WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



Knapton. 1 The Prescot family is often mentioned.' 

 A list of freeholders in 1600 contains the name of 

 Edward Eccleston, Robert Prescot, Richard Rigby, 

 Ralph Ashton, James Glest ; and in Scholes, Wil- 

 liam Standish, William Banks, Hugh and William 

 Langshaw. 3 



Under the Commonwealth three estates were seques- 

 tered, chiefly for recusancy. 4 In 1 666 sixteen houses 

 had three hearths and more. 4 The following ' Papists' 

 estates' were registered in 1717, in addition to those 

 of the Eccleston family : John Standish, William Wil- 

 cock, John Taylor, James Williamson, George Wilcock, 

 Robert Mabbon of Wooton Wawen, and William 



In 1785 the principal contributors to the land tax 

 were Basil Thomas Eccleston, owning nearly a fourth 

 of the township, and the heirs of John Williamson for 

 Scholes. 



A school was founded here in 1597. 



For the members of the Establishment, Christ 

 Church, Eccleston, was consecrated in 1838 ; it is in 

 the gift of the lord of the manor. St. Thomas's, 



PRESCOT 



St. Helens, was consecrated in 1839 ; 7 and St. Mark's, 

 opened in 1885, had a district assigned to it in 1887. 

 These churches are in the gift of trustees. 



There is a Wesleyan chapel in the rural part of 

 Eccleston, 8 and another at Thatto Heath. At the 

 latter place there are a Free Gospel meeting-house and 

 a Salvation Army citadel. 



The adherents of the Roman Church 9 were able 

 to worship at Eccleston Hall until about 1790, 

 when the Scarisbricks returned to their family seat. 

 After this, Mrs. Eccleston of Cowley Hill built a church 

 at Lowe House, St. Helens. 10 A second mission was 

 established at Scholes, where Fr. John Bresby alias 

 Brown, S.J., was stationed in 1716." Nicholas Sewall, 

 formerly of Eccleston Hall, built a church close by, 

 which from the colonnade at the entrance has been 

 named Portico. This was opened in 1 790, but re- 

 placed by the present church of Our Lady, Help of 

 Christians, in 1857. The mission is still served by 

 Jesuit fathers." In 1895 a school-chapel, St. Augus- 

 tine's, was opened at Thatto Heath ; 13 it is in charge 

 of a secular priest. 



I2i. Henry de Ditton in 1347 sued 

 Alan de Eccleston and Alice his wife 

 regarding waste ; De Bane. R. 358, m. 

 64^. Henry occurs in later suits, and in 

 1373 his heirs were holding Stonyhurst 

 for a rent of 21. ; Eccleston rental 

 (Scarisbrick Hall). A suit in which 

 Henry de Ditton was defendant was in 

 1358 brought by Adam de Bury and 

 Cecily his wife concerning houses and 

 land in Eccleston which Cecily should 

 have received as heir of her nephew John 

 son of William del Hurst, who had died 

 without issue ; Assize R. 438, m. 15. 



1 William de Knapton in 1292, in reply 

 to a demand by Amery de Eccleston, 

 asserted that his charter, given by her 

 husband, had been burnt in a fire at 

 Knapton which had consumed his houses 

 and all his goods ; Assize R. 408, m. 16, 

 102; also m. <)id. <)<)d. John son of 

 William de Knapton in 1324-5 claimed 

 certain lands as his by descent, but with- 

 drew ; Assize R. 426, m. 2 d. 5. Richard 

 son of William occurs about the same 

 time; De Bane. R. 258, m. 163. 



3 In 1339 Robert de Prescot secured a 

 sixth part of the ' manor ' of Glest from 

 Mariota, wife of William del Hull of 

 Bickerstaffe ; Final Cone, ii, no ; see also 

 pp. 104-5. Robert and his wife Isabel 

 in 1346 called upon Sir Edmund de 

 Nevill to warrant to them certain houses 

 claimed by Richard de Stockley ; De Bane. 

 R. 348, m. 235</. ; 349, m. 243. In 

 1350 Robert charged Adam de Glest and 

 Robert his son with the abduction of 

 William son and heir of Richard son of 

 Roger de Glest ; De Bane. R. 363, m. 

 79 d. 



In the following year Edmund de 

 Prescot (son of Robert) sued Adam son of 

 Roger de Glest and Robert his brother for 

 depasturing and treading down his corn 

 at Glest; Duchy of Lane. Assize R. I, 

 m. iij; seeR.4, m. 14; 5, m. 7. The 

 same Edmund was party to a fine concern- 

 ing lands in Eccleston in 1355 (Final 

 Cone, ii, 147), and appears in the Eccles- 

 ton rental of 1373 as holding 'divers 

 lands ' for a total rent of 21. 2j</. He 

 was ordered to be imprisoned for debt in 

 1374, but could not be found; among 

 other tenements he had a hall, kitchen, 

 and oxhouse at Eccleston ; De Bane. R. 

 454, m. 141 d. 



The rental of the time of Hen. VIII 

 hows Edward Prescot tenant of a mes- 



suage, rent 6d. ; that of 1609 has Henry 

 Prescot, paying 6J. also. 



