AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



There are but few other details known regarding 

 estates in this township. 17 Henry Gregson paid J~io 

 in 1631, having declined knighthood. 173 Robert 

 Hothersall 18 and Henry Walmesley 19 had their 

 estates sequestered under the Commonwealth. Two 

 or three ' Papists' registered small estates in 17 ij. 20 



Apart from Mr. Cross's land the principal holding 

 is that of the Goosnargh Hospital, comprising the 

 tenements called Marsh House (or Elston Hall), 

 Salisbury and Moorfields, in all about 220 acres. 21 



John March's house in Elston was in 1672 licensed 

 for a Presbyterian meeting. 22 



FISHWICK 



Fiscuic, Dom. Bk. ; Fiswich, 1202; Fiskwic, 

 1203 ; Fyswic, c. 1220 ; Fischwic, "1 2 2 5 ; Fissewyk, 

 c. 1250; Fiswike, 1251; Fixwyk, 1297; Fisshe- 

 wyke, 1302 ; Phisick, xviii cent. This last shows 

 the local pronunciation. 



This township extends from the south-east border 

 of Preston to the Ribble. A large part of the surface 

 is low-lying level ground in bends of the river, but in 

 the west and north the surface rises steeply and 

 irregularly, a height of about 1506. above sea level 

 being attained. The hall is in the eastern part of 

 the township, near the foot of the slope and at the 

 opening of a small clough. The Swillbrook was the 

 boundary between Fishwick and Preston ; it has now 

 disappeared. Frenchwood lies between it and the 

 Ribble, to the west of the road to Walton. The 

 area is 69 2 J acres, and the population in 1901 was 

 4,884. 



The ancient highway from Preston to the south, 



PRESTON 



by way of Walton-le-Dale, passes through Fishwick, 

 and the bridge across the river there has long been 

 pre-eminently ' Ribble Bridge.' From the bridge a 

 minor road leads north-east towards the hall and 

 thence to Preston, while another road and footpath 

 lead west towards Avenham Park. 



Dwelling-houses have spread over the border from 

 Preston, with which town Fishwick has been joined 

 for municipal and parliamentary purposes since the 

 Reform Acts. In 1894 the township ceased to exist, 

 being now part of the enlarged township of Preston. 1 

 The manor of F1SHWICK was in 

 MANOR 1066 a member of the Preston lordship 

 of Earl Tostig, and was assessed as one 

 plough-land. 2 Some time after the Conquest it was 

 given to the Forester of Lancaster, as part of his fee, 3 

 and descended in the same way 4 as the Gernet 

 moiety of Eccleston in Ley- 

 land, coming into the hands 

 of Richard Molyneux of Sefton 

 in I539- 5 The manor of 

 Fishwick and the lands, &c., 

 in Fishwick, Ribbleton and 

 Brockholes were in 1 5 69 

 found to be held of the queen 

 in socage by fealty only 6 ; 

 and this statement of the 

 tenure was repeated later. 7 



It does not appear that the 

 lords of the manor ever re- 

 sided there, and the chief 



interest of the Molyneux possession arises from the 

 fact that in the 1 7th century the hall became the 

 centre of a Roman Catholic mission, 8 and it was 



MOLYNKUX. Aur 

 a cross moline or. 



Thomas Walmsley of Elston and his 

 sons Thomas and Richard were burgesses 

 at the Preston Guild of 1782 ; Abram, 

 Mem. of the Guilds, 104. 



17 Sir Thomas Ashton (i 5 14) purchased 

 lands in Elston and Haighton from his 

 father-in-law Sir James Harrington, but 

 the tenure is not stated ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. iv, no. 80. 



Ralph Elston's capital messuage in 

 Brockholes was in 1557 described as 'in 

 the town of Elston' ; ibid, x, no. 3. 



17 * Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 222. 



18 His estate was sequestered for recu- 

 sancy. In 1650 he settled part on his 

 wife Katherine, who after his death sold 

 her interest, and the purchaser in 1654 

 desired an examination of his title ; 

 Royalist Comp. Papers (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), iii, 262. 



19 Henry Walmsley, husbandman, was 

 in 1653 'suspected of popery,' and there- 

 fore summoned before the committee for 

 compounding. On his refusing to abjure 

 his religion, two-thirds of his estate was 

 sequestered ; Cal. Com. for Comp. i, 656. 



