Chapter 14 of 28 · 9990 words · ~50 min read

CHAPTER XIII

PARISH OF KIRKHAM.

FRECKLETON. In the Domesday Book Freckeltun is stated to contain four carucates of arable soil. During the reign of Henry III. Richard de Freckleton, Allan de Singleton, and Iwan de Freckleton, with three others, held land in Freckleton from the earl of Lincoln. In 1311 the heirs of Adam de Freckleton held Freckleton from Alice, the daughter and heiress of the earl of Lincoln, shortly after which Ralph de Freckleton was lord of the manor. Gilbert de Singleton had a house with 12 acres of land and a mill there in 1325. In 1349 the manor was held under the earl of Lancaster as follows:—Robert de Freckleton, 1 messuage and 3 bovates; Nicholas le Botiler, 1 messuage and 11 bovates; the heirs of Robert Sherburne, 2 bovates; the heirs of Sir Adam de Banastre, 2 bovates; and Thomas de Singleton, 1 bovate. During the first half of the 16th century the Botilers or Butlers retained property in Freckleton, whilst the Sherburnes held estates there until the early part of the 17th century. Hugh Hilton Hornby, esq., of Ribby Hall, is the largest territorial proprietor at present, but there are several resident yeomen.

In 1834 a temporary episcopal chapel was erected, and 5 years later the existing church was built, being a neat brick edifice, with a spire at the west end, and containing an ancient pulpit from Kirkham church. The Rev. G. H. Waterfall, M.A., was the earliest incumbent, and the Rev. Walter Scott, appointed in 1861, is now in charge. In 1718 a Quakers’ burial ground was opened, but was closed in 1811. A meeting house was also established by the same sect in 1720, and pulled down after standing nearly a century. A Wesleyan chapel was erected in 1814; and in 1862 the Primitive Methodists opened another. A National school was built in 1839, and is supported mainly by subscriptions.

The village is long and irregular, but contains sundry better class houses, and a cotton manufactory, belonging to Mr. Sowerbutts, holding 320 looms. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in making sacking, sailcloth, ropes, etc. There is also a shipbuilding yard, of which Mr. Rawstorne is the proprietor, where vessels, mostly for the coasting trade, are constructed.

POPULATION OF FRECKLETON.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 561 701 875 909 995 968 879 930

The township comprises 2,659 statute acres.

Andrew Freckleton and two more gave, about 1734, certain sums of money for the poor of Freckleton, the interest from which, together with 10s. per annum left by Lawrence Webster for the same object, amounts to £2 5s. a year. The township shares in a bequest of £5, with Clifton and Newton-with-Scales, from Elizabeth Clitherall, of Clifton, for the use of the poor.

WARTON. Wartun is entered in the survey of William the Conqueror as comprising four carucates, and later, when in the fee of the earl of Lincoln, the township was held by the manorial lord of Wood Plumpton. During the reign of King John, Thomas de Betham had the third of a knight’s fee in Warton. Sir Ralph de Betham held Warton in the time of Edward III., and in 1296 Edmund Crouchback, earl of Lancaster, had a rent charge of 3s. 4d. there. Gilbert de Singleton was possessed of a messuage with six bovates of land in the township about 1325. The manor was held by Johanna Standish and Richard Singleton in 1515. John Talbot Clifton, esq., of Lytham Hall, is now the most extensive owner of the soil.

The church of Warton, dedicated to St. Paul, was completed in 1722, but not consecrated until 1725. Within recent years it has been apportioned a distinct parochial district under Lord Blandford’s act.

CURATES AND VICARS OF WARTON.

Warton school was built many years ago at the cost of the township, and in 1810 the sum of £277 was raised by subscription as an endowment. In 1809, William Dobson, of Liverpool, bequeathed £500 to the trustees, and another sum of £500 was also bequeathed by Mrs. Francis Hickson. In 1821 a new school-house was built.

POPULATION OF WARTON.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 376 445 468 531 522 473 446 444

The area of the township contains 3,939 statute acres.

BRYNING-WITH-KELLAMERGH. The earliest allusion to this township occurs in 1200-1, when Matilda Stockhord and others held two carucates in Briscath Brunn and one carucate in Kelgmersberg. A few years later Robert de Stockhord had the fourth of a knight’s fee there. In 1253 Ralph Betham held Brininge, Kelgermsarche, etc.; and during the reign of Edward III. Sir Ralph de Betham possessed the fourth of a knight’s fee in the same places, at which time John de Damport also held an eighth of a carucate. In 1311 John Baskerville had 3½ bovates, and Thurstan de Norley 4 bovates, in the hamlet of Kilgremargh.

In 1479 Sir Edward and William Betham had land in Bryning and Kellamergh; and two years afterwards half of the manor was granted by Edward IV. to Thomas Molyneux and his heirs. Thomas Middleton held both Bryning and Kellamergh in 1641. The Birley, Langton, Cross, and Smith families are now the chief landowners in the township.

Bryning Hall and Leyland House are the only places of interest amongst the scattered habitations. The Hall, now a farm-house, was formerly the seat of the Bradkirks, whilst Leyland House, also converted to farm uses, was the residence of the Leylands, of Kellamergh, during the 17th and part of the 18th centuries.[174]

POPULATION OF BRYNING-WITH-KELLAMERGH.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 105 131 145 164 152 126 116 115

The area of the township in statute acres is 1,043.

RIBBY-WITH-WREA. In Domesday Book _Rigbi_, for Ribby, is entered as comprising six carucates. Roger de Poictou gave the tithes of “colts, calves, lambs, kids, pigs, wheat, cheese, and butter of Ribbi and Singletone” to the priory of Lancaster to serve as food to the monks who celebrated mass in that monastery. This grant was afterwards confirmed by John, earl of Moreton.[175] In 1201 Adam and Gerard de Wra paid two marks to King John in order to gain protection from the sheriff, who, it seems, was in the habit of unjustly molesting them in their tenements.[176] The manors of Preston, Riggeby, and Singleton were presented by Henry III. to Edmund, earl of Lancaster, who in 1286 became engaged in a dispute with the abbot of Vale Royal, which ultimately led to a mandate being issued by Edward I., at Westminster, to the sheriff of Lancaster, commanding him to draw a proper and just boundary line between the lands of the disputants, because the abbot complained that the earl had taken more territory than he was legally entitled to by his fee, thereby encroaching on the conventual possessions in Kirkham parish.[177] In 1297 earl Edmund’s rents from Ribby-with-Wrea amounted in all to £19 19s.[178] per annum.

