LANCASHIRE IN THE TIME OF THE TUDORS
(A.D. 1485-1603).
As soon as Henry VII. was firmly seated on the throne, he proceeded
to reverse the attainders which his predecessor had passed against
certain of the prominent adherents of the House of Lancaster, and at
the same time confiscating the estates of (amongst others) Sir Thomas
Pilkington, Lord Robert Harrington and Sir James Harrington, all of
whom took part in the battle of Bosworth Field, and were natives of
Lancashire, their properties were nearly all at once given to Lord
Stanley, who was at the same time created Earl of Derby, and elected
a member of the King's Privy Council. Not ten years after this, Sir
William Stanley, brother of the Earl, became mixed up with the Perkin
Warbeck rebellion, and notwithstanding the influence of the latter, he
was arraigned upon a charge of high treason, and, being found guilty,
was executed on February 15, 1495; his chief seat was at Holt Castle,
in Denbighshire.
It seems strange that, in the same year that this tragedy was enacted,
the King came in state to pay a visit to his mother, who was now the
second wife of the Earl of Derby. To entertain their Majesties (for the
Queen came also) with becoming dignity, the Earl spared no expense,
even erecting a new bridge across the Mersey, near Warrington, for
his special use, which bridge has since been used by the public. The
expenses incurred by the royal journey from Chester to Knowsley were
duly recorded, and are of interest:
July 18 [1495]. At Winwick, 20ᵗʰ at Latham: To Sir Richard Pole for
200 jucquetts, price of every pece, 1s. 6d., £15. 100 horsemen for
fourteen days, every of them 9d. by day, £52 10s. For their conduyt
for 3 days, every of them 9d. by day, £11 5s. For the wages of 100
footmen for fourteen days, every of them 6d. by day, £35. For their
conduyt for four days, every of them 6d. by day, £10. For shipping,
vitailling and setting over the see the foresaid 200 men, with an
100 horses, £13 6s. 8d. To the shirif awayting upon Sʳ Sampson for
the safe conduyt of the foresaid souldeours, 2s.
Aug. 2. To Picard a herrald of Fraunce in reward, £6 13s. 4d. To
the women that songe before the Kinge and the Queene in rewarde,
6s. 8d.
3ʳᵈ. At Knowsley. 4ᵗʰ. At Warrington. 5. At Manchester.
Lancashire, in 1485, is said to have suffered considerably from the
"sweating sickness" which was at this time very prevalent in many parts
of the kingdom; but in the absence of contemporary notices of it, it
may be assumed not to have appeared here in its severest form.
Towards the £40,000 granted by the Parliament of 1504 to the King,
Lancashire's share was a trifle over £318; and the commissioners
appointed to collect it in the county were Thomas Boteler, John Bothe,
Pears Lee, Richard Bold, John Sowthworth, and Thomas Lawrence, knights,
and William Thornborough and Cuthbert Clifton, esquires.
We have now seen the close of the fifteenth century, which has been
described as "a blustering, quarrelsome fellow, who lived in a house
with strong barricades all round it, his walls pierced with narrow
holes, through which he could shoot his visitors if he did not think
they were approaching him in a friendly manner," and we are entering
on the sixteenth century, which "improved a little on this, but still
planted his house with turrets which commanded the entrance door, and
had an immense gate studded with iron nails, and unsurmountable walls
round his courtyard."
The days of building castles and strongly fortified houses was indeed
over, but still everyone looked with some suspicion on his neighbour,
and the old English saying,
Let him keep who has the power,
And let him take who can,
was not quite forgotten.
Of the class of fortified houses erected about this date, a good
example is afforded by Greenhalgh Castle. By a royal license granted
to Thomas, Earl of Derby, in 1490, he was authorized to erect in
Greenhalgh (in the parish of Garstang) a building or buildings with
stone or other materials, and to "embattle, turrellate or crenelate,
machiolatte," or otherwise fortify the same; authority was at the same
time given to enclose a park, and to have in it free warren and chase.
Camden says that the Earl built this to protect himself from certain
of the nobility of the county whose estates had been forfeited to the
Crown and bestowed upon himself. This account of the origin of this
castle is probably correct.
The great religious changes in Lancashire, brought about by what has
been called the anti-Papal revolt, and the subsequent Reformation, will
be reserved for a future page (see Chapter IX.).
The old strife between England and Scotland had now again been renewed,
and the conflict culminated in the battle of Flodden, where the
Lancashire archers, led by Sir Edward Stanley, almost totally destroyed
the Highlanders who composed the right wing of the Scottish army. The
other Lancashire leaders were Sir William Mollineux of Sefton, Sir
William Norris of Speke, and Sir Ralph Ashton of Middleton.
No wonder that this decisive victory should become a favourite theme
of the poet and the minstrel. There are several old poems referring to
the Lancashire men and the field of Flodden; one of these, which is
certainly 300 years old, has been printed by the Chetham Society;[104]
it consists of nearly 700 lines, of which the following will serve as a
sample:
Lancashire, like lyons
layden them aboute!
All had been lost by our Lorde!
had not these leddes [lads] bene.
For the care of the Scottes
increased full sore
For their King was downe knocked
and killed in their sight,
Under the banner of a bishop
that was the bold Standley!