8 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 238, &c. The name of Edward Eccles- 

 ton has pp. against it. 



The earl of Derby was a freeholder also. 

 From the Eccleston rental of the time of 

 Edw. IV (about 1480) it appears that 

 Thomas Lord Stanley's interest was 

 derived from purchases of land which had 

 been held by James dc Prescot, at a rent 

 of 2s. oj</. (cf. Edmund de Prescot's rent 

 above quoted) ; by Agnes de Stonyhurst 

 at 6J. ; and by Eustace the Mercer. Fur- 

 ther purchases brought up the rental pay- 

 able by Thomas earl of Derby about i 520 

 to 33. j\d. and by William earl of Derby 

 in 1609 to 45. Part of their holding was 

 in Glest, as is shown by the inquisitions 



thought that his estate must have been 

 sequestered by mistake ; ibid, iii, 238. 



Lay Subs. 250-9 ; the hall had fifteen 

 hearths, and was the largest house in the 

 parish, except Bold. Thomas Alcock's 

 house had nine ; James Glest' s, George 

 Cockerham's, and George Lyon's, five 

 each. 



Engl. Cath. Non-jurors, 117-19, 155. 

 John Taylor is described as ' gentleman ' ; 

 he had brothers, Thomas and Edmund, 

 and a mother, Anne ; 118. 



? It had a chapel of ease called St. Paul's, 

 built in 1881. 



8 Dr. Adam Clarke wrote part of his 

 Commentary at Millbrook. 



8 The conduct of the Eccleston tamily 

 has been told in the text. In 1626 

 twenty-four other names appear on the 



of Henry Coney of Ditton (1598) and 

 John Parr of Glest, who had bought Coney's 

 lands ; Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), ii, 182. 



Besides those already named the rental 

 of 1609 gives the following paying chief 

 rents: Robert Torbock, id.; Thomas 

 and George Lyon, 21. ; William Webster 

 31.; John Parr, 1 8</. ; and Thomis 

 Glover, 6d. The Parrs occur early; 

 Assize R. 1435, m. 3 1 d. Henry de 

 Woodfall held land by charter in 1373, 

 according to the Eccleston rental, paying 

 6d. ; but the family seem to have sold 

 their lands in the time of Elizabeth ; Pal. 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 24, m. 236 (a 

 sale to Thomas Torbock) ; 35, m. 74. 

 Edward Halsall, who died in 1594, had 

 built a residence here, which he desired to 

 be preserved in good order, with its heir- 

 looms ; Piccope, Wills (Chet. Soc.), ii, 

 2 1 6. Henry Lyon and Ellen his wife had 

 a messuage and land in Eccleston which 

 descended to their son and heir Robert, 

 and then as follows: s. George s. Henry 

 s. William Lyon, claimant in 1570; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 227, m. 1 1. 



4 Ellen Hankinson, widow, had had 

 two-thirds of her estate sequestered for re- 

 cusancy only ; Royalist Comp. P. iii, 1 50. 

 Possibly she belonged to Eccleston .n the 

 Fylde. Henry Harwood of Eccleston, who 



tioned for the restoration of his deceased 

 father's lands, sequestered for both the 

 offences mentioned ; ibid, iii, 173. Ralph 

 Holland, of Eccleston, who had taken the 

 oath of abjuration and was 'a constant 

 frequenter' of the ' congregation of Ellen's,' 



367 



recusant roll for this township, headed 

 by ' Edward Standish, gent.' ; Lay Subs. 

 138/318. 



1" The mission was served at the hall by 

 Jesuit fathers, of whom John Swinbourn is 

 named in 1701, as receiving a stipend of 

 36 from Thomas Eccleston, and George 

 Palmer in 1750, receiving 21, and 

 having a congregation of forty or fifty. 

 Foley, Ric. S.J. v, 321, 397-9. An 

 interesting memorandum is printed here 

 to the effect that a silver chalice used at 

 Eccleston Hall was a gift to the family, to 

 be kept there ' until that happy time that 

 catholic religion is restored and mass said 

 in Prescot church,' when it was to be 

 given to this church. 



11 Gillow, Bibliog. Diet, of Engl. Catb. iii, 

 42 (quoting P.R.O. Forfeited Estates, 

 46 P). 



In 1728 the house was rented by 

 Fr. William (afterwards viscount) Moly- 

 neux, S.J. ; it was his only mission, and 

 he resided here till his death in 1759. In 

 1750, a year of jubilee, he had 300 atten- 

 dants. 



The first work known to have been 

 printed at Prescot was a Sermon for the 

 General Fast of 1779, 'preached to the 

 congregation at Scholes ' by T. W. ; Local 

 Gleanings Lanes, and Cbes. ii, 229. The 

 author was Thomas Weldon (or Hunter), 

 who died at Scholes in 1786 ; Foley, op. 

 cit. vii, 826. 



u Foley, l.s.e. In 1796 the Benedictines 

 of Dieulouard took refuge here, but soon 

 removed ; finally they settled at Ample- 

 forth ; Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiii, 

 167. 18 Liverpool Catb. Ann. 1901. 



