CHAPTER IX

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THORNTON, CARLETON, MARTON, AND HARDON-WITH-NEWTON.

Torentum, or Thornton, was estimated in the time of William the Conqueror to contain six carucates of land fit for the plough, but this computation was exclusive of Rossall and Burn, which were valued at two carucates respectively, so that the whole townships held ten carucates, about one thousand acres of arable soil, or farming land, a large amount for those days, but insignificant indeed when we recall the nine thousand seven hundred and thirty acres embraced by the township at present, either in use for grazing and agricultural purposes, or forming the sites of town and village buildings.

Thornton was held immediately after the Conquest by Roger de Poictou, and subsequently by Theobald Walter, after whose death it passed to the crown.

During the reign of King John, Margaret Wynewick held two of the six carucates of Torentum, or Thornton, in chief from that monarch, and her marriage was in his gift. In 1214-15 Baldewinus Blundus paid twenty marks to John for permission to espouse the lady and gain possession of her estate.[87] The request was granted conditionally on Blundus obtaining the consent of her friends; and in this he appears to have been successful, for we learn from a writ to the warden of the Honor of Lancaster in 1221, that Michael de Carleton paid a fine of ten marks to Henry III. at that date for having married Margaret, the daughter and heiress of William de Winewick, without the royal assent, and for marrying whom Baldewinus Blundus had formerly paid twenty marks to King John.[88]

In 1258, Margaret de Carleton still retained her lands in Thornton in her maiden name of Winewick,[89] and it is probable from that circumstance that her second husband was then dead, for the writ cited above expressly commanded that her inheritance should be handed over to Michael de Carleton, the penalty of ten marks for his disobedience having been received.

According to the _Testa de Nevil_, Matilda de Thorneton, a spinster, whose marriage also lay in the king’s gift, held lands in Thornton, of the annual value of twenty shillings; and later, about 1323, a moiety of Thornton was held by Lawrence, the son of Robert de Thorneton, a member of the same family. In 1346, John, son of Lawrence de Thorneton, held one carucate of land in Thornton and Staynolfe, lately of Robert Windewike, in thanage, paying yearly at four terms thirteen shillings relief, and suit to the county and wapentake.[90] In 1421 John de Thornton died, possessed of half the manor of Thornton and the Holmes, which descended to his son, William de Thornton, who died in 1429, aged thirty years, leaving four daughters—Agnes, afterwards the wife of William Wodey; Katherine, who married William Carleton; Elizabeth, the wife of Robert Adlington; and Johanna, who espoused Christopher Worthington.[91] Much as it is to be regretted, no more than the scanty information here given can be discovered concerning the Thorntons, of Thornton; even tradition is silent on the matter of their residence or local associations, although it is very likely they occupied Thornton Hall, a mansion long since converted into a farm house, and consequently we are obliged to dismiss with this brief notice what under more favourable auspices would probably have proved one of the most interesting subjects in the township. In 1292 the king’s attorney sued Thomas de Singleton for the manor of Thornton, etc., but the defendant pleaded successfully, that he only held a portion of the manor, Thomas de Clifton and Katherine, his wife, holding the third of two parts of twelve bovates of the soil.[92] In the seventeenth year of the reign of Edward II., William, father of Adam Banastre, who granted certain concessions to the prior of Lancaster, held, half the vill of Thornton, the other half being held, as before shown, by Lawrence de Thorneton.

In an ancient survey of the Hundred of Amounderness, completed in the year 1346, it is stated that the following gentlemen had possessions in the place called Stena, or Stainall, in Thornton, at the rentals specified:—John de Staynolfe held four oxgangs of land, at four shillings and sixpence;[93] Roger de Northcrope, one messuage and one oxgang, at sevenpence halfpenny; Sir Adam Banastre, knt., five acres, at fourpence; Thomas, the son of Robert Staynolfe, one messuage and one oxgang, at sevenpence halfpenny; William Lawrence, a fourth part of an oxgang, at sixteen pence; Thomas Travers, a fourth part of an oxgang, at sixteen pence; John Botiler, a fourth part of an oxgang, at sixteen pence; and Richard Doggeson, five acres, at sixpence. William de Heton held one carucate of land at Burn, in Thornton township, for which he paid yearly at two terms, Annunciation and Michaelmas, ten shillings relief, and suit to the county and wapentake.[94]

In 1521, during the sovereignty of Henry VIII., Thomas, earl of Derby, was lord of the manor of Thornton, which subsequently passed into the hands of the Fleetwoods, of Rossall, who retained it until the lifetime of the late Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, bart., when it was sold. Thornton has for long been regarded only as a reputed manor. The largest land proprietors at present are the Fleetwood Estate Company, Limited, and the trustees of the late John Horrocks, esq., of Preston, but in addition there is a number of smaller soil-owners and resident yeomen. Burn Hall is a building of the fifteenth century, and was occupied in 1556 by John Westby, of Mowbreck, the owner.[95] In 1323 the land of Burn was held by William Banastre at a rental of ten shillings per annum, and about 1346 one carucate of the same land was held, as already stated, by William de Heton for a similar yearly payment. Within the residence of Burn was a domestic chapel, over the doorway of which stood a polished oaken slab or board inscribed—“Elegi abjectus esse in domo Dei mei, magis quam habitari in tabernaculis peccatorum.”[96] The walls were panelled with oak and carved with shields and foliage, whilst the ceiling was embellished with representations of vine leaves and clusters of grapes. Modern alterations have destroyed most, if not all, interesting relics of past ages. After the death of John Westby, of Burn Hall, a descendant of the John Westby before mentioned, in 1722, Burn passed to the Rev. J. Bennison, of London, who had married Anne, his fourth daughter. It is said that Mr. Bennison utterly ruined his property, by attempting a style of agriculture similar to that described by Virgil in his Georgics. Burn Hall is now, and has been for many years a farm-house, and the estate forms part of the large tract held by the representatives of the late John Horrocks, esq. The land lying towards the coast was formerly subject to occasional inundations of the sea, but an effectual barrier has been put by raising a mound round such exposed localities.

The extensive area known as Thornton Marsh, was a free open common, used as a pasture by the poor cottagers of the township until 1800, when it was enclosed, together with Carleton Marsh, and has since by cultivation been converted into valuable and productive fields.

A church and parsonage house were erected at Thornton in 1835, the former being a neat whitewashed building in the early English style of architecture, with a low square tower, but presenting externally no special features of attraction beyond its profuse covering of ivy, which renders it a most picturesque object in the surrounding landscape. The churchyard also is well worthy of notice, if only for the luxuriance of its foliage, the beauty of its flowers, and the taste and elegance exhibited in several of the monuments. This, like the church and parsonage, is embosomed in trees. The sacred edifice has been named Christ Church, and a separate parochial district was assigned to it in 1862, the title of vicar being accorded to the incumbent.

CURATES AND VICARS OF THORNTON.

