliz. He was found to have been seized of 
 Risheton and Nether Derwynd Manors, with a " messuage called the 
 Holt" in Rishton, and certain lands. Henry Talbot, Esq., his son and 
 heir, was then aged 25 years and upwards. 
 
 Anne Talbot, daughter of Sir Thomas, to whom he bequeathed the 
 lease of Blackburn Rectory lands, became the wife of William Farington 
 of VVorden, Esq., and so it was that the Faringtons succeeded as lessees 
 of the Rectory estate. 
 
 Henry Talbot, Esq., the next scion of this race, had two sons, 
 Thomas, and John ; also a daughter Marie, the covenant of marriage of 
 whom with John Livesey of Livesey, Esq., is dated April 17th, 157 1. 
 Henry Talbot, Esq., died about the year 1570, seized of messuages, 
 mill, and lands in Nether Darwen. 
 
 Thomas Talbot, Esq., eldest son of Henry, married Elizabeth, 
 daughter and heir of John Bradley, of Bradley, Esq., but had no issue. 
 He died ist May, 1598; and before his death, in conjunction with 
 John Talbot, his brother and heir, he sold to Sir Thomas Walmesley 
 his manors of Rishton and Nether Darwyn, with the messuages of Holt 
 and Femehurst. John Talbot his brother succeeded to Bashall, and by 
 his wife, Ursula Hammerton, had a son Thomas Talbot, who died Feb. 
 25th, 1618-9, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth and Margery, co-heirs. 
 
 Some incidents of the connection of the Talbots of Bashall with Rishton lordship 
 and the manor-place of Holt are brought out in the depositions taken before the 
 Bishop of Chester, 17th March, 1611-12, in a reference of a disputed claim between 
 Sir Thomas Walmesley, Knt., and John Talbot of Salesbury, Esq., to the south 
 chapel in Blackburn Church. A chief deponent was Anne Rishton, then of Ormskirk, 
 aged 80, widow of Ralph Rishton and daughter of Dame Ann Stanley. She had known, 
 " 70 years since, a lordship in Blackburn Parish called Rishton, in which was an 
 ancient capital messuage called Holte Hall, which was moated about, and first had a 
 drawbridge over the said moat, afterwards a plain bridge, which she did well remem- 
 ber ; and there were certain edifices of the said house yet " [161 1] ; that Lady Stanley, 
 wife of Edmund Talbot, Esq. , in right of dower held the said capital messuage of 
 Holte ; and on coming to Holte did put Feilden (the tenant) out of the house and 
 placed him in the gate-house. Another deponent, Robert Harwood of Blackburn, 
 aged 71, had heard that old Sir John Talbot, Knt., grandfather of Sir Thomas living 
 in 161 1, did dwell at the Hall of Holte. Christopher Duckworth, aged 84, deposed 
 "that Holt was encompassed about with a great draw-ditch and bridge, of which 
 edifice some parts are yet [1611] remaining, viz., one kitchen, a dwelling-house in the 
 end of a chapel belonging to the said house in time past ; that Lady Stanley, wife to 
 Edmund Talbot, Esq., and mother to Sir Thomas, after the death of Sir James Stan- 
 ley came to dwell at Holte in right of dower." The chapel at Holt Hall named by 
 the last deponent was the oratory which Edmund Talbot, Knt., in 1455 was granted 
 
638 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 license to have " infra manerium suum de Holt " (within his manor of Holt) ; and 
 the chantry chapel at Holt is mentioned again in 1516. 
 
 The Manor-house of Holt is thus shown to have been partially 
 demolished more than 260 years ago. The farm-house that now stands 
 upon its site is small, and of no interest or antiquity. There are traces 
 still of the moat which anciently surrounded this mansion of the Talbots, 
 as well as of the garden enclosures, and the site is slightly elevated 
 above the level of the adjacent fields. 
 
 Henry Petre, Esq., of Dunkenhalgh, is present lord of Rishton, by 
 descent from the Walmesleys. All but a very limited portion of the 
 land of the township now belongs to Mr. Petre. 
 
 FEILDEN OF HOLT, SIDEBIGHT, &c. 
 
 Nicholas ffelden and Rychard ffelden, both of Rishton, were assessed to the 
 King's Subsidy in 1523. Henry ffelden of the Holt, in Rishton, was buried at Har- 
 wood Church, June 8th, 1 569. Richard ffelden of Rishton was assessed to the Subsidy 
 in 1570; and a Richard ffelden died in 1623. 
 
 Henry ffelden of the Sydbight had sons, Randle, bom in 1582; and Nicholas, 
 bom in 1592, died in 1621. Henry ffelden died in 1617 ; his wife died in 1625. 
 
 Randal ffelden of Rishton, son of Henry, had sons, Henry, bom in 161 1; and 
 John, bom in 1620. 
 
 Thurstan ffeilden of Rishton was taxed to a Subsidy in 1610. Peter ffeilden de 
 Sydbight died in 1624. Richard ffeilden of Rishton was father of Richard, bom in 1626. 
 
 Christopher ffeilden of Rishton had a son Thomas, born in 1628 ; his wife died 
 in the same year. His son, Thomas Feilden, of Holt, had sons, Richard, bom in 
 1658 ; Christopher, bom in 1663, died in 1664 ; a second Christopher, born in 1673 ; 
 and daughters, Anne, bora in 1665, died in 1669 ; Elizabeth, born in 1668, died in 
 1672 ; and a second Anne, born in 1671. 
 
 John Feilden of Rishton had sons, John, born in 1669 ; and Ralph, born in 1677. 
 Henry Feilden of Rishton had sons, Henry, born in 1692 ; and William. Christopher 
 Feilden, of Rishton, yeoman, married, Aug. 12th, 1 7 12, Anne Burton, and by her 
 (who died in 1754) had issue. Roger Feilden of Rishton married, in 1721, Sarah 
 Molden. Thomas Feilden of Rishton married, Aug. 24th, 1732, Mary Barton. 
 
 HINDLE OF COWHILL, &c. 
 
 The Hindles (or Hindleys, as the name was sometimes spelt) were a numerous 
 race in Rishton and Harwood as early as the 1 6th century. A branch was seated as 
 small freeholders at Tottleworth and Cowhill in Rishton. Two or three members had 
 entered into trade as chapmen, dealing in the linen cloths of local production. Chris- 
 topher Hindlie, one of them, in the year 1569, sold several pieces of linen cloth to the 
 executors of Robert Nowell of Gray's Inn, for charitable distribution ; and Robert, 
 John, Jenkyn, and William Hindlie, all local traders, sold cloth at the same time to 
 the same executors. Perhaps it was the same Christopher Hindle who died in 1597, 
 and was buried at Harwood Church, Sept. 30th. Another Christopher Hindle of 
 Rishton, bora about 1539, married in 1563, Jane Hodgson, and about 1610, being 
 then 71 yeai-s old, was deponent in a local inquisition. Christopher Hindle de Cowell 
 was buried at Blackburn, Feb. 24th, 1609-10. A later Christopher Hindle, bom in 
 1560, married, in 1594, Ann Bolton. 
 
HINDLE OF COWHILL. 639 
 
 John Hindle, by Ann his wife (who died in 1597), had sons, Ralph ; and also, I 
 think, elder sons, John, and Christopher. The father, John Hindle of Tottleworth, 
 paid the King's Subsidy tax in 1610. He died in Oct., 1627. 
 
 Ralph Hindle of Rishton, son of John, had sons, John, born in 1618 ; and Chris- 
 topher, born in 1620. Ralph Hindle of Rishton died in Sept., 1626. 
 
 John Hindle, of Covvhill, married, in 1605, Margaret Livesey, and had sons, John, 
 bom in 1615 ; Christopher, born in i6i6 ; and Lawrence, bom in 1617. 
 
 Another John Hindle of Cowhill married, in 1625, Elizabeth Parkinson, and died 
 in 1653. Roger Hindle df Cowell died in 1632. 
 
 AChristopher Hindle of Rishton had a son Thomas, born in 1617; and daughters, 
 Grace, Mary, and Elizabeth. He died in 1632. A Christopher Hindle of Rishton 
 died in 1654. Andrew Hindle, of Cowell, buried his wife Dec. 23rd, 1635. 
 
 Christopher Hindle, sometime Vicar of Ribchester, was of the Cowhill branch of 
 Kindles. I think the Christopher Hindle bapt. at Harwood Church, loth March, 
 1592, was the future minister ; and that he was the son either of John Hindle, or of 
 Andrew, both of Cowhill. Having been educated at the University, he was instituted 
 to the vicarage of Ribchester, Feb. 17th, 1617. I find from the Ribchester Registers 
 that Vicar Hindle had children born there : — " Andrew Hindley, son of Christopher 
 Hindley, Vicker de Ribchester," bapt. Jan. 25th, 1623; Rhoda, bapt. Feb. 14'h, 
 1624; Elizabeth, bapt. Jan. 25th, 1627; Anne, bapt. March 7th, 1630; and Jane, 
 bapt. at Blackburn, April 28th, 1633.1 On the outbreak of the Civil War, this clergy- 
 man was a bold Royalist, and when the fortune of war had given the ascendancy to 
 the Parliament, Vicar Hindle paid dearly for his adherence to Charles the First. He 
 was not deprived of his benefice on the setting up of the Lancashire Presbytfery in 
 1646, though he did not join it. But he was had up before the Committee of Divines, 
 who pronounced him " insufficient, and scandalory in his life and conversation," and, in 
 form, suspended him. At the beginning of 1649 he was forcibly expelled from his place 
 to make room for another minister, Mr. William Ingham, who had obtained his ap- 
 pointment to Ribchester from the authorities. As the story is told by Mr. Ogden, a 
 later Vicar of Ribchester, writing in 1705 : — "When Ingham had got into the pulpit 
 one Sunday morning at Ribchester," Mr. Hindle entered the church, and ".standing 
 upon the highest pulpit step, uttered a speech to his friends, some of Cromwell's sol- 
 diers being present ;" describing the King's death as " that scarlet sin of murther, the 
 blood of one sacred person, of more value than ten thousand of the best of his subjects," 
 &c. After his ejectment, Mr. Hindle petitioned the Judge at the Assizes " for permis- 
 sion to sue in forma pauperis, and for processes to be served upon the parties he ac- 
 cused of wrong to appear in court and answer the charges." Aug. 28th, 1650, Judge 
 Thorpe referred the matter to Justices Saville Radclifife and John Starkie, who returned 
 that by an order of the Committee for Plundered Ministers, " the arrears of 12 marks 
 per ann. till 1646 are paid, and that his wages for 1646 and ever since is in arrear," 
 -which were 20 marks per annum till the date of the said order, the 4th May, 1649, 
 and ever since, ^40 per annum. The Justices return is dated "Padiam, Nov. 25th, 
 1650." Vicar Hindle, being still kept out of his church, went to dwell with his 
 kinsman at the Cowhill farm. It is stated that "Vicar Hindle had land of his 
 own at Cowel, and there he lived many years and came and preachtat Ribchester, and 
 ,at Cowel ;" and that he "went every Sunday from Cowel, about seven miles, to Rib- 
 chester to preach there, after he was put out ;" but no one there affording the preacher 
 a meal, he used to take "a piece of bread and cheese, or a dried herring or two in his 
 
 I I think he had also a son Christopher, who may have been the " Christopher Hindley of Lan- 
 cashire" admitted a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, 7 April, 1647. 
 
640 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 pockett. " Rev. Christopher Hindle died at Cowhill in August, 1657; and was buried 
 at Church Kirk, where the register records, Aug. 29, 1657: — "Christopher Hindle, 
 Minister of God's Word, of Cowell," then buried. In 1705 the family of this clergy- 
 man at Cowhill possessed his MSS., on which they set great value. 
 
 Christopher Hindle of Cowhill, son of John (and perhaps nephew of Vicar Hindle), 
 married, April loth, 1654, Ellen CoUinson, by whom he had daughters Margaret and 
 and Elizabeth. By his second wife, Ann Halliwell, married in 1658, he had sons, 
 Christopher, bom in 1659 ; Henry, bom in 1661 ; and John, died in 1680. Chris- 
 topher Hindle of Rishton paid the Subsidy tax in 1663. Hi died in Oct., 1663. 
 
 A George Hindle of Cowhill died in Nov., 1663. Henry Hindle of Cowhill died 
 in 1662 ; his wife had died in 1657. John Hindle of Cowhill died in 1679, whose wife 
 had died in 1657. 
 
 John Hindle of the Height, Rishton, had a son Christopher, bom in 1688-9. 
 >vhom I conclude was the Christopher Hindle of Rishton who married Oct. 30th, 
 1715, Elizabeth, third daughter of Robert Peele of Peele Fold, yeoman. 
 
 Christopher Hindle of Rishton (son of Christopher of Cowhill, above), had by 
 Mary his wife (who died in 1718), sons, John, born in 1690 ; James, born in 1692, 
 died young ; a second James, bom in 1696 ; Richard, born in 1699 ; Robert, born in 
 1705; Christopher, bom in 1706; and Thomas; daughters, Margaret, and Mary. 
 The father died in May, 1730. 
 
 Other Hindles of Rishton, doubtless related to these of Cowhill, are so numerous 
 as to baffle genealogical arrangement. 
 
 Cowhill is an eminence in the midst of Rishton township, and three old farm- 
 steads adjoin at Cowhill Fold, formerly tenanted by the yeoman families of Hindle, 
 Talbot, and Whalley. 
 
 LIVESEY OF SIDEBIGHT. 
 
 The messuage of Sidebight in Rishton was once the possession of a family of 
 Liveseys, a branch, haply, of Livesey of Livesey. George Livesey of Rishton was 
 assessed to the Subsidy of 1523. He was living 31st Henry VIII. (1539-40), when 
 William Clayton sued at the Duchy Court George Lyvesey and others, for distress and 
 rescue of cattle, trespassing on messuages and lands in Rysheton and Litle Harwode. 
 
 The next representative is rather troublesome to identify, but it was almost cer- 
 tainly Thomas Livesey. In the 5th Edward VI. (1552), Anne Stanley, widow of 
 Edmund Talbot, Esq., and of .Sir James Stanley, a dame who at that date possessed 
 the Holt in Rishton, prosecuted Thomas Lyvesey and others for tortious possession of 
 lands and tenements on that estate. Thomas Livesey had sons, James, Thomas, and 
 Oliver ; and a daughter, Margaret, who became the wife of Thomas Walmesley of 
 Showley, gent., and was mother of the celebrated Judge, Sir Thomas Walmesley. At 
 Hacking Hall, built by Justice Walmesley, is a stone in the wall with the initials "T L " 
 standing, no doubt, for Thomas Livesey, the Judge's maternal grandfather. Thomas 
 Livesey was assessed for lands in Rishton to a Subsidy in 1570. 
 
 James Livesey succeeded his father in this tenement. By his wife Agnes he had 
 four sons, George being the eldest. The Will of James Livesey of Ryssheton, yeoman 
 (abstracted in the Piccope MSS.) bears date Dec. 23rd, 1563. Testator desires to be 
 buried in the Parish Church of Blackburn ; mentions Agnes, his wife ; three younger 
 sons, Thomas, John, and Gabriel ; and the eldest son, George. Also names Thomas 
 Walmysley of Dunkenhalgh, Esq. ; Ellen Ryssheton of Ponthalghe, widow ; Oliver 
 Lyvesey, testator's brother ; Lawrence Oldome, and William Ryssheton. In a note 
 to the Will testator styles Thomas Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh (the future Judge) ' ' my 
 
 =«^-^ 
 
RISHTON OF MICKLE-HEY, 641 
 
 good nevewe " (nephew — sister's son), a term which proves that the Justice's mother 
 was a Livesey of Rishton, not, as hitherto conjectured, of the more considerable family 
 ofLivesey of Livesey. The Will of James Livesey was proved July nth, 1565. 
 Agnes, relict of James Livesey, was buried at Great Harwood, March 13th, 1564. 
 
 John Livesey of Sidebight, either brother or younger son of James, had a daughter 
 Jennet, wife of Pears Haworth of Thurcroft, gent. 
 
 George Livesey of Sidebight, son of James, was a Governor of Blackburn Gram- 
 mar School ; and he died in 1592, leaving sons George and Thomas. 
 
 George Livesey of Rishton, yeoman, occurs in 1606, and is assessed to the Sub- 
 sidy of 161 1. 
 
 Thomas Livesey of Sidebight, brother of the last-named, also was taxed to the 
 Subsidy in 161 1. He had sons, Thomas, of Sidebight; James, also of Sidebight; 
 George, bapt. at Great Harwood Church, Dec. 9th, 1601, died in 1627 ; and Henry, 
 bom in 1604 ; and a daughter Marie, bapt. April i6th, 1606. "Thomas Livesey, 
 senr., de Sydebight, et filius Georgii," was buried at Blackburn, April l8th, 1625. 
 
 "Thomas Livesey son of Thomas Livesey of Sidbight in Rishton," occurs in 1616, 
 when he had a daughter Margaret bapt. at Great Harwood Church, Aug. 24th, who 
 died in April, 1624. He had also daughters, Ellen, bapt. Feb. 2nd, 1617-8, and 
 Anne, died in 1634. His wife died in Aug. 1637. 
 
 James Livesey of Sidebight, brother of Thomas, died in April, 1647. His wife 
 was buried Jan. 5th, 1625. 
 
 RISHTON OF MICKLE-HEY. 
 
 This was first a branch, then the next in succession, of Rishtons of Ponthalgh. 
 Roger Rishton of Ponthalgh, living in 1474, had a son Richard, who had Ralph, of 
 Ponthalgh. The latter, by his wife Ann, daughter of Roger Nowell of Read, had a 
 son and heir Roger ; daughters, Grace ; and Alice, wife of James Livesey, gent. ; and 
 he died in 1527. 
 
 Roger Rishton of Ponthalgh had to wife Alice, daughter of Giles Livesey, gent., 
 and had two sons, Ralph and William. 
 
 Ralph Rishton of Ponthalgh, gent. , married, first, Hellen, daughter of Richard 
 Townley of Royle, gent. ; by her he had no issue. By his second wife, Elizabeth 
 Parker, he had five sons, Nicholas, Roger, William, Henry, and Jeffrey, all of whom 
 died unmarried in the father's lifetime. His third wife was Anne, daughter of Sir 
 Tames Stanley of Cross-hall, Knt., who survived her husband. Canon Raines says : — 
 " Her life was almost as chequered as that of her worthless husband. . . This ill- 
 used lady, having survived all her children, was living in Ormskirk, nth March, 161 1, 
 and was then aged 80 years." She was a widow before 1598, when " Mrs. Rusheton 
 widdow " is named in the funeral accounts of her brother, Henry Stanley, Esq. 
 
 Richard Rishton, usher of Blackburn Grammar School in 1597, was a younger 
 son of Ralph Rishton, Esq. 
 
 William Rishton, gent., brother of Ralph, held the estate of Mickle Hey, upon 
 which he resided ; but after the death of his brother's sons without issue he became 
 next heir to the principal patrimonial estates. William Rishton died about 1589. His 
 wife was Eleanor, daughter, of Robert Chamock of Astley, Esq. By an indenture 
 dated nth January, 30th Eliz. (1587), between William Rishton of Ponthalgh, gent., 
 on the first part, and Robert Chamock of Astley, Esq. , and William Chamock, on 
 the second part, it is witnessed that William Rishton is lawfully seized in demesne 
 as of fee simple of and in diverse messuages, lands, tenements, rents, &c., in Church, 
 Rishton and Oswaldtwistle, holden in socage tenure ; that he, William Rishton, 
 
 81 
 
642 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 grants, &c. , to Robert and William Chamock, that before the feast of Easter next he 
 will lawfully insease Robert Chamock, Thomas Southworth, Esq., George Talbott of 
 the Carre, and Robert Rysheton of Dunnishoppe, gents., of and in all and singular his 
 messuages, cottages, tofts, lands, tenements, &c. , to the use of the said AVilliam Rish- 
 ton for his life, and after his death, for the education and bringing up of his five chil- 
 dren, namely, Ralph, William, Marie, Ann, and Elizabeth ; also for the reparation of 
 the manor-house called Ponthalghe, and the mylne called Ponthalghe Mill ; and for 
 the payment of the debts of the said William Rishton. In William Rishton's escheat, 
 the date of which is illegible, Ralph Rishton is named as his son and heir, aged 10 
 years ; William Rishton as a younger son ; and mention is made of Edward Rishton, 
 eldest son of James Rishton of Mickle-hey. I imagine James Rishton was a younger 
 brother of William, who took up his abode at Mickle-hey after William's removal to 
 Ponthalgh. James Rishton of Mickle-hey was a Governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School in 1590, and his son, Edward Rishton of Mickle-hey, was elected a Governor 
 in 1630. " Uxor Edward Rishton de Micle heyes" was buried Oct. l6th, 1624. 
 
 Ralph Rishton, heir of William, a minor at the escheat, afterwards married Doro- 
 thy, daughter of George Talbot of Carr. The issue were — William, born in 1606; 
 Ralph ; John, died young ; Roger ; Edward, of London ; Anne, died unmarried ; 
 Margaret, wife of John Buck, of Gilling, Co. York ; and Dorothy, died unmarried. 
 He died about 1624. 
 
 William Rishton, gent, eldest son of Ralph, married Dorothy, eldest daughter of 
 William Anderton of Euxton, Esq., by whom he had issue, William, his heir ; Ralph ; 
 John (Rev. John Rishton, Vicar of Leyland, 1677-83) ; Edward ; Dorothy, wife of 
 John Barton of Cowbridge ; Anne, Isabel, Alice, Margaret, Mary, Eleanor, and 
 Katherine. William Rishton was living in 1664. William Rishton, of Ponthalgh, 
 succeeded his father. 
 
 The tenement of Mickle-hey is situate on the hill near the border of Rishton and 
 Little Harwood. The old house of the Rishtons is a low building with muUion win- 
 dows, the date of which appears on the front upon an inscribed stone under a drip- 
 stone head-moulding, which bears the initials " R H x I R " and underneath the 
 date " 1.5.9. '•" The letters " R H " are repeated upon another stone in the front 
 walk The estate now belongs to Henry Petre, Esq.; and on the lintel of the bam 
 door are the letters "T W A " and date " 1737." The initials are those of Thomas 
 Walmsley of Mickle-hey, a governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 175 1. 
 
 TALBOT OF COWHILL. 
 
 This family was a branch of Talbot of Salesbury. .Sir John Talbot, who died in 
 1588, had a son Robert, bom before marriage. This Robert Talbot married 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Hoghton of Lea, and had sons, John, George, Robert, 
 Thomas, and Richard. 
 
 Richard Talbot, younger son, was of Rishton, and died at Cowhill in Xov., 1654. 
 He married Alice Duckworth, and had sons, John ; and Thomas, living in 1669. 
 
 John Talbot of Rishton, gent (son of Richard), married, Feb. 7th, 1631, Jennet, 
 daughter of John Clayton of Clayton Hey, and had issue, sons, Thomas, bapt. April 
 3rd, 1634 ; Robert Talbot (who married Isabel Lawson of Clitheroe) ; and John 
 Talbot (who married Margaret, daughter of John Sudell of Stopen Hey, and had sons, 
 Richard, bom in 1666 ; Joseph and Benjamin, twins, bom in 1667 ; and John, bom 
 in 1668; and daughters, Alice, and Mary); and a daughter Ann, wife of Leonard 
 Nowell of Clitheroe. The father, John Talbot of Rishton, gent., appears with his 
 ions on the Guild Roll of Preston in 1662. 
 
CHURCHES AND CHAPELS IN RISHTON. 643 
 
 "Thomas Talbot of Cowell, gent" (son of John) was made a Governor of Black- 
 burn Grammar School in 1667 ; he married Mary Cross, widow (daughter of John 
 Elison of Altham), and died in Aug. , 1675. He had sons, John, bapt. Sept. 28th, 
 1662 ; and Richard, bapt. March 1 6th, 1666, living in 1682 ; and daughters, Alice ; 
 Elizabeth, born in 1669 ; and Mary. 
 
 John Talbot of Cowhill, yeoman (son of Thomas), had sons, Thomas ; and John, 
 bom in 1690. John Talbot the father and his two sons were out-burgesses of Preston 
 at the Guilds of 1702 and 1722. 
 
 Thomas Talbot, son of John, married, in 1 732, Mary Turner ; was father of 
 Thomas Talbot of Elswick ; and was dead before 1 762. 
 
 John Talbot of Cowhill, yeoman, brother of Thomas, married ^f argaret, daughter 
 of Robert Peele of Peele Fold, yeoman, and had sons, John Talbot, and Thomas 
 Talbot, both living in 1762 ; and Joseph, bom in 1719. John Talbot the father was 
 dead before 1762. 
 
 Joseph Talbot, of Rishton in 1 762 and.of Salesbury in 1782, was buried at Black- 
 bum, aged 73, Sept. ist, 1792. He had a son John Talbot, who had a son Joseph, 
 described on Preston Guild Roll in 1782 as "Joseph Talbot, son of John, grandson of 
 Joseph of Salesbury. " 
 
 PLACES OF WORSHIP. 
 
 St. Peter's Church. — The National School in Rishton was licensed for divine 
 service in 1866. The comer-stone of a new church, dedicated to St. Peter, was laid 
 on the 24th May, 1873, by F. W. Grafton, Esq., who was a donor of ;^l20O to the 
 building fund. The church is a gothic edifice, consisting of nave, with clerestory, 
 side aisles, chancel-apse, and tower at the south end (not yet completed). Cost of the 
 building and site ^fSOOO. Sittings 600. The church has not hitherto (1876) been 
 consecrated. The situation adjoins the Blackburn Road at the western end of the 
 village of Rishton. 
 
 Wesleyan Chapel. — A small Wesleyan society, founded here in 1805, gradu- 
 ally became extinct ; but about the year 1852, Mr. George Clarke of Norden started 
 a new society, and opened a small school-chapel in his premises in High-street. The 
 society grew ; and a new chapel was built in 1862, which cost ;£'l5oo ; a gallerj' was 
 added in 1868, costing ;^50O; in 1875 the chapel was extended at the rear, at a further 
 cost of /l 500 ; in April, 1876, an organ, costing ;,f40O, was opened ; and in July, 
 1876, new schools adjoining the chapel, which have been built at a cost of ;f20OO, 
 were opened. The Chapel now contains 800 sittings. 
 
 Primitive Methodist School-Chapel.— This school-chapel was opened in 
 July, 1876, in place of the small school-room before used by the Primitive Methodists 
 as a preaching-place. The cost of the new building was ^1200. Sittings 550. 
 
 United Free Methodist Chapel. — This school-chapel was erected in 1875, 
 at a cost of ;^lloo, and contains 300 sittings. 
 
 Lay Church of England School-Church.— Built by a party of seceders 
 from St. Peter's Church, and opened in 1876. Cost ;,f 300 ; sittings 300. 
 
 A Congregational Mission-Room and Sunday School was opened in Rishton 
 village in 1876; sittings about 100. 
 
 DAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 There are two elementary Day Schools under Government inspection in Rishton. 
 The National School, in 1875, had 159 children in average attendance, and received a 
 Government grant of ;^ 11 2 6s. The Wesleyan School, at the same date, had 215 
 children in average attendance, and obtained a grant of ^^170 los. 
 
644 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI.— THE TOWNSHIP OF SALESBURY. 
 
 Topography — Extent — Population — Lords of the Manor — Pe Salesbury — De Clyderhou — Talbot — 
 Warren— Mr. Ward— Salesbury Hall— Talbot of New Hall— Bolton— Parker of Loveley Hall— 
 Loveley Hall —Church of St. Peter — Salesbury School. 
 
 SALESBURY is a township on the south bank of the Ribble, 
 between Dinkley above, and Clayton-in-le-Dale below. The land 
 rises rapidly from the river, in the direction of Wilpshire Moor, which 
 is the summit of the acclivity. It is appropriated to pasture farms. The 
 acreage of the township is 1140 statute acres. Formerly there was con- 
 siderable cottage weaving in Salesbury, but there is little now. The 
 population accordingly has dwindled in numbers since 1831. In 1801 
 it was 236 persons ; 1811, 265; 1821, 427; 1831, 433; 1841, 399; 
 1851 ; 388 ; 1861, 331 ; 1871, 212. 
 
 DE SALESBURY FAMILY. 
 
 Gilbert de Salesburi was lord of this township within the century 
 after the Norman Conquest. He had a son Siward de Salesburi. 
 
 Waltheus de Salesburi was brother of Gilbert, and under him held 
 lands in Salesbury, whereof he gave sixty perches to the abbot and monks 
 of Salley. 
 
 Ralph de Salesburi, son of Waltheus, afterwards confirmed to the 
 Abbey of Salley the lands in Salesburi. 
 
 Richard de Salesburi, son of Ralph, in turn gave 1 1 acres in Sales- 
 bury to the Salley fraternity. He had a son Richard. 
 
 In the Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey appear the names of Adam 
 de Saleburi, of Award, Gilbert, Randolph, Richard, Roger, and Swane 
 de Salesbury, indistinguishable members of this family ; also of William 
 de Salesbury, who occurs as witness to a deed dated 1380. 
 
 Gilbert son of Ulkil de Salesbury gave certain small parcels of land 
 in this vill to Salley. Another Gilbert, son of Robert, is witness to one 
 of the first Gilbert's charters. 
 
 Adam de Helai was son of Gilbert de Salesbury; and his son, Hugh 
 
DE CLIDERHOU FAMILY. 645 
 
 de Helai, confirmed to the monks of Salley the ri acres of land that 
 Richard, son of Richard de Salesburi (above), gave to them. John de 
 Salesburi also was a donor of lands in Salesbury and Helai to Salley 
 Monastery. Ranulf de Salesbury had sons Hugh and Robert ; the 
 latter had a son William. 
 
 Hugh de Salesbury, son of Ranulf, had to wife Marjora, daughter of 
 Hugh de Helai, by whom he had five daughters — Cecilia; Dionesia, 
 wife of Thomas son of William de Hulton ; Matilda, Alice, and Agnes. 
 Cecilia, eldest daughter and heiress of Hugh de Salesbury, married, first, 
 Hugh de Cliderhou, by whom she had issue ; and secondly, Robert de 
 Balderstone. 
 
 de' cliderhou family, ancient lords of salesbury. 
 
 The De Cliderhou Family were in tenure of estates in Clitheroe, 
 Mitton, &c., before the date when Hugh de Cliderhou, by his marriage 
 with Cecilia, eldest daughter and co-heir of Hugh de Salesbury, son of 
 Ranulf, added Salesbury manor to the family possessions. Hugh de 
 Cliderhou had a son and heir, Hugh ; and a daughter, Isabella, wife of 
 Jordan de Wynkedley. 
 
 Hugh de Cliderhou, son of Hugh, occurs in deeds between the 
 years 1276 and 13 10. His sons were, Roger, and Adam. 
 
 Roger de Cliderhou had a grant of free warren in the demesne 
 lands of Salesbury, dated 15th April, 13 12. 
 
 Adam de Cliderhou, son of Hugh and brother of Roger, by his wife 
 Cecilia (who occurs as his relict in 1340, and was living in 1349), had a 
 son and heir, Robert. Adam de Cliderhou was probably dead before 
 the nth Edw. Ill (1337). 
 
 Robert de Cliderhou, Adam's son, married Sibilla (or Isabella) 
 daughter of Richard son of John de Hodleston (mairiage contract dated 
 1 331), and had issue, sons, Robert; Thomas, living in 1343; Roger 
 living in 1357; and Richard (of whom more presently). Robert de 
 Cliderhou the father conveyed his estate of two parts of Saleberie manor 
 in trust, by deed dated 17th Edw. Ill (1343)- He died before 1346, 
 in which year his widow married, secondly, William de Rilleston. 
 
 Robert de Cliderhou succeeded to his inheritance in infancy, and 
 Adam de Hoghton bought his marriage (deed dated 24th Edw. HI., 
 bearing the arms of Adam de Hoghton, on a shield three bars, and an in- 
 scription in old capitals, Sigillum Ade de Hoghton). Robert de Cli- 
 derhou was probably of age in 1357. His wife was Sibilla, daughter of 
 Richard de Hoghton (her first husband was William de Bold). Dated 
 31st Edw. III. (1357) is a defeasance of a statute acknowledged by 
 Robert son of Robert de Clitherow, that he should preserve his inheri- 
 
646 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 tance without any foolish demises or charges. He had an only daughter 
 and heir, Sibilla. In 13 71 he and his wife had license from the Bishop 
 of Lichfield for an oratory at Salesbury Hall, for two years. A deed of 
 Robert de Cliderhou, dated 44th Edw. IH. (1370), contains on the seal 
 his arms, a saliire fusilee, and the words in old capitals, Sigill: Roberti 
 DE Cliderhou. He died before 1376. His widow, who .survived 
 until 1387, had a license for her oratory at Salesbury. 
 
 Sibilla de Cliderhou, only daughter and heir of Robert, was thrice 
 married; first (marriage contract dated 1362), to Richard, son of John 
 de Radcliffe of Ordsall (she was his second wife, and he died 19th July, 
 1380), and bore him a son Roger, who died before 1408; and a daughter, 
 Johanna, bom about 1379, wife of Henry de Hoghton of Leagrim, 
 second son of Adam de Hoghton. Dame Sibilla married, secondly. Sir 
 Richard Mauleverer of Beamsley, who was dead in 7th Richard II. 
 (1384) ; and thirdly (marriage contract dated loth June, 1386), Roger 
 de Fulthrop, Judge of Common Pleas, who was attainted in 1388, exiled 
 to Ireland, and died about 1392. By the two last husbands the lady of 
 Salesbury had no issue. In her last widowhood, a license dated 2 7th 
 Dec, 1406, was granted to " the lady Sibill Fulthrop the ladie of Salis- 
 berie for a chapel or oratery in her manor of Salisberie, and to celebrate 
 mass and other divine offices, provided it be no prejudice to the Mother 
 Church ;" to continue for three years. This lady, whose life had been 
 so chequered, died the 21st Dec, 1414, and by inquisition taken the 
 7th June, 1415, it was found that Johanna de Hoghton was daughter 
 and next heir, aged 36 years and upwards. 
 
 Johanna de Hoghton, wife of Henry, had no child, and accordingly, 
 in the loth Henry V. (1422), she was party to a settlement of the estates, 
 by which there was allotted to her husband's family out of the estates 
 lands worth ;^2o per annum ; and by a later award the Hoghtons were 
 allotted the manor of Pendleton, all the lands in Yorkshire, and lands in 
 Preston, Ribchester, Clitheroe, and Wilpshire ; all the rest to go to 
 Talbot (see hereafter), and on failure of issue male of either family, the 
 whole to go to the other. The heir of Henry Hoghton was his natural 
 son, Richard Hoghton, Parker of Leagrim Forest, ancestor of Hoghtons 
 of Pendleton. 
 
 I have now to add the descent of a younger branch of De Cliderhou, 
 beginning with Richard de Cliderhou, brother of Robert. He was born 
 before 1343 ; and by Agnes his wife he had sons, John, and Edmund, 
 both of whom died without issue ; and daughters, Isabella, and Johanna. 
 The younger daughter married, first, William de Alston ; secondly, 
 Richard Golyn, or Colyn, and was living in 1425. In the 6th Ric II. 
 (1383), Richard de Cliderhou was witness to a grant by Sibilla, widow of 
 
TALBOT OF SALESBURY. 647 
 
 his brother Robert de Cliderhou, to her daughter Sibilla. He died 
 before 1419. Agnes, his rehct in that year, was Hving in 1427, when 
 she quit-claimed her right in these lands to John Talbot and his wife 
 Isabella (her daughter). 
 
 Isabella Cliderou, daughter and co-heir of Richard, married John 
 Talbot, son of William (younger son of Edmund Talbot of Bashall who 
 died in 1372). In Sept., 1423, a dispensation was obtained on the 
 ground of their having married in ignorance of their consanguinity in the 
 4th degree (which was then a bar to marriage). In 1422, Isabella 
 Talbot and her husband and issue were made heirs to the manor of 
 Salesbury under the settlement of her kinswoman, Johanna Hoghton. 
 She died August ist, 1432 ; and Iiiq. post tiwrt. was taken in the nth 
 Henry VI.' 
 
 TALBOT OF SALESBURY. 
 
 John Talbot, son of William Talbot, a younger son of Sir Edmund 
 Talbot of Bashall, Knt., after being divorced from his first wife Mar- 
 geria, in 1415, married, before 1423, Isabella, daughter of Richard de 
 Cliderhou, and by her had issue, sons, John, bom about 1426 ; Hugh, 
 Christopher, and Alexander, all living in 1448 ; Richard, named in his 
 father's Will, 1449; Lawrence; and three daughters, who were repre- 
 sented with their mother in a memorial window in Ribchester Church. 
 On Aug. 15th, 3rd Henry VI. (1424), John, son of William Talbot, and 
 Richard de Townley of Clivachre, gave recognizance in 1000 marks to 
 Richard, son of Henry de Hoghton, Knt., to submit to the judgment 
 and award of John de Stanley, Knt., and William de Haryngton, Knt., 
 in the suit between the said John Talbot and Isabella his wife, and 
 Richard Golyn and Joan his wife, sister of the said Isabella, concerning 
 the lands which Sybil, widow of Richard de Radclyf held in the counties 
 of York and Lancaster; and at the same time Richard de Hoghton of 
 Laythgrim, and Richard de Knolle of Thornley, gave recognizance to 
 John Talbot to submit to the judgment of the said arbitrators. John 
 Talbot died 1 8th April, 1449; his Will is dated April i6th, 1449, by 
 which he bequeaths his body to be buried in the Church of St. Mary at 
 the Abbey of Whalley ; gives his best horse for a mortuary ; and to his 
 son John a cap, book, vestments, and all other things in his chapel. 
 Jnq. post mart, was taken the same year. His son and heir, John Talbot, 
 was found to be aged 24 years. 
 
 John Talbot of Salesbury, Esq. (known as " Little John Talbot ") 
 son of John, assisted, in 1464, in the betrayal of Henry VI. near 
 
 I I am indebted to Wm. Langton, Esq., for the laboriously and carefully proved genealogy of 
 the Cliderhou family embodied in these pages, the intricate descents of which have confounded former 
 antiquaries. 
 
648 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Clitheroe, for which he was rewarded with a pension by Edward IV. 
 One of his two wives was daughter of Sir John Radcliff of Ordsall. 
 Johanna his first wife is named with her husband in 1464, in an inscrip- 
 tion upon a window in the oratory of Salesbury Hall. Ann, his second 
 wife, survived until 1487, and was mother of his daughter Lucy. John 
 Talbot had issue, by his two marriages, sons, John ; Ralph, a captain at 
 Calais (who had a son Ralph) ; William (father of William and Hugh, 
 both priests) ; Myles, who left issue ; and Roger (who had three 
 daughters); and daughters, Isabella, wife of Richard, son and heir of 
 Sir Ralph de Ashton of Middleton; Lucy, wife of Ralph Ashton, brother 
 of Richard ; Elizabeth, wife of Lawrence Ainsworth ; Margaret ; Alice, 
 wife of Giles Livesey ; and another daughter, married in London. John 
 Talbot, Esq., died before 1485. 
 
 Sir John Talbot, knighted at Hutton Field in 1483, succeeded his 
 father as lord of Salesbury in 1484, and had from Richard III., in that 
 year, reversion of his father's pension. He married Ann, daughter of Sir 
 Ralph Ashton of Middleton (covenant of marriage dated 1452), and by 
 her (who survived him, and was living in 1511) had issue, sons, 
 John ; Ralph ; Richard ; and Thomas ; and daughters, Anne, wife of 
 Richard Rishton of Dunkenhalgh ; Margery, wife of Alan Singleton 
 of Whitgill ; and Ellen, wife of John Singleton. Thomas Talbot, of the 
 Impes, was father of Richard, citizen of London ; and of Anne, second 
 wife of Sir Thomas Langton, Baron of Newton. Sir John Talbot, Knt., 
 died August loth, 1511. Inq. post mort. Oct. loth, 3rd Henry VIII. 
 
 John Talbot, Esq., son and heir (" long John Talbot "), said to be 
 aged 24 at his father's death in 1511, married Isabella, daughter of 
 Richard de Towneley, who had issue, sons, John ; Richard, and Hugh ; 
 and a daughter Anne, wife of Edmund Hopwood, gent. John Talbot 
 died about the year 1 51 5, and by an escheat return, dated 7th Henry 
 VIII., it appears that he was seized at death of Salesbury manor, held of 
 the King, worth ;£^a ; of Dynkeley manor ; Clayton-in-le-Dale manor ; 
 and of messuages, lands, mills, and rents in those townships and in 
 Whilipshire, Bylington, Button, Ribchester, and Clyderowe. His son 
 and heir was John Talbot, aged 14 years. 
 
 Shortly before his death, by deed dated April 24th, 6th Henry VIII., John Tal- 
 bot, Knt., had conveyed to Edward Ashton, clerk, and other trustees, the manors of 
 Salesbury and Dinkeley, with messuages, lands, rents, burgages, mills, fishery, &c., with 
 reversions of the same to the use and intent to fulfil the Will of John Talbot, as fol- 
 lows : — Feoffees to stand seized of above, suffering testator to take the issues, rents, &c., 
 for life ; and to make a lawful estate to Isabella, testator's wife, for life, of the manor of 
 Dinkeley ; after decease of testator and his wife, feoffees to be seized of closes called 
 Hassilborowes and Menefield, with the wood, parcel of Salesbury manor, to the yearly 
 value of 8s., to the use of his sons Richard and Hugh Talbot; and after the decease 
 
TALBOT OF SALESBURY. $49 
 
 of the longest liver of testator, his wife, and Dame Anne Talbot his mother, that 
 feoffees shall make a lawful estate of tenements in Clayton called Clayton Hey, then 
 in holding of Hugh and John Clayton, to the yearly value of 40s., and of another mes- 
 suage in Clayton in holding of Thomas Bolton to the yearly value of l8s., to have and 
 hold to the said Richard and Hugh Talbot for their lives. Feoffees to make a 
 lawful estate of his hereditaments, after the form testator should make by any inden- 
 ture concerning the marriage of John Talbot, his son and heir ; and to stand seized of 
 residue of premises and reversions during the nonage of testator's son and heir, John 
 Talbot, to the use to suffer the aforesaid Isabel, if testator shall make her executor, or 
 any other person executor or executors, to receive yearly all issues, rents, &c., during 
 nonage only of said son and heir, and to pay all legacies, debts, &c. 
 
 The next scion is the member named in the Visitation of 1533 : — 
 " John Talbott of Saleberry, hadd to his first wife Anne, doughter to 
 Hewe [Hugh] Sherburne, and they hadd yssue John, Jane, Anne, and 
 Margaret. The said John had to his second wife Anne, doughter to 
 Richard Bannester of Altham, and they had no yssue. A very gentle 
 Esquier, and worthy to be taken payne for." Thus testifies the visiting 
 herald. After this return, however, John Talbot had issue by his second 
 wife, sons, Thomas, Michael, John, Richard, Nicholas, and Robert ; and 
 daughters, Beatrice ; Elizabeth, wife of Humphrey Wyke ; and Isabel, 
 married to Wilfred Banester. Anne, his second daughter by his first 
 wife, married John Hothersall, gent. John Talbot, Esq., died Aug. 
 30th, 1 55 1. His Will, dated Aug. 28th, is abstracted below : — 
 
 In the name, &c., I, John Talbot, of Salisbury, within the countie of Lancaster, 
 Esquier, somethyng disseased in my bodie but hoole [whole] of mynde, &c., make and 
 orden thys my present testamente, &c. First, I commende my soul to Almyghty God 
 and to all the holy companye of heaven, and my bodye to be buryed within the Parisshe 
 Churche at Blakeburne in the chapell on the southe syde of the churche thear. And I 
 geve and bequethe unto Sir Rychard Hoghton, Knyght, my best gowne to the entente 
 to be supervisor of thys my last Will and see the same performed. I geve, &c., unto 
 my son-in-law Wilfride Banester my Regalles and my Virginalles. I geve unto Anne 
 my wiffe all suche leases and tackes as I have of Sir Thomas Talbot, Knyght, of cer- 
 ten tithes as in the said lease it doth appere, and also of Thomas Heskett, Esquier, 
 of certen closes and landes lieng to the manor howse of Dynkeley. Moreover, all 
 such tackes and bargaynes as my brother William Talbot hath graunted and made unto 
 me of the manor howse of Dynkeley (which he maketh clame and title to by the gyfte 
 of his father and myne), with all landes, medowes, &c., to the same belongyng I geve, 
 &c., wholly unto Anne my said wyffe. And in case hys gyft be proved voide and of 
 none eCfecte, then I wyll that all suche goodes and sommes of money as I have con- 
 tented and payd unto my said brother and hys assignes by the order and awarde of Sir 
 John Atherton, Knyght, my brother Edmund Hopwodde, esquier, for the premysses 
 be contented and payd agayne unto my sayd wyfe and her assignes, to the use and 
 profitt of her and my chyldren. Item, I wyll that all suche dettes and deuties as I 
 owe of ryghte or of conscience to any person be well and truly contented and payd by 
 myne executor hereinafter named. And after my dettes payd and my funerall expenses 
 performed, I geve, &c., all my parte of goodes, dettes, &c., whearsoever they can be 
 
 82 
 
650 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 founde unto Anne my sayd wyffe, my executrix, and Sir Richard [Ilogliton], Knyght, 
 abovesaid supervisor. — Wrytten the 28th day of Auguste, in the fyfte yeare of the 
 reigne of our soveraigne lorde Kyng Edward the Sixt, by the grace, &c. These beyng 
 witnesses : — Ranulphus Lynney, Vicar of Blakburn ; Richard Marsten, chaplain ; 
 Edmund Bolton, chaplain ; William , Adam Bolton, with others. ' 
 
 Here I deviate from the chief descent to notice a younger son of 
 the last-named John Talbot, who merits distinction as one of the ear- 
 liest of Lancashire antiquaries. Thomas Talbot, named by Sir William 
 Dugdale as " Clerk of the Tower Records " and " a noted antiquarian," 
 was second son of John Talbot of Salesbury, Esq., and first son by his 
 second wife Ann Banestre. Little is recorded of the history of this per- 
 sonage. Gough has the following brief notice : — 
 
 Thomas Talbot, bom at Salesbury Hall, in 1580 was Keeper of Her Majesty's 
 Records in the Tower, and rendered assistance to Camden, furnishing him with a Cata- 
 logue of Earls for his "Britannia." He also made considerable collections for the 
 History of Yorkshire ; some of these are deposited in the British Museum, some in 
 the Heralds' Office. In the epistle dedicatory to Mills' Catalogue of Honor, he is 
 called ' limping Thomas Talbot, a great genealogist, and of excellent memory. ' " 
 
 A portion of Thomas Talbot's collections, containing many items 
 concerning abbeys, and various historical matters, extracted from chroni- 
 cles, rolls of noble families, and their pedigrees, is preserved among the 
 Cotton MSS. (Vesp. D. 17). Other papers of his are in the Lansdowne 
 and Harleian MSS. The letter copied below, written by Thomas Tal- 
 bot the antiquary in 1578 to his brother-in-law, John Hothersall of 
 Hothersall, gent., accompanying some Read evidences from the Tower, 
 is not without local interest : — 
 
 "Brother Hothershall, — I comend me unto you and to the rest of my frendes, letting 
 you to understand that I sent you a note of the matter that you did require me to 
 search in the Tour, but by negligence of the carier yt came back againe to my handes 
 contrarie to my will and meaninge, but now you shall receyve yt hereunder written 
 word for word out of the recorde so muche as serveth for your frendes purpose. Bro- 
 ther, this is all I can find for Read alias Reved ; and the word thanagium [thanage] is 
 the same whiche my eldest brother holdeth the maner of Salesbury by, which I take to 
 be a free socage tenure. This with comendation to you and the rest of my frendes. I 
 wish you wel as to myselfe. Written at London this ffriday the 6 of June, 1578. 
 Thomas Talbot." — [Addressed] — "To my assured good brother Mr. John Hother- 
 shall, yeoman, these, at Hothershall by Ribchester." 
 
 John Talbot, heir of John, soon after his succession was defendant 
 in an action brought by Anne Talbot, widow and executrix of the last 
 Will of John Talbot deceased, for tortious possession by him of a dwel- 
 ling house, and detention of goods and chattels, in Salesbury manor. 
 This was in 1553. He married, first, at Ribchester Church, Alice, 
 daughter of Sir Alexander Osbaldeston, Knt; she died, without having 
 
 I Lane, and Chesh. Wills (Chcth. Socy.), v. iii, pp. 105-6. 
 
TALBOT OF SALESBURY. 651 
 
 issue, in 1533. His second wife was Mary Moore, of Sheffield, Co. 
 York, by whom he had sons, John, Robert, and Thomas, bom before 
 marriage ; and a legitimate son, George ; also daughters, Mary, wife of 
 John Atherton,Esq.;and Frances, wife of Peter Barlow, gent. In 1553, 
 John Talbot was a captain in the Lancashire array in Queen Mary's army. 
 In 1 58 1, Edmund Campion the Jesuit, on being tortured by the rack, di- 
 vulged the names of certain Lancashire gentry who had harboured him, 
 and among them was " Talbot of Salesbury, Esq." Richard Simpson, a 
 recusant priest, was reported in 1581 to have sojourned at Talbot's house. 
 In consequence, a search was made at Salesbury Hall for arms or other 
 tokens of seditious designs by its master. John Talbot, Esq., died ist 
 Sept., 1588, seized of Salesbury manor, with ten messuages, 10 cottages, 
 20 gardens, 20 orchards, 200 acres of land, 40 of meadow, 40 of pasture, 
 100 of woodland, and 100 of moss and turbary in Salesbury ; 30 acres of 
 land in Dinckley ; 30 acres in Whilpshire ; 30 acres in Clayton ; and 
 lands in Button, Cliderow, and Ribchester. His grandson, John Tal- 
 bot, son of George deceased, was next heir, aged 7 years. 
 
 George Talbot of Dinkley, gent., John's eldest legitimate son, 
 married Mary, second daughter of Sir John Southworth, Knt. (contract 
 dated Oct. 26th, 1573), and had a son John, bom about 1581 ; and a 
 daughter Mary, wife of John Singleton of Scales. George Talbot died 
 in his sire's lifetime, Sept. 26th, 1584. The Will of George Talbot of 
 Dinkley, gent, bears date June 14th, 26th Eliz.; testator to be buried in 
 Blackburn Church ; names his father, John Talbot, Esq.; brother 
 Robert ; sister, Mrs. Ann Southworth ; cousin, William Talbot ; his 
 daughter, Mary Talbot, to be sole executrix. His widow was living in 
 
 1595- 
 
 John Talbot, son of George, was heir to his grandsire John Talbot, 
 Esq., in 1588, at the age of seven years. He married, about the year 
 1607, Margaret, daughter of Sir Alexander Barlow, Knt., and had issue, 
 sons, John, born Aug. 29th, i6o8; Alexander, bom in 1610, died s.p.; 
 George, bom June 8th, 161 2 ; and Thomas, bom Jan. 31st, 161 7, died 
 in Nov., 1628 ; and daughters, Margaret, wife of Thomas Clayton of 
 Lentworth ; Mary, died unmarried ; and Anne, born in 1619, wife of 
 Alexander Osbaldeston, Esq. In 16 11, John Talbot disputed with 
 Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh the right to the mortuary chapel on the south 
 side of Blackburn Church, and by the Bishop's award obtained the north 
 half of the chapel. He was knighted by King James I. at Lathom 
 House, Aug. 20th, 161 7. When the Civil War broke out in 1642, Sir 
 John Talbot affected neutrality, but was in secret concert with the 
 Royalist party, and was appointed by the Earl of Derby's Preston meet- 
 ing, in Dec, 1642, one of the two collectors for Blackburn Hundred of 
 
652 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the levy for the county subsidy of ;^87oo voted to the King. About a 
 month later Sir John Talbot laid a plot for the capture at Salesbury Hall 
 of some active Parliamentarians in his neighbourhood ; but the scheme 
 was frustrated, and Salesbury Hall occupied and pillaged, as already nar- 
 rated. At the storming of Preston by Colonel Seaton, Feb. 9th, 1642, 
 George Talbot, son of Sir John, fought on the Royalist side, and was 
 taken prisoner. These overt acts of hostility to the Parliament made 
 Sir John a mark for the vengeance of the Parliamentarian party when it 
 had won the mastery ; and by the Sequestration Committee, in 1647, Sir 
 John Talbot was fined in the sum of ;i£^444. The " Journals of the 
 House of Commons," Dec. 28th, 1647, record this minute : — 
 
 Resolved, &c. That this House doth accept the sum of Four hundred forty and 
 four Pounds, for the Delinquency of Sir John Talbot, of Salisbury, in the County of 
 Lancaster, Knight : His ofifence, that he assisted the Forces raised against the Parlia- 
 ment : Rendered in January, 1645 : His estate, in Fee, per Annum : One hundred 
 and Forty Pounds. Out of which issue Two Pounds per annum, a Quit Rent. Which 
 leaves the Fine, at a Sixth, Four hundred Forty-and-Four Pounds. — An ordinance for 
 granting Pardon unto Sir John Talbott, of Salisbury, in the County of Lancaster, 
 Knight, for his Delinquency, and for taking off the Sequestration of his Estate was this 
 Day read, and upon the Question, passed ; and ordered to be sent unto the Lords for 
 their concurrence. 
 
 Among the muniments of the estate are found the general pardon 
 granted to Sir John Talbot by King and Parliament in 24th Chas. i. 
 (1648); the survey and valuation of the estate of Sir John Talbot, taken 
 by Commission of Parliament in 1652; and a deed, dated 1654, by 
 which the said Commissioners, for ;^7 10 4s. i^d., convey to Adam 
 Boulton, gent., all the Talbot estates in Lancashire. Sir John Talbot 
 died in Dec, 1659, and was buried at Blackburn Church, Dec. 26th. 
 His dame had died thirty years before, and was buried at Manchester 
 Collegiate Church, Dec. 26th, 1628. Sir John died intestate, and ad- 
 ministration of his estate was granted in i66oto Anne, his daughter, wife 
 of Alexander Osbaldeston, Esq. 
 
 John Talbot, Esq., son and heir to Sir John, married, first, Mar- 
 garet, daughter of Thomas Westby of Mowbreck, and by her (who died 
 in 1634 and was buried at Blackburn Church, June 27th) had issue, a 
 son John, who died young ; and a daughter Margaret, who died in Jan., 
 1635-6. His second wife was Dorothy, daughter of James Wilford, of 
 Newman Hall, Co. Essex, Esq. By her he had a son John, who died 
 young ; and a daughter Dorothy, bom Feb. 15th, 1650. John Talbot, 
 Esq., died in Oct., 1677, and was buried in Blackburn Church, Oct. 
 I ith. His widow died in 1684, and " Mrs. Dorothy Talbot, of Dinckley, 
 widow, buried in linnen," is registered as buried at Blackburn Church, 
 Sept. 9th, 1684. 
 
WARREN OF SALESBURY. 653 
 
 WARREN OF SALESBURY AND DINKLEY. 
 
 Dorothy Talbot, only surviving child and heiress of John Talbot, 
 Esq., married, about 1678, Edward Warren of Poynton, Co. Chester, 
 Esq. After his marriage, Mr. Edward Warren resided chiefly upon the 
 estates of his wife at Salesbury and Dinkley Halls. Their issue were, 
 sons, John, bom July 15th, 1679 ; Edward, bapt. at Blackburn Church, 
 Sept. 24th, 1680; and Talbot, bapt. Dec. 4th, 1686; and daughters, 
 Hannah Dorothea (bapt. April 22nd, 1682, married Sir Daniel Byrne, 
 Bart.); Margaret, bapt. Nov. 14th, 1683, died unmarried ; Catherine 
 (bom about 1685, married Humphrey Davenport, Esq.) ; Mary (bapt. 
 Aug. 8th, 1688, married, first, Edward Radcliffe, Esq., and, secondly, 
 Rev. Thomas Dakin); and Elizabeth, bapt. April 29th, 1692. Mistress 
 Warren died in childbed of the last daughter, and was buried at Black- 
 bum, May 5th, 1692. Edward Warren, Esq., married, secondly, Mar- 
 garet, daughter of the Honble. William Spencer, of Ashton Hall, Co. 
 Lancaster, and by her had issue, sons, Spencer Warren, Rector of Bads- 
 worth; and William Warren, incumbent of Up-Holland; and daughters, 
 Mary, Alice, and Eleanor. Edward Warren, Esq. (then " of Chorley " ) 
 died in 1719-20, and was buried at Blackburn, Jan. 28th. 
 
 His eldest son, John Warren, of Stockport, Esq., died, s.p. in 1729, 
 and was buried at Blackbum, Sept. 30th. His younger brother, Talbot 
 Warren, married Frances, daughter of Wm. Davenport, of Bramhall, and 
 died in Dec. 1 734. 
 
 Edward Warren, second son of Edward, married, in 1 730, Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of George Earl of Cholmondeley ; and died Sept. 7th, 
 1737. He had one son, George, and daughters, Harriet, and Elizabeth. 
 
 George Warren, Esq., of Dinkley, heir to his uncle John Warren, 
 married, first, Jane, daughter of Thomas Revel, Esq.; and secondly, in 
 1 764, Frances, daughter of Sir Cecil Bishop, Bart. He had an only 
 daughter, Elizabeth Harriet, who married, April 26th, 1777, Thomas 
 James, Viscount Bulkeley. George Warren, Esq., of Dinkley, was made 
 a Governor of Blackbum Grammar School in 1757. He was created a 
 Knight of the Bath, and died Aug. 31st, 1801. 
 
 In default of issue. Lady Bulkeley, daughter and heir of Sir George 
 Warren, by her Will constituted as her heir George Leicester, son of the 
 first Lord De Tabley (who was great-grandson of Anne Dorothea Warren 
 by her husband Sir D. Byrne). This George assumed the name of 
 Warren in 1832. Sir George Warren, Bart., in 1827, succeeded his 
 father as second Lord De Tabley. He held the Salesbury, Dinkley, 
 Osbaldeston, and Clayton manorial estates in this parish. These estates 
 were sold, in 1866, to Henry Ward, Esq., of Blackbum, for ;^i4o,ooo. 
 
654 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The following is a correct statement of the extent of the estates of 
 Lord De Tabley in Ribblesdale as sold to Mr. Ward in i866 : — 
 
 A. R. P. 
 
 Dinkley Hall estate 369 3 12 
 
 Wilpshire estate 264 3 26 
 
 Salesbury Hall estate ... 887 034 
 
 Clayton-in-le-Dale estate 657 o 9 
 
 Osbaldeston Hall estate 658 333 
 
 Total in statute acres ... 2837 334 
 
 Salesbury Hall, the old manor-house and seat of the Talbots, is 
 situate on the left bank of the Ribble, at a point where the river, esca- 
 ping from a wooded ravine, bends abruptly to the northward, and forms 
 a sort of whirlpool, popularly called "Sale Wheel." The hall has 
 originally been an extensive' cluster of buildings, placed to form a 
 quadrangle. The blocks that remain were the south and west wings. 
 The upper walls are of timbered structure ; in the south wing the mas- 
 sive oaken framework and projecting cornice are interesting features. 
 Where the angle of the two blocks approach, they are splayed to make a 
 passage between the buildings. The west wing has been curtailed at 
 the north end ; and the front wall restored in dressed stonework. On 
 this front is seen a wide depressed arch, now blocked up, which was 
 formerly the central entrance into the court of the quadrangle. The 
 interior of the main west wing has on the upper floor a series of rooms 
 reached by a long corridor, and partitioned with oak wrought in panels. 
 All the lower rooms have lost their antique aspect by successive altera- 
 tions. Some old plate armour that formerly hung in the hall was re- 
 moved to the Cheshire seat of Lord De Tabley. The hall has been sur- 
 rounded by a moat, some traces of which are left. On the north side of 
 the site are fragments of a massive rubble wall which must have belonged 
 to the earliest structure built upon this ground. In the garden is a por- 
 tion of a Roman pillar, with double band mouldings. 
 
 TALBOT OF NEW HALL. 
 
 George Talbot, gent., second son of Sir John Talbot who died in 
 1659, married, April 20th, 1657, Anne, daughter of Robert Parkinson of 
 Fairsnape, gent. The marriage is registered at Blackburn Church, thus : 
 " George Talbott of Salisbury, gent., and Mrs. Ann Parkinson of Balder- 
 stone, married by Richard Morres." George Talbot built for his resi- 
 dence the house called New Hall, which stands on the south bank of 
 the Ribble just below Ribchester Bridge, within the boundary of Clay- 
 ton-in-le-Dale. New Hall is a good example of the houses built for the 
 lesser gentry ievip. Charles H. It has a roof-line broken with gables, 
 small mullioned windows and a gabled porch. In the front wall is a 
 
PARKER OF LOVELEY HALL. 655 
 
 Stone inscribed "G T " (George Talbot), and the date "1665." Another 
 stone contains within a moulded panel the sculpture of a " talbot " (dog), 
 the crest of the Talbots. George Talbot, gent., was made a Governor 
 of Blackburn Grammar School in 1667; and was living in 1673. He 
 had issue, I think, only one daughter. 
 
 BOLTON OF SALESBURY. 
 At the levying of the Subsidy in 1523, Christopher Bohon and John Bolton both 
 were assessed for their lands in Salesbury. The Loveley estate in Salesbury appears 
 to have been held by the Boultons at this period ; for on the survey of the tenancies of 
 Whalley Monastery in 1538, it was returned that " Eares [heirs] of Boulton of Loveley 
 houldeth freely certain lands their, and payeth therefor yearly 4s. " to the Abbey. 
 Robert Bolton of Salesbury, married, in 1567, Agnes, daughter of Nicholas Rishton, 
 gent. , and he was assessed for lands in Salesbury to a Subsidy in 1570. Launcelot 
 Bolton, of Salesbury, died in 1623. Henry Bolton, of Salesbury, died in 1656, and 
 Robert Bolton, of Salesbury, died in 1671. Adam Bolton, gent., of this family, 
 bought the estates of Sir John Talbot, on their sequestration in 1654, for £tio ; these 
 estates reverted to Talbot at the Restoration in 1 660. Launcelot Bolton of Copthurst, 
 in Salesbury, yeoman, by Margaret his wife, had sons, Launcelot, died in 1671 ; 
 Thomas died in 1665 ; and Richard, born in 1658. This Launcelot Bolton died in 
 April, 1701. In 1715, Elizabeth Bolton, being a non-juror, registered an estate in 
 Salesbury of the yearly value of ^^25 12s. Near Copster (or Copthurst) Green is an 
 old house, called Bolton Hall, once the residence of this family of Boltons. 
 
 PARKER OF LOVELEY HALL. 
 
 The Parkers succeeded the Boltons in possession of Loveley messuage, perhaps 
 by marriage of a Parker with a female member of the Boltons. In the Survey of 
 Whalley Abbey estates, taken in 1538, it is reported that "the heirs of Boulton of 
 Loveley houldeth freely certaine lands their, and payeth therefor yearly 4s. " 
 
 Richard Parker was taxed for lands in Salesbury to a Subsidy in 157° > '^"'1 
 Richard Parker de Loveley, gent., a juror in 1578 and 1584, died in 1592 ; he was a 
 Governor of Blackburn Grammar School. 
 
 John Parker of Loveley, gent. , successor of Richard, was elected a Governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School in 1593. He occurs as a freeholder in l6cx) ; and he died 
 Dec. 29th, 1607. After his death, the Escheator took his Inquisition at Blackburn, 
 April 1st, 6th James I., and found that John Parker had died seized of one messuage, 
 one garden, &c., 16 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, and 10 acres of pasture in 
 Salesbury, held of John Talbot in free socage ; also two messuages, two gardens, 50 
 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, and 20 acres of pasture in Wilpshire, held of John 
 Talbot in socage ; and of three messuages, three gardens, 40 acres of land, 20 acres of 
 meadow, 40 acres of pasture, and 10 acres of woodland in Clayton-in-le-Dale, also held 
 of John Talbot in socage. 
 
 Richard Parker was found son and heir to John, aged 21 years and 10 months. 
 Richard Parker of Loveley, gent., is assessed to the Subsidy of l6ri ; appears as a 
 juror in 1617 ; and as a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School prior to 1628. His 
 eldest son was "John, son of Richard Parker of Loveley, gent," bapt. in Dec, 1608. 
 His first wife died in May, 1614. He married again and had issue, Richard, born in 
 1617 ; Robert, buried in 1634; Thomas, buried in 1622 ; a second Thomas, born in 
 1623; and a daughter Rosamond, born in 1615. His second wife died in Feb., 
 1623-24. 
 
656 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 John Parker of Salesbury, gent. , son of Richard, married Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Robert Walmsley of Coldcoates, and had a son John, bapt. Jan. and, 1631-2 ; and 
 daughters, Margaret, bom in 1627 ; and EHzabeth, born in 1628. John Parker, gent., 
 was taxed for his lands to a Subsidy in 1663, and died about 1688, and in that year, at 
 the age of 80, was a deponent in the case respecting Langho Chapel. 
 
 A Thomas Parker of Loveley, gent. , married Mary, daughter of John Livesey, 
 gent, and had sons, Robert, born in 1631 ; and Thomas, bom in 1636; &c. 
 
 John Parker of Loveley, gent., son of John, died in August, 1692. He had a 
 daughter Jane, bom in J675. Richard Parker of Salesbury married, in 1671, Dorothy 
 Duckworth. Richard Parker of Salesbury had a son John, bom in 1709. 
 
 Early in the last century Loveley Hall and estate were in possession of John 
 Winder, gent., whose initials, "I W E" and the date, "1735" appear on the 
 easing-pipes in front of the house. Mr. Edward Winder, of Loveley, elected a Gover- 
 nor of Blackbum Grammar School in 1 743, died in 1759. The estate has now for 
 many years belonged to Le Gendre Nicholas Starkie, Esq., of Huntroyd, who hss, 
 within the last two years, enlarged and restored the Hall, to fit it for a temporary resi- 
 dence for himself. The old house dates probably from the 17th century, and consis"<! 
 of a central block and projected gabled wings. The Loveley Hall estate is Siyi 
 statute acres in extent ; and Mr. Starkie's lands in Salesbury amount to about 1 14 
 statute acres. 
 
