Michael's-on-Wyre was vested in the King, and in the December of that
year the Pope granted an indulgence to Walter de Languethon, the King's
clerk, Rector of St. Michael's, to hold an additional living: in 1290
he held also the Rectory of Croston, and had a dispensation granted
to enable him to accept a third, and in the following year he got an
indulgence to retain two of these for five years without residing
there or _being ordained priest_, whilst he was engaged in the King's
service, the churches in the meantime to be served by vicars. Another
vicar of this parish in the next century was also acting as receiver
for John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; and at Preston, a long series of
Rectors probably never were within sight of the church of which they
held the living.
The establishment of these religious houses does not appear to have
been immediately followed by any considerable increase in the number
of churches, though here and there a new one was erected; the number
added to those recognised by the valuation of Pope Nicholas in 1291 was
very small indeed.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries many chantries were founded
by private individuals in the parish churches, very few of the older
foundations being without one or more of these altars, nearly all of
which were more or less endowed, and there were buried their founders
and their successors, to whose memory stately monuments were therein
erected. With the birth of the sixteenth century, it was evident
that serious abuses had crept into the monastic institutions, which
prepared the way for and finally led to their suppression. The change
brought about by the violent measure taken by Henry VIII. must have
been greatly felt in Lancashire, where then, as now, great difference
in opinion must have existed as to its wisdom or otherwise. There are
those who now declare that history justifies the course then taken,
whilst there are others who maintain that "neither among the friars,
with their public ministry and their international character, nor
among the Cistercians of Furness and Whalley, with their industries
and agriculture, nor among the regular canons, Augustinian and
Præmonstratensian, nor among the Benedictines, with their large place
in the national history, their local ties, and their varied work,
was there found, when the end was at hand, anything to warrant their
wholesale suppression."[189] Into this question it is not necessary
to enter, but it may be briefly stated that most historians agree
that, although many of these houses were well managed and regulated,
the abbots and priors were often more concerned about the temporal
possessions of their orders than for the spiritual benefit to the
community, which alone justified their continued existence. And no
one can read the literature of those times without coming to the
conclusion that, at all events in the popular mind, there was then a
strong conviction that the lives of the monks were not regulated by the
high standard of morality aimed at by the original founders of their
institutions.
Acting upon powers given by Parliament, the King took possession of the
religious houses in Lancashire, and with no loss of time conveyed all
their lands and tenements to willing purchasers, the abbeys, priories,
and other buildings being in nearly every instance unroofed and more
or less destroyed, and even the silver shrines, the church plate, and
the richly embroidered vestments, were all converted into money, which
found its way into the royal coffers.
The Reformation was now accomplished, and the Pope was no longer head
of the English Church, which was now controlled by Henry VIII., who
not only regulated the appointment of its clergy, but to some extent
dictated its form of ritual as well as its teaching: images and holy
relics were swept away, as well as many forms of worship considered
of Popish origin. Edward VI., to make the matter complete, suppressed
the private chantries, and converted their endowments to his own use;
and soon afterwards (in 1552) inventories of all church goods were
taken, and such as were not deemed necessary to carry on divine service
according to the reformed method were to be sold. These lists for
Lancashire have been preserved;[190] as a sample of the then furniture
of a church, the case of Ormskirk may be taken: in it there were found
2 chalices, 1 cope of old green velvet, 2 copes of old blue silk, a
vestment of silver velvet, 1 of tawny velvet with yellow crosses, 1
vestment of green satin bridges,[191] with 2 other vestments, 3 albs,
2 altar-cloths, 1 towel, 3 corporases,[192] 5 bells, 2 cruets,[193]
3 sacring bells, a pair of organs. Organs were now not very common in
parish churches; they were, however, found in the churches at Rochdale,
Middleton, Preston, and Liverpool; in the latter place the Mayor and
Bailiffs in 1588 ordered that there should be a hired clerk who could
sing his plain song and prick song and play on the organs. At the time
of the suppression of the chantries the number of clergy, including
the chantry priests, was considerable in some of the larger parishes;
thus we find twenty in Manchester, fourteen in Winwick, fourteen in
Blackburn, and eleven in Prescot.
Many of these cantarists, as they were called, were now pensioned off
for life. In Lancashire at this time there was a very strong party in
favour of the old form of religion; and this wholesale doing away with
the institutions which had so long been established in their midst met
with almost open rebellion, and thus it was that again progress was
arrested in the county.
It has already been stated that during the monkish rule little was
done in church-building; indeed, in what is now the Diocese of
Manchester,[194] between 1291 and the suppression of the monasteries,
there were not a dozen churches erected, whilst during the reign of
Henry VIII. seven were built, several of which would perhaps be more
properly described as chapels-of-ease; they were Ashworth, Denton,
Blakley, Douglas, Hornby, Rivington, and Shaw. On the accession of Mary
in 1553, there was a return to the old order of things, and Popery
being once again established, the Lancashire Catholics were not slow
in taking advantage of the opportunity; thus, we find that in 1558 the
Mayor and Bailiffs of Liverpool ordered that the priest of St. John's
altar should say Mass daily between the hours of five and six in the
morning, that all labourers and well-disposed people might attend.
During the troubled times which followed, two of Lancashire's sons
became martyrs in the cause of the Protestant religion. John Bradford
was a native of Manchester, where he was born in the early part of the
century; he became Prebendary of St. Paul's and chaplain to Edward VI.,
but on his refusal to give up preaching the reformed doctrine he was
sent to the Tower, and after an examination before the Lord Chancellor
and the Bishop of London, and repeated appeals to conform, he was
pronounced to be a heretic, and on June 30, 1554, he was burnt at
Smithfield in the presence of a vast concourse of people. On reaching
the place of execution he walked firmly up to the stake, and after a
short prayer he took up a faggot and kissed it, and took off his coat
and delivered it to his servant, and then, turning towards the people,
he held up his hands, and exclaimed: "O England, England, repent thee
of thy sins! Beware of idolatry, beware of antichrists, lest they
deceive thee!" His hands were then tied and the fire lighted, and
amidst the flames he was heard to say, "Strait is the way and narrow is
the gate which leadeth unto life, and few there be that go in thereat."
Fuller describes Bradford as "a most holy man, who, secretly in his
closet, would so weep for his sins, one could have thought he would
never have smiled again, and then, appearing in public, he would be so
harmlessly pleasant, one would think he had never wept before."
