BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



MITTON (PART OF) 



great humanity, sympathy and concern for the good 

 of mankind . . . He particularly set his neighbour- 

 hood a-spinning of Jersey wool and provided a man to 

 comb the wool and a woman who taught them to 

 spin, whom he kept in his house and allotted several 

 rooms he had in one of the courts of Stonyhurst for 

 them to work in, and the neighbours came to spin 

 accordingly . . . from April 1699 to August 1701. 

 When they had all learnt he gave the nearest neigh- 

 bour each a pound or half a pound of wool ready for 

 spinning, and wheel, to set up for themselves ; which 

 did a vast deal of good to that north side of Ribble 

 in Lancashire." 13S 



The Duchess of Norfolk occasionally resided at 

 Stonyhurst in her husband's lifetime, and it became 

 her home in her widowhood, 173* to I754. 13 " She 

 held the estates in fee simple and bequeathed them 

 to the ncxt-of-kin, the issue of her aunt Elizabeth, 

 sister of Sir Nicholas, who had married William 

 Weld of Lulworth in Dorset. Their grandson, 

 Edward Weld, who died in 1761, became lord of 

 Aighton, but did not reside there, 137 and his son 

 Thomas 13tl in 1 794 gave the hall and 44 acres of 

 land around it to the Jesuit* of the Liege Academy, 13 ' 

 the successor of St. Omers, founded in 1592 ; and 

 they established the school there. Thomas Weld 

 had been a pupil of the college while it was stationed 

 at Bruges, 1762 to 1773, and had the satisfaction of 

 seeing his old school beginning to prosper in the 

 place he had given ; he died suddenly at Stonyhurst 

 I August 1810, having travelled thither to be present 

 at the opening of new buildings. 140 His son Thomas 

 Weld, left a widower, was ordained priest in 1821 

 and was appointed a cardinal in 1829. He sold 

 considerable parts of the Aighton estates and died in 

 l837. 141 His trustees and heir sold the manor of 

 Aighton to the college in 1841, subject to a rent- 

 charge of 6 for the poor of Leagr.im. 141 The 

 college also acquired various parts of the estates as 

 they were sold. 



In 1836 courts for Aighton and Chaigley were 

 held by Cardinal Weld, 1 " and the Aighton manor 

 court continued to be held down to 1900 by the 

 rector of Stonyhurst and the college trustees. 144 



Situated on the lower slope of Longridge Fell ' the 

 turrets of princely STONTHURST 14 rise amid a 

 pleasantly wooded country. Of the house 14 * that 

 existed prior to the time of Sir Rich.ird Shireburne 

 no portion now remains except a few fragments, here- 

 after referred to, which have been preserved. There is 

 enough evidence, however, in old prints and from other 

 sources to give some idea of the mediaeval mansion, 

 the principal part of which seems to have stood 

 somewhere about the north-east corner of the present 

 quadrangle. On this site there were standing well 

 into the 191)1 century a number of quaint and 

 ancient buildings 147 which when taken down revealed 

 traces of a structure said to have been of late I4th or 

 early ijth-century date. 148 The destruction of the 

 buildings known as the old infirmary, or Sparrow's 

 Hall, 14 * on the north side of the quadrangle in 1856 

 brought to light what were thought to be traces of 

 the chapel for which a licence was obtained in 1372, 

 including some carved oak spandrels similar in style 

 to those in the roof of Mitton Church, which date 

 from the late years of the reign of Edward III, 150 

 and in a further demolition in the kitchen court in 1861 

 a portion of an old window with moulded oak mullions, 

 said to have been of late 14th-century date, which 

 had been hidden by an 18th-century structure put 

 up in front of it, was discovered. 



These fragments, though revealing very little as to 

 the size or appearance of the mediaeval house, seem 

 to indicate that a building of some importance 

 occupied part of the present site some 200 yean or 

 more before the present building was begun by Sir 

 Richard Shireburne. To these buildings, whatever 

 they were like, Hugh Shireburne, the grandfather of 

 the Elizabethan builder, seems to have made con- 

 siderable additions about the year 1523, some 



u Whitakcr, Whallty, ii, 491-1. Sir 

 NichoUi and hit lady, among their other 

 charities, ued to give 'on All Souls' Day 

 a considerable deal of money to the poor ; 

 Lady Shireburne serving them with her 

 own handi that day.' 



