BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



BLACKBURN 



Catholics in religion ^^ ; the number of these cases is 

 larger than might have been expected, including not 

 only some of the greater landowners, such as Sir John 

 Talbot, but many of the smaller men, one case being 

 dismissed because the 'delinquent's' estate was less 

 than £200 value.^* 



The county lay of 1624, founded on the old 

 fifteenth, required this parish to pay ^^29 19/. J^J. 

 when the hundred had to raise ^^loo.^' Meantime 

 the foundations of the local manufacturing industry 

 were being laid. In the time of Elizabeth Black- 

 burn was one of the places where an alnager for 

 certifying the woollen stuffs was needed ^^ ; a linen 

 manufacture is traced to the time of Charles I,^' 

 and the characteristic ' checks,' a combination of 

 linen warp and cotton woof, are supposed to have 

 been made first about 1650—60.'^ A fortnightly 

 fair was begun about the same time.^' 



After the Restoration local affairs went on smoothly. 

 The hearth tax returns of 1 666 give some indication 

 of the condition of the people. Apart from the 

 houses of the local squires few had more than two 

 hearths to be taxed, except in the leading townships 

 of Blackburn and Walton-le-Dale. In the town of 

 Blackburn itself there were 285 hearths liable. Mrs. 

 Fleetwood's house had ten, those of Lawrence 



Haworth, Leonard Clayton, Randle Sharpies and 

 Richard Elston had six each, two houses had five, 

 nine four and twenty-three three.^^ 



Only one curate ^^ was ejected in consequence of 

 the Act of Uniformity, but Nonconformity was strong 

 and a number of licences were taken out during the 

 temporary Indulgence of 1672. It may be assumed, 

 therefore, that the Revolution was welcomed here, and 

 in 171 5 the people appear to have been zealous for 

 King George.^'' One of the local gentry, William 

 Walmsley of Showley, was captured at Preston 

 among the Jacobites, but he was acquitted. His 

 father, Richard Walmsley, and a large number of 

 ' Papists ' registered their estates in 17 17.'' In the 

 second half of the century Methodism was intro- 

 duced and spread, but it was not till 1780 that 

 Wesley himself preached in the town of Blackburn, 

 and then he appears to have been welcomed by the 

 townsmen in a body, all the chief men being present 

 to hear him.'* Cotton manufacture and calico 

 printing were introduced about 1770.'* Thomas 

 Pennant thus describes Blackburn in 1773 : — 



The town is seated in a bottom surrounded by hills ; it is 

 at present rising into greatness, resulting from the overflow of 

 manufactures in Manchester, for the artificers retreat to cheaper 

 places and less populous. The manufactures are cottons : con- 



* the first engagement,' he having sub- 

 mitted long since. His fine was ^60 ; 

 CaL Com, for Comp, iii, 1883 ; v, 

 3289. 



The other sequestrations were, with 

 scarcely aa exception, In the northern 

 townships along the Ribble bank. Ralph 

 Shorrock of Walton, while a servant to 

 Sir Gilbert Hoghton, took part in the 

 attack on Blackburn in 164.2, but after- 

 wards * lived peaceably' and took the 

 National Covenant ; he compounded in 

 1 64.6 for j^6o ; ibid, ii, 1493. Thomas 

 Blacoe of Roacher in Samlesbury had his 

 messuage sequestered for delinquency, 

 and it so remained at his death in or 

 before 1655 ; ibid. 3237. Thomas Sower- 

 butts and Hugh Welchman were two 

 other Samlesbury delinquents ; the former's 

 estate was declared forfeit and sold ; ibid, 

 iv, 3075 ; iii, 2043 5 Index of Royalists 

 (Index Sec), 44. Two other estates in 

 the neighbourhood were also forfeited, 

 those of Lawrence Park of Cuerdale and 

 James Ward of Osbaldeston ; ibid. 41, 



William RadclifFe of Balderston com- 

 pounded in 1649 for a fine of jQ^S j 

 CaL Com. for Comp. iii, 2056. William 

 Winckley of Billington, *for delinquency 

 in the first war,' compounded in 165 1 for 

 £z6 ; ibid, iv, 2722. Three others of 

 the same township forfeited their estates : 

 John Barker of Southwell, who lost 

 Weetlev House, having been in Newark 

 at its surrender ; Robert Foole or Fowle 

 (deceased), whose widow Janet in 1652 

 was a recusant ; and Robert Craven ; 

 ibid, ii, 1389 ; iv, 3025, 3131 ; Index of 

 RoyalistSy 41, 42. Craven was allowed to 

 compound for a small fine. 



27 These were almost all in the district 

 above defined, where sequestrations took 

 place for taking the king's side in the 

 war. At Walton-le-Dale there were a 

 number of cases : John Ainscce alias 

 Martin (dead), Thomas Baldwin, Anne 

 Blackburn (died about 1647), William 

 Blackburn, Evan Catterall, Elizabeth 

 Dowson and Thomas Walton; Cal. Com, 

 for Comp, iv, v. The case of William 

 Blackburn is the only one needing further 



notice. He complained in 1652 that his 

 estate had been wrongly seized, but after- 

 wards confessed that he had been a re- 

 cusant, but having been * brought to see 

 his errors, frequented church and took the 

 oath of abjuration'; ibid, iv, 3059. 