During the life of the first duke of Lancaster, Ribby contained twenty houses, and twenty-one and three-fourths bovates of land held by bondsmen at a rental of £19 16s. 4d.; and at that time there were the following tenants in Ribby and Wrea:—Adam, the son of Richard the clerk, who held five acres, and paid 4d. per annum; Adam, the son of Jordani, one acre for 12d.; Roger Culbray, three acres for 9d.; Richard de Wra, half a bovate for 5d.; Adam de Kelyrumshagh, half a bovate for 4d.; William de Wogher, six acres for 2d.; John de Bredkyrke, half a bovate for 9d.; William le Harpour, one bovate for 15d.; Giles, two acres for 10d.; John de Bonk, one bovate and one acre for 10d.; John le Wise, eleven acres for 7d.; and Adam de Parys, two bovates, which were those of John le Harpour, for 3s., of free farm and two marks. After the demise of a tenant it was the recognised custom for his successor to pay double rent.[179] The rent days were the feasts of the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary and of St. Michael. H. H. Hornby, esq., of Ribby Hall, is the present lord of the manor.

The remains of the ancient manor house on Wrea Green are now used as a cottage; Ribby Hall, the seat of the Hornbys, is a modern mansion, and was erected rather more than half a century ago. The church of Ribby-with-Wrea owes its origin to the trustees of Nicholas Sharples’s charity, who purchased a piece of ground on Wrea Green in 1721, and, having subscribed sufficient funds amongst themselves, erected a small chapel upon it. The following year they obtained a license to hold divine service in the building, and on the 20th of June, 1755, it was consecrated by the bishop of Chester. At that date the church was endowed with £400, half of which came from Queen Anne’s bounty, and the other in equal portions from the charities of Thistleton and Sharples. In 1762 the whole of this fund was invested in land in Warton, and other sums amounting to £600, including a legacy of £100 under the will of Thomas Benson in 1761, and further donations from the Royal bounty before mentioned, were expended in the purchase of land at Thistleton.[180]

In 1846 the township of Westby, with the exception of Great and Little Plumptons, was joined, by order of Council, to that of Ribby-with-Wrea, and the whole converted into an ecclesiastical district. In 1869 the title of the incumbent was changed from that of perpetual curate to vicar.

The old church was pulled down and the foundation stone of the existing structure laid in 1848, by the Rev. G. L. Parsons, vicar of Kirkham. On the 23rd of September in the ensuing year, it was opened for worship, but remained unconsecrated until the 4th of May, 1855. The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas.

CURATES AND VICARS OF RIBBY-WITH-WREA.

The Rev. George Thistlethwaite was the son of the Rev. T. Thistlethwaite, incumbent of St. George’s, Bolton-le-Moors, and in 1837 officiated _pro. temp._ as head master of Kirkham Grammar School. The Rev. S. E. Wentworth held the headmastership of the same school from 1845 to 1860, as well as his curacy.

The free school of Ribby-with-Wrea owes its existence to the frugality and benevolence of a tailor, named James Thistleton, of Wrea, who, although his daily wages averaged no more than 4d. and his food, managed, by great care and self-denial, to accumulate a sufficient fund to establish a school at his native place, an object to which he had in a great measure devoted his life. At his death in 1693, it was found that, after a few small legacies, one being “10s. to Mr. Clegg, vicar, to preach at my funeral,” and another 6s. 8d. to each of the townships of Kirkham, Bryning, and Westby, for the use of the poor, he had bequeathed the remainder of his property “towards the making and maintaining of a free school in the township of Ribby-cum-Wrea for ever,” stipulating only that his surviving sister should receive annually from the profits of his estate a sum of money sufficient for her support during the rest of her life. The executors appointed were Thomas Benson, Richard Shepherd, and Cuthbert Bradkirk, whilst the money designed for the foundation of the school amounted to £180.

The work thus commenced by Thistleton received, a few years later, substantial assistance under the will, dated 10th September, 1716, of Nicholas Sharples, who is described as a “citizen and innholder of London.” The bequest in this instance amounted to £850, and the two executors, Richard Wilson and Robert Pigot, were directed, “with all convenient speed to apply such sum of money towards the building or finishing of a school-house for educating of boys and girls in Ribby-cum-Wrea,” and in the purchase of land for the benefit of such establishment, and the remuneration of the master, “for educating such a number of boys and girls as nine of the most substantial men, chosen and elected out of Ribby-cum-Wrea for governors or elders, or the major part of them, shall think fit;” also that his name should be inscribed in some prominent place on one of the school walls.[181]

In 1780 a girls’ school was established in a building separate from that of the boys, but in 1847 the trustees of the foundation gave the “materials of the boys’ school” and the plot of land as a site for the new church, and in return the ecclesiastical party erected, according to agreement, another school-house on a piece of ground adjoining the girls’ school.[182]

POPULATION OF RIBBY-WITH-WREA.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 307 398 500 482 442 406 444 446

The area of the township amounts to 1,366 statute acres.

WESTBY, WITH GREAT AND LITTLE PLUMPTONS. Gilbert de Clifton held the manor about 1280, and subsequently his son William de Clifton was in possession about 1292. During the reign of Edward III. John Fleetwood was lord of Little Plumpton, and in 1394 his descendant, John Fleetwood, resided there. John Talbot Clifton, esq., of Lytham Hall, whose ancestor was the Gilbert de Clifton just mentioned, holds the manor of Westby with Plumpton, by right of inheritance.

Bowen, the geographer, who wrote in 1717, alludes to a spa in Plumpton, and states that it was impregnated with sulphur, vitriol, ochre, iron, and a marine salt, united with a bitter purging salt. The site of the spa has been lost in the lapse of time.

Westby Hall, the seat of the Cliftons, has been supplanted by a farm-house. The old chapel connected with it was opened in 1742 to the Romanists of the district, but closed about a century later. The present Catholic chapel was built in 1861. In 1849 a school, free to all denominations, was established by Thomas Clifton, esq., of Lytham, but there seems to have been such an institution existing before, as Ann Moor, of Westby, bequeathed, in 1805, £40 to Plumpton school, and the interest of £20 to the poor of Great Plumpton.

POPULATION OF WESTBY-WITH-PLUMPTONS.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 623 692 771 686 643 707 601 535

The area of the township is 3,426 statute acres.