Ther they fetilde[105] them to fly
As fast as they might.
Another long poem on the same subject is preserved in the Record
Office;[106] it gives also a glowing account of how the "lusty lads,"
led by the "lusty Stanley stout," went forth "in armour bold for battle
drest," and how--
From Warton unto Warrington,
From Wigan unto Wiresdale,
From Weddecon [Wedacre] to Waddington,
From Ribchester to Rochdale,
From Poulton to Preston, with pikes,
They with Stanley out went forth.
From Pemberton and Pilling dikes,
For battle billmen bold were bent.
In Middleton Church there was a brass to the memory of Sir Ralph
Assheton and his bowmen, and a painted window still remains to
commemorate the event. Of the general state of some of the larger towns
of the county, we have a brief record from the pen of that careful
antiquary John Leland, who went through Lancashire in 1533. Manchester
he says was "the fairest, best built, quickest [_i.e._, liveliest]
and most populous town in Lancashire; well set a worke in makinge of
clothes as well of lynnen as of woollen, whereby they have obtained,
gotten and come vnto riches and welthy lyuings, and have kepte and set
manye artificers and poor folkes to work;" and in "consequence of their
honesty and true dealing, many strangers, as wel of Ireland as of other
places within this realme, have resorted to the said towne with lynnen
yarne, woollen, and other wares for makinge clothes." So great a name
had Manchester now got for the making of woollen cloth that in an Act
passed in 1552 Manchester "rugs and frizes" are specially named; and
in 1566 it became necessary to pass another Act to regulate the fees
of the queen's _aulneger_ (measurer), who was to have his deputies at
Bolton, Blackburn and Bury. The duty of these officers was to prevent
"cottons, frizes and rugs" being sold unsealed. Cottons were not
what is now meant by this term, but were all of woollen.[107] Cotton
manufacture did not begin until a century later. Manchester at this
time probably consisted of some ten or a dozen narrow streets[108]
and lanes, all radiating from the old church; its water was from a
single spring rising in what is now Fountain Street, and which flowed
down Market Street to Smithy Door. The town business was conducted in
a building called the "Booths," where the court of the lord of the
manor was held, and near to which stood the stocks, the pillory and
whipping-post, and not far distant was the cucking-stool pool. These
streets were narrow, ill-paved, or not paved at all; the houses were of
wood and plaster, with the upper stories projecting and mostly roofed
with thatching. The only church in Manchester was the collegiate or
parish church, which stood on the site of the present cathedral in
the time of Edward VI.; the lord of the manor of Manchester was Sir
Thomas West, Knight, ninth Baron de la Ware. The early records of
the Manchester court leet[109] have been preserved, and furnish some
interesting details of the life of the dwellers in the town at this
period.
In 1522, amongst the officers of the court, were two ale-founders (or,
as they are generally called, ale-tasters or conners), two byrlamen
(lawmen) to overlook the "market stede," two for Deynsgate and four for
the mylne gate, wething greve, hengynge dyche, fenell street, and on to
Irkes brydge, and a score of people were named as "skevengers," whose
duty it was to see that the streets were kept clean. At the same court
an order was made that persons were not to allow their ducks and geese
to wander into the market-place, and certain other regulations were
enforced, showing that even at that date the sanitary arrangements of
the place were to some extent attended to.
In 1554 we have, beside the other officers, market overlookers for fish
and flesh, leathersellers, and men to see that no ox, cow, nor horse
goes through the churchyard; and it was ordered that all the middens
standing in the streets, between the conduit (which supplied the town
with water) and the market-cross, and all swinecotes in the High
Street, should be removed. The authorities appear to have had some
trouble to persuade the people that the street, or the front of their
own houses, was not the place for dunghills or middens, as the orders
to remove them appear at almost every court, in some cases the order
only being to erect a pale or hedge round, so that there be no "noyance
nor evil sight in the street."
In 1556 warning was to be given in the church that the inhabitants were
to bring their corn and grain to be ground at the Free School Mill.
Ale and bread in 1558 were to be sold only by the regulation measures
and weights. Archery had long been one of the recreations of the
people, so we are surprised to find that in 1560 the inhabitants
were ordered to have put up before the Feast of St. John the Baptist
(June 24) a pair of butts in Marketstede Lane, and another pair upon
Colyhurst Common; in the same year it was ordered that no person should
allow any carding or bowling in his house or garden, fields or shop,
"whereto any poore or handiecrafts men shall come or resort."
Provisions were also made for the traveller whose business brought him
to Manchester, for no man was allowed (in 1560) to brew or sell ale
unless he was able to "make two honest beddis [beds]," and he was also
to "put furth the syne of a hand." Later on it was ordered that this
sign was only to be used when the innkeeper had ale to sell. It is
curious to find an old Act passed in 1390 still enforced, viz., that no
one not being a forty-shilling freeholder shall keep a greyhound nor
any hound.
Ale was not to be sold to be drunk on the premises at more than 6d.
a gallon; for outdoor consumption the price was not to exceed 4d. a
gallon.
A singular order appears in the next year's record, to the effect that
no one shall sell bread which has any butter in it, although he was
permitted to bake it for his own use or to give to his friends.
