WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WIGAN 



its appearance about 1536 : 'Wigan paved ; as big as 

 Warrington and better builded. There is one parish 

 church amid the town. Some merchants, some artifi- 

 cers, some farmers.' 7 



Apart from its internal growth, the history of Wigan 

 is interesting on account of the part taken in the Civil 

 War. The townspeople were Royalist, 8 and the Earl 

 of Derby appeared to make it his head quarters, its 

 central position rendering it very fit for the purpose. 

 He placed a garrison there, 9 but on I April 164 3, the 

 town was captured by the Parliamentary forces under 

 Colonel Holland, after only two hours' resistance. 

 Many prisoners were taken, and the soldiers were 

 allowed to plunder and carry away what they could. 10 

 The Earl of Derby, who was 1 2 miles away, marched 

 to its relief, but hearing that the town had surren- 

 dered, and that the Parliamentary forces had retired 

 after breaking down some of the defensive works, he 

 desisted and went to Lathom. 11 A second assault and 

 capture took place three weeks later. 1 * In 1648 Duke 

 Hamilton's forces occupied Wigan after their defeat 

 by Cromwell near Preston, but after plundering the 

 people 'almost to their skins,' retired to Warrington, 

 pursued by Cromwell. 13 A pestilence followed. 14 



When, in August 1651, the Earl of Derby was 

 raising a force for Charles II, he again tried to secure 

 Wigan. On 26 August a hot fight took place in 

 Wigan Lane between his forces and those of Colonel 

 Lilburne. At first the former were victorious, but a 

 reserve of horse coming to Lilburne's assistance, put 

 the Royalists to flight. Lord Derby took refuge in 

 Wigan for a brief time, and after his wounds had been 

 dressed, he went south to join Charles at Worcester. 

 Sir Thomas Tyldesley and other notable Royalists 

 were killed in the battle." 



The Restoration and Revolution do not appear to 

 have affected Wigan much. 16 Some of those con- 

 demned for participation in the rising of 1 7 1 5 were 

 executed here. 17 The Young Pretender with his 



Highland army passed through the town on 28 No 

 vember 1745, on his way to Manchester, and again 

 on 10-1 1 December on his retreat northward. The 

 inhabitants were not molested, but no recruits joined 

 the force. 18 



At present the whole of the district is thickly popu- 

 lated, the industrial town of Wigan occupying the 

 greater part of the township, whilst its collieries, fac- 

 tories, &c., fill the atmosphere with smoke. There is, 

 however, a fringe of open country beyond the town 

 itself, on the north, and here are arable and pasture 

 lands, the crops raised being chiefly potatoes and oats. 

 The soil is clayey and sandy. The woodlands of 

 Haigh in the adjoining township make an agreeable 

 background. The Douglas, turning many a factory 

 wheel on its way, winds erratically across the district. 

 The south-westerly part of the township lies very low, 

 and is almost always flooded, the result of frequent 

 subsidences of the ground. 



The worthies of the town include Ralph Brooke or 

 Brooksmouth, York Herald in the time of Elizabeth ;" 

 Henry Mason, divine and benefactor, 1 573 to 1647 ; * 

 John Leland, nonconformist divine and apologist for 

 Christianity, who died 1766 ;" Anthony Wilson, 

 alias Henry Bromley, publisher of catalogues of En- 

 graved British Portraits, 1793 ; w John Fairclough, a 

 minor Jesuit writer, 1787 to 1832 ; 23 John Roby, 

 author of the romances entitled Traditions of Lancashire, 

 1795 to 1850;" John Howard Marsden, antiquary, 

 1803 to 1891 ; M John C. Prince, minor poet, 1808 

 to 1 866 ; * 6 and John Fitchett Marsh, antiquary, 1 8 1 8 

 to 1880." 



A number of tokens were issued by local tradesmen 

 in the I7th century.* 8 



The printing press is said to have been introduced 

 into Wigan about 1760 ; books dated in 1780 and 

 later years are known.* 9 There are three newspapers, 

 two published three times a week and the other 

 weekly. 80 



" Itin. vii, 47. 



8 * Wigan was better manned with sol- 

 diers than Preston, it being the next gar- 

 rison to the earl's house and the most 

 malignant town in all the county ; for 

 there were (for anything that was heard) 

 not many in it that favoured the Parlia- 

 ment;' Lanes. War (Chet. Soc.), 16. 