------------+-------------------------+------------------------------- Date of | NAME. | Cause of vacancy. Institution.| | ------------+-------------------------+------------------------------- 1835 |David H. Leighton | 1837 |Edward Thurtell |Resignation of D. H. Leighton 1841 |St. Vincent Beechey, M.A.| ” ” E. Thurtell 1846 |Robert W. Russell | ” ” St. V. Beechey 1853 |Isaac Durant, M.A. | ” ” W. Russell 1869 |Samuel Clark | ” ” I. Durrant 1870 |Thomas Meadows, M.A. | ” ” S. Clark ------------+-------------------------+-------------------------------

Within the building there is a small gallery at the west end, and the private pews are arranged in two rows, one being placed along each side of the body of the church, whilst the central portion is filled with open benches, or forms, free to all worshippers. A marble tablet “To the memory of Jacob Morris, a faithful warden for 20 years, who died Oct., 1871,” is fixed against the south wall, and over the mantel-piece in the vestry is a white-lettered black board stating that—“This Church was erected in the year 1835, containing 323 sittings; and, in consequence of a grant from the Incorporated Society for promoting the enlargement, building, and repairing of churches and chapels, 193 of that number are hereby declared to be free and unappropriated for ever.—David Hilcock Leighton, minister; James Smith and Richard Wright, churchwardens.” On the font is the following inscription:—“Presented to Thornton Church by Elizabeth Nutter, of Rough Hall, Accrington, July 13th, 1874.”

Mr. James Baines, of Poulton, by will dated 6th of January, 1717, devised to Peter Woodhouse, of Thornton, and six others, and their heirs, the school-house lately erected by him on Thornton Marsh, and the land whereon it stood, to be used for ever as a free school for the children of the township; in addition he bequeathed to the same trustees several closes in Carleton, called the Far Hall Field, the Middle Hall Field, and the Vicar’s Hey, amounting to about twenty-one acres, to the intent, that the annual revenue therefrom, less 10s. to be expended each year in a dinner for the trustees, should be devoted to the payment of a suitable master. In 1806, Richard Gaskell, the sole surviving trustee, conveyed by indenture to John Silcock, John Hull, Thomas Barton, of Thornton, Charles Woodhouse of Great Carleton, Bickerstaff Hull, and Thomas Hull, and the said Richard Gaskell, their heirs and assigns, the premises above-mentioned, for the purposes set forth in the will of the founder.[97] A further endowment of £500 was left by Mr. Simpson, with a portion of which farm buildings have been erected on the school estate. The school-house is situated on the east side of Cleveleys Station, and consists of a small single-storey building, having two windows and a central doorway in front. To the west end is attached a two-storey teacher’s residence. The double erection was built some years ago, by subscription amongst the inhabitants, on the site of the original fabric at a cost of rather more than £100. The master is elected and, when necessary, dismissed by the trustees, who forego their claim on the 10s. left for an annual dinner. In 1867 the number of scholars amounted to eighty-eight, fifty-nine of whom were boys, and twenty-nine girls, presenting about an average attendance since that date.

The small village of Thornton comprises only a limited cluster of dwellings and the old windmill. The Wesleyan Methodists had established a place of worship in the township as early as 1812, and about ten years later the Society of Friends opened a meeting-house here.

The arable land of Rossall, in Thornton township, or Rushale, as it was written, is estimated in the Domesday volume at two carucates. At that time Rossall was included amongst the princely possessions of the Norman baron, Roger de Poictou, after whose banishment it passed, by gift of Richard I., to Theobold Walter, and again reverted to the crown in 1206, on his demise. King John, at the instigation of Ranulph de Blundeville, earl of Chester and Lincoln, presented the grange of Rossall to the Staffordshire convent of Deulacres, a monastic house founded by that nobleman; and in 1220-1 Henry III. issued a writ to the sheriff of this county, directing him to institute inquiries by discreet and lawful men, into the extent of several specified places, one of which was the pasture of Rossall, recently, “granted by my father, King John, to the abbot of Deulacres.”[98] In 1227-8 a deed was drawn up between Henry III. and the abbot whereby the grange was conveyed, or confirmed, to the latter[99]; and twenty years subsequently a fresh charter appears to have been framed and to have received the royal signature, for in the following reign of Edward I., when that monarch laid claim to the land as a descendant of King John, the head of the Staffordshire convent produced a document of 31 Henry III. (1247), at the trial, granting “to God, the church of St. Mary, and the abbot of Deulacres and his successors for ever, the manor of Rossall with its appurtenances and with the wreck of the sea.”[100] Sir Robert de Lathum, Sir Robert de Holaund, Sir John de Burun, Sir Roger de Burton, Sir John de Cornwall, Sir John de Elyas, and Sir Alan de Penyngton, knights; Alan de Storeys, Robert de Eccleston, William du Lee, Hugh de Clyderhou, and Roger de Middleton, esquires, who composed the jury in the above suit, decided in favour of the abbot’s title, but at the request of the king’s attorney, judgment was arrested, and it was pleaded on behalf of the regal claimant that the abbot’s allegations seemed to imply that the manor of Rossall was formerly held by the monks of Deulacres in bailiwick of Kings, John and Henry; that thirty years at least of the reign of Henry had elapsed before the predecessors of the present abbot held any fee or free tenement in the manor, which was worth 100 marks per annum; and that this rent had been in arrears during the whole of the time; wherefore the king’s attorney demanded that the accumulation of these arrears, amounting to 3,000 marks, or £2,000, should be paid by the abbey to Edward I. The jury stated in their verdict that the manor had been held by the abbot’s predecessors as pleaded by the king’s attorney, but that during the last seven years of King John, and the first twenty-four years of Henry III., the manor was only worth 30 marks per annum, and in the remaining six years before the date of the charter put in as evidence by the abbot in the first trial, they valued the manor at 40 marks per annum, on which scales the abbey of Deulacres was condemned to pay the accumulated arrearages. In 1539, during the reign of Henry VIII., the grange was valued in the Compotus of the king’s ministers at £13 6s. 3d. per annum.

The site of the original Hall has long since been washed away by the waves, but in earlier years, before the sea had made such encroachments on the land, the foundations of red sandstone and the remnant of an old ivied wall were visible near the edge of the cliff, all being sufficiently traceable to indicate that the mansion had been one of no mean dimensions. A coat of arms of the Fleetwood family, rudely engraven on a flat stone, some ornamental pinnacles, and other relics of the ancient edifice, have also been discovered at different times. Numerous foundations of large buildings were once scattered about the sandy soil of the grange, but most of them were removed eighty years since as impediments to the course of the plough. In a plot of ground, known by the title of “Churchyard field,” remains of a structure, running east and west, in length thirty and in breadth twelve yards, were taken up about half a century or more ago by a farmer named John Ball, who whilst removing them came upon some human bones. The fabric once standing there was conjectured to have been a chapel or oratory, and the bones to have been those of priests or others buried within its precincts. Harrison, in describing the course of the Wyre, says “that at the Chapell of Allhallowes tenne myles from Garstone it goeth into the sea,” and Mr. Thornber suggests, in his History of Blackpool and Neighbourhood, that the foundations disturbed by Mr. Ball may have been the remains of the oratory alluded to by the ancient topographer; but whilst admitting that the character of the relics discovered points to there having been at one time a religious edifice on the site, we cannot think that its claims to be the missing chapel are nearly so great as those of Bispham, which is now known, by an inscription on an old communion goblet, to have been actually dedicated to All-Hallows, or at least to have been commonly designated by that name in the seventeenth century.