About this time it appears to have been the custom at weddings and
other festive occasions to invite people to the feast--which was held
at an alehouse--and then collect from them a sum of money to defray
the expenses, and to stop this practice the court ordered that no one
should be called upon to pay more than 4d. for such entertainment.
No doubt the fairs of Manchester were now resorted to by considerable
numbers, hence the order made in 1565 that every burgess was to find
an able-bodied man, furnished with a bill (or axe) or a halberd, to
wait upon the steward of the manor at these gatherings. At this time
fruits, particularly apples, were sufficiently an article of commerce
as to necessitate the appointment an overseer to regulate their sale.
The manufacturers of "rugs" (a kind of coarse woollen cloth) were now
forbidden to wet their good "openly in the stretes," but to do it
either within their respective houses or behind the same.
Alehouses were frequently the subject of the court's regulation,
gaming, selling of ale during "tyme of morning prayer," and the like
offences being severely dealt with, whilst drunken men found abroad in
the streets at night were not only imprisoned in the "dungeon," but had
to pay 6d. to the constable for the poor, and the unfortunate ale-house
keeper, if found in a state of intoxication, was "discharged from
ale-house keeping."
The wearing of daggers and other weapons was found to lead to disorder,
and forbidden, and the law forbidding the wearing of hats[110] on
Sundays and holidays was enforced. Apprentices and male and female
servants were to be fined if found in the streets after nine o'clock at
night in the summer and eight o'clock in the winter.
The practice of archery towards the end of the century began to fall
off, and notwithstanding the Acts of Parliament passed to encourage it
here in Manchester, officers had to be appointed to see the burgesses
"exceryse [exercise] shootinge accordinge to the statute."
Although Manchester was not at the time a borough, yet it is evident
that the court leet was alive to many of the requirements of a growing
town, and that, although its industries were now only in infancy, it
had become a commercial centre, and was beginning to emerge from the
obscurity to which it had been relegated during the feudal system.
The plague of 1565 was succeeded in the year following by a great
dearth, when a penny white loaf only weighed 6 or 8 ounces.
Even at this date the Manchester church was often selected as the place
to be married at, although neither the bride nor the bridegroom lived
in the town, and on these occasions they were accompanied by "strange
pipers or other minstrels," who played up to the church doors and after
the ceremony at the ale-house. This raised the jealousy of the "town
waytes," who persuaded the court to order that they should come no more.
After Manchester, the next largest town was Preston, which was the
capital of the duchy and one of the oldest incorporated towns in the
county. Before the time of Elizabeth it had had no less than ten royal
charters, and within it were two religious houses and its very ancient
parish church; moreover, its "guild merchant" had been held every
twentieth year for centuries. The guild roll of 1542 contains the names
of over 200 burgesses, that of 1562 exceeds 350, and the one of 1602
gives 537 in burgesses, and 561 foreign or out burgesses. In the lists
for 1562 and 1582 we find enumerated drapers, pewterers, cordwainers,
glovers, masons, websters (weavers), tailors, mercers, butchers,
carpenters, barbers, tanners, saddlers, flaxmen, leadbeaters, cutlers,
schoolmasters, and other occupations which accompanied a well-to-do
town of this period. The sale of woollen cloth and fustians was at
this time a branch of Preston trade. Here also strict regulations
were enforced as to the accommodation at inns, no one being allowed
to retail ale unless he could lodge four men and find stabling for
four horses. It was such regulations as these that enabled Holinshead
(in 1577) to record that "the inns in Lancaster, Preston, Wigan and
Warrington" are so much improved "that each comer" is "sure to lie
in clean sheets wherein no man hath lodged; if the traveller be on
horseback his bed-cloth cost him nothing, but if he go on foot he hath
a penny to pay." Preston was one of the four Lancashire towns which in
1547 recommenced to send members to Parliament. Toward the end of the
sixteenth century Preston had a population of something like 3,000.
The chief town of the county for many centuries was Lancaster, though
in size and importance it had now been excelled by several other
towns. The old castle was the county gaol, and in this town until
quite recently the assizes were held, and, moreover, it was the oldest
corporate borough, dating back to the twelfth century; yet for all
this, in an Act of Parliament passed in 1544, it is reported as to
Lancaster that though there were many "beautiful houses" there, they
were all "falling into ruin," and in 1586 Camden reported that "it was
thinly peopled and all the inhabitants farmers, the country round it
being cultivated, open, flourishing, and not bare of wood." As a town
it consisted of only eight or nine streets, but there was a school,
fishmarket, pinfold, etc.[111] Lancaster returned two members in 1529,
and from 1547 continued to send that number.
Liverpool in the time of Henry VII. had begun to fall off in
importance, and we find that that monarch made a grant of the "Town
and Lordship of Litherpoole" at a rental of £14 a year; this was
renewed in 1528.
Henry VIII., always on the look-out for royal revenues, ordered in
1533 a return to be made of the King's rental in Liverpool, when it
was found only to amount to £10 1s. 4d., a sum equal to something like
£150 of the present money;[112] this was exclusive of Church property.
