AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



The market has long been obsolete. 4 The dates 

 of the fairs have been changed from time to time ; 

 there are now three cattle fairs 4-5 February, 

 28-9 April and 18-19 October. 



The court-house and police station is in Freckleton 

 Street ; the workhouse of the Fylde Union (1844) is 

 at the west end of the town. 



Kirkham and the district were visited by the plague 

 in 1 63 1. 8 



Halfpenny tokens were issued in 1670 and 1671 

 by Kirkham traders. 6 



In 1754 there was a 'chalybeate water called 

 Humphrey's Spa ' to the north of the town. 7 



The cucking-stool was used at Kirkham. 8 



A football match used to be played in the streets on 

 Christmas Day in the afternoon. 9 



The printing press is said to have been in use in 

 the town about I79O. 10 



' The town hall or moot hall was destroyed by fire 

 some eighty years ago [c. 1 8 1 o] ; it formerly stood in 

 the market place. The ground floor was occupied by 

 shop-keepers, and part of the upper story was used as 

 a flax-dressing room, the remaining space being taken 

 up by the large room in which the town's business 

 was transacted. This room was approached from the 

 outside by a flight of stone steps.' n The urban 

 district council meets in Station Road. 



Zachary Langton, third son of Cornelius Langton 

 of Kirkham, born 1698, and educated at the local 

 grammar school and at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, 

 acquired some reputation as a divine, publishing an 

 essay Concerning the Rational Human Soul. He died in 

 1786. Thomas Parkinson, likewise born at Kirkham 



KIRKHAM 



(1745) and educated there, became Fellow of Christ's 

 College, Cambridge, and Archdeacon of Huntingdon 

 and Leicester. He distinguished himself as a mathe- 

 matician, and was elected F.R.S. in 1786. He died 

 in 1830. Philip, son of Humphrey Shuttleworth 

 vicar of Kirkham, was born in the town in 1782. 

 After education at Winchester he went to New College, 

 Oxford, becoming warden in 1822. This dignity 

 he held till he was made Bishop of Chichester in 

 1 840. He wrote against the Tractarians. He died 

 in i842. 12 



In 1066 KIRKH4M, like the whole 

 M4NOR parish, was part of the fee of Earl Tostig ; 

 it was assessed as four plough-lands. 13 This 

 probably included Wesham and other hamlets, Kirk- 

 ham proper u the later township being no doubt 

 then or soon afterwards a rectory manor, held by 

 the clerks or others responsible for the church, 15 and 

 it always descended in the same way as the rectory, 

 the history of which has already been recorded. The 

 Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, leased 

 the manor to the Cliftons of Lytham, 16 but in 1871 

 the manor and part of the land were sold to Thomas 

 Langton Birley. 17 No courts are held. 



Soon after receiving Kirkham the 

 BOROUGH Abbot and convent of Vale Royal in 

 1296 constituted a free borough there. 

 The burgesses were to have a gild, with gaol, pillory 

 and cuck-stool and other means of punishing male- 

 factors, the assize of bread and ale, and other liberties 

 of a borough ; their bailiffs were to be presented to 

 the abbot. Perquisites of the courts, stallage and 

 other dues were reserved to the abbey. 18 A charter 



4 It was in 1825 held on Thursday, 

 according to the charter. 



5 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 47. 

 There were about zoo burials in August 

 and September 1631, the only 'Mr.' 

 being one Henry Clifton (26 Aug.). 



6 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. v, 79. 



7 Pococke, Travels through England 

 (Camd. Soc.), ii, 6. 



8 Fishwick, Kirkham (Chet. Soc.), 205. 



9 Ibid. 206. 



10 Loc. Glean. Lanes, and Ches. i, 31. 



11 Fishwick, op. cit. 25. 



12 Accounts of these three worthies 

 may be seen in the Diet. Nat. Biog. 



13 y.C.H. Lanes, i, z88a. 



14 From the boundaries of the manor in 

 1 68: it appears that Kirkham proper was 

 assessed as 18 oxgangs of land ; Fishwick, 

 op. cit. 21. 



ls This seems clearly implied by the 

 wording of Sheriff" Godfrey's grant (1093) 

 to Shrewsbury Abbey of ' the church which 

 he used to have in the demesne of St. 

