JAMES THE FIRST TO QUEEN VICTORIA.
On the accession of James I., in 1603, the crowns of England and Scotland
became legally united, although it was not until a considerable time
afterwards that they could be regarded as practically so. This monarch
was the first to assume the title of King of Great Britain.
A custom prevailed in former days of relieving the secular portion of
the community by imposing exclusive taxes on the clergy, and hence it
is seen, that in 1608 a rate was levied upon the latter by the Right
Reverend George Lloyd, D.D., the eighth bishop of Chester. The following
is a copy of the impost so far as the Hundred of Amounderness was
concerned:—
“_Archid. Decanatus_ Cestrie _in Com._ Lancastrie
A Rayte imposed by me George Bushoppe of Chestʳ upon the Clergie
within the Countye of Chesshyre and Lancashyre within the Dyoces
of Chest,ʳ By vertue of Ires from the lordes grace of Yorke
grounded upon + from the lordes and others of his maᵗᵉˢ most
honorable privye counsell for the fyndinge of horses, armes, and
other furniture, the XXVIIIth of October 1608.
Amounderness Decanatus Archid. Richm.
Mr. Porter, vicar of Lancastʳ a corslet furnished.
Mr. Paler, vicar of Preston ⎱ a musket furnished
Mr. Norcrosse, vicar of Ribchestʳ ⎰
Mr. Whyt, vicar of Poulton & ⎱ a musket furnished.
Mr. Greenacres, vicar of Kirkham ⎰
Mr. Aynsworth, vicar of Garstange ⎱ a musket furnished.
Mr. Woolfenden, vicar of St. Michael’s upon Wyre ⎰
Mr. Calver, vicar of Cockerham ⎱ a caliver furnished.
Mr. Parker, vicar of Chippin. ⎰
George Cestriensis.”[36]
Here it may be mentioned that, although about 636, Honorus, archbishop
of Canterbury, attempted to divide the kingdom into parishes, it was not
until many years later, in the reign of Henry VIII., that the diocese
to which Lancashire belonged was clearly defined. At that date Chester
was created a distinct bishopric, and the southern part of our county
included in the archdeaconry of Chester, whilst the northern portion was
attached to the archdeaconry of Richmond.
In 1617 James I., on his return journey from Scotland to London, was
entertained at Myerscough Lodge, near Garstang, by Edward Tyldesley,
the grandfather of the gentleman who erected Fox Hall, at Blackpool.
Thomas Tyldesley, a cousin of the owner of Myerscough Lodge, and
attorney-general of the county of Lancaster, had been knighted by the
monarch at Wimbleton in the previous year. From Myerscough the King
proceeded to Hoghton Tower, where a petition was presented to him by the
agricultural labourers, petty tradesmen, and ordinary servants in this
and other districts lying near Preston, praying that the edict of the
late queen, whereby sports and games had been prohibited on the Sabbath,
might be repealed. The prayer of the petitioners found favour with James,
and shortly afterwards he caused it to be proclaimed—“that his majesty’s
pleasure was, that the bishops of the diocese should take strict order
with all the puritans and precisians within the county of Lancaster, and
either constrain them to conform themselves, or to leave the countrie,
according to the laws of this kingdom and the canons of the church; and
for his good people’s recreation his pleasure was, that after the end
of divine service, they be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from
any lawful recreation, such as dancing, either men or women; archery
for men, leaping, vaulting, or any such harmless recreation; nor having
of May-games, Whitson-ales, and Morice-dances, and the setting up of
May-poles, and other sports therewith used; so as the same be had in due
and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of divine service;
and that women should have leave to carry rushes to the church, for
decorating of it according to the old custom; but withal his majesty
did here account still as prohibited, all unlawful games to be used
on Sundays only, as bear and bull-baitings, interludes, and, at all
times, in the meaner sort of people, by law prohibited, bowling.” A few
months after this concession to the wishes of a portion of his subjects,
James issued a publication designated the “Book of Sports,” in which he
explained what were to be considered lawful sports to be indulged in on
“Sundays and Festivals.”
The gentlemen enumerated below were free-tenants, residing in the Fylde,
during his reign:—
Clifton, Sir Cuthbert, of Westby, knight.
Banister, Sir Robert, of Plumpton, knight.
Fleetwood, Edward, of Rossall, esq.
Westby, Thomas, of Mowbreck, esq.
Kirkby, William, of Upper Rawcliffe, esq.
Veale, Edward, of Whinney Heys, esq.
Burgh, Richard, of Larbrick, esq.
Leckonby, John, of Great Eccleston, esq.
Longworth, Richard, of St. Michael’s, esq.
Parker, John, of Bradkirk, esq.
Hesketh, William, of Mains, esq.
Singleton, Thomas, of Staining, esq.
Brown, James, of Singleton, gent.
Leigh, Robert, of Plumpton, gent.
Smith, John, of Kirkham, gent.
Sharples, Henry, of Kirkham, gent,
ffrance, John, of Eccleston, gent.
Thompson Wm., of Little Eccleston, gent.
Dobson, William, of Bispham, gent.
Hornby, Henry, of Bankfield, gent.
Bradley, James, of Bryning, gent.
Taylor, James, of Poulton, gent.
Bamber, Thomas, of Poulton, gent.
Bailey, Lawrence, of Layton, gent.
Bonny, Robert, of Kirkham, gent.
Whiteside, Robt., of Thornton, gent.
In the Registers of Kirkham is the annexed statement, from which it
appears that a few years from the death of James I. the Fylde, or at
least a considerable tract of it, was visited by some fatal epidemic,
but its peculiar nature cannot be ascertained:—“A.D. 1630. This year
was a great plague in Kirkham, in which the more part of the people of
the town died thereof. It began about the 25th of July and continued
vehemently until Martinmas, but was not clear of it before Lent; and
divers towns of the parish was infected with it, and many died thereof
out of them, as Treales, Newton, Greenall, Estbrick, Thistleton. N.B.—The
great mortality was in the year 1631; 304 died that year, and were buried
at Kirkham, of whom 193 in the months of August and September”. Charles
I. soon after ascending the throne in 1626, provoked a breach with his
parliament by endeavouring to enforce subsidies, with which to carry on
his foreign wars, and further, he alienated the affections and respect of
the Puritan section of his subjects by confirming the regulations of the
“Book of Sports.” Dissatisfaction and murmurings were quickly fermented
into rebellion, and the closing of the gates of Hull against the king
in 1642 initiated those fearful wars, which desolated and disorganised
the country for so many years. In 1641, Alexander Rigby,[37] esq., of
Layton Hall, Sir Gilbert de Hoghton, with eight other gentlemen, were
removed from the commission of the peace, by order of parliament, on
suspicion of being favourably disposed towards the royal party. The
chief supporters of the king in the ensuing conflicts were the nobility,
in great numbers; the higher orders of the gentry, and a considerable
portion of their tenantry; all the High-churchmen; and a large majority
of the Catholics. The parliamentarian army, on the other hand, was mainly
composed of freeholders, traders, manufacturers, Puritans, Presbyterians,
and Independents. An engagement near Wigan roused up the people in our
vicinity to a sense of the dangers menacing them, and a public meeting
of royalists was called at Preston under the presidency of the earl of
Derby. Amongst other gentlemen who took a prominent part in the assembly
were Thomas Clifton, esq., of Lytham, and Alexander Rigby, esq., of
Layton. Several resolutions were adopted, the most important being that
a sum of money, amounting to £8,700, should be raised and devoted to the
payment of a regiment, consisting of 2,000 foot and 400 horse, in the
following scale of remuneration:—
DRAGOONERS.
Captain 12s. 0d. per diem.
Lieutenant 6s. 0d. ” ”
Cornet 4s. 0d. ” ”
Sergeant 3s. 0d. ” ”
Corporal 2s. 0d. ” ”
Dragooner 1s. 6d. ” ”
Kettle-drum 2s. 0d. ” ”
FOOT.
Captain 10s. 0d. per diem.
Lieutenant 4s. 0d. ” ”
Sergeant 1s. 6d. ” ”
Drummer 1s. 3d. ” ”
Corporal 1s. 0d. ” ”
Private 0s. 9d. ” ”
HORSE.
