A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



laititution Nimc Patron 



5 Mar. 1757 . Henry Mordaunt, B.A.' . . . . C. Mordaunt . . . . 

 20 Aug. 177S Glover Moore, B.A.' Charles L. Mordaunt . 



20 June, i8og Thomas Blundell, M.. A.' .... T. Blundell 



26 Nov. 18 16 . Richard Loxham, M.A.* .... Bridget and Alice Blundell 



6 Sept. 1843 . Richard Leigh, M.A.' R. B. B. H. Blundell . . 



11 Aug. 1863 . Thomas Blundell Hollinshead Blun- H. B. H. Blundell . . 



dell, M.A.« 



18 Feb. 1906 . James Gerard Leigh, M. A.' . . . Col. Blundell . . . . 



Cause of Vacancy 

 res. J. Stanley 

 d. H. Mordaunt 

 d. G. Moore 

 d. T. Blundell 

 d. R. Loxham 

 res. R. Leigh 



d. T. B. H. Blundell 



Halsall has obviously been regarded as a ' family 

 living 'from early times, as witness the promotion of 

 mere boys to the rectory because they were relatives 

 of the patron. 



Master Richard Halsall, a younger son of Sir Henry 

 Halsall, was rector for fift}' years, from 1 5 1 3 to 1563, 

 seeing all the changes of the Tudor period.* In 

 I 541-2, besides the rector and the two chantry priests 

 there were attached to Halsall parish three clergy, two 

 paid by the rector, and perhaps serving the chapels of 

 .vielling and Maghull, and one paid by James Halsall.' 

 In 1548 there was much the same staff, six names 

 being given, though ' mortuus ' is marked by the 

 bishop's registrar against one.'" In 1562 the rector 

 appeared at the visitation by proxy " — probably he 

 was too infirm to come. John Prescott the curate 

 came in person ; the third resident priest died about 

 the same time. In 1563 the new rector was absent at 

 Oxford ; Prescott was still curate, but was ill — subse- 

 quently ' defunctus ' was written against his name. 

 Two years later Master Cuthbert Halsall" appeared 

 by proxy, and the curate was too ill to come." 



It would thus appear that the pre-Reformation staff of 

 six — not a large one for the parish — had been reduced 

 to an absentee rector and a curate ' indisposed ' at the 

 visitation.'* George Hesketh," the next rector, was in 

 1 590 described as 'no preacher.' " The value of the 

 rectory was ;^200, but the parson, 'by corruption,' 

 had but j^30 of it." His successor, Richard Halsall, 

 was in 1 610 described as ' a preacher.'" 



On the ejection of the Royalist Peter Travers or 

 Travis about 1645 Nathaniel Jackson was placed in 

 charge of Halsall. He soon relinquished it, and in 

 December, 1645, 'Thomas Johnson, late of Rochdale, 

 a godly and orthodox divine,' was required to officiate 

 there forthwith and preach diligently to the par- 

 ishioners ; paying to Dorothy Travers a tenth part of 

 the tithes for the maintenance of her and her children." 

 On 23 August, 1654, a formal presentation to Halsall 

 was exhibited by Mary Deane, widow of Major- 

 General Richard Deane, the true patroness ; she 

 of course nominated Thomas Johnson.^" He, as also 

 William Aspinall of Maghull and John Mallinson of 

 Melling, joined in the ' Harmonous Consent ' of 1 648. 



* Henry Mordaunt, son of Charles 

 Mordaunt of Westminster, no doubt the 

 pntron, matriculated at Oxf. in 1750, 

 aged eighteen, being of Christ Church 

 (B.A. 1755). ^' ^" killed by f.illing 

 from his horse. 



■^ Glover Moore was a local man, being 

 son of Nicholas Moore of Barton. He 

 matriculated at Oxf. (Brasenose Coll.) in 

 1756, when eighteen years of age, and 

 graduated in 1760. He is called M.A. on 

 his monument. 



* Thomas Blundell, son of Jonathan 

 Blundell of Liverpool, was also of Brase- 

 nose Coll. ; M.A. 1783 ; Foster, Alumni. 



* Richard Loxham was a Camb. man 

 (Jesui Coll. B.A. 1 7 S 3 ) ; he had previously 

 been incumbent of St. John's Church, 

 Liverpool. 



' Afterwards rector of Walton on the 

 Hill. 