 Salesbury Church. — The Parochial Chapel of Salesbury was built in 1806-7, 
 and was consecrated on Sept. 7th, 1807. Dr. 'T. D. Whitaker, then Vicar of 
 Whalley, preached the consecration sermon, which was afterwards printed. The church, 
 consecrated to St. Peter, is a very plain stracture, with large semi-circular-headed 
 windows and doorway. There is a belfry at the west end. The interior is galleried ; 
 and contains 530 sittings, of which 300 are free. By benefactions of ;^200 each from 
 Viscount Bulkeley and Rev. T. Starkie, Vicar of Blackbum, in May, 1809, a grant 
 of ;^40O from the Royal Bounty was obtained in that year. In 1810, a further grant 
 of ^(^200 was made by lot to Salesbury. In 1813, a Parliamentary grant of ;if6oo was 
 obtained by lot for this benefice. The living was valued at £126 per annum in 1867, 
 but has since been augmented by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to ;f 300 per annum ; 
 and the former curacy has been constituted a vicarage. The Vicar of Blackbum is 
 patron. 
 
 Salesbury School. — Adjacent to the church is a National School. Towards 
 the erection of the building a grant of ;^240 was made by the Government. In 1875, 
 49 children were in average attendance, and the Government grant earned was ^33 2s. 
 
SAMLESBURY— DESCENT OF THE MANOR. 657 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— THE TOWNSHIP OF SAMLESBURY. 
 
 Topography — Acreage— Population— Descent of the Manor — De Saralesbury Family — D'Evyas — 
 Southworth Family — Braddyll — Harrison — Samlesbury Hall — De Holand Family — Lovel — 
 Earls of Derby as Lords— Walmesley and Petre — Present Landowners — Hoghton of Roacher — 
 Roacher Hall — Walmesley of Lower Hall — Fleetwood Hall — Culcheth and Hubberstey, of 
 Sowerbutts Green — Church of St. Leonard — St. Marie's Roman Catholic Church — Samlesbury 
 Schools — Samlesbury Charities. 
 
 SAMLESBURY is a large township in Lower Ribblesdale, occupy- 
 ing a broad plain formed by a deep deposit of the boulder-clay ; 
 abutting upon the Darwen river upon the south, and upon the Ribble 
 bank on the north. The area of Samlesbury is 4270 statute acres. 
 In common with other rural townships in Blackburn Parish, Samlesbury 
 has suffered in recent years a steady decline in population. In 1801 
 the inhabitants numbered 1646 ; 1811,1589; 1821,1979; 1831,1948; 
 1841, 1728; 1851, 143s; 1861, 1215; 1871, 810. Thus, the popula- 
 tion in 1871 was less than half the numbers returned in 1821 and 1831. 
 There is one cotton mill in Samlesbury on the Danven bank. 
 
 The succession of manorial lords of Samlesbury is presented here- 
 under. 
 
 DE SAMLESBURY FAMILY, ANCIENT LORDS. 
 
 The earliest recorded lord of Samlesbury was Gospatric de Sam- 
 lesbury, living in the second half of the 12th century; who, about a.d. 
 1 190, built a chapel in his manor for the use of his family and tenantry. 
 Gospatric de Samlesbury had issue, sons, Roger; Richard; Alan, whose 
 wife was Anabel de Blakebum ; and Uctred, a priest ; and a daughter, 
 who was wife of Geoffrey, Dean of Whalley. His lands in Samlesbury 
 are stated to have been 14 bovates, of which he gave eight bovates to 
 Roger, his heir, and the remaining six were divided amongst his three 
 younger sons, Richard, Uctred, and Alan. These bovates contained 20 
 acres each, or a total of 280 customary acres in 14 bovates. This was 
 all the cleared land in Samlesbury in the 13th century. 
 
 Roger de Samlesbury, heir of Gospatric, married, before 1194, 
 Margaret, daughter and heir of Walter, son of Oseber", and had issue, 
 sons, William, Robert, Adam, James, and Roger. He died before 1 246. 
 
 83 
 
658 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 William de Samlesbury, heir of Roger, was knighted. By his wife 
 Avine he had no sons, but three daughters, co-heirs, — Cicely ; Margery; 
 and Elizabeth. Sir William de Samlesbury and his brothers were con- 
 cerned in a suit in 1246, concerning their respective inheritances in the 
 patrimonial estate. 
 
 Cicely de Samlesbury married, before 1258, Sir John D'Evyas, 
 who jure uxort's had half Samlesbury Manor. Margery de Samlesbury 
 married Robert de Haunton, but had no recorded issue. Elizabeth de 
 Samlesbury, the third sister and co-heir, married Sir Robert de Holand, 
 and conveyed her moiety of this manor to the De Holands. In 131 1, 
 Lady Cecill de Evyhus and Lady Elizabeth de Holand were found to 
 hold under Earl de Lascy one carucate in Samlesbury in thanage, paying 
 I2S. yearly. 
 
 D'EVYAS, LORDS OF SAMLESBURY. 
 
 John D'Evyas, who married Cicely, eldest daughter of Sir William 
 de Samlesbury, and thereby obtained the half of Samlesbury, was Knight 
 of the Shire in 1295. He had a son and heir Nicholas ; and a daughter 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 Nicholas D'Evyas, who held, besides the moiety of this manor, half 
 the hamlet of Brightmet, was living in 1335. He had issue a daughter, 
 who became his sole heir, and marrying, before 1332, Gilbert de Sothe- 
 worth, conveyed to him her estate in Samlesbury, &c. 
 
 SOUTHWORTH OF SAMLESBURY. 
 
 Gilbert de Sotheworth, lord of Sotheworth and Croft, Pa. Winwick, 
 was father of Gilbert, who married the daughter and heiress of Nicholas 
 D'Evyas, lord of Samlesbury. He had other sons, Richard, and Mat- 
 thew, and was living in 1325. 
 
 Sir Gilbert de Sotheworth, Knt., son of Gilbert, after his marriage 
 abode at Samlesbury, and rebuilt the manor-house. Sir Gilbert was living 
 in 1363. His son and heir was John Sotheworth. 
 
 John Sotheworth, lord of Samlesbury, who was knighted, married 
 Margaret, daughter of Sir Richard de Hoghton, Knt., and had a son and 
 heir) Thomas, bom about 1393. Sir John Sotheworth was with the 
 English army at the siege of Harfleur, and died of the dysentery, 5th 
 Oct. 1415. The /«^. /(7i-/ ;/w;-/. (printed by Mr. Wm. Langton), shows 
 that Sir John Sotheworth had settled in trust his manors of Sotheworth, 
 Samesbury, and the Folyhall, with all the lands he possessed in Lanca- 
 shire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Notts, by deed dated July 25th, 1400. 
 
 Thomas Sotheworth, found son and heir of Sir John in 1416, 
 and then aged 23 years, held these estates until his death, April 
 27th, 1432. He married Johanna, daughter of Sir John de Booth of 
 
THE SOUTHWORTH FAMILY. 659 
 
 Barton. On Xhe. I nq. post mart., isktn at Ormskirk, Dec. 31st, 1432, 
 it was found that Thomas Sotheworth de Sammesbury held at his death 
 jointly with Johanna his wife (who had survived him) estates in Croft 
 and Ebury by the deed of feoffment of his father, John Sotheworth, 
 Knt., dated at Barton, May 4th, 1409 ; also that he had held two parts 
 of the moiety of his manor of Sammesbury by feoffment of Galfrid 
 Banaster, vicar of the Parish Church of Blackburne, and William Bolton, 
 chaplain, by charter to him for his life, dated at Sammesbury, Oct. 8th, 
 1426, which the said Galfrid and William had of , the feoffment of the 
 said Thomas Sotheworth ; the Samlesbury estate being held of the King 
 as of the Duchy of Lancaster in socage and by service, and worth yearly 
 10 marks; other estates in Middleton, Ebury, Houghton, Sotheworth, 
 and Croft ; also he held of the King, as of the Duchy of Lancaster, two 
 parts of certain lands in Meller, Overdenvynd, and Alston in socage by 
 service of 4s. 6d. yearly, worth iocs., &c. His son and heir was Richard, 
 then aged 1 2 years ; and he had other sons, Gilbert Sotheworth, who 
 fought at the Battle of Agincourt in 141 5 ; and John Sotheworth ; and a 
 daughter Elizabeth, wife of Richard son of Thurstan de Holand. 
 
 Richard Sotheworth, Esq., succeeding his father in this lordship, 
 married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Molyneux, of Sefton, Knt., 
 and had a son and heir, Christopher ; and daughters, Juliana, wife of 
 Sir Richard Towneley of Towneley, Knt. ; Anne, wife of Sir Thomas 
 Molyneux; Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Screven, Knt.; Margaret, wife 
 of Richard Vernon ; and Emma, wife of — Cholmley. Richard South- 
 worth died Dec. 21st, 1472. 
 
 Christopher Southworth, ne.xt scion of this family, was knighted, 
 says Dugdale, " on his expedition to Scotland," a.d. 1482. His wife 
 was Lsabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Dutton of Dutton, Knt. Issue, 
 sons, John, the heir ; Christopher, and Edmund ; daughters, Anne, wife 
 ofSirAIexr. Osbaldeston, Knt.; Margaret, wife of Sir William Hoghton, 
 Knt.; and Johanna, wife of Ralph Langton, Esq. Sir Christopher Sothe- 
 worth, died in T487 ; and in the 6th Henry VH. the Inq. post mart, was 
 taken, showing him to have held Samlesbury manor, as of the manor of 
 Cliderhou, Southworth manor, and lands in several other townships in 
 Lancashire. 
 
 Sir John Southworth, Knt., son of Christopher, married Helen 
 daughter of Sir Richard Langton, Knt, by whom he had sons, Thomas; 
 Christopher (who had sons, John, died s.p. ; and Edward, merchant of 
 London, who had sons, Henry, of Week, Co. Somerset ; and Thomas) ; 
 Richard, who died s.p.; and James. In 15 11, Sir John Southworth had 
 a quarrel with John Paslew, Abbot of Whalley ; and he died in 1519; 
 the escheat (nth Henry VIII.) attests that he had estates in Samles- 
 
66o HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 bury, Mellor, Osbaldeston, Over Derwynt, Plesyngton, and Ljrvesey, in 
 Blackburn Parish, and divers lands in other parts of the county. 
 
 Thomas Southworth, his son and heir, also was knighted. It was 
 this Sir Thomas who restored the north wing of Samlesbury Hall in 
 1532, and built the other wing in 1545. He was sheriff of the county 
 in 1541. At his Visitation of Lancashire in 1533, the herald enters : — 
 "Syr Thomas Sudworthe, Knyght, maryed Margery, dowghter to Thomas 
 Butler of Bewse, father to Thomas Butler that now ys, & they have 
 ishew, Elsabethe, Anne, Cysle, Katryn, and Dorothe. I spake not wt 
 hym." This record names not Sir Thomas's son, who, however, is said 
 to have been born sixteen years before this, in 1 5 1 7. Of Sir Thomas's 
 daughters, Elizabeth was wife of Robert Farington, Esq.; Anne, wife of 
 Richard Barton of Barton Row, Esq.; Cicely, wife of John Culcheth, 
 Esq.; Katherine, wife, first, of Thomas Clifton, Esq., secondly, of John 
 Westby, Esq.; and Dorothy, wife of John Rishton of Dunkenhalgh, gent. 
 Sir Thomas Southworth died in 1546 ; and the In^. post mart, was taken 
 38th Henry VHI. 
 
 Sir John Southworth, Knt., succeeded Sir Thomas, his father. He 
 was in some respects the most noteworthy scion of this important family. 
 Living in the age of ecclesiastical revolution completed in the reign of 
 Elizabeth, Sir John Southworth adhered to the Roman Church through 
 much civil penalty. In a former chapter (pp. 7 7-82) I have narrated 
 fully the several prosecutions for "recusancy" Sir John Southworth 
 underwent between tlie years 1568 and 1592. He was High Sheriff of 
 the county in 1562. He married, July 23rd, 1547, Mary, daughter of 
 Sir Richard Assheton of Middleton, and had issue, sons, Thomas; John; 
 Richard ; Michael ; Christopher; Gilbert; and Leonard ; and daughters, 
 Anne, wife of Robert Singleton, gent; Jane, married — Stanley; Mary, 
 wife of George Talbot ; and Margaret, wife of Bartholomew Hesketh, 
 gent. During Sir John Southworth's incarceration, his affairs became 
 involved; and in 1588, he suffered a Recovery of his estates for the dis- 
 charge of his debts. He died Nov. 3rd, 1595. His Will (a lengthy 
 document, printed in the History of Samlesbury Hall), is dated Sept. 
 17th, 1595. Testator names as his executors, Jane Stanley, widow, 
 Barthol. Hesketh and Margaret his wife; and Robert Singleton and Anne 
 his wife, the said Jane, Margaret, and Anne being testator's daughters ; 
 and devises to them all his manors of Samlesbury, Mellor, Southworth, 
 Croft, Myddleton, Houghton, and Arbery, with messuages, lands, &c., 
 in those places and elsewhere in Lancashire, to hold for seven years, for 
 the payment of testator's debts ; the estates then to pass to Thomas 
 Southworth, son and heir ; remainder to John Southworth, son and heir 
 of the said Thomas ; with contingent remainders, &c.; names sons. 
 
THE SOUTHWORTH FAMILY. 66 1 
 
 Thomas, William, Richard, Michael, Christopher, and Edward ; also 
 Bridget, Margery, Ellen, and Anne, daughters of testator's son Thomas ; 
 gives to his daughters Margaret and Ann 200 marks each ; desires his 
 loving cousins and friends, Thomas Hesketh of Preston and Humphrey 
 Davenport of Gray's Inn, gentlemen, to be supervisors of the Will, and 
 gives them ^10 each ; bequests to servants and others, &c. By the 
 Iiuj. post mori., taken March 3rd, 39th Eliz., the estates of Sir John 
 Southworth were found to comprise : — the manor of Southworth, with 
 3380 acres of land and loos. rents ; Samlesbury manor, with 20 mes- 
 suages, one water-mill, 1000 acres of arable land, 200 of meifdow, 40 of 
 pasture, 60 of wood, 40 of moor, 100 of moss, and 40 of gorse and heath 
 in Samlesbury ; in Mellor, 30 messuages with gardens, 940 acres of land, 
 and 50s. rents ; estates in Croft, Newton, Arbury, Houghton in Maker- 
 field, Femehead ; 3 messuages and 94 acres of land in Pleasington ; a 
 messuage and 120 acres in Livesey ; estates in Ribchester, Oswald 
 twistle, Brockhall, and other places ; and further, in Samlesbury, the 
 fourth part of 50 acres common of pasture, and two parcels of land 
 called Milnefield. The total extent of the lands was about 7600 cus- 
 tomary acres, equal to about 14,000 statute acres. 
 
 Of the younger sons of Sir John Southworth, two are noteworthy: — • 
 Christopher Southworth, a priest of the Roman Church, and, like his 
 father, subjected to severe penalties for " recusancy ;" he was in prison in 
 Wisbeach Castle on this account at the time of his father's death ; and 
 he was implicated in the cases of alleged witchcraft in Samlesbury, tried 
 at Lancaster Assizes in 16 12 (see ante, pp. 88-95); the other was Gilbert 
 Southworth, a lawyer of some staTiding, who was living in 1607. 
 
 Thomas Southworth, Esq., son and heir of Sir John, married Rosa- 
 mond,' daughter of William Lister, Esq., of Thornton in Craven ; and 
 had issue, sons, John ; Thomas; William; Richard; Michael ; Nicholas; 
 Christopher ; and Edward ; daughters, Bridget, wife of — Duddell of 
 Salwick ; Margery, wife of Thomas Osbaldeston, gent.; Ellen, wife of 
 William Dewhurst, gent.; and Anne. He sold his estates in Southworth, 
 Pleasington, &c., and died in 1617 ; seized, by the escheat (isth Jas. L), 
 
 I By deed dated Feb. 24th, 1607, between Thomas Southworth of Samlesbuiy, Esq., and 
 Rosamond his wife (born Rosamond Lister), of the first part; Thos. Ireland of Bewsey, Esq., and 
 Margaret his wife and John Harrington, gent., son and heir apparent of Percevall Harrington Esq. 
 and Margaret his wife of the second part : Lawrence Lister of Thornton in Craven, Esq., Michae 
 Lister of Brockden in Craven, Esq., and Martin Lister of London of the third part ; and John 
 Aston, Esq., son and heir apparent of Thos. Aston of Aston, Co. Chester, Knt., and Robert Singleton 
 of Brockall, gent, of the fourth part: it is witnessed that Thomas and Rosamond Southworth, 
 Thos. and Margaret Ireland, and John and Margaret Harrington grant unto Lawrence, Michael, and 
 Martin Lister one annuity of ;^ioo issuing out of the Manor-house of Thomas Southworth lately 
 erected in Sothworth, called Sothworth Hall, and the lands belonging thereto, &c., to hold during 
 the lives of Thomas Southworth and Rosamond his wife, and the life of the longest liver of them : 
 to be paid half-yearly in the Church porch of Wynwick, on the 31st July and 20th Dec , &c. 
 
662 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN'. 
 
 of Samlesbury manor, with messuages, lands, &c. He was the first 
 Protestant of the family. 
 
 John Southworth, eldest son, had died before his father in 1612, 
 His wife was Jane, natural daughter of Sir Richard Sherburne, Knt., by 
 whom he had sons, Thomas ; John ; Richard, Gilbert, and Christopher, 
 all three died unmarried ; and daughters, Elizabeth, Mar}', Ann, and 
 Rosamond. 
 
 Thomas Southworth, son of John, was heir to his grandsire in 161 7, 
 being then a minor. He sold the Lower Hall of Samlesbury and lands 
 therewith to Sir Thomas Walmesley (the son). His wife was Anne, 
 daughter of Sir Thomas Tyldesley, Knt., and he had two sons, John ; 
 and Thomas ; and daughters, Elizabeth (wife, first, of Richard Walmesley 
 of Showley, Esq., secondly, of John Nowell, gent., thirdly, of George 
 Talbot of New Hall, gent.); and Jane, wife, first, of Timothy Sumner, 
 secondly, of John Jackson. He died Feb. 27th, 1623-4, aged about 24 
 years, seized of a moiety of Samlesbury manor, with 16 messuages and 
 200 acres of land. His wife Ann survived him ; and his son John was 
 found his heir. 
 
 John Southworth died unmarried, Jan. 12th, 1635-6 ; and his 
 brother Thomas became heir, who also died without issue, April ist, 
 1641 ; and on Inquisition it was found that the next heirs of Thomas 
 Southworth were his two sistprs, Elizabeth Walmesley, aged 21, and Jane 
 Sumner, aged 19. But Sir John Southworth having, in 1595, made a 
 strict entail of Samlesbury manor, litigation now ensued between these 
 heiresses and their uncle, John Southworth, younger son of John who 
 died in 161 2, claiming as heir in taile. The issue appears to have been 
 that John Southworth was left in possession of Samlesbury Hall and 
 manor ; and the daughters of Thomas Southworth retained the estates 
 in Mellor. 
 
 John Southworth last-named married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas 
 Langton of Lowe, Esq., and had sons, John, Thomas, Edward, Richard, 
 Christopher, and William ; and daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Anne, Isabel, 
 Rosamond, Helen, Bridget, and Mary. By a series of mortgages, John 
 Southworth surrendered his custody of remaining portions of the family 
 estate. He died in 1675. His two eldest sons, John, and Thomas, had 
 died before without issue, and Edward, the third son, was heir to an 
 estate encumbered beyond retrieval. 
 
 Edward Southworth, by an indenture of deseazance dated the 14th 
 July, 1676, in consideration of ;^20o, granted to Richard Walmesley, 
 his heirs, &c., all his estate and interest in the manor of Samlesbury, 
 with a proviso for redemption on payment of the several sums of £s^y 
 jCi6, and ;^636 at the Hall of Dunkenhalgh ; but the surrender became 
 
BRADDYLL, COOPER, HARRISON, LORDS OF SAMLESBURY. 663 
 
 final shortly aftenvards, when, by indenture dated loth March, 1679, to 
 which Richard Walmesley was a consenting party in consideration that 
 a sum of ^6000 was well and sufficiently secured to him, by the direc- 
 tion, &c., of Edward Southworth, was sold unto Thomas Braddyll, his 
 heirs and assigns for ever, the manor of Samlesbury, with the rights, 
 members, &c. The indenture of conveyance, between Edward South- 
 worth of Samlesbury, of the one part, and Thomas Braddyll of Portfield, 
 of the other part, sets forth that Edward Southwortli, in consideration of 
 ^3150 paid by Thomas Braddyll, grants to the said Thomas Braddyll 
 all the manor or lordship of Samlesbury, with the manor-house of Sam- 
 lesbury Hall, the demesne lands thereto belonging, and the water Corn 
 Mill and the Kiln in Samlesbury. 
 
 The descent of the Southworths since the alienation of the last of the estates has 
 been traced by Mr. Croston. Edward Southworth had two sons, of whom John, the 
 eldest, had no issue. Thomas, the second son, born in 1690, had a son Thomas, bom 
 in 1724, who left Samlesbury and settled in London, as a bookseller in Bethnal Green. 
 He married Ann Debonair, and had sons, Thomas, died young ; John ; a second 
 Thomas, died in 1815 ; James (died abroad) ; and Samuel ; and a daughter Ann. 
 Thomas Southworth, the father, died in 1788. John Southworth, eldest surviving son, 
 born in 1755, married Anne Denby, and had six sons and four daughters. John and 
 Peter, the first two sons, died young ; the third, Edward Lazarus Southworth, married 
 Rebecca Stephenson, had a son John, and a daughter, and died in 1815. John South- 
 worth, the son, was bom in 1813, and was living at Bethnal Green, London, in 1870. 
 He married, in 1836, Mary P>rry, and had five sons, and as many daughters. John 
 Edward Southworth, eldest son, bom in 1839, married, in 1862, Martha Gibbons, and 
 has issue. 
 
 BRADDYLL, LORDS OF SAMLESBURY. 
 
 The genealogy of the Braddylls, of Portfield and Conishead Priory, 
 has been inserted in a former chapter (see aiiie, pp. 438-441). They held 
 the moiety of Samlesbury Manor from the date of its purchase, in 1679, 
 by Thomas Braddyll, Esq., until the middle of the present century. In 
 1691, Wilson Gale Braddyll, Esq., mortgaged to Richard Greaves Town- 
 ley, for ^10,300, "all the manor or lordship of Samlesbury, and the 
 capital messuage, mansion, or manor-house, called Samlesbury Hall," 
 &c. Under an order of the Court of Chancery the hall and manor of 
 Samlesbury were sold in Nov., 1850, to John Cooper, Esq., of the Oaks, 
 Penwortham. Mr. Cooper conveyed the estate, Nov. 13th, 1862, to 
 Joseph Harrison, Esq., J.P., D.L., of Galligreaves Hall, Blackburn. Mr. 
 Harrison is present joint lord of the manor of Samlesbury. 
 
 The Manor-house of Samlesbury, known as Samlesbury Hall, is one 
 of the most complete and interesting examples of early domestic archi- 
 tecture remaining in the North of England. From 1862 to 1866 the 
 Hall was admirably restored under the direction of Joseph Harrison, 
 
664 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Esq., who, in the internal decorative work, had the services of the late 
 Mr. Shaw, F.S.A., author oi Decorative Arts of the Middle Ages. As re- 
 stored, the Hall is interiorly a model of antique grandeur and enrich- 
 ment, and on the exterior presents the picturesque aspect exhibited in 
 the view inserted in this work. The picture presents the north-east 
 front of the Hall, with the oldest wing on the right ; and reveals the 
 various styles of the timber framework of the two blocks. The distinc- 
 tive features of the more ancient structure are, the upright oaken timbers, 
 connected by horizontal beams and fortified by diagonal bracing ribs, 
 the interstices filled up with a composition of lime and clay, laid upon 
 laths ; the mullioned and transomed windows ; the high-pitched roof ; 
 the many-angled oriel near the point of conjunction with the major 
 building ; and the gabled and casemented dormer-chamber proj ected 
 over the oriel. The larger and later structure displays on this front 
 walls of oak timbers fixed vertically and horizontally, the square inter- 
 spaces being decorated by pierced quatrefoils picked out in white to 
 contrast with the dark hue of the timber-work ; the entrance-porch near 
 the midst of the block ; the large old-fashioned windows, divided with 
 mullion and transome, on the lower storey ; the corbelled projecting 
 windows in the upper storey ; and the roof with its boldly-projecting 
 eaves and octagonal chimneys. The other front of this principal wing 
 differs in detail from that which is seen in the drawing. The wall on 
 that side has been faced with moulded brick with stone dressings. 
 Three massive chimneys project from this wall ; and upon the face of 
 the chimney to the left hand is a stone shield, enclosing the arms of 
 Southworth, quartered with those of D'Evyas. The bricks are of the 
 small thin kind, and are supposed to be of foreign manufacture (perhaps 
 Flemish, and made by Flemings who sought refuge in England in the 
 1 6th century from the oppression of D'Alva). The surface of the 
 wall is diversified by diamond-patterns and other ornamental designs in 
 dark brick. The windows are square-headed, with mullions and cinque- 
 foil heads ; the largest, near the east end on the ground floor, is a hand- 
 some four-light window, with tracery heads, cinquefoiled and sub-arcuated, 
 and is believed to have been brought from Our Lady's Chapel in Whalley 
 Abbey. The length of this front is 105 feet. The main doorway of 
 the Hall was formerly on this front, near the centre ; it remains, but 
 in the restoration the principal porch has been placed on the other 
 front. Turning to the interior, the Great Hall appropriates nearly 
 the whole area of the original north wing. It is a noble apartment, 
 35 feet long, and 25 feet six inches wide ; its height, from the floor to 
 the spring of the roof, is 14 feet six inches, and to the ridge 29 feet 
 seven inches. The hall was originally some feet longer than it is 
 
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THE HALL OF SAMLESBURY. 665' 
 
 now, having at some date been reduced by about half a bay ; and at the 
 time of this curtailment, the dais or raised floor, for the chief guests at 
 great feasts, at the north end of the Hall, was removed. The features of 
 the Great Banqueting Hall which at once arrest the eye of the beholder, 
 are the massive open-timber roof, and the elaborately-carved screen of 
 dark old oak, at the south end of the hall, supporting the front of the 
 minstrels' gallery. The roof has been described as " an excellent speci- 
 men of fourteenth century work;" it is " acutely pointed and open to the 
 ridge-piece, the frame-work being divided into bays, and so arranged as 
 to form a series of Gothic arches." The erection of this wing is attri- 
 buted to the reign of Edward HI. (1327-77), and it is believed to be a 
 portion of the re-edification of the Hall shortly after the destruction by 
 fire of an older manor-house of Samlesbury during a raid of marauding 
 Scots into Lancashire in 1323. But the carved oak screen at the south 
 end belongs to a later addition to the Hall ; as also does the archway 
 of the open fire-place, which superseded the brazier supporting the burn- 
 ing logs in the midst of the hall. The woodwork of the screen, and of 
 the massive square pillars of oak which separate its compartments and 
 support the cornice in front of the minstrels' gallery, is covered with 
 cunning carvings of arcades, grotesque figures, cornucopias, and other 
 emblematic devices. Two doors open in the screen, and in the centfC 
 is cut in three panels the inscription : — 
 
 [nna |)omjn5 
 
 U.|(ittn|talii' lipomas |til^aiort]^ 
 
 l-l.^l. 
 
 Intg^^t. 
 
 The Southworth crest accompanies. Over the screen is the Minstrels' 
 Gallery ; and at the rear of the gallery is a room designed for a "solar" or 
 lord's chamber. At the south end the east wall of the Great Hall is em- 
 bayed by the oriel recess. The form of the oriel is that of seven sides of 
 a duodecagon ; and its window consists of five lights transomed. Above 
 the oriel, forming an upper storey on a level with the floor of the Minstrels' 
 Gallery, is a small chamber, lighted by a recessed window, supposed to 
 have been used for an oratory. Besides the oriel window the Great Hall 
 is lighted by two large windows, each of four lights, with deeply-moulded 
 jambs, mullions, and tiansomes, which occupy the eastern wall. The fire- 
 place is formed by a depressed arch, the jambs of which are splayed 
 at the angles, and which measures 1 5 feet two inches in width, by six feet 
 nine inches in height. The principal entrance to the Hall placed in the 
 centre of the larger block, is by a gothic porch (which is modern). The 
 
 I The characters " S. P. Bono Statu," in the middle panel, may be taken to stand for " Supplicate 
 pro bono statu," meaning "Pray for the good estate," &c., a variation of the more common wording 
 of the invocation " Orate pro bono itatu," &c., of ancient memorial inscriptions. 
 
 84 
 
666 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 entrance-hall is spacious (23 ft. by 19 ft. 6 in.), and from the hall a hand- 
 some oaken staircase (part of the late restoration) leads to the upper floor. 
 A corridor extending the whole length of the building conducts to the 
 several apartments on the ground-floor. On the right are the dining-room, 
 butler's pantry, kitchens and offices ; on the left are the library, and the 
 morning-room. The morning-room, at the north-east end of the house, 
 is the ancient Chapel of the Hall. Its ceiling is new, for the height of 
 the chapel was formerly equal to the altitude of the building itself. The 
 apartment is lit by windows on three sides, that on the south side is the 
 window from Whalley Abbey ; and in the wall near it is inserted the 
 piscina, betokening the ancient religious purpose of the room. The 
 next apartment is the library, a room originally divided from the chapel 
 by a parclose-screen, but now by a wall-partition. The ceiling is the old 
 one of massive and deeply-moulded oaken beams, longitudinal and 
 transverse, forming square compartments. This room now contains the 
 noble library collected by William Harrison, Esq., F.S.A., who makes the 
 Hall his residence. The largest apartment in this wing is the dining- 
 room, which has a fine panelled oaken ceiling, a richly-carved cornice, 
 and other tokens of age and dignity ; but the most striking of its decora- 
 tions is the group of painted heraldic devices over the arched stone 
 fire-place. The shields of arms were cut in stone, and surrounded 
 with a series of circular panels displaying geometrical figures, at the date 
 of the erection of the building ; but falling into indifferent hands, they 
 had become almost invisible by coatings of whitewash or dirt. Mr. 
 Harrison had the designs carefully cleared, and the tinctures of the 
 arms replaced under the direction of Mr. Shaw, F.S.A. These shields 
 and the geometric patterns in panel constitute a rich and most appro- 
 priate mural embellishment. The arms in the centre shield are those 
 of the Southworths impaling Hoghton, with the Southworth crest above, 
 flanked by the arms of Hoghton of Hoghton Tower quartered with 
 Assheton, with the Hoghton crest and initials " R H, Knt. ;" and the 
 arms of Langton of Walton Hall, with the crest and initials " T L, Knt." 
 Above these emblems is an interesting inscription, fixing, as it does, the 
 date of the rebuilding of this wing of Samlesbury Hall in or before the 
 year 1545, tem/>. Henry VIII. The inscribed words are : — 
 
 The dimensions of this room are twenty-seven feet by fifteen feet. 
 It is lighted by two large square-headed windows, with stone mullions 
 and traceried heads. The butler's pantry adjoining, and the kitchens 
 beyond, are recent extensions of the original plan. In the range of 
 chambers on the upper floor the open-timber roof has been preserved. 
 
DE HOLAND, LORDS OF SAMLESBURY. 667 
 
 The spandrils of the curved bracing-ribs are finished with carved foliage. 
 A cornice of handsome design surrounds the rooms. The partitions are 
 new. On the south-west front these upper rooms have windows of three 
 lights, square-headed and traceried. On the north-east side, the win- 
 dows lighting the upper corridor are recessed, and supported by oaken 
 corbels, the external surfaces of which are carved with human faces and 
 other devices. Mr. Harrison has furnished the hall in a style which, 
 while in strict keeping with its antique grandeur, greatly enriches the 
 aspect of its interior. 
 
 At the time of its erection, Samlesbury Hall was semi-fortified, and 
 was surrounded by a moat, remains of which are still existing. Recently, 
 when making a deep drain near the conservatory, the workmen broke 
 into the underground dungeon of the hall, a dark walled cavity, 15ft. by 
 15ft., and 12ft. in height. The bones of several human bodies also 
 have been dug up in the grounds. 
 
 DE HOLAND, LORDS OF SAMLESBURY. 
 
 Sir Robert de Holand (knighted before 1281, son and heir of 
 Thurstan and grandson of Robert de Holand, lord of Up-Holand, Co. 
 Lancaster), by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Sir William de 
 Samlesbury, had sons, Robert, William, and Adam ; and daughters, Joan, 
 wife, first, of Sir Edmund Talbot of Bashall ; secondly, of Sir Hugh de 
 Button ; and thirdly, of Sir John Radcliife of Ordsall ; Margery, wife of 
 John, eldest son of Sir John de la Warre, baron of Manchester ; and 
 Avena, wife of Adam, son of Sir John Ireland, Knt., lord of Hutt. 
 
 Sir Robert de Holand, Knt., son of Sir Robert, a noted warrior of 
 his time, married Maud, youngest daughter and a co-heir of Alan, Lord 
 de la Zouch, and had sons, Robert ; Sir Thomas de Holand, K.G. (who 
 married Joan, daughter and heiress of John Plantagenet, Earl of Kent, 
 and obtained, in right of his wife, the title of Earl of Kent) ; Sir Otho de 
 Holand, K.G.; and Alan de Holand of Wirksworth. Between the years 
 1301-3, Sir Robert de Holand was engaged in the war in Scotland. In 
 131 1, he was made Governor of Beeston Castle, Co. Chester, and in 
 1 3 14-15 was again marching northward against the Scots at the head of 
 the Lancashire levies. He was summoned to Parliament as a baron in 
 13 14. In 1322, he joined with his forces the rebellion of Thomas, Earl of 
 Lancaster, after whose defeat Sir Robert de Holand surrendered to the 
 King, when all his estates, including the moiety of the manor of Samles- 
 bury, were confiscated. In 1328, Edward III. ordered the restoration of 
 these forfeited possessions to Sir Robert de Holand. Sir Robert de 
 Holand died in 1328, and his son and heir was found to be then aged 
 16 years. 
 
C68 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Sir Robert de Holand, next heir of the Samlesbury estate, was stim- 
 moned to Parliament, as second baron, 25th Feb., 1342, and died in 
 1372. By Elizabeth his wife he had issue, sons, Robert ; and John, who 
 died without issue. Sir Robert de Holand held at his death, in 
 1372, the manors of Holland, Hale, and Orrell ; the manor of Samles- 
 bury, held of the lord Duke of Lancaster by homage and fidelity and by 
 the service of 6s., the said manor being worth yearly ^30 12s. i id.; and 
 numerous other estates in the county, among them the fourth part of the 
 manor of Over Derwent in this parish, held of Ralph de Langton, by 
 homage and fidelity, worth yearly 6s. 8d. 
 
 Robert de Holand, son of Sir Robert, died before his father in 
 1359. By Joan his wife he had a daughter and heiress, Matilda (or 
 Maud), who became wife of Sir John de Lovel, K.G., and by the union 
 the estates of the Holands of this branch, including this half of Samles- 
 bury manor, passed to the Lords Lovel. By inquisition dated April 4th, 
 47th Edw. III. (1373), it was proved that Sir Robert de Holand, the 
 father, had died March i6th, 1372, and that Matilda, daughter of Robert, 
 son of Sir Robert de Holand, deceased, whom Sir John Lovel had to 
 wife, was next heir to the said Sir Robert, and was of the age of seventeen 
 years and upwards.^ 
 
 LOVEL, LORDS OF SAMLESBURY. 
 
 Sir John Lovel, K.G. (second son of John Baron Lovel of Tich- 
 mersh, and heir to his elder brother John), by Maud [Matilda] Holand 
 his wife, had a son and heir John. Sir John was summoned to Parlia- 
 ment in 1375. Matilda Lovel, Sir John's widow, died in 1423, seized 
 of the manors of Upholland and Halewood, and the moiety of the 
 manor of Samlesbury, with other estates in Lancashire and Derbyshire. 
 
 John, Lord Lovel, died in 14 14. He married Alianore de la Zouch, 
 and had a son William, who had livery of the lands of his father's 
 mother, Matilda, late widow of Sir John Lovel, Knt., by precept dated 
 June 14th, ist Henry VL, being then aged 26 years. 
 
 William, Lord Lovel, died in 1455. By his wife Alice, widow of 
 Ralph Butler of Sudley, and sister and co-heir of William, Lord Dein- 
 court, he had issue, sons, John ; William, married Alianore, heiress of 
 Robert, Lord Morley ; Robert ; and Henry. 
 
 John, Lord Lovel, son and heir, died in 1465. His wife was Joan, 
 daughter of John, and sister and heir of William Viscount Beaumont, 
 and he had a son Francis ; and daughters, Joan, wife of Sir Bryan Sta- 
 pleton, Knt.; and Frideswide, wife of Sir Edward Norris, Knt. 
 
 I Note by Mr. W. A. Hulton, in Coucher Book of Whalley (p. 979); and Mr. William Langton'* 
 edition of Lane. Inquisitions (Cheth. Socy., v. xcix). 
 
LORDS OF THE SECOND MOIETY OF SAMLESBURY MANOR. 669 
 
 Francis, Lord Lovel, created Viscount Lovel 4th Jan., 1483, mar- 
 ried Ann, daughter of Henry, Lord Fitzhugh, and died without issue. 
 He was supposed to have been slain at the battle of Stoke, June i6th, 
 1487, fighting against the King (Henry VH). This peer had been at- 
 tainted after the Batde of Bosworth Field in 1485, as a partizan of 
 Richard HL, and of his sequestrated estates the moiety of Samlesbury 
 manor was granted by Henry VII., in 1489, to Thomas, first Earl of Derby. 
 
 EARLS OF DERBY AS LORDS OF SAMLESBURY. 
 The moiety of Samlesbury Manor granted to Thomas Stanley, first 
 Earl of Derby, by the Crown, on its forfeiture by Lord Level's attainder, 
 was found in possession of Thomas second Earl of Derby at the date of 
 his death ; and in the escheat, dated 1521, Samlesbury Manor is named 
 among the late Earl's numerous estates. Edward, third Earl of Derby, 
 held his manor-court at Samlesbury, in conjunction with Sir John South- 
 worth, June 30th, 1557 ; and in 1575 is dated a record of verdicts in 
 the court of Henry fourth Earl of Derby and Sir John Southworth for 
 this manor. At this court it was agreed " that the headge from the 
 fowte of bosbumbroke unto the heade of beswalle shalbe the meires 
 [bounds] betwene the Erie of Derbye and Sr John Sowthworth, Knight." 
 This moiety of Samlesbury was sold by William, sixth Earl of Derby, to 
 Sir Thomas Walmesley the Judge ; who appears as lord in the 6th Jas. 
 I. (1608). This estate is not named in Justice Walmesley's settlement of 
 his estates in 1 606, so that it was probably acquired by him between 
 1606 and 1608. 
 
 WALMESLEY AND PETRE, LORDS OF SAMLESBURY. 
 
 The Walmesleys of Dunkenhalgh held this moiety of Samlesbury 
 from the beginning of the 1 7th century until their main descent ended 
 in an heiress, Catherine Walmesley, who married Robert, Baron Petre, 
 in 1 7 12-13. From that time to the present the estate has pertained to 
 the Petre family. Edward Petre, Esq., of Whitley Abbey, Coventry, is 
 the present owner of the estate, which, in 1875, comprised about 2000 
 statute acres, extending over the west and south-west portions of the 
 township. In 1875, the Corporation of Blackburn acquired by compul- 
 sory purchase, for the purposes of a sewage farm, 375 acres of the estate, 
 the price of which was fixed by arbitration at ;£'44,8oo. In July of the 
 same year 405 acres were sold in lots, by public auction, to several 
 parties for a gross sum of ^23,700. The portions of the estate thus 
 severed chiefly lie contiguous to the Darwen, on both banks of the river. 
 Mr. Edward Petre still retains 11 22 statute acres of land in Samlesbury. 
 
 Other landowners in Samlesbury are : — (Jeorge Walmsly, Esq., 
 who has 348 statute acres ; J. C. Kay, Esq., 196^ acres; J. Fisher 
 
670 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Armistead, Esq., 125 J^ acres; Henry Gaskell, Esq., 120 acres; Robert 
 Hubberstey, Esq., 106 j4 acres; Sir W. H. Feilden, Bart., 85 j4 acres ; 
 Daniel Thwaites, Esq., M.P., 55 acres ; &c. 
 
 HOGHTON OF ROACHER HOUSE. 
 
 Henry Hoghton, Esq., was sixth son of Sir Gilbert Hoghton of 
 Hoghton Tower, Knt. and Bart. At Brindle Church, Sept. 15th, 1656, 
 " Henry Hoghton of Walton " married Dame Mary Stanley of Bicker- 
 staff (widow of Sir Thomas Stanley of BickerstafiF, Bart., who died in 
 1653). I think there was no issue to this marriage. Henry Hoghton, 
 Esq., sometime resided at Roacher House, Samlesbury, and on his 
 estate at Brinscall. An indenture in the muniment chest at Samlesbury 
 Hall is a deed of exchange, dated Jan. loth, 1678, between Edward 
 Southworth,«Esq., and Henry Houghton of Brinscawe, Esq., of a pew in 
 Samlesbury Church owned by Edward Southworth, for another pew 
 " behind the north church door in the alley called Yeoman's Alley, be- 
 longing to the capital messuage of Henry Hoghton called Roacher, in 
 Samlesbury." Henry Hoghton, Esq., died in 1682. His Will is dated 
 6th January, 1681-2 ; and was proved on the 5th February, 1681-2. Tes- 
 tator is described as " of Brinscall ;" mentions his wife Mary ; nephew 
 Sir Charles Hoghton ; sisters — Rigby of Middleton, Lady Stanley, 
 and — Whitley ; gives to Sir Charles Hoghton of Hoghton, Edward 
 Rigby of Preston, Serjeant-at-law, Benjn. Hoghton, Esq., brother of the 
 said Sir Charles, and Edwd. Fleetwood of Penwortham, Esq., three 
 several sums of ;^S0 for the benefit of the officiating clergymen of 
 Heapy, Low Church (Walton-in-le-Dale), and Samlesbury, at the discre- 
 tion of the trustees ; refers to real estate of testator in Samlesbury and 
 Wheelton ; appoints wife Mary sole executrix. 
 
 Roacher Hall, Samlesbury, situate on the bank of the Darwen near 
 Roacher Bridge, is a two-storied stone house of the seventeenth century, 
 with mullioned and transomed windows on its south frontage, and a 
 doorway in the centre, beneath a low moulded semi-circular arch ; above 
 is a stone with the Hoghton arms and crest sculptured upon it, and let- 
 tered with the initials " H H " and the motto " Malgre le Tort." In 
 the end wall of the house is another stone with the arms on the left 
 upper comer, and inscribed in capitals : — " This Bvlding was erected 
 Anno Domini 1675 by Henry Hoghton, Esqr. son to Sr Gilbart 
 Hoghton, Knight and Baranet." The barn in the rear is about the 
 same age, and on the lintel of the main door are the initials " H H " 
 and the year " 1673." Inside the barn, in the hayloft, a stone in the wall 
 with ornamented border displays the initials " H H " (Henry Hoghton), 
 and " M S" (Mary Stanley, his wife) ; below, the date " 1673." 
 

 
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CULCHETH OF SOWERBUTTS GREEN. 67 1 
 
 WALMESLEY OF LOWER HALL. 
 
 I have mentioned that Sir Thomas Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh (son 
 of the Judge) purchased from Thomas Southworth, before 1624, the 
 Lower Hall of Samlesbury and lands attached thereto. This estate was 
 given to William Walmesley, Esq., second surviving son of Sir Thomas, 
 who resided at the Lower Hall many years. In 1664, "William 
 Walmesley of Samlesbury" is named in the family record made by Dug- 
 dale. His first wife was Anne, widow of Mr. Edward French of Pres- 
 ton, and daughter of Mr. James Walton of -Preston. He was thrice 
 married, but had no issue. He appears as a foreign burgess of Preston 
 on the Guild Roll of 1682 and 1702. He died in Oct., 1712 ; and "Mr. 
 William Walmesley of Lower Hall in Samlesbury " was buried at Black- 
 bum, Oct. 23rd, 1 712. 
 
 Lower Hall is a rather handsome old house, in a secluded situation 
 on the bank of the Ribble. The hall fronts to the south, and has a 
 three-storied gabled projection for the porch. The walls have been 
 fronted with brick, and altered in other respects from their original cha- 
 racter. Some good trees and orchard enclosures surround the hall. A 
 large apartment in the hall was used as a chapel for the Roman Catho- 
 lics of Samlesbury during a long period. The Lower Hall estate now 
 belongs to Edward Petre, Esq. 
 
 FLEETWOOD HALL. 
 Fleetwood Hall, situated on the south side of the Darwen within the bounds of 
 this township, was formerly a residence of the branch of the Fleetwood family whose 
 members for several generations farmed the Rectorial Glebe of Blackburn ; this estate 
 being parcel of the glebe lands. I have before given some particulars of this family 
 (ante, p. 275, Note.) The house is old, but has no feature worth mention excepting 
 an oaken stair with carved spiral baluster. The estate, of 196 J4 statute acres, is now 
 the property of Mr. Kay, of Bury. In the yard a stone that has formed the lintel of a 
 doorway is inscribed with the date " 1687" and some initials, partially effaced, which 
 seem like "R H U L" and "A M S." 
 
 CULCHETH OF SOWERBUTTS GREEN. 
 Hector Culcheth, yeoman, occurs as a freeholder in Samlesbury between 1695 
 and 1 7 10. An indenture dated July i6th, 1695, witnesses that in consideration of 
 ;f35o paid to Christopher Moire of Hathbushes, Co. Durham, gent., and his brother 
 John Moire of Preston, gent. , by Hector Culcheth of Samlesbury, yeoman, the first 
 parties sell to Hector Culcheth a tenement upon Sarbrose Green, in Samlesbury, con- 
 taining 32 acres customary measure. Hector Culcheth had two daughters, Lsabel, and 
 Mary. Mary Culcheth married Robert Hubberstey, yeoman. A deed dated Jan. 7th, 
 1709, witnesses that Hector Culcheth, in performance of articles of agreement dated 
 the 23rd June last past, between Hector Culcheth and Robert Hubberstey and Mary 
 his wife and Isabel Culcheth, for securing the payment of a rent charge of )£8 los. 
 yearly to Hector Culcheth for his life, releases, &c., to Robert and Mary Hubberstey, 
 Isabel Culcheth, Roger Eastham and Thomas Lawrenson, the messuage on Sarbrose 
 Green ; Isabel Culcheth to receive a moiety of the rents thereof, and her sister Mary's 
 
672 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 husband to receive the other moiety. Hector Culcheth was dead before 1727. His 
 daughter, Isabel Culcheth, died in 1730 ; and by her Will, dated Jan. 2nd, 1729-30, 
 Isabel Culcheth, of Samlesbury, spinster, gives her estate called Haydock tenement to 
 her nephew William Hubberstey ; with bequests to her nephews John and James 
 Hubberstey, and nieces, Dorothy, Anne, and Elizabeth ; sister Mary Hubberstey, and 
 nephew William, executors. 
 
 HUBBERSTEY OF SOWERBUTTS GREEN. 
 
 Robert Hubberstey, yeoman, by his wife Maiy, daughter of Hector Culcheth, 
 had issue, sons, William ; John (who had issue, by his wife Elizabeth, Robert, James, 
 John, Mary, and Joane); and James ; and daughters, Dorothy, Ann, and Elizabeth. 
 Robert Hubberstey acquired, as stated above, the estate on Sowerbutts Green ; and 
 he died Oct. loth, 1727, and was buried at Brindle Catholic Chapel. By his Will, 
 dated Jan. 20th, 1727, testator gives each of his six children ^20 a piece on attaining 
 the age of 21 years; the residue of his goods to his wife Mary. Will proved at 
 Chester, March 20th, 1727-8. Mary Hubberstey, widow of Robert, died in extreme 
 old age, Nov. 22nd, 1 766. 
 
 William Hubberstey of Samlesbury, yeoman, married, Dec. 2nd, 1 732, Mary 
 Eccles of Alston, and by her (who died in 1745) had a son Robert ; and daughters, 
 Elizabeth, married John Wilcock ; Mary, married — Turner ; and Dorothy, married, 
 in 1760, Edward Simpson of Simpson Fold, Wheelton. William Hubberstey settled 
 his estate by deed dated Feb. 13th, 1771, and died soon afterwards. 
 
 Robert Hubberstey, yeoman, son of William, married, in 1767, Mary, daughter 
 of William Watson of Preston. He had sons, William ; John ; Robert, married 
 Cicely Fazackerley ; Thomas, James, Edward and Richard ; and a daughter Catherine. 
 Robert Hubberstey sold an estate he had in Brindle (Denham Hall estate), in 1776, to 
 William Morris of Up-Holland, gent., for £$84. He had on lease the estate of Over 
 Brockholes. By his Will, dated Jan. 7th, 1794, Robert Hubberstey gives his estate 
 at Sarbrose Green, Samlesbury, to his son William, subject to an annuity to testator's 
 wife Mary ; and the lease of Haydock's tenement, held under Edward Lord Petre, to 
 his son John ; to his younger children, each ;f 200. Robert Hubberstey died June 8th, 
 
 1794- 
 
 William Hubberstey, yeoman, son of Robert, sold his estate in Samlesbury, in 
 1818, to Henry Sudell, Esq., for ;i"40OO ; but Mr. Sudell became a bankrupt in 1827, 
 before the purchase money had been paid, and so the estate came back to Mr. Hub- 
 berstey. He married Deborah Whittle, by whom he had two sons and a daughter. 
 He died Jan. 20th, 1838. 
 
 Robert Hubberstey, gent., son of William, now owns the estate, to which he has 
 made additions, and resides at Sowerbutts Green. He is unmarried. His lands in 
 Samlesbury are returned as lo6yi statute acres, with a rental of ;if 170 per annum. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ST. LEONARD. 
 
 In the second half of the 12th century the chapel of Samlesbury 
 was built by Gospatric, lord of Samlesbury, for a chapel-of-ease to Lawe 
 (Walton) parochial chapel, itself a dependent of Blackburn Parish 
 Church. The earliest mention of Samlesbury Chapel is connected with 
 the irregular consecration of a burial-ground there by two Irish bishops, 
 about 1185-1191. An inquisition in the Coucher Book of Stanlaw and 
 Whalley Abbey, taken some years after, shows that the chapel of Sam- 
 
PAROCHIAL CHAPEL OF SAMLESBURY. 673 
 
 lesbury was at first a chapel of Lawe Church, having no burial-ground, 
 so that the dead of Samlesbury were taken to Walton for interment ; and 
 the lord of Samlesbury and the men of the vill carried their first fruits 
 and oblations to Lawe as to the mother-church, and paid the tithes to 
 it until the time of Hugh de Nonant, Bishop of Coventry ; in whose 
 time, he being abroad, two bishops from Ireland came to Samlesbury ; 
 were received into the house of Gospatric, lord of Samlesbury ; and at 
 his request (with the consent of Henry, parson of Lawe and Samlesbury 
 Chapels), consecrated a burial-ground at Samlesbury Chapel. On his 
 return to England, the bishop (de Nonant), in anger revoked the conse- 
 cration, but afterwards granted that there might be a cemetery there, 
 after whose time the dead were buried at the chapel. The Abbot of 
 Stanlaw prayed for this chapel to be confirmed to the mother-church by 
 pontifical decree. By the bishop's grant of the right of burial at Sam- 
 lesbury the chapel thus early acquired a parochial character. 
 
 By charter, in 1238, John de Lascy gave to the Abbot and Monks 
 of Stanlaw the moiety of Blackburn Church " with the chapels of Walton 
 and of Samlesbury." Thereafter, Samlesbury Chapel remained in the 
 hands of the Cistercian fraternity at Stanlaw-Whalley 300 years, until 
 the dissolution of the Abbey in 1537, and was served by monks of that 
 foundation. John de Evyas, lord of Samlesbury temp. Edw. I. (1272- 
 1307), quit-claimed to " the church of Samlesbury, and the rectors and 
 parsons of the same church, that land in Northale called Capelruydyng." 
 
 After the suppression, the King's surveyor of Whalley Abbey estates, 
 in 1538, valued "the chappell of Samblesbery with ye tyeth belonging 
 to ye same by ye year" at ^12 8s. id. Queen Mary's Commissioners, 
 in 1553, reported that " Gylbert Sharpies and Thomas Wynkeley, 
 churchwardens of the chappell of Samesburye, sworn and examined, 
 depose and say that there is one bell yet remaining at the said chapell 
 which was seased to the use of our said late Kynge of famous memory, 
 Edwarde the Sixth, by auctorytie of the said former Commysioners;" 
 and computed the value of " one little bell, weighing fourscore pounds, 
 at the rate of 155. per cwt., belonging to the Chapell of Samesburie," at 
 
 I OS. 
 
 From the suspension of the service of this chapel according to the 
 ritual of Rome, in 1537, until 1558, the fabric fell into disuse and dila- 
 pidation, the lord of the manor, and his tenantry for the most part, 
 being " recusant." But the Earl of Derby, owner of a portion of the 
 manorial estate, was moved to restore the tottering structure, and wrote 
 the following missive:—" 13 May, 1558, Edward, Earl of Derby, to al 
 his loving frendes. As I am crediblie informed the church at Sambery 
 is in mine, and indangeringe people that resort to heare God's worde, I 
 
 85 
 
^j^ HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 have thought good to move my loving frendes to help with ther charity 
 towards the re-edifying thereof." The chapel would seem to have been 
 partially rebuilt as the result of the Earl's interposition. 
 
 Among the names of clergymen in Blackburn Deanery at a Visita- 
 tion in Aug., 1551, I find " Dno. Edwardus Moldinge ex stipendio Vic. 
 de Blagbum," who was curate of Samlesbury. From the establishment 
 of the Reformed Church of England, /««/. Elizabeth, I fear the service 
 of the Church in Samlesbury was long uncertain and interrupted, the 
 stipend being too small to maintain a resident curate. James Whit- 
 worth, who had been minister here before 1609, was then reported sus- 
 pended. In 1649, the Presbytery then recently set up in the county 
 appointed a minister to Samlesbury, as the minute below attests : — 
 
 Mr. Richard Smethurst, Minister at Samlesbury Chappel. By an order of 13 
 Dec., 1649, there is 40I. per an. allowed to Mr. Rich. Smethurst, Minister at Sams- 
 bury Chappel, and the arrears due unto hira. Mr. Smethurst was ordained by the 
 ministers of Blackbome Classis, and sent to Samlisbury Chappell by them the 4th of 
 Dec, 1649. By a certificate the loth Deer, under the hands of the chappelrie, it 
 appears he hath served here 20 weekes. 
 
 At the Inquisition of the Parliamentary Commission in 1650, it was 
 found concerning this chapelry : — " Samlisbury, a parochiall chappell, 
 had auntiently foure pounds per annum paid by the former viccars of 
 Blackbume to theire minister, but now detained, and forty pounds per 
 annum by order of the Cominittee of this countye. Theire present 
 minister, Mr. Smethurst. The inhabitants desire they may bee inade a 
 parishe, and that competent maintenance may bee allowed for a minister, 
 they being above one hundred families, and six myles distant from theire 
 parishe church, and four myles from any other church." 
 
 After the Restoration, in 1660, this Chapel and Walton Church 
 were served in turn by the same curates for about a century. In 1683, 
 it was reported to Primate Bancroft concerning the benefice : — 
 
 Samlesbury Chapel or Church, five miles from Blackburn Church, and a mile and 
 a half from any other chappell. They of Samlesbury resort thither. All offices per- 
 formed there every other Sunday. The same person serves that and Law Church. 
 Samlesbury is a great township. Endowment : — Out of the Vicar of Blackburn, ^(,4 ; 
 dues for marrying, &c. (coibus annis) £1 los. ; interest of ;^SO, given lately by Mr. H. 
 Houghton, £2 los. ; Mistress Fleetwood promiseth yearly £2 ; Inhabitants promise 
 £3 14s. 8d. They have no common ground. 
 
 It was further stated that the three chapels of Law, Samlesbury and 
 Harwood, although " originally Chapels of Ease, yet now enjoy paro- 
 chial privileges ; called sometime churches and receive stipends — the 
 ist from the Crown, and 2nd and 3rd from the Vicar, and 2 of them 
 (Law and Samlesbury) are demised in the lease by name with the Rec- 
 tory of Blackbume." In 1684, this further report of Samlesbury 
 
PAROCHIAL CHAPELRY OF SAMLESBURY. 675 
 
 appears :—" Samlesdury Chapel. — The inhabitants continue their 
 promise of £s HS- 8d. dureing life and no longer. The lord of that 
 manner is a Mr. Braddyll, a merchant in Hatton Garden, London, 
 whose brother has promised to write to him to move him for his assis- 
 tance. Mr. Henry Halsted, who is his intimate acquaintance, has 
 promised to do the same." From the Vicar's Books I get the annexed 
 list of inhabitants who, in 1683, promised sums amounting in the whole 
 to ;^3 14s- 8d. yearly towards a stipend for a curate : — 
 
 We whose names are hereunto subscribed beinge inhabitantes in the chappellry of 
 Samlesbury, and other townships adjoininge, doe hereby promise to pay unto such 
 Ministers as shall be appointed by the Ld. Archbishopp of Canterbury to officiate at 
 the Chappel of .Samlesbury aiforesd. , such annual! or yearly sumes of money as is here- 
 after declared and sett downe, viz. : — Henery Anderton 2s. ; Ralph Couberne 23. ; 
 Robert Sharpies 2s. ; Widow Warde 2s. ; Thomas Hey 2s. ; John Hey 2s. ; Richard 
 Eccles 2s. ; John Hothersall Is.; Thomas Birley is.; Ralph Harrison is. 4d. ; Thomas 
 Silcocke 6(1.; Widow Haydocke 2s.; James Nihill 2s.; Matthew Walmisley is.; John 
 Bennet is.; Richard Turner 2s.; William Bryninge Is.; Thomas Heaton is.; Chris- 
 topher Sumner, 8d. ; John Whalley ls.4d. ; George Sharpies, 6d. ; Roberte Cunliife, 2s. ; 
 George Blackowe is.; James Walmisley, is.4d. ; William Harrison 8d. ; William 
 Southworth IS. ; Thomas Smith 8d.; Richard Southworth is.; Henery Waddington 
 IS.; Henery Southworth 6d.; Ralph Southworth 6d. ; William Pope 8d. ; Thomas 
 Wilcocke 8d. ; Ellen Shorrocke 8d. ; Mr. William Walmisley 5s.; Gregory Hoole is.; 
 John Sudell is.; James Turner 8d. ; Roger Haddocke 2s. ; John Lukas Is.; Roberte 
 CoUinson is.4d. ; Richard .Sharpies is.4d.; Lawrence Ainsworth 2s. ; Hugh Shorrocke 
 2s. ; Thomas fforrest 2s.; John fforrest Is.; John Haddocke, 8d.; James Haiteley 
 is.4d. ; Robert Easthom 2s. ; Widow Browne ls.4d. ; Ralph Moulding is.4d. ; Roberte 
 Harrison Is.; Richard Turner, sen, 8d. ; Henry Walmisley Is. 
 
 A return by Mr. Hull, curate of Walton and Samlesbury, dated June 
 14th, 1 7 14, records : — 
 
 The Chappel of Samlesbury in the Parish of Blackbunie has belonging to it ye 
 township of .Samlesbury, in circumference about ten miles. The number of Inhabi- 
 tants about two thousand. Is distant from ye Parish Church of Blackburne near five 
 miles. There is one meeting-house of Papists in this chappelry. The endowment of 
 .this chappel is as foUoweth : — Out oi ye Vicarage of Blackburne, £4; out of ye Arch- 
 bps. lands in Thomley, about ;^5 6s. 8d. ; given by ye Archbp. of Canterbury out of 
 ye Rectory of Blackburne, £2 6s. 8d.; Interest of £s° given by Henry Hoghton, 
 Esq., at .^5 los. per cent., £2 15s.; total, ^14 8s. 4d. 
 
 Somewhat later. Bishop Gastrell enters in his Notilia these items 
 (besides a statement of the endowment of the chapel): — " Divine service 
 performed every morning one Sunday, and every afternoon, in summer ; 
 and every other Sunday in winter. Two wardens, chosen by the mini- 
 ster and the principal inhabitants." Several augmentations of the living 
 have been made since 1760. By a benefaction of ^j^'aoo, given by Mr. 
 John Ainsworth, on Nov. 9th, 1763, two grants of ^200 each from 
 Queen Anne's Bounty were secured in 1765. In 1812, a Parliamentary 
 grant of ;^4oo was made, by lot, to Samlesbury curacy ; and, in 1822, a 
 
676 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 gift of ;^i8o from the executors of a Mrs. Moulden, with ^^'20 from 
 parishioners, procured a Parliamentary grant of ^^300 to meet these 
 benefactions. Oct. 6th, 1841, by an Order in Council, the Ecclesiastical 
 Commissioners for England made an annual grant of ^^42 in augmen- 
 tation of the benefice of Samlesbury. In 1867, the value of the living 
 was given as ;£'i5o per annum ; and it has since been again augmented 
 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to ;i^3oo per annum. The Vicar 
 of Blackburn is patron. 
 
 I add a list (imperfect in the early pari) of incumbents of Samlesbury ; — Edward 
 Moulding, occurs A.D. 1551; Thomas Dale, occurs 1553; James Whitworth, susp. 
 1609 ; Richard Smethurst, occurs 1649-50 ; Thomas Abbott, occurs in 1676, died in 
 1688; William Colton, occurs 1688-9; John Hull, occurs 1703-14, died in 1721 ; 
 William Vaudrey, 1722-63. (The four last-named were also curates of Walton.) 
 Thomas Baldwin, 1763; John Lewes, 1763-4; George Astley, 1765-6; William 
 Stockdale, 1767-86, or later; Thomas Middleton, 1790-97, or later; James Barnes, 
 1804-28 (died in 1828); Patrick Comerford Law, inst. April nth, 1829; H. W. 
 M'Grath, June 22nd, 1830; Francis Law, B. A. (present Vicar), inst. May l8th, 1832. 
 
 Samlesbury Parochial Chapel retains its ancient structure as restored 
 in the i6th century. It is a plain fabric, about seventy feet long, and 
 consists of a nave with clerestory, north and south aisles, and chancel. 
 The side windows of aisles and clerestory are mullioned, of three lights, 
 with semi-circular heads. The east window is of three lights, with per- 
 pendicular tracery ; and the west window is a triplet of lancet lights. A 
 pointed doorway (without porch) opens into the south aisle. A square 
 wooden bell-cot at the west end contains two bells, one of them of some 
 antiquity. In the gable-ends of the church, a difference in the masonry 
 of the lower and upper walls may indicate the additions to . the original 
 structure, temp. Elizabeth. A capacious graveyard surrounds the chapel. 
 In the interior, four pointed arches, rising from octagonal columns, 
 divide the nave from the aisles. A gallery at the west end has on its 
 front the inscription : — " This gallery was erected by John Walton, of 
 Preston, for the use of the children belonging to Roacher Factory, a.d. 
 1790." In the area, the old oaken pews bear in some cases the initials 
 of former owners. The Samlesbury Hall pew is at the east end of the 
 north aisle ; and is distinguished by the knightly shield, sword, and crest 
 of Southworth attached to the wall above it. The pew of Hoghton of 
 Rocher is in the south aisle, and has on its door-panel the arms, crest, 
 and motto of Hoghton, with the initials " H H " (Henry Hoghton) and 
 the date "1678." In that year (June loth) an exchange was made 
 between Henry Hoghton, of Brinscall and Rocher, Esq., and Edward 
 Southworth, of Samlesbury Hall, Esq., of a certain seat and parcel of 
 ground in Samlesbury Chapel, behind the north church door, in the alley 
 called Yeoman Alley, belonging to the capital messuage called Rocher, 
 
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 IN SAMLESBURY CHAPEL. [Page 676 
 
SAMLESBURY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL. 677 
 
 for another seat in the said chapel, in the alley called Yeoman Alley, 
 over against the place where the pulpit then stood, belonging to the 
 manor-house of the said Edward Southworth called Samlesbury Hall. 
 There are several modern monuments in the chancel, and a fragment of 
 an ancient slab of alabaster, inscribed to Isabella, daughter of Richard 
 Kalderstone. The font is of seeming age, and without enrichment. A 
 "Return of Seats in Samlesbury Church," in 1849, gives: — "Seats in 
 pews, 254 ; in upper gallery, 70 ; in lower gallery, 56 ; total, 380." The 
 Church Registers commence in 1722. 
 
 ST. MARIE'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL. 
 