Captain 16s. 0d. per diem.
Lieutenant 8s. 0d. ” ”
Cornet 6s. 0d. ” ”
Corporal 4s. 0d. ” ”
Trumpeter 5s. 0d. ” ”
Private 2s. 6d. ” ”
And to every Commissary 5s. 0d. per diem.
Parliamentary commissioners were sent this year, 1642, into all parts of
Lancashire to visit the churches and chapels and to remove therefrom all
images, superstitious pictures, and idolatrous relics, which any of them
might contain.
Preston and Lancaster were amongst the earliest towns to fall into
the hands of the Roundheads, and about ten days after the surrender
of the former place, when the people of this district were labouring
under the excitement of war on their very frontier, Alexander Rigby,
of Layton Hall, accompanied by Captain Thomas Singleton, of Staining,
and other officers, appeared near Poulton at the head of a number of
horsemen, and threw the inhabitants into a state of great consternation
and alarm, fortunately proving unnecessary, for the cavalcade had other
designs than that of bringing devastation and bloodshed to their own
doors, and continued their journey peaceably northward. A few weeks
later a Spanish vessel was seen at the entrance of Morecambe Bay, off
Rossall Point, and as it evinced no signs of movement, either towards
the harbour of Lancaster or out to sea, the yeomen and farm servants of
that neighbourhood at once surmised that some sort of an invasive attack
was meditated on their coast, nor were these fears in any way allayed
by the constant firing of a piece of cannon from the deck of the ship,
and it was not until the discharges had been repeated through several
days that they realised that distress and not bombardment was intended
to be indicated. On boarding the vessel they found that she contained a
number of passengers, all of whom, together with the crew, were reduced
to a pitiable and enfeebled condition through exposure and scarcity
of provisions, for, having lost their way in the heavy weather which
prevailed, they had been detained much over the time expected for the
voyage, blindly cruising about in the hope of discovering some friendly
haven or guide. The craft was piloted round into the mouth of the river
Wyre, opposite the Warren, and relief afforded to the sufferers. Rumour
of the presence of the ship was not long in reaching the ears of the earl
of Derby, who, with promptitude determined to march down and seize it in
the king’s name. On the Saturday he arrived at Lytham Hall with a small
troop of cavalry, where he sojourned for the night, with the intention
of completing his journey and effecting his purpose the following day
before the parliamentarians had got word of the matter; but here his
calculations were at fault, for the parliamentary leader had already
dispatched four companies of infantry, under Major Sparrow, to take
possession of the prize, and on the same Saturday evening they took up
their quarters at Poulton and Singleton, having arrived by a different
route to the earl, who had forded the river at Hesketh Bank. On the
Sunday Major Sparrow, who throughout showed a lively horror of risking
an encounter with the renowned nobleman, posted scouts with orders to
watch the direction taken by the latter, and convey the information
without delay to the chief station at Poulton, where the soldiers were
in readiness, not for action, as it subsequently turned out, but to put
a safe barrier between themselves and the enemy, for no sooner was it
ascertained that the earl, “all his company having their swords drawn,”
was marching along Layton Hawes towards Rossall, than Sparrow conducted
his force across the Wyre, at the Shard, and followed the course of the
stream towards its outlet “until he came over against where the shipp
lay, being as feared of the earle as the earle was of him.”[38] The earl
of Derby advanced along the shore line and across the Warren to the mouth
of the river without the naked weapons of his followers being called into
service, but finding when he boarded the ship that two parliamentary
gentlemen had forestalled his intention by seizing her for the powers
they recognized, he unhesitatingly took them prisoners, and set fire
to the vessel, whilst Sparrow and his men stood helplessly by, on the
opposite side of the water, where the gallant major perhaps congratulated
himself on his caution in having avoided a collision with so prompt and
vigorous a foe. Some of the Spaniards attached themselves to the train of
the earl, whilst others were scattered over the neighbourhood, depending
for subsistence upon the charity of the cottagers and farmers, but their
final destiny is unknown. The noble general, enraged at the unlooked for
frustration of the main object of his journey, determined that it should
not be altogether fruitless, and on his return forced admittance into
the mansion of the Fleetwoods, at Rossall, and bore off all the arms he
could lay hands upon. Resuming his march he re-passed through Lytham,
forded the Ribble, and finally made his way to Lathom House, his famous
residence.
Inactivity, however temporary, was ill suited to the temperament of the
earl, and on receiving the news that the solitary piece of artillery
belonging to the luckless Spanish vessel had been appropriated by
the parliamentary officials before he appeared upon the scene, and
transferred to their stronghold at Lancaster, he conceived the idea of
reducing the ancient castle on the Lune, and so taking vengeance on
those who had anticipated him in the Wyre affair, as well as removing a
formidable obstacle to the success of the royal arms. Before entering on
an undertaking of such importance it was necessary that his small body of
troops should be materially increased, and after exhausting the districts
south of the Ribble, he crossed it, in search of recruits amongst the
yeomanry and peasantry of the Fylde. The earl lodged his soldiers in
and about Kirkham, and fixed his own quarters at Lytham Hall. Dreadful
stories are related by the old historian, from whose work we have already
quoted, of the doings of the troops for the short time they remained
in the neighbourhood, but it is only fair to state that their rapacity
was directed exclusively against the property of those whose sympathies
were with their opponents, whose houses and farms they plundered most
mercilessly, driving off their horses, and carrying away ornaments,
bedding, and everything which could either be turned to immediate use
or offered a prospect of future gain. Warrants were issued on the first
day of their arrival, from the head quarters at Lytham, over the whole
of our section, calling upon every male above sixteen years of age and
under sixty, “upon payne of death to appear before his Honor at Kirkham
the next morning by eight of the clock, in their best weapons, to attend
the King’s service.”[39] The officers to whom fell the task of heralding
the mandate over the large area in the brief interval allowed, fulfilled
their duties with energy, and a goodly company responded to the arbitrary
summons of the commander. After having seen that the fresh levies were as
suitably equipped for warfare as means would permit, the earl appointed
John Hoole, of Singleton, and John Ambrose, of Wood Plumpton, as captains
over them, and gave the order to march. On reaching Lancaster Lord Derby
summoned the mayor and burgesses to surrender the town and castle into
his hands, to which the chief magistrate replied that the inhabitants
had already been deprived of their arms and were unresisting, but that
the fortress, now garrisoned by parliamentary troops, was out of his
keeping, an answer so far unsatisfactory to the besieger that he set fire
to the buildings, about one hundred and seventy of which were destroyed,
and inflicted other injury on the place. Colonel Ashton, of Middleton,
who had been sent to relieve the castle, arrived too late, when the earl
was some distance on his return towards Preston, from which town he
dislodged the enemy. A little later the tide of fortune turned against
the royalists, and the earl of Derby was one of the earliest to suffer
defeat. Colonel Thomas Tyldesley, a staunch partizan of the king, and
the father of Edward Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, Blackpool, retreated before
Colonel Ashton, from Wigan to Lathom, and afterwards to Liverpool, where
he was besieged and forced again to fly by his indefatigable opponent.
(Later he distinguished himself at Burton-on-Trent, by the desperate
heroism with which he led a cavalry charge over a bridge of thirty-six
arches, and for that display of valour as well as his faithful adherence
to Charles, he received the honour of knighthood.) Driven from Liverpool,
Tyldesley, in company with Lord Molyneux, withdrew the remnant of his
regiment towards the Ribble, crossed that stream, and quartered his men
in Kirkham, whilst Molyneux occupied the village of Clifton. In these
places they rested a night and a day, keeping a vigilant look out for
their pursuer, Ashton, from the old windmill, situated at the east end
of Kirkham. About one o’clock on the day succeeding the evening of their
arrival the soldiers, acting under orders, repaired to their several
lodgings to further refresh themselves after their prolonged fatigues,
but before four hours had elapsed, a report came from the outpost that
the enemy was approaching. An alarm spread through the camp, and with
difficulty Lord Molyneux and Colonel Tyldesley assembled their forces in
the town of Kirkham, where they elected once more to make a stand against
the victorious Ashton. Command was given that all the women and children
should confine themselves within doors, and preparations were hurried
forward to offer the parliamentarians a vigorous resistance; but as
daylight waned and the besiegers were momentarily expected, the courage
of the royal troops seems to have oozed away, and they precipitately
vacated the town, fording the Wyre, and flying towards Stalmine, whence
they continued their retreat to Cockerham, and so on northwards.
