A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



down to the suppression of chantries by Henry VIII 

 and Edward \'I.' In 1554 the confiscated lands 

 were granted to Sir Thomas Holcroft,' who sold them 

 to Richard Mascy as stated above. 



For the next century the chapel was probably used 

 but occasionally;' there was no endowment* and the 

 chief landowner attended the statutory services only 

 on compulsion, so that neither he nor the rector of 

 Warrington had any inducement to keep it open. 

 Under the Commonwealth an additional £^0 was 

 granted from the sequestered revenues of Royalists, but 

 this would cease at the Restoration.' The recommen- 

 dation to make it parochial was not acted upon. The 

 building decayed and became ruinous, but soon after 

 the Revolution the bishop of Chester found means to 

 compel the lord of Rixton, ' a Papist,' to rebuild it and 

 keep it in repair ; and Bishop Gastrell about 1 7 1 8 

 found that an addition of 30/. had been acquired as the 

 interest of various benefactions.' The church, now 

 called St. Helen's, is a plain brick building, restored in 

 1882.' The rector of Warrington is patron. Among 

 the incumbents have been : 



oc. 1 609 Richard Garnet ' 

 ^. 1646-50 Henry Atherton ' 

 oc. 1689 George Hatten'" 

 ^. I 71 2 John Collier" 



1784 James Hartley" 



1798 William Wright" 



1829 Peter Steele Dale " 



1 87 1 George Farrar Roberts, M.A. (Jesus 



Coll. Oxf.) 

 1896 Edmund Peel Wethered, M.A. (Christ 



Ch. Oxf.) 

 1905 Arthur Frederic White, M.A. (Dur.) 

 A mission room at Rixton was built in 1 894. 

 A school was built in Glazebrook in 1713." 

 The Primitive Methodists and United Free 

 Methodists have chapels at Glazebrook, and the 

 Wesleyans one at Rixton. 



In spite of the Elizabethan persecution there can be 

 no doubt that Roman Catholic worship was continued at 

 Rixton Hall by the priests whom the Mascys employed 

 to teach their children.'* No records, however, re- 

 main earlier than the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 when a Jesuit father, Henry Smith, was in charge." 

 The Jesuits, who had charge also of Culcheth and 

 Southworth, probably worked the three together. 

 They continued there until 1825;" and shortly 

 afterwards were succeeded by Benedictines, who 

 built the present church of St. Michael in 1 83 1." 

 The mission was resigned to the secular clergy in 

 1874.''' 



priest at HoUinfarc chapel, also the accus- 

 tomed 'average'; Mascy D. R. 155. 



In the previous year William Mascy, as 

 patron of the chantry, had recommended 

 his feoffees to present his chaplain, Randle 

 Woodward, at the next vacancy ; Risley 

 D. at Hale, n. no. It is not known 

 that this was acted on, as in 1535 the 

 cantarist was William Mastyn (f Mascy) ; 

 f'uhr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 219. 



^ At the suppression William Mascy 

 •was the priest in charge ; he celebrated, 

 kept the obit, and distributed 51. a year to 

 the poor, according to his trust. There 

 was no plate, and the endowment was the 

 looi. a year at first granted ; Raines, 

 (CktBt. (Chet. Soc), 61. He was thirty- 

 tfour years of age. 



' By patent dated at Winchester, 23 

 July, z Mary, at the time of the queen's 

 marriage to Philip of Spain ; Mascy D. 

 R. 160 B.; Pat. 2 Mary, pt. ii. Edward 

 VI had granted a 21 years' lease of the 

 thantry property to Sir William Norris in 

 1 548, at a rent of ^5 ; Mascy D. R. 

 t6oc. Licence to alienate the chantry 

 lands to Richard Mascy was granted by 

 Philip and Mary to Sir Thomas Holcroft 

 in 1556; ibid. R. 163. The rent of ^5 

 is not named, but would no doubt be pay- 

 jablc by the new grantee. 



■•In 1590 there was 'no preacher' 

 Aerc ; LjJiatc Hall, 248. Hamlet Persi- 

 -val is named as curate in 1594 ; Scholes 

 and Pimblett, Boinn, 249. It had 'no 

 certain curate' about 1612 ; Kenyan MSS. 

 (Hist. MSS. Com.), 12. 



* Possibly in consequence of the reports 

 quoted in the last note an allowance of 

 j^4 1 2i., the net receipt from the chantry 

 lands, was granted from the duchy funds 

 towards the stipend of 'a preaching minis- 

 ter ' ; Common-wealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 53. 



5 Ibid, also Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), \,passim. 



« Xotida Cestr. (Chet. Soc), ii, 239 ; 

 Gastrell notes that the building was be- 

 lieved to have been consecrated. Baptism 

 v-as administered in it. 



