A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the place renounced all claim to the advowson."^ The deans of Whalley 

 appointed the chaplains of at least seven of its eight chapels, and paid them by 

 custom 4 marks a year each."" In the neighbouring parish of Blackburn the 

 rector is described at the end of the twelfth century as parson of its two 

 chapels at La Lawe (Walton-in-the-Dale) and Samlesbury."^ The former, 

 indeed, was in all but name a parish church. The tithes of a certain district 

 (which included Samlesbury) were paid to it, it was called ecclesia, and was 

 the mother church of Samlesbury chapel, enjoying the full privileges of that 

 position down to the episcopate of Hugh de Nonant (i 188—98). Samlesbury 

 had as yet no graveyard. During the absence abroad of Bishop Hugh, Gos- 

 patric the lord of Samlesbury entertained two bishops from Ireland, who, 

 with the consent of the rector, dedicated a cemetery. Hugh on his return 

 was much annoyed, and declared the proceeding null and void. But after- 

 wards, in consideration of the difficulty of getting to Walton, especially in 

 winter, he allowed a graveyard to be made."' On the strength of this the 

 lords of Samlesbury seem to have claimed a right of advowson, which was 

 resisted by Stanlaw Abbey as appropriator of Blackburn rectory. 



But for the firm hold which the rectors of Blackburn and their monastic 

 successors kept upon it, and the apparent indifference of the Banasters, the 

 lords of the place, Walton might very easily have become a separate parish. 

 In the case of Altham, one of the Whalley chapels, a persistent local family 

 nearly succeeded. During the greater part of the thirteenth century they 

 treated it as a rectory, and the bishop and archdeacon seem at times to have 

 favoured their claim, which the abbey only got rid of at last by an appeal to 

 Canterbury and a handsome monetary solatium."' 



The following twenty-nine chapels, exclusive of Saddleworth, which 

 was m Yorkshire, though in the parish of Rochdale, and of those which had 

 become parish churches before 1 291, can be traced back to the twelfth and 

 thirteenth centuries. Nearly all of them were probably in existence before 

 1200 : Broughton,"* appendant to Kirkby Ireleth Church ; Hawkshead "' 

 to Dalton ; Over Kellet to Bolton le Sands ; "" Gressingham,"" Caton,'"^ 

 Stalmine, ^nd Overton,- to Lancaster ; Ellel,"» to Cockerham ; Bispham,"' 

 o Pou ton ; Pilhng - to Garstang ; Longton,-' to Penwortham ; Douglas "» 

 to Eccleston ; La Lawe, or Walton,'" and Samlesbury '« (indirectly) 'to 

 Blackburn; Burnley,-^' Clitheroe Castle,- CHtheroe Tovvn - S^ 



'" Hist. o/Ch. 0/ Lanc.{Chct. Soc.), 20. no 



■" Itid. 9°- 



"•Ibid. 228-35. .UH„ M 



rlas a JSIorman nave. 



;;: : s = ■• ::- : s •^: '-, .^= -r-- ' 



Harliest mention <". 1 155 ; Lancj. Pipe R. 392. 

 '" Earliest mention in 1147 ; ibid. 283. 

 Ill Earliest mention (indirect) in 1 272 ; Cockenand Chart. 40 



tarhest mention c. 1 160 ; Lams. Pipe J?. 323. 

 "* Earliest mention between 12^0 and 126^ • l},<r />/•».- l c , 

 par. of Wigan ; Lich. Epis. Reg. He^orth, for, \yb^- °^ ^''""''^'' f"'" +7- In . 445 said to have been i» 

 '"Mentioned before I 182. It had font and eravevard r , . ..o a-^i/, ^ 

 •» Licence for cemetery between , .88 and i foTS^ ' a h '' Z""'\ ^"^^"' 75, 90. 

 '« Granted to PontefrTct Prior,- b, Hugh de I'l-StlLrM^^'Xtr °"s,''\^^-=- 



jg " "35- oee above, p. 10. 