When Colonel Ashton entered Kirkham he found the enemy gone and the
inhabitants in a state of extreme trepidation, but their fears were soon
dismissed by the action of the gallant soldier who, on learning the
course taken by Tyldesley and Molyneux, pushed on without delay. Ashton
followed up the pursuit as far as the boundaries of Lancashire, without
overtaking any of the royalists, and then returned to Preston. The rear
of his troops diverged from the main road at Garstang, unknown to their
leader, and marched into the Fylde for plunder. They passed through St.
Michael’s, and visiting the residence and estate of Christopher Parker,
of Bradkirk, drove away many of his cattle, and stripped his house of
everything of value. In Kirkham they laid the people under heavy toll,
and even spared not those who were notoriously well affected towards
parliament. At Clifton they found more herds of cattle, which were joined
to those already with them; but at Preston they fell to quarrelling over
the booty, and it is questionable whether their ill-gotten stores did not
prove rather a curse than a blessing to them.
Towards the end of 1643, the year in which the events just narrated
occurred, Thurland Castle, the seat of Sir John Girlington, was captured
by the parliamentary colonel, Alexander Rigby, of Middleton, near
Preston. In the engagement the Lancashire troops were under the command
of Alexander Rigby, of Layton, who allowed his small regiment to be
surprised and routed by his namesake. After his success at Thurland,
Colonel Rigby, of Middleton, proceeded to raise fresh levies in
Amounderness. Mr. Clayton, of Fulwood Moor, was appointed to superintend
the whole of the recruiting and directed to place himself at the head of
the new regiment. Mr. Patteson, of Ribby, and Mr. Wilding, of Kirkham,
were each apportioned half of the parish bearing the latter name, in
which they were respectively ordered to raise a company. In the parishes
of Poulton and Bispham, Mr. Robert Jolly, of Warbreck, Mr. William
Hull, of Bispham, Mr. Richard Davis, of Newton, and Mr. Rowland Amon,
of Thornton, were made captains, and had similar duties imposed upon
them. In Lytham parish, Mr. George Sharples, of Freckleton, received a
commission, but was unable to muster more than a very few followers, as
the people of that neighbourhood reflected the loyal sentiments of the
lord of the manor, and could neither be coerced nor seduced from their
allegiance to the king. Captains Richard Smith and George Carter, of
Hambleton, raised companies in Stalmine, Hambleton, and the adjacent
townships and villages. Mr. William Swarbrick recruited a company in his
native parish of St. Michael’s, and Mr. Duddell obtained another in Wood
Plumpton.
At the siege of Bolton, in May, 1644, when the town was stormed and
surrendered after a valiant resistance, to Prince Rupert, with an army of
over nine thousand royalists, Duddell and Davis were amongst the officers
slain, whilst their companies were literally cut to pieces. Captain
George Sharples, of Freckleton, was taken prisoner, and dragged, almost
naked and barefooted, through the miry and blood-stained streets to the
spot where Cuthbert, the eldest son of Thomas Clifton, of Lytham, was
standing after the carnage, in which he had led a party of the besiegers.
Captain Clifton and others near him were in a mood for a somewhat rude
and ungenerous entertainment, and placed the hapless Sharples, in his
dilapidated attire, in a prominent position and, thrusting a Psalter into
his hand, compelled him to sing a Psalm for their delectation. After
they had amused themselves in such fashion for some time the prisoner
was handed over to the guard, from whom he ultimately made his escape.
Captain Cuthbert Clifton was elevated to the rank of colonel as an
acknowledgment of his gallant services at Bolton, after which he returned
for a few days into the Fylde, where he engaged himself in procuring a
fresh detachment of soldiers, who readily flocked to his standard. For
their provision and comfort he did not hesitate or scruple to appropriate
a number of cattle on Layton Hawes, and to relieve some of the Puritans
of Kirkham, Bispham, and Poulton, of their bedding, etc. Having fully
supplied his commissariat department by these means, he marched to
Liverpool, and joining Prince Rupert, was present at the sacking of that
town.
The Civil War had proved most disastrous to Lancashire, where the
constant movements and frequent collisions of the contending parties
had ruined the towns, destroyed almost all attempts at agriculture,
and reduced the inhabitants to a state of wretchedness and poverty,
in many instances to the verge of starvation; and notwithstanding the
fact that in not one single instance had the Fylde been the scene of an
encounter, the people of this section were in as lamentable a condition
of penury and suffering as those of the less fortunate districts, a
circumstance not to be wondered at when the incessant plunderings are
taken into consideration, and when it is remembered that the youth and
strength of the neighbourhood were serving as volunteers or recruits,
either under the banner of parliament or that of the king. The 12th of
September, 1644, was appointed by the Puritans as a day of solemn prayer
and fasting throughout the country, and parliament decreed that half of
the money collected “in all the churches within the cities of London and
Westminster and within the lines of communication,” should be devoted to
the relief of the distressed and impoverished in this county.
Sir Thomas Tyldesley accompanied the army of Prince Rupert to York, near
to where the sanguinary and famous battle of Marston Moor, in which no
less than sixty thousand men were engaged on both sides, was fought on
the 2nd of July, 1644. Oliver Cromwell commanded the parliamentarians
in person, and after a fierce struggle discomfited the troops of Prince
Rupert and drove them in confusion from the field. Sir Thomas Tyldesley
retreated with his shattered regiment in hot haste towards Amounderness,
where he made diligent search for arms and ammunition, but hearing
that the enemy, under Sir John Meldrum, was marching in quest of him
he hurried to the banks of the Ribble, and crossed the ford into the
Fylde. This latter incident happened towards the end of the week, and
on Saturday he was joined in his ambush by the immense royalist force
of Colonel Goring, so great indeed that “before the last companies had
marched over the bridge at St. Michael’s Church the first company was
judged to be at Kirkham.”[40] There is probably some little exaggeration
in the quoted statement, but even allowing it to be verbally correct,
there can be no doubt that it is unintentionally misleading, as the
extreme length of road covered would be due more to the wide intervals
between the companies and the straggling manner in which they proceeded
than to their actual numerical strength. Nevertheless the detachment,
chiefly composed of cavalry, was enormous, and completely inundated the
towns and villages in the parishes of Poulton, Kirkham, and Lytham.
The men were lodged twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and even sixty in a
house, and on the Sunday morning they set out on an errand of pilfering
without respect to persons, pillaging those who were friendly with as
much eagerness and apparent satisfaction as others who were inimical to
their cause, an impartiality so little appreciated by the inhabitants
that they are said to have blessed the Roundheads by comparison with
these insatiate freebooters. Horses, money, clothes, sheets, everything
that was portable or could be driven, was greedily seized upon, and, in
spite of threats and entreaties, remorselessly borne away. Hundreds of
households were stripped not only of their ornaments, bedding, etc., but
even of the very implements on which the family depended for subsistence.
It is in truth no figure of speech to state that by far the larger share
of the people were reduced to utter and seemingly hopeless destitution,
and grateful indeed were they when their portion of the parliamentary
grant of collections in the metropolis, before mentioned, was distributed
amongst them, coming like manna from the heavens to comfort their
desolated homes. To add insult to injury the graceless troopers compelled
their entertainers to employ the Sabbath in winnowing corn in the fields
for their chargers, and even refused to allow them to erect the usual
curtains to protect the grain from being carried away by the high wind,
so that the loss and waste amounted to barely less than the quantity
utilised as fodder, and completely exhausted the fruits of their harvest.
Sir Thomas Tyldesley, Lord Molyneux, and others of the leaders, fixed
their lodgment near the residence of a gentleman named Richard Harrison,
and were supplied with necessaries from Mowbreck Hall. Freckleton marsh
was the rendezvous, and there the entire forces assembled on the morning
of Monday, but were compelled to remain until one o’clock at noon before
the Ribble was fordable, when they took their departure, to the intense
joy of all those who had trembled for their lives and suffered ruin in
their small properties during their brief sojourn. Sir John Meldrum
appeared in the district only a few hours after the royalists had left,
and thus the Fylde had again a narrow escape of adding one more to
the long list of unnatural battles, most truly described as suicidal
massacres of the nation, where men ignoring the ties of friendship or
kinship imbrued their swords in the blood of each other with a relentless
and inhuman savagery, reviving as it seemed the horrid butcheries of the
dark ages. Sir John Meldrum hastened in the direction of the retreating
foe, but failed to overtake them.