 From the date of the Reformation, a body of members of the Church of Rome 
 in Samlesbury, supported by the Southworths, Walmesleys, and Petres, successive 
 manorial lords, have maintained worship here according to the Roman ritual, secretly 
 or openly as the times permitted. It has been stated (see ante, p. 355) that a Mr. 
 Harden (Hawarden) was reported in 1690 as a priest resident in .Samlesbury ; and 
 that in July, 1709, Bishop Smith came to Mr. Wm. Walmesley's house, the Lower 
 Hall, and confirmed many children of Catholics for three days in succession. The 
 chapel was an attached building at the rear of the Lower Hall until the beginning of 
 the present century. It was dedicated to .St. Chad. A tradition is preserved among 
 the Catholics in Samlesbury that in the times of persecution of " recusants," a priest 
 domiciled in the Lower Hall swam across the Ribble behind the hall, when the river 
 was in flood, to escape the pursuivant ; and there was formerly hung in the house a 
 picture with a sword-cut through it, said to have been made by one of a party of 
 searchers for a priest suspected to be concealed in the hall. The encroachment of the 
 current of the river some years ago caused the fall of part of the old chapel, vestry, 
 and priest's house into the Ribble ; and the rest of the ruin was then taken down. A 
 new chapel was built at South-bank in 1817-18. This chapel is dedicated to St. 
 Marie ; and is a plain fabric on the exterior, with semi-circular side-lights. The in- 
 terior is decorated in the Byzantine style. The number of seats is 246. In 1819, a 
 Catholic congregation of 200 persons was reported in Samtesbury. The succession of 
 priests who have served the mission since 1749 is subjoined. Fr. Wm. Tootell occurs 
 as priest at Samlesbury in that year. After him, in 1753, came Fr. Robert Painter, 
 who died here in 1770, as recorded : — " 1770. Martii 10. R. D. Robertus Painter 
 ord. S. Francisci per 16 cercit. Annos apud aulam Inferiorum Missionarius ; locus 
 sepulturse Samlesbury." It is said that this priest was a maker of weather-glasses. 
 Fr. Alexander Whalley, priest here from Oct. 1770 to Jan., 1785 ; Fr. Richard 
 Ravenhill, from Oct., 1785 to Oct., 1792, died at Samlesbury, and was buried at 
 Samlesbury Church ; Fr. Marsh, from March to May, 1793; Fr. Weetman, from 
 May, 1793, to April, 1798; Fr. Casemore, 1798-1801 ; F"r. Wm. Pilling, 1801 ; Fr. 
 Casemore, 1802; Fr. Waring, 1803, to April, l8l6, died at .Samlesbury, and buried 
 at Samlesbury Church. Fr. Davison, 1816. (All the above were Franciscans ; those 
 who follow were seculars. ) Fr. John Bell, 1817, to April, 1828; Fr. Wm. Carter, 
 from 1828 to Oct., 1847 (after of St. Joseph's, Liverpool, and died in Sept., 1853); 
 Fr. Wm. Fayer, from 1847 to Jan. 31st, 1875 ; Fr. Richard Gerrard, from Sept. 1st, 
 187s i present priest. The existing baptismal and marriage registers of the mission 
 l)egin in Jan., 1753. 
 
 Samlesbury School. — A school existed in Samlesbury two centuries ago. Its 
 condition in 1685 may be gathered from an application made to the Vicar of Black- 
 
678' HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 burn in that year, as follows : — " Sir, — It is both the desire and the humble request of 
 us whose names are here subscribed, that you should be pleased to give leave to 
 William Abbott, that he might have the liberty into the chapel for to teach a few 
 children, for he liveth in a little smoking cottage, and the children are allmost spoiled, 
 neither is there room enough for them to be taught in. William Cross, William 
 Bury, Robert Yates." The schoolmaster gave this undertaking: — "I, William 
 Abbot, do promise to forbear teaching schoole at ye foresd. place whensoever I am 
 commanded so to do by the Vicar of Blackburne. Witness my hand this 15 day of 
 June, 1685, (Signed) William Abbot." In 1 718 the curate reported "No school." 
 The school has a small endowment ; and in 1825 it was reported that the property 
 consisted of a dwelling-house for the master, a croft containing 30 perches, and a piece 
 of land containing about two acres, formerly part of the waste and stated to have been 
 given for the benefit of the school by the lord of the manor. The master also received 
 ;^8 yearly from the overseers, in pursuance of a resolution passed at a public meeting of 
 the inhabitants, whereby it was agreed that a piece of the waste, about two acres, given 
 to the township by Mr. Braddyll for building a poor-house thereon, should be let, and 
 a portion of the rent paid to the schoolmaster ; the rent was then £S per annum. The 
 master had been appointed by the minister and wardens, being the only persons who 
 attended the meeting, which had been duly notified. He engaged to teach six poor 
 children to read and write. The school was kept in a cottage at Turner Green. All 
 the children were paying quarterages in 1825. The school tnistees derive ;£^20 yearly 
 from 6}4 acres of land ; and the Vicar, Rev. F. Law, as sole acting trustee, has for 
 some years applied the sum to the payment of a stipend for a schoolmistress at the 
 National school, erected near the church. 
 
 Roman Catholic School. — A neat building at Sowerbutts Green, erected by 
 subscription of the Roman Catholics in Samlesbury, was opened as a Day-School in 
 1875, and is now under Government inspection, with about 50 children in average 
 attendance. 
 
 CHARITIES OF SAMLESBURY. 
 
 Richard Hoghton's Charity.— Richard Hoghton, Knt., in 1613, conveyed to 
 Thomas Whittingham and others a close of five acres, called Wood Crook in Whit- 
 tingham, the rent to be distributed amongst the poor of Alston, Preston, and those of 
 Samlesbury Chapel. The proportion of this rent received for distribution to the aged 
 poor in Samlesbury was £2 •4S- '1 1875. The Vicar, Rev. F. Law, was the almoner. 
 
 Dorothy Langdale's Charity. — Dorothy Langdale, wife of Jordan Lang- 
 dale, by her Will dated Jan. nth, 1715, set apart .1^200, after the decease of her ser- 
 vant Hannah Cocker, for the maintenance of aged and necessitous poor persons of 
 Samlesbury, or for the binding out of poor apprentices there, according to the discre- 
 tion of her executors. Sir Nicholas Sherburne and Geoffrey Prescott. Indentures of 
 lease and release, dated April 19th and 20th, 1736, recite deed dated 14th May, 171S1 
 wherein power was reserved to Dorothy Langdale, by name of Dorothy Walmesley, 
 widow, to dispose of personal property amounting to ^^2945, by deed or Will. Inden- 
 ture made July 31st, 1826, between James Wrigley of Manchester, Mary Piatt of 
 Glossop, widow, and Miles Southworth of Inskip, of the first part, George Hayes of 
 Turner Green, Samlesbury, of the second part. Rev. James Barnes of Samlesbury, 
 Clerk, William Sharrock of Roach Bridge, James Ward of the Lower Hall, William 
 Brown of Stanley Coppice, William Sharrock of Sowerbutts Green, George Hayes, 
 Alex. Brown and Thomas Sharrock, all of Samlesbury, of the third part, and Christr. 
 Bland Walker of Preston, of the 4th part, recites that by indentures dated April 19th 
 
CHARITIES OF SAMLESBURY. 679 
 
 and 20th, 1736, between James Wilson, Mary his wife, and Richard Wilson of the 
 first part, Thomas Pickering, Roger Haydock, John Aspinall, and Henry Southworth 
 of the second part, Martha Prescott and William Atherton of the third part, and 
 Richard Dickson of the fourth part, setting forth that Dorothy Langdale by 
 her Will dated Jan. nth, 1715, gave ;^200 to the use of indigent and aged poor 
 in Samlesbury, or for binding out poor apprentices there, and directed the sum to 
 be laid out in the purchase of lands or placed out at interest, and the yearly rent or 
 interest applied as above, and appointed Sir Nicholas Shirebum and JeofTrey Pres- 
 cott executors ; that the said Jeoffrey Prescott was survivor, and laid out sums in 
 binding poor children of Samlesbury apprentices, and died April 9th, 1727, having 
 made his wife, Martha Prescott, William Atherton and John Atherton, and John Gilli- 
 brand, his executors, and that Martha Prescott and John Atherton proved the Will 
 and undertook the above trust ; reciting also a decree made in a cause in tht* Chancery 
 Court of Lancaster, in conformity to which the sum above was laid out in the purchase 
 of lands ; and witnessing that in consideration of ^203 3s. paid to the said James 
 Wilson by the said Martha Prescott and William Atherton the said James Wilson did 
 sell to the said Thomas Pickering, Roger Haydock, John Aspinall and Henry South- 
 worth the messuage and lands described below, upon trust that they should employ 
 the yearly rents for charitable uses as aforesaid ; that John Aspinall, survivor of those 
 trustees, died March 19th, 1780, leaving daughters, Jennet, Sarah, Catherine, and 
 Elizabeth ; of whom Jennet married John Wrigley of Manchester, and died in 1782, 
 leaving a son James Wrigley who dietl in 1800, leaving a son James Wrigley, party to 
 this indenture ; Sarah Aspinall married Benjamin Hinchcliffe of Manchester, and died 
 in 1815, leaving a daughter Mary Piatt, wife of John Piatt; Catherine Aspinall 
 married Thomas Southworth of Samlesbury, and died in 1815, leaving a son Miles 
 Southworth ; and Elizabeth Aspinall married John Ogden of Blackburn and died with- 
 out issue ; and whereas at a meeting of the Inhabitants of Samlesbury held many years 
 ago, William Alker, Thomas Forrest, John Hayes, and George Hayes were appointed 
 trustees of the said charity, and George Hayes, the survivor, left a son George Hayes, 
 party to these presents ; and whereas at a meeting of the Inhabitants of Samlesbury, 
 they appointed James Barnes, incumbent of Samlesbury Parochial Chapel, William 
 Sharrock, James Ward, William Brown, William Sharrock, George Hayes, Alex. 
 Brown and Thomas Sharrock, to be new trustees of the said charity, and the said 
 James Wrigley, MaryPlatt, Miles Southworth, and George Hayes have agreed to convey 
 the said lands to the new trustees ; now this Indenture witnesses that the said James 
 Wrigley, &c., have sold, &c., all that messuage with closes of land in Whittle-in-le- 
 Woods, containing 6 acres of land, &e., to the use of the said new trustees, upon trust for 
 such purposes as are declared in the said Will, and in Indentures dated the 19th and 
 20th April, 1 736 ; provided that the Incumbent for the time being of Samlesbury Chapel 
 shall be a trustee, and that the trustees shall from time to time fill vacancies in the 
 number of trustees, &c. The accounts of this charity show that the Incumbent of 
 Samlesbury, Rev. F. Law, has acted from before 1853 to the present time (1876) as sole 
 trustee, and has received the sum of £2$ annually in rent of the charity lands, which 
 has been expended in gifts, material for clothing, &c., to sundry poor persons. 
 
 Mary Valentine's Charity. — Mary Valentine, by Will dated Dec. 14th, 
 1840, gave to her brother, John Valentine of Cuerdale, yeoman. Rev. Robert Hornby, 
 of Walton-in-le-Dale, clerk, William Calvert of Walton-in-le-Dale, cotton spinner, and 
 Peter Haydock, of Preston, gentleman, trustees and executors of her Will, the sum of 
 ;f 1000, the interest whereof to be first disposed of for the benefit of certain 
 
68o HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 cousins of testator, and after the decease of the last survivor of them, then "upon 
 trust to call in the said ;^looo, and apply the sum and interest in manner fol- 
 lowing : — As to ;^5oo, part thereof, to the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, 
 to be applied for and towards the augmentation of the maintenance of the resident 
 minister officiating at the Church in Samlesbury," &c.; and as to a further sum of 
 ;^250, directs trustees to pay the interest thereof ' ' unto the Minister for the time 
 being of Samlesbury Church aforesaid, to be by him applied for the support of the 
 Sunday School at Samlesbury, connected with the Established Church ;" and as to 
 the residue of the said ;f lOCX), in trust to pay the interest thereof "unto the Minister 
 of Samlesbury Church aforesaid, and the Churchwardens for the time being, to be by 
 them applied for the benefit of such of the poor aged persons (not receiving parochial 
 relief) resident in Samlesbury aforesaid, as are most needy and deserving, at or about 
 Christmas." Miss Mary Valentine died Feb. 25th, 1842, and her Will was proved 
 Aug. 22nd, 1842. In accordance with a decretal order dated Jan. 31st, 1862, her 
 bequest of ;^iooo was paid into the Bank of England on June 30th, 1862, and was 
 invested in 3% Bank Annuities. The dividends thereupon are distributed in charity 
 and to the support of Samlesbury Sunday School by the Vicar and wardens. 
 
 Barnes' Charity. — Rev. James Barnes, sometime incumbent of this chapelry, 
 who died in 1828, gave a rent-charge of £3 yearly in lieu of tithe on a farm in Osbal- 
 deston, for a charity, which is distributed in clothing to poor persons in Salmesbury 
 by the trustee, Rev. F. Law, the Vicar. 
 
RADCLIFFES, LORDS OF TOCKHOLES. 68l 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII.— THE TOWNSHIP OF TOCKHOLES. 
 
 Topography Extent — Population -Descent of the Manor — Radcliffes of Ordsall as lords — Garston 
 
 of Tockholes- Hollinshead Family— Hollinshead Hall — Shorrock, present lord — Other Land- 
 owners — Old Freeholding Families — Aspden of Red Lee — Baron — Everfield— Halliwell of Halli- 
 well Fold — Hoghton of Red I^e — Marsden of Ryall and Bradley — Richardson — Walmsley of the 
 Hill and Ryall— Church of St. Stephen the Martyr — Old Nonconformist Meeting House — Tock- 
 holes School, and Charities. 
 
 TOCKHOLES is a township (anciently conjoined with Livesey) 
 upon the south-western border of Blackburn Parish. The lands 
 of Tockholes occupy the slopes and spurs of a high moorland, the 
 ridges of which are Tockholes Moor and Cartridge Hill ; and fall 
 towards the Roddlesworth stream, the parish boundary, which passes 
 down a narrow valley to its confluence with the Darwen. The employ- 
 ment is chiefly agricultural ; but Messrs. Shorrock & Bror. have a cotton 
 weaving-mill in the township. The acreage of Tockholes is 2050 
 statute acres. The population has been decreasing since hand-loom 
 cottage weaving ceased to be a considerable industry. In 1801 the 
 population was 758; 181 1, 1077; 1821, 1269; 1831, 1124; 1841, 
 1023 ; i8sr, 939 ; 1861, 820; 1871, 646. 
 
 The manor-estate of Tockholes has been successively held by 
 the Radcliffes of Ordsall, Hollinsheads, and Shorrocks. 
 
 RADCLIFFE OF ORDSALL, LORDS OF TOCKHOLES. 
 
 The demesne of Hollinhead in Tockholes is named as a possession 
 of the family of Radcliffe, lords of Ordsall, temp. Edw. II. A return of 
 tenants of the Duchy of Lancaster, dated 13 11, states that John de Rad- 
 cliffe, who held " Urdsale manor," also had " 100 acres in the place 
 called Holinhead in Tokholes, held by the service of 2s. yearly." 
 
 The early descents of Radcliffe of Ordsall are recorded in an 
 ancient document (Harleian MS. ipsj) as follows : — Henry Radcliffe 
 had a son John ; the latter had a son and heir Richard ; and Richard 
 Radcliffe's son was named John. John Radcliffe, marrying Johanna de 
 Holland, had a son and heir named Richard ; and Richard was father of 
 
 John Radcliffe, Knt. 
 
 86 
 
682 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Richard de Radcliffe died in 1380, his son and heir John being 
 then aged 27 years, and was found to have been seized of Urdesale 
 Manor and other estates ; and he held of the King and Duke in socage 
 "le Holynhed in Tokholes by the service of 2s. per annum, and there 
 are there one messuage, 6 acres of arable land, whereof any acre is worth 
 6d. per annum, sum 3s ; 20 acres of meadow, worth 4d. per acre, sum 
 6s. 8d.; and 60 acres of pasture worth 46.. per acre, sum 20s." 
 
 Sir John de Radcliffe of Ordsall, Knt., is found giving recognizance 
 to Sir Ralph de Radcliffe, Knt., of a debt of ^^loo, March 20th, 1405 
 (6th Henry IV). Sir John Radcliffe was dead in 1422, when the es- 
 cheator received precept (Aug. 9th) to give to John his son livery of his 
 late father's lands. It appeared by inquisition that Sir John Radcliffe 
 was seized of Ordsall Manor ; half the Manor of Flixton ; bailiwick of 
 Rochdale; Manor of Hope, &c.; that in the 19th Ric. 11. (1396) Sir 
 John had granted to Joha his son and heir, and to his wife Clemence, 
 daughter of Hugh de Standish, and their heirs, Shoresworth Manor in the 
 town of Pendlebury ; lands in Hope Manor ; and other messuages and 
 lands in Lyvesey and Tokhols ; that the said Sir John Radcliffe, Knt., 
 died June 30th, 1422, and that John Radcliffe was his son and heir, 
 aged 40 years. This was Sir John de Radcliffe, Knt., who died in 1434. 
 His son, Alexander Radcliffe, Esq., died in 1476 ; and his son, William 
 Radcliffe, Esq., was father of Sir John Radcliffe, Knt. Sir John's son was — 
 
 Sir Alexander Radcliffe, Knt., lord of Ordsall, who died in 1548, 
 aged 72, held at death the manor of Tockholes and Livesey, with 7 mes- 
 suages, 60 acres of land arable, 10 acres of meadow, 40 acres of pasture, 
 4 acres of wood and underwood, and 100 acres of moor, moss, and tur- 
 bary in Tockholes and Livesey. This was the extent and nature of the 
 agriculture upon the manorial estate in Tockholes for several generations 
 of this family — a total acreage of about 214 acres customary, of which 
 the half was moor, turbary, and woodland. Sir Alexander had died on 
 Feb. sth preceding the inquisition for escheat. William Radcliffe, Knt., 
 was his son and heir, then aged 46 years and upwards. 
 
 Sir William Radcliffe, Knt., lord of Ordsall, who died Oct. 12th, 
 1568, was seized of the Manor of Tockholes and Livesey, and of one 
 water-mill, 17 messuages, 60 acres of arable land, 10 acres of meadow, 
 40 acres of pasture, 4 acres of wood and underwood, and 100 acres of 
 moor, moss, and turbary in Tockholes. His first wife was Margaret, 
 daughter of Sir Edmund Trafford, Knt., by whom he had issue, Alexan- 
 der, od. s. p. \ John, eventual heir ; Riphard ; Helene, wife of Edward 
 Standish of Standish, Esq.; and AHce, wife of Francis Tunstall of Thur- 
 land Castle, Esq. His second wife was Ann daughter of Ralph Caterall 
 of Mitton, relict of Sir John Towneley, Knt. 
 
GARSTON OF TOCKHOLES. 683 
 
 Sir John Radcliffe, Knt, who died in Feb., 1589, aged 53, was 
 seized at death of Tockholes Manor, &c. His son and heir was Alexander. 
 
 Sir Alexander Radcliffe, Knt., died unmarried, slain at the battle of 
 Cunley Hill, Ireland, in Aug., 1599. Escheat taken Dec. 19th, 42nd 
 Eliz., showed that he was seized of Ordsall Manor, &c.; and of the re- 
 version of one water-mill, 17 messuages, 60 acres of arable land, 10 acres 
 of meadow, 40 acres of pasture, 4 acres of woodland, and 100 acres of 
 moor, moss, and turbary in Tockholes, held of the Queen as of the 
 Duchy of Lancaster in socage, paying 2 s. rent. Of this estate Sir Alex- 
 ander was expectant upon the death of Ann Radcliffe, mdow, mother of 
 Alexander and relict of John Radcliffe, Knt; she being survivor of her 
 son, and living at Tockholes at the date of the escheat. 
 
 Sir John Radcliffe, Knt., lord of Ordsall and Tockholes, had by Alice 
 his wife, eldest daughter of Sir John Byron, Knt., of Newstead, Co. Notts, 
 issue, Alexander, son and heir, bom April 27th, 1608 ; and daughters, 
 Mary, Alice, and Anne. Sir John was Lieut.-Col. in the English army 
 in Ireland ; and he was slain in the Isle of Rhd, Oct. 29th, 1627 (or, ac- 
 cording to the escheat, Nov. 5th). By inquisition taken at Bolton, Sept. 
 9th, 4th Charles I., Sir John Radcliffe, Knt., was found to have been 
 seized of Ordsall Manor ; other various estates ; and of the Manor of 
 Tockholes, held of the King in socage by fidelity and 2S. rent, value 
 40s., its appurtenances including 20 messuages, one water mill, 60 acres 
 of land, 10 acres of meadow, 40 acres of pasture, 4 acres of woodland, 
 and TOO acres of moor, moss and turbary. Alexander Radcliffe was his 
 son and heir, aged 20 years and upwards. 
 
 The last Sir Alexander Radcliffe sold his estates about the middle 
 of the 17th century; but he still held Tockholes manor in 1650, when a 
 Rental of the Wapentake of Blackburn names Sir Alexander Radcliffe, 
 paying 2 s. yearly for his tenure of this estate to Clitheroe Court. 
 GARSTON OF TOCKHOLES. 
 
 The Garstons of Tockholes traced their lineage up to William de 
 Gerston of Penwortham, to whose son, John de Gerston, Thomas Moly- 
 neux de Keuerdale, by deed dated 41st Edw. III. (1367), quit-claimed 
 all his right in the hamlet of Tockholes within the vill of Livesey. By 
 Johan his wife, John de Gerston of Tockholes had a son Ludovic. John 
 was dead prior to 1396, for in the 19th Richard II. Johan de Gerston. 
 widow, released service for all her right in the vill of Tockholes. 
 
 Ludovic de Gerston held lands in Tockholes, let to Richard son of 
 Roger de Whalley of Livesey, by deed dated 4th Henry V. (1416); wit- 
 nessed by Richard de Hoghton, Henry de Hoghton, Knt., Thomas de 
 Southworth, and Thomas de Osbaldeston. By his wife Elena, daughter 
 of Thomas Dicconson Harrison, he had a son Ralph. 
 
684 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Ralph de Gerston, by Alice, his wife, daughter of Richard Haydock 
 of Haydock, had a son James. 
 
 James de Gerston had a son John by Margery his wife, named as 
 widow 22nd Edw. IV (1492). 
 
 John Garston, of Tockholes, died before the year 1 500, and by 
 several inquisitions taken in the i6th Henry VH., he was found to have 
 been seized of lo messuages, 40 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, and 
 20 acres of pasture in Tockholes and Livesey ; also of one messuage and 
 14 acres in Whittle-in-le-Moores, by the 26th part of a knight's fee. 
 John Garston was son and heir, then aged 8 years. 
 
 John Garston, the next in order, who died June loth, 22nd Henry 
 VIII. (1530), was found by the escheat to have held his lands in Tock- 
 holes of Sir Alexander Radcliffe, Knt., in socage. James Garston, son 
 and heir of John, was aged 8 years. Ann, widow of John, was living in 
 
 "SSI- 
 James Garston, infant heir of John, was the ward of Sir Alexander 
 Radcliffe, Knt, lord of Tockholes Manor; who, by indenture dated 
 July 9th, 22nd Henry VIII., sold the wardship and marriage of 
 James, son of John Gerstan, to William Clayton of Little Harwood for 
 ^10. James Garston of Tockholes, by Ella his wife, had issue, sons, 
 James, and John, and was living in 1552. 
 
 James Garston the younger, of Tockholes, gent., occurs in the 6th 
 Edward VI (1552-3). In the 1st and 2nd Philip and Mary (1554), 
 Oliver Gerstane disputed at law with James Gerstane and others a claim 
 to rent of a messuage, lands, and wood in Whittle-in-le-Woods. 
 
 A.D. l6n, is dated a complaint of Edward Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston, Esq. 
 Whereas complainant ought to be lawfully seized of the whole manor and waste of 
 Tockholes, heretofore inheritance of one James Garston, whose ancestor did sometime 
 marry one of two daughters and co-heirs of the then lord of the manor of Tockholes, 
 and thereby became lawfully seized of the said manor and waste, &c. So it is, if it 
 please your Worshipp, that Dame Anne Radcliffe, widowe, and one Richard Bayley, 
 Thomas Browne, Richard Halliwell, John Hindle, and William Critchlowe, all of 
 Tockholes, yeomen, having combined, &c. , with other persons not known to orator, 
 and got into their hands ancient deeds, court roUes, terrier.s, &c., that beforetime did 
 belong to said Garston or which in right appertain to orator, and have entered into 
 the said waste or common of Tockholes, and have wrongfully expelled said orator, 
 who having made a ditch and hedge round the said waste, &c., the said Dame Anne 
 Radcliffe, Richard Barker, Christopher Astley, Thomas Browne, &c., being all armed, 
 weaponed, and arrayed in warlyke manner, and being assembled at Tockholes afore- 
 said, did on the 8th June last repair to the said ditch and hedge, and pulled down, 
 raysed, and laid waste the said hedge and ditch in ryotous manner, c&c. 
 
 After this the descent of the Garstons becomes less clear. Some 
 of the family were seated on the Whittle estate, and in 1574 Oliver and 
 Lawrence Garstane were both taxed in the military levy for Leyland 
 
THE BROCK-HOLLINSHEAD FAMILY. 685 
 
 Hundred. James Garsten, of Tockholes, was a Governor of Blackburn 
 Grammar School in 1590. He died in 1595. Wiiliam Garstane, of 
 Tockholes, died in March, 1652-3. John Garston of Tockholes, died 
 in August, 1690. Willam Garston of Tockholes, yeoman, died in August, 
 1703. By Jennet his wife (living as, widow in 17 10), he had sons, 
 James, and Thomas ; and a daughter Margaret. James Garsden of 
 Tockholes, yeoman, son and heir of William, born in 1677, married, in 
 Dec, 1708, Elizabeth Thompson of Eccleshill. Thomas Garsden of 
 Tockholes, brother of James, born in 1679, had a son William, born in 
 1708. The old messuage that belonged to this family is yet called 
 " Garstanes." 
 
 BROCK-HOLLINSHEAD OF HOLLINSHEAD HALL AND BILLINGE 
 
 CARR. 
 I have not succeeded in finding the date at which this family 
 acquired manorial estate in Tockholes, or whether it was from the last 
 of the Radcliffes of Ordsall. The Hollinsheads of Tockholes claim 
 descent from those of Sutton and Copthurst ; and it has been stated 
 that they held Tockholes manor before the year 1400 ; and lands in 
 Tockholes in the sixteenth century ; but the name does not once occur 
 in connexion with the township in escheats. Subsidy Rolls, or other 
 documentary evidences down to the middle of last century. The 
 modem descent of Hollinsheads is as follows : — Edward Hollinshead, 
 son of Edward and grandson of William of Nottingham, had an only 
 daughter, Emma, who was married to Edward Brock of Bothwell. A 
 grandson, William Brock, assumed the additional name of Hollinshead 
 on succeeding to the estates of a cousin, John Hollinshead. William 
 Brock-Hollinshead, Esq., dying without issue in 1803, left the Tockholes 
 estate to his nephew Lawrence Brock, Esq., who added to his own the 
 surname of Hollinshead. By his first wife Margaret, daughter of 
 Edward Edwards, Esq., he had a son Edward, who died, aged 13, Dec. 
 nth, 1820. By his second wife Mary, daughter of Roger Potts, Esq. 
 (she died Aug. i8th, 1824), he had sons, Henry; Lawrence, died 
 young ; Clifford ; and Frederick ; and a daughter Emma, wife of James 
 Whigham, Esq. He married, thirdly, Jan. 8th, .1829, Eliza, daughter 
 of Rev. Wm. Hampson, and had a daughter Eliza, born in 1833. 
 Lawrence Brock-Hollinshead sold the manor of Tockholes to the late 
 Eccles Shorrock, Esq., and he died, aged 60, July 2Sth, 1838. His 
 son, Henry Brock-Hollinshead, Esq., bom March 22nd, 1819, married, 
 Sept. nth, 1845, Margaret, daughter of James Nevill, Esq., of Beard- 
 wood, and had issue, a son Hugh Nevill, bom Sept. 30th, 1846 ; and 
 daughters, Beatrice, and Edith. Henry Brock-Hollinshead of Billinge 
 Carr, Blackburn, died, aged 37, March 14th, 1858. 
 
686 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Hollinshead Hall, the manor-house of Tockholes, is now untenanted 
 and in a state of decay. A wing of the existing hall is of some age, but 
 has no interesting feature. The other block was rebuilt in 1776. Its 
 situation is at the foot of a wooded knoll among the moors at the 
 southern extremity of Tockholes and of the parish of Blackburn. In 
 the garden is an antique well, enclosing a spring of water of curative 
 properties to which, of yore, the name of " Holy Well " was given. 
 The manor-estate, of 890 statute acres, is now the property of Eccles 
 Shorrock, Esq., J.P., of Low Hill House, Darwen. 
 
 Other present landowners in Tockholes are : — Marquis de Roth- 
 well, about 208 acres; the Misses Lowe, 53 acres ; Boardman Trustees, 88 
 acres; Col. Feilden, 114 acres; CunliffeandGrundy, 48 acres; John Eccles' 
 Trustees, 64 acres; Trustees of Independent Chapel, 11^ acres. 
 
 I add genealogical notes on some of the old yeoman or freeholding 
 families in Tockholes. 
 
 ASPDEN OF RED LEE. 
 
 Henry Aspden of Tockholes was dead before 1570, when his widow paid the 
 -Subsidy tax. James Aspden of Tockholes died in 162 1 ; his widow died in 1622. 
 
 Robert Aspden of Tockholes, gent., witness to a deed dated 1620, was the Robert 
 Aspden of Red Lee who died in April, 1655 ; buried May 2nd. His widow died in 
 1658. 
 
 Richard Aspden of Red Lee, yeoman, was taxed to a Subsidy for lands in Tock- 
 holes in 1663. He occurs as a trustee in a deed of gift to Tockholes Chapel in 1670. 
 He rebuilt the homestead at Red Lee in 1674. The initials " R A E " (for Richard 
 and Elizabeth or Ellen Aspden), and the date " 1674 " are over the porch. He died 
 in April, 1679. 
 
 Another Richard Aspden of Tockholes married, in 1677, Ann Gregson. 
 
 John Aspden of Tockholes, yeoman, probably son of Richard, occurs in 1715, 
 and in 1726 as a trustee of Chapel Stock. His son — 
 
 Thomas Aspden of Red Lee, a Trustee of the Nonconformist Meeting House in 
 1735, died in May, 1749. By Hannah his wife (buried May 1st, 1759) he had a son 
 John, and other issue. 
 
 John Aspden, of Tockholes, yeoman, married Mary Beardwood, and had a son 
 Henry, born in 1755. 
 
 Henry Aspden of Tockholes, son of John, was many years overseer of the town- 
 ship, surveyor of highways and collector of assessed and property taxes. He was a 
 trustee of the old Independent Meeting-house. Henry Aspden married Betty, 
 daughter of Mr. Edward Gregson of Tockholes, and had a son, Moses (Moses Aspden, 
 of Tockholes, bom in 1807, married Maiy, daughter of John Richardson, and died at 
 Darwen in 1876); and daughters, Mary, and Hannah. Henry Aspden died, aged 75, 
 Sept. 24th, 1830. 
 
 BARON OF TOCKHOLES. 
 
 "John Baron de Wenshead," in Tockholes, died in 1627. Myles Baron of 
 Tockholes married, in 1620, Jenet Adiington, and died in 1651. His son, Thomas 
 Baron, had sons, Myles, born in 1656 ; Thomas, bom in 1 663 ; William, bom in 
 1665 ; and daughters. Jennet and Mary. Myles Baron, of Tockholes, yeoman, 
 married, in 1665, Elizabeth Livesey, and died in 1728. He had sons, William, born 
 
OLD FREEHOLDERS IN TOCKHOLES. 687 
 
 in 1704 ; James ; Thomas, bom in 1701, died in 1768; and a daughter, Mary. His 
 son, William Baron, yeoman, died in 1771, leaving a son, Myles Baron, of Tockholes, 
 yeoman, who married Lettice Stott, of Manchester, and died in 1774. He left issue, 
 William Baron (of Bolton) ; Robert ; Thomas (of Manchester) ; George (of Black- 
 burn) ; Mary, died unmarried ; Jane, wife of Mr. Thos. Hoghton ; and Ann. George 
 Baron of Blackburn, builder, son of Myles, died, aged 68, in 1835. He married 
 Mary Shorrock, and had sons, Robert Baron (of Blackburn, father of William Baron, 
 builder, now of Blackburn) ; Myles Baron of Blackburn, sometime alderman of the 
 borough ; and George Baron, of Blackburn ; and a daughter, Miss Ann Baron of 
 Blackburn. 
 
 EVERFIELD OF TOCKHOLES. 
 
 John Everfield of Tockholes, died March 24th, 42nd Eliz. (1599), and his escheat 
 was taken at Blackburn, Dec. 15th, 1602. Me died seized of one messuage, 10 acres 
 of land, 5 acres of meadow, and 30 acres of pasture in Tockholes juxta Livesey, held 
 of John Radcliffe, Knt. , in free socage. John Everfield, son and heir, was then aged 
 II years. 
 
 HALLIWELL OF HALLIWELL FOLD. 
 
 Richard Halliwall of Tockholes was assessed to a Subsidy in 1570, and was de- 
 fendant in an action for trespass in 1611. "Thomas Halliwall de Tockholes " died in 
 1627. James Halliwall married, in 1619, Alice Richmond, and had sons, Richard, 
 born in 1623 ; and John, born in 1626. Richard Halliwell, of Tockholes, had a son 
 William, born in 1621, and other issue. Lawrence Halliw-ell occurs in 1636. His 
 wife died in June of that year. Thomas Halliwell of Tockholes had sons, Lawrence, 
 born in l6l8 ; William (of Tockholes, who died in j66o, having had issue by Jenet 
 his wife); Thomas (of Tockholes, who had a son Lawrence, died in 1670); and James. 
 Lawrence Halliwell of Tockholes, gent., by Jane his wife (she died in 1682), had, 
 with other issue, a daughter Anne, bom about 1650, who became first wife of Hugh, 
 twelfth Baron Willoughby of Parham, and had issue a son Thomas who died young ; 
 .she died before 1692. A later Lawrence Halliwell of Halliwell Fold married, June 
 I2th, 1725, Margaret, daughter of Mr. Benjn. Wilson of Baxenden. The messuage in 
 Tockholes once tenanted by this family is still called Halliwell Fold. 
 
 HOGHTON OF RED LEE. 
 
 This family of lesser gentry was, there is little doubt, a branch of Hoghton of 
 Hoghton Tower. Richard Hoghton of Tockholes, gent., who occurs in 1602, when 
 he was entered as a foreign burgess on Preston Guild Roll, with his sons Gilbert and 
 William, I conjecture was a son of Gilbert Hoghton, who is named in the military 
 levy of 1574; and he was probably the Gilbert Hoghton mentioned hereafter in the 
 Hoghton genealogy as a natural son of Sir Richard Hoghton, Knt., who died in 1558. 
 At Preston Guild of 1622, Richard Hoghton of Red Leigh, gent., is again on the Roll, 
 with his sons Gilbert, William, and Edward ; his brother John Hoghton, and Thomas, 
 Gilbert, Roger, William, and Richard, sons of John Hoghton. Richard Hoghton of 
 Red Lee, gent., and his son Edward, appear as parties to a deed dated Jan. 28th, 
 1626-7. Besides the sons named, Richard Hoghton had daughters, Dorothy, died in 
 1658 ; and Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Fishe. He was living in 1642. His wife 
 Mary, daughter of James Livesey, gent., survived him, and "Mary, uxor Richard 
 Hoghton, gent.," was buried March 13th, 1657. 
 
 William Hoghton of Red Lee, gent., second son of Richard, died in 1623 ; and 
 was buried at Blackburn, Sept. 4th. He had a son William, born (as entered in the 
 baptismal register) posthumously, in 1623. 
 
688 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Edward Hoghton of Red-lee and of Ramsgreave, gent., younger son of Richard, 
 was bapt. May 3rd, 1605 ; and he married Anne, daughter of Edward Gillibrand of 
 Ramsgreave, gent., and died in 1693. (See ante, p. 630.) His daughter Alice was 
 bapt Sept. 1st, 1629. He had a son William, who died in infancy, in 1636. His 
 wife died in Oct., 1652. 
 
 Gilbert Hoghton, gent., eldest son of Richard, had sons, Richard, Thomas (bom 
 in 1633), Edward, William, Gilbert, John, and Leonard. He had also an unnamed 
 daughter, bom in 1629. He resided at Teuton, Pa. of Ashton-under-Lyne ; and died 
 there in June, 1639. The Will of Gilbert Houghton of Touton, within Ashton-under- 
 Lyne, gent., is dated 8th June, 1639. Testator mentions his sons, Richard, Thomas, 
 Edward, William, Gilbert, John, and Leonard ; sister Elizabeth, wife of Thomas 
 Fishe ; appoints his brother Edward and brother-in-law Thomas Fishe, executors. 
 
 Edward Hoghton, of Tockholes, younger son of Gilbert, died in March, 1685-6 ; 
 was buried March 23rd ; and on the 20th April, 1686, administration of his goods was 
 granted to his widow, Mary Hoghton. 
 
 Richard Hoghton of Tockholes, gent., eldest son of Gilbert, bapt. Dec. 23rd, 
 1627, was made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1647, and an out- 
 burgess of Preston at the Guild of 1662. By Ellen his wife he had sons, Thomas, 
 died in 1655 ; a second Thomas ; William ; Edward ; and Richard, the latter was 
 living in 1702: and daughters, Mary, Ann, Alice, &c. The father, "Richard 
 Hoghton of Tockholes, " was buried at Blackburn Church, Jan. 12th, 1666-7. His 
 widow died in 1684. The Will of Ellen Hoghton of Tockholes, widow, dated isth 
 Jan., 1683-4, names sons, Thomas, William, Richard, and Edward ; daughters, Mary, 
 wife of John Ainsworth, and Alice Hoghton ; son-in-law, Thomas Critchley ; grand- 
 sons and grand-daughter, Arthur, Thomas, and Janet Lomas, children of daughter, 
 Ann Lomas, wife of John Lomas ; legacy to William Walmsley, son of daughter 
 Alice. Son Richard and daughter Alice, executors. The Will was proved 14th May, 
 1684. 
 
 Thomas Hoghton of Tockholes, son of Richard, had sons, Richard, and Charles, 
 enrolled with the father upon the Guild Roll of Preston in 1702. He had also a son 
 William, born in 1684. 
 
 Edward Hoghton of Tockholes, brother of Thomas, had sons, Richard; Thomas, 
 bom in 1676; and John, born in 1678. John Hoghton of Tockholes, Edward's 
 younger son, had, in 1722, sons, Edward, Giles, and John. 
 
 Richard Hoghton, of Tockholes in 1704, of Livesey in 1 707, eldest son of Edward, 
 had a son William, bapt. April 9th, 1 704 ; and daughters, Sarah, born in 1 707 ; and 
 Mary, bom in 171 1. 
 
 William Hoghton of Tockholes (on Preston Guild Roll in 1722, 1742, and 1762) 
 was eldest son of the last Richard. By Margaret his wife, who died in May, 1741, he 
 had sons, Thomas, born in 1736; William; and James; and a daughter Catherine 
 (wife of Banister Pickop). William Hoghton the father died in 1770, and was buried 
 Sept. 2nd. His son — 
 
 Thomas Hoghton, of Tockholes Fold, married, first, Mary Marsden, and by her 
 had issue, sons, William, bapt. Nov. 12th, 1759, died young; James, bom Sept. 21st, 
 1761 ; and Thomas, born Oct. 3rd, 1766; and daughters, Mary, bom Aug. 8th, 1758; 
 and Margaret, born Aug. 12th, 1764. His second wife was Jane Peel, aunt to Sir 
 Robert Peel, the first bart. ; she died s. p. He married, thirdly, Jane, daughter of 
 Mr. Myles Baron, by whom he had issue, sons, William, and Thomas ; and a 
 daughter Isabella (bom in 1797, died unmarried in 1855). Thomas Hoghton, gent., 
 died, aged 71, May 7th, 1807. 
 
MARSDEN OF RYALL, TOCKHOLES. 689 
 
 William Hoghton, Esq., of Conduit Street, Hanover Square, London (brother of 
 Thomas, and described on Preston Guild Roll (1782) as " Wm. Hoghton of London, 
 gent"), married Sarah Sykes Garland, daughter of Nathaniel Garland, Esq., of 
 Michaelstone Hall, Co. Essex, but had no issue. By his Will, dated April 12th, 
 1806, he bequeathed ;f 10,000 to his brother Thomas Hoghton of Tockholes, and the 
 residue of his estate (after payment of other legacies) to be divided amongst the chil- 
 dren of his said brother and of his sister Catherine Pickop. 
 
 William Hoghton, Esq., of Liverpool, son of Thomas and heir to his uncle 
 William, was born in 1801 ; married, Oct. 1st, 1833, Alice, daughter of Edmund 
 Haworth, Esq., of Turton, and died in 1845, leaving issue, William (born Aug. 2nd, 
 1834, died without issue, Oct. 9th, 1868) ; Henry (bom in 1836, of St. John's College, 
 Cambridge); and Thomas Edmund, of St. John's College, Cambridge, late Lieut. 
 1 2th Lancers, bom in 1839, married July 4th, 1866, Marie Georgiana, daughter of 
 Augustus Cardinal, Esq., of Havannah. 
 
 The freehold messuage and lands at Red Lee, on the right bank of the Roddies- 
 worth, are now the property of Col. Feilden of Witton Park. 
 
 MARSDEN OF RYALL, BRADLEY, &c. 
 
 This family held an estate in Tockholes four centuries since. Hugh Marsden of 
 this township paid the King's Subsidy tax in 1523 ; as did also " Marsden's widdow" 
 (perhaps his mother). In 1570, Henry Marsden of Tockholes was taxed to a Subsidy. 
 Edward Marsden of Tockholes, gent., is party to a deed dated 1576; and James 
 Marsden of Tockholes is party to a deed dated June 1st, 1588. Henry Marsden died 
 in 1619. Hugh Marsden of Tockholes, gent., a freeholder in 1584 and 1600, and a 
 juror in 1615, was buried June 5th, 1621; his wife was buried four days after. 
 Christopher Marsden, gent. , of Tockholes, occurs in a deed dated 1620. He married, 
 in 1622, Ann Walmsley (she died in 1655), and was " of Mellor " later in 1623, when 
 a son Richard was bom. This Richard Marsden of Mellor had a son Edward, born 
 in 165 1. 
 
 Myles Marsden, of Tockholes, paid the Subsidy tax in l6io, and died in 1623 ; 
 he had a son William. Hugh Marsden, taxed to the same Subsidy, was a freeholder 
 in Tockholes in 162 1. 
 
 James Marsden of Tockholes, gent., a freeholder in 1621, had married, Oct. 15th, 
 1609, Elizabeth Holden. He had issue, William, born in 1623 ; Ann, bom in 1626; 
 &c. He died in April, 1630. 
 
 William Marsden of Ryall in Tockholes, gent., was a Governor of Blackburn 
 Grammar School in 1634. He married, Feb. 9th, 1621-2, Ann Alker, and had sons, 
 Christopher, bom in 1627, died in 1634; Myles, bom in 1628 ; John, born in 1629 ; 
 Henry, bom in 1630 ; James, born in 1632, died in 1653 ; and Ralph, died in 1657 ; 
 and a daughter Ann, married, March 25th, 1656, "Rev. Edward Lawrence, pastor of 
 Garstange." In a rental of Blackburn Wapentake, dated 1650, William Marsden 
 appears as a freeholding tenant ; and he was taxed to a Subsidy in 1663 on his lands 
 in Tockholes. He died in 1671, and was buried March 6th, 1671-2. 
 
 William Marsden of Tockholes, "junior " in 1660, married, Nov. loth, 1656, 
 Alice Hoghton of Ramsgreave, and had a son William, who died young in 1660; 
 daughters, Jenet, and Lettice. 
 
 James Marsden of Tockholes, yeoman, paid the Subsidy tax in 1663, and in 1670 
 was trastee of an endowment of Tockholes Church. He had sons, James, who died 
 young in 1676 ; a second James; Hugh, and Thomas. James Marsden, senior, was 
 buried Sept. 30th, 1723. His son— 
 
 87 
 
690 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 James Marsden, of Bradley in Tockholes, yeoman, married, in Sept. , 1 702, Ann 
 Ileaton of Samlesbury (who died in June, 1721), and had sons, James, bom in 1703 ; 
 Richard, born in 1710 ; and Christopher, bom in 1712 ; also, daughters, Alice, born 
 in 1705 ; and Ann, born in 1716, died in 1721. James Marsden died in April, 1741. 
 
 Hugh Marsden of Tockholes, yeoman (perhaps brother of James), by Mary his 
 wife (who died in Nov., 1731), had (with other issue), a son, James Marsden of Tock- 
 holes (born Oct. 8th, 1699, died March 15th, 1777, aged 77 ; by Isabel his wife, who 
 died in May, 1782, he had issue). Hugh Marsden of Tockholes, yeoman, died in 
 Sept, 1745. 
 
 James Marsden (son of James who died in 1741), of Tockholes, yeoman, died in 
 July, 1769. His son, James Marsden of Blackburn, died in March, 1776. 
 
 Ryall is a messuage situate at the foot of Tockholes Moor. The house is that of 
 a respectable yeoman, built probably in the 17th century. The estate, of 48 acres, is 
 now the property of Messrs. Cunliffe and Grundy. 
 
 At Bradley, on the lower side of Tockholes, is an old house, a low structure, with 
 square doorways and small windows. On the wall of one of the bed-rooms are the 
 initials " I M M" (James and Maiy Marsden) and date " 1704." The estate now 
 belongs to the daughters of the late Mr. Lowe, banker, of Preston. 
 
 RICHARDSON OF LOWER HILL, SILK HALL, &c. 
 
 Adam Richardson, yeoman, of Tockholes, living in 1735, had sons, Walmsley, 
 Ralph, and Adam ; and daughters, Alice and Ann. His second son, Ralph Richard- 
 son, chapman, of the Silk Hall (which he built in 1764), by Susannah his wife had 
 issue. Walmsley Richardson, yeoman, eldest son of Adam, married, May 7th, 1752, 
 Lydia, daughter of Mr. Ralph Walmsley of the Hill, and had issue, Ralph, born in 
 '757; Jane, bom in 1754, married James Towers; and Ann. His son, Ralph 
 Richardson, had sons, Walmsley ; and John Richardson, of the Crowtrees, who by 
 Lucy his wife had sons, Ralph Richardson (now of Tockholes), Adam, "and John. 
 Walmsley Richardson of Preston, eldest son of Ralph, sold the I^ower Hill farm some 
 years ago to Mr. Thos. Sefton. 
 
 WALMSLEY OF THE' HILL AND RYALL. 
 
 It is not unlikely that from the ancient stock of Walmerslegh or Walmsley of 
 Tockholes branched the Walmesleys of Showley, from whom came the important 
 houses of Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh, Westwood, &c. It is in Tockholes that the 
 earliest residents of this name occur. Roger de Walmerslegh, who is named as a 
 juror in 1334 and 1359, probably was progenitor of Roger and Richard de Walmerslegh 
 de Tockholes, jurors in 1395. One William Walmersley is named in a letter of Sir 
 Alexander Radcliffe, lord of Tockholes, written about 1450 ; and William de Walmers- 
 ley of Livesey, yeoman, and Alice his wife, John de Walmersley, Hugh, and Christo- 
 pher, occur in 1457. 
 
 William Walmesley was assessed on lands in Tockholes to a Subsidy in 1523. 
 William Walmesley, of this family, aged 73 in 161 1 (so born in 1528), was a witness 
 in the inquiry respecting the Talbot Chapel in Blackburn Church. 
 
 Thurstan Walmysley, of Tockholes, had daughters Alice and Ann, who after his 
 death, as his heirs, in 1568 had a dispute with John Holden, Robert Holden, and 
 others, respecting lands, turbary, and a tenement called the Chamber, in Lyvesey and 
 Tockholes. 
 
 Richard Walmsley of Tockholes, married, in 1615, Grace Bayne ; she died in 
 1635. Henry Walmsley of Tockholes occurs in 1628. 
 
CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN, TOCKHOLES. 691 
 
 Ralph Walmsley of Tockholes, gent., named as a freeholder in 1621, occurs in 
 1627 and 1635, as Ralph Walmsley of the Hill, yeoman, party to deeds of those dates. 
 His son and heir, William, is also named in the deed of 1635. In 1649, Ralph 
 Walmsley gave a piece of land on Chapel Green to Tockholes Chapel (see post, under 
 Tockholes Church). He died in 1665— a centenarian. In Blackburn Parish church- 
 yard is a slab inscribed : — " Here lyeth the body of Ralphe Walmslay, who died the 
 [20] day of November, i6[65], circiter centum." 
 
 William Walmsley of Royle or Ryall, in Tockholes, yeoman, was made a Gover- 
 nor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1646 ; and was a juror on the Survey of the 
 parish in 1650. He bought the Ryall estate from James Browne in 1660. William 
 Walmsley married, in 1637, Alice Shorrock, and had sons, Ralph ; and John (of 
 Ryall); and daughters, Anne; Hannah, died in 1660; and Mary, born in 1656. 
 William Walmsley died in Oct., 1671. His son — • 
 
 Ralph Walmsley of the Hill, gent., a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 
 1675, married Alice, daughter of Richard Hoghton of Tockholes ; and had sons, 
 William, born in i66i ; James, born in 1663 ; Ralph, born in 1667 ; and Thomas, 
 bom in 1674, died in 1719 ; and a daughter Alice, born in 1677. Ralph Walmsley 
 the father died in 1716. 
 
 Ralph Walmsley of the Hill, yeoman, younger son of Ralph, died in 1722. He 
 had a son Ralph. He was Ralph Walmsley of Tockholes, yeoman, who died in 
 1746, leaving issue, by Jane his wife, daughters, Jane; and Lydia, bom in 1721, 
 married. May 7th, 1752, Walmsley Richardson, yeoman. 
 
 James Walmsley, of Tockholes, yeoman and chapman (son of Ralph who died 
 in 1716), had sons, William, bom in 1699, died in 1705 ; James, bom in 1702, died 
 in 171 1 ; a second William, born in 1709; Benjamin, bom in 1706; and a second 
 James, bom in 1715 ; and a daughter Isabel. James Walmsley died in 1747. His 
 son, James Walmsley of Witton, died in 1772. 
 
 Reverting to the branch seated at Ryall, I find that John Walmsley of Ryall, 
 yeoman, son or grandson of William, the first of Ryall, was, in 1 724, nominated a 
 trustee of the Church Stock of Tockholes. John Walmsley of Ryall, son of William, 
 by his wife, Elizabeth, had sons, William, born in 1676 ; and Richard, born in 1688 ; 
 with other children. William Walmsley of Tockholes, yeoman, son of John, died in 
 Sept., 1727 ; by Deborah his wife, who died in 1718, he had daughters, Eliza, wife of 
 William Cardwell ; and Ann ; perhaps other issue. 
 
 The old residence of this family at the Hill is a good-sized 17th century house, 
 with gabled porch and south wing, situated on the edge of the hill in the centre of 
 Tockholes. The estate now belongs to the Marquis de Rothwell. 
 
 THE PAROCHIAL CHAPEL OF ST. MICHAEL (ST. STEPHEN 
 THE MARTYR). 
 I have found no evidence respecting the foundation of this ancient 
 Chapel in Tockholes, or the date of it. Doubtless it was built as a 
 Chapel-of-Ease by one of the Radcliffes, lords of the manor, and by the 
 freeholders, who were numerous in Tockholes. The chapel is supposed 
 to have been built temp. Henry VIII. It is not named in the Valor of 
 1534 ; and has no pre-Reformation endowment. The original fabric was 
 in a condition of decay many years before its demolition in 1832. It 
 was a diminutive building, low in elevation, about 52 feet in length, by 
 22 feet in width. It had no chancel. There was a small tower at the 
 
692 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 west end, and a porch on the south side. On the north side were one 
 two-Ught window, and two windows of three Ughts ; on the south, two 
 windows of two lights and one of three Hghts. At the east end was a 
 three-light window. In the interior a central aisle traversed the church 
 longitudinally. The pulpit stood on the north side towards the east 
 end. The chapel contained 1 70 sittings. Over the east window was a 
 stone bearing the initials of Sir John Radcliffe, Knt. Over the porch 
 were other initials and the date 1620. The chapel may have been re- 
 stored in that year. There was occasional celebration of divine service 
 in the chapel by the Vicar of Blackburn and his curates, but no regular 
 ministry before the setting up of the Presbytery in Lancashire. Mr. 
 Isaac Ambrose, Minister at Preston, wrote to one Mr. Wales, in Oct., 
 1643, that Colonel Rigby would allow £$0 per annum for Tockholes, 
 if an able, honest minister could be provided. A minute of the Pres- 
 bytery in 1646 records the order : — " Mr. John Worthington, Minister 
 of Tockholes Chapell. By an Order of this Committee, of the 25 Deer., 
 1646, there is j£40 per annum allowed to an orthodox divine, to officiate 
 the cure at Tockholes Chappel." Mr. Worthington was transferred to 
 Oldham in 1647 i ^.nd Mr. Alexander Gilbert was ordained Minister at 
 Tockholes Chapel, April loth, 1649. The Parliamentary Commission 
 of 1650 returned respecting the Chapel : — 
 
 Tockholes, a chappel distant from theire parishe church three myles, consistinge 
 of above fourscore families, and twentye foure families, in Withnell next adjoyninge to 
 them, being seaven myles distant from theire parish churche of Leyland, desire to be 
 aimexed to Tockholes, and the same to bee made a parishe, and competent maynte- 
 nance allowed for a minister, they haveinge att present fortye poundes per ann. 
 allowed by the Comittee of this Countye. 
 
 The first endowment of the curacy was a benefaction given by Mr. 
 Ralph Walmsley, of Hill, in Tockholes, in the year 1649. It consisted 
 of a parcel of land in Tockholes, " upon a certaine place called Chappell 
 Greene, containing by estimation Twelve Falls of ground or there- 
 abouts," along with " one Messuage, Cottage, or Dwelling-house there- 
 upon erected ;" and was conveyed by the donor to William Marsden, 
 Richard Whithalghe, Nathaniel Leighe, Lawrence Halliwell, Thomas 
 Crichlowe, and John Benson, in trust, " to the use and behoof of such a 
 preachinge Minister or Ministers as shall bee resident at Tockholes 
 Chappell from tyme to tyme." The deed of conveyance is dated Dec. 
 28th, 1649. The deed abridged below refers to a subsequent gift in 
 1670 : — 
 
 Be it known unto all men by these presents, that wee Ralph Walmesley, James 
 Marsden, William Chritchley, and Richard Aspeden, all of Tockholes, in the countie 
 of Lancaster, yeomen, have received and had at and before the daye of the date 
 hereof, of William Walmisley, of Tockholes aforesaid, within the said countie. 
 
CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN, TOCKHOLES. 693 
 
 yeoman, the full some of seaventy nyne poundes seaven shillinges fyve pence of 
 current and lawfuU money of England, beinge the full both of the ould Stock and 
 Use belonginge to Tockholes Chappell, in the countie aforesaid, which the said 
 William Walmisley had anything to doe withal ; and alsoe twentie two poundes, fyve 
 shillinges, fower pence, which Ralph Walmisley, late of Tockholes aforesaid, deceased, 
 gave to be a newe Stock towardes the maintenance of God's Word at the said Tock- 
 holes Chappell, and to free his house and- land at Hill, in Tockholes aforesaid, and 
 the inhabitants thereof, from payeing any money for the future to any minister or 
 ministers that should hereafter preach at the said Chappell, and alsoe to free the house 
 and land which William Walmisley his son purchased of James Browne, called the 
 Ryle, and the inhabitants thereof, from payeinge any money for the future to any 
 minister or ministers that should hereafter preach and officiate at the said Chappell of 
 Tockholes. The receipt of which said somes of money wee the said Ralph Walmisley, 
 James Marsden, William Chritchley, and Richard Aspeden doe hereby acknowledge, 
 and doe fully acquitte the said William Walmisley, his exors., &c., for ever by these 
 presents. And wee the said Ralph Walmisley [and others] by these presents remyse, 
 release, &c. , unto William Walmisley, his exors, &c. , all manner of accommodations, 
 &C. , which wee the said Ralph Walmisley [and others], our heirs, &c. , have against 
 the said William Walmisley, his exors, &c. In witness whereof we the said Ralph 
 Walmisley, James Marsden, William Chritchley, and Richard Aspeden have hereunto 
 sett our handes and seales the nth day of March, 1670. 
 
 In the year 1684, Archbishop Sancroft received the information: — 
 
 Tockholes Chapell, 3 miles and half from Blackburn Church, 2 miles from any 
 other chapell. Adjacent to it Tockholes and upper part of Livesey. Endowment — 
 
 A dwelling-house belonging to it, per annum 17s. ; Interest of ;f 100 given by 
 
 £^ ; Mrs. Fleetwood promiseth £2 ; the inhabitants nothing, till they see what I'll 
 doe, unless they may chuse their minister. 
 
 Other items forwarded about the same date to Lambeth are 
 contained in a second memorandum : — 
 
 Tockholes Chapel. — There is a house belonging to the curate, in good repaire, 
 and likewise a bam belonging to it. The stock given to the chapelry, see the certifi- 
 cate under the hands of the inhabitants. ;f 100 is secured by mortgage on the Lands 
 of Livesay of White Hough, p^ao whereof was given by several families of Tockholes ; 
 the rest by well-disposed persons who cannot be discovered at present. There is £y> 
 more left in feoffees' hands, who are responsible persons, and carefuU to preserve the 
 same. — The inhabitants of Tockholes resort to no other church but their Mother Church 
 of Blackburn, for administration of the sacraments or any other holy offices. 
 
 In one of Sancroft's letters to the Vicar, he asks : — " Is the curate's 
 house at Tockholes fit to dwell in ?" And in regard to the conduct of 
 the inhabitants, in refusing to promise money for the support of the 
 curate " unless they may chuse their own minister," the Primate says : — 
 " If Tockholes continues refractory, let them stand alone unassisted." 
 The threat to deny a share of the Sancroft endowment to Tockholes was 
 not carried out, for a few years later the curate was in receipt of ^^5 
 per annum from the Thomley Rents. In 1689, Thomas Johnson 
 made a gift of Ten Shillings yearly towards the maintenance of a 
 
694 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 minister here. At this time the chapels of Tockholes and Darwen were 
 served by the same curate, Mr. Wm. Stones. Dec. 7th, 1691, is dated 
 " An account of what money belongs to the chapel of Tockholes," and 
 in whose hands it was held, as follows : — John Marsden, sen., of Lower 
 Darwen, had ^10, besides two years' interest; Richard Catterall of 
 Tockholes, had ;^4 ; Hugh Gorse, of Tockholes, had £,1 ; Richard 
 Livesey, of Livesey, had ^i 7, due upon bond ; the same person had 
 ;^ioo, due upon mortgage, besides many years' interest ; Thurston 
 Fish wick had £,%, besides several years' interest. The other moneys 
 were, an annuity of los. charged upon land ; Mrs. Cooper's gift of £^2.0, 
 disposed of by James Marsden ; and £,2 in the hands of John Gelibrand, 
 of Livesey. Total, ;^i68 los., besides interest overdue. In 1714 it is 
 recorded : — " In Tockholes Chapel divine offices are performed every 
 other Sunday, and most of the inhabitants frequent a Presbyterian 
 Meeting-house there is within that chapelry those Sundays there is no 
 service in their own chapel." The endowments of Tockholes chapelry 
 then were : — Out of the Archbishop of Canterbury's lands at Thomley, 
 ;^5 ; out of the Rectory of Blackburn, £^2 6s. 8d. ; a dwelling-house 
 worth about 15s. per annum ; and the interest of a gift of ^^30, £,1 los. ; 
 total, £<) IIS. 8d." Bishop Gastrell writes, about 1720 : — 
 
 Tockholes. — Certified £,1^ is. 8d. ; out of Thomley ;^s ; Rector £2 6s. 8d. ; 
 Interest of ;^I40, £"] ; Dwelling-house, 15 shillings ; ^£'13 2s. 5d. Endowment (Vicar's 
 account, anno 1704). The money is in the hands of Presbyterian Trustees, who will 
 give no account of the Benefactors, but pay the curate punctually, viz., with the 
 Interest of ;^I40, except when the chapel wants repairing, when they apply it to that 
 use to save themselves. Circumference, about 9 miles. The Inhabitants of Tockholes, 
 and part of Livesey, repair to it. Divine service every other Sunday. No Warden. 
 Three miles from the Parish Church, and two miles from any other chapel. 
 
 Dated August 27th, 1722, is a petition to Rev. John Holme, Vicar 
 of Blackburn, signed by sixty-seven inhabitants of the Chapelry of 
 Tockholes, the prayer of which is : — " We desire you will please to 
 nominate the Rev. Mr. Clayton curate of our chapell, and you will 
 thereby very much oblige us." The Vicar paid no regard to this 
 application, for one William Crombleholme was nominated to the 
 vacancy. In 1724, a Commission consisting of Thomas Towneley, 
 Banister Parker, Robert Chaddock, John Ainsworth, Esqrs., and Henry 
 ffeilden, gentleman, were directed to inquire by oath of twelve good and 
 lawful men of the country into certain breaches of trust and misemploy- 
 ment of moneys belonging to the chapel at Tockholes. Before these 
 Commissioners evidence was given that " for some time whereof the 
 memory of man is not to the contrary there hath been a consecrated 
 chappel at Tockholes," which was used as a chapel-of-ease dependent 
 
CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN'S, TOCKHOLES. 695 
 
 upon the Parish Church of Blackburn ; that there had been " several 
 gifts, donations, and charities anciently given to and for the use and 
 maintenance of a preaching minister at the said chappel, by several 
 charitable and well-disposed persons, amounting in the whole to the 
 sume of £162, f that this money had been put out at interest upon 
 security in the names of trustees, feoffees for the said chapel stock ; that 
 " there is a house, a barn, and some ground, situated at Tockholes, of 
 the yearly value of jQz, which of right belongs to the officiating 
 minister ;" that " James Marsden, Thomas Critchlow, Hugh Marsden, 
 and John Aspden have taken upon them to act as trustees or feoffees for 
 the said chapel stock, without any authority or warrant for so doing, 
 and have got into their hands all the said moneys in specie or security 
 for the same, and have misapplied, misconverted, and misgoverned the 
 same," and had placed out such money at interest in their o^vn names. 
 The Commissioners decreed that the parties mentioned should within 
 one month pay into the hands of Alexander Osbaldeston, John Warren, 
 Ralph Livesey, Esqrs. ; John Holme, Vicar of Blackburn, and John 
 Walmsley, of Royle, within Tockholes, yeoman, the said principal sum 
 of ;^i63, to be by them invested for the use of the preaching minister 
 for the time being at Tockholes Chapel. The decree is dated Nov. 
 3rd, 1724. It was confirmed by the Court of Chancery of Lancaster, 
 by an Order dated March 3rd, 1726. In 1735, another gift of a parcel 
 of land, in Goosnargh, was made to this chapel ; this farni was let for 
 _;^8o a year in 1830. 
 
 To meet a benefaction of ^200 by Ralph Livesey, Esq., dated 9th 
 Nov., 1725, the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty gave ^200 for the 
 augmentation of Tockholes benefice. A second sum of ^200 was 
 granted, by lot, from the said Bounty, in 1801 ; and in 1821, a 
 Parliamentary grant of ;^ioo was made to the endowment, by lot. 
 The living was valued at jQ()^ per annum in 1834; and was worth 
 ;^i6o prior to the recent augmentation by the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
 sioners to ^300 per annum. The Vicar of Blackburn is patron. 
 
 In 1825, the old fabric having become infirm, a fund was started 
 for a new church. A local subscription of ;^iooo was raised; the 
 Church Building Society granted .3^^200, and the Parliamentary Com- 
 missioners made a grant of ;^r,2oo. Mr. William Pickering gave a 
 plot of 1,840 square yards for a site for the new church and for an 
 extension to the church-yard. The old chapel stood a little to the 
 south of the present edifice, and was not taken down until the new- 
 church was completed. The foundation stone of the new church was 
 laid on Thursday, Feb. 23rd, r832, by Lawrence Brock-Hollinshead, 
 Esq., lord of the Manor. The Rev. Gilmour Robinson was then 
 
696 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 incumbent. The church was completed in 1832, and was consecrated 
 by the Bishop of Chester, November 26th. The church, dedicated to St. 
 Stephen the Martyr, is a chaste structure, of the early English style. Its 
 plan consists of a nave, chancel, porch on the south side, and a square 
 projection at the west end in place of a tower, surmounted by angle 
 turrets, each with four pinnacles. The windows are of lancet shape, 
 coupled. The east window of the chancel and the west window of the 
 tower consist of triplets of lancet lights. The main entrance is by a 
 porch on the south side, under a pointed arch. The side walls are 
 supported by buttresses with triangular heads. Interiorly, the dimen- 
 sions are about 74 feet in length by 45 feet wide. There is a west 
 gallery; and there are sittings for 804 persons, of which 410 are free. 
 
 The list of Incumbents of Tockholes subjoined is perhaps deficient in two or 
 three names : — John Worthington (Presbyterian) 1646-1647 ; Alexander Gilbert 
 (Presbyterian) 1649-1650 ; William Stones (Curate of Tockholes and Darwen) 1689- 
 1720, died Nov. 1720; Samuel Simpson 1721-1724; William Crombleholme 1724- 
 1729 (instituted Vicar of St. Michael-Ie-Wyre in 1729); Thomas Holme 1729-1736; 
 John Hadwen 1736-1766; Thomas Baldwin 1766-17 — ; John Wilson 1769-17 — ; 
 
 Thompson ; William Fletcher 1799; James Dodgson 1805 ; Richard Gamett, 
 
 1826; Gilmour Robinson, 1830-1856 ; W. M. Haslewood, B.A., 1857-1861 ; Charles 
 Hughes, B.A., 1861 (present Vicar). 
 
 THE OLD NONCONFORMIST MEETING-HOUSE. 
 
 A congregation of Nonconformists has existed in Tockholes since 
 the year 1662, when a number of parishioners refused compliance with 
 the Act of Uniformity. They had probably no regular ministry until 
 the King's licenses were granted for nonconforming preachers and 
 meetings in 1672. May 1st, 1672, a license was obtained for "John 
 Harvie to be a Presbyterian Teacher in a meeting-house at Tocklez 
 [Tockholes] erected for that purpose in the Parish of Blackbume ;" and a 
 license for the Meeting-house at Tockholes is dated May 8th, 1872 (see 
 ante, p. 189). Mr. John Harvey continued to preach at Tockholes for 
 several years. A church-society was constituted on a Presbyterian- 
 Congregational basis. In 1674, I find Mrs. Yates, wife of Mr. William 
 Yates of Blackburn, dismissed from Mr. Thomas Jollie's church at 
 Wymond-houses " to Mr. Hervey and his society," i.e., to Tockholes. 
 Mr. John Harvey went from Tockholes to Chester; and after an 
 interval, Mr. Robert Waddington became the minister at Tockholes. 
 He was son of Mr. John Waddington, of Whalley. He had been an 
 elder in Mr. Jollie's church ; and his desire to preach on trial is 
 recorded in 1677. He was ordained a minister in 1682. Mr. Jollie 
 entered in his Church Book, in 1681 : — "Mr. Waddington not ordained 
 when expected, from ministers and people failing, but done afterwards 
 
OLD NONCONFORMIST MEETING-HOUSE, TOCKHOLES. 697 
 
 honourably." A reference to the ordination is found in Hunter's " Life 
 of Oliver Heywood." Mr. Hunter says that the ordination of Mr. 
 Robert Waddington, who had been a ruling elder in Mr. Jollie's church, 
 commenced on May i6th, 1682, at Mr. Jollie's; was adjourned to June 
 6th, when Mr. Oliver Heywood was there ; Mr. Frankland (of Rathmell 
 academy) and his son ; Mr. Benson (of Hoghton Tower) ; Mr. Green- 
 wood of Lancaster, and Mr. Kay. Mr. Jollie acted as moderator. 
 