WEETON-WITH-PREESE. On the arrival of the Normans Weeton contained 300 acres of arable land. In the 9th year of King John, Matilda, wife of Theobald Walter, obtained certain inheritances in Weeton, Treales, and Rawcliffe. Theobald le Botiler, or Butler, held Weeton in 1249; and in 1339, James, son of Edmund le Botiler, earl of Ormond, had possession of it, together with Treales, Little Marton, and Out Rawcliffe. The manor descended in the same family until 1673, when it passed to the 9th earl of Derby on his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Butler, the Lord Ossory. The present earl of Derby is now the lord of the soil, and holds a court baron by deputy. There is a fair for cattle and small wares on the first Tuesday after Trinity Sunday.

Preese is the Pres of Domesday Book, and comprised at that time two carucates. Henry, duke of Lancaster, held Preese at his death in 1361. In the reign of Henry VIII. the manor was in the hands of the Skilicornes, who for many generations were the coroners of Amounderness. Preese Hall, the ancient seat of this family, was much damaged by a fire in 1732, which destroyed the private chapel. In 1864 that portion of the mansion, which had survived the conflagration and been repaired, was pulled down. The site is now occupied by a farm-house, belonging to T. H. Miller, esq., of Singleton, who owns a large amount of the land.

The church of Weeton is dedicated to St. Michael, and was built in 1843 by subscription, to which the late earl of Derby contributed generously. In 1852 the edifice was enlarged, and in 1861 the township of Weeton-with-Preese was united with the Plumptons and Greenhalgh, to form an ecclesiastical parish. The Rev. William Sutcliffe, when curate at Kirkham, performed the duties at Weeton church, and was appointed incumbent there in 1861. In 1862 he was succeeded by the present vicar, the Rev. William Thorold. A National school was erected by subscription and a grant from the National Society of £30, in 1845. A Wesleyan chapel was built about 1827.

POPULATION OF WEETON-WITH-PREESE.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 384 508 473 477 545 465 465 433

The area of the township is 2,876 statute acres.

MEDLAR-WITH-WESHAM. The abbot and brethren of Cockersand Abbey became possessed of this township at an early date, and retained it until the dissolution of monasteries, when the manor of Medlar passed, by gift or purchase, to the Westbys, of Mowbreck Hall. The estates of the Westbys were confiscated by the Commonwealth, and only redeemed on the payment of £1,000. The estate and Hall of Mowbreck are still held by the same family.[183] The mansion preserves many evidences of its great antiquity, including the old chapel and priests’ room.

Bradkirk, in Medlar, belonged to Theobald Walter in 1249, but in the reign of Edward III. it was held by a family bearing the name of Bradkirk, a title acquired from the estate. The Bradkirks resided there as proprietors until somewhere about the opening of the 17th century, when the earl of Derby had obtained the soil. In 1723 Bradkirk was bought by John Richardson, of Preston, from Thomas Stanley, of Cross Hall, in Ormskirk parish, who held the manor by right of his wife Catherine, sister and heiress of Christopher Parker, of Bradkirk, deceased, unmarried, a few years before.[184] From John Richardson the manor passed successively by will to William Richardson, Edward Hurst, of Preston, and James Kearsley, of Over Hulton, by the last of whom it was sold in 1797 to Joseph Hornby, esq., of Ribby, and his descendant, H. H. Hornby, esq., of Ribby Hall, is the present holder. The original Bradkirk Hall, the seat of the Bradkirks and Parkers, has long since disappeared, and the edifice now bearing the name was erected or rebuilt by Edward Hurst in 1764.

In 1864 an Independent Day and Sunday school was built by Benjamin Whitworth, esq., M.P., of London, on land given by R. C. Richards, esq., J.P., of Kirkham, and presented to the trustees of the chapel belonging to that sect at Kirkham. The railway station and several weaving sheds and cotton mills are situated in this township.

POPULATION OF MEDLAR-WITH-WESHAM.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 216 230 215 242 209 170 563 860

GREENHALGH-WITH-THISTLETON. Greenhalgh is stated in the Domesday Book to contain three carucates of soil. The township was held by the Butlers of the Fylde at an early epoch, and retained until 1626 at least, when Henry Butler, of Rawcliffe, was lord of Greenhalgh and Thistleton. During the sovereignty of Edward I. the abbot of Cockersand had certain rights there, including assize of bread and beer.

Henry Colbourne, of London, bequeathed, in 1655, £5 10s. to establish a school at Esprick in this township, but his wishes were not properly carried out before 1679, at which date his legacy was supplemented by gifts from 41 yeomen in the neighbourhood, and a school erected to provide free education to the children of Greenhalgh and Thistleton. Further endowments of £60 in 1766 from John Cooper, and £80 a little later by subscription, were given to the institution; and in 1805 Mary Hankinson left £200, and Richard Burch, of Greenhalgh, £200, to the same object. The original school-house, formed of clay and thatched with straw, has been pulled down, and a fresh one built. Subsequent donations have been received under the wills of the Misses Ellen and Hannah Dewhirst, the former of whom left £200, in addition to a gift of £100 during her lifetime, and the latter the residue of her estate.

The interest of £20, bequeathed for that purpose by a person named Lawrenson, is distributed annually to the poor of Greenhalgh.

POPULATION OF GREENHALGH-WITH-THISTLETON.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 378 403 409 408 371 362 383 365

The township embraces 1,821 statute acres.

GREAT AND LITTLE SINGLETONS. At the Domesday Survey, Singletun contained six carucates of arable land, the lord of the manor being Roger de Poictou, who gave the tithes at the close of the eleventh century to the priory of St. Mary’s, Lancaster; this grant was subsequently confirmed by John, earl of Moreton.[185] During the reigns of kings John and Henry III., Alan de Singleton held a carucate of land in the township by serjeanty of the wapentake of Amounderness.[186] In 20 Edward I. (1292) Thomas de Singleton, a descendant of Alan, proved to the satisfaction of a jury, when his right to certain offices was called in question, that the manor of Little Singleton had belonged to his family from time immemorial, and that the serjeanty of Amounderness with its privileges and duties, was annexed and appurtenant to that manor. Thomas de Singleton admitted, however, when called upon by the king’s attorney to show by what title he held the manors of Singleton, Thornton, and Brughton, the same having been amongst the possessions of Richard I. at his death, that he did not hold the whole of Singleton, as Thomas de Clifton and Caterina his wife had one third of two bovates there; and urged this fact as a plea why he could not be summoned to answer the demand as made on behalf of Edward I. His objection was allowed.[187] In 1297 Edmund, earl of Lancaster received annually £21 from Singleton and 20s. from Singleton Grange. At the opening of the fourteenth century Little Singleton had passed into the hands of the Banastres, for the “hamlet of Singleton Parva” was one of the estates of William Banastre at his death in 17 Edward II. (1323-24).[188] Towards the end of the reign of Edward II. Thomas, the son of the notorious Sir Adam Banastre, held little Singleton and the serjeanty of Amounderness, and by the latter of these had a right to the services of two bailiffs and a boy to levy executions within the wapentake.[189]