During his imprisonment he wrote to his mother, then living in
Manchester, and tried to console her by the assurance that he was not
going to die "as a thiefe, a murderer, or an adulterer," but as "a
witness of Christ, hys gospel and veritye." He left several sermons
which, together with his letters and an account of his life, were
afterwards published.
George Marsh was a native of Dean, near Bolton, where he was born about
the year 1515, and was brought up to follow agricultural pursuits;
but having lost his wife when he was about thirty years old, he left
his young children with his father, proceeded to Cambridge, and
became a student at the University, and being subsequently ordained,
was appointed Curate of Allhallows', Bread Street, in London, by
the Rev. Mr. Saunders (the martyr), then Rector of that church. In
1555 he appears to have been persecuted for his zeal in the reformed
religion, and contemplated leaving the country; but before doing so he
paid a visit to his mother and his children, and on this occasion the
Earl of Derby sent a letter to Mr. Barton, of Smithell's Hall,[195]
near Bolton, to apprehend him and send him to Latham. This order was
duly carried out, and after an examination before the Earl, he was
imprisoned in what he describes as a "cold windy stone house, where
there was very little room," and where he remained for two nights
without bed, "save a few great canvas tent-clothes." This was in March,
1555. He remained here for over a fortnight, and on Low Sunday (with
some others) was removed to Lancaster Castle. After a time the Bishop
of Chester came to Lancaster, and, according to Marsh's statement,
he refused to have anything to do "with heretics so hastily," but at
the same time he "confirmed all blasphemous idolatry, as holy-water
casting, procession gadding, mattins, mumbling, mass-hearing, idols
up-setting, with such heathenish rites forbidden by God." Subsequently
Marsh was sent to Chester, and brought before the Bishop (Dr. Cotes),
and there was charged with having preached at Dean, Eccles, Bolton,
Bury, and many other places in the diocese, against the Pope's
authority, the Catholic Church of Rome, the blessed Mass, the Sacrament
of the Altar, and many other articles; whereupon he did not deny
the preaching, but asserted that he had only, as occasion served,
maintained the truth touching these subjects. Having firmly refused
to recant, the Bishop "put his spectacles on his nose," and read out
his sentence, after which he added, "Now will I no more pray for thee
than I will for a dog." He was then delivered to the sheriffs of the
city, and put into prison at the North Gate. On April 24, 1555, he was
taken thence to Spittle-Broughton, near the city, being escorted by the
sheriffs and their officers, "and a great number of poor simple barbers
with rusty bills and poleaxes."
When at the stake he was again asked to recant, but again refused,
whereupon he was chained to a post, and "a thing made like a firkin,
with pitch and tar" in it, was placed over his head, and the fire
lighted.
The religious persecution was now going on all over the kingdom, and
many Protestants from Lancashire, in company of thousands from other
parts of England, fled for shelter to foreign countries, there to seek
that liberty of conscience which was denied them at home. They mostly
went to Geneva, Strasburg and Holland. Towards the end of Mary's reign,
Pope Paul IV. began to insist on the reinstitution of the abbeys and
monasteries in England; but it was found that those who now owned these
estates declined to part with them "as long as they were able to wear a
sword by their sides."
The war with France following, when the Pope took sides against the
Queen, and in which England lost all her dominions in that country,
only for a time stayed the persecution of heretics, and in October,
1558, it was again renewed; but the death of the Queen on the 17th
of November in the same year closed this dreadful chapter of English
history.
The Church was now again freed from the authority of the Pope, and
gradually restored to what it was in the time of Henry VIII.; but
in order not to hurt the Roman Catholics too much at first, a small
number of Catholic ministers were retained in her Majesty's Council.
Commissioners were appointed to visit each diocese and to report
on the state of things, especially as to the effects of the late
persecutions. Amongst those selected for the Northern visitation was
the Earl of Derby. The commissioners commenced their work on August
22, 1559, and were directed to minister the oath of recognition; they
received many complaints from clergymen who had been ejected from their
livings for being married and other causes, and in some cases these
were reinstated. In Lancashire the oath of supremacy was ordered to be
taken by a proclamation to the Chancellor of the duchy, dated May 23,
1559, both clergy and laity being required to take it. At the same time
all the restored chantries were only to be now used in accordance with
the Reformed Church: the Host was not to be elevated, and the Lord's
Prayer, the Creed, and the Gospels were to be read in English.
The progress of the Reformation was rapid in the South of England,
but in Lancashire the feeling in favour of the old form of religion
was so strong that for some years little or no permanent change was
effected, as nearly all the oldest and most powerful families in the
county were rigid Roman Catholics. It is a remarkable fact that when
England, under Elizabeth, again became Protestant, and almost all
the bishops gave up their sees, the great majority of the clergy in
Lancashire agreed rather to accept the new form of religion than to
resign their livings, the result being that in many parishes the vicars
or rectors were really Papists in disguise, and had shown themselves
but ill qualified shepherds to have the care of such large, scattered,
and disunited flocks. But this exhibition of pliant and accommodating
consciences was put in the shade by the rapidity with which the Earl
of Derby changed front, and we now find the persecutor of Marsh every
whit as keen in running to earth the recusant Roman Catholic. But in
all extreme movements there is generally a reaction; so the harsh
measures taken by Queen Mary laid the seeds for the formation of a new
body of malcontents, to whom the reform meted out to the Church was not
sufficient; and this, at first a mere sect, soon rose into a powerful
party, which was recognised under the general title of Puritans. Queen
Elizabeth hated a Puritan only with a less bitter hatred than she did a
Catholic; so as both these were represented in Lancashire, this county
was at once marked out for persecution; and it was not long before we
hear of 600 recusants being presented at one assize at Lancaster, and
that all the prisons were full.[196]
Catholics were forbidden to leave the country, and Puritans were not
allowed to meet together to worship anywhere except in the church.
In 1567 the Queen addressed a letter to the Bishop of Chester, in
which she says: "We think it not unknown how, for the good opinion we
conceived of your former service, we admitted you to be bishop of the
diocese; but now, upon credible reports of disorder and contempts,
especially in the county of Lancaster, we find great lack in you. In
which matter of late we writ to you, and other our commissioners joined
with you, to cause certain suspected persons to be apprehended, writing
at the same time to our right trusty and well-beloved the Earl of
Derby, for the aid of you in that behalf.