 The "erected meeting-house" mentioned in the license of 1672 
 might be an adapted building ; which was disused when the Noncon- 
 formists, I imagine after the Revolution of 1688, obtained for a time 
 the use on alternate Sundays of the ancient Chapel-of-ease. It was only 
 when the Bishop had at length inhibited this irregular arrangement, 
 that the Presbyterians proceeded to erect a permanent chapel for 
 themselves. Between 1690 and 1700, the names of James Walmsley, 
 yeoman, Hugh Marsden, yeoman, Robert Etough, yeoman. Miles 
 Baron, Evan Haydock, and William Haworth, all of Tockholes, and 
 Robert Boardman of Livesey, gent., occur as prominent men of the 
 Dissenters of Tockholes. A tradition exists that the eminent John 
 Howe preached at Tockholes during his visits to Hoghton Tower from 
 1688 to 1700. In the beginning of 1710, a site was purchased on 
 which to build a Meeting-house. An abstract of the conveyance of the 
 site, dated April ist, 1710, is appended: — 
 
 Indenture made the ist April, 1710, between James Garsden, of Tockholes, 
 yeoman, son of William Garsden, deceased, and Jennet Garsden, widow and relict of 
 the said decedent on the one part, and James Marsden, Robert Etough, and James 
 Walmsley, all of Tockholes, yeomen, on the other part, — Witnesseth that James 
 Garsden and Jennet Garsden, in consideration of £2, to them paid by James Marsden, 
 Robert Etough, and James Walmsley, have sold, &c., unto James Marsden, Robert 
 Etough, and James Walmsley, their heires and assignes, all that portion or parcell of 
 land now meered and set forth in and ditched out of and from one close of land called 
 the Upper Croft, in Tockholes, parcell of the tenement of him the said James Garsden 
 (the said parcell conteyning by computation Twenty Yards square, and being intended 
 to have a building erected upon it), to have and hold the same parcell of land and 
 premises to the sole use of the said James Marsden, Robert Etough, and James 
 Walmsley, for ever. (Signed), James Garsden, Jennet Garsden — Witnesses, Edward 
 Eccles, Hugh Marsden, Henry Norris. 
 
 The chapel was built upon the site thus acquired, and was finished 
 before October, 17 10. It was a small oblong building, with thatched 
 roof and square turret at the north-west end. The requisite certificate 
 from the County Sessions was procured, and is copied below : — ■ 
 
 1710. — Certificate of Justices in Session at Wigan, for Service in Tockholes 
 Chapel — Lane. SS : These are to certiffye that at the Generall Q'r Sessions of the 
 Peace held by adjournment at Wiggan, in and for the County Pallatine of Lancaster, 
 the Uynth day of October, Anno D'ni One Thousand Seaven hundred and Tenn, A 
 
 88 
 
698 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Certaine Ediffice, newly erected within Livesey-in-TockhoIes in the said County, i» 
 recorded for a Meeting-place for an Assembly of persons dissenting ffrom the Church 
 of England, for the exercise of theire religious worshipp, pursuant to an Act of 
 Parliament entituled An Act for Exempting their Majesties' Protestant Subjects 
 dissenting from the Church of England from ye Pennaltyes of certaine Lawes, 
 according to the tenor and purport of the said Act. All which is humbly certifiFyed 
 by RiCHD. Edge, Clerk of the Peace there. 
 
 At this period the conforming and nonconforming inhabitants of 
 Tockholes were not so clearly distinguished as now. Many attended 
 the Chapel of St Michael and the Presbyterian Meeting on alternate 
 Sundays. Dated 17 14, a statement in the records of the chapelry is 
 to this purport : — " Most of the inhabitants frequent a Presbyterian 
 Meeting-house there is within the chapelr}' those Sundays there is no 
 service in their own chapel." Mr. Robert Waddington, after being 
 minister at Tockholes about thirty years, died before 1715. A small 
 MS. book of accounts, in possession of the late Mr. Moses Aspden, 
 shows the contributions for the minister's stipend from 171510 1750. 
 Some leaves at the beginning of the book have been taken out and the 
 first entry is dated May, 1 7 1 5. The receipt is entered at the foot of the 
 page : — " Received the contents hereof by me, John Waddington." 
 (He was probably son of the deceased minister.) The pew-rents at 
 Martinmas, 17 15, produced £fi 2%. 6d., and the contributors were : — 
 
 James Walmsley los.; Alex. Gerrard 2s.6d. ; George Woodcock 2s.6d.; Thomas 
 Marsden5s. ; Daniel Catterall 4s. ; Wm. Bolton 2s. 6d.; Roger Fishwick 55.; Alis 
 Livesey is.; Thomas Withnell is.; James Haydock 5s.; William Halliwell 2s.; 
 Widdow Topping 2s. 6d. ; Wm. Haworth 2s. 6d., Ralph Walmsley los. ; Oliver 
 Pearson 5s. ; Thurstan ffishwicke 2s. 6d. ; Thomas ffoole 5s. ; Widow Marsden 5s. ; 
 James Marsden 2s. 6d. ; John Aspden 5s. ; Edward and Robert Boardman 5s. ; Henry 
 Norres, 5s. ; James Marsden 5s. ; Thomas Holden 6s. ; Wm. Dewhursl los. ; Robert 
 Etough I OS. 
 
 About the end of 1 715 Mr. Peter Valentine was appointed minister, 
 and he gives receipt for stipend Feb. 9th, 171 5-16. A category of 
 Dissenting Meeting Houses in 1715, in the Dr. Williams Library, 
 London, names " Tockholes ; preachers (in succession) Robert Wad- 
 dington; Peter Valentine 1715; James Towers; No. of hearers 265; 
 Votes for the County 30 ; votes for borough (Preston) i." 
 
 In 1 716 the chapel fabric was transferred to trustees by the parties 
 who had before held the property on behalf of the congregation. This 
 first trust-deed of the chapel I cite below in abstract : — • 
 
 Indenture made the loth July, 2nd Geo. I., A.D. 1716, between James Marsden, 
 senior, Robert Etough and James Walmsley, all of Tockholes, yeomen, on the one 
 part, and Henry Norris, of Hoghton, gentleman, Robert Bury, of Hoghton, Edward 
 Boardman, of Witton, Robert Boardman, of Livesay, Richard Dewhurst, of Withnell, 
 Richard Haydock of Tockholes, and Thomas Marsden, of Whittle, on the other part, 
 
OLD NONCONFORMIST MEETING-HOUSE, TOCKHOLES. 699 
 
 reciteth that whereas certain of his Majestie's Protestant subjects, dissenting from the 
 Church of England, heretofore had the use of the Parochial Cliapell in Tockholes 
 certain days monthly for the exercise of their Religious Worship, and being afterwards 
 abridged thereof by the Bishopp of Chester, they have, rather than contest their liberty 
 thereto with his Lordshipp, bought a parcell of land, part of the close called the 
 Upper Croft within Tockholes aforesaid, being about Twenty yards square, and there- 
 upon have built an Edifice which is now certified, recorded, and used for the worshipp 
 of such Dissenters, and the estate in law thereto is now vested in them the said James 
 Marsden, Robert Etough, and James Walmsley ; and witnesseth that they the said 
 James Marsden, Robert Etough, and James Walmsley, to the intent to continue the 
 place so purchased and recorded for the religious worship of such Protestant Dissenters 
 according to the laws tolerating the same, and to that end for granting the title 
 thereto to proper persons, and in consideration of 5s. to them paid by the said Henry 
 Norris, Robert Bury, Edward Boardman, Robert Boardman, Richard Dewhurst, 
 Richard Haydockand Thomas Marsden, &c., convey unto the said Henry Norris [and 
 the others], their heires, &c., all that the aforesaid parcell of land, being about Twenty 
 yards square, part of the said Upper Croft, in Tockholes, with the Edifice, Chapell, 
 or Building thereupon erected, and all the whole estate, &c., of the said James Mars- 
 den, Robert Etough, and James Walmsley, to have and hold the said Edifice, Land 
 and premises to the sole use of the said Henry Norris [and the others], as Feoffees and 
 Trustees to the intent that they shall permitt the said Edifice to be quietly used and 
 enjoyed for the religious worship and service of his Majestie's Protestant subjects 
 dissenting from the Church of England, according to the laws in being, so long and so far 
 as by law the same shall be permitted. And to this further intent, that the survivors 
 of them [the said trustees], shall within twelve months after the death of any of them 
 elect another Protestant Dissenter to be a Trustee herein in the room of such decedent, 
 and that when there shall only be three of them surviving, such survivors shall grant 
 over the said Edifice, Land and premises, and their title therein, to such new Trustees 
 (and surviving old ones), being Protestant Dissenters, as shall be agreed upon by such 
 survivors and new Trustees, on the trusts and for the uses aforesaid, to the end the 
 said religious service there may be continued whilst the same shall by law be tolerated 
 or permitted. (Signed) James Marsden, Robert Etough, James Walmsley.— (Wit- 
 nesses) — William Shawe, Joseph Shawe. 
 
 In 173s, by an indenture dated IMarch 2nd, the trustees mentioned 
 in the first Trust Deed, being then reduced to three, viz., Henry Norris, 
 Robert Boardman, and Richard Haydock, conveyed the chapel and site 
 to a new body of Trustees. The trustees under the deed of 1735 were 
 Adam Richardson, James Marsden (son of Hugh IVIarsden), Thomas 
 Aspden, all of Tockholes ; Ralph Walmsley, of Upper Darwen ; James 
 Marsden and Peter Marsden the younger, both of Withnell ;— all yeomen. 
 
 The Hoghton family of Hoghton Tower were early patrons of tlie 
 Nonconformist Church at Tockholes. When the chapel was pewed, 
 two large square pews were allotted to the use of the Hoghton family 
 and their domestics ; to the door-panels of which were attached oaken 
 shields, bearing the rnonogram of Lady Mary Hoghton, the letters M 
 and H interlaced. These pews have recently been removed and 
 replaced by rows of single pews ;— one of the shields with the monogram 
 
700 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 is now in the writer's possession. The first instance in which the 
 Hoghtons appear in the accounts as occupants of pews in Tockholes 
 Chapel is at the Martinmas collection in 1 7 1 6. Lady Mary Hoghton, 
 (widow of Sir Charles Hoghton who died in 1710) then paid for her 
 pews, as entered: — " ist [Pew] of the Honrble. Lady Hoghton, 7s.; 
 2nd Ditto 7s. 6d." At Martinmas, 17 17, the rent of Lady Hoghton's 
 pews had been increased to 8s. for the first and 12 s. 6d. for the second, 
 and the total amount collected for that half year, and paid to the 
 minister, Mr. Peter Valentine, was £g 14s. About this period the 
 chief supporters of Nonconformity in Tockholes were, besides Lady 
 Hoghton, five yeomen, who are found paying at each collection a rent 
 of los. each for their pews. They were, Mr. John Aspden, Mr. James 
 Walmsley, Mr. Ralph Walmsley, Mr. Wm. Dewhurst, Mr. Robert 
 Etough, and Mr. James Marsden. Mr. Robert Etough acted as 
 treasurer, and probably the entries in the account book are in his hand- 
 writing, from the beginning of the record until May, 1724, when 
 another hand appears, and the minister's receipts, written at the foot of 
 the account, are then to Mr. James Walmsley, instead of, as previously, 
 to Mr. Robert Etough. Mr. Peter Valentine resigned his ministry 
 here in 172 1. His last receipt for stipend is dated August 6th, 1721. 
 Mr. James Towers became minister in 1721 ; and continued about 27 
 years. In the Baptismal Register of Blackburn Parish Church is the 
 entry: — "Nov. 26th, 1726. Isabel, daughter of Mr. James Towers, of 
 Tockholes, Dissenting Minister." Dr. Halley describes the preaching 
 of Mr. Towers as having been " strictly orthodox." His last receipt for 
 salary is signed on May 7th, 1749. He died about 1749, and was 
 buried, with his wife and a son John, in the chapel, underneath the 
 pulpit. Other sons, James and Thomas Towers, are among the pew- 
 holders in 1 75 1. Mr. Towers had a grandson. Rev. George Towers, a 
 Congregational minister at Whitworth. 
 
 The last entries in the old book of seat-rent accounts are dated November 17th, 
 1751. At that time the names of the pew-holders or subscribers to the minister's 
 stipend were the following : — Jeremiah Grime, James Marsden, Robert Dewhurst, 
 Elizabeth Plumb, Adam Richardson, Jane Walmsley,- Lydia Walmsley, Joseph 
 Grime, Robert Haworth, John Topping, Hannah Aspden, James Towers, John 
 Woodcoke, Richard Houghton, Thomas Beardwood, Peter Marsden, Lawrence 
 Haslam, Henry Jepson, Roger Ward, Hugh Wood, Benjamin Ingham, Widow 
 Hodson, Esur Haworth, John Watson, Widow Kershaw, Lawrence Halliwell, William 
 Boardman, Thurstan Marsden, George Berry, Widow Derbyshire, William Marsden, 
 Robert Marsden, William Houghton, John Ward, Humphrey Gorse, John Marsden, 
 Halliwell's Daughters, Quartus Marsden, Alice Marsden, Joseph Astmough, Jenet 
 Houghton, Thomas Towers, Hester Astmough, Henry Bury, Margaret Marsden, 
 Joseph Bury, Robert Boardman. 
 
 At various times, by several donors, sums have been given to this foundation to 
 
OLD NONCONFORMIST MEETING-HOUSE, TOCKHOLES. yor 
 
 assist the minister's stipend. Some of the bequests have been lost ; others have been 
 appropriated to repairs of the minister's house aud of cottages on the estate. Of some 
 gifts the only record is the entry in the seat-rent accounts of items of interest paid on 
 account thereof. The following appear : — May, 1716, "Mrs. Coop's Interest ;fi." — 
 Oct., 1719, " Andrevif Makinson's Interest £1 ;" "Abbott's Interest .^i." — May, 
 1720, "James Marsden, Peter's, Interest 5s." — May, 1724, " Interest from Edward 
 Boarclman ;^i los. ;" " Interest from James Marsden 7s." — May, 1728, " Interest of 
 ■William Grimshaw's wife £1 3s." — May, 1736, "I. M. [James Marsden] 6s.; W. G. 
 [Wm Grimshaw] £1 is. 3d.; E. B. [Edward Boardman] £t los. " — May, 1733, 
 " R. W. [Ralph Walmsley's] Interest £1 2s. lod. ; R. B. Interest 6s." — Nov., 1734, 
 "E. B. Interest £2." — May, 1735, "Executors of E. B. Interest £1 ; A. B. Interest 
 6s.; I. M. Interest 6s." — About this time a benefactor named Cross left a sum of 
 money, the half-yearly interest of which was at first £2 los., and afterwards £i. 
 The next entries are: — Nov., 1735, "Cross's Interest £2 10s." — "May, 1736, 
 "Crosss Interest £2 los.; I. M. Interest 2s." &c. — May, 1738, "Cross Interest 
 £2 los., and 2s. 6d., one quarter for /20." — May, 1740, "Cross Interest £^ ;" and 
 "I. P. Interest 6s." — May, 1743, " Pickop's Interest lis."— May, 1744, "James 
 Entwistle's Interest l6s." — Nov., 1745, "Received Interest from Preston, Six 
 Pounds" (Interest on Cross's gift, probably). — Nov., 1746, "Six Pounds Interest 
 from Preston received." 
 
 A small estate of land in Mellor was given to this Dissenting 
 Community in the early part of the last century, by an unknown donor, 
 perhaps by a member of the Hoghton family. The estate was ex- 
 changed for another in Tockholes a century since, and thus the title 
 deeds of the original property are not accessible. By an indenture 
 dated Aug. 20th, 1772, the trustees conveyed in exchange to Mr. Wm. 
 Higginbotham of Manchester " all the several parcels of land, meadow 
 and pasture, with the Messuages, bam, and other buildings lately 
 erected," &c., being " parcel of a tenement called Little Areleys, in the 
 Manor of Mellor," and consisting of plots called " the Two Old Areleys, 
 the Further Marsh, the Nearer Marsh, the F"urther Field, and the Little 
 Field," with dwelling house, barn, &c.; containing "by estimate eleven 
 acres of land of the measure there used." The property in Tockholes 
 secured in lieu had belonged to the Richardsons. By deed dated Jan. 
 2nd, 1769, Ralph Richardson and others mortgaged to Mr. T. Walde- 
 grave (then Minister of the Chapel), for ;£65o and interest at £4. los. 
 per annum, certain houses and " four closes called Wall Bank, Hoghton 
 Close," &c., in Tockholes. Revd. Thos. Waldegrave, the mortgagee, 
 gave, by indenture of 3rd April, 1772, a lease to Thomas Bennett, of 
 Derby, Wm. Higginbotham, and others, for possession of the same 
 estate, described to be " the newly-erected Messuage or dwelling-house 
 commonly called or known by the name of the Silk Hall," with " a 
 cottage or dwelling-house thereto adjoining; also the newly-erected 
 dwelling-house standing near the same, and the closes or parcels of land 
 known as the Over Wallbank, Lower Wallbank, the two Hoghton 
 
7oa HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Closes," &c. In the deed of exchange above-mentioned, by which the 
 property passed to the Trustees of Tockholes Chapel, the description 
 is : — " All that Messuage or dwelling-house, cottages, closes, pieces or 
 parcels of land" comprising the "dwelling-house known by the name 
 of Silk Hall, and the cottage or dwelling-house thereto adjoining, and 
 those two newly-erected cottages or dwelling-houses standing near the 
 same, and the parcels of land thereto belonging, in Tockholes, named 
 Hoghton Close and the Edge Barn, the Over Wallbank, Lower Wall- 
 bank, the two Hoghton Closes, formerly one close only called Hoghton 
 Close ; containing in the whole by estimation six acres of land of the 
 measure there used " (customary measure). With this land was paid a 
 "sum of ;^85 to make an equality in the said exchange." The estate 
 has been extended somewhat by the addition of a portion of a subse- 
 quent enclosure of waste land. The house known as " Silk Hall" is a 
 three-storied building, built in 1764 by Mr. Ralph Richardson, for a 
 residence and for the purpose of his business as a chapman in silks, 
 whence the name was derived. On the south-west front is a gabled 
 projection, forming the porch on the ground-floor, and over the doorway 
 are the initials " R S R " (Ralph and Susannah Richardson), and the 
 date of erection, " 1764." Since the exchange, the house has been 
 appropriated as a manse. 
 
 A sum of ^30 was added to the endowment by bequest of Mrs. 
 Mary Guest, of Manchester. The deed of conveyance, endorsed, " 1st 
 December, 1773, — Mrs. Guest's Donation of ^^30, settled in trust to 
 the use of a Dissenting Minister at Tockholes," is abstracted below : — 
 
 Indenture, made Dec. ist 1773, between John Mellor, of Manchester, sole acting 
 executor of the last Will of Mary Guest, late of Manchester, Widow, deceased, of the 
 one part, and Adam Richardson, senior, of Tockholes, yeoman, James Marsden, of 
 Blackburn, yeoman, Peter Marsden of Rivington, yeoman, Robert Dewhurst, of 
 Withnell, yeoman, John Bury, of Withnell, yeoman, and Lawrence Halliwell, ol 
 Lower Darwen, yeoman, of the other part, hereinafter mentioned, witnesseth and it is 
 hereby declared and agreed by and between the parties to these presents, that a sum 
 "^ £3° li^s been paid by John Mellor as trustee for Mary Guest to the said persons 
 upon trust that they shall place out the said sum of ;^30 at interest, or lay out the 
 same in purchasing an estate or land of inheritance, and shall employ the yearly 
 interest, so long as the laws of this Realm will permit, towards the finding, providing, 
 and maintaining of an able, godly, pious preaching and teaching Protestant Minister 
 or Ministers (such as are now usually called Protestant Dissenting Ministers) of the 
 Presbyterian or Independent Denomination, at a chappel or Meeting-house at Tock- 
 holes, in the parish of Blackburn and the county of Lancaster aforesaid (wherein 
 James M'Quhae now officiates as minister), or at such other chappel or Meeting- 
 house as the congregation thereto belonging, or the major part thereof, shall hereafter 
 erect within the parish of Blackburn, and for want of such chappel or Meeting-house 
 belonging to the said congregation, and upon the cessation of public worship therein, 
 then for and towards the finding and maintaining of a Protestant Dissenting Minister 
 
OLD NONCONFORMIST MEETING-HOUSE, TOCKHOLES. 703 
 
 at such other chappel or Meeting-house of the denomination aforesaid as to the said 
 trustees shall seem proper, giving preference to such chappel of the said Denomination 
 (if any such there be) within the parish of Blackburn. Provided always that if the 
 laws of this Realm should disallow the public worship of the said Denomination, then 
 and in such case the then trustees shall employ the produce of the said £^0 to the 
 benefit of such laborious poor as they shall think proper. Provided also that if after 
 a prohibition of the said worship the laws shall re-grant a Toleration, the produce of 
 the said £^0 shall revert to the support of the Ministry of the said Denomination in 
 the said chappel at Tockholes. And for the perpetual performance of the above uses, 
 trusts, &c., it is declared that when death shall reduce the number of the said Trustees 
 to three or under, that then the surviving trustees shall with all convenient speed elect 
 fit and proper persons, being Protestant Dissenters, and such as statedly attend on 
 public worship of the Presbyterian or Independent Denomination within the said 
 parish of Blackburn, to be Trustees with them or him so surviving to make up the 
 number six or three at the least. (Signed) John Meli.or. 
 
 In the Parliamentary Return of Owners of Land, made in 1875, 
 the lands held by the Trustees of Tockholes Independent Chapel are 
 stated at 11^ statute acres, with an annual rental of ;^4i 2 s. 
 
 The successor of Mr. Towers as minister was the Rev. James Scott, 
 who settled in 175°- Mr. Scott remained until 1754, when he removed 
 to Heckmondwike, in Yorkshire, where he became tutor of a Dissenting 
 Academy. Following Mr. Scott was Mr. Mercer, who came in 1754, 
 and left in 1755. The next pastor was the Rev. Thomas Waldegrave, a 
 preacher of note. He was a native of Norwich, son of Henry Walde- 
 grave, a Roman Catholic gentleman whose estate was confiscated for his 
 part in the Jacobite rising of 1745. The son became a Congregational 
 Protestant, and attached himself to the Old Meeting-House at Norwich, 
 of which Dr. Wood then was minister. He studied for the ministry 
 under Mr. Scott, at Heckmondwike, and came to Tockholes in 1755. 
 He removed to Bury St. Edmunds in 1771, and died in 181 2. Rev. 
 James M'Quhae succeeded him, and was minister here about seven years 
 before his removal to Blackburn, where he founded the first Congrega- 
 tional Church in 1778. (Seeante, p. 360.) In 1779 there were 74 house- 
 holding families in attendance at this chapel, numbering 330 persons. 
 
 I add a list of Ministers of this Nonconformist community since 1672. The 
 duration of the two first pastorates is somewhat doubtful : — John Harvie 1672-1680 (?) ; 
 Robert Waddington 1682-1715; Peter Valentine 1715-1721; James Towers 1722- 
 1749; James Scott 1750-1754; — Mercer, 1 754- 1 755 ; Thomas Waldegrave 1755- 
 1771 ; James M'Quhae, 1771-1778; — Grimshaw 1779-1782 (removed to Forton, 
 and died there, in 1838, aged 96) ; Noah Blackburn, 1782-1786 ; Thomas Whiteley, 
 1787-1819 (died at Preston, aged 82, Jan 9th, 1843) ; Joseph Speakman, 1822-1830; 
 Richard Pearson 1831 ; John Birkby 1832-1834; J. Porter, 1836-1838; John Pen- 
 kethman, 1840-1848 (died at Tockholes, May 1st, 1848) ; Robert Abram, 1849-1852 
 (died at Tockholes, July 30th, 1852) ; Charles Bingley, 1853-1857 ; Horrocks Cocks, 
 1857-1861 ; R. Crookall, 1861-1865; J. Robinson, 1867-1875; Robert Allan 1876 
 (present minister). 
 
704 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The Old Meeting-House at Tockholes occupies a site in the lower 
 portion of the township. Its front aspect is shown in the engraving. 
 Its plan is a parallelogram, about 41ft. by 26ft., with vestry in the rear. 
 The two main doorways are square-headed, with splayed jambs and 
 lintels. The original mullion windows have recently been replaced by 
 plain modem lights. A stone bell-cot stands upon the west gable, 
 supported on pillars. Surrounding the chapel is a graveyard, which has 
 been several times extended. Internally, the meeting-house has the 
 pulpit in the centre, against the north wall ; an aisle traverses the midst 
 of the chapel lengthwise, and two short aisles lead from the entrances 
 across the chapel. There are galleries on three sides of the chapel. 
 The west gallery was inserted in 1777, when the edifice was re-roofed ; 
 the east gallery was added in 1780, and the front gallery in 1822. 
 In the area, most of the original pews remain, bearing the initials of the 
 first occupants, and the dates " 1710" and " 1711." The former prac- 
 tice of burial within places of worship was observed by many of the 
 families connected with this place, and the ground beneath the chapel 
 floor encloses a large number of occupied graves. It was the usage to 
 allow persons to inter under their respective pews. 
 
 A short distance from the old Meeting-house is a chapel known as 
 " Bethesda Chapel," built in 1803, by a seceding party of the congrega- 
 tion. The seceders, who joined Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, after 
 some years rejoined the original congregation. " Bethesda Chapel " 
 then remained closed for a considerable period. In the year 1851, the 
 minister and congregation of the Old Meeting-house purchased and 
 restored the chapel, and it has since been used for occasional services. 
 " Bethesda Chapel" is a good-sized structure, and has a graveyard. 
 
 Tockholes School. — Early in the last century, a school-house was built in 
 Tockholes, the existence of which was reported to Bishop Gastrell about the year 
 1718, who records : — " There is a School-house lately erected in Tockholes ; the only 
 endowment is 20s., the interest of which is applied to the repairs of the building by 
 the Trustees, William Walmsley, James Marsden, James Walmsley, and Robert 
 Aytock [Eatough]. The three last are Presbyterians [Nonconformists], and, as might 
 be expected, Wm. Sanderson, a Presbyterian, is lately come to teach at the said 
 school." Nothing appears respecting the subsequent maintenance of this schooL The 
 present building for the National School adjoins the church-yard. 
 
 George Blore's Charity. — Particulars of this charity have been given under 
 Livesey township (p. 586). In 1786, the portion of Blore's gift belonging to Tock- 
 holes, being ..£'16, was in the hands of John Anderton and Ralph Richardson, and 
 yielded l6s. a year. In 1794, Mr. William Pickering received ;£'i I 19s., as part of 
 this gift (the rest having been lost), and he still held the sum in 1825. 
 
WALTON-IN-LE-DALE TOWNSHIP. 
 
 705 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— THE TOWNSHIP OF WALTON-IN-LE-DALE. 
 
 Situation— Topography— Acreage— Manufactures— Population— Local Government— Descent of the 
 Manor— Banastre Family -Langtons— Hoghtons as lords— Walton Hall and Hoghton Tower- 
 Old Freeholding Families and later Landowners— Atherton—Banester of Banister Hall— Burscoe— 
 Calrow—Kuerden(Jackson>-OsbaIdeston—Pedder— Serjeant— Walton of Little Walton— Walmes- 
 ley, and Winckley of Banister Hall— Woodcock of Cuerden and Walton— Woodcock of Lemon 
 House, Walton— The Church of St. Leonard <Low Church)— St. Saviour's Church, Bamber 
 Bridge— All Saints Church, Higher Walton— Roman Catholic Chapels of St. Marie, Brownedge, 
 and of St. Patrick, Walton Village— Old Presbyterian Chapel— Wesleyan Chapels— Walton 
 Schools — Walton Charities. 
 
 WALTON-IN-LE-DALE township extends about two miles 
 along the left bank of the Ribble, opposite to the town 
 of Preston and its eastern suburb of Fishwick ; and from the river 
 extends southwards nearly three miles to the stream of Lostock, the 
 boundary of Leyland Parish. Its name describes its position in the 
 lowland of the Lower Ribble, but the territorial surface of the township 
 is broken by the ridges of low hills in the vicinity of that river. The 
 river Darwen divides the township into two parts, and joins the Ribble 
 in the demesne of the old manor-house of Walton. The acreage of 
 Walton is large, amounting to 4630 statute acres. The Cotton Manu- 
 facture is represented by several mills in Walton village, and in the 
 villages of Moon's Mill and Bamber Bridge. This industry has enabled 
 the population to increase steadily. In 1801, Walton township con- 
 tained 3832 persons ; in 1811, 4776 ; in 1821, 5740 ; in 1831, 5767 ; 
 in 1841, 6659 ; in 1851, 6855 ; in 1861, 7383 ; and in 1871, 8187. In 
 1877 the numbers approach 9000 persons. The township this year (1877) 
 has been placed under the government of a Local Board of Health. 
 
 In seven centuries and a half the manor of Walton has been held 
 in succession by representatives of the three families of Banastre, Lang- 
 ton, and Hoghton, as follows. 
 
 BANASTRE, LORDS OF NEWTON AND WALTON-IN-LE-DALE. 
 
 Robert Banastre, the first of his race who settled in Lancashire, 
 was descended from Robert Banastre, said to have come to England 
 with the Conqueror, who had a grant of Prestatyn, N. Wales. Robert 
 
 89 
 
7o6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Banastre had the lordship of the Fee of Makerfield, which gave to his 
 descendants the feudal title of Baron ; and, about the year 1130, Henry 
 de Lascy gave to Robert Banastre Walatun (Walton), with its members, 
 Melver, Eccleshull, Harawuda, and the two Derwentas, " for the service 
 of one knight." This Robert Banastre had three sons, — the first, 
 Richard Banastre, died, s.^., before 1204, and his brother Warin became 
 his heir ; the second, Warin, who also died without issue, was succeeded 
 by the third brother, Thurstan. 
 
 Thurstan Banastre came into possession of the estates in 1 2 1 5, and 
 died in 1218 or 1 2 19. By his wife Cecilia he had two sons, Robert, the 
 heir ; and Thurstan Banastre, who had a grant from his brother of lands 
 at Newton in Wirral, Co. Chester. 
 
 Robert Banastre being an infant of about a year old at the time of 
 his father's death, his wardship and marriage were sold for 500 marks to 
 Phillip de Orreby, Justice of Chester. He died, aged about 24 years, 
 before July 27th, 1242, having had issue, by his wife dementia, sons, 
 John, who died in infancy, in 1241 ; and Robert, who was heir. 
 
 Robert Banastre, being a child when his father died, was left in 
 ward to the Prior of Penwortham. In nth Edw. I. (1283) Robert Ban- 
 astre, Knight, gave lands at Walton to Stanlaw (Whalley) Abbey. His 
 wife was Alice, daughter of Gilbert Wodecoke, and he had one son, 
 James ; and a daughter dementia, who married William de Lea, and 
 died before Feb. 8th, 1290. She was mother of Sir Henry de Lea, and 
 of Sibilla, wife of Sir Richard Hoghton. Robert Banastre appears as 
 lord of Makerfield in 1278; was living in 1289, but was dead before 
 1292. Alice Banastre, his relict, quit-claimed to Stanlaw Abbey her 
 right in land given thereto by her husband. 
 
 James Banastre, son of Robert, died in his father's lifetime, leaving 
 issue, by his wife Elena, daughter of Wm. le Botiler, Baron of Warring- 
 ton, a daughter Alice, who by her father's death became next heir of 
 her grandfather. Before 1295, the marriage of this heiress was granted 
 by Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, to John de Langton. Alice de Langton 
 was living in 1304, but died before 18 Edward H. 
 
 LANGTON, BARONS OF NEWTON AND LORDS OF WALTON. 
 
 John de Langton was son of Robert de Langton of West Langton, 
 Co. Leicester, and brother of John de Langton, Bishop of Chichester. 
 By his marriage with Alice Banastre he assumed the lordship of Walton- 
 in-le-Dale and of Newton. In 1300, at the instance of his brother, after- 
 wards bishop, and then Chancellor to Edward the First, the King granted 
 to John de Langton a charter of markets and fairs and free warren in 
 Newton and Walton. The weekly market and a yearly fair of three days in 
 
LANGTON, LORDS OF WALTON, 707 
 
 Walton are thus specified : — " Et tinum mercatum singulis septimanis per 
 diem Jovis apud manerium suitm de Waleton in la Dale, et tinam feriam 
 singulis annis ibidem per ires dies duraUcrum videlicet in vigilia et in die et 
 incrastino Sancti Luce Evangeliste." John de Langton was Hving in 1332. 
 He had sons, Robert, the heir ; and John de Langton, who was pre- 
 sented by his brother to the Church of Wigan in 1334. 
 
 Robert de Langton, knighted in 1330, in 1349 was holding in de- 
 mesne and service two carucates of land in Walton-in-le-Dale, one caru- 
 cate in Over Darvvent, two carucates in Nether Darwent, one carucate 
 in Mellor and Eccleshill, and one carucate in Harwood Parva, for one 
 knight's fee. By Margaret his wife. Sir Robert de Langton had sons, 
 John ; Richard (probably Rector of Wigan in 1359); and Robert (from 
 whom descended the Langtons of Lowe in Hindley). The father died 
 Sept. 26th, 136 1, seized (by the inquisition) of the manor of Newton, 
 &c.; and the manor of Waleton in the Dale with appurtenances, by 
 knight service ; there was in the same manor one capital messuage ; and 
 in that demesne fourscore acres worth yearly per acre i5d.; and twenty 
 acres worth 20s.; and two water-mills and one fishery worth yearly £,i,\ 
 with rents of free tenants there, 104s. 9}^d.; and rents of tenants-at-will 
 yearly £,<) 17s. 4d.; sum of the yearly value of the manor of Walton 
 ;^24 2S. id.; of the manor of Newton ^17 i6s. gd. 
 
 John de Langton, the first son, died in his father's lifetime, before 
 1361, leaving a son and heir Ralph, who was found to be 21 years old 
 at his grandsire's decease ; and a younger son Richard. 
 
 Ralph de Langton, who succeeded his grandfather, was knighted. 
 He married Johanna, daughter of William de Radcliffe, and had issue, 
 sons, Henry, Nicholas, Thomas, and Geoffrey ; and a daughter Isabel, 
 wife of Sir Richard Venables, Baron of Kinderton. Sir Ralph died 
 about 1406. His widow was living in 1420. 
 
 Henry de Langton, Esq., next representative, married, about 1391, 
 Agnes, daughter of John de Davenport, and had a son and heir Ralph ; 
 younger sons, Hugh, James, Thomas, George, and Oliver (all named in 
 a settlement dated 1422); and a daughter Isabel, wife of Thomas de 
 Osbaldeston. Henry de Langton died Sept. 14th, 141 9, and the Inq. 
 post mart, dated 21st Oct., 1419, sets forth that Ralph de Langton being 
 seized of the manor of Walton and the advowson of Wigan Church, by 
 deed dated at Walton, 15th Ric. II., gave to his son Henry de Langton, 
 and Agnes his wife, 15 messuages, 160 acres of land, 20 acres meadow, 
 20 acres woodland, 20 acres moor, 100 acres pasture, parcel of the said 
 manor of Walton, &c.; and Henry de Langton had died seized of that 
 manor and advowson, and of the Manor of Newton and other estates. 
 Agnes de Langton, his widow, was living in 1422. 
 
jo8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Ralph de Langton was son and heir, aged 23 in 1419. By Alice 
 his wife he had a son Henry. The father was knighted, and Ralph de 
 Langton, Knt., died the 26th Feb., 143 1, having settled his estates ten 
 years before (1421). His heir, Henry, was aged 12 years in 1432. 
 
 Henry de Langton, Esq., by Elizabeth his wife (she died Nov. 
 17th, 1472), had a son Richard ; and a daughter Joan, wife, in 1472, of 
 Richard Sherburne of Stonyhurst, Esq. Henry de Langton died Sept. 
 13th, 147 1, aged 52. He had granted his estates of Walton and 
 Newton, with 100 marks yearly, in trust to James Harrington, Knt., 
 Walter Wrothesley, Knt., John Banastre, son of William, of Lostock, 
 and James Banastre, chaplain. 
 
 Richard Langton, his son, was made a knight-bannaret at Hutton 
 Field in 1482. He married Isabella, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard 
 of Bryn (she survived him, and was living in 1516), and had issue, sons, 
 Ralph ; and Henry (who had an annuity from his father in 1489) ; and 
 daughters, Jane, wife of Thomas Rigmaden of Wedacre ; Ellen, wife 
 of Sir John South worth of Samlesbury ; Elizabeth, wife of John Clay- 
 ton of Clayton ; and Isabel. Sir Richard Langton died Aug. 23rd, 
 1500. 
 
 Ralph Langton, Esq., aged 26 in 1500, married, in 1490, Joan, 
 daughter of Sir Christr. Southworth, Knt. (she died in 1 505), and had 
 sons, Richard; Thomas ; and William (living in 1558, died at Walton) j 
 and daughters, Elizabeth, wife, first, of Nicholas Banastre of Altham, 
 secondly, of Henry Byrom of Byrom ; Isabel, wife of Richard 
 Skellicorn ; and Jane, wife of Thurstan Tyldesley of Wardley. Ralph 
 Langton died July 29th, 1503. Richard, his eldest son, died June i6th, 
 151 1, aged 17 years, unmarried, and Thomas, his brother, thus became 
 next heir. 
 
 Thomas Langton, aged 14 when his brother died in 151 1, was ward 
 of Sir Edw. Stanley, Knt., Lord Monteagle, whose daughter Elizabeth was 
 his first wife; she died in 1533, and left issue, sons, Edward ; Richard 
 (Rector of Wigan) ; Thomas ; George : Anthony ; Francis ; Leonard 
 (of whom hereafter) ; and Christopher ; and daughters, Johanna, wife of 
 John Fleetwood of Penwortham ; Jane, wife of Richard Fitzherbert ; 
 Anne, wife of John Bold, gent.; Mary, wife, first, of Thomas Byrom, 
 secondly, of Edward Winstanley ; and Eleanor, wife of Edward 
 Cholmondeley of Coppenhall. Thomas Langton married, secondly, 
 Anne, daughter of Thomas Talbot, and had by her sons, Roger, 
 living in 1542; Edward, living in 1582; and William, living 
 in 1562; and a daughter Catherine. Thomas Langton was 
 Knight of the Shire in 1554, and was Sheriff of Lancashire in 1556 
 and 1567. Sir Thomas Langton died in 1569, aged 72. His Will is 
 
LANGTON, LORDS OF WALTON. 709 
 
 dated April 4th, 1569. Testator describes his estates as consisting of 
 600 messuages with gardens and orchards, 12 mills, 27,000 acres of land 
 (customary measure), three-score pounds in rents, &c.; which had been 
 conveyed to feoffees ; desires to be buried in the chancel of Lawe 
 [Walton] Church ; names son Edward ; several daughters; and "cousin" 
 (grandson) Thomas, heir apparent. Dame Anne Langton, widow of Sir 
 Thomas, died in 1572 ; her Will bears date April 23rd, 14th Eliz., and 
 was proved in June, 1573. 
 
 Edward Langton, eldest son of Sir Thomas, had to wife Anne, 
 daughter of Sir Alexander Osbaldeston, by whom he had a son Thomas, 
 who died in infancy. Edward Langton died in his father's lifetime, 
 before 1558, and his widow died before 1566. The five next brothers 
 of Edward were all dead, without issue, in 1558. 
 
 Leonard Langton, sixth son of Sir Thomas, living in 1558, died in 
 his father's lifetime before 1562 ; but by his wife Ann (widow of Wni. 
 Singleton and daughter of Thos. Leybume), he had a son Thomas, born 
 in ■1561, who was his grandsire's heir in 1569. 
 
 Thomas Langton had been betrothed in childhood to Margaret, 
 daughter of Richard Sherburne, Esq., but the marriage contract was dis- 
 solved in r58o, and at the age of 19 Thomas Langton married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Sir John Savage of Clifton. He had no issue. In 1 5^9, 
 he was sore wounded in a faction fight at Lea Hall, with Thomas 
 Hoghton, Esq., and his retainers. Mr. Hoghton was killed in the fray, 
 and Thomas Langton is supposed to have ceded his manor of Walton 
 to the Hoghtons in condonation of that mischance. 
 
 In the possession of the Hoghton family there was an exemplification dated 
 19 Feby., 33 Eliz., of a certificate given under hand and seal of certain justices of 
 the peace, the Sheriff and under-Sheriff, dated at Lathom, 7th Jany., 32 Eliz., 
 which was abstracted by Christopher Towneley, and is to be found in a volume of 
 Hoghton evidences in the library at Towneley Hall, from which the following is 
 extracted (kindly communicated by Mr. Wm. Langton): — "To the Queen, &c. — Certifi- 
 cate of Edward Earl of Derby, the Sherifie, and of 16 justices of the peace, 7th Jany. , 
 32 Eliz., (1590), that Friday 21st Nov. (1589), Ann Hoghton, late wife of Thomas 
 Hoghton, Esq., gave information to the earl of Derby & Sir Richard Shirburne that a 
 great riot had been made with armour & weapons at the Lea, in which Thomas 
 Hoghton her husband and Richard Baldwin, late lenant to ye Barron, were slain. 
 They ordered watch and ward to be kept, whereupon Thomas Langton, Esq., being 
 sore wounded and accused to be an offender in the said action, was presently appre- 
 hended lying in his bed at Broughton Tower and committed to safe keeping, and 
 likewise one Thomazene Singleton, widow, and others. Special sessions of the peace 
 summoned same month, and 24 persons called. No sufficient jurors appeared for 2 
 days. Three that did appear were challenged ; no presentment could be made ; 
 evidence proved that Thomazene Singleton, widow, late wife of John Singleton of 
 Staining, in right of herself and daughters Alice and Elizabeth, pretended to a good 
 liiht in certain oxen, kyne and other cattle which were 20th November pasturing on 
 
710 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the Ley, being the soil and inheritance of Thomas Hoghton, and adjoining his 
 mansion house called the Lea, and whereof he had been in quiet possession for 2 years at 
 least ; and because the said cattle were before that time removed from the pasture in 
 Staining which belonged to John Singleton by one George Singleton his brother who 
 also claimed them, therefore William Anderton of the Forde, a near kinsman of 
 Thomazene Singleton, on Thursday, 20th November at Walton-le-Dale required the 
 ayde of Thomas Langton to take the said cattle from Lea, and Thomas Langton 
 being persuaded that they might be lawfully taken, he ordered Edmund Toogood and 
 James Mare to summon sundry of his tenants in Walton to accompany him with their 
 weapons the same evening, and did also require then and there the assistance of 
 Thomas Singleton of Broughton, Esq., for the execution of the said attempt. So 
 Thomas Langton of Walton, Esq., William Anderton of Anderton, Esq., Thomazene 
 Singleton, of Staining (and then follows a list chiefly yeomen of Staining, Broughton, 
 Walton, Anderton, and among the rest one Francis Langton) armed with long pickes, 
 gunnes, long staves, welshe-hooks upon long staves, swords & dagges, bows and 
 arrows and bills, on 20th November at 11 at night assembled at Preston-Marsh about 
 2 miles from Lea, and agreed to go and drive away the cattle. They took a watch- 
 word "The crow is white." Arriving about one after midnight, 20th Novr., Thomas 
 Langton and the others divided into 2 parts and entered the close, viz., I company 
 entering by the gate leading to the upper court of the Mansion House, the other tooke 
 down the gate and hedge of the close. Between 8 & 9 at night intelligence had been 
 brought to Thomas Hoghton that Thomas Langton and Thomas Singleton were 
 assembled to do him some displeasure ; so he put himself, his household servants and 
 such other persons as were with him in a readiness to make resistance, and one 
 Bradshawe sent for 4 servants of Thomas Hoghton to come to the Mansion House. 
 He mustered 30 persons, among the rest William Hulton, Esq. , & his 2 sons & 2 tenants, 
 and at 9 at night with staves, I pike, I gunne charged with haile shott, 2 pistols, I bow 
 and arrowes & swords & dagges went out of the gate of his Mansion House into an 
 outhouse very near the gate & standing in the said close where were the cattle, and 
 going in and out expected the said Thomas Langton and his company, which entering 
 the close at the gate, ofiered to drive the said cattle, and then Thomas Hoghton and 
 his people offered resistance, and a great affray began within 60 yards of the house, 
 in which Thomas Langton's company often used the watchword "The crow is white," 
 and called for new and fresh men ; and Thomas Hoghton's people used the word 
 " Black-black," but whether as a watchword does not appear. And in a new & fresh 
 assault made on Thomas Hoghton and his company by the said persons who had 
 entered the close, Richard Baldwin, being one of the company of Thomas Langton, & 
 Thomas Hoghton were then and there slaine, but by whom it does not appear." 
 
 Thomas Langton, Esq. was created a Knight of the Bath at the 
 coronation of James I. in 1603. He died in 1604, and was buried 
 in Westminster Abbey according to an inscription formerly in Wigan 
 Church (but removed to Duxbury Hall) copied by Dodsworth, as 
 follows : — 
 
 "To Oblivion and ye true bones of Sir Thos. Langton of ye Hon'ble Order of ye 
 Bathe Knt. Baron of Newton Makerfeld ye last of his name and ye undoubted 
 patron of this church descended from a most antient famous and farre renowned family 
 of Langton in Leicestershire who some times were of great authority both in ye 
 Church and Commonwealth of this Kingdome and for ye space of 300 yeres have 
 flourished in this County. A gentleman yt many times tugged with extremityes and 
 
r>E HOGHTON, LORI>S OF WALTON. 711 
 
 made warre with ye worst of misfortunes, &c. He departed this lief in ye Citty of 
 Westminster 20 Feby. 1604 when he had lyved 44 yeres and lyes buried nere ye high 
 altar in St. Peters Church adjoyning to ye Abbay." 
 
 DE HOGHTON, LORDS OF HOGHTON, LEA, DARWEN, 
 WALTON-IN-LE-DALE, &c. 
 
 In the Testa tie Nevlll it is written that Warin Bushel, Baron of 
 Penworthara tetnp. WilHam II. (1087), gave two carucates of land in 
 Hocton and Eccleston to Hamo Pincerna, in free marriage with his 
 daughter ; and that, at the date of that record, Adam de Hocton held 
 the same Hocton, namely, one carucate of land. Richard, second son 
 of Hamo Pincerna, had Hoghton of the gift of his mother, after his 
 father's death ; and his son, Adam, succeeding to this estate, was styled 
 Adam de Hocton. His descendant — 
 
 Sir Adam de Hoghton, was living in 1266, and was then written a 
 Knight. By his wife Agnes he had sons, Richard, Thomas, and Adam. 
 He was dead before Sept. 8th, 1307, when inquisition was made to find 
 his heir, and it was proved that his son Richard was eight years older 
 than his brother Thomas, and true heir to his father, Sir Adam de 
 Hoghton. 
 
 Richard de Hoghton, Sheriff of Lancashire in 1282, 1291, and 
 1300, had by Christiana his wife a son Richard ; and daughters, Johanna, 
 and Margery. 
 
 Richard de Hoghton, son of Richard, died without issue. He was 
 party to a deed of quit-claim to the Abbey of Whalley in r309. To this 
 Richard, Adam son of Richard Banastre confirmed one messuage and 
 all his land in the vill of Wythenhill, &c., to hold of the chief lord of 
 that fee ; and if the said Richard de Hoghton sliould die without heirs 
 of his body, remainder to Christiana mother of the said Richard; 
 remainder to Johanna and Margery sisters of Richard ; remainder to 
 Richard son of Adam de Hoghton and his heirs. 
 
 Thomas de Hoghton, brother of Richard, died also without issue. 
 
 Adam de Hoghton, the other brother, married Avicia de Howick, 
 widow of Roger de Alston, and had sons, Richard; and Thomas. He 
 held the third part of a knight's fee in Hoghton, Clayton, Penwortham, 
 Whelton-com-Hepay, Withenhill, and Rothelsworth, for which he paid 
 13s. 4d. yearly to the chief lord, the Duke of Lancaster. Adam de 
 Hoghton was dead before 1307. 
 
 Richard de Hoghton, son of Adam, and heir to his cousin Richard 
 son of Richard, was Knight of the Shire i6th Edw. II (1323). Sir 
 Richard de Hoghton had married, in 1309, Sibil, daughter of William 
 de Lea, and sister and heir of Henry de Lea, lord of Lea. By this 
 marriage, the manor of Lea and other possessions of the De Lea family 
 
7n HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 were attached to the De Hoghtons. Sir Richard, by this heiress, had 
 issue a son, Adam ; and daughters, Katharine, wife of Hugh Venables ; 
 and Sibyl, wife, first, of WilHam, son of Richard de Bold, and, secondly, 
 of Robert de Cliderhou. Sir Richard de Hoghton occurs as witness to 
 a deed in 1347, and died in 1349. His son — 
 
 Sir Adam de Hoghton, was Knight of the Shire in 1349. He was 
 twice married,and Mr. Wm. Langton thinks the first wife, Philippa, was 
 mother of his children, Richard, Henry, Agnes, and Sibyl. His second 
 wife was Ellen Venables, who survived him, and re-married. Sir Adam 
 de Hoghton occurs as party to a deed with Robert de Cliderhou, dated 
 1 3 S3- His daughter Agnes married, first, Thomas Banastre, secondly, 
 Sir Wm. Molyneux, and thirdly, Richard de Balderstone ; the younger 
 daughter, Sibyl, married Wm. Banastre, son of Adam Banastre, Knt. 
 
 Henry de Hoghton, second son of Sir Adam, was Knight of the 
 Shire in 1408. Sir Henry, by his wife Jane, daughter and heir of 
 Richard de Radcliffe, had no issue ; but he had a natural son, Richard, 
 of Leagrim Park, whose son Henry Hoghton was the first of the 
 Hoghtons of Pendleton. Sir Henry de Hoghton died Nov. 25th, 1424. 
 
 Sir Richard de Hoghton, son and heir of Sir Adam, was in posses- 
 sion before 1377, when, in a rental of Blackburnshire, it is recorded that 
 Ric. Hoghton, chevalier, held one knight's fee in Walton, Mellor, and 
 Eccleshill of the lord of that fee. He was Knight of the Shire in 1422 ; 
 he occurs as Duchy Escheator in 1380 ; and as Seneschal in 1410. By 
 his wife Johanna he had sons, William, and Edward. Sir Richard de 
 Hoghton died June 30th, 1415. The Inq. post mart, taken at Preston 
 nth July, 1422, shows that he held at death the manors of French Lee 
 and English Lee by knight service ; half the manor of Ashton ; the 
 manor of Hoghton, with its members, Clayton, Queleton [Wheelton], 
 Hepey, Rothlesworth, Wythinhull [Withnell], and Conyldmores, of the 
 King by knight service, as of the fee of Penwortham ; half the 
 manor of Whithill in the Woddes ; also 40 acres of land in Livesey of 
 the heirs of John de Livesey in socage ; and estates in other parts of 
 Lancashire. Before his death he had enfeoffed William de Hoghton 
 and Alice his wife in the manor of Gosenargh ; and Richard de Ewod, 
 and William de Langton, chaplain, in the manor of Chernock Richard. 
 Sir Richard de Hoghton founded a chantry in Ribchester Church in 1405. 
 
 Sir William de Hoghton, son of Sir Richard, died in his father's 
 lifetime, leaving by his wife Alice a son Richard, bom about 1399. 
 
 Richard de Hoghton became heir on his grandsire's death in 141 5 ; 
 by whom he had been endowed in 1410 with the manor of Charnock 
 Richard. Richard de Hoghton was found heir of his great-uncle Sir 
 Henry in 1425, being then aged 26 years. He was knighted in 1443. 
 
HOGHTON, LORDS OF WALTON. 713 
 
 By Margaret his wife he had sons, Henry, born about 1420 ; and Ralph. 
 Sir Richard de Hoghton settled his estates May loth, 1458 j and died 
 before February, 1468. The inquisition for the escheat, taken at 
 Preston Feb. 14th, 1468, shows that he had enfeoffed Edmund Locke, 
 Vicar of Kirkham, and Thos. Brown, Chaplain, in all his manors, 
 messuages and lands in the counties of Lancaster and Chester. 
 
 Henry Hoghton, Esq., was found heir, aged 40 years in 1468. 
 He had married clandestinely, or kept as his mistress, for eighteen 
 years before his succession, Helen Mosson, and in April, 1468, a Bull 
 from Pope Paul H. enabled him to make the oifspringof that connexion 
 legitimate. By Helen his wife he had sons, Alexander, William, 
 Lawrence, George, and Arthur (in Flower's Visitation are added Thomas, 
 and Edward) ; and a daughter Helen. He died in 1479, and shortly 
 before that event, " Henry Hoghton, son and heir of Richard Hoghton, 
 Knt., deceased," quit-claimed to John Hulton, gent., all right he and his 
 father had in certain lands of the gift of John Hulton. In the 5th 
 Henry VII. (1489), an inquisition was taken, proving Henry Hoghton 
 to have been seized of the manors of Hoghton and Lee, and half the 
 manor of Ashton, with 200 messuages, 2000 acres of land, 5000 acres 
 of meadow, 2000 acres of pasture, 300 acres of woodland, 1000 acres 
 of turbary, and 500 acres of moor in Hoghton, Lee, Alston, Grimsargh, 
 Goosnargh, Whittingham, Halghton, Cuerden, Asheton-juxta-Preston, 
 Tulketh, Ravensmeles, Chipping, Dilworth, and Goldbome. After his 
 death, Helen Hoghton, his widow, founded a chantry at the altar of our 
 Lady in the Parish Church of Preston, endowed with burgages in 
 Preston, and parcels of land in Walton, Lea, and Fishwick. 
 
 Alexander Hoghton, his heir, was aged 26 years in 1489. He was 
 created a knight-bannaret in 1482. He married Elizabeth Troutbeck, 
 and had a daughter Anne. Sir Alexander Hoghton died before 1499, 
 when it was found by inquisition that his daughter and heir, Anne 
 Hoghton, was aged ir years. She died before 1508, seized of divers 
 lands in Lancashire. 
 
 William Hoghton, Esq., brother of Sir Alexander, succeeded to the 
 entailed estates, and was subsequently knighted. He married, Mar- 
 garet, daughter of Sir Christr. Southworth, Knt., and had a son Richard, 
 bom about 1469. Sir William Hoghton died before 1500; seized of 
 Hoghton and Lea manors, and of the landed estates before enumerated. 
 His son and heir, Richard, was then aged 3 1 years. 
 
 Sir Richard Hoghton, Knt., son of William, is referred to in the 
 record of the heraldic Visitation of Lancashire in 1533: — "Sr Ric 
 Houghton Knight, did mary [marry] Alice, doughter & one of the 
 heyres to Sr. Thomas Asheton Knight. The said Sr Ric. hath putt away 
 
 90 
 
7i4 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 his lady and wife, and keepeth a concubyne in his house, by whom he 
 hath divers children, and by the lady he hath Ley Hall,' wh. armes he 
 beareth quartered with his in the first qr., he says that Mr. Garter 
 licensed him so to doe, and he gave Mr. Garter an angle noble, but he 
 gave me nothing nor made me no good chere, but gave me proude 
 woordes." Besides the daughter Katherine, only named in this record, 
 Sir Richard had by his first wife, sons, Thomas, and Alexander ; and a 
 daughter Isabel, wife of — Holden of Duckworth. Sir Richard's 
 second wife was Alice, daughter of — Morley, yeoman ; by her he had 
 sons, Thomas, and Rowland ; and daughters, Agnes, wife of Richard 
 Butler of Rawcliffe, Esq.; Alice, and Anne. His third wife was 
 Elizabeth, daughter of John Grygson, yeoman, by whom he had a 
 daughter Bridget. His fourth wife was Anne, daughter of Roger 
 Browne, yeoman, who had before been his mistress ; by her he had no 
 issue after marriage. By her or other mistresses. Sir Richard Hoghton 
 had natural children, most of whom seem to have borne the father's sur- 
 name, these : Richard Hoghton of Park Hall (who by Margaret his wife 
 had a son, Richard . Hoghton, of Park Hall gent, in 1613); Gilbert 
 Hoghton (named as progenitor of Hoghtons of Red Lee, in Tockholes) ; 
 Arthur, of Astley ; Leonard, and George Hoghton ; as well as daughters, 
 Elizabeth (wife of Robert Talbot natural son of John Talbot of Sales- 
 bury); and another Elizabeth, wife of James Standish of Duxbury, Esq. 
 Sir Richard Hoghton died in 1558, seized of the manor of Hoghton, 
 with lands in Hoghton, Clayton, Wheelton, Hepay, and Withnell, held 
 of the Queen as of her Duchy of Lancaster, worth £,20 ; lands, &c., 
 in Chamock Richard, Walsh Whittle and Sherrington, held of the 
 Queen, worth 20 marks ; lands in Ashton, held of the Queen, worth 
 5 marks ; manor of Lee, held of the Queen, worth 53s. 4d.; half the 
 manor of Alston, held of the Queen by fidelity, worth 20 marks ; lands 
 in Chipping, Hothersall, and Dilworth, held of the Queen, worth 20 
 marks ; lands in Hawethe and Catterall, held of the Queen, worth 40s.; 
 lands in Goldbome, held of Thomas Hoghton, worth 40s.; with other 
 lands in Roddlesworth, Bromcroft, OUerton, Plessyngton, Sholley, 
 Ribchester, Ellston, Heskyne, Tockeholes, Sawreby, and Cophull, held 
 of the Queen by fidelity, worth ;£6 ; tenements in Preston in free 
 burgage, worth iocs.; lands in Chorley held of Edward Earl of Derby, 
 Thomas Lord Monteagle, and Richard Shirburne, Knt., as of their manor 
 of Chorley, worth 60s. 8d.; lands in Ince Blundell, held of- the heir of 
 
 I Lea Hall did certainly not come by this lady, but as has been shewn from a remote ancestress, 
 whose arms were borne quartered with a similar coat of counterchanged tinctures which the Hoghtons 
 assumed as descendants of that heiress of Lea. The coat tricked by the herald gave the Ashton coat 
 as home quarterly ; whereas, as those of a wife, they should have been impaled, or borne on an 
 escutcheon of pretence. 
 
HOGHTON, LORDS OF WALTON. 715 
 
 William Blundell, Esq., worth 6s. 8d.; lands in Eukeston held of 
 Richard Molyneux, worth los.; and lands in Walton-in-le-Dale held of 
 Thomas Langton, Knt., worth 40s. Sir Richard Hoghton had died 
 on the sth August preceding ; and Thomas Hoghton was his son and 
 heir, agi.d 41 years. 
 
 Thomas Hoghton, Esq., succeeding Sir Richard, his father, in 1558, 
 married, Katherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn, and had a 
 daughter Jane, wife of James Bradshaw, Esq. Between 1563 and 1565, 
 Thomas Hoghton built Hoghton Tower, to replace the former manor- 
 house at the foot of the hill at Hoghton Bottoms. Connected with this 
 work were suits which Thomas Hoghton had, in the 5th Eliz., with Bar- 
 nard Townley and Ralph Holden respecting a contract for building and 
 other works in Hoghton Manor j and in the 6th Eliz. (1563-4), with 
 Jane Banister and William Mason, charged with trover and conversion 
 of certain timber trees which had been felled by plaintiff for repairs, and 
 were carried away by the rising and flowing of a river (the Darwen) 
 through the Park of Hoghton; the place of their trover was Walton-in- 
 le-Dale. Thomas Hoghton was not long permitted to enjoy his new 
 mansion. He was a Roman Catholic, and being denounced to the 
 Government as an associate of Cardinal Allen, he was forced to quit the 
 country about the year 1 569.' He sailed for the Netherlands, and re- 
 mained there until his death, a period of about eleven years, having 
 failed in an attempt to make terms with the Court for his return to Eng- 
 land. Thomas Hoghton, Esq., died at Liege, June 2nd, 1580. It was 
 found on the escheat that Alexander Hoghton, brother of Thomas, was 
 next heir ; and that Jane, wife of James Bradshaw, was Thomas 
 Hoghton's daughter and heir, then aged 26 years. 
 
 Alexander Hoghton, Esq., was lord of Hoghton in succession to 
 his brother during about one year. He married, first, in Feb., 1575, 
 Dorothy, daughter of Richard Assheton, of Middleton, Esq., and 
 secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Gabriel Hesketh, of Aughton, Esq.; but 
 had no issue by either of his wives. He dwelt chiefly at Lea Hall, and 
 died there in August, 1581. His Will, dated Aug. 3rd, was proved 
 Sept. i2t'h, 1581. Testator "Alex. Hoghton of the Lea, Esq.," desires 
 to be buried with his father Sir Richard and first wife Dorothy in Preston 
 Church ; makes Elizabeth his then wife sole executrix ; names a bastard 
 daughter Margaret, wife of Roger Crichlowe ; and brother Thomas 
 Hoghton of^Brynescoules ; and mentions a deed of agreement, dated 
 20th July, 1580, between testator and his younger brother Thomas, for 
 
 I There is preserved a pathetic ballad, purporting to be composed by Thomas Hoghton, Esq., 
 when he had to leave his ancestral home and country for conscience-sake. It is entitled :— The 
 Blessed Conscience ; written on the Departure from Merry England of Thomas Hoghton, Esq., of 
 Hoghton Tower." The ballad is printed in Harland's " Ballads and Songs of Lancashire." 
 
7i6 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 settlement of his manors, lands, &c. Failing issue of Alexander, the 
 estates passed to his half-brother Thomas as next heir. 
 
 Thomas Hoghton, Esq., is the next scion. By articles between 
 Thomas Hoghton, Esq., and Elizabeth Hoghton, widow, late wife of 
 Alex. Hoghton, Esq., dated Aug. 19th, 1581, it was agreed that one 
 capital messuage called Ashton Hall, and all lands, &c., late the inheri- 
 tance of Thomas Hoghton, Esq., be conveyed to the said Elizabeth 
 for her life ; and she, at the request of the said Thomas Hoghton, 
 should cause her brethren, Bartholomew and Thomas Hesketh, to 
 convey to Thomas Hoghton all their estate in one messuage and one 
 mill in Hoghton. Thomas Hoghton married Anne, daughter of Henry 
 Kighley, Esq., and had sons, Richard ; William (who married Grace, 
 daughter of Sir Richard Sherburne, and had an estate in Grimsargh) ; 
 Thomas (who married Katherine, daughter and co-heir of John Hoghton 
 of Pendleton, gent., and had four daughters, co-heirs); Adam ; and 
 Henry ; and daughters, Katherine, wife of Thomas Middleton, of Leigh- 
 ton, Esq.; and Mary, wife of Thomas Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh, Esq. 
 The document below is an abstract of a plaint made in the Chancery 
 Court of Lancaster by this lord of Hoghton, in 1582, soon after his 
 entrance upon the estates : — 
 
 "To the Rt. Worshipp'l Sir Gilbert Gerard, Knt., M'rof the Roles, and Vice- 
 Chancellor of the Co. Palatine of Lancaster. — Humbly complayning sheweth unto 
 your worshippe Thomas Hoghton, Esq., that Richard Houghton of Parke-Hall, gent., 
 bastard brother of the said compl't, hathe as well duringe the tyme that Thomas 
 Houghton, late of Houghton, Esq. , deceased, was inhabitinge and abydinge within 
 this realme and also after his departure out of this realme and beyond the seases [seas] 
 had the rule and government of all or the most p'te of the landes, tenementes, leases, 
 and goods of the said Thomas Hoghton, deceased, which said landes, &c., are law- 
 fully descended and come to the said comp'Ite, and all and singular charteres, deedes, 
 evidences, parchmentes, wrythinges, Corte Roles and Rentales are of right belonging 
 to the said comp'Ite, and ought to be delivered to [him]; and also whereas the said 
 Richard Houghton had an intereste, estaite and terme for divers yeares yet enduringe 
 of and in the rectory and livinge of X'ston [Preston], and also an estaite for divers 
 yeares yet enduringe of the tythes of Houghton and also leases in the Parishe of Lea- 
 lande of the demise of John fBeetwoode, Esq. , and by reason of havinge of the severall 
 leases and estaite of the said last-recyted [ ], the said Rychard Houghton hath and 
 had in his custodie dyvers originall leases and assignmentes, grauntes, covenantes, 
 boundes, and other wrytinges and appurtenances of the said Rectory and parsonage of 
 Preston and the other tythes of Preston, &c., which said leases, &c., complainant 
 hathe by conveyance, covenantes, boundes, and other wrytinges concerninge the same 
 Rectory and tythes afforesaid and of ryghte belonginge to the said complainant ; and 
 now so it is, ryghte Worshippful if it may please your Worshippe that the said char- 
 tres, dedes, &c. , of the said manor landes and tenementes of the said complainant and 
 the said original leases, grantes, &c., to be delivered to him by the said Richard 
 Houghton upon his corporall othe, yt may therefore please your Worshippe to grante 
 the breves, warrantes, precepts, &c., to be directed to the said Richard Houghton, 
 
HOGHTON, LORDS OF WALTON. 717 
 
 commanding him thereby to deliver to said compl't all and every the chartres, dedes, 
 &c., he now hathe or at any time heretofore had touchinge or in any wyse belonginge, 
 &c., to the manors, messuages, landes, tenementes, and hereditamentes of the said 
 complainant, or any p'te thereof, lyinge and beinge within the County of Lancaster or 
 elleswhere, and also all and every the originall leases, assignmentes, &c., which he 
 now hathe or at any time had touchinge and concerninge the Rectory and tythes affore- 
 said, and every or any part thereof, and the complainant humbly prayeth that the said 
 Richard may make his answeare uppon his corporall othe touchinge all and singular 
 the premisses, and that the same answeare may be recorded in this Ilon'ble C't, and 
 your said orator shall dulye pray for the prosperous estaite of your woi'shippc in healthe 
 longe to contynue. " The plaint is signed " Thomas Morte. " The answer of Richard 
 Hoghton, the defendant, is signed " Thomas Walmysley. " 
 
 The quarrel which occurred in the year 1 589 between Thomas Hoghton, 
 Esq., and his neighbour Thomas Langton, Esq. (referred to before in my 
 account of the Langtons),terminated fatally to Thomas Hoghton. He died 
 Nov. 20th, 1589. The Inq.post mart, taken 32nd Eliz., shows that Thomas 
 Hoghton, Esq., had held the manors of Hoghton and Lea, &c., with 
 800 messuages, 400 cottages, 6 dovecots, 2000 gardens, 1000 orchards, 
 20 water-mills, 10 windmills, 6000 acres of land, 2000 of meadow, 3000 
 of pasture, 2000 of woodland, 1000 of moor, 1000 of turbary, 1000 of 
 rushland and heath, and ;^2o of rents in Hoghton, Lea, Chipping, and 
 many other townships. Richard Hoghton, son and next heir, was aged 
 20 at the date of the escheat. " In ye margine it is written that this 
 Thomas Hoghton was slain at Lea ; he marryed Anne, ye daughter of 
 Henry Kighley, shee was afterwards marryed unto Richard Shirbume, 
 Sonne and heire of Sir Richard, his second wyfe." After Thomas Hoghton's 
 death, Thomas Langton surrendered the Manor of Walton to his heir. 
 
