WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WIGAN 



land 43 also held lands in Dalton. In 1 600 William 

 Ashhurst and William Moss were the only freeholders 

 recorded. 44 



The Knights Hospitallers had land. 45 



In the I jth century an estate called Sifredlea is 

 recorded ; it disappeared later. 46 



About 1400, 2 acres of land in Dalton, granted 

 without royal licence for the repair of Douglas Bridge, 

 were confiscated, but restored. 47 



For the adherents of the Established Church John 

 Prescott of the Grange, owner of the great tithes of 

 the township, turned the tithe barn into a place of 

 worship ; a district was assigned to it in iSyo, 48 and 

 it was consecrated in 1872 ; but five years later the 

 present church of St. Michael and All Angels was 

 built on an adjoining site, and the old one destroyed. 

 The patronage is in the hands of Mrs. Prescott. 49 



INCE 



Ines, 121 2 ; Ins, 1292 ; Ince, xvi cent. 



Ince, called Ince in Makerfield to distinguish it 

 from Ince Blundell in the same hundred, lies im- 

 mediately to the east of Wigan, of which it is a 

 suburb, and from which it is separated by a small 

 brook, the Clarenden or Clarington. A large part of 

 the boundary on the south-west and eastern sides is 

 formed by mosslands. Ambers or Ambrose Wood lies 

 on the eastern edge. The ground rises slightly from 

 south-west to north-east, a height of over 200 ft. being 

 attained on the latter boundary. The area is 2,320 

 acres. 1 The population in 1901 was 21,262, includ- 

 ing Platt Bridge. 



Two great roads cross it, starting from Wigan ; the 

 more northerly is the ancient road to Hindley and 

 Manchester, while the other goes through Abram to 

 Warrington. A cross road joining these is, like them, 

 lined with dwellings. The portion of the township 

 to the north-west of it is called Higher Ince. 

 Numerous railway lines traverse the township, as well 



as minor lines for the service of the collieries. The 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's line from Wigan 

 to Bolton and Manchester crosses the centre from west 

 to east, and has a station called Ince ; it is joined 

 near the eastern boundary by the loop line through 

 Pemberton. The London and North - Western 

 Company's main line goes through from south to 

 north, and has junctions with the lines from Man- 

 chester and St. Helens, as also with the Joint Com- 

 panies' railway through Hindley and Haigh. The 

 Great Central Company's line from Manchester to 

 Wigan also crosses the township, with a station, called 

 Lower Ince. The Lancaster Canal traverses it near 

 the Wigan boundary, and the Leigh branch of the 

 Leeds and Liverpool Canal near the western and 

 southern boundaries. 



The general aspect is unpleasing, it being a typical 

 black country in the heart of the coal-mining area. 

 The flat surface, covered with a complete network of 

 railways, has scarcely a green tree to relieve the 

 monotony of the bare wide expanses of apparently 

 waste land, much of it covered with shallow ' flashes ' 

 of water, the result of the gradual subsidence of the 

 ground as it is mined beneath. A good deal of the 

 ground appears to be unreclaimed mossland. Need- 

 less to say no crops are cultivated. All the energies 

 of the populace are employed in the underground 

 mineral wealth of the district, Ince being famous for 

 cannel and other coal. 



The northern part of the township merges into 

 the town of Wigan, the principal features being huge 

 cotton mills and warehouses, crowding the banks of 

 the canals and River Douglas, which here degenerates 

 into a grimy ditch, with never a bush or tree to 

 shade its muddy banks. 



The soil is clay, with a mixture of sand and gravel 

 lying over coal. There are iron works, forges, and 

 railway wagon works ; cotton goods also are manu- 

 factured. 



The Local Government Act of 1858 was adopted 

 by the township in 1866.* The local board was 



for Dalton Hey and Gorstilow. Alice 

 and Edward Prescott were among the 

 defendants in a case regarding these lands 

 in 1548 ; Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), iii, 51. Richard Prescott and 

 Ellen his wife occur in 1560 ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 22, m. 108. He 

 seems to have been a lessee of the Orrells 

 for their manor of Walton Lees, and his 

 children were orphans in 1596 ; Ducatus, 

 iii, 206, &c. 



