A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



their opponent in the following century. Had Mary succeeded her father 

 the Reformation in Lancashire might have been stamped out altogether, and 

 the remainder of Church property might possibly have been saved fronri the 

 wreck. But the succession of a minor under the guardianship of a fanatically 

 Protestant council, headed by the enthusiastic Somerset, nourished and 

 fostered those seeds of reformation which in Lancashire had fallen upon 

 fertile ground, and during the interval of the rule of Edward VI its assiduous 

 cultivators succeeded in bringing to a mature growth the Lancashire Puritan 

 party, which later became a great pohtical force in the county. 



The lord-lieutenant was probably more congenially and suitably engaged 

 in the miUtary duties of his office than in destroying monasteries or persecuting 

 Protestants, and we therefore turn to his work of assembling in 1553 the 

 first recorded mihtary muster of the county forces under the Lancashire 

 lieutenancy.* Each hundred furnished its special quota as follows : — 



Their leaders were to be the earl himself and the chief gentlemen of the 

 county. Sir Richard Molyneux, Sir Thomas Gerard, Sir Piers Legh, Sir 

 John Holcroft, Sir John Atherton, Sir William Norris, and some other 

 esquires and gentlemen, were for West Derby. For Salford were Sir Edmund 

 Trafford, Sir William RadclifFe, Sir Robert Langley, Sir Thomas Holt, Sir 

 Robert Worsley, and some others, esquires. In Leyland hundred Sir Thomas 

 Hesketh and other gentlemen ; and in Amounderness Sir Thomas Hesketh 

 and Sir Richard Hoghton and other gentry. In Blackburn hundred Sir 

 Richard Shireburne, Sir Thomas Langton, Sir Thomas Talbot, Sir John 

 Southworth, John Towneley, and other esquires and gentlemen. In Lonsdale 

 hundred the Lord Monteagle, Sir Marmaduke Tunstall, and some other 

 gentlemen. 



In 1556 a levy of 200 archers was made on the county to serve the 

 queen against the Scotch, under the leadership of Sir Robert Worsley and 

 Edward Tildesley, esquire. Next year we find a dispatch of the earl of 

 Derby in his capacity of lord-lieutenant addressed to the earl of Shrewsbury, 

 Lord President of the Council of the North, giving details as to the captains 

 of the forces he was sending ' against the Scottish doings.' These were as 

 follows : — 



Soldiers 



Sir Richard Molyneux, or his son and heir ...... 200 



Sir Thomas Gerard .......... 200 



Sir Thomas Talbot .......... 200 



Sir Richard Hoghton, not able to go in person, but will send a substitute . 100 



Sir Thomas Hesketh '\ 



Sir Thomas Langton |^not able to serve, but will furnish an able captain . 100 



Sir William Norris J 



Sir William Radcliffe or his son and heir, and Sir John Atherton with him 100 



Francis Tunstall and others . . . . . . . . iqo 



Sir John Holcroft and his son and heir ; Richard Assheton of Middleton 



and others . . . . . . . . . . iqq 



The earl of Derby supplied the rest of the quota for Lancashire, which totalled about 

 2,000 men.' 



* Lanes. Lieutenancy (Chet. Soc. xlix, 1), pt. i, 2, et seq. 



' These details are copied from the earl's dispatch as quoted ; ibid. pp. 16-17. 



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