A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



doctor that the man had been cured by medicine he 

 hadgiven.^" Several pamphlets were issued on both 

 sidos.l' 



Afterwards the district appears to have had the 

 uueventful life of a retired country place, though 

 manufactures were introduced in Wiswell about the 

 end of the 1 8th century. 



In 1066 the church had two plough- 

 MANOR lands in WHALLEY,^ and these seem to 

 have formed the later manor which with 

 the rectory passed to the monks of Stanlaw and 

 Whalley.13 Y&.ex de Chester, 

 as rector, obtained in 1284 a 

 grant of free warren in the 

 demesne lands of his church.^^ 

 After the confiscation of the 

 abbey's estates in 1537 the 

 Crown held the manor till 

 1553, when it was purchased 

 for ;^2,I3 2 by Richard 

 Assheton, younger son of 

 Ralph Assheton of Great 

 Lever, and John Braddyll of 

 Brockhall in Billington.l'' 



Richard Assheton, later in 

 the service of William Lord 

 Burghley, acquired great 



wealth, and purchased also the manor of Downham 

 and other estates ''; on his death in 1579 without 

 issue, his property was divided among relatives, the 

 manor or moiety of Whalley being given to his 

 nephew Ralph Assheton of Great Lever, with re- 

 mainder to Ralph his eldest son. The manor was 

 said to be held of the queen in chief by the fortieth 



Wh allk y Abbey. 

 Gules three ivhales 

 hauriant %vith the heads 

 of croziers iisuant from 

 their mouthl or. 



part of a luight's fee." Ralph Assheton the elder 



died in 1587 holding the 'manor or house and site,' 



and was succeeded by his son Ralph.** This Ralph 



died in 1616 holding Whalley 



by the above tenure, and 



leaving a son Ralph," whc 



was created a baronet in 



1620,^ and made Whalley 



his principal residence, selling 



Great Lever in 1629. 



In 1635 he had some 

 trouble with Archbishop Laud 

 concerning the lease of the 

 rectory,^* and about the same 

 time the Star Chamber fined 

 him X3°° f"'' various acts 

 of adultery and incest.^^ Like 

 other members of the family 

 he took the Parliamentary side on the outbreak of 

 the Civil War, and was appointed a justice of the 

 peace and sequestrator by the Parliament.'' He 

 died in October 1644 and was buried at Whalley. 



His son Sir Ralph, born about 1605, was educated 

 at University College, Oxford,^* and admitted to 

 Gray's Inn. He represented Clitheroe from 1640 

 till he was excluded from the House in 1648.*' He 

 was a Parliamentarian like his father and appointed on 

 the committee of the county in 1645 ^' ; he was also 

 a member of the Presbyterian Classis in 1646. He 

 succeeded to Downham in 1657. At Whalley he 

 pulled down what remained of the abbey church and 

 tower in 166 1-2.'' He died in London in January 

 1 679-80 and was buried at Downham."^ His brother 

 Sir Edmund succeeded, and at his death in 1695 



AssHiTON of Greal 

 Lever and Whalley, 

 baronet. Argent a mullet 

 table pierced of the jield^ a 

 canton , . ,Jbr di^erence. 



'^ Without evidence or probability 

 Taylor concludes by alleging, as the most 

 annoying charge possible, that JoUie and 

 the others had been merely * the constant 

 tools of popery' in this as in other 

 matters. 



*^ Thomas Jollic replied by a Vindica- 

 tion of Dugdalc as no impostor (1698). 

 It is the best tract of the series. 'An 

 Impartial Hand,' signing N. N., published 

 The Lancashire Le'vite Rebuked (1698), to 

 vindicate the Dissenters from Taylor's 

 onslaught ; he could not help reminding 

 Taylor that his father had been a Dis- 

 senter. The address of Taylor's reply, 

 'To his apostate friend N. N.', shows the 

 spirit of his action ; his pamphlet was 

 entitled Fopery, Superstition, Ignorance and 

 Kna'rery . . , 'tery fully proved upon the 

 Dissenters concerned (1698). This was 

 followed by a second letter entitled The 

 Lancashire Le'tite Rebuked (1698). Taylor 

 replied (1699) with Po/'irry, /^oran« . . . 

 Confessed, adding a reply to Jollie's Vindi- 

 cation, 



" y.CH. Lanes, i, 286i ; these plough- 

 lands were quit of every custom. 