"Since that time, and before the delivery of the said letters to the
Earl of Derby, we be duly informed that the said earl hath, upon small
motions made to him, caused such persons as have been required to be
apprehended, and hath shown himself therein according to our assured
expectation very faithful and careful of our service."
The letter concludes with instruction to the Bishop to make a personal
visitation into the most remote parts of his diocese, especially in
Lancashire, and to see for himself how the various church-livings are
filled.
Notwithstanding this reproof to the Bishop, he had before this had
many times to deal with rebellious clergy and their congregations.
Many instances might be quoted. In 1564 the curate of Liverpool was
admonished to warn the people "that they use no beades," and that they
"abolish and utterly extirpate all manner of idolatrie and superstition
out of the Church immediately;" and at the same time the curate of
Farnworth was presented "for showing and suffering candles to be burnt
in the chapel on Candlemas daye, accordinge to the old superstitious
custom." In the same year complaints were made to the Archbishop of
York that in all the livings in Whalley and Blackburn the clergy were
neglecting their duty, and very seldom preached to their flocks. The
Bishop made a visitation in the summer of 1568, but he has left little
record of it, except that he was well entertained by the gentry, the
only drawback to his perfect enjoyment being the excessive heat of the
weather. The disaffection increased, and there was a determination on
the part of a large portion of the community not to attend church nor
to hear sermons, but to have Mass celebrated, and otherwise to act
against the laws of the land; indeed, there is not wanting evidence to
show that it would at this time not have required much excitement to
have resulted in open rebellion.
Many of the Lancashire gentry, hoping to again establish the Catholic
religion, openly espoused the cause of Mary, Queen of Scots. The
Bishop of Carlisle, writing to the Earl of Essex in 1570, gives an
account of the state of Lancashire in that year; he writes: "Before
my coming to York, Sir John Atherton arrived there from Lancashire,
where he long resided, and not being able to come to my house through
infirmities, he sent to my father and declared to him how all things in
Lancashire savoured of rebellion; what provision of men, armour, horses
and munition was made there; what assemblies of 500 or 600 at a time;
what wanton talk of invasion by the Spaniards; and how in most places
the people fell from their obedience and utterly refused to attend
divine service in the English tongue. How since Felton set up his bull
so the greatest there never came to any service, nor suffered any to be
said in their houses, but openly entertained Louvainists massers with
their bulls."[197] And the same year the Bishop wrote to Sir William
Cecil (afterwards Baron Burleigh), that in Lancashire the people were
falling from religion altogether, and were returning to "popery and
refused to come to church."
Ten years later things seem little improved, as Sir Edmund Trafford
writes in 1580 to the Earl of Leicester, informing him that the state
of the county was "lamentable to behold, considering the great disorder
thereof in matters of religion, masses being said in several places."
And he winds up with a request that the Government will cause the
offenders to be rigorously dealt with.[198] Possibly in reply to this
appeal a Royal Ecclesiastical Commission was now appointed, consisting
of the Bishop of Chester, Lord Derby and others, which was to bring the
offenders "to more dutiful minds;"[199] and about the same time an Act
was passed by which absentees from church for a month were to be liable
to a penalty of £20. A contemporary Roman Catholic writer, commenting
upon the appointment of Sir Edmund Trafford as Sheriff of Lancashire,
describes him as a man "so thoroughly imbued with the perfidy of Calvin
and the phrensy of Beza, that it might be said he was merely waiting
for this very opportunity of in every way pursuing with insult all that
professed the Catholic religion, and despoiling them of their property.
For the furious hate of this inhuman wretch was all the more fiercely
stirred by the fact that he saw offered to him such a prospect of
increasing his slender means out of the property of the Catholics, and
of adorning his house with the various articles of furniture filched
from their houses." He then goes on in the same strain to describe the
manner in which the Sheriff's officers took possession of Rossall,
and expelled therefrom the widowed mother and sisters of Cardinal
Allen.[200] The persecution in Lancashire now became more severe,
and very few of the old families adhering to the unreformed religion
escaped punishment. Amongst those who were imprisoned were Sir John
Southworth, Lady Egerton, James Labourne, John Townley, Sir Thomas
Hesketh, Bartholomew Hesketh and Richard Massey.
In 1582 the prisoners, on the ground of recusancy, were ordered
to be sent to the New Fleet prison in Manchester, instead of, as
heretofore, to Chester Castle. At this time numerous amateur detectives
seem to have made out lists of recusants and forwarded the same to
the Government officials, so that no man knew who was his accuser;
but once his name got down on the list, persecution and fine or
imprisonment invariably followed. In 1585 the sanguinary law against
Jesuits, seminary priests, and others was enacted, and by it all
such were ordered at once to quit the country, and anyone harbouring
them was to be adjudged guilty of high-treason. This brought a new
crime into existence, and many Lancashire people became the victims.
Priest-harbouring was soon amongst the most prolific causes of arrest
and imprisonment. As samples of the working of this Act in Lancashire,
the following are selected from a long list:
-------------------+----------------------+--------------------------
NAME OF PRIEST. | WHERE RECEIVED. | BY WHOM PRESENTED.
-------------------+----------------------+--------------------------
Sir Evan Banister, | Jane Eyves, of | Ralph Serjant,
an old priest. | Fishwick. | churchwarden of Walton.
| |
"Little Richard." | Mr. Regmaidens, of | Vicar of Garstang.
| Weddicor. |
| |
Robert Woodroof, | Jenet Woodrof, | Curate and churchwarden
senr., priest. | Burnley. | of Burnley.
| |
Divers priests. | Rafe Home, of | Vicar of Dean.
| Chequerbent. |
| |
Jas. Darwen, | Richard Blundell, of | Curate of Sefton.
senr., priest. | Crosby. |
| |
Evan Bannister. | Wm. Charnocke, of | Thos. Sharpell.
| Fullwood. (Mass |
| done on our Lady |
| day in Lent last.) |
-------------------+----------------------+--------------------------
The following year (1586-7) no less than 128 gentlemen in various parts
of the country were in custody for recusancy, amongst whom were several
from this county, who were released on giving bond to yield themselves
up on ten days' notice.