Henry Wright of Samlesbury having 

 died, his heirs in 1651 petitioned for the 

 two-thirds of the estate sequestered for his 

 recusancy. * Being conformable ' it was 

 allowed them on their taking the oath of 

 abjuration ; ibid, iv, 2847. The daughters 

 of Roger Smalley in Balderston and Robert 

 Sharpies (deceased) of the same place had 

 suffered for the same reason ;ibid. v, 3199, 

 3219. The recusancy of John Shaw, an 

 assignee, caused the sequestration of 

 Sharpies House in Osbaldeston before 

 1652; ibid, iv, 3013. John Cross in 

 1652 complained that his small estate in 

 Mellor and Showley, inherited from his 

 father, had been sequestered about 1645, 

 when he was only ten years old, ' on 

 pretence that he was educated in Popery ' ; 

 m 1652, being seventeen, he took the oath 

 of abjuration, and the tenement was re- 

 stored to him ; ibid, iv, 3041. Robert 

 Catterall of Clayton-le-Dale desired to 

 compound for his sequestered two-thirds 

 in 1653 ; ibid, iv, 3174. Alexander 

 Bleasdale (deceased) had two-thirds se- 

 questered, his sister and her husband de- 

 siring discharge in 1655 ; ibid, v, 3236. 

 Robert Squire of Great Harwood in 1654 

 asked to be allowed to contract for the 

 two-thirds sequestered. There had been 

 a dispute, for this part had been granted 

 by the authorities to Robert Feilden on 

 lease, and he had complained that the 

 division made was unfair to him ; ibid, 

 iv, 3128. 



38 William Knight of Samlesbury ; ibid. 

 ii, 1541. 



^^ Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 

 23, The following are the details : Black- 

 burn, £z ()s, (>%d. ; Balderston, 12j. ()d. ; 

 Billington, ^i i8i. iij./. ; Clayton-le- 

 Dale, ^1 $s. 5|i/. ; Cuerdale, ^^i 4J. ^d. ; 

 Over Darwen, ^^i 95. 8|d'. ; Lower 

 Darwen, ^^i \s. ii^d. ; Great Harwood, 

 j^2 8j. lo^d. ; Little Harwood, 14*. lo^i/.; 



2.37 



Livesey and Tockholes, ^^i i8i. "^d, ; 

 Mellor with Eccleshill, £1 51. s%d. ; 

 Osbaldeston, 9s. iid. \ Pleasington, £1 

 3J. 4^£/.; RishtGn,j^i 5i-. 5|i/. ; Salesbury, 

 I2J. 9^]'. ; Samlesbury, £^ ys, f^^d, \ 

 Walton-le-Dale, ^^3 19^. 3^^.; Wilp- 

 shire and Dinckley, 17J. ; Witton, 

 1 31. <)d, 



30 Act 8Eliz. cap. 12. 



"' Abram, op. cit. 201. 



»-' Ibid. 



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

 91 ; they ceased during the winter. 



^■^ Lay Subs. Lants. bdle. 250, no. 9. 



3^ Great Harwood. 



3'' Abram, op. cit. 195. A party of 

 raiders from Preston is said to have made 

 its way as far as Darwen. 



^^ Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. Non- 

 jurors, 100. In the same work will be 

 found details regarding the following who 

 registered : Balderston — John Wilcock, 

 John Jackson of Preston, John Alker, 

 Alexander Osbaldeston of Sunderland, 

 William Harrison, John Gregson, Cathe- 

 rine Gregson, Henry Darwen ; Billing- 

 ton — Anne Blackburn, Richard Craven, 

 John Rowbotham of Bloomsbury, Thomas 

 Bolton of Ribchester ; Clayton-le-Dale — 

 John Jackson, Thomas Riding ; Cuerdale 

 — Richard Coope, Edward Osbaldeston ; 

 Dinckley — Richard Almond, Richard 

 Craven ; Great Harwood — Richard Cun- 

 liffe ; Osbaldeston — Richard Osbaldeston 

 of Wilpshire, Richard Wilson ; Rishton — 

 Elizabeth Duckworth ; Salesbury — Eliza- 

 beth Bolton ;Samlesbury — Robert Brindle, 

 James and Margaret Turner, Hugh 

 Walmsley, William Gregson, Thomas 

 High, John and William Moulden, Anne 

 Cocker, Hugh Heatley, Anne Hoole : 

 Walton-le-Dale— George Connell, Johp 

 Gerard, Edmund Eastham, James Cowpe, 

 Thomas Catterall, John Sherington, 

 James and John Woodcock, William 

 Oram, John Burscough, Matthew Worth- 

 ington, John Adkinson of Cuerdale, Evan 

 Darwen, John Jackson, George Gregson ; 

 Wilpshire — James Catterall. 



^^ Abram, op. cit. 200. 



^^ Ibid. 211, 230. 



