A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



down to the suppression of chantries by Henry VIII 

 and Edward VI. 1 In 1554 the confiscated lands 

 were granted to Sir Thomas Holcroft/ who sold them 

 to Richard Mascy as stated above. 



For the next century the chapel was probably used 

 but occasionally; 3 there was no endowment 4 and the 

 chief landowner attended the statutory services only 

 on compulsion, so that neither he nor the rector of 

 Warrington had any inducement to keep it open. 

 Under the Commonwealth an additional 40 was 

 granted from the sequestered revenues of Royalists, but 

 this would cease at the Restoration. 5 The recommen- 

 dation to make it parochial was not acted upon. The 

 building decayed and became ruinous, but soon after 

 the Revolution the bishop of Chester found means to 

 compel the lord of Rixton, ' a Papist,' to rebuild it and 

 keep it in repair ; and Bishop Gastrell about 1718 

 found that an addition of $os. had been acquired as the 

 interest of various benefactions. 8 The church, now 

 called St. Helen's, is a plain brick building, restored in 

 1882.' The rector of Warrington is patron. Among 

 the incumbents have been : 



oc. 1 609 Richard Garnet 8 



c. 1646-50 Henry Atherton 9 

 oc. i69 George Hatten 10 

 c. 1712 John Collier" 



priest at HoIIinfare chapel, also the accus- 

 tomed 'average'; Mascy D. R. 155. 



In the previous year William Mascy, as 

 patron of the chantry, had recommended 

 his feoffees to present his chaplain, Randle 

 Woodward, at the next vacancy ; Risley 

 D. at Hale, . no. It is not known 

 that this was acted on, as in 1535 the 

 cantarist was William Mastyn (? Mascy) ; 

 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 219. 



1 At the suppression William Mascy 

 was the priest in charge ; he celebrated, 

 kept the obit, and distributed 55. a year to 

 the poor, according to his trust. There 

 was no plate, and the endowment was the 

 looj. a year at first granted ; Raines, 

 Chant. (Chet. Soc.), 61. He was thirty- 

 four years of age. 



" By patent dated at Winchester, 23 

 July, 2 Mary, at the time of the queen's 

 marriage to Philip of Spain ; Mascy D. 

 R. i6oB.; Pat. 2 Mary, pt. ii. Edward 

 VI had granted a 21 years' lease of the 

 chantry property to Sir William Norris in 

 ,548, at a rent of 5; Mascy D. R. 

 i6oc. Licence to alienate the chantry 

 lands to Richard Mascy was granted by 

 Philip and Mary to Sir Thomas Holcroft 

 in 1556 ; ibid. R. 163. The rent of 5 

 is not named, but would no doubt be pay- 

 able by the new grantee. 



8 In 1590 there was 'no preacher* 

 there ; Lydiate Hall, 248. Hamlet Persi- 

 val is named as curate in i5 9 4;Scholes 

 and Pimblett, Bolton, 249. It had 'no 

 certain curate' about 1612 ; Kenyan MSS. 

 (Hist. MSS. Com.), 12. 



4 Possibly in consequence of the reports 

 quoted in the last note an allowance of 

 /4 1 2s., the net receipt from the chantry 

 lands, was granted from the duchy funds 

 towards the stipend of 'a preaching minis- 

 ter ' ; Commonwealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 53. 



6 Ibid, also flund. Mini. Accts. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, passim. 



Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 139 5 

 Gastrell notes that the building was be- 

 lieved to have been consecrated. Baptism 

 was administered in it. 



No dedication was known to Canon 

 Raines, the editor of Gastrell ; St. Helen 

 may have been suggested by the name 



1784 James Hartley" 



1798 William Wright" 



1829 Peter Steele Dale" 



1871 George Farrar Roberts, M.A. (Jesus 



Coll. Oxf.) 

 1896 Edmund Peel Wethered, M.A. (Christ 



Ch. Oxf.) 



1905 Arthur Frederic White, M.A. (Dur.) 

 A mission room at Rixton was built in 1 894. 

 A school was built in Glazebrook in 1713." 

 The Primitive Methodists and United Free 

 Methodists have chapels at Glazebrook, and the 

 Wesleyans one at Rixton. 



In spite of the Elizabethan persecution there can be 

 no doubt that Roman Catholic worship was continued at 

 Rixton Hall by the priests whom the Mascys employed 

 to teach their children. 16 No records, however, re- 

 main earlier than the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 when a Jesuit father, Henry Smith, was in charge." 

 The Jesuits, who had charge also of Culcheth and 

 Southworth, probably worked the three together. 

 They continued there until 1825;'" and shortly 

 afterwards were succeeded by Benedictines, who 

 built the present church of St. Michael in 1831." 

 The mission was resigned to the secular clergy in 

 I874- 20 



