A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



1702 Timothy Ellison ' 

 ,723 - Clayton' 

 1735 Thomas Mercer * 

 to 1772 James Mount, B.A. 

 1772 Lancelot Graham 



1793 Robert Cort 4 



1794 Richard Formby, LL.B. (Brasenose 



Coll. Oxf.) s 

 1832 Isaac Bowman 

 1 847 Lonsdale Formby, B.A. (St. Catharine's 



Coll. Camb.) " 



1894 Thomas Bishop, M.A. (St. Catharine's 

 Coll. Camb.) 



St. Luke's Church was built in 1852-5 near the 

 site of the ancient chapel ; ' a district was formed for 

 it in 1888. Holy Trinity Church was erected in 

 1890, and a district was assigned in 1893.' At 

 Ainsdale, St. John's has been licensed for services 

 since 1887." 



A school was erected on the waste in 1659 by the 

 inhabitants ; an endowment was given in 1703 by 

 Richard Marsh. 10 



The Church of England Victoria Home for Waifs 

 and Strays was opened in 1897. 



Protestant Nonconformity appears to have been un- 

 known in Formby until 1 8 1 6, when the Rev. George 

 Greatbatch, a Congregationalist minister of Southport, 

 preached here. No regular services were held by this 

 denomination until 1881, when the Assembly Room 

 was used ; a school chapel was opened two years 

 later." The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in 

 1877 ; they have also a mission room. 



The Wesleyan Methodists and the Congregationa- 

 lists also have places of worship at Ainsdale, the latter 

 an offshoot of the Southport churches, 1877-9." 



As already stated, the greater part of the population 

 adhered to the Roman Church at the Reformation, and 

 so late as 1718 Bishop Gastrell found that a quarter 

 of the inhabitants were still faithful. 13 In 1767 the 

 number of * papists ' had increased to 363. 14 The 

 names of the priests have not been recorded before 

 1701, when Fr. Richard Foster, S.J., was here, his 

 stipend being 16, of which 10 was given by the 



people." The Jesuits had charge of the chapel down 

 to 1779, Dut secular priests also visited the place. 

 After a short interval one of the latter, the Jesuit 

 order having been suppressed, received charge here in 

 1784, and the succession is continuous from that time. 

 A new chapel was built in 1798 on the old site. 1 * 

 The church of Our Lady of Compassion was erected 

 in 1864 at some distance from the old one. 17 



The church of St. Anne, Freshfield, erected in 

 1886, is connected with a girls' industrial school in 

 charge of the Sisters of Charity, formerly carried on 

 in Mason Street, Liverpool. It is served from Formby. 

 At Freshfield also is St. Peter's school for Foreign 

 Missions, begun in 1884, associated with the Mill 

 Hill College founded by the late Cardinal Vaughan. 1 ' 



KIRKBY 



Cherchebi, Dom. Bk. ; Karkebi, 1176 ; Kirkeby, 

 1237- 



This township has a length from east to west of 

 4^ miles, with an average breadth of a mile and a half. 

 The area is 4,175 acres, 19 and in 1901 the population 

 was 1,283. The country is open, generally flat, with 

 a slight rise in the centre of the township of some 

 1 30 ft. above sea-level. The soil is mostly reclaimed 

 ' moss,' portioned out into arable fields, divided by 

 low hawthorn hedges. There is but little pasture. 

 Potatoes, wheat, and oats are largely cultivated in a 

 sandy and clayey soil. There are scattered farmsteads 

 and isolated plantations of different kinds of trees, with 

 undergrowths of rhododendrons. These plantations 

 are strictly preserved, and afford cover to much game, 

 chiefly hares and pheasants. There still exists in the 

 east of the township a patch of original moss-land 

 covered with birch-trees, heather, and cotton-sedge. 

 Stacks of peat are to be seen piled up by the sides of 

 deep ditches which intersect the moss. The roads 

 are typical of this part of Lancashire, being made of 

 roughly-laid sets. The quaint fences of flag-stones, 

 clamped together with iron bands, are frequently seen 

 in the neighbourhood. The geological formation of 



