A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



watch escapement was invented about 1700 by Peter 

 de Beaufre ; these watches were extensively made in 

 the town, and thence came the trade name. 1 



Several tokens were issued by tradesmen here in 

 the seventeenth century. 1 



' In the old coaching days Ormskirk was a centre 

 of great activity, the coaches on the turnpike road 

 between Liverpool and Preston halting in the town 

 for a " change " both for man and beast, and to set 

 down and pick up passengers.' 3 The Directory of 

 1825 enumerates twenty-seven inns here, and a list 

 of nine coaches passing through the town daily, or 

 starting from it. 



' The Curfew bell is rung at nine in summer and 

 eight in winter . . . Within recent years there was 

 also continued to be rung, for six weeks before Christ- 

 mas and six weeks after, the bell known as the 

 " Prentice Bell." ' * 



The market cross of Ormskirk stood on the site of 

 the present clock tower. Outside the town to the 

 north was Stockbridge Cross, the pedestal of which 

 remains. 5 



The legend as to the two sisters and the tower and 

 spire of the church is well known. 6 



There are two sundials in the churchyard, one 

 against the south wall, the other on a pillar by the 

 porch. 



The head of a pike was dug up in the churchyard 

 in 1879.' 



The plague or sweating sickness is said to have 

 visited the town several times during the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries, the last occurrence being 

 in 1647. 'God's providence is our habitation' is 

 carved on the front of a house to the east of the town, 

 as a commemoration of the escape of its dwellers at 

 that time. 8 



The churchwardens' accounts of 1665 and 1666 

 record a number of small payments for repairs to the 

 church and its fittings ; also for the destruction of 



' vermin,' including orchants (hedgehogs), planets 

 (magpies), gels (jays), and maulderts (moles). 9 



When about 1 1 89 the church was 

 MANOR given to the new priory of Burscough the 

 description used, ' the church of Orms- 

 kirk with all its appurtenances,' 10 suggests that there 

 was here a rectory manor, subordinate to Lathom, but 

 having distinct limits which probably coincided with 

 those of the present township." 



In 1286 the canons obtained from the king and 

 from Edmund, earl of Lancaster, the grant of a weekly 

 market on Thursday at their manor or town of 

 Ormskirk, and an annual fair, to continue for five 

 days, commencing on the eve of the Decollation of 

 St. John Baptist (29 August). They were to pay 

 to the earl, by the hand of his bailiffs of Liver- 

 pool, a mark of silver every year, in lieu of the 

 stallage or toll payable to the earl." An additional 

 fair, on Whit Tuesday, was granted by Edward IV, 

 in 1461." 



These charters were followed or 

 BOROUGH accompanied by the creation of Orms- 

 kirk into a free borough ; Warin, 

 prior of Burscough, and the canons granting that the 

 burgesses and their heirs should have a free borough 

 there for ever, as also ' all right customs and liberties 

 as is more fully contained in the King's Charter.' 

 Each burgess was to have an acre of land to his bur- 

 gage, with appurtenances, and to pay I zJ. a year ; his 

 corn was to be ground at the canons' mills ; he might 

 sell or grant his burgage as he pleased, provided that 

 the service due to Burscough was secured ; and the 

 court of pleas called Portman mote was to be held 

 every three weeks. The holder of a toft within the 

 borough was to pay 6J. a year for it. 14 Many of the 

 gentry of the surrounding country possessed burgages 

 in the town, notably the lords of Lathom and Scaris- 

 brick and the canons of Burscough themselves, the 

 inhabitants mercers, glovers, and other tradesmen 



1 Lane:, and Ches. Antiij. Sac. v, 87, 

 where six are described. 

 8 Lea, op. cit. n. 

 < Ibid. 52. 



Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 148, 

 154. 



6 HarUnd and Wilkinson, Legends and 

 Traditions, 47. 



1 Lea, op. cit. 58. 



8 Lea, op. cit. 6. 



9 Trans. Hist. Sue. xxx, 169, &c. 



10 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 350. 



Some early charters concerning Orms- 

 kirk and Burscough have been preserved. 

 Henry son of Thomas de Ormskirk re- 

 leased to the prior and canons the land his 

 father had held of them, and placed him- 

 self under the jurisdiction of the arch- 

 deacon of Chester, under a penalty of 

 5 marks payable to the fabric of 

 St. John's Church at Chester. Burscough 

 Reg. fol. 12. Henry de Ormskirk, son of 

 Alan, sometime canon of Burscough, for 



5 J 



rks sterlin 



remainder to his sister Beatrice ; this 

 grant to hold good even should the house 

 be removed, re-dedicated, or placed in 

 subjection to some other house. Duchy 

 of Lane. Anct. D. L. 270. This appears 

 to be the original grant of the lands called 

 Edgeacres and Ashenhead. Alice or Avice, 

 formerly wife of Henry dc Ashenhead 

 possibly the same Henry released to the 

 prior and canons her late husband's lands 

 in Ormskirk in exchange for a grant to 

 her and Alan her son (for life) of land in 

 Brackenthwaite ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, 

 App. 197. Alan, the son, gave a similar 

 release. Ibid. 



5ugh, widow, gave in free 

 alms to the canons all her right in Gerstan 

 (in Ormskirk), the bounds of which began 

 by the land of Ralph son of Alexander, 

 went down by the ditches as far as the 

 ditch of Ashenhead (Asseneheved), and by 

 that ditch as far as Lydeyate, thence in a 

 straight line to the boundary of Birklands, 



Ormskirk, with homages, services, and 

 reliefs. Deft. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 196. 

 This is no doubt the land in Ormskirk 

 and Edgeacres of which the grant to 

 Henry is extant. Alan the clerk having 

 . become a brother of the house, Henry 

 the prior and the convent, with the con- 

 sent of Robert de Lathom, gave his land 

 to Henry his son, for a rent of lid. with 



Lane. Anct. D. ^589. The seal has a 

 fleur-de-lys, with the legend s' MARGERIE 

 DE PARIS. Margery, widow of John de 

 Paris, quitclaimed to the canons about 

 1 280 all her right in her late husband's 

 holding j Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 



Derby Street. 



12 The king's charter, dated 28 Apr 



1 286, is copied in the Burscough Registe 



262 



fol. 13 ; also Chart. R. 14 Edw. I, m. 4, 

 n. 23, and Add. MS. 20518. The earl's 

 Charter, 29 September, 1286, is among 

 the Duchy of Lane. Misc. Charters, i, 

 fol. 45. 



ls Duchy of Lane. Royal Charters, 

 n. 385. There was expressly added the 



measures and weights in the town of 

 Ormskirk. 



14 Burscough Reg, fol. 15. In 1292 the 

 prior was called upon to show by what 

 warrant he claimed market and fair in 

 Ormskirk. On producing the charter it 

 was argued that it did not justify him in 

 claiming fines nor breach of the assize of 

 bread and ale : the jury, however, upheld 

 his reply that the words, ' all the liberties 

 and free customs ' of such a market and 

 fair, were sufficient warrant. Plae. dt 

 qua tTarr. (Rec. Com.), 370. Subse- 



plaining that the market and fair injured 

 him by reducing his toll of the wapentake, 

 secured an additional J mark a year from 

 the canons. Thus in 1322 the sum of 

 201. was paid by them; Dods. MSS. 

 cxxxi, fol. 36*. A further confirmation 

 of the rights of the priory regarding the 

 market and fair of Ormskirk was ob- 

 tained from Henry, earl of Lancaster, in 



one in 1354 from his son Henry after he 

 had been created duke of Lancaster ; Bur- 

 scough Reg. fol. 14. 



