WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



ORMSKIRK 



thegnage. It is interesting to notice that the earls of 

 Derby, descendants of the Lathoms, are still the most 

 prominent personages in the parish, holding a fragment 

 of the original lordship — Newburgh ; while another 

 part — Burscough and Ormskirk with the advowson — 

 was regained after the suppression of the priory, and 

 BickerstafFe has been acquired by marriage. 



It is difficult to find how far the religious changes 

 of the sixteenth century affected the district, apart 

 from the suppression of Burscough Priory. The 

 third earl of Derby was long opposed to Protestantism, 

 and the adherents of the Roman Church have 

 always been numerous, but no open opposition was 

 made to the re-establishment of the Edwardian 

 services and doctrines by Elizabeth, though the vicar 

 was disaffected. Ormskirk is named in 1586 as one 

 of the places which had entertained John Law, a 

 seminary priest,' but the number of ' convicted 

 recusants' in the parish appears to have been insig- 

 nificant even before the more indulgent days of the 

 Stuarts. In 1590 the Scarisbricks and Gorsuches 

 were of evil note in religion, and Stanley of Bicker- 

 stafFe indifferent ; in 1628 there seem to have been 

 only three of the landowners convicted of recusancy, 

 and paying double, but the lists of minor recusants 

 and non-communicants in 1626 and 1 64 1 are of great 

 length.' 



Besides the manorial lords — the earl of Derby, 

 Scarisbrick, and Stanley of BickerstafFe — the free- 

 holders in 1600 numbered nineteen.' 



The confiscations of the Parliamentary authorities 

 in the Civil War period affected several families in 

 the neighbourhood, the principal being, of course, 

 that great ' delinquent ' James earl of Derby. In 

 Ormskirk itself a small case was that of Ellen wife of 

 John West.* In BickerstafFe besides the Mossocks, 

 Peter Cropper and John Gore were victims.^ Anthony 



Beesley of Burscough, aged ninety-eight years, and ' like 

 to be turned out ' of his house and 2^ acres of land, 

 ' and to go a-begging,' asked to be allowed to rent it, 

 as it had been sequestered. This was granted.' 

 Cuthbert Halsall, yeoman, had not borne arms against 

 the Parliament, but being a recusant his house and 

 lands were sequestered ; in 1650 he conformed to 

 the Established religion, took the oath of abjuration of 

 Popery, and afterwards asked for the restoration of his 

 property.' Alexander Breres of Lathom had been 

 within the garrison of Lathom House ; he, however, 

 took the National Covenant in March, 1644, and at 

 the second siege showed himself friendly to the 

 attacking force. In 1 647 it was ordered that ' a fifth 

 of his estate, except the demesne of Croston, should 

 be allowed to so many of his children as should be 

 brought up in the Protestant religion.' ' At Scaris- 

 brick the two families — Scarisbrick and Gorsuch — 

 suffered for their political and religious disagreements 

 with the ruling powers. Skelmersdale seems to have 

 escaped notice, except as involved in Lord Derby's 

 estates. 



On the Restoration Lathom ceased to be the chief 

 residence of the earls of Derby, a change which must 

 have had a considerable effect on the district. 



The hearth tax return of 1666' gives some 

 indication of the prosperity of the parish ; the list 

 for Ormskirk town seems to be missing. In Burscough 

 there were four houses with three hearths and above, 

 James Starkie's having twelve ; in Lathom twenty- 

 two ; '" in Scarisbrick eleven ; " in Bickerstaffe eight ; " 

 and in Skelmersdale nine. Nonconformity made its 

 appearance at Ormskirk and BickerstafFe, while at the 

 latter place a Quakers' meeting-place had been 

 established. The Oates Plot caused some renewal of 

 persecution of the adherents of the Roman Catholic 

 faith." 



^ Lanes. Lieutenancy (Chet. Soc), ii, 1 88, 

 quoting Harl. MS. 360, John Law or 

 Low was a Douai priest, banished in 1586 

 after two years' imprisonment. He soon 

 returned to England ; Douai Diaries, p. 

 211, &c 



^ Lay Subs. Lane. bdle. 131, No. 318 ; 

 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xlv, 233-5. 

 About ten families are named in Orms- 

 kirk ; a much larger number in each of 

 the other townships, except Skelmersdale, 

 in which only three distinct names appear. 



^ Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 238-43. Inquisitions relatingto several 

 of them will be found in the same 

 society's volumes of Inquisitions post 

 mortem; Humphrey Golborne, ii, 185; 

 Hugh Gillibrand, i, 130 ; William Rigby, 

 i, 19 ; Richard Cropper, ii, 213. For a 

 clerical impostor (John Cropper) of this 

 last family see Pal. Note-bk. ii, 273. 

 Other printed inquisitions concern Peter 

 Mason of Lathom, i, 214 ; Richard 

 Moorcroft of Burscough, i, 191 ; Henry 

 Parker of Burscough, ii, 208 ; and Cuth- 

 bert Sharpies of Lathom, ii. 116. 



"* Royalist Comp. P. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), iv, 91, She was *in all 

 things conformable to law and to the 

 Government,' but her father, Nicholas 

 Leigh, had been a recusant, and two- 

 thirds of his property had been sequestrated 

 in consequence ; she sought for the resti- 

 tution of lands in Ormskirk, which should 

 descend to her as the heir of her mother 

 Alice, Nicholas Leigh died at Garstang 

 about 6 February, 1651-2 ; Alice his 

 wife had died twenty-one years earlier. 



* The particular delinquency of Peter 



Cropper does not appear ; his estate 

 was sequestered in 1645, discharged two 

 years later, but afterwards ' secured * 

 again; his widow Cecily in 1652 made 

 petition for its restoration to her ; ibid. 

 ii, 89, John Gore was a recusant, and 

 his small property, let at 641. a year, was 

 therefore sequestrated ; ibid, iii, 87. See 

 also Cat. Com.for Comp, iv, 2840, 3096. 



^ Royalist Comp. P. i, 159. 



7 Ibid, iii, 145. The minister and 

 churchwardens certified that he * did 

 come unto the parish church of Ormskirk 

 the 27th day of January 1649 and there 

 did decently behave himself at the time 

 of divine service and sermon, and hath 

 continued ever since a constant church- 

 man.' Other Burscough cases were those 

 of John Fletcher, who had sold his 

 tenement there to Richard Holland of 

 Lathom, but two-thirds had been seques- 

 tered for the recusancy of Fletcher and 

 his mother Anne, so that the purchaser 

 could not obtain possession (ibid, iii, 

 240) ; Katherine Wignall, who died in 

 1654, having had two-thirds of her small 

 estate in Ormskirk and Burscough simi- 

 larly sequestrated (Ca/. Com, for Comp. 

 V, 3220) ; Ralph Whittington, whose 

 estate had been sequestered for alleged 

 recusancy, but who had taken the oath 

 of abjuration (ibid, iv, 2873) ; Henry 

 Walker, who himself * always conform- 

 able,' petitioned for the restoration of 

 his recusant father's estate ( ibid, iv, 

 2956). 



s Royalist Comp, P, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 234 ; iii, 50. Alex- 

 ander was the son of John Breres. 



239 



Breres or Briers Hall in Lathom takes its 

 name from the family, Martin Hall was 

 also held by them. Administration was 

 granted to the estate of John Breres of 

 Lathom in 1646, and to that of Alexander 

 Breres in 1671. Some minor Lathom 

 sequestrations took place. William 

 Bower, who had been in arms in * the 

 first war/ was in 1649 allowed to com- 

 pound (ibid, i, 213); Richard and 

 Thomas Nelson, husbandmen, were ac- 

 cused of different delinquencies ; it was 

 suspected that the latter was Thomas 

 Nelson of Wrightington, and the order 

 was that his estate might be discharged 

 if he were a different person and took 

 the oath of abjuration ; ibid, iv, 210, 

 211 ; See Cal, Com. for Comp. iv, 2974, 

 3007. 



^ Lay Subs. Lane. 250-9. 



^0 These included the earl of Derby'i 

 house with seventeen, an increase of 

 fifteen since the previous assessment, so 

 that some rebuilding had taken place 5 

 Cross Hall eight, Mrs. Sharpies and Mr. 

 Breres five each, Mr. John WycUfFe and 

 Mr. Richard Worthington each four. 



^^ The hall had eighteen, James HalsalL 

 (perhaps at Hurleton) eleven, Gorsuch 

 nine, William Smith six, Gabriel Heskin 

 and Robert Hesketh five each. 



1^ The hall had eleven, Henry Mossock 

 eight, and Henry Houghton five. 



^3 The result was that some abandoned 

 it and conformed to the Established 

 religion ; the churchwardens' accounts for 

 1679 show that 6d, was 'paid for a roll 

 of parchment about enrolling Popish 

 submitters ' ; Trans. Hist. Soc* xxvi, 13. 



