BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



are known," and he founded a chantry in Burnley 

 Church.^* He dismissed the herald very curtly in 

 1533, telling him that * there was no more gentlemen 

 in Lancashire but my lord of Derby and Mount- 

 eagle.* " He had been sheriff in 1531-2/^ He 

 obtained the king's licence to impark all his lands in 

 Whalley/' He was probably too infirm in 1536 to 

 take any part in resisting the Northern rebellion, 

 but John the brother of Sir John Towneley was to 

 be ready with six or eight tall men/® A Towneley 

 rental, compiled i January 1536-7, has been printed." 

 Sir John died in 1541,^" when his son Richard 

 succeeded.®* He had a son Sir Richard Towneley, 

 who was made a knight in i 547 at * the camp besides 

 Roxburgh ' by the Duke of Somerset,®^ but died in 

 1554 before his father,®^ leaving a daughter Mary as 

 sole heir. The elder Richard died soon afterwards,®* 

 the heir male being his nephew John son of Charles 

 Towneley, the second son of Sir John," who in 1556 

 married his cousin Mary by dispensation. 



After a period of wavering John Towneley de- 

 cided to refuse conformity to the religious changes 

 made by Elizabeth, and in 1568 was cited to appear 

 before the commissioners.^* Their orders had little 

 or no effect upon him, and he became an unswerving 



recusant.®' In 1581 he is found in the Gatehouse, 

 Westminster, a prisoner for religion, being removed 

 to the New Fleet, Manchester, in 1582,®^ having 

 practically no freedom from that time till his death, 

 besides being compelled to pay the £z6o a year 

 levied for recusancy by the Act of i 5 8 1 .^^ He made 

 a settlement of his estates in 1594/° and died in 

 1 608 holding the manors of Towneley and Hapton 

 of the king as duke by knight's service ; also the 

 manors of CUviger and Birtwisle, with lands, &c., 

 there and in Burnley, Burnley Wood, Habergham 

 Eaves, Briercliffe, Extwistle, Hurstwood and Wors- 

 thorne in Lancashire, and the manors of Nocton and 

 Dunston and the advowson of Water Willoughby in 

 Lincolnshire. His wife had died before him, and 

 he was succeeded by his son Richard, then forty-two 

 years of age.®' Richard Towneley followed his father's 

 steps in religion, but little is known of him. H^ 

 recorded a pedigree in 1613,®^ and died in London 

 in 1628, being buried at St. Clement Danes.®^ His 

 eldest son Richard in 1632 compounded for the 

 recusancy fines by an annual payment of ^^2 1 3 6s. %d. 

 a year,^* and dying unmarried in 1636 at Nocton, 

 was succeeded by his younger brother Charles,^^ who 

 had for a time been an ecclesiastical student in Rome, 



'' Sir John Towneley released to Law- 

 rence and Nicholas Towneley his right in 

 their lands in Hapton for life 5 Towneley 

 MS. C 8, 13, T 85. In 1497 he obtained 

 lands in Burnley and Cliviger from Richard 

 eon and heir of Thomas Towneley j ibid. 

 T 66, 68, 115. In 151 1 he made a feoff- 

 ment of the manor of Towneley, &c.; 

 ibid. T 160. He and his wife Isabel are 

 named in 1521 ; ibid. T 112-13. His 

 feoffees in 1523 restored to Sir John his 

 manor of Towneley, &c.; ibid. N 20, 

 24.. In 1534 he gave Lynerode in Little 

 Marsden to his second son Charles 

 Towneley ; ibid. T 153. 



^* See the account of the church. 



"^^ Visit. 1533 (Chet. Soc), 43 ; arms — 

 Towneley impaling Gateford. The herald 

 (Benalt) adds : ' I sought him all day riding 

 in the wild country and his reward was 

 zs.y which the guide had the most part ; 

 and I had as evil a journey as ever I had.' 

 About the same time Leland wrote : 

 'Within a good mile ere I came to 

 Worksop I rode through a park of 

 Mr. Towncley's, a knight for the most 

 abiding in Lancashire'; Itin. i, 96 (as 

 quoted in Whitaker). This refers to 

 Gateford, which Sir John had by his first 

 wife. 76 P.R.O. List 73. 



^^ Lanes, and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 301, 



78 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, p. 464. 



79 Chet. Misc. (Chet. Soc), vi (i). 

 Castle Hill, Chapel Lea, Old Park and 

 Tynde Oak Lea are named in Towneley. 



20 Whitaker, op. cit. ii, i9i,citingDoda- 

 worth. The date is perhaps a year too late. 

 The Inq. p.m. has not been preserved. 



^^ See the pedigree in Whitaker. In 

 15 1 1 the feoffees had granted to Richard 

 son and heir of Sir John Towneley and 

 Elizabeth his wife lands in Burnley, &c.; 

 C 8, 13, N 29. In 1540-1 he had some 

 dispute with William Radcliffe, who had 

 married Anne the widow of Sir John, 

 concerning Hall Heys in Towneley, Ex- 

 twistle Mill, &c. ; Ducatus Lane. (Rec. 

