PREFACE 



county were made by Roger Dodsworth^ (i 585-1654), Christopher 

 Towneley' (1604-1674), Richard Kuerden' (1623-c. 1690), Randle 

 Holme (1627-1699), and his son Randle Holme* (died 1707), and the 

 Rev. F. R. Raines' (i 805-1 878), but no attempt has hitherto been made 

 to utilize these collections for the history of the county. During the last 

 twenty years transcripts of charters from these collections and of a great 

 part of the Duchy and Palatinate of Lancaster records have been made, 

 these being supplemented by abstracts of many records of the Crown, and 

 of documents in museums, public libraries, and in private hands. 



In the department of printed works the volumes of the Chetham 

 Society, the Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, the Lancashire and 

 Cheshire Antiquarian Society, and the Historic Society of Lancashire 

 and Cheshire contain a vast amount of original material, which in the 

 main has been critically and carefully edited. 



By utilizing a selected portion of this mass of material it will be 

 possible to give a succinct and precise account of each parish and town- 

 ship with the descent of each manor and large estate from the earliest 

 time to the present day. Four or five volumes will be devoted to this 

 department of history, the remaining subjects being dealt with in 

 volumes i, ii, and vii. 



The editors are under great obligations to Mr. Edmund Dickson, 

 F.G.S., Mr. Harper Gaythorpe, F.S.A. (Scot.), and Mr. H. Murray 

 for information in the department of Natural History and Mr. W. E. 

 Gregson, Mr. W. F. Irvine, Mr. R. D. RadclifFe, Mr. J. P. Rylands, 

 Mr. C. W. Sutton, and other members of the Lancashire Committee 

 for their active and friendly services. 



They also wish to express their thanks to Sir John Evans, K.C.B., 

 Col. Fishwick, F.S.A., Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co., and the Society 

 of Antiquaries for the use of blocks, and to the British Numismatic 

 Society, and Mr. P. W. P. Carlyon-Britton, F.S.A., for the loan of a 

 series of casts of the coins found in the Cuerdale hoard. 



^ In the Bodleian Library, Oxford. For material relating to this county the most important 

 volumes are Nos. xxxix, liii, Iviii, Ixi, Ixii, Ixx, Ixxxvii, cxxxi, cxlii, cxlix, cliii. 



^ The greater part of these MSS. was dispersed at the Towneley Hall sale in 1883. Twenty 

 volumes of transcripts of charters were acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum ; the most 

 important being Add. MSS. Nos. 32,103, 32,104 (B.B.), 32,105 (C.T.), 32,106 (E.E., F.F.), 32,107 

 (G.G.), 32,108 (R.R.). A dozen volumes are in the possession of William Farrer, the most important 

 being those marked by Chr. Towneley D.D., H.H., and O.O. Eighteen volumes were acquired by 

 the Feoffees of Chetham's Library, the most important volumes being C. 8-13 (A-Y), C. 8-14 (C.C.), 

 C. 8-7 (P.P., W.W.). 



5 Six volumes are preserved in the College of Arms, one volume is in the British Museum, Harl. 

 MSS., No. 7,386, and two volumes are in Chetham's Library. These MSS. consist of brief abstracts 

 made from original documents, mostly charters, and of abstracts of Chr. Towneley's MSS. The 

 caligraphy and the paper and ink used by the compiler render the deciphering of these MSS. a work of 

 great difficulty. 



* Preserved in the British Museum, the most important volumes being Harleian MSS., Nos. 2,042, 

 2,063, 2,077, 2,085, and 2,112. 



6 These consist of forty-five volumes of Lancashire MSS., and are preserved in Chetham's Library 



XXI 