In 1591 a report was sent to the Council, from which it appears that
the Lancashire commission had made "small reformation," and that,
notwithstanding the rigour of the law, the churches were still empty,
and there were still "multitudes of bastards and drunkards"; in fact,
the county was in a worse state than ever; the people, it is added,
"lack instruction, for the preachers are few: most of the parsons
are unlearned, many of them non-resident, and divers unlearned daily
[are] admitted into very good benefices." But even a greater evil is
yet added, for the young "are for the most part trained up by such as
profess Papistry. The proclamation for apprehension of seminaries,
Jesuits and Mass priests, and for calling home children from parts
beyond the sea" is not executed, neither are the instructions to the
justices to summon before them "all parsons, vicars, churchwardens
and sworn men," and to examine them on oath how the statutes of 1 and
25 Elizabeth, as to resorting to churches, are obeyed. It is further
reported that some of "the coroners and justices and their families
do not frequent church, and many have not communicated at the Lord's
Supper since the beginning of her Majesty's reign." Some of the clergy
have "refrained from preaching for lack of auditors, and people swarm
in the streets and the ale-houses during divine service time," and
many churches have only present "the curate and the clerk," and "open
markets are kept during service time," and "there are about many lusty
vagabonds." Marriages and christenings are celebrated in holes and
corners by seminary and other priests. Cock-fights and other games are
tolerated on Sundays and holidays during service, at which ofttimes
are present justices of the peace, and even some of the ecclesiastical
commissioners. The report concludes by stating that Yorkshire and the
other adjoining counties cannot "be kept in order so long as Lancashire
remains unreformed."
Another report of about the same date, made by several of the
Lancashire clergy,[201] confirms this account; they state that Popish
fasts and festivals were everywhere observed, and that "crosses in the
streets and waies, devoutly garnished, were plentiful, and that wakes,
ale, greenes, May games, rushbearings, bearbaits, doveales, etc.,"
were all exercised on the Sabbath, and that of the number of those who
came to church many do more harm than good by their "crossinge and
knockinges of theire breste and sometimes with beads closely handled"
(_i.e._, partly concealed), and that at marriages they brought "the
parties to and from churche with piping, and spend the whole Sabbothe
in daunsinge," and that the churches generally were in a ruinous
condition, being "unrepaired and unfurnished," whilst the "churches of
ease (which were three times as many as the parish churches)" were many
of them without curates, and in consequence were growing into "utter
ruin and desolation." This report, which has a strong Puritanical tone
about it, was signed by a Fellow of the Manchester Collegiate Church,
the rectors of Bury, Wigan, Warrington and Middleton, the vicars of
Poulton-in-the-Fylde, Kirkham and Rochdale, and other clergy.
One of the signatories of this document knew well the truth of at all
events part of the statement, for in his own parish (Kirkham) was
situated the chapel of Singleton, the curate of which in 1578 had been
presented because he performed no services, kept no house, did not
relieve the poor, nor was he diligent in visiting the sick, he failed
to teach the catechism, preached no sermons, churched fornicators
without penance, and, to crown his offences, he made "a dunge hill in
the chapel yeard and kept a typling hous and a nowty woman in it."[202]
At this date it was customary at most of the Lancashire parish churches
to ring the curfew at seven o'clock in the evening from All Hallows'
Day (October 31) to Candlemas Day (the Purification of the Virgin),
February 2; another duty of the sexton was to whip the dogs out of
church. The curfew was tolled in some of the churches up to quite a
recent date. Thomas Heneage, Chancellor of the duchy, gave testimony in
1599 that in consequence of the smallness of many of the livings in the
county, and the fact that the parsonages were in private hands, there
were "few or no incumbents of learning or credit," and the priests were
drawing even those from their duty.
The report led to the ordering of salaries to be paid to certain
preachers (afterwards called King's preachers), who were to deliver
sermons in various parts of the county. In the commencement of the
seventeenth century things became somewhat more settled, but still
the agents of the Government often met with great opposition in their
efforts to carry out their instructions, and this continued to the
very end of the reign of Elizabeth, for in 1602-3 the Bishop of London
complains that "in Lancashire and those parts, recusants stand not
in fear by reason of the great multitude there is of them." Likewise
he had heard it "reported publicly that amongst them they of that
country had beaten divers pursuivants extremely, and made them vow
and swear that they would never meddle with any recusants more. And
one pursuivant in particular, to eat his warrant and vow never to
trouble them nor any recusants more."[203] On the accession of James
to the throne, both the Catholics and Puritans hoped to obtain some
redress, or at any rate more freedom from oppression and persecution;
but instead of this hope being realized, they soon heard of new penal
regulations being issued which in no way encouraged either party.
The Puritans in Lancashire were offended by the issue of the "Book
of Sports" (see p. 123), and the Catholics were still obliged to
resort to all kinds of strategy to avoid arrest and imprisonment or
fines. Nor did either of the two great religious factions receive much
better treatment under Charles I., in whose reign two (if not more)
Catholics suffered for their religion the extreme penalty of the law at
Lancaster. One of these was Edmund Arrowsmith, a priest of the Order
of Jesus; he was hung, and afterwards beheaded and dismembered. This
was in 1628. At Bryn Hall (lately pulled down), until very recently,
was preserved what was said to be the hand of Father Arrowsmith, the
tradition being that just before his death he requested his spiritual
attendant to cut off his right hand, which should then have the power
to work cures on those who were touched by it and had the necessary
amount of faith. Accounts of the miraculous cures worked by this hand
were printed as recently as 1737.[204]
It will here be a suitable place to notice briefly a peculiar form
of vestry which in the sixteenth century was common in the hundred
of Amounderness and recognised as "sworn men." Preston, Kirkham,
Goosnargh, Poulton, St. Michael's-on-Wyre, Garstang, Lancaster and
Ribchester, each had this executive body, though the number varied; but
most of the parishes had twenty-four sworn men. The oath taken by these
officers was to the effect that they would keep, observe and maintain
all ancient customs as far as they agreed with the law of the realm and
were for the benefit of the particular parish or chapelry. Their duties
were numerous: they levied the rates, elected the parish clerk in some
cases, appointed churchwardens, and even laid claim to nominate the
vicar, and in a general way they not only looked after the fabric of
the church, but regulated its ceremonies and attended to the welfare of
the parish. These men were not re-elected annually, as in the case of
churchwardens, but, once appointed, they held office for life, unless
they left the parish or were disqualified by becoming Nonconformists or
other sufficient reason. The best men in the parish often were included
in the list, and in many cases sons succeeded fathers for several
generations.[205]
During the years immediately preceding the Civil Wars, Puritanism had
gone on increasing, and at the opening of the Long Parliament, in
1640, it was felt that some change in the form of religious worship
had become an absolute necessity to meet the clamorous demands heard
on all sides. Lancashire, just as it had for long been a stronghold
of Catholicism, now became a centre of Puritanism; and for many years
to come the intolerant spirit of both parties helped to retard the
progress of free religious thought.
