A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



night, so that the said tenants durst not walk out in 

 the evening as they had been accustomed to do, and 

 see their goods.' Further, on the Eve of St. Michael 

 in Monte Tumba he had gone into the chapel and 

 kept the door shut, so that neither ' strange pilgrims ' 

 nor the townspeople could enter to pray or make 

 their offerings.' 



Queen Elizabeth in 1 602 enclosed 200 acres of 

 the common or waste lands of the manor, to be en- 

 joyed by the tenants in severalty by copy of court 

 roll according to the custom of the manor, paying 

 ^. for every acre improved, and to be subject to the 

 usual fines.' 



The Johnson family appear to have been among 

 the principal tenants in the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries, but it is difficult to trace the family back 

 with certainty owing to the use of the christian name 

 as surname in the precise sense, as ' son of John,' so 

 that the surname varied from generation to generation.' 



A number of ' Papists ' registered their estates here 

 in 1717 — Henry Aspinwall of Croxteth, Richard 

 Cartwright, Edward Hatton, John Hunt, John 

 Johnson, Robert Johnson, John Lurting, Thomas 

 Syers and Mary his wife, Thomas Thelwall, and 

 Richard Westhead.* 



The court rolls of the manor, dating from the 

 time of Henry VIIF, are kept in a box in St. Luke's 

 church gallery. A few earlier ones are at Croxteth.' 



Great Crosby Marsh was enclosed in 18 16.' The 

 old bull-croft, belonging to the township, stood in 

 Marsh Lane ; the assembly rooms are built upon a 

 portion of it.' 



Although from its name it may be 



CHURCH supposed that there had been a chapel 



at Great Crosby from an early time, the 



first direct reference hitherto noticed is that quoted 



above, in 1532. From this it will be seen that it 

 was a place of pilgrimage, and it may further be 

 gathered that the feast day was St. Michael in Monte 

 Tumba, 16 October.' 



The Parliamentary Commissioners of 1 650 described 

 it as ' an ancient chapel well situated, the present 

 incumbent being Mr. John Kidd, an able minister, 

 who hath for his salary the tithes of the said place, 

 being worth ^^30 per annum,' and they considered 

 that it might be made an independent parish 

 church.' 



The old chapel of St. Michael was replaced in 

 1774 by a brick building with a tower.'" This was 

 pulled down in 1864, though the tower continued to 

 stand until 1880. The present church of St. Luke, 

 on the main road, some quarter of a mile from the old 

 one, was built in 1854. There is a graveyard. 



The church plate includes a paten (date 1724) 

 given by Mrs. Elizabeth Martin in 1 766 ; and a 

 chalice (initials LL.) of Elizabethan style, but ap- 

 parently of eighteenth-century manufacture, the cor- 

 responding paten of which is among the Sefton church 

 plate. There is a sundial (date 1752) in the church- 

 yard. 



The following is an imperfect list of curates-in- 

 charge and incumbents since the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century " ; several of them were also 

 masters of the grammar school : — 

 Bef. i6;o John Kidd, M.A. 



1680 John Wareing, B.A. (? Emmanuel Coll. 

 Camb.) 



1 7 1 1 Gerard Wareing, B.A. 

 oc. 1733 Robert Bellis 



1733 Anthony Halsall 



1756 Edward Owen, M.A. (Jesus Coll. Oxf.) 



1758 Wilfred Troutbeck 



^ Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Chcs.), ii, 4.. Nicholas Johnson was the 

 husband of Margaret Blundcll, sister of 

 James ; Gibson, Lydiate hall, 85. 



' Croxteth D. D. ii, i. 



" Some mention of them has been 

 made above, with examples of the change 

 of surname. It is noticeable that B. 

 Lawrence Johnson was also known as 

 Richardson, his father being Richard. 



*The family was of considerable an- 

 tiquity, and suffered greatly for its re- 

 ligion. . . . About the middle of the 

 seventeenth century John Johnson of 

 Great Crosby, the representative or the 

 family, married Jane daughter of John 

 Molyneux of New Hall. She was a widow 

 in 1667, and was then paying her fines 

 for recusancy ;* Gillow, l.s.c. 



In 1459 Nicholas son of Jenkyn John- 

 son and Joan his wife and John son of 

 the said Nicholas entered upon a mes- 

 suage and half an oxgang by demise of 

 John Golding ; and in 1474. Henry 

 Nicholason sought entry into a messuage 

 and oxgang by demise of Alice widow 

 of Nicholas Jankinson ; Court R. at 

 Croxteth. 



