BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



Crown and the Bishop of Manchester present alter- 

 nately. St. Andrew's, Burnley Lane, was built in 

 1867,1'* and its mission chapel of St. Cuthbert be- 

 came a parish church in 1908 ; the Bishop of 

 Manchester collates. To St. Catherine's!" (1897) 

 and St. Margaret's"* (1898) the rector of Burnley 

 presents. There are mission rooms in connexion 

 with St. James's and St. Paul's. 



Though from the complaint cited above it appears 

 that ' sectaries ' obtained a footing in the chapelry in 

 1724,!'' nothing much is known. Methodism ap- 

 peared before 1787, when a chapel, afterwards given 

 up, was built at Keighley Green.'*" The Wesleyans 

 have chapels in Hargreaves Street (1840) and Stony- 

 holme, and three others in Colne Road, &c. The 

 Primitive Methodists built a chapel in Curzon Street 

 in 1 8 3 1 , afterwards sold to the Wesleyan Reformers, 

 and they have now two chapels in the northern part 

 of the township — Mount Zion and Elim (1850), 

 Burnley Lane. The Free Methodists had the 

 chapel in Curzon Street, 1852 ; they have now 

 three places of worship. 



The Congregationalists established Bethesda Chapel, 

 Goodham Hill, in 1 8 14!'^ ; a secession resulted in that 

 called Salem in 1 8 5 i .^^^ There is a third, more recent. 



Ebenezer, Colne Road, was built in 1787 by the 

 General Baptists '*' ; it has Immanuel connected 

 with it. Zion Chapel, built by the Particular 

 Baptists, followed in 1830, Enon in 1850, and Jireh, 

 for the Gadsbyites, in 1853. 



The following denominations are also represented : 

 Unitarians, Swedenborgians (New Jerusalem) and 

 Salvation Army. There are Christian, Protestant 

 and Gospel Temperance Mission halls. 



The chapel at Towneley Hall appears to have been 

 the only place in the neighbourhood at which mass 

 was said during the long period of proscription,^*^ and 

 Roman Catholicism never quite died out.'*^ The 

 Towneley registers from 1705 to 1727 have been 

 printed, and show that there were almost a hundred 

 baptisms and fifteen marriages in that period.'*^ In 

 the town itself St. Mary's, Eastgate, was built in 

 1 846-9 to replace the old Handbridge chapel (l 8 1 7) 

 near the entrance to Towneley Park, which has since 

 been taken down. A Towneley chapel was added in 



1879. St. Thomas's school-chapel (1876-7) isserved 

 from St. Mary's. At the north end of the town is 

 St. John the Baptist's (1892).'*' There is a convent 

 of Sisters of Mercy. 



There is some unsatisfactory evidence of the exist- 

 ence of a school before the Reformation.'** The 

 earliest certain notice is in Mary's time, in 1558, 

 when a rent-charge of y. i\.c/. was given towards 

 its endowment.'*" Some chantry lands were in 1 563 

 secured for it, and a further endowment was obtained 

 in 1577, due to Robert Ingham, one of the priests of 

 the church in 1548 and 1554. The school was free 

 to the inhabitants of the chapelry.''" Lands were given 

 for the endowment by the Rev. Gates Sagar about 

 1580 (at Alverthorpe, Wakefield), and by Nicholas 

 Townley of Royle, 1699 (Cockridge). Scholarship 

 endowments have been given in recent times. A valu- 

 able school library was founded by the Rev. Edmund 

 Townley and the Rev. Henry Halsted.'" The 

 school was reorganized in 1873, and later, and is 

 now under the control of the corporation. 



From a dispute concerning the schoolhouse in 

 1675 "^ it appears that John Towneley and others 

 built it in 1602 upon a piece of chantry land adjoining 

 the churchyard — the lower part for a dwelling, the 

 upper for a schoolroom. When, about 1675, the 

 trustees of the school appointed a master, without 

 the consent of Richard Towneley of Townele)', the 

 latter refused access to the schoolroom, alleging that 

 the building was his private property. He and his 

 ancestors had had possession of the lower rooms. It 

 was shown that the house had been built for a school, 

 that at first there was no door into the schoolroom 

 except ' the great door out of the churchyard,' that 

 there was no entry into the school from the lower 

 rooms, and that the Towneley claim to ownership of 

 the school was quite a new one. 



