WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



ORMSKIRK 



crown was made in May, 1 547, to Sir William Paget ; 

 it included the site of the priory, all the demesne lands, 

 Martin Grange, rights of pasture, fishing, mills, and so 

 forth ; but no mention is made of manorial rights.' 

 Shortly afterwards (1549) the grantee sold the estate 

 to the earl of Derby, from whom it has descended to 

 the present earl.* The manor was granted in August, 

 1560, to Sir George Stanley of Cross Hall, in reward 

 for the 'great, painful, and valiant service' done by 

 him in the wars in Ireland and foreign countries.' 

 After his death (1570) it p.issed to his sons, Edward, 

 who died in 1576, and Henry, who died in 1590 

 without male issue, when it reverted to the crown. ,It 

 was in 1 59 1 granted to the earl of Derby,* and has 

 since passed with the earldom. In 165 1, when the 

 rights of the crown were in the hands of trustees for 

 the Commonwealth, a report was made that certain 

 profits had never been attended to or collected.' 



Immediately after the surrender it was ordered that 

 the buildings of the priory should be demolished. The 

 earl of Derby was very reluctant to destroy the church, 

 his ancestors having been buried there, and offered to 

 maintain a priest if permission were granted." This 

 must have been denied as the buildings have been 

 demolished, the only conspicuous fragments now re- 

 maining being the northern piers of the central tower ; 

 portions of old walls remain just below the surface of 

 the ground. In 1886 a systematic exploration of the 

 ground on which the church stood was carried out, and 

 many interesting details and remains of the building 

 were found.' 



The church was cruciform with a presbytery 42 ft. 

 by 24 ft. ; central tower 22 ft. 6 in. square ; north 

 transept 26 ft. 6 in. by 25 ft. 6 in. ; south transept 

 24ft. by 23 ft. ; and nave 100 ft. by 24 ft. 9 in. with 

 a north aisle 1 2 ft. wide. On the south side of the 

 nave were the claustral buildings, the cloister being 

 about 67 ft. square. The eastern and southern ranges 

 were not cleared, but the approximate size of the frater, 

 54 ft. by 21 ft. was ascertained by sounding with a 

 bar. About half the western range was uncovered, 

 and the foundations of a building were cleared adjoin- 

 ing the north side of the north transept. The parts 

 now above ground are the north-east and north-west 

 piers of the central tower of the church, which stand 

 to some height above the springing of the crossing 

 arches, though the voussoirs of the arches themselves 

 have been removed. The work is plain but good in 

 design and workmanship, its date being c. 1280, and 

 both transepts and the presbytery appear to have been 

 of the same date. 



Whether any part of the older church was discovered 

 is not stated, but the gap between the east wall of the 

 cloisters and the south transept suggests that the former 

 is on the site of the twelfth-century cloister, and pre- 

 served the old arrangement after the eastward enlarge- 

 ment of the church c. 1280. The plan of the nave 

 also may represent that of the twelfth-century church. 

 A careful and complete excavation of the site is much 

 to be desired. 



Court rolls of the period during which the manor 

 was held by the crown have been preserved. In 1536 



holme ; John Scarisbrick on account of 

 Burscough mill paid 331. 4^. The free 

 tenants, who paid small quit-rents, usually 

 sub-let their holdings ; thus Thomas 

 Atherton paid \id. for Shakelady hey by 

 Hugh Hulme, and Lord Derby paid 3;. 

 for Edgeacre hey by the wife of Hugh 

 Shaw and Henry Burscough. 



The survey made immediately after the 

 suppression (Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. 

 bdle. 158, n. 33) gives a detailed state- 

 ment of the demesne lauds and crops and 

 stock upon them. There were meadows 

 and pastures called Cow hey, Battleholme 

 or Batterholme, Bradshaw, Marsh, High- 

 field, Gorse hey, Crooked Acres, and Aspen 

 shoute ; the Rushyfield was sown with 

 oats, Sandycroft with rye, and Bankfield 

 with oats and barley. Walshe hey wood 

 contained oak saplings, ashes, and under- 

 wood ; Tarlscough wood, oak saplings ; 

 Greetby wood, oaks, * spires,' and ashes. 

 The windmill, water-mill and fishing in 

 Martin mere were in the prior's hands. 

 The only wheat growing mentioned was 

 in the Mill field of eight acres, * whereof 

 four be sown with wheat and four lie 

 leye.' There was common pasture in 

 Tarlscough moss, alias ' WirpuUes ' moss, 

 and in Hitchcock moss. 



