CHAPTER X._Nooks and Corners of Lancashire and Cheshire. A Wayfarer's Notes in the Palatine Counties, Historical, Legendary, Genealogical, and Descriptive.

HALL-I’-TH’-WOOD—THE STORY OF SAMUEL CROMPTON, THE INVENTOR OF THE

SPINNING MULE.

There is much truth in the remark that it is more in the lives of

England’s worthies than in the lives of England’s warriors that we

may discover the true secret of England’s greatness. Yet, of those

master-spirits who by their inventive genius, their patient industry,

and indomitable perseverance have been the greatest benefactors to

their country, and who, on that account, deserve ever to be held in

honoured remembrance, how many have had to battle with untoward fate, to

Wage with fortune an eternal war,

Checked by the scoff of Pride, by Envy’s frown,

And Poverty’s unconquered bar.

Of such men was Samuel Crompton, the inventor of the spinning mule,

whose mechanical achievement may be said to have laid open the prospect

of unbounded wealth to the industrious of his native shire, and to have

wrought in Lancashire changes well-nigh as wondrous as any recorded in

the fictions of Eastern romance.

[Illustration: HALL-I’-TH’-WOOD.]

Hall-in-the-Wood, or Hall-i’-th’-Wood, according to the vernacular,

the ancient dwelling-place in which Crompton spent his toilsome days

and thoughtful nights—the shrine to which our present pilgrimage is

directed, and which deserves to be hallowed as one of our sacred

temples—is situated in the midst of scenery strangely at variance with

the associations the name calls forth; for though, with Firwood,

the Lower Wood, the Oaks, and other places of similar designation

immediately adjacent, it recalls the sylvan beauty of former days,

so complete has been the disafforesting that, with the exception of

the blighted and blackened relics of a sturdy oak or stately elm here

and there dotting the landscape, scarce a remnant remains of the

old forest that once formed its pleasant environment. Yet withal,

if the surroundings have lost much of their picturesqueness and are

not altogether lovely, they are under their present aspect far more

suggestive of the manufacturing enterprise, the permanent utility,

and the universal good which is the natural outcome of Crompton’s

invention, than they would have been had they retained their pristine

beauty. Nature has been effectually displaced by industry. From

the steep cliff on which stands his ancient home a thousand tall

chimneys may now be seen, filling the atmosphere with volumes of thick

dun-coloured smoke that hang like a pall and drop down soot instead of

fatness. The once fair and fertile country is absolutely covered with

mighty factories and hives of busy industry, in which tens of thousands

of the population find employment. On every hand the ear is assailed

with the din and rattle of machinery, and wherever the eye can reach it

encounters nothing but steam and smoke and the outward indications of

active labour.

[Illustration]

The Hall, which is located in the township of Tonge, and distant about

a couple of miles from Bolton, is an interesting specimen of the old

English mansion of the earlier Tudor period; and, though time has made

sad havoc among its beauties and peculiarities, it has happily escaped

the assaults of “improvers,” and even in its dilapidated and forlorn

condition may, in an antiquarian sense, be said to retain its original

features comparatively unimpaired. It stands near the edge of a bold

rocky steep that rises abruptly from the Eagley Brook—a tributary of

the Irwell, that separates the townships of Sharples and Tonge—and

commands an extensive view of the surrounding country. It is an

irregular pile—a house with many gables—and has evidently been erected

at two distinct periods—the older part being in the black and white

half-timbered style so frequently met with in the old manor houses of

Lancashire and Cheshire; while the more modern portion, though also

boasting considerable antiquity, is of stone, with a two-storeyed

projecting porch of the same material, erected in 1648, as the date

with the initials

A A

over the doorway clearly indicates. The mansion does not, however,

appear ever to have made any great pretensions to stateliness,

though its possessors were a family boasting considerable ancestral

dignity, and one of them, in his pride of lineage, placed his heraldic

achievements in an elaborately ornamented panel in one of the rooms, in

order that his friends might note his honourable descent. The earliest

portion is said, with some show of authority, to date as far back as

the year 1483. For some time it was owned by the Brownlows; and over

the fireplace in one of the rooms may still be seen the initials of

Lawrence Brownlow, with the date 1591, and it is said that an ancient

oak bedstead which was removed many years ago from Hall-i’-th’-Wood

to Huntroyde has the same initials carved upon it. This part of the

house, as we have said, is of timber and plaster, or “post and petrel,”

as it is locally designated; the walls being composed of a framework of

massive timber, with the interstices filled with plaster, and worked

in divers quatrefoil and diaper-like patterns. The main structure

comprises a long and lofty oblong block, with a short bay projecting

at right angles from the further end. The upper chambers overhang the

lower, and these again have an overhanging roof springing from a coved

cornice; another instance that the mediæval architects who planned

and carried out these erections were by no means insensible to the

advantage of a varied outline producing that picturesque irregularity

which, without any unnecessary sacrifice of domestic comfort, is so

favourable to external beauty, as well as to the effect produced by a

judicious combination of light and shade—a style infinitely preferable

to the dull, dreary uniformities of brick put up in the present day,

and which, were it only revived in its original beauty, would enable

us to dispense with those Italian forms that were only introduced to

satisfy the craving for foreign importations.

Time wrought changes; with the increase of refinement came the

necessity for increased accommodation, when, to give additional

elbow-room and keep pace with the requirements of the age, the old

house, instead of being demolished, as would be the case now-a-days,

was added to, a more pretentious structure of stone, with mullioned

windows and parapets with ball ornaments, being joined up to it,

and from this portion the square porch, which exhibits the same

architectural features, projects. The date and the initials show that

it was erected by Alexander Norris, son and heir of Christopher Norris,

of Tonge-with-Haulgh, whose daughter and heiress, Alice, in 1654,

conveyed the place in marriage to John Starkie, of Huntroyde; their

descendant in the sixth generation, Le Gendre Nicholas Starkie, of

Huntroyde, Esq., being the present possessor. John Starkie must have

been an old man when he married, for his death occurred eleven years

later at the age of 77, when Alice Starkie, his widow, returned to

Hall-i’-th’-Wood and spent the remainder of her days there, amid the

scenes of her childhood.

After the death of Mrs. Starkie the mansion seems to have remained

unoccupied, and subsequently to have been divided into small tenements

and let to humble occupants, who attached small import either to its

antiquity or the associations connected with it, content if only they

could keep the roof over their heads; and, as may be anticipated,

during those vicissitudes, it was suffered to fall into a state of

decay, until the inroads of dilapidation became only too painfully

visible both within and without.

[Illustration: STAIRCASE: HALL-I’-TH’-WOOD.]

The greater portion of the mansion is and has been for many years

in the occupancy of a farmer, Mr. James Bromiley, but a part of the

old black and white structure has been divided and subdivided into

numerous tenements that are now let to small cottagers. The occasion

of our visit was a pleasant autumn afternoon, and proceeding, as we

had been previously advised, from the Oaks Station, a pleasant walk of

a few minutes over the high ground brought us to the picturesque and

interesting old relic. The request to view the interior was readily

complied with, the good woman of the house cheerfully accompanying

us through the wainscoted parlours and contracted passages, and

thence, by a quaintly-carved black oak staircase, with massive and

highly-decorated balusters and pendants, that leads to the upper

chambers and the vacant lofts above, giving us every facility we

could desire in examining the antiquated dwelling. The dining-hall, a

well-proportioned room, is on the ground floor, but that which most

attracts attention is the chamber above—the only one which seems to

have been treated with any degree of respect—Crompton’s room, the

one in which he worked, in which he had his rude bench and still

ruder tools, where he matured his plans and constructed his primitive

models, where for years he laboured on with anxious hope and enduring

perseverance, and where at length—just one hundred years ago—he

triumphed, giving to his country the invention which has so largely

contributed to its wealth and prosperity. The room is now occupied as a

sleeping apartment, but in other respects it is little changed since

the great inventor’s day. It has been subjected to many whitewashings,

but the old ornamental plaster cornice still remains; the old heraldic

escutcheon of the Starkies may still be seen; and there too is the

spacious window with its double row of leaded lights extending the

entire width, out of which Crompton must so often have wistfully gazed.

The attic storey possesses but comparatively little interest, and

exhibits only a labyrinth of dark and intricate passages, with small

chambers and secret hiding places leading off in every direction. It

was here that Crompton, in 1779, on the very eve of the completion

of his machine, concealed the various parts after he had taken it to

pieces for safety against the dreaded attack of the machine-breaking

rioters of Blackburn, who had driven poor Hargreaves, the inventor

of the Jenny, from his home, destroyed nearly every machine within

miles of Blackburn, and who, it was feared, would extend their riotous

proceedings to Crompton’s invention before it had been even put in

actual work. The principal entrance to the hall is on the south side,

by an arched doorway, over which is a square panel with the initials

and date already mentioned. Above this, and separated by a bold

moulding, is a porch-chamber, lighted on three sides by square windows,

mullioned and transomed, over one of which is a lozenge-shaped

sun-dial. Evil days have unhappily fallen upon the building. Where

repairs have been attempted they have been made by slovenly hands, and

unseemly patches mar the effect of its general appearance; but even

in its present condition of neglect and approaching ruin it exhibits

much that is architecturally interesting. Apart, however, from such

considerations, surely the associations that gather round make it

a public duty to protect it from further injury, so that it may be

preserved to future generations as a memorial of one of Lancashire’s

worthiest sons and one of England’s greatest benefactors.

[Illustration]

Crompton, though himself of humble parentage, could claim a long and

respectable lineage, his progenitors, who derived their patronymic from

the hamlet of Crompton in Prestwich parish, ranking among the better

class of yeomen, and the parent line asserting its gentility by the

use of armorial ensigns. His parents resided at Firwood, a farm in the

same township, and distant about half a mile from Hall-i’-th’-Wood,

that had been owned by their family for several generations, but

which Crompton’s grandfather had mortgaged to the Starkies, and the

father, unable to redeem, had finally alienated to them, continuing the

occupancy, however, for some time as tenant, and combining with the

business of farming that of carding, spinning, and weaving on a small

scale whenever the intervals of farming and daily labour permitted.

The couple were honest, hardworking, and religious, but fortune was

unpropitious, and during the later years of the elder Crompton’s life

they appear to have been going down in the world. It was at the farm

at Firwood, on the 3rd of December, 1753, that Samuel Crompton first

saw the light. Shortly after his birth his parents forsook the old home

and took up their abode at a cottage near Lower Wood, in the immediate

vicinity. Their stay there was but short, for three or four years

after, they removed to the neighbouring mansion of Hall-in-the Wood, a

part of which had been assigned to them by Mr. Starkie, who had become

the possessor of Firwood, for the old mansion had, even at that date,

been divided into separate holdings, and confided by its owner to the

care of somewhat needy occupants.

George Crompton, the father, died shortly after, at the comparatively

early age of thirty-seven, from, as is said, a cold taken while

helping gratuitously in his over hours to build the organ-gallery

in All Saints’ Church, Bolton, where he worshipped; and his widow,

Betty Crompton, as she was familiarly called, was left to struggle

for a livelihood for herself and three children—Samuel, who was then

a child of five years, and two girls. She was a woman of superior

attainments, industrious, managing, and, withal, strong-minded;

energetic in her action, but possessing, with a good deal of outward

austerity of manner, much innate goodness of heart. Her good management

and business-like habits gained her the confidence and respect of her

neighbours, who manifested their appreciation of her abilities by

electing her to the office of overseer of the township, an appointment

which, though perfectly legal, was of unusual occurrence in days

when “Women’s Rights” were unthought of; one of the reasons which

induced her to accept the office being the desire to compel her son

to discharge the duties, which he disliked excessively. Mrs. Crompton

abode at the hall after her husband’s death, and continued his business

with energy and thrift, the produce of her dairy being held in high

repute in the neighbourhood, whilst the bees in her old-fashioned

garden supplied her with another marketable commodity, added to which

she had acquired local fame for her excellent make of elderberry wine,

a beverage she hospitably dispensed among her friends and visitors.

