A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Leigh, Gules a croa 

 engrailed argent befween 

 four lozenges ermine^ a 

 canton or. 



descended like Orrell to Mr. Roger Leigh, of Hindley 

 Hall, AspuU. 



The shares of the Billinge" 

 and Winstanley*' families can- 

 not be traced satisfactorily. 



One of the quarters of the 

 manor was acquired by the 

 family of Bankes of Winstan- 

 ley.^' 



Thomas and John Winstan- 

 ley and Thomas Bispham," as 

 landowners of Billinge and 

 Winstanley, contributed to a 

 subsidy levied about 1556. 

 The freeholders in 1600 

 were : Anderton of Birchley, 



Thomas Bispham, Richard Billinge, William Ather- 

 ton, and John Wood.^^ In 1628 the landowners, 

 contributing to the subsidy 

 were : Roger Anderton, Wil- 

 liam Bispham, William Black- 

 burn, Edmund Wood, and 

 Edmund Bispham. The first 

 and last of these, as convicted 

 recusants, paid double." Those 

 who contributed for lands to 

 the subsidy of 1663 were 

 James Anderton of Birchley, 

 Thomas Bispham, Peter Parr, 

 Geoffrey Birchall, and Alex- 

 ander Leigh.'' In 171 7 the 

 following, as 'papists,' regis- 

 tered estates here : John Gerard of Ashton, John 

 Howard, Richard Mather, and Robert Rothwell of 

 Winstanley.'' The principal landowners in 1787, 

 according to the land tax returns, were William 

 Bankes, Edward Leigh, and Sir Robert Gerard, con- 

 tributing together about half of the sum total raised. 



Bispham. Sable a sal- 

 tire betioeen four harts^ 

 heads cabossed erminois. 



The Inclosure Award, with plan, is preserved in 

 the County Council offices at Preston. 



A chapel of ease was built here in the 

 CHURCH time of Henry VIII at the cost of the 

 inhabitants, who also paid the priest's 

 wages." At the beginning of Mary's reign James 

 Winstanley of Winstanley, ' minding utterly to destroy 

 the same chapel for ever, out of very malice and hate 

 that he had and bore towards the service of God, 

 which he perceived the Queen's majesty was minded 

 to advance and set forwards,' assembled a band of 

 twenty ' evil-disposed persons,' and forcibly carried off 

 the chalice and paten and other ornaments, broke the 

 windows, turned out forms and chairs and the like 

 furniture, and made it a barn, keeping his hay and 

 corn there by force.'^ There was ' no preacher ' at 

 Billinge in 1590." Eight years later the building 

 was found to be out of repair ; there were no books 

 but a Bible, the curate was 'no minister, but one 

 licensed to read.' No attempt had been made to 

 collect the I/, a week fine for absence from the legal 

 services, nor were there any collections for the poor. 

 Very few came to the communion thrice yearly ; the 

 parishioners could not say the Catechism, and many 

 did not know the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and com- 

 mandments." 



The Commonwealth surveyors recommended that 

 the chapel should be made a separate parish church, 

 but this does not seem to have been carried out.** 

 The minister in charge was ejected in l66z.'' The 

 old building was demolished and rebuilt in 1717—18." 

 The church has been of late considerably enlarged 

 under the direction of Mr. T. G. Jackson, R.A. 

 The oldest part of the building dates only from 1 7 1 7, 

 and before the additions was a plain rectangle in 

 plan, 57 ft. by 37 ft., with a small eastern apse. The 

 elevations are very plain, divided on north and south 

 into four bays by shallow pilasters, with a round- 



^ A pedigree, imperfect, was recorded 

 in 1665 ; Dugdale, Fisit. (Chet. Soc), 30. 



John Billinge was in 1590 reported as 

 * soundly affected in religion * Lydiate Hall, 

 246. He was a trustee in 1573, and 

 Richard Billinge was a freeholder in 1600. 

 His grandson, another Richard, recorded 

 the pedigree, being then 52 years of age. 

