A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



son, Henry James second Baron Montagu of Boughton, on whom this 

 hundred and the honor of Clitheroe were settled after the decease of his 

 mother, who died in 1827. Upon his death in 1845 without male issue 

 they became the property of his cousin Walter Francis fifth Duke of 

 Buccleuch, being second but first surviving son and heir of Charles William 

 Henry fourth Duke of Buccleuch. The fifth duke died in 1884, when he 

 was succeeded in the hundred and honor of Clitheroe by his second son 

 Henry John, created in 1885 Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. By royal licence 

 in 1886 he took the name of Montagu in addition to and after those of 

 Douglas-Scott. He died in 1905 and his son succeeded to the title, but the 

 father had in 1898 transferred the hundred with the honor to the Clitheroe 

 Estate Company, which now has the whole lordship. 



The leet court or great wapentake court of Blackburnshire continued 

 to be held twice a year at Clitheroe Castle until 1842, when the Act for the 

 appointment and payment of parish constables rendered it useless. The 

 wapentake or three weeks court for small debts was abolished in 1868 ; its 

 working had then become a nuisance rather than a convenience.^^ 



Court rolls of the wapentake between 1509 and 1515 are preserved at 

 the Record Office.^" As an example of their contents it may be stated that 

 the business of the great wapentake or leet court of Blackburnshire in 1559 

 included the fining of several persons for keeping unreasonable ways between 

 various points. Roger Nowell of Mearley was fined for killing two of his 

 neighbours' hunting dogs, while another man was punished for keeping two 

 dogs called ' sheep worriers,' and another for milking other people's cows 

 on the common pasture. Unlawful games, viz. cards and dice, were also 

 censured. Two persons were fined is. each for placing 'dunghills and 

 middens ' in the street of Blackburn. At later courts the unlawful games 

 noticed included shufHeboard, tabling for ale, nogs, and bowls and bowling 

 alleys. 



A century ago the hundred was divided into two parts, the Lower and 

 Higher. The former included Blackburn parish and all that part of the 

 hundred north of the Ribble, together with the townships of Church, 

 Clayton-le-Moors, Haslingden and Oswaldtwistle. 



Ecclesiastically the two parishes of Blackburn and Whalley formed the 

 deanery of Blackburn as early as 1291^^; the inclusion of Chipping and parts 

 of Ribchester and Mitton in the hundred did not affect the church arrange- 

 ments, for they remained in the deanery of Amounderness just as they had 

 formerly been in the hundred of that name. Some of the names of the deans 

 have been preserved.^^ In 1535 the deanery was held by the Archdeacon of 

 Chester, and was farmed by Gilbert Haydock ; the value for probate of 

 wills and other dues was estimated as about £/\. 6s. a year.^^ 



2' Farrer, Clitheroe Court R., Introd. p. ix. 



30 Duchy of Lane. Court R. bdle. 78, no. 1013, 1017. Two subsidy rolls for the hundred are at 

 Rydal Hall, viz. for 1585 and 1598 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. vii, i. 



3' In Pope Nicholas's Taxation this deanery is not separated from Manchester, but the name ii given, 

 and there can scarcely be any doubt as to the extent of it. 



32 Thurstan Faldworthings was dean in 1449 ; Towneley MS. RR, no. 1020. 



3' Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), v, 227. 



234 