The following notice of Singleton in the time of Henry, duke of Lancaster, who died in 1361, occurs amongst the Lansdowne manuscripts:—

“In Syngleton there are 21 messuages and 26 bovates of land held by bondsmen, who pay annually at the feasts of Easter and St. Michael £21 9s. 3d. And there are 11 cottages with so many inclosures, and one croft, and one piece of land in the hands of tenants-at-will, paying annually 21s. 6d. All the aforesaid bondsmen owe talliage, and give marchet and heriot,[190] and on the death of her husband a widow gives one third part of his property to the lord of the manor, but more is claimed in cases where the deceased happen to be widowers. And if any one possesses a male fowl it is forbidden to him to sell it without a license. The duke of Lancaster owns the aforesaid tenements with right to hold a court. It is to be noted that each of the above mentioned bovates of land is to pay at first 2s. 7d. per annum, with work at the plough and harrow, mowing meadows in Ryggeby, and carrying elsewhere the lord’s provisions at Richmond, York, Doncaster, Pontefract, and Newcastle, with 12 horses in Summer and Winter. But afterwards the land was freed from this bondage, and paid per bovate 14s. 3d. ob.”

The lands of Thomas Banastre, before named, in “Syngleton Parva, Ethelswyk, Frekulton, Hamylton, Stalmyn,” etc., were escheated to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, in 1385, after the death of Banastre.[191]

Edmund Dudley, who was attainted in 1509 and afterwards executed, held Little Singleton, as well as lands in Elswick, Thornton, Wood Plumpton, Freckleton, etc.;[192] and in 1521 Thomas, earl of Derby, held the manor of Syngleton of Henry VIII.[193]

In the reign of James I. Great Singleton appears to have belonged to the crown, for amongst a number of estates purchased from the crown by Edward Badbie and William Weldon, of London, for the sum of £2,000, is the “manor or lordship of Singleton, alias Singleton Magna,” the annual rent of which is stated to have been £16 17s. 0d. Subsequently the manor passed to the Fanshaws, and from them to the Shaws; William Cunliffe Shaw, of Preston, esq., sold it to Joseph Hornby, of Ribby Hall, esq., and afterwards it was purchased by Thomas Miller, esq., of Preston, who greatly improved the property by draining the low lying lands known as Singleton Carrs, which in former days were frequently in a state of

## partial or complete inundation. Thomas H. Miller, esq., the present owner

and eldest son of the late Thos. Miller, esq., has recently erected a noble mansion on the estate, where he resides during most of the year.

The earliest notice to be discovered of Singleton Grange is in an old schedule of deeds, in which the land is mentioned as having been granted by King John in 1215. In 1297, during the reign of Edward I., Edmund Crouchback, earl of Lancaster, received yearly the sum of 20s. from the estate. Subsequently the Grange passed into the possession of the abbot and convent of Cockersand;[194] and at the dissolution of monasteries it became the property of Henry VIII., who in 1543 granted it to William Eccleston, of Eccleston, gentleman.[195] The Grange descended to Thomas, the son, and afterwards to Adam, the grandson, of William Eccleston. Adam Eccleston died sometime a little later than 1597. The estate after his decease passed through several hands in rapid succession, and in 1614 was sold by William Ireland, gent., to William Leigh, B.D., clerk in holy orders and rector of Standish. Theophilus Leigh, the eldest son of that gentleman, resided at Singleton Grange, and married Clare, daughter of Thomas Brooke, of Norton, Cheshire, by whom he had one son, named William. William Leigh succeeded to the Grange on the death of his father in 1658, and espoused Margaret, daughter of Edward Chisenhall, of Chisenhall, Lancashire, and had issue, Charles and Edward.

Charles Leigh, the elder of the two sons, became celebrated as a physician and student of natural history and antiquities. He was born at the Grange in 1662, and at the age of 21 graduated as B.A. at the University of Oxford; afterwards he removed to Cambridge to study medicine, and in 1690 obtained the degree of M.D. In 1685 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He married Dorothy, daughter of Edward Shuttleworth, of Larbrick, and practised as a physician both in London and in the neighbourhood of his birthplace, on one occasion, according to his own version, performing a wonderful cure on Alexander Rigby, of Layton Hall. His published works were—_Physiologia Lancastriensis_, in 1691, and the _Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak of Derbyshire, with an account of the British, Phœnician, Armenian, Greek, and Roman Antiquities in those parts_, in 1700, of which latter Dr. Whittaker remarks:—“Had this doctor filled his whole book, as he has done nearly one-half of it, with medical cases, it might have been of some use; but how, with all possible allowances for the blindness and self-partiality of human nature, a man should have thought himself qualified to write and to publish critical remarks on a subject of which he understood not the elementary principles, it is really difficult to conceive.”[196]

Somewhere before the commencement of the eighteenth century, the estate of Bankfield was separated from the Grange, which, during the latter portion, at least, of the lifetime of Dr. Leigh, who died shortly after the publication of his “Natural History,” was held by a person named Joseph Green. In 1701 the executors of Joseph Green sold a portion of Singleton Grange to Richard Harrison, of Bankfield, yeoman. The remainder of the Grange land was held by widow Green until her death, when it passed by her will, dated 1716, to her two sons, Richard and Paul Green.[197]

Richard Harrison, of Bankfield, obtained the whole of Singleton Grange in 1738, and left it on his decease to his son Richard, from whom it descended about 1836 to his only surviving child, Agnes Elizabeth, the wife of Edwards Atkinson, of Fleetwood, justice of the peace for the county of Lancaster. Mrs. Atkinson died childless in 1850, and bequeathed Singleton Grange to her husband, who in his turn entailed the estate upon his eldest son, Charles Edward Dyson Atkinson, still a minor, the offspring of a second marriage, with Anne, daughter of Christopher Thornton Clark, of Cross Hall, Lancashire, by whom he had issue two sons and a daughter,—Ann Elizabeth Ynocensia, John Henry Gladstone, and the present heir. The old Hall of Singleton Grange has been modernised and converted into a farm-house.

