BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



Instituted Nome 



24 Jan. 1809 . Thomas Dunham Whitaker, LL.D." 



11 Mar. 182^ . Richard Noble «« 



1 Jan. 1840 . Robert Nowell Whitaker, M.A." 



23 Nov. 1 88 1 . Charles Collwyn Prichard, M.A.^' 



— 1895 . Thomas Henry Gregory, M.A.'" 



6 Dec. 1904 . Richard Newman, M.A.'"" . . 



Patron 



Archbp. of Canterbury 



Hulme Trustees 



Cause of Vacancy 

 d. T. Baldwin 

 d. T. D. Whitaker 

 d. R. Noble 

 d. R. N. Whitaker 

 res. C. C. Prichard 

 d. T. H. Gregory 



After the church came into the hands of the monks 

 they appointed secular priests as vicars, but soon found 

 it advisable to have monks instead. It was necessary 

 that the monk-vicar should have one or more of his 

 brethren for company. This arrangement continued 

 till the suppression of the abbey. From later deposi- 

 tions it appears that in addition to the (daily) masses 

 at the high altar and the two side chapels a Jesus 

 mass was said on Fridays in the rood loft.'"' Four 

 priests would thus be required. At the visitation of 

 1 548 the vicar (an ex-monk) and four other priests 

 are named on the list as attached to the parish church, 

 but these had been reduced to two by 1554 and in 

 later times there was only one.'"' The destruction 

 of the great abbey church and the dispersal of the 

 monks must have caused a great difference in the 

 arrangements for divine worship ; the confiscation of 

 the chantries and the further changes of the time 

 completed the revolution. 



George Dobson, appointed vicar in 1559, was one 

 of the old clergy who conformed to the various 

 changes of doctrine and worship. He took the oath 

 of the queen's supremacy in religion in 1563.'°^ Yet 

 about the same time he was reported to be ' as ill a vicar 

 as the worst,' '" the censure referring partly to his 

 morals, but chiefly to his disposition towards the 

 reformed religion ; light on both points is afforded 

 by a complaint of 1575. The document is among 

 the Consistory Court records at Chester. It states : 



The vicar of Whalley is a common drunkard and such an 

 ale-knight as the like is not in our parish ; and in the night 

 when most men be in bed at their rest then is he in the ale- 



house with a company like to himself, but not one of them can 

 match him in ale-house tricks, for he will, when he cannot 

 discern black from blue, dance with a full cup on his head, far 

 passing all the rest — -a comely sight for his profession. 



Item, he doth teach in the church the seven sacraments, 

 and persuadeth his parishioners that they shall come and receive, 

 but in any case but to take it but as common bread and wine as 

 they may take it at home or elsewhere, for that it is so, far 

 differing from the word of God ; and that this Church of 

 England is a defiled and spotted church, and that no man may 

 come to it lawfully in time of divine service except he at his 

 coming in heart exempt himself from this service and all that 

 is partaker of it, and make his prayer by himself according to 

 the doctrine of the Pope of Rome. 



Item, he hath been accustomed at every Easter to give, to 

 certain of his parishioners, as he termeth them consecrated 

 hosts, saying in them was salvation, but in the other was 

 nothing worthy acceptance. 



How much truth there was in the accusation can- 

 not be determined. Dobson denied all the charges 

 absolutely. To the first he said he had for thirty 

 or forty years behaved ' as behoveth a man of his 

 calling ' ; to the second he said that for ten years he 

 had conformed exactly to the Book of Common 

 Prayer according to the laws of the realm ; and to 

 the third, that he used no other consecration than 

 that in the same book.'"' A few years later he was 

 induced or compelled to resign, and his successor, as 

 a nominee of Grindal, would no doubt be a sincere 

 and thorough-going Calvinist.'"" In 1590 he was 

 reported to be ' a preacher, but insufficient,' '" and in 

 1 60 1 it was presented that no surplice was provided 

 for the minister,'"' so that the tendency of the place 

 was manifest. On the other hand complaint was 

 made about a rushbearing, with piping, in 1604.'°' 



^^ This distinguished man was born in 

 1759 at Rainham, Norfolk, where his 

 father William was curate. The father 

 succeeded to the family estate of Holme 

 in Cliviger in 1760 and resided there till 

 his death in 1782. The son was educated 

 atSt John's Coll., Camb. ; LL.B. 1781 ; 

