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moved to the adjoining village of Hurstwood, where he died at 
the age of 73. He was very intelligent and possessed a remark- 
able memory, and it was from him that he (Mr, Wilkinson) 
learned that two of his ancestors fought at Preston on the side 
of the Royalists in the Cromwellian wars. One fell in the fight, 
but the other made good his escape. John’s grandmother, 
Sarah Sharples, died about 50 years ago at the age of 103, and it 
was from this venerable dame when a boy that John heard the 
story of Spenser the poet residing at Hurstwood, she having 
received it from her grandmother, who like herself lived to a good 
old age. In this instance, therefore, they had the connecting 
links of nearly two centuries, tracing back almost within a 
century of Spenser’s residence at Hurstwood. John’s brother 
William, a farmer near Hurstwood, fully corroborates the story 
in every respect. Another gentleman, a Mr. Lawrence Higgin, 
at present living at Hurstwood, says: ‘‘ My forefathers, the 
Higgins, of Hurstwood, held Hurstwood farm as tenants of 
Towneley for over 200 years, until the decease of my eldest 
brother John, which occurred about seven years ago. My 
mother died at the age of 93, about 11 years ago. She had a 
good memory which she retained up to her decease. My father 
and mother often alluded to what they had heard from their 
parents, including the story of Spenser, the poet, living at 
Hurstwood.’”’ Next came the Smiths, of Hurstwood, an ancient 
yeoman family connected by marriage with many of the local 
families of good social position. Miss Smith could tell them 
that when a child she often heard from her grandfather and 
mother the story of Spenser, the poet’s residence at the old house 
at the bottom of the fold, and also that her family were relations 
of the Spensers. Dr. Grosart, of Blackburn, who published a 
life of Spenser, collected all the information that could possibly 
be procured, so far as his knowledge carried him at the time. 
He adopted the theory of the late T. T. Wilkinson’s of the poet’s 
acquaintance with the Lancashire dialect, and gave instances of 
several hundred words from the ‘‘ Faerie Queen,” and other 
works which echo the peculiar sounds of our dialect. Mr. 
Abrams, in his paper read to the members of the society, supplied 
the genealogy of the Spensers from the middle of the 16th to the 
end of the 17th century, but from a will in the possession of 
Miss Smith, it was found that John Birtwistle (from whom she 
descended in the female line) left his nephews Lawrence and 
Andrew Spenser, of Hurstwood, one shilling each, while he left 
Holden farm in Extwistle to John Smith, of Hurstwood, who 
was Miss Smith’s grandfather. He also bequeathed to John 
Higgin, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Henry Jobling, wife of 
Mr. Henry Jobling, J.P., the farm of Wall Streams, and 10s. 
each to Robert Briercliffe, of Briercliffe, and Robert Halstead, of 