The Allens appear to have held Rossall on lease from the abbot of Deulacres about a century after the dispute between that monastery and Edward I. had been decided, for in 1397, during the reign of Richard II., the name of “Allen of Ross-hall” was entered in the list of donors to the fraternities of the Preston Guild of that year. George Allen, of Brookhouse, Staffordshire, who held Rossall at the date of the Reformation, by virtue of a long lease granted to his ancestors by an abbot of Deulacres, is the earliest of this family to whom these tenants of the grange can be traced genealogically. The widow and daughters of the grandson of George Allen were ejected from Rossall in 1583, before the expiration of their lease, and despoiled of valuable documents and property by Edmund Fleetwood, whose father had purchased the reversion from Henry VIII., at the time of the dissolution of monasteries. On that occasion a neighbour, Anion, seized and appropriated £500 belonging to the Allens on pretence of remitting it to Dr. William Allen, at Rheims. Mrs. Allen made an attempt to recover possession of the grange, and a trial for that purpose took place at Manchester, but her case broke down through inability to produce the original deeds and papers, all of which had been either stolen or destroyed when the Hall was plundered during the ejection.[101] The estate, or grange, of Rossall, remained in the hands of the Fleetwoods until the death of Edward Fleetwood, when it passed to Roger Hesketh, of North Meols, who married Margaret, the only child and heiress of that gentleman in 1733.[102] The Heskeths, of Rossall, were descended from the Heskeths of Rufford, through Hugh Hesketh, an offspring of Sir Thomas Hesketh, of Rufford. Hugh Hesketh married the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Barneby Kytichene, or Kitchen, and thus acquired a moiety of the manor of North Meols. At the decease of Hugh Hesketh, in 1625, the lands of North Meols descended to his son, Thomas Hesketh, then 56 years of age, whose son and heir, Robert Hesketh, was already married to the daughter of—Formby, of Formby. The only child of Robert Hesketh was the Roger Hesketh, mentioned above, who also held Tulketh Hall and estate. The Heskeths continued to reside at Rossall until the lifetime of the late Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, bart.; and under their proprietorship, at an early period, or in the latest years of their predecessors, the ancient Hall was pulled or washed down and another mansion erected more removed from the shore.

In 1843 the design of establishing a school for the education of the sons of clergymen and other gentlemen, under the direct superintendence of the Church of England, but at a less cost than incurred at the public schools then in existence, was first promulgated by the Rev. St. Vincent Beechey, incumbent of Thornton and Fleetwood; and mainly through the exertions of that gentleman a provisional committee for arranging details and furthering the object in view, was formed in the first month of the ensuing year. This committee consisted, amongst others, of the Rev. J. Owen Parr, vicar of Preston, chairman; the Revs. Charles Hesketh, vicar of North Meols; William Hornby, vicar of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre; John Hull, vicar of Poulton; R. B. Robinson, incumbent of Lytham; St. Vincent Beechey, incumbent of Thornton and Fleetwood, hon. sec. _pro. tem._; and Messrs. Thomas Clifton, of Lytham Hall; Daniel Elletson, of Parrox Hall, and T. R. Wilson-ffrance, of Rawcliffe Hall. At their first meeting it was decided that the management of the school should be placed in the hands of a committee of twenty-four of the principal clergy and laity in the neighbourhood, of whom fourteen should be clergymen and ten laymen, with power to fill up vacancies; that the bishop of the diocese should always be the visitor; that the provisional committee should be the first members of the council, with which should rest the appointment of the principal, who must be in holy orders, at such a liberal salary as would insure the services of one eminently qualified for so important a post; that the council should have power to dismiss the principal; that the internal management, subject to certain regulations, should be committed to the principal, who should have the appointment and dismissal of all the inferior or subordinate masters; and that the system of education should resemble that in the school connected with King’s College, London, and in Marlborough school, consisting of systematic religious instruction, sacred literature, classics, mathematics, modern languages, drawing, music, etc.

With regard to the admission of pupils it was resolved that the school should consist of not less than two hundred boys; that no child should be admitted under eight years of age; that the mode of admission should be by annual payment, nomination, or insurance; that any pupil should be admitted on the payment, half-yearly in advance, of £50 per annum for the sons of laymen, and £40 for the sons of clergymen; that nominations might be procured, at the first opening of the school, in order to raise the required capital, whereby pupils could be admitted on the yearly payment of £40 for the sons of laymen, and £30 for the sons and wards of clergymen; that a donation of £25, or the holding of two £25 shares, fully paid up, should entitle the donor or holder, to one nomination, and a donation of £50, or the holding of four shares of £25 each, should constitute the donor, or holder, a life-governor, entitled to have always one pupil in the school on his nomination; that the shares should be limited to an annual interest of 5 per cent., and be paid off as soon as possible, the return of such capital, however, not to destroy the right of nomination during the life of a governor; that clergymen should be able to provide for the admission of their children to the school at a reduced charge of £25 per annum, by paying, on the principle of life-insurance, small sums for several years previous to, or one large sum at, the date of entry of each child into the establishment, such payments to be regulated according to certain tables, and, of course, forfeited in case the child died.

The committee stated that the outlay of capital required to erect a building expressly for the purposes of the school would be greater than they were likely to be able to meet at the low rate of nomination which it had been deemed expedient to adopt, and, therefore, it had been determined to take advantage of the offer of Rossall Hall by Sir P. H. Fleetwood, bart., the mansion being eminently adapted to the purpose, on account of its size and situation. It contained many suites of rooms, and an organ chamber, well suited for a chapel, and furnished with a fine instrument; and surrounding the Hall were meadows convenient for play-grounds, and very productive gardens.

The title of the Northern Church of England School was given to the institution, and on Thursday, the 22nd of August, 1844, it was formally opened by the Head Master, Dr. Woolley, in the presence of the junior masters and from forty to fifty pupils, with their parents. At that date the school-buildings consisted of apartments in the old Hall for the principal, junior masters, and lady superintendent; a dining room, 44 feet long and 20 feet wide, fitted with a general and masters’ tables; four dormitories, able to accommodate 100 boys; and a chapel, formerly the organ-room above mentioned, having benches for the scholars and stalls for the masters, the school-house itself consisting of four lofty rooms, each about 34 feet long by 20 feet wide, being detached from the Hall, and fitted up with handsome oak desks and benches, fixed upon bronzed cast-iron standards. The play-ground comprised many acres, and in addition there were convenient covered areas for the recreation of the boys in wet weather.

The school was opened with only 70 pupils, but at the beginning of the second six months the number had increased to 115, and the establishment was self-supporting.

The rules of the school have undergone some slight modifications and additions since they were first framed by the provisional committee, and no pupils are now admitted under ten or over fifteen years of age, whilst the annual payments of all pupils have been raised £20 in each case. The insurance plan of entrance was never adopted. A donation of 50 guineas now entitles the donor to a single nomination, and one of 100 guineas constitutes him a life-governor, with power to vote at all general meetings, and to have always one pupil in the school on his nomination. Other rules for the internal management and government of the school have been framed as the number of scholars has increased and their requirements become greater.

