A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



present ; the alteration was made to avoid the very 

 sharp curve at which the Blackpool line turned oft". 



The port at Skippool was formerly of local 

 importance. 4 There was a market on Monday and 

 customary fairs are still held in February, April and 

 November. 5 A court of requests for the recovery of 

 small debts was established in 1770. 



The soil is clayey, overlying stiff clay. 



Poulton is governed by an urban district council 

 of twelve members. The town has been lighted by 

 gas since 1851 ; the works were purchased by the 

 council in 1903. 



There is a cemetery in the Breck, laid out in 

 1883. 



A halfpenny token was issued in 1667 by James 

 Smith, a Quaker, who had suffered imprisonment 

 for refusing to take an oath. 6 A shilling token was 

 issued about l8iz. 7 



Before the Conquest POULTON, as- 

 MdNOR sessed as two plough-lands, was held by 

 Earl Tostig 8 and afterwards became 

 part of the lands of Count Roger of Poitou, who, as 

 stated in the account of the church, gave it to the 

 Abbey of St. Martin of S6es. 9 Thus it became part 

 of the endowment of St. Mary's Priory at Lancaster 

 and afterwards of the Bridgitine Abbey of Syon in 

 Middlesex. Beyond the charters of endowment and 

 a few later acquisitions 10 there is but little record of 

 the place, and no ' manor ' seems to have been 



acknowledged in later times, 11 except in 1634, when 

 Alexander Rigby of Middleton and others held it. 1 * 

 Thornber, writing in 1837, says: 'The principal 

 part of Poulton . . . passed 

 into the hands of the Rigbys 

 of Layton Hall, in whose 

 name the greatest number of 

 its houses are leased for the 

 remaining term of 999 years.' 13 



The Prior of Lancaster com- 

 plained in 1330 that he had 

 been seized and imprisoned 

 at Poulton by Sir Adam 

 Banastre, Richard the Demand 

 and others, and that his men 

 had been assaulted, &c. A 

 fine of a mark was imposed. 

 The dispute seems to have 

 arisen over a right of way and 



the collection of tithes, an agreement being made at 

 the same time by which the prior and his men were 

 to have two sufficient roads for men and wagons 

 through Sir Adam's lands in Thornton, Staynall and 

 Singleton. One road was to go from Thornton and 

 Poulton by Skippool through Little Singleton to the 

 ford of Aldwath over the Wyre ; the other road was 

 to go through Poulton and Thornton, crossing the 

 Wyre by the ford of Bulkes." 



Two families at least used the local surname, 15 but 



RIGBY 



Bendy of 



of 



Layton. 

 indented 



argent and azure on a 

 chief sable three cinque- 

 foils or. 



4 In I72Z 3 it was a member of the 

 port of Chester, and its bounds extended 

 from Kibble mouth round to the Wyre 

 estuary. Timber from America and flax 

 and tallow from Russia were landed there, 

 and the town did a considerable business 

 in flax, which came from Ireland also ; 

 Fishwick, Poulton (Chet. Soc.), 33-4. 



A rate for the repair of Skippool bridge 

 was levied in 1702 ; ibid. 200. 



5 Thornber, Blackpool, 290. 



6 Lanes, and Cites. Antiq. Soc. v, 87. 



7 By R. D. Hall ; Pal. Note B{. i, 84. 



8 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 288^. In later times 

 Poulton was considered as three plough- 

 lands ; Lane. Ch. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 483, 

 the plough-land given to the church being 

 the third part of the vill. 



9 Ibid, i, 9 ; ' in Amounderness Poulton 

 and whatever belonged to it.' This was 

 confirmed by John when Count of Mortain, 

 and again after he became king ; ibid. 

 13, 16. 



10 In 12056 half a plough-land was 

 in dispute between the Prior and monks 

 of Lancaster on the one side and Richard 

 de Singleton, Robert the C erk his brother, 

 Richard de 'Workedel' (Worsley) and 

 Maud his wife on the other. The monks' 

 right was acknowledged, and the other 

 parties received the land for life at a rent 

 of 2s. ; ibid, ii, 385. 



Robert son of Alexander de Stanford 

 released to the monks the toft he held, 

 and received it again at a quit-rent of 3</., 

 with remainder to his sister Edusa ; ibid, 

 ii, 389-91. Several similar grants follow. 

