A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



of the skirmishes near Chorley ; it Red Bank it is 

 said.' A number of the inhabitants suffered from 

 the sequestrations and confiscations miJc by the 

 Parliamentary authorities to punish •delinquents' 

 and ' Papists,' as will be seen hereafter. 



The township contained 232 hearths liable to pay 

 the hearth tax in 1666, this being the largest number 

 in any township in the hundred. There were 

 several considerable residences : Astley Hall had 

 fifteen hearths, Mrs. Chorley tivelve, John Gillibrand 

 eleven, Crosse Hall (John Asley) ten, Hugh Cooper 

 nine, William Tootell six, Bagganley (Mr. Starkie) 

 four, Lawrence Breres four, and Henry Welch, cleri;, 

 three.' 



The Restoration' was followed by the ejection of 

 Henry Welch from the curacy and the appearance 

 of Nonconformity. The Revolution met no open 

 rcii>tan:e, but the story of the Chorleys in 1 715 

 indicates that many of the people remained faithful 

 to the exiled monarch. The 1 74.5 rising had no 

 re-.uki in Chorley, though the Young Pretender's 

 line of march was not far from its borders. 



Soon after I 7 50 the cotton manufacture was intro- 

 duced, and in 1779 Chorley was visited by rioters 

 bent on destroying the newly-invented spinning 

 machines. .About 1790 it was 'i small, neat market 

 t.r.'.n,' with ' -cveral mills, engines, and machines for 

 carding and spinning cotton,' the Chor being utilized 

 to work the m.ichinery. On the banks of the 

 V.irrow also were 'many bleaching and printing 

 grounds, with cotton factories intermixed.' Plenty 

 of coal and cannel ivas procurable, and in the 

 neighbourhood were quarries of ashlar, flag, and mill 

 stone, and mines of lead and alum. The road to 

 Preston was ' a good turnpike,' but that going south 

 was made of ' pebble stones bruised with hammers, 

 with nothing proper to fill up interstices.' ' 



The trade of the place has continued to increase, 

 being assisted by the opening of the canal and rail- 

 ways. The manufactures include cotton goods, 

 ginghams, jaconets, and muslins ; there are calico 

 printing and bleach works, iron and brass foundries ; 

 railway wagons, boilers, colours and chemicals are 

 made, and there are wood-turning works and 

 breweries. Coal is mined. The agricultural land 

 is at present thus occupied : arable land, 260 acres ; 

 permanent gra -. 2,164; woods and plantations, 

 200.' The fairs are now held on 26 March, 5 .M u', 

 20 August and 21 October, for horses and cattle; 

 also on Easter Tul day and the first Saturday in 

 September, continued on the .Monday and Tuesday, 

 ftir toys. 



Formerly there was a spa at Chorley,' and in 

 1S47 •' mineral spring was discovered or rediscovered 

 at the old Yarrow Bridge.' 



The market cross was in 1836 'a plain column, 

 rising from a flight of steps.' ' It was broken up by 



the builders of the town hall. Baines says : ' Here 

 are also two large perforated stones, which are held 

 venerable by the Catholics ; one of them at the 

 bottom of the church wall, and the other at the 

 lodge at Gillibrand Hall. A stone of large dimen- 

 sions with a cavity in it lies behind the church, and 

 was probably once used as a font.' ' 



Three companies of the \'oluntccr Battalion of 

 the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment were formed 

 in 1883, and a battery of the 3rd Lancashire Royal 

 Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) also existed. Under 

 the new Territorial system these have respectively 

 become two companies of the Loyal North Lanca- 

 shire Regiment and half a battery of the i i th Brigade 

 Royal Field Artillery. 



Two newspapers are published on Saturday, the 

 Guardian and the Weekly Neuii (formerly the Standard). 

 In the former paper, between 1884 and 1890, were 

 published the ' Local Gleanings' of John Bannister, 

 relating to all the townships of the Chorley district." 



An inclosure award was made in i "jtS ; it is in 

 the possession of the Corporation. 



Richard Chorley, the Jacobite of 171 5, is one of 

 the distmguished natives of the parish." Another is 

 Christopher Tootell, of the Lower Healey family, 

 the author of several devotional works. He was 

 born in 1662, and educated for the priesthood at 

 the English College at Lisbon, but on arriving in 

 England was wrongfully charged with Jansenism. 

 He tlicreforc retired to his native county, and served 

 at Wrightington and Ladywell, near Preston. He 

 was much persecuted by the vicar of Preston, but 

 managed to escape arrest." Sir Henry Tate was 

 bom at Chorley in 1819. Having acquired a great 

 fortune in the sugar manufacture in Liverpool, he 

 devoted himself to philanthropic work and to the 

 collection of pictures. He built the Hahnemann 

 Homoeopathic Hospital in Liverpool, and presented 

 to the nation the Tate Gallery of Art in London. 

 He was made a baronet in 1898. Sir Henry, who 

 was a Unitarian in religion, died in 1899." 



As a portion of the Croston lordship 

 MAtiORS granted by Roger de Montbegon to his 

 half-brother John Malherbe, CHORLEY, 

 continuing to form part of the Hornby fee, was held 

 by William de la Mare and his heirs, who in later 

 times were Fleming (then Hesketh) and Ashton of 

 Croston." Thus in 1632 a free rent of 10/. a year 

 was due from Chorley to Thomas Ashton." This, 

 as will be seen, was a moiety of the service to be 

 rendered. 



The immediate lordship of Chorley, which seems 

 to have descended to two co-heirs, was about 1250 

 acquired by William de Ferrers Earl of Derby and 

 lord of the district between Ribble and Mersey. 

 Part at least of the transaction is recorded in fines of 

 1251 and 1252, by one of which he obtained 30 acres 



' Civil ff'jr Traca (Chet. Soc), 263. 



* Subsidy R. Lanes, bdle. 250, no. 9. 



* The RestoratioQ was cclebraced by 

 the erection of a great may-pole, destroyed 

 by iightning a few rears later ; O. Hey- 

 wood, DiarieSj iii, 9S. 



* A;k;n, Cj:ir7.Tv rja^i.^/jit Afrfcr, 289. 



* Statistics trrm Bd. of A^rric. '1935). 



* Eainea, L^'.ci. (ed. iS-o', li, 12-, 

 quoting Bowen's Gi^grsphy (1-4^). 



' Ibid. 



' Land. Jii Cbes. AiH^. S:c. xy'A, 22. 



In the rectory grounds there is an ancient 

 cross head, perhaps from the church 

 gable. 



' Baine!, Line. (ed. 1836), iii, 418. 

 The stones are sockets of crosses ; the 

 second is (or was) not at the lodge but at 

 the c'.r.ner of Gillibrand Walks ; note by 

 Mr. J. W.lson. It was a roadsile or 

 ' weeping ' cr^/ss where funeral processions 

 halted that prayers might be said for the 

 departed soul. 



"■ They were not reprinted, but a col- 



130 



lected set is preserved in the public 

 library. u See below. 



" GiUow, SiU. Diet, of Engl. Catb. v, 

 547-9- 



" Diet. Nat. Biog. In the same work 

 may be seen a notice of Sir Robert 

 Rawlinson (1810-98;, K.C.B., a ihiia- 

 guished engineer, wlio, though bora at 

 Bristol, was of Chorley parentage. 



" See the accounts of the Montbegon 



fee [y.C.H. LjTia. i, 319) and of Croston. 



^ Ddchy of Lane Inq. p.m. xxix, no. 6. 