Parliament distinctly for some time fostered Puritanism, which
ultimately led to the adoption of the Presbyterian form of Church
government, which was developed between the years 1643 and 1648. A
modern writer[206] truly remarks that, "If Puritanism anywhere had
scope to live and act, it was here" (in Lancashire); "if anywhere in
England it was actually a force, it was in Lancashire. There is no
other part of England that can furnish so complete an illustration
of the true spirit of this seventeenth-century Puritanism as it was
manifested in actual practice, and it is this that gives such a
peculiar value to the records of the religious life of the county
during the years 1643-60."
The actual change of Church government did not much affect the
county, until the Assembly at Westminster replaced the Book of Common
Prayer by the Directory; this was effected on January 3, 1645, when
it was sanctioned by Parliament: other orders rapidly followed.
Altars, raised Communion-tables, images, pictures, organs, and "all
superstitious inscriptions" were soon swept away, and the energies of
the Presbyterian party became concentrated against the clergy, the
churches, and their endowment. In 1646 the titles of archbishops and
bishops were abolished, and their possessions placed in the hands
of trustees, and not long afterwards the "title, dignity, function,
and office" of dean, sub-dean, and dean and chapter were done away
with. Under the Act for providing maintenance of preachers, passed in
1649, the issues of Church livings were employed to pay preachers
appointed by Parliament or the presbytery. The Church Survey of the
Lancashire parochial districts was begun in June, 1650, and from it
we learn the state of each parish through the evidence brought before
the commissioners, who had sixteen sittings in the county; they met
three times at Manchester, six at Wigan, three at Lancaster, three at
Preston, and once at Blackburn. There were then in the county 64[207]
parish churches, 118 chapels-of-ease, of which no less than 38 were
without ministers, chiefly for want of maintenance. All the churches,
with one or two exceptions, had curates, pastors, or ministers, as they
called themselves. The parishes in many instances were said to be very
large, and subdivision was recommended, whilst some of the chapels were
so far from the mother church that it was suggested that they should be
made into parish churches.
The survey furnishes the names of all the ministers, and their fitness
or otherwise for the office they held; as most of them were said to be
"godly preaching ministers," or were "of good lyfe and conversation,
but keept not the fast-days appointed by Parliament," it may safely be
inferred that the old vicars and curates had mostly either conformed
or been superseded by the then holders of the livings. On September
13, 1646, a petition was sent to both Houses of Parliament, styled
"The humble petition of many thousand of the well-affected gentlemen,
ministers, freeholders, and other inhabitants of the county palatine
of Lancaster." This petition set forth that, "through the not
settling of Church government, schism, error, heresy, profaneness,
and blasphemy woefully spread"; separate congregations being "erected
and multiplied, sectaries grew insolent, confidently expecting a
toleration." The petitioners then go on in the true spirit of those
times to pray that some speedy course should betaken "for suppressing
of all separate congregations of Anabaptists, Brownists, heretics,
schismatics, blasphemers, and other sectaries" which refused to submit
to "discipline and government," and, further, that such "refusers and
members of such congregations" should not only be removed from, but
kept out of "all places of public trust." Shortly after this (October
2, 1646) the county was divided into nine classical presbyteries, as
follows:
1. The parishes of Manchester, Prestwich, Oldham, Flixton, Eccles, and
Ashton-under-Lyne. The members nominated consisted of eight ministers
and seventeen laymen.[208]
2. The parishes of Bolton, Bury, Middleton, Rochdale, Deane, and
Radcliffe. Its members, ten ministers and twenty laymen.
3. The parishes of Whalley, Chipping, and Ribchester. Its members,
eight ministers and seventeen laymen.
4. The parishes of Warrington, Winwick, Leigh, Wigan, Holland, and
Prescot. Its members, fourteen ministers and twenty-eight laymen.
5. The parishes of Walton, Huyton, Childwall, Sefton, Alcar, North
Meols, Halsall, Ormskirk, and Aughton. Its members, fifteen ministers
and twenty-three laymen.
6. The parishes of Croston, Leyland, Standish, Ecclestone, Penwortham,
Hoole, and Brindle. Its members, six ministers and fourteen laymen.
7. The parishes of Preston, Kirkham, Garstang, and Poulton.[209] Its
members, six ministers and thirteen laymen.
8. The parishes of Lancaster, Cockerham, Claughton, Melling, Tatham,
Tunstall, Whittington, Warton, Bolton-le-Sands, Halton, and Heysham.
Its members, eight ministers and eighteen laymen.
9. The parishes of Aldingham, Urswick, Ulverston, Hawkshead, Colton,
Dalton, Cartmel, Kirkby, and Pennington. Its members, five ministers
and eleven laymen.
The names of all these members have many times been printed. It does
not necessarily follow that all the persons nominated as "fit to be
of" each classis absolutely acted in that capacity; indeed, it is well
known that many refused the office.
These classes at once took upon them the management and control of
things ecclesiastical. The Manchester classis first met on February 16,
1646/7, when Richard Heyricke, the Warden of the collegiate church,
was appointed Moderator, although he had formerly been one of the
warmest supporters of the Church and King; at their second meeting,
on March 16, 1646/7, they passed a resolution to the effect that all
who preached within the classis who were not members of it were to be
called to account, as were also all ministers or others who permitted
them so to preach. A considerable part of the time of the successive
meetings was taken up by the inquiry into cases of immoral conduct and
social scandals affecting the members of the various congregations:
candidates for the ministry were examined by the Presbyters of each
classis, and, if approved, were duly ordained; and it was also part of
their work to see that improper persons were not admitted to the Lord's
Supper.