“In 1645,” writes Rushworth, “there remained of unreduced garrisons
belonging to the king in Lancashire only Lathom House and Greenhalgh
Castle.”[41] This castle was erected about half a mile eastward of
Garstang, overlooking the Wyre, by Thomas, the first earl of Derby, in
1490, after the victory of Bosworth Field, as a protection from certain
of the outlawed nobles, whose estates in that vicinity had rewarded the
services of the earl to Henry VII. The castle was built in a rectangular
form almost approaching to a square, with a tower at each angle. The
edifice was surrounded and protected by a wide moat. The garrison
occupying the small fortress at the date under consideration held out
until the death of the governor, when a capitulation was made, and,
about 1649, the castle was dismantled. In 1772 Penant spoke of the “poor
remains of Greenhalgh Castle.”[42]
The fall of Lathom House and other strongholds of the king and the
surrender of Charles himself to the Scotch army of Puritans, brought
the contests for a time to a close in 1647, and Sir Thomas Tyldesley,
with several more, received instructions to disband the troops under
his command. During the foregoing struggles parliament, in order to
provide the necessary funds for the increased expenditure, had allowed
“delinquents, papists, spies, and intelligencers” to compound for their
sequestered estates, and amongst those connected with this locality who
had taken advantage of the permission were:—
Brown, Edward, of Plumpton, compounded for £127 8s. 0d.
Breres, Alexander, of Marton, gent., ” £82 4s. 5d.
Bate, John, of Warbreck, ” £11 0s. 0d.
Leckonby, Richard, of Elswick, esq., ” £58 6s. 0d.
Nicholson, Francis, of Poulton, yeoman ” £133 3s. 4d.
Rigby, Alexander, of Layton, esq., ” £381 3s. 4d.
Walker, William, of Kirkham, gent., ” £175 0s. 0d.
Westby, John, of Mowbreck, esq., ” £1,000 0s. 0d.
Presbyterianism became the national, or at least, the state religion, and
for the regulation of ecclesiastical matters the Assembly of Divines, at
Westminster, suggested that the country should be divided into provinces,
whose representatives should hold annual conferences at the larger towns.
The county of Lancaster was divided into nine Classical Presbyteries,
and the seventh Classis, embracing the parishes of Preston, Kirkham,
Garstang, and Poulton, consisted of—
Mr. Isaac Ambrose, of Preston, minister.
Mr. Robert Yates, of Preston, minister.
Mr. Ed. Fleetwood, of Kirkham, minister.
Mr. Thos. Cranage, of Goosnargh, minister.
Mr. Chr. Edmondson, of Garstang, minister.
Mr. John Sumner, of Poulton, minister.
LAYMEN.
Alexander Rigby, of Preston, Esq.
William Langton, Esq.
Alderman Matt. Addison, of Preston, gent.
Alderman Wm. Sudall, of Preston, gent.
Alderman Wm. Cottam, of Preston, gent.
Edward Downes, of Wesham, gent.
Edmund Turner, of Goosnargh, yeoman.
Thomas Nickson, of Plumpton, gent.
Robt. Crane, of Layton, gent.
Wm. Latewise, of Catterall, gent.
Wm. Whitehead, of Garstang, gent.
Edward Veale, of Layton, Esq.
Rd. Wilkins, of Kirkham, yeoman.
One of the duties of these Classes was to examine, ordain, and appoint
ministers, or presbyters, as they were called, whenever vacancies
occurred in the district over which, respectively, they had jurisdiction;
subjoined is the certificate given in the case of Cuthbert Harrison,
B.A., when selected and appointed presbyter of Singleton chapel:—
“Whereas Cuthbert Harrison, B.A., aged 30 years, hath addressed
himself to us, authorised by ordinance of parliament of 22 Aug.
1646, for ordination of ministers, desiring to be ordained a
presbyter, being chosen by the inhabitants within the chapelry
of Singleton to officiate there; and having been examined by us
the ministers of the Seventh Classis, and found sufficiently
qualified for the ministerial functions, according to the rules
preserved in the said ordinance, and thereupon approved—we have
this day solemnly set him apart to the office of presbyter and
work of the ministry of the gospel, by laying on of hands by us
present, with fasting and prayer, by virtue whereof we declare
him to be a lawful and sufficiently authorised minister of Jesus
Christ. In testimony whereof we have hereunto put our hands the
27th Nov., 1651.”
(Here follow the signatures.)
In 1648 General Langdale, a royalist officer, appealed to the loyalty
of the northern counties to attempt a rescue of the imprisoned monarch
from the hands of his enemies. Many rushed to his standard, and the
parliamentarians of the Fylde shared the general consternation which
pervaded Lancashire at the success of his effort to rekindle the still
smouldering embers of civil war. There is no necessity to trace the steps
of this ill-judged enterprise to its disastrous issue, but suffice it to
say that the defeat and routing of the little army was followed at a very
short interval by the execution of Charles I., after a formal trial in
which he disclaimed the jurisdiction of the court.
On the 22nd of June, 1650, a meeting of Commissioners under the Great
Seal of England was held at Preston—“for inquiring into and certeifying
of the certeine numbers and true yearely value of all parsonages and
vicariges presentative, of all and every the sp’uall and eccli’call
benefices, livings, and donatives within the said countye”; and after
examining the good and lawful men of Kirkham and Lytham, it was
recommended by the assembly that Goosnargh and Whittingham should be
formed into a separate parish on account of their great distance from
the church at Kirkham. At this inquiry it was also stated that—“the
inhabitants of Newsham desired to be annexed to Woodplumpton; the
inhabitants of Clifton and Salwick, together with the inhabitants of
Newton-cum-Scales, and the upper end of Treales, desired to be united in
one parish. Singleton chappell, newly erected, desired that it might be
made a parish. The inhabitants of Weeton-cum-Preese desired that that
township might be made a parish, and the inhabitants of Rawcliffe desired
to be annexed to it. The townships of Rigby-cum-Wraye, and of Warton, and
of Kellamore-cum-Bryning, and Westbye-cum-Plumpton, all humbly desired to
be made a parish. The several townships of Eccleston Parva-cum-Labrecke,
and the inhabitants of Medlar and Thistleton, and the inhabitants of
Rossaker-cum-Wharles, desired to be annexed to Elswick, and that it
might be made a parish.” Although at that time these petitions failed
in obtaining their objects, much the same thing has been accomplished in
more recent years by Lord Blandford’s Act, by which separate parochial
districts, as far as ecclesiastical matters are concerned, have been
appropriated to each church, thus rendering it independent of the
mother-church of the ancient parish in which it might happen to be
situated.
In 1651 the son of the unfortunate monarch, who had been proclaimed king
by the Scotch under the title of Charles II., crossed the frontier and
invaded England with a force of fourteen thousand men. That year the earl
of Derby, Sir Thomas Tyldesley, and several other officers, sailed from
the Isle of Man, whither they had retired, in obedience to the call of
the young prince, and landed either on the Warren, at the mouth of the
river Wyre, or at Skippool higher up the stream, with a regiment of two
hundred and fifty infantry and sixty cavalry. Two of the vessels grounded
during the operation of disembarking the horses, and in the heavy winds
that ensued were reduced to total wrecks. As soon as the news of the
earl of Derby’s arrival on the banks of the Wyre was rumoured abroad,
“all the ships,” says the _Perfect Diurnall_, “were wafted out of the
rivers of Liverpool, and set sail with a fair wind fore Wirewater, where
the Frigots rid that brought the Lord Derby over with his company, to
surprise them and prevent his Lordship escaping any way by water.” The
earl marched through the Fylde, but the martial ardour of the inhabitants
was not so readily excited as on former occasions, for the recollection
of their abusive and piratical treatment by the troopers of Colonel
Goring, in 1644, was still fresh in their minds, and effectually checked
any feelings of enthusiasm at seeing the royal banners once again
unfurled in their midst. A scattered few, however, there were who were
willing to forget the misdeeds of the agents in their eagerness for the
success of the cause, and with such meagre additions to his strength the
earl hastened on. At Preston he raised six hundred horse, and shortly
afterwards encountered the parliamentarians, under Colonel Lilburne,
at Wigan-lane, where the royalists were defeated with great slaughter.