 Walter son of William del Moor gave 

 them 2 acres of land lying in various 

 places, viz. two lands on Carrfurlong, 

 one ferling next the 'Orsegate' leading 

 to Carleton, half a land on the Trim- 

 lands, half a land on the Ouand, and 

 half a land on the Ferns ; ibid. 402. 

 He also gave land on the Overland of the 

 Marsh, on Cantelow (afterwards Cantley), 

 Sec., and half an oxgang of his land in 



Poulton ; ibid. 403-5. In one deed the 

 'vill of Great Poulton' is named; ibid. 

 408. 



In Little Poulton Geoffrey de Whit- 

 tingham gave half an oxgang of land to 

 Robert son of Richard de Poulton ; ibid. 

 411. Robert del Marsh of Little Poulton, 

 perhaps the grantee, having incurred a 

 fine of 30 marks, pledged his lands, &c., 

 to the Prior of Lancaster, who had 

 became surety for him ; ibid. 418. 



In 1295 Nicholas son of John Baldwin, 

 living in Poulton, released to his chief 

 lord the prior all his title in half an 

 oxgang of land he had had from his 

 brother William ; ibid. 422. 



Inquiry was made in 1 299 as to whether 

 or not it would be to the king's loss to 

 allow the prior to acquire certain lands in 

 Poulton ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. 

 Soc. Lane?, and Ches.), i, 304 ; Cal. Pat. 

 1292-1301, p. 482. 



A grant by Walter son of William de 

 la Moor in the time of Henry III is in 

 the Record Office ; Anct. D., B 2948. 



11 The lordship of the Prior of Lancaster 

 was fully recognized in 1293, when he 

 complained of disseisin by John son of 

 James de Poulton, John son of Adam de 

 Poulton and others. The two Johns 

 alleged that their ancestors had been 

 coparceners with Roger of Poitou, and 

 had given freely, for the benefit of the 

 church, a rent of 6d. per oxgang of land. 

 The verdict was for the prior, who claimed 

 an approvement in right of his lordship ; 

 Lane. Ch. ii, 480-6. There seems to have 

 been a very determined resistance to the 

 prior's claims, judging by the number of 

 those who joined in throwing down the 

 ditches, &c. ; Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 



i, 277- 



12 The deforciants in a fine respecting 

 the manor of Poulton, the tithes of 

 Poulton and Marton, various lands in 

 Goosnargh, &c., were Alexander Rigby, 

 Lucy his wife, Joseph and George Rigby, 



226 



Robert Mawdesley and Dorothy his wife ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 122, no. 21. 



13 Hist, of Blackpool, 291. 



14 Lane. Ch. ii, 468, 471. 



15 They occur in the Lancaster Char- 

 tulary quoted in preceding notes. 



Adam de Poulton, John de Poulton 

 and James his son, John son of Baldwin 

 and Robert his brother, and John de 

 Kirkby successfully resisted a claim by 

 Alexander rector of Poulton in 1246 ; 

 Lanes. Assize R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 48. At the same time Sibyl 

 wife of Adam de Larbreck claimed a 

 toft, Sec., in right of her sister Agnes 

 daughter of Adam ; but Adam son of 

 Robert de Poulton said that another 

 sister, Avice, had left a daughter Alice, 

 who should have been joined in the 

 complaint ; ibid. 26. 



In 1301 John Curteys claimed a 

 messuage and an oxgang of land in 

 Poulton against Henry de Poulton ; De 

 Banco R. 135, m. 360. Alice widow of 

 John son of Roger de Poulton in 1308-9 

 claimed dower in a toft and an oxgang 

 of land against Alice daughter of Roger 

 son of John de Poulton ; ibid, 174, m. 

 225. Adam le Wayte in 1338 claimed a 

 messuage and oxgang of land in Kirk 

 Poulton held by Beatrice widow of John 

 son of James de Poulton; ibid. 315, 

 m. 2i4d. Thomas son of John son of 

 James de Poulton occurs in 1346 ; ibid. 

 346, m. 3d. 



In 1353 the lands of Robert de Poulton, 

 deceased, who held of the priory of 

 Lancaster, were committed to John son 

 of Robert de Farington, together with the 

 marriage of Nicholas, next of kin and 

 heir, a minor; Fine R. 154 (27 Edw. 

 Ill), m. 19. The possessions of the 

 priory were in the king's hands by 

 reason of the war with France. The 

 inquisition states that Robert had held 

 a messuage, 40 acres of arable land, 

 5 acres of meadow and 1 5 acres of pasture 