The streets of Liverpool were Water Street, Castle Street, Dale Street,
Moore Street, Chapel Street, Jugler Street and Mylne Street. The Act
of Parliament of 1544 reports of Liverpool as it had done of Lancaster
(p. 97), both towns being put down as having fallen into decay; and
yet both towns in 1547 returned two representatives to Parliament. Why
had these two ancient boroughs so decayed? One reason probably, in the
case of Liverpool, was its comparative isolation, as until centuries
after this there was no road to it for wheeled carriages, all inland
travellers having to go on horseback, and goods on packhorses, or by
barges on the Mersey, from Warrington.
All these ancient boroughs, provided they paid the dues to the national
exchequer, and to some extent carried out the statutes of the realm,
were at liberty to make their own laws for self-government, and it is
but natural to suppose that this arbitrary rule in some cases resulted
in success, whilst in others it led to results disastrous to the
community. Again, the visitations of the plague in some towns carried
away a large percentage of the population, whilst in others their
effects were slight. Either or both of these causes would be sufficient
to materially reduce the prosperity of one of these small boroughs.
In 1540 Liverpool is said to have been nearly depopulated by the
plague; and in 1556 there were only 151 householders left, which could
not represent a population of much over 1,000;[113] and in 1558 the
visitation of this scourge was so severe that all who were attacked
were ordered "to make their cabins on the heath," and to remain there
for nearly three months, and after that (until they had permission to
do otherwise) to keep on "the back side of their houses, and to keep
their doors and windows shut on the street side." This plague carried
off upwards of 240 of the already reduced inhabitants. At this time
we find warehouses for merchants named, and the Corporation had a
ferry boat to carry people and goods across the river. The port of
Liverpool was now claimed to be a dependency of the port of Chester,
and so indignant were the Corporation at this that they sent their
Mayor to London to represent to the Chancellor of the duchy that to
call Liverpool "the creeke of Chester" was not only to punish its
inhabitants, but was against the jurisdiction and regal authority of
the county palatine and duchy; and they also stated that Liverpool
had heretofore been reputed the best port and harbour from Milford to
Scotland, and had always proved so with all manner of ships and barks.
From the return made in consequence of this appeal, it appears that
Liverpool had only twelve vessels, the largest of forty tons burden.
The close of the sixteenth century did not find the town in a much
better position, for even the keeper of the "Common Warehouse of the
Town" was only to have £1 2s. 8d. for his wages, because of "the small
trade and trafique" that there then was, and a pious ejaculation is
added, "until God send us better traffique." The principal trade now
carried on was with Ireland and Spain or Portugal; to the latter
herrings and salmon were exported and wine brought back. Wool,
coatings (cottons), and tallow were exported in small quantities. Many
regulations referring to the sanitary arrangements of the town and the
suppression of drunkenness and gaming were almost identical with those
enforced by the court-leet of Manchester. A "handsome cockpit" was made
by the Corporation in 1567, and horse-racing was patronized ten years
later.
The only other town in Lancashire which in 1547 returned
representatives to Parliament was Wigan.
Leland, who paid a visit to Wigan about the year 1540, thus describes
the town: "Wigan pavid as bigge as Warington and better buildid.
There is one paroch chirch amidde the Towne, summe Marchauntes, sum
Artificers, sum Fermers. Mr. Bradeshaw hath a place called Hawe a myle
from Wigan; he hath founde moche Canel like se Coole in his ground
very profitable to hym." The vast underground wealth, which was in the
future to be of such importance to this county, would appear at this
time to be unworked, if even its existence was known. Wigan was one
of the few towns in the county with its Mayor and Corporation. The
population of Wigan would scarcely be as great as Warrington (which
was now about 2,000[114]), as in 1625 the number of burgesses entitled
to vote at the election was only 138. Warrington was not incorporated,
but was under the manor court. Its chief industry was the manufacture
of sail-cloth. Clitheroe, though a borough, was still (except for
its connection with the castle) a place of small importance, as was
also Blackburn; at neither place had as yet any textile industry been
introduced. At Bolton-le-Moors Leland found cottons and coarse yarns
manufactured, and here also they were accustomed to use "se cole, of
which the pittes be not far off." At Bury also yarns were made.
Rochdale was "a market of no small resort," says Leland, but he is
silent as to its commercial doings; nevertheless, if manufacture was
not carried on there, its inhabitants were doing a good business in the
sale of wool and coatings, as is proved by the fact that several cases
of dispute as to the non-delivery of goods of this kind were heard in
the duchy court. In the reign of Elizabeth the manufacture of these
articles soon followed, and before the end of the century this industry
was well established here. Some of the coal in this district lying
near the surface was now worked, and cutlery was also made in this
wide parish, as were also hats. Foot-racing was a favourite pastime in
Lancashire in the sixteenth century, and sometimes the stakes ran high,
as in the case of a race run near Whitworth (Rochdale) on August 24,
1576, when the match was for twenty nobles a side.[115]
Before the introduction of the woollen and cotton manufacture, and the
consequent rapid increase of population and buildings, this county
was very far from being amongst the least beautiful of England's
shires. Large unbroken forests, where still lingered the lordly stag,
surrounded with game of varied kinds, were yet to be seen; and the
dense smoke from the tall factory chimney was not there to blast and
wither with its poisonous breath the tender foliage of the stripling
oak. Its rivers then meandered through miles of pleasant lands, where
the lowing of cattle and the melodious songs of birds formed the only
accompaniment to the gentle rippling of the waters; no contaminating
dyeworks, chemical works, or other followers in the train of
commerce, had yet planted themselves along the banks; and the salmon,
the grayling and the trout, and other small fry, held undisputed
possession, unless they were molested by the otters, which were then
abundant.[116] In the northern parts of the county things still
remained much as they had been for centuries, except, of course, in
some districts a slight increase in population, and in all an improved
state of civilization and culture. Amongst these towns in the north may
be mentioned Kirkham, which claims to have been incorporated in the
time of Edward I., by the name of "the bailiffs and burgesses." This
claim was ratified by James I. They had a market and fair, but did not
send representatives to Parliament.
