A HISTORY OF LAxVCASHIRE 



c. 1630 Richard H.irgrcavcs 



163 I W illiam Kippax 



1 646 Richard U'orthington 

 to 1662 — Sandford 



1662 Thomas Bentley 



1675 Nicholas Piele, M.A. 



1676 Nathaniel Rothwell, B.A. (Queens' Coll., 



Camb.) 

 to 1688 William Coulton, B.A. (Brasenose Coll., 

 Oxf.) 

 1 6s 8 Edward Sherdley =^ 

 i6gi John Barlow 

 1706 Arthur Tempest, B.A. (Trinity Coll., 



Camb.) 

 I 7 1 7 George Brown 



1720 John Smith, B.A. (Jesus Coll., Camb.) 

 1773 Thomas Elleray 

 1 7 So Basil Cane 

 1 78 1 William Greenwood, B.A. (St. John's 



Coll., Camb.) 

 1789 Borlase Willock 

 1S03 William Barton, B.A. (Sidney-Sussex Coll., 



Camb.) 

 1819 Rol crt Dobson 

 1861 Wm. Maude Haslewood, B.A." (St. 



John's Coll., Camb.) 

 l8SS Arthur Frederic Johnson, MA. (Caius 

 Coll., Camb.) 

 The temporary iron church of St. John, opened in 

 1898, served as a chapel of ease till an independent 

 parish was formed for it in 190s. The vicarage is 

 in the gift of trustees. 



Wesley is said to have preached at Great Harwood 

 — once in a cottage in Church Lane, when he was 

 stoned by the rabble, and a second time in the house 

 i}( Mr. Francis Clayton at ' Back-o'-th'-Bowle\ .' 

 Great Harwood was a preaching place in the Black- 

 burn Circuit in 1787. Services were conducted in a 

 room at Cross Gates, afterwards in a schoolroom at 

 Cliffe. In 1822 the fir>t chapel was built at Butt,, 

 but was appropriated by the seceders in 1 849. A 

 new chapel was erected in 1853 in Chapel Street, 

 and enlar'jcd in 1857, to which schools have been 

 annexed."' 



The United Free MethoJists held services in the 

 chapel at Butts from 1 S (.9, and from 1864. in a new 

 chapel called Mount Zion, erected in Cattle Street, 

 with schools adjoining." 



The congregation of Independents was founded 

 here by Mr. Roger Cunliffe in 1S12. Previous to 

 the erection of the present chapel in Queen Street in 

 183" services were held in a small room, at which 

 students from the Independent College at Blackburn 

 were the usual preachers, until the removal of the 

 college to Manchester in 1842. School buildings 

 were erected in 1S54.'' 



Jubilee Chapel, belonging to the Primitive 

 Methodist Connexion, is in Mercer Street, and was 

 erected in 1 S6o. 



The Great Harwood James Barlow Chapel was 

 erected for the Baptist Connexion in 1 903. 



For the Roman Catholics the beautiful Gothic 

 church of Our Lady and St. Hubert was erected by 



Mr. James Lomax, from designs by E. W. Pugin. 

 and consecrated in 1859." There are memorial 

 windows of the Lomax and Walmsley families, and 

 a Gothic cross in the chuichjartl erected in 1888 

 in memory of the \'ery Rev. Canon Dunderd.de. 

 Adjoining the church are the presbytery and elemen- 

 tary schools. 



A poor's stock for Great Harwood 

 CHARITIES was begun by a gift of /'30 by Sir 

 Edmund Asshcton before 1690, and 

 augmented by many subsequent benefactions, in- 

 cluding one of ;^I73 by Mary Nightingale, who 

 thus founded a bread charity. The Dole House 

 estate and other lands were purchased, and in 1826 

 the gross income was ^^31. Of this £6 u. 4</. was 

 paid for fourteen zJ. loaves distributed at the chapel 

 every Sunday to poor people attending divine service ; 

 the remainder of the net income was given on 

 26 December in gifts of u. to js. Another sum of 

 unknown origin is now represented by j^i04 India 

 Stock, producing ^^3 zs. 4^/. yearly, administered with 

 the income from the poor's land. The bread charity 

 is continued, but the church attendance is no longer 

 required. Some of the income goes to the school and 

 some to the vicar. The remainder available is given 

 in small doles of money and in flannel or calico. Robert 

 Clayton Mercer in 1880 bequeathed /25 a year to 

 the poor, and this is distributed on 2 i December in 

 gifts of tickets of the value of 4/. each. 



He left a similar sum for the poor of Rishton, and 

 it is distributed in the same way, except that the 

 tickets vary in value from 2/. 6a'. to 10/. In Rishton 

 there is another charity, for Ellen wife of Thomas 

 Darwen in 1776 left ;^I20 for a bread charity, half 

 for this tounship and half for Church (Oswald- 

 twistle) ; 3a'. loaves were to be given, to such poor 

 persons as might desire the same, on the first Sunday 

 of each month. The capital is intact and produces 

 £z Si. a year ; it is distributed in bread to eight 

 poor persons on the second Thursday in each 

 month. 



RISHTON 



Ruyston, Ryston, xiii cent. ; Russhton, Rysshton, 

 xiv cent. ; Rissheton, xv-xvi cent. 



The township lies on the eastern side of the ancient 

 parish of Blackburn on low moorland, sloping eastward 

 down to Ncrden Brook and on a ridge lying between 

 that brook and the River Hyndburn on the east. The 

 highest ground is on the north-west, where an eleva- 

 tion of 785 ft. above the ordance datum is reached on 

 Rishton Height, the lowest on the north-east at the 

 confluenceof Norden Brook with the River Hyndburn, 

 where the elevation falls below 250 ft. 



The subsoil consists of the Coal Measures ; the 

 soil varies from peat and sand to clay. 



The land is almost entirely under permanent grass, 

 much of which is benty. There are patches of wood- 

 land on the banks of the Hyndburn and near the 

 canal reservoir.' The area of the township is 

 2,982 acres, and the population in 1901 numbered 

 7,031 persons.' The high road from Blackburn to 



** The church papers at Chester Dio- 

 cesan Registry begin with this curate. 



*^ IVrpetual cerate of T- ck -^les 1857- 

 61. 



*• Abram, op. cit. 553. " Ib'd. 



'' Ih'A. 552 ; Nightingale, Lana. Xcr- 

 ccvf. ii, 14.9. 



^^ The mission was e-tablished in 18^7. 



^ The agricultural returns for 1905 give 

 arable land 2 acres, permanent grass 



.34-^ 



2,5^2 acres, woodi and plantations 53 

 acres. 



^ According to the new survey 2,985 

 seres, of which 67 arc inland water j 

 Cer.uti Rep. 1901, 