As may be supposed, she ruled her household with a firm hand, and

believing in the wisdom of the proverb that to “spare the rod” is

to “spoil the child,” she manifested her fondness for her boy by a

frequent application of the birch to the unappreciative youngster’s

breech—as he was wont to say in after years, her practice was to

chastise him, not for any particular fault, but because she loved him

so well, a mode of training certainly not the best calculated to enable

a lad of a naturally diffident and sensitive disposition to engage

in the rough battle of life or to make his way successfully in the

world. The widow Crompton, notwithstanding, had many good qualities.

She did, as she believed, her duty to her fatherless child, and gave

him the best education in her power. School boards and board schools

were then only in the womb of time, but Lancashire had many excellent

schoolmasters, and of the number was William Barlow,[49] who kept a

school at the top of Little Bolton, a pedagogue who worthily upheld the

value and dignity of the mathematical sciences, and, on that account,

was reputed among his neighbours to be “a witch in figures.” Under

his tuition young Crompton was placed, and, being of a meditative and

retiring disposition, he took kindly to his studies, made satisfactory

progress, and was accounted well educated for his station in life.

[Note 49: The author is informed by Dr. Crompton, the grandson of the

Inventor of the Mule, that Barlow engraved the plate for Arkwright’s

bill-heads. The plate itself was found a few years ago amongst a heap

of old brass at Messrs. Peel’s foundry in Ancoats, and some impressions

were then taken from it.]

Of his two sisters little or nothing is known, but residing under

the same roof was a lame old uncle, his father’s brother, Alexander

Crompton; a character in his way, whose peculiarities could hardly fail

to have an influence on the mind of the nephew. Like the rest of the

family, Uncle Alexander was strict in his religious observances, but

being afflicted with lameness was unable to leave his room, in which,

in fact, he lived and worked and slept, to attend the services of the

sanctuary, and so he compensated himself for the deprivation in a

manner that was as original as it was humble and respectful:—

On each succeeding Sunday [says Crompton’s faithful biographer,

Mr. French], when all the rest of the family had gone to service

at All Saints’ Chapel, Uncle Alexander sat in his solitary room

listening for the first sound of the bells of Bolton Parish

Church. Before they ceased ringing, he took off his ordinary

working-day coat and put on that which was reserved for Sundays.

This done, he slowly read to himself the whole of the Morning

Service and a sermon, concluding about the same time that the

dismissal bell commenced ringing, when his Sunday coat was

carefully put aside,—to be resumed again, however, when the bells

took up their burthen for the evening service, which he read

through with the same solitary solemnity.

Such was the household then occupying one of the wings of the rambling

old mansion. Mrs. Crompton found no happiness in repose; ever doing

and ever having much to do was her manner, and that was assuredly the

fate of her son. From his earliest childhood the hours that should

have been spent in harmless pastime were occupied in rendering such

assistance as he could on the farm, or in the humble manufacturing

operations carried on in the house, whilst his mother was bargaining

and fighting with the outer world. He was put to the loom almost as

soon as his legs were “long enough to touch the treddles,” and when his

day’s task was done he was sent to a night school in Bolton to improve

his knowledge of algebra, mathematics, and trigonometry. The poor

weaver-lad had no playmates or associations with the outer world; he

lived a life of seclusion, and his only companion in his brief moments

of leisure was his fiddle. His father had been enthusiastically fond of

music, and at the time of his death had begun the construction of an

organ, leaving behind him a few oak pipes and the few simple tools with

which he had made them. The amateur organ-builder’s son inherited the

father’s taste, and made himself a fiddle—the first achievement of his

mechanical genius. This was the companion of his solitude, and in after

life his solace in many a bitter disappointment.

With this musical friend [says French] he on winter nights

practised the homely tunes of the time by the dim light of his

mother’s kitchen fire or thrifty lamp; and in many a summer

twilight he wandered contemplatively among the green lanes or by

the margin of the pleasant brook that swept round her romantic old

residence.

And so passed the years of his adolescence—a virtuous, reserved, and

industrious youth. The help and stay of a widowed mother—who, if a

strict disciplinarian, yet devoted her best energies to the well-being

of her family—shunning society, having no companions, and working

diligently at his solitary loom, Crompton, if he found little leisure

for amusement had at least abundance of time to think, and a thinker he

became to his country’s advantage.

While young Crompton was assiduously assisting his widowed mother,

labouring at his loom by day and amusing himself with his fiddle by

night, some of the artisans of his own county were exercising their

inventive faculties on the rude appliances of their handicraft, for

up to that time there had been little or no improvement on the art

of Penelope in spinning and weaving—the distaff was still in common

use, every thread being spun singly by the fingers of the spinner, and

the machinery in vogue, if by such a name it could be called, was as

primitive as that used by the Hindoo. Practical observation enabled

them to elaborate their mechanical contrivances step by step, and so a

series of progressive inventions followed each other. The invention of

the fly-shuttle by Kay, of Bury, and the spinning jenny by Hargreaves,

of Blackburn, gave a great impetus to the cotton manufacture, for by

the former the productive power of the loom was greatly increased,

whilst by the latter the supply of weft kept pace with the requirements

of the weaver, but the mule was the real pivot on which its subsequent

prosperity turned.

The spinning jenny of Hargreaves is believed to have been invented

in the year 1764. It was kept a secret for some time, but before the

close of the decade it had got into pretty general use in Lancashire,

and was at that time so far perfected that a child could work with it

eight spindles at one time. In 1769, Crompton, who was then a lad of

sixteen years, spun on one of Hargreaves’s machines the yarn which

he afterwards wove into quilting, but the machine had many palpable

imperfections; the yarn which it turned off had less tenacity than

that produced by the old-fashioned single-thread wheel, and much time

was lost in piecing the ever-breaking thread; but in Crompton’s case

the appointed task had to be got through, whatever difficulties might

arise, for Mrs. Crompton was inexorable, and to avoid the maternal

reproaches much time had to be given to the loom that might otherwise

have been spent in pleasant companionship with the fiddle. For five

long years the poor weaver lad led this lonesome, uneventful, all work

and no play sort of life; no wonder, then, that he became reserved, shy

and uncompanionable. For five long years he struggled on, following the

dull, unremitting round of labour on his wearisome treadmill, without

one single ray of cheering hope to brighten the gloom of his monotonous

existence, when his ingenuity was driven to make such improvements in

the spinning machine as would ultimately relieve him of the annoyances

he was subjected to.

The time was not propitious for inventors. Hargreaves had been

persecuted and ruined by the populace, and Arkwright had to remove to

Nottingham to escape the popular animosity. Manufacturers were jealous

lest their craft should be endangered, and workmen, in their ignorant

prejudice against the introduction of new machines, resolved upon

their destruction, while, by the common people, those who effected

improvements were accounted “conjurors,” a name of reproach given

to those who were supposed to possess unnatural skill, and to hold

commerce with the powers of darkness.

It was in 1774, when he was in his twenty-first year, that the first

faint conception of the mule floated through Crompton’s brain. The yarn

spun by Hargreaves’s jenny could only be used for “weft,” by reason of

its lacking the firmness and tenacity required in the long threads or

“warp,” while that produced from Arkwright’s water frame was too coarse

for the manufacture of muslins and other delicate fabrics in imitation

of those imported from India. Crompton proceeded silently with the task

he had set himself, even the members of the household having little

idea of the way in which he occupied his time in the hours stolen from

sleep when his day’s work was done. Indeed, it was the system of night

work that first drew the attention of his family and neighbours to his

proceedings. “Strange and unaccountable sounds,” says the authority we

have previously quoted, “were heard in the Old Hall at most untimely

hours, lights were seen in unusual places, and a rumour became current

that the place was haunted.” On investigation the young mechanical

genius was found to be the ghost that had caused so much trouble and

alarm to the good people of the locality.

Crompton’s difficulty was increased by the fewness of his tools—those

he possessed being such as his father had used in his rude attempts at

organ building, supplemented by a clasp knife, which is said to have

done excellent service; some others he purchased with such cash as he

could spare from his slender earnings, and the money he received for

his services at the Bolton Theatre, where, during the season, he was

content to fiddle for the scanty pittance of eighteenpence a night.

Five years of silent, secret, unremitting labour were spent in the

realisation of his idea. Wanting in mechanical knowledge, destitute

of proper tools, and having to learn the use of the imperfect ones

he could procure, it is matter for surprise that in five years he

succeeded in making his machine practically useful. His experiences at

this time he thus relates in a MS. document he circulated about seventy

years ago:

The next five years had this addition added to my labour as a

weaver, occasioned by the imperfect state of cotton spinning,

viz., a continual endeavour to realise a more perfect principle

of spinning; and though often baffled, I as often renewed the

attempt, and at length succeeded to my utmost desire at the

expense of every shilling I had in the world.

Neither poverty nor want of mechanical skill was permitted to hinder

him. After much trembling and fretting from impecuniousness on the

one hand, and the inquisitiveness of interlopers on the other; after

matchless patience and unflinching perseverance; after many failures

and disappointments, success at length crowned his efforts; his dream

had become a reality, the mule[50] was an accomplished fact. In that

same year, 1779, just as he was about to test its merits by putting it

into actual work, an outbreak occurred among the Lancashire spinners

and weavers; the riotous proceedings which had driven Hargreaves from

his home were renewed, and while the storm was raging Crompton, fearing

the mob might wreak their vengeance upon his wheel, prudently took it

to pieces and hid the parts away in the cocklofts of the old hall. The

incident is thus described by a recent writer:—

Crompton was well aware that his infant invention would be still

more obnoxious to the rioters than Hargreaves’s jenny, and appears

to have taken careful measures for its protection or concealment

should they have paid a domiciliary visit to the Hall-in-the-Wood.

The ceiling of the room in which he worked is cut through, as

well as a corresponding part of the clay floor of the room above,

the aperture being covered by replacing the part cut away.

This opening was recently detected by two visitors, who were

investigating the mysteries of the old mansion; but they could

not imagine any use for a secret trap-door until, on pointing

it out to Mr. Bromiley, the present tenant, he recalled to his

memory a conversation he had had with Samuel Crompton during one

of his latest visits to the Hall many years ago. Mr. Crompton

informed Mr. Bromiley that once, when he was at work on the mule,

he heard the rioters shouting at the destruction of a building at

“Folds” (an adjoining hamlet), where there was a carding engine.

Fearing that they would come to the Hall-in-the-Wood and destroy

his mule, he took it to pieces and put it into a skip which he

hoisted through the ceiling into the attic by the trap-door,

which had, doubtless, been prepared in anticipation of such a

visit, and which now offers a curious evidence of the insecurity

of manufacturing inventions in their early infancy. The various

parts were concealed in a loft or garret near the clock, and there

they remained hid for many weeks ere he dared to put them together

again. But in the course of the same year the Hall-in-the-Wood

wheel was completed and the yarn spun upon it used for the

manufacture of muslins of an extremely fine and delicate texture.

[Note 50: The machine was at first, from the place of its birth, called

the “Hall-i’-th’-Wood Wheel,” and sometimes, from the fineness of the

yarn it produced, the “Muslin Wheel,” but subsequently it became more

generally known as the “Mule,” from the circumstance of its combining

the principles of the two inventions of Hargreaves and Arkwright to

produce a third much more efficient than either.]