It is very probable that there was a chapel in Singleton during the earlier years of the fourteenth century, for in 1358-59, Henry, duke of Lancaster, granted to John de Estwitton, hermit, the custody of the chapel of St. Mary, in Singleton; and in 1440 a license was granted to celebrate mass to the inhabitants of Singleton in the chapel at the same place for one year. Twelve years afterwards another license was granted by the archdeacon of Richmond for an oratory to be established in the chapel for the use of the people of the township; and in 1456 the license was renewed by archdeacon Laurence Bothe to John Skilicorne, of Kirkham. The chapel, with all its appurtenances, passed to the Crown at the Reformation; and in the report of the Commissioners of Edward VI., it is stated that “A Stipendarye is founded in the Chapelle of Syngleton, in Kirkeham, by vertue of a lease made out of the Duchie to Sʳ Richarde Houghton, knight, the 26th day of Februarie, in the ffirst yere of the raigne of our soveraign lorde the kinge, that nowe is (1547), unto the ende of 21 yeres the next following; wherein the said Sʳ Richarde covenanteth to pay yerely duringe the said time to a Pryest celebrating in the said Chapelle the sum of 49s. The said Chapelle is distant from the parishe Church of Kirkeham 4 myles; Richarde Godson, the Incumbent, of the age of 38 yeres, hath the said yerely salarie of 49s.” Thomas Houghton, of Lea, the son of the knight, appears to have had some difficulty in inducing sundry of the Singleton tenants to recognise his right of proprietorship after the death of his father, for we find him pleading in the duchy court in 1560-61 that he held the “lands of the late kynge in Singleton, also a house called the chapell house, with three acres of land in the tenure of Wᵐ Yede, a chapell called Singleton chapell, in Singleton aforesaid, with the chapell yarde thereunto belonging, one house or cottage called Corner-rawe, and a windmill; and that the tenants thereof, Robert Carter and James Hall, had never paid any rent, and refused to do so.”[198]

In 1562 the Charity Commissioners of Edward VI. founded a “stipendarye in the Chapelle of Syngleton in Kyrkeham.”

At the archiepiscopal visitation of the diocese of Chester in 1578, the following list of charges was brought against the curate of Singleton:—“There is not servyse done in due tyme—He kepeth no hous nor releveth the poore—He is not dyligent in visitinge the sycke—He doth not teach the catechisme—There is no sermons—He churcheth fornycatours without doinge any penaunce—He maketh a donge hill of the chapel yeard, and he hath lately kepte a typlinge hous and a nowty woman in it.”[199]

From that time we hear no more of the old chapel of Singleton, but the chapel-house, alluded to above, was at a later period flourishing as an inn, and bearing the same name; at the Oliverian survey, in 1650, it was stated that there was a newly erected chapel at Singleton, but that it had no endowment or maintenance belonging to it, and that the inhabitants prayed that it might be constituted a parish church with a “minister and competent mayntenance allowed.”[200] It is probable that after the decline of the Commonwealth this chapel fell into the hands of the Catholics, for Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, a Romanist, in his diary of 1712, 13 and 14, speaks several times of going “to Great Singleton to prayers”; and doubtless it is the one alluded to in the following indenture, bearing the date 29th August, 1749:—“William Shaw, esq., lord of the manor of Shingleton in yᵉ parish of Kirkham, gave a chapel belonging to him at Shingleton aforesaid, then used as a popish chapel, to be used for yᵉ future as a chapel of ease to yᵉ mother church of Kirkham, for yᵉ benefit of yᵉ inhabitants of Shingleton and of the adjacent townships; and that the said Wᵐ. Shaw proposed to give £200, to be added to a similar sum from Queen Anne’s bounty, for yᵉ endowment of yᵉ said chapel, in consideration whereof Samuel, lord bishop of Chester as ordinary, the dean and chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, as patrons, and Chas. Buck as incumbent, by virtue of an act of George I., grant and decree that yᵉ said William Shaw and his heirs and assigns for ever shall have yᵉ nomination to and patronage of yᵉ said chapel, as often as it is vacant.”

This chapel was dedicated to St. Anne, and in 1756 it was agreed “by all

## parties that the chapel of Singleton should be always considered a place

of public worship according to the liturgy of the Church of England, and the chapel yard always appropriated to the burying of the dead and the support of the minister”; further, the chapel living was declared a perpetual curacy, separate and independent of the mother church of Kirkham, “save and except that the curate must assist the vicar of the latter place on Christmas day, Easter day, Whitsunday, Good Friday, and each sabbath when it is customary to administer the sacrament; also the tythes, Easter dues, funeral sermons, and all other parochial rights and duties belonged to the vicarage of Kirkham.”[201]

The above is an authentic record of the way in which the chapel of Singleton passed out of the hands of the Romanists into those of the Protestants, but the Rev. W. Thornber, to whom this document was evidently unknown, has given in his _History of Blackpool and its neighbourhood_, a different version of the matter. He states, with apparently no greater authority than tradition, that after the suppression of the rebellion of 1745, the protestants of the village celebrated the 5th of November more zealously than usual, raising contributions of peat at every house, and amongst the rest had even the presumption to call at that of the priest. The refusal of the ecclesiastic to provide his share of fuel so incensed the villagers that they ejected him both from his house and the church; and the lord of the manor seized this opportunity to convert the chapel into a protestant place of worship.

Singleton chapel was a low building with a thatched roof, the eaves of which came within a short distance of the ground; the priest’s house was attached to the chapel and communicated with it by a door into the sacristy. In 1806 this ancient building, having become much dilapidated, was pulled down and replaced, through the liberality of Joseph Hornby, of Ribby, esq., by a neat gothic structure, having a square tower at one end, in which was placed a peal of six bells; in 1859 the latter edifice was levelled to the ground, and the present handsome and commodious church erected on the site, chiefly through the munificence of the late Thomas Miller, esq. The few mural monuments within the church are not of any great antiquity, and are _in memoriam_ of the Harrisons and Atkinsons, of Bankfield. There are no inscriptions of interest in the churchyard, beyond those on the stones surmounting the vault belonging to the Bankfield families just named. In 1869 a separate district or parish was assigned to this cure, and the present incumbent of the church acquired the title of vicar.

THE CURATES AND VICARS OF SINGLETON.

