A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



of the gentry remained attached to the Roman 

 Catholic religion ; and Woolston and Rixton pro- 

 vided refuges for the missionary priests in the times 

 of persecution. How the townsmen of Warrington 

 were affected is not so clear. After the Restora- 

 tion congregations of Presbyterians and Quakers were 

 formed, and have continued to the present. James I 

 visited Sir Thomas Ireland at Bewsey in 1 6 1 7 ' in his 

 progress from Scotland southwards. 



The Civil War necessarily affected Warrington 

 through the town's situation on the road to the north, 

 which made it ' the principal key of Lancashire.' 

 Hitherto the people of the district had known of war 

 only at a distance, 1 now they had personal experi- 

 ence of it. The earl of Derby in September, 1 642, 

 inarched through the town with 4,000 men for his 

 futile attack on Manchester ; s and at the end of 

 November he was stationed at Warrington, which he 

 made a garrison, in order to secure the passage of the 

 Mersey. 4 



Sir William Brereton was defeated on 3 April, 

 1643, at Stockton Heath when advancing to attack 

 Warrington. 5 Sir William afterwards crossed the 

 Mersey and attacked the town from the west ; but 

 Lord Derby began to set the town on fire, on which 

 the parliamentary forces desisted. 6 Colonel Edward 

 Norris, eldest son of the lord of Speke, was left in 

 command of the king's garrison. He was attacked on 

 22 May by Sir William Brereton, and after six days' 

 siege gave up the town, leaving arms, ammunition, 

 and provisions behind. On Trinity Sunday, 28 May, 

 Sir George Booth, a parliamentary commander, and 



lord of the manor, made a formal entry into the town, 

 and was received by the people with the usual tokens 

 of joy. 7 The townspeople were treated with great 

 leniency by the victors. 8 



The next five years were uneventful, but the duke 

 of Hamilton's Scottish force on being defeated at 

 Winwick 19 August, 1648, retreated to Warrington, 

 where 4,000 surrendered upon quarter for life arms, 

 ammunition, and horses being relinquished. 9 There 

 were skirmishes near the town in 1651 when Charles II 

 with the Scottish army forced the bridge on their 

 march to Worcester, 10 and in August, 1659, part of 

 Sir George Booth's troops, after their defeat at 

 Winnington, surrendered at Warrington to the parlia- 

 mentary garrison." 



The rising of 1745 occasioned the partial destruc- 

 tion of the bridge in order to prevent the Young 

 Pretender from crossing the Mersey there. Some 

 Highlanders are said to have been captured near 

 Rixton, at which point the duke of Cumberland 

 crossed the Mersey in his pursuit. 1 * In 1798 a body 

 of volunteers was raised, on threats of a French inva- 

 sion, but their only active service was in suppressing 

 a riot in Bridge Street in 1799." In 1859 a corps ot 

 volunteers was formed ; it is now known as the 

 I st V.B. Prince of Wales Volunteers (South Lan- 

 cashire Regiment). 



In 1693 an inquiry was held at Warrington as to 

 certain lands and moneys devoted to ' superstitious 

 uses,' Lord Molyneux, Sir William Gerard of Ashton, 

 William Standish of Woolston, and other gentlemen 

 of the neighbourhood having been reported to the 



