152 History of the 



same, and had made thereof to the intent the same forrest might, for the great 

 ■ increase of God's glory and the Commonwealth of this Realme, be Inhabited ; 

 and by force thereof and to that intent, the said Forrest was disforrested and 

 granted, demised and let forth, in divers sorts, some part for term of years, 

 and part to hold by copie of Court Roll, after which Leases and grants as is 

 aforesd. had and made, the said Inhabitants and takers thereof have Edified 

 and Builded houses and Tents within the said Forrest, and have inhabited 

 the same ; so that where before that time was nothing else but Deer and 

 other savage and wild beasts, there is since then, by the industry and labour 

 of the Inhabits , grown to be a very good and fertile ground; and the same 

 at this day is become very populous, and well inhabited, and replenished with 

 a great number of people.— And for as much as the Castle and Church of 

 Clitheroe, being their Parish Church, is distant 12 miles (e) from the said 

 Forrest, and the way leading between the said Parish Church and the said 

 forrest is very foule, painful!, and Hillous, and the country in the winter 

 season is so extreamly and vehemently cold, that the Children and young 

 Infants in that time of the year, being borne to the Church to be Christened, 

 £re in great peril of their lives and almost starved with cold; the aged and 

 impotent persons, and women great with child, are not able to travail so far 

 to hear the Word of God, and to learn and be instructed therein, to do their 

 duties to God and to their King ; and the dead corpses there like to Lye and 

 remain unburied, at such time as any that doth die and depart this world, for ■ 

 lack of carriage, untill such time as great annoyance do grow to the King's 

 subjects there, by reason that the said Parish Church is so far distant from 

 the said forrest and the ways so foule.— And whereas also, before this time, the 

 premises considered, the Inhabitants of the said forrest, about the space of 38 

 years past or thereabouts, at their own proper costs and charges, made a 

 Chapel of ease in the said Forrest of Rossendale. The charges of every of 

 them in the said Chapel hath been from time to time to an honest minister, 

 who hath with all diligence ministered to the said inhabitants there, in the 

 said Chapel, God's most holy Word. Also the said Chapel and the said 

 minister hath been sustained and maintained by and with the good devotions 

 and charitable rewards of the well-disposed Inhabitants of the said forrest. 

 And every of the said Inhabitants have given several sums of money, some 

 more, some less — some money, some Chattell, and some of 'em such other 

 gifts and rewards as hath been meet, requisite, and needfull, to and for the 

 intent and purpose of maintenance of the said Chapel and Minister as the 

 commodity and profit of those things given as are before remembered, have 

 sufficed to the sustaining of the said Chapel, and finding of the minister there. 



■(e) The actu.al distance, as the crow flies, is 14 statute miles. 