------------+-----------------------+-------------------------- Date of | NAME. | Cause of Vacancy. Institution.| | ------------+-----------------------+-------------------------- About 1545 |Richard Godson | ” 1562 |Thomas Fieldhouse | In 1651 |Cuthbert Harrison, B.A.| ” 1749 |John Threlfall, B.A. | About 1809 |Thomas Banks | Before 1843 |William Birley, M.A. | In 1843 |Leonard C. Wood, B.A. | Resignation of W. Birley ------------+-----------------------+--------------------------

The Rev. Cuthbert Harrison was the son of Richard Harrison, of Newton, in Kirkham parish, and appears to have been the progenitor of the Harrisons, of Bankfield, being the first of the name on record as holder of that property. It is doubtful whether this minister was ejected from Singleton, as generally believed, or not, for in 1662, the date of the Act of Uniformity which drove so many of the clergy from their cures, he was in Ireland, holding the office of minister at Shankel, near Lurgan; so that if his ejection ever did take place from Singleton it must have been anterior to, and consequently unconnected with, the obnoxious Act. According to a letter from his son, however, he was ejected from Shankel, and it is probably that circumstance which has given rise to the supposition and assertion that he was one of those who suffered in the Fylde for conscience’s sake in 1662. After leaving Ireland he opened a meeting-house at Elswick in 1672 by royal license, for the use “of such as do not conform to the Church of England and are of the persuasion commonly called Congregational.” This place of worship was closed shortly afterwards by a decree of parliament, and Cuthbert Harrison, to escape persecution, was compelled to hold his services “very privately in the night” in his own house, or in one belonging to some member of his congregation. “He practysed physic,” says his son, “with good success, and by it supported his family and gained the favour of the neighbouring gentry. He baptized his own children, with many others.”

Vicar Clegg, of Kirkham, seems to have grown very wrathful at what he doubtless regarded as the presumption of Cuthbert Harrison, in taking upon himself the right to baptize children and solemnize matrimony, and presented him before the ecclesiastical court on a charge of “marrying one James Benson, of Warles, and baptizing a child of his.” The inquiry resulted in both Harrison and Benson being excommunicated; but the former was not deterred by this ban from repairing to the church of Kirkham, much to the indignation of Mr. Clegg, who on one occasion was so much disturbed on seeing the irrepressible excommunicant in the chancel, whilst he engaged with the sermon, that he lost the thread of his discourse, and being unable to find the place amongst his notes, “was silent for some time.” Smarting under the additional annoyance the vicar ordered the churchwardens to eject Mr. Harrison from the building at once, but that gentleman refused to leave unless Mr. Clegg in person performed the duty of turning him out; incensed at his show of obstinacy, the vicar appealed to Christopher Parker, esq., of Bradkirk Hall, a justice of the peace, who was seated within six feet of Mr. Harrison, to remove him, but the magistrate refused to act in the matter, and Mr. Clegg was obliged to descend from the pulpit and undertake the unpleasant task himself. He walked up to the offender, and, taking him by the sleeve, desired him to go out from the church; Mr. Harrison went peaceably with the vicar, but had no sooner passed out through the chancel door than he exclaimed in a loud voice “It is time to go when the devil drives.”

Shortly after this episode Mr. Clegg sued Cuthbert Harrison for the sum of 120s., being a fine of 20s. per month extending over six months, for non-attendance at the parish church. The defendant pleaded that when he had attempted to attend the service at Kirkham he had been ejected from the church by the plaintiff himself, and the judge who summed up the evidence in favour of the defendant, remarked—“There is fiddle to be hanged and fiddle not to be hanged.” The verdict went against Mr. Clegg, who reaped only the payment of his own and defendant’s costs from this piece of persecution.

Cuthbert Harrison died in 1681, and “a great entreaty,” writes his son, “was made to Mr. Clegg to suffer his body to be buried in the church; he-was prevailed with, and Mr. Harrison was interred a little within the great door, which has since been the burial place of the family.” The first epitaph below is said, by his son, to have been fixed upon “Cuth. Harrison’s grave by Mr. Clegg”; the second one is a retaliation, reported to have been substituted by some local rhymester, after effacing the original one:—

“Here lies Cud, Who never did good, But always was in strife; Oh! let the Knave Lie in his grave, And ne’er return to life.”

“Here lies Cud, Who still did good, And never was in strife, But with Dick Clegg, Who furiously opposed His holy life.”

In 1768 another chapel was erected by the Romanists at Singleton by subscription, and almost immediately the officiating priest, the Rev. Father Watts, renounced his creed, publicly recanting at Kirkham; he died in 1773, when minister at the episcopal chapel of Wrea-green. According to Mr. Thornber, the priests of Singleton could seldom assign a better reason for desiring a removal to another sphere of labour, than that they were surfeited with wild ducks from the “carrs.” The chapel was rebuilt subsequently, but closed when the present one at Poulton had been completed and opened a few years.

Mains or Maynes Hall is situated in the manor of Little Singleton, and appears on ancient maps as Monk’s Hall. The original Hall was built in the form of a quadrangle, the chapel being on the right and the kitchen on the left; the latter, taken down rather more than half a century ago, was roofed with tiles, about six inches square, piled thickly upon one another, and contained several secret recesses or hiding places, one of which was situated near the mantel-piece, and another, entered from the floor above by means of a ladder, showed manifest evidences of having been occupied. The present Hall is less antique in its construction and arrangements than its predecessor. In 1745 a party of Scotch rebels feasted there; and George IV., when Prince of Wales, is said to have been an occasional visitor at the mansion. The mantel-piece of the drawing-room was formerly adorned with a family painting of the Howards, dukes of Norfolk; and adjoining that spacious apartment is a small room, which appears to have been an oratory, containing relics of distinguished saints. The outside wall of the old chapel bears the date 1686, and within are a gilded altar in a state of dilapidation, a large picture of the ‘Virgin and Infant,’ a coat of arms, and various scraps of scriptural texts and ordinances of the church of Rome.[202]

Cardinal Allen, of Rossall Hall, the brother-in-law of William Hesketh, who was living at Mains Hall at the opening of the seventeenth century, is said to have frequently secreted himself in the hiding places there, during the time he was engaged in endeavouring to alienate the loyalty of the catholics of this district, and induce them to assist the invasion of Philip of Spain, whose forces were expected to land at Peel in Morecambe Bay.

The Heskeths were the first tenants of Mains Hall of whom we have any notice, and the above William was the first of the family to reside there; a full account of the descent and intermarriages of the Heskeths of Mains will be found in the chapter on ancient families of the Fylde.

The Hall and estate are now the property of Thomas Fitzherbert Brockholes, of Claughton, esq.