* A younger son of the patron. He 

 was educated at Christ Church, Oxf. ; 

 M.A. i860. In 1884 he was made 

 canoo of Liverpool, and in 1887 rural 

 dean of Ormskirk and proctor in Convo- 

 cation ; also honorary chaplain to Queen 

 Victoria 1892. He died I Nov. 1905. 



'' Previously rector of Walton ; q.v. 



" He was educated at Oxf. ; M.A. 

 1520; B.Can. Law, 1532; Foster, Alumni 

 Oxon. 



His university course will account for 

 his being non-resident in 1530, when the 

 conduct of his curate Thomas KJrkbywas 

 the subject of an appeal to the chancellor 

 of the duchy by Thomas Halsall, lord of 

 the manor, on behalf of himself and the 

 inhabitants. The parish, the complaint 

 states, was a very large one, worth /"lOO 

 a year or thereupon ; and Thomas Kirkby 

 was accused of visiting the sick and per- 

 suading them to make their wills, telling 

 them they were bound to leave him some- 



thing ; of denouncing those who had de- 

 prived the curates of their mortuaries as 

 'accursed,' and telling the people in his 

 sermons that the souls of their parents 

 were burning in hell or purgatory, and 

 many other 'seditious and erroneous 

 words ' : of taking parts of the tithes 

 which the rector had leased, although as 

 curate he ' kept no household but lay at 

 board in other men's houses, and at the 

 ale house by the meals ' ; of using mena- 

 cing words to the parishioners, calling them 

 knaves and other 'ungodly names,' and 

 then going straightway into church and 

 saying mass and other divine service ; 

 and of being a great meddler in temporal 

 business, otherwise than a priest ought to 

 be, dealing in cattle and regulating the 

 disposal of the rector's tithe corn. The 

 answer was a denial of all the accusations. 

 See Ducky Pleadings (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 198-200. 



The curate brought countercharge! 

 against the squire. Thomas Halsall 

 would not allow him to say mass in the 

 church, and threatened to draw Kirkby 

 away from the altar should he attempt to 

 do so. He once made one of his servants 

 lie in wait to kill the curate, and again 

 sent seventeen of them to the house of 

 William Prescot, where he was at table, 

 with orders to drive him out of the house 

 or else kill him ; they actually drove him 

 into the next parish and forbade him to 

 return. In the middle of the following 

 night some of the same men came to the 

 house of Gilbert Kirkby (the curate's 

 father) in Aughton, opened the window of 

 the priest's room with a dagger, and with 

 ' a coal of fire ' kindled a ' burden ' of 

 straw, intending to bum him to death, 

 but being fortunately awake he escaped ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings (n. d.), xxi, K5. 



From another plea it appears that a 



190 



book of churchingB and burials had been 

 kept at Halsall for many years, one of the 

 entries going back to 1498, William 

 Houghton being curate at that time. 

 Duchy Pleadings, i, I 77—9. 



' Clergy List, 1541-2 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), 16. 



"• Visit. Lists ; see Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 (New Ser.), xii, 244-6. 



" He and his curate had refused to 

 appear at the visitation of 1559; Gee, 

 Elizabethan Clergy. 



'" There was one of thi» name at Hart 

 Hall in and before 1568 ; Foster, Alumni. 



" Visit. List ; see Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 ut sup. Nicholas Horscar, then curate, 

 was ordained priest in March, 1555; 

 Ordin. Book (Rec. Soc), 82. 



'■" For the ornaments of the church in 

 1552 see Ch. Goods (Chet. Soc), 106. 



'* A George Hesketh was ordained 

 priest by Bishop Scott in March, 1558 j 

 Ordin. Boot (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 loi . He may have been the 'parson of 

 Halsted,' stated by an informer to have 

 been 'reconciled [to Rome] since the 

 statute of 23 [Eliz.] ' ; Gibson, Lydiale 

 Hall, 260, from S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxv. 



" Lydiate Hall, 249. 



'7 Ibid ; Ch. Goods, 1552, p. 108. 



^ Kenyon MSS. (Hist. MSS, Com.), 13. 

 In 1609 the staff consisted of rector, 

 curate, and curate of Melling. This rector 

 was buried at Halsall 2 Jan. 1633-4, and 

 said to be sixty-nine years of age. His 

 inventory is at Chester. 



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

 and Ches.), i, 12, 14, 55. Thomas John- 

 son was in trouble with the authorities in 

 1652, it being alleged that he had joined 

 the earl of Derby for a week ; Col. Com. 

 for Comp. iv, 2955. 



'^ Ibid, ii, 49. Peter Travers probably 

 died at this time. 