Having succeeded to his utmost desire in solving the problem on which

during five eventful years of his life his mind had been absorbed,

Crompton had leisure to turn his thoughts in another direction, and

the first thing he did was to take to himself a wife. He had made the

acquaintance of an amiable and excellent woman, Mary Pimlott, the

daughter of a quondam West India merchant, who had come down in the

world and, as was said, had died of a broken heart; and on the 16th

of February, 1780, the young couple were married in the old church at

Bolton. Mary Pimlott is described as being a handsome dark-haired woman

of middle age and erect carriage, and possessed of remarkable power in

the perception of individual character. She was, moreover, a “spinster”

in the true sense of the word. On her father’s death she had gone to

reside with friends at Turton, near Bolton, where ample and profitable

employment could be obtained in spinning, and it is said that her

expertness in the art first attracted young Crompton’s attention.

The newly-married pair began housekeeping in a small cottage attached

to the old hall, Crompton at the same time retaining one or more

workrooms in the mansion where he and his young wife pursued their

humble occupation, producing from the new wheel a yarn which both

for fineness and firmness astonished the manufacturing community. It

does not seem ever to have entered the mind of the young inventor to

patent his machine. Accustomed to a quiet, secluded life, without

any expensive habits or enjoyments, his highest ambition appears to

have been to keep his invention to himself and to work on in his

own simple way in his own home after the fashion of the time, for

it was then the idyllic period of cotton manufacturing, organised

labour in huge factories being virtually unknown. But the fame of

Crompton’s yarn spread; the new wheel was an unmistakable success,

and gave promise of realising for its inventor an ample fortune. It

was at once seen that the much-admired muslins that had been imported

from India, and for which extravagant prices were paid, could now be

produced by the English manufacturer, and at a greatly diminished

cost. Crompton had his own price, and orders for the wonderful yarn

poured in upon him; the demand was urgent and pressing, and his house

was literally besieged with manufacturers anxious to obtain supplies

of the much-coveted material, and still more anxious to penetrate the

secret of its production, for it soon became noised abroad that he

had discovered some novel mode of spinning. People from miles round

gathered about his house, anxious to solve the mystery; all kinds

of stratagems were practised to obtain admission to his workroom;

and when denied, some actually obtained ladders, clambered up to the

window of his chamber, and peeped in to satisfy their curiosity. To

protect himself from this kind of observation Crompton set up a screen,

and then an inquisitive individual, more adventurous than the rest,

secreted himself in one of the cocklofts of the hall, and remained

there for days watching the operations going on through a gimlet hole

he had bored in the ceiling.

There is a well-authenticated tradition that at this time Arkwright,

who a few years before had erected a cotton mill at Cromford,

in Derbyshire, the nursing place, as it has been called, of the

factory opulence and power of Great Britain, made his way to the

Hall-in-the-Wood, and contrived to gain access to the house with the

object of inspecting the machine of which such wonderful tales were

told while the inventor was away collecting rates for his mother,

who, as we have said, filled the office of overseer for the township.

Arkwright was then in the full tide of his success, and it was an

unfortunate circumstance for Crompton that they did not meet. If they

had it would probably have led to an arrangement whereby the simple,

guileless inventor might have reaped the reward of many years of

patient toil and personal sacrifice.

Had Crompton possessed a tithe of the energy and resources of the

average Lancashire man he would have triumphed, but, unhappily for

himself, these were just the qualities he lacked, and his diffidence

and childlike simplicity made him an easy victim in the hands of

unscrupulous and crafty traders. Had he bestirred himself there is

no reason to doubt but that some capitalist would have been ready to

advance the means to patent his invention, but his shyness and morbid

sense of independence forbade him to ask for help or co-operation. What

Arkwright and Peel did he might have accomplished; but, instead of his

succeeding to opulence, he allowed others to reap where he had sown.

His very success was the cause of his misfortunes. He was unable to

carry on his work in undisturbed privacy, and his moody and sensitive

nature could not bear the annoyance to which he was perpetually

subjected by prying intruders. It was the crisis in his life.

Tormented, worried, driven almost to distraction, he, in a weak moment,

yielded to the advice of a well-intentioned but unwise counsellor, and

surrendered his invention to an ungrateful community. When relating

the story to Mr. G. A. Lee, and Mr. John Kennedy, of Manchester, some

years afterwards, Mr. Lee having remarked that “it was a pity he had

not kept the secret to himself,” he replied “that a man had a very

insecure tenure of property which another could carry away with his

eyes.” He says in the MS. before referred to:—

During this time I married, and commenced spinning altogether.

But a few months reduced me to the cruel necessity either of

destroying my machine altogether or giving it up to the public.

To destroy it I could not think of; to give up that for which I

had laboured so long was cruel. I had no patent nor the means of

purchasing one. In preference to destroying it I gave it to the

public.

He says he “gave it to the public,” and virtually he did; for, though

it was professedly for a consideration, he derived little or no

benefit, and only found that he had been made the victim of the greed,

and meanness, and sordid treachery of those whom, in his simplicity,

he had trusted. Yielding to the deceitful promises of his townsmen and

others, he was induced to surrender his much coveted secret on the

faith of an agreement that, as it turned out, had no validity in law,

and which some of the signatories were base enough to repudiate. The

following are the terms in which it was drawn up:—

Bolton, November 20th, 1780.

We whose names are hereunto subscribed have agreed to give

and do hereby promise to pay unto Samuel Crompton, at the

Hall-in-the-Wood, near Bolton, the several sums opposite to our

names as a reward for his improvement in Spinning. Several of the

principal Tradesmen in Manchester, Bolton, &c., having seen his

Machine approve of it, and are of opinion that it would be of

the greatest utility to make it generally known, to which end a

contribution is desired from every wellwisher of trade.

The total sum subscribed was £67 6s. 6d., but even of this miserable

amount only about £50 was actually paid, “as much by subscription,”

says Crompton, “as built me a new machine with only four spindles more

than the one I had given up [for he had not only surrendered his secret

but the original machine with it]—the old one having forty-eight, the

new one fifty-two spindles.” Never, certainly, was so much got for so

little, and a touch of infamy was added to the merciless transaction by

a fact which Crompton thus records:—

Many subscribers would not pay the sums they had set opposite

their names. When I applied for them I got nothing but abusive

language to drive me from them, which was easily done; for I never

till then could think it possible that any man could pretend one

thing and act the direct opposite. I then found it was possible,

having had proof positive.

These men, as has been truly said, saved their miserable guineas

at the expense of their honesty and honour. The treatment to which

he was subjected made a lasting impression on his mind. His very

integrity increased his mortification at the dishonesty of those he

had so generously trusted; his disposition—never a buoyant or cheerful

one—was soured, and during the remainder of his life he was moody and

mistrustful. While hundreds of manufacturers were accumulating colossal

fortunes out of the results of Crompton’s skill and ingenuity, the man

himself, while so abundantly enriching them, was not able to gather

even the smallest grains of the golden harvest, and, but for his energy

and frugality, might have lapsed into absolute poverty, a martyr

of mechanical invention and another illustration of the scriptural

paradox, “Poor, yet making many rich.”

[Illustration: OLDHAMS.]

It was a bitter disappointment to Crompton to find that the promises so

pleasant to the ear were broken to the hope, that he had, in fact, been

tricked into giving up the invention that had cost him so many years of

anxious thought and toil to a host of selfish manufacturers who were

making fortunes out of his simple trust. He became moody, suspicious,

and distrustful of everything and everybody; but if he doubted the

world he never lost heart in himself. Deprived of his just reward,

he removed from the Hall-in-the-Wood to Oldhams, a small cottage

across the valley near Astley Bridge, in Sharples, and distant about

a mile and a half from Bolton. Here he farmed a few acres, kept three

or four cows, and, still adhering to the common Lancashire custom,

combined the business of a farmer with that of a manufacturer, and in

one of the upper chambers of his house erected his newly-constructed

machine. Familiar with the principles of his mule, he was naturally

more skilful in the working of it than others; his wife, too, was an

expert in spinning, and the yarn they spun was the best and finest in

the market, and brought the highest prices; it was supposed, therefore,

that he must have made some improvements in his machine, and, as a

consequence, he was again pestered with inquisitive visitors anxious to

discover the secret of his success, when, to protect himself from the

unwelcome intrusion, he is said to have contrived a secret fastening to

the door in the upper storey where he worked at the mule.

About this time Crompton invented a new carding-engine, and, anxious

to extend his operations, he set up as an employer of labour, but

the result was not satisfactory, for the people he engaged to spin

under him were continually being bribed to enter the service of other

masters, who hoped in this way to gain a knowledge of his secrets, so

that eventually he was obliged to fall back upon the labours of his own

household, and broke up the carding-engine, remarking that “the devils

should not have that.” He says:—

I pushed on, intending to have a good share in the spinning line,

yet I found there was an evil which I had not foreseen and of much

greater magnitude than giving up the machine, viz., that I must be

always teaching green hands, employ none, or quit the country; it

being believed that if I taught them they knew the business well,

so that for years I had no choice but to give up spinning or quit

my native land. I cut up my spinning machines for other purposes.

Whilst residing at Oldhams, Crompton received a visit from Sir (then

Mr.) Robert Peel, the first baronet, his object being to offer the

inventor a lucrative appointment in his own manufactory, with the

prospect of a future partnership, but Crompton’s natural infirmity

of temper and his quickness to take offence opposed a barrier to his

own advancement. He had a prejudice against Peel on account of some

imaginary affront,[51] and so the offer that might have led to his

lasting comfort and prosperity was declined.

[Note 51: Peel had bought one of the machines with the intention of

causing drawings of it to be made. The affront was that on the occasion

of his (Peel’s) visit to Crompton’s house, he had tendered the Inventor

sixpence in consideration of his trouble in showing him the machine.]

By this time the mule had become the machine chiefly employed for fine

spinning, not only round Bolton but in the manufacturing districts of

England, Scotland, and Ireland, and its general appropriation soon

changed the neighbourhood of which Manchester was the centre from a

country of small farmers to one of small manufacturers. Houses on the

banks of streams whose currents would drive a wheel and shaft were

eagerly seized upon; sheds were run up in similar situations; the clank

of wheels and the buzz of spindles were heard in once solitary places

in the valleys running off from the Irwell and upon the small streams

that flowed down from the barren hills. Crompton’s mules, worked by

hand, “were erected in garrets or lofts, and many a dilapidated barn or

cowshed was patched up in the walls, repaired in the roof, and provided

with windows to serve as lodging room for the new muslin wheels,” as

they were called.

So great was the impetus given to manufacture by the invention of the

mule that, within less than six years of its introduction, the number

of inhabitants in Bolton had doubled; whilst in the neighbouring town

of Bury, which had “its cotton manufacture originally brought from

Bolton,” the increase was even more rapid. In order to provide for his

increasing family, and, as is said, to escape the annoyance of his

being re-elected overseer, Crompton, in 1791, removed from his pleasant

little farm at Oldhams to a house in King Street, Bolton, where he

enlarged his spinning operations, filling the attics over his own

dwelling and those of the two adjoining houses with additional mules

and machinery for manufacturing purposes—his elder boys being now able

to assist him in his handicraft.

Five years later he had the misfortune to lose the loving and faithful

partner of his joys and sorrows. She had been long ailing, and on the

29th of May, 1796, he followed her remains to their last resting place

in the old churchyard at Bolton. It is stated that when he returned

from the funeral he sat down broken-hearted and in utter despair; it

must have been a sorrowful day for him, for she left him with a family

of eight young children. Two of them were lying sick at the time in

their cradles, and one died a short time after. The death of his wife

made a deep impression on his mind and character. From his childhood

he had been imbued with strong religious sentiments, and being of a

naturally thoughtful and dreamy disposition, his religion was of a

somewhat mystical kind; hence it is not surprising that he should have

been led to withdraw from the communion of the Church of England and

embrace the tenets of that amiable and philosophic teacher, Emanuel

Swedenborg, who at that time had many followers in the town of Bolton.

