WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



registered estates here.' Lord Sefton, Edward Stan- 

 dish, and Thomas Tatlock were the principal land- 

 owners in 1785.* 



The church of St. Chad succeeds an 



CHURCH ancient parochial chapel of unknown 

 origin. The name of the township ' 

 and the invocation'of the chapel indicate the existence 

 of a church here anterior to the 

 Conquest. The ancient build- 

 ing was replaced in 1766 by a 

 plain red brick structure ; * the 

 present church was begun in 

 1869, and consecrated 4 Octo- 

 ber, 1871." This is in the 

 Transition style, and consists of 

 chancel, nave with side aisles, 

 and north and south porches ; 

 it has a central tower, with 

 saddle-back roof, containing two 

 bells. The only relic of anti- 

 quity belonging to it is the 

 circular red sandstone font,* which dates from the 

 twelfth century, and has on the bowl an arcade of ten 

 round ' arches ' enclosing standing figures. The only 

 certain subject is the Temptation of Adam and Eve. 

 Below the bowl is a cable moulding formed of three en- 

 twined serpents, and the base has a similar but larger 

 moulding. The shaft is modern. In the churchyard 

 is a cross erected in 1875. The registers date from 

 1678. The later earls of Sefton have been buried here. 



Practically nothing is known of this chapel previous 

 to the Reformation.' Subsequently the services were 

 probably not kept up regularly, and in 1566 the 

 people seem to have refused to pay the vicar of 

 Walton his dues ; in consequence a decree was made, 

 ordering the vicar to have certain services once on 

 every Sunday at least.' In 1590 and 161 2 there 

 were only * reading ministers ' serving the place.' In 



MoLYNEux, Earl of 

 Sefton. Azure, a crass 

 moUne or. 



Gerard of Kingsley. 

 A%ure, a lion rampant 

 argent, over all a bend 

 gules. 



WALTON 



1650 the Parliamentary commissioners found that 

 there were belonging to the chapel, a chapelyard, a little 

 house and orchard, and a croft of 

 3 roods; they recommended that 

 it should be made a parish church, 

 with Kirkby and Simonswood as 

 its district.'" This recommenda- 

 tion was repeated in 1657, and 

 though confirmed ceased to be 

 effective at the Restoration." 



In 1 7 19 the value of the 

 curacy was ^24," but within 

 fifteen years after this had been 

 augmented to ;^90." In 1850 

 the then earl of Sefton endowed 

 it with j^i6o a year. The bene- 

 fice is now a vicarage, in the gift of the earl of Sefton. 

 The following have been curates and incumbents : 

 1607 James Hartley" 

 1609 Robert Hole '° 

 1650 — Pickering '" 

 1656 William Williamson " 

 1662 — Ambrose" 

 1678 John Barton" 

 oc. 1686 William Atherton'" 

 oc. 1689 Ralfe Reeve ^' 

 1696 Peter Becket** 

 1723 William Mount, B.A.'' (St. Edmund 



Hall, Oxf ) 

 1764 Thomas Wilkinson ^* 

 1786 John Rigby Gill, B.A." (Brasenose Coll. 



Oxf.) 

 1793 Robert Cort'° 

 1850 Robert Henry Gray, M.A.' 



Church, Oxf) 

 1877 James Butler Kelly, D.D 

 Camb.) 



(Christ 

 (Clare Coll. 

 1 88 1 John Leach, M. A." (Caius Coll. Camb.) 



^ Engl, Cath. Nonjurors, ill, 120, 121. 

 Thomas Tatlock was the son of a previous 

 Thomas ; his son by his wife Ellen Faza- 

 kerley was Henry Tatlock, S.J. ; Foley, 

 Rec. S.J. vii, 764. ; Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 

 289—91. *Tatlock's House' stands to 

 the north-west of the village. 



2 Land tax returns of 1785 ; the three 

 contributed ^^29 out of ^^ 100 raised. 



^ The only other Kirkby in England 

 which is a chapelry is Kirkby Muxloe in 

 Leicestershire, in the parish of Glenfield. 

 It is legitimate, therefore, to suggest that 

 Kirkby may formerly have been indepe^i- 

 dent of Walton. 



