A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



tolls were purchased by the local board in 1876 from 

 Lord Derby for 1,000.' By the Act of 1894 the 

 board became an urban district council ; the town is 

 divided into four wards, 2 each electing three members. 

 The council owns the water supply, but gas is supplied 

 by a private company established in 1833. 



The West Lancashire Rural District Council meets 

 at Ormskirk. 



While the crown held the manor disputes arose as 

 to the rights of the mills. 3 



Court rolls of the manor have been preserved for 

 the period during which the manor was vested in the 

 crown ; the courts seem to have been held in conjunc- 

 tion with those of Burscough. 4 There are other court 

 rolls at Knowsley. 



The following, as ' Papists,' registered estates here 

 in 1717: Thomas Bradshaw, maltster ; Hugh Bull- 

 ing, of Lathom ; Tidward Spencer, of Scarisbrick, and 

 Lawrence Wilson. 5 



The parish church has already been described. 



The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in 1 8 1 o 

 in Chapel Street, but in 1878 removed to the new 

 Emmanuel Church, near the railway station. 6 



In connexion with the Congregationalists the 

 Itinerant Society of Ministers began preaching here in 

 1801. The services were not continuous. In 1826 

 part of a silk factory in Burscough Street was secured 

 for a chapel, and a church was formed two years later. 

 In I 834 the present church was built in Chapel Street, 

 but the cause has never been very prosperous. 7 



The Presbyterian meeting-place had its origin in 



the ministrations of the ejected vicar of 1662. In 

 1689 his son and successor, Nathaniel Hey wood, used 

 Bury's house in Ormskirk as a meeting-place. 8 A 

 chapel was built in 1696 in Chapel Street. 9 In 1755 

 the income of a sum of I o was to be devoted to the 

 benefit of the minister who should officiate at the 

 chapel or meeting-house at Ormskirk ; it seems to 

 have been bequeathed by Alice Lawton. Henry 

 Holland, in 1776, left 100 as an endowment for 

 the Protestant Dissenting minister officiating in 

 Ormskirk. A few years later (1783) land was acquired 

 in Aughton Street on a 999 years' lease, and more in 

 subsequent years, on which a minister's house was 

 erected fronting the street, with a chapel and chapel- 

 yard behind, ' for religious worship for Protestant 

 Dissenters, usually nominated Presbyterians.' 10 Trus- 

 tees were from time to time appointed, the last in 

 1 88 1 ; and in 1890 they applied to the Charity Com- 

 missioners for power to sell the chapel and house, 

 stating that these had been entirely disused for four 

 years, 11 and that for thirty years there had been no 

 congregation, the Unitarian body being practically 

 extinct in Ormskirk and district. 18 



The adherents of the Roman Catholic Church have 

 always been numerous, and in the times of persecution 

 would be able to worship at some of the neighbouring 

 mansions, as Scarisbrick and Moor Hall. 13 A house in 

 Aughton Street, next to the Brewer's Arms, was known 

 as the ' Mass House.' " The use of it probably 

 continued until the chapel in Aughton was built, a 

 short distance outside the Ormskirk boundary. 15 



264 



