A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



fourth part of that of Bolton-le-Moors ; the hundred, 

 bailiwick and view of frankpledge of Leylandshire ; 

 with messuages, lands, &c., in Aighton, Chaigley and 

 Bailey and some thirty other townships ; fisheries in 

 the Ribble, Hodder, Douglas and Wyre ; also the 

 manor of Wigglesworth and other estates in York- 

 shire. 109 Richard his son was thirty-seven years of 

 age on succeeding. 110 He was captain of the Isle of 

 Man for fifteen years, 111 and in 1596 obtained from 

 the Crown a lease of the barony of Bangor Sabell in 

 Dalby there, which lease was renewed to his des- 

 cendants. 113 Perhaps more compliant in religion than 

 his father, 113 he acted as sheriff in i6i3-i4. 114 A 

 pedigree was recorded about the same time. 116 He 

 added to the family estates and died in 1628, leaving 

 as heir his son Richard, thirty-seven years of age, the 

 eldest son Henry having died before his father. 116 



Richard Shireburne, though lax in his religion at 

 one time, 117 was prepared to suffer for it when he 

 came into his inheritance,and in 1632 compounded for 

 the two-thirds of the estates liable to sequestration for 

 his recusancy by an annual payment of 48 I Js. 4</. 119 

 He took the king's side in the Civil War, 119 and on 

 his monument is described as ' an eminent sufferer for 

 his loyal fidelity to King Charles I of ever-blessed 

 memory.' 120 His estates were of course sequestered 

 by the Parliament, and at last his sufferings broke his 

 spirit, for there is evidence that he recovered pos- 

 session by renouncing his religion. 121 He lived to 

 see the Restoration, dying in i66y. m A pedigree 

 was recorded in i664. 123 



His son Richard, founder of the Shireburne Alms- 

 houses and other charities, was under suspicion at 

 the time of the Gates Plot. He, his wife Isabel and 

 his sons Richard and Nicholas were indicted as 

 recusants in 1678, 124 while Stonyhurst was denounced 

 as the centre of ' a damnable Jesuit plot.' An account 

 of it was published in 1679 by Robert Bolron, one 

 of Lord Shaftesbury's agents, under the title of The 

 Papists' Bloody Oath of Secrecy. He had been sent 



down to search the house, and ' in the chamber of 

 the chaplain ... he found a copy of the constitu- 

 tions of the common fund for the Lancashire secular 

 clergy, a charity still existing for the relief of infirm 

 and decayed members. This document, written in 

 Latin, dated 28 February 1675, and bearing the 

 names of the members and officers,' was denounced as 

 a plot ' for the destruction of his most sacred Majesty 

 and the Protestant religion.' 125 At the Revolution 

 Richard Shireburne was ar- 

 rested as loyal to James II, 

 and died in prison at Man- 

 chester in i689. 126 His elder 

 son Richard dying without 

 issue in i69o 127 was succeeded 

 by the younger son Nicholas, 

 who had been created a 

 baronet in i685-6. 128 A 

 settlement of Aighton and 

 other manors was made by 

 him on succeeding. 129 Sir 

 Nicholas remained faithful to 

 the Stuarts and was accused 

 of complicity in the alleged 



' Lancashire Plot ' of 1 694- 130 He was probably too 

 infirm to take part in the rising of 1715, and was 

 not even charged as an accomplice, though in 

 November, in readiness for the Jacobite incursion, a 

 supper party at Stonyhurst spent the night in casting 

 bullets and next morning took with them four of his 

 coach horses, with guns and pistols. 131 He carried 

 out his father's charitable designs by building alms- 

 houses and in other ways ; but his plans for improving 

 the hall were checked by the sudden death of his 

 only son Richard Francis in I7O2. 132 His other 

 child Mary in 1709 married Thomas the eighth 

 Duke of Norfolk. Sir Nicholas registered his estates 

 as a 'Papist' in 1717, the annual value being set 

 down as 1,1 5o. 133 He died in the same year, 134 

 and his daughter recorded his character as ' a man of 



SHIRF.BURNE of Stony- 

 hurst, baronet. Urgent 

 a lion rampant guardant 

 vert. 



;o > Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvi, no. 3; 

 the manor of Aighton was said to be held 

 of the queen at of the earldom of Lincoln 

 in socage. 



110 Livery was granted on 17 Feb. 

 1594-5 i Oip. Keeper' i Rtf. jucxix, App. 