* A brief was issued by which ^^1,043 

 was collected ; Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), 

 iv, 52. A view is given in a paper 

 by the Rev. T. Moore in Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 vi, 53. It was enlarged in 18 12, and a 

 gallery was afterwards added. A view of 

 the old parsonage is given in the same 

 essay. 



* A district chapelry was formed in 

 1872 ; Lond. Gaz. 13 Aug. 



^ Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvii, 65. 

 An account appeared in the Gent. Mag. of 

 1845 ; also Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 85, with 

 plates. 



7 For the ornaments of the chapel in 

 1552 see Church Gds. (Chet. Soc), 100 ; 

 and for other particulars Raines' Chantries 

 (Chet. Soc), ii, 268, 276-7. For the 

 ancient * Priest Rent ' see the account of 

 Simonswood. 



8 Croxteth D. P. iv, i. The vicar 

 and his successors by themselves or other 

 fit curate at their own charge should say 



the Litany, Epistle, and Gospel of the day, 

 with the collects and creeds every Sunday, at 

 a convenient hour before noon j if required, 

 they should administer the sacrament of 

 communion to the inhabitants there, and 

 also, when required, solemnize matrimony, 

 baptize infants, purify women, visit the 

 sick, and bury the bodies of the dead, 

 according to the custom of the curates of 

 the adjoining parishes. The inhabitants, 

 on their part, were to pay to the vicars or 

 their farmers or proctors, all tithes, obla- 

 tions, obventions, and all other ecclesias- 

 tical dues ; and pay to the repair of the 

 mother church of Walton as in time past. 

 In a paper at Croxteth is a list of the 

 Easter offerings from Kirkby in the 

 eighteenth century. A man and wife 

 paid ^d,, live cows and calves, zs, 6d., a 

 swarm of bees ^d., a windmill zs., a 

 water-mill, 45., &c. 



9 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 249 ; ' no 

 preacher.' Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. 

 Com.), 13. 



1" Commaniu. Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 81. 



^' Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), ii, 169, 178, 211 ; Croxteth 

 D. P. iv, 2. 



12 Gastrell, Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc), 

 ii, 229. The rector of Walton paid 

 5^22 loj. 'No dwelling house but an old 

 bay of building, never inhabited, in which 

 a school is kept for children.' The curate 

 also had a payment of ^^5 loj. from the 

 town stock ; forty years previously this 

 payment had been ^9 los. 



1' Terriers of 1686 and 1733 are printed 



55 



in Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 49, One parcel 

 was called Chadcroft and another Priest's 

 Croft. An addition to the stipend was 

 granted by Queen Anne's bounty in 1768, 



^* Will proved at Chester, 1607. 



^* Visit. List. 



^^ Commoniv, Ck. Surv. 81. He had ju3t 

 resigned in 1650 and the cure was vacant. 



17 Plund. Mins. Accts. ii, 135. 



^8 Said to have been expelled in 1662. 



^9 Will proved at Chester, 1678. 



20 Probably the same who was in 1688 

 made curate of Liverpool and West Derby. 

 His name is signed on the first terrier. 



21 Not in the Visit, list of 1691, when 

 there was apparently no curate assisting 

 the rector and vicar. 



^^ From this time there are preserved 

 licences of curates in the Dioc. Reg. 

 Chester. 



28 The curacy was * vacant by the in- 

 sufficiency and removal of Mr. Becket,* 

 William Mount was buried at St. Nicho- 

 las's, Liverpool, 1765. He built the par- 

 sonage house, gave communion plate, and 

 left money for the poor. 



2^ Buried at Kirkby. He invented a 

 gold balance, &c. 



25 Grandson of Robert Gill of Hale, 

 proprietor of the Dungeon Salt Works. 



26 Buried at Kirkby, 1852 ; aged about 

 ninety-five. An account of him will be 

 found in Trans. Hist. Soc. vi, 52. 



27 Rector of Wolsingham, Durham, 

 1877; died, 1885. 



2^^ Sometime coadjutor bishop of New- 

 foundland. 



29 Vicar of Pemberton, 1 874.-8 1. 