Sir Thomas Tyldesley was slain, and the gallant earl escaped from the
field only to be taken prisoner in Cheshire and suffer the fate of his
late regal master, Charles I. Alexander Rigby, the grandson of the
Alexander Rigby, of Layton, before mentioned, and only seventeen years of
age, also took part in this eventful engagement, and twenty-eight years
subsequently, when High Sheriff of the county of Lancaster, erected a
monument to the memory of Major-General Sir Thomas Tyldesley near the
spot where he fell. So universally esteemed was the valiant knight for
his bravery and honourable conduct that the title of “Chevalier sans peur
et sans reproche” was conferred upon him alike by friends and enemies.
Charles II., after the overthrow of his army by Cromwell, adopted the
disguise of a peasant, and having narrowly escaped detection by hiding
himself amidst the foliage of an oak tree, fled at the first opportunity
over to France. Cromwell was now installed in the chief seat of authority
and held the reins of government under the style of Lord Protector.
In 1660, two years after the death of Cromwell, Charles II. was recalled
and placed upon the throne; and in 1662 a law was passed by which it was
enacted that before St. Bartholomew’s Day of that year, all ministers
should arrange their services according to the rules contained in the new
book of Common Prayer, under pain of dismissal from their preferments.
The following letter was received by the churchwardens of Garstang,
ordering the ejectment of the Rev. Isaac Ambrose, who was a member of the
family of Ambrose of Ambrose Hall, in Wood Plumpton, from his benefice on
account of his refusal to conform to the arbitrary regulation:—
“Whereas in a late act of Parliament for uniformitie, it is
enacted that every parson, vicar, curate, lecturer, or other
ecclesiasticall person, neglecting or refusing, before the Feast
Day of St. Bartholomew, 1662, to declare openly before their
respective congregations, his assent and consent to all things
contained in the book of common prayer established by the said
act, _ipso facto_, be deposed, and that every person not being in
holy orders by episcopall ordination, and every parson, vicar,
curate, lecturer, or other ecclesiasticall person, failing in
his subscription to a declaration mentioned in the said act to
be subscribed before the Feast Day of St. Bartholomew, 1662,
shall be utterly disabled, and _ipso facto_ deprived, and his
place be void, as if the person so failing be naturally dead. And
whereas Isaac Ambrose, late Vicar of Garstang, in the county of
Lancaster, hath neglected to declare and subscribe according to
the tenor of the said act, I doe therefore declare the church of
Garstang to be now void, and doe strictly charge the said Isaac
Ambrose, late vicar of the said church, to forbear preaching,
lecturing, or officiating in the said church, or elsewhere in
the diocese of Chester. And the churchwardens of the said parish
of Garstang are hereby required (as by duty they are bound) to
secure and preserve the said parish church of Garstang from any
invasion or intrusion of the said Isaac Ambrose, disabled and
deprived as above said by the said act, and the churchwardens are
also required upon sight hereof to show this order to the said
Isaac Ambrose, and cause the same to be published next Sunday
after in the Parish Church of Garstang, before the congregation,
as they will answer the contrary.—Given under my hand this 29th
day of August, 1662.
“Geo. Cestriens.
“To the Churchwardens of Garstang, in the County Palatine of
Lancaster.”
In this county sixty-seven ministers refused to submit to the mandate,
and were removed from their churches by the authority of documents
similar to the above, and prohibited from officiating in their priestly
capacity anywhere within the diocese. Amongst the number, so interdicted,
were the Rev. W. Bullock, of Hambleton, the Rev. Joseph Harrison, of Lund
chapel, and the Rev. Nathaniel Baxter, M.A., of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre.
The Nonconformists were subsequently subjected to even greater harshness
and injustice by an act which decreed that no clergyman, belonging to any
of their sects, should reside within five miles of the town or place at
which he had last preached, unless he took an oath as under:—
“I do swear that it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever,
to take arms against the king, and that I do abhor the traitorous
position of taking arms against his authority; against his
person; or against those that are commissioned by him, in
pursuance of such commissions; and that I will not at any time
endeavour any alteration of government either in church or state.”
The sufferings experienced by those ministers who had been deprived
of their benefices are described as having been extreme, nay, almost
intolerable, and it was doubtless owing to the great severity practised
towards the body of Nonconformists that the old creed gained such little
popularity for some time after its re-establishment.
Charles II., soon after the restoration of monarchy at his coronation,
determined to create a new order of knighthood, to be called the “Royal
Oak,” as a reward to some of the more distinguished of his faithful
adherents, and amongst the number selected for the honour were Col.
Kirkby, of Upper Rawcliffe, Richard Butler, of Out Rawcliffe, and Edward
Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, Blackpool.[43] The design was shortly abandoned
by the advice of the crown ministers, who foresaw that the necessarily
limited distribution of the distinction would give rise to jealousy and
animosity amongst those who had been active in the late wars.
In 30 Charles II. a statute was passed entitled “An act for lessening the
importation of linen from beyond the seas, and the encouragement of the
woollen and paper manufactories of the kingdom”; and by it was provided,
under a penalty of £5, half of which was to be distributed to the poor of
the parish, that at every interment throughout the country a certificate
should be presented to the officiating minister stating that the winding
sheet of the deceased person was composed of woollen material and not of
linen, as heretofore. The certificate ordered to be used at every burial
ran thus:—
“_A_, of the parish of _B_, in the county of _C_, maketh Oath
that _D_, of the parish of _B_, in the county of _C_, lately
deceased, was not put in, wrapt or wound up or Buried, in any
Shirt, Shift, Sheet, or Shroud, made or mingled with Flax, Hemp,
Silk, Hair, Gold, or Silver, or other than that which is made
of Sheep’s Wool only. Nor in any Coffin lined or faced with any
cloth, stuff, or anything whatsoever, made or mingled with Flax,
Hemp, Silk, Hair, Gold, or Silver, or any other material but
Sheep’s Wool only.
“Dated the ... day of ... in the xxxth year of the reign of our
Sovereign Lord, Charles the second, king of England, Scotland,
France, and Ireland, etc.
“Sealed and Subscribed by us, who were present and witnesses to
the Swearing of the above said affidavit
(Signatures of two witnesses.)
“I, ..., esq., one of the King’s Majesties Justices of the Peace
for the County above said, do hereby certify that the day and
year above said _A_ came before me and made such affidavit as is
above specified according to the late Act of Parliament, entitled
An Act for burying in Woollen.
(Signature.)”
The foregoing statute was amended two years later, and the modified
enactment continued in force for some time, when it was repealed. In the
registers of old churches, such as Bispham, Poulton, Kirkham, and St.
Michael’s-on-Wyre, where they have been preserved, notices of burials
according to this regulation during the two years it was in operation,
may be seen; and amongst the records of the Thirty-men, or governing body
of Kirkham, is an entry of expenses incurred when they went “to justice
Stanley” to obtain his authority to “demand 50s. for Tomlinson’s wife
buried in linen,” contrary to the law.
Three years from the accession of James II., his repeated attempts to
curtail the civil and religious liberties of his subjects had so far
incensed them against him that William, Prince of Orange, was invited
over to free them from his rule. In 1688 James abdicated the throne, and
the following year William and Mary were crowned at Westminster. Annexed
is a list of the gentry residing in the Fylde from the reign of Henry
VIII., to their accession, as prepared from original records and private
manuscripts:—
Allen of Rossall Hall.
Ambrose of Ambrose Hall.
Bradley of Bryning.
Bradshaw of Preese and Scales.
Butler of Rawcliffe Hall.
Butler of Layton and Hackensall.
Clifton of Westby.
Eccleston of Great Eccleston Hall.
Fleetwood of Plumpton.
Fleetwood of Rossall Hall.