 559. A feoffment by Richard Shireburne 

 in 1597, mentioning hit former wife 

 (Catherine and his then wife Anne, it in 

 Add. MS. 3Zio6, no. 773. The will of 

 Anne Shireburne may be teen ibid. no. 

 1043. 



111 Whitaker, Whalley, ii, 490, quoting 

 his epitaph. His wife Katherine Stourton 

 wat niece to Henry Earl of Derby, lord 

 of Man. She died at Kirkmalee, near 

 Castle Rushcn, leaving three surviving 

 children, Henry, Richard and Kathcrinej 

 four had died ; Shireburne Abstract Bk. 



'" Ibid. ; renewals in 1669 and 1698 

 are recorded. 



113 In the epitaph quoted is a prayer for 

 ihe dead. < P.R.O. List, 73. 



115 Visit, of 1613 (Chet. Soc.), 27. 



116 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvi, no.4- 

 His will is in Wills (Chet. Soc. new 

 ser.), ii, 199. He had an illegitimate 

 daughter; Cat. S. P. Dam. 1619-23, 

 pp. 239, 362. 



"' He was godfather to one of Sir 

 Ralph Assheton's children (a Protestant) 

 in 1 6 1 7 ; Assheton's Journal (Chet. Soc.), 1 6. 



118 Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xxiv, 

 178. 



In 1642 he desired permission 'to go 

 to the waters of Bourbon ' with his wife, 

 daughter and servant ; Hist. AfSS. Com. 

 Rtf. v, 63. The journey probably related 

 to the education of his children on the 

 Continent, as Richard his ton was at 

 St. Omers in 16436 j Gerard, op. cit. 64. 



118 A Mr. Shireburne of Stonyhurtt 

 was taken prisoner at Rowton Heath in 

 1645 ; Ches. S/uaf(Ser. 3), v, 18. Thit 

 was perhaps not the head of the family. 



*> Whitaker, Whalley, ii, 491. 



121 Cal. Com. far Comp. iii, 1996 ; Cat. 

 Com. for Advancing Money, \\\, 1362. It 

 appeared that Richard Shireburne himself 

 was not a convicted recusant, but his wife 

 was j and 'his children were educated in 

 popery.' The doubt arises from the 

 appearance of more than one of the name. 

 Richard of Stonyhurst had refused to come 

 and take the oath of abjuration in 1651. 



A settlement of his manors of Aighton, 

 Bailey, Chaigley, Wiswell, Dutton, Ham- 

 bleton and Longton, with extensive lands, 

 two water-mills, two windmills, three dove- 

 cotes, &c., was made by him in 1647 ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 145, m. 4. 



1M An abstract of his will is printed by 

 C. D. Sherborn (op. cit. 45). It records 

 the alienation of 4,000 from his son's 

 wife's settlement on account of the alleged 

 dishonesty of his son Richard. 



IM Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 263. 



1S * Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. xiv, App. iv, 



109. Richard the son occurs in a list of 

 'Papists fled from justice ' in 1680 j ibid. 

 xi, App. ii, 240. 



* J. Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Calls. 

 iv, 326 j * in the document which he prints 

 the wretched informer has cut out every- 

 thing which would denote the real object 

 of the association.' See also Pal. Note Bk. 

 ii, 8, 41. 



196 M.I. in Mitton Church. A mortu- 

 ary list of his time (copied 1724) thows 

 that the priest at Chipping was ' to cele- 

 brate three times a week, offering up one 

 mass for Richard Shireburne of Stony- 

 hurst, esquire, and Isabel hit wife,' &c. ; 

 Foley, Rec. S. 7. v, 339. "' M.I. 



ls8 G.E.C. Complete Baronetage, iv, 138. 



PaL of Lane. Plea R. 452, m. 7. 



" Jacobite Trials (Chet. Soc.), 3, &c. 



181 Payne, Rec. of Engl. Cath. 145-6. 



192 He was only eight years old. The 

 tradition is that he died of eating some 

 poisonous berries in the garden at Stony- 

 hurst. 



133 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. 

 Non-jurors, 114, 200, 309. He had large 

 estates in Yorkshire and Northumberland 

 as well as in Lancashire. A catalogue 

 of the Shireburne deeds, made for him in 

 1715, is preserved at Leagram HalL He 

 compiled a pedigree of his family, now at 

 Lul worth. 



184 M.I. in Mitton Church ; Whitaker, 

 Whallty, ii, 491-2. 