 LL.D. 1801. He was intended for the 

 law, but on his father's death went to 

 reside at Holme, and was ordained in 

 1785-6 without title. He rebuilt the 

 chapel and became incumbent of Holme 

 in 1797. He was presented to Whalley, 

 * the great object of his wishes,' in 1809 

 and retained it till his death. He held 

 the rectory of Heysham from 1813 tolSig, 

 when the patron was qualified to present 

 himself to it. He held the vicarage of 

 Blackburn from 1818 till his death in 

 1822. He published various sermons and 

 minor works, but his fame rests on the 

 important histories of Whalley (i 800-1) 

 and Craven (1805) j other large works 

 were his Loidis and Elmete (18 1 6) and 

 Rkhmondskire (1819-21). He was * most 

 exemplary ' in the discharge of his clerical 

 duties, both in preaching and the exercise 

 of his patronage. See the memoir pre- 

 fixed to J. G. Nichols' edition of his 

 Whalley, 1872 ; Did. Nat. Biog. 



^ Head master of the grammar school 

 1813—29. 



^^ Younger son of Dr. T. D. Whitakerj 

 educated at St. John's Coll., Camb.; M.A. 



1835. He had been incumbent of Langho 

 in Billington 1828-40. 



98 Educated at Brasenose Coll., Oxf. ; 

 M.A. 1 87 1. He was preferred to the 

 rectory of Thornton-le-Moors in 1895 and 

 some ten years later to that of Alresford. 



^ Educated at Brasenose Coll., Oxf. ; 

 M.A. 1870; vicar of Padbury 1876-95. 



1"° Educated at Brasenose Coll., Oxf. ; 

 M.A. 1896 ; vicar of Goodshaw igoo— 4. 



"' Whitaker, Whalley, ii, 11. 



"2 Visitation Lists at Chester. The 

 Clergy List of 1 54 1 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.) shows that there were in the parish 

 twelve or thirteen unbeneficed clergy, in 

 addition to the vicar and endowed chantry 

 priests, and that seven of them were paid 

 by the vicar. One depended on * the 

 devotion of the parishioners,' but extra is 

 written against his name ; he was at 

 Burnley in 1548. 



™ Ches. Sheaf [ier. 3), i, 34-5. 



i"-" Pilkington to Parker ; Parker Car- 

 res. (Parker Soc), 222. He added : ' There 

 is one come thither that has been deprived 

 and changes his name, and now teaches 

 school there ; of evil to make them worse.' 



^^ Dobson had been in trouble a little 

 before concerning the burial of Henry 

 Craven, ' a priest in his lifetime suspected 

 of religion.* He had been interred in the 

 chancel in 1573 *in the night season so 

 very secretly and privily ' that many 

 thought ' that mass or dirige or other 



359 



Popish service was said at his burial, to 

 the reproach of the ecclesiastical officers 

 as not having due regard to that part of 

 the diocese, which is the worst thought 

 of by reason of such matters and hath 

 purchased some slander,' The Bishop of 

 Chester therefore ordered Sir Richard 

 Shireburnc, Richard Assheton and Edward 

 Braddyll to make inquiry. The vicar 

 said he knew nothing about the death or 

 burial, but the parish clerk «aid he was 

 buried at night without any service. 

 Agnes Craven, aged seventy-two, mother 

 of the deceased, said her son had been with 

 her only ten days before his death, and no 

 priest or minister had come to him to 

 her knowledge. Others examined were 

 equally ignorant ; Consistory Court Rec. 



Bishop Chadcrton was at Whalley in 

 August 15805 CaL S. P. Dom. 1580- 

 1625, p. II. 



^^^ Grindal as archbishop incurred sus- 

 pension and braved the queen's anger 

 rather than take steps to suppress the 

 Puritan * prophesyings.' 



10? S. P. Dom. Eliz. xxxi, 47. 



"^^^ Presentments at the bishop's visita- 

 tion. There had been no surplice foi 

 some years. 



^"^ Ibid. The rushbearings gradually 

 decayed ; Nicholas Assheton on 25 July 

 16 1 7 records : 'At Whalley. There a 

 rushbearing but much less solemnity than 

 formerly' j Journ. (Chet. Soc), 29. 