Official inquiries were made into 

 CHARITIES the charities of Burnley in 1826 and 

 1899, but the later one was partial 

 only, the county borough being excluded. The 

 following details are taken from the reports issued, 

 endowments for schools andchurches being omitted : — 



Isabel widow of Richard Shireburne of Stonyhurst 

 in 1693 left ^^190 for the poor of Burnley, and in 



3 July 

 1897. 



,8. 

 fifty 



^^^ For district sec Lond. Ga-z. i 

 1869. 



*^^ A district was assigned in 

 There is a chalice here dated 1420, 



^^^ A district was assigned in 1 8 



^^^ Bishop Gastrell recorded 

 Quakers and four Independents in 171 7 5 

 Notitia Cestr. ii, 308. 



In 1670 complaint was made that John 

 Hargreaves, ' pretended clerk,' had been 

 preaching at Holme Chapel and elsewhere 

 in the district without licence j Visit, 

 returns. 



"" Mannex, Dir. John Wesley visited 

 the town several times. 



'®' Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. ii, 157 ; 

 preachers had visited that 'licentious 

 place' as early as 1806, and a church was 

 formed in the following year. ' The 

 friends of the Established Church ' greatly 

 assisted the cause. The church was re- 

 built in 1879, 



*^^ Ibid. 163 ; the dispute was over the 

 appointment of a minister in 1849. A 

 branch church was formed in 1889. 



^^ Thif was an effort of the General 

 Baptists of Birchcllff. They began preach- 



ing at Worsthorne in 1776 and meeting 

 with some success there went on to 

 Burnley in 1780, Richard Folds being the 

 minister. Here a church was formed and 

 a chapel became necessary in 1787. It had 

 severe checks from unworthy ministers, 

 but was able to survive j A. Taylor, Engl. 

 Gen. Baptists, 193, 278, 392. 



^^* It is mentioned by Gastrell in 1 7 1 7 ; 

 Notitia, ut sup. 



*^ In 1632 Robert Sager the younger 

 compounded for the two-thirds of his 

 estate liable to sequestration for recu- 

 sancy by a payment of £2 a year, and 

 Alice Sager compounded for Elizabeth 

 Whitaker j Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), 

 xxiv, 178-9. There were 118 'Papists' 

 in the chapelry in 1767 ; ibid, xviii, 216. 



los Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc), ii, 306-11. 



187 The full title is Our Holy Saviour 

 and SS. John Baptist and Evangelist. 



18S Stephen Ellis, clerk, described as 

 ' scole-maister ' (? Burnley) was trustee 

 in 1532 for lands in Pendle Forest ; 

 Farrer, Clitheroe Ct. R. ii, 107. See ibid. 

 336. 



According to the certificate of John 



453 



Haisted and others in 1562 there were, 

 before the destruction of the chantries, 

 certain lands belonging to the church- 

 wardens ' intended to have been used to 

 the maintenance of their school.' Lack- 

 ing a schoolmaster they allowed Stephen 

 Smith to have the rents 'until such time 

 as they could be provided of a school- 

 master,' and when the chantries were dis- 

 solved he, for his own profit, returned the 

 lands as belongmg to his chantry ; Augm. 

 Off. Misc. Bks. clxx, m. 2. 



1^^ Raines in Gastrell's Notitia^ ii, 



316. 



Papers at Burnley, dated 1675, state 

 that 6s. Sd. rent charged on land in 

 Cliviger was given in 1558, los. rent 

 charge on the Ings in Colne in 1559, and 

 ^3 on land in Essex in 1578 (?) 5 copy- 

 hold lands in the manor of Wakefield 

 were given in 1585. A schoolhouse (as in 

 the text) was built in 1602, when further 

 endowments were subscribed. 



190 Ejjc^. Char. Rep. ; Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 xxii, ig— 34, ; Gastrell, op. cit. ii, 312. 



131 For Halsted's will (1728) see 

 Raines, loc. cit. ^^^ School D. 