POPULATION OF GREAT AND LITTLE SINGLETON.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 325 396 501 499 391 293 338 317

The area of the township comprises 2,860 statute acres.

LITTLE ECCLESTON-WITH-LARBRICK. The _Testa de Nevill_ records that Adam de Eccleston and William de Molines, with three others, had part of a knight’s fee in Eccleston and Larbrick, about 1300. In 1500 Richard Kerston had 60 acres in Little Eccleston, a portion of which passed on his death in 1546 to John ffrance, who had married one of his daughters. The ffrances retained their possessions until 1817, when they were bequeathed by the last of the line to Thomas Wilson, of Preston, who adopted their surname.[203] Larbrick was held in 1336 by William de Coucy, of Gynes, but in 1358 it belonged to Sir William Molyneux, of Sefton, in whose family it remained until about 1601, at which date William Burgh, of Burgh, near Chorley, died, holding it. Subsequently the manor passed, through the daughter of William Burgh, to Edward Shuttleworth, of Thornton Hall, who had espoused her grand-daughter. The last proprietor here named died in 1673, and the estate was divided, a moiety going to Dr. Charles Leigh, who had married one of his two daughters and co-heiresses, and the second mediety to Richard Longworth, who was the husband of the other. Dr. Leigh mortgaged his share, which eventually was obtained by Richard Harrison, of Bankfield; whilst that of Richard Longworth, passed, about 1700, to the Hornbys, of Poulton, and afterwards to the Pedders, of Preston, who held it for more than a century. Mr. Whiteside, who purchased it from the Rev. Jno. Pedder, is now owner. Larbrick Hall, for long a seat of the noble house of Molyneux, is at present represented by a farm-house. Dr. Leigh mentions an extremely cold well in Larbrick, in which fish were unable to survive beyond a few seconds.

In 1697, William Gillow left 10s. a year, the rental of some land, to be given to two or more poor persons of the township at Christmas, and in 1720, a further annual sum of 20s. was left for the same object by George Gillow.

POPULATION OF LITTLE ECCLESTON-WITH-LARBRICK.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 178 192 224 230 199 215 209 192

The area of the township is 1,198 statute acres.

CLIFTON-WITH-SALWICK. As early as 1100 William de Clifton had lands in Clifton and Salwick, and from that date to the present time, with one short interval, the manors have descended in the same family, of which Jno. Talbot Clifton, esq., of Lytham, is the head.[204] Clifton and Salwick Halls, the ancient residences of the Cliftons, are now comparatively modern buildings. The church of Lund is situated in Salwick, and possessed a chantry so far back as 1516. The first notice of any connection between Kirkham church and Lund chapel occurs amongst the records of the “Thirty-men” in 1701, thus:—“Matt. Hall, ch warden, of Kirkham, in 1688, set up a scandalous trough for a font in Lund chapel; and 4 sackfuls of moss he then carried from the church to repair the said chapel, and so it first began to be repaired at the parish charge.” The old chapel was pulled down in 1824, and a stone church erected. In 1852 a chancel was added, and more recently a tower. Lund and Newton-with-Scales were constituted an ecclesiastical parish in 1840. The church is dedicated to St. John, and the dean and chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, are the patrons.

CURATES AND VICARS OF LUND.

------------+-------------------+-------------------------- Date of | NAME. | Cause of Vacancy. Institution.| | ------------+-------------------+-------------------------- Before 1648 |Joseph Harrison | ” 1732 |Thomas Cockin | ” 1769 |Benj. Wright | In 1790 |Charles Buck, B.A. | Before 1818 |Thos. Stephenson | In 1820 |Richard Moore, M.A.| Death of T. Stephenson ------------+-------------------+--------------------------

The Rev. Jos. Harrison, brother to Cuthbert Harrison, was ejected in the year 1662, for refusing to comply with the Act of Uniformity.

Alice Hankinson, left in 1680, £5 for the use of the minister, and Alice Clitherall a like sum for the same purpose. Thomas Smith bequeathed, in 1685, the annual interest of £20 to Lund chapel. The sum of £10 is received yearly under a trust of 1668, 50s. being for the vicar, and the surplus for the poor. The school was established about 1682, by a legacy of £60 left by John Dickson, half the interest to go to the minister of Lund chapel, providing he belonged to the Church of England, and the other moiety to the master of the school. The interest of £10, origin unknown, is paid each year to the trustees of the school.

POPULATION OF CLIFTON-WITH-SALWICK.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 552 575 608 508 538 471 447 447

The township contains 3,776 statute acres.

TREALES, ROSEACRE, AND WHARLES. The ancient manor of Treales embraced the three estates of Treales, Roseacre, and Wharles, being computed in the Domesday Book to contain two carucates of arable soil. In 1207 Treales was granted to Robert de Vavassour, the father-in-law of Theobald Walter, and subsequently it descended in the Butler family until 1673, when the 9th earl of Derby acquired it with his wife, the daughter of Thomas Butler, the lord Ossory. The present earl of Derby is lord of the manor, and holds a court annually.

The church, a plain stone building with nave and chancel only, was erected in 1853, and endowed five years later by the dean and chapter of Christ Church, Oxford. The Rev. J. Hodgkin is the incumbent.

William Grimbaldson, M.D., left £300 in 1725, the interest to be used for binding out poor apprentices in Treales, whose parents received no parish relief. Boulton’s and Porter’s charities are rentals amounting to about £12 a-year, to be given to poor persons of the township. Bridgett’s charity is the interest of £15 for the poor of Wharles.

POPULATION OF TREALES, ROSEACRE, AND WHARLES.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 675 671 760 756 709 696 632 625

The township has an area of 4,015 statute acres.

NEWTON-WITH-SCALES. Newton appears in the Domesday Book as containing two carucates. In 1324 William de Clifton had 60 acres in Scales; and in 1354 Adam de Bradkirk held land in Newton. John Hornby, of Newton-with-Scales, left in 1707, the residue of his estate, after certain bequests, to six trustees to found and endow the present Blue Coat School; and in 1809 the funds of the institution were increased by a legacy of £800, under the will of James Boys, of London, an old pupil. The principal soil owners are the Rev. R. Moore, and the Westby, Swainson, Bryning, Hornby, and Loxham families.

POPULATION OF NEWTON-WITH-SCALES.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 269 336 380 381 324 299 286 292

The area of the township is 1,525 statute acres.

