A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



of Makerfield, granted a rent of l ^d. a year for the 

 maintenance of the lamp of St. Mary in Winwick 

 Church, as an acknowledgement of the permission he 

 had received to endow a chantry in his chapel of 

 Rokeden. This permission was granted by the prior 

 and canons of Nostell, as patrons of Winwick, in 1285; 

 the usual stipulation was made — that nothing should 

 be done to the injury of the parish church." Licence 

 was granted or renewed by the Bishop of Lichfield in 

 1405 for service in the chapel at Rokeden." In 1534. 

 John Dunster was chaplain.*' He was in 1 548 

 celebrating for the souls of his founders." 



After the suppression of the chantry Dunster was 

 allowed a pension and continued to reside. He 

 appears to have conformed in i 562, but next year was 

 absent from the visitation ; " he was buried at Win- 

 wick in 1 5 7 1 . Ten years later there was a curate at 

 Newton of scandalous character;" in 1590 the 

 curate was ' no preacher,' *' and two years afterwards 

 there was no surplice for the minister.*' About 1 610 

 it was stated that there was seldom a curate, the stipend 

 being but small." It is probable that here, as in 

 other chapelries, the legal services were more or less 

 regularly conducted by a • reading minister.' " 



An improvement took place in the 17th century. 

 A regular curate seems to have been appointed ; the 

 Commonwealth Surveyors in 1650 found that Richard 

 Blackburne had given ^^20 a year for a 'preaching 

 minister,' and recommended that Newton should be 

 made a separate parish ; the tithes of the township, 

 worth j^6o a year, had been appropriated to the minis- 

 ter's use." This arrangement would cease at the 

 Restoration, but Bishop Gastrell in 1 71 8 found the 

 curate's income to be over £38." The chapel, now 

 called St. Peter's, was rebuilt in 1684, consecrated in 

 1735, and enlarged in 1819 and 1835. The town- 

 ship became a separate rectory in 1 841, the Earl of 

 Derby being patron ; but Emmanuel Church, War- 



grave, built in that year, was made the parish church 

 instead of the old chapel." The latter had a district 

 assigned to it in 1845 ;" Lord Newton is patron. 



ST. PETER'S CHURCH stands at the east end of 

 the long and wide village street, and is a modern 

 building with chancel, north and south chapels and 

 north vestry, nave and aisles with porches at the west 

 ends of the aisles, and a west tower. A few mural 

 tablets from the old church are preserved, and the 

 wrought-iron altar-rails are of 1 8th-century style, but 

 otherwise, all the fittings, oak screens and seats and 

 alabaster pulpit, &c., are modern. 



The following is a list of curates and vicars : — 



oc. 1622 — Gee'' 

 ? 163s William Thompson '* 

 oc. 1645 Thomas Norman " 

 oc. 1650 Thomas Blackburne'" 

 oc. 1684 Samuel Needham, B.A."' (St. John's Coll. 

 Camb.) 

 1686 Edward AUanson, M. A." (Magdalene Coll. 



Camb.) 

 173s Philip Naylor, B. A." (Trinity Coll. Camb.) 



— Ashburnham Legh, M.A." (Brasenose Coll. 



and All Souls, Oxf ) 

 1775 John Garton, M.A. (Brasenose Coll. Oxf.) 

 oc. 1806—13 Francis Bryan " 



— Robert Barlow 



1823 Peter Legh, B.A." (Trinity Coll. Camb.) 

 1864 Thomas Whitley, M.A. (Emman. Coll. 



Camb.) 

 1 87 1 Herbert Monk, M.A. (Trin. Coll. Camb.) 

 1898 James Ryder 



The church of St. John the Baptist at Earlestown 

 was built in 1878, and had a district assigned to it in 

 1879.^ The rector of Newton is patron. 



A school, called Dean School, was built in 1646 

 by John Stirrup." 



19 Reg. St. Oswald of Nostell (B.M.). 

 Thomas Gentle was * chaplain * in 1312 ; 

 Raines, loc. cit. 127. 



*" Raines, Lanes. Chant. (Chet. Soc), !, 

 75 n. Licence for an oratory at Newton 

 had been granted to Ralph de Langton in 

 1374; Lich. Epis. Reg. Stretton, v, fol. 

 30. 



<i Valar Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 220. 