There are three exhibitions connected with this institution, of £50 a year each, called respectively the Council, Beechey, and Osborne exhibitions, (the last two being named after the late Honorary Secretary and the late Head Master, through whose exertions the funds were mainly contributed,) tenable for three years at any of the colleges of Oxford or Cambridge; and one of £10 a year, in books, tenable for three years, and founded by Lord Egerton, of Tatton. Besides these there are about eight or ten entrance scholarships offered for competition every year, ranging in value from £10 to £20 each. Of these seven were founded by George Swainson, esq., and one by the Bishop of Rupertsland. A number of other special prizes have been instituted by the present Head Master, the Rev. H. A. James, B.D.

In 1850 the estate was purchased, and since then fresh buildings have been erected to provide accommodation for 400 boys. The old chapel, which was built to supersede the one in the organ-room, has of late years been converted into a library and class-room. A dining hall, schools, class-rooms for different branches of study, spacious dormitories, and a swimming bath have all been added; whilst extensive enlargements and improvements have taken place in the sanatorium, kitchens, laundries, etc. The old school has been arranged and fitted up as a lecture-room and laboratory. The new chapel is a handsome edifice, containing stained glass windows and a richly decorated chancel; it is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It should be added that the original name,—The Northern Church of England School,—has been discontinued, and that of Rossall School, substituted, as a more comprehensive title for a great public school.

HEAD MASTERS OF ROSSALL SCHOOL.

------------+-----------------------------+----------------------------- Date of | NAME. | Cause of vacancy. Appointment.| | ------------+-----------------------------+----------------------------- 1844 |Rev. John Woolley, D.C.L. | 1849 |Rev. William A. Osborne, M.A.|Resignation of John Woolley 1869 |Rev. Robert Henniker, M.A. | ” ” W. A. Osborne 1875 |Rev. Herbert A. James, B.D. | ” ” R. Henniker ------------+-----------------------------+-----------------------------

A preparatory school in connection with this college was successfully established during the reign of Mr. Osborne, about one mile distant along the shore, in a southerly direction, to which pupils are admitted at seven years of age, but not younger, and subsequently drafted into the higher institution.

POPULATION OF THORNTON TOWNSHIP, EXCLUSIVE OF FLEETWOOD.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 617 739 875 842 1,014 1,013 1,023 934

CARLETON, anciently written Carlentun, is named in the Domesday Book as comprising four carucates of land; and in the Black Book of the Exchequer, it is stated that during the reign of Henry II., 1154-89, Gilbert Fitz Reinfred held four carucates in Carlinton and another place. In 1254 the manor of Carleton in Lancashire belonged to Emma de St. John, and at that date there appears to have been some litigation concerning her right of proprietorship, but how settled we have no means of discovering.[103] In the _Testa de Nevill_ it is recorded that Roger Gernet had the 24th part, and Robert de Stokeport the 48th, of a knights’ fee in Little Carleton of William de Lancaster’s fee.

The earliest allusion to the local territorial family occurs in 1221, when Michael de Carleton, as before stated under “Thornton,” paid a fine to Henry III. for having espoused Margaret Wynewick, or Winwick, a royal ward, without first obtaining permission from the king. It has been conjectured that Much Carleton received its peculiar title from this member of the family, and amongst the records of some ancient pleadings is one of 1557 concerning certain lands in _Miche Carlton_, a mode of writing the name which lends considerable support to the theory. Alyce Hull, widow, was the plaintive in the dispute. The Carletons, of Carleton, were connected with the neighbourhood for a very long period as holders of the manor; Alicia, the daughter of William de Carleton married Sir Richard Butler, of Rawcliffe Hall, in 1281, and received the manor of Inskip as her dowry; and in 1346 H. de Carleton possessed four carucates and a half in Carleton.[104] Thomas de Carleton held the manor of Carleton up to the time of his death in 1500, when he was succeeded by his son and heir George Carleton, aged 22,[105] who died in 1516, leaving an only child, William, then eleven years of age.[106] William de Carleton came into possession of the property on attaining his legal majority,[107] and died in 1557, being succeeded by Lawrence Carleton, probably his brother. Lawrence Carleton, who had married Margaret, the daughter of George Singleton, of Staining, held the estate for barely twelve months, as he died in 1558 without issue, leaving his lands and tenements in Carleton, amounting to several extensive messuages and Carleton Hall, to his only surviving sister, Margaret, the wife of Thomas Almond.[108] Thus Lawrence Carleton was the last of the manorial family of that name connected with the township. Of the ancient Hall of Carlton, the seat of the Carletons for over three centuries, nothing can be learnt beyond the fact that it stood opposite the Gezzerts farm, and that almost, if not quite, within the recollection of the present generation some ruins of the once noble mansion were visible on its former site, long since enclosed and used for purposes of agriculture. In 1261 the abbey of Cockersand held some property in Carleton, as appears from an agreement entered into at that date between the abbot of Cockersand and H. de Singleton Parva, by which the latter transferred a messuage in Carleton, by the side of other messuages already belonging to the abbey, to the abbot, in exchange for messuages and an acre of ground in the vicinity of Stanlawe abbey in Cheshire.[109] Stanlawe abbey itself had sundry possessions in Carleton shortly after its foundation in 1175,[110] all of which were conveyed to the abbey of Whalley in 1296, when the two monastic houses were united, and thus it happened that this township was included amongst the localities in which Whalley abbey held lands at the time of its dissolution.

Sometime during the reign of Henry VIII. the Sherburnes, of Stonyhurst, Hambledon, etc., became holders of soil in Carleton, and at a later period had acquired the manorial rights and privileges. In 1717 Sir Nicholas Sherburne, bart., bequeathed the manor of Carleton, amongst numerous other estates, to his only child and heiress, Maria Winifreda Francisca, the duchess of Norfolk, and two years later the duke of Norfolk had obtained a settlement by which he held a life interest in Carleton, Stonyhurst, and other places, the duchess, however, having reserved to herself the power to dispose of the reversion or inheritance by will or deed, executed in the duke’s lifetime. The duchess of Norfolk bequeathed her real estate, including Carleton, on her death in 1745, to her cousin Edward Weld, esq., grandson of Sir John Weld, of Lulworth Castle, Dorsetshire, whose descendant Edward Joseph Weld, esq., has disposed of most of his inheritance in the township to various purchasers, chiefly amongst the local yeomanry and gentry.

