A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



1815 Thomas Pigot, M.A. 1 



l8j6 James Furnival 



1841 William Pollock 



1846 Edward Carr, LL.D. (Trin. Coll., Dublin) 



1886 John Rashdall Eyre, M.A. (Clare College, 

 Cambridge) 



1891 John Wakefield Willink, M.A. (Pembroke 

 College, Cambridge) 



1904 Cyril Charles Bowman Bardsley, M.A. 

 (New College, Oxford) ' 



A school was built in the chapel-yard in 1670 by 

 John Lyon of Windle. 3 



The chantry at Jesus Chapel the exact position of 

 which is unknown was in 1535 in the hands of 

 Richard Byland ; the income was only 40*. a year. 4 

 It was said to have been founded by Sir John Bold ; 

 and in 1548 the royal commissioners recorded that 

 there was no incumbent but at the pleasure of Lady 

 Bold, widow of Sir Richard. Apparently it was not 

 her pleasure at that time to pay a priest, and none 

 was there. 5 



The Presbyterian Church of England began services 

 in 1863 ; the church was built in 1868. 



The Wesleyan Methodists and the Primitive 

 Methodists each have two churches, and there is also 

 a Methodist Free Church. 



On the appointment of a curate in 1710 the con- 

 gregation at St. Helens divided ; part conformed, but 

 the rest established an Independent meeting place, the 

 origin of the present Congregational church. The 

 worshippers in 1710-30 numbered about seven 

 hundred, over fifty having the county vote. 6 A new 

 chapel was opened in 1826, Dr. Raffles preaching. 

 It has been enlarged. 7 There is another Congregational 

 chapel in Knowsley Road. 8 



The Baptists have three places of worship in St. 

 Helens : Central, built in 1849 ; Park Road in 1869 ; 

 and Jubilee in 1888. 



The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have a chapel. 



The Quakers, as already stated, have long had a 

 meeting place ; it was registered in 1689.' 



The Christian Brethren also have one. 



The Roman Church retaining numerous ad- 

 herents in the district, 10 its worship was no doubt 

 celebrated as opportunity offered, but no record seems 

 to exist until 1693, when Mary Egerton of Hardshaw 

 Hall bequeathed 4 to Mr. Gerard Barton, so long 

 as he helped the people in and about Hardshaw.' 1 Soon 

 afterwards Blackbrook House in Parr became available. 

 When the Scarisbricks ceased to reside at Eccleston 

 Hall the chapel there was closed, but Winifred, 

 widow of John Gorsuch Eccleston, 1 * a former owner, 

 in compensation built Lowe House church (St. Mary's) 

 on the border of Hardshaw and Windle, near her own 

 residence on Cowley Hill, and it was opened in 1793.'* 

 It has, except for a brief interval, been in charge of 

 the Jesuit fathers, who also serve Holy Cross Church, 

 built in 1862. The church of the Sacred Heart, 

 built in 1878, is in the hands of the secular clergy. 



The ruined chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury at 

 Windleshaw, popularly known as 'Windleshaw Abbey,' 

 stands about a mile from St. Helens. The chantry 

 was founded by Sir Thomas Gerard with an endow- 

 ment of 4 \6s. out of his lands at Windle, the 

 priest to celebrate for the souls of the founder's an- 

 cestors for ever. 14 Richard Frodsham 15 was incumbent 

 in 1548, celebrating according to his trust; there 

 was no plate. 16 There was some dispute between the 

 Gerards and the crown as to the liability to pay 

 the 4 after the abolition of the chantry. 17 The 

 unused building gradually decayed, and the ground 

 around the ruined chapel was in course of time used 

 as a burial place by the adherents of the ancient 

 faith. 18 In 1824 adjoining land was purchased by 

 Sir William Gerard, whose son in 1835 added a 

 plot of land to the burial ground, and in 1 86 1 

 the St. Helens Burial Board acquired adjacent ground 

 for a public cemetery. 19 