An interesting document among the 

 Moore charters (n. 744) is a record of the 

 descent of the property of Tomlin Wilson, 

 who in the presence of Nicholas Blundell, 

 the father of Harry Blundell lately de- 

 ceased, had declared that his heirs were 

 his daughter, the wife of Richard Johnson, 

 and his grandson Thomas Linacre, son of 

 another daughter. The former had a son, 

 John Richardson, and the latter a daugh- 

 ter married to Wilkin Holt, and in 1470 



Richard Johnson and William Holt were 

 sworn before William Blundell of Ince 

 and Robin Holt of the same to claim one 

 half each and no more ; and Thomas 

 Linacre was to make no alienation. 



Feoffments by Richard Johnson of 

 Little Crosby in 1447^8 mention lands 

 there and in Ince Blundell \ part he held 

 in right of his wife Emma, then deceased, 

 daughter of Thomas Wilson of Ince ; 

 Kuerden MSS. iii, C. 34, n. 437, 439. 

 His son was John ; ibid. n. 438. 



Nicholas Johnson of Crosby, aged 

 sixty-six, gave evidence in a DownhoUand 

 dispute in 1558 ; Duchy of Lane. Depos. 

 Phil, and Mary, Ixxv, H. 3. 



The will of Nicholas Johnson, dated 

 24 April, 1 610, and proved at Chester 

 the same year, mentions his wife Eliza- 

 beth, his eldest son John, and other 

 children — Richard, Nicholas, and Margeryj 

 also his grandchild Nicholas Johnson. 

 This inventory, made 1 1 May, shows 

 goods of the value of ,^234. 



The will of Jane Johnson, of the 

 Moorside within Great Crosby, widow, 

 dated 16 March, 1702-3, names her 

 brother and sister Edward and Margaret 

 Molyneux and other relations and friends, 

 including Robert Breres of Walton Hall. 

 She was a daughter of John Molyneux of 

 Alt Grange. Her executors were to dis- 

 pose of the residue of her estate according 

 to a schedule annexed to the will. She 

 devised ;^300 towards the maintenance of 

 two youths, Edward son of Edward 

 Molyneux of Altcar and Richard Smith 

 son of Margaret Smith (who married a 

 second husband, Thomas Widdowson of 



94 



Bootle), and in 171 6 this money was 

 •being paid to some Popish College be- 

 yond seas to make the said youths priests* ; 

 Payne, Rec. of Engl. Cath. 151, 126; 

 Dugdalc, Vmt. (Chct. Soc), 203. Her 

 house, still standing, was in 1666 the 

 largest in Crosby, yet it had only four 

 hearths ; Lay Subs. Lanes, ^flo, 



■• Esteourt and Payne, Enp. Cath. Non- 

 jurori, 1 10, &c. For a son of Edward 

 Hatton see Gillow, Bibl. Diet, iii, 163, 



' In one of the Croxteth R. dated 

 1538, the officers are named as reeve, 

 constables (2), aletasters (2), sworn men 

 (4), and supervisors of wreck of the sea 

 (2). The later rolls give bierlawmen, 

 supervisors of waifs, estrays, and wreck 

 of the sea, and chapel reeves. 



' The Act was passed 28 Feb. 1812 ; 

 and the award made four years later at 

 the Ship Inn, Great Crosby. There is a 

 copy with plan at the County Council 

 Offices, Preston. 



^ End. Char. Rep. 1899 (Sefton), 26. 



* For other notes, list of church orna- 

 ments, &c., see Raines, Chantriei (Chet. 

 Soc.), ii, 268, 276, 277, where the chapel 

 itself is valued at 30J. ; and Ch. Goodi 

 (Chet Soc), 103. 



' Commoniv. Ch. Surv. (Rec. Snc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 85. See also Plund. Mini. 

 Accts. (same Soc), i, 7. 



'" The church is called St. Luke's in 

 1836 in Baines's Lanci. (ist ed.), iv, 217. 

 On the 6-inch Ordnance map, however, 

 it is named St. Michael's, and so in Gore, 

 Liverpool Dir, 1853, 



" Compiled chiefly from the Bishops' 

 Visit. Books. 



