A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The Civil War affected the parish directly. The 

 principal landowner, Bartholomew Hesketh, tried to 

 preserve a strict neutrality ; but Gilbert Burscough 

 was killed at Newbury fighting for the king in 1 644, 

 while Edward Starkie served on the side of the Parlia- 

 ment. A somewhat important engagement took place 

 in Aughton itself, known as the 'battle of Ormskirk.' 

 A body of Cavaliers were retreating from the Fylde 

 district, when, on 20 August, 1644, they were over- 

 taken by Major-General Meldrum on the hill to the 

 south-west of Ormskirk. They stood in battalia, but 

 upon the first charge of the Parliament's musket-men, 

 fled, and were then routed by the horse ; three 

 hundred prisoners were taken, and Lord Byron and 

 Lord Molyneux were forced to leave their horses and 

 hide in a cornfield. Had it not been late in the 

 evening there would probably have been a greater 

 victory for Meldrum ; as it was, the scattered frag- 

 ments of the defeated party made their escape into 

 Cheshire. 1 Barnaby Molyneux had been deprived 



1717: John Bamber, Peter Butchard, James Halsall, 

 Christopher Ince, Thomas Leatherbarrow, and Thomas 

 Molyneux, of Lydiate. 5 The land tax return of 

 1798 shows that there were then a large number of 

 freeholders, the principal being Charles Stanley 

 and Catherine Stanley, Thomas Plumbe, and the 

 executors of Julia Clifton. 



In 1774 the first stage coach, running between 

 Liverpool and Preston, passed through the parish. 6 



Aughton is governed by a parish council. 



The church of St. Michael con- 



CHURCH sists of chancel with north chapel 



and vestry, north tower and spire, 



and nave with south porch and a large north aisle, and 



stands on a fairly level site some way to the west of 



the station, at the junction of two roads. 7 The south 



wall of the nave is the earliest part of the building, 



the blocked south doorway and the walling for some 



fifteen feet westward being what remains of a probably 



aisleless nave and chancel church of the middle of the 



AVGMTOTN CMVRCH 



H^ccnt. E3 i/^cent 



of two-thirds of his tenement for recusancy ; but his 

 son, Thomas, who was ' a Protestant and conform- 

 able,' applied for its restoration to him.* 



The hearth tax of 1666 found a total of 181 

 hearths in Aughton. 3 



The defeat of the Young Pretender, whose march 

 through Wigan had brought terror to the people of 

 the district, was hailed with great delight, the church- 

 wardens paying 1 6s. ' for ringing night and day for 

 good news about vanquishing the rebels,' and 21. 6J. 

 more for ringing when the news of Culloden came. 4 



The following ' Papists ' registered estates here in 



twelfth century. The internal dimensions must have 

 been about 50 ft. by 21 ft. for the nave, and perhaps 

 2 5 ft. by 1 8 ft. for the chancel ; of the latter no traces 

 now remain. In the thirteenth century the nave was 

 lengthened westward to approximately its present size, 

 the eastern part of the south wall rebuilt, and a 

 chapel added to the north of the chancel. Other 

 work, such as the building of a north aisle, may have 

 been done at this time, but no evidence remains on 

 the point. To the fourteenth century belongs the 

 tower, built at the west of the north chapel. A 

 north aisle to the nave was built, or rebuilt, at this 



i Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.) , pp. 

 204-6 ; Lanes. War (Chet. Soc.), p. 58. 

 Some relics of the battle are preserved in 

 the district and some in the British 

 Museum. Trcnchfield, near the place, 

 was a place of encampment about that 

 time for the troops besieging Lathom 



Royalist Camp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), iv, 143. 



9 Lay Subs. Lanes. 250-9. The most 



considerable houses were those of Gabriel 

 Hesketh and Edward Stanley, eight hearths 

 each, Rector Stananought, six, Edward 

 Starkie, Thomas Gerard, William Aspin- 

 wall, and Mr. Crosse with five each, and 

 Thomas Walsh, Richard Hesketh, and 

 Robert Charles four each ; there were five 

 houses of three hearths, and fifteen of 



4 Ncwstead, op. cit. p. 105. 



5 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non- 



286 



jurors, pp. 1 1 0-12, 126. James Hal- 

 sall had a son George a Jesuit j John 

 Bamber had lands also at Carleton and 

 Bispham. 



' Newstead, op. cit. p. 23. 



^ A view of the church about 1816 is 

 given in Gregson's Fragments (ed. Har- 

 land), p. 214. There is a description in 

 Glynne's Lanes. Churches (Chet. Soc.}, 

 p. 36. For the font see Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 (New Ser.), xvii, 64. 