 Com.), ii, 6y ; Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 167. 



^2 Metcalfe, op. cit. 98 ; arms — 

 Towneley quartering Gateford. 



^^ The younger Richard was In 1537 

 contracted to marry Frances daughter of 

 Mary Wimbish (heiress of the Byrons), 

 widow 5 C 8, 13, T92, 140, In 1541 

 Richard son of Richard Towneley was 

 party to a bond entered into with Richard 

 Towneley the elder ; ibid. T 93. In 1553 

 Sir Richard agreed with Robert Parker of 

 Extwistle regarding an exchange of lands in 

 that township; ibid. T158. Mary the 

 daughter and heir of Sir Richard was thir- 

 teen years old in 1555 ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. 

 (Chet. Soc), ii, 155-7. 



^ He had some disputes in 1555 with 

 Dame Frances, his son's widow ; Ducatus 

 Lane, ii, 165, 193 ; Duchy Plead, iii, 156. 

 ^^ In 1556 Richard Towneley of Burn- 

 ley and John Towneley of Gray's Inn, 

 son of Charles Towneley, deceased, de- 

 mised lands in Hapton to Hugh Hal- 

 stead ; C 8, 13, T 167. In 1539 Thomas 

 son and heir of Richard Whitaker ac- 

 knowledged that he had received two 

 cows, &c., from Elizabeth the widow and 

 John the son of Charles Towneley ; ibid. 

 W88. 



^^ He stated that he had attended 

 *his usual church,' Burnley, or Padiham 

 Chapel, ' divers times,' and had * heard 

 service there ' the day the commissioners' 

 precept was served upon him ; but he had 

 not within the year received the com- 

 munion. He had kept in his house a 

 former curate of Padiham, who had 

 relinquished that cure after a time of 

 conformity, and he had also entertained 

 the deprived vicar of Blackburn ; Gibson, 

 Lydiate Hall, 208 (from S. P. Dom. Eliz. 

 xlviii, no. 367). 



^ He was on the Bishop of Chester's 

 list in 1577 or earlier; ibid. 215-16, 

 quoting S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxviii, no. 451, 

 49. 



He was probably at liberty in 1580, 

 when he became sub-lessee of two of the 

 queen's coal mines, one in Burnley and 

 the other in Brunshaw ; Add. MS. 32104, 

 no. 473. Next year he assigned his in- 

 terest in the lease to John Woodroffe of 

 Staple Inn ; ibid. no. 464. 



88 Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc), ii, 220, 225. 

 He was still in the New Fleet in 1584, 



459 



when Dean Nowell asked that he might 

 be removed to another prison for his 

 health's sake ; Cal. S. P. Dom. 1581-96, 

 p. 163 ; Gibson, op. cit. 229. 



^^ His grandson Christopher Towneley, 

 the transcriber, has preserved a note 

 written in 1601 by someone acquainted 

 with him, perhaps one of the missionary 

 priests he entertained : * This John, about 

 the 6 or 7 year of her Majesty that now 

 is, for professing the Apostolical Catholic 

 Roman faith, was imprisoned first at 

 Chester Castle, then sent to the Marshal- 

 sea, then to York Castle, then to the 

 Blockhouses in Hull, then to the Gate- 

 house in Westminster, then to Manchester, 

 then to Broughton in Oxfordshire, then 

 twice to Ely in Cambridgeshire ; and 

 80 now of 73 years old, and is bound 

 to appear and keep within 5 miles of 

 Towneley his house ; who hath since 

 the statute of 23 [Eliz.] paid into the 

 Exchequer ^^20 the month and doth still, 

 that there is paid already above ^^5,000 ' ; 

 Visit, of 1533, p. 45. A copy of this 

 was fixed under his picture ; it will be 

 seen it makes his persecution begin a few 

 years too early. 



90 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 56, 

 m. 85. There was included the 'advow- 

 son of a chantry in the church of Burnley.' 



^^ Lanes. Inq. p.m» (Rec Soc. Lanes. 

 and Ches.), i, 93-6. There is recited an 

 indenture of i6oi relating to the marriage 

 of Richard the son with Jane one of the 

 daughters of Ralph Assheton (of Great 

 Lever), their children Richard and Charles 

 being named. 



Shortly before his death the two-thirds 

 of his estates sequestered for recusancy in 

 religion were granted by the Crown to 

 Ralph Assheton ; Pat. 6 Jas. I, pt. xxviii. 



9a Visit, of 16 1 3 (Chet. Soc), 62. 



9^ Whitaker, op. cit. ii, 191. 



^^ Trans. Hist, Soc. (new ser.), xxiv, 177. 



^^ Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc), ii, 164. 

 In the same year a settlement of the 

 manors of Towneley, Cliviger, Hapton 

 and Birtwisle, with various lands and rights, 

 including the advowson of the Burnley 

 chantry, was made by Charles Towneley ; 

 Pal. of Lane Feet of F. bdle. 1x9, no. 24. 



