WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



William Aspinwall, who in the last-mentioned year 

 made a grant or transfer of lands to James Gorsuch. 1 

 Directly afterwards William Moorcroft released certain 

 lands to William Aspinwall, and others to Humphrey 

 Aspinwall ; the latter were in 1581 conveyed by 

 Humphrey and his wife Ellen to Roger Sankey. 2 



A charter by Thomas, son of William de Cowdray, 

 made at Aspinwall in 1354, shows that he held lands 

 there and elsewhere in Scarisbrick. 3 



Snape has some notice under Halsall. It was held 

 by the Scarisbricks of the Halsalls, as the inquisi- 

 tions show, 4 and parochially its position was uncertain. 

 It is now, however, reckoned as a hamlet of Scarisbnck 

 and within the parish of Ormskirk. It gave its name 

 to a local family of whom there are some traces. 4 



Two plots of land in Harleton given by Walter de 

 Scarisbrick to Burscough Priory became known as 

 Moorcroft, and gave a name to the family which held 

 it of the canons. 6 



John de Moorcroft's lands, or part of them, were 

 the subject of a dispute in 1292 ; he died seised of 

 them, and his son Robert held them for ten years or 

 more, when they were claimed from Robert's son 

 Hugh by his sisters Beatrice (wife of William Fraward) 

 and Margery (wife of Richard le Ditcher), and by 

 Agnes, daughter of the Roger just named. The claim, 

 however, failed. 7 The Hugh de Moorcroft successful 

 in 1 292 may be the Hudde father of Richard who 

 married Margery and had by her a son Richard, 

 enfeoffed of lands in 1327* William Moorcroft, 

 yeoman, who died in 1608, held a messuage and land 

 in Harleton and Scarisbrick of the earl of Derby, as of 

 his manor of Burscough, by 4^. rent ; also lands in 

 Aughton. His son Humphrey, who had married 

 Agnes Holland, was his heir, and living at Harleton. 9 



ORMSKIRK 



William Moorcroft, as a ' Papist,' in 1717 registered a 

 small estate here. 10 The family appears to have spread 

 to the adjoining townships. 11 



Shurlacres was adopted as surname by a local 

 family. 18 



In 1717 a number of ' Papists ' registered estates 

 here, including John Barton, Thomas Blundell, John 

 Bullen, Edward Cooke, William Culcheth, Robert 

 Draper, John and James Worthington, and Peter 

 Wright. 13 



The land-tax return of 1794 shows that Thomas 

 Eccleston paid about a third of the levy here ; the 

 remainder was in small sums. 



A school-chapel at Scarisbrick was founded in 1648, 

 when Henry Harrison alias Hill and Thomas Hill his 

 son and heir-apparent gave the Great Hey at Barclay 

 Hey to the inhabitants for a chapel or school. A 

 building was erected and was used as a chapel in 1650, 

 when Mr. Gawin Barkley, ' an able, orthodox, and 

 godly preaching minister,' was there, with a salary of 

 50 paid from Royalists' sequestrated estates." 



The Anglican church of St. Mark was built in 1 848 

 and consecrated in 1853 ; the vicar of Ormskirk is 

 patron. A district chapelry was formed for it in 

 i869. 15 



About 1840 Richard Sephton, a member of Orms- 

 kirk Congregational Church, gathered a Sunday school, 

 for which in 1 843 a small school-chapel was provided 

 at Drummersdale. 16 



Roman Catholic worship was suppressed for but a 

 short time at Scarisbrick, as the presence of Jesuit mis- 

 sionaries can be traced from the early years of the 

 seventeenth century. Several of them were members 

 of the Scarisbrick family, and a room in the hall was 

 used as a chapel until 1812. An old tithe barn was 



