A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



ippointment of a new minister, led to the formation 

 of a second church, that in St. George's Street.' 



As already stated, nothing is definitely known of 

 the existence of Protestant Nonconformity after 1662. 

 Abraham Crompton, after his purchase of Chorley 

 Hall, built a chapel for 'a congregation of Dissenting 

 Protestants called Presbyterians' in 1725, dose to 

 the parochial chapel, and left j^850 for the mainte- 

 nance of a minister, with the proviso that if the chapel 

 should be suppressed or discontinued, or should there 

 be a union of such Disienters with the Protestant 

 Church of England, the building should go to his son 

 John and the money to his son Samuel.^ The 

 building remains unaltered to the present day, but the 

 doctrine as in other cases has become Unitarian.' 



The adherents of the Roman Catholic religion 

 remained numerous after the Reformation.^ One 

 of the reasons which induced the trustees of Hcnrv 

 Banastre to apply his gift to Chorley in 1640 was 

 'the great number and multitude of popish recusants 

 inhabiting in and near about the said town and 

 parish, the same lying and being in or very near the 

 heart and middle of the said county of Lancaster.'' 

 They had the support of the chief resident families, 

 Chorley and Gillibr.ind, as well as some of the minor 

 ones, such as the Tootclls, but practically nothing is 

 known of the priests ministering '.vithin the tn.vn- 

 ship in the long period of proscription, except that 

 about I 7 16 there was a resident priest at Gillibrand 

 Hall, viz. F^ William Gillibrand." Later than this 

 the domestic chapel at Burgh Hill In Dj^lury had 

 to serve for the district. It was not till 1774. 'hat a 

 chapel was opened at Weld Bank — so named in com- 

 pliment to the Weld family as benefactors." In 

 1^15 the present charch of St. Gregory replaced it ; 

 it was enlarged in l?29.^ 



Within the town itself St. M.iry's Mission was 

 begun in I>l4.6. The deserted Wcsleyan chapel, 

 later the Mechanics' Institute, was used at fir-t, then 

 a small chapel was erected in Chapel Street, to be 

 repl.iced by the present church at M.mnt Pleasant In 

 I ^^4.. The Sacred Heart .Mission ivas founded in 

 i875->;, and the church opened in 1S96.'' In 

 l9^"^ a ne.v mission was begun. 



A grammar school \v.is founded in 161 i. Thj 

 ancient schoolhouiC, which stood in the church)Mrd, 

 w.is taken do.vn in 1823-4."' The school has 

 recently been merged in the secondary school and 

 technical institute. 



Official inquiries into the local 



CHARITIES charities \vere made in 1S26 and 



l>'9>i. The report of the Litter, 



which includes a reprint of the earlier one, furnishes 



ihe following details : — 



The poor's lands were purchased by gifts from 

 William Hodgson (1624) and later benefactors. 



Hodgson gave /lOO, spent on lands on the east 

 side of Eaves Lane and at Botany Bay. The 

 workhouse was built upon part of the land in 17S9, 

 other charitable funds being used, and the overseers 

 paid a rent for it. The income was distributed in 

 money doles. William M.iyson in 1638 left a cottage 

 and land at Ingol near Preston for the poor — Dux- 

 bury having a moiety of the net income (^^18 in 

 1S26) — and these funds, ^vith later benefaction;, 

 including Hugh Cooper's almshouses (16S2), were 

 in 18S3 amalgamated by authority of the Charity 

 Com iiissioners. 



Hugh Cooper " left a rent-charge of £6 upon his 

 lands called Stump, to be paid to 'six poor person^, 

 either men or women, being Protestants, and such as 

 usually frequented the parochial chapel at Chorle},' 

 who were to live in the almshouses he wis about to 

 build, and to receive (out of the ^^6) each a grey 

 russet coat or gown. He also left is. each to twent}- 

 poor persons to be given each year on St. Thomas's 

 Day. In 1801 the owner of the Stump estate (John 

 Holllnshead) appears to have paid j^l40 to the 

 trustees of the poor's land in order to free the estate 

 from the rent-charge, and in 1826 the £6 and ^^l 

 were paid out of the workhouse rents. The alms- 

 houses built soon after the founder's death stood .it 

 the bottom of Pall Mall ; they have been removed 

 to AshfielJ Road. 