Hesketh of Mains Hall.
Kirkby of Upper Rawcliffe.
Kirkby of Mowbreck.
Leigh of Singleton.
Longworth of St. Michael’s Hall.
Lowde of Kirkham.
Massey of Carleton.
Molyneux of Larbrick Hall.
Parker of Bradkirk Hall.
Rigby of Layton Hall.
Sharples of Freckleton.
Shuttleworth of Larbrick.
Singleton of Singleton.
Singleton of Staining Hall.
Stanley of Great Eccleston Hall.
Tyldesley of Fox Hall, Blackpool.
Veale of Whinney Heys.
Westby of Rawcliffe.
Westby of Mowbreack and Burn Halls.
James II., when force of circumstances had driven him into exile, left
a considerable number of supporters behind him, chiefly amongst the
Roman Catholics, who were not dilatory in devising schemes for his
re-establishment. On the 16th of May, 1690, Robert Dodsworth deposed
upon oath, before Lord Chief Justice Holt, that the following Popish
gentry of the Fylde, amongst others, had entered into a conspiracy to
restore James, and that they had received commissions as indicated for
the purpose of raising troops to carry out the enterprise:—Colonel
Thomas Tyldesley, son of the late Sir Thomas; Captains Ralph Tyldesley,
son of the late Sir Thomas; Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, nephew to
the two preceding; Richard Butler, of Rawcliffe Hall, and Henry, his
eldest son; Thomas Westby, of Mowbreck Hall, and William, his third
son, who was designated a lieutenant; and Lieutenant Richard Stanley,
of Great Eccleston Hall. Nothing is recorded as to the result of the
above information, but in 1694 Sir Thomas Clifton, brother to Cuthbert
Clifton, of Lytham, was arraigned, with several more, on a charge of
treason in connection with a reported Jacobite plot, but was acquitted,
as also were those with him. During the course of the trial, Thomas
Patten, of Preston, as witness to the loyalty of Sir Thomas Clifton to
the existing government, stated that “in 1689 he received orders from
the Lord Lieutenant to secure several Popish gentlemen, and that amongst
them Sir Thomas Clifton was one who was taken and brought prisoner to
Preston upon the 16th day of June in that year; that Sir Thomas being a
very infirm man and unfit to be carried so far as Manchester, which was
the place where the rest of the Popish gentlemen then made prisoners were
secured, he undertook for Sir Thomas, and prevailed to have him kept
at his (Patten’s) own house in Preston, where he continued prisoner,
and was not discharged until the January following, at which time all
the gentlemen were set at liberty; that during Sir Thomas Clifton’s
confinement he expressed to him much zeal and affection to the present
government, saying how much the persons of his religion ought to be
satisfied with their usage, as putting no difference betwixt them and
other subjects save the public exercise of their religion, so long as
they themselves would be quiet, and protested for himself that he could
never endure to think of practising any change.” Further Mr. Patten
affirmed “that he knew Sir Thomas’s disposition to have always been
peaceful and quiet.” During the time that James II. was engaged in
inciting the Irish nation to espouse his cause and furnish him with an
army to invade England and regain his throne, Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox
Hall, prepared a secret chamber in that mansion for his reception. The
disastrous battle of the Boyne, however, in which James was vanquished
by William, Prince of Orange, and King of England, crushed all hope of
future success in the fallen monarch, and at the earliest opportunity he
escaped to France. In 1715, during the reign of George I., his son, the
Chevalier de St. George was proclaimed king in Scotland under the title
of James III. The earl of Mar and several other influential supporters
of the Stuarts assembled a large force and marched southwards; on
arriving at the border five hundred of the Highlanders refused to proceed
further, but the remainder passed through the northern counties as far
as Preston. Here they were besieged by the loyal troops under Generals
Carpenter and Wills, who stormed the town and forced the rebels to an
unconditional surrender. Many of the leaders were executed, whilst others
were incarcerated for various terms; the general treatment of their
unfortunate followers may be gleaned from the journal of William Stout,
of Lancaster, in which it is written:—“After the rebellion was suppressed
about 400 of the rebels were brought to Lancaster Castle, and a regiment
of Dragoons was quartered in the town to guard them. The king allowed
them each 4d. a day for maintenance, viz., 2d. in bread, 1d. in cheese,
and 1d. in small beer. And they laid on straw in stables most of them,
and in a month’s time about 100 of them were conveyed to Liverpool to be
tried, where they were convicted and near 40 of them hanged at Preston,
Garstang, Lancaster, etc.; and about 200 of them continued a year, and
about 50 of them died, and the rest were transported to America.” Thomas
Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, died in 1715, just before the outbreak of the
rebellion, but his son Edward, who succeeded him, joined the rebels.
For this act of treason he was put on his trial, but escaped conviction
and punishment through the favour of the jury, by whom he was acquitted
in spite of clear and reliable evidence that he had entered Preston at
the head of a company of insurgents with a drawn sword in his hand.
After the capitulation, when the king’s troops had entered the town and
were marching along the streets, many men from our district, who had
congregated on Spiral’s Moss, armed with fowling pieces and implements
of husbandry, joined their ranks, and a huge duck-gun belonging to a
yeoman named Jolly, from Mythorp, near Blackpool, was instrumental in
doing good service to the besiegers by slaying one Mayfield, of the
Ashes, Goosnargh. The rebel had secreted himself behind a chimney on one
of the houses, and was engaged in picking off the loyal soldiers as they
made their way along the thoroughfare below. His murderous fire was at
length put an end to by a charge from the famed gun of Jolly, whose keen
eye had detected the assassin in his hiding place. Jolly himself appears
to have had an aversion to causing the death of a fellow-creature in
cold blood, even though a rebel, and the credit of the shot is due to
a soldier, whose own weapon failed in reaching the object. The Rev. W.
Thornber tells us in his History of Blackpool, that the family of the
Jollys, for many years, treasured up the wonderful gun, and that the tale
of its exploit was circulated far and wide in the neighbourhood of their
home. From the remarks of the Rev.—Patten, who accompanied the army of
the Chevalier, as chaplain to General Forster, we learn that those who
joined the insurgents in Lancashire were chiefly Papists, and that the
members of the High-church party held aloof, much to the disappointment
and chagrin of General Forster, who, in his anger, declared “that for
the time to come he would never again believe a drunken tory.” Edward
Tyldesley, Henry Butler, of Rawcliffe Hall, and his son Richard Butler,
were the most distinguished personages amongst the small body of men
belonging to this section who openly espoused the cause of the Pretender.
The paucity of the recruits attracted by the insurgent standard from our
neighbourhood is easily to be accounted for, when it is remembered that
for many years the county of Lancashire had enjoyed an immunity from
strifes and disturbances, so that the inhabitants of the rural districts,
such as the Fylde, had settled down to the cultivation of the soil, and
would care little to assist in a work which as far as they were privately
concerned, could only terminate in the devastation of their fields,
and, probably, in the ruin of many of their households. Especially,
in 1715, would the people be disinclined to take part in or encourage
insurrectionary and warlike proceedings, for in that year extraordinarily
bountiful harvests had rewarded their labours, and general prosperity
had taught them the blessings of peace.[44] After the rebellion of 1715
many Papists registered their estates and the respective yearly values
thereof, according to an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of George
I., and amongst the number may be observed the names of sundry local
personages as:—
Annual Value.
Sherburne, Sir Nicholas, of Carleton, Hambleton, and
Stonyhurst £1210 6s. 3½d.