The 'Stonyhurit Buck Hunt,' an old 

 ballad naming Sir Nicholai, the Duke of 

 Norfolk, Mr. Penketh and others, it 

 printed in A', and Q. (Ser. i), *, 503. 

 Many intereiting detailt of Sir Nicholat' 

 life and character will be found in Gerard, 

 op. cit. 40, 69-75. A note of Lady 

 Shireburnc'i nuncupative will it printed 

 in Payne' i Rec. of Engl. Calk. 26. 



"* A tettlement of the manort of 

 Aighlon, Bailey, Chaigley, Dutton, Wit- 

 well, Carleton, Hambleton, Leagram and 

 Ribcheiter, with other Shireburne estates, 

 wat made in 1719 by Thomas Duke of 

 Norfolk and Mary hit wife ; Pil. of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 284, m. Si. In 

 1737 there wat a recovery by Mary 

 Dowager Duchess of Norfolk ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Plea R. 544, m. 1 3. An ettate 

 map of 1733 ihowing the Shireburne 

 landt at that time it now at Stonyhurtt. 



The duchen married her kintman the 

 Hon. Peregrine Widdrington, a Jacobite 

 who wat 'out' in 1715; G.E.C. Com- 

 fit it Peerage, vi, 56. 



U7 For the later descents tee Burke, 

 Commontn, i, 198-9 and l.anJrd Gentry. 



M Thomai Weld in 1777 wai tenant 



of the hundred of Leyland ; the manort 

 of Aighton, Bailey and Chaigley, Chorley, 

 Longton, Great Carleton, Hambleton, 

 Dutton, Ribcheiter, Wiiwell, Howath 

 and Stidd ; the advowton of Mitton ; 

 l.mds, Ac. ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 625, 

 m. lod. 16, 40 (recovery). 



139 He afterwar.it gave Hodder Place 

 and landt there. A formal deed of gift 

 wai executed in 1809. See Gerard, op. 

 cit. 39,91, 115, 136. 



It appeari that Mr. Weld had in 1771 

 offered it to Biihop William Walton for 

 a resilience, on condition that the Jesuit 

 chaplain ihould remain, but the offer wai 

 declined. Afterward! in 1793 he would 

 have given it to the English itudentt 

 expelled from Douay by the French 

 Revolution, again on condition that the 

 Jetuitt ihould have charge ; Gillow, Btbl. 

 Diet, of Engl. Caili. iv, 327. 



140 Gerard, op. cit. 136. 



111 Ibid. 137 (there it a portrait, ibid. 

 92) ; Diet. Nat. Bag. He had a daughter 

 Mary Lucy, who married Lord Clifford 

 of Chudleigh. Hit brotheri were Joteph 

 Weld of Lulworth and George Weld of 

 Leagram. 



"' E*J. Char. Rtf. for Whalley (White- 

 well), 1901, p. 3. 



IU Bainrs, Ltmi. (ed. i), iii, 371 ; the 

 dependency on Clitheroe wai Mill recog- 

 nized. 



114 Information of Fr. J. Keating. 



144 Grindon, Lanci. 207, 331. 



144 In the following account of Stony- 

 hunt Hall use hai been made of the 

 Rev. John Gerard'a Stonjhurit College 

 Centenary Record, 1894, and alto of the 

 articlet by the Rev. C. S. Beauclerk in 

 the Sronyhunt Mag. 1885. The editors 

 alto with to put on record their thanks 

 to the authorities at the college for in- 

 formation and help most readily given. 



147 Gerard, op. eit. 47. 



"'One of thete relict it ttill to be 

 seen, though removed from itt original 

 position, in the lhape of a round-headed 

 ttone doorway, through which wat the 

 pastage from the house to the back pre- 

 mitet. . . . It it now (1894) in the inner 

 dairy' ; ibid. 48. 



>< Sparrow's Hall (to called after 

 Mr. Sparrow, Mr. Weld't steward, who 

 resided there) wai externally a building 

 of later and uncertain but probably 

 16th-century date, of little or no archi- 

 tectural interest. 



"* 'When the ceiling wai pulled down 

 an oaken roof wai laid bare, the tpandrela 

 of every panel being carved with rotes. 

 At one end of the room wai a recess ' ; 

 record of an eye-witnett of the demolition 

 printed in the Snnykunt Mag. i, 286. 

 All these spandrels have disappeared ex- 

 cept one, which, however, it not carved 

 with rotet { Sttajkurtt Mag. (188$), 

 101. 



