AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



dent parish '" ; the patronage is vested in the Dean 

 and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford. The follow- 

 ing have been curates and vicars : 



1716 William Birkct 

 c. 1738 John Penny"' 



1764 James Farrer" 4 



1774 Benjamin Wright 



1796 Thomas Stephcnson 



1808 Thomas Saul, M.A."* 



1813 Philip Gerard Slatter, M.A. (Christ Ch., 

 Oxf.) 



1815 James Radcliffe, M.A. (Christ Ch., Oxf.) 



1836 Thomas Benn 



1 873 Edmund Dawson Banitter, B.A. (Magdalen 

 Hall, Oxf.) 



189* James Thomas Kerby, M.A. (Dur.) 



1900 Joseph Rhodes, B.A. (Dur.) 



1909 Edwin Augustine Marshall Godson, M.A. 

 (Oxf.) 



A free grammar school, under the will of Henry 

 Colborne, was established in Goosnargh about 1673."* 

 At Whitechapel a school was founded in 1705 by 

 William Lancaster, a linen-weaver." 7 



The Congregationalists built a chapel at Ingle- 

 white in 1826. It has some endowments. 1 " 



As will have been gathered from the foregoing 

 account, the principal resident families adhered to 

 Roman Catholicism long after the Reformation. In 

 1632 the following compounded by small annual rents 

 for the two-thirds of their estates which should have 

 been sequestered for their recusancy : In Goosnargh 

 George Beesley, 3 ; Gabriel Hesketh, \ ; Roger 

 Hesketh, 6 1 3/. 4^. ; and Thomas Whittingham, 

 3 6f. %J. ; in Whittingham William Chorley, 2 ; 

 and Ellen Nelson, 3."' Bishop Gastrell recorded 

 145 known ' Papists ' in 1717, and in 1767 there 



K1RKHAM 



were 316 above sixteen yean of ge, with two 

 resident priests, in Goosnargh and *oo more in 

 Whitechapel. 1 " Nothing is known of the secret 

 ministrations of the I7th century, except that in 

 1643 the Ven. Thomas Whitaker was captured at 

 Edward Midgehall's house in Longley." 1 One of 

 the English Franciscans established a ' residence ' of 

 the Holy Cross at White Hill in 1687, obtaining a 

 plot of land from Cuthbert Hesketh.*" About a 

 century afterwards the present St. Francis' Chapel 

 was built at the Hill, 10 and this branch of the Order 

 served the mission till i8l3. m The work was 

 transferred to the English Benedictines about 1833, 

 and they retain it still."* The congregation has 

 dwindled away. 



To Newsham is supposed to have belonged Roger 

 Wrennall, executed at Lancaster in 1 6 1 6 for assisting 

 Fr. Thewlis in an attempt to escape from the castle.** 

 About 1715 there appear to have been two secular 

 priests resident in this part of the township one at 

 Crow Hall m and the other at Hough,** and they 

 ministered as opportunity afforded in the neighbour- 

 ing district. Mass was occasionally said at the 

 former house till about 1800 ; at the latter New- 

 house Chapel, St. Lawrence's, was built about 1740. 

 This was replaced in 1 806 by St. Mary's, Newhouse,"* 

 which in turn has been succeeded by the present 

 church in 1907. 



The principal charity*" is the 

 CHARITIES Hospital founded by William 

 Bushell's will, 1735. He devised 

 almost all his estate to trustees for maintaining 

 ' decayed gentlemen or gentlewomen or persons of the 

 better rank of both or either sex, inhabitants of the 

 towns or townships of Preston, Euxton, Goosnargh, 

 Whittingham, Fulwood and Elston . . . being 



*" By Order Jn Council 21 Jan. 

 1846. 



"'" He was alio master of the school. 

 In 1743 diere wai service three Sundays 

 in the month. 



'" The church papers in the Chester 

 Dioc. Registry begin with this curate. 



115 Correspondence in a dispute between 

 this incumbent and the parishioners is 

 printed by T. C. Smith, Longridge, 222-8. 

 He did not reside, and had another curacy 

 in Yorkshire. In consequence he resigned. 

 Whitechapel had then an income of 

 about 100 a rear ; it was unconsecrated, 

 but services were regularly held twice each 

 Sunday, except four times < year, when 

 the curate assisted at the Sacrament at 

 Goosnargh Church. 



