POLITICAL HISTORY 



It appears that at this time there were a number of regiments in Lanca- 

 shire which had no connexion with the militia, but were in the nature of 

 private companies raised by gentlemen of the county. No less than seven- 

 teen captains are mentioned as commanding these companies. The disturbed 

 condition of the country may be inferred when such a condition of compara- 

 tive lawlessness could be allowed."' 



In spite of the peaceful entry of William of Orange, the Roman 

 Catholics of Lancashire were not to be disposed of so easily. They were in 

 continual correspondence with the exiled king and great fears of invasion 

 from Ireland were entertained by the new government. The lord-lieutenant 

 thought it necessary to secure the Roman Catholics, raise the militia and 

 even to arm the Protestants against such a possibility."' Among those 

 chiefly suspected were the eldest son of Lord Molyneux, Mr. Standish of 

 Standish, and Mr. Towneley of Towneley (the younger). The lord-lieu- 

 tenant was instructed to issue warrants and commit these to prison for high 

 treason."* 



In April, 1690, the earl of Shrewsbury wrote to the justices for 

 Lancashire that a great number of Irish Roman Catholics, many of them 

 soldiers in King James's army, were privately entertained by their co- 

 religionists"' in the county. There was, however, no actual disturbance. 

 The opposition was confined to plotting, and culminated in the so-called 

 'Lancashire Plot' of 1693—4, in which the chief persons implicated were 

 Lord Molyneux, Sir William Gerard, Sir Rowland Stanley, Sir Thomas 

 Clifton ; Bartholomew Walmesley, William Dicconson, Philip Langton, 

 esquires, and Mr. William Blundell, gentleman."* Except Sir R. Stanley, 

 they were all Lancashire men. 



The plot was discovered to the government by one Dodsworth, who was 

 subsequently murdered for his revelations."^ The several conspirators were 

 arrested and tried for high treason at Manchester, on 20 October, 1694. 

 No reliable evidence could be obtained against them and they were acquitted, 

 though with severe censure. This acquittal could not fail to be a triumph 

 for the Jacobite cause in Lancashire, which was already strongly supported by 

 the old Roman Catholics and those Protestant families who had fought for 

 King Charles in the Civil War. 



King William's subsequent legislation necessarily alienated the Roman 

 Catholics still more from him, for it added to the already crushing penalties 

 of their religious profession, and it offended the High Church party, who, for 

 some time past, had been styled Tories, just as the Presbyterians (possibly 

 from their Scotch origin) were termed Whigs. In Lancashire, therefore, 

 the Roman Catholics and the small High Church party were now drawn 

 together by one strong, common, political interest, the restoration of the 

 Stuart succession. On the other hand, the Presbyterians were Whigs almost 



"' Hist. MSS.' Com. loc. cit. May 1689, No. 659. The names of the captains were, Right, Bootle, Hooper, 

 Browne, Andrews, Hulme, Crompton, Sharpies, Rigby, Willoughby, Clayton, Astley, Dorneinge, Cross, Lever, 

 Egerton and Birch. 



'" Ca/. S.P. Dom. 1689-90, p. 150. '" Ibid. 520. '" Ibid. 567. 



"^ JacoiiU Trials at Manchester, 1694. (Chet. Soc. xxviii), 48. For other details as to evidence 

 concerning this plot, see J True Hist, of the Several Designs and Conspiracies against His Majestie's 

 Sacred Person and Government, from 1 68 8-1 697 (Lond. 1698), also The Hist, of the Late Conspiracy 

 (Lond. 1696). 



'" S.P. Dom. King Will's Chest, 15, No. 44. 



243 



