A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Institution Name Patron Cause of Vacancy 



8 Mar. 1757 . Henry Mordaunt, B.A. 1 . . . . C. Mordaunt .... res. J. Stanley 



20 Aug. 1778 . Glover Moore, B.A. 8 Charles L. Mordaunt . . d. H. Mordaunt 



20 June, 1809 . Thomas Blundell, M.A. 3 .... T. Blundell d. G. Moore 



2 6 Nov. 1 8 1 6 . Richard Loxham, M.A. 4 .... Bridget and Alice Blundell d. T. Blundell 



6 Sept. 1843 . Richard Leigh, M.A. 5 R. B. B. H. Blundell . . d. R. Loxham 



ii Aug. 1863 . Thomas Blundell Hollinshead Blun- H. B. H. Blundell 



dell, M.A. 6 

 1 8 Feb. 1906 . James Gerard Leigh, M.A.' . 





Col. Blundell 



res. R. Leigh 



d. T. B. H. Blundell 



Halsall has obviously been regarded as a ' family 

 living ' from early times, as witness the promotion of 

 mere boys to the rectory because they were relatives 

 of the patron. 



Master Richard Halsall, a younger son of Sir Henry 

 Halsall, was rector for fifty years, from 1513 to 1563, 

 seeing all the changes of the Tudor period. 8 In 

 I 541-2, besides the rector and the two chantry priests 

 there were attached to Halsall parish three clergy, two 

 paid by the rector, and perhaps serving the chapels of 

 Melling and Maghull, and one paid by James Halsall. 9 

 In 1548 there was much the same staff, six names 

 being given, though ' mortuus ' is marked by the 

 bishop's registrar against one. 10 In 1562 the rector 

 appeared at the visitation by proxy " probably he 

 was too infirm to come. John Prescott the curate 

 came in person ; the third resident priest died about 

 the same time. In I 563 the new rector was absent at 

 Oxford ; Prescott was still curate, but was ill subse- 

 quently ' defunctus ' was written against his name. 

 Two years later Master Cuthbert Halsall" appeared 

 by proxy, and the curate was too ill to come. 13 



It would thus appear that the pre-Reformation staff of 

 six not a large one for the parish had been reduced 

 to an absentee rector and a curate ' indisposed ' at the 

 visitation. 14 George Hesketh, 15 the next rector, was in 

 i 590 described as 'no preacher.' 16 The value of the 

 rectory was 200, but the parson, ' by corruption,' 

 had but 30 of it." His successor, Richard Halsall, 

 was in 1610 described as ' a preacher.' 18 



On the ejection of the Royalist Peter Travers or 

 Travis about 1645 Nathaniel Jackson was placed in 

 charge of Halsall. He soon relinquished it, and in 

 December, 1645, 'Thomas Johnson, late of Rochdale, 

 a godly and orthodox divine,' was required to officiate 

 there forthwith and preach diligently to the par- 

 ishioners ; paying to Dorothy Travers a tenth part of 

 the tithes for the maintenance of her and her children." 

 On 23 August, 1654,3 formal presentation to Halsall 

 was exhibited by Mary Deane, widow of Major- 

 General Richard Deane, the true patroness ; she 

 of course nominated Thomas Johnson. 20 He, as also 

 William Aspinall of Maghull and John Mallinson of 

 Melling, joined in the ' Harmonous Consent ' of 1648. 