 Richard Hoghton succeeded to the estates on his father's death, at 
 the age of 19 (he was born Sept. 28th, 1570). During his minority he 
 was ward of Sir Gilbert Gerard, Knt., Master of the Rolls, whose 
 daughter Katherine he married, about 1590. He was Sheriff of Lanca- 
 shire in 1598, and was knighted in 1599 by the Earl of Essex, with 
 whom he was serving in Ireland. In 1603 he was returned to Parlia- 
 ment as Knight of the Shire. Sir Richard was a favourite of James I., 
 and by that monarch he was created one of the first batch of baronets, 
 on the institution of the Order, May 22nd, 161 1. It was this Sir 
 Richard Hoghton who received the King at Hoghton Tower in August, 
 161 7 (see ante, pp. 95-100). By Katherine his wife (who died, aged 48, 
 Nov. 17th, 1617), Sir Richard had issue, sons, Gilbert; Thomas; 
 Richard ; Ratcliffe (married Anne Walmesley, daughter of Thomas of 
 Banister Hill); and Roger ; and daughters, Anne, wife of Sir John 
 Cotton of Landwood, Knt; Frances; Catherine, wife of Robert Dew- 
 hurst of Alston, gent.; Elizabeth ; Alice ; Margaret ; Gilibert ; and 
 
7i8 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Eleanor. After his wife's death, Sir Richard Hoghton had two other 
 sons by Jane, widow of Robert Hesketh, Esq., but whether in wedlock 
 is uncertain. Sir Richard Hoghton, Knt. and Bart., died Nov. 12th, 
 1630, aged 60. The Inq. post mort., taken at Blackburn, 7th Chas. I., 
 showed that Sir Richard was seized of the estates before enumerated, 
 for term of his life ; remainder to his son and heir, Gilbert Hoghton, 
 Knt., for his life ; remainder to Richard Hoghton, Esq., son of the said 
 Gilbert, and the heirs male of his body, &c. 
 
 Thomas Hoghton, Esq., second son of Sir Richard, and described 
 as "of Hoghton Tower" in 1627, had sons, Thomas, bapt. at Brindle 
 Church, Feb. 12th, 1625-6, buried Dec. 28th, 1627 ; Richard, bapt. 
 July 22nd, 1632, died in 1658 ; and Gilbert, died young, in June, 1632 ; 
 and a daughter Elizabeth, bapt. April 20th, 1628. 
 
 Sir Gilbert Hoghton, son and heir of Sir Richard, was bom in 159 1; 
 and at the age of 1 5 was knighted at Whitehall, July 21st, 1606. He 
 " was in high favour with James I., and had the honour to be in his ser- 
 vice at Court." Canon Raines adds that " he was celebrated for his 
 elegant accomplishments, and especially in dancing. He frequently 
 took part in the beautiful masques of this reign, and is even mentioned 
 by name in Ben Jonson's Antimasque ' for the honor of Wales,' presented 
 before the King and his courtiers, in 1 618-19." The brilliant Jacobean 
 poet and satirist Nicholas Breton, dedicated, in 16 14, his piece entitled 
 " The Good and the Bad, or Descriftiotis of the Worthies and Unworthies 
 of this Age" to " the Right Worshipfull and Worthy, Sir Gilbert Hough- 
 ton, of Houghton, Knight, the noble favourer of vertuous spirits." In 
 1614, Sir Gilbert Hoghton was returned to Parliament as Knight of the 
 Shire, and represented Lancashire in three subsequent Parliaments. In 
 1 616 he went to France as a member of the English Embassy. He was 
 Sheriff of Lancashire in 1643. Sir Gilbert Hoghton was one of the fore- 
 most leaders of the Royalist forces in Lancashire in the Civil War. His 
 part in that conflict has been described in a former chapter. Sir Gilbert 
 married, before 1613, Margaret, daughter and co-heir of Sir Roger Aston, 
 Knt., of Cranford, Co. Middlesex. He had sons, George, died in 
 infancy; Richard, bom in 1616; Roger Hoghton, a Royalist officer, 
 " slain with a cannon bullet at Hessam Moore, fighting on the King's 
 part, 1643") ; Gilbert Hoghton (" major in the regiment of Sir Gilbert 
 Gerard, Knt.," Governor of Worcester to King Charles I.; he married 
 Lettice, daughter of Sir Francis Gamall, Knt., and died in 1661); 
 Thomas, died young ; and Henry (see p. 670); and daughters, Katherine, 
 wife of Thomas Preston of Holkar ; Mary, wife of Sir HugR Calverley ; 
 Margaret, wife of Alexander Rigby of Middleton ; and Anne, died 
 young. Sir Gilbert Hoghton, Knt. and Bart, died in 1647. His 
 
HOGHTON, LORDS OF WALTON. 719 
 
 widow, Lady Margaret Hoghton, died in 1657. Mr. Isaac Ambrose, 
 the Puritan minister at Garstang, preached a funeral sermon for her, 
 published with the title : — " Redeeming the Time ; a Sermon preached 
 at Preston, in Lancashire, January 4th, 1657, at the Funerall of the Hon. 
 lady, the Lady Margaret Houghton." The following letter, written from 
 Walton Hall in 1634, by Sir Gilbert Hoghton to Roger Dodsworth the 
 antiquary, I print from the Dodsworth MSS. on account of its reference 
 to the early passages of local estates of the Hoghtons : — 
 
 To my very much esteemed loveinge friende Mr. Roger Dodsworth at Hutton 
 Grange these. Being advertised of your return home, I have addrest these lynes to 
 you, and my desire is, yt if you can possiblie you would come hither to Walton to- 
 morrow or ye first day yt leasure will p'mit you, yt we may c'ferre together for ye 
 manageinge of ye business whereof wee have had some fonner speech. And this is 
 for proveing the tenure of Over Darwent. You know I have a deed of ye grant of ye 
 body, lands and marriage of John de Keu[er]dale by Sir John de Langton unto Alice 
 K. his mother, of lands in Parva Darwent. It appeares that this John K. dyed and 
 Joan his sister became heire, and married Thomas Molineuxde la Edge, who had issue 
 Katherine, who married Alexr. Osbaldeston. I desyre you to informe yourselfe how 
 to prove this Pedigree and yf Parva Darwent is Over Darwent. And whether this 
 Alexander O. was ye heire of ye Osbaldestons, and how ye pedigree may be proved 
 from him to Sir Edward yt now ys. As also how ye lands came from ye Banastres to 
 ye Langtons Lords of Walton. I intend to sitt on office one of these days, and must 
 intreat your furth'ance and testimony in ye premisses about Darwent. I pray you 
 informe yourselfe fully, and thus with my love I reste, y'r very loveing frend, Gilbert 
 Hoghton. — 30 Maii, 1634. 
 
 Sir Richard Hoghton succeeded his father in the estates and title. 
 He married Sarah, daughter of Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, and had 
 issue, sons, Philip, Ferdinando, Gilbert, Henry, Charles, and Benja- 
 min ; and daughters, Lucy, Arabella, Cordelia (buried at Walton, May 
 29th, 1685), and Sarah, married, first, — Dymock, and, secondly, John 
 Walmesley of Ince, gent. Sir Richard Hoghton was an energetic sup- 
 porter of Parliament against the King. He was returned as Knight of 
 the Shire in 1656. After the Restoration, Sir Richard adhered to the 
 Presbyterian party, and was a great supporter of the ministers ejected 
 under the Act of Uniformity. He died in February, 1677-8, and was 
 buried at Preston Church, in which his funeral sermon was preached by 
 the Vicar, Dr. Bushell. His widow, " Lady Sarah Hoghton of Ince," 
 was buried at Walton, May 21st, 1698. 
 
 The four first sons of Sir Richard died unmarried in his lifetime, 
 and the title devolved upon the fifth son, Charles, as next heir to the 
 estates. The youngest son was Benjamin Hoghton, Esq., who was made 
 a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1694, and was living at 
 Cuerden Green in 1695. 
 
 Sir Charles Hoghton, was bom in 1643 > married, in 1676, Mary, 
 
720 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 daughter of John Visct. Massarene, and had sons, John ; Henry ; 
 Philip ; Skevington (bapt. Oct. 7th, 1687 ; Skevington Hoghton died in 
 Feb., 1768); Hugh, born in 1688: and James, born in 1690; and 
 daughters, Mary; Cordelia (bapt. July 23rd, 1686; married Robert 
 Davie, Esq.); Anne (married, Oct. 9th, 1721, Samuel Crook of Crook, 
 gent.); Margaret (bapt. Feb. loth, 1691-2; married at Walton, Aug. 
 27th, 1 7 16, Samuel Watson of Hull, gent); Elizabeth (bapt. May 2nd, 
 1693 ; married, Feb. 14th, 1715-16, to Thomas Fenton of Hunslet, 
 Esq.); and Lucy (bapt. Oct. 29th, 1694; married, Feb. 6th, 1721-2, to 
 Thomas Lutwidge, Esq.) Like his father. Sir Charles was a kind patron 
 of the Nonconforming divines, among them of John Howe, Henry New- 
 come, and Oliver Heywood. Sir Charles built a new wing to Hoghton 
 Tower in 1700. He was returned Knight of the Shire in 1681 and 
 1688. In 1709, he founded a school at Withnell, and endowed it with 
 ;^4oo by deed dated June 30th, 1709. He died June loth, 1710, and 
 was buried at Walton Church, June 15th. His widow, Lady Mary, sur- 
 vived him twenty-two years, dying on April 30th, 1732. " Dame Mary, 
 relict of SirCharles Hoghton, Bart.," was buriedat Walton, May 4th, 1 732. 
 
 John Hoghton, eldest son of Sir Charles, died in his father's life- 
 time, unmarried, in 1699, aged about 21. He had entered the Temple 
 in 1698, and appears to have died in London. His funeral sermon, 
 preached by John Howe, was published with the title " The Redeemer's 
 Dominion over the Invisible World," prefaced by a dedication, dated 
 May 17th, 1699, to "Sir Charles and the Lady Mary Hoghton of 
 Hoghton Tower." 
 
 Sir Henry Hoghton, second son and eventual heir of Sir Charles, 
 was returned to Parliament as Member for Preston four times, in 17 10, 
 1715, 1728, and 1735. He also contested Preston at the election in 
 1722 ; and was shortly after returned Member for Eastlow, in Cornwall, 
 in 1724. Sir Henry Hoghton held some years the office of Judge- 
 Advocate General. He was the most active local supporter of the 
 Government against the Jacobites in the rising of 1715, and took 
 effectual measures at Preston and Walton to check the advance of the 
 Rebel army. He was thrice married, first, to Mary, eldest daughter of 
 Sir Wm. Bough ton, Bart, (she died at Dover, in 17 19); secondly, to 
 Lady Russell, relict of Lord James Russell ; and thirdly, to Susannah, 
 daughter of Thomas Butterworth, Esq., of Manchester (her marriage 
 dowry was ;i£'8ooo). Sir Henry had no issue by any of these marriages, 
 and on his death, in 1768, the title and estates passed to the son of his 
 brother Philip Hoghton. The obituary of Sir Henry in the Annual 
 Jiegisier mns : — "Feb. 23, 1768, [died] Sir Harry Houghton, baronet, 
 at his seat in Lancashire, aged 90." 
 
HOGHTON, LORDS OF WALTON. jai 
 
 Philip Hoghton, Esq., married, first (at Brindle, Jan. 8th, 1724-5), 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Sclater, Esq., and by her had issue, sons, 
 Charles (died in his father's lifetime, in May, 1 743); and Henry, bom 
 Oct. 22nd, 1728; and two daughters, both of whom died unmarried. 
 The mother died in March 1 731-2. Philip Hoghton married, secondly, 
 Mary, daughter of Edward Rigby of Middleton, Esq., by whom he had a 
 daughter Anne, who married Rev. Humphrey Shuttleworth, Vicar of 
 Preston. Philip Hoghton, Esq., was buried Nov. 14th, 1747. 
 
 Sir Henry Hoghton, Bart., son of Philip, who succeeded his uncle Sir 
 Henry in 1768, at the age of 40, married, first, Elizabeth, only daughter 
 of Wm. Ashhurst, of Heddingham Castle, Co. Essex, Esq., and had a 
 daughter Elizabeth (married, July 15th, 1783, Lewis Magendie, Esq., 
 and died in 1833). Sir Henry married, secondly, in 1766, Fanny, 
 daughter and co-heir of Daniel Booth, of Hutton Hall, Co. Essex, Esq. 
 By her he had two sons, Henry Philip ; and Daniel. Sir Henry 
 Hoghton was returned in the Whig interest as M.P. for Preston in 1768, 
 and afterwards represented that borough in five successive parliaments 
 until his death. He died, aged 67, March 9th, 1795. Sir Henry 
 Hoghton was the acknowledged parliamentary leader of the Nonconfor- 
 mist party, for whose relief he introduced and carried some important 
 measures. 
 
 Daniel Hoghton, second son of Sir Henry, bom Aug. 27th, 1770, 
 entered the army, and rose to the rank of Major-General. He fought 
 in the Peninsular War, and was killed at the head oi his regiment at the 
 battle of Albuera, May i6th, 181 1. On a white marble slab in the 
 chancel of Walton Church is inscribed : — " Major-General Daniel 
 Hoghton, died in the battle of Albuera, in Spain, May 16, 181 1, aged 41." 
 
 Sir Henry Philip Hoghton, seventh baronet, was born June I2th, 
 1768. He was returned M.P. for Preston, in the stead of his father, in 
 1795, and sat in the House of Commons until 1802. He married, Nov. 
 1 2th, 1797, Susannah, daughter of Peter Brooke of Astley Hall, Esq., 
 and relict of Thomas Towneley Parker, Esq., and had a son Henry, 
 bom Jan. 3rd, 1799 ; and a daughter Fanny Elizabeth, bapt. May loth, 
 1800. Sir Henry Philip Hoghton died at Walton Hall, aged 67, Nov. 
 27th, 1835. 
 
 His son and heir, Henry Hoghton, married. May 25rd, 1820, Doro- 
 thea, second daughter of Peter Patten Bold of Bold, Esq.; she became, 
 on her sister's death, sole heir of the Bold estates, and on that account 
 her husband Henry Hoghton assumed, by royal license, the additional 
 name and arms of Bold. Sir Henry Bold-Hoghton, Bart., had issue, 
 sons, Henry, the heir; Charles, born Nov. 20th, 1823 ; Richard, 
 bom May 20th, 1828, married Martha, daughter of Septimus 
 
 9« 
 
7»» 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Miller, Esq.; and daughters, Mary, married John Ireland Blackbume, 
 Esq.; and Dora, married Priestley Birch, Esq. His first wife dying in 
 Dec, 1840, Sir Henry Bold-Hoghton married, secondly. Miss Smith of 
 Norwich, and by her had issue, sons, James, Daniel, and Gilbert, and a 
 daughter Frances. He was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1829. He 
 died July 19th, 1862, at Anglesea, near Gosport, and was buried at 
 Anglesea Chapel. 
 
 Sir Henry, ninth baronet, who succeeded his father, resumed by 
 royal license the ancient prefix o{ De Hoghton. He was born Aug. 22nd, 
 1821 ; married, first, Aug. 14th, 1845, Louisa Josephine, fourth daughter 
 of Joseph Sanders, Esq., by whom he had a son Cecil, born Feb. 5th, 
 1849. This marriage was dissolved by Act of Parliament in June, 
 1849. Sir Henry de Hoghton married, secondly, July ist, 1851, 
 Alice, third daughter of Sir Henry Jervis White-Jervis, Bart., by whom 
 he had issue a daughter Alice Marion, bom Dec. 8th, 1852. Lady de 
 Hoghton died Dec. 29th, 1852. Sir Henry's third wife, married Sept. 
 6th, 1854, was Ellen Ann, daughter of Ralph Harvey, Esq. (she survives 
 her husband), and by her he had issue a daughter Eleanor Isabel, born 
 May 1 2th, i860. Sir Henry de Hoghton served the office of High 
 Sheriff of Cardiganshire in 1849. During the term of his tenure of 
 the estates Sir Henry de Hoghton spent vast sums in their improve- 
 ment, and also commenced the restoration of Hoghton Tower, the 
 ancient family seat. He restored the church of Farnworth near 
 Warrington, and beautified the chancel of Preston-Parish Church. He 
 resided chiefly in London, and died there, aged 55, Dec. 2nd, 1876. 
 His remains were interred in the Bold Chapel of Farnworth Church, 
 His only son, Cecil de Hoghton having died unmarried before his 
 father (July 24th, 1874, aged 25), Sir Henry was succeeded in the 
 title and estates by his brother — 
 
 Sir Charles de Hoghton, the present baronet. He was born in 
 1823 ; and is unmarried. The heir presumptive is his brother, Richard 
 de Hoghton, Esq. By the Will of Sir Henry de Hoghton, dated Feb. 
 9th, 1875, testator directs that the income of his real and personal 
 estate shall accumulate for 2 1 years, subject to annuities to his wife, 
 brothers, &c. ; after that date all real estate to go to his brother Charles, 
 if then living, with remainder to his first and every other son in 
 succession ; and other contingent remainders. The Lancashire estates 
 of Sir Henry de Hoghton were returned in 1873 ^.s comprising 41 12 
 statute acres, with a rental of ;^i 0,144. 
 
 Walton Hall, the Manor-house of Walton-in-le-Dale, was demolished 
 about 40 years ago. It had previously undergone alterations which 
 

 
 WESTERN GATEWAY, HOGHTON TOWER. [Pagk 723 
 
HOGHTON TOWER. 733 
 
 gave it a modem aspect. (An engraved view of the Hall as it stood 
 shortly before its removal will be found in Baines's History of Lanca- 
 shire, first edition.) It was a large structure of brick and stone, with 
 classic porch in the centre, in the pediment of which was the Hoghton 
 arms, and projecting gabled wings. The park near the site still contains 
 some fine old trees. The offices of the Hoghton estates, and the 
 modern residence of Sir Charles Hoghton's steward, R. J. Flowerdew, 
 Esq., J. P., now occupy a portion of the hall grounds. 
 
 Hoghton Tower occupies the summit of an isolated hill, four miles 
 west of Blackburn. On the north-east side the hill is precipitous, and 
 at its base the river Danven passes through a deep wooded ravine. 
 Built in the first years of Elizabeth's reign, the Tower presents the 
 features of the Tudor style of domestic architecture. Its plan consists 
 of blocks of buildings set at right angles, and forming two quadrangles, 
 enclosing outer and inner courts. The south-western front is composed 
 of three towers, with embattled parapets and connecting walls. The 
 central tower is larger than the side towers, and has an entrance gateway 
 under a depressed arch, 12 ft. wide, springing from moulded capitals. On 
 the outer wall above the gateway-arch is a panel containing sculptured 
 figures in relief, and in the upper comers the initials of the builder's 
 name " T H " (Thomas Hoghton). The panel is flanked by Ionic 
 pillars supporting a cornice. On the left hand, entering the lower court, 
 are buildings called the " King's Stables," said to have been built shortly 
 before the royal visit in 161 7 ; and a small building covering the wind- 
 lass of the draw-well, which is 40 yards deep. On the right hand are 
 buildings of three storeys, with square doorways and windows, added by 
 Sir Charles Hoghton in 1 700. On the wall is a moulded stone panel, 
 bearing the initials " C H M H " (for Charles and Mary Hoghton), 
 the date " 1 700 " and a scripture text. The upper part of the outer 
 court is a terrace, fronted by a low wall, with square pillars forming a 
 gateway in the midst, at the top of a flight of semi-circular steps. In 
 front, the block of building between the courts is pierced centrally by a 
 gateway, i3>^ft. wide, and i2^ft. high to the ape.x of the Tudor arch. 
 An elaborate panel is seen above the arch, in which are sculptured the 
 arms of Hoghton (sable three bars argent) quartered with Asheton (argent 
 a mullet sable), with the Hoghton supporters (two bulls), helm, and crest 
 (a bull passant). Here, again, are the initials "TH" of thefounder. On the 
 inner wall above the gateway the armorial sculpture is repeated, as are 
 the initials " T H "; and in this panel there are traces of the date of the 
 erection, a.d. 1565, of which the two last figures "65 " alone are barely 
 distinguishable. Passing into the inner court, which is a square 70ft. by 
 69^ft., the buildings on each side of the quadrangle appear to be of 
 
724 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the original fabric, excepting that the walls of the block over the middle 
 gateway, above which rose the lofty tower' which gave the mansion its 
 name (destroyed by the explosion of gunpowder during the Civil War) 
 show indications of having been rebuilt. In the midst of the court 
 stands a statue of William the Third, in bronze ; the figure is six feet 
 high, and stands on a square corniced pedestal, about Syift. in height. 
 This statue was formerly at Walton Hall. The doorways opening from 
 the inner court are low and square-headed, with massive lintels. The 
 windows are square, with moulded mullions and transomes. On the 
 north-west facade, above a flight of semi-circular steps, is a doorway with 
 low pointed arch, beneath a square head-moulding; the spandrels 
 contain carved flowers and foliage. Above this entrance the roof-line is 
 gabled. The large window of the dining-hall occupies the middle of 
 this front, to the right of which is a large bay window, surmounted by a 
 projected gable. The interior of the wing contains the banqueting hall 
 and kitchen and rooms in connection therewith. At the west end is a 
 panelled oaken screen, supporting the Minstrels' Gallery, which is 
 protected by a ballustrade. The broad arch of the original open fire- 
 place has been built up, but is yet visible beneath the plaister. The 
 transeptal bays at the east end of the Hall add largely to its capacity. 
 Each bay forms five sides of an octagon, and is loft. deep by i ift. wide. 
 The bays are lighted by lofty oriel windows, mullioned and triple 
 transomed. The main window of the Hall is of unusual size, extending 
 laterally from the screen to the oriel, and is also lofty, having three lines 
 of transomes. The roof of the Hall has been renewed in the recent 
 restorations. In the basement of the same block is the kitchen, reached 
 by a stair from the passage behind the hall-screen. Its fire-place is 8ft. 
 2in wide by 2ft. gin. deep, and 6ft. high. Domestic offices are in the 
 rear of the kitchen. The north-east wing of the quadrangle contains 
 some of the state-rooms of the mansion. The chief entrance from the 
 court admits to a spacious Hall, from which a stair, 6ft. wide, with 
 spiral ballusters, called " The King's Staircase," conducts to " The 
 King's Room" on the upper floor, a spacious apartment 27ft. by 20ft., 
 used by King James the First when he was here as a reception room. 
 The walls of the room are panelled in oak, in deep moulded panels ; 
 and the chimney-piece is of classic design, with a bold cornice. The 
 King's Bedroom is a long narrow chamber, 26ft. by 12ft., at the north 
 angle of the Tower, with panelled walls and ornamental cornices 
 similar to those of the audience chamber adjoining. On the right of 
 the first staircase in this wing is another of the state-rooms, a handsome 
 
 I Dr. Richard Kuerden, who knew the Tower before its mutilation, records : — " Betwixt the in- 
 ward square court and the 2d, was a very tall strong tower or gatehouse, which in the late unhappy 
 dvil wars was accidentally blown up with powder," &c. 
 
HOGHTON TOWER. 725 
 
 panelled room, 28ft. by 20ft.; with a massive arcuated stone fire-place, 
 which has been restored. The south-east wing contains, on the upper 
 floor, a suite of four large rooms which have been stately in their aspect, 
 but prior to the recent restorations had become greatly decayed. The 
 fifth room in the range is a smaller room behind the corridor, its walls 
 covered with small oak panels, having gilt discs in the four comers of 
 each panel, and therefore named the " Guinea Room." A panel over 
 the fire-place displays the armorial bearings of the Hoghtons. The 
 minor rooms on the ground floor of this wing and in the 
 central block are too many to enumerate. At the north 
 side of the Ministrels' Gallery is a large panelled room, which 
 may have been used by the lord of the mansion and his favoured 
 guests as a withdrawing room. It occupies a projection from the main 
 block and has windows upon three sides, commanding charming land- 
 scapes down the vale of Darwen and towards the estuary of the Ribble 
 and the sea-coast line of Lancashire. The,extemal walls of the Tower 
 are massively built of large blocks of compact gritstone, quarried from 
 the rock on which the Tower stands. On the rearward aspect of the 
 Tower are seen the wide and deep chimney projections. Over a square- 
 headed doorway at the exterior angle on the north is another stone 
 panel, enclosing the arms of Hoghton, with the baronet's badge, and the 
 family crest. The projecting wing on the north side has circular-arched 
 openings flanked by carved pillasters supporting a moulded string-course. 
 The gardens and pleasure-grounds are enclosed by the old stone walls, 
 which extend to the edge of the cliff on the north side of the 
 Tower. Below the outer gateway an extensive lawn slopes to a boundary 
 consisting of a pallisade with the pillars of a gateway opening opposite 
 the central tower. On the north-east side of the la\vn stands a large 
 bam built by Sir Charles Hoghton, as attested by a stone above the 
 bam-door, bearing the letters " C H" and the date "1692." In the 
 keeper's house lies the old chapel-bell, removed from its place on the 
 roof of the Tower some years since. The bell was cast, I conjecture, at 
 an earlier date than the erection of the Tower, and may have been first 
 used as the sanctum-bell or saint-bell of some local chantry. It is about 
 14 inches high, and bears the legend in missal characters : — 
 
 g^nqbida sii pandas Irlnitas + 
 
 Below are genealogical notices of some of the more important 
 ancient and recent freeholding families in Walton. 
 
 ATHERTON OF WALTON. 
 
 A document in possession of Rev. J. S. Birley recites that John Atherton of 
 Walton-in-le-Dale, Esq., had Banister Hall in Walton and other lands there ; and 
 
726 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 by his Will, dated 4 Feb., 1768, he leaves Banister Hall, &c., to his son John 
 Atherton, Esq., remainder to his grandson John Joseph Atherton eldest son of John ; 
 remainder to Henry Blundell Atherton, second son of testator's son John Atherton ; 
 remainder to right heirs of said John. Testator's wife, Frances ; son John ; nephew 
 John Atherton of Prescot ; and Robert Richmond of Liverpool, gent., executors. 
 John Atherton, gent., the son, died about 1785 ; his Will is dated Oct. 13th, 1785. 
 John Joseph Atherton (son of John) of Walton Hall, Major in the 3rd regiment of 
 Light Dragoons, married, in 1796, Miss Mitford, daughter of Bartram Mitford of 
 Mitford Castle, Co. Northumberland, Esq. William Assheton, Esq., of Cuerdale 
 Hall, eventually purchased the Banister Hall estate. 
 
 BANESTER OF DARWIN HALL (BANISTER HALL). 
 
 A family of Banesters, in the position of gentry, held an estate and resided in 
 Walton-in-le-Dale until the seventeenth century, and was presumably a branch of the 
 ancient manorial house of Banastre of Walton, merged in the Langtons. Flower the 
 herald, in his Visitation of 1567, styles this family Banester of Darwin, which is mis- 
 leading, and suggests one of the townships of Darwen as its place of residence. The 
 correct description is Banester of Darwen or Banester Hall in Walton ; the older 
 name of Darwen Hall given to the seat of these Banesters obtaining from its proximity 
 to the river Darwen. 
 
 John Banastre of Walton, occurring in 2nd Henry V. (1414), is the first member 
 of this family I have observed. It is not unlikely that Geoffrey Banastre, Vicar of 
 Blackburn from 1419 to 14S7, was of this branch. Canon Raines remarks of this 
 Vicar : — " He may have been the grandson of John Banastre of Wakon-in-le-Dale, 
 Esq. " It was Richard, a son of John Banastre of Walton, who, by marrying Johanna, 
 daughter and heiress of John de Alvetham, became possessor of Altham manor and 
 founded the line of Banastre of Altham. 
 
 Another John Banastre of Walton appears in the loth Henry VI (1432), as giving 
 fines for certain writs of that date. 
 
 Flower's descent begins with Richard Banester, who must have lived early in the 
 fifteenth century, and may have succeeded the above John. Thomas Banester, his 
 son and heir, had a son and heir William Banester, whose heir was Lawrence. 
 
 Lawrence Banester of Derwyn, gent., had a jon and heir, George Banester of 
 Derwin ; and the latter, who was assessed for his lands in Walton to a Subsidy in 
 1523, married Jennet, daughter of Lawrence Ainsworth of Pleasihgton, gent., and 
 had issue sons, Lawrence, Henry, William, and George. 
 
 Lawrence Banester of Darwen Hall, in Walton, gent., son of George, had to 
 wife Jane, daughter of Richard Hoghton, Knt., and had sons, Richard ; a second 
 Richard ; Thomas, and William ; and daughters, Alice, Mary, Grace, and Margaret. 
 Lawrence Banester died August 6th, 1558, and the escheat taken at Preston, Oct. 
 4th, 1st Eliz., returned that he had possessed nine messuages, four cottages, 200 acres 
 of land, 60 acres of meadow, 10 acres of woodland, and 100 acres of turbary, in 
 Walton, and one messuage, six burgages, two cottages, one mill, and certain lands 
 in Preston — not a small estate. Richard Banester was his son and heir, aged 17 years. 
 
 According to Flower, Richard Banester, gent., eldest son of Lawrence, died 
 without issue ; and his next brother, Richard, succeeded to the estate. This Richard 
 Banester married Isabell, daughter and one of the heirs of Piers Farington, of 
 Farrington, gent. In the Farington descent Richard Banester is described as "of 
 Preston, gent.," but he dwelt at Banister Hall after his father's death. He had 
 sons, Thomas, Lawrence, and George ; and daughters, Mary, Jane, and Alice. In 
 
FREEHOLDERS IN WALTON. 
 
 727 
 
 1581, Alexander Hoghton, Esq., in his Will, indicates a debt owing to him by hii 
 nephew, "Richard Bannister, gent., of Darwin Hall alias Bannister in Walton," of 
 ;^I5, "for which," it is added "hee hath pledged to mee all his wheate now 
 growing." 
 
 Thomas Banester of Walton, son of Richard, had a daughter Alice, wife of 
 John Livesey of Blackburn, gent. 
 
 William Banester of the Law Hall, yeoman (a younger brother or son of 
 Lawrence above, and named in Sir Thomas Langton's Will in 1588), made his Will 
 the 4th Sept., 1584; directing his burial at Law (Walton) Church; and naming 
 'Jane, his wife; Henry, his son ; William, Jane, and Elizabeth, children of Henry ; 
 and Ellen Hoghton his granddaughter. Margaret Banester, testator's daughter, Jane, 
 his wife, and Henry, his son, appointed executors. 
 
 Henry Banester of Walton died before l6io, when his relict was assessed to 
 the Subsidy. 
 
 Before 1600, the Banister Hall estate had passed from the Banesters to Mr. 
 Edward Walmesley, younger son of Thomas Walmesley of Showley, Esq. 
 
 The Guild Rolls of Preston furnish some later names of this family of Banastre. 
 Richard Banastre of Banastre Bridge in Walton ; and George Banastre his brother, 
 were freemen of Preston in 1642. Richard Banastre, dead before 1662, had a son, 
 Thomas Banastre of Banastre Bridge in Walton, a burgess of Preston in 1642 and 
 1662. He had sons, Richard, William, and James, all enrolled upon the Preston 
 Guild Rolls for 1642 and 1662. Another member, Lawrence Banastre, living in 
 1642 ; had sons, John, Thomas, and George. John Banastre of Walton, son of 
 Lawrence, living in 1642 and 1662, but deceased before 1682, had sons, Richard and 
 John, enrolled on the Guild Roll for 1682. 
 
 BURSCOUGH OF WALTON. 
 
 Edmund Bruscoe of Walton was assessed to a Subsidy in 1570. He had a son 
 Roger. Roger Burscough of Walton, gent., occurs in 1584. 
 
 Thomas Burscough, of Walton-in-le-Dale, gent., died in 1614. By his Will, 
 dated April 29th, 12th James L, he desires to be buried at Lawe Church. Testator 
 names Emie, Jane, Anne, and Roger Burscough, children of Edmund Burscough his 
 brother ; and refers to his lease to John Woodcock of Cuerden, and Arison Nilson, 
 his sister-in-law. Makes his wife, Katherine Burscough, and John Woodcock of 
 Cuerden, executors. 
 
 Edmund Burscough, brother of Thomas, had estate in Walton, and his son, 
 Roger Burscough, probably was heir to his uncle. In 1650, Roger Bruske [Burs- 
 cough] held lands in Walton under Blackburn Wapentake Court. 
 
 CALROW OF WALTON LODGE. 
 
 Richard Calrow of Adlington, Co. Chester, was father of Richard Calrow of 
 Bury, Co. Lancaster, who purchased the Walton Lodge estate in this township. The 
 son, Richard Calrow, Esq., of Walton Lodge, had sons, William ; and Thomas 
 Calrow, Esq., of Woodhill, near Bury. He died, aged 71, in 1830, and was buried 
 at Walton Church. 
 
 William Calrow, Esq., J. P., of Walton Lodge, born Sept. 24th, 1786, married, 
 Sept. I2th, 1808, Margaret, daughter of Robert Town, Esq., of Ulverston, and had 
 issue, sons, Richard Calrow (born April 17th, 1815, married Margaret, daughter of 
 John Grundy, Esq., and died in 1850) ; William Augustus, born in 1820; and Robert 
 Francis (bom in 1823, married Eleanor, daughter of John L»wthwaite, Esq.); and 
 
728 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 daughters, Eleanor, wife of G. J. Wainwright, Esq.; Jane Judith, wife of William 
 Walker, Esq. ; Elizabeth, wife of Rev. C. Bickmore ; Wilhelmina ; Margaret, and 
 Frances Rebecca, wife of the late Mr. J. H. Kay. William Calrow, Esq., died at 
 Walton Lodge, March 6th, 1873, in his 87th year, and was buried at Walton Church. 
 
 Walton Lodge, situate two miles from Preston, was built by Mr. Assheton of 
 Cuerdale, who sold the mansion and estate, early in this century, to Richard Calrow, 
 Esq. In June, 1873, the estate was notified for sale, and described as a mansion and 
 348 statute acres of freehold land, tithe-fee, &c. The rental was returned in 1873 at 
 iCloyS per annum. 
 
 KUERDEN OF WALTON. 
 
 Richard Kuerden of Walton-in-le-Dale, living temp. Henry VIII., had a son 
 Edward. Edward Kuerden was father of Thomas Kuerden. 
 
 Thomas Kuerden, of Walton, had three sons, Thomas, John, and William. 
 
 John Kuerden, son of Thomas, married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Peter 
 Farrington of Farrington, Esq., and had issue three daughters his co-heirs ; Alice, 
 wife of Henry Banaster of Bank, Esq. (whose daughter Alice was wife of Sir Thomas 
 Haggerston of Haggerston, Bart.); Mary, wife of George Chatterton, gent.; and 
 Isabel, second wife of Alexander Rigby of Wigan, gent. 
 
 William Kuerden, brother of John, had to wife Cicely, daughter and heiress of 
 Richard Farrington of .Southbrook, gent., and had issue a daughter Margaret, wife of 
 Richard son of Gilbert Jackson of Kuerden, and known as Richard Kuerden, gent., 
 who died in 1630, and through his son Gilbert was grandfather to Dr. Richard Kuer- 
 den the antiquary, born about 1623, and died in 1701. 
 
 William Jackson (Kuerden) in 1650 held lands in Walton and paid Is. to Black- 
 bum Wapentake Court. 
 
 OSBALDESTON OF WALTON. 
 
 Thomas Osbaldeston was assessed under Walton to a Subsidy in 1570. The 
 same Thomas Osbaldeston, of Walton, yeoman, died in 1582. His Will is dated 
 June 2lst, in that year; proved Aug. 23rd. To be buried in Lawe churchyard. 
 Elizabeth, testator's wife, and Ralph Osbaldeston his son, executors. Daughters 
 Margaret and Elizabeth are named. 
 
 William Osbaldeston, with Robert Woodruff, gent., was assessed for lands in 
 Walton to the Subsidy in 1610. 
 
 A later member, William Osbaldeston of Walton, was assessed for his lands to 
 the Subsidy in 1663. Thomas Osbaldeston, of Walton, gent., occurs in 1673. 
 
 Osbaldeston House, in Walton township, is a brick structure, a little off the 
 public road between Walton Church and Moon's Mill. It was rebuilt by the last- 
 named occupant, William Osbaldeston, in 1661 ; as an inserted stone over the porch 
 attests, bearing the date " i66i" and the initials " W: O: D " (William and Dorothy 
 Osbaldeston). 
 
 REDDER OF PRESTON AND WALTON. 
 
 Thomas Redder, gent. , of Preston, married. May l6th, 1657, Elizabeth, daughter 
 of Richard ffeilden of Preston ; and died in Feb. 1679-80. His son — 
 
 Richard Pedder of Preston, born Oct, 26th, 1659, had issue, sons, Richard, Paul, 
 Peter, and Philip ; and daughters, Elizabeth, Jenet, and Ellen. He died in March, 
 1725-6. 
 
 Richard Pedder of Preston, bom Feb. 12th, 1692-3, was Mayor of Preston in 
 1748 and 1756. He married, in 1 71 1-12, Jennet, daughter of John Reed of Preston, 
 gent., and had issue, sons, Richard (who by his wife Sarah, daughter of Robt Ash- 
 
WALTONS OF LITTLE WALTON. 729 
 
 burner, gent., had issue one daughter, died in infancy); Edward; Thomas, born in 
 1729, Mayor of Preston in 1779, died unmarried in 1781 ; and James, Vicar of Gar- 
 stang ; and daughters, Ellen, Jane, Ann, and Grace. The father, Richard Pedder, 
 Esq., died in 1762. His second son — 
 
 Edward Pedder, Esq., of Preston, bom in 1742, died, aged 76, Oct. i6th, 1818. 
 By Margaret his wife (who died June 23rd, 1817, aged 73), he had issue, sons, Edward 
 Pedder, of Darwen Bank, Walton ; Thomas ; James, &c. 
 
 SERGEANT OF WALTON. 
 
 Of this family was John le Sergeant, Vicar of Leyland, who by deed dated 15th 
 Richard II. (1391), remits, &c., to Richard del Cross and his heirs all right he had in 
 certain lands which the foresaid Richard held in Walton. 
 
 " Richard the Sergeant" (the style suggests the origin of the surname), living in 
 Walton, occurs i8th Henry VI. (1440). 
 
 Rauf Sergeant and Edward Sergeant, of Walton, were both assessed to the Subsidy 
 of 1523. The " Edmonde S.irgeante " who had to wife Anne, daughter of Richard 
 Charnock of Chamock, may be the same with the Edward of the Subsidy Roll. 
 
 Rauf Sergeant represented the family later in the sixteenth century. In the 23rd 
 Eliz., (1580), Rauf Sergeant of Walton, and William Walton became bond to Adam 
 ffoster of Standish, in eight marks of silver. 
 
 William Sergeant of Walton died before 1633. His son and heir was Richard. 
 
 Richard Sergeant of Walton died about the same date. The escheat is dated 
 14th Charles I. It appeared that he had possessed one messuage, one cottage, two 
 gardens, 27 acres of land, meadow and pasture in Walton, called the Turfeslack HilL 
 Richard Sergeant died at Walton, and afterwards, says the return, William Sergeant, 
 his father, died. Thomas Sergeant, son of William, and brother of Richard, was 
 then heir, aged 13 years. William Sergeant had a daughter Isabel, wife of Richard 
 Chorley, of Walton. 
 
 Leonard Sergeant, most probably brother of William, held lands in Walton, and 
 after his death, on inquisition, taken at Preston, Sep. 26th, 16 Chas. I. (1640), his 
 estate proved to comprise a messuage and 30 acres in Walton, held of the King as 
 Duke of Lancaster, by a yearly payment of los. Anna Sergeant, daughter of Thomas, 
 late son and heir of Leonard, was next heir. Katherine, daughter of Leonard 
 Sergeant, was wife of Richard Sharrock of Walton. 
 
 WALTON OF LITTLE WALTON. 
 
 This family, bearing the name of the township, from a remote period held an 
 estate in Little Walton (on the south side of Walton-in-le-Dale) and in Cuerden. 
 William de Walton-in-le-Dale had a son, John de Walton, living in 1327 and 1331. 
 
 William, son of John de Walton, acquired, in 1349, by grant of Richard de 
 Blackburn, two messuages and 12 acres of land. In 1367, William de Walton had 
 Wm. de Langley's remission of lands in Walton, with a house upon the bridge over 
 Derwent, and a burgage in Preston. William de Walton was Mayor of Preston in 
 1378, 1386, and 1389. He occurs as " William Walton of Preston, mercer," in 1388. 
 
 " Robert de Walton de Walton " occurs in 1396 ; and John de Walton in 1397. 
 
 William de Walton, living in 1435, had in that year a writ of post disseisin issued 
 in his favour against Wm. de Livesey concerning lands in Walton-in-le-Dale. 
 
 A later member, probably Thomas Walton, married Jenet, daughter to Richard 
 de Kuerden, whose Will was dated 1529. About that date, Thomas Walton disputed 
 with James Walton title to messuages in Preston. In 1553, Edmund Walton 
 
 93 
 
730 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 plaint against Thomas Walton for forcible entry and tortious possession of lands in 
 Cuerden and Walton-in-le-Dale. 
 
 William Walton, gent., of this township, occurs as a juror in 1582, and as a 
 freeholder in 1600. In 1596, William Walton laid plaint against James Walmisley, 
 his wife Katherine, and daughter Margaret, for intrusion on his estate called the 
 Holme, &c., in Walton and Cuerden. 
 
 Thomas Walton, living in 1610, held the estate in Little Walton. By 
 his wife Priscilla, daughter and heir of John Cottam of Tarnaker, he had sons, 
 William ; John ; and James ; and a daughter Anne. His son — 
 
 William Walton, gent., was assessed fur his lands in this township to a Subsidy 
 in 1610. His wife was Dorothy, daughter of Mr. Christr. Anderton of Hodgwick 
 (she survived him, and married, secondly, Edward Walmesley, gent.), and he had 
 sons, William ; and Christopher. He died, Feb. i8th, 1625-6, seized, as returned by 
 inquisition, of lands in Walton-in-le-Dale called Hunt's Land and Baldwin's Land, 
 and other lands in Cuerden and Tamiker. 
 
 Thomas Walton, gent., son of William, aged ten years in 1630, paid the Subsidy 
 tax for these lands in 1663, was living in 1682, but was dead before 1687. He was 
 enrolled as a foreign burgess of Preston in 1662, with his sons, William, Thomas, and 
 Roger. 
 
 At the same Guild appear upon the Roll, John Walton son of Thomas of Walton- 
 in-le-Dale, deceased, and James his brother. 
 
 Thomas Walton of Winder, gent., "son of Thomas Walton late of Walton de- 
 ceased, " was an out-burgess of Preston at the Guild of 1 702. 
 
 The residence of the Waltons was the old house at Bamber Bridge on the west 
 side of the road from Preston to Chorley. The estate was alienated by Thomas 
 Walton, gent., in 1682. By deed of demise' dated 26th Oct., 1682, between John 
 Leigh of Preston, gentleman, on the one part, and Thomas Walton of Walton-in-le- 
 Dale, gentleman, on the other part, it is witnessed that John Leigh, for the securing to 
 Thomas Walton of sums of £100 and £^,00 (part of consideration agreed to be paid by 
 John Leigh to Thomas Walton for purchase of the messuage, demesne lands, &c., 
 mentioned), in pursuance of articles of agreement between these parties dated 12th 
 Sept. last, has granted, bargained, sold, &c.,to Thomas Walton, his exors., all that 
 his capital messuage and tenement, &c., called Little Walton, with the demesne lands, 
 &c., of him John Leigh in Walton-in-le-dale and Cuerden, and all his estate, right, 
 title, &c., therein, to have and hold to Thomas Walton for 500 years, by yearly rent 
 of one pepper-corn, provided always, and Thomas Walton covenants with John Leigh 
 by these presents, that in case John Leigh shall pay to Thomas Walton £6i,o — ^200 
 on April 1st, 1683, and ^£'440 on Feb. 2nd, 1683-4 — that then these presents shall 
 cease, and Thomas Walton shall re-grant, release, &c., the said Messuage, lands, &c., 
 unto John Leigh. (Signed) Thomas Walton. (Witnesses) " Will : Rishton, Will : 
 Hebson." Dr. Kuerden, writing about 1695, notices the old seat of the Waltons, 
 which had then passed into the possession of the Ashetons : — ' ' Passing the Lostoc 
 Water at a fair stone Bridge parting Leyland from Blacbum Hundred you meet with 
 the other road from Chorley to Preston, and on your left the antient seat of Walton of 
 Little Walton, but now belonging to Mr. Ratcliffe Ashton son of Mr. Ashton of 
 Cuerdale." The house at Little Walton (Bamber Bridge) is an old-fashioned struc- 
 ture, with central porch and gabled wings, and the walls show a timber framework in 
 parts. On the gate-post in front is carved the date " 1675." 
 
 I This deed il in possession of Mr. H. C Walton of Preston. 
 
WALMESLEY AND WINCKLEY OF BANISTER HALL. 731 
 
 WALMESLEY OF BANISTER HALL. 
 
 Near the close of the sixteenth century, Edward Walmesley, fourth son of 
 Thomas Walmesley of Showley, gent., obtained the Banister Hall estate in Walton. 
 " Edward Walmsley of Banaster Hall, gent.," occurs in a list of freeholders 
 dated 1600. His wife was Anne, daughter of William Hawksworth of Hawks- 
 worth, near Otiey, Esq., and he had two sons, Thomas, and Edward ; and three 
 daughters, Rosamond, wife of Thomas Winckley; Anne, married to Richard 
 Craven of Dinkley ; and Elizabeth, married to Roger Hodgkinson, of Preston. 
 Edward Walmesley died in early manhood, Oct. 9th, 1604, and by the Inquisition 
 thereafter, taken by Thomas Tyldesley, Esq., escheator, Jan. 12th, 2nd James I., it 
 was found that Edward Walmesley had died possessed of one Messuage called Darwyn 
 Hall or Banister Hall, of five other messuages, 6 cottages, 30 acres of land, 20 acres 
 of meadow, and 20 acres of pasture in Walton-in-le-Dale, worth 60s. per annum, held 
 of Thomas Langton, Knt., in socage. Thomas Walmesley, son and heir, was aged 9 
 years, 5 months, and 6 days. One other son and three daughters are mentioned in 
 the escheat. 
 
 Thomas Walmesley, of Banister Hall, gent., son of Edward, married Frances, 
 daughter of Edward Stanley of Moor Hall, Esq., and had an only daughter, Anne, 
 who married Radcliffe Hoghton, Esq., fourth son of Sir Richard Hoghton, Bart. 
 Thomas Walmesley, gent., died in June, 1637 ; his Will, dated June 14th, proved July 
 3rd, directs his burial in the Church of Low in Walton ; gives the third part of 
 testator's personal estate to his loving wife Frances ; another third to Ann his daugh- 
 ter ; and the other third to be distributed in legacies to his brother Edward ; mother- 
 in-law Mrs. Bridget Stanley ; brothers-in-law Mr. Thomas Stanley, Richard Craven, 
 and Thomas Winckley; sisters Anne Craven and Elizabeth Hodgkinson; nephew 
 Thomas Winckley ; to Mr. John Ainsworth of Crooke in Clayton ; and to testator's 
 servants and ancient tenants ; residue of this third part to his wife. John Ainsworth 
 and testator's wife, executors. The escheat, taken Sept. 23rd, 1637, proves that 
 Thomas Walmesley had died seized of Darwen Hall or Banister Hall, with the same 
 lands held by his father as above, and " 10 acres lately improved from the Waste of 
 Walton." Annie, his daughter, was aged 16 years; and Frances Walmesley, his 
 relict, was then living at Banister Hall. 
 
 Edward Walmesley, gent. , brother of Thomas, married Dorothy, daughter of Mr. ^ 
 Christopher Anderton of Hodgwick, widow of Mr. William Walton of Walton, but 
 had no issue by her; she was buried Nov. 8th, 1666. In 1664, Edward Walmesley 
 entered a family record before the Herald Sir William Dugdale. He died in July, 
 (buried July 21st), 1673. He was on the Guild Roll as a burgess of Preston in 1642. 
 
 After the death of both her brothers without heirs male, Rosamond, eldest sister, 
 wife of Thomas Winckley of Billington, gent., appears as inheritor of Banister Hall 
 estate, which thus passed to the Winckleys ; and her son, William Winckley, gent., 
 is named of Banister Hall in 1628. 
 
 WINCKLEY OF WINCKLEY, BILLINGTON, AND BANISTER HALL. 
 
 The original settlement of this family (whence its name is derived) was the tene- 
 ment of Winckley, in the township of Aighton, on the right bank of the Hodder. 
 Adam de Winckley, living in the 1 3th century, had a son Adam, who had sons Richard, 
 Adam, and John. John de Winckley had a son Robert, living temp. Edw. I. A 
 succeeding John de Winckley, who occurs in a deed dated 1323, had a son Adam. 
 In the 50th Edw. III. (1376) Adam son of John de Winckley gave a toft in Aighton 
 to John de Bailey. His son was John de Winckley, whose successor, Thomas de 
 
732 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Winckley, was living in 1446. The next member is Roger Winckley, whose wife was 
 Maud Cancefeld. Another Roger Winckley succeeds, who occurs in 1534. The 
 Will of Roger Winckley of Aighton, gent., dated Aug. 1st, 1556, names testator's 
 wife Jane ; sons, Roger, and Adam ; daughters, Elizabeth, and Isabel. His son, 
 Roger Winckley, of Woodfield, in his Will, proved in 1560, names wife Isabel ; 
 daughter Jane ; brother Warine. Anthony Winckley, the next in possession of the 
 estate, may have been abrotherof the last Roger. Anthony Winckley, gent., married 
 Marie, daughter of Nicholas Banastre of Altham, and had a son and heir Nicholas. 
 Anthony Winckley died before 1566, and it was proved on the escheat that he had 
 held a capital messuage called Winckley Hall and lands called Woodfyldes in Aighton ; 
 and that Nicholas, his son and heir was then aged 40 yearb. Nicholas Winckley 
 married a daughter of Richard Holden of Chageley Hall, and was father of Thomas 
 Winckley, gent., named as a freeholder in 1600, who married Cicely daughter of 
 Thomas Parker, of Withgill, and had sons, Roger, and Edward, buried at Brindle 
 Church, Feb. nth, 1600-1 ; Thomas Winckley was living in 1613. Rc^er Winckley, 
 aged 38 in 1613, married Martha, daughter of John Wrightington, and had sons, 
 Thomas, born in 1606; and Roger; and a daughter Ann. Roger Winckley, de- 
 scribed as son and heir of Roger, of Winckley, married Anne, daughter of Peter 
 Haworth of Th'urcroft, and died before 1664 ; his widow married Hugh Currer of 
 Kildwick. 
 
 Thomas Winckley of Billington, gent., in 1620, may have been a brother of 
 Roger Winckley, or a descendant of a younger son of a previous generation. He 
 married Rosamond, daughter of Edward W'almesley, gent., of Banister Hall (see 
 ante p. 731), and had sons, William and Thomas, entered with their father on Preston 
 Guild Roll in 1622. Thomas Winckley, senr., was dead before 1642, when his sons, 
 Thomas Winckley of Billington, gent., and William Winckley, gent., were on the 
 Guild Roll of Preston. 
 
 William Winckley, gent., son of Thomas, described in 1662 as "of Billington," 
 and in 1682 as " of Banister Hall," inherited the Banister Hall estate through his 
 mother, Rosamond Walmesley. William Winckley, gent., being a Royalist in the 
 Civil War, had to compound for his estate in 1646 by payment of a sum of ;^26. By 
 his wife Isabel (she died in June, 1688), he had sons, Edward ; Thomas, born in 1674, 
 died in 1675 ; a second Thomas, died young in 1677 ; and Willianj, bapt. Sept. 9th, 
 1677 ; and a daughter Rosamond, died young in 1676. AVilliam W^inckley, gent., 
 died in December 1703. His younger son, William, was Rev. Wm. Winckley, a 
 priest of the Church of Rome, and Rural Dean of Leyland Hundred, who died at 
 Ulnes- Walton. 
 
 Edward Winckley, gent., of Banister Hall (whose name appears as a Burgess of 
 Preston on the Guild Rolls in 1682, 1702, 1722, and 1742), by Mary his wife (she 
 died in Dec. 1709), had issue, sons, Thomas, bapt. March 15th, 1697-8; Edward ; 
 and James, died in 1726 ; and daughters, Isabel, born in 1696, died young ; and Jane, 
 bom in 1697. Mr. Edward Winckley sold the Banister Hall estate to Mr. Atherton 
 of Preston, Feb. 1st, 1738-9; his sons Thomas and Edward being parties to the 
 conveyance. He died in 1742, and was buried at Walton Church, Dec. 24th. His 
 second son, Edward Winckley of Preston, gent. , died in March, 1 749-50. 
 
 Banister Hall, the seat in succession of the Banesters, Walmesleys, Winckleys, 
 and Athertons, is situate near the right bank of the Darwen river, about a mile 
 above Walton Church. The frontage, to the south, has been rebuilt in brick ; but in 
 the rear of the house the old walls of stone remain. At the east end of the main 
 block is a gabled projecting wing. 
 
WOODCOCK OF "WALTON 733 
 
 WOODCOCK OF CUERDEN AND WALTON, &c. 
 
 The early settlement of this family was at Woodcock Hall (or Crowtrees) in 
 Cuerden township. Dr. Kuerden, the local antiquary, about 200 years ago, noted : 
 " There is another fayre-built house upon the lower Cuerden Green, called the Crow- 
 trees, being the ancient inheritance of John Woodcoc and his family for 400 or 500 
 years. " 
 
 Richard Wodcoc occurs in a deed dated 1356, by which William, son of John le 
 Wright of Walton, gave to Richard Wodcoc and his heirs the fourth part of his land 
 in Walton called le Farcrole. Again in 1383, Richard Woddcok and William his 
 son are found holding lands in Walton. Another Richard Woddcok occurs in 141 3, 
 who by Hanette his wife had two sons, Robert and Thomas. Seth Woddecok, living 
 in 145 1, had sons, William, and Seth Woddcok, a priest. William Woddecock, son 
 and heir of the first Seth, in 145 1 was granted in ward and marriage to wed Alison, 
 daughter of Wm. Livesey of Livesey, gent. Next comes John Woodcock living in 
 1522 ; William Woodcock of Cuerden, gent., whose wife was Isabel, daughter of 
 Edward Cuerden, gent. , and who was living in 1 549 ; and John Woodcock, who 
 married Margaret, daughter of John Langton, gent. John Woodcock had sons, 
 Thomas, and Edward. 
 
 Thomas Woodcock of Cuerden, gent., died in 1602. By Inq. post mort. , taken 
 at Wigan, March 21st, 1602-3, '' W'^^" found that he had been seized of a messuage 
 called Lostock in Cuerden, with 12 acres of land, 10 of meadow, and lo of pasture ; 
 of two messuages, 40 acres of land, 20 of meadow, and 60 of pasture in Walton -in-le- 
 Dale, held of Thomas Langton in free socage ; and of two messuages, 10 acres of land, 
 eight acres of meadow, and lo of pasture in Mellor, held of Thomas Southworth, in 
 socage ; and one acre in Samlesbury ; that Thomas Woodcock had died on the 14th 
 Sept. previous, having on the 23rd Sept., 39th Eliz. (1597), enfeoffed his estate to the 
 use of his children. John Woodcock, son and heir, was then aged 19 years. 
 
 John Woodcock, of Walton-in-le-Dale, gent., so described in a list of freeholders 
 in 1621, had been made executor under the Will of Thos. Burscough of Walton in 
 1614. He appears on the Guild Roll of Preston in 1642, as "John Woodcock of 
 Cuerden Green, gent.," with Thomas his son. 
 
 Thomas Woodcock of Cuerden Green, gent., son of John, is on the Guild Roll 
 of Preston in 1622. 1642, 1662. He had two sons, John, and Thomas (of Walton, of 
 wh om more hereafter). 
 
 John Woodcock, son of Thomas, was of Cuerden Green, and was a burgess of 
 Preston at the Guilds of 1682, 1702, and 1722. His son, John Woodcock of Cuer- 
 den, living in 1 722, and then an in-burgess of Preston, had sons, Thomas; William ; 
 and Edward (living in 1768). Thomas Woodcock of Cuerden, yeoman, son of the 
 last John, had no sons, but two daughters, Isabel, died unmarried ; and Alice, wife of 
 Wm. Winstanley, gent. Thomas Woodcock, gent., died about 1780. 
 
 Thomas Woodcock of Walton and Preston, gent, (brother of John and son of 
 Thomas of Cuerden Green), had sons, Thomas, and William, named with their father 
 on Preston Guild Roll in 1702 ; and daughters, Elizabeth (died unmarried, Will dated 
 April 23rd, 1747) ; and Ann, married — Loxam. Thomas Woodcock, gent., died in 
 1725, and was buried at Walton Church, July 17th. His Will is dated June 24th, 
 1725. His son — 
 
 Thomas Woodcock, "of Preston, gent." in 1742, married Hannah Sargent, and 
 had issue, sons, Thomas ; John ; William (living in 1762 and died unmarried) ; and 
 James ; and daughters, Mary, married — Siddall ; Betty (Elizabeth) died unmarried ; 
 and Nancy (Ann), bom in 1737, died, aged 89, in 1826. In the Will of the aunt. 
 
734 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Elizabeth Woodcock of Preston, spinster, dated 1747, are named the six younger chil- 
 dren of her brother Thomas Woodcock of Preston, to wit, Mary, Elizabeth, John, 
 William, Anne, and James. Thomas Woodcock, gent., was living at Brownedge in 
 Walton in 1762, when he and his sons, Thomas, John, William, and James, and grand- 
 sons, William and Thomas, were entered with him on the Guild Roll of Preston. By 
 deed dated 1783, Sir Henry Hoghton, Bart., appoints Thomas Woodcock of Preston, 
 gent., his gamekeeper for the manor of Fishwick. 
 
 Thomas Woodcock, eldest son of the last-named, settled at Tottington near Bury, 
 and had numerous issue. His younger brother, James Woodcock, was a surgeon at 
 Ormskirk. 
 
 John Woodcock, of Walton in 1 742 (second son of Thomas and Hannah Wood- 
 cock), married, in 1758, Rachel, daughter of Mr. Wm. Plant, of Elton, near Bury, 
 and had issue, sons, William, bom at Walton, June 3rd, 1759 ; Thomas (a surgeon at 
 BoIton-le-Moors, died about 1790, unmarried); Samuel (born Dec. 25th, 1763, married, 
 in 1 791, Miss Betty Kay, and had sons, John, James, William Plant, Samuel, and 
 Thomas, and several daughters ; he died Sept. 4th, 1843); and daughters, Hannah, 
 died unmarried, aged 21, in 1788 ; and Alice, wife of Mr. Thomas Howell of Bolton. 
 John Woodcock was living in 1782, and an in-burgess of Preston at the Guild that 
 year, and was buried at Walton Church about 1785. His widow, Rachel Woodcock, 
 died May 24th, 1817. Her Will is dated Sept. 21st, 1804. Testatrix, described as 
 " Rachel Woodcock of Bolton," relict of John Woodcock late of Walton in the Dale, 
 gentleman, bequeaths her pew and burying ground belonging thereto in Walton 
 Church to her son Samuel Woodcock ; to him also a moiety of her freehold estates ; 
 and the other moiety to her daughter Alice Howell ; to her son, William Woodcock, 
 ;^ioo ; residue of personalty to son Samuel and daughter Alice. 
 
 William Woodcock of Holcombe, gent, (enrolled on Preston Guild Roll in 1782, 
 1802, and 1822), married, May 15th, 1787, Mary, daughter of Mr. John Elton, of Loe, 
 Tottington, and had sons, John (of Bury) ; Samuel, born in 1790, died unmarried in 
 1829 ; William Plant (of Holcombe); Robert, and Thomas, died in infancy ; a second 
 Thomas (of Haslingden); and daughters, Rachel (bom Feb. 22nd, 1793, now living at 
 Plant tenement, Holcombe); Mary (born July 3rd, 1805, now living at Plant tene- 
 ment, Holcombe); Hannah (born Aug. 5th, 1814, also now living with her sisters). 
 Mr. Wm. Woodcock died in June, 1827 ; his widow died Feb. 26th, 1849. 
 
 John Woodcock, of Bury, surgeon, eldest son, born March 4th, 1 788, married 
 Hannah, eldest daughter of Samuel Woodcock, solicitor, and had issue, sons, Samuel, 
 died young ; and William, born in 1825, died in 1868 ; and daughters, Elizabeth (of 
 Woodfields, Stonyhurst, spinster), Mary (of Manchester, spinster), Ann, Rachel, and 
 Janet (all of Woodfields), and Ellen (twin, born in 1825, died unmarried). Mr. John 
 Woodcock died March 5th, 1840. 
 
 William Plant Woodcock (brother of John), surgeon, of Holcombe, married Eliza, 
 daughter of John Rostron of Chatterton, and had sons, William Plant; and John 
 Rostron Woodcock, sui^eon, of Knutsford, M. R.C.S. Eng., &c. ; and daughters, 
 Mary Woodcock, spinster, of Woodside, Ramsbottom ; and Alice Rostron, now of 
 Priory Gate, Sale, wife of Mr. Fred. Kay, son of Robert Kay of Trowes, near Bury, 
 calico-printer, who died in 1874. 
 
 Thomas Woodcock, of Haslingden, attomey-at-law (brother of the above), bom 
 Feb. 27th, 181 1, married, July 13th, 1837, Ann, eldest daughter of John Lonsdale of 
 Haslingden, Esq., and has had issue, sons, William, born July 7th, 1838, died in 1847; 
 John Woodcock, of Haslingden, attomey-at-law, (born April 1st, 1840, married 
 Emily, daughter of Mr. Henry King, and has issue); and Thomas Woodcock, attor- 
 
WOODCOCK OF WALTON. 735 
 
 ney-at-law, of West View, Haslingden, bom Sept. 23rd, 1841 ; and daughters, Mary 
 Ellen, wife of Russell Forbes Carpenter, third son of Dr. Carpenter, Registrar of 
 London University ; Hannah, born Dec. loth, 1847 ; and Rachel, bom in 1851, died 
 in 1868. 
 
 WOODCOCK OF LEMON HOUSE. 
 
 A branch of the Woodcock family held the Lemon House freehold tenement in 
 Walton. Richard Woodcock, of Walton in 1610, died in 1641, and by inquisition it 
 was found that he had held Bank Hall in Broughton, with lands there ; other lands in 
 Whittle and Cuerden ; and in Walton, held of the King as of the Duchy of Lancaster, 
 by a payment of 30s. yearly, two messuages, 30 acres of land, 10 of meadow, 
 30 of pasture and two of woodland. He had sons, James ; and John (entered on 
 Preston Guild Roll of 1642 as son of Richard, deceased). 
 
 James Woodcock, son and heir, aged 21 j^ years, died in the same year as his 
 father (1641), leaving a son James, aged 3 years. 
 
 John Woodcock of Walton Wood (son of Richard above), yeoman, had sons, 
 Richard, James, John, and William (entered with the father on Preston Guild Roll in 
 1662 and 1682), and a daughter Margaret. John Woodcock the elder bought of Wm. 
 Lemon, gent, in 1663, for ^£'620, the Lemon House estate in Walton. He and his 
 son and heir Richard are named in a deed dated 1688. He died in 1690, and by his 
 Will, dated Sept. 4th, 1690, he devises an estate in Walton, formerly land of inheri- 
 tance of Mr. Chamock of Leyland, to his younger son and executor John Woodcock, 
 and Christopher Preston, gent. ; gives bequests to sons, James and William, and 
 daughter Margaret, and names his son and heir Richard. 
 
 James Woodcock, John's second son, was living in 1715, and had a son William, 
 on Preston Guild Roll in 1702. John Woodcock of Walton, yeoman, son of John, 
 and his executor in 1690, was living in 1702, and had a son James Woodcock, on the 
 Guild Roll in 1702 and 1722, who had a son William. 
 
 Richard Woodcock, of Lemon House, Walton, and of Euxton, eldest son of John, 
 by Elizabeth his wife, had sons, John ; and William (living in 1742). In 1690, he 
 mortgaged Lemon House tenement, of 28 acres, to Thomas Winckley of Preston, 
 gent., for ^^400. Richard Woodcock of Euxton, yeoman, died about 1694. 
 
