A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



^ 



BY ROM of Salford. 

 Argent a che-ueron be- 

 tween three hedgehogs 

 table, a crescent on the 

 cheveronfor dijference. 



CROMPTON of Hack- 

 ing. Gules a fesse "wavy 

 bet-ween three Horn ram- 

 pant or. 



Mrs. Peploe Birch to the Earl of Bradford, and has 

 descended with Great Lever. 13 



Richard Heywood had a small estate in Little 

 Lever in the early part of the I jth century ; l4 two 

 of his sons Oliver and Nathaniel distinguished 

 themselves as preachers and as leaders of the Non- 

 conformists after 1662." 



The land-tax return of 1786 shows that James Brad- 

 shaw and John Peploe Birch were the chief proprietors 

 of Darcy Lever, paying between them nearly half the 

 tax. In 1797 Robert Andrews paid more than a third 

 of the tax for Little Lever, John Fletcher and Benja- 

 min Rawson being among the smaller contributors.* 6 



In connexion with the Church of England, St. Mat- 

 thew's, Little Lever, was built in 1791 and rebuilt in 

 1865." There are a mission church of St. Mary at 

 Nob End, and a mission room. 



The Wesleyan Methodists have chapels at Little 

 Lever and Darcy Lever, and the Congregationalists 

 have one at the former place.* 8 



BREIGHTMET 



Brihtmede, 1257 ; Brightemete, 1277 ; Bregh- 

 mete, Breghtmed, 1292 ; Brithmete, 1302 ; Bright- 

 mede, 1510 ; Breightmet, 1574. 



The township of Breightmet lies between Bradshaw 

 and Blackshaw Brooks, and has an area of 872^ acres. 

 The highest point, Breightmet Hill, a little over 

 525 ft., is near the centre of the northern boundary, 

 and from it the surface slopes away in all directions, 

 chiefly to the south. The township ceased to have 

 an independent existence in 1898, being included in 

 the borough and township of Bolton by the Exten- 

 sion Act of that year. The population was in 1901 

 reckoned wi|h that of Tonge. 



Numerous roads cross the area, but the chief road 

 is that from Bolton eastward to Bury ; and next is 

 the more northerly road called Red Lane, between 

 the same places, having Thicketford Bridge at the 

 west and Red Bridge at the east. Running from the 

 one to the other is that called Church Street and 

 Withins Lane. 



In the southern part of the township are Oaken- 

 bottom and Compton Fold ; in the centre are Stone- 

 low Cottages. 



There are a number of mills and bleach works, also 

 a heald and reed factory. There is a colliery. 



A number of miscellaneous notes relating to this 

 township are printed in Bolton Historical Glean- 

 ings. 1 



A native of Breightmet, John Crompton, 1611-69, 

 was one of the Nonconformist divines ejected through 

 the Act of Uniformity in 1 662.* 



The hearth tax of 1666 found forty-nine hearths 

 liable ; Peter Longworth had the largest dwelling, 

 with six hearths. 3 



The manor of BREIGHTMET formed 

 M4NOR a moiety of the Marsey fee in the parish 

 of Bolton, 4 and was in the 1 2th century 

 held as one plough-land by Augustin de Breightmet. 5 

 By his wife Edith de Barton he had as his heir a 

 daughter, Cecily, who married William de Notton, 6 

 the tenant in I2I2. 7 Some forty years later it was 

 held by Avina de Samlesbury, and divided among her 

 three daughters ; 8 but as Margery the eldest had no 



and James Bradshaw deforciants ; Pal. of 

 Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 43, m. 102. 



Lawrence Fogg died about the begin- 

 ning of 1605 ; his son Richard, as heir, 

 was summoned to Manchester to do suit 

 and service for his lands in Darcy Lever ; 

 Court Leet Rec. ii, 208. Richard Fogg in 

 1612 purchased lands in Darcy Lever of 

 Adam Byrom ; ibid, ii, 269. He died 

 n Sept. 1630, holding twenty messuages, 

 a water-mill, the moiety of two fulling 

 mills, with lands, &c., in Little Lever alias 

 Darcy Lever, of the lord of Manchester ; 

 also burgages, &c., in Bolton. Lawrence, 

 his son and heir, was twenty-four years 

 of age ; Towneley MS. C. 8, 13 (Chet. 

