WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



middle of the 1 8th century." They were recusants 

 and incurred the usual penalties. Emma, or Emeren- 

 tia, Leigh, widow, Margaret and Catherine Leigh, 

 spinsters, and their sister, Anne Sandford, widow, 

 registered their estates in 1 717." Thomas Duxon 

 and William Tarleton were the other ' papists ' who 

 did the same." 



Orrell was formerly considered part of the chapelry 

 of Upholland. Recently, in connexion with the 

 Established Church, St. Luke's Chapel-of-ease has 

 been erected. 



The Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists have 

 chapels in the township, as also have the Welsh Cal- 

 vinistic Methodists. 



Salem Chapel, built in 1824, belongs to the Con- 

 gregationalists, who formed a church here about 1805 

 and erected a temporary chapel about 1810. The 

 building is still called John Holgate's Chapel, from 

 the name of one of the early ministers, 1820-50. A 

 later minister conformed to the Established religion, 

 an occurrence which almost ruined the Congregational 

 interest." 



The Roman Catholic mission was founded at Cross- 

 brook in 1699 and removed to the present site at Far 

 Moor in 1805 ; the church of St. James was enlarged 

 in 1 841, and a bell-tower erected in 1882. There is a 

 burial-ground attached.'' Anne Sandford in 1 740 gave 

 j^ioo to the mission with an obligation to say mass 

 for herself, her mother, and two sisters."" A convent 

 of French Benedictine nuns, driven out of their 

 country by the Revolution, in the first half of last 

 century occupied the house at Orrell Mount, but 

 afterwards removed to Princethorpe, Warwickshire. 



UPHOLLAND 



Holland, Dom. Bk. ; HoUande, 1202 ; Holand, 

 1224 and common; Holande, 1279; Upholond, 

 1292 ; Upholland, xvi cent. 



This township, distinguished by the prefix from 

 Downholland near Halsall, is the largest in the parish, 

 having an area of 4,685 acres.' The population in 

 1 90 1 numbered 4,773.' From the northern and 

 eastern boundaries, formed by the River Douglas and 

 its affluent the Dean Brook, the surface rises rapidly to 

 a point near the middle of the western boundary, 

 where a height of about 550 ft. is attained. From this 

 a ridge extends southerly, the ground to the south- 



WIGAN 



west falling away continuously to the boundary, which 

 is formed by Raw Moss and Holland Moss. The 

 southerly aspect of the township is open and bare ; 

 on the north there are more trees as the land 

 dips down to the romantic valley of the Douglas. 

 The arable fields, many divided by stone walls, are 

 sown with oats and wheat, and potatoes are very 

 extensively grown. On the south and west there are 

 collieries and fire-brick works, whilst stone quarries 

 give work to a section of the inhabitants. The soil 

 appears to be chiefly sandy, clayey in places, a shaley 

 rock appearing now and again on the surface, but the 

 solid base is sandstone. 



The 1 7th-century registers name many ' coalers ' and 

 ' delf men ' ; there were also nailers, linen-weavers, 

 glovers, watchmakers, and other craftsmen, whose 

 names are found in the township. 



Upholland village, where the priory formerly stood, 

 lies on the eastern slope of the ridge, near the Orrell 

 boundary. Through it pass from east to west the 

 road from Wigan to Ormskirk, and from north to 

 south that from Chorley to St. Helens. The 

 village has a steep main street, with the church at 

 the south end, overlooking a wide open space of 

 churchyard on the north and east. Immediately south 

 of the church is the site of the claustral buildings, but 

 their remains, with a single exception, are buried in 

 the ground and have never been explored. The 

 houses of Upholland are from an architectural point 

 of view of little interest, except one, an early 1 7th 

 or late 16th-century house on the south side of 

 the main street, with muUioned windows and a 

 panel with the Stanley crest. To the north lie 

 Walthew Green, Roby Mill, and Holland Lees ; 

 to the west are Holland Moor, Birch Green, Dig- 

 moor, and Tawd Bridge, the River Tawd forming 

 a portion of the boundary at this point, and being 

 joined by Grimshaw Brook ; to the south and south- 

 west are Tontine, Pimbo, and Crawford. The Lan- 

 cashire and Yorkshire Company's railway from Liver- 

 pool to Wigan passes through the southern part of the 

 township, with a station at Pimbo Lane now called 

 Upholland. 



Edward II stayed at Upholland for a fortnight in 

 October 1323, on his way from the north to Liver- 

 pool.' 



The Local Government Act of 1858 was adopted 

 by the township in 1872.* The local board was, 

 in 1894, replaced by a district council of fifteen 

 members. 



"1 The inheritance of this family was 

 <lerived from Edmund Molyneux, mercer 

 of London, lord of Vange in Essex, who 

 died 31 Jan, 1615-16, seised of lands in 

 Orrell and Upholland, held of Richard 

 Fleetwood and of the king respectively. 

 His heir was James Leigh, son of his 

 sister Agnes, aged forty in 1618 ; Lanes. 

 Inq, p.m, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 

 99. He was a benefactor of Wigan and 

 Upholland. His will is printed in Gis- 

 borne Molineux's MoUneux Family, 143 ; 

 it shows that he was related to the Moly- 

 ncuxes of Hawkley. An Edmund Moly- 

 neux and his wife Agnes had lands in 

 Orrell (apparently in the latter' s right) in 

 1532 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 11, 

 m. 192. 



James Leigh and Margaret his wife, 

 with their daughters Alice, Jane, and 

 Ellen, were fined for recusancy in 1616. 



James and Alexander Leigh also appear on 

 the recusant roll of 1641. James Leigh 

 had a small copyhold estate at Barking in 

 Essex sequestered for his recusancy by 

 the Parliamentary authorities, and sold in 

 1648 to Abraham Webb, apothecary- 

 general to the army ; Alexander Leigh, 

 the son and heir of James, afterwards 

 for j^22o concurred in the sale. In 1619 

 he charged his lands in Orrell with a rent 

 of £6 13s. 4^. for the maintenance of the 

 grammar school at Wigan. Under the 

 Parliamentary rule, two-thirds of his es- 

 tate was sequestered for his recusancy. 

 He died in or before 1 649, when his son 

 Alexander succeeded ; Royalist Comp, 

 Papers (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iv, 

 86-91 ; Cal. of Com. for Compounding, iv, 

 2564. 



Alexander Leigh appears in the recusant 

 rolls down to 1667, and Richard Leigh, 



91 



probably his son, to 1680. Two of Alex- 

 ander's sons, Pliilip and John Joseph, be- 

 came Jesuits ; the former was the author 

 of a Life of St. Winefride. See GiUow, 

 Bihl. Diet, of Engl. Cath. iii, 191 ; Foley, 

 Rec. S.J. vi, 518, 516 ; vii, 448-50. 



^ Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 135, 124. 



™ Ibid. 149, 126. 



^ Nightingale, Lanes. Noneonformity, iv, 

 37. Daniel Rosbotham of Rainford in 

 1858 left j^zoo towards the endow- 

 ment; Wigan End. Char. Rep. 1899, 



P- 57- 



^* Li'verpool Cath. Ann. 1 901. 



2^ Gillow, op. cit. iv, 191. 



' 4,686, including 9 of inland water ; 

 Census Rep. 1901. 



^ Including Bank Top, Crawford, &c. 



' Cal. Close, 1323-7, pp. 25, 27, 28, 

 41. 



* Land. Gaz. 13 Sept. 1872. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



