Forest of Rossendale. 159 



longer liver of the two ; and after their decease to the use of the 

 Incumbent of New Church for ever. 



" This Richard Whitworth was still living when the Chantry 

 Commission was issued : so that the lands, being at that time a 

 lay fief, were not subject to the operation of the Chantry Act. 



" The original surrender mentions lands at Fryer Hill ; but as 

 no such lands are now attached to the Incumbency, it is probable 

 that these are what Dr. Whitaker alludes to as having been lost by 

 the neglect, or something worse than neglect, of the feoffees." 



Canon Raines puts the matter in a somewhat different light. 

 He says : — 



" Dr. Whitaker expresses some surprise that the Commissioners 

 of Chantries did not seize upon these lands ; but he appears to 

 have forgotten that Newchurch was not a Chantry, but a Chapel of 

 Ease to the Castle Church of Clitheroe, and therefore the Chantry 

 Commissioners had no power to divert the pious gift of Lettice 

 Jackson. 



" In the year 1664 Thomas Sanders, Clerk, Minister of 

 Rossendale, was complainant, and Christopher Nuttall and Lydia 

 his wife, defendants, in a Plea before the Commissioners for 

 Charitable Uses. The defendants, in their answer, deny that 

 Lettice Jackson had power to give the lands in question to the 

 said charitable use ; and stated that being a suit pending in the 

 Duchy Court between James Kershaw, Clerk, Curate of 

 Newchurch, plaintiff, and John Nuttall, (father of the said Lydia, 

 wife of the said Christopher.) defendant, the same came to a 

 hearing on the 4th of May, 5th James, (1607,) and the Chancellor 

 decreed that the lands should be surrendered to the said John 

 Nuttall and his heirs, for ever, charged with twenty marks a year 

 to the said Kershaw, so long as he should be Minister there ; and 

 afterwards, that ;^2o a year should be paid to every succeeding 

 Minister who should say and read Divine Service there. This 

 decision was reversed in the year 1724. In the year 1650 this 

 Newchurch is described as a Parochial Chapelry, embracing three 

 hundred families, and being twelve miles from the Parish Church. 