^3 There is little on record as to Whalley 

 during the monks' tenure, apart from 

 what has been recorded in the histories of 

 the abbey and the church- 

 In 1350 there was a disturbance at the 

 Potterforth in Whalley, the two parties 

 to 'a certain day of love' assembling in 

 great force armed ; Assize R. 443, m. 5. 

 An inventory of the church goods of 

 the abbey is printed in Trans. Bist. Soc. 

 xijc, 103. A 13th-century Psalter formerly 

 belonging to the abbey was in the Earl of 

 Ashbumham'i library ; Hist. MSS, Com. 

 Rep, viii, App. ai, loa. 



" Chart. R. 77 (12 Edw. I), m. 6, no. 4.0. 



" Pat. 7 Edw. VI, pt. iv J printed in 

 full m fVhalley Couch. (Chct. Soc), iv, 

 1175-83. Many field-names in Whalley, 

 &c., are given ; e.g. Tunworth, Port- 

 field, Holker and CastelL A detailed 

 account of the demesne follows ; ibid, 

 1 1 8+-90, 1197-1202. There were four 

 shops in the churchyard and two others, 

 one in the Upper Town. The park, two 

 miles in circuit, was well replenished with 

 timber and underwood j through it flowed 

 the Calder, wherein were taken 'salmon 

 trout with other good fish.' The deer 

 numbered about thirty. There were 

 minor woods called Crowpark, Oxhey, 

 Shaw and Barrowdough. 



Most of the possessions of the abbey 

 were sold by Henry VIII, but in Whalley 

 township the only alienations seem to 

 have been two messuages, &c., sold in 

 154.2 to Robert Holt of Stubley and to 

 John Braddyll in 1546; Pat. 33 Hen. 

 VIII, pt. vi ; 38 Hen. VIII, pt. ix. 

 Robert Holt sold to Braddyll in 1 542 ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 175, m. 9. 



IS Whitaker, Whalley, ii, z. Richard 

 Assheton and Jane his wife were defor- 

 ciants to a fine respecting the manor of 

 Whalley, &C., in 1566 ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 28, m. 194. 



1^ Duchy of Lane. Inq, p.m. xiv, no. 

 86. The estate is called the * manor and 

 site of the late monastery of Whalley,' 

 with messuages, &c., in Whalley and 

 Blackburn. The settlement of the manor 

 is dated 21 Dec. 1578. Richard Assheton 

 was buried at Whalley on 30 Jan, next 

 after (Reg.) ; his wife Jane (Harbottle) 

 survived him. She was buried at Whalley 

 9 Sept. 1581 i Reg. 



" Duchy of Lane. Inq, p.m. xiv, no. 

 90. See also the account of Great Lever, 



^^ Lanes. Inq, p,m, (Rec, Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches,), ii, 289, 



'" G.E,C. Complete Baronetage, i, 149. 

 He made a settlement of the manor of 

 Whalley in 1628 ; Pal. of Lane, Feet of 

 F, bdle, 1 14, no. 8. 



»• Cal. S.P. Dom. 1 64 1 -3, p. 536. 'In 

 the latter part of his life he complains of 

 great oppression from Archbishop Laud 

 in breaking a lease of the rectory of 

 Whalley, on which account he was com- 

 pelled to make a journey to London when 

 very gouty and infirm ' ; Whitaker, op. 

 cit. ii, 2b (ped.). 



" Cal. S. P. Dom. 1 6 3 5-6, pp. 1 04, 1 26, 

 500. The offences were no doubt ancient, 

 for Sir Ralph at first alleged a coronation 

 pardon. He was ordered to do penance 

 in a white sheet at Whalley Church, 

 Chester Cathedral and a neighbouring 

 market town, but on his pleading that he 

 was a gentleman of ancient family with 

 a virtuous wife and many children the 

 penance was commuted to the fine of 

 ;^300, which was to be spent on the 

 repairs of the west end of St. Paul's 

 Cathedral. 



" Ci-uil War Tracts (Chet. Soc), 60, 90, 



" Foster, Alumni Oxon. ; he matricn- 

 lated in 1623, aged seventeen. 



'^ Pink and Beaven, Pari. Repre. of 

 Lanes. 2^^. He was member for the same 

 place at the time of his death ; ibid. 255. 



'^ Civil War Tract!, 210. 



" Whitaker, op. cit. i, 141. 



" Some particulars of his life and 

 charities are given ibid, ii, 2. By his 

 will he left money for sermons at Whalley 

 and Downham ; in the codicil are direc- 



382 