The Bambers, of the Moor, in Carleton, were people of position in the township. Richard Bamber, during the latter half of the sixteenth century, married Anne, the daughter of Thomas Singleton, of Staining Hall, and consequently was the brother-in-law of John Leckonby, of Leckonby House, Great Eccleston, who had espoused Alice, another daughter of the same gentleman. It is impossible to affirm with certainty what children sprang from the union of Richard Bamber and Ann Singleton, but of one of them, Edward, who entered the Romish priesthood, we subjoin an interesting and tragic account, extracted from the “Memoirs of Missionary Priests, by the Right Rev. Richard Challoner, D.D.”:—

“Edward Bamber, commonly known upon the commission by the name of Reding, was the son of Mr. Richard Bamber, and born at a place called the Moor, the ancient mansion-house of the family, lying not far from Poulton, in that part of Lancashire called the Fylde. Having made good progress with his grammar studies at home, he was sent abroad into Spain, to the English college at Valladolid, where he learnt his philosophy and divinity, and was ordained priest. My short memoirs leave us much in the dark as to many passages and particulars relating to the life and labours of this good priest, as well as to the history of his trial; but then short as they are they are very expressive of his zeal and indefatigable labours, his unwearied diligence in instructing the catholics under his charge, disputing with protestants, and going about doing good everywhere, with a courage and firmness of mind almost above the power and strength of man. When, how, or where, he was apprehended, I have not found, but only this, that he had lain three whole years a close prisoner at Lancaster castle, before he was brought to the bar, where he stood with an air of fortitude and resolution of suffering in defence of truth. Two fallen catholics, Malden and Osbaldeston, made oath that they had seen him administer baptism and perform the ceremonies of marriage; and upon these slender proofs of his priesthood, the jury, by the judge’s direction, found him guilty of the indictment. Whereupon the judge sentenced him to be hanged, cut down alive, drawn, quartered, etc., as in cases of high treason. It was on the 7th of August, 1646, that he, with two fellow priests, and a poor wretch, named Croft, condemned to death for felony, were drawn upon sledges to the place of execution at Lancaster. There Mr. Bamber exhorted Croft to repentance, and besought him to declare himself a Catholic, confess some of his more public sins, and be truly contrite and sorry for all—‘and I, a priest and minister of Jesus Christ, will instantly in his name, and by his authority, absolve thee.’ On hearing this the officers of Justice began to storm but Mr. Bamber held his ground, and finally absolved the man in sight and hearing of the crowd. As Mr. Bamber mounted up the ladder, he paused after ascending a few steps, and taking a handful of money from his pocket, threw it amongst the people, saying, with a smiling countenance, that ‘God loveth a cheerful giver.’ Mr. Bamber was encouraging Mr. Whitaker, one of the other two priests about to suffer, who appeared not a little terrified at the approach of death, to be on his guard against the temptation to save his life by renouncing his creed, when the sheriff called out hastily to the executioner to dispatch him (Bamber); and so he was that moment turned off the ladder, and permitted to hang but a very short time, before the rope was cut, the confessor being still alive; and thus he was butchered in a most cruel and savage manner.”

The two following verses, relating to his death, form part of a long ode or sonnet written at the time:—

“Few words he spoke—they stopp’d his mouth, And chok’d him with a cord; And lest he should be dead too soon, No mercy they afford.

“But quick and live they cut him down, And butcher him full soon; Behead, tear, and dismember straight, And laugh when all was done.”

The free school of Carleton was founded towards the close of the seventeenth century. On the 17th of May, 1697, Richard Singleton, John Wilson, John Davy, and six others recited in an indenture between them, that Elizabeth Wilson, of Whiteholme, by her verbal will of the 22nd of September, 1680, declared it to be her wish that the interest of a fourth of her goods, which amounted to £59 2s. 0d., should be used by the overseers of Carleton for the purpose of procuring instruction for so many of the poorest children of the town of Carleton as they should think proper; and that one-quarter of her estate had been invested in land, and the annual revenue therefrom employed according to her last directions and desire. William Bamber, by will dated 13th of October, 1688, bequeathed £40 to his wife Margaret Bamber, and Richard Harrison, vicar of Poulton, to the intent that they should lay out the sum in land or other safe investment, not to yield less than 40s. per annum, half of which was to be given, at their discretion, amongst the most needful of the poor of Great Carleton, and the other moiety to be expended in purchasing books, or obtaining tuition for such poor children of the same place as they might select. After the deaths of the two original trustees, the will directed that the bequest should pass under the management of the vicar of Poulton, for the time being, and the churchwarden of Carleton. The money was invested on the 11th of May, 1689, in a messuage and appurtenances, a barn, and several closes, called the Old Yard, the Great Field, the Croft, the New Hey, the Two Carrs, and the third part of a meadow, named the Great Meadow, all being situated in Blackpool, and containing by estimation six acres and a half. The property was immediately leased to the vendor, John Gualter, at a rental of 40s. a year. By an indenture, dated the 31st of December, 1706, between Sir Nicholas Sherburne, of Carleton, Hambleton, and Stonyhurst, and John Wilson, with three others, of Carleton, it appears that Sir Nicholas leased to the latter, and their assigns, the school-house, newly erected at a place called the Four Lane Ends, in Great Carleton, and the site thereof, for a term of 500 years from the foregoing date, at the nominal rent of 1s. per annum; and John Wilson, with his co-trustees, covenanted that the same should be used for no other purpose but that of a school, excepting that Sir Nicholas Sherburne and his heirs should have free liberty to hold the courts for the manor of Carleton within the building. Margaret Bickerstaffe, by her will of the 19th of April, 1716, left £20, the interest of which she directed to be employed by her executors in educating some of the poor children of Carleton. On the 2nd of February, 1737, Richard Butler and Richard Dickson, trustees for the sale of certain estates for paying the debts of James Addinson, conveyed to George Hull, John Sanderson, and others, and their heirs, in consideration of £42, a close in Thornton, formerly called Rushey Full Long Meadow, and now Wheatcake, comprising one acre, in trust, to hold the same and pay the annual proceeds to the master of the Four Lane Ends school “for his care and pains in teaching such poor children of Carleton as should be appointed each year by the chief inhabitants or officers of the township.” The money seems to have been given by some persons not wishing to disclose their names, and who selected George Hull, John Sanderson, and five more, as their agents in the matter, and as first trustees of the charity. When five of the trustees had died, it was ordained that seven fresh ones should be elected, and the two remaining be relieved of their trust. John Addinson, in return for £20, given by some person, to the inhabitants of Carleton, conveyed to the same parties a close called the Rough Hey, in Thornton, containing half an acre, to be dealt with and used as in the previous case. It is very likely that the £20 here concerned was the sum before mentioned as the legacy of Margaret Bickerstaffe. All the premises belonging to the school were vested in six new trustees by a deed, dated 3rd of June, 1777; and at the visit of the school commissioners in 1867, the attendance of boys was 50, and of girls 20, being somewhere about the usual average of later years. The trustees manage the school property, and appoint or dismiss the master.

POPULATION OF GREAT AND LITTLE CARLETON.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 269 308 356 319 378 400 363 433

The area of the township embraces 1,979 statute acres.