 Wigan, however, had joined in the Pro- 

 testation of 164.2 ; Pal. Note Bk. i, 8 1. 



9 The Wigan garrison, ' full of desper- 

 ate cavaliers,' had made several assaults 

 upon Bolton ; Lanes. War, 32 ; Civil 

 War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 63, 81-3. 



19 Lanes. War, 36 ; also Stanley Papers, 

 (Chet. Soc.), iii, p. Ixxxvi, where a facsimile 

 of the Countess of Derby's letter, an- 

 nouncing its fall, is given. See also Civil 

 War Tracts, 93, 225-7. 



11 Lanes. War, loc. cit. 



" Civil War Tracts, 98. 



18 Ibid. 263 ; ' a great and poor town, 

 and very malignant,' is Cromwell's descrip- 

 tion of the place ; see Carlyle, Cromwell 

 Let. i, 286, &c., for the details. 



14 Civil War Tracts, 278 ; there were 

 ' two thousand poor, who for three months 

 and upwards had been restrained, no relief 

 to be had for them in the ordinary course 

 of law, there being none at present (April 

 1649) to act as justices of the peace." The 

 Wigan registers contain many entries re- 

 ferring to the deaths from plague, the last 

 burial being on 23 July 1649. 



A petition by the mayor and others in 



1660, addressed to Charles II, states that 

 the people of the town had garrisoned it 

 at their own charge for the king ; that it 

 had been seven times plundered, burdened 

 with free quarters, &c., by the Parliament 

 army ; and that many estates had been se- 

 questered ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1660-1, p. 119. 



15 Stanley Papers (Chet. Soc.), clxxxiv- 

 ix. For the monument to Sir T. Tyldes- 

 ley near the spot where he fell, see 

 cccxxxiii ; Lanes, and Cbes. Hist, and 

 Geneal. Notes, iii, 62. 



A graphic account of the battle is given 

 in Lanes. War, 74-6. 



16 Ogilby, writing about 1 670, called it 

 ' a well-built town, governed by a mayor, 

 recorder and twelve aldermen, &c., and 

 electing Parliament men.' It had two 

 markets, on Monday and Friday, but the 

 former was discontinued, and three fairs. 

 It was noted for its pit coal, ironworks, 

 and other manufactures. A somewhat 

 later description, by Dr. Kuerden, giving 

 many details, may be read in Local Glean. 

 Lanes, and Ches. i, 209, 21 1, 212, 214. 



Bishop Cartwright procured an address 

 to James II from the mayor and corpora- 

 tion in 1687 ; Bridgeman, op. cit. 570. 

 Their action was not popular ; Hist. MSS. 

 Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 189. 



Several persons went to Chester in 

 1687 to be touched by the king for the 

 evil ; their names are given in Trans. 

 Hist. Soc. i, 26. 



17 See Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. iii, 



6 9 



70. James Blundell, James Finch, John 

 Macilliwray, William Whalley, and James 

 Burn, who had been tried and sentenced 

 at Preston, were executed at Wigan 10 

 Feb. 1716 ; see Pal. Note Bk. iv, 93. 



18 The town was then famous for its 

 manufactures of coverlets, rugs, blankets, 

 and other sorts of bedding, brass, copper, 

 &c., as well as for the adjacent Cnnnel 

 coal mines ; Ray, Hist, of Rebellion, 154. 



There is a brief notice of the place as it 

 appeared in 1791 in Pal. Note Bk., ii, 275, 

 and a description written in 1825 ' n 

 Baines, Lanes. Dir. ii, 610. 



19 Pal. Note Bk. iii, 33. 



20 Diet. Nat. Biog. M Ibid. * Ibid. 

 23 Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Cath. ii, 



218. 



** Diet. Nat. Biog. For a note on the 

 Rev. James Clayton of Wigan, the inven- 

 tor of gas, see Local Glean. Lanes, and 

 Ches. i, 140, 248. 



25 Diet. Nat. Biog. M Ibid. V Ibid. 



28 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. v, 93, 94. 



29 See Local Glean. Lanes, and Cbes. \, 

 ii. The 1780 book was a translation of 

 Gessner's Death of Abel, printed by R. 

 Ferguson, ii, 57. The 'Local Catalogue' 

 issued from the Wigan Free Library gives 

 a list of nineteen books printed at Wigan 

 between 1780 and 1796. At the end is 

 a list of printers. 



80 The offices of the Examiner were 

 formerly the Public Hall or Mechanics' 

 Institute. 



