LEYLAND HUNDRED 



LEYLAND 



LEYLAND 



EUXTON 



CUERDEN 



CLAYTON-LE- WOODS 

 WHITTLE-LE-WOODS 

 HOGHTON 



WITHNELL 



WHEELTON 



HEAPEY 



This extensive parish, having an area of 19,265^ 

 acres and a population in 1901 of 17,940, appears 

 from its irregular shape to bo a remnant of a larger 

 district, from which at various times other parishes 

 have been cut ofF. At one time the townships of 

 Hoghton, Withnell, Wheelton and Whittle-Ie-Woods 

 formed a district or lordship bearing the special name 

 of Gunolfsmoors. This part includes most of the 

 hilly country in the eastern half of the parish ; in 

 the Leyland or western half the surface becomes 

 comparatively level. 



The township was anciently divided into four 

 ' quarters,' viz. Leyland, 

 Euxton, Cuerden with Clay- 

 ton and Whittle, and the 

 Moors, each of which paid 

 equally to the county lay 

 fixed in 1624.' To the 

 fifteenth the various town- 

 ships paid thus : — Leyland, 

 £\ OS. 2d.-, Euxton , 

 £1 5;. "jd. ; Cuerden, 

 1 5^. 81^.; Clayton, £1 ; 

 Whittle, I js. \d. ; Hoghton, 

 6s. C)d. ; Withnell with 

 Roddleswort h, 7/. %d. ; 

 Wheelton with Heapey, 

 11^. ; a total of j^6 \s. 2d., 

 when the hundred paid 

 £30 12/. 8^.' 



The agricultural land in 

 the parish now amounts to 

 nearly 16,000 acres, and is 

 occupied as follows : — 

 Arable, 2,530 acres; per- 

 manent grass, 12,454 acres ; 

 woods and plantations, 726 

 acres.' 



Although Leyland stood upon one of the ancient 

 roads to the north, and gave a name to the hundred, 

 there is little distinction about its history. The 

 principal family, that of Hoghton, long had posses- 

 sions outside the hundred which seem to have been 

 more attractive, as at Lea and later at Walton ; the 



Faringtons became the principal residents in the 

 western part of the parish about 1560, and have 

 maintained their pre-eminence.* The Reformation 

 left a large number of the minor gentry and people 

 faithful to the Roman Catholic religion.' The 

 Commonwealth sequestrations involved the principal 

 families, as well as many smaller ones, in disaster, for 

 the Faringtons were bound up with the Earls of Derby, 

 and the Andertons were zealous Royalists ; the 

 Hoghtons were divided, a Parliamentarian succeed- 

 ing his Cavalier father. 



The passage of the Young Pretender through the 



parish in 1745 does not seem to have been marked 

 by any noteworthy incident. 



In the last century the various branches of the 

 cotton manufacture and other industries found a 

 resting-place, though agriculture occupies most of the 

 land, and the hill quarries are actively worked. 



I Gregson, Fragments (ed. H.irland), 1 7, 

 22. The details are : Leyland and Euxton, 

 each;^5 lis. i^d.; Cuerden, ^i zs. 2%d.; 

 Clayton and Whittle, each jCz 41. s\d. ; 

 Hoghton with Withnell, £,-} 31. 6\d. ; 

 Wheelton with Heapey, £2 71. J^d., or 

 a total of ,f 22 41. jd., when the hundred 

 paid ;^ioo. 



"* To the subsidy of 1525 the following 

 contributed in respect of their lands in the 

 parish : Thomas, William, Isabel, and 

 Roger Farington. The others were : John 

 Clayton, Richard Jackson (Kuerden), 

 James Burscough, John Cowper, Robert 

 Swanley (Swanscy), and John Woodcock ; 

 Subsidy R, 130, no. 86. 



* The following compounded for the 

 sequestrated two-thirds of their estates in 

 1628 and later years : In Leyland, Roger 

 Charnock to pay ^6 a year; Euxton, Isabel 

 Anderton ,^8, John Charnock £z, Robert 

 Hodgson £z loj., Thomas Moore £2, 

 William Roscow ^^2, Robert Worthington 

 £z; Cuerden, Ann Banister ;^2; Clayton- 

 le-Woods, James Anderton ,^40, Ralph 

 Critchlow ^2 13J. 4(/., Robert Catterall 

 £1 ; Hoghton, John Clayton £2, Edward 

 Stubbs £t, 6s. 8(/., Christopher Taylor 

 £2 loj. ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), 

 xxiv, 173-8. 



