WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



were unfortunately in too damaged a condition to be 

 re-used. 



The font, which originally stood in the south 

 aisle, 1 and was afterwards set at the west end of the 

 north aisle, is now at the west end of the nave. It 

 is octagonal, with a roll at the base of the bowl, but 

 otherwise perfectly plain, and may be of the fifteenth 

 century. 



In the Bold chapel are the marble figures of 

 Richard Bold, 1635, and his wife, and an armed 

 effigy of very poor workmanship, holding a book, 

 which from its details appears to date from the be- 

 ginning of the seventeenth century.' Near it at 

 the west end of the chapel is a white marble 

 monument to Mary Bold, Princess Sapieha, 1824. 



There are six bells, all of 1718, by Richard 

 Saunders. 



The registers begin in 1538. 



About the end of the thirteenth century an attempt 

 seems to have been made to sever the dependency of 

 Farnworth on Prescot. In 1291 Richard de Buddes- 

 wall, archdeacon of Chester, holding his visitation at 

 Prescot, caused a number of those who customarily 

 heard divine service and received the sacraments in 

 the chapel to appear before him and assert publicly 

 that Farnworth was not an independent parish, but 

 that the people within the chapelry were bound to 

 contribute to the repairs of the church of Prescot, 

 the maintenance of the service there, and other 

 charges, in the same manner as the rest of the 

 parishioners. 3 Farnworth is called a church in 1323,* 

 and seems to have enjoyed almost full parochial rights. 



Some prosecutions resulting from the church 

 spoliation of the time of Edward VI are recorded at 

 Farnworth, 5 as well as an affray in the church itself. 6 



PRESCOT 



Few of the names of the pre-Reformation clergy 

 have been preserved. Baldwin Bold was there at the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century, 7 and Richard 

 White was curate in 1542, 1548, and 1 5 54." 



A small yearly payment, called the Duchy money, 

 has long been made to the incumbent by the crown. 

 Its origin is uncertain. 9 



A parish was assigned in 1859.' The vicars are 

 presented by the vicar of Prescot. The following is 

 a list : 



1562 Thomas Hill" 

 1567 John Walbank la 

 1 5 76 Thomas Roebuck ls 

 1581 William Cross " 

 1 5 89 William Sherlock 15 

 1641 Nathaniel Barnard " 

 1647 John Walton, M.A. 17 

 1 649(?) William Garner 18 

 oc. 1675-9 Milo Marsden 19 



1687 Christopher Marsden '" 



John Foxley" 

 oc. 1705-9 Radley Ainscough " 

 oc. 171 8-3 2 Henry Hargreaves ** 

 1733 Charles Bryer" 

 1733 Edward Pierpoint 

 I 742 Richard Nightingale fs 

 1747 Thomas Moss K 

 1792 William Thompson 27 

 1832 William Jeff 

 1 8 8 1 George Bond, M .A. (Lincoln Coll. 



Oxford) 



1892 John Wright Williams 

 There was a chantry founded here by Sir John 

 Bold, an annual rent of 4 being assigned to it from 

 the lordship of Bold. 28 In 1534 the cantarist was 



391 