 John Woodcock of Lemon House, was a minor at his father Richard Woodcock's 
 death. He and his mother Elizabeth, widow, are parties to mortgage-deeds dated 
 1694 and 1709 ; and later to deeds by which the estate in Walton of 28 acres was 
 conveyed to Susannah Ranald of Preston, widow, by way of mortgage, for £scxi. 
 John Woodcock is described on Preston Guild Roll in 1722 as "of Lemon House, 
 Walton," and in 1742 as "late of Lemon House." He had a son Richard Wood- 
 cock, living in 1722, but who apparently died in his father's lifetime, before 1742. 
 Being Roman Catholics, John Woodcock had to register his estate in Walton in 1 715; 
 and his mother Elizabeth an estate at Euxton ; the first said to be of £20 yearly value. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ST. LEONARD. 
 This is the most ancient of the chapels subordinate to the Church 
 of Blackburn founded in the Parish. Being from eight to ten miles 
 distant from the parish church, the inhabitants of Walton-in-le-Dale 
 (with Cuerdale) procured permission soon after the Norman settlement 
 to erect a chapel in Walton, which seems to have been at once made 
 parochial. Samlesbury Church was made dependent upon " Lawe 
 Church" in Walton, and we have seen (p. 672) that Samlesbury chapel 
 
736 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 existed before 1190. This chapel must have been reared not later than 
 the middle of the 12th century. When, about a.d. 1160, Henry de 
 Lascy granted to Henry, clerk of Blackburn, the Church of Blackburn, 
 the gift included " capella de Walton " (the chapel of Walton) ; and 
 seventy years after, John de Lascy granted the church of Blackburn to 
 the Abbot and Monks of Stanlaw " with the chapel of Walton " 
 appurtenant ; Adam de Blackburn having previously, by charter, about 
 1229, yielded to the Abbey, at the request of John de Lascy his lord, 
 " the chapel of Walton, with the lands, tithes, and obventions thereto 
 belonging ;" subject to the payment of 20 marks for life to Richard, son 
 of the dean ; this Richard being incumbent of this chapelry. From 
 1230 until 1537, Walton chapel remained a possession of the Cistercian 
 fraternity of Stanlaw — Whalley. On the survey of the Abbey estates 
 after the suppression, the " chappill of Law, with the tieth belonging to 
 the same by the year," was valued at ^^27 i6s. 2d. 
 
 The chapel of Walton and its officiating priest are named occa- 
 sionally in documents during the interval of three centuries the chapel 
 was under monkish rule. In 1332, "William clerk of the Lawe" was 
 prosecuted for wounding Richard Brown, son of William, at Chorley. 
 In Harleian MS. 2112 I find the record :■ — " Walton Church, 18 Hen. 
 VI. (1439-1440). Edward of Farington, priest of Low [Walton Church], 
 Nicholas of Clayton, John and Henry of Osbaldeston, John of Langley, 
 Richard the Sergeant, William, Thomas, and James of Livesey, John 
 Coke, cleric, Thomas Wilkinson, Henry Toynd, Thomas his butler, 
 and Thomas Stretbarell, witness that Jauken of Wallis sware on the 
 masse booke at the pulpit in Law Church on Sunday next before the date 
 hereof, that he made never before that day any estate to his son 
 William nor his wife, but a joynture of forty shillings of lively hood, 
 and that Hary was his heire." 
 
 Walton Chapel was rebuilt tetnp. Henry VII I.; towards the charge 
 of which Ralph Langton, Esq., who died in 1503, had left a bequest of 20 
 marks. The Chantry Commissioners, in 1553, reported that "Thomas 
 Wynkeley and Edwarde Laman, churchereves of the chappell of Lawe, 
 deposen and say that there is three belles, specyfied in the sedule, yett 
 remayninge at the said Chappell, which were seased to the use of our 
 said late Kinge Edward the Sixt, by auctorytie of the former Comyssion- 
 ers." These bells weighed i8cwt., and were valued, at the rate of 155. 
 per cwt., at ^13 los. The chapel had, too, "one chales percel gilt," 
 of silver, weighing 10 ounces. Dec. i6th, 1559, Wm. ffarington, Esq., 
 as Justice of the Peace, was ordered by the Earl of Derby, by direction 
 of the Privy Council, to apprehend "Sir" Thomas Heavanson, curate, 
 and then serving within the Parish Church of Walton, alias Law, who 
 
CHURCH OF ST. LEONARD, WALTON. 737 
 
 had lately openly and publicly said mass within the said church, being 
 assisted by the Parish Clerk, William Langton, Edward Estham, John 
 Weredon, and forty others, in contempt of her Majesty and the laws, 
 and also requiring him to examine Ralph Clayton, the informant, and 
 to protect him against the indignation of the people for shewing himself, 
 "accordyng to his dutie to myslyke of theise lewde doyngs." 
 
 A story of some tricks of necromancy, performed by Edmund 
 Kelly, the alchemist, at Walton park and churchyard, about the close of 
 the 1 6th century, is related by John Weever in his Ancient Funeral 
 Monuments (1631), as follows : — 
 
 This diabolical questioning of the dead, for the knowledge of future accidents, 
 was put in practice by the aforesaid Kelley ; who, upon a certain night, in the Parke 
 of Wahon-le-Dale, in the County of Lancaster, with one Paul Waring (his fellow- 
 companion in such deeds of darkness), invocated some of the infemall regiment, to 
 knowe certaine passages in the life, as also what might be knowne by the devil's 
 foresight, of the manner and time of the death of a noble young gentleman, as then 
 in his wardship. The blacke ceremonies of that night being ended, Kelley demanded 
 of one of the gentleman's servants, what corse was the last buried In Law churchyard, 
 a church thereunto adjoining, who told him of a poore man who was buried there but 
 the same day. Hee and the said Wareing intreated the aforesaid servant to go with 
 them to the grave of the man so lately interred, which he did ; and withall did helpe 
 them to digge up the carcase of the poor caitiffe, whom, by their incantations, they 
 made him (or rather some evil spirit through his organs) to speake, who delivered 
 strange predictions concerning the said gentleman. I was told this much by the said 
 serving-man, a secondary actor in that dismall abhorrid business ; and divers gentle- 
 men, and others, are now living in Lancashire to whom he hath related this story. 
 And the gentleman himselfe (whose memorie I am bound to honour) told me, a 
 little before his deathe, of this conjuration by Kelley ; as he had it by relation from 
 his servant and tenant ; only some circumstances excepted, which he thought not 
 fitting to come to his master's knowledge. 
 
 The Lancashire Presbytery, set up in 1646, included among its 
 clerical members, in the Blackburn Chassis, Richard Redman, minister 
 of Low Church ; and in the records of the Presbytery appears the 
 minute : — " Mr. Rich. Redman, Min'r of Low Church in Walton. By 
 order of the Committee, there is jQifi per ann. allowed to Mr. Redman 
 Min'r of Law Ch. He isp'd till the 14 Aug. 1647." "By an order from 
 the Com. for plund'd Min'rs, of April 21, 1647, there is ^^40 per ann. 
 out of the Rectory of Exton, sequestered from James Anderton, Pap't, 
 allowed to a Min'r at Low Church." The Commission for Parliament 
 in 1,650 found : — " Law, a parochial chapell, distant from the parishe 
 Church of Blackburne nyne myles, to which is annexed the townshipps 
 of Walton and part of Cuardale, consisting of above two hundred familys, 
 hath forty pounds per ann. allowed by order of the Committee for Plun- 
 dered Ministers out of the sequestred tythes of James Anderton, a Papist 
 delinquent ; but in regard of other charges laide upon the said tythes for 
 
 1 93 
 
738 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 the maintenance of other ministers the inhabitants have receaved noe 
 benefitt of the said order; besides they had formerly four pounds 
 per ann. paid to their ministers by the former viccars of Blackburne, 
 which for three yeares last hath beene detayned, soe that at present 
 they are both without maintenance and minister. The inhabitants 
 humbly pray the same may be made a parishe, and competent main- 
 tenance allowed to a minister. The tithes of Law chapelry at that date, 
 held by Mrs. Fleetwood as lessee of the Rectory of Blackburn, were 
 worth ;^ii9 per annum, and glebe lands in this chapelry were worth 
 ^$2 per annum. 
 
 After the restoration of Episcopacy, this chapel was served by a 
 curate who also had to serve Samlesbury Chapel. Thomas Abbot, 
 curate of Law and Samlesbury, occurs in 1676. To Primate Bancroft 
 the Registrar of Chester gave account in 1683 that in the three chapel- 
 ries in Blackburn Parish said to be parochial, the cures were " well and 
 constantly served " by curates licensed by the Bishop in the Vicar's 
 nomination ; and as to Law Chapel, the inhabitants of Walton and 
 Cuerdale resorted thither, and every other Sunday all offices were per- 
 formed there. The endowment was made up of these items : — " Out of 
 the Vicar of Blackburn ^4 ; Dues for marrying, one year with another, 
 ^1 10s. ; Interest of ;^So, lately given by Mr. H. Hoghton, ^2 los. ; 
 Mrs. Fleetwood promiseth yearly ^2 ; They of Walton-in-le-Dale 
 promise yearly ^£4 ; Mrs. Asheton of Cuerdale (during good pleasure) 
 ^4. Walton would have enclosed 20 acres of common for their chaplain 
 (well worth ;^io yearly) but Mr. Lee, of Croston, hindered it." In 
 another return to Lambeth we have these particulars : — 
 
 Law Chapel. — The Inhabitants desire longer tyme to consider what to do. — 
 (See Mr. Dandy's Lettre.) One hundred pounds bequeathed by Mr. Henry Hoghton 
 (see the copy of the clause of his Will) to the Chapels of Law and Samlesbury, was 
 paid about a year ago to the Executrix of the Trustees therein mentioned, and since 
 then, in great danger to be lost ; for the 3 Brothers call'd Fiswicks, to whom it was lent 
 upon Bonds, have fled their country for debt ; but their Securetys have paid it to their 
 Trustees, in whose hands it remaines at present. Mr. Lee, of Preston, will not 
 consent to the enclosing of the Common, pretending that it will be a prejudice to his 
 tenants and a loss to himselfe. But 3 or 4 acres of another Common within the same 
 Chapelry Mr. Dandy offers, both by way of purchase upon condition that the Interest 
 and Principal be applied to the augmentation of the Curate. For a further tyme to 
 consider Mr. Ashton refuseth to continue his guift of £4 per annum if he pay Tyth 
 hay, or if noe hay be paid he will continue it longer then Mr. Abbot's life, the 
 present curate. 
 
 Writing to the Vicar (Price) of Blackburn, the Primate desired 
 " Mr. Hoghton's gift and others to be laid out in land ;" that Mr. 
 Asheton should be persuaded to make his temporary gift into perpetual ; 
 and that Mr. Lee might be asked not to hinder tlie enclosing of the 
 
CHURCH OF ST. LEONARD, WALTON. j^g 
 
 piece of common at Walton. A later record in 1689 mentions "Law 
 and Samlesbury supplied by Mr. Colton, a conformable minister, who 
 hath by an extraordinary charity of my L'd of Canterbury, together with 
 a settled maintenance out of the Vicaridge of Blackburne, and other 
 charities, about ^43 per annum." 
 
 A.D. 1 7 14, the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty had this ac- 
 count of the benefice : — 
 
 " Low Church is a Chappel in ye Parish of Blackburne in ye County of Lancaster, 
 whereunto belong ye l^ownships of Walton-in-le-Dale and Cuerdale, ye extent whereof 
 from east to west is about four miles, from north to south, three miles and a half mile ; 
 the number of Inhabitants between four and five thousand souls, which daily encrease 
 by reason of ye great manufacture of Linen Cloth in those parts. The said Chappel 
 is distant from ye Parish Church of Blackburne between six and seven miles ; from 
 Preston, a neighbouring Parish and next adjoining to it, one mile and a half. There 
 are in ye said chappelry four or five conventicles of Papists, one of Presbyterians, one 
 of Anabaptists. The endowment of the chappel is as foUoweth. — Out of ye Vicarage 
 of Blackburne £4 ; one-sixth of ye Archb'p's Lands lying in Thomley, leased at £;ii 
 per annum (taxes and chief rents deducted J about £^ 6s. 8d. ; an augmentation 
 given by ye Archbishop of Canterbury out of ye Rectory of Blackburne £2 6s.' 8d. ; 
 one-tenth p't of ye yearly profits of Mr. Crook's estate at Whittingham, leased at 
 ;^io per annum, £t 2s. ; the interest of ;^50 g'^en hy Henry Hoghton, Esq., £2 15s.; 
 total £t$ los. 8d." 
 
 In the Notiiia Cestriensis of Bishop Gastrell, about this date, it is 
 entered respecting Walton Chapel : — 
 
 "30s. per annum given by the Will of Mr. Crook, of Abraham, to Law and 
 Samlesbury. Circumference about twelve miles. Walton and Cuerdale resort to it. 
 Divine service is performed every forenoon one .Sunday, and every afternoon the other, 
 in summer time ; and every other Sunday in winter. The same curate serves Law 
 and Samlesbury. Two Wardens ; one chosen by Henry Houghton of Houghton, 
 Bart. , and one by the minister and the principal Inhabitants. Seven miles from the 
 Parish Church, and two miles from any other church. " 
 
 At intervals subsequently several additions have been made to the 
 endowment of this living. A benefaction by Henry Lutwidge, gent., 
 dated April 4th, 1764, procured a grant of ^200 from the Royal 
 Bounty, made in 1765 ; and a second grant of ;^2oo fell to Walton by 
 lot in 1 795. By a benefaction of ;^4oo from Rev. Edmund Strongfellow 
 Radcliffe, dated Nov. 19th, 1803, two sums of^2oo each were obtained 
 from the Royal Bounty in 1804. A subscription of £ioo by the 
 inhabitants, in the year 18 10, was met in that year by a Parliamentary 
 grant of ^900 in three instalments of ;£'30o each; and in 1817 a 
 sum of ;!^4oo came to the benefice by lot out of the Parliamentary grant. 
 The value of the living in 1834 was ^156 yearly. By grants from the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners the value has since been augmented to 
 ^320 per annum. The Vicar of Blackburn is patron. The Registers 
 of Walton Church commence in 1653. 
 
740 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 The following is a category of the succession of incumbents, so far as known :— 
 Richard, son of the Dean, circa 1229; "William clerk of theLawe," 1332; "Edward 
 Farington, Priest of Low," 1439 ; SirThomas French, occurs 1551, 1553 ; SirThomas 
 Heamanson, 1559; Peter Mackinson, occurs 1609 "egretat et decripit ;" Robert 
 Osbaston, 1629; Richard Redman 1646-7; Thomas Abbot, 1 676-1 688 ; William 
 Colton 1688-1703 (buried July 3rd, 1703) ; John Hull 1703-1721 (John Hull of Cuer- 
 den, clerk, married, July 17th, 1704, Miss Hannah Sharpies of Blackburn ; he was 
 buried Nov. 4th, 1721); (Alexander Bagot, stipendary curate 1717-1721 ;) William 
 Vaudrey, B.A. 1722-1762 (buried Dec. 27th, 1762); John Shorrock, iSthJuly, 1763; 
 John Atkinson, 1769-1797 (buried Dec. 19th, 1797, aged 51) ; Edmund Strongfellow 
 Radcliffe, LL.B., l798-l826(?) ; John Clay, Apr. 12th, 1826-1827; Randal Henry 
 Feilden, May, 1827; Henry Walter M'Grath, May 1st, 1832, resigned 1837 ; Robert 
 Hornby, M.A., Nov. 1st, 1837-1852 ; John Brooks, Jan. 6th, 1853; died in Nov. 
 1856 ; James Clegg Kershaw, M.A. (present Vicar), Feb. loth, 1857. 
 
 The Church of Walton-in-le-Dale, dedicated to St. Leonard, stands 
 picturesquely upon the crest of a knoll rising between the Ribble and 
 Danven near their confluence. Its name of " Low Church " is derived 
 from the Saxon word Llaw applied to an isolated eminence. The only 
 portions of the ancient fabric that remain are the tower and the chancel. 
 The Church, I have mentioned already, was re-edified early in the i6th 
 century. The nave was taken down and rebuilt in 1798, and a gallery 
 placed in the interior. The present deep transepts were added in 1816. 
 A later general restoration of the edifice took place in 1856, when the 
 nave was re-pewed at a cost of j[^i><^o ; and in 1864 the chancel was 
 re-roofed, furnished with a new floor, and fitted with the present hand- 
 some stalls, at a cost of ^^450, defrayed by the joint owners of the 
 chancel, Sir Henry de Hoghton, Bart., and Ralph Assheton, Esq. A 
 new organ was placed in the west gallery in 1874, costing ^400. The 
 external aspect of the church is plain ; the modern nave and transepts 
 are destitute of architectural beauty. The tower is strong, low, but- 
 tressed, and embattled ; and is of three storeys ; on its west front, above 
 the arched doorway, is a large window of perpendicular tracery. The 
 belfry windows are of three lights. In 1761 the old peel of four bells 
 was removed, and the peal of six bells now in use was hung. The 
 chancel has an east window of three lights, with perpendicular tracery ; 
 and side windows of three lights with trefoil heads ; on the south side 
 of the chancel a narrow pointed doorway has been walled up. The in- 
 terior is galleried on three sides ; and the internal measurements are : — 
 nave 5 5ft. by 4ifl.; transepts Soft, across by 32ft. wide; chancel 29ft. 
 by 18ft. On the south side of the chancel are the arms of Hoghton, 
 and several monumental tablets to members of that family' ; on the 
 north side are the arms of Assheton of Cuerdale. The old font is a 
 circular one with gothic ornamentation. The church contains 930 
 sittings, of which 230 are free. A large grave-yard surrounds the church 
 
CHURCHES IN WALTON-IN-LE-DALE. 74, 
 
 and extends on the south slope of the hill. Among the oldest grave- 
 slabs I noted stones with these initials, names, and dates : — " H I 
 1628"; "W H 1653"; "James Waring 1668"; "Thos. Shorrock 1706"; 
 " Wm. Coupe 1712, Thos. Coupe." 
 
 St. Saviour's Church, Bamber Bridge.— On the southern edge of this 
 township, beyond the village of Bamber Bridge, a church was erected in 1837, and 
 dedicated to St. Saviour. The church is a plain building externally of Romanesque 
 style, with spire at the west end. It contains 650 sittings, 350 being free seats. The 
 living was returned at ;£'i8s per annum in 1867, but has since been augmented by the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners to £yx). Rev. W. Wignall was first incumbent, 1837- 
 1868. Rev. J. Taylor is present vicar. The Vicar of Blackburn is patron. 
 
 All Saints' Church, Higher Walto.n'.— In the village of Moon's Mill, 
 Higher Walton, a new church was built in 1861-4, consecrated July 7th, 1864. Mr. 
 E. G. Paley was the architect. It is a neat edifice of 13th century gothic, with nave, 
 chancel, north transept, and tower with spire, 116 feet high. The window heads are 
 of elegant geometric tracery. The cost of the bodv of the church was ;^40OO, obtained 
 by voluntary contributions, including a grant of ^^200 from the Church Building 
 Society. Mr. Miles Rodgett gave the site, and the firm of Rodgett Bros, gave ;£'looo 
 to the building fund. The spire, which cost £6yi, was added in 1871 ; and an organ, 
 costing ;f 400, was placed in the church in 1874. Sittings 604, of which 30x3 are free. 
 Rev. W. B. Shepherd, M. A. , is vicar. The patronage is vested in the Bishop and the 
 Vicar of Blackburn alternately. The value of the benefice is £y>0 per annum. 
 
 Catholic Church of Ste. Marie, Brownedge. — The members of the 
 Church of Rome have always been numerous in Walton-in-le-Dale. In 1690, Mr. 
 Kennet, a priest, was reported to be living at Walton. In 1714 a statement by the 
 wardens of Walton Church reports the existence in the chapelry of " four or five 
 conventicles of Papists ;" these, doubtless, were private houses in which the proscribed 
 Roman Catholics held frequent meetings for worship. But there was then one regular 
 mission, founded by the Benedictines, at Little Mosney, of which Fr. Placid Nelson 
 was incumbent, who died at Walton ; and was succeeded, in 1 724, by Fr. William 
 Champney. He also died at this mission; and his successor, in 1740, was Fr. Ber- 
 nard Bradihavv. After him, in 1743, was Fr. Thomas .Simpson, who also 
 served the chapel at Cuerden Green, built about 1746; he too died at this 
 mission. Fr. Oswald Eaves became incumbent at Little Mosney and Cuerden in 1764. 
 In 1780, Fr. Eaves bought land at Brownedge on which he erected a chapel and 
 house, and transferred thither the mission from Little Mosney. The first chapel at 
 Brownedge was opened Dec. 23rd, 1780. The year in which Brownedge Chapel was 
 opened, a return of Roman Catholics in Walton chapelry was made to the Govern- 
 ment by the parish authorities, the record of which is in the Register of Walton 
 Church : — " 1780. This year an account was taken of the number of Papists through- 
 out the kingdom in obedience to his Majesty's commands, &c. There were in Walton 
 and Cuerdale, in 1780, 178 Popish families — 875 individuals." Fr. Oswald Eaves 
 died at Brownedge, Oct. 15th, 1793, and was buried at Preston. In the records of 
 the mission is the obituary : — " 1793. Octobris 15. R.D. Oswaldus Eaves Missionarius 
 apud Hanbridge et Brownedge per annos ferme 30 subitanei tandem niortuus est natus 
 54. L.S. Preston." Fr. John Atkinson was priest from 1793 until his death in 1822. 
 He reported a congregation of 1500 persons at Brownedge in 1819. Subsequent 
 incumbents are : — Fr. Anselm Brewer, 1822-1846; Fr. Anselm Glassbrook, 1S46-7 ; 
 
742 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Fr. Thomas Anselra Walker, 1847-1877. In 1827, a new church was built at Brown- 
 edge ; the old chapel was then demolished, and a presbytery built on its site. A 
 school, built by Fr. Walker, was converted into a convent in 1 861, when a new school, 
 which cost ;f 1000, was opened. A handsome gothic tower and spire were erected at the 
 south end of the church in 1867-8 ; and opened, with a fine peal of six bells, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1868 ; the height of the tower and spire is 130ft. The interior of the church is 
 chastely decorated ; and the windows are all memorial ones of stained glass. The 
 plan of the church consists of nave, side-aisles, and chancel. It will accommodate- 
 about 800 persons. There is a good organ. 
 
 St. Patrick's Catholic Chapel, Walton. — This chapel, which stands by 
 the highway near Walton village, was built in 1857. It is a plain structure, used also 
 for school purposes, and is intended to be replaced by a larger chapel. A cemetery 
 for the mission was consecrated in August, 1862. 
 
 Presbyterian Chapel, Walton Village. — Towards the close of the 17th 
 century, a Presbyterian-Nonconformist preaching-place existed in Walton, at which 
 Mr. John Parr, an ejected minister, preached alternately with Preston. Mr. John 
 Turner became minister in 17 14, after the death of Mr. Parr. The Walton congrega- 
 tion of Presbyterians, on a return in 1715, numbered 286 persons, of whom 20 were 
 electors for the county, and 22 electors of the borough of Preston. There was also a 
 small meeting of Anabaptists in Walton in 1 7 14. Sir Henry Hoghton erected a new 
 Presbyterian Meeting-house here in 1719; and in Nov. of that year conveyed to 
 Thomas Whalley and others in trust "8 falls of land and a building lately erected, 
 for a pepper-corn rent. " Rev. John Pilkington succeeded Mr. Turner as minister in 
 1716 ; and £4 was allowed yearly towards his stipend out of a general fund of the 
 Presbyterian association in England. Mr. Pilkington, who was also private chaplain 
 to the Hoghtons, continued minister at Preston and Walton until 1760. A return of 
 Dissenting Chapels in 1772 gives Walton Chapel as then Congregationalist ; and 
 notes : — " Walton and Preston are the same congregation, meeting alternately at these 
 two places, under the care of the same minister; at present (1772) vacant." The 
 society soon after became Unitarian in its professed tenets. About seventy years ago, 
 the congregation, being small, merged in the Preston society, when the chapel at 
 Walton was altered into cottages, the rents of which, with land attached, form part of 
 the endowment of the Unitarian chapel, Preston. The Walton chapel, as converted 
 into dwellings, yet exists ; it stands in the rear of the main street of Walton village, 
 on the west, and is a long narrow structure, with small muUion windows in two 
 storeys. The burial-ground, once surrounding the chapel, is obliterated. 
 
 Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Bamber Bridge. — In 1763, a small society 
 of Methodists existed in Walton, and in 1764, the place of meeting was Cockshott 
 House, the residence of Mr. Wm. Livesey, who was class-leader. On April 17th, 
 1784, John Wesley, passing through Lancashire, visited a sick lady in Walton, Mrs. 
 Nuttall, one of the first of his adherents here. About the same date, the " Old Hall " 
 at Little Walton (Bamber Bridge), was used as the place of worship of the Methodists 
 of Walton, among whom Mr. Walmsley of Cooper-hill, steward to the Hoghtons, was 
 class-leader. Wesley again tarried a day at Walton in April, 1 790, when on his last 
 journey in this part of England. The Wesleyan Chapel at Bamber Bridge was built 
 in 182 1 ; it is a small brick building, having about 130 sittings. For the society the 
 cnmer-stone of a new Chapel was laid on March 31st, 1877. The building will be in 
 the early English style, built of brick with stone dressings. Cost ^£^2000 ; sittings 40a 
 
WALTON SCHOOLS AND CHARITIES. 743 
 
 Wesleyan Chapel, Higher Walton.— Premises at Moon's Mill ia Higher 
 Walton were adapted and opened for a Methodist preaching-room in 1813. There 
 had been a Sunday School at the Mill about nine years previously. The society has 
 continued to exist ; and in 1869-70 a new chapel was built on the bank of the Darwen 
 at Higher Walton, which cost ;^8oo. It is a neat building of brick, of simple gothic 
 design ; and has a school-room on the basement ; sittings 2CXj. 
 
 Wesleyan School Chapel, Walton Village.— The Wesleyans of Preston 
 had conducted service in Walton village before they were able to obtain a building or 
 a site for a permanent chapel. In 1867, Mr. Gudgeon of Preston sold six cottages in 
 the village to the Wesleyans, and three of these were converted into a school-chapel, 
 which was opened in March, 1868. Cost about ;f8oo ; sittings 220. 
 
 Walton Charity School, School Lane. — In 1718, Mr. Hull, then curate 
 of Walton Chapelry, reported to Bishop Gastrell : " The school here, which is free only 
 to the Inhabitants of the Town, was built by Inhabitants upon ground given by Sir 
 Richd. Houghton, anno 1672 (the children being taught in the chapel before). Given 
 to the Master by Peter Burscough, anno 1624, ;^I00 ; out of the interest of which was 
 raised £y> more during the vacancy of the School in the time of the Rebellion. By 
 Mr. Andrew Dandy, citizen of London, ;^ioo ; by Thomas Hesketh of Walton pf 20 ; 
 by Mr. Crook of Abram the loth part of his estate in Alston and Whittingham 
 leased for ;^il los. per annum. No governors being appointed by the Benefactors 
 (except the heirs of Mr. Crook for what was given by him), the inhabitants have named 
 six trustees, but they keep the right of nominating the Master. " In 1825, the securities 
 of these gifts were in the hands of the schoolmaster, excepting the writings relating to 
 Dandy's ;^I00, held by Mr. John Clayton, a trustee. A sum of money was at the 
 same date in the hands of Sir Henry Hoghton, being about ;f 181 los., for which he 
 paid as interest at 5 % to the master £1^ is. 6d. yearly. The master had £2 per 
 annum also out of the Crook trust. The premises consisted of a good dwelling-house, 
 with a school-room and garden, occupied rent-free by the master. The school is 
 situate in School-lane near Bamber Bridge. In 1866, the school was controlled'by 
 five trustees, and taught by a mistress, and had 93 children in attendance, all of whom 
 paid a small school-fee. 
 
 Walton National Schools. — These schools, which stand near the church at 
 the west end of the churchyard, were built in 1835, and cost ;£'iooo ; the subscription 
 was aided by the National Society. The school-buildings have since been enlai^ed. 
 
 WALTON CHARITIES. 
 
 Peter Burscough's Charity. — Peter Burscough, of Walton-in-le-Dale, yeo- 
 man, by his Will, dated 1624, gave ;^lo per annum, to be distributed to the poor of 
 the township on Good Friday yearly. In 17 18 the trustees of this charity were. Sir 
 Henry Hoghton, Bart., Edward Winckley, gent., James Woodcock, and Thomas 
 Winckley. 
 
 Thomas Crook's Charities.— Thomas Crook of Abram, gent., by his Will, 
 dated July 9th, 1688, bequeathed lands called Shaw's in Alston and Whittingham, to 
 be disposed of as follows : — (l) To Caleb Crook and Richard Crook in trust for the 
 poor of the Parish of St. Olave's, Jury, London, to be distributed by the Aldermen, 
 Common Council, and overseers for the time being, on Easter Eve, 40s. ; (2) to the 
 preaching Protestant Minister of Hindley Chapel on Easter Eve, 20s.; (3) to the Poor 
 of Abram, Par. Wigan, to be distributed at the discretion of the Trustees and Over- 
 seers of the Poor, on Easter Eve, 20s. ; (4) to the Poor of Mawdesley, upon every 
 
744 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Shrove Tuesday, 40s.; (5) to the Schoolmaster of Little School in Mawdesley, if he 
 be a Protestant, on Shrove Tuesday, 40s.; (6) to the Poor of Preston, on Shrove 
 Tuesday, £^ ; (7) to the Protestant minister of Low Church in Walton, on May 1st, 
 40s.; (8) to the Poor of Walton-in-le-Dale, on Shrove Tuesday, 40s.; (9) to the 
 Schoolmaster of Walton-in-le-Dale, if he be a Protestant, on May 1st, 40s.; (10) to 
 the Schoolmaster of Low Church in Hindley, if he be a Protestant, on May 1st, 40s. ; 
 (11) to the Preaching Protestant Minister of West Houghton, on May 1st, 20s. 
 
 Gradell's Charity. — William Gradell, in 1735, devised to trustees an 
 estate of 24 acres of land, called the Shuttling Fields in Walton, the rents of which 
 were to be distributed to poor inhabitants of Walton-in-le-Dale and Brindle. The 
 estate was some years ago sold, when the sum received was invested in the public 
 funds, and produces £•]'& per annum, the moiety of which goes to the Poor of Walton. 
 
 The Mock Corporation of Walton. — About the year 1701, a party of 
 neighbouring gentry formed themselves into an association by which the title of " The 
 Mayor and Corporation of the ancient Borough of Walton " was assumed. This 
 mimic Body-Corporate continued to exist in more or less organised form until about 
 the year 1796. The original object of the founders was, it may be supposed, to 
 indulge in a practical satire upon the Corporation of Preston, by a paraded travestie 
 of civic dignities and procedures ; and the Whigs being then the ascendant party in 
 Preston, the first members of the Mock Corporation of Walton were chiefly High 
 Church Tories and Jacobites. The Corporation consisted of a select body of so-called 
 ' ' freemen, " from whom the Mayor and other officers were chosen annually. The 
 chief officers were the Mayor, Recorder, Town Clerk, two Bailiffii, Deputy-Mayor, 
 and Chaplain ; and the minor officers, which included some ludicrous designations, 
 were " town sergeant," "champion," " poet laureate, " "sword-bearer," "mace- 
 bearer," "physician," "jester," "house-groper," "custard-eater," and "slut-kisser." 
 The meetings of the Corporation were held in a large room of the " Unicom Inn" in 
 Walton village. In 1739, the " Regalia " consisted of " two stafes cover'd with 
 silver hoopes ; one other staf cover'd full half way ; one hunting staf with a silver 
 head ; one swoard of state ; one mace ; two bailiffs' wands ; two halberds. " Four 
 staves, three of them surrounded with silver bands, each band bearing the names of the 
 Mayor and officers for a year ; one staff with a silver cap ; and two black wands capped 
 with silver, are all that remain of the " Regalia ;" — these are now in possession of 
 R. Towneley Parker, Esq., of Cuerden Hall. A manuscript Book of Records, com- 
 mencing in 1705 and ending in 1796, is now in custody of Sir Charles de Hoghton, 
 lord of Walton Manor. William Farington, Esq., of Shaw Hall, was first Mayor, 
 in 1701. The inscribed names upon the silver bands and in the Book of Records 
 include representatives of numerous eminent county families. 
 
WILPSHIRE AND DINKLEY TOWNSHIPS. 
 
 745 
 
 CHAPTER XX.— THE TOWNSHIPS OF WILPSHIRE-CUM- 
 
 DINKLEY. 
 
 Situation— Nomenclature -Acreage— Population— Ancient Proprietors— De Wylypshire family— Tal- 
 bots ard Warrens as lords— Dinkley Hall— Morley family of Braddyll and Dynkley— Minor free- 
 holders—Craven of Craven Fold, Dinkley — Dewhurst of Dewhurst, &c. — Feilden of Pythorne — 
 Kenyon of Dinkley — Lonsdale of Dinkley — Talbot of Carr in WUpshire. 
 
 WILPSHIRE-CUM-DINKLEY anciently were named together 
 as forming one township ; but are now reckoned separate 
 townships. Dinckley occupies the lower portion of the valley-slope to 
 the bank of the Ribble west of Billington ; and Wilpshire the higher 
 southward portion, terminating on Wilpshire Moor, at 770ft. above the 
 sea-level. The primitive nomenclature of these tracts was Wylipscyre 
 and Dynkedelegh. Wilpshire contains 940 statute acres of land ; and 
 Dinkley 500 acres. The population, being solely agricultural, is small 
 and stationary. It has varied as follows since 1801 : — ^Wilpshire — 1801, 
 275; 1811,291; 1821,287; i83i>337; 1841,281; 1851,237; 1861, 
 228; 1871,230. Dinkley: — 1801, 197 ; 1811, 250 ; 1821,238; 1831, 
 223; 1841, 183; 1851, 151; 1861, 120; 1871, 119. Dinkley and 
 part of Wilpshire are in the chapelry of Langho. There is no place of 
 worship or school in either township. 
 
 The lands of Wilpshire-cum-Dinkley in early times embraced several 
 freeholds, held by a family named De Wylpshire ; and by De Hackings 
 of Billington ; Braddylls of Braddyll ; and by branches of the Morleys 
 and the Talbots. The Cunliffes and Boltons also held lands in Wilp- 
 shire in the 13th century. Of the De Wilpshire family occur, Richard de 
 Wilipshire, living about A.D. 1200 ; and Henry de Wilipshire, whose son, 
 Adam de Wilpshire, died before 1291, leaving a widow Margery. Adam 
 de Wilpshire, son of Henry, gave to the monks of Stanlaw half an acre 
 and a fall of land in the vill of Wilpshire, beginning at the Waynegate 
 between his higher and lower crofts, thence to the Horeston, thence 
 between the donor's lands and those of Henry de Bolton, unto the ditch 
 of Adam son of Robert son of Swayn. His relict, Margery de Wilp- 
 shire, quit-claimed to the Abbey this land in 20 Edw. I. (i 291-2). 
 
 94 
 
746 HISTORY OF BLACKFtTRN. 
 
 The lords of Salesbury, de Clyderhou, Talbots, and Warrens in 
 succession (it has before been observed), were chief landlords in Dinkley ; 
 and the Talbots are also found exercising manorial rights in Wilpshire, 
 where they had lands. In 1432, Isabella widow of John Talbot was. 
 found holding 4 messuages, 100 acres of land, and 20 of meadow with 
 appurtenances in Wilpshire and Dynkelay. When the estates, which 
 had passed to the Lord de Tabley, were sold to Mr. Ward in 1866, 
 the Dinkley Hall estate included nearly 370 acres, and the Wilpshire 
 estate 265 acres. 
 
 Dinkley Hall, formerly the residence of several members of the 
 Talbots and Warrens, is an old partly timber-framed house standing in a 
 secluded nook on the steep bank of the Ribble. (The engraving annexed 
 shows the south aspect of the hall.) The building consists of a main 
 block and a west wing at right angles. The doorways and windows are 
 square-headed. In the interior, the large open fire-places have been 
 walled up. 
 
 Next to the Talbots, the family of Morley, whose descent is sub- 
 joined, were of old the most important proprietors in Dinkley. Their 
 local seat was at Braddyll Hall, on the Billington side of the rivulet 
 which separates Dinkley from Billington. 
 
 MORLEY OF DINKLEY AND BRADDYLL. 
 
 The Morley family, long seated in Dinkley, was a branch of Mor- 
 leys of Wennington, in this county, whose ancient seat was at Great 
 Mearley, whence they derived their surname of De Merlay, varied into 
 Morley. William de Merelay occurs, holding lands in Dinkley, in 1340, 
 and Richard de Merlay, about 1330, married Margaret de Wennington, 
 heiress of Wennington, and so obtained that estate. Richard de Mer- 
 lay had sons, John, his heir ; and Simon de Merlay, who, with Ellen his 
 wife, occurs in 1369, and held five messuages, a mill, and 29 acres of 
 land in Dynkelay and Kenyon. John de Merlay, of Great Merelay and 
 Wennington, by his wife, Ann Booth (of Barton), had a son William de 
 Merlay, living taitp. Henry V. The latter married Anne, daughter of 
 Henry Radcliffe of Ordsall, Esq., and had a son John de Merlay, who 
 died about 1492. By his wife (Jane Riddlesden) he had sons, Robert, 
 Thomas, and Giles. 
 
 Robert Morley, son of John, in the 20th Edward IV., granted to 
 Richard Sherburne and others certain lands held by knight service in 
 Merlay Magna, Merlay Parva, and " Dinkley in Billington." He died 
 Aug. 28th, 1498, and in the isth Henry VII., the Duchy Escheator found 
 him to have held Wennington and Hornby manors, with other estates. 
 His wife was Margaret Neville, by whom he had sons, John ; Thomas, 
 
9 * •* 
 
MORLEY FAMILY, OF DINKLEY. 7^7 
 
 ■wTio died without issue ; Gyles ; a daughter, Margaret, married Heniy 
 Sale of Redford. 
 
 John Morley, heir of Robert, was aged 32 years at the date of his 
 father's death. He died before i8th Henry VH. (1502-3), seized of 
 Wennington and Great Merley Manors, and other lands, and having no 
 issue, his sister, Margaret Sale, became his heir. This heiress also died 
 childless in 24th Henry VH. (1508), when her uncle, Thomas Morley, 
 son of John, had the family estates. 
 
 Thomas Morley, Esq., also died without issue, Dec. 20th, 1508, 
 and was found on the escheat (24th Henry VH.), to have held, besides 
 the Manors of Wenyngton and Great Meyreley, lands, &c., in Dynkley 
 and Cliderowe. John Morley, son of Giles Morley, brother of Thomas, 
 was his kinsman and heir, then aged 2 1 years. 
 
 John Morley, Esq., married Margaret, daughter of Sir John South- 
 worth of Samlesbury, Knt., and was father of Francis Morley, Esq., 
 from whom the chief descent of Morleys of Wennington is deduced. 
 
 Robert Morley, of Dinkley, who appears early in the reign of Henry 
 VH I., was a cadet of this family whose paternity is not evident He 
 held, besides the Dinkley Hall estate, the Braddyll estate in Billington. 
 He married Isabel (Elizabeth) daughter of Richard Parker, gent. He 
 died about 15 12, and at the Inq. post mori., taken March 31st, 4th 
 Henry VIII., it was found that Robert Morley had died seized of the 
 so-called manor of Bradhill in Billington, with three messuages, 200 
 acres of land, 16 acres of meadow, 20 acres of pasture, and 12 acres of 
 woodland in Billington, Kenyon, and Dynkley. Charles Morley, his 
 son and heir, was aged 13 years. The escheat cites Robert Morley's 
 Will and a deed of settlement, dated Dec. 19th, 15 10. Robert Morley 
 of Bradhill, gent, had theretofore enfeoffed Richard Baturesby, John 
 Cauncefeld, Charles Baturesby, and George Baturesby to recover against 
 him before the King's Justices of Assize at Lancaster, at the sessions 
 holden there next after the Feast of St. Bartholomew the apostle, in the 
 ist Henry VIII., all his messuages, lands and tenements, &c., which 
 he had the day of the said record in Byllington, Kenyon, and Dynkley ; 
 the intent of the said Recovery being that the recoverers of the premises 
 should fulfil the last Will of the said Robert Morley as to the disposition 
 of the same ; and first, testator wills that the said recoverers so seized 
 should make at his reasonable request to certeyn feoffees to be nomi- 
 nated by Sir Richard Shirburne, Knt., a sufficient estate in the law of 
 the manor of Bradhill, and of tenements in Dynkley and Billington then 
 in the holding of John Dugdale, with a parcel of land lying in Billington 
 in a close called Larkehill ; the said feoffees to stand enfeoffed in 
 parcel of the manor of Bradhill, of the yearly value of 26s. 8d., to the 
 
748 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 use of Ellyn, daughter of Richard Shirburne, for her life. Also the said 
 feoffees were to suffer testator to take yearly to his use all issues, rents, 
 &c., of the residue of the said manor of Bradhill and tenements in Dink- 
 ley and Billington for his life ; and at his decease feoffees to stand seized 
 of the same residue and tenements to the use of the said Ellyn for her 
 lyfe ; after her death to the use of Charles Morley, the testator's son, his 
 heirs male, &c.; remainder to son Ambrose Morley, and his heirs 
 male ; remainder to son Utrede Morley and his heirs male ; re- 
 mainder to son Roger Morley and his heirs male ; remainder to the 
 right heirs of the said Charles Morley for ever. Testator, Robert Mor- 
 ley, to take to his use for life messuages and lands in Kenyon of the 
 yearly value of 46s. 8d., and a parcel of land in Billington, in the hold- 
 ing of William Talbot, to the value of 6s. 8d., of which other certain 
 feoffees stood seized to the use of his wife Elizabeth in name of her jom- 
 ture for life. Signed Dec. 19th, 2nd Henry VIII. 
 
 The above evidence proves that Robert Morley had four sons, 
 Charles, Ambrose, Uctred, and Roger. Charles, the heir in 15 12, died 
 probably without issue, as did his next brother, Ambrose; for in 1523 
 Uctred Morley, the third son, is found in possession. 
 
 Through this Uctred Morley, of Braddyll, the descent Continues. 
 In the Subsidy of 1523, Hughtride Morley paid the tax on his lands in 
 Billington. Uctred Morley died Dec. 24th, 20th Henry VIII. (1528), 
 seized of messuages and lands in Billington, Dinkley and Kenyon. 
 Robert Morley was his son and heir, aged 16 years. Uctred Morley, 
 gent., probably a younger son of the above Uctred, married, in 1547, 
 Jenet, second daughter of John Braddyll, Esq. 
 
 Robert Morley, heir of Uctred, held the estate some 60 years. In 
 1538, Robert Morley held freely " certain lands called Braddill " for 
 which he paid iis. 7d. chief rent to Whalley Abbey. He had also, as 
 tenant-at-will, seven acres in Billington, " late Walbanck's land," paying 
 155. yearly. He married, first, Isabel, daughter of Thomas Grimshaw 
 of Clayton (she died in 1548, and was buried at Whalley, July 
 9th) ; and, secondly, Isabel, widow of Robert Shuttleworth of 
 Hacking, gent., and danghter of John Hoghton, of Pendleton, gent. 
 He had sons, Nicholas, who died in October, 1572; Henry, who 
 succeeded him, and John; who died in 1594. In the nth EHz. (1568), 
 Robert Morley and Isabel his wife, claiming by deed of feoffment as a 
 jointure, sought to recover from Charles Shottil worth and others four 
 cloies of land about the house called Hackinge Hall, in Billington. A 
 year after another suit was entered between Robert Morley and Isabel, 
 " late wife of Robert Shuttleworth," and Charles Shuttleworth, claiming 
 by descent, as to the title to the same closes. In 1570, "Robert Morley 
 
CRAVEN FAMILY, OF DINKLEY. 749 
 
 cum Uxor" was assessed for lands in Billington to a subsidy. In 1582, 
 Thomas Holcroft, Esq., claimed against Robert Morley the "lands 
 called Walbanck in Braddill Fields." Robert Morley, gent., gave 20s. 
 to the Stock of Blackburn Grammar School, of which he was a Governor, 
 before his decease, aged about 74, in 1592. He was buried at Whalley 
 Church, Aug. 29th, 1592. 
 
 Henry Morley, of Braddyll, gent., succeeding Robert, occurs as 
 defendant in suits with Thomas Holcroft, in 1597-8. Henry Morley 
 died June loth, ist James I. (1603); his Will is dated 31st May of that 
 year, but the Escheator's inquisition was not taken until the 19th James 
 I. (1621), when it was proved that Henry Morley had died seized of one 
 Messuage called Bradhill or Bradhull, with 30 acres of land, 1 5 acres 
 of meadow, 60 acres of pasture, four acres of woodland, and 60 acres 
 of moor, moss, and turbary in Billington, held of Thomas Walmesley, 
 Esq., as of Billington manor in socage, by the rent of us. yearly ; also 
 of one messuage, 20 acres of land, 2 acres of meadow, 10 acres of 
 pasture, 2 acres of woodland, and 40 acres of moor, moss, and turbary 
 in Dinckley, held of the King as of the manor of Clitheroe in socage. 
 Jane Morley, widow of Henry, was living in Billington in 1622; and 
 Margaret, wife of Anthony Blewet, Henry Morley's daughter and sole 
 heir, was then aged 48 years. 
 
 Anthonie Blewet, gent., husband of Margaret heiress of the last 
 male member of the Morleys of Braddyll and Dinkley, was taxed for 
 lands in Billington to the subsidy in 161 1. He had issue, by Henry 
 Morley's daughter, his wife, a son and heir Morley Blewett. Anthony 
 Blewett, gent., then of Somerby, Co. Leicester, and Margaret, his wife, 
 were parties to a deed in 1622. 
 
 CRAVEN OF CRAVEN FOLD, DINKLEY. 
 Richard Craven and Michael Craven occur as tenants of Whalley Abbey in 
 Billington in 1538. William Craven of Billington occurs in 1563. 
 
 Richard Craven, of Dinkley, is named in the Will of John Braddyll, Esq., dated 
 1578 : — "Forasmuch as I have made a lease to my servant Richard Craven of one 
 tenement in Dinkley, now in (his) occupation, yielding the yearly rent of 24s. 5d., my 
 will is that the said Richard shall not only not pay any rente to my heires so longe as 
 he shall live, but that the same lease shall remain to his executors, paying therefore 
 thereafter yearlie the said rent to my heires. And if the said Richard live longer than 
 the years expressed in the said lease, then I will that he shall have the said messuages, 
 &c., wholly during his life without paying any rent." John Braddyll also gave to his 
 " servant Richard Craven " a legacy of £20 for his good service. 
 
 Richard Craven of Dinkley, yeoman (son, or grandson, of the above Richard), 
 paid the Subsidy tax in 1610. He married Anne, second daughter of Edward 
 Walmesley of Banister Hall, gent., and had, with other issue, a son Thomas. The 
 deeds of the freehold of this family include several executed in the time of this Richard 
 Craven, and to which he was a party. By deed dated 1617, Anthony Blewett, of 
 
75° 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Harlaxton, gent., and Morley Blewett his son and heir, for ;^loo, bargain, sell, &c., 
 to Richard Craven, of Dinkley, yeoman, the messuage and tenement in the Moregate 
 in Dinkley then in possession of Jane Morley, widow of Henry Morley, gent., and of 
 one John Sailbury, yeqman; also a close of land called the Townefield adjoining the 
 said messuage on the north side, and a little parcel of the lane called Dinkley Loyne. 
 By deed in latin, dated also in 1617, Morley Blewett, of Harlaxton, gent, (son and 
 heir of Anthony and Margaret his wife), quitclaims to Richard Craven his right in the 
 same tenement. An indenture dated July 31st, 1619, between John Braddyll of 
 Portfield, Esq., and Richard Craven of Dinkley, yeoman, witnesses that John 
 Braddyll, in consideration of ;^46o paid by Richard Craven to him and to his father 
 John Braddyll, Esq. , deceased, conveys to Richard Craven a messuage and tenement 
 of 20 acres in Dinkley, in the tenure of the said Richard Craven. In another deed of 
 release by John Braddyll, dated 1622, this estate is described as one messuage, two 
 bams, one garden, two orchards, 8 acres of land, 5 of meadow, 5 of pasture, 6 of 
 woodland, 8 of turbary, and common of pasture, in Dinkley. Richard Craven of 
 Dinkley, yeoman, by deed of enfeoffment dated Feb. 2nd, 1654-5, conveys in trust to 
 John Barlow of Dutton, Richard Marsden, son and heir apparent of John Marsden of 
 the Pail near Lagram, yeoman, Thomas Hindle of Rishton, and Richard Craven 
 younger son of John Craven of Elkar in Billington, clothiers, his messuage, lands, 
 &c., in Dinkley, to hold to uses mentioned in a pair of indentures dated Jan. 31st, 
 1654. (Signed) Richard Craven. Witnesses : Wm. Woodd, Robt. Chew, Wm_ 
 Holker, Robert Craven, Thomas Sudell. Richard Craven died soon after his execu- 
 tion of this deed of trust. 
 
 Thomas Craven of Dinkley, yeoman, paid the Subsidy tax in 1663, and was 
 living in 1689. He had a son Richard ; and daughters, Jane, wife of John Clarke of 
 Whalley ; Ann, wife of John Dobson of Whalley ; and Dorothy, wife of George 
 Almond of Dinkley. 
 
 Richard Craven of Dinkley, yeoman, son of Thomas, by Elizabeth his wife had 
 a. son Thomas. Richard Craven died about 1717 ; his Will is dated Aug. 30th, 1717 ; 
 wife Elizabeth sole executrix. His son — ■ 
 
 Thomas Craven of Craven Fold, Dinkley, rebuilt the house there in 1 727, which 
 bears a stone with the initials "T C " and date " 1727." He had a son Thomas. 
 
 Thomas Craven of Craven Fold, born about 1740, married in Nov., 1768, Betty 
 Leeming of Billington, and had issue, sons, Thomas; James, bom in 177'; John, 
 Ralph, Peter, Giles, and Paul ; and a daughter Margaret. Thomas Craven, eldest 
 son of Thomas, died unmarried, in 1832, and was buried at Stonyhurst. 
 
 James Craven, second son of Thomas, and heir to his brother Thomas who died 
 in 1832, died at Craven Fold, Oct. 1st., 1841, aged about 70 years. He married 
 Mary Walkden, who died aged 65, March 8th, 1840, and had issue, sons, James, bom 
 Oct. loth, 1805 ; Thomas, died, aged 24, Oct. I2th, 1830 ; and Peter, bom in 1807, 
 died in 1810 ; and a daughter, Mary,sdied, aged 19, in 1824. 
 
 James Craven, of Craven Fold, son of James, married Agnes Partington, and 
 died, aged 68, Dec. 20th, 1873. He had sons, Thomas Craven (now of Blackburn 
 and Dinkley, married Catherine Parker, and has issue, James, Thomas, and Richard, 
 Elizabeth, and Grace) ; Richard Craven (of Blackburn, married Sarah Jane Scowcrofl, 
 and has issue, James, William, Richard, and three daughters) ; James Craven ; Mary, 
 Elizabeth, and Margaret. 
 
 DEWHURST OF DEWHURST IN WILPSHIRE, &c. 
 
 William Dewhurst and Oliver Dewhurst, both of Wilpshire, paid the Subsidy 
 levy in 1523. 
 
DEWHURST FAMILY OF WILPSHIRE. yji 
 
 John Dewhurst of Dewhurst in Wilpshire (named in the Visitation of 1613), by 
 8 daughter of Isherwood of Shorrock-hey in Pleasington, had a son William. 
 
 William Dewhurst of Dewhurst occurs in 1568, and was assessed for lands in 
 Wilpshire to a subsidy in 1570. He died about 1592, having given 20s. to Blackburn 
 Grammar School. By Elizabeth his wife, "daughter of — Aspinall of Standen, he 
 had a son John. 
 
 John Dewhurst, of Dewhurst, gent., a juror in 1597, a recorded freeholder in 
 1600, was taxed on his lands in Wilpshire to a subsidy in 1610. A plaint in the 
 Palatine Chancery Court, in 1609, by Gyles Whalley of Broadhead in Mellor, yeoman, 
 sets forth that John Dewhurst the elder, of Mickle-heyes, being seased in his demesne 
 as of freehold, and during the term of his life and the lives of John and William, his 
 sons, of parcels of land in Mickle-heyes in Rishton by lease made unto John Dewhurst 
 by Ralph Rishton of Ponthalgh, gent., the said John Dewhurst, for the sum of ^^30 
 paid to him by Edward Whalley, brother of suppliant, of Stoppen-hey in Lipshire 
 (Wilpshire), conveyed, in 4th James I. (1606), the said closes of land to Edward 
 Whalley for 12 years. John Dewhurst married Grace, daughter and heir of Henry 
 Boyes of Boyes House (she died in 1619, and was buried at Ribchester), and had issue, 
 sons, William, bom in 1587; and John; and daughters, Ellen, wife of Richard 
 Banester of Craven ; Mary wife of George Southworth of Highfield, Esq. ; and Ann. 
 His son — 
 
 William Dewhurst, lived at Boyes House, Ribchester (his mother's estate), but had 
 lands in Wilpshire. He married Hellen, third daughter of Thomas Southworth of 
 Samlesbury, Esq., and had sons, John, born in 1610, died in July, 1622 ; Anthony, 
 died in Jan. 1621-2 ; William, eventual heir ; and Geoi^e ; and daughters, Rosamond, 
 and Grace. William Dewhurst, gent, died at Ribchester, July 12th, 1622, seized 
 (by the escheat taken July 28th, 1625) of two messuages called Dewhurst and 60 acres 
 of land in Wilpshire ; one messuage called The Ashes, and 30 acres of land in Wilp- 
 shire ; these tenements held of Sir John Talbot, Knt., as of his manor of Salesbury, in 
 socage, by 4s. rent, worth 40s. ; of other lands in Wilpshire ; of Boyes House in 
 Ribchester, with lands, &c William Dewhurst, son and heir, was then aged 6 years 
 and 5 days. 
 
 From William Dewhurst, the son, descended the Dewhursts of Ribchester, of 
 whom were, William Dewhurst, bom in 1644, died Jan. 24th, 1696 ; and later, Henry 
 Dewhurst, whose Will is dated Nov. 1 6th, 1762 ; James Dewhurst, of Ribchester in 
 1764 ; John Dewhurst, who by his Will, dated June 13th, 1771, gave an endowment 
 for a free school in Ribchester ; and Edward Dewhurst of Ribchester, yeoman, who 
 married, in Aug. 1765, Jane Wood of Blackburn. 
 
 Descended also from the above stock of Dewhursts of Wilpshire was Roger 
 Dewhurst, bom at Dewhurst House, Wilpshire, about 1720, lived in Billington, and 
 died, in 1820, aged nearly 100 years. By Martha his wife he had sons, Henry, John, 
 William, Thomas, and Edmund ; and daughters, Jennet, and Mary. The youngest son, 
 Edmund Dewhurst of Temple End, Pleasington (bom in 1770, died July 3rd, 1857), 
 married, in 1800, Betty, daughter of William Kilshaw of Garstang, and had sons, 
 William ; Thomas ; Robert ; and Kilshaw Dewhurst, bom in 181 1, of Pleasington in 
 1877 ; and a daughter Elizabeth. 
 
 A branch of this family was seated at Micklehey in Rishton. John Dewhurst of 
 Micklehey, son of John of Dewhurst, had sons, John ; James, born in 1617 ; and 
 several daughters. John Dewhurst of Micklehey died in March, 1653-4. Another 
 John Dewhurst of Micklehey died in Nov., 1676. Thomas Dewhurst of Micklehey 
 occurs in 1629. He had a son Thomas, bom in 1622, and other issue. 
 
752 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 FEILDEN OF PYTHORNE IN WILPSHIRE. 
 
 Francis Feilden of Pythorne, a younger son of Randal Feilden of Great Harwood, 
 lived temp. Elizabeth. Henry Feilden of Wilpshire paid the subsidy tax in 1570. 
 Another Henry Feilden of Pythorne was a governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 
 1628. Oliver Feilden and Jane his wife both died in 1592. Another Oliver Feilden, 
 "de Pythorne," was buried Feb. 8th, 161 1. His son, Oliver Feilden of the Pythorne, 
 had sons John, bom in 1605, and Robert, bom in 1613. The latter occurs as Robert 
 Feilden of Pythorne, who had a son Oliver bom in 1652. Oliver Feilden died in 
 1709. A later Oliver Feilden of Wilpshire, yeoman, married, in 1697, Elizabeth 
 Feilden of Rishton. Robert Feilden of Wilpshire, yeoman, died in Oct. 1 766. 
 
 George Feilden of Pythorne, who had a son Roger, bom in Nov. 1591, and 
 daughters Margaret and Isabel, died in 1618. His widow died in l620i His son, 
 Roger Feilden of Pythome, died Feb. 5th, 1652. He had a son George, bapt. June 
 2lst, 1644. A George Feilden of Wilpshire, yeoman, died in July, 1721. 
 
 KENYON OF DINKLEY AND PARK HEAD. 
 
 This family, perhaps an offshoot of the ancient one of Kenyon of Kenyon, Co. 
 I^nc. , acquired importance in the seventeenth century. Robert Kenyon, by Margaret 
 Berry, his second wife, had a son Roger, seated at Dinkley. 
 
 Roger Kenyon, of Dinkley, married Anne, daughter of one of the Heywoods of 
 Heywood, and had a son and heir, Roger. 
 
 Roger Kenyon, gent., son of Roger, resided on an estate at Park-head, near 
 Whalley. He married Jane, daughter of Richard Assheton of Chadderton, Esq., and 
 had issue, sons, Roger, born June 1 6th, 1627 ; Edward, afterwards Revd. Edward 
 Kenyon, B.D., rector of Prestwich from 1659 till his death in 1668; and daughters, 
 Anne, wife of John Crombocke, of Wiswall ; Dorothy (who married, first, Major- 
 General Charles Worsley, the celebrated Cromwellian general, who died June 1 2th, 
 1656 ; and secondly, Mr. Waldiffe Layo, of Manchester) ; Jane (married, first, John 
 Stonehewer, gent. , of Barley-ford, Co. Chester, and secondly, Richard Haworth, Esq. , 
 of Manchester, barrister-at-law and Bencher of Gray's Inn) ; and Alice. Roger Ken- 
 yon died Aug. 14th, 1636, aged 52. His epitaph is in Whalley Church. The escheat, 
 taken at Bolton, Jan. 12th, 12th Charles I. (1636-7), shows that he had died seized of 
 two messuages, two gardens, &c. , 44 acres of land, in Whalley ; of right of pasture 
 upon Harwood Moor ; of one messuage and 24 acres of land in Dinckley ; of two 
 messuages, two gardens, and 6 acres of land in Billington ; and of one bam and 10 
 acres of land in Old Accrington. Roger Kenyon was his son and heir, aged 9 years. 
 He was— 
 
 Roger Kenyon, gent., of Park Head, who married, in 1657, Alice, daughter and 
 heir of George Rigby of Peel, gent. ; and had issue, sons, Roger, bom in 1659 ; George ; 
 and Thomas ; and a daughter Beatrice. He resided, after his marriage, at Peel Hall, 
 in Little Hulton, the inheritance of his wife. Roger Kenyon, Esq., was M.P. for 
 Clitheroe from 1690 to 1695. He died June l6th, 1698, aged 71 years. His eldest 
 son, named in 1689 as " Mr. Roger Kenyon, junr., of Peele," had a daughter Alice, 
 bapt. Feb. 24th, 1689-90 ; he died before his father. 
 
 George Kenyon, Roger's second son, succeeded to the estates. He was M. P. for 
 Wigan from 17 10 to 1714. 
 
 Thomas Kenyon, younger son of Roger, married, in 1668, Catherine, daughter 
 and heir of Luke Lloyd of Bryn, Co. Flint, and died in 1731. His son, Lloyd Ken- 
 yon, Esq., was father of Lloyd Kenyon, born in 1732, who was successively Attorney 
 
TALBOT OF CARR. jjj 
 
 General, Master of the Rolls, and Lord Chief Justice of England ; created Baron 
 Kenyon in 17S8, from whom descends the present Baron Kenyon. 
 
 LONSDALE OF DINKLEY. 
 
 Hugh Lonsdale, of Billington and Dinkley, by Mary his wife (she died in April, 
 1678) had a son Hugh. 
 
 Hugh Lonsdale of Dinkley married, April 28th, 1681, Susan Smalley, and had 
 sons, Robert, born May 8th, 1686 ; and John, born and died in 1698; and daughters, 
 Ann, born in 1682, died in 1708 ; Mary, born in 1688, married, in 1717, Nicholas 
 Wigan ; Elizabeth, bom in 1691 ; and Alice, bom in 1694. Hugh Lonsdale, yeoman, 
 died Feb. 25th, 1708. His .son — 
 
 Robert Lonsdale of Dinkley, yeoman, married, at Walton Church, April 7th, 
 1713, Ann Radcliffe, and had sons, Hugh, born Aug. 29th, 1717, died Feb. 21st, 
 •749-5°! snd George; and daughters, Mary, born in 17 14; Ann, born in 1727; 
 Jane ; and Susan, bom Aug. i6th, 1735, married, Feb. 13th, 1763, Thomas Haworth 
 of Revidge Fold, yeoman (see ante, Haworth of Blackburn, p. 396). Robert Lons- 
 dale died, aged 63, Jan. 24th, 1750. 
 
 George Lonsdale, surviving son of Robert, bom March 29th, 1726, named "of 
 Dinkley " in 1774, was progenitor of Dewhurst Lonsdale, of Dinkley in 1823 ; whose 
 son, William Lonsdale of Dinkley, was father of Thomas ; William ; and George 
 Dewharst Lonsdale, who, in 1873, held a freehold farm of 31^ acres in Dinkley. 
 
 TALBOT OF CARR IN WILPSHIRE. 
 
 This branch of Talbot of Salesbury is traced back to Stephen Talbot of Carr, 
 whose son and heir, George Talbot of Carr, was living A. D. 1500. His son — 
 
 Nicholas Talbot of Carr, gent., married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Lawrence 
 Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe, Esq., by whom he had no recorded issue ; and secondly, 
 Anne, first daughter and one heir of Evan Browne of Ribbleton, gent, (she survived 
 him and married, secondly, Richard Sherburne of Bayley, Esq. ) By her Nicholas 
 Talbot had a son George ; and daughters, Margaret, wife of Robert Aspden ; and 
 Bridget. Nicholas Talbot was taxed to a Subsidy for lands in Wilpshire in 1523. 
 He died April 28th, 1547 ; and the escheat, dated 1st Edw. VI., returns that he died 
 seized of two messuages, 40 acres of land, 16 of meadow, and 18 of woodland in 
 Wilpshire and Salesbury ; 20 acres of land and 2s. rent in Penhulton ; and 9 acres of 
 land in Billington. George Talbot, son and heir, was aged 5 years and 1 1 months. 
 
 GeorgeTalbot of Carr, gent, married June 27, 1569, Ann, daughter of Roger Nowell 
 of Mearley, gent., and had sons, Nicholas, died in April 1571 ; a second Nicholas, died 
 in 1595 ; and John; and daughters, Bridgett, bapt. Nov. 2nd, 1575; Mary, bapt. 
 March 19th, 1577; Dorothy, bapt. Aug. 1st, 1579, married Ralph Rishton of Ponthalgh, 
 and Frances, born June, 1580. In 1551, Robt. Aspden and Margaret his wife, daughter 
 of Nicholas Talbot, deceased, and Bridget Talbot, disputed with Richard Sherburne and 
 Anne his wife (widow and executrix of Nicholas Talbot) and John Singleton and 
 George Talbot, also executors, title to goods and chattels of deceased ; and depositions 
 were taken as to the custom of the county in the distribution of a father's effects among 
 his children, not being his heirs, and notwithstanding the father's Will. In 1570, 
 George Talbot, gent., paid a Subsidy tax for his lands in Wilpshire. He gave, in 
 '593. 4°s. to Blackburn Grammar School, 20s. for Carre and 20s. for Wytton. He 
 was a burgess of Preston at the Guild of 1622 ; and died aged 88 (being born in 1541) 
 in 1629. His son — 
 
 John Talbot of Carr, gent., married Dorothy, daughter of Edward Braddyll of 
 
 95 
 
754 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Portfield, Esq., and had sons, Edward ; Thomas, and John. He was a Governor of 
 Blackburn Grammar School in 1628. 
 
 Edward Talbot of Carr married Mabel, daughter of Lawrence Carleton, and had 
 sons, George ; and John (named as John Talbot of Wilpshire, who had sons, Richard, 
 bom in 1666 ; John, born in 1668 ; Thomas ; Joseph and Benjamin, twins, born in 
 1677 ; &c). 
 
 George Talbot of Carr, eldest son of Edward, died about 1708. The Will of 
 " George Talbot of Carr, gent.," is dated Dec. i8th, 1708 ; and names his wife Anne 
 as sole executrix ; a son George ; and daughters, Katherine, married — Eden, and 
 having issue Robert and Mary ; and Mary, married — Osbaldeston, and having issue 
 James, Mary, Dorothy, Margery, and Anne ; testator's nephews, John and Thomas 
 Talbot, are mentioned. A curious circumstance about this Will is that it was accom- 
 panied by depositions that it had been torn by testator's daughter, Catherine Eden. 
 
 The old Messuage of this branch of the Talbots called Carr is situate in a 
 wooded hollow on the northern declivity of Wilpshire Moor. The house, rebuilt 
 probably in the 17th century, consists of a central block fronting the west, with 
 projecting gabled wings. The freehold pow belongs to Henry Petre, Esq. 
 
WITTON TOWNSHIP AND MANOR. 755 
 
 CHAPTER XXL— THE TOWNSHIP OF WITTON. 
 