MERETUN, or the town of the Mere, was estimated by the surveyors of William the Conqueror to comprise six carucates of arable land, and shortly afterwards Sir Adam de Merton held half of it, on condition that he performed military service when required.[111] Somewhere about 1200 William de Merton, a descendant of Sir Adam, was one of the witnesses to a charter, concerning a local marsh, between Cecilia de Laton and the abbot of Stanlawe.[112] In 1207-8 the sheriff of Lancashire received orders to give Matilda, widow of Theobald Walter, her third of the lands at Mereton, which her late husband had held up to the time of his death in 1206, at first for 12s. per annum, and subsequently for one hawk each year.[113] According to the _Testa de Nevill_, Henry III. held three carucates of the soil of Mereton for a few years, as guardian of the heir of Theobald Walter, and in 1249, during the thirty-third year of the reign of that monarch, Merton cum Linholme was in the possession of Theobald Walter, or le Botiler as he was afterwards called, the heir here mentioned.[114] Marton descended in the Botiler, or Butler, family until the time of Henry VIII., when it was sold by Sir Thomas Butler to John Brown, a merchant of London, in company with Great Layton, of which manor it had for long been regarded as a parcel, although in 1323, Great Marton was alluded to as a distinct and separate manor held by Richard le Botiler.[115] Marton was purchased from John Brown by Thomas Fleetwood, esq., of Vach, in the county of Buckingham, whose descendants and heirs resided at Rossall Hall; and after remaining in the Fleetwood family for many generations the manor of Layton, with its dependency Marton, was again sold, and this time became the property of Thomas Clifton, esq., of Lytham Hall, Sir P. H. Fleetwood, bart., being the vendor.

Little Marton was held in trust by William de Cokerham, in 1330, for the abbot and convent of Furness,[116] but eight years afterwards, the manor of Weeton and Little Marton, were held by James, the son of Edmund le Botiler, earl of Ormond.[117] What claim James Botiler had to include Little Marton amongst his possessions in 1338, cannot now be ascertained, but it is certain that later, at the dissolution of monasteries, it passed to the crown as part of the fortified lands of Furness Abbey. Subsequently Little Marton passed to the Holcrofts, and from them, in 1505, to Sir Cuthbert Clifton, of Lytham Hall, by exchange. John Talbot Clifton, esq., of Lytham Hall, a descendant of Sir Cuthbert, and the son of the late Thomas Clifton, esq., of Lytham, is the present owner of Great and Little Marton. As the moss and mere of Marton, perhaps the most interesting objects in the township, have been fully described in an earlier chapter, devoted to the country, rivers, etc., of the Fylde, we refer our readers to that portion of the volume for more detailed information concerning them. In this place we must content ourselves by stating that the mere was at one time a lake of no inconsiderable dimensions, having a fishery of some value attached to it, and that from the number of trunks of trees, discovered on the clayey soil beneath the original moss, which extended six miles by one and a half, there is conclusive evidence that in ancient times the whole of the wide tract was covered by a dense forest, composed chiefly of oak, yew, and fir trees. So enormous were some of the trunks discovered that it was impossible for one labourer to grasp the hand of another over them. The hamlet of Peel, situated within, but close to the Lytham border of the township, contains in a field called Hall-stede, traces of the ancient turreted manorial mansion of the Holcrofts, of Winwick and Marton,[118] and the remains of a moat out of which about sixty years ago a drawbridge and two gold rings were taken. The old lake of Curridmere, mentioned in the foundation charter of Lytham priory in the reign of Richard I., was also located in this neighbourhood, the site being indicated by the soil it once covered bearing the name of the _tarns_. A little more than half a century since the _tarns_ formed nothing but a trackless bog, and beneath its surface a husbandman discovered the remains of a small open boat, which had doubtless been used in earlier days on the waters of Curridmere.

About 1625 the inhabitants of Marton petitioned, that in conjunction with “Layton, Layton Rakes, and Blackpool,”[119] the township might be constituted a separate parish, stating in support of their prayer that the parish church of Poulton was five miles distant, and during the winter they were debarred by inundations from attending that place of worship. This reasonable request does not appear to have evoked a favourable response from the parliamentary commissioners, and it was not until more than a century and a half later that the district had its claims to the privilege desired practically acknowledged. The church of St. Paul, in Great Marton was erected by subscription in 1800, and opened by license the same year, but was not consecrated until 1804. It was a plain, unpretending structure with front and side galleries, but having neither chancel nor tower, and capable of holding upwards of 400 worshippers. In 1857 the increase of the population rendered it necessary to lengthen the church at the east end, and at the same time a neat and simple tower was added. Within the tower is the vestry, above which a number of seats were raised for the Sunday school children, many of whom had previously, for want of space, occupied forms in the aisles. A porch was built over the entrance of the church about 1848, and in 1871 a chancel was erected. Three bells were purchased by the parishioners, and placed in the tower in 1868, whilst the present reading desk and pulpit, were the gift of Miss Heywood, the daughter of Sir Benjamin Heywood, bart., who formerly had a handsome marine residence at Blackpool. Previous to 1845 the musical portion of the service was accompanied by two bassoons and another wind instrument, but about that date they were abolished, and a barrel organ substituted, which continued in force until a few years ago, when it was succeeded by the more modern key organ at present in use. The church of Marton has now an ecclesiastical district of its own, but was originally a chapelry under Poulton. A little anterior to the erection of the church divine service was conducted in the school-house of Baines’s Charity, Mr. Sawyer being the first appointed minister.

CURATES AND VICARS OF MARTON.

------------+---------------------+-------------------------- Date of | NAME. | Cause of Vacancy. Institution.| | ------------+---------------------+-------------------------- About 1762 | ⸺ Sawyer | ” 1772 | George Hall | In 1814 | Thomas Bryer | Death of G. Hall ” 1843 | James Cookson, M.A. | Resignation of T. Bryer ------------+---------------------+--------------------------

The old parsonage stood on the same site as the present one, and consisted simply of two cottages united to form one small residence. In 1846 this house was pulled down, and another, elegant and commodious, erected in its place, being completed the following year. Attached to the parsonage are eleven acres of glebe land.

James Baines, of Poulton, by will dated 6th of January, 1717, devised unto John Hull and six others, of Marton, their heirs and assigns, the school-house lately erected by him in Marton, the land whereon it stood, a messuage or tenement in Warbreck, containing about six acres, a messuage or dwelling-house in Hardhorn-with-Newton, with the smithy and two shippons thereto belonging, and several closes of land in the same township, called the Sheep Field, the Croft, the Garden, being about three acres; also the Many Pits, the Debdale, the Cross Butts, the Wradle Meadow, and the field adjoining its north-west end, and the Carr, containing twelve and a half acres, to the intent that the rents arising from the foregoing should after the deduction of 10s. for an annual dinner to the trustees, be directed to the maintenance of a master to instruct the children of the township in the above-mentioned building. The revenue of the school was greatly impoverished for many years by the expenses of a chancery suit about 1850, which arose on the question whether the school should be continued as formerly or be divided, and part of its income be devoted to the establishment and support of a similar institution in the adjoining district of Little Marton. The whole of the funds were defrayed out of the funds of the charity. A scheme for its regulation was framed in 1863 by the Master of the Rolls, providing amongst other matters that the school should be open to Government inspection, but in no way interfering with its gratuitous character. The commissioner of 1869 reports:—“Sixty-three children were present on the day of my visit, of whom fifty-two were girls, who are taught in the same classes as the boys, and are with them in play hours. The school being free, no register of attendance is kept. In arithmetic, six boys (average age 11), and four girls (average age 10½), did fair papers; the questions of course were simple ones. Grammar and geography, in which subjects I examined the highest class, were tolerably good. The girls read well; the boys (as usual) less so; spelling was up to the average. The girls are taught to write a bad angular hand; the master says that it is to please the parents. He has been in his present position five years, and receives a salary of £50 a year.” The school property consists of forty acres of land, producing a gross annual income of about £130. Both a playground and gymnasium are attached to the school. There are now two masters. The vicar of Poulton and the vicar of Marton, _ex officio_, and five other trustees self-electing, residing within the township, appoint and dismiss the masters, admit and expel scholars, appoint an examiner, and regulate the studies. The chief master must be a member of the Church of England, and is not permitted to take boarders.