Crompton became a zealous member of the New Jerusalem Church, “taking

entire charge of the psalmody,” and occupying his leisure hours in

composing hymn-tunes for the choir, which was wont to assemble on

Sunday evenings at his house to practise.

He struggled manfully to maintain his young family in comfort and

respectability, but he was comparatively helpless in the conduct of

business, and altogether unfitted to deal with the practical affairs of

life. He wrote on one occasion:—

“I found to my sorrow I was not calculated to contend with men

of the world; neither did I know there was such a thing as

protection for me on earth! I found I was as unfit for the task

that was before me as a child of two years old to contend with a

disciplined army.”

When he did attempt to transact business, to such an extent was this

weakness of character manifested that, as is said by his biographer—

“When he attended the Manchester Exchange to sell his yarns and

muslins, and any rough-and-ready manufacturer ventured to offer

him a less price than he had asked, he would invariably wrap up

his samples, put them into his pocket, and quietly walk away.”

His countenance was not sufficiently bronzed to enable him to contend

successfully with the chafferers on ’Change. Like Watt, who declared

he would rather face a loaded cannon than settle an account or make

a bargain, he hated that jostling with the world inseparable from

the conduct of extensive industrial or commercial operations; but,

unlike Watt, he was not fortunate enough in the great crisis of his

life to have met with a Boulton who had the quickness of perception

to determine when to act and the energy of purpose to carry out the

measures which his judgment approved.

It was not until 1800, twenty years after the invention of the mule,

that any real attempt was made to recompense him for the sacrifices

he had made, and for the inestimable benefits he had conferred upon

the community in general and the district in which he laboured in

particular. To Manchester belongs the credit of originating the

movement. Two manufacturers there, Mr. John Kennedy, one of the

founders of the great cotton-spinning firm of M’Connel and Kennedy,

and Mr. George Lee, of the firm of Philips and Lee, appreciating

the talents of the struggling inventor, started a subscription for

the purpose of providing a comfortable competence for him in his

declining years. The time was not opportune, and their efforts were

in consequence only partially successful. It was the year in which

Napoleon’s overtures for peace were haughtily and offensively rejected

by Lord Grenville; the war with France had imposed additional burdens

upon the people, who were already suffering from a prolonged depression

of trade; the scarcity caused by a deficiency in the harvest was

commonly regarded as a consequence of the war; the country was on the

brink of famine; mobs paraded the streets, and the Habeas Corpus Act

had to be suspended to avoid the social danger to which a continuance

of the rioting must of necessity lead. Comparatively few subscriptions

were received; the kindly effort stuck fast, and eventually it had to

be abandoned.[52] Between four and five hundred pounds was all that

could be realised, and that was handed to Crompton, who sunk it in

his little manufacturing establishment for spinning and weaving. His

biographer says—

As a consequence of this additional capital, he soon after rented

the top storey of a neighbouring factory, one of the oldest in

Bolton, in which he had two mules—one of 360 spindles, the other

of 220—with the necessary preparatory machinery. The power to

turn the machinery was rented with the premises. Here also he was

assisted by the elder branches of his family, and it is our duty,

though a melancholy one, to record that the system of seducing

his servants from his employment was still persisted in, and

that one at least of his own sons was not able to withstand the

specious and flattering inducements held out by wealthy opponents

to leave his father’s service and accept extravagant payment for

a few weeks, during which he was expected to divulge his father’s

supposed secrets and his system of manipulating upon the machine.

[Note 52: It is pleasant to note that while so many of those in his own

locality who had so largely profited by Crompton’s labour either

refused to help or gave only very grudgingly, the one who had suffered

most by the success of the mule, Richard Arkwright, of Cromford

(the second of the name), whose water frame had in a great measure

been superseded by it, contributed £30, at the same time generously

acknowledging the merits of the invention.]

Aided by the mule the cotton manufacture prodigiously developed itself.

The tiny rill which issued from the Hall-i’-th’-Wood had become swollen

into a mighty river, carrying wealth and prosperity along its course;

and he who had started the stream looked not unreasonably to obtain

some small share of the riches that were borne upon its bosom. With

this hope, he was induced in 1807 to address a letter to Sir Joseph

Banks, the then president of the Royal Society, in which he modestly

set forth his grievances, and, describing himself as “a retired man

in the country, and unacquainted with public matters,” requested the

society’s advice “to enable him to procure from Government or elsewhere

a proper recompense for his invention.” There had been some mistake

in the address of the letter. It, however, eventually found its way

to the Society of Arts, where the application was discussed; but, to

Crompton’s great disappointment, nothing more came of it.

Four years later he made a survey of all the cotton districts in

England, Scotland, and Ireland, and obtained an estimate of the number

of spindles then at work on his principle. On his return he laid the

results of his inquiries before his friends, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Lee,

with the suggestion that Parliament might “grant him something.” It

was proved that 4,600,000 spindles were at work upon his mules, using

upwards of 40,000,000 pounds of cotton annually; that 70,000 persons

were engaged in the spinning, and 150,000 more in weaving the yarn

so spun, and that a population of full half a million derived their

daily bread from the machinery his skill had devised. This statement,

as was afterwards found, fell far short of the actual facts, for it

did not include any of the numerous mules used in the manufacture of

woollen yarn. The claim was indisputable. With the data before him Mr.

Lee entered fully into the case. A Manchester solicitor, Mr. George

Duckworth, of Duckworth and Chippindall, Princess Street, offered his

gratuitous help, and drew up a memorial to Parliament on his behalf

which was signed by most of the principal manufacturers in the kingdom

who were acquainted with his merits. In February, 1812, Crompton

proceeded to London with this memorial, and obtained an interview

with one of the Lancashire members; and, through the influence of

powerful friends who appreciated his merits and sympathised with his

misfortunes, he was enabled to place his memorial before Mr. Spencer

Perceval, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who appears to have taken

a favourable view of his claim. The matter was referred to a select

committee, of which Lord Stanley, the great-grandfather of the present

Earl of Derby, was chairman. Evidence was given in favour of the

inventor, and, among other information given, it was stated by Mr. Lee

that at that time the duty paid upon cotton imported to be spun by the

mule amounted to not less than £350,000 a year. The committee reported

favourably, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer was ready to propose

a vote of £20,000, when Crompton’s usual ill-luck intervened in a

very shocking manner. It was the afternoon of the 11th May, 1812, and

Crompton was standing in the lobby of the House of Commons, conversing

with Sir Robert Peel and Mr. John Blackburne, one of the members for

Lancashire, when one of them observed, “Here comes Mr. Perceval.” The

group was instantly joined by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who

addressed them with the remark, “You will be glad to know I mean to

propose £20,000 for Crompton. Do you think it will be satisfactory?”

Hearing this, Crompton moved off from motives of delicacy, and did not

hear the reply. He was scarcely out of sight when there was a great

rush of people—Perceval had been shot dead by the madman Bellingham.

The frightful catastrophe had in an instant deprived the country of

a valuable minister, and lost to Crompton a patron and £15,000. When

the new Government had been formed the matter was again brought before

the House, and on the 26th of June, on the motion of Lord Stanley, it

awarded him £5,000, a sum altogether inadequate for the services he

had rendered, as well as out of all proportion to the rewards which

Parliament had previously given to other inventors. In an article which

appeared some years afterwards in the _Edinburgh Review_[53], the

paltriness of the award was severely commented upon. The reviewer said:—

To make a lengthened commentary on such a proceeding would be

superfluous. Had the House of Commons refused to recognise Mr.

Crompton’s claim for remuneration they would, whatever might

have been thought of their proceedings, have at least acted

consistently. But to admit the principle of the claim, to enter

into an elaborate investigation with respect to the merit and

extensive application of the invention, and then to vote so

contemptible a pittance to the inventor, are proceedings which

evince the most extraordinary niggardliness on the part of those

who have never been particularly celebrated for their parsimonious

disposition towards individuals whose genius and inventions have

alone enabled Parliament to meet the immense expenses the country

has had to sustain.

[Note 53: Vol. xlvi., p. 16, 1827.]

With the £5,000, or rather with such portion of it as he received—for

there were considerable deductions for fees and other charges—Crompton

entered into various commercial speculations; but the fickle goddess

did not smile on any of them. Anxious to place his sons in some

business, he fixed on that of bleaching, and rented a works at Over

Darwen; his eldest and youngest sons, George and James, being admitted

as partners. But the unfavourable state of the times, the inexperience

and mismanagement of his eldest son, a bad situation, and a tedious

and expensive lawsuit with the landlord conspired in a very short time

to put an end to this establishment. He was also engaged in cotton

spinning and manufacturing, in connection with his sons Samuel and

John; but they disagreed, Samuel withdrawing from the concern and

going to Ireland, leaving his father to carry it on with such help as

John could give him. The only business in which he may be said to have

been at all successful was that of a cotton merchant, which he carried

on in conjunction with his favourite son, William, and a Mr. Wylde. The

firm eventually extended its operations to cotton spinning; but young

Crompton disliking this branch of the business, the partnership was

dissolved, the father and son retiring. The latter afterwards began

business on his own account in Oldham, but the fate of the family

followed him. He was unsuccessful; a fire consumed his stock, a lawsuit

grew out of the fire; and finally, in 1832, he was carried off by an

attack of cholera.

Left almost alone in the world, with old age creeping upon him, his

sons dead or dispersed, and his only daughter—then a widow—for his

housekeeper, Crompton carried on his small original business without

assistance, “spending much of his time in devising the mechanism

proper for weaving new patterns in fancy muslins.” But his lack of

business capacity and inability to cope with the common-place incidents

of ordinary life destroyed his chances of success, and that unhappy

fatality which had accompanied him through life still dogged his

steps. To use his own words, he was “hunted and watched with as much

never-ceasing care as if he was the most notorious villain that ever

disgraced the human form; and if he were to go to a smithy to get

a common nail made, if opportunity offered to the bystanders, they

would examine it most minutely to see if it was anything but a nail.”

His patterns were pirated by his neighbours, who reproduced them in

fabrics of inferior quality, and thus they were enabled to undersell

and beat him out of the market. As he advanced in years his means

became more and more straitened, and he was beginning gradually to

drift into a state of poverty when, in 1824, Messrs. Hicks & Rothwell,

of Bolton, his old friend, Mr. Kennedy, of Manchester, and some other

sympathisers, unasked and unknown to Crompton, who had then reached

his 72nd year, made a second subscription to purchase a life annuity,

and the sum raised yielded a payment of £63 a year. He did not,

however, live long to enjoy it. Wearied and worn out with cares and

disappointments, but to the last retaining the esteem of his friends

and the respect of all who knew him, he died by the gradual decay of

nature at his house in King-street, Great Bolton, on the 26th June,

1827, at the age of seventy-three, and a few days later his body,

followed by many voluntary mourners, was committed to the dust in the

churchyard of Bolton, where a modest flagstone thus perpetuates his

name:—

Beneath this stone are interred the mortal remains of Samuel

Crompton, of Bolton, late of Hall-i’-th’-Wood, in the township

of Tonge, inventor of the spinning machine called the Mule; who

departed this life the 26th day of June, 1827, aged 72 years.[54]

[Note 54: The age recorded on his gravestone is clearly an error,

Crompton having been born on the 3rd December, 1753, so that he must

have been in his 74th year.]

Such is the sad and simple story of the inventor of the spinning mule.