 Topography— Acreage -Population— Ancient Landowners— DeChaderton—RadclifF— Ireland— Astlcy 
 — Standish— Feilden of Witton Park— Witton Old Hall, and Witton House— Greenfield Family— 
 Holden of Coohill— Church of St. Mark— School-Church, Griffin— Methodist Chapels— Schools. 
 
 WITTON Township adjoins that of Blackburn on the west, and 
 occupies the north and south slopes of Billinge Hill, which 
 rises 807 feet above the sea-level. The Darwen river is the boundary 
 on the south. More than half the land of Witton was enclosed, about 
 80 years ago, as a Park to Witton House, the seat of the Feildens. 
 The lower part on the south side, between the Darwen and Blakewater 
 rivers, has recently become a populous suburb of Blackburn, and has 
 been embraced in the Parliamentary and Municipal Borough. The area 
 of Witton is 650 statute acres. The population, since the invasion of 
 the cotton manufacture, has much increased. In i8or it was 461 
 persons; 1811,819; 1821,1067; 1831,1047; 1841,1073; 1851, 
 1367; 1861,3293; 1871,3803. Witton Stocks was the situation of 
 the old public town stocks, which were standing not many years ago. 
 
 ANCIENT PROPRIETORS.— DESCENT OF THE MANOR. 
 
 The earliest landlords in Witton who occur are the De Chadertons. 
 In 1311 (De Lascy Inquisition) it is returned that Richard, son of 
 Geoffrey de Chaderton held one carucate of land in Witton by the 
 service of the eighth part of a knight's fee and 2S. yearly to the chief 
 lord. Later, the Radcliffes of Chaderton by marriage inherited this 
 estate. By deed dated at Witton, June 5th, 9th Edw. Ill (1336) Adam son 
 of William de Radclif gave to John son of Adam de Ireland " all the 
 lands he had in the vill of Witton near Blackburn." The same Adam 
 de Radcliffe, by deed dated June sth, ig Edw. III. (1346), granted 
 lands in Witton to John de Toppcliff, Vicar of Whalley, and to John de 
 Gristwaith, Vicar of Blackburn. The tenement John de Ireland held 
 in Witton of the gift of Adam de Radclif is described, in 1349, as 
 consisting of "one messuage, 70 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, 10 
 of woodland, and 30 of moor and pasture." This freehold descended, 
 
756 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 at a later period, to the Astley family, of Stakes, in Livesey, who were, 
 in the i6th and 17th centuries, the chief resident proprietors in Witton, 
 and some of whom dwelt at Witton Old Hall. (See note, p. 577.) The 
 Radcliffes retained the manorial rights, which passed by the marriage 
 of Margery, daughter and a co-heir of Richard Radcliff of Chaderton, 
 with Ralph Standish, Esq. (who died in 1468), to the De Standishes. 
 Alexander Standish, son and heir of Ralph, at his death in 1507 was 
 found seized of the Manors of Witton and Chaderton, as his mother 
 had been until her death some seven years before. Ralph Standish, 
 Esq., dying about 1539, held these lordships, and his son and heir 
 Alexander succeeded to them, and died in 1546.' Edward Standish, 
 Esq., who died about 1610, was then seized of Standish Manor, and of 
 the Manor of Witton, with appurtenances, and of one messuage, 15 
 acres of land, 4 of meadow, 20 of pasture, and 80 of rushland and 
 moss in Witton. He had conveyed his estates in trust to the use of 
 Alexander, his son and heir, and of his son's wife Elizabeth. Alexander's 
 son, Ralph Standish, is named in 1617 as lord of Witton. He died in 
 1655. He and his son Edward were Royalists in the Civil War, and 
 the estates were sequestrated in 1652, but were recovered at the Restora- 
 tion. But another Ralph Standish, Esq., having, in 1715, joined in the 
 Jacobite Rebellion, his estates were escheated and were sold by the 
 Crown. It may have been then that the estate of Standishes in Witton 
 passed to new owners ; but I am unable to give positive evidence on 
 this point. 
 
 FEILDEN OF GREAT HARWOOD, BLACKBURN, AND WITTON 
 
 PARK. 
 Henry Ffelden, of Blackburn Parish, in 15 14 was a trustee of estate 
 given by the Earl of Derby for a Chantry in Blackburn Church. 
 Robert ffelden of Great Harwood was an executor of the Will of Sir 
 Robt. Hesketh, Knt., in 1539. Randal Felden of Great Harwood was 
 buried Nov. i8th, 1564. 
 
 Randal Felden occurs temp. Elizabeth. In 1564 Randulph Felden 
 late servant of Sir Thos. Talbot, and claiming as lessee under him, was 
 defendant in a suit as to the right to tenure of a tenement parcel of the 
 Glebe Lands of Blackburn Rectory. He was a first Governor of Black- 
 burn Grammar School in 1567. Randal Felden had sons, Henry; and 
 Francis (of Pythorne in Wilpshire) ; and he died in 1594. Henry 
 Felden, perhaps brother of Randal, died in March, 1599. 
 
 Henry Felden, son of Randal, born in 1548, married at Great 
 Harwood Chapel, May ist, 1577, Alice Hyndle, and had sons, Henry, 
 
 I In Feb., 1571-2, Edward Standish, Esq., had an order from the Duchy Court of Lancaster to 
 expel Ellen Abbot out of a messuage and 30 acresof iandin Wytton, pursuant to a decree of the Court. 
 (See post, under Holden of Coohill.) 
 
FEILDEN OF WITTON PARK. 757 
 
 bom in 1578; Randal, bapt. Sept, 24, 1582, legateeunder the WillofWm. 
 Farington, Esq., in i6og; and he died in 1610. His second son, 
 Randal Felden, married, in 1621, Isabel Shorrock, and by her (who 
 died in Aug. 1632) had sons, Henry, bapt. Jan. 14, 1632-4; and John. 
 
 Henry Feilden, son of Henry, had, with other issue a son, Henry. 
 
 Henry Feilden, of Great Harwood and Blackburn, had issue, sons, 
 Randal, bapt. Aug. 20th, 1645; Henry, bom in 1649; and Richard 
 Feilden, elected a Fellow of Brazenose College, Oxford-, Nov. 3rd, 
 1676, and died, unmarried, in 1703. Henry ffeilden of Blackburn was 
 buried Jan. 4th, 1669-70. 
 
 Randal Feilden, of Blackbum, yeoman, married, Oct. 17th, 1669, 
 Ellen Pollard, and had issue by her sons, Henry, bapt. Feb. 14th, 16 70-1 
 (died young) ; and John, born in 1674, died in 1706. A second wife, 
 Isabel, died in 1690; and Randal Feilden married again in Feb. 1690-1, 
 MaryBolton, by whom he had sons, Henry, bapt. June i8th, 1693 ; Joseph, 
 bapt. Nov. 13th, 1694 ; James, bapt. Jan. 12th, 1696, and died in April, 
 1 7 14 ; and Robert, bapt. June 1 2th, 1 701 ; and a daughter Anne, wife of 
 Jonathan Patten, gent., of Manchester. Mr. Randal ffeilden of Blackburn 
 was buried Dec. 20th, 1721. 
 
 Robert Feilden, youngest son of Randal, married, first, Sept. 20th, 
 1720, Elizabeth Haworth; secondly. Miss Lees of Manchester; and, 
 thirdly, March 4th, 1735, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. G. Wall, by whom 
 he had a son, Henry Feilden, whose son, by Mary his wife, was Robert 
 Feilden, Esq., of Didsbury. He married Anne, eldest daughter of Sir 
 J. P. Mosley, Bart., and his son was the Rev. Robert Mosley Feilden, 
 rector of Bebington, Co. Chester. 
 
 Henry Feilden of Blackbum, gent., eldest son of Randal, married, 
 June 22nd, 1721, Miss Elizabeth Sudell (she died in March, 1738-9), 
 and had sons, Randal, bapt. June 8th, 1725, died young ; John Feilden 
 (of Blackburn, gent.), bapt. Jan 28th, 1726-7, married Miss Starkie, and 
 died in April, 1771, without issue; Robert, born in 1734, died in 1735 ; 
 Joseph, bapt. April 21st, 1736; and Henry, bapt. Aug. nth, 1738; and 
 daughters, Anne, bom in 1722, married Mr. Craven of Melling; Mary, 
 died an infant, in 1723 ; Catherine, born in 1730, married Mr. Whalley, 
 of Orrell; and a second Mary, born in 1732. In 1721, by purchase 
 from Lord Falconberg, for ;^865o, Henry Feilden, jointly with Mr. 
 Wm. Sudell and Mr. Wm. Baldwin, acquired the moiety of Blackburn 
 Manor. He built the house in Church Street, Blackburn, opposite the 
 Church gates, which has on its front the initials " H F E " (Henry and 
 Elizabeth Feilden), and the date " 1728." He died, aged 49, in 1742 ; 
 and " Henry ffeilden, of Blackburn, gentleman, removed from Bath," 
 was buried in Blackburn Church, April isth in that year. 
 
758 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Henry Feilden, " of Blackburn, chapman," younger son of Henry, 
 was buried at Blackburn Church, June 13th, 1769. 
 
 Joseph Feilden of Blackburn, " chapman " and gent., fourth son of 
 Henry and heir to his brother John in 1771, married, Sept. 28th, 1762, 
 Margaret, daughter and co-heir of Mr. Wm. Leyland of Blackburn, and 
 had sons, Joseph, died an infant in 1763; Henry, bapt. Feb. 21st, 
 1765 ; William Leyland, died in 1768; John, bapt. Aug. 25th, 1769; 
 William, bapt. April 3rd, 1772 (the first baronet, of Feniscowles, see ante, 
 pp. 621-2); and Randal, died young in Feb. 1780; and a daughter 
 Cicely, bapt. May 20th, 1766, married Richard Willis, Esq., of Halsnead, 
 and had issue nine sons and six daughters ; she died April nth, 1822. 
 Joseph Feilden, Esq., died at Blackburn, aged 57, Dec. 24th, 1792, and 
 was buried Jan. 3rd, 1793. His widow, Mrs. Margaret Feilden, died, 
 aged 80, Sept. 27th, r82 6. 
 
 Henry Feilden, Esq., of Blackburn and Witton House, married 
 Fanny, daughter of Wm. Hill, Esq., of Blythe Hall. (She died Jan. 8th, 
 1833.) Issue, sons, Joseph, bom Feb. 28th, 1792; William, bom in 1794, 
 died in London ; Henry, bom in 1798, died in 1801 ; Randal Henry, 
 born in 1802 (Rev. R. H. Feilden, Rector of Astley, Co. Wilts.) ; and 
 John Feilden, Esq., of London, bom in 1804, died Nov. 22nd, 1865; 
 daughters, Margaret, wife of Lt.-Col. Poole ; and Cecilia, wife of Dr. 
 Edward Cardwell (see Cardwell family, p. 391, ante). Henry Feilden, 
 Esq., built Witton House in 1800. He died, aged 51, Dec. 27th, 1815. 
 
 Joseph Feilden, Esq., son of Henry, married, in June, 181 7, Frances 
 Mary, daughter of Rev. Streynsham Master, Rector of Croston ; and 
 had sons, Henry Master, born in 1818 ; Randlc Joseph, born in 1824; 
 William Leyland, bom Aug. 23rd, 1825 (Rev. W. L. Feilden, Vicar of 
 Knowsley) ; John Robert, born in 1827 (Rev. J. R. Feilden) ; Oswald 
 Barton, born in 1832 ; Gilbert Streynsham, born in 1837; and Albert 
 Augustus, died young in 1852 ; daughters, Frances Mary ; Cecilia, wife 
 of Rev. R. A. Rawstome; Margaret Priscilla, wife of Rev. G. R. Feilden; 
 Emily Augusta, wife of Ralph Assheton, Esq., M.P., of Downham Hall; 
 Louisa Willis, wife of Col. Feilden of Bebington (she died in 1868) ; 
 and Charlotte-Emma Willoughby, wife of Rev. Richard Assheton, rector 
 of Bolton. Joseph Feilden, Esq., was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 
 18 18, and M.P. for Blackburn from 1865 to March, 1869.' He died, 
 aged 78, Aug. 29th, 1870, and was buried in the new family mortuary 
 chapel at Witton Church. His widow is yet living. 
 
 Henry Master Feilden, Esq., married, first, June 27th, 1843, 
 Caroline, daughter of Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., and by her (she died 
 
 1 It has before been stated that the Feildens were long time lessees of the Rectorial estate in 
 Blackburn ; and in 1853, Messrs. Joseph and John Feilden surrendered 467 acres of the Glebe to the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissiuners, retaining the residue oi the estate on the payment of ;£3o,ooo. 
 
GREENFIELD FAMILY OF WITTON, &C. 759 
 
 May 6th, 1862) had issue a son, Randal Mosley, died young in 1856; 
 and daughters, Frances Sophia ; Caroline Letitia (died young) ; and 
 Cicely Ann. Mr. Feilden married, secondly, Aug. ist, 1864, Miss 
 Hannah Fox, and had issue a daughter, born in 1869. Henry Master 
 Feilden, Esq., was M.P. for Blackburn from March, 1869, until his death, 
 Sept. 5th, 1875. In default of male issue, the estates passed to his brother, 
 
 Randle Joseph Feilden, Colonel of the 60th Rifles. Colonel Feil- 
 den married, March 21st, 1861, Jane Campbell, eldest daughter of 
 James Hosier, Esq., of Mauldslie Castle, Lanarkshire, and has issue. 
 
 The Old Hall of Witton stood on a bank near the Blakewater, at 
 the south-east comer of the present park. Witton House, the mansion 
 of the Feildens, built in 1800, is situated more to the west, on a knoll 
 in the midst of the Park. It is a spacious structure of modern style, 
 with a classic porch. 
 
 GREENFIELD OF WISWELL, WITTON, PRESTON, &c. 
 
 The Greenfields were originally of Whalley and Wisvvell, and were tenants under 
 Whalley Monastery. In 1538, James Grenefeld was found holding in Whalley manor 
 a messuage and lands, paying yearly 13s. 4d. " George Grenefield, clerke," of this 
 family, at the dissolution of the Abbey held "a parcel of ground called the Leasing- 
 steads without gate to the water." 
 
 Gilbert Greenfield, of Whalley, had sons (Thomas); John, died in 1579 ; a second 
 John, born in 1581, died in 1587; Christopher, bapt. July 23rd, 1582; William, 
 bapt. Oct. 24th, 1583; George, born in 1584; and a daughter Elizabeth, born in 1590. 
 
 Thomas Greenfield of Wiswall, gent., is named as a juror in 1612. He or a son 
 was Thomas Greenfield of Witton, gent., elected a Governor of Blackburn Grammar 
 School, Jan. 8th, 1647-8. He died before 1650, when his relict, " Widow Greenfield," 
 occurs as a tenant of Blackburn Wapentake in Witton. His son — 
 
 Thomas Greenfield of Witton, gent., married Lettice, fourth daughter of John 
 Braddyll of Portfield, Esq., and had sons, Thomas, and Christopher ; and a daughter 
 Lettice, buried at Blackburn, Feb. 12th, 1 65 1. 
 
 Thomas Greenfield of Witton, gent., eldest son of Thomas, was elected a 
 Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1680 ; his name occurs frequently on the 
 records of the School between 1 688 and 1712. He is also named as "of Preston." 
 He was buried at Blackburn, March 27th, 1716. He married, at Manchester Colle- 
 giate Church, Oct. 24th, 1674, Martha Johnson of Manchester. His daughter, Martha, 
 married, Dec. loth, 1706, Rev. John Holme, Vicar of Blackburn, and died in I7S7- 
 I have not noted any other issue of Thomas Greenfield. His brother was — 
 
 Christopher Greenfield of Preston, attorney-at-law, afterwards Sir Christopher 
 Greenfield, M.P. for Preston 1690-95. He died in 1706; and his Will is dated in 
 that year. He married Sarah, daughter of Dr. Bushell, Vicar of Preston (she was 
 living in 1712), and had issue, sons, John (of whom below) ; William, Christopher, 
 and Thomas ; and daughters, Mary, and Isabella. 
 
 John Greenfield "of Preston, gent., in 1714," was "of the Abbey Court, Ches- 
 ter," In 1745, and died in 1758. He married, Dec. i6th, 1714, Abigail, daughter of 
 Isaac Swift, Esq., of the Abbey Court, Chester, by whom he had a daughter Elizabeth, 
 bapt. Sept. ist, 1717, who died before her father. His Widow, Mrs. Abigail Greenfield, 
 died in 1761 ; and her Will was proved Oct. 9th in that year. 
 
76o HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 HOLDEN OF COOHILL, WITTON, AND BASTWELL, BLACKBURN. 
 
 James Holdyn was assessed for his lands in Witton to a subsidy in 1523. George 
 Houlden, and the wife of Thomas Houlden, for lands in Witton paid the Subsidy in 
 1570. In I2th Eliz. (1569), Ellen Holden, claiming as lessee of Edward Standish 
 who was seized in fee, and also claiming her jointure, was against Evan Holden and 
 Thomas Holden, claiming also as lessees, and Edward Standish, as in fee, in a suit as 
 to divers lands in Whitton ; defendants alleging forfeiture of title by Ellen Holden 
 having a child born in adultery by John Abbotte. 
 
 Thomas Holden of Witton, gent., a juror in 1578, died in 1591. Escheat taken at 
 Wigan, Aug. 17th, 36 Eliz., proves that Thomas Holden, late of Witton, died on 
 April 9th, 1591, seized of Coohyll in Witton, held of Edward Standish, Esq., in free 
 socage, being two messuages, two gardens, 10 acres of land, 10 of meadow, 10 of 
 pasture and i of woodland ; also of Bastwell in Blackburn, held of Margery, widow of 
 Robt. Barton, Esq., in free socage, one messuage, garden, orchard, 20 acres of land, 
 10 of meadow, and 10 of pasture ; also of one messuage, 20 acres of land, 10 of 
 meadow, and 10 of pasture in Livesey, held of Richard Livesey, gent., in free socage. 
 Thomas Holden, son and heir, was aged 12 years, 11 months, 10 days. 
 
 Thomas Holden, of Witton, gent., taxed to a Subsidy in 1610, was buried at 
 Blackburn, Feb. 15th, 1616-17. Inq. post mort. taken April 8th, 15th James I., 
 returns that he had held lands in Witton, of Ralph Standish, Esq. ; in Blackburn, of 
 Thomas Barton, Esq. ; in Greene-Tockholes, of James Livesey, gent. ; and 2^ acres 
 in Livesey held of the King, by knight service. Frances Holden, his widow, was 
 then living at Blackburn (she died in Dec, 1633). Thomas Holden, son and heir, 
 was then aged 9 years. 
 
 Thomas Holden of Witton was buried Nov. 29th, 1623. Another Thomas Holden, 
 of Witton, a juror in 1637, and a freeholder in 1650, had issue. Coohill tenement 
 is now embraced in the pale of Witton Park, on the east side of the park. 
 
 St. Mark's Church. — The church of Witton, dedicated to St. Mark, stands on 
 the hill-side just outside the eastern wall of Witton Park. It was erected at a cost of 
 ;^70o; including a gift of ;^200 and the site by Joseph Feilden, Esq., who laid the 
 comer-stone, Oct. 6th, 1836. The church was consecrated June loth, 1837. The 
 church is in the Norman style ; and consists of nave, octagonal tower and spire at the 
 east end, west porch, and a handsome mortuary chapel of the Feildens, added in 1870, 
 forming a south transept. An organ was placed in the church in 1850. The church 
 contains 560 sittings ; 300 are free seats. Value of the living £yx). The Vicar of 
 Blackburn is patron. Rev. G. H. Ashe, B.A., has been Vicar since 1839. 
 
 School-Church, Griffin. — On the Griffin estate the late Thomas Dugdale, 
 Esq., built in 1870 a large school, which is also used for worship on the Sunday. 
 Sittings 594. A new church is projected (1877). 
 
 Wesleyan Chapel. — A chapel for the Wesleyans, which is also used for a 
 Sunday School, was built in Witton in 1867. It is a plain oblong structure of brick 
 and stone. Cost;£'i200; sittings 372. A site for a larger chapel is secured, and a 
 fund is being raised for its erection. 
 
 Primitive Methodist Chapel.— A small brick building, used also for the 
 Sunday School ; built in 1869; cost ;^iooo; sittings 258. 
 
 Day Schools. — The following Schools were under Government inspection in 
 1876 : — St Mark's National, average attendance 77 children ; Griffin School, average 
 attendance 284 children. 
 
YATE-AND-PICKUP-BANK. 761 
 
 CHAPTER XXIL— THE TOWNSHIP OF YATE-CUM- 
 PICKUP-BANK. 
 
 Situation and description— Acreage and Population— Copyhold tenure of lands — Private Burial 
 Grounds— Holden Family of Pickup-Bank and of Yate-Bank -Yates Family, of Yate-Bank, 
 Bank Fold, Windy Bank, Woodhead, and Pickup-Bank— Independent Chapel— Church School. 
 
 YATE-BANK and PICKUP-BANK are spurs of a mountain tract 
 on the south-eastern border of Blackburn Parish. These lofty 
 " Banks" formed the western limit of the ancient Forest of Rossendale, 
 and were thus accounted as e.xtra-parochial. The township is now 
 dealt with parochially as portion of the Parish of Blackburn. The 
 inhabitants have always made Blackburn Church their parish church ; 
 and in 1650 the ecclesiastical surveyors reported; " Yatebank and 
 Piccopbank, part of the Forest of Rossendall, but parcel! of the rectorye 
 of Blackbume, their tythes worth ,^5 per ann." Yate-bank and Pickup- 
 bank were comprised in the chapelry of Over Darwen. The lands of 
 the township descend very steeply to the Hoddlesden Brook. Their 
 watershed is utilized for the water-supply of Blackburn. The area is 
 1360 statute acres. Population: — 1801, 1045; 1811, 1230; r82i, 
 1359; 1831,1209; 1841,1068; 1851,1208; 1861,1111; 1871,766. 
 
 The land in this township is held in copyhold of the Honor of 
 Clitheroe ; and among the chief early copyholders were the families of 
 Yates, who had separate tenements at Bank Fold, Windy Bank, and 
 Woodhead in Yate-bank ; and the Holdens, whose estate was at Eccles 
 Fold in Pickup-bank ; and who held a tenement in Yate-bank ; also, 
 there are glebe-lands belonging to the Church of St. James, Over Dar- 
 wen, at Bank Fold, in Yate-bank ; and belonging to St. John's Church, 
 Blackburn, at Becket Fold. Lang House estate, in Yate-bank, was pur- 
 chased in 1 744 by the trustees of the Poor Stock of Blackburn. At 
 Quaker Fold, Pickup-bank, is a small private burial-ground, enclosed by 
 a wall, containing some forty graves and several inscribed gra -estones of 
 a family of Yates, &c.; and there is another such enclosure at Red 
 Earth, which formerly belonged to a family of Scholes, some of whom 
 were buried in the grave-plot. 
 
 96 
 
76» HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 HOLDEN OF PICKUP-BANK. 
 
 George Holden, first of Pickup-Bank, was a younger son of Ralph Holden of 
 Holden Hall, gent. On the wall of the old house of the Holdens at Pickup-Bank are 
 inscribed with the date "1602" the initials "GH" (George Holden). He had 
 sons, Robert ; George ; and Thomas ; and daughters, Alice, wife of I^awrence 
 Haworth of Th'urcroft, gent.; and Elizabeth, who died unmarried in Oct., 1624. 
 George Holden, the father, was living in 1626, when his son — 
 
 "George Holden of Pickup Bank, junior," died, in May, 1626. He had been 
 made a Governor of Blackburn Grammar School in 1625. His wife had died in June, 
 1619. In his Will, dated May 30th, 1626, testator names sons, Robert (a minor) ; 
 George; and Thomas; daughter Anne (born in 1604); brothers, Thomas and 
 Robert Holden, who are made executors ; and his kinsman Andrew Holden of Todd 
 Hall, to be supervisor. 
 
 "Thomas Holden of Pickup Bank, son of George," had a son, William, bapt. 
 Jan. 21st, 1626-7. 
 
 Robert Holden of Piccop Bank, Greave of Rossendale in 159 1, was Robert, son 
 of the first-named George Holden. " Ellen Holden of Pickup Bank, widow," relict, 
 I think, of this Robert, in her Will, dated May 19th, 1637, names her five sons, James 
 (who had sons, George, and Thomas) ; Thomas (who had George, and Ellen) ; 
 Robert ; John ; and William. 
 
 James Holden of Pickup Bank (eldest son of Robert and Ellen above), served as 
 Greave of Rossendale in 1644. He had sons, George; Thomas, bom in 1634; 
 Robert, born in 1637 ; and John, died in 1656. James Holden of Pickup Bank died 
 in Oct., 1689. 
 
 George Holden of Pickup Bank, yeoman, eldest son of James, married, Aug. 6th, 
 1655, Agnes, daughter of Edward Pilling of Pickup Bank (she died in Feb. 1678-9), 
 and had a son, James Holden, bapt. Sept. 21st, 1657; and daughters, Anne, bom 
 and died in 1656 ; and a second Anne, bom in 1668. 
 
 Thomas Holden of Pickup Bank (second son of James above), died in 1673, a"<l 
 had sons, James, died in 1662 ; Jeremiah, bora in 1662 ; and a second James, bora 
 in 1665. 
 
 Robert Holden, youngest son of James, had issue, sons, James, bom in 1663 ; 
 William, bora in 1665 ; Andrew, bom in 1667 ; and Thomas ; and daughters, Mar- 
 garet, bom in 1656 ; and Ellen, born in 1659. 
 
 Of the younger sons of Ellen Holden, widow, who died in 1637, were, John 
 Holden of Pickup Bank, who died in 1673, and his wife Margery in 1670; and 
 William Holden of Pickup Bank, who had a son Andrew, bom in 1654 ; a daughter 
 Ellen, died in 1663 ; and died in 1675. 
 
 A later Robert Holden of Pickup Bank had sons, Miles, died in 1685 ; and 
 Robert, bom in 1695. 
 
 HOLDEN OF YATE BANK. 
 
 William Holden of Yate Bank was buried March 30th, 1685. Thomas Holden 
 of Yate Bank, yeoman, died in i6gi. His Will is dated Feb. 20th, 1691 ; and 
 names his sons, William, John, Thomas, and James; and a daughter Margaret 
 Robert Holden of Yate Bank died in September, 1710. John Holden of Yate 
 Bank, had a son Thomas, bom in 1701, and other issue. John Holden of Yate Bank, 
 yeoman, died in his 96th year, in 1796. William Holden, living recently, had a 
 small estate in Yate Bank, left to him by his great-uncle John Holden, who died in 
 1796. 
 
YATES OF BANK FOLD. 763 
 
 YATES OF YATE BANK, &c. 
 
 The surname of Yates (anciently Yate), which in modern times has been borne 
 by numerous families (some of considerable standing) in Lancashire and elsewhere, is 
 derived from the hamlet of Yate Bank, and it may be assumed that all the families of 
 Yates descend from one which held an estate in Yate Bank in the l6th century. In 
 the 17th century, the Yateses in Yate Bank and places adjacent already formed so 
 many households, that it is difficult to distinguish persons so as to make out a genea- 
 logy of any one among the various contemporary families. In Yate Bank were 
 families of Yates of Banks or Bank Fold, of Windy Bank, and of Woodhead. Else- 
 where occur, Yates of Pickup Bank ; of Waterside, Hoddlesden ; of Eccleshill ; of 
 Upper Darwen ; of Lower Darwen ; of Duckworth Hall, Oswaldtwistle ; of Belthom ; 
 of Livesey ; of Blackburn ; and of Stanley House, Mellor. Below are named mem- 
 bers in successive generations of the stock of Yateses which remained seated at Yate 
 Bank or at Bank Fold in Yate Bank. 
 
 John Yate, of the Forest of Rossendale, yeoman, dead before 1588, was father of 
 William Yate, of Yate Bank, yeoman (named in a deed dated 1588). William Yate 
 died in 1617. George Yate, of Yate Bank, yeoman, gave by Will, before 1590, 
 6s. 8d. to Blackburn Grammar School. Robert Yate married, in 1602, Ellen Halli- 
 well. Richard Yate had a son Robert, bom in l6ll. Thomas Yate married, in 
 1617, Isabel Yate ; and a Thomas Yate of Yate Bank died in 1623. 
 
 William Yale of Yate Bank, " son of Robert," married, in 161 7, Elizabeth Fish, 
 and had sons, John, bom in 1625 ; and Robert, born in 1627 ; and a daughter Ann, 
 bom in 1622. William Yate died in 1634. 
 
 James Yate of Yate Bank died in 1641. Another James Yate of Yate Bank had 
 sons, William, bom in 1640 ; James ; and Henry. John Yate married, in 1623, Mary 
 Harwood, and had sons, James, bom in 1630 ; Robert, bom in 1631 ; and John, 
 bom in 1637. Richard Yates of Yate Bank had a son William, born in 1638. 
 
 Robert Yates of Yate Bank, "son of William," bom in 1600, married, Dec. 9th, 
 1624. Ann Yates of Jackson-house, and had sons, James, bom in 1625 ; William, 
 bom in 1627 ; a second William, bom in 1630 ; Henry, born in 1632 ; Robert, born 
 in 1634, died in 1637 ; twin sons, bom in 1637 ; and daughters, Alice, Isabel, and 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 William Yates of Yate Bank, yeoman, died in May, 1677. By Jenet his wife he 
 had a son Robert, bapt. Sept. 19th, 1651 ; and other issue. Henry Yates of Yate 
 Bank (son of Robert) had sons, Robert, bom in 1663 ; James ; and Thomas. John 
 Yates of Yate bank had sons, John, bom in 1662; Robert ; and James. William 
 Yates of Yate Bank had a son Henry, born in 1676. William Yates of Yate Bank 
 died in May, 1685. Ellen, wife of William Yates of Yate Bank, died in July, 1687. 
 Robert Yates of Yate Bank, yeoman, had a son Henry, bom in 1688, with other issue. 
 
 George Yates of Yate Bank, yeoman, had a son William, born in 167 1. A later 
 George Yates of Yate Bank, yeoman, had a son George, bapt. March 26th, 1700, 
 and died in Dec, 1722. His wife Mary died in 1709. Thomas Yates of Yate Bank, 
 yeoman, died in May, 1 706. 
 
 William Yates of Yate Bank, yeoman, had sons, William, who died in 1689 ; 
 and Lawrence ; and a daughter Jane, bom in 1699. Ann, wife of William Yates, yeo- 
 man, died in Oct. 1699. Probably the same William Yates, yeoman, of Yate Bank, 
 married, in 1702, Deborah Duckworth of Musbury, and had a son, Robert, born July 
 5th, 1703. " William Yates of Banks, yeoman," died in July, 1739. 
 
 Rev. Robert Yates of Banks, Nonconformist minister at " Yates' Chapel," Over 
 
7^4 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 Darwen (see ante, p. 522), son of William, married, Dec. 30tll, I731, Ellen Smith of 
 Yate Bank. " Robert Yates of Banks, minister," was buried Jan. nth, 164S-9. 
 
 Lawrence Yates of Banks, yeoman, eldest son of William Yates, by Ann his wife 
 (who died in Aug. 1740), had sons, Robert, bom in 1727 ; William ; and John. He 
 died in Oct. 1763. 
 
 Robert Y'ates, yeoman, of Bank Fold, Yate Bank, son of Lawrence, by his wife 
 Elizabeth (Betty), had issue, sons, William, bapt. March 19th, 1760, buried May 29th, 
 1763; and Robert, bapt. April 6th, 1769, buried, July 27th, 1772 ; and daughters, 
 Catherine, bapt. Oct. 13th, 1756, died young ; and Nancy, bapt. Nov. 30th, 1764. 
 The father, Robert Yates, rebuilt the homestead at Bank Fold, and an inscription 
 upon a stone over the stable-door bears the names ' ' Robert and Elizabeth Yates, " 
 and the date " 1765." " Betty, wife of Robert Yates," died aged 51 years, and was 
 buried June 28th, 1785, Robert Yates died aged 66, and was buried April 29th, 1793. 
 
 Robert Yates seems to have had no surviving son. His daughter Nancy became 
 eventual heir to the freehold. She married Robert Smalley of Hey Fold, yeoman, 
 and died, aged 87, in Feb., 1852 ; and the estate at Bank Fold is now held by the 
 representatives of her daughters, Betty Smalley, wife of Wm. Entwistle ; and Kitty, 
 wife of John Pickup of March House (see aiite, pp. 508 and 510). 
 
 YATES OF WINDY BANK IN YATE BANK. 
 
 George Yate de Windie Banke married, in 1617, Jenet Waddington, and had 
 sons, Henry, bom in 1622 ; a son who died in June, 1623 ; John, born in 1624 ; 
 and James, born in 1626. George Yates de Windie Banke was buried Aug. 17th, 
 1656. A later Geoi^e Yates of Windy Bank was living in X674. He had a son 
 William. 
 
 William Yates, yeoman, of Windy Bank, married, April 28th, 1703, Mary Heape, 
 and had a son George, bapt. Nov. 27th, 1709; a daughter Alice, born in 1705 ; &c. 
 William Yates renewed the farm-house at Windy Bank, as attested by a stone in the 
 front wall with the initials " W Y M " (William and Mary Yates) and the date "1718." 
 
 George Yates of Windy bank, yeoman, son of William, married, Feb. 19th, 1739, 
 Alice Eccles of Pickup Bank, and had sons, William, born in 1743; and George, 
 bapt. Nov. 5th, 1756. George Yates, the father, died in March, 1772. Alice Yates 
 of Windy Bank, widow, was buried April 21st, 1775. 
 
 William Yates of Windy bank, son of George, married Feb. 5th, 1767, Betty 
 Pickup (she died in 1777), and had sons, John, born in 1770, died in 1777 ; and 
 William, bapt., Aug. 26th, 1772. "William Yates, the elder, of Windy bank," died, 
 aged 68, May 3rd, 181 1. His son — 
 
 William Yates of Windy Bank, married Elizabeth Bury, and had sons, George ; 
 and William (now living). He died about 1820. His son, George Yates, sold the 
 farm at Windy Bank to Blackburn Waterworks Company some thirty years ago. 
 
 YATES OF WOODHEAD (HODDLESDEN). 
 
 WUliam Yate of Hoddlesden occurs in 1523. James Yate was Greave of Rossen- 
 dale Forest in 1608. Robert Yate of Woodhead married, in 1629, Ann Holden, and 
 had a son Thomas, bom in 1637, &c. W'illiam Yate of Woodhead, by his wife (who 
 died in 1658) had a son Henry, bora in 1656, died in 1660. Robert Yate of Wood- 
 head, Greave of Rossendale in 1677, was living in i688. His descendant- 
 John Yate, of Woodhead, Greave of Rossendale in 1745, by Ann his wife, had 
 sons, John, bapt. Feb. 15th, 1732 ; and William Yates of Woodhead, who had a son 
 William bora in 1769 ; the latter was father of John Yates of Woodhead, who had 
 
YATES OF PICKUP BANK. f^S 
 
 sons, John Yates, of Parrick, and Oliver (Mr. Oliver Yates of Woodhead, where he 
 has built a villa on the freehold, on the site of the old messuage). 
 
 John Yates of Woodhead, yeoman, son of John, died, aged 77, about 1810, by 
 his first wife, a daughter of — Marsden of Okenhurst in Lower Darwen, he had sons, 
 John Yates, of Belthorn ; George ; Hugh ; and Henry. By his second wife, Ann 
 Hayhurst of Blackburn, he had issue, Timothy, Phoebe, and Ann. 
 
 John Yates of Belthorn, eldest son of John, had a son, John Yates of Bank Fold, 
 Yate Bank. 
 
 Henry Yates, of Lower Fold, Woodhead, younger son of John, married Nancy 
 West (who died, aged 90, in 1858), and had sons, Henry ; Christopher, and William, 
 died young ; George, and James; and daughters, Ann, and Mary. The father, Henry 
 Yates, died, aged 68, about 1843. 
 
 Henry Yates of Woodhead, son of Henry, born Aug. 2nd, 1790, was living, 
 aged 84, in 1876. He had a son Henry, and other sons and daughters. 
 
 YATES OF PICKUP BANK 
 
 John Yates of Piccop Banke had a son James, born in 1672. George Yates of 
 Piccop Bank, by Ann, his wife (she died in 1688), had issue. Thomas Yates of 
 Pickup Bank had a son Henry, born in 1697. Robert Yates of Pickup Bank, by his 
 first wife Elizabeth (buried March 27th, 1702) had a son Lawrence. He married, 
 secondly, in Dec, 1704, Sarah Morres of Eccleshill. 
 
 Lawrence Yates of Pickup Bank, yeoman, son of Robert, married, Nov. 1st, 
 1 7 19, Ann, daughter of Christopher Hargreaves of Heap Clough, and had sons, 
 Robert; Christopher; William, died in 1732; and John, died in 1740. Lawrence 
 Yates was buried Oct. 8th, 1763. His younger son, Christopher Yates of Pickup 
 Bank, married, in 1745, Esther Fpole of Over Darwen. 
 
 Robert Yate, son of Lawrence, by Agnes his wife, who died, aged 46, in 1 768, 
 . had sons, Robert ; William ; and other issue. 
 
 Robert Yate of Pickup Bank, by Mary his wife, had sons, Robert, bom in 1772 ; 
 Lawrence, bom in 1775 ; and William, bora in 1776. 
 
 " William Yates of Pickup Bank, son of Robert, had a son James, bora in 1790, 
 died in 1792." 
 
 Independent Chapel, Pickup Bank. — A structure built in 1836 for use as a 
 Sunday School, was adapted as a chapel in i860, for a congregation of Independents. 
 It contains 300 sittings. Rev. J. Clyde has been the minister since 1866. 
 
 Church of England School, Shorrock Fold. — This school was origi- 
 nally built in 1790, but was rebuilt in 1832, and has recently been renovated. It is 
 used for a Sunday School under SL James's Church, Over Darwen. 
 
766 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I.— SEPULCHRAL SLAB OF ROMANO-BRITISH SCULPTURE 
 DISCOVERED NEAR RIBCHESTER IN 1876. 
 
 A description of this relic of the Roman occupation at Ribchester 
 was communicated last year by the author of the present work to the 
 Society of Antiquaries, and to the Historic Society of Lancashire and 
 Cheshire, and was printed in the Proceedings of both societies ; of 
 which the following is the substance. An engraving of the slab is 
 inserted at page 19. 
 
 The discovery of a monumental sculpture of Romano-British work- 
 manship near Ribchester adds a fresh item to the record of remains of 
 the Roman colony disentombed at this important station in the course 
 of centuries. The slab was taken out of the bed of the Ribble by Mr. 
 P. Wearden, who has a farm on the south bank, on Saturday afternoon, 
 April 8th, 1876. The tapered upper end of the stone had been noticed 
 beneath the surface of the water, embedded in earth, some 10 or 12 feet 
 from the river's edge. The spot of the discovery is on the Clayton side 
 of the Ribble, nearly opposite Ribchester, but a few hundred yards 
 higher up the stream. There the river makes a sharp curve against a 
 high bank of boulder-clay on the Blackburn side of the valley, and the 
 force of the current in time of flood has caused continual falls of the 
 bank, the last of which happened a few days before the slab was seen, 
 by which a mass of the bank about four yards wide was submerged. The 
 slab was got out of the river-bed with some difficulty, and brought upon 
 the bank, when its sculptured surface was revealed. Two days after, on 
 April loth, I visited the place and made notes of the relic prior to its 
 removal ; and subsequently I had an engraving made of it from excellent 
 photographs taken for me by Mr. John Geddes. The subject of the 
 sculpture, as will be seen from the wood-cut, is a Roman horseman 
 plunging his spear into the body of a fallen enemy. Its purpose was 
 that of a sepulchral monument to some officer of the Roman garrison at 
 Ribchester. The dimensions of the slab are 5 feet in height, and 2 feet 
 6 inches in width. The material is a fine sandstone, such as is got from 
 the Longridge quarries. The upper end of the slab is gable-shaped, 
 with a battered finial ornament. The sculpture is enclosed within a 
 
ROMAN SEPULCHRAL SCULPTURED SLAB. 767 
 
 panel, pointed at the head, the projected border of the panel being about 
 3in. wide, excepting at the base, which is deeper. The outer edges of 
 the slab are roughly cut and uneven, and the bottom comers are broken 
 away. The ground of the sculpture is pitted all over with punch marks. 
 The design of the sculpture is vigorous, but the execution betokens in- 
 different art in the sculptor. The figures are out of proportion — the 
 body of the horse is too short, and the head of the horseman too large 
 for his body ; the prostrate foeman is a puny creature. The hind legs 
 of the horse are stiff and stumpy ; the tail is a very poor ill-set appen- 
 dage ; the left fore-leg is straight, the right well lifted. The head of the 
 steed is erect, held in by a thick bridle ; the mouth part open, the teeth 
 set ; nostril, eye, and ear well defined ; mane strong and flowing back- 
 ward. The head-gear, tasseled trappings crossing the neck and hind- 
 quarters, and large square saddle-cloth on the flank, are distinctly cut. 
 The rider is erectly seated on his horse ; the leg bent back, and foot, 
 unstirruped, pointed dowTiwards. The warrior's head is bold and large ; 
 the eye full ; nose prominent, but now battered ; jaw massive ; ear 
 clearly cut ; hair thick, and set in ridgy curls. The figure is bare- 
 headed. His dress consists of a short, close-fitting tunic ; and a mantle, 
 meant probably to represent the Roman military cloak or /a/udamenium, 
 fastened over the breast with a large circular brooch (fibula), which has 
 an inner circular indentation. The cloak is pushed back to leave free 
 the extended arms ; the left bearing an oval shield ; the right uplifted 
 and grasping a spear which the soldier has buried in the heart of the 
 vanquished adversary. Besides the spear the horseman is armed with a 
 long dagger, fixed in its sheath on his right side, attached to his girdle. 
 Dagger and sheath together measure 14 inches ; the blade about 9 
 inches ; the hilt of the dagger has a flat, semi-circular knob. The re- 
 maining figure is that of the impaled enemy, recumbent in the lower 
 right-hand comer of the panel. His only visible armour is an irregular 
 oval shield, with a ridged centre. There is no inscription upon the slab, 
 but it may be supposed that it rested when in situ upon an inscribed 
 base-stone, which has not been recovered. Mr. C. Roach Smith attri- 
 butes the sculpture to the Third Century. Camden mentions a some- 
 what similar sculptured slab dug out at Ribchester before his visit nearly 
 three centuries ago, which bore an inscription. 
 
 IL— CONVEYANCE OF THE RECTORY OF BLACKBURN IN 1547. 
 
 Of this transaction (see page 273) I have the following further items 
 communicated by Rev. Canon Raines, F.S.A.: — "On the 12th June, 
 1547 (ist Edw. VI.), Edward Duke of Somerset, uncle and counsailerto 
 ye said King Govemour of His Person and the Lord Protector of his 
 
768 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Realm and Dominions, Sir Wm. Pawlet, K.G., &c., in fulfilment of the 
 Will of Henry VIII., who enjoyned that all Grants, Exchanges, Sales, 
 &c., made or covenanted to be made but not completed by him, should 
 be perfected by his Executors and Counsellors during the minority of 
 his Highness' son, — the said Lord Protector, &c., in fulfilment of an ex- 
 change of Manors and Lands entered into by the late King and Thomas 
 A'b'p of Canterbury but left uncompleted, conveyed to the A'b'p and 
 his successors inter alia the Parsonage of Blackburn, with all its rights 
 and appurtenances to the late Monastery or Abbey of Whalley belonging 
 and late parcel of the possessions thereof, and all Messuages, Houses, 
 Chapels, Lands, Glebes, Tithes, Oblations, and all other jurisdictions, 
 liberties, privileges, &c., and the reversion," &c. — In 1616 the Rectory 
 consisted of the moiety of the Lordship of Blackburn, Glebe Lands, 
 Tithes, Oblations, &c. The Glebe was of three sorts, demesne Lands, 
 Messuages and Lands let to Tenants for years, and Commons. The de- 
 mesne lands contained i6i acres, the Messuages (being 64, besides 
 cottages), with the lands in Blackburn, being 292a. 2r. 2op.; los. per 
 annum was payable out of lands called Berdsworth ; in Samlesbury, 
 lands, 2a. ir. op.; in Cuerdale, 6a. and houses ; in Little Harwood, 
 houses ; in Law (Walton), houses. There seem to have been compo- 
 sitions for Tithe of Hay in several parts of the Parish." — Lane. MSS., 
 vol. xi, pp. 206-220. 
 
 III.— CHURCH EFFECTS IN BLACKBURN IN 1553. 
 
 I am indebted to Mr. J. E. Bailey, F.S.A., for the appended tran- 
 script of an inventory of vestments, and other effects in Blackburn 
 Church, made in 1553, temp. Ranulf Lynney, Vicar (see page 286). 
 
 This indenture made the xvth day of October, in the yere of the reigne of Edward 
 the Sext by the grace of God King of England, france, and Ireland, defender of the 
 feythe and on Earthe of the Churche of England and also of Ireland sup'me heade, 
 betwixe Sr Thomas Holt Knyght Raffe Assheton Esquier & Jhon Bradill gen- 
 tlema three of the comyssyon's upon the behalf of o'r souraigne Lord the King uppon 
 the on p'tie and Ranulphe Lynney Veker off blagburne Jhon Issherwod & Giles 
 bolton churche wardens of the same, thomas dale curate of Samesburye Gilbart Shar- 
 puls & Willm. Warde churche wardens of the same, Richard Wodd curate of Hare- 
 wodd James dobson and Jhon M'rcer churchewardens of the same uppon the other 
 p'tie, Witnesseth that wheare the said Sir Thomas holt Raffe Assheton and Jhon 
 bradill have delivered at the tyme of the sealinge and del)rvry of thes presents to the 
 said Ranulphe Lynney Jhon Issherwod & giles bolton, on chales iiij vestments one 
 coope three auterclothes two corporas fyve for whiche thei aw xxvjli xijs. jd., to 
 thomas france, thomas Winkeley & Edmund Leman on chalis on vestment on coope 
 fower bells on of them being broken, to thomas Dale, Gilbart Sharpuls & Willm 
 Ward two little bells on chalis p'cell gyld on vestment on albe & on amysse & other 
 things belonging to a p'est to celebrate in wt. two old towels, to Ric Wodd, James 
 Dobson & John M'rcer three bells in the stepuU on vestment wt the apprt'n'uces thereto 
 
HAWORTH AND CLAYTON FAMILIES. 769 
 
 app'tening belonging to the said churches and chapels savely to be kept to the use of o'r 
 sovraigne Lord the King, And the s'd Ranulphe, Jhon, giles, thomas, thomas, [Edmund], 
 thomas, gilbert, Willm, Richard, James and Jhon for them and their execut,rs do co- 
 ven'nt and graunt by thes pr'sents to & \vt the said Sr thomas Raffe & Jhon that the 
 said chalices bells & other anoranments atfore rehersed shall not att any tyme hereafter 
 be alienated imbesilled or otherwise put away from o'r said sovraigne lord the King 
 but shalbe awnswaraball & forthcuyng to the use of his highnes at suche tyme and 
 tymes as his ma'tie or his honerabuU counsell shall demaund the same In witness 
 wheareof the pties above named to thes presents intercbaungeably have sette ther scales 
 and putte ther handes the day & yere above wryten 
 
 p me Ranulphu Lynney vicariii p me Thoma Ffrenche capelanu 
 
 p me Rich Wod caplu p me Thoma Dale caplu 
 
 IV.— HAWORTH FAMILY OF BLACKBURN. 
 Respecting George Haworth, of Blackburn in 1570 (see ante, p. 
 396), Canon Raines favours me with a note from his Lancashire MSS.: — 
 "II April 12 Eliz. [1569]. — B'p of Chester's Act Book. — Forasmuch as it 
 apereth by Certifficate from Sir John Hulton, Vicar of Blagburn that George 
 Haworth usethe to repaire to hys p'ish churche att lyme of devine s'vice and to 
 receive the hollie co'ion [communion] usuallie, It is order'd that he shall soe hereafter 
 orderlie behave himself and that he shall not hereafter at any tyme mayntaine or 
 relieve in anie maner or sort Mr. Edmund Haworth, clerke, but shall doe his beste 
 endevor to cause hym to be apprehended and brought before ye sayde Rt. Reverend 
 Father imediatlie uppon his saide apprehencon. — Lanc. MSS. vol xxii, p. 340. — 
 This Rev. Edmund Haworth appears to have been a younger son of Robt. Haworth 
 of Haworth near Rochdale, gent. He seems to have been a Roman Catholic Priest 
 I have his letters of Orders and several endorsements of his having attended Bishop's 
 Visitations." 
 
 v.— CLAYTON FAMILY OF CUNLIFFE. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Clayton (see page 562) was sometime minister of the 
 Parochial Chapel of Didsbury, near Manchester, to which office he was 
 elected by the parishioners in 1646. The Minutes of Manchester Pres- 
 byterian Classis record : — "April 14, 1647. Preparation unto ordina- 
 tion, according to Ordinance of Parliament, begun March 4, 1646 : Mr. 
 Thomas Clayton, aged about 28 years. Master of Arts of St. John's, 
 brought certificate of his good conversation from Blackburn, where he 
 was born ; took the National Covenant before the Classis ; desired and 
 freely elected by the people of Didsbury, Co. Lancaster, was examined," 
 &c. He was ordained in Manchester. March 11, 1650, it is reported 
 to the Classis that " Mr. Clayton, minister at Didsbury, did withdraw the 
 Classis and departed out of the Classis without anie order from the 
 Classis." Mr. Clayton quitted Didsbury soon after. During his resi- 
 dence at Didsbury he had two children born : — " 1650. April 9. Bapt. 
 Mary, the daughter of Mr. Clayton, minister of Didsbury." "1651. 
 Buried a sonne of Thomas Clayton, minister." (Booker's Didsbury 
 Chapel, pp. 55-9, 73.) 
 
 97 
 
770 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 VI.-CLAYTON AND DAVENPORT FAMILIES. 
 Respecting the marriage of Mr. John Clayton of Shorrock Green, 
 Mellor (see page 592), Mr. J. P. Earwaker, F.S.A., furnishes the follow- 
 ing note : — " Mr. John Cleaton and Mrs. Margaret Davenport " were 
 married at Stockport, October 22, 1672. There is a portrait of Mrs. 
 Clayton still remaining at Bramhall Hall. She was the youngest 
 daughter of Peter Davenport of Bramhall, Esq., by his wife Anne, 
 daughter of Thomas Legh of Adlington, Co. Chester, Esq. 
 
 VIL— RICHARD AINSWORTH OF PLEASINGTON. 
 Mr. J. P. Earwaker, F.S..A.., notes, as to Richard, second son of 
 Thomas Ainsworth, gent., of Pleasington Hall (see page 617), "that 
 Richard Ainsworth matriculated at Oxford from Brasenose College, Dec. 
 9th, 1 63 1, and is described as fil. Tho. Ainsworth de Pleasington, gen., 
 fil. cet. 19." 
 
 VIH.— TENANTS OF BLACKBURN WAPENTAKE IN 1650. 
 Recently I copied at Towneley Hall, from one of the MSS. of 
 Christopher Towneley headed "1650, Rentall of the VVapentage of 
 Blackbumeshire," the names of tenants of this Court within the Parish 
 of Blackburn, as under : — 
 
 [Blackburn] Sir Thos. Barton, Lo : of Blackburne 4s. Thurstan Maudsley, 5s. 
 Thos. Dewhurst 20s. Nich. Hawoith id. Richard Dickinson 4d. Thos Hilton 4d. 
 James Cunliffe 3d. Wm. Marsden 3d. James Margerison 4d. 
 
 [Ramsgreave] Roger Gillibourne 6d. 
 
 [Over Darwen] Peeter Money in O. Darwine 4d. 
 
 [Lower Darwen] Peeter [Haworth] in L. Darwyne 2d. Earcroft 6d. 
 
 [Eccleshill] Grimshall Hall 6d. Mr. Grimshaw's tenants Is. 
 
 [Livesey] John Lindsay [Livesey] gent. 30s. Ewood 3d. Thos. Astley for 
 Astley [Stakes] Hall 8d. James Whitall, gent., is.6d. ffeniscliffe, 8d. 
 
 [Witton] James Astley 7d. Widow Greenfield S*. 7d. Miles Marsden 3d. 
 Thomas Holden 3d. 
 
 [Great Harwood] Mr. Heskaith for Martholme is. 8d. Edward Cockshut 3d. 
 
 [Little Harwood] John Clayton, gent., Is. Wm. Worth 6d. Randle Rishton 
 6d, Leonard Paige 3d. Richard Boulton 4d. John Poole [Peele] 4d. 
 
 [Mellor] Tennants of Mellor, 6d. James Whithalgh 6d. Thos. Ilaughton 6d. 
 Henry Walmesley 6d. 
 
 [Pleasington] John Aynsworth id. Wm. Heddocke id. Widow Marsden 6d. 
 Shorrock-hey Is. 3d. 
 
 [Tockholes] Sir Alex. Radcliffe 2s. Ralph Walmesley 6d. Richd. Barker 6d. 
 Tho. Crouchley 6d. 
 
 [Samlesbury] Heirs of Mr. Southworth los. 8d. 
 
 [Cuerdale] The Towne of Cuerdale 3s. Heirs of Ratcliffe Ashton is. Sd. 
 
 [Osbaldeston] Mr. Osbaldeston 8s. 8d. Peter of Osbaldeston Is. 6d. Peter of 
 Oxendale 3d. John Ingham 8d. 
 
 [Balderstone] Robert Smalley 6d. Robert Shaw 3d. Thos. Sallom 6d. 
 
 [Clayton-in-le-Dale] Villa de Showley Is. Villa de Clayton-le-Dale lod. 
 
 [Salesbury and Dinkley] Sir John Talbot 17s. 6d. Idem pro Dinkley Hall lod. 
 
TRADERS' PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT IN 173J and 1756. 771 
 
 Rich. Parker 8(1. Mr. Dewhurst Is. id. Richard Craven lod. Adam Boulton 4d. 
 John Parker 6d. 
 
 [Billington] John Bradley [Braddyll], Esq. 3d. \Vm. Gabbot 8d. Robt. Edel- 
 ston 2d. Rich. Ahriond 3d. 
 
 [Walton-in-le-Dale] Sir Richd. Houghton gs. Mr. Wm. Sharrocke 8d. Ba- 
 nester Hall is. 6d. Stonehouse 6d. James Garston is. Mr. Leigh is. Mr. Sergeant 
 IS. 2d. Ralph Sherley is. Bawden ten't. 3d. Wm. Jackson is. Roger Bruske is. 
 Mr. Walton is. Knowles Ho : is. Poope and Pedlar is. Mr. Woodcocke gd. 
 IX.-PETITIONS OF BLACKBURN TRADERS TO PARLIAMENT, 
 IN 1731 AND 1756. 
 The first Petition subjoined, addressed to the House of Commons 
 in 1 73 1 by Blackburn Traders, indicates the existence of some 
 specialities of Blackburn textile wares at that date : — 
 
 10 March, 1731-2. A Petition of the Manufacturers of Silk, Mohair, and Yam, 
 the Twisters and Twiners of Mohair, Cotton, Thread, and Worsted, and of other 
 the principal traders, within the Towne of Blackborne, in the County of Lancaster, 
 whose names are thereunto subscribed, was presented to the House, and read, alleging 
 that several clauses contained in the Bill, now depending in this House, for preserving 
 and encouraging a new Invention in England by Sir Thomas Lombe, and granting 
 him a farther term of years for the sole making and using his three Italian Engines, 
 will, if the same be passed into a law, be very prejudicial to the Petitioners, and to 
 the trade and interest of the said town ; and therefore praying the House to take the 
 premises into consideration, and that the Petitioners may be heard by themselves, or 
 counsel, against the said Bill.^and may have such proper relief as the nature of their 
 case requires. 
 
 The next Petition, copied from an old broadside communicated by 
 Lieut. Col. Fishvvick, F.S.A., was presented to the House of Commons 
 (as I learn from ih.& Journals of the House) on the 17th January, 1756, in 
 conjunction with a counter-petition of owners of the Ribble Fisheries : — 
 
 To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled. — 
 The humble Petition of several of the principal Landowners, Merchants, Manu- 
 facturers, Tradesmen, and others, Inhabitants in and about the Town of Blackburn, 
 in the County of Lancaster, Sheweth, That in the said Town of Blackburn and in all 
 the Villages and Country lying between the said Town and Walton-in-le-Dale (which 
 stands upon the Turnpike road leading to the said Town of Blackburn about Seven 
 miles distant), is carried on a very great Manufacture of Cotton, coarse Linen Cloth 
 and Checks, for the making whereof divers Materials purchased at London, Bristol, 
 Liverpool, and other parts of this Kingdom are imported into the River Ribble, in 
 the said County, which for a considerable space runs close along the side of the said 
 Turnpike road, and the said Town of Blackburn being a populous, thriving Place 
 great quantities of Grocery Goods are there vended, and much foreign Timber is 
 frequently wanted there for building and other purposes. 
 
 That if the Navigation of the said River be pi-eserved free and open to the 
 utmost natural extent thereof, it will be of very great utility, not only to many of your 
 Petitioners, but to the publick in general, as your Petitioners will thereby save at least 
 four Miles of Land Carriage of their said Materials, and be enabled to manufacture 
 their Goods cheaper and to vend them at lower prices, which will give them the 
 preference at foreign Markets. 
 
772 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 That the navigation of the said River up to Walton aforesaid hath been many 
 years obstructed by ffishing Stalces and Nets set across the same, which hath greatly 
 discouraged all attempts to navigate the said River up to Walton aforesaid till very 
 lately that diverse persons have been prosecuted for the setting such Stakes and Nets ; 
 which practice being absolutely prohibited (as your Petitioners are advised), by the 
 I^ws now in being, your Petitioners thereof most humbly hope that the said Naviga- 
 tion shall be preserved free and uninterrupted so that the Publick may not be deprived 
 of the benefit thereof. 
 
 That it appearing by the votes of this Honourable House that a Petition hath 
 been presented to your Honours praying leave to bring in a Bill for explaining and 
 amending an Act of Parliament made in the First year of the Reign of his late 
 Majesty King George the First, entitled. An Act for the better Preventing fresh Fish 
 taken by Foreigners being imported into this Kingdom, and for the preservation of 
 ''le Fry of Fish, and for giving leave to import Lobsters and Turbets in Foreign 
 Bottoms, and for the better preservation of Salmon within several Rivers in that part 
 of the Kingdom called England. So far as relates to the ffisheries in the said River 
 Ribble, your Petitioners are apprehensive that the design of such Bill is to establish 
 the said method of Setting Stakes and Nets across the said River, whereby the 
 Navigation thereof will be greatly obstnicted, and your Petitioners and others 
 prevented from being so well supplied with diverse materials necessary for the carrying 
 on their said Manufacture and other Merchandise as they might otherwise be to the 
 great injury of many of your Petitioners and the Publick in general. 
 
 Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that they may be heard, by themselves 
 or Counsel, against the said Bill or such part thereof as may affect your Petitioners, 
 or have such relief therein as to this Honourable House shall seem meet. 
 
 And your Petitioners shall ever pray, &c. 
 
 James Margerison 
 Peter Nevill 
 Law. Haydock 
 Henry Robinson 
 Radcliffe Edwards 
 Robert Mills 
 James Lond 
 William Bolton 
 Willm. Boocock 
 Peter Lowcock 
 Jno. Hindle 
 Thos. Haworth 
 Henry Aspden 
 Joseph Browne 
 John Lancaster 
 John Vipont 
 William Fish 
 Jas. Grunall 
 Ellis Greenwood 
 
 Henry Bramwell 
 James Law 
 Richd. Jackson 
 Roger Noblet 
 Richard Partington 
 William Roberts 
 Thos. Ainsworth 
 Thos. Boocock 
 Robert Livesey 
 Henry Heaton 
 Henry Sudell 
 Wm. Leyland 
 Richd. Cardwell 
 John Shepherd 
 Thomas Livesey 
 Edmd. Haworth 
 Smalley & Com. 
 Joseph Whalley 
 Robt. Ainsworth 
 
 Thos. Brewer, jun. 
 Willm. Ward 
 John Ainsworth 
 Robert Holme 
 Robt. Law 
 Edw. Ainsworth 
 John Cowhand 
 James Barlow 
 Robert Preston 
 Thos. Dearden 
 Hen. Bentley 
 James Fish 
 Thos. Hindle 
 John Nutter 
 William Cunliffe 
 John Yates 
 Amos Ogden 
 John Nevill 
 John Margerison 
 
INDEX. 
 
 773 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ABBOT House, Mellor, 590 
 • family, of Mellor, 5S9-90 
 
 Rev. Thomas, Curate of Walton and 
 
 Samlesbury, 589-90, 676, 738 
 
 family, of Whitebirk, Biackburn,26o 
 
 Accrington, Machine-breaking at, 233 
 Agricola in Lancashire, 4, 6, 7, 10 
 Ainsworth family, of Blackburn, 386 
 
 Thomas, Ksq., 377, 386 
 
 of Feniscowles, 662-3 
 
 lordsofPleasington, 420, 614-19, 770 
 
 Henry, the Puritan, 615-17 
 
 Thomas, M.A., Master of Black- 
 burn School, 345, 348 
 
 Allsprings, Great Harwood, 541 
 Altars, Roman, at Ribchester, 16, 18 
 Alum Mine at Alum Scar, Pleasington, 
 
 96-7, 624-5 
 Ambrose, Isaac, Minister, 692, 719 
 Appleby Castle, capture of, 176-7 
 Arderne, lords of Nether Darwen, 55, 467 
 Arkwright, Richard, the Inventor, 204, 
 
 208, 210 
 Armada, the Spanish, in 1588, 83 
 Armistead family, of Blackburn, 387 
 Armlets, Saxon, found at Cuerdale, 39-40 
 Arleys in Mellor, 590 
 Ashburner family, of Blackburn, 387 
 Ashton family, of Blackburn and Darwen, 
 
 500-1 
 Aspden of Arleys, Mellor, 590 
 
 of Red Lee, Tockholes, 686 
 
 Dr. Nathaniel, 368 
 
 Aspinall of Royshaw, Blackburn, 260-1 
 
 of Lower Darwen, 475, 584 
 
 Aspinall Fold, Lower Darwen, 475 
 Assheton family, of Cuerdale, 113, 464-5, 
 
 730. 740 . ^.„. 
 
 of Great Leaver, Estate in Billing- 
 
 ton, 429-3° 
 
 Sir Edmund's Dole, 553-4 ; Gifts to 
 
 Blackburn Grammar School, 335-6 
 
 Col. Ralph of Middleton, in the 
 
 Civil War, 127-8, 137-9, 142-3, 151, 
 156, 176-7 
 
 Astley family, of Blackburn, 576 
 
 of Fishwick, 575 
 
 Astley, of Ewood and Stakes Hall, 
 Livesey 571-7 
 
 Dr. Richard, Warden of All Souls' 
 
 Coll., Oxford, 572-3 
 
 Rev. George, curate of Handforth, 
 
 310. 576 
 
 of Mellor, 590-1 
 
 of Over Darwen, 501 
 
 of Witton and Livesey, 577-8, 756 
 
 Astley Bank, Over Darwen, 509-10 
 Astley-gate, Blackburn, 247 
 Atherton of Banister Hall, 226, 725-6 
 Atkinson, Rev. Thomas, Master of Black- 
 burn .School, 345, 348 
 
 Audley Hall, Blackburn, 274, 285, 634 ; 
 arson at, in 1550, 635-6 
 
 Rectorial estate of Blackburn, 274, 
 
 284-5 
 
 BAILEY family, of Coal Pits, Lower 
 Darwen, 475 
 
 Rev. John, Nonconformist Divine, 
 
 358-9 
 
 J. E., 189, 300, 358, 768 
 
 Balderstone township, 63, 88, 186,413-24 
 manor, 54 ; descent of, 413-17 
 
 Hall, 421 
 
 family, 413-14, 418 
 
 Church of St. Leonard, 422-4 
 
 Charities, 424 
 
 landowners in, 421 
 
 Sunderland Grange in, 417-20 
 
 Baldwin family, of Blackburn, 387 
 Bamber Bridge, Walton, 705 ; Calico 
 
 Printing at, 210-11 ; Old Hall at, 730 
 Banastre family, lords of Walton, 50-1, 
 54-5, 705-6 ; lords of Nether Darwen, 
 466 
 
 of Banister Hall, Walton, 726-7 
 
 Geoffrey, Vicar of Blackburn, 286, 
 
 726 ; his Chantry, 303 
 
 Banister Hall, Walton, 726, 731-2 
 Bank Hey, Little Harwood, relics of a 
 
 battle at, 146-7 ; house at, 562-3 
 Bank House, Blackburn, 119 
 Banning, William, founder of Blackburn 
 
 Methodism, 367, 526 
 
774 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Baptist Chapels, at Blackburn, 364-5 ; at 
 
 Darwen, 527 
 Barcroft family, of Blackburn, 258, 261 
 Barker of Weetley, Billington, 441-2 
 Barlow, Dr. James, 411 
 
 ■ Rev. John, curate of Harwood, 550 
 
 Barnard, Joshua, Minister of Darwen 
 
 Chapel, 511-12 
 Barnes, Rev. James, 678-80 , 
 Baron family, of Knuzden, and Larkhill, 
 
 255. 388-9 
 of Darwen and Eccleshill, 502 
 
 of Tockholes, 686-7 
 
 Barton family, of Smithells, lords of Black- 
 bum, 1 1 1, 252-4, 256, 259 ; estate in 
 Ramsgreave, 628-9 
 
 of Barton House, Darwen, 502 
 
 Battles, at Billington, 27-8 ; Blackburn, 
 
 114-16, 118-20, 122, 146-7; Bolton, 
 145 ; Brindle, 180-2 ; Burnley, 29, 
 147-8; Lancaster, 126-7; Manchester, 
 108 ; Marston Moor, 148-9 ; Nantwich, 
 142; Preston, 122-3, '57-74' '94-5; 
 Tockholes, 129-30; Walton, 151-2 ; 
 Whalley, 130-7 ; Wigan Lane, l8i-2 
 Beardwood, Blackburn, 266, 629 
 Bellasyse, lords of Blackburn, 254-5 
 Bell family, of Thirsk, and Livesey 
 
 Manor, 570 
 Bell, Thomas, of Mosney, Inventor, 225-6 
 Benson, Capt. James, and the Alum 
 
 Works at Alum Scar, 625 
 Billangahoh, Battle of, 27-8 
 Billinge Carr (Scar), 266, 685 
 Billinge Hill, 2, 755 
 
 Billington township, 27-8, 41,62,86, 186, 
 425-56 
 
 manor, 54-5 ; descent of, 425-9, 434-7 
 
 manor-place, 428 
 
 De, family, 51,55, 425-6 
 
 freeholders of, 438-447 
 
 Charities, 455-6 ; School, 456 
 
 Commons Inclosure, 456 
 
 Birch, Rev. Edward (Canon, now Arch- 
 deacon), Vicar of Blackburn, 300 
 
 Birley family, of Blackburn, 389-90 
 
 Blackburn Hundred (Blackbumshire) 1, 
 49, 50-1, 75, 83, 102, 112; Wapentake, 
 tenants of, in 1650, 770-1 
 
 Parish, 2,4-6, 12, 71, 75, 83, 86, &c. 
 