The Recusant Roll of 1641 includes two 

 Prescotts, also Crosses, Holland, &c. ; 

 Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xiv, 239. The 

 Earls of Derby owned the tithes of Dal- 

 ton, and about 1782 sold their right to 

 Mr. Prescott, in whose family it re- 

 mains ; Bridgeman, Wigan Cb. 258. 



48 In 1554 Lewis Orrell had a dispute 

 with Robert, Ralph, Hugh, and Agnes 

 Holland respecting a close in Dalton 

 called the Barn Hey ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Plead. Edw. VI, x, O. I. In 1560 Richard 

 Holland and Margaret his wife had land 

 at Dalton ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdle. 22, m. 102. 



In a fine of 1572 concerning land in 

 Dalton in which Richard Holland, Ralph 

 Crosse, Philip Moss, and Edward Prescott 

 were plaintiffs, and Richard Chisnall and 

 Thomas Lathom deforciants, the latter 

 warranted Richard Holland and his heirs 

 against Lord La Warr, the heirs of 



William Bradshagh, deceased, James 

 Howorth, and Margaret his wife, and 

 Margaret's heirs, and John Parbold and 

 Margery his wife ; ibid. bdle. 34, m. 1 6. 



Richard Holland died 29 Apr. 1587 

 holding lands in Dalton, Parbold, and 

 Ormskirk, which by his will he left to his 

 wife Margaret for life and then to his 

 son and heir James ; the latter was sixty- 

 eight years of age ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p.m. xiv, no. 20. James Holland, perhaps 

 a son of the last-named James, died in 

 160$, leaving a son and heir Richard, 

 eleven years old ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 30. 



In 1717 Ellen Holland, daughter of 

 James Holland, as a ' papist ' registered 

 an estate at Dalton for the life of her 

 sister Mary ; Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 131. 



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

 239,241. In 1653 Edward Moss of Dalton, 

 two-thirds of whose estate had been se- 

 questered for recusancy, asked leave to 

 contract for the same ; Royalist Comf>. 

 Papers (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 199. 



45 Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 375 ; 

 see also a preceding note. 



46 The name has a great variety of 

 spellings. 



In 1 202 Syfrethelegh was part of the 

 tenement of Alan de Windle (or de 

 Pemberton) in which Edusa his widow 

 claimed dower; Final Cone, i, 38. In 



101 



1241 Robert de Holland released his 

 claim to twelve oxgangs in Pemberton, 

 on receiving from Adam de Pemberton 

 the homage and service (viz. 5*. 6J. rent) 

 of Thomas de Siverdelege in the latter 

 place ; ibid. 82. 



Very early in the 1 3th century Edrith 

 de Sivirdeleie granted a portion of his 

 land to Cockersand Abbey, the bounds 

 commencing at a burnt oak by Swinley 

 Carr, so to two oaks, and to Raven's 

 Oak, and by syke and brook to the great 

 bank, and so to the start ; this was 

 afterwards held by a tenant paying I2</. 

 and a half a mark at death ; Cockersand 

 Chart. 11,627. In 1271 or 1272 Robert 

 son of Thomas de Siverthelege released 

 to Matthew de Bispham and his heirs 

 all his right in the abbey's land in 

 Siverthelege, rendering to the abbot izd. 

 a year; this land was in 1268 held by 

 Matthew de Holland ; ibid, ii, 629, 630. 



It is clear that Matthew de Holland 

 was the same as Matthew de Bispham, 

 and it was for him probably that Robert 

 de Holland had before bought out the 

 interest of Adam de Pemberton. 



47 Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxiii, App. 2. 



48 Land. Gax. 29 Nov. 1870 ; 23 Dec. 

 1870. 



49 Bridgeman, Wigan Ch. 789. 



1 Including 100 acres of inland water. 

 a Land. Gaz. 23 Oct. 1866. 