' End. Char. Ref. JCirkharn, 38 ; 

 Bishop Gastrell gives a somewhat different 

 account ; Notitia, loc. cit. Richard Cook- 

 son, a native of the place, and school- 

 master for forty years, published Gooinargk 

 Pait and Prtunt, &c. ; he died in 1888 j 

 T. C. Smith, op. cit. )) 



117 End. Ckar. R,f>. Kirkham, 39 ; 

 Gastrell, op. cit. ii, 428. 



118 B. Nightingale, Land. Nonctnf. 

 i, 163-;. Preaching began in 1815 or 

 before. The chapel site was obtained by 

 little trick described loc. cit. 



'" Tram. Hiit. Soc. (new ser.), ixiv, 

 177-9. F r arreart there compounded 

 (mostly by conformists), John Adam son (for 

 John I.awrenson), i ; Nicholas Norn's of 

 Kidinape(for Grace Morton), /4 ; Robert 

 Boyes of Whittingham (for Robert Boyes, 

 his grandfather), z ; Edward Midgehall 

 (for George Midgehall his father), i ; 



Matthew Latus (for William Latus de- 

 ceased), l. 



The Thomas Whittingham named in 

 the text was no doubt the Mr.' T. W. 

 living in Threlfall in 1625 ; Fishwick, 

 op. cit. 67. 



110 Tram. Hill. So(. (new ser.), xviii, 

 217. 



B1 Challoner, Minianary Prittn, no. 

 1 86; Whitaker 'was apprehended by a 

 gang of priest-catchers, armed with clubs 

 and swords ; who, it seems, fell to club 

 law with their prisoner immediately and 

 ceased not to beat and abuse him (threaten- 

 ing also to murder him on the spot) till 

 they had extorted a confession from him 

 that he was a priest.' 



M Thaddeus, Franciuani in England, 

 1867. A few years after the Revolution 

 the station was described as consisting 

 of ' a chapel and a little dwelling place at 

 one end. Cuthbert Hesketh gave 200 

 (yielding 10 * year) for the missioner, 

 who was bound " to say two masses per 

 week for the said Mr. Cuthbert and his 

 wife, to serve the poor Catholics of the 

 parishes of Goosnargh and Chipping," and 

 if permitted make his abode and live at 

 the chapel of White Hill. The chapel 

 being uncovered by the mob, the walls are 

 ordered to be taken down, and all the 

 materials either sold or laid up safe' ; 

 ibid. 



m Gillow, BiU. Diet, of Engl. Calk. 

 iii, z6o. The registers at the Hill begin 

 bout 1770. 



*" The list appointment to the Hill 

 was Fr. Ansel m Mill ward, 1809-13. 

 Afterwards the Franciscan at Lee House 



205 



seems to have served the Hill also, until 

 1833. The English Province of the 

 Order was dying out, ending about 1840. 



" 4 Gillow, loc. cit. j Trani. Hia. Sot. 

 (new ser.), xiii, 168. 



** Wrennall was a weaver, in prison 

 for religion ; Challoner, Miuhnary I'nnti, 

 no. 176. The cause of his beatification 

 was introduced at Rome in 1886 ; Pollen, 

 Acti of Martyri, 382. 



" Gillow, Haydock Paferi, 67-8. In 

 1716 Samuel Peploe, the vicar of Preston, 

 reported to the government that Crow 

 Hall was devoted to 'superstitious uses'; 

 the estate went in William Shepherd's 

 name, and the lease was supposed to be 

 in his name in trust for the priests ; 

 ibid, citing P.R.O. Forfeited Estates, 

 P 134. 



** Ibid. 69 ; Gillow, BiU. Did. tfEngl. 

 Calk, i, 411. Vicar Peploe denounced 

 this mission also, but apparently without 

 success. John Swarbrick, a later priest 

 in charge, died in 1731, bequeathing his 

 effects to the building of * chapel at 

 Midgehall. It was, however, built at 

 Newhouse in Newsham, Edmund Fish- 

 wick of that place being a benefactor. 

 The mob at the turbulent Preston 

 election of 1768 marched out to destroy 

 the chapel, but were persuaded to retreat 

 by a friendly Protestant. 



" Haydock Paftn, 73. 



*** An official inquiry into the charities 

 was made in June 1903, and the account 

 in the text and notes is taken from the 

 report published in 1904- This report 

 includes a reprint of the earlier one, 

 made in 1824. 



