LEYLAND HUNDRED 



The earliest reference to a chapel 

 ^DFOfTSON is a grant about 1280 by Amery de 

 Hoole to God and St. Mary of an 

 acre in Much Hoole for the maintenance of the 

 lights in the chapel of Little Hoole.i What became 

 of it is unknown ; it is not noticed at the time of 

 the spoliation of such chapels by Henry VIII and 

 Edward VI, and by that time, therefore, had pro- 

 bably fallen into decay, the endowment, if there had 

 been any, having been lost.^ About 1628 a chapel 

 was built in Much Hoole by Thomas Stones of 

 London, and in 164 1 -2 it was made a parish 

 church,'-* the townships of Much and Little Hoole, 

 with a messuage called the Carr House in Brethcrton, 

 being assigned to it. The patronage was vested in the 

 builder, and a seventh part of the rent of £^t, 6s. St/. 

 due to the Crown from the rectory of Croston was 

 to be paid by the rector of Hoole.* The advowson 

 has frequently changed hands, and the present patron 

 is Mrs. Mary Dunne. The income is £i(>(). 

 The following have been rectors" : — 



1 64 1 Robert Fogg ' 



1647 Samuel Jones * 

 c. 1654-8 William Brownsword, M.A.'' (Emmanuel 

 Coll., Camb.) 



1660 Robert Browne, M.A.^" 

 oc. 1676 Samuel Barton ^^ 



1686 Richard Foxcroft, B.A.i= (Christ's Coll., 

 Camb.) 



1 70 1 Thomas Leigh, B. A.'' 



1 704 James Whitaker " 



1732 Thomas Ellison, LL.B." 



HOOLE 



1763 John Lowe, B.A." 



1783 Roger Barton, B.A."' (Brasenose Coll., Oxf ) 

 1 799 Thomas Shutt, M.A. (Queen's Coll., Oxf.) 

 1803 Richard Rowe 

 1805 Robert Harris, B.D.^s 

 i8i2 Miles Barton '^ 

 1848 Robert Brickel, B.A.^o (T.C.D.) 

 1 88 1 Edmund Neal Dunne, B.A. (T.C.D.) 

 There is a Wesleyan Methodist church, built in 1 848. 

 A school seems to have been founded at the same 

 time as the church, but it had disappeared by 1720.21 

 Another was built in 1774. 



Apart from j^24 for education the 

 CHARITIES only charitable endowments 22 are 

 9/. 8a'. a year for prayer-books ^' for 

 the poor and £\ distributed in clothing. 2* 



LITTLE HOOLE 



Little Hoi, 1256 ; Little Hole, 1292. 



Little Hoole is cut off from its southern partner. 

 Much Hoole, by a small brook running west to the 

 Douglas, which forms the boundary on that side. 

 Another small brook bounds it on the north. The 

 highest land, about 70 ft. above the sea, is at the 

 eastern end, the surface sloping very gradually to the 

 riverside. The area is 1,223 acres,^* and there was 

 a population of 501 in 1 901. 



The road from Ormskirk to Preston crosses the 

 township from south to north, and has a branch 

 going west to the river. The hamlet of Walmer 

 Bridge is in the north, where the main road goes 

 into Longton. The West Lancashire portion of 



' Dods. MSS. liii, fol. 94A. 

 ^ Hoole is not named in the list of 

 chapels compiled about 16 10 and printed 

 in Hist. MSS, Com. Rep, xiv, App. iv, 11. 

 '■* Private Act of 1 6 Chas. I, cap. 6. 

 '' Bishop Gastrell calls the church St. 

 Michael's, and states that it was conse- 

 crated in 1 629 ; Notitia Catr. (Chet. 

 Soc), ii, 376. It is sometimes called 

 Holy Trinity. 



* The rectors of 1641 and 1686 on- 

 wards have been taken from the records 

 in the diocesan registry at Chester. 



' He had been curate in 1632 and 

 1639 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 94, 123. Jeremiah Horrocks, 

 the astronomer, was acting for him in 

 1639, Robert Fogg was an active and 

 zealous Puritan, and in 1646 placed in 

 Bangor Isycoed rectory on the expul- 

 sion of the Royalist Henry Bridgeman ; 

 this he lost on the Restoration in 1660, 

 and was silenced for Nonconformity. He 

 afterwards lived at Nantwich, and was 

 buried at Acton in 1676. See Baines' 

 Lanes, (ed. Croston), iv, 138. 