Though his life was passed in comparative obscurity and neglect,

and he was allowed to end his days in poverty, the name of Samuel

Crompton will be held in honoured remembrance so long as the cotton

trade endures, for it is to Crompton’s mule more than to any other

invention we owe that vast Lancashire industrialism which has been

the source of untold benefits to his native shire, and has so greatly

increased the power and wealth of the nation at large. Looking at the

splendid results which his genius accomplished, it must ever be a

cause of regret that Lancashire men did so little for him who did so

much for them. In the various relations of life Crompton was in all

things upright and honourable; he had his failings like other men, but

they were those which arose from his simple and unsuspecting nature,

and such as should excite commiseration rather than condemnation.

The weak point in his character, and that from which nearly all his

troubles and misfortunes arose, was the absence of those faculties

which enable a man to hold equal intercourse with his fellows. His

morbid sense of independence made him averse to the very appearance of

favour or patronage, and to ask for even that which was his due was

always at the cost of acute pain. His manners and actions were at all

times guided by a natural politeness and grace, as far from servility

as rudeness. By those who knew him in the strength and fulness of

his manhood he is described as having been handsome and singularly

prepossessing in appearance, and this description is borne out by his

portrait, which displays the lineaments of a well-formed head and face

that strongly suggests the idea of the thoughtful philosopher and the

true gentleman.

Though Crompton’s memory remained long neglected, a succeeding

generation has happily done something to remove the stain of

ingratitude, and to atone in some measure for the shortcomings of

his contemporaries. The late Mr. Gilbert James French, a man of

energy, intelligence, and culture, first aroused his fellow townsmen

to a better appreciation of the value of Crompton’s achievements. In

two lectures he delivered to the members of the Bolton Mechanics’

Institute, and in the handsome volume subsequently issued—“The Life and

Times of Samuel Crompton”—a work to which we are indebted for some of

the facts here recorded, Mr. French gave a very circumstantial account

of the great inventor’s career; not content with this tribute to his

memory, he set about obtaining subscriptions for the purpose of doing

honour to Crompton’s name. A sum of £2,000 was raised, and on the 24th

Sept., 1862, a bronze statue of the inventor of the mule by Calder

Marshall, with bas reliefs of Hall-i’-th’-Wood, and Crompton at work

upon his machine, was presented with much pomp and circumstance and

many outward manifestations of rejoicing to the Corporation of Bolton.

In this tardy recognition of his services Bolton has done something

to efface the reproach which the ingratitude of a former generation

had stamped upon the town. But Crompton has a more fitting as well

as a more enduring monument in those outward indications of active

industry which now surround his humble dwelling-place, and borrowing

the oft-repeated line from Wren’s monument in St. Paul’s, it may be

said—_Si monumentum requiris—circumspice_.

The old dilapidated mansion in which his earlier years were passed

still remains. His name has given it an historic importance it never

before possessed. To Lancashire men it should be as a very Mecca, and

it can never be looked upon with feelings other than those of the

deepest interest, for it may be truly said that here the prosperity

of the nation hung in suspense as the thoughts and expedients of

Crompton’s mind came and went, trembled, grew firm, and finally

triumphed; and assuredly in no corner of England is the memorable

couplet more strongly emphasised than in this now forlorn and

weather-beaten abode:—

Peace hath her victories

Not less renowned than war.

[Illustration]

INDEX.