HAMBLETON. Hambleton was held during the reign of King John by Geoffrey, the Crossbowman, or de Hackensall, from whom it descended to his son-in-law Richard de Sherburne, and afterwards to Robert de Sherburne, the son of the latter. The manor was held successively by different members of the Sherburne family until 1363, when it passed to Richard de Bailey, who had married the daughter and heiress of the last male Sherburne, and adopted the maiden surname of his wife. Hence the title of the manorial lords remained unchanged up to 1717, when the property became the possession of the Duchess of Ormond, the sole child of Sir Nicholas Sherburne, who died at that date. After the decease of the Duchess of Ormond, without issue, Hambleton passed to Edward, the son of William Weld, of Lulworth Castle, by his marriage with the sister of Sir Nicholas Sherburne. The descendants of Edward Weld still retain some portion of the soil, but a considerable proportion has been sold in recent years.

Bishop Gastrell affirms that the episcopal chapel of Hambleton was consecrated in 1567. In 1650 the Parliamentary Commissioners reported:—“There is no allowance to the minister, but only £5 per an. payd by Richard Sherburne, esq., lord of the manor, and £40 per an. by order from the committee for plundered ministers. The inhabitants desire it may be made a parish, and the township of Rawcliffe, lying within a myle of it and four miles from their parish church, may be annexed to it.”

The present church was erected in 1749, and is a plain whitewashed building, without a tower or any attempt at architectural display. Attached to the south wall within are three tablets inscribed thus:—

“Beneath this marble are deposited the remains of Mary Ramsden, daughter and heiress of the rev. Christʳ. Westby Alderston, late vicar of St. Michael’s in this county, and wife of Rowland Ramsden of Halifax. She was born Aug. 17ᵗʰ, 1768 and died Nov. 6ᵗʰ, 1764.”

“Sacred to the memory of George Bickerstaffe of Hambleton, gent., died May 3ʳᵈ, 1766; Jenny Alderston, his granddaughter, died May 16ᵗʰ, 1770; and Agnes, wife of the rev. Christʳ. Westby Alderston, widow of Richᵈ. Harrison of Bankfield, and daughter of George Bickerstaffe, died March 14ᵗʰ, 1820.”

“Sacred to the memory of the rev. Thomas Butcher, B.A., for 39 years the respected incumbent of this chapel. Erected by the voluntary contributions of his parishioners.”

On the aisles of the church are three gravestones, bearing the following inscriptions:—

“In this aisle lie the remains of the rev. John Field, B.A. and minister of this place, who died 21st April, 1765; also his wife and children.”

“Here lies the body of Dorothy, wife of Richard Carter of Hambleton, who died 14th May, 1807.”

“William, son of James Norris of Liverpool, buried the 29th of June 1692—Though Boreas’ Blast and Neptune’s Waves have tost me to and fro, yet a spite on both by God’s decree I harbour here below: Here at anchor I doe ride with many of our fleet, yet once again I must set sail my Generall Christ to meet.”[205]

In earlier days, when the church was held by the Roman Catholics, the burial ground was evidently of much greater extent than at present, and surrounded by an immense moat, between six and seven yards wide, and of a considerable depth. In a field lying to the east of the church can now be seen the ancient limits of the ground in that direction, bounded by a long stretch of the old moat in a very fair state of preservation, but of course somewhat contracted by accumulations of vegetation; and in another plot of ground to the west, may be traced by a slight depression the course of the same trench, marking the westerly extent of the yard. The northerly length of the moat passed behind the present churchyard, and a portion of it, about two yards wide, is still to be seen there, the remainder of its breadth being filled in and included in the cemetery. The southerly stretch of this ancient ditch or fosse ran just within the railings, protecting the burial ground in front. When the existing walls were built round the yard great difficulty was met with in forming a good foundation over the site of the moat at different points, as it was found to be filled in with fragments of bricks, mortar, and general rubbish, which seems to indicate that it was abolished when the church itself was in course of reconstruction, and that the old building materials and _debris_ were used for the purpose of raising it to the common level, indicating that the work must have been accomplished either at the rebuilding of 1749, or at some previous and unrecorded one. The moat would be crossed by a bridge of fair dimensions, which was probably situated on the west side, as the sexton lately discovered the well-preserved remains of a straight footpath, paved with long tiles, and running from the church for some distance towards the site of the moat in that direction; the path was between two and three feet below the surface of the ground.

The church was separated from the mother edifice of Kirkham, and had an independent district assigned to it in 1846. The incumbent has the title of vicar.

CURATES AND VICARS OF HAMBLETON.

------------+-----------------------+----------------------------- Date of | NAME. | Cause of Vacancy. Institution.| | ------------+-----------------------+----------------------------- About 1648 |Robert Cunningham | Before 1662 |William Bullock | About 1725 |William Whitehead, B.A.| In 1735 |John Field, B.A. | Resignation of W. Whitehead ” 1765-86 |Mr. Parkinson | ” 1796 |Thomas Butcher, B.A. | ” 1835 |Mr. Howard | Death of T. Butcher ” 1836 |William Hough | Resignation of ⸺ Howard ------------+-----------------------+-----------------------------

An Independent chapel was erected by subscription a few years since, and schools subsequently added.

From the report of the Charity Commissioners, we learn that long before the commencement of the nineteenth century there was a school at Hambleton, but no attempt to elucidate more particularly its origin or date of erection can be hazarded. In 1797 the only endowment it can boast of was left by Matthew Lewtas, a native of Hambleton, and consisted of £200, the interest of which had to be given to John, the son of George Hall, of Hambleton, until he reached the age of twenty-one; and if before or at that time he was appointed master of the school he had to continue to receive the whole of the income whilst he held such mastership, but if, although he was willing to accept the post, some other person should be selected for it, then when he came of age, half of the income passed from him to the school, and he retained the other moiety until his death, when it also went to increase the stipend of the master. The other condition of the will applied to the master, and obliged him in return for the interest or income of the £200, to teach as many poor children of Hambleton as the money would pay for. John Hall never obtained the appointment, so that the present master receives the full interest of the bequest, which is invested on mortgage.

The poor of Hambleton have £2 annually distributed amongst them through the generosity of Sir Nicholas Sherburne, of Stonyhurst, who in 1706, when lord of the manor of Hambleton, charged his estate of Lentworth Hall with this charity.

The yearly interest of £10 was given for the benefit of poor housekeepers in Hambleton by Mary, the daughter of vicar Clegg, of Kirkham, and the wife of Emanuel Nightingale, of York, gent., who was born in 1673.

POPULATION OF HAMBLETON.

1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 252 273 338 334 349 346 366 351

The statute acres of the township amount to 1,603.

[Illustration]