20 Henry Cumaleach, son-in-law of 

 John Walmsley ; Alice and Anne Charn- 

 ley ; Estcourt and Payne, Eng. Cath. No* 

 jurors, 139, 104. 



21 End. Char. Rep. (Kirkham, 1 904), 42, 

 123. Cal. S. P. Dom. 1672, p. 200. 



1 Loc. Govt. Bd. Order 31607. 



y.C.H. Lanes, i, 28 8 A. 



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

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 43, 121. In 1252 

 Roger Gernet held one plough-land in 

 chief of the king by service of the forest ; 

 he had all the land except i oxgang 

 and 60 acres, the moiety of a fishery in 



the Ribble, and a mill worth 301. yearly ; 

 ibid, i, 187-8. 



In 1225 an agreement was made 

 between William and Roger Gernet as 

 to the manor of Fishwick. It was held 

 in dower by Cecily widow apparently of 

 Benedict Gernet, father of Roger and 

 grandfather of William ; Farrer, Lanes. 

 Pipe R. 204, &c. Cecily married one 

 William known as the Villein, and Roger 

 warranted the manor to them, while 

 William Gernet renounced all claim to 

 it on behalf of himself and his heirs in 

 return for half a plough-land in Crophill. 

 Roger Gernet's lordship of Fishwick was 

 therefore undisputed ; Final Cone. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 46. 



4 William de Dacre held Fishwick by 

 knight's service in 1297 ; at that time 

 the vill rendered js. Bd. to the Earl of 

 Lancaster ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 

 298, 289. From a return made in 1302 

 it would appear that the tenure had been 

 altered from forestry to knight's service ; 

 ibid, i, 317. The old service of master 

 forester was, however, recorded in 1 3 24, 

 Randle de Dacre being lord ; Dods. MSS. 

 cxxxi, fol. 41^. A further change was 

 made before 1458, when Sir Thomas 

 Dacre of Gillesland was found to have 

 held the manor of Fishwick of the king 

 as of his Duchy of Lancaster in socage 

 by the service of a grain of pepper ; 

 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 65. 



In 1324 the annual value of the estate 

 was returned as j i8j., made up thus : 

 A messuage with fruit and herbage, 2s. ; 

 60 acres arable, 301. ; 6 acres meadow, 

 6s. ; a fishery in the Ribble, 261. 8</. ; a 

 water-mill, 40*., and 8 oxgangs of land, 

 held by free tenants who paid 6s. Sd. for 



"5 



each oxgang 53*. 4</. ; Inq. p.m. 18 

 Edw. II, no. 41. Sir William de Dacre 

 in 1358 complained that Robert son of 

 Henry de Kuerden and others had taken 

 hares and pheasants from his free warren 

 at Fishwick ; Assize R. 438, m. 7. The 

 clear value of the manor was stated as 

 10 marks in 1375 ; Inq. p.m. 49 

 Edw. Ill, pt. i, no. 39. 



After the confiscation in 1461 thismanor 

 was granted for life to Eleanor widow of 

 Sir Randle Dacre in 1467 as compensa- 

 tion for dower ; Cal. Pat. 1467-77, p. 26. 



Richard Fiennes Lord Dacre in 1486 

 held the manors of Fishwick and Eccles- 

 ton by knight's service ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. iii, no. 58. His successor 

 Thomas Fiennes Lord Dacre in 1506 

 sold them to Edmund Dudley ; ibid, iv, 

 no. 21 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xl, App. 545. 

 From John Dudley the manors passed to 

 Sir Thomas Seymer in 1530 and to 

 Edward Elrington in 1538 ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. u, m. 113, 16. 



5 Ibid. bdle. 12, m. 15. The manor 

 is named in a Molyneux settlement of 

 1558 ; ibid. bdle. 20, m. 80. 



6 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xiii, no. 35. 



7 Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), iii, 390 ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p.m. xxvii, no. 59. 



8 In 1586 Evan Banister, an 'old 

 priest,' was harboured by Jane Eyves of 

 Fishwick, widow ; Baines, Lanes, (ed. 

 Harland), i, 180, from Harl. MS. 360, 

 fol. 32. 'It is probable that the chapel 

 within the hall was regularly served before 

 Dom Bartholomew Gregory Hesketh 

 took charge of the mission in 1685 and 

 built the chapel there, wherein were 

 organs, bells, vestments and a pulpit, at 