In the days when the monasteries and abbeys were young, no doubt the
education of the people was one of their recognised duties, but when
these religious houses became (as they often did) the homes of luxury
and licence, this duty was unfulfilled; and it was only after the
Reformation, when the religious excitement abated, that anything like
an attempt at national education was made, and at this time schools of
any kind were almost unknown in the county, and the mass of the people
were alike ignorant, untaught, and superstitious.
Preston was probably the first town in Lancashire which had a free
school regularly endowed; it is said to have been established in the
fourteenth century, but was certainly there in the time of Henry VI.,
as in 1554 a plaintiff in the duchy court spoke of it as having then
been in existence for "the space of 100 years,"[117] and the incumbent
of the chantry in the parish church, founded by Helen Houghton (about
1480), was required to "be sufficiently lerned in grammar" to teach the
scholars. Manchester was indebted to Hugh Oldham, the Bishop of Exeter
(a native of Lancashire), for its first free school. In 1515 the Bishop
conveyed certain lands to the Wardens of Manchester for the purpose
of paying a master and usher to teach the youth of the district, who
had, as the indenture sets forth, "for a long time been in want of
instruction, as well on account of the poverty of their parents as for
want of some person who should instruct them in learning and virtue."
Before his death, in 1519, he had built the school which has for so
long done honour to its founder.
At Kirkham a free grammar school had been, or was just about to be,
founded in 1551, when Thomas Clifton, of Clifton, bequeathed "towards
the grammar schole xxˢ." And in 1585 the parish authorities took
possession of the school-house in right of the whole parish. This
school appears subsequently to have fallen into decay or been given up,
for in 1621 Isabel Birley, who had been all her life an alehouse-keeper
in Kirkham, being "moved to compassion with pore children shee saw
often in that town," went to the church (where the thirty sworn men
were assembled) with £30 in her apron, which she wished to give for
the building of a free school; her example fired the others with
enthusiasm, and the requisite sum was soon raised. The history of this
well-known school is interesting.
When Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, besides these schools there
were free grammar schools at Prescot, Lancaster, Whalley, Clitheroe,
Bolton, and Liverpool, but within the next fifty years many more
were added, amongst them being those at Burnley, Hawkshead, Leyland,
Rochdale, Middleton, and Rivington (near Bolton). To most of these
early-founded schools libraries were attached, in some of which still
remain many valuable sixteenth-century books.
The belief in witchcraft and its kindred superstitions was firmly
rooted amongst the people; on this subject something will be said in
another chapter, but _en passant_ it may be stated that in 1597 a
pardon was granted to one Alice Brerley, of Castleton (in Rochdale),
who had been condemned to death for slaying by means of witchcraft
James Kershaw and Robert Scholefield.[118]
The condition into which Lancashire was thrown through the religious
crisis consequent upon the Reformation will be treated of elsewhere,
but it must here be noted that in the time of good Queen Bess churches
were said to be almost emptied of their congregations, alehouses were
innumerable, wakes, ales, rushbearing, bearbaits, and the like, were
all exercised on the Sunday, and altogether a general lawlessness
appears to have prevailed all over the county. In the reign of Henry
VIII. the old commissions of array (whose duty it was to get together
in each county such armed forces as were required from time to time)
were done away with, and their places occupied by lord-lieutenants.
In 1547 the Earl of Shrewsbury was Lord-Lieutenant of the county
of Lancaster and six other counties, but in 1569 the county had a
Lord-Lieutenant of its own in the person of Earl Stanley, third Earl
of Derby. The duties of these newly appointed officers of the Crown
were manifold; but one of their chief services was to assemble and levy
the inhabitants within their jurisdiction in the time of war, and to
prescribe orders for the government of their counties; and from the
proceedings of the Lancashire lieutenancy we may glean a few details
relating to the civil and religious life of the period.[119] For the
military muster of 1553 the quota required from the respective hundreds
was: West Derby 430, Salford 350, Leyland 170, Amounderness 300,
Blackburn 400, Lonsdale 350.
These numbers were to be raised by each town in the hundred in
proportion to the wealth or number of its inhabitants: West Derby,
Wigan, and Ashton, in the parish of Winwick, had to find 11 each,
whilst Liverpool only sent 5. In Leyland the greatest number (10)
came from Wrightington with Parbold; in Amounderness Preston found
26, whilst the parish of Kirkham contributed over 100. Blackburn
parish sent 113 men, and the parish of Whalley 175; unfortunately,
the particulars for the towns and parishes of Salford are wanting. In
1559-60 the county was called upon to raise no less than 3,992 soldiers.