 Lib.), fol. 428. The description corre- 

 sponds with that of the Byrom estate above 

 recorded. The Fogg family produced 

 some prominent ecclesiastics in the i/th 

 century, including the curate of Liverpool 

 ejected in 1662, and a dean of Chester. 



28 See the preceding note and the ac- 

 count of the Crompton family in Ormerod, 

 Parentalia, 30-6. The following is from 

 the Chester Consistory Court Records, 

 under Bolton, 1665 : 'There was an unlaw- 

 ful [Nonconformist] meeting at the house 

 of Ralph Lever of Little Lever, 1 3 Sept. 

 1665, where were present Cicelly the wife 

 of John Crompton of the Hacking in 

 Darcy Lever, John and James his sons,' &c. 



84 He issued a token in 1652 ; Lanes, 

 and Ches. Antiq. Soc. v, 80. 



25 Nathaniel Heywood was vicar ot 

 Ormskirk, and ejected in 1662. Oliver 

 Heywood, B.A., of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, was ejected from Coley Chapel in 

 Halifax, but continued his ministrations 

 as far as possible in Yorkshire and Lan- 

 cashire in spite of excommunication, fine, 

 and imprisonment. In 1688 he built North 

 Owram chapel and laboured there till his 

 death in 1702. He published numerous 

 works, and his Diaries, four volumes, 

 edited by J. Horsfall Turner, were printed 

 in 1882-5. Me several times visited Bol- 

 ton and the neighbourhood and preached 

 at Little Lever in 1666, &c. He pur- 

 chased land there in 1671 ; Diaries, i, 278. 



28 Land tax returns at Preston. Ben- 

 jamin Rawson, who had chemical works, 

 appears to have succeeded the Rev. Mr. 

 Whitehead, whose name occurs in the 

 return of 1788. 



27 A district was assigned to it in 1866; 

 Land. Gaz. 1 1 May. 



28 The services began in 1 848, and the 

 present chapel was built in 1850 ; it has 

 been enlarged since. There was a tem- 

 porary secession of part of the congrega- 

 tion from 1882 to 1885; Nightingale, 

 Lanes. Nonconf. iii, 14953. 



1 Edited by B. T. Barton, 1 8 8 1 and 1 8 8 2. 

 The census for Breightmet in 1801 is 

 printed at ii, 118-21 ; Extracts from the 

 township minute book at i, 58-60. 



2 Diet. Nat. Biog. 



266 



8 Subs. R. Lanes, bdle. 250, no. 9. 



4 Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 71. 



5 Augustin de Breightmet about 1 1 80 

 gave to his brother Patrick de Mobberley 

 a moiety of Mobberley with reversion of 

 the rest after his own death ; Lord Ed- 

 mund Talbot's MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. 

 Various Coll. ii, 290). 



6 See the account of Barton-on-Irwell ; 

 also Ormerod, Cbet. (ed. Helsby), i, 422. 



7 Inq. and Extents, loc. cit. ; he paid a 

 rent of %s. Later, Breightmet was de- 

 scribed as the eighth part of a knight's fee. 



8 In 1257 Avina de Samlesbury acknow- 

 ledged the right of Robert de Hampton 

 and Margery his wife to a mill and eight 

 oxgangs of land (less 1 2 acres) in Breight- 

 met, for which they were to pay her J mark 

 a year for life ; after her death Robert and 

 Margery were to have one-third, and Cecily 

 and Elizabeth, the younger sisters of Mar- 

 gery, were to have the other two-thirds ; 

 Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 131, and note on p. 130. 



In a charter without date John de 

 Altaripa granted to Cecily daughter of 

 William de Samlesbury and her heirs six 

 oxgangs of land in the territory of Bolton 

 and a culture called ' Hallerode wra." 

 One of the oxgangs was held in demesne, 

 and the rest by Edmund Brun (2), Mabel 

 (2), and Hervey (i) ; Kuerden MSS. v, 

 fol. 117 (2). 