^^ Lanes. Chant, i, 74 ; the foundation 

 is erroneously ascribed to * Sir Thomas 

 Langton, knight.* The clear income was 

 68r. ^d. derived chiefly from Walton-le- 

 Dale and Preston. A chalice and two sets 

 of vestments belonged to it. 



■"8 Visit. Lists at Chester. 



^■•Articles viere exhibited in 1581 

 against Robert Bradshaw, clerk, curate of 

 Newton, to the effect that he had become 

 * infamous ' among his parishioners and a 

 ' slander to the ministry,' being a • com- 

 mon drunkard and a common gamner or 

 player at tables and other unlawful games' ; 

 further he had solemnized * divers unlawful 

 marriages,' in one of which a sister of the 

 squire of Risley was a party ; Ches. Con- 

 sistory Ct. P. 



*^ Lydiate Hall, 248 ; quoting S.P. Dam. 

 Eliz. ccxxxv, 4. 



■« Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), x, 190, 



47 Hist. MSS. Com. Rcf. xiv, App. iv, 13. 



*^ Richard Pickering was ' reader ' in 

 1609; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.}, xxii, 

 298. 



'" Commonivealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 47. 



*» Notitia Ceitr. (Chet. Soc), ii, 271. 



A pension out of the duchy had been set- 

 tled by Edward VI, viz. £j Is. yd., the 

 old chantry rent, less the tenth retained 

 by the Crown ; ^25 came from an inclo- 

 sure of common, and ,^20 was allowed by 

 the rector of Winwick. 



'' Notitia Cestr. ii, 273 n. 



M Land. Gaz. 11 Feb. 1845. 



'' Visit. List at Chester. Bishop Gas- 

 trell says that a curate or 'perpetual 

 preacher ' was licensed in 1620; Notitia 

 Cestr. ii, 272. 



^ In 1635 the ship-money collectors 

 conceived his stipend to be insufficient to 

 maintain him and his wife and children, 

 and therefore forbore to lay any tax upon 

 him ; Mise. (Rec. Soc Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, no. 



'5 Plundered Mms. Aects. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 6. He signed the 

 'Harmonious Consent.' His will was 

 proved in 1649. 



'^ He ' came into the place ' by the 

 general consent of the chapelry, and was a 

 'godly preaching minister, supplying the 

 cure diligently upon the Lord's day,' but 

 he had not observed the recent day of 

 humiliation appointed by Parliament ; 

 Common'wealth Ch. Surv. 48. Roger Low 

 heard him preach at Newton in 1664 ; he 

 heard Mr. Taylor there in the following 

 year. It is possible that these were Non- 

 conformists i Local Glean. Lanes, and Ches, 

 i, 178, 180. 



'7 Mentioned in the Winwick registers 

 in 16S4 and 1685. Also rector of 

 Claughton for a time. He was master of 



136 



Stockport School 1674 to 1683 ; after- 

 wards he had a school at West Braden- 

 ham, Norfolk ; Earwaker, East Ches, i, 

 417- 



'" Stratford's Visitation List at Chester. 

 He was buried at Winwick in 1731 ; will 

 proved 1733. He was also rector of Grap- 

 penhall as a 'warming-pan' from 1708 to 

 1722 ; Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Notes, ii, 

 60. 



'' The church papers at Chester begin 

 at this time, when the sentence of conse- 

 cration was given. 



'" Also rector of Davenham, 1745-75. 



'^ The following was his story : ' Par- 

 son Brien [Bryon], an apostate Jesuit, 

 was [Dec. 1806] curate of Newton. 

 Went at college by the name of Francis 

 Plowden out of gratitude to Lady Goring, 

 whose coachman his father was, and who 

 sent him to college. Came over to mis- 

 sion in Lancashire in 1751 ; 'Ghented,' 

 1755; taught ' little figures ' for some time 

 and at petition of Squire Dicconson allowed 

 to come over to be his chaplain 1758. 

 Company of Colonel Legh, &c., completed 

 his ruin. He read his recantation 1761 

 and obtained curacy of Newton ' ; Misc. 

 (Cath. Rec. Soc), iv, 258 ; Foley, Rec, 

 S.J. vii, 100. He was buried at Win- 

 wick in 1813 aged eighty-eight. 



'2 He was one of the illegitimate sons 

 of Thomas Peter Legh of Lyme ; Ormerod, 

 Ches. (ed. Helsby),iii, 678. 



^ Land. Ga%. 17 May 1879. 



'< Notitia Cestr. ii, 273 ; End, Char. 

 Rep. 



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