AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



KIRKHAM 



was not till the 1 8th century that chapels at Hambleton, 

 Lund, Singleton and Warton are found to be regu- 

 larly used for service. 89 



A report made to the Bishop of Chester in 1669, 

 probably by the vicar of Kirkham, gives a lively 

 account of the conditions ecclesiastical : — 



There are three sorts of conventicles, viz. Papists, Quakers, 

 and Fanatical or Mixed Multitude. Of the Papists there are 

 two conventicles very visible at Westby Hall, rented by one 

 Mr. Butler, the supposed priest, whither resort some hundreds. 

 Another at Mowbreck where Mr. Hughson (alias Whaley) 

 sojourneth with Mrs. Westby and, as is more than aaid, 

 officiates as priest there. At Mr. Gervase Clifton's of 

 Plumpton, as is said, is set apart a place or chapel for 

 Romanists, but since Mr. Hughson's abode at Mowbreck it's 

 not so much used. At Salwick Hall, it's said, the Romanists 

 out of Preston have their meetings. In Great Singleton they 

 be generally papists, but have not their conventicles so fixed, 

 but have two or three supposed priests. There hath usually 

 been a conventicle of Quakers at one Brewer's house in or near 

 Little Eccleston. Of the Fanatical party there was a conventicle 

 at Lund chapel on Sunday in last Lent assizes by Mr. John 

 Parr ; and either for that or the like offence the next Sunday at 

 Heapa chapel, it's said, he is to answer at the next assizes. 

 There was another conventicle held by one Hartley, a York- 

 shireman and lately a weaver and now an Antinomian speaker. 

 He usurped the pulpit at Kirkham in the absence of the 

 minister. He hath also held many conventicles at Goosnargh, 

 the vacancy of which chapel gives the Nonconformists encourage- 

 ment to meet there since the expiration of the Act against 

 conventicles. The tactions plead indulgence because of the 

 indulgence of the papists and their experience that church- 

 wardens' presentments are but laughed at. 90 



Dr. William Grimbaldson in 1725 left £500 for 

 the maintenance of daily morning and evening prayers 

 in the parish church, and these have accordingly been 

 maintained ever since, for the donor ordained that 

 should the prayers be neglected the income of his 

 fund was to be given to poor housekeepers of Treales. 91 

 The visitation returns of the 1 8th century afford 



various interesting particulars. In 1706 a return of 

 the church furniture was made ; it included two 

 decent surplices, two communion cups and several 

 flagons. In 1722 the vicar administered the sacra- 

 ment of the Lord's Supper on Palm Sunday, Good 

 Friday, Easter Day, Whit Sunday, St. Jamestide, 

 Michaelmas, Martinmas, Christmas and Shrovetide. 

 The 1,177 families in 1755 were thus classified : Of 

 the communion of the Church of England, 868 ; 

 Popish families, 269 ; Protestant Dissenters, 40. 

 There were church rate contests in 1 849 and later, 

 the Nonconformists refusing to pay. 92 



At St. Mary's altar a chantry was founded by one 

 of the Clifton family. 93 Its endowment consisted of 

 burgages and lands in Kirkham, Warton, Freckleton, 

 Newton and Bilsborrow, and in 1547 amounted to 

 £5 1 3-r. 1 d. clear per annum. 94 Thomas Primett was 

 the incumbent in 1535 96 and until the Suppression. 

 He was sixty years old in 1 548, and noted as ' decrepit ' 

 in the visitation of that year. He lived on until 1564 ; 

 his will has been printed by the Surtees Society. 96 



Detailed official inquiries into the 

 CHARITIES charities of the parish were made 

 in 1824 and 1902-3 ; the report of 

 the latter, issued in 1 904, contains a reprint of the 

 former. 97 The principal Kirkham charity is the 

 grammar school, with an income of £1,260, and 

 there are small educational endowments in many of 

 the townships. There are also some special endow- 

 ments for the parish church and the chapel at Lund. 

 For the poor generally there exist funds producing 

 £31 4/. Sd. a year distributed in money, in coal, 

 &c. 98 



The township of Kirkham has a United Charities' 

 Fund of £zj 14/. a year, distributed in medical relief, 

 in money and in kind " ; also other sums amounting 



89 In the 1610 list (Hist. MSS. Com. 

 Rep. xiv, App. iv, 9) no chapel except 

 Goosnargh is mentioned. Hambleton 

 may have been an occasional exception, 

 as a curate there is named in 1611. The 

 vicar and the schoolmaster are the only 

 clergymen named in Bishop Stratford's 

 visitation list in 1691 ; Chester Dioc. 