During all these troubled times the highest hills in the district were
used as beacon stations, where a system of signalling was practised;
thus, in 1588 the hundred of Salford was called upon to pay £5 9s. 4d.
for watching the beacon on Rivington Pike from July 10 to September 30.
Some further details about this particular are furnished in the
original "accompt" of Sir John Byron, who was a Deputy-Lieutenant of
the county:
1589.
£ _s._ _d._
Paid for erecting a beacon 20 0 0
„ „ powder at Ormskirk for the trayninge 4 0 0
„ „ two days trayninge of 300 soldiers 20 0 0
„ „ 18 rowles of matches 0 10 8
„ to Robert Pilkington at two severall tymes for
repayringe and kepinge the beacon at
Ryvington Pyke 5 7 4
„ for 210 pounds of powder for the saide two dayes
trayninge 14 0 0
Notwithstanding the wars and rumours of wars which were then so
common, and notwithstanding the religious excitement created by the
persecution, first of the Roman Catholics and then of the Puritans,
people seem to have prospered in the county. The towns and villages
greatly increased in number, size and importance, and the time of
Elizabeth especially witnessed the erection and rebuilding of some of
Lancashire's finest halls. The ancient domestic houses which had been
the residences of the old feudal lords were now remodelled or entirely
swept away, and the subdivision of the land brought out a new class of
proprietors, who, though not descended directly from the old owners of
the soil, soon took up the rank of gentry, and built for themselves
those smaller though not less interesting mansions which at one time
were found all over the county.
During the Tudor time were built such houses as Speke Hall, near
Liverpool; Ordsall Hall, near Manchester; Little Mitton, the home of
the Sherburns; Ince Hall, Cleworth Hall, Smithell's Hall, Lostock Hall,
Lydiate Hall, Rufford Hall, Belfield Hall, Rawcliffe, Rossal Grange,
and a host of others far too numerous to mention. Many of these date
back to very early days, and were originally built with a view to make
every man's house his castle; but with the end of the sixteenth century
other views began to obtain, and an Englishman, for the first time
probably in the country's history, commenced to feel that his house was
really his castle, and that it was defended for him by the strong arm
of the law.
The houses of the middle and lower classes were nearly always built of
wood and clay ("daub"); the richer people had houses which were usually
divided on the ground-floor into a common hall, a small withdrawing
room or parlour, and a kitchen, the upper stories being reached by wide
staircases, often with ornately carved oak banisters. The higher class
of houses or halls consisted of many chambers, and not infrequently
there was a private chapel, and the rooms were wainscoted. Many views
have been preserved of the exterior of most of our old halls (which
were highly picturesque), but of the interior and general domestic
arrangements we are left to glean such items as have been handed down
to us through the medium of inventories and kindred records. These
inventories, taken after the proving of wills, are often (where they
exist at all) meagre and incomplete, yet they furnish particulars which
we should look elsewhere for in vain. The inventory of the goods of Sir
Thomas Butler, of Bewsey (near Prescot), knight, taken in 1579, will
give some details of the contents of one of Lancashire's old houses.
The following are selected items:
PLATE AND JEWELLERY.--Basin and ewer, silver engraved bowls, silver
salts with covers, silver spoons, a crystal cross.
LINEN, ETC.--Table-cloths, damask work, towels, napkins, flax
sheets, bed-hangings, quilted and woollen blankets, mattresses,
curtains of taffeta, curtains of darynx (a kind of damask made at
Tournay), green silk coverlet, etc.
FURNITURE, ETC.--Tables, chairs, stools, truckle beds, pair
of playing tables, brass candlesticks, pewter in considerable
quantities, and the usual kitchen and brewing apparatus.
APPAREL.--Velvet hose, satin doublets, taffeta doublets, velvet
breeches, riding-cloak lined with unshorn velvet, Spanish leather
jerkins, a long gown of silk grogram (a silk material), velvet
cloaks, black jersey stockings, a taffeta hat, a black felt hat.
SUNDRIES.--Cross-bows, clock and bell, pictures of Christ and
of the Queen's majesty, drinking glasses, "a sylver toth pyke,"
armour, weapons, guns, corslets, "cote of plate," daggers,
bucklers, "a black brydd and her cage, bought by Sir Thomas in
London," "the honey and wax of certen hyves," an English Bible and
other books (valued at £4), etc.
As a contrast to this house, furnished with all the luxuries of the
time, take the inventory of one John Rodes, a husbandman fairly
well-to-do, who lived at Inchfield, near Todmorden. By his will, which
was dated November, 1564, he left his goods to his children, together
with £5 apiece; his wains, carts and implements were also to go to his
children; he left over £25 in legacies, and he held a lease of a farm
for an unexpired term of years; yet, besides his horses and cows, hay
and corn, and other farm stock, all his goods consisted of:
Bedding, £4 6s. 8d. (valued at); pans, £2 0s. 10d.; pots, 13s.
4d.; pewter, 3s. 4d.; a tub, 2d.; "in husslements" (odds and ends)
belonging to the household, and in iron gear, 10s.
