WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



ALTCAR 



adjoin, from the time the monks of Merivale received 

 possession of it.' The chapel appears to have been 

 but poorly furnished. From that year there is clear 

 evidence that divine service was regularly celebrated, 

 the leases stipulating for the payment of a resident 

 priest, normally one of the monks of Merivale." 



The church existing in the seventeenth century is 

 said to have been of timber and plaster. About 1614 

 Altcar was described as ' a donative impropriate to Sir 

 Richard Molyneux, Knight ; no incumbent, but a 

 bare reader and a mean pension.' ' The Common- 

 wealth surveyors of 1650 found that there was a 

 church, but no parsonage or glebe lands ; the tithes, 

 worth j^yo a year,* were farmed by Lord Molyneux 

 under a lease for ten thousand years. The church 

 was well situated within the parish, and there was no 

 need for any other.' In 1646 the stipend of the 

 minister was but twenty nobles {£6 1 3^. 412'.) a year, as 

 the old rent of the spiritualities of the parish ; but 

 upon Lord Molyneux's property being sequestered by 

 Parliament ^^50 a year was promptly added to this 

 stipend out of the tithes of Altcar." Altcar Hall was 

 assigned as a parsonage house, with orchards, gardens, 

 yards, stables, and outhouses. It is the old church- 

 house. Afterwards it became an inn, and is still 

 standing by the churchyard. 



Bishop Gastrell in 1 71 7 found that Lord Molyneux, 

 who let out the tithes for j£8o a year, paid the curate 

 there about j^io a year, to which a further £1 10s. 

 might arise from surplice fees. There were two war- 

 dens, serving by house row.' 



Nearly thirty years later the church is supposed 

 to have been destroyed by fire, and a new one was 

 built, a royal brief in 1743 raising a certain portion of 

 the cost. The new building was consecrated in 1747. 

 It was a ' small brick edifice, with a cupola in which 

 was only one bell. The interior was very plain.' * 



The present church of St. Michael,' in the Perpen- 

 dicular style, was built in 1879, '^^ former one being 

 pulled down. 



The registers begin in 1664, but no marriage is 

 recorded till 1680. There are parish accounts from 



1 7 1 4. An old font lies in the churchyard, in company 

 with the base of a cross and the font (sundial pattern) 

 of 1 747-'" 



Altcar being a donative, no institution or licence 

 was required ; but about the end of the seventeenth 

 century Bishop Gastrell notices that curates had been 

 licensed." Probably the monk in charge at the dis- 

 solution of the monasteries would remain at Altcar, 

 having no longer any other home ; " but the first 

 curate whose name is known is Gilbert Shurlacres.'^ 



It appears that the curate-in-charge might only be 

 a ' reader,' that is, a layman licensed to read the 

 prayers ; the salary was very small, and as practically 

 all the people adhered to the Roman Catholic faith after 

 the Reformation there would be few offerings and other 

 dues to increase it. The improvement in the minis- 

 ter's stipend made by the parliamentary authorities 

 was accompanied by the appointment of Robert 

 Seddon, ' an orthodox and painful godly minister,' 

 who had been put in by Colonel John Moore, and 

 was there in 1650." The following are among the 

 later curates and vicars, who have since 1856 been 

 presented by the Earl of Sefton as patron : 



1656 Nathaniel Brownsword'° 



1657 John Walton, clerk " 

 oc. 1665 — Brookes" 



c. 1 669 Zachary Leech " 

 oc. 1 67 1 Richard Critchley " 



1702 — Norris 



1702 Timothy Ellison '* 



1717 Edward Pilkington "• 



1724 William Clayton "" 



1735 Thomas Mercer ^' 

 oc. 1774 William Naylor ^^ 



1823 Thomas Garrett, M.A. (Aberdeen)'' 



1826 Charles Forshaw, B.A. ** 



1856 James Pearson, M.A. (Trinity College, 

 Camb.) '' 



1862 John Thomas'"' 



1889 William Warburton " 



^ There is no mention of chapel or 

 tithes in the foundation charters. 



