A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Bradley and William Rodes so contributed in I 543 ** 

 and John Rodes in 1597, in which year Thomas 

 Wawne was in ward to the queen. 46 John Rodes 

 and William Wawne paid for their lands in 1626, and 

 many others paid as non-communicants. 46 Thomas 

 Bourne paid 10 on refusing knighthood in l6^l. a 



James Bradley 48 and Ellen Wilkinson, 49 recusants, 

 had two-thirds of their estates sequestered during the 

 Commonwealth. Thomas Eccles of Thornley, as a 

 'Papist,' registered his estate in 1717, as also did 

 Stephen Dilworth. 50 The land tax return of 

 1787 shows that the following were chief land- 

 owners : Lord Derby, Robert Rhodes and Roger 

 Kenyon. 51 



Archbishop Sancroft about 1685 purchased farms 

 in Thornley called New House and West House, and 



gave them to augment the stipends of the vicar of 

 Blackburn and the curates of the chapels of ease. 52 



A decree concerning the wastes of Thornley, 

 Wheatley and Studley was made in the time of 

 James I. 53 



The only place of worship is St. William's Roman 

 Catholic church, Lee House, founded by the above- 

 named Thomas Eccles in I738. 54 He gave it to the 

 English Franciscans, and on their approaching ex- 

 tinction in 1826 the secular clergy took charge for a 

 time ; but owing to a dispute between the Rev. 

 Francis Trappes and the vicar apostolic the chapel 

 was closed from 1841 to 1859. 55 Since then it has 

 been served by the English Benedictines. 66 In the 

 churchyard is the base of an old cross removed from 

 the road between Chipping and Longridge. 57 



RIBCHESTER 



RIBCHESTER 

 DILWORTH 



Ribchester proper, together with Dutton and Dil- 

 worth, is in the hundred of Blackburn, but the re- 

 maining township is in Amounderness. The area of 

 the whole, including Stidd, is 8,437 acres, and the 

 population in 1901 was 5,912. 



The history of the town goes back to Roman times, 

 numerous vestiges of its former occupation still re- 

 maining. 1 Camden says that the inhabitants used the 

 following proverb in his time 2 : 



It is written upon a wall in Rome, 



'Ribchester was as rich as any town in Christendom.* 



Before the Conquest the whole formed part of Earl 

 To.tig's Preston fee, and was within the hundred of 

 Amounderness. During the I2th century one part 

 seems to have been included in the honor of Clitheroe, 

 and thus Ribchester, Dilworth and Dutton became 

 transferred to Blackburn Hundred, the other town- 

 ships, Alston and Hothersall, remaining in Amounder- 

 ness. 3 Ecclesiastically there was no change ; the parish 

 was in the diocese of York, archdeaconry of Richmond 

 and deanery of Amounderness. 



The mediaeval history is obscure 4 ; the resident 

 lords and landowners are scarcely known. Leland 

 about i 540 made the following notes : ' Ribchester 

 is a seven miles above Preston on the further ripe 

 of Ribble as Preston is. Ribchester is now a poor 

 thing ; it hath been an ancient town. Great squared 



DUTTON 



ALSTON WITH HOTHERSALL 



stones, vaults, and antique coins be found there : and 

 there is a place where that the people fable that the 

 Jews had a temple.' 6 The Reformation left traces in 

 the prosecution of recusants, some of the gentry and a 

 large portion of the yeomanry remaining faithful to 

 the Roman Catholic religion. 6 Thomas Cottam, a 

 native of the parish, was executed for his priesthood 

 in 1582. Though the Civil War passed over with 

 few sequestrations, the Jacobite rising of 1715 re- 

 ceived much support. Thomas Hothersall of Hother- 

 sall was outlawed for his part in it, as were Robert 

 Daniell and another ; while Jonathan Winckley and 

 Thomas Shuttleworth, both of Alston, were executed. 

 In more recent times the parish has remained 

 comparatively isolated. The manufactures are small ; 

 wood-turning, cotton-weaving and quarrying employ 

 the people. The agricultural land is employed 

 almost entirely for pasture, as the following return 6a 

 shows : 



Arable Permanent Woods and 



Ribchester, Dutton, 

 Hothersall . . 



Longridge, Alston, 

 Dilworth . 



land 

 ac. 



3 

 36 



grass 

 ac. 



4,309* 



2,75 



plantations 

 ac. 



34i 

 82 



39 7,59J 4 22 i 



44 Subs. R. Lanes, bdle. 130, no. 125. 



44 Ibid. bdle. iji, no. 274. 



46 Ibid. no. 317. 



47 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 217. * Royalist Camp. Papers, i, 217. 



45 Cal. Com. for Comp. v, 3200. The 

 guardians of John Wilkinson, the heir, 

 procured a discharge, the sequestration 

 having been made in error. John was 

 grandson of Ellen Bradley. 



50 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non- 

 jurors, 136, 150. Edward Eccles was a 

 recusant in t668 ; Smith, Chipping, 30 ; 

 also 254-8, and Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc.), 

 v, 152. 



51 Land tax returns at Preston. 



58 Abram, Blackburn, 282 ; End. Char. 

 Rep. for Blackburn, 1904. 



53 Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 276. 



M T. C. Smith, Chipping, 1 60-? ; 

 Thaddeus, Franciscans in En^l. 159. The 

 first priest-in-charge Germain Helme 

 (usually called Holmes) of the Garstang 

 family was arrested on suspicion in 1 745, 

 during the Young Pretender's rising, and 

 died a prisoner in Lancaster Castle the 

 following year ; Gillow, Bibl. Diet. of Engl, 

 Cath. iii, 259-64. 



55 Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc.), iii, 139. 

 The disputes were carried to the Roman 

 courts and decided in favour of Fr. Trappes. 



66 Trans, lint. Soc. (new 3er.), xiii, 169. 



67 T. C. Smith, Longridge, 200. 



1 The Chester brook or Castel brook 

 named ill some of the local charters pro- 

 bably commemorates the Roman citadel ; 

 see I'.C.H. Lanes, ii, 519; also Watkin, 

 Roman Lanes. ; Shortt in T. C. Smith, 

 RiU/iesfer ; Garstang, Roman Ribchestei ; 



Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xvii, 189; 

 xviii, 197 ; Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. 

 vii, 229 ; xvii, 235. 



2 Britannia (ed. 1695), 750. 



3 About 1350 'the Sigrop clough be- 

 tween Ribchester and Hothersall' was 

 ' the division between Amounderness and 

 Blackburnshire ' ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 



4*5- 



4 In the time of pestilence 1349-50 

 the Archdeacon of Richmond alleged that 

 IOO men and women had died in the 

 parish of Ribchester, and he was allowed 

 probate dues amounting to 331. \d. ; 

 Engl. Hist. Rev. v, 529. 



6 Itin. iv (i), 22. 



6 T. C. Smith, Ribchester, 60-5, gives 

 details and lists of names for the 17th 

 century. 



6a Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