 As a 'papist* two-thirds of his estate fell 

 into the hands of the Parliamentary 

 authorities, and in 1652 the whole was 

 sequestered ; on inquiry it was found that 

 his estate in Wigan parish had been 

 sequestered for recusancy, and that in 

 Ormskirk parish for recusancy and delin- 

 quency. Afterwards he petitioned to be 

 allowed to compound ; Royalist Comp, 

 Papers, 'ji73; ^^^- ?/• Com. for Compounding, 

 iv, 3102. His son John was aged 17 in 

 1665, and in 1691 Frances Bispham, 

 widow, purchased from John Billinge and 

 Margaret his wife, and IVlargery Billinge, 

 widow, the filth part of the manor of 

 Billinge, with houses, windmill, dovecote, 

 and lands in Billinge and Rainford ; Pal. 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 226, m. 44. 

 This * fifth part ' of the manor is named 

 in a later fine, Holt Leigh being posses- 

 sor ; ibid. bdle. 368, m. 64. 



^ This family may be the Winstanleys 

 of Blackley Hurst, a detached part of the 

 township of Winstanley. 



^^ In a recovery of the fourth part of 

 the manor of Billinge in 1729 Hugh 

 Holme was vouchee ; this was before his 

 marriage with the Bankes heiress ; Pal. 



of Lane. Plea R. 528, m. 8. It has 

 since descended like Winstanley ; ibid. 

 Aug. Assizes, 1803, R. 10. 



25 Mascy of Rixton D. 



^ Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 240, 243. 



John Wood in 1570 acquired lands in 

 BiUinge, Windle, and Winstanley from 

 Richard Cowper, and ten years later made 

 further purchases from Ralph and Richard 

 Heaton ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 

 32, m. 51 ; 42, m. 143. 



The Orrells of Turton held lands, as 

 appears by various suits recorded in Duca- 

 tus Lane. (Rec. Com.), i, 242. 



For a Molyneux family, holding under 

 Fleetwood, see Lanes, Inq. p.m. (Rec. 

 Soc), ii, 128. 



27 Norris D. (B.M.). 



^ List in possession of W. Farrer, con- 

 taining also a catalogue of the charterers. 



^ Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 124, 125, 

 1 5 1. The son of Richard and Elizabeth 

 Mather is described as a Protestant. In 

 addition, Francis Estcourt of Birchley 

 registered an annuity of ^^3 3 from a house 

 in Ashton in Makerfield ; ibid. 151. 



^^ The documents referred to are print- 

 ed in Canon Bridgeman's Wigan Ch, 

 749-57- 



The dedication of the chapel is un- 

 known. In the earliest record, 1539-40, 

 the priest in charge is called the vicar of 

 Billinge ; op. cit. 750. Nothing but ' one 

 little bell' belonged to it in 1552 ; Cb. 

 Gds. (Chet. Soc), 75. 



86 



61 Wigan Ch, 751. It is possible that 

 the chapel was not used in the time 

 of Edward VI, there being no * ornaments ' 

 in 1552, and that James Winstanley had 

 acquired some title to the building, or 

 claimed a chief rent. As to his opponents, 

 it is obvious that they would use the argu- 

 ment most likely to move the queen. In 

 the will of James Winstanley of Winstan- 

 ley, made 12 Mar. 1555—6, and proved at 

 Chester 19 Dec 1557, he expressed a 

 desire to be buried ' within the holy 

 sepulchre in the parish church of Wigan.' 



62 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 348 ; quoting 

 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, 4. A similar re- 

 port was made about 1610 ; Hist, MSS, 

 Com, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 13. 



88 Wigan Ch. 754 ; Raines MSS. (Chet. 

 Lib.), xxii, 184. 



8* Commoniv, Cb, Surv, (Rec. Soc, 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 62 ; the salary was 

 ,f 50. An augmentation of stipend to the 

 amount of £^0 was granted in 1656 ; 

 Plund, Mins, Accts, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), ii, 145. 85 ffrjg^„ ^/j. loc. cit. 



88 Ibid. Bishop Gastrell about this 

 time found the income of the curate to be 

 ;^34 OS. id,, of which £6 was paid by 

 the rector, and the remainder was the in- 

 terest of various benefactions, jf 1 5 coming 

 from Eddleston House, an estate be- 

 queathed by John Eddleston in 1672, and 

 containing a stone delph set for £z, A 

 chief rent of ,fi was payable to Mr. 

 Blackburn. One warden was appointed ; 

 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc), ii, 253. 



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