 Reg. The chapels named in the text 

 were in use in the time of Bishop 

 Gastrell 5 Notitia Ctstr. ii, 422, Sec. 



80 Visitation papers at Chester Dioc 

 Reg. 



91 The benefactor is described as M.D., 

 of St Dunstan's in the West, London. 

 He ordered that the prayers were to be 

 at II a.m. and 5 p.m. in summer and 

 1 1 a.m. and 4 p.m. in winter ; End. Char. 

 Rip. 



98 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. i, 98- 

 100. 



83 Raine8,CArafr<«(Chet. Soc.),2i3-i6. 

 Earlier ' chantries ' are named in a pre- 

 ceding note. This chantry was named in 

 1527 as in the gift of William Clifton, 

 the annual value being estimated as £4. ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Rentals, Sec, bdle. J, 

 no. 15. 



In 1492-3 Richard Davy and others 

 were enfeoffed of various lands— appa- 

 rently the chantry property — of the gift 

 of James Clifton and Richard Davy, in 

 order to establish (faciani) a fit chaplain 

 to celebrate at the altar of B. Mary 

 for the souls of Richard Davy, his rela- 

 tives and all the parishioners of Kirkham ; 

 Kuerden MSS. iv, K 18. 



94 The gross rental of the chantry 

 lands was £6 os. ud., but quit-rents 



of 4</. to the lord of Penwortham and 

 ys. 6J. to the lord of Kirkham were pay- 

 able. 



For a dispute as to the chantry lands 

 in 1567 see Ducatus Lane. (Rec. Com.), 

 ii, 327. 



95 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 263. 

 William Clifton in 1537 bequeathed 

 £3 6s. %d. 'to the church of Kirkham 

 towards emending of our Lady's work,' 

 and four cows to ' the stock of our Lady 

 of Kirkham' to pray for his soul, and 

 desired his executors to be ' good masters ' 

 to Sir Thomas Primet, whom he styled 

 'my chantry priest,* and to whom he 

 left 6s. Sd. ; Wills (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), 71-3. Thomas Clifton in 1 551 

 left a cow ' towards our Lady's stock ' ; 

 Piccope, Wills (Chet. Soc), iii, 76. 



96 Richmond Wills, 171. He desired to 

 be buried at Lytham, but left his surplice 

 to Kirkham Church. The bequest of 21. 

 to the light of St. Nicholas in Lancaster 

 Church shows how imperfectly Elizabeth's 

 reformation had then been carried out in 

 Lancashire. 



97 The details here given are derived 

 from this report. The Goosnargh 

 charities are given separately. 



98 Henry Colborne, a native of the 

 parish and afterwards a scrivener in 

 London, by his will in 1655 left money 

 to purchase lands, a rent-charge from 

 which was to be applied to schools and 

 to the poor. The share of the poor was 

 soon afterwards fixed at £5 ioj. a year, 

 which is given to the townships in rota- 

 tion, and used by the overseers in a 

 variety of ways. The rent-charge was 



149 



extinguished in 1898-9 by a transfer of 

 consols to the official trustee. 



Edward Robinson and others, apparently 

 trustees, invested £%o in 1648 in land in 

 Freckleton ; 501. a year of the rent was to 

 be paid to the minister of Lund, and the 

 rest given to the poor of the parish. 

 In 1824 the benefits were in practice 

 confined to Clifton and four adjoining 

 townships. The present income for the 

 poor is £ij i^s.y and it is divided among 

 the townships or hamlets of Kirkham, 

 Freckleton, Newton-with-Scales, Clifton- 

 with-Salwick, Treales, Warton, Weeton 

 and Wrea Green, and given in money or 

 kind to the poor. 



The Bread Charity represents a com- 

 bination of benefactions, and goes back 

 as far as 1670 ; it seems to have been 

 due to the suggestion of the vicar, 

 Richard Clegg. The present income is 

 £5 95., of which the vicar gives £z I2j., 

 and is spent on a distribution of penny 

 loaves every Sunday after morning service 

 at the parish church, and on various 

 holidays. The number of applicants is 

 very small. 



Mary Jones, widow, in 1827 left j£ioo 

 for an annual Christmas gift to poor 

 widows. The income is £z 105. %d. t 

 which is given in coals to widows in 

 the townships of Kirkham and Wesham 

 — the modern ecclesiastical parish. The 

 vicar and churchwardens have charge of 

 the distribution, but no difference is 

 made on account of creed. 



99 Richard Brown in 1641 gave a rent- 

 charge of £1 on his land and Mrs. Clegg 

 and Mrs. Sayle (before 1734) gave £%o 