_Abbott Hall_, 83-4

Adderley, Charles, 128, 145-6

_Adlington_, 283-360

Agarde, Francis, 123

_Agecroft Hall_, 2

Agincourt, Battle of, 90, 305

_Alderley_, 218

_Alderley Edge_, 287

Aldford, Lucy, 112

" Richard, 112

Allen, Dorothy, 370-1

" Isaac, 270

" John, 370, 389

_Allithwaite_, 83-4, 88, 91

Anjou, Margaret of, 92, 235

Arderne, John, 297

" Matilda, 297

" Ralph, 31

Arkwright, Richard, 424, 427, 435

_Arnside Knot_, 85

Armstrong, Thomas, 64

Arragon, Katharine of, 312

Arram, William, 363

Arthur, Prince, 220

Arundell and Wardour, Lady, 275

" " Lord, 275

Ashley, Hamo, 310

Ashmole, Elias, 144

Ashton, Mr., 373

" Major-General, 264

Aspinall, John, 252

" Ralph John, 252

_Astley Bridge_, 431

Aston Thomas, 330

Atheling, Edgar, 293

Atherton, Eleanor, 372, 405-6

" Henry, 406

Attercroft, Elizabeth, 71

" Thomas, 71

Audley, James, 227

" Lord, 119

Baggaley, William, 290, 291

Bagnall, Henry, 321

Bailey, J. Eglington, 170, 176-7, 187

Baliol, John, 224

Baltimore, Lord, 398

Bamville, Amabella, 290

" Hugh, 290

" Thomas, 290

Bancroft, Elizabeth, 7, 70-1, 75

" Thomas, 70-71

Banks, Mr., 376

" Joseph, 436

Barber, Dr., 96

" Robert, 204

Bardolf, Lord, 204

Barlow, William, 420

Barratt, James, 125

Barrit, Thomas, 402

_Barrow_, 87

Barrow, Sir John, 87

Baxter, Richard, 147

Bayley, Dr., 173

Baynton, Master, 189

_Beaumaris Castle_, 234

Bechton, Elizabeth, 295

" Ellen, 295

" Margaret, 295

" Philip, 295

Becke, Isabel, 364

" Mary, 364

" Robert, 364

" Thomas, 364

Bedingfield, Thomas, 43

_Beeston Brook_, 216

" _Castle_, 107, 213-241

Beeston, George, 236

" Thomas, 233

Beever, John F., 35

Belgrave, Elizabeth, 302

" Isabel, 298

" Thomas, 298, 303, 318

Bellairs, Henry, 71

" Mary Ellen, 71

Bellingham, Edward, 437

Bennett, Mr., 37

Bennett, Robert, 187

Bennison, Thomas, 350

Bentley, Joanna, 376-7

" Richard, 376-7, 384

_Berkeley Castle_, 230

Bexwyke, Hugh, 364

" Joan, 364

" Richard, 364-5

" Roger, 365

_Billinge Hill_, 251

Birch, George, 193

" Robert, 193

" William, 193

Birches, Robert, 303

_Blackburn_, 4, 242

Blackburn, John, 437

_Black Comb_, 87

Blackmore, Dr., 405

Black Prince, The, 231, 233, 286, 296-7

Bland, Lady, 381-2, 387

_Bleasdale Moor_, 251

Blois, Earl of, 293

Bloreheath, Battle of, 119

Blount, John, 290-1

Blundell, Henry Robert, 40

Blundeville, Randle, 150, 213, 220, 223, 228

Bohemia, King of, 181, 183

Bohun, Humphrey, 227

Bold, Richard, 254-5

Bolingbroke, Henry, 115, 116, 234, 299, 300

Bolingbroke, Lord, 133

Bolle, John, 325

Bolles, Mary, 335, 337

" Thomas, 335

_Bollin River_, 285

_Bolton_, 164, 433, 440

Bond, Mr., 33

_Bonishall_, 287

Bonner, Bishop, 170, 187, 192

Bononcini, 386-7

Bonville, Lord, 92

Booth, Ellen, 307

" George, 60, 205, 334, 336

" James, 300

" John, 334

" John Gore, 404

" Robert, 307

Bostock, Adam, 233

" William, 297

Bosworth, Battle of, 236, 309-10

Bowdon, George, 31

" Anne, 31

_Bowfell_, 87

_Bowland Forest_, 244, 251, 280

Brabazon, Lady, 123

Brabin, Elizabeth, 71

" Henry, 71

Bradford, John, 164, 365

" Margaret, 365

Bradshaw, Barbour, 35

" Catherine, 35

" Elizabeth, 70

" Frances, 35

" George, 25

" Godfrey, 35

" Henry, 21, 27, 30-6, 77

" J., 394

" John, 21, 26-7, 37, 67, 69, 70

" Joseph, 35

" Mr., 147

" Mary, 64, 70

" Rachel, 35

" Richard, 69

" Sarah, 67

" Thomas, 70

" William, 25, 27

Bradshawe-Isherwood, Arthur Salusbury, 72

Bradshawe-Isherwood, Henry, 71

" " John, 71

" " John Henry, 72

" " Thomas, 71

Brandon, Lord, 128-129

Brearcliffe, Sarah, 375, 395

Brereton, Andrew, 120

" Ellen, 120

" Lord, 126

" Mrs.,

" John, 128

" Peter, 64

" Sybil, 320, 322

" Thomas, 338

" Urian, 315, 318, 320, 322, 338

" William, 33, 43, 237, 240, 330-1

Brett, Ann, 131

" Colonel, 131

Brettargh, Mr., 382

" William, 400

Bridge, Major-General, 57

Bridgeman, Bishop, 41-2

" Orlando, 33

Brofield, Mr., 191

Brogden, Alexander, 78

Bromiley, James, 414, 425

Brooke, Charles, 267

Brooks, William, 187

Broster, Richard, 344

Brownlow, Lawrence, 412

Brownswerd, John, 39

_Broxton Hills_, 220

Bruce, Robert, 224

Bruerton, Mrs., 123

_Brungerley Hipping Stones_, 244

Brunlees, 78

Buckingham, Duke of, 103

Buckler, C. A., 277

_Bunbury_, 236

Burghall, Edward, 39, 238, 240

Buron, Hugh, 370

_Butley Hall_, 350

Byrom, Adam, 363-6

" Ann, 401, 406

" Dorothy, 398

" Edward, 361, 366-378, 387, 389, 401, 405-6

" Eleanor, 405

" Elizabeth, 380, 382, 384-5, 393-4, 396, 399, 401-2, 405

" Ellen, 381, 385

" George, 364

" Henry, 364-5

" Lawrence, 365-7

" Margaret, 202, 364

" Martin, 362

" John, 151-2, 368, 370, 372-401

" Joseph, 369

" Phœbe, 372, 378, 392, 402

" Ralph, 193, 362, 364-6

" Robert, 365

" Samuel, 361, 369

" Thomas, 193

" William, 368

_Byrom Hall_, 361

Byrom, Sedgewick, Allen and Place, 406

Byron, John, 200-1

" Lord, 238

Cadiz, Siege of, 323

_Caernarvon Castle_, 234

_Calder River_, 250-2

" _Valley_, 280

Calveley, George, 319

Camden, William, 205, 208

Campbell, James, 388

Canterbury, Archbishop of, 187-8

_Cark_, 86

Carlisle, Bishop of, 78

Carmichael, Captain, 71

_Carnforth_, 78

Carnwath, Earl, 341

Caroline, Queen, 132

Carpenter, General, 342-3

Carter, Dorothy, 94

" John, 94, 311

" Oliver, 189, 194, 202-3

Cartleche, John, 231

_Cartmel_, 76-8, 83

_Cartmel Fells_, 82

" _Priory_, 91, 101

Caryl, 45

Castlemaine, Lady, 129

_Cat and Fiddle_, 104

Cattel, Mr., 382, 395

Catterall, Thos., 252

Cavendish, Henry, 67

" Mr., 186

" William, 67, 258

Caxton, John, 113-14, 117

Cecil, Secretary, 169

Chadderton, Dr., 188, 192, 203

Chaddock, Tom, 394

Chadwick, J. Oldfield, 348

Challener, John, 123

" Mrs., 123

_Chapel Island_, 87

_Chapeltown_, 3

Charles I., 44-45, 48, 218, 240

Charles Edward, Prince, 344, 394, 396-7, 399

Charleton, Edward, 258

_Chartley Castle_, 222

Cheanie, Alan, 231

_Chester_, 237, 239-40

Chester, Bishop of, 255, 388

_Chester Cathedral_, 218

Chester, Earl of, 150, 213

Chesterfield, Lord, 383

Chetham, Edmund, 206

" Humphrey, 160, 194, 366

" Mr., 382

Chisnall, Colonel, 133

_Chipping_, 242

Cholmondeley, Earl, 342

" Hugh, 319

" Thomas, 233

Cibber, Colley, 131

Clarke, Peter, 341

Clayton, Mr., 387, 395, 397

Clifford, George Lambert, 267

" Lady Ann, 190

" Margaret, 167

" Matilda, 92

" Roger, 229

" Rosamond, 231

" The Black-faced, 92, 236

_Clitheroe Castle_, 5, 244, 251

_Cloud End_, 104

Clowes, Mr., 384, 387

Clyderhow, Thomas, 263

" Richard, 303

Clyve, Mr., 65

" William, 318

Cobham, Lord, 187

_Cockersand Abbey_, 253

Cogan, Dr., 205

Cole, Lettice, 126

Colydon, Mrs., 132

Compton, Captain, 68

_Conishead_, 87

_Coniston Old Man_, 87, 100

Constable, Mr., 145

_Conway Castle_, 234

Conway, Lady, 152

_Conway, River_, 222

Cook, Mr., 60

_Cooper’s Hill_, 221

Cope, John, 398

_Cophurst_, 104

Coppock, James, 396

Corona, Agnes, 292

" Ellen, 291, 295

" Hugh, 290-1

" Isabel, 291

" John, 291

" Lucy, 290-1

" Margaret, 291

" Sarah, 290

" Thomas, 291, 295

Cottington, Lord, 52, 66

Cotterel, P., 394

Cotton, George, 319

" Richard, 319

Coventry, Bishop of, 306

_Coventry, Grey Friars Abbey_, 222

Cowper, Edward, 182

" Lady Mary, 152

" William, 404

_Crewe_, 218

" _Hall_, 238, 330

Crocker, John, 205

_Cromford_, 427

Crompton, Alexander, 420

" Betty, 419

" Dr., 420

" Ellen, 369

" George, 419, 438

" James, 438

" John, 369, 438-9

" Samuel, 408-442

Cromwell, Oliver, 44, 53-58, 60, 63, 218, 264-5

" Richard, 58

" Thomas, 316

Crosse, Richard, 351

" Richard Townley, 351

Croxton, Mr., 394

Cumberland, Countess of, 190

" Denison, 377

" Duke of, 396

" Richard, 377

Cyveliock, Hugh, 220

Daa, Alina, 297

" Reginald, 298

" Robert, 298

Dalston, Sir William, 338

Daniel, Samuel, 343

Danyers, Thomas, 286, 296

Darnel, Sargeant, 388

_Darwen_, 4

_Darwen, Over_, 438

" _River_, 265

Davenport, Amabella, 293

" Christopher, 119

" Elizabeth, 343

" Hugh, 119

" John, 119, 295

" Nicholas, 310-11

" Peter, 343, 350

" Ralph, 333

" Richard, 293

" Thomas, 297

Dawson, Dr., 390-1

" James, 396

Deacon, Christopher, 398-400

" Christopher Clemens, 400

" Dr., 387, 395-8

" Robert Renatus, 400

" Thomas, 394, 400

" Thomas Theodorus, 400

Dee, Arthur, 204, 208

" Jane, 176, 184, 187

" John, 157-210, 326, 364

" Katharine, 176

" Michael, 208

_Dee, River_, 218

Dee, Rowland, 167, 208

_Deganwy Castle_, 222

_Delamere Forest_, 217

Delves, Lady, 152

" Thomas, 350

Denbigh, Lord of, 229

_Dent Fells_, 80

Derby, Countess of, 333

" Earl of, 32, 33, 35, 51, 158, 167, 255, 256, 260, 437

Derwentwater, Earl of, 260, 341

Desborough, 56

Despenser, Hugh, 300

Devereux, Robert, 191, 325

Devonshire, Duke of, 383

Dicconson, Richard, 94

Dickinson, Mr., 394

Dickson, Sergeant, 394

_Dieu-la-cresse Abbey_, 224

Digby, Kenelm, 179

Disraeli, Isaac, 175

Dodd, Dr., 141

_Doddington Hall_, 238, 330

Dokenfield, Robert, 117

Done, John, 219, 323

" Lady, 219

_Dorfold Hall_, 238

Dounes, Reginald, 297

" William, 297

Downes, Edward, 341

" Roger, 33, 311

Downham, Bishop, 194

Drake, Madam, 381

Drayton, Michael, 93, 226

Dublin, Archbishop of, 123

Duckworth, George, 437

Duckworth and Chippindall, 437

Dudley, Robert, 171

Dugdale, Elizabeth, 144

" William, 144

Dukinfield, Colonel, 31-2, 330, 336, 352

Duncalf, William, 326

Dunsany, Lord, 70

Dunstan, Mr., 373

Dutton, Hugh, 223, 295

" Margaret, 295

" Thomas, 295

Dytton, Mr., 123

" Mrs., 123

_Eagley Brook_, 411

Earwaker, John P., 42, 170, 308

_Eddisbury_, 218

Edge, Oliver, 32

Edward III., 228-231, 286

Edward IV., 307, 309

Edward VI., 170

Edwards, Mr., 47, 65

" Messrs., 65

Egerton, Lady, 317

" Mary, 321

" Ralph, 123

" Richard, 317

" Thomas, 190, 317

Elcho, Lord, 396

Eleanor, Queen, 230

Elizabeth, Princess, 170

" Queen, 172-5, 177, 183-8, 190, 256

Ellenborough, 78

Ellis, Mr., 23

Ely, Bishop of, 93, 314-5

Erskine, Lord, 287, 351

Espinasse, Mr., 389

Essex, Earl of, 191, 323, 325

Evans, John, 403

Evelyn, Lindon, 70

" Mr., 54

Evesham, Battle of, 227

Exton, Piers, 116, 235

Fairfax, General, 239, 330

" Lady, 48

_Fairies’ Cave_, 95, 100

Fair Rosamond, 231

Fauconberg, Mr., 68

Fauconbridge, Mr., 68

Fell, Thomas, 58, 77

Ferrers, Earl, 220

Fiennes, Nathaniel, 127

Finney, John, 342-3

" Samuel, 342

_Firwood_, 411, 418

Fishwick, Colonel, 335

Fitton, Alexander, 128-30

" Ann, 125, 126, 128

