BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



pasturage, the distribution in the chapelry being as 

 follows *'' : — 



I 2,462 



456 



Early last century it was regarded as a peculiarity 

 of the people that ' wakes, rush-bearing and annual 

 feasts ' excited little attention. Horse-racing had 

 been a favourite amusement, but the races held at 

 Old Hall Postern about 1790 had been discontinued 

 for lack of support.' 



To the county lay of 1626 this chapelry con- 

 tributed as follows : Burnley, £2 zs. c^^d. ; Brier- 

 clifte and Extwistle, £1 lis. lo\d. ; Worsthorne, 

 £1 OS. z\d. ; Cliviger, ^^i 11/. io\d. ; Ightenhill 

 Park, 1 5.r. 11 ^d. ; or in all £"] is. \d., when the 

 hundred had to raise j^ioo.'" 



The town has few names of prominence to record. 

 The most famous is the Ven. Thomas Whitaker, 

 s::minary priest, born at Burnley in 161 1, his father 

 being schoolmaster ; he was educated at Valladolid, 

 and returning in 1638 to serve the Lancashire mission 

 was arrested in 1643 and confined in Lancaster Castle 

 till his trial in 1646. He was executed for his 

 priesthood on 7 August with great cruelty." The 

 Rev. Henry Halliwell, B.D., a classical scholar, was 

 also son of the schoolmaster and was born at Burnley 

 in I 765 ; educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, he 

 became fellow and tutor, and was rector of Clayton 

 in Sussex from 1803 till his death in 1835." Of 

 recent times may be mentioned Thomas Turner 

 Wilkinson, who died in 1875,'' and William Angelo 

 Waddington, who died in 1907"; both of them 

 were students of the local history and published essays 

 and volumes on the subject. 



In addition to the ancient cross already mentioned, 

 which is now near the grammar school, there were 

 crosses in the market place by the church and the 

 Foldys cross (1520) in the churchyard. The stocks 

 and whipping-post were formerly placed near the 

 market cross.'^ Two Crimean guns given to the 

 town are placed near the grammar school. 



Though BURNLEY has been called a 

 MANORS manor,'" it was and is properly speaking a 

 member of the manor of Ightenhill, in 

 the honor of Clitheroe ; the manor courts have long 

 been held at Higham for Pendle Forest and at Burnley 

 for the rest of the manor. The tenure was to a large 

 extent copyhold, but much of it has now been 

 enfranchised. In 1242 the yearly value was given 

 as £16 4/. id." Burnley is named in the grant of 

 free warren to Edmund de Lacy in 1251." In 1258 

 it was found that Edmund held Burnley in demesne, 

 Burnley here perhaps including BrierclifFe as well as 

 Habergham Eaves. There were I 3 oxgangs of land, 

 the oxgang containing 9 acres worth /\.d. each ; the 

 occupiers of each oxgang had to do a day's ploughing 

 each year and three days' reaping each autumn. These 

 works having been commuted were valued at ^d. ; 

 the total value thus came to 42/. 3/ In addition 

 seven small cottages were worth 6d. a year to the 

 lord, and an eighth 1 2d. Of assarted land there were 

 793 acres, each worth ^.d. There were five freehold 

 estates held by charter, having 139 acres in all, the 

 tenants being the Abbot of Whalley, William de 

 Swillington, Adam, William de Ryland and Robert 

 son of William." 



Henry de Lacy in 1294 obtained from the king a 

 charter allowing a market every Tuesday and a three 

 days' fair yearly, 28-30 June.^° A market cross was 

 then set up, at a cost of 9/. l/" Two years later 

 the lord's accounts showed £!■} Ss. c^\d. for farm of 

 Burnley, l 2d. increment from a toft held by Robert 

 the smith, y. ^d. for works remitted, £10 from the 

 corn-mill and 6s. %d. from a fulling-mill newly 

 erected," on which 52^-. i>\d. had been spent.^' By 

 1305 the farm of the fulling-mill had been advanced 

 to 24^., but other receipts remained much the same.^' 

 The inquisition made after the death of Henry de 

 Lacy in 131 1 records 354J acres in Burnley alone, 

 demised to tenants at will at \d. an acre, 10 oxgangs 

 of land held in bondage at 5/. each, and i^d. each for 

 works remitted, twelve cottages at Ij-. each, a water- 

 mill worth ^5 a year and a fulling-mill worth 5/. 

 These were nominal values. There were seven free 

 tenants.^" The accounts of 1323-4 showed a net 

 receipt of £21 8/. \o)idP 



HETSANDFORTH'"-^ was regarded as a manor. 

 Robert de Marsden gave to Robert de Swillington, 

 son of Hugh, 40 acres in Burnley, which the grantor 

 had received from Ralph son of Norman, and which 

 had formerly been held by Henry the clerk of 

 Burnley ; the land was situated between the river 

 flowing through the midst of the town of Burnley 

 and the field called Saxifield. The forest and chase 



*= Statistics from BH. of Agric. 

 (1905). 



' Baines, Lanes, (ed. i), iii, 251. Later 

 (1833 onwards) there were races for a 

 time at Turf Moor. 



^^ Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 



1' Challoner, Missionary Priests, no. 1 86. 

 The cause of his beatification was allowed 

 to be introduced at Rome in 1886. There 

 is a relic of him at Claughton-on-Brock. 



His father Thomas Whitaker, master 

 in 1617 and till his death in 1626, must 

 have been a conformist. His will names 

 his wife Ellen and his four children, also 

 his base daughter Anne Wilson. 



" Diet. Nat. Biog. His fathe' vj> the 



Rev. William Halliwell, master of the 

 grammar school 1761-96 ; Whitaker, 

 Whalley, n, 172. 



^^ Trans. Hist. Soc. xxviii, 77. 



'■^ Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soe. xxv, 



^^ Ibid, xviii, 50-53 ; Whitaker, op. 

 cit. ii, 170, 190. The Foldys cross was 

 destroyed in a drunken freak. 



^^ For example, in the grant of free 

 warren, 1 25 1, 



^^ Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 156. 



" Cat. Chart. R. 1226-57, p. 357. 



^^ Lanes. Inq. and Extents, i, 213-14. 

 The value was ,^15 115., to which must 

 be added 305. yd, from the charterers. 



20 Chart. R. 87 (22 Edw. I), m. 11, 

 no. 23. A century ago the market day 

 had become changed to Monday. The 

 lord had ceased to collect tolls. This 

 ancient market held in the streets was 

 abolished by the corporation in 1866. 



21 De Lacy Compoti (Chet. Soc), 18. 



22 Ibid. 8. 



23 Ibid. 16. 

 2" Ibid. 104. 



^^ Lanes. Inq. and Extents^ ii, 7. The 

 total was £16 8j. T^d, 



'^^ Ibid. 191. The water-mill yielded 

 £j 16s. and the fulling-mill loi. \od, j 

 some repairs had been done to them. 



27-9 Often written Feysandforth. There 

 •vz nany other variants. 