The first year's account of the profits 

 of the lands is contained in Duchy of 

 Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 136, n. 2198. 

 The assize or quit-rents of the free 

 tenants are first given, amounting to 

 3 71. \i.\d* Then follow the rents of 

 tenants by indenture and at will. In these 

 cases the indentures are recited at length ; 

 they provide for an annual rent and a 

 heriot at death, e.g. 'the second best 

 animal or 6j. id,' The total of these 

 was ,^32 "js. jd. The demesne lands 

 had now been let for jf 14 \s. id. Later 

 accounts (bb. 2205, &c.) record the profits 

 from various sources, such as fines for 



entry to lands, heriots and reliefs, ' top 

 and crop ' of trees and barks felled in the 

 woods, or additional rents for improve- 

 ments. 



1 Duchy of Lane. lib. Edw. VI. xxiii, 

 fol. II. All was to be held by the yearly 

 rent of z%s. ^d. The lands, late in the 

 tenure or occupation of Edward, earl of 

 Derby, are specially mentioned. 



" Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 13, m. 

 81. The property is described as *the 

 site, circuit, ambit, and precinct ' of the 

 priory, messuages, tofts, gardens, orchards, 

 water-mill, windmill, dove-cote, 1,000 

 acres of land, with meadow and other 

 lands including 10,000 acres of moor, 

 moss and turbary ; also a free fishery in 

 Martin mere. Exactly the same property 

 seems to have been again granted to 

 William Tipper and others in 1588 ; Pat. 

 R. 30 Eliz. pt. 16, ii. 



^ Quoted in the pleadings and in the 

 subsequent patent. There was an annual 

 rent of ^^46 5s. yd. payable for it. 



* Pat. R. 33 Eliz. pt. 5, m. 34 ; see 

 also Lanes, Inq, p.m. (Rec. Soc Lanes. 

 and Ches.), i, 31 ; Royalist Comp, Papers 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 122, &c. 

 "The grant was to Henry, earl of Derby 

 and the heirs male of his body, at the 

 same rent as before. 



After the suppression of the priory dis- 

 putes occurred from time to time as to 

 manorial rights. In 1543 John Whit- 

 tington, keeper of the woods, reported 

 that William Stopford had taken six trees 

 to make a new window in the side of his 

 house and for other repairs ; he had also 

 ' discharged ' the king's tenants of the 

 hay and ' skowre ' for their cattle they 

 used to have in summer in the prior's 

 time, so that they would be unable to 

 keep a plough and pay their rents. A 

 privy seal was sent to William Stopford, 

 whose indignation and violent measures 



259 



are vividly described in a subsequent 

 letter. Countercharges of waste were 

 made by Stopford, who was farmer at 

 Martin Grange under the earl of Derby 5 

 he confessed that he had had timber from 

 Walshaw and Tarlscough for his house and 

 more from the hedgerows, which he 

 claimed for ploughbote and cartbote j 

 Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. Misc. bdle- 

 158, n. 30. 



Dame Isobel, widow of Sir George 

 Stanley, cut down an ash tree in 1575^ 

 but Robert Prescott and others refused to 

 allow it to be carried away ; he said his 

 father had planted it ' for the safeguard of 

 the house,' having held the premises on 

 lease more than forty years ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. xcviiij S. 4. Henry 

 Stanley, younger son of Sir George, in 

 1586, wished to build a house upon land 

 which the tenants of the manor claimed 

 as part of the common. They accord- 

 ingly assembled on Hitchcock moss^ 

 pulled down the portion erected and burnt, 

 the frame timber and trees collected 5; 

 Duchy of Lane. Pleadings, Eliz. cxl.. 

 S. 19. 



s Aug. Pari. Surveys, Lane. 6. These-^ 

 profits are described as * all manner of re- 

 liefs, escheats, goods, and chattels oF 

 felons and fugitives ' which had been ex- 

 cepted from the grants of the manor ;, 

 also timber trees, pollards, saplings, and. 

 dotterels In Burscough wood. 



s Derby Correspondence (Chet. Soc. 

 New Ser.), 128. Leland's brief note (/rt«. 

 vii, 46) mentions the burial place of the 

 Stanleys. 



7 The exploration was made at the ex- 

 pense of the earl of Derby, under the 

 direction of Mr. James Bromley. The 

 latter's account of the discoveries, witK 

 plan and numerous drawings, is printed ini 

 Trans, Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), v, 1 27-461/^ 

 For the masons' marks, ibid, vii-viii, 123^ 