^ He was a son of John Jones, vicar 

 of Eccles ; Foster, Alumni Oxon. He 

 signed the 'Harmonious Consent' of 

 1648 as 'pastor of Hoole.' In 1650 he 

 wasdescribed as 'a godly, painful, preaching 

 minister.' He had the tithes of Much 

 and Little Hoole, excepting the rent of 

 £^ 13J. to the duchy and ,f 10 to the 

 school, the net value being about f^ifi ; 

 Comtnontv, Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), 115, 



9 N. and Q. (Ser. 3), iii, 68 ; (Ser. 6), 

 ii, 22-4, with reference to Newcome's 

 Autobiog, Brownsword had been curate 

 of Douglas in Bispham in 1648, and after- 

 wirds became vicar of Kendal 1658-72. 

 Fur a time (1655-7) ^^ acted at Preston. 

 He published a thanksgiving sermon on 



the restoration of Charles II, and a book 

 against the Quakers, called The Quaker- 

 Jesuit, 1660. 



'" Presented by Martha Porter of Lam- 

 berhurst in Kent ; Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.) 

 (printed in Lanes, and Ches. Anticj. 

 Notes). Bishop Gastrell calls her Maria 

 widow of Richard Porter. Browne was 

 of Emmanuel Coll., Camb.; M.A. 1667, 

 and had been incumbent of Salford ; 

 Maneh. Classis (Chet. Soc), 421. He 

 was rector to about 1677 ; Visit. Lists. 



" Note by Mr. Earwaker. 



1^ Presented by James II (by lapse) ; 

 also curate of Sefton from 1688 ; Visit. 

 List at Chester. He and his curate, John 

 Battersby, were 'conformable' in 1689; 

 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 

 229. 



" Presented by Sir Thomas Wheate, bt. 



'* Presented by Elizabeth Hamby, 

 widow. At that time Mrs. Hamby and 

 Mr. Crook of Abram were patrons in 

 turn. The income of the rector was 

 ,^46 35. There were two churchwardens, 

 one for each township, serving for four 

 years ; every fifth year Much Hoole 

 elected both wardens. Assessments were 

 made in Much Hoole by the acre and in 

 Little Hoole by a fifteen. See Gastrell, 

 op. cit. 



'^ Presented by John Skerrett. He 

 was also curate of Chorley. 



In the charity report William Ellison 

 is stated to have been rector in 1738. 



'* Presented by Henry Hesketh, patron 

 for that turn. James Hodgson was 

 'minister of Hoole ' in 1765. 



" Presented by Miles Barton, who pre- 

 sented also in 1799, 1803 and 1805. He 

 was the son of Henry Barton, an Orms- 

 kirk surgeon, and succeeded his father. 

 He gave its name to Southport, Roger 

 Barton, the vicar, was a son. 



'^ Also incumbent of St. George's, 

 Preston. 



^^ Patron of Hoole ; son of a pre- 

 ceding rector. The replies to the Bishop 

 of Chester's inquiries in 1821 show that 

 there were prayers morning and afternoon 

 on Sundays, with a sermon in the morn- 

 ing, but an afternoon sermon was pro- 

 mised. The sacrament was administered 

 four times a year. There was no parson- 

 age house, but the rector lived in Much 

 Hoole. 



^^ Presented by James Greaves Barton, 

 son of the last rector j he afterwards sold 

 the advowson. The Rev. F. H. Sewell, 

 vicar of Cockerham, was patron in 1849, 

 and Thomas Batty Addison in 1870. 



Mr. Brickel, an admirer of Horrocks, 

 wrote an essay on the transit of Venus, 

 and procured the enlargement of the 

 church as a memorial of his predecessor. 

 In 1884 was published a volume entitled 

 Memorials of the Rev. Robert Brie kel^ edited 

 by Rev. W, Miles Myres. 



^^ Gastrell, op. cit. ii, 378. In the 

 present school are a library of 600 books 

 and a small natural history museum. 



^^ An official inquiry was made in 

 1898. The report includes a reprint of 

 that of 1826. 



^3 Ralph Leyland in 1709 left £6 for 

 this purpose ; a small piece of land, pur- 

 chased with that sum, was sold in 1854 

 for about ;^2o, invested in consols. 



^^ Margaret Walton in 1776 bequeathed 

 £10 for clothing for the poor of Hoole. 

 Henry Hunt, nephew and executor of 

 the benefactor, appears to have spent the 

 capital for this purpose, but on represen- 

 tations being made his family paid the 

 /"30. It is now invested in consols. 



^* The Census Rep. of 1901 gives 1,236 

 acres ; there arc in addition 9 acres of 

 tidal water and 12 of foreshore. 



20 



