A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



others;' an endowment exists, dating from 1794, 

 for the relief of poor housekeepers.' Cuerdley once 

 had a small poor's stock, which has been lost.' Great 

 Sankey and Penketh had a similar stock, and received 

 other benefactions.* 



WHISTON 



Quitstan, 1245 ; Wystan, Quystan, 1278 ; Whys- 

 tan, Whytstan, Whyghtstan, 1292 ; Quistan, 1346 ; 

 Whistan usual, but Whiston occurs as early as 1355. 



This township has an area of 1,782^ acres.* It 

 occupies irregular ground south of Prescot, in the 

 very prosaic neighbourhood of coal-mines. The 

 grounds of Halsnead Park, in the south-east, a rather 

 bare, sparsely timbered estate, fill up a little more 

 than one quarter of the whole area of the township. 

 To the west of Halsnead is Ridgate. The rest of the 

 land is laid out in pastures and cultivated fields where 

 potatoes, turnips, and com are raised, the loamy and 

 gravelly soil seeming very fertile. There are oc- 

 casional substantial-looking farms. The northern 

 part of the township is bare and has an unfinished 

 appearance, a good deal of small cottage property 

 standing amongst patches of treeless waste ground. 

 The village of Whiston is almost continuous with 

 Prescot. The roads are generally paved with square 

 stones and are not of the smoothest. The geological 

 formation of the western half of the township consists 

 of the coal measures ; the eastern moiety, of the lower 

 mottled sandstone of the bunter series, except in the 

 north-eastern corner, where the pebble beds of this 

 series of the new red sandstone formation occur 

 southward as far as Holt. 



The western and southern boundaries are formed 

 by two brooks, which unite to flow south through 

 Tarbock. The Prescot and Warrington road, along 

 which run the electric cars, passes through the 

 northern part of the township, and from it two roads 



spread out, passing through Whiston village, and then 

 to the east and west of Halsnead Park to join the 

 road from Huyton to Cronton. The London and 

 North Western Company's railway from Liverpool to 

 Manchester goes through the centre of the area, and 

 the St. Helens branch through the northern part. 



The population in 1901 was 3,430. 



Collieries are worked, and form the chief industry. 

 Formerly women as well as men worked in them.' 

 Flower pots are made here. There are also file and 

 tool makers. 



Whiston cross stood about a mile and a half south- 

 east of Prescot church ; and the stocks were close 

 by it.' 



The Whiston Parish Council consists of ten mem- 

 bers. The Whiston Rural District Council is com- 

 posed of representatives of all rural townships in the 

 Prescot Union, and has a sanatorium and an isolation 

 hospital in Whiston, in which is also the workhouse 

 for the Prescot Union. 



The earliest record ot WHISTON is 

 MANORS contained in the survey of 1212, in 

 which it is stated that ' Vivian Gernet 

 gave to Robert Travers four plough-lands and a half 

 by the service of the third part of a knight,' parcel 

 of the fee of one knight which he held as chief 

 forester of the forest of Lancaster.' As Vivian 

 Gernet lived in the time of Henry II, an approxi- 

 mate date for the grant is afforded.' Richard 

 Travers occurs about 1 1 90,'° and shortly afterwards 

 Henry Travers was lord of Whiston, and granted to 

 Cockersand Abbey an annual rent of 2/. from the 

 mill." He was succeeded by his son Adam, who con- 

 firmed the gift of his father," and Adam by his younger 

 brother Richard ; the latter in 1252 was holding the 

 four and a half plough-lands in Whiston." 



Richard had two sons — Roger and Henry ; the 

 elder succeeded to Whiston, the younger receiving Rid- 

 gate from his father, and becoming ancestor of the 



* Thomas Windlc, jun., gave j^2 loj. a 

 year to the poor of Cronton ; this is paid 

 from aa estate at Townead in Cronton. 

 To it was formerly added j^i from the 

 charity founded by William Glover, but 

 payment has been refused since 1871. 

 The Windlc money is laid out in doles. 

 Bread was given to poor widows of 

 Cronton attending divine service at Fam- 

 worth on Christmas Day, Easter Day, and 

 Whit Sunday. A distribution of bread 

 continues ; it is still paid for by a charge 

 of 61. on an estate called Norlands, partly 

 in Widnes and partly in Cronton. 