Margaret Whittam, widow, by will dated 26th of July, 1814, bequeathed to Edward Hull, Richard Sherson, and John Fair, of Marton, and her brothers, their executors and administrators, the sum of £40, duty free, in trust, the interest to be applied to the benefit of the Sunday school in Marton so long as it should continue to be taught, and in the event of its being abolished, to use the same income for the relief of such necessitous persons of the township as received no alms from the poor rate. The Sunday school established in 1814 is still kept at Marton, and the master paid, in part from the interest of the legacy, and the remainder from subscriptions. About twenty years ago between £200 and £300 were obtained by means of a bazaar, and expended in the erection of a school building on a piece of waste land in Marton, for the purpose of providing for the education of children, both male and female, under the superintendence of a mistress. At Marton Moss there is another school, used also as a church, being served from South Shore, which was built a few years since through the munificence of Lady Eleanor Cicily Clifton, of Lytham Hall; and at Moss Side, a small Wesleyan Chapel was erected by subscription about 1871.

Edward Whiteside, of Little Marton, sailor, bequeathed by will, dated 22nd December, 1721, as follows:—“It is my will, that my ground be kept in lease, according as my executors shall see fit, and what spares it is my will that they buy cloth and give it to poor people that has nothing out of the town; it is my will that it be given in Little Marton, and if there be a minister that preaches in Marton, that they give him something what they shall see fit: It is my will, that if they can buy land, that they sell my personal estate, and buy as much as it will purchase: It is my will, that two acres, which my father hath now in possession, that when it falls into my hands and possession, that it go the way above named: It is my mind and will, that my executors give it when they shall see fit, and I hope they will choose faithful men, who will act according to themselves; and I make my well-beloved friends, Anthony Sherson and Thomas Grimbalson, executors of my last will.”

William Whiteside left by will, dated 1742, £100 to be invested, and the annual proceeds to be spent in furnishing clothing to the poor of Marton, not in receipt of parish relief. John Hull, Thomas Webster, and Robert Bickerstaffe, were the original trustees of this charity.

John Hodgson, by will dated 25th of September, 1761, devised his messuage and lands in Marton, and his personal estate, to John Hull and Richard Whittam, their heirs and assigns, in trust, to dispose of the same, and after paying his debts and funeral expenses, to lay out at interest the remainder of the money so acquired, and devote the yearly income therefrom to the purchase of meal for poor housekeepers of Great Marton, not relieved from the town’s rate. The meal to be distributed annually on the 25th of December. The net amount of the legacy was £100.

Edward Jolly, of Mythorp, by indenture, dated 13th of February, 1784, conveyed to James Jolly, James Sherson, and Thomas Fair, their executors and assigns, the sum of £60, to the intent that it should be placed on good security, and one shilling of the yearly income derived be expended weekly in bread, to be distributed each Sunday to those poor persons who had attended divine service in the morning at the chapel of Great Marton. The deed directed that the dole should be given at the door of the chapel immediately after morning service, by the clerk or some other authorised person, and that in the event of Marton Chapel, which was then unconsecrated and supported by subscription, being closed for four successive Sundays, or converted into a Dissenting place of worship, the bread money should be transferred to the townships of Great and Little Singleton, and Weeton-cum-Preese; and the weekly allowance of food be distributed as above at the parochial chapel of Great and Little Singleton. The dole, however, had to return to Marton chapel as soon as service, according to the Church of England, was again conducted there. The chapel alluded to was Baines’s school-house, where it had been the custom of Edward Jolly to distribute bread each Sunday for several years previously, and it was with the intention of rendering this practice perpetual, that the indenture was made. No re-investment of the money can be legally made without the approval of the minister of Marton church.

POPULATION OF GREAT AND LITTLE MARTON.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 972 1,093 1,397 1,487 1,562 1,650 1,691 1,982

The area of the township amounts to 5,452 statute acres, inclusive of the sheet of water called Marton mere.

HARDHORN-WITH-NEWTON contains within the limits of its township the three hamlets or villages of Hardhorn, Newton, and Staining, of which the last only is alluded to in the Domesday Survey, where Staininghe is mentioned as comprising six carucates of land in service. The Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey furnishes much valuable and interesting information relating to the district of Staining, and from it we find that sometime between 1175 and 1296 John de Lascy, constable of Chester, “gave and by this charter confirms to God and the Blessed Mary, and to the abbot and monks of the Benedictine Monastery (Locus) of Stanlawe the _vill_ of Steyninges, with all things belonging to it, in the _vill_ itself, in the field, in roads, in footpaths, in meadows, in pastures, in waters, in mills, and in all other easements which are or can be there, for the safety of my soul and those of my antecessors and successors. To be held and possessed in pure and perpetual gift without any duty or exaction pertaining to me or my heirs, the monks themselves performing the service which the _vill_ owes to the lord King.” The monks of Stanlawe retained possession until 1296, when their monastic institution, with all its property, including Staining, was united to, or appropriated by, the abbey of Whalley, shortly after which, in 1298, an agreement was arrived at between the prior of Lancaster, who held Poulton church, and the abbot of Whalley, concerning the tithes of Staining, Hardhorn, and Newton. “At length,” says the record, “by the advice of common friends they submitted the matter to the arbitration of Robert de Pikeringe, Elbor. Official,” who decided that the abbot and convent of Whalley, formerly of Stanlawe, should receive in perpetuity the major tithes of every and all their lands within the boundaries of Staining, Hardhorn, and Newton, whether the harvests were cultivated by the monks themselves or by their tenants; but the minor tithes, personal and obligatory, whether of the abbey tenants or of the secular servants, were adjudged to the vicar of the church of Poulton and the prior and monks of Lancaster. The abbot of Whalley was also directed to pay to the prior of Lancaster at the parish church of Poulton an annual sum of eighteen marks, as an acknowledgment, half at the festival of St. Martin and the remainder at Pentecost. The Coucher Book contains several deeds of arrangement touching marsh-land in the vicinity of Staining. Cecilia de Laton, widow, gave to the abbot and convent of Stanlawe, all her marsh between certain land of Staining and a long ditch, so that the latter might mark the division between Staining and Little Layton, the witnesses to the transfer being William de Carleton, William de Syngleton, and Alan, his son, William de Merton, and Richard de Thornton; Cecilia de Laton also quitclaimed to the same monastery all her right to the mediety of a marsh between “Mattainsmure” and Little Carleton. William le Boteler exchanged with the Stanlawe brotherhood all the marsh between the ditch above mentioned and the land of Staining for a similar tract beyond the trench towards Great Layton, stipulating that if at any time a fishery should be established in the ditch, which was doubtless both wide and deep, the monks and he, or his heirs, should participate equally in the benefits accruing from it. Theobald Walter granted power to the abbot of Stanlawe to make use of his mere of Marton for the purpose of conducting therefrom a stream to turn the mill at Staining, belonging to the monastery, care being taken that the fish in the said mere were not injured or diminished. Within the grange of Staining a chantry was in existence, and its services were presided over by two resident priests, whose duty it also was to superintend the property held by the convent of Stanlawe, and subsequently by the abbey of Whalley, in the neighbourhood.