This was no doubt a fair sample of the contents of the house of a
labouring farmer in these times; his household furniture was not
worth £10. In some of the moorland districts sheep were kept in large
quantities, and in some houses websters' looms were common enough
pieces of furniture, as many of the clothes worn were now home-made,
which also accounts for the presence of spinning-wheels and wool-cards.
In many of the wills of this period, even where no inventory has
been preserved, the bequests are often very numerous and defined, and
consist of every imaginable kind of household goods, so that from
them we are enabled to get a glimpse at the contents of the houses of
the testators. Articles of plate, amongst the wealthier classes, were
much prized, and often made the subject of special bequests, as was
frequently the case with gold rings and other jewellery. There often
occur such items as silver goblets, parcel-gilt goblets, salt-cellars
with and without covers, silver spoons "with the image of the twelve
apostles" and the like; and hanging in the hall were nearly always old
swords, old calverts, pistols, cross-bows and quivers with arrows, and
not infrequently more or less complete suits of armour.
From the very rare mention of books in either the wills or inventories,
it is evident that very few were among the possessions of the
sixteenth-century Lancashire householders. In the few instances where
books are named, they are referred to in a manner showing that they
were considered valuable and rare. The Rev. Richard Jones, Rector of
Bury, by his will, dated June 15, 1568, directed that his "four bokes
of Crysostum be chened [chained] in the churche, there to remayne for
ever." Another testator, in 1574,[120] left "one litle bible," which
he enjoined his son to see used every Sabbath day when there were no
sermons nor sacraments; and during the week-day this precious volume
was to be lent to his "poorest kinsfolk." Pictures were also very
uncommon, and those which adorned the walls of the rich were nearly
always sacred subjects; one article of furniture appears in nearly
every case--the old oak chest; sometimes it is simply called "a chist,"
at other times the "carven oak chest," and it was used invariably as a
store place for sheets and linen.
The representation of Lancashire in Parliament was slightly increased
in 1559 by the addition of two members--one for Clitheroe and another
for Newton-in-the-Willows; the latter was not a borough even by
prescriptive right, and the selection of its representative rested
almost exclusively with the lord of the manor as late as 1797, when a
contested election resulted in a poll of only 66 votes. Except some
slight alterations during the Commonwealth, the representation of
the county remained unchanged until the passing of the Reform Act in
1832. As illustrating the everyday life in Lancashire in the time of
Elizabeth, the following list of prices and wages is interesting. It
is taken from the steward's accounts of the Shuttleworths, of Gawthorp
Hall (near Burnley).
PROVISIONS.--A salt salmon, a fresh salmon, a salt fish and two
salt eels, 2s.; red herring and a hundred sprats, 1s.; a quart of
vinegar, 4d.; a quart of wine, 6d.; a pound of figs, 4d.; a quarter
of veal, 12d.; a quarter of mutton, 1s. 6d.; 10¾ gallons of claret
wine, 14s. 4d.; for three quarters of sack, 2s.; five chickens,
6d.; a pound of pepper, 4s.; thirty-two snipes, 22d.; four lapwings
and two plovers, 8d.; half a fat lamb, 2s. 6d.; three geese, 15d.;
half a peck of pears, 6d.; white wine, 2s. a gallon; ten woodcocks,
22d.; fine couple of rabbits, 3s. 9d.; a peck of cockles, 4d.; a
pike and a bream, 3s. 8d.; two dozen dace and a perch, 5d.; a peck
of apples, 2s. 4d.; a peck of oysters, 6d.; a fat pig, 2s.; five
eggs, 1d.; eight gosling, 20d.; a stone of butter, 3s. 4d.
WAGES.--A smith, per day, 6d.; a day's mowing, 6d.; for ditching,
4d. a rood; working in the delph (stone quarry) six days, 15d.; for
blending and spinning 5½ stone of wool, 13s. 9d.; for weaving and
colouring part of the said wool, 3s. 8d.; for fulling and dressing
the said cloth, 4s. 10d.; soleing a pair of shoes, 5d.; spinning
wool for blankets, 2s. a stone; weaving pieces of blankets, ¾d.
a yard; whitewashing, 2d. to 4d. a day; a stonemason, 4d. a day;
weaving 24 yards of canvas, 22d.
SUNDRIES.--A load of wheat, 10s.; a cow, 26s.; twinters (calves two
winters old), 22s.; an ox, £2 8s.; 100 bricks, 1s.; two sheepskins
for arrow-case, 10d.; a quire of paper, 4d.; six chaldrons (of 36
bushels each) of sea coal[121] at the ship, £4 16s.; for bringing
the same to the house, 12s.; and for watching them one night, 1s.;
three pairs of shoes for the children, 3s. 10d.
In considering the rate of wages, it must be borne in mind that at this
period the labourer often had board as well as wages.