 Michael [of] Kirkham, with the priests 

 and the land which pertains to them ' ; 

 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 270. In later 

 charters it is merely the ' church ' of Kirk- 

 ham which is named ; later no 'manor' 

 occurs apart from ths church. 



In 1246 William de York, provost of 

 Beverley and rector of Kirkham, secured 

 the acknowledgement that an oxgang of 

 land in Kirkham held by Robert son of 

 William de Kirkham and another held 

 by Alan de Newton were not lay fees but 

 free alms pertaining to the church ; Final 

 Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 103, 

 106. 



The Abbot of Vale Royal was plaintiff 

 in several cases in i 292 in respect of sums 

 owing to him ; Assize R. 408, m. 30, 34, 



&c. The abbot in 1314 claimed a mes- 

 suage, 2 oxgangs of land, &c., against 

 Adam son of Henry de Blackburn and 

 Alice his wife ; De Banco R. 204, m. 1 36. 



16 Fishwick, op. cit. 25. The Cliftons 

 had usually been lessees of the rectory 

 and manor. The Abbot of Vale Royal in 

 1526-7 gave William Clifton a receipt 

 for ,16, rent of the manor of Kirkham ; 

 Kuerden MSS. iv, K 18. In ijSzThomas 

 Clifton, in right of a grant from the 

 Abbot of Vale Royal, claimed certain per- 

 quisites of the court of the manor of 

 Kirkham against Richard Davy ; Ducatus 

 Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 109. 



A lease of the manor to Thomas 

 Flcetwood of Calwich in 1601 is printed 

 in Porter's Fylde, 374. 



A rental of the lands in Kirkham, as 

 well as an account of the tithes (1508-9) 

 belonging to the abbey, is preserved in 

 Towneley's MS. OO. 



17 Information of the Dean of Christ 

 Church. Formerly the rectory and manor 

 were leased separately, the terms being 

 twenty-one years in each case. The last 

 leases, granted in 1850 to Thomas Clifton, 

 were not renewed. Another part of the 

 land was in 1871 sold to George Wray 

 and the remainder, together with the 

 rectorial tithes of Kirkham proper, was 

 annexed to the vicarage under Acts 

 29 Chas. II, cap. 8 and i & 2 Will. IV, 

 cap. 45. At the same time several 

 annexations of tithe-rent charges were 

 made to various district churches. 



For the Birley family see Burke, 

 Landed Gentry. T. L. Birley, the purchaser 

 of the manor, died in 1874 and was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Mr. Henry Langton 

 Birley, who is said to be the present lord 

 of the manor. 



18 A bad copy of the original charter is 

 printed by Fishwick, op. cit. 209-10. A 

 17th-century translation is in the posses- 

 sion of W. Farrer. No confirmation by 

 the Crown is known. 



In 1330 the community of Kirkham 

 rendered an ox to the abbey ; Ormerod, 

 Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 167. 



The burgages are constantly mentioned. 

 In 1375 a burgage in Preston was ex- 

 changed for one in Kirkham ; Kuerden 

 MSS. iv, P 1 18. John de Slaidburn and 

 Alice his wife had a burgage settled upon 

 them in 1407 ; ibid. K 17. In the same 

 year John de Bradkirk granted a parcel 

 of his burgage to Robert son of John the 

 Smith, wh ch burgage he had had from 

 Adam de Newton. The parcel was a 

 corner at the south end adjoining a bur- 

 gage called the Kilnyard. The deed was 

 attested by the bailiffs Robert de Myer- 

 scough and John the Smith; Earwaker MS. 

 Christopher Singleton in 1560 claimed a 

 burgage and land called ' an oxcon ' 

 (oxgang) against Lawrence Singleton and 

 others; Ducatus Lane, ii, 232, 233, 296. 

 See also ibid. 262, 277. 



Several extracts from the bailiffs' records, 

 16801743, are printed in Fishwick, op. 

 cit. 20-5. Various payments are recorded 

 ' for his freedom within the borough of 

 Kirkham.' At the court leet of Oct. 168 1 

 Thomas Hodgkinson was steward and 

 there were fifteen jurors ; two bailiffs were 

 appointed, a Serjeant, constable, galdlayers, 

 burleymen, prisers, leather-searchers and 

 flesh and fish viewers. 'The seal of the 

 borough is a dove with an olive branch in 

 its mouth. The original seal is still in the 

 possession of the bailiffs, but is not in 

 a perfect state of preservation ' ; ibid. 

 25- 