 Township and Town, i, 8, 61, 86, 
 
 241, 245-412 
 
 name of, 1,41 ; Roman station at, 5 ; 
 
 at Norman Conquest, 45, 246; aspect 
 temp. Elizabeth, 247-8 ; musters of 
 soldiers at, in 1608, 85 ; in 1642, 112 ; 
 aspect in 1642, 120; assaults on, in 
 Civil War, 114-16, 118-20, 122; Prince 
 Rupert a!, 146 ; relics of battle near, 
 146-7 ; aspect in 1702, 193 ; Jacobites 
 at, in 1715, 195; Wesley at, 200; 
 first cotton factories in, 230-1 
 
 Blackburn Authors and Inventors, 410-12 
 
 Blackburn Borough, Parliamentary, and 
 Elections, 372-4 ; Municipal, 375-7 ; 
 Charter of Incorporation, 375-6; Town 
 Council and Mayors, 376-7 ; Town 
 Clerks, 377 ; Corporation Buildings 
 and Works, 377-81 
 
 Blackburn Cemetery and Burial Board, 381 
 
 Blackburn Charities, 349-51 
 
 Blackburn Church, Parish, 49, 219, 270- 
 312; foundation and endowment, 271-2; 
 Rectory, 65, 70, 272-85, 767-8 ; Rectory 
 glebe, 258-9, 273-6, 284-5 ' parsonage, 
 274 ; farmers of Rectory Estate, 273-8, 
 284-5, 758 ; survey of, 276-7 ; Sancroft 
 Trust, 278-82 ; Vicarage, 67 ; ancient 
 endowment, 272 ; Vicarial glebe, 258, 
 272, 288, 291, 293-9 ; Vicars, 67, 69, 
 77, 271-3, 286-300; Vicarage House, 
 272, 291-2 ; Act on Vicar's Leases, 
 297-8 ; Description of the Old Church, 
 301-2 ; the New Church fabric, 306-7 ; 
 Chantries, 67, 302-6 ; Organ, 307 ; 
 Bells, 308 ; sepulchral monuments in, 
 219, 308-10; Parish Registers, 120, 
 311-12; Parish Clerks and Sextons, 
 311-12 ; Church effects in 1553, 768-9 
 
 Blackburn Churches, of the Establishment, 
 St. John's, 351; St. Paul's, 352; St. 
 Peter's, 352 ; Holy Trinity, 352 ; St. 
 Michael's, 352 ; Christ's, 353 ; St. 
 Thomas's, 353 ; All Saints', 353 ; St. 
 James's, 353 ; St. Luke's, 353 ; St. 
 Silas's, 353 
 
 Blackburn Churches and Chapels, Dis- 
 senting, 357-70 ; Independent, 357-63 ; 
 Baptist, 364-5 ; Presbyterian, 365-6 ; 
 Wesleyan, 366-9 ; other Methodists, 
 &c., 369-70 
 
 Blackburn Chapels, Roman Catholic, 
 353-7 ; Convent of Notre Dame, 357 
 
 Blackburn Clubs, 385 ; Exchange, 384-5 
 
 Blackburn Commons and Waste Lands, 
 enclosure of, 256-60; Town's Moor, 260 
 
 Blackburn Dispensary and Infirmary, 382-4 
 
 Blackburn, Factories, Cotton, first in, 230-1 
 
 Blackburn De, family, lords of Blackburn 
 and Rishton, 50, 249-50, 302, 631 ; of 
 Walton, 250 ; of Wiswell, 250-1 
 
 Blackburn Gentry, yeomen, merchants, 
 &c., 260-70, 386-410 
 
 Blackburn Grammar School, 312-49 ; 
 origin. Chantry School, 312 ; Queen 
 Elizabeth's Charter, 312-15, 340; 
 Plaint in 1585 and Decree, 315-21 ; 
 estates, 321-2, 332, 334, 336, 339-40, 
 343-6 ; Parish Subscription for, 322-4 ; 
 Governors, 313, 324, 328-45; Evi- 
 dences and Writings, 325-6 ; School 
 Statutes, 326-8 ; Annals of, from 1593 
 to 1875, 328-45 ; School Rents and 
 Accounts, 339, 344, 346 ; School 
 House, 332, 343, 346 ; Head Masters, 
 346-8 ; Ushers, 348-9 
 
INDEX. 
 
 775 
 
 Blackbum, Girls' Charity School, 350-1 
 Blackburn Manor, 53 ; descent of, 249-55 
 Blackburn Markets and Market House, 
 
 Fairs, 24S-9, 377-8 
 Blackburn Newspapers, 412 
 Blackburn, Population of, 412 
 Blackburn Town Hall, 377 ; Corporation 
 
 Park, 37S ; Free Public Library and 
 
 Museum, 378-80 ; Public Baths, 3S0 
 Blackburn Poor I^aw Union, 381 ; Union 
 
 Workhouse, 381 ; Poor's Lands, 350 
 Blackburn Schools, Day and Sunday, 
 
 370-2 ; Blackburn School Board, 371-2 
 Blackburn Traders, Petitions of, 771-2 
 Blackburn Volunteers, 412 
 Blakeburn(Blakewater) stream, 1,2,41,249, 
 Blacksnape Heights, 2, 6-7, 10 
 Blewett, Anthony and Morley, their 
 
 estate in Dinkley, 749-50 
 Block-printing, process of, 211-12 
 Blore, George, Charity of, 586, 704 
 Boardman family, of Livesey, 364-5, 578-9 
 kev. \Vm., Master of Blackburn 
 
 School, 345, 348 
 Bolton, town, stormed, and massacre at, 145 
 
 Grammar School, Estate in Eccles- 
 
 hiU, 598 
 
 Bolton family, of Brookhouse, Blackburn, 
 
 262-6 
 Adam, Vicar of Blackburn, 185, 
 
 262, 287 
 
 — - Rev. Robert, the Puritan, 262-6 
 
 of Bank Hey, Little Harwood, 561-2 
 
 tenants of Ramsgreave, 628 
 
 of Salesbury, &c., 655 
 
 Bowring, John, L.L.D. (Sir John), 372-3 
 
 Boyes of Boyes House, Ribchester, 751 
 
 Braddyll in Billington, 438-41 
 
 Braddyll family, of Braddyll and Portfield, 
 54, 70, 117, 192, 417, 438-41, 663, 675 
 
 John, Esq., 439, 448, 749 
 
 Bradkirk, Capt. Cuthbert, at Clitheroe 
 Castle, 150 
 
 Bradley, Richard, usher of Blackburn 
 School, a recusant, 356 
 
 Bradley in Tockholes, 690 
 
 Bradshaw, lords of Nether Darwen, 468-9 
 
 Brandwood family, of Turncroft, 502 
 
 Briggs family, of Blackburn, 390 
 
 W. E. Esq., M.P., 374, 390 
 
 Brindle, fight at, in 1 65 1, 180-2 
 
 Brockhole in Billington, 439-41 ; Brock- 
 hole Eases, tumulus at, 29 
 
 Brookhouse in Blackburn, 262 ; Brook- 
 house .Mills, 231 
 
 Brookside, Mr. Peel's factory at, 205 ; 
 Print Works at, 217, 223-4 
 
 Brooks family, of Blackburn, 390 
 
 Broughton Tower, 709-10 
 
 Browne, Edward, Schoolmaster of Black- 
 bum School, 330, 347 
 
 Brownhill Com mon, Little Harwood, 563 
 
 Brunanburh, Battle of, 29, 31 
 
 Brungerley Hipping-stones, Clitheroe, 
 
 Henry VL taken at, 57-8 
 Bullough, James, Inventor, 410 
 Bunker's Hill, Livesey, Old Coal Mines 
 
 on, 564 
 Burgess, Thomas, priest, 305, 315, 319 
 Buri, De, family, lords of Livesey, 53, 565 
 Burnley, remains of ancient fortifications 
 
 at, 29 
 
 Chantry at, 67 
 
 Burscough family, of Walton, 727, 743 
 
 Bury, Print Works at, 217, 220 
 
 Bury family, of Bury Fold, Darwen, 502-3 
 
 of Ousebooth, Blackburn, 266 
 
 Butler and Butler-Bowdon family, of 
 
 Pleasington Hall, 620-1 
 
 CALICO-PRINTING in theParish, 210- 
 
 12 ; decline of, 236 
 Calrow family, of Walton Lodge, 226, 727 
 Calvert family, of Balderstone, 421, 424 
 Camden at Ribchester, 13, 15 ; at Black- 
 burn, 248 
 Camps, Roman, at Ribchester 11-20; at 
 
 Mellor, 8, 22 ; at Walton, 21-2 
 Canal, Leeds and Liverpool, made, 241-3 
 Cardwell family, of Blackburn, 390- 1 
 
 Dr. Edward, 391 
 
 • Viscount, of EUerbeck, 391 
 
 Carr in Wilpshire, 754 
 Carr family, of Blackburn, &c., 392, 561 
 Castle Holme, Billington, 442 
 Caterall, R.alph, of Little Mitton, 432 
 Catholic, Roman, Missions, in Blackburn, 
 354-7 ; Brindle, 355 ; Lower Darwen, 
 487 ; Over Darwen, 527 ; Great Har- 
 wood, 552 ; Osbaldeston, 61 1 ; Pleas- 
 ington (Priory), 625-6; .Samlesbury, 
 355' 677 ; Walton-in-Ie-Dale, Brown- 
 edge, 741 ; Wilton Village, 742 
 Census, Educational, of Blackburn, 37 1 
 
 Religious, of Blackburn, in 1804, 
 
 360-1 
 Chaderton, De, lords of "Witton, 54, 755 
 Chantries, at Blackburn Church, 302-6, 
 318; at Clitheroe, 66; at Great Har- 
 wood Chapel, 66-7, 545-6; at Holt, 
 Rishton, 635, 637-8 
 Chapel Street Independent Church, 
 
 Blackburn, 360-2 
 
 Chapels (see under the several townships) 
 
 Charles I., reign 100-179; receipt of 
 
 news of Battle of Preston, 175-6 ; 
 
 death, 177 
 
 Charles II. at Preston in 1 65 1, 179; 
 
 Restoration of, 183 ; death, 190 
 "Checks" and "Greys" (linen cloths), 
 
 201-3 
 Chetham, Humphrey, Sheriff of Lanca- 
 shire, loo-i 
 Chew family, of Billington, 442-4 ; Chew 
 
 House, 443 
 Chippendall family, of Blackburn, 392 
 
776 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Church Bank, Print Works at, 221-2 
 Churches (see under the several townships) 
 Civil War, 1642-51, local events of, 102-82 
 Clayton-in-le-Dale township, 42, 63, 87, 
 186, 457-61 
 
 manor, 54 ; descent of, 457-8 
 
 New Hall in, 654-5 
 
 Clayton family, of Bamber Bridge, CalicD 
 
 Printers, 211 
 lords of Little Harwood, 51, 556-60 
 
 of Blackburn and Shorrock Green, 
 
 Mellor, 287, 336, 591-2, 769 
 
 Rev. Leonard, Vicar of Blackburn, 
 
 185, 287-92, 311-12, 334, 591 
 
 of Cunliffe, Little Harwood, 562, 769 
 
 of Clayton Hey, 460-1, 649 
 
 Clerk Hill estate, Whalley, 407 
 Clitheroe (Cliderhou) Castle, 48, 53, 112; 
 
 held by Roundheads, 147 ; by Royalists, 
 150; Mutinous Militia at, 177; demo- 
 lition of, 177-8 
 Clitheroe Court, 53-4, 56 ; Fee of, 51, 53 
 Clitheroe (Cliderhou), De, family, lords 
 
 of Salesbury, 54-5, 645-7 
 Clothiers, local, petition of, 202 
 Coal Pits, at Blackburn, 257, 274, 490 ; 
 Over Darwen, 490, 499 ; Lower Dar- 
 wen, 475, 490 ; Eccleshill, 490, 596-7 ; 
 Livesey, 564 ; Tockholes, 490 
 Cocc'um (\Valton), a Roman Station, 11 
 Cockshutt family, of Great Harwood, 
 
 541-2, 548, 554 
 Coddington, William, Esq., 307, 374, 
 
 376-7. 398 
 Coins, Roman, found at Ribchester, ig 
 
 Saxon, &c. , found at Cuerdale, 29-38 
 
 Colne, fight at, in 1644, 146-8 
 
 Colton, Rev. William, 514, 547-9, 739 
 
 Commons and Waste Lands, Enclosure 
 
 of, Blackburn, 256 ; Billington, 456 ; 
 
 Lower Darwen, 487 ; Over Darwen, 
 
 496-7 ; Little Harwood, 563 
 
 Coohill (Cowhill), in Rishton, 638-40, 
 
 642-3 ; in Witton, 760 
 Cooper family, of Over Darwen, 503 
 Cotton Manufacture, rise and progress of, 
 in the Parish, 201-10, 229-37 ; statistics 
 of, 236-7 
 County Court, Blackburn, 385-6 
 Cowpe, Thos., executed as a Rebel, 196 
 Cowper family, of Showley, 461 
 Cranmer, Abp. , Rector of Blackburn, 274 
 Craven family, of Dinkley, 749-50 
 Craven P"old, Dinkley, 750 
 Critchley, James, Minister of Langho, 449 
 Crompton, Samuel, Inventor, 208-10; at 
 Darwen, 491-2 
 
 Samuel, Esq., of Manchester, 576 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver (General and Lord Pro- 
 tector), at Marston Moor, 148-9 ; at 
 Clitheroe and Stonyhurst, 156-7 ; victory 
 of, at Preston and Walton, 157-75 ! 
 despatches, 167-74; Lord Protector, 254 
 
 Cromwell, Lady Mary, 254-5 
 
 Thomas, letter to Lord Essex, 68-9 
 
 Crook, Thomas, of Abram, 559 ; his chari- 
 ties, 739, 743-4 ; Samuel, 720 
 
 Crosse family, of Over Darwen, 503-4 
 
 William, gent., 504, 512 
 
 Cross, Market, at Blackburn, 247 
 Crosses, ancient wayside, &c, 26 
 Cuerdale, Hoard of Saxon Treasure found 
 at, 29-40, 462 
 
 township, 86, 462-5 
 
 manor, descent of, 462-5 ; Hall, 465 
 
 (Keuerdale) De, family, 54, 462-3, 
 
 649 
 
 Culcheth family, of Samlesbury, 671-2 
 Cunliffe, in Billington, 434-5, 445 ; in 
 Little Harwood, 562, 769 
 
 family, of Cunliffe, Hollins, &c., 445 
 
 of Gt. Harwood and Blackburn, 392-3 
 
 of Tonge Hill, Pleasington, 623 
 
 Cylinder-machine forCalico Printing, 225-6 
 
 "DANDY Factory," Blackburn, 231-2 ; 
 
 attacked by loom-breakers, 233-5 
 Danish Hoard at Cuerdale, 29-38 
 Darwen River, 2, 3, 41, 488 
 Darwen, Lower (Nether), township, 7, 
 
 61-2, 87, 181, 466-87 
 
 manor, 54 ; descent of, 466-70 
 
 Families of gentry and yeomen, 
 
 470-86 
 
 Church of St. James', 486 ; Dissent- 
 ing Chape's, 486-7 
 
 Commons, enclosed, 487 
 
 Murder at, in 1604, 481 
 
 Darwen, Over, name of, 488-9 ; ancienr 
 
 forests in, 489 
 
 township, 61, 88, 186, 488, 528 
 
 manor, 54 ; descent of, 495-5CO 
 
 waste lands, plaint respecting, in 
 
 1556, 488 
 
 Families of gentry, ancient and 
 
 modern, 500-11 
 
 Coal Mining in, 490 ; early traders, 
 
 491 ; Calico-printing, 491 ; Paper-mak- 
 ing, 492-3 ; Bleach works, 491-2 ; first 
 Cotton factories at, 493 ; power-looms 
 destroyed at, 234 
 
 town of, 493-4 ; population of, 494 
 
 Church of St. James, 511-17 ; other 
 
 churches, 517 
 
 Nonconformity in, 5'8-27 ; Congre- 
 gational Churches, 518-26; Baptist 
 Church, 527 ; Methodism in, 526-7 
 
 Fatal Flood at, in 1848, 495 
 
 Day and Sunday Schools, 527-8 ; 
 
 Charities, 528 
 
 Local Board of Health, 493 ; Ceme- 
 tery, Water Works, and Gas Works, 494 
 
 Free Library, 495 
 
 Davenport, Albin, Esq., 559; Mrs., 592, 
 770 ; Humphrey, and Wm., 653 ; John 
 de, 707 ; Peter, 770 
 
INDEX. 
 
 777 
 
 Deane family, of Billington, 428, 445-6 
 Dean, Rev. Samuel, Master of Blackburn 
 School, 343-4. 348 
 
 Sir Richard, curate of Great Har- 
 
 wood, 546 
 
 De la Pryme family, of Blackburn, 393 
 Derby, Earls of, lords of Balderstone, 
 415; of Samlesbury, 669 
 
 Edward, third Earl of, occupies 
 
 Whalley Abbey for the King, 67-9 ; 
 rebuilds Samlesbury Chapel, 673-4 
 
 — — James, Earl of, at Blackburn during 
 theCivil War, 121 ; attack on Lancaster, 
 126-7 ; capture ol Preston, 127 ; rifles 
 Blackburn, 128 ; defeat at Whalley, 
 130-6 ; in Isle of Man, 138 ; at storm- 
 ing of Bolton, 145 ; at Marston Moor, 
 148-9; at Preston in 1651, 180; at 
 Worcester, 182 ; executed at Bolton, 182 
 
 Countess of, her defence of Lathom 
 
 House, 143-4 
 
 Thomas, Earl of, his Chantry in 
 
 Blackburn Church, 303-5, 309, 415 
 
 Edward, eleventh Earl, at Preston 
 
 in '745. 197 
 Dewhurst family, of Blackburn, 266-7 
 of Over Darwen, 505 
 
 of Dewhurst, Wilpshire, 750-1 
 
 Dinkley township, 63, 87, 188, 745-54 
 • manor, 54 ; descent of, 746 ; Hall, 
 
 194. 649, 746 
 
 genti-y and freeholders of, 746-53 
 
 Distress, popular, in Blackburn, in 1826, 
 
 232-5; in 1S47 and 1861-5, 236 
 Dodsworth, Roger, Antiquary, 536, 7 10, 7 19 
 Domesday Survey of Blackburn, 47-8 
 Duckworth, lords of Over Darwen, 500 
 Dudley, Sir Edmd., lord of Balderstone, 416 
 Dugdale family, of Great Harwood and 
 
 Blackburn, 393-4 
 
 Thomas, Escj., 376, 378, 394 
 
 Messrs. J., E. & J., of Studlehurst 
 
 and Oxendale, 609, 611 
 
 Dunkenhalgh Hall, 130, 193 
 
 Dunn, Rev. Dr., Priest at Blackburn, 356 
 
 Duxbury family, of Great Harwood, 542-3 
 
 John and Thos., of Rishton, 229 
 
 EARDULPH, King, 27-8 
 Earwaker, J. P., 770 
 Easterley, Whalley, 133 
 Eccles family, of Blackburn, 394 
 
 Bannister, & Co., 232 
 
 of Lower Darwen, &c., 475-6 
 
 of Over Darwen, 477 
 
 of Eccleshill, 598-9 
 
 Eccles Fold, Pickup Bank, 761-2 
 Eccleshill, township of, 61, 86, 187, 587, 
 
 596-9 
 
 manor, descent of, 596-7 
 
 (Eccleshull), De, family, 596-7 
 
 Freeholders of, 598-9 
 
 Eccleshill Fold, old House at, 598 
 
 Edge family, of Blackburn, 267 
 Edward the Confessor, lord of Blackburn, 
 
 45. 47 
 
 IV., his grant to John Talbot, 58 
 
 VI., 316-17, 767 
 
 Elections, Municipal, in Blackburn, 376 
 
 Parliamentary, in Blackburn, 372-4 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, reign of, 76 ; death of, 
 
 84 ; her claim to Blackburn Rectory 
 
 lands, 264 j Charter to Grammar School 
 
 at Blackburn, 312-15 
 Elkar in Billington, 444-6 
 Ellingthorpe of Shorrock Hey, 623 
 Enfield Moor, Parliamentarian Muster 
 
 on, 1 15-16 
 Everfiekl family, of Tockholes, 687 
 Evyas, De, lords of Samlesbury, 54, 658 
 Ewood in Livesey, 565, 572, 580 
 
 De, family, 565-6 
 
 Exchange, Blackburn, 384-5 
 
 FACTORY Hill, Blackburn, first cotton 
 
 mill at, 230 
 Fairfax, Lord, forces of, at Nantwich, 142; 
 
 at Lathom House, 143 
 Famine in Lancashire in 1644, 153 
 Farington family, of Audley Hall and 
 
 Worden, 274, 603, 736 
 . William, a Royalist, 106-7, ' '4 i 
 
 estate sequestrated, 141-2 ; at Marston 
 
 Moor, 149 
 Fearnhurst (manor-house), Lower Darwen, 
 
 469-70, 483, 485 
 Feilden family, of Blackburn and Witton 
 
 Park, 284, 421, 756-9 
 
 of Feniscowles, 621-2; Sir William, 
 
 M.P., 344, 372-3, 571 
 
 of the Holt in Rishton, 638 
 
 of Pythome, Wilpshire, 752 
 
 Feniscliffe in Livesey, 578-9 
 Feniscowles Hall, 622 ; Old Hall, 624 
 Feniscowles, Emmanuel Church, 584-5 
 Fish family, of Chapels, Darwen, 505-6 
 ■ of Eccleshill. 599 
 
 Fish Lane, Blackburn, old house in, 215 
 Fishwick Hall and estate, 575 
 Fishwick, Lt.-Col. H., 771 
 Fleetwood family, lessees of Blackburn 
 
 Rectory estate, 259, 275-8, 284,671, 738 
 Fleetwood Hall, Samlesbury, 671 
 Fleming, John, of Blackburn, 394 
 Fletcher, Rev. Joseph, M.A., 361 
 Flodden Field, Blackburn Men al, 60-1 
 Forces, Lancashire, Order for pay of, 178-9 
 Foster of Bank Hey, Little Harwood, 562 
 
 ■ Robert, Schoolmaster, 336-7, 347 
 
 Fox family, of Oxendale, 6lo-ii 
 Freeholders, local, in 1600, 83 
 Friends' Meeting-house, Blackburn, 370 
 Fuller, Dr. Thomas, 625 
 Fulthrop, Roger de. Judge, 646 
 Fytton family, lords of Great Harwood, 
 
 50-1. 55. 531-2 
 
 100 
 
77S 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN, 
 
 GARSTON (Garsden) family, of Tock- 
 
 holes, &c., 683-5,697 
 Garstanes in Tockholes, 685 
 Gerarde, Jolin, author of a " Herbal," 535 
 Gerard, lords of Balderstone, 41 7; Sir 
 
 Gilbert, 321-2, 417 
 
 of Radboume in Brindle, 458-9 
 
 Gilbert, Alexr., Minister of Tockholes, 692 
 Gillibrand family, of Beardwood, 629 
 
 of Ramsgreave, 629-30 
 
 Girlington, Sir John, Sheriff", 104-5, "^ 
 Girls' Charity School, Blackburn, 350-1 
 Glover family, of Blackburn, 395 
 Gourlay, Wm., 236, 41 1 
 
 Gradwell, Wm. and Thos. , of Preston, 610 
 Greenfield family, of Witton, &c., 759 
 Greenough Castle, siege of, 150, 154 
 Green-Tockholes, Livesey, 581-4 
 Greenway family, of Darwen, 491, 506 
 Griffith, Rev. G., Ministerat Darwen, 520-2 
 Grimshaw family, of Grimshavv, 597 
 -^— of Okenhurst, Lower Darwen, 477 
 
 of Clayton Hall, 540 
 
 Grimshaw in Eccleshill, 597 
 
 Rev. W., Incumbent of Haworth, 200 
 
 Nich., Esq., MSS. of, 592 
 
 Gristwayth, John de. Vicar of Blackburn, 
 
 286, 427 
 Grosart, Rev. A.B., LL.D., 366, 411 
 Guest, Mary, gift to Tockholes Chapel, 702 
 
 Richard, Schoolmaster, 341-2 
 
 HABYNDON, John de, Vicar of Black- 
 bum, 286 
 Hacking estate in Billington, 27-8, 430-8 ; 
 
 Hall, 437-8 
 Hacking, De, family, 54, 430 
 Haggate, fight at, in 1644, 147-8 
 Halliwell family, of Tockholes, 687 
 Halliwell Fold, Tockholes, 687 
 Hamilton, Duke of, at Preston Battle, 157 
 Hand-loom, the Lancashire, 202-3 
 Hardwick, Charles, on Roman Station at 
 
 Walton, 21-2 
 Hargreave family, of Hoddlesden, 506 
 Hargreaves, James, Vicarof Blackburn, 286 
 James, Inventor, 204-10 
 
 Richard, curate of Harwood, Articles 
 
 against, 546-7 
 
 family, of Blackburn, 395-6 
 
 John, Esq., Coroner, 395 
 
 Harland, John, on Roman Remains at 
 
 Ribchester, 19 
 Harleian MSS., 75-6, 81-3, 85, 174, 534, 
 
 546 
 Harrington, lords of Balderstone, 55, 
 
 57-8, 415 
 Harrison of Galligreaves and Samlesbury 
 
 Hall, 663, 667-8 
 
 William, Esq., F.S.A., 666 
 
 Alan and John, lords of Mearley 
 
 and Osbaldeston, 606 
 
 Harvie, John, Puritan Minister, 696 
 
 Harwood, Great, township, 42, 62, 86, 
 186, 529-55 
 
 ancient bounds of, 531 
 
 manor, 51, 53, 55; descent of, 531-41 
 
 manor-house (Martholme), 538-9 
 
 families of gentry and yeomen, 541-5 
 
 manufactures of, 529-30 
 
 Local Board of Health, 530 
 
 Church of St. Bartholomew, 545- 
 
 552 ; Chantry, 66, 545-6 
 
 Roman Catholic Church, 552 
 
 Dissenting Chapels, 552-3 
 
 Charities, 553-4; Parish School, 554 
 
 Har\\'ood, Little, township, 42, 51, 62, 
 
 87, 186, 556-63 
 
 ■ manor, descent of, 556-61 ; Hall, 561 
 
 • familiesof gentry and yeomen, 561-j 
 
 Commons enclosed, 563 
 
 Harwood family, of Livesey, 579 
 
 of Lower Darwen, 477-8 
 
 Dr. Edward, 478-9 
 
 Harwood Fold, Clayton-in-le-Dale, 461 
 Hawkins, E., on the Cuerdale Coins, 30-6 
 Haworth family, of Blackburn, 397, 769 
 
 of .Shear Bank, Blackburn, 396 
 
 . ■ of Factory Hill, Blackburn, 396-7 
 
 ■ of Blackburn, Preston, &c., 480-1 
 
 Rev. Wm., 4S0-1 ; Dr. Samuel, 481 
 
 of Th'urcroft, Lower Darwen, 470-3 
 
 ^ ■ Richard, Esq., of Park Head, 472 
 
 of Lower Darwen and Turton, 473-5 
 
 of Newfield, Lower Darwen, 484-5 
 
 of Walrasley Foki, 479-80 
 
 Edmund, Calico printer, 214-15 
 
 Ralph, John, and Rev. Wm., early 
 
 Methodists, 199 
 
 Haydock family, of Mellor, 592 
 Healey Moor, Burnley, Roundhead Meet- 
 ing at, 1 14, 140 
 Henry IV., 56 ; Henry VI., capture near 
 Clitheroe, 57-8; Henry VII., 59-60; 
 Henry VIIL, 60, 64 
 Herris, William, curateofGt. Harwood, 546 
 Hesketh family, of Martholme, lords of 
 Great Harwood, 53, 55, 60, 532-8, 545 
 Hey Fold, Over Darwen, 509-10 
 Highercroft House, Lower Darwen, 473 
 Hilton family, of Darwen, 492, 507 
 Hindle family, of Blackburn and Woodfold 
 
 Park, 397-8, 589 
 of Cowhill, Rishton, 638-40 
 
 Christr., Vicarof Ribchester, 639-40 
 
 of Highercroft, &c., 482-3 
 
 of Holker House, Hoddlesden,'507 
 
 Hodder Bridge, Cromwell's army at, 159 
 Hodgson, Captain, account of Preston 
 
 Battle, 166 
 Hoddlesden, 7, 63, 506-7, 596-7, 763-4 
 Hoghton, De, family, lords of Hoghton, 
 
 Walton, Over Darwen, &c., 55, 95-100, 
 
 499. 7 "-22 
 
 Sir Richard, first baronet, 95-100, 
 
 625, 717-18 
 
INDEX. 
 
 779 
 
 Hoghton, Sir Gilbert, 106-7 ; in Civil War, 
 114-23, 330, 718-19 
 
 Sir Henry, fifth bart., 720; ninth 
 
 bart., 722 
 
 Sir Charles, 193, 719-20, 723 
 
 Lady Mary, 699-700, 720 
 
 Thomas, builder of the Tower, 715, 
 
 723 
 
 Thomas, slain at Lea, 709-10, 717 
 
 Major-General Daniel, slain at Al- 
 
 buera, 721 
 
 Hoghton Tower, James I. at, 95-100 ; 
 taken in Civil War and partially blown 
 up, 124-6; in 1703, 193; in 1715, 193; 
 building of, 715 ; description of, 723-5 
 
 Hoghton family, of Mellor, 592 
 
 of Ramsgreave, 630 
 
 of Red Lee, Tockholes, 687-9 
 
 of Roacher House, Samlesbury, 670, 
 
 676, 738 
 
 - — Richard, of Park Hall, 714, 716 
 
 Richard and Henry, ofLeagrim,646-7 
 
 Holand, De, family, lords of Samlesbury, 
 
 54-5, 496, 667-8 ; Sir Robert, 667 
 Holcroft, lords of Billington, 429, 749 
 
 Sir Thomas, 429, 448, 450-1 
 
 HoMen family, of Blackburn, 258, 760 
 
 of Coohill, Witton, 760 
 
 of Ewood, 579-81 
 
 of Feniscliffe, 364 
 
 of Hoddlesden, 507 
 
 of Pickup- Bank, &c., 762 
 
 Hole House, Blackburn, 212-15 
 Holker House, Hoddlesden, 507 
 Hollinshead, Tockholes, 55, 682; Hall, 686 
 HoUinshead-Brock, family, of Tockholes, 
 
 &c., 685 
 Holme, Rev. John, Vicar of Blackburn, 
 284, 293-5,312, 355, 516, 694 
 
 Thomas, Master of Blackburn 
 
 School, 338, 347 
 
 Holt, James Maden, Esq., M.P., 148 
 Holt Manor-house, Rishton, 58, 634-8 
 Hoole, William, Esq., 375-7 
 Hopwood family of Blackburn, &c., 398 
 Hornby Castle, captured by Roundheads, 
 
 138-9 
 Hornby family, of Blackburn, 398-9 
 
 and Birley, firm of, 231 
 
 Wm. Henry, Esq., M.P., 372-4, 
 
 376, 399 
 
 John, Esq., M.P., 373, 399 
 
 Horsley, Dr., at Ribchester, 14-16 
 Howe, Rev. John, 497, 720 
 
 Hoyle, of Little Harwood Hall, 560-1 
 Hubbersty family, of Samlesbury, 672 
 Hudleston, De, lords of Billington, 54, 
 
 426-7, 457 
 Hull, Rev. John, 675, 740 
 Hulton, De, lords of Blackburn, 53, 
 
 249-51 
 
 W. A., Editor of Coucher Book of 
 
 Whalley Abbey, 531 668 
 
 Hunter, Rev. Thomas, Master of Black- 
 bum School, 339-40, 347-8, 424, 478 
 Hutchinson, R. H., Esq., 376, 398 
 Hylton, John, Vicar of Blackburn, 287, 769 
 
 INCENSE Cups, found at Whitehall, 
 Darwen, 24 
 
 Independent Chapels, at Blackburn, 
 358-63 ; Lower Darwen, 487 ; Over 
 Darwen, 518-26 ; Great Harwood, 5535 
 Mill Hill, Livesey, 585 ; Ramsgreave, 
 630 ; Rishton, 643 ; Tockholes, 696- 
 704 ; Pickup Bank, 765 
 
 Independent Academy at Blackburn, 363-4 
 
 Infirmary, Blackburn, 383-4 
 
 Inquisition, De Lascy, in 131 1, 52-4 
 
 JACKSON, Rev. Thos., Master of Black- 
 burn School, 344-5, 348 
 
 Jacobite Trials at Manchester, 191-2 ; 
 Rebellions, 194-8 
 
 James I., Address on his accession, 84 ; at 
 Hoghton Tower, 95-ICX3, 625, 724 
 
 James II., reign and deposition, 190 
 
 Jeffreys, Judge, at Preston, 190 ; decree 
 on Langho Chapel, 453-4 
 
 Jesland, Thomas, Narrative of Attack on 
 Blackburn, 116 
 
 JoUie, Rev. Thomas, 696-7 
 
 Just, John, on local Roman Roads, 19 
 
 Juxon, Abp., Rector of Blackburn, 277, 291 
 
 KAY, John, Inventor, 203-4 
 Kenworthy, William, Inventor, 410 
 Kenyon family, of Dinkley, &c., 329 
 Keuerdale family (see Cuerdale) 
 Kuerden family, of Walton, 728 
 
 Dr. Richard,Antiquary, 126,724,728 
 
 LAMBERT, General, in Lancashire, 156, 
 
 166, 174, 177, 179 
 Lancaster Castle, in Civil War, 126-7 
 Lancaster, Thomas, Earl of, 53-5, 427 ; 
 
 Henry, Duke of, 55-6; John, Duke of; 55 
 Langdale, Dorothy, Charity of, 678-9 
 Sir Marmaduke, General, at Preston 
 
 Battle, 158-67 
 Langho, Church (Chapel) of St. Leonard, 
 
 447-55 
 
 Battle at, 27 ; Langho Green, 134-5 
 
 Langton family, lorfls of Walton, Nether 
 
 Darwen, &c., 54-5, 63, 68,467, 556, 706-1 1 
 
 .Sir Thomas, 708-11 
 
 William, Antiquary, 421, 431, 463, 
 
 532-3. 647, 668, 709, 712 
 
 Larkhill House, Blackburn, 388, 395 403 
 Lascy, De, Lords of Cliderhou, 45-55 
 Lathom House, .Sieges of, 142-5, 154 
 Law family, of Royshaw, Blackburn, 267-8 
 Lawrence, Rev. Edward, minister of Gar- 
 
 stang, 689 
 Lea, De, lords of Lea, 706, 711, 714 
 Lea Hall, affray at, 709-10 ; 714-15 
 
j8o 
 
 Leigh Dr. Charles, 15-16 
 
 Leland, John, in Lancashire, 12. 247 
 
 Lench, William de, Vicar of Blackburn, 
 
 272, 286 
 Leyland family, of Blackburn, 399-400 
 
 William, Esq., Bequest to Girls' 
 
 Charity School, 350, 399-400 
 
 Library and Museum, Free, Blackburn, 
 378-80 
 
 Free, Over Darwen, 495 
 
 Lilbume, Col., at Brindle fight, 180-1 
 Lister family, of Thornton in Craven, 661 
 Livesey township, 62, 87, 186, 564-86 
 
 manor, 51, 53,55 ; descent of, 565-71 
 
 Hall, 571 ; Estate, 570 
 
 family, lords of the manor, 58,566-71 
 
 Print Works and Cotton M ills in,564-5 
 
 Churches, at Feniscowles and Moor- 
 gate, 584-5 
 
 Dissenting Chapels, 585 
 
 Charities, 586 ; Schools, 585 
 
 gentry and yeoman families. 57 '-84 
 
 of Blackburn and Mosney, 224-7 
 
 of Brindle and Blackburn, 400 
 
 of Feamhurst, Lower Darwen, 483 
 
 of Feniscowles, 624 
 
 of Sidebight, Rishton, 458, 640-1 
 
 of Whithalgh, Livesey, 581, 693 
 
 Richard, 318-20 
 
 Sarah, Charity of, 586 
 
 Lomas family, of Darwen, 484, 515 
 Lomax, lords of Great Harwood, 540-' 
 Lonsdale family of Dinkley, 753 
 
 Loom, the hand-, 232 ; the power-, 232-5 
 Lovel, lords of Samlesbury, 54, 668-9 
 Loveley Hall, Salesbury, 655-6 
 Lower Chapel (Nonconformist), in Over 
 
 Darwen, 518-24 
 Low Hill House, Dar\ven, 492 
 Lussell family, of Studlehurst, 609 
 Lyndelay, John, Vicar of Blackburn, 286 
 Lynney, Ralph, VicarofBlackburn,286,768 
 
 Machine-breaking Riots, 205-10, 217-18, 
 
 233-5 
 Manufactures, early, in Blackburn, 201-4 
 Markland family, of Blackburn, 229, 400- 1 
 
 Daniel, B.A., Schoolmaster, 338-9 
 
 Marsden family, of Okenhurst, Lower 
 
 Darwen, 484, 580-1 
 
 of Over Darwen, 508 
 
 of Bradley and Ryall, Tockholes, 
 
 583, 689-90 
 
 Marston Moor Battle, 148-9 
 
 Martholme Manor-house, Great Harwood, 
 
 529, 535. 538-9 
 
 Masque at Hoghton Tower, 97-8 
 
 Mather, Rev. Benjamin, 522 
 
 Mawdesley family, of Ousebooth, Black- 
 bum, 257, 268-9, 349, 515 
 
 of Over Darwen, 508 
 
 Mayors of Blackburn, 376 
 
 McQuhae, Rev. James, 360, 703 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Meldrum, Sir John, campaign of, 151-3 
 Mellor towniship, 61, 86, 187, 587-96 
 
 manor, 54 ; descent of, 588-9 
 
 • (Meluer), De, family, 588 
 
 Moor, Roman Camp on, 8, 22 
 
 yeoman families of, 589-95 
 
 Church of St. Mary, 595 
 
 • Wesleyan Chapels, 595-6 
 
 Mercer family, of Great Harwood, 543-4 
 Methodist, Wesleyan, Societies, at Black- 
 burn, 366-9 ; Lower Darwen, 486 ; 
 Over D.xrwen, 527 ; Great Harwood, 
 553 ; Mellor, 595-6 ; Rishton, 643 ; 
 Walton, 742-3 ; Witton, 760. 
 
 Primitive, Societies, at Blackburn, 
 
 369 ; Lower Darwen, 486 ; Over Dar- 
 wen, 527 ; Great Harwood, 553 ; Rish- 
 ton, 643 ; Witton, 760 
 
 United Free, Societies, at Black- 
 burn, 369-70 ; Lower Darwen, 487 ; 
 Over Darwen, 527 ; Great Harwood, 
 553 ; Livesey, 585 ; Rishton, 643 
 
 Micklehey, in Rishton, 642, 751 
 Military levies, from 1553 to 1596, 70-6; 
 
 muster at Blackburn, 85 
 Mill Hill Print Works, Livesey, 228-9 
 Molyneux, lords of Cuerdale, 463, 683 
 
 Sir Richard, 435 
 
 Monasteries, Visitation of, in 1534, 67 
 Moorgate, Livesey, 580, 585 
 Morley family, of Dinkley, 41 1, 746-9 
 Morres, John, Vicar of Blackburn, 287 
 Mort, Adam, Mayorof Preston, killed, 123 
 Mosney Print Works, Walton, 224-7 
 Murder at Lower Darwen in 1604, 481 
 Mutiny of Militia at Clitheroe Castle, 177 
 
 NEVILL family, of Blackburn, &c., 401-2 
 Newcastle, Earl of, at Colne, &c., 140 
 Newcome, Rev. Henry, 520 
 Newfield, Lower Darwen, 481-2 
 New Hall, Clayton-in-le-Dale, 654 
 Newspapers, Blackburn, 412 
 Nightingale, Mrs. Mary, her Charity, 554-S 
 Nomenclature, local, 4 ; Saxon, 40-3 
 Nonconformity, in Blackburn Parish, 185; 
 suppression of, 188 ; licenses for meet- 
 ing-houses, 189-90; in Blackburn, 357- 
 70; in Darwen, 518-27; in Tockholes, 
 696-704 ; in Walton, 7i2 
 Nonjurors in the Parish, 196-7 
 Norman Conquest of l^ncashire, 45-6 
 Nowell family, of Pleasington, &c., 624 
 
 of Read, lordsof Great Harwood, 539 
 
 0.\KENSHAW, Print Works at, 222 
 Oddie, John, Master of Blackburn School, 
 
 334-6, 347 ■ 
 Okenhurst, Lower Darwen, 477, 484 
 Oldham family, of Oldham Cross, 2 14 
 Osbaldeston, township, 41, 63, 88, 187, 
 
 600-11 
 
 manor, 54 ; descent of, 600-7 
 
INDEX. 
 
 781 
 
 Osbaldeston, De, lords of Osbaldeston, 
 Darwen, and Balderstone, 54, 63, 417- 
 18, 496-9, 597, 600-8 
 
 Sir Edward, Knt., 604 
 
 Sir GeofTrey, Judge, 603 
 
 George, claimant to the manor, 607 
 
 Hall, 607-8; Park, 85 ; estate, 606-7 
 
 Edward, priest, executed, 354 
 
 family, of Sunderland Hall, 419-20 
 
 of Mellor, 592-3 
 
 Thomas, of Cuerdale, a felon, 603 
 
 of Oxendale, 6og-io 
 
 of Osbaldeston House, Walton, 728 
 
 ■ Chapel, in Blackburn Church, 305-6, 
 
 309, 560, 602, 606 
 
 monuments in Blackburn Church, 309 
 
 Roman Catholic Chapel, 611 
 
 Ferry and Boathouse, 605-6 
 
 Osbaldeston, John, inventor, 410 
 Oswaldtwistle, lords of, 252-5 
 Ousebooth, Blackburn, 266, 268-9 
 Overlockshay, Livesey, old house at, 577 
 Oxendale Hall, Osbaldeston, 611 
 
 PADIHAM, Meeting of Parliamenta- 
 rians at, 113 
 Park, Coqjoration, Blackburn, 378 
 Parks in Blackburn Parish, temp. Eliza- 
 beth, 85 
 Parker family, of Loveley Hall, 655-6 
 Parliament, Long, Lancashire Members, 103 
 Paslew, John, Abbot of Whalley, rebellion 
 
 and execution of, 67-70 
 Paulinus in Lancashire, 25-6 
 Pedder family, of Walton, 728-9 
 Peel, Great and Little, Blackburn, 246 
 Peel Fold, Oswaldtwistle, 214, 221-2 
 Peel family, of Peel Fold and Blackburn, 
 
 212-23 
 — J— William, of Peel Fold, 214, 221 
 — -^— Robert, Inventor, 204-5, 214-19 
 
 Robert, Calico-printer, first baronet, 
 
 215, 219-21 
 
 Sir Robert, the Statesman, 220-1 
 
 Rev. Nicholas, 213, 292 
 
 Jonathan, Esq., 212, 215, 222 
 
 Sir Lawrence, 215, 218 
 
 Peel of Bank Hey, Little Harwood, 563 
 
 Pendle Hill, 193 
 
 Petitions, to Charles I. from Lancashire, 
 103-4 ; to Parliament from Blackburn 
 Hundred, 178 ; of local clothiers, 202 ; 
 of Blackburn manufacturers, 229-30 ; for 
 new Roads in the district, 241 ; of 
 tenants of Blackburn Rectory, 277 ; of 
 Parishioners for Vicar Clayton, 289-90; 
 of Vicar Clayton, 290-1 ; of Nonconfor- 
 mists of Darwen, 519-20; of Inhabi- 
 tants of Great Harwood to Abp. , 549 ; 
 of Blackburn traders, 771-2 
 
 Petre of Dunkenhalgh, lords of Billington, 
 Lower Darwen, Rishton, Samlesbury, 
 436-7. 469. 638, 669 
 
 Pickop (Piccop) family of Green Tock- 
 holes, Livesey, 581-2 
 
 John, Esq., 376, 379, 582 
 
 — — ofEccleshill, and Lower Darwen, 599 
 
 of March House, Darwen, 508 
 
 Pickup-Bank township, 761-5 
 Pilgrimage of Grace, 67-8 
 Pilkington family, of Blackburn, 402 
 — — James, Esq., M. P., 372-4, 402 
 
 William, Esq., 376-8, 383-4,402 
 
 Pilkington, SirJohn,4i4; Dame Jane,4I4 
 
 Rev. John, Minister at Walton, 742 
 
 Pleasington township, 41, 62, 86, 187, 
 
 612-26 
 
 manor, descent of, 612-21 
 
 — — Old Hall, 621 ; New Hall, 621 
 
 De, lords of Pleasington, 54,612-13 
 
 gentry and freeholders of, 621-4 
 
 Priory (R.C.), 625-6 
 
 School, 626 
 
 Police Courts, Blackburn, Borough, 377 ; 
 
 County, 386 ; Darwen, 495 
 Poor Law Union, Blackburn, 381 
 Portfield, Whalley, 132-3,440 
 Potter's Ford, Billington, 5, 9, 442-3 
 Potter, Rev. John, Vicarof Blackburn, 295-6 
 Praers, Robert, lord of Rishton, 631 
 Presbytery, Lancashire, Blackburn Classis 
 
 of, 155 
 
 Presbyterian Churches at Blackburn, 365-6 ; 
 at Walton, 742 
 
 Preston, County Meeting at, in 1642, 
 104-5; Royalist Muster at, 107; Round- 
 head assault and capture of, 122-3 ! 
 Royalist recapture, 127; Sir John 
 Meldrum at, 152 ; Rebels at, in 1715, 
 194-5; in 1745, 197-8 
 
 Battle of, in 1648, 157-74 ; colours 
 
 captured at, 174 
 
 Price, Rev. Francis, Vicar of Blackburn, 
 279, 282, 284, 292-3, 450-4, 512 
 
 Primrose Print Works, Clitheroe, 227-8 
 
 Pythome in Wilpshire, 754 
 
 RADCLIFFE family of Smithells, lords 
 of Blackburn, 251-2 
 
 of Chaderton, lords of Witton, 755 
 
 • • of Ordsall, lords of Tockholes, 54, 
 
 681-3 
 Dame Anne, 183-4 ; Sir John, 692 
 
 of Wynmarleigh, lords of Balder- 
 stone, 416-17 
 
 Railways, local, construction of, 244 
 Raines, Rev. Canon, 274, 515, 625, 635, 767 
 Ramsgreave township. 627-30 
 — - Chase, 627-8 ; Wood, 628 
 Hall and estate, 629 
 
 freeholders of, 629-30 
 
 tenants of Abbey of Whalley in, 628 
 
 Recusants, local, prosecution of, 76-83 
 Red Lee, Tockholes, 686-9 
 Redman, Richard, Ministerof Walton, 737 
 Ribchester (Rigoduuum) Roman,6-9,ll-20 
 
782 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Kibble Bridge, Walton, fighting at, 15 1-2, 
 
 160-2, 182 
 Richard III. his grant to John Talbot, 58 
 Richardson family, of Tockholes, 690, 701-2 
 Rigby, Alexander,'in Civil War, 106, 109, 
 
 139. 143-4 
 Rishton township 42,50,62,88,187,631-43 
 
 manor 51, 53, 55 ; descent of, 631-8 
 
 manor-house (Holt), 638 
 
 families of yeomen in, 638-43 
 
 De, lords of Rishton, 51, 55, 631-4 
 
 of Ponthalghand Micklehey, 328, 641 
 
 of Harstonley, 563 
 
 Church of St. Peter, 643 
 
 DissentingChapels,643 ; Schools,643 
 
 Roacher Hall, Samlesbury, 670 
 
 Roads, local, old and modern, 237-41 
 Robertshaw family, of Great Harwood, 544 
 Rodgett family, of Blackburn, 402 
 Roman remains, at Ribchester, 11-20, 
 
 766-7; at Walton, 21-2; at Mellor, 8, 
 
 22 ; at Salesbury Hall, 654 
 
 Roads and Stations, local, 4-22 
 
 Roses, Wars of, battles in, 56 
 Royshaw, in Blackburn, 260-1 
 Rupert, Prince, in Lancashire, 144-50 
 Rushbearing at Hoghton Tower, 97 
 Rushton, Rev. John, Vicar of Blackburn, 
 
 300. 353 
 Ryall, in Tockholes, 690 
 
 SAGAR, Rev. Charles, 333-4, 347, 359, 
 
 518-20 
 Salesbury township, 42, 63, 87, 187, 644-56 
 
 manor, 55> 5^ » descent of, 644-54 
 
 Hall, 9, 16, 58 ; search at, 79, 113; 
 
 taken by Roundheads, 121; Stukeleyat, 
 193-4 ; description of, 654 
 
 De, family, lords of Salesbury, 644-5 
 
 Freeholders in, 655-6 
 
 Church, 656 ; School, 656 
 
 Salley Abbey, 13,418-19 
 
 Henry, Vicar of Blackburn, 286 
 
 Salley (Savvley), Print Works at, 223 
 Samlesbury township, 42, 63, 86, 187,657-80 
 manor, 54 ; descent of, 657-69 
 
 Hall and Park, 82 ; 663-7 
 
 Lower Hall, 671, 677 
 
 De, family, lords of Samlesbury, 
 
 50-1, 657-8 
 Witchcraft in, 88-95 
 
 gentry and yeomen families, 670-2 
 
 Church (Chapel) of St. Leonard, 50, 
 
 355, 672-7, 680 
 
 Roman Catholic Chapel, 677 
 
 Schools and Charities, 677-80 
 
 Sancroft, Abp., Rector of Blackburn, gift 
 
 to the Chapelries, 278-83 ; 693 
 Sanderson family, of Feamhurst, 485 
 Schools, Sunday and Day, at Blackburn, 
 
 370-2 
 Scrope, le, family of, lordsof Billington, 427 
 Seaton, Sir John, in Civil War, 109, 122-8 
 
 Sequestrations of local estates, 141, 153-5, 
 
 182-3, 652 
 Sergeant family, of Walton, 729 
 Sharpies family, of Blackburn, 269-70 
 • Randal, Esq., 269, 311 
 
 of Ramsgreave, 630 
 
 Sherdley, Rev. Edward, 454, 550 
 Ship-money, levy of, in Lancashire, 100-2 
 Shorrock family, of Darwen, 508-9 
 of Eccleshill, 508, 599 
 
 Eccles, Esq., 231, 235, 493, 509 
 
 Shorrock Green, Mellor, 591-2 
 Shorrock Hey, Pleasington, 623 
 Showley, in Clayton-le-Dale, 63, 458-60; 
 
 Hall, 460 ; Showley Fold, 461 
 Shuttleworth family, of Hacking, &c. ,430-3 
 
 ofGawthorpe,estate in Eccleshill, 598 
 
 Col. Richard, in Civil War, 105, 
 
 108-19, 123, 126; victory at Whalley, 
 
 131-7 ; 146-9, 181 
 Col. Nicholas, I17, 15 1 -2 
 
 Capt. William, 117, 126-7 
 
 Sidebight in Rishton, 640-1 
 Silk Hall, Tockholes, 690, 701-2 
 Singleton family, of Staining, 709-IO 
 Skinner, Rev. F., D.D., 365-6, 411 
 Slab, Roman Sepulchral, found near Rib- 
 chester, 766-7 
 
 Slater family, of Elkar, Billington, 446 
 Smalley family, of Blackburn, 402-3 
 . ■ of Balderstone, 421 
 
 of Billington, 446-7 
 
 of Over Darwen, 509- 10 
 
 Mary, Charities of, 456, 528 
 
 . • Rev. Robert, 510, 522-3 
 
 Smethurst, Richard, Minister of Samles- 
 bury, 674 
 
 Smith, George, Schoolmaster, 337-8 
 
 Robert, Schoolmaster, 340-1 
 
 Smith, Rev. John, minister of Harwood, 
 
 550-1. 554 
 Sourbutts family, in Samlesbury, 89, 95 
 Southworth family, lords of Samlesbury, 
 
 Darwen, Mellor, &c., 55, 63, 92-4, 113, 
 
 496-7, 588-9, 658-63, 675-6 
 
 Sir John, prosecuted for recusancy, 
 
 77-82, 660-1 
 
 Jane, accused of witchcraft, 89-95 
 
 Christopher, priest, 93, 95 
 
 Speake family, of Billington, 447 
 Speed, John, his Map of Lancashire, 85 
 "Spinning Jenny," invented, 204-9; 
 
 Spinning "Mule," 2o8-lo 
 Stakes Hall, Livesey, 228, 571-7 
 Standish family, lords of Witton, 756 
 Stanlaw .\bbey, 51-2, 596, 672-3, 706, 
 
 736, 745 
 Stanley family, of Cross Hall, and Holt, 
 
 Rishton, 635-7 
 Dame Ann, of the Holt, 634-8 ; 
 
 Ann, 641 
 
 of Mellor, 593 
 
 Stanley House, Mellor, 489, 589 
 
INDEX. 
 
 783 
 
 Starkie, Col. John, of Huntroyd, in Civil 
 War, 108-11, U4-18, 123 
 
 Capt. Nicholas, 117; slain at 
 
 Hoghton Tower, 124-6 
 
 Col. Le Gendre Nicholas, 421, 656 
 
 Rev. Thomas, Vicar of Blackburn, 
 
 297-9, 4". 656 
 Statera, Roman, found at Ribchester, 20 
 iStonyhurst, Cromwell at, 167-9, '75 
 Strange, James, Lord (Earl ol Derby), 104-8 
 Stuart, Charles Edward, at Preston and 
 
 Manchester, 197-8 
 Studlehurst in Osbaldeston, 609 
 Stukeley, Dr., 13-14, 193 
 Subsidies, King's, in 1496, 60; in 1523, 
 
 61-4; in 1611, 85-8 ; iii 1663, l86-8 
 Sudell family, of lilackburn and Wood- 
 fold Park, 403-5 
 
 Henry, Esq., 405; lord of Mellor, 
 
 589. 595. 672 
 
 Sunderland, De, family, 417-19 
 
 Grange, Balderstone, 417-19; Hall, 
 
 420 
 Swinlehurst, John, ' Schoolmaster of 
 
 Blackburn School, 331-2 
 
 TALBOT family, lords of Salesbury, 
 Clayton, &c., 57-8, 60, 113, 305, 4S7-8, 
 647-52 
 
 Sir John, Royalist, 1 21 , 154,333,65 1-2 
 
 Thomas, the Antiquary, 650-1 
 
 of New Hall, Clayton-in-le-Dale, 654 
 
 of Cunliffe, in Billington, 447 
 
 of Clayton, 461 
 
 of Cowhill, Rishton, 642-3 
 
 of the Holt, Audley, and Bashall, 
 
 lords of Rishton and Nether Darwen, 
 53. 58, 273-4,305,329,469-70,634-8,647 
 
 ~Sir Thos. Knt., 71, 248, 273-4, 469, 
 
 635-7 
 
 of Carr, in Wilpshire, 753-4 
 
 Temple, Roman, at Ribchester, 16-18 
 Tenison, Abp., Gift to Curates of Black- 
 burn Chapels, 284 
 Thompson, James, Calico Printer, 227-8 
 
 Wm. , Priest, executed, 354 
 
 Thoresby, Ralph, the antiquary, 192-3 
 Thornley Estate (Sancroft Trust), 282-3 
 Thurland Castle taken by Roundheads, 139 
 Tockholes township, 3, 5, 62, 87, 1 86,68 1 -7 14 
 
 manor, 54-5 ; descent of, 681-5 
 
 Adam de, 54 
 
 relics of battle at, 129-30 
 
 ■ Parochial Chapel (Church), 691-6 
 
 Nonconformist Meeting-House, 696- 
 
 704 
 
 School and Charities, 704 
 
 families of freeholders, 686-91 
 
 Tonge Hill, Pleasington, 614, 623 
 
 Towers, Rev. James, 700-3 
 
 Towneley, Charles, a Royalist, 1 1 1,-12, 
 
 123 ; slain at Marston Moor, 149 
 
 Christopher, the Antiquary, 440,709 
 
 Townley, Richard, Esq., 192-3 
 
 Richard, a Jacobite, 196 
 
 Francis, Col., execution of, 198 
 
 Charles, the antiquary, 15 
 
 Hall, occupied by Roundheads, 112 
 
 Trafford, De, lords ofOverDarwen,499- 500 
 Tumuli at Brockhole Eses, 28; at White- 
 hall, Over Darwen, 23 
 
 Tunworth in Billington, 445-6 
 Turncroft in Over Darwen, 502-4 
 TurnerfamilyofMillHill,&c., 228-9, 544-5 
 
 Sir James, on Preston bsttle, 164-5 
 
 Tyldesley, Col. Thomas, in Civil War, 
 
 131-3, 137-8, 149, 176; slain at Wigan 
 Lane, i8l 
 
 UNIFORMITY, Act of, local effects of, 
 
 183-5 
 Urns, Cinerary, found at Whitehall, Dar- 
 wen, 23 
 
 VALENTINE, Mary, Charity of, 679-80 
 
 Rev. Peter, 698-700 
 
 Valor Ecclesiasticus in 1534, 64-7 
 Volunteers, Blackburn Association of, 412 
 
 WADA, the Dane, battle with Eardulf, 
 at Langho, 27-8 
 
 Waddington family of Lower Darwen, 485 
 
 ■ Rev. Robert, 696-8 
 
 Waldegrave, Rev. Thomas, 701, 703 
 
 Walkden family, of Livesey, 582 
 
 Wallbank, William, 337 ; his gift to Plea- 
 sington School, 626 
 
 Walmesley family, of Showley, 458-60 
 
 of Dunkenhalgh, lords of Billington, 
 
 Nether Darwen, Rishton, and .Samles- 
 bury, H3, 305, 335, 433-7, 469, 634, 
 637-8, 669 
 
 Sir Thomas, the Judge, 309, 326, 328- 
 
 30, 433-4, 437, 640, 669 
 
 Bartholomew, 191-2, 436, 450-4 
 
 ■ ■ W'illiam, a Jacobite, 196 
 
 Chapeland Monuments in Blackburn 
 
 Church, 309, 311, 434 
 
 family, of Banister Hall, Walton, 73 1 
 
 of Lower Hall, Samlesbury, 671 
 
 of Lower Darwen, 485 
 
 Walmsley family, of Mellor, 593-4 
 
 of the Hill, Tockholes, 583-4, 690-3 
 
 Walmsley Fold, Lower Darwen, 479-80,485 
 Walsh of Walsh Fold, Over Darwen, 510 
 Walton-in-le-Dale, 2, 4, 9, H; Roman 
 
 Station at, 20-2 
 
 Cop, Bridge, &c., fight at, in 1644, 
 
 151-2 ; battle at, in 1648, 157-74 ; light 
 at, in 1 65 1, 180-2 
 
 Darwen Bridge at, 160-I 
 
 Market and fair at, A.D., 1300, 707 
 
 township, 63, 86-7, 187-8, 705-44 
 
 manor, 50, 54-5 ; descent of 705-23 
 
 Hall, 106-7, 722-3 
 
 family, of Little Walton, 729-30 
 
784 
 
 HISTORY OF BLACKBURN. 
 
 Walton, Little (Bamber Bridge), Hall, 730 
 
 gentry and freeholders of, 725-35 
 
 Chapel (Church of St. Leonard), 
 
 185, 672-3, 735-41 ; other Churches, 741 
 
 Chapels, Roman Catholic, at Brown- 
 edge, 741-2 ; St. Patrick's, 742 
 
 Chapels, Presbyterian, 742 ; Wes- 
 
 leyan, 742-3 
 
 Schools, 743 ; Charities, 743-4 
 
 • Mock Corporation of, 744 
 
 Ward, Mr. Heniy, lord of Salesbury, 653 
 Ward family, of Blackburn, 213, 270. 
 
 of Mellor, 594 
 
 Rev. John, 412 
 
 Warren family, lords of Salesbury, Dinkley, 
 &c., 449, 456, 458, 606-7, 653 
 
 Waterhouse, Wm., 225 ; Michael, 424 
 
 Waterside, Eccleshill, 598-9 
 
 Waters, John, murder of, in 1604, 481-2 
 
 Watson family, of Over Darwen, 511 
 
 Weavers of Blackburn, Distress of, 217 
 
 Webster, Dr. John, 481-2, 625 
 
 Weaver, John, 727 
 
 Welshe, Edward, Vicar of Blackburn, 
 287, 510 
 
 Wells, ancient, in Blackburn, 248 
 
 Wensley Fold, Blackburn, old Mill at, 231 
 
 Wesley, Rev. John, in Blackburn Parish, 
 198-200, 366-8, 742 
 
 Wesleyan Societies and Chapels, at Black- 
 bum, 366-9; Lower Darwen, 199,486; 
 Over Dariven, 526-7 ; Great Harwood, 
 553; Mellor, 595-6; Rishton, 643; 
 Walton, 742-3 ; Witton, 760 
 
 Wetherby, William de. Vicar of Black- 
 bum, 286 
 
 Whalley, battle at, in 1643, 130-7 
 
 Abbey, foundation of, 51-2 ; estates, 
 
 in 1534,427-8; suppression of, 67-70 ; 
 Abbots of, lords of Billington, 427-8 ; 
 estate in Ramsgreave, 627-8 
 
 Church, 52, 134-5 ; Rectory and 
 
 Vicarage, 65-6 
 
 Whalley family of Sparth, Rishton, and 
 Blackburn, &c., 255, 405-7, 548-9 
 
 of Todd Hall, Blackburn, 270 
 
 Thomas, Dissenting Minister, 359-60 
 
 Whetley in Billington, 442 
 
 Whitaker, Rev. J. W., D.D., Vicar of 
 Blackburn, 299 
 
 Rev. T. D., LL.D., Vicar of Black- 
 bum, and Historian, 15-18, 49, 299, 306 
 
 White, Rev. John, Vicar of Blackburn, 
 296-7, 307, 310 
 
 Gilbert, the Naturalist, 296 
 
 Whitecroft, Mellor, 593 
 
 Whitehall, Over Darwen, 22-4, 499, 528 
 
 Whithalgh, in Livesey, 581 ; Mellor, 595 
 
 family, of Livesey, and Mellor, 594-5 
 
 Wigan taken by Roundheads, 137 
 Wigan Lane, Battle of, 181-2 
 Wilkinson family, of Royshaw, 407-8 
 T. T., 29, 147 
 
 William the Conqueror in Lancashire, 44-6 
 Willoughby, Hugh, Baron, of Parham, 687 
 Wilpshire township, 42,63,87, 188,745-54 
 
 manor, 54 ; descent of, 745-6 
 
 De, family of, 745 
 
 gentry and yeomen families, 7S*^"4 
 
 Wilson, Mrs., Lady of Livesey Manor, 570 
 
 Rev. John, Schoolmaster, 342 
 
 Winckley family of Billington and Banister 
 
 Hall, Walton, 418, 421, 432, 614, 618, 
 
 673. 731-2, 736, 743 
 Winder family of Loveley Hall, 656 
 Windy Bank, Yale Bank, 764 
 Wiswell, lords of, 250-1 
 Witches, alleged, at Samlesbury, tried at 
 
 Lancaster in 1612, 88-95 
 Witton township, 62, 87, 188, 755-60 
 
 manor, 54 ; descent of, 755-6 
 
 House and Park, 755, 759; Old 
 
 Hall, 759 
 
 family, of Livesey, &c., 582-4 
 
 gentry and freeholders, 756-60 
 
 Church, 760 ; Schools, 760 
 
 Chapels, Dissenting, 760 
 
 WoUin, Rev. John, Vicar of Blackburn, 
 
 296, 351 
 Wood, Rev. Thomas, 368 
 Wood, Richard, priest of Harwood, 545"^ 
 Woodcock family, of Walton, 733-5 
 
 of Lemon House, Walton, 735 
 
 Woodfold Hall and Park, 405-7, 589 
 Woodhead, Yate Bank, 764 
 Worsaae, on the Cuerdale Coins, 32, 36-8 
 Worthington, Robert, Minister of Black- 
 burn, 300 
 
 John, Minister of Tockholes, 672 
 
 Wraith family, of Blackburn, 408 
 
 YATE Bank, township, 761-5 
 
 Yates family, of Blackburn and Mellor, 
 
 349, 408-9 
 ■ • of Blackburn and Bury, 409-10 
 
 William, of Blackburn and Bury, 
 
 Calico Printer, 216-17, 220, 409 
 
 of Lower Darwen, 485-6 
 
 of Bank Fold, Yate Bank, 763-4 
 
 of Windy Bank, Yate Bank, 764 • 
 
 of Woodhead, Yate Bank, 764-5 
 
 of Pickup Bank, 765 
 
 Mr. , Master of Blackburn School, 346 
 
 Rev. Robert, 522 ; Richard, 581 
 
 ^^ 
 
 PRINTED BY J. 0. AND J. TOULMIN, BLACKBURN. 
 
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