As bearing upon the social condition of the people, it may be noted
that at the Herald's visitation of Lancashire in 1533 only forty-seven
families entered their descent, and even these furnished very meagre
genealogical particulars. This may in a great measure be accounted for
by the fact that the visitation was made at a time when the King was
struggling with the Pope for religious supremacy, and that the growing
feeling in favour of the Reformers had not yet made much progress in
this county, and consequently the Herald, though armed with a royal
warrant, was received with coldness, some families point-blank refusing
even to speak with him, whilst others, having granted an audience,
dismissed him "with the utmost rudeness."[122] The Herald appears to
have taken his revenge in full, and recorded of one well-known knight
(Sir Richard Houghton) that he "hath putt away his lady and wife, and
kepeth a concobyne in his house"; and he adds, "he gave me nothing
nor made me no good chere, but gave me proude woordes"; of another
gentleman (Robert Holt of Stubley) he reported "that he married an olde
woman, by whom he hedd no yssue, & therefore he wold not have her name
entered"; as for Sir John Townley of Townley, near Burnley, he "sogt
hym all day rydinge in the wylde countrey, & his reward was ijˢ of wʰ
the guyde hedde the most p'te," and he winds up with, "I hed as evill
a jorney as evʳ I hedd"; in addition to all this, Sir John refused to
tell him the name of his first wife, and asserted that there were no
gentlemen in Lancashire but Lord Derby and Lord Monteagle.
The next visitation was in 1567, when Elizabeth had been nearly ten
years on the throne, and the Roman Catholics and Puritans in this
county had become specially marked for persecution (see Chapter IX.);
notwithstanding this, 129 families entered their pedigrees, and most
of them claimed the right to bear arms. The marked increase between
1533 and 1567 bears evidence to the growing wealth and importance of
Lancashire. Arising from a desire to add "field to field" and found
county families, a custom had obtained a footing in Lancashire at this
time to marry children when of tender age. Many examples might be
quoted to illustrate this, but one will suffice. In 1562 two sisters,
Elizabeth and Anne, co-heiresses of Ralph Belfield, of Clegg Hall,
were married, at Middleton Church, respectively to Alexander Barlow
of Barlow and Richard Leigh of Highleigh; twenty-two years afterwards
both the couples applied for divorce, Barlow testifying that he did
not remember any marriage having taken place, and Anne Leigh, _née_
Belfield, declaring that at the time of her marriage she was only seven
years old, and that after it was celebrated she went to live with
her grandmother, whilst her youthful husband was sent to Shrewsbury
School, and whilst he was there she sent him a "gilt book," and he
sent her a knife, which she wore at her girdle: both marriages were
dissolved.[123] There were, however, many other instances where divorce
was neither obtained nor applied for.
The close of the Tudor age found Lancashire in a very different state
to that which marked its advent. Commerce with other countries across
the seas was beginning to show effects, and the wool and other products
of the county found a ready market. The population had greatly
increased, yet still there was no large town in the modern sense of the
word, and the manufactures of the day were mostly carried on in the
houses of the manufacturers, and the new fabrics composed of silk and
wool, introduced by the Flemish exiles at Norwich, had not yet been
added to any great extent to the trade of this district.
The social position was everywhere improved: a better class of domestic
architecture had supplanted the old order, and now the people lived in
fairly comfortable houses, built frequently of stone or brick, which,
though internally not furnished with the luxurious appliances of a
nineteenth-century villa, were yet princely palaces compared with the
wretched dwelling-places which had preceded them.
The glorious literature which distinguished the reign of the Virgin
Queen, and which embraced alike history, poetry, and the drama, must
have had some effect upon the Lancashire people, although as yet we
find no printing-press in any of her towns.
[Illustration]
[Footnote 104: Vol. xxxvii.]
[Footnote 105: _To fettle_ is an old Lancashire word.]
[Footnote 106: Harl. MSS., Cod. 3526. See Harland's "Ballads and Songs
of Lancashire."]
[Footnote 107: "Cottons" is probably a corruption of "coatings."]
[Footnote 108: Market stede Lane, Deansgate, Mylne Gate, Wething Greve,
Hanging Ditch, Fenell Street, Smythy Door, and St. Mary's Gate, are all
named in the Court Leet Records 1552-54.]
[Footnote 109: From 1522 to 1686, and from 1731 to 1846. The whole have
been printed by order of the Corporation, and edited by J. P. Earwaker,
Esq., F.S.A.]
[Footnote 110: Act passed in 1570 requiring persons to wear woollen
caps, made in England, on Sundays.]
[Footnote 111: Speed's Plan.]
[Footnote 112: Picton's "Liverpool Municipal Records."]
[Footnote 113: Corporation Records.]
[Footnote 114: Beamont's "Annals of Warrington."]
[Footnote 115: Fishwick's "History of Rochdale," p. 44.]
[Footnote 116: Fishwick's "Lancashire in the Time of Elizabeth" (Royal
Historical Society, vii. 191).]
[Footnote 117: Pleadings (Philip and Mary), Record Office.]
[Footnote 118: State Papers, Dom. Ser., cclxiii.]
[Footnote 119: _Chetham Soc._, xlix.]
[Footnote 120: Richard Entwysle of Foxholes. (See "History of
Rochdale," p. 408.)]
[Footnote 121: Local coal of very inferior quality appears to also have
been used. Such entries occur as "four loodes of cole at Hilton delve,
4s.," but this was probably only the cost of the carriage, as the coal
would belong to the Shuttleworths, and be got in the quarry.]
[Footnote 122: "Bibliotheca Heraldica," p. 582.]
[Footnote 123: See "History of Rochdale," p. 352.]
[Illustration]