From two remarkable papers, signed by a large number of the Lancashire
ministers, in 1648 and 1649, we gather something of the spirit of
the age. One of these is "the Harmonious Consent of the Ministers of
the Province within the County-Palatine of Lancaster, etc., in their
testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ and to our solemn League and
Covenant; as also against the errours, heresies, and blasphemies of
these times and the toleration of them"; the other is, "The Paper
called the Agreement of the People taken into consideration, and the
lawfulness of Subscription to it examined and resolved in the negative,
by Ministers of Christ in the Province of Lancaster, etc." In the
"Harmonious Consent"[210] toleration is thus dealt with: "We are here
led to express with what astonishment and horrour we are struck when
we seriously weigh what endeavours are used for the establishing of
an universal toleration of all the pernicious errours, blasphemies,
and heretical doctrines broached in these times, as if men would not
sin fast enough except they were bidden"; such a toleration, it is
urged, would be "a giving Satan full liberty to set up his thresholds
by God's thresholds and his posts by God's posts, his Dagon by God's
Ark"; and further, "it would be putting a sword in a madman's hand,
a cup of poyson into the hand of a child, a letting loose of madmen
with firebrands in their hands, an appointing a city of refuge for
the devil to fly to, a laying of a stumbling block before the blind,
a proclaiming of liberty to the wolves to come into Christ's fold
to prey upon his lambs; a toleration of soul-murther (the greatest
murther of all others), and for the establishing whereof damned souls
in hel would accurse men on earth." The petitioners also dreaded
"to think what horrid blasphemies would be belched out against God,
what vile abominations would be committed, how the duties of nearest
relatives would be violated"; they then express their opinion that "the
establishing of a toleration would make us to become the abhorring and
loathing of all nations," and after adding the words, "we do detest the
forementioned toleration," they conclude by praying that Parliament may
be kept from "being guilty of so great a sin" as the granting of it
would be.
This petition was signed by eighty-four ministers who had in their
charge the principal parishes in the county. The other paper is quite
as rabid in its tone, and bears the signature of nearly as many divines
as the "Harmonious Consent." It sets forth clearly the points at issue,
one of which was that it was proposed that "such as profess faith in
God by Jesus Christ (however differing in judgement from the doctrine,
worship or discipline publiquely held forth) shall not be restrained
from, but shall be protected in their profession of their faith
and exercise of religion, according to their consciences." To this
proposition the minister of the province of Lancaster exclaims: "Thus
all damnable heresies, doctrines of devils, idolatrous, superstitious
and abominable religions, that ever have been broached, or practised,
or can be devised (if the persons owning them will but profess faith in
God by Jesus Christ) are set at liberty in this kingdom; nay, not only
granted toleration, but enfranchisement, yea, protection and patronage."
We now find practically all the churches and chapels in the hands
of the Presbyterians, and governed by the various classes, which
met periodically at central places. These classes sent delegates to
attend the provincial synod which met at Preston twice a year. In
little less than three years after the formation of these classes
difficulties arose in their working, not only because some places,
such as Denton, Salford and Oldham, became disaffected, but in other
places several members declined to continue their membership. A great
cause of division amongst the various congregations was the conduct of
the ministers and elders as to the admission of communicants. Oliver
Heywood gives an account of the proceedings on this point at Bolton;
he says: "There were two ministers, with whom were associated twelve
elders, chosen out of the parish. These sat with the ministers, carried
their votes into effect, inquired into the conversation of their
neighbours, assembled usually with the ministers when they examined
communicants, and though the ministers only examined, yet the elders
approved or disapproved. These together made an order that every
communicant, as often as he was to partake of the Lord's Supper, should
come to the ruling elders on the Friday before, and request and receive
a ticket which he was to deliver up to the elders immediately before
his partaking of that ordinance. The ticket was of lead, with a stamp
upon it, and the design was that they might know that none intruded
themselves without previous permission. The elders went through the
congregation and took the tickets from the people, and they had to
fetch them again by the next opportunity, which was every month. But
this became the occasion of great dissension in the congregations, for
several Christians stumbled at it, and refused to come for tickets; yet
ventured to sit down, so that when the elders came they had no tickets
to give in."
This state of things was not confined to a single parish, but was
widespread, so that in some churches, rather than administer the
Sacrament "promiscuously," the minister declined to administer it at
all, and it was in a few places suspended for several years.
Whatever may be said as to the general dogmatical and narrow-minded
views of the Lancashire Puritan clergy, they certainly did make
great efforts to institute and maintain a high moral tone amongst
their flocks. The every-day life of each member was subjected to
rigid inquisitorial supervision, and his sins were dealt with in no
half-hearted manner, excommunication being a frequent punishment, and
even after the offender's death a funeral sermon was preached and the
"occasion improved." Lancashire is fortunate in having had preserved
several of the diaries of her Puritan divines, and these all bear
strong testimony to the almost childlike faith which these men held as
to the special interference of Providence in the events of everyday
life. If a minister was to be tried at Lancaster, God graciously took
away the judge by death; if he journeyed to London, the weather was
specially arranged to suit; and if anyone was more than ordinarily
rebellious against the Church's discipline and he thereabouts died, it
was without the slightest hesitation attributed to a special judgment
of God. We have seen with what signs of rejoicing the people of
Lancashire (see p. 157) welcomed the restoration of Charles II. The
country had got tired of the Commonwealth, and as to the religious
feeling, the Episcopalians and Presbyterians were alike glad to have
a return to the old form of government; yet the old rancour against
Papists was still there, and to it was added a hatred of Anabaptists,
Quakers and Independents: against the latter the Puritans were
specially exercised.
The passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662 put the clergy of the
county to a severe test, the result being that sixty-seven of them
refused to conform, and were summarily ejected from their livings.
This act of injustice led to the commencement of Nonconformity in
Lancashire, for amongst the ejected were many zealous and pious men,
who through honest conviction could not conform to all the conditions
required, and were not willing to abandon the views which they held.
Amongst these were Nathaniel Heywood, John Angier, Harry Newcome, Henry
Pendlebury, Isaac Ambrose, Robert Bath, Richard Mather, John Harrison,
and many others, all of whom soon had around them the nucleus of a
future congregation. At first these men preached in private houses with
impunity, but the passing of the Conventicle Act and the Five Mile Act,
and the presence of large numbers of Roman Catholics, pressed hard upon
them, and the amount of persecution and suffering which followed was
extreme. For the next few years Nonconformists were persecuted with
a vindictiveness worthy of the Dark Ages. Surrounded with spies on
every hand, they were driven to hold secret meetings in out-of-the-way
places, where they often met in the night-time. Those who were most
zealous, or the most careless of discovery, were often apprehended at
once, marched off to Lancaster, and sometimes, as in the case of Thomas
Jolley (ejected from Altham), detained nearly twelve months in prison.
Perhaps no sect suffered more severely in Lancashire than the Quakers,
who took no care to hide their meetings, and from them not only were
fines enforced and goods sold, but many of them were for long periods
locked up in gaol with felons and other criminal prisoners. Dr.