Up to 1797 a sum of ,^2 had been dis- 

 tributed by the overseer as interest of 

 moneys left at various times by John 

 Rowson, Henry Windlc, and others, as 

 also of * Aughton's Dole.' No reason was 

 known for the discontinuance of the pay- 

 ment. Margaret Wright left ^^lo for 

 teaching children. Up to 1794 the sum 

 of 91. a year as interest had been paid by 

 the overseers either for teaching or for 

 school books, e.g. * Markham's and Dill- 

 worth's spelling books.' This had been 

 discontinued before 1829. 



^ The estate consists of a small piece of 

 land and a schoolroom and house upon it, 

 a rent of ^f 13 being charged for the house 

 and land. Formerly this went to the 

 relief of the poor rate, but the net income 

 has lately been divided among poor house- 

 keepers chosen by the parish council. 



• The stock amounted to £^0 in 1774, 

 but the trustees had died long before 1828, 

 and nothing could be discovered as to the 



fate of the money, though something had 

 been paid to the poor till about 18 10. 

 The origin of the stock was traced to 

 Bishop Smith, who gave ^10 ; to this 

 £zo was added by John Martinscroft, and 

 £zo * by Government.' No charities are 

 now known to exist. 



* The poor's stock in 1735 was ;^27, 

 of which ^17 loj. was a benefaction by 

 Ralph William Barnes; £y loi. was 

 added in 181 1, as part of a gift by John 

 Kerfoot. For this 26i. 6d. a year was 

 paid as interest by the overseer, until 

 about 1838, when the parish refused, on 

 account of the new poor law. Another 

 4J. 6d. was derived from £^ left by 

 Thomas Sixsmith in 1766, but was lost 

 by bankruptcy about 1833. A further 

 20J., called ' Dutton's money,' was re- 

 ceived from an estate at Appleton in 

 Cheshire ; the origin of the gift was un- 

 known in 1829. The charge is still 

 operative, and the money is given to poor 

 widows. 



' 1,788, including 8 of inland water j 

 census of 1901. A small portion of 

 Prescot was added in 1894 by a Local 

 Government Board order. 



* Baines, Lanes. Directory^ 1S24, ii, 707, 

 7 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq, Soc. xix, 207. 

 ' Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 



Lanes, and Ches.), 44. The names of 

 the manors are not given, but are con- 

 sidered from other sources to have been 

 Whiston, two plough-lands ; Parr, one 

 and a half; and Skelmersdale, one. 



» Ibid. 47, where Robert Travers ap- 



pears as witness to a charter dated between 

 1 1 60 and 1 170. 



1" Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 353. 



!• Coekersand Chartul. (Chet. Soc), ii, 

 603. The grant was made for the souls 

 of himself and his son Richard. Henry 

 Travers was one of the supervisors of the 

 work on the castle of West Derby in 

 1 20 1 ; Lanes. Pipe R. 147; also 350, 

 355, for other references to him between 

 1189 and 1208. 



^^ Cockersand Chartul. ii, 604. His 

 brother Richard is mentioned in this con- 

 firmation, which from the names of the 

 witnesses may be dated about 1230. 

 Soon afterwards, a disagreement having 

 arisen, the matter was discussed before 

 judges delegated by the pope, and Adam 

 and his heirs were bound to the payment ; 

 ibid. 605. 



" Inq. and Extents, 188, where he Is 

 called Richard de Whiston ; as Richard 

 Travers he is mentioned again in 1265 ; 

 ibid. 232. In 1278 Richard Travers and 

 Henry his son were accused of disseising 

 Richard Ic Norreys of his common of 

 pasture in Whiston ; Assize R. 1238, m. 

 341/.; also m. 35. In a roll of Ogle 

 deeds written in 1602, which has been 

 lent to the editors by the Rev. F. G. 

 Paterson of Prescot, and is in the posses- 

 sion of Messrs. H. Cross & Sons, solicitors, 

 of that town, is a copy of a charter by 

 Richard Travers, granting to Richard son 

 of Robert Ic Scarseriweige land in Whis- 

 ton, the bounds of which meation 'the 

 Oldmilford.' 