The following is a list of the conventual possessions and rentals in Staining at the date of the Reformation:—The house of Staining 6s. 0d.; Scotfolde close, held by Lawrence Richardson, 5s. 0d., also Cach Meadow, of one acre, 1s. 8d.; a messuage, 30 acres of land, held by Lawrence Archer, £1 10s. 4d; a messuage, 16 acres, held by Thomas Salthouse, 16s. 0d.; a messuage, 15 acres, held by John Johnson, 18s. 2d.; a fishery, held by Richard Whiteside, 18s. 4d.; a messuage, 15 acres, held by Richard Harrison, 18s. 10d.; a messuage, 18 acres, held by William Salfer, 18s. 2d.; a messuage, 8 acres, held by William Hall, 10s. 4d.; a house and a windmill, held by Lawrence Rigson, £2 0s. 0d.; a messuage, 18 acres, held by Robert Gaster, 18s. 2d.; a messuage, 30 acres, held by Constance Singleton, widow, £1 13s. 0d.; a messuage, 20 acres, held by Thomas Wilkinson, £1 0s. 0d.; a messuage, 10 acres, held by John Pearson, 10s. 0d.; a messuage, 10 acres, held by the wife of William Pearson, 10s. 0d.; a messuage, 6 acres, held by Robert Walsh, 6s. 8d.; a messuage, 13 acres, held by Thomas Dickson, 13s. 4d., and 4 hens; a messuage, 20 acres, held by John Sander, £1 0s. 0d. and 6 hens; a messuage, 10 acres, held by William Hey, 10s. 0d. and 3 hens; a messuage, 6 acres, held by Ralph Dape, 7s. 6d. and 3 hens; a messuage, 8½ acres, held by the wife of Richard Dane, 7s. 6d. and three hens. In Hardhorn the abbey possessed a messuage, 10 acres, held by William Lethum, at 10s. per annum; a messuage, 20 acres, held by Robert Lethum, £1 0s. 0d.; a messuage, 10 acres, held by Henry ffisher, 10s.; a messuage, 10 acres, held by William Pearson, 10s. 0d. and 3 hens; a messuage, 10 acres, held by John ffisher, 10s. 0d. and 3 hens: a messuage, 10 acres, held by William Silcocke, 10s. 0d. and 3 hens; a messuage, 10 acres, held by Richard Hardman until “ye time that Richard Hardman, son of William Hardman, come to ye age of 21 yeares,” 10s. 0d.; a messuage, 10 acres, held by Richard Hardman, junior, 10s. 0d. and 3 hens; a messuage, 10 acres, held by Robert Silcocke, 10s. 0d.; a messuage, 12 acres, held by Robert Whiteside, 12s. 6d. and 3 hens; a messuage, 12 acres, held by Richard Bale, 12s. 6d. and 3 hens; a messuage, 7 acres, held by Henry ffisher, junior, 7s. 6d. and 2 hens; a messuage, 2 acres, held by John Allards, 2s. 0d. and 2 hens; a messuage, 10 acres, held by John Walch, 10s. 0d. and three hens; a messuage, 10 acres, held by Robert Crow, 10s. 0d. and 2 hens; a messuage, 20 acres, held by Richard Garlick, £1 0s. 0d. and 6 hens; a messuage, 10 acres, held by John Ralke, 10s. 0d. and 3 hens; a messuage, 10 acres, held by Edmund Holle, 10s. 0d. In Carleton the abbey owned a close named Whitbent, which William Carleton rented at 1s. 6d., a year; and in Elswick, a barn and 3 acres of land, held by Christopher Hennett, for an annual payment of 3s. 4d. In the Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey, from which the foregoing information has been obtained there occurs the following notice, relating to the Hall, apparently written when the above survey was made:—“The house of Stayning is in length xxvii. yards, and lofted ou’r and slated; ye close called ye little hey contains by estimation halfe an acre, and ye said house payeth yearly, 6s.” Sir Thomas Holt, of Grizlehurst, appears to have been the first proprietor of the conventual lands of Staining after they had been confiscated to the crown at the dissolution of monasteries; and from him they were purchased, either towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII., or at the commencement of that of Edward VI., by George the son of Robert Singleton, by his wife Helen, daughter of John Westby, of Mowbreck. The Singletons, of Staining, resided at the Hall until the close of the seventeenth century, and during that long period formed alliances with several of the local families of gentry, as the Carletons of Carleton, the Fleetwoods of Rossall, the Bambers of Carleton, and the Masseys of Layton. On the death of George Singleton, the last of the male representatives of the Singletons of Staining, somewhere about 1790, the estates descended to John Mayfield, the son of his sister Mary, and subsequently, on his decease without issue, to his nephew and heir-at-law, William Blackburne. Staining Hall, now the property of W. H. Hornby, esq., of Blackburn, is a small and comparatively modern residence, presenting in itself nothing calling for special notice or comment from an antiquarian point of view. Remains of the old moat, however, are still in existence round the building, but beyond this there is no indication of the important station the Hall must have formerly held in the surrounding country, both as the abode of some of its priestly proprietors, of Stanlawe and Whalley, and the seat of a family of wealth and position, like the Singletons would seem to have been.

The township of Hardhorn-with-Newton contains the free school erected and endowed by Mr. James Baines, which has already been fully noticed in the chapter devoted to Poulton. In the hamlet of Staining a chapel and school combined was erected by private munificence in 1865, the former building used for such purposes being both inadequate and inappropriate. The foundation stone was laid by Mrs. Clark, the wife of the late vicar of Poulton, on a site given by W. H. Hornby, esq., of Blackburn and Staining. The ceremony took place on the 26th of May, 1865, and on the 3rd of December in that year service was first performed in the edifice by the Rev. Richard Tonge, of Manchester. The building is of brick, with stone dressings, and comprises a nave, apsis, and tower of considerable altitude, containing a fine toned bell.

On the 1st of February, 1748, Thomas Riding re-leased to John Hornby and Thomas Whiteside, a dwelling-house and certain premises for the remainder of a term of 1,000 years, to be held in trust by them and their heirs for the use and benefit of the poor housekeepers in Hardhorn-with-Newton township, in such manner as directed by the will of Ellen Whitehead. The property of this charity in 1817 consisted of half an acre of ground, and three cottages and a weaving shed standing upon it, together with £40 in money, out at interest. It cannot be ascertained either who Ellen Whitehead was or when she died.

POPULATION OF HARDHORN-WITH-NEWTON.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 311 324 392 409 358 386 389 436

The area of the township extends over 2,605 statute acres.

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