Butler, Mary, ⎱ wife and only child of Rich. Butler, 100 0 0
Butler, Catherine,⎰ who died in gaol, 537 0 0
Butler, Elizabeth, of Kirkland, afterwards the third
wife of Henry Butler, of Rawcliffe, 11 10 0
Butler, Christopher, second son of H. Butler, of Rawcliffe, 10 19 6
Brockholes, John, of Claughton, etc., 522 19 1
Clifton, Thomas, of Lytham, Clifton, etc., 1548 16 10½
Clifton, Bridget, 3 10 0
Blackburne, Thomas, of Wood Plumpton, 1 6 0
Blackburne, Richard, of Stockenbridge, near St. Michael’s, 21 2 0
Hesketh, William, of Mains, 198 3 4½
Hesketh, George, brother to W. Hesketh, 13 6 8
Hesketh, Margaret, widow of Thos. Hesketh, of Mains, 57 0 0
Singleton, Anne, of Staining and Bardsea, 76 15 10
Stanley, Anne, widow of Richard Stanley of Great
Eccleston, 118 15 0
Swartbreck, John, of Little Eccleston, 23 15 0
Tyldesley, Edward, of Fox Hall, and Myerscough, 720 9 2
Tyldesley, Agatha, half-sister of Edward Tyldesley, 52 10 0
Threlfall, Cuthbert, of Wood Plumpton, 31 12 6
Westby, John, of White Hall, St. Michael’s, 119 11 1
Westby, John, of Mowbreck, 230 5 1½
Westby, Thomas, ⎱ bros. of J. Westby, of Mowbreck, 20 0 0
Westby, Cuthbert, ⎰ 20 0 0
Leckonby, William, of Leckonby House, Elswick, etc., 79 11 6
Walley, Thurstan, of Kirkham, 12 0 8
Charnock, Anne, of Salwick, 1 4 0
Knott, Thomas, of Thistleton, 20 0 0
Prince Charles Edward, the son of the former Pretender, landed in the
Hebrides, in 1745, with a well-officered force of two thousand men, and
after defeating Sir John Cope, seized the city of Edinburgh and commenced
his march southwards. Crossing the border, he passed through Lancashire,
and arrived at Preston with an army barely six thousand strong. At
Preston he met with an enthusiastic welcome, the church bells were rung,
and loud cheers greeted the proclamation of his father, the Chevalier,
as king of Great Britain and Ireland. His sojourn in the town was brief,
and on the 27th of November the rebel troops set out for Manchester,
inspirited by the lively strains of “The King shall have his own again.”
Arriving at that city, they continued their march towards Derby, where,
on receiving the news that the Duke of Cumberland was at Lichfield on his
way to intercept them, Prince Charles Edward hastened to beat a retreat,
and on the 12th of December re-passed through the streets of Preston, the
wearied feet of his followers keeping time to the doleful but appropriate
air of “Hie the Charlie home again.”
The battle on the moor of Culloden, in which the rebel army was defeated
by the Duke of Cumberland, finally decided the fate of the House of
Stuart, and after experiencing many hardships, Prince Charles Edward
escaped across the channel into France. James, the son of Edward
Tyldesley who took part in the insurrection of 1715, served in the army
of the Young Pretender. During the excitement and alarm produced by these
rebellions, silver spoons, tankards, and other household treasures,
were deposited for safety in a farm house at Marton; cattle and other
farm-stock were driven to Boonley, near Blackpool, whilst money and
articles of jewelry were buried in the soil of Hound Hill in that town.
The Scots who accompanied Prince Charles were so renowned for their
voracious appetites that the householders of the Fylde prepared for their
expected visit by laying in an abundant supply of eatables, hoping that
a good repast, like a soft answer, would turn away wrath. Mr. Physic, of
Poulton, was an exception to the general rule, and having barricaded his
house, determined vigorously to resist any attack of the rebels either
on his larder or his purse. Hotly pursued by the Duke of Cumberland in
their retreat towards Scotland, the insurgents were quickly hurried
through the country, but some of the stragglers found their way to Mains
Hall, where they were liberally provided with food by Mrs. Hesketh. It
is probable that these rebels formed part of the number of Highlanders,
who were afterwards captured at Garstang, and that one of them was the
bare-footed Scot who seized the boots of John Miller, of Layton, dragging
them from his feet with the cool remark—“Hout mon, but I mon tak’ thy
brogues.” William Hesketh, of Mains, had considered it prudent to secrete
himself on the warren at Rossall until the excitement had subsided, as
in some way or other he had been mixed up with the former outbreak, and
wished to avoid any suspicion of having been implicated in this one
also. At the sanguinary and decisive battle of Culloden, two notorious
characters from Layton and Staining were present; one of them, named
Leonard Warbreck, served in the capacity of hangman at the executions
following the rebellion, whilst the other, James Kirkham, generally known
as Black Kirkham, was a gallant soldier, remarkable for his giant-like
size and immense strength. The country people near his home were wont
to declare that, for a small wager, this warrior carried his horse and
accoutrements round the cross at Wigan to the astonishment and admiration
of the by-standers. One incident of these times, reflecting little credit
on this neighbourhood, but which, as faithful recorders, we are bound
to relate, was the journey of Henry Hardicar, of Little Poulton, to
London, a distance of two hundred and thirty-three miles, all of which
he travelled on foot, solely to gratify a morbid taste by witnessing the
legal tragedies performed on Tower Hill. “I saw the lords heided” was his
invariable answer to all inquiries as to the wonders he had seen in the
metropolis. In this rising, as in the earlier one, the inhabitants of
the Fylde evinced their prudence and good sense by remaining as nearly
neutral as their allegiance to the reigning monarch would permit them.
Those insurgents who found their way into the district were treated
with kindness, but no encouragement was given them to prolong their
stay, either by professions of sympathy or offers of assistance in their
insurrectionary enterprise.
We have at last come to the end of the long chain of wars and
disturbances which from the period of the struggles between the Houses
of York and Lancaster, had exercised their baneful influence on the
territory and population of the Fylde, and are now entering on an era of
peace and unbroken prosperity. The small water-side hamlets of Blackpool
and Lytham put forth their rival claims to the patronage of the inland
residents,—
“And had their claims allow’d.”
In 1788, Mr. Hutton described the former place as consisting of about
fifty houses and containing four hundred visitors in the height of
the season. This historian also informs us, that the inhabitants were
remarkable for their great longevity, and relates the anecdote of a woman
who, forming one of a group of sympathising friends around the couch
of a dying man, exclaimed—“Poor John! I knew him a clever young fellow
four score years ago.” Lytham, also, attracted a considerable number of
visitors during the summer, and for many years was a more popular resort
than Blackpool. In Mr. Baines’s account of Lytham, published in 1825, we
read as follows:—“This is one of the most popular sea-bathing places in
the county of Lancashire; and if the company is less fashionable than at
Blackpool, it is generally more numerous, and usually very respectable.”
A list of the Catholic Chapels and Chaplains, together with the number of
their respective congregations, in the county of Lancaster, was collected
in 1819, and subjoined are enumerated those situated in the Hundred of
Amounderness:—
Place. Chapels. Priest. No. of
Congregation.
Preston 2 Revd. ⸺ Dunn ⎫
” ” ⸺ Morris⎬ 6,000
” ” ⸺ Gore ⎪
” ” ⸺ Bird ⎭
Alston Lane 1 ” ⸺ Cowburne 400
Fernyhalgh 1 ” ⸺ Blakoe 500
The Hill 1 ” ⸺ Martin 450
Claughton 1 ” ⸺ Gradwell 800
Scorton 1 ” ⸺ Lawrenson 350
Garstang 1 ” ⸺ Storey 600
New House 1 ” ⸺ Marsh 600
Cottam 1 ” ⸺ Caton 300
Lea 1 ” ⸺ Anderton 400
Willows 1 ” ⸺ Sherburne 600
Westby 1 ” ⸺ Butler 300
Lytham 1 ” ⸺ Dawson 500
Poulton 1 ” ⸺ Platt 400
Great Eccleston 1 ” ⸺ Parkinson 450
---- ------
Total 16 [45]12,650
In 1836 the first house of Fleetwood was erected, and in a few years the
desolate warren at the mouth of the Wyre was converted into a rising and
prosperous town. The rapidity of its early growth may be inferred from
the following paragraph, extracted from a volume on Lancashire, published
during the infancy of this new offspring of the Fylde:—“As a bathing
place, it possesses very superior attractions: hot water baths, inns, and
habitations of all kinds have sprung as if by magic on one of the most
agreeable sites it is possible to imagine, very superior to any other
in Lancashire, admitting, as from a central point, excursions by land
and water in all directions, amongst some of the most beautiful scenery
in the empire. A couple of hours steaming takes the tourist across
Morecambe Bay to the Furness capital, and into the heart of a district of
surpassing interest. Charming indeed is Fleetwood in the height of the
summer, with its cool sands, northern aspect, and delightful prospects.
