Chap. 11. PAKISH OF GOOSNARGH. 241 



Wesleyan Cmmcn. 



The Wesleyan Chapel is close to Goosnargli "village." Itwaserected 

 by subscription in 1832, and was enlarged in 1869. It is a very plain 

 building indeed — so plain one would hardly take it for a chapel at all. 

 It will seat 150 people. Ministers are supplied every Sunday by the 

 Garstang circuit. 



The " sworn men" or " twenty-four" of Goosnargh still meet every 

 year. Theii- duties are, however, considerably shorn of their former 

 importance. They are supposed to have been in existence long before 

 1634, the year in which the first complete list is given. Their records 

 are curious and amusing. 



The Goosnargh Hunt is also kept up. 



Local Celebrities, 

 rev. fr. william marsden. 



"Probably it was," says Monsiguor GradweU, " early in the reign 

 of Elizabeth that William Marsden was born, at a small farm in 

 Goosnargh, called ' The Mountain.' " Probably, too, he was a play- 

 fellow of the Eev. George Beesley, who Hved only three miles away, 

 at "The Hill." 



" "We have, unfortunately," continues Monsignor GradweU, " no 

 particulars of the way in which they procured the necessary preliminary 

 education. All we know is that William Marsden arrived at Eheims, 

 Jidy 10th, 1580. Robert Anderton, of the Andertons of Lostock, was 

 a companion of Marsden. On March 25th, 1581, they received Minor 

 Orders in the Church of Our Lady at Rheims, at the hands of the 

 Bishop of Chalons. On February 4th, 1586, the two young men set 

 out together to confront the labours and risks of a priest's life in their 

 own country. A storm arising in the Channel, they were cast on the 

 shores of the Isle of Wight. They had scarcely set foot on shore 

 before they feU into the hunters' nets. Soon after they were brought 

 to the bar, where the judge examined them, and finally condemned 

 them to death, and they suffered the usual butchery ' with constancy 

 and intrepidity, and so obtained a noble martyrdom.' They were 

 executed in the Isle of Wight on the 25th April.'" 



•Liverpool Catholic Diocesan Almanack— 1888. 