" Colonel, 127

" Edmund, 112

" Edward, 110-11, 119-30, 142, 145, 150, 255

" Felicia, 142, 145

" Frances, 128

" Francis, 123, 125

" Jane, 128

" John, 120

" Lady, 123, 125

" Laurence, 114, 116-119

" Margaret, 126

" Mary, 110-11, 121

" Penelope, 128

" Richard, 119, 123

" Thomas, 112-13, 117-19, 150, 295

" William, 128

Fitzherbert, Mrs., 261

" Thomas, 261

Fitz Ivon, Maud, 293

" Wlofaith, 293

Flame, Lord, 191, 151, 153

Fletcher, Mr., 394-5

_Flint Castle_, 229, 231, 234

_Flookborough_, 83, 86

Flower, William, 347

Folkes, Mr., 397-8

_Fonthill_, 60

_Forest Chapel_, 104

Foster, General, 260, 341

Fountain, Serjeant, 59

Fox, Edward, 407

" George, 77, 245-6

Frank, Ann, 186

French, Gilbert J., 420, 441

_Frodsham_, 218

Fromonds, Bartholomew, 176

" Nicholas, 184

Fulden, Mr., 394

_Furness_, 76-7, 83

" _Abbey_, 77, 83

Gaunt, John o’, 115, 298

_Gawsworth_, 102-154

Gawsworth, Lord, 130

Gerard, Charles, 126, 130-1

" Christopher, 128

" Elizabeth, 133, 201

" Fitton, 122

" Lord, 129-131, 133

" Mr., 203

Gibbons, Grinling, 357

Glendower, Owen, 116, 301

Gloucester, Duke of, 232

Gobert, John, 329

" Lucy, 329

Godiva, Lady, 288

Goodgroom, 58

Goodier, Mr., 189

_Goyt, Valley of_, 22

_Grange_, 82-3, 85

Granger, Abraham, 129

Gray, Thomas, 78

Grenville, Lord, 435

Griffith, Ann, 135

" Elizabeth, 135

Grindon, Leo H., 405

" John, 112

Grosvenor, Gilbert, 293

" John, 318-9

" Mary, 316-8

" Richard, 316, 319

" Robert, 298, 316

" Thomas, 303-4, 318

Gwinne, Peter, 183

Haddon, John, 381

Hall, Francis, 400

" Mr., 400

" Richard Edward, 400-1

_Hall-i’-th’-Wood_, 408-442

Halley, Dr., 146, 333, 391

Halliwell, J. Orchard, 175

_Halton_, 218

Halton, Baron of, 233, 293

Halstead, Dumville, 401

" Eleanor, 401-2, 405

" William, 401

Hamilton, Charles, 133

" Colonel, 134

" Duke of, 109, 132-5, 264

Hammond, Colonel, 265

" Dr., 374

Hancock, Joseph, 182

Handel, Geo. F., 284, 348-9, 386-7

Harbottle, Guiscard, 111, 120, 150

" Mary, 111, 150

Hardwicke, Bess of, 67

Hardy, Henry, 195

_Harfleur_, 304-5

Hargreaves, 417, 422-5

Harland, John, 185

Harper, Francis, 373

Harrington, Ann, 94

" Elizabeth, 94

" James, 93

" John, 91-2

" Lord, 135-6, 397-8

" Matilda, 94

" Michael, 91

" Robert, 91, 94

" Thomas, 91-2

" William, 90-2

Harrison, John, 94

" Major-General, 33, 35

Hartington, Lord, 383

Hartley, John, 202, 364

Hastings, Henry, 227

Hatton, Christopher, 190, 236

_Hawarden Castle_, 229

Hawghton, Master, 201

Hawkshee, Mr., 384

Hazlewood, Katharine, 189

Hemans, Mr., 81

Henedge, Thomas, 188

Henry III., 221, 224-5, 290

" V., 117, 304-5

" VI., 117, 244, 305

" VII., 310, 312

" VIII., 95, 250, 309, 312

Hereford, Countess of, 205

" Duke of, 115

Hesketh, Agnes, 114, 117

Heton, Isold de, 250

Hexham, Battle of, 244

Heyricke, Richard, 367

_Heysham_, 86

Hibbert, Dr., 193

" Elizabeth, 26

" Henry, 25

" John, 2

" Thomas, 25-6

Hick, John, 252

Hickman, Bartholomew, 204, 207

Hicks & Rothwell, 439

Hill, Edward, 43

_Hood, The_, 87

_Hodder Place_, 265, 279

" _River_, 244, 251, 263, 265

Hodgson, Captain, 264

Hoghton, Richard, 18

Holcroft, Alice, 125

" John, 125

_Holker_, 86, 100

" _Hall_, 77

Holland, Mr., 47

" Ralph, 31

" Richard, 203

" Robert, 231, 235

_Hollin Old Hall_, 344

Hollinshed, Raphael, 104, 122

Hollinworth, Richard, 146-7, 159, 169

_Hollinworth, Smithy_, 348

_Holme Island_, 85

Holt, Alice, 252

" James, 303

_Holy Well_, 96

Honford, Henry, 295, 297

" Isabella, 295

" John, 305

" Katharine, 297

" Margaret, 315, 320

" William, 305, 307, 311, 315, 320

Hooper, Francis

" Mr., 381, 384, 387

Hotspur, 116, 301

Houghton, Thomas, 256, 276

" Ralph, 193, 365

Howard, Lady, 186

Howitt, William, 260

_Hulme Hall_, 381

Hulme, Ralph, 364

" William, 196

_Humphrey Head_, 82, 86, 96-101

Hunte, Richard, 365

Hunter, Mr., 381

Hurleston, Richard, 319

_Hurst Green_, 257, 267

Hurst, James, 316

_Hyde Park_, 109

Hyde, Edward, 31

" Robert, 117, 305

Iken, Anne Mary, 351

" Thomas Bright, 351

Ingleby, Isabel, 257

" John, 257

Ireton, Colonel, 63

_Irwell Valley_, 433

Isherwood, Nathaniel, 71

" Thomas, 71

James I., 206, 219

Jefferson, Mr., 384

Jeffries, Judge, 339

Jermyn, Serjeant, 44

John, King, 220-1

Johnson, Samuel, 108, 151, 153-4

Jones, Thomas, 164

Kay, 423

Kelly, Edward, 117-182

" Mistress, 182

_Kemple End_, 251

Kennedy, John, 427, 435-6, 439

_Kent Estuary_, 78

Kent, Fair Maid of, 232, 297

_Kent’s Bank_, 84-5

Kenyon, Ralph, 369

_Kerridge_, 107, 287

_Kersall Cell_, 369, 376, 385

Kighley, Ann, 256

Kinderton, Baron of, 291, 293

_Kirkhead_, 84, 87, 100

Lacy, Roger, 223

Lambert, Colonel, 55, 60

" General, 264

_Lancaster_, 86

Lancaster, Earl of, 231, 235

Langdale, Marmaduke, 264

_Langdale Pikes_, 87

Langley, Mr., 203, 204

Larke, Joan, 313

" Peter, 313

" Thomas, 313

Lasque, Albert, 179-81, 184

Latimer, Lord, 125

Lauderdale, Lord, 32

Launcelyn, William, 299

Laurenson, Mrs., 380

Law, Edmund, 78

La Warre, Thomas, 158

Laurence, Elizabeth, 135

" Thomas, 135

Lee, Clegg, 343

" G. A., 427-8, 435-7

" Hester, 343, 352

" Robert, 343

Legh, Agnes, 291, 295, 401

" Anne, 340

" Charles, 203, 205, 284, 313, 330, 336, 343, 345-50

" Charles Richard Banastre, 351

" Dulcia, 308

" Edward, 321, 326, 338

" Elizabeth, 70, 343, 350

" Elizabeth Hester, 352

" Elizabeth Rowlls, 351

" Ellen, 119, 291

" George, 313-15, 318

" Henry, 336

" Hester, 352

" Isabel, 303

" John, 117, 233, 291-2, 296-300, 308, 311, 330, 335-6, 340,

342-3, 350, 354

" Katharine, 297, 313

" Lucy, 334

" Lucy Frances, 343, 350

" Margaret, 113, 335

" Margery, 297

" Maria, 321

" Mary, 357

" Matilda, 297

" Maud, 296

" Mr., 201

" Peter, 113, 117, 119, 295-300, 336, 347

" Piers, 233, 286, 296, 309

" Ralph, 326

" Reginald, 302

" Richard, 70, 295, 338

" Richard Crosse, 340

" Robert, 203, 295-308, 318, 351

" Sybil, 327

" Thomas, 309-13, 316, 318-22, 326-7, 329-32, 334-6, 338-40,

346-7, 351-2, 355, 357

" Thomas Crosse, 351

" Urian, 205, 321-3, 325-8, 332, 334, 357

" William, 295

Leicester, Earl of, 171, 173, 179-80, 225

Leigh, Katharine, 65

" John, 35

" Robert, 365

Leland, John, 194, 199

Lenthall, William, 60

Leofric, Earl, 288

_Leven Estuary_, 78

" _Sands_, 87

Lever, Mr., 196

Leveson, Richard, 325

Ley, Mr., 141

Leycester, Peter, 334

" Mr., 381, 383, 387

Lichfield, Earl of, 239

Lilburn, Colonel, 62

Lilly, 177, 181-2

Lincoln, Bishop of, 311

_Lindale_, 78

Lichfield and Coventry, Bishop of, 311

Llewellyn, Prince, 223, 225, 228-9

_London, Tower of_, 234

_Longridge Fell_, 5, 6, 250-1

_Lower Wood_, 411, 418

Luce, Elizabeth, 72

" Thomas, 72

_Ludgate_, 68

Ludlow, 61

Lupus, Hugh, 289, 292-3

_Lyme Hall_, 286

" _Chapel_, 233

Lymme, Richard, 295

Lynch, Mr., 139

Macartney, General, 133-5

_Macclesfield_, 105-287

Macclesfield, Countess of, 131, 132

_Macclesfield Church_, 233

Macclesfield, Earl of, 132-133

_Macclesfield Forest_, 107, 286

Macclesfield, Roger, 112

Macguire, Lord, 41

Machin, John, 146

Mackenzie, Peter, 71

Macmahon, Lord, 41

Macworth, Humphrey, 52

Madan, Mrs., 152

Mainwaring, Charlotte, 132

" Colonel, 237

" Dr., 387

" Elizabeth, 141

" Ellen, 118

" Henry, 128, 319

" Lady, 144

" Peter, 141, 144, 381

" Randle, 118

" Roger, 143

" Thomas, 144

Malpas, Lady, 152

Malyn, Dr., 381-2

" Massey, 381

" Mrs., 381

" Robert, 381

Manners, John, 25

Marbury, Mary, 61

" Thomas, 61

March, Earl of, 301

Maresha, William, 91

Marlborough, Duke of, 133

_Marple Hall_, 21-75

Marsh, George, 255

Marshall, 45

" Calder, 441

" Henry, 299

Martindale, Adam, 60, 159

Martyn, Thomas, 171

Massey, Hamnet, 311

" John, 299

" Richard, 193

" Robert, 305

Massie, William, 327

Maurice, Prince, 239

Maximilian, Emperor, 172

Mayer, Mr., 111, 136

Maynard, Johanna, 338

" John, 338-9

McConnell and Kennedy, 435

Methe, Bishop of, 123

Meeke, Mr., 147

Melling, Mr., 374

Merbury, Lawrence, 303

Mercia, Earl of, 288-9, 292

Mere, Matthew, 115

_Mersey, River_, 218, 285

de Meschines, Randle, 112

_Middlewich_, 239, 330

Milbey, Mr., 68

Mildmay, Henry, 47

_Milne House_, 326, 332, 334, 340

_Milnthorpe Sands_, 81, 85, 96

Milton, John, 26, 50, 62, 66

Minshull, Thomas, 128, 382

_Mitton_, 242, 250-2, 267

" _Church_, 252-263

" _Little_, 244, 252

Modburly, John, 230

_Moel Fammau_, 108, 218

Mohun, Lady, 135

" Lord, 109, 132-5

Molyneux, Richard, 201

Monk, Bishop, 377

" Colonel, 239

Monmouth, Duke of, 129, 339-40

Montford, Guy, 227

" Henry, 227

" Simon, 225-7

_Moorfields_, 68

_Morecambe Bay_, 76, 83, 85

Moreland, Mr., 68

Mortimer, 114

" Edward, 229

_Mortlake_, 207

Morton, Lord, 389

" Edward, 144

Mosley, Edward, 330

" Nicholas, 211

" Oswald, 388

Mostyn, Thomas, 237

Mountague, Duke of, 397

Mounteagle, Lord, 94, 96, 178, 315

Mountford, William, 134

Nairne, Lord, 441

Nanny, Mr., 399

_Nantwich_, 234, 237, 239, 330

Nelson, Mrs., 48

Neville, Margaret, 91

" Robert, 91

Newby, 100

Newby-Wilson, Thomas, 96

Newcastle, Duke of, 258

Newcome, Henry, 140-151, 369

" Robert, 140

" Stephen, 140

Newdegate, Mr., 41

_Newgate_, 69

Newnham, George Lewis, 351

" Louisa, 351

Newton, Alice, 327

" Dorothy, 64

" Isaac, 384

" Peter, 64

" Thomas, 39, 327

Nichols, Serjeant, 46

Nithsdale, Lord, 341

Norfolk, Duchess Dowager of, 258-9, 261, 266

" Duke of, 258, 261, 300

Norley, Adam, 296

Norris, Alexander, 413

" Alice, 413

" Christopher, 413

Northumberland, Countess Dowager of, 125

" Duke of, 234

" Earl of, 288, 301

Northumbria, King of, 243

Nottingham, Earl of, 299, 301

Nowell, Dean, 164

" Roger, 367

Nugent, Richard, 193

Nuthall, John, 319

_Oaks, The_, 411

_Offerton Hall_, 27

Okey, 58

_Oldham_, 439

Oldham, Hugh, 200, 364

_Oldhams_, 431-2

O’Neill, Hugh, 321

" Shane, 121

Ord, Robert, 384

Orreby, Fulco, 225

" Isabel, 112

" Thomas, 112

Orrell, Mary, 71

" Thomas, 71

_Oswestry Castle_, 300

_Over Darwen_, 438

Owen, Joseph, 391

Oxford, Lord, 152

Paris, Matthew, 225

Parker, Dorothy, 71

" Robert, 351

Parkinson, Canon, 366

Parnell, Thomas, 64

Parr, Mr., 65

Paslew, John, 262

Paulet, George, 316

Paulinus, 243

_Peak of Derbyshire_, 218, 285

_Peckforton_, 108

" _Castle_, 220

Pedder, William, 97

Peel, Messrs., 420

" Robert, 427, 432, 437

Pelton, Robert, 371

Pembroke, Earl, 92

Pembroke and Montgomery, Countess of, 190