First there is a noble bay in front, an ocean of itself when the tide is
in; and when it is out offering firm sands of vast extent, for riding
or walking.” Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, bart., of Rossall Hall, lord
of the manor, and founder of the town to which he gave his name, was
returned on four occasions as one of the parliamentary representatives of
Preston:—
MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT FOR PRESTON.
1832.—Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, and the Hon. Henry Thos. Stanley.
1835.—Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, and the Hon. Henry Thos. Stanley.
1837.—Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, and Robert Townley Parker.
1841.—Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, Bart., and Sir Geo. Strickland, Bart.
The year 1840 was an auspicious one in the history of the Fylde. On the
25th of July, the Preston and Wyre Railway, running through the heart of
this district, was completed and declared open for traffic. By its means
the farmer became enabled to convey his produce to the extensive market
of Preston; and Kirkham, Poulton, and Garstang were no longer the only
towns accessible to our agriculturists for the sale of their crops. The
early appreciation of the utility and benefit of the line is apparent
from the rapid increase of its traffic, as shown by the annexed tables,
in which the official returns of passengers and goods for the week ending
Dec. 14th, 1842, and the corresponding weeks of the four succeeding years
are stated:—
Week ending Dec. 14th, 1842. 911 Passengers. £65 10s. 5d.
Goods. 62 8 1
-----------
127 18 6
-----------
Corresponding week in 1843. 1105 Passengers. 88 1 6
Goods. 140 11 9
-----------
228 13 3
-----------
Corresponding week in 1844. 1601 Passengers. 139 4 6
Goods. 163 18 11
-----------
303 3 5
-----------
Corresponding week in 1845. 1997 Passengers. 144 12 1
Goods. 234 13 4
-----------
379 5 5
-----------
Corresponding week in 1846. 2820 Passengers. 243 19 0
Goods. 308 18 5
-----------
552 17 5
-----------
At the present date, 1876, the average weekly traffic on this railway and
its branches to Lytham and Blackpool, amounts in round numbers to £1,200
for passengers, and £800 for goods.
The Preston and Wyre Railway was amongst the earliest formed, and the
impression made on the natives of this district, who had been accustomed
to the slow-going coaches, must have been one of no little amazement,
when, for the first time, they beheld the “iron horse” steaming along
the rails at a speed which their past experience of travelling would
make them regard as impossible. The following lines were written by a
gentleman named Henry Anderton, a resident in the Fylde, on the opening
of the railway:
“Some fifty years since and a coach had no power,
To move faster forward than six miles an hour,
Till Sawney McAdam made highways as good,
As paving-stones crushed into little bits could.
The coachee quite proud of his horse-flesh and trip,
Cried, ‘Go it, ye cripples!’ and gave them the whip,
And ten miles an hour, by the help of the thong,
They put forth their mettle and scampered along.
The Present has taken great strides of the Past,
For carriages run without horses at last!
And what is more strange,—yet it’s truth I avow,
Hack-horses themselves have turned passengers now!
These coaches alive go in sixes and twelves,
And once set in motion they travel themselves!
They’ll run thirty miles while I’m cracking this joke,
And need no provisions but pump-milk and coke!
And with their long chimneys they skim o’er the rails,
With two thousand hundred-weight tied to their tails!
While Jarvey in stupid astonishment stands,
Upturning both eyes and uplifting both hands,
‘My nags,’ he exclaims, betwixt laughing and crying,
‘Are good ’uns to go, but yon devils are flying.’”
The fares on the Preston and Wyre Railway at its commencement were:—
1st class. 2nd class. 3rd class.
Preston to Fleetwood or Blackpool 4s. 6d. 3s. 0d. 2s. 0d.
Preston to Poulton 3s. 6d. 2s. 6d. 1s. 6d.
Preston to Kirkham 2s. 0d. 1s. 3d. 0s. 9d.
Preston to Lytham 3s. 0d. 2s. 6d. 1s. 6d.
Until the opening of the branch lines to Lytham and Blackpool
respectively, in 1846, passengers completed their journies from Kirkham
and Poulton to those watering places by means of coaches. Three trains
ran from the terminus at Fleetwood to Preston on each week-day, and one
on Sunday, a similar number returning.
In consequence of the severe distress prevailing throughout the country,
a proclamation was issued by Her Majesty for a General Fast to be held on
Wednesday, the 24th of March, 1847; and from the public prints of that
date it is evident that the occasion was observed with great solemnity
in our division—the shops of the different towns were closed during the
whole of the day, the streets were quiet, the hotels deserted, whilst
the churches were crowded even to overflowing. This distress was caused
by an almost complete failure in the potatoe harvests; and at that time
these necessary articles of diet were sold at 26s. per load in the local
markets, whilst meal, also scarce, rose to 52s. per load.
In September of the same year, the Fylde was honoured by a passing visit
from Queen Victoria and the late Prince Consort, who arrived at Fleetwood
in the Royal Yacht on their return journey from Scotland to London. An
address was presented by Sir P. H. Fleetwood, bart., the Rev. St. Vincent
Beechey, Frederick Kemp, esq., James Crombleholme, esq., and Daniel
Elletson, esq., on behalf of the inhabitants of Fleetwood, and received
by Lord Palmerston, who promised that it should be laid before the
Queen. In the course of a few days an acknowledgment was received from
the metropolis. In Her Majesty’s book, published in 1868, and entitled
“Leaves from our Highland Journal,” these diarian entries relating to
the above event appear:—
“Monday, September 20th, 1847.
“We anchored at seven in Fleetwood Harbour; the entrance was
extremely narrow and difficult. We were lashed close to the pier,
to prevent our being turned by the tide; and when I went on
deck there was a great commotion, such running and calling, and
pulling of ropes, etc. It was a cheerless evening, blowing hard.”
“Tuesday, September 21st, 1847.
“At ten o’clock we landed, and proceeded by rail to London.”
In 1860, a project was launched for a comprehensive scheme of water
supply for the towns of this district; a company was established, and, in
the session of 1861, an act of parliament was obtained “for incorporating
the Fylde Waterworks Company, and for authorising them to make and
maintain waterworks, and to supply water at Kirkham, Lytham, Blackpool,
Fleetwood, Poulton, Rossall, Garstang, South-shore, and Bispham, in the
county palatine of Lancaster, and to shipping at Fleetwood and Lytham.”
The act granted power to take the water from Grizedale Brook, a tributary
of the Wyre, which rises in Grizedale Fell, one of the Bleasdale range,
and, flowing through the gorge or pass, called Nickey Nook, divides
the township of Nether-Wyersdale and Barnacre-with-Bonds, and falls
into the Wyre a mile or so before that river reaches Garstang. A dam
or embankment, upwards of 20 feet high, 70 feet wide at the base, and
12 feet wide at the top, was raised across the valley, converting the
upper portion of it into a reservoir. At the west end of the reservoir,
below the embankment, is a culvert, through which the water passes to
a guage, where a stipulated quantity is turned into the brook, and the
rest enters the pipe for the Fylde. Twelve miles of twelve inch pipes
carry the water to the service reservoir at Weeton. The course is down
Grizedale, under the railway, through Greenhalgh Green, Bowgrave, leaving
Garstang to the right, then past Catterall Mill, through the grounds of
Catterall Hall, and onward to the east of St. Michael’s, through Elswick,
to Weeton. The service reservoir, situated on the most elevated ground,
called Whitprick Hill, in the township of Weeton, has a diameter at the
base of 400 feet, and at the top 468 feet. The embankment is at the base
70 feet in diameter, and 12 feet at the top, with a puddle trench in it,
varying from 8 feet 8 inches to 6 feet wide. To the south a 10 inch main
takes the supply of water for Kirkham and Lytham; and from the west
side a main of similar size takes the water for Fleetwood and Blackpool,
the supply for the former place branching off near Great Marton, and
going by Bispham and Rossall. The Weeton reservoir was formed capable
of containing fifteen million gallons of water. An additional pipe,
running from Weeton through Singleton, Skippool, and Thornton, to join
the Fleetwood main at Flakefleet, near Rossall, was laid in 1875; and a
new reservoir, to hold 190,000,000 gallons, is in course of formation at
Barnacre, above Grizedale.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]