Halley[211] says that although "their sufferings were cruelly severe,
it must be acknowledged that they provoked much of the persecution
which they so patiently endured, and repelled the assistance which good
men of other parties would have been ready to afford them. A modern
Friend, mild, pleasant, neatly dressed, carefully educated, perfected
in proprieties, is as unlike as possible, except in a few principles,
to the obtrusive, intolerant, rude, coarse, disputatious Quaker of
the early days of their sect." The Society of Friends may almost be
said to have arisen in Lancashire, so great was the support which it
received here in the days of its infancy. In 1652 George Fox made a
visit to Swarthmore Hall, near Ulverston, when he made a convert of
the young wife of Judge Fell, and by their united efforts they soon
obtained a considerable number of followers in the district of Furness
and Cartmel, whose sympathies were no doubt quickened by the knowledge
of the cruel persecutions of these "children of the light" (as they
were sometimes called) constantly being enacted in Lancaster Castle.
Margaret Fell, after the judge's death, became the wife of George
Fox, and she was subsequently the writer of several treatises, and
journeyed to London to deliver a copy of one of them to the King. The
Lancashire Quaker literature of the seventeenth century is remarkable
not only for the quantity of it, but for the light it throws on the
religious thought of those writers for and against the teachings of the
early pioneers of the sect.[212]
Of the cruel persecutions to which many of this sect in Lancashire
were subjected, many examples might be cited; indeed, at one time the
castle at Lancaster was said to be almost full of them, that town being
one of their centres. In November, 1660, the Quakers of Lancaster,
being assembled at one of their meetings, were surprised by a party
of soldiers, who entered the room where they were with "drawn swords
and pistols cockt," and took the whole of them prisoners. A Lancaster
Quaker called John Lawson, in 1652, was seized at Malpas (in Cheshire),
where he had been preaching in what he called "the Steeple House[213]
Yard." He was set in the stocks for four hours, and afterwards
imprisoned for twenty-three weeks; but shortly after his release he
repeated the offence in the Lancaster churchyard, for which at the
assizes he was fined £20 or in default one year's imprisonment; and
again in 1660 he was sent a prisoner to the castle for refusing to take
the oath tendered to him in court. Another example of the treatment
which the early converts in Lancashire to this sect met with is found
in the case of John Fielden, of Inchfield, near Todmorden, who in 1664
was fined £5 for attending a Quakers' meeting, and his goods were
seized by the churchwarden and sold to pay the church-rate. In 1668 he
was kept in prison thirty-one weeks for being absent from church, and
this kind of persecution continued until he was quite an old man, as
seventeen years later we find him in Preston House of Correction, where
he was retained for eight weeks, the offence being his having attended
a meeting of the Society of Friends at Padiham. Very many similar cases
might be quoted.
In 1689 the Toleration Act was passed, which recognised all the various
forms of Dissent, which now became entitled to a place amongst the
religious institutions of the county.
No time was now lost in establishing meeting-houses all over the
county, and in almost every parish there soon arose Presbyterian or
Independent chapels; many of the former ultimately passed to the
Unitarians.
From a list prepared for Dr. Evans in 1715, it would appear that there
were then in Lancashire forty-three Presbyterian and Independent
congregations, consisting of 18,310 regular hearers; and that in
Manchester there were 1,515 Dissenters, in Liverpool 1,158, in Bolton
1,094, and in Chowbent 1,064. Bishop Gastrell,[214] writing a little
later, reports that in Rochdale there were no Papists, but about 200
Dissenters, who had a meeting-house; Bolton he puts down as having only
400 Dissenters, and to Manchester he gives 233 Dissenting families.
Many of these early chapels have interesting histories, which cannot
be dealt with here.[215] Amongst the oldest ones may be named the
following: Elswick Chapel, in the parish of St. Michael's-on-Wyre, was
built as a sort of chapel-of-ease to the parish-church, by a party of
Presbyterians a little before 1650, and a minister appointed by the
classis. At the Restoration it was probably vacated; but in 1671-72 it
was duly licensed as a place to be used for such as did not conform
to the Church of England, who were "of the persuasion commonly called
Congregational". Shortly after this an Act was passed repealing
this and similar licenses, whereupon the meeting at Elswick became
illegal, and the chapel was closed until the passing of the Act of
Toleration in 1689, since which time it has been regularly used as a
Nonconformist chapel. At Wymondhouses a small chapel was built by the
Rev. Thomas Jolley (who was ejected from Altham) in 1689. The chapel of
the Presbyterians at Cockey Moor was one which obtained a license in
1672. The first Dissenting chapel in Manchester was in Cross Street;
it was built in 1672 for the congregation of the Rev. Henry Newcome.
This chapel was destroyed in 1714 (see p. 242). The Independents had
no chapel in Manchester until 1761, when the one in Cannon Street was
erected.
Toxteth Park or Dingle Chapel, near Liverpool, existed certainly in
the early part of the seventeenth century, and is believed to have
been built by the Puritans living in the district. Richard Mather (the
grandfather of Dr. Cotton Mather) was for some time minister here,
but was silenced by the Archbishop of York in 1633, and his successor
was a Conformist, who was probably removed by the Presbyterian
classis, 1646; in 1671-72 it was licensed under the Indulgence Act.
From this congregation arose the Renshaw Street Unitarian Chapel in
Liverpool[216] about the year 1687. Meeting-houses, as they were
called, were established in almost every town under the Indulgence Act,
and in most cases before the close of the century regular chapels were
erected.
The Society of Friends, notwithstanding the persecution to which
they were subjected, began to build meeting-houses even before the
indulgences were granted. At Lancaster a Quakers' meeting-house was
erected in 1677, at which time there was no other Nonconformist place
of worship in the town.
A few years later the Mayor found it necessary to place a guard at
the door of the house to prevent a meeting being held. In 1708 this
meeting-house was found to be small, and a much larger one was erected.
The meeting-house at Swarthmoor was built in 1686 upon land given by
George Fox, who also endowed it with land free from tithes, so that (to
quote his letter) "Friends may be sure of a meeting-house for ever that
is free and will maintain itself, and which is the Lord's." In this
meeting-house is still preserved George Fox's folio Bible, to which is
attached the chain with which it was formerly fastened to the pulpit.