Other benefactors — Allanson (172S), Heald(l 742), 

 Woodcock and Foal — gave sums for clothing and 

 apprenticing poor children, amounting to j^8^ in all, 

 used upon the workhouse building as above. William 

 Frith in 1666 charged his lands at Whittle-le- Woods 

 with £^ a year for charitable purposes, including Jj. 

 3 year for ' two little jumps, coats or waistcoats ' for 

 poor children of Chorley, and 8/. for their learning 

 at the grammar school or other school. This charity 

 is still 'treated as one specially for the benefit of 

 Roman Catholics.' 



The net income of Hodgson's charity increased 

 be, on J the expenditure, so that a considerable sum 

 accumulated, and in 1868 the old workhouse and its 

 site \vere sold to the guardians for £'},SS6. The 

 other charities also had incomes exceeding the charges 

 upon them, so that in 1883 the official trustees held 

 the following amounts of consols : — For Hodgson's 

 charity, ^^4,732 ; Cooper's, ^^1,038 ; Heald and 

 others, £206 ; Mayson's, £146. The interest on 

 these sums and the rents of land at Botany (Hodgson), 

 Ingol (.Mayson) and Pall Mall (Cooper) produce 

 j^2 2 2 10/. lod'. The officiating minister of Chorley 

 had 1 3/. 4a'. for preaching a sermon on Christmas 

 Day in the parish church. 



The scheme of amalgamation allows the income 

 to be spent on contributions to hospitals, nursing, 

 Sec, to provident clubs, reading rooms, &c., to the 



' Xightin^alc, Lartcu Xf.co'if. ii, 

 lo-ii;. 



^ Eni. CU^. Rip. for Chorley. The 

 money was invcs'ed in land at Croft in 

 ^V^,n\vick, which wns in 1S-9 sold for 

 £-..1^0 \ chief rcnt3 of j^liS a year were 

 purchased and the net income is paid to 

 the minister. Other endowments were 

 given, and in iSS; was add.;d a bequest 

 of l^l.ozro from M's' Sarah Crompton. 



^ Ni^htin^a'e, op. cit. ii, l-lo ; a full 

 account of the ministers ;3 given, and 

 there is a view of the building 



* .\I:u. (Rec. Soc Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 184-6. A list of recusants in Chorley 

 c. 16-0 is printed in .\I::c. (Cath. Rec. 

 Soc), 1, 9;. 



^ End. C -ir. Rip. for Chorley, 22. 



'' An informer stated : ' Chorley — 

 Gillibrand a prieiL, brother to .Mr. Gilli- 

 brand of Chorley, and resident there ' ; 

 Eit.iurt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non- 

 jur.'i, 354. .\ccording to the Bishop of 

 Chtncr's return in J767 there were 202 

 'Papists' in Chorley. No priest is 

 named, but one Hannah Edgar was 



schoolmistre s ; Tram. Hilt. Sac. (new 

 ser.), xviii, 217. 



' The old name was Hodgson's Farm. 



^ Livrrpool Cath. Annujl, 1901; a 

 list of the priests in charge ii gi.vn. 



^ Ibid. 



"' Gistrell, Noiitia Ceitr. ii, 365 ; End. 

 Char. Rip. 



" By his will of 20 May 1682 he de- 

 sired to be buried in Chorley Chapel in the 

 pirt belonging to Astley, having obuined 

 the leave of Sir Peter Brooke and hi« 

 son. He mentions his wife Ejzabcth, 



148 



