WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



Lander of New Hall. 

 Sable three mullets in 

 bend argent between tivo 

 btndlets indented or. 



Under the Commonwealth the Gerard estates, as 

 above related, were confiscated ; the properties 

 of Hugh Orrell ^ and Elizabeth Rogerson, widow,*' 

 were also sequestered for recusancy. In 171 7 John 

 Darbyshire, Thomas Naylor, Elizabeth Aray of 

 Chorley, John Taylor of Lydiate, Edward Unsworth, 

 John Boardman, and Andrew 

 Moore registered estates as 

 ' papists.' " 



The family of Lander of 

 New Hall appears during the 

 17th century." This estate 

 was acquired by the Gerards 

 about 1 796, and became their 

 principal residence." 



The Sorocold family were 

 seated at Eyebridge in the 

 17th century." 



A troop of yeomanry cavalry, 

 commanded by Sir William 

 Gerard, existed in 1 804, when 

 two companies of infantry volunteers were raised for 

 the protection of the country from invasion." 



There i? no record of the origin of 

 CHURCH St. Thomas's Chapel at Ashton, which 

 is first named in the pleadings in i 5 1 5 

 respecting the dispute about Tumshea Moss between 

 Sir Thomas Gerard and his namesake of Ince ; it 

 was then deposed that the priest at Ashton Chapel 

 had given public notice that Sir Thomas intended to 

 make a straight ditch through the moss that his turf- 

 rooms might be the drier." Little is known of it 

 for a century after this ; " but the new services were 

 certainly used there, Sir Thomas Gerard about 1562 

 forcibly carrying to it his relation Nicholas Gerard as a 

 too obstinate adherent of the old.'* The ministra- 

 tions were probably irregular; in 1590 there was 

 ' no preacher ' there," and more than twenty years 

 later 'seldom a curate,' there being, it would seem, 

 no income except what the rector allowed. '* The 



WINWICK 



Commonwealth Surveyors of 1650 found everything 

 in order, and recommended it to be made a parish 

 church; to the minister had been assigned the seques- 

 tered tithes of the township, worth j^l20 a year." 



At the Restoration the curate, proving a Noncon- 

 formist, was ejected.™ In 1 71 8 Bishop Gastrell found 

 the certified stipend only j^i izs. ; the rector, how- 

 ever, gave £^^0, 'being obliged to provide for it;' 

 and other inhabitants subscribed ^j a year on con- 

 dition that the curate resided and read prayers on 

 Wednesdays, Fridays, and holy-days." The chapel 

 was rebuilt in 1706 on Sir William Gerard's ground, 

 and he leased out the chapel yard."" It was enlarged 

 in 1784 and 1815 ; and in 1845, on the division of 

 the rectory of Winwick, was made a parish church, 

 being endowed with the tithes of Haydock." There 

 is a licensed mission of St. Luke's. 



The incumbent has the title of vicar, and is 

 appointed by the rector of Ashton. The following 

 have been in charge : — ^ 



'* Royalist Comf. Papers, iv, 236. 



^^ CaL of Com, for Compounding, v, 3186; 

 her husband Richard was living in 1641. 



Roger Lowe's Diary (published in Local 

 Glean, Lanes, and Ches. i) contains many 

 particulars of local interest about the 

 Restoration period, the writer having been 

 a resident. 



'' Engl, Cath, Nonjurors, 97, 98, 99, 

 110, 124, 127, 153. For John Darby- 

 shire see Payne, Engl, Cath. Rec. 25. 



*' Thomas son of Mr. John Gerard 

 of New Hall was baptized at Winwick, 

 10 Dec. 1608. 



The Launder or Lander family after- 

 wards acquired the property, and were 

 described as 'of New hall' in 1687. An 

 account of them is given in I^cal Glean, 

 Lanes, and Ches, i, 216; ii, 95, from 

 G. S. Master, Family of Master, John 

 Launder of New Hall was a benefactor 

 to the poor of Ashton ; he died in 1692 

 and was succeeded by his son Thomas, 

 who died in 1695, and whose daughter 

 Margaret carried the New Hall estate to 

 the Master family. See also pedigree in 

 Burke, Landed Gentry (Master of Barrow 

 Green House). 



'■' Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 639. 

 '" George Sorocold of Ashton is men- 

 tioned in 1651 ; Cal. of Com, for Com- 

 pounding, iv, 2787. See further in the 

 account of Leigh. 



'^ Local Glean. Lanes, and Ches. ii, 205, 

 206, 



7» Duchy Plead, i, 5. 



7^ Humphrey Winstanley and Alice 

 Worsley were married in 1559 * in a 

 chapel within the house of Sir Thomas 

 Gerard, by one Oswald Key, chaplain 

 singing at Ashton Chapel ; ' Furnivall, 

 Child Marriages (Early Engl. Text Soc), 

 3, The domestic and public chapels were 

 thus quite distinct. 



Oswald Key appeared at the first visita- 

 tion in Queen Elizabeth's reign. 



1* Foley, Rec. S. J. ii, 26. Nicholas, 

 who was gouty and unable to move, sang 

 psalms in Latin as loud as he could, and 

 was taken out again. 



75 Lydiate Hall, 248. 



?« Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 13. 



7? Commonwealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 48. The order as to 

 the tithes was made in 164; upon the 

 petition of the inhabitants ; Plund. Mins, 

 Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 6. 



'8 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconformity, 

 iv, 44. 



79 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc), ii, 267. 

 Even the £1 lis, was not ancient, con- 

 sisting of ,^1 for an anniversary sermon 

 and 12s, interest on sums left at various 

 times. To have a resident curate was 

 obviously a recent innovation. 



8" The site was conveyed in 1745, 

 and the chapel was consecrated in 1 746 ; 

 Church Papers at Ches. Dioc. Reg. An 

 article on the church appeared in the 

 Liverpool Dioc, Gam, Nov. 1 904. 



8' Notitia, 268 ; note by Canon Raines. 

 See also Lond. Gam. 8 Aug. 1873. 



82 From information in part supplied 

 by the present vicar, the Rev. H. Siddall. 



88 Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298. 

 8^ He * came in by free election of the 



whole town ; ' he was • a very godly 

 preacher, a man of good life and con- 

 versation,' but had not kept the fast day 

 appointed by Parliament ; Commoniuealth 

 Ch. Surv. 48. He was in charge as early 

 as Aug. 1645 ; Plund. Mins. Accts. 1, 6. 

 From the Winwick registers it seems that 

 Thomas Potter, afterwards of Culcheth, 

 was assisting in 1656. 



Woods continued to preach for about a 

 year after his ejection, and then removed 

 into Cheshire ; Roger Lowe's Diary in 

 Local Glean. Lanes, and Ches. i, 170, 173. 



8* Ibid. 186 ; Roger Lowe, being re- 

 buked by Mr. Atkinson for not standing 

 up at the reading of the gospel, ' told him 

 his mind to the full.' 



8S Stratford, Visitation Bk. at Ches. 

 Dioc. Reg. He seems to have lived at 

 Newton. Vicar of Garstang, 1712. 



87 This name occurs in the Winwick 

 registers. 88 See preceding note. 



89 The church papers at Chester begin 

 here. 



^ He contributed an account of the 

 Roman roads to Baines' Lanes, (ed. 1836), 

 iii, 573. There is a eulogy of him in 

 Beamont, ffarrington in 1465 (Chet, 

 Soc), p. Ixxviii. 



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