' No dedication was known to Canon 

 Raines, the editor of Gastrell ; St. Helen 

 may have been suggested by the name 



HoUinfare, or by the dedication of Warring- 

 ton church. The chapclry was formed in 

 1874 ; Land. Gaz. 20 March, 1874. For 

 an account of endowment see Warr. 

 End, Char, Rep. 1899, p. 74. 



s Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298. 

 Buried at Warrington 1629, as 'minister 

 at HoUinfare,' 



• He was there on the formation of the 

 classis in 1646. He was a ' man of good 

 life and conversation and a godly, painful 

 minister,' but had not kept the fast recently 

 appointed by Parliament ; Commonivealth 

 Ch. Surv. (1650), loc. cit. 



'" He is called ' curate ' and ' conform- 

 able ' in 1689; Kenyan MSS. 229. He 

 was not present at the Visit, of 1691. 



" Father of ' Tim Bobbin.' For par- 

 ticulars of this and later curates see Bea- 

 mont, IVarr. Ch. Notes, 209, from which 

 the list here given is mainly derived. Mr. 

 Beamont states that ' at the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century many lay persons 

 in our northern counties officiated in the 

 country curacies in poor districts, without 

 being admitted to holy orders ; but in the 

 reign of George I the bishops determined 

 that this state of things ought no longer 

 to continue ; yet in order that the change 

 might be no hardship to those who were 

 already serving in such cures, it was 

 arranged that all such persons should be 

 admitted to holy orders without undergoing 

 any examination ; and it was evidently in 

 compliance with this arrangement that 

 Mr. Collier was now (1725) admitted to 

 the priesthood.' 



^ Also vicar of Leigh. 



" Suspended from 18 13 onwards ; died 

 1829. 



"Curate in charge from 181 3; 'a 

 most zealous and active minister.' 



^ Gastrell, Natltia. 



" See above, in the account of Richard 

 Mascy, 1590-2. 



In Foley, Rec. SJ. i, 664, is an account 

 of the trial and execution of Fr. John 

 Smith, the Jesuit chaplain at Rixton in 

 1650, taken from Dodd, Ch. Hist, iii, 

 312. His real name is supposed to have 

 been Thomas Harrison ; he was bom 

 near Liverpool, and sent on the Lancashire 

 mission in 1648. It is said that ' several 



gentlemen who had served in King Charles 

 I's army entered into a combination in 

 the year 1650 to plunder the parsonage of 

 Winwick ' — perhaps in frolic, or more 

 probably in retaliation for its former cap- 

 ture and spoliation by the Parliamentary 

 forces. ' "The persons following rifled the 

 parsonage, viz. Mr. Catteral, Mr. Mascy 

 (a younger brother) of Rixton, a French 

 gentleman, and some others.' The French- 

 man was the only one captured, and as he 

 named Rixton a search was made there 5 

 Fr. Smith was found in his chamber, and 

 in the room was found a red cap belong- 

 ing to Mr. Herle, the rector of Win- 

 wick, and no doubt part of the plunder. 

 The priest was charged as an accomplice 

 and executed at Lancaster, as the secrecy 

 necessitated by his office prevented his 

 giving any satisfactory account of the 

 matter. The occurrence of course gave 

 rise to some scandal, but Dodd remarks 

 that ' most people lamented Mr. Smith's 

 hard fate; but such were the circumstances 

 of his person, his religion, and the humour 

 of those times, that no favourable con- 

 struction would be admitted. The par- 

 ticulars of this story I have not only read 

 in a well - attested manuscript, but also 

 received them by word of mouth from a 

 gentleman who was well acquainted with 

 Mr. Smith and had a great opinion of him 

 for his many excellent qualities.' 



Only two names appear in the recusant 

 roll of 164 1 ; Tram. Hht. Soc. (New Ser.), 

 xiv, 244. 



'7 Foley, op. cit. v, 322 ; his income 

 was ^18 i6j. 6d. the number of general 

 confessions ten, and of 'customers' 100, 

 In 1784 seventeen persons were confirmed 

 at Rixton, and there were thirty com- 

 municants at Easter ; ibid. 324. The 

 bishop of Chester's return in 1767 gave 

 the number of ' papists ' in HoUinfare as 

 4 1 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xviii, 2 1 5. 



" Foley, op. cit i, 664. 



" GiUow in Trans. Hist. Soc .(New Ser.), 

 xiii, 158 ; a list of the missioners from 

 1831 is given; 



'"'Liverpool Catb. Ann. 1901, where 

 it is stated that the Franciscans were at 

 one time in charge ; this seems to be an 

 error. 