The number of meeting-houses of the Society of Friends was never very
great in Lancashire, and in the larger towns there were very few built
before the early part of the eighteenth century. Most of them had
graveyards attached, and in some cases (as in Manchester) these remain,
whilst the meeting-houses have been pulled down.
Wesley made many visits to all parts of Lancashire; but the growth
of Methodism was at first slow in the county, as it met with much
opposition from many quarters, and in several towns the appearance
of its founder led to disorder and riots. Methodism began in a very
humble way in Lancashire, the handful of converts forming themselves
into "classes," and often meeting in small cottages. In Manchester
the first gatherings were held in a small room in a house near the
Irwell, where a woman lived, having in the room her spinning-wheel, her
coals, her bed, chair and table. Some of the earlier societies (about
the year 1744) were called "William Darney's societies." Another man
who assisted Wesley in Lancashire was John Bennet of Derbyshire, who
introduced Wesleyanism into Rochdale a little before 1746.
Methodism was not introduced into Preston until 1750, and in some
districts it did not obtain a footing until a much later period; but
long before the close of the century its chapels were found in almost
every large town as well as in isolated rural districts.
Early in the seventeenth century Baptist chapels were erected in
several parts of the county. Of the many sects which have arisen within
the last hundred years, it is not our province to record either the
origin or progress, as Lancashire, in common with all the country,
has now inhabitants who worship under many forms; but there no longer
exists that bitter, antagonistic feeling between one denomination and
another which has for so many centuries been a blot upon the pages of
England's history.
In 1819 there were in Lancashire 77 Roman Catholic chapels, and in
1823 the Dissenting chapels included: 68 Independent, 27 Baptist, 32
Unitarian, 4 Scotch Kirk, 3 Scotch Presbyterian, and 180 Wesleyan.
[Illustration]
[Footnote 169: Bright's "Early English Church History," p. 111.]
[Footnote 170: Lancashire was subsequently included in the Diocese of
Lichfield and Coventry until the establishment of the See of Chester,
in 1541, the northern portion being in the Archdeaconry of Richmond, in
the Diocese of York.]
[Footnote 171: Lancaster parish is partly in Lonsdale and partly in
Amounderness.]
[Footnote 172: Symeon of Durham's "Life of St. Cuthbert," _Surtees
Soc._, li. 141.]
[Footnote 173: See _Lanc. and Ches. Ant. Soc._, vol. ix.]
[Footnote 174: Aldcliffe Hall is on the south of the river. Of Newton
all trace is lost. See "Materials for History of the Church of
Lancaster," _Chetham Soc._, xxvi., new series.]
[Footnote 175: Calendar of Papal Reg., A.D. 1193-1304, and
chartulary of the priory.]
[Footnote 176: Calendar of French Rolls; 48th Report of Deputy-Keeper
of Records.]
[Footnote 177: Worthings = manure.]
[Footnote 178: "Antiquities of Furness."]
[Footnote 179: Probably granted for a term of years.]
[Footnote 180: Printed by the Chetham Society (new series, vols. xiii.,
xiv., xv.).]
[Footnote 181: A compound of "kirk," the Danish or Scandinavian for
church, and the Anglo-Saxon "ham," a village or a dwelling.]
[Footnote 182: Whitaker's "History of Whalley."]
[Footnote 183: Chetham Society, Coucher Book of Whalley.]
[Footnote 184: See Whitaker's "History of Whalley," from which this
description is taken.]
[Footnote 185: Recently forms have been placed in the church.]
[Footnote 186: For detailed drawing of Stydd Church see "The History of
Stydd Chapel and Preceptory," by George Latham; London, 1853.]
[Footnote 187: Warrington Church Notes.]
[Footnote 188: For details of remains of Burscough, see _Lanc. and
Ches. Hist. Soc._, 1889.]
[Footnote 189: Dom. Gilbert Dolan, O.S.B. (_Lanc. and Ches. Hist.
Soc._, vols. vii., viii., p. 231).]
[Footnote 190: Partly printed by Chetham Society, cvii. and cxiii.]
[Footnote 191: Bridge = a kind of thread.]
[Footnote 192: Communion-cloths.]
[Footnote 193: A glass bottle to hold oil.]
[Footnote 194: Created in 1848, and includes all Lancashire, except
parts of West Derby which are in Chester Diocese, and the Furness and
Cartmel districts, which were added to Carlisle.]
[Footnote 195: Near the door of the dining-room is a small hole in
the flag floor, somewhat like the impress of a human foot, which
tradition says marks the place where George Marsh stamped his foot as
he protested to the truth of his faith.]
[Footnote 196: State Papers, Dom. Ser., 1547-1565.]
[Footnote 197: State Papers, Dom. Ser., addenda xix., p. 525.]
[Footnote 198: _Ibid._, p. 161.]
[Footnote 199: _Ibid._, cxxxviii., p. 18.]
[Footnote 200: See "History of Poulton-le-Fylde" (Fishwick), Chetham
Society, viii., new series.]
[Footnote 201: _Chetham Society_, xcvi., p. 1.]
[Footnote 202: Chester Presentments at York. See also "History of
Kirkham" (Fishwick), _Chetham Society_, xcii. 45.]
[Footnote 203: State Papers, Dom. Ser., Eliz., vol. cclxxix., No. 86.]
[Footnote 204: "A True and Exact Relation of the Death of Two
Catholics," etc.; London, 1737.]
[Footnote 205: See "History of Kirkham," _Chetham Society_, xcii., also
article in "Bygone Lancashire"; London, 1892.]
[Footnote 206: "Bygone Lancashire": London, 1892.]
[Footnote 207: Including North Meols, which is omitted in the survey.]
[Footnote 208: The names were those who were considered "fit to be of
the classis."]
[Footnote 209: St. Michael's-on-Wyre and Lytham are left out.]
[Footnote 210: Written by the Rev. Richard Heyricke. Both these tracts
are now very scarce.]
[Footnote 211: "Lancashire: its Puritanism, etc.," i. 465.]
[Footnote 212: "Lancashire Quaker Literature" (Fishwick), _Trans. of
Lanc. and Ches. Ant. Soc._, 1887.]
[Footnote 213: They so designated the church.]
[Footnote 214: "Notitia Cestriensis," _Chetham Society_, xix.]
[Footnote 215: See "Lancashire Nonconformity," by the Rev. B.
Nightingale also Dr. Halley's "Lancashire Puritanism," etc.]
[Footnote 216: The original meeting-house was at Castle Hey.]
[Illustration]