_Pendle Hill_, 5, 244-6, 251, 280

_Pendleton_, 2

Pendleton, Henry, 364

Pennant, Thomas, 219

Pepys, Roger, 130

Perceval, Spencer, 437

Percy, Henry, 116

Peters, Hugh, 45

Petersham, Lord, 112, 136

Phillips, Richard, 311

Phillips and Lee, 435

_Phœnix Tower_, 239-40

Pilgrimage of Grace, 246

Pimlott, Mary, 70-1, 425

" William, 70-1

Plantagenet, Constance, 220

" Geoffrey, 220

" Richard, 93

Plunkett, John, 123

" Randal, 70

_Pontefract Castle_, 235

Pope, Alexander, 383

Potts, Master, 245

_Poulton Abbey_, 222

Powell, William, 348

_Prestwich Church_, 2

Prestwich, Edmund, 193, 208

" Isabella, 208

" Mr., 158

Prince, John C., 76

Prydyn, William, 299

Prynne, 41

Pygot, John, 305

Radcliffe, Alexander, 158, 363

" John, 255

" Richard, 368

" William, 365

Raines, Canon, 256

Raleigh, Walter, 180, 191

Ratcliffe, John, 59

_Ravenspurg_, 232-3

Renaud, Dr., 303

Reynolds, Frances, 347

" Mary, 347

" Thomas, 347

_Rhuddlan Castle_, 223, 229, 231

_Ribblesdale_, 5, 280

_Ribchester_, 4, 9-18, 242-3

" _Bridge_, 6-9

_Ribble River_, 244, 251-2, 265

Rich, Robert, 135

Richard I., 220-1

" II., 115-6, 231-2, 286, 299-300

" III., 309

Rivers, Earl, 131

Richmond, Duchess of, 398

" Duke of, 398

" Earl of, 236, 244

_Ridley Hall_, 239

Rigby, Alexander, 33, 332-5

" John, 376

Robartes, Isabella, 340, 354

" Robert, 340

Roberts, Mr., 378

_Rochdale_, 242

Rochford, Countess of, 132

Roe, Samuel, 65

Rokeley, Robert, 311

Rosenberg, Count, 181

Rosworm, John, 51, 367-8

Row, Mr., 61

Rowlls, John, 343, 350

_Rowton Moor_, 218, 239

_Runnymede_, 221

Rupert, Prince, 127, 239

Russell, Lady, 190

Rutland, Earl of, 93, 236

Rydings, Francis, 371

_Salesbury Hall_, 5

Salghall, Roger, 304

Salisbury, Bishop of, 383

" Earl of, 207

Sanford, Captain, 238-9, 241

Savage, Catharine, 313, 355

" Edmund, 315

" Isabella, 307

" John, 117, 305, 307, 309-10

" Richard, 131

" Thomas, 309

Savill, Harry, 201

_Sawrey Pass_, 100

Saxton, Christopher, 201

Schoelcher, Victor, 386

Scoles, Mr., 271

Scot, John, 224, 290

" Margaret, 224

Scotland, James III. of, 307

Scott, Sir Gilbert, 149

Sedgewick, Allen and Place, 406

Serleby, John de, 230

Shallcross, Edmund, 42-3

Shaw, John, 392

Sherburn, Dorothy, 252

" Elizabeth, 260

" Hugh, 273

" Katharine, 256-7

" Lady, 259, 266

" Maud, 254

" Nicholas, 258-61, 266, 268, 272

" Richard, 252, 254-8

" Richard Francis, 260

" Robert, 252

" Thomas, 255

Sherd, William, 340

Shore, William, 298-9

Shrewsbury, Battle of, 301

" Mayor of, 147

Shrigley, Mr., 395

_Shutling’s Low_, 104

Siddal, George, 369

" Richard, 369

Siddington, Emmota, 119

" Robert, 119

Sidney, Henry, 122

" Philip, 191

Simnel, Lambert, 309

Sinclair, James, 132

_Skiddaw_, 87

Slaidburn, 242

Sloane, Hans, 384

Smith, John, 132

" Mary, 132

" Madam, 131

" Mr., 383

" Richard, 132

Smyth, Mary Ann, 261

" Thomas, 297

" William, 261

Sneyd, Felicia, 126

" Ralph, 126

Sorrocold, John, 189

" Katharine, 189, 190

" Ralph, 189

Southwell, Thomas, 182

Spanish Armada, 236

Spenser, Edmund, 192, 322

St. Albans, Earl of, 52

St. George, Chevalier de, 341, 360

St. John, Mr. Solicitor, 44

St. Pierre, Urian, 227

St. Werburg’s, Abbot of, 237

Stamford, William, 253

Stanhope, Charles Augustus, 136

" Christopher, 397-8

" William, 135

Stanley, 437-8

" Edward, 25, 93-4, 314, 389

" Margaret, 25

" John, 93, 300, 314-16

" Thomas, 93, 125, 314

" William, 307

_Stanmore Church_, 348

_Stanner Nab_, 220

Stansfield, John, 375, 380

Starke, Alice, 317

Starkey, Mr., 396

" Nicholas, 202, 364

Starkie, Alice, 413, 414

" Le Gendre Nicholas, 413

" John, 413, 418

Steel, Mr., 46

" Captain, 238, 241

Stern, Bishop, 123

Stockdale, Mr., 83

Stockport, Margaret, 25

" Robert, 25

Stokefield, Battle of, 309

_Stormy Point_, 287

_Stonyhurst_, 5, 251, 256, 261, 264-80

Stourton, Lord, 256

Strafford, Earl of, 71

Strange, Lord, 367

Stringer, Hugh, 292

Strong, Mr., 65

_Sunderland Point_, 86

Sutton, 104

" Richard, 104

_Swarthmoor_, 77

" _Hall_, 77

Swedenborg, Emanuel, 434

Syddal, Tom, 341, 394, 396, 400

Sydenham, Colonel, 61

Sydney, Lady, 172

Tabley, William de, 291

Talbot, Lord, 32

" Thomas, 244, 299

Tanai, Lucas de, 227

Tankerville, Count de, 296

Tatton, Mr., 330

" William, 121

Taylor, John, 190, 327, 403

_Teg’s Nose_, 104

_Thorncliffe_, 22

Thurloe, Secretary, 68

Thyer, Robert, 387

Tilsey, Mr., 204

Timbs, John, 59

_Tiverton_, 237

Tollemache, Lord, 220

Tounley, Robert de, 115

Townley, Colonel, 393, 395-6

Townshend, Edward, 350

" Lady, 398

Trafford, Edmund, 327

" Mary, 327

Treasurer, Lord, 174-5, 187

Trevor, Jane, 126

" John, 126

Tryket, John, 115

_Turton_, 426

" _Tower_, 3

Tyldesley, Thomas, 260

Tyrconnell, Lord, 132

Tyrrel, Serjeant, 59

Ulster King of Arms, 123-4

_Ulverston_, 78, 87

" _Sands_, 81, 96

_Utkinton_, 219

Valet, Captain, 240

Varley, John, 178

Venables, Gilbert, 293, 346

" Hugh, 118

" John, 291, 295

" Margery, 118

" Thomas, 293-4

" William, 291, 295

Vernon, Dorothy, 25

" George, 25

" William, 25

Vigor, Mr., 393

Voil, Thomas, 299

" William, 299

_Waddington Fell_, 251

" _Hall_, 244

Wainwright, John, 403

Wakefield, Battle of, 235

" Edward Gibbon, 286

Wales, Prince of, 152, 225-7, 235, 261, 309, 312

Waller, James, 344

Walls, Robert, 311

_Walney_, 87

Walpole, Horace, 357, 383

" Lord, 152

Walsingham, Francis, 173, 191

Wandesford, Rowland, 33

Warbeck, Perkin, 311

Warburton, Anne, 121, 124

" Eleanor, 61

" Harriet, 350

" Peter, 61, 121, 124, 350

Ward, Joseph, 345

Wareing, Paul, 178

Warren, Edward, 35

" John, 311

" Mr., 189

Warwick, Countess of, 185, 190

" Earl of, 308

Waterpark, Lord, 67

Watt, James, 434

Waugh, Edwin, 81

Weever, 177

Weld, Edmund, 261, 266

" John, 261

" Thomas, 262, 266-7

" William, 261

Wells, Bernard, 30

" Mary, 30

Welshman, Robert, 205

Werden, Joseph, 160

Weston, James, 384

_Whalley_, 243

" _Abbey_, 247-250, 254

" _Church_, 246

" _Nab_, 251

Whitaker, Dr., 90-92, 157, 252, 257, 266

" John, 164

Whitby, Dr., 374

_White Nancy_, 287

_Whiteley Green_, 306

" _Hay_, 306, 309

Whitelock, 44-5, 47, 51, 61

_Whitewell_, 251

Whitfield, George, 385

Whitgift, Archbishop, 187

Whitmore, William, 236

Whitworth, Mr., 133, 387

Widderington, Edward, 258

" Peregrine, 259-61

" Lord, 260, 341

Widdrington, 46

Wigan, Mr., 159-60

Wilbraham, Thomas, 219

_Wildboarclough_, 104

Wilkinson, T. T., 188, 401

Willemots, Master, 189

Willes, General, 260, 342-3

William III., 339

Williamson, Mr., 203

" Thomas, 194

Willoughby, Baldwin, 369

" Lord, 403

_Wilpshire_, 4

Wilson, “Alick,” 162

Wilson, N., 65

Winchester, Marquis of, 316

Winnington, Catherine, 26

" _Bridge_, 60

Wintoun, Lord, 341

_Wiswall_, 251

" _Hall_, 246

Wolsey, Cardinal, 314

_Wolfscote_, 104

Wood, Anthony à, 238

Woodstock, Thomas of, 231

Worcester, Dean of, 170

Worsley, Ellen, 368

" Major-General, 55, 337, 366, 368

" Mr., 374

" Thomas, 366

Wordsworth, William, 81

Wortley, Mr., 205

_Wraysholme Tower_, 82, 86, 88

Wright, Mrs., 131

_Wyberslegh_, 25, 30

_Wyke, The_, 86

Wylde, Mr., 439

_Wythenshawe_, 31, 330

Yates & Dawson, 390

Yates, Joseph, 390

_Yewbarrow_, 81

York, Archbishop of, 301, 309, 383

" Duke of, 93, 236

[Illustration]

JOHN HEYWOOD, Excelsior Steam Printing and Bookbinding Works,

Hulme Hall Road, Manchester.

Transcriber's notes:

In the text version, italics are represented by _underscores_, and

bold and black letter text by =equals= symbols.

Missing or incorrect punctuation has been repaired. Inconsistant

spelling and hyphenation have been left.

The following mistakes have been noted:

p. xi to p. xxiii. The Lists of Booksellers and Subscribers have

some entries which are not in alphabetical order. The number of

copies ordered is not always in italics.

p. xvii. Marsden, The Kev changed to Rev.

p. xviii. CHORLTON, THOMAS has 2 entries, one for 32 Brasenose

Street and one for 32 Brazenose Street.

p. xx. Warnirgton changed to Warrington.

p. 26. text reads "dated 7th July, 4", the 4 seems incorrect but

has been left.

p. 40. "13 Car. I., June 7. "Appointment of John Bradshawe, the

extra opening quote has been removed.

p. 42. bran new pulpit changed to brand new pulpit.

p. 51. salutory changed to salutary.

p. 65. thanfull acknowledgement, has been left as it appears to be

a quote.

p. 104. Wildboa. Clough changed to Wildboar Clough.

p. 108. Enjoy the sunny world, so fresh and fair, added closing

quote.

p. 123. "The order, added the opening quote.

p. 141. Batchelor in Arts, left.

p. 169. £2 000 changed to £2,000.

p. 222. pa sed, corrected to passed.

p. 238. He confessed all his sins, opening quote added.

p. 240. suurrender changed to surrender.

p. 258. Maria Winifred Francesca is spelt Maria Winnifred

Francesca on p. 261.

p. 259. alloted changed to allotted.

p. 274. tranferred changed to transferred.

p. 301. Thursday then next, then changed to the.

p. 325. a n heirloom changed to an heirloom.

Index

p. 444. Bradshawe-Isherwood, Arthur Salusbury, 71 changed to 72

and Bradshawe-Isherwood, John, 72 changed to 71.

Brereton, Mrs. is missing a page number. Several Brereton wifes

are mentioned in the text and it is not clear which one referenced.

p. 445. Chetham, Mr., 582 changed to p. 382.

p. 447. Dieulacresse Abbey changed to Dieu-la-cresse to match text.

p. 449. Hooper, Francis is missing a page number. Several Hoopers

are mentioned but no Francis Hooper, though there is a Francis

Harper on p. 373.

p. 449. Jeffreys, Judge, changed to Jeffries.

p. 450. Lenthal, William, changed to Lenthall.

p. 450. Mareschall, William, changed Mareshal.

p. 451. Meath, Bishop of, changed to Methe.

p. 451. Meschines, Rundle, changed to Randle de Meschines

p. 451. Molyneux, Richard, is spelt Molynox in the text, but this

is in a quote from an older document and has been left.

p. 452. Rosenburg, Count, changed to Rosenberg.

p. 453. Schoelscher, Victor, changed to Schoelcher.

p. 453. Shutlings Low, 107, is on p. 104 and the index entry has

been changed.

p. 454. Tyrconnel, Lord, changed to Tyrconnell.

p. 478. Tilsley, Mr., changed to Tilsey.

p. 478. Townshead, Edward,changed to Townsend.

Nooks and Corners of Lancashire and Cheshire. A Wayfarer's Notes in the Palatine Counties, Historical, Legendary, Genealogical, and Descriptive. · 第 11 / 11 章