2 The Fahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.) of 1535 

 (v, 221) states that Altcar used to be in 

 the parish of Walton. For the ornaments 

 of the church in 1552 see Ch. Goods (Chet. 

 Soc), 105. 3 Kenyon MSB. 13. 



■* The meadows were tithe free ; Notitia 

 Cestr. ii, 163. 



* Commonivealth Ck* Surv. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), p. 95. 



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

 and Ches.), i, 13, 18. 



In 1648 Lord Molyneux was allowed 

 to compound for the tithes, said to have 

 been worth ^^80 a year for the previous 

 thirty years, on condition of paying ^jo 

 a year to the minister ; Croxteth D. j 

 also Flund. Mim. Accts. ii, 142, 188. 



7 Notitia Cestr, ii, 163. The divisions 

 of the parish were Town Row, Gore 

 Houses, and Little Altcar. 



8 Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iv, 233. 



A new sandstone font was provided, 

 and a silver chalice and paten were pre- 

 sented at the same time by Jane Plumb, 

 widow, of DownhoUand. 



^ For endowment, see Lond. Gaz. 

 30 Aug. 1864 and 6 Feb. 1866. 



1° Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvii, 63. 

 The cross (base) is mentioned In Lanes, and 

 Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 169. 



*^ One in 1695 to Altcar ; one in 1702 

 to Altcar and Formby ; Notitia Cestr. ii, 

 163. 



^2 In 1 509 Richard Walker, * commonk * 

 of Altcar, was witness to an agreement ; 

 Liverpool Corp. D. 



" Visit. Lists at Chest. He lived at 

 Ormskirk and was buried there in 1558. 



^^ Commontvealth Ch. Survey, p. 95. He 

 joined in the * Harmonious Consent ' of 

 1648, and seems to be the Robert Sed- 

 don, M.A. (of Christ's Coll., Camb.), 

 who was in 1654 ordained to Gorton 

 Chapel, and was afterwards promoted to 

 Langley in Derbyshire. Being ejected in 

 1662 he subsequently ministered in Bol- 

 ton. He would be only 20 years of age 

 on appointment to Altcar. Nightingale, 

 Lanes. Nonconf. ill, 5-7. 



^* ' Approved according to the ordinance 

 for approbation of Public Preachers ' 5 

 Flund. Mins. Accts. ii, 142. 



^^ Upon a nomination exhibited from 

 Frances, Viscountess-Dowager Molyneux, 

 with satisfactory certificate, and admitted 

 again on a nomination from the Lord 

 Protector. He was still at Altcar In 

 1659. See ibid, ii, 181, 289. 



17 Visit. List. 



18 In 1702 the chapel being vacant by 

 the death of Mr. Norris, it was arranged 

 that Timothy Ellison, curate of Formby, 



22s 



should officiate at Altcar every Sunday 

 afternoon ; hitherto, only ^^lo being 

 allowed by Lord Molyneux as the curate's 

 salary, there had been divine service only 

 every second Sunday ; Act Books at 

 Chester. 



" Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 98. 



20 Presented by Viscount Molyneux. 



21 Also curate of Formby. 



"2 He was for fifty years master of 

 Ormskirk Grammar School. He died ini 

 1823. 



'"^ Thomas Garrett had been appointed' 

 curate in 1 82 1, and became incumbent in 

 1 823 ; he resided at Burscough, and came 

 over on Saturday for the Sunday duty. 

 He afterwards held Talk and Audley in 

 Staflxjrdshire, and died in 1841 ; Ches.. 

 N. and Q. (New Ser.), i and v. He 

 published some poems concerning the 

 district. 



^ Master of Ormskirk School. 



2* Presented by the Earl of Sefton in 

 1856. The patron built a vicarage in 

 1858, from which time there has been a 

 resident incumbent. 



'^^ John Thomas, incumbent of St. 

 John's, Workington, was presented In 

 1862, having exchanged with Mr. Pear- 

 son. He died in 1889. 



2? Previously, 1871 to 1888, incumbent 

 of St. Peter's, Aintree. 



29 



