A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



One or more families tooic their surname from the 

 place, but no connected account of them is possible.' 

 Another local family took its name from Churchlee in 

 Prescot. Richard son of Robert 

 de Churchlee early in 1286 

 accused Alan le Breton, the 

 rector, of disseising him of his 

 free tenement there ; Henry 

 the son of Richard joined in 

 the complaint, which terminated 

 successfially.* 



The hall of Prescot, at one 

 time the residence of the Ogles, 

 as stewards of the lords of the 

 manor, was afterwards leased 

 out.' 



There were in the town in 

 1666 thirty-two houses with 

 three hearths and more.* 



Thomas Waller of Prescot 

 compounded with the Com- 

 monwealth authorities in 1646 

 for his sequestered estate.' In 

 of Whiston, watch-maker, as a 

 his estate as a house at Prescot 

 had two small 



King's Colligi, 

 Cambridge. Sable, three 

 roses argent, barbed vert, 

 seeded or ; on a chief per 

 pale azure and gules a 

 Jleur-de-lis on the dexter 

 and a lion passant guard- 

 ant on the sinister of the 

 fourth. 



1717 John Ashton 

 ' Papist,' registered 

 Arthur Ashton, tailor, 

 two small houses; Edward Ellam and Edward 

 Greenough of Parr also registered small freeholds.^ 



John Philip Kemble, the actor, was born at Prescot 

 in .757.' 



In 1843 a dispute occurred respecting the boun- 

 daries, the township of Whiston claiming Prescot Hall 

 to be within its limits. It appeared that though all 

 the usual rates had been paid by the hall to Prescot, 

 the tithes had been collected with those of Whiston. 

 This arrangement may have been due to one of the 

 leases granted by King's College to the farmers of 

 the tithe. The Prescot authorities justified their 

 contention that the boundar}' went as far as Shaw 

 Lane, where an ancient mere-stone was placed.' 



The government of the town by the old court-leet 

 was thus described in 1836 : ' The manor and liberty 

 of Prescot is governed by a steward, "four men," a 

 coroner and several constables, nominated by the jury 

 of the court leet and baron, who are composed of 

 twenty-four of the principal inhabitants of the town- 

 ship of Prescot, and who are nominated by the lords 

 of the manor. ... A court-baron, or court of re- 

 quests, is held for causes to any amount every fort- 

 night in the town-hall. . . . There is also a general 



court-baron held on Corpus Christ!, and special courts 

 with which a court-leet is held." 



The Local Government Act of 1858 was adopted 

 in 1867 ; '"and Prescot is now governed by an urban 

 district council of twelve members. The coroner of 

 the Liberty of Prescot is appointed by King's College, 

 Cambridge. The town is lighted with gas and the 

 electric light by private companies ; and water ii 

 supplied by the Liverpool Corporation. A lending 

 library was established in 1854. 



The history of the parish church has already been 

 given. 



The Wesleyan Methodists and United Methodists 

 have each a place of worship, and the Independent 

 Methodists have two ' Free Gospel ' churches, one 

 called ' Zion.' 



There is a barracks of the Salvation Army. 



The Congregational church was founded in 1798, 

 but the chapel was not built until 1 8 1 1 , from which 

 time there has been a regular succession of ministen. 

 The present church was built in 1878." There is 

 also a Welsh Congregational church. 



The Unitarian church seems to have represented the 

 earliest effort of Nonconformity to gain an establish- 

 ment in Prescot. It was founded about 1756, by 

 the St. Helens congregation." It has been disused 

 for services for about twenty years, the Wesleyans 

 having it for a school. 



The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady Immacu- 

 late and St. Joseph was erected in 1857; it is served 

 by Jesuit fathers." 



SUTTON 



No variation in spelling. 



This township, now included within the borough 

 of St. Helens, has an area of 3,7525 acres. It 

 partakes of the unpicturesque character of other Lan- 

 cashire townships where the country is flat and open, 

 containing manufacturing towns and coal mines. 

 The smoke and fumes arising from factories have 

 well-nigh destroyed the best trees, and even hedges 

 have a blackened stunted appearance, and cinder- 

 paths are frequent. There are, however, crops 

 grown in the more favoured parts of the district, con- 

 sisting chiefly of oats, wheat, hay, and clover. The 

 soil is of clay. 



The greater part of the township lies upon the 

 coal measures. A belt of the lower mottled sand- 



^ See, for instance, the account of 

 Eccleston. William de Prescot was wit- 

 ness to a Lathom charter of the time of 

 Richard I ; Lanes. Pipe R. 353. Patrick 

 and Richard de Prescot will be foimd 

 mentioned in the list of rectors. A later 

 Patrick de Prescot, c. 1300, is in one 

 charter called Patrick de Molyneox of 

 Prescot ; Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 254/1, 

 n. 216. 



^ Assize R. 1271, m. 11 d. Later in 

 the same year Richard de Churchlee 

 granted to Richard his younger son all the 

 land which he held of God and St. Mary 

 of the church of Prescot, rendering yearly 

 to this church a pound of incense at 

 Candlemas ; Norris D. (B. M.). The 

 :name Churchlee remained in use in the 

 seventeenth century. 



'In 1568 John Layton of Prescot 

 Hall had a lease of the hall, coal mines, 

 and windmill from King's College for 

 fifty years, and after his death his son 

 Philip succeeded him. In 1600 the re- 



mainder of the term was granted to 

 Michael Doughty, who in the following 

 year transferred it to Richard Harrington. 

 In 1604 his widow Elizabeth complained 

 that his mother Anne would neither prove 

 his will nor show Elizabeth the docu- 

 ments ', Duchy of Lane. Pleas. 2 Jas. I, 

 bdle. 219. 



■* Lay Subs. 250—9. The principal 

 house was the vicarage, with 10 hearths ; 

 then followed Oliver Lyme and Katherine 

 Stockley, 9 each ; Cuthbert Ogle, 8 ; John 

 Walls and William Blundell, 7 each ; and 

 Thomas Litherland, 6. The 'Eagle and 

 Child' had 5. 



^ Cal. Com. for Comp. ii, 1493. 



' Eng. Cath. Non-jurors, 119, 121, 152. 

 John Ashton seems to have been con- 

 nected vrith the Harringtons of Huyton. 



1 See Diet. Nat. Biog. 



8 From the printed report of the trial. 



^ Haines, Lanes, (ist ed.), iii, 705. An 

 abstract of the proceedings of the manor 

 court exists, beginning in 1509, and the 



354 



court roUa themselves, from about the end 

 of Elizabeth's reign, are preserved at the 

 town hall. From that of 1604 it appcari 

 that the following were the ofBcers elected : 

 Two constables, the *four men,' two bur- 

 leymen, two ale-tasters, two sealers of 

 leather, two supervisors of the streets, two 

 afFeerers of the court, a clerk of the market, 

 a coroner, and a bailifl^; the jury num- 

 bered twelve. The business of the court 

 consisted chiefly of the records of changes 

 of tenancy, punishment of assault, &c., 

 and determining in cases of debt. 



10 Land, Gaz. 1 Mar. 1 867. 



" Nightingale, Lanes. Noruonf. iv, 157. 

 A list of the ministers is given. 



^^ Nightingale, op. cit. iv, 150. There 

 is a plate in the chapel with an inscrip- 

 tion commemorating the Rev. Samuel 

 Park, minister there, who died in 1775' 

 The early registers, 1776, &c., arc at 

 Somerset House. 



" Foley, Rec. S. J. t, 397 i Liwrpool 

 Catb. Ann. 1901. 



