A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Anglesey the Privy Council wrote to the earl of Derby concerning the many 

 seminary' priests in Lancashire, and commanded him to arrest suspected 

 persons'" The earl thereupon arrested Richard Blundell of Little Crosby, 

 William his son, Robert Wodruff a seminary priest, and other recusants, and 

 in July the council sent them to the gaol at Lancaster to be tried as an 

 example, ' the county being in many parts thereof so much affected by those 

 kind of people.' "' This spurt of activity on the part of the administration 

 was soon over, and when in March and September, 1592, the Privy Council 

 again turned its attention to the county in consequence of the discoveries of 

 one John Bell alias Burton, a much more lenient tone pervaded its numerous 

 letters.'" Although the renewed agitation of these years led to the Act of 

 1592-3 against Popish recusants,"* yet in the main this more lenient tone 

 prevailed to the end of the reign, and in its later years the Roman Cathohcs 

 became so emboldened that when in 1598 a special contribution was levied 

 on them in the North the Lancashire Catholics refused to receive the letters 

 and beat the messenger."' 



In the religious life of Lancashire under Elizabeth recusancy plays a 

 part so overwhelmingly important as to dwarf into insignificance the story 

 of Puritanism in the county. As a matter of fact Puritanism as a distinctive 

 feature of that history belongs rather to the Stuart than to the Tudor times. 

 It did not become pronounced under Elizabeth. One glimpse which we 

 catch of the first stage of the movement, viz. the Vestiarian controversy, 

 relates to the action of the elder Midgeley at Rochdale. On 4 January, 

 1564-5 he, together with three ministers of the chapels of the parish and the 

 master of the school, is said to have subscribed his promise to use the vestments. 

 Of the second phase of Puritanism, that of the Cartwrightian Disciplinarian 

 controversy, the county was even more innocent, as it was also of the con- 

 comitant outburst of Separatism.'*" This general result is possibly attribut- 

 able to the fact that Lancashire had not in its midst any band of foreign 

 refugees, as had the eastern counties, nor any of the extreme type of 

 reformer ; for certainly Midgeley was not such, any more than was James 

 Gosnell, the minister of Bolton. The controversy of which we hear in 

 1580 in the diocese of Chester concerning the method of administration of 

 the sacrament '" gives a fair presentation of the standard of Puritan feeling in 

 the county. Chaderton himself, the bishop, may be regarded as expressive 



'■' Acts of the P.C. xix, 155-65. 



'"(Ibid. 267, 270, 310). On 25 July, 1590, the council wrote to the justices: 'You shall 

 receive the names of sundry recusants from the earl of Derby or the bishop of Chester amounting to 700 

 in Lancashire and 200 in Cheshire ; and yet the number doubted to be far greater. It is thought meet 

 that such as have not been indited on the statute of recusancy be now presented. Deal with them so that 

 they shall perceive they will hereafter be more severely looked to' ; ibid. 334-40. 



'■' ' Miles Gerard of Ince was sent to us on the accusation of Bell for harbouring priests. He has made 

 humble submission. We have licensed him to go home' . . . ' We allow your release of the three gentle- 

 women (probably Ann Houghton of the Tower and Mistress Westby and another). As to the rest of the 

 recusants now at liberty in their own houses thesutute gives power to arrest them at anytime,' and so on • 

 Acts cj Ike P.C. xxu, 324-5, 367-9; xxi.i, 163, 354-5 ; xxiv, 9, I., 26, 110, 231, 281, 334. Bell's 

 information appears to be contained in S.P. Dom. Eliz. vol. 243, No. 70, Nov. 1592 



''' -'\^^f "F-. --. "^^ ^""'.f th/ P«°^l 5'^tutes of Elizabeth's reign, and the' one by which recusants 

 were restrained to withm five miles of their houses. 



'■' AcU of the P.C. xxix, 1 12, 1 1 S, 220, 300, 604, 648. 

 of ,hr^''r°''"f °° °f L^""3hire with the Martin Marprelate episode was purely subsidiary, the seizing 



of the wandering Penry Press in Newton Lane, Manchester, being a mere incident 

 *■' Acts oj tie P.C